The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati

"The Sixth Extinction II:
Amor Fati"
"The Sixth Extinction II:; Amor Fati"
The X-Files episode
	Fox Mulder's hallucination of the alien colonization. The scene was created by compositing special effects over a matte painting.
Episode no.	Season 7; Episode 2
Directed by	Michael Watkins
Written by	David Duchovny; Chris Carter
Production code	7ABX04
Original air date	November 14, 1999
Running time	44 minutes
Guest appearances
	Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner; Mimi Rogers as Diana Fowley; William B. Davis as Cigarette Smoking Man; Nicholas Lea as Alex Krycek; John Finn as Michael Kritschgau; Floyd Westerman as Albert Hosteen; Rebecca Toolan as Teena Mulder; Jerry Hardin as Deep Throat; Megan Leitch as Samantha Mulder; Arlene Pileggi as Skinner's Secretary; Warren Sweeney as Dr. Geoff Harriman; Brian George as Project Doctor; David Brisbin as Second Doctor;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "The Sixth Extinction"	Next →; "Hungry"
	The X-Files season 7
	List of episodes

"The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati" is the second episode of the seventh season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It was directed by Michael Watkins and written by lead actor David Duchovny and series creator Chris Carter. The installment explores the series' overarching mythology and concludes a trilogy of episodes revolving around Fox Mulder's (Duchovny) severe reaction to an alien artifact. Originally aired by the Fox network on November 14, 1999, "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati" received a Nielsen rating of 10.1 and was seen by 16.15 million viewers. Initial reviews were mixed, and the plot and dialogue attracted criticism. Later critics viewed the episode in a more positive light, and several writers named it among the best in the series.

The X-Files centers on Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents Mulder and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, and the skeptical Scully was initially assigned to debunk his work, but the two have developed a deep friendship. In this episode, Scully returns from Africa to discover Mulder in a coma induced by exposure to shards from an alien spaceship wreck. After Mulder disappears from the hospital, Scully joins former government employee Michael Kritschgau (John Finn) and her boss Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) to search for him. Meanwhile, in a dream, The Smoking Man (William B. Davis) offers Mulder a new life and a fresh start. After conferring with a vision of Scully, Mulder awakens from his coma and realizes his duty to prevent alien colonization.

Carter was interested in the possibility that extraterrestrials were involved in ancient mass extinctions on Earth and used these themes in the episode. Much of the episode was also inspired by Nikos Kazantzakis's novel The Last Temptation of Christ, and a scene showing an operation on Mulder has been thematically compared to the Crucifixion of Jesus. For the dream sequences, casting director Rick Millikan brought back many actors and actresses who had been absent from the show for several years, including Jerry Hardin as Deep Throat, Rebecca Toolan as Teena Mulder, and Megan Leitch as Samantha Mulder.

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