The X-Files Season 11: 10 Things We Learned From 'This'

After more than two decades, countless conspiracies uncovered, and friends lost, Fox Mulder has learned the name of his original, shadowy informant. The man he called Deep Throat (played by Jerry Hardin) is actually Ronald Pakula. Mulder and Scully discover this as they track down a trail of breadcrumbs Langly has left for them in Arlington National Cemetary.

If you're wondering why this never came up before, it's because, as Mulder put it, "I never visited out of respect, I guess."Fair enough. Deep Throat always kept his identity hidden from Mulder, no matter how close they got. When his death came in the season one finale The Erlenmeyer Flask, it felt as if Fox Mulder had finally come of age. The show felt as if it had as well.

The look back is one of several (including the inclusion of The Lone Gunmen) glimpses of the past found in This.

Perhaps one of the most moving lines in the episode is uttered in relation to Pakula: "He's dead because the world was so dangerous and complex then. Who'd have thought we'd look back with nostalgia and say 'that was a simpler time.'"

In a nice nod to history, Pakula shares a name with Alan Pakula, director of The Pelican Brief, The Devil's Own, and All the President's Men, the latter of which told the story of the Watergate scandal, in which the real-life Deep Throat was a key figure.