Back when I saw this the first time it was run on TV, I Wanted to believe, and I believed.
I believed that they actually flew the production crew out to New Mexico or Arizona, I WANTED to believe that. I wanted to believe that the late and incredibly great Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman was an ancient Navajo Shaman, and I believed that as well.
But Mostly, I remember not being very interested in The X-Files until this very episode, which was the first great Mythos episode. The threads of the story are all here: Genetic Manipulation, Skully and Skully's Sister's involvement, Mulder's Father and his relationship to Cancerman, Alex Crycek's enigmatic involvement and the questions we have about him all the way to the end of the series. We also see the first evidence here that Cancerman has a special Protective Interest in Mulder. If we had watched the show from start to finish, we know why- But for this to be revealed here, was just another puzzle piece.
It was only revealed to me recently how Chris Carter tricked us. He really had us believing that Mulder and a Navajo Kid are riding a Bike through a Reservation. Carter Himself makes one of his three appearances in The X-Files, the others in "Hollywood AD" and in the film "I Want to Believe".
A comment was made about "Research" - And I want to knock that down just to say that a name is not important, there are a lot more details in this and the two following episodes to get caught up in conventions about how to pronounce any Native American names. For instance, we do know that in WWII, Messages in the Pacific Arena were written in Najavo, this is basic history- And I had heard this long before this episode was originally broadcast.
What is important here, are the beginnings of Themes used all through the series - Train cars, Smallpox Vaccinations, genetic markers used to keep track of specific people. Some of the information may be real, some of it just sounds real- I have heard that when you are making a fabrication, stick as close to the truth as possible, and The X-Files research department got all the right words in - "Majestic" is used, as well as some other hints and tidbits. And that if you have a piece of metal embedded in you, think twice about removing it.
I had only been watching The X Files sporadically up to this point, it was this episode that made me a lifetime Fan and that has not wavered since then. Besides, it is better when we know a conspiracy is going in, but we can't quite grasp the whole Boundaries of it. When they were finally revealed in the first X Files Film- And it reaches back from that film all the way to this episode, it was a lot larger than the TV show and the TV sets of the time could handle, but it was also the end of the story.
So I salute this as one of the best Cliffhanger Episodes of all time, for me it was the best Season Finale of the whole series.