Shout Out / The X-Files, Seasons 4 to 6

Season Four

Herrenvolk

• 'Herrenvolk' is in German, roughly translated to "master race"; a term coined by the Nazis to refer the projected end result of their genocide, the creation of a "superior and pure" human being.
• Upon encountering the body of a dead man on the road, Mulder pulls a work order from his pocket for a company named Telus, an actual phone company in Canada.

Home

• Scully mentions her nephew watches Babe fifteen times a day and even bleats "Nah-ram-ewe!" from the movie.
• Scully says Mulder’s idea of settling down in a small town “would be like living in Mayberry. Scully and Mulder encounter the sheriff and the deputy named Andy Taylor and Barney Pastor. Both refer to The Andy Griffith Show.
• The Peacock family’s last names were named after former neighbors of Glen Morgan’s parents.
• 'Home' is defined as 1) one’s residence or house. 2) the social unit formed by a family living together. 3) a congenial environment or habitat. 4) a place of origin. 5) the objective in various games. 6) to go or return home. 7) processing to or toward a source of radiated energy used as a guide.
• Mulder pouts upon finding a newspaper with headline "Elvis Presley dead at 42" when he and Scully go through the Peacock’s house.
• Scully refers the kids who found the buried infant as the Sandlot Gang.
• The genetic deformities Scully observes in the dead infant are the quite rare 'Neu-Laxova syndrome,' 'Meckel-Gruber syndrome' and the 'extrophy of the cloaca'.
• During the primal beating of the deputy, the sheriff and the sheriff’s wife, Johnny Mathis’s "Wonderful! Wonderful!" plays prominently on the radio of the Peacock family’s Cadillac.

Teliko

• 'Teliko' is a mythological African 'spirit of the air' sometimes thought to be an albino.
• 'Teliko' is Greek for 'final',
• Mulder mentions Michael Jackson.
• Scully mentions 'albinism', a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to absence or defect of tyrosinase, a copper-containing enzyme involved in the production of melanin from Latin word 'albus' meaning 'white' that’s also called achromia, achromasia or achromatosis.

Unruhe

• 'Unruhe' is German for unrest or anxiety.
• Episode title is also similar to the last name of mass murderer Howard Unruh.
• Brand of film ETAP is the last name spelled backwards of assistant prop master Jim Pate.
• A Polaroid camera taking pictures of something other than the intended subject is the basis for Stephen King’s novella The Sun Dog.
• Scully says "Ich habe keine Unruhe" to Gary Schnauz literally meaning “I do not have anxiety” in German.
• The drug 'scopolamine' is an actual drug causing people to quickly become unconscious and twilight sleep, a condition that can render people unconscious following great moments of pain.

The Field Where I Died

• Vernon Ephesian's name combines real-life cult leader David Koresh's real name Vernon Howell and the title of a book from The Bible.
• There are similarities to the Waco massacre involving Vernon.
• Another massacre this episode shares similarities to is the Jonestown Massacre.
• The American Civil War battles described through the cult member were the Battle of Missionary Ridge and the Battle of Ringgold Gap.
• An hypnotized Mulder recalls himself in a past life dying on the field during the Civil War where his and Melissa Riedal-Ephesian's personas are Sullivan Biddle and Sarah Kavanaugh, names taken from real life Civil War soldier Sullivan Ballou who wrote a now-famous and very moving letter one week before he was killed in the First Battle of Bull Run to his wife Sarah, in which he assured her his love for her was 'deathless' and even though he might be killed in the war, he would always be with her, would wait for her and that 'we shall meet again.'
• The poem Mulder recites at both beginning and end is taken from Paracelsus by Robert Browning.
• The words "sometimes I remember" which Mulder pronounces at the end belongs to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Prometheus Unbound.

Sanguinarium

• Dr. Theresa Shannon was named after actress Shannon Tweed.
• Nurse Rebecca Waite’s name most likely comes from Arthur Miller’s character Rebecca Nurse and nineteenth century Occultist Arthur Edward Waite.
• The words 'vanitas vanitatum' scrawled in blood on Dr. Franklyn’s mirror means 'vanity of the vanities'.
• 'Sanguinarium' is Latin for 'place of blood'. 'Sanguinary' means carnage, bloodthirsty or consisting of blood. 'Sanguinaria' means bloodroot.
• The book Mulder reads and learns witches can make people vomit needles is Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology by Russell H. Robbins.

Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man

• Magazine title to which Cigarette Smoking Man submits his stories is “Roman à Clef,” French phrase meaning "novel with a key" where real events are written up as fiction and the key referred to is not in the text, but in the reader's knowledge of the actual events being described under the guise of fiction.
• Dialogue spoken in the scene with the military men is lifted from Apocalypse Now.
• References to Space: Above and Beyond are made:
  • Cigarette Smoking Man’s first novel is called ‘Take a Chance,’ a catchphrase.
  • Certain cases considered “classified compartmentalized” is a level of secrecy invented for the show.
  • Name of the main character in Cigarette Smoking Man’s novels is named Jack Colquitt, a soldier appearing in the episode Who Monitors the Birds?.
  • When young Cigarette Man and Deep Throat flip a coin to decide who will kill the alien, it is quite reminiscent of how the Silicates made their decisions.
• Editor Walden Roth who buys Cigarette Smoking Man’s story is named after 20th Century Fox’s head of drama Dana Walden and President Peter Roth of the Entertainment Group for Fox Broadcasting Company.
• When ranting to a bum, Cigarette Smoking Man begins with "Life is like a box of chocolates" line from Forrest Gump .
• This episode was based on a Superman comic book story called Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography.
• Two of a young Cigarette Smoking Man’s aliases are based on supposedly real people:
  • When meeting Lee Harvey Oswald, the latter calls the former “Mr. Hunt,” a name coming from an E. Howard Hunt that, according to some conspiracy theorist, Oswald kept corresponding with before John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
  • And when Cigarette Smoking Man is referred to as “Raoul” by Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassin James Earl Ray, a name numerous people identified a co-conspirator in the slaying of the activist and leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
• War Is Hell is shown playing at the Texas Theatre where Lee Harvey Oswald is apprehended.
• When Cigarette Smoking Man is out on the street looking for the magazine that published his work, there’s another white magazine bearing the cover line “Where the hell is Darin Morgan?” which is in regards to writer/co-executive producer Glen Morgan’s brother Darin Morgan’s departure from the writing staff.
• Young Bill Mulder asks young Cigarette Smoking Man why he’s reading The Manchurian Candidate instead of seeing the movie.

Tunguska

• The scientist infected by the Black Cancer, Dr. Sacks is possibly named after famed neurologist Oliver Sacks.
• Alex Krycek tells Mulder “When you go underground you gotta learn to live with the rats,” a possible reference to Krycek’s actor Nick Lea’s nickname “Ratboy.”
• Scully unzips the diplomatic pouch the second courier drops as he escapes Scully, Mulder and Krycek at the Dulles International Airport only to reveal a seemingly unremarkable rock inside:
  Mulder: What did you get for Halloween, Charlie Brown?
• 'Tunguska' refers to a location in Siberia where an object struck the earth on June 30, 1908, leveling over half million acres and hundreds of times stronger than the blast of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
• The gulag setting is based off Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s works.

Terma

• Alex Krycek’s Russian alias "Comrade Arntsen" is named for Val Arntzen, a member of the Set Decorating Department.
• 'Terma' or correctly known as 'tyurma' is Russian for prison or jail along with being a Latin conjunction of death.
  It’s also key Tibetan Buddhist and Bön teachings, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts in the eighth century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as 'tertöns'.
• Well-Manicured Man quotes a famous speech Mark Anthony held at Caesar’s burial in Julius Caesar by saying “But, Senator Sorenson is an honorable man, they are all honorable... these honorable men...”, though replace Senator Sorenson’s name with Brutus.
• Tag line 'E Pur Si Muove' is Italian for "and still it moves" or "and nonetheless it does move,” a phrase supposedly said by Galileo under his breath after the Church forced him to admit his theory on the Earth rotating around the sun was incorrect
• The gulag is based from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s works, mainly One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago.

Paper Hearts

• Mulder finds John Lee Roche’s trophy cloth heart inside a copy of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
• Roche’s old car El Camino was sold to a man and where Mulder finds it is in Hollyville, Delaware, named for Vince Gilligan’s girlfriend Lucy “Holly” Hartwell Rice.
• Bosher’s Run Park refers to Bosher’s Dam in James River Park.
• Both Mulder and Roche mention The Magician.

El Mundo Gira

• 'El Mundo Gira' is Spanish for 'The World Rotates'.
• As both Scully and Mulder walk away, Scully croons softly only Mulder can hear:
  Scully: Maria, Maria, I just met a girl named Maria.
• Mulder explains there been reported of black, red, blue, purple and green rains documented by witnesses.
  Scully: Purple Rain?
• Loosely translated as "goat sucker," El Chupacabra is an urban mythical monster of Latin American origin, believed to suck the blood of livestock animals, especially goats with descriptions varying wildly from a doglike form to a lizard type being.

Leonard Betts

• "Will the real Leonard Betts please stand up?" is a famous catchphrase from game show To Tell the Truth.
• The man from the bar who has lung cancer is named John Gillnitz, an amalgamation of three writers John Shiban, Vince Gilligan and Frank Spotnitz.

Never Again

• Ed Jerse’s favorite bar is named “Hard Eight” for the production company of writers Morgan and Wong.
• The song playing while Scully and Ed Jerse sit together is "The Have Nots" from X (US Band)’s 1982 album Under the Big Black Sun.
• The rock song playing while Jerse sits alone is "Tattooed Love Boys" from Pretenders.
• Scully’s tattoo of a mythical snake eating its own tail is the 'Ouroboros,' a symbol of the never ending cycle of destruction and re-creations in the universe. The symbol is also used in Millennium (1996).
• The camera angles and long tracking shot going backwards down the stairs are conscious homages to similar shots in Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy.
• Upon visiting Jerse at his apartment, Scully tells Ed on her last date she saw Glengarry Glen Ross and the characters had more than she did.
• Ed Jerse’s downstairs neighbor Kaye Shilling shares her name with Entertainment Weekly editor Mary Kaye Shilling.
• Mulder mentions the Republic of Karelia, a real place that’s part of Russia located at the border between the Russian Federation and Finland, having a level of autonomy roughly equal to a US state with its own internally elected government and assembly.
• During the first scene in which Betty the tattoo convinces the man to assault his neighbor, the song "Doesn’t Somebody Want to be Wanted" by The Partridge Family is heard in the background.
• Betty the tattoo’s voice actress Jodie Foster appeared in an episode of the sitcom in one of her earlier roles called The Eleven Year Itch.
• Scully mentions Rocky and Bullwinkle.
• When Scully connects to the internet from Jerse’s computer, a list of fictionalized search engines are seen based on real ones: ‘Magella’ = Magellan, ‘Excited’ = Excite, ‘Yahoots’ = Yahoo!!, ‘Infos’ = Infoseek
• Jerse’s web browser Cyberscope is a takeoff on Netscape.
• Mulder’s list of people for Scully to investigate include the names of popular Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff, author Vladimir Nabokov and Russian film maker Vsevolod Pudovkin of the 1920's.
• Mulder makes a 'spiritual' journey to Elvis' home.

Memento Mori

• Kurt Crawford shares the exact name of creator Chris Carter’s contact at the FBI whom he goes to check facts for accuracy.
• 'Memento Mori' 1) is Latin for “remember that you are mortal”; 2) refers to a type of Victorian photography where a recently deceased person is photographed post-mortem, often with family members, dressed and posed as though in a deep sleep rather than dead.
• In regards to John Byers.
  Frohike: Smile Byers, you’re on candid camera.

Kaddish

• 'Kaddish' is the name of traditional Jewish mourning prayer repeated daily for thirty days for a relative or a spouse or eleven months for a parent following day of burial and is also related on the anniversary of death.
• Episode title shares the same name as an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street.
• Isaac Luria is presumed to have returned as a golem, a being created for a purpose, often to defend or avenge, in Jewish folklore.
• Isaac Luria is named after famed rabbi of the same name who is regarded as the father of Jewish mysticism.
• Detective Bartley is named after ex-cinematographer John Bartley.
• Kolin is mentioned as the place where the communal ring was made and it's mentioned as a village near Prague. Kolin is in fact a rather big town near Prague.

Unrequited

• Mulder mentions 'The Warren Commission' who investigated the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy and concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone but many people, including conspiracy theorists, don’t believe the Commission’s findings.
• 'Unrequited' means 1) not avenged. 2) not requited. 3) not reciprocated or returned in kind.
• General Peter McDougal was named for series editor Heather MacDougal.
• When Nathaniel Teager confronts Mrs. Davenport in front of the Vietnam Memorial, two names visible on the wall behind her are Jesse R. Ellsion and Harlan L. Hahn. Harlan Ellison is a famous science fiction writer and fan of the show. Model and actress Jessica Hahn is well-known for the sex scandal involving her and Reverend Jim Baker.
• Names of X-Files crewmembers are etched into the wall.
• Nathaniel Teager turning invisible and back to being visible at will is just like Susan Storm/Richards, Sandra Knight, Kent Allard, Space Ghost, Miles Morales, Stephanie Brown, Sam Casey and others.

Tempus Fugit

• Crash survivor Larold Rebhun shares his name but not its pronunciation with X-Files’ sound mixer Larold Rebhun.
• 'Tempus Fugit' is a Latin expression meaning “time flees,” more commonly translated as “time flies”.
• Title also shares the same name of a song by Yes.
• After Mulder establishes the reason of him and Miller share the goal as to why the plane crashed:
  Mike Millar: And if any of the capable men and women find Doctor Spock’s phaser or some green alien goo, we’ll be sure to give you all the credit.
• The pseudonym Max Fenig uses is Paul Gidney, the last name “Gidney” deriving from one of the two Moon Men.

Max

• The song playing when Scully turns on Max Fenig’s stereo is "Unmarked Helicopters" by Soul Coughing.
• Again, Max’s pseudonym Paul Gidney possibly derives from one of the two Moon Men.
• Dialogues base from The Third Man is used.

Synchrony

• Opening scenes mirror scenes from Back to the Future.
• 'Synchrony' means 1) simultaneous action, development, or occurrence. 2) the state of operating or developing according to the same time scale as something else.
• Mulder tells Jason Nichols that the frozen dead security guard has become Frosty the Snowman gone south.

Small Potatoes

• 'Small potatoes' is a phrase meaning “not a big deal” or “not overly important.”
• As Eddie van Blundht looks at Mulder’s driver’s license, the street address where Mulder lives is 42-2630 Hegla Place, the numbers 2630 is the street number for the building used on York Avenue in Vancouver for exterior shots of Mulder’s apartment.
• Disguised as Mulder, Eddie looks at himself in the mirror while practicing his techniques.
• Doing a DeNiro impression:
  Eddie van Blundt: You looking at me? There ain't nobody else here, you must be lookin' at me. You want a piece of this?
• Eddie van Blundht flees from Mulder and Scully and takes refuge in the guise of a husband to one of the tailed babies’ mothers, giving her the pet name “Babboo,” a reference to Sally Brown calling Linus her “Sweet Babboo.”
• Mulder refers to the opening of Cole Porter’s Let’s Fall in Love by saying “birds do it, bees do it, even educated MDs do it.”
• Interrupting Amanda Nellingan who’s humming a familiar theme:
  Scully: How many times have you seen Star Wars, Amanda?
• One of the headlines on the tabloid newspaper is “ETAP Bigshot Busted” from pro-master Jim Pate.
• Eddie-as-Mulder listens to Mulder’s answering machine:
  Langly: Mulder, Langly. You gotta see this. As online associate of ours, who will remain anonymous, has figured out a way to digitize the Zapruder footage so he can extrapolate a bird’s eye view of the Dealey plaza at t he exact moment of the assassination. You’ll never believe where the third shot came from.

Zero Sum

• 'Zero Sum' refers to the precept of game theory that a situation in which a participant’s gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of another.
• Name of the school is J.F.K. Elementary School.
• Bees attack the children and their teacher while playing on the playground.
• When Skinner flips through a filing cabinet, one of the files is labeled “Foo Fighters,” also a term of unexplained flying objects observed by pilots during World War II.

Elegy

• Mulder asks Harold Spuller about one of the victims named Risa Shapiro, the name of Mulder’s actor David Duchovny’s agent.
• Harold Spuller’s roommate Chuck Forsch is named for Chris Carter’s Los Angeles based assistant.
• '' Dr. Martin Alpert is named after writer John Shiban’s physician.
• An 'elegy' is a poem expressing grief for someone who passed away.
• One of the original titles for the episode was 'Tulpa,' a ghostly manifestations of a thought-formed produced by the mind in Tibetan mystic practice.
• Another title of the episode was 'Revenant,' one that comes back following an absence or one who returns after death.
• Sidney Lassick plays a patient at the New Horizon Psychiatric mental institute, and Nurse Innes is similar to Nurse Ratched.

Demons

• At one point, Mulder asks Scully if she’s familiar with the words “Orenthal James Simpson.”
• Amy Cassidy and David Cassidy were named after Greek prophetess Cassandra from classical Greek mythology.
• Ill-fated police officer Michael Fazekas was named for Co-Executive Producer Frank Spotnitz’s assistant.
• 'Demons' could refer to 1) an evil spirit or Satan. 2) a source or agent of evil, harm, distress, or ruin. 3) an attendant power or spirit. 4) a supernatural being of Greek mythology intermediate between gods and men. 5) one that has exceptional enthusiasm, drive, or effectiveness.
• Episode was influenced from An Anthropologist on Mars, a series of essays by Oliver Sacks in particular The Landscape of Dreams featuring a man who could recall every detail of his childhood.
• 'Geschwind syndrome' is the ability to recall every memory of one's younger life.

Gethsemane

• 'Gethsemane' refers to biblical garden Gethsemane where Jesus Christ was betrayed by Judas.
• Michael Kritschgau is named for a former drama teacher of Gillian Anderson, Dana Scully’s actress.

Season Five

Redux

• 'Redux' means brought back, as following retirement, illness or long inactivity.
• There are some references to JFK:
  • When Kritschgau describes the government conspiracy to Mulder is much like the scene in JFK between Detective Jim Garrison and his informant X.
  • Mulder says “Let the truth be known though the heavens fall” during his voiceover is quite similar to Garrison’s line "Justice be done though the heavens fall."
  • Much like the meeting between Cigarette Smoking Man and The Elder, JFK also had a “secret meeting” taking place at a race track.
• Mulder says “If this treason should prosper” in a voiceover narration in the opening scenes, a paraphrase of line usually attributed to Roman Poet Ovid, not to mention credit has gone to English epigrammist Sir John Harrington:
  Treason doth never prosper
  What’s the reason?
  Why if it prosper,
  None dare call it treason.
• The monitor the guard watches as he witnesses Mulder’s wandering through the top secret area is labeled with brand name “ETAP,” again, a reference to prop-master Jim Pate.

Redux II

• 'Redux' means come back following retirement, illness or long inactivity.
• The name Roush is probably a reference to then-USA Today writer Matt Roush.

Unusual Suspects

• Susanne Modeski’s dentist Dr. Michael Kilbourne is named after writer Vince Gilligan’s own dentist.
• Byer’s full name is John Fitzgerald Byers and he was born on November 22, 1963, the same day of the thirty-fifth president’s assassination.
• The video game Byer’s booth partner is seen playing during the first half of the episode is Dig Dug.
• Episode title ‘Unusual Suspects’ 1) refers to The Usual Suspects. 2) may or may not be based from the line “round up the usual suspects” said by Captain Louis Renault. 3) a play on phrase “the usual suspects.”
• 'White Rock' is the name of a small, unincorporated town in New Mexico, largely populated by employees of Los Alamos National Laboratory and their families.
• Ripping off Byers’ FCC button:
  Frohike: Welcome to the dark side.
• Elron the Druid and Middle Earth are mentioned.
• Richard Langly comes up from behind a dividing curtain to his own booth connected to Melvin Frohike and pulls the curtain away to see Frohike and Susan Modeski:
  Langly: Hey lady, if you want to watch Matlock with Andy Griffith all blue and squiggly, go right ahead and buy from this guy. But, if you want quality bootleg cable, you talk to me.
• Byers ask Susan what secret forces within the government did to JFK.
• As Frohike rants on about the government that gave Amtrak is behind some conspiracies, Langly mentions the Susan B. Anthony dollar.
• The line “Your kung fu is best” refers to famed computer hacker Kevin Mitnick leaving voice messages “My kung fu is best” to tease investigators who were attempting to apprehend him.
• Detective John Munch mentions American attorney, journalist, author, reporter and talk show host Gerald Rivera in his line “Don’t lie to me like I’m Geraldo Rivera. I am not Geraldo Rivera!” which is a very similar line used in the pilot of Homicide: Life on the Street.
• When Susanne first meets Byers, she tells him her name is “Holly,” borrowing the name from the packet of Holly Sugar on the table but it’s also the name of Vince Gilligan’s girlfriend Lucy “Holly” Hartwell Rice.

Detour

• A 'detour' is 1) a road used temporarily instead of the main route. 2) a deviation from the direct course of action
• Search and rescue leader Officer Michele Fazekas is named after writer and executive producer Frank Spotnitz’s assistant Michael Fazehas.
• Mulder, Scully, Agent Michael Kinsley and Agent Carla Stonecypher find themselves in a hostile environment just like Lewis Medlock, Ed Gentry, Bobby Trippe and Drew Ballinger.
• Mulder asks Scully if she identified more with Betty or Wilma as child.
• Scully sings Three Dog Night’s “‘Joy to the World’” to Mulder in the woods.
• After Scully asks the local technician’s thought on who killed the men surveying an area of the forest:
  Jeff Glaser: Nature is populated by creatures either trying to kill something they need to surviv or trying to avoid being killed by something that needs them to survive. If we become blinded by the beauty of nature, we may fail to see its cruelty and violence.
  Scully: Walt Whitman?
  Jeff Glaser: No, When Animals Attack! on the Fox Network.
• Louis Asekoff watches The Invisible Man (1933).
• Scully asks Mulder if the Mothman is listed in the X-Files next to “the Cockroach that ate Cincinnati,” a reference to a 1996 movie and a 1974 song by Rose and the Arrangement.
• 'Mothman' was a legendary creator first reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia from November 15, 1966 to December 15, 1967 that’s been later popularized by John keel in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies which was later made into a 2002 movie.
• 'Mothman' was also the name of a Batman villain.
• The 1991 “Tailhook Scandal” is mentioned where on the thirty-fifth Annual Tailhook Symposium held September 5 to September 7 of that year at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel, eighty three women and seven men claimed to be sexually assaulted and since there was much controversy about the ensuing investigation and allegation that the Bush administration considered a witch hunt.
• Mulder admits the only time he has ever thought about seriously dying was at the Ice Capades.
• The monsters of the week being primitive humanoid beings with tree bark like skins are able to perfectly camouflage itself almost to the point of complete invisibility in order to stalk and attack people in or around the forest.
• Mulder and Scully examine the dead creature Scully shot after falling through a hole into an underground chamber where the bodies of their missing companions are stored, the Latin words for “into darkness,” 'Ad Noctum' are carved into a tree trunk.

The Post-Modern Prometheus

• There are many references to Frankenstein:
  • The title relates to Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein that’s subtitled as The Modern Prometheus which in turn is a reference to demi-god Prometheus who made men out of clay and is probably best remembered as being the one who stole fire from Olympus and taught mortal men how to use it and got punished by being chained to a rock and having an eagle eat his liver every day by Zeus.
  • Dr. Francis Pollidori having to leave to deliver an address at the University of Ingolstadt, a reference to the Ingolstadt University institution where medical student Victor Frankenstein has the idea of creating a human.
  • Dr. Pollidori’s wife is named Elizabeth, the same name as Dr. Frankenstein’s wife.
  • Pollidori shows Mulder and Scully the image of a fruit fly with legs growing out of its mouth, claiming he created the mutant by genetic manipulation, worth noting it’s actually a random mutation that does occur in nature without human intervention in real life.
  • The line "IT’S ALIVE!"
  • Mulder even calls Pollidori “Dr. Frankenstein.”
• Dr. Pollidori was named for personal physician Dr. John Pollidori of Lord Byron, the latter suggesting the ghost story competition inspiring Mary Shelley to writer Frankenstein.
• Several references to The Elephant Man:
  • Whole episode’s in black and white.
  • Similar monologue.
  • A celebrity embraces the deformed person.
• To Pollidori as he tries to leave in order to deliver an international address:
  Scully: Sir, unless you want your scientific achievements end up as a footnote on The Jerry Springer Show, I suggest that the time.
• Two (fake) episodes of The Jerry Springer Show along with Jerry Spring himself also appear.
• Three songs by Cher are heard: "The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore" during the teaser, "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" when Mulder and Scully arrive at the fumigated house, and "Walking in Memphis" during the concert at the end.
• Mutato watches Mask starring Cher.
• Shaineh Berkowitz gets the name after serial killer David Berkowitz.

Christmas Carol

• On the back of the photograph Bill Jr. shows Scully is an “ETAP” logo, again, the last name of assistant prop master Jim Pate spelled backwards.
• 'Christmas Carol' is an obvious take on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
  • Emil’s adopted family name of “Sim'' is taken from actor Alastair Sim who played Ebenezer Scrooge.
• The person running the DNA analysis at the end of the episode is named “John Gillnitz,” a combination of three staff writers and producers John Shiban, Vince Gilligan and Frank Spotnitz.

Emily

• Emily watches Life with Louie in her hospital room.

Kitsunegari

• 'Kitsune-gari' means fox-hunt in Japanese.
• Linda Bowman’s brain tumor looks like a diamond with an “S” in the middle, though it may be because the co-writer of this episode Tim Minear was fresh off the staff of the show.
• Calmly to Skinner:
  Modell: Hey, it’s Mel Cooley.
• The cerulean blue paint used was manufactured by the “Gulf Breeze” company, 'Gulf Breeze' being the name of a suburb in Florida known for being a hotbed for UFO sightings.

Schizogeny

• The “Ich Bin Ein Auslander” poster is for the band Pop Will Eat Itself.
• In the opening scene, Bobby Rich is playing MDK and listening to "Hands of Death" by Rob Zombie, featuring Alice Cooper.
  • The camera centers on a wall in Bobby’s room covered in posters where two of them are the covers of Megadeth’s albums Rust in Peace and Countdown to Extinction.
  • Another poster is of Canadian hard rock/metal signer Chrissy Steele’s only album Magnet to Steele.
• Replace the “e” with an “o” in 'Schizogeny' and you get the word that means reproduction by multiple asexual fissions.

Chinga

• 'Chinga' is 1) named for an iron meteorite structurally an ataxite with very rare kamacite lamella. 2) an offensive slang term in Mexico. 3) a political ward in the Othaya Constituency.
• The episode’s setting takes place in the coastal town of Ammas, Maine where Stephen King, who wrote this episode, was not only born but uses the state as the principal setting for almost all his novels.
• The "Hokey Pokey" playing throughout the episode is performed by Jo Ann Greer & The Skyliners.
• Name of the boat is Working Girl.
• The book on Scully’s nightstand in her motel room is titled “Affirmation For Women Who Do Too Much,” is a reference to Arianna Carrillo’s book Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much''.
• When Scully mentions the possibility of a possessed doll being involved in the killings, Mulder jokingly mentions Chucky.
• The classical music selection playing as Scully drives into town and when she takes a bath is "Piano Concerto No.3, Opus 89" by Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

Kill Switch

• A 'kill switch' is usually a button or switch that shuts something down completely and may or may not be the normal method of turning something off, sometimes meant to be used only in emergencies.
• A “swoosh” sound effect used for the firing of the orbital weapons platform is a stock sound used in many other movies.
• The A. I.’s missile system was compared to the technology from A New Hope.
• Esther Nairn’s blonde hair and particularly her black makeup make her look like Pris at the end of the movie the latter appears in.

Bad Blood

• The episode is similar to Rob and Laura Petrie each telling their neighbor their version of what lead to their fight.
• The plot of a same event being recounted by two or more characters is like Rashomon.
• 'Bad Blood' refers to a 1975 song by Neil Sedaka, name of an episode of Degrassi High, a limited Hellblazer comic series, title of a chapter in Trainspotting, a volume from the Creation Cinema series, three movies (1982 British-new Zealand thriller, a 1986 French film and the last one made in 1989), a 1990 action role-playing game, or a term meaning enmity or bitterness among individuals or groups of people.
• The episode taking place in a fictional Texas town called “Chaney,” probably so named since both father and son played vampires during their illustrious film careers. Though there is a real Texas town named ‘Chaney’ about half-way between Abilene and Ft. Worth founded in the 1880's and named after its 1902 Post Master.
• Alleged vampire Ronnie Strickland shares the same middle name “LaVelle” as Xander Harris.
• Ronnie works for AB Pizza, 'AB' being a blood type among three others.
• Scully suspects that the killer isn't a vampire but instead somebody who has seen too many Bela Lugosi movies.
• As the camera pans across the funeral home's display room doubling as the morgue, a casket in the foreground sports a tag identifying its model name as 'Iditarod,' a sixteen hundred kilometer dogsled race run from Anchorage to Nome, starting on the first Saturday in March.
• When mentioning possibly being thrown in prison to Scully:
  Mulder: Your cell mate’s nickname is going to be Large Marge, she’s going to read a lot of Gertrude Stein.
• Mulder jokingly suggests satanic cultists:
  Scully: You’re not gonna tell me you think it’s that Mexican goat-sucker thing.
  Mulder: El Chupacabra? No, they got four fangs, not two and they suck goats hence the name.
• The "Ride of the Valkyries" composed by Richard Wagner is heard in the background shortly after Mulder’s futile attempt to stop the runaway RV that eventually rolls to a halt on its own.
• Sherriff Hartwell is named for Vince Gilligan’s girlfriend Lucy “Holly” Hartwell Rice.
• A drugged Mulder regurgitates Shaft’s theme song when Scully finds him on the floor next to the bed
• When Mulder explains his theory on vampires being obsessive, having to undo knots and collect seeds, Sheriff Hartwell compares that to Raymond Babbitt’s counting sticks.

Patient X

• Well-Manicured Man answers the phone:
  Alex Krycek: Well, look who’s answering the Batphone.
• Just like Amy Cassidy and David Cassidy from the twenty-third episode of season four, Cassandra Spender was named after Greek prophetess Cassandra.
• The Cassiopeia constellation is paid particular close attention, named for Queen Cassiopeia who was placed in the heavens by Neptune but was condemned to sit in her throne for all eternity, it’s speculated aliens originate from that particular area.
• 'Patient X' is a term used to describe a patient remaining anonymous.
• Mulder almost ad verbatim a famous quote by a British politician as well as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in regards to Soviet Union with his line “This whole phenomenon is a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a government agenda.”
  Winston Churchill: I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.
• As Cassandra watches the news footage and mourns the loss of people she knows killed on Skyland Mountain, some of the staff’s names roll by: Val Arntzen -– a set decorator, James Pate – an assistant prop master, Kathleen Kasinger – another assistant prop master.

The Red and the Black

• 'The Red and the Black' refers to Stendhal’s novel Le Rouge et le Noir, name of a Blue Öyster Cult song, a song from Les Misérables, name of a film made by the American government in the 1950s during the height of McCarthyism, name of the first solo album by former member Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers and perhaps to the Blue and the Grey.

Travelers

• 'Fellow Travelers' were Americans who were sympathetic toward the Communist cause during the McCarthy era.
• Agent Arthur Dales’ partner Hayes Michel was named after then fiancé of Chris Carter’s executive assistant Mary Astadourian.
• The song playing in the German doctor’s house is “‘Lili Marlene,’” a German love song popular with soldiers of both sides in World War II.
• J. Edgar Hoover’s paranoid rant^note  “In 1945, at the time of the first conference to map out the peace, after the Second World War, there lived within the Soviet orbit 180 million people. Lined up on the anti-totalitarian side at that time were one billion, 625 million people. Today, Mr. Dales, just seven years later, there are 800 million people under the absolute domination of Soviet Russia—an increase of over 400 percent. On our side the figure has shrunk to around 500 million. In other words... in less than seven years the odds have changed from nine to one in our favor, to eight to five against us. The threat of global communist domination is a reality that can be ignored only at the risk of our own annihilation. If we are to defeat the enemy, we must use their tools. We must go further. We must do those things which even our enemies would be ashamed to do. It is only through strength that we can make our enemies fear us, and thereby ensure our own survival. You have one chance, Mr. Dales, to save yourself—to demonstrate that you have the strength to serve your country.” to Arthur Dales about the Communist menace was taken almost verbatim from a speech given by former Wisconsin Republican Senator:
  Joseph McCarthy: Six years ago, at the time of the first conference to map out peace. There was within the Soviet orbit 180 million people. Lined up on the anti-totalitarian side there were in the world at that time roughly 1,625 billion people. Today, only six years later, there are 800 million people under the absolute domination of Soviet Russia – an increase of over 400 percent. On our side, the figure has shrunk to around 500 million. In other words, in less than six years, the odds have changed from nine to one in our favor to eight to five against us.
• The record the agents stop on the turntable was recorded by a “Paula Rabwini,” one of the producers of the show and was recorded on a “ETAP” recording label, once more referring to the last name of assistant prop master Jim Pate.

Mind’s Eye

• Not only does 'Mind’s Eye' refers to the human’s ability for visualization but it was made known from the second scene of act one in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet where Hamlet recalls his father to his close friend:
  Hamlet: My father – methinks I see my father.
  Horatio: Where, my lord?
  Hamlet: In my mind’s eye, Horatio.
• While it’s true Shakespeare used the phrase, thus making it well known, it was first used in Exposition of Revelations written by Christian mystic Joachim of Flora in 1183:
  "I suddenly perceived in my mind’s eye something of the fullness of this book and of the entire harmony of the Old and new Testaments."
• A published version of the 'mind’s eye' concept can be found in a 1577 letter written by a French diplomat to Sir Philip Sidney:

  Hubert Languet: What will not these golden mountains effect... which I dare say stand before your mind’s eye day and night?

• Chaucer used the term 'mind’s eye' one hundred, eighty seven years before Languet, in the twenty-second stanza in part two of The Man of Law’s Tales:

  That oon of hem was blynd and myghte nat see,
  But it were with thilke eyen of his mynde
  With whiche men seen, after that they ben blynde.

• This series isn’t the only one to use “Mind’s Eye” for an episode title: The ninetieth-eight Star Trek: The Next Generation episode has a “the.”Fourteenth episode of Women: Stories of Passion uses the title on the fourteen episode.
• Excluding other titles made after this episode, other medias used 'mind’s eyes' include Håkan Nesser’s 1993 novel The Mind’s Eye, a song by Wolfmother, a pair of Doctor Who audio stories called "The Mind's Eye & Mission of the Viyrans", a series BBC radio drama titled Mind’s Eye set in Dublin about the paranormal, a 1991 book In The Mind’s Eye by Thomas G. West, American theatrical radio company The Mind’s Eye, a series consisting several art films using computer-generated imagery of varying levels of sophistication, name of an 1986 album as well as a song by Vinnie Moore, the song “‘The Mind’s Eye’” by Compos Mentis from Gehennesis, a video analysis research project by the U.S. Military using artificial intelligence, name of a Swedish progressive metal band, video game developer Mind’s Eye Productions based out of the United Kingdom, a 1994 Stiltskin album called The Mind’s Eye, a site in the Cayman Islands, live action role-playing game Mind’s Eye Theatre based on the White Wolf’s World of Darkness universe, and a song by the titular Goldfinger.
• Marty Glenn is considered the opposite of Susy Hendrix.

All Souls

• Skimming through a sort of an “Unholy Bble,” Mulder ironically wonders why aren’t there citations from Jesus Christ Superstar.
• When Scully takes Emily’s picure from her desk and tearfully looks at it, the piano theme playing is Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, 3rd movement.
• 'All Souls Day' is a holiday with its roots in the ancient "Pagan Festival of the Dead," celebrating the Pagan belief that the souls of the dead would return for a meal with the family.
• The four faces Scully sees on the 'seraphim' at the end are animals associated with the four evangelist apostles: Matthew (Winged Man), Mark (Lion), Luke (Bull) and John (Eagle), used in Christian art to symbolize these saints.
• Mulder refers to a crucifix hanging in what is usually considered an 'inverted crucifix' known as the “Cross of Saint Peter” when Peter was martyred, he asked to be crucified head down because he was unworthy to die in the same manner as Jesus Christ.
• “Well Scully, aren’t you the Secret Squirrel?”

The Pine Bluff Variant

• 'Pine Bluff' refers to the fact a United States biological warfare compound existed in Pine Bluff, Arkansas during the Cold War and the 'variant' part of the title perhaps refers to a disease or viral strain much like Ebola Reston is a variant of the Ebola virus named for the place it was discovered, Reston, Virginia.
• The title also refers to the 'Pine Bluff Arsenal,' an United States military base with stockpiles of chemical weapons.
• The alias Mulder uses while staying at the Aaron Burr Motor Court Hotel and later when Scully asks for him, is Mr. Kaplan.
  • Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson’s Vice President and responsible for the dueling-death of Alexander Hamilton, was convicted of treason in 1807 but was acquitted, though has gone down in history as a traitor.
• In the torture scene, Mulder refers to Jacob Haley’s skinhead strongman as “The Gimp.”
  • Mulder’s response towards the “Gimp” roughing him up in the interrogation scene is almost identical to Sam Spade’s response to Wilmer Cook after being roughened up.
• Die Hard with a Vengeance, Godzilla and Dark City are shown at the cinema.
• Posters for The Big Lebowski and Titanic (1997) are seen.
• Mulder refers to the Pepsi challenge, a Pepsi blindfolded advertising scheme the Pepsi company ran where they were served both Pepsi and Coke and asked which the customer preferred.
• This episode was influenced by The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

Folie à Deux

• Agent Rice, who’s in charge of the hostage situation, is named for writer Vince Gilligan’s girlfriend Lucy “Holly” Hartwell Rice.
• Shirley Temple’s 1935 film The Little Colonel is being watched inside Gretchen Starns’ house.
• 'Folie à Deux' is French for “a madness shared by two” or 'shared psychosis,' a psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another.

The End

• Mulder’s line “how’s little Carnac doing?” refers to Carnac the Magician, a spoof mind reading character created by Johnny Carson.
• Gibson Praise watches a clip from The Simpsons episode “The Cartridge Family,” an episode of The '90s The Silver Surfer animated show and King of the Hill episode “Shins of the Father.”
• Gibson complains the only American show he can watch in the Philippines is Baywatch.
• Inget Murray Hospital is named for set designers Shirley Inget and Graham Murray.

Season Six

The Beginning

• The guard sleeping on the job in front of the nuclear power plant console is named Homer. Homer is also named for the writer of The Iliad and The Odyssey.
• Mulder’s and Scully’s new boss is named Kersh, after characters Dr. Kersh and Anton Kersh from Vampire Circus.
• A. D. Maslin was named for New York Times film critic Jane Maslin.
• A. D. Bart was named for Variety critic Peter Bart.
• Men in Black is brought up in dialogue.

Drive

• In yet another reference to writer Vince Gilligan's girlfriend Lucy “Holly” Hartwell Rice, the gas station where Mulder steals the station wagon is named "Holly's.”
• After Mulder asks what caused the wife’s nosebleed:
  Patrick Crump: What do I... I’m... I’m like Quincy, M.E.? How the hell should I know what caused it?
• The ELF communications system 'Project Seafarer' was not simply invented for this episode, it actually did exist although not in Nevada. The two antennas located at Clam Lake, Wisconsin and Gwinn, Michigan was the subject of many protests about the environmental impact of ELF waves. In 1984 a federal judge halted construction and operation of both sites pending further environmental testing, but this ruling overturned by an appeals court. The US Navy spent $25 million studying the environmental impact and came to the conclusion that any effects were similar to those produced by power distribution cables. Needless to say, many people refused to accept these findings, claiming a government and military cover-up. During the late 1990's, Project Seafarer was increasingly seen to be obsolete as improvements in communications technology rendered the use of ELF waves unnecessary. Seafarer was discontinued and dismantled in September 2004.
• Mulder makes a reference to Speed in his line “If you stop moving, you die?” and lampshades it by saying he’s seen this movie.
• The opening footage is done in the style of a news report.
• Country music singer and songwriter along with steel guitar player Junior Brown plays the part of farmer Virgil Nokei, the man who buys a lot of fertilizer.
• Some old woman watches Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing.

Triangle

• When asked who the scientist on board the ship is, Mulder points to an already dead man on the ground is a reminiscent of a scene in Schindler's List where a young Jewish boy tells the Nazi officers that a man who was just shot stole the chicken they were interrogating them about, thus saving more people from being shot though unlike the boy, Mulder is unsuccessful in his attempt to trick the Nazis.
• The episode was filmed in the style of Rope with the story taking place in real-time and being shot in continuous takes with no cutaway shots.
• This episode has many references to The Wizard of Oz:
  • Mulder running into people who look identical to those who are important to him.
  • Mulder’s wrecked boat’s called “Lady Garland,” ‘Garland’ being the last name of Dorothy’s actor.
  • The first ballroom scene includes a band named "Elmira Gulch and the Lollipop Guild. 'Elmira Gulch' was the name of the old woman who wanted to take Toto and turned out to be the Wicked Witch of the West and the 'Lollipop Guild' was the ruling body of the Munchkins.
  • Captain Yip Harburg shares the exact name as the film’s lyricist.
  • In the hospital when Mulder is telling Scully and Skinner that they were there, Skinner replies “Right, me and my dog Toto.”
  • Scully says “Mulder, I want you to close your eyes and I want you to think to yourself 'there's no place like home’" to Mulder.
  • The events Mulder witnesses on the Queen Anne are taking place in 1939, the same year the movie was released.
• Frohike calls Mulder Gilligan.
• Episode title 'Triangle' may be a reference to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album cover.

Dreamland

• Michael McKean’s character Morris Fletch gets his last name from the actor’s son Fletcher.
• After opening Morris Fletcher’s closet filled with black suits.
  Mulder: Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Johnny Cash.
• Mulder-as-Fletcher encounters his reflection and proceeds to do a dance in front of the mirror, where in reality, both actors David Duchovny and Michael McKean perfectly synchronized their movements.
• The Golf game Morris-as-Mulder plays on the office computer is Tiger Woods PGA Tour 99.
• To Mulder, about his clandestine source:
  Scully: How do we know he's not just another crackpot whose encyclopedic knowledge of extraterrestrial life isn't derived from reruns of Star Trek?
• Jeff Smoodge says “Beam me up, Scotty!”
• 'Dreamland' is a nickname standing for Data Repository Establishment And Management Land for Area51, the Air Force base near Groom Lake, Nevada reputed to be the US Government's base for conducting experiments with alien technology.

Dreamland II

• 'Dreamland' is an acronym standing for “Data Repository Establishment And Management Land” for Area51, the Air Force base near Groom Lake, Nevada reputed to be the US Government's base for conducting experiments with alien technology.
• Morris Fletcher’s voiceover begins with Once Upon a Time, alluding to fairytales.
• To Mulder-as-Morris:
  Scully: I’d kiss you if you weren’t so damn ugly.
• Morris-as-Mulder plays Tiger Woods PGA Tour 99 on the office computer.
• Fletcher-as-Mulder comments that Saddam Hussein is really a dinner theatre actor named “John Gillnitz,” the name being a composite of writers John Shiban, Vince Gilligan and Frank Spotnitz.
• There’s a home movie showing a young Mulder dressed as Spock playing with his sister Samantha.
• A frustrated Mulder-as-Fletcher calls old Indian lady Lana Chee “Grandma Top Gun.”
• Contemptuously to Frohike as he leaves the Lone Gunmen’s place:
  Morris-as-Mulder: Back off Sneezy.
• A scene takes place in a bar called "Little A'Lie'Inn,” where there’s such place called “Little Al’Le’Inn” in Rachel, Nevada complete with UFO and time capsule just off a road called "The Extraterrestrial Highway."
• The cover story on The Lone Gunmen newspaper that Morris-as-Mulder reads is titled "Monica - Minx Or Mandroid," a reference to the Clinton/Lewinksy political sex scandal emerging in the late 1990s from a sexual relationship between forty-second President of the United States Bill Clinton and then-twenty two year old White House Intern Monica Lewinsky.

How the Ghosts Stole Christmas

• The haunted house’s address 1501 Larkspur Lane refers to Nancy Drew mystery story Password to Larkspur Lane.
• A heartbeat heard under the floorboards is from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart.
• To Mulder in his car:
  Scully: Tell me you didn't call me out here on Christmas Eve to go ghost busting with you.
• Mulder watches Scrooge on television.
• Character Maurice mentioning the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nod to his actor Edd Asner’s own well-known crusades for liberal causes.
• 'How the Ghosts Stole Christmas' is an obvious allusion to How the Grinch Stole Christmas..
• Fictional author R. Grimes of fictional book How the Ghosts Stole Christmas is named after assistant props master Marty Grimes.
• Scully asks Mulder if he heard any hound barking out by the moor.

Terms of Endearment

• The film playing on television when Mulder and Scully enter Wayne Weinsider’s house is The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.
• The illuminated milk Wayne holds while walking up the spiraling staircase in the dark is taken from Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion.
• 'Terms of Endearment' refers to the title of a film with Shirley MacLaine based on a book of the same name by Larry McMurtry.
• To the kids:
  Mulder: Ok Speed Racers, that enough driver’s education for today.
• When Wayne and later Betty drives the red sports car, the song "Only Happy When It Rains" by Garbage is heard.
• Scully mentions Rosemary's Baby.
• There are stylistic references to The Exorcist and The Evil Dead (1981).

The Rain King

• 'The Rain King' may be a reference to Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King novel.
• Mulder says “I’ll build the ark, you gather the animals” to Scully as the heavens open to release a rainstorm that’s threatening the reunion guests refers to biblical story of Noah, who was told by God to build an ark and take two of every animal with him as the floods rose.
• The theme of the high school reunion at the end is The Wizard of Oz theme along with the song “‘Over the Rainbow’” being played.
• As Mulder and Scully wander down the street, they pass “Vince’s Diner,” Vince being the name of writer Vince Gilligan.
• An unshaven and drunk Daryl enters the Kroner High School gym where the dance is via an outside door:
  Daryl Mootz: It’s good to be the king! It’s good to be the king!
• The real culprit Holman Hardt being able to control the weather is like Ororo Munroe, Trisana Chandler, Rob McKenna, Tenshi Hinanawi and some others.
• Kroner, Kansas was named for writer Jeffrey Bell’s college roommate Paul Kroner at the University of Cincinnati.

S.R. 819

• The trainer mentions Stevie Wonder.
• The main thrust of the plot is based on D.O.A..
• The nurse’s line “at lease you didn’t get your ear bitten off” refers to the infamous Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield boxing fight, when Tyson bit off part of Holyfield's ear.
• 'S. R. 819' refers to actual Senate Resolution from 1993 regarding a hazardous, toxic and potentially deadly chemical 'Trifluoromethylaniline.'
• St. Katherine’s Hospital was named for writer John Shiban’s sister, Katie.
• Dr. Katrina Cabrera was named after a researcher on The X-Files staff.

Tithonus

• Mulder’s line “the Muslim superstition that taking someone's picture is stealing their soul” refers to well-documented belief in societies where practice animist religions where in the Muslim world, an aversion to being photographed may have more to do with a general artistic prohibition on depicting the human form.
• Police photographer Alfred Fellig who knows when people will die is named after Arthur “WeeGee” Fellig, a New York City photographer in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, taking gruesome crime scene photos which the newspapers usually printed along with their stories.
  • Alfred Fellig’s name comes from another famous photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
    • Other than the "L.H. Rice" reference to Lucy “Holly” Hartwell Rice the girlfriend of Vince Gilligan, all of Alfred Fellig's other pseudonyms were references to real-life photographers.
  • Another character named for a real life photographer is Henry Strand, sharing the last name of New York City photographer Paul Strand in the early 1900s, who went through a period of photographing his subjects without their knowledge in attempt to extract a "quality of being" from them. At the time this act was quite controversial.
  • Louis Brady may been named for Mathew Brady, a photographer covering the Civil War era when photography was still relatively new.
• 'Tithonus' is the name of a mortal man in Greek Mythology who fell in love with Eos, Titan Goddess of Dawn and Zeus made him immortal after Eos begged him though neglected to give him eternal youth.
  • It is worth mentioning a "tithonograph" is defined as "a photograph produced by the action of 'tithonic' rays on a sensitized surface" and "tithonic rays" are "analogous to rays of dark heat."
  • Alfred Fellig has thematically been compared to Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s monologue Tithonus.
• Dick Clark is mentioned.

Two Fathers

• Again, in Greek, the name Cassandra means “prophet of doom,” and here we have Cassandra Spender that can see the future wanting to end her life because her existence as the first alien/human hybrid signals the beginning of an alien colonization.
• Alex Krycek says a variant of the Borg’s trademark saying by quipping “Resistance was futile then, why would it be any less so now?”

One Son

• The alien colonists being played by young girls in costumes just like the aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind were.

Agua Mala

• When Deputy Greer calls in before entering the apartment building, he identifies himself as “Car 54.”
• 'Agua Mala' is Spanish for “bad Water.”
• The term 'agua mala' is a slang name the particularly venomous Portuguese man o’ war jellyfish in the Caribbean.
• A Shipley boy is wearing a Miami Dolphins number 13 Dan Marino jersey but with the name “SHIPLEY” on the back.
• Mulder and Scully pulls into the Breakers Condominium’s parking lot besides Deputy Greers’s flashing vehicle and both get out the car and enter the garage.
  Scully: Mulder, isn’t that...
  Mulder: Forrest Gump.
• A The Great Escape poster is seen in George Vincent’s living room.

Monday

• The man who tries to hold-up the bank, Bernard Oates, shares the maiden name “Bernard” to the mother of Vince Gilligan’s girlfriend Lucy “Holly” Hartwell Rice.
• Cradock Marine Bank is named for 'Cradock,' a suburb in Portsmouth, Virginia.
• 'Cradock' is a name of a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
• Mulder is seen wearing an Omega watch.
• Though the episode’s plot has a woman named Pam living through the same day multiple times has people believe it’s a reference to Groundhog Day, though according to John Chiban and Vince Gilligan, it’s actually based on The Twilight Zone (1959) episode "Shadow Play".
• This episode shares the same plot as Stargate SG-1 episode "Window of Opportunity".
• There’s a resemblance to Run Lola Run, where there are four different "what if" stories, all ook almost the same only with a difference of changing just a little bit in the story then future can change completely.
• This episode was previously titled 'Mobius,' a one sided surface that can be formed from a rectangular strip by twisting one end one hundred degrees and fastening it to the other end.

Arcadia

• The name of one of the neighborhood mailboxes Polizzi is in honor of Lauren Polizzi, one of the art directors on design directed Corey Kaplan’s staff.
• Mulder is seen again wearing an Omega watch.
• In ancient Greece, 'Arcadia' was the name of a district famous for its rustic peace and simplicity.
  • 'Arcadia' is even defined as region in ancient Greece held to be an ideal of rural simplicity and peacefulness, or a region offering rural simplicity and tranquility.
  • 'Arcadia' are also geographical places. Or small town in Victoria a village and town on Magnetic Island. And a suburb of Sydney.
• In fact, there are plenty of disambiguation for arcadia.
• The name 'Ubermenscher' is actually a Tulpa, a Tibetan thought form brought to life through mysticism.
• 'Ubermenscher' is close to the German word 'Übermensch,' meaning ‘super human.’
• Mulder and Scully use pseudonyms Rob and Laura Petrie while going undercover.

Alpha

• Kennel owner Karin Berquist and Dr. Ian Detweiler are a nod to writer Jeffery Bell’s friends as well as a nod to singer and songwriter Karin Bergquist along with pianist, guitarist and bassist Linford Detweiler of Over the Rhine and an oblique reference to the band’s 1996 album Good Dog, Bad Dog.
• Name of Chinese freighter T'ien Kou translates to “heavenly dog,” a Chinese term for “shooting star.”
• 'Alpha' is 1) the first letter of the Greek alphabet. 2) the vowel sound represented by this letter. 3) the leader or authority in a group. 4) used to designate the brightest star in a constellation. 5) one of two or more isomeric compounds in chemistry.

Trevor

• Trevor Gurwitch is named for John Shiban’s young nephew Trevor Marquiss.
• Wilson Rawls is a criminal who controls electricity nicknamed “Pinker” or Pinkie.
• Scully mentions 'spontaneous human combustion,' describes the burning of a living or very recently deceased human body without an apparent external source of ignition.
• Wilson Rawls’s ability is intangibility, the same power as Larry Trainor, Kitty Pryde and such.

Milagro

• Phillip Padgett is seen smoking a “‘Morley’” brand cigarette, again the name of fictional brand that not only appeared in the series but also in Murder in the First, 200 Cigarettes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Outer Limits, Nash Bridges, That '70s Show, Mannix, Mission: Impossible, ER, Friends, Dan August, Space: Above and Beyond, The Twilight Zone (1959), The Dick Van Dyke Show, Beverly Hills, 90210, Millennium (1996), Murderer’s Rowand Becker.
  • Nicholas Lea has played a character named "Phillip Padgett" in an episode of The Burning Zone.
• The index cards Padgett pins to his wall are covered with plot points from T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land.
• A variation of Dr. Ken Naciamento's last name spelled 'Nascimento' is Portuguese for "birth". Another variant spelled 'Nacimento' is Spanish for "birth" as well.
• Naciamento can be referred to 'nacimiento,' a traditional nativity scene in many countries of Europe, Latin America and other parts of the world. Also names of a settlement in Chile, Mexico, California and Spain. Other geographic features with the name 'nacimiento' are Nacimento River, Nacimiento Mountains, Lake Nacimiento, Nacimiento Formation, Cerro del Nacimiento Mountain Peak and Nacimiento Campground.
• In the cemetery, the camera passes a headstones bearing the names Diana and Nicholas Salinger with the year of death being 1994.
• The name in the cemetery may refer to J. D. Salinger.
• 'Milagro' is Spanish for 'miracle'.

The Unnatural

• 'The Unnatural' episode title refers to The Natural.
• Arthur Dales refers Mulder as “MacGyver” a few times.
• Scully’s comments about getting an urgent message on her answering machine from one Fox Mantle, an allusion to former New York Yankees player, Mickey Mantle who has been induced into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
• Mulder quipping “ET steal home” to Dales regarding the possible alien baseball player not only refers to titled alien ET, but the famous film phrase “ET phone home” as well as a baseball “stealing home.” Even the baseball that is ominously thrown from the dark.
• Baseball loving alien Josh Exley was modeled on Josh Gibson who played for Washington’s Homestead Grays.
• The name “Exley” derives from American author Frederick Exley.
• The Coach’s jersey identifies his name as “Shiban,” name of Producer John Shiban.
• Name of Josh Exley’s team is called the Roswell Grays, recalls both legendary Negro league baseball team Homestead Grays and the archetypal “grey aliens” of UFO lore.
• The song heard near the end is “‘Come and Go With Me’” originally by Bernice Johnson Reagon.
• The baseball announcer on television as Scully heads on her way to Mulder’s office is Vin Scully, the man whom Agent Dana Scully is named after.

Three of a Kind

• 'Def-Con' is an actual convention held in Las Vegas where it’s a gathering of computer hackers.
• At the poker game, the defense contractor asks John Fitzgerald Byers about the “AE-135” unit.
• Timothy ‘Timmy the Geek’ Landau asks Richard Langly to attend a Dungeons & Dragons game in his late friend James ‘Jimmy the Geek’ Balmont’s honor but it’s a setup to inject him with analytic histamine substance.
• Frohike asks the bouncer if he wants to “Thunderdome.”
• Scully calls the Lone Gunmen "The Three Stooges."
• When bringing a drugged Scully back to a hotel room where the other two Gunmen are:
  Frohike: I found Agent Scully-go-lightly going court (Scully grabs his butt) bar!
• Richard Langly wears Motörhead t-shirts.
• When speaking to Susanne Modeski, Frohike mentions Mata Hari, born Margaretha Zella, a Dutch citizen achieving fame as an exotic dancer and high-class prostitute executed in 1917, accuse of spying for Germany during World War I where she was actually a spy for France.

Field Trip

• After shooting Skinner, Mulder strikes a James Bond pose.
• Sound effects from StarCraft are used.

Biogenesis

• 'Biogenesis' is Latin for “creation of life” and its meaning is “the doctrine that living organisms develop only from other living organisms and not from nonliving matter.”
• Footage of the two cavemen walking through a snowstorm is footage from The X-Files: Fight the Future during Scully’s prologue on the origins of life on Earth.