Season 3: Paper Clip (3X02)

Writer: Chris Carter
Director: Rob Bowman

With Mulder's return from New Mexico, Assistant Director Skinner reveals he has the missing Dat tape and will use it to bargain for the two agents lives. He also informs Scully that her sister Melissa has been shot. Scully is unable to go to the hospital for fear of being ambushed, so they arrange for Albert Halsteen to join Mrs Scully at her daughter's bedside.

Skinner also goes to the hospital only to be attacked by Krycek who steals the Dat tape. Tipped off by the Lone Gunman, Scully and Mulder go in search of an old Nazi scientist, brought to the US as part of Operation Paper Clip at the end of the Second World War. Victor Klemper claims to have known Mulder's father and directs them to an abandoned mine in West Virginia. At the Strughold Mining Company they discover a filing system with detailed medical records of millions of people, including Dana Scully and Samantha Mulder.

Mulder sees a large alien space ship hovering over the mine, as he watches the mine is surrounded by a government hit squad. The two agents escape via a back entrance and return to see Klemper, however they are met by the Well Manicured Man, who tells them that Klemper is dead. He recants that Klemper's arrival coincided with the recovery of an alien space ship in the 1947 Roswell Incident. Leading Mulder to believe that Klemper was experimenting with alien/human hybrids. Despite the loss of the Dat tape, Skinner manages to bargain with the Cigarette Smoking Man.

Notes:
Dedication: "In Memoriam. Mario Mark Kennedy, 1966-1995" Kennedy was a major fan of the show who organised many on-line sessions on the Internet. He died in a car accident shortly before the 3rd season premiered.

The little gray aliens that run past Scully in the mine were played by eight and nine-year-old children.

The crew was unable to use a real white buffalo calf. Instead they opted to shoot a very light-colored calf and bleached it in postproduction.

Walter Gotell is no stranger to clandestine work, having played General Gogol, head of the KGB, in half a dozen James Bond movies.

The opening titles for this episode is a different edited version and this is its only occurance in the first three seasons. The swirly face man and "paranormal activities" (which I always thought were the really dorky parts anyway!) have been deleted and David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson's credits have been moved up in the sequence.

In the mine with the medical records we see Samantha's file clearly. In the season 1 episode "Conduit" we see the X-File Mulder opened on her. In the previous episode she is listed as Samantha T. Mulder and her birthdate is 1/22/64. Here we see her name as Samantha Ann Mulder and her birthdate as 11/21/65.

Quotes:
CSM: You wanna work a deal? Is that what this is? Let me tell you something , I don't work deals.
Skinner:I just thought you should know of certain potentialities.
CSM: Do you have the tape?
Skinner: As I said , I may have located it.
CSM: Do you have the damn tape!!?!

Skinner: Drop your weapon! Put it down, Scully!
Scully: No way.
Skinner: I said put it down!
Scully: I said no! You're setting me up!
Skinner: I'm trying to help you.
Scully: Then put your weapon down and sit down.
Skinner: Not a chance.
Scully: You said you weren't here to kill me, Skinner, now prove it.
Skinner: I didn't come here to have a gun shoved in my face either.
Scully: Damn it, Skinner!
(Mulder kicks down the door to his own apartment and aims his gun at Skinner.)
Mulder: Drop your weapon! I said...Back off... I said put it down!
Skinner: What the hell is this? What are you pulling here?

Mulder: Mom, listen to me. When Samantha... before she was gone, did Dad ever ask you if you had a favorite? Did he ever ask you that?
Mrs. Mulder: Fox, please...
Mulder: Mom, did he ever ask you to make a choice?
Mrs. Mulder: Don't do this...
Mulder: Mom, listen to me! I need to know! Did he make you make a choice?
Mrs. Mulder: No. I couldn't choose. It was your father's choice and I hated him for it. Even in his grave, I hate him still.

Episode Number: 51
Season Number: 3
First Aired: Friday September 29, 1995
Production Code: 3X02

Season 3: The Blessing Way (3X01)

Writer: Chris Carter
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

Season 2: Anasazi (2X25)

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

When the newest member of the The Lone Gunman, the Thinker, hacks into the Defense Department's secret files on extraterrestrial life and he gives the Dat tape to Mulder to expose the truth. Mulder who has been suffering from sleeping problems is at first disappointed to find that the information is encrypted, but Scully recognises it as Navajo code used during World War II. Mulder is called to Assistant Director Skinner's office and questioned about the Dat tape, but Mulder punches Skinner.

Mulder can not explain why he hit Skinner and Scully is alarmed at his behaviour. The Cigarette Smoking Man is also working to recover the Dat tape and visits Bill Mulder, they used to work together at the State Department and information on the tape implicates Bill Mulder. He contacts Mulder to come and see him, ready to tell his son the truth about his work. However Krycek kills him before he can tell Mulder anything.

Mulder finds Krycek sneaking around his apartment building and they fight. Scully has to shoot Mulder in the shoulder to stop him from killing Krycek. Mulder wakes up in New Mexico and Scully explains that the water in his building was contaminated with LSD, which caused his psychosis. She introduces Navajo code talker Albert Hosteen who is decoding the files. Mulder is taken to a boxcar buried in the desert and discovers alien bodies inside. However the Cigarette Smoking Man's men arrive and destroy the boxcar with Mulder in it.

Notes:
Renae Morriseau previously appeared in Season 1 ''Shapes'' as Gwen.

In order to recreate the distinct New Mexico landscape, a rock quarry was painted with over 1,600 gallons of red paint.

Albert Hosteen's statements about the "Anasazi" are inaccurate. The name "Anasazi" is Navajo for "ancient enemies" -- it could loosely be interpreted as "aliens", in the sense of "not-like-us", but not in the X-Files sense. As to his assertion that "No evidence of their fate exists", the Hopis, who are Pueblo Indians, have a different name for the Anasazi. They call them "ancestral Puebloans".

A scene in which The Thinker is kidnapped by men-in-black was cut from the final version of the episode.

Chris Carter makes his first acting appearance as the FBI Agent who asks Scully if she would lie to protect Mulder.

Director and Executive Producer R.W. Goodwin also had a cameo in this episode, as a gardener. Unfortunately his scene ended up on the cutting-room floor.

Quotes:
CSM: What is this?
Skinner: This is where you pucker up and kiss my ass... This man's name is Albert Hosteen - you should remember that, because if Agents Mulder or Scully come down with so much as a case of the flu, Albert is prepared to recite chapter and verse, file for file, everything that is on your precious tape. I'm sure you're thinking that Albert's an old man and there are plenty of ways you might kill him too. Which is why in the ancient oral tradition of his people, he's told twenty other men the information in those files. So unless you kill every Navajo living in four states, that information is available with a simple phone call. Welcome to the wonderful world of high technology.

Scully: They called me in today.
Mulder: What did you tell them?
Scully: That nothing was wrong.
Mulder: Well, you told them the truth then.
Scully: Mulder, you opened the door for them, they're just looking for a good reason now.
Mulder: Okay, I'll say I'm sorry.
Scully: Mulder, these files. Who knows you have them?
Mulder: Why?
Scully: Because I had to lie today. And I put my job in jeopardy in order to do so. If they find out about those files...
Mulder: How would they find out?
Scully: Maybe they already know. The question is, is it worth it? Is this cassette worth risking everything?
Mulder: I'll tell you when I find out what's on it. Now just tell me who I can talk to about breaking that code!
Scully: I'm meeting with someone in an hour. I might know something later tonight... I just need some kind of assurance that they're not going to let us hang ourselves with this! That I'm doing the right thing.
Mulder: I'll try to find out. (He tapes an 'X' to the window)
Scully: I need to know one more thing Mulder. Why did you attack Skinner?
Mulder: I've thought about that Scully. I honestly can't say.

Bill Mulder: You're going to learn of things, Fox. You're going to hear the words and they'll come to make sense to you.

(Mulder's cell phone rings, and he answers it. It's CSM.)
CSM: You're a hard man to reach.
Mulder: Obviously, not hard enough apparently.
CSM: Where are you?
Mulder: I'm at the Betty Ford center, where are you?

Mulder: Are you familiar with the ten commandments, Scully?
Scully: You want me to recite them?
Mulder: No. Just number 4, the one about obeying the sabbath, the part about where God made Heaven and Earth but didn't bother to tell anybody about his side projects.
Scully: What are you talking about?
Mulder: The biggest lie of all.

Episode Number: 49
Season Number: 2
First Aired: Friday May 19, 1995
Production Code: 2X25