The X-Factors

Did the producers shoot an alternative ending, as reported?
That's just crazy talk, insists Carter: ''I would have played it the same way whether [Duchovny] came back or not.'' In fact, Carter says he's been planning Mulder's abduction and Scully's pregnancy since the start of the season. ''I thought it was a finale that would work for any eventuality. And because we had planned to do movies, I thought that would be a place to pick up with these things.'' Perhaps the alternative-ending rumors stem from the producers' clandestine high jinks: Because they wanted to keep the prenatal plot under wraps, the pregnancy scene wasn't revealed to the crew until the night it was shot. ''The last page of the script was never published,'' says Spotnitz. ''That was a secret we were trying to hold as long as possible.''

What the heck was Krycek doing in an African jail?
As usual, all roads lead to you-know-who. ''Cigarette Smoking Man put him in that prison as a result of [Krycek's] stealing information from him,'' says Carter. That explanation never made it into the final cut, he adds. And what are we to make of the return of U.N. babe Marita Covarrubias, miraculously cured of the alien cancer? ''She actually got it from a test,'' explains Carter. ''But she was not dying, she was just weakened from the tests.'' Uh-huh. Guess it was one of those 24-hour alien bugs.

Didn't the aliens cure Cigarette Smoking Man of lung cancer a couple of seasons ago? Why was he dying of it again?
Says Carter: ''Remember that he had an operation, which was the same operation that Mulder had where there was a transfer of genetic material. [Not really, but okay.] The operation didn't work. This is the result of that.'' Answer us this, then: Did Krycek's pushing CSM down the stairs finally kill that black-lunged bastard? ''Wait 'til next season,'' Carter says. Now, there's a shocker!