Besides a direct reference to the titular mythological character, Matthew VanWinkle, in the chapter "Tennyson's 'Tithonus' and the Exhaustion of Survival in The X-Files", of the book The X-Files and Literature: Unweaving the Story, Unraveling the Lie to Find the Truth, argues that the episode bears a striking resemblance to Alfred, Lord Tennyson's dramatic monologue "Tithonus". In the poem, one line reads "Alas! For this gray shadow, once a man."VanWinkle, p. 298VanWinkle, p. 299 VanWinkle argues that in The X-Files episode, this line is paralleled by Alfred Fellig's tendency to see those about to die in a monochromatic vision. Furthermore, both the poem and the episode stress that death is not appealing because it is simply "a means to an end". Rather, it is to be sought because it "is the event that most fully unites us with other humans."VanWinkle, p. 300
