Season 3: Apocrypha (3X16)

Writers: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Director: Kim Manners

In a flash back to 1953 the crew of the submarine Zeus Faber are tricked by the Navy in to recovering an atomic bomb from a downed World War Two plane, but they were really sent to guard an alien entity, which causes radiation poisoning among the crew. In present day Washington Scully starts an investigation in to who shot Assistant Director Skinner. He tells her in the hospital that he recognised the man who shot him leading Scully to identify the man as Luis Cardinal. Test results prove that the same man also shot her sister Melissa. Meanwhile Mulder returns to Washington with Krycek, unwittingly bringing back the alien life form, which has inhabited Krycek via the black oil.

However the pair are ambushed by the Cigarette Smoking Man's men on their return, Mulder dazed, does not see Krycek kill their attackers by irradiating them. Mulder enlists the help of the Lone Gunman to recover the missing Dat tape from a lockup in an ice ring, only to find that someone has already taken it. Mulder meets the Well Manicured Man who warns him Skinner's life is still in danger. Scully foils another attempt on Skinner's life and takes Luis Cardinal in to custody.

They learn that the cargo salvaged from the sea bed by the crew of the Piper Maru is being stored in a missile silo in North Dakota and Krycek under the influence of the alien entity is heading there. As Mulder and Scully close in, they are once again outwitted by the Cigarette Smoking Man and denied access to the truth.

Notes:
Apocrypha means "Writings of dubious authenticity". 'Apocrypha' are also books of the bible excluded from the Jewish and Protestant canons of the Old Testament.

In the beginning of this episode we can see young Bill Mulder and CSM obviously already involved in the whole conspiracy thing and the year is 1953.On the other hand, in the Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man episode, we can see those two still in the army in 1963.

The number on the door where the Alien spaceship is being held is 1013, this is a nod to Chris Carter's production company "Ten Thirteen Productions''.

During the 'Lone Gunmen on Ice' scene you can see that Byers is quite comfortable on his skates. Bruce Harwood, playing Byers, once trained as a professional ice skater.

Kevin McNulty (Agent Fuller) previously appeared in the same role in season 1's ''Squeeze".

Foo fighter was a term used in World War II to refer to the types of aerial sightings that, in the postwar period, became known as UFO's. They were usually assumed to be some sort of enemy secret weapon or experimental aircraft. Many were described as "...blobs or flares of light...". The 1953 Robertson Panel, a CIA committee convened in 1952 to examine the rash of UFO reports, reviewed the foo fighter sightings and noted that many objects sighted during the war were metallic and disc shaped and that if the term flying saucer had been in use then, it would have been appropriate. Due to the ephemeral nature of the sightings, it also became synonymous with red herring.The term is thought to have been taken from the Smokey Stover comic strip, which ran in the Chicago Tribune from 1935 to 1973. Smokey, a fireman, drove a two-wheeled fire truck he called the Foomobile. One of his catchphrases was ''Where there's foo, there's fire''. The strip's artist, Bill Holman, never explained the term.
In 1995, former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl named his new band ''Foo Fighters''.
By using this term, not only does the Well-Manicured Man allude to UFO's, he also dismisses the matter at hand as inconsequential and dates himself as part of the World War II generation.

Quotes:
CSM: Have the bodies destroyed.
Doctor: But... these men aren't dead yet.
CSM: Isn't that the prognosis.

Scully: I've just been thinking about something a man said to me. He said that the dead speak to us from beyond the grave - that that's what conscience is... I think the dead are speaking to us, Mulder - demanding justice. Maybe that man was right. Maybe we bury the dead alive.

Highlights from: Piper Maru and Apocrypha

Episode Number: 65
Season Number: 3
First Aired: Friday February 16, 1996
Production Code: 3X16

Season 3: Piper Maru (3X15)

Writers: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Director: Rob Bowman

Scully is called to see Assistant Director Skinner, he tells her that the Washington Police have official closed the investigation in to her sister Melissa's murder due to lack of new leads. But he tells Scully that he will continue to pursue the case. In the X-files basement office Mulder informs Scully that a salvage ship called the Piper Maru, has returned with all but one of it's crew members suffering from radiation poisoning. He shows her evidence that the Piper Maru was anchored in the same position that the Talapus brought back salvaged UFO debris from.

Mulder and Scully examine the Piper Maru, they find a thin black oil covering the ship's diving unit and video footage of the dive shows a World War Two plane at the bottom of the sea. Scully also notices the name of a submarine Zeus Faber written on the ships chart and goes to interview it's Commander Johansen. Back in Washington, Skinner is warned not to continue the investigation into Scully's sisters death by members of the intelligence community.

Mulder goes in search of the remaining Piper Maru crew member and finds him suffering from radiation poisoning, he is covered in the same black oil as the diving unit and has no memory since the dive. His wife is also missing, Mulder traces her to a salvage firm and follows the trail to Hong Kong, where he finds Krycek selling secrets from the Dat tape he took off Skinner. As Mulder prepares to bring Krycek back to the US, Skinner is gunned down.

Notes:
This episode's title and the name of the ship featured are named after Gillian Anderson's daughter, Piper Maru Anderson, who was born during season 2.'Maru' was particularly fitting as it is the Japanese word for 'ship', but no, Gillian didn't name her daughter after a boat; it also means 'flower' in Polynesian.

For this episode, Gillian Anderson received her first Best Actress Emmy Award nomination.

The deep-sea diver Gauthier is named after the shows effects supervisor, Dave Gauthier.

Quotes:
(Mulder & Scully discussing the details of a new case that Mulder believes may have something to do with the remains of a UFO)
Mulder: I checked. It's thousands of miles away from any test sites. (Scully smiles, then laughs) What?
Scully: I'm just constantly amazed by you. You're working down here in the basement, sifting through files and transmissions that any other agent would just throw away in the garbage.
Mulder: Well that's why I'm in the basement Scully.
Scully: You're in the basement because they're afraid of you, of your relentlessness and because they know that they could drop you in the middle of the desert, and tell you the truth is out there, and you would ask them for a shovel.
Mulder: Is that what you think of me?
Scully: Well, maybe not a shovel. Maybe a backhoe.
Mulder: Well that's good because there's some garbage in San Diego I want you to help me dig through.

(Mulder, Scully and Morgan looking at something underwater through a videotape)
Morgan: What the hell is that?
Mulder: Looks like the fuselage of a plane.
Scully: It's a North American P-51 Mustang.
Morgan: Yeah it sure is.
Mulder: I just got very turned on.

Episode Number: 64
Season Num: 3
First Aired: Friday February 9, 1996
Prod Code: 3X15