Now that we’ve had Bermuda featured in the X-Files, it’s time to introduce the next biggest strange place on earth – Area 51. Mulder and Scully head out to meet a source who claims to have information for Mulder, However on doing so, they get stopped by a bunch of bad looking DOD guys who tell them to turn around.

Just as they are about to leave, some strange, silent object flies over head, shines down on Mulder and disappears, that’s when Mulder suddenly realises he’s changed places with the DOD guy telling them to leave, and watched as the man who was standing before him walks away with Scully – in his clothes, back to the car and they head home. The rest of the episode see’s Mulder living the life of this DOD guy, attempting to understand what it is he does, and tries to integrate into his personal life, wife and kids (which by the way is quite hilarious, and explains why Mulder has never settled down with kids after making the daughter cry twice).

Meanwhile, the DOD guy who’s replaced Mulder is raising some concerns with Scully when he’s seen indulging in cigarettes, being nice to Kersh and even having his way with Kersh’s secretary! Not to mention ignoring the X-Files and smacking Scully of the bum. The real Mulder manages to make contact with Scully at the cost of the DOD’s guys relationship and tries to convince her using personal facts without luck. But then we get the first glimpse of what might be going on. We see the Military responding to a downed experimental craft, in which one of the pilots has merged with a rock, and the other has virtually changed personalities with a local Indian woman, then more strange occurrences happen at a local gas station where the attendant gets melted into the floor. The DOD go on to explain back at Area 51 that they’ve been testing new propulsion engines which bend the fabric of space and time, and that during the crash, it’s possible objects and people can exist at the same point in time.

It appears the DOD guy who’s become Mulder knows about this, since seeing that the real Mulder has made contact with Scully, he sets up a sting operation to get Morris (the DOD guy who Mulder has been living in) arrested for being a mole. As Mulder is dragged away he screams to Scully, stating ‘would I do this?!’, since she has been questioning Mulder’s actions lately, she begins to suspect that something may not be right. End of part 1.