Viewers discoveringHomicide: Life on the Street, now streaming onPeacock, will note Det.
John Munchs (Richard Belzer) penchant for conspiracy theories.
This may not have always been the case.
The Baltimore murder cop may have gotten the bug while on duty atThe X-Filesfor season 5s Unusual Suspects.
After the finale, Det.
Both shows began in 1993.
Written by Vince Gilligan and directed by Kim Manners, Unusual Suspects is set in May, 1989.
Duchovny and Anderson were still filmingThe X-Filesmovie in Los Angeles.
Series creator Chris Carter came up with the idea to show how the Lone Gunmen met.
Mulder is found hiding under a cardboard box.
He is naked and disoriented.
Ad content continues below
The trio are jailed in Baltimore.
Lieutenant John Munch is the interrogating officer.
The FBIs not talking either.
Byers tells Munch he works for the government, at the moment.
He is an FCC employee handing out buttons at an electronics convention, and a warrior against pirated cable.
Competitors seated at adjoining booths, Frohike and Langly sell stolen cable.
She fingers Mulder as the psychotic ex-boyfriend.
Seeing the clumsy Special Agent in the distance, it appears comically improbable.
They recognize the mysterious woman, but deny seeing her.
She also yanks out a tooth, which has a very visible tracking unit.
The file also provides an address where the gas is being stored.
They locate the delivery agent, asthma inhalers, at the warehouse.
Mulder arrests Susanne, but two men attempt to capture her.
They fire on Mulder, hitting the gas, leaving the agent writhing.
Susanne shoots her would-be kidnappers, and escapes in Mulders car.
The events and the coverup occur to a pre-X-Files Spooky Mulder, not yet assigned a sub-basement office.
He is single, so Fox is quite a catch.
As of the flashback in Unusual Suspects, he doesnt entertain notions of a sinister terrestrial collusion.
At the warehouse, Mulder is immersed in a gas designed to induce acute paranoia.
The exercise is a covert government mission.
The experiment will be covered up.
The Violent Crimes specialist has no experience in this kind of operation.
He believes in the Bureau and institutions like it.
Mulder has no clue what the Lone Gunmen stumbled on until they explain the events as the credits roll.
Frohike adds, tell him about the Bibles.
Agent Mulder is virtually speechless in disbelief, yet open to all evidence.
Paranoid and suspicious, the Lone Gunman are not yet conspiracy theorists at the beginning of Unusual Suspects.
They initially cant stand each other.
He is flabbergasted when Susanne suggests darker elements at play.
Susanne goes to The Baltimore Guardian, but the press does not believe the story.
The episode also serves as an introduction to Mulders inside connection, X.
When the operation is contaminated, X orders the cleanup.
He spares the infected Mulder, commanding nobody touches this man to his troops.
This could be an early indication of how the behind-the-scenes fixer will use the agent in the future.
X also intimidates Byers, Frohike, and Langly.
X supplies the trio with the name of the magazine they will publish.
I heard it was a lone gunman, X grins dismissively.
It is an integral part of the character.
Unusual Suspects could be Munchs first fall down a conspiracy rabbit hole.
He interrogates Byers as a cynic, ending the questioning with Do I look like Geraldo to you?
Dont lie to me like Geraldo, Im not Geraldo.
Munch leaves their cell a cynic, but hearing the story may be his conversion point.
Detective Munch couldbea conspiracy.
At least an X-File.
His character crossed into several shows, in different genres.
Munch even staked out30 Rock.
Homicide: Life on the Streetis streaming onPeacock.
