Død Kalm

"Død Kalm"
The X-Files episode
Mulder is ravaged by unnatural aging
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 19
Directed by	Rob Bowman
Written by	Howard Gordon
Production code	2X19
Guest stars
John Savage as Henry Trondheim Mar Anderson as Halverson Vladimir Kulich as Olafsson David Cubitt as Captain Barclay, US Navy Dmitri Chepovetsky as Lieutenant Richard Harper, US Navy Claire Riley as Dr. Laskos Stephen Dimopoulos as Ionesco
Episode chronology
← Previous "Fearful Symmetry" Next → "Humbug"

"Død Kalm" was the nineteenth episode of the second season of The X-Files science-fiction television series created by Chris Carter. It aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company on March 10, 1995.

Plot

In the Norwegian Sea, chaos erupts on board the U.S.S. Ardent, an American naval destroyer. Due mysterious-yet-unspecified events, half of the Ardent's crew board lifeboats and abandon ship. Eighteen hours later, they are spotted by a Canadian fishing vessel; however, in that short span of time, the young crewmembers have undergone rapid aging.

When the Ardent is reported missing, Agent Dana Scully is summoned to the Bethesda Naval Hospital by her partner, Fox Mulder. Mulder has Scully visit the ship's sole surviving crewmember, Lt. Harper, who has been quarantined in the hospital's ICU. She finds that Harper, despite being in his twenties, has aged to the point of being unrecognizable. Mulder tells Scully that the Ardent vanished at the 65th parallel, a location of with a history of ship disappearances. Mulder believes that a "wrinkle in time" exists there, and that the Ardent was the subject of government experimentation related to the Philadelphia Experiment of World War II.

Upon arriving in Norway, Mulder and Scully try to find any sailors willing to take them near the Ardent's last known location. Only an American trawler captain, Henry Trondheim, agrees to help. At sea, Trondheim's boat encounters heavy fog and crashes into the Ardent. Mulder, Scully, Trondheim, and his first mate, Halverson, board the apparent ghost ship and find signs of advanced corrosion, even though the Ardent is only a few years old. Below decks, the mummified remains of other crewmembers are discovered. Suddenly, Trondheim's boat is stolen, stranding the party aboard the ship.

The agents find that the ship's engines and communications systems are corroded beyond repair. Mulder theorizes that the purported experimentation has led to time "speeding up", causing both the Ardent and the corpses to decay rapidly. The party hears a commotion below decks, where Halverson is found dead and the Ardent's commanding officer, Captain Barclay, is discovered alive. The agents question the wizened Barclay, who claims that his crew had seen a "glowing light" in the ocean and that "time got lost". Mulder and Scully agree that the frail Barclay couldn't have murdered Halverson, and that someone else is aboard the ship.

While casting Halverson's body out to sea, Trondheim is attacked by a Norweigian pirate whaler named Olafsson; it is revealed that Olafsson killed Halverson and that his crew commandeered Trondheim's boat. Mulder and Trondheim subdue Olafsson, who hasn't aged despite being on the ship for the past two days. After Barclay dies, a crystalline material begins to form on his body. Mulder, Scully, and Trondheim eventually begin to show signs of unnatural aging just as the Ardent's crew had. Scully develops a theory that the Ardent is sailing near a metallic object beneath the ocean, and that it has caused free radicals to rapidly oxidize their bodies and environment, leading to the hastened aging effect.

Mulder notices that only one ceiling pipe has not corroded through. Both he and Scully follow the pipe to the ship's sewage hold, where Olafsson and his crew were previously holed up. The agents realize that something from the ocean contiminated the Ardent's portable water and led to the metamorphosis of the ship and her crew, while Olafsson's men remained unaffected due to their consumption of recycled water from the sewage system. They further realize that there isn't much drinkable water left to keep them alive. Meanwhile, Trondheim learns about the water from Olafsson. Desperate to survive, Trondheim kills Olafsson and sets out to keep the water for himself.

Scully learns from blood tests that the contaminated water causes rapid cellular damage and dramatically increases sodium chloride in the body, leading to their condition; consumption of the untainted water has slowed down the aging in Scully and Trondheim, but Mulder's condition continues to worsen. Trondheim attempts to convince Scully to do away with Mulder, but she dismisses him. She tries to ration the water amongst the three, but eventually discovers Trondheim attempting to hoard what little drinkable water that remains. The crazed Trondheim locks Scully out of the sewage hold, forcing her to use minuscule supplies from a snowglobe and a sardine can to keep Mulder alive. The Ardent's ongoing corrosion eventually eats through the ship's hull, flooding the sewage hold and drowning Trondheim.

Scully collects what little water she has found, and puts it in a jar she gives to Mulder; Mulder, believing that Scully has a better chance of survival, tries to return the jar instead. However, when the Ardent begins taking on water, the resulting convulsions in the ship cause the jar to shatter. Mulder and Scully are left to face their seemingly imminent demise; Mulder laments their predicament, but Scully attempts to assure him that an afterlife exists beyond death. The agents both lose consciousness shortly before Navy rescuers arrive on the Ardent to save them.

Scully comes to at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where both she and Mulder are being treated. She is told that her written observations on the case have helped naval doctors reverse their aging and save Mulder from near-certain death. Scully tries to speak to a naval liaison about salvaging the Ardent, but is told that the ship has sunk. The episode ends with a camera shot of fog on the water, leaving the viewer clueless to what the real anomaly is.

Production

Filming

HMCS Mackenzie, a decommissioned Canadian Forces destroyer, was used for interior and exterior shots as the U.S.S. Ardent. The ship had previously been used to shoot interior scenes for the climax of the episode "End Game".^[1] The Mackenzie, once the lead ship of its class, was stripped and scuttled shortly after filming ended.

Controversy in Norway

"Død Kalm" has been met with ridicule in Norway over the inaccurate Norwegian dialogue of the script, which has been compared to the Icelandic language. The title "Død Kalm" is implied to be Norwegian but is really non-sensical, as the word "kalm" doesn't exist in the language; the title is an apparent reference to the 1989 Australian film Dead Calm. Furthermore, "Tildeskan", the fishing port Mulder and Scullt visit, is fictitious.

References

1. ^ Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel Press. p. 157. 

External links

• Død Kalm on The X-Files Wiki, an external wiki
• Død Kalm at the Internet Movie Database
• Template:Http://www.side2.no/tv/article2753686.ece