"X-Files" - "The Unnatural" Trivia Quiz

Answer: cactus

His teammates were discouraged with his questionable aim, but the coach let him stay out trying, saying that he had to learn sometime. When Exley came up to bat, he hit the first pitch, but it was a foul ball. The next pitch bounced off the cactus while Exley and the catcher talked about the rumors that major league scouts were looking at Exley. Exley told the catcher, "I don't want to be no famous man. Just want to be a man." Then Exley hit the next ball out of the field, scoring a home run.

Answer: nonfat tofutti rice dreamsicle

When she pulled the cone out of the paper bag, Mulder looked at her and asked, "Did you bring enough ice cream to share with the rest of the class?" As she took her first smug licks, Scully informed him, "It's not ice cream. It's a nonfat tofutti rice dreamsicle." Mulder, disgusted by the notion, said "Ugh. Bet the air in my mouth tastes better than that. You sure know how to live it up, Scully." After a bit of banter, though, Mulder went for the cone anyway, grabbing Scully's arm and stealing a bite before the dessert broke and spilled on the archived books Mulder was reading.

Answer: Mickey Mantle

Mulder had just claimed that he liked baseball, so Dales was testing him, asking how many home runs Mantle had hit. After thinking a bit, Mulder said it was "a hundred and sixty-three." Dales, clearly disappointed with the response, went to close the door, but Mulder stopped him and pushed it back open, saying "Righty. 373 lefty. 536 total." Impressed by Mulder's seeming fanaticism, Dales opened the door and let him into the apartment.

Answer: Roswell Black and Blues

They'd jokingly suggesting getting police uniforms to play in because it would make the umpires more amenable. Dales laughed and joked back that they could change their name "from the Roswell Grays to the Roswell Black and Blues." The joke, however, didn't seem to go over so well, and the team gathered menacingly around Dales, who was clearly feeling a bit rueful. Before things got too serious, someone started laughing and the team playfully slapped a hat on Dales.

Answer: there was a bee

Dales had seen two men in the stands nod at each other and stand to pull guns out. Dales instinctively ran to Dales, pushing him to the ground and shielding his body. When he looked back to the stands, though, Dales saw the men squirting the people in front of them with water guns. Dales stood up and helped Exley off the ground, brushing off his shirt and saying, "There, uh... there was a bee on you." Exley replied, "Must have been a real big one." As he walked away, Dales said, "Could have ripped your head off." Exley stopped Dales, saying, "Hey, Arthur... thanks." It was clear that, though they were passing it off as a silly bee, Exley knew Dales had sensed real danger and had just put his own body in the path to protect Exley. The appreciation in Exley's eyes was genuine, which bolstered Dales for his return to the rest of the team in the dugout who teased him as "Officer Arthur Dales: making the world safe for baseball and Negroes."

Answer: pocketknife

Dales had used the pocketknife to open the connecting door between their rooms, but when he saw the alien in Exley's clothes, he let out a very girly shriek and held up the laughably inadequate pocketknife as though to defend himself. After they'd both screamed again, Dales fainted to the floor.

When he awoke, it was in a chair with the alien Exley trying to revive him. Exley had to try numerous times, because every time Dales saw Exley's alien form, he fainted again! Finally, Exley got Dales to stay awake and he confirmed that he was actually an alien and could just take on other appearances.

After this unexpected revelation, Dales and Exley only grew closer.

Answer: baseball

Exley explained that his "people guard their privacy zealously. [...] They don't like for us to intermingle with your people. Their philosophy is we stick to ourselves; you stick to yourselves; everybody's happy." Dales guessed that he'd been pulled away by a woman, but Exley said, "No. I saw a baseball game." Then Exley explained, "See, there's something you got to understand about my race. We don't have a word for laughter. We don't laugh. I don't know if you noticed in between all that fainting you was doing but we have very tiny mouths, so no smiling even. [...] I tell you, when I saw that baseball game being played this laughter just... it just rose up out of me. You know, the sound the ball makes when it hits the bat? [...] It was like music to me. You know, the smell of the grass, 11 men-- first unnecessary thing I ever done in my life and I fell in love. I didn't know the unnecessary could feel so good. You know, the game was meaningless but it seemed to mean everything to me.

It was useless, but perfect. [...] Tell you, from that moment on I just couldn't fix myself to go home."

Answer: cathedral

Mulder was trying to get clear on the story, asking, "Let me get this straight: a free-spirited alien fell in love with baseball and ran away from the other non-fun-having aliens and made himself black, because that would prevent him from getting to the majors where his unspeakable secret might be discovered by an intrusive press and public and you're also implying that..." Dales interrupted Mulder and said sourly, "You certainly have a knack for turning chicken salad into chicken spit." Mulder pressed on, though, asking, "You're also implying that this baseball-playing alien has something to do with the famous Roswell UFO crash of July '47, aren't you?" Dales, irritated with Mulder's inability to just listen to the story as it was, told him, "You're just dying to connect the dots aren't you, son? Look, I give you some wood and I ask you for a cabinet. You build me a cathedral. I don't want a cathedral. I like where I live. I just want a place to put my TV. Understand my drift?" He then told Mulder to trust the tale, "not the teller. That which fascinates us is by definition true. Speaking metaphorically, of course." To that, Mulder asked, "Okay, so was Ex a man who was metaphorically an alien or an alien who was metaphorically a man or a something in between that was literally an alien-human hybrid?" After a meaningful pause, Dales handed Mulder some alcohol and Mulder volunteered, "It's official. I am a horse's ass."

Answer: false

The bounty hunter told Exley, "Show me your true face so you can die with dignity. As your executioner I show you my true face before I kill you." As he changed his own face into alien form, the bounty hunter reiterated, "Show me your true face or you will die without honor." Exley emotionally avowed, "This is my true face." With that, Exley turned and presented the back of his neck to the bounty hunter, who stabbed him. Dales ran up to Exley as the bounty hunter (in KKK garb) rode off, but Exley tried to get Dales to stop touching him, saying, "Don't. Get off me. Our blood is like acid to you people. Arthur, get away. Don't touch it." Dales showed Exley his fingers, covered in blood, and said, "It's just blood, Ex. Look, It's just blood." Exley uttered in amazement, "Wow" and laughed before dying in Dales' arms.

Answer: baseball lesson

Scully showed up at the batting range wondering where the gifts were, and Mulder correctly surmised that she'd never hit a baseball. He told her to join him, and he stood behind her so they could hold the bat together. In addition to touching Scully's hip to show her the right motion to go through, Mulder talked her through what they'd be doing: "We're going to wait on the pitch. We're going to keep our eye on the ball.

Then, we're just going to make contact. We're not going to think. We're just going to let it fly, Scully, okay?" The first few hits weren't very successful, but Scully loosened up and submitted to the glee of the game, as Mulder said, "All right, what you may find is you concentrate on hitting that little ball, the rest of the world just fades away-- all your everyday, nagging concerns. How you probably couldn't afford that nice, new suede coat on a G-Woman's salary. How you threw away a promising career in medicine to hunt aliens with a crackpot, albeit brilliant, partner. Getting into the heart of a global conspiracy. Your obscenely overdue triple-X bill. Oh, I... I'm sorry, Scully. Those last two problems are mine, not yours." At that, Scully finally said, "Shut up, Mulder. I'm playing baseball." The partners continued to hit the balls, and as they flew into the night sky, they turned into shooting stars!