It wouldn't have been The X-Files if along the way there hadn't been a story about werewolves. This story tackles the werewolf topic by way of the manitou legend, a Native American evil spirit capable of changing a man into a beast. And just as we have in vampire lore, the bite of a manitou possessed individual will pass along the curse to it's next victim.
A cool thing about this episode was the way Mulder referenced the very first X-File undertaken by J. Edgar Hoover himself back in 1946. He then traces the history of lycanthropy in America all the way back to the Lewis and Clark expedition. The way he explains all of this makes it sound pretty credible, so unless you don't care one way or the other, you'd have to go ahead and do a little research to find out.
So with all of that as a backdrop, the death of a Native American at the beginning of the story turns into a murder investigation, with an underlying theme of racism fomenting distrust between white ranchers and the local Indian tribe. Mulder endears himself to tribal elder Ish (Jimmy Herman) by accepting some of their superstitions, and is accorded a dubious honor, the potential Indian name of Running Fox or Sneaky Fox. I thought that was pretty cool, so I began thinking of names they could have come up with for Scully. Had the Lone Gunmen been brought into this, another variation of fox might have been worked up for her too.
A cool thing about this episode was the way Mulder referenced the very first X-File undertaken by J. Edgar Hoover himself back in 1946. He then traces the history of lycanthropy in America all the way back to the Lewis and Clark expedition. The way he explains all of this makes it sound pretty credible, so unless you don't care one way or the other, you'd have to go ahead and do a little research to find out.
So with all of that as a backdrop, the death of a Native American at the beginning of the story turns into a murder investigation, with an underlying theme of racism fomenting distrust between white ranchers and the local Indian tribe. Mulder endears himself to tribal elder Ish (Jimmy Herman) by accepting some of their superstitions, and is accorded a dubious honor, the potential Indian name of Running Fox or Sneaky Fox. I thought that was pretty cool, so I began thinking of names they could have come up with for Scully. Had the Lone Gunmen been brought into this, another variation of fox might have been worked up for her too.