Now that The X Files is on Netflix Streaming, I’ve finally immersed myself in this show that I’d heard so much about but never watched. Last night I started the third season and came to the second episode, titled “Paper Clip.” And I was so excited when a scene opened in an orchid greenhouse that I had to pause and take pics so that I could post them here! Click each photo to see a larger version.
Turns out that the greenhouse is owned by a Nazi named Victor Klemper (played by Walter Gotell) who, à la Josef Mengele, had performed horrific scientific experiments on Jews. However, he managed to escape the Nuremberg Trials and was brought to the U.S. as part of the top secret “Operation Paper Clip” (side note: man…I do love a good conspiracy theory!). The U.S. government gave him asylum and hired him to try to create human-alien hybrids, so he was living well on the taxpayers’ dime…clearly, considering this vast array of amazing flowers. In his spare time, he was also using his scientific experience to create new orchid hybrids. Here is is repotting what appears to be a Cattleya.
Mulder and Scully visit to question him about an old photograph in which he is standing next to Mulder’s own father, who worked for the State Department.
Sad old Nazi orchid lover Klemper ends up giving intrepid FBI agents Mulder and Scully the location where the old photo was taken, which sends them on a crazy mission inside an old mine built into the side of a West Virginia mountain. Intriguing, no?
Aside from all the conspiracy and intrigue, I enjoyed seeing this episode for the lovely orchids, of course. 🙂 However, now I’ve discovered another example of orchids being represented in the media as something that only nutjobs, rich people, and now evil Nazi research scientists can love. Sigh.