View source for The X-Files/Recap/S01/E17 E.B.E.

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In the skies over Iraq's border with Turkey, an Iraqi fighter jet shoots down a UFO. Later, in Tennessee, a truck driver named Ranheim shoots at something in the dark as another UFO flies overhead. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigate the sighting the next day, but Ranheim is quickly let go by the uncooperative local authorities. In a seemingly inconsequential event, a woman briefly borrows Scully's pen before they leave Tennessee.

Back in Washington, D.C., Mulder introduces Scully to the Lone Gunmen, a trio of eccentric conspiracy theorists with whom he collaborates. After returning to FBI headquarters, Scully discovers a surveillance device within her pen. Mulder meets with Deep Throat, who provides him with documentation of an intercepted Iraqi transmission regarding the downed UFO. Scully continues to investigate the Tennessee incident, learning that two thousand pounds of extra weight had been added to Ranheim's truck. She also learns Ranheim's true identity as Frank Druce.

Mulder intends to track Druce's truck, which is on its way to Colorado. However, before he leaves, Deep Throat approaches him at his apartment, offering the photo of a purported UFO at Fort Benning. Mulder initially believes that Druce's truck is a decoy meant to distract him from the UFO, but discovers that Deep Throat's photo is a fake. When Mulder confronts Deep Throat, he admits his deception and confirms that the earlier transmission was genuine. He also divulges that the truck is transporting an extraterrestrial biological entity, or E.B.E., recovered from the Iraqi crash site. Mulder and Scully escape their pursuers and head towards Las Vegas, the last known location of the truck.

Mulder and Scully catch up with the truck, and while pursuing it encounter strange weather. The truck stalls, but when they look inside it they find both Druce and the E.B.E. have vanished. When they investigate the truck and the area, Mulder concludes that the encounter was a constructed hoax, intended to convince the duo to cease further pursuit. With help from MUFON and NICAP, Mulder tracks Druce and the E.B.E. to a power plant in Mattawa, Washington. With assistance from the Lone Gunmen, the agents enter the plant with fake identification. Their unfamiliarity soon gives them away, but Mulder flees from the guards through a restricted area and is about to approach the room where the creature is held when armed guards stop him.

Deep Throat appears and calls off the guards, telling Mulder the E.B.E. is dead. He reveals an agreement made between multiple countries after Roswell that any living E.B.E. found would be killed, and that he is one of three men to have executed an E.B.E. Mulder looks through the window into the creature's holding cell, but it is empty. Afterwards, Deep Throat lets Mulder and Scully go free.

{{tropelist|page=E.B.E.}}
* [[Conspiracy Theorist]] - all of the guys at The Lone Gunmen. Mulder, too.
* [[Government Conspiracy]] - Of course, all those conspiracy theorists are right...
* [[Inspired By]] - [[All the President's Men]]
* [[We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future]] - Mulder is married to idea that Deep Throat's UFO photo is real.
* [[Myth Arc]] - the first mythology episode of the series.
* [[Insufficiently Advanced Alien]]

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