Mulder is finally going after Area 51 in Nevada to pursue proof of extraterrestrial life after getting a tip from a source in the facility. Of course, they're stopped by the military before they can get there. After a UFO flyover, Mulder finds that he's switched bodies with Morris Fletcher, an Area 51 agent who was accompanying the military when they stopped Mulder and Scully. A few other Area 51 agents are angry at Mulder-Fletcher for letting the agents go, as they would have been able to help them find an informant. Mulder-Fletcher finds that Fletcher has a family and has bumped elbows with Newt Gingrich, Ronald Reagan, and Saddam Hussein.
A test craft crashes near Area 51, leaving the co-pilot embedded in a rock but alive. In DC, Kersh chews out Scully and Fletcher-Mulder for their latest foray into the paranormal; Scully senses something is wrong when Fletcher-Mulder apologizes for the transgression and flirts with Kersh's secretary. Mulder-Fletcher tries awkwardly to fit into the domestic life, then goes to Area 51 where he is told that the test craft pilot has switched bodies with an elderly Hopi woman.
Mulder-Fletcher calls Scully from a pay phone to let her know what's going on, but Scully doesn't have any recollection of the UFO. A gas station/convenience store is hit by some strange blast that leaves the place in ruins and the clerk fused with the floor. The Area 51 agents kill the clerk and destroy the building. In DC, Scully can't understand why Fletcher-Mulder is being disdainful of the X-Files and otherwise acting uncharacteristically, and also thinks the phone call came from Mulder's informant trying to impersonate him.
Another fusion is found, this time an iguana and a rock, and the Area 51 agents say the incidents are a result of a gravity drive malfunction in the test craft. Mulder-Fletcher asks how it can be reversed, and is told that might not be possible. Scully returns to Nevada and sees Mulder-Fletcher, making things difficult for him considering Fletcher's wife thinks he's having an affair with a woman named Scully. Mulder-Fletcher tries to prove who he is to Scully, but she is skeptical.
Fletcher-Mulder follows Scully to Nevada, and calls Area 51 to give them the name of the informant. Mulder-Fletcher takes the UFO flight recorder as proof of what has happened. However, Scully has been coerced into cooperating with Kersh and Fletcher-Mulder, and Mulder-Fletcher is arrested by the military as he tries to meet with her. To be continued...
Michael McKean, who plays Morris Fletcher in this and a few other episodes, was a former Saturday Night Live performer and also played Leonard Kosnowski on Laverne and Shirley. Nora Dunn, another former SNL performer, plays JoAnne Fletcher here. Michael B. Silver and Scott Allan Campbell, who respectively play Howard Grodin and Jeff Smoodge, had recurring roles on NYPD Blue as ADA Leo Cohen and IAB Sgt. Jerrt Martens.
Episode Body Count
Clerk: shot by the Area 51 agents after some sort of destructive event hits his station.
Everything else involves things occupying the same space at the same time but remaining alive.
Humans: 1
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0
Cumulative Body Count (121/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)
Humans: 1,440
Creatures: 99Aliens: 61
Grand Total: 1,600
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