The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat
Something's not right in this photo. note
Written and directed by Darin Morgan
"But, again, how does this... mystery guy, whose fingerprints came up with nothing, how does he even know about these, these secret memories of ours?"
— Dana Scully
Mulder and Scully meet a man (Brian Huskey) whose claims of a "different world" lead to a baffling investigation.
Tropes:
- Aborted Declaration of Love: In Reggie's reminiscence of their last X-File together, Scully begins to say she's always loved him. Reggie shushes her because Mulder is right in front of them breaking down from the news about Sasquatch.
- Ambiguous Situation: What isn't? Everything that Mulder and Scully find out by the end is thrown into doubt by Dr. They's boast that he can alter memories and, through them, the past.
- Arc Words: There's a repeated instance of someone exclaiming "Wait, what?" when they learn a shocking discovery.
- Awful Truth: Played for laughs.Mulder: So that's the truth? We're not alone in the universe, but nobody likes us?
- Backstory Invader: Reggie, the guy who tells Mulder and Scully about the memory conspiracy, insists he's known them for years, and eventually claims to have founded the X-Files, but nobody apart from him remembers this because he's being erased. He turns out to probably just be crazy. Or is he?Skinner: Where the hell are they taking Reggie?
- Call-Back: A looooong one. Way back in "Unusual Suspects," Mulder is heard calling another agent named Reggie on his cell phone while trying to track down Susanne. (Of course, this was actually Reggie Purdue, Mulder's then-boss at the FBI whom we met in "Young at Heart"... or was it?)
- Continuity Nod: The events that Reggie was apparently present for are Scully first entering Mulder's office, Tooms being led past the agents, Clyde Bruckman discussing different outcomes to historical events, the lead up to a killer cat reveal, finding Mrs. Peacock, and Eddie Van Blundht-as-Mulder almost kissing Scully and returning to normal.
- Fake Memories: The key of the episode with Reggie realizing he remembers things differently. This leads to Mulder mentioning the Mandela Effect but Reggie thinks it's really "The Mengele Effect" after how people remember Josef Mengele arrested in Ohio in the 1970s.
- Fandom-Enraging Misconception: In-Universe: When Scully suggests The Twilight Zone (1959) episode Mulder is thinking of may be an episode of The Outer Limits (1963), Mulder yells, "Do you even know me?"
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: According to the alien in the supposed final case, humans are so awful that we're to be blocked off from leaving the Solar System and that no aliens will make further contact. After denouncing humans as drug-dealing criminals and rapists, the alien concedes every species have their share of these problems, but he adds that lying is trait unique to humans and that they could infect other species with that."Good luck, and good riddance."
- Impossibly Mundane Explanation: Mulder seems to thinks so, being outright insulted by Scully's suggestion that his favorite episode of The Twilight Zone (1959) may have been from a different show and he simply misremembered. Which turns out to be entirely correct, the episode actually belonging to a low-budget knockoff.
- Missing Episode: In-Universe example. At first, Mulder doesn't believe Reggie's tales of missing memories and such. But then Reggie presses in on "The Lost Martian," the very first episode of The Twilight Zone (1959) Mulder watched and how it doesn't exist. Sure enough, Mulder discovers that not only is the episode in no DVD or VCR collections but the official episode guides and forum boards make no mention of it.
- In the final scene, Mulder claims he found that it was an episode of a knock-off called The Dusky Realm.
- Nostalgia Filter: In the end, Mulder and Scully decide this isn't such a bad thing, and even though Scully has tracked down a pack of that off-brand Jell-O she used to love as a kid and made a batch of it in Mulder's Bigfoot print cast, they decide not to eat it.Scully: I want to remember how it was.
- Occam's Razor: Mentioned by Scully with Reggie insisting it's called "Ozzy's Razor."
- Real After All: After it's said that all of Reggie's "memories" of being with the team were just delusions from NSA tapping, Mulder and Scully sadly watch him be sent off to a mental institution. At this point, Skinner (who hadn't shown up at all in the episode) appears, demanding to know, "where are they taking Reggie?," and the two exchange stunned looks.
- Self-Deprecation: It's a Darin Morgan episode, so of course it's full to the brim with this.
- Self-Serving Memory: Scully brings this up when Reggie talks of his not being remembered in his high school yearbook as "no one remembers our high school years with accuracy."
- Take That!:
- There are many, and most dish it out to the Trump administration.
- Mulder touches on a long-ranging fan debate at the idea of mixing up The Twilight Zone (1959) and The Outer Limits (1963).
- Mulder insisting that the Mandela Effect proves that there are alternate universes, and Scully and Reggie's insisting that "we're not doing an alternate universe thing" bashes the alternate universe "theorists" and Fringe, which uses that explanation so much.
- "Guys, if this turns out to be killer cats, I'm going to be very disappointed."
- Tantrum Throwing: In the supposed "final case" Reggie did with Mulder and Scully on the X-Files, Mulder has a (hilarious) tantrum and throws down the alien's book of all knowledge before hysterically throwing himself to the ground.
- Tomato in the Mirror: The opening of a man realizing the "Martian in the mirror" is literally himself.
- The Wall Around the World: The "final case" alien declares that an electromagnetic barrier will be erected to prevent further contact — humans can probe Uranus as much as they want, but anything trying to leave the Solar System will be disintegrated.
- What Are Records?:
- Scully asks what a "lawn dart" is after one is used as a murder weapon.
- Invoked. Dr. They notes that his number is in the phone book, though he concedes people might not know what one is anymore.
"I want to remember how it all was."
