Mulder (David Duchovny) receives a communication from Langley (Dean Haglund) on his phone but he is supposed to be dead, with a cryptic message saying "if he's dead, then they know he knows, am I dead?" Of course they don't know what that means and as they contemplate, they are attacked by three masked men. Two are killed but one escapes. They are then told to come out of the cabin after Scully (Gillian Anderson) reports the shootings. They refuse to surrender and Scully thinks Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) might be able to help. However he tells them to surrender cos he can't help them now. They refuse and Mulder's hidden his phone in the oven, like it'll be really safe there, especially since he hasn't turned it off. As they refuse to surrender they are attacked and the Russian man demands Mulder's phone, telling the others to kill them after it's found. Which it is at that moment as the message comes through again. However they manage to escape into the woods by attacking one of the soldiers and meet up with Skinner.
He tells them about the American company in Russia and that they weren't supposed to kill them, giving them money. Skinner tells Scully he saw Langley at Arlington, just like she did. So they head there and find the graves, but Langley's birthday is wrong. Working out the president's birthdays or deaths, such as JFK etc they find President 33 isn't there. So it's a clue to a location which leads Mulder to find the grave of Deep Throat. He tells Scully he didn't know his real name and all this time the world has changed so much. Obviously not for the better. His real name being Robert Pakula. Mulder notices the cross is different and then finds a barcode chip which you scan on a phone and he doesn't have his phone. They're attacked again by the long haired man.
Heading to a cafe where they eat bran muffins, they find they need to access the X-Files but can't get to their office. So they intercept Skinner once more and he also tells Mulder how times have changed that there was only one desk there when Scully started. Also they don't trust him and don't need him to get them out of this, but they need his help. He takes them to the X-Files which were digitally uploaded onto databases accessed by authorized agencies and this includes the Russians. As Skinner says, "the X-Files belong to everyone." However when they were reopened, control reverted back to the FBI. Skinner making a remark about the current presidency too, which makes Mulder chuckle. Whilst he's on the phone they access the files and find Langley isn't on there. However there's a Scully file: spankback which holds information of a Kara Hamby (Sandrine Holt).
She lectures at a university and Mulder shows her the barcode chip and she explains about their minds being uploaded onto a computer, where they live on. They didn't want to be separated and she gives them an algorithm to follow so they can get onto the site. However the long haired man shoots her, before Scully shoots him. Mulder takes the evidence with them, telling Scully "he's evidence." At the diner he manages to work out the algorithms and has to wait for the phone to receive another message again. Having to turn it off otherwise they'll be located. Langely transmits again and Mulder tells him Scully's here too. He wants them to kill the database since nothing is real there, it's all pain.
Getting to Titanpointe in Manhattan with Scully pretending Mulder is a prisoner, she manages to convince the FBI agent Colquitt (Dejan Loyola) to let her take him to the tunnels. He wants her to replay the favour, with Mulder making a sick gesture with his finger in his mouth. Getting to the tunnels they take the stairs and are ambushed, with Mulder being caught by the Russian (Andre Roshkov). He takes him to see Erika Price who spins him a yarn about being told how she'd meet Mulder again and would actually want to meet him. Telling him the programme is for good and is making headway in that direction. They can upload a piece of his mind everytime he uses his phone. Thus the best thing to do is not to use the phone. He says he wants to be uploaded with Scully, but she won't like it. He fights and escapes the Russian as Scully switches off the computers causing a fatal error.
Mulder says they should come back with help but obviously when they return there'd be nothing there. As the try to pick up the files from the floor back home, then throw them back down, Langley communicates again and tells them to get rid of the backup and disappears as he's pursued by the longhaired man again inside the simulation. See they don't die. Maybe they'll manage to put Mulder and Scully into one of these so they won't either! Okay don't know why that came to mind.
This episode written by stalwart Glen Morgan who described it as the X-Files North by Northwest episode where Mulder and Scully go on the run after learning of another conspiracy, so what's new, or not new? You see their enemies, introduced last ep with Mr Y and (it was the next alphabetical progression after the letter X I guess!) and Ms Price (Barbara Hershey) happen to be connected to Russia (isn't everyone!) and the very same people who digitized the X-Files. But they were Mulder's baby!! Two files have been deleted, Langley's of course and Titanpointe, an NSA spying area. You see, it's not spies chasing here as in North By Northwest but deeper conspiracies.
The programme doesn't guarantee immortality but as Langley realizes it's just being a slave to the machine, so to speak and is forced to use his knowledge within his brain to make breakthroughs in science just for the bigwigs. In order to get to space, as was shown last ep. Mulder and Scully and their 'relationship' status especially the one where Mulder retorts doesn't everyone dream about him!! As well as Skinner: "The bureau is not in good standing to the Whitehouse these days."
Mulder: "The FBI finally found out what it's like to be looked upon a little spooky." Yeah well, that'll be putting it mildly!! Mulder also adding he wants to believe (with several shots of the "I want to believe" poster) that they can exist in some other dimension/afterlife.
However a bit of a damning ep which serves to show how things were simpler back then, when the show first appeared and Mulder says it at Deep Throat's grave; "he's dead because the world was so complex and dangerous back then. Who would have thought we'd look back with nostalgia and say that was a simpler time." Leave it to Mulder to get his usual meaningful lines. Yeah who would have thought (and much younger too!)
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