The X-Files Season 11: 10 Things We Learned From Plus One

The basis of Plus One is the idea that doppelgangers are killing people, and making it look like suicides. Most of the deaths appear to be hangings, and many of them seem nearly impossible for the victim to have carried out themselves. During the course of their investigation, Mulder and Scully examine the case as the pair are wont to do: Mulder looks to the paranormal (ghosts! he says, while Scully claims there are no such thing) while Scully returns to her traditional role as skeptic.

We'll get back to this blast-from-the-past characterization later, but for now, let's focus on an explanation Scully brings up early in the episode: suicide clusters. Suicide clusters are, apparently, an actual phenomenon, though not a supernatural one. Essentially copy-cat suicides, they've been more and more under the microscope in the modern age, as a result of how closely people are connected online. Think cases where cyberbully has led young boys and girls to suicide, and how suggestible young people can be. See the problem?

That said, suicide clusters are not a modern phenomenon — in the month following the death of Marilyn Monroe in 1962, the suicide rate rose as much as twelve percent.

Of course, this being The X-Files, something as "mundane" as suicide clusters would never be the answer, but that's still crazy to think about.