[[WMG:[[center:[-'''RECAP:'''\\
[[Recap/TheXFiles Index]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E01TheBlessingWay 1]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E02PaperClip 2]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E03DPO 3]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E04ClydeBruckmansFinalRepose 4]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E05TheList 5]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E06TwoShy 6]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E07TheWalk 7]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E08Oubliette 8]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E09Nisei 9]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E10SevenThreeOne 10]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E11Revelations 11]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E12WarOfTheCoprophages 12]] | '''13''' | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E14Grotesque 14]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E15PiperMaru 15]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E16Apocrypha 16]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E17Pusher 17]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E18TesoDosBichos 18]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E19HellMoney 19]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E20JoseChungsFromOuterSpace 20]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E21Avatar 21]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E22Quagmire 22]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E23Wetwired 23]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E24TalithaCumi 24]]]]-]]]
'''Season 3, Episode 13:'''
!Syzygy
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thexfilessyzygy.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"We’re here to make you feel better tonight. Carpe PM."'']]
->Written by Creator/ChrisCarter\\
Directed by Rob Bowman

->'''Zirinka:''' Once every eighty-four years Mercury, Mars and Uranus come into conjunction. Only this year, Uranus is in the house of Aquarius.\\
'''Mulder:''' That’s a bad thing?

Strange events occur in a small town during a rare planetary alignment, and the worst of it comes in the form of two teenage girls possessing strange abilities.
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!!Tropes:
* FiveFiveFive: Detective White's number seen on her cat's collar is 555-0114.
%%* AdventureTowns
* {{Astrologer}}: Zirinka. Astrology, readings, numerology, runes.
* CigaretteOfAnxiety: Scully lights up a cigarette while anxiously pacing her hotel room, seething about Mulder and White.
* ClingyJealousGirl: Scully, normally professionally detached from Mulder's love life, becomes uncharacteristically irritable and spiteful about his connection with White.
* DeadpanSnarker: Zirinka snarks a lot.
* DoubleEntendre: "Solve the mystery of the horny Beast"
* EnemyCivilWar: Terri and Margi, who have a falling out over a boy and end up trying to frame each other for the murders they committed together.
* {{Facepalm}}: Mulder rubs his face with a hand when Detective Angela White comes to his motel room and he's not sure exactly what's going on.
* GloveSnap: Mulder accuses Scully of enjoying this.
-->'''Mulder''': Go ahead, I know how much you like snapping on the latex.
* HatePlague: The town of Comity is affected by this due to Mercury, Mars and Uranus aligning together. This causes the citizens to relentlessly hunt down those responsible for the recent high school murders.
* HollywoodSatanism: The crimes were suspected to be a case of satanic rituals.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Mulder drinks screwdriver (made with a bottle of vodka and some frozen, concentrated orange juice, no less) and Detective White takes a swig from his bottle as well. The planets messed them up pretty bad.
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: Mulder and Scully's arguments.
* LovesMeNot: Margi and Terri are shown doing this to a dandelion together while one of their victims is discovered.
* MagicMirror: Invoked by Margi and Terri, who perform the Bloody Mary ritual on front of a mirror before killing a girl with them with a mirror shard.
* MindOverMatter: The planetary-alignment stuff that's affecting the town also gave cheerleaders Margi and Terri powers to do things with the power of their mind, which they mostly use to mess with and kill people.
* MurderByMistake: Margi and Terri try to kill each other by hurling garage door springs at each other, but end up accidentally killing the guy they were fighting about, which leads to the two going to the law and accusing each other.
* MustNotDieAVirgin: Used to lure one of the victims to his death; Terri and Margi tell a young boy they don't want to be the next VirginSacrifice.
* NotHimself: Mulder and Scully bicker a lot abnormally for them. Other people in town are affected as well.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The Episode. Literally ''everyone'' in the episode is implied to be acting completely out of character to how they normally would due to the effect of the planetary alignment.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: Played in-universe; the phenomenon causes not only Mulder and Scully to act in ways they normally wouldn't, but also apparently the entire town it's focused around; the normally calm and rational high school principal turns into a ranting fundamentalist nutcase, for example.
* PedoHunt: The town pediatrician becomes a target of this when the townsfolk dig up a bag of his filled with bones in a field. They think he murdered a little boy, but it turns out that the bag was filled with bones of a dog.
* PhraseCatcher: "Sure. Fine. Whatever."
* SatanicPanic: The episode invokes the Satanic Panic as a small town is believed to be under attacked from Devil worshippers, but it turns out to be [[PsychoLesbian a pair of best friends]] invoking it for their own revenge.
* SpookySeance: At the party, the teens try to communicate with the dead. They ask the table and ghosts who one of them marries, and the answer is {{Satan}}. Margi and Terri wanted to mess with her, and she ends up as their victim.
* TakeThatAudience: Some of the snarky comments between Mulder and Scully were taken from comments made online by nitpicking fans.
* TeensAreMonsters: Margi and Terri keep killing their schoolmates just for shits and giggles.
* WhenThePlanetsAlign: When the planets align and you happen to be in a geological vortex and a high-intensity meridian, the relationships are going to suck. And it's affecting everyone, some more than others though.
* WorldOfSnark: Everybody is sarcastic. It's taken up to eleven thanks to the planet condition.
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->''"Or maybe the answer lies even further from our grasp."''