Season 6: One Son (6X12)

Written by: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Rob Bowman

Mulder is about to pull the trigger and end Cassandra Spender's life, when the door to his apartment is forced open and CDC agents storm in, taking Mulder, Scully and Cassandra into custody. In a quarantined area at Ft. Marlene military base, Mulder and Scully are addressed by Diana Fowley. She explains that Cassandra Spender had contracted a highly contagious virus and needed to be put in isolation pending full medical evaluation. Scully scoffs at this notion, calling it unjustified and highly suspicious. Scully believes that Cassandra was taken so that the tests could continue. But Mulder tells Scully that the tests won't continue because they have been completed; Cassandra is, in fact, the first successful human/alien hybrid. Cassandra knew that; she was begging Mulder to end her life so that the aliens would not start colonization.

In a hallway at Ft. Marlene, Mulder finds Marita Covarrubias. She is a shell of her former self, all her beauty gone. She tells Mulder that they have been performing tests on her - tests to find a vaccine against the Black Oil. She explains to Mulder that the hybrid program was in cooperation with the aliens, but the conspirators never intended to succeed. They were only buying time until a vaccine was created to fight the Black Oil. But now that Cassandra Spendor is a successful human/alien hybrid, colonization will begin.

Scully calls Mulder to the Lone Gunmen's lair where she tells him of her suspicions about Diana Fowley. Scully feels that Diana is somehow working with the Syndicate but Mulder refuses to believe her. Scully storms out and Mulder pays a visit to Diana's apartment. He begins searching her room for any incriminating evidence when he hears another person enter the apartment - the Cigarette Smoking Man. Mulder holds him at gunpoint as C.S.M. substantiates the entire Syndicate operation. He even explains that Mulder's father gave over Mulder's sister Samantha to the aliens as a guarantee of their honor. In return, the aliens gave the Syndicate the alien fetus that would allow the human/alien hybrid work to begin. C.S.M. truly believes that what he did saved millions of lives and ultimately would bring Samantha and other family members back home. It was Mulder's father who thought of the idea to use the alien fetus DNA to make a secret vaccine against the Black Oil.

Jeffrey Spender pays a visit to his father in the Syndicate offices, only to find Krycek in the now abandoned space. Krycek tells Spender that everyone has left for El Rico Air Force Base to receive the hybrid genes and that Spender's father, C.S.M., has gone to get Cassandra to turn her over to the aliens, not believing him.

Notes:
This episode, which finally puts to rest everything about the government conspiracy with an alien species, begins with a montage of flashbacks stretching back to ''The Erlenmeyer Flask''.

Although the train carrying the Cigarette Smoking Man and Cassandra Spender near the conclusion of this episode appears to be travelling at high speed, in reality it never got above eight miles an hour -- the speed limit in the rail yard used for filming. The illusion was created with sound effects, music, clever camera angles and quick cutting.

Jo Black-David, who played the murderous nurse, was casting director Rick Millikan's high school drama teacher.

Quotes:
Mulder: (voiceover) Two men, young, idealistic -the fine product of a generation hardened by world war. Two fathers whose paths would converge in a new battle -an invisible war between a silent enemy and a sleeping giant on a scale to dwarf all historical conflicts. A 50-years war, its killing fields lying in wait for the inevitable global holocaust. Theirs was the dawn of Armageddon. And while the world was unaware, unwitting spectators to the hurly-burly of the decades-long struggle between heaven and earth there were those who prepared for the end; who measured the size and power of the enemy, and faced the choices: stand and fight, or bow to the will of a fearsome enemy. Or to surrender -to yield and collaborate. To save themselves and stay their enemy's hand. Men who believed that victory was the absence of defeat and survival the ultimate ideology ... No matter what the sacrifice.

(Mulder and Scully dressed in medical scrubs are being checked for radioactivity by a pair of technicians.)
Mulder: There must be some kind of mistake. I signed up for the aromatherapy treatment.
Scully: Are we going to be able to talk to somebody who can tell us what this is all about?

Diana Fawley: I'm going to beg for your understanding and forgiveness and offer my humblest apologies for the way this went down. I didn't have a lot of choices. I owe your neighbors apologies as well. It's going to be some time before they get back in the building. We're still acting on a CDC Level-Four quarantine protocol.
Scully: Based on what information?
Diana Fawley: That Cassandra Spender had contracted a highly contagious vectoring organism which produces a spontaneous cellular breakdown and combustion.
Scully: What?
Diana Fawley: She was and remains the only surviving victim of an unspecified medical experiment that killed seven doctors with violent and unexplained burning.
Mulder: Who called you?
Diana Fawley: Agent Spender.
Scully: Where's Cassandra?
Diana Fawley: She's isolated... pending full and satisfactory medical evaluation.
Scully: Cassandra Spender was in a general hospital environment for days. We met with her, and yet on a whim you call in the third battalion. It's unjustified and highly suspicious as to motive.
Mulder: Scully...
Diana Fawley: What motives are you suspecting?
Scully: Your isolation of Cassandra.
Diana Fawley: She's Patient Zero.

Marita Covarrubias: If they catch me with you, they'll kill me this time.
Mulder: Who?
Marita Covarrubias: The Smoking Man and ... his group.
Mulder: What have they done to you?
Marita Covarrubias: Tests. Terrible, terrible tests.
Mulder: Like the tests on Cassandra Spender?
Marita Covarrubias: No. No, Cassandra Spender is part of a program that's been going on for 25 years. A hybrid program.
Mulder: Then what were the tests on you?
Marita Covarrubias: I was infected with the alien virus -the black oil. My tests were on the vaccine against it ... being developed in secret.
Mulder: In secret from the alien colonists. The hybrid program was in cooperation with the aliens but the conspirators never intended to succeed ... to finish the work.
Marita Covarrubias: They were buying time.
Mulder: To make a vaccine and build a weapon.
Marita Covarrubias: But Cassandra Spender happened.
Mulder: She's the first, isn't she? She's the first successful alien/human hybrid.
Marita Covarrubias: If she is ... and the aliens learn a hybrid exists ... colonization of the planet will begin. With no stopping it.

Scully: Mulder, when I was abducted a chip was put in my neck. When I happened upon a MUFON group filled with women who'd had the same experience.
Mulder: So you're suggesting that Diana is monitoring these abductees?Monitoring these tests? Scully: You tell me that Cassandra Spender is the critical test subject -the one who could prove everything. And yet, who is watching over her? Mulder, I can prove what you're saying or I can disprove it but not when Diana Fowley is keeping us from even seeing her. Mulder, ask yourself why there is no information whatsoever on Special Agent Diana Fowley. Why she would suddenly happen into your life when you are closer than ever to the truth. I mean, you ... you ask me to trust no one and yet you trust her on simple faith.
Mulder: Because you've given me no reason here to do otherwise.
Scully: Well, then I can't help you anymore.

CSM: I remember looking over a gun barrel at you once before, Agent Mulder. You couldn't pull the trigger then. What makes you think you can do it now?
(Mulder cocks the gun.)
CSM: I came here looking for my son.
Mulder: Why?
CSM: Because he's betrayed me. He's chosen the wrong side. He's chosen to believe in your cause.
Mulder: That presumes my cause is wrong.
CSM: Oh, it is, Agent Mulder. It is.
Mulder: I'm not the one using innocent people -innocent women -as lab rats, trying to create a hybrid - an alien/human hybrid -so that I might save my own sorry ass when they finally come knocking! (CSM smiles.) You find that funny?!
CSM: Your father was against it, too, back in '73. The lone dissenter. But he came to his senses. And gave up your sister, Samantha.
Mulder: He didn't give up my sister. He was forced to. You made him do it.
CSM (with a laugh): Oh, you're wrong, Agent Mulder. I can't tell you how wrong you are. How wrong you've always been. We had agreed to cooperate with the alien colonists. By a majority vote taken by the group that your father and I worked for. A group that came together at the State Department on a project dating back to 1947, to Roswell.

Highlights from ''One Son''

Episode Number: 129

Season Number: 6

First Aired: Sunday, February 14, 1999

Production Code: 6X12

Season 6: Two Fathers (6X11)

Written by: Jeffrey Bell, Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Kim Manners

Inside a stockyard in Arlington, Virginia, a surgeon escorts Dr. Openshaw inside a train car containing a surgical bay. Openshaw approaches an operating table, on which lies a patient, her face unseen. The surgeon congratulates Openshaw on his work, some 25 years in the making, which is now a success. The surgeon exits the train car, only to be lit afire by a Faceless Man. The rest of the surgical team, waiting in a nearby van, are also incinerated. A Faceless Man enters the surgical bay and thrusts his weapon at Openshaw, burning him. The creature then looks upon the operating table... where an unconscious Cassandra Spender lies.

Skinner escorts Agent Spender to the stockyard. He explains that a group of people were burned alive, and that only his mother, and a critically injured man, survived. Spender sees his mother in a nearby paramedics vehicle and goes to her side. Cassandra asks to speak with Mulder. Moments later, Spender tells Skinner that he objects to the idea of Mulder's involvement in the case. But Spender changes his mind, and reluctantly informs Mulder of his mother's request to speak with him. Mulder tells Spender to find the truth himself.

Meanwhile, the Cigarette Smoking Man approaches Openshaw, who miraculously survived the fire and has been confined to a plastic tent inside a hospital. Openshaw tells him that Cassandra is a success, and must be terminated before the alien colonists find out that a human/alien hybrid exists. Shortly thereafter, the Cigarette Smoking Man kills Openshaw.

The Cigarette Smoking Man telephones Elder #1 to inform him about an emergency meeting of the Syndicate. Elder #1 promises he will make the meeting. He makes his way to the front door... only to find Openshaw standing on the other side. Elder #1 grabs at the impostor's face, exposing a faceless rebel beneath. A struggle ensues, and the Elder is killed.

Scully and Mulder decide to meet with Cassandra without informing Spender of their action. Miraculously, Cassandra pushes back the covers and lets her legs fall to the floor. Scully looks on, incredulous, as the previously wheelchair-bound Cassandra walks without assistance. Cassandra tells the agents that surgeons worked in conjunction with the aliens to cure her. She now believes that the aliens are plotting to take over the universe by infecting all life forms with a black virus. The surgeons were burned by another race of aliens-faceless rebels-who mutilated their faces so they wouldn't be infected. Cassandra now believes that her son's life is in danger, as he is in collusion with men who have worked with the aliens.

In flashback, some 35 years earlier, Openshaw, Bill Mulder, and the Cigarette Smoking Man enter a train car containing a Native American test subject. The Native American's face, arms and body are horribly disfigured. Repulsed, Bill Mulder exits the train car. As the disfigured man is their best effort, both the Cigarette Smoking Man and Openshaw believe they must ally with the aliens if they ever hope to create a human/alien hybrid. Back in the present day, the Syndicate members, including Krycek and the Cigarette Smoking Man, gather for the meeting. Elder #1 suggests an alliance with the alien rebels, something completely at odds with everything the group has strived for. After the meeting, Krycek informs the Cigarette Smoking Man that Mulder paid Cassandra a secret visit.

Scully and Mulder sneak into Mulder's old office, where they access computer files on Cassandra Spender, her son, and the Cigarette Smoking Man, who is identified by the name "C.G.B. Spender." But the computer has no additional information on the mysterious man. Moments later, Skinner warns the agents that they are about to get caught. Before Mulder and Scully have a chance to escape, they are confronted by Spender. Later, Spender informs his father that Mulder and Scully will be processed out of the FBI. He then asks for the truth about his mother. The Cigarette Smoking Man tells him that Cassandra has been involved in a very important experiment. But he does not elaborate further, as Spender must prove himself capable of the responsibility that comes with such knowledge. Meanwhile, Scully performs some research. She learns that Cassandra Spender was first abducted on the night of November 27th, 1973... the same night Mulder's sister was abducted.

The Cigarette Smoking Man tells Spender about Elder #1's death. He instructs Spender to kill the imposter using a gimlet weapon. Krycek drives Spender to Elder #1's home. Unfortunately, Spender cannot muster the nerve to carry out his assignment. The Elder #1 imposter sees the gimlet in Spender's hand and attacks him. Krycek comes to Spender's rescue, driving the gimlet into the imposter's neck. Afterward, a Iago-like Krycek informs Spender that his father directed the experiments forced on Cassandra. Spender realizes he is being asked to protect his mother so the experiments can continue.

Back at the hospital, Cassandra enters the bathroom to smoke a cigarette. As she looks in the mirror, her face suddenly loses its shape. Cassandra screams. The female FBI agent assigned to protect her races to her aid. She assures Cassandra that she will be all right, as she is "the one." Cassandra stares at her, not comprehending. The female FBI agent reaches up to her own face and pulls back her flesh... revealing a male Faceless Alien beneath. Cassandra recoils in fear. Clad in the FBI agent's clothing, she flees to Mulder's apartment. With time running out, she begs the agents to kill her, because if she lives, there will be no stopping what is about to happen. Mulder draws his gun and aims at Cassandra.

Notes:
Veronica Cartwright, playing Cassandra Spender, received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her work on "Two Fathers/One Son".

The idea that the Cigarette-Smoking Man would be telling the story was a very last minute addition as production had even wrapped on this episode.

This two-parter won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Makeup for a Series.

In this episode Cassandra wants to end her life because her existence as the first alien/human hybrid signals the beginning of alien colonization. In Greek the name Cassandra means "Prophet of Doom".

Recurring Special Guest Star Mimi Rogers (Agent Diana Fowley) is uncredited in this episode.

Krycek: Resistance was futile then, why would it be any less so now?
'Resistance is Futile' is a trademark saying of the Borg from ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''.

Quotes:
Mulder: (Dribbling basketball) Scully, you wanna go one-on-one? We got plenty of time now that we're on administrative leave.

Cassandra: (Happy) Oh! Agent Mulder. I think I'm going to pee the floor.
Mulder: Don't... Don't do that.

Mulder: You looking for work, Agent Spender? Cuz if you are, I got a whole pile in that middle drawer I'd love to shove down someone's throat.

Basketball player: Hey, milk. Let's play ball. Yo homestyle, cough up the rock.
Mulder: (Sinks a 3-pointer) Game.
Baller: Oh nah, it don't work like that.
Mulder: Hey homegirl, word up.
Scully: Mulder, it's my distinct impression that you just cheated and that you're not coming in again today.
Mulder: Oh Scully, I got game.
Scully: Yeah, you got so much game, I'm wondering if you have any work left in you.
Mulder: No, I'm ready to J-O-B, just not on some jagoff shoeshine tip.
Scully: No jagoff shoeshine tip?
Mulder: No background checkin' jagoff shoeshine tip.
Scully: Well about your J-O-B, Mulder, somebody's been trying very hard to reach you by phone. Somebody who wants you back at the FBI ASAP.
Mulder: (Sighs) About what?
Scully: About an X-File.

Highlights from ''Two Fathers''

Episode Number: 128

Season Number: 6
First Aired: Sunday, February 7, 1999
Production Code: 6X11

Season 6: Tithonus (6X09)

Written by: Vince Gilligan
Directed by: Michael Watkins

Relegated to doing background checks, Scully and Mulder are bored stiff. Assistant Director Kersh finally calls Scully up and pairs her with New York City field agent, Peyton Ritter, for a special assignment. While scanning old crime scene photos into the computer, Ritter stumbled upon inconsistencies in the times that the photos were taken. He feels that the man who took the pictures, a stringer named Alfred Fellig, is responsible. Ritter theorizes that Fellig kills people, takes their picture, then shows up later when called to do the crime scene photo job for the wire services.

In a dark alley in the Bronx, a mugger tackles and kills his victim. Mid-crime, the mugger looks up to see Fellig on a fire escape, taking pictures. The mugger then turns on Fellig and knifes him in the back. Fellig falls to the concrete, dead, and the mugger takes off. Minutes after he's gone, Fellig pulls the knife out of his back and staggers off into the night.

Fellig is brought in for questioning but denies killing anyone; he was just there for "the shot". And since they have no proof that Fellig committed the crime, they release him. But Ritter begins 24-hour surveillance on Fellig. Scully relieves Ritter late at night, only to realize shortly after Ritter leaves that Fellig is watching her. Exasperated, she confronts Fellig about his involvement in the murders that he photographs. He invites her to come for a ride and he will show Scully how he happens to be johnny-on-the-spot when a murder is committed.

After driving around for hours, Fellig finally stops and points to a hooker. He tells Scully that the hooker will be dead within the hour. Not believing him, Scully confronts the hooker, who backs away from Scully, heads into the street and is run down by an oncoming truck. Scully, in shock at what she may have just caused, looks up in time to see Fellig drive off.

Mulder does some low-tech research on his own and calls Scully to tell her that Fellig has a penchant for changing identities, the farthest one dating back to 1849. This makes Fellig 149 years old. Scully, not wanting Fellig to have another identity crisis, goes to Fellig's apartment where he ushers her into his darkroom. He explains that he was marked for death a long time ago, but somehow Death missed him. Fellig has been taking photos of dying people ever since in hopes of capturing the visage of Death on film so that he can look into Death's face and die as well.

During the conversation, Fellig realizes that Scully is marked for Death and readies to take her picture. Agent Ritter arrives and fires instinctively into the darkened room. The bullet hits Fellig as well as Scully. As Ritter moves into the other room to call for help, Fellig takes Scully's hand and tells her not to look into Death's face. She closes her eyes and Death finally takes Fellig.

Notes:
Tithonus is a character from Greek Mythology. He was a mortal man who fell in love with a goddess and begged Zeus to grant him immortality to be with her.
Zeus did as was asked but neglected to give him eternal youth, so Tithonus continued to shrivel and grow feeble as the years went by.

Some of the New York scenes were filmed on sets borrowed from "NYPD Blue", located on the other side of the Fox lot from the X-Files sound stages.

In this episode we get a sort of explanation why Clyde Bruckman in the season 3 episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" told Scully that she wouldn't die.

Alfred Fellig was named for Arthur 'WeeGee' Fellig. WeeGee was a New York City photographer in the 30's, 40's, and 50's who covered the police murder beat. He took graphic photos of the victims, which the newspapers usually printed along with their stories.

Quotes:
Scully: Mr. Fellig, I know that you know more about photography than I do, but this is just a lens flare.
Fellig: You're right, I do know more about photography than you do.

Ritter: You know, Kersh warned me about you.
Scully: He did?
Ritter: Yeah — you and your partner. God knows his reputation precedes him so I guess I should have seen this coming. You muck up my case, and Kersh'll hear about it. Are we clear, Dana?
Scully: Scully. (Cellphone rings) And we're done with this conversation. (Answering) Yeah?
Mulder: Hey, Scully, uh, how's that X-File coming? And before you tell me that it's not an X-File...
Scully: It is.
Mulder: What happened?
Scully: Alfred Fellig seems to know an awful lot about death.
Mulder: Oh, yeah? Well, that's not surprising, given that he's reached the ripe old age of 149.
Scully: Excuse me?

Mulder: But you still think Fellig's a murderer, huh?

Scully: I don't know what to think. He's, uh... unusual.
Mulder: As in he plugs up like a cork when you stab him?
Scully: Mulder, where are you getting this stuff?!
Mulder: Well, young man Ritter has been sending progress reports to Kersh. My computer may have inadvertently intercepted a few of those. He's got nice things to say about you, though.... mostly. Why don't you let me do a little background check on Fellig for you?
Scully: Mulder.
Mulder: Come on. It's, you know, it's what I do now. I'm getting good at it.

Scully: Mulder...
Mulder: Mm?
Scully: What are you doing?
Mulder: Being nosy. Eating my heart out. They're sending you on an X-File.
Scully: It's not an X-File.
Mulder: That's not what I'm reading. I'm thinking murder by telekinesis, I'm thinking maybe a shamanistic death touch, I'm thinking about the Muslim superstition that to photograph someone is to steal their soul.
Scully: Thank you. All very helpful.

Highlights from ''Tithonus''

Episode Number: 127

Season Number: 6

First Aired: Sunday, January 24, 1999

Production Code: 6X09

Season 6: S.R. 819 (6X10)

Written by: John Shiban

Directed by: Daniel Sackheim

A man is rushed into the emergency room near death. One of the doctors tells the nurse to call Agent Scully because the sick man works for the FBI. We assume that it is Agent Mulder; only to find, however, that it is actually Assistant Director Skinner.

Flashback twenty-four hours. Agent Mulder finds A.D. Skinner in his office, not feeling well. He calls in Scully who posits that Skinner may have been poisoned. When asked to recall if anything out of the ordinary happened in his day, Skinner remembers that a renowned physicist named Kenneth Orgel stopped him in the hallway earlier in the day. Mulder and Skinner pay a visit to Orgel, only to find him in the process of being kidnapped. The kidnappers get away with Orgel; Mulder captures one of the fleeing bad guys, but must release him when he discovers that the man is a Tunisian with diplomatic immunity.

Scully, in the meantime, examines a vial of Skinner's blood. Upon close levels of magnification, she finds miniscule foreign bodies that seem to multiply uniformly and rapidly. These specks are forming dams in Skinner's veins, cutting off his blood flow and building a heart attack.

Mulder rifes through Orgel's house and finds a connection to Senator Matheson. Paying the Senator a visit, he finds out about Senate Resolution 819 - a health bill which will supply medical technology for third world countries. Ripping apart Skinner's office, Mulder finds that Skinner was doing a security check on the resolution and that, somehow, his connection to the resolution is what got him poisoned. He confronts Senator Matheson again and finds out that nanotechnology - microscopic atom-sized machines that had been previously thought of as only theoretical - have been injected into Skinner and someone is programming them to kill him.

Meanwhile, Skinner lies on a hospital bed, his pulse flatlines. The orderly calls time of death. Moments later, Skinner gasps and comes back to life. Weeks later, Scully reports that whatever infected Skinner has gone into remission. Mulder asks for permission to continue the investigation but Skinner closes the case.

At day's end, Skinner heads for his car. In the backseat, he finds the man who had been driving the nanotechnology atoms - Krycek. Krycek glares at Skinner - he's got Skinner under his thumb and intends to keep him there.

Notes:
Nicholas Lea wasn't credited in the opening act so as not to ruin the surprise of his appearance.

A potentially time-consuming and expensive fight scene between Skinner and Krycek was cut due to budgetary reasons.

This is the third attempt to break Skinner away from Mulder and Scully. In ''Piper Maru'' he was shot by Luis Cardinal, in ''Avatar'' they tried to frame him for murder, and here they infect him with a disease which Krycek eventually uses to blackmail him.

Quotes:
Tunisian man: (something Arabic and angry)
Mulder: Yeah, so's your Mom.
Tunisian man: (something Arabic and angry)
Mulder: Hey, give it a rest, huh?!

Dr. Plant: It's carbon. Pure carbon. How in the world would that get into his bloodstream?
Scully: How is it working as a poison?
Dr. Plant: By all rights, it shouldn't be.
Scully: Look at them - just rattling around in the solution.
Dr. Plant: It's just bizarre. Did you see that?
Scully: Did you just touch something?
Dr. Plant: No, I didn't.
Scully: It just multiplied. Look! It just did it again.

Skinner: I've been expecting you to show up.
Krycek: You know I can push the button any time.
Skinner: What do you want from me? What's this about, Krycek?
Krycek: All in good time.

Episode Number: 126
Season Number: 6
First Aired: Sunday, January 17, 1999
Production Code: 6X10

Season 6: Rain King (6X07)

Written by: Jeffrey Bell

Directed by: Kim Manners

Kroner, Kansas has been experiencing a three-month drought. It's Valentine's Day and Sheila Fontaine waits for her boyfriend, Darryl Mootz. When he arrives home, he's angry that Sheila has prematurely spread word of their engagement and storms out of the house, leaving Sheila alone with her tears and a box of chocolates. Shortly thereafter, Darryl is caught in a freak hailstorm which causes him to wreck his car.

It's six months later and nine months into the drought. Mulder and Scully are called to Kroner by the town's mayor who believes that Darryl is causing the drought so he can charge people for the rain. When the agents check with Holman Hardt, the local meteorologist, Holman substantiates part of the mayor's claim - Holman believes that Darryl can make it rain. While Mulder and Scully check out Darryl's side-show, Sheila tells Holman she's nervous that the FBI are poking around. Shortly thereafter, Mulder's life is threatened when a cow is picked up by a mini-twister and hurled through the roof of the motel where he's staying.

Out of guilt, Sheila confesses that she is the one who has been causing all of the terrible weather-related catastrophes that have been occurring in Kroner for the past twenty years. Mulder, however, has another theory. He believes that Holman is the culprit and that it is the feelings he can't express that have been effecting the weather. To wit, Holman has been pining away for Sheila since they were in high school together. But Sheila has divulged to Holman that she's got a crush on Mulder. Holman, in turn, causes it to rain in flash-flood proportions.

To stop the deluge, Mulder gives Holman "dating" advice, telling him that he must tell Sheila how he feels about her. After much prodding, Holman opens his heart to her. One year later finds Holman and Sheila married with a child. And the weather, as you can imagine, is perfect.

Notes:
This episode's title may be a reference to Saul Bellow's novel "Henderson The Rain King".

Although Sheila stated every single weird weather accident that happened in her life, she never mentioned anything about the sky raining Ice Hearts on the Valentine's Day, it's not even mentioned in the newspapers like they mentioned the Flower Showers.

Quotes:
Holman: I've been envious of men like you my whole life. Based on your physical bearing, I'd assumed you were... More experienced. I mean... You spend every day with agent Scully a beautiful, enchanting woman. And you two never, uh...? I... confess I find that shocking. I... I've seen how you two gaze at one another.
Mulder: This is about you, Holman. I'm here to help you. I'm perfectly happy with my friendship with Agent Scully.
Holman: So according to your theory I walk in there, tell her I love her and the drought will end?
Mulder: Just tell her how you feel.
Mulder: And Holman. I do not gaze at Scully.

Sheila: You love him, don't you?
Scully: (softly) What?
Sheila: You're jealous because Agent Mulder and I have a special connection and you're trying to divert me to Holman.
Scully: What?

Scully: Holman?
Mulder: Yeah... he wants advice. Dating advice.
Scully: Dating advice? From whom?
Mulder: Yours truly. Hello? Hey, Scully. Scully, you there?
Scully: I heard you. Mulder, when was the last time you went on a date?
Mulder: I will talk to you later. (He hangs up)
Scully: The blind leading the blind.

Hotel Manager: Oh, Miss, we moved your boyfriend's things into your room.
Scully: He's my partner, and we prefer separate rooms.
Hotel Manager: Oh, old-fashioned are you, huh? Well, we're booked solid with the high school reunion. You can take it or leave it.

Highlights from ''Rain King''

Episode Number: 125
Season Number: 6
First Aired: Sunday, January 10, 1999
Production Code: 6X07

Season 6: Terms of Endearment (6X06)

Written by: David Amann
Directed by: Rob Bowman

Wayne and Laura Weinsider are just like any other couple - they want to start a family. But when the ultrasound shows possible deformities in the baby that Laura is carrying, it is Wayne who becomes visibly upset. That night, Laura has a nightmare that a demon has come to steal her baby. When she wakes, she realizes the nightmare has come true and that her unborn baby has been taken from her.

The town's sheriff, who happens to be Laura's brother, brings the case to Agent Spender who round-files it to the shredder. But Mulder manages to salvage the report and begins his own investigation. His primary suspect is Wayne but Scully thinks that Laura self-aborted and has her arrested. Meantime, Mulder follows Wayne and ultimately uncovers that Wayne has been living a dual life. His second wife, Betsy, lives on the other side of town and Mulder fears for her safety. As Mulder and Scully race to save Betsy, a car skids to a stop in the middle of the road. It's Betsy, who exits the car bleeding, exclaiming that Wayne took her baby.

Moving on to Betsy's house, Mulder and Scully find Wayne furiously digging in the backyard. The agents think Wayne is burying Betsy's unborn baby, but before Wayne can tell them otherwise, the sheriff arrives and shoots Wayne down. What Wayne would have told the agents is that he was actually digging up unborn normal babies - the ones Betsy had buried there. Being a demon himself, a normal baby was all Wayne ever wanted. But it seems Betsy, being even more evil than he, had always wanted just the opposite - a demon baby. And as Betsy drives into the sunset with her newborn baby, we see that's exactly what she got.

Notes:
Although it was the 6th show filmed of the 6th season, "Terms of Endearment" was the 7th aired. The reason: an elaborate shuffling of the postproduction shedule to get Chris Carter's "How the Ghost Stole Christmas" on the air on December 13, 1998, the final orignal episode air date before the end of the holiday season.

In an early draft of the script, Laura Weinsider gave birth to a serpent and not a humanoid.

The baby that had to play the demon child of Wayne and Laura Weinsider was replaced at the very last moment (literally when all cameras and lights were already set-up). The mother of the child was a devout Catholic and just couldn't let her baby get involved into anything that had to do with the devil. After 45 minutes, and several frantic calls, another baby arrived on set.

The title: Terms of Endearment is an allusion to the book by Larry McMurtry and the 1984 film with Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson and Debra Winger, that won tons of awards and is considered a classic by some and a manipulative schmaltzfest by others. Much of the story concerns the difficult relationships between mothers and children, and this episode takes it to very dark levels. It could also be seen as a play on the word 'Terms', as Wayne Weinseider has specific rules for loving the women he does. If his terms aren't met and there are no 'normal' foetuses he goes to a very nasty place.

Episode Number: 124
Season Number: 6
First Aired: Sunday, January 3, 1999
Production Code: 6X06

Season 6: How The Ghosts Stole Christmas (6X08)

Written by: Chris Carter

Directed by: Chris Carter

It's late Christmas Eve. Telling tales of star-crossed lovers who forged a pact to be together for eternity, Mulder lures Scully into the darkened mansion that the ghost couple purportedly haunts. Once inside, the front door locks behind the duo and traps them inside. Mulder believes it is the work of the ghosts who inhabit the house. Scully, ever the skeptic, instructs Mulder on the psychology of peoples' need to believe in the afterlife as a means to satisfy their fear of mortality. But when a previously locked door springs open and a light shines from inside the room beyond, Mulder chalks it up to ghosts.

Scully, admitting that she is afraid but that it's an irrational fear, still sticks with the belief that people might be actually living in the house. Passing through the door, the partners find themselves in a library. And in a series of odd twists and turns, they become separated -each trapped in some parallel universe version of the library. It is here that Mulder meets Maurice The Ghost, who convinces Mulder to shoot Scully.

In her own parallel library, Scully meets Lyda The Ghost, who convinces Scully to shoot Mulder. When the two agents meet back up, they follow through on the ghosts' mischievous plan and fire their weapons on each other. As they lay gasping on the staircase landing, they realize it was only some kind of mind trick played on them by the ghosts. Safely ensconced back in their homes, the duo agree that the events of the evening never happened.

Notes:

The role of Maurice was originally written for Bob Newhart but he turned down the role.

The haunted house's address, 1501 Larkspur Lane, may be a reference to a Nancy Drew mystery story, "Password to Larkspur Lane".

Quotes:

Maurice: Hey!

Mulder: Who are you?

Maurice: That's a question I should be asking being this is my house you're standing in. This isn't one of those home invasions, is it?
Mulder: No.
Maurice: Good. Would you like me to show you the door?
Mulder: That's very funny.
Maurice: I wasn't making a joke.
Mulder: Have you looked at the door?
Maurice: Uh-huh, I'm looking at it now.
Mulder: Tell me what you see.
Maurice: I see a door with the lock shot off it. You going to pay for that?
Mulder: That's a door with a brick wall behind it.
Maurice: Okay, sure.

Maurice: You've probably convinced yourself you've seen aliens. You know why you think you see the things you do?
Mulder: Because I have seen them?
Maurice: 'Cause you're a lonely man. A lonely man chasing paramasturbatory illusions that you believe will give your life meaning and significance and which your pathetic social maladjustment makes impossible for you to find elsewhere. You probably consider yourself passionate, serious, misunderstood. Am I right?
Mulder: Paramasturbatory?

Mulder: I almost gave up on you.
Scully: Sorry. Checkout lines were worse than rush hour on the 95. If I heard "Silent Night" one more time I was going to start taking hostages. What are we doing here?
Mulder: Stakeout.
Scully: On Christmas Eve?
Mulder: It's an important date.
Scully: No kidding.

Clip from ''How the Ghosts Stole Christmas''

Episode Number: 123
Season Number: 6
First Aired: Sunday, December 13, 1998
Production Code: 6X08