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Scully exposits that this rules out decomposition, and then also rules out predation, based on the fact that the skeletons are still intact. "Not to mention that these skeletons are not wearing any clothes," Mulder points out, surprisingly without any accompanying eyebrow-waggling.

Scully acknowledges that input and then gives her opinion (remember this, because it will be Important Later!!): "Well, I'd say it looks like a double murder, possibly one with ritualistic overtones. The bodies may have been stripped, then skeletonized, possibly by boiling or by the use of some kind of acid solution. Maybe the arrangement of the bodies has some meaning for the killer or killers. But at any rate, I'd term it ritualistic."

Raining on Scully's plausible-sounding-explanation parade, Mulder points out that there were no tire tracks, footprints, or any other signs that such a huge operation would have likely left. Scully then asks what Mulder's theory is. You think she would've learned by now.

Mulder is surprised (you'd think he'd have learned by now) that the location – Brown Mountain – doesn't ring any bells for Scully. He goes on to tell her the story of the Brown Mountain lights, an atmospheric phenomenon that dates back almost 700 years, where strange multicolored lights are seen to dance above the peak of the mountain. There has not, of course, been any geologic or scientific explanation for the phenomenon. Scully wants to know what the connection is to their case. Mulder says that even if there hasn't been a scientific explanation for the lights, "there are those of us who believe these strange multicolored lights are really..."

"UFOs," Scully finishes for him. He smiles wryly and nods. Scully snarks that these extraterrestrial visitors apparently have nothing better to do than buzz the same mountain over and over for 700 years. At this, Mulder bites his lip and replies sadly, "Sounds like crap when you say it." Hee!

Then he continues that he's just wondering if there's a connection here, and points out that the condition of these two bodies are reminiscent of certain southwestern cattle mutilations, which have long been associated with UFO activity. Scully just shakes her head and asks him if, for once, for the novelty of it, he can just Occam's Razor it and go for the simplest, most logical explanation "instead of automatically jumping to UFOs or Bigfoot".

Mulder is annoyed, and answers that in the six years they've worked together, he hasn't actually been wrong that often, and that he's getting tired of their cases always starting with this perfunctory dance where Scully tells him he's not scientifically rigorous and is crazy, and then he ends up being right, "98 point nine percent of the time." Then he pauses, and says he feels he's earned the benefit of the doubt here. Scully has no response (though her hair looks fabulous, I must add).

Oooh, story by Frank Spotnitz. That's good – the fact that he wrote this one gives me a little more hope for the new movie's story!

Boone County Morgue, Asheville, NC. The coroner has pulled out both skeletons for our agents, and OH MY GOSH, Mulder looks fantastic in his dark blue fleece pullover. Ahem. Sorry. The coroner says they were about to send the bodies on to the state medical examiner, and Mulder tells him he and Scully appreciate getting a chance to look at them. Scully is all business and pulls on her gloves as she starts her examination, informing Mulder that the connective tissue is still intact. The coroner – I'm going to call him Fred, because I'm tired of typing "the coroner" already – remarks that that's pretty much the only thing intact, and admits to being completely stymied by his findings.