Explanatorium
As the seasons have progressed, the titles of the episodes
have become
more and more obscure. In season one we had simple,
one-word titles such
as "Fire" and "Ice", only to be followed in later seasons
by titles in
other languages ("Die Hand Die Verletzt", "Talitha Cumi")
and long phrases
("Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'", "Musings of a
Cigarette-Smoking Man").
It has become a game, the episode titles a mystery for the
X-Files fans to
solve. What follows is a list of each episode title, along
with an
explanation of that title. As always, suggestions,
corrections, and wild
guesses are welcome! This list is based on Laura Witte's
In-Jokes list -
X-Files titles explained.
1X79 Pilot
No explanation necessary -- this is the pilot episode of
the X-Files.
1X01 Deep Throat
Code name of Mulder's informant -- although the words "Deep
Throat" are
never mentioned in this episode, the first "Deep Throat"
was the
infamous Watergate informant.
1X02 Squeeze
Description of Tooms' special ability.
1X03 Conduit
"a means of transmitting or distributing" -- the boy was a
conduit
through which aliens were attempting to communicate.
1X04 The Jersey Devil
The name is lifted from the myth of the 'Jersey Devil' that
has haunted
New Jersey for centuries.
1X05 Shadows
The title is descriptive of the ghost-like qualities of one
of the main
characters.
1X06 Ghost in the Machine
A phrase coined by Descartes as a way to explain
consciousness. The
ghost is our soul, the machine our bodies.
1X07 Ice
This episode is located in the Arctic.
1X08 Space
Named for where some of this episode took place.
1X09 Fallen Angel
The title is the code words for a crashed UFO.
1X10 Eve
Named for the monsterettes-of-the-week, who were named for
after the
Biblical first woman.
1X11 Fire
No further explanation necessary.
1X12 Beyond the Sea
Named for the song that played during Scully's parent's
wedding, and the
song that played at her father's funeral.
1X13 GenderBender
Descriptive of what the monsters-of-the-week can do.
1X14 Lazarus
Named for the biblical character Lazarus, who was
resurrected by Jesus
Christ (an act which was paralleled by the 'resurrection'
of Willis on
the operating table).
1X15 Young at Heart
Named because of the disease that Dr. Ridley dealt with.
The disease is
called Progeria and it causes the people who suffer from it
to show
advanced signs of aging (arthritis, osteoporosis, physical
appearance).
Most people are born with it and do not usually live past
the age of 15.
1X16 E.B.E.
An acronym for "Extra-Terrestrial Biological Entity".
1X17 Miracle Man
Description of the main-guest character.
1X18 Shapes
Another pretty basic title.
1X19 Darkness Falls
Probably named so because the 'flies' came when darkness
fell.
1X20 Tooms
Named for the 'Monster of the Week'.
1X21 Born Again
Usually used to describe someone who has found religion,
this episode
title relates to the reincarnation of the main
guest-character.
1X22 Roland
Named for the main guest-character.
1X23 The Erlenmeyer Flask
A common laboratory container -- in this episode Scully was
afraid it
contained "monkey pee".
2X01 Little Green Men
Commonly used slang term for an alien from outer space.
2X02 The Host
Descriptive of what the monster-of-the-week was looking
for.
2X03 Blood
Another very basic title.
2X04 Sleepless
Descriptive of the main character.
2X05 Duane Barry
Named for the main guest-character.
2X06 Ascension
Named for Scully's "Ascending to the Stars".
2X07 3
Named for the vampire characters, representing the father,
the son, and
the holy spirit. They needed 3 members to be strong.
2X08 One Breath
Named for a phrase used when Scully's father is speaking to
her.
2X09 Firewalker
Named for the robot used to film inside the volcano.
2X10 Red Museum
Name of the cult in this episode.
2X11 Excelsius Dei
Latin for "Glory of God", it is also the name of the
retirement home.
2X12 Aubrey
Location where this episode took place.
2X13 Irresistible
I know that there are deep and meaningful interpretations
of this title
-- but basically the monster-of-the-week found some women
irresistible.
2X14 Die Hand Die Verletzt
German for "The Hand that Wounds" -- a phrase uttered
during the
'prayer' in the teaser.
2X15 Fresh Bones
Bones were what was used in voodoo rituals. And fresh bones
are paid
better.
2X16 Colony
Descriptive of what the aliens are starting to form on this
planet.
2X17 End Game
This is the title of a Samuel Beckett book, and that it is
a chess term.
Perhaps it was used because Samantha is like a pawn to both
the
consortium and the aliens? It is also worth noting that
much like the
chess game with multiple pawns, there are multiple
Samanthas. Also, the
pawns are usually sacrificed to protect the other, more
valuable pieces.
2X18 Fearful Symmetry
Named for a phrase from William Blake's poem "The Tyger".
2X19 Dod Kalm
Norwegian for "Dead Calm".
2X20 Humbug
A humbug is a deception, a hoax, or one who attempts to
trick or
deceive.
2X21 The Calusari
Named for the Romanian priests in this episode.
2X22 F. Emasculata
Genus/Species name for the bug that caused the problems in
this episode.
Mulder & Scully would be H. Sapiens. F. stands for
Faciphaga.
2X23 Soft Light
The type of light that Dr. Banton needed, so that he
wouldn't cast a
shadow
2X24 Our Town
Named for Thornton Wilder's play of the same name, although
the towns in
question certainly are different.
2X25 Anasazi
Named for an Indian tribe that disappeared 'without a
trace'. Ancestors
of Navajo.
3X01 The Blessing Way
Named for the Indian healing ritual performed on Agent
Mulder.
3X02 Paper Clip
As explained in the episode, 'Paper Clip' was the code name
for the
project to bring Axis power scientists to America after
World War II.
3X03 D.P.O.
Named for the antagonist, Darren Peter Oswald, whose
initials on the
video game led Mulder & Scully to him.
3X04 Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose
Refers to Clyde's own death. Repose - "to lie, or lay, as
in rest, or
dying".
3X05 The List
The main focus of this episode.
3X06 2Shy
Internet nickname of the 'bad guy'.
3X07 The Walk
Named for one thing that the antagonist couldn't normally
do.
3X08 Oubliette
"medieval dungeon having a trap door in the ceiling as its
only means of
entry or exit". It is derived from the French word
'oublier', to forget.
3X09 Nisei
'Nisei' is the Japanese word for a person born in America
or Canada to
Japanese parents (who were born in Japan). Translated
literally, it
means 'second generation'.
3X10 731
Camp 731 was a germ warfare research station in Manchuko
(Japanese
occupied Manchuria) by General Shiro Ishii (the Japanese
Mengele).
Hideous experiments were performed there on P.O.W.'s,
including
Americans. After the war, Ishii and his crew were recruited
into the
American bio-war research establishment.
3X11 Revelations
Refers to the American religious tradition of receiving
'revelations' or
visions of God, often through stigmata (wounds on the hands
and feet
resembling those of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ).
3X12 War of the Coprophages
A play on the title "War of the Worlds", it is literally
"War of the
Dung Eaters".
3X13 Syzygy
As explained in the episode, a configuration of planets in
a straight
line.
3X14 Grotesque
The title is pretty descriptive of the actions taking place
and of the
drawings in this episode -- also, gargoyles that do not
serve as drains
are known as 'grotesques'.
3X15 Piper Maru
Named for the first and middle names of Gillian Anderson's
daughter,
Piper Maru. The middle name 'Maru' was particularly fitting
for this
episode, since it means 'ship' in Japanese (and it means
'flower' in
Polynesian -- no, Gillian didn't name her daughter after a
boat).
3X16 Apocrypha
"Writings of dubious authenticity". 'Apocrypha' are also
books of the
bible excluded from the Jewish and Protestant canons of the
Old
Testament.
3X17 Pusher
Refers to Modell's ability to push people, and control
their minds
through telepathy.
3X18 Teso Dos Bichos
"Teso" is Portuguese for "burial ground". "Bichos" means
"small animals"
3X19 Hell Money
As described in the episode, Hell money is used to pay off
ghosts in the
Chinese Festival of the Hungary Ghosts.
3X20 Jose Chung's From Outer Space
This title represents the book written by the interviewer,
Jose Chung,
in this episode.
3X21 Avatar
An "avatar" is the human incarnation of a deity. The word
has also been
popularized more recently as a computer term for a person's
on-line
graphical representation (first used in Neal Stephenson's
book "Snow
Crash").
3X22 Quagmire
A quagmire is land with a soft, yielding surface, or a
difficult,
irksome, precarious, or entrapping situation.
3X23 Wetwired
It has been suggested that the term "Wetwired" comes from
the short
story "Johnny Mnemonic" by William Gibson. In the story,
Johnny's brain
is "wetwired" to a computer hard drive. The term is being
popularized as
referring to a brain consisting of living and mechanical
parts.
3X24 Talitha Cumi
Aramaic for "little girl arise" -- words supposedly spoken
(Mark 5:41)
by Jesus after healing the dead daughter of a Jewish
leader.
4X01 Herrenvolk
Nazi/German word for "master race", which was Hitler's plan
for creating
a race of perfect, blue-eyed blonde people.
4X02 Unruhe
German for unrest.
4X03 Home
There could be multiple meanings for this title. This is
writing team
Morgan & Wong's first episode after returning to the
show (which would
make it their "home-coming" episode). Then again, maybe it
is just a
reference to the home of the people at the center of this
story.
4X04 Teliko
The spirits of the air (African legend).
4X05 The Field Where I Died
Petty self-explanatory -- the title is spoken from Mulder's
point-of-view.
4X06 Sanguinarium
"Sanguinary" means carnage, bloodthirsty, consisting of
blood.
"Sanguinaria" means bloodroot. Sanguinarium is Latin for
'place of
blood'.
4X07 Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man
The title is a straightforward analysis of what happens in
this episode.
4X08 Paper Hearts
What the killer kept.
4X09 Tunguska
The location in Siberia where an object (asteroid? UFO?)
struck the
earth in 1908. The blast leveled over a half million acres
and was
hundreds of times stronger than the blast of an atomic
bomb.
4X10 Terma
"Tyurma" (pronounced Terma) is Russian for prison or jail.
It has also
been suggested that the title refers to the Tibetan
Buddhist term
"Terma", meaning hidden or buried truth.
4X11 El Mundo Gira
"The World Rotates" in Spanish -- possibly a play on the
soap opera
title "As the World Turns", since Scully described this
episode as a
"Mexican soap opera".
4X12 Kaddish
A Kaddish is a prayer recited by mourners after the death
of a close
relative.
4X13 Never Again
Rumored to be titled for the likelihood that the writing
team of Glen
Morgan and James Wong will ever come back to the X-Files
again (this was
their final episode as they are leaving to create a new
show titled "The
Notorious"), the phrase was also uttered by 'Betty' the
tattoo.
4X14 Leonard Betts
Name of this episode's antagonist.
4X15 Memento Mori
Latin for "A reminder of death".
4X16 Unrequited
Means "not avenged".
4X17 Tempus Fugit
'Time flies' in Latin -- probably refers to the 9 minutes
that keep
getting lost in various ways on this show.
4X18 Max
Named for the character Max Fenig, who first appeared in
season one's
'Fallen Angel'.
4X19 Synchrony
A synchronous occurrence -- probably refers to the elder
and younger
Jason running into each other a few times.
4X20 Small Potatoes
A phrase meaning 'not a big deal, not overly important' --
it is how
Eddie thought of himself (and possibly how his father
described him).
4X21 Zero Sum
Describes a game where someone wins by someone else's loss
(for example,
we start with 10 dollars each, every time you win I have to
give you one
of my dollars, and you win the game when I lose all 10 of
my dollars).
4X22 Elegy
An elegy is a poem expressing grief for someone who is
dead.
Tulpa
In Tibetian mystic practice, a ghostly manifestation of a
"thought-form"
produced by the mind.
Revenant
"Revenant" is one that comes back following an absence or
one who
returns after death.
4X23 Demons
A secondary definition for 'Demon' is "a persistently
tormenting
passion" -- Mulder said that he wanted to exorcise his
demons.
4X24 Gethsemane
The place where Jesus was betrayed by Judas -- probably a
reference to
Scully's (apparent) betrayal of Mulder.
5X01 Unusual Suspects
A play on the phrase 'Usual Suspects', which is also the
title of a
movie containing unreliable narratives.
5X02 Redux
Means brought back, as following retirement, illness, or
long
inactivity; resurgent.
5X03 Redux II
Same as the definition of episode 5X02.
5X04 Detour
A detour is a road used temporarily instead of the main
route, or a
deviation from the direct course of action.
5X05 Christmas Carol
Named for the popular Dickens classic, there are rumors
that this
episode may follow a storyline quite similar to its
namesake.
5X06 The Post-Modern Prometheus
The title is probably in homage to Mary Shelley's famous
book
'Frankenstein' -- which is actually titled 'Frankenstein:
Or the Modern
Prometheus'. Prometheus was a demi-god who made men out of
clay, and is
probably best remembered as being the one who stole fire
from Olympus
and taught men how to use it -- an act that got him
punished by Zeus.
His punishment was to be chained to a rock and to have a
vulture eat his
liver every day.
5X07 Emily
Emily is the name of the little girl in this episode.
5X08 Kitsunegari
"Kitsune-gari" is Japanese for "Fox hunt" (with "Kitsune"
meaning "fox",
and "Gari" meaning "hunting"). The Japanese fox is
sometimes regarded as
a spiritual or magical figure.
5X09 Schizogeny
Schizogony means "asexual reproduction by fission".
5X10 Chinga
Chinga was the name of a meteorite that fell in Tannu-Tuva,
Siberia, in
1913. That's just a few years after the famous Tunguska
blast/crash/whatever, in roughly the same part of the
world. It also
means "to f@#k" in Spanish. Reportedly, although it was not
in that
episode, it was the name of the doll. Reportedly, Fox made
Chris Carter
change the name of this episode after they discovered the
"bad" nature
of the word. Too late to change it as it aired in USA and
Canada,
overseas the name was changed to "Bunghoney". Supposedly
Carter did not
want to change the name, so he changed it to this
perhaps-equally
distasteful but non-sensical word.
5X11 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 (it is sometimes meant to be used only in emergency
situations).
5X12 Bad Blood
Killing tourists for their blood was a bad thing, "modern"
vampires only
drink animals' blood, so human blood is "bad blood".
Dealing with
vampires, the title "Bad Blood" might be a clever reference
to the
animosity between Mulder & Scully, or between Ronnie
and the other, new
style of vampire (the good neighbor, tax-paying kind).
5X13 Patient X
Cassandra Spender, a wheelchair bound multiple abductee,
who's looking
forward to being abducted again.
5X14 The Red and the Black
Probably the best suggestion to the origin of the title is
from a film
made by the American government in the 1950's, during the
height of
McCarthyism. Used as both entertainment and anti-communism
propaganda,
the film is filled with truly astonishing stereotypes of
"Commie
Bastards". The film also depicts the cold war as a
clear-cut battle
between good and evil, with Americans as the patriotic
freedom-fighters
and the Russians as a threat to all that the Americans hold
dear. The
title of this film is "The Red and the Black". One of the
more
interesting suggestions is that the title is a reference to
Stendhal's
Le Rouge et Le Noire (French for The Red and the Black).
The main
character in the book (Julien Sorel) is an angry, self-made
man who
hates the rich people who don't accept him because he was
born poor. The
book follows his life as he manipulates and connives to
advance his
career and his status in life. The title of the book
relates to two
life-choices that were available to the Sorel, the army or
the
priesthood. Eventually, the character's past comes back to
haunt him,
and he loses everything (some people are suggesting that
this could be
Krycek's story). Another interesting possibility comes from
a song from
Les Miserables: "Red- the blood of angry men/Black- the
dark of ages
past/Red- the color of desire/Black- the color of
despair/Red! A world
about to dawn/Black! the night that ends at last".
5X15 Travelers
"Fellow Travelers" were communist symphatizers during the
50's and 60's.
5X16 Mind's Eye
This episode is reportedly about a blind girl who can see
through her
father's eyes.
5X17 All Souls
"All Souls Day" is Catholic holiday (11/2) with its roots
in the ancient
"Pagan Festival of the Dead", which celebrated the Pagan
belief that the
souls of the dead would return for a meal with the family.
Candles would
be placed in the windows to help the dead find their way
home, and an
extra place would be set at the table for them. The act of
"Trick or
Treat"ing on Halloween can be traced back to the early
celebration of
"All Souls Day" in Britian. On this day, the poor would go
begging and
the housewives would give them special treats, called
"soulcakes" in
exchange for a promise to say a prayer for the dead.
5X18 The Pine Bluff Variant
Pine Bluff is a city in Arkansas. It has a huge military
arsenal there
which has been used for decades to synthesize or otherwise
create
chemical and biological weapons. The "variant" could be a
variant of a
biological virus.
5X19 Folie a Deux
A condition in which two closely associated people who are
mentally ill
share the same delusional beliefs. It is also French for
"maddness has
two".
5X20 The End
There have been many rumors concerning exactly what this
episode will be
"the end" of (including the end of the X-Files and the end
of the
Mulder/Scully partnership), but one real "end" is the fact
that this
episode is the last episode of the X-Files to be filmed in
Vancouver,
British Columbia, thus bringing an end to the 5 year
relationship with
the excellent Vancouver crew.
6X01 The Beginning
A fitting follow-up to the previous episode, this episode
should bring
many new beginnings to the X-Files show we know and love.
6X02 Drive
Mulder drives all the way...
6X03 Triangle
Episode takes place in Bermuda Triangle
6X04 Dreamland
The name "Dreamland" is a nickname for the infamous Area 51
in Nevada.
More specifically it stands for Data Repository
Establishment and
Management Land.
6X05 Dreamland II
Same as two lines above, sure.
6X06 Terms of Endearment
6X07 The Rain King
Mulder and Scully crash a high school's 20th reunion dance
in Kansas as
part of a fraud investigation. One of the attendees, a
weatherman
harbouring an unrequited love, is the Rain King of the
title as his
emotions are affecting the weather.
6X08 How the Ghosts Stole Christmas
A play on the popular Christmas tale "How the Grinch Stole
Christmas"
6X09 Tithonus
Tithonus was, in Greek mythology, a son of Laomedon who was
loved by
Eos. She persuaded Zeus to grant him immortality but
neglected to
request for him for eternal youth, so that Tithonus
shriveled as he grew
older and older, and was finally changed into a
grasshopper. It is also
worth mentioning that 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".
(Special
thanks to OpheM for the research).
6X10 S.R. 819
The title may have been named for a "real" Senate
Resolution (S 819)
from 1993 regarding a hazardous, toxic, and potentially
deadly chemical,
Trifluoromethylaniline. The bill extended the temporary
suspension of
duty on the chemical.
6X11 Two Fathers
I assume that the two fathers being referred to in the
title are CSM
(father of Jeffrey Spender) and William Mulder (father of
Fox Mulder).
6X12 One Son
As the follow-up to "Two Fathers", I guess the "One Son" in
the title is
Mulder, the only son left standing after CSM decides his
son isn't worth
keeping around any more.
6X13 Arcadia
Arcadia is a region in ancient Greece held to be an ideal
of rural
simplicity and peacefulness, or a region offering rural
simplicity and
tranquillity.
6X14 Agua Mala
Spanish for "Bad Water", the term "Agua Mala" also is a
slang name for a
particularly nasty type of jellyfish (the Portuguese Man of
War) in the
Caribbean. This jellyfish has tentacles that can spread out
over a large
area of water, the clear arms unseen until it has wrapped
itself around
a person's limb or limbs, leaving welts that look very much
like acid
burns.
6X15 Monday
The episode happens on Monday.
6X16 Alpha
The title refers to the canine alpha-male, or leader of the
pack.
6X17 Trevor
Trevor is main characters' son.
6X18 Milagro
Milagro is Spanish for miracle. It is also usually a
'picture' of a body
part, offered to the saint who one credits with its
miraculous healing.
6X19 The Unnatural
A play on the common phrase used to describe someone born
to do what
they do, a "natural" or an homage to the Bernard Malamud
book "The
Natural", as well as Robert Redford's classic baseball film
of the same
name.
6X20 Three of a Kind
This is the follow-up to Season 5's "The Unusual Suspects",
so the
"Three of a Kind" here are the Lone Gunmen.
6X21 Field Trip
The field "trip" referenced in the title may have something
to do with
Mulder and Scully being exposed to an interesting drug.
6X22 Biogenesis
The doctrine that living organisms develop only from other
living
organisms and not from nonliving matter.
7X01 Hungry
An episode about cannibalism.
7X02 The Goldberg Variation
7X03 The Sixth Extinction
A reference to the point of Scully's monologue at the
beginning of
"Biogenesis". "Will we pass, as those before us, into
oblivion, into the
sixth extinction that scientists warn is already in
progress?"
7X04 The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati
Latin for "Love of fate". It can be a religious term,
having to do with
our lives being divinely willed (thus we are supposed to
love our
lives). A relatively famous phrase, it was written about by
Nietzsche
("Amor Fati: let that be my love henceforth").
7X05 Millennium
The X-Files/Millennium crossover.
7X06 Rush
Referring to the way that the people moved so fast, because
when someone
is rushing they are usually trying to get somewhere
quickly, and that's
what the kids in this episode were trying to do.
7X07 Orison
The definition of "Orison" is "a devotional prayer or
song". An orison
is usually devoted to a dead person, it's the kind of song
they play at
funerals when the casket is taken out by the pallbearers.
It is also a
name of the Reverend in this episode.
7X08 The Amazing Maleeni
Named for real-life magician Max Malini (1875 - 1942).
Famous for
relying on his own skill rather than props, Malini
performed for kings,
queens, and millionaires.
7X09 Signs and Wonders
A fairly common biblical phrase used to describe the acts
used to
convince followers of the nature of Christ and his
apostles, for
example: Second Corinthians 12:12: "The signs of a true
apostle were
performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and
wonders and
miracles."
7X10 Sein und Zeit
"Sein Und Zeit" means "Being and Time" and is the title of
a rather
famous 1927 philosophy book by world renowned philosopher
Martin
Heidegger. It deals with our existence -- being.
7X11 Closure
The title possibly defines Mulder coming to terms with his
sister's
abduction.
7X12 X-Cops
So-titled because this episode is filmed with a "Cops"-like
perspective.
"Cops" is/was a popular show wherein camera crews rode
along with
real-life policemen and filmed them doing their jobs.
7X13 First Person Shooter
"First Person Shooter" can be a term used to describe games
like Quake
and Doom -- games where you see the action through your
game-character's
eyes (first-person perspective), and your main goal is to
shoot your
weapon and take out your opponents, bad-guys, etc.
7X14 Theef
The word "Theef" (a misspelling of the word "thief")
appears throughout
this episode.
7X15 En Ami
French for "as a friend", sounds like "enemy".
7X16 Chimera
Greek for "goat". Websters defines "Chimera" as "1) from
Greek
mythology, a fire-breathing she-monster usually depicted as
a composite
of a lion (head), a goat (body), and a serpent (tail). 2) A
foolish
fancy. 3) An organism, especially a plant, with tissues
from at least
two genetically distinct parents."
7X17 all things
According to Gillian herself, the title "speaks to that
which is innate
in everything, and the unity of life energy and all of us
and of all
things"
7X18 Hollywood A.D.
The "Hollywood A.D." is in reference to A.D. (Assistant
Director)
Skinner, who has pitched an X-Files story to a Hollywood
filmmaker.
Since much of the story also references religion and
Christ, the A.D.
probably also refers to "Anno Domini" -- Latin for "the
year of our
Lord" and our designation for the time after Christ (A.D.)
(as opposed
to B.C. -- the time before Christ).
7X19 Brand X
"Brand X" is in reference to a brand of cigarettes
(Morley).
7X20 Fight Club
A reference to the 1999 Brad Pitt, Edward Norton/Brad Pitt
film of the
same name.
7X21 Je Souhaite
Means "I wish" in French. The episode is about a genie.
7X22 Requiem
Means "a mass for a dead person".
8X01 Within
A reference to Scully's pregnancy?
8X02 Without
Possibly a reference to Mulder, and Scully's inability to
find him.
8X03 Redrum
"Redrum" is "murder" spelled backwards, and is probably
best known in
pop-culture as a phrase from Stephen King's book "The
Shining". It is
also a tropical fruit infused Virgin Island rum which used
the
Redrum/Murder as a marketing gimmick. All sides of the
bottle read
Redrum, which means no matter which side you face, you can
see through
the blood red glass and read "murder". The phrase was also
used in the
movie "The Shining".
8X04 Patience
The title describes the monster-of-the-week's ability to
wait to exact
his revenge
8X05 Roadrunners
The title comes form the name of the bus company that
services the
desolation just north of Sugarville Utah. The sign reads
"Roadrunner Bus
Lines".
8X06 Invocation
According to my trusty Webster's, "Invocation" means "The
act or process
of invoking, esp. an appeal to a higher power for
assistance", and "an
act of conjuring up a spirit by incantation"
8X07 Via Negativa
The title is a Latin phrase that refers to the darkest path
taken en
route to enlightenment. Via negativa is also described as
"negative path
wherein salvation or enlightenment is achieved less by
direct discovery
and affirmation of the truth than by seeing through the
veil of Maya,
the pseudo-truths that we mistake for it; less through
knowledge
(gnosis) of the one true faith than by transcending the
counterfeit
creeds that stand in the way of any genuine salvation by
faith and by
grace; and less by direct discovery of the true self than
by fighting
free of the false selves that are its masquerades."
8X09 Surekill
Refers to the name of Dwight and Randall's business, AAA1
Surekill
Exterminators.
8X10 Salvage
MOTW worked for salvage company.
8X11 The Gift
8X12 Badlaa
An Urdu (language spoken in India) word for retaliation or
revenge/exchange/retaliation.
8X13 Medusa
A character from Greek Mythology, one of the three
"Gorgons". The most
well-known of the Medusa myths describes her with hair of
snakes and a
face so ugly that looking upon it turns a person to stone.
The name
"Medusa" means "sovereign female wisdom".
8X14 This Is Not Happenning
Phrase used by the UFO-chasing guy (Richie Szalay) in the
teaser and by
Scully at the end of the episode.
8X15 DeadAlive
This title describes Mulder's condition.
8X16 Vienen
Spanish for "They come".
8X17 Empedocles
Empedocles (490?-430 BC), Greek philosopher, statesman, and
poet, born
in Agrigentum (now Agrigento), Sicily. He was a disciple of
the Greek
philosophers Pythagoras and Parmenides. According to
tradition, he
refused to accept the crown offered to him by the people of
Agrigentum
after he had aided in overthrowing the ruling oligarchy.
Instead he
instituted a democracy. He also formulated a primitive
theory of
evolution in which he declared that humans and animals
evolved from
antecedent forms.
8X18 Three Words
The password to the systems consisted of three words,
"Fight the
future".
8X19 Alone
8X20 Essence
Mulder in the intro speech: "Essence transforming into
Existence."
Mostly taken from:
Laura Witte
laura.witte@nashville.com