History Recap / TheXFilesS05E01Redux

!!![[AC:Recaps]]: [[Recap/TheXFiles Index]] | '''1''' | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E02ReduxII 2]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E03UnusualSuspects 3]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E04Detour 4]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E05ThePostModernPrometheus 5]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E06ChristmasCarol 6]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E07Emily 7]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E08Kitsunegari 8]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E09Schizogeny 9]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E10Chinga 10]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E11KillSwitch 11]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E12BadBlood 12]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E13PatientX 13]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E14TheRedAndTheBlack 14]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E15Travelers 15]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E16MindsEye 16]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E17AllSouls 17]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E18ThePineBluffVariant 18]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E19FolieADeux 19]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E20TheEnd 20]]

->''"What I have here is proof undeniable... that the men who gave me this disease were also behind the hoax."''

!!ALL LIES LEAD TO THE TRUTH:

----

!!Tropes:

-->This is the hoax into which you've been drawn. The roots go back 50 years to the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Playing on a virulent national appetite for bogus revelation and a public newly fearful of the atomic bomb, the U.S. Military Command began to fan the flames of what were being called flying saucer stories. There are truths that can kill a nation, Agent Mulder. The military needed something to deflect attention away from its arms strategy - global domination from the capability of total enemy annihilation. The nuclear card was fine as long as we alone could play it. But the Generals and Politicos knew they could not win a public relations war. Those photographs from [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki Nagasaki and Hiroshima]] were not faces Americans wanted to see in the mirror. [[UsefulNotes/RobertOppenheimer Oppenheimer]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone knew it]], of course, but we silenced him. When the Russians developed the bomb, the fear in the military was not for safety at home, but for armistice and treaty. The business of America isn't business, Agent Mulder, it's war. Since [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Antietam]], nothing has driven the economy faster. We needed a reason to keep spending money, and when there wasn't a war to justify it, [[InsistentTerminology we called it a war anyway]]. The Cold War was essentially a fifty year public relations battle... a pitched [[GameOfChicken game of chicken]] against an enemy we not much more than called names. The Communists called us a few names, too. "We will bury you," [[UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev Khrushchev]] said, and [[LostInTranslation the public believed it]]. And after what [[UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy McCarthy]] had done, [[RedScare they ate it with a big spoon]]. We faced off a few times in [[UsefulNotes/BayOfPigsInvasion Cuba]], [[UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar Korea]], [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam]], but nobody dropped the bomb - [[MutuallyAssuredDestruction nobody dared]].

* VillainousRescue: Zigzagged. The CSM identifies Mulder under his fake identity, but takes steps to ensure he is able to escape the Pentagon unmolested... with the fake cure. [[spoiler:Which contains the real one!]]

-->This is the hoax into which you've been drawn. The roots go back 50 years to the end of World War II. Playing on a virulent national appetite for bogus revelation and a public newly fearful of the atomic bomb, the U.S. Military Command began to fan the flames of what were being called flying saucer stories. There are truths that can kill a nation, Agent Mulder. The military needed something to deflect attention away from its arms strategy - global domination from the capability of total enemy annihilation. The nuclear card was fine as long as we alone could play it. But the Generals and Politicos knew they could not win a public relations war. Those photographs from Nagasaki and Hiroshima were not faces Americans wanted to see in the mirror. [[UsefulNotes/RobertOppenheimer Oppenheimer]] knew it, of course, but we silenced him. When the Russians developed the bomb, the fear in the military was not for safety at home, but for armistice and treaty. The business of America isn't business, Agent Mulder, it's war. Since [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Antietam]], nothing has driven the economy faster. We needed a reason to keep spending money, and when there wasn't a war to justify it, we called it a war anyway. The Cold War was essentially a fifty year public relations battle... a pitched [[GameOfChicken game of chicken]] against an enemy we not much more than called names. The Communists called us a few names, too. "We will bury you," [[UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev Khrushchev]] said, and [[LostInTranslation the public believed it]]. And after what [[UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy McCarthy]] had done, [[RedScare they ate it with a big spoon]]. We faced off a few times in [[UsefulNotes/BayOfPigsInvasion Cuba]], [[UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar Korea]], [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam]], but nobody dropped the bomb - [[MutuallyAssuredDestruction nobody dared]].

-->This is the hoax into which you've been drawn. The roots go back 50 years to the end of World War II. Playing on a virulent national appetite for bogus revelation and a public newly fearful of the atomic bomb, the U.S. Military Command began to fan the flames of what were being called flying saucer stories. There are truths that can kill a nation, Agent Mulder. The military needed something to deflect attention away from its arms strategy - global domination from the capability of total enemy annihilation. The nuclear card was fine as long as we alone could play it. But the Generals and Politicos knew they could not win a public relations war. Those photographs from Nagasaki and Hiroshima were not faces Americans wanted to see in the mirror. [[UsefulNotes/RobertOppenheimer Oppenheimer]] knew it, of course, but we silenced him. When the Russians developed the bomb, the fear in the military was not for safety at home, but for armistice and treaty. The business of America isn't business, Agent Mulder, it's war. Since [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Antietam]], nothing has driven the economy faster. We needed a reason to keep spending money, and when there wasn't a war to justify it, we called it a war anyway. The Cold War was essentially a fifty year public relations battle... a pitched game of chicken against an enemy we not much more than called names. The Communists called us a few names, too. "We will bury you," [[UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev Khrushchev]] said, and [[LostInTranslation the public believed it]]. And after what [[UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy McCarthy]] had done, they ate it with a big spoon. We faced off a few times in Cuba, Korea, Vietnam, but nobody dropped the bomb - nobody dared.

-->This is the hoax into which you've been drawn. The roots go back 50 years to the end of World War II. Playing on a virulent national appetite for bogus revelation and a public newly fearful of the atomic bomb, the U.S. Military Command began to fan the flames of what were being called flying saucer stories. There are truths that can kill a nation, Agent Mulder. The military needed something to deflect attention away from its arms strategy - global domination from the capability of total enemy annihilation. The nuclear card was fine as long as we alone could play it. But the Generals and Politicos knew they could not win a public relations war. Those photographs from Nagasaki and Hiroshima were not faces Americans wanted to see in the mirror. Oppenheimer knew it, of course, but we silenced him. When the Russians developed the bomb, the fear in the military was not for safety at home, but for armistice and treaty. The business of America isn't business, Agent Mulder, it's war. Since [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Antietam]], nothing has driven the economy faster. We needed a reason to keep spending money, and when there wasn't a war to justify it, we called it a war anyway. The Cold War was essentially a fifty year public relations battle... a pitched game of chicken against an enemy we not much more than called names. The Communists called us a few names, too. "We will bury you," [[UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev Khrushchev]] said, and the public believed it. And after what [[UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy McCarthy]] had done, they ate it with a big spoon. We faced off a few times in Cuba, Korea, Vietnam, but nobody dropped the bomb - nobody dared.

* MrExposition: Kritschgau gives a very detailed history of [[UsefulNotes/UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheColdWar the Cold War]]:

* MrExposition: Kritschgau gives a very detailed HistoryOfTheColdWar:
-->This is the hoax into which you've been drawn. The roots go back 50 years to the end of World War II. Playing on a virulent national appetite for bogus revelation and a public newly fearful of the atomic bomb, the U.S. Military Command began to fan the flames of what were being called flying saucer stories. There are truths that can kill a nation, Agent Mulder. The military needed something to deflect attention away from its arms strategy - global domination from the capability of total enemy annihilation. The nuclear card was fine as long as we alone could play it. But the Generals and Politicos knew they could not win a public relations war. Those photographs from Nagasaki and Hiroshima were not faces Americans wanted to see in the mirror. Oppenheimer knew it, of course, but we silenced him. When the Russians developed the bomb, the fear in the military was not for safety at home, but for armistice and treaty. The business of America isn't business, Agent Mulder, it's war. Since [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Antietam]], nothing has driven the economy faster. We needed a reason to keep spending money, and when there wasn't a war to justify it, we called it a war anyway. The Cold War was essentially a fifty year public relations battle... a pitched game of chicken against an enemy we not much more than called names. The Communists called us a few names, too. "We will bury you," Kruschev said, and the public believed it. And after what [[UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy McCarthy]] had done, they ate it with a big spoon. We faced off a few times in Cuba, Korea, Vietnam, but nobody dropped the bomb - nobody dared.

-->This is the hoax into which you've been drawn. The roots go back 50 years to the end of World War II. Playing on a virulent national appetite for bogus revelation and a public newly fearful of the atomic bomb, the U.S. Military Command began to fan the flames of what were being called flying saucer stories. There are truths that can kill a nation, Agent Mulder. The military needed something to deflect attention away from its arms strategy - global domination from the capability of total enemy annihilation. The nuclear card was fine as long as we alone could play it. But the Generals and Politicos knew they could not win a public relations war. Those photographs from Nagasaki and Hiroshima were not faces Americans wanted to see in the mirror. Oppenheimer knew it, of course, but we silenced him. When the Russians developed the bomb, the fear in the military was not for safety at home, but for armistice and treaty. The business of America isn't business, Agent Mulder, it's war. Since [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar Antietam]], nothing has driven the economy faster. We needed a reason to keep spending money, and when there wasn't a war to justify it, we called it a war anyway. The Cold War was essentially a fifty year public relations battle... a pitched game of chicken against an enemy we not much more than called names. The Communists called us a few names, too. "We will bury you," Kruschev said, and the public believed it. And after what McCarthy had done, they ate it with a big spoon. We faced off a few times in Cuba, Korea, Vietnam, but nobody dropped the bomb - nobody dared.

* AntagonistInMourning: Downplayed. The CSM goes to Mulder's apartment and is visibly emotional at the scene of Fox's "death". However, he is the first to doubt the veracity of this claim and sure enough, times proves him right.

* VillainousRescue: Zigzagged. The CSM identifies Mulder under his fake identity, but takes steps to ensure he is able to escape the Pentagon unmolested... with the fake cure.

* OnceMoreWithClarity: The opening scene from "Gethsemane" is repeated near the end of the episode. It makes a lot more sense with the stakes of the hearing spelled out.

* CliffhangerCopout: Near the end of "Gethsemane", the fourth season finale, [[spoiler: the audience sees Mulder alone in his apartment, crying with his gun in his hands. We cut away just before hearing his gun go off. The next scene is a flash forward in which Scully has apparently been called to his apartment to identify the body of a white male who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She identifies it as Mulder]]. This episode reveals that [[spoiler:Scully was lying, the body is not Mulder's, and the whole crying holding his gun thing was not related to anything. (Specifically, Mulder probably was contemplating suicide — until he was distracted by evidence that he was being spied on, confronted the spy, ended up shooting him, and concocted a plan with Scully to fake his own death.)]]
* DeadlyNosebleed: [[spoiler:Scully]] at the inquiry.

* NegatedMomentOfAwesome: As Scully is about to present the FBI inquiry with evidence blowing open the vast GovernmentConspiracy that has consumed her and Mulder's careers, [[spoiler:she suddenly faints after her DeadlyNosebleed returns.]]

* CliffhangerCopout: Near the end of "Gethsemane", the fourth season finale, [[spoiler: the audience sees Mulder alone in his apartment, crying with his gun in his hands. We cut away just before hearing his gun go off. The next scene is a flash forward in which Scully has apparently been called to his apartment to identify the body of a white male who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She identifies it as Mulder]]. The next season begins by revealing that [[spoiler:Scully was lying, the body is not Mulder's, and the whole crying holding his gun thing was not related to anything. (Specifically, Mulder probably was contemplating suicide — until he was distracted by evidence that he was being spied on, confronted the spy, ended up shooting him, and concocted a plan with Scully to fake his own death.)]]

* NegatedMomentOfAwesome: As Scully is about to present the FBI inquiry with evidence blowing open the vast GovernmentConspiracy that has consumed her and Mulder's careers, [[spoiler:she suddenly faints after her DeadlyNosebleed returns.]]

* NegatedMomentOfAwesome: As Scully is about to present the FBI inquiry with evidence blowing open the vast GovernmentConspiracy that has consumed hers and Mulder's careers, [[spoiler:she suddenly faints after her DeadlyNosebleed returns.]]

* MythArc