and Marita Covarrubias, who last appeared in the seventh season finale "Requiem". Originally, this episode was to feature the recurring character Shannon McMahon. Actress Lucy Lawless became pregnant shortly after filming the two-part episode, "Nothing Important Happened Today" and was not available for subsequent episodes. Julia Vera was called in to play the role of the woman who is helping the Smoking Man live in the Anasazi ruins. Vera had previously appeared in the sixth season two-part episode "Dreamland". She later called the opportunity "amazing" and declared that "my greatest experience was The X-Files". The final scene of the episode was originally going to feature the Toothpick Man, the alien leader of the New Syndicate played by Alan Dale, informing U.S. President George W. Bush, played by actor Gary Newton, of Mulder's escape. The scene was filmed, but was not included in the broadcast version; executive producer Frank Spotnitz later said that he was "so happy" that the producers cut the scene, noting that—despite "a lot of debate about it, on both sides"—the scene was unable to top the final scene with Mulder and Scully. On the DVD's audio commentary, the producers mentioned that they had considered filming the shot on the Oval Office set created by The West Wing, a serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC. In addition, they originally wanted to have Martin Sheen appear as his character on The West Wing, Josiah Bartlet, instead of Bush, noting that the cameo would have been "a nice, sort of wink" to the television audience. Despite being cut from the final episode, the shot was featured as a deleted scene on the season nine video release. Filming The majority of the episode—like the rest of seasons six, seven, eight and nine—was filmed in Los Angeles. The first scene, featuring Mulder breaking into a military base, was shot inside a hydroelectric power plant in the Sierras east of Fresno, California. The rooms that were featured in the episode were the main rooms for the power plant, which The X-Files design team redecorated; the crew later called the set the "war room". Most of the decoration and interior scene was done by the visual effects crew; the only visible part seen in real life was a large sump pump. Bill Roe, the cinematographer for the episode, spent "four or five days lighting [the] set" for filming.