"Ice"

“Ice”(S1E8) gives off definite The Thing vibes. Mulder & Scully are sent to a research center in a remote part of Alaska, along with some scientists. They are there to investigate the deaths of the research facility staff. The staff, a team of geophysicists, were drilling ice cores and researching the samples. The team soon learns that there is some sort of violent parasite that infected the staff and likely led to the mass murder & suicides. Mulder thinks that the parasite is alien and wants it kept alive to study it, but Scully ain’t hearing any of that shit. While investigating, Scully learns that two worms in the same host will kill each other.

Over the course of a couple of days, the members of the team start to distrust one another, as they cannot be sure who has been infected. When the pilot turns up dead, the team assumes that Mulder is responsible, as he was standing over the body when it was discovered.  They think he has been infected, as the presence of the parasite in a host leads to violent tendencies. Mulder tells Scully that he’s uninfected, but she doesn’t believe him.

While trying to put a worm in Mulder’s ear, one of the scientists, Hodge, sees a subcutaneous worm moving along the spinal column of another scientist, DaSilva, and realizes that she was the one who murdered the pilot. Scully and Hodge manage to get the worm into DaSilva’s ear to kill the other worm and save her life.

I really liked this episode, as The Thing is one of my favorite horror movies, and “Ice” delivered. The very idea of a worm feeding off of the adrenaline caused by violent activity had me plugging my ears up before I went to bed. Solid ep.