Throughout the new season, The X-Files (1993 - 2002, 2016-) writers and directors Chris Carter, Darin Morgan, Glen Morgan, and James Wong included a number of references to the original series. Some are self-referential jokes that will be recognized by all (for example, when Mulder’s ringtone is the The X-Files theme song in Season 10, Episode 3, “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster”), but others will only be noticed by a true X-Phile. Recognizing the references listed below is not necessary to watch Season 10, but knowing these connections adds another layer of understanding to the show.

Mulder

Creator Chris Carter has said that the character of Fox Mulder and The X-Files were somewhat influenced by the old television show Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974 - 1975), and in “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (S10:E3) Guy Mann is dressed in the signature style of Kolchak, from the white suit and black square-cut tie to the hat with the red band on it. What’s more, Darin Morgan originally wrote the storyline for Kolchak, but the show was cancelled before the episode was ever made. Meanwhile, the red underwear Mulder is seen wearing in the motel bed in the same episode is strikingly similar to the red speedo he is wearing in the pool in “Duane Barry” (S2:E5).

Before “My Struggle” (S10:E1) begins, Mulder has moved from apartment 42 to a secluded farmhouse, the sort of place Mulder talks about in “Home” (S4:E2) when he says, “If I had to settle down, build a home, it would be in a place like this.”

Mulder’s I Want to Believe poster has been on his office wall since the pilot (S1:E1), and this is the poster on the floor that Mulder kicks in “My Struggle” (S10:E1). Scully buys a new one, which is seen hanging on the wall in the newly opened X-Files office in “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (S10:E3). Sadly, in this episode Mulder takes his aggression out on the beloved poster by throwing pencils at it. We’re much more used to seeing Mulder throwing pencils at his ceiling out of boredom, like he does in Chinga (S5:E10).

At the end of “Babylon” (S10:E5), Mulder pulls down the neck of his sweatshirt to reveal two circular welts near his left shoulder, marks he presumably received during his hallucination. This spot on Mulder’s body happens to be the approximate location where Scully shoots Mulder in “Anasazi” (S2:E25).

Why does this keep happening to me?

Mulder makes two basketball references in “Home Again” (S10:E4), saying the murderer has to be “about Tim Duncan height” and that “We can eliminate any 76ers ‘cause those guys can’t find the rim.” In the original series, Mulder is a fan of basketball and even sinks a shot from the 3-point line in “Paper Hearts” (S4:E10) – which Duchovny, who played college basketball, is said to have made in the first take and without special effects.

Scully

In the original series, Dana Scully was not only a skilled medical doctor and the voice of reason, but she was a highly competent FBI agent, rather than the typical damsel-in-distress. More often than not, it was Scully who saved the day, caught the perp or saved Mulder’s life. This situation in “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (S10:E3) is no different: while Mulder is off questioning Guy Mann about his condition, Scully uses forensics to identify the killer as the animal control officer, and, despite Pasha’s getting the drop on her, she still manages to take him down single handed.

As explained by Scully in “Quagmire” (S3:E22), she was nicknamed Starbuck by her dad after the character in the novel, Moby Dick, and she in turn called her father Ahab. So when Scully got a little dog in “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” (S3:E4), she named him Queequeg after a cannibalistic harpooneer in the same book. In “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (S10:E3), Guy Mann names his little dog Daggoo, who is another harpooneer from Moby Dick. Interestingly, Scully gets both dogs when she more or less steals them, and both dogs seem to have a taste for human flesh – Daggoo bites Scully on the finger, and Queequeg eats his deceased previous owner.

Some of the best original The X-Files episodes are the humorous ones, and none are more humorous than “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” (S3:E20) and “Bad Blood” (S5:E12), wherein we get to see different characters’ points of view of the same events. Not only do we get different opinions on the events that occurred, but we sometimes get completely false – and very funny – portrayals of Scully. A witness in “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” (S3:E20) claims that Scully threaten him with the line, “You tell anyone, you’re a dead man,” and in “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (S10:E3) Guy Mann claims Scully seduced him by saying, “I want to make you say ‘cheese.’”

Additionally, Scully’s line, “Besides – you forget I’m immortal,” in “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (S10:E3) may seem like it’s just a joke, but it’s actually a throwback to “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” (S3:E4). In this episode, Scully asks Bruckman, who can see people’s deaths, how she is going to die. He responds “You don’t.”

Cast, Crew, & Other Characters

In the new season’s “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (S10:E3), Guy and Mulder talk while standing in front of two tombstones: one for Jack Hardy and one for Kim Manners. Hardy was the assistant director of the movie The X-Files: I Want To Believe, while Kim Manners was a longtime producer and director for the original series. The phrase “Let’s Kick It In The Ass,” which is engraved on one tombstone, was a catchphrase of Manners’s. The phrase was also said by a character in “Hollywood A.D.” (S7:E19).

Actors Tyler Labine and Nicole Parker who play the stoners in the opening of this episode also play stoners in both “War of the Coprophages” (S3:E12) and “Quagmire” (S3:E22). The connection brings added humor to Parker’s line, “When you see a moon like that do you ever think life is so amazing and maybe we shouldn’t waste it by just getting high all the time?”

Alex Diakun is no stranger to The X-Files either. The actor who plays the hotel manager in “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster (S10:E3) has also been a curator in “Humbug” (S2:E20), a Tarot card reader in “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” (S3:E4), Dr. Fingers in “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” (S3:E20) and Gaunt Man in the movie The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

“Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (S10:E3) is not the first time a creature hides from the agents in a port-o-potty. In “The Host” (S2:E2) the Flukeman hides in a port-o-potty, escaping when a sanitation truck empties it. Additionally, the character of the Flukeman was played by Darin Morgan, who is the writer and director of “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster.” The Flukeman is also one of the photographs shown during the cold open of “My Struggle” (S10:E1).

In “My Struggle II” (S10:E6) Monica Reyes identifies herself as “Someone who was there for you….When you also needed help.” Reyes is referring to “Existence” (8:21) when she helped protect Scully during the birth of her son, William.

Despite having been killed in “Jump the Shark” (S9:E15), the fan-favorite recurring characters known as the Lone Gunmen – Byers, Frohike, and Langly (played by Bruce Harwood, Dean Haglund, and Tom Braidwood respectively) – make a brief appearance in “Babylon” (S10:E5) thanks to Mulder’s mushroom-induced hallucination.

Plots

When Scully and Mulder get to the scene of the crime in “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (S10:E3), Scully keeps talking about the creature that seems to have attacked people, while Mulder shoots down her statements using various scientific facts about real animal attacks. This is a role reversal from “War of the Coprophages” (S3:E12) wherein Mulder keeps telling Scully about cockroach attacks and Scully dismisses each death using scientific facts about more plausible natural causes.

Also in “Mulder and Scully meet the Were-Monster” (S10:E3), Mulder has difficulty with his new camera app and ends up taking selfies and blurry images while trying to photograph the were-monster. Likewise, a photographer is killed while trying to take pictures of the monster Big Blue in “Quagmire” (S3:E22), and when Mulder develops the film and shows them to Scully they find the pictures are all selfies and blurry close ups of the supposed monster. The result in both episodes is that Mulder tries to guess which of the monsters’ body parts are in the pictures.

The serial killer in “Grotesque” (S3:E14) covers his victims’ corpses in clay, creating monster-like figures which will be called to the minds of X-Philes who watch “Home Again” (S10:E4), in which a clay figure comes to life to avenge the injustices done to the homeless.

Finally, “My Struggle II” (S10:E6) is not the first time that the agents have thought smallpox vaccines are somehow being used by the government against its citizens. This fear is first mentioned in the episode “Paper Clip” (S3:E2) when Mulder and Scully find the government’s hidden mountain vault of the American population’s smallpox vaccination records.

While Season 10 of The X-Files differs from the original series in many ways, these references serve to help the new series feel like a part of the original run to the fans who have been watching the show since the early ‘90s. Further, by including characters and actors from the original series, mentioning events from the past, and carefully inserting recurring themes into the new series which only longtime fans would recognize, X-Philes are sure to feel that their devotion to The X-Files is recognized and appreciated by the writers and directors of the show.