Director: R. W. Goodwin
With Mulder missing, presumed dead and nothing to go on, Scully returns to Washington but is stopped and searched by the Cigarette Smoking Man's troops looking for the missing Dat tape. Back at the FBI, Scully is suspended and forced to turn over her badge and gun. Meanwhile in New Mexico Albert Halsteen discovers Mulder on the brink of death in the desert and performs the ancient Navajo Blessing Way ceremony to heal his spirit.
In Washington Scully is approached by Frohike of the Lone Gunman, he tells her that The Thinker, who gave Mulder the Dat tape has been killed. Scully goes to tell Assistant Director Skinner this information, being on suspension she has to go through the public entrance to the FBI Headquarters. Scully is surprised when she sets off the security metal detector. This prompts her to visit a doctor, who discovers a metal object just below the skin on the back of her neck. 
It is removed and turns out to be a computer chip, as to how it got there Scully does not recall. Scully attends Bill Mulder's funeral and is approached by a Well Manicured Man who warns her, she has been targeted for termination. It will either be a profession two man hit squad or someone close to her that she trusts. Scully is contacted by Skinner and they arrange to meet at Mulder's apartment. When Melissa Scully goes to her sister's house she is mistaken for Scully and gunned down. Meanwhile Scully fearing for her life pulls a gun on Skinner.
Notes:
This episode marks the first appearance of John Neville playing the Well-Manicured Man.
In this episode Krycek shoots Melissa Scully. At the time Nicholas Lea (Krycek) and Melinda McGraw (Melissa) were dating.
Mitch Pileggi is now billed under an "Also Starring" heading, ahead of the rest of the guest cast.
Dedication: "In Memoriam. Larry Wells, 1946-1995" Larry Wells was a costume designer on the series.
The Blessing Way Chant is an actual ceremony performed by some Native American tribes. The Blessing Way is not just the name of a Native American chant; "The Blessing Way" (1970) is the title of a novel by Tony Hillerman. Interestingly enough, the novel deals with the story of a Native American who collaborates with an Anglo investigator, very much like Mulder in this episode.
Quotes:
William Mulder: Hello, son. I did not dare hope to see you so soon nor ever again hope to broker fate with a life to which I gave life. The lies I told you were a pox and poison to my soul and now you are here because of them. Lies I thought might bury forever a truth I could not live with. I stand here, ashamed of the choices I made so long ago, when you were just a boy. You are the memory, Fox. It lives in you. If you were to die now, the truth will die. And only the lies survive us.
Mulder: My sister? Is she here?
William Mulder: No. The thing that would destroy me, the truth I felt you must never learn is the truth you will find if you are to go forward.
Deep Throat: I was first struck by the absence of time, having depended on it so completely as a measure of myself and my life. Moving backwards into the perpetual night that consumes purpose and deed, all passion and will. I come to you, old friend, with the dull clarity of the dead not to beckon you but to feel the fire and intensity that still live in you... and the heavy weight of your burdens which I had once borne. There is truth here, old friend, if that's all you seek but there's no justice or judgment without which truth is a vast, dead hollow. Go back. Do not look into the abyss or let the abyss look into you. Awaken the sleep of reason and fight the monsters within and without.
Scully: Eyes forward. Put your hands where I can see them. Don't turn around or I'll blow your head off. Don't think I won't do it, you son of a bitch.
Skinner: No, I believe you. Just stay cool, I'm with you.
Scully: Take two steps forward. Now move slowly towards the couch. Turn around and sit down on your hands.
Albert Hosteen: When the FBI man Mulder was cured by the holy people, we were reminded of the story of the gila monster, who symbolises the healing powers of the medicine man, In this myth the gila monster restores a man by taking all his parts and putting them back together. His blood is gathered by the ants, his eyes and ears by the sun, his mind by talking god and pollen boy. Then lightning and thunder bring the man back to life.
Episode Number: 50
Season Number: 3
First Aired: Friday September 22, 1995
Production Code: 3X01
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