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64-423: " Sanguinarium " is the sixth episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files . "Sanguinarium" was written by newcomers Vivian and Valerie Mayhew and directed by Kim Manners , and is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the series' wider mythology . It first aired in the United States on November 10, 1996 on the Fox network, earning

128-422: A Nielsen rating of 11.1 and being seen by 19.85 million viewers upon its initial broadcast. 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 "Sanguinarium", bizarre murders in a hospital's plastic surgery unit lead Mulder and Scully to suspect a supernatural force may be responsible. As

192-549: A "slight story that collapses under the weight of its message". "Gethsemane" created intense media speculation about whether or not Mulder was actually dead. An article in the Wall Street Journal discussed fan theories behind Mulder's madness while a cartoon ran in The New Yorker a few weeks later surrounding Mulder's "death". Series creator Chris Carter noted that "the whole plot line of 'Gethsemane' revolved around

256-418: A 10 percent increase in viewers when compared to the previous season finale. The season ranked as the twelfth most watched television series during the 1996–97 year , with an average of 19.2 million viewers, making it, at the time, the highest-rated season of The X-Files to air. The fourth season of The X-Files received largely positive reviews from television critics, although several critics noted that

320-421: A 23 share, meaning that roughly 13.2 percent of all television-equipped households, and 23 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. The episode was viewed by 21.11 million people, a marked increase from the third season 's finale, " Talitha Cumi ", which was viewed by 17.86 million viewers. "Herrenvolk" was, at the time, the highest-rated episode of The X-Files to air, as well as

384-694: A Cigarette Smoking Man", "Paper Hearts", and "Small Potatoes" perfect scores of four out of four. Tom Kessenich named "Memento Mori" the fourth best episode of the series, writing that it was the definitive example of Mulder and Scully's devotion for each other.". He also wrote highly of "Home", "Paper Hearts", Small Potatoes", and "Never Again", ranking them as the fifth, eleventh, sixteenth, and twenty-fourth best episodes of The X-Files , respectively. Other episodes were derided. Shearman and Pearson called "El Mundo Gira" an "aching unambitious take on Latin American culture" and "rubbish". Vitaris summaried "Unrequited" as

448-429: A Cigarette Smoking Man", and Carter, Gilligan, Shiban, and Spotnitz being nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for "Memento Mori". Other nominations were Jim Gross and Heather MacDougall each being nominated for Outstanding Editing for a Series – Single Camera Production for the episodes "Tempus Fugit" and "Terma", respectively; Outstanding Makeup for a Series for "Leonard Betts"; Outstanding Sound Mixing for

512-479: A Drama Series for "Tempus Fugit"; and Mark Snow being nominated for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) for "Paper Hearts". The series also won its second Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama, while Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny won in the television series drama acting categories. Eternal youth Eternal youth is the concept of human physical immortality free of ageing . The youth referred to

576-515: A full season order. "Sanguinarium" was such a case, being written by sisters Vivian and Valerie Mayhew. This marked their first experience with writing a one-hour network program, and they would later write several episodes in the television series Charmed . Prior to having their script picked up by the series, the sisters asked staff writers Glen Morgan and James Wong for writing suggestions. Morgan and Wong told them that "the scariest things are those which repeat every day". Soon thereafter, Vivian

640-543: A hoax alien corpse discovered on a mountaintop, Mulder fakes his own suicide, mutilating the assassin's face to provide a decoy body. He uses the distraction this offers to infiltrate The Pentagon to find a cure for Scully's cancer, while Scully is able to uncover and reveal a Syndicate connection within the FBI. The season saw drastic changes to the series' alien mythology. In the premiere episode, " Herrenvolk ", Williams—the actor who played Mulder's informant X—was written out of

704-428: A hoax, but there are actually huge revelations in this show. And it's an amazing thing that we could get people to believe that Mulder could actually kill himself because his belief system was stolen from him". UGO Networks listed the episode at number 21 in a countdown of "TV's Best Season Finales", noting that it "rocked the core of the series' entire mythology". In 2018 and 2019, in a ranking of all eleven seasons,

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768-419: A hole through her cheek and neck with a surgical laser , severing her brain stem. Scully interviews Ilaqua, who claims that he cannot remember anything of the incident. Mulder's suspicions are strengthened when he reviews the tape of the second murder and sees a pentagram-like pattern on the stomach of the victim. Worried by the events, the clinic's coordinator, Dr. Theresa Shannon, tells Mulder and Scully about

832-567: A liking to the episode, having viewed it "eighteen times and counting". Michael Avalos and George Liedtke, writing for Knight Ridder , speculated that "Sanguinarium" would create "haunting memories" for many viewers. Mark Davis of The Daytona Beach News-Journal , in 1998, named the episode one of the "Best of The X-Files ". The X-Files season 4 The fourth season of the series focuses heavily on FBI federal agents Fox Mulder 's ( David Duchovny ) and his partner Dana Scully 's ( Gillian Anderson ) investigation of an alien conspiracy, which

896-464: A mixed reaction; some critics felt that the gore helped, while others felt that "Sanguinarium" relied too heavily on it to cover up weaknesses in its storyline. During a routine liposuction operation in Winnetka, Illinois , Dr. Harrison Lloyd ( John Juliani ) suddenly begins to remove so much fat that his patient dies. Lloyd later tells Fox Mulder ( David Duchovny ) that he killed the patient because he

960-517: A one-season absence from the series as consulting producers and wrote three episodes together, with Morgan writing an additional episode solo that Wong directed. John Shiban was promoted to story editor and wrote four episodes. David Greenwalt joined mid-season as co-executive producer and wrote one episode for his only season on the series. Writing team Valerie and Vivian Mayhew wrote one freelance episode. Executive producer and frequent series director R. W. Goodwin wrote his first and only episode for

1024-436: A place that feels real" to aid their acting. The outdoor scenes for the episode were filmed around Vancouver 's Mount Seymour , with weather conditions making shooting difficult enough to require an extra day of work. Although the series' 1998 movie would take place after the events of the fifth season, the movie was actually filmed in the hiatus between the show's fourth and fifth season and re-shoots were conducted during

1088-403: A quest to gain eternal youth . The episode ends with a now-younger Franklin successfully applying for a position at another hospital. In the 1990s, the television industry made wide use of spec scripts , solicited from freelance writers. While The X-Files had a large staff of writers, the staff would occasionally have to take a risk on a teleplay written by an unaffiliated writer to fill out

1152-445: A similar series of deaths that occurred there ten years prior. They suspect Rebecca Waite ( O-Lan Jones ), a nurse who is the only person present at all the death scenes. The agents visit Rebecca's house, discovering evidence that she practices witchcraft; however, the evidence was planted there by a staff member of the hospital. Elsewhere, Dr. Jack Franklin ( Richard Beymer ) is non-fatally assaulted by Rebecca at his house. There, Rebecca

1216-403: Is actually Cox in disguise. When Shannon discovers Franklin alone in a blood-spattered operating room, he uses witchcraft to magically teleport surgical tools into her intestines, which causes her to bleed internally. She is rushed into surgery and survives. Meanwhile, Franklin removes the skin of his face, performs a ritual to make him appear younger and escapes. It is implied that he murders in

1280-509: Is an enzyme that replenishes the worn away telomeres by adding bases to the ends and thus renewing the telomere. A cancer cell has in essence turned on the telomerase gene, and this allows them to have an unlimited amount of divisions without the telomeres wearing away. Other kinds of cells that can surpass the Hayflick limit are stem cells , hair follicles , and germ cells . This is because they contain raised amounts of telomerase. The idea that

1344-407: Is arrested by the agents, who attempt to question her but are prevented when she starts to vomit pins, dying shortly thereafter. After the incident, Mulder visits Franklin, hoping to learn more about Rebecca's possible motivation. Although Franklin is seemingly innocent, when Mulder leaves the room, he begins to levitate and devilishly smile. Later that night, Mulder deduces that the birthdays of all

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1408-453: Is described as providing the gods apples that grant them eternal youthfulness in the 13th-century Prose Edda . An individual's DNA plays a role in the aging process. Aging begins even before birth, as soon as cells start to die and need to be replaced. On the ends of each chromosome are repetitive sequences of DNA, telomeres , that protect the chromosome from joining with other chromosomes, and have several key roles. One of these roles

1472-418: Is getting old". Episodic reviews were diverse. Some episodes were praised. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson , in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen , rated the episodes "Home", "Unruhe", "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", "Paper Hearts", and "Small Potatoes" five stars out of five. Paula Vitaris of Cinefantastique also awarded "Musings of

1536-534: Is protected by the mysterious Syndicate . Midway through the season, Scully is diagnosed with terminal cancer, a result of her previous abduction , and Mulder begins to lose his faith in the idea of extraterrestrials. Debuting with high viewing figures and ranking as the twentieth most watched television series during the 1996–97 television year in the United States, the season was a success, with figures averaging around 20 million viewers an episode. This made it, at

1600-466: Is reached the organism dies. The importance of telomeres is now clearly evident: lengthen the telomeres, lengthen the life. However, a study of the comparative biology of mammalian telomeres indicated that telomere length correlates inversely, rather than directly, with lifespan, and concluded that the contribution of telomere length to lifespan remains controversial. Also, telomere shortening does not occur with age in some postmitotic tissues, such as in

1664-450: Is to regulate cell division by allowing each cell division to remove a small amount of genetic code. The amount removed varies by the cell type being replicated. The gradual degradation of the telomeres restricts cell division to 40–60 times, also known as the Hayflick limit . Once this limit has been reached, more cells die than can be replaced in the same time span. Thus, soon after this limit

1728-566: Is usually meant to be in contrast to the depredations of aging, rather than a specific age of the human lifespan. Eternal youth is common in mythology, and is a popular theme in fiction . Eternal youth is a characteristic of the inhabitants of Paradise in Abrahamic religions . The Hindus believe that the Vedic and the post-Vedic rishis have attained immortality, which implies the ability to change one's body's age or even shape at will. These are some of

1792-524: Is working with the Russians. Having been diagnosed with cancer, Scully is unsure of her future with the FBI. Mulder is convinced that her condition is a result of her earlier abduction (" Ascension "), and is prepared to make a deal with the Syndicate to find a cure. He is dissuaded by Walter Skinner ( Mitch Pileggi ), who secretly makes such a deal instead. While being pursued by an assassin responsible for

1856-674: The Salem witch trials , or the Rider–Waite tarot deck , the most popular tarot deck utilized in the world. The episode itself directly references Gerald Gardner , a wiccan known for publishing several books on witchcraft and founder of the Gardnerian Tradition. While the Mayhew sisters tried to depict occultism without offending anybody by not connecting Franklin or Waite to any known cult, many Wiccans sent angry letters and e-mails to Fox regarding

1920-638: The siddhas in Yoga . Markandeya is said to always stay at the age of 16. The difference between eternal life and the more specific eternal youth is a recurrent theme in Greek and Roman mythology . The mytheme of requesting the boon of immortality from a god, but forgetting to ask for eternal youth appears in the story of Tithonus . A similar theme is found in Ovid regarding the Cumaean Sibyl . In Norse mythology , Iðunn

1984-406: The "predictable" scares, the "ludicrously bad" dialogue, and a story that did not make much sense. Despite this, she did praise the "strong" guest acting. Sarah Stegall awarded "Sanguinarium" two stars out of five, criticizing its reliance on gore. Ultimately, she found the conclusion wanting, because the "good" magic seemed useless; she wrote, "Where's the logic in that?" Ultimately, Stegall thought

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2048-647: The Special Representative to the Secretary-General of the United Nations . Covarrubias' aid is sought when Mulder attempts to reach Tunguska in Russia to investigate the source of a further black oil contamination. Whilst there, Mulder is held in a gulag and used as a successful test subject for a black oil vaccine. He escapes and is able to return to America, having found that Alex Krycek ( Nicholas Lea )

2112-458: The appearances of cancer-stricken abductees in previous episodes, it was an "obligatory" move to have Scully follow suit. Following the cancellation of the Fox television series Space: Above and Beyond , Carter called the series' creators Glen Morgan and Wong—who had previously been writers for the first two seasons of The X-Files —and asked if they wanted to rejoin the series. Morgan told Carter that

2176-406: The episode features many references to witchcraft and occultism. The nurse from the episode, Rebecca Waite, was originally named after a friend of the writers called Rebecca White. However, this was changed because there was a real nurse from Chicago whose last name was White. Some viewers ended up believing that Waite's name as a reference to either Rebecca Nurse , an innocent woman prosecuted during

2240-419: The episode's biggest flaw was its lack of logical writing, and that it required too much suspension of disbelief from the viewer. Frederick S. Clarke from Cinefantastique gave "Sanguinarium" a mixed review, writing that the episode "combines plastic surgery and black magic into an unsatisfying mix that fails to lampoon our obsession with beauty." Not all reviews were as negative. Writer Preston Nichols took

2304-463: The filming of the show's fifth season. Series creator Chris Carter also served as executive producer and showrunner and wrote eight episodes. Howard Gordon continued as executive producer and wrote five episodes for his final season on the series. Spotnitz was promoted to co-producer and wrote seven episodes. Vince Gilligan was promoted to co-producer and wrote five episodes. Former X-Files writers Glen Morgan and James Wong returned after

2368-422: The first episode of the series to be watched by over 20 million viewers. As the season continued, however, ratings began to drop slightly, stabilizing around approximately less than 20 million viewers-per-episode. The season hit a high with its twelfth episode, " Leonard Betts ", which had been chosen as the Fox lead-out program following Super Bowl XXXI . The episode was viewed by 29.1 million viewers, making it

2432-422: The fourth season received critical acclaim and was named the second-best season by both Consequence of Sound and Screen Rant . The episode, "Memento Mori", was singled out as one of the best episodes of the series by Screen Rant . The fourth season earned the series twelve Primetime Emmy Award nominations, with three wins. Anderson won for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, after being nominated

2496-417: The fourth season was not the series' best year, but "when good, [ The X-Files is] still shockingly great". Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave an overall positive review of the season and wrote that many of the episodes dabbled in existentialism . However, he also contended that many of the mythology episodes—especially the season finale—began to have "a ring of familiarity to" them and that "the repetition

2560-410: The gore. However, they were "worried" by what they called the "fourth consecutive phoned-in performance by Duchovny and Anderson". Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club was more negative, grading it a "D". She felt that the episode was "too much", and that the gore should have been suggested rather than shown directly. She also criticized the characterization of the characters (especially that of Scully),

2624-414: The highest-rated episode in the series' run. The season hit a low with the fifteenth and sixteenth episodes, " Kaddish " and " Unrequited ", respectively, which were both viewed by 16.56 million viewers. The season finale, " Gethsemane ", earned a Nielsen rating of 13.2, with a 19 share, and was viewed by 19.85 million viewers, marking a 5.9 percent drop in viewers when compared to the season premiere, but

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2688-412: The human body can be repaired in old age to a more youthful state has gathered significant commercial interest over the past few years, including by companies such as Human Longevity Inc , Google Calico , and Elysium Health . In addition to these larger companies, many startups are currently developing therapeutics to tackle the 'ageing problem' using therapy. In 2015 a new class of drugs senolytics

2752-433: The idea of placing a subtle pentagram on the reunion table, production designer Graeme Murray decided to take this further by creating rooms with five sides, and having the plastic surgery unit with five operating rooms represent an imaginary pentagram. Like previous episode " Home ", Fox Standards and Practices objected to the graphical content, and Carter had to intervene to help retain some scenes. Given its subject matter,

2816-437: The killer bees, who would go on to play a larger part in the 1998 film . Carter described the fourth season as "maybe the most intense and difficult season of the show." The season is notable in that it introduced a story arc about Scully developing terminal cancer, which would not be resolved until the beginning of the fifth season . The show's producers decided to give Gillian Anderson's character Dana Scully cancer early in

2880-403: The most repulsive scripts I ever shot", explaining that she could not watch scenes such as the doctor stabbing a patient. David Duchovny stated that "I didn't understand the plot, but I liked the script", noting that Carter and his team improved a weak teleplay and that director Kim Manners "did an excellent job". Entertainment Weekly gave "Sanguinarium" a "B−", feeling that it was "redeemed" by

2944-507: The paranormal called X-Files . When the Syndicate suspect that one of their members is passing information to Mulder and Scully, they organize a canary trap to find the leak, using information about the safety of Mulder's mother as bait. X's ( Steven Williams ) role as an informant is discovered, and he is shot dead, although he is able to pass along the name of another informant who can be of use to Mulder— Marita Covarrubias ( Laurie Holden ),

3008-499: The portrayal of their beliefs. "Sanguinarium" premiered on the Fox network on November 10, 1996. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 11.1, with an 18 share, meaning that roughly 11.1 percent of all television-equipped households, and 18 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. "Sanguinarium" was seen by 18.85 million viewers on first broadcast. Gillian Anderson described "Sanguinarium" as "one of

3072-441: The previous killing spree: four patients and a cosmetic doctor named Clifford Cox, who ostensibly died of a drug overdose . Although his birthday does not align with a Sabbath date, Mulder instinctively believes that Cox is involved in the crimes. He uses the clinic's computer program to determine what Cox would look like had he undergone heavy plastic surgery. The computer produces an image that looks like Franklin, suggesting that he

3136-418: The previous year. The episodes "Memento Mori" and "Tempus Fugit" won for Outstanding Art Direction for a Series and Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series, respectively. Notable nominations included its third consecutive nomination for Outstanding Drama Series, Duchovny's first nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, James Wong nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for "Musings of

3200-536: The rat brain. In humans, skeletal muscle telomere lengths remain stable from ages 23–74. In baboon skeletal muscle, that consists of fully differentiated post-mitotic cells, less than 3% of myonuclei contain damaged telomeres and this percentage does not increase with age. Thus telomere shortening does not appear to be a major factor in the aging of the differentiated cells of brain or skeletal muscle. Studies have shown that 90 percent of cancer cells contain large amounts of an enzyme called telomerase . Telomerase

3264-478: The season premiere and finale. James Charleston directed three episodes, while Tucker Gates , Michael Lange , Cliff Bole , and series writer James Wong each directed one episode. Episodes marked with a double dagger (‡) are episodes in the Mythology of The X-Files Alien story arc. The fourth season of The X-Files debuted with "Herrenvolk" on October 4, 1996. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 13.2, with

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3328-510: The season was not as good as its predecessors. The Contra Costa Times noted that The X-Files during its fourth year was creatively good and "always fascinating even when it's frustrating." Rick Kushman Bee of the Sacramento Bee wrote that Fox' Sunday block of The Simpsons , King of the Hill and The X-Files was televisions "real ' Must See TV '". Matt Roush of USA Today wrote that

3392-438: The season. Carter initially discussed giving Scully's mother cancer but decided to have Scully suffer from it instead. Carter felt the move would give the show an interesting platform on which to discuss things such as faith, science, health care and a certain element of the paranormal. Some of the writing staff felt that the decision was a poor one to make, citing it as "a cheap TV thing". However, Frank Spotnitz felt that, given

3456-412: The series. Other producers included producer Joseph Patrick Finn, co-producer Paul Rabwin , and consulting producer Ken Horton , who joined the series with this season. Producing-directors for the show included Rob Bowman and Kim Manners , who directed the bulk of the episodes for the season. Manners directed eight episodes, while Bowman directed seven. Executive producer R. W. Goodwin again directed

3520-537: The show. He said that, "Carter called me up personally [and said] 'Got good news, got bad news. The good news is we're gonna bring you up for another episode this week. The bad news is you're gonna take a bullet." The writers created a new character, Marita Covarrubias, to function as Mulder's informant. Carter felt it would be "more interesting for Mulder's next contact to be a woman", noting that he "wanted there to be some suspicion about whether Mulder would become involved with her romantically. "Herrenvolk" also introduced

3584-481: The time, the highest rated season of The X-Files to air. The season's twelfth episode, " Leonard Betts ", was chosen as the Fox lead-out program following Super Bowl XXXI , and was viewed by 29.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated episode in the series' run. Critical reception from television critics was mostly positive. The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder ( David Duchovny ) and Dana Scully ( Gillian Anderson ), who work on cases linked to

3648-471: The two of them would rejoin, but only for four episodes, and only if they could use members from the cast of Space: Above and Beyond , so that "the world can finally see them". Carter accepted this condition, and the two dutifully provided four of the seasons episodes. The season finale, "Gethsemane", was notable in that an entire set created to emulate icy caverns was constructed inside a warehouse which had previously been used for cold storage; and required

3712-442: The uncontrolled killings continue, Mulder discovers a link between the victims' dates of birth and key dates on the witchcraft calendar . The episode started as a spec script written by two fans of the series. It features several references to real life witchcraft sources. "Sanguinarium" received mixed reviews from critics; negative criticism was given to the number of inconsistencies in the plot. The episode's use of gore also drew

3776-406: The use of truckloads of lumber and 10,000 square feet (930 m ) of Styrofoam. The set would become one of the most expensive and elaborate built during the series' history. The set required a constant temperature of −21 °F (−29 °C) in order to maintain the real snow and ice used to decorate it. This refrigeration allowed the actors' breath to visibly fog up, and allowed the cast to "have

3840-508: The victims match up with the dates of the Witches' Sabbath and that Rebecca was actually trying to protect the victims from Franklin, using the pentagrams as protective symbols. Unfortunately, Mulder also realizes that because Rebecca was not the murderer, the spree of murders will continue. As he's suspected, another patient is murdered with acid at the clinic. Soon after, the agents again meet with Shannon, who divulges that five people died during

3904-483: The villain from a woman to a man as "plastic surgery is related to vanity, and everyone expects that from a woman, but not a man." After the script was submitted, it was selected to become a full episode. After the spec script was picked up, series creator Chris Carter and the show's staff reworked it into a teleplay . Carter focused much of the plot on the themes of greed and vanity, and executive producer Howard Gordon developed several graphic scenes. After Carter had

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3968-475: Was paged by a number she did not recognize. She realized that pagers in their own way are scary, because an unknown person can connect to the pager's owner. The Mayhews then went from focusing on pagers to the group of people who normally use them: doctors. It was then that they realized a plot about doctors losing control and being bewitched could make for a good episode. After writing their spec script, they presented it to Morgan and Wong, who suggested they change

4032-461: Was announced (currently in pre-clinical development) designed specifically to combat the underlying biological causes of frailty. The "loss of youth" or ageing process is responsible for increasing the risk of individuals to many diseases including cancer , Parkinson's , Alzheimer's , and others. As a result, in recent years, many high net worth individuals have donated large amounts of their money towards initiatives towards scientific research into

4096-429: Was possessed; Dana Scully ( Gillian Anderson ) is skeptical, believing he is only making it up to escape legal consequences. Mulder inspects the operation room and discovers a pentagram burned into the floor; he begins to suspect that witchcraft might have played a part in the crime. Meanwhile, staff at the clinic are shocked when another plastic surgeon, Dr. Ilaqua (Paul Raskin), kills an elderly patient by burning

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