Zero Sum (The X-Files)
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files.
In the episode, a case Mulder is asked to investigate is covertly covered up by the agents' boss Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), who has made a sinister bargain with The Smoking Man (Davis).
Rather than have Duchovny carry the additional workload, the writing staff decided to focus the episode on supporting cast members.
At a postal routing center in Vienna, Virginia, a woman is killed by a swarm of bees in the bathroom while taking a cigarette break.
Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), working for The Smoking Man (William B. Davis), covers up the death by deleting the file on the case from agent Fox Mulder's (David Duchovny) computer, cleaning up all the evidence at the scene, burning the woman's body in an incinerator and replacing the police's blood sample for the case by impersonating Mulder.
Shortly after Skinner arrives home he is met by Mulder, who tells him about the case and the fact that someone is going to great lengths to cover it up.
Mulder tells Skinner that he is trying to match the bullet that killed Thomas to a gun issued to a federal agent or local officer.
Skinner returns to the routing center where he tears a hole in the bathroom wall and finds a large honeycomb of dead bees.
Skinner finds Mulder's file on the matter, copying down the contact information for Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden).
Skinner visits the co-worker of the postal worker who died, who tells him she was pressured to not say anything about what happened by men who demanded a damaged package.
This resulted in the decision to write, for the second year in a row, an episode focused on Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi).
The writers felt that this was the perfect time to bring in Skinner's deal with The Smoking Man (William B. Davis) to cure Scully's cancer, made in the episode "Memento Mori".
[2] Guest actor Morris Panych, portraying the Syndicate assassin The Grey-Haired Man, makes his last appearance in the series in this episode.
[13] Robert Shearman, in his book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode four stars out of five, noting that "Pileggi looks much more comfortable here than he did in last year's showcase ['Avatar']".
Shearman felt that the episode's attempts to tie into the wider storylines—the appearance of Marita Covarrubias in particular—are where it "really stumbles"; noting that its success lies "in the shock value of seeing a deliberately familiar story through the fractured view of another character".
