The 9 Greatest X-Files

Drive

Episode two of season six finds agents Mulder and Scully in Idaho, performing counter-terrorism checks. In the course of their duties, they hear about an incident in Nevada, during which a woman’s head has spontaneously exploded following a high-speed car chase. With confirmation that no shots were fired, Mulder becomes convinced that the case is an X-File, and persuades Scully to accompany him with a view to investigating.

The surviving occupant of the car that was involved in the chase is Patrick Crump (Bryan Cranston) and, though he is in custody, he begins to exhibit symptoms of ill health, and is set to be transferred to hospital by ambulance. Mulder pursues the ambulance, wishing to question Crump, but is taken hostage when Crump overpowers his custodians and carjacks Mulder.

Once again, the investigation heads down two avenues, simultaneously. While Mulder is thrust into a situation where a hysterical Crump is forcing him to drive westward at high speed to alleviate pain in his head, Scully is studying the dead woman in an attempt to uncover what caused her head to blow up. Her scientific exploration of the destroyed cranium leads her to conclude that the problem lay in a build up of internal pressure, causing a violent, fatal expulsion through the ear canal.

Initially suspecting contagion, Scully and a team of medical experts investigate the home shared by Crump and the deceased woman. Finding no evidence of biological or bacterial issues, she instead discovers that an ELF antenna array owned and operated by the U.S. Navy runs underneath the property, and she attributes the development of severe inner ear issues to its presence. There follows a race against the clock to reach Crump and Mulder with a large needle to relieve the pressure build up and save his life, but it is a race that Mulder and Scully ultimately lose.

In attributing the source of the problem to U.S Navy equipment passing through civilian communities, Drive plays on fear that we never really know what infrastructure is around us, nor if it might have adverse effects on human health.