Assuming this is the season opener...

Does Arizona use those letters in the window for Board of Health ratings? That letter in the gas station where Scully and Skinner stopped looked suspiciously like one from SoCal (LA, San Bernadino, or Riverside County).

How did Gibson get out of the nuclear reactor? What happened to his alien buddy?

Any why is in a school for the deaf? Last time I checked he could hear?

Eh. A fair opening, but nothing truly special. Robert Patrick was excellent as John Doggett, and was a wonderful relief from the obviously weary Duchovny of last season.

I figured Gibson was in a school for the deaf because that would be a hard place for him to be found, but it has been a while since we saw him; maybe something happened.

Checked with my dad, who reports that here in AZ he doesn't think letters are used.

Is it just me, or was that early cleavage shot of a buttoning-up Scully a tad gratuitous?

Scully's mother's answering machine is too impatient. It picks up after just one ring.

I note from the way Scully fell onto it, and didn't slosh, that Mulder no longer has his waterbed. I guess a room-soaking puncture and an earful from one's landlord will do that.

How fast do they carve tombstones in North Carolina? Most take months to be produced, but this one appears in a couple of weeks. And was Samantha really 14(1965-1979) when she disappeared? And was Fox really 18(1961-2000)?

Special Agent Doggett reads from a file folder labeled "Case No. 1013-113". All serious X-Philes know that Ten Thirteen is the name of Chris Carter's production company.

And it just occured to me: these aliens must be very advanced to have interstellar spacecraft, and the biotechnology to fool around with smallpox bees and black oil--but the medical examination equipment they use on Mulder is far less sophisticated than ours. It's almost as though they were designed as implements of torture ...

Yeah... how come these aliens don't use painkillers on their subjects?

I keep waiting for the creators to reveal that Robert Patrick's character is really one of the shape shifting aliens.

Shane, I hat to tell you this, but 2000-1961 is usually 39, not 18. And it has been established before (Paper Clip?) that Mulder was born in '61.

Scott, I believe that Shane was referring to Mulder's age when Samantha disappeared.

I saw no saguaros. Not in this one or in the next episode (which I just saw). Saguaros are everywhere in Arizona. You can't look in any direction without seeing even one of those cacti. So why do I see none in this episode?

Hmm, Msmith, I think I disagree. I don't think Saguaros are everywhere in AZ. It all depends on which part of it you are. I don't recall seeing them on I-10 heading towards CA but of course I could be wrong 'coz I'm paying attention to the road and not the scenery. ;-)

Anyway, Scully notices that there's a man spying on her. She takes off to find him and she doesn't close her apt. door? I guess she has to be reminded of "Trust No One" esp. now that Skinner is the only one she can trust. I kept yelling close your door! She could've picked up the keys when she went for her gun (the shot showed both on the table by the door). Oh well, now her computer is missing and so is Mulder's. Wonder if she's got a backup of all her files?

Oh boy, Kersch is now top-guy ... and he's not too chummy with Scully esp. with the way Mulder and Scully were always going against his orders in the past. This'll be interesting to see.

Nice touch that Doggett was asking questions of Scully prior to introducing, actually being found out as to his name. Just piques her distrust of him quite nicely. :-)

OK, they're not everywhere (especially in Flagstaff and once you start heading North to California), but they're in the majority of it. I just think it's a little too convenient that they happened to be in the part of Arizona where there aren't any. Know what I mean?

A couple of possible answers to the questions that have been raised --

The episode "Closure" established that Samantha was *killed*--kind of-- at the age of fourteen, based on the dates in the diary she kept after her abduction. This is consistent with the dates on the tombstone in this episode.

As for Gibson and the School for the deaf, in "The End", Gibson expresses his disgust for the vast majority of people, those who say one thing and think another. He also seems uncomfortable with having to listen to people's literal voices while hearing their thoughts. A school for the deaf would seemingly be the best place to avoid that kind of problem without exiling oneself from humankind.

My question was, how did Gibson get out of the nuclear reactor?

My question was, how did Gibson get out of the nuclear reactor?

BJ, that question was in the very first post to this board (mine). I didn't see "Without". Did they answer it there?

Hey BJ!

Msmith, I was just teasing ok ... don't take it wrong. ;-)