The Cave's X-Files Commentary Archives:  Encounters with the show

Remember that motel Mulder and Scully had Gibson Praise in in *The Beginning? Well, I've slept in that very room!! Okay, it was 20 years ago, but it's still quite a coincidence, no? When I saw Mulder come out of that room carrying Gibson, and the reflection of the pool water just above Mulder's head to the left, it reminded me of a place I'd stayed once. And then I remembered something I'd pulled off the Net about a month before the episode aired, from someone who had seen part of the 6x01 filming and who said it was done in Fillmore, a sleepy little town nestled among citrus groves about 20 miles from here. And then I remembered that Fillmore was where I'd stayed on that trip. I had gone to retrieve my husband from an 87 mile bike ride and I was driving an old VW Bug with my daughter (in car seat) in the passenger seat, so when we picked up my husband, he had to go into the back with the bike. And after a while his legs started cramping so much we stopped so he could stretch them. Which is when we headed for the nearest motel, which turned out to be you-know-where, and we got a room at the back next to the pool (which my daughter desperately wanted to swim in, except that we had no swimsuits with us and the wind had been blowing a lot, so the surface of the pool was filled with leaves.)

The morning after the episode aired, watching 6x01 over and taking my little episode notes, I was really stuck on that motel scene again. So after I'd gotten past my initial wave of e-mail, I hopped in the van and headed on over to Fillmore to verify. After a few detours for road repairs, I finally arrived in Fillmore, located the place I'd stayed, and turned in. As I drove to the back I noticed a big cascade of bougainvillea near the door of the room and thought, no, that can't be it. I didn't see flowers in the ep (my son said later that he saw the flowers, but somehow I missed 'em.) Anyway, when I got close enough to read the number on the door, sure enough it was #34! 

So I parked, went into the office and talked to the manager. Yes, she told me, XF had been there to film. She told me about how they had come with about 100 people, that they'd set up the caterer's tent at the back of the parking lot, that they'd had two tanker trucks (!!) full of water which they proceeded to spray all over the parking lot so it would look even darker, and that they didn't finish filming until 1 a.m. Oh, and how they had moved all the furniture in the room to the opposite wall from where it usually is.

So there you have it: my personal brush with XF, and only 20 years out of sync with the show!  Well, it was a great footnote for me in any event.

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