Top 10 Brilliant X-Files Secrets & Easter Eggs
The truth is out there ,you just might need to pay attention. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we'll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 Brilliant X-Files Secrets and Easter-Eggs.
For this list, we'll be looking at the little details and in-jokes scattered throughout the long-running and popular sci-fi show.
Have an idea you want to see made into a WatchMojo video? Check out our suggest page at http://WatchMojo.comsuggest and submit your idea.
The truth is out there, you just might need to pay attention. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 Brilliant X-Files Secrets and Easter-Eggs.
For this list, we’ll be looking at the little details and in-jokes scattered throughout the long-running and popular sci-fi show.
#10: Lost Friends
Top 20 TV Characters That Lost Their Mojo
In the third episode of season ten, there are lots of in-story and out-story nods. One is when Agent Mulder wakes up from a bout of binge-drinking lying against a headstone in a graveyard. The name on the stone is Kim Manners; the epitaph, "Kick it in the ass." This was in honor of one of the show’s former directors and producers, Kim Manners, who passed away, and the grave inscription was his signature catchphrase. Sharp-eyed viewers also spotted the name Jack Hardy, a former first assistant director on the show, who had also passed.
#9: Kurt Crawford
Top 10 Unforgettable Kurt & Blaine Moments on Glee
First appearing in the season four premiere as a group of eerily silent children, and again half-way through the same season in the episode “Memento Mori,” Kurt Crawford (or more precisely the Crawfords, plural) were a series of alien-human hybrids created as part of a colonization project. The name rang a bell for some. Crawford was also the last name of the Agent-in-Charge of the Behavioral Science Unit in the Hannibal Lecter series, and it seemed like this might be the fictional in-joke reference, but actually, Kurt Crawford is the name of a real-life member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Crawfords of “The X-Files” were named directly after series creator Chris Carter’s contact at the FBI. So many Crawfords!
#8: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
Back in 1995, Lynn Redgrave, Stephen King, and David Duchovny went toe-to-toe on a celebrity episode of the popular games how “Jeopardy.” Despite some amusing mutterings (what ARE frogs?), Duchovny did pretty well, and was in the lead going into Final Jeopardy. But on what Alex Trebek clearly thought was an easy question, only King was able to guess Truman Capote’s novel, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” as the answer for the win. Obviously thinking that someone in the alien-chasing duo ought to brush up on their reading, just a few months later we spot Scully reading the very book that stumped Mulder. Perhaps she can tell him all about it over brunch.
#7: “Twin Peaks”
“Jose Chung's From Outer Space” is one of the series most creative episodes, in which a teenage couple claims to have been abducted by aliens – who were again abducted by scarier aliens. The whole thing is a little surreal, and told by a series of unreliable narrators. In one scene, Mulder enters a diner and orders slice after slice of pie while asking his questions. It sure reminds us of another pie-loving FBI agent of the ‘90s, Dale Cooper from "Twin Peaks." While this one can’t be 100% confirmed, for fans of both series it feels like an in-joke for sure.
#6: Piper Maru
In this classic episode, a French salvage team on the ship Piper Maru come across a WWII wreck at the bottom of the ocean. Upon investigating, one of the crewmen becomes infected with the “black oil,” a creepy series staple. It is an important episode in the development of Agent Scully, but the episode had added significance for actress Gillian Anderson, as the salvage ship was named after her daughter, who had been born during the production of the previous season.
#5: The Red Speedo
Top 10 Easter Eggs You Missed In Westworld Season 1
The episode “Duane Barry” is a memorable fan-favorite for many reasons, but one of them came wrapped up in a little red package. Interrupted during a fitness routine, Agent Mulder exits a swimming pool clad in a red speedo. The head-turning moment became iconic – as did the speedo, even if Duchovny regretted it somewhat. Years later, as one of the many jokes in the third episode of the season ten reboot, the showrunners decided to bring back the brightly-hued briefs when the creepy proprietor of a motel takes a page out of Norman Bates’ book, and the audiences gets a quick peek at the scarlet garment.
#4: Stoners Redux
Some things never really change. This anonymous pair of slacker teenagers on a quest for a good high first appeared in the skin-crawling episode "War of the Coprophages.” The fume-huffing stoners made a second appearance just ten episodes later in "Quagmire," another fun monster-of-the-week outing, in which the kids expand their intoxicant palate to include frogs and the licking of them. In the 2016 revival, two seemingly random burn-outs muse on life and whether they’ve wasted theirs by getting wasted all the time, but fans recognized actors Tyler Labine and Nicole Parker right away. Dude, they’re even in the same clothes!
#3: Recursive Everything
To begin with, this Russian doll-like episode was written and directed by Mulder, aka David Duchovny himself. Airing in the middle of the seventh season, when the series was already beginning to wind down, the entire episode is filled with self-referential jokes and Easter eggs for long-time viewers. A friend of Skinner’s wishes to create a movie based on some of the “X-Files” cases. What results is a movie-in-an-episode that also refers back to the actual episode being aired by the end. Other delightful asides include Mulder as portrayed by comedian Garry Shandling; Téa Leoni – Duchovny’s then wife – portraying Scully; and Duchovny’s dog in its own guest appearance.
#2: “Moby Dick”
Throughout the series, there are reference made to Herman Melville’s novel “Moby Dick,” the tale of a fanatical sea captain and his hunt for the Great White Whale – a trait that is reflected in Mulder and his need for proof of alien life. Incidentally, most of the callbacks have to do with Scully, including her nickname, Starbuck, a character from the novel; Scully’s dog, Queequeg, the harpoonist in the novel; and her father, whose nickname was Ahab. Most recently, in “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” there is another dog named after a Moby Dick character: Daggoo – which, let’s be honest, is a great dog name. It practically memes itself.
#1: The Immortal Dana Scully
Top 10 Secret Cartoon Network Easter Eggs
Back in season three, the agents encounter a man name Clyde Bruckman, who claims that he can see how a person will die. Scully, ever the skeptic, does not believe him, but is later tempted to ask how she will die, to which he replies with a wry grin, “You don’t.” Although the showrunners initially never meant for this to be taken literally, fans latched onto the idea of an immortal Dana Scully. This idea was reexamined in the episode “Tithonus,” where it does seem that Death has passed her over. It’s clearly something that weighs on Scully’s mind, because in season ten she quips to Mulder, in response to concerns about her safety while tracking a serial killer, “You forget … I’m immortal.”
