26 May 2007

Season 5: Unusual Suspects (5X01)

Writer: Vince Gilligan
Director: Kim Manners

In a flash back to 1989, Agent Mulder is found acting paranoid in a blood spattered warehouse in Baltimore by Detective John Munch along with Langly, Frohike and Byers (the future members of the Lone Gunman). In an attempt to explain Byers recants the events that led up to them being found in the warehouse. He met a woman called Holly at a computer convention who claimed that her daughter had been kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend, she then gave him an Internet address to locate her daughter.

Byers hacked in to a government computer but the relevant file was encrypted, however Frohike on the next booth agreed to help decrypt the file. Holly then identified Mulder as her ex-boyfriend so Byers and Frohike approached Mulder only to discover he was an FBI agent. With the help of Langly who was also exhibiting at the convention, they hacked in to the FBI computer for information on Mulder, but instead discovered that Holly's real name is Suzanne Modeski and that she was wanted for bombing an FBI lab.

Suzanne admitted her story was fabricated, in fact she was trying to prevent the government from testing paranoia-inducing gas, that she helped develop, on an unsuspecting public. Mulder while attempting to arrest Suzanne Modeski had a shoot out with some government officials, which left him in a psychotic state caused by exposure to the paranoia-inducing gas and allowed Suzanne to escaped. Detective Munch is skeptical until Mulder verifies the story is true.

Notes:
Due to the fact that David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson would still be tied up in California shooting ''The X-Files'' movie at the end of August 1997, the producers decided to create an episode that was centered around The Lone Gunmen. This way, 1013 could complete the network episode order and have their leading stars freed up and complete principal shooting on "Fight the Future". The scenes with David Duchovny were shot several weeks after shooting of this episode wrapped up.

The script of this episode never called for Mulder to wear a wedding ring. This was David Duchovny's idea who thought it would be cool to toy with the notion that Mulder could in the past have been married.

Gillian Anderson does not appear in this episode.

This episode featured the appearance of ''Baltimore homicide'' detective John Munch played by actor Richard Belzer, who also played the same character as a recurring character on the shows ''Homicide'' and ''Law and Order: Special Victims Unit'', and as a guest star on the shows: ''Law and Order'', ''Law and Order: Trial by Jury'', and ''The Beat''. Richard Belzer also set a TV record by becoming the first person to play the same character on three different prime time series during the same week. Detective John Munch appeared on the ''Law & Order/Homicide'' crossover "Baby It's You" on November 12 and November 14 and then this epiosde on the 16th.

Quotes:
Detective Munch: Here's a tip: aluminium foil makes a lovely hat and blocks out the government's mind control rays. Keep you guys out of trouble.

Suzanne Modeski: No matter how paranoid you are, you aren't paranoid enough.

Frohike: You look like a gentleman who'll appreciate 33 channels of crystal clear television.
Mulder: No thanks, handsome.
Frohike: Ah, a man of distinction!

Episode Number: 100
Season Number: 5
First Aired: Sunday, November 16, 1997
Production Code: 5X01

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