This episode starts off with either what’s a DVD glitch or just something different, three quarters of the way through the title sequence, the music continues, but we get a shot of the cliff from the beginning of the season where ‘Mulder’ supposedly falls off.

There is no ‘Truth’ tag line or anything. The Black Oil is back once again after a long break from the X-Files. In this rather action packed episode, Mulder gets back into his old habits after hearing about two mysterious deaths on an oil rig. He calls a few people and manages to upset Kersh quite considerably.

With no choice but to launch an investigation into the deaths, Kersh sends Doggett out to the rig. Mulder manages to get there a little early and they speak to the head dude on board who we find out is infected with the black oil. It seems the two deaths were caused by the rest of the crew who started drilling in a new oil field which contains the black oil.

The two Mexicans who died were immune to the black oil due to a rare gene pattern they contain. Despite destroying the communications equipment (to prevent the crew from calling the mother ships), Mulder and Doggett still manage to get stuck on the oil rig full of crazy people. Doggett doesn’t believe any of it at first, and Mulder continues his investigation without him, until Scully manages to convince Skinner and Doggett that the black oil is real and should be contained.

With that the Oil rig crew turn on Mulder and Doggett, and Doggett gets pinned down, while the lead foreman of the oil rig attempts to drip the back oil into Doggett.

Mulder intervenes and they both perform a spectacular jump from the exploding rig. Kersh has been fed some information about the rig being strategic value for American oil and is in a dispute with the Mexicans so someone needs to take the fall for it’s destruction, which happens to be Mulder. Mulder tells Doggett that the X-Files is his now, and that Mulder has been fired after taking the blame for this one. But since Doggett has now seen the black oil with his own oil-free eyes… he must continue the work of the X-Files.

Seems like a massive pivotal moment in the X-Files history :(