Season 4: Max (4X18)

Writers: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Director: Kim Manners

As the investigation in to the cause of the crash of flight 549 continues, Scully is caught in an attempted assassination of Corporal Frish which claims the life of Agent Pendrell. Mulder is taken into military custody while inspecting the second crash site at the bottom of Lake Sacandaga where he discovered the wreckage of a crashed UFO. Meanwhile in Washington, Assistant Director Skinner tells Scully that Louis Frish, a US airforce air traffic controller who was helping them with the their investigation, is to be charged with providing false evidence and suspicion of murder. The Airforce claim that Frish made an error in judgement which resulted in a military jet colliding with flight 549.

Mulder released by the military returns to Washington with the theory that the airforce dispatched a jet that shot down the UFO which intercepted flight 549 and inadvertently caused the plane to spin out of control and crash. Records reveal that Sharon Graffia is not Max Fenig's sister but a fellow patient from his mental institution. Mulder and Scully search Max's mobile home for clues and discover a video tape of Max's claiming that he had actual physical evidence that the military is using technology from recovered UFOs.

Mulder believes that Max had the physical evidence with him on the plane, that was the source of the radiation and the reason that he was abducted from the plane. Mulder traces a piece of the evidence Max was talking about to his luggage in Syracuse airport. Mulder boards a flight back to Washington with the evidence but the plane is intercepted in flight.

Notes:
Although this episode (and "Tempus Fugit") deals with a military cover-up of a downed UFO and elimination of evidence that Max was carrying, it curiously did not involve the Cigarette Smoking Man. This type of work would be right up his alley.

Quotes:
Scully: All I know is that this plane seems to be killing people as it sits there on the ground.. Mulder. Agent Pendrell is dead.
Mulder: How?
Scully: Shot. In an attempt on Sergeant Frish in Washington he saved his life Mulder and maybe mine.
Mulder: Scully... Scully...
Scully: Mulder what are these people dying for? Is it for the truth or is it for the lies?
Mulder: It's gotta be for the truth, if we owe them anything it's to make sure of that.

Scully: (To Pendrell) We've got paramedics on the way you're going to the hospital, you're going to be ok. Look, we still haven't celebrated my birthday, Pendrell. I'm not going to let you off the hook like this.

Scully: This gift that you gave me for my birthday. You never got to tell me why you gave it to me or what it means... but I think I know. I think that you appreciate that there are extraordinary men and women and... extraordinary moments when history leaps forward on the backs of these individuals... that what can be imagined can be achieved... that you must dare to dream... but that there's no substitute for perseverance and hard work... and teamwork... because no one gets there alone... and that, while we commemorate the... the greatness of these events and the individuals who achieve them, we cannot forget the sacrifice of those who make these achievements and leaps possible.
Mulder: I just thought it was a pretty cool keychain.

Mulder: Do you know where she is? (Max's girlfriend).
Scully: In a mental institution.
Mulder: I'd go with you... but I'm afraid they'd lock me up.
Scully: Me too.

Episode Number: 91
Season Number: 4
First Aired: Sunday, March 23, 1997
Production Code: 4X18

Season 4: Tempus Fugit (4X17)

Writers: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Director: Rob Bowman

While celebrating Scully's birthday at the Headless Woman's Pub in Washington, Scully and Mulder are approached by Sharon Graffia, the sister of Max Fenig, the UFO abductee they met in Wisconsin whilst investigating a reputed UFO crash site and subsequent military clean up operation. She explains that Max was a passenger on flight 549 that crashed two hours earlier. Max had asked her to contact Mulder and Scully if anything ever happened to him.

Mulder and Scully join the National Transportation Safety Board's Go Team investigating the cause of the crash. The Cockpit Voice Recording recovered from the plane's black box seems to indicate that the plane was intercepted. Mulder puts forward the theory that the plane was forced down, but the NTSB officials prefer to examine the evidence before making conclusions. Mulder and Scully join the NSTB team as they travel to the crash site in Albany to comb through the wreckage. Mulder confronted with an apparent time discrepancy between the official time of the crash and the time displayed on the passengers watches, suspect the involvement of a UFO.

A theory given more credit, when a survivor is found who, Scully concludes has been exposed to radiation from some unknown source. Mulder believes that Max was abducted from the plane while in flight but something went wrong causing the plane and the UFO to crash. Mulder discovers the UFO crash site at the bottom of the Great Sacandaga Lake.

Notes:
Tempus fugit is a Latin expression meaning "time flees", more commonly translated as "time flies". It is frequently used as an inscription on clocks. The expression was first used in the verse Georgica written by Roman poet Virgil: Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, which means, "But it flees in the meantime: irretrievable time flees".

Scott Bellis returns as Max Fenig. He previously appeared in the Season 1 episode "Fallen Angel".

Quotes:
Scully: Are you accusing these men of covering evidence?
Mulder: These men? No. These men are trained to identify moving parts, hydraulics, electronics. Their trained to reconstruct those parts in the past and arrive at the present but they can't do that because somebody has stolen the past from them. 9 minutes of it. 9 minutes that became a lifetime for those passengers and now for their families. Someone has got to figure out what happened in those 9 minutes. Somehow we've got to get that back.

Mulder: You wanna know what I think Scully...? I'm gonna tell you. I think Max was abducted, sucked right out of this door at 29,000 feet, the burns were seeing as a result of that abduction.
Scully: Mulder...
Mulder: And all the evidence will point to this conclusion but it will be dismissed because of its improbability, its unthinkability
Scully: Mulder...
Mulder: And the crash of flight 549 will go unsolved unless we find a way to prove it and when Max is returned he will tell us exactly the same story unless someone gets to him first.
Scully: Mulder, Max has returned, I found out a few minutes ago. They found his body a short way from the wreckage earlier today.

Mulder: Fenig.. And there may be people who want to cover up this evidence.
Mike Millar: Agent Mulder, is this an official FBI position?
Mulder: No sir.
Mike Millar: Because what your suggesting trivialises this tragedy. And Casts these fine people and the work they have to do in a light that you would be well advised to avoid.
Mulder: I think we all share the same goal here sir and that is to find out what caused that plane to crash.
Mike Millar: And any of the capable men and women in this room find Dr. Spock's phaser,or any green alien goo we will be sure to give you all the credit.

Mulder: I got you something for you.
Scully: Oh you've got to be kidding me.
Mulder: Its just something that reminded me of you.
Scully: What an alien implant?
Mulder: Two actually I made them in to earrings.

Mulder: I didn't know it was your birthday, Scully.
Scully: Mulder, you've never remembered my birthday in the four years I've known you.
Mulder: That's the way I like to celebrate. It's every four years, like dog years.
Scully: Dog years? Thank you.

Episode Number: 90
Season Number: 4
First Aired: Sunday, March 16, 1997
Production Code: 4X17

Season 1: Fallen Angel (1X09)

Written by: Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon

Directed by: Larry Shaw

Mulder receives a tip off from his contact Deep Throat about a government quarantine in Townsend, Wisconsin due to a toxic chemical spill in the area. Deep Throat however claims it is really a UFO crash site and that Mulder has roughly 24 hours before the airforce's reclamation group removes all the evidence. Mulder rushes to the area and manages to photograph the crash site but is apprehended and put in a cell where he meets a ufologist, Max Fenig who mistakes Mulder for a fellow UFO enthusiast. Scully arrives to take Mulder back to Washington, Section Chief McGrath aware of Mulder's conduct has scheduled a hearing, he wants to fire Mulder and close down the X-files. Mulder persuade Scully to help him investigate the government cover-up in hope of finding evidence of the UFO crash to save himself and the X-files. At the hotel they find Max ransacking Mulder's room, it turns out Max recognised Mulder from his photograph in a trade magazine and has been following their work on the X-files. Max a member of the National Investigative Committee of Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) travels the country investigating UFO sightings, but there maybe another reason for his UFO fascination.

Mulder witnesses Max having a seizure and while helping him notices marks on his neck that are text book abduction scarring. Mulder believes that Max is a multiple abductee and that his presence in the area at the time of the UFO crash is no coincidence.

Notes:
Scott Bellis will reprise his role as Max Fenig in the season four episodes "Tempus Fugit" and "Max".

This episode gives the first impressions of Mulder's enemies within the FBI, and those who would prefer him being kicked out of the Bureau rather than risk the embarrassment of his actions. It also redefines the border between Mulder and Scully; him as the out of control believer, and her as the scientist who must keep him in line.

Quotes:
Mulder: You really believe that story?
Scully: That story happens to be highly classified.
Mulder: It's a highly classified lie.

Episode Number: 10
Season Number: 1
First Aired: Friday November 19, 1993
Production Code: 1X09