3x17 Pusher - The X-Files Episode Guide

The X-Files

- Episode 03x17

Episode: 03x17
Title: Pusher
Type: Regular Episode
Production Code: 3X17
First Aired: Feb. 23, 1996

Season 3 » Episode #17 - Pusher

Summary: Mulder and Scully are challenged by a man who seems to have the ability to control others. He leaves clues for Mulder and Scully to follow as he sets up his contest of wills.

Who appeared in this episode?

Guest Stars:

Robert Patrick Modell	played by Robert Wisden
Agent Frank Burst	played by Vic Polizos
Lieutenant Brophy	played by Roger R. Cross
Agent Collins	played by Steve Bacic
The Judge	played by Don MacKay
Prosecutor	played by Brent Sheppard
Deputy Scott Kerber	played by D. Neil Mark
Defense Attorney Brent	played by Meredith Bain Woodward
Holly	played by Julia Arkos

Season 3 / Episode 17: - Pusher

Mulder: You mean you killed this man for nothing, you sick bastard?
Robert Patrick Modell: [laughs] Haven't you figured it out, Mulder? They all kill themselves.

Season 3 / Episode 17: - Pusher

Mulder: I don't know, maybe it's an aspect of some Eastern martial art. You know, a specific alteration of the brain's chemistry caused by some specific timbre or cadence in Modell's voice. His voice seems to be the key.
Scully: Mulder, Modell's last employment was as a convenience store clerk. He has never been trained by ninjas, he has never even been outside the U.S. He is just a little man who wishes that he were someone big. And we're feeding that wish! That failed psych screening? If Modell could actually control people's minds, right now he'd be an FBI agent, right? He'd be a Green Beret, a Navy SEAL...

[More Quotes]

MISTAKES/GOOFS

FAKE: Towards the end of the show, when "Pusher" is at the hospital, we hear two gun shots. "Pusher" makes the security guard shoot the medical technician and then himself. However, when Mulder goes to investigate, there are clearly 5 shell casings on the floor. Later, at 36:00 minutes, we see the pistol used, it is a .357 revolver. No shell casings would have been on the floor with only two shots fired.
PLOT: If the pusher's power is the power of suggestion, every person who saw his FBI pass without him talking to them would have raised the alarm.

TRIVIA

In the teaser, Pusher looks amused at a magazine discussing Flukeman, the monster of episode "The Host", of second season, with a drawing of it on the cover page.
At one point during the episode, Mulder and Scully identify a phone number the Pusher had called to be a golf driving range and pro-shop, to which Scully quips, "So he's a killer and a golfer", to which Mulder replies, "Rings a bell, huh?". This is a non-too-subtle reference to O.J. Simpson, alleged murderer and avid golfer.
Writer/executive producer Vince Gilligan's episodes contain numerous references to his girlfriend, Holly. Some of the more prominent examples of this: the name of the secretary in episode #3.17, "Pusher", Susanne Modeski's pseudonym in episode #5.3, "The Unusual Suspects", and Mulder and Scully running into the police at Holly Street in episode #7.12, "X-Cops".