X-Files Returns Tonight: Do You Still Believe?

I re-watched “Usual Suspects” for the fifth time earlier this week and although I never used to consider this episode one of my personal favorites, after seeing it for the fifth time this week, it edges into the top ten. The reason being is that moves beyond the insular X-Files universe and into other other TV’s shows. The episode is set in 1989 Baltimore where members of the yet-to-be-formed conspiracy trio, The Lone Gunman, are interrogated by Baltimore homicide detective, John Munch, and first meet Agent Fox Mulder. What’s particularly crazy about this episode is that Richard Beltzer plays Detective John Munch, who at that time, was as a character on David Simon’s Baltimore-based police drama, Homicide: LIfe On the Street, before the character (and actor) headed to New York’s Special Victims Unit. Aside from giving a great origin story of Mulder and The Lone Gunmen’s relationship, this episode also trips me out because it blends the NBC television universe with Fox’s universe.