Anasazi (The X-Files) facts for kids

"Anasazi" is the last episode of the second season of the TV show The X-Files. It first aired on the Fox network on May 19, 1995. The story was created by Chris Carter and David Duchovny. R. W. Goodwin directed the episode. "Anasazi" helped to explain more about the main story, or "mythology," of The X-Files. Many homes watched this episode, and critics liked it.

The show is about two FBI agents, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). They work on special cases called X-Files, which involve strange and unexplained things. In this episode, Mulder and Scully find a tape with secret government files. They try to figure out what is on it. At the same time, Mulder starts acting strangely. A mysterious dead body is also found on a Native American reservation in New Mexico. "Anasazi" is the first part of a three-episode story. The story continues in the third season episodes "The Blessing Way" and "Paper Clip".

The Story of Anasazi

A Strange Discovery

In the desert on Navajo land in New Mexico, a teenage boy finds a boxcar buried in the ground. Inside, he discovers a body that looks like an alien. He takes the body back to his community and shows it to the people, including an elder named Albert Hosteen.

The Secret Tape

Soon after, a computer expert named Kenneth Soona, also known as "The Thinker," breaks into the US government's secret files. He downloads secret information about extraterrestrial life onto a digital tape. A secret group of powerful people learns about this. The Smoking Man, a mysterious figure, tells them he has it under control, but he is lying.

The Lone Gunmen, who are friends of Mulder, visit him. They tell him that Soona wants to meet him. Suddenly, they hear a gunshot. Mulder goes into the hallway and finds that his neighbor has shot her husband.

Soona gives the secret digital tape to Mulder in a park. Mulder is excited and takes the tape to FBI headquarters. But he finds the tape is coded. Scully thinks the code is based on the Navajo language. She takes the tape to try and understand it.

Mulder's Strange Behavior

Skinner, Mulder's boss, calls Mulder to his office to ask about the tape. Mulder suddenly attacks Skinner. Scully is then questioned by an FBI group about Mulder's actions. She is told that Mulder might be fired from the FBI. She could also be in trouble if she is not telling the truth.

Meanwhile, the Smoking Man visits Mulder's father, Bill, and tells him about the tape. Scully meets a Navajo translator who sends her to a code talker. Mulder is called to see his father. When Scully arrives at Mulder's apartment, a bullet shoots through his window and just misses her.

Danger and Betrayal

Mulder arrives at his father's house. Bill Mulder is about to tell his son the truth about everything. But then, Alex Krycek shoots Bill, hurting him badly. Mulder calls Scully, and she tells him to leave the scene. When Mulder gets to Scully's apartment, she takes his gun while he is sleeping.

Scully takes the gun to the FBI to see if it matches the bullet that killed Bill. When Mulder wakes up, he is angry and suspicious of Scully. Later, Scully finds that Mulder's water supply is being poisoned. As Mulder enters his building, he sees Krycek. Mulder takes Krycek's gun and is about to kill him. But Scully shoots Mulder to stop him, allowing Krycek to get away.

The Truth Revealed

Scully takes an unconscious Mulder to New Mexico. When he wakes up, she tells him that his strange behavior was caused by a drug in his water. She explains that she shot him because if he had killed Krycek, it would have been harder to prove Mulder was innocent in his father's death. She then introduces Mulder to Hosteen, who has been translating the files on the tape.

Scully tells Mulder that the tape has information about her and another person named Duane Barry. Hosteen introduces Mulder to his grandson, who drives him to the buried boxcar. Just before Mulder goes inside, the Smoking Man calls him. He was able to find Mulder's location through the call. Mulder goes into the boxcar and finds many dead creatures, each with smallpox vaccination scars on their arms. The Smoking Man arrives in a helicopter with armed soldiers. He doesn't find Mulder inside, so he orders the boxcar to be burned.

How the Episode Was Made

Chris Carter, the creator of the show, said that making this episode was the result of many ideas. He was very proud of the script. David Duchovny worked closely with Carter on the story and gave many ideas. Carter felt that the episode ended the season perfectly, by asking more questions than it answered. The episode tried to have exciting cliffhangers, like the previous season finale. For example, finding out Mulder's father was part of the secret group and then killed, showed that "anything could happen in The X-Files."

To make the New Mexico rock quarry look real in the episode, the people making the show painted an old quarry in Vancouver with 1,600 gallons (about 6,057 liters) of red paint. They also added images shot in New Mexico and a blue sky to make it look more real. They used cranes to paint the quarry and needed permission from local environmental groups. When older seasons of the show were later shown in widescreen, some parts of the gray, unpainted quarry could be seen at the edges of the screen. This part would not have been visible on older TVs.

To make it look like a train car was buried, they had to dig a large hole in the ground. They removed enough dirt to fill thirty-two dump trucks. Chris Carter, the show's creator, even appears briefly in this episode as one of the FBI agents questioning Scully. The special saying for this episode is Éí 'Aaníígóó 'Áhoot'é, which means "The Truth is Out There" in the Navajo language.

See also

In Spanish: Anasazi (The X-Files) para niños