"Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose"

X-Files is set in our present; however, its paranoid premise is that the world is secretly being run by oppressive secret agencies intent on keeping the populace ignorant about "the truth," which Fox Mulder still believes to be "out there." What that "truth" is remained a mystery through most of the series, ranging from government propaganda to real alien invasion to god.

CHARACTERS

Fox Mulder: Fox Mulder’s nick-name in the FBI is “Spooky” because of his interest in extra-terrestrials and in various unexplained phenomena. The mantra associated with Fox Mulder is: “I want to believe.” In a number of episodes, we have learned of Fox Mulder’s love of (or perhaps fascination with) auto-erotica.

Dana Scully:  Dana Scully was brought aboard the X-Files division of the FBI in order to counter Fox’s claims. She represents the skepticism of empirical science and usually discounts Fox’s often far-fetched explanations for the phenomena they encounter, usually offering up what often sounds like equally far-fetched scientific explanations.

CULTURAL REFERENCES

Carnac, the Magnificent: Johnny Carson in a running gag used to play a psychic, Carnac the Magnificent, in which he would hold sealed envelopes to his forehead, predict the answers, then open the envelope and read the questions.

Dead Man’s Hand: The Dead Man’s Hand is purportedly what Wild Bill Hickock was holding as he was fatally shot by Jack McCall in Deadwood, South Dakota (August 2, 1876): two black aces over two black eights, although there is debate about what constituted the fifth card.