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In answer, instead of pulling out some weed and telling her that it's so cool and she should definitely try it and it will make her feel awesome, Mulder pulls out a picture of Roswell. Because that is how Mulder rolls, and that is why I love him. It seems that, after the alleged crash, the alleged parts of the alleged spaceship were allegedly shipped to six different sites. Guess what one of those sites was? Guess! Guess! Bingo -- Ellens Air Base, Southwest Idaho. Mulder's theory is, they're building planes with UFO technology and flying them around above the base and using them to give people rashes. Scully just dimples up a storm at this story. (Seriously, she could not be cuter. She simply could not. I want to put some butter on her and nestle her on a bun and eat her for a snack.) Mulder ups the craziness ante by comparing the two spaceship photos. They're both triangular, and you KNOW what that means. (Do you? Do you know what that means? Could you, if it isn't too much trouble, tell me?) They have another exchange here that, to me, is about as classic X-Files as classic X-Files can be:

SCULLY: Mulder, come on! You've got two blurry photos, one of them taken almost 50 years ago, and another one you purchased today in a roadside diner. You're going out on a pretty big limb.

MULDER: Tell me there isn't a remarkable resemblance.

SCULLY: Tell me one good reason why either of these photos is authentic.

MULDER: You saw exactly what I saw in the sky tonight! What do you think they were?

SCULLY: Just because I can't explain it...doesn't mean I'm gonna believe they were UFOs.

MULDER: Unidentified. Flying. Objects. I think that fits the description pretty well. [pause] Tell me I'm crazy!

SCULLY: Mulder? You're crazy. And it still doesn't explain to me what happened to Col. Budahas.

I love this episode. I do.

Back at the motel. I find this next bit cute, but maybe not for the reason some do. Scully (very much in need of a sports bra, BTW) comes running out of the motel's office toward Mulder's door. He sees her out the window, jumps off the bed and scurries to the door so he can be there in time to open it and laconically drawl, "You didn't come to raid my minibar, did you?" It's not the joke I like -- it's all the effort he puts into it. Without betraying his cool exterior, indeed. Hee. Scully allows a chuckle at this lameness, then tells him they've got a message from Mrs. Budahas. The Colonel is back, along with all 11 of his secret herbs and spices. So they rush right over! I mean, what the heck else do they have to do?

But when they get there, Mrs. B. is terribly upset. The man who's returned, she says, is not her husband. It sure looks like him! Mulder checks the picture on the wall to be sure. He seems like a pleasant enough guy. He's sitting at a small table working on a model airplane. He's not in his underpants, he's not covered in a rash, and he's not pulling out his own hair. So what's the friggin' problem? "That is not him," she insists. "They've done something to him." Before Col. B. can get upset, Mulder jumps in, his cheerful purple suit conveying that he is, in fact, the Good Cop. He asks Budahas where he's been, and his birthdate. Budahas answers somewhat impatiently, and apparently correctly. "And the names of your kids?" Mulder asks. "Josh and Leslie. They're right there," Budahas says, indicating the two children drawing in the next room. Hee -- that line always cracks me up. Like his saying "They're right there" somehow proves that he remembers them -- who the hell else's kids would be sitting in the dining room coloring? It's like him saying, "See that room with the stove and the refrigerator? That's where we cook and eat our food! I remember it all! Don't you understand? HOW WOULD I KNOW THAT?" Anyway. Budahas seems fine -- he knows that the kids hanging out in his house that look like him belong to him, and he remembers his birthday. Mulder tries to trip him up by noting his Green Bay sweatshirt and quizzing him about the Packers. Budahas flies through that one too. By God, this man is a GENIUS! Is there anything he DOESN'T know?