Season 4: Gasthesmane (4X24)

Writer: Chris Carter
Director: R. W. Goodwin

When two anthropologists, Arlinsky and Babcock find an alien preserved in ice at the summit of a mountain in Canada, they ask for Mulder and Scully's help in verifying the alien's remains. As Mulder goes with Arlinksy to collect the alien, Scully examines the ice core taken from the same location. Shortly thereafter Scully is assaulted and thrown down a flight of stairs. Finger prints from the stairwell are matched to a Pentagon researcher Michael Kritschgau, who Scully identifies as the person who attacked her.

She confronts him in an underground garage and arrests him, but Kritschgau warns Scully that if he goes to jail, the same people who gave her cancer will kill him. Mulder and Arlinsky take the alien body to a warehouse to perform an autopsy, Scully contacts Mulder there and arranges for him to meet Kritschgau. He tells Mulder that the alien is a fake, that he was only meant to see the body to believe the lie. That it is all an elaborate hoax by the government to divert attention away from itself.

Mulder accused Kritschgau of lying. But Scully explains to Mulder, that the people behind the hoax, gave her cancer to make him believe their lies. This realization stuns Mulder....Later Scully is called to Mulder's apartment, where she identifies a body. The next day Scully appears in front of a group of FBI officials lead by Section Chief Blevins, she informs them that Mulder was found dead in his apartment, the apparent victim of a self inflicted gun shot wound to the head.

Notes:
'Gethsemane' is the place where Jesus was betrayed by Judas - probably a reference to Scully's (apparent) betrayal of Mulder.

The finale's tagline is changed to 'Believe The Lie', which is what Kritschgau was trying to get Mulder to do. Mulder repeats the line in 'Redux'.

The first cut of this episode ran 12 minutes too long. A lot of scenes in the mountains were cut.

The flashbacks during Scully's testimony are to "Pilot" and "Paperclip''.

Charles Cioffi, playing Sector Chief Blevins, returns the to ''The X-Files''. He first appeared in the pilot episode.

Michael Kritschgau is named for a former drama teacher of Gillian Anderson's.

This episode marks the first on-screen appearance of Scully's brother, Bill Jr. after his scene in ''Memento Mori'' were cut.

Quotes:
Scully: Four years ago, Section Chief Blevins assigned me to a project you all know as the X Files. As I am a medical doctor with a background in hard science, my job was to provide an analytical prospective on the work of Special Agent Fox Mulder, who's investigations into the paranormal were fueled by a personal belief that his sister had been abducted by aliens when he was 12. I come here today, four years later, to report on the illegitimacy of Agent Mulder's work. That it is my scientific opinion that he became over the course of these years a victim. A victim of his own false hopes and of his belief in the biggest of lies.

Scully: Mulder, the only lie here is the one you continue to believe.
Mulder: After all I've seen and experienced, I refuse to believe that it's not true!
Scully: Because it's easier to believe the lie. Isn't it?
Mulder: (hurt) What the hell did that guy say to you, that you believe his story!?
Scully: He said that the men behind this hoax... behind these lies... gave me this disease to make you believe.
(Mulder turns and walks away)

Mulder: You think it's foolish?
Scully: I have no opinion, actually.
Mulder: You have no opinion?
Scully: This is your holy grail, Mulder, not mine.
Mulder: What's that supposed to mean?
Scully: It just means that proving to the world the existence of alien life is not my last dying wish.
Mulder: How about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny?

Episode Number: 97
Season Number: 4
First Aired: Sunday, May 18, 1997
Production Code: 4X24

Season 4: Demons (4X23)

Writer: R. W. Goodwin
Director: Kim Manners

After a vivid vision from his childhood of his mother and father arguing, Mulder wakes in a motel covered in blood with no memory of how he got there. He telephones Scully who drives to the motel to help him. Scully discovers that two rounds have been fired from Mulder's gun but he has no recollection of firing his weapon. Scully traces the owners of a car parked outside Mulder's room, they travel to the home of David and Amy Cassandra, only to find them both shot dead.

Blood from the two victims match the blood on Mulder's shirt and he is taken in to custody by the local police, but is later released when evidence concludes that the Cassandra's were involved in a murder-suicide. Traces of the anaesthetic Ketamine is found in Mulder's blood, which Scully realises could account for his memory loss. It turns out that Amy was an alien abductee, who was undergoing treatment by a local psychiatrist, Dr. Goldstein to recover memories using an unconventional therapy to stimulate electronic impulses in the brain.

Mulder again has a vision this time about the relationship between his mother and the Cigarette Smoking Man. As Mulder confronts his mother accusing her of choosing his sister Samantha to be abducted instead of him. Scully tries to explain to Mulder that it is the drugs affecting his mind, that his memories can not be trusted. Mulder realises he was being treated by Dr. Goldstein too and in a desperate attempt to discover the truth, he returns to finish his treatment.

Notes:
Like Cassandra Spender in Season 5, Amy and David Cassandra are named after the Greek phrophetess Cassandra, who was cursed by the god Apollo. Not unlike Mulder, everything Cassandra said was true, but no one ever believed her.

This is the only episode written by producer R.W. Goodwin.

Quotes:
Mulder: I had those peoples' blood on my shirt, Scully. I was missing for two days. I have no recollection of my actions during those two days. There were two rounds discharged from my gun. I had the keys to this house, the keys to their car. Do the words "Orenthal James Simpson" mean anything to you?

(Mulder hears his parents arguing in the next room.)
Mrs. Mulder: How can you do this to our family?!
Mr. Mulder: I'm not doing it! It's not just me. These orders arecoming down from...
(His father appears in the doorway, looks at him, and slams the doorshut. Mulder looks over and sees a young Cancer Man in another room, smoking a cigarette.)
CSM: You're a little spy.
Mrs. Mulder: No! No!

Mulder (pointing his gun at Scully): Get away!
Scully: Are you going to shoot me, Mulder? (he nods) Is that how much this means to you? Mulder, listen to me. You have been given a powerful hallucinogen. You don't know that these memories are yours.This is not the way to the truth, Mulder. You've got to trust me.
Mulder: Shut up!
Scully: Put down the gun. Let it go.
(Outside, the officers hear shots.)

Scully: (writing on her computer) Although cleared of any wrongdoing in the deathsof Amy and David Cassandra, agent Mulder still has no recollection ofthe events that led to their deaths. His seizures have subsided, withno evidence of permanent cerebral damage, but I'm concerned that thisexperience will have a lasting effect. Agent Mulder undertook thistreatment hoping to lay claim to his past--that by retrieving memorieslost to him, he might finally understand the path he's on. But if thatknowledge remains elusive, and if it's only by knowing where he's beenthat he can hope to understand where he's going, then I fear agent Mulder may lose his course, and the truths he's seeking, from hischildhood, will continue to evade him... driving him more dangerously forward in impossible pursuit.

Highlights from ''Demons''

Episode Number: 96
Season Number: 4
First Aired: Sunday, May 11, 1997
Production Code: 4X23

Season 4: Elegy (4X22)

Writer: John Shiban
Director: Jim Charleston

When Angie Pintero, the owner of a bowling alley discovers the body of an injured girl caught inside a pinspotter carriage, he rushes outside to get help only to discover a crowd gathered around the lifeless body of the same girl he saw inside. Mulder and Scully interview Angie about the incident, Mulder arrives at the conclusion that Angie encountered the dead girl's ghost. This is the latest of three such encounters resulting in three dead girls being found in as many weeks.

The only clues in the latest incident are, the phrase 'She is me' scratched in to the wax surface of the bowling alley lane where Angie encountered the spirit. And an anonymous phone call to the local police about the latest victim using the same phrase. The agents trace the source of the call to the New Horizen Psychiatric Center and to a mentally disturbed patient Harold Spuller who fits Scully's profile of the killer as a compulsive person with a desire to organise. Mulder however believes that the apparitions are the key to the case. Scully goes to the wash room to deal with her nose bleed and sees the apparition of a young woman.

Moments later Mulder calls her, another victim has been found, it turns out to be the woman that Scully saw in the washroom. Mulder interviews Harold and realises that he knew all of the victims from the bowling alley. Harold sees the ghost of Angie, moments later they find him dead from a heart attack. Mulder theorises that only those near death themselves are able to see the apparitions.

Notes:
An elegy is a poem expressing grief for someone who is dead.

This episodes name changed from 'Tulpa' to 'Revenant' before becoming 'Elegy'. A 'Tulpa' is a ghostly manifestation of a thought-form produced by the mind. 'Revenant' is one that comes back following an absence or one who returns after death.

The scenes in the mental hospital were reminiscent of the film ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'', especially since the actor who portrayed Chuck Forsch also played Charlie Cheswick in the famous movie, and the character of Nurse Innes is similar to that of the sadistic Nurse Ratchett.

Although there are many actors who have played several different parts on the show within its 9 seasons, Christine Willes is one of the few to have a small recurring role as the same character. She returns in this episode playing FBI counsellor Karen Kossoff, who previously appeared in season 2's ''Irresistible'' and ''The Calusari''.

Quotes:
FBI Agent: The guy claims he saw the victim.
Mulder: No, not the victim. The victim's apparition, what the Irish call a fetch, what is more commonly known as a rayeth.
FBI Agent: Oh, okay.

Mulder: What is that look, Scully?
Scully: I would have thought that after 4 years you'd know exactly what that look was.
Mulder: What, you don't believe in ghosts?
Scully: And that surprises you?

Mulder: You can believe what you want to believe, Scully, but you can't hide the truth from me because if you do, then you're working against me... and yourself. I know what you're afraid of. I'm afraid of the same thing.

Highlights from ''Elegy''

Episode Number: 95
Season Number: 4
First Aired: Sunday, May 4, 1997
Production Code: 4X22

Season 4: Zero Sum (4X21)

Writers: Howard Gordon and Frank Spotnitz
Director: Kim Manners

When Jane Brody, a mail sorter with a delivery company is killed by a swarm of bees, Detective Ray Thomas e-mails details to Agent Mulder. But Assistant Director Skinner intercepts and deletes the file. He travels to Virginia to incinerate Jane Brody's body and posing as Mulder swaps a vial of Jane Brody's blood with another sample. He is met by Detective Ray Thomas, who thinks he is Mulder and tells him that there is not enough evidence to warrant an investigation.

The clean up operation completed, Skinner returns to Washington only to have Mulder pay him an unexpected visit explaining that someone is covering up the details about the bee attack and the death of Detective Ray Thomas. Skinner is shocked to hear that the Detective is dead, he meets the Cigarette Smoking Man and accuses him of killing Ray Thomas. Later it is revealed that Ray Thomas was killed with a government issue gun, Skinner realises his own gun is missing and that he is being framed.

When a photograph shows Skinner with Ray Thomas, Mulder accuses him of working with the Cigarette Smoking Man from the beginning. He denies this claiming that he did not follow his advice to Mulder about making a deal with the Cigarette Smoking Man in return for a cure for Scully. Mulder makes contact with Marita Covarrubias to find out what she knows about Skinner. She turns to the Cigarette Smoking Man who is with her, he tells her to tell Mulder what he wants to hear.

Notes:
Dedication: In Loving Memory of Vito J. Pileggi.

Scully does not appear at all in this episode due to the fact that Gillian Anderson was away filming her part in the movie ''The Mighty''.

When Skinner is going through Mulder's files, you can clearly see a file labeled "Foo Fighters" near the back of the cabinet he is searching. The term refers to unexplained flying objects observed by pilots during World War II and also to the rock band, which contributed a song to ''The X-Files - Fight the Future" soundtrack.

The schoolyard scene with the bees attacking the children and their teacher is a reference to Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds," which contains a similar scene involving birds.

Quotes:
CSM: Now, unless you intend to kill me, I would like to answer my phone.

CSM: You're in no position to question the terms of our arrangement.
Skinner: Then we have no arrangement.
CSM: You'll find it's not that easy to walk away from, Mr. Skinner.
Skinner: No?
CSM: A man digs a hole; he risks falling into it.

Episode Number: 94
Season Number: 4
First Aired: Sunday, April 27, 1997
Production Code: 4X21

Season 4: Small Potatoes (4X20)

Writer: Vince Gilligan
Director: Clifford Bole

After expectant mother Amanda Nelligan gives birth to a baby with a four inch tail in Martinsburg, West Virginia. It is the latest of five such births in a city of less than 15,000 people. Scully believes that the local environment may be the cause of the birth defects. After interviewing Amanda, who claims the baby's father if Luke Skywalker, Scully discovers that the five children born with tails, share the same father. And that the five women share the same fertility specialist, Dr. Alton Pugh.

At Dr. Pugh's office, they find several couples confronting him about the births. Mulder encounters a janitor with a scar at the base of his spine, Eddie Van Blundht, who tries to run away, but is taken into custody. Tests reveal that Eddie is the father of all five children, but the mothers claim to have slept with no one but their husbands. Scully believes Eddie used the date rape drug Rohypnol to impregnate the women leaving them with no knowledge of the events. Eddie is resentful of the implication that he would have to drug the woman to have sexual relations with them.

After Eddie escapes from custody by morphing himself in to a double of a police office, Mulder theorises that Eddie has the ability to change his form. A trait which Mulder hypothesises he used to make the four women thing he was their husband and Amanda Melligan that he was Luke Skywalker. Eddie manages to overcome Mulder and takes his place, returning with Scully to Washington. But will Scully notice the difference in time.

Notes:
This episode was named by ''TV Guide'' as one of the greatest episodes in TV history.

Darin Morgan returns to ''The X-Files'' for the final time, playing Eddie van Blundht. Morgan wrote many of the most memorable episodes during second and third seasons.

According to the DVD commentary by writer Vince Gilligan, they had originally wanted wings for the babies because they thought wings were cuter than tails. However, the wing effect was much harder than the tail effect, so they went with tails, which turned out to be funnier and still cute.

The voice of Amanda Nelligan, the mother of the "Luke Skywalker" baby, may be familiar because she is played by Christine Cavanaugh, who more usually appears as a voice artist for animated shows and features. She is probably best known for being the voice of Babe the pig in ''Babe'' and Chuckie Finster of ''Rugrats fame'' and the title character of ''Dexter's Laboratory''.

On the front page of the mock World Weekly Informer newspaper read by Mulder and Scully at the beginning of the episode, there is a headline "ETAP BIGSHOT BUSTED" beneath a mugshot. This is a reference to an earlier Season Four episode, "Unruhe", in which Etap was the brand of film sold at the drugstore. The man pictured in the mugshot is Jim Pate, an assistant prop master for the show, whose last name spelled backward is Etap.

Eddie-as-Mulder's comment in his apartment, "Where the hell do I sleep", is a rib to the many X-Philes who have asked that very same question. Where the hell does Mulder sleep?

The silent H in Eddie's surname is a joke about David Duchovny's surname often being pronounced with the H included, whereas in his name also, the H is silent.Also, the H falling off the name on Eddie's front door could be a reference to the fact that David's father and brother have changed their surname to Ducovny, without the H.

Info from Mulder's driver's license:
42-2630 Hegal Place
Alexandia,
VADOB: 10-13-61

Quotes:
Mulder: Well, if you're waiting for my usual theory as to what's going on, I don't have one.
Scully: I do. On behalf of all the women in the world, I seriously doubt this is anything to do with consensual sex. I think it involved some form of Rohypnol rape.

Scully: Looking like someone else, Mulder, and being someone else are completely different things.
Mulder: Well, maybe it's not, I mean everybody else around you would treat you like you were somebody else, and ultimately maybe it's other people's reactions to us that make us who we are.

Eddie: Look, I'm not saying anything one way or another. I'm just saying hypothetically, if some women wanted to have kids, their husbands weren't... capable, and everybody was happy and no one got hurt, well hypothetically, where's the crime?

Skinner: Who wrote this report?
"Mulder": I did sir.
Skinner: You spelled Federal Bureau of Investiagtion wrong.
"Mulder": It's a typo.
Skinner: Twice.

Mulder: When you were admitted you said that the baby's father was from another planet. What did you mean by that exactly?
Amanda: You know, that he's not from this planet.
Mulder: Were you abducted?
Amanda: Huh? No, no, he dropped by my apartment one day, and one thing sort of led to another...
Mulder: But the baby's father is an alien?
Amanda: No, no, I didn't say he was an alien, I said he was from another planet. His name is Luke Skywalker. He's what's known as a Jedi Knight.
Scully: Did he have a light saber?
Amanda: No, he didn't bring it.

Mulder: I have a theory, if you want to hear it.
Scully: Van Blundht somehow physically transformed into his captor then walked out the door leaving no one the wiser?
Mulder: Scully, should we be picking out china patterns or what?!

Episode Number: 93
Season Number: 4
First Aired: Sunday, April 20, 1997
Production Code: 4X20

Season 4: Synchrony (4X19)

Writers: Howard Gordon and David Greenwalt
Director: Jim Charleston

As Jason Nichols and Lucas Menand, two researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology argue in the street, an elderly man approaches them and warns Lucas that he will be knocked down by a bus at 11.46 pm. Campus security arrest the elderly man for harassing them. Moments later Lucas steps in to the road and is hit by a bus, Jason Nichols notes that the time is exactly 11.46 pm.

Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate after the Campus Security guard who arrested the elderly man is found frozen to death. They interview Jason Nichols, who tells them that he was arguing with Lucas because he was going to go public with an accusation that Jason had falsified data on his research paper. Dr Yonechi, a Japanese researcher is met by the same elderly man at the airport and is later found frozen in his hotel room. Scully finds evidence that he was injected with an unidentified chemical compound.

A compound that another MIT researcher, Lisa Ianelli recognises as a freezing agent currently being engineered by Jason Nichols but it has not been invented yet. She also admits that Jason is protecting her as she falsified the data in the research paper. They trace the elderly man to a hotel room and find a photograph of Jason, Lisa and Dr Yonechi celebrating, which Mulder believes was taken on the day that the freezing agent was invented five years in the future. It appears that the elderly man is using technology from the future to change the present and thus alter the future.

Notes:
If any of you have some notes about this episode, please let me know. Thanks!

Quotes:
Mulder: So what's your medical opinion Scully?
Scully: Well my best guess would be that he's been exposed to some kind of chemical refrigerant, like liquid nitrogen, possibly even ingested it.
Mulder: Well, you see what happens when you drink and drive?

Scully: It's a celebration, but of what?
Mulder: Of something that never happened.
Scully: What? Mulder, this is a photograph. It is a documented moment in time.
Mulder: In a future that somebody is trying like hell to prevent from happening.
Scully: What?
Mulder: Think about it, Scully. If Lucas Menand never gets hit by the bus, his complaint gets heard before the grant committee. Jason Nichols loses his funding and he never gets to collaborate on his research with Dr. Yonechi. Therefore, this photograph never gets taken because this celebration never happens.
Scully: Yeah, and if your sister is your aunt and your mother marries your uncle, you'd be your own grandpa.

Episode Number: 92
Season Number: 4
First Aired: Sunday, April 13, 1997
Production Code: 4X19

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 4: Unrequited (4X16)

Writers: Howard Gordon and Chris Carter
Director: Michael Lange

When Lieutenant General MacDougal is killed in the back of his limousine, his driver is suspected, especially after he is linked to a Paramilitary group called the Right Hand. But the driver maintains his innocence and is cleared of blame when lab tests results reveal he had not fired a weapon. With a number of high ranking military officials due in for a re-dedication ceremony at the Vietnam War Memorial, Assistant Director Skinner assigns Mulder and Scully to investigate the Right Hand group and it's leader Denny Markham for complicity in the Generals murder.

Markham gives the two agents a photograph of a Green Beret, Nathaniel Teager, captured by the Viet Cong in 1971, freed by Markham's group in 1995 who then disappeared after US Government commandos attempted to kidnap him. Mulder discovers that MacDougal along with another General Steffan signed Teager's death certificate. Concerned that Teager maybe targeting Steffan, Mulder arranges for two FBI agents to protect him. However Teager manages to slip by the agents and kills Steffan in his office in the Pentagon. Skinner is outraged especially when Teager's shadowy image is caught on security camera. Mulder believes that Teager has learned from his captures the ability to hide himself from a person's field of vision. When Mulder's contact Marita Covarrubias informs him that the government has sanctioned Teager to kill the Generals the race is on to stop a seemingly unstoppable assassin.

Notes:
When Nathaniel Teager confronts Mrs. Davenport in front of the Vietnam Memorial, two of the names visible on the wall behind her are Jesse R. Ellsion and Harlan L. Hahn. Harlan Ellison is a famous science fiction writer and fan of the show. Jessica Hahn is well-known for the scandal involving her and Reverend Jim Baker.

''Unrequited'' isn’t a very memorable episode despite the good storyline. It just isn’t able to grab a lot of interest and is easy to forget. Still, not a bad episode by all means.

Quotes:
Scully: A phantom POW left for dead comes back to avenge the injustices?
Mulder: Maybe the war ain't over, Scully.

Skinner: Right now I'm flying by the seat of my pants.
Mulder: You mean there's no procedure outlined for an invisible assassin?

Episode Number: 89
Season Number: 4
First Aired: Sunday, February 23, 1997
Production Code: 4X16