The X Files 104 Conduit Facts, Trivia & Goofs

• This episode marks the first time Mulder says the famous line: "I want to believe".
• The huge portrait of Ruby that Kevin draws was originally done via a computer printout. However, it looked a little too perfect so art department member Vivien Nishi painstakingly wrote out all the 1s and 0s by hand. This took her several days for a shot that lasted a few seconds on screen.
• In the file about Samantha that her boss shows Scully, the complete name of Samantha is Samantha T. Mulder, but later in the series it is learned that her second name was Ann.
• This is the first episode in which Mulder fires a gun. He uses it to scare off some wolves.
• Joel Palmer, who plays young Kevin, reappears in the series in Season 2 in the possession episode, The Calusari (1995).
• Joel Palmer, who plays young Kevin, reappears in the series in Season 2 in the possession episode, The Calusari (1995).
• Carrie Snodgress is the first Academy Award nominated actress to appear as a guest star in the series.
• The location of the incident is called Lake Okobogee which is how you pronounce the real Lake Okoboji which is also on northwest Iowa
• This episode marks the first time that the X-Files are referred to as "fringe events".
• This episode reveals that Mulder's hometown is Chilmarc, Massachusetts. When a mention of the town reappears in the Season 2 opener, Little Green Men (1994), it is spelled Chilmark.
• Shelley Owens is the sister of Chris Owens who later would have a recurring part as Agent Spender.
• Tessa's appointment with her doctor is on August 7th. This is David Duchovny's birthday.
• Samantha Mulder's case file is X-40253.
• Don Thompson who plays Holtzman would go on to star in further episodes of The X Files, playing Henry Willig in 'Sleepless' (Season 2) and Lt. Col. Victor Stans in 'The Walk' (Season 3). He also had an uncredited role as the terrorist in the ghoul mask in 'The Pine Bluff Variant' (Season 5).
• When Scully views the file pertaining to the disappearance of Mulder's sister Samantha, her date of birth is listed as being January 22, 1964. Scully states that Samantha was 8 when she disappeared, but the date of her disappearance is stated in the show as being November 27, 1973, this would have made her 9 years old, not 8, as is stated all the way through the show.
• Donald Gibb of Bloodsport (1988) appears as the bartender in this episode.

Spoilers

• Chris Carter asserts that this episode is very important in that it's the first one when Scully realizes that Mulder might not actually be the crackpot he appears to be. The scientific proof that she reads at the end of Conduit (1993) concludes that Ruby, the returned alien abductee, has spent a degree of time in a state of weightlessness.

Goofs

 

• At the opening of the episode, Darlene Morris burns her left hand trying to open the RV door, then wears an oven Glove only on her left hand. She opens the door again but this time with her both hands without any harm to the naked right hand
• In Samantha's personal X-File, her middle name is only listed as 'T', while in several other episodes it is Anne.
• Before Kevin hands the pad to Mulder you can see that some of the shapes are filled in. But after Kevin hands Mulder the paper the shapes are just outlines, and it doesn't appear that pages were flipped
• When Mulder is running after the boy near the end, and the motorcycles are coming, we see him throw the torch quite far away, yet when the motorcycles are gone we see it is right next to him
• At the end of the episode watch the small cross that Scully wears as she and Mulder walk down the hall. When the shot changes to a close-up, it has jumped into her shirt
• When Ruby is discovered late in the episode, Scully is seen administering CPR on her with a gentle pulsing motion. In fact, CPR requires firm thrusts which have been known to break ribs. The mild movements made by Scully are unlikely to have any resuscitative effect

  - When Mulder and Scully go to Okoboji, IA the title on the screen reads Okobogee, IA. This is misspelled every instance it occurs in the episode, including the captioning and the sign their car passes on the way to the lake.