Season 4: Herrenvolk (4X01)

Writer: Chris Carter
Director: R. W. Goodwin

Having located Jeremiah Smith, Mulder and Scully are forced to protect him from an old adversary, the alien bounty hunter. Mulder escapes with Jeremiah Smith, who is their only link to uncovering the truth about an alien colonization plan and Mulder's only hope of saving his mother's life. Meanwhile Assistant Director Skinner's investigation uncovers five identical men named Jeremiah Smith across the country. Scully discovers evidence that these men have been using the Smallpox eradication program to secretly cataloguing the human race. But why?

Jeremiah Smith takes Mulder to a remote farming estate in Canada, where Mulder sees clones of his sister Samantha at the age she was abducted, Jeremiah Smith tells him that they are a colony of worker drones. But before he can reveal the colonization plans the alien bounty hunter arrives and Mulder watches on helpless as Jeremiah Smith is killed. Meanwhile the Cigarette Smoking Man's own investigation identifies X as a traitor. He is gunned down in Mulder's apartment and leaves Mulder one final ambiguous clue, which leads him to a contact in the United Nations, Marita Covarrubias.

She denies all knowledge of the colony Jeremiah Smith showed Mulder as she hands him a folder containing photographs of the colony. The Cigarette Smoking Man has the alien bounty hunter heal Mulder's mother, concerned that Mulder would be far more dangerous to their plans if he had nothing left to loose.

Notes:
'Herrenvolk' is German for "Master Race", which was Hitler's plan during World War II to create a race of perfect blond, blue-eyed people.

Vanessa Morley, playing Samantha Mulder, got stung by one of the bees during the scene where Samantha, Mulder and Jeremiah Smith enter the bunker. After the shoot Gillian Anderson presented her an award for 'bravery beyond the call of duty' that had been made up by the props department.

Mulder's third source Marita Covarrubias, a Special Representative to the Secretary General, is introduced in this episode after X is killed.

The season's premiere begins with yet another altered tagline: 'Everything Dies', spoken by the Bounty Hunter and then followed up by Marita Covarrubias who informs Mulder that "Not Everything Dies".

William B. Davis is now billed under the "Also Starring" heading along with Mitch Pileggi.

Quotes:
Jeremiah Smith: They know where to find us. They'll be waiting for us.
Mulder: Who?
Jeremiah Smith: Your government men. They'll be waiting at thehospital with your mother. Mulder: What can they do? We're working in the light.They, they can't stop us without exposure, without consequence.
Jeremiah Smith: You have to understand something. I must perish.Whatever the consequences to that end, they are incalculable to thepreservation of the larger plan.
Mulder: The larger plan?(Smith stares at him.)You mean colonization.
Jeremiah Smith: Hegemony, Mister Mulder. A new origin of species.
Mulder: I don't understand...
Jeremiah Smith: I can show you.
Mulder: My mother is dying. I need to take you to see her right now.
Jeremiah Smith: And if they are waiting for us? If they're willing tokill me and then face the consequence of their actions and standbefore your ineffectual justice system, I will be dead. I won't beable to save your mother. The work will go on. The plan will continueto be executed. Or you can stop it.
Mulder: How can I stop it?
Jeremiah Smith: I can take you to a place, show you the work inprogress, where you can see...
Mulder: No, look, there's no time!
Jeremiah Smith: Where you can see your sister!

Bounty Hunter: He shows you pieces, but tells you nothing of the whole... because he's inconsequential... a traitor to the project.
Mulder: Kill me, let them go.
Bounty Hunter: You'd trade your life for his?
Mulder: For my mother's.
Bounty Hunter: Everything dies.

X: You're going in the wrong direction, Agent Scully.
Sculy: All beginning with the letters S-E-P. You know what these are. Confirm or deny.
X: Smallpox eradication program.
Scully: Smallpox?
X: Don't unlock doors you're not prepared to go through, Agent Scully.
Scully: What's that supposed to mean?
X: Leave it alone. Protect the mother.

Episode Number: 74
Season Number: 4
First Aired: Friday October 4, 1996
Production Code: 4X01

Season 3: Talitha Cumi (3X24)

Story by: Chris Carter and David Duchovny
Teleplay by: Chris Carter
Director: R.W. Goodwin

After a deranged man walks into a restaurant in Arlington, Virginia and guns down several people, he is shot by the SWAT team. A gentle man, Jeremiah Smith on the scene, talks soothingly to the injured gunman and heals him and his victims before disappearing in front of the police during questioning. Mulder starts a full scale search for the elusive Jeremiah Smith.

Meanwhile Mulder's mother is approached by the Cigarette Smoking Man, whom she appears to know. Shortly afterwards Mulder is contacted, his mother has been taken to hospital after suffering a stroke. Mulder rushes to see her, she is unable to talk but writes the word 'palm' on a piece of paper. On their return to Washington, Jeremiah Smith walks in to the FBI building and turns himself him. He is questioned by Scully and Assistant Director Skinner but later released. Mulder is contacted by X, who shows him photographs of the Cigarette Smoking Man and his mother arguing and tells him the Cigarette Smoking Man was looking for something.

Mulder goes to his family holiday home in Rhode Island and works out that his mother meant 'lamp' when she wrote 'palm', he finds an alien stiletto weapon, which he recognised as used by the alien bounty hunter. The real Jeremiah Smith arrives at Scully's apartment and asks to speak to Mulder he has information that indicates an approaching dead line and a chance to discover the key to exposing the truth about the existence of alien life.

Notes:
'Talitha Cumi' is Aramaic for "Little Girl Arise", used in the Bible when Jesus raises the young daughter of a Jewish leader from the dead.

It was originally envisioned that Melinda McGraw, playing Mellissa Scully, would make a cameo in this episode as one of the people Jeremiah Smith would transform into during the interrogation scene with the Cigarette-Smoking Man. It turned out that Melinda McGraw wasn't available the day of the shoot.

The fight between Mulder and X was longer in the first cut. The producers had to tone to violence down to comply with the Fox Broadcasting standards.

Steven Williams, playing X, wrenched his shoulder in filming the fight between his character and Mulder.

Quotes:
Mrs. Mulder: I have nothing to say to you.
CSM: Really? We used to have so much to say to each other, so many good times at the Mulder's summer place. Your kids.. young and energetic. I remember water-skiing down there with Bill. He was a good water-skier your husband, not as good as I was but then that could be said about so many things...couldn't it?
Mrs. Mulder: I've repressed it all.

(Mulder rushes Cigarette Smoking Man and slams him against the wall.)
Mulder: You going to smoke that?
(He whips out his gun.)
Mulder: Or do you want to smoke on this?
CSM: Are you giving me a choice?
Mulder: I should shoot you right here, but they'd probably be able to save you.
CSM: Do it. Do it, Agent Mulder.
Mulder: Or maybe put a bullet through your brain so you'll bebedridden for the rest of your life like my mother.
CSM: How is she?
Mulder: What do you care?
CSM: I've known your mother since before you were born, Fox.
Mulder: I don't care.
CSM: I'd gone to see her recently.
Mulder: Yeah. And I know what you were looking for.
CSM: I wasn't looking for anything.It's what she was looking for, actually. She contacted me.
Mulder: Liar.
CSM: I had information, possibly... on thewhereabouts of your sister.
Mulder: Where is she?
CSM: It seems the man who had the information has disappeared.
Mulder: I have what you want.
CSM: There's nothing I want, Agent Mulder... except to see how your mother's doing.

Episode Number: 73
Season Number: 3
First Aired: Friday May 17, 1996
Production Code: 3X24

Season 3: WetWired (3X23)

Writer: Mat Beck
Director: Rob Bowman

Agent Mulder is approached by an unknown man tips him off about a series of homicidal outbursts in other wise stable people in Braddock Heights, Maryland. Mulder and Scully interview Joseph Patnick, who went berserk while watching TV and killed five people. His physician, Dr. Stroman tells them he is suffering from a delusional syndrome. Mulder and Scully visit Patnick's residence looking for evidence, they discover that Patnick was taping all of the news reports on TV, Scully begins watching the tapes looking for clues. Later that evening she sees Mulder talking to the Cigarette Smoking Man in a car.

Following reports that a housewife, Mrs. Riddock killed her next door neighbour in his garden with his dog believing it was her husband with another woman. Mulder and Scully visit the scene, Mulder witnesses a cable repairman acting mysteriously and recovers a video trap device which he takes to the Lone Gunman. They discover that the device is used to feed another signal in with the incoming TV signal and could be causing the violent behaviour in people.

When Mulder returns to the hotel he finds Scully acting very paranoid and psychotic, she takes a shot at Mulder accusing him of working with the Cigarette Smoking Man all along. As Assistant Director Skinner orders an FBI man hunt for Scully. Mulder is forced to choose between his loyalty to Scully and the case he is working on. And much to his contact X's annoyance Mulder concentrates on finding Scully.

Notes:
Mat Beck, the writer of this episode, was also the Special Effects Supervisor for ''The X-Files''.

One name which pops up in several episodes is 'John Gillnitz' (in this case, the man killed in the hammock). The name is a combination of the 3 staff writers/producers: John Shiban, Vince Gilligan, and Frank Spotnitz.

Agent Mulder mentions he is colorblind, as a reason why the encrypted code did not have an affect on him. In reality to become a Special Agent at the FBI he would have had to pass a color vision test.

Quotes:
Mulder: All I know is television doesn't make a previously sane man go out and kill 5 people thinking they're all the same guy...not even Must See TV could do that to you.

Mulder (talking to X): Your a coward, you work in the shadows, you feed me scraps of information hoping I can piece it together. You've made me risk my life, you've risked my partners life and you never risk your own.

Higlights from WetWired

Episode Number: 72
Season Number: 3
First Aired: Friday May 10, 1996
Production Code: 3X23

Season 3: Quagmire (3X22)

Writer: Kim Newton
Director: Kim Manners

Two missing person reports at Heuvelmans Lake in Georgia attracts the attention of Agent Mulder, who links the disappearance to local folklore of a serpent-like lake monster called Big Blue. Scully unaware of Mulder's 'Big Blue' theory questions Mulder about their involvement in the case in the car, until she spots an advertisement bill board for the lake showing Big Blue. When they arrive at Heuvelmans Lake, it becomes apparent that the area relies on the Big Blue phenomena for it's tourist business.

They meet a local shop keeper, Ted Betram who believes in the existence of Big Blue and another local man, Ansel Bray who has spent his life attempting to photograph Big Blue. Shortly afterwards a fisherman reports the discover of a dead body in the lake, which turns out to be one of the missing people. They speak with local biologist Dr. Farraday, who dismisses the existence of a creature like Big Blue in the lake. That evening Ted Betram is attacked and killed while making Big Blue footprints in the mud near the lake shore. Tracks are discovered at the scene by local Sheriff Hindt but dismissed as being done by Betram. After Ansel Bray is killed and undeveloped film in his camera appears to show a creature emerging from the lake, Mulder pleads with Sheriff Hindt to close the lake to tourists. Dr Farraday's reports that the local frog and fish populations have declined drastically in the lake leads Mulder to theorise that Big Blue is being forced ashore in search of food.

Notes:
Most of the third act (know to most X-Philes as the Conversation on the Rock) was written by none other than an uncredited Darin Morgan ("Humbug", "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", "War of the Copropahges", "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'", his last writing job for the show.

A quagmire is describe as a soft, wet area of low-lying, sinking underfoot. This would describe the surrounding area where 'Big Blue' was believed to be.

Scully's dog is named Queequeg after the harpoonist in "Moby Dick", a story her father read to her when she was growing up. Their nicknames for each other (Ahab and Starbuck) come from the same book.

Scully obtained Queequeg after the dog's former owner died in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", in which the little beast dines on the old lady's entrails. Queequeg also makes a screen appearance in "War Of The Coprophages", getting and escaping from the midst of a flea bath.

Quotes:
Scully: You know, Mulder, you are Ahab.
Mulder: You know, its interesting you should say that, because I've always wanted a peg leg. It's a boyhood thing I never grew out of. I'm not being flippant, I've given this a lot of thought. I mean, if you have a peg leg or hooks for hands then maybe it's enough to simply keep on living. You know, bravely facing life with your disability. But without these things you're actually meant to make something of your life, achieve something earn a raise, wear a necktie. So if anything I'm actually the antithesis of Ahab, because if I did have a peg leg I'd quite possibly be more happy and more content not to be chasing after these creatures of the unknown.
Scully: And that's not flippant?
Mulder: No. Flippant is my favourite line from Moby Dick. Hell is an idea first born on an undigested apple dumpling. Yeah.
(Scully smiles, finishing the line with Mulder)
Scully: What was that?
Mulder: I don't know, but it ain't no duck.

(Scully's dog starts barking in the back seat)
Scully: Nature's calling, I think we should pull over.
Mulder: Did you really have to bring that thing?
Scully: You wake me up on a Saturday morning, tell me to be ready in five minutes, my mother is out of town, all of the dog sitters are booked and you know how I feel about kennels. So, unless you want to lose your security deposit on the car, I suggest you pull over.

Mulder: Hey Scully, do you think you could ever cannibalize someone? I mean if you really had to.
Scully: Well, as much as the very idea is abhorrent to me, I suppose under certain conditions a living entity is practically conditioned to perform whatever extreme measures are necessary to ensure its survival. I suppose I'm no different.
Mulder: You've lost some weight recently, haven't you?
Scully: Yes, yes I have. Thanks for n--
(Scully glares at Mulder and he laughs)

Higlights from Quagmire

Episode Number: 71
Season Number: 3
First Aired: Friday May 3, 1996
Production Code: 3X22

Season 3: Avatar (3X21)

Story by: David Duchovny and Howard Gordon
Writer: Howard Gordon
Director: James Charleston

Assistant Director Skinner puts off signing his divorce papers for one more day, reluctant to end his 17 year marriage. He meets a woman in the Chesapeake Lounge of the Ambassador Hotel and they end up spending the night together in a hotel room. Skinner has a vision of an old woman and awakes to find the woman from the lounge dead in bed next to him.

Mulder and Scully are called in by the local police investigating the case. The dead woman Carina Sayles it turns out works for an escort agency, when Mulder and Scully check with the agency they have Skinner's credit card details. Skinner is released on bail but refuses Mulder and Scully's help. They investigate the case regardless despite their own admission that they know nothing about his private life, they feel honour bound to help clear his name. Mulder notes that he was surprised to hear that Carina Sayles was a prostitute.

Scully discovers that Skinner suffers from a serious sleeping disorder linked to his recent separation from his wife and has visions of an old woman visiting him in the night. Mulder links this to a succubus, a spirit that visits men in the night in such a form. After Skinner's wife is run off the road and nearly killed by his car, Mulder tests the airbag from the car which reveals the face of an unknown man proving Skinner was not driving the car at the time of the accident. Which leads Mulder to believe that someone is out to frame and discredit Assistant Director Skinner.

Notes:
'Avatar' is a Sanskrit word meaning the human incarnation of a deity. The word has also become popular on the internet as the term used to describe a user's screen name in a chat room or forum.

A scene with Skinner and the Cigarette-Smoking Man was cut due to time constraints. In this scene CSM questions Skinner's allegiance.

The red coat worn by the old woman that Skinner never quite manages to catch up with is an obvious allusion to the red-coated stranger in ''Don't Look Now'', the Nicholas Roeg film in which Donald Sutherland is haunted by glimpses of a hooded character he thinks may be the reincarnation of his dead daughter.

Quotes:
Mulder: It's not a strange story... It's age old, actually. You may have heard it - although in slightly less clinical terms. In the Middle Ages, a visitation like the one Skinner described would have been attributed to a Succubus. A spirit that visits men during the night in the form of an old woman.
Scully: Visits them for sex?
Mulder: Usually.

(Scully and Mulder look around the madam's apartment)
Scully: Looks like business is booming.
Mulder: I think you mean banging.

Skinner: I got through that experience like most eighteen-year-olds. By numbing myself with whatever was around. I was no choir boy, I inhaled.

Episode Number: 70
Season Number: 3
First Aired: Friday April 26, 1996
Production Code: 3X21

Season 3 : Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space' (3X20)

Writer: Darin Morgan
Director: Rob Bowman

Renowned writer Jose Chung, researching for his book on alien abductions, interviews Dana Scully, who relates to him the case of a teenage couple, Chrissy Giorgio and Harold Lamb, who claim to have been abducted while on a date in Klass County. The only problem is, the victims and witnesses all have different versions of the events that took place. From Chrissy first belief that she had been a victim of date rape, to the re-appearance of Harold with his tale of alien abduction. Chrissy is hypnotised and is able to confirm Harold's story.

Which is also verified by an independent witness to the abduction, electrical company employee Roky Crikenson and his tales of harassment by the Men in Black, mysterious government agents who visit witnesses to alien abductions to discredit and confuse them. When an alien body is discovered by a UFO fanatic, Blaine Faulkner. Scully performs the autopsy only to discover that it is really an Airforce pilot in an alien costume.

When Chrissy is hypnotised again she recants the same story but with the aliens replaced by Airforce personnel. Were Chrissy and Harold abducted or are they making it up, and if they were, by who, aliens or humans. Is it an attempt by the Airforce to cover up their intelligence operations, or a conspiracy to discredit witnesses to real abductions. Mulder and Scully find themselves lost in a web of deceit, maybe Jose Chung's book will reveal the truth, unless he too is part of the conspiracy to cover that truth.

Notes:
Actor Alex Diakun, who plays Dr. Fingers the hypnotist, makes his third and final appearance in the series. His first was in episode 44, season 2X20, ''Humbug '', in which he played the museum curator, and episode 53, season 3X04, ''Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose '', in which he played the tarot card reader.

The videotape of Scully's alleged alien autopsy is hosted by none other than The Stupendous Yappi (Japp Broeker). Yappi is the famous paranormal investigation "expert" from episode 53, season 3X04, ''Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose''.

The gray alien in this episode says, "This is not happening!" over and over. In season 8, 'This Is Not Happening' is the name of an episode in which this phrase is said more than once as well.

Detective Manners is named after Director Kim Manners, who is well known on the set for his 'colourful phrasing'. Manners was even offered the chance to play the part, but he declined.

The character of Jose Chung is named after an aspiring writer who kept phoning the office inquiring about an unsolicited script he had submitted.

The opening sequence to this episode, where what appears to be the underside of a huge spaceship moves slowly across the scene, is an obvious reference to the opening of the original ''Star Wars'' film. The fact that it turns out not to be a spaceship is very fitting with the rest of this episode.

Quotes:
Jose Chung: Evidence of extraterrestrial existence remains as elusive as ever, but the skies will continue to be searched by the likes of Blaine Faulkner, hoping to someday find not only proof of alien life, but also contentment on a new world. Until then, he must be content with his new job. Others search for answers from within. Roky relocated to El Cajon, California, preaching to the lost and desperate. Seeking the truth about aliens means a perfunctory nine-to-five job to some. For although Agent Diana Lesky is noble spirit and pure of heart, she remains, nevertheless, a federal employee. As for her partner, Reynard Muldrake... that ticking timebomb of insanity... his quest into the unknown has so warped his psyche, one shudders to think how he receives pleasures from life. Chrissy Giorgio has come to believe her alien visitation was a message to improve her own world, and she has devoted herself to this goal wholeheartedly. Then there are those who care not about extraterrestrials, searching for meaning in other human beings. Rare or lucky are those who find it. For although we may not be alone in the universe, in our own separate ways on this planet, we are all...alone.

Mulder: Don't write this book. You'll perform a disservice through a field of inquiry that has always struggled for respectability. You're a gifted writer, but no amount of talent could describe the events that occurred in any realistic vein because they deal with alternative realities that we're yet to comprehend. And when presented in the wrong way, in the wrong context, the incidents and the people involved in them can appear foolish, if not downright psychotic. I also know that your publishing house is owned by Warden White, Incorporated ... a subsidiary of MacDougall-Kesler, which makes me suspect a covert agenda for your book on the part of the military-industrial-entertainment complex.
Jose Chung: Agent Mulder, this book will be written. But it can only benefit if you can explain something to me.
Mulder: What's that?
Jose Chung: What really happened to those kids on that night?
Mulder: How the hell should I know?

Man in Black: Even the former leader of your United States of America, James Earl Carter Jr., thought he saw a UFO once, but it's been proven he only saw the planet Venus.
Roky: I'm a Republican.
Man in Black: Venus was at its peak brilliance last night. You probably thought you saw something up in the sky other than Venus, but I assure you, it was Venus.
Roky: I know what I saw.
Man in Black: Your scientists have yet to discover how neural networks create self-consciousness, let alone how the human brain processes two-dimensional retinal images into the three-dimensional phenomenon known as perception. Yet you somehow brazenly declare seeing is believing? Mr. Crikenson, your scientific illiteracy makes me shudder, and I wouldn't flaunt your ignorance by telling anyone that you saw anything last night other than the planet Venus, because if you do, you're a dead man.
Roky: You...can't threaten me.
Man in Black: I just did.

Opening teaser from Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'

Episode Number: 69
Season Number: 3
First Aired: Friday April 12, 1996
Production Code: 3X20

Season 3: Hell Money (3X19)

Writer: Jeff Vlaming
Director: Tucker Gates

After a young Chinese immigrant is burned alive in a crematorium, Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate a series of murders in San Francisco's Chinatown. Aided by a Chinese-American police detective Chao, they delve in to a culture alien to their own, with its own myths and rituals and where outsiders are treated with suspicion. Mulder notices a Chinese character scrawled inside the crematorium oven which Chao translates as the word 'ghost', he also identifies a fragment of a note found in the oven as 'hell money', ceremonial currency burnt during the Chinese festival of the Hungry Ghosts as an offering to the dead.

The victim is identified as Johnny Lo and the threesome visit his apartment looking for clues. Chinese characters mark his apartment as a 'haunted house' and they find a freshly laid carpet and traces of blood underneath. The investigation deepens when Scully finds a frog living in the body of another dead Chinese man who has had all of his organs harvested. Mulder and Scully visit an organ procurement organisation and discover that a number of Chinese men have visited requesting typing and antigen work-ups for organ donation only to not be heard from again. Mulder and Scully sense that Chao is being protective of the what is going on within the Chinese community. Given a lead from a father's desperate sacrifice for his dying daughter, Mulder and Scully find a secret room, a surgeon, and a lottery game where the price of a ticket is the player's life.

Notes:
This is the first of several episodes throughout the series to be completely devoid of a paranormal storyline.

Lucy Liu, who would later on become famous playing a lawyer in "Ally McBeal," was at the time dating David Duchovny in real life.

In postproduction, the producers realised that several actors spoke Chinese with a Mandarin accent although the script called for a Cantonese accent. These actors were called back and their dialogue was dubbed with the help of a vocal coach.

Quotes:
Mulder: You think this guy was selling his body parts.
Scully: A kidney, a portion of the liver, bone marrow, a lobe of the lung. A cornea. A person can lose these things and live to cash their social security checks.

Dr. Wu: In my belief, death is nothing to be feared. It's merely a stage of transition. But life without hope...well, now that is a living hell. So, hope was my gift to these men.
(Scully sighs angrily.)
Dr. Wu: I don't expect you to understand.
Scully: I understand this. You are going to prison for a very long time.

Episode Number: 68
Season Number: 3
First Aired: Friday March 29, 1996
Production Code: 3X19

Season 3: Teso Dos Bichos (3X18)

Writer: John Shiban
Director: Kim Manners

When an archaeological expedition from the Boston Museum of Natural History excavating a site in Ecuador uncovers an Amaru Urn, containing the remains of a female shaman, which the Secona Indians believe is sacred to their tribe. The head of the expedition Dr. Roosevelt orders the urn be shipped back to the US despite warnings from the Indian liaison for the expedition Dr. Bilac that the urn should be left undisturbed. That removing the shaman's remains would be against the wishes of the local tribe people.

Dr. Roosevelt dismisses his warning and is later attacked and killed by a wild cat. No sooner has the urn arrived in Boston then one of the archaeologist is found dead in the museum. Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate, the museum's curator Dr. Lewton believes that the murder is politically motivated as the Ecuadorian's have lodged a complaint with the State Department. Mulder tells Scully that the Ecuadorians believe anyone who disturbs a Amaru urn will be cursed. Mulder and Scully's investigation centres on Dr. Bilac, who since his return from the expedition has become a recluse.

He claims that the killings are down to a jaguar spirit sent by the Secona Indians. But Scully suspects his involvement given that he is heading up the campaign to return the shaman's remains to Ecuador. As more members of the museum befall the same fate as their colleagues, Mulder and Scully try to determine if it is all the work of an ancient curse or political terrorism.

Notes:
Gillian Anderson is very allergic to cats, so makeup effects artist Toby Lindala had to create a cat puppet with rabbit fur that attacks Scully.

After the episode aired, the network found out that 'bichos' also means 'balls' in Columbia and Venezuela. John Shiban, the writer, didn't know that when he wrote the episode.

Director Kim Manners awarded the crew with 'Teso Dos Bichos Survivor' t-shirts with the words 'Second Salmon' after production was completed. 'Second Salmon' refers to the script, which changes color with each revision. In this case, the script underwent so many changes that they ended up with a salmon-colored version twice.

When Mulder and Scully begin to crawl into the tunnel under the museum, Mulder's famous line 'Ladies first' wasn't in the original script.

As well as the name of the area where the Urn was discovered, "Teso" is Portuguese for "burial ground" and "Bichos" means "small animals".

Quotes:
Scully: Cat ate a rat.
Mulder: And the dog ate the cat!

Scully: So, what are we talking here, Mulder, a possessed rat? The return of Ben?
Mulder: No, I think those rats were killed trying to escape from something.
Scully: From something that sent them diving into the toilet.
Mulder: No, the lids were down. They weren’t trying to get into the toilets, they were trying to get out. They were coming from within the sewer lines trying to get away from something.
Scully: Have you been drinking Yaje, Mulder?
Mulder: Go with it, Scully.

Episode Number: 67
Season Number: 3
First Aired: Friday March 8, 1996
Production Code: 3X18

Season 3: Pusher (3X17)

Writer: Vince Gilligan
Director: Rob Bowman

When Robert Modell, who calls himself 'Pusher', confesses to the murders of fourteen people, who's deaths had been classified as suicide, his details of the crime scenes convince the FBI that he is telling the truth. Agent Frank Burst leads the team who arrest Modell in a grocery market in Virginia, however Modell talks to the deputy driving the patrol car and mesmerises him in to pulling out in to the path of an oncoming truck. Modell escapes from the car wreck leaving the deputy dead and Agent Burst injured.

Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate by Agent Burst who beings them up to speed on the case. A clue left by Modell on the patrol car leads Mulder to the American Ronin magazine, he finds cryptic adverts that show Modell has been working as a contract killer. They trace the telephone number from the advert to a golf driving range and attempt to arrest Modell for a second time. Modell induces one of the SWAT team members to set fire to himself but Modell collapses and is unable to escape.

Mulder becomes convinced that Modell is using psychic powers to control people's minds. A theory given credence when Modell mesmerises the Judge in to letting him walk free. Having found a worthy opponent Modell uses his unique ability once more to gain access to the FBI building in Washington to get details about Mulder. As they embark on a game of cat and mouse with Modell, Mulder realises they are playing for his and Scully's lives.

Notes:
The character Pusher's real name was Robert Patrick Modell. This was about five years before the actor Robert Patrick joined the cast.

Fox Broadcasting had some problems with the Russian roulette scene. Apparently there had never been a Russian roulette sequence in any other one-hour drama on network tv in the US up to that time. It took some serious discussion between Vince Gilligan, the writer of this episode, and the network to allow the sequence.

In the teaser where Modell is taken into custody, he looks at a tabloid with a monster on the cover. This monster bears a striking resemblence to the one from Season 2's ''The Host''.

''Foo Fighters'' member David Grohl and his wife, Jennifer Youngblood-Grohl, can be seen in the background as Modell enters the foyer of the FBI building.

FBI Agent 'Holly', who beats up Skinner, owes her name to writer Vince Gilligan's girlfriend, Holly Rice.

Quotes:
Pusher: Your turn, Scully. Got to play by the rules. Pull the trigger, Mulder.
Scully: Mulder, fight him. You can fight this.
Pusher: Come on. Pull the trigger, Mulder. She shot you, I read it in her files. Payback time... shoot the little spy!
(Modell is trying to make Mulder shoot himself)
Scully: No, Mulder. Don't do this! Don't ---
(Mulder pulls the trigger)
Scully: (Screaming) No! You bastard!

Mulder: Modell psyched the judge out, he put the whammy on him.
Scully: Please explain to me the scientific nature of the 'whammy'.

Highlights from Pusher

Episode Number: 66
Season Number: 3
First Aired: Friday February 23, 1996
Production Code: 3X17

Season 3: Apocrypha (3X16)

Writers: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Director: Kim Manners

In a flash back to 1953 the crew of the submarine Zeus Faber are tricked by the Navy in to recovering an atomic bomb from a downed World War Two plane, but they were really sent to guard an alien entity, which causes radiation poisoning among the crew. In present day Washington Scully starts an investigation in to who shot Assistant Director Skinner. He tells her in the hospital that he recognised the man who shot him leading Scully to identify the man as Luis Cardinal. Test results prove that the same man also shot her sister Melissa. Meanwhile Mulder returns to Washington with Krycek, unwittingly bringing back the alien life form, which has inhabited Krycek via the black oil.

However the pair are ambushed by the Cigarette Smoking Man's men on their return, Mulder dazed, does not see Krycek kill their attackers by irradiating them. Mulder enlists the help of the Lone Gunman to recover the missing Dat tape from a lockup in an ice ring, only to find that someone has already taken it. Mulder meets the Well Manicured Man who warns him Skinner's life is still in danger. Scully foils another attempt on Skinner's life and takes Luis Cardinal in to custody.

They learn that the cargo salvaged from the sea bed by the crew of the Piper Maru is being stored in a missile silo in North Dakota and Krycek under the influence of the alien entity is heading there. As Mulder and Scully close in, they are once again outwitted by the Cigarette Smoking Man and denied access to the truth.

Notes:
Apocrypha means "Writings of dubious authenticity". 'Apocrypha' are also books of the bible excluded from the Jewish and Protestant canons of the Old Testament.

In the beginning of this episode we can see young Bill Mulder and CSM obviously already involved in the whole conspiracy thing and the year is 1953.On the other hand, in the Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man episode, we can see those two still in the army in 1963.

The number on the door where the Alien spaceship is being held is 1013, this is a nod to Chris Carter's production company "Ten Thirteen Productions''.

During the 'Lone Gunmen on Ice' scene you can see that Byers is quite comfortable on his skates. Bruce Harwood, playing Byers, once trained as a professional ice skater.

Kevin McNulty (Agent Fuller) previously appeared in the same role in season 1's ''Squeeze".

Foo fighter was a term used in World War II to refer to the types of aerial sightings that, in the postwar period, became known as UFO's. They were usually assumed to be some sort of enemy secret weapon or experimental aircraft. Many were described as "...blobs or flares of light...". The 1953 Robertson Panel, a CIA committee convened in 1952 to examine the rash of UFO reports, reviewed the foo fighter sightings and noted that many objects sighted during the war were metallic and disc shaped and that if the term flying saucer had been in use then, it would have been appropriate. Due to the ephemeral nature of the sightings, it also became synonymous with red herring.The term is thought to have been taken from the Smokey Stover comic strip, which ran in the Chicago Tribune from 1935 to 1973. Smokey, a fireman, drove a two-wheeled fire truck he called the Foomobile. One of his catchphrases was ''Where there's foo, there's fire''. The strip's artist, Bill Holman, never explained the term.
In 1995, former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl named his new band ''Foo Fighters''.
By using this term, not only does the Well-Manicured Man allude to UFO's, he also dismisses the matter at hand as inconsequential and dates himself as part of the World War II generation.

Quotes:
CSM: Have the bodies destroyed.
Doctor: But... these men aren't dead yet.
CSM: Isn't that the prognosis.

Scully: I've just been thinking about something a man said to me. He said that the dead speak to us from beyond the grave - that that's what conscience is... I think the dead are speaking to us, Mulder - demanding justice. Maybe that man was right. Maybe we bury the dead alive.

Highlights from: Piper Maru and Apocrypha

Episode Number: 65
Season Number: 3
First Aired: Friday February 16, 1996
Production Code: 3X16