Kitten

"Kitten" is the sixth episode of the of The X-Files. It is directed by Carol Banker and written by Gabe Rotter.
==Synopsis==
Skinner goes AWOL when his past comes back to haunt him. As Mulder and Scully try to track him down, their growing mistrust of him reaches its apex.
==Summary==
In 1969, during the Vietnam War, a platoon of U.S. Marines including and John "Kitten" James, are tasked with escorting a crate marked MK-NAOMI to a rendezvous point. They come under enemy fire as they reach the landing zone and are forced to take shelter with a group of civilians in a hut. As Skinner doubles back to help a wounded soldier, the crate is damaged by gunfire and Kitten is exposed to a yellow gas. When he returns to the hut, Skinner finds Kitten has murdered the civilians.
In 2018, Mulder and Scully are called before FBI Director , who questions them about Skinner's whereabouts. Skinner has vanished without explanation, prompting Mulder and Scully to investigate his apartment. There, they find Skinner was mailed a severed human ear. Mulder identifies the parcel as coming from the town of Mud Lick, Kentucky. During their journey to the town, Scully realizes that Skinner's service record and the records of his platoon are classified as top secret.
Arriving in Mud Lick, Mulder and Scully find a body in the morgue missing an ear. While Mulder identifies the cause of death as being a punji stake—a Vietnam War-era booby trap—Scully questions the local sheriff about a mass hysteria gripping the town amid claims of a monster lurking in the nearby woods and people losing their teeth without explanation.
The body of Banjo, another Vietnam veteran, is found the next day at the bottom of a punji pit. A nearby camera, supposedly used to monitor deer in the area, has recorded Banjo's death and Skinner is seen approaching the pit shortly after Banjo fell in. Mulder and Scully lose the support of local authorities when they admit Skinner is their boss, and are unable to convince the sheriff that he is innocent. Mulder continues to watch the video and sees a hooded and cloaked figure lurking in the woods: the "monster" terrorizing the town, which Mulder immediately dismisses as a person in a costume.
Skinner approaches Davey James, Kitten's son, in his hunting cabin. Davey accuses Skinner of failing to help Kitten. After his exposure to MK-NAOMI, Kitten became increasingly violent and was court-martialed upon his return home. He was committed to a mental health facility outside Mud Lick, with Skinner's testimony key to imprisoning him. Davey reveals that all of the soldiers exposed to MK-NAOMI were sent to the same facility, where the experiments continued, implying that Kitten's initial exposure was orchestrated by the government. Initially an attempt to turn soldiers into more efficient weapons of war by channeling their fear into aggression, the scope of MK-NAOMI was expanded to become a means of controlling peoples' minds.
Skinner asks Davey to take him to Kitten; Davey leads him to a tree where Kitten hung himself after leaving the facility. As he approaches Kitten's body, Skinner falls into another punji pit and is impaled on a spike. Davey abandons him as Mulder and Scully arrive, having looked into Vietnam veterans in the area. Davey claims no knowledge of Skinner and starts ranting about a government conspiracy to control the population with MK-NAOMI, which he claims is a perfected version of MK-ULTRA. The agents ostensibly accept his explanation and leave, but Mulder suspects Davey after noticing photos of Kitten and Skinner in his cabin. He doubles back and investigates the cabin, finding the "monster" costume from the video. A search of the area leads him to Skinner in the punji pit. Davey attempts to ambush them, but is shot from behind by Scully who has come to their rescue. 
Mulder and Scully ask Skinner about Kersh's claim that they were responsible for his lack of career advancement. Skinner admits that his experience with Kitten and MK-NAOMI in Vietnam shook his faith in the government, but their willingness to pursue the truth wherever it takes them restored his faith in people. He resolves to return to Washington and use his position to fight the government's abuse of power. As Skinner leaves, one of his teeth falls out, implying that he has been exposed to MK-NAOMI like the townspeople who have been losing teeth.
In the epilogue, a crop duster is seen spraying a field with a yellow gas as Davey's warnings about government conspiracies are repeated in voiceover.
==Background Information==
*James Pickens, Jr. reprises his role as for the first time since the original series finale, "The Truth". It also looks that he is against agent Mulder again despite the fact that he went over to his side at the end of the mentioned episode.
*The tagline for this episode is "A war is never over".
*The episode is devoted to the backstory of Walter Skinner. "We learn more about Skinner and more about his connections to Mulder and Scully and how he’s been a loyal advocate of theirs at his own expense. We learn about his young life and the X-Files moment he experienced as a much younger man."Reference - The X-Files creator: Show's mythology to go a new direction
*The music heard as Mulder and Scully enter the mortuary is reminiscent of that heard in the second season finale “Anasazi”.
*This episode shows a flashback of Skinner killing a Vietnamese boy who had grenades strapped to him. Skinner previously recounted this story in the second season episode “One Breath”, when he is trying to convince Mulder not to quit the FBI.
*Haley Joel Osment, who plays Davey, previously starred in the movie The Sixth Sense. In this episode, Davey holds a flashlight close to his face, resembling an iconic pose from that movie. 
*Davey refuses to reveal how his mother died, however her face has been cut out of a photo on the wall. This may be an allusion to the fourth season episode “Demons,” in which a man shot himself after cutting his own face out of every photo he could find.
*In this episode, Walter Skinner’s middle name is revealed to be Sergei.
=== Note ===
* Gillian Anderson and Haley Joel Osment starred in the film "I'll Follow You Down " (also titled as Continuum) which was released in 2013. Anderson and Osment played mother and son.
* "Unusual Suspects" was also about gas being used for mind control by the government. "Blood" and "Wetwired" were also about mind control by the government but through the use of subliminal messages instead of gas.
=== Cast and Characters ===
*Cory Rempel, who plays young Skinner, is Mitch Pileggi's nephew.
==Cast==
Starring
* as 
* as 
* as 
Guest Starring
*James Pickens Jr. as Alvin Kersh
*Haley Joel Osment as young John "Kitten" James / Davey James
*Cory Rempel as young Walter Skinner
*Jovan Nenadic as John "Kitten" James
*Brendan Patrick Connor as Sherriff Mac Stenzler
Co-Starring
*Patrick Keating as Begger
*Johnson Phan as Quon
*Jeremy Jones as Sergeant
==Multimedia==
===Images===
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===Videos===
The X-Files "Ghouli" & "Kitten" Promo (HD) Season 1 Episode 6 Promo
The X-Files 11x06 Promo "Kitten" (HD)
== References and Footnotes ==
== External Links ==
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=Episode Navigation=
Category:The X-Files episodes
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