This is a twist... In this case, smoking can save your life.

Why didn't anyone wear masks as soon as they figured out that the cigeretts were responcible for the bugs?

This episode had a lot of "ewwws" in it.

Enought random thoughts... for now ;)

Nitpick for this episode -

When Dr. Bost (sp?) returns home near the beginning of the show, there is a North Carolina license plate on the front of his car.

In the state of North Carolina, we do not put them on the front of the car, only the back. We only get one plate when we get registered.

For someone who does not like insects (War of the Corophages), Mulder seems calm around the tobacco beetles. They were icky....

Sure, Mulder was tobacco-addicted in the end, but why did he buy a pack of Morley's? After all this? Maybe in the X-Files universe, there's only one tobacco company. No wonder they were worried about their assets.

May I say, though, that this is as enjoyable an episode as this season has presented. Sort of reminiscent of The Pine Bluff Variant.

This was a nice ensemble episode; they really need to use Mitch Pillegi more, don't you think?

Nictotine may be as hard to kick as heroin, but it isn't as instantly addictive. Then again, I'm sure there's not a lot of data on people who receive a massive dose all at once. . . .

The infection follows the rules for X-Files opposition: Dr Sober monitored the focus groups for months before becoming infected; the neighbor guy lived next door for how long? But Mulder visits once and bam! He's down. Everything speeds up when an X-File opens.

For those of you who don't have the X-Philes Nitpicker's Guide--shame on you!--the Chief noticed that killers on this show have a habit of going from, say, one victim every six months to five during the episode. The infection here follows a similar, although not identical pattern. Maybe Mulder's just really vulnerable to it.

I'm told by my friends (I'm a new X-Phile--as of the beginning of this season) that Morleys is the CSM's favorite brand of cigarette. Hmmm. . . Odd that someone should mention this on the "One Breath" board, and in the same message mention Mulder becoming CSM's "symbolic" son. And now we have Mulder buying a pack of them. . . .

Am I seeing way too many connections?

Talk about 2ndary smoke being hazardous to a non-smokers health. But I don't get how the tobacco beetles' eggs get inhaled from the fumes of the cigarette. Are they hard-shelled thus become spore-like? So, did Skinner just hold his breath long enough not to inhale any of the beetle eggs when he confronts Ashman Darrel Weaver?
Yah, Mark, it does get more frequent and obvious when M&S gets on a case. When they discover Dr. Scobie's body, they see no trace of the bugs except for the one in the glass; Weaver's neighbor, there are some bugs crawling about. And then it gets really close ... we see them actually coming out of Mulder.
Loved it when Mulder threw the "confidentiality" speech back to the lawyer.
The hypothesis is that Weaver was immune to the bugs because of his 4-pack-nicotine-dosage. How did Scully blurt out the dosage simply by looking at his fingers? Did she just go for the max and hope Mulder won't get hooked? Mulder should've just gotten the nicotine patches instead of a Morley's. ;-)
Just my $0.02

Yikes, if you're right Sarah, then Mulder is following in his "father's" footsteps.

Hey! Does anyone want to buy some tobacco beetles? I could get you a fantastic price!

Morley cigaratte packs bear a most striking resemblance to Marlboro's red box. Oh, wait! It is a Marlboro's red box! Speaking of which, at the end, when Mulder tossed it into the trash can it was slanted to the left (\), then when it's shown again it's slanted the other way (/)!

When the second corpse was found (Weaver's landlord, I think he was) and the camera pans really close up to the head, the mouth is open (and didja notice how nice and clean and pearly white those teeth were? Not exactly worth dying for, if ya ask me) but when it's examined after being found the mouth is closed.

Did Gillian Anderson color hair a brighter shade of red? It sure looks redder than usual, or is it just me and my skewed imagination?

When Skinner breaks into Weaver's place and they find that guy (whose name escapes me) tied up in the chair, Skinner, with the camera on him, takes the gag out of the guy's mouth, and asks if the guy can hear him, and when the camera's on the guy again the beetles have already started pouring out of the guy's throat at a faster rate than a few seconds would allow for such a great amount to have exited the dude's mouth.

More on the mysterious North Carolina plates. The letter/number arangement was wrong. On the X-Files, they went 1234-ABC. In real life, they should go ABC-1234. I found some pictures of NC licence plates at this link:http://hometown.aol.com/oxenjacksn/southeast-plates.html

What is Skinner, an assistant FBI director, doing personally running the protection of the whistleblower?

How could Weaver with his personality have been accepted as a member of the Morley focus group?

Re: Mulder's loving look at the cigs at the end. Does he really think that Scully won't notice that he's smoking, even if he tries to hide it?

An excellent, if grotesque (love Mulder's reaction to the infested lung) episode.

And coming up in two weeks: The Meta-Files!

Hans--Skinner said he was assigned to this case by the FBI Director because it was a top priority with the Justice Department.

It may have been a top priority, but still, Skinner could delegate authority and not personally be in the house.

Nice episode that probably benefits more from good performances, and not from a good script (although the basic conceit is certainly odd enough for a X-File).

Mitch Pileggi does his usual great performance as Skinner, and I really loved that guy playing Weaver. His end monologue was very effective.

Question. Is anything seen in this episode possible? I mean can an insect really lay eggs in your lung tissue and they hatch in there? I think the answer is no but I'm not sure.

Anyone else notice the name of the city where it takes place (they show the name briefly at the start)? It's Winston-Salem. 2 cigarrette names in one city...I was expecting them to also go to Newport News in NC....or maybe Upper Marlboro in Maryland...;-)
Also someone said Mulder should have bought a patch instead of a pack of cigs....not really...they cost about 30-60 bucks (cant remember) and one pack is about 4 bucks in DC right now. High price for either one, yes, but giving up nicotine requires committement if you are addicted and mulder probably has other things to worry about with conspicies and all.
;-)

So Mulder is turning into CSM now, is he? That would be an interesting irony to end the series on. I guess that would make Scully like whatshername, Mulder's evil old flame?

>Newport News in NC> I think it is in VA, near the NC-VA state line.

BTW, I'm suppried there were no Mayberry refrences in this episode. (Winstom-Salem is about 30 miles from Mount Pilot, a town frequently mentioned on The Andy Grithiff Show.) But, considering what happened with the last "Mayberry" show (Home) it's probably just as well.

well i figured it was down in that area...it MIGHT be in Va but im not entirely sure.

Everybody pounced on the best nits.
I was wondering how Mulder could possibly have survived having his pulmonary tissue riddled with larvae....even after they were killed by the nicotine, they would decompose in the host tissues, causing massive infection.

I love it whenever Mulder grosses out during one of Scully's post-mortems. She is just so cool-(remember when she found pizza in one guy's digestive system and got hungry thinking about it? that was the greatest!)

Yes, more Mitch Pileggi, Please, and I saw CSM refs all over this thing.
Tootles.

I double checked, Newport News is in VA. I have a cousin that lived there once.

Funny Scene That Will Never Be:

CSM runs out of cigerets.
Mulder lights up and offers him one.
CSM does a double take, and loses the initiative for the rest of the episode.

Winstom-Salem and pilot mountain are in North Carolia. I drove by there to visit reletives for Easter (and that is a long drive from Toledo, Ohio)

Here are a few nits...

The nicotine that they give Mulder, and that Weaver, the study subject, get, would probably not be high enough to kill the tobacco beetles. Tobacco is high in nicotine (of course), but it cannot all be asborbed. When a cigarette is burned, much of the nicotine is burnt up into the air, and only some enters the lungs. Then, only a small fraction of that will actually be absorbed, depending mostly on the depth of inhalation and the pH of the tobacco variety. So the end effect is that the person has only a VERY tiny amount of nicotine. Miniscule compared to an actual tobacco plant. And the tobacco beetle (a real insect BTW) can consume tobacco leaves with abandon, so how is a tiny amount of nicotine going to hurt it? Bottom line, the tobacco beetles should still be partying and breeding in Mulder's lungs.

How do the tobacco beetle eggs spread in the first place? I would have to guess they are not conventional eggs. Maybe they are asbestos. A cigarette tip gets red hot.

Why does Mulder go out and buy a pack of Morley's at the end (answer, "because it looks..."). He's only had one dose of nicotine, and he was unconscious (or at least "out of it") when he recieved it. The connection between nicotine + cigarette (esp Morley brand, but I guess that's the only brand they have?) wouldn't have been made, so how could he crave a cigarette?

Regarding the city name. Winston-Salem is a town/area in NC, I believe. James B. Duke (himself a cigar smoker) basicly invented the mass-market American cigarette (he also started Duke University). Winston-Salem was the headquarters, and he got the railroads involved, so basicly he could outstrip the competition. The American Tobacco Company (monopoly) was eventually broken up by the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Winstons and Salems are named after the town.

Newport News is in Virginia, somewhere in the area between Williamsburg and Norfolk. (I think)