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Triangle
Die Wahrheit ist irgendwo da draußenTranslation
Written and directed by Chris Carter
"This ship's been caught in something called the Devil's Triangle. It's some kind of time warp - a rift in space."
— Fox Mulder
Mulder investigates a luxury passenger liner that mysteriously appears on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle. Once on board the ship, Mulder finds himself in the year 1939 as Nazi soldiers are fighting the British crew for control of the ship.
Several of the people on the ship just happen to look identical to important people in Mulder's own life. Scully's counterpart is a tough-talking undercover OSS agent in a red cocktail dress, while the Cigarette Smoking Man's counterpart is the leader of the Nazis.
Tropes:
- Arc Words: One of the engine crew drops this on Mulder:Crewman: Don't you know there are spies everywhere? Trust No One, man!
- All Just a Dream: Possibly.
- And You Were There: Mulder's friends and enemies appear in the dream and reflect various aspects of their 'contemporary' selves: Skinner is apparently a Nazi but turns out to be on Mulder's side, Assistant Director Kersh is shown chained in the engine room, forced to steer the course set by the CSM who is naturally the Nazi Big Bad. Scully is a spy who is initially skeptical of Mulder's claims to be one of the good guys, yet comes through for him in the end. Scully also reflects Mulder's unrequited feelings for her — she wears a red cocktail dress but punches Mulder in the jaw when he gives her a Now or Never Kiss. In the end Mulder wakes up in a hospital bed surrounded by his friends, including A.D. Skinner who responds "Yeah, and my little dog Toto" when Mulder says But You Were There, and You, and You.
- Ballroom Blitz: The climax of the episode is a fight between British soldiers and Nazis in the liner's ballroom.
- The Bermuda Triangle: The episode sees Mulder investigate a luxury passenger liner that mysteriously appears on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle.
- Brick Joke: At the start of their relationship Mulder accused Scully of being sent to spy on him. Now she really is a spy!
- But You Were There, and You, and You: Many of the people Mulder meets on the ship are played by the same actors as the other members of the regular cast.
- Curse Cut Short: Mulder's "oh sh—" when he realizes he's actually back in time; the camera pans away before he finishes.
- Fake First Kiss: Mulder's kiss with past-Scully.
- Faux Fluency: William B. Davis didn't speak German and had to spend two weeks learning his lines phonetically. Averted with Mitch Pileggi, who does speak Germannote and even worked with Carter to iron out some of the script's grammar and translation errors.
- Fiery Redhead: Scully's "double" in 1939.
- Ghost Ship: A ship from the past in Bermuda Triangle.
- Glamorous Wartime Singer: Past-Assistant Director Kersh's assistant is employed as one on the ship; as in the present, she's working for the antagonists (in this case, she's a Nazi spy).
- Good is Not Nice: The ship crew are rather abusive towards Mulder and eager to torture and kill him. Even if he was a Nazi spy as they suspect, their behavior is extremely morally dubious considering he is unarmed.
- High-Dive Escape: Mulder dives off the Queen Anne after kissing past-Scully at the end.
- Kiss-Kiss-Slap: Mulder kisses past-Scully, who is not impressed, and punches him.Mulder: (wincing) I was expecting a left.
- Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: Just before he exits the boat, Mulder grabs past-Scully for a passionate kiss "in case we never meet again." 1939!Scully, of course, responds somewhat differently.
- Lady in Red: The other "Scully".
- The Oner: Close to it. The episode appears to be four continuous shots, with commercial breaks between them. In reality, the Steadicam they were using could only hold four minutes' worth of film, so there are numerous disguised cuts within each "oner."
- Or Was It a Dream?: At the end of the episode, Mulder wakes in hospital, and his colleagues assume his experience was a delusion of some kind. At the end, after they leave, he realizes he has a bruise matching where past-Scully decked him.
- Shout-Out: Many to The Wizard of Oz, of course; some of the more subtle ones include that the captain of the ship is named Yip Harburg (the film's songwriter) and the story takes place in 1939 (the year the film was released), plus the "Lady Garland" boat after actress Judy Garland.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: One would hope three cranks from conspiracy theory newsletter wouldn't be able to just walk into FBI headquarters, yet the Lone Gunmen do just that when they come looking for Scully.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Good old fashioned wartime thriller Nazis. CSM's Nazi counterpart in particular looks like he's wearing a Halloween costume.
- Two-Fisted Tales: Has elements of this, especially the big ballroom punch-up between British sailors and Nazi goons, not to mention Scully as a glamorous 1930s spy in a red dress.
