By Brian VanHooker Published Oct 3, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT Analysis Sadly, it was all downhill after this.
Image: Fox/Everett Collection Sign in to your Polygon.com account Add Us Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap Immediately upon entering World War II, America faced the problem of its messages being intercepted by Germany, Italy, and Japan. As such, the American military needed to develop a code that couldn’t easily be broken. Early in 1942, Los Angeles civil engineer Philip Johnston proposed a solution. Having spent much of his youth on a Navajo reservation, and being one of the few non-Navajo people on Earth who understood the Navajo language, Johnston suggested the military recruit Navajos and use their language to communicate vital war information.
The strategy worked, and the code talkers, as they were called, were instrumental in many American victories, including the Battle of Iwo Jima. U.S. Major Howard Connor even said, “Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.”
Despite their indispensable, patriotic effort during WWII, I did not learn of the code talkers from any history class. Instead, I learned about them on The X-Files , during a three-part story that represents a high point for the series’ mythology.
Image: 20th Century Television/Disney As with every other season of The X-Files , the show’s second season concluded with a cliffhanger that wouldn’t be resolved until the next season began. On May 19, 1995, the episode “Anasazi” concluded season 2. Then, season three kicked off with “The Blessing Way” and “Paper Clip,” the latter of which aired 31 years ago this week.
“Anasazi” begins with two separate threads that would eventually be woven together throughout the course of the three-part story. First, a teenage boy discovers a UFO on a Navajo reservation and finds a long-dead, alien-like body inside. Separately, a hacker infiltrates the Department of Defense’s UFO files and gives a tape of the information to Agent Mulder (David Duchovny). At first, Mulder can’t make any sense of its contents, but Agent Scully (Gillian Anderson) suggests the language may be Navajo. She is eventually referred to Albert Hosteen (Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman), an elderly Navajo man who served as a code talker during WWII.
Meanwhile, the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) is determined to retrieve the tape and he turns to his old associate, Mulder’s father (Peter Donat), to convince his son to turn the tape over. However, when Mulder meets with his father, his father is killed. Eventually, Scully brings Mulder to New Mexico to meet Hosteen, who leads Mulder to the UFO site. Inside what turns out to be a railroad car, Mulder sees dozens of dead bodies that appear to be aliens. Suddenly, soldiers in the employ of the Cigarette Smoking Man blow up the boxcar and it appears as though Mulder is dead. That's how The X-Files season 2 ended.
Image: 20th Century Television When season 3 debuted with “The Blessing Way,” we find out that Mulder is alive and being nursed back to health by Hosteen. Scully, meanwhile, returns to FBI headquarters and is warned that her life is in danger, as it is believed that she has possession of the tape. She doesn’t, nor can she find the tape where Mulder stashed it. Scully’s sister (Melinda McGraw) is then murdered at…