How Homicide: Life on the Street Sparked The X-Files Conspiracy Canon

The trio are jailed in Baltimore. Lieutenant John Munch is the interrogating officer. “Special Agent Mulder is currently being held in five-point restraints, jabbering like a monkey,” Munch informs Byers at the beginning of questioning. “The FBI’s not talking either. So, what I’m looking at here is a warehouse break-in with nothing stolen, a shootout but no guns, lots of blood but no bodies, and an FBI agent who likes to take off all his clothes and talk about space aliens. Fill me in.”

Byers tells Munch he works for the government, “at the moment.” He is an FCC employee handing out buttons at an electronics convention, and a warrior against pirated cable. Competitors seated at adjoining booths, Frohike and Langly sell stolen cable. Byers helps Susanne Modeski (Signy Coleman), who is trying to get her daughter back from an abusive ex-boyfriend.

The seemingly classic noir femme fatale lies about her identity, convincing Byers to hack into the Department of Defense’s computer network, and draws three strangers into committing federal crimes. She fingers Mulder as the psychotic ex-boyfriend. Seeing the clumsy Special Agent in the distance, it appears comically improbable.

When Byers and Frohike encounter Mulder, he identifies himself as an FBI agent, and asks if they can identify a suspect in a photo. They recognize the mysterious woman, but deny seeing her. Hacking into the FBI mainframe, Langly confirms Susanne is wanted for murder, sabotage, and terrorism at an Army Advanced Weapon Facility. The document says Dr. Susanne Modeski killed four people on her research team, and the MP who tried to detain her. Considered armed and extremely dangerous, with warnings not to approach, Modeski is labeled psychologically unstable, and her interactions with the Lone Gunmen appear to back up the diagnosis. At one point, Susanne pulls out a hotel Bible, explaining how they are used to surveil the movement of citizens. She also yanks out a tooth, which has a very visible tracking device.

Dr. Modeski explains she is a top organic chemist who worked on the team which developed ergotamine (EH), a gaseous weapon that induces anxiety and paranoia. The decrypted file proves she was framed after quitting over government plans to secretly test it on civilians in Baltimore. The file also provides an address where the gas is being stored. They locate the delivery agent, asthma inhalers, at the warehouse. Mulder arrests Susanne, but two men attempt to capture her. They fire on Mulder, hitting the gas, leaving the agent writhing. Susanne shoots her would-be kidnappers, and escapes in Mulder’s car. Syndicate member X (Steven Williams) arrives, bags the men who were shot, one not yet dead, and orders a cleanup just before proper law enforcement arrives. One of the side effects of the chemical agent is hallucinations, and Mulder sees the Syndicate crew as aliens.

The events and the coverup occur to a pre-X-Files “Spooky” Mulder, not yet assigned a sub-basement office. Frohike reads the hacked 1989 FBI dossier on Fox William Mulder, who graduated at top of his class at Quantico, accrued commendations out the ying yang, and is now in Violent Crimes. He is single, so Fox is quite a catch. The wedding ring he’s wearing in the shootout must be part of a deep cover. The X-Files’ canon says Mulder became a federal cop because his sister, Samantha, was abducted by extraterrestrials while young Fox was frozen in place. As of the flashback in “Unusual Suspects,” he doesn’t entertain notions of a sinister terrestrial collusion.

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