“E.B.E.” is episode seventeen of season one of The X-Files.
The episode opens above the skies of Iraq in the present day and the pilot of an Iraqi plane sees a light in the sky that isn’t on the radar. The light darts around impossibly and the pilot contacts base; they have no object on their radar either. The light darts away, then there is a bright light and the pilot says he is under attack. He opens fire and hits something. At a NATO surveillance outpost in Turkey, a crash is heard outside and the soldiers there report a downed plane, only to be told there isn’t one. They head to check it out and a light disappears into the sky.
12:20 AM Standard Time on Route 100 in Tennessee and a lorry driver tries to listen to the radio, but the channels keep changing. People over the CB report seeing lights in the skies and troopers chasing something. A cop car passes, and the CB gets interference before the truck dies. The driver grabs a shotgun and goes outside. There’s a disc in the sky when he opens the back of the truck and shoots something.
Mulder has two stop watches, which he starts simultaneously, leaving one on the car and heading off with a Geiger counter. Scully is collecting shotgun shells and suggests it could be a mountain lion the driver shot at. The truck could have been hit by lightning and the lights could have been swamp gas. Mulder doubts that a dozen witnesses, including cops, in three counties would get hysterical over swamp gas. His Geiger counter had led to something spilled on the ground. Mulder says he has investigated multiple sightings before, but none with as much supporting evidence. Scully isn’t convinced; the road can play tricks. Mulder agrees, but not like this, as the two stopwatches show different periods of time elapsed.
The trucker, Ranheim, is being held in Lexington for discharging a weapon on a country road. He tells them he’s a veteran and knows how to handle a gun. Mulder wants Ranheim to say what he saw. He doesn’t look so good, with a rash, fever and a cough. Which Scully says resemble Gulf War Syndrome. Ranheim says he wasn’t in the Gulf, and the effects started last night. The local police chief enters and says that Ranheim is free to go. Mulder tells Scully that, when they get back to Washington, he will introduce them to some people who publish a magazine, The Lone Gunmen. Some of their info is first rate.
The Lone Gunmen is three people, Byers, Langly and Frohike. Byers shreds a $20 bill belonging to Scully, revealing a strip inside. Not an anti-counterfeiting measure but a tracking strip. The three say they like Mulder because his ideas are weirder than their own. Afterwards, back at the FBI, Scully is saying to Mulder that those are the most paranoid people she has ever met, and is talking about their delusions in thinking they are being watched as she is unscrewing a pen to put in a refill, only to find a mass of electronics soldered to the existing one. That night, Mulder meets with Deep Throat, who gives him an envelope.
The envelope contains details of the Iraqi plane encounter. Scully says the truck is bogus and so is the driver. The truck weighed far more than the auto parts that were its listed cargo and Ranheim is actually Frank Druce, who operated in SpecOps in northern Iraq during the Gulf War. He has also been to a VA hospital for treatment. Mulder tells her that four days ago an Iraqi plane shot down the UFO and the wreckage was collected by the army. Scully wants to know about Deep Throat, who provided the information. Mulder trusts him, but Scully is less convinced.
Deep Throat turns up at Mulder’s that night, telling him that the UFO wreckage is being held at Fort Benning, giving him a photo of a UFO. Scully thinks the photo is a fake, pointing out the flaws in it, and saying he should get it analysed. Others will try to use Mulder’s passions against him; he should trust no one.
The photo is a fake, and they are under surveillance, so they plan to shake their tails and look for the truck supposedly transporting the wreckage. There is more misinformation, and possibly some truths revealed as well, but any truths are so clouded by lies it’s hard to know what is true and what isn’t. Deep Throat himself makes a comment about the best way of hiding a lie is between the truth.
The title of the episode stands for ‘Extra-terrestrial Biological Entity’ and this may be the first time the Lone Gunmen are seen but it isn’t the last.