"Fallen Angel" ended with Mulder being an eyewitness to Max's abduction by some force. He was raised in a glowing beam of light and, as far as we knew, he hadn't been heard from since. Suddenly, the plane is buffeted by violent turbulence. The assassin leaves the bathroom to make his way to Max but before he can reach him, the plane is thrown into darkness and a blinding white light begins to shine in all the windows. Mulder and Scully are approached by a woman claiming to be Max's sister. She says she was told to contact them if anything happened. She said Max was on his way to talk to them and was bringing something he thought the government might kill him for, but she says his plane crashed. Mulder and Scully also search the crash site and discover victims' watches that are 9 minutes off in their time keeping. Nine lost minutes, a reference back to the pilot episode where the partners experienced missing time. Scully thinks Max may have been smuggling something radioactive on the plane since the man who was seated next to him had what looked like radiation burns on his face and body. Frish was told what story to give Mulder but decides that the cover-up is unacceptable when he returns to his post to find the mustache man and some of his goons sanitizing the place and the only other man on duty the night of the crash dead from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Mulder theorizes that there was a third craft that never appeared on his radar screen. An unidentified craft that engaged the civilian jet and was shot down by the intercept craft taking Max's plane with it by accident. The NTSB guy is suddenly bathed in a blinding light as the craft is immediately overhead. As he shields his eyes from the light, he looks up and see a triangular-shaped craft like that seen in "Deep Throat" and "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'". The beam shuts off and the craft zips off at high speed with barely a sound. Mulder suits up in diving gear and finds evidence of a craft underwater. As he searches the wreckage, he finds himself face to face with the body of a dead alien entity. Scully yells, "Get down!" as both she and the mustache man draw their guns. The mustache man shoots first and poor Pendrell, making his way to the table with a round of drinks, takes the bullet in the chest. As Scully leaves Pendrell in the care of the EMTs, we see that she herself has a bloody nose. Scully tells Mulder that Pendrell is dead. She says he saved Frish's life and maybe her own. We witness a government clean-up operation underway at the second crash site. Mustache man is on the scene, appearing to be in charge as parts of the radioactive craft and alien bodies are recovered. The UFO took control of flight 549 and all its systems and planned to take Max and return him. No one would have been the wiser with the only thing missing being 9 minutes. Ideally, this transfer to and from the UFO would have been completed with no harm to the passengers, the door replaced, and the memories of everyone wiped. But the military aircraft arrived, shot at the UFO, and caused the downing of both crafts. He shows them the only radioactive evidence collected. It's Max's backpack, empty except for his NICAP hat. Scully and Mulder think that Max was smuggling salvaged alien technology and that's what was in the backpack that he guarded so protectively. Mulder goes and claims the luggage in NY and it does indeed contain the third piece. He boards a flight back to D.C. and as he walks down the aisle to his seat, we see the mustache man is aboard. When the plane lands in D.C., Scully and Skinner are the first to board and find Mulder, no bag, no mustache man, and 9 missing minutes on Mulder's watch.

Tempus Fugit / Max This two part episode isn't necessarily part of the mytharc but there are some relevant aspects. We have the return of Max Fenig, who we first met in "Fallen Angel", UFO sightings and government cover-up, and we have the death of a recurring character. When I wrote the "Fallen Angel" synopsis, I didn't mention Max or the actual X-File since the episode was a stand-alone and Max wasn't a recurring character. It had no impact on the mytharc other than the parts I previously noted in my synopsis. So for background, one needs to know that Max was a kindred spirit with Mulder. He belonged to NICAP and first ran into Mulder when they were caught snooping at the site of a downed UFO, though he told Mulder he'd been following his career in the X-Files from the start. He was a conspiracy theorist who traveled around in an aluminum trailer with his scanning equipment and other assorted paraphernalia. Mulder believed that Max was a repeat abduction victim but Max first thought he was just suffering from memory loss following his seizures. The episode ended with Mulder being an eyewitness to Max's abduction by some force. He was raised in a glowing beam of light and, as far as we knew, he hadn't been heard from since. Tempus Fugit opens with Max Fenig on an airplane, clutching a backpack on his lap. He keeps throwing glances over his shoulder at a suspicious man sitting several rows back. The man walks to the front of the plane, entering the restroom to assemble a gun made of plastic components he's brought aboard. Apparently, Max's fears aren't borne of paranoia. This guy must want what Max is carrying. Suddenly, the plane is buffeted by violent turbulence. The assassin leaves the bathroom to make his way to Max but before he can reach him, the plane is thrown into darkness and a blinding white light begins to shine in all the windows. As Max watches the light pour in a window and realizes the frame of the emergency door is deforming, the shot is flooded completely with the white light and we cut to credits. Mulder and Scully are approached by a woman claiming to be Max's sister. She says she was told to contact them if anything happened. She said Max was on his way to talk to them and was bringing something he thought the government might kill him for, but she says his plane crashed. Mulder and Scully join the NTSB in the investigation and find a man who appears to be a skeptic but ends up being an ally in their case. Mulder speculates that the plane may have been forced down since the pilot refers to an "intercept" on the radio tower recording. The official story is a lightning strike or some rare wind phenomenon. We see two men, one with a cheesy mustache, search the crash scene for something. We discover their objective when they find the remains of the assassin from the plane and proceed to destroy the tips of his fingers and his face to hide his identity. The mustache man makes sure to pocket the gun the assassin was carrying. Mulder and Scully also search the crash site and discover victims' watches that are 9 minutes off in their time keeping. Nine lost minutes, a reference back to the pilot episode where the partners experienced missing time. Scully asks Sharon, the woman claiming to be Max's sister, to bring all the letters Max ever wrote her. Most detail his abduction experiences but more recently he spoke of a theft. Scully thinks Max may have been smuggling something radioactive on the plane since the man who was seated next to him had what looked like radiation burns on his face and body. But what was Max carrying and how does that tie into the plane crash? Mulder says he thinks Max was abducted off the plane and when he's returned he'll have all the answers. Scully has to break it to him that Max's remains have been found. We see Sharon holed up in a hotel room going through Max's letters. Suddenly the room begins to vibrate and shake and a bright light pours in the windows. With all the furniture shaking, papers blowing around the room, and light pouring in around the door frame, the scene cuts to commercial. Hmmm...abduction-like. When Mulder goes to ID Max's body, he notices that the wristwatches of all the passengers have been stolen. Someone is covering up the cause of the crash. Mulder and Scully go to an Air Force installation to talk to Louis Frish who tracked the plane just before the crash. He tells Mulder a story of what he saw and says they made no radio contact. Frish was told what story to give Mulder but decides that the cover-up is unacceptable when he returns to his post to find the mustache man and some of his goons sanitizing the place and the only other man on duty the night of the crash dead from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Frish contacts Scully and Mulder and says he's the one responsible. He's the one who caused the plane crash. The NTSB guy comes to Mulder and Scully with some evidence from the crash that he hesitated to share with the others because he thought he'd sound as crazy as Mulder. He says the plane was new but the emergency door next to Max's seat showed stress fractures as if the door was shaken and blown outward. Since he seems to be open to extreme possibilities, they take Frish to him to tell his story. Frish says he was ordered to lie about what happened. He tells of how Max's plane, flight 549, appeared on their radar, then another craft appeared on an intercept course. He says the second craft shadowed the first plane for 10 minutes then there was an explosion and flight 549 disappeared from the radar screen. He says the military shot down a civilian jet knowingly and willingly. Mulder theorizes that there was a third craft that never appeared on his radar screen. An unidentified craft that engaged the civilian jet and was shot down by the intercept craft taking Max's plane with it by accident. Mulder says there SHOULD be a second crash site. He thinks the military are looking for the second site and Frish is in danger since he can tie it all together. Scully takes charge of Frish's protection, Mulder goes to look for the downed UFO, and the NTSB guy returns to the original crash site. It's late at night when the NTSB guy arrives at the site and, in the darkness, he spots what appears to be a search light. A closer look reveals some sort of craft, hovering over the crash site, shining a bright beam of light down onto the ground. Fascinated by what he's seeing, he moves closer for a better view. As he watches, the beam of light shuts off and the craft seems to disappear without a sound. Turning in circles in an attempt to locate it, he is suddenly bathed in a blinding light as the craft is immediately overhead. As he shields his eyes from the light, he looks up and see a triangular-shaped craft like that seen in "Deep Throat" and "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'". The beam shuts off and the craft zips off at high speed with barely a sound. Concurrent with its departure, he hears a woman calling for help. It's Sharon and she's crying and saying, "Don't let them take me again." Meanwhile, Mulder finds a potential second crash site in a nearby lake. He suits up in diving gear and finds evidence of a craft underwater. As he searches the wreckage, he finds himself face to face with the body of a dead alien entity. Before he can investigate further, he is distracted by a bright light behind him and the arrival of someone else at the scene. While Mulder's diving, Scully takes Frish to a bar to meet up with a Federal Marshall who can offer Frish protection. Agent Pendrell happens to be at the bar too and is a few drinks over his limit. He wants to buy Scully and her companion drinks and Scully takes the path of least resistance and lets him. As she walks back to where she left Frish, she sees the mustache man enter the bar, looking awfully suspicious. As he locates Frish, Scully yells, "Get down!" as both she and the mustache man draw their guns. The mustache man shoots first and poor Pendrell, making his way to the table with a round of drinks, takes the bullet in the chest. Scully returns fire and gets the mustache man in the thigh but, while she's tending to Pendrell, he gets away. The second episode, Max, gets to tie up all the loose ends. Mulder is apprehended as he flees the second crash site, running across the lakefront in his hooded wet suit. Charming. Meanwhile, Scully is telling Pendrell to keep breathing, that he's going to be fine. He's been shot in the chest puncturing his lung and is losing quite a bit of blood. And speaking of blood, as Scully leaves Pendrell in the care of the EMTs, we see that she herself has a bloody nose. As Pendrell is wheeled out to the ambulance, Skinner arrives on the scene. Skinner tells her the request for a Federal Marshall was countermanded and that Frish is being put under military arrest. He says that Mulder is also under arrest for interfering in the military investigation of the plane cash. About this time, Skinner notices the evidence of her bloody nose. He says he's responsible for his agents' safety and doesn't want them in the field if it's going to jeopardize their health. He forces her to agree to a check-up when she goes to the hospital with Pendrell. Scully goes to spring Mulder from custody and tells him that the military is taking responsibility for the crash. They say that the wrong coordinates were given to the military craft putting it on an intercept with flight 549. They claim there were only two planes involved. Mulder tells her the craft at the second crash site was not a military craft and he's got the radiation burns to prove it, showing her small blisters on his forehead from his close contact with the downed craft. Scully tells Mulder her news. Sharon is not Max's sister, but is an unemployed aeronautical engineer who's spent time in and out of mental institutes, which is where she met Max. She also tells him that Pendrell is dead. She says he saved Frish's life and maybe her own. Meanwhile, we witness a government clean-up operation underway at the second crash site. Mustache man is on the scene, appearing to be in charge as parts of the radioactive craft and alien bodies are recovered. Mulder and Scully contact the NTSB guy again. Mulder tells him his theory of what took place the night flight 549 went down. Max was followed on board by one of the mustache man's goons to retrieve whatever Max was smuggling.; physical proof of the existence of ET life and intelligence. The plane was intercepted by an alien craft, one that was there to abduct Max as he had been abducted on multiple occasions before. The UFO took control of flight 549 and all its systems and planned to take Max and return him. No one would have been the wiser with the only thing missing being 9 minutes. The plane was buffeted as the light flooded in then, when the emergency door was moved outward, the plane stilled. There was no more motion, only the light and the silence. As the passengers watched, Max was taken over by some kind of seizure, then lifted from his seat by an unseen force and transported out to the alien craft. Ideally, this transfer to and from the UFO would have been completed with no harm to the passengers, the door replaced, and the memories of everyone wiped. But the military aircraft arrived, shot at the UFO, and caused the downing of both crafts. The NTSB guy admits it's a good story but there's no way he could sell it to his superiors as an explanation for the crash even if he did believe it. He says he'll put it in his report if it makes any difference. They ask him if there was ever any evidence of something radioactive on the plane that could have caused the radiation burns Scully found on Max and the other man in his row of the airplane. He shows them the only radioactive evidence collected. It's Max's backpack, empty except for his NICAP hat. Scully and Mulder think that Max was smuggling salvaged alien technology and that's what was in the backpack that he guarded so protectively. Sharon was an aerospace engineer so they go back to question her again. She now has radiation burns and she tells Scully that she also had a piece of this technology which was stolen from her place of business. She says she did it because she believed in Max. The item was made of three interlocking parts. She and Max each had one, both taken away, and the remaining piece is in luggage check at the Syracuse airport. Mulder goes and claims the luggage in NY and it does indeed contain the third piece. He is followed by some suits who want to get their hands on the item. He boards a flight back to D.C. and as he walks down the aisle to his seat, we see the mustache man is aboard. Mustache man switches seats and takes the aisle seat in Mulder's row. Mulder figures out who he is when he sees the gunshot wound on the man's leg. He tells Mulder he wants the bag and that he's got a parachute in the overhead bin to make an escape out an emergency exit if need be. Unfortunately for Mulder, the mustache man manages to get hold of the bag just before the plane is intercepted by an alien craft. The scenario begins to play out just as Mulder theorized, with the plane being taken over by the craft as a bright light poured in the windows. When the plane lands in D.C., Scully and Skinner are the first to board and find Mulder, no bag, no mustache man, and 9 missing minutes on Mulder's watch. The mustache man's parachute is still there and Mulder only remembers the events that took place before the missing time. The abduction event is wiped from his memory.