In Lawndale, several strange events happen to coincide over several days, including a government investigation.
This episode provides examples of:
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: The pizza delivery guy spends almost two hours at Daria and Jane talking about his latest alien abduction, and subsequently gets fired. At the end of the episode, he gives an interview about two female aliens that cost him his job and describes them to look like the girls.
- Dirty Communists: The less intelligent students of Lawndale High become convinced Daria and Jane are "atomic communists".
- Expy: As the title's namesake, the government agents brought in are clear references to Scully and Mulder.
- Freudian Slip: Sandi at one point goes on a rant culminating in mentioning how Quinn was about to finally reveal herself as "A two-faced little-" but then stops when she sees Daria is listening.
- Karma Houdini: Ms. Barch wrongfully reported Mr. DeMartino as an illegal immigrant and tried to have him deported. After he spends a considerable amount of time in custody, Barch faces no repercussions for what she did.
- The Men in Black: The government officials that show up in Lawndale.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Quinn and the Fashion Club dressing in black and Trent's disturbingly happy music are signs that something is wrong.
- Occam's Razor: All of the OOC moments Daria and Jane notice have more plausible and logical explanations other than aliens.
- It turns out Quinn has a zit on her neck and was trying to hide it, the rest of the club was dressing the same way for "Solidarity," and Trent was writing a jingle for a car dealership.
- The delivery guy just turns out to be a crazy mythomaniac who distorts real facts to make them look like he was abducted by aliens several times.
- Mr. DeMartino was taken by the Feds because someone at the school (namely Ms. Barch) falsely reported him as an illegal immigrant.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: As Daria recaps the assembly to Helen and Jake, she's referring to aliens as in extraterrestrials, whereas her parents are referring to immigrants. Both parties are confused as Daria wonders what her parents mean by "We were all aliens" and Helen and Jake don't understand why she sounds prejudiced against immigrants.
- Shout-Out: To The X-Files.
- Suckiness Is Painful: Jane is left genuinely disturbed for her well-being while hearing Trent's uncharacteristically upbeat and crappy song being practiced.
- Sustained Misunderstanding: The Three Js overheard Mr. O'Neill discussing communism and aliens, and thought he was accusing Daria and Jane of being "atomic communists." It's not until the end of the episode that O'Neill clarifies what he was talking about when Kevin accuses the girls of trying to destroy football.
