The X Files : season 3 episodes

(spoilers)

3.1. The Blessing Way (part 2)

The Blessing Way finds the Cigarette Smoking Man chasing the missing secret files that prove the existence of aliens, and Scully defying her superiors to search for Mulder, who is still missing in the New Mexico desert after finding a box-car full of dead aliens. "Something lives only as long as the last person who remembers it," intones tribal elder Albert as a warning that without documentation or witnesses to the alien experiments, the authorities can pretend it din't happen. It is vital, therefore, that either the files or Mulder are found.

Albert: Floyd Red Crow Westerman

3.2. Paper Clip (part 3)

Mulder and Scully race to discover the contents of the mysterious tape. An old photograph holds a vital clue that helps them unearth the dark secret from Mulder's past. The storyline (described by David Duchovny as a cross between Star Wars and Sophie's Choice ) has Mulder searching for clues about his father's involvement in a secret project and the discovery of files on his missing sister. Many other mysteries, both personal and professional, are cleared up and created in the course of their investigations.

The programme credits bear a memoriam to Mario Mark Kennedy, a fan who organised on-line sessions for X-philes on the Internet, who died in a car accident in 1995.

3.3. D.P.O

Lightning never strikes in the same place twice. But in the small town of Connerville, Oklahoma, four young people have all died by lightning. Scully and Mulder are sent to investigate this statistical improbability. They meet Darin, the one person to have survived a strike, and who argued with one of the victims just before he died. It seems likely that Darin is involved in some way, but how?

In an ironic scene, the sceptical Sheriff confronts Scully, insisting there is a logical, scientific explanation for what has happened.

Darin Oswald: Giovanni Ribisi --- Zero: Jack Black --- Sheriff Teller: Ernie Lively --- Sharon Kiveat: Karen Witter --- Frank Kiveat: Steve Makaj

3.4. Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose

Insurance salesman Clyde Bruckman can foresee the death of others. He can't affect the outcome, so he hides his ability -- until he stumbles across a serial killer. The agents need his help to hunt down the killer of fortune tellers and astrologers. A lanky, seemingly amiable man, nicknamed the Puppet, has taken to murdering "professional prognosticators" and arranging their entrails in an attempt to divine the future. Mulder hears that he will be murdered after stepping in a pie, then steps in a pie...

Clyde Bruckman: Peter Boyle --- The Puppet: Stu Charno --- Detective Cline: Frank Cassini --- Detective Havez: Dwight McFee -- Tarot dealer: Alex Diakun --- Madame Zelma: Karin Konoval

Emmy nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (Darin Morgan) and Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (Peter Boyle).

3.5. The List

As Napoleon "Neech" Manley faces execution after more than 11 years on Florida's death row, he vows to return from the dead and seek vengeance on five men who he claimed had mistreated him.

Mulder and Scully are sent to investigate the death of a prison guard whose body was found in Neech's cell soon after his execution. Is it possible that a spirit can return from the grave to take vengeance on the living? Is Neech's spirit really guilty of murder, or is it, as the Warden believes, the work of some of Neech's criminal inmate friends?

Roque: Bokeem Woodbine --- Neech: Badja Djola --- Speranza: John Toles-Bey --- Parmelly: Ken Foree --- Danielle: April Grace --- Daniel Charez: Greg Rogers --- Fornier: Mitchell Kosterman --- Oates: --- Don MacCay --- Ullrich: Paul Raskin --- Key guard: Denny Arnold --- Chaplain: D. P. Finn --- Warden: J. T. Walsh

3.6. 2Shy

When a lonely woman on a blind date is brutally murdered, Mulder links her case to earlier disappearances. Meeting insecure fat women, first through personal ads, then through an on-line chat room, a serial killer seduces his prey with the right words. However, Scully discovers a strange slime coating the victims, a substance that seems to digest all the fatty acids in the flesh, leaving the body so badly decomposed that identification is difficult.

Virgil Incanto: Timothy Carhart --- Ellen Kaminsky: Catherine Paolone --- Joanne Steffen: Kerry Sandomirsky --- Detective Alan Cross: James Handy --- Jesse: Aloka McLean --- Jennifer: Suzy Joachim --- Monica: Glynis Davies

3.7. The Walk

Another failed suicide attempt by a patient in a military hospital interests Mulder with the talk of a "phantom soldier" that prevented the man's death. The general in charge is at first opposed to the FBI's involvement until the invisible killer begins stalking him and his family. But none believe when the primary suspect is a quadruple amputee, except Mulder, who reckons the man is capable of astral projection.

General Thomas Callahan: Thomas Kopache --- Quinton "Roach" Freely: Willie Garson --- Lt. Colonel Victor Stans: Don Thompson --- Captain Janet Draper: Nancy Sorel --- Amputee: Rob Lee

3.8. Oubliette

[Amy] Lucy Householder -- who was kidnapped at the age of eight (but not by aliens, for a change!) and held for five years in a basement -- experiences a psychic connection with Amy, a missing teenager. At the exact moment Amy is abducted, Lucy uttered the same words spoken by the kidnapper, before suffering a seizure and a nosebleed.

However, she insists she can't help to locate the missing girl because her psychic visions of Amy's situation are so terrifying. Mulder must change her mind.

Lucy Householder: Tracey Ellis --- John Wade: Michael Chieffo --- Amy: Jewel Staite --- Eubanks: Ken Ryan --- Truck driver: Dean Wray --- Henry: Jacues Lalonde --- Larsen: David Fredericks --- Myra Jacobs: Sidonie Boll

3.9. Nisei (part 1)

( Nisei is Japanese for "second generation".) The agents investigate a Japanese diplomat's murder, who was himself implicated in the murder of a UFO watcher.

Scully goes to talk to some Mutual UFO Network members, who recognise her, and tell her "you are one of us". They show her small pieces of metal surgically removed from their necks, just like the one found in her own neck. And they tell her they are all dying as a result of the repeated experiments.

The Lone Gunmen help Mulder, who finds what may be a downed UFO, and chases after a train possibly containing an alien being experimented on by Japanese scientists. But Mister X warns Scully that they know he's coming.

Red-haired man: Stephen McHattie --- Dr Zama/Dr Ishimaro: Robert Ito --- Penny: Gillian Barber --- Lottie Holloway: Corrine Koslo --- Kazuo Takeo: Yasuo Sakurai --- Diane: Lori Triolo

3.10. 731 (part 2)

Now aboard the speeding train, Mulder searches for the Japanese doctor in charge of the quarantined creature that could be an alien. He spends the entire show trapped in the train with a bomb and an assassin.

Meanwhile, Scully finds out more about the chip removed from her neck, which leads her to something nasty at a leper colony: government-approved radiation experiments on dispossesed people. Is the 'alien' in fact one of these pitiful humans?

Escalante: Colin Cunningham --- Agent Pendrell: Brendan Beiser

3.11. Revelations

Mulder and Scully investigate the mysterious death of Reverend Finley, who falsely proclaimed himself a stigmatic. Mulder recalls other murders of false stigmatics, and suspects a serial killer. When a young boy experiences bleeding palms, Mulder and Scully can't agree whether the wounds are self inflicted, but agree he needs protection from the killer.

An interesting reversal of roles: Mulder is sceptical, whereas Scully see the religious significance, and believes she is "the one" sent to protect the boy.

Kevin Kryder: Kegin Zegers --- William Kryder: Sam Bottoms --- Millennium man: Kenneth Welsh --- Reverend Finley: R Lee Ermey --- Owen Jarvis: Michael Berryman --- Susan Kryder: Hayley Tyson --- Carina Maywald: Lesley Ewen --- Priest: Fulvio Cecere --- Mrs Tynes: Nicole Robert

3.12. War of the Coprophages

While waiting out the fumigation of his apartment, Mulder stumbles into a Massachusetts town where it appears that cockroaches have been attacking and killing several residents. He consults Scully telephonically, but she correctly diagnoses each mundane cause of death remotely. Dr Bambi, an entomologist, also gives him her explanation of UFO sightings: electrostatically glowing insect clouds. But the insects appear to be robots...

Dr. Bambi Berenbaum: Bobbie Phillips --- Dr. Jeff Eckerle: Raye Birk --- Sheriff Frass: Dion Anderson --- Dr. Newton: Bill Dow --- Dr. Bugger: Alex Bruhanski

Sheriff: "You'd better go and get some rest; you look pooped" (to the two agents, covered in African dung samples).

[The BBC showed this episode, with Scully de-fleaing her dog, well after Quagmire , where it gets killed by an alligator!]

3.13. Syzygy

[Mulder and Scully investigate] The body of "Boom", a popular high school teenager, is found dangling from a rope. This is the third death of a Comity High School boy in as many months, and the local police want Mulder and Scully to investigate the possibility of a satanic cult in the area. It seems possible, especially after Boom's coffin bursts into flames at the funeral.

According to an astrologer, however, a rare planetary alignment is affecting people's behaviour, particularly those born in 1979 who are having all the energy of the cosmos focussed upon them. Can this be the key to the murders? And why is Mulder drinking, and Scully smoking, and why are they behaving so strangely to each other?

Det Angela White: Dana Wheeler-Nicholson --- Marji Kleinjan: Wendy Benson --- Terri Roberts: Lisa Robin Kelly --- Bob Spitz: Gary Davey --- Zirinka: Denalda Williams --- Brenda: Gabrielle Miller --- Jay De Boom: Ryan Reynolds --- Dr R W Godfrey: Tim Dixon --- Minister: Ryk Brown --- Eric: Jeremy Radick --- Scott Simmons: Russell Porter

[Mulder] 3.14. Grotesque

A serial killer, Mostow, claims he was possessed by a gargoyle-like dark spirit that forced him to comit his crimes. When the agents visit his apartment, they find hundreds of sketches and models of gargoyles. Scully and Mulder team up with the agent who has been on the case for three years; unfortunately Mulder and he have crossed paths before.

Mostow: Levani --- Agent Greg Nemhauser: Greg Thirloway --- Agent Sheherlis: Susan Bain --- Young Agent: Kasper Michaels

The chilling lighting [or lack of it!] in this episode was nominated for an Emmy Award.

[Scully] 3.15. Piper Maru (part 1)

A few episodes ago Scully and Mulder investigated a case involving a salvage ship that had been searching for a Japanese submarine sunk in the Pacific during the Second World War. Mulder believed it had found something else. Now they return to the case when a French salvage crew discover the wreckage of a US WWII fighter plane in the same location, and then show sympoms of radiation exposure. Perhaps this time the agents can prove allegations of a government cover-up.

Mulder pursues a strangely-eyed Krychek, while Scully and Skinner continue investigating her sister's murder, against sinister advice.

Chris Johansen: Robert Clothier --- Geraldine Kallenchuk: Jo Bates --- Grey-haired man: Morris Panych --- Wayne Morgan: Stephen E Miller --- Gauthier: Ari Solomon --- Dr Seizer: Paul Batten --- Medic: Russell Ferrier --- Hispanic man: Lenno Britos --- Joan Gauthier: Kimberley Unger --- Waitress: Rochelle Greenwood --- First engineer: Joel Silverstone --- Guard: David Neal --- Young Johansen: Tom Scholte --- Second world war pilot: Rob Maieri

3.16. Apocrypha (part 2)

Mulder uncovers more clues about a government cover-up over an alien entity and sunken Second World War aircraft, while Scully pursues the man who murdered her sister, and Skinner fights for his life. And it would seem there is more to Krycek than meets the eye. Also popping up in this episode is old favourite the Cigarette-Smoking Man and, in a flashback sequence, a young William Mulder. But who is going to believe the Cigarette-Smoking Man when he says "You can trust all of us"?

Agent Fuller: Kevin McNultey --- Navy doctor: Barry Levy --- Government man: Dmitry Chepovetsky --- Agent Caleca: Sue Matthew --- Hispanic man: Lenno Britos --- Nurse: Frances Flanagan

[X] 3.17. Pusher

Scully and Mulder encounter a murderer who can control people's minds -- and one of the minds he tries to control is Mulder's, in a Deer Hunter -style game of Russian roulette. Is the agent strong enough to resist this most dangerous and manipulative killer?

Pusher/Robert Modell: Robert Wisden --- Agent Frank Burst: Vic Polizos --- SWAT Lieutenant: Roger R. Cross --- Agent Collins: Steve Bacic --- Judge: Don MacKay

[Scully and Mulder] 3.18. Teso Dos Bichos

You would think everyone had seen enough Hammer horror films to be careful when digging up sacred relics in case they carried an ancient curse. Obviously not, as an urn containing the remains of a female shaman is found on a Brazilian archaeological site and, despite dire warnings of a curse of the Jaguar Spirit, taken to the US. A series of grisly murders (which may alarm cat lovers) follows.

Dr. Winters: Garrison Chrisjohn --- Dr. Lewton: Tom McBeath --- Mona Wustner: Janne Mortil --- Dr. Roosevelt: Alan Robertson

3.19. Hell Money

A man is burned alive in a San Fransisco crematorium. Inside the oven is found a wad of currency, and the Chinese character for "ghost" is scrawled inside the door. The money, says Detective Chao, is "hell money" used during the Chines Festival of the Hungry Ghosts. They certainly must be hungry -- the gruesome deaths aren't over yet. But why are the corpses' eyes and hearts missing? And how does a gambling game fit in?

Detective Glen Chao: B. D. Wong --- Kim: Lucy Alexis Liu --- Hard-faced man: James Hong --- Hsin: Michael Yama --- Detective Neary: Doug Abrahams

3.20. Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'

[Scully] Why would a man suddenly abandon a story of alien-abduction he has verified by a lie-detector test in order to admit he was responsible for the rape of his girlfriend? The teenage girl is found inside her boyfriend's car on a deserted country road. She exhibits signs of physical abuse and the prevailing theory is that she may have been the victim of date-rape. Her boyfriend initially tells a seemingly fantastic tale that is backed up by the lie detector. On their arrival, Scully and Mulder learn that he now claims to be the perpetrator. The agents must isolate the truth from another tangle of secrets and lies.

Jose Chung: Charles Nelson Reilly --- Roky: William Lucking --- Lieutenant Jack Shaeffer: Daniel Quinn --- Man in black: Jesse Ventura --- Chrissy: Sarah Sawatsky --- Harold: Jason Gaffney --- Dr Fingers: Alex Diakun --- Detective Manners: Larry Musser --- Blaine Faulkner: Allan Zynyk --- Sergeant Hynek: Michael Dobson --- Dr Hand: Mina E Mina

[Scully and Mulder] 3.21 Quagmire

A biologist and a member of the US Forestry Service are puzzling over the cause of a rapid decline in the frog population at Heuvelmans Lake in Georgia, when the forestry worker is killed by an unseen force. This is not the first mysterious death among the people who live near the lake, or the last. Mulder suspects the perpertrator is Big Blue, a legendary Loch Ness-like monster that is spposed to live in the murky water. Presumably the frogs were just an hors d'oeuvre.

Sheriff Hindt: Chris Ellis --- Dr Paul Farraday: Timothy Webber --- Ansel Bray: R Nelson Brown --- Ted Bertram: Mark Acheson --- Dr William Bailey: Peter Hanlon --- Stoner: Tyler Labine --- Chick: Nicole Parker --- Snorkel dude: Terrance Leigh

3.22 Avatar

[Skinner] On the eve of divorce Assistant Director Walter S Skinner has a one-night stand with an attractive woman he meets in a hotel lounge. He wakes up to find her lifeless corpse beside him, and she turns out to be a prostitute. Did he murder her, has he been framed, or is there some sinister force at work? Who is the old woman he keeps seeing?

Detective Waltos: Tom Mason --- Lorrainne Kelleher: Jennifer Hetrick --- Carina Sayles: Amanda Tapping --- Agent Bonnecaze: Malcolm Stewart

3.23 Wetwired

Mulder and Scully investigate the link between TV violence and violent behaviour. During their investigations into a series of murders, they visit one of the perpertrators in a psychiatric hospital, when he suddenly goes berserk while watching television. Mulder uncovers something strange in the video feed, which doesn't affect him, because he's red-green colour blind. Later, after watching too many news videos, Scully starts to behave stragely too. She accuses Mulder of lying to her from their very first assignment, and tries to kill him.

Dr Strohman: Clin Cunningham --- Plain-clothed man: Tim Henry --- Joseph Patnik: Linden Banks --- Dr Lorenz: Crystal Verge

3.24 Talitha Cumi (part 1) -- BBC1, Wednesday 3 September 1997

[Mulder and Cigarette Smoking Man] ( Talitha Cumi is New Testament Greek for "Little girl, get up")

The victims of a shooting incident are healed by the mysterious Jeremiah Smith, who seems to be one of the shapechanging aliens from Colony / End Game who has changed sides. Mulder's mother suffers a stroke after an argument with Cancer Man.

This episode is sprinkled with references to earlier stories (including the Bounty Hunter's weapon and Mulder's missing sister).