X FILES LYCEUM
225 ANASAZI

"EL 'AANIGOO 'AHOOT'E"
Tag line for this episode

"There are things dark and heinous in this world."
Agent Cooper Twin Peaks

"We will be known forever by the tracks we leave."
Dakota Tribe proverb

APRIL 9 - 16
TWO GREY HILLS, NEW MEXICO
DOVER, DELAWARE
NEW YORK CITY
WASHINGTON, DC
WEST TISBURY, MARTHA'S VINEYARD, MASSACHUSETTS
OFFICE OF THE NAVAJO NATION
After an earthquake shakes New Mexico, a long buried refrigerated box car is revealed to the grandson of a World War II code talker, Navajo Albert Hosteen. The item brought back to the Hosteen house, a mummified alien, seems to have a connection with a fourth member of the Lone Gunmen's discovery, and disappearance, and also with a sleeping giant group of old men who deal with lies in covering up the truth of long ago.

SCULLYVISION

From the start, Scully is covering Mulder's butt. She enters the episode to tell Mulder that their superior is looking for him and asks pointed questions when Mulder shows her 'the Holy Grail' in the form of encrypted Department of Defense classified documents. As Mulder flits between glee and frustration when he finds it all in code and calls it 'gibberish', sick of the BS and double talk, Scully calmly looks at it and remembers what her father told her while she was growing up. The government used the Navajo language to encrypt their messages and delicate files because it was the only code the Japanese couldn't break. Being the supportive partner, and seeing that Mulder is acting bizarre, asks what's wrong with him. From the start she knows something is wrong with her partner, even though he doesn't have a clue. It is up to Scully to crack the code. She is one loyal, yet put upon, partner. She has to break the code, protect, diagnose, comfort and take care of Mulder while risking her job and her life for him. Throughout all of this she continues to trust Mulder even when he is telling her that he doesn't trust her.

Later, after Mulder screwed up the meeting with Skinner by taking a punch at him (which Skinner is getting used to by now), it is Scully who is brought in to answer for Mulder's actions. She doesn't make any excuses for Mulder, but she does try to understand it and make them understand that Mulder isn't acting in his normal behavior. She lies for him at the meeting, but is told that she could be dismissed without the chance for reinstatement if she does. Scully is so loyal to Mulder that when she is being grilled by Skinner, Chris Carter (yes that was the man himself) and the other bullies, she reveals nothing. She goes straight to Mulder to ask what the hell's going on, not accepting his story when he's surly with her and says that he doesn't know why he hit Skinner or what's going on, then being sympathetic and worried. Her job is on the line, and she has to investigate this to save their jobs, and maybe their lives.

Scully finds someone in the Office of the Navajo Nation to break the code of the classified files, but she only recognizes a few words, 'merchandise, vaccination', modern words. Scully's life is in danger as she gets closer to a truth on the outskirts of the whole when she's shot at while at Mulder's apartment. She seems dazed at the magnitude of what this is turning into as she feels her forehead tingle, and sees her blood on her fingers, because the bullet grazed her.

From the beginning of this episode, Scully had to take care of Mulder because he was under artificial psychosis, but Dr. Scully came to Mulder's rescue when after his father was killed, she told him not to do all the things that he felt would be normal. He had to stay at his father's house or the police would think he's running, he couldn't go to his apartment, and most of all, he had to trust Scully. Mulder showed up at Scully's apartment, per her orders, and she gently placed him in her bed and waited until he was asleep to take his gun to run ballistics on it. Considering Mulder didn't know why he violently attacked Skinner, there's every reason in the world that there could have been an argument and Mulder had been the one to kill Mr. Mulder. She also knew that he wouldn't have handed over his gun willingly. She finds out why Mulder wasn't himself, spying a man with a tank and an unmarked van coming out of the basement of Mulder's apartment building. There was a dialysis contraption attached to one of the water tanks, and was being given LSD, dopamine, or any other mind-altering concoction.

Though saving Mulder at great peril to herself Scully never pulls any punches, demanding that Mulder assure her that what they are doing is right. Then she takes away Mulder's gun. Later she shoots him in order to save him. If that isn't loyalty, what is?

Sometimes it's downright scary to be the perfect partner. Shooting Mulder couldn't have been an easy thing to do, but had to be done. Since Mulder had Krycek's gun in his hand, and it could very well have been the one to kill Mr. Mulder, she had to make sure he didn't make it easy for the police to make the leap that Mulder killed his father.

Scully patched up Mulder and got him the hell out of the fray of whoever shot at her, psychotic cocktails, and his father's death, toward a man who could hold the answers they were searching for. The woman at the Office of the Navajo Nation had given the name of Albert Hosteen, who had been a code talker during WWII. Since her name is in those files, she needs Mulder to investigate that while she had to get back to Washington and once again try to save their jobs. Even though Scully literally comes within inches from taking a bullet to the brain, it does not deter her. She then discovers her own name in the secret files and this really doesn't deter her, quite the opposite.

While back in Washington, Scully doesn't take a day off, and seems to get Supersonic flights back to DC. She found out about testing done, and that there was a boxcar, which Mulder now stands upon. If Mulder survives the boxcar inferno, he should hot foot it back to FBI headquarters and make damn sure Scully's name gets put on the door to "their" office that we again see in this ep with only Mulder's name on it.

MULDERVISION

Mulder's dealing with a lot. He's having headaches; there was an unexplained, unexpected murder in his building; he doesn't know why he punched out Skinner; he gets 'the Holy Grail' but can't read it; and his father asks for his forgiveness, just before he dies. When he puts the signal in the window to call X, he has a decision to make. Will he wait for information that could be cryptic once again from X, or will be the dutiful son and see his father who made it sound urgent and what his father wanted to see him for could have been about anything? Mulder goes to his father, only to get a hint at the broader truth, and his father's involvement in it, just before his father is killed. As soon as he lays eyes on his former partner who had disappeared with the wind, and thinks he killed his father, Mulder beats Krycek to a pulp and is ready to kill him. One wonders if he would in fact have killed Krycek if Scully hadn't disabled him. Would he have had the courage to, or have done it when there are so many answers he needs and this man might hold some of them? When Mulder finds out all the happened while he was out of it after being shot, he has the decency to thank Scully for ignoring his yelling and accusations to take care of him. Mulder is more in his element as he looks at a glimpse of the truth (the buried refrigerator car) and is flippant with the CSM on the phone.

CARTERVISION

CSM says that he's been protecting Mulder all along, which could be the truth of Deep Throat's words about 'keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer' wasn't a lie and was the motto of the consortium, a group of old men who live and work in the shadows and who hold the secrets that Mulder is searching for. The Consortium has its own hierarchy. CSM isn't a man on his own, he has to answer to the group, or lie to them, as he has no trouble doing when he needs to cover his butt. Small Pox Vaccinations make their first appearance in this episode, and is a major aspect of the truth.

KRYCEKVISION

From Alex Krycek's first appearance on the scene, he's been misunderstood. Mulder thought he was just a kiss ass who wanted to take over his domain while Scully was abducted. Kazdan had treated him like a waiter during the Duane Barry hostage crisis, CSM thinks he's just a stupid grunt who would take orders and could be killed when no longer useful. All are wrong about Alex. He does take orders, bides his time, does what's expected of him. He did kill William Mulder in cold blood. From this episode, and the trilogy as a whole, William Mulder was not a babe in the woods innocent. He was responsible for testing, cataloging, and maybe abducting millions of people. One shutters to think how many people he may have killed, or had killed in his life. He went to Mulder's apartment, but who knows what he was there for. Sure, the easy answer was to kill Mulder, like father, like son, but he may not have been. He may have needed a gun to get Mulder's attention, and wanted to tell him a few things, join up together, tell him why his father had to be sacrificed, or sure, to pop him in the head. He certainly didn't fight back when Mulder punched him. When Mulder went for the gun, Krycek could very well have taken control of the fight, but didn't. When Scully shot Mulder so he wouldn't shoot Krycek, Krycek was stunned, scared, and when he was miles away, probably respected Scully more than he had before. He did tell the bosses that Scully was not one to be taken lightly, which made Scully's abduction happen. Now he knew that she could see the possibilities of people's actions done in the heat of the moment.

SAMANTHAVISION

Anasazi is a very scary episode. It is scary because Mulder is ill, his father is murdered, his partner is nearly killed and it feels like we are about to discover some bad things about Samantha's disappearance.

We learn that Bill Mulder was involved with the Cigarette Smoking Man. When he calls for his son to come to him, though he cannot verbalize what he has done, he hugs his son, something he has shunned before, and this we know is the harbinger of bad things to come. As he lays dying he asks his son to forgive him. For exactly what, we wonder.

OH COME ON!

If the woman in the Office of the Navajo Nation could interpret a few words, why didn't Scully ask her to completely translate it?

While Mulder was out of it, and Scully finds out from Albert that her name is in the files along with Duane Barry, why didn't she insist that Albert read her the rest of the files?

While Mulder and Albert were driving out to the buried refrigerated car, why didn't Mulder ask Albert what he encoded during WWII?

Where did Eric get the mummified alien if the box car is still buried?

How can a buried refrigerated boxcar have a hole to get out of?

THINGS LEARNED
or All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From the X Files

Navajo was the only language the Japanese couldn't interpret, so it was used as a code during World War II.

Always check the shower stall when taking an aspirin because you need a break from telling the awful truth to someone.

There was a tribe of Indian called Anasazi that means "ancient aliens."

Nothing disappears without a trace.

If Mulder's presumed dead, he's not.

Choose Mulder's cell phone service. The customer is never unavailable even if he is in the desert, underground and inside of an insulated box car. To its credit, the call did cut off when the trap door was slammed shut.

RECURRING CHARACTERS

Albert Hosteen, CSM, Lone Gunmen, Skinner, The Thinker, Kimberly, Krycek in the shower

WRITER
Chris Carter; with Story by David Duchovny and Chris Carter

What may have been in the 'bible' of the show all along is given a mega-shot of adrenaline in this episode, the season two cliffhanger. One wonders what was in the 'bible' before, and what was David Duchovny's contribution. One of the story editors was Darin Morgan, so it's no wonder why this trilogy was a winner. We are shown more about the mythology of the series by finding out that William Mulder had a hand in whatever the truth is, the Consortium is displayed as the bad guys running the covert show, Krycek is turning into an even more interesting character, the parallel of the love of Mulder's and Scully's family, or lack thereof, is taken to new heights. This episode is suspenseful, filled with great lines, structured well, and is a major episode that will remain a classic. Chris Carter revealed in an interview for the video release of this ep that he was going through the loss of one of his own parents at this time, no doubt contributing to the power of this trilogy.

DIRECTOR
R.W. Goodwin

In one of just a few of the marvelous instances of symbolism in this episode, Mulder received his father's phone call to come and see him as he was sitting on his couch at his apartment waiting for X. At his father's house, he was sitting on the couch as his father sat in a chair. After William Mulder is killed, Mulder places him on the couch and takes the chair. His father started this whole mess and now Mulder is taking his token place to find out what the mess is.

When Eric looks to the sky at the end, he (we) may expect a UFO, but instead we get a military helicopter.

THE USUAL THINGS
X on the window
Flashlights
Guns
Scully wears glasses
Cell Phones
Scully's white clunky cordless phone
Necklace
Bathroom
Krycek getting a butt whipping
Mulder sleeps on the couch
Aliens

Side note: Chris Carter makes a cameo as a power that be in the meeting that ended with Scully's leave of absence.

SCORE CARD FOR SAVING EACH OTHER'S ASS
6-4
Scully shot Mulder so he wasn't accused as his father's killer

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

Mulder: You know Krycek, even in a sick and weakened condition, I can still kick your butt. I think that the author of this site's KrycekVision is none other than you! I want to write a new section called KrybabyVision. What do you think?
Krycek: Mulder. Look at me. The chicks love me. You're just jealous. I let you 'kick my ass', you idiot. Think about it. You will pay for it one day when you least expect it.

ATHENAEUM
Part 1 of 3

Fox Mulder was dead. Frohike found it nearly impossible to believe even as he stumbled into Mulder's apartment and thumbed through Mulder's video collection. He had always longed for the day when these videos would be his. Now it didn't seem worth it, although there were one or two titles that were certain to help speed him through the grieving process. He picked up the video with a picture of a muscular woman crushing an old guy between her thighs. He took the video out of the box. There was a note taped to it:

Frohike
Why did I know that this would be your first choice? Don't forget our agreement; this collection is yours ,but first you must visit the Athenaeum..
Mulder

"Damn!" Frohike put the video back in the box and set out for the old library.

The abandoned building loomed large in front of Frohike. He checked the address again. "This is the right place. Lordy, I got a dead guy sending me on a wild goose chase," he mumbled. He entered the building anyway. Eventually he found the staircase and descended. Who he saw behind a large information desk was a man who spent his time skittering in the shadows. "Alex Krycek?"

"At your service."

Behind Krycek there were lots of shelves. Lots and lots of shelves. "Mulder sent me here. I'm not sure why," Frohike said.

"Mulder? I heard he was dead."

"Another lousy rumor."

"Perhaps he wanted you to learn about the Anasazi. Some say they had magical powers and could even raise the dead. Some say they communicated with aliens. Others say that they were aliens. Do you believe in aliens, Mr. Frohike?"

"You don't subscribe to the Magic Bullet, do you..."

"Why would I waste my time on that rag? Let me inform you. Anasazi is a Navajo word meaning Ancient Ones. The truth is that the Anasazi culture emerged in the southwest long before white man arrived. They left a great amount of archaeological evidence that can be seen at the borders of the four states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado."

Frohike, who took a lot to be squirmish, started to look for an exit when Krycek grabbed a back brush and opened a curtain behind him. Krycek reached in to turned the hot water on as he undressed. That didn't make Alex stop talking. No, not at all. "The Anasazi lived mostly in the Chaco Canyon where many masonry villages still exist. The villages are known as Casas Grandes with several kivas, sacred meeting places where they gathered together to celebrate their rites. The Anasazi culture, born around the time of Christ, really blossomed between the years 1050 and 1125 A.D."

"What are you doing?" Frohike asked.

"What does it look like?" Krycek replied.

"The sign says no smoking or showering," Frohike protested, pointing at the large sign above the shower.

"I don't follow rules," Krycek explained, then leered at Frohike. "Quit looking, you perv."

"Look who's calling the kettle black?" Frohike mumbled to himself.

Before Krycek shed his boxers, he stepped into the shower and closed the curtain. His studly silhouette could be seen through the flimsy curtain. Frohike was oddly intrigued. Not at the man, but by his lack of embarrassment that Frohike excelled in, and by the information being given. Frohike searched his pockets for a pen.

Krycek continued loudly over the sound of the shower spray, "Soon, however, raids by the Atapasca, namely Navajo and Apache, forced the Anasazi to seek refuge. In addition, famines forced them to further migrate. The culture declined quickly but even today we can find descendants of the Anasazi. They are the Hopi of Arizona, and the Zuni, Acoma and Pueblo of New Mexico."

"How do you know so much?" Frohike asked.

"It's my business to know. Mr. Frohike, it's closing time. That's it. No more. Leave, before I make you disappear."

Frohike knew Krycek meant business. For all he knew Krycek killed Mulder.

To be continued.

QUOTES

ALBERT Eric. Leave the snakes alone today. They'll be angry and afraid.
SON What is it?
ALBERT The Earth has a secret it needs to tell.
ERIC I found something. Better come see.

THE THINKER You bitch! Beautiful!

GERMAN You are familiar with the MJ file?
CANCERMAN Ja. I have already taken care of it.

CANCERMAN Gentlemen. That was the phone call I never wanted to get.

MULDER I'm not feeling well. I didn't sleep last night. I'm really not in the mood for the three stooges.

MULDER Have you boys been defacing library books again.?
BYERS In his last communique, The Thinker named a meeting place and a three hour time window. He asked specifically for you.

FROHIKE Weirdness.

THE THINKER I... I don't want you to know my real name. I... I just don't think it's that important that you know.
MULDER Sounds like a line I used in a bar once.

MULDER What have you got?
THE THINKER Well, if I'm correct I got the original defense departments UFO intelligence files. Everything from the 1940's and up.

THE THINKER I want the truth. And I want you to promise that those rat bastards answer to the people.

MULDER Are you familiar with the ten commandments, Scully?
SCULLY You want me to recite them?

SCULLY What are you talking about?
MULDER The biggest lie of all.
SCULLY What is this?
MULDER The Holy Grail. The original defense department files. Hard evidence that the government has known about the existence of extraterrestrials for over fifty years.
SCULLY Where did you get this?
MULDER Your friendly neighborhood anarchist.

MULDER Damn it. I'm so sick of this crap, BS and double talk. I can't believe this.
SCULLY Mulder, this may not be gibberish.
MULDER It's a joke Scully, it's a bad joke.
SCULLY I think it's just encrypted and I think I recognize it. It looks like Navajo. It was used in World War II. My father told me it was the only code the Japanese couldn't break, I... I remember the long strings of consonants.

SCULLY Mulder.... Are you okay?
MULDER Yeah. I just haven't been sleeping.

MULDER Is this another jerk off assignment where I end up doing the government's dirty work?
SKINNER It's about a rumor that you may be in receipt of some sensitive files.

SKINNER Are we done? We're done.

AGENT AT MEETING (played by Chris Carter) Weren't you originally assigned to agent Mulder to debunk his work?
SCULLY Am I being accused of lying?

CANCERMAN Who could have predicted the future Bill? That the computers that you and I only dreamed of would someday be home appliances capable of the most technical espionage.
BILL MULDER The files should have been destroyed.
CANCERMAN They should have, but they weren't. Regret is an inevitable consequence of life.

CANCERMAN As always we maintain plausible denial. The files are only as real as their possible authentication.
BILL MULDER My name is in those files.

BILL MULDER You wouldn't... harm him?
CANCERMAN I've protected him this long, haven't I? Your son has been provident in the alliances that he's created. The last thing we need is a martyr in a crusade.

SCULLY Mulder, you opened the door for them, they're just looking for a good reason now.

SCULLY I had to lie today, and I put my job in jeopardy in order to do so. If they find out about those files.
MULDER How would they find out?
SCULLY Maybe they already know. The question is, is it worth it? Is this cassette worth risking everything?

SCULLY I need to know one more thing Mulder. Why did you attack Skinner?
MULDER I've thought of that Scully. I honestly can't say.

NAVAJO WOMAN This word, it means goods, merchandise. And this one means vaccination. They're both modern words which is why they stand out.

BILL MULDER It's... Its so clear now. Simple. It was so complicated then. The, the choices that needed to be made.

BILL MULDER Your politics are yours, you've never thrown in. The minute you do that, their doctrines become yours and you can be held responsible.
MULDER You're talking about your work in the state department.
BILL MULDER You're going to learn of things... Fox, you're going to hear the words and they'll come to make sense to you.
MULDER What words?
BILL MULDER The merchandise.

BILL MULDER Forgive me...

MULDER I didn't do it, Scully, he was trying to tell me something.

MULDER I can't leave the crime scene, it'll look like I'm running, make me look guilty.
SCULLY Mulder, they're gonna suspect you anyway, you've got no ID on the shooter, you, your behavior has been irrational recently, Mulder can't you see that everything is pointing directly at you?

SCULLY You can't come home. Someone shot through your window tonight, they almost killed me, they might be trying to kill you.

MULDER You took my gun. You think I did it don't you?
SCULLY I took your gun to run it through ballistics to try and clear you Mulder.
MULDER Well why didn't you ask me?
SCULLY You had a temperature of 102 last night. I didn't want to wake you.
MULDER What were you afraid that I was gonna shoot you too?
SCULLY Mulder, I'm being called into Skinner's office this afternoon, they're gonna want answers and I'd like some good ones to give them.
MULDER So you can clear your conscience and your name?! You've been making reports on me since the beginning Scully, taking your little notes!
SCULLY Mulder you're sick, you're not thinking straight, I'm on your side. You know that.
MULDER Look you have my files and you have my gun. Don't ask me for my trust.

MULDER I'm gonna kill you anyway Krycek so you may as well tell me the truth. Did you kill my father? Did you kill him? Answer me.
SCULLY Mulder, don't shoot him. Just back away.
MULDER He killed my father, Scully.
SCULLY I have him, Mulder.
MULDER No, Scully...
Scully shoots Mulder, Krycek gets away.

MULDER You shot me.
SCULLY Yes, I did. You didn't give me much choice, you were going to shoot Krycek.
MULDER Why'd you shoot me? He's the one.
SCULLY If he is, then his weapon is probably the same one that killed your father.
MULDER What are you talking about?
SCULLY If you killed Krycek with that weapon there would have been no way to prove that you didn't kill your father. I'm sorry about your father, Mulder. I haven't been able to tell you.

SCULLY It's a dialysis filter. It's a device used in the transmission of substance to solution, considering the level of psychosis you were experiencing, it was probably LSD, amphetamines of some kind of exotic dopamine.
MULDER Oh my God. There was a murder in my building.
SCULLY Well it wasn't an exercise in subtlety. Mulder these men are quite possibly the same ones who killed your father and who systematically tried to destroy you by turning everyone you could trust against you. I don't think I have to tell you why.

SCULLY This is Albert Hosteen, he's been translating your files.
ALBERT You're lucky she's a good shot.
MULDER Or a bad one.
SCULLY Albert was a Navajo code talker during World War II. He helped encode the original government documents.

SCULLY Most of these files are written in jargon but apparently there was an international conspiracy of silence dating back to the 1940's. Albert says that evidence of these secrets are buried on a Navajo reservation not far from here. He says that he'll take you as soon as you are able.

SCULLY My name is in those files. It appears in the latest entries with Duane Barry's.
MULDER In what context?
SCULLY It's not clear, but it has something to do with a test. I want you to find out, Mulder. I need you to.

ALBERT In the desert, things find a way to survive. Secrets are like this too. They push their way up through the sands of deception so that men can know them.

ALBERT There was a tribe of Indians who lived here more than 600 years ago. Their name was Anasazi, it means ancient aliens. No evidence of their fate exists. Historians say they disappeared without a trace. They say that because they will not sacrifice themselves to the truth.
MULDER And what is the truth?
ALBERT Nothing disappears without a trace.
MULDER You think they were abducted.
ALBERT By visitors who come here still.
MULDER What's buried out there?
ALBERT Lies. You will see for yourself.

CANCERMAN You're a hard man to reach.
MULDER Not hard enough apparently.
CANCERMAN Where are you?
MULDER I'm at the Betty Ford center, where are you?
CANCERMAN I need to talk to you, Mr. Mulder, in person. There are some things to explain.
MULDER I'll save the government the plane fare, I just need to know which government that is.
CANCERMAN He was never an opponent of the project. In fact he authorized it. That's what he couldn't live with.
MULDER No, he couldn't live with it because you had him killed.
CANCERMAN We weren't involved in that.
MULDER Now listen to me you black lunged son of a bitch, I'm gonna expose you and your project, your time is over.
CANCERMAN Expose anything and you only expose your father.

MULDER I'm in a boxcar buried inside a quarry. There are bodies everywhere.
SCULLY Bodies?
MULDER Stacked floor to ceiling.
SCULLY What happened to them?
MULDER I don't know.
SCULLY Mulder, in these files I found references to experiments that were conducted here in the US by Axis Power scientists who were given amnesty after the war.
MULDER What kind of experiments?
SCULLY Some kind of tests, on humans, what they referred to as merchandise.
MULDER But these aren't human Scully. From the look of it I'd say they were alien.
SCULLY Are you sure?
MULDER I'm pretty damn sure. Wait a sec... this one... has a smallpox vaccination scar.
SCULLY Mulder...
MULDER Oh my God Scully, what have they done?

CANCERMAN Nothing vanishes without a trace. Burn it!

To be continued