 David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson both had other commitments as the season began , resulting in the producers delaying filming for this episode . It ended up being filmed third in the season , after the episodes " <unk> " and " The Goldberg Variation " . Carter wrote the episode at the same time as Duchovny was working on the next episode , " The Sixth Extinction II : Amor Fati " . Kim Manners said preparations were confusing since it wasn 't known at the time how the storyline would unfold . Spotnitz said of the end result , " For me , it was a lot like a fifties monster movie with Scully out on the beach with this guy going nuts with a machete , the bug attacks , and the sea of blood . Yeah , it was supposed to be serious business but , overall , I thought it was shaping up as a pretty entertaining hour . " 
