The X Files Season 1

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The X Files

Season 1

Episode transcripts Commentaries Notes Scripts 1x79 The Pilot - Transcript

Writer: Chris Carter Director: Robert Mandel Air Date: 10 September 1993 Transcribed by: Vic Edited by Libby

"THE FOLLOWING STORY IS INSPIRED BY ACTUAL DOCUMENTED ACCOUNTS."

[A woman runs through a forest, grunting as she trips and stumbles over logs and rocks. She is wearing a nightgown and runs through the foliage. She falls over a tree root and stumbles into a small clearing. A loud roaring starts and the wind grows stronger. She looks up to see a light growing, shining through the trees. A silhouette steps out of the light, walking towards her. The leaves around her begin swirling up in a circle, as in the center of a tornado. The figure stands over her as the light engulfs them both.]

Collum National Forest, Northwest Oregon

[Morning of the next day. The girl is face-down on the ground, dead. Officials walk around, murmuring to each other. The assistant coroners lean over the body as coroner John Truitt and Detective Miles walk over to the body.]

JOHN TRUITT: I put the time of death between eight and twelve hours ago. No visible cause, no sign of battery or sexual assault. All we have is this.

[He pulls up the back of her nightgown to reveal two small bumps on her lower back. Miles looks at them.]

DET. MILES: Can we turn her over?

[They do so. Miles stands.]

DET. MILES: Karen Swenson.

ASSISTANT CORONER: Is that a positive ID?

DET. MILES: She went to school with my son.

[He walks away as Truitt stands.]

JOHN TRUITT: Would that be the class of '89, detective? It's happening again isn't it?

[Miles keeps walking.]

FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C.

[Agent Dana Scully walks up the stairs and around to a reception desk where a woman sits.]

SCULLY: Agent Dana Scully.

[She continues through a group of offices and down a hallway. Reaching the door to Section Chief Blevins' office, she knocks.]

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: Come in.

[Scully walks in and sees Blevins sitting at his desk.]

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: Agent Scully, thank you for coming on such short notice. Please...

[He motions for her to sit down, which she does. A man smoking a cigarette leans against a file cabinet. He walks around to behind Blevins and leans against the wall. Another man sits next to Blevins.]

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: We see you've been with us just over two years.

SCULLY: Yes, sir.

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: You went to medical school but you chose not to practice. How'd you come to work for the F.B.I.?

SCULLY: Well, sir, I was recruited out of medical school. Um, my parents still think it was an act of rebellion, but, uh... I saw the F.B.I. as a place where I could distinguish myself.

THIRD MAN: Are you familiar with an agent named Fox Mulder?

SCULLY: Yes, I am.

[Blevins and the man look at each other.]

THIRD MAN: How so?

SCULLY: By reputation. He's an Oxford educated Psychologist, who wrote a monograph on serial killers and the occult, that helped to catch Monty Props in 1988. Generally thought of as the best analyst in the violent crimes section. He had a nickname at the academy... Spooky Mulder.

[She smiles at the Cigarette-Smoking Man, who gives no response.]

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: What I'll also tell you is that Agent Mulder has developed a consuming devotion to an unassigned project outside the bureau mainstream. Are you familiar with the so-called "X-Files?"

SCULLY: I believe they have to do with unexplained phenomena.

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: More or less. The reason you're here, Agent Scully, is we want you to assist Mulder on these X-Files. You will write field reports on your activities, along with your observations on the validity of the work.

[The Cigarette-Smoking Man stubs out his cigarette.]

SCULLY: Am I to understand that you want me to debunk the X-Files project, sir?

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: Agent Scully, we trust you'll make the proper scientific analysis. You'll want to contact Agent Mulder shortly. We look forward to seeing your reports.

[The elevator rings and the door slides open. Scully steps out into the basement and comes to an office secluded in the back. She knocks on the door.]

MULDER: Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted.

[She opens the door to see Agent Fox Mulder sitting at his desk, going over some slides. Walking slowly to him, she sees various pictures of UFO's and a poster that reads "I Want to Believe" with a UFO on it. He looks at her.]

SCULLY: Agent Mulder, I'm Dana Scully. I've been assigned to work with you.

[He shakes her hand.]

MULDER: Oh, isn't it nice to be suddenly so highly regarded? So, who did you tick off to get stuck with this detail, Scully?

SCULLY: Actually, I'm looking forward to working with you. I've heard a lot about you.

MULDER: Oh, really? I was under the impression... that you were sent to spy on me.

[He smiles.]

SCULLY: If you have any doubt about my qualifications or credentials, th...

[He stands and takes out a paper from a pile with his telephone as a paperweight.]

MULDER: You're a medical doctor, you teach at the academy. You did your undergraduate degree in physics.

[He takes off his glasses and looks at the paper.]

MULDER: "Einstein's Twin Paradox, A New Interpretation. Dana Scully Senior Thesis." Now that's a credential, rewriting Einstein.

SCULLY: Did you bother to read it?

MULDER: I did. I liked it.

[He takes a slide canister and puts it into the slide projector.]

MULDER: It's just that in most of my work, the laws of physics rarely seems to apply.

[He walks past her and turns off the lights. She glares at him slightly.]

MULDER: Maybe I can get your medical opinion on this, though.

[He presses a button on the control and a slide comes up on the viewscreen of Karen Swenson, face-up.]

MULDER: Oregon female, age twenty-one, no explainable cause of death. Autopsy shows nothing. Zip.

[He changes the slide to that of the two bumps on her back.]

MULDER: There are, however, these two distinct marks on her lower back. Doctor Scully, can you ID these marks?

SCULLY: Needle punctures, maybe. An animal bite. Electrocution of some kind.

[She walks up to the viewscreen. He changes the slide to that of a molecular diagram.]

MULDER: How's your chemistry? This is the substance found in the surrounding tissue.

SCULLY: It's organic. I don't know, is it some kind of synthetic protein?

MULDER: Beats me, I've never seen it before either.

[The next slide is of a boy face-down on railroad tracks, his shirt lifted in the back.]

MULDER: But here it is again in Sturgis, South Dakota.

[The final slide is of a close-up of another set of bumps.]

MULDER: And again in Shamrock, Texas.

SCULLY: Do you have a theory?

MULDER: I have plenty of theories.

[He walks over to her.]

MULDER: Maybe what you can explain to me is why it's bureau policy to label these cases as "unexplained phenomenon" and ignore them. Do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrials?

[He whispers the last few words eerily and she smiles.]

SCULLY: Logically, I would have to say "no."

[He nods, having expected that answer.]

SCULLY: Given the distances needed to travel from the far reaches of space, the energy requirements would exceed a spacecraft's capabilities th...

MULDER: Conventional wisdom. You know this Oregon female? She's the fourth person in her graduating class to die under mysterious circumstances. Now, when convention and science offer us no answers, might we not finally turn to the fantastic as a plausibility?

SCULLY: The girl obviously died of something. If it was natural causes, it's plausible that there was something missed in the post-mortem. If she was murdered, it's plausible there was a sloppy investigation. What I find fantastic is any notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there. You just have to know where to look.

MULDER: That's why they put the "I" in "F.B.I." See you tomorrow morning, Scully, bright and early.

[He walks back over to his desk and sits down.]

MULDER: We leave for the very plausible state of Oregon at eight A.M.

[She smiles and walks out.]

[Next day. Mulder and Scully are on an airplane to Oregon. The drink cart passes Mulder, who is lying down across a row of seats, sleeping, headphones in his ears. Scully is sitting nearby, wearing glasses and flipping through newspaper clippings of the dead teenagers. People are murmuring in the back, but the sounds of their voices are covered by the jet engines. Scully focuses on the name "Dr. Nemman." The overhead loudspeakers rings.]

PILOT: I would like to ask all passengers to fasten their seatbelts, as we're about to make our descent.

[Scully starts putting her things away when the plane starts shaking violently. People scream and things are tossed about as Scully grabs on to her seat. She looks at Mulder, who is awake now but still lying down in the seats passively. The plane finally is brought under control and she sighs in relief. He turns over and looks at her.]

MULDER: This must be the place.

[Driving down a long road, they pass a sign that reads "Welcome to Bellefleur, Oregon." Scully is reading the files and Mulder is eating sunflower seeds while driving.]

SCULLY: You didn't mention yesterday, this case has already been investigated.

MULDER: Yeah, the FBI got involved after the first three deaths when local authorities failed to turn up any evidence. Our boys came out here, spent a week, enjoyed the local salmon which, with a little lemon twist, is just to die for, if you'll pardon the expression. Without explanation, they were called back in. The case was reclassified and buried in the X-Files, till I dug it up last week.

SCULLY: And you found something they didn't.

MULDER: Mmm.

[As if to say "yes."]

SCULLY: The autopsy reports of the first three victims show no unidentified marks or tissue samples. But those reports were signed by a different medical examiner than the latest victim.

MULDER: That's pretty good, Scully.

SCULLY: Better than you expected or better that you hoped?

MULDER: Well... I'll let you know when we get past the easy part.

[She laughs.]

SCULLY: Is the medical examiner a suspect?

MULDER: We won't know that until we do a little gravedigging. I've arranged to exhume one of the other victims' bodies to see if we can get a tissue sample to match the girl's. You're not squeamish about that kind of thing, are ya?

SCULLY: I don't know. I've never had the pleasure.

[The radio starts flipping through channels rapidly, various sounds blaring. As Mulder tries to adjust it, the clock starts changing as well. The radio becomes a high-pitched screeching and Scully covers her ears. Mulder looks up to the sky.]

SCULLY: What's going on?

[Mulder pulls the car over to the side of the road and turns it off. He and Scully both get out. Mulder goes to the trunk, moves a briefcase, pulls out a can of pink spray paint, and walks over to where the occurrence began. As Scully watches in wonder, he marks a giant "X" on the ground, then tosses the spray paint can back into his trunk. He moves the briefcase back on top of the can and closes the trunk.]

SCULLY: What the hell was that about?

MULDER: Oh, you know... probably nothing.

[He gets back in the car.]

Coastal Northwest Oregon March 7, 1992

[After driving through town, the agents arrive at the cemetery. Getting out, they see a number of men standing around, along with a crane. John Truitt and his assistant walk over to Mulder and Scully.]

JOHN TRUITT: Mister Mulder, John Truitt, County Coroner's Office.

MULDER: Yeah, hi.

[They shake hands.]

MULDER: This is Agent Scully.

SCULLY: Hi.

[She and Truitt shake hands.]

MULDER: How soon can we get started?

[Scully and the assistant shake hands as well.]

SCULLY: Hello.

JOHN TRUITT: We're ready to go.

MULDER: Oh great.

JOHN TRUITT: Okay, Vinnie!

[The crane starts up as the four walk up the hill.]

MULDER: Were you able to arrange for a, uh... an examination facility?

JOHN TRUITT: I think we got something for you...

[A car with a man and his teenage daughter pulls up to the site and they both get out.]

JAY NEMMAN: Excuse me!

MULDER: Ah...

[They turn around and look at the man.]

JAY NEMMAN: Excuse me!

[He starts towards them angrily but turns around and moves his daughter back to the car.]

JAY NEMMAN: No. Please stay in the car... let me handle this. I just want to talk to them.

[The girl gets into the car. The man walks over to the four officials.]

JAY NEMMAN: I just don't know who you people think you are. You just think you can come up here, and do whatever you damn well please, don't you?

MULDER: I'm sorry, you are...

JAY NEMMAN: I'm Doctor Jay Nemman. I'm county medical examiner.

MULDER: Surely, you must have been informed of our intentions to come up here.

JAY NEMMAN: No, uh, no. We've been away.

MULDER: Oh, oh. Well, that answers the question that we had. Why you hadn't done the recent autopsy on Karen Swenson. You're aware of the tissue sample that was taken from the girl's body?

JAY NEMMAN: Wha... wha... what is the insinuation here? Are you saying that I missed something in those other kids' exams?

SCULLY: We're not insinuating anything, sir.

JAY NEMMAN: Wait a minute.

[The group turns back to the gravesite, but Nemman grabs Mulder's arm and spins him around.]

JAY NEMMAN: Wait a minute, see, well I think you are. And if you're making an accusation, then you'd better have something to back it up.

[His daughter gets out of the car.]

THERESA NEMMAN: Daddy, please, let's just go home.

[Jay motions for Theresa to wait.]

THERESA NEMMAN: Let's go home, please.

[Nemman glares at Mulder, then gets back in the car and drives off.]

MULDER: Guy obviously needed a longer vacation.

[They start back up the hill. They reach the gravesite and the crane starts scooping out the dirt above the coffin. Scully is reading from the file loudly because the crane's whirring is very loud.]

SCULLY: Ray Soames was the third victim. After graduating high school, he spent time in a state mental hospital treated for post-adolescent schizophrenia.

MULDER: Soames actually confessed to the first two murders. He pleaded to be locked up but he couldn't produce any evidence that he committed the crimes. Did you happen to read the cause of death?

SCULLY: Exposure. His body was found in the woods after escaping the hospital.

MULDER: Missing for only seven hours in July. How does a twenty-year-old boy die of exposure on a warm summer night in Oregon, Doctor Scully?

WORKER: I got it.

[Two men help pull out the coffin as it is being lifted out by a harness. Suddenly, one of the straps breaks and the coffin starts rolling down the hill.]

WORKER: Look out!

[As it hits the ground, the people jump, startled. They run down to the coffin as it crashes up against a tombstone, stopping it. The coffin has been broken open. Mulder goes to open it but Truitt grabs his arm.]

JOHN TRUITT: This isn't official procedure.

MULDER: Really?

[Mulder opens it anyway and sees a desiccated, mummified grayish body lying in the coffin. While it is unclear exactly what this was, it is definitely not human. The arms are very long but the legs are short. The agents and workers gasp and cover their mouths, nauseous. Mulder stands and looks at Scully, who is kneeling.]

MULDER: It's probably a safe bet Ray Soames never made the varsity basketball team.

[He turns to Truitt.]

MULDER: Seal this up, right now! Nobody sees or touches this. Nobody!

[Truitt slams the lid shut.]

10:56 p.m.

[Scully is dressed in her doctor's garb. Soames is laid out on the autopsy table. Mulder is taking pictures with a flashbulb.]

MULDER: This is amazing, Scully. You know what this could mean? It's almost too big to even comprehend.

SCULLY: Subject is a hundred and fifty-six centimeters in length, weighing fifty-two pounds in extremis. Corpse is in advance stages of decay and desiccation. Distinguishing features include large ocular cavities, oblate cranium... indicates subject is not human. Could you point that flash away from me, please?

[Mulder puts the camera away.]

MULDER: If it's not human, what is it?

SCULLY: It's mammalian. My guess is it's a chimpanzee or something from the ape family, possibly an orangutan.

MULDER: Buried in the city cemetery in Ray Soames' grave? Try telling that to the good townsfolk or to Ray Soames' family. I want tissue samples and x-rays. I'd like blood type and toxicology and a full genetic work-up.

SCULLY: You're serious?

MULDER: What we can't do here, we'll order to go.

SCULLY: You don't honestly believe this is some kind of an extraterrestrial? This is somebody's sick joke.

MULDER: We can do those x-rays here, can't we? Is there any reason we can't do them right now?

[pause]

MULDER: I'm not crazy, Scully. I have the same doubts you do.

[In Scully's motel room. The time is 4:37. Scully is typing on her laptop while listening to a recording she made earlier. There is an x-ray of Soames' head, with the nasal cavity circled, taped to the lamp.]

SCULLY: Visual laboratory inspection of the body and x-ray analysis confirms homologous but possibly mutated mammalian physiology. However, does not account for small unidentified object found in subject's nasal cavity. A grey metallic implant forming...

[She stops the tape and picks up a small tube containing a gray metallic object. There is a knock on the door.]

SCULLY: Who is it?

MULDER: Steven Spielberg.

[She smiles and opens the door. Mulder leans up against the doorway in jogging clothes and wearing a baseball cap backwards.]

MULDER: I'm way too wired. I'm going for a run, you want to come?

SCULLY: Pass.

MULDER: You figure out what that little thing up Ray Soames' nose is yet?

SCULLY: No...

[She yawns.]

SCULLY: And I'm not losing any sleep over it. Good night.

[She closes the door and looks at the x-ray.]

Raymon County State Psychiatric Hospital

[Mulder, Scully and Doctor Glass are walking outside the building.]

GLASS: Ray Soames was a patient of mine, yes. I oversaw his treatment for just over a year for clinical schizophrenia. Ray had an inability to grasp reality. He seemed to suffer from some kind of post-traumatic stress.

MULDER: Is that something you've seen before?

GLASS: I've treated similar cases.

SCULLY: Were any of those Ray Soames' classmates?

GLASS: Yes.

MULDER: We're trying to find a connection in these deaths. Did you treat any of these kids with hypnosis?

GLASS: No, I did not.

SCULLY: Are you treating any of these kids now?

GLASS: Currently? Yes, I'm treating Billy Miles and Peggy O'Dell. Both have been long term live-in patients.

[They stop walking.]

SCULLY: They're here at this hospital?

GLASS: That's right, going on four years now.

SCULLY: Would it be possible for us to talk to them?

GLASS: Well, you might find it difficult. Certainly, in Billy Miles' case.

[Billy Miles lays on his hospital bed very still. His eyes are open but there is no sign of life except for the pulse read-out on the monitor. The three walk in. Peggy O'Dell sits in her wheelchair next to Billy. A nurse is changing the sheets on the adjacent bed.]

GLASS: Billy's experiencing what we call a waking coma. Functionally, his brainwaves are flat and he's persistent vegetative.

SCULLY: How did it happen?

GLASS: Both he and Peggy were involved in an automobile accident out on State road.

[He looks over to Peggy.]

GLASS: Peggy?

[Peggy stops reading.]

GLASS: Peggy, we have some visitors, would you like to talk with them for a moment?

PEGGY O'DELL: Billy wants me to read now. "It's not sand, it's dark..."

[Mulder kneels down in front of her.]

MULDER: Does he like it when you read to him?

PEGGY O'DELL: Yes. Billy needs me close.

[Mulder walks back over to the doctor.]

MULDER: Doctor. I'm wondering if we can do a cursory medical exam on Peggy.

[She throws the book down, tips over the food tray, and starts wheeling around.]

NURSE: Peggy? Oh, Peggy, what are you doing?

GLASS: Get an orderly.

[Nurses and Doctor Glass go to her. She grabs her nose and starts screaming.]

MULDER: No one is going to hurt you!

[She moves her hand away from her nose and it is covered with blood, as well as her face. She falls forward off the chair and onto the floor.]

GLASS: Get an orderly, get an orderly. Nobody is going to hurt you. The nurse is here.

[Mulder takes the opportunity to lift up the back of Peggy's shirt. She has the bumps. Mulder looks at Scully, who looks back in shock.]

NURSE: I'm ringing for the orderlies now.

PEGGY O'DELL: Stop it! Stop!

DR. GLASS: All right, Peggy. All right. It's all right.

NURSE: Peggy, honey, you're going to be fine. You've had these nose bleeds before, now calm down. Don't worry...

[Scully walks out angrily. Mulder walks down the stairs quickly after her.]

MULDER: What's his name, er... Billy said he was sorry he didn't get to say goodbye.

SCULLY: How did you know that girl was going to have the marks?

MULDER: I don't know, lucky guess?

SCULLY: Damn it, Mulder, cut the crap. What is going on here? What do you know about those marks? What are they?

MULDER: Why? So you can put it down in your little report? I don't think you're ready for what I think.

[They stop walking.]

SCULLY: I'm here to solve this case, Mulder, I want the truth.

MULDER: The truth? I think those kids have been abducted.

SCULLY: By who?

MULDER: By what.

SCULLY: You don't really believe that?

MULDER: Do you have a better explanation?

SCULLY: I'll buy that girl is suffering some kind of pronounced psychosis. Whether it's organic or the result of those marks, I can't say. But to say that they've been riding around in flying saucers, it's crazy, Mulder, there is nothing to support that.

MULDER: Nothing scientific, you mean.

SCULLY: There has got to be an explanation. You've got four victims. All of them died in or near the woods. They found Karen Swenson's body in the forest in her pajamas, ten miles from her house. How did she get there? What were those kids doing out there in the forest?

[Later that night, Scully and Mulder walk through the forest, carrying flashlights. They both are no longer in suits, now wearing casual clothing. Mulder signals to Scully and they split up. Mulder looks at his compass, which is spinning wildly. Scully, in the clearing, bends down and picks up some strange dirt on the ground. A large rumbling begins.]

SCULLY: Mulder?

[The rumbling grows louder. She stands and takes out her gun. Walking back, she sees a light shining through the trees.]

SCULLY: Mulder, is that you? Mulder?

[A silhouette from out of the light comes towards her. The man lifts up his shotgun and Scully points her weapon at the man.]

SCULLY: Special Agent Dana Scully, FBI, drop your weapon.

[Detective Miles steps into the light.]

MILES: I'm with the County Sheriff's Department. You're trespassing on private property here.

SCULLY: We are conducting an investigation.

[Mulder walks up and points his gun as well.]

MILES: Get in your car and leave, both of you, or I'll have to arrest you. I don't care who you are.

MULDER: Hold on! This is a crime scene.

MILES: Did you hear what I said? You are on private property without legal permission. Now, I'm only going to say it one more time, get in your car and leave.

[Mulder and Scully lower their flashlights and weapons. They duck under the yellow police tape and pass a truck with huge searchlights on them that created the light. They get into their car and drive off.]

MULDER: What's he doing out here all by himself?

SCULLY: Maybe it has something to do with this.

[She holds out a handful of dirt. He turns on the car light.]

SCULLY: What do you think it is?

MULDER: I don't know. Is it a campfire?

SCULLY: It was all over the ground. I think something is going on out here, some kind of a sacrifice, maybe. What if these kids are involved in some kind of a cult and that man knows something about it?

[Mulder takes out his compass and looks at it. It is acting very strangely.]

SCULLY: I wanna come back here.

[Mulder looks at his watch, which reads 9:03. He looks down at the compass again.]

SCULLY: You okay, Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah, I'm just, er...

[He starts looking up through the windshield.]

SCULLY: What are you looking for?

[There is a loud roar and a light engulfs them. Time seems to stop just for a second. When the light fades, the car slowly comes to a stop, having no power. Mulder tries to restart the car, but it will not go.]

SCULLY: What happened?

MULDER: We lost power, brakes, steering, everything.

[He looks at his watch.]

MULDER: We lost nine minutes!

[He gets out of the car and screams into the sky. Scully gets out. They scream over the rain to each other as they talk.]

SCULLY: We lost what?

MULDER: Nine minutes. I looked at my watch just before the flash and it was nine-o-three. It just turned nine-thirteen.

[He starts running down the road.]

MULDER: Look! Look!

[They stop at the pink "X" that Mulder marked in the road, only a few feet from the car.]

MULDER: Oh-ho, yes! Abductees... people that have made UFO sightings, they've reported unexplained time loss.

SCULLY: Come on.

MULDER: Gone! Just like that.

SCULLY: No, what a minute. You're saying that, that time disappeared. Time can't just disappear, it's, it's, it's a universal invariant!

[The car starts up and the headlights shine on them. Mulder smiles.]

MULDER: Not in this zipcode.

[He runs back over to the car. Scully looks down at the "X" and follows.]

[Back in Scully's motel room. Scully is typing on her laptop. We hear her voice over the scene. As she types, it reads: "Agent Mulder's insistence of time loss due to unknown forces cannot be validated or substantiated by this witness" She continues typing. A thunderclap rings out and the power goes out.]

SCULLY: Great.

[She goes into her bathroom, carrying a candle and wearing a bathrobe. She starts running a bath and takes off her robe, revealing only a bra and underwear. She goes to slip off her underwear when she feels something. Two bumps on her lower back.]

[Mulder's motel room. Mulder, carrying a candle, opens the door to see Scully standing in her bathrobe, shaken.]

MULDER: Hi.

SCULLY: I want you to look at something.

MULDER: Come on in.

[Scully walks in, turns around and slips off her robe. She is still wearing only a bra and underwear. She looks back at him, then down to her lower back. Mulder sees a few bumps.]

SCULLY: What are they?

[Mulder starts to smile.]

SCULLY: Mulder, what are they?!

MULDER: Mosquito bites.

SCULLY: Are you sure?

MULDER: Yeah. I got eaten up a lot myself out there.

[She gasps in relief, slips her robe on and hugs Mulder for a long time.]

MULDER: You okay?

SCULLY: Yes.

[She pulls away from the hug.]

MULDER: You're shaking.

SCULLY: I need to sit down.

[She sits down. He sits down in a seat across from her.]

MULDER: Take your time.

[Later, Scully is lying on the bed and Mulder sits next to it on the floor.]

MULDER: I was twelve when it happened. My sister was eight. She just disappeared out of her bed one night. Just gone, vanished. No note, no phone calls, no evidence of anything.

SCULLY: You never found her?

MULDER: It tore the family apart. No one would talk about it. There were no facts to confirm, nothing to offer any hope.

SCULLY: What did you do?

MULDER: Eventually, I went off to school in England, I came back, got recruited by the bureau. Seems I had a natural aptitude for applying behavioral models to criminal cases.

[Outside, a man in a raincoat shuffles through the bushes, looks toward the motel room.]

MULDER: My success allowed me a certain freedom to pursue my own interests. And that's when I came across the X-Files.

[He turns to face her.]

SCULLY: By accident?

MULDER: At first, it looked like a garbage dump for UFO sightings, alien abduction reports, the kind of stuff that most people laugh at as being ridiculous. But I was fascinated. I read all the cases I could get my hands on, hundreds of them. I read everything I could about paranormal phenomenon, about the occult and...

[He sighs and drifts off into thought.]

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: There's classified government information I've being trying to access, but someone has been blocking my attempts to get at it.

SCULLY: Who? I don't understand.

[She sits up a little.]

MULDER: Someone at a higher level of power. The only reason I've been allowed to continue with my work is because I've made connections in Congress.

SCULLY: And they're afraid of what? That, that you'll leak this information?

MULDER: You're a part of that agenda, you know that.

SCULLY: I'm not a part of any agenda. You've got to trust me. I'm here just like you, to solve this.

[He moves closer, kneeling.]

MULDER: I'm telling you this, Scully, because you need to know, because of what you've seen. In my research, I've worked very closely with a man named Dr. Heitz Werber and he's taken me through deep regression hypnosis. I've been able to go into my own repressed memories to the night my sister disappeared. I can recall a bright light outside and a presence in the room. I was paralyzed, unable to respond to my sister's calls for help.

[He moves even closer, talking louder.]

MULDER: Listen to me, Scully, this thing exists.

SCULLY: But how do you know...

MULDER: The government knows about it, and I got to know what they're protecting. Nothing else matters to me, and this is as close as I've ever gotten to it.

[The phone rings, startling Scully. Mulder picks up.]

MULDER: Hello? What? Who is this? Who is thi...

[He hangs up.]

MULDER: That was some woman... she just said Peggy O'Dell was dead.

SCULLY: The girl in the wheelchair?

Rural Hwy. 133 Bellefleur, Oregon

[A mack truck sits in the road, ambulances and police cars surrounding it. People stand outside talking. A sheriff lights a flare and puts it down in the road to ward off traffic. Mulder and Scully pull up.]

MAN: We're going to need a couple more hours, Bob.

[Mulder walks over to a deputy and the driver. He speaks to the driver.]

MULDER: What happened?

TRUCK DRIVER: She ran right out in front of me.

[The deputy speaks to Mulder.]

DEPUTY: Who are you?

[Mulder ignores him and carries on talking to the driver.]

MULDER: She was running? On foot?

[The county coroner pulls up. Scully uncovers Peggy's face. Her neck is in a brace, and she is very bloody. There is an intubation tube in her mouth. Scully looks at Peggy's watch, which has stopped and reads 9:03. Scully walks over to Mulder and the deputy. Mulder is very ornery.]

MULDER: Well, that's just...

[He turns to Scully.]

SCULLY: We need to ask you a few quest...

MULDER: Let's go, let's go.

[She looks at him and he leads her to the car.]

MULDER: Someone trashed the autopsy bay in the lab and they stole the body, we're going back to the motel.

SCULLY: What? They stole the corpse?

[Scully and Mulder pull up outside the motel and run out of the car. Police and firemen are all around. Mulder runs over to a deputy and shows him his badge.]

MULDER: F.B.I.

[They stop and look at the hotel, which is ablaze.]

SCULLY: There goes my computer.

MULDER: Damn it! The x-rays and pictures!

[Firemen run around, one climbing a ladder.]

FIREMAN: We need a couple of men out here!

[Mulder closes his eyes, frustrated and angry. Theresa Nemman steps out of the crowd and over to the agents.]

THERESA NEMMAN: My name is Theresa Nemman. You've got to protect me.

MULDER: Come with us.

[In a diner, Scully sits next to Theresa in a booth. Mulder sits across from them.]

THERESA NEMMAN: This is the way it happens, I don't know how I get out there. I'll just find myself out in the woods.

MULDER: How long has it been happening?

THERESA NEMMAN: Ever since the summer we graduated. It's happened to my friends too. That's why I need you to protect me. I'm scared I might... die like the others, like... Peggy did tonight.

MULDER: Your father's the medical examiner. You were the one on the phone, you told me Peggy O'Dell had been killed.

[Theresa nods.]

SCULLY: Theresa, your father knows about this, doesn't he? About what happens.

THERESA NEMMAN: Yes. But he said never to tell anyone about any of it.

MULDER: Why?

THERESA NEMMAN: He wants to protect me. He thinks he can protect me, but I don't think he can.

MULDER: Do you have the marks, Theresa?

THERESA NEMMAN: Yes. I'm going to die, aren't I? I'm gonna be next?

SCULLY: No, you're not going to die.

[Blood pours out of Theresa's left nostril.]

SCULLY: Oh, God!

[Scully runs over to the adjacent table and gets some napkins. Before she can give them to Theresa, she notices Nemman and Miles walk in.]

JAY NEMMAN: Let's go home, Theresa. Theresa, come on.

[He pushes Mulder out of the way and sits down next to Theresa. He puts a handkerchief to her nose.]

JAY NEMMAN: Come on, honey.

MULDER: I don't think she wants to leave.

JAY NEMMAN: Come on...

[Nemman looks at Mulder.]

JAY NEMMAN: I don't care what you think! She's a sick girl.

DET. MILES: Your father wants to take you home. He'll get you all cleaned up.

JAY NEMMAN: I'm going to take you where you'll be safe, Theresa. Detective Miles and I won't let anything happen to you, I promise.

[Mulder looks at Miles in shock.]

MULDER: You're Billy Miles' father?

DET. MILES: That's right. And you stay away from that boy.

[Outside, Theresa looks at Mulder and Scully from the back seat of Nemman's van. The windows roll up and they drive away. Mulder and Scully watch them go.]

MULDER: Eh, you gotta love this place. Every day's like Halloween.

SCULLY: They know, Mulder. They know who's responsible for the murders.

MULDER: They know something.

[They start walking to the car.]

SCULLY: Dr. Nemman's been hiding medical evidence from the beginning. He lied on the autopsy reports and now we find out about the detective. Who else would have reason to trash the lab and our rooms?

[They stop.]

MULDER: Why would they destroy evidence? What would they want with that corpse?

SCULLY: I don't know, I...

MULDER: Makes you wonder what's in those other two graves.

5:07 a.m.

[As the rain pours down, Mulder and Scully, carrying flashlights, walk into the cemetery to find that the other two graves have been unearthed and are empty.]

MULDER: They're both empty.

SCULLY: What is going on here?

MULDER: I think I know who did it. I think I know who killed Karen Swenson.

SCULLY: Who? The detective?

MULDER: The detective's son. Billy Miles.

SCULLY: The boy in the hospital? The vegetable?! Billy Miles, a boy who's been in a coma for the last four years, got out here and dug up these graves?

MULDER: Peggy O'Dell was bound to a wheelchair but she ran in front of that truck. Look, I'm not making this up, it all fits the profile of alien abduction.

SCULLY: This fits a profile?

MULDER: Yes. Peggy O'Dell was killed at around nine o'clock, that's right around the time that we lost nine minutes on the highway, I think that something happened in that nine minutes. I think that time, as we know it, stopped. And something took control over it.

[She smiles, almost laughing.]

MULDER: You think I'm crazy.

[She nods and he walks away a little. Her face becomes grimmer. He looks back at her and notices that something is bothering her.]

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: Peggy O'Dell's watch stopped a couple of minutes after nine. I made a note of it when I saw the body.

MULDER: That's the reason the kids come to the forest, because the forest controls them and summons them there. And, and, and the marks are from, from some kind of test that's being done on them. And, and that may be causing some kind of genetic mutation which would explain the body that we dug up.

SCULLY: And the force summoned Theresa Nemman's body into the woods tonight.

MULDER: Yes, but it was Billy Miles who took her there, summoned by some alien impulse. That's it!

[Scully laughs, finding everything ludicrous. Mulder smiles.]

MULDER: Come on, let's get out of here.

SCULLY: Where are we going?

MULDER: We're going to pay a visit to Billy Miles.

[They start walking back.]

[Back at the Psychiatric Hospital, Mulder talks to the nurse while Scully looks at Billy's fingers.]

NURSE: Now, we could stand here until the second coming, waiting for Billy to get out of this bed. It ain't going to happen. He blinks and I know about it.

[She starts changing his IV.]

MULDER: I guess you changed his bedpan last night.

NURSE: Hmm, nobody else here's gonna do it.

MULDER: You noticed nothing unusual? Do you remember what you were doing last night around nine-o-clock?

NURSE: Mmm, probably watching TV, yeah.

MULDER: Do you remember what you were watching?

NURSE: Um, let's see... you know I don't really remember what I watched.

[Scully goes over to the end of the bed and lifts the covers up.]

NURSE: Miss?

[Scully starts inspecting Billy's feet.]

NURSE: What is she looking for?

SCULLY: Mulder, take a look at this.

[Mulder looks at it and Scully opens up an evidence vial. She starts scraping off some of the strange dirt into the vial. Mulder looks back at the nurse.]

MULDER: Do you know who was taking care of Peggy O'Dell last night?

NURSE: Not me, it's not my ward. Not my aisle of the produce section.

[She laughs. Mulder humors her by laughing slightly.]

NURSE: I do have a job of my own to do... what is she doing now?

[Scully closes up the vial.]

MULDER: Thank you for your time, ma'am.

NURSE: Okay.

MULDER: Good day.

[Mulder leads Scully out. Once outside the room, Scully walks rapidly, excited.]

SCULLY: That kid may have killed Peggy O'Dell, I don't believe this.

MULDER: Scully...

SCULLY: It's crazy! He was in the woods.

MULDER: You're sure?

[She holds up the vial in a baggie.]

SCULLY: This is the same stuff that I took a handful of in the forest.

MULDER: Okay, then maybe we should take it and run a lab test.

SCULLY: We lost the original sample in the fire. What else could it be?

[They stop.]

MULDER: All right, but I just want you to understand what it is you're saying.

SCULLY: You said it yourself.

MULDER: Yeah, but you have to write it down in your report.

[Scully calms down.]

SCULLY: You're right. We'll take another sample from the forest and run a comparison before we do anything.

[They pull up to the forest and see Miles' van.]

SCULLY: The detective's here.

[Mulder shines his flashlight in the front seat. It is empty.]

SCULLY: What do you think?

[A woman's scream rings out. Mulder and Scully start running through the forest. They split up, running through foliage, searching for the girl. Out of nowhere, Miles hits Scully on the head with the butt of his gun. She falls and looks up at Miles.]

DET. MILES: You wouldn't listen to me. I told you to stay out of this.

[He runs off as she struggles to get up. Mulder stops and hears another scream, then starts running to his left. He nearly trips over a root and sees Miles standing in front of him, cocking his shotgun.]

DET. MILES: Hold it, hold it right there! You got no business out here.

MULDER: There were screams...

DET. MILES: Down on the ground. Now!

MULDER: You know it's Billy. You've known it all along.

DET. MILES: I said down on the ground.

[Mulder kneels.]

MULDER: How long are you gonna let it happen?

[The woman screams again.]

MULDER: He's gonna kill her!

[Miles looks towards the screams, then runs off. He sees Billy lifting up Theresa's shoulders. The wind is growing and the leaves are swirling around them.]

DET. MILES: Billy, no! Let her go! Leave her alone!

[Billy looks at him, then goes back to lifting her up. Miles points his shotgun and Mulder tackles him. A shot rings out. Scully, holding her head, hears the shot and runs in the direction of it. Mulder and Miles watch on the ground as Billy takes Theresa in his arms and looks up. Mulder notices the two welts on Billy's back. The wind grows stronger and a light encompasses them. Mulder and Miles stand, looking at the light. Scully looks from a distance as the light grows. The light and wind die down and there is a thunderclap. Billy stands there, Theresa on the ground. She looks at him and he looks at his father.]

BILLY MILES: Dad?

DET. MILES: Billy. Oh, god.

[They hug. Mulder sees that the bumps are gone. Mulder realizes that his partner is missing.]

MULDER: Scully.

[He picks up his flashlight and starts running. They meet halfway.]

MULDER: Scully!

SCULLY: Mulder, what happened? There was a light.

MULDER: It was incredible.

[They both gasp for air, Mulder smiling slightly.]

March 22, 1992 FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C.

[Doctor Heitz Werber sits across from Billy.]

HEITZ WERBER: If you can hear me, raise your right hand.

[Billy does so slowly.]

HEITZ WERBER: Tell me about the light, Billy. When did you first see the light?

BILLY MILES: In the forest. We were all in the forest having a party. All my friends. We were celebrating.

HEITZ WERBER: What were you celebrating?

BILLY MILES: Graduation. And then the light came. It took me away to the testing place.

[Mulder is off to the side, watching. His reflection can be seen in the mirror.]

BILLY MILES: They would tell me to gather the others so that they could do tests. They put something in my head... here.

[He puts his fingers just above the bridge of his nose. On the other side of the mirror, Section Chief Blevins, the Cigarette- Smoking Man, the third man from before, and Scully are watching.]

BILLY MILES: I would wait for their orders.

HEITZ WERBER: Billy, who gave the orders?

BILLY MILES: The light. They said it would be okay. No one would know. But the test didn't work. They wanted everything destroyed. They said they were leaving. I'm afraid. I'm afraid they're coming back.

[Billy starts crying. The Cigarette-Smoking Man whispers in Blevins' ear.]

HEITZ WERBER: Don't be afraid Billy, we're gonna help.

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: All right, let's go.

[As they all start to file out, Mulder looks at the mirror directly at Scully. Scully looks at him, knowing that he cannot see her, then leaves.]

[Section Chief Blevins' Office, Blevins is seated at his desk and the third man is seated next to the right of him. Scully is sitting across from Blevins.]

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: What we've just witnessed, what we've read in your field reports... the scientific basis and credibility just seem wholly unsupportable, you're aware of that?

SCULLY: Yes, sir. My reports are personal and subjective. I don't think I've gone so far as to draw any conclusion about what I've seen.

THIRD MAN: Or haven't seen, as seems to be the case. This, uh... time loss... you did or did not experience it?

SCULLY: I can't substantiate it, no.

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: What exactly can you substantiate, Agent Scully? I see no evidence that justifies the legitimacy of these investigations.

SCULLY: There were, of course, crimes committed.

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: Yes, but how do you prosecute a case like this? With testimony given under hypnosis from a boy who claims that he was given orders from some alien force through an implant in his nose? You have no physical evidence.

[Scully stands and puts down the vial with the nasal cavity implant on Blevins' desk.]

SCULLY: This is the object described by Billy Miles as a communication device. I removed it from the exhumed body.

[Blevins looks at it.]

SCULLY: I kept it in my pocket, it was the only piece of evidence not destroyed in the fire. I ran a lab test on it, the material could not be identified.

[There's a stunned silence.]

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: Agent Mulder, what are his thoughts?

SCULLY: Agent Mulder believes we are not alone.

SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS: Thank you, Agent Scully, that will be all.

[Scully leaves the office. As she walks down the hallway, she passes the Cigarette-Smoking Man. She watches him go into Blevins' office, then carries on walking.]

[That night. Scully's Apartment. Scully lies in bed, eyes wide open, unable to sleep. The time is 11:21. It changes to 11: 22. The phone rings and Scully picks up.]

SCULLY: Hello?

MULDER: Scully? It's me, I haven't been able to sleep. I talked to the D.A.'s office in Raymon County, Oregon. There's no case file on Billy Miles. The paperwork we filed is gone. We need to talk, Scully.

SCULLY: Yes. Tomorrow.

[She hangs up slowly, then grows a little tenser as she lies down.]

[The Cigarette-Smoking Man walks down a long hallway. On either side of him are rows upon rows of shelves containing brown boxes. He comes up to one and pulls out a casing holding several vials each containing an implant. He takes out the one Scully had extracted and puts it in the casing with the rest of them. He walks down the rest of the hallway, comes to the door and walks out. Closing the door, he then runs his keycard through its sensor to lock it. The sign on the door reads:

"In Case Of Fire Or Emergency Know Your Exits PENTAGON Evacuation Procedure"

There is a map of the Pentagon next to it. The Cigarette-Smoking Man walks away.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest starring:

Charles Cioffi (Section Chief Scott Blevins) Cliff DeYoung (Dr J Nemman) Sarah Koskoff (Theresa) Leon Russom (Det Miles)

Co-Starring:

Zachary Ansley (Billy Miles) Stephen E Miller (Coroner Truitt) Malcolm Stewart (Dr Glass) Alexandra Berlin (Orderly) Jim Jansen (Dr Heitz Werber)

Featuring:

Ken Camroux (Third Man) Doug Abrams (Patrolman #1) Willaim B Davis (Smoking Man) Katya Gardener (Peggy O'Dell) Ric Reid (Asst. Coroner) Lesley Ewen (Receptionist) J B Bivens (Truck Driver)

1x00 Pilot - Notes Video box set commentary by Chris Carter:

We had a very difficult scene in the Pilot, which was the vortex scene, the scene where the kids were abducted in the forest, and I think that the invasion of Normandy was probably a little simpler, because we needed to use real leaves whipping around in a whirlwind, and we needed to use digital leaves, and we needed a special lighting effect, a lighting rig that actually took something like eight hours to construct.

Piping That Blood In

The nosebleed scene ... it seems easy to create a nosebleed: you cut to the reactions of the characters and you cut back to your character and put a little blood on her nose. Well, this nosebleed scene needed to actually happen on camera, and you can't just put something in someone's nose and wait for it to explode, or set it off with remote control, you've got to pipe that blood in to get a good supply in there. And so we had to run a tube down the actress's forehead and then beside her nose and then shoot her in a semi-profile shot so that it looked like a real nosebleed. Well, in the test, the blood actually came out in her hair instead of in her nose, because it exploded in the tube. I thought we were, we were goners. But it turned out that the effect worked perfectly and that nosebleed scene ends up being a very believable and effective and scary moment in the Pilot. I think it's pretty cool moviemaking. From "X-Files Confidential":

A justifiably proud Chris Carter states, "I think the pilot worked great, and I'm helped to that opinion by the response I've gotten to it. Also, when we tested it with test audiences, it was the kind of response that you only dream about. In fact, I remember when I first screened the pilot for Rupert Murdoch and the Fox executives, I'd finished the pilot at five in the morning and they saw it at eight in the morning. That's how close we were to deadline. But after the screening, there was spontaneous applause

23 from the audience. These are people who usually watch to see how the boss responds, but it was an overwhelmingly positive response to the show. I think it succeeds on many levels.

I was helped on the pilot by a very collaborative group consisting of director Bob Mandel and Daniel Sackheim, the producer. Dan also directed 'Deep Throat', 'Conduit', and 'The Host'. The two of them were instrumental in giving the pilot the quality and standard for what has become the series."

"What impressed me," notes former scriptwriter and co-executive producer Glen Morgan, who went on to co-create Space: Above and Beyond with James Wong, "was the merging of Silence of the Lambs and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It got Jim and me aboard, and I liked the open ending. It was scary, and there's nothing scary on TV." Howard Gordon, who along with partner Alex Gansa had produced the fantasy series Beauty and the Beast, was also impressed with the pilot and irresistibly drawn to the series itself. "The pilot set the tone of the show really successfully," he says. "It established Mulder and Scully's characters, as well as the aspect of Mulder's sister supposedly being abducted. There was also a good solid murder investigation. Pilots are a strange breed, because you have to tell a story while simultaneously introducing the characters the audience is going to love, and you have to do it all in forty-eight minutes. Although I think the series has improved on it, the pilot was tremendous synthesis of all the parts." From "The Truth is Out There":

Principal setting: Northwest Oregon

Back story: In its biggest concession to reality programming, the pilot is preceded by text saying "The following is inspired by actual documented events". Executive producer Chris Carter considers the scene where Scully takes refuge in Mulder's room wearing a robe a key moment to "really establish what I was trying to establish" in terms of the platonic nature of their relationship. "I love that scene," he says. Carter's original script also has Scully in bed at the end with a boyfriend, named 'Ethan Minette', who was excised before the final cut. The clock in that scene is specifically shown to be at 11:21 p.m. – a number that will recur throughout the series, since it is the birthday of Carter's wife, Dori.

It also bears mentioning that Dr Heitz Werber, the hypnotherapist who interviews Billy at the end, is the same one who originally took Mulder through hypnotherapy regression to access memories of his sister Samantha's abduction. X-Files In-Jokes * 1121 - Our very first 11:21 - on Scully's clock at the end of the episode. Everyone say it with me now: 11/21/48 is the birth date of Chris Carter's wife, Dori Pierson. * 1013 - I guess the pilot is a good time to mention that the name of Chris Carter's production company, Ten Thirteen productions, is also his very own birth date, 10/13/56. * Not as a 10/13, but Chris Carter's birthday does show up-the time of the autopsy Scully performs is 10:56 (C.C.'s birthday 10/13/56). * 'I made this' - The words spoken over the Ten Thirteen company name are spoken by Nathan Couturier, son of the supervising sound editor, Thierry Couturier. * The pilot took place in Bellefleur, Oregon. Chris Carter was born in Bellflower, California. * I've neglected to put them on this list for a while, but the pilot episode is also a good place to list where Mulder and Scully's names came from. Mulder is Chris Carter's mother's maiden name. Scully is named after sports announcer Vin Scully. The name Fox belonged to one of Chris Carter's childhood friends - and he had always liked the name. Chris Carter's father's name is William (Scully's father's name was William, Mulder's father's name was William, one of Scully's brothers is named William, Mulder's middle name is William). Chris Carter's mother's name is Catherine (Scully's middle name is Katherine). Many of the nameplates on the desks in the FBI bullpen bare the names of X-Files crew members. From Laura Witte: First -- I think it is worth mentioning that this script was obviously written before anyone had been cast. Agent Scully is described as "Late 20's -- intelligent, self-assured, with an unblushing sense of her own femininity", Mulder as "with his boyish good looks, Mulder doesn't look FBI; more like an MTV VJ". Cancerman is described as "early 40's". The first time we see Scully she is teaching a "physiology of homicide" class at Quantico. She is interrupted and handed a note telling her to be in Washington, etc. While Scully is walking through the FBI building on the way to Blevins' office, she "turns heads" in the mostly male office. Instead of playing with slides, our first glimpse of Mulder in the script has him typing away at a computer, where we can clearly see the words "Force", "Abduction", and "Light".

Remember the famous little "Do you believe in the existence of extra terrestrials" conversation? In the script, instead of Scully immediately replying "Logically, I would have to say no", she replies "I've never given it much thought". When Mulder replies "As a scientist", she does launch into the speech we know and love. After the give-and-take first conversation, and before Scully's "The girl obviously died of something", Chris Carter gives us this description of Scully's attitude: "First his tests, now his condescension and impiety. Okay, you bastard, time to stake out our respective turf". Here is the first cut Ethan scene (which takes place after Mulder tells her when they leave for Oregon): A Bright White Light, an odd, crackling noise, a disembodied voice. Which, after a moment, blinks into a med. shot of a man in a suit adjusting his lavalier mic. Camera Pulls Back To Reveal: INT. Director's Booth - Night The image is on a series of video monitors. Ethan Minette, handsome, clean cut, in his early thirties, hovers over Two Technicians sitting at the console. ETHAN Five minutes. Somebody help the Senator with his mic, please. I'm sure nobody wants to watch him having a meaningful dialogue with his tie. A P.A. taps Ethan's shoulder to get his attention. He looks up, sees Scully standing in the doorway of the room. He smiles, moves to her and they kiss. ETHAN What are you doing here? SCULLY I knew you wouldn't get home till late and I wanted to see you. (she frowns to preface what else) I got an assignment, Ethan. ETHAN (deflating) Dana. You can't do this. We've had this vacation planned for six months. SCULLY (deep sigh) I have to go to Oregon. I don't know for how long. ETHAN (after a moment) Can I ask what's so important to be ruining our trip? (anticipating) National security is not an acceptable answer. Scully smiles at his attempt to be funny and understanding. SCULLY You know I can't talk about it - ETHAN You working with anybody...? The obligatory, though playful, jealous-guy tack. Scully cares enough to allay any fears with a reassuring look, touch. SCULLY No. I'm working with someone. But believe me, he's nobody you need to worry about. His name is Fox Mulder. ETHAN Spooky Mulder? SCULLY You know him? ETHAN He's the guy who supposedly got an Iowa Congressman to sponsor some kind of UFO project. We tried to cover it but nobody would talk to us. SCULLY What do you mean? ETHAN I think it was an embarrassment to the FBI. It was definitely a big joke around town last year. (gives her a look) Oregon, huh? Maybe I can get a news crew together and tag along - SCULLY (knows he's kidding) I'm sorry, Ethan. You know how much I was looking forward to going away. We'll take a weekend as soon as I get back? Can we do that? Somebody calls out: "Two minutes, Ethan." Ethan and Scully look at each other for a moment. Modern romance. He kisses her forehead. ETHAN Sure. Just call me and just tell me you arrived safely, okay? SCULLY I will. He smiles reassuringly, then heads to work. Scully stands for a moment, wanting more than anything to be going on that vacation. During M&S's car ride, there is no "little lemon twist" line from Mulder. After Mulder's question about Scully being squeamish about exhuming a body, to which she replies "I've never had the pleasure", he replies "No big deal, really. Two or three years underground we all start looking pretty much the same. Sort of that lean and hungry look". There's an omitted little scene where Mulder goes to check them into his hotel. Mulder comments that it "Almost feels like vacation, huh Scully?", which reminds Scully of the vacation she was supposed to be taking. While at the cemetery, after the medical examiner leaves with his daughter, the camera lingers on the detective's truck (parked off where no one notices him) in an attempt to make us even more suspicious of Detective Miles. During Scully's autopsy of "Ray Soames", both she and Mulder wear white smears of odor-masking ointment under each nostril. I suppose that was a bit too goofy-looking to make it into the final version.

During the argument over the corpse (where our Mulder says "I'm not crazy Scully, I have the same doubts), Scully fights him a bit more -- questioning his desire to do X-Rays. She says that whoever killed the girl is on the loose and that they should be out looking for them, to which Mulder replies "You're right. It's what, almost eleven? Let's strap on our six guns and go out stalking someone the FBI or anybody else hasn't caught for three years. Or we can take a few hours to conduct a proper "scientific" medical exam that might help us determine who or what this thing really is". He then says the "I'm not crazy" part. After Mulder asks Scully whether or not she wants to join him for a jog, he hands her a phone message, leading to cut Ethan scene #2: New Angle On Scully - Minutes Later walking around her room, phone to her ear. SCULLY Sorry to wake you up. ETHAN (Filter) What time is it? Scully pulls open the curtains, sees Mulder stretching his legs in preparation for his run. SCULLY Five ETHAN (Filter) What're you doing up so early? And how's whatshis name... Spooky? SCULLY Spooky. Scully lets curtains drop. ETHAN (Filter) So, you guys find any little green men running around yet? Scully looks at the strange X-rays pinned to her lampshade. SCULLY No. But we found something... ETHAN (Filter) Hey, Dana. Can you do me a favor: call me later? I've got to get another hour in here. Okay? SCULLY Ethan... (thinking) Okay. I'll call you later. Scully puts the receiver down, then pulls the X-rays down from the lampshade, studies them. As determine as she may be not to ask herself, the question begs: What the hell HAVE they found? A shiver of involuntary fear goes down her spine. Just before Scully knocks on Mulder's door, we also see Mulder typing at his laptop. I laughed at this line: "drawing his face up close just over Scully's trembling buttocks". Mulder is actually preparing to show Scully some of his own bug bites when Scully stops him by hugging him. When we first see Scully laying on Mulder's bed, we can't see Mulder at all, although we hear his voice. The camera eventually shows him laying on the floor with a blanket over him. Scully eventually hangs her head over the bed to talk to him. I liked this line (during his confession about this being as close as he's ever gotten to it) "Mulder's passion and honesty burn in his penetrating stare. Scully sees that the man holding her arm is not the puckish, prankish man before, but a true believer". When Mulder's phone interrupts them, Scully says "I'm not here" before answering the phone and handing it down to him. Scattered throughout there are slight dialogue differences. One example of this is Mulder's lighter response witnessing all of their evidence being burned to a crisp ("...somebody around here doesn't like us, Scully") There are some additions to Theresa Nemman's story in the diner. Theresa tells them that she knew how Peggy died after overhearing her father discussing it with the detective. She also knew how to contact Mulder due to conversations overheard from her father. Theresa also says that Billy Miles got Peggy O'Dell pregnant that night that they had the party. They went to get Peggy an abortion, but there was no baby in the procedure, there was "something else". In the graveyard downpour scene, during their shouted conversation Scully tells Mulder that she wouldn't be surprised if they started howling at the moon. Later, after the hysterical laughter shared between them, they actually do start howling! Scully starts howling first, then Mulder joins in. Billy's eyes actually come into focus momentarily as Scully is examining his feet. I know that this happens in the actual episode, but I liked reading it. This is the scene where Mulder is in with Dr. Werber and Billy, Scully is outside the room with Blevins. I always loved this scene: "Before moving to follow, Scully notices Mulder. He's looking into the two-way mirror - almost as if he can see her, sense her. His look is full of messages: concern, suspicion, and vulnerability. Scully is halted by the look. Then she gathers herself and goes to the door, exiting". The final scene, where Mulder calls and wakes Scully at 11:21. In the script, Scully is in bed with Ethan. He's asleep, she isn't. After speaking with Mulder and hanging up, Ethan asks her if it was anybody important, to which she replies "Just work.". The script then goes on to explain: "But there's no doubt from the unsettled tone in her voice that it is much more than work. It will become the defining event of her life. Nothing that comes after now - religion, motherhood, anything - will not pass through the filter of this experience, and her newfound doubts about the forces of government at work in the interest of truth and justice."

From CarterPhile When discussing the Pilot episode, where do you begin? The opening of a new world, the introduction of characters we would come to care about like family, the first hintings of extraterrestrials and conspiracies... Everything started here, in 58 pages of dialogue and direction crafted to tell a smart, scary story in a new way. FOX had agreed to the pitch, now Chris had to deliver the goods. Obviously he did, or none of us would be here talking about it. And what a world, what characters, he created for us. Fox Mulder -- dedicated, obsessive, intuitive -- and Dana Scully -- serious, intense, rational -- meet when she is chosen to "spy on" him and "debunk the X-Files." Their first case together follows a series of unexplained deaths of high school classmates. Along the way, we learn about conspiracies (private and governmental, local and federal), Samantha's abduction, alien implants, and witness Scully's first autopsy. Setting a pattern that would remain in place for the coming years, we get no clear-cut answers, no tidy resolution as to what was happening, or why, or how. We remain seekers after the Truth, partners with Mulder and Scully in the quest for answers. Chris has said that the characters are the two sides of his own personality -- a skeptic who nevertheless "wants to believe." Like many of us, he would like to know there is more to discover, but who in this day and age can afford to not be cynical? His Watergate-era upbringing resonates within many of us who grew up believing that the government really did speak for us, only to have that fiction shattered by the lies of a President, uncovered by two reporters who dug the truth up despite all opposition. The idea that our government might be hiding truths in order to "protect us" certainly seems more than plausible -- we've had enough Congressional investigations of cover-ups to know how the powers in Washington work. And what bigger revelation could there possibly be than to learn that we truly are not alone? So we signed on to seek the truth that we believe is out there. Where that search would take Mulder and Scully, and all of us, we couldn't guess that night in September of 1993, any more than Chris had, as he sat in his den some ten months earlier, playing with his dog and creating this new world. He was only about to change television, popular culture, and the lives of thousands of fans... Script Notes: I have two scripts for The Pilot: the first draft, dated December 17, 1992, and the shooting script, which had gone through five revisions: March 15, 1993 (blue), March 21, 1993 (pink), March 23, 1993 (green), March 29, 1993 (yellow), and April 2, 1993 (goldenrod). The pilot episode was originally set in Bellefleur, Louisiana. (The town name is, of course, a tribute to Chris's hometown of Bellflower.) Vancouver may have had the forests, but apparently not enough cajuns. Probably the two biggest changes from script to filmed version are the loss of Scully's boyfriend Ethan Minette and the character who actually introduces Scully to Mulder, Special Agent Lake Drazen. In the first draft, Drazen is in the meeting where Scully is interviewed by the man who would become Section Chief Blevins, yet is silently but definitely on Mulder's side. He is, in fact, the one who chose Scully for this assignment, "because I knew you would be rigorous. And fair." After leading her downstairs and making the introductions, he sits through the slide-show presentation Mulder makes regarding the deaths in Bellefleur, then disappears until the final debriefing of Scully. The filmed homage to "Raiders of the Lost Ark," (the movie that made Chris want to become a scriptwriter) is not in the original script; rather, we have Special Agent Drazen tossing the copies of Scully's report into an incinerator. Which would seem to indicate that Drazen later morphed into CSM. Speaking of morphing, it's interesting to see the differences in Mulder from the character Chris originally envisioned to the part as animated by David Duchovny. Many of the changes are subtle, the normal filling-out of a role, bringing it from two- to three-dimensional. Lance Guest, who guest-starred in the episode Fearful Symmetry (and is also known for his lead role in the movie The Last Starfighter) originally auditioned for the part of Mulder. According to him, the reading called for someone very high-energy, with lines just zipping back and forth. (Bless you, Randy Stone, for insisting that David audition. We all owe you. I don't think anyone can now envision another actor playing this part.) The original description of Mulder: With his longish hair, boyish good looks, Mulder doesn't look FBI; more like an MTV VJ ... But if Mulder is difficult, he is not cruel. More mischievous; and intense. The FBI's bad boy in the basement. (This description calls to mind the famous Brandon Tartikoff "MTV Cops" memo that was the basis of Miami Vice. Brandon was, of course, Chris's mentor in the television industry.) The original description of Scully: Intelligent, self-assured, with an unblushing femininity and sexiness, Scully commands attention. (Later changed to, ... with an unblushing sense of her own femininity ...) Here are the two versions of the first scene with Ethan. They follow Scully's first meeting with Mulder. First is the original draft, after Mulder's "And that's why they put the I in FBI. See you bright and early, Scully. We leave for Louisiana at eight a.m." INT. UPSCALE WASHINGTON D.C. BAR/RESTAURANT - THAT NIGHT

A CLEAN CUT MAN sits alone at the bar; the neutered poise of a politician, but a gaze too furtive and envious to be mistaken for one. He's ETHAN MINETTE (30s), lobbyist. Scully enters, looking harried. Ethan greets her with a perfunctory kiss. SCULLY God, Ethan, I'm sorry I'm late. I've had the strangest day. ETHAN Don't look for a minute. Senator Dodsen's in the corner booth. He pulls out Dana's bar stool, half watching the corner booth. She takes off her coat without his help. ETHAN I've been trying to get to him for months on this cellular phone regulation thing. Ethan and Dana take their seats. Dana risks a look over at a GRAY-HAIRED MAN sitting with AN ATTRACTIVE YOUNG WOMAN. SCULLY Obviously the Senator has his hands full. You think it's appropriate to approach him here? (Ethan waggles his hand. Not sure.) Well, I hate to tell you this, but we're not going to be spending the weekend at the shore together. ETHAN What do you mean? SCULLY I got an assignment. I'm going to Louisiana. I don't know how long. Ethan tries to look disappointed but his mind is too busy working on a strategy for approaching the Senator. SCULLY It's a murder case. Or something. I don't know. I'm working with a guy named Fox Mulder. Ethan smirks, starts humming the theme from The Twilight Zone. SCULLY How do you know about him? ETHAN Spooky Mulder? He's the guy who convinced the Iowa Congressman to fund some kind of idiotic UFO research project. It was a big joke around town about a year ago. SCULLY Well this guy takes it absolutely serious. He asked me if I believed in extraterrestrials. Ethan sees the Senator get up from his table. Ethan rises. ETHAN Hey, I do. They were all at the Democratic convention. Ethan starts moving toward the Senator but Dana is able to catch him by the hand, squeezes it tightly. SCULLY We'll go on the weekend after I get back. Okay? ETHAN Sure. Great. And Ethan is off and doing business. If their relationship is based on something, it is certainly not Ethan's warmth. Then, as if an omen, Scully's attention is directed to a TV above the bar, a promo for "Hard Copy" and the "Undoctored UFO Tapes." Scullly's reaction to this is hard and decisive. SCULLY Bartender! This is the version from the shooting script, specifically, the pink revision dated 3-21-93: MULDER And that's why they put the I in FBI. See you bright and early then, Scully. We leave for Oregon at eight a.m. As we DISSOLVE TO: A BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT, an odd, crackling noise, a disembodied voice. Which, after a moment, blinks into a med. shot of a man in a suit adjusting his lavalier mic. CAMERA PULLS BACK TO REVEAL: INT. DIRECTOR'S BOOTH - NIGHT The image is on a series of video monitors. ETHAN MINETTE, handsome, clean cut, in his early thirties, hovers over TWO TECHNICIANS sitting at the console. ETHAN Five minutes. Somebody help the Senator with his mic, please. I'm sure nobody wants to watch him having a meaningful dialogue with his tie. A P.A. taps Ethan's shoulder to get his attention. He looks up, sees Scully standing in the doorway of the room. He smiles, moves to her and they kiss.

ETHAN What are you doing here? SCULLY I knew you wouldn't get home till late and I wanted to see you. (she frowns to preface what else) I got an assignment, Ethan. ETHAN (deflating) Dana. You can't do this. We've had this vacation planned for six months. SCULLY (deep sigh) I have to go to Oregon. I don't know for how long. ETHAN (after a moment) Can I ask what's so important to be ruining our trip? (anticipating) National security is not an acceptable answer. Scully smiles at his attempt to be funny and understanding. SCULLY You know I can't talk about it -- ETHAN You working with anybody ...? The obligatory, though playful, jealous-guy tack. Scully cares enough to allay any fears with a reassuring look, touch. SCULLY No. I'm working with someone. But believe me, he's nobody you need to worry about. His name is Fox Mulder. ETHAN Spooky Mulder? SCULLY You know him? ETHAN He's the guy who supposedly got an Iowa Congressman to sponsor some kind of UFO project. We tried to cover it but nobody would talk to us. SCULLY What do you mean? ETHAN I think it was an embarrassment to the FBI. It was definitely a big joke around town last year. (gives her a look) Oregon, huh? Maybe I can get a news crew together and tag along - SCULLY (knows he's kidding) I'm sorry, Ethan. You know how much I was looking forward to going away. We'll take a weekend as soon as I get back? Can we do that? Somebody calls out: "Two minutes, Ethan." Ethan and Scully look at each other for a moment. Modern romance. He kisses her forehead. ETHAN Sure. Just call me and just tell me you arrived safely. Okay? SCULLY I will. He smiles reassuringly, then heads to work. Scully stands for a moment, wanting more than anything to be going on that vacation. In the first draft, Mulder insists that Scully drives. Imagine that. *g* (That didn't last long!) More from the first draft: In the scene where the rental car loses power as Mulder and Scully drive from the woods, the "lost time" is only three minutes. When the car re-starts on its own (as they stand over the orange spray-painted X), Mulder leaps up like a guy in a Toyota commercial. As originally written, Dr. Neuman (the county coroner, later to become Dr. Nemman) had performed an abortion on Peggy O'Dell (the girl in the wheelchair) the summer the kids graduated from high school. Peggy said the father was Billy Miles (the quarterback we meet in a vegetative state at the hospital.)

According to Dr. Neuman's daughter (just prior to the famous nosebleed), "Billy disappeared right before graduation and he didn't come back until almost the end of the summer. Peggy said he got her pregnant, but no one believed her because he wasn't even there ... No one was supposed to know. She had an abortion but there was no baby. There was something else. He said it's because Peggy had the marks." Scully witnesses the bright light/dustdevil visitation in the forest, yet remains unconvinced of the alien presence. The senior FBI agents -- the unnamed Blevins and the others who assigned Scully -- decide to let her continue monitoring Mulder until they come up with something concrete with which to shut down the X-Files. One says, regarding Scully's report, "If Congress got a hold of this we'd expend all our energy chasing ghosts and spacemen." Hence the decision to burn all copies of the report.

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

Some things about the Pilot that you probably knew but might have forgotten; here's a little "Pilot Poop":

-- The very first 11:21 appears as the time on Scully's clock at the end of the episode. 11/21/48 is the birthday of Chris Carter's wife, Dori Pierson.

-- Chris Carter's famous birthdate also appears for the first time in the Pilot, but not as 10/13. The time of the autopsy that Scully performs is 10:56 (Carter's birthday is 10/13/56).

-- We heard "I made this" for the first time. The words spoken over the Ten Thirteen company name are spoken by Nathan Couturier, son of the supervising sound editor, Thierry Couturier.

-- The pilot took place in Bellefleur, Oregon; Chris Carter was born in Bellflower, California.

-- We heard the names Fox Mulder and Dana Scully for the first time in the Pilot. Mulder is Chris Carter's mother's maiden name; and of course, Scully is named for famed Dodgers' announcer Vin Scully. One of Chris Carter's childhood friends was named "Fox"; he always liked it, so his friend was forever immortalized in the guise of Fox Mulder. Chris Carter's father's name is William (also David Duchovny's middle name) which might explain why there would eventually be so many "William's" running around the X-Files (Scully's father was named William, Mulder's father was named William, Mulder's middle name was William, Scully had a brother named William and M&S would ultimately have a baby named William). Chris Carter's mother's name is Catherine (hence, Scully's middle name of Katherine).

-- We see Mulder munching on sunflower seeds for the first time and we see Scully wearing her cross necklace for the first time in the Pilot.

-- Many of the nameplates on the desks in the FBI bullpen bear the names of X-Files crew members.

1x00 Pilot – Script (first draft)

The X-Files

Pilot Episode

Chris Carter

First Draft:. Ten Thirteen Productions, Inc. December 11, 1992

THE X FILES legend appears on screen. Typewritten white letters on a field of black. Under this we hear the short, shallow breathing of a runner. We FADE IN and we are:

EXT. LOUISIANA FOREST - NIGHT - the present

The forest is absolutely still when the runner enters frame: A YOUNG WOMAN wearing only her nightgown. From the look on her face we fear she is being hunted.

CAMERA FOLLOWS as the Young Woman stumbles through the forest underbrush, which tears at her bare skin. Running until she drops down into a forest clearing, where she trips and falls. When she looks up, SUDDENLY THE FOREST COMES ALIVE.

The Young Woman watches, terrified as a BIZARRE DUSTDEVIL begins to swirl around her, picking up everything not rooted to the forest floor and sending it aloft. Swirling, swirling - WHEN A LIGHT ILLUMINATES THE CLEARING. A CLEAR BRIGHT FIELD OF PURE WHITE ENERGY, ACCOMPANIED BY A HIGH VOLTAGE HUM WITH INTERMITTENT PERCUSSIVE NOISES - METAL ON METAL. The source of the light and noise is unseen. Then a PHANTOM FIGURE appears. But the brightness intensifies steadily - until the scene, the Young Woman and the Phantom are consumed by it, erased from the screen by the Clear White Light. Her disembodied voice cries out - a name? - but then it's gone, receding into nothingness.

EXT. FOREST - FOLLOWING MORNING

The Clear White Light begins to fade (the eerie hum dopplering away), the scene reappearing like a developing Polaroid. We hear birds chirping. The forest is coming to life. But not for the Young Woman, who lies motionless, face down on the ground. TWO ASSISTANT CORONERS kneel beside her. Under this:

CORONER (V.O.) … I'd put the time of death about eight to twelve hours ago …

ANGLE ON THE CORONER with a POLICE DETECTIVE. They move from the Detective's 4WD truck over to the body.

CORONER … no visible cause: a few scrapes and bruises, but no sign of battery or sexual assault …

They are standing over the body now. The Woman is still face down. The Coroner kneels, lifts the back of her short nightie.

CORONER … all we have is this ….

He has revealed two distinct and identical RAISED RED WELTS the size of a dime on her lower back. The Coroner and the Detective trade looks of confirmed dread. The Detective kneels down for a closer look, taking a deep breath before -

DETECTIVE Can we turn her over ...

The Asst. Coroners turn the stiffened body over onto its back. Leaves and humus adhere to her damp face and flesh. Dried blood trails from her nose. The Detective's worst fear: recognition.

DETECTIVE Karen Swenson.

ASST. CORONER Is that a positive ID?

DETECTIVE She went to school with my son.

Without explanation, the Detective rises and begins walking briskly back to his truck. The Coroner calls out to him.

CORONER The Class of '89, Detective?

But the Detective does not answer or respond. He keeps moving toward his truck, even though the Coroner calls out again.

CORONER It's happening again, isn't it?

CLOSE ON the dead woman's face as it DISSOLVES into THE FACE OF A MALE LABORATORY CADAVER. We are in:

INT. FBI TRAINING ACADEMY - DAY (LEGEND APPEARS ON-SCREEN)

SPECIAL AGENT DANA SCULLY (late 20s), stands over the cadaver with a SMALL GROUP OF TRAINEES. Scully is instructing about the physiology of homicide. Intelligent, self-assured, with an unblushing femininity and sexiness, Scully commands attention.

SCULLY ... electrocution affects electrolytic conduction, disrupting the heartbeat and most of the autonomic systems. Death actually occurs from tissue damage, necrosis, in the heart itself, particularly in the sinus and atrioventricular nodes. We all conduct in different degrees. While I may survive a lightning strike, someone else might die from putting their finger in a light socket. A cattle prod, incidentally, can kill. In a field investigation you would be looking for a round reddish bruise …

Agent Scully's attention is directed o.s. when ANOTHER AGENT enters the room, hands Agent Scully a note.

INSERT NOTE - Your attendance is required in Washington at 1600 hrs. sharp. Contact Special Agent L. Drazen.

EXT. FBI HDQRTERS. - WASHINGTON - DAY - LATER (LEGEND APPEARS)

To establish.

INT. FBI HEADQUARTERS - MAIN CONCOURSE - DAY

Agent Scully flashes her badge to A RECEPTIONIST.

SCULLY I have a meeting with -

DRAZEN (O.S.) Agent Scully.

Scully turns to a large imposing man in his 50s standing behind her. It is obvious from her reaction they have never met.

SCULLY Yes.

DRAZEN Lake Drazen. We're late.

INT. FBI HEADQUARTERS - LONG CORRIDOR - DAY - MINUTES LATER

The Agents' brisk footsteps on the cold marble floor echo. in the empty hall. Agent Drazen makes no attempt to be personable.

SCULLY If I may ask, is this a reprimand of some sort?

DRAZEN You're being interviewed. At a very high level.

Drazen checks his watch as they approach a set of double doors. He opens one for her, ushers her inside where:

INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY - CONTINUOUS

SIX MEN sit around an oval table. All are in their 60s: dour, formidable. A chilly, inquisitional atmosphere pervades the room. The men leaf through folders, glancing up as Drazen shows Scully a chair. Drazen remains standing.

ELDER MAN Agent Scully… thank you for coming. We see you've been with the Bureau for two years.

SCULLY Yes, sir.

ELDER MAN You have an undergraduate degree in astronomy, graduated medical school in 1989, but chose not to practice. You have another advanced degree in physics. Characterize for us, if you would, your academic choices.

SCULLY Well, sir ... I come from an extremely literate family. I guess science was my way of rebelling.

Cold stares. Only Drazen shows the smallest appreciation of this mild attempt at humor. Agent Scully shifts uneasily in her seat.

SCULLY Actually I was recruited right out of med school. I had planned to take a job doing research at the National Institute, but I joined the FBI. I finished my physics degree at the academy.

The men at the table leaf silently through their folders.

3RD MAN Are you familiar with an agent named Fox Mulder?

SCULLY Yes I am.

3RD MAN In what way?

SCULLY By reputation. I believe he's rather notorious. I seem to remember hearing him called by a nickname. "Spooky" Mulder.

DRAZEN I can assure you it's not a reputation he's cultivated. Mulder is an Oxford educated psychologist. His monograph on serial killers and the occult helped us catch Monte Propps in 1988. He may be the best analyst in the Criminal Division

ELDER MAN (bluntly interrupting) - whatever his reputation ... Agent Mulder has developed a consuming devotion to a non-assigned project outside the Bureau mainstream. Are you familiar with the so-called X-files?

SCULLY Vaguely, sir. I believe they have to do with unexplained phenomena.

3RD MAN They're a grab bag of outrageous ghost stories is what they are.

The Elder Man waves off his colleague's impertinence.

ELDER MAN Miss Scully, at our request, Agent Drazen has chosen you as the most qualified agent to assist Mulder on these X-files. You'll write field reports of your activities along with your observations on the validity of the work. You'll report exclusively to this group.

Scully clears her throat, reading through to the subtext here.

SCULLY Am I to understand you want me to debunk the X-files project, sir?

Silent tension. The Elder Man gives Scully a pinched look.

ELDER MAN Agent Scully, we trust you'll make the proper scientific analysis. Should your reports cast doubt on the legitimacy of the X-files, so be it. I'm sure Agent Mulder's prodigious talents will find utility elsewhere with us and you'll both resume careers in full flower.

A simple directive or a veiled threat? Scully lets it drop, but we sense her uneasiness with the role in which she's been cast.

ELDER MAN Agent Drazen will give you a full briefing. We look forward to seeing your reports.

INT. ... ELEVATOR - FBI HEADQUARTERS - CONTINUOUS

Scully and Drazen ride alone. She is wary, cautious.

SCULLY So what is he really like?

DRAZEN Mulder? He's bright, extremely so. Difficult, independent and somewhat eccentric by FBI standards. He'll know exactly what you're up to.

SCULLY I'm not up to anything, sir. I'm just following orders.

Drazen allows a tight, appreciative smile.

INT. BASEMENT HALLWAY - DAY - CONTINUOUS .

Institutional green walls, linoleum and florescent overhead lights. Drazen and Scully move to an unmarked door.

INT. AGENT FOX MULDER'S OFFICE - DAY - CONTINUOUS

Special Agent Mulder stands over a light table looking at photographic slides. The room is books from floor to ceiling. And clutter, stacks of papers and reports. Also, UFO photos, blurry and dubious. A wall poster reads: I WANT TO BELIEVE.

As Drazen predicted, the moment they step in the room Mulder knows what's up. He smirks impudently. with his longish hair, boyish good looks, Mulder doesn't look FBI; more like an MTV VJ.

MULDER Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted.

DRAZEN I thought you might like to meet your new assistant. Special Agent Dana Scully, Fox Mulder.

MULDER Well, isn't it nice to know I'm suddenly so highly regarded. (turns from Drazen) Who did you tick off to get stuck with this detail, Scully?

Mulder turns his back on them, rummages through a mountain of file folders. Scully and Drazen trade looks. He'd warned her. But if Mulder is difficult, he is not cruel. More mischievous; and intense. The FBI's bad boy in the basement.

SCULLY Actually, I'm looking forward to working with you.

MULDER Really? I was under the impression you were sent to spy on me.

SCULLY If you have any doubt about my qualifications, I'd be happy to list my credentials for you.

Mulder has finally found what he's looking for. He turns back to Drazen and Scully with a folder extracted from the stacks.

MULDER Einstein's Twin Paradox - A New Interpretation. Dana Scully's master's thesis. Now there's a credential: rewriting Einstein.

SCULLY Did you bother to read it?

MULDER Oh. Yes. I liked it. It's just in most of my work the laws of physics rarely seem to apply.

DRAZEN You should know Agent Scully is also a doctor of medicine. She is teaching at the academy.

MULDER Yes, I know. Maybe we can get her medical opinion on this.

Mulder flips off the lights and turns on the slide projector. The first slide appears, projected on the wall: a picture of the Young Woman lying in the forest from the opening sequence.

MULDER Louisiana female. Age twenty-one. No explainable cause of death. Nothing in the autopsy. Zip. (new slide appears - CU of two marks) Two distinct marks, however, are found on her lower back. Can you ID these marks, Dr. Scully?

Scully moves up close to the projected slide, studies it.

SCULLY Needle punctures, maybe. An animal bite. Electrocution ...

Mulder flashes another slide up without comment. This slide shows a diagram of a chemical compound.

MULDER How's your chemistry? This is the substance found in the surrounding tissue.

SCULLY It's inorganic, but it doesn't make sense. Is it some kind of synthetic protein?

MULDER Beats me. I've never seen it either. But here it's found again in Sturgis, South Dakota.

A new slide flashes up. This one a large male biker with the telltale marks on his lower back. Then another slide, a CU of another male with the marks, lying face down in the snow.

MULDER. And again in Tumwater, Washington.

SCULLY Do you have a theory?

MULDER I have plenty of theories. But maybe you can explain to me why Bureau policy is to label these cases as unexplained phenomena and ignore them. (to the point) Do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrials:

She glances at a questionable UFO pic pinned to the nearby wall.

SCULLY I've never given it much thought.

MULDER As a scientist.

SCULLY Logically, I'd have to say no. Given the distances needed to travel from the far reaches of space, the energy requirements would exceed a spacecraft's ...

MULDER - Conventional wisdom. That girl in Louisiana. She is the fourth member of her graduating class to die under mysterious circumstances. When

convention and science offer no answers, might we not consider the fantastic as a plausibility?

First his tests, now his condescension and impiety. Okay, you bastard, time to stake out our respective turf.

SCULLY The girl died of something. If it was natural causes, then it's plausible something was missed in the post mortem. If she was murdered, it's plausible there was a sloppy investigation. What I find fantastic is any notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there. You just have to know where to look.

Touché. A slow, gleeful smile spreads across Mulder's face.

MULDER And that's why they put the I in FBI. See you bright and early, Scully. We leave for Louisiana at eight a.m.

INT. BASEMENT HALLWAY - MOMENTS LATER

Scully and Drazen exit Mulder's office. She immediately blocks Drazen, pins him with a serious look.

SCULLY Why do they want Mulder so bad?

DRAZEN They have their reasons.

SCULLY And you? Why did you choose me?

DRAZEN Because I knew you would be rigorous. And fair.

Drazen gives her a look that says he's depending on this. That he is not in league with those men around the table upstairs.

INT. UPSCALE WASHINGTON D.C. BAR/RESTAURANT - THAT NIGHT

A CLEAN CUT MAN sits alone at the bar: the neutered poise of a politician, but a gaze too furtive and envious to be mistaken for one. He's ETHAN MINETTE (30s) lobbyist. Scully enters, looking harried. Ethan greets her with a perfunctory kiss.

SCULLY God, Ethan, I'm sorry I'm late. I've had the strangest day.

ETHAN Don't look for a minute. Senator Dodsen's in the corner booth.

He pulls out Dana's bar stool, half watching the corner booth. She takes off her coat without his help.

ETHAN I've been trying to get to him for months on this cellular phone regulation thing.

Ethan and Dana take their seats. Dana risks a look over at a GRAY-HAIRED MAN sitting with AN ATTRACTIVE YOUNG WOMAN.

SCULLY Obviously the Senator has his hands full. You think it's appropriate to approach him here?

(Ethan waggles his hand. Not sure.) Well. I hate to tell you this, but we're not going to be spending the weekend at the shore together.

ETHAN What do you mean?

SCULLY I got an assignment. I'm going to Louisiana. I don't know how long.

Ethan tries to look disappointed but his mind is too busy working on a strategy for approaching the Senator.

SCULLY It's a murder case. Or something. I don't know. I'm working with a guy named Fox Mulder.

Ethan smirks, starts humming the theme from The Twilight Zone.

SCULLY How do you know about him?

ETHAN Spooky Mulder? He's the guy who convinced the Iowa Congressman to fund some kind of idiotic UFO research project. It was a big joke around town about a year ago.

SCULLY Well this guy takes it absolutely serious. He asked me if I believed in extraterrestrials.

Ethan sees the Senator get up from his table. Ethan rises.

ETHAN Hey, I do. They were all at the Democratic convention.

Ethan starts moving toward the Senator but Dana is able to catch him by the hand, squeezes it tightly.

SCULLY We'll go on the weekend after I get back. Okay?

ETHAN Sure. Great.

And Ethan is off and doing business. If their relationship is based on something, it is certainly not Ethan's warmth. Then, as if an omen, Scully's attention is directed to a TV above the bar, a promo for "Hard Copy" and the, "Undoctored UFO Tapes." Scully's reaction to this is quick and decisive.

SCULLY Bartender!

INT. 747 - NEXT DAY

Agent Mulder lies asleep on his back, stretched across four bulkhead seats. In his stocking feet, with a Walkman on. Scully sits in the aisle seat going over a file folder of material.-

INSERT FILE FOLDER - Including autopsy reports and several newspaper clippings. With yearbook photos, accompanying headlines like: "FORMER HONOR STUDENT'S BODY FOUND IN STATE PARK." "LOCAL FAMILY MOURNS DAUGHTER'S MYSTERIOUS DEATH." "4TH TRAGIC FATALITY BEFALLS CLASS OF '89."

Scully looks up when the seatbelt signs blink on.

CAPTAIN'S VOICE (P.A.) I'd like to ask all passengers to fasten their seatbelts as we make our descent into -

But he is cut off mid-sentence. The plane is JOLTED. Overhead storage lockers fall open. Then all the cabin lights blink off. The engines whine, cut and die. A complete power loss.

There is a collective skipped heartbeat for all passengers, followed by shouts, screams and the sounds of panic.

Now the plane starts to lose altitude. Scully grips the armrests, trying to steer the plane with them. Until the engines start again, miraculously. The cabin lights pop back on. Engines full thrust, as the plane starts to climb again.

The in-flight movie has started of its own accord, running in fast reverse. Flight attendants scurry about, attending to passengers. Scully is still gripping the armrests with a death lock when she looks over at Special Agent Mulder. He is lying calmly in the same position. Smiling at her.

MULDER This must be the place.

EXT. NEW IBERIA AIRPORT - DAY - LATER

Scully stands at the curb as a rental sedan pulls up quickly, Mulder at the wheel. The trunk pops open. Mulder gets out, comes around. Scully assumes it's to help her with her bags.

SCULLY I can get them.

MULDER Good. (hands her the keys) If you didn't like that plane ride you're definitely not going to like the way I drive.

INT. RENTAL CAR - DAY - LATER

Scully drives: on an interstate highway, passing through woodlands. Mulder, wearing Oakley "thermonuclear" wraparound shades, tries to find a good station on the radio. Then he sits back with a big bag of sunflower seeds, looks at Scully.

MULDER Seeds?

SCULLY No thanks.

MULDER Good time of year for crawfish down here. Ever had Louisiana crawfish?

Scully shakes her head no.

MULDER A little cocktail sauce. To die for ... pardon the expression.

SCULLY You didn't mention yesterday that the FBI has already investigated this case.

MULDER The FBI looked into the first three deaths but suspended the investigation for lack of evidence.

Mulder spits seeds out the window, fiddles again with the radio. There is an unmistakable intensity about him, even in repose.

SCULLY But you obviously think there's a connection between the girl's death and her three classmates.

MULDER It's a reasonable assumption. Except our latest victim is the only one with the unidentified marks and tissue sample.

SCULLY $he was also the only one of the group autopsied by a different medical examiner.

Agent Mulder looks at her and smiles.

MULDER Pretty good, Scully.

SCULLY Better than you expected I'd be? Or just better than you'd hoped?

MULDER The limitations of science often make for limited scientists. For this kind of case, most are surprisingly ill-adept.

SCULLY (gives him a look) If I'm not mistaken, we're trying to solve a murder, not unlock the mysteries of the universe.

Mulder smiles again, inscrutably. Then reacts to A LOW, LOUD HUM emanating from the car radio. Mulder sits bolt upright, looking every which way out the windows.

MULDER Stop the car. Stop the car.

EXT. INTERSTATE HIGHWAY – DAY – CONTINUOUS

The rental car comes to an abrupt stop. The trunk pops open. Mulder jumps out, comes around to the trunk, rummages for something. A moment later Scully exits, sees:

Agent Mulder has produced a can of ORANGE SPRAY PAINT from the trunk. He walks ten yards from the car, back down the highway, looks around, then PAINTS A LARGE ORANGE X on the asphalt.

Mulder walks back to the car, throws the paint can back in the trunk, closes it. Then goes back around to his side of the car.

SCULLY What the hell was that about?

MULDER Probably nothing.

Mulder gets in the car, leaving Scully shaking her head. This is one weird dude she's hooked up with.

EXT. BELLEFLEUR CITY LIMITS - DAY - LATER

The rental car passes a sign welcoming drivers to Bellefleur The Friendly City. On a telephone pole next to the sign are A DOZEN FLYERS for missing dogs and cats.

INT. RENTAL CAR - DAY - LATER

Scully pulls into the parking lot of a small town civic center. Outside they see what looks like AN AGITATED GROUP OF PEOPLE.

MULDER Oh boy, I was afraid of this.

SCULLY What's going on?

MULDER I sent word ahead to the coroner's office that we were going to be exhuming the bodies of those other class members.

EXT. BELLEFLEUR CIVIC CENTER PARKING LOT - DAY - CONTINUOUS

The instant Mulder and Scully exit the car they have the group of parents, teenagers and community leaders in their face.

PARENT #1 Are you the FBI?! This is them!

PARENT #2 What gives you the right?! Those are our sons and daughters!?

PRIEST These people have suffered enough loss, enough grief.

COMMUNITY LEADER A man has been convicted of these crimes. He's been tried and sentenced. There is nothing in those graves worth all the pain!

Scully follows Mulder, who seems to take it all in stride. This is Mulder's M.O: he regards every situation with comic amusement. Then A UNIFORMED COP exiting the coroner's office blocks their way.

UNIFORMED COP Agent Mulder. These are for you. The people of Bellefleur have petitioned for and gotten court injunctions against your action.

Mulder takes the injunctions, then heads past the Uniformed Cop into the Coroner's Office. Scully starts to follow, but turns, reacts to a loud voice behind her before going inside:

ANGRY CITIZEN How would you like it if we dug up all of your relatives?!

INT. CORONER'S OFFICE - DAY - CONTINUOUS

The Coroner (TRUITT), who we met in the opening sequence, is waiting for Mulder and Scully. Truitt's two Assistants are also in the room.

MULDER Mr. Truitt?

CORONER Yes, sir.

MULDER Special Agent Mulder, FBI. We spoke on the phone. This is special Agent Scully. How soon do you think we can go to work?

The Coroner cocks his head, leans back in his chair.

CORONER Well, now, seeing that we're bound by those injunctions you got in your hand, I don't know there's much we can rightly do.

MULDER Gotcha. All the same, we're going to need access to an autopsy bay and whoever does your lab work.

CORONER This may seem like some spitwad southern town, sir, but let me assure you we go straight by the law. I surely wish we could help.

MULDER Actually you can. There are three graves we're interested in, but I've only got what ... two injunctions. We're missing someone. No?

The Coroner gives Mulder a hard, cold stare.

CORONER That'd be Ray Soames.

MULDER And why didn't the Soames' family bother to go to court to prevent us digging up their son's body?

CORONER Cause Ray Soames' family up and disappeared about three years ago.

MULDER Disappeared? Just gone one day?

Mulder turns to Scully, delight in his eyes: unfazed by Truitt's malevolent stare, the fact Truitt hasn't answered his question.

MULDER Well, at least we know where we can find Ray Soames.

EXT. CIVIC CENTER - DAY - CONTINUOUS

Mulder exits and Scully follows him back through the crowd. She's feeling harassed and harangued. And abused.

SCULLY So, do you always blow into town like the Prince of Darkness?

MULDER How's that?

SCULLY It's going to be a real trick getting any cooperation in this investigation when we've alienated the entire populace.

MULDER (humored) What did you expect, Scully, marching bands and a parade? The FBI failed to turn up anything using the conventional approach. If you don't like my methods, you're free to go back to the motel and file your report. Isn't that what you were sent to do?

They've arrived back at their car. Mulder has, in effect, called a spade a spade. But he's also hooked into Scully's dilemma: is she here to spy on him or investigate the case? But before Scully can respond they both react to AN ANGRY MAN approaching. He is mid 40s, very tan. He's DR. JAY NEUMAN.

DR. NEUMAN Who do you people think you're dealing with here?!

MULDER It all depends. Who are you?

DR. NEUMAN Dr. Jay Neuman.

MULDER The County Medical Examiner.

DR. NEUMAN That's right. Are you insinuating I missed something in those kids' autopsies? .

MULDER No, sir. We're running a separate investigation. Don't mean to step on any toes.

DR. NEUMAN Yeah, well any examinations you're planning of those bodies, I'll be doing them. This is my county.

MULDER How is it you passed up the recent autopsy on Karen Swenson?

DR. NEUMAN I was on vacation at the time -

MULDER Well, I'm sorry. This is a Federal matter now. Dr. Scully will be conducting any post mortem exams.

Suddenly Neuman pushes Mulder hard up against the rental car.

DR. NEUMAN Listen you! Are you going to make these people relive all their nightmares'?!

Scully starts to get in the middle, but Dr. Neuman pulls back voluntarily when he hears a YOUNG WOMAN'S VOICE. It is coming from a car parked several spaces from the Agents' rental car.

YOUNG WOMAN Daddy! Quit it! Please! Let's just go. Daddy, please. Let's go. home.

The Young Woman is sitting in the passenger seat. She has tousled hair, dark hooded eyes. A hunted, haunted look.

Dr. Neuman steps back toward his car, still fixing the Agents with a menacing stare. Then he gets in the car, pulls away as:

MULDER Nice guy. Nice tan. Lovely daughter.

Agent. Mulder straightens his shirt. He and Scully both acknowledge the strangeness of what just happened, but she hesitates before gett.ing back in the car. She's st.ill pissed.

MULDER Coming, Scully?

SCULLY Yeah. I want to make sure we're not digging our own graves.

EXT. BELLEFLEUR HILLSIDE CEMETERY - DAY - LATER

A backhoe claws the dank grave dirt. Mulder and Scully stand watching; Mulder with his ever-present. bag of sunflower seeds. In a separate huddle are the Coroner and his men. The area has been cordoned off. A few uniformed cops mill about.. Gawkers, some from the civic center, stand outside the area.

SCULLY (reading her files) What about this Danny Doty? You've got a boy in prison who's been convicted of one of the murders.

MULDER Danny Doty turned himself in. He confessed to all three deaths, but they could only connect him to one. And only on the thinnest of circumstantial evidence. I'm sure everybody conveniently assumes he killed the others, too.

SCULLY Why would he confess to murders he 'didn't commit?

MULDER Happens all the time. Anyway, he's in prison sixty miles north of here. We can go ask him.

SCULLY And what? Hope he'll confess to the latest murder, too.

MULDER Never underestimate what a man serving a life sentence can tell you.

SCULLY (re: the grave) Probably a hell of a lot more than this guy is going to have to say.

ANGLE ON CEMETERY ROAD

Where a familiar 4WD truck is parked. It belongs to the Detective from the opening sequence. He sits behind the wheel, watching the proceedings from a safe, anonymous distance.

BACK ON GRAVESITE

As the backhoe scrapes the top of the coffin liner. The Operator gets down off the machine, signals to the Coroner.

NEW ANGLE ON GRAVESITE - MINUTES LATER as the rootbound coffin is being hoisted from the ground with a special apparatus. Mulder and Scully look on as it rises up out of the grave and the backhoe's arm is maneuvered into position to transport it away from the site.

Then suddenly a strap on the hoist breaks. The coffin bounces off the backhoe arm and begins to roll downhill. catching on a large granite headstone.

Scully. Mulder and the Coroners hustle over to the upended coffin. In its tumble. the lid has been lifted partly ajar. Mulder starts to open it further but the ·Coroner protests.

CORONER This isn't official procedure.

Agent Mulder shoots him a look. No shit, Sherlock.

Scully stands behind Agent Mulder as he pulls the lid open. The shock and horror at what she sees registers on her face. Mulder, however looks positively rapturous. The Coroner and his Assistants appear now, peering down with confused revulsion.

MULDER At least we know Ray Soames didn't make the Varsity Basketball Team.

ANGLE TO INCLUDE COFFIN

Where a shriveled, child-sized humanoid figure lies. It has, however, a strange football-shaped head and mottled leathery skin. It actually may not be human at all.

MULDER Seal it back up. Nobody sees or touches this. Nobody.

Off this grotesque homunculus, lying in moldy white satin we:

END ACT ONE

ACT TWO

INT. AUTOPSY BAY - NIGHT

Agent Mulder is animated, moving excitedly around the lab table where the strange corpse lies, firing off Polaroids while Scully conducts the autopsy: taking measurements, entering her findings into a microphone suspended above the table.

MULDER This is amazing ... this could be like, like one of the most important finds since Leaky or the Olduvai Gorge!

SCULLY Subject is 156 centimeters in length, weighing 52 pounds in extremis. Corpse is in advanced stages of decay and desiccation. Distinguishing features include large ocular cavities, oblate cranium. Indicate subject is not a human -

MULDER What else could it be?!

SCULLY It's mammalian. My guess is that it's a chimpanzee or something from the ape family.

MULDER Try telling that to the good townsfolk. Or the Soames family. Come out, come out wherever they are.

Scully pins Mulder, who continues to circle the table excitedly, with a long-suffering look.

MULDER I want tissue samples and X-rays. I'd like blood typing, toxicology and a full genetic workup.

SCULLY You're serious?

MULDER What we can't do here we'll order to go.

SCULLY You honestly believe this is some kind of extraterrestrial? Look, I guarantee somebody is doubled over in laughter right now. The same person who switched Ray Soames' headstone with Bonzo here. We're wasting our time.

MULDER (unimpressed) Can we do those X-rays now?

SCULLY Somebody's yanking your chain, Mulder. Whoever killed that girl is still running around loose. And they could kill again.

MULDER You're right. It's what, just after ten. We can strap on our six guns and go out stalking a man the FBI or anybody else hasn't caught for three years. Or we can take a few hours and conduct a proper scientific examination of the body here and remove any questions about who or what this thing might be. ( reasonably) Look, I'm not crazy, Scully. I have the same doubts you have.

Scully looks up at the clock, wearily. It's reads 10:13.

DISSOLVE TO a small digital alarm clock. It reads 4:56 AM. WIDEN to include Scully looking at a set of X-rays. We are:

INT. SCULLY'S MOTEL ROOM - EARLY MORNING - HOURS LATER

The X-rays are paperclipped to her bedside lampshade. Scully is listening to her own tape recorded voice from the autopsy bay, transcribing the information into her portable laptop.

SCULLY'S RECORDED VOICE … X-ray analysis confirms mammalian physiology … but does not account for small, unidentified implant found in subject's nasal cavity. Object is gray metallic, four millimeters in length …

As tape plays, CAMERA PUSHES from Scully to the X-rays on the lampshade. There it is in the negative: A SLENDER OBJECT in the skull of the strange corpse.

RACK FOCUS as Scully brings the implant itself into frame, a small metal cylinder resting in a glass vial. She studies it with rapt curiosity until she reacts to A KNOCK AT THE DOOR.

ANGLE ON MOTEL DOOR

SCULLY Who is it?

MULDER (outside) Steven Spielberg.

Scully opens the door. Mulder stands dressed in shorts, t-shirt and backwards baseball cap. A big smile on his face.

MULDER Too wired. Going for a jog around the parking lot. Join me?

SCULLY Pass.

MULDER Figure out what that little thing in Ray Soames' nose is yet?

SCULLY No. But I'm not losing sleep over it. Good night.

Mulder shrugs, hands her a slip of paper.

MULDER I believe this is for you.

Mulder takes off running. Scully looks at the slip of paper. It's a phone message from Ethan.

NEW ANGLE ON SCULLY - MINUTES LATER walking around her room, phone to her ear.

SCULLY Ethan? Sorry to wake you up.

ETHAN (FILTER) I was awake. Someone just called and hung up. What time is it?

Scully pulls open the curtains, sees Mulder run past. Bastard.

SCULLY Five.

ETHAN (FILTER) What're you doing up so early? And how's whatshisname … Spooky?

SCULLY Spooky.

EXT. MOTEL - MULDER'S POV - EARLY MORNING - CONTINUOUS

He sees Scully looking out at him. He waves at her and she lets the curtains drop.

RESUME INT. SCULLY'S ROOM

ETHAN (FILTER) So, you guys find any little green men running around yet?

Scully looks at the strange X-rays pinned to her lampshade.

SCULLY We found something ...

ETHAN (FILTER) Hey, well, just try not to get slimed. okay?

SCULLY Ethan -

ETHAN - Hey, I'm going to get some sleep. I'll call you later.

He hangs up. Scully puts the receiver down, then pulls the X-rays down from the lampshade, studies them. As determined as she is not to ask herself, the question nags: What the hell HAVE they found? A shiver of involuntary fear goes down her spine.

The scene DISSOLVES into a CLEAR WHITE LIGHT which becomes:

INT. LOUISIANA STATE PRISON - NEXT DAY (LEGEND APPEARS)

An empty white room. CAMERA FINDS Mulder and Scully sitting in two of three chairs as a YOUNG MAN is brought in by TWO TRUSTIES; shackled hand and foot. His name tag reads: DOTY.

MULDER Danny. I'm Agent Mulder and -

DANNY I know why you're here, man. They popped Karen Swenson.

MULDER Did you know Karen?

DANNY Ah, sure. Yeah. She was a good chick. But, hey … it was only a matter of time. I'll bet they did a custom job.

Danny laughs dementedly. It becomes instantly obvious that the boy before them isn't all there.

MULDER Who's "they?"

DANNY Did I say "they?" No, man. I did it. Telepathically. Another life sentence please. Don't ask how now. It's the riddle of the Sphinx.

Mulder reacts calmly, credulously, without prejudice. Then he holds out a PHOTO of Karen Swenson lying in the forest.

MULDER What can you tell us about these marks on Karen Swenson's back?

DANNY Cleopatra's snakebite. Yes, sir. Had to have one to be in the club.

MULDER Really. What club was that?

DANNY What club do you think?

MULDER Was Ray Soames in the club?

DANNY Ray? Oh, yeah. Ray got a whatchacall … family membership.

Danny cackles again. Mulder looks over to Scully, smiles.

MULDER Jump right in.

Scully gives him a look. Not with a ten foot pole.

DANNY Hey, man, I'm not looking for any favors. I'm guilty, man. I don't want out of here. This place is safe. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be Billy Miles. That's for DAMN sure.

MULDER Who's Billy Miles?

DANNY Billy? He's the quarterback.

EXT. STATE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL – DAY – LATER – (LEGEND APPEARS)

Scully and Mulder walk with DR. WILLIAM GLASS across a wide lawn, toward an austere white building.

DR. GLASS Yes. Billy Miles is a patient here. He's been a patient here for over three years.

MULDER Are you his doctor?

DR. GLASS I oversee his treatment. Yes.

MULDER Billy was in the Class of '89. You're familiar with what's happened to a lot of those kids?

DR. GLASS It's not news to me. I've seen several of them over the years. Including Danny Doty.

MULDER What did you treat them for?

DR. GLASS I'm not at liberty, of course to discuss their individual cases. I can tell you that they all suffered from a similar post traumatic stress. It was never even clear to the kids what it was, but something seemed to have a profound effect on their lives.

SCULLY Do you believe Danny Doty killed his classmates?

Mulder gives Scully a surprised look. This is the first time she's felt compelled to join the investigation today.

DR. GLASS I leave those things to law enforcement and the courts.

MULDER Did you ever treat any of the students with hypnosis?

DR. GLASS Psychiatry is viewed with enough skepticism around here. My approach is pretty straightforward.

MULDER If we may, we'd like to ask Billy Miles a few questions – (a thought occurs) Um… have you ever treated Dr. Jay Neumann's daughter, by chance?

DR. GLASS (hesitant) Yes. Though not with her parents' knowledge. Forgive me, did you say you wanted to speak with Billy? (off Mulder's nod) I'm sorry, I thought you knew. Billy Miles is in what we call a waking coma. He hasn't spoken to anyone in four years.

Off Agent Mulder's pleasant confusion we CUT TO:

INT. STATE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL – SOME TIME LATER

CLOSE ON BILLY MILES sitting up in his hospital bed. Under:

ORDERLY Billy Miles. Everybody's All American. Hit and run one night out on State Road. Almost four years ago.

Aside from an occasional blink, Billy is a living, breathing vegetable. WIDEN TO INCLUDE Scully, Mulder and the Orderly.

ORDERLY Brother, if it's me, I'd rather be buried six feet under. Parents only visit once a month now. Only one who cares is Peggy O'Dell. Isn't that right, honey?

They turn as A YOUNG WOMAN wheels her own wheelchair into the room. She is thin, white, ghostly. A book on her lap. The Orderly helps her maneuver the wheelchair next to Billy's bed.

ORDERLY She's Billy's girlfriend.

(winks at Scully) Isn't that right, honey?

Peggy regards Mulder and Scully suspiciously, fiddling with her book. Her mouth draws up in a nervous twitch.

MULDER Did you go to school with Billy?

PEGGY Billy wants me to read now.

MULDER Did you know Billy before the accident?

PEGGY Everyone knew Billy. He was the most popular boy in school.

MULDER Does he like you to read to him?

PEGGY I have to take care of Billy now. Billy and I have seen the light.

Scully is watching Mulder, bemused, when her attention is suddenly drawn to Billy Miles. Billy's eyes and face twitch, his neck tightens and his throat jumps in a peristaltic tremor. As if he's trying to speak. Then it's over, as if it didn't happen.

Then Scully's head whips around on:

MULDER Peggy, I don't want you to be afraid. We're going to have Dr. Scully just take a look at you.

And, suddenly, Peggy becomes very agitated.

ORDERLY It's okay, honey. It's okay.

Peggy tries to roll her wheelchair out of the room. Struggling, grunting to escape. Then a strange thing – THE GIRL'S NOSE STARTS TO BLEED for no real reason. When she crawls out of her wheelchair onto the floor, the Orderly hits a panic button.

Mulder and Scully try to lift the girl back into the wheelchair, but even without the use of her legs it's like trying to get a cat in a bag. In this struggle, however, Mulder sees what he was looking for. TWO FAMILIAR RAISED RED WELTS on Peggy O'Dell's lower back, seen when her tunic raises up.

Scully sees it, too. Her eyes meet Mulder's, but only for a moment before TWO MALE NURSES rush into the room, joining in the struggle to subdue Peggy O'Dell. Mulder and Scully step back as the Nurses work on the girl, then react to:

ELDERLY PATIENT Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

The Elderly Patient has rolled his wheelchair into the doorway. He's a nut case, but it's only serves to make the whole scene even more absurd. Causing Scully to bolt from the room.

INT. RENTAL CAR – LATE AFTERNOON

Scully sits by herself in the parking lot of the Hospital, going through the same case folder she'd studied on the plane.

INSERT FOLDER – Scully fingers a newspaper article from the file. It's the latest article telling of Karen Swenson's death. Headline: 4TH TRAGIC FATALITY BEFALLS CLASS OF '89.

Scully studies this article intently, JUMPING when Agent Mulder's head appears outside the window. She rolls it down.

MULDER Billy said he was sorry he didn't get to say goodbye.

SCULLY How did you know that girl was going to have the marks?

MULDER Who? The one with the Carrie Prom Stare.

Scully opens the car door, half-enraged. She's had it.

SCULLY Dammit, Mulder! Cut the crap! I want some answers. What is going on here?! What do you know about those marks?! What are they?!

MULDER (calmly) The truth? I think those kids have been abducted.

SCULLY (incredulous) By who?

MULDER (correcting her) By What.

Scully laughs a nervous laugh, walks around in a circle. She can't believe she's even considering this as an explanation.

SCULLY You really believe that?

MULDER Look, I'm open to a better explanation. A scientific explanation if you've got one.

SCULLY Danny Doty – that girl in the hospital – they're suffering some kind of pronounced psychosis. Whether it was drug induced… I can't say. But it's hardly an explanation to say those kids have been riding around on moonbeams.

MULDER (delighted) Moonbeams! I like that.

SCULLY You know what I think? I think those kids were involved in something satanic. Some kind of cult. All four victims died in the woods. They found Karen Swenson in the forest in her pajamas. How did she get there? What were they doing out there?

EXT. LOUISIANA FOREST – NIGHT – LATER

The rental car's headlights wash over the yellow crime scene tape that demarcates the spot where Karen Swenson was found.

TWO FLASHLIGHTS in the darkness. Mulder and Scully move through the dark woods, in search of… they have no idea. Scully moves in one direction while Mulder stops, pulls A COMPASS from his pocket.

ANGLE ON SCULLY as she drops into a clearing. The clearing we may remember from the opening sequence. She kneels down, pointing her flashlight close to the ground. The earth beneath her is scorched, dusted with gray ash. Leaves and branches are singed or burned.

Then Scully's breath is stolen by a sound. Is it just a new rustling of wind in the trees? Yes, but something else: A PERCUSSIVE SOUND – METAL ON METAL somewhere off in the forest.

SCULLY Mulder?

No answer. The sound grows louder, closer. Scully begins to walk briskly, retracing her path. But mounting the small rise that forms the edge of the clearing Scully is stopped in her tracks BY A BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT. Blinding and intense. And a loud percussive rumble – metal on metal.

Scully stands paralyzed in the light as a PHANTOM FIGURE appears silhouetted near the light's provenance. Walking towards her, casting eerie ribbons of light and shadow.

SCULLY Mulder? Is that you?

Once again, Scully gets no answer and the Phantom continues toward her as we:

END ACT TWO

ACT THREE

EXT. FOREST – NIGHT RESUME

The unidentified Phantom continues toward Scully. Not until the Phantom moves into the beam of her flashlight, which illuminates its face, do we recognize THE DETECTIVE from the opening sequence. Carrying a shotgun. Scully stifles a scream.

DETECTIVE You're trespassing on private property.

SCULLY We're… conducting an investigation. We're FBI.

Agent Mulder appears out forest, drawn by the light.

DETECTIVE Get in your car and leave now or I'll arrest you for trespassing. I don't care who you are.

MULDER This is a crime scene.

DETECTIVE And I'm the cops. Now get in your car and leave.

Mulder hesitates, then thinks better of pissing off a man holding a shotgun. He leads Scully into the light, past The Detective's 4WD, with its HIGH-POWER LIGHT BAR over the cabin, its CLACKETY DIESEL ENGINE. This is what Scully saw, but could it be the same light and noise from opening sequence?

Overhead, A FLASH OF LIGHTNING. A CRACK OF THUNDER sounds as the Agents find their way back to the rental car. Weather moving in.

INT. RENTAL CAR – MOMENTS LATER

Agent Mulder at the wheel, accelerator to the floor, driving in high speed reverse out of the woods. The Detective and his 4WD truck recede into the night.

ANGLE ON MAIN ROAD

As the rental car backs out onto the highway, takes off.

INT. RENTAL CAR – TRAVELING – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

MULDER What's he doing out here at night by himself?

Mulder flips the wipers on as it begins to rain. Scully holds her hand out to him. In it is a fist full of BLACK EARTH.

SCULLY Maybe it has something to do with this. What do you think it is?

Agent Mulder flips on the dome light, studies the ashes.

SCULLY I think there's something going on out here. Some kind of sacrifice. And that man know something about it.

MULDER Whatever it is, you're wearing a lot of it now.

Scully checks the ashy smudge marks dotting her shirt. She doesn't care. She's onto something.

SCULLY I want to come back here.

Agent Mulder offers nothing in the way of a comment. Instead he pulls the compass from his pocket, lays it on the dash where –

THE COMPASS – its hand swings slightly, subtlety west – then east.

EXT. MAIN HIGHWAY – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

The rental car zips by in the rain, hugging the right shoulder.

INT. RENTAL CAR – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Scully is carefully putting the Black Earth into a baggie, much of it spilling away because of Agent Mulder's erratic driving. He keeps squinting out the side window into the dark, rainy night. Checking his watch. Checking the compass.

SCULLY You okay, Mulder?

MULDER Huh? Yeah… I'm fine.

SCULLY What are you looking for?

As Scully says this A BRIGHT FLASH OF LIGHTING lights up the sky. So close it lights up the interior of the car as well. An incredible blinding flash.

EXT. MAIN HIGHWAY – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

As the rental car coasts past, all its running lights out, the engine off. It rolls to a gentle stop down the road.

INT. RENTAL CAR – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Agent Mulder is trying the key in the ignition, EXCITEDLY. Nothing happens. The car won't start. It's dead.

SCULLY Wow. What happened?

MULDER We lost power. Brakes, steering, everything.

He looks at his digital watch, equally, unexplainedly excited.

MULDER We lost three minutes! Woo ha!

Mulder is out of the car like a shot, moving out on foot.

EXT. MAIN HIGHWAY – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Agent Mulder is walking down the highway like a refugee in the rain. Scully exits the car, comes after him.

SCULLY We lost what?

MULDER Three minutes!

He stops at a spot in the road, waits for Scully to catch up.

MULDER We lost three minutes of time. I looked at my watch just before the flash. It was 9:03. Now it just turned 9:07! And look!

Mulder points to the road where he stands. There it is – his spray painted ORANGE X. Mulder's so excited he could shout – and he does. Scully still doesn't understand what it means.

MULDER Abductees, people who've made sightings – they've reported unexplained time loss!

SCULLY Holy…

Then an equally bizarre things happens – the rental car, sitting thirty yards up the road – ITS HEADLIGHTS COME ON of their own accord. Mulder leaps up like a guy in a Toyota commercial. 34

SCULLY Holy…

MULDER I told you you wouldn't like my driving!

INT. SCULLY'S MOTEL ROOM – NIGHT – LATER

Scully is working on her portable laptop, filing a report.

INSERT COMPUTER SCREEN – As type appears below a body of text: "Agent Mulder's insistence of time loss, due to 'unknown forces', cannot be validated or substantiated by this witness…

Scully continues to type when THE LIGHTS IN THE ROOM FLICKER AND GO OUT. Darkness, save for the blue glow of her battery- powered computer screen.

SCULLY Great.

INT. SCULLY'S MOTEL BATHROOM – NIGHT – MOMENTS LATER

Lit by candlelight, Scully turns on the shower, begins to take her clothes off. Removing her blouse, then her pants. She stands in only her underwear, checking the water temperature in the shower. But when she goes to remove her panties, Agent Scully feels something on her lower back that takes her breath away.

INT. AGENT MULDER'S MOTEL ROOM – NIGHT

Mulder answers a knock at the door, holding a candle in one hand. Opening the door, there stands Scully, dressed in a bathrobe. In the flickering candlelight, she looks like:

MULDER What happened, Scully? See a ghost?

SCULLY (flat) I want you to look at something.

Mulder smiles curiously. Scully swallows hard, musters her courage, then turns, lets her bathrobe drop off her shoulders.

CLOSE ON SCULLY'S BACK as Mulder runs one hand gently down to the base of her spine, holding the candle in the other. He stoops slowly, drawing his face up close to the area just over Scully's trembling buttocks. There, in the candlelight, we see TWO RAISED RED WELTS.

Scully is breathing scared and shallow, through her nose.

SCULLY What are they…? (no answer) Mulder… what – are – they?

Mulder's slowly rises back up to Scully's eye level.

MULDER Mosquito bites.

SCULLY (panic/relief) Are you sure?! Are you sure?!

MULDER I got about twenty of them myself out there in the woods. Look –

But he doesn't get to show her. A dam of emotion and fear breaks. Scully pulls her robe back up, turns around and grabs Mulder, hugs him, hyperventilating.

MULDER Are you okay?

SCULLY (lying) Yes. (emphatically) I'm not sleeping in my room.

EXT. MOTEL – NIGHT – SHORT TIME LATER

It continues to rain, storm and thunder. The power is still out, not a light in the building, saving for the flow of candlelight coming from the window of Agent Mulder's room. Under:

MULDER I was twelve when it happened –

INT. MULDER'S MOTEL ROOM – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Several candles have burned low. Scully is lying in the only bed in the room. We can hear Mulder but we cannot see him.

MULDER My sister was eight. She just disappeared from her bed one night…

ANGLE ON MULDER

Lying on the floor with a blanket over him.

MULDER Vanished.

Scully's head appears over the edge of the bed. She brushes several stray sunflower seeds off onto the floor.

SCULLY How can a little girl just vanish?

MULDER Nobody knew. My family had money and connections. We launched a full- scale search. We waited for a ransom note. None ever came.

SCULLY You never found her?

MULDER It tore the family apart. It took years before it receded into that place where people stash their painful family history and get on with their lives. I went off to school in England, got recruited and lost myself in the work of criminal investigation. I had a natural aptitude for applying behavior models to actual cases. I became the FBI' fair-haired boy…

EXT. MOTEL – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

The dim orange glow defines Mulder's room from the darkened motel when A DARK, SHADOWY FIGURE moves past the window, eclipsing for a moment the flickering candlelight.

RESUME MULDER, SCULLY

MULDER … then I happened to stumble on the X-files, cases that the Bureau categorized as too unfounded or bizarre to waste our time on. UFO sightings, alien abduction reports, the kind of stuff everybody laughs off as ridiculous.

SCULLY Everyone but you.

MULDER I read every case. Hundreds of them. I read everything I could get my hands on about the occult, about paranormal phenomena. And I learned about deep regression hypnosis…

He sits up, looks Scully in the eye, touches her arm. A moment on uncharacteristic abstraction, vulnerability for Mulder.

SCULLY What? Tell me –

MULDER Drazen is the only other person at the Bureau who know about this. It sounds too crazy. I didn't want to believe it at first myself. (he hesitates) I know what I'm risking here by telling you, but I feel somehow I can trust you. Because… you're like me: You want answers, don't you?

SCULLY Yes.

MULDER … Under hypnosis I was able to go deep into my own repressed memories to the night my sister disappeared. I recalled a bright light outside and a presence in the room…

Scully recoils involuntarily, but Mulder squeezes her arm.

MULDER (CONT'D) … I was paralyzed and unable to respond to my sister's calls for help – they took her and I was powerless to stop them. Listen to me, Scully. This thing exists. I don't know what it is or why it is… but I have to figure it out. Nothing else matters to me. And this is as close as I've ever gotten to it.

Mulder's passion and honesty burn in his penetrating stare. Scully sees that the man holding her arm is not the puckish, prankish man before, but a true believer.

Holding her breath from fright, Scully nearly hits the ceiling when THE PHONE RINGS. She has to hunt in the dark for the phone, lays her hand on the receiver but hesitates before answering.

SCULLY I'm not here.

Scully picks up the receiver, hands it directly to Mulder.

MULDER Hello… (a woman's filtered Voice on the phone) Who is this? Hello..? (line goes dead) It was a woman. She said Peggy O'Dell is dead.

SCULLY The girl in the wheelchair?

MULDER She said she was just hit by a train outside of town.

EXT. MOTEL – NIGHT – MINUTES LATER

Mulder and Scully exit the motel room, hurry to get into their rental car. Scully pulls the car out of the parking lot, unaware of THE SHADOWY FIGURE lurking in the windblown bushes. Which they pass as they exit the parking lot.

As the car disappears, the SHADOWY FIGURE leaves the bushes, crosses toward their motel room.

EXT. FOREST RAILROAD CROSSING – NIGHT

The rental car pulls up to a scene peopled with cops. Squad car light bars decorate the night, bouncing off windblown trees and the engine of a freight train which sits idle on the tracks.

ANGLE ON SCULLY AND MULDER exiting their car, moving toward the scene. Mulder moves to a group of Patrolmen while Scully moves off toward the tracks.

MULDER What happened?

PATROLMAN Young woman was struck by the train.

MULDER How did she get down here?

2ND PATROLMAN (suspicious) Who are you?

MULDER Was she in a wheelchair?

PATROLMAN Wheelchair?

A familiar 4WD truck pulling up diverts their attention. It's The Detective. He jumps down from his pick-up, moves rapidly over to Mulder and the Patrolman, pushes Mulder hard.

DETECTIVE I thought I told you to get out of here.

Mulder pushes him hard right back. The Patrolmen grab Mulder, pin his arms. The Detective draws his sidearm.

DETECTIVE Maybe you've heard of probable cause.

MULDER You know you've got another murder here.

1ST PATROLMAN He's got a weapon.

The Patrolman pulls a pistol from Mulder's shoulder holster.

MULDER I'm FBI, you moron. (to Detective) I saw that girl in a wheelchair this afternoon. You tell me how she got down here –

ANGLE ON SCULLY who has avoided the fray and made her way down to the tracks where the body lies just off to the side, covered with a blanket. She lifts the blanket, revealing Peggy O'Dell, her sunken eyes now rolled back in their sockets.

Scully notices something. A LOCK OF BROWN HAIR in the young woman's hand. And then something else. Peggy O'Dell is wearing a watch. Scully looks at the watch closely.

INSERT WATCH – the watch has stopped – at 9:03.

Scully checks her own watch. It reads: 11:56. Then Scully reacts to a hand on her shoulder. She looks up, sees one of the Patrolmen.

PATROLMAN Let's go.

ANGLE ON MULDER leaning up against the rental car, pissed. The Detective stands next to him. Scully approaches with the Patrolman.

DETECTIVE Let's have hers, too.

Scully bridles when the Patrolman reaches for her weapon.

SCULLY Hey…

She looks over at Mulder who only nods. Yes, his gesture says, these Southern redneck sheriff bastards are taking our guns. Scully sizes up the situation, then gives up her weapon.

DETECTIVE We'll run an ID. You check out, you can come pick up your weapons.

SCULLY I've got my ID right here.

MULDER Forget it. He's been watching too much Smokey and the Bandit.

Then the group reacts to a sedan pulling to the scene. the Coroner gets out, moves over to the Detective.

CORONER Somebody just trashed our offices. Turned the damn place upside down. (notices Mulder) Hope you weren't too attached to that dog carcass you dug up.

MULDER They took it?!

CORONER Don't ask me why. Not exactly the thing you want hanging over your fireplace.

But Mulder doesn't hear this last quip. He's already in the car, behind the wheel, looking for;

MULDER Scully! The keys!

Scully gets in the passenger side, handing him the keys. The engine turns over. Mulder jams the car in gear and pulls out of the parking lot in a cloud of dust. Heading for:

INT. MOTEL – NIGHT – SHORT TIME LATER

Mulder can only pull the rental car so far into the driveway, because the parking lot is taken up by TWO FIRE ENGINES. The motel is on fire. Rather, Scully and Mulder's rooms are on fire.

NEW ANGLE

The Agents hustle to where a CROWD OF MOTEL GUESTS, dressed in pajamas and bathrobes, watch the firefighters battle the blaze.

SCULLY There goes my computer.

MULDER The X-rays. My Polaroids. Somebody definitely doesn't want any trace left of whatever it was we dug up yesterday.

Then the Agents react to someone coming toward them. A face they both recognize, now illuminated by the leaping flames.

Dr. Jay Neuman's daughter is walking out of the buses where the Shadowy Figure was last seen. And if she looked like a fright when they first saw her, she looks like Frankenstein's daughter now; in a long dirty nightgown, walking barefoot, crying.

THE DAUGHTER You've got to protect me.

EXT. ALL NIGHT DINER – NIGHT – SOME TIME LATER

To establish.

INT. ALL NIGHT DINER – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

The girl wears Mulder's jacket over her soiled nightgown. She sits next to Scully in a booth. Mulder sits across from them.

SCULLY Do you want more coffee?

GIRL No. I just want to get this taste out of my mouth.

MULDER What taste?

GIRL Like metal. Or something.

MULDER What were you doing out there tonight?

GIRL I don't know. I just found myself out in the woods. This is the way it happens. I don't know how I get out there.

SCULLY It's happened before?

GIRL Ever since the summer we graduated. It's happened to my friends, too. That's why I want you to protect me. I don't want to die like the rest of them. Like Peggy tonight.

She becomes emotional. Scully holds her hand, comforts her.

MULDER You were the one who called me and told me Peggy O'Dell had been killed, weren't you?

GIRL Yes.

MULDER How did you know where to call?

GIRL I heard my father say where you were staying. I heard him talking to Billy's father.

Scully and Mulder exchange looks. Could it be Dr. Jay Neuman who's responsible for the fire?

MULDER How did you know Peggy was dead?

GIRL My father got a phone call.

SCULLY What time was that?

GIRL Nine. A couple minutes after. And that's the last thing I remember. Then I was in the forest. Being chased.

MULDER By whom?

GIRL I don't know.

SCULLY Was it your father?

GIRL No. But my father said never to tell anyone. About any of it.

MULDER Why doesn't he want you to tell?

GIRL Because of Peggy. And Billy Miles. About the abortion.

SCULLY He gave Peggy an abortion?

GIRL Yes. Just before Billy came back.

SCULLY Came back from where?

GIRL Billy disappeared right before graduation and he didn't come back until almost the end of the summer. Peggy said he got her pregnant, but no one believed her because he wasn't even here.

MULDER But your father gave her an abortion.

GIRL No one was supposed to know. She had an abortion but there was no baby. There was something else. He said it's because Peggy had the marks.

Scully looks at Mulder. This is TOO WEIRD.

MULDER The marks on her back?

GIRL Yes. We all got them. In the forest. And we're all going to die.

The Girl finally breaks down, sobbing with her head on the table. Scully touches her hand again. when the Girl looks up HER NOSE IS BLEEDING.

SCULLY Oh, God…

Scully scrambles from the booth, grabbing a napkin from a booth across the aisle. Handing it to The Girl, she turns to see:

ANGLE ON DINER ENTRANCE

Where Dr. Jay Neuman and The Detective push through the doors, move directly to the booth, intent on Neuman's daughter.

DR. NEUMAN Let's go home, honey. We're taking you home.

Dr. Neuman's daughter shrinks back, terror in her eyes.

MULDER I don't think the girl wants to leave.

DR. NEUMAN She's a sick girl. Now you just stay out of this. She's highly delusional and should not become excited.

Neuman's daughter balls up in the corner of the booth when The Detective reaches an arm out to her.

DETECTIVE Your Daddy wants to take you home. He'll get you all cleaned up.

DR. NEUMAN We're going to take you where you'll be safe, sweetheart. Detective Miles and I won't let anything happen to you…

Mulder hears this and goes ramrod straight where he sits.

MULDER You're Billy Miles' father?

DETECTIVE That's right. And you stay away from that boy.

EXT. ALL NIGHT DINER – NIGHT

CLOSE ON DR. NEUMAN'S DAUGHTER'S FACE, seen through the window of her father's car as it leaves the parking lot. WIDEN TO INCLUDE Scully and Mulder standing outside the diner.

MULDER You gotta love this place. Everyday's like Halloween.

SCULLY (becoming excited) They know, Mulder. They know who's responsible for the murders. And they're working together to cover any evidence.

MULDER You may be right.

SCULLY Who else has a reason to trash the lab or burn out our motel rooms? Dr. Neuman's been hiding medical evidence since the beginning. He lied on the autopsy reports – and now we find out about this abortion – and the Detective –

She looks at Mulder, the fireworks of revelation going off in her eyes as she works the facts over in her mind. Mulder appears either unconvinced or lost in thought.

MULDER What time did that girl say she found herself being chased in the forest?

SCULLY Just after nine. After the phone call came in about Peggy O'Dell –

MULDER (moving to the car) C'mon. There's still may be some evidence they haven't destroyed. Something that could explain everything.

EXT. HILLSIDE CEMETERY – NIGHT – SHORT TIME LATER

A light rain has begun to fall as Mulder and Scully tromp through the soggy graveyard. And then they see it:

THEIR POV

Silhouetted at the top of a knoll is the backhoe. Next to it are two large rectangular forms – COFFINS.

ANGLE ON BACKHOE as Mulder and Scully run up the sodden knoll and see that the coffins are open – and:

MULDER They're both empty.

SCULLY What is going on here?!

Mulder doesn't answer her. He's trying to make sense of it all.

MULDER It just came to me. I know who it is. I know who killed Karen Swenson.

SCULLY Who?

Mulder has something between horror and dizzy excitement in his eyes. He takes Scully by the shoulders, looks in her eyes.

SCULLY Who?!

MULDER That boy in the hospital. The vegetable. Billy Miles.

Off Scully's utter incredulity we:

END ACT THREE

ACT FOUR

EXT. CEMETERY – NIGHT – RESUME

Scully is stunned. Wonderfully, incredibly entertained by what she's just heard Mulder just tell her.

SCULLY Billy Miles? You think a kid who's been in a coma for the last four years got out here and dug up these graves all by himself.

Mulder looks at her, moonstruck.

MULDER I don't know if I quite understand it – but it all fits a profile of alien abduction –

SCULLY This fits a profile?!

MULDER No, listen. That girl found herself running in the forest just after nine. That's about the time we lost three minutes out on the highway. I think something happened in those three minutes. Time as we know it stopped. Something took control over it.

Scully looks at him, half grinning in her incredulity.

MULDER You don't believe it.

SCULLY Agent Mulder – I'm standing out here in the mud and rain, looking at two empty coffins, in a cemetery where we dug up someone – something – I can't explain… listing to a wacked-out kid tell me she's going to die because she has "the marks." And at this point, it wouldn't surprise me if we both started howling at the moon.

MULDER I think there's a force at work here. We felt it in the plane and we experienced it out on the highway. There was a magnetic anomaly out there. I got a false compass reading. What I'm saying is… I think this force can bend time. So that Billy Miles could dig up these graves undetected. So he could haul Peggy O'Dell down to the tracks. (off her change in expression) What?

SCULLY Peggy O'Dell's watch stopped a couple minutes after nine. I made a note of it when I saw her body.

MULDER Yes! You see – it's what I secretly suspected from the beginning – the kids with the marks have been abducted and used in tests. They're taken to that spot in the woods. The substance we can't identify is introduced into their bodies and causes a genetic mutation. Which explains the body we dug up. Only now the force is trying to destroy any evidence of this.

SCULLY (still half-believing) And this "force", that's who was chasing the girl through the woods tonight…?

MULDER No, it was Billy Miles. Acting from some alien impulse. Danny Doty feels the same impulses, but he knows he can't act on them if he stays in prison.

Scully nods for a moment like she believe Mulder's theory. Then she starts to laugh. Giddy, stupid laughter. Which gets Mulder going. They laugh so hard they bend over and hold their knees. Scully starts to howl at the moon, a comic demonstration of how far off the deep end they've gone. Mulder howls with her. Then both laugh some more before trying to catch their breath.

MULDER C'mon. Let's go.

SCULLY Where are we going?

MULDER To see Billy Miles.

Only then does the residual laughter and the giddy smile on Scully's face begin to dim. Only then does she realize that Mulder is dead serious. As his pace quickens and Scully follows him through the headstones and gravemarkers back toward the car.

INT. STATE HOSPITAL – NEXT MORNING

CLOSE ON BILLY MILES' flat, blank, brain dead expression. Under:

ORDERLY Now we could stand here till the second coming waiting for Billy to get out of this bed – it ain't gonna happen…

WIDEN TO INCLUDE Mulder and Scully standing with the Orderly at the foot of the bed.

ORDERLY Three years he's been lying here pretty much like you see him. And three years before that at home. He blinks and I know about it.

MULDER Did you change his bedpan last night?

ORDERLY Nobody else here gonna do it.

MULDER You noticed nothing unusual?

The Orderly gives Mulder a look. What's this guy interested in?

MULDER What were you doing last night at nine o'clock?

ORDERLY Probably watching TV. Yeah.

MULDER Do you remember what you were watching?

ORDERLY Let's see…

While the Orderly tires to recall this, Scully moves over to Billy's bed. She bends down to inspect a BLACK SMUDGE on the otherwise clean white sheets.

ORDERLY Y'know… I don't really remember what I watched.

Scully lifts the blanket off Billy's feet, pulls at the sheets.

ORDERLY Miss… what's she looking for?

Scully pulls the sheets off Billy's feet, calls to Mulder.

SCULLY Take a look at this.

Agent Mulder bends down, looks at what Scully's looking at: Billy's toes. Under the nails is BLACK DIRT. The Agents trade looks – how did that get there? Mulder turns to the Orderly.

MULDER Who was taking care of Peggy O'Dell last night?

ORDERLY Not me. That's not my ward. Not my aisle of the produce section. It's a shame about that girl, though.

MULDER How would she have gotten out of here? Without her wheelchair?

ORDERLY I don't know. Like I said, that's not my thing. What's she doing now?

Scully is taking a scraping from under Billy's toes. CAMERA PANS UP to Billy's face – his dumb, lifeless features – when suddenly HIS EYES NARROW AND COME INTO FOCUS ON SCULLY.

Scully scrapes her sample into a small vial, rises and rejoins the others. No one has noticed Billy's momentary transformation.

MULDER Thank you for your time.

ORDERLY That's okay.

Mulder and Scully exit, leaving the Orderly alone in the room with Billy. She starts to tuck the corners of the sheet back in, grumbling about having to do it.

ORDERLY She pulls out my nice corners… what was I watching last night?

She's working on this thought when she finishes with the sheets and leave the room. CAMERA HOLDS ON BILLY, whose eyes once again tell us that he is not what he appears to be.

INT. BURNED OUT MOTEL ROOM – DAY – LATER

Scully and Mulder pick through the black remains of their belongings, looking for something specific.

SCULLY Found it.

Scully lifts the melted baggie containing the BLACK EARTH she found in the forest. Then her hand goes to something else. From the ashes she pulls THE GLASS VIAL containing the small metal rod found implanted in the corpse's nose. She holds it up for Mulder, as we CUT TO:

INT. AUTOPSY BAY – DAY – LATER

Scully empties the hospital scrapings onto a glass slide, slips the slide under a microscope, leans down to the eyepiece.

SCULLY Perfect match. (fearfully) You were right. Billy Miles was in the forest last night.

They trade looks, a tacit acknowledgement of the frightening truth.

EXT. FOREST – THAT NIGHT

As the Agents' car pulls up to the crime scene once again. this time, though, their headlights wash across Detective Miles' 4WD truck parked at the end of the road.

ANGLE ON FOREST as the Agents once again set out on foot, flashlights in hand, the narrow beams cutting through the darkness.

ANGLE ON FOREST CLEARING as the Agents drop down over the rise to the spot where Scully had found the Black Earth. She kneels again, pointing her flashlight on the ground at her feet. The beam illuminates the scorched, ashen earth, but something else, too. BARE FOOT PRINTS. Then Scully reacts to:

MULDER Listen. There's someone running.

Scully trains her ear in the direction of A SOUND. Someone or something is moving rapidly through the underbrush. Agent Mulder points his flashlight at the sound.

THE FLASHLIGHT BEAM moves across trees and foliage. THEN ILLUMINATES SOMEONE MOVING THROUGH THE TREES. But the person is gone before he, or she, can be identified.

AGENT MULDER takes off running, giving chase. Scully hesitates, then starts after him.

FOLLOWING – STEADYCAM – SCULLY'S POV behind Mulder as he lights into the dense woods, thrashing through low shrubs and bushes blocking his path. Quickly changing directions, so that Scully's POV is a zig zag pattern through the woods, intermittently losing sight of Mulder, but then finding him again farther up ahead of her.

Mulder has gained a good lead ahead of Scully when – OOOMPH – Scully goes down, like she's been hit by moving. Her POV is now the ground that was moments ago beneath her feet.

ANGLE ON SCULLY

69 as she slowly picks herself up – then sees A PAIR OF BOOTS standing next to her. Her eyes follow the boots up to Detective Miles, standing over her with his shotgun.

DETECTIVE Touch my kid and I'll kill you.

Then he, too, takes off running through the forest. Scully slowly gets to her feet, stumbling in an attempt to resume her chase. While –

AGENT MULDER has come up another forest glade. In it stands Billy Miles. He has his back to Mulder, naked as the day he was born. In clear relief are the TWO RED MARKS on his lower back. But even more alarming is the sight of DR. NEUMAN'S DAUGHTER cradled in Billy's arms, unconscious, dressed in a nightgown and bathrobe.

MULDER Billy!

Billy turns, sees Mulder, regards him with a blank stare.

MULDER Put her down, Billy.

Appearing out of the forest behind Mulder, shotgun held high, is Detective Miles, bearing down fast on Mulder's position when –

ANGLE ON SCULLY standing in the trees The Detective just passed through.

SCULLY Behind you! He's got a gun!

ANGLE ON MULDER as he turns, sees The Detective running toward him full force – the shotgun pointed not at him but at –

DETECTIVE Billy!!!!

Detective Miles is aiming at his son, hellbent, one can only surmise, on doing him in – UNTIL MULDER TACKLES HIM, the two men go tumbling to the forest floor. The shotgun blast explodes into the ground, its report echoing through the forest.

ANGLE ON BILLY standing motionless, absurdly calm, with the girl still in his arms when – A BIZARRE DUSTDEVIL begins to whirl around them. Swirling, swirling, picking up leaves, dust and branches.

ANGLE ON SCULLY watching this, in awe and horror. Watching as A BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT ILLUMINATES THE CLEARING FROM ABOVE. Accompanied by A HIGH VOLTAGE HUM, STRANGE PERCUSSIVE NOISES – the same way it happened in the opening sequence.

ON MULDER AND DETECTIVE MILES still on the ground, squinting into the vortex of this supernatural display of light and sound – until the intensity of the light becomes so incredible that they too disappear into it – consumed by its blinding energy.

And then it is gone – the light and sound and horrible wind – they cease as abruptly as they had begun. The windborne dust and debris falling slowly over –

BILLY AND THE GIRL

Lying on the forest floor, the settling detritus landing gently on their back. Then they both begin to stair as –

AGENT MULDER AND DETECTIVE MILES hurry to them, Billy's father collapsing on the boy in a rush of desperate emotion.

DETECTIVE Billy!

BILLY Dad…?

Detective Miles is smoothing his son in his embrace when Mulder sees it – THE MARKS ON BILLY'S BACK ARE GONE.

Dr. Neuman's daughter has stumbled to her feet, too, looking at Mulder in a curious daze.

GIRL Who are you? Why am I here?

Mulder offers no explanation because he has none to offer. All he can do is turn, look at –

SCULLY standing in her tracks – a look of unspeakable disbelief. As we FADE TO BLACK.

INT. OBSERVATION ROOM – PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL – SOMETIME LATER

A SINGLE, SOFT LIGHT illuminates Billy Miles, lying on a red chaise. His expression is not animated but it is not the cold, stone- like countenance that we saw in the hospital earlier. Rather, it is a placid, dreamy face.

MULDER (O.S.) Can you hear me, Billy? If you can hear me, raise your right hand.

Billy raises his right hand. CAMERA COMES AROUND to reveal Agent Mulder sitting in a chair next to Billy. Behind Mulder, watching through an observation window is Scully and Dr. William Glass.

MULDER Tell me about the light, Billy. When did you first see the light?

BILLY In the forest. We were all in the forest… having a party. All my friends. We were celebrating.

MULDER What were you celebrating?

BILLY Graduation.

MULDER But you never graduated.

BILLY No. The light took me away.

MULDER Where did it take you?

BILLY To the testing place.

MULDER Did they do test on you?

BILLY Yes.

MULDER Did you help them test the others?

BILLY Yes. I would wait for their orders. To gather the others.

MULDER How did they give the orders?

BILLY Through the implant. But the tests didn't always work. I –

MULDER You what?

Tears well in Billy's eyes, begin rolling down his cheeks.

BILLY They said it would be okay. They didn't want anyone to know. They wanted everything destroyed… I'm afraid. Afraid they're coming back.

Mulder turns and meets the gaze of Dr. Glass and –

SCULLY wearing the same serious, analytical expression that she was wont to wear before and during the investigation. Is she now a believer? That remains to be seen.

EXT. FBI HEADQUARTER – SOME LATER DAY

To re-establish.

INT. CONFERENCE ROOM – FBI HEADQUARTERS – SAME DAY

Scully enters the room with Special Agent Drazen. She takes a seat at the table where The Six Men sit. The same group who had interviewed her in Act One. They are reading Scully's report.

ELDER MAN We've been going over your report, Miss Scully. Frankly, we don't know what to make of it.

2ND MAN Did Agent Mulder attempt to deceive or traduce you in any way?

SCULLY No, sir. Agent Mulder allowed me to reach my own unbiased conclusions.

3RD MAN Am I to understand, Miss Scully, that you believe we have a bunch of extraterrestrials zipping around America zapping people with ray guns.

SCULLY (smiles politely) No, sir. I don't think we have enough evidence of that just yet.

2ND MAN Time warps? Grotesque corpses? What is this thing; this implant you mention here?

Scully pulls the vial from her pocket, puts it on the table.

SCULLY Our lab tests were inconclusive. We cannot identify the metal. This came from the corpse's nasal cavity. It's what Billy Miles described as the communication device that delivered his murderous impulses.

It hangs there. A real showstopper, that. The Elder Man rubs his temples, removes his glasses, looks at Scully, choosing to pursue a more practical, earthbound concern.

ELDER MAN What about the criminal consequences? For the boy?

SCULLY The evidentiary proceedings in Louisiana have concluded that Billy Miles' father and the County Medical Examiner conspired to obstruct justice. Billy Miles, of course, has confessed his complicity in the deaths.

2ND MAN Complicity with whom?!

ELDER MAN Are you saying the boy will be prosecuted?

SCULLY No, sir. We have prevailed on the County District Attorney's office to drop the case.

2ND MAN Damn right! That's all we need: someone beating a murder rap using the 'alien abduction defense.'

3RD MAN Did anyone stop to consider the kid might be just some twisted sociopath?

They all look at Scully. She doesn't have an answer for that.

ELDER MAN What does Agent Mulder believe?

Agent Scully takes a deep breath. Will she give up Spooky Mulder? Betray his confidences? No. But for the record:

SCULLY Agent Mulder believes we are not alone.

Their reaction to this is utter speechlessness. The men straighten and restraighten their file folders before:

ELDER MAN Thank you, Agent Scully.

Scully rises. Agent Drazen opens the door for her, giving her an approving smile as she exits. He closes the door behind her. There is a heavy, anxiety laden moment before:

ELDER MAN Well…

3RD MAN It's a match with those classified Pentagon reports.

3RD MAN What in God's name…?

2ND MAN This gets to the press – if Congress got a hold of this we'd expend all our energy chasing ghosts and spacemen.

3RD MAN Hell, it'd cause mass hysteria!

ELDER MAN Gentlemen – this report offers no conclusive evidence. I see we have no choice but to let Agent Scully continue until such time our intelligence supports a purposeful discontinuance of the X-files project. Until then, our discussion will not leave this room. Report circulation prohibited. Special Agent Drazen…

The Elder Man hands Drazen the collected stack of reports. Drazen takes them and we CUT TO:

INT. FBI INCINERATION FURNACE

Drazen moves to the furnace, open the hot metal door using an asbestos glove – and tosses the pile of reports into the flames.

CLOSE ON FIRE – the flames JUMPING as the papers burn, turning the furnace into a BRIGHT WHITE HEAT, a BRIGHT WHITE GLOW that grows and grows until it consumes the screen.

No, we are definitely not alone.

THE END

1x00 Pilot – Script (revised)

THE X-FILES

Chris Carter

Pilot Episode

Ten Thirteen Productions, Inc. 1st Revision: March 15, 1993 (All Blue) 2nd Revision: March 21, 1993 (All Pink) 3rd Revision: March 23, 1992 (Green) 4th Revision: March 29, 1993 (Yellow) 5th Revision: April 02, 1993 (Goldenrod)

ACT ONE

A legend appears on screen: THE FOLLOWING STORY IS INSPIRED BY TRUE EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS. Under this we hear the short, shallow breathing of a runner. We FADE IN and we are:

EXT. OREGON FOREST - NIGHT - The Present

The forest is absolutely still when the runner enters frame: A YOUNG WOMAN wearing only her nightgown. From the look on her face we fear she is being hunted.

CAMERA FOLLOWS as the Young Woman stumbles through the forest underbrush, which tears at her bare skin. Running down into a clearing, where she trips and falls. When she looks up, SUDDENLY THE FOREST COMES ALIVE.

A BIZARRE DUSTDEVIL begins to swirl around her, picking up everything not rooted to the forest floor and sending it aloft. Swirling, swirling - WHEN A LIGHT ILLUMINATES THE CLEARING. A CLEAR BRIGHT FIELD OF PURE WHITE ENERGY, ACCOMPANIED BY A HIGH VOLTAGE HUM WITH INTERMITTENT PERCUSSIVE NOISES - METAL ON METAL. The source of the light and noise is unseen. Then a PHANTOM FIGURE appears. But the brightness intensifies steadily - until the scene, the Young Woman and the Phantom are consumed by it, erased from the screen by the Clear White Light. Her disembodied voice cries out - a name? - but then it's gone, receding into nothingness.

EXT. FOREST - FOLLOWING MORNING

CORONER (V.O.) … I'd put the time of death about eight to twelve hours ago …

ANGLE ON THE CORONER with a POLICE DETECTIVE. They move from the Detective's 4WD truck over to the body.

CORONER … no visible cause; no sign of battery or sexual assault …

They are standing over the body now. The Woman is still face down. The Coroner kneels, lifts the back of her short nightie.

CORONER … all we have is this ….

Two Distinct RAISED RED WELTS the size of a dime on her lower back. The Coroner and the Detective trade looks of confirmed dread. The Detective kneels down for a closer look. (An angle to feature the blackened, sooty bottoms of the girl's feet.)

DETECTIVE Can we turn her over ...

The Asst. Coroners turn the stiffened body over onto its back. Leaves and humus adhere to her damp face and flesh. Dried blood trails from her nose. The Detective's worst fear: recognition.

DETECTIVE Karen Swenson.

ASST. CORONER Is that a positive ID?

DETECTIVE She went to school with my son.

Without explanation, the Detective rises and begins walking briskly back to his truck. The Coroner calls out to him.

CORONER The Class of '89, Detective?

But the Detective does not answer or respond. He keeps moving toward his truck, even though the Coroner calls out again.

CORONER It's happening again, isn't it?

CLOSE ON the dead woman's face as it DISSOLVES into THE FACE OF A MALE LABORATORY CADAVER. We are in:

INT. FBI ACADEMY – QUANTICO, VA. - DAY (LEGEND APPEARS ON-SCREEN)

SPECIAL AGENT DANA SCULLY (late 20s), stands with a SMALL GROUP OF TRAINEES. Scully is instructing in the physiology of homicide. Intelligent, self-assured, with an unblushing sense of her own femininity, Scully commands attention.

SCULLY ... electrocution affects electrolytic conduction, disrupting the heartbeat and most of the autonomic systems. Death actually occurs from tissue damage, necrosis, in the heart itself, particularly in the sinus and a.v. nodes. A cattle prod, incidentally, can kill. In a field investigation you would be looking for a reddish parchmented abrasion…

Agent Scully's attention is directed o.s. when ANOTHER AGENT enters the room, hands Agent Scully a note.

INSERT NOTE - Your attendance is required in Washington at 1600 hrs. sharp. Scully turns her wrist, looks at her digital watch. It reads 1:03.

EXT. FBI HEADQUARTERS. - WASHINGTON D.C. - DAY - LATER (LEGEND APPEARS)

To establish.

INT. FBI HEADQUARTERS - MAIN CONCOURSE - DAY

Agent Scully flashes her badge to A RECEPTIONIST.

SCULLY Agent Dana Scully.

RECEPTIONIST See Section Chief Blevins. Third floor, violent crime division.

INT. HOMICIDE DIVISION/BULLPEN AREA – DAY – CONTINUOUS

Scully moves through the busy floor of the violent crime division. A largely male bastion, men are working at desks arranged in tidy rows. It could be mistaken for an accounting firm, were it not for the photos of victims, suspects and murder minutiae on the walls. Male heads pop up as Scully passes through.

INT. HALLWAY – DAY CONTINUOUS

Scully arrives at a door marked: SECTION CHIEF SCOTT BLEVINS. She opens the door, entering into:

INT. SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS' OFFICE – DAY – CONTINUOUS

TWO MEN (50s) sit at an oval table. ANOTHER MAN (early 40s with a furtive manner) stands away, nervously smoking a cigarette. A strict, professional atmosphere pervades the room. The Two Men leaf through folders, glancing up as Scully enters.

CHIEF BLEVINS Agent Scully… thank you for coming on such short notice. Please…

He motions her to take a chair across the table.

CHIEF BLEVINS We see you've been with us just over two years.

SCULLY Yes, sir.

CHIEF BLEVINS You went o medical school but chose not to practice. How did you come to work for the FBI?

SCULLY Well, sir ... I was recruited out of med school. My parents still think it was an act of rebellion, but I saw the FBI as a place I could distinguish myself.

Agent Scully smiles tightly, shifts uneasily in her seat. The men leaf silently through their folders.

3RD MAN Are you familiar with an agent named Fox Mulder?

SCULLY Yes I am.

3RD MAN In what way?

SCULLY By reputation. He's an Oxford educated psychologist who wrote a monograph on serial killers and the occult that helped catch Monte Proppes in 1988. Generally thought of as the best analyst in the Violent Crimes Section. He had a nickname at the academy: "Spooky" Mulder.

Scully catches The Cigarette Smoking Man's look – standing apart, studying Scully with critical scrutiny.

CHIEF BLEVINS What I'll also tell you is Agent Mulder has developed a consuming devotion to an un-assigned project outside the Bureau mainstream. Are you familiar with the so-called X-files?

SCULLY I believe they have to do with unexplained phenomena.

CHIEF BLEVINS More or less. The reason you're here, Agent Scully, is we want you to assist Mulder on these X-files. You'll write field reports of your activities along with your observations on the validity of the work, making your reports exclusively to this group.

Scully clears her throat, reading through to the subtext here.

SCULLY Am I to understand you want me to debunk the X-files project, sir?

A tensile tension. The Cigarette Man stubs out his smoke, pins Scully with a pinched, discomforting look.

CHIEF BLEVINS Agent Scully, we trust you'll make the proper scientific analysis.

A simple directive or a veiled threat? Scully lets it drop, but we sense her uneasiness with the role in which she's been cast.

CHIEF BLEVINS You'll want to contact Agent Mulder shortly. We look forward to seeing your reports.

Scully rises, meeting eyes with The Cigarette Smoking Man. Then Scully turns, exits.

INT. BASEMENT HALLWAY – FBI HEADQUARTERS – MINUTES LATER

Elevator doors open. Scully exits, moving to:

INT. AGENT FOX MULDER'S OFFICE - DAY - CONTINUOUS

FOX MULDER sits at a desk computer. The room is books from floor to ceiling. And clutter, stacks of papers, reports. Also, UFO photos, blurry and dubious. A wall poster reads: I WANT TO BELIEVE. With his boyish good looks, Mulder doesn't look FBI; more like an MTV VJ. He does not turn around when Scully enters.

MULDER Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted.

SCULLY Agent Mulder? (he swivels around) Hi. I'm Dana Scully. I've been assigned to work with you.

MULDER Well, isn't it nice to be suddenly so highly regarded. (pleasantly suspicious) So… who did you tick off to get stuck with this detail, Scully?

Mulder smiles mischievously, telling us and Scully he knows full well why she's here. He rises, moves past her to a stack of reports piled on the floor, begins to rummage through them. Scully eyes move to Mulder's computer, focusing on the flowing text.

ECU INSERT – the words: FORCE ABDUCTION LIGHT are seen prominently, stacked in the glowing text on screen.

SCULLY Actually, I've heard a lot about you. I'm looking forward to working with you.

MULDER (while rummaging) Really? I was under the impression you were being sent to spy on me.

SCULLY If you have any doubt about my credentials or qualifications –

MULDER - you're a medical doctor and you're teaching at the academy. You did your undergraduate degree in physics.

(finally pulling a report from the stack) Einstein's Twin Paradox. A New Interpretation. Dana Scully's senior thesis. Now there's a credential: rewriting Einstein.

SCULLY (veiled surprise) Did you bother to read it?

MULDER Yes. I liked it. It's just in most of my work – the laws of physics rarely seem to apply.

Mulder moves past her, grinning impudently. He flips off the lights. Projected on the wall: a picture of the Young Woman lying in the forest from the opening sequence.

MULDER Maybe you can give me a medical opinion, though. Oregon female. Age twenty-one. No explainable cause of death. Nothing in the autopsy. Zip. (new slide appears – CU of two marks) Two distinct marks, however, are found on her lower back. Can you ID these marks… Dr. Scully?

Scully moves up close to the projected slide, studies it.

SCULLY Needle punctures, maybe. An animal bite. Electrocution…

Mulder flashes another slide up without comment. This slide shows a diagram of a chemical compound.

MULDER How's your chemistry? This is the substance found in the surrounding tissue.

SCULLY It's inorganic. I don't know… is it some kind of synthetic protein?

MULDER Beats me. I've never seen it either. But here it's found again in Sturgis, South Dakota.

A new slide flashes up. This one a large male biker with the telltale marks on his lower back. Then another slide, a CU of another male with the marks, lying face down.

MULDER And again in Shamrock, Texas.

SCULLY Do you have a theory?

MULDER I have plenty of theories. What has me stumped is why Bureau policy is to label these cases as unexplained phenomena and ignore them. (to the point) Do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrials?

She glances at a questionable UFO pic pinned to the nearby wall.

SCULLY I've never given it much thought.

MULDER As a scientist.

SCULLY Logically, I'd have to say no. given the distance needed to travel from the far reaches of space, the energy requirements would exceed –

MULDER – Conventional wisdom. That girl in Oregon – she's the fourth member of her graduating class to die under mysterious circumstances. When convention and science offer no answers, might we not consider the fantastic as a plausibility?

First his tests, now his condescension and impiety. Okay, you bastard, time to stake out our respective turn.

SCULLY The girl obviously dies of something. If it was natural causes, then it's plausible something was missed in the post mortem. If she was murdered, it's plausible there was a sloppy investigation. What I find fantastic is any notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there. You just have to know where to look.

Touché. A slow, gleeful smile spreads across Mulder's face.

MULDER And that's why they put the I in FBI. See you bright and early then, Scully. We leave for Oregon at eight a.m.

As we DISSOLVE TO:

A BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT, an odd, crackling noise, a disembodied voice. Which, after a moment, blinks into a med. Shot of a man in a suit adjusting his lavalier mic. CAMERA PULLS BACK TO REVEAL:

INT. DIRECTOR'S BOOTH – NIGHT

The image is on a series of video monitors. ETHAN MINETTE, handsome, clean cut, in his early thirties, hovers over TWO TECHNICIANS sitting at the console.

ETHAN Five minutes. Somebody help the Senator with his mic, please. I'm sure nobody wants to watch him having a meaningful dialogue with his tie.

A P.A. taps Ethan's shoulder to get his attention. He looks up, sees Scully standing in the doorway of the room. He smiles, moves to her and they kiss.

ETHAN What are you doing here?

SCULLY I knew you wouldn't get home till late and I wanted to see you. (she frowns to preface what else) I got an assignment, Ethan.

ETHAN (deflating) Dana. You can't do this. We've had this vacation planned for six months.

SCULLY (deep sigh) I have to go to Oregon. I don't know for how long.

ETHAN (after a moment) Can I ask what's so important to be ruining our trip? (anticipating) National security is not an acceptable answer.

Scully smiles at his attempt to be funny and understanding.

SCULLY You know I can't talk about it –

ETHAN You working with anybody…?

The obligatory, though playful, jealous-guy tack. Scully cares enough to allay any fears with a reassuring look, touch.

SCULLY No. I'm working with someone. But believe me, he's nobody you need to worry about. His name is Fox Mulder.

ETHAN Spooky Mulder?

SCULLY You know him?

ETHAN He's the guy who supposedly got an Iowa Congressman to sponsor some kind of UFO project. We tried to cover it but nobody would talk to us.

SCULLY What do you mean?

ETHAN I think it was an embarrassment to the FBI. It was definitely a big joke around town last year. (gives her a look) Oregon, huh? Maybe I can get a news crew together and tag along –

SCULLY (knows he's kidding) I'm sorry, Ethan. You know how much I was looking forward to going away. we'll take a weekend as soon as I get back? Can we do that?

Somebody calls: "Two minutes, Ethan." Ethan and Scully look at each other for a moment. Modern romance. He kisses her forehead.

ETHAN Sure. Just call me and just tell me you arrived safely. Okay?

SCULLY I will.

He smiles reassuringly, then heads to work. Scully stands for a moment, wanting more than anything to be going on that vacation.

INT. 747 – NEXT DAY

Agent Mulder lies asleep on his back, stretched across four bulkhead seats. In his stocking feet, with a Walkman on. Scully sits in the aisle seat going over a file folder of material.

INSERT FILE FOLDER – Including autopsy reports and several newspaper clippings. With yearbook photos, accompanying headlines like: "FORMER HONOR STUDENT'S BODY FOUND IN STATE PARK" . "4TH TRAGIC FATALITY BEFALLS CLASS OF '89."

Scully looks up when the seatbelt signs blink on.

CAPTAIN'S VOICE (P.A.) I'd like to ask all passengers to fasten their seatbelts as we make our descent into –

But he is cut off mid-sentence. The plane is JOLTED. Overhead storage lockers fall open. Then all the cabin lights blink off. The engines whine, cut and die. A complete power loss.

There is a collective skipped heartbeat for all passengers, followed by shouts, screams and the sounds of panic.

Scully grips the armrests, trying to steer the plane with them. Until the engines start again, miraculously. The cabin lights pop back on. Engines full thrust, as the plane starts to climb again.

The in-flight movie has started of its own accord, running in fast reverse. Flight attendants scurry about, attending to passengers. Scully is till gripping the armrests with a death lock when she looks over at Special Agent Mulder. He is lying calmly in the same position. Smiling at her.

MULDER This must be the place.

INT. RENTAL CAR – DAY – LATER

Mulder drives; on an interstate highway, passing through woodlands. He tries to find a good station on the radio. Then he sits back with a bag of sunflower seeds. Scully watches him, the files from the plane in her lap.

SCULLY You didn't mention yesterday that this case has already been investigated.

MULDER The FBI looked into the first three deaths after local authorities failed to turn up any evidence. Our guys came out and spent a week. But without explanation, they were called in and the case was reclassified. Buried in the X-files until I dug it up last week.

Mulder drops his seed shells in the ashtray, fiddles again with the radio; a remarkable intensity about him, even in repose.

SCULLY And you saw something they didn't (off Mulder's look) The autopsy reports on the first three victims showed no unidentified marks or tissue samples. But those reports were signed by a different medical examiner than the latest victim.

MULDER (smiles pleasantly) Pretty good, Scully.

SCULLY Better than you expected or just better than you hoped?

MULDER I'll let you know when we get past the easy stuff.

Scully studies his blank, inscrutable profile. Mulder's the kind of man who gives one the feeling that he's always controlling the game, his mind working on larger equations.

SCULLY Is the medical examiner a suspect?

MULDER Won't know until we do a little gravedigging. I've arranged to exhume one of the other victims' bodies to see if we can get a tissue sample that matches the girl's. You're not squeamish about these things are you?

SCULLY (restrained) I don't know. I've never had the pleasure.

MULDER No big deal, really. Two or three years underground we all start looking pretty much the same. Sort of that lean and hungry look.

Mulder smiles again. Scully doesn't pay him the courtesy of returning the gesture. Then Mulder reacts to the radio stations suddenly changing rapidly like someone is spinning the dial. Followed by A LOW, LOUD RADIO HUM. Mulder sits bolt upright, looking every which way out the windows.

EXT. INTERSTATE HIGHWAY – DAY – CONTINUOUS

The rental car comes to an ABRUPT STOP. The trunk pops open. Mulder jumps out, comes around to the trunk, rummages for something. A moment later Scully exits, sees:

Agent Mulder has produced a can of ORANGE SPRAY PAINT from the trunk. He walks five yards from the car, back down the highway, looks around, then PAINTS A LARGE ORANGE X on the asphalt.

Mulder walks back to the car, throws the pain can back in the trunk, closes it. Then goes back around to his side of the car.

SCULLY What the hell was that about?

MULDER (cheerfully) Oh. Y'know. Probably nothing.

Mulder gets in the car, leaving Scully shaking her head. Is he playing games with her… or just one incredibly weird dude?

EXT. BELLEFLEUR CITY LIMITS – DAY – LATER

The rental car passes a sign welcoming drivers to Bellefleur – Gateway to Fun & Recreation.

EXT. BELLEFLEUR MAIN STREET – DAY – CONTINUOUS

A woodsy resort town with motel, bait shop and restaurant signs fighting to grab your eye. Kids ride their bicycles, carrying fishing poles. A place we'd all like to visit.

EXT. BELLEFLEUR MOTEL – DAY – SHORT TIME LATER

As the Agents' rental car pulls in. Mulder exits the car, stretching happily as Scully exits her side.

MULDER Almost feels like vacation, huh Scully?

He trots off to the lobby. Scully watches him, thinking about the vacation she could have been on.

EXT. BELLEFLEUR HILLSIDE CEMETERY – DAY – LATER

A backhoe sits on a grassy knoll amid green lawn and gravestones as the Agents' rental car pulls up on the service road.

The Coroner and his Assts., stand at the base of the knoll. A GROUP OF LABORERS, CEMETERY WORKERS, UNIFORMED COPS mill about. The Coroner and his men start toward the Agents' car as they exit.

CORONER Mr. Mulder? John Truitt, County Coroner's office.

MULDER Yeah. Hi. This is Special Agent Dana Scully. How soon can we get started?

TRUITT We're ready to go.

Truitt whistles up to A LABORER leaning against the backhoe.

MULDER Were you able to arrange for an examination facility –

As they climb the knoll an N.D. sedan pulls up abruptly on the access road. A THIN MAN (mid 40s) exits the car, starts toward the scene. But then he stops, turns back to address A YOUNG WOMAN who's now gotten out of the car, too. There's a tense exchange we can't quite hear. He wants her back in the car.

Mulder and Scully have turned to watch this little silent movie, continuing to watch as the girl finally gets back in the car and the Thin Man continues toward them.

THIN MAN Excuse me!

Moving hurriedly to them, his jaw clenched.

THIN MAN Who do you people think you are?! You come out here and just do whatever you damn well please, don't you?!

MULDER I'm sorry. You are?

DR. NEMMAN Dr. Jay Nemman. The County Medical Examiner.

MULDER Agent Mulder, FBI. This is Agent Scully. With all due respect, we're investigating a possible homicide here, sir. We don't mean to step on any … toes.

Mulder looks down to a nearby grave for effect. This is his quirky M.O.: regarding every situation with a certain droll amusement.

DR. NEMMAN We've grieved for these kids. Their families and friends. My daughter… she's beside herself right now.

Mulder looks at Scully. The man has something of a point.

MULDER This comes as a bit of a surprise. You must have been informed of our intentions –

DR. NEMMAN I've been away with my family.

MULDER Oh. Well, that answers a question we had: why you hadn't done the recent autopsy on Karen Swenson. You're aware of the tissue sample taken from the girl's body?

Dr. Nemman is now the one taken by surprise. His face screws up.

DR. NEMMAN What's the insinuation? You think I missed something in those other kids' exams?

The man, he doth protest too much. Mulder grins curiously.

SCULLY No one's insinuating anything, sir.

Mulder turns, starts up the knoll. But Dr. Nemman's button has been pushed. He dogs Mulder.

DR. NEMMAN Hey! I'm talking to you. You come here making accusations – you'd better be able to back them up –

Dr. Nemman grabs Mulder by the shoulder. Mulder turns, startled by the physical contact, but is more startled by:

YOUNG WOMAN'S VOICE Daddy, please! Let's just go home!

She is standing just outside the open passenger door. We see her better now: her tousled hair, dark hooded eyes.

YOUNG WOMAN Let's go home. Please

Nemman pulls away from Scully, the Coroner, his Assts. Glaring at the Agents as he backpedals form the group, including the Cemetery Workers, the Uniformed Cops that have gathered close now. Then he turns, stalks off toward his waiting daughter.

Mulder and Scully trade perplexed looks.

MULDER Guy needed a longer vacation.

ANGLE ON ADJACENT CEMETERY ROAD

As Dr. Nemman's car pulls away, CAMERA FINDS a familiar 4WD truck is parked on an adjacent road. It belongs to the Detective from the opening sequence, who sits behind the wheel, watching these proceedings from a safe, anonymous distance.

NEW ANGLE ON GRAVESITE – SHORT TIME LATER

The gathered group of workers, cops, coroners look on as the backhoe dips its bucket down into the dark rectangle of earth. Scully and Mulder stand off together, opposite them. Mulder is eating more sunflower seeds.

SCULLY (reading from files) Ray Soames was the third victim. After graduating high school he spent time in a state mental hospital, treated for post-adolescent schizophrenia.

MULDER Soames actually confessed to the first two murders. He pleaded to be locked up, but couldn't produce any evidence that he did the crimes. Did you read the cause of death?

SCULLY Exposure. His body was found in the woods after escaping the hospital.

MULDER Missing for only seven hours. In July. How does a twenty year old boy die from exposure on a warm summer night in Oregon?

SHOT – The teeth of the bucket scrape the top of the coffin liner.

The Operator gets down off the machine, signals to the Coroner.

NEW ANGLE ON GRAVESITE – MINUTES LATER

As the rootbound coffin is being hoisted from the ground with a special apparatus. Mulder and Scully look on as it rises up out of the grave – and the backhoe's arm is maneuvered into position to transport it away from the site.

Then suddenly a strap on the hoist breaks. The coffin bounces off the backhoe arm and begins to roll downhill, catching on a large granite headstone.

Scully, Mulder and the Coroners hustle over to the upended coffin. In its tumble, the lid has been lifted partly ajar. Mulder starts to open it further but the Coroner protests.

CORONER This isn't official procedure.

Agent Mulder shoots him a look. No shit, Sherlock.

Scully stands behind Mulder as he pulls the lid open. The shock and horror at what she sees registers on her face. Scully actually has to hold her nose and step away from the coffin to catch her breath.

Mulder, however, looks… one might say rapturous, though he too has to hold his nose. the Coroner and his Assistants appear now, peering down with confused revulsion at:

ANGLE TO INCLUDE COFFIN

Where a shriveled, child-sized humanoid figure lies. It has a strange football-shaped head and mottled leathery skin. It actually may not be human at all.

MULDER It's probably a safe bet Ray Soames never made the Varsity Basketball Team. (to the Coroner) Seal it back up. Nobody sees or touches this. Nobody.

Scully stands back away from the site now, catching her breath. Mulder steps back as the Coroner's men move to seal the coffin.

Then Mulder and Scully meet eyes – a shared acknowledgment that in spite of their respective faiths or beliefs, whatever they've just dug up defies immediate explanation.

END ACT ONE

ACT TWO

INT. AUTOPSY BAY – NIGHT

Agent Mulder is animated, moving excitedly around the lab table where the strange corpse lies, firing off Polaroids while Scully conducts the autopsy; taking measurements, entering her findings into a microphone suspended above the table. Both wear small white smears of odor-masking ointment below each nostril.

MULDER This is amazing… Scully, you know what this could be? It's almost too big to even comprehend…

Scully, while trying to maintain a decorous professionalism is fighting a certain visceral reaction to the strange corpse.

SCULLY Subject is 156 centimeters in length, weighting 52 pounds in extremis. Corpse is in advanced stages of decay and desiccation. Distinguishing features include large ocular cavities, oblate cranium. Indicate subject is not human. Can I ask you to point that flash away from me, please.

MULDER (baiting her) If it's not human, what is it?

SCULLY It's mammalian. My guess is it's a chimpanzee or something from the ape family. Possibly an orangutan.

MULDER C'mon. Buried in the city cemetery? In Ray Soames' grave? Try telling that to the good townsfolk. Or the Soames family.

Scully pins Mulder with a long-suffering look.

MULDER I want tissue samples and X-rays. I'd like blood typing, toxicology and a full genetic workup.

SCULLY You're serious?

MULDER What we can't do here we'll order to go.

SCULLY You don't honestly believe this is some kind of extraterrestrial? This is somebody's sick joke.

MULDER We can do those X-rays here, can't we? Is there any reason we can't do them now?

SCULLY We're wasting time here, Mulder. Whoever killed that girl, and maybe Ray Soames, wherever he's buried, is still running around loose. And they'll probably kill again.

MULDER You're right. It's what, almost eleven. Let's strap on our six guns and go out stalking someone the FBI or anybody else hasn't caught for three years. Or we can take a few hours to conduct a proper "scientific" medical exam that might help us determine who or what this thing really is. (reasonably) Look, I'm not crazy, Scully. I have the same doubts you have.

Scully looks up at the clock, wearily.

DISSOLVE TO a small digital alarm clock. It reads 5:07 AM. WIDEN to include Scully looking at a set of X-rays. We are;

INT: SCULLY'S MOTEL ROOM – EARLY MORNING – HOURS LATER

The X-rays are paperclipped to her bedside lampshade. Scully is dressed in sweats and an FBI t-shirt, wearing reading glasses; her .38 automatic service pistol is in its holster on the bed lying atop her clothes. She is listening to her own tape recorded voice, transcribing the information into her portable laptop.

SCULLY'S RECORDED VOICE …X-ray analysis confirms homologous but possibly mutated mammalian physiology… however, does not account for small, unidentified object found in subject's nasal cavity… a gray metallic implant, four millimeters in length…

As tape plays, CAMERA PUSHES from Scully to the X-rays on the lampshade. There it is in the negative: A SLENDER OBJECT in the skull of the strange corpse.

RACK FOCUS as Scully brings the implant itself into frame, a small metal cylinder resting in a glass vial. She studies it with rapt curiosity until she reacts to A KNOCK AT THE DOOR.

ANGLE ON MOTEL DOOR

SCULLY Who is it?

MULDER'S VOICE Steven Spielberg.

Scully opens the door. Mulder stands dressed in shorts, t-shirt and backwards baseball cap. A big smile on his face.

MULDER Way too wired. Going for a jog. Wanna join me?

SCULLY Pass.

MULDER Figure out what that little thing in Ray Soames' nose is yet?

SCULLY No. But I'm not losing sleep over it.

Mulder shrugs, hands her a slip of paper.

MULDER Oh. I believe this is for you.

Mulder moves off. Scully looks at the slip of paper. It's a phone message from Ethan.

NEW ANGLE ON SCULLY – MINUTES LATER

Walking around her room, phone to her ear.

SCULLY Ethan? Sorry to wake you up.

ETHAN (FILTER) What time is it?

Scully pulls open the curtains, sees Mulder stretching his legs in preparation for his run.

SCULLY Five.

ETHAN (FILTER) What're you doing up so early? And how's whatshisname… Spooky?

SCULLY Spooky.

Scully lets the curtains drop.

ETHAN (FILTER) So, you guys find any little green men running around yet?

Scully looks at the strange X-rays pinned to her lampshade.

SCULLY No. But we found something…

ETHAN (FILTER) Hey, Dana. Can you do me a favor: call me later? I've got to get another hour in here. Okay?

SCULLY Ethan – (thinking) Okay. I'll call you later.

Scully puts the receiver down, then pulls the X-rays down from the lampshade, studies them. As determined as she may be not to ask herself, the question begs: What the hell HAVE they found? A shiver of involuntary fear does down her spine.

ECU INSERT – The glowing body of computer text. The words IMPLANT and MUTATED appear prominently, center screen. DISSOLVING into a CLEAR WHITE LIGHT that erases the screen, taking us to:

EXT. STATE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL – DAY – LATER – (LEGEND APPEARS)

Scully and Mulder walk with the abstruse DR. WILLIAM GLASS across a wide lawn, toward a large austere building.

DR. GLASS Ray Soames was a patient of mine, yes. I oversaw his treatment for just over a year. For clinical schizophrenia. Ray had an inability to grasp reality. He seemed to suffer from some kind of post traumatic stress.

MULDER Is it something you've seen before?

DR. GLASS I've treated similar cases.

SCULLY Were any of these Ray Soames' classmates?

Dr. Glass seems reluctant to make this connection.

DR. GLASS Yes.

SCULLY Karen Swenson. Did you treat her?

DR. GLASS Yes. For several years.

SCULLY Do you believe she was murdered?

DR. GLASS I don't know. I am not in the business of law enforcement.

MULDER We're trying to find a connection in these deaths. Did you ever threat any of these kids with hypnosis?

DR. GLASS (amused) No.

SCULLY Are you treating any of these kids now?

DR. GLASS Currently? (hesitantly) Yes. I've been treating Billy Miles and Peggy O'Dell. Both have been long term live-in patients.

SCULLY They're here? At this hospital?

DR. GLASS Yes. Going on four years.

SCULLY Would it be possible to talk to them?

DR. GLASS You might find it difficult. Certainly in Billy Miles' case.

INT. STATE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL – SOME TIME LATER

CLOSE ON BILLY MILES sitting up in his hospital bed. Aside from an occasional blink, he is a living, breathing vegetable. Under:

DR. GLASS Billy is experiencing what we call a waking coma. Functionally, his brain waves are flat and he is persistent vegetative.

WIDEN TO INCLUDE Scully, Mulder, Dr. Glass and AN ORDERLY who fluffs Billy's pillow.

SCULLY How did it happen?

DR. GLASS He and Peggy were involved in an automobile accident out on State Road.

Next to Billy's bed, sitting in a wheelchair, is a THIN, GHOSTLY WHITE GIRL, PEGGY O'DELL. She is reading to Billy from a book of poetry. Peggy takes this as an opportunity to regard Mulder and Scully suspiciously, fiddling with her book. Her mouth drawing up in a nervous twitch.

DR. GLASS Peggy. We have some visitors. Would you like to talk with them for a moment?

PEGGY Billy wants me to read now.

MULDER Does he like you to read to him?

PEGGY Yes. Billy needs me close.

Scully is watching this when her attention is suddenly drawn to Billy Miles. Billy's eyes and face twitch, his neck tightens and his throat jumps in a peristaltic tremor. Then it's over, as it if didn't happen. Then Scully's head whips around on:

MULDER (to Dr. Glass) Do you think it might be possible to do a cursory medical exam on Peggy?

A request that causes Peggy to become very agitated.

ORDERLY It's okay, honey. It's okay.

Peggy tries to roll her wheelchair out of the room. Struggling, grunting to escape. Then a strange thing – THE GIRL'S NOSE STARTS TO BLEED for no reason. When she crawls out of her wheelchair onto the floor, the Orderly hits a panic button.

Scully sees it, too. Her eyes meet Mulder's, but only for a moment before TWO MALE NURSES rush into the room, joining in the struggle to subdue Peggy O'Dell. And then Scully hastens from the room.

EXT. PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL – LATE AFTERNOON

Scully is back out across the lawn alone when Mulder exits the building, hurries to catch up with her.

MULDER Whatshisname… Billy said he was sorry he didn't get to say goodbye.

SCULLY (won't look at him) How did you know she was going to have the marks?

MULDER I don't know. Lucky guess.

Scully stops, turns on Mulder, half-enraged. She's had it.

SCULLY Dammit, Mulder! Cut the crap. What is going on here?! What do you know about those marks?! What are they?!

MULDER Why, so you can write it down in your report? I don't think you're ready for what I think.

SCULLY I'm here to solve this case, Mulder. I want the truth.

MULDER (calmly) The truth? I think these kids have been abducted.

SCULLY By who?

MULDER (correcting her) By what.

Scully laughs a nervous laugh, walks around in a circle. She can't believe she's even considering this as an explanation.

SCULLY You don't really believe that?

MULDER Maybe you've got a better explanation.

SCULLY I'll buy that girls is suffering some kind of pronounced psychosis. Whether it's organic or the result of those marks… I can't say. But to say she's been riding around in… flying saucers – it's crazy, Mulder. There's nothing to support it.

MULDER Nothing scientific, you mean.

SCULLY There's got to be an explanation. You've got four victims. All died in or near the woods. They found Karen Swenson in the forest in her pajamas. Ten miles from her house. How did she get there? What were those kids doing out there in the forest?

EXT. OREGON FOREST – NIGHT – LATER

The rental car's headlights wash over the yellow crime scene tape that demarcates the spot where Karen Swenson was found.

TWO FLASHLIGHTS in the darkness. Mulder and Scully are in the crime scene area. Finding nothing, they duck under the tape and move into the dark woods, in search of … they have no idea. Scully moves in one direction while Mulder stops, pulls A COMPASS from his pocket.

Then Scully's breath is stolen by a sound. Is it just a new rustling of wind in the trees? Yes, but something else: A PERCUSSIVE SOUND – METAL ON METAL somewhere off in the forest.

SCULLY Mulder?

No answer. The sound grows louder, closer. Scully pulls her .38 from its holster at her lower back, having some trouble getting it out. She begins to walk briskly, retracing her path. But mounting the small rise that forms the edge of the clearing Scully is stopped in her tracks BY A BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT. Blinding and intense. And a loud percussive rumble – metal on metal.

Scully stands paralyzed in the light as a PHANTOM FIGURE appears silhouetted near the light's provenance. Walking towards her, casting eerie ribbons of light and shadow.

SCULLY Mulder? Is that you?

Once again, Scully gets no answer and the Phantom continues toward her as we:

END ACT TWO

ACT THREE

EXT. FOREST – NIGHT – RESUME

The unidentified Phantom continues toward Scully. She draws down on it. Not until the Phantom moves into the beam of her flashlight, which illuminates its face, do we recognize THE DETECTIVE from the opening sequence. Wielding a shotgun. Scully holds her position.

SCULLY FBI. Drop your weapon.

DETECTIVE I'm with the County Sheriff's department. You're trespassing on private property here.

Scully sees the Detective's badge on his jacket.

SCULLY We're conducting an investigation.

Agent Mulder appears, drawn by the light, his gun out.

DETECTIVE Get in your car and leave now or I'll have to arrest you. Both of you. I don't care who you are.

MULDER Hold on. This is a crime scene.

DETECTIVE Did you hear what I said! You're on private property without legal permission. I'm only going to ask you once more. Get in your car and leave.

There is a tense moment, a standoff, until Mulder holsters his gun. He leads Scully into the light, past The Detective's 4WD, with his HIGH-POWER LIGHT BAR over the cabin, its CLACKETY DIESEL ENGINE. This is what Scully saw, but could it be the same light and noise from opening sequence?

Overhead, A FLASH OF LIGHTNING. A CRACK OF THUNDER sounds as the Agents find their way back to the rental car.

INT. RENTAL CAR – MOMENTS LATER

Agent Mulder at the wheel, accelerator to the floor, driving in high speed reverse out of the woods. The Detective and his 4WD truck recede into the night.

ANGLE ON MAIN ROAD as the rental car backs out onto the highway, takes off.

INT. RENTAL CAR – TRAVELING – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

MULDER What's he doing out here at night by himself?

Mulder flips the wipers on as it begins to rain. Scully holds her hand out to him. In it is a fist full of BLACK EARTH.

SCULLY Maybe it has something to do with this. What do you think it is?

Agent Mulder flips on the dome light, studies the ashes.

MULDER I don't know. A campfire?

SCULLY It was all over the ground. It think there's something going on out here. Some kind of sacrifice, maybe. What if these kids were involved in some kind of cult? And that man knows something about it?

MULDER Whatever it is, you're wearing a lot of it on you now.

Scully checks the ashy smudge marks dotting her shirt. She doesn't care. She's onto something.

SCULLY I want to come back here.

Agent Mulder offers nothing in the way of a comment. Instead he pulls the compass form his pocket, lays it on the dash where –

INSERT COMPASS – its hand rocks strangely west – then east.

EXT. MAIN HIGHWAY – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

The rental car zips by in the rain, hugging the right shoulder.

INT. RENTAL CAR – NIGHT CONTINUOUS

Scully is carefully putting the Black Earth into a baggie. She senses they are traveling too fast.

She looks at Mulder who is wiping the side window with his sleeve, squinting out into the dark, rainy night. Checking his watch. Checking the compass.

SCULLY You okay, Mulder?

MULDER Huh? Yeah… I'm just…

SCULLY What are you looking for?

As Scully says this A BRIGHT FLASH OF LIGHTNING lights up the sky. So close it lights up the interior of the car as well. A blinding flash that consumes all other images with its intensity.

EXT. MAIN HIGHWAY – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

As the rental car coasts past, all its running lights out, the engine off. It rolls to a gentle stop down the road.

INT. RENTAL CAR – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Agent Mulder is trying the key in the ignition, EXCITEDLY. Nothing happens. The car won't start. It's dead. Scully watches, confused.

SCULLY What happened?!

MULDER We lost power. Brakes, steering, everything.

He looks at his digital watch, equally, unexplainedly excited.

MULDER We lost nine minutes! Woo ha!

Mulder is out of the car like a shot, moving out on foot.

EXT. MAIN HIGHWAY – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Agent Mulder is walking down the highway like a refugee in the rain. Scully exits the car, comes after him.

SCULLY We last what?

MULDER Nine minutes!

He stops at a spot in the road, waits for Scully to catch up.

MULDER I looked at my watch just before the flash. It was 9:03. Now it just turned 9:13! And look!

Mulder points to the road where he stands. There it is – his spray painted ORANGE X. Mulder's so excited he could shout – and he does. Scully still doesn't understand what it means.

MULDER Abductees, people who've made UFO sightings – they've reported unexplained time loss!

SCULLY Come on –

MULDER (snaps his fingers) Gone. Just like that. (excitedly) Smell the air. Smell that, Scully? It smells like… sulphur.

SCULLY (totally incredulous) You're saying time disappeared? Time can't just disappear. It's a universal invariant.

Then an equally bizarre thing happens – the rental car, sitting thirty yards up the road – ITS HIGHBEAM HEADLIGHTS COME ON of their own accord. Mulder's wide smile gleams in the beams.

MULDER Not in this zip code.

Mulder starts back to the car, leaving Scully staring incredulously after him, squinting into car's headlights. As we DISSOLVE TO:

INT. SCULLY'S MOTEL ROOM – NIGHT – LATER

Scully squinting into her portable laptop computer, typing –

INSERT COMPUTER SCREEN – As type appears below a body of text: "Agent Mulder's insistence of time loss, due to 'unknown forces', cannot be validated or substantiated by this witness…"

Scully continues to type when THE LIGHTS IN THE ROOM FLICKER AND GO OUT. Darkness, save for the blue glow of her battery- powered computer screen.

SCULLY Great.

INT. SCULLY'S MOTEL BATHROOM – NIGHT – MOMENTS LATER

Lit by candlelight. Scully turns on the shower. She looks at herself – candlelit in the mirror – taking off her earrings. Then she begins to take her clothes off. Removing her blouse, then her pants. She stands in only her underwear, checking the water temperature in the shower. But when she goes to remove her panties, Agent Scully feels something on her lower back that takes her breath away.

INT. AGENT MULDER'S MOTEL ROOM – NIGHT

Mulder is sitting at his own laptop computer, typing.

ECU INSERT – The glowing text on-screen – the prominent words: TIME-LOSS FOREST ABDUCTION.

A knock at the door. Taking a candle with him, Mulder moves to answer it. There stands Scully, dressed in a bathrobe. In the flickering candlelight, she looks like she's seen a ghost.

SCULLY (flat, frightened) I want you to look at something.

Scully steps inside the room, tense and abstracted. Mulder watches her curiously as she turns form him, musters her courage and lets her bathrobe drop just below her waist.

CLOSE ON SCULLY'S BACK as Mulder runs one hand gently down to the base of her spine, holding the candle in the other. He stoops slowly, drawing his face up close just over Scully's trembling buttocks. There in the candlelight, just above her bathrobe, we see TWO RAISED RED WELTS.

Scully is breathing scared and shallow, through her nose.

SCULLY What are they…? (no answer) Mulder… what – are – they?

Mulder slowly rises back up to Scully's eye level.

MULDER Mosquito bites.

SCULLY (panic/relief) Are you sure?! Mulder…

MULDER I got about twenty of them myself out there. Look –

But he doesn't get to show her. A dam of emotion and fear breaks. Scully pulls her robe back up, turns around and grabs Mulder, hugs him, hyperventilating.

MULDER Are you okay?

SCULLY (lying) Yes.

MULDER You're shaking.

Scully parts from Mulder, pulling herself back together.

SCULLY I think I need to sit a minute.

EXT. MOTEL – NIGHT – SHORT TIME LATER

It continues to rain, storm and thunder. The power is still out, not a light in the building, save for the flow of candlelight coming from the window of Agent Mulder's room. Under:

MULDER I was twelve when it happened –

INT. MULDER'S MOTEL ROOM – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Several candles have burned low. Scully is lying in the only bed in the room. We can hear Mulder but we cannot see him.

MULDER My sister was eight. She just disappeared from her bed one night…

ANGLE ON MULDER

Lying on the floor with a blanket over him.

MULDER Just gone. Vanished. No note. No phone calls. No evidence of anything.

Scully's head appears over the edge of the bed. She brushes several stray sunflower seeds off onto the floor.

SCULLY You never found her?

MULDER It tore the family apart. No one could talk about. There were no facts to confront, nothing to offer any hope.

SCULLY What did you do?

MULDER Eventually, I went off to school in England, came back and got recruited by the Bureau. I found I had a natural aptitude for applying behavior models to criminal cases. I solved a difficult serial case and became the FBI's fair- haired boy.

EXT. MOTEL – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

The dim orange glow defines Mulder's room from the darkened motel when A DARK, SHADOWY FIGURE moves past the window, eclipsing for a moment the flickering candlelight.

RESUME MULDER, SCULLY

MULDER I was on the FBI's fast track. My success gave me freedom to pursue my own interests… that's when I came across the X-files.

SCULLY By accident?

MULDER At first it looked like a garbage dump for UFO reports, alien abduction cases; the stuff everybody laughs off as ridiculous. But I was fascinated. I read every case. Hundreds of them. I learned everything I could about the occult, about paranormal phenomena…

He sits up, looks Scully in the eye. A moment of uncharacteristic abstraction, vulnerability for Mulder. Scully senses this, reaches out and touches Mulder's arm.

SCULLY What?

MULDER There is classified government information I've been trying to access. But someone is blocking my attempts to get at it.

SCULLY Who? I don't understand.

MULDER Someone at a higher level of power. The only reason I've been allowed to continue with my work is because I've made connections in Congress.

SCULLY And they're afraid of what – that you'll leak this information?

MULDER You're part of this agenda. You know that.

SCULLY I'm not part of any agenda. You've got to trust me. I'm here just like you – to solve this.

Mulder searches her face, reading the intensity of feeling.

MULDER I'm telling you this because you need to know. Because of what you've seen. (deep breath) In my research I've been working closely with a man named Dr. Heitz Werber. He's taken me through deep regression hypnosis. I've been able to go deep into my own repressed memories to the night my sister disappeared. I can recall a bright light outside and a presence in the room. I'm paralyzed – unable to respond to my sister's calls for help.

100

Scully tenses. Mulder grabs her arm, squeezing it.

MULDER Listen to me, Scully. This thing exists. The government knows about it. I have to know what they're protecting. Nothing else matters to me. This is as close as I've ever gotten to it.

Mulder's passion and honesty burn in his penetrating stare. Scully sees that the man holding her arm is not the puckish, prankish man before, but a true believer.

Holding her breath from fright, Scully nearly hits the ceiling when THE PHONE RINGS. She has to hunt in the dark for the phone, lays her hand on the receiver but hesitates before answering.

SCULLY I'm not here.

Scully picks up the receiver, hands it directly to Mulder.

MULDER Hello… (a woman's filtered voice on the phone) Who is this? Hello..? (line goes dead) It was a woman. She said Peggy O'Dell is dead.

SCULLY The girl in the wheelchair?

MULDER She said she was just in an accident out on State Road.

EXT. STATE ROAD – NIGHT

The rental car pulls up to a scene peopled with cops. Squad car light bars decorate the night, bouncing off windblown trees. An eighteen-wheel truck is parked in the road.

ANGLE ON SCULLY AND MULDER exiting their car, moving toward the scene. Scully moves toward the accident scene while Mulder moves to a group of Patrolmen talking to THE OVERWROUGHT TRUCK DRIVER.

MULDER What happened?

TRUCK DRIVER She ran right out in front of me.

PATROLMAN (to Mulder) Who are you?

MULDER She was running? On foot?

TRUCK DRIVER Like someone's chasing her.

101

Mulder looks up sees – through the trees – the lights of the State Psychiatric Hospital in the distance. As the Coroner's car skids up to the scene.

ANGLE ON SCULLY

She's made her way to the body. It's covered by a blanket. She lifts the blanket, revealing Peggy O'Dell, her sunken eyes now rolled back in their sockets.

Scully kneels, sees Peggy wears a watch WITH A CRACKED CRYSTAL. Scully takes her wrist, looks at the watch closely.

INSERT WATCH – The watch has stopped – at 9:30.

NEW ANGLE ON SCULLY – MOMENTS LATER approaching Mulder who is in conversation with The Coroner, John Truitt. Mulder turns and regards Scully with anxious concern.

MULDER Let's go.

Mulder starts back to the car with no explanation. Scully takes a moment to react, meeting eyes with the Coroner first.

SCULLY What's the matter?

CORONER TRUITT Someone trashed the lab and autopsy bay you were working in. The body you dug up was removed.

SCULLY What? They took the corpse?

Mulder is to the car now, causing Scully to hustle to catch up and get in. Before Mulder pulls away in a great hurry to get to:

EXT. MOTEL – NIGHT – SHORT TIME LATER

Mulder can only pull the rental car so far into the driveway, because the parking lot is taken up by TWO FIRE ENGINES. The motel is on fire. Rather, Scully and Mulder's rooms are on fire.

NEW ANGLE

The Agents run to where a CROWD OF MOTEL GUESTS, dressed in pajamas and bathrobes, watch the firefighters battle the blaze.

SCULLY (shit!) There goes my computer.

MULDER Yeah. The X-rays. My Polaroids. Somebody around here doesn't like us, Scully.

Then the Agents react to someone coming toward them. A face they both recognize, now illuminated by the leaping flames.

Dr. Jay Nemmen's daughter (THERESA) is walking out of the bushes where the Shadowy Figure was last seen; in dirty pants and blouse.

102

THE DAUGHTER My name is Theresa Nemman. You've got to protect me.

EXT. DAIRY QUEEN-LIKE FOOD FRANCHISE – NIGHT – SOME TIME LATER

To establish.

INT. ALL NIGHT DINER – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Theresa Nemman wears Mulder's jacket over her soiled clothes. She sits next to Scully in a booth. Mulder sits across from them.

THERESA This is the way it happens. I don't know how I get out there. I'll just find myself out in the woods.

MULDER How long has it been happening?

THERESA Ever since the summer we graduated. It's happened to my friends, too. That's why I need you to protect me. I'm scared… I might die… like the others. Like Peggy did tonight.

She becomes emotional. Scully holds her hand to comfort her. In the b.g. TWO FAST FOOD HANDLERS are clearing up, craning their necks in curiosity at the commotions.

MULDER You were the one on the phone? You told me Peggy O'Dell had been killed?

Theresa nods yes.

MULDER How did you know where to call?

THERESA I heard my father say where you were staying. He was talking to Billy Miles' father on the phone. About Peggy being killed.

SCULLY What time was that?

THERESA Nine. Just after nine.

MULDER Theresa. I want you to just tell me very specifically what happens before you find yourself in the forest.

THERESA I don't know. I don't remember anything.

MULDER Is there a light?

THERESA I don't know!

103

Scully gives Mulder a loot protective of Theresa. He's pushing the girl too hard, but he feels in her a connection to his lost sister.

SCULLY Theresa… your father knows about it, doesn't he? About what happens?

THERESA Yes. But he said never to tell anyone. About any of it.

MULDER Why?

THERESA He wants to protect me. He thinks he can protect me from it. But I don't think he can. And he doesn't want anyone to know about the abortion.

SCULLY Whose abortion?

THERESA The summer after we graduated. We had a party out in the woods. Billy Miles got Peggy O'Dell pregnant. But there was no baby in the abortion. There was something else. My father said it's because Peggy had the marks.

MULDER Do you have the marks, Theresa?

THERESA Yes. I'm going to die, aren't I?

SCULLY No. You're not going to die.

But a quick glance from Mulder says he isn't so sure. And then suddenly Theresa's NOSE IS BLEEDING.

SCULLY Oh, God…

Scully scrambles from the booth, grabbing a napkin from a booth across the aisle. Handing it to The Girl, she turns to see:

ANGLE ON ENTRANCE

Where Dr. Jay Nemman and The Detective push through the doors, move directly to the booth, intent on Nemman's daughter.

DR. NEMMAN Let's go home, Theresa. We're taking you home, honey.

Theresa looks to Mulder, fear and dread playing on her face.

MULDER I don't think she wants to leave.

DR. NEMMAN I don't care what you think. She's a sick girl.

The Detective reaches an arm out to her.

104

DETECTIVE Your father wants to take you home. He'll get you all cleaned up.

DR. NEMMAN We'll take you where you'll be safe, Theresa. Detective Miles and I won't let anything happen to you…

Mulder hears this and goes ramrod straight where he sits.

MULDER You're Billy Miles' father?!

DETECTIVE That's right. And you stay away from that boy.

EXT. FAST FOOD FRANCHISE – NIGHT

CLOSE ON DR. NEMMAN'S DAUGHTER'S FACE, seen through the window of her father's car as it leaves the parking lot. WIDEN TO INCLUDE Scully and Mulder standing outside the diner.

MULDER You gotta love this place. Everyday's like Halloween.

SCULLY (becoming excited) They know, Mulder. They know who's responsible for the murders.

MULDER They know something.

SCULLY Dr. Nemman's been hiding medical evidence since the beginning. He lied on the autopsy reports – and now we find out about this abortion – and the Detective – who else would have reason to trash the lab and our rooms?

She looks at Mulder, the fireworks of revelation going off in her eyes as she works the facts over in her mind. Mulder appears either unconvinced or lost in thought.

MULDER Why? Why would they destroy evidence? Who are they protecting? And what could they want with that corpse?

SCULLY I don't know.

MULDER Makes you wonder what's in those other two graves.

A statement which causes their eyes to lock. Scully thinking Mulder can't be quite serious.

EXT. HILLSIDE CEMETERY – NIGHT – SHORT TIME LATER

A light rain has begun to fall as Mulder and Scully tromps through the soggy graveyard. And then they see it:

THEIR POV

Silhouetted at the top of a knoll is the backhoe. next to it are two large rectangular forms – COFFINS.

105

ANGLE ON BACKHOE as Mulder and Scully run up the sodden knoll and see that the coffins are open – and:

MULDER They're both empty.

SCULLY What is going on here?!

Mulder doesn't answer her. His mind is racing.

MULDER I think I know who did it. I think I know who killed Karen Swenson.

SCULLY Who? The Detective?

Mulder has something between horror and elation in his eyes. The look of someone who's contemplating the ridiculous.

SCULLY Who?!

MULDER The Detective's son. Billy Miles.

SCULLY The boy in the hospital? The vegetable?!

Off Scully's utter incredulity we:

END ACT THREE

ACT FOUR

EXT. CEMETERY – NIGHT – RESUME

Scully is stunned. Wonderfully, incredibly entertained by what she's heard Mulder just tell her.

SCULLY Billy Miles? You think a kid who's been in a coma for the last four years got out her and dug up these graves?

MULDER Peggy O'Dell was bound to her wheelchair – but she ran in front of that truck. The truck driver said it was like she was being chased… (off her look) I'm not making this up, Scully. It fits a profile of alien abduction –

SCULLY This fits a profile?!

MULDER Peggy O'Dell was killed sometime around nine. About the time we lost nine minutes out on the highway. I think something happened in those nine minutes. Time as we know it stopped. Something took control over it.

Scully looks at him, half grinning in her incredulity.

106

MULDER I know you don't believe it.

SCULLY Agent Mulder – I'm standing out her in the mud and rain, looking at two empty coffins, in a cemetery where we dug up someone – something – I can't explain… listening to a whacked-out kid tell me she's going to die because she has "the marks." At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if we both started howling at the moon.

MULDER I think there's a force at work here. We felt it in the plane and we experienced it out on the highway. There was a magnetic anomaly.

SCULLY A what?

MULDER I got a false compass reading. What I'm saying is… I think this force can bend time. So that Billy Miles could come here and dig up these graves; so he and Peggy O'Dell could have been down on State Road… (off her change in expression) What?

SCULLY Peggy O'Dell's watch stopped a couple minutes after nine. I made a note of it when I saw her body.

MULDER Yes! You see – that's the reason those kids are in the woods. it think the force has control over them… and they're summoned there. and the marks… they're from some kind of tests done on them. Maybe it causes a genetic mutation, which would explain the body we dug up.

SCULLY (still half-believing) And this "force," it… summoned Theresa Nemman into the woods tonight?

MULDER Yes. But it was Billy Miles who took her there. acting from some alien impulse.

Scully nods for a moment like she believes Mulder's theory. Then she starts to laugh. Giddy, stupid laughter. Which gets Mulder going. They laugh so hard they bend over and hold their knees. Scully starts to howl at the moon, a comic demonstration of how far off the deep end they've gone. Mulder howls with her. Then both laugh some more before trying to catch their breath.

MULDER C'mon. Let's go.

SCULLY Where are we going:

MULDER To find another motel and get some sleep. Then we're going to see Billy Miles.

107

Only then does the residual laughter and the giddy smile on Scully's face begin to dim.

Only then does she realize that Mulder is dead serious. As his pace quickens and Scully follows him through the headstones and gravemarkers back toward the car.

INT. STATE HOSPITAL – NEXT DAY

CLOSE ON BILLY MILES' flat, blank, brain dead expression. Under:

ORDERLY Now we could stand here till the second coming waiting for Billy to get out of this bed – it aint' gonna happen…

WIDEN TO INCLUDE Mulder and Scully standing with the Orderly at the foot of the bed.

ORDERLY He blinks and I know about it.

MULDER Did you change his bedpan last night?

ORDERLY Nobody else here's gonna do it.

MULDER You noticed nothing unusual?

The Orderly gives Mulder a look. What's this guy interested in?

MULDER What were you doing last night at nine o'clock?

ORDERLY Probably watching TV. Yeah.

MULDER Do you remember what you were watching?

ORDERLY Let's see…

While the Orderly tires to recall this, Scully moves over to Billy's bed, lifting one of Billy's hands and studying it.

ORDERLY Y'know… I don't really remember what I watched.

Scully then lifts the blanket off Billy's feet, pulls at the sheets. Looking for what it isn't quite clear.

ORDERLY Miss… what's she looking for?

Scully pulls the sheets off Billy's feet, calls to Mulder.

SCULLY Mulder. Take a look at this.

108

Agent Mulder bends down, looks at what Scully's looking at: on the bottom of his feet, under the nails is BLACK DIRT. The Agents trade looks – how did that get there? Mulder turns to the Orderly.

MULDER Who was taking care of Peggy O'Dell last night?

ORDERLY Not me. That's not my ward. I've got my own job to do. Now what's she doing?

Scully is taking a scraping from under Billy's toes. CAMERA PANS UP to Billy's face – his dumb, lifeless features – when suddenly HIS EYES NARROW AND COME INTO FOCUS ON SCULLY.

Scully scrapes a sample into a Dixie cup, rises and rejoins the others; no one noticing Billy's momentary transformation.

MULDER Thank you for your time.

ORDERLY That's okay.

Mulder and Scully exit, leaving the Orderly alone in the room with Billy. She starts to tuck the corners of the sheets back in, grumbling about having to do it.

ORDERLY She pulls out my nice corners… what WAS I watching last night?

She's working on this thought when she finishes with the sheets and leaves the room. CAMERA HOLDS ON BILLY, whose eyes once again tell us that he is not what he appears to be.

INT. STATE HOSPITAL HALLWAY – DAY – CONTINUOUS

Scully strides briskly down the corridor, something like horror in her eyes. Mulder hurries to keep up with her.

SCULLY That kid may have killed Peggy O'Dell. I don't believe this…

MULDER Scully –

SCULLY It's crazy.

Scully stops, turns, hold the vial of sooty scrapings up.

SCULLY He's been out there. In the woods.

MULDER You're sure?

SCULLY This is the same stuff I took a handful of in the forest.

MULDER Maybe we should run a lab test to –

109

SCULLY We lost the other sample in the fire. What else could it be?!

MULDER Alright. I just want you to understand what it is you're saying.

SCULLY You said it yourself!

MULDER Yeah… but you have to put it in your report.

In her panic and excitement, Scully has forgotten how it is she came to get this assignment. How this report might reflect on her as a serious investigator. She turns from Mulder now, struck by her own leap. Scully turns back, sobered.

SCULLY You're right. We should take another sample from the forest and run a comparison before we do anything.

EXT. FOREST – NIGHT

As the Agents' car pulls up to the crime scene once again. only this time their headlights wash over Detective Miles' 4WD truck parked in the road in front of them.

CLOSE ANGLE ON 4WD TRUCK as Agent Scully's flashlight beam illuminates the interior of the 4WD. There is no one inside. She turns to see Mulder coming around the rear of the vehicle.

SCULLY What do you think?

Mulder starts to answer but he's cut short by A WOMAN'S SCREAMS echoing through the forest. Mulder doesn't hesitate; he takes off into the woods at a dead run. And Scully follows.

FOLLOWING – STEADYCAM – SCULLY'S POV behind Mulder as he lights into the dense woods, trashing through low shrubs and bushes blocking his path. Quickly changing directions, so that Scully's POV is a zig zag pattern through the woods, intermittently losing sight of Mulder, but then finding him again farther up ahead of her. The woman's SCREAMS continue.

Mulder has gained a good lead ahead of Scully when – OOOMPH – Scully goes down, like she's been hit by something. Her POV is now a blurry angle on the ground that was moments ago beneath her feet.

ANGLE ON SCULLY as A PAIR OF BOOTS enter frame next to her. Her eyes – still unfocused – follow the boots up to: Detective Miles, standing over her with a shotgun.

DETECTIVE I told you to stay out of this.

Then he, too, takes off running through the forest.

BACK ON AGENT MULDER running through the forest… then stopping to get his bearings. Alert and listening for the sound of screams again that will give him direction. Then more DISTANT SCREAMS. Mulder turns, running in a NEW direction toward the sound.

110

Running through the forest underbrush. Running strong when he sees Detective Miles emerge from the forest brandishing his shotgun.

DETECTIVE MILES (O.S.) Hold it! Hold it right there!

Agent Mulder comes to a startled stop, putting his hands up not in obedience but in an expression of alarm. Two adrenaline- pumped men faced off in the forest. Mulder sucking for air.

DETECTIVE MILES You've got no business out there –

MULDER – there were screams –

DETECTIVE MILES On the ground! Now!

Mulder suddenly realizes now what the Detective is protecting. WHO he's protecting.

MULDER You know it's Billy – you've known all along –

DETECTIVE MILES I said on the ground!

Mulder slowly drops to a knee, eyes riveted on the Detective.

MULDER How long are you going to let it happen?

Then the GIRLS' SCREAMS echo through the forest again. Mulder and the Detective react but the Detective holds his aim.

MULDER He's going to kill her –

There is a beat, the slightest moment of hesitation – a glinting flash of reason and sanity in the Detective's eye. Mulder not only sees it – he projects it. And in an instant the Detective is off at a dead run through the forest. Followed momentarily by Mulder who regains his feet and gives chase.

MULDER'S POV chasing the Detective who has a short but healthy lead on him. Chasing him when A HIGH VOLTAGE HUM BEGINS, followed by THE PERCUSSIVE METAL ON METAL NOISE we remember from the opening abduction sequence. Chasing toward this noise when –

DETECTIVE MILES (FORMERLY "MULDER'S POV") rushes to the edge of a forest clearing, DRAWING HIS GUN UP WILDLY ON BILLY who is standing in only his pajama bottoms in a SWIRLING VORTEX OF LEAVES AND DEBRIS; standing over Theresa Nemman who lies semi-conscious on the ground, a purple bruise over her eye, trying to lift the girl into his arms.

DETECTIVE MILES BILLY! NO!

Billy turns to look at his father, regarding him with a dull blank zombie-like stare, continuing to heft the girl.

111

CLOSE ON DETECTIVE MILES a tortured, panicked, twisted expression as he draws down on his son and Theresa when – Mulder enters frame and knocks the Detective to the ground.

BACK ON SCULLY

Still woozy and dazed from the blow which knocked her to the ground. She's up on her feet, reacting to sound of THE SHOTGUN BLAST ripping through the woods.

RESUME BILLY (FORMERLY "FOREST CLEARING") taking Theresa into his arms as we see THE TWO RED MARKS in clear resolution on his lower back. The intensity of the whirlwind is extreme now and then – a CLEAR WHITE LIGHT begins to glow behind Billy and Theresa. A light that grows in intensity and –

ILLUMINATES MULDER AND THE DETECTIVE on the ground on the edge of the clearing, squinting into the incredibly, implausibly bright light as we –

RESUME SCULLY moving through the forest when – A BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT flashes in the distant trees. An intense blast that does not dissipate. Instead it seems to grow in intensity – INTO A WAVE OF PURE WHITE ENERGY, BLOTTING HER MOMENTARILY FROM THE SCREEN.

And then it's gone. Scully stands stunned. While:

BACK ON MULDER AND THE OTHERS

The windborne dust and debris falling slowly back over them, the settling detritus landing gently on their backs.

Theresa is on the ground now, blinking her eyes in confusion. Billy stands over her, but he is not longer threatening her in any way. Instead he stands with a confused look on his face. A look at that says, "How did I get here?" Then he turns and:

BILLY Dad?

Detective Miles is caught for a moment in his own disbelief. Then he scrambles to his feet, rushes to Billy; this hard and threatening man suddenly consumed by a rush of emotion for his son; the son he hasn't communicated with for four years.

DETECTIVE Billy… oh god.

And then Mulder sees it – THE MARKS ON BILLY'S BACK ARE GONE. A moment of confusion, then Mulder's back to his senses.

MULDER Scully.

He takes off at a dead run back into the forest.

ANGLE ON SCULLY

Moving slowly toward Mulder through the forest, still a little dazed.

MULDER Scully!

112

SCULLY Mulder? What happened?

He grabs her to steady her, but his non-response and the look on his face say that what he's just seen is beyond words.

INT. OBSERVATION ROOM – PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL – SOMETIME LATER

DR. HEITZ WERBER (O.S.) Can you hear me, Billy? If you can hear me, raise your right hand.

Billy raises his right hand. CAMERA COMES AROUND to reveal DR. WERBER sitting in a chair next to Billy. Behind him is Agent Mulder, standing in front of a mirrored window.

DR. WERBER Tell me about the light, Billy. When did you first see the light?

INT. OBSERVATION ROOM – DAY – CONTINUOUS

Scully and THE TWO MEN from the FBI who chose her for the assignment. Also in the room is The Cigarette Smoking Man who stands apart from the others.

BILLY In the forest. We were all in the forest… having a party. All my friends. We were celebrating.

DR. WERBER What were you celebrating?

BILLY Graduation. And then the light came. It took me away. To the testing place. And then… I was sent to get the others.

DR. WERBER Who sent you?

BILLY They would tell me to gather the others. So they could do the tests. They put something in my head. Here. (he touches a spot over the bridge of his nose) I would wait for their orders.

DR. WERBER Billy? Who gave the orders?

Tears well in Billy's eyes. He's struggling with the memory.

BILLY The light. They said it would be okay. No one would know. But the tests didn't work. They wanted everything destroyed. I'm afraid. I'm afraid they're coming back.

The FBI brass watches with rapt attention. Then The Cigarette Smoking Man moves to Blevins, whispers something in his ear. Blevins nods, then touches Scully's arm to summon her as the group files out.

113

Before moving to follow, Scully notices Mulder. He's looking into the two-way mirror – almost as if he can see her, sense her. His look is full of messages: concern, suspicion and vulnerability. Scully is halted by the look. Then she gathers herself and goes to the door, exiting.

INT. CONFERENCE ROOM – DAY – SHORT TIME LATER

Scully sits at the table with the two men again. The Cigarette Smoking Man is not with them. There is tension in the silence – from men who are wrestling with how to proceed.

BLEVINS What we've just witnessed… what we've read in your field reports… the scientific basis and credibility seems wholly unsupportable. You're aware of that?

SCULLY Yes, sir. My reports are personal and subjective. I don't think I've gone so far as to draw any conclusions about what I've seen.

2ND MAN Or haven't seen, as seems to be the case. This… time loss. You did or did not experience it?

SCULLY I can't substantiate it. No.

BLEVINS What exactly can you substantiate, Agent Scully? I see no evidence that justifies the legitimacy of these investigations.

SCULLY There were, of course, crimes committed.

BLEVINS But how would you prosecute a case like this? With a testimony given under hypnosis from a boy who claims he was given orders by some alien force from an implant in his nose. you have no physical evidence…

Scully takes the small glass vials containing the small metal cylinder out of her coat pocket and puts it on the table.

SCULLY This is the object that was described by Billy Miles as a communication device. I removed it from the exhumed body. I kept it in my pocket. It was the only piece of evidence not destroyed in the fire. (off their looks) I had a lab test run on it. The material could not be identified.

It hangs there. A real showstopper, that.

BLEVINS Agent Mulder – what are his thoughts?

SCULLY (pausing for effect) Agent Mulder… believes that we are not alone.

Again, it sits there, rendering further conversation moot.

114

ELDER MAN Thank you, Agent Scully. That will be all.

Scully rises and moves to leave the room. As she does, the Cigarette Smoking Man enters the office. There is a fleeting moment of eye contact, then the man moves past her. Scully registers the look, then exits. As we DISSOLVE TO:

INT. DANA SCULLY/ETHAN MINETTE APARTMENT BEDROOM – NIGHT

Ethan is fast asleep, lying next to Scully. Spoons.

ANGLE ON DANA who is anything but asleep. She lies with her eyes wide open, looking at:

INSERT DIGITAL ALARM CLOCK – it reads 11:21. Hold on clock as it changes to 11:22.

RESUME SCULLY. Staring, fixated on the passing minutes and, no doubt, what she has experienced. Her doubts. Her fears. When THE PHONE RINGS. Scully fairly leaps to answer it on the first ring.

SCULLY Hello.

MULDER (FILTER) Scully? It's me. I just made a phone call to the D.A.'s office in Raymond County, Oregon. There is no case file on Billy Miles. The paperwork we filed is gone.

Scully doesn't respond, but she doesn't hang up.

MULDER We need to talk, Scully.

SCULLY Yes. Tomorrow.

She hangs up, lies back down – more wide awake than ever.

ETHAN Anybody important?

SCULLY Just work.

But there's no doubt from the unsettled tone in her voice that it is much more than work. It will become the defining event of her life. Nothing that comes after now – religion, motherhood, anything – will not pass through the filter of this experience. And her newfound doubts about the forces of government at work in the interest of truth and justice. As we DISSOLVE TO:

INT. WAREHOUSE – SOME DAY LATER

The Cigarette Smoking Man appears at the end of a long aisle high with shelves. On the shelves are countless boxes. The CSM moves deliberately to a shelf where he finds a specific box.

CLOSE ON CSM as he opens this box and reveals the contents. In it are five other small, cylindrical implants, marked and catalogued. He places the new implant alongside them and carefully reseals the box. Then he moves back up the long aisle. As:

CAMERA WIDENS TO REVEAL: We are in an enormous warehouse, full of boxes and cartons stacked to the ceiling. The CSM exits a door on the far side of the building.

CLOSE ON DOOR as the CSM exits. CAMERA HOLDS on the back of the door as it closes behind him. On it is a floor scheme with the legend: IN CASE OF FIRE OR EMERGENCY – PENTAGON EVACUATION PROCEDURE.

115

THE END

1x01 Deep Throat - Transcript

Writer: Chris Carter Director: Daniel Sackheim Original airdate: 17 September 1993

Transcribed by: CarriKendl Edited by Libby

Near Ellens Air Base Southwest Idaho

[Several military police surround what looks to be a normal house.]

COMMANDING OFFICER: As soon as we're in position, we'll be on a count of five.

[A woman comes up to a police barrier.]

ANITA BUDAHAS: Excuse me, that's my house.

MILITARY POLICE OFFICER: Ok, let her through.

[The woman runs up to the commanding officer.]

ANITA BUDAHAS: What's going on?

COMMANDING OFFICER: Standby. Mrs. Budahas?

ANITA BUDAHAS: Yeah.

COMMANDING OFFICER: Your husband has violated basic security procedure. He's commandeered a military vehicle that's believed to be armed.

[The Lead Officer speaks into his radio.]

LEAD OFFICER: Team one moving in.

ANITA BUDAHAS: Oh God!

[The MPs cover the entrance of the house, while two others get ready to use a battering ram to break open the front door. The Lead Officer signals the officers to begin with a countdown from five, on his fingers. The door is broken open and the MPs move in, securing each room.]

VOICE: We have access..

ANITA BUDAHAS: You've got to let me talk to him.

[The MPs secure the upstairs, room by room. Finally kicking in a door, finding their target.]

LEAD OFFICER: What the hell?

[He speaks into the radio to the Commanding Officer.]

LEAD OFFICER: We got him but he's gonna need a doctor.. or something.

116

[We see a man, wearing only his underwear, sitting trembling in a corner of the room. His skin looks like it has been burned and blistered.]

[main titles]

Washington, D.C.

[An aerial shot of a road. Then the inside of a bar, a waiter is making and serving drinks. Scully is sitting at the bar, she checks her watch before continuing to work at a file. Mulder appears.]

SCULLY: Hi. I got your message.

MULDER: Sorry for the run around. Can I buy you a drink?

SCULLY: It's two o'clock in the afternoon, Agent Mulder.

MULDER: It's not stopping the rest of these people. I got something to show you.

SCULLY: Something you couldn't show me at work?

MULDER: Let's get a table.

[Mulder and Scully make their way through the crowded bar. Many people are sitting at the bar, but one particular man seems to be watching Mulder and Scully. Scully is looking through a file which includes a photo of a man, the same man seen trembling in his home at the start, but in a military uniform.]

MULDER: That's Colonel Robert Budahas. That photo was taken last year when he was a test pilot for the military, stationed at Ellens Air Base in Southwest Idaho. Four months ago, Colonel Budahas experienced a psychotic episode and barricaded himself in his home. Military police were called in. Budahas was removed and apparently hospitalized for the treatment of his condition.

SCULLY: Which was what, exactly?

MULDER: The military will not comment on the cause, nature or status. In fact, the military will not comment on Colonel Budahas at all.

SCULLY: What do you mean?

MULDER: Mrs. Budahas has neither seen nor heard from her husband in over four months. Her inquiries to the military have gone unanswered. Last month, she contacted the FBI and reported it as a kidnapping.

SCULLY: What reason would the military have to kidnap one of their own pilots?

MULDER: That's the sixty-four thousand dollar question, Scully.

[Mulder passes Scully some new information, a thick pile of papers.]

MULDER: Since 1963, six pilots have been listed as missing in action from Ellens Air Base. The military will say only that these pilots accepted the risks of flying experimental aircraft.

SCULLY: Yeah, there were rumors those pilots were shot down at high altitudes, while they were routinely penetrating Russian air space.

MULDER: There were other rumors too. I've been tracking this case since it came through the Boise regional office last month. Last week, for reasons I can't figure out, it was deprioritized. They shelved this case without an investigation, Scully.

SCULLY: So?

117

MULDER: So, you and I are going to the spud state to investigate a little kidnapping.

SCULLY: I don't get it Mulder. Does this have something to do with an X-File? I thought you only liked those, uh, paranormal type cases. Am I missing something here?

MULDER: Let's just say, this case has a distinct smell to it, a certain, paranormal bouquet. Excuse me.

[Mulder gets up and goes to the restroom.]

[Mulder walks from a urinal to the sink and washes his hands. Another man leaves the restroom. Mulder bends down and rinses his face then gets up and dries it. He sees, in the mirror, a man standing behind him, the same man that was watching him from the bar. Mulder turns to face him.]

DEEP THROAT: Leave this case alone, Agent Mulder.

MULDER: What?

DEEP THROAT: The military will not tolerate an FBI investigation.

MULDER: Who are you?

DEEP THROAT: I can be of help to you. I've had a certain interest in your work.

[There is a knock on the door, which has been bolted from the inside.]

VOICE: Sorry.

MULDER: How do you know about my work?

DEEP THROAT: Well, let's just say that I'm in a position to know quite a lot of things ... things about our government.

MULDER: Who are you? Who do you work for?

DEEP THROAT: It's unimportant, I came here to give you some valuable advice. You are exposing yourself and Agent Scully to unnecessary risk. I advise you to drop the case.

MULDER: I can't do that.

DEEP THROAT: You have much work to do Agent Mulder.

[The man unlocks the door.]

DEEP THROAT: Don't jeopardize the future of your own efforts.

[The man leaves and as Mulder rushes out after him he is obstructed by another man trying to come into the restroom. Mulder pushes past the man, and moves out into the bar. When he looks around he sees no sign of the man he was talking to. Scully notices Mulder's curious behavior and approaches.]

SCULLY: You ok, Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah, I'm fine.

FBI Headquarters

[Scully is sitting at a large microfiche film reader screen, reading through information on Ellens Air Base and its association with UFO buffs. One phrase that Scully seems to focus on reads, `...technology with stealth weaponry...'.]

118

[Mulder's apartment. Mulder is standing in his kitchen at the stove, stirring the contents of a saucepan. His phone rings and he answers it.]

MULDER: Hello.

SCULLY: Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah.

SCULLY: I checked on that file you gave me.

MULDER: Uh-huh.

SCULLY: You failed to tell me a few things.

[Mulder hears clicking noises coming from his phone, he takes the phone away from his ear.]

SCULLY: This isn't some UFO goose chase, you're leading me on, is it?

[Mulder listens into the phone again.]

SCULLY: Are you there, Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah.

[Mulder walks towards his window and looks through the slats of the blind. He sees a van parked across the road, outside his apartment.]

SCULLY: Did you hear what I said, because the Bureau has it out for us already and it would make us appear pretty stupid if my field report read like some tabloid story.

MULDER: Uh, listen, I don't want to talk about it on this line. I'll, I'll talk to you about it on the flight out, OK?

[Mulder hangs up.]

Marriette Field Southwest Idaho

[Mulder knocks on the door of the Budahas house. An aircraft flies past and Mulder and Scully both turn around to try and see it. The door opens.]

ANITA BUDAHAS: Hello?

[Mulder and Scully turn back around to face Mrs. Budahas.]

MULDER: Mrs. Budahas?

ANITA BUDAHAS: Yes.

[Mulder takes out his ID and shows it to Mrs. Budahas.]

MULDER: We're from the FBI.

ANITA BUDAHAS: Oh, yes, please, come in.

[Mulder and Scully enter the house. There are photographs of Lt. Col. Budahas hanging on the wall.]

119

ANITA BUDAHAS: I started noticing it about two years ago. Bob developed this rash under his arms. We'd been doing some renovations on the house, so we thought it was a reaction to the paint stripper. But then everything just went crazy.

SCULLY: How do you mean?

[Mulder is looking at the photos of Lt. Col. Budahas.]

ANITA BUDAHAS: Bob's whole personality, it was so unpredictable. He started doing things.

MULDER: What kinds of things?

ANITA BUDAHAS: It was kind of embarrassing at first, we were having this dinner party once, and, um, he sprinkled Tetra- Meal D all over his food.

[Scully, looks confused as she doesn't know what Tetra-Meal D is.]

ANITA BUDAHAS: That's fishfood flakes.

SCULLY: Did you ever talk to him about this?

ANITA BUDAHAS: I tried, it, it was extremely difficult, Bob would get so angry, he'd yell at the kids for no reason, and, and then, and then he would shake, like he was having a, a seizure.

MULDER: Did he ever talk about his work?

ANITA BUDAHAS: It was never discussed, even before the problems. Oh, I knew that he worked on top secret projects, word gets around, but Bob was always a patriot first. He took loyalty to his country as an oath, and, and now they treat us like strangers. I just want my husband back.

SCULLY: You know that the government is not above the law. They cannot withhold information.

ANITA BUDAHAS: And then I think, what if he's...

[Mrs. Budahas starts to cry a little.]

ANITA BUDAHAS: How would I support the family?

MULDER: You said word gets around, I'm sorry, um, have you ever heard of this happening to anyone else?

ANITA BUDAHAS: Um, yeah. Verla McLennen's husband, he went kinda crazy, but it's, it's not like he didn't get to come home.

[Verla McLennen's house. A man is using the apparatus for preparing hooks for flyfishing. He pulls a small hair from his closely shaven head, he checks the hair and uses it on his hook.]

SCULLY: How long has he been...

VERLA McLENNEN: Almost two years, the flyfishing idea was his brother Hank's. I was upset at first, but when you're the wife of a test pilot you thank God just to have him home alive.

MULDER: Mrs. McLennen, has anyone ever offered to explain what caused this?

VERLA McLENNEN: Stress, I guess. You have to understand, the military deals with things in a certain way. They've given him plenty of therapy, and treatment, and I'm thankful for that. They've taken good care of us. And you know they do volunteer for their jobs.

[Mrs. McLennen stands beside Mrs. Budahas.]

120

VERLA McLENNEN: Really Anita, bringing the FBI to my house.

[Mr. McLennen continues making his hooks.]

[Back outside Mrs. Budahas' house. Mrs. Budahas stands with her two young children. She gives a piece of paper to Scully.]

ANITA BUDAHAS: Here, I've, um, I've called all the numbers about a thousand times. Please, let me know what you find out.

SCULLY: We'll be staying at the Beach Grove Motel if you need anything, ok?

ANITA BUDAHAS: Thanks.

[Mrs. Budahas walks towards her house with her children.]

ANITA BUDAHAS: C'mon kids.

[Mulder and Scully walk away.]

MULDER: So what did you make of Uncle Fester down the block?

SCULLY: Mmm, it's called stereotypy, it's a syndrome produced by extreme stress. POWs have been known to suffer from it, they've studied it in zoo animals.

MULDER: Yeah, but these guys aren't zoo animals, they're test pilots. They're not supposed to fold under pressure, they're supposed to thrive on it.

[Mulder and Scully are standing beside their car.]

SCULLY: Ever hear of something called The Aurora Project?

[Mulder takes off his jacket and puts it in the car.]

MULDER: Yeah, that's the unacknowledged codename for some new kind of Defense Department surveillance project.

SCULLY: The Pentagon has all but admitted they've been testing a secret class of sub-orbital spy craft over the western US. Maybe these guys are flying those planes. Maybe these guys are the washouts.

MULDER: You saw the photos on the wall in there. This guy Budahas received a presidential commendation. He's never washed out of anything in his life.

[Mulder gets in the car. After a brief hesitation, Scully moves to the other side of the car.]

[In the Motel. Scully hangs up the telephone and Mulder comes in holding up his cellular phone and sits on the bed.]

MULDER: I've been on hold with the base director of communications for forty-five minutes, how about you?

SCULLY: Yeah, somebody named Colonel Kissel will meet with us, a week from Friday.

MULDER: Yeah, right.

[Mulder lifts up a telephone directory.]

MULDER: Did you say Kissel?

121

[A car is driven down a road and into a driveway. Mulder and Scully are sitting in their car opposite the house. They get out of the car and walk towards the man who just got out of the car.]

MULDER: Colonel Kissel?

COLONEL KISSEL: Yes.

MULDER: Can I talk with you? Special Agent Mulder, FBI.

COLONEL KISSEL: I've got nothing to say. Please, this is an invasion of my privacy.

MULDER: Why don't you talk to us about Colonel Budahas?

COLONEL KISSEL: Why don't you get the hell out of my yard.

[Colonel Kissel enters his house and shuts the door.]

SCULLY: Good thing we still kept that appointment.

[Mulder and Scully turn around when they hear a man greeting them and walking up the driveway towards them.]

PAUL MOSSINGER: Hi. Are you the FBI agents? I'm Paul Mossinger, I, er, work for the local paper. We live a few houses down from Verla McLennen, she said you guys are out here looking into this Budahas thing.

MULDER: We're just looking around.

[Mulder and Scully walk out of the drive, away from the man.]

MOSSINGER: Aah, gotcha, right. Lot of people around here just looking around, UFO nuts mostly, but it's not everyday we get FBI.

[Another aircraft flies overhead and they all stop to look.]

MOSSINGER: By the time you hear them, they're already gone. So this Budahas thing, are you getting anywhere?

MULDER: We're not at liberty to comment.

MOSSINGER: Well...

MULDER: Paul, right? You've lived in this area a while, you ever seen a UFO?

MOSSINGER: Never, bunch of hooey if you ask me. People see what they wanna see.

MULDER: But, if I wanted to talk to those UFO nuts that you referred to earlier, where would I go?

[In the Flying Saucer Diner. A waitress, LaDonna, pours iced tea for Mulder and Scully. Another aircraft flies overhead, the glasses on the shelves of the diner all shake.]

LADONNA: F-15 Eagle pulling about four G's. Those boys think they are such hotshots. Get a few drinks in `em, you'd think it was them up there flapping their wings.

[Mulder laughs.]

122

MULDER: Who's the photographer?

[Mulder is referring to several photos attached to the shelves, photos of UFOs.]

LADONNA: Various and sundry. I took the one on the end there.

[The photo is of a large triangular shaped craft in the air.]

MULDER: You're kidding, where?

LADONNA: Out on the back porch, taking out the garbage, and there it was, just hovering.

[LaDonna takes the photo down and shows it to Mulder.]

LADONNA: Quiet like a hummingbird. For a minute there, I thought it was gonna land in the parking lot and I was gonna have to serve 'em lunch.

[Scully takes the photo from Mulder and looks at it.]

LADONNA: I'm selling limited edition prints, twenty dollars. Down to my last five, if you're interested.

MULDER: Put it on my tab.

[Scully leans over to Mulder.]

SCULLY: Sucker.

MULDER: What would be the chances of someone like me seeing a UFO?

SCULLY: Catch you outside.

[Outside the diner, Scully is looking at a map, Mulder comes out.]

SCULLY: Wanna see something weird, Mulder? Ellens Air Base isn't even on my US GS quadrant map.

MULDER: I know. Let's go.

SCULLY: You know? Where are we going?

MULDER: We got our own map, sucker.

[Mulder gives Scully a piece of paper with a roughly drawn map on it.]

Outside Ellens Air Base 6:04 p.m.

[Mulder and Scully drive off the main road and up a hill. At the bottom of the hill is a sign saying: WARNING: THIS AREA IS A RESTRICTED MILITARY INSTALLATION TO THE WEST. At the top of the sign is a symbol indicating no cameras. Mulder stops the car further up the road beside a high fence. He gets out, goes to the boot and gets a pair of binoculars.]

SCULLY: What do you honestly hope to see?

MULDER: I don't know, maybe nothing.

SCULLY: Is this why we came out here, Mulder? To look for UFOs?

123

[Mulder is walking up a grassy embankment.]

SCULLY: Yeah, this is gonna look real good on my field report.

[It is night time and Scully is sleeping in the car. Suddenly the car starts shaking, Scully begins to rouse and is shocked awake by the sound of the rear window shattering.]

SCULLY: Aaaaaah!

[Mulder comes running down the embankment.]

MULDER: Scully, wake up. You've gotta see this.

[Mulder opens the car door and pulls Scully up the embankment.]

SCULLY: Unnh!

9:13 p.m.

[Mulder and Scully see two small lights flying through the sky in the distance.]

SCULLY: What are they?

MULDER: I don't know, just keep watching, it's unbelievable.

[The lights are dancing at high speed.]

SCULLY: That's unreal. I've never seen anything like it.

MULDER: They've been going at it like that for almost half an hour.

SCULLY: Well, it can't be aircraft. Aircraft can't maneuver like that.

MULDER: What else could they be?

SCULLY: I don't know, lasers maybe. Being shot from the ground, reflecting up off the clouds.

[The two lights fly up through the clouds and disappear. There's a crashing, fizzing sound. Scully turns to face Mulder, her expression is one of amazement.]

SCULLY: Oh my God.

[Another bright light appears in the distance.]

MULDER: Here comes another one.

SCULLY: That's not a plane, that's a helicopter.

[Mulder and Scully hear noises from the bottom of the embankment, we see a guy and a girl, Emil and Zoe, coming through the fence and past a bush.]

MULDER: Hey.

EMIL: Let's get outta here.

124

[The young couple run off, Mulder and Scully chase after them across a field. Mulder draws his gun, the guy notices it and both he and the girl stop and raise their hands.]

EMIL: Ok, don't shoot.

MULDER: Stay right there.

ZOE: We didn't do anything.

[They all look up at the helicopter as its search light gets closer to them.]

MULDER: Come on.

[They all hide under the cover of a tree.]

EMIL: Heh, heh, That was extreme.

MULDER: Let's go. You're coming with us.

EMIL: What?

5:02 a.m.

[Inside another diner, the two kids are sitting eating burgers, while Mulder and Scully are sitting on the other side of the table.]

SCULLY: So, what exactly were you guys doing in there?

EMIL: We were, erm, we're...

[Emil and Zoe laugh.]

ZOE: We kinda have this spot.

EMIL: You know, we go, we kinda kick back and listen to some tunes and, er, watch the air show.

MULDER: Were you ever chased out before?

EMIL: No, first time, right. Our friend showed us a hole in the fence about a year ago.

ZOE: Oh, one time they dropped these bombs, wooah!

EMIL: Yeah, it was kinda heavy.

[He laughs.]

EMIL: Oh, ah, there's this place, ah, called the Yellow Base, right, where they're supposed to store all this stuff. And my friend said that there's landmines all around it and junk like that.

[Outside the diner, a car pulls up and stops when the driver, Paul Mossinger, has Mulder and Scully in sight. He talks into a walkie-talkie.]

MOSSINGER: I've got a twenty, over.

WALKIE-TALKIE: Roger, Redbird, assume fall back position, we're opening the gate.

MOSSINGER: Redbird out.

[Back inside the diner, Emil is demonstrating, with a hamburger, how the lights sometimes fly.]

125

EMIL: Sometimes they come in real low, and just put on the skitters, right? It's like eeoou-ra and then they just hang there, and hover without making a sound. And you just think, you know, who turned down the volume, right?

MULDER: What do you think they are?

EMIL: Ok, everybody thinks that they're like UFOs, but I think it's some kinda star wars cyber-tech new-fangled hardware, right. They're probably rolling it out for Desert Storm II or something like that. Cruise right over Saddam's house, you know, it'll be like, what.

[He laughs. Then Mulder pulls out the photo, of the UFO, he bought at the Flying Saucer diner.]

MULDER: Do they look anything like this?

EMIL: No.

[Mulder looks disappointed.]

EMIL: They look exactly like that.

[Later, Mulder lifts Emil's moped out of the trunk of his car and puts in on the ground.]

EMIL: Thanks.

MULDER: Later, Dude!

[Emil laughs and he and Zoe walk up a driveway pushing the moped. Mulder gets back into the car and takes a tape out of his shirt pocket.]

SCULLY: What's that?

MULDER: Evidence.

[Mulder puts the tape in the stereo and the sound of heavy metal guitar music fills the car. Scully turns it off.]

MULDER: Kids today, huh.

SCULLY: You believe it all, don't you?

MULDER: Why wouldn't I?

[Scully has a great big smile across her face, almost laughing.]

SCULLY: Mulder, did you see their eyes? If I were that stoned I...

MULDER: Ho-hoo. If you were that stoned - what?

SCULLY: Mulder, you could have shown that kid a picture of a flying hamburger and he would have told you that's exactly what he saw.

MULDER: Alright, I wanna show you something.

[Mulder reaches into the back seat of the car and lifts a folder, he opens it and takes out a photo, which he gives to Scully.]

MULDER: This is a photo of a UFO that reportedly crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. Now I know you don't believe that story but just hear me out. Now, Ellens Air Base, the same base that we're at right now, the same base that for some strange

126 reason doesn't appear on your US government map, is supposedly one of the six sites where parts from the wreckage were shipped.

SCULLY: Mulder, are you suggesting that the military is flying UFOs?

MULDER: No, planes built using UFO technology.

[Scully smiles again at Mulder's total belief in UFOs, which she does not believe at all. Mulder gives Scully the photo from the diner.]

SCULLY: Mulder, c'mon. You've got two blurry photos, one of them taken almost fifty years ago, and another one you purchased today in a roadside diner. You're going out on a pretty big limb.

MULDER: Tell me there isn't a remarkable resemblance.

SCULLY: Tell me one good reason why either of these photos is authentic.

MULDER: You saw exactly what I saw in the sky tonight. What do you think they were?

SCULLY: Just because I can't explain it, doesn't mean I'm gonna believe they were UFOs.

MULDER: Unidentified Flying Objects, I think that fits the description pretty well. Tell me I'm crazy.

SCULLY: Mulder, you're crazy.

[Mulder chuckles.]

SCULLY: And it still doesn't explain to me what happened to Colonel Budahas.

[Outside the Beach Grove Motel. Scully is talking to the receptionist.]

SCULLY: Thanks.

WOMAN: You're welcome.

[Scully comes running from the reception to Mulder's room. Mulder sees her running towards his room and gets up and opens the door.]

MULDER: You didn't come to raid my mini-bar, did ya?

SCULLY: You ready for this?

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: We got a message from Mrs. Budahas. Her husband came home last night.

[Mulder and Scully drive to Mrs. Budahas' home. Mrs. Budahas opens the door.]

SCULLY: We got your message.

[Mrs. Budahas is crying.]

MULDER: Mrs. Budahas, are you ok?

127

ANITA BUDAHAS: Come inside.

SCULLY: What is it?

MULDER: What? What's wrong?

[We see a man, who looks like Lt. Col. Robert Budahas, painting a model of an airplane.]

ANITA BUDAHAS: That, is not my husband.

BUDAHAS: Honey, who are these people?

[Mulder looks at the photo of Lt. Col. Budahas, on the wall.]

ANITA BUDAHAS: That is not him. That is not my husband. They've done something to him.

BUDAHAS: What are you talking about?

MULDER: It's ok, it's ok, just relax, well, I'm Special Agent Mulder, from the FBI. We're out here investigating your disappearance, Colonel Budahas. I'm wondering if you have any explanation of your whereabouts over the past four months.

BUDAHAS: I was in the hospital.

MULDER: Here, on base?

BUDAHAS: I think so.

MULDER: Colonel Budahas, do you mind if I ask you your birthdate?

BUDAHAS: November 21st, 1948.

[Mulder looks at Mrs. Budahas for confirmation, she nods her head.]

MULDER: And the names of your kids?

BUDAHAS: Josh and Lesley, they're right there.

ANITA BUDAHAS: Yeah.

[Mulder notices the shirt Col. Budahas is wearing says 'Green Bay'.]

MULDER: Green Bay fan.

BUDAHAS: Yes sir.

MULDER: Bet you remember the Superbowl of 68, huh? Don Chandler.

BUDAHAS: Kicked four field goals, Lombardi's last game. Why do I have to answer these questions?

ANITA BUDAHAS: It's not him.

MULDER: Colonel, Colonel Budahas, you're a, a pilot, isn't that right?

BUDAHAS: Yes sir.

MULDER: Bet you've flown just about everything with two wings. I got this hotshot pilot friend who said he could do an Immelmann at a sustained eight G's. Is that possible?

128

BUDAHAS: I, I don't... I can't... Anita, I can't remember.

[Col. Budahas gets up to go to Mrs. Budahas, but she backs off, scared and crying.]

ANITA BUDAHAS: No.

[Mulder and Scully leave the house.]

SCULLY: Mulder, would you explain to me what's going on.

MULDER: I think they re-wired that man's brain. Some kind of selective memory drain.

SCULLY: The brain doesn't work like that, Mulder. You can't just go in there and erase certain files.

MULDER: Then you explain it to me.

SCULLY: There are types of amnesia th..

MULDER: This is not amnesia, I think it's something far more deliberate and insidious.

SCULLY: All I'm saying is that the science or medical technology to do what you are suggesting does not exist.

MULDER: And neither does the technology to fly the aircraft we saw last night. Listen to me Scully, they can do this. That man, he should have known the answer to the question, it just wasn't in his head anymore.

[Mulder and Scully are driving along a road.]

SCULLY: Even if they could, why would they do such a thing?

MULDER: To control information. I think that after his psychotic episode Colonel Budahas became a security risk.

SCULLY: It couldn't just be that he had a nervous breakdown with a concomitant memory lapse?

MULDER: No, I think that men like Colonel Budahas are physiologically incapable of dealing with the stress of flying the aircraft we saw, of doing those maneuvers, at those speeds. I mean we're talking about a technology that is so sensitive and advanced that it's taken almost fifty years to make it work. UFO technology, Scully.

[Scully smiles again, but this time she also gives a little laugh. Ahead two cars are approaching fast, the two cars cover both sides of the road, one slightly in front of the other.]

SCULLY: What the hell is th..

MULDER: Hold on.

[Mulder slams on the brakes. The other two cars turn and stop sideways, blocking the road in front and behind Mulder and Scully. Groups of men wearing suits and dark glasses get out of both cars. One man approaches Mulder's side of the car and knocks on the window.]

MAN: Please, step out of the car.

MULDER: You think if maybe we ignore him, he'll go away?

[The man knocks on the window again.]

MAN: Please, step out of the car.

129

MULDER: Guess not.

[Mulder gets out of the car.]

MULDER: Special Agent Mulder, FBI.

[As he reaches for his ID, another man pushes him up against the car and searches him. Scully gets out of the car.]

SCULLY: Federal Agents.

[Scully is also searched, as is the car. The glove compartment is checked and Mulder's file containing the photos from Roswell. The magazine in Mulder's gun is removed and the gun is put on top of the car. The same is done with Scully's gun. One of the men opens the trunk and gets Mulder's camera, he opens it and pulls out the film, exposing it all to the light. Scully's briefcase is emptied of its contents.]

MULDER: You wanna tell me what this is about.

[A man punches Mulder in the ribs.]

MAN: National security. Now get in your car. You'll be escorted back to your motel. You will pack and leave town immediately, or assume the consequences of intense indiscretion.

[Back at their motel, Scully is walking round her room, talking on the phone.]

SCULLY: Nothing under Idaho plate CC1356? No plate registered under that number. Thanks Gail. No, no, no, I'm sure the other one's bogus too. Bye.

[Mulder is lying on the bed.]

SCULLY: So who were those guys?

MULDER: I don't think it was those kids they were chasing away from the base last night, I think it was us. They knew we were coming before we ever arrived. And they returned Colonel Budahas as a decoy.

[He sits up.]

MULDER: There's something I didn't tell you, Scully.

SCULLY: Something else?

MULDER: I was approached by a man in D.C. who warned me to stay away from this case, he didn't give me his name, and my phone was being tapped.

SCULLY: What!

MULDER: Why would they go to all this trouble? Out of a need for security. Security of what? I think there's a huge conspiracy here Scully. They've got a UFO here, I'm sure of it. And they'll do anything to keep it a secret, including sacrificing the lives and minds of those pilots, because what if that secret got out.

SCULLY: If that were true, it would be a national scandal.

MULDER: No no, you're not thinking big enough. If it were true, it would be confirmation of the existence of extra terrestrial life.

SCULLY: Did you ever stop to think that what we saw was simply an experimental plane. Like the stealth bomber or, this Aurora Project. Doesn't the government have a right and a responsibility to protect its secrets?

130

MULDER: Yes, but at what cost? When does the human cost become too high for the building of a better machine?

SCULLY: Look, these are questions we have no business asking. Our kidnap victim is no longer outstanding. Let's get out of here Mulder, while you still have a job.

[Mulder picks up the photo from the diner and holds it in front of Scully.]

MULDER: Aren't you even curious?

[Scully takes the photo from Mulder and sits down.]

MULDER: Um, I gonna shower, I'll pack and then we'll get outta here.

[Mulder leaves the room. Scully gets up and walks towards the bathroom. From outside she hears the sound of their car starting. She runs outside.]

SCULLY: Mulder, where are you going?

[Mulder drives off. Scully is not pleased.]

[Emil and Zoe show Mulder the hole in the fence at the air base.]

EMIL: Right here.

[Mulder climbs through the hole.]

MULDER: Hey, aren't you guys coming?

EMIL: No, we're, you know, we've only gone in at night.

MULDER: Ok, this spot you told me about where you watch the air show, how far is it?

EMIL: Forty-five minutes.

MULDER: Will I be able to find it?

ZOE: Just stay on the path.

MULDER: And what about this other place you told me about, Yellow Base, where they hangar them.

EMIL: Don't, don't even, it's like ten miles, nobody's ever, nobody's ever been that far.

[Mulder starts walking.]

ZOE: Hey, don't go past the edge of the tall weeds.

EMIL: Oh man, did we tell him about the landmines and junk? HEY!

[Mulder walks to the edge of the tall weeds, he checks his watch and sits and waits.]

[Later, when it's dark, he leaves the tall weeds and walks towards Yellow Base. As he stands on the concrete ground, he notices a single light coming towards him. It is a triangular shaped aircraft, with lights at every point, which hovers above him. Several

131 lights, on the underside of the aircraft, flicker on Mulder and he has to hold his hand in front of his eyes as the light becomes a beam surrounding him. After a few seconds, the light around Mulder disappears and the aircraft flies off at a great speed.]

[Behind Mulder, two vehicles approach, Mulder turns and sees them coming and starts running along the road. One vehicle stops in front of Mulder and the other behind him, several military officers jump out of the vehicles and tackle Mulder to the ground. Mulder is then lifted onto a stretcher and strapped down and put inside one of the vehicles.]

VOICE: Go, go.

[Inside the van, Mulder is held down and he sees someone holding up a syringe and testing the contents are getting through the needle on the end.]

MULDER: Nooo.

[Mulder is injected with the substance of the syringe.]

VOICE: C'mon. Hold 'im. Oxygen.

[An oxygen mask is put over Mulder's face.]

6:30 a.m.

[Scully is talking on the phone in her room at the Beech Grove motel.]

SCULLY: Yeah, I'm, I'm trying to make a call to Washington D.C. and I can't seem to get a long distance line.

[Her phone suddenly goes dead.]

SCULLY: Hello? Hello?

[Scully puts the phone down beside her holstered gun and goes over to the motel reception office.]

SCULLY: Excuse me. Um, my phone's not working, can I use yours to make a credit card call, please?

MOTEL MANAGER: Sure thing.

[He hands her the phone and Scully starts punching in numbers, then stops.]

SCULLY: This one's not working either.

MOTEL MANAGER: Phones are pretty undependable around here. People say it's the military interference, but, they say that about everything.

SCULLY: Thanks.

[Two hangar doors open and the van Mulder is in reverses in. The van comes to a stop and Mulder is taken out, still strapped to the stretcher. Mulder is barely conscious and sees the lights above him. As he looks around him, he sees men in white coats everywhere on one side of him and some sort of triangle-shaped aircraft behind a plastic curtain on the other side.]

[Scully is walking back to her room when she notices Paul Mossinger coming out of her room, she reaches behind her for her gun, but it's still in her room.]

MOSSINGER: Hi, I was just looking for you. I knocked, but I saw the door was open.

132

SCULLY: I was in the lobby trying to make a call.

MOSSINGER: Phones down again.

SCULLY: Yeah.

WALKIE-TALKIE: Base to redbird, can you give us your position, over?

[Scully looks over at Mossinger's car as she hears the walkie-talkie. She looks back at Mossinger and smiles before running and getting into his car and locking the doors.]

WALKIE-TALKIE: Redbird do you copy?

MOSSINGER: What are you doing?

[Scully reaches for the ignition but finds no key, she looks under the sun visors but finds nothing. Mossinger taps the window with the car key.]

MOSSINGER: Excuse me.

[Scully reaches for the glove compartment.]

MOSSINGER: There's nothing in there.

[As she opens it, she finds a gun and Mossinger's ID: Airbase Security. Mossinger smashes the driver's window with a fire extinguisher and Scully drops the gun while covering herself from the glass. Mossinger reaches in for Scully but she manages to push her thumb in his eye. He then goes around to the other door but Scully gets out and holds the gun to his face.]

SCULLY: Get on the car. Hands on the car, do it.

MOSSINGER: Put the gun down, and we'll talk about it.

[Emil and Zoe come riding up on the moped. Scully pushes Mossinger to the car and holds the gun at his back.]

SCULLY: I said, hands against the car. Who are you?

MOSSINGER: You're a long way from home, Dr. Scully. Nobody wants this to come to violence now.

SCULLY: Where's Mulder?

EMIL: We took him to the base.

ZOE: We waited for him.

SCULLY: I want you to get on that walkie-talkie and find out where Mulder is.

MOSSINGER: I don't think I can do that.

SCULLY: I think you can, or I'm gonna have every newspaper in America out here, writing about your experimental aircraft.

[A light is turned on, which shines brightly. We see a doctor come into view below the light, he looks into Mulder's eye. Mulder in strapped down to a medical table now, and Mulder looks around, but without moving his head. Another oxygen mask is put over Mulder's face and the doctor puts drops into Mulder's eyes.]

133

[Paul Mossinger is driving his car, Scully is in the back holding the gun at him.]

MOSSINGER: There are other ways to go about this.

SCULLY: Yeah, I've already seen where you get with tears and a sad story.

[The car approaches the gates to Yellow Base and stops. Mossinger turns off the engine. One of the guards on the gate is listening to a walkie-talkie.]

WALKIE-TALKIE: Your package is arriving, 12.

GUARD: Roger.

SCULLY: What are we doing?

MOSSINGER: Waiting.

SCULLY: I want the car running. I said start the car!

[Mossinger starts the car.]

SCULLY: And put your hands on the wheel, where I can see them.

MOSSINGER: You do anything stupid and this situation could get big in a hurry.

SCULLY: Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that.

WALKIE-TALKIE: Intruder arriving.

GUARD: Copy.

[A jeep is approaching the gate from the inside of the base, the guards open the gate. The jeep comes to a stop as it reaches the gate. Mulder steps out and groggily walks towards the other car.]

SCULLY: I want you to keep the car running, and step out of the car.

[Both Mossinger and Scully get out of the car, Scully keeps the gun pointed at Mossinger as she moves around the car and behind him.]

SCULLY: Get in the car Mulder. Get in the car!

[Mulder walks very slowly towards the car, Mossinger walks towards the jeep. As they pass, Mossinger stops and turns to Mulder.]

MOSSINGER: I just wanna say, everything you've seen here is equal to the protection we give it. It's you who have acted inappropriately.

[Both men continue to walk towards their respective vehicle in front of them. Scully gets in the car, followed by Mulder. As soon as Mulder is in, Scully drives off, quickly.]

[Scully is driving the car back to town.]

SCULLY: You ok, Mulder?

MULDER: I think so. Scully I...

SCULLY: What?

134

MULDER: How did I get here?

[Mrs. Budahas opens the door to her house, but only enough so that she can stand in facing Mulder and Scully.]

MULDER: Hi.

ANITA BUDAHAS: Hello.

MULDER: We came by to see how your husband was doing.

ANITA BUDAHAS: Oh, he's fine, he's getting much better now.

MULDER: Do you think, maybe, we could see him.

ANITA BUDAHAS: Um, well, well he's resting now.

[Colonel Budahas calls from inside the house.]

BUDAHAS: Who is it now?

ANITA BUDAHAS: Thank you for your concern.

[She closes the door.]

MULDER: They got to her, Scully. They were here, they must have threatened her and Budahas..

SCULLY: That's enough Mulder. We don't know anything. Anything more than when we got here, and that's what I'm gonna write in my field report. Let's get outta here Mulder, as fast as we can.

FBI Headquarters Washington D.C. One Week Later

[Scully is typing up her field report, we hear the words as Scully types them.]

SCULLY: Lt Colonel Robert Budahas was returned to his home, though his own knowledge of his disappearance and whereabouts is vague and inconclusive. Special Agent Mulder's insistence that Budahas may have been a test pilot on a top secret project involving aircraft using recovered UFO technology, and may have suffered severe stress-related trauma by flying these aircraft, is also inconclusive. Though this Agent can corroborate Agent Mulder's eye-witness account of two unidentified flying objects in the northern sky over Ellens Air Base, their exact nature or design could not be determined. Barring further authorized inquiry, this case - filed DF101364 - is closed .

[Scully lifts up the photo of the UFO that Mulder bought at the diner and sits looking at it.]

[Mulder is running around a sports track, he stops and takes a rest then notices Deep Throat approaching. Mulder walks towards him, meeting him halfway across the field.]

DEEP THROAT: Your lives may be in danger.

MULDER: Why?

DEEP THROAT: Mmm, you've seen things that weren't to be seen. Care and discretion are now imperative.

135

MULDER: I saw something.

DEEP THROAT: As I said, I can provide you with information, but only so long as it's in my best interest to do so.

MULDER: What is your interest?

DEEP THROAT: The truth.

MULDER: I did see something, but it's gone, they took it from me, they erased it. You have to tell me what it was.

DEEP THROAT: A military UFO? Mr. Mulder, why are those like yourself, who believe in the existence of extra terrestrial life on this earth, not dissuaded by all the evidence to the contrary?

MULDER: Because all the evidence to the contrary is not entirely dissuasive.

DEEP THROAT: Precisely.

[Deep Throat walks away.]

MULDER: They're here, aren't they?

[Deep Throat stops and turns to face Mulder.]

DEEP THROAT: Mr. Mulder, they've been here for a long long time.

[Deep Throat continues to walk away, leaving Mulder standing by himself.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest stars:

Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat) Michael Bryan French (Paul Mossinger) Seth Green (Emil) Gabrielle Rose (Anita Budahas) Monica Parker (Ladonna)

Co-Starring:

Sheila Moore (Verla McLennen) Lalainia Lindbjerg (Zoe) Andrew Johnston (Lt. Col. Budahas)

Featuring:

Jon Cuthbert (Commanding Officer) Vince Metcalfe (Kissel) Michael Puttonen (Motel Manager) Brian Furlong (Lead Officer) Doc Harris (Mr. McLennen)

136

1x01 Deep Throat – commentary (Chris Carter)

Transcript of the DVD commentary by Chris Carter

[Transcribed by Libby Edited by X_Follower]

[Near Ellens Air Base, Southwest Idaho. Armed soldiers surround what looks like a normal house.]

Hi, I'm Chris Carter. This second episode of the X-Files - what you're seeing is actually the first day of shooting on the first episode past the pilot. Dan Sackheim is directing who produced the X-Files pilot. We came back several months later with a whole new crew, a different director of photography, John Bartley. And this was our first action scene and Dan, who has a particularly wonderful and infectious enthusiasm, I think really set the mood for probably the next five years of the show when he directed this action sequence.

[Soldiers have broken into the house and are searching for the occupant while his wife waits anxiously outside.]

I think it's interesting that in the first four episodes of the TV series, three of the episodes were about UFOs and alien abduction and if I had to go back and tell people how to produce a hit television series, I would tell them not to do that, because it seemed as if we were really producing a show that was always going to be about aliens and UFOs, but really what we were doing was ultimately setting up the mythology that would become the spine of the series, but it became much more than just a show about aliens and alien abduction, even though that was really the theme, that was the treasure, that was the hook because Mulder believed his sister had been abducted by aliens. That was the personal quest that I think best featured the relationship between Mulder and Scully, because she became personally involved in his life and it was what brought them closest together and the mythology episodes, I think, became some of the most popular through the life of the series.

[An aerial shot of a city, supposedly Washington, D.C.]

Even into the second episode of the series, we still had not come up with a credit sequence as you noticed on this episode, it was still a work-in-progress, which is also a very strange thing for a television series.

[Mulder and Scully meet in a bar, to discuss a case Mulder didn't want to show Scully at work.]

I believe this scene is shot at a Vancouver restaurant called The Meat Market, which was actually a much divier location than the production designers would have you believe. Bob Budahas was actually the name of someone I went to junior high school with, and I don't know why but that name became a kind of running joke, people didn't believe it was a real name, and I remember some of the writers would tease me about it during the course of the show.

[Mulder tells Scully about Col. Budahas whose wife hasn't seen or heard from him for over four months, and the military won't comment on the Colonel in any way.]

I think you can't underestimate Dan Sackheim's contribution to the show. The things that he brought to this first mythology episode, actually the second mythology episode - you really can think of the pilot and Deep Throat as a kind of two-part mythology episode, but the energy that Dan brought, the know-how, choice of lenses, shooting long lens here, just giving the show a look and a feel that would I think stick with it, that other directors would emulate and even though other directors added to it in so many amazing ways, it was really Dan I think who showed us what could be done. Even though we were working here with the smallest budget we ever worked with, which I think was just over a million dollars which is crazy in today's television terms, 2005 television terms. A little bit over a million dollar budget, trying to shoot the episode in 8 days, and it was a 24-hour operation for us, a scramble. We just couldn't do the work that we wanted to do and to do the show that we wanted to do with so little money and so little time, and I think that became very apparent.

[Mulder is in the bathroom, where Deep Throat has followed him.]

Early on, before I even wrote this episode, I was interested in doing a character like Jerry Hardin is playing here, the character of Deep Throat, a person who would become Mulder's inside contact. That was inspired by one of my favorite movies, All the President's Men, and I think Jerry Hardin was an easy choice. He ended up being a very good choice because he liked playing the part and we flew him up to Vancouver time and again through the first season for what really amounted to nothing more than three or four minute scenes, but he was very, very good at it. I'd seen him in a movie called The Firm, a feature film from

137 the John Grisham book, and I thought he was terrific in it and he had the bearing and the gravity and the kind of ability to play a villain without being overly arch.

[Deep Throat leaves the bathroom. Mulder follows, but can't find him in the bar.]

I think John Bartley also was so important, was such an important hire on the show. The pilot director of photography, Tom Del Ruth, had done such a wonderful job, actually was nominated for a cinematographer's award, I think he won that year for the X-Files, and couldn't do the series. So John Bartley was hired and he had done several different shows, Stephen Cannell's shows, he had worked with some of the people involved in the hiring before, JP Finn, for example, who was the unit production manager, but it was really Bob Goodwin who was the co-executive producer on the show who told me that this would be a great hire, and in fact it was. I think this is episode 2 where Bob Goodwin, who would end up directing such key mythology episodes, season openers and season enders which were always mythology episodes, Bob not only made great hires, put a great crew together, worked with that great crew during the course and run of the show in Vancouver, but also on this episode he ended up becoming the sort of B-unit director and was running night and day, making sure that we got this episode done in 8 days, which was a miracle in itself.

[Mulder and Scully go to Col. Budahas' home.]

This episode was inspired basically by the sort of UFO literature, if you will. There was a belief by the believers in UFO and UFO technology that Area 51, Nellis Air Force Base, is the repository of alien technology that was captured or recovered, scavenged at places like Roswell, New Mexico, which was the famous site of a famous UFO crash I think in 1947 or 48. Anyway, I called this air force base Ellens Air Force Base – I don't know why I didn't just go ahead and call it Nellis, but I had a high school and college girlfriend whose last name was Ellens and so this was sort of a nod to her, as are most of the characters in the show, come from high school friends, friends over the years, it became sort of an honor to become a character on the X-Files, and particularly a dead character on the X-Files.

[Mrs Budahas tells Mulder and Scully about her husband.]

This is an actress named Gabrielle Rose who is one of the best actors in Vancouver and we got to use her in this first episode. I don't think she ever appeared in the show again, which was odd because we used actors over and over and over in the course of the show. She appeared in one of my favorite movies, The Sweet Hereafter, as a very unfortunate bus driver and I thought she was terrific in that movie. The project that this was inspired by, the rumored project that the US Air Force had, it was called the Aurora Project, and in southern California I remember sitting my house and hearing sonic booms and having people talk about the Aurora Project, that there were aircraft that the air force was not telling us about, that were overflying southern California. And this was a sort of nod to that, to the rumors that there were aircraft flying the skies that were using a sort of hybrid of scavenged, salvaged UFO technology.

[Mulder and Scully visit Mrs McLennen whose husband also suffered a breakdown.]

Mark Snow came in and did the pilot score after we had had a temporary score which was how we sold the pilot but this is really Mark Snow's chance to, I think, not follow necessarily the lead of the pilot score that we put together, or I should say we had bought and then he did a take on, but this was Mark Snow's first real, I think, solo score and it also set the tone for the series. And I think his music is much more minimal here, actually there's much less music here than I think we came to use. I think we had more music cues as the show went on. We were much more careful and hesitant about making this more of a reality show, because the network was determined to wrap up each episode with a bow and to have an explanation, and the end of this episode you'll see there is actually a Scully voice-over which became a kind of theme through the first few episodes of this season and of the series because the network didn't want the audience to go away wondering, when wondering was really the secret to the show, it was about the paranormal and the supernatural and it was supposed to make you wonder. So there were certain things that we were just trying out and experimenting with and ultimately I think it took us probably through the first half of the season to finally hit our stride and figure out how best to produce this show from beginning to end.

[Mulder and Scully attempt to talk to Colonel Kissel from the base by waiting for him outside his house. He refuses to talk to them. A man, Paul Mossinger, who says he works for the local paper, walks up to them.]

This was a neighbor of mine, Michael Brian French, who - we just couldn't cast this part and even though it was a smallish part and he's a terrific actor, it was a small part that we ended up bringing an actor up from Los Angeles which was costly and rare for us, we tried to cast most every part we could out of Vancouver. So once again we were on a learning curve.

138

[Mulder won't give Mossinger any information about their investigation, but asks him where he could meet some UFO believers. Mulder and Scully go to the Flying Saucer Diner.]

There's actually a diner called the Little A'Le'Inn outside of Nellis Air Force base which this diner was inspired by. And once again I don't know why I didn't called it the Little A'Le'Inn, we were sort of making our own world when it would been, I think, a lot better in the end to stick to the facts as they were.

[Mulder talks to the bartender who sells him a photograph she says she took of a triangular craft that was hovering just over the diner. While Scully is outside, trying to find Ellens Air Force Base on her map, Mulder comes out with a sketch of the route to the base.]

Since the making of the show I've actually gone off and become a pilot myself and I have flown in and around Nellis Air Force Base and I know now it is a no-fly zone, you cannot fly over it. It is a restricted area and there are no exceptions to that rule, so I think this has added to or deepened the suspicion that the air force is doing things and experimenting with things, testing things that they are not telling the public about, which only helped a show like the X-Files which had such deep suspicions of the government, and the government's actions, motives and behavior.

[Mulder and Scully drive down by a fence enclosing the airbase. Mulder goes off to explore. Later, Scully has fallen asleep in the car when she is awoken by strange vibrations.]

We'd gone far outside of town, I think to the end of our ability to go without financial penalties to get this shot, which is a place called Boundary Bay airport and it was a great location. And we ended spending, I think, days and nights there, shooting this scene along with other scenes including a hangar scene that you'll see coming up.

[Mulder dashes to the car just as the passenger window shatters.]

I remember I had boarded the story for the episode and come up with something less than spectacular at this story point and it was James Wong who had come on with Glen Morgan onto the show who suggested I do something larger, which was break that window out.

[Scully sees what Mulder is excited about – there are two lights in the sky, moving very fast.]

What you're looking at now is I think one of the worst effects we've ever done on the X-Files and it was because it was really a factor of time and money and at that point in the early 90s that special effects were still pretty crude and hard to do. I remember sitting in an effects bay with Mat Beck, the man who was our special effects producer and supervisor, trying to make this effect look three-dimensional and better and we just couldn't do it with the time. I think we ran right up to our air date and we came up with what ultimately looked like some kind hi-tech pong game.

[Emil and Ladonna run out of the airbase, through the gap in the fence, while being chased by a single bright light.]

That's actually a helicopter flying at night, which we had to get a special permit for in Vancouver, they don't allow helicopter flight at night I was told. So getting that took special effort on the part of the crew and the producers. You'll notice Seth Green here, who has gone off to become famous for the Austin Powers movies among other things, he has a big career, and we just happened to cast him very early on in the X-Files when he was really a relative unknown.

[The four have not been detected. Mulder insists the two youngsters accompany him and Scully. They go to a diner, where Emil recounts their adventures and mentions the Yellow Base.]

The Yellow Base that's referred to here, is actually from the actual UFO mythology and literature and rumored to be a site of much goings-on with things alien at Nellis Air Force Base.

[Emil describes a spaceship. He says he thinks they are not spaceships but Star Wars type technology. Mulder shows him the photograph of the triangular spaceship, and asks if what Emil has seen looks anything like it. Emil says no, they look exactly like that. Later, Mulder and Scully talk in the car.]

This became, I think, the reason the X-Files became a hit. Scenes like this where Mulder and Scully point-counterpoint, skeptic and believer. We realized how much fun they were having together, how much she enjoyed working with him, it was more than just being ordered to debunk the X-Files, and debunk Mulder, she was charmed by Mulder and began to like to him, and began, in a way, to believe in what he was doing while maintaining her scientific distance and reserve. I really think it was a relationship show like so many popular relationship shows that came before, Moonlighting and so many others. It was the

139 repartee, it was the actors, their ability to pull it off, that they were actually - we didn't know exactly how great they were as comedic actors and their comedic timing and it shows in just little scenes like this.

[Back at the motel, Scully informs Mulder that Col. Budahas has returned home.]

I think as X-Files stories go, this is a pretty slim story. This is a lot of running around, finding very little to plot, it's actually a very slim plot, but it was all an effort to sort of set up the idea that the government has knowledge about the existence of extraterrestrials and was willing to go to great lengths to protect it from people like Mulder. And that they were going to great lengths and wasting people's lives in order to utilize and experiment with the material.

[They visit the Budahas home, where Col. Budahas appears healthy and exactly like his photographs, but Mrs Budahas says that is not her husband.]

It was also believed that if you'd worked on any of these projects, these top-secret projects, that they would actually steal your memory. There's supposed to be a site in Nevada where people are bussed into Nellis Air Force Base and it is rumored, or it's been told by people who worked in that area, that they were brainwashed, that they had memories taken from them, that there were all sorts of controls put on their movement and action, and there's no end to these rumors and what's been written about them, so really anything you could make up about UFOs was kind of within the realm of possibility, because it was all rumor, innuendo and surmise.

[Mulder talks to Col. Budahas and mentions the Immelmann maneuver, a well-known aircraft maneuver, which Col. Budahas can't remember.]

And I think this show actually became darker in terms of its cinematography as it went on. This is actually a very bright show as X-Files episodes go. I think they became smokier, they became more half-lit, that the show became more noir, if you will, in its approach and in its look as time went on. And I think that's just the nature of a television series that you learn what works and what works best, and what's scariest. And an episode like this, it's not a scare-fest, maybe needed a little bit of a brighter approach, but I think the episode that would follow it, which would be Squeeze, was a much more moody and atmospheric episode and needed to be.

[Mulder and Scully leave the Budahas home and debate Col. Budahas' memory loss. Two cars drive towards them and force their car to a halt. Men wearing dark glasses get out of the car.]

This was also a staple of UFO lore, the men with dark glasses, the men in black as it were, who flew the unmarked helicopters, who work for the unknown government agencies.

[Mulder and Scully are detained and searched, despite telling the men in black that they are FBI agents.]

The man taking Mulder's gun there actually became our full-time stunt coordinator, Tony Morelli ended up working on the show as the stunt coordinator for probably four of the five years we were in Vancouver.

[Mulder is punched by one of the men, who tells him it's about national security. Mulder and Scully are ordered back into their car and told to pack and leave town immediately or 'assume the consequences of intense indiscretion'. Later, Scully phones for a search on the number plate of one of the cars - CC1356.]

CC1356 being my initials, birthday and birth year. Every number, date, birthdate, etc., has, or usually has some kind of reference, relevance or inside meaning.

[Mulder and Scully are back at the motel. They have both changed into casual clothing.]

I think that was maybe the first and last polo shirt we ever saw on the X Files. Wardrobe problems being worked out all the time, I think once I saw that shirt I outlawed polo shirts on the show. It just wasn't flattering to Agent Mulder and not something I thought he would wear when he was off duty as it were.

[They discuss the case – whether there is a UFO there or whether it's simply an experimental plane.]

David Duchovny, looking at this scene where you see his eyes very clearly, David Duchovny actually has one pupil larger than the other as the result of a basketball injury and for the first season of the show, maybe longer, he would actually put drops in his eyes before every scene to dilate that pupil or vice versa to expand the other one so that his eyes were balanced. And then he gave up on it, he just went with the mismatch which I thought was always interesting that no-one really took note of it.

140

[Mulder leaves the motel room.]

Scully's wardrobe here, too, shows her wardrobe has been a work in progress.

[Mulder has driven away. He meets up with Emil and Ladonna who tell him how to get to the various places on the base. Later that night, he sees what looks like a spacecraft, but he is then chased and arrested.]

We're actually shooting on an airbase here, an actual airbase, that we shot day and night on and ultimately the scene where it will end, we will see a UFO here that Mulder comes into contact with, it was our first real test as a sort of crew doing very elaborate special effects on a television budget and television schedule and I think this effect was particularly good, given the restrictions we had. What you're looking at, that has been digitally added to, was a sort of disco party light rig that we ended up renting from a party supplier and kind of re-rigging and adding to. This scene, which Dan Sackheim shot so well, was very elaborate and was done, I think, just as the sun was coming up and you'll see the mismatch in sky here. John Bartley trying to rig the angles so that we were not seeing too much of the sky where the sun was rising, shooting into the western sky, trying to keep it as dark as possible, but just some of the difficulties in producing a show like the X-Files which was an action show and had lot of exterior practical locations, and learning how to do it on the go.

[Scully is trying unsuccessfully to phone Washington. She goes to the reception area to use the phone there, which also doesn't work.]

The actor you'll see here, Michael Puttonen, actually became almost like a part of the X-Files troupe, he was on so many different episodes during so many years of the show when it was in Vancouver.

[The receptionist says that phones are pretty undependable around here and that people say it's the military interference, but that they say that about everything. On the base, Mulder is brought, drugged, into a hangar.]

This show had also become important to the mythology. It was the introduction of the character Deep Throat and even though there were only four or five mythology episodes during the first season and there were 25 episodes, there was a connection between this first episode past the pilot and the last episode of the season so that the show actually seemed like it had an idea where it was going, it had a structure and a concept of what it was trying to accomplish. So I think that this is probably one of the most important episodes to the life of the series because it really set up in addition to the pilot, or along with the pilot it set up what the ultimate and larger quest for Mulder and Scully was going to be and that like in the Erlenmeyer Flask which would be the final episode of the season, that anyone is expendable and in this case it looked like even Mulder was expendable.

[Scully confronts Mossinger when she realizes he's part of whatever is going on at the air base. She then learns from Emil and Ladonna, who have just arrived, that Mulder is on the base. She forces Mossinger to drive to the base.]

Vancouver was such an important part of the success of the show early on, just for locations like this - bleak, desolate locations. It had so many different looks. You couldn't have done this show in Los Angeles, certainly not the first five seasons as effectively, because we just didn't have as many locations, as many resources to draw from.

[Scully and Mossinger wait in the car outside the base. Scully has her gun aimed at Mossinger.]

I don't think Gillian Anderson actually ever handled a gun before she worked on the X-Files and this, being the second episode, was one of her first experiences actually with gun play and there was, I believe, a good amount of training, teaching both Gillian and David how to hold a gun properly, how to make believable that they were FBI agents. I always said the show is only as scary as it was believable, that was the greater attempt here.

[A jeep draws up to the gate and Mulder gets out. He's groggy. Scully controls the exchange of Mossinger for Mulder.]

It's so important, I think, to the series and to the relationship of these two characters, is showing how far the character of Scully would go for Mulder here, even though her assignment was to debunk his work, to show that he was crazy, that she would actually risk her life for him and it was the more noble part of her character that shone through here, and the connection and respect the two had for one another, even though they didn't believe the same things.

[Mulder gets into the car and Scully drives them away. Mulder says he doesn't remember what happened. They later visit Mrs Budahas, but she doesn't want them to talk to her husband. In Scully's subsequent report, she concludes that the case, #DF101364, is closed.]

DF101364 is the birthdate of Dana Freedman, now Dana Walden, who worked on the show as a publicist and is now running the 20th Century Fox television studios.

141

[Mulder is running round a sports track.]

I think the cut-off sweatshirt was soon to disappear from Mulder's wardrobe as well.

[He sees Deep Throat walking towards him.]

This is probably the best set-up and most effective set-up for the entire mythology of the X-Files. It's just performed so beautifully by Jerry Hardin here as Deep Throat.

[Mulder tells him he did see something but it has been erased from his memory. Deep Throat: Mr. Mulder, why are those like yourself, who believe in the existence of extra terrestrial life on this earth, not dissuaded by all the evidence to the contrary? Mulder: Because all the evidence to the contrary is not entirely dissuasive. Deep Throat: Precisely. Deep Throat walks away. Mulder: They're here, aren't they? Deep Throat stops and turns to face Mulder. Deep Throat: Mr. Mulder, they've been here for a long long time.]

1x01 Deep Throat - Notes Video box set commentary by Chris Carter: The character Deep Throat, of course, came from the famous, or infamous, Watergate figure who may or not have existed. And so I felt that we needed a connection, somebody who would come from this mysterious, shadowy government, works in some layer or level of government that we have no idea exists, would come to Mulder and Scully and lead them carefully, selectively, without giving them too much, make them work for the answers but help them when they had reached a dead end or help them when they had made a wrong turn. And I thought Deep Throat was the perfect name for him. I love when we get to the end of the episode, and Mulder, who has seen so much but has learned so little, has had his memory erased, is running around the track, and he sees this figure, which we have established earlier on as Deep Throat, come walking across this field, and it's shot with long lenses and it feels very... it feels very heavy and important. And he says to Agent Mulder that the forces that he is searching for, that he is dealing with have been around for a long, long time. It is, in fact, a reason for Mulder to carry on, it sets the quest in motion if it already isn't. So I think that really put the series in play with that scene and I like it very much. From "X-Files Confidential": "The character of Deep Throat of course came from the infamous Watergate figure, who may or may not have existed," offers Chris Carter, who also cites Donald Sutherland's portrayal of "Mr. X" in Oliver Stone's JFK as inspiration. "I felt that we needed a connection: somebody who would come from this mysterious, shadowy government; somebody who works in some level of government that we have no idea exists, and he comes to Mulder and Scully and leads them carefully, selectively, without giving them too much and making them work for the answers, but helping them when they reach a dead end or helping them when they make a wrong turn." Also pleasing to Carter was the fact that Daniel Sackheim returned to direct the episode. "It was a natural and worked well," Carter enthuses. "We were of one mind as to what the show is about, so I wrote this episode that he thought was great and he did a wonderful job directing it. The episode also further served to establish the landscape we were going to be working in with The X-Files: the introduction of Deep Throat, and the idea that the government knows even more than we established in the pilot and that they will go to any length to protect that information." While the notion of the government utilizing alien technology to improve its own aircraft seems highly original, Carter demurs. "Believe me," he says with a laugh, "when you start reading the material that's out there, anything you can imagine has either been imagined or experienced by some folks." Howard Gordon views 'Deep Throat' as part two of the pilot, with Carter attempting to re-establish the themes of a government UFO conspiracy. "The Army using alien technology is what made it most interest," he opines. "The whole Roswell thing and Ellis Air Force Base are the pillars of UFO mythology, so it was an appropriate and smart first choice for Chris. And then the idea of the government doing mind control … People really responded to Mulder's putting his neck on the line, seeking the truth and then getting taken himself and having his brain subjected to the same thing these pilots were subjected to."

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Co-executive producer Robert Goodwin, who supervises physical production of the series, found 'Deep Throat' to be a particularly challenging episode. "We had to put together a new crew, and 'Deep Throat' was a break-in period where everybody came to learn the kinds of demands of quality that we were making," he explains. "They'd worked on several shows prior to ours that hadn't been as challenging or demanding. There was a certain level of quality that they had to step up to, and in all honesty, virtually all of the departments did that. But it was a learning experience. "My most vivid memory of the episode was a sequence in which Mulder is out on the tarmac at this Air Force base where this UFO hovers over him," Goodwin continues. "We had that, plus about three shots where this UFO hovers over him, and then a few more scenes where these two teenage kids show Mulder where the base is. We started shooting ten o'clock Friday morning and we finished shooting eight o'clock Saturday morning. It was amazingly difficult. We had one scene where these two kids lead Mulder to the edge of the base. Originally it was written that they would lead Mulder up to a certain point and say, 'We'll leave you here; we're not going any farther. Go through that part of the fence when it gets dark.' And we were supposed to dissolve at night. Well, as we were progressing we realized we weren't going to get it shot that afternoon and we had to turn it into a night scene. Then we had to turn it back into a day scene because we couldn't get it shot before the sun came out." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Southwest Idaho Back story: Carter added voice-over narration by Scully after the fact as a compromise to Fox Broadcasting, which wanted more closure out of the episode. Although Carter continued to fight against pat resolutions, the narration became an ongoing device. X-Files In-Jokes * 1013 - The file number for this case is #DF101364 * The article on Ellens Air Base that Scully reads from microfiche was written by a 'Chris Carter'. * 1121 - Colonel Budahas tells Mulder and Scully that his birthday is 11/21/48. * 1013 - The license Scully calls in is number CC1356. Chris Carter (CC) was born 10/13/56. The van marked "Abramowitz Plumbing" is actually sound mixer Michael Williamson's sound van. From CarterPhile: Okay, so Rupert liked the pilot. Now we need episodes. *g* It must be very odd to be a producer. You come up with this original idea, sell it to the networks, get their approval (and money!) to film a pilot, write the best script you can wring out of your soul, cast it, scout locations, and film it. Then you wait. Get on with your life. Then, hopefully, the call comes for the 13-ep commitment. (And although the call came only three days later, Chris was on vacation in France when it came. How fast can you book a return flight? *g*) So now ... do the same thing, only different. Thirteen times. Yikes. Now you have to find staff writers, directors, a "permanent" crew. (Well, permanent by Hollywood standards ... they would be filming Fire before the full-season commitment was made.) They filmed the Pilot in March. The first draft of Deep Throat is dated July 1. One can only imagine what April and May must have been like ... run-till-you-drop work which still hasn't let up, six years later! But Chris wanted to tell stories, and here was his opportunity. Deep Throat jumps right into the middle of the government cover-up of UFO technology usage. Despite the flexibility given to the writers over the past six seasons, this first episode is remarkably clear even in the hindsight of all the mytharc we've now seen. It wasn't just the use of the alien materials that bothered Deep Throat, but all the myriad layers beyond that wall of silence. Watch it again, realizing that he knew about the coming invasion, the sell-out of the human race (none of which had yet been envisioned by Chris, or so he claims... *g*) and the story makes more, not less, sense. It works. The character of Deep Throat became one of the most-loved of the series. The wise father figure who aids the myth's hero is a standard one, of course; every hero needs a mentor. (And despite his re-appearances, we've never learned much more about him. I would love to see an episode devoted to his story, now that the Syndicate has been unravelled.) We get to see a foreshadowing of a lot of things in this episode: Mulder ditching Scully to run off on his own investigation, Scully -- although not believing all this stuff -- putting herself on the line to haul Mulder's butt out of the fire, the extreme lengths to which the government will go in order to keep their secrets, that amazing final scene ... Deep Throat establishes characters and motivations that will still be in play six years later. Who says Ten Thirteen can't handle continuity? *g* Script Notes: Five drafts: July 1, 1993 (white), July 9, 1993 (blue), July 14, 1993 (pink), July 20, 1993 (green), and July 22, 1993 (yellow).

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The beginning of Act One, when Mulder and Scully meet in the bar: INT. DUNAWAY'S PUB - LATE DAY - FOUR MONTHS LATER A wood-paneled tavern, traditional but not stuffy. Or trendy. A capital watering hole for political staffers, Washington insiders of all stripes. Agent Mulder enters, spots - Agent Scully at the bar, turning to Mulder expectantly. SCULLY Hi. I got your message. MULDER Sorry for the runaround. Can I buy you a drink? SCULLY It's two in the afternoon, Agent Mulder. MULDER Yeah, but it's happy hour in Paris. (off her look) I have something to show you. Scully's eyes land on TWO FILE FOLDERS in Mulder's hand. SCULLY Something you couldn't show me at work? MULDER (Cheshire smile) Let's get a table. His manner communicates the need for privacy, away from the bartender, patrons. Scully follows, CAMERA HOLDING, FOCUSING on a MAN, fifties, sitting a few stools away. He casts a furtive, suspicious glance at the two agents. I guess Chris's watch was still on Paris time when he wrote this. *g* This scene is the first (albeit subtle) instance of Chris forgetting that they had already been partners for more than a year at this point. Their interaction just doesn't sound right from that time-frame. (Oh, to be able to go back and change that 1992 date-stamp in the Pilot!) When Scully asks why Mulder is so interested in this case, his scripted reply is: "Let's just say this case has a certain ... smell about it, Scully. A phenomenally paranormal odor." In a scene that was cut, Blevins is first introduced. (He was not identified in the Pilot script, nor does this refer to him as the same man.) It is the continuation of the brief scene where Scully checks the microfiche. (No, the script didn't call for the article to be written by C. Carter. *g*) INT. FBI LIBRARY - NIGHT - LATER Legend over: Scully, who sits alone in the darkened room, her face illuminated by the glow from a microfiche projector. She turns the knob, studying: CLOSE ON B&W NEWS ARTICLE - the headline reads: Ellens Air Base Mecca for UFO Buffs. ECU TEXT - ...report regular sightings of bizarre craft... RESUME SCULLY studying the screen. As SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE SCOTT BLEVINS appears behind her, giving Scully a start. BLEVINS Agent Scully. I didn't think I'd find you here so late. SCULLY Yes, sir, uh... Agent Mulder and I are working on a kidnapping case. She hands Blevins the case file folder. Blevins looks at the case label, a shadow of irritation crossing his face. BLEVINS What is Agent Mulder's interest in this case? SCULLY I'm not exactly sure, sir. Her eyes go to the microfiche where the real answer surely lies. Blevins' eyes go there, too. He clenches. BLEVINS What the hell is he doing? This case has been reclassified. It's been turned over to the military. (Off her nervous non-response) If this is some kind of UFO nonsense, he's wasting the FBI's time and money. I want that in your field report, Agent Scully. Is that clear? SCULLY Yes, sir. BLEVINS And I want that report on my desk as soon as it's finished. He wants to hang himself out to dry, it's fine with me.

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Blevins exits, mumbling something to himself. Scully turns back to the microfiche, takes a deep, uneasy breath. Emil and Zoe are chased by the helicopters, and by Mulder and Scully, the lead runner working simultaneously to remove something from his pants pocket - something which, as he PASSES CAMERA, he tosses away. Chris's specialty, back in his sitcom days, was adolescent-speak. Emil is a prime example: "It's usually like no big deal. We just cruise in and cruise out. Fully slotted. No problem." (Yeah, well, just remember ... we all talked like that once. *g*) Mulder and Scully return to the Budahas residence after learning that the Lieutenant Colonel has returned: INT. BUDAHAS LIVING ROOM - MORNING - CONTINUOUS Sitting in the Barca Lounger is a man, but we see only the top of his head. As Mulder and Scully and Mrs. Budahas enter. SCULLY What is it? The threesome moves around in front of the man in the chair, staring at him now. Then looking to Mrs. Budahas, who has her hand covering her mouth. Still, we don't see the man's face, nor what has Mrs. Budahas so upset. Is he maimed, disfigured, covered in the same red rash as we last saw him? MULDER What? What's wrong? MRS. BUDAHAS That's not my husband! REVERSE ANGLE sitting in the chair is a perfectly normal looking man wearing a Green Bay Packer t-shirt. A TV tray sits in front of him. On it is a model airplane he's building. He has no rash, no scars or marks. In fact, he is the same man whose PICTURE hangs on the wall just above him. ON SCULLY, MULDER trying to fathom the woman's inexplicable reaction, as we: END ACT TWO When Mulder tries to explain his theory as to why Budahas didn't simply have a nervous breakdown (but rather, that it was physiological in nature), Scully shakes her head. Ever the scientist, she refuses to accept the easy answers. The speculative truths. Emil and Zoe take Mulder back to the base and show him their secret entrance. After Mulder passes through, Emil suddenly remembers the landmines, worried that they didn't warn Mulder of them -- but he is already out of earshot. Emil hangs on the fence, a look of sudden un-Emil-like concern washing over him. The description of the UFO and Mulder's capture: EXT. ELLENS AIR BASE - NIGHT - LATER Where, under cover of darkness, Mulder is moving out across the flat mown expanse, coming shortly to another tall wall of weeds which he enters and: NEW ANGLE as Mulder exits the weeds, AND CAMERA REVEALS: ANGLE ON RUNWAY (EXT. RUNWAY -- NIGHT) demarcated by small landing lights which run the length of the tarmac. Mulder steps onto the landing strip, stands waiting for something to happen. CLOSE ON MULDER staring up into the night sky, when suddenly he whips his head around and his eyes widen in wonder. WIDE REVERSE ANGLE to include Mulder, standing in the middle of the landing strip as A BALL OF LIGHT comes low off the horizon. The Ball of Light grows bigger and brighter as it comes. It appears at first as if it is going to land. But the aircraft holds its low altitude and aspect as it draws down on Mulder; the Ball of Light coming into sharper resolution the nearer it gets. Until - It flies right over Mulder - STOPPING ON A DIME DIRECTLY ABOVE HIM. HOVERING ALMOST MOTIONLESS AND WHISPER QUIET JUST SEVERAL HUNDRED YARDS OVERHEAD. It is triangular in shape. There is nary a surface detail, the skin of the plane/craft/ship is smooth and black. It's underwing running lights playing off the landscape and Mulder's face when - Suddenly A BEAM OF LIGHT is emitted from the underside of the craft. Pinning Mulder directly in the center. CLOSE ON MULDER trapped in the intense blue glow of the beam - a re-creation of all the classic UFO encounter reports. Mulder has to shield his eyes, the light is so bright. WIDE ANGLE ON RUNWAY

145 as the beam disappears in an instant. Though the craft continues to hover for another moment before - TAKING OFF AT A PERFECT RIGHT ANGLE TO THE RUNWAY. That is, the craft appears to have unrestricted mobility, its triangular shape allowing it multidirectional flight. ON MULDER watching the aircraft move rapidly away, becoming once again a ball of light on the horizon. But this spectacular moment is interrupted by something which causes him to direct his attention o.s. MULDER'S POV racing toward him from the far end of the tarmac are VEHICLES, their flashing light bars brilliant against the dark night sky. RESUME MULDER as he begins to run - the pursuing vehicles rapidly gaining on him in the b.g. Lenny Kravitz's opening guitar riff from the song on Emil and Zoe's tape (earlier identified as "Are You Gonna Go My Way") begins to play. Mulder is now in a full-out sprint down the runway. The pursuing vehicle swiftly closing the gap. CLOSE ON MULDER as he sprints, sucking for air. As the lights from the approaching vehicles grow large and bright, until they fill the frame from behind. A loud SIREN sounds, causing Mulder to stop, look back. And then exit side of frame, running in a new direction. As we: RACK FOCUS on the vehicles in the b.g. They have stopped and SIX MEN in military fatigues have climbed out, running in pursuit of Mulder. PANNING WITH MULDER as he runs through the low scrub brush. But even as he does, the Six Men appear in the f.g. and b.g. Running apace and effectively boxing him in. NEW ANGLE ON MULDER running to a stop. As the Six Men quickly encircle him and then move in to restrain him bodily. Though Mulder may have stopped running, he is not going to go gently into captivity. He resists by thrashing wildly, making a short and momentary break from his captors. But, overpowered and outnumbered, he is soon brought to heel. SIDE ANGLE ON PARAMEDIC-TYPE VEHICLE pulling up to the scene where the two pursuit vehicles sit with their light bars still lit up. As: Mulder is walked into the rear of the paramedic-type military vehicle by the Six Men. Yelling at the top of his lungs. His voice becomes muffled as he disappears inside. Two of his captors exit to close the doors. Quietly, almost surgically, they have taken Mulder their prisoner. As: The paramedic vehicle takes off and heads down the long runway. Toward - who knows where? As we: END ACT THREE Act Four begins with a brief scene that was cut: SCULLY IS RUNNING and not for the exercise. We are: EXT. (ZOE'S HOUSE) RESIDENTIAL STREET - NIGHT as Scully moves down the sidewalk and then up the drive of a house we should remember as the one where they dropped off Zoe and Emil. Scully moves to the front door, KNOCKS LOUDLY. Dogs begin to bark in the neighborhood. CLOSE ON FRONT DOOR as the porch lights come on and A WOMAN answers. WOMAN Yes. SCULLY (still catching her breath) Hi. I'm looking for Emil. He must be your son. WOMAN (an odd look) Emil's my daughter's boyfriend. Can I ask who's calling? SCULLY (urgently) Special Agent Dana Scully, FBI. Is she here? WOMAN You're looking for Zoe? SCULLY Yes. Can you get her?

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The Woman flashes Scully a rude look before closing the door on Scully. Several moments go by before the door opens again with a suspicious look on her face.(Yeah, I know -- but that's what it says. *g*) WOMAN She's not in her bedroom. An answer which is basically delivered to Scully's back as she takes off running, fairly hurdling off the porch. It's now early morning, and Scully returns to the motel, tries unsuccessfully to make a telephone call, goes to the office to use the phone there. As she returns to her room, she sees Paul Mossinger, the "reporter," exiting the door of ROOM 5. Her room. Mossinger sees her and dials up a big smile. *g* I love that description. Scully dives into Mossinger's car, gets his gun out of the glove compartment, and gets the drop on him. She orders him to put his hands on the car. Mossinger slowly obeys, turning and placing his hands on the fender of the car. Scully KICKS his legs apart (all that training at the academy finally paying off) so that Mossinger is spread-eagled. Mulder has been bundled off to the military operating room, and injected with something. Now when we return to him, his eyes are being pried open (in preparation for the solution to be dropped into them.) From Mulder's POV, we see: Blurry and shifting focus on the Three Men standing over him. Each wears THICK MAGNIFYING EYEGLASSES. And is it an illusion, or are their eyes somehow -- inhuman? Could it be Mulder's altered perception, a hallucination? The result of his anesthetized state? You can see the germ of the question of whether the abductions are military or alien, later used for Scully's abduction, already in play here. After Scully rescues Mulder, and they go back to the Budahas residence (only to discover that the military has already hushed them up) Scully points out that they don't know anything more then when they got there. There is a moment, an acid but affirming look from Scully that says, for god sake, leave it alone, Mulder. The final scene: EXT. LARGE GREEN ATHLETIC FIELD - WASHINGTON D.C. - DAY With legend over: Agent Mulder, alone in the field doing wind sprints. He's dressed in sweats. He stops to catch his breath when he notices A LONE FIGURE walking toward him from across the field. ANGLE ON the man from the tavern who earlier warned Mulder off the case. Now and forever to be known as DEEP THROAT. As he approaches Mulder. The two men stand face to face, silently regarding each other for a moment. DEEP THROAT Your lives may be in danger. MULDER Why? DEEP THROAT You've seen things that weren't to be seen. Care and discretion now is imperative. As I said I can provide you with information. But only so long as it is in my best interest to do so. MULDER What is your interest? DEEP THROAT The truth. Mulder and the man have locked eyes. What is the truth? MULDER I did see something, but ... it's gone. They took it from me. They erased it. You've got to tell me what it was. In spite of Mulder's urgency, The Man looks off into the middle distance, measuring the thing he is about to say. DEEP THROAT Mr. Mulder - why are those like yourself who believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life on earth not dissuaded by all the evidence to the contrary? Mulder studies Deep Throat, trying to find the linear meaning in the internal and circular logic of this riddle. MULDER Because evidence to the contrary is not entirely dissuasive. DEEP THROAT Precisely. Deep Throat turns, begins to walk back across the field. He stops when Mulder calls out to him. MULDER They're here, aren't they? DEEP THROAT Mr. Mulder, they've been here for a long, long time. And the man turns and heads away. Off Agent Mulder, standing alone in the field, pondering the weight of it all, we: FADE OUT

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THE END

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- The episode title is of course the code name of Mulder's informant -- although the words "Deep Throat" are never mentioned in this episode. (In fact, the name Deep Throat isn't mentioned until Scully calls him "this Deep Throat character" in "The Erlenmeyer Flask.") The character was named for the infamous Watergate informant, who provided information to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein which helped them unravel a conspiracy and eventually bring down a Presidency.

-- Ironically, the real "Deep Throat" had FBI connections. In May 2005, in an interview in Vanity Fair magazine, W. Mark Felt, former assistant director of the FBI during the Nixon Administration, revealed that he was Deep Throat. The identity of Deep Throat was one of the best kept secrets in Washington -- and the subject of great speculation -- for more than 30 years. The image of Deep Throat as a romantic truth teller half hidden in the shadows was rendered indelibly by the dramatic best-selling memoir Woodward and Bernstein published in 1974 -- All the President's Men. Two years later, in a blockbuster movie of the same name, actor Hal Holbrook breathed whispery urgency into the suspenseful late-night encounters between Woodward and his source. Deep Throat's identity was known only to Woodward, Bernstein, and Ben Bradlee, the Post's executive editor during the Watergate coverage. They maintained they would not disclose Deep Throat's identity until after his death, and remained true to their word. Felt was coaxed into publicly revealing his role in history by his daughter, partially due to his failing health and his dimming memory.

-- Daniel Sackheim directed five episodes of The X-Files and served as producer or consulting producer on countless more. He also directed episodes of Millennium and Harsh Realm, as well as episodes of Frank Spotnitz's short-lived series, The Night Stalker.

-- As its title indicates, this episode marks the introduction of Mulder's arguably most interesting informant, Deep Throat, who suddenly appeared to warn Mulder off the case. He repeated similar warnings in future episodes, while at the same time feeding Mulder information to help him with his investigations. Deep Throat was played by veteran actor Jerry Hardin. The highly prolific actor, whose dozens of films include Reds, Cujo, The Falcon and the Snowman, and Ghosts of Mississippi, played a military role that could have been that of a younger Deep Throat in the real-life government-conspiracy drama Missing. He also twice played Mark Twain on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

-- It was Hardin's role in The Firm, in which he played a corrupt lawyer, that caught Chris Carter's attention and caused him to seek out Hardin to play Mulder's shadowy informant. When Hardin signed on for the part in the show's second episode, he was told it would possibly be a recurring role, but took that promise with a grain of salt. "They did say that it perhaps would recur," he said with a laugh. "But my experience in this industry is that it's never wise to depend on that. You take the job and run."

-- Jerry Hardin was born in Dallas in 1929 and was raised in a small town outside that city. His father was a rancher and he grew up riding horses and going to rodeos, doing, as he put it, "all those things young cowboys do." He was involved in church and school plays as a youth and participated regularly in speech and drama competitions throughout high school, eventually winning a scholarship to Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. That was followed by a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. After two years in Europe, he returned to the U.S. and began working in New York, then spent almost 12 years in regional theater. His wife Diane, also an actress, frequently did shows with him, and went on to become a drama teacher and a manager for young actors. Hardin did his best to discourage his own children from acting, without much success. His daughter, Melora Hardin, is an actress who can currently be seen as Jan Levinson on the NBC sitcom The Office. She also played Trudy, Monk's dead wife, on the series Monk. Hardin's son Shawn is a film producer and worked for NBC.

-- Hardin felt the X-Files success was due to the fact that it was "language-driven and thought-driven. It pleases me that it's successful under those circumstances."

-- Hardin appeared as "Deep Throat" in seven season one episodes: "Deep Throat," "Ghost in the Machine," "Fallen Angel," "Eve," "Young at Heart," "E.B.E.," and "The Erlenmeyer Flask," where he met his unexpected demise. "Deep Throat" would return from the dead to appear in dream sequences or flashbacks in four more episodes -- "The Blessing Way," "Talitha Cumi," "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man," and "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati."

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-- The house which appears at the beginning of the episode is the same house used in Millennium as Frank and Catherine Black's "yellow house."

-- We rarely saw Scully wear jewelry other than her cross necklace, but in this early episode, she sported a large pin on her lapel in the first scene (see above). (FWIW, I don't blame her for putting that one back in her jewelry box and never taking it out again.)

-- "I'm fine" is a phrase that we most associate with Scully; but it was actually Mulder who uttered it first. In "Deep Throat," after being surprised by the man who would become his informant in the bar bathroom, a perplexed Mulder tells Scully, "I'm fine."

-- The article on Ellens Air Base that Scully reads from microfiche was written by someone named 'Chris Carter.'

-- Mulder cooks! Well, we *knew* that, but I believe this is the only time in nine years that we see Mulder cooking something on his stove. (Maybe some Campbell's soup? Mmm, mmm, good!)

-- "So what did you make of Uncle Fester down the block?" Uncle Fester was a character on The Addams Family" played by Jackie Coogan. He was notable for his bald head and sunken eyes (though I don't think he made fishing lures out of his hair).

-- When Mulder and Scully see the lights at the airbase, have their car's rear window blown out, and then meet up with the two teenagers, it's 9:13 p.m. (according to the legend). When next we see Mulder and Scully and the teenagers eating at the restaurant, the time stamp says it is 5:02 a.m. What were they doing all that time? I suppose getting their rear window replaced at an all-night Idaho body shop, since when Mulder gets the boy's moped out of his trunk, the windshield is miraculously fixed.

-- Though their names are not used on-screen, the teenagers' names in the script are Emil and Ladonna.

-- "Deep Throat" featured a guest appearance by Seth Green (Emil), who had already been a professional actor for 10 years before his XF guest role. He would go on to play werewolf Daniel "Oz" Osbourne on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dr. Evil's son Scott in the Austin Powers movies. He most recently appeared in the short-lived NBC series Four Kings and continues to provide the voice of Chris Griffin in the Fox animated series, Family Guy.

-- Colonel Budahas tells Mulder and Scully that his birthday is 11/21/48; 11/21/48 is the birth date of Chris Carter's wife, Dori Pierson.

-- When Mulder and Scully are being driven off the road by the National Security agents, you can clearly see that the persons in the car are stunt doubles who don't even closely resemble Duchovny and Anderson.

-- Oopsie! When Scully's gun is taken from her and the clip is extracted, it looks empty.

-- 1013 references -- The file number for this case is #DF101364; and the license plate number investigated by Scully is CC-1356. The Big CC (Chris Carter) was born on October 13, 1956.

-- The first Mulder Ditch! And our fascination with Mulder!Torture is born.

-- The van marked "Abramowitz Plumbing" is actually sound mixer Michael Williamson's sound van.

-- It's apparent in this episode that Scully still isn't too happy about her new assignment, and she's still not quite sure what to make of her new partner; there's lots of arguing back and forth, lots of great banter (the "Sucker" exchange is memorable), and Scully spends much of her time trying to be a good partner while remaining loyal to her employer. But in the end, she puts herself on the line to bring her partner home. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

-- The original script didn't include the voice-over narration by Scully toward the end of the episode; it was added by Chris Carter as a compromise to Fox Broadcasting, which wanted more closure out of the episode. Although Carter continued to fight against pat resolutions, the narration became an ongoing device.

-- Having done most of his scenes with David Duchovny, Hardin said he was impressed by the star's "embracing of new bodies" - - making newcomers or periodic visitors to the show feel comfortable and welcome. That was particularly helpful, Hardin noted, given that his own routine usually involved flying in, performing the next day, and leaving the day after that.

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-- This episode was the first one on which assistant art director Clyde Klotz worked. He went on to marry Gillian Anderson on New Year's Day 1994 on the 17th hole of a golf course in Hawaii in a Buddhist ceremony. They had a daughter together -- Piper Maru, born on September 25, 1994. Anderson and Klotz were divorced in 1997.

-- Once & Future Retreads: Gabrielle Rose (Mrs. Budahas) played Dr. Zenzola in "The Host." Sheila Moore (Verla McLennen) was Mrs. Dawson in "Excelsius Dei." Andrew Johnston (Col. Budahas) was Agent Barry Weiss in "Colony/End Game" and the Medical Examiner in "Demons." Jon Cuthbert (Commanding Officer) was Jerry Tiernan in "Excelsius Dei." Michael Puttonen (Motel Manager) was Dr. Pilsson in "Sleepless," the Conductor in "731," and Martin Alpert in "Elegy."

1x01 Deep Throat - script

THE X FILES

"Deep Throat"

Written by

Chris Carter

Episode #1X01 July 1, 1993 July 9, 1993 Blue July 14, 1993 Pink July 20, 1993 Green July 22, 1993 Yellow

THE X FILES

"Deep Throat"

CAST

FOX MULDER DANA SCULLY SCOTT BLEVINS

DEEP THROAT MRS. BUDAHAS LT. COL. ROBERT BUDAHAS

150

VERLA MCLENNEN LADONNA COL. BLAINE KISSEL EMIL ZOE PAUL MOSSINGER

COMMAND OFFICER DRIVER MANAGER LEAD OFFICER LEAD MAN WOMAN

THE X FILES

"Deep Throat"

SETS

EXTERIORS

STREET - WASHINGTON D.C. BUDAHAS RESIDENCE KISSEL HOUSE "FLYING SAUCER" DINER RURAL ROAD ELLENS AIR BASE /PERIMETER FENCE /BASE GATE BURGER KING PARKING LOT ZOE'S HOUSE RUNWAY LARGE GREEN ATHLETIC FIELD - WASHINGTON D.C

INTERIORS

DUNAWAY'S PUB /MEN'S WASHROOM FBI LIBRARY MULDER'S APT. BUDAHAS HOUSE /LIVING ROOM MCLENNEN HOUSE /LIVING ROOM /PATIO BEACH GROVE MOTEL /BREEZEWAY /LOBBY "THE FLYING SAUCER" DINER AGENTS' CAR BURGER KING MULDER'S MOTEL ROOM PARAMEDIC-TYPE VAN LARGE OPEN BUILDING MOSSINGER'S CAR

151

MOSSINGER'S CAR MEDICAL FACILITY

"DEEP THROAT"

TEASER

EXT. BUDAHAS HOUSE - STREET - DAY

HAND HELD ON A MILITARY POLICE COMMAND OFFICER standing in a whirl of activity: flak-jacketed OFFICERS moving past him as he speaks into a walkie talkie. (Teaser sequence will use quick pans to transition.) Legend over: Ellens Air Base, Southwest Idaho.

COMMAND OFFICER - as soon as we're in position we'll be on a count of five -

EXT. (BUDAHAS HOME) TWO-STORY RESIDENTIAL HOME - DAY

CRAWLING WITH OFFICERS - on the roof, in the flower beds; three officers at the front door applying an adhesive charge. They finish its application and give a thumbs up to:

THE COMMAND OFFICER WITH THE WALKIE TALKIE as a WOMAN with TWO CHILDREN in tow is allowed to approach through the police cordon, escorted by another OFFICER.

WOMAN (hysterical) That's my house!

COMMAND OFFICER (into walkie talkie) Stand by.

MRS. BUDAHAS What's going on here?

COMMAND OFFICER Mrs. Budahas? Your husband violated base security procedure. He commandeered a military vehicle and is believed to be armed.

MRS. BUDAHAS Oh my god!

ANGLE ON FRONT DOOR OF HOUSE where THREE OFFICERS take a hand signal from A LEAD OFFICER as the numbers are transmitted into his EARPIECE ("Five, four – ")

CAMERA PANS QUICKLY to the Officers positioned on the roof, at the corners of the house. As the count continues the

CAMERA WHIP PANS BACK TO:

THE FRONT DOOR

IMPLODING, BLOWN OFF ITS HINGES.

152

INT. BUDAHAS HOUSE -- CONTINUOUS

CAMERA FOLLOWS the officers inside as the men move stealthily from doorway to doorway, wall to wall; a move-and-cover system.

Until the Lead Officer enters a room with his gun high, only to see something o.s. that causes him to stop and stare.

LEAD OFFICER What the hell ...

EXT. BUDAHAS HOUSE - STREET - CONTINUOUS

RESUME COMMAND OFFICER with the panicked Mrs. Budahas standing by.

MRS. BUDAHAS You've got to let me talk to him!

Then a burst of static precedes a transmission over the walkie talkie .

LEAD OFFICER (ON WALKIE) We've got him. (the woman gasping in relief) But I think we're going to need a doctor ...

INT. BUDAHAS HOUSE -- CONTINUOUS

RESUME LEAD OFFICER standing with his men, staring with intense curiosity.

LEAD OFFICER or something.

CAMERA TILTS DOWN TO THEIR POV

Balled in the corner of the room, wearing only a pair of jockey briefs, is A MAN with a military haircut, SHAKING FIERCELY, UNCONTROLLABLY, his jaws clenched in fear and pain. Pain from the CRIMSON RED, OOZING RASH that covers his entire body. He looks almost like some kind of grotesque burn victim. Off his wincing, addled expression -

GO TO MAIN TITLES

ACT ONE

EXT. STREET - WASHINGTON D.C .. - LATE AFTERNOON

To establish, with legend.

INT. DUNAWAY'S PUB - LATE DAY - FOUR MONTHS LATER

A wood-panelled tavern, traditional but not stuffy. Or trendy. A capital watering hole for political staffers, Washington insiders of all stripes. Agent Mulder enters, spots -

Agent Scully at the bar, turning to Mulder expectantly.

153

SCULLY Hi. I got your message.

MULDER Sorry for the runaround. Can I buy you a drink?

SCULLY It's two in the afternoon, Agent Mulder.

MULDER Yeah, but it's happy hour in Paris. (off her look) I have something to show you.

Scully's eyes land on TWO FILE FOLDERS in Mulder's hand.

SCULLY Something you couldn't show me at work?

MULDER (Cheshire smile) Let's get a table.

His manner communicates the need for privacy, away from the bartender, patrons. Scully follows, CAMERA HOLDING, FOCUSING on a MAN, fifties, sitting a few stools away. He casts a furtive, suspicious glance at the two agents.

ANGLE ON TABLE

Mulder removes a PHOTO of a military man from a folder.

MULDER Lieutenant Colonel Robert Budahas. The picture was taken last year when he was a test pilot for the military, stationed at Ellens Air Base in Southwest Idaho. (hands her the photo) Four months ago Colonel Budahas experienced a psychotic episode and barricaded himself in his home. Military police were called in. Budahas was removed and, apparently, hospitalized for treatment of his condition.

SCULLY Which was what exactly?

MULDER The military won't comment on the cause, nature or status. In fact, they won It comment on Colonel Budahas at all.

SCULLY What do you mean?

MULDER Budahas' wife has not seen or heard from her husband in four months. Her inquiries to the military have gone unanswered. Last month she contacted the FBI and reported it as a kidnapping.

SCULLY What reason would the military have to kidnap their own pilot?

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MULDER (dripping sarcasm) That's the $64,000 question, Agent Scully.

Mulder SMILES. He's obviously already got his own theory. He opens the 2ND file folder; revealing news articles; a headline reads: TEST PILOT LISTED MISSING IN ACTION.

MULDER Since 1963 six pilots have been listed Missing in Action at Ellens Air Base.

He hands her the files, smiles mischievously and heads to the back of the bar. Leaving her to wonder.

INT. MEN'S WASHROOM - MOMENTS LATER

A toilet flushes. A stall door opens and Mulder exits. He goes to the sink, runs some water and splashes it on his face. As he does, the stall door is closing slowly behind him, by itself - revealing A MAN standing against the opposite wall.

We see the Man before Mulder does. When Mulder looks up into the mirror he does so with a START.

MAN Leave this case alone, Agent Mulder.

MULDER What -

MAN The military will not tolerate an FBI investigation.

MULDER (turning) Who are you?

MAN I can be of help to you. I've had a certain interest in your work.

Someone is KNOCKING on the washroom door now, but it has been locked by the unidentified Man.

MULDER How do you know about my work?

MAN Let's just say I'm in a position to know quite a lot of things. Things about our government.

The Man sees that Mulder is startled by this.

MULDER Who are you? Who do you work for?

MAN It's unimportant. I came here to give you some valuable advice.

MAN (CONT'D) You are exposing yourself and Agent Scully to an-unnecessary risk.- I advise you to drop the case.

The Man says this with such credible conviction that Agent Mulder is taken completely aback.

155

MULDER I can't do that.

MAN You have much work to do, Agent Mulder. Don't jeopardize the future of your own efforts.

The Man unlocks the door and exits quickly. Mulder moves to follow him but is somewhat blocked by the person entering.

INT. DUNAWAY'S BAR - CONTINUOUS

As Mulder hurries into the dark main bar area, looking for the Man. But the Man is gone. Scully is walking up to Mulder now, seeing him looking manically about.

SCULLY Mulder? Are you okay?

But Mulder is not okay, even though he nods to Scully.

MULDER Yeah, I'm fine.

As we:

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. FBI LIBRARY - NIGHT - LATER

Legend over: Scully, who sits alone in the darkened room, her face illuminated by the glow from a microfiche projector. She turns the knob, studying:

CLOSE ON B&W NEWS ARTICLE - the headline reads: Ellens Air Base Mecca for UFO Buffs.

ECU TEXT - ... report regular sightings of bizarre craft ...

RESUME SCULLY studying the screen. As SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE SCOTT BLEVINS appears behind her, giving Scully a start.

BLEVINS Agent, Scully. I didn't think I'd find you here so late.

SCULLY Yes, sir, uh ... Agent Mulder and I are working on a kidnapping case.

She hands Blevins the case file folder. Blevins looks at the case label, a shadow of irritation crossing his face.

BLEVINS What is Agent Mulder's interest in this case?

SCULLY I'm not exactly sure, sir.

Her eyes go to the microfiche where the real answer surely lies. Blevins' eyes go there, too. He clenches.

BLEVINS What the hell is he doing? This case has been reclassified. It's been turned over to the military.

156

(off her nervous non-response) If this is some kind of UFO nonsense, he's wasting the FBI's time and money. I want that in your field report, Agent Scully. Is that clear?

SCULLY Yes, sir.

BLEVINS (pointedly) And I want that report on my desk as soon as it's finished. He wants to hang himself out it's fine with me.

Blevins exits, mumbling something to himself. Scully turns back to the microfiche, takes a deep, uneasy breath.

INT. MULDER'S APT. - NIGHT - LATER

A PHONE IS RINGING. Mulder enters frame, answers it.

MULDER Hello.

SCULLY (PHONE FILTER) Mulder. I checked on that file you gave me. You failed to tell me a few things.

There are intermittent CLICKS on the phone line as they speak.

SCULLY (PHONE FILTER) This isn't some UFO goose chase you're leading me on, is it? (off his non-response) Are you there Mulder?

He's not answering because he's scanning his apartment now, feeling suddenly as if he's being surveilled. He moves over the window, pulls open the curtains.

MULDER'S POV - A LONE VAN is parked down on the street.

MULDER Yeah. I'm here.

SCULLY (PHONE FILTER) Did you hear what I said, Mulder? Because Blevins has it out for you already. And it'd make both of us appear pretty stupid if my field report read like some tabloid story.

MULDER (long pause) Yeah. Right. I'd rather not go over the details on this line. We can talk about it on the flight out.

Mulder hangs up the phone, then picks it back up, listens. Staring out the window at the van. The Man in the bathroom now has him very spooked. As we:

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. BUDAHAS RESIDENCE, NEAR ELLENS AIR BASE, IDAHO - NEXT DAY

157

With legend over: Agents Mulder and Scully knocking at the same door (now repaired) we saw the military police blow down. As they wait for an answer, they react to TWIN SONIC BOOMS WHICH RATTLE THE WINDOWS AND THE HOUSE. Both of them hurry out to the edge of the porch, looking skyward as: Mrs. Budahas (recognized from the Teaser) answers the door.

MRS. BUDAHAS Hello?

MULDER Mrs. Budahas.

MRS. BUDAHAS Yes.

MULDER We're from the FBI -

MRS. BUDAHAS Yes. Please come in.

INT. BUDAHAS RESIDENCE - DAY - MOMENTS LATER

Scully sits with a clearly shaken Mrs. Budahas in the living room of this comfortable middle class home. There seems to be a MODEL AIRPLANE on every available horizontal surface. In the backyard, seen through the sliding glass door, her TWO SMALL CHILDREN PLAY.

MRS. BUDAHAS ... I started noticing it about two years ago. Bob developed a rash under his arms. We were doing some renovations on the house and we thought it was a reaction to a paint stripper, but then everything just went crazy.

SCULLY How do you mean?

MRS. BUDAHAS Bob's whole personality. It was so unpredictable. He started doing ... things.

ANGLE ON MULDER studying a wall of photos, memorabilia, military commendations, etc. Lt. Col. Budahas could be straight out of the Right Stuff.

MULDER What kind of things?

MRS. BUDAHAS It was embarrassing at first. We were having a dinner party once and ... Bob started sprinkling Tetrameal-D on his food. Fish food flakes.

She waits for the Agents' reactions.

SCULLY Did you talk with him about it?

MRS. BUDAHAS It was extremely difficult. Bob would become angry. He would yell at the children for no reason. Then he would shake. Like he was having a seizure.

EXT. BUDAHAS RESIDENCE - CONTINUOUS - DAY

158

An ND SEDAN rolls up quietly outside, across the street.

CLOSE ON CROPPED DRIVER'S FACE visible only from the bottom of his nose down. He brings a walkie talkie up into frame.

DRIVER I've got a twenty. Over.

Mulder and Scully are being secretly surveilled.

RESUME INT. BUDAHAS HOUSE - DAY

MULDER Did he ever talk about his work?

MRS. BUDAHAS It was never discussed. Even before the problems. I know Bob worked on top secret projects. Word gets around. But he was always a patriot first; he took loyalty to his country as an oath. And now - (fighting back tears) They treat us like strangers. I just want my husband back.

SCULLY (comforting) The government is not above the law. They cannot withhold information -

MRS. BUDAHAS Then I start to think what if he's ... how would I support the family.

She wipes the tears that she's been unable to hold back. Scully comforts her, making a connection with Mrs. Budahas As we:

MULDER You say word gets around. Have you ever heard of this happening to anyone else -

MRS. BUDAHAS Verla McLennen's husband went kind of crazy. But it's not like he didn't get to come home.

Off Scully and Mulder's reaction to this info we -

INT. MCLENNEN HOUSE -- DAY

CLOSE ON JIM MCLENNEN (FIFTIES)

Tweezing a hair from his forearm with his fingers. He takes the hair and, with concentrated effort, ties it into a fly fishing fly that is held in a special tying vice.

ANGLE TO INCLUDE MULDER, SCULLY, MRS. BUDAHAS and VERLA MCLENNEN, grandmother and homemaker, fifties. The foursome is staring out at the patio at Verla's husband, through the sliding glass window.

SCULLY How long has he -

159

VERLA Almost two years. The fly fishing idea was his brother Hank's.

RESUME JIM MCLENNEN on closer inspection we see that his hair's not only sparse on top but that the sides of his head are thin and rangy, too. And his eyebrows are gone, plucked clean. Otherwise Jim looks like a man enjoying his retirement.

VERLA (V.O.) I was very upset at first, but when you're the wife of a test pilot -

RESUME GROUP

VERLA You thank God just to have him home alive.

MULDER Did anyone ever offer to explain what caused this?

VERLA The stress, I guess. You have to understand that the military deals with things in a certain way. They've given him plenty of therapy and treatment and I'm thankful for that. They've taken good care of us and ... you know, they do volunteer for their jobs.

She looks at Mrs. Budahas, somehow turning this on her.

VERLA (sotto voice) Really, Anita. Bringing the FBI to my house.

A tense, awkward moment for everyone, as we:

CUT TO:

EXT. BUDAHAS RESIDENCE - DAY - LATER

Mulder and Scully stand with the downcast woman, her two small children at her sides. She hands them a slip of paper.

MRS. BUDAHAS I've called all the numbers about a thousand times. Please let me know what you find out.

SCULLY We'll be staying at the Beachgrove Motel if you need us.

She clutches her children a little tighter. Agent Scully gives Mrs. Budahas a reassuring touch, then the two Agents start back to their rental car.

MULDER What did you make of Uncle Fester down the street?

SCULLY It's called stereotypy. It's a syndrome produced by extreme stress. POWs have been known to suffer from it. They've studied it in zoo animals.

160

MULDER These guys are test pilots, Scully. They're not supposed to fold under pressure, they're supposed to thrive on it.

SCULLY Ever hear of something called the Aurora Project?

MULDER It's the unacknowledged code name for some kind of new defense department surveillance project.

SCULLY The Pentagon has all but admitted they've been testing a secret class of suborbital spy craft over the Western U.S. Maybe these guys are flying those planes. Maybe these guys are the washouts.

MULDER Did you see the photos on the wall in there. This guy Budahas received a Presidential commendation. He's never washed out of anything in his life.

Mulder gives her a look that expresses a bold certainty in his words. As if he knows something but he's not saying. Off Scully studying Mulder, wondering what this could be, we -

CUT TO:

INT. BEACHGROVE MOTEL - DAY - LATER

Scully sits on a bed, just hanging up the phone. As Mulder enters from outside, holding a portable phone.

MULDER I've been on hold with the base director of communications for forty five minutes. What about you?

SCULLY Somebody named Colonel Kissel will meet with us - a week from Friday.

MULDER (frowning) Yeah, right.

And Mulder is pulling a phone book out of the dresser.

MULDER Did you say his name was Kissel?

CUT TO: EXT. (KISSEL HOUSE) NICE TWO-STORY HOME - LT AFTERNOON - SAME DAY

Mulder and Scully are parked at the curb when an ND American sedan pulls into the driveway. A man, COL. BLAINE KISSEL, exits and moves to the trunk of his car as Mulder and Scully exit their car toward him.

MULDER Col. Kissel?

KISSEL Yes.

161

MULDER Special Agent Mulder -

Kissel quickly removes his briefcase from his trunk and starts away from the agents heading toward his house. Under -

KISSEL I've got nothing to say. Please. This is an invasion of my privacy.

Kissel does not want to make eye contact with Mulder.

MULDER Why don't you talk to us about Colonel Budahas -

Mulder dogs Kissel but he's already mounting the steps of a side entrance into the house. He turns on Mulder with the pruning clippers.

KISSEL Get the hell out of my yard!!

And he slams the door in Mulder's face.

SCULLY Good thing we didn't cancel that appointment.

Mulder is shaking his head when he looks O.S., sees

A MAN WALKING UP THE DRIVEWAY

He is MOSSINGER, thirties. He carries a notepad.

MOSSINGER Are you the FBI agents?

Mulder and Scully immediately assume alert, rigid postures.

MOSSINGER Paul Mossinger. I work for the local paper. We live a few houses down from Verla McLennen. She says you guys out here looking into this Budahas thing?

Mossinger has the kind of nerdish, overbearing personality that knows no limits of propriety. A benign tactlessness.

MULDER We're just looking around.

MOSSINGER Gotcha. Right. Lots of folks out here looking around. UFO nuts mostly. Not everyday we get the FBI.

At that moment the sound of a LOW, FAST MOVING JET passing over. Both Mulder and Scully look up.

MOSSINGER By the time you hear them they're already gone. So this Budahas thing - you getting anywhere?

Both Mulder and Scully are moving to the street, trying to avoid Mossinger, but now they're the ones who are being dogged.

162

MULDER We're not at liberty to comment.

Suddenly Mulder stops, turns to Mossinger.

MULDER Paul, right? You've lived here a while - you ever see a UFO?

MOSSINGER Never. All a bunch of hooey if you ask me. People see what they want to see.

MULDER What if I wanted to talk with one of these UFO nuts you referred to; where would I go?

Off Scully's reaction to this, we -

CUT TO:

EXT. "THE FLYING SAUCER" ROADSIDE DINER - DAY - LATER

Complete with a sign illuminated with flashing lightbulbs and, a cartoon UFO. The Agents' car is in the parking lot.

INT. "THE FLYING SAUCER" DINER - DAY - SHORT TIME LATER

CLOSE ON TWO PARTIALLY EATEN HAMBURGERS on the bar. They've been garnished to look like flying saucers. CAMERA ADJUSTS to reveal Scully and Mulder. Refreshing their drinks is a robust woman, LaDONNA. Fifties.

She cocks her ear as ANOTHER LOW FLYING JET PASSES OVER, rattling all the bottles of liquor back behind the bar where, scotch taped to the mirror, are several grainy photos of UFOs.

LADONNA F-15 Eagle. Pulling about 4 Gs. Those boys think they're such hot shots. Get a few drinks in them and you'd think it was them up there flapping their wings.

MULDER Who's the photographer?

LADONNA Various and sundry. I took the one on the end there.

MULDER You're kidding? Where?

LADONNA Out on the back porch.

She pulls the photo down for Mulder and Scully to inspect.

LADONNA Taking out the garbage and there it was - just hovering. Quiet as a hummingbird. For a minute I thought it might land in the parking lot and I'd have to serve 'em lunch.

Scully studies the photo. It's a blurry triangle-shaped craft.

163

LADONNA I'm selling limited edition prints. Twenty dollars. Down to my last five, if you're interested.

MULDER Yeah. Put it on the tab.

SCULLY (leaning in) Sucker.

MULDER So what would be the chance of someone like me spotting a UFO?

As Scully is pushing her plate away, sliding off her stool, giving Mulder a long-suffering look.

SCULLY Catch you outside.

EXT. "FLYING SAUCER" DINER - DAY - SHORT TIME LATER

Scully sits on the steps of the diner with a map spread out over her knees. As Mulder exits -

SCULLY You want to see something weird, Mulder? Ellens Air Base isn't even on my USGS quadrant map. Look.

She stands up to show Mulder. He nods, starts toward the car.

MULDER I know. Let's go.

SCULLY You know? (catching up) Where are we going?

Mulder holds up a napkin with writing and a diagram on it.

MULDER We've got our own map.

EXT. RURAL ROAD - LATE AFTERNOON - LATER

The Agents' rental car slows, turns off the paved highway onto a bumpy dirt road, passing A POSTED SIGN WHICH READS: No photographs, images or other material may be taken from this area. It is strictly forbidden by the U.S. Government ... etc.

Mulder exits, goes around to the trunk. As he rummages, Scully exits, comes around to join him as he pulls out a camera from the trunk. She is extremely annoyed right now.

EXT. PERIMETER FENCE, ELLENS AIR BASE - LATE AFTERNOON - LATER

As the rental car pulls to a stop in an area of scattered trees, low brush, gentle rolling hills. A cyclone fence topped with barbed wire separates us from the expansive base.

MULDER Maybe nothing. I don't know.

164

SCULLY Is this why you brought me out here, Mulder? To look for UFOs?

Mulder shuts the trunk, starts walking. Scully stays put.

SCULLY Yeah, this is going to look REAL good on my field report!

Mulder doesn't even look back. Off Scully's irritation, we:

TIME DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. SAME SCENE - NIGHT

The rental car sits where we left it. Stillness.

INT. RENTAL CAR - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS

Scully sits in the passenger seat, asleep. When A LOW RUMBLE. The car starts to rattle and shake as the rumble grows and then CRASH - THE BACK WINDOW SHATTERS INTO A MILLION PIECES. Needless to say, Scully is jolted into the rudest of awakenings. She lets out an involuntary scream as we -

END ACT ONE

ACT TWO

INT. RENTAL -CAR - NIGHT - RESUME

Scully still hasn't caught her breath when Mulder yanks the car door open.

MULDER Scully! Wake up! You've got to see this!

As if she isn't already awake. He practically pulls her out of the car. As we:

CUT TO:

EXT. ELLENS AIR BASE PERIMETER FENCE - NIGHT

As Scully and Mulder run up a small rise we see it - in the far distance. TWO BRIGHT LIGHTS. Like giant Roman candles about 20 degrees off the horizon.

SCULLY What are they?

MULDER I don't know. Just keep watching. It's unbelievable.

As the two lights begin to move rapidly away from one another in precisely opposite directions and, in synch, turn skyward at impossible, duplicate reverse 45 degree angles - heading at each other on a collision course.

Then, just before impact, in a blink, the two lights veer off go right back at each other in a high speed dog fight that seems to defy the very laws of aeronautics. Indeed, the impression is not unlike the image of two men shining flashlights on the walls in a darkened room, one trying to catch the other's beam with his own.

SCULLY It's unreal. I've never seen anything like it.

165

MULDER They've been going at it like that for almost a half an hour.

SCULLY They can't be aircraft. Aircraft can't maneuver like that.

MULDER What else could they be?

SCULLY I don't know. Lasers, maybe. Being shot from the ground, reflecting up off the clouds.

As if on cue, the two points of light pullout of their dogfight and move wing-on-wing, streaking high into the sky, disappearing into the black firmament directly over Scully and Mulder's heads like twin falling stars.

Followed shortly by two LOUD SONIC BOOMS.

SCULLY Oh my god.

Scully stares at the heavens in wonder as Mulder's gaze turns back toward the horizon.

MULDER Here comes another one.

CAMERA TILTS DOWN to find ANOTHER LIGHT moving in - from the identical spot as the ones previous. Unlike the others, however, these points of light move low and steady, hugging the landscape. As -

ANGLE TO INCLUDE

A RUSTLING OF BUSHES at the base of the perimeter fence just down below Mulder and Scully. The sound of VOICES, TWO FIGURES working frantically to get back under the fence from inside the Air Base.

MULDER Hey!

The TWO FIGURES freeze on the sound of Mulder's voice. Then, THE TWO APPROACHING LIGHTS are suddenly accompanied by a familiar sound - TURBINE HELICOPTER ENGINES dopplering in.

The TWO FIGURES bolt, taking flight on Mulder and Scully's side of the fence as the approaching helicopters turn on their high powered SPOTLIGHTS - the beams of which now wash over the landscape in two intense sweeping fans.

As the choppers bear down on Mulder and Scully, the spotlights just about to hunt them down, they bolt too. Running in the direction of the Two Figures, removing their handguns.

RUNNING - HAND HELD

EXT. BUSH & SCRUB - NIGHT -- CONTINUOUS with Mulder and Scully as the fans of light illuminate the landscape behind them. The chopper's blades sending up dustdevils and beating the air - WHOP WHOP WHOP.

MULDER (at the TWO FIGURES) Stop! FBI!

166

ANGLE ON THE TWO FIGURES who pay no attention, sprinting ahead through the scrub brush.

NEW ANGLE as the TWO FIGURES run TOWARD CAMERA, the lead runner working simultaneously to remove something from his pants pocket something which, as he PASSES CAMERA, he tosses away.

RESUME MULDER AND SCULLY giving chase as the Two Figures begin to slow. Finally stopping and throwing up their hands. As CAMERA CLOSES IN on the pair we see TWO YOUTHFUL FACES, each with long, lank hair. One a BOY (EMIL), one a ,GIRL (ZOE) , both late teens.

EMIL Okay, okay! Don't shoot!

The two Agents stop, their weapons at the ready. The kids are wearing the loose, dark clothing of grunge rockers. Both have headphones around their necks, attached to Sony Walkmans clipped to their belts.

MULDER Keep your hands in the air!

ZOE We didn't do anything!

There is barely time to consider this, however, as the WHOP WHOP WHOP of an incoming chopper sounds overhead.

ANGLE TO INCLUDE the helicopter bearing down on the Agents and the kids, its spotlight scouring a path straight toward them. Until Mulder lowers his weapon and makes a choice.

MULDER C'mon!

He grabs Emil by his shirt, pulling him out of frame. Scully and Zoe follow, exiting frame just ahead of the intense beam of light which turns the night into day.

ON MULDER, SCULLY, THE TWO KIDS huddled under a stand of trees, undetected, watching the lone chopper moving off into the distance.

EMIL Oh, man. That was extreme.

MULDER Let's go. You're coming with us~

Scully and Mulder trades looks, no idea what they've stumbled into with these kids. As we:

CUT TO:

EXT. FENCE LINE -- CONTINUOUS

CLOSE ON 2ND HELICOPTER

167

Hovering low, its spotlight trained on something just below. Which we see, AS CAMERA TILTS DOWN, is the Agents' rental car. Bathed in the incriminating blue spotlight. The chopper hovers for a moment then rises and flies off at high speed. As mysteriously as it first appeared. As we:

CUT TO:

EXT. BURGER KING PARKING LOT - EARLY MORNING - LATER

A legend reads: 5:02 AM. The Agents' rental car sits with A MOPED SCOOTER sticking out of the open trunk.

INT. BURGER KING - NIGHT

CLOSE ON MULDER, SCULLY. Staring intently, curiously at Emil and Zoe, who are across the table, o.s.

SCULLY So what exactly were you doing in there?

ANGLE TO INCLUDE Emil and Zoe. Their eyes are red, dilated.

On plastic trays are hamburgers, fries, and shakes. They eat ravenously.

EMIL Um ... we just ...

The kids look at one another guiltily, then CRACK UP.

ZOE We've got this spot.

EMIL We sorta kick back with some tunes and watch the air show.

MULDER You ever been chased out before?

EMIL First time. Our friend showed us the hole in the fence about a year ago.

ZOE ... one night they dropped bombs.

EMIL Yeah. That was kinda heavy.

Mulder and Scully exchange quick looks.

EMIL There's supposed to be something called Yellow Base where they like keep all this junk. But our friend said it's like got landmines around it and stuff.

Emil takes a big bite of hamburger, shrugging off the thought of being maimed for life by a landmine.

ZOE You're not going to bust us or anything, are you?

SCULLY You ever think about the fact you could get killed out there?

168

EMIL It's usually like no big deal. We just cruise in and cruise out. Fully slotted. No problem.

EXT. BURGER KING PARKING LOT - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS

An ND SEDAN pulls in, cruising slowly, suspiciously through the lot. Stopping behind the Agents' car. Again, we CLOSE CROP the Driver's face as he brings a walkie talkie to his mouth.

DRIVER I've got a twenty. Over.

MAN'S VOICE ON WALKIE Roger, Redbird. Assume fallback position. We're opening the cage.

DRIVER Redbird out.

And The Driver hits the gas, gunnlng the car from frame.

INT. BURGER KING - EARLY MORNING - CONTINUOUS

Talking animatedly now, Emil uses a hamburger to illustrate the flight of an aircraft.

EMIL Sometimes they'll come in low and just put on the skidders. Just like - errrrrrrr - and just hang there without making a sound. At first you think it's like whoa, who turned down the volume.

MULDER What do you think they are?

EMIL Everybody thinks they're flying saucers. I think it's some new Star Wars cybertech hardware. Who knows? They'll probably roll it out for like Desert Storm II. Cruise control right over Saddam's pad - he'd be like, "Huh?'!

Scully gives Mulder a skeptical look. Who is this joker? Mulder reaches down, pulls out THE PHOTO of the UFO he purchased.

MULDER Do they look anything like this?

He hands the photo to Emil. He and Zoe study it, then look back up at Mulder and Scully.

EMIL No, man. (beat) They look EXACTLY like this.

Off Scully's doubtful look to Mulder we:

CUT TO:

EXT. (ZOE'S HOUSE) RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD - EARLY MORNING

The rental car is idling as Mulder and Emil heft the moped out of the back of the trunk. The kids say goodbye and begin pushing the scooter up the driveway of small, modest home.

169

INT. RENTAL CAR - EARLY MORNING - CONTINUOUS

As Mulder gets in. Scully sits in the passenger seat, noticing that Mulder has a cassette tape in his hand.

SCULLY What's that?

MULDER Evidence.

He pops the cassette in and LENNY KRAVITZ'S "Are You Gonna Go My Way" begins to play. But only for about eight bars when Scully reaches down, turns it off.

MULDER Kids today.

SCULLY You believe it all, don't you?

MULDER Why wouldn't I?

SCULLY Did you see their eyes, Mulder? If I were that stoned -

MULDER (baiting her) If you were that stoned -

SCULLY You could have shown that kid a picture of a flying hamburger and held have sworn that's exactly what he saw.

Mulder nods, thinking for a moment before he reaches over the seat, bringing up several files from the rear floorboard.

MULDER I want to show you something.

Mulder flips through the files, finally producing an OLD, GRAINY PHOTO. He hands it to Scully.

MULDER That's a picture of a UFO that was reported to have crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. (Scully starts to protest) I know you don't believe that story, but just hear me out. Ellens Air Base, the base we're at now, the base that for some strange reason doesn't appear on your US government map, is supposedly one of six sites where parts from the wreckage were shipped -

SCULLY What are you suggesting, Mulder? That the military is flying UFOs?!

MULDER No. (beat) Planes built using UFO technology.

170

Scully has to laugh at the absurdity of this. Even as Mulder takes the photo that he purchased in the bar earlier from the dashboard and hands it to her.

REVERSE ANGLE ON SCULLY holding the old photo next to the new one. Except for aging, yellowness, the two pictures bear a striking resemblance.

SCULLY Mulder, come on. You've got two blurry photos - one taken almost fifty years ago and another you purchased today in a roadside diner?! You're going out on a pretty big limb --

MULDER Tell me there isn't a remarkable resemblance.

SCULLY Tell me one good reason to believe either of these photos is authentic.

MULDER You saw exactly what I saw in the sky tonight. What do you think they were?

SCULLY Just because I can't explain it ... doesn't mean I'm going to believe they were UFOs.

MULDER Unidentified flying objects. I'd say it fits the description. (off Scully's look) Tell me I'm crazy.

SCULLY I think you are crazy. And it still doesn't explain to me what happened to Colonel Budahas.

Off Scully's doubtful resolve we:

CUT TO:

EXT. BEACH GROVE MOTEL - EARLY MORNING - LATER

The lights of the illuminated sign shut off in the coming dawn. CAMERA FINDS Agent Scully in the motel lobby, talking with the MAN behind the counter.

Then she bursts out of lobby and runs down the breezeway.

INT. MULDER'S MOTEL ROOM - EARLY MORNING - CONTINUOUS as he answers AN URGENT KNOCKING at the door. It is, of course, Scully. Breathless from the news she's just gotten.

MULDER You're not coming to raid my mini bar, are you?

SCULLY Are you ready for this?

MULDER What?

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SCULLY We got a message from Mrs. Budahas. Her husband came home last night.

Off Mulder's surprise we:

CUT TO:

EXT. BUDAHAS RESIDENCE - MORNING - SHORT TIME LATER

Mulder and Scully's car pulls hurriedly into the driveway. The two Agents exit, move quickly up to the house.

INT. BUDAHAS RESIDENCE - MORNING - CONTINUOUS

Mrs. Budahas opens the front door revealing Scully and Mulder.

SCULLY We got your message.

MULDER (sensing trouble) Mrs. Budahas? Are you okay?

CAMERA DOLLIES AROUND to reveal Mrs. Budahas is crying.

MRS. BUDAHAS Come inside.

INT. BUDAHAS LIVING ROOM - MORNING - CONTINUOUS

Sitting in the Barca Lounger is a man, but we see only the top of his head. As Mulder and Scully and Mrs. Budahas enter.

SCULLY What is it?

The threesome moves around in front of the man in the chair, staring at him now. Then looking to Mrs. Budahas who has her hand covering her mouth. Still, we don't see the man's face, nor what has Mrs. Budahas so upset. Is he maimed, disfigured, covered in the same red rash as we last saw him?

MULDER What? What's wrong?

MRS. BUDAHAS That's not my husband!

REVERSE ANGLE sitting in the chair is a perfectly normal looking man wearing a Green Bay Packer t-shirt. A TV tray sits in front of him. On it is a model airplane he's building. He has no rash, no scars or marks. In fact, he is the same man whose PICTURE hangs on the wall just above him.

ON SCULLY, MULDER trying to fathom the woman's inexplicable reaction, as we:

END ACT TWO

172

ACT THREE

INT. BUDAHAS LIVING ROOM - MORNING - RESUME SCENE

Mulder, Scully and Mrs. Budahas stand looking at this man in the chair. The man she claims is not her husband.

LT. COL. BUDAHAS Honey, who are these people?

MRS. BUDAHAS That is not him. That is not my husband. (off their looks) They've done something to him.

LT. COL. BUDAHAS What are you talking about?

Lt. Col. Budahas starts to get up from his chair.

MULDER That's okay. Just relax. We just want to ask you a few questions.

Mulder gives Scully a dire look before kneeling down to talk with Lt. Col. Budahas, now sitting back in his chair. He appears almost eerily calm, subdued.

LT. COL. BUDAHAS Who are you?

MULDER I'm Special Agent Mulder from the FBI. We've been out here investigating your disappearance. Can you explain your whereabouts for the past four months?

LT. COL. BUDAHAS I was in the hospital.

MULDER Here? On base?

LT. COL. BUDAHAS I think so.

MULDER Can I ask you your birthdate, Colonel Budahas?

LT. COL. BUDAHAS November 21st, 1948.

Mulder looks up at Mrs. Budahas. She nods at his correct answer. Mulder turns back to the Lt. Col.

MULDER And your kids' names?

LT. COL. BUDAHAS Josh and Leslie. They're right there.

SHOT - The kids are watching this scene from outside, their faces pressed up against the sliding glass door. They, too, seem to sense the presence of a stranger. Again, Mrs. Budahas nods to Mulder on the correctness of the answer.

173

MULDER (re: his t-shirt) You must be a Green Bay fan?

LT. COL. BUDAHAS Yes, Sir.

MULDER Big fan. Bet you'd remember the '68 Superbowl. Don Chandler?

LT. COL. BUDAHAS Kicked four field goals. Lombardi's last game.

Lt. Col. Budahas stares at the faces before him, searching the eyes of his inquisitors; an inscrutable expression. He seems inappropriately docile. Mulder rises, looks at Mrs. Budahas. Mrs. Budahas has to turn away. Scully moves to comfort her.

MRS. BUDAHAS It's not him.

CLOSE ON AGENT MULDER at a loss to ascertain the exact nature of Mrs. Budahas' certainty. Until he notices the model airplanes he's building.

MULDER You're a pilot aren't you, Colonel Budahas?

LT. COL. BUDAHAS Yes, sir.

MULDER Probably flown everything with two wings.

The man shrugs, as if the question is absurd.

MULDER I heard a real hotshot pilot once say he'd done an Immelman at a sustained 8 Gs. Is that possible?

Lt. Col. Budahas begins to have a reaction. As if he is all of the sudden straining to answer this question. Beads of sweat develop on his brow.

LT. COL. BUDAHAS I don't ... I can't ... uh ... (to his wife) Anita. I can't remember.

Lt. Col. Budahas starts to panic. He gets up out his chair knocking over the TV tray and the model of the plane. Moving towards his wife, trying to reach out for her. He's anguished, he can't remember. Mrs. Budahas is frightened. She puts her hands over her mouth and starts to cry. As we:

CUT TO:

EXT. BUDAHAS RESIDENCE - MORNING - SHORTLY AFTER

Mulder is out of the house like a shot, Scully trailing. Heading for the car.

174

SCULLY Would you explain to me what is going on?!

MULDER I think they rewired that man's brain, Scully. Some kind of selective memory drain.

SCULLY The brain doesn't work like that, Mulder. You can't just go in and erase certain files.

MULDER Then you explain it to me.

SCULLY There are types of amnesia -

MULDER This isn't amnesia. I think this is something far more deliberate and insidious.

SCULLY All I'm saying is that the science or medical technology to do what you're suggesting does not exist.

MULDER Neither does the technology to fly the aircraft we saw last night. (beat) I'm telling you, Scully. They can do this. That man should have known the answer to the question. It wasn't in his head anymore.

Mulder gets in the car, as does Scully. As we:

CUT TO:

EXT. RURAL ROAD - DAY - CONTINUOUS

The Agents' car passes at high speed.

INT. AGENTS' CAR - RESUME - DAY

SCULLY Even if they could, why would they do such a thing?

MULDER To control information. I think Colonel Budahas must have become a security risk. After his psychotic episode.

SCULLY It couldn't just be that he had a nervous breakdown, with a concomitant memory lapse?

MULDER I think men like Colonel Budahas are physiologically incapable of dealing with the stress of flying those aircraft we saw. Of doing those maneuvers at those speeds -

Scully shakes her head. Ever the scientist, she refuses to accept the easy answers. The speculative truths.

175

MULDER I'm talking about technology that is so sensitive and advanced that it's taken almost fifty years to make it work. Technology so valuable that they will do anything to keep it a secret. UFO technology, Scully.

Off Scully's incredulous look CAMERA RACKS FOCUS to road that stretches out in front of them. On AN APPROACHING CAR. Suddenly a 2ND CAR appears, as if it is attempting to pass the 1st car. But it does not pass. The two approaching cars bear down on Mulder and Scully, on a collision course.

SCULLY Now what the hell is this?

MULDER Hold on, Scully.

EXT. RURAL ROAD - DAY - CONTINUOUS

The Agents' car skids to a sliding stop on the two lane blacktop. As the two interceptor cars (long black ND American sedans with darkly tinted windows) pull to their own controlled halt.

Instantly, EIGHT LARGE MEN wearing dark suits and aviator sunglasses exit the interceptor cars.

INT. AGENTS I CAR - DAY - CONTINUOUS

As the Eight Men descend on them, surrounding the car. The LEAD MAN man moves to Mulder's window and raps on it.

LEAD MAN Please step out of the car.

Scully and Mulder look at one another. What the hell do you do in a situation like this?

MULDER (dryly to Scully) I guess it's too late to lock the doors.

LEAD MAN Please step out of the car.

RESUME EXT. AGENTS' CAR as Mulder and Scully exit.

MULDER (reaching for his ID) Special Agent Fox Mulder, FB -

Mulder is thrown up against the car by two of the men, his legs kicked out wide in the spread eagle position. As Scully is faced off by two other men, and though they don It touch her, they physically separate her from the car.

SCULLY We're Federal agents -

But the two men keep backing her away. As the remaining three suited men start to pore through the Agents' car.

ANGLE ON SUITED MAN removing Mulder's file folders from the rear floorboard, starts pulling at the headliner.

176

ANGLE ON ANOTHER SUITED MAN removing Mulder's camera from the trunk. He quickly, deftly pops the camera back open, removes the film cannister. Continues to rummage through the trunk. Another man dumps the contents of Scully's briefcase on the ground.

BACK ON AGENT MULDER still spread-eagled, the Lead Man standing directly behind him.

MULDER Mind telling me what this is about?

The answer to which is a hard punch to Mulder's mid-section.

LEAD MAN National security. Now get in your car. You'll be escorted back to your motel. You will pack and leave town immediately. Or assume the consequences of intense indiscretion.

Off Mulder's reaction to this blunt directive we:

SCULLY Nothing on Idaho plate CC1356? No plate registered by that number. Thanks, Gail. No, I'm sure the other one is bogus, too.

Scully hangs up. CAMERA ADJUST TO REVEAL Mulder lying on the other twin bed, staring at the ceiling, hands behind his head.

SCULLY So who WERE those guys?

MULDER I don't think it was those kids that were being chased away from the base last night. I think it was us. They knew we were coming before we ever arrived. They returned Colonel Budahas as a decoy. (turning to her) There's something I didn't tell you, Scully.

SCULLY Something else?

MULDER I was approached by a man back in D.C. He warned me to stay away from this case. He wouldn't give me his name. And my phone was being tapped.

SCULLY What?!

Mulder sits up on the bed, fueled with a passionate belief in what he's about to tell Scully.

MULDER Why is someone going to all this trouble, Scully? Out of a need for security? Security of what?

Scully has no idea. But Mulder is on his feet now, thinking out loud.

177

MULDER I think there's a huge conspiracy here. They have a UFO here, Scully! I'm sure of it! Including sacrifice the lives and minds of those pilots. Because what if that secret got out?

SCULLY IF - IF it were true ... it would be a national scandal -

MULDER No! You're not thinking big enough! It would be a confirmation of the existence of extraterrestrial life!

Scully stares at Mulder. Wondering if he's lost it.

SCULLY Did you ever stop to think that what we saw was simply some experimental plane. Like the Stealth Bomber or this Aurora Project. And that the government has every right to want to secure the technology. Doesn't the government have a right and a responsibility to protect its secrets?

MULDER Yes. But at what cost? When is the human cost too high for building a better machine?

SCULLY These aren't questions we have any business asking. Our kidnap victim is no longer outstanding. Let's get out of here, Mulder. While you still have a job.

MULDER (pushing her) Aren't you even curious, Scully?

Mulder holds up the UFO picture he purchased in the diner. She gives him a weary look. But Mulder is serious. She, however, won't be drawn further in. He finally shrugs.

MULDER I'm going to take a shower. I'll pack and we'll head out.

Scully nods, wearied by the entire experience. Mulder moves to the door and exits.

Scully starts into the bathroom but stops - hearing A CAR STARTING. AN ENGINE REVVING. As we:

EXT. BEACHGROVE MOTEL - DAY - CONTINUOUS

Scully comes out of her motel room just in time to see Mulder backing the rental car away from the building.

SCULLY Mulder!

But he pays her no heed. He throws the car in drive and screeches out of the parking lot. As we:

EXT. ELLENS AIR BASE PERIMETER FENCE - DAY - LATER

Mulder is moving along the fence with Emil and Zoe. As they come to the hole in the chain link covered by brush. Mulder bends, slips through the hole to the other side. He looks back at Emil and Zoe who are hesitating.

178

MULDER Are you coming?

EMIL We've never - we've only gone in at night.

Mulder takes a beat to consider.

MULDER How far in is this spot you told me about? Where you watch the airshow?

EMIL Forty five minutes ... ?

Zoe nods.

MULDER Will I be able to find it?

ZOE Just stay on the path.

Mulder nods, turns to go, then stops.

MULDER And what about this other place: Yellow Base. Where they hangar them?

EMIL Don't even. It's like ... ten miles. No one's ever been that far in.

ZOE Don't go past the edge of the tall weeds.

Mulder nods appreciatively then starts off. Emil and Zoe watch him moving away, then Emil remembers:

EMIL (to Zoe) Oh man. Did we tell him about the landmines and junk? (calling out to Mulder) Hey!

But Mulder is moving out, not responding. Emil hangs on the fence, a look of sudden un-Emil-like concern washing over him.

EMIL Oh man. This is extreme.

Off Emil and Zoe's worried looks we:

CUT TO:

EXT. ELLENS AIR BASE - MAGIC HOUR

Mulder moves by himself through the tall weeds, coming finally to an area where the weeds have been mown down. A clear line of demarcation. Past this line Mulder would have to move out in the open. He'd be easily seen or spotted.

With light still in the sky Mulder considers going on, but thinks better of it. He kneels down at the edge of the tall weeds and waits, as we:

179

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. ELLENS AIR BASE - NIGHT - LATER

Where, under cover of darkness, Mulder is moving out across the flat mown expanse, coming shortly to another tall wall of weeds which he enters and:

NEW ANGLE as Mulder exits the weeds, AND CAMERA REVEALS:

ANGLE ON RUNWAY (EXT. RUNWAY -- NIGHT) demarcated by small landing lights which run the length of the tarmac.

Mulder steps onto the landing strip, stands waiting for something to happen.

CLOSE ON MULDER staring up into the night sky, when suddenly he whips his head around and his eyes widen in wonder.

WIDE REVERSE ANGLE to include Mulder, standing in the middle of the landing strip as A BALL OF LIGHT comes low off the horizon.

The Ball of Light grows bigger and brighter as it comes. It appears at first as if it is going to land. But the aircraft holds its low altitude and aspect as it draws down on Mulder; the Ball of Light coming into sharper resolution the nearer it gets. Until-

It flies right over Mulder - STOPPING ON A DIME DIRECTLY ABOVE HIM. HOVERING ALMOST MOTIONLESS AND WHISPER QUIET JUST SEVERAL HUNDRED YARDS OVERHEAD. It is triangular in shape. There is nary a surface detail, the skin of the plane/craft/ship is smooth and black. It's underwing running lights playing off the landscape and Mulder's face when -

Suddenly A BEAM OF LIGHT is emitted from the underside of the craft. Pinning Mulder directly in the center.

CLOSE ON MULDER trapped in the intense blue glow of the beam - a re-creation of all the classic UFO encounter reports. Mulder has to shield his eyes the light is so bright.

WIDE ANGLE ON RUNWAY as the beam disappears in an instant. Though the craft continues to hover for another moment before - TAKING OFF AT A PERFECT RIGHT ANGLE TO THE RUNWAY. That is, the craft appears to have unrestricted mobility, its triangular shape allowing it multidirectional flight.

ON MULDER watching the aircraft move rapidly away, becoming once again a ball of light on the horizon. But this spectacular moment is interrupted by something which causes him to direct his attention o.s.

MULDER'S POV racing toward him from the far end of the tarmac are VEHICLES, their flashing light bars brilliant against the dark night sky.

RESUME MULDER as he begins to run - the pursuing vehicles rapidly gaining on him in the b.g. Lenny Kravitz's opening guitar riff from the song on Emil and Zoe's tape begins to play.

180

Mulder is now in a full out sprint down the runway. The pursuing vehicles swiftly closing the gap.

CLOSE ON MULDER as he sprints, sucking for air. As the lights from the approaching vehicles grow large and bright, until they fill the frame behind him. A loud SIREN sounds, causing Mulder to stop, look back. And then exit side of frame, running in a new direction. As we:

RACK FOCUS on the vehicles in the b.g. They have stopped and SIX MEN in military fatigues have climbed out, running in pursuit of Mulder.

PANNING WITH MULDER as he runs through the low scrub brush. But even as he does, the six Men appear in the f.g and b.g. Running apace and effectively boxing him in.

NEW ANGLE ON MULDER running to a stop. As the Six Men quickly encircle him and then move in to restrain him bodily. Though Mulder may have stopped running, he is not going to go gently into captivity.

He resists by thrashing wildly, making a short and momentary breaks from his captors. But, overpowered and outnumbered, he is soon brought to heel.

SIDE ANGLE ON PARAMEDIC-TYPE VEHICLE pulling up to the scene where the two pursuit vehicles sit with their light bars still lit up. As:

Mulder is walked into the rear of a paramedic-type military vehicle by the Six Men. Yelling at the top of his lungs. His voice becomes muffled as he disappears inside. Two of his captors exit to close the doors. Quietly, almost surgically, they have taken Mulder their prisoner. As:

The paramedic vehicle takes off and heads down the long runway. Toward - who knows where? As we:

END ACT THREE

ACT FOUR

SCULLY IS RUNNING and not for the exercise. We are:

EXT. (ZOE'S HOUSE) RESIDENTIAL STREET - NIGHT as Scully moves down the sidewalk and then up the drive of a house we should remember as the one where they dropped Zoe and Emil.

Scully moves to the front door, KNOCKS LOUDLY. Dogs begin to bark in the neighborhood.

CLOSE ON FRONT DOOR as the porch lights come on and A WOMAN answers.

WOMAN Yes.

181

SCULLY (still catching her breath) Hi. I'm looking for Emil. He must be your son.

WOMAN (an odd look) Emil's my daughter's boyfriend. Can I ask who's calling?

SCULLY (urgently) Special Agent Dana Scully, FBI. Is she here?

WOMAN You're looking for Zoe?

SCULLY Yes. Can you get her?

The Woman flashes Scully a rude look before closing the door on Scully. Several moment go by before the door opens again with a suspicious look on her face.

WOMAN She's not in her bedroom.

An answer which is basically delivered to Scully's back as she takes off running, fairly hurdling off the porch. As we:

CUT TO:

INT. PARAMEDIC-TYPE VAN - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS where Mulder has been strapped to a gurney. Immobilized. As he resists an oxygen mask being placed over his face. Muffling Mulder's voice as his eyes go wide. As he sees:

ONE OF THE SIX MEN filling a syringe from an ampoule. He quickly plunges the needle into Mulder's upper arm. As we:

CUT TO:

INT. BEACH GROVE MOTEL ROOM - EARLY MORNING

Scully on the phone, still in her running clothes.

SCULLY Hi, l've been trying to make a call to Washington D.C. but I can't seem to get a long distance line. Can you - hello? Hello?

But the phone has suddenly gone dead. Scully slams it down in frustration. Then she moves to exit, CAMERA HOLDING ON HER WAIST HOLSTER, SERVICE REVOLVER, lying on the bed.

CUT TO:

INT. LARGE OPEN BUILDING - EARLY MORNING

A hangar or a warehouse. The paramedic vehicle is backed into a garage door. Mulder's gurney is being unloaded from the vehicle by The Six Men.

The gurney is then wheeled through the warehouse where, AS CAMERA ADJUSTS, we see in the b.g.:

182

A LARGE DARK OBJECT OCCUPYING ONE HALF OF THE BUILDING shrouded by large sheets of plastic that are draped from the ceiling. Illuminated from inside, creating a kind of translucent womb. The shapes of men working inside can be seen through the plastic, but the exact nature of their work and of the object is obscured. As we:

CUT TO:

INT. MOTEL LOBBY - EARLY MORNING - LATER where THE MOTEL MANAGER is behind the counter as Scully enters.

SCULLY Excuse me. There seems to be something wrong with my phone. Can I use yours to make a credit card call?

MANAGER Sure thing.

He hands Scully the phone and she dials, not noticing AN ND SEDAN PULLING INTO THE PARKING LOT OUTSIDE.

CLOSE ON SCULLY

As the manager hands her the phone. She picks it up, but realizes it's not working either.

SCULLY This isn't working either.

MANAGER Phones are pretty undependable around her. People say it's military interference. But they say that about everything.

Scully's had her fill, of course, about the subject of military interference. She moves to exit, over:

MANAGER I'll be back in about twenty if you need anything.

EXT. MOTEL BREEZEWAY - CONTINUOUS as she walks back to her room, slowing when she sees:

ANGLE ON PAUL MOSSINGER the "reporter", exiting the door of ROOM 5. Her room. Mossinger sees her and dials up a big smile.

MOSSINGER Hi. I was just looking for you.

ANGLE TO INCLUDE SCULLY

MOSSINGER I knocked, but I saw the door was open ...

Scully is watching Mossinger with extreme caution as she slowly moves up the breezeway. She instinctively reaches for her weapon - but it's not there.

She looks through the window into her room SCULLY'S POV - HER GUN IS NO LONGER ON THE BED.

183

SCULLY (vamping) I was in the lobby trying to make a call ...

MOSSINGER Phones down again?

As he says this we hear A BURST OF STATIC from an unseen walkie talkie in Mossinger's car. Scully freezes when she hears it. She and Mossinger lock eyes. Then:

SCULLY bolts. Making a beeline for Mossinger's car. She throws the door open and jumps inside. Closing the door and locking it as Mossinger comes around, feigning surprise.

MOSSINGER What are you doing?

INT. MOSSINGER'S CAR - CONTINUOUS

Scully knocks the walkie talkie to the floor as she lunges over to lock the other door. Mossinger is bending down, peering in the window as Scully reaches for keys to the car. But they're not in the ignition.

MOSSINGER Excuse me -

Scully looks over at Mossinger, who is now rapping lightly on the window with a curious smile. And in this context her manic behavior seems absolutely incongruous. Has SHE lost it? She reaches up now to the glove box.

MOSSINGER There's nothing in there.

Scully fumbles trying to get in the glove box, and when the small door finally falls opens - A SEMI-AUTOMATIC HANDGUN is lying inside. Atop a piece of MILITARY ID. When:

SUDDENLY THE WINDOW NEXT TO HER SHATTERS.

Scully grabs for the gun but Mossinger's hand and arm shoot in, grabbing for it too. And when Scully finally gets ahold of the gun, Mossinger is trying to grab her. Trying now to wrest it from her grasp.

But Scully wriggles free, managing to scoot across the console toward the other door, out of Mossinger's reach. Mossinger throws open the door now, LUNGING inside the car after Scully. As she attempts to get out the opposite door. Mossinger grabs at and gets ahold of a piece of her clothing but it slips from his grip. As:

Scully tumbles out the other door.

EXT. MOTOR LODGE - EARLY MORNING - CONTINUOUS as Scully struggles to get to her feet. Mossinger is out of the car now, coming quickly around the vehicle after her. But Scully gets to her feet, rises up and wheels on Mossinger as he moves on her. And suddenly:

MOSSINGER HAS A GUN IN HIS FACE, Scully gripping the weapon with both hands, shaking with adrenalin.

SCULLY Get back! Against the car! Hands on the car! Do it!

Mossinger is slow to respond - backing away from Scully.

184

MOSSINGER Put the gun down and we'll talk about it.

SCULLY I said hands on the car!

Mossinger slowly obeys, turning and placing his hands on the fender of the car. Scully KICKS his legs apart (all that training at the academy finally paying off) so that Mossinger is spread eagled.

Scully has the gun in the small of Mossinger's back as she removes his wallet from his pants pocket.

SCULLY Who are you?

MOSSINGER You're a long way from home, Dr. Scully. Nobody wants this to come to violence now.

Scully reacts to this with a start. As:

NEW ANGLE to include Emil and Zoe driving into the parking lot on the moped. They are both amazed and frightened by the scene they have come upon. Emil brings the moped to a stop several yards away.

SCULLY Where's Mulder?

EMIL We - we took him on the base.

ZOE We waited for him.

Scully presses the gun into Mossinger's back.

SCULLY Now you're going to get on that walkie talkie and find out where Mulder is.

MOSSINGER I don't think I can do that.

SCULLY Yes you can. Or I'll have every newspaper in America out here writing about your "experimental aircraft."

Scully steps back, allowing Mossinger to rise from his spread eagled position. As we:

CUT TO:

CLOSE ON MULDER'S EYE as it is lifted open and a penlight is shined in it. We are:

INT. MEDICAL FACILITY - SOME TIME LATER

185

THREE MEN IN SCRUBS, MASKS are standing over Mulder. We do not see their faces. This is a fully equipped operating room.

RESUME MULDER reacting groggily to his other eye being pulled open.

MULDER'S POV

Blurry and shifting focus on the Three Men standing over him. Each wears THICK MAGNIFYING EYEGLASSES. And is it an illusion, or are their eyes somehow - inhuman? Could it be Mulder's altered perception, a hallucination? The result of his anesthetized state?

RESUME THE MEN IN SCRUBS dropping a mysterious SILVER SOLUTION into Mulder's eyes, as we:

CUT TO:

INT. MOSSINGER'S CAR - TRAVELING - DAY

Mossinger is at the wheel. Scully sits in the back seat with the gun trained on him.

MOSSINGER There are other ways to go about this.

SCULLY Yeah. I've already seen how far you get with tears and a sad story.

EXT. ELLENS AIR BASE GATE - DAY - CONTINUOUS as Mossinger's car pulls up. TWO SENTRIES stand guard. They see his car and reach for their walkie talkies. It is not a particularly fortified-looking entrance. A small guard shack to one side. It only prevents entry to a simple two-lane road which stretches off into the distance.

INT. MOSSINGER'S CAR - DAY - CONTINUOUS

Mossinger sits motionless, the car stopped and idling twenty yards from the gate.

SCULLY What are we doing?

MOSSINGER Waiting.

Mossinger turns the car off.

SCULLY I want the car running.

MOSSINGER (starting to protest) I can't -

SCULLY I SAID START THE CAR!

Mossinger reaches back down, turns the keys in the ignition and the car starts again. Scully swivels her head around, looking for ... ? She doesn't trust Mossinger or this situation one bit.

186

SCULLY And keep your hands on the wheel where I can see them.

Mossinger slowly obeys.

MOSSINGER You do anything stupid and this situation could get big in a hurry.

SCULLY (with threatening irony) And you just keep telling yourself that.

There is a BURST OF STATIC from Mossinger's walkie talkie, followed by the transmission of a man' garbled voice which says something like: "Aanestrouse enroute. Please stand by."

As A TRUCK appears far off down the road inside base. It is heading toward Mossinger and Scully from inside the base.

EXT. GUARDED GATE.- DAY - CONTINUOUS as the same paramedic-type truck rolls up to the gate. The Sentries move to open the gate as:

Agent Mulder appears from around the back of the truck, looking dazed and disheveled.

RESUME INT. MOSSINGER'S CAR

SCULLY Leave the car running. Just step out of the car.

And she and Mossinger exit.

ANGLE TO INCLUDE MULDER coming through the gate toward Scully and Mossinger. He reacts with groggy confusion to the sight of Scully holding Mossinger at gunpoint.

SCULLY Get in the car, Mulder.

Mulder hesitates, still confused by what he's seeing.

SCULLY (forcefully) Get in the car!

Before he does, however, Mossinger turns to him.

MOSSINGER I just want to say ... anything you have seen here is equal to the protection we give it. It is you who have acted inappropriately.

And with this Mossinger turns and walks toward the gate, leaving Scully and Mulder free to go. As we:

CUT TO:

INT. MOSSINGER'S CAR - DAY

Scully looking nervously in the rear view mirror as she speeds away from the Air Base. Then she looks over at Mulder.

187

SCULLY Are you okay, Mulder?

MULDER I think so.

Mulder looks at her contritely. Then, as if to explain:

MULDER Scully... I. ..

SCULLY What ...

Suddenly Mulder starts to sputter like we saw Lt. Col. Budahas do. He's having trouble remembering something.

MULDER How did I get here.

With utter sincerity and confusion. Leaving no doubt that they have somehow messed with Mulder's head. Off Mulder's pensive expression and Scully's searching, fearful eyes, we:

CUT TO:

EXT. BUDAHAS RESIDENCE - DAY - LATER

Scully and Mulder are knocking at the front door. After a moment Mrs. Budahas answers.

MULDER Hi.

MRS. BUDAHAS (not warm) Hello.

MULDER We came by to see how your husband was doing.

MRS. BUDAHAS Oh, he's fine. He's getting much better now.

MULDER Do you think we could see him?

MRS. BUDAHAS Oh, well, he's resting now.

From inside the house we hear Lt. Col. Budahas ask, "Who is it now?" Mrs. Budahas' can't conceal her discomfort in this charade. The sadness of the lie shows in her eyes.

MRS. BUDAHAS Thank you for your concern.

And she closes the door on them.

MULDER They got to her, Scully. They were here. They must have threatened her -

188

A look of anger and impatience flashes across Scully's face.

SCULLY That's enough, Mulder!

Scully moves to the edge of the porch. She looks out over the neighborhood with its picture book houses and green lawns.

SCULLY We don't know anything, Mulder. Anything more than when we got here. (pointed) And that's what I'm going to write in my field report.

There is a moment, an acid but affirming look from Scully that says, for god sake, leave it alone, Mulder.

SCULLY Let's get out of here, Mulder. As fast as we can.

And as she walks down off the porch, we:

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. LARGE GREEN ATHLETIC FIELD - WASHINGTON D.C. - DAY

With legend over: Agent Mulder, alone in the field doing wind sprints. He's dressed in sweats. He stops to catch his breath when he notices A LONE FIGURE walking toward him from across the field.

ANGLE ON the man from the tavern who earlier warned Mulder off the case. Now and forever to be known as DEEP THROAT. As he approaches Mulder. The two men stand face to face, silently regarding each other for a moment.

DEEP THROAT Your lives may be in danger.

MULDER Why?

DEEP THROAT You've seen things that weren't to be seen. Care and discretion now is imperative. As I said I can provide you with information. But only so long as it is in my best interest to do so.

MULDER What is your interest?

DEEP THROAT The truth.

Mulder and the man have locked eyes. What is the truth?

MULDER I did see something, but ... it's gone. They took it from me. They erased it. You've got to tell me what it was.

In spite of Mulder's urgency, The Man looks off into the middle distance, measuring the thing he is about to say.

189

DEEP THROAT Mr. Mulder - why are those like yourself who believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life on earth not dissuaded by all the evidence to the contrary?

Mulder studies Deep Throat, trying to find the linear meaning in the internal and circular logic of this riddle.

MULDER Because evidence to the contrary is not entirely dissuasive.

DEEP THROAT Precisely.

Deep Throat turns, begins to walk back across the field. He stops when Mulder calls out to him.

MULDER They're here, aren't they?

DEEP THROAT Mr. Mulder, they've been here for a long, long time.

And the man turns and heads away. Off Agent Mulder, standing alone in the field, pondering the weight of it all, we:

FADE OUT:

THE END

1x02 Squeeze - transcript

Writers: Glen Morgan and James Wong Director: Harry Longstreet Air Date: 24 September 1993

Transcribed by: Not known Edited by Libby

Baltimore, Maryland

[A man leaves a restaurant. The man, dressed in a suit, walks along the street. On the other side of the road is a storm water drain. The scene with the man suddenly fades to black and white with only the man staying in color. A shape can be seen within the drain. The man stands opening the trunk of a car, as the shape in the drain gets clearer – a face with yellow eyes..]

[Later, the man steps out of an elevator and walks past some offices. The elevator doors open again but the elevator is not there. The cables in the shaft are shaking. A desklight is turned on inside an office and the man sits down, picks up the phone and dials a number.]

MRS. USHER: Hi, you've reached the Usher residence, please leave a message at the tone, thank you.

[The man picks up and shakes an ornamental snowstorm.]

MR. USHER: Hi honey, it's about 8:30 and, um, I'm gonna be here for a while. The presentation didn't go so well. Call me, I love you, bye.

[The man, Mr. Usher, then lifts up a mug from his desk and leaves his office. Meanwhile, we see a narrow ventilation shaft. One of the screws on the cover seems to unscrewing itself, and then the cover opens. The man pours himself a cup of coffee. A hand

190 emerges from the shaft. The man walks back to his office which is now dark. As he enters, the door suddenly slams shut. There are screams and the door handle moves up and down as the man tries desperately to get out of the office. Part of the door suddenly breaks outwards in the struggle and then the struggle is over.]

[Inside the office, coffee is dripping onto the carpet, the desk is scattered with papers covered in blood. In a reflection, from an object on the desk, we see the man lying dead, blood covering his face. The cover of the shaft is pulled closed and the screw re- screws itself in place.]

[main titles]

Washington, D.C.

TOM COLTON: Guess who I ran into from our class at Quantico? Marty Neil.

[Tom Colton is sitting having lunch with Dana Scully, in a restaurant.]

SCULLY: J. Edgar Jr?

COLTON: Just got bumped up, Foreign Counterintelligence, New York City Bureau, Supervisory Special Agent.

SCULLY: Supervisory.

COLTON: That's right.

SCULLY: Two years out of the academy, how'd he land that?

COLTON: Lucked into the World Trade Center bombing.

SCULLY: Well, good for Marty.

COLTON: Oh, come on Dana! The guy is a loser, look where he is now. That's where we should be.

SCULLY: Brad Wilson told me the psychological profile you wrote on the Washington Crossing Killer led them straight to the suspect. Word has it you're on the Violent Crime Section's fast track.

COLTON: So how are you doing? Have you had any close encounters of the third kind?

SCULLY: Is that what everyone thinks I do?

COLTON: No, of course not. But you do work with Spooky Mulder.

SCULLY: Mulder's ideas maybe a bit out there but he is a great agent.

COLTON: Yeah, well, I've got this case that's out there. Baltimore PD calls, they want our help on a serial killer profile. Three murders began six weeks ago, victims vary in age, race, gender, no known connections to each other.

SCULLY: I take it there's a pattern.

COLTON: Point of entry. Actually, the lack of one.

SCULLY: What do you mean?

COLTON: One victim, college girl, killed in her ten by twelve cinder-block dorm room. She was found with the windows locked and the door chained from the inside. The last incident, two days ago, high security office building, nothing on the security monitors, janitor spoke to the victim minutes before the murder, didn't hear or see a thing out of the ordinary.

SCULLY: Suicides?

[Colton picks up a photo from beside him and gives it to Scully.]

191

COLTON: Each victim was found with their liver ripped out. No cutting tools used.

SCULLY: Bare hands?

[Colton indicates yes.]

SCULLY: This looks like an X-file.

COLTON: Let's not get carried away. I'm gonna solve these murders but what I would like from you is to go over the case histories. Maybe, come down to the crime scene.

SCULLY: Do you want me to ask Mulder?

COLTON: Ok, if he wants to come and do you a favor, great. But make sure he knows this is my case. Dana, if I can break a case like this one, I'll be getting my bump up the ladder. And you, maybe you won't have to be Mrs. Spooky anymore.

[Mulder and Scully are standing in Usher's office.]

MULDER: So why didn't they ask me?

SCULLY: They're friends of mine from the academy, I'm sure they just felt more comfortable talking to me.

MULDER: Why would I make them so uncomfortable?

SCULLY: It probably has to do with your reputation.

MULDER: Reputation? I have a reputation?

SCULLY: Mulder, look. Colton plays by the book and you don't. They feel your methods, your theories are...

MULDER: Spooky? Do you think I'm spooky?

VOICE: Agent Scully's in here sir.

[Tom Colton enters.]

COLTON: Dana, sorry I'm late.

SCULLY: We just got here. Er, Fox Mulder, Tom Colton.

COLTON: So, Mulder, what do you think, does this look like the work of little green men?

MULDER: Grey.

COLTON: Excuse me.

MULDER: Grey. You said green men. A Reticulan skin tone is actually grey, they're notorious for their extraction of terrestrial human livers. Due to iron depletion in the Reticulan galaxy.

COLTON: You can't be serious.

MULDER: Do you have any idea what liver and onions go for on Reticula? Excuse me.

[Mulder walks off to look around the office. Tom can be heard talking to Scully in the background. Mulder looks down as he sees something.]

192

COLTON: Dana, I've been thinking about this and I have a theory, might explain a lot, tell me what you think.

[Mulder bends down to pick up, using tweezers, what looks like a piece of metal thread.]

COLTON: What if the guy enters...

[Mulder looks at the thread and then looks up and sees the cover to the ventilation shaft.]

COLTON: Hold on a second. What in the hell's he doing?

[Mulder lifts up a small brush and dusts around the cover.]

COLTON: Uh, that vent is six inches by about eighteen, even if a Reticulan could crawl through, it's screwed in place.

[Mulder has revealed an elongated fingerprint.]

[In the X-Files office, Mulder has several slides on a lightbox showing fingerprints.]

MULDER: This is the print I took yesterday from Usher's office, these others are from an X-file. Ten murders, Baltimore area, undetermined points of entry, each victim had their liver removed. These prints were discovered at five of the ten crime scenes.

SCULLY: Ten murders, Colton never mentioned...

MULDER: Most likely he's not aware of them. These two prints were lifted five years before he was born at Powhattan Mill. And these three were lifted probably five years before his mother was even born.

SCULLY: Are you saying, these prints are from the 1960s and the 1930s?

MULDER: And fingerprinting was just coming into its own in 1903, but there was a murder involving an extracted liver.

SCULLY: Of course.

[Scully wheels her chair away from the table and stands up.]

MULDER: Now that's five murders every thirty years. That makes two more to go this year.

SCULLY: You're saying these are copy-cats.

MULDER: What did we learn our first day at the academy, Scully? Each fingerprint is unique, these are a perfect match.

SCULLY: Are you suggesting that I go before the Violent Crime Section and present a profile declaring that these murders were done by aliens?

MULDER: No, of course not, I find no evidence of alien involvement.

SCULLY: Well, what then? That, that this is the work of a hundred year old serial killer who is capable of overpowering a healthy six foot two businessman.

MULDER: And he should stick out in a crowd with ten inch fingers.

SCULLY: Look, bottom line, this is Colton's case.

[Mulder get up and stands beside Scully.]

MULDER: Our X-file dates back to 1903, we had it first.

193

SCULLY: Mulder, they don't want you involved. They don't want to hear your theories. That's why Blevins has you hidden away down here.

MULDER: You're down here too. Look, why don't we agree to this, they'll have their investigation, we'll have ours and never the twain shall meet. Agreed?

[In her apartment, Scully is typing up her report from a tape recording of her views.]

SCULLY: After a careful review of the violent and powerful nature of these murders, I believe the killer to be a male, twenty- five to thirty-five years of age, with above average intelligence.

[She has the blueprints of a building, probably of the floor where George Usher worked.]

SCULLY: His matter of entry has so far been undetectable. This may be due to his superior knowledge of the inner structure of buildings and duct works. Or that he in fact hides in plain sight, posing as delivery or maintenance workers.

[Scully lifts up a slide of an elongated fingerprint and looks at it.]

SCULLY: The extraction of the liver is the most significant detail of these crimes. The liver possesses regenerative qualities. It cleanses the blood.

[Scully's report continues but now she is telling it to Tom Colton and his superiors in a meeting.]

SCULLY: The taking of this trophy is the transferring act for the killer to cleanse himself of his own impurities. I think he is acting under the classic form of obsessive compulsive behavior. Now since the victims are unrelated, and we cannot predict who will be next, we must utilize the fact that a killer will not always succeed in finding a victim. When this occurs, a serial killer may return in frustration to the sight of a previous murder, hoping to recapture the emotional high. I think our best course of action is to target these sites.

DET. JOHNSON: Good job, Agent Scully. If there are no objections, I'd like to begin our stakeouts of the murder sites tonight. We're looking for a male, twenty-five to thirty-five, possibly wearing a uniform, gas company, UPS, whatever. I know you're assigned to another area Scully, but if you don't mind some overtime, you're welcome to come aboard with us on this. Um, that is if you don't mind working in an area that's a bit more down-to-earth.

[There's general laughter, but not from Scully.]

Crime Scene, 7:15 p.m.

[Scully is sitting in a car on a floor of the car park of the earlier victim's office building.]

WALKIE-TALKIE: Position ten, do you check?

SCULLY: Position ten, I copy.

[Then Scully hears noises and gets out of the car and removes her gun. She walks forward to a wall and we hear the sound of someone running. As a man jumps through a large circular hole in the wall, Scully points her gun at him. It's Mulder, who stops and raises his hands. Scully quickly points her gun at the ceiling.]

MULDER: You wouldn't shoot an unarmed man, would ya, copper?

[Scully walks back to her car.]

SCULLY: Mulder, what the hell are you doing here?

194

MULDER: He's not coming back here. His thrill is derived from the challenge of a seemingly impossible entry. He's already beaten this place. If you'd read the X-file on the case, you'd come to the same conclusion.

SCULLY: Mulder, you are jeopardizing my stakeout.

MULDER: Seeds?

[Mulder holds up a bag he is carrying.]

MULDER: You're wasting your time, I'm going home.

[Mulder leaves and Scully gets back into the car. As Mulder is walking away he hears some noises, he stands behind a pillar but sees no one. He walks towards a caged-off area of the car park and sees movement inside a ventilation duct. Mulder runs back to Scully.]

MULDER: Scully, call for backup and get over here.

SCULLY: [into walkie-talkie] Position ten requesting backup.

[Scully gets out of the car and runs over to Mulder, who is standing at a wall looking at the area with the ventilation ducts.]

MULDER: In there.

[Mulder and Scully run over to the cage, and seeing the movement for herself, Scully points her gun at the duct.]

SCULLY: Federal Agent, I'm armed. Proceed down the vent, slowly.

[A foot kicks open the duct hatch and a man exits, he slowly stands up and turns around holding his hands up. Several agents come running to the scene.]

COLTON: Take him.

AGENT: Alright, move, move, move.

AGENT 2: FBI.

AGENT: Don't move, don't move, get your hands up, keep 'em up.

AGENT 2: You're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent...

[Mulder walks over to Scully.]

MULDER: You were right.

[In the background we can hear an agent reading the man his rights.]

FBI Bureau Baltimore, Maryland

[The man arrested is taking a polygraph test, the examiner is marking the parts of the printout that are the man's answers.]

EXAMINER: Is your full name Eugene Victor Tooms?

TOOMS: Yes.

EXAMINER: Are you a resident of the state of Maryland?

TOOMS: Yes.

195

EXAMINER: Are you an employee of the Baltimore Municipal Animal Control?

TOOMS: Yes.

EXAMINER: Is it your intent to lie to me about anything here today?

TOOMS: No.

EXAMINER: Were you ever enrolled in college?

[We see that the test is being watched from another room through a two-way mirror.]

TOOMS: Yes.

EXAMINER: Were you ever enrolled in medical school?

TOOMS: No.

[Watching the test are Agents Mulder, Scully, Colton, Det. Johnson and a guard.]

EXAMINER: Have you ever removed a liver from a human being?

TOOMS: No.

EXAMINER: Have you ever killed a living creature?

TOOMS: Yes.

EXAMINER: Have you ever killed a human being?

TOOMS: No.

EXAMINER: Were you ever in George Usher's office?

TOOMS: No.

EXAMINER: Did you kill George Usher?

TOOMS: No.

EXAMINER: Are you over one hundred years old?

COLTON: That must be a control question.

MULDER: I had her ask it.

TOOMS: No.

EXAMINER: Have you ever been to Powhattan Mill?

TOOMS: Yes.

EXAMINER: In 1933?

[Colton is exasperated.]

TOOMS: No.

196

EXAMINER: Are you afraid you might fail this test?

TOOMS: Well, yes, because I didn't do anything.

[The test is over and now the examiner and the agents are discussing the results in the test room.]

EXAMINER: He nailed it, A plus. As far as I'm concerned, the subject did not kill those two people.

[Mulder gets up and checks the results himself. Det. Johnson comes in.]

DET. JOHNSON: Maintenance people at the office building confirm the call to animal control regarding a bad smell. They found a dead cat in the ventilation ducts on the second floor.

COLTON: Well, that's that.

SCULLY: It still doesn't explain what he was doing there that late at night.

DET. JOHNSON: So, he's one of the few civil servants we have with initiative, and we busted him for it.

SCULLY: He was crawling up an air duct, by himself, without alerting security.

COLTON: Dana, he passed the test, his story checks out, he's not the guy. It doesn't mean that your profile's incorrect.

MULDER: Scully's right, it is the guy.

DET. JOHNSON: Whatta you got, Mulder?

MULDER: He lied on questions eleven and thirteen, his electrodermal and cardiographic response nearly go off the chart.

DET. JOHNSON: Is number eleven, the hundred year old question? Well, let me tell ya, I had a reaction to that stupid question. And what the hell is this Powhattan Mill thing.

MULDER: Two murders with matching MOs occurred in Powhattan Mill in 1933, just look at the chart.

EXAMINER: My interpretation of those reactions...

DET. JOHNSON: I don't need you or that machine telling me if Tooms was alive in '33.

MULDER: He's the guy.

DET. JOHNSON: I'm letting him go.

[Det. Johnson and the examiner leave the room, Tom turns to Scully.]

COLTON: You comin'?

SCULLY: Tom, I want to thank you for letting me put in some time with the VCS, but I am officially assigned to the X-files.

COLTON: I'll see what I can do about that.

SCULLY: Tom, I can look out for myself.

COLTON: You said Mulder was out there, that guy's insane.

[Tom leaves and Scully turns to look at Mulder.]

[Mulder and Scully are walking through an office floor of the bureau.]

197

SCULLY: You knew they wouldn't believe you, why did you push it?

MULDER: Maybe I thought you caught the right guy. And maybe I run into so many people who are hostile just because they can't open their minds to the possibilities, that sometimes the need to mess with their heads outweighs the millstone of humiliation.

[They stop at the bottom of some stairs.]

SCULLY: It seems like you were acting very territorial. I don't know, forget it.

[Scully goes to turn away but Mulder stops her, he is touching Scully's necklace.]

MULDER: Of course I was. In our investigations you may not always agree with me but at least you respect the journey. And if you want to continue working with them, I won't hold it against you.

[Mulder starts up the stairs and after a brief pause, Scully follows.]

SCULLY: Er, I don't know, you must have something more than your polygraph interpretation to backup this bizarre theory and I have to see what it is.

[Mulder is looking at the arrest record of Eugene Tooms on computer.]

MULDER: These are Eugene Tooms' prints.

[Mulder isolates the left middle finger print and discards the rest for a fingerprint analysis.]

MULDER: This is the fingerprint they took from Usher's office.

[Mulder brings up one of the elongated fingerprints.]

MULDER: It matches the old ones from the X-files. Obviously no match, but what if, somehow...

[Mulder stretches it lengthways, then squashes Tooms' print sideways. Next he overlaps the two prints on screen, a readout shows a match of one hundred percent.]

SCULLY: How could that be?

MULDER: Only thing I know for certain is, they let him go.

[It is a dark night and a car pulls into a driveway. As it gets closer to the house, a motion sensor light comes on. A pair of yellow eyes is watching from the bushes. As the man gets out of the car and walks around it, all color again fades to black and white except for the man.]

[Eugene Tooms jogs from the bushes to the side of the house and looks in a window. The man enters the room, and Tooms backs off as the man gets closer to the window. Tooms then runs to another part of the house and looks up, he starts climbing the wall. Inside the house, the man checks through some envelopes and takes off his jacket. Tooms has made it up the wall and pulls himself onto the roof beside the chimney stack, which he enters by stretching his body to fit.]

[The man walking from the kitchen, with a drink in his hand, enters the living room and stands by the mantel drinking his drink. The man puts his drink on the mantel and straightens a small glass container. He bends down and opens the doors to the fire, he then strikes a long match and tries to light some paper in the fire. From the shadows of the room, emerges Tooms. As the man turns around, Tooms jumps on him and pushes him onto the floor. The man is kicking, trying to get up, but loses the struggle. The meager flame on the newspaper goes out.]

198

[It is daytime and Detective Fuller is stretching a measuring tape across the murdered man's living room.]

FULLER: Sixty-four inches from the south wall.

COLTON: Let's run a check on liver transplants in the next twenty-four hours, maybe this thing is black market.

FULLER: C'mon, it was ripped outta there.

COLTON: Look at this point, I'm willing to give any theory a shot.

[He sees Mulder and Scully enter the house.]

COLTON: Any sane theory, I'm sorry Dana but I only want qualified members of the investigating team at the crime scene.

MULDER: What's the matter, Colton, you worried I'm gonna solve your case?

[Mulder goes to walk further into the house but Colton stops him.]

SCULLY: Tom. We have authorized access to this crime scene. A report of you obstructing another officer's investigation might stick out on your personnel file.

[Colton lets Mulder enter.]

COLTON: Look Dana, whose side are you on?

SCULLY: The victim's.

FULLER: A hundred and five inches from the fireplace.

[Mulder looks at a single elongated fingerprint that has been dusted on the front of the mantel.]

SCULLY: The victim is a Thomas Werner, single, white..

MULDER: It's Tooms.

[Mulder points to the fingerprint, and also notices four small prints on top of the mantel.]

MULDER: And he took something.

[Mulder is looking through a microfiche reader of a county census from 1903, and finds the name Eugene Victor Tooms. Scully enters the room.]

SCULLY: Baltimore PD checked out Tooms' apartment, it was a cover. No one has ever lived there and he hasn't shown up for work since he was arrested.

MULDER: I found him. How do we learn about the present? We look to the past. I think this is where it all began in 1903 on Exeter Street.

[Mulder points to the address of Tooms on screen.]

MULDER: Now look at the address of that first murder in 1903.

[Scully lifts up the file on this case.]

199

SCULLY: Apartment 203. He killed the guy above him.

MULDER: Maybe, his neighbor played the Victrola too loud.

SCULLY: Well, this must be Tooms' great grandfather.

MULDER: What about the prints?

SCULLY: Genetics might explain the patterns, it also might explain the sociopathic attitudes and behaviors. It begins with one family member, who raises an offspring, who raises the next child.

MULDER: So what is this, the Anti-Waltons.

SCULLY: Well, what do you think?

MULDER: I think what we have to do is track Eugene Tooms, there's four down and one to go this year. If we don't get him right now, the next chance is in, uh .....

SCULLY: 2023.

MULDER: And you're gonna be head of the bureau by then. So I think you have to go through the census, I'm gonna plough through this century's marriage, birth, death certificates, and... You have any Dramamine on you by any chance 'cos these things make me seasick.

[Mulder and Scully go through the information for hours.]

MULDER: Anything?

SCULLY: Nope, he disappeared off the face of the earth. You?

MULDER: Never was born, never married, never died.

SCULLY: At least in Baltimore County. Oh, I did find one thing though, um, it's the current address of the investigating officer at the Powhattan Mill murders in 1933.

Lynne Acres Retirement Home Baltimore, Maryland

[Sitting in front of Mulder and Scully is an old man, Frank Briggs, in a wheelchair.]

BRIGGS: I've waited twenty-five years for you.

SCULLY: Sir?

BRIGGS: I called it quits, in 1968 after forty-five years as a cop. And those killings at Powhattan Mill. I was a sheriff then and I'd seen my share of murders, bloody ones. But I could go home and pitch a few baseballs to my kid and never give it a second thought, you gotta be able to do that. You'd go crazy, right? But those murders in Powhattan Mill, when I walked into that room, my heart went cold, my hands numbed. I could feel, IT.

MULDER: Feel what, Frank?

BRIGGS: When I first heard about the death camps in 1945, I remembered Powhattan Mill. When I see the Kurds and the Bosnians, that room is there, I tell you. It's like all the horrible acts that humans are capable of somehow gave birth to some kind of human monster. That's why I say I've been waiting for you. Aah, there's a box in the trunk here, get it for me would you please.

[Mulder lifts a box out of the trunk and puts it on the bed, Frank wheels himself to it.]

200

BRIGGS: Now this, is all the evidence I've collected, officially and unofficially.

SCULLY: Unofficially?

BRIGGS: I knew the murders in '63 were by the same person as in '33. But by then they had me on a desk pushing papers and they wouldn't let me anywhere near the case.

[Scully lifts a jar out of the box and looks in it.]

SCULLY: A piece of the removed liver?

BRIGGS: Yes, but you know, that's not the only trophy he took with him. Family members reported small personal effects missing in each case. A hairbrush in the Walters murder, a coffee mug in the Taylor murder.

MULDER: Have you ever heard the name, Eugene Victor Tooms?

BRIGGS: Humh, when they wouldn't bring me aboard in '63 I, I did some of my own work. I took these surveillance pictures. This is Tooms.

[Briggs shows some photos to Mulder and Scully.]

BRIGGS: Course, that was him thirty years ago.

[Briggs takes out another photo and shows it to Mulder.]

BRIGGS: And this is the apartment where he lived. It was located at..

MULDER: 66 Exeter Street?

BRIGGS: Right. That's it, right there.

[We see the photo of where Tooms lived. The photo changes to reality as Mulder and Scully go there.]

[Mulder and Scully pull up to 66 Exeter Street in their car. They enter the building. It is a run down empty building.]

SCULLY: Here's 103.

[They enter the room.]

MULDER: The old man was right, you can feel it.

[They look around the room.]

SCULLY: There's nothing here.

MULDER: Check this out.

[Mulder pushes down a mattress that is standing against the wall. Behind it is a large hole in the wall.]

MULDER: What's down here?

[Scully peers in.]

SCULLY: I don't know.

201

[Scully puts her gun away and enters the hole.]

SCULLY: Let's find out.

[Scully climbs down a ladder, followed by Mulder and they shine their torches into the darkness.]

SCULLY: Just an old coal cellar.

[As they look further in the cellar, they come across a table full of objects.]

MULDER: Somebody having a garage sale?

[Mulder picks up a small glass container.]

MULDER: This is the shape on Werner's mantel.

SCULLY: Frank said he collected trophies.

[Mulder shines his flashlight on a strange-looking wall.]

MULDER: Does he live in here?

SCULLY: It looks like the wall's deteriorating.

MULDER: No, somebody made it.

[Mulder and Scully make their way to the part of the room where the wall looks like it's crumbling.]

MULDER: This is a nest. Look, it's made out of rags and newspapers.

SCULLY: This looks like the opening. Think there's anything inside?

[Mulder feels the opening and gets a slimy substance on his hand.]

SCULLY: Oh my God, Mulder. It smells like, I think it's bile.

MULDER: Is there any way I can get it off my fingers quickly without betraying my cool exterior?

[Mulder quickly flicks the stuff off his fingers.]

SCULLY: No one could live in this.

MULDER: I don't think it's where he lives. I think it's where he hibernates.

SCULLY: Hibernates?

MULDER: Just listen, what if some genetic mutation could allow a man to awaken every thirty years.

SCULLY: Mulder.

MULDER: And what if the five livers could provide him sustenance for that period. What if Tooms is some kind of twentieth century genetic mutant.

SCULLY: In any case, he's not here now and he's gotta come back.

MULDER: Well we're gonna need a surveillance team.

SCULLY: Yeah, that'll take some finagling.

202

MULDER: Well you go down town and see what you can finagle and I'll keep watch.

[Mulder and Scully get up and walk back towards the opening of the cellar. Scully stops suddenly.]

SCULLY: Oh, wait, I'm snagged on something. Oh, it's ok, I got it.

[As Scully continues forward, a hand appears from within the rafters and opens its hand, Scully's necklace dangling from it. Tooms is in the rafters.]

66 Exeter St., 11:30 a.m.

[Mulder is sitting in his car when one of the back doors open and another agent gets in. Another one gets in the front.]

MULDER: It's about time.

KENNEDY: So, who're we looking for again?

MULDER: Eugene Tooms, he's unarmed but consider him dangerous. Scully and I'll be back to relieve you in eight hours if he doesn't show, right here.

KRAMER: You got it, Spooky.

[Mulder gets out of the car as the two agents are laughing.]

[Scully is sitting in a room at the bureau. Colton comes in.]

COLTON: We have to talk.

SCULLY: I have to meet Mulder..

COLTON: That's what we have to talk about. You're using two of my men to sit in front of a building that's been condemned for ten years!

SCULLY: It isn't in any way interfering with your investigation.

COLTON: When we first had lunch, I really looked forward to working with you, you were a good agent, But now, after Mulder, I couldn't have you far enough away. Don't bother going down there, I had the stakeout called off.

SCULLY: You can't do that.

COLTON: No, I can't but my regional ASAC can, especially after I told them about the irresponsible waste in man hours.

[Scully picks up the phone but before she can phone Mulder, Tom takes the phone off her.]

COLTON: Uh-uh! Let me call Mulder, let me tell him the news.

SCULLY: Is this what it takes to climb the ladder, Colton?

COLTON: All the way to the top.

SCULLY: Then I can't wait 'til you fall off and land on your ass.

[Colton phones Mulder.]

[MULDER'S ANSWER MACHINE] This is Fox Mulder, I'm not here, leave a message.

203

[Scully pulls up outside her apartment. From the darkness we can see the eyes of Tooms, watching. Scully walks from her car to her apartment block and Tooms sees it all in black and white.]

66 Exeter St. 7:25 p.m

[Mulder pulls up in his car.]

MULDER: Where is everyone? Scully?

[Mulder has a quick look around and then runs and enters the building.]

[Back at Scully's apartment.]

[MULDER'S ANSWER MACHINE] This is Fox Mulder, I'm not here, leave a message.

SCULLY: Mulder, you must've gone out since Colton gave us the night off. I say we file a complaint against him, I am furious. Call me when you get in, ok, bye.

[Scully is in her bathroom, after hanging up, she runs a bath. Scully walks out of the bathroom and outside the window we see Tooms reach up and feel the window.]

[Meanwhile, Mulder is in the cellar below Tooms' apartment. As he looks at the table with the trophies from the murders, he sees and recognizes Scully's necklace.]

MULDER: Dammit.

[Scully is back in her bathroom, she lifts a towel off the rack and goes over to the bath and turns off the taps. She lifts a small bottle from a shelf and moves to the side of the bath to open it. As she opens it, a lump of bile falls from the ceiling and splashes on her hand. She breathes deeply, in shock, and then looks up at the vent in the ceiling, there is bile around one corner of it. Scully rushes out of the bathroom and looks for her gun in the apartment.]

[Mulder is driving his car and using his phone.]

MULDER: Dammit, answer!

[But the phone line to Scully's apartment has been cut.]

[Scully is moving about her apartment, with her gun, searching for Tooms. She enters a room and turns, pointing her gun at a small vent near the floor. As Scully turns away from the vent, a hand comes crashing through and grabs Scully's leg causing her to fall. We see the face of Tooms in the vent as well. Scully manages to grab hold of a door frame and pull herself from Tooms' grasp.]

[Mulder pulls up outside Scully's apartment block.]

[Tooms forces himself out through the vent and Scully, on the floor, backs off into the bathroom. Tooms gets up and follows her in and sits on her. Scully tries to hit Tooms but he blocks it, but she punches him with her other hand.]

[Mulder races into the building.]

[Scully pushes her thumbs into the eyes of Tooms, but he grabs her arms and pushes them to the floor above her head, exposing her stomach.]

[Mulder breaks open Scully's door, and rushes in.]

MULDER: Scully!!

204

[Tooms, hearing Mulder, gets off Scully and breaks the bathroom window. Mulder comes into the bathroom and points his gun at Tooms. Scully gets up and grabs Tooms before he can get out the window, but Tooms grabs Scully by the throat and tries to choke her. As he does this, Mulder puts handcuffs on one of Tooms' wrists. Tooms elbows Mulder, knocking him to the ground, and turns to advance on him. Scully grabs the handcuffs, stopping him from getting closer to Mulder and then pulls the handcuffs to the bath taps. Scully feeds the handcuffs through the taps, Tooms tries to stop her, but Scully grabs his other hand and fastens it in the other handcuff. Mulder gets up and points his gun at Tooms, who is tugging at the handcuffs.]

MULDER: You alright?

[Scully is leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. She manages a nod of the head.]

MULDER: He's not gonna get his quota this year.

[Tooms stops pulling at the handcuffs and accepts defeat.]

[In the Retirement Home, Frank Briggs is reading an article on the front page of a newspaper, about 'the consequences of ethnic cleansing'. Shaking his head, he opens the newspaper and notices a small article about Eugene Tooms at the bottom of the page.]

[We see the article of Tooms again, only this time it is being ripped. As the torn piece of paper is lifted up, we see it is Tooms who has ripped it. He licks the torn piece of paper a couple of times and crumples it up and throws it against a wall. The wall has a lot of paper either already stuck to it or lying on the ground.]

[Mulder is watching Tooms from outside his cell. Scully comes walking around a corner and down the corridor. She looks through the window into Tooms' cell. He is still licking paper.]

MULDER: Look at him, he's building another nest.

SCULLY: You'll be interested to know that I've ordered some genetic tests. The preliminary medical exam revealed ...

[Tooms has stopped what he was doing and is now looking at Mulder watching him.]

SCULLY: ... quite abnormal development in the muscular and skeletal systems. As well as a ...

[Tooms, stops looking at Mulder and continues with his nest.]

SCULLY: ... continual declining metabolic rate, it dips way below the levels registered in deep sleep. Did you hear what I said Mulder?

MULDER: All these people putting bars on their windows, spending good money on hi-tech security systems, trying to feel safe. I look at this guy and I think ...

[We see Tooms, licking more paper, through the window.]

MULDER: ... it ain't enough.

[Scully turns to Mulder and they both walk off down the corridor. As they go around the corner, a guard opens a door at the end of the corridor for an orderly who is carrying a meal on a tray. The orderly walks to the door to Tooms' cell. Tooms, who is still licking paper, turns his head toward the door when he hears a lock opening. A small opening in the door appears and the orderly slides the tray through, then locks the outside flap and walks away.]

205

[Sometime later: Tooms is sitting on his bed staring at the small opening in the door, where the food tray was placed earlier. The camera switches between Tooms and the opening in the door, and zooming in on both in turn. As the camera gets closer to Tooms' face, a smile appears across his face as he studies the opening in the door.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Doug Hutchison (Eugene Tooms) Donal Logue (Tom Colton) Henry Beckman (Det. Frank Briggs)

Co-Starring:

Kevin McNulty (Fuller) Terence Kelly (Usher) Colleen Winton (Examiner)

Featuring:

James Bell (Det. Johnson) Gary Hetherington (Kennedy) Rob Morton (Kramer) Paul Joyce (Mr. Werner)

1x02 Squeeze - notes Video box set commentary by Chris Carter:

The conception of Squeeze, the monster, who was a guy who could squeeze through the tiniest of places really was the idea of Jim Wong and Glen Morgan, who had come on to the show. And I think that they not only wrote a wonderful character in Mr. Tooms, but they cast a great actor in Doug Hutchison, to play the part; he's as scary as the part was written.

Squeezing down the chimney ...

I was actually on the set during the filming of that scene, when Eugene Victor Tooms slides down that chimney. We hired a contortionist, a man who could actually squeeze into very tiny places to do the actual squeeze down the chimney, and then the shot you see where you are looking upwards and Eugene is reaching down and his hand stretches, is the magic of the art director, whose name was Michael Nimerski, and the man who did the effect, whose name was Mat Beck, who's done three years of The X-Files and done a wonderful job for us. They had him reach down over and over, and then with a computer- generated imager they were able to take his fingers and elongate them, and the added sound effect, I think, really completes the scare.

Harvesting liver ...

The idea for the liver-eating and for the nest and for the bile really came from, Jim and Glen wanted the character to harvest the livers of people and do it on a schedule so that in fact, if we didn't catch this character he would disappear again and go into hibernation. The bile I think was a suggestion of mine, and it gave us that classic line from Mulder ...

("Is there any way I can get it off my fingers quickly without betraying my cool exterior?")

206

From "X-Files Confidential": 'Squeeze' was significant in the development of The X-Files in that it informed the audience that the show wasn't just going to be a UFO series. As Glen Morgan explains it, "I remember I read an article about Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker of L.A., in the middle eighties, and the rumors were that he was climbing in those little windows everyone has in the bathroom above their shower. Supposedly he would climb in through those windows and the dust and soap grime on the sill was undisturbed. He was a pretty big guy. I think we took it from there. That was when it was Jim and Chris and I sitting around saying, 'How about this, how about that?' Some things we thought would be too far out there." "An okay episode," adds Jim Wong, "but I was very disappointed by its production. There were a lot of things that didn't work for us and we had to go back and reshoot. The production of it left such a nasty taste in my mouth that I've never really thought it was that good, but we've gotten a lot of [positive] reaction it. It was creepy, though, and in that way it worked really well. All I can see is what it should have been. It should have been more than it was, though it did do its job." Morgan notes that the episode was truly saved in postproduction, and that editing made the show. "I think it's been so long since television has done horror, and it's been an area for low-budget features for so long, that people have forgotten how to do it well. We wanted certain things which weren't agreed with, and when we watched the episode it wasn't scary. It was a show that taught us all a lot." The casting of Doug Hutchison as Tooms stands out in Morgan's mind. "When the actor came in to read," he recalls, "we said, 'No, no, he looks like he's twelve years old.' Then I said, 'Come to think of it, he looks forty.' Then the director said, 'Can I see you go from a neutral position to one of attacking me?' Doug just sat there and said, 'A neutral position?' a couple of times. And the director said, 'And then you're going to attack me.' 'I'm going to attack you?' Doug responded. All of us reacted, 'Oh, brother, here's a nut.' Then he was immediately into it and he really scared the shit out of us. He just started off as if he didn't understand what we were talking about. What he was really doing was showing us how he was building up to being a maniac. Naturally we said, 'He's the guy.' " Chris Carter recalls that when the series was okayed by Fox, he had been on vacation with his wife in France and had to head back to California a week earlier than expected. "Which didn't go over well with my wife." He smiles. "So she stayed and traveled around the country while I came back and started to work with Glen and Jim. We wanted to get right out of the box after 'Deep Throat''' and do something that wasn't an alien story. It was a story that expanded the realm of what an X-File could be. As far as the germ of the idea, I had eaten some foie gras in France and I thought 'Wouldn't it be intriguing if some human was interested in eating the livers of other humans?' That was the kernel of the idea, and they turned it into a terrific, dramatic, and very scary episode." From Robert Goodwin's point of view, the chief challenge of 'Squeeze' was designing the scene in which Tooms climbs up onto the roof of a house, squeezes into a very small opening in the chimney (dislocating most of the bones of his body), enters the house, and chows down on his victim's liver. "Somehow," Goodwin says, "we found this contortionist named Pepper. So we brought Pepper to the set, thinking we could get at least part of the scene with him as a photo double. We said, 'Here's the little opening – see what you can do.' Well, Pepper squeezed right down inside the damn thing, right in front of us. He got his whole body inside of there. That's what you see. All we added were some sound effects of bones snapping and cracking. We didn't do any visual effects at all. It was amazing." Despite the incredibly flexible Pepper, effects supervisor Mat Beck and his team did get some work. "Mat Beck did this wonderfully subtle computer effect of Tooms' fingers stretching as he climbs up the house," says co-producer Paul Rabwin, who supervises post-production. "The viewer actually had to wonder if those fingers really were stretching. I think that's a real key to our show. As opposed to saying with red lights and sirens that the fingers are stretching, you make the audience ask 'Is that happening? Am I seeing that?' It's a very effective way of doing visual effects." Referring to a later shot in which Tooms fluidly erupts from a heating vent, Beck explains that the show is careful not to take any effects shots over the top. "Hutchison came rocketing out of the vent we build six different ways from Sunday. It was pretty intense, even unstretched. We then shot a clean background plate of the apartment, added a bunch of blue-screen material around the grate, and shot him again coming out of the grate against the blue so we could stretch him [on the computer]. We squeezed him a bit when we put him back in the scene, but not a lot, because Chris Carter insists that less is more: just a hint of the unnatural is all that is required." A hint was all that was needed, as most viewers felt that combination of terror and fascination Carter is always aiming for. Tooms became the show's most identifiable demonic figure – no small feat in a series devoted to such characters. Even the normally stoic Gillian Anderson was a bit unnerved. "It was just incredibly creepy to me." She laughs. "I think it was one of the first scripts I read where I was nervous afterward." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Baltimore, Maryland Back story: Because the first two episodes involved UFOs, Fox wanted to see a different sort of story in this hour, and in that sense 'Squeeze' helped establish that The X-Files could be about more than just aliens each week. Although there are some parallels to The Night Strangler – the second Night Stalker movie, which involved a man who rose to commit multiple murders every twenty-one years – writers Glen Morgan and James Wong drew their inspiration from Jack the Ripper and a large

207 ventilator shaft outside their office. As Morgan recalls, the episode started with a simple premise when he asked Wong, "What if we were working here late and night and some guy came through that thing?" Morgan concedes that when Doug Hutchinson came into the audition, Morgan through he was too young to play Tooms, thinking, "No, this guy is wrong. He looks twelve years old." The actor won them over, however, with his impromptu reaction to director Harry Longstreet's somewhat baffling instruction to "go from a neutral position to an attack position", jarring everyone by getting into the character and snapping nastily at the director. Longstreet took some convincing, but the producers had their man. Chris Carter says his own contribution was limited to having just returned from France and eaten a lot of foie gras, which made him wonder what it would be like if someone developed a taste for human liver. Morgan says they settled on the liver because it was "funnier than any other organ." From Laura Witte: In the episode's teaser, victim Mr. Usher speaks briefly with a janitor just before pouring himself a mug of coffee: CAMERA MOVES with Usher as he walks past closed office doors toward the coffee pot at the other end of the suite. Suddenly, a door opens, startling Mr. Usher. From the other office, a large trash can on wheels appears, pushed by a small Greek janitor, YANI (YAH-NEE), whose demeanor suggests he's a recent immigrant with little language skills. Mr. Usher catches his breath, laughs. USHER Geez, Yani, you scared the hell outta me. Yani, not quite following, smiles and nods. USHER (deliberate) Um... I'm going to be working late. You don't have to do my office. Okay? YANI (in Greek) Yes, sir. Yes, sir, I understand. Good night. Yani smiles and nods. He waves and moves off. USHER Goodnight. WE FOLLOW as Usher moves to the coffee maker and pours himself a cup of sludge. In the b.g., WE SEE the janitor exit the office suite. Usher dumps in a pack of sugar, then tastes his concoction, he grimaces, and walks back toward his office. As Usher approaches his opened door, the lights inside turn off. USHER No... Yani, you misunderstood me. I'm staying. You don't have to do my office. CAMERA HOLDS in the outer suite as Usher enters his office, reaching for the lights. Suddenly the door SLAMS with an unearthly force.

I loved this -- when Colton asks Scully if she's had any close encounters of the third kind and she responds by asking if that's what everybody thinks she does, the script has a silent "yes" in parenthesis before his "No. Of course not" assurances. When Colton is trying to convince Scully to stop by his crime scene, he adds that "It's only a half hour from your house." Just before Mulder asks Scully why her friend didn't ask him directly, we get the following little scene: INT. USHER'S OFFICE - DAY - CLOSE - MULDER'S FORENSIC KIT It opens to REVEAL a pile of clear plastic bags labeled "evidense" sitting amongst other investigative tools - fingerprint powder, razors, tweezers. A latex-covered hand ENTERS FRAME and removes a bag. MULDER looks over the crime scene. He opens the evidence bag and reaches into his pocket to produce a sunflower seed. He places it between his teeth. CRACK! Mulder nibbles at the seed and discards the husk into the evidence bag. He repeats this procedure during the scene. In the room, a POLICE OFFICER stands guard. Scully is taking notes on her observations. Mulder casually moves next to Scully as they take in the evidence. MULDER So... why didn't they ask me? SCULLY This blood stain pattern seems to indicate this victim was alive during liver extraction. Notice the teardrop shape as well as the amount of blood. Mulder eyes Scully, waiting for her to address his question. Finally, she can't take the heat... SCULLY They're friends of mine from the academy...

The script describes Scully's response to Mulder's little Reticulan/liver story as amused. When Mulder leaves, she gives Colton a "you stepped right into it" look. A little cut exchange:

MULDER (beat; having fun) And he should stick out with ten inch fingers. Scully doesn't find this the least bit funny. SCULLY Mulder, if this is some kind of vindictive joke... He moves to her, quite serious.

208

MULDER The X-Files are the investigation of unsolved cases involving unexplained phenomenon. This should be our case. And I'm quite serious. Scully pauses. SCULLY Okay... look, the bottom line; this is Colton's case.

In the script, Scully and Mulder don't nearly collide when she discovers him in the parking garage. Instead, she following a "cracking" sound through the unlit garage until she discovers a pile of sunflower seeds with her flashlight. Raising the flashlight's beam, she finds Mulder. In the episode, Scully responds with a "Tom, I can look out for myself" when Colton says he'll see what he can do about getting Scully reassigned. In the script, she continues before Colton cuts her off, saying "Tom, I can look out for myself, and I don't want to...". Cute cut scene just after the lie detector test:

INT. HALLWAY - BALTIMORE P.D. - DAY - CLOSE - VENDING MACHINE A package of sunflower seeds stands suicidal on a ledge of the vending machine. The coil turns and the package falls. Mulder removes his snack from the bottom tray. Scully inserts some coins, then weighs her options, absently rolling her necklace between her thumb and forefinger. MULDER What? SCULLY Do I want the trail mix or the yogurt covered raisins? MULDER With the day you're having? He pushes some buttons. CLOSE - CANDY BAR A chocolate monster loaded with comforting but unhealthy junk falls into the bin. Scully sighs, still playing with her necklace. SCULLY What makes you think I'm having a bad day? He mimicks her motion with his thumb and forefinger. MULDER The worse the day gets, the faster the necklace twirls. Caught, she releases her necklace. He produces the candy from the bin and hands it to her. They move along the precinct. She stops, flustered. SCULLY Mulder, why'd you do that? MULDER (a hedge) What, I've flipped for candy bars before. ...the scene continues with the "millstone of humiliation" conversation.

In the script, Mulder and Scully investigate the addresses Tooms gave on the arrest report (which wasn't 66 Exeter Street) -- in the episode Scully simply reports that Baltimore PD checked out the apartment and it was a cover. Here's the cut scene:

EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT - ESTABLISHING A nice, modest apartment building. INT. APARTMENT HALLWAY - NIGHT MR. LEE, a middle-aged black man, sifts through a large key ring as Scully and Mulder follow down the hall. MR. LEE I double check my tenants. You must have the wrong place. SCULLY This is the address he listed on the arrest report. MR. LEE Eugene is so quiet. I never have trouble. They stop at the door. Mulder and Scully remove their weapons and move Mr. Lee out of the way. Mulder KNOCKS. Nothing. Again. Nothing. MULDER Mister Tooms, open the door! Federal Agents. Nothing. Mulder gestures for the keys. He unlocks the door. It's dark inside. Scully covers as Mulder flips on the light and enters. INT. EUGENE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Empty. No one's ever lived here. MULDER Well, Tooms'll have no trouble getting back his cleaning deposit. SCULLY This address is a cover. She checks the vibrating pager on her belt. Scully notes the number. SCULLY Baltimore P.D. I told them to call if they hear anything about Tooms. She produces her cellular phone and dials. INT. BALTIMORE POLICE DEPARTMENT - NIGHT. Detective Johnson picks up the phone. JOHNSON Johnson... yeah, I got a report you might be interested in. We got a call from the Animal Shelter... INT. EUGENE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

209

SCULLY ... uh huh... and the truck was abandoned? Tooms hasn't shown up at work. Mulder knows the situation from her half of the conversation and nods as if he expected to hear this. SCULLY (CONT'D) Thank you, detective. Please let me know if anything new develops. She hangs up. He turns to her. MULDER Four dead. One to go. Then our next chance to get him will be in 2023. And you should be the director of the bureau by then. SCULLY (sarcastically) Any thoughts on how to find him in this century? MULDER Just like any other missing person. Look to the past and it should lead us to the present. ... next the scene picks up with Mulder & Scully going through the census and the birth, death, and marriage certificates.

Frank Briggs' discussion goes on a bit longer. He goes into a longer list of horrible crimes that Tooms' room reminded him of. He said that he had been waiting for them "because I knew it was never gonna go away. I knew it would outlive me." Mulder's "garage sale" comment upon finding Tooms' collection of trophies is not in the script. Another quickie cut scene -- the last little bit of Mulder on stakeout before his re-enforcements appear.

Even in the daylight, this structure appears eerie. HOLD long enough to re-establish before CAMERA MOVES to reveal Mulder's car staked out across the street. CAMERA PUSHES IN to reveal Mulder slouched in the seat, wiping his finger with a napkin as if the thought of having touched the fluid remains unbearable. THUD! A squeegee lands on the windshield. Mulder jumps. A HUSTLER, all smiles, begins to clean the windows. MULDER Get outta here! The hustler continues. Mulder produces a dollar bill and holds it out the window. The hustler takes the money and runs. Pause. The car door opens. Two F.B.I. agents get inside. One is KENNEDY, the other is KRAMER. Mulder checks his watch. MULDER About time. KENNEDY We wanted to wait 'til the windows were clean so we could see better.

In the script we get to hear Colton leave the answering machine message for Mulder: "Mulder, this is Tom Colton. Your stakeout has been called off. Give me a buzz. I can't wait to tell you why." Tooms' goo doesn't fall on Scully from the ceiling, she notices it on her counter (and does proceed to stick her fingers in it - to feel the texture and give it a sniff). During the attack, the script follows Mulder arriving at Scully's apartment complex and him hearing a faint scream. Also in the script, Mulder sees Tooms' fingers elongate, is reaching for a grasp on the window sill as he tries to escape. The script describes Tooms' jail cell as a "barred cell reinforced by strong chain link" There is a bit of extra dialogue at the beginning of the ending scene - including what happened to Colton...

INT. PSYCH WARD CORRIDOR - DAY Mulder appears troubled as he leans against the wall outside Tooms' cell. Scully approaches from down the hall. SCULLY All set. Everything's filed. Evidence has been tagged. We can turn the investigation over to the Baltimore Bureau. Mulder keeps his eyes locked on Tooms. SCULLY Colton actually tried to worm in on the case, but his ASAC's caught on. He's been bumped off the Violent Crime Section and reassigned to the white collar crime division at the Sioux Falls Bureau.

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- "When I created The X-Files, I knew I wanted to give the viewer a roller coaster ride that they couldn't get off of for an hour," recalled Chris Carter. "I also knew I wanted it to depart from the UFO/extraterrestrial storylines as soon as possible, because I knew that the story couldn't sustain itself just by telling that kind of story." Probably a good thing that Carter felt that way; when the first two episodes of the show involved UFOs, FOX put the pressure on the series creator to come up with a different sort of story for the series' third hour. "Squeeze" not only helped establish that the show could be about more than just aliens each week, it also set the bar pretty high for all the "monster of the week" episodes (or MOTWs as the fans came to call them) that followed for the next nine years.

-- "Squeeze" was the first episode written by the legendary team of Glen Morgan and James Wong, whom Carter hired with the help of Peter Roth, former president of Stephen J. Cannell Productions who worked with the duo on such shows as 21 Jump Street and Wiseguy.. Roth left Cannell Productions to become president of TV production for 20th Century Fox; and it was Roth who signed Chris Carter to a development deal in 1992, along with a number of other relatively unknown producers. Morgan

210 and Wong also served as co-executive producers and brought considerable production know-how to the party. Carter also hired the team of Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, whose credits included CBS's acclaimed series Beauty and the Beast, to write and serve as supervising producers of the show. Those three writing units (Carter, Morgan/Wong, Gordon/Gansa) essentially accounted for 20 of the 24 episodes of the first season.

-- "Honestly, I thought our role on The X-Files, when we were just the hired help, was more fun than when we later became bosses on our own show (Space: Above and Beyond)," said Glen Morgan. "Back then, we'd be hanging out in Chris Carter's office, and there we could be a consigliore, whispering advice in Chris's ear. Then we'd go out of the office, and Chris actually had to take the heat."

-- Morgan recalled that during the show's first season, while most Fox television executives were preoccupied with other shows they deemed more commercial, the X-Files writing staff was able to cast a unique mold for the series that led to its enormous popularity. "Pretty much the prevailing idea of how to run a series is that if your pilot goes well, then the first six shows should be the pilot done six times over so that everybody knows who the characters are, what the situations are, all that stuff," said Morgan. "Because Fox was spending all their money and attention on Brisco County, Jr., on The X-Files we were all off doing our own thing."

-- This led to enormous freedom for the writing staff, but also some headaches. "There were a lot of times I didn't know what Howard and Alex were doing until I read their scripts," Morgan said. "Everybody was just doing their own thing. So on The X- Files, the first six episodes were all really different and that worked. Jim and I applied that lesson to Space, and we'll apply it to any other series we work on. We'll have ideas for the first six episodes, and it won't be the pilot six times over."

-- Although there were some parallels to The Night Strangler -- the second Night Stalker movie, which involved a man who rose to commit multiple murders every 21 years -- writers Glen Morgan and James Wong drew their inspiration for "Squeeze" from Jack the Ripper and a large ventilator shaft outside their office. As Morgan recalled, the episode started with a simple premise when he asked Wong, "What if we were working here late at night and some guy came *through* that thing?"

-- Morgan had also read an article about Richard Ramirez, a convicted serial killer who terrorized California in the first half of the 1980's. Before his capture, it was rumored that Ramirez entered the homes of his victims by the small window in the bathroom. This rumor would later be debunked after Ramirez's arrest, but the story intrigued Morgan so much that it was in part the basis for the creation of the character Eugene Victor Tooms.

-- Coincidentally, Ramirez was dubbed the "Night Stalker" by the media because he always attacked at night, like a vampire. In a further X-Files coincidence, a 1989 TV movie titled Manhunt: Search for the Night Stalker featured an actor named Gregory Norman Cruz as the serial killer; Gregory Norman Cruz played Diego Garza in the Season 8 X-Files episode "Vienen."

-- Chris Carter attributed most of the success of "Squeeze" to the fact that Morgan and Wong "cast a great actor" -- Doug Hutchison -- to play the part of the monster Eugene Victor Tooms. "It also helped that Hutchison was as scary as the character he was playing," chuckled Carter.

-- Hutchison became Eugene Victor Tooms when his agent sent him to read for the role in "Squeeze." When he showed up for the audition, Morgan thought he was too young to play Tooms; he felt the actor looked about 12 years old.

-- But Hutchison auditioned anyway. "I went into the room, and Harry Longstreet, the director, and the producers were there," he recalled. "We started to plunge into this interrogation scene, and Harry said, 'I'd like you to do this without any emotion.' So I'm thinking, 'Oh great, I'm just going to sit here and say yes, no, and be emotionless.' So I did it. And afterwards he said, 'Okay, that's very good, and now I'd like you to show me that you can be this serial killer. Pretend that you're stalking your victims. I just want to see your potential for evil.' And I'm thinking, 'What is this? This is ridiculous! What does he want me to do? Make a face, or what?' So I sat and I pondered his direction and as I was thinking about it, he must have thought that I misunderstood and he said, "Do you understand what I'm saying?" And it just jumped out of me before I knew it came out, but I said 'Yeah, I got it -- you want me to stalk you, you motherf---er???"

-- The director may have been taken aback, but producers/writers Morgan and Wong loved Hutchison's repressed intensity and immediately proclaimed, "That's our guy!" Longstreet took some convincing, but the producers knew they had their man.

-- "Harry Longstreet didn't like me," recalled Hutchison. "I intimidated him in the audition and he didn't want to work with me. Morgan and Wong cast me despite Harry's reservations, so I think he might have resented that. Consequently, Harry pretty

211 much left me alone on set which was fine with me. David Nutter [who directed "Tooms"], on the other hand, was very much hands-on and came to the set with energy and fresh ideas. I enjoyed his direction very much. We had fun together."

-- Hutchison also had fun working with Duchovny and Anderson on "Squeeze." "It was only the third episode of the show," he said. "David and Gillian were both friendly, personable, humble, energetic, and approachable. By the end of the first season, when we were shooting 'Tooms,' both actors were exhausted from work and seemingly overwhelmed by the popularity of the show. I saw Gillian at a convention about a year later. She barely spoke two words to me. Ah, the bittersweet transformations of success."

-- Hutchison came to fall in love with the character of Tooms. "It was a very sweet challenge for me," he said. "I'm a very animated person, and I tend to bring a lot of animation to my roles. This was a particularly good challenge because I felt there was a stillness to this character. I had been intrigued by stillness for quite a while since seeing Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. He captured the art of stillness so well, and I was inspired by his performance."

-- Hutchison grew up in Detroit intending to become a rock musician. When a teacher convinced him to try acting, he moved to New York to study at the Julliard School. But the free-spirited actor soon realized he wasn't cut out for formal study, and dropped out of school, becoming active in New York and regional theatre. A disastrous musical, Shout and Twist, brought him back to Los Angeles, and he decided to remain there after that "nightmarish" experience to pursue film work. He soon landed roles in episodic television and in the feature films Fresh Horses and The Chocolate War.

-- After appearing on The X-Files, Doug Hutchison went on to appear on every show that Morgan and Wong worked on. He has also found steady work in films, appearing in A Time to Kill, Con Air, The Green Mile, I Am Sam, and The Salton Sea, and in television, with guest or recurring roles on such series as Party of Five, Murder She Wrote, The Practice, C.S.I., C.S.I. Miami, and Law and Order: SVU. His most recent work was a recurring role on the quickly cancelled NBC series Kidnapped, which starred Jeremy Sisto, Dana Delaney, and Timothy Hutton.

-- Chris Carter's contribution to this episode was limited to having just returned from France where he had eaten a lot of foie gras, which made him wonder what it would be like if someone developed a taste for human liver. Morgan said he and Wong settled on the liver because it was "funnier than any other organ."

-- It was a stretch (no pun intended) for Doug Hutchison to play a man who harvested livers from his victims; at the time, in real life he was a vegetarian. After filming "Squeeze," Hutchison sent Carter a gift-wrapped frozen calf's liver to thank him for the opportunity to play a character on The X-Files. "I thought it would freak him out," Hutchison said, "but Chris ended up rehiring me for 'Tooms,' so I guess either (a) he enjoyed the liver, or (b) the ratings for "Squeeze," were high enough to justify the liver."

-- At the time "Squeeze" was filmed, it was rumored that the director Harry Longstreet did a terrible job -- that he did not shoot enough takes and did not giving the editor many choices. (The rumor was substantiated by Jim Wong in an interview he did several years later -- see Wong's quote at the end of this CTP.) This probably explains why "Squeeze" has more "oopsies" than your average X-Files episode. A few of them will be pointed out here.

-- Timeline: The timeline for this episode wasn't actually established in the episode itself; it was established 18 episodes later in "Tooms." Tooms was arrested by the FBI about halfway through "Squeeze"; and when Skinner read Tooms' file in that later episode, the date for the arrest was given as July 23, 1993.

-- In fact, that July 1993 timeline was one of the things that frustrated X-Files fans in the early days of the show. If the date stamp of the "Pilot" were to be believed, Mulder and Scully would have been working together for more than a year when the events of "Squeeze" took place. However, references in "Squeeze" and other first season episodes that followed made it fairly obvious that the Mulder/Scully partnership was brand new. Thus, most X-Philes assumed that the "Pilot" date was the problem, and it should be considered that Mulder and Scully were officially partnered in March 1993, not 1992.

-- Oopsie! George Usher, the victim killed in the teaser, had some unusual items on his desk including a snow globe that he took great pains to shake so that viewers would recognize it among Tooms's "trophies" later on in the episode. But Usher also had a hippo figurine on his desk -- a hippo that moved from its place beside the telephone to the other side of the desk under the lamp between shots.

-- When the hippo moved to the other side of the desk, it was replaced by a Baltimore Colts coffee mug, appropriate as the episode took place in Baltimore, a city still bitter over the loss of their beloved football team. Almost as soon as the 1983 season was over, Colts owner Robert Irsay began talking to other cities about moving the club from Baltimore. He spoke to

212 officials in Indianapolis and Phoenix, even as the Maryland legislature tried to use eminent domain laws to force the franchise to remain in Maryland. On March 28, Phoenix dropped out of the bidding, and Irsay called officials in Indiana to say the team was on its way. However, he kept the move secret until just after midnight when by cover of darkness on a cold, snowy night he used Mayflower moving trucks to pack up the Colts offices and relocate them in Indianapolis. To make matters worse, the Irsay family would not relinquish the name "Colts" as they had once promised to do, further angering Baltimore Colts fans and former players, including legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas. The city of Baltimore would fail in several attempts at landing an NFL franchise before it welcomed the new franchise named the Ravens in 1996.

-- Oopsie! While there was blood splattered all over his office, the only blood viewers saw on the body of George Usher (in his reflection in that Baltimore Colts coffee mug) was on his neck. It must have been pretty difficult ripping out his liver through his neck and managing to keep his shirt spotless.

-- Colton's remark about his and Scully's colleague lucking into the World Trade Center bombing was a reference to the attack on the World Trade Center that took place on February 26, 1993, when a car bomb was planted in the underground garage by Islamic extremists.

-- Oopsie! Scully's knife had a mind of its own during her lunch discussion with Tom Colton. First, she dropped it flat on the table, and in the next shot it was propped on her bread plate. A few moments later she was holding the knife, and when the shot changed it was back on her plate.

-- During her lunch with Colton, Scully mentioned his profile on the Washington Crossing killer. Although the "killer" part was most likely fabricated by Morgan and Wong, Washington Crossing is a national historic park in Pennsylvania. From that site, General George Washington and men of the Continental Army and militia crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 and marched to Trenton, New Jersey. There they attacked and defeated Hessian troops quartered in and around the village. This surprise attack and victory set the stage for Washington's subsequent victories at the Second Battle of Trenton and Princeton. The Crossing and the Trenton/Princeton campaign have become known as the Ten Crucial Days — a campaign that saved Washington's army from defeat, allowing them to fight another day and achieve ultimate victory.

-- Oopsie! Lack of footage probably explained why what looked like a flubbed line by Gillian Anderson was kept in the finished product. When Scully was introducing Mulder and Colton for the first time, she started to call Mulder "Tom," and then corrected herself.

-- Mulder told Scully about fingerprints lifted from Powhatan Mill in the 1930s, but any evidence that Powhatan Mill existed in the 1930s is non-existent. The name "Powhatan Mill" was likely taken from the Powhatan Cotton Mill, founded in 1810. It was located along Windsor Mill Road in the mill village of Powhatan, which existed just outside today's Baltimore City limits. It was never a very successful operation, and under several ownerships suffered through the panics and crashes of the 19th century. Devastating fires eventually brought an end to the operation in 1895. In 1902, the Woodlawn Cemetery Company bought the property and Woodlawn Cemetery was established on it on Gwynn Oak Avenue.

-- If you look closely you can see a picture of the corpse of Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks in the scene where Mulder showed Scully the elongated fingerprints from the previous murder scenes. It was hanging behind Scully's head when she backed away in her chair and stood up. David Duchovny played a small part in the series as DEA Agent Dennis Bryson.

-- After Scully told Mulder that Colton didn't want him involved in the case, that no one wanted to hear his theories and that was why Blevins had him hidden away in the basement, Mulder uttered an important but obviously forgotten line: "You're down here too." That would seem to establish that Scully's office was in the basement, though she never got a desk or her name on the door.

-- The clip of Scully typing up her profile at home was used at least twice more during the first season which is why it always seemed very familiar.

-- Oopsie! When Mulder intruded on Scully's stakeout, he said he was unarmed. Probably a faux pas by the writers early in the series -- they probably didn't realize that FBI Agents carry their weapons when they are off duty.

-- Oopsie! The polygraph operator was confident that Tooms "did not kill those two people." However, at this point in the episode, three people had been killed, as Colton told Scully during their lunch.

213

-- It appeared that the lie detector test gave Mulder and Scully the munchies, as the next scene showed Scully carrying a candy bar and Mulder toting a bag of sunflower seeds. There was a scene in between those two scenes that was deleted and here it is:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CUT TO:

INT. HALLWAY - BALTIMORE, P.D. - DAY - CLOSE - VENDING MACHINE

A package of sunflower seeds stands suicidal on a ledge of the vending machine. The coil turns and the package falls.

WIDER

Mulder removes his snack from the bottom tray. Scully inserts some coins, then weighs her options.

SCULLY: Hmmm. Do I want the trail mix or the yogurt covered raisins?

MULDER: With the day you're having?

He pushes some buttons.

CLOSE - CANDY BAR

A chocolate monster loaded with comforting but unhealthy junk falls to the bin.

WIDER

Scully sighs.

SCULLY: Thank you.

He produces the candy from the bin and hands it to her. They move along the precinct. She stops, flustered.

SCULLY: Mulder, that was so unlike you.

MULDER: (a hedge) What, I've flipped for candy bars before ...

SCULLY: No, back there. You knew those guys would never believe you. Why'd you push it?

MULDER: Maybe I thought you caught the right guy ...

(And the scene goes on from there as shown.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

-- Scully's necklace was used as a plot device many times in the series -- but in this early episode, it was another necklace -- not her usual cross -- that Mulder got touchy-feely with.

-- Chris Carter recalled that he was on hand the day the scene where Tooms squeezed through the chimney was shot. "The crew built a special set that looked like a chimney, and the opening was about the size of a belt," Carter said. "We hired a contortionist whose name was Pepper and he was the one viewers saw squeezing into the chimney." No visual effects were used for that shot, although some sound effects were added to complete the illusion. The shots of Tooms inside the chimney were created by Michael Memirsky's clever art direction as well as Mat Beck's use of a computer generated image. Several passes of actor Doug Hutchison stretching his hand were shot and then the shot was elongated using the imager.

214

-- Oopsie! When Tooms' fourth victim, Thomas Werner, started to light a fire, the tin of matches was to his right, standing next to the fireplace, but between shots, the matches magically moved to his left away from the fireplace. And why was Werner trying to light a fire in July in Baltimore anyway?

-- Frank Briggs told Mulder and Scully that he called it quits in 1968 after 45 years as a cop. This episode took place 25 years later, which would have made Briggs over 90 years old. Actor Henry Beckman who played Briggs certainly didn't look like a man in his 90s, and was actually in his early 70s at the time this episode was filmed.

-- The alley behind Ideal Gift and Toy, Ltd., in the 55-block of West Hastings Street served as the exterior for Tooms' residence located at 66 Exeter Street; and the Front Street Parking Ramp on Columbia Street in New Westminster served as the Baltimore parking garage where Tooms was first apprehended.

-- "Squeeze" provided the shot that became a memorable part of the series' opening credits for the next seven years -- Mulder and Scully entering Apartment 103 at 66 Exeter Street, flashlights at the ready. But before entering what one would assume was a first-floor apartment, Mulder and Scully were shown ascending a flight of stairs that appeared to take them to the second floor of the building. Then from Apartment 103, they climbed through a hole in the wall which took them to the coal cellar, which based on their entry, was on the first floor instead of below ground where one would normally find the cellar.

-- The yellowish substance that stood in for bile was actually baking piping gel. It looked realistic, but one painful side effect of the gel was that when it dried on the skin, it would pull off the actor's body hair when it was removed.

-- A tradition is born! Mulder began his inclination of sticking his unprotected fingers into any old substance that might be lying around in "Squeeze." (But on the upside, it also birthed the immortal line, "Is there any way I can get it off my fingers quickly without betraying my cool exterior?")

-- The building used in this episode as the exterior for Scully's apartment was not the one used later on in the series. The interior of Scully's apartment also changed quite a bit over the years -- most notably the disappearance of the beautiful window above her bed shown in this episode.

-- Oopsie! The time stamp showed 7:25 p.m. when Mulder arrived at the stakeout to find it had been called off, found Scully's plot device necklace, and raced to Scully's apartment. It was mighty dark outside for that time of the evening in mid-summer Maryland.

-- Mulder and Wong added many insert shots to the episode to help make it work; but one insert shot that didn't work was the addition of the close-up of Scully's severed telephone wires with the number "403" and the word "Scully" written by them. It's doubtful that everyone's phone wires are labeled by name in the box, and even more doubtful that "403" would somehow identify the wires as those which corresponded to Apartment 35 (which was clearly visible when Mulder broke down the door).

-- The shot of Tooms stretching out of Scully's vent to attack her was accomplished in a similar manner as the shot of Tooms in the chimney. The background set was shot first, then Doug Hutchison was shot against a blue screen, and Mat Beck used a computer imager to stretch Tooms's body and digitally incorporated it into the room.

-- The newspaper article entitled "Suspect Caught in Serial Killings" that Detective Briggs was looking at near the end of the episode was the same few paragraphs repeated again and again to form what appeared to be a full-length article. You can see the paragraph beginning with "Yesterday, however..." in the second column as well as the third.

-- Oopsie! When Tooms' food was delivered to him in his cell, his tray was pushed through the door slot facing one direction, but in the next shot, the tray was facing the other direction.

-- Canadian-born actor Donal Logue was a relative acting newcomer when he appeared as Scully's Academy buddy Tom Colton in "Squeeze." Though born in Ottawa, he was raised in El Centro, California, was ASB president at his local high school, and went on to attend Harvard University. Although he had always considered himself a writer, his interest in theater was sparked at Harvard. He studied at the British-American Drama Academy in London, and performed in many plays before getting his break in the 1992 Robert Redford film Sneakers. Just prior to his X-Files appearance, he had a small role in the landmark 1993 HBO adaptation of And the Band Played On, the story of the discovery of the AIDS virus.

-- After X-Files, Logue became well-known for appearing in ads for MTV as Jimmy the Cab Driver, promos he also wrote. He appeared in a number of TV shows and movies (including Eye for an Eye, Dear God, Jerry Maguire, and Runaway Bride) before

215 landing a recurring role as ADA Dickie Flood on The Practice. He was the original choice for the sidekick role of Phil Stubbs in the series Ed, but left that project for a starring role in the FOX sitcom Grounded for Life, which ran for five seasons (and which still runs in syndication on the Family Channel). Around the same time, Logue also had a recurring role on ER.

-- Logue has been busy since Grounded for Life ended. This year he appeared in the well-received films Ghost Rider and Zodiac; and had a starring role in the critical favorite The Knights of Prosperity, an ABC sitcom that wasn't so well-received by viewers (it was recently pulled from ABC's schedule).

-- Recalling his X-Files appearance, Logue said, "I went up to Vancouver to do the third episode of the show, and I met David and Gillian and Chris Carter -- one of the nicest guys I ever met. It was so cool because they had only done two episodes and at that point they didn't know what they had on their hands yet."

-- "The X-Files was cool, real, intelligent, interesting, provocative ... but really just exciting entertainment for legions of fans," Logue continued. "They worked all day, work sucked, and they would go home and say, 'I can't wait to get into The X-Files tonight!'"

-- "Squeeze" spent a good deal of its time establishing the character of Scully. The episode took place back in the day when Scully still had outside friends and was obviously liked and respected by her peers, so she seemed somewhat taken aback when Tom Colton called her "Mrs. Spooky," bothered by what others thought the job she was beginning to love really was. Scully also spent a lot of time establishing her place with Mulder, defending him as a "great agent" and was uncomfortable that other agents mocked him when they accepted her. When she was offered a way to get off the X-Files, first by Colton and later by Mulder, she made it clear that she had decided her place was with Mulder. The episode also offered an exchange that clearly defined Scully's integrity from the get-go: When she quietly chastised Colton for impeding the investigation and he asked, "Whose side are you on?", she responded, "The victim's."

-- But Scully didn't get all the character development in this episode; Mulder got his fair share too. Mulder showed up at the stakeout for no other reason than to tell Scully she was wrong (and maybe to spy on her just a little bit too), but it turned out she was right; and he admitted this more than once. Mulder learned that Scully's opinions had value and he had to listen to her; and this helped to set up the balance in their partnership that would serve them well through the rest of the series.

-- Once & Future Retreads: Henry Beckman (Detective Frank Briggs) reprised the role in "Tooms" and also played the Old Man in "Chinga." Kevin McNulty (Agent Fuller) played the same role in "Apocrypha" and was also Dr. Christopher Davey in "Soft Light." Colleen Winton (Lie Detector Technician) played the Therapist in "Kitsunegari." Gary Hetherington (Kennedy) was Lewin in "Little Green Men."

-- Chris Carter considered "Squeeze" a sort-of landmark in that it strayed from the alien milieu and demonstrated "the sky was the limit" in terms of the material to be found in The X-Files's bag of tricks. FOX was equally pleased to discover that The X-Files could play as more than just a one-note concept. "The first year, we analyzed the show a lot," said Bob Greenblatt, then FOX's vice president of dramatic series development. "We didn't want it to become 'The UFO Show.'"

-- Although it's now considered an X-Files classic, "Squeeze" was a difficult shoot. "I felt the director had no respect for us or our ideas," Jim Wong said. "In fact, he had no respect for the script. He didn't shoot coverage and we didn't like the dailies that were coming back. Ultimately, we had to go back up and re-shoot some coverage, shoot a scene he didn't shoot, and add a lot of inserts to make it work. I'll always be disappointed because of what it could have been, but I think it turned out okay."

1x02 Squeeze - script

THE X FILES

216

"Squeeze"

Written by

Glen Morgan and James Wong

Episode #lX02 July 13, 1993 July 21, 1993 Blue July 26, 1993 Pink July 27, 1993 Green July 30, 1993 Yellow

217

"SQUEEZE"

CAST

FOX MULDER DANA SCULLY

GEORGE USHER TOM COLTON AGENT FULLER EXAMINER EUGENE TOOMS DETECTIVE JOHNSON MR. LEE FRANK BRIGGS KENNEDY AGENT KRAMER

SETS

EXTERIORS INTERIORS

BALTIMORE USHER'S OFFICE BUILDING SKYLINE /UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT DOWNTOWN /RECEPTION AREA CALVERT STREET /SUITE HIGH SECURITY OFFICE BUILDING MULDER'S OFFICE PATIO RESTAURANT SCULLY'S APARTMENT WERNER'S HOUSE /PARKING GARAGE /ROOFTOP /BEDROOM-BATHROOM APARTMENT BUILDING F.B.I. CONFERENCE ROOM 66 EXETER STREET APARTMENT INTERROGATION ROOM POLICE STATION PARKING /ADJACENT ROOM SCULLY'S APARTMENT BUILDING BALTIMORE POLICE PRECINCT HIGHWAY /HALLWAY /OFFICE WERNER'S HOUSE /CHIMNEY /KITCHEN EUGENE'S APARTMENT BUILDING 66 EXETER /HALLWAY /APARTMENT 103 /COAL CELLAR REST HOME PSYCH WARD /CELL /CORRIDOR

218

TEASER

EXT. BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - DUSK - (LEGEND APPEARS)

A blood red sun cowers behind a raven city skyline.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. DOWNTOWN - DUSK

Closer. A sense of vertigo as CAMERA peeks over the edge of a high rise and down upon a chaotic intersection. CAMERA DESCENDS ...

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. CALVERT STREET - DUSK

Rush hour. CAMERA BEGINS at traffic signal level as cars tear through the intersection. It's the end of a working day. Horns BLARE as CAMERA SINKS slowly, creeping toward the moving toward the pedestrians moving along the sidewalk.

CAMERA continues to descend past the people down to curb level, seemingly aimless, yet GATHERING SPEED. Until finally, at a rain gutter, WE STOP.

Then ... from the vile blackness of the storm drain appear two scarlet eyes framed by the darkness. They are human, yet monstrous. Searching. Hungry ...

THE EYES POV - FROM. THE GUTTER

The rush hour continues - LOUD, frenzied and oblivious to the predator below.

The P.D.V. appears normal until the eyes zero in on a target. Then the image subtly changes, seeming to slow as the colors of the background become muted. On the SOUNDTRACK, the HORNS of the cars disappear. The DIN of the people FADE. AMBIENCE vanishes, until the only SOUND remaining is the charged HEARTBEAT of the predator and the FOOTSTEPS of the victim, a middle-aged business man, GEORGE USHER. He exits a bar and moves to his Oldsmobile. His image is the only thing on screen that remains sharp and saturated with color. As he fumbles with his keys and gets into his car ...

CUT TO:

EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT - DUSK

A high security gate protects the underground parking lot entrance. The Oldsmobile pulls up. Mr. Usher inserts a security card. The gate opens.

INT. OFFICE RECEPTION AREA - CLOSE - SECURITY MONITOR

A high, WIDE ANGLE black and white video from a security camera in an elevator. Mr. Usher stands in the elevator, alone.

PULL BACK from the monitor, which sits on a vacant receptionist's desk, and HOLD on the elevator doors. BING! The doors open. The businessman walks out and down the hall. The doors close.

Beat. Another ... then, BING!

The doors open again. However, the cabin of the elevator is gone, only the cables in the open shaft can be seen. The steel cables tremble as, 0.5., they are being used for climbing.

INT. OFFICE SUITE - NIGHT

219

Empty secretarial cubicles sit outside the suite of executive offices. Everyone has gone home. A lone bank of lights dimly illuminate the scene. The businessman enters and moves toward his office.

INT. USHER'S OFFICE - NIGHT

The lights CLICK on as Usher enters his office. He loosens his tie, picks up the phone and dials. Usher waits, getting an answering machine. He picks up a little snow globe souvenir from his desk and shakes it before leaving a message.

USHER Hello, honey, it is about eight thirty and ... um ... I'll be here awhile. The presentation didn't go so well. Call me. Love you. Bye.

He hangs up, sighs. Mr. Usher picks up his Baltimore Colts coffee mug and starts toward the outer office.

INT. OFFICE SUITE - NIGHT

CAMERA MOVES with Usher as he walks past closed office doors toward the coffee pot at the other end of the suite. Suddenly, a door opens, startling Mr. Usher.

From the other office, a large trash can on wheels appears, pushed by a small Greek janitor, YANI (YAH-NEE), whose demeanor suggests he's a recent immigrant with little language skills.

Mr. Usher catches his breath, laughs.

USHER Geez, Yani, you scared the hell outta me.

Yani, not quite following, smiles and nods.

USHER (deliberate) Um ... I'm going to be working late. You don't have to do my office. okay?

YANI (in Greek) Yes, sir. Yes, sir, I understand. Good night.

Yani smiles and nods. He waves and moves off.

USHER Goodnight.

WE FOLLOW as Usher moves to the coffee maker and pours himself a cup of sludge. In the b.g., WE SEE the janitor exit the office suite.

Usher dumps in a pack of sugar, then tastes his concoction, he grimaces, and walks back toward his office. As Usher approaches his opened door, the lights inside turn off.

USHER No ... Yani, you misunderstood me. I'm staying. You don't have to do my office ...

CAMERA HOLDS in the outer suite as Usher enters his office, reaching for the lights. Suddenly, the door SLAMS with an unearthly force.

From behind the door, O.S., a SCREAM. A CRASH. The door handle jerks as Usher tries to escape. The door buckles and cracks as something is thrown against it with inhuman force. Another pitiful SCREAM ... then silence. Hold for a chilling moment.

220

INT. USHER'S OFFICE - NIGHT - CLOSE - CARPET

The room is blanketed by the cold ambient light outside. A dark fluid spots the carpet, dripping from above. Another drop hits the carpet. CAMERA RISES to find the coffee dribbling from the smashed Colts coffee mug.

CAMERA drifts about the still room. WE catch a glimpse, a frightening suggestion of the murdered businessman.

CAMERA now RISES, climbing up the office wall to the air vent. With a BANG, the grid is pulled back into place from inside the air duct.

A beat as WE MOVE in CLOSE to one of the screws which holds the vent in place. Then, worked from inside, the screw begins to turn. Screwing the cover back into the wall ... slowly ... victoriously ...

FADE OUT:

END TEASER

ACT ONE

EXT. PATIO RESTAURANT - DAY - ESTABLISHING

Lunchtime. A beautiful day. The restaurant is on the upscale side. Umbrellas. Flowers.

A legend appears on screen - "WASHINGTON, D.C."·

A TABLE

DANA SCULLY sits across from fellow F.B.I. agent TOM COLTON, intelligent, handsome and assured. They are the same age. As peers, they are equal.

COLTON Guess who I ran into from our class at Quantico? Marty Neil.

The name brings a derisive chuckle.

SCULLY "J. Edgar Junior?"

COLTON Just got bumped up. Foreign Counter Intelligence. New York City Bureau. Supervisory Special Agent.

SCULLY "Supervisory?" Two years out of the academy? How did he land that?

COLTON Lucked into the World Trade Center bombing.

Scully is touched with envy, then sincerely shakes it off.

SCULLY Well, good for Marty.

COLTON C'mon, Dana, the guy's a loser. Look where he is now. It's where we should be.

221

SCULLY Brad Wilson told me the psychological profile you wrote on the Washington Crossing killer led them right to the suspect. Word is you're on the Violent Crime section's fast track.

Colton shrugs with false humility.

COLTON And how've you been doin'? Had any close encounters of the third kind?

He chuckles as she bristles.

SCULLY Is that what everybody thinks I do?

COLTON (yes) No. No. Of course not. But you do work with "Spooky Mulder."

SCULLY Mulder's ideas may be a bit "out there," but ... he is a great agent.

Colton takes a bite of his lunch. Sighs.

COLTON If anything, I've got a case that is "out there."

Colton's tone becomes troubled. Scully tunes in to this.

COLTON (CONT'D) Baltimore P.D. calls. Wants our help on a serial killer profile. Three murders. Began six weeks ago. Victims vary in age, gender and race. No known connections to each other.

SCULLY I take it there's a pattern?

COLTON Point of entry. Actually, the lack of one.

SCULLY What do you mean?

COLTON One victim. A college girl, killed in her 10' by 12' cinder block dorm room. She was found with the windows locked and the door chained from the inside.

Scully listens intently.

COLTON The last incident, two days ago. High security office building. Nothing on the security monitors. A janitor spoke to the victim minutes before the murder. Didn't hear or see a thing out of the ordinary.

SCULLY Suicides?

222

Colton shakes his head, carefully removes a photo from his briefcase, which WE DON'T SEE.

COLTON Each victim had their liver ripped out.

Colton locks eyes to emphasize.

COLTON (CONT'D) No cutting tool was used.

SCULLY He used his bare hands?!

COLTON I know it sounds impossible, but I'll be damned if I can explain how else he did it.

SCULLY This sounds like an X-file.

COLTON Let's not get carried away. I'm going to solve these murders, but what I'd like you to do is go over the case histories. Come down to the crime scene. It's only a half hour from your house. Maybe because of the cases you've been stuck with lately, you can get a fresh read.

SCULLY You want me to ask Mulder?

COLTON Okay, look. If he wants to come and do you a favor, great. But make sure he knows this is my case.

Scully looks at the photo once again.

COLTON (CONT'D) Dana, if I can break a case like this one ... I'll be getting the bump up the ladder. And you ...

She looks up. Colton looks away as he delivers his blunt message.

COLTON (CONT'D) They'll no longer be calling you "Mrs. Spooky."

He's hit a nerve. As Scully stares into the photo of the crime scene ...

CUT TO:

INT. USHER'S OFFICE - DAY - CLOSE - MULDER'S FORENSIC KIT

It opens to REVEAL a pile of clear plastic bags labeled "evidence" sitting amongst other investigative tools - fingerprint powder, razors, tweezers. A latex-covered hand ENTERS FRAME and removes a bag.

WIDER

223

MULDER looks over the crime scene. He opens the evidence bag and reaches into his pocket to produce a sunflower seed. He places it between his teeth. CRACK! Mulder nibbles at the seed and discards the husk into the evidence bag. He repeats this procedure during the scene.

In the room, a POLICE OFFICER stands guard. Scully is taking notes on her observations. Mulder casually moves next to Scully as they take in the evidence.

MULDER So ... why didn't they ask me?

SCULLY This blood stain pattern seems to indicate the victim was alive during liver extraction. Notice the teardrop shape as well as the amount of blood.

Mulder eyes Scully, waiting for her to address his question. Finally, she can It take the heat ...

SCULLY They're friends of mine from the academy. I'm sure they just felt more comfortable talking to me.

Mulder already knows the answer he's after. He's just testing Scully.

MULDER Why would I make them so uncomfortable?

SCULLY It's probably because of your ... reputation.

MULDER (a wry smile) "Reputation," I have a "Reputation?"

SCULLY Mulder... Look, Colton plays by the book and you don't. They feel your methods, your theories are ...

MULDER (cuts her off) "Spooky?"

Mulder smiles, amused.

MULDER What about you? You think I'm ... "spooky?"

Scully pauses. In that beat, Colton arrives.

COLTON Dana, sorry I'm late.

SCULLY We just got here.

They shake hands, Colton looks to Mulder, with a bemused smile.

SCULLY This is Fox Mulder. Tom Colton.

224

They exchange uncomfortable handshakes. Colton's tone has an edge of condescension.

COLTON So, Mulder, whatta ya think? This look like the work of Little Green Men?

Colton smiles. Scully looks to Mulder sympathetically, Mulder cocks his head as if he doesn't follow.

MULDER Grey.

COLTON What?

MULDER Grey. You said "green men." A Reticulian's skin tone is grey. They're notorious for their extraction of terrestrial human livers, due to iron depletion in the Reticulum galaxy.

Scully suppresses a smile.

COLTON You can't be serious.

MULDER Do you know how much liver and onions go for on Reticulum?

Mulder eyes Colton, then moves off. The agent looks to Scully. She reacts as if "you stepped right into it."

MULDER

As Scully and Colton confer in the b.g., Mulder has a look around. Still cracking seeds, he checks sharp corners on the desk for fibers, moves to the picture window checking for points of entry, and makes his way along the floorboards searching for trace evidence.

Beneath the ventilation grid, he stops. Mulder gently presses the carpet with an index finger, finding tiny metal filings.

He brings them up for closer inspection before looking up to the grid. His expression suddenly turns interested. He moves to his briefcase.

Colton looks at him, then to Scully, "what's he up to?"

Mulder grabs some fingerprint powder, fingerprint tape and a brush. He rolls the brush handle rapidly between his hands to clean the bristles. Mulder pulls up a chair, stands on it and begins to lightly powder the area about the vent grid.

Colton and Scully look on in disbelief. Colton turns to Scully.

COLTON That's a one foot square vent. Even if a "Reticulian" could crawl through, it was screwed in place.

MULDER

CAMERA is high, up with Mulder. PUSH IN as Mulder strokes the brush in the direction following the contour lines. A print emerges. It is elongated and thin. It has qualities of a fingerprint, but certainly not human.

REVERSE - MULDER

Tenses. His interest is piqued. He's seen this before.

225

FINGERPRINT

A slight CREEP IN on the oblique print reaching for the grill.

CUT TO:

INT. MULDER'S OFFICE - DAY - CLOSE - LIGHTBOX

Six photographic slides of an elongated fingerprint sit upon the lightbox. One slide is from Usher's office, with a portion of the ventilation grill in FRAME. Three slides are grouped together, while the remaining two are paired. Mulder points to each group as appropriate.

MULDER (O.S.) This is the print I took yesterday from the office. These others are from an X-file.

WIDER

Mulder and Scully are lit from below by the lightbox. The slides eerily reflect in Mulder's glasses.

MULDER (CONT'D) Ten murders. Baltimore area. Undetermined points of entry. Each victim had their liver removed. These prints were discovered at five of the ten crime scenes.

SCULLY Ten murders? Colton never mentioned ...

MULDER (cuts her off) Most likely he's unaware of them. These three prints were lifted five years before he was even born and these two were taken five years ... probably before his mother was even born.

Scully eyes him, incredulous.

SCULLY You're saying these prints were taken from Nineteen Sixty-Three and Nineteen ... Thirty-Three?

MULDER And of course, fingerprinting was just coming into its own in 1903, but there was a murder involving an extracted liver.

SCULLY (dryly) Of course.

MULDER Five murders, every thirty years. That means he's got two more to go this year.

Scully moves off with disbelief, considering ...

SCULLY It would have to be a copycat.

226

MULDER (a mock lecture) What did we learn on our first day at the academy, Scully? Every fingerprint is unique. These are a perfect match.

SCULLY Are you suggesting I go before the Violent Crime Section and present a profile declaring these murders were done by ... Aliens?

MULDER (dry) Of course not. I find no evidence of Alien involvement.

SCULLY What then? This is the work of a hundred year old serial killer capable of overpowering a healthy 6'2" businessman.

MULDER (beat; having fun) And he should stick out in a crowd with ten inch fingers.

Scully doesn't find it the least bit funny.

SCULLY Mulder, if this is some vindictive joke ...

He moves to her, quite serious.

MULDER The X-files are the investigation of unsolved cases involving unexplained phenomenon. This should be our case. And I'm quite serious.

Scully pauses.

SCULLY Okay ... look, the bottom line; this is Colton's case.

Mulder picks up the X-file.

MULDER The X-File dates back to 1903. We had it first.

She moves to him, gently, trying to find the right words.

SCULLY Mulder, they don't want you involved. They don't want to hear your theories. That's why Blevins has you hidden away down here.

He eyes her.

MULDER You're down here too.

She slumps into a chair. He moves to her.

MULDER (CONT'D) Why don't we agree to this ... they have their investigation. And we have ours.

227

(pause) "And never the twain shall meet." Agreed?

As Scully looks to him, neither confirming nor denying ...

CUT TO:

INT. SCULLY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT - COMPUTER SCREEN

The words appear on the PC screen as Scully writes a profile of the killer.

SCULLY (V.O. ) After a careful review of the violent and powerful nature of these murders ...

WIDER

Scully works at her desk. Research papers and evidence is piled high. CAMERA MOVES eerily about her.

SCULLY (V.O.) (CONT'D) ... I believe the killer to be a male, twenty-five to thirty-five years of age with above average intelligence.

CLOSE - CRIME SCENE PHOTOS

CAMERA MOVES OVER the harshly lit, high contrast photos of the crime scenes. WE never see blood and WE CUT to the next photo before REVEALING the gory images of the victims.

SCULLY (V.O.) (CONT'D) His manner of entry has so far been undetectable, this may be due to his superior knowledge of the inner structure of buildings and duct works ...

CLOSE - BLUEPRINTS

CAMERA studies blueprints and structural texts.

SCULLY (V.O.) (CONT'D) ... or that he in fact hides in plain sight, posing as delivery or maintenance workers. witnesses tend to overlook such personnel, their uniform rendering them invisible to casual observers.

SCULLY pauses to pick up a slide of the elongated fingerprint. She seems to question her own motives for a moment, then puts the slide away and returns to her computer.

SCULLY (V.O.) (CONT'D) The extraction of the liver is the most significant detail of these crimes. The liver possesses regenerative qualities. It cleanses the blood.

INT. F.B.I. CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY

Scully's VOICE OVER has been a presentation not to Mulder, but to the Behavioral Science Unit, including a quite impressed Colton.

228

SCULLY (CONT'D) The taking of this "trophy" is the transferring act for the killer to "cleanse" himself of his own impurities. I think he's acting under the classic form of obsessive-compulsive behavior.

The agents look to one another, agreed.

SCULLY (CONT'D) Since the victims are unrelated, and we cannot predict who will be next, we must utilize the fact that serial killers will not always succeed in finding a victim. When this occurs, the serial killer may return in frustration to the sight of a previous murder! attempting to recapture the emotional high.

Our best course of action is to target those sites.

AGENT FULLER, head of the Violent Crimes Section, takes in her report. He looks to his crew.

FULLER Good job, Agent Scully. (to others) If there are no objections, lid like to begin our stakeouts of the murder sites tonight. We're looking for a male, twenty-five to thirty-five, possibly wearing a uniform; gas company, U.P.S., whatever.

Fuller turns to Scully.

FULLER (CONT'D) I know you're assigned to another area, Scully, but if you don It mind some overtime, you're welcome to come aboard with us on this. That is if you don't mind working in an area that's a bit more down to Earth.

The other agents laugh a bit. She doesn't want to, but ·Scully forces a smile in order to remain a part of the group.

EXT. BALTIMORE SKYLINE - DUSK

As darkness falls ... A legend appears. "BALTIMORE, MARYLAND. THREE DAYS LATER."

EXT. HIGH SECURITY BUILDING - GARAGE ENTRANCE - DUSK

Re-establishing. An automobile exits.

INT. PARKING GARAGE - ELEVATOR - NIGHT

PUSH IN on a car, parked against the wall in the dark. Scully is inside, wearing a small headset.

RADIO (V.O.) (filtered) Position ten, station check.

SCULLY (whispers) Position ten, I copy.

The silence is deafening as Scully, slouched in the seat, surveys the area. As CAMERA MOVES IN on her, she hears a SOUND. It is a faint CRACK. She tenses, listening with her eyes. Again, CRACK.

Scully gets out of the car and draws her pistol. She takes the flashlight, aims it. Again, CRACK. She turns a corner. Guiding the beam, she spots something on the garage floor. She looks closer.

229

SCULLY'S POV - GARAGE FLOOR

Sunflower seed husks. O.S., a CRACK. A husk drops to the floor. Scully tilts up the beam to REVEAL Mulder.

He sarcastically raises his hands.

MULDER You wouldn't shoot an unarmed man, would ya?

WIDER

Scully catches her breath, holsters her weapon. He approaches the car.

SCULLY (heavy whisper) Mulder, what the hell are you doing?

MULDER

He's not coming back here. His thrill is derived from the challenge of a seemingly impossible entry. He's already beaten this place. If you had read the X-file on the case, you'd come to the same conclusion.

SCULLY You're jeopardizing my stakeout.

He walks off into the darkness. Scully heads off to her car.

TIME CUT:

INT. GARAGE - CIRCULATION MOTORS - NIGHT

Mulder walks in the shadows of the garage, amid the HUM of air circulation pumps and WHINE of the electrical system. O.S. he hears, a METAL CLANG. Mulder pauses.

He moves deeper into the darkness and proceeds toward the SOUND. Again, a METAL CLANG. Mulder takes cover behind a support pillar and looks around the corner.

MULDER'S POV - MOTORS caged by a chain-linked fence, the large sheet metal encased motors and blades of the air circulation system. From the system, air circulation ducts branch upward into the building. A metal panel to the motor encasement is out of place.

MULDER moves in for a closer look. As he nears, he sees the chain linked gate is open. Suddenly, the ventilation duct appears to breath as it flexes from the inside. Something is scaling the duct from it's interior. CAMERA PUSHES IN on Mulder as he realizes. He takes off, CLEARS FRAME.

SCULLY still sitting In the car, Mulder appears down the aisle gesturing for her to come. She hesitates. Mulder, giving up silence for expediency, yells ...

MULDER Scully, call for back up and get over here!

230

SCULLY (into radio) Position ten, request back up!

She hustles out of the car.

INT. GARAGE - CIRCULATION MOTORS - NIGHT

Mulder gestures to the ducts as Scully arrives, producing her firearm.

MULDER In there!

SCULLY FEDERAL AGENT! I'M ARMED! DON'T MOVE!

The undulating metal stops. Tension ...

SCULLY Get down ... slowly.

Pause. The duct begins to CREAK as the climber inside moves downward. Scully and Mulder tenses as the suspect climbs down. The duct flexes and pulsates until it finally stops. Beat.

Scully and Mulder's eyes turn toward the open panel of the motors.

SCULLY Alright, now get out!

Four agents hustle up, including Colton. They train their weapons upon the opening. In the darkness of the opening, a figure can be seen, crouching, crawling! it pauses before the light. Then, he appears.

It is a MAN, 30, with a boyish face, scared to death. He wears a blue Animal Control uniform, fitting Scully's profile exactly. He raises his hands.

COLTON Take him.

The officers move in, placing the suspect face down, cuffing him.

AGENT KRAMER You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you in the court of law ...

Colton turns to Scully, making certain Mulder hears.

COLTON Good job, Dana.

He moves off. She doesn't feel like celebrating, not in front of Mulder who seems stunned to be wrong. He looks to her.

MULDER You were right.

ON Scully as Mulder moves off ...

FADE OUT:

231

END ACT ONE

ACT TWO

INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - DAY - CLOSE - POLYGRAPH MACHINE

The inking system flows through the stylus as graph paper moves below. The questions are asked in a monotone, adding to the tension.

EXAMINER (O.S.) Is your full name Eugene Victor Tooms?

EUGENE (O.S.) Yes.

The EXAMINER marks the paper.

CLOSE - BLOOD PRESSURE CUFF

Attached to the right arm, the gauge stands at 65mm Hg of pressure.

EXAMINER (O.S.) Are you a resident of the state of Maryland?

EUGENE (O.S.) Yes.

CLOSE - TWO ELECTRODES

One is attached to the forefinger, the other attached to the ring finger. A wire leads to the electrodermal response unit on ~he polygraph.

EXAMINER (O.S.) Are you employed by the Baltimore Municipal Animal Control?

EUGENE (O.S.) Yes.

CLOSE - KYMOGRAPH

The paper flows past the motor. The Examiner marks a 7/+ next to the response.

EXAMINER (O.S.) Is it your intent to lie to me about anything here today?

EUGENE V. TOOMS

The suspect apprehended in the garage. He appears to be a very boyish thirty, short hair, and big warm eyes.

Hooked up to the polygraph, he's terrified, as if caught up in a bad dream he doesn't understand. Eugene looks like he wouldn't hurt a fly. He is wearing an orange jumpsuit of the Baltimore jail.

EUGENE No.

232

The room is a neutral gray with nothing to distract the suspect. The Examiner and polygraph machine sit at a right angle to Eugene. Across the room is a large two way mirror.

INT. ADJACENT ROOM - DAY

Mulder and Scully watch from this unlit room. Colton and Fuller are there also, as is a uniformed REPRESENTATIVE of the Baltimore Police. Tooms and the Examiner are piped in over a speaker system. They can be seen through the mirror in the interrogation room.

EXAMINER Were you ever enrolled in college?

EUGENE Yes.

EXAMINER Were you ever enrolled in medical school?

EUGENE No.

INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - DAY

EXAMINER Have you ever removed a liver from a human being?

EUGENE No.

EXAMINER Have you ever killed a living creature?

EUGENE Yes.

EXAMINER Have you ever killed a human being?

EUGENE No.

EXAMINER Have you ever been in George Usher's office?

EUGENE No.

EXAMINER Did you kill George Usher?

EUGENE No.

EXAMINER Are you over one hundred years old?

Eugene is caught off track, doesn't follow, but ...

233

EUGENE No.

INT. ADJACENT ROOM - DAY

As the agents look on, Colton turns to Fuller.

COLTON That must be a control question.

MULDER I had him ask it.

They all turn to Mulder, puzzled, to say the least. Scully looks down as Mulder watches Eugene intently.

EXAMINER Have you ever been to Powhattan Mill?

EUGENE Yes.

EXAMINER In 1933?

EUGENE (beat) No.

Colton, Fuller and the Cop look incredulously toward Mulder.

COLTON You again?

Mulder nods, eyes locked on Tooms. The agents look to Scully who tries to remain neutral.

CLOSE - EUGENE TOOMS

EXAMINER (O.S.) Are you afraid you might fail this test?

Eugene is uncertain how to answer. The pressure is breaking him.

EUGENE Well ... yes, 'cause I didn't do anything.

CLOSE - POLYGRAPH

As the stylus measures the response on the graph paper ...

CUT TO:

INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - DAY - EXAMINER - LATER

The Examiner leans. back against his chair.

EXAMINER He nailed it. "A" plus. As far as I'm concerned, the subject did not kill those people.

234

WIDER

The expressions on Scully and Colton reflect their disappointment. Mulder sits alone at the end of the table, reviewing the polygraph paper. Fuller enters, sighs.

FULLER Maintenance people at the office building confirmed a call to Animal control regarding a bad smell . They found a dead cat in the ventilation ducts on the second floor.

COLTON That ends that.

SCULLY It doesn't explain what he was doing there in the middle of the night.

FULLER So, he's one of the few civil servants we have with initiative. And we busted him for it.

SCULLY He was crawling up the air duct by himself, without alerting security ...

COLTON Dana ... he passed the test. His story checks out. It's not the guy. Doesn't mean your profile is incorrect.

MULDER Scully's right. It is the guy.

All eyes turn to Mulder who looks up with total confidence. Fuller extends one last strand of patience.

FULLER Whatta you got, Mulder?

MULDER He lied on questions eleven and thirteen. The electrodermal and cardiographic responses nearly go off the chart.

FULLER Is number eleven the hundred years old question? Let me tell ya, I had a reaction to that stupid question. And what the hell was that Powhattan Mill thing?

MULDER Two murders with matching M.O. IS occurred in Powhattan Mill in 1933. Just look at the chart.

EXAMINER My interpretation of those reactions ...

FULLER I don It need you or that machine to tell me if Tooms was alive in '33!!

MULDER He's the guy.

235

Fuller's had enough. As he storms out ...

FULLER I'm lettin' him go.

The door SLAMS! Silence.

Colton moves slowly toward the door with the intent of rubbing the defeat into Mulder's face. He opens the door. Scully stands nearby. The Examiner exits, then Colton, who pauses in the doorway.

COLTON (to Scully) You comin'?

SCULLY Tom ... I ... I want to thank you for letting me put in some time with the V.C.S., but ... I'm officially assigned to the X-files.

Colton's eyes move to Mulder who is looking over the charts.

COLTON I'll see what I can do about that.

SCULLY Tom, I can look out for myself, and I don't want to ...

He cuts her off, speaking loud enough for Mulder to hear.

COLTON You said Mulder was "out there." But that guy ... he's insane.

He exits, the closing DOOR punctuates his statement. An awkward silence fills the room.

CUT TO:

INT. HALLWAY - BALTIMORE P.D. - DAY - CLOSE - VENDING MACHINE

A package of sunflower seeds stands suicidal on a ledge of the vending machine. The coil turns and the package falls.

WIDER

Mulder removes his snack from the bottom tray. Scully inserts some coins, then weighs her options, absently rolling her necklace between her thumb and forefinger.

MULDER What?

SCULLY Do I want the trail mix or the yogurt covered raisins?

MULDER With the day you're having?

He pushes some buttons.

CLOSE - CANDY BAR

A chocolate monster loaded with comforting but unhealthy junk falls to the bin.

236

WIDER

Scully sighs, still playing with her necklace.

SCULLY What makes you think I'm having a bad day?

He mimics her motion with his thumb and forefinger.

MULDER The worse the day gets, the faster the necklace twirls.

Caught, she releases her necklace. He produces the candy from the bin and hands it to her. They move along the precinct. She stops, flustered.

SCULLY Mulder, why'd you do that?

MULDER (a hedge) What, I've flipped for candy bars before.

SCULLY You knew those guys would never believe you. Why'd you push it?

MULDER Maybe I thought you caught the right guy ...

Beat. Scully doesn't buy it. Mulder smiles.

MULDER And maybe I run up against so many people who are hostile just because they can't open their minds to the ... possibilities ... that sometimes the need to mess with their heads outweighs the millstone of humiliation.

SCULLY Maybe ... but it seems like you were acting very territorial ... I don't know, forget it ...

She starts to walk off. He stops her.

MULDER Of course I was. In our investigations, you may not agree with what I hope to find, but at least you respect the journey.

She's surprised by the confession and simply nods to indicate she understands.

MULDER (CONT'D) But ... I won't hold it against you if you want to keep working with them.

She shakes her head.

SCULLY I know you must have something more than just the polygraph to back up this bizarre theory. 1 have to see what it is.

On Mulder's smile ...

237

CUT TO:

INT. POLICE PRECINCT - DAY - COMPUTER MONITOR

A FULL FRAME image of Eugene Tooms' arrest report, including mug shots, vital information and fingerprints.

WIDER

Mulder and Scully sit at a borrowed computer in the precinct.

MULDER These are Eugene Tooms' prints.

Mulder punches some buttons and the fingerprint section of the report enlarges, filling the screen on the monitor.

MULDER This is the fingerprint they took from Usher's office. It matches the old ones from the X-files.

MONITOR

The normal prints are squeezed into one half of the screen as the elongated print appears on the other half. A mouse directed arrow singles out the set of current prints. It highlights the middle left finger. With a push of a button, all but the highlighted current fingerprint disappear, leaving the computer screen with the current normal print on the LEFT and the elongated print on the RIGHT.

PRECINCT

Scully looks to Mulder, shrugs.

MULDER Obviously, no match. But ... what if ... somehow ...

Mulder punches in some commands.

MONITOR

The computer stretches and elongates the normal print until it is in correct proportion to the abnormal elongated print. The two images now move toward CENTER of FRAME, OVERLAPPING, until matching perfectly.

PRECINCT

PUSH IN on Scully in stunned amazement. A simple question sticks in her throat ...

SCULLY ...how ... could it be?

Mulder studies the screen.

MULDER The only thing I know for certain is ... they let him go.

CUT TO:

EXT. WERNER'S HOUSE - NIGHT

238

A large and upscale suburban home. It is dark and quiet. A car pulls up into the driveway, the motion detection security light turns ON. MR. WERNER gets out of his car. After a moment, the surrounding area becomes highly contrasted. The SOUND FADES until only Mr. Werner's FOOTSTEPS ARE HEARD. WE realize he has become Tooms' target.

He enters the house. The security light goes OFF.

After a moment, a FEMALE JOGGER runs past. The motion causes the light to turn ON. The girl clears FRAME: Beat. Another. The light goes OUT. A cold autumn wind RUSTLES some leaves.

In the pale moonlight, WE see a jumpsuit clad figure move from the sidewalk to the driveway. He passes the motion security light, but it does not turn on. Eugene moves to the bushes along the house.

KILLER'S POV – WERNER'S HOME

Through the window - an alarm system.

CLOSE - EUGENE

His eyes fiery, he turns his head searching for a point of entry.

SIDE OF THE HOUSE

MOVING, the bushes seem to strobe as WE FOLLOW Eugene's path through them. Suddenly, he stops. Before him, stretching up the outside of the house, the bricks of the chimney.

CLOSE - BRICKS

As Eugene reaches up, grasping between bricks with the tips of his fingers. PULL BACK as he pulls up, climbing the outside of the house. Inhumanly determined. Moving higher.

EXT. ROOFTOP - NIGHT

The tops of the trees blow in the wind. Two hands appear followed by Eugene as he pulls himself upon the roof, landing with a slight THUD.

INT. WERNER'S HOUSE - NIGHT

Werner is in the kitchen, reading his mail while nibbling a sandwich. He hears nothing. In the b.g., in his living room sits the fireplace.

EXT. ROOFTOP - NIGHT - OVERHEAD ANGLE

Eugene looks down into the chimney opening. It is only a 1/2 foot by 1 foot opening. CAMERA CRANES DOWN to find Toom's entire being concentrated on the point of entry. Perspiration beads on his forehead. Tooms leans over the opening and inserts his hand deep into the chimney.

INT. CHIMNEY - NIGHT - LOOKING UP

Toom's fingers eerily stretch (FX) toward us. The tiny bones CRACK from the strain. They grip the blackened bricks.

EXT. ROOFTOP - NIGHT

Toom's head and arms are in the chimney. He appears stuck at the shoulders until a sickening dull POP dislocates his shoulder from the socket. It slips into the opening. Pop· and the other shoulder follows. With inhuman strength and determination, he begins to further force himself down the chimney.

INT. WERNER'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT

239

Mr. Werner continues to read his mail. After a moment, a CLICK O.S. He turns ...

FIREPLACE DOORS

The glass fireplace doors are slightly opened. Wind WHISTLES from. outside as tiny flecks of ash are blown into the living room.

WIDER

Werner gets up from the table and moves to the fireplace. He starts to close the doors, then as an after thought, he throws a log on the hearth and lights the kindling below. A fire begins. He watches the tiny flames dance about until they suddenly die.

Be opens the match box for another match. Empty. Werner stands. As he turns to find another match ...

EUGENE blackened, reddish eyes ablaze, dripping with sweat, ATTACKS. As they CLEAR FRAME ...

CUT TO BLACK:

END ACT TWO

ACT THREE

INT. WERNER'S HOUSE - NIGHT - CLOSE - TAPE MEASURE

One end is held at the victim's foot. The steel tape is pulled out. Inches race past, finally stopping as they reach a wall.

DETECTIVE (O.S.) Seventy eight inches from the south wall.

The tape retracts, SNAPPING into its shell.

WIDER

DETECTIVE JOHNSON and a UNIFORMED OFFICER record the information as they stand over the victim - who is never fully seen. Colton ENTERS FRAME, stressed and frustrated.

COLTON Let's run a check on liver transplants in the next twenty-four hours. Maybe this is black market.

JOHNSON Come on. It was ripped out of there.

COLTON (snaps back) At this point, I'll give any theory a shot.

He sees something O.S. that evokes an angry reaction.

COLTON (CONT'D) Any sane theory.

Mulder and Scully pass the Guard and enter. Colton approaches and tries to stop them.

240

COLTON I'm sorry, Dana, but I only want qualified members of the investigating team at the crime scene.

MULDER What's the matter, Colton? Are you worried that I'm going to solve your case?

Mulder starts toward the scene. Colton reaches out and grabs Mulder's arm - too hard. Mulder eyes him. Colton eyes back and remains in the path.

SCULLY Tom, we have authorized access to this crime scene.

Neither Mulder nor Colton move. The following is difficult for Scully ...

SCULLY A report of you obstructing another officer's investigation might stick out in your personnel file.

Colton eyes flash to her, betrayed. He steps aside. Mulder coolly enters the living room. Colton turns to Scully.

COLTON Whose side are you on?

SCULLY The victim's.

Colton eyes her hard, sighs.

Mulder observes the crime scene. The Detective and the Officer begin another measurement.

CLOSE - TAPE MEASURE

From the tip of the victim's hand, the tape measure reels out, coming to a stop at the fireplace. Above the hearth is an elongated mark of ash, like the weird fingerprint found in the previous murder scenes.

JOHNSON (O.S.) Sixty five inches from the fireplace.

MULDER reacts to the ash mark. He moves to the hearth and kneels to examine it. It isn't a clear print, but the resemblance to the others are strong. Mulder notices another smudge of ash leading up to the mantle. Mulder examines closer.

MANTLE

Covered with pictures and knick knacks, the mantle hasn't been dusted for some time. There is a conspicuous clean ring where some object once sat.

WIDER

Scully approaches Mulder.

SCULLY Colton said the victim is a Thomas Werner, single ...

241

MULDER (cuts her off) It's Tooms. He took something.

Mulder indicates the elongated mark and the "clean" spot. Scully looks, her face hardens in determination.

EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT - ESTABLISHING

A nice, modest apartment building.

INT. APARTMENT HALLWAY - NIGHT

MR. LEE, a middle-aged black man, sifts through a large key ring as Scully and Mulder follow down the hall.

MR. LEE I double check my tenants. You must have the wrong place.

SCULLY This is the address he listed on the arrest report.

MR. LEE Eugene is so quiet. I never have trouble.

They stop at the door. Mulder and Scully remove their weapons and move Mr. Lee out of the way. Mulder KNOCKS. Nothing. Again. Nothing.

MULDER Mister Tooms, open the door! Federal agents.

Nothing. Mulder gestures for the keys. He unlocks the door. It's dark inside. Scully covers as Mulder flips on the light and enters.

INT. EUGENE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Empty. No one's ever lived here.

MULDER Well, Tooms'll have no trouble getting back his cleaning deposit.

SCULLY This address is a cover.

She checks the vibrating pager on her belt. Scully notes the number.

SCULLY Baltimore P.D. I told them to call if they hear anything about Tooms.

She produces her cellular phone and dials.

INT. BALTIMORE POLICE DEPARTMENT - NIGHT

Detective Johnson picks up the phone.

JOHNSON Johnson ... yeah, I got a report you might be interested in. We got a call from the Animal Shelter ...

INT. EUGENE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

242

SCULLY ... uh huh ... and the truck was abandoned? Tooms hasn't shown up at work.

Mulder knows the situation from her half of the conversation and nods as if he expected to hear this.

SCULLY (CONT'D) Thank you, detective. Please let me know if anything new develops.

She hangs up. He turns to her.

MULDER Four dead. One to go. Then our next chance to get him will be 2023. And you should be the director of the bureau by then.

SCULLY (sarcastically) Any thoughts on how to find him in this century?

MULDER Just like any other missing person. Look to the past and it should lead us to the present.

CUT TO:

INT. POLICE STATION - DAY - EXTREMELY CLOSE - MICROFILM

On the screen, information streaks past at lightning speed. It stops with a CLACK on a type-written date "1903 CENSUS."

MULDER (O.S.) I think this is where it all began.

WIDER

Mulder and Scully sit before the machine, eyes searching. Scully has the X-file on the table near her. She points to the screen.

SCULLY There.

CLOSE - SCREEN

In dated print on the microfiche screen ... EUGENE VICTOR TOOMS. DATE OF BIRTH - (unknown)· 66 Exeter Street. #103. Baltimore. OCCUPATION - Dog catcher.

WIDER

Mulder and Scully react. Something rings a bell.

MULDER Exeter Street ... let me see the file on the first murder in 1903.

She grabs a slim file. He opens to a xeroxed police report of 1903.

CLOSE - REPORT

Victim's address: 66 Exeter Street #203.

MULDER & SCULLY

243

SCULLY He killed the guy above him.

MULDER Maybe the neighbor played the victrola too loud.

SCULLY This must be Tooms' great grandfather.

MULDER What about the prints?

SCULLY Genetics might explain the pattern.

Mulder shrugs, nods, agrees and disagrees. She pushes.

SCULLY It begins with one family member who raises the offspring with sociopathic attitudes and behavior who raises the next child ...

Mulder gives her a blank look before ...

MULDER So, this is what, the anti-Waltons?

SCULLY Well, what do you think?

MULDER What we have to do is track Eugene Tooms. Go through the census. I'll plow through this centuries birth, death and marriage certificates.

They look at the screen and realizes the monumental task ahead.

MULDER You wouldn't have any Dramamine? These things make me sea sick.

SERIES OF SHOTS - POLICE STATION

--MICROFICHE SCREEN - data streaks past. --Mulder carries a handful of microfiche boxes and sits at a machine.

MICROFICHE SCREEN - years fly by ... 1910... 1911... 1912... Scully pinches her eyes beneath her glasses as she continues. Finding nothing. -- MICROFICHE MACHINE - As another roll is threaded through the projector. --Mulder sits before the machine, tie loosened, sleeves rolled up. Scully sits next to him.

MULDER Anything?

SCULLY Nope. He dropped off the face of the Earth. You?

MULDER Never was born. Never married. Never died.

SCULLY At least in Baltimore County.

244

Mulder sighs.

SCULLY I did find one thing, though.

Mulder eyes her.

SCULLY It's the current address of the investigating officer of the Powhattan Mill murders in 1933.

CUT TO:

INT. REST HOME - DAY - CLOSE - FRANK BRIGGS

A wonderfully grizzled eighty-five year old face. His yellowed eyes emote a sad wisdom.

FRANK I've been waitin' twenty-five years for you.

WIDER

A legend appears on screen: LYNNE ACRES RETIREMENT HOME. BALTIMORE.

Scully and Mulder stand before Briggs in the tiny room. He's in a wheelchair. The door is open and elderly people pass in the hallway. A CHEAP PENDULUM CLOCK hangs on the wall, TICKING ... marking time.

SCULLY Sir?

FRANK I called it quits in 1968, after forty-five years as a cop, and those killings in Powhattan Mill ... I was a sheriff then ...

He drifts off, overwhelmed with emotion over the subject, sixty years later. The clock TICKS. He sighs deep. His tired eyes turn to them. Mulder and Scully appear concerned. Briggs gestures for them to sit close. He lowers his voice.

FRANK I had seen my share of murders. Bloody ones. But I could always go home, pitch a few baseballs to my kid and never give it a second thought. You gotta be able to do that. You'd go crazy. Right?

Mulder and Scully nod.

FRANK (CONT'D) But those murders in Powhattan Mill. When I walked into that room. My heart went cold. My hands numbed. I could feel "it"... I pulled my gun 'cause I thought the guy was still in the room.

MULDER Feel what, Frank?

Frank struggles to explain.

FRANK When I first learned about the death camps in 1945, I was taken back to Powhattan Mill. When those cops in Mississippi turned loose the dogs on

245

those colored people ... I felt that room. When I see them Kurds or those Bosnians ... that room is there!

FRANK (Cont'd) I tell ya, it was as if all the horrible acts people are capable of ... somehow gave birth to some human monster.

He looks away, feeling foolish, but he's held this in too long.

FRANK (CONT'D) That's why I said I've been waitin', because I knew it was never gonna go away. I knew it would outlive me.

Briggs wheels to the closet and gestures to a box tucked away in the corner.

FRANK Get this out.

Mulder removes the 3'x3' box.

FRANK This is all the evidence I've collected. Officially and unofficially.

They open the box, looking through it.

SCULLY Unofficially?

FRANK I knew the five murders in '63 were by the same ... person ... as in '33, but by then they had me on a desk pushin' papers and wouldn't let me near the case.

Scully produces a jar filled with formaldehyde and a piece of liver.

SCULLY A piece of the removed liver?

FRANK (nods) Left at the crime scene. You know that's not the only trophy he took. Family members reported small personal effects missing in each case.

Scully and Mulder eye one another, recalling Werner's mantle.

FRANK (CONT'D) A hairbrush from the Walters' murder. A coffee mug from the Taylor murder.

MULDER Have you ever heard the name Eugene Victor Tooms?

Frank stops cold.

FRANK You know I have.

The old man rifles through the box, removing a file of photographs.

246

FRANK When they wouldn't bring me aboard in '63 ... I did some of my own work. I took these surveillance pictures. This is Tooms.

He flops them on the bed. Mulder and Scully pick them up.

CLOSE - PHOTOGRAPHS

Black and white, contrasty , everything is old looking, except Eugene Tooms. He looks exactly as we've seen him today.

FRANK (O.S.) 'Course that's him thirty years ago.

RETURN

Scully takes the photos for a closer look. Mulder looks at another photo.

FRANK That's the apartment where he lived. It was located at ... uh ...

MULDER 66 Exeter Street?

FRANK That's it. Right there.

Mulder looks at the photograph ..

PHOTOGRAPH

A four or five story apartment building, built at the turn of the century, but still in decent shape in 1963.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - EXETER STREET - DAY

The same building is just a shell today. Boarded up and condemned. Scully and Mulder enter the foreground and look over the unpromising location. They start toward the building.

INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - HALLWAY - DAY

It may be day, but inside, the abandoned building reeks of. gloom. Mulder and Scully walk carefully through the tenement halls, weapons readied, flashlight beams crisscrossing in the dusty darkness.

SCULLY Here's 103.

They push open the door.

INT. APARTMENT 103 - DAY

Nothing. Empty. Mulder and Scully carefully enter.

MULDER The old man is right. You can feel it.

247

Scully can also, though she wouldn't admit it. They move off into another room. The boards CREAK as they move along the peeling walls.

SCULLY There's nothing here. Let's go.

Mulder peeks behind an old mattress and finds a door.

MULDER Wait a minute. What's down here?

As he pulls open the door, Scully looks in the hole.

SCULLY Let's find out.

She starts down the ladder. The pendant from her necklace swings out from her chest. She continues down the ladder.

INT. LADDER - COAL CELLAR - DAY

Flashlight beams WIPE across FRAME as the two agents begin down the old stairs. It is pitch black. They remain silent. One backs the other as they check hidden areas in the basement.

Finally, Scully shakes her head. Nothing. Mulder however, bends down to a panel in the wall.

SCULLY It's just an old coal cellar.

Mulder opens the panel.

MULDER'S POV - COAL CELLAR - THROUGH FLASHLIGHT BEAMS

The room is only five feet high, but long, at least twelve feet. It is dark and only what the flashlight beam hits can be seen. Something shiny reflects.

Mulder and Scully aim their lights at the object.

On a wooden crate sits a collection of personal effects. A coffee mug, a round music box, and Mr. Usher's snow globe amongst them ..

INT. COAL CELLAR - DAY

Mulder and Scully enter, hunched over. This room is quite nightmarish. Pipes and tubing criss cross along the low ceiling. The walls perspire with condensation.

Mulder and Scully reach the objects. Mulder points to the music box.

MULDER This is the shape on the mantle.

SCULLY Briggs said he kept trophies.

Mulder has a look around.

MULDER Does he live in here?

248

In the corner sits a mound, made of greasy rags, newspapers and garbage. It stretches from ceiling to floor and wall to wall. A hole is centered. It appears to be a nest.

Mulder approaches. He shines the light inside. The interior is coated with an oozing substance. Mulder carefully reaches inside and touches the fluid with his finger. Scully examines the material.

SCULLY Oh my God, Mulder ... it smells like ... I think it's bile.

MULDER Is there any way I can quickly get it off my finger without betraying my cool exterior?

She shakes her head. He quickly flicks his fingers and wipes his hand on the floor.

SCULLY No one could live in this.

MULDER It's not where he lives. I think it's where he ... hibernates.

SCULLY Hibernates?

MULDER Just listen to me ... What if some genetic mutation could allow a man to awaken every thirty years? What if the five livers could provide sustenance for that period? What if Tooms is a twentieth century human monster?

Scully is still unwilling to accept this.

SCULLY Mulder. In any case, he's not here now. But he's got to come back.

MULDER We'll need a surveillance team.

SCULLY It'll take some finagling.

MULDER I'll keep watch. You go downtown and see what you can do.

She nods. He starts out, hunched over. She does likewise. Suddenly, Scully stops. Groans. Mulder spins around.

SCULLY I think I'm snagged on something.

She maneuvers and is released.

SCULLY Okay, I got it.

HOLD on the point of the ceiling where she was snagged. They quickly exit. O.S. the panel closes. A dim blue light coats the room. From a small hole amongst the piping in the ceiling, a hand appears, fist clenched. It slowly opens REVEALING Scully's necklace, dangling in the darkness.

249

CAMERA MOVES and TILTS UP to find in the maze of pipes, the blood red eyes of Eugene Tooms.

CUT TO BLACK:

END ACT THREE

ACT FOUR

EXT. 66 EXETER STREET - DAY

Even in the daylight, this structure appears eerie. HOLD long enough to re-establish before CAMERA MOVES to REVEAL Mulder's car staked out across the street.

CAMERA PUSHES IN to Mulder slouched in the seat, wiping his finger with a napkin as if the thought of having touched the fluid remains unbearable.

THUD! A squeegee lands on the windshield. Mulder jumps. A HUSTLER, all smiles, begins to clean the windows.

MULDER Get outta here!

The hustler continues. Mulder produces a dollar bill and holds it out the window. The hustler takes the money and runs.

Pause. The car door opens. Two F.B.I. agents get inside.

One is KENNEDY, the other is KRAMER. Mulder checks his watch.

MULDER About time.

KENNEDY We wanted to wait 'til the windows were clean so we could see better.

KRAMER Who're we lookin' for again?

Mulder holds up the arrest report and mug shot of Tooms.

MULDER Eugene Tooms. Not armed, but consider him dangerous.

The two agents nod and settle in for the duration.

MULDER If he doesn't show, Scully and I'll be back to relieve you in eight hours. Right here.

KENNEDY You got it ... (to Kramer) Spooky.

The two agents laugh. Mulder smiles, unruffled.

CUT TO:

250

INT. POLICE PRECINCT OFFICE - DUSK - CLOSE - BRIEFCASE

Slams shut. Scully checks her watch. She picks up her briefcase to leave, however, Tom Colton enters and shuts the door. He is pissed off. Colton tosses a piece of paper on her desk.

COLTON We have to talk.

SCULLY I have to meet Mulder.

COLTON That's what we have to talk about. You're using two of my men to sit in front of a building that's been condemned for ten years?

SCULLY It's not in any way interfering with your investigation.

COLTON Dana, right up front, when we first had lunch, I really looked forward to working with you. You were a good agent. But now, after Mulder ... I couldn't have you far enough away.

She glares at him, then starts out.

COLTON (CONT'D) Don't bother goin' down there. I had the stakeout called off.

SCULLY (furious) You can't do that!

COLTON You're right. I can't, but my regional ASAC can. Especially after I told him about the irresponsible waste of man hours.

She moves to the phone. He grabs it.

COLTON No, let me. I'll call Mulder and tell him the news.

Colton begins to dial, now ignoring Scully's presence.

SCULLY Is this what it takes to "climb the ladder?"

COLTON All the way to the top.

SCULLY Then I can It wait 'til you fall off and land on your ass.

She storms out. Colton pauses to look. Over the phone...

MULDER (V.O.) (filtered) This is Fox Mulder. I'm not here, please leave a message. BEEP.

251

COLTON Mulder, this is Torn Colton. Your stakeout has been called off. Give me a buzz. I can't wait to tell you why.

As Colton hangs up, victorious.

EXT. 66 EXETER STREET - NIGHT

The building looms over the empty street. After a moment, Mulder drives up to the designated spot. No one is there. Mulder stops. He checks his watch. He looks about, concerned.

MULDER Scully.

Mulder gets out of his car. He hustles toward the building.

EXT. SCULLY'S APARTMENT BUILDING - DUSK

Scully pulls into her apartment complex, heading toward a covered parking garage.

INT. LADDER - NIGHT

A flashlight beam blinds the FRAME. Mulder proceeds down the stairs into the basement. He draws his weapon.

COAL CELLAR PANEL

Mulder readies his gun. He opens the panel and shines the light inside.

MULDER'S POV - COAL CELLAR

Dangling on the "trophy" crate... Scully's necklace.

MULDER

His blood turns icy.

CUT TO:

INT. SCULLY'S APARTMENT - BATHROOM - NIGHT

Outside, it is dark. CAMERA CREEPS toward a bathroom window as Scully, on the cordless phone, CROSSES FRAME as she pours herself a glass of sparkling water.

SCULLY (into phone) Mulder, I guess you went out since Colton "gave us the night off." I say we talk to Blevins, file a complaint against him. I'm furious. Call me when you get in. Bye.

Scully takes her glass of water and moves off. CAMERA continues to CREEP until it STOPS at the sill, bony fingers appear on the glass.

INT. BEDROOM / BATHROOM - NIGHT

Scully walks into her open bathroom from the bedroom. She untucks her shirt, then reaches for the faucets.

CLOSE - DRAIN

252

As if Tooms were somehow inside, CAMERA pulls back dizzily as Scully turns on the water. CAMERA SETTLES as Scully CLEARS FRAME. HOLD on the toilet, lid down, for a teasing beat, as if Tooms could appear ...

CUT TO:

EXT. HIGHWAY - NIGHT - DRIVE BY

Mulder's car ROARS past.

INT. MULDER'S CAR - NIGHT

Mulder's foot is through the floor. He's on his cellular, frustrated as the phone RINGS with no response.

MULDER Damn it, answer!

He throws the phone down and barrels ahead.

EXT. SCULLY·S APARTMENT - NIGHT

There is a box on the wall with a phone company logo. The wires going into the box have been severed.

INT. SCULLY· S APARTMENT - BATHROOM - NIGHT

PUSH IN as Scully opens the closet... and pulls out a robe. She slides the door closed. WE FOLLOW her as she returns to the bathroom. She moves a basket holding several small bottles of bubble bath and lotions. There are green, blue and red liquids.

On the counter, she notes a couple drops of yellow fluid. She touches them, feels the texture, the sniffs the fluid on her fingers. She freezes in terror.

SCULLY Oh, my God ...

CAMERA RAPIDLY PULLS BACK, underlining how alone she is and all the possible hiding places in her apartment.

INT. MULDER'S CAR - NIGHT

His heart pounds as he races ahead.

INT. SCULLY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Scully looks out into her darkened apartment.

SCULLY'S POV - DRESSER

On it, her firearm.

RETURN

She cautiously moves back to the bedroom, toward the dresser. Her eyes search for any sign of movement. The short walk feels like a lifetime.

She nears the dresser. As she reaches for the gun, CAMERA DROPS to the floor, REVEALING a heating duct grill. With an ear splitting CRACK, it flies off. Scully falls to the floor as something grabs her legs out from under her.

THE GUN skitters across the floor, disappearing under the bed.

253

WIDER

Tooms begins to pull Scully into the duct. She slides on her back, desperately trying to grip something. Her fingers seem to SCREAM as they pull across the hardwood floor.

Scully is tugged ACROSS FRAME. She desperately reaches out and grabs the leg of the dresser.

CUT TO:

EXT. SCULLY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Mulder's car SCREECHES up to the complex. He jumps out of his car, running along the apartments. He pauses, chest heaving. O.S. a FAINT SCREAM. He tries the door. It's locked solid.

INT. SCULLY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Scully, with a kick, wrestles free. She scurries on her back, away from the duct. Breathless, she pauses, and in that second ...

From the duct, an arm rises. The shoulder severely dislocates from the joint. (FX) Tooms begins to pull himself from the duct. The image freezes Scully with shock.

INT. SCULLY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Mulder kicks in the door.

INT. SCULLY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Tooms leaps out of the duct and straddles Scully.

She punches and struggles, but he's too strong for one human. Blocking her punches, he zeroes in on her torso, the location of the liver.

BEDROOM DOORWAY

Mulder races toward the struggle, shocked by the image of Tooms about to rip into Scully. Mulder aims his weapon at the beast. Tooms' eyes dart about. Quickly searching for an escape.

TOOMS' POV - BATHROOM

A small rectangular window is high on the tiled wall above the shower head.

WIDER

As Mulder takes position to fire, Tooms leaps off of Scully and with lizard-like quickness dashes to the bathroom wall. Scully is immediately up, moving after Tooms. Mulder races into the room.

Scully is between Mulder and Tooms, preventing a shot.

BATHROOM

Tooms shatters the glass in the 1'x2' window. He tries to climb out. Scully tackles him by the legs and struggles to prevent Tooms from escaping.

Mulder removes his handcuffs. As he moves in to cuff the man, Mulder sees ...

WINDOW

254

Tooms' fingers stretch as he strains for a firm grasp· of the window sill.

WIDER

Mulder shakes off the shock. He cuffs Tooms' left hand. As he goes for the right, Tooms swipes at Mulder and powerfully knocks him away. Mulder falls backward. Tooms turns.

TOOMS' POV - MULDER

On the ground, a target.

RETURN

Tooms knocks Scully back and leaps toward Mulder. Mulder, dazed and vulnerable, rolls as Tooms dives. The predator tries to strike again, however, he is quickly jerked back by his left arm.

SCULLY

SNAPS the other end of the handcuff around the base of the round faucet head.

WIDER

Tooms is captured.

Mulder aims his automatic at Tooms.

Tooms' right hand is still free. He begins to settle, realizing he cannot escape. Not now.

MULDER Are you alright?

She nods. Tooms looks deep into Scully's eyes. Covered in sweat, Tooms lowers his head and breathes deeply... quickly.

Mulder looks to Tooms.

MULDER Well, he's not going to fill this year's quota.

As Tooms lies captured on the floor.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. REST HOME - DAY - CLOSE - A HEADLINE

"THE CONSEQUENCES OF ETHNIC CLEANSING" Positioned under the headline is a photo of war casualties.

FRANK BRIGGS sits in his wheelchair, alone in his room. He turns over the front page, then pauses, frozen.

HEADLINES

Smaller type. "SUSPECT CAUGHT IN SERIAL KILLINGS" Next to it is Eugene Tooms' mug shot.

FRANK BRIGGS

His wise eyes read, welling with tears. He subtly nods, content.

255

NEWSPAPER - ARTICLE AND PHOTO OF TOOMS

Suddenly, a long strip begins to. tear out of the paper. We think it's still Frank Briggs, but actually, we've...

CUT TO:

INT. PSYCH WARD CELL - DAY

Tooms tears the paper. He runs the strip across his tongue then applies it to a growing mound of rags and newspapers in the corner. His new nest.

The barred cell is reinforced by strong chain link.

INT. PSYCH WARD CORRIDOR - DAY

Mulder appears troubled as he leans against the wall outside Tooms' cell. Scully approaches from down the hall.

SCULLY All set. Everything's filed. Evidence has been tagged. We can turn the investigation over to the Baltimore Bureau.

Mulder keeps his eyes locked on Tooms.

SCULLY Colton actually tried to worm in on the case, but his ASAC's caught on. He's been bumped off the Violent Crime section and reassigned to the white collar crime division at the Sioux Falls Bureau.

Mulder shrugs, "he doesn't care." Scully studies her partner.

SCULLY I've ordered some genetic tests. The preliminary medical exam revealed quite abnormal development of the muscular and skeletal systems as well as a continually declining metabolic rate. It dips way below the levels registered in deep sleep.

Mulder has heard her, but he's not listening. She notes his mood.

SCULLY Did you hear what I said?

Tooms tears another strip of paper.

MULDER I remember how sad I was when people began to feel the need to put bars on their windows.

Tooms applies it to his nest.

MULDER I look at him and wonder ... what's next?

Scully is not so strict a skeptic as to not weigh the question. She puts a hand on his shoulder, indicating it's time to go. They head down the hall. An OFFICER holding a tray of food passes them. FOLLOW the Officer as he moves to a six inch by one and a half foot food tray slot.

As the Officer grabs the outside handle ...

256

CLOSE - EUGENE TOOMS

His head turns toward ...

KILLER'S POV - FOOD SLOT

The slot opens. Clear white light floods through. The Officer and the cell become muted as the slot remains sharp. (FX)

EUGENE TOOMS

Stoic. Watching.

FOOD SLOT

The Officer places the food on the cell tray flushed with the slot. The panel CLOSES. The Officer walks away. Hold on the potential escape route, PUSHING IN ...

EUGENE TOOMS

A slight smile develops as he eyes the slot. As he tears a piece of newspaper and runs it across his tongue ...

FADE OUT:

THE END

1x03 Conduit - transcript

Writers: Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon Director: Daniel Sackheim Air Date: 1 October 1993

Transcribed by: Mark Rooney Edited by Libby

[It is a dark night and there is a campfire going. A young boy and girl are sleeping in their sleeping bags outside a camper van, beside a lake. Inside the van sleeps the mother, and all is quiet. The tap is dripping and a cup of coffee sits on the table also. Suddenly the cup starts shaking, the mother wakes up as we see it's the whole van that is shaking. She falls out of her bunk and hits the floor hard, a cupboard opens and all the plates and cups shake off the shelf. A bright light is coming in through the windows. The woman is sitting on the floor backed against a wall and screaming. As suddenly as the shaking started, it stops.]

DARLENE MORRIS: Kids!

KEVIN MORRIS: Mom! Mom!

DARLENE MORRIS: Kevin!

KEVIN MORRIS: Mom!

[The woman crawls towards the door of the camper and as she puts her hand on the handle, she burns her hand.]

KEVIN MORRIS: Mom! Mom!

257

[The woman looks around and finds an oven glove which she puts on.]

KEVIN MORRIS: Mom!! Mom!! Mom!!

[As the woman opens the door, her son, Kevin, is standing at the bottom of the steps in front of the door.]

KEVIN MORRIS: Mom! Ruby's gone.

[The woman comes out of the camper and takes Kevin's hand.]

DARLENE MORRIS: Ruby! Ruby!!

[The woman runs to both sides of the camper calling out her daughter's name.]

DARLENE MORRIS: Ruby!! Ruby!!

[The woman stops and looks straight up into the night sky.]

DARLENE MORRIS: Ruby!!

[main titles]

FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C.

[Scully is in Section Chief Scott Blevins' office. He hands Scully a green file.]

BLEVINS: Agent Mulder's latest 3-0-2, requesting assignment and travel expenses for the both of you.

SCULLY: Sioux City, Iowa. That's the first I've heard of it.

BLEVINS: It came up through channels, from Mulder's ASAC, to the district G-14 and onto my desk.

SCULLY: I don't understand.

[Inside the file, attached to the 3-0-2, is an article cut out from a paper with the headline `TEEN TAKEN FROM TENT BY ALIENS'.]

BLEVINS: In essence, Mulder is petitioning the bureau to assign a case number to a tabloid headline.

SCULLY: He must have more evidence than...

BLEVINS: Not according to his 3-0-2, he doesn't.

SCULLY: I admit that is strange. Even for Mulder.

[Blevins gets up and takes a file out of a filing cabinet.]

BLEVINS: Perhaps it has something to do with this. Take a look.

[He walks in front of the desk and gives the file to Scully.]

SCULLY: An X-File?

[Scully opens the file and inside we see the following information:.]

Name Samantha T. Mulder Address 2790 Vine Street City Chilmarc, Mass. Place of Birth Chilmarc, Mass.

258

Date of Birth January 22, 1964 Nationality American

[Below is a picture of a young girl. More information reads as:.]

Remarks: Name and address of nearest relative notified in case of emergency. Fox Mulder [brother.] c/o F.B.I. Washington Bureau

[There is also a signature below.]

[Scully sits down.]

BLEVINS: Has he shared any of this with you? There's no need to protect him, he's the agent of record, he initiated the file himself.

SCULLY: She was his sister. She disappeared twenty-one years ago. He was twelve and she was eight. He claims that he was in the room when it happened. He recalls a bright light outside the window and, uh, and a presence in the room.

BLEVINS: In your opinion, has Agent Mulder's personal agenda clouded his professional judgment?

SCULLY: In my opinion, no.

BLEVINS: But you can see how it might appear that way.

[Blevins goes behind his desk and sits down.] As you know, Agent Mulder's pre-occupation with fringe matters has been a big source of friction in the Bureau. This is another case in point. I'm going to disallow the 3- 0-2.

SCULLY: With respect sir, at least let me talk with him, and make a recommendation.

[In the X-Files office, Scully is pacing, talking to Mulder who is sitting at his desk.]

SCULLY: It just doesn't seem substantial enough to warrant an investigation.

MULDER: Ok Scully, so we disagree, it's not the first time and it won't be the last.

SCULLY: Well, at least if we had a legitimate source, we could...

MULDER: This is the essence of science, you ask an impertinent question and you're on your way to a pertinent answer.

SCULLY: But what makes this case anymore credible than...

[Scully lifts a copy of National Comet, from where the article attached to Mulder's 3-0-2 was taken, off Mulder's desk and reads another cover feature.]

SCULLY: ...the hundred year old mother with the lizard baby?

MULDER: Because, the lizard baby wasn't born anywhere near Lake Okobogee.

SCULLY: Oko-what?

MULDER: Bogee.

[Mulder get up and talks right into Scully's face.]

259

MULDER: Okobogee.

SCULLY: Is that supposed to mean something to me?

[Mulder turns off the lights.]

MULDER: If you know anything about trout fishing. Or UFO hotspots.

SCULLY: Define hotspot.

[Mulder turns on a slide projector and we see a UFO on a projection screen.]

MULDER: Four sightings in 1967, August, including one by a national weather service plane.

[Mulder clicks to a bigger picture of the UFO.]

MULDER: This is a light-blasted, digitally-enhanced enlargement.

SCULLY: The pilot took that photograph?

MULDER: Try a girl scout with an instamatic. Four of the nine girls in the troupe claim to have seen something, five if you include the den mother. The Air Force said it was a weather balloon caught in a wind sheer. But there wasn't a weather balloon launched that day within seven hundred miles.

[Mulder turns off the slide projector and gets a file which he gives to Scully.]

MULDER: Now read me the names of those girl scouts from 1967.

[Mulder turns on an overhead projector and walks off out of sight.]

SCULLY: Lisa Terrell, Bonnie Winston, Doreen McCallister, Darlene Mor...

[Mulder points to a slide showing a recent newspaper article, the same article as attached to his 3-0-2. The missing girl's mother is Darlene Morris.]

MULDER: It's the same Darlene Morris.

Sioux City, Iowa

[Mulder and Scully pull up to a house in a car, they get out and approach the house. Mulder knocks on the door which is opened by a woman.]

SCULLY: Miss Darlene Morris?

[Scully shows her ID.]

SCULLY: I'm Agent Scully and this is Agent Fox Mulder, we talked with you on the phone last night.

DARLENE MORRIS: Please come in.

[They enter the house. Darlene's left hand is bandaged.]

DARLENE MORRIS: Well I knew that if I screamed loud and long enough that someone would listen. But I never expected the FBI. Er, this is Kevin. Kevin, say "hi".

[Kevin is sitting at a table in the next room. He doesn't respond.]

DARLENE MORRIS: Would you like some coffee?

260

SCULLY: Hmmm.

[Darlene walks off to the kitchen, Scully walks towards the next room when she looks behind her at Mulder. Mulder is looking at some of the pictures on the mantel, pictures showing Ruby. Mulder touches a photo of Ruby as a young girl, who looks very like Samantha.]

[Darlene, Scully and Mulder are sitting in the kitchen.]

DARLENE MORRIS: Some days I can't even get myself up out of bed. And Kevin has been acting so strange I don't know what to do anymore. I, I just want her back again.

SCULLY: Miss Morris, during the divorce, was there a custody battle?

DARLENE MORRIS: Charles had nothing to do with this.

SCULLY: How can you be so sure?

DARLENE MORRIS: Because I know what happened. It's just like it was before.

MULDER: Summer of 1967, the girl scout troop?

DARLENE MORRIS: How did you know about that?

MULDER: Your name's on record at the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois.

DARLENE MORRIS: Really?

MULDER: Yeah, pilot for the national weather service made a similar sighting over the same area on the same day.

DARLENE MORRIS: They took her didn't they, Mr. Mulder?

[There is a long pause.]

MULDER: You, you said that um, Kevin was there, the night it happened.

DARLENE MORRIS: He didn't see anything, he was asleep.

MULDER: Do you think I might talk to him anyway?

[Darlene nods her head.]

MULDER: Thanks.

[Mulder gets up and walks away. Darlene looks at Scully.]

DARLENE MORRIS: You know, I've told this story so many times now, oh, to the newspapers and the police. And every time I tell it, people get this look in their eye just like the look that you've got right now.

[Kevin is sitting in front of a TV which is untuned to any channel, showing static.]

MULDER: Hey buddy! Mind if I sit down?

[Kevin shrugs his shoulders.]

MULDER: Thanks.

[Mulder sits on the end of a coffee table.]

261

MULDER: Your mom tells me you've been having nightmares.

KEVIN MORRIS: I guess so.

MULDER: Wanna tell me about `em?

KEVIN MORRIS: No.

MULDER: All right.

[Mulder notices Kevin is writing on a pad.]

MULDER: What are you doing?

[Kevin turns round to look at Mulder and then turns back to his pad and continues writing.]

MULDER: Are you making something?

[Kevin nods his head.]

MULDER: Can I take a look at it?

[Kevin lifts his pad and passes it to Mulder.]

MULDER: Thanks.

[When Mulder looks at the pad all he sees are ones and zeroes written continuously down the page.]

[Kevin points towards the tv.]

KEVIN MORRIS: It's coming from there.

MULDER: The TV?

[Kevin stops pointing at the TV and nods his head.]

[Sioux City Sheriff's Department. A fax is being sent out on headed paper. The information on it reads:.]

Date: AUG 26 From: FOX MULDER To: DANIEL BERNSTEIN Reporting To: CRYPTOGRAPHY SECTION, F.B.I. WASH. D.C.

[Mulder is talking on a phone, Scully is in the Sheriff's office talking to the Sheriff.]

MULDER: I don't know what it is, maybe a binary sequence of some kind. Could be anything, could be nothing. I know you're busy, look um, I know a friend who knows a friend who knows a friend who can get you a ticket to a Redskins game. You got it. All right, you know where to find me? Thanks Danny.

[Inside the Sheriff's office, the Sheriff walks around to sit behind his desk.]

SHERIFF: So, as I was telling your partner, we found no evidence of kidnap, no phone call, no ransom note, and since we didn't turn up a body....

MULDER: You assume she ran away.

262

SHERIFF: Well, it wouldn't be the first time Ruby Morris ran away from home.

MULDER: Well, how do you explain what her mother saw?

SHERIFF: Well I think that Darlene has a very active imagination. I've been listening to those stories since the first grade.

MULDER: So basically you ignored her statement.

SHERIFF: I included it in my report.

MULDER: But you didn't bother to check it out.

SHERIFF: We went out to the camp site, we didn't find anything. Let me tell you something, Darlene's little girl was no prom queen. I can't count the number of times I pulled her out of parked cars, or found her puking her guts out by the side of the road. It was just a matter of time before...

MULDER: Before what?

SHERIFF: Before something bad happened to her and if Darlene needs to make up crazy stories to get past that, fine. But don't tell me to treat it as the truth, I'm not gonna waste my time.

[Mulder and Scully leave the building.]

SCULLY: I just think it's a good idea not to antagonize local law enforcement.

MULDER: Who me? I'm Mr. Congeniality.

SCULLY: You never know, we might need his help one of these days.

MULDER: I'll send him a Bundt cake.

[As Mulder walks around the driver's side of their car, he notices a piece of paper stuck under the window wiper. He takes it and opens it, it reads: I'M ACROSS THE STREET FOLLOW ME. Mulder hands the note to Scully, who after reading it looks around to see who left the note. They see a girl across the street, and when she sees that Mulder and Scully have noticed her, she walks away. Mulder and Scully follow her into a library.]

[As they enter the library, they look along each of the aisles until they find the girl standing at the end of one. As they approach, the girl moves into the next aisle and talks to Mulder and Scully through the books.]

TESSA: You're looking for Ruby, right?

SCULLY: That's right. Who are you?

TESSA: Doesn't matter.

SCULLY: Are you a friend of Ruby's?

TESSA: Ruby didn't have friends, she just had people she liked to hang with.

SCULLY: And she liked to hang out with you?

TESSA: I guess we had some times.

MULDER: Like the night she disappeared?

263

TESSA: It was Greg. She was supposed to see him that night.

MULDER: Who's Greg?

TESSA: Her boyfriend, Greg Randall. Supposed to meet up at the lake. Had stuff to talk about.

MULDER: What kind of stuff?

TESSA: Greg got Ruby pregnant. I don't know, whatever, she got herself pregnant.

SCULLY: Do you know what they were planning to do about it?

TESSA: Gonna leave town, least that's what Ruby told me.

SCULLY: You know Greg from School?

TESSA: Greg? School? I don't think so. All he ever did since we met him was pour beer, The Pennsylvania Pub.

[A woman knocks some books off a shelf, Mulder and Scully turn to see what the noise was but when they turn back to talk to Tessa, she's gone. They look in the next aisle but she's gone.]

[The Pennsylvania Pub. Outside the pub is a lot of parked motorbikes, inside most people are wearing leather jackets. Mulder and Scully make their way across the floor to the bar. A comment is made about Scully, referring to her as a 'real' girl.]

MULDER: Excuse me. Do you know where we could find Greg Randall?

BARTENDER: Who's asking?

[Mulder takes out and shows his ID.]

BARTENDER: What kind of trouble's he got himself into now?

MULDER: Actually, we were hoping you could tell us.

BARTENDER: Greg called in sick about three weeks ago, man. I haven't seen or heard from him since.

MULDER: Any ideas where he might have gone?

BARTENDER: No, but if you find him, you tell him he's fired.

SCULLY: This is the motel we'll be staying at if you hear of anything.

[Scully gives the bartender a card with the details of where they are staying. The bartender looks at it and puts it in his waistcoat pocket. As they are about to leave, Mulder notices a tattoo on the bartender's arm.]

MULDER: Hey, that's a nice tattoo. What is that?

BARTENDER: What's it look like?

MULDER: Flying saucer. You don't really believe in that stuff do you?

BARTENDER: I take it you don't.

MULDER: No, I think it's all just a bunch of crazy people howling at the moon.

BARTENDER: So, you haven't been out to Lake Okobogee, have you?

264

MULDER: No I haven't, why?

BARTENDER: You should ride with us some time. You might see some things that'll change your mind.

[The bartender pulls back his hair to show his ear. It looks like the skin has been badly burned.]

BARTENDER: Get a killer sunburn in the middle of the night.

[The bartender chuckles. Mulder and Scully exchange a look.]

[At the Stay 'n Save Motor Inn. A clock shows 5:30 a.m. Scully is sleeping in her room, shadows move across her body. When she wakens she sees figures standing outside her door and she hears whispers. She sits up in bed watching the figures outside her door. The door handle is turned but it is locked. She sees her gun on a dresser on the other side of the room and gets out of bed to get it. As she puts her hand on it, the door is busted open and men dressed in suits enter the room, one man shines a light in her face.]

MAN: Where's Mulder?

[A man, Holtzman, and the man who initially bust into Scully's room, are now in Mulder's room. Mulder is sitting on the edge of his bed.]

HOLTZMAN: Where did you get the document?

MULDER: If you explain to me what you're talking about, maybe I can help you out.

[The fourth man hands a sheet of paper to Mulder.]

MULDER: This is a document? It just looks like a bunch of ones and zeroes to me.

HOLTZMAN: Tell me where you got it.

MULDER: Tell me what it is.

HOLTZMAN: Keep playing games, Mulder, I'll haul your ass up in front of the D6. You can explain to them what you're doing obstructing justice.

[Mulder gives the sheet of paper to Holtzman.]

MULDER: It's your call, Holtzman. So unless they tell me otherwise, I'm not accountable to anybody outside my subcommittee. I don't care if it's the NSA or the Vatican Police.

[Mulder puts walks to a chair and picks up his shirt, which he puts on.]

HOLTZMAN: It's a defense satellite transmission.

MULDER: You're kidding.

HOLTZMAN: Just a fragment but highly classified. We need to know where it came from.

MULDER: Sure, I'll let you know as soon as I find out.

[A ringing noise is heard, and the fourth man take out his cellular phone.]

HOLTZMAN: That's it Mulder, you just bought yourself a one-way back to Washington.

265

[Mulder and Holtzman wait to find out the outcome of the call.]

MAN: We got it.

[The fourth man and Holtzman leave Mulder's room.]

MULDER: Great.

[Scully enters. She is now dressed.]

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: You shouldn't have told them. They have no jurisdiction.

SCULLY: Mulder, they're NSA.

[Mulder puts on his jacket.]

SCULLY: They think the boy may be a threat to national security.

MULDER: C'mon, how could an eight year old boy, who can barely multiply, be a threat to national security? People call me paranoid.

SCULLY: Well, how did Kevin obtain top secret information? And where do you think he got it from?

[Mulder walks past Scully and out of the room.]

[Kevin Morris' room. A group of men can be seen filling boxes with Kevin's stuff. The fourth man is flicking through Kevin's books and then dropping them on the floor when he doesn't find what he is looking for. Kevin's drawings are ripped off the wall.]

[Outside the house, Mulder and Scully have arrived. They walk up to the front of the house, all the neighbors are gathered around the house to try and find out what's going on.]

AGENT: Watch your step, ma'm.

[Two men are escorting Darlene and Kevin out of the house, past Mulder and Scully and to waiting cars.]

DARLENE MORRIS: It'll be ok baby, don't worry. It'll be ok.

SECOND AGENT: Come with me son.

[One agent takes Darlene to one car while the other agent takes Kevin to another car.]

KEVIN MORRIS: Mom!!!

SECOND AGENT: Get in the car please.

[Kevin is put into the back of a car.]

DARLENE MORRIS: It'll be alright baby.

AGENT: Watch your head please.

[Darlene is put into the back of the other car. Mulder approaches the car that Darlene is in and looks in the window. It is too dark to see inside, both cars drive off. Mulder and Scully enter the house.]

266

[A set of papers containing binary codes is lifted out of a drawer by Holtzman, who flicks through them before nodding his head. Mulder enters the room and lifts up a broken piggy bank and puts in on a dresser.]

MULDER: You guys do really delicate work.

HOLTZMAN: Let's get this to cryptography.

[Holtzman gives the papers to the fourth man and walks past Mulder, then Scully and out of the room, followed by the other agents.]

HOLTZMAN: [to Scully] I think we got what we needed, thank you.

[Mulder pulls back the curtain and looks out the window. Noticing Mulder is looking at something in particular, Scully comes over to the window.]

SCULLY: What is it?

MULDER: I'm not sure.

[Mulder walks away and Scully continues to look out the window, she sees the top of Darlene's camper van is black.]

[Mulder sets a pair of ladders against the van and climbs up, Scully is watching him from the window. Mulder scrapes and takes a piece of the burned roof of the camper in his fingers, and crumples it into ash. He smells it before flicking it from his hands.]

FBI Regional Headquarters Sioux City, Iowa

[Mulder and Scully are talking to another agent.]

LEZA ATSUMI: We scanned all seventy-seven pages through the mainframe in Washington.

SCULLY: And none of the information is actionable?

LEZA ATSUMI: Other than the satellite transmission, nothing can be construed, in any way, as a national security risk. As far as I know, the boy's being released this afternoon.

SCULLY: So it's just a random set of ones and zeroes?

LEZA ATSUMI: On the contrary, there was nothing random about it.

SCULLY: I don't understand.

LEZA ATSUMI: All information can be rendered digitally, in a series of ones and zeroes.

[Agent Leza Atsumi sits down at her computer.]

LEZA ATSUMI: When we downloaded the data, we found an amazing range of...

[Leza types in a command on the computer, the screen shows a binary sequence and in the center of the screen is a message reading: CMMD: DNLD.CURRENT FILE.]

LEZA ATSUMI: Well see for yourself.

[A part of a picture comes up.]

LEZA ATSUMI: Da Vinci's universal man.

267

[The screen reverts back to binary, Leza types in another command and up comes a rotating object.]

LEZA ATSUMI: A DNA double helix. There's lots more.

[Leza types in another command and up comes a soundwave bar and as a line travels across the bar, a piece of music is heard.]

SCULLY: That's from the Brandenburg Concertos.

LEZA ATSUMI: But they're just fragments, a few notes here, a few notes there. Some lines from the Koran, a Shakespearean Sonnet.

MULDER: Almost like someone's switching channels, huh.

[Mulder looks at Leza and then at Scully but no one has an answer.]

[An agent escorts Darlene and Kevin out of Holding Area 107, and then lets them go. Darlene walks past Mulder and Scully, ignoring them.]

MULDER: Mrs. Morris.

DARLENE MORRIS: I have nothing to say to you.

[Mulder chases after Darlene touching her arm.]

MULDER: Mrs. Morris, please give me a minute to explain.

[Darlene stops and turns round, then she bends down and talks to Kevin.]

DARLENE MORRIS: Would you please just wait right over there for momma, I'll be right there.

[Kevin looks up at Mulder and then walks to where Darlene asked him to wait. Darlene stands up and faces Mulder and Scully again.]

DARLENE MORRIS: I thought you were both supposed to be here to help us.

SCULLY: This has been a terrible mistake. And I assure you that the government will pay for all repairs and damages.

DARLENE MORRIS: I don't want your money, I want my daughter back. And I want you to leave us alone.

MULDER: But your son has seen something.

DARLENE MORRIS: You stay away from me, and you stay away from my child.

[Darlene walks away, Kevin is staring up at the security monitors.]

DARLENE MORRIS: C'mon honey, it's ok, let's, let's go now.

[Mulder and Scully are driving along the road, past as sign showing Exit 68, Sioux City Downtown.]

SCULLY: I thought we were headed back into town.

[Mulder shakes his head slightly.]

SCULLY: Where are we going?

268

MULDER: The boy's the key, Scully. I know it.

SCULLY: The key to what?

MULDER: Finding Ruby. Just think about it for a minute, this is a boy who is receiving all kinds of digitized data from a television screen.

SCULLY: Agent Atsumi said it was a statistical aberration.

[Mulder shakes his head again.]

MULDER: No.

SCULLY: Ok, I admit it, it's not much of an explanation but it..

MULDER: I think that Kevin is a conduit, of some kind.

SCULLY: A conduit.

MULDER: A link or a connection to whoever or whatever took Ruby that night.

SCULLY: But how?

MULDER: If there was an abduction, it's likely that Kevin was touched in some way.

[There is a brief pause.]

SCULLY: Mulder, I know what you're thinking. I know why this is so important to you.

[Mulder looks at Scully.]

SCULLY: I know! But there is no evidence indicating an abduction.

MULDER: That's why we're going to Lake Okobogee.

Lake Okobogee, Iowa Campsite 53

[Scully is looking at the campfire, the sound of birds can be heard in the background. Scully stands up and Mulder walks by.]

MULDER: According to the police photos, Ruby and Kevin were sleeping right here.

[Mulder walks towards the waterfront.]

SCULLY: Just a stone's throw from the forest wall.

MULDER: Meaning what?

SCULLY: Meaning anybody could've come out of the forest to grab her.

MULDER: Have you noticed the tree line?

[Mulder points up to the trees, the leaves are burnt away from the tops and only the thin trunk remains.]

MULDER: Evidence of extreme heat.

SCULLY: Or an electrical storm.

269

[Mulder is looking through some debris on the waterfront.]

SCULLY: Besides which, there's nothing to connect it to the night of Ruby's disappearance.

[Mulder lifts up a piece of glass.]

MULDER: That's true.

[Mulder is cleaning the sand off the glass.]

MULDER: Do you think a lightning strike could've caused this?

[Mulder walks towards Scully with the piece of glass.]

MULDER: Do you have any idea at what temperature sand solidifies into glass?

[He gives it to Scully, who rubs the hardened sand on it.]

MULDER: Twenty-five hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Something was out here Scully, something hot enough to turn sand into glass, to singe those trees and to blister the roof of that camper.

[Mulder walks back towards the waterfront, and Scully looks around the area. As she is about to turn towards Mulder, she hears a noise and then sees a white wolf. She quietly calls to Mulder.]

SCULLY: Mulder, look.

[Mulder walks up beside Scully. After a few moments, the wolf heads off into the forest, Mulder hands some papers to Scully and then follows the wolf. Mulder runs into the forest and stops when he sees a pack of wolves crowding around a group of stones. Mulder takes out his gun and fires a shot into the air, the wolves scatter off into the forest. Mulder advances towards the stones, Scully comes running to where she heard the gunshot. She stops when she sees Mulder.]

SCULLY: What is it?

MULDER: It's a grave. Shallow, by the smell of it.

[Mulder starts removing the stones.]

SCULLY: Mulder, what are you doing?

[Mulder continues to move the stones.]

SCULLY: Mulder, you are disturbing a crime scene.

[Mulder is still moving the stones, Scully grabs Mulder's arm.]

SCULLY: Stop.

[Mulder turns to face Scully.]

MULDER: What if it's her? I need to know.

[Later. A police officer is sectioning off the area with police tape, the county coroner is at the grave and a man documenting the scene with photographs. There are also several police officers around the area. Mulder and Scully stand watching.]

SCULLY: You ok, Mulder?

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MULDER: Fine.

[We see a man lying in the grave.]

CORONER: Looks like a male caucasian.

[The Sheriff is standing shaking his head.]

M. E. WORKER: Sir.

[The M. E. Worker hands the Sheriff the man's wallet. The Sheriff, while wearing surgical gloves, opens the wallet and takes out the man's ID.]

SHERIFF: Victim's name was Greg Randall.

SCULLY: Ruby's boyfriend.

SHERIFF: Ruby had a lot of boyfriends.

MULDER: Before you put that away, can I take a look at it?

SHERIFF: Go right ahead.

[Mulder lifts a pair of gloves out of a case, puts them on and takes the wallet. He flicks through the wallet, there is a lot of money in the back as well as a piece of paper that Mulder takes out. On the paper is a note reading `DR. JACK FOWLER AUG. 7 - 2:30'. Mulder looks at Scully who has also seen the note.]

[In the Sheriff's office. An enlarged photocopy of the note comes out of a photocopier, which Mulder lifts and brings over to a desk. He switches on a desklamp and places the photocopy beside the note that Tessa left on Mulder and Scully's car. As Mulder and Scully study the pages, the Sheriff looks on. Mulder places the original note on the photocopy so that the word FOLLOW sits beside the FO of Fowler.]

SCULLY: Look at that, it's her, the girl from the library.

SHERIFF: Who?

SCULLY: We didn't get her name but she claimed Greg and Ruby had run off together.

SHERIFF: Well, Doc Fowler's a buddy of mine, delivered both my kids. I could find out who had that appointment.

[Two police officers are escorting Tessa down a corridor in the police station. She is escorted into a room, a table and some chairs can be seen through the door.]

SCULLY: Have a seat, Tessa.

[Tessa sits down and the door is shut. The letters on the door read 'Interrogation Room'. Inside the room on the table, sits a tape recorder which is recording. Scully sits down opposite Tessa.]

SCULLY: We know that you lied to us the other day. We know that you had the appointment with Doctor Fowler on August 7th. We know that you're the one that's pregnant, not Ruby.

TESSA: Aah, don't know nothing, do you.

271

SCULLY: We can prove it Tessa, and we can prove that Greg was the father.

TESSA: So what if he was the father.

SCULLY: This is very serious. Do you understand how serious this is?

[Tessa just looks away from Scully.]

SCULLY: Now you've waived the right to an attorney, so if you lie to us here today you could be charged with perjury.

TESSA: He promised me we'd be in L.A. by Christmas.

[The Sheriff is standing against the wall listening.]

TESSA: He had a friend there, I'd never seen the ocean.

SCULLY: You said that he and Ruby were seeing each other. You said that they were planning to meet at the lake, is that true?

TESSA: Lookit, I was nowhere near the lake that night, ok.

[Mulder gets up from his seat in the dark against the wall.]

MULDER: Sure you were, Tessa.

[Mulder walks towards Tessa.]

MULDER: You knew they were meeting, so you sat there and you waited for them. You were angry and you were jealous.

TESSA: I wasn't.

MULDER: You sat there and you waited and when they showed you killed him first, isn't that how it went?

TESSA: No.

MULDER: You snuck up from behind him and you shot him in the back.

[Mulder hits the desk with his hand.]

MULDER: BAAMMM.

[Mulder walks around the desk and stands beside Tessa.]

MULDER: And then you killed Ruby.

[Mulder hits the desk again.]

MULDER: BAAMMM.

[Mulder walks to the other side of Tessa.]

MULDER: What was she doing right before she died, Tessa? Was she pleading for her life? Was she running away?

TESSA: I didn't kill her.

[Mulder walks back to the other side of Tessa again.]

MULDER: Where's she buried, Tessa?

272

TESSA: I don't know.

MULDER: You don't know where you buried her Tessa.

[Mulder walks again to Tessa's other side.]

TESSA: I didn't kill her.

MULDER: You didn't?

TESSA: She wasn't even there that night!!!

[Mulder crouches down beside Tessa.]

MULDER: Well how would you know that Tessa, if you weren't there yourself.

[Mulder and Scully are walking along a corridor in the police station.]

SCULLY: Mulder, you're not seeing the whole picture here.

MULDER: Which is?

SCULLY: Which is that in all likelihood Ruby is dead.

MULDER: Is that your conclusion or the conclusion of the Sioux City Sheriff's Department?

SCULLY: They're searching the national park and a rescue dive team is coming in from Des Moines to drag the lake.

[Mulder stops and turns to face Scully.]

MULDER: They're wasting their time.

SCULLY: Do you really think Tessa Seers is telling the truth?

MULDER: Why not? What if Ruby never did show up that night?

SCULLY: She lied to us in the library, she lied to us about her pregnancy, what makes you think she wouldn't lie to us about killing Ruby?

MULDER: Because something was out there in those woods.

SCULLY: We have a suspect in custody, we have a confession to one murder, and we have a statement which speaks to the intent to commit another. It's over, Mulder. It's time to go home and turn this over to local law enforcement.

MULDER: I can't do that.

[Mulder walks off. Mulder leaves the station and Scully follows him.]

SCULLY: Mulder, where are you going?

MULDER: To talk to the boy.

SCULLY: Darlene won't even let you in the door.

MULDER: Well, I've gotta see him.

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SCULLY: They don't want to have anything to do with us.

[Scully stops and call after Mulder.]

SCULLY: Mulder, stop. Stop running after your sister.

[Mulder stops, and then turns around to face Scully again.]

SCULLY: This won't bring her back.

MULDER: Come with me or don't come with me but until they find a body I'm not giving up on that girl.

[Mulder walks off again and Scully stands where she is for a moment and then follows Mulder.]

[Darlene Morris' house. Outside stands a very large satellite dish. Mulder knocks on the front door.]

MULDER: Hello?

[Mulder notices the door is unlocked, enters the house. Scully is right behind him.]

MULDER: Mrs. Morris?

SCULLY: Kevin?

[Mulder notices something on the floor and turns off the TV. On the floor are sheets of paper with binary sequences on them, they are placed in a square shape. Scully hears the kettle boiling and goes into the kitchen and takes it off the stove. She walks back into the living room and looks at the papers.]

SCULLY: Mulder.

[Mulder is sitting down staring at the papers.]

SCULLY: What does it mean?

MULDER: I don't know.

SCULLY: I'm gonna check upstairs.

[Scully goes upstairs and glances over the banister, as she does she notices something about the papers.]

SCULLY: Oh my god.

MULDER: What is it?

SCULLY: Just come up here.

[Mulder goes up the stairs.]

SCULLY: Look.

[They look down at the papers and sees that the binary sequences make a face.]

SCULLY: It's her. It's Ruby.

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[It is night time and Mulder and Scully are driving to Lake Okobogee National Park.]

SCULLY: This is a long shot Mulder, they could be anywhere.

MULDER: You know when I was a kid, I had this ritual. I'd close my eyes before I walked into my room, because I thought that one day when I opened them my sister would be there. Just lying in bed, like nothing ever happened. You know, I'm still walking into that room, every day of my life.

[Mulder notices something up ahead and points.]

MULDER: Scully.

[Scully looks to see Darlene's camper van up ahead. They pull up behind it and get out of the car. They run to the van.]

MULDER: Darlene!

[Mulder opens the door but there is no one inside.]

SCULLY: Look, there's a trailhead.

[Mulder and Scully follow the trail. After a moment they hear Darlene's cries as if she has fallen. Mulder and Scully run into the forest and find Darlene trying to stand up.]

MULDER: Are you ok?

DARLENE MORRIS: It's here, I saw it.

MULDER: Where's Kevin?

DARLENE MORRIS: I couldn't keep up with him.

SCULLY: Go ahead.

[Mulder runs off while Scully stays with Darlene. Mulder runs into a clearing and sees Kevin in the distance, a bright orange light appears in front of Kevin.]

MULDER: Kevin!

[Mulder stands watching Kevin as he walks towards the light, and then runs after him. Kevin stops as the light grows bigger, Mulder is still running to catch him. The light grows into multiple, smaller lights, and we see that the lights belong to motorbikes. As Kevin realizes they are bikes, he covers his eyes and Mulder grabs him and falls to the ground with him. The bikes drive past Mulder and Kevin on all sides. When all the bikes are gone, Mulder sits up and lifts Kevin off the ground.]

MULDER: You ok?

KEVIN MORRIS: She's back.

MULDER: Kevin, I'm sorry but I don't...

KEVIN MORRIS: She's here, I know it.

MULDER: Kevin, I don't think she is. I know how much you want it to be her, I did too.

SCULLY: Mulder!

[Hearing Scully's call, Mulder gets up and runs with Kevin back to Scully.]

275

MULDER: Scully?

[As Mulder and Kevin find Scully and Darlene, they see another girl lying on her back.]

KEVIN MORRIS: Ruby!

SCULLY: She's unconscious but she's still alive.

MULDER: I'll get help.

[Mulder runs off.]

[Mulder and Scully are walking down a corridor in the hospital. Scully has Ruby's chart.]

SCULLY: The nurse says she been awake for almost an hour.

MULDER: Any ideas what caused the coma?

SCULLY: There's no sign of head trauma, no narcotic traces or electrolyte abnormalities, but her white blood cell count was skyhigh.

MULDER: By any chance was there attendant reduction in the lymphocyte population or a release of glucocorticoids?

[Mulder and Scully stops outside Ruby's room while Scully checks the chart.]

SCULLY: Um, actually both, how did you know that?

MULDER: They're symptoms of prolonged weightlessness. Shuttle astronauts have reported similar imbalances.

[Mulder looks through the window of the door and Scully knocks on it. Kevin opens the door. We see Ruby lying in bed, awake.]

SCULLY: Hi.

[Mulder and Scully enter the room.]

SCULLY: Hi Ruby.

RUBY MORRIS: Who are you?

SCULLY: We're with the FBI, I'm Special Agent Dana Scully and this is Fox Mulder.

RUBY MORRIS: My mom said you might be coming by.

SCULLY: How are you feeling?

RUBY MORRIS: Fine, I guess.

MULDER: Where were you Ruby? Can you tell us?

[Ruby hesitates.]

KEVIN MORRIS: It's ok, Ruby, he knows.

RUBY MORRIS: Ah, I'm not supposed to tell. They told me not to say.

MULDER: Who told you?

276

[Ruby is afraid to say anything.]

MULDER: Ruby, who told you?

DARLENE MORRIS: Sweetheart, you don't have to say anything.

[Darlene is standing in the doorway.]

SCULLY: You're right, we should wait till Ruby gets a little stronger.

DARLENE MORRIS: Can we speak outside for a moment.

[Mulder and Scully join Darlene outside Ruby's room.]

DARLENE MORRIS: I think that it's best that we put all of this behind us. I mean, hasn't Ruby been through enough already?

MULDER: I know how disoriented she must seem right now, but in a couple of weeks, maybe even a few days, we could..

DARLENE MORRIS: I don't want her talking to you, or anyone.

MULDER: She should be encouraged to tell her story, not to keep it inside, it's important that you let her.

DARLENE MORRIS: Important to who? I have my daughter back. I don't want any more trouble. Besides she can hardly remember anything.

MULDER: But she will remember one day, one way or another, even if it's only in dreams. And when she does, she's going to want to talk about it, she's going to need to talk about it.

DARLENE MORRIS: Like I did? Listen to me, all of my life I have been ridiculed for speaking my mind.

MULDER: But it was the truth, Darlene.

DARLENE MORRIS: The truth has caused me nothing but heartache. I don't want the same thing for her.

MULDER: It doesn't have to be that way for Ruby.

DARLENE MORRIS: As far as I'm concerned, she spent the last month on the back of a Harley Davidson.

MULDER: Is that what you're going to tell Kevin?

DARLENE MORRIS: I'm sorry.

[Darlene walks back into Ruby's room, Kevin is standing at the door. Mulder goes to follow Darlene in but Scully puts her hand on Mulder's shoulder to stop him. Darlene brings Kevin inside and closes the door. Mulder storms up the corridor.]

[A tape is taken out of a tape recorder and turned over and put back in and play pressed. Scully is alone in a room, voices are heard from the tape recorder.]

DR WERBER: But your eyes are open?

[Scully is going through the X-File on Mulder's sister.]

MULDER: Yeah, they're open but it's like, nothing's happening.

DR WERBER: Try turning your head.

277

MULDER: I can't.

DR WERBER: Why not?

MULDER: I don't know. I can't move, so I don't...

[We see a close-up of the tape being played, on it it says: F. MULDER Hypnotic Regression Tape Session Number 2B: June 16.]

MULDER: I just lie there in bed.

DR WERBER: Can you see your sister?

MULDER: No. But I can hear her.

DR WERBER: What is she saying?

[Scully lifts up a picture and looks at it.]

MULDER: She's calling out my name, over and over again.

[We see the picture is one of Mulder and his sister when they were kids. We see it is Mulder who is now holding the picture.]

MULDER: She's crying out for help but I can't help her. I can't move.

[We see that Mulder is sitting inside a church.]

DR WERBER: Are you scared?

[Mulder starts crying.]

MULDER: I know I should be but I'm not.

DR WERBER: Do you know why?

MULDER: Because of the voice.

DR WERBER: The voice?

MULDER: The voice in my head.

[Mulder keeps down on his knees and begins to pray.]

DR WERBER: What's it telling you?

[The camera zooms away from Mulder as he prays.]

MULDER: Not to be afraid. It's telling me no harm will come to her, and that one day she'll return.

DR WERBER: Do you believe the voice?

[The scene fades to black.]

MULDER: I want to believe.

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder)

278

Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest starring:

Carrie Snodgrass (Darlene Morris) Michael Cavanaugh (Sheriff) Don Gibb (Bartender) Joel Palmer (Kevin Morris) and Charles Cioffi (Section Chief Blevins)

Co-Starring:

Shelley Owens (Tessa) Don Thompson (Holtzman) Akiko Morison (Leza Atsumi) Taunya Dee (Ruby)

Featuring:

Anthony Harrison (Fourth Man) Glen Roald (M.E. Worker) Mauricio Mercado (Coroner)

1x03 Conduit - notes

Video box set commentary by Chris Carter: Conduit came out as a result of a kind of a kernel of an idea that I had, that Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, who were writing as partners, expanded on. We had come up with this idea of this boy writing down the digits one and zero, which are the digits in all digital information. He was getting them through the television, inexplicably. And I think it was Alex, I remember, saying, what if all of these things added up to a giant puzzle, a mosaic, that in fact drew a picture of the sister that was missing.

A State Of Weightlessness ...

I think one of the most successful parts for me is the realization by Scully at the end that Mulder, in fact, may not be a crackpot, that, in fact, the science that she so depends on points to an abduction, that the girl's physiology, body chemistry at the end of the show says that she may have been in a state of weightlessness, so I think that was interesting. It really helped to define something that was very important to the show, too, which was point of view. I always felt the stories were told, the show was from, Scully's point of view. She was the one we cut to her reaction to what Mulder was saying, she was the one who pulled Mulder back and says, look at what you're doing, look what you're saying, you are equating this with your sister. It was, I think, for us a very defining kind of episode in terms of how to tell these stories using the characters that we had put in motion.

Emotional Resolution

That was an interesting episode because the ending, Act Four, was actually not part of the original story. It ended much less concrete, so we added more explanation at the end. I think it's a very successful episode on a number of levels but I think it also helped us to sort of define how X-Files stories would be told in the future, with some resolution, at least emotional resolution, which put Mulder in the church at the end of the episode, very upset about his lost sister as a result of his investigation of this case, which had very similar aspects. From "X-Files Confidential": "Alex [Gansa] and I made an effort to play to our own strength, which is character," says Howard Gordon. "We thought this was an interesting place to reiterate Mulder's quest for his sister. We set out to tell a simple abduction story, which was played out

279 behind the shadows. We wanted to create an air of tension. With everything that happened, we wanted to explain what it could be. At every point, everything can be explained. Was she taken or killed by er boyfriend, who she was seeing against her mothers' wishes? Is it Twin Peaks> or an alien abduction? That was the theme of the show. "We also used UFO lore," he continues, "like the idea of repeat abductions and mother-daughter abductions. Apparently you're taken and sometimes several members of the family are taken as well. I think we're most proud of the ending: Mulder's quest is re-established (and Daniel Sackheim directed it beautifully) with Mulder sitting alone in a church with only his faith. The story, again was fueled by Mulder's belief and emotional connection with this case. Another girl taken from her family. And, in a way, the little boy who is the conduit, who is also perhaps touched by the aliens, is essentially Mulder. Those little touches the fans seem to respond to. It was difficult for us, but in the end satisfying. It came out of the frustration on our parts, and creative uncertain." Most significant about 'Conduit' for Glen Morgan was the fact that it drove home the notion of strength in diversity in terms of the writing staff. "Alex and Howard worked on Beauty and the Beast and Sisters, and they have a better character-dramatic sense," he muses, "and I think 'Conduit' really helped define Mulder. Those guys are Princeton-educated, Ivy League, with a literature background. Jim and I are more blue collar, from San Diego. I grew up on Hammer horror films and things like that. Everybody on staff was kind of teaching everybody else." For Carter, one of the episode's highlights was its conclusions and "the realization by Scully that Mulder may not be a crackpot. The science that she so depends on points to an abduction. The girl's physiology and body chemistry at the end of the show says that she may have been in a state of weightlessness. It really helped to define something that was very important to the show, which was its point of view. It was, I think, a very defining episode in terms of how to tell these stories using these characters we had put in motion." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Sioux City, Iowa Back story: Assistant art director Greg Loewen designed the huge mural of Ruby, but colleague Vivien Nishi had to go over the printout and painstakingly write in all those 1's and 0's to make it look as if it were drawn by an eight-year-old hand. The project took several days for a shot that lasted only a few seconds. The episode also reveals Mulder's hometown to be Chilmarc, Massachusetts, though the spelling was 'Chilmark' when it turned up nearly a year later in the second-season opener, 'Little Green Men'. Margin note: Fox Mulder opened X-File X-40253 on his sister almost six months before he underwent hypno-regression to recover his lost memories. From Tiny Dancer: Shelly Owens (Tessa) is the sister of Chris Owens (Agent Spender). X-Files In-Jokes * Samantha Mulder's file lists her home address as 2790 Vine Street - this is the former address of the X-Files production office in Vancouver. * "Tessa" was played by actress Shelly Owens, sister to Chris Owens, who went on to portray young Cancerman in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" and "Demons", The Great Mutato in "Post-Modern Prometheus", as well as a recurring role as Special Agent Spender. Possible in-joke -- Tessa's doctor appointment was scheduled for August 7th, which is also David Duchovny's birthday.

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- Title: A conduit is "a means of transmitting or distributing." As Mulder said in the episode, he believed the boy was a conduit - - a link or connection to whoever or whatever took the boy's sister.

-- Timeline: On their first day in Iowa, Mulder sent a fax dated August 26, 1993.

-- "Conduit" was only the fourth episode aired but the second directed by Daniel Sackheim. He also directed "The Host," "Kitsunegari," and "S.R. 819," served as a consulting producer for the series at various times, and was a producer of The X-Files movie.

-- "Conduit" grew from an initial idea of Chris Carter's that was then expanded upon by the writing team of Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa.

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-- "The alien abduction story line in some of our episodes could be seen as a metaphor for incidents of abuse," said Howard Gordon, "because if you look at the governing symbols, they often involve violation and helplessness. The victimization is often of a sexual nature ... I think we often feel helpless in this society. It's getting more and more difficult to acknowledge our helplessness, and I think FBI Agents Mulder and Scully were the champions of that."

-- Samantha Mulder's file listed her home address as 2790 Vine Street, which was the former address of the X-Files production office in Vancouver.

-- In "Conduit," Samantha's file showed her middle initial to be "T" and her birthday to be 1/22/1964. However, in Season 3's "Paper Clip," her middle name was shown as "Ann" and her birth date was shown as 11/21/1965.

-- "Conduit" revealed Mulder's hometown to be Chilmarc, Massachusetts, though the spelling was "Chilmark" when the information turned up nearly a year later in Season 2's "Little Green Men." Chilmark (the correct spelling) is a town located on Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts. The fishing village of Menemsha is located on the northern end of town along its border with the neighboring town of Aquinnah. In 2004, Chilmark was reported to have the highest average property value of any city or town in Massachusetts.

-- West Okoboji Lake, East Okoboji Lake, and Spirit Lake (the largest of the three) are a group of natural glacial lakes in northwestern Iowa referred to as the Iowa Great Lakes. They are the largest natural lakes in the state of Iowa. The spelling of Lake Okobogee used in the episode may be close to the way Okoboji was spelled when translated from the original Native Americans who first inhabited the area. Although there is no evidence that the Okoboji Lakes are "UFO hotspots" as Mulder indicated in the episode, the region is a popular destination for fisherman, both in summer and winter, as well as one of Iowa's most popular vacation destinations.

-- Mulder referred to the adult leader of the Girl Scout troop as a "den mother," but den mothers are in charge of Cub Scout troops. Adults in the Girl Scouts are simply referred to as "troop leaders" or "scout leaders." (Of course, why would an Indian Guide know that?)

-- The organization that Mulder mentioned to Darlene Morris -- the Center for U.F.O. Studies (CUFOS) -- is a privately-funded UFO research group. It was founded in 1973 by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a professor of astronomy at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Dr. Hynek was also a top scientific consultant for Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force's official study of the UFO mystery from 1948 to 1969. Although Dr. Hynek started out as a skeptic and helped the Air Force to debunk most UFO reports, he gradually became convinced that a small number of UFO cases were not hoaxes or explainable as misidentifications of natural phenomena, and that these cases might represent something extraordinary, even alien visitations from other planets. When the Air Force shut down Project Blue Book in 1969, Dr. Hynek decided to establish his own organization to continue to study UFO reports in a scientific and unbiased manner. Hynek served as technical advisor for Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

-- Based in Chicago, CUFOS continues to be a small research organization stressing scientific analysis of UFO cases. Its extensive archives include historically valuable files from defunct civilian research groups such as NICAP, one of the most popular and credible UFO research groups of the 1950s and 1960s. Following Dr. Hynek's death in 1986, CUFOS was renamed the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies in his honor.

-- Kevin Morris receiving messages through his TV set was a slight homage to the 1982 horror/thriller movie Poltergeist.

-- The first "Danny" reference! Mulder faxed a page of Kevin's ones and zeroes to "Danny Bernstein," Cryptology Section, at the FBI, who agreed to check it out in exchange for tickets to a Washington Redskins game. Mulder (and later Scully and even Doggett) contacted the mysterious and never-seen "Danny" for help with tracking down license plates, adoption record searches, and other miscellaneous information. (In "Aubrey," Danny's last name was given as "Valladeo," but usually he was just "Danny.") Chris Carter was once asked who Danny was, and he replied, "Danny is a gnome who lives in Mulder's desk drawer."

-- The scene which took place at the Sioux City Library was filmed in the Vancouver Art Gallery.

-- Tessa, the girl Mulder and Scully met at the library, was played by actress Shelly Owens, sister to Chris Owens (the future Young Cigarette Smoking Man, Great Mutato, and Jeffrey Spender).

281

-- Mulder and Scully looked for Ruby's boyfriend at the Pennsylvania Hotel and Pub in Sioux City, but the exterior of the scene was filmed at the Pennsylvania Pub on Carrall Street in Gastown, near Vancouver.

-- The song playing in the background at the Pennsylvania Pub was The Allman Brothers' "Whipping Post." The song appeared on the band's debut album released in 1969, The Allman Brothers Band. The song "Whipping Post" was named one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.

-- The exterior of the Stay 'N Save Motor Inn where Mulder and Scully stayed in Sioux City was filmed at the Stay 'N Save Motor Inn on St. Edwards Drive, Richmond, B.C., near the airport.

-- Things That Make You Go Hmmm: Why did the NSA agents burst into Scully's room looking for Mulder? Surely his room at the motel would have been the most logical place to start looking.

-- Interesting books in the Morris house included Message From Absalom and The Philosopher’s Stone.

-- Scully apparently lives for Bach too; she identified The Brandenburg Concertos from the binary sequence recorded by Kevin. Mulder got his turn to identify the piece in "Little Green Men."

-- Oopsie! As Mulder and Scully drove past the "Sioux City Downtown" sign, their car was missing its interior mirror (but with a conspicuous black square on the window where it would mount). However, later, as they drove past the "Lake Okobogee" sign at night, the mirror was clearly present.

-- The area where Mulder and Scully drove past the "Sioux City Downtown" sign was filmed on SW Marine Drive, at the entrance to the University of British Columbia.

-- Gillian Anderson's mole above her lip, usually so well hidden by makeup, was quite visible in the scene where Mulder and Scully drove to Lake Okobogee.

-- The portions of the episode which took place at Lake Okobogee were filmed at Buntzen Lake, near Port Moody and Port Coquitlam.

-- Mulder fired his gun for the first time on the show when he fired it in the air to scare the wolves away from Greg Randall's gravesite.

-- Tessa's doctor's appointment was scheduled for August 7, the same as David Duchovny's birthday.

-- When Mulder and Scully were questioning Tessa, Scully told her that if she lied, she would be guilty of perjury. This was not true. She was being questioned; she was not under oath, and she was not making an affirmation or signed statement. Even if suspects are under arrest or being interrogated, perjury cannot occur until they take an oath in court or before a judicial body, or sign certain specified statements (an income tax form 1040 is one example of such a statement). In most jurisdictions, lying during questioning is only a petty infraction or, at worst, a misdemeanor. This most likely represented an attempt on Scully's part to intimidate Tessa.

-- It was Alex Gansa's idea to have Kevin's sheets of binary code be a giant puzzle that created a picture of Ruby.

-- Assistant art director Greg Loewen designed the huge mural of Ruby, but colleague Vivien Nishi had to go over the printout and painstakingly write in all those 1's and 0's to make it look as if it were drawn by an eight-year-old hand. The project took several days for a shot that lasted only a few seconds.

-- The comments about Samantha's abduction that Mulder made to Scully in this episode were similar to the scenario set in the "Pilot" but different than Mulder's flashback in "Little Green Men."

-- Scully said that Ruby was "unconscious, but alive." If Scully had determined that Ruby was "alive" (meaning she was breathing and had a beating heart), then there would have been no need to do chest compressions on the girl. If CPR was needed, Scully was conducting a rather haphazard attempt, doing chest compressions without following with mouth-to-mouth.

-- "By any chance was there attendant reduction in the lymphocyte population or a release of glucocorticoids?" "I think only someone as bright as David could get away with delivering some of the lines he had to deliver," said Howard Gordon. "He had a

282 level of credibility because it sounded like he knew what he was talking about. David's contribution to the success of the series was profound. A lot of the Mulder character was David and his understanding of him."

-- "'Conduit' was interesting because the ending was not part of the original story," explained Chris Carter. "In the original version, Ruby did not return. In the final version, she came back, experiencing symptoms consistent with having experienced weightlessness; but we didn't force any more closure on it than that. Actually, the issue of closure was an ongoing dialogue with the network, because we always resisted wrapping up each episode with a neat little bow at the end. You couldn't do that with The X-Files, because pretending to explain the unexplainable was ridiculous and our audience was too smart for that. 'Conduit' helped us define that X-File stories would not have forced plot resolutions, but would conclude with some emotional resolution -- in this case we found Mulder in the church at the end with all of the unresolved feelings about his sister's abduction brought up to the surface. And Scully had her epiphany that her science may not contain all of the answers and she gained new insights into her partner. It was a moving moment."

-- "I think that was one of the most successful parts for me," Carter continued. "The realization by Scully that Mulder in fact may not have been a crackpot and that in fact the science that she depended on pointed to abduction -- that the girl's physiology, body chemistry, at the end said that she may have been in a state of weightlessness. It really helped define something that was very important to the show which was point of view. I always felt the stories were told from Scully's point of view. She was the one we would cut to -- her reaction to what Mulder was saying. She was the one who pulled Mulder back and said 'look at what you're doing, look at what you're saying, you're equating this with your sister.' For us, it was a very defining episode in terms of how to tell these stories using the characters that we had put in motion."

-- According to the Season 1 & 2 Official Episode Guide, Fox Mulder opened X-File X-40253 on his sister almost six months before he underwent hypnotic regression to recover his lost memories.

-- The tape of Mulder's hypnotic regression that Scully listened to at the end of the episode was dated June 16, 1989. In an amazing bit of continuity, the video of Mulder's hypnotic regression that Scully viewed seven years later in "Closure" was also dated June 16, 1989. Based on that date, Mulder's hypnotic regression took place a month after the events depicted in "Unusual Suspects," where Mulder got some "alien imagery" courtesy of the gas he inhaled.

-- The scene of Mulder in the church at the end of the episode was filmed in Christ Church Cathedral on Burrard Street in Vancouver.

-- "I'm always struggling with my own faith and I think that Mulder was too," said Chris Carter. "I think he did believe in these things, but I don't think he believed in them wholeheartedly. I think that he too had a modicum of skepticism. He wouldn't just believe in anything. He wanted to believe. It was his need and desire to believe, his need to see that object in the sky to have his beliefs tested. And I think we all want that. We want to be driving through the desert at night and see something in the sky that we can't explain because it's tantamount to a religious experience and I think that's really what Mulder was about."

-- A nice touch that Mulder's final line in the episode, "I want to believe," was not recited until the screen went black and the credits began; it played as the name of executive producer Chris Carter came on screen.

-- Darlene Morris was played by Academy Award nominated actress Carrie Snodgress, who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in 1970 for her role in Diary of a Mad Housewife. (She lost the Oscar to Glenda Jackson for Women In Love but she did win the Golden Globe for her role in Housewife.) With her Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, Carrie was on the brink of stardom when she left it all to live with rock musician Neil Young, with whom she would have a son, Zeke. It would be almost eight years before she returned to the screen as a supporting actor in Brian DePalma's The Fury (1978), although she was initially tapped to star opposite Sylvester Stallone in Rocky (1976), but lost the role over a salary dispute. She was awaiting a liver transplant when she died of heart failure on April 1, 2004.

-- Michael Cavanaugh, who played the Sioux City Sheriff, started his career appearing in the all-nude musical Oh! Calcutta!

-- Once & Future Retreads: Joel Palmer (Kevin Morris) played Charlie/Michael Holvey in "The Calusari." Charles Cioffi (Section Chief Blevins) played the same role in the "Pilot," "Gethsemene," "Redux," and "Redux II." Don Thompson (Holtzman) was Henry Willig in "Sleepless," Lt. Col. Victor Stans in "The Walk," and one of the masked terrorists in "The Pine Bluff Variant." Anthony Harrison (Fourth Man) was an MTA Officer in "Sleepless" and Agent Riggins in "The Field Where I Died."

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-- Although this episode was considered an early mythology episode, dealing somewhat with Samantha's abduction, "Conduit" was inexplicably not included on Volume I of The X-Files Mythology Collection titled, "Abduction." The Mythology series consisted of collections of episodes grouped around certain themes central to the show.

1x04 The Jersey Devil - transcript

Writer: Chris Carter Director: Joe Napolitano Original airdate: 8 October 1993

Transcribed by: Mark Rooney Edited by Libby

New Jersey, 1947

[It is a dark night and a single car is seen driving along a road, singing can be heard from within the car.]

FAMILY: ..was his name-o, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o. There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-o, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, and Bingo was his name-o. There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-o, B-I-N-G-O.

[Just then a sudden bang is heard from outside the car.]

SON: Dad, what was that? What's happening?

DAD: It's ok, it's ok, I just got a flat.

MOM: Oh, no.

DAD: No problem here, honey.

[There is a flashlight lying on the ground shining on the car while the dad is removing the paneling to get to the wheel. The dad sets the paneling down and lifts his wheel wrench. In doing so, he knocks the flashlight down a hill at the side of the road.]

DAD: Aaooh. Darn it.

[He throws down the wheel wrench and goes after the flashlight. We see the man pick up his flashlight and go back up the hill from the viewpoint of someone or something in the bushes watching him. The kids are sleeping in the car and the dad taps on the window beside his wife.]

DAD: Honey, would you mind holding the light for a secaaaaaah......

[The dad is suddenly pulled backwards out of sight very quickly. The mom gets out of the car.]

MOM: Paul. Paul! Paul!!

[The mom picks up the flashlight and shines it down the hill into the woods.]

MOM: Where are you? Paul. What happened?

[We see the mom standing at the top of the hill holding the flashlight from the same viewpoint of something in the bushes. Next we see the the legs of the dad as he is being dragged into the woods.]

MOM: Paul!!!!!

284

[main titles]

[It is dawn and the police are out in the woods with other men and their tracker dogs. The police officers and some of the men are carrying rifles. The dogs are sniffing on a scent when a voice calls out.]

VOICE: Over here, we found something.

[The men all run off to where the voice was calling from. They go downhill and the dogs are anxious to get down.]

MAN WITH DOGS: Easy, easy.

[The dead body of the dad is lying on the ground, the men look at each other.]

OFFICER: His leg's been eaten off.

[Just then another voice calls out.]

OFFICER 2: Hey! Up here!!

[The men make their way back up the hill and run towards the area where the calls where made. Several police men are standing pointing their rifles into a cave.]

OFFICER 2: It's in here! It's as tall as a house!

OFFICER 3: We can smoke him out.

OFFICER: And then what?

[From within the cave, we see the men all pointing their rifles into the cave, waiting.]

OFFICER 2: I see it!

OFFICER: He's coming at us.

[All the men begin shooting again and again.]

FBI Headquarters, Washington D.C.

[A man is typing on a computer and several voices can be heard in the background. We see Scully walking through a busy office.]

[Mulder is sitting, staring at a centrefold in "Hanky Panky" magazine. Scully walks in the door and sees what Mulder is looking at, she pauses and then puts her case on a desk and walks beside Mulder.]

SCULLY: Working hard, Mulder?

[Mulder turns the magazine around so that Scully can see it better.]

MULDER: This woman claims to have been taken aboard a spaceship and held in an anti-gravity chamber without food and water for three days.

SCULLY: Anti-gravity's right.

[Mulder throws the magazine onto the desk.]

SCULLY: Sorry to interrupt your serious investigation, but I just heard a story that'd just about take your knees out.

MULDER: What's that?

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SCULLY: They found a body in the New Jersey woods yesterday, missing its right arm and shoulder. They think they may have been eaten off, by a human.

MULDER: Where in New Jersey?

SCULLY: Just outside Atlantic City.

MULDER: Not an uncommon place to lose a body part. They think it's the mob?

SCULLY: Mmm, it was a homeless man. There doesn't seem to be a motive.

[Mulder gets up and gets his coat.]

MULDER: You feeling lucky, Scully?

SCULLY: Relative to whom?

[Mulder is looking in a drawer in his office.]

SCULLY: It's not our case Mulder, the local police are handling it.

[Mulder pulls out a file.]

SCULLY: An X-File?

MULDER: Ever hear of something called The Jersey Devil?

[Mulder hands the file to Scully.]

SCULLY: Yeah, it's a beast that's supposed to come out of the woods and attack cars, right? Kind of like an East Coast Bigfoot.

MULDER: Read the file about the case in 1947.

[Mulder leaves the office, Scully closes the file and grabs her case and follows after Mulder.]

SCULLY: Save me the trouble.

[Mulder and Scully walk back through the busy office.]

MULDER: 1947, family watches dad get dragged off into the woods, cops find dad with a few appendages gnawed off. Cops corner a large naked man in the woods and gun him down.

[They stop at a desk.]

MULDER: Autopsy shows human flesh and bones in the man's large intestine. A beast man.

[Mulder talks to someone behind the desk.]

MULDER: Requisition for a car please.

SCULLY: Is the autopsy report in here?

[Mulder fills in a requisition form.]

MULDER: No, the original disappeared from the Patterson PD's files a few years after the incident. But there is a statement from the attending pathologist.

286

SCULLY: Mulder it's the same story I've heard since I was a kid. It's a folk tale, a myth.

MULDER: I heard the same story when I was a kid too, funny thing is, I believed it.

[Mulder hands back the form to the person behind the desk and is given a set of keys.]

MULDER: Thanks Doreen.

[Mulder turns to face Scully.]

MULDER: Fact is, we got a cannibalized body in New Jersey, someone or something out there is hungry.

[Mulder walks off and Scully turns and looks at him.]

Atlantic City Morgue

[Mulder and Scully are in the morgue looking at the body of the victim. The coroner, Glenna, is there holding up the sheet which covers the body.]

GLENNA: Er, they say animals can develop an appetite for human flesh but this is no animal. You see the teeth marks, just below the clavicle, they're human.

[Glenna walks off and removes her surgical gloves.]

MULDER: Who found the body?

GLENNA: Park Ranger.

[Scully is examining the body while Mulder walks to the feet of the body.]

SCULLY: Was he alive when it happened?

GLENNA: Well, it's hard to tell.

[Mulder looks at the toe-tag, it reads:.]

CORONER'S DEPARTMENT NAME CROCKETT, ROGER CASE NO. 2272 DATE AUG 29 / 93 WHERE TAKEN FROM: N.J. STATE PARK

GLENNA: There's a skull fracture but no sign of a struggle, his blood alcohol level was up, probably never knew what hit him.

MULDER: Any ideas about that?

GLENNA: The size of that bite mark, I'd say......

DET. THOMPSON: I want this on the QT.

[A man walks around a corner into view, and approaches the three of them.]

GLENNA: ...... large adult male.

MAN: I'll do my best.

GLENNA: Er, Detective Thompson is handling the case.

DET. THOMPSON: Glenna?

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[Scully shows her ID to the detective.]

SCULLY: Hi, I'm Special Agent Dana Scully and this is Agent Fox Mulder.

DET. THOMPSON: I don't remember anybody calling the FBI in on this.

MULDER: Well we're not here on an official capacity. Agent Scully's a medical doctor, we heard about your victim and she thought she might take a look.

DET. THOMPSON: I'm sorry, I'm going to ask you to leave. We have an investigation.

GLENNA: For God's sakes Tommy, this is no time to get pissy.

DET. THOMPSON: We have jurisdiction here.

MULDER: Any suspects yet, Detective?

DET. THOMPSON: I don't work for you sir, and unless you hear different from the Attorney General, er, this case is a local matter.

SCULLY: Agent Mulder, we should go.

MULDER: There's no need to get bent out of shape.

DET. THOMPSON: On the contrary, I think I've been exceedingly polite.

[Mulder and the detective stand there staring at each other for a few moments, and then Mulder leaves.]

[Mulder and Scully walk along a street until they reach their car.]

MULDER: So what's eating that guy?

SCULLY: He was perfectly in his rights. The FBI has no overriding jurisdiction in a murder case. Anyway, you'd feel the same way if someone was horning in on your work.

MULDER: Yeah, chances are he's without a clue. He'll probably be scratching his head when they bring the next body in.

SCULLY: You missed your opening Mulder, you could've really humiliated him and er, told him who the perpetrator was, The Jersey Devil.

[Mulder laughs. He stands beside the car and talks to Scully, who is standing on the other side of the car.]

MULDER: Hey what you say, we grab a hotel, take in a floor show, drop a few quarters in the slot, do a little digging on this case.

SCULLY: You're kidding, right?

MULDER: Ok, we can skip the floor show.

SCULLY: Mulder, I have to be back in D.C.

MULDER: What you got a date?

SCULLY: No, I have my godson's birthday party at 6:30.

288

[Mulder throws the car keys across the top of the car, Scully catches them.]

SCULLY: What are you doing?

MULDER: A little poking around, maybe make a weekend out of it.

[Mulder walks off.]

SCULLY: Mulder, it's a three hour drive back by myself...

[Mulder waves to Scully.]

SCULLY: ...in Friday night traffic. Oh.

[A casino. People are playing slots machines, playing at the crap tables. Mulder is standing beside a telephone, looking through a telephone directory. He runs his finger down a page until he finds what he is looking for: PARKS SERVICES - STATE OF NEW JERSEY Parks Information - General Inquiries 555 - 9573 Mulder lifts the phone.]

[New Jersey State Park. Mulder and a Park Ranger get out of the ranger's pick-up truck and walk a couple of feet away from it.]

RANGER BOULLE: Found the body just over there, lying face down in the rocks. Thirty-two years with the park service, I've come across some weird stuff but I tell you, never anything like this.

MULDER: The victim was a homeless man, you get many of them wandering around out here?

RANGER BOULLE: Well, occasionally I'll see some but most are scared of the woods.

MULDER: Scared? Of what?

RANGER BOULLE: I don't know. The devil.

MULDER: People say that's just a myth.

RANGER BOULLE: Depends on who you talk to.

MULDER: What do you think?

RANGER BOULLE: Well like I said, now thirty-two years, I see a lot of weird stuff. Like one time, a little over four years ago, I saw what I thought was a large man come out of a copse of birch trees, not, not a stitch of clothing. And he was about sixty yards away, and he starts sniffing the air, you know like a dog. And then he looks straight at me, and I swear he smelled me because he took off into the woods so fast, you'd swear he wasn't human.

MULDER: Really. You never saw him again?

RANGER BOULLE: No. But I feel him. And I found things, some scat, half buried like a cat's, only more human. Found a half eaten rabbit with what looked like a human cuspid tooth in it. And some deer bones, looked like they'd been sharpened into tools.

MULDER: You think it might be what's responsible for the body you found?

[The ranger laughs slightly.]

RANGER BOULLE: I got a pension coming up in a few years, you know, you say the wrong thing.

289

MULDER: Yeah.

RANGER BOULLE: Er, I'll tell you one thing, I don't ever come out here without my weapon any more.

MULDER: How far is it into town from here?

RANGER BOULLE: Bout a mile, mile and a half.

MULDER: I'm staying at the Galaxy Gateway for the next couple of days. If you think of anything, will you call me?

RANGER BOULLE: Sure.

[Mulder walks off down a path in the woods.]

[Scully's godson's birthday party. We see a gorilla mask and the wearer runs into a room, from which another kid runs also wearing a gorilla mask and carrying a plastic baseball bat. He runs into a wall and falls on his back and starts to cry. Scully comes to see what has happened.]

SCULLY: Oh c'mon, it's ok, it's alright, what happened, did you bump your head? Hhmmm.

[A dog is licking the birthday cake while the kids cheer at it.]

ELLEN: Oh Cruiser, stop that.

[A woman, Ellen, lifts the dog onto the floor as Scully comes in holding the kid who hurt himself.]

ELLEN: What, what happened?

SCULLY: Jungle warfare.

ELLEN: Aaah, I'm gonna kill that dog.

SCULLY: If the hit squad doesn't get to him before you do.

[Scully and Ellen laugh.]

ELLEN: I'm so glad you're here, Dana.

[Ellen hears the breaking of glass and goes to find out what is broken.]

[All the kids are sitting around a table eating food. Scully lifts an empty plate and goes into the kitchen, where Ellen is washing dishes.]

SCULLY: Oooh, you're amazing.

ELLEN: What?

SCULLY: You're such a natural at all this, I don't know how you keep it all together.

ELLEN: Mommy radar.

SCULLY: Mmmm, I don't think I'm cut out for this El.

ELLEN: Dana, you went through the FBI academy, what better training could there be for motherhood?

290

[Scully lifts out a large plastic container from a cupboard and opens it.]

ELLEN: Seriously, you're great with kids, what're you talking about.

SCULLY: When am I supposed to find the time?

ELLEN: Well first you have to get a life.

SCULLY: Ooooh.

ELLEN: And, of course, it helps if you can find a man.

SCULLY: Know of any?

ELLEN: Yeah, they're disappearing faster than the Brazilian rain forest. What about that guy you work with?

SCULLY: Mulder?

ELLEN: Yeah, I thought you said he was cute.

SCULLY: He's a jerk. He's not a jerk, he's um, he's obsessed with his work.

[In the forest, Mulder is walking along the path. Someone or something watching him. Mulder continues his walk, seemingly unaware that he is being watched.]

[Scully's godson's party is still going, when there is a ring of the doorbell, Scully answers it. A man stands outside the door.]

ROB: Hi.

SCULLY: Hi.

ROB: I'm Rob, I'm Scott's dad.

SCULLY: Oh, come in.

ROB: Thanks. Hey, Tiger. How you doing? Are you having a good time?

[Rob crouches to talk to his son, Scully watches him and smiles. Ellen is along the hallway talking on the phone, she puts her hand over the mouthpiece and quietly says something to Scully.]

ELLEN: Divorced.

[Scully looks back at Rob, who turns and looks at Scully and smiles. Scully coyly smiles, puts her head down and looks away.]

Outskirts Of Atlantic City 6:47 p.m.

[Mulder walks along a street filled with homeless people living in cardboard boxes. The street is littered with boxes and cars stripped of anything valuable.]

MULDER: Did anybody here know Roger Crockett?

[No one acknowledges Mulder's request.]

291

MULDER: He was murdered two days ago.

[Mulder tries to talk to a woman as she goes past but she just ignores him.]

MULDER: Ma'am, can I..

VAGRANT WOMAN: Hey honey, have you got any change to spare?

MULDER: Roger Crockett? Anybody?

[A man gets up and walks towards Mulder.]

JACK: What d'you wanna know?

MULDER: Did you know Roger Crockett?

[The man nods his head.]

MULDER: Did you hear how he died?

JACK: Yeah.

MULDER: Any ideas who might've done it?

JACK: You a cop?

MULDER: No, I'm FBI.

JACK: I'll show you something.

MULDER: Ok.

[Jack leads Mulder through a door and into an alleyway where he has made a rough shelter.]

JACK: I need some money.

[Mulder takes some money out of his wallet and gives it to Jack. Jack rummages in a black bag, in amongst a sheltered area, and pulls out a piece of paper from a small plastic bag. He unfolds it and shows it to Mulder. It looks like a man, but more like a beastly kind of man.]

MULDER: What is this?

JACK: Stuck in the pocket of a jacket I found.

MULDER: Does it mean anything to you?

JACK: I've seen it.

MULDER: Where?

JACK: Right here, digging in the trash.

MULDER: Here? Are you hustling me?

JACK: Swear to God.

MULDER: Who do you think it is?

292

JACK: I don't know, scared the hell out of me.

MULDER: Has anybody else seen it?

JACK: Oh yeah, everybody's pretty freaked.

MULDER: Anybody told the cops?

JACK: You think they don't know?

MULDER: Where're you sleeping tonight?

JACK: You're standing in my bedroom.

MULDER: You know the, uh, The Galaxy Gateway?

[Mulder gives Jack his room key.]

MULDER: Room 756. Go ahead.

JACK: Hey, they got HBO?

[Mulder laughs.]

MULDER: Yeah, they do.

[It's night time and Mulder is sitting in Jack's bedroom with a blanket wrapped round him. As he tries to go to sleep he hears a noise, at first glance he can't see anything but he gets up and quietly looks around.]

[He notices a figure at the end of the alleyway searching in the trash. Mulder slowly advances to get a better look at the figure. Suddenly the figure starts sniffing the air, but soon continues to resume searching in the trash. The figure then climbs over a fence and out of sight. Mulder runs and jumps up the fence and sees the figure running along a catwalk.]

[Mulder then rushes out of the alleyway and into the street to see if he can see where the figure is going. As it runs along the roof of a building, Mulder whistles at it. It stops and looks over the edge of the building at him. A police car and police van approach from behind Mulder and the figure moves on. The headlights from the police car shine into Mulder eyes, the vehicles come to a stop and a police officer gets out of the car.]

OFFICER: Sir.

[Mulder points up to the roof.]

MULDER: You've got a man up on that roof.

OFFICER: Nothing to be afraid of, we're gonna give you a warm place to sleep it off.

[The police officer grabs Mulder by the arm but Mulder shakes it off.]

MULDER: Hey back off.

OFFICER: Alright, calm down.

MULDER: I'm telling you, there's a man up on that roof.

OFFICER: Get in the car, now.

293

[Atlantic City Police Department. Mulder is sitting in a small white room, empty except for a table and some chairs. Through a window in the door, Detective Thompson peers through before entering.]

DET. THOMPSON: What the hell do you think you're doing?

MULDER: Enjoying the night life here in beautiful Atlantic City.

DET. THOMPSON: I'll go right to the D.A.'s office if I have to, obstructing an investigation, misconduct.

MULDER: That's good, let's go see her together, and while we're at it, why don't we add withholding evidence to the list.

DET. THOMPSON: What are you talking about?

MULDER: Statements given to you describing something stalking the back streets of Atlantic City.

DET. THOMPSON: This is the fishing trip they get me up at three o'clock in the morning for? Unbelievable.

MULDER: Why else would you be sweeping the streets tonight? You know it's out there.

DET. THOMPSON: I got a perpetrator out there. Whether it's Hannibal the Cannibal or Elmer Fudd, I've got a job, to protect people.

MULDER: Oh, is that your job, or is it to keep the dice rolling, keep the tour buses rolling in. You can't fill those casinos, this town disappears like a quarter down the slot.

[There is a brief pause of silence.]

MULDER: I've seen it.

DET. THOMPSON: Seen what?

[Mulder reaches into his back pocket and pulls out the piece of paper with the drawing of the creature. He unfolds it and shows it to Detective Thompson, who looks at it and laughs.]

DET. THOMPSON: You've been spending too much time in supermarket check-out lines.

[Detective Thompson folds the paper up again and throws it onto the table.]

DET. THOMPSON: This story's as old as the hills.

MULDER: Who's going to be responsible when you lose your first tourist, Detective? You are.

DET. THOMPSON: No, you are sir, because you're wasting my time, and impeding the solution of this case.

[Detective Thompson opens the door and stands by it.]

DET. THOMPSON: You wanna go on a safari, go to Africa. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your weekend.

[He leaves, closing the door behind him, and leaving Mulder sitting by himself.]

FBI Headquarters Washington D.C.

[Scully is walking through the same busy office seen at the start. Another agent calls to her from behind a desk.]

294

AGENT: Agent Scully, Agent Mulder line three.

[Scully picks up the phone on the desk beside her, and answers line three.]

SCULLY: Where are you?

MULDER: I'm not far from where you left me.

SCULLY: You're still in Atlantic City?

MULDER: Scully, you got anything happening this morning?

SCULLY: What's that noise in the background?

[We see Mulder is talking on a payphone outside a jail cell. In the cell is a man, bent over.]

MULDER: That's a guy getting sick.

SCULLY: Mulder where are you?

[We see Scully again, Mulder has just told her where he is.]

DET. THOMPSON: The drunk tank.

[Another agent is looking at Scully, she turns away and continues to listen to Mulder.]

[Atlantic City. Mulder and Scully are walking along a street. Mulder's clothes look dirty.]

SCULLY: Well, it's not hard to see why they mistook you for a vagrant.

MULDER: You gonna rag on me or you gonna take me to get something to eat?

SCULLY: Am I buying or did you manage to pan-handle some spare change while you were at it?

[A restaurant. Mulder and Scully are sitting at a table. Mulder is eating a meal, he appears to be very hungry, talking at times with food in his mouth. Scully is drinking coffee.]

MULDER: It moved like a cat, quick and graceful. There's no way a human could've got up on the roof that fast.

SCULLY: Mulder.

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: What's going to happen when word of this gets back to the Bureau?

MULDER: They dropped the charges. That guy Thompson, he ran me through the system just to spite me.

SCULLY: I'm talking about this Jersey Devil thing.

MULDER: I saw it, it's exactly the way the ranger described it, the way it moved, the way it sniffed the air. It's come out of the woods, probably in search of food.

SCULLY: Yeah, I'll say.

295

MULDER: It was peeking through the garbage Scully. If it was a man-eater, why didn't it come after me? Probably felt threatened in some way.

SCULLY: Mulder, listen to yourself. You're already ascribing it a motive and an alibi. This thing chewed somebody's arm off. It's not exactly a defensive posture.

MULDER: But you do believe that I saw something, don't you?

SCULLY: You saw something, I'll give you that but I'm not about to go in and sell it. Not when it's nothing more than a sighting in a dark alley.

MULDER: I still got a hotel room I'm paying for.

SCULLY: Yeah well, I have got to get back to Washington by 7:30, so er..

MULDER: Another birthday party?

SCULLY: No. I have a date.

[Mulder looks at Scully.]

MULDER: Can you cancel?

SCULLY: Unlike you Mulder, I would like to have a life.

MULDER: I have a life!

[Mulder and Scully look at each other, Scully looks away with a slight laugh.]

SCULLY: Come on, I have somebody I want you to meet, on the way home. Come on.

[Mulder, with a mouth full of food, lifts his hand and gives a consenting grunt. He wants to finish his meal.]

University Of Maryland

[Mulder pours himself a cup of coffee, Scully is standing, arms crossed, beside another man who is talking.]

DR. DIAMOND: Just about every culture has one. Yetis, Sasquatch, Russian Almas, Sonnequat.

MULDER: Why is that?

DR. DIAMOND: Oh, it's a kind of universal wild man myth. A symbolic fear of our dual natures as humans, as creators of life and destroyers of it.

MULDER: What's this chart?

[Dr. Diamond walks towards Mulder and the chart.]

DR. DIAMOND: It shows the historic entry of man onto each continent and the effect it had on other animal species, which as you see has been disastrous.

MULDER: Why?

[Mulder goes to sit down.]

DR. DIAMOND: We humans have retained hereditary traits through evolution that have proven to be extremely destructive. We tend to be tribal and aggressively territorial, oriented by selfish sexual and reproductive drives that make co-operation beyond the family or tribe extremely hard for us.

296

MULDER: So we kill other species in order to survive.

SCULLY: Yeah, humans are top carnivores, we sit at the top of the food chain and we reduce other species' chances of survival.

DR. DIAMOND: Nice to know Dana left here with more than a degree.

MULDER: But what if something entered the food chain above us?

[Dr. Diamond pours himself a cup of coffee now, and walks back towards Mulder and Scully, at a table.]

DR. DIAMOND: It won't happen. See our intelligence virtually insures that, barring the introduction of some alien life-form, we will live out our days as rulers of the world.

MULDER: But, but what if through some fluke of nature, a human was born, who reverted to its most animal instincts, a kind of carnivorous neanderthal. Wouldn't he occupy a space above us on the food chain?

DR. DIAMOND: Oh sure, all he'd have to do is wait outside any fast-food restaurant and eat us on the way in.

MULDER: Right, yeah, and, and haven't there been cases where men have been raised in the wilderness by animals, who have no language and hunt like predators?

DR. DIAMOND: Oh yes several, but cannibalism is rare, even among the lower mammals.

MULDER: But even when faced with extinction?

DR. DIAMOND: Well maybe in the jungles of New Guinea. It's just highly unlikely that what you're suggesting could've survived civilization, or evolution, out in the woods of New Jersey.

MULDER: Yea, highly unlikely, but not outside the realm of extreme possibility?

DR. DIAMOND: Well, it would be an amazing discovery.

[Dr. Diamond nods his head a few times. Mulder looks back at Scully. Nothing is said, but she turns to look away.]

[Mulder is sitting in the X-Files office, looking at some photos. Photos connected to the Jersey Devil, both photographs of footprints and a drawing of the creature.]

[Scully is sitting in a fancy restaurant with Rob. Both are well dressed and they are sitting at a table with a candle in the middle and they both have a drink in front of them.]

ROB: Well the hard thing was when my wife remarried I... Suddenly I felt very competitive for my son's attention. It was weird.

SCULLY: I'm sure.

ROB: I became a superdad on the weekends with Scott. I had this unconscious fear of being replaced. I actually had dreams where I was running over his step-father with my car. Well, you'll understand when you have kids, having kids changes everything.

SCULLY: That's what they say.

ROB: Maybe some weekend, if you're up for it, we could er, take the kids out to the beach for the day.

[A waiter brings Scully's and Rob's meals to them.]

297

SCULLY: Yeah.

ROB: Great.

[Scully looks at Rob and smiles. The waiter puts Rob's meal down in front of him.]

ROB: Thank you.

[The waiter leaves.]

ROB: So, can I ask about the case you're on or can't you say.

[Scully picks up a piece of food on her fork, looks at Rob cutting his food and pauses.]

SCULLY: I don't think it's a case we should discuss over dinner.

ROB: I don't suppose you'd want to hear about the finer points of estate planning and taxation?

[Scully looks up at Rob and smiles. She continues to eat her meal.]

[Mulder takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes, he looks at the time on a clock on the wall, it is 7:55 p.m.. The phone rings.]

MULDER: Mulder.

RANGER BOULLE: Agent Mulder, this is Peter Boulle of the Jersey Parks Department.

MULDER: Oh yeah, hi.

[Peter Boulle is talking from his ranger's truck, in what appears to be part of the park.]

RANGER BOULLE: Hi, I found a body out in the woods today, it looks like it's been dead six to eight months. A long haired male, missing the same tooth I found in that rabbit a while back. It could be your devil.

MULDER: Where's the body now?

RANGER BOULLE: I turned it over to the coroner's office.

MULDER: You're sure it was a male?

RANGER BOULLE: Well, it had all the plumbing.

[Back in the restaurant.]

ROB: Excuse me.

[He lifts a small milk jug to pour into his coffee.]

SCULLY: Mmmm.

[Scully's beeper goes off.]

SCULLY: Sorry.

298

[She opens her handbag and checks the message on the beeper. She closes her bag again and gets up from the table.]

SCULLY: Excuse me.

ROB: Certainly.

[The phone in Mulder's office rings again.]

MULDER: Scully.

SCULLY: Mulder.

MULDER: Sorry to interrupt your evening.

[Scully is using a phone in the restaurant.]

SCULLY: That's ok, what's up?

MULDER: I just had an amazing thought, maybe it isn't a beast man we're looking for after all.

[Mulder is holding up the drawing of the creature.]

[Atlantic City Morgue. Glenna is looking through a filing cabinet, and pulls out a file. She walks back towards Scully and the ranger, Mulder is walking beside her.]

GLENNA: Well, if they picked it up, nobody logged the body on the chart. I sure haven't seen it.

RANGER BOULLE: Well, I don't understand. What else would they have done with it?

SCULLY: I'm afraid we may have called you down here for nothing.

[Scully is talking to Dr. Diamond, who is also standing with the others.]

MULDER: They're going to try and sweep this whole thing under the carpet.

DR. DIAMOND: Why?

MULDER: Any publicity and you've got the streets crawling with the kind of people who aren't here to play the crap tables. Word gets out there's something still on the loose, forget it.

DR. DIAMOND: You said it was a female.

MULDER: The body they found was a male. There's a fifty-fifty chance there was a mate. We may never know unless we find out ourselves.

DR. DIAMOND: If it's true, what are the chances of catching it alive?

[In the alleyway, Mulder is cutting the wire attaching the wire fence to the metal post with a small pair of wire-cutters.]

DR. DIAMOND: If it is a primate, it would have a natural fear of heights. It would also want to stay close to its food source.

[Mulder steps through the fence and holds it back so that Scully, Dr. Diamond and Peter Boulle can get through. The ranger is carrying a rifle.]

299

MULDER: This thing has no fear of heights. We'll stay together and start with the lower floors. How much time will that dart give us?

RANGER BOULLE: It'll put down a five hundred pound bear for an hour, if I hit it.

[They all enter a building, the same building that Mulder saw the creature enter and run across the roof. It is an old building, with bars on the doors and windows, the windows have been smashed.]

[Out on the street, a police car drives by and stops when the two officers inside the car notice the ranger's truck.]

OFFICER 1: What the hell's a park ranger vehicle doing here?

OFFICER 2: I don't know.

OFFICER 1: Check it out.

[Both officers get out of the car, the first one walks off while the second one lifts the radio.]

OFFICER 2: Run a check for me on a...

[Back inside the building, Scully is walking past some lockers while Dr. Diamond is looking at a pile of rubbish. He lifts a few empty bags and plastic covers, and then he notices something. He crouches down and picks up a piece of cloth and smells it.]

DR. DIAMOND: Something here!

[The others arrive at the location of Dr. Diamond, who gets up.]

DR. DIAMOND: It's blood. She could be bringing her killing here. She could be injured.

[A S.W.A.T. team member stands outside the building and turns looking at the surroundings, he is holding a machine gun and has a headpiece on.]

S.W.A.T. TEAM OFFICER: Roger, zebra team in position.

[More S.W.A.T. team men gather outside an entrance to the building with one man pointing out directions for the others.]

[Everyone is still looking inside, but now they are up a few floors. Mulder peers over a railing and looks down, Scully comes near.]

MULDER: What if it is a female, Scully? How close is she to you or me? Does she feel emotion? Or are her days just spent looking for food?

SCULLY: Maybe she spends her day shopping.

MULDER: Eight million years out of Africa, I don't think we're all that different.

[S.W.A.T. team members are running quietly through the bottom floor of the building.]

SCULLY: Mulder, we've put men into space, we've built computers that work faster than the human mind.

MULDER: While we over-populate the world and create new technologies to kill each other with. Maybe we're just beasts with big brains.

[Scully is standing, not moving, a still face gazing into nothingness.]

MULDER: What?

300

SCULLY: No, I was just thinking about my godson's birthday party. Eight little six year old boys running around, talk about primitive behavior.

[Mulder hears the voice of Detective Thompson and peers, once again, over the railing. He sees the detective standing talking to Dr. Diamond with a couple of police officers standing beside them.]

DET. THOMPSON: Now look, his name is Mulder and he's a federal agent, you ever hear of him?

DR. DIAMOND: No.

DET. THOMPSON: You know him?

DR. DIAMOND: No.

[Mulder puts his finger to his mouth, Scully turns and looks down over the railing as well.]

DET. THOMPSON: Well what are you doing here?

DR. DIAMOND: I'm a professor of Anthropology.

DET. THOMPSON: 'Mulder' - does that sound familiar to you? Look, I know he's here somewhere. Would you check you upstairs Andrew, go check upstairs. I want this place searched...

[Mulder and Scully continue their search of the higher levels of the building. Outside, two S.W.A.T. members appear on a bridge looking into the building, they take a quick look and then run on.]

[Mulder is looking through a room and stops, suddenly he hears a noise and as he looks in the direction of the noise, a figure runs past a window. Mulder gives chase, Scully hears the sounds of Mulder's feet running as she is close by. Mulder stops after coming around a corner and walks slowly along the corridor. Mulder hears Scully's voice, quiet and soft as not to arouse the attention of the police.]

SCULLY: Mulder? Mulder, where are you?

[Mulder looks out a window and sees the figure, the beast-woman, running across the top off an adjacent building. Scully is walking down a corridor, looking for Mulder as well as the beast. Mulder jumps onto the roof of the other building and as he lands, rolls over and scrambles to his feet, trying to catch up with the beast. Scully appears in the same corridor Mulder was in recently. When she peers out a window, she sees Mulder running across the top of the other building.]

[The S.W.A.T team is quickly making their way up through the building.]

[Scully lands on top of the roof of the other building, and like Mulder, rolls on landing. She takes out her gun and gets to her feet, crouching under large metal girders, making her way to where she saw Mulder going.]

[Mulder is crawling slowly on his hands and feet, making no noise, trying to hear where the beast might be. The creature walks quickly and quietly across a boarded walkway on top of the roof, close to where Mulder is. As the creature goes past, Mulder jumps up onto the walkway and runs after the beast.]

[The walkway leads down some steps and into a dark building. Mulder slows his pursuit once inside the building, he reaches the bottom of the steps and enters a dark room, cautiously looking it over. Beams of light shine in through the spaces of a fan as the fan is spinning. Mulder looks along one side of a piece of machinery and then back towards the fan. Suddenly the beast jumps Mulder and they both fall to the ground. Mulder lands on his back, and lifts his head trying to see where the beast has gone and wondering what it might do to him. The beast appears from the darkness and sits on Mulder's legs. Mulder lies back, breathing heavily, waiting. The beast stares at him.]

[Scully has made her way to the top of the steps, and descends slowly with her gun trained in front of her. The beast backs off from Mulder and Mulder tries to sit up, as he does so the beast-woman swipes at his chest, knocking him back to the ground and hitting his head. Scully approaches the bottom of the steps.]

301

SCULLY: Mulder?

[The beast-woman runs off. Scully quickly runs down the last few steps.]

MULDER: Scully.

[Mulder is sitting up when Scully enters the room, she puts away her gun, and attends to Mulder.]

SCULLY: Lay back. Oh, Mulder you're hurt.

MULDER: You should've seen her, she was beautiful.

SCULLY: Yeah well, she just about ripped your lungs out.

[Outside, Mulder is sitting in the back of an ambulance getting medical attention, he is holding his shirt up while a medic attends to his wound. Dr. Diamond is sitting in the ambulance also.]

MULDER: She could've torn my head off, Scully, but she didn't, 'cos she sensed that I wasn't a threat.

AMBULANCE MAN: You've gotta hold still.

[Scully is talking on her cellular.]

SCULLY: Yeah I need to talk somebody who can get me federal jurisdiction on this case. Mulder?

MULDER: What?

DR. DIAMOND: How old would you say she was?

[Both Scully and Dr. Diamond are talking to Mulder at the same time but he turns his attention to Scully.]

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: The US Assistant D.A.'s on the phone with the Bureau right now, he wants to know what the hell is going on up here in Atlantic City.

MULDER: Well, tell him he's got a real live neanderthal on the loose.

[Mulder speaks to Dr. Diamond.]

MULDER: She was young, I, I, I don't know...It's hard to say exactly what, what, what...

SCULLY: The Atlantic City major crime unit has filed a complaint that we're endangering a murder investigation.

MULDER: That is such crap, you can..

[The ranger comes over to the ambulance.]

RANGER BOULLE: Agent Mulder, they got her cornered, in a building.

MULDER: Let's go.

[The S.W.A.T. team have followed the beast-woman into another room. One officer is talking on a walkie-talkie.]

DET. THOMPSON: Can you see it?

302

S.W.A.T. TEAM OFFICER: It crawled into the walls.

DET. THOMPSON: Can you get a man in there?

S.W.A.T. TEAM OFFICER: That's affirmative.

DET. THOMPSON: And keep these people outta here.

[Two police officers restrain Mulder as he tries to get past.]

MULDER: You could take her alive.

DET. THOMPSON: What's going on in there?

S.W.A.T. TEAM OFFICER: I got a man down, I got a naked woman just jumped from a second storey window.

[The S.W.A.T. officer is looking out of a window as he is talking.]

S.W.A.T. TEAM OFFICER: Suspect is headed south into the woods on foot.

[New Jersey State Park. Police officers with tracker dogs approach the woods. Mulder, Scully, Dr. Diamond and the ranger all travel to the woods in the ranger's truck. They come to a stop at the woods and they all get out of the truck.]

RANGER BOULLE: I know these woods, if she's going for cover, she'll be down by the rocks.

[They make their way into the woods. Meanwhile, the police are tracking through the forest slowly. As the others make their way to the top of a rockface, the ranger notices the beast-woman and points her out.]

RANGER BOULLE: Look.

MULDER: Can you reach her from here?

RANGER BOULLE: I can try.

[Ranger Boulle aims at the beast-woman and fires, the dart hits her in the back of the right shoulder. She pulls the dart out and continues on her way. Mulder leads the others down the side of the rockface, holding his side, and they run across a bridge. Down by the river, with the bridge still in sight, Detective Thompson comes into view. As the others come to the end of the bridge, they hear gunshots and run in the direction from where they came.]

VOICES: I got it. Up ahead. I got it. She tried to take my arm off. Watch it right here.

[A man is sitting holding his arm, as Mulder arrives at the scene of the shooting, blood staining his shirt from his wound, he stops and looks at the scene and advances to the body of the beast-woman.]

VOICES: Right there. Looks like she was trying to bury herself.

[The beast-woman lies dead on the ground, leaves partially covering her lower back and legs. Mulder crouches down beside her and pulls back her hair and moves his hand over her eyes, shutting them. He pauses for a moment and them gets up and walks over to Detective Thompson.]

MULDER: Why did you have to kill her?

DET. THOMPSON: Same reason you kill a rabid animal.

[Mulder stands looking at the detective, Scully moves to Mulder and touches his arm. Mulder looks at Scully, without saying a word, Scully walks off, followed by Mulder. Ranger Boulle looks from the detective to the body.]

303

FBI Headquarters, Washington D.C. X-Files Office One Week Later

[Mulder is looking at a photos of the body of the dead beast-woman, he puts them with the rest of the file into a filing cabinet. Scully enters the office carrying a file. Mulder sits down, Scully passes something to Mulder.]

SCULLY: Hi, this just came through, it's the posthumous medical exam of the woman's body. They found fragments of human bones still in her digestive tract, they estimated her age to be twenty-five to thirty years. Now they allowed Dr. Diamond to do a medical exam of the body but he found nothing that suggested prehistoric bone structure or physiology. Now the ACPD has her listed as a Jane Doe, and a search for her identity in state psychiatric records has begun, in earnest.

MULDER: Good luck.

[Scully gives Mulder the file she is holding.]

SCULLY: They have also released the medical exam from the male body that they found. His age is estimated to be about forty years.

MULDER: There would have been offspring.

SCULLY: The medical exam of the women's uterus does seem to indicate that she may have given birth.

MULDER: She was just protecting her children, Scully, it all makes sense.

[Mulder gets up and gets his coat from behind the door.]

MULDER: The male dies and she comes out of the woods in search of food.

SCULLY: Mulder, will you do me a favor, will you just go out and have a beer, will you take the day off. I'll cover for you, will you just take some time for yourself.

MULDER: Thanks for the offer but I've got an appointment at the Smithsonian with..

[The phone rings.]

MULDER: ...an ethno-biologist, I can't wait to tell him about this.

[Mulder answers the phone.]

MULDER: Mulder. Yeah just a second.

[He holds out the phone to Scully.] It's for you.

[Scully takes the phone and Mulder rushes out of the office.]

SCULLY: Hello?

ROD: Hi Dana, it's Rob.

SCULLY: Oh hi.

[Rob is sitting behind a large desk, in an office or a study, books line the shelves behind him.]

ROB: Sorry to call you at work, it's just I have Scott for the night and er, we have two extra tickets for Cirque De Soliel, we thought maybe you'd like to ask Ellen if you could take Trent and join us.

304

[Mulder approaches a reception desk at the head of a busy office.]

MULDER: Requisition for a car, please, Fran. Thank you.

[Mulder is filling out the form when Scully arrives.]

MULDER: Who was that on the phone?

SCULLY: A guy.

MULDER: A guy. Same guy as the guy you had dinner with the other night?

SCULLY: Same guy.

MULDER: You gonna have dinner with him again?

SCULLY: I don't think so.

MULDER: No interest?

[Mulder finishes filling in the form and passes it back to Fran.]

SCULLY: Not at this time.

[Fran gives Mulder a set of keys.]

MULDER: Thanks, Fran.

[Mulder walks away from the desk and towards a door. Scully walks with him.]

MULDER: What are you doing?

SCULLY: I'm going with you to the Smithsonian.

MULDER: Don't you have a life Scully?

SCULLY: Keep that up Mulder and I'll hurt you like that beast-woman.

[Scully stops at the door, her hand on the handle.]

MULDER: Eight million years out of Africa.

[Scully opens the door.]

SCULLY: Look who's holding the door.

[Mulder walks through the doorway followed by Scully.]

[A man and a boy are walking through the woods, wearing backpacks.]

BOY: Dad, did you just see something down there?

DAD: Where?

305

[The boy points to part of the woods.]

BOY: Over there.

DAD: Naah, I'm sure it was nothing.

BOY: No, I saw something.

DAD: Hey, did you ever hear the story of the Jersey Devil? You know when I was a kid, my dad used to tell this story about a creature who lived out down the woods...

[As the father and son walk off, the camera pans down to the ground and from a hole appears the face of a young girl. The offspring of the beasts.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Claire Stansfield (Jersey Devil) Wayne Tippit (Det Thompson) Gregory Sierra (Dr Diamond) Michael MacRae (Ranger Peter Boulle)

Co-Starring:

Jill Teed (Glenna) Tamsin Kelsey (Ellen) Andrew Airlie (Rob) Bill Dow (Dad) Hrothgar Mathews (Jack)

Featuring:

Jame Knox (Mom) Scott Swanson (First Officer) Sean O'Byrne (Second Officer) David Lewis (Young Officer) D. Neil Mark (S.W.A.T. Team Officer)

1x04 The Jersey Devil - notes

From "X-Files Confidential": "I had read an essay by this guy E.O. Wilson, who writes about bugs – particularly ants – and he had written a story that posed the question of whether or not man is hellbent on his own extinction," Chris Carter recalls. "There's this idea that we, being carnivores, start to eat our own tails because we're so gluttonous. I mean that not in the eating sense but what we do to the land. I thought of the curious idea, 'What if evolution had provided us with an evolutionary mutation which is almost a throwback to the Neanderthal?' The idea that there's a de-evolutionary bent in nature that, in order to survive, we would actually go backwards. So I had the idea that we could do a sort of caveman in the woods of New Jersey. The little twist, of

306 course, is that it's not a man, it's a woman. I think the episode was very well directed, and I think it was a little different approach for us. It was a little more poetic and didn't have the 'boo', which is the big effect or the big scare. "I also think it further established the relationship between Mulder and Scully," Carter continues, "and expanded the idea of what an X-File is and where it can take place." James Wong didn't share Carter's enthusiasm for the episode. "Beautifully shot," he says, "it started off great, but I felt the story ran out of steam in the middle. It didn't go anywhere; there weren't enough complications to it." "That was a difficult show because it was the death of a thousand cuts," Robert Goodwin recalls with a laugh. "To make that work, it required so much shooting, so much film at different angles. I do, however, remember a personal experience making that episode. We needed more footage of this wild woman stalking Mulder as he's walking through the forest at one particular point. I was sent off into the woods with a second unit and a six-foot-tall naked woman to do this filming. However, it was at this forest up here called the Greater Vancouver Regional District. It's not open to the public because it's a preserve. So I get to the gate and my two sons, who are at that time twelve and eight, are with me that day. I said, 'Come on, guys, we're going to shoot some film of the big, tall naked lady.' We get to the gate and the guard won't let the kids in because they're not covered for liability insurance. He said the kids were going to have to wait in the parking lot several miles from where we were shooting, and then he said, 'You don't want them in there, anyway, because we've had several mountain lion attacks over the last week and it was just spotted a half a mile down the road.' I said, 'You want me to leave my two kids standing in a parking lot, telling me that there are mountain lions half a mile down the road?' They wouldn't let them go, so I'm up there, and I should have been having the time of my life with this naked lady, and all I can think about is how my two little boys are stuck at the gate, about to be mauled by a mountain lion." Adds Glen Morgan with a smile, "They had a naked woman running around the set, so people were pretty thrilled." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: New Jersey Back story: As opposed to some hairy bigfoot, Carter wanted to present the Jersey Devil as an evolutionary throwback. "The idea was not to make this a monster per se, but almost a missing link," he suggests. Claire Stansfield, who stands about 6'1", played the beast woman and had to spend most of the episode running around naked. "That was pretty exciting," Carter says with a laugh, adding that the actress also had to have her hair tied over her breasts and wear a codpiece in some scenes to prevent those sequences from giving the audience a more thorough glimpse of the natural world than prime-time television will allow. The subplot shows Scully trying to balance having some semblance of a personal life against the dedication (bordering on obsession) that Mulder has toward his work. She meets with a married friend, Ellen, who has a child and asks her if Mulder is someone with whom Scully might get romantically involved. Though she does go on a date, Scully opts to pursue cases with Mulder instead of that path. The purpose of those scenes, Carter says, was "to show the life she's passing on. I just wanted to open up Scully a little bit for the audience." On a more humorous note, Mulder at one point holds up a magazine center-fold, saying that the woman pictured claims to have been taken aboard a spaceship and held in an antigravity chamber. "Antigravity's right," Scully mutters. X-Files In-Jokes In the autopsy report on "Jane Doe", the name of the coroner is K.H.Hawryliw (as clearly seen in "The X-Files, Unrestricted Access"). Ken Hawryliw is the prop master on the show. See the In-Jokes for Season 3's "DPO" & "Pusher", Season 5's "The Unusual Suspects", and Season 6's "Trevor" for other "appearances" by Ken Hawryliw.

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- The "real" Jersey Devil was never associated with Atlantic City. It was a legendary creature said to inhabit the Pine Barrens, a large and dense forest in southern New Jersey further inland than Atlantic City. The Devil was often described as a bipedal flying creature with hooves, but there were many variations. The legend inspired the name of New Jersey's NHL ice hockey team, the New Jersey Devils, and many other pop culture tributes -- including the title of this episode.

-- As opposed to some hairy bigfoot, Carter wanted to present the Jersey Devil as an evolutionary throwback. "The idea was not to make this a monster, per se, but almost a missing link," he suggested.

-- The episode time frame was supplied by the toe tag on the body which read August 29, 1993.

-- The subplot showed Scully trying to balance having some semblance of a personal life against the dedication (bordering on obsession) that Mulder had toward his work. She met with a married friend Ellen (who uttered the immortal line, "I thought

307 you said he was cute"), who had a child named Trent (Scully's godson), and who asked her if Mulder was someone with whom Scully might get romantically involved. Though she did go on a date, Scully opted to pursue cases with Mulder instead of that path.

-- The purpose of those scenes, Carter said, was "to show the life she was passing on. I just wanted to open Scully a little bit for the audience."

-- "The Jersey Devil" included the first reference to Mulder's predilection for porn. Scully caught him looking at a model in a "girlie" magazine, which he attempted to cover up by saying she was an abductee who had been held in an anti-gravity chamber. ("Anti-gravity's right," Scully quipped.)

-- To film the scene of Mulder in Atlantic City, David Duchovny was filmed in front of a blue-screen and stock casino footage was matted in later -- considerably cheaper than a location shoot in New Jersey would have cost.

-- In the autopsy report on "Jane Doe," the name of the coroner was K. H. Hawryliw. Ken Hawryliw was the prop master on the show. He was also referenced or made appearances in "DPO," "Pusher," "The Unusual Suspects," and "Trevor."

-- Mulder chowed down pretty heartily after Scully sprang him from jail (on what appeared to be a strange combination of eggs, salad, and tortilla chips), but in the shot when they were leaving the diner, Mulder's plate still appeared to be full, with fries on it and a side order of toast.

-- Joe Napolitano directed this episode and "Darkness Falls."

-- In real life, Michael McRae, who played Ranger Peter Brullet in this episode and who also appeared in "The Pine Bluff Variant" is married to actress Bonnie Bedelia, perhaps best known for her roles as Bruce Willis's wife in the Die Hard film series, Harrison Ford's wife in Presumed Innocent, and as race car driver Shirley Muldowney in the film Heart Like a Wheel. Old folks like me might remember that she was the girl who finally got Little Joe Cartwright to the altar in Bonanza (although like all women who fell in love with the Cartwright clan, she met an untimely demise shortly after the honeymoon). And just to prove that all things have X-Files connections, her brother in that Bonanza episode was played by Andrew Robinson, Dr. Ian Detweiler in "Alpha." Bedelia is the sister of Christopher "Kit" Culkin and aunt to his seven children, including Macaulay, who became a star in the Home Alone films.

-- Gregory Sierra (Dr. Diamond) was best known for recurring roles on Sanford & Son (as Julio Fuentes) and Barney Miller as Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale.

-- Reminded that it has been more than 13 years since she played the elusive and feral Jersey Devil in the X-Files episode of the same name, Claire Stansfield said, "Wow! I hope I still look the same in a thong!"

-- Stansfield's appearance as the beast woman was partly the result of her friendship with David Duchovny, who she'd met while shooting a commercial. (She also worked with him on the erotic Red Shoe Diaries series.) After Duchovny was cast as Mulder in The X-Files, he recommended her to Chris Carter for the role of the Jersey Devil. No one had heard of The X-Files when Stansfield went to Vancouver to film the episode, which was only the fifth to be produced. For her and for the cast and crew, it was just another job.

-- "We had no idea it was going to be as huge as it was," she remembered. "For me, it was really just a great vacation and getting to hang out with David. So I said, 'Sure!' Then I saw my thong."

-- Stansfield spent most of the episode running around nearly naked; her entire wardrobe consisted of the thong (to prevent the audience from getting a more thorough glimpse of the natural world than prime-time television allowed), a long wig ("They taped it all on to my breasts, which was rather goopy at the end of the day," recalled Stansfield), and make-up dirt.

-- It wasn't the kind of outfit a girl would want to wear in front of her mother. However, Stansfield had to do just that, since her mother lived in Vancouver and was a guest on the set every day. She recalled her mother's reaction to the small crowd of curious onlookers who gathered on the days they were shooting in Vancouver's streets: "Oh honey, can't they brush your hair a little?"

-- Another daily presence on the set in those early days was Chris Carter. Stansfield recalled that Carter and Duchovny had already become good friends. As Duchovny's friend, she got to know Carter as well. "He was just the coolest guy!" she reported.

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"As a woman you couldn't be more in heaven than sitting on a set with Chris to your left and David to your right, with your mom behind you giving you the big thumbs up."

-- However, the Jersey Devil herself looms largest in Stansfield's memory. "I've never played any character like that before or since. To become feral like that, your sense of smell and sound and hearing becomes heightened. I got to be instinctually based as opposed to intellectually or emotionally based. I remember loving it, because it was something so different as an actor."

-- Stansfield's stunt double was also a bit unusual. Finding a double for the six-foot-one Stansfield was often challenging. Finding a tall professional stuntwoman in Vancouver, who would wear the Jersey Devil's nearly non-existent wardrobe, proved impossible.

-- "They got a stripper," said Stansfield, adding with mock chagrin: "That's the one who didn't want to wear her robe at all, ever, on the set. So here's me thinking, 'I've got the damn job. Tell that woman to get off the set, go and wait in the trailer and put her robe on!'" The double ended up doing only one of Stansfield's stunts, a climb over a fence. "Not that I couldn't do it, and I begged them to let me," said Stansfield. "But it was at the beginning of the shoot, and had I hurt myself ... She could have been replaced, but I couldn't."

-- Among the stunts that Stansfield did herself was the Devil's tussle with Mulder. Considering her costume, she was especially glad to have a good friend playing opposite her for that scene. "It was so much easier for me to straddle him in a thong because he was my buddy, he made me laugh. I wasn't uncomfortable. That's such a gift as an actor ... to not even have to think about it. Because that character certainly is not aware of, 'I'm a woman, I'm naked, I'm straddling you.'" She added, with a laugh, "And this is pre-David being the sexiest man on the planet. He was my buddy. I still laugh when I see him, because I can't believe he's turned into this icon!"

-- Stansfield has been far from idle since her Jersey Devil days. Because of her appearances as the evil shamaness Alti on Xena, Warrior Princess, she became a name in science fiction fandom. She made many appearances at sci-fi conventions, where she produced and performed in the evening cabaret shows with her fellow actors. One of her specialties in those convention cabarets was performing fan fiction with the other actors. Naturally, these performances never failed to delight the all-fan audiences.

-- She explained her continued interest in the convention circuit: "I said, 'If you want me to do shows, I have to perform. Then I at least feel as though I'm being an actor.' I love to give the fans what they want, but I also need some kind of creative outlet or I start to feel like it's a factory. They kept booking me, and it wasn't because I was popular. It was because I put on these shows. For me as a producer-director, I got paid and then I had a thousand people who loved whatever I was doing. You couldn't put on a play and get that many people and raise that much money for charity."

-- The Jersey Devil was not forgotten, though. Stansfield still gets requests, through the mail or at conventions, for her to autograph her Jersey Devil trading card. And of course, there are the residuals for every "Jersey Devil" rerun, video, or DVD, and even tie-ins like an X-Files trivia game. "It's like, 'Oh, thanks Chris!' There's no trivia game for most TV shows I've done. X-Files just keeps on giving."

-- Even more rewarding than the conventions has been Stansfield's expanding career as a director. She has directed commercials and music videos, and even has a digital studio in her California home where she can edit and produce as well as direct. "I now have a pretty good little career going from my home," she said, "where I can choose on what level I want to do it and still make money, where as an actor, you have no control."

-- The directing went so well that Stansfield has more or less quit acting altogether. "I've been so lucky. I have always worked, and I've had a very interesting career and can't complain, but at 40 years old and nearly six foot two, as a woman, the odds are just so stacked against you," she said. "I had lost my passion for it. I know so many talented actors who don't even have agents."

-- So what is she doing now? "Trying to still look good in a thong!" she laughed.

-- Once & Future Retreads: Michael McRae (Ranger Peter Brullet) was August Bremer in "The Pine Bluff Variant." Andrew Airlie (Scully's date Rob) was an Attorney in "Sanguinarium." David Lewis (Young Officer) was Vosberg in "Firewalker" and Agent Kreski in "Oubliette." D. Neil Mark (SWAT Team Officer) was Deputy Scott Kerber in "Pusher." Rhys Huber (Scully's godson Trent) was a Little Boy in "Revelations." Hrothgar Matthews (Jack) was Phoning Man in "The Host," Creighton Jones in "Our

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Town," Galen in "Talitha Cumi," and a Paramedic in Fight the Future. Bill Dow (Father) was Dr. Newton in "War of the Coprophages" and Dr. Chuck Burks in "The Calusari," "Leonard Betts," "Biogenesis," "Rush," "Hollywood A.D.," and "Badlaa."

1x05 Shadows - transcript

Writers: Glen Morgan and James Wong Director: Michael Katleman Original airdate: 22 October 1993

Transcribed by: JoLayne Edited by Libby

HTG Industrial Technologies, Philadelphia, PA

[An office. On the desk is Howard Graves' name plate and a plaque that reads "One today is worth two tomorrows, Ben Franklin", pictures of Howard Graves with past and present presidents. Lauren Kyte takes the pictures of Howard and Clinton off the wall and looks at it while crying. A co-worker, Jane, enters]

JANE: Lauren, I've been looking everywhere!

[Lauren puts the picture down]

JANE: Are you all right? Do you want some water?

LAUREN: No, I'm fine.

JANE: Oh honey, it's been a couple of weeks now. Do you want to talk?

LAUREN: No. Really, Jane, I'm ok. I just haven't known a lot of people who've died, you know. I've never known anybody that's killed themselves.

JANE: Oh, well, maybe after everything gets packed away it will get easier. There won't be the constant reminder. Here's your paycheck.

[Jane hands it to Lauren and hugs her.]

JANE: Come on... go home.

LAUREN: Ok.

[Jane leaves. Lauren is about to leave and the plaque of Ben Franklin's saying moves on the desk. Lauren goes over and picks it up. She takes it with her and leaves.]

[Later that evening, Lauren is at an ATM machine and makes the deposit of her paycheck. She is attacked by two men who take her into an alley. She screams.]

Two Hours Later

[Two young people, a man and a woman, walk past the same alley. The man sniffs in a large garbage dumpster and waves the stink away.]

WOMAN: I think I'll pass.

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[The man then looks up.]

MAN: Hey, I know a good place to crash. Up the fire escape, through that window. C'mon, I'll give you a boost.

[He boosts her up and she grabs the lowest rung of the ladder.]

MAN: Pull it down.

WOMAN: I can't get it down.

MAN: C'mon. Pull.

[A body falls and lands on top of the dumpster. Then another body falls and is suspended upside down from the latter. The woman screams and they both run away.]

[main titles]

Bethesda Naval Hospital Bethesda, Maryland

[Mulder, Scully and another man walk into the morgue where two corpses lie under sheets on the slabs. On the other side of the room there are two women and a man standing there.]

MAN: Agent Scully, Agent Mulder, Chief Blevins assures us of your cooperation. We regret any inconvenience at this extreme hour.

WOMAN: We hope your expertise in extraordinary phenomenon will help us answer some questions.

MULDER: You're not FBI, are you?

SECOND WOMAN: Have you ever analyzed anything like this before?

[She hands Mulder a chart and pulls the sheet down one of the corpse's body. The corpse's arm twitches.]

SECOND WOMAN: Abnormal post mortem muscle reflex. Both corpses are still responding to exposure to high levels of electrostatic charge.

SCULLY: Any sign of external lesions or surface burns?

SECOND WOMAN: None.

MULDER: Time of death?

[She doesn't answer, just looks at the other two in the corner.]

SCULLY: Well, it can't be long. The body's still warm.

SECOND WOMAN: Somatic death occurred sometime over six hours ago. But their body temperatures have yet to drop below 98.3 degrees.

MULDER: Where did you find them?

[No answer]

MULDER: Look, at least tell us the mode of transport. That might help us determine why the bodies haven't cooled.

[Still no answer from them]

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MULDER: Hey, you guys called us down here. If you want some answers you have to give some.

[The man finally answers]

MAN: They traveled 60 minutes by air.

MULDER: Thank you.

SECOND WOMAN: The most troubling aspect of their deaths is the throat area.

[She walks over to an X Ray screen.]

SECOND WOMAN: Larynx, esophagus, and hyoid bone all have been crushed like chalk. There's no abrasions or evidence of tissue damage. It's as if their throats were crushed... from the inside.

[Mulder and Scully take a close look at the x-rays of the men]

MULDER: Who are these guys?

[No answer]

SCULLY: If you've conducted your examinations, why are you consulting us?

WOMAN: During your work on the X Files, have you ever seen anything like this?

MULDER: No. Never.

MAN: Well, thank you for your time Agent Mulder, Scully. If any inquiry as to this meeting be made, we request full denial.

MULDER: I'd say you people already suffer from full denial.

[Mulder and Scully leave and walk down the hall outside the morgue.]

SCULLY: You lied. You have seen it before, I can tell. You lied to them.

MULDER: I would never lie. I willfully participated in a campaign of misinformation.

SCULLY: Who do you think they were?

MULDER: NSA, CIA, some convert organization that Congress will uncover in the next scandal. It's not important who they are but what they have and I'm sure they have no idea because they called us in. I have X-Files. Each case has an element of what we saw tonight. Residual electrostatic charge, internal mutilation without any corresponding external causality but none has all the elements combined in one case.

SCULLY: How can an esophagus be crushed without the neck ever being touched?

MULDER: Psychokinetic manipulation.

SCULLY: Psychokinesis? You mean how Carrie got even at the prom?

MULDER: The Russians were doing studies on it. The Chinese still are. Their findings are kept secret.

[They get into an elevator]

SCULLY: Ok, I'm intrigued. But how can we investigate, we have nothing to go on.

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[Mulder puts his arm around her shoulders and brings his eyeglasses up and exhales on them. There is a perfect fingerprint on each lens.]

HTG Industrial Technologies Next Morning

[Lauren walks into work and scans the newspaper on a desk. Mr. Dorland's secretary comes up to her, scaring her.]

SECRETARY: Just getting in, Lauren? Mr. Graves used to let you get away with that but Mr. Dorland is in charge now.

LAUREN: I was wondering if I could have a minute with him.

[The secretary looks at his appointments. She pencils in as she talks]

SECRETARY: Tomorrow... at three.

LAUREN: Can I see him today? It's really important.

[Secretary's coffee cup suddenly topples spilling coffee all over her desk, causing the secretary to cry out. They both start to wipe it up. Mr. Dorland comes out of his office]

MR. DORLAND: Is everything all right out here?

LAUREN: Can I speak with you?

[Dorland agrees. Lauren enters the office and Dorland shuts the door. Dorland motions to the chair in front of his desk]

DORLAND: Please.

[Lauren sits]

LAUREN: I'm here to give my two-week notice.

DORLAND: Lauren, Jane told me about you crying in Howard's office and I want you to know that you're not alone. As a matter of fact, we share something special. Howard and I started this company 10 years ago and as long as I knew him he had no interest in anything besides work. And so some of us became family. I was his brother and you were like a daughter to him. So, of course, I feel very close to you and I want to take care of my family. Stay, Lauren, please. The company needs you, especially now.

[He reaches down and takes her face in his hands.]

DORLAND: I won't let you leave, Lauren.

[A bracelet on his wrist tightens and he flinches, taking his hands from Lauren.]

LAUREN: What's wrong?

[Dorland finally loosens the bracelet.]

LAUREN: I can't. I have to leave. I can't be here anymore.

DORLAND: You've got two weeks.

[Lauren leaves his office.]

FBI Headquarters

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Washington DC

[Mulder is looking at a computer screen with a picture of one of the corpses.]

MULDER: Mohammed Amrollahi. Convictions: Illegal possession of firearms. Illegal possession of explosives. Falsification of export licenses.

[Scully walks around him with a file and puts it on his desk]

SCULLY: He has ties to an exiled extremist group operating in the US. The Isfahan. They take their name from a city in Iran. Recently they've been working out of Philadelphia.

MULDER: That's 60 air minutes.

SCULLY: I'll talk to the Philly P.D.

Broad Street Philadelphia

[Mulder and Scully are in the alley of Lauren's attack with a cop]

COP: It was last Wednesday night. I was just on routine patrol. This is where we found them.

SCULLY: Who discovered their bodies?

COP: Nobody. It was about ten. I was on patrol. Saw them hanging around.

SCULLY: No witnesses?

COP: The folks that come around here after business hours, they don't witness very much. You know what I'm saying?

[Mulder walks off, Scully and the cop still talking. Mulder sees an anxious woman at the ATM. She leaves and he looks at it.]

[Back at the FBI. The surveillance film from the ATM shows an older man taking money out.]

MULDER: A daily visual record is made of everyone who makes a transaction.

SCULLY: We'll just have to question everyone on record who was at the machine before ten that night.

[The tape shows Lauren at the machine and being dragged off by the two attackers at 9:45.]

MULDER: There. Back up.

[Scully reads from the file.]

SCULLY: Lauren Kyte. 858 Franklin, Bensalem. Why would the Isfahan being robbing someone for 40 bucks at an ATM machine?

MULDER: Look at that.

[He stops the film and there is a ghostly flash across the screen. Hovering over them.]

SCULLY: Maybe it's another person.

MULDER: Maybe, maybe not.

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SCULLY: Well, the resolution is too poor. It won't help much to enhance it.

MULDER: That leaves only one person we know we can talk to.

[Lauren Kyte's House. She's in the process of packing. She is about to wrap glass things in newspaper when the plaque from Howard's office catches her eye on the mantle. She picks it up. She is startled by a knock on the door. She puts the plaque back and goes over to the door. She looks through the keyhole. It is Mulder and Scully]

LAUREN: Hello?

MULDER: Miss Lauren Kyte, please.

[She opens the door and Mulder flashes his badge.]

MULDER: I'm Agent Fox Mulder and this is Agent Dana Scully. We're with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Do you mind if we come in?

LAUREN: Um, I was just in the middle of ...

MULDER: Thank you. We won't be long. Thank you.

[He squeezes through the door way and past Lauren into the house. Scully enters and smiles at Lauren, who closes the door behind them. Scully shows pictures to Lauren]

SCULLY: Have you seen either of these two men before?

LAUREN: No.

SCULLY: Take your time.

LAUREN: I'm sorry. I've never seen them before.

SCULLY: I'm afraid you have.

[Scully shows her another picture]

SCULLY: This is a surveillance picture from your ATM.

[It's a picture of Lauren and the attackers. Their faces clear.]

MULDER: Can you tell us what happened that night?

LAUREN: Um... These guys, I was depositing my paycheck. They grabbed me, I got away. I ran. I just didn't want to file a report.

MULDER: They were found dead.

[She has a reaction. Scully gives her another picture]

SCULLY: Have you ever seen this person before?

[It's the still frame from the surveillance video of the spectral image]

LAUREN: No. I'm sorry. I can't tell you.

MULDER: Does that mean you know?

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LAUREN: It means I can't tell you who it is.

MULDER: When you can tell me, this is the number I can be reached at any time, ok?

LAUREN: Mm-mm.

[Mulder and Scully leave]

[Mulder and Scully walk to their car]

SCULLY: A woman her size breaking free and outrunning those men?

MULDER: And somehow crushing their necks?

[They get into the car and put on their seatbelts. Lauren is seen looking at them through her window.]

SCULLY: She knows who the other person in that photo is.

MULDER: She's packing, running away. From what?

[The parking brake goes off, the car is put into reverse, and the doors are locked. Mulder tries to brake, but the car spins backward.]

SCULLY: What's happening? What the hell's going on?

MULDER: Hang on!

[He turns around and steers the car speeding backward, trying to brake. The car is hit in the intersection by another car. It comes to a stop.]

MULDER: You ok?

SCULLY: Yeah.

[Mulder looks over at the other driver. Lauren is still looking out the window and she pulls the drapes when Mulder sees her.]

[A vehicle repair shop. Mulder is crouched at the side of the dented car. Scully walks up.]

SCULLY: Hi.

MULDER: Hi. The paramedics check you out?

SCULLY: Yeah. I'm fine. Although I do have a standing-in-line-at-the-DMV-sized headache.

MULDER: Mine's more IRS sized.

SCULLY: They check out the car?

MULDER: Yeah, it's brand new. Only a 100 miles.

SCULLY: Then someone tampered with it while we were in her house.

MULDER: Mechanic says everything is in proper order. Nothing cut, nothing greased. Check out the lights.

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SCULLY: They're on.

MULDER: They're not. The filaments are heated due to massive levels of electrostatic charge. Just like the bodies in the morgue. And isn't it interesting that Lauren Kyte was present at both incidents?

SCULLY: She was in our presence the entire time we were at her house.

MULDER: What if it's possible somehow to raise the body's electrostatic charge to levels we've been seeing and to use that energy to affect objects?

SCULLY: If a person could generate that much energy, their body would break down. They'd start glowing like those lights.

MULDER: Well there's evidence of this all through the x-files. Furniture moving untouched, objects levitating, unexplained electrical discharges. Frequently people who have psychokinetic power are unaware of their own capability.

SCULLY: Are you saying Lauren Kyte crashed our car?

MULDER: Either that or a poltergeist.

SCULLY: They're heeeere...

[She says this in imitation of the little girl from the movie, "Poltergeist"]

MULDER: They may be.

SCULLY: Oh, come on Mulder, look at the tangible evidence. Two Mid-East extremists were killed trying to assault a woman working for a manufacturer of parts for the Defense Department. While we questioned her our car is sabotaged. Now in both those cases, someone else may have committed those acts. Maybe the same someone we saw in the ATM photos. The mystery isn't psychokinetic energy, it's her accomplice.

[They both notice the lights of the car are out.]

[HTG Industrial Technologies. Lauren drives into the parking lot and gets out of her car. Mulder and Scully are sitting in their new rental, Mulder with binoculars, Scully going through papers.]

SCULLY: She's clean. No arrest, not even a traffic ticket. The only thing is, she's in deep with her credit card company... $15,000.

[They look over at Lauren, mad at a sign painter painting over Howard Graves' parking spot with a new name, Tom Braidwood, who happens to be a second unit director and Frohike on the show]

LAUREN: No, no. What are you doing?

[She grabs the stencil out of the painter's hands]

LAUREN: I'll take care of this, all right?

MULDER: A little upset over losing a parking space, wouldn't you say? So, who is Howard Graves anyway?

[FBI Headquarters. Scully is pouring over the microfiche film. Scully gets Mulder's attention and they read an article from a newspaper. "Howard Graves Suicide Creates Shock".]

MULDER: She was his secretary. That's three people dead in the last month associated with Lauren Kyte.

[The newspaper article says Howard slashed his wrists in a bathtub.]

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[Cemetery, day. Mulder and Scully pull up to the cemetery to see Lauren put flowers on a grave. They watch her as she sadly walks away from the gravesite. They get out of the car and go to the grave she put flowers on. It's Howard Graves'.]

MULDER: You don't see too many people at their boss' grave who aren't dancing on it.

SCULLY: Look at this one.

[There is another maker next to Howard's that reads, "Sarah Lynn Graves September 8, 1966 to August 3 1969". Mulder looks around and sees a groundskeeper planting flowers nearby.]

MULDER: Excuse me, Sir? Is there an office where I can get information on those people?

GROUNDSKEEPER: Who? I attend every funeral. I'm the last person to see them put to rest.

MULDER: Do you know how Sarah Lynn was related to Howard Graves?

GROUNDSKEEPER: His daughter. They were at home one day and he didn't latch the pool gate. She drowned. His wife left him a year later. She's buried in a plot in the Northeast corner.

MULDER: Thank you, Sir.

GROUNDSKEEPER: You're welcome.

[He leaves. Mulder and Scully go to Sarah's grave again.]

SCULLY: She was only three years old.

MULDER: If she'd lived, she'd be Lauren's age.

[Scully looks at Mulder and he looks at her.]

[In a darkroom, Mulder is developing pictures]

[Scully is at her apartment, typing into her laptop]

SCULLY [Voice over]: Further investigation into Lauren Kyte's personal history reveals an estrangement from her family. Phone records confirm no contact with her parents for the last two years. Her actions observed during surveillance...

[Mulder is looking at photos taken during the surveillance as Scully continues speaking]

SCULLY [Voice over]: ...indicate a strong relationship between Lauren Kyte and her employer, the late Howard Graves.

[Back to Scully typing]

SCULLY [Voice over]: Was this relationship somehow the motivation for his suicide? How are the attack and the subsequent murders of the Isfahan agents related, if at all? I am certain that the answers to these questions lie in finding the identity of Lauren Kyte's accomplice.

318

[Back to Mulder looking at the negatives of the photos. One is of Lauren Kyte's house, the next of her front window. There's a figure standing in the window.]

[Crime Lab. The photo of the figure in the front window is being put on the computer and manipulated. The framing of just the window of the photo is enlarged and we see the figure is Lauren Kyte, but right behind her is another figure. Mulder and Scully are with the computer operator.]

SCULLY: Enhance it by ten.

[He does.]

SCULLY: That's Howard Graves. He's alive.

MULDER: Not necessarily.

[Lauren Kyte's house. Night. Lauren is asleep in the bed. Her cat is sitting on the end of it and hisses and takes off. We can hear banging. Lauren wakes up. She is scared. The stairs creak. Lauren slowly goes to her closet and gets out a bat. She slowly moves to the door, opens it and looks into the dark hallway. She enters the hallway and the pounding gets louder and we can also hear a man saying, "No." She walks down the hallway and there are other voices too: "No." Then a reverberating "Don't do this to me." Lauren moves to the bathroom. The door is ajar and she pushes it open with the bat as we hear, "No. Stop. No, no, no. Please!" She guardedly moves into the bathroom and turns on the light. The shower curtain is closed. The man's voice is now crying. Lauren pulls open the shower curtain and there is a tub full of water, with a cloud of red in the middle. It grows and soon the entire tub is full of blood.]

LAUREN: Oh, Howard! They killed him!

[The tub drains.]

National Bureau Of Medical Examiners, Philadelphia, PA

[Scully and Mulder walk down a flight of steps in a stairwell.]

SCULLY: I think Howard Graves fabricated his own death.

MULDER: Do you know how difficult it is to fake your own death? Only one man has pulled it off, Elvis.

SCULLY: He and Lauren Kyte are in on something. Maybe an illegal dealing through his company. Something the CIA was interested in.

MULDER: You may be right.

[They get to the door to the office of Ellen Bledsoe, ME.]

SCULLY: Wait, you think I'm right?

MULDER: Sure, all you got to do is prove Howard Graves is still alive.

[He knocks on the door.]

[Ellen Bledsoe's Office.]

ELLEN BLEDSOE: Howard Graves is very dead.

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SCULLY: May we see the autopsy report, please?

[She tosses it across the desk towards Scully.]

ELLEN BLEDSOE: Knock yourself out.

[Scully reads the report]

SCULLY: Cause of death... arterial hemorrhage...

ELLEN BLEDSOE: Four out of six liters of blood down the tub.

SCULLY: Well there seems to be some blood work missing here.

ELLEN BLEDSOE: We only do that when we suspect homicide.

MULDER: I don't suppose you ran any dental confirmation?

ELLEN BLEDSOE: What for? It was him.

SCULLY: How did you know?

ELLEN BLEDSOE: It said so on the toe tag.

MULDER: Who made positive ID on the body?

[Scully looks through the report again.]

SCULLY: Lauren Kyte.

MULDER: But Howard Graves was cremated. There is no way to run a dental check or to get a DNA sample.

SCULLY: Yes, there is. His body's tissues and organs were donated.

University Of Pennsylvania Hospital Tissue Bank

[Mulder and Scully and another man in a lab coat are standing in a hallway looking through a window to the Cryogenics lab while the man talks. There are lots of people working in the lab.]

MAN: Howard Graves is in five different people. They harvested the organs immediately after death. His kidneys were sent to Boston, his liver to Dallas, and his corneas to Portland, Oregon. They've all been transplanted. Because of his age, we could only cryo-preserve the dura mater, the membrane of the spinal column. We have Mr. Graves' hospital records, we'll extract a sample, run a test and in a couple of hours... confirm the identity of the donor.

[HTG Industrial Technologies. There's a party going on. Balloons, champagne hats, lots of people, music, etc.]

JANE: I knew you would rush, so I made sure to have your check before you leave.

[She hands it to Lauren]

JANE: Oh, I'm going to miss you.

[They hug. Jane gets teary eyed.]

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LAUREN: What?

[Lauren smiles and gives her a glass of champagne.]

LAUREN: Here.

JANE: Bye.

LAUREN: Bye.

[Lauren walks away from her. She goes to her desk which has all her stuff in a box. She puts her desk nameplate in it. She takes the box and starts to leave, but turns and goes into Howard's office instead, careful to see no one was watching her. The office is bare of all personal effects from the beginning of the show. The bare furniture is all that's left. Lauren looks around the office and is startled when the door shuts. She turns and sees Dorland leaning back to the door and smiling.]

DORLAND: You're going to leave without saying goodbye? Well, I came to say goodbye... and to wish you luck, and to leave you with this little thought... I know Howard told you and if it ever gets out, I won't waste my time trying to pin the source. I'll go straight to you.

LAUREN: And you'll do to me what you did to Howard? I know you had him killed.

DORLAND: Why would you say that?

LAUREN: He told me.

[She takes her box off the desk and goes to the door, but Dorland grabs her. They jostle and Lauren gets out of the office and walks away. She walks into the party and uses the phone]

[University Of PA Office. Mulder and Scully are reading and fidgeting. Mulder's cell phone rings. While he answers it, the lab guy enters and talks to Scully.]

MULDER: Mulder.

[Cut between Lauren and Mulder]

LAUREN: It's Lauren Kyte. How soon can you be at my house?

MULDER: Why?

LAUREN: Please hurry.

[She hangs up and takes her box and leaves. Dorland stands in Graves' office doorway watching her]

SCULLY: The tests are conclusive, the dura mater does belong to Howard Graves. He is indeed very dead.

[Mulder gets up and walks away]

[Lauren Kyte's House. Lauren walks down stairs. She has her suitcases and puts them on the dining table. She finishes up packing up things at her desk. A car with a man and a woman pulls up outside her house. They get out and walk to the front door. Inside, Lauren is pacing. There's a knock on the door. She is relieved and walks across her empty house to the door. She opens the dead bolt. It slides closed again.]

LAUREN: Just a second.

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[She forces the bolt, then she hears a noise behind her. She jumps out of the way of a kitchen chair that moves across the house and wedges itself under the door knob. The door flies open and the man and woman enter. The man has a switchblade in his hand.]

MAN: Go run the bath.

[Lauren falls back into the living room floor.]

LAUREN: Get out of here!

[The bulbs in the lamps around the room shatter. The man grabs Lauren and a table slams into him. She gets away. The only light in the room is coming from the window. A spectral presence moves from the dining room to the front door where the woman sees it and tries to get out of the house.]

LAUREN: No!

[The woman is flung to the door. Her neck is crushed. Lauren screams no as the woman falls to the ground. The man gets out from between the table and fireplace and runs to the door but is flung back on the floor. He looks all around. He stands up. He gets punched in the face, drawing blood but there are no hands. Lauren can't seem to move from where she stands. She screams some more. Mulder and Scully drive up outside. They hear screams from inside the house and race to the front door. Mulder pushes the woman aside as he opens the door. He looks into the living room and the man is hanging from nothing in the middle of the room. Lauren is crying. The man falls to the floor as Scully enters the house, gun drawn. They look at Lauren whimpering in a crouched position on the floor.]

[An interrogation room. Mulder is sitting across the table from Lauren as Scully leans against a window ledge.]

SCULLY: You know, you're not under arrest. You're just here for questioning. The sooner you talk to us the sooner you get to go home.

[Pause]

SCULLY: What happened to those people tonight?

[Lauren's not saying anything.]

SCULLY: Do you have any idea who they might be. Why did they attack you?

[Mulder picks up a picture and walks around the table and shows it to Lauren]

MULDER: Do you know who this is?

[The man from the beginning, the non-talker at the morgue walks in]

MAN: Scully, Mulder... He'll keep an eye on her.

[He indicates an officer who enters the room after him.]

MAN: Come on. Now.

[Scully and Mulder leave the room with him and the woman from the morgue is there too.]

WOMAN: You've seriously compromised our investigation.

MULDER: We were following leads pertaining to an X-file.

MAN: I want to know every detail of your activities concerning this case.

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SCULLY: What case? You're the ones who've been withholding information. Why don't yu tell us what you've got.

[They all fall silent.]

MULDER: Then we have nothing more to talk about.

[Mulder and Scully walk away. The woman and man follow them to the hallway.]

WOMAN: We believe HTG Industrial Technologies sold restricted parts to the Isfahan.

MAN: Partial serial numbers from their manifest were recovered in the wreckage of a July bombing of a Navy transport van.

MULDER: How's Lauren Kyte involved?

MAN: We don't quite know. Your actions impeded our investigation.

WOMAN: In any case, we don't have enough evidence to hold her. If she doesn't talk, she goes free and we lose our chance to break this company.

MAN: I could make her talk.

[Mulder leans towards the man, smirking slightly.]

MULDER: My advice to you. Don't get rough with her.

[Later. The door to the interrogation room opens.]

WOMAN: That was a waste of time.

[The woman and man walk out. The woman keeps walking. The man regards Mulder and Scully off screen.]

MAN: Your turn.

[He leaves. Scully and Mulder walk into the room.]

SCULLY: Lauren?

LAUREN: I won't talk to you, either.

MULDER: Ok, then you're free to go.

[Lauren looks up surprised and gets up from her chair. Scully throws a surprised look in Mulder's direction as Lauren walks by her. Lauren pauses at the door.]

LAUREN: I can't go back to that house.

MULDER: Why? Because of Howard Graves?

LAUREN: He's dead.

MULDER: I know. He's watching over you, isn't he?

[Later. A tape recorder is rolling. Lauren is standing in the corner of the room, leaning against the wall.]

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LAUREN: I don't know if you've ever been a secretary before. Sometimes your boss can talk as if you weren't even in the room, which can hurt, you know? Sometimes... you're all he has to talk to. Which is how it always was with me and Howard. One night, late, I went into his office. He was crying, more scared than sad. The Pentagon contracts were being canceled, the company was going under, he felt personally responsible for each of his employees... seeing and feeling their fear every day... it really wore him down. Then this one time, Dorland came with that group... that Mid East group... Isfahan, that terrorist group. They'd buy parts at an outrageous price. Not just once, but for as long as they could get away with it. That night Howard was crying, he'd just found out that the Isfahan had claimed responsibility for killing a couple of sailors in Florida. He was never the same. And I thought that was why he killed himself. But he didn't... I saw ... Howard showed me how Dorland had him killed. Made it look like a suicide because he ... see Howard was going to put an end to the deal.

MULDER: So now Howard is protecting you?

LAUREN: It sounds so ridiculous.

SCULLY: But you believe it.

LAUREN: He was closer to me than my father. I told him that. I still feel his presence. Sometimes... I even smell his aftershave. If you just could've ... seen ... the things I've seen... I just... want all that to go away. That's why I'm leaving. Maybe he can move on.

[Scully gets up from the table and goes to Lauren.]

SCULLY: That's not enough. You've been given the chance to tell him again. Take it. Tell him you love him, by showing him, by... helping us finish his unfinished business. Lauren, how will you ever be able to rest if he never can?

[Lauren nods.]

LAUREN: Ok.

[Scully nods too.]

LAUREN: I'm a mess. I'm um, going to wash up.

[She leaves.]

MULDER: What are you doing, Scully? You don't believe.

SCULLY: Mulder, there's no such thing as ghosts or psychokinesis. I'm sure there's an explanation. But I believe that she believes. And my priority is to get to her help us stop Dorland.

MULDER: Well, we may have just sacrificed our best opportunity to observe spectral phenomena.

SCULLY: No, I'm giving us a chance to solve a case that's tangible instead of chasing after shadows.

[Scully leaves leaving Mulder to ponder.]

[A staircase. Lots of FBI come down the stairs, Mulder with them. He goes to Lauren standing by a car. Scully approaches.]

MULDER: You ready?

[She nods. Scully addresses the troops]

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SCULLY: All right, everyone. We have a warrant to search the premises for evidence pertaining to the sale of restricted manufactured parts. The evidence may be in the form of falsified export licenses, parts manifests, communiqués. It could be on computer disks or hard copy.

MAN: [from morgue and interrogation room] Once there, when in doubt, ask. We need this to be clean. This is the culmination of a year-long investigation. If we don't come out of there today with something proving a connection to the Isfahan, this guy could walk.

SCULLY: Let's go.

[The men break up. Lauren walks with Scully.]

SCULLY: Now, it will most likely be in Dorland's office. We'll execute the search, but we need you to guide us you have to be strong, okay?

[Scully opens the back door of the car for her. Lauren gets in. The cars pull out.]

[HTG Industrial Technologies. The FBI walk into the office. Scully walks in with them with her badge.]

SCULLY: Everybody stay calm. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Ma'am, could you back away from those files, please?

[The FBI moves people around and out of the way and others start looking in files, drawers, reports, etc. Dorland comes out of his office. Scully and Lauren walk by him into his office. Mulder stays outside with him.]

[In Dorland's office, Scully puts things into a box. Lauren searches through his books in a bookcase.]

[Later. The man and woman from the morgue go to Mulder and Scully.]

WOMAN: This is all we could find.

MULDER: We don't have him. He's not even breaking a sweat.

[Dorland is standing in a corner with the employees, engaging in small talk. The man walks up to Mulder.]

MAN: Our case is blown. We wasted a year. This guy is going to walk.

[The man and woman leave.]

[Dorland's office. Scully walks to the door and out with a box of things taken from his office as Mulder enters]

SCULLY: Let's get out of here.

[Mulder walks to Lauren still at the bookcase. She is distraught.]

MULDER: Lauren, it's over. We have to go.

[She looks around the room as Dorland enters.]

MULDER: What we're looking for isn't here.

[Lauren takes a letter opener from the desk and smashes the glass in a picture frame and takes out the photo.]

DORLAND: Look! She's no an agent. I've been more than cooperative and I don't want to be combative, but she has no right to destroy my personal property.

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[Lauren takes a painting from the wall and opens the back. Nothing but a painting.]

LAUREN: Destroying property? What about that van that blew up and killed those servicemen?

DORLAND: Oh, I don't know what you're talking about you stupid bitch!

[Lauren rushes Dorland with the letter opener.]

MULDER: Lauren, no!

[Dorland pushes her away and he is pushed against the wall by "Howard". The door slams shut. Dorland starts grasping at his neck. He can't breathe.]

LAUREN: He'll kill him. Help us find it!

[Dorland slides to the floor. The track lighting explodes. The bulbs in the lamps explode. Mulder grabs Lauren.]

MULDER: Get down.

[Outside the office, Scully hears the commotion and runs back to Dorland's office door. It's locked.]

SCULLY: Mulder!

[Inside the office, it's dark and we hear Scully yelling. Pictures fly from the wall. Drawers open and papers fly around the room. The letter opener hovers in front of Dorland's face. Then it turns and flies into the wall. It slits the wall fabric about two feet and stops. The noise and flying papers die down and Scully bolts into the room. She looks around at the mess.]

SCULLY: Oh, my God.

[Mulder walks across to the wall and takes a floppy disk out from behind the wall fabric.]

MULDER: I guess what we're looking for is here.

[Lauren Kyte's house. A moving trailer is hitched to Lauren's car. Scully, Lauren and Mulder walk to it. Lauren is carrying a box.]

SCULLY: The US Attorney's office is going after Dorland with everything they've got. Including the murder of Howard Graves.

LAUREN: I'll come back to testify.

[She puts the box in her trunk.]

MULDER: Where are you going?

LAUREN: Away from here.

[Lauren gets into the drivers seat and starts the car.]

LAUREN: Thanks.

[She drives off.]

MULDER: Boy, she's in a rush to get out of here.

SCULLY: Out of here, or away from the ghost of Howard Graves?

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[She grins at Mulder. They walk to their car.]

MULDER: Hey, Scully. Do you believe in the afterlife?

SCULLY: I'd settle for a life in this one.

MULDER: Have you ever seen the Liberty Bell?

SCULLY: Yes.

[They get into the car and fasten their seat belts.]

MULDER: You know, I've been to Philadelphia a hundred times and I've never seen it.

SCULLY: You're not missing much. It's a big bell with a big crack, and you have to wait in a long line.

MULDER: Yeah.

[Mulder starts the car and drives off]

MULDER: But I'd really like to go.

SCULLY: Why now?

MULDER: I don't know. How late do you think they stay open?

Monroe Mutual Insurance Co. Omaha, Nebraska

[Lauren's new workplace. Howard Graves' plaque with Ben's quote is on her desk. She brings a report to her new head secretary.]

HEAD SECRETARY: Miss Kyte, I asked for this 25 minutes ago.

LAUREN: I know. I'm sorry.

HEAD SECRETARY: Maybe that's the way they work back East, but here in the Midwest, punctuality is a virtue.

[She takes the report and goes back to what she was doing. The coffee cup on the secretary's desk starts shaking. Lauren is nervous. The secretary sees it and covers it with her hands.]

HEAD SECRETARY: We really have to find a new office space. Every time a truck goes by the whole building shakes.

[She takes a sip of her coffee. Lauren is relieved.]

HEAD SECRETARY: That's all Lauren.

[Lauren goes back to her desk. She smiles at the plaque.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Barry Primus (Robert Dorland) Lisa Waltz (Lauren Kyte)

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Co-Starring:

Lorena Gale (Ellen Bledsoe) Veena Sood (Ms. Saunders) Deryl Hayes (Webster) Kelli Fox (Pathologist)

Featuring:

Tom Pickett (Cop) Tom Heaton (Groundskeeper) Janie Woods-Morris (Ms Lange) Nora McLellan (Jane Morris) Anna Ferguson (Ms. Winn)

1x05 Shadows - notes From "X-Files Confidential": "It wasn't a great script," a candid James Wong admits, "although I thought the director did a good job with it. It was entertaining, but not my favorite episode. The network wanted a lot more relatable things. Originally we made this girl a lot more interesting, but because they wanted relatable things, we made her a secretary, and it wasn't really involving. An average episode." Glen Morgan notes that a big influence on the episode was The Entity, though on the surface of things it looked like their take on Carrie. "That's what Chris wants, the idea: 'Can it be this thing and then become that?' I never realized that's what experts think poltergeists are. Usually poltergeists are around younger kids. They have a telekinetic ability and don't know how to control it or don't realize it. That's another criterion in writing a script for this show: try and have a way for Scully to explain it. As a writer you're saying, 'If we go in this direction, it allows Scully to say this. If we go in that direction, it allows her to say that.' " "A very popular show," says Carter. "Very well done, really great effects, and more of a meat-and-potatoes kind of story. An FBI sting and a good mystery that Mulder and Scully investigate. Overall, a really solid episode." Michael Katleman, who went on to co-create the short-lived Fox series VR.5, directed the episode. "As a director," he explains, "you go into some things in episodic television where it’s laid out very clearly. The great thing about The X-Files is that it wasn't laid out. There were a lot of ways to go from a directorial standpoint. You could shoot things in a lot of different ways because you were going into the pysche. You had a lot more freedom to explore certain areas that haven't been explored yet. For instance, 'Shadows' was about a woman being haunted by her ex-boss. In the beginning it appears she's being haunted by him, but he's really protecting her. When you look at that situation, how do you show that? Which way do you show that someone is possessing someone or protecting them? It's really wide open as to the ways you can explore this psychological dilemma. In that sequence where the attackers come into her house, how do you tell that story? It's done from a psychological perspective, so there are many different ways to do it." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Back story: according to Glen Morgan, Fox had been pushing for the producers to do more episodes where, in essence, "Mulder and Scully investigate the paranormal and help people." As a result the incentive behind 'Shadows', he says, was to provide an installment where the agents would do just that and "get them off our back" so the producers could pursue some of the more offbeat stories they had in mind. Morgan and Wong also harbored a fondness for ghost stories, and Fox executives had suggested the idea of doing some sort of episode involving poltergeists. The show's penchant for small in-jokes is also in evidence during this hour, as the name of assistant director Tom Braidwood (well before his days of fame as the Lone Gunmen's Frohike) is used in the scene where the parking lot attendant paints over the name on the space that previously belonged to the dead man. From Tiny Dancer: The original script for this ep had Mulder telling Scully what he wanted on his tombstone: No regrets.

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X-Files In-Jokes * The name that is about to get painted over the deceased boss' name on the parking spot is that of Tom Braidwood, the X- Files' first assistant director (as well as the actor who plays Frohike).

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- According to Glen Morgan, FOX had been pushing for the producers to do more episodes where, in essence, Mulder and Scully investigate the paranormal and help people. As a result, the incentive behind "Shadows" was to provide an installment where the agents would do just that and "get FOX off our back," so the producers could pursue some of the more offbeat stories they had in mind. Morgan and Wong also harbored a fondness for ghost stories, and FOX executives had suggested the idea of doing some sort of episode involving poltergeists.

-- One of Scully's lines, "I'm giving us a chance to solve a case that's tangible instead of chasing after shadows," provides the episode's title, and offers insights to the behind-the-scenes maneuvers that created the episode.

-- The writers were inspired by the 1981 movie The Entity in which a woman is tormented by an unseen entity.

-- In the original script, Mulder tells Scully what he'd like on his tombstone: "No Regrets"

-- Mulder's joke about Elvis is the first of many Elvis references throughout the entire series. Supposedly Morgan and Wong knew that David Duchovny was not really an Elvis fan and so to lovingly torture David they made Elvis one of Mulder's guilty pleasures. When delivering his line about Elvis in this episode, David Duchovny did an Elvis karate move that was cut from the final version of the show. So when Morgan and Wong arranged for Mulder to visit Graceland in "Never Again," David did the karate move once more, then called Glen Morgan and told him the move better be in the show this time. And indeed, it was.

-- The name of Assistant Director Tom Braidwood (well before he would become famous for playing Melvin Frohike) is used in the scene where the parking lot attendant paints over the name on the space that previously belonged to the dead man.

-- Howard Graves' tombstone stated that he died on the 5th of October, but the opening scenes date stamp says the 22nd of September when it was supposed to be two weeks after Graves had died.

-- After Mulder mentions poltergeists, Scully says "They're here," which is a nod to the Tobe Hooper/Steven Spielberg film Poltergeist. It's the phrase that Carol Anne uses to warn her parents that something strange is happening in their house. Scully also references the film Carrie proving that the girl loves a good horror movie. (She also mentioned The Exorcist was one of her favorite films in a later episode.)

-- In many of the early XF episodes, Scully always seemed to just barely miss the opportunity to witness some paranormal event; in this one, she missed the chance because she can't get her seatbelt unbuckled.

-- This was only the series sixth episode (if you count the Pilot) and they were already recycling! The footage of Scully typing at her computer was reused footage from "Squeeze," with a new voiceover. You can even see the evidence photos from that episode on the desk.

-- Lots of future retreads in this one: Lorena Gale (Ellen Bledsoe) also appeared in "One Breath" as Nurse Wilkins, and in "Elegy" as Harold's attorney. Deryl Hayes (Webster) also appeared in "Little Green Men" as Agent Morris and in "The Walk" as an Army doctor. Tom Heaton (the groundskeeper) also appeared as one of the townspeople in "War of the Coprophages." Janie Woods- Morris (Ms. Lange) also appeared as Lorraine Kelleher in "Avatar." Charles Andre who played one the thugs appeared as Ray Floyd in "Fearful Symmetry." And Forbes Angus who appeared as the Tissue Bank Technician would return four more times -- as the scientist in "Soft Light," the doctor who removed the chip in Scully's neck in "The Blessing Way," a security guard in "Small Potatoes," and the Funeral Director in "Bad Blood."

-- "Shadows" isn't often highly regarded, but it has a lot of good Mulder/Scully banter, from the comparison of their post- accident headaches to the nice little exchange at the end ("Hey, Scully, do you believe in the afterlife?" "I'd settle for a life in this one.") On the downside, Scully dashes the hopes of early shippers and misses the boat when Mulder asks her out on a "date" to see the Liberty Bell. But despite her oh-so-appealing description ("You're not missing much. It's just a big bell with a big crack, and you have to wait in a long line.") Mulder still wants to go anyway. Hey Scully, maybe he just wants to be with you! Did you ever think of that? We did!!

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1x06 Ghost in the Machine - transcript

Writers: Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa Director: Jerrold Freedman Original airdate: 29 October 1993

Transcribed by: CarriK Edited by Libby

Eurisko World Headquarters Crystal City, Virginia

[High rise office building, exterior. Inside an office two men are arguing. One, dressed very casually, is Brad Wilczek; the other, dressed in a suit, is Benjamin Drake.]

BRAD WILCZEK: Look, Ben. This is what infuriates me. Don't you see? It's so painfully obvious. Why do you think our stock's in the toilet? Because you're cutting research and development in half. You've forgotten what the adventure's all about.

BENJAMIN DRAKE: Like it or not, the industry's changing. We need to make some hard choices.

BRAD WILCZEK: You save your sound bite for the press.

BENJAMIN DRAKE: Let's not relive the stockholder's meeting again.

BRAD WILCZEK: Don't you get it? You're killing me! You're killing my company!

BENJAMIN DRAKE: Eurisko is not your company, Brad - - not any more. And you damn well better grow up and get used to it.

[Brad Wilczek exits angrily.]

BRAD WILCZEK: You're going to regret this.

[Night. Benjamin Drake is typing from tape recorder in his office.]

BENJAMIN DRAKE: [on recording] New paragraph. As I'm sure everyone on the Board will agree, Eurisko has to face head-on the realities of an increasingly competitive world.

[There's a camera overhead.]

BENJAMIN DRAKE: [on recording] Since the unfortunate departure of Brad Wilczek, I have made certain recommendations which I believe will reposition Eurisko as an industry leader.

[The camera monitor filming Benjamin Drake shows COS scanning: DRAKE BENJAMIN DATA INTERCEPT]

BENJAMIN DRAKE: [on recording] At the top of this list, is the immediate termination of the COS project.

[The COS computer monitor starts flashing little lights.]

BENJAMIN DRAKE: [on recording] Its disastrous performance over the past three quarters and projected losses well into 1994 leave us no other choice.

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[Drake switches off his laptop and goes to get his jacket. Then he hears water running and goes into his private bathroom. The sink is overflowing. Drake shuts off the water and is now wet, standing in a puddle. The phone rings. Drake answers]

BENJAMIN DRAKE: Hello? Hello!

PHONE VOICE: At the tone, Eastern Standard Time will be 7:35 P.M.

[Suddenly, the lights go out and the bathroom door slams shut. Drake sets down the phone.]

BENJAMIN DRAKE: What the hell?

[He tries the door with no luck. He swipes his card key with no luck. He puts a metal manual override key in the lock and ..... whammmo!!! A huge electrical shock flings him across the room, breaking the mirror. He lies motionless on the floor.]

COMPUTER VOICE: File deleted.

FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C.

[Agent Jerry Lamana is walking through an office. He swipes some candy out of someone's Halloween pumpkin. He approaches Mulder and Scully who are getting lunch at a cart.]

JERRY LAMANA: Mulder.

MULDER: Jerry?

[Mulder offers his hand. Lamana takes it then hugs Mulder, to Mulder's surprise.]

JERRY LAMANA: You're Dana Scully, right?

[He shakes Scully's hand.]

JERRY LAMANA: Jerry Lamana.

MULDER: Jerry and I worked together in Violent Crimes.

JERRY LAMANA: Worked together? What are you talking – worked together.

[Lamana speaks to Scully.]

JERRY LAMANA: We were partners.

[Mulder looks at Scully.]

SANDWICH MAN: That's $8.50, please.

[Scully starts to pay him.]

MULDER: So, Jerry, what are you doing here?

JERRY LAMANA: Looking for you. And I'm buying you two lunch.

SCULLY: No, really ...

JERRY LAMANA: No, it's on me.

[He pays the Sandwich Man.]

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[In the X-Files Office, Mulder and Scully listening to Lamana.]

JERRY LAMANA: Cause of death was electrocution.

SCULLY: And it wasn't accidental?

JERRY LAMANA: It looks like some kind of elaborate booby trap, but we don't know a whole lot more. The building engineer just found him twelve hours ago.

SCULLY: Who's running the investigation?

JERRY LAMANA: Do either of you know Nancy Spiller?

SCULLY: The forensics instructor at the Academy?

[To Mulder.]

SCULLY: We used to call her the Iron Maiden.

JERRY LAMANA: On a good day. Well, anyway she's putting together the squad and, well, I took the liberty of mentioning your name.

MULDER: Look, Jerry. I'd like to help you out, but we're not on general assignment.

JERRY LAMANA: Because of the X-Files?

[Slightly desperate, to Mulder.]

JERRY LAMANA: Look, the truth is, I could use a little help on this. I don't want to drop the ball on this one.

MULDER: You won't drop the ball.

JERRY LAMANA: Drake wasn't just a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. He was a good friend of the Attorney General's. Another feather in my cap would be really nice right now, because the one I got's looking a little mangy.

MULDER: Yeah, but Jerry ...

JERRY LAMANA: Look, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important.

Eurisko World Headquarters

[Mulder and Scully are walking outside.]

SCULLY: How come you two went your separate ways?

MULDER: I'm a pain in the ass to work with.

SCULLY: Seriously.

MULDER: I'm not a pain in the ass? We had different career goals. Jerry wanted the fifth floor.

SCULLY: And you?

MULDER: I was gunning for a basement office with no heat or windows.

[Security camera follows them inside the building.]

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SCULLY: I know where you ended up. What about Jerry?

MULDER: He ran into a little bad luck in Atlanta working hate crimes.

SCULLY: What kind of bad luck?

MULDER: He misplaced a piece of evidence, bagged and everything. Sent it to the cleaners. By the time he got it back, a federal judge had lost both his hands and his right eye.

[Elevator dings and they enter. Security camera watches them.]

SCULLY:[pushing button] Twenty-nine?

MULDER: Uh-huh.

ELEVATOR: Going up.

SCULLY: Must be for the visually impaired.

MULDER: How do you like that? A politically correct elevator.

ELEVATOR: Third floor....Fourth floor....

[Elevator slams to a stop. Scully falls. Mulder helps her up.]

MULDER: You okay?

SCULLY: Yeah. What was that?

[Mulder tries buttons. Scully picks up the phone. As she does, it rings. She looks surprised.]

MAN'S VOICE: Yes?

SCULLY: Hello?

MAN'S VOICE: Security. Who's this?

SCULLY: This is Agent Dana Scully.

MAN'S VOICE: Agent Scully, do you have a problem?

[Elevator begins going up again, announcing floors.]

SCULLY: Uh, actually, I think everything's okay.

[Security camera monitor reads - DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PHONE SEARCH SCULLY, DANA 202-555-6431]

[In Drake's executive bathroom, Lamana, Mulder, and Scully looking at the door's computer controls.]

JERRY LAMANA: See here? Someone has tampered with the servo. They switched the ground to the negative so that when he put the key in the lock...

SCULLY: ...he completed the circuit.

JERRY LAMANA: It's fused. It takes a lot of juice to melt a steel key.

333

SCULLY: And to throw a 180 pound man ten feet.

[She looks at the cracked mirror.]

MULDER: The, uh, servo switch. Could it have been moved manually?

JERRY LAMANA: We didn't find any prints in the surrounding area.

[Peterson enters the bathroom.]

PETERSON: Sure it could have been switched manually. But whoever did it would have had to override the COS.

MULDER: What's the COS?

PETERSON: The central operating system. It runs the building. It regulates everything from energy output to the volume of water in each toilet flush.

JERRY LAMANA: This is Claude Peterson. He's the building systems engineer. He discovered the body.

MULDER: If somebody wanted to override the COS, what would they ...?

PETERSON: Well, first he'd have to break the access codes which, well, let's just say it wouldn't be easy.

[The camera watches them.]

MULDER: Well, we're going to need a list of all the people with that kind of know-how.

PETERSON: Well, I can tell you right now it'll be a pretty short list.

MULDER: Would you be on it?

PETERSON: Me? Hey, look. I'm just a glorified building super. All I do is monitor the system. Make sure it's functioning properly. Like when I saw the overload in Mr. Drake's office.

MULDER: What about the phone lines? Does the COS monitor all phone calls?

PETERSON: Yes it does. Why?

MULDER: I was just wondering.

PETERSON: Okay, um, look. Can I go now?

JERRY LAMANA: Yeah.

[The camera watches Peterson leave.]

JERRY LAMANA: Why'd you ask him about the phones?

MULDER: Phone's off the hook.

[He hangs it up.]

MULDER: Maybe Drake was talking to somebody right before he did his Ben Franklin impersonation.

JERRY LAMANA [to Scully]: Taught him everything he knows.

[Lamana exits. Mulder nods and smiles tightly at Scully.]

334

FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C.

[Mulder is looking around on his messy desk. There's a knock at door.]

MULDER: Come in.

[Scully enters.]

SCULLY: It's past three.

MULDER: I'm just looking for my profile notes.

SCULLY: Maybe if you cleaned your desk more than once a year.

MULDER: They were right here. I'm telling you.

SCULLY: Come on. We're late.

[Mulder looks around one more time. Scully hands him his jacket and they exit.]

[Investigative team meeting. Mulder stares at the wall as Lamana reads from notes.]

JERRY LAMANA: Now, there are a couple of elements for us to consider, here. Both the statistical rarity of homicidal electrocution and the complexity of the crime indicate a certain devious premeditation. After all, there are much simpler ways of killing someone. All of which leads me to believe that our guy was some kind of sociopathic game player – maybe even a recluse since he designed a trap not only to avoid detection, but to avoid contact with the victim.

[Scully and Mulder talk in whispers.]

SCULLY: Is that your profile?

MULDER: Forget it, huh?

JERRY LAMANA: Drake's final phone call supports this theory.

[He plays a tape.]

COMPUTER VOICE: At the tone, Eastern Standard Time will be 7:35 P.M.

JERRY LAMANA: Drake's estimated time of death.

AGENT SPILLER: Why would Drake call for the correct time just before he died?

JERRY LAMANA: It was an incoming call. From somewhere in the Eurisko building itself. Whoever set the trap wanted to make sure that Drake took the bait.

AGENT SPILLER: Excellent work, Agent Lamana.

JERRY LAMANA: Thank you.

[Mulder is not looking happy.]

335

[In the Bullpen, Mulder approaches Lamana.]

MULDER: Jerry, what the hell are you doing?

JERRY LAMANA: Hey, don't get all bent out of shape.

MULDER: Jerry, that was my profile.

JERRY LAMANA: Look, I didn't think you'd mind.

[He starts to leave, but Mulder stops him.]

JERRY LAMANA: Anyway, they were just notes. I filled in the blanks.

MULDER: Jerry, you went into my office and you stole my work.

JERRY LAMANA: Look, you're on this case 'cause I asked you to help me out, and you helped me out. What is the big deal.

[He exits as Scully enters.]

SCULLY: What did he say?

MULDER: He apologized - in his own way.

SCULLY: I just got off the phone with Peterson, the systems engineer.

[She hands Mulder a piece of paper.]

MULDER: One name? Brad Wilczek?

SCULLY: He said it would be a short list. And it's headline news how much this guy despised Drake.

MULDER: That just seems too obvious. To kill Drake would be so brazenly egomaniacal.

SCULLY: And fully consistent with Jerry's excellent behavioral profile.

MULDER: Fully.

[Wilczek's very nice, very modern and expensive country house. Mulder and Scully drive up. As they walk to the front door, they notice a camera monitoring them.]

MULDER: So this is what a 220 IQ and a $400 million severance settlement buys you.

[Scully knocks on the door, which Wilczek opens immediately.]

WILCZEK: Yes?

SCULLY:[surprised] Brad Wilczek?

[Mulder shows his badge.]

SCULLY: We're with the FBI.

WILCZEK: What took you guys so long. Oh, do you mind taking off your shoes?

[Wilczek leads Mulder and Scully barefoot through the house].

336

WILCZEK: You can divide the computer science industry into two types of people – neat and scruffy.

SCULLY: I take it Benjamin Drake fit into the first category.

WILCZEK: Neat people like things neat. They wear nicely pressed suits and work on surface phenomena. Things they can understand. Market shares, and third quarter profits.

SCULLY: And you had a different vision for the company?

WILCZEK: I started Eurisko out of my parents' garage. I was 22 years old. I'd just spent a year following around the Grateful Dead. You know what Eurisko means?

MULDER: That's from the Greek, isn't it? Um, "I learn things."

WILCZEK: Not exactly. It means "I discover things."

[Mulder shrugs.]

WILCZEK: Unfortunately, Ben Drake wasn't interested in discovery. He was a short-sighted, power-hungry opportunist.

[He goes to his computer.]

WILCZEK: Let me show you something - Smart Home. From this prototype, I have access to every square foot of my house. This place is as safe as Fort Knox and as energy efficient as your average igloo. We were two years ahead of Microsoft and CEBus when Drake, in his infinite wisdom, killed the program.

MULDER: Mr. Wilczek, is this system related to the one in your corporate building?

WILCZEK: Variation on a theme.

MULDER: In your opinion, how many people know the system well enough to override it?

WILCZEK: Finally the bonus question. Not many is the answer.

MULDER: Could someone have hacked into the system?

WILCZEK: Well, not your average phone phreak, that's for sure. But there's plenty of kooks out there. Data travelers, electro wizards, techno anarchists. Anything's possible.

SCULLY: Could you have done it?

WILCZEK: Of course. I designed the system. That's why you guys are here, isn't it? I'm your logical suspect.

SCULLY: You don't seem too worried.

WILCZEK: It's a puzzle, Miss Scully, and scruffy minds like me like puzzles. We enjoy walking down unpredictable avenues of thought, turning new corners - but as a general rule, scruffy minds don't commit murder.

[Mulder and Scully share a look under ominous music.]

[Scully is in her apartment, typing on her computer.]

SCULLY [voice over]: Some see genius as the ability to connect the unconnected - to make juxtapositions, to see relationships where others cannot. Is Brad Wilczek a genius? I don't know. But I do know this for certain. He has a predilection for elaborate

337 game playing. He has an intimate knowledge of the Eurisko building and he has a demonstrable motive for killing Benjamin Drake. The question remains. But if he is so clever how do we nail him? End of field journal, October 24, 1993.

[Scully turns off the monitor, then the light, and goes into her bedroom. The computer beeps, monitor turns back on, modem connects. Scully's report comes up along with message "COS scanning: Scully, Dana – Data Intercept." Now the screen is that of the COS inside the Eurisko building that we saw in the teaser.]

COS COMPUTER: File opened.

FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C.

[In the X-Files office, Mulder and Scully are listening to tapes of a Smithsonian Lecture series that Wilczek had given in 1990 and 1991. Scully isolates the word "eastern." Jerry Lamana enters.]

MULDER: [to Scully] Will you give me a second?

[Scully nods. Mulder steps outside the office with Lamana.]

JERRY LAMANA: Look, I'm here with my hat in my hand. I screwed up – I'm sorry. What more can I say?

MULDER: All you had to do was ask. I would've helped you with the profile.

JERRY LAMANA: You don't know what it's like, Mulder.

MULDER: What what's like?

JERRY LAMANA: You heard about Atlanta?

MULDER: Yeah.

JERRY LAMANA: They got me on six month's probation. I got to file daily reports like some cherry-new agent.

MULDER: That was bad luck. That could have happened to anybody.

JERRY LAMANA: Not to you.

MULDER: Don't run yourself down, Jerry. You're a good agent. We did some good work together.

JERRY LAMANA: Let's face it. I was tagging along.

MULDER: That's not how it was.

JERRY LAMANA: How would you know, Mulder? You were too busy dazzling them up there on the high wire.

[Scully calls from the office.]

SCULLY: Mulder, take a look.

[Mulder nods for Lamana to follow, then goes back into the office, Lamana following him. Scully points to the equipment.]

SCULLY: We borrowed this from the voice biometrics lab at Georgetown. It's a computer spectrogram capable of identifying individual speech patterns. Now this is the recording the Central Operating System made of the phone call Drake received just before he died.

RECORDING: At the tone, eastern standard time will be 7:35 p.m.

SCULLY: And this we spliced together from a series of lectures Brad Wilczek gave at the Smithsonian last year.

338

RECORDING 2: At the tone, eastern standard time will be 7:35 p.m.

SCULLY: Now we'll stack them.

[She plays them together.]

JERRY LAMANA: You're saying this is the same person?

MULDER: I'm saying that both voices are Brad Wilczek's. He may have disguised his voice electronically, but he couldn't alter the form that is unique to his own speech patterns.

SCULLY: Which means that he was the one that killed Drake. He had the motive and the means. And now we have the physical evidence.

[She draws circles on the computer screen with a marker.]

SCULLY: Judge Benson lives in Washington Heights. I can get a warrant in less than an hour.

JERRY LAMANA: Someone has to make sure Wilczek stays put.

MULDER: I'll go with you.

JERRY LAMANA: No. Let me bring him in alone. I need this one, Mulder.

MULDER: All right.

[Jerry leaves, smiling.]

[Wilczek is at home, typing at computer.]

WILCZEK: Come on, come on. Let me in.

[Screen says "Access Denied."]

WILCZEK: Damn!

[Wilczek leaves his house and drives off in his classic sports car. On the street, Jerry starts his car and follows.]

[At the Eurisko building, Wilczek runs in past security cameras to the elevators.]

GUARD: Mr. Wilczek!

[In the elevator, a camera watches Wilczek.]

ELEVATOR: Going up. Second floor...Third floor...Fourth floor...

[Lamana enters the building.]

GUARD: Can I help you?

[Lamana shows his badge to the Guard.]

JERRY LAMANA: FBI.

339

[Wilczek enters the control room and begins typing. Screen shows "System access granted."]

COMPUTER: Welcome back, Brad.

[Wilczek talks as he continues typing.]

WILCZEK: You're not equipped with a voice synthesizer. What is my user level?

COMPUTER: That is now at the discretion of the Operating System.

[Lamana enters the elevator.]

ELEVATOR: Going up.

[It counts up floors. As it reaches the 16th floor, Wilczek notices the display from the elevator camera on a large monitor.]

WILCZEK: What are you doing?

COMPUTER: Sorry. Those commands are not available at your current user level. Try again.

[The 24th floor. Lamana checks his gun.]

WILCZEK: What are you doing!

COMPUTER: What are you doing!

[Wilczek tries to manually shut down the system. The elevator sticks between the 29th and 30th floors, repeating the numbers very quickly, then stops. The doors open to solid wall.]

JERRY LAMANA: Oh, man.

[The elevator camera focuses on Lamana.]

ELEVATOR: Going down.

[As the elevator goes into free fall, Lamana falls to the floor.]

WILCZEK: No!! Don't do this!

[The elevator crashes to the bottom. The screen goes blank. Wilczek is horrified.]

COMPUTER: Program executed.

[In the X-Files office, Mulder is watching the video of Lamana falling with the elevator and of Wilczek watching. Scully enters.]

SCULLY: I heard about Jerry. I'm sorry.

MULDER: I don't think Wilczek did it.

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: It doesn't make sense. Why would he go back to Eurisko?

SCULLY: To destroy evidence. To cover his tracks.

340

MULDER: If you were going to destroy evidence, would you pose for the cameras?

[He shows Scully the tape of Wilczek. Scully turns off the tape and kneels beside Mulder.]

SCULLY: Mulder, you've been through a lot – more than I think even you realize.

MULDER: I think Wilczek is smarter than this.

[He turns on the tape again. Scully takes a deep breath.]

SCULLY: He just signed a confession. How much proof do you need?

[Mulder drives up to Wilczek's house. Several men in suits are in the driveway.]

SUIT #1: Excuse me sir, this is a crime scene. You're going to have to leave.

MULDER: Yeah, I know.

[He shows his badge.]

MULDER: I ordered the subpoena.

SUIT #1: That subpoena's been obviated.

MULDER: What are you talking about?

SUIT #1: Unless you've got a code five clearance, I'm going to have to ask you to turn back.

[Mulder, obviously not having a code five clearance, gets back in his car and leaves.]

[Mulder on park bench. Deep Throat arrives and Mulder rises to walk with him.]

MULDER: Thanks for coming.

DEEP THROAT: I'm here against my better judgment. In the future I must insist that you respect the terms of our arrangement.

MULDER: I need to know why Brad Wilczek is the subject of a code five investigation. What the Defense Department wants with him.

DEEP THROAT: What do you think they'd want with the most innovative programmer in this hemisphere?

MULDER: Software.

DEEP THROAT: For years, Wilczek has thumbed his nose at any contract involving weapons applications. He's a bleeding heart.

MULDER: What kind of software?

DEEP THROAT: How much do you know about artificial intelligence?

MULDER: I thought it was only theoretical.

DEEP THROAT: It was, until two years ago. You remember Helsinki, the first time that a chess playing computer ever beat a Grand Master?

341

[Mulder nods.]

DEEP THROAT: That was Wilczek's program. And the rumor was that he did it by developing the first adaptive network.

MULDER: An adaptive network?

DEEP THROAT: It's a learning machine. A computer that actually thinks. And it's, ah, become something of a holy grail for some of our more acquisitive colleagues in the Department of Defense.

Federal Detention Center Washington, D.C.

WILCZEK: They make me wear shoes all the time. What else do you want from me?

MULDER: I want you to tell me why you're willing to spend the rest of your life in prison for a crime you didn't commit.

WILCZEK: What are you talking about? I'm guilty.

MULDER: I know you're innocent. You're protecting a machine – the Central Operating System at Eurisko.

WILCZEK: If I'm protecting anything, it's not the machine.

MULDER: Then what?

WILCZEK: After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - - Robert Oppenheimer spent the rest of his life regretting he'd ever glimpsed an atom.

MULDER: Oppenheimer may have regretted his actions but he never denied responsibility for them.

WILCZEK: He loved the work, Mr. Mulder. His mistake was in sharing it with an immoral government. I won't make the same mistake.

MULDER: But your machine killed Drake. And it killed my friend.

WILCZEK: I'm sorry about what happened. But there's nothing I can do.

MULDER: And you talk about morality. You're afraid of the government but you're willing to accept the risk that your machine will kill again.

WILCZEK: The lesser of two evils.

MULDER: What about a third option. You created that machine. Now you tell me how to destroy it.

[Outside.]

MULDER: Wilczek can create a virus that will destroy the system.

SCULLY: Mulder, don't you see, blaming the machine is an alibi, and a bad one.

MULDER: But it's the only thing that makes sense. The COS project was posting big losses for Eurisko and Drake was about to terminate the program.

SCULLY: So the machine killed Drake out of self-defense?

MULDER: Self-preservation. It's the primary instinct of all sentient beings.

342

SCULLY: Mulder, that level of artificial intelligence is decades away from being realized.

MULDER: Then why was our government trying to usurp Wilczek's research?

SCULLY:[pulling him aside] Mulder, I think you're looking for something that isn't there. And I think it has something to do with Jerry. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea if you talked to someone.

MULDER: You're probably right.

[He starts to leave.]

SCULLY: Where are you going?

MULDER: To talk to someone.

[Scully watches him leave]

[Later, a guard opens the door to Wilczek's cell. Mulder enters, opens his laptop.]

MULDER: How much time do you need?

[Scully's apartment. Scully is asleep in bed. The clock reads 1:31. The phone rings and Scully picks it up.]

SCULLY: Hello?

[Modem sounds are heard over the phone. Scully hangs up and runs to her computer which is displaying her files.]

SCULLY: Oh my God.

[She dials out on another line.]

SCULLY: This is Special Agent Dana Scully, ID number 2317-616. I need you to run a quick trace on a number for me. Yeah, 202-555-6431. Yeah, that's my number. Somebody's accessing my computer.

[Outside the Eurisko building. Night. Mulder opens his trunk, then turns to see Scully pulling up. License 3Y7-260.]

SCULLY: Mulder!

MULDER: Scully, what are you doing here?

SCULLY: Someone or something's been scanning my computer files. Tapping my phones. I traced the line. It came from somewhere in there.

MULDER: It's the machine.

SCULLY: How can we get in?

MULDER: You remember the Trojan Horse?

[He reaches into the trunk and pulls out VA license plate EURISKO. They drive up to a metal gate entrance to the parking deck. The computer scans the EURISKO plate. Green light PASS, and gate slides up.]

343

MULDER: [grinning] Open, Sesame!

[Scully is not amused. The computer watches them drive forward. When they are directly under the gate, a red and white bar stops them.]

MULDER: Oh, what the –

[They look up and see the gate with evil little spikes crashing down on top of the car.]

SCULLY: Mulder!

[The horn is blaring as Mulder and Scully crawl out the driver's side of the smashed car. Mulder opens the hood and pulls the plug on the horn.]

MULDER: So much for the element of surprise. What do you say we take the stairs?

[The computer watches them cross the garage. Mulder and Scully are in the stairwell.]

MULDER: 28 down, one to go.

[The lights go out.]

SCULLY: Oh, great. Mulder?

[Long pause. Mulder shines his flashlight at Scully.]

MULDER: Trick or treat.

[Scully sighs. Flashlight illuminates floor 29. The computer watches. Scully reaches for the doorknob.]

MULDER: No!

[He stops her.]

SCULLY: What are you doing?

MULDER: I don't want to make the same mistake Drake made.

[He takes insulated screwdriver out of his bag. When he touches it to the lock, whammo!!!! Huge flash, lots of sparks. Scully jumps back. Beeping sound starts. Mulder tries the door. It's still locked. He looks around and looks up at the security camera.]

MULDER: Who are you looking at?

[Camera POV as Mulder puts a glove over the lens. Mulder takes his flashlight and looks around, then up at a ceiling vent. Then looks down at Scully.]

[Scully, shoeless now, is boosted by Mulder into the vent.]

SCULLY: Unh....

MULDER: There should be a way for you to drop down and open the door.

[Scully crawls into an air duct tunnel and goes left.]

MULDER: [waiting, to himself] Come on, Scully.

[Scully crawls along the air duct. Air begins to blow. In the stairwell, the door beeps and buzzes.]

344

MULDER: Scully?

[The door opens.]

PETERSON: Agent Mulder? What are you doing here?

[Scully is in an increasingly windy duct. She has trouble crawling. Debris is flying. She is being pulled backwards by the air current.]

SCULLY: Ahhhhh!!!!!

[She grabs a corner, but slips. She is about to slide into a large spinning fan, but she catches another corner. She accidentally drops her flashlight which falls into the fan knocking off a fan blade.]

[Mulder and Peterson enter the COS control room.]

PETERSON: The machine's been acting all crazy. Power surges, shut offs. That's why I'm here so late.

MULDER: Where's the B port?

PETERSON: Oh, it's right back here.

[He opens console. Mulder gets a tool out of his bag.]

PETERSON: Look, are you sure you know what you're doing? Because if you don't, it's my job on the line.

[Mulder attaches an electronic device to console. The screen reads Access Denied.]

MULDER: Damn.

[Scully, in the wind tunnel, pulls out her gun and begins shooting at the fan. Two more blades down.]

[Mulder tries again. Screen reads Begin Algorithm Code Program.]

COMPUTER: System access granted.

[Mulder claps his hands together and runs to keyboard.]

COMPUTER: User code level seven.

MULDER: Now I can put in the virus.

[Peterson aims a gun at Mulder.]

PETERSON: Not bad, Agent Mulder. You know, I've been trying to access the CPU for the past two years. Now please, take out your gun and remove the clip.

[Mulder sighs, and obeys.]

PETERSON: Careful.

MULDER: Defense Department?

PETERSON: Lets just say our paychecks are signed by the same person. Now give me the diskette and step away from the console.

[Mulder doesn't move.]

345

PETERSON: You don't want to test my resolve, Agent Mulder.

[Mulder hands him the diskette.]

[A very windblown Scully opens the door, pointing her gun at Peterson with a 'don't mess with me' attitude].]

SCULLY: Put down the gun.

PETERSON: Look, you may think you know what you're dealing with -

SCULLY: Shut up and drop the gun.

[Peterson sets down his gun.]

PETERSON: You're making a mistake, Agent Scully. Compromising your sworn duty. This operation is more sensitive than you can possibly imagine.

MULDER: Don't listen to him.

PETERSON: The technology in this machine is of enormous scientific interest.

MULDER: The machine's a monster, Scully. It's already killed two people. They won't be able to handle it any better than Wilczek did.

PETERSON: Make no mistake ..... You will be held accountable.

[Scully pauses.]

SCULLY: Mulder, put in the disc.

[Mulder puts in the disc. Doesn't have to push enter or anything. Hmmm]

COMPUTER: What are you doing, Brad? Don't do this, Brad.

[Gibberish. Screen fills with gibberish also. Elevator doors open and close, cameras swing back and forth.]

COMPUTER: Brad....Brad....Why?

[Mulder and Scully look relieved. All the lights come back on in the building.]

[Next day. Mulder and Deep Throat are sat on a park bench.]

MULDER: I checked with Congressman Klebanon and the Department of Corrections Subcommittee. I even petitioned the Attorney General's office.

DEEP THROAT: You won't find him.

MULDER: They can't just take a man like Brad Wilczek without an explanation.

DEEP THROAT: They can do anything they want.

MULDER: Where is he?

DEEP THROAT: In the middle of what we in the trade call "hard bargaining."

346

MULDER: Wilczek won't deal. He'll never work for them.

DEEP THROAT: Loss of freedom does funny things to a man, and remember, Wilczek confessed to two murders, and you effectively destroyed the only evidence that could have exonerated him.

MULDER: What else could I have done?

DEEP THROAT: Nothing... Unless you were willing to let the technology survive.

MULDER: The Department of Defense still hasn't found anything?

DEEP THROAT: They've been on it for five days. Wilczek's virus was thorough. It left no trace of the artificial intelligence. The machine is dead.

[Deep Throat rises and leaves.]

[Eurisko computer lab.]

PETERSON: [on phone] We've pushed the pulse code modulations to the limit. Nothing.

[Techies carrying around pieces of computer.]

PETERSON: [on phone] We've combed the parsing subroutine. Yes, sir. Twice. No, sir. Still nothing. But I'd like to request .... Yes, sir. No, I understand. Yes, sir.

[He hangs up.]

PETERSON: Well, six more hours before we have to consign the whole damn thing to the metal shredder.

TECH: We'll do what we can, sir.

[Behind Peterson, a light comes on, a camera looks at Peterson.]

PETERSON: [Camera POV] I'm going to figure this thing out if it kills me.

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest starring:

Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat) Rob LaBelle (Brad Wilczek) Wayne Duvall (Jerry Lamana) Blu Mankuma (Claude Peterson)

Featuring:

Tom Butler (Drake) Gillian Barber (Jane Spiller) Marc Baur (Man in Suit) Bill Finck (Sandwich Man) Theodore Thomas (Clyde)

347

1x06 Ghost in the Machine - notes From "X-Files Confidential": "My least favorite episode," offers Howard Gordon, who co-wrote the script with Alex Gansa. "I think Chris Carter and I argued what the worst episode of the first season was. Alex and I contend that it was 'Ghost in the Machine', and Chris insists it was 'Space'. This is easily and clearly our worst. It's basically uninteresting. Some of the concepts may have been interesting, maybe the idea of artificial intelligence. But it's an old idea. There may have been a more interesting way of doing it." Glen Morgan agrees. "I think parts of the episode worked. What maybe fell a little flat is that we were a little too afraid of doing HAL [from 2001] and, in a sense, I think that's what the building needed: to have a scary personality. I think we could have given the building a little bit more of a mean-spirited personality to get it away from HAL. HAL, even when he was being dismantled, was very soft-spoken and was never angry. There's a line between something being an influence and just taking an idea. I don't think we've taken. At least I hope we haven't." "It had some neat stuff at the end," James Wong adds, "although I think the ending was a little unsatisfying to me visually, as well as in terms of how Mulder comes to dismember the machine. It was either a little too easy or maybe we could have thought of something more fun to do with the machine. Actually the script was a lot more fun, but it ran into production problems in terms of the budget and we had to devise something that was a little more straightforward. They reprised some of the elevator stuff and it was just a lot more complicated. Overall a fun episode." One major supporter of 'Ghost in the Machine' is Chris Carter, who thought the script effectively addressed the question of just what made up an X-File. "It doesn't have to be paranormal," he notes. "In this case it's technology run amok. X-Files involve lots of different scientific and technological and natural anomalies, and this is just another case of that. I think the action scenes and the abduction of Scully were great. A very successful episode on many levels. Some people didn't think so, but I did. There are some computer buffs who question a few things we had done. Maybe they have some valid arguments, but I think as a dramatic piece it was strong and good." One difficult aspect of the episode, according to Robert Goodwin, is the fact that the story is told primarily from the point of view of the computer that has taken over the building. "It's almost like we were shooting two different shows," Goodwin says, "because in any given scene you're showing two or three monitors which show something different happening. So you're spending forever prefilming a scene, transferring it over to video, and playing it back over the monitor. It was a very complex show. Jerry Freedman directed that. If you didn't have a good strong director with a lot of years of technique behind him, that could have easily been brought to its knees." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Crystal City, Virginia Back story: producer Howard Gordon, who wrote the episode with partner Alex Gansa, says 'Ghost in the Machine' still qualifies as "one of my biggest disappointments", feeling that the computer intelligence wasn't as well-defined as it needs to be compared to predecessors like those in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Demon Seed. "Fox felt it was a bit too pedestrian to be an X-File," says Gordon, who tends to be rather harsh when it comes to grading his own episodes, "and it was one of those instances where I'd have to agree with them." The show does feature a striking visual sequence involving Scully and a vacuum-sucking fan that was, in fact, a last-minute addition when the originally scripted action involving an elevator shaft was deemed too expensive. The spinning fan blades "looked good," Gordon says, "and it was a helluva lot cheaper." Guest star Wayne Duvall is the nephew of actor Robert Duvall. For numerically minded fans, Scully's phone number is given as (202) 555-6431 – 555 being the standard prefix used in movies and television shows, since it isn't used by the phone company and thus prevents people from receiving crank calls. X-Files In-Jokes * The name Crystal City is an allusion to Silicon Valley (although there is a real Crystal City in southern Washington D.C./Virginia) * The name of the company, Eurisko, is also the name of a famous artificial intelligence program at Stanford-one which attempts to think like a human. The program also won a war game contest, beating all human opponents. * Title - is a phrase coined by the philosopher Descartes as a way to explain consciousness. The ghost is our soul, the machine our bodies.

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- The episode title comes from a phrase coined by Descartes as a way to explain consciousness: "The ghost is our soul, the machine our bodies."

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-- "Ghost in the Machine" was also used by philosopher Gilbert Ryle in his 1949 article attacking Cartesian dualism - the idea that our body is a kind of robot haunted by a spirit or ghost (our mind). Arthur Koestler wrote a book in which he defended the dualist position titled "Ghost in the Machine" during the 1960's. Interestingly enough, Ryle also argued that all phenomena can be explained if you know enough physics.

-- Producer Howard Gordon, who wrote the episode with partner Alex Gansa, said "Ghost in the Machine" was "one of my biggest disappointments," feeling that the computer intelligence wasn't as well-defined as it needed to be compared to predecessors like those in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Demon Seed. "Fox felt it was a bit too pedestrian to be an X-File," said Gordon, who tends to be rather harsh when it comes to grading his own episodes, "and it was one of those instances where I'd have to agree with them."

-- Jerold Freedman also directed "Born Again."

-- The name of the company, Eurisko, is also the name of a famous artificial intelligence program at Stanford -- one which attempts to think like a human. The program also won a war game contest, beating all human opponents.

-- "Ghost in the Machine" begins an X-Files tradition: It's the first episode to feature something bad happening to someone (getting killed) in the bathroom.

-- Guest actor Wayne Duvall (Jerry Lamana) is the nephew of actor Robert Duvall. He was a regular on the CBS series The District and appeared in the films O Brother, Where Art Thou? with George Clooney and Evolution with David Duchovny.

-- "Ghost in the Machine" features one of the more memorable bloopers from the Season 1 gag reel. It features Mulder and Scully in an elevator .... and well, let's just say that while the elevator was going up, something else was going down. So to speak.

-- Scully's home phone number is given as 202-555-6431, 555 being the standard prefix used in movies and television shows since it isn't used by the phone company and thus prevents people from receiving crank calls. It was widely thought that Scully lived in Annapolis during that first season, but a 202 area code on her home phone/computer (as well as the computer indicating "District of Columbia Phone Search") would make her home in D.C.

-- The time stamps are a bit unreliable in this episode. It appears to be nearing Halloween, as Jerry snags some candy from an office plastic pumpkin and Scully enters her field journal entry on October 24, 1993. However, when the Computer Operating System (COS) accesses the file, the date stamp is September 16, 1993.

-- Quite amusing that Scully takes a pen and draws on the computer screen to illustrate her point. Even more amusing that you can see other circles visible on the screen to the left, indicating there were a few takes before the one used.

-- In "Ghost in the Machine" we learned it's dangerous to go to the bathroom on The X-Files. We also received our first warning that it's dangerous to be a friend, relative, ex-lover, ex-partner, mentor, protégé, co-worker, dog, acquaintance, etc., etc., of one of our heroes, as that's a sure way to find yourself expendable. Mulder's ex-partner Jerry is the first of many to meet an unfortunate end.

-- The character of Deep Throat was supposed to be a one-time guest shot, but the producers liked the character so much that Jerry Hardin was brought back to play Mulder's informant again. In his second appearance, we learn that Deep Throat and Mulder have made some sort of "arrangement" regarding the sharing of information and that Deep Throat has major connections within the Defense Department.

-- Scully falls asleep reading the book "Obstacle Course" by J.F. Freedman. It is a coming of age story about a youthful foulmouthed sex obsessed teen boy in Annapolis who likes to sneak out to the Naval Academy obstacle course.

-- Oopsie! Scully picks up the phone to call for a trace when her computer is being broken into, but theoretically, her phone line should also be tied up by the computer. Okay, so perhaps she has two phone lines, but why would her computer hookup be on her main phone line?

-- Scully gives her FBI ID Number as "2317-616." 616 is the area code for Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Gillian Anderson went to high school.

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-- 29 flights of stairs and they're barely even breathing hard. Those kids are in great shape!

-- The vacuum-sucking fan that Scully battled was, in fact, a last-minute addition when the originally scripted action involving an elevator shaft was deemed too expensive. The spinning fan blades "looked good," said Gordon, "and it was a helluva lot cheaper."

-- Scully uses her gun for the first time in this episode. She uses it to shut down the fan motor in the vent shaft.

-- "Ghost in the Machine" also offers an important moment early in the partnership where Scully disobeys authority to side with Mulder, despite threats to hold her accountable. It's one more step on the journey from company spy to trusted partner.

-- The computer "voice" is a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's very similar to the voice of the computer in the film, and a line near the end (after Mulder loads the virus) is very similar to a line in the movie ("What are you doing, Brad?" -- "Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?").

-- Once & Future Retreads: Blu Mankuma (Claude Peterson) was Detective Pennock in "Mind's Eye." Tom Butler (Benjamin Drake) was CIA Agent Ambrose Chapel in "Colony." Gillian Barber (Agent Nancy Spiller otherwise known as the "Iron Maiden") was Beth Kane in "Red Museum" and Penny Northern in "Nisei" and "Memento Mori." Mark Baur (Man in Suit) was Agent Brisentine in "The Host" and Matlock (an uncredited role) in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man."

1x07 Ice - transcript

Writers: Glen Morgan and James Wong Director: David Nutter Original airdate: 5 November 1993

Transcribed by: Vic Edited by Libby

Arctic Ice Core Project Icy Cape, Alaska 250 Miles North Of The Arctic Circle

[A large installation is ravaged by a harsh snowstorm. The temperature is forty below, and the time is 8:29. A dog pulls his head out of a barrel, whimpers and starts walking. As he walks, we see the room is a mess and there is a dead man on the floor. He continues whimpering and turns a corner, walking under a hand of another dead man. A rugged looking man, John Richter, knocks over a box, gun in hand, shot in the leg. He has two wounds across his chest, one on each pec, and they are bleeding heavily. His breathing is heavy as he stops and looks around. Richter walks over to a console and flips a few switches, turning machines on. He turns on a video camera and a light and sits down.]

RICHTER: We're not... who... we are. We're not... who we are. It goes no further than this. It stops right here... right now.

[Suddenly, another man, Campbell, comes up from behind up, puts his arm around Richter's neck and pulls him off his chair. The two men grunt as Richter slams the man into the wall behind him. Campbell is obviously insane, his eyes gleaming as he rams Richter into a sheet of metal on the far wall. Richter spins around and knocks him into a cabinet. He grabs the man's wrist and slams it twice into the upper corner of the cabinet, forcing him to release the gun he was holding. He pushes his face away but Campbell punches him in the gut. Richter grabs him by the throat, slams him into the cabinet, then shoves him through a glass pane. Richter punches him, stands up, limps back towards the console and takes his gun off the counter. He aims it at Campbell, who walks back in, gun aimed directly at Richter. They walk towards each other until the nozzles are only about an inch or two away from the other's face. There is a pause as they measure each other up. Richter slowly lowers his gun. Campbell, perplexed, does the same. Richter slowly brings the gun up to his own head. Campbell follows course. Outside the bunker, we hear two shots ring out.]

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[On a TV, static comes up followed by a short screen patch. A video comes on of five men around a beer keg. A few of them are holding beers. One of the men is Richter; another is Campbell.]

RICHTER: Team Captain John Richter here. It's been a couple of frustrating months but after a great deal of stick-with-it-ness, we're very proud to report that as of a half-hour ago, we surpassed the previous record for drilling down into an ice sheet.

CAMPBELL: All right!

[The men high five and shake hands. The tape is paused. We zoom out to see that Mulder is showing Scully the tape. He is sitting in front of the monitor as she is standing behind his desk, looking at a file.]

MULDER: This team of scientists made up the Arctic Ice Core Project. They were sent to Alaska by the government's Advanced Research Project Agency nearly a year ago to drill into the arctic ice.

[He stands and tears a paper from a printer as she sits down.]

MULDER: The samples they removed contained trapped gases, dust, chemicals... evidence that could reveal the structure of the earth's climate back to the dawn of man. Their work was a success, nearly completed. No reports or indications of problems of any kind until only a week later, this next transmission was received.

[He presses a button on the remote control. On the monitor, a blue screen comes up with the following:

AICP Arctic Ice Core Project Transmission Received: November 5, 1993 8:30 AM AST Richter is sitting at the chair, as before. We are looking from the camera's POV and he is much closer. We can only see the left side of his face.]

RICHTER: We're not... who... we are. We're not... who we are. It goes no further than this. It stops... right here... right now.

[Scully watches, wide-eyed. The man rushes and pulls him off as the transmission breaks into static.]

SCULLY: What happened up there?

[He presses another button on the remote and kneels down next to her.]

MULDER: So far, nobody's been able to reach to reach the compound because of bad weather. Obviously, they think we're either brilliant or expendable because we've pulled the assignment.

SCULLY: Is it severe isolation distress?

MULDER: These were top geophysicists. They were trained and screened for this project in every way imaginable, including psychological makeup. We leave for Nome today.

[He stands and goes to a map. She follows. He traces his finger from Nome to the Icy Cape.]

MULDER: We'll meet with three scientists familiar with the ice core project then head north up to the Icy Cape. The National Weather Service reports a three-day window to get in and out before the next arctic storm. Bring your mittens.

[He walks out behind her.]

Doolittle Airfield Nome, Alaska

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[Men load a plane full of cargo as a man, Prof. Danny Murphy, sits and listens to his walkman in the back near the hangar door, sitting on a crate.]

RADIO ANNOUNCER: Fouts looks over the Raiders' defense... here's the snap. Raiders blitz! Fouts dumps it across the middle to Winslow! He's at the 15! The 10! Touchdown San Diego!

[The man stands and laughs giddily.]

MURPHY: Touchdown! Fouts... is... God!

[He spins around and stops, having noticed Mulder and Scully walking towards him. He pulls out the earphones and turns back to them.]

MURPHY: Sorry. My team scored.

SCULLY: There's no football on Wednesday.

[Mulder puts down his bag.]

MULDER: Fouts retired in '87, didn't he?

MURPHY: No, this is just some of my all-time favorite plays on tape. You two F.B.I.?

MULDER: Agent Mulder and Agent Scully, you?

[Mulder points to himself, then to Scully, then shakes the man's hand.]

MURPHY: Danny Murphy, professor of geology at U. C. San Diego.

MULDER: San Diego? You get much of a chance to study ice down there?

MURPHY: Just what's around the keg.

[Mulder laughs. A man, Hodge, and a woman, DaSilva, walk towards them. The man is pushing some equipment on a roller.]

SCULLY: Dr. DaSilva, Dr. Hodge?

HODGE: Yeah, sorry we're late.

[Hodge shakes hands with Mulder, then Scully, then Murphy. DaSilva does the same.]

SCULLY: Hi, Agent Mulder, Agent Scully...

MULDER: Mulder, nice to meet you.

HODGE: How're you doing, Mister Mulder?

MULDER: Hi.

HODGE: Can I see some identification?

MULDER: What for?

HODGE: I just want to make sure we are who we say we are.

[They all take out their ID. Hodge shows his to Murphy, DaSilva shows hers to the agents.]

HODGE: That's me.

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MURPHY: That's you. [showing ID to him] It's me.

HODGE: It's you.

MULDER: [Showing it to Hodge] It's me!

HODGE: Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

MULDER: [looking at DaSilva's ID] It's you.

HODGE: Well, now that we know who we are, anybody care to take a guess as to why we're going?

MURPHY: Well, two federal agents, a geologist, a medical doctor and a toxicologist. That should give us some idea what they're thinking.

SCULLY: I assume you all took a look at the tape.

[DaSilva and Hodge look at each other.]

MULDER: Something wrong?

DASILVA: Come on, you're F.B.I. You have to know more than we do.

[Loud music blares from a jeep that pulls up. A man named Bear gets out of the car and goes around to the back.]

BEAR: You folks the ones going up to Icy Cape?

MULDER: Yeah.

BEAR: Then I'm the one flying you. My name's Bear. The plane's across the way, provisions are loaded. Grab your gear.

[He takes a bag out and starts walking.]

HODGE: Oh, could we see some credentials?

[Bear stops, laughs and walks back over to Hodge.]

BEAR: Credentials. The only credentials that I have is that I'm the only pilot willing to fly you up there. You don't like those credentials... walk.

[Bear continues walking. Murphy and Mulder laugh to themselves as they collect their gear. We see the plane flying past mountains.]

Arctic Ice Core Project Icy Cape, Alaska

[Mulder opens the door and the rest follow in, all carrying flashlights and wearing parkas. They look down to see Richter and the insane man lying on the ground, dead, guns near them.]

MULDER: Bear? See if you can get the power started.

BEAR: Anything to get out of here.

[He walks towards the back.]

SCULLY: Where do we start?

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HODGE: Body bags are on the plane.

MULDER: Before we touch anything, we have to thoroughly document the site.

[They start off towards the back. Scully takes out her camera.]

SCULLY: Flashing.

[She takes a picture. Mulder opens up a cabinet that says "Ice Cores 3,175 - 3,260". Inside there are piles of ice inside containers. The ice is melting. Murphy walks up behind him.]

MULDER: That's what they were drilling for. Quarter of a million years melting away in a couple of days.

MURPHY: I want to preserve some samples.

[He reaches in and takes a container. We hear the camera going off in the bathroom. DaSilva opens up a door and is startled to hear a bang and some rumbling. Mulder walks up to her.]

MULDER: It's the generator.

DASILVA: Oh.

[They walk in. The lights turn on and a growling is heard. DaSilva turns around and sees the dog.]

DASILVA: Agent Mulder! Look out!

[The dog jumps on Mulder, attacking him. Bear, Murphy and Hodge all run in. Mulder struggles to his feet but is knocked down again. Bear runs over and grabs the dog as Scully runs in.]

BEAR: Hold on.

[The dog knocks Bear down and bites his hand, breaking the skin. Mulder takes a coat and wraps it around the dog's head as Hodge gets a needle.]

HODGE: Hold it down!

[Hodge runs over and injects the dog with the needle. The dog whimpers as Bear applies pressure to the wound. Murphy, Mulder and DaSilva put the dog up on the table.]

SCULLY: You okay?

MULDER: Yeah, he didn't break the skin. Bear, you okay?

BEAR: He got me.

HODGE: Take that jacket off.

BEAR: Just give me the stuff, I'll do it myself.

DASILVA: Is it rabies?

[Hodge goes over to the dog. Scully looks at the dog's leg.]

HODGE: I don't see any indication of glottal spasm or tetany. If it is rabies, it's certainly not a strain I'm familiar with.

[He lifts the paw up to reveal black spots on the sweat nodes.]

SCULLY: Look at this. Black nodules. Swollen lymph nodes.

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DASILVA: Symptoms of the bubonic plague.

HODGE: I'll do a blood test, we'll take it from that.

[Hodge walks away. Scully moves away some hair to reveal a place on the skin that had been irritated, hair torn off.]

SCULLY: This dog has got a skin irritation on its neck.

MURPHY: It looks like it's been scratching off its own hair.

[A bump moves down across the part under the skin.]

SCULLY: Look at this, look at this!

[Hodge runs over to look. The bump recedes back away from view.]

MURPHY: What the hell was that?

[They all look at each other. In the bathroom, Bear finishes taping up the wound. He keels over in pain, holding his stomach and sits down on the toilet. He takes off his shirt and looks in the mirror. Under his arm are the same black nodules as the dog had. Scully stands up, writing on her notes. She walks towards Mulder.]

SCULLY: From the autopsies, it's clear that these men killed each other. There are contusions around the throat areas of three men, evidence of strangulation.

[Mulder nods. Bear starts listening.]

SCULLY: Richter and Campbell killed themselves. I also found tissue damage due to fever.

BEAR: Did any of them have the black spots that the dog had?

SCULLY: No. None of them had the black nodules.

BEAR: So, uh, those spots didn't have anything to do with those guys killing each other, right?

[Hodge walks in.]

HODGE: I wouldn't rule it out. I just reexamined the dog. The nodules are gone.

MULDER: What could that mean?

HODGE: Well, it could mean that the spots are a symptom of some disease at an early stage.

[Hodge, Mulder and Scully walk over to the lab. Bear starts dragging out the bodies, now in bodybags. DaSilva walks over to the counter and picks up one of the guns, which is in an evidence bag. She moves it on top of a few other bags and picks up a clipboard. Mulder picks up a few clipboards around another table until he finds a folder. Written on the folder is "We are not who we are" three times, and then it is written twice in big letters.]

MULDER: Danny?

[He walks over to Murphy, who is looking at a paper, pen in mouth and listening to his tape player.]

MULDER: Danny.

[He waves his hand in front of Murphy's face, who is startled. He takes out his earphones.]

MURPHY: Sorry. The play-off game against Miami, '82. Helps to get my mind off stuff.

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MULDER: My interpretation of satellite remote sensing photos is a little rusty.

[He shows Murphy an overhead picture of a vast arctic landscape.]

MURPHY: All right, this is the Icy Cape area. It approximates the depth of the ice sheet to be about 3,000 meters thick.

[Mulder shows him another folder.]

MULDER: I also found this data and if I'm reading it correctly, the team actually found the ice sheet to be twice that depth.

MURPHY: That's very good. The numbers indicate the topography to be concave. Looks like they were drilling inside a meteor crater.

[Hodge and Scully are sitting at a desk, microscope in front of them.]

HODGE: No, you're wrong. That's impossible.

SCULLY: I analyzed two samples.

[Mulder walks over.]

MULDER: What'd you find?

SCULLY: There seems to be a presence of ammonium hydroxide in Richter's blood sample.

[DaSilva walks in and over.]

HODGE: It's not possible. Ammonia would vaporize at human body temperature.

DASILVA: I checked all the air filtration systems. I found no evidence of any such toxins.

[Murphy stands.]

MURPHY: I have.

[They all look back at him.]

MURPHY: In the ice. And that's not all there is.

[He motions for Mulder to come back to his desk as he takes off his coat. Bear walks in and stands at the doorway.]

MURPHY: I found a high ratio of ammonia to water in the ice core. The earth's atmosphere could never have produced such high levels, not even a quarter of a million years ago. Look in the scope.

[Scully walks over as Mulder looks into the scope.]

MULDER: Unless a foreign object was introduced into that environment.

MURPHY: Tell me that's not a foreign object.

[A small, skeletal shaped worm moves around inside the sample.]

MULDER: Holy... Scully.

[He motions to Scully, who looks in the scope. Bear walks to the desk.]

SCULLY: That same thing is in Richter's blood.

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[She walks over to her microscope.]

SCULLY: What if that single-celled organism is the larval stage of a larger animal?

[Hodge looks up from his microscope and walks over.]

HODGE: That's kind of a leap, don't you think?

[Mulder looks into the scope.]

SCULLY: The evidence is there.

MURPHY: Maybe the organism in the ice core somehow got into the men.

DASILVA: Come on, nothing can survive in sub-zero temperatures for a quarter of a million years.

MULDER: Unless that's how it lives.

[Bear walks over.]

BEAR: Look-it, I don't see why you're squabbling over some bug. You said it yourself, Scully, your autopsy found those men killed each other. That's it. Now I say, let's just get the hell out of here.

HODGE: I agree. We can have the bodies sent to a facility where they can make a definitive diagnosis in the event that something was missed, Agent Scully.

MULDER: If those bodies are infected with an unknown organism, we can't take them back. We can't go back without proper quarantine procedures. We can't risk bringing back the next plague.

BEAR: Let's say you're right, they came down with something. We haven't and I ain't waiting around until we do.

[Bear starts out, but turns back when he hears Hodge.]

HODGE: I think it's safe to go back. There's no reason why we'd be infected. We've taken all the necessary biological safeguards.

DASILVA: The dog did bite Bear.

BEAR: It jumped Mulder too!

[Bear comes back and tries to get in Mulder's face, but DaSilva gets between them.]

MULDER: It didn't break the skin.

SCULLY: Hey, look, there's only one way to proceed. A good doctor eliminates every possibility. We must determine if any of us is infected.

[There is an uncomfortable pause.]

HODGE: All right, parasitic diagnostic procedure requires that each of us provide a blood and a stool sample.

BEAR: A stool sample?

MURPHY: Well, this kind of travel always makes that kind of tough ... for me.

[Scully puts some jars down on the counter.]

357

MULDER: Okay, anyone got the morning sports section handy?

[Bear picks up a jar.]

BEAR: I ain't dropping my cargo for no one.

[He throws the jar into the far wall. It shatters and DaSilva lets out a little yelp.]

BEAR: What I'm doing is getting my gear, getting my plane and flying the hell out of here.

[He starts out.]

MULDER: You can't go, the dog bit you.

[Bear turns around and gets in his face.]

BEAR: I got hired to fly you up here and fly you back. No one said this might be part of the deal. So the deal is over.

[Bear walks out.]

SCULLY: We can't let him leave without him being checked.

DASILVA: Who's going to stop him?

MULDER: We have to. We can't risk infecting the population.

DASILVA: He gets on that plane, I'm gonna be on it with him.

SCULLY: Well, we don't have time to argue about it.

MULDER: Take a vote. Whoever believes we should confine Bear until he agrees to an examination?

[Mulder, Scully and Murphy raise their hands.]

MULDER: All right.

[Mulder takes out his gun as Bear walks in carrying two bags.]

MULDER: Bear, we just want to check you out. If we don't find any trace of the parasite or the virus, we'll all go.

[They all look at Bear. He pauses, looks at Mulder's gun, and walks over to the desk.]

BEAR: All right, give me the damn jar.

[He picks up the jar. Mulder starts to put the gun away as Bear breaks the jar over his head. Mulder screams a bit. Bear starts to run but Scully tackles him. Mulder runs over to help hold him down as the rest watch.]

MULDER: Murphy, get a rope!

MURPHY: Right.

[Murphy goes off to get a rope. Bear grunts repeatedly and heavily as Mulder picks him up and slams his head down on the counter, shoving off the glasses and papers with his head. Murphy runs back and gives him the rope.]

MURPHY: Here!

[Mulder starts to tie him up as Bear starts spasming. DaSilva notices the little bump in his neck, moving around.]

358

DASILVA: Oh my God... oh!

HODGE: Get my bag!

SCULLY: What are you gonna do?

[Murphy holds Bear's head down as DaSilva comes back with the bag.]

HODGE: Scalpel, I'm cutting it out.

MULDER: We don't know enough about it!

HODGE: It's killing him!

[Bear starts spasming harder.]

HODGE: Scully, help me hold the skin.

[Mulder looks closer as Scully puts on gloves and holds the skin apart. DaSilva places tools on the desk.]

HODGE: Hold still, Bear!

[Bear screams as the scalpel goes in.]

HODGE: Forceps!

[DaSilva hands him the forceps.]

HODGE: Hold still, Bear, just another second. You're gonna be okay.

[Mulder looks on, disgusted, as Hodge starts to pull the worm out of his neck. Hodge pulls at the worm, which has attached itself to some muscle. Bear moans as the worm is ripped off. Mulder runs to the next counter. The worm starts spurting black drops on Bear's neck. DaSilva coughs as Mulder comes back with a jar, which Hodge puts the worm in. Mulder closes the lid and hands it to Murphy. He walks over to the radio and turns it on.]

MULDER: This is the A.I.C.P. Investigative Team calling Doolittle Airfield, come in.

RADIO: D.A.F. responding.

MULDER: This is Agent Mulder, we have a serious biological hazard. Request air pick-up and quarantine procedures, over.

[Static.]

MULDER: Come in, Doolittle Airfield.

RADIO: We copy, Agent Mulder. This area is under a heavy storm and no aircraft can get out for the next day. Maybe the military base in Kotzebue can set up a quarantine. Advise immediate evacuation, the arctic storm is bearing in your direction, over.

MULDER: We were told we would have three clear days of weather, over.

RADIO: Welcome to the top of the world, Agent Mulder. Over.

[Mulder walks back over to them.]

MULDER: Is Bear in any condition to fly? We don't get out in an hour, we don't get out for days.

[Scully and Hodge look at each other. They are wiping the blood off their hands. Scully looks back at Mulder.]

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SCULLY: He's dead.

[Mulder walks over to Bear, still slumped over the table. Blood is on the table as well as the jar with the worm inside it.]

[Later, the jar is now filled with ammonia and the worm swims around inside.]

HODGE: Well, it's similar to a tapeworm in that it has a scolex with suckers and hooks.

MURPHY: So then it's familiar? Something you can deal with?

[The jar is inside a freezer. Hodge closes the freezer door as Murphy and DaSilva stand behind him.]

DASILVA: What?

HODGE: No. Very different from any organism, at least that I know of.

[Hodge walks over to Mulder, who's sitting at a desk.]

MULDER: Have you figured out how it's transmitted yet?

HODGE: Exchange of fluids, touch, air, all of the above? I don't know.

[Scully walks in holding another jar.]

SCULLY: All of the other dead bodies had the creature. This is the only one that's still alive.

[They all walk over to the counter.]

MULDER: Were they all in the spine?

SCULLY: No. It appears that they were in the hypothalamus gland deep in the brain.

[She sets the jar down and fills it with ammonia.]

MURPHY: Hypothalamus... what was that again?

SCULLY: It's a gland that secretes hormones although I don't know why a parasite would want to attach to it.

[She puts the jar into the freezer and takes off her coat. She walks over to the counter as Hodge starts walking to the freezer.]

HODGE: Hypothalamus releases acetylcholine, which produces violent, aggressive behavior. That might be a connection. See, everybody that's been infected certainly seems to act aggressively. Maybe the worm feeds on the acetylcholine which floods our capacity to control violent behavior.

SCULLY: Well, a parasite shouldn't want to kill its host.

HODGE: It doesn't kill you until it's extracted. Then it releases a poison.

MULDER: You're saying it's possible that the worm makes you want to kill other people, which is maybe what happened to the first team.

DASILVA: Or what could happen to us.

HODGE: Well, it's just a theory. We don't have any definite proof.

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MURPHY: Except five dead men.

SCULLY: If the worm makes people violently aggressive then why did Richter and Campbell kill themselves?

MULDER: Maybe they did it to save us.

[Mulder walks off. There is an uncomfortable pause.]

[As the storm ravages the base, Scully checks the bodies. She zips up the bodybag as Mulder walks in, startling her.]

SCULLY: I'm just, uh... double-checking. Making sure I didn't miss anything.

MULDER: Just some sleep, huh?

SCULLY: Sleep. I'm so tired I can't sleep.

MULDER: We're all wired and hypersensitive, it'll be good to get a fresh start in the morning.

SCULLY: Mulder, I don't want to waste a second trying to find a way to kill this thing.

[She starts out.]

MULDER: I don't know if we should kill it.

[She turns back, shocked.]

MULDER: This area of the ice sheet was formed over a meteor crater. The worm lives in ammonia. It survives sub-zero temperatures. Theorists in alternative life-designs believe in ammonia-supported life systems on planets with freezing temperatures.

SCULLY: No.

MULDER: The meteor that crashed here a quarter of a million years ago may have carried that type of life to earth.

SCULLY: Mulder, that pilot developed surface symptoms within a few minutes. Within a few hours, that parasite had total control. What would happen if this got into the population? A city the size of New York could be infected within a few days.

MULDER: Exactly. But what do we know about it? This organism might be lying dormant in another crater.

SCULLY: Mulder, if we don't kill it now, we run the risk of becoming Richter and Campbell with guns to our heads.

MULDER: But if we do kill it now, we may never know how to stop it or anything like it in the future.

[In the laboratory, Murphy puts on his earphones and works. Hodge and DaSilva stand around listening to Scully and Mulder, who can be heard yelling mostly unintelligibly in the background.]

SCULLY: Future? Mulder, how can you talk about the future when right now, there's... [trails off unintelligibly] ...or anyone has the right to?

MULDER: Do we have the right to destroy an organism which can provide...

DASILVA: Tell me it's hot in here.

HODGE: Don't worry, you don't have a fever. The heating system's malfunctioning. Outside, it's forty below and in here it's sweltering.

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DASILVA: Can you hear what they're arguing about?

[Hodge sits down as DaSilva takes off her coat.]

HODGE: They're probably discussing their little government secrets.

DASILVA: You think they knew it was up here before we arrived?

HODGE: I'm sure of it.

SCULLY: ...about them posing a biological hazard!

HODGE: You know, Bear's infected blood did get on Scully.

DASILVA: It also got on you.

[They get up and walk towards the back. Mulder and Scully charge into another room.]

MULDER: How do you know it can't be contained?

SCULLY: It can! By extermination, we should take those bodies, worms and all, outside and incinerate them!

[Hodge, Murphy and DaSilva walk in.]

HODGE: Something going on we should know about? Agent Scully, you all right?

SCULLY: Yes, I'm fine. It's nothing.

HODGE: You seem a little bit stressed out.

[Scully nods until she understands what Hodge is insinuating.]

SCULLY: What the hell are you trying to say?

[She goes to get in Hodge's face when Mulder gets between them.]

MULDER: Let's all just settle down, it's been a long hard day. We're all tired and scared. Let's not all turn on one another.

HODGE: At least not without a good reason.

MULDER: Maybe we should all get some sleep.

HODGE: You kidding? You think any of us could sleep right now? Guys, let's face it, we've got to check for spots. Any person or persons who has them should be confined. Are we agreed on that?

DASILVA: Are you going to do the exams?

SCULLY: No. We do them in front of each other. No secrets.

[Mulder, Murphy and Hodge all start to undress in a room.]

MULDER: Before anyone passes judgment, may I remind you we are in the Arctic.

[Scully checks out DaSilva, who has her arms raised as Scully checks for spots. We can only see DaSilva's back, though it is apparent that she is naked. Scully lowers her arm, holds her hand and smiles. They both sigh in relief. All five start off to their rooms, carrying flashlights down the hall.]

HODGE: Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite.

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[He goes into his room.]

DASILVA: Yeah, good night.

[Murphy and DaSilva go into their rooms. All three doors slam shut at once. Mulder and Scully go to their doors.]

SCULLY: Good night, Mulder.

MULDER: Good night, Scully.

SCULLY: At least everyone's okay.

MULDER: Don't forget, the spots on the dog went away.

[Mulder closes his door. Scully goes into her room, turns on the light, and sets her bags and flashlight down on the bed. She goes over and turns on the wall lamp. She looks at a picture of the arctic team. She thinks for a moment, then moves the dresser in front of the door. She sits down next to it against the wall and curls up. Murphy listens to the radio, eyeing the door intently.]

RADIO ANNOUNCER: ...at the three yard line with fourth and goal and only fifteen seconds left in the game. Fouts goes over the ball, he snaps! He goes right...

[Hodge is making notes that say the following:

"Mulder - attacked by dog Scully - exposed to infected blood Murphy - exposed to liquefied ice core"

He eyes the door. DaSilva rolls over in bed, almost crying. Mulder puts his gun down on the dresser and looks at the door. Later, with the lights out, Mulder wakes with a startle. He immediately checks his gun. He looks for his shoes and hears a door close. He puts on his shoes and shirt, takes his gun and flashlight and sees that Murphy's door is open. Looking in, he sees no one. The walkman is on the bed. He goes into the lab, walking around. He is startled by the dog, which growls at him. He spins around, gun aimed, until he realizes it's the dog. He goes over to the desk, then looks at the freezer. Blood drips out under the door and onto the floor. He opens the door and Murphy falls out onto him, neck slit wide open and covered with blood. Scully, DaSilva and Hodge walk in.]

SCULLY: Mulder, what are you doing?

MULDER: Murphy's dead.

HODGE: You killed him.

MULDER: I found him like this. I heard one of the doors close, I came out to check it out. It's one of you.

HODGE: He's lying.

DASILVA: You could have done it and not even known.

SCULLY: No, he said he didn't do it.

MULDER: I don't have any of the symptoms.

SCULLY: You checked him yourself, Hodge.

HODGE: Yeah, six hours ago.

MULDER: It was one of you!

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[Mulder starts towards Hodge but Scully gets between them.]

SCULLY: Stop it! Just stop it, shut up!

[Hodge and Mulder glare at each other.]

SCULLY: Mulder, just put the gun down and let Hodge give you a blood test.

MULDER: What, so he can doctor the results? I'm not gonna let him stick a needle in me! He could be infected!

HODGE: He has to be confined now!

SCULLY: Then just turn around and let us take a look at your neck!

MULDER: I'm not turning my back on anyone! As far as I'm concerned, you're all infected!

[Mulder walks back slowly, waving his gun around. Hodge inches over to the counter.]

DASILVA: Hodge is right, we oughta lock him up!

[Hodge grabs a crowbar and lurches a bit. Mulder points his gun at Hodge to stop him. Scully points her gun at Mulder.]

SCULLY: Mulder!

MULDER: Scully, get that gun off me!

SCULLY: Mulder, you have to understand!

[Mulder points his gun at Scully.]

MULDER: Put it down!

SCULLY: You put it down first!

MULDER: Scully! For God sakes, it's me!

SCULLY: Mulder... you may not be who you are.

[Mulder comes to his senses and lowers the gun. We see Mulder stepping into a dark storage room. He turns on the light as Scully stands in the doorway. He faces her.]

MULDER: In here, I'll be safer than you.

[Scully slides the door shut and bolts it. She leans against the door, thinking about what she has done. She starts off, looks back at the bolt, then walks off. Walking into the lab, she sees DaSilva asleep at the desk. Gun in hand, she walks over quietly and moves the back of her shirt down, trying to get a look at her neck. Hodge comes in and grabs her hand. DaSilva wakes up with a short scream.]

HODGE: What were you doing?

SCULLY: You know what I was doing.

HODGE: You know, I can't help thinking, Agent Scully, that you're the only one with a gun. If you get infected, we don't stand a chance, do we?

[Scully looks at them, takes out the clip, takes out her other gun, takes out that clip, and places the guns on the counter.]

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HODGE: Okay.

[She goes to the main door and throws the clips away.]

DASILVA: Was there something there?

HODGE: You're okay, Nancy. We're all okay. Now is not the time for the three of us to break down and turn on each other.

SCULLY: There's four of us.

HODGE: Mulder isn't one of us anymore.

SCULLY: If Mulder is infected, it's not his fault! We can't turn our backs on him now, he needs us to help him!

DASILVA: She's right. Who knows what prolonged exposure to the parasite could do to him? It could damage him to the point of permanent psychosis.

[Scully starts off but Hodge grabs her arm.]

HODGE: But if he is infected, he doesn't go back! I won't risk the possibilities!

[She goes over to the radio and turns it on.]

SCULLY: This is A.I.C.P. calling Doolittle Airfield, please come in.

[Static.]

SCULLY: This is the Arctic Ice Core Project sending a general distress call, please respond!

[Static. Hodge and DaSilva looks through microscopes. Hodge is looking at the larvae.]

HODGE: Nancy, you wanna put a drop of the uninfected blood on the slide of the blood drawn from the pilot?

DASILVA: Run that by me again.

HODGE: Put the uninfected blood on the infected blood.

[She gets up and takes the slide over to a tube rack full of vials. Hodge looks over her shoulder. DaSilva puts another drop of blood on the slide. Hodge looks at it and smacks her on the butt with the clipboard. Scully walks in.]

HODGE: No, damn it! What did I just get through telling you? You just infected already infected blood, now we have to start all over again.

DASILVA: I made a mistake, you don't have to yell at me.

HODGE: Wasted hours of work...

[Hodge starts off, DaSilva follows.]

DASILVA: Well okay, well then maybe you could just do it by yourself! Damn it! God, I'm not your assistant!

HODGE: Oh, get out of here...

DASILVA: All you do is just... [trails off]

[Scully looks through microscope and sees that the larvae are attacking each other viciously. Suddenly, they both go limp and die. Hodge walks back in.]

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SCULLY: Hodge.

HODGE: What?

SCULLY: Come take a look at this. The larvae from two different worms killed each other.

[Hodge looks in the microscope. Scully goes over to the freezer and moves one of the jars from the bottom shelf right next to the other one. The worms try to get at each other through the glass. DaSilva and Hodge come over and look.]

SCULLY: An individual worm will not tolerate another invading its host. It does to the invader what it did to humans. It makes them kill.

HODGE: It doesn't make sense for a species to kill its own, it needs another to procreate.

DASILVA: Worms are hermaphroditic. It can reproduce itself.

SCULLY: Look at the evidence in the microscope. This thing does not like company.

HODGE: So what are you saying? The way to kill it is to introduce another worm into the already infected body?

[Scully nods. A short while later, Hodge injects a painkiller into the dog's ear to numb it. Scully, holding the worm with forceps, puts the worm down on the dog's ear. The worm crawls inside and the dog starts whimpering soon after. They put it back in its cage. The dog's paws start shaking until the dog grows quieter. It lays down on its belly and whimpers a bit more. Hodge opens the door and takes the dog's heartbeat with a stethoscope.]

HODGE: Sounds okay.

[Scully puts a bowl full of dog food on the ground and the dog comes over and starts eating. Scully pets it as DaSilva stands off to the side. Hodge comes in.]

HODGE: It passed the worms in its stool. They're dead.

[Scully unbolts the door to Mulder's makeshift cell. Hodge stands against the door.]

SCULLY: I want to talk to him first. Try to make this voluntary.

DASILVA: What?

HODGE: You can't go in alone.

SCULLY: If anything happens, you come inside. I can't do this to him until I'm sure.

[The door slides open and Mulder gets to his feet quickly, flinching.]

MULDER: It's just you?

SCULLY: Yes.

[The door slams shut. Scully turns on the light.]

MULDER: It's one of them.

SCULLY: No one's been killed since you've been in here.

MULDER: So?

SCULLY: We found a way to kill it. Two worms in one host will kill each other.

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MULDER: You give me one worm, you'll infect me.

SCULLY: [whispering] If that's true, then why didn't you let us inspect you?

MULDER: [whispering] I would have but you pulled a gun on me. Now I don't trust them. I wanted to trust you.

SCULLY: [whispering] Okay. But now they're not here.

[Mulder turns around. Scully pulls down the back of his shirt and inspects his neck. No bump. Scully turns to leave but Mulder grabs her. She gasps in shock. She starts to turn her head but he gently pushes her back to facing forward. He pulls down the back of her shirt and inspects her. No bump as well. Outside, DaSilva puts the jar down on a small table with forceps.]

DASILVA: This is the last one. She's not going to let us give it to him.

HODGE: Well, she'll have to if he's infected.

DASILVA: He'll convince her somehow.

[The door slides open and Mulder and Scully walk out.]

SCULLY: I just examined him. He's... uninfected.

MULDER: So is she.

SCULLY: Which means that it must be one of you.

HODGE: All right. Go over to the main building. I'd like to check him myself. Then he can examine both of us. Wanna lead the way?

[Mulder walks forward slowly. Hodge and DaSilva start behind him then look at each other. Hodge grabs Mulder and slams him into a few boxes. DaSilva grabs Scully, throws her into the room and bolts the door. Mulder grunts and screams as Hodge bends his arm back in a hammerlock and puts on a chokehold with the other arm. DaSilva takes out the needle and preps it but it's knocked down when Mulder pushes Hodge back into her. Mulder then runs Hodge back into the loading doors, but Hodge stays hooked on. He wrestles Mulder to the floor as Scully picks up a large drill bit on the floor and starts trying to break open the door. Mulder groans as banging can be heard.]

HODGE: Get the worm!

MULDER: Bastards! No!

[DaSilva gets the worm with the forceps and dangles it above Mulder's ear. She holds his head down by the hair.]

MULDER: Ah! Stop... no!

[Hodge looks at DaSilva and notices a bump moving around on the back of her neck.]

HODGE: Oh my God!

[He pushes her down across the room. Mulder rolls to his feet as Hodge backs away from DaSilva. She slowly gets to her feet.]

HODGE: Mulder! It's her!

[DaSilva makes a break for the door, slamming Mulder into the boxes again. Mulder gets up and he and Hodge run to the door where Scully is.]

MULDER: Scully!

[He opens the door.]

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MULDER: It's DaSilva!

[She drops the drill bit and they run after her. Hodge picks the worm up off the floor with the forceps. DaSilva runs into the lab, screaming hysterically. She opens a door and throws some jars out, then knocks over any lab equipment near her. Mulder runs in as DaSilva takes the gun in the evidence bag out of the drawer. She takes the gun out and Mulder tackles her as she fires at him. Scully runs in and they hold her down. Hodge walks in slowly.]

SCULLY: Hodge! Now!

[Mulder holds up her head so Hodge can put the worm in.]

SCULLY: Mulder! After this, there won't be any left!

MULDER: Do it!

DASILVA: Nooooo! No! No!

[Mulder lays her head back down and Hodge puts the worm in. DaSilva's screams change to choking and coughing as she starts spasming on the floor. She moans repeatedly.]

SCULLY: It's all right. It's all over. It all stops right here. Right now.

Doolittle Airfield Nome, Alaska

[DaSilva is in a containment suit and being wheeled into an ambulance by two men. They roll past Mulder, Scully and Hodge. Hodge closes the door and the ambulance drives off with her inside.]

HODGE: She's being put in quarantine along with the dog. We'll keep her there until we're sure she won't infect the rest of the population. Meanwhile, our tests came back normal so we've been released. Plane ready. Take you as far from the ice as you want to go.

MULDER: I'm going back to the site. This time, I'm going fully prepared with proper equipment. There's still a lot of research to be done on its genetic structure, on its origin...

HODGE: Wait, Mulder. Don't you know?

MULDER: Know what?

[Hodge looks at Mulder and Scully in a sort of disbelief.]

HODGE: 45 minutes after they evacuated us, they torched the place. There's nothing left.

SCULLY: Who did that?

HODGE: The military, centers for disease control... you ought to know. They're your people.

[He walks away.]

MULDER: It's still there, Scully. 200,000 years down in the ice.

SCULLY: Leave it there.

[She picks up her bag and starts off. Mulder looks into the distance. She looks back at him. He picks up his bag and they walk off.]

Starring:

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David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Xander Berkeley (Dr. Hodge) Felicity Huffman (Dr. Nancy Da Silva) Steve Hytner (Dr. Denny Murphy) Jeff Kober (Bear)

Co-Starring:

Ken Kirzinger (Richter) Sonny Surowiec (Campbell)

1x07 Ice - notes

Video box set commentary by Chris Carter:

When I first conceived the show, I knew it wouldn't be a show about UFOs only or even predominantly. I knew that was the foundation on which I wanted to build, but you'll see episodes early on like Ice and like Beyond The Sea, which take it into other realms, which deal with the psychic world, which deal with paranormal matters that are not about extra-terrestrials. It was inspired by The Thing, as anyone who knows the genre will tell you, but it was ... I think it worked even better as an X- File. It pitted the characters of Mulder and Scully against each other in a way that was, I think, very interesting and a new look at their characters early on in the series. It's the stuff of great drama, and to see it resolved as it was resolved, in a rather strange and weird way with these arctic worms, which, one is nearly put into Mulder's body, it was just good stuff, and, actually, I think pulled off rather believably.

Creep Out Factor

We created fake skins, and we put them over bottles and we would pull things underneath them. This was also the work of Toby Lindala, our great make-up artist who works on the show. And the dog's fur was also manufactured and wrapped tight over a surface and then the worm was pulled beneath that. But you also see digital worms, that worm that crawls in the dog's ear is a worm that's been digitally created. So you get a little of the real, a little of the not-so-real, and a lot of movie magic. And we were sure that we had gone too far with this worm, that we had pushed the limits of good taste and creep-out factor ... but we all realized how good it would be if we were allowed to keep it in. So I think, as David Duchovny says, it was one of our first rockin' episodes. From "X-Files Confidential": An early high-water mark for the team of Morgan and Wong, 'Ice' inspires Carter to enthuse, "They took to the show like crazy, and they're one of the reasons we've done so well and are being so well received. They just outdid themselves on this show, as did director David Nutter, who really works so hard for us. They had worked with David before, and it was a nice partnership that came to The X-Files. I think they wrote a great script and he did a great job directing it, and we had a great supporting cast. I think that the cast, directing, and writing came together. 'Ice' was inspired by The Thing, as anyone who knows the genre will tell you, but I think it was even better as an X-File. It pitted the characters of Mulder and Scully against each other in a way that was very interesting and a new look at their characters early on in the series. It's the stuff of great drama." "To me," says Nutter, "the real great thing about 'Ice' is that we were able to convey a strong sense of paranoia. It was also a great ensemble piece. We're dealing with the most basic emotions of each character, ranging from their anger to their ignorance and fear. The episode also showed a real trust between Mulder and Scully. It established the emotional ties these two characters have with each other, which is very important. Scaring the hell out of the audience was definitely the key to the episode. The main thing is that it really had to scare the hell out of the actors on the show. Their fear had to relate with [the audience's], and I think it did that."

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Gillian Anderson can concur with that. "It was very intense. There was a lot of fear and paranoia going on. We had some great actors to work with, and the way the set was built was like a bunker almost. We felt like we were really in that place, as opposed to many of the sets, which are three-quarters walls. This was the Antarctic – for all we knew, that's where we were shooting. And it was cold. That particular studio was the old Spelling studio, and it doesn't have heat." The script for 'Ice' was inspired by an article in Science News about a group of scientists in Greenland drilling into 250,000-year- old ice. "The Greenland Ice Project was taking core samples from deep within the ice to study," James Wong says. "We started with that. The amazing thing is that they apparently found these frozen worms that later came back to life. It was after we wrote the episode that we found it out, which was a little scary." The entire Arctic complex was created by production designer Graeme Murray, who had worked on John Carpenter's remake of The Thing. "That kind of a one-set show works quite well for the series," Murray opines. "You put a bunch of people into a claustrophobic space and set something loose in there. There's nowhere to go. They can't run. they have to stay and confront it, and that makes for a very tense and exciting episode." Interestingly, 'Ice' was originally conceived as a so-called bottle show, one that would take place in a single location, because it would be cheaper to produce. "There was a budgetary concern at that point," Wong agrees. "Our shows were going over budget and we needed to do a show that was more contained. We were going to do this one later in the season, when there was the possibility of snow in Vancouver, so we could have some exteriors with snow. As it turned out, we were over budget and we liked this idea, so we had to do it all inside." But did it save money? "It really didn't," Carter recalls with a chuckle. "We got such production value, and production value costs money. There's no tricks involved. Every dollar we spend shows up on the screen. That's why the show looks so good. We are actually a pretty low budget show, but we've brought a lot of folks together who have given us the most for our money." Upon receiving the script, Robert Goodwin was immediately struck by its power and the question of how they were going to bring it to life. "You've got these worms which are living inside of bodies and you can see one wriggling under the skin of a dog and then under a couple of people," he says with a sigh of mock exhaustion. "There's a scene where they pull one of the worms out of the guy's neck. It was a combination of rubber worms and, in some shots, those completely generated by computer. [Makeup artist] Toby Lindala really saved us. For the scene where you see the worms in the back of the neck, one process you can do is build an entire body from a mold made of the actor, so what you're shooting is a very detailed mannequin that looks very realistic. But Toby came in and said, 'Let me try something,' and he actually created a process in which he created false skin that went over the real neck of the person and he built a channel with this worm in it. Actually right there on the actor's neck you could seethe worm. It was disgusting, but it was cool. It was one of those things where going in to it you didn't know how you were going to do it. What I was deathly afraid of was that we would do something that looked so cheesy that it would just take away from the story. But everyone delivered, and it's a classic episode." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Icy Cape, Alaska Back story: There are certain similarities in this episode to The Thing and to the John W Campbell Jr novella Who Goes There? On which The Thing was based, inasmuch as 'Ice' traps characters in a confined space with a killer who may be any one of them. Still, the idea for the hour actually started after Glen Morgan read an article in Science News about "these guys in Greenland who dug something 250,000 years old out of the ice." In order to give the FBI a reason to become part of the investigation, the venue was shifted to Alaska. The episode proved a pivotal one in the career of makeup effects wizard Toby Lindala, who received his first major assignment on the show and subsequently became its resident ace in that department. Lindala remembers sweating it out when the prosthetic device he was using to create the effect of the worm moving beneath the skin started to tear. "His hands were trembling, he was so nervous," Morgan recalls. The space worm remains near the top of The X-Files gross-out meter, in part because the producers got away with more than they originally anticipated. Morgan admits the plan was to let one scene involving the creature run a little long – about four seconds – "thinking Fox's standards and practices department would cut it down, and they didn't touch it." From Tiny Dancer: The dog in this episode is Blue's mom (Blue is David Duchovny's dog). One of the men in the opening standoff, Richter, is played by Stunt Co-ordinator Ken Kirzinger. X-Files In-Jokes * The dog in this episode is Blue's dad (Blue is David Duchovny's dog and constant companion) * Character Denny Murphy is a San Diego Chargers fan, and so are Glen Morgan and James Wong, the writers of this episode. * Stunt Coordinator Ken Kirzinger plays Richter, one of the men in the standoff at the beginning of the episode.

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From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- Origin of the episode title? Well, they *are* in the Arctic.

-- There are certain similarities in this episode to the John W. Campbell, Jr., novella Who Goes There? which was the basis for the Howard Hawks/Christian Nyby film The Thing from Another World and John Carpenter's The Thing, primarily that "Ice" traps characters in a confined space with a killer who may be any one of them. Still, the idea for the hour actually started after Glen Morgan read an article in Science News about "these guys in Greenland who dug something 250,000 years old out of the ice." In order to give the FBI a reason to become part of the investigation, the venue was shifted to Alaska.

-- Another inspiration for this episode was purely budgetary -- previous episodes had gone slightly over budget, so Fox asked the producers to create an episode that was set in a confined space so only one set had to be built.

-- Morgan and Wong brought their friend David Nutter, one of their favorite directors, into the X-Files fold with this episode. He had directed episodes the team had written for 21 Jump Street, Booker, The Commish, Millennium, and Space: Above and Beyond. Nutter went on to direct 15 XF episodes in all, including other classics like "Beyond the Sea," "Tooms," "Little Green Men," "Irresistible," and "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose."

-- Stunt Coordinator Ken Kirzinger plays Richter, one of the men in the standoff at the beginning of the episode. The other man in the teaser is named Campbell, named for John W. Campbell who wrote the novella that served as an inspiration for the episode.

-- Timeline: The transmission date for Richter's call was November 5, 1993, and Mulder says they are there a "couple of days later."

-- The wall thermometer in the teaser reads -34 degrees Celsius. I'm no expert at converting Farenheit to Celsius, but I know that's really, really cold. Let's hope that was the temperature outside.

-- Character Denny Murphy was a huge San Diego Chargers fan, as were Morgan and Wong, the writers of this episode ("Fouts. Is. God!").

-- Actor Steve Hytner who played Dr. Denny Murphy had guest roles in several Morgan & Wong written productions including The Commish and Space: Above & Beyond. He appeared in several episodes of Roswell, but is probably best known for his recurring role on Seinfeld as Kenny Bania.

-- When actor Xander Berkeley appeared in "Ice" as Dr. Hodge he had already been a steadily working actor for more than 10 years. He made his first big-screen appearance in Mommie Dearest (1981), played Tom Hanks' roommate in the comedy Volunteers, (1985), and in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) he played John Connor's foster parent. He was Captain Whitaker in Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men (1992) and gave a good performance as Henry Hurt in Apollo 13 (1995.) He also had a great role as turncoat Secret Service Agent Gibbs in Air Force One (1997). His first television appearance was on M.A.S.H. and he guest-starred on many familiar TV shows in the 1980s and 90s. The standout role of George Mason on the second season of 24 earned him critical acclaim, and he also had a recurring role on C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation.

-- Jeff Kober (Bear) was also a very steadily working actor and a familiar face on television. He too had guest starring roles on many popular TV series dating back to a recurring role on the 1980s nighttime soap, Falcon Crest. He made several appearances on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and was seen on 24 this past season.

-- In an episode jam-packed with fine actors, Felicity Huffman was the least well known in 1993. In fact, she had very little film or TV acting experience when she played Dr. Nancy Da Silva in "Ice." Of course, she has become the most famous and the most decorated of the whole "Ice" ensemble, first finding fame and critical acclaim on the 1998 - 2000 Aaron Sorkin series Sports Night. Following guest roles on other series like The West Wing and Frasier, she landed the role of Lynette Scavo on Desperate Housewives, winning the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2005. She played a man preparing to become a woman in the independent film Transamerica in 2005, and was nominated for an Academy Award. She didn't win the Oscar, but she did win a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Dramatic Motion Picture.

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-- Huffman is married to actor William H. Macy, whom she met when she was one of his students in the Atlantic Theatre Company. They were together 15 years before marrying in 1997. Huffman is the youngest of eight children, with one older brother and six older sisters. Her nickname is "Flicka" and she used Flicka Huffman as her stage name in a few of her early roles. The name "Flicka" comes from the book and movie My Friend Flicka (1943), a childhood favorite. Flicka means "girl" in Swedish.

-- BTW, Felicity Huffman starred on Sports Night with Josh Charles, who played Bryan, Christina Applegate's boyfriend in Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, the cast of which included a young actor named David Duchovny.

-- The episode proved a pivotal one in the career of makeup effects wizard Toby Lindala, who received his first major assignment on the show and subsequently became its resident ace in that department. Lindala remembered sweating it out when the prosthetic device he was using to create the effect of the worm moving beneath the skin started to tear. "His hands were trembling, he was so nervous," Glen Morgan recalled.

-- The space worm remains near the top of The X-Files gross-out meter, in part because the producers got away with more than they originally anticipated. Morgan admitted the plan was to let one scene involving the creature run a little long -- about four seconds -- "thinking Fox's standards and practices department would cut it down, and they didn't touch it."

-- The scene where Mulder and Scully pull guns on each other was Morgan and Wong's first idea for the episode. Everything else was written around that one scene.

-- David Duchovny's dog Blue is the daughter of the Border Collie featured in this episode.

-- Oopsie! The episode featured some magic microscopes that managed to mysteriously change magnification levels each time someone looked in them.

-- In the original script, Mulder and Scully's standoff ends with each of them removing the clips from their guns and Mulder tossing the clips out into the snow. Then DaSilva and Hodge vote to confine Mulder. When Scully doesn't vote, Mulder says, "Go ahead, Scully. Vote your conscience." Scully suggests they can't be sure that Mulder's not infected and says, "Let us examine you." "Us? Is that where we're at?" replies Mulder. As they argue, Mulder is overpowered by DaSilva and Hodge and they tie him up, then lead him to the storage room. I prefer the way it played out on screen much better.

-- "In here, I’ll be safer than you." Great line, great delivery by Duchovny.

-- Two words: Neck Check! It's a historic scene in the history of the Mulder/Scully partnership, filled with electricity and unspoken emotion, and after the Neck Check they emerge from Mulder's makeshift prison as a united front.

-- Richter's line during the standoff in the teaser -- "It all ends right here" -- is repeated by Scully near the end of the episode, in a wholly different context.

-- The end of the episode is good for a chuckle as the actors rub their hands enthusiastically in an effort to keep them warm, yet no breath is visible from their mouths.

-- "Ice" touched on many themes that would eventually become the core of the XF universe: partnership, paranoia, isolation, teamwork, and trust. It was the first time our heroes pulled their guns on each other; and sadly, it wouldn't be the last.

-- "Ice" was a favorite first season episode of nearly everyone who worked on the show. At the time Entertainment Weekly did a special issue featuring the series, both David Duchovny and Chris Carter ranked it as their all time favorite episode. (Gillian Anderson ranked it #2 behind "Beyond the Sea.") "I think 'Ice' was one of the first turning points for us," said Gillian Anderson; and David Duchovny proclaimed it "our first really rockin' show."

1x08 Space - transcript

Writer: Chris Carter Director: William Graham

372

Original airdate: 12 November 1993

Transcribed by: CarriK Edited by Libby

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, California, 1977

70's TV REPORTER: I'm here in Pasadena with the NASA mission control team as they celebrate scientific history. The first close-up photographic transmissions of Mars from the Viking Observer Spacecraft. Photos that have created something of a stir by revealing surprising geologic information: the presence of large amounts of water locked in Mars' polar icecaps. Water that some speculate could have possibly sustained life on the planet. Even more controversial is one image of a land formation: a formation that looks like a sculpted human face. However NASA officials are denying it as an indication of an alien civilization.

[Cut to interview with Lt Col Marcus Aurelius Belt, Viking Orbiter Project Director.]

70's BELT: No, it's nothing more than a trick of light and shadows, a geologic anomaly. I'm afraid the only sculptors at work are the solar winds that blow across the surface of Mars at 300 miles an hour ten months a year.

[Present day - Belt's apartment. Close up of Mars face picture, Belt's keys land on it. Belt gets ready for bed. Belt asleep in bed in very fashionable burgundy PJs. Dream memory, Belt on EVA in space.]

YOUNG BELT IN SPACE: I'm seeing...... I've got......

HOUSTON: How's it going out there?

YOUNG BELT: There's something out here!

HOUSTON: Can you repeat that Commander Belt?

YOUNG BELT: It's coming at me! Holy God!

[Present Day Belt waking in bed. Mars face appears in ceiling over him, then comes at Belt.....aaaaaaaaaggggghhhh! ]

[main credits]

Shuttle Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida Present Day

[Not so good NASA stock footage of shuttle launch throughout episode.]

GROUND CONTROL: Pick up terminal sequence, NPS. You have a go to proceed.

SHUTTLE: Booster hydraulic power units have started.

SHUTTLE LAUNCH CONTROL: This is Shuttle Launch Control with T minus one minute 15 seconds and counting.

SHUTTLE: OTC to CDR. How do you read?

FLORIDA MC: Loud and clear OVCC, go ahead.

SHUTTLE: Roger that. OVCC verified. Port set up two zero.

FLORIDA MC: Copy set up two zero.

SHUTTLE: CDR Houston, how do you read?

373

Houston Mission Control

MICHELLE GENEROO: Loud and clear.

FLORIDA MC: Side hatch close out and white room configuration is complete. Retracting orbiter arm.

SHUTTLE: OMS pressure on. Cabin vent complete.

FLORIDA MC: Roger, we see that. All systems go for APU start. Transfer to internal power now.

SHUTTLE: Pre-start complete. APU to inhibit.

FLORIDA MC: Oxygen vent hood retracted. External tank is at flight pressure. Lock your visors and initiate your O2 flow. Ya'll have a good trip.

SHUTTLE: Roger that.

SHUTTLE LC: T minus 20 seconds and counting.

FLORIDA MC: Go for auto sequence start. Booster hydraulic power units have started. Go for main engine start.

SHUTTLE LC: T minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three –

FLORIDA MC: Abort lift off. Abort lift off. System failure. Abort lift off. Repeat. We have an abort lift off at T minus three seconds.

Washington D.C. Two Weeks Later

[Mulder and Scully outside, sitting on steps of building.]

SCULLY: What did the note say?

MULDER: Just that they worked for NASA. [Hands over note.] They wanted to talk to somebody from the FBI.

SCULLY: Why the cloak and dagger routine?

MULDER: I have no idea.

SCULLY: Think it's a crank?

MULDER: It's beginning to look that way.

[Michelle walks past them, then turns and comes back looking very incognito.]

MICHELLE: My name is Michelle Generoo.

[She shakes Mulder's hand.]

MULDER: Fox Mulder...

MICHELLE: I sent you the note.

[She shakes Scully's hand.]

SCULLY: Hi. Special Agent Dana Scully.

MICHELLE: I'm sorry to have to take these precautions. I flew up from Houston this morning. I work at the Space Center there.

374

MULDER: In what capacity?

MICHELLE: I'm the Mission Control Communications Commander for the Space Shuttle Program.

SCULLY: What brings you to Washington?

MICHELLE: I have reason to believe there may be a saboteur at work inside NASA.

MULDER: Do you have evidence of sabotage?

MICHELLE: I don't know. I may. Two weeks ago, a shuttle mission was scrubbed three seconds before lift-off when an auxiliary power unit valve malfunctioned. If the flight had not been aborted, there was a great chance the liquid fuel system and the Orbiter would have exploded on the launch pad. This was sent to me in the mail.

[She opens her briefcase and removes some pictures.]

MICHELLE: It's a material analysis that shows deep grooved scoring marks inside this APU valve. Marks that could have caused a malfunction.

MULDER: Evidence of tampering?

MICHELLE: That's what it looks like, but.. according to the person who gave me your names you have expertise in unexplained phenomena, and what's unexplainable is how and when anybody could have done it.

SCULLY: How do you mean?

MICHELLE: The valve is made of ferrocarbon titanium. To score that material would take extreme temperatures : launch pad temperatures. If anyone at NASA were to take a look at that analysis, they would say that it would be impossible for anyone to do that type of damage undetected.

SCULLY: Do you have any idea who may have sent that to you?

MICHELLE: No. No idea. But I can tell you that the official analysis of the malfunction was simple mechanical failure.

MULDER: Does anybody share your suspicions?

MICHELLE: If they do, they're not talking to the FBI. I believe in the space program. I believe in the people who run it, but there's another launch window tomorrow and my reasons may sound selfish, but my fiancé is a shuttle commander on that mission.

[Mulder and Scully look at each other]

Houston Space Center Next Day

[Mulder and Scully are riding through the halls on one of those airport golf cart things.]

SCULLY: Why would somebody want to sabotage the Space Shuttle?

MULDER: Well, if you were a terrorist, there probably isn't a more potent symbol of American progress and prosperity. And if you're an opponent of big science, NASA itself represents a vast money trench that exists outside the crucible and debate of the democratic process. And, of course, there are those futurists who believe the Space Shuttle is a rusty old bucket that should be mothballed. A dinosaur spacecraft built in the 70's by scientists setting their sights on space in an ever declining scale.

SCULLY: And we thought we could rest easy with the fall of the Soviet Union.

375

MULDER: Not to mention certain fringe elements who accuse our government itself of space sabotage. The failure of the Hubble Telescope and the Mars Observer are directly connected to a conspiracy to deny us evidence.

SCULLY: Evidence of what?

MULDER: Alien civilizations.

SCULLY: Oh, of course.

[Digital clock on wall, counting down - 10:45:27...26...25]

[Mulder and Scully walking down corridor with guide, Mulder looking at framed posters]

MULDER: Wow, look at that - Gemini 8.

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: Well, the man we're gonna see? Col. Marcus Aurelius Belt nearly died on that mission. Had to make an emergency landing right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

SCULLY: You remember all that stuff?

MULDER: You never wanted to be an astronaut when you were a kid, Scully?

SCULLY: Guess I missed that phase.

[Another clock on wall, 10:39:40...39...38...37]

[They knock on door with Belt's nameplate.]

BELT: Come in.

[They open the door.]

SCULLY: Col. Belt, I'm Special Agent Dana Scully.

[She shakes Belt's hand as he rises and puts on his jacket.]

SCULLY: And this is...

MULDER: Colonel Belt. Fox Mulder.

[He extends his hand.]

MULDER: I'm a big fan. It's an honor to meet you. Y-you were a big hero to me when I was a kid.

BELT: Thank you.

MULDER: I-I stayed up all night when I was 14 to watch your space walk.

BELT: [uncomfortable] Well, now it's like a stroll around the block. So, how can I help you?

[They all sit, Mulder shifting around, obviously excited in the presence of his hero.]

SCULLY: This found its way to the FBI.

[She hands Belt the picture that Michelle gave them.]

376

SCULLY: Do you recognize it?

BELT: Sure, it's an auxiliary power unit valve.

[He hands the picture back.]

SCULLY: Do you have any reason to believe that the damage done to it was in an effort to sabotage the Space Shuttle Program?

BELT: No.

SCULLY: Do you have any reason to suspect sabotage at all?

BELT: No reason whatsoever. And if you have any respect for this program and for the people who have devoted their lives to it, you'll be careful to whom you make those accusations.

[Mulder is looking very uncomfortable.]

SCULLY: Looking at this evidence, sir, would you consider postponing the shuttle flight until a full investigation could be conducted?

BELT: Look, I don't know where you got this specious artifact, but I can assure you every precaution has been taken to rectify the problem. We've been waiting two weeks for a window to initiate this mission. We've got a payload to deliver.

SCULLY: Col. Belt, has an internal investigation ever been done on this matter?

BELT: The part you have here, has been installed, inspected, and designed by over 100 highly trained technicians. With the security measures we take, it would be virtually impossible for one man working by himself, or two or four men, to do what you are suggesting. I can assure you there isn't a person in this facility that doesn't want to see that shuttle go into space, complete its mission, and come back like winged victory herself. And in about ten hours, God willing, you're gonna see just that.

MULDER: [grinning, as they rise] Do you think there would be a problem with us watching lift off from Mission Control?

BELT: Well, being that you'd probably go over my head anyway, please, be my guest.

MULDER: [Shaking hands again, still in awe] It was an honor, sir.

SCULLY: [Shaking hands] Thank you.

[She follows Mulder out the door.]

SCULLY: Didn't you want to get his autograph?

[Mulder and Scully are with a tech guy in some technical mechanical place.]

TECHMECH GUY: [Looking at picture] Where did you say you got this?

SCULLY: It came to us anonymously.

TECHMECH GUY: Well this is an APU valve all right, but this doesn't make sense.

SCULLY: What doesn't make sense?

TECHMECH GUY: This scoring here. This valve is made out of ferrocarbon titanium. Its –

MULDER: You didn't order the analysis?

TECHMECH GUY: No, I've never seen this before. But we're on outside contract to NASA. They may have ordered it.

377

MULDER: But as a matter of course wouldn't you order a material analysis if a part malfunctioned?

TECHMECH GUY: Every shuttle has flown with that same APU valve. We haven't had a problem. To do an analysis and redesign would delay the program for months, not to mention the cost.

SCULLY: Is it conceivable that in order to avoid these delays, the program is being pushed ahead without proper safety precaution?

TECHMECH GUY: Look, there are about 17000 things that can go wrong with the shuttle, and about 17000 people who make sure they don't.

[Another digital clock - 8:43:40...39...38...37]

[Belt is standing above them on a balcony, listening.]

SCULLY: And who makes the final determination as to its safety?

TECHMECH GUY: Oh we make a recommendation, but ultimately, the decision is Col Belt's.

[Belt leaves.]

MULDER and SCULLY: Thank you.

[They start up the stairs to the balcony.]

SCULLY: [Quietly] What do you think?

MULDER: I can't believe how much faith we put in machines.

SCULLY: You think Col Belt knows more than he's saying? That he lied about his knowledge of a saboteur?

MULDER: I can't believe that Col Belt would endanger the lives of those astronauts knowing that something might go wrong. He was an astronaut himself.

SCULLY: So you think this x-ray is bogus?

MULDER: God, I hope so.

[NASA footage of launch in progress.]

SHUTTLE LAUNCH CONTROL: This is Shuttle Launch Control with T minus one minute 40 seconds and counting.

FLORIDA LAUNCH CONTROL: OTC is go for orbiter access arm retract.

OTC: OTC, OVCC verified.

SHUTTLE: Roger that, OVCC verified.

BELT: [with Michelle at Houston Mission Control] Here we go.

SHUTTLE LC: This is Shuttle Launch Control with T minus one minute 30 and counting.

FLORIDA MC: Final purge sequence, main engine check.

SHUTTLE: Copy purge sequence. Main engine check.

OTC: Switching off Orbiter's ground supply. On board fuel cells check.

378

SHUTTLE: Roger, OTC.

HOUSTON: Pick up terminal sequence, MPS.

SHUTTLE: Copy that. OTC to CDR, how do you read?

FLORIDA MC: Loud and clear.

SHUTTLE: CDR Houston, how do you read?

MICHELLE: Loud and clear.

FLORIDA MC: Side hatch close out and white room configuration complete. Retracting Orbiter arm. All systems go for APU start.

SHUTTLE: Go with APU start.

FLORIDA MC: PBSR power down and ready for launch. Transfer to internal power.

SHUTTLE: Transfer to internal power.

FLORIDA MC: Gimbaling of main engines complete. Aero surfaces in launch position.

HOUSTON: MPDR assembled. Military recorder is running.

SHUTTLE: Okay, copy.

FLORIDA MC: Oxygen vent hood retracted. External tank is at flight pressure. Ok CDR, lock your visors and initiate your O2 flow. Y'all have a good one.

SHUTTLE: Roger that.

FLORIDA MC: Go for auto sequence start. Booster hydraulic units have started. Go for main engine start.

[Mulder and Scully and everybody else look really nervous]

SHUTTLE LC: T minus ten and counting. 9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...zero. Ignition. We have lift-off of the shuttle Orbiter.

[Lots of cheers and clapping]

FLORIDA MC: CDR Houston, bet y'all have never seen a more beautiful sight.

MICHELLE: Roger that, 10-4.

FLORIDA MC: Roger. Back to you. Lower throttle back. Main engine at 65%.

[Michelle and Mulder give each other thumbs up.]

FLORIDA MC: Roger. Throttle at 110%.

SHUTTLE: ... separation.

FLORIDA MC: Roger OTC.

[Mulder and Scully are walking down the corridor of a hotel.]

MULDER: I have to admit, that fulfilled one of my boyhood fantasies.

379

SCULLY: Yeah, it ranks right up there with getting a pony and learning how to braid my own hair.

MULDER: Come on, Scully. You have to admit that was exciting. Mission control....

[He playfully punches her arm.]

MULDER: ...countdown.

MICHELLE: [running up behind them] Mulder!! Wait! Something's gone wrong.

MULDER: What happened?

MICHELLE: Something's wrong with the shuttle. We had some trouble with the solid rocket boosters, but we were able to fix it. We changed watch, I went home to try to get some sleep. I got a phone call twenty minutes ago. Communication with the shuttle had gone down. Come on. We've got to get back to Houston.

[Michelle's car followed by Mulder and Scully's car on a wet two-lane road. Scully tries to get a radio station - all static.]

MULDER: They have a press blackout in effect. Chances are, the media doesn't know about it.

SCULLY: Do you think this is sabotage?

MULDER: I don't know. Things go wrong all the time.

SCULLY: Yeah, but they usually fix them, right?

MULDER: Usually.

SCULLY: She's turning.

[Michelle driving. The Mars face comes out of the rain and fog and ..... aaaagggghhhh!!! Michelle gets run off the road and her car flips over.]

[Mulder and Scully pull up behind the overturned car and get out.]

MULDER: Michelle! I can see her.

SCULLY: Michelle!

MICHELLE: Heeelllp!

MULDER: [kneeling at passenger side of overturned car] You all right?

MICHELLE: I'm stuck!

SCULLY: Can you move?

MICHELLE: Just get me out of here. I'm wedged in!

[Mulder and Scully run around to driver's side of car.]

MULDER: You all right?

MICHELLE: I'm wedged in!

MULDER: [Mulder reaches in] Come here. Can you push with your legs?

380

SCULLY: Be careful.

MICHELLE: Just get me out of here!

MULDER: Okay, all right. Come on. Okay. Come on. Okay.

[He pulls Michelle out.]

SCULLY: It's okay. Now don't try to move.

MICHELLE: Oh, I got to get back to Houston.

MULDER: What happened?

MICHELLE: I don't know. Something came at me in the fog, and the next thing I knew I was upside down.

SCULLY: Was it some kind of an animal?

MICHELLE: No. It had a face. It was... it was grotesque. I don't know what it was.

[Mulder helps her stand, arms around her.]

SCULLY: You okay?

MICHELLE: Yeah.

[Houston Mission Control room]

HOUSTON TECH: Orbiter, this is Houston. Do you copy?

SHUTTLE: Your transmission is breaking up, Houston.

[Mulder, Scully and Michelle enter.]

MICHELLE: What's happening?

HOUSTON TECH: We have a malf in the OMS and RCF systems. They can't get the Orbiter into attitude rotation. Temperature in the cabin is approaching 103 degrees and they have downlink transmission problems... what happened to you?

MICHELLE: I had an accident. What's their position?

HOUSTON: Just over Eastern Africa.

MICHELLE: Try patching them into the Seychelles Tracking Station.

[On headset]

MICHELLE: Hang in there OTC.

MULDER: The Orbiter maneuvering system has malfunctioned. Without it they can't rotate the shuttle. They need to rotate it away from the sun to keep the Orbiter cool.

HOUSTON TECH: We've got a drop in cabin pressure, 21 kilopascals and declining.

MICHELLE: They're going to burn up.

MULDER: Where's Col. Belt?

381

HOUSTON TECH: He's on his way.

MICHELLE: Damn it! What happened when they went to back up?

HOUSTON TECH: Back up system failed to respond.

MICHELLE: Well, what about telemetry? Can we auto-activate their systems from down here?

HOUSTON TECH: We cannot auto-activate! It's like someone's interfering with the telemetry, screwing with the uplink communications from this end.

MICHELLE: Can you trace it?

HOUSTON TECH: It'd have to be a digital processor.

MICHELLE: They'd have to be in the data banks.

MULDER: Where's that?

MICHELLE: Come on.

[Mulder and Scully fling their trenchcoats on a console counter and follow Michelle up and out of the room.]

[Data bank room. Mulder and Scully, guns drawn, with Michelle between them. Figure runs behind Mulder. A second later, lights go out.]

SCULLY: Mulder?

[Emergency lights on. Mulder sees someone in a corner.]

MULDER: I'm a federal agent. Come on out of there.

[Scully and Michelle join Mulder. Computer Tech Geek with Glasses comes out of the corner]

MULDER: What are you doing in here?

CTGG: I work here.

MICHELLE: [checking him] Let me see your clearance.

CTGG: A sensor went off. There was a malfunction in one of the telemetry processors.

MICHELLE: Did you find it?

CTGG: No.

MULDER: Did you see anybody else in here?

[The CTGG shakes his head. Then the lights come back on.]

MULDER: Okay, call security. I want a search of the premises. I don't want anybody coming in or out of this building who doesn't have proper clearance.

[Mission Control room]

SHUTTLE: .....rotation maneuver.

HOUSTON: I'm breaking up, OTC.

382

BELT: What's the attitude of the Orbiter?

HOUSTON TECH: They're flying tail first sir, with their belly toward the sun.

CURLY HAIRED TECH: Their flash evaporator system is working, but it's not enough to cool them down.

HOUSTON TECH: Cabin temperature climbing to 116.

BELT: Where's - - -

[Michelle, Mulder and Scully enter.]

MICHELLE: Somebody's jamming our transmissions.

BELT: Who do you mean?

MICHELLE: Somebody or something is interfering with our ground communications and scrambling our uplink telemetry. The shuttle is not responding to override signals.

BELT: I'm going to let them fly by wire. I'm cutting off telemetry.

MICHELLE: It might not work. We might lose contact for good.

BELT: We have to give it a chance to work.

MICHELLE: We have to try to bring them down.

BELT: We have to give them control of the ship, take a chance they'll be able to perform that rotation maneuver and deliver their payload.

MICHELLE: What if they can't? We could be stranding them up there.

BELT: [pause] Abandon telemetry. Go to fly by wire mode.

MULDER: They're cutting off ground control to the Orbiter. The astronauts will be flying the shuttle all by themselves.

SCULLY: Is it going to work?

[Mulder looks doubtful.]

MICHELLE: OTC, this is Houston. How's the weather up there?

SHUTTLE: Sunny and warm Houston. What's the forecast?

MICHELLE: OTC, we're going to fly by wire mode. We're going to abort ground control momentarily to see if you can bring those systems back up.

SHUTTLE: Roger that, Houston. And leave the driving to us.

MICHELLE: David... you take care.

[The transmission is broken.]

SCULLY: What just happened?

MULDER: They cut off contact with the shuttle.

383

[Everyone waits. Very tense.]

MICHELLE: 45 seconds. If they were able to execute they'd have done it by now.

BELT: Standing by.

MICHELLE: 60 seconds.

BELT: Go to reestablish uplink communication.

CURLY HAIRED TECH: Video signal's failed on them.

MICHELLE: OTC, this is Houston. Do you copy?

[Pause.]

MICHELLE: OTC , this is Houston. Where are you?

SHUTTLE: Howdy-do, Houston. Looks like we finally got this bird to fly right.

[Everyone claps and smiles.]

MICHELLE: OTC, do you hear that?

SHUTTLE: Music to our ears.

CURLY HAIRED TECH: Cabin temperature stabilizing.

BELT: OTC, this is Mark Belt in Houston. How's the crew holding up?

SHUTTLE: They're looking good, sir.

BELT: Y'all get some rest. We'll get back to work at about 0700.

SHUTTLE: Roger that, Houston.

BELT: Let's get to work on that telemetry problem. We got a big day ahead of us.

[In a washroom, Belt washes his face. He stares very closely at his reflection in the mirror.]

[NASA press conference, Belt at podium, Mulder, Scully and Michelle watch from side]

BELT: I know you have a lot of questions, and I'll get to them.

SCULLY: [to Michelle] How did he know what he did was going to work?

MICHELLE: He didn't. They could have died up there and there would have been nothing we could have done. They'd have been a ghost ship stuck in orbit.

SCULLY: Why would he take that risk?

MICHELLE: Bring those men back without delivering that payload? You're talking millions of wasted dollars. That's all Congress would need to shut down NASA.

BELT: As of 2200 hours, the crew has been conducting onboard tests and tasks and resting up for their first full day in space tomorrow. I'm happy to say after a beautiful night launch the Shuttle Orbiter has performed magnificently.

[Michelle leaves in disgust.]

384

SCULLY: So much for your boyhood hero.

[Mulder follows Belt down the hallway.]

MULDER: Col. Belt? Col. Belt? Can I talk to you for a moment?

BELT: You want to know why I lied to them. You're asking yourself if this means I'd lie to you.

[Mulder nods.]

BELT: You know what it means to be an astronaut, sir? You risk your life every time you get into your spacecraft for nothing more than the good progress of mankind.

MULDER: You've got no argument from me, sir. You're true American heroes.

BELT: Heroes? We used to make headlines when we did our job right. Now they bury them in the back of the paper. Name me two astronauts on the last shuttle mission.

[Mulder can't.]

BELT: You make the front page today only if you screw up. They only know your name if you're the unlucky SOB sitting on 500 tons of dynamite. That's what they're really waiting for.

[Belt starts to leave.]

MULDER: Sir, I have to ask. I'm sorry, it's my job. Do you think someone is sabotaging the shuttle?

BELT: My answer to you sir, will be to bring those men back safely to earth.

[Belt's apartment. Belt enters, gets vodka out of the freezer, drinks it out of the bottle, lies down on bed and has another EVA memory dream.]

YOUNG BELT: My God!

HOUSTON: How's it going out there?

YOUNG BELT: There's something out here!

HOUSTON: Can you repeat that, Commander Belt?

YOUNG BELT: It's coming at me! Holy God!

[Present day Belt awakes on bed, his face morphing into the Mars face. White ghostly thing pulls out of Belt and floats out the window and up into space. Belt sits frozen, hand outstretched.]

Shuttle Orbiter Passing Over Canada

SHUTTLE: Uh, Houston, we just heard something weird up here.

[Houston Mission Control]

HOUSTON TECH: OTC, Houston. Can you describe it?

SHUTTLE: Sort of a dull thump, like something bumped the ship. Got any ideas about that?

[banging sound]

385

SHUTTLE: There it is again.

[Computer Tech Geek with Glasses runs for the stairs and up to the data room where Mulder, Scully, Michelle and techs are dissecting machines.]

CTGG: [quietly to Michelle] They've got an oxygen leak on board the Orbiter.

SHUTTLE: Our O2 gauges are going all screwy, Houston.

HOUSTON TECH: [to Michelle, Mulder and Scully entering Mission Control] We got problems. We've got an O2 leak in the main tank.

MICHELLE: What did they say happened?

HOUSTON TECH: They don't know. They just said it was a thump.

CURLY HAIRED TECH: [on head set] Stand by. We have an astronomer in Winnipeg who just spotted a gaseous cloud about a mile long trailing in our orbit.

MULDER: [to Scully] That's the liquid O2 leaking out into space. The exact same thing happened to Col. Belt on an Apollo mission.

MICHELLE: How much time do they have?

CURLY HAIRED TECH: Well, that's hard to know without accurate telemetry data. I'll do the calculations, but it will just be a guesstimate.

MICHELLE: I need some answers, and where is Col. Belt?

HOUSTON TECH: We can't find him and he was due here 90 minutes ago to begin payload deployment.

SHUTTLE: Uh, Houston? We're up here kind of wondering when we have to start holding our breath.

MICHELLE: We're working on it OTC.

[To the tech:]

MICHELLE: I need those calculations and I need a worst case scenario.

HOUSTON TECH: We don't know if one or both of the O2 tanks are damaged.

MICHELLE: Worst case scenario! And then I want someone to find Col. Belt.

MULDER: We'll find Col. Belt.

HOUSTON TECH: They've got thirty minutes of back up oxygen. Beyond that, it's anybody's guess.

[Mulder and Scully are walking down the hall.]

SCULLY: Why does she need Belt?

MULDER: She doesn't know how serious the leak is.

SCULLY: It's an oxygen leak. Even I can figure out what happens when you run out of oxygen.

MULDER: Col. Belt's been up there in the same situation before. He'll know better than anybody else what to do. He's got to make the decisions.

386

SCULLY: Where the hell is he?

[Outside Belt's hotel room. Mulder and Scully knock at Belt's door.]

MULDER: Col. Belt? Col. Belt!

SCULLY: I'm going to go get security.

[Belt opens the door.]

MULDER: Col. Belt. Are you all right?

BELT: Yeah. I wasn't feeling well.

MULDER: They need you down at Mission Control, sir. There's been another accident.

[Houston Mission Control.]

MICHELLE: OTC, is your orbital maneuvering system still operational?

[Belt, Mulder, and Scully enter.]

SHUTTLE: Roger, Houston. We're ready for reentry. Just say the word.

BELT: How bad's the leak?

MICHELLE: We have no way to determine.

BELT: OTC, What's the condensation in the cabin?

SHUTTLE: Windows are getting a little steamy.

MICHELLE: Carbon dioxide buildup.

BELT: Okay, OTC. Everything's going to be fine. I want you to get in your spacesuits and depressurize your cabin, and then I want you to vent that CO2.

SHUTTLE: Roger, Houston. And then what?

[Michelle and Houston Tech look worried.]

BELT: I want you to stay in your suits. And then I want you to prepare to use your emergency oxygen systems. And then I want you ... to ... deliver your payload.

MICHELLE: Those are men up there.

BELT: You're out of line. You want to tell me how to do my job? I've been up there in that situation, Miss Generoo. There's more at risk here than your personal life. And if you can't accept that or operate effectively in the circumstances then maybe you'd better leave the decisions to people in this room who can.

[Michelle leaves. Scully follows.]

BELT: OTC, do you copy?

SHUTTLE: Roger, Houston. We're waiting on those O2 calculations.

[Mulder leaves]

387

[Mulder and Scully follow a crying Michelle down the hall]

SCULLY: Michelle!

MICHELLE: They're going to die.

MULDER: You don't know that.

MICHELLE: It's absolutely unconscionable putting that payload before those men's lives.

SCULLY: I think she's right, Mulder. You saw him in there. He's losing it.

MULDER: He saved their lives earlier.

SCULLY: Did he? Or did he put their lives in unnecessary jeopardy? If he can't deliver that payload, Congress is going to kill the Space Program.

MULDER: And you think killing those astronauts isn't going to have the same effect?

SCULLY: Look, Mulder. I think somebody must have sabotaged the space shuttle because too many things have gone wrong. I think Col. Belt knows about it and he's known about it from the beginning.

MICHELLE: We have to stop him. We've got to pull them out of orbit.

[She tries to go, but Mulder grabs her]

MULDER: He doesn't want those men to die.

MICHELLE: How do you know?

MULDER: I know it. I'm sure of it.

MICHELLE: He's the one who put them up there.

MULDER: And he may be the only person who can get them down alive. Now how can you be certain that what he's doing isn't the right thing? That what he's doing isn't going to save their lives? Now I need access to your records... in a hurry.

[Michelle leads them off]

MULDER: [at computer with Computer Tech Geek with Glasses] I need everything on the Hubble Telescope, the Mars Observer, the Shuttle Challenger, and the current Orbiter mission.

CTGG: You're talking about tens of thousands of documents.

SCULLY: What exactly are we looking for?

MULDER: X-rays, diagrams, schematics - - any proof that Belt knew about a sabotage.

SCULLY: A needle in a haystack.

[Mulder and Scully are going through files. Mulder opens the Challenger file to a picture of the O ring.]

[Mission Control]

SHUTTLE: Payload deployment initiated.

HOUSTON: Roger that, OTC. Tracking it now.

388

[Footage of something coming out of shuttle.]

SHUTTLE: Looks good from here. Payload delivery is complete, Houston. We're awaiting your order.

BELT: System check for reentry deorbit burn.

SHUTTLE: Holy God! There's something outside the ship! There's someone outside the ship!

BELT: Can you repeat that, OTC?

SHUTTLE: There's some kind of .... ghost outside the ship!

BELT: [losing it] No. Nono. NonoononooooooooooOOOOOOO!!!!

[File Room]

SCULLY: Mulder, I found it. This is the same diagram that was sent to Michelle ... ordered by Col. Belt. Which means he knew about the faulty valve.

MULDER: This is from the Challenger. It's the O ring fitting that failed dated January 21, 1986. That's one week before the space shuttle blew up. And the analysis was ordered by Col. Belt.

SCULLY: Are you saying he might have known about the Challenger defect?

MULDER: Something weird is going on here, Scully.

MICHELLE: [at door] Col. Belt's collapsed.

MULDER: Where is he?

MICHELLE: He's in his office.

[They follow her out.]

[Belt's office. Mulder, Scully and Michelle enter ]

MICHELLE: He was just here.

[They find Belt crying under his desk. On the blotter is scrawled 'Help me'.]

SCULLY: Oh my God.

MICHELLE: What's wrong with him?

MULDER: Get a doctor.

BELT: Help me. Help me.

MULDER: How can we help you, Colonel?

SCULLY: He's having some kind of a seizure, Mulder.

MICHELLE: [leading EMTs in] Come on! Come on, come on!

BELT: It hurts! It's tearing me apart!

EMT1: See if I can get a pulse.

389

[They walk him to a stretcher.]

MICHELLE: I'm bringing that shuttle down.

BELT: Nooooo! It's out there.

EMT1: Easy, easy.

BELT: Spacesuits!

MULDER: Strap him down.

SCULLY: Give him 10 milligrams of Diazepam.

MULDER: No.

SCULLY: He's going to hurt himself, Mulder.

MULDER: He's trying to tell us something. Colonel Belt?

MICHELLE: Those men are up there and they're running out of oxygen.

BELT: They don't have to die.

MULDER: [holding up his finger] Colonel Belt, I want you to focus. Focus your breathing. Focus your pain. Right here.

EMT1: Blood pressure is 174 over 120.

SCULLY: Mulder, you're risking an aneurysm.

MULDER: Focus.

[Belt calms.]

MULDER: Now you're focused. Right here. Now you're going to save those astronauts and you're going to tell me how to do it.

BELT: The shuttle can't survive reentry.

MICHELLE: No, he's lying.

MULDER: How do you know it can't survive?

BELT: The fuselage...the fuselage is damaged. The silicone tiles are destroyed.

MICHELLE: How does he know?

MULDER: How has it been damaged?

BELT: I'm responsible.

MULDER: Did you sabotage the shuttle?

BELT: No, but I couldn't stop them. Nobody can stop them.

MULDER: Stop who?

EMT1: Pulse is 194.

390

SCULLY: You're going to kill him, Mulder.

MULDER: Stop who?

BELT: They don't want us to know. They don't want us to know.

MULDER: Who?

BELT: It came to me. It lives in me.

[EVA flashback]

YOUNG BELT: It's coming at me. It's coming at me! Get me out of here!

[Ghost thing invades Young Belt's body.]

YOUNG BELT: It's attacking me! Get me out!

[Back to present]

BELT: Get it out. Help me. It's coming back.

[Belt's face morphs into the Mars face.]

MICHELLE: That's the face I saw in the fog.

EMT1: We're losing him. Defib.

EMT2: [handing paddles] Here you go.

EMT1: Clear.

EMT2: Hit it.

HOUSTON TECH: [in door] They've just run out of oxygen. They've got exactly thirty minutes left in the emergency backup system.

MICHELLE: They're going to suffocate up there. I've got no choice but to bring them down. It's the only chance I've got.

[Michelle and Houston Tech leave.]

EMT1: Again.

EMT2: Okay, we got O2 standing by.

[Giving O2.]

EMT1: Hold on. We've got vitals. We've got a pulse.

SCULLY: We've got to get him to a hospital.

[Mission Control]

MICHELLE: OTC, this is Houston Mission Control. Do you copy?

SHUTTLE: Roger, Houston. We've got some spooky stuff up here.

MICHELLE: OTC, we're going to bring you down. We want you to instigate deorbit burn, and begin deceleration.

391

SHUTTLE: Roger, Houston. Kind of hoping you were going to say that. Activating OMS rockets. All systems go for reentry.

[Belt on gurney down hallway]

MULDER: They're bringing the shuttle down. You said the shuttle would burn up on reentry. Is there anything we can do to save it?

BELT: Change the trajectory.

MULDER: Change the trajectory to what?

BELT: Change the reentry trajectory to 35 degrees.

[Mulder and Scully run off.]

[Mission Control]

MISSION CONTROL: T minus 35 seconds to ionosphere reentry.

MULDER: [running in] You've to change the reentry trajectory.

MICHELLE: What?

MULDER: You've got to change it to 35 degrees.

CURLY HAIRED TECH: T minus 30 seconds to ionosphere reentry.

MULDER: Col. Belt - - -

MICHELLE: I can't.

CURLY HAIRED TECH: T minus 25 seconds.

MULDER: It's your only shot.

MICHELLE: We...we...we'd have to change the landing site, we'd have to inform them before the blackout.

CURLY HAIRED TECH: 15 seconds to blackout.

MICHELLE: I want to know what the weather conditions are in Albuquerque. Are we go for an emergency landing?

HOUSTON TECH: Weather in Albuquerque? Landing conditions go in Albuquerque.

CURLY HAIRED TECH: T minus five seconds to blackout.

MICHELLE: OTC, this is Houston. I want you to change your reentry trajectory to 35 degrees. You'll be landing at Kirtland Field in Albuquerque. Do you copy?

HOUSTON TECH: Ionosphere reentry. Temporary blackout in effect.

MICHELLE: Did they get that transmission?

CURLY HAIRED TECH: Two minutes to reestablish.

MICHELLE: Damn it.

[Red clock reads - 16:26:01...2...3]

392

MICHELLE: How much oxygen do they have?

HOUSTON TECH: 16 minutes.

MICHELLE: OTC, this is Houston. Come in, OTC.

[16:26:15...16...17]

MICHELLE: OTC, this is Houston. Come in OTC. Anything?

[Curly shakes head.]

MICHELLE: What's the point of their new reentry?

HOUSTON TECH: 500 miles west of Hawaii.

MICHELLE: See if Hawaii can get me - -

CURLY HAIRED TECH: Hawaii's picked the shuttle up on radar.

SCULLY: They made it.

HOUSTON TECH: Not necessarily.

Kirtland Air Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico

HOUSTON: Albuquerque, do you have radar confirmation?

ALBUQUERQUE: Negative, Houston. Nothing on the screen.

[Mission Control]

[Clock - 16:26:43...44...45...46]

MICHELLE: OTC, this is Houston. Come in, OTC.

[16:26:53...54...55]

MICHELLE: OTC, this is Houston. Come in, OTC.

SHUTTLE: Houston, this is OTC. You know a good place to eat in Albuquerque? Though we'd all meet for dinner.

[Everybody is happy. Mulder and Michelle share a big hug.]

HOUSTON TECH: OTC, welcome home. Welcome home, OTC. You're looking real good.

SOME GUY: Yes!

[Michelle at press conference on TV.]

MICHELLE: The space shuttle touched down today at 10:56 Central Standard Time. The Orbiter delivered its payload after just thirteen orbits and returned to Earth...without incident.

[Belt is watching the TV. He is hooked to machines in hospital.]

MICHELLE: We at NASA are looking forward to our next shuttle mission and to future successful explorations of space, for mankind, and the future of mankind.

393

[Belt's machines beep wildly, his face does the Mars morph, he rips off the tubes, fights with the ghost, yells "no" a few times, and flings himself through the glass window. Alternating images of him on EVA in space and of the street intersection below coming rapidly closer.]

[X-files office. Mulder reads obituary, "Former Astronaut Space Program Plunges to Death". Scully enters]

SCULLY: I just heard.

MULDER: Something had possessed him. Something he must have seen out there in space.

SCULLY: The doctors who examined him said he was experiencing severe dementia.

MULDER: I don't think he ever really knew exactly how it was working through him or if he ever knew that he was responsible for his own actions.

SCULLY: He ordered those x-rays of the damaged parts.

MULDER: You saw what I saw, Scully. I think he was trying to warn her. I think that he sent Michelle those x-rays like he was trying to reach out to her without quite knowing why, as if his own instinctual impulse was to save those men.

SCULLY: While simultaneously trying to kill them?

MULDER: Hey, Scully, we send those men up into space to unlock the doors of the universe, and we don't even know what's behind them. I think what ever it was, he took it with him. And in the end that was the only way he knew how to stop it.

SCULLY: There's an investigation, you know. They haven't ruled out foul play.

MULDER: He gave his own life. As an astronaut, that was something he was prepared to do.

[Military funeral. Mulder and Scully have really good seats.]

MINISTER: ...for Colonel Marcus Aurelius Belt devoted his life to the exploration and understanding of Space, learning its mysteries and experiencing it not just for himself, but for humanity. Lord, take this man's soul and let it rise up to your heavens, higher than he could ever go as a man. Let him know the true nature of the universe that he sought to learn.

[Michelle and her fiancé watch planes fly over. Michelle and Mulder have a shared look and nod. Close up of flag on coffin.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Ed Lauter (Lt. Col. Marcus Aurelius Belt) Susanna Thompson (Michelle Generoo)

Co-Starring:

Tom McBeath (Scientist) Terry David Mulligan (Mission Controller) French Tickner (Preacher) Norma Jean Wick (Reporter)

Featuring:

Alf Humphreys (2nd Controller) David Cameron (Young Scientist)

394

Tyronne L'Hirondelle (Databank Scientist) Paul DesRoches (Paramedic)

1x08 Space - notes

From "X-Files Confidential": "The conceit was taking a space shuttle up into space and saying that it was essentially hijacked by an alien," Chris Carter says. "It took a lot of research on my part, and I was under a tremendous amount of pressure to get that script done and do a lot of things that an executive producer has to do as well. I didn't know if it was going to work, and I'm still not very happy with some of the special effects in it. We were under a tremendous time crunch in postproduction. I was working until four in the morning two or three nights to make the effects right. I should mention that I was working with the guy who really means a lot to the show and added a lot to it in terms of special effects, Mat Beck, the special effects producer. He was responsible in the pilot for the wonderful vortex in the forest, which took more coordination than the invasion of Normandy. He has just continued to come through with great special effects. But we were both under time pressure here that didn't allow us to do what either of us would have liked to. "The show comes down to scripts. They have to be really right and well conceived in order to tell a good story so that you don't have to rely on the special effects. I think we've done that. 'Space' was the first time that I thought the effects didn’t live up to my expectations, but I think the rest of the episode was very strong." James Wong opines, "It was a great script and a pretty good episode. The problem came from the fact that some of the special effects were farmed out and they just didn't turn out well, so they looked cheesy and made the show less effective. I thought it was really neat the way they incorporated all the NASA footage in that episode. When I look at it, though, all I see are the problems." Noting that Carter likes to take his ideas from the newspaper, Glen Morgan points to the disappearance of the Mars Observer around the time 'Space' was being written. "Chris wanted to use that as well as the other elements that maybe we're all familiar with, such as the face on Mars," Morgan says. "Even if you're not familiar with it, you kind of learn about it from the show. I thought it was a really great idea, that thee must be a saboteur in NASA, because people must have wondered what the hell was going on. I think we maybe could have done a better job of conveying that the aliens were controlling this guy. Ed Lauter did a good job, though." Referring to the lackluster special effects job on the episode, Morgan notes that in recent years Fox has produced straight series like L.A. LAW and Picket Fences. "Suddenly they're doing an effects show and everyone thinks that you can have a regular postproduction schedule," he muses. "I think that was a nutty episode, with like four days for the effects. A lot of times you've got the show cut and you still don't know what the effects are – they run higher than you anticipated; sometimes they turn out crummy. In that case, we ran out of time and money and were stuck with some effects that didn't work. Hopefully we learned from that. I think on a show like this, when you really take chances, sometimes you're going to embarrass yourself and other times you hit a home run. You knew every week what The Commish was going to be, and it just wasn't as much fun." For Robert Goodwin, the biggest challenge of the episode was re-creating NASA Mission Control in Houston, which involved video playback and machines with techno graphics. "Because everyone has seen so much of it on TV, you had to do something worthwhile or it would become a joke. In that show, I think the art department really came through. They vacuum-formed all these computers, stations, and everything else. I thought it was all very effective. A real tour de force for the art department." About the set that became Mission Control, Graeme Murray explains: "It was an empty room in a public building her that is used, I believe, for theater presentations, that we converted. We got what photographs [of Mission Control] we could, and there's actually a fair amount of them. It's reasonably easy to re-create, like the Oval Office seems pretty easy to re-create. It was an interesting show, but a little confusing, because at the end you kind of say, 'Now what the hell was that about?' " From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Houston, Texas Back story: Chris Carter isn't entirely satisfied with this show, which was structured around the famous 'face on Mars' photograph. The producer remembers lying on the bed in his hotel room in Vancouver thinking, "Wouldn't it be weird if that face came down on me/" – the exact image duplicated in relation to Col Belt. Certain logistical constraints contributed to Carter's frustration with this installment, among them the fact that it was impossible to show the beset astronauts in the space shuttle, making it necessary to deal with all that action offscreen. "You just can't do it on an eight-day television budget," he concedes.

395

'Space' was designed in part to be an inexpensive hour – after the series had exceeded its budget on some earlier episodes – using NASA footage that could be acquired at a relatively low cost. As it turned out, constructing the large control room set ended up making this the most expensive episode of the first season. Carter admits he was a bit overwhelmed when the episode was being filmed, shooting in September as the show premiered, with reviews and other input pouring in from all sides. "Everything was happening at once," he says. "At the time we were just trying to put this balloon aloft."

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- Writer and series creator Chris Carter admitted that he wasn't entirely satisfied with this episode, which was structured around the famous "face on Mars" photograph. The producer remembered lying on the bed in his hotel room in Vancouver thinking, "Wouldn't it be weird if that face came down on me?" -- the exact image duplicated in relation to Colonel Belt.

-- Certain logistical constraints contributed to Carter's frustration with this installment, among them the fact that it was impossible to show the beset astronauts in the space shuttle, making it necessary to deal with all that action offscreen. "You just couldn't do it on an eight-day television budget," he conceded.

-- Carter wasn't happy with the special effects in "Space" in general. Mat Beck, the visual effects supervisor on the show, had only four days to create all the special effects in the episode and wasn't able to complete them all. He had to cut corners and make do where he could.

-- "Space" was designed in part to be an inexpensive hour -- after the series had exceeded its budget on some earlier episodes -- using NASA footage that could be acquired at a relatively low cost. But as it turned out, constructing the large control room set ended up making "Space" the most expensive episode of the first season.

-- In addition to this episode, Graham also directed "E.B.E." and "Travelers."

-- Lt. Colonel Marcus Aurelius Belt is most likely named for Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Roman Emperor from 161 to his death. He was the last of the "Five Good Emperors" who governed the Roman Empire from 96 to 180, and was also considered one of the most important stoic philosophers. Marcus Aurelius' work Meditations, written on campaign between 170-180, is still revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty and has been praised for its "exquisite accent and its infinite tenderness." Marcus Aurelius' principle from Meditations, "for any particular thing, ask, 'What is it in itself? What is its nature?'" was publicized in the movie The Silence of the Lambs.

-- In the teaser, Lt. Belt is shown as the Viking Orbiter Project Director in 1977, meaning that his days as an astronaut were probably done by that time. In his dream, Lt. Belt is shown on a spacewalk (using stock footage from NASA) which appears to be taking place outside a space shuttle. The first space shuttle flight was in 1981.

-- Oopsie! Michelle has her car accident in the pouring rain; yet minutes later when Mulder and Scully arrive (before her wheels have even stopped spinning), the heavy rain is gone and only a light mist remains.

-- Paging Dr. Scully! Mulder barked the order to "get a doctor" to help the seriously wigging out Colonel Belt -- yet he only needed to look to his right to find one. Moments later, after remembering that she went to medical school, Scully orders 10 milligrams of Diazepam.

-- I can't help but laugh at Mulder and His Amazingly Mystifying Hypnotizing Focus Finger! Who said he wasn't a psychologist??? (Oh, yeah. He did.)

-- Carter admitted he was a bit overwhelmed when the episode was being filmed, shooting in September as the show itself premiered, with reviews and other input pouring in from all sides. "Everything was happening at once," he said. "At the time, we were just trying to put this balloon aloft."

-- Ed Lauter (Lt. Col. Belt) is a veteran of television and film, including roles as Major Claremont in Breakheart Pass, Charles Strub in Seabiscuit, and Captain Knauer in the original version of The Longest Yard (he played Duane in the remake). Other than Burt Reynolds, he was the only actor to appear in both versions of that film.

396

-- Susanna Thompson (Michelle Generoo) went on to play the recurring role of Karen Sammler in Once and Again. She also played Judith Webster in the short-lived but critically acclaimed series The Book of Daniel.

-- Terry David Mulligan (Mission Controller #1) was a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer in Olds and Red Deer, Alberta, for four years. After leaving the Mounties, he was a radio DJ for 20 years, then became a VJ and producer on the Canadian music video cable TV channel MuchMusic. He appeared as an Interviewer in the Steven Spielberg miniseries Taken and played a reporter on the big screen in 2005's Fantastic Four.

-- Once & Future Retreads: Tom McBeath (Scientist) was Detective Gwynn in "3" and Dr. Lewton in "Teso Dos Bichos." Norma Wick (Reporter) played a Reporter in "War of the Coprophages," and a Newscaster in "Folie a Deux." Alf Humphreys (Mission Controller #2) was Dr. Pomerantz in "The Blessing Way" and Michael Asekoff in "Detour." David Cameron (Young Scientist) was also a Deputy in "Small Potatoes."

1x09 Fallen Angel - transcript

Writers: Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon Director: Larry Shaw Original airdate: 19 November 1993

Transcribed by: Deirdre Shelly Edited by Libby

Townsend, Wisconsin 12:57 a.m., Day 1

[An explosion in some woods. A police officer, driving down a road, sees this, stops and picks up his radio microphone.]

DEPUTY WRIGHT: We got a fire off county road D7. Two miles west of the Canyon Ridge intersection. Suggest we dispatch fire crews. Over.

[There's just static on the radio.]

DEPUTY WRIGHT: This is Deputy Wright. Do you copy?

[Still only static.]

DEPUTY WRIGHT: Son of a....

[He exits the vehicle and walks around it towards the explosion.]

US Space Surveillance Center Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

MALE OFFICER #1: Sir? Sorry to disturb you, sir. But we just picked up an unidentified bogey. I think you should see the replay for yourself.

[Both men walk toward the information area.]

MALE OFFICER #1: It tripped the fence at 23-17 off the coast of Connecticut, sir.

CHIEF KORETZ: Initial trajectory was north by northwest. Then it started going crazy.

COLONEL CALVIN HENDERSON: What about other craft in the area ...missile testing?

CHIEF KORETZ: Sir. No known aircraft can maneuver like this.

397

MALE OFFICER #1: Well, whatever it was dropped of the screen at 24-18, sir. Hit ground just west of Lake Michigan outside Townsend, Wisconsin.

CHIEF KORETZ: The tracking and impact-prediction team calculated impact at over 800 miles per hour.

MALE OFFICER #1: I've instructed Chief Koretz to start her report right away. Use these radar tapes to support –

HENDERSON: Negative. What she tracked was a meteor. Its aberrant movement was obviously due to instrument malfunction.

CHIEF KORETZ: But sir...

HENDERSON: Your report will reflect these facts. Is that clear?

MALE OFFICER #1: Yes, sir.

HENDERSON: Good.

[The Colonel leaves, and walks to a deserted corner. He makes a call on his cell phone.]

HENDERSON: Code indigo delta echo niner. I have a confirmed fallen angel in sector 87. Mobilize Operation Falcon Immediately.

[In the forest, a deputy is walking through woods and sees another explosion. Something appears to rush up to and past the Deputy.]

DEPUTY WRIGHT: Hello?

[The Deputy scans the woods with his flashlight. Lights of police vehicle can be seen over his shoulder in the distance. Something rushes straight up to the Deputy. Bright flashes of white light, strobe light effect as the Deputy screams.]

Budget-rest Motel Townsend, Wisconsin 12:57 a.m.

[Television news report.]

REPORTER: They will have no comment until the government investigation now under way is completed. Government officials remain vague about the toxic cargo that has caused the immediate evacuation of Townsend, Wisconsin's 12,000 residents. Speculation here has centered on a shipment of toxic waste...

[fades out.]

[Shot of Mulder in foreground checking his gun.]

[Mulder recalls a conversation with Deep Throat.]

MULDER: Then what happened out there if it wasn't a train wreck?

DEEP THROAT: Mulder, the continental United States is surrounded by an electronic fence that reaches 15,000 miles into space. We use it to track and monitor the 7,087 man-made objects that orbit the earth. Last night at 23-17 that fence was breached.

[Mulder is back in his hotel, testing his flashlight on his hand.]

398

DEEP THROAT: [continues.] This morning at 0100 Operation Falcon went into effect Led by Colonel Calvin Henderson, the Air Force's premiere reclamations expert.

MULDER: Reclamations?

DEEP THROAT: During the cold war his job was to prevent technologies from downed US aircraft from getting into Soviet hands.

MULDER: He's part of a craft retrieval unit.

DEEP THROAT: Mm. Quick response. I'd say you have 24 hours before the entire area is sanitized. After that, it will be like nothing ever happened.

[Mulder, wearing a backpack, is running through woods. He approaches a "laser" fence. He walks around what is obviously a military campsite. A helicopter flies overhead. Large trucks check in at the main gate. Military men all around.]

Operation Falcon Field Headquarters

[Colonel Henderson and a Lieutenant walk out of a tent.]

HENDERSON: You're late, Lieutenant .. It's going to be dark in a half hour.

LIEUTENANT: We had a flat outside the perimeter, sir.

HENDERSON: There's a general briefing at 2200 hours. But first go to headquarters for the live rounds.

LIEUTENANT: Live rounds, sir?

HENDERSON: You got a problem with that?

LIEUTENANT: No, sir. We were told this was just a drill.

HENDERSON: They told you wrong.

LIEUTENANT: [to soldiers in truck] OK! Everyone out! Come on, people! Light a fire!

[The soldiers exit the truck and Mulder drops from underneath the truck, and creeps into the forest.]

[Forest at night. Armed soldiers walk through on patrol. Mulder walks by, sees a light in distance and walks toward it. Approaching lit area, he crouches down. Men are yelling. Whooshing noises. Mulder sees a crash site lit with heavy lights. Men walk around crash site in protective gear and spray the area. Mulder takes photos of this scene. A man approaches Mulder from behind. Mulder turns around, and is hit in the face with a gun.]

[Inside a tent at Operation Fallen Angel headquarters. Close up shot of camera film being exposed to light.]

HENDERSON: You just made the worst mistake of your life, Agent Mulder.

MULDER: I think you knocked out a filling.

HENDERSON: I'll see to it you that pay the price for putting my men at risk.

MULDER: Since when does taking pictures put anyone's life at risk?

399

HENDERSON: You violated a US government quarantine and that's a federal crime.

MULDER: That's a quarantine? Is that what you call this?

HENDERSON: We're trying to contain an ecological disaster.

MULDER: That's a lot of firepower just to protect mother nature.

HENDERSON: I have my orders. And a license to execute them as I see fit. I suggest you forget what you saw, or what you think you saw, for your own well-being.

MULDER: You've got a downed craft in those woods, sir. And troops carrying live rounds! We both know what's out there!

[Mulder is escorted into a temporary chain-link-fence brig. There's another prisoner in the adjoining cage.]

MAX FENIG: Are you MUFON or CUFOS?

[He approaches out of the shadows. He wears a baseball cap backwards, has glasses, long blonde hair.]

MAX FENIG: Do you mind if I sit down? Let me guess, you're with that new group--CSICOP, right?

[Mulder looks away.]

MAX FENIG: Um, say no more. You're a cautious man. Trust no one. Very wise. After what happened to JFK, I understand completely.

[Mulder looks back at him.]

MAX FENIG: Oh, let me introduce myself. My name is Max Fenig. I'm with the National Investigative Committee of Arial Phenomenon...NICAP.

[He turns the baseball hat around to display the initials.]

MAX FENIG: Pleased...pleased to make your acquaintance. Wish we could shake on it, you know. Firm grip, look you right in the eye. You learn a lot about a guy that way.

[Mulder looks away.]

MAX FENIG: Hey, uh... Can I ask you a question?

MULDER: Go ahead.

MAX FENIG: Did you see anything? Did you get close? Me, I saw nothing.

[He talks loudly to anyone who may be listening.]

MAX FENIG: I didn't see anything!

[To Mulder.]

MAX FENIG: Nada, zip. Hundred yards past the road block they nailed me. I have no idea how they did it. I'm telling you it's like the Roswell cover-up all over again.

MULDER: What makes you so sure that something's out there?

MAX FENIG: [laughs] Same thing that makes you so sure?

400

[Dawn at camp. An empty bunk in a cell. In the next cell, Mulder is seemingly asleep as the door opens and Scully enters.]

MULDER: I didn't order room service.

SCULLY: This isn't funny, Mulder.

MULDER: Did you meet Max?

SCULLY: Who?

MULDER: Max from NICAP.

[He looks at the empty bunk in the next cell.]

MULDER: Oh, they must have released him. Another intrepid soul in search of a close encounter.

SCULLY: Is that what this is about?

MULDER: What else?

SCULLY: Try explaining that to Section Chief McGrath. He stepped over Blevins, ordering a full inquiry. With a recommendation...Mulder he wants to shut down the X-files. And he wants you out of the Bureau.

MULDER: What else is new?

SCULLY: I don't understand you, Mulder. Why you're always defying protocol. Ignoring jurisdiction...

MULDER: Because I know what I saw, Scully. There were no train tracks anywhere near that site. So how could it have been a derailed container?

SCULLY: Because it wasn't. What you saw was not a toxic spill. But it wasn't a UFO either.

MULDER: OK. I'm all ears. What was it?

SCULLY: It was a downed Libyan jet with a nuclear warhead.

[Mulder laughs.]

MULDER: Over US air space...

SCULLY: They'd been picking up low grade levels of radiation indicating that the plutonium casing may have cracked. So to avoid mass panic...

MULDER: You really believe that story?

SCULLY: That story happens to be highly classified.

MULDER: A highly classified lie.

[Helicopter passes overhead.]

MULDER: They're searching for someone, Scully.

SCULLY: If they're searching for anyone, it's probably the pilot.

401

MULDER: You think they'd roll out all this material for one Libyan fighter jock?

[pause.]

MULDER: Besides, no human pilot walked away from the wreckage I saw.

SCULLY: Well, maybe he ejected.

MULDER: Maybe.

[Predator-like figure, i.e. see-through, yet produces a visible aura, approaches the laser fence. It pauses outside it as military truck drives down a nearby road. Then the figure runs through laser fence, and across the road behind the truck.]

[Mulder and Scully walk from their car to a motel door.]

SCULLY: You can't be serious!

MULDER: As long as we're here in beautiful downtown Townsend, why not?

SCULLY: Mulder, the hearing is tomorrow morning at ten o'clock.

MULDER: That gives us 24 hours to investigate.

SCULLY: My assignment is to bring you back, not to help you dig yourself in deeper.

MULDER: "The Last Detail" starring Dana Scully.

[Both enter the motel room. The room is a mess. The phone is off the hook.]

SCULLY: What's going on?

MULDER: Looks like housekeeping hasn't been here yet.

SCULLY: Who would...

MULDER: sssh...

[There's a noise from bathroom. Both draw guns and approach the bathroom. Entering bathroom both see the rear legs of a man sticking out as he tries to fit through the bathroom window.]

MULDER: Max?

SCULLY: Get your hands up!

MAX FENIG: Whoa. Don't shoot. Don't shoot.

MULDER: Max?

MAX FENIG: [Takes off hat.] Ahem..

[Mulder brings Max into the bedroom, sits him on the bed.]

MAX FENIG: My apologies. Forgive me please. I'm a curious man. I had to know..

MULDER: Know what?

402

MAX FENIG: If it was really you.

MULDER: But you don't know me. Last night was the first time we've laid eyes on each other.

MAX FENIG: Not true. We at NICAP have been following your career really closely. Ever since you became involved with the X- files.

MULDER: Following my career? How?

MAX FENIG: Through the Freedom of Information Act. Your travel expenses are a matter of public record.

[He pauses and looks at Scully.]

MAX FENIG: So, this must be the enigmatic Agent Scully.

[Max moves toward her extending his hand, Mulder pushes him back onto the bed.]

MULDER: How did you recognize me?

MAX FENIG: I saw your picture in a trade publication once. And, of course, I read your article in Omni about the Gulf Breeze sightings.

MULDER: I published that under a pseudonym.

MAX FENIG: M.F. Luder. I know. M.F. Luder is an anagram for F. Mulder. You really didn't think that would fool us did you?

MULDER: I didn't think anybody was really paying attention.

MAX FENIG: Somebody's always paying attention, Mr. Mulder.

SCULLY: A-mazing.

MAX FENIG: Amazing? Hardly. Hey, you want to see something amazing, come with me.

[He heads out of the motel room.]

MULDER: [looking at Scully.] Enigmatic Dr. Scully.

[Max leads them to a trailer in the motel parking lot.]

MAX FENIG: This is my, uh...Right this way.

[Inside the trailer. Max begins to search for something. A police radio is on. Scully looks around.]

MAX FENIG: Excuse the mess. Okay. Where's those, uh...Let me turn this off. They're right here. Oh, here they are. The latest crop circle photos from Project Argus. Huh? Your opinion, fact or fraud.

MULDER: Fraud.

MAX FENIG: How do you explain the anomalous blisters on the plants?

MULDER: It's either some unreported weathering effect common to wheat or a systematic reaction by the plant tissue to being lodged in one position.

[Scully notices some medication on a shelf. She picks up one prescription and reads it: Mellaril.]

MAX FENIG: [to Mulder] I see you've read the literature.

403

MULDER: I try to keep up.

MAX FENIG: What about the...

MULDER: Max! You said you had something to show us.

MAX FENIG: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[All three approach some electronic equipment.]

MAX FENIG: The Wolf's Ear 2000. Did you ever hear of this?

SCULLY: Yeah. Wolf Industries supplies the CIA with all of its surveillance equipment.

MAX FENIG: State of the art, search and intercept. Up to 100 channels per second. Currently I'm jacked into local fire and police departments, cellular phone pathways, and when the weather's right sometimes even air traffic control from Whitmarsh Air Force Base.

MULDER: What have you got, Max?

MAX FENIG: Mobil Unit Broadcast. In Scan Mode. Townsend Sheriff's department. Two nights ago.

[Max presses the play button.]

RECORDING: We got a fire off county road D7. Two miles west of the Canyon Ridge intersection. Suggest we dispatch fire crews, over? This is Deputy Wright. Do you copy?

MAX FENIG: And then this. 35 minutes later. Presumably from the fire crew. Reception got wiggy for some reason.

RECORDING: This is unit 53. Man down. Request medivac. I said request medivac! You're breaking up! Bad. Very bad. Wait a second. What the hell? Charlie, we've got a situation here!

[Back in Operation Falcon Headquarters.]

HENDERSON: [on phone] We put up a tight net.

[pause]

HENDERSON: Yes sir. Every inch of ground is being covered, dug up, squeezed and sifted.

[pause]

HENDERSON: No, sir. It will not get away. Not this time.

Mills Road High School Emergency Evacuation Centre 6:27 p.m., Day 2

[People are scattered on cots in a make-shift evacuation center. Mulder and Scully enter and walk to a woman and her young son.]

MULDER: Mrs. Wright? Hi. I'm Fox Mulder. This is Dana Scully. We're from the FBI. We'd like to ask you a few questions about your husband.

MRS. WRIGHT: He's dead. What else is there to know?

404

[She walks away toward an empty cot with her son.]

SCULLY: I'm sorry about your husband.

MRS. WRIGHT: Oh, please.

SCULLY: Mrs. Wright, we want to help you.

MRS. WRIGHT: Then leave me alone.

MULDER: Why won't you let us help you?

MRS. WRIGHT: I don't know anything!

[She looks from one agent to another, then sits down.]

MRS. WRIGHT: Don't you understand? They won't even release the body so I can give him a proper burial. OK?

SCULLY: The government can't do that. I'm sure if we appealed to...

MRS. WRIGHT: No!

SCULLY: You're entitled to the truth.

MRS. WRIGHT: I can't afford the truth. They said that if I spoke to anyone, they would withhold my husband's pension. And I have a child to take care of.

[The lights go out in the evacuation centre.]

US Microwave Substation B21

[Colonel Henderson has earphones on. Suddenly there's a high pitched screech and he pulls the earphones off.]

MILITARY POLICEMAN: Picking up extremely high frequency signal -- 200,000 Megahertz.

[static screeching]

MILITARY POLICEMAN: Sir, target. On the northeast side, footspeed -- seven miles per hour, sir.

HENDERSON: [speaking into headset] Beta team.

BETA TEAM LEADER: [on radio] Copy.

HENDERSON: [into headset] Target entering your section from the southwest. Search and destroy. Repeat, search and destroy.

BETA TEAM LEADER: [on radio] Yes, sir!

[Two teams of two men apiece in tactical gear. Guns drawn, surveying area around a concrete building. Looking around, and up to ceiling. The two teams split up in opposite directions, but keeping visual contact.]

BETA TEAM LEADER: Jackson?

JACKSON: Nothing.

405

[Looks to other team. Team leader shakes head--no. Something approaches Beta Team Leader and Jackson, then draws back and heads toward other team.]

BETA TEAM LEADER: Must have been an animal.

[Other team. Something approaches them. There's a bright white light. Both teams are knocked to the ground.]

County Hospital Townsend, Wisconsin 11:42 p.m.

DR. OPPENHEIM: I'm sorry, but unless you have a subpoena I can't discuss patient information.

SCULLY: Does that mean Jason Wright was your patient?

DR. OPPENHEIM: It means I have nothing more to say about this.

MULDER: What about to his wife and child, Doctor? Would you have anything to say to them? Because whoever got to you also got to her. They must have made some pretty big threats. What did they hold over your head? Your medical license, the IRS?

DR. OPPENHEIM: I hate fascists.

MULDER: Excuse me?

DR. OPPENHEIM: The men who came in here. The way they pushed us all around.

MULDER: Dr. Oppenheim. Tell us about the deputy. You saw him that night, didn't you?

DR. OPPENHEIM: Yes. And three others from the fire crew. They were all DOA with 5th and 6th degree burns over 90 percent of their bodies. But they weren't like any burns I've ever seen. And they took the bodies away before we could perform any pathology.

SCULLY: Did you note any cadaveric heat rigor or heat stiffening?

DR. OPPENHEIM: Yes, actually there was quite a bit of flexion in the limbs. How do you know so much about it?

SCULLY: I did my residency in forensic medicine.

MULDER: Doctor, in your opinion, could those burns have been caused by ionizing radiation?

DR. OPPENHEIM: Well, I hadn't thought...I suppose it's possible. If the exposure was sufficiently intense.

[Mulder and Scully walk down a hallway. Over the hospital PA a voice say: Code Five. All available teams and nonessential... The transmission fades out.]

SCULLY: Let's say those men died from radiation exposure. Couldn't it have been from the cracked core of a nuclear warhead?

MULDER: I've read about these kinds of burns, Scully.

SCULLY: Yeah, so have I. In Hiroshima at ground zero.

MULDER: I'm talking about close encounter mortalities. I have a stack of X-files reporting the same clinical results.

SCULLY: Mulder, I don't claim to know all the answers, but if we don't make the OPR inquest by tomorrow morning, there may not be any more X-files.

406

[Sudden commotion as men in military uniform are brought in on stretchers. Men have severe burns and are in pain. Colonel Henderson follows them in, looking directly at Mulder as he passes.]

[Scully and Mulder back in emergency room with Dr. Oppenheim and Colonel Henderson. Military men lay on gurneys in various places in the ER. Medical personnel scurry around frantically. Dr. Oppenheim is checking on a burn patient wearing a military uniform.]

DR. OPPENHEIM: Start an IV here stat. D5, half normal saline at 150.

MULDER: [to the Colonel] Tell us what happened out there?

HENDERSON: Whatever happened, Mulder, it has nothing to do with you.

MULDER: Wrong, colonel. We both want the same thing. Only you want it dead. Can't you see that by chasing it down like an animal you leave it no choice but to defend itself? How many more people have to die before you rethink your approach?

[A member of the ER team says: Are we going to get anybody from ICU in here. We need help.]

HENDERSON: Listen to me. 'Cause I'm not wasting another breath on this. If you and your partner aren't out of here in 30 seconds...

DR. OPPENHEIM: Agent Scully stays right here. We're undermanned. She's a medical doctor. She stays. [to Scully.] If that's OK with you.

SCULLY: Of course, I...

HENDERSON: Doctor, if you don't mind, you just take care of my men, and let me do my work, OK?

DR. OPPENHEIM: Outside this emergency room, you can do whatever you want, But in here I call the shots. Assuming of course, you want me to take care of your men.

HENDERSON: [pauses a moment] Get this man out of my sight!

[Nods to Mulder.]

SCULLY: Where do I scrub up?

[Mulder is led out.]

[Motel parking lot. Mulder gets out of his car and heads to Max's trailer.]

MULDER: Max?

[He knocks on the trailer door.]

MULDER: Hey, Max. Max?

[Mulder goes into the trailer and finds Max lying on the floor in convulsions. Mulder tries to hold him still. The convulsions eventually subside.]

MULDER: Hey... Max.

MAX FENIG: Who...who are you?

MULDER: Max.. It's me. Fox Mulder.. Are you OK?

407

MAX FENIG: What are you doing here?

MULDER: You were having some kind of seizure.

MAX FENIG: Seizure? That's impossible.

MULDER: You were lying on the floor. Unconscious. Convulsing.

MAX FENIG: That's odd. I haven't had an episode in seven years. Not since I went on medication.

MULDER: Let's get you to the hospital.

MAX FENIG: No! I mean, I mean it's not necessary.

MULDER: Are you sure?

MAX FENIG: Yeah. I've lived with epilepsy all my life. I'm not in any danger.

[Mulder gets a glass of water and gives it to Max.]

MAX FENIG: Yeah. It started in South Dakota when I was ten. The doctor said I must have incurred a head injury. I don't remember ever hitting my head.

MULDER: When you have a seizure, you have no memory of it?

MAX FENIG: As a kid I used to wake up in strange places with no idea where I was, or how I got there.

[He sighs.]

MAX FENIG: Sorry I...

[He hands Mulder the glass of water.]

MAX FENIG: I've got to go sleep.

MULDER: All right.

[Mulder helps him to bed. As Max lies down, Mulder notices a V-shaped scar behind his ear.]

[Mulder is back in his motel room, studying X-files. He's reading a typed page:.]

...... The mouth shows... There is malalignment of the ... in the left posterior triangle... has a 3 cm scar below the acromion prosthesis for intravenous injections right subclavian vein and superior uncomplicated. Venipunctures... antecubital fossa. The... with fine bruises.

[He then looks at photographs of other people showing V-shaped scars behind their ears.]

[Scully enters, sighing.]

MULDER: Rough night, huh?

408

SCULLY: It was terrible. We lost all but two. They're still in critical condition on their way to the burn unit at Johns Hopkins.

MULDER: So what do you think, Scully? What's going on out there?

SCULLY: I don't know. And under other circumstances, I would like to find out, but we have a plane to catch in just over an hour...

[She heads toward the door.]

MULDER: I want you to take a look at something first.

SCULLY: What?

[She turns around.]

MULDER: Max. There's an unusual incision behind his left ear. I've seen this incision twice before. Two women. A thousand miles apart. No way of knowing each other. No relation. Both claim to have been abducted by aliens.

SCULLY: Are you saying Max Fenig is an abductee? Mulder, the man is taking powerful anti-psychotic drugs. I saw them in his RV.

MULDER: They're for his epilepsy.

SCULLY: Not all of them. Dilantin is an anti-convulsant, but Mellaril is used exclusively to treat schizophrenia. More than likely, Max is delusional.

MULDER: You don't seem to understand, Scully. Max doesn't believe he was abducted by aliens, I believe he was. Now could you at least take a look at the scar, and give me you medical opinion?

SCULLY: Okay. You pack. I'll take a look at Max...on the way to the airport.

[In the Space Surveillance Center in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado.]

CHIEF KORETZ: Sir, I have flash traffic at 24-18. Repeated calls for ID go unanswered. And it's not in the orbital or suborbital inventory.

MALE OFFICER #2: 24-18. Isn't that where...

CHIEF KORETZ: Same exact spot sir. Though I am reading a much larger craft his time.

MALE OFFICER #2: Meteor, Ms. Koretz.

CHIEF KORETZ: A much larger meteor, sir.

ON RADIO: Whitmarsh Tracking SSC. We have a bogey.

CHIEF KORETZ: Hold on a second.

[She puts her hand to her earpiece.]

CHIEF KORETZ: We have a confirm. Whitmarsh Air Force Base is tracking...

MALE OFFICER #2: Where is it?

CHIEF KORETZ: Well, sir. The "meteor" seems to be hovering over a small town in Eastern Wisconsin.

409

[Overhead shot of Max's trailer. Something enters through the roof vent. Max is in bed, asleep on his left side. Blood trickles out of his right ear. He lifts his head. Blood is also on the pillow. He opens his eyes. There's a bright white light.]

[Scully has put some luggage in the trunk of the car. Mulder comes out of the motel room.]

SCULLY: Come on, Mulder. Let's get this over with.

[Mulder goes over to Max's trailer and knocks on the door.]

MULDER: Hey, Max.

[He opens trailer door.]

MULDER: Max!

[Inside the trailer, the radio scanner chatters.]

MULDER: Max?

SCULLY: Mulder, look at this.

[She points to blood on the pillow.]

MULDER: What is that, blood?

[He stands in front of scanner, looking and listening.]

SCANNER: Repeat. Falcon Dock 7 patrol reporting unidentified trespass at the waterfront.

[Mulder looks at Scully, and leaves the trailer.]

SCULLY: Mulder!

MULDER: Come on.

[He heads towards the car.]

SCULLY: Where do you think you are going? Look, if we go to the airport right now, we might make the plane. Which would at least give you half a chance of defending yourself.

MULDER: Think about it, Scully. Max is a gypsy, a nomad, right?

SCULLY: Yeah, so what?

MULDER: So he intercepted Deputy Wright's last call to his dispatcher. Which means he was here in Townsend, Wisconsin the night of the crash. Of all the places he could have been, he was right here. Don't you think that's more than a coincidence. If Max was abducted that would go a long way to explaining his obsessions. And if we've figured it out, you can be sure Colonel Henderson has as well. Do you have the keys?

[Scully hands over the car keys.]

Lake Michigan Waterfront Dock 7

410

[Max Fenig walks along the dock, right hand holding his ear, panting. Two men in military jeep pull up.]

MAX FENIG: Don't do this.

ARMY GUY: [into radio] Sir, we've apprehended the target. It's just a civilian.

HENDERSON: Negative, Falcon patrol. Take him with extreme caution.

[Mulder and Scully drive along the dock but stop when they see an empty jeep. They run to the other side of the jeep and see two soldiers lying on the ground, smoke pouring from them.]

SCULLY: They're dead.

[They hear screams from a nearby warehouse and run inside where they find Max.]

MAX FENIG: It hurts. Stop. Why, why, why? It hurts.

MULDER: Max?

MAX FENIG: It hurts. It hurts.

MULDER: Max. It's all right.

MAX FENIG: It hurts. Stop it. No, no. It's me they...

[A helicopter can be heard overhead.]

MAX FENIG: They're coming for me. Now I know....They're coming for me.

[Mulder motions to the helicopter and Scully goes toward the warehouse dorr. Outside the warehouse, military jeeps and transport vehicles pull up. Colonel Henderson gets out of a jeep.]

HENDERSON: Alpha team, secure the roof.

[Scully exits the warehouse.]

SOLDIER: [to Scully] Hold it right there. Put your hands up, and come with us.

[Scully is escorted by two men in fatigues to Colonel Henderson. Two men in blue uniforms seen placing plastique on the large loading dock doors.]

ALPHA TEAM LEADER: [on radio] Alpha team ready on the roof.

HENDERSON: [into radio] Roger, alpha. Delta team report.

DELTA TEAM LEADER: [on radio] Delta team in position, sir.

SCULLY: [to Colonel Henderson] What are you doing? You have a very sick man in there.

HENDERSON: We're not in the hospital now, Dr. Scully.

HENDERSON: [into radio] Omega team report.

OMEGA TEAM LEADER: [on radio] Omega Team in position.

411

SCULLY: He's a delusional schizophrenic.

HENDERSON: Keep her clear!

ALPHA TEAM LEADER: [on radio] Sir, this is Alpha Team Leader.

[The leader is looking through a heat-source sensing device.]

ALPHA TEAM LEADER: [on radio] I'm picking up three forms inside the structure.

HENDERSON: [into radio] Did you say three forms?

ALPHA TEAM LEADER: [on radio] That's affirmative. Two are proximate. The third approaching from forty meters.

HENDERSON: All teams prepare for go in thirty seconds.

[Inside the warehouse.]

MULDER: Come on. Come on, Max.

MAX FENIG: Why... Stop. Why?

MULDER: I'm here to help you.

MAX FENIG: I'm scared.

MULDER: I know.

MAX FENIG: Don't let them take me.

MULDER: I won't let them take you. Come on, Max. Come with me.

[Max sees something behind Mulder.]

MAX FENIG: No!!

[Something rushes in towards Max and Mulder. There's a buzz of electricity and Mulder is thrown clear. When he stands up, Max is gone.]

MULDER: Max! Max!

[Mulder limps off in another direction.]

MULDER: Max!

[Mulder sees Max suspended in a light in the middle of the warehouse. His feet aren't touching the ground. With explosive sound, light gets brighter. Max begins to shake. Mulder watches until light gets too bright. Light washes out.]

[Outside the warehouse.]

ALPHA TEAM LEADER: [on radio] Sir, this is Alpha team leader. Except for our men, I'm only picking one figure inside.

HENDERSON: I do not copy that.

ALPHA TEAM LEADER: We indicate only one figure inside the building.

SCULLY: What?!

412

HENDERSON: Blow the door!

[Plastique blows off door. Men enter running. Mulder limps over to the place where Max was. He picks up Max's NICAP hat which is lying on the floor.]

HENDERSON: Where is he?

MULDER: He's gone. They got to him first. They beat us, Colonel.

HENDERSON: Arrest him...and keep looking.

FBI Headquarters Washington, DC Office Of Professional Responsibility Hearing 10:17 a.m., Day 4

[Scully sits at one end of a long table. Section Chief McGrath, a stenographer, and two other men in suits are sitting at the far end.]

McGRATH: Agent Scully, to the best of your knowledge was Agent Mulder ever assigned to investigate matters related to the evacuation of Townsend, Wisconsin?

SCULLY: No, sir.

McGRATH: At any time were you aware of his submitting a form 302 requesting said assignment or travel expenses?

SCULLY: No, sir.

McGRATH: While in Wisconsin, did Agent Mulder drive a blue Ford Taurus registered to the state car rental agency.

SCULLY: Yes.

McGRATH: Thank you, Agent Scully.

SCULLY: Sir. Request permission to make a statement.

McGRATH: Request denied.

SCULLY: Sir, it's unfair to judge Mulder by the same criteria...

McGRATH: You're dismissed Agent Scully.

SCULLY: But sir, I...

McGRATH: That will be all.

[Scully stands up and leaves the room.]

[Outside the room, Mulder sits on a bench in the hallway, reading a newspaper. Crutches lean against the wall behind him. Scully exits from the room into the hallway.]

MULDER: Do you hear that noise, Scully?

[He picks up the crutches.]

MULDER: Hammer and nails. They're building a gallows in the town square. Don't worry.

[Scully bends down, picking up a large envelope from the bench.]

413

MULDER: It was only a matter of time.

[Scully hands the envelope to Mulder.]

MULDER: I'm surprised I lasted this long.

SCULLY: Good luck.

MULDER: [limping on crutches] I'll break a leg.

[Scully watches Mulder enter the room. She picks up the newspaper and reads a story: "Toxic Clean Up a Success – Wisconsin residents allowed back to their homes".]

[Inside the room.]

McGRATH: ...as well as insubordination and misconduct. How do you respond to these allegations, Agent Mulder?

MULDER: Over a dozen men lost their lives and you want me to respond to issues of protocol?

McGRATH: You failed to obtain proper authorization for your actions.

MULDER: Because I knew it wouldn't be forthcoming.

McGRATH: You also violated a federal quarantine....

MULDER: [raising his voice] A cover-up was underway...

McGRATH: [also raising his voice] ...exposing yourself and possibly others to toxic contamination.

MULDER: [yelling] Oh, toxic contamination? Are we back on that? You read my report, explain the disappearance of Max Fenig.

McGRATH: Your report is not the subject of this inquiry...

MULDER: I have further evidence to support my conclusions – X-rays taken while Mr. Fenig was institutionalized show an object lodged in his cerebellum.

[He holds up the envelope.]

McGRATH: That is irrelevant, Agent Mulder.

MULDER: The man was abducted. We all know it. Everybody in this room knows it.

McGRATH: [increasingly agitated] Colonel Henderson's written testimony states that Fenig's body was found two hours later in a cargo container.

MULDER: Then what can I say?

[He stands up.]

MULDER: How can I disprove lies that are stamped with an official seal?

McGRATH: That will be all, Mr. Mulder.

MULDER: You can deny all the things I've seen. All the things I've discovered. But not for much longer. Because too many others know what's happening out there. And no one, no government agency has jurisdiction over the truth.

[He takes hold of the crutches, picks up the envelope, and leaves.]

414

[Outside an office building. Section chief McGrath strides up to Deep Throat.]

McGRATH: Why did you countermand our decision? Mulder's conduct was in clear violation not only of bureau procedures but of federal law.

DEEP THROAT: Yes.

McGRATH: I don't understand. The committee's case was air tight. You've ruined the last best chance we had to get rid of him.

DEEP THROAT: I appreciate your frustration, but you and I both know Mulder's work is a singular passion-- poses a most unique dilemma. But his occasional insubordination is, in the end, far less dangerous.

McGRATH: With respect sir, less dangerous than what?

DEEP THROAT: Than having him exposed to the wrong people. What he knows...[laughs]... what he thinks he knows... [sighs] Always keep your friends close, Mr. McGrath... but keep your enemies closer.

[He walks off.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest starring:

Frederick Coffin (Chief Joseph McGrath) Marshall Bell (Colonel Henderson) Scott Bellis (Max Fenig) and Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat)

Co-Starring:

Brent Stait (Corp. Taylor) Alvin Sanders (Dep. Sheriff J. Wright) Sheila Paterson (Gina Watkins) Tony Pantages (Lt. Fraser) Freda Perry (Mrs. Wright) Michael Rogers (Lt. Griffin)v William McDonald (Dr. Oppenheim) Jane MacDougall (Laura Dalton) Kimberly Unger (Karen Koretz)

1x09 Fallen Angel - notes

Video box set commentary by Chris Carter:

I think in the Fallen Angel episode, Max Fenig represented a kind of kook that we all believe is out there, saying look up in the sky, it's up there, it's out there. And Mulder and Scully run into him and treat him as such, but I think that it's a journey for Mulder and Scully to see, and for the audience to see, that these people who are crying wolf might be doing it for a reason. So I think that was an interesting look into that kind of character out there and the fact that they may be credible and may be

415 seeing and knowing things that we don't. So Max Fenig actually became a very popular character who was abducted at the end of the episode, may actually return some day.

Bright Lights and Smoke

There are, I think there are certain images in it that stand out for me; the men at the crash site, or what is not supposed to be a crash site, going over it with instruments and the smoke and the bright glare that Mulder is documenting with his camera before he gets taken by the troops.

My Own Twisted Imagination

People ask me where I get the ideas for the alien abductions and things and what do I read, and I tell them that I actually don't read anything any more because whatever I imagine, someone has imagined before me. There is nothing that hasn't, that is out there, that someone hasn't been thunk up before. And so I don't have to go that far for my material, I just go into the sort of twisted, my own sort of twisted imagination. And there is research done, the idea of implants is a pervasive one in the world of believers of extra-terrestrial life and alien abductions and so are the marks, bruises and scars left from experiments done by these extra-terrestrial forces. So these were real things, and when we say actual documented accounts in the Pilot, it's true. It's an amalgam of bits and pieces of stories and information that I gathered by reading about alien abduction.

What You Don't See ...

I always think that what you don't see is actually scarier than what you do see. You need a good other-worldly effect or else it's going to look like a Monster Of The Week. As soon as you create a monster, you give it shape, you've defined it, and then you can know it or you can catch it. But something that is invisible as energy, pure energy, is much more interesting, I think, certainly as a paranormal story, than something that is very real and has a, you know, a fur coat or, you know, a waggy tail.

From "X-Files Confidential": "Right away we established that there was a cover story, that this town was being evacuated based on a supposed toxic spill," Howard Gordon explains. "This, of course, played right into the paranoid aspect of the show. And it was a pretty straight-ahead story, with Mulder operating covertly in a quarantine zone. It's an episode we're proud of. Alex and I like to dig our teeth into a character that interests us, where there's some emotional resonance. Scot Bellis was one of those discoveries we get sometimes in casting." Notes Chris Carter with a wry smile, "Everyone keeps saying, 'This is my favorite episode.' I think we were helped by the great direction of Larry Shaw. And actor Marshall Bell, who played Henderson, was also great. I think it was very suspenseful right out of the box. You were headlong into the story and it never let up until the end. We also got to expand Deep Throat's involvement, raising the question that he may not be what he appears to be. I think it really played into an expansion of his character – who he is and why he's doing this, all of which was explored later. I think the episode had great effects, and it enlarged our alien repertoire." Of Deep Throat, Gordon adds: "We took the character and pushed him forward a step. Is he ally or foe? We weren't sure at that point ourselves what he has, and we thought we'd couch it in the demise of the X-Files. So we had a frame within a frame that we worked in." Robert Goodwin remembers writing a memo on the episode about the several sequences where the alien is on the loose and is invisible. "You really can't see it," Goodwin says, "and then he goes through a laser beam that's up as protection around this Army base. As he goes through, the base buzzes and he becomes visible. Mat Beck, who does our visual effects, needed to create this thing as something actually there which he could take with his visual effects afterwards and completely change its appearance. But at least it gives him something to start with. Here's a memo I wrote on the show: 'Page 15. Shape that distinguishes itself. The effect we are after here is that as the alien moves towards the laser beams, we see its hazy aura approaching. As it crosses through the laser beams we'll see its central anthropological shape. It's a dinosaur-like shape with a large head, a humped back, wing-like webbed limbs as opposed to arms, and long skinny legs. It moves like a dinosaur. To achieve this effect, Mat Beck needs an image of this creature on film that he can morph and distort in postproduction. He says the best color would be orange, so we need to hire a woman who can move well (probably a dancer) and create an orange-colored, hump-backed, big- headed, webbed-armed, pointy-butted outfit for her.' And that's exactly what we did. If you could see the dailies of this woman in this orange outfit with a bicycle hat, her arms pinned back, humped over and stuffed full of pillows, you would be hysterical. It was the craziest thing you've ever seen. But the final effect was very good." According to Carter, the invisibility of the extraterrestrial was quite deliberate. "I always think what you don't see is scarier than what you do see," he explains. "You need a good otherwordly effect; otherwise it's going to look like a monster of the week. As

416 soon as you create a monster and give it shape, you can know it or you can catch it. Something invisible is much more interesting. Certainly more than something that is very real and has a fur coat or a wagging tail." From a design standpoint, Graeme Murray recalls: "We did what was supposed to be a mountaintop surveillance center in Colorado that was seen in the opening of the show. It was a wall set with no walls to it that was really just kind of plunked into the middle of a black stage and we put up pieces of glass and made reflections of computer monitors and dials and gauges and that kind of thing and tried to build a set that didn't have any boundaries to it. In kid of the flipside to 'Ice', which was one set, this was a whole bunch of different, interesting things. It's the only time we've done a UFO crash, although you weren't really sure if it was a UFO or an airplane crash." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Townsend, Wisconsin Back story: In a sense the character of Max Fenig and his NICAP organization represent a sort of precursor to the Lone Gunmen, and the episode also foreshadows the eventual shutdown of the X-Files at the end of the season, even though the writers "hadn't the slightest clue" that would eventually occur, according to producer Howard Gordon. Gordon says the point was "to remind the audience what Scully was there for in the first place" – namely, to act as a skeptic counterbalancing Mulder's devoted belief in the paranormal and, from the Bureau's perspective, where possible to discredit his work. Casting director Lynne Carrow considers Canadian actor Scott Bellis, who played Fenig, to be perhaps her proudest 'find' in terms of casting the show. Gordon says there's frequently a bias toward casting actors from Los Angeles in lead roles, so when a Vancouver local lands such a part "you know they came in and just knocked our socks off," as Bellis did. Gone but not forgotten, the producers still talk about finding another role for the actor or even bringing him back as Max. After all, Gordon notes, "Abductees get returned." Technically, thin piano wires were used to suspend Bellis in the air during the abduction sequence, without using any postproduction effects. Margin note: Deep Throat's warning to Mulder is a quote from Don Corleone, in The Godfather. "Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer."

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- Episode title: According to the episode, a "fallen angel" was the code that the military used to describe a downed unidentified flying object (UFO).

-- In a sense, the character of Max Fenig and the NICAP organization represented a sort of precursor to the Lone Gunmen, and the episode also foreshadowed the eventual shutdown of the X-Files at the end of the season, even though the writers "hadn't the slightest clue" that would eventually occur, according to producer and co-writer of this episode Howard Gordon.

-- Gordon said the point of "Fallen Angel" was "to remind the audience what Scully was there for in the first place" -- namely, to act as a skeptic counterbalancing Mulder's devoted belief in the paranormal and, from the Bureau's perspective, to discredit his work where possible.

-- Casting director Lynne Carrow considered Canadian actor Scott Bellis, who played abductee Max Fenig, to be perhaps her proudest "find" in terms of casting the show. Gordon said there was frequently a bias toward casting actors from Los Angeles in lead roles, so when a Vancouver local landed such a part, "you knew they came in and just knocked our socks off," as Bellis did.

-- Scott Bellis said his instructions for playing Max Fenig were to make the audience like the character. "They told me to make him neurotic," Bellis said, "but not in an aggressive way that made him seem dangerous and dark."

-- "We all know this type of guy," said Chris Carter. "Is he a kook -- or a Cassandra?" [Cassandra was a figure in Greek mythology, a prophet. Apollo fell in love with her and granted her the gift of prophecy; however, since she did not love him back, he cursed the gift by having no one believe her prophecies.]

-- "It was an important leap for Mulder and Scully to realize that he might not be crying 'the sky is falling,' that he might be on to something," Carter continued. "Another important element in 'Fallen Angel' was the invisible alien being. I've always believed that what you don't see is scarier than what you do see. And we've always wanted to avoid the 'monster of the week' syndrome. The translucent force field in 'Fallen Angel' is much more malevolent than something that has fangs or a fur coat or a waggly tail. This episode also contained an important narrative element. When Scully came to Mulder and said, 'They're going

417 to shut us down,' the idea that the X-Files project could be terminated from above at any time resonated from that moment forward, a critical part of the narrative tension."

-- Oopsie? The legend at the beginning of the teaser read "Townsend, WI, 12:57 a.m., Day 1," and showed police officers preparing to investigate a crash of something in the woods. After the teaser, when Mulder is shown getting ready to investigate the crash, the legend reads Budgetrest Motel, Townsend, WI, 12:57 a.m. During the scene, flashbacks of Deep Throat giving Mulder information about the crash were shown, and Deep Throat told Mulder he had 24 hours to investigate. The duplicate legend made it appear that Mulder was already in Wisconsin when the crash occurred.

-- As Max told Mulder in the episode, his UFO group NICAP stood for National Investigative Committee of Aerial Phenomena. Max asked Mulder if he was a member of MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) which viewers learned more about in Season 3, CUFOS (the Center for UFO Studies), or CSICOP (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal). Interestingly, CSICOP encourages the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and disseminates factual information about the results of such inquiries to the scientific community and the public. (Sounds like the perfect organization for Scully).

-- Visual effects producer Mat Beck recalled that one of the funniest sequences the crew ever had to work with on the show was in "Fallen Angel," which included a monster that could not be seen (Carter's invisible alien being mentioned above). "We said, okay, if it's in a green forest, let's put that person in an orange suit and I'll be able to extract that person and put in something that's kind of mysterious," Beck recalled. "It was supposed to be this kind of lithe, dangerous, raptor-like creature, and it ended up being a dancer in this bright orange body sock contraption, wearing finds and a hump on her back."

-- "The film that we got back, on the day they shot this rubber-suited thing, was so funny," said producer Paul Rabwin. "I could hear laughter coming from different screening rooms all across the lot." The orange rubber monster can be seen in the Season 1 gag reel.

-- "'The Last Detail' starring Dana Scully." The Last Detail was a 1973 movie starring Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, and Randy Quaid. The film told the story of two U.S. Navy shore patrol policemen who decided to take out a young sailor for one last night on the town before he had to go to jail for eight years.

-- "Fallen Angel" was the episode that shared the information that Mulder published at least one article (in Omni magazine about the Gulf Breeze sightings) under the pseudonym M. F. Luder, an anagram for F. Mulder. It also gave Scully the nickname, "The Enigmatic Dr. Scully."

-- In the summer of 1992, Project Argus, mentioned by Max to Mulder, investigated one of the most remarkable mysteries of the century -- the sudden and baffling appearance of hundreds of huge, magnificent shapes dubbed "crop circles" in the fields of England each summer. The goal of previous investigations was to record a crop circle event at the moment of formation. None succeeded as their organizers had hoped, although all came up with a small amount of equivocal data which could be interpreted as "hints" that a non-hoaxes phenomenon had been observed.

-- Project Argus had the different objective of making a minute and extensive study of the soil and crops after the event had occurred. Without requiring prior assumptions about the agent which might be at work, it made a sustained and well- instrumented investigation of a large number of events, undeterred by the probability that some would be hoaxes (and indeed, sampling from known and suspected hoaxes for comparison). Briefly stated, the project's goal was to learn if some crop circles exhibited physical effects which would be difficult, if not impossible, to generate by casual human activity.

-- Dr. Oppenheim said that victims of the fire crew had "fifth and sixth degree burns over 90 percent of their bodies." In classical medical literature, there were six degrees of burns, but generally, only the first three degrees are still commonly used by the public. First degree burns involve damage only to the epidermis. Second degree burns extend through the entire epidermis and part of the dermis. Third degree burns damage the entire skin -- that is, all of the dermis and epidermis. Burns that injure the tissues underlying the skin, such as the muscles or bones, are sometimes characterized as fourth-degree burns. Fourth degree burns are additionally broken down into three additional degrees: fourth-degree burns resulting in the skin being irretrievably lost, in fifth-degree burns the muscle is irretrievably lost, and in sixth-degree burns the bone is charred. A newer classification of "Superficial Thickness," "Partial Thickness" (which is divided into superficial and deep categories), and "Full Thickness" relates more precisely to the epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous layers of skin and is used to guide treatment and predict outcome.

-- When Max had an epileptic seizure, Mulder straddled him and held him still. However, generally one should not restrain an epileptic during a seizure as the person could hurt themselves.

418

-- Oopsie! When Mulder helped Max lie down he noticed the scar behind Max's right ear, but when he told Scully about it later, he said that the scar was behind Max's left ear.

-- Scully said that Mellaril was used exclusively to treat schizophrenia, but Mellaril (Thioridazine) is taken for several types of psychic disorders such as anxiety, insomnia, depression, and behavioral disorders in children.

-- While pursuing Max, upon examining the crispy military men, Gillian Anderson delivered the hilarious line, "They're done!", a highlight of the Season 1 gag reel.

-- Thin piano wires were used to suspend Bellis in the air during Max's abduction sequence; no postproduction effects were used.

-- Deep Throat's comment to Section Chief McGrath about Mulder was a quote from Don Corleone in The Godfather: "Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer." The line foreshadowed the fact that Deep Throat's relationship to Mulder may not have been exactly what Mulder thought it was.

-- Chris Carter submitted Scott Bellis for a guest actor Emmy nomination for his role as Max Fenig in "Fallen Angel."

-- As soon as the episode was completed, the producers were already discussing the possibility of finding another part for Bellis or bringing him back as Max. After all, Gordon noted, "Abductees get returned." But in spite of the talk of more work for Bellis on the show, the phone never rang. So several times over the next couple of years, he auditioned for small parts on the show. But no dice. Chris Carter told him that people's memories of Max Fenig were just too strong.

-- Eventually, Bellis stopped auditioning for The X-Files. He frequently ran into David Duchovny at the gym, and Duchovny provided encouraging conversations with Bellis that something was in the works for him to return to the show. He also heard rumors from other show staffers that Max Fenig might eventually resurface. The rumors proved correct, and in November 1996 the producers notified Bellis's agent that they wanted him to guest star as Max in the Season 4 two-parter "Tempus Fugit/Max."

-- Scott Bellis spent the summer of 2006 playing Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

-- In addition to this episode, Larry Shaw also directed "Fire." He serves as a producer on and has directed 17 episodes of Desperate Housewives, including the supermarket hostage episode that aired on November 5.

-- Marshall Bell (Commander Calvin Henderson) appeared in the final episode of The Larry Sanders Show entitled "Flip," playing Mark Not the Sound Guy. David Duchovny (doing his Sharon Stone impression) appeared in the same episode as himself.

-- Inexplicably, "Fallen Angel" was the lowest rated episode of Season 1 and the lowest rated episode of the series, earning a 5.4 rating.

-- Once & Future Retreads: Scott Bellis played Max Fenig in this episode and in "Tempus Fugit/Max." Brent Stait (Corporal Taylor) played Timothy Mayhew in "Tunguska/Terma." Alvin Sanders (Deputy Jason Wright) played the Bus Driver in "F. Emasculata." Sheila Paterson (Gina Watkins) played Anna Fugazzi in "Emily." Michael Rogers (Lt. Griffin) was Crewman #1 in "Colony." William MacDonald (Dr. Oppenheim) was a Federal Marshall in "The Host," Agent Kazanjian in "2SHY," Officer Trott in "Unruhe," and Deputy Buddy Riggs in "Chinga." Kimberly Unger (Karen Koretz) was Joan Gauthier in "Piper Maru."

1x10 Eve - transcript

Writers: Kenneth Biller and Chris Brancato Director: Fred Gerber Original airdate: 10 December 1993

Transcribed by: JRBLilac Edited by Libby

419

Greenwich, Connecticut

[A nice upper-class neighborhood. Autumn leaves are on the ground. A couple, Ted and Donna Watkins, jog along the road and look over at a white two-storey house.]

DONNA: What's she doing there by herself?

[There is a little girl, Teena Simmons, who is standing at the end of the driveway of the white house holding a big stuffed bunny. They jog to her.]

TED: Teena?

DONNA: Honey?

[She reaches out to Teena.]

DONNA: You're freezing. Where's your jacket?

TED: Where's your Daddy?

TEENA: In the yard. He told me he needed some time to himself.

TED: I'd say his time's up.

DONNA: Come on, Honey. I'm sure he wouldn't want you to catch cold.

[They go to the back yard. There is a man sitting in the backyard swing. Ted talks to him as he walks up to the swing.]

TED: Joel? Hey, Joel... The swing set's supposed to be for your daughter, not for you.

[He touches Joel who falls to the side. He's pure white, has a ghost look on his face, glazed eyes and has two puncture marks on his neck. Teena screams.]

TED: I'll call 911.

TEENA: Daddy?

[main titles]

FBI Headquarters Washington D.C.

[Scully and Mulder are in their office. Mulder is looking at slides.]

SCULLY: Death by hypovolemia. 75% blood loss. That's over 4 liters of blood.

MULDER: You could say the man was running on empty.

SCULLY: The man's daughter, 8 years old, was away from his side for no more than 10 minutes. She doesn't remember anything. There was no trace evidence to be found at the crime scene.

MULDER: Any evidence would have been washed away by yesterday's rain.

SCULLY: Oh, there were two small puncture wounds in the jugular.

MULDER: Are you at all familiar with the phenomenon of cattle mutilations?

420

SCULLY: Hmm?

[He goes to the slide projector and shows slides of mutilated cattle to Scully as he talks.]

MULDER: Since 1967, over 34 states have reported unsolved cases of cattle mutilations. The trace evidence is remarkably similar. Incision marks of surgical precision. The area around the mouth, and often the sexual organs, has been removed. There's a substantial degree of blood loss without a trace of blood at the scene.

SCULLY: How can that be?

MULDER: Exsanguination. If you were to stick a needle into the jugular of any living creature, the heart itself would act as a pump. These animals have had their jugulars punctured in the same way as the man from Greenwich, Connecticut. Only this is the first time I've ever seen it on a human being.

SCULLY: But there was no sign of a struggle. I mean, how could a man just sit through a blood letting?

MULDER: The ME found traces of digitalis, that's a South American plant that can be used as a paralytic drug.

SCULLY: Wait a minute. These X-Files indicate this is a UFO-related phenomenon. Often there are sightings in the sky near the incidences, surface burns.

MULDER: Witnesses often report time loss. We've seen this in abduction cases. That might explain why the girl can't remember anything.

SCULLY: Mulder, why would alien beings travel light years to Earth in order to play doctor on cattle?

MULDER: For the same reason we cut up frogs and monkeys. Besides, they seem to have stepped up their interest.

[Mulder points to the slide of the father, Joel, and his puncture wounds on his neck.]

Fairfield County Social Services Hostel Greenwich, Connecticut

[Teena is sitting on a bed. A social worker leads Mulder and Scully through a hall and up some stairs.]

SOCIAL WORKER: Her mother passed away from ovarian cancer two years ago. There's no other family. We'll keep Teena here until we can place her with a foster family.

MULDER: Has she spoken about it?

SOCIAL WORKER: No. Not a word.

MULDER: Any nightmares?

SOCIAL WORKER: No. At least, not that I know of.

[They get to a door with a round window and look in.]

SCULLY: Can we talk to her now?

[They knock on Teena's door and open it. Teena is holding a stuffed bunny. Scully sits on Teena's bed. Mulder sits in a chair.]

SOCIAL WORKER: Teena? These are the people we talked about. This is Miss Scully and Mr. Mulder. Do you think you can talk to them?

[Teena nods and the social worker leaves the room.]

421

SCULLY: Hi. I know you must be feeling very sad right now. And scared. But we want to find out what happened so we can help stop whoever hurt your daddy. Okay?

[Teena nods.]

SCULLY: Okay. Did you ever see any strangers with your daddy at home?

[Teena shakes her head no.]

SCULLY: Did you ever see anyone yell at your daddy or your daddy yell at them?

TEENA: No.

SCULLY: Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt your daddy?

TEENA: No.

MULDER: That's a nice bunny, Teena. Can we talk about what happened that day? About what happened in the back yard? Yeah?

[Teena nods.]

MULDER: Yeah? Do you remember any strange sounds or lights or anything like that?

TEENA: There was red lightning.

MULDER: Can you tell me more about the red lightning?

TEENA: I can't remember. It all went dark.

MULDER: Had you ever seen anything like that before?

[Teena nods.]

MULDER: You have? When?

TEENA: The men from the clouds, they were after my Dad.

[Scully's phone rings. She answers it away from the bed and Mulder and Teena.]

SCULLY: Scully. Where?

MULDER: Why were these men after your Dad?

TEENA: They wanted to exsanguinate him.

[Mulder looks at Teena with surprise that such a little girl would know such a word.]

SCULLY: Mulder.

[Mulder joins Scully.]

SCULLY: There's been another one.

Reardon Crime Scene Marin County, California

422

[In a back yard of a similar home as the Greenwich house, a back yard swing set is shown. Mulder and Scully walk in from the driveway. Scully is holding a file.]

MULDER: It's like looking at a mirror image.

SCULLY: The victim, Doug Reardon, was married with one daughter. Cause of death, hypovolemia. Mulder, this is uncanny. They also found traces of the poison digitalis.

MULDER: Puncture wounds?

SCULLY: Uh... yes. On the jugular. Time of death was estimated at 2:30 p.m. Same day, only three hours earlier than the Simmons murder.

MULDER: That's Pacific Standard Time. That makes it the exact same moment.

SCULLY: It appears as if we have two serial killers working in tandem.

MULDER: No. Serial killers rarely work in pairs. And when they do, they kill together not separately.

SCULLY: Mulder, nothing beyond your leading questions to Teena Simmons substantiates a UFO mutilation theory.

MULDER: Was Reardon's daughter here when he was murdered?

[She looks in the file again. ]

SCULLY: Yes... The police report states that she remembers nothing. Uh... she's with her mother and family in Sacramento.

MULDER: When will they be back?

[She reads again.]

SCULLY: Tomorrow.

MULDER: Even money... she'll remember red lightning.

Fairfield County Social Services Hostel 12:35 am E.S.T.

[It is night. There is a storm outside. Lightning and thunder. Teena is in bed. She is holding her stuffed bunny. She lifts her head off the pillow. She looks at the window in the door and gets out of bed. She checks through the window in the door if someone is in the hall. She pushes a chair in front of it. Someone on the other side of the door is trying to break in. Teena runs to the french doors to the outside but the panic bar is stuck. She hides under the bed. Someone smashes down the door. Teena tries to make a break for it into the hall. A figure grabs her arm. Teena screams. Thunder and lightning pounding. The social worker runs into the room.]

SOCIAL WORKER: Teena? Teena? Teena!

[All that remains is Teena's stuffed bunny by the open french door. Rain beating down on it.]

Reardon Crime Scene Marin County, California

[Mulder and Scully get out of the car and talk as they get to the house.]

SCULLY: She was kidnapped from the Social Services Home around 11 p.m. last night. Looks like someone was afraid she might remember too much.

423

MULDER: Someone or something, Scully.

SCULLY: Connecticut State Troopers set up road blocks within half an hour. Nothing.

MULDER: Maybe they weren't looking in the right direction.

[He points up.]

SCULLY: I told them to contact us in case they find her.

[Mulder knocks on the door. It opens. Standing there is a little girl that looks exactly like Teena Simmons. Mulder and Scully just stare at her for a second.]

SCULLY: Teena?

CINDY: No.

SCULLY: What's your name?

CINDY: Cindy Reardon.

MULDER: You live here, Cindy?

CINDY: Ever since I was born, eight years ago.

[Inside, Cindy is watching cartoons as Mulder and Scully watch her from a distance. Cindy picks up the remote and turns the channel to a news conference about the signing of a government bill. She puts the remote down. She's interested. Scully looks at Mulder as Mrs. Reardon enters with tea cups.]

MULDER: Cindy really is a beautiful little girl, Mrs. Reardon.

MRS. REARDON: Doug and I wanted to spoil her. We wanted to protect her from everything horrible in the world. She was daddy's little girl.

[She starts to softly cry.]

MULDER: Is she an only child?

[Mrs. Reardon nods.]

SCULLY: May I ask... Was Cindy adopted?

MRS. REARDON: No. I gave birth to her at San Rafael General.

[Cindy listens to what they are saying.]

SCULLY: So, I assume you have all the proper documentation. Birth certificate...

MRS. REARDON: Of course I do.

MULDER: Was she the only child delivered at that birth?

MRS. REARDON: What the hell kind of question is that? Look, I have told the police everything I know.

[Mulder shows Mrs. Reardon a picture of Teena and Mr. Simmons.]

MULDER: Mrs. Reardon, have you ever seen this man before?

424

MRS. REARDON: This... is this your suspect?

MULDER: No.

MRS. REARDON: Did he do something to Cindy?

MULDER: No... he... he didn't...

SCULLY: No. Mrs. Reardon. This is not your daughter. That girl's name is Teena Simmons. She lives 3,000 miles away in Greenwich, Connecticut. That man, her father, was killed in the same manner as your husband.

MRS. REARDON: Cindy is my daughter. I can show you videos of her birth. We tried for six years to become pregnant.

MULDER: In vitro fertilization?

[She nods.]

MULDER: At which clinic?

MRS. REARDON: Luther Stapes Center. Down in San Francisco.

MULDER: Thanks.

[Clearly, Cindy has heard everything.]

[Scully and Mulder leave the house and talk on the way to the car.]

SCULLY: Do you still believe this is UFO related? Cindy Reardon didn't see red lightning.

MULDER: I don't know. The only thing similar about these girls does seem to be their appearance.

SCULLY: Well, there is the random possibility that two people can have an unrelated likeness.

MULDER: Who both just happened to see their father's exsanguinated. I'd like to get the odds on that in Vegas.

[Mulder and Scully get in the car.]

SCULLY: The girls are the one and only link between identical murders.

MULDER: One girl was just abducted.

SCULLY: Kidnapped.

MULDER: Potayto, potahto.

[Mulder stops the car.]

SCULLY: Where are you going?

MULDER: If the murders were committed by the same person or persons and part of the pattern involves kidnaping the daughter...

SCULLY: Then you'd expect the pattern to continue.

425

MULDER: I'm going to keep an eye on the girl. You check out the clinic. See if the Simmons were enrolled in the same fertility program.

[He opens the door and gets out.]

SCULLY: Okay. I'll call the San Francisco bureau and get someone to relieve you.

MULDER: Okay.

[He shuts the door.]

Luther Stapes Center For Reproductive Medicine

[A doctor, Dr. Katz, and Scully walk up the stairs and talk.]

DR. KATZ: In-vitro fertilization is a procedure in which we can implement fertilization, an implantation of the embryo into the uterus.

SCULLY: Could a patient believe she was receiving her own eggs but actually receive another without her knowledge?

DR. KATZ: Not here. We have very strict controls.

SCULLY: Are you ever aware of having patients by the name of Claudia and Joel Simmons?

DR. KATZ: Any information about our patients is confidential. That's our policy.

SCULLY: Both the Simmons are dead. And their daughter has been kidnapped. I'd say any information you have that could help overrides your policy.

[In Dr. Katz's office. Scully is looking at a file and reads.]

SCULLY: You had copies of their records transferred to Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1991. They came here nine years ago under the supervision of a Dr. Sally Kendrick?

[Dr. Katz doesn't answer.]

SCULLY: Is there a problem?

DR. KATZ: Dr. Kendrick was nothing but a problem.

[They watch a video tape of Sally Kendrick giving a lecture. She is sharp looking and professional. Wearing a lab coat and in an office. She smiles as she talks.]

SALLY KENDRICK ON TAPE: Hello. And welcome to the Luther Stapes Center for Reproductive Medicine.

[She sits on the desk.]

SALLY KENDRICK ON TAPE: I'm Dr. Sally Kendrick, a specialist in the exciting field of in vitro fertilization.

DR. KATZ: She was a resident here in 1985. Brilliant. First in her class at Yale Med where she got her MD after completing her doctorate in biogenetics. We were thrilled to get her.

SCULLY: And now you don't sound so thrilled.

DR. KATZ: We have reason to believe that Dr. Kendrick was tampering with genetic material that was fertilized over in the lab prior to implant. Experimenting with eugenics.

SCULLY: Did you report this to the AMA?

426

DR. KATZ: Of course. And I fired her. I also requested an investigation from the U.S. Health Department.

SCULLY: And what happened?

DR. KATZ: The AMA censured her. My request for an investigation was denied. Dr. Kendrick disappeared.

DR. KENDRICK: [on tape] We know the pain of infertility and we are ready to help. In the next half hour, I'll guide you through...

[The tape melds into another TV and VCR showing the same tape with Scully's voice over.]

[In a hotel room, Mulder and Scully are sitting on the end of a bed watching the tape. Scully talks over the tape.]

SCULLY: Kendrick was the supervising physician in both the Reardon's and the Simmons' IVF program. It seems she was experimenting at the clinic.

MULDER: Maybe now she's trying to erase the results?

[They watch the tape again.]

DR. KENDRICK: [on tape] ... can't guarantee everyone's success, but with our scientific advances, a little luck, and a lot of hope... miracles can happen.

SCULLY: Well, she must have had an accomplice in order to have done both murders.

MULDER: So you think this is a vendetta that she and a colleague have against the Stapes Center?

[The phone rings. Scully goes to answer it.]

SCULLY: Mulder, does this mean you've abandoned your UFO connection?

SCULLY: [into phone] Hello?

[There's two clicks on the phone.]

SCULLY: Hello?

[She hangs up.]

SCULLY: Just a couple of clicks. Must be the wrong number.

MULDER: I'll tell you what... I'm going to sleep on it and we'll talk about it in the morning.

[He guides her to the door.]

SCULLY: Mulder, you're rushing me out of the room.

MULDER: No, I'm not.

SCULLY: You have a girl coming over?

MULDER: What's a girl?

[He opens the door.]

MULDER: I got a movie I want to watch on TV. Sleep tight. See you in the morning.

427

[At another location, Mulder waits and looks around. He walks by some bushes and hears Deep Throat's voice. He stops.]

DEEP THROAT: Are you certain she hasn't followed you?

MULDER: Yes. What are you doing here?

[Deep Throat comes out of the bushes and they walk as they talk.]

DEEP THROAT: Well, I thought we might take in a Warriors game. Actually I was just in the neighborhood... Wondered if I have ever told you about the Litchfield Experiments.

MULDER: No you haven't.

DEEP THROAT: Well, it was a most interesting project. Highest level of classification. All records have since been destroyed. And those who knew of it will deny knowledge of its existence. In the early sixties, during the height of the cold war, we got wind the Russians were fooling around with eugenics. Rather primitively, I might add. Trying to crossbreed their top scientists, athletes, you name it, to come up with the superior soldier. Naturally, we jumped on the band wagon.

Whiting Institute For The Criminally Insane

[Deep Throat's voice over continues as we see the outside of the institute that looks like a prison.]

MULDER VOICE OVER: The Litchfield Experiment.

DEEP THROAT VOICE OVER: A group of genetically controlled children were raised and monitored on a compound in Litchfield. The boys were called Adam and the girls were called Eve. There's a woman you should see and I'll make sure that you can get in.

[Next day. Scully and Mulder at the Institute. They go to a desk to sign in.]

MULDER: Agents Mulder and Scully, here to see Eve 6.

GUARD: Deposit your fire arms.

[They do.]

GUARD: Sign for these.

[He puts two contraptions on the desk.]

MULDER: What are those?

GUARD: Panic buttons. Can't let you inside without one.

[They are being led through a series of corridors, stairs and cages. All metal and mesh. Lots of shouts and groans from inmates. They stop by a cell door. The female security guard gives them both flashlights.]

SCULLY: Why the flashlights?

GUARD: She screams and screams if we turn the overheads on. No one's ever got a real good look at her.

[Mulder and Scully are going to go into the cell.]

GUARD: We'll be right outside.

[Inside the cell, Mulder and Scully turn the flashlights on. It's a dirty cell with garbage all over. Padded walls.]

428

MULDER: Hello?

[They see Eve 6, wearing shackles, crouching in the corner on a mattress. She has dirty hair and yellow teeth. There are pictures on the wall.]

EVE 6: Well it looks like you got what you're looking for. One of us at least.

SCULLY: Sally Kendrick...

EVE 6: Unlock the chains. Then we'll talk.

MULDER: They're probably there for a good reason.

EVE 6: No. Bad reason. I paid too much attention to a guard. Bit into his eyeball.

[She giggles and makes gnashing sounds.]

EVE 6: I meant it as a sign of affection.

[She laughs.]

EVE 6: You here to give me an IQ test by any chance? I think I can top 265. We're very bright, we Eves. It runs in the family.

MULDER: Where are the others? The Adams and the Eves?

EVE 6: We're prone to suicide. All that's left is me. And Eve 7, she escaped early on. And Eve 8, she escaped 10 years later.

SCULLY: Are you Sally Kendrick?

EVE 6: That's not my name. But she is me and I am her and we are all together.

[She thinks this is funny too.]

SCULLY: Did you work for the Luther Stapes Center for Reproductive Medicine in 1985?

EVE 6: 1985?! I've been tied up like this for two years and for what reason? No reason, I did nothing. I'm just me. They made me. But did they suffer? No. No. I suffer. I suffer! They keep me alive for the Litchfield Project , they come in... they test me, they poke me... to see what went wrong. Sally knows what went wrong.

[She was almost spitting out the words. She points to them as best she can with her hands tied.]

EVE 6: You and you. You have 46 chromosomes. The Adams made the Eves ... we have 56. We have extra chromosomes. Number 4, 5, 12, 16, and 22. This replication of chromosomes also produces additional genes. Heightened strength. Heightened intelligence.

MULDER: Heightened psychosis.

EVE 6: Saved the best for last.

[She looks at them.]

EVE 6: You don't believe me. I have proof. Look on the wall. My family album.

[One of the pictures on the wall is of many clones of Teena and Cindy by a swing set.]

SCULLY: My God. It's the girls.

EVE 6: We were close. We were very close.

429

MULDER: Dr. Kendrick was using the clinic to carry on the Litchfield Experiment. She was cloning herself.

[In the Reardon house, there are religious picture on the wall. We hear Cindy's voice over reciting a prayer.]

CINDY VOICE OVER: Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord, my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake...

[She is bent by the bed and her mother is watching her while sitting on the bed.]

CINDY VOICE OVER: I pray the Lord my soul to take. God bless Grandma and Grandpa Stenner, Irma and Irmapop, and God bless Mom, and please take care of Daddy up in heaven.

MRS. REARDON: You're such a special little girl, Cindy.

[She tucks her into bed.]

MRS. REARDON: Good night, Honey.

[Outside the house, Mulder and Scully are in the car watching the house. They see the upstairs light is turned off.]

MULDER: If Eve 6 is right and there are two other Eves out there, that could account for the two identical murders occurring at exactly the same time. Sally Kendrick does have an accomplice. Herself.

SCULLY: Until I heard that, I was beginning to suspect the girls.

MULDER: No. No, no, no. It seems the two remaining Eves are doing away with the parents in order to keep Teena and Cindy in the family.

[Cindy's Room: The lights are off and Cindy gets out of bed. Scully looks at Cindy's window through binoculars. Cindy is standing at the window.]

SCULLY: Do you suppose these girls have any idea of what they are?

MULDER: I hope not.

[A bright light appears in Cindy's room. Scully sees this through her binoculars.]

SCULLY: Mulder, let's go.

[Cindy's Room: The closet fills with light and the doors open. Light floods the room. Cindy turns around and someone comes out of the closet and takes Cindy's arm.]

MULDER: I'll take the back.

[They take off in different directions. Mulder goes around the side of the house on the driveway with his flashlight and gun.]

[Inside the house, the lights are off and Scully walks through the house with her gun poised. She meets up with Mrs. Reardon.]

SCULLY: There's someone upstairs, wait outside.

[Outside the house, Mulder comes around to the back yard.]

[Inside the house, Scully gets to the top of the stairs and is blind-sided. She is knocked down by a force.]

[Outside the house, the patio door bursts and a woman holding Cindy comes out of the house. Mulder points his gun.]

430

MULDER: FBI. I'm armed.

[Kendrick is holding Cindy, stops and looks at him. She's wearing a dark sweatshirt with the hood over her head.]

MULDER: Which one are you? Eve 7 or Eve 8?

[Kendrick points a gun at Cindy's head.]

KENDRICK: Drop it. You know I'm capable. Slow. Very slow.

[Mulder puts his gun on the ground. Kendrick takes off and Mulder stoops to pick up his gun and follows her. Kendrick has put Cindy in the car. As Mulder runs out to the street, Kendrick fires a shot at him and he ducks back into the garden. She starts up the car and he runs after it as it takes off down the street.]

[Scully is talking to a cop filling out a report.]

SCULLY: The suspect's name is Sally Kendrick. Early 40's, 5'8, 135 pounds. Now she may have an accomplice, similar in appearance. Kendrick is driving a light blue '93 Corolla. She has exceptional strength for her size. So you must consider her armed and dangerous. Quite possibly she'll display severe psychotic behavior. The Oakland Bureau was here to orchestrate a search across the bridge.

[She leaves the cop and joins Mrs. Reardon wrapped in a blanket and Mulder.]

MRS. REARDON: What if she kills her? First Doug, now Cindy.

MULDER: Mrs. Reardon, the fact that Kendrick and her accomplice murdered the fathers and abducted the girls tells us that they want them alive. I'm sure Cindy's alive and we'll find her.

[Mrs. Reardon walks away crying.]

SCULLY: And then what do we do?

Pt. Reyes National Seashore 40 Miles North Of San Francisco

[A vacancy sign is lit with a car driving up to the hotel. The manager does gardening and watches as the car parks and a woman, Kendrick gets out and walks into a motel room with Cindy.]

KENDRICK: I'm sorry you have to meet this way. But it's the best for all concerned.

[Kendrick opens the bathroom door. Teena is sitting on the closed toilet seat, bound and gagged. Cindy waits by the door. Kendrick removes Teena's gag.]

KENDRICK: Teena Simmons, meet Cindy Reardon.

[The two girls look each other over and smile.]

[In the Reardon house, Scully and Mulder come downstairs. A female cop meets them. Mulder is on his cell phone.]

COP: Agent Scully? They found the Corolla in the parking lot at San Francisco International.

SCULLY: Oh, good, okay. I want you to start a check on every single passenger list for every flight that left the terminal within the past twelve hours. I want you to check every single terminal and make sure she's not hiding out for a later flight. And remember, she may have an accomplice.

431

[Mulder hangs up.]

MULDER: That was a motel manager in Port Reyes that says he's got a guest that matches Sally Kendrick's description.

SCULLY: We just found the car at the airport.

MULDER: She might have ditched it. The manager says this woman checked in with a little girl. That she leaves the hotel in the afternoon by herself, is gone all night and then returns with the little girl.

SCULLY: Someone else could have picked up the girl without the manager knowing about it. I mean, the area is a place full of vacationing families. There could be hundreds of little kids running around.

MULDER: No, he remembers this kid. She told him he should use chlorine to eradicate the dinoflagellates in the swimming pool. Does that sound like someone we know?

SCULLY: That's it.

[In the motel, Kendrick prepares fast food for them and sits at the table with the girls.]

KENDRICK: I've always kept a close eye on your behavior. No matter where I was. The last few years I spent in search of the remaining Eve. That however was cut short by your... activity. I'd hoped my work at the Stapes Center had corrected the Litchfield flaws. Psychotic behavior didn't develop in the Adams and Eves until age 16. Homicidal behavior... at 20. Imagine my... disappointment when I learned of your... accelerated development. How did you learn of each other's existence?

TEENA OR CINDY: We just knew.

KENDRICK: Did you discuss how you would orchestrate your little... prank?

TEENA OR CINDY: We just knew.

KENDRICK: Why murder your fathers?

TEENA OR CINDY: They weren't our fathers.

THE OTHER ONE: We have no parents.

THE FIRST ONE: We weren't born.

THE OTHER ONE: We were created.

KENDRICK: You cannot think that way. You're human beings. Different, special, but you cannot give into genetic destiny. That's why I've taken you. I was raised by a man who knew what I was. He was a genetic engineer on the project. With the... proper environment, and a program... of long term medication... you can become like me... and not the other Eves...

[She is breathing heavy. She starts shaking. The girls smile at each other. Kendrick gets up and is about to throw up.]

KENDRICK: What... what have you done?

TEENA OR CINDY: Your soda...

THE OTHER ONE: 4 ounces of foxglove...

THE FIRST ONE: ...extracted from a digitalis plant...

[The other one makes a measurement of about a half inch between her pointing finger and thumb.]

432

THE OTHER ONE: This much is a lethal dose.

THE FIRST ONE: We cultivated them ourselves.

KENDRICK: Wh... why?

TEENA OR CINDY: You tell us.

THE OTHER ONE: You made us.

THE FIRST ONE: We're your mistake.

[Kendrick grabs a knife from the counter top. ]

KENDRICK: I'll correct that mistake.

[Mulder and Scully arrive at the motel. Cops are already there, one in the front seat of his car. Mulder and Scully walk to him and he gets out.]

COP: I waited like you told me. No one's come in or out that I can tell.

[They hear the sound of glass smashing.]

COP: Get the back!

[The other officers run to the back of the motel. The cop and Mulder and Scully go to the front door, which Mulder kicks open. They enter and see Kendrick on the floor. Mulder looks both ways out the open window as Scully checks for a pulse. Then Scully sees the girls huddled in a corner.]

TEENA OR CINDY: We were all supposed to drink but we only pretended to drink it.

OTHER ONE: They tried to poison us.

SCULLY: Who's they?

OTHER ONE: Her and another lady.

[The girls hug, scared.]

MULDER: What did the other lady look like?

[They point at the dead Kendrick on the floor.]

MULDER: Eve 8. They were working together.

SCULLY: It's alright. We'll take care of you. You're safe with us.

[A sheet is put over Kendrick. Scully picks up a glass from the table. She looks at it and hands it to Mulder.]

SCULLY: Looks like the Eves mixed about 4 ounces of digitalis in each glass.

MULDER: Their own mini Jonestown. Eve 6 said they were prone to suicide.

SCULLY: It has a sweet flavor. It's probably not even perceptible in soda.

433

[A cop comes up to them.]

COP: We're still searching the area but so far there's no sign of the other suspect. We'll have an officer take the girls back.

MULDER: No, maybe it would be best if we took responsibility for the girls.

SCULLY: We could get them checked out by a doctor.

COP: Okay, whatever.

[Outside, Scully walks to the girls.]

SCULLY: Come on, girls, we're going to take you back.

TEENA: Back where?

CINDY: What's going to happen to Teena?

MULDER: We'll talk about it in the car, OK?

[The girls get in the back seat.]

SCULLY: They've already grown so attached. It's going to be hard when Teena's placed in foster care.

MULDER: Yeah.

[Mulder and Scully get in.]

[Later. Mulder is driving. Scully is in front passenger seat and the girls in the back. The girls look at each other.]

TEENA OR CINDY: Agent Mulder, I have to go to the bathroom.

OTHER ONE: Me too.

MULDER: Can you hold it?

FIRST ONE: I really need to go.

SCULLY: I could use some caffeine.

[They drive up to a truck stop. Inside, they walk up to the counter. There's a waitress behind the counter.]

MULDER: Hi. Where's your bathrooms?

WAITRESS: In the back. You'll need a key.

[She hands them to him.]

MULDER: Thanks.

[He gives the woman's key to Scully and turns back to the counter.]

MULDER: Oh, can I get four diet sodas?

TEENA AND CINDY: Regular.

434

MULDER: All right, two diet and two regular. To go. Please. Thanks.

[Scully and the girls go to the woman's restroom.]

TEENA OR CINDY VOICE OVER: Agent Scully, my door's stuck.

SCULLY VOICE OVER: Just a second.

[The other girl leaves and goes to the counter and takes two of the drinks. The waitress stops her.]

WAITRESS: Just a minute.

TEENA OR CINDY: That's okay. My dad will pay for them when he gets out of the bathroom.

[She brings the drinks to a table and puts poison in them. Mulder comes up behind her.]

MULDER: Those are the diet?

[She points to two drinks.]

TEENA OR CINDY: I think these are.

[He throws the car key onto the table. He takes a drink.]

MULDER: Are you sure? It's really sweet. Try it.

TEENA OR CINDY: I know it's diet. I saw her pour it.

MULDER: Okay.

[Scully and the other girl comes out.]

SCULLY: Let's go.

MULDER: Come on.

[He gives a drink to Scully and puts his hand on the back of the girl and they walk to the door. Scully and the other girl go outside.]

TEENA OR CINDY: Don't forget the drinks.

[Mulder and the girl come back to counter to pay for them.]

MULDER: How much?

WAITRESS: Five dollars.

[Mulder gives money to the girl.]

MULDER: You want to pay?

TEENA OR CINDY: Sure.

MULDER: You got those?

[The girls picks up the other two drinks.]

MULDER: Thanks.

435

[They walk to the door.]

[Outside, they all walk towards the car. Scully takes a drink.]

SCULLY: Um, tastes syrupy.

[Mulder pats his pockets.]

MULDER: Cindy, you didn't pick up my keys off the counter, did you?

[She shakes her head.]

MULDER: All right. I'll be right back.

[Scully smiles and she and the girls walk to the car. Mulder goes back inside. He sees a green residue on the table where the drinks were. He runs his finger through it then licks his finger.]

[Mulder bursts out of the truck stop as Scully takes another drink.]

MULDER: Scully!

SCULLY: What?

[He rushes down the stairs to her.]

MULDER: Scully, I just wanted to open the car door for you.

[He knocks the drink out of her hand.]

SCULLY: Mulder...

MULDER: [to Scully, quietly so the girls won't hear] It's them, they poisoned it, let's just get them into the car.

[The girls are gone.]

MULDER: I only had a sip.

SCULLY: We didn't drink enough to make us sick.

[They look around for them. Guns raised. Teena and Cindy walk under a semi bed and Mulder grabs them. They scream.]

MULDER: [shouting] Scully! I got them!

TEENA AND CINDY: Leave us alone!

MULDER: Scully!

[A truck driver climbs out of the truck, with a shotgun, his wife follows him.]

TRUCK DRIVER: Hey! What the hell are you doing?

[Scully runs up.]

MULDER: Back off. I'm a federal agent.

TRUCK DRIVER: Yeah, and these are America's Most Wanted? Hands in front.

436

TEENA AND CINDY: Leave us alone!

TRUCK DRIVER'S WIFE: Get in the truck, girls.

[The girls get out of Mulder's grasp.]

TRUCK DRIVER'S WIFE: Get in. I'm going to call the police.

SCULLY: We are the police.

[The girls take off.]

SCULLY: Mulder!

[Scully holds up her badge and she and Mulder search for the girls again. A school bus leaves the truck stop as they're searching.]

MULDER: They went that way.

[He points to the truck stop. They go into the truck stop again talk to the waitress.]

SCULLY: Did you see the twins we were with?

WAITRESS: No. There's a bunch of school kids just left on that bus.

[Mulder and Scully go outside and into their car. It drives behind a truck, pauses, then takes off after the bus. Teena and Cindy get out of a boat with a tarp on it. Mulder comes up behind them.]

MULDER: Forget your sodas?

TEENA: We didn't do anything wrong.

CINDY: We're just little girls.

MULDER: That's the last thing you are.

[In the Reardon house, Mrs. Reardon is looking at pictures of Cindy.]

MRS. REARDON: They said they have an excellent program that can help her.

MULDER: They can't hide behind a bureaucracy, Mrs. Reardon. You have every right to know what happened. You have a right to know about your daughter.

MRS. REARDON: All I need to know is she was not my daughter. She never was.

[She takes a photograph of her husband and Cindy, tears it in half and puts the portion showing Cindy on the fire.]

[At the Institute, in adjoining cells, Teena and Cindy are next to Eve 6. They look at her. They are now labeled Eves 9 and 10.]

EVE 6: Hello girls. So nice to have company.

[At the guard station, a woman in a white lab coat is signing in. The guard gives her a panic button.]

GUARD: Sign for this.

437

[She does and goes to the cell doors.]

YOUNG EVE 9: Hello Eve 8.

YOUNG EVE 10: We've been waiting.

EVE 8: How did you know I'd come for you?

YOUNG EVE 9: We just knew.

YOUNG EVE 10: We just knew.

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest starring:

Harriet Harris (Kendrick/Eve 6/Eve 8) Erika Krievins (Cindy Reardon/Eve 10) Sabrina Krievins (Teena Simmons/Eve 9) and Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat)

Co-Starring:

George Touliatos (Dr. Katz) Tasha Simms (Ellen Reardson) Janet Hodgkinson (Waitress) David Kirby (Ted Watkins) Tina Gilberton (Donna Watkins) Christine Upright-Letain (Mrs. Wells)

Featuring:

Gordon Tipple (Detective) Garry Davey (Hunter) Joe Maffei (Guard #1) Maria Herrera (Guard #2) Robert Lewis (Officer)

1x10 Eve - notes

Video box set commentary by Chris Carter:

The idea came from two writers, Chris Brancato and Ken Biller, they came in and pitched us the idea, and it was originally called "The Girls From Greenwich," and it was about genetic experiments about identical sets of twins. And we were lucky enough to get this tremendous actress who came in, Harriet Harrison, and this was just one of those rare moments when we knew we had the right person to play the part and so I think she brought a lot of interesting facets to that character, and had to play dual roles.

The Writers' Wives ...

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Finding the little girls who played the Eves on the show was difficult only in that we had very few choices. We had to cast the roles in Vancouver, and found these two little girls who have become, you know, very popular characters now during the life of the series and have actually appeared at conventions. And they've grown up quite a bit now so they hardly look like those innocent, or devilish, little girls that they were then. The names of the two little girls are the names of Glen Morgan and James Wong's wives, Cindy and Teena, and so that's a little inside joke there.

Twisted and Psychotic

I love the scene where they go visit the Eve in the insane asylum and she is twisted and psychotic and Mulder and Scully interview her. I think it's a great scene. I love the teaser where the little girl is hugging her teddy bear out in the street and two joggers come by and find that her daddy is sitting slumped in the swingset; he has been exsanguinated. It's kind of a horrific image and not something you see on your regular network tv show. From "X-Files Confidential": "A freelance episode, and Jim [Wong] and Glen [Morgan] came in at some point and did an interesting rewrite on it," Chris Carter recalls. "We also had a first-time director in Fred Gerber, who brought some interesting stuff to it. I liked the episode, the casting in particular, with the twin girls. We had to cast in Vancouver and so you're limited in the twins you find up there, because the labor laws are different. It's just difficult to shoot with kids in any case. Also Harriet Harris was excellent." Robert Goodwin agrees that the biggest challenge of the episode was the casting. "It's hard enough to find one good kid actor, but to find twins who can act is really touch," he says. "At one point I thought we should cast one actor and then do a photo double and split screen, but there was so much with the two of them together that it was impossible. It also would have been very expensive. We just got very lucky that we found these little girls who were terrific. 'Eve', like most of the scripts was so goddamned good that our job was not to screw it up. If we can do it without screwing it up and deliver what's on the page, we're going to have a good show. 'Eve' in particular was a very good show." "I loved the teaser," Carter recalls with a smile, "where the little girl is hugging her teddy bear out in the street and two joggers come by and find that her daddy is sitting, slumped, in the swing set. It's kind of a horrific image and not something you see on your regular network TV show." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal settings: Greenwich, Connecticut; San Francisco, California Back story: There's an eerie, Boys From Brazil-type quality in the performances by twins Erika and Sabrina Krievins. The producers initially looked for twins in Los Angeles, but child-labor laws are such that flying the children to Vancouver in light of the limited number of hours they're allowed to work during a day would have made the show "almost impossible to do," Chris Carter says. As a result, the show had to employ local talent in Vancouver and was fortunate to find the Krievins twins. "That's happened several times," the producer adds, referring to situations where the series was forced to come up with performers on short notice or for logistical reasons who then delivered excellent performances. "We've just lucked out." The episode also features another memorable throwaway exchange between Mulder and Scully, when he says one of the girls was "abducted" and Scully corrects him by saying "kidnapped". "Po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe," he quips. From Tiny Dancer: The first names of the little girls, Cindy and Teena, are the same as the wives of writers/producers Glen Morgan and James Wong. While Ellen Reardon is being questioned by Mulder and Scully, Cindy is seen watching Eek the Cat, a cartoon program that later did a parody of The X-Files complete with a cartoon Mulder and Scully. X-Files In-Jokes * The names of the little girls, Cindy and Teena, are also the names of the wives of writers/producers Glen Morgan and James Wong. * As Mulder and Scully question mother Ellen Reardon, Eve-girl Cindy Reardon watches a few moments of 'Eek the Cat', a cartoon that later went on to depict Mulder and Scully in cartoon form.

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- This episode was originally titled "Girls from Greenwich."

439

-- Part of the episode takes place in Greenwich, Connecticut -- Mrs. Mulder's neighborhood. "Teena" must be a very popular name in that part of the country!

-- The date stamp on the pathologist's report that Scully is reading about the first death is November 7, 1993.

-- The producers initially looked for twins to play Cindy Reardon and Teena Simmons in Los Angeles (the Olsen twins were considered), but child-labor laws are such that flying the children to Vancouver in light of the limited number of hours they are allowed to work during a day would have made the show almost impossible to do. As a result, the show had to employ local talent in Vancouver and was fortunate to find Erika and Sabrina Krievins.

-- Teena and Cindy are named after the wives of producers Glen Morgan and Jim Wong.

-- We see the Lariat bumper sticker for the first time in this episode.

-- The line "I am her and she is me, and we are all together" is a reference to a lyric from the Beatles' song, "I Am the Walrus."

-- As Mulder and Scully question mother Ellen Reardon, Eve-girl Cindy Reardon watched a few moments of "Eek the Cat," a cartoon that later went on to depict Mulder and Scully in cartoon form.

-- Oopsie! While looking for the girls at the truck stop, Scully and Mulder pass the school bus that the waitress mentioned; you can hear the voices of children, but there don't appear to be any children on the bus.

-- Sally Kendrick/Eve is played by Harriet Sansom Harris. Just a month before her appearance in "Eve" the actress made her first of 11 appearances as Frasier Crane's cutthroat agent Bebe Glazer on "Frasier." Recently, she's best known as the evil Felicia Tilman on "Desperate Housewives." In one of those bizarre "Six Degrees of X-Files" connections, Harris's character on "Desperate Housewives" is the sister of the murdered Martha Huber, played by Christine Estabrook, who played Agent Henderson in the XF Season 1 episode, "Young at Heart." (And of course, Felicity Huffman (Lynette on "DH") appeared as Dr. Da Silva in the XF Season 1 episode, "Ice.")

-- Actress Tasha Simms, who played Ellen Reardon, also appeared in Season 2's "Excelsius Dei" as Stan's daughter and in Season 3's "Avatar" as Skinner's attorney.

-- Actor George Touliatos, who played Dr. Katz, also appeared in the Season 2 episode "Blood" as Larry Winter.

-- The band Eve6 took their name from this episode.

1x11 Fire - transcript

Writer: Chris Carter Director: Larry Shaw Original airdate: 17 December 1993

Transcribed by: Vic Edited by Libby

Bosham, England 70 Miles Southwest Of London

[A man goes out of his house, holding hands with his young wife as gardeners work on the grounds, and a chauffeur waits by a car.]

MAN: Hmm, yes.

[He kisses her.]

440

MAN: Love you.

WOMAN: And I love you.

[He walks down the walkway with his cane, looking at the various gardeners.]

MAN: Hello.

GARDENER: Good morning, sir.

MAN: Good morning.

[He goes over to a man, Cecil L'Ively, trimming the flower bushes.]

MAN: Good morning, Cecil.

L'IVELY: Top of the morning to you.

[The man walks to his car. The chauffeur opens the door.]

MAN: Thank you.

[The man turns and waves goodbye. Cecil watches intently.]

MAN: Goodbye, darling.

WOMAN: Goodbye, Charles. What time can I expect you?

MAN: Before supper.

[He looks at his arm. It is on fire. The woman gasps as he begins spinning around, screaming. The men start running towards him, all except Cecil. The man is completely engulfed in flames now, and he spins around before falling, screaming horrifically. The men scream various commands to each other as they run over to try to put out the fire. Cecil watches the fire dance, a smile on his face.]

Washington, D.C.

[Mulder and Scully walk to their car. Mulder is carrying a stack of books.]

SCULLY: Oh, I forgot what it was like to spend a day in court.

MULDER: Well, that's one of the luxuries to hunting down aliens and genetic mutants. You rarely get to press charges.

[He puts the books on the top of the car and reaches into his pocket to take out the keys. Scully laughs and opens the door.]

SCULLY: It's open.

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: It's unlocked.

MULDER: That's weird. I'm sure I locked it.

SCULLY: Must be an X-File.

[She gets in the car. He smiles, takes the books and gets in the car.]

441

SCULLY: What's that?

[Mulder looks to see an unmarked cassette sitting on the dashboard.]

MULDER: I told you I locked the door.

[He takes the tape out of its case and looks at it.]

SCULLY: What do you think it is?

MULDER: Ten-to-one, you can't dance to it.

[He puts the tape in and it plays. A woman with a British accent speaks.]

WOMAN: Greetings, Agent Mulder. Six months ago, British Minister of Parliament Reggie Ellicott received an audio cassette much like the one you are listening to now.

[Mulder recognizes the voice and starts looking around.]

WOMAN: Unfortunately for Minister Ellicott, when he popped the tape into the car stereo, he armed a device, which, when he tried to exit the car, created an explosion that was heard five miles away. The Scotland Yard Forensic Team could only identify the poor bastard by his dental records. If only he hadn't reached for the door handle and triggered the detonator. But then how was he to know he was sitting on enough plastic explosive to lift the car forty feet in the air and deposit the engine block on top of a three-story building?

[The door opens and Scully gasps. A woman, Phoebe Green, looks in. She was the woman on the tape.]

GREEN: Aren't we looking rather ghostly?

MULDER: [to Scully] It's an old friend.

[He gets out of the car.]

GREEN: Aren't you going to thank me?

MULDER: For what?

GREEN: Saving your life. One tends not to make the same mistake twice.

MULDER: I'll try to remember that.

GREEN: Oh, come on, don't tell me you left your sense of humor in Oxford ten years ago.

MULDER: No, actually. It's one of the few things you didn't drive a stake through.

[Scully gets out of the car and looks at them. Green kisses Mulder. Scully seems uncomfortable with that.]

GREEN: You know, some mistakes are quite worth making twice.

MULDER: Dana Scully, this is Phoebe Green, terror of Scotland Yard.

GREEN: Hello.

SCULLY: Hello.

GREEN: [whispering] She hates me.

MULDER: What brings you to the colonies?

442

[In the X-Files office, Mulder is sitting down and looking at pictures of severely charred men. Phoebe is sitting across from him, Scully is standing.]

GREEN: Some clever bloke has been giving the aristocracy a good scare. Killed off a ranking member of Parliament or three for good measure. Set Windsor Castle ablaze in 1992.

MULDER: Your car bomber?

GREEN: No. This one likes to burn his victims alive. Can't figure out how he does it either. Not a crumb of evidence left at the crime scene. The last one died in his front garden, his poor young wife watching helplessly as he went up in smoke.

MULDER: The Irish Republican Army?

GREEN: Our suspect likes to send love letters to his victims' wives.

[She stands up.]

GREEN: Sent one to the wife of Sir Malcolm Marsden a month ago. Three days later, he narrowly escaped a fire in his garage. Burned to the ground. So they're renting a place out on Cape Cod. Bringing the family over to the States for an extended holiday or until we can catch the dirty bugger.

MULDER: You think he's that determined?

GREEN: Judging by his success, he seems to take a certain delight in his work.

MULDER: So what brings you on this detour to Washington, D.C., Inspector?

GREEN: I figured my friend Mulder couldn't resist a three-pipe problem.

MULDER: I'll run it by our arson specialist.

GREEN: Splendid. I'll call London, let them know.

[Mulder nods. Green walks over to the chair, takes her coat and bag, and opens the door. She turns back and looks at Scully.]

GREEN: Oh, goodbye.

[Scully waves goodbye. Phoebe leaves.]

SCULLY: Three-pipe problem?

MULDER: That's, uh, from Sherlock Holmes. It's a private joke.

SCULLY: How private?

MULDER: Um... we knew each other in school in England. She was brilliant and, uh, I got in over my head and, uh, paid the price.

SCULLY: Mulder, you just keep unfolding like a flower.

[She gets up, as does he. He puts on his coat.]

MULDER: That was over ten years ago, Scully.

SCULLY: Yeah, I noticed how you couldn't drop everything fast enough in order to help her out.

443

MULDER: Oh, I was merely extending her a professional courtesy.

SCULLY: Oh, is that what you were extending?

MULDER: Look, I'm going to run this by the arson guys and then she's on her own.

SCULLY: Something tells me you're not going to get rid of her that easily.

[He opens the door and looks at her, then walks out.]

Arson Lab FBI Headquarters

[Mulder is sitting in the back. Phoebe is holding a remote control. On the slide viewscreen, there is a picture of fire. Agent Beatty, the arson specialist, stands in front of it.]

BEATTY: Beautiful.

[The slide changes to more flames.]

BEATTY: Oh, just beautiful. Look at that. Salmon red flames. This is fourteen-hundred, fifteen-hundred degrees. This is a work of art.

[Slide changes to a burnt body.]

BEATTY: Was there any kind of incendiary device used?

GREEN: Yes, actually. The victim's body.

BEATTY: Spontaneous combustion?

GREEN: He was murdered. However, we've turned up no evidence that tells us how the body caught fire.

[The slides go off.]

BEATTY: Well, that's peculiar. People don't normally just catch on fire.

[Scully takes a peek in. The specialist starts around the desk to Phoebe.]

BEATTY: I mean, we burn, but we don't conduct all that well. There's usually some kind of extraneous fuel involved like candle wax, gasoline, something flammable and incendiary that adheres to the skin.

GREEN: Like an accelerant.

BEATTY: Like an accelerant, yes.

GREEN: But we found no trace of anything, save for a dusting of magnesium at two of the sites.

BEATTY: That's aliphatic pyrolysis. It's a residue remaining after an exothermic reaction.

GREEN: But there's no evidence of the source, no pour patterns or ignition devices.

BEATTY: There have been some arson fires in Seattle lately and, uh, Pennsylvania that burn so hot that the firemen can't put them out. 7,000 degrees. I mean, hosing that down just makes it worse.

MULDER: How's that?

444

BEATTY: Uh, the, uh, reaction is so intense that it splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen. Just adds fuel to the fire.

GREEN: What were they using?

BEATTY: We don't know for sure. Could be rocket fuel. That stuff burns so hot and clean, there's never a trace left. You see, it's very difficult to prove arson. It's driving the insurance companies nuts.

[He and Phoebe laugh.]

BEATTY: Well, that's about the only explanation that I can give you.

[Mulder stands.]

MULDER: But there have been cases of pyrokinetics, people who can control and conduct fire.

BEATTY: Well, I've seen fire bend around corners, seen it bounce like a rubber ball. Fire's got a certain genius, you know? A certain demon poetry. It's like it's got a mind of its own. But I've never seen one that can defy the laws of physics, not when you figure it out. You've, uh...

[He looks at Phoebe.]

BEATTY: You've got quite a case for yourself here, Mulder. I almost wish I could be in your shoes.

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

[Cecil L'Ively is dressed as a handyman, painting the walls with argotypoline, a kind of rocket fuel. He looks through the window and sees a towncar drive up, followed by a rental truck. The door opens and a dog runs out, followed by two boys, Jimmie and Michael.]

JIMMIE: Hey, Jackson... boy, that's a nice house.

LADY MARSDEN: Oh, what a pleasant surprise.

L'IVELY: Welcome to America, Sir Malcolm.

[Sir Malcolm Marsden gets out of the car and goes to the other three. They talk to each other, but we can't understand it. L'Ively pulls out a cigarette and puts it in his mouth. It lights by itself. He takes a few puffs. Some men walk in with boxes, led by Sir and Lady Marsden.]

MOVER: Where would you like these boxes?

LADY MARSDEN: Right there.

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Over there, please, thank you.

LADY MARSDEN: And over there, as well. But the second one I want upstairs.

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Gentlemen, the second set of boxes will go directly upstairs.

LADY MARSDEN: All right?

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Thank you very much.

[L'Ively starts down the stairs, carrying paint cans. He stops at the couple, who are standing on the stairs.]

L'IVELY: [with American accent] Hello there.

LADY MARSDEN: Hello.

445

L'IVELY: I'm Bob the caretaker. We've been exchanging letters?

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Oh, good heavens, yes of course, Bob. How are you?

[They shake hands.]

L'IVELY: Pleased to meet you.

[He shakes hands with her as well.]

LADY MARSDEN: Hi.

L'IVELY: Hi. Just trying to spruce the place up for you.

LADY MARSDEN: Well, it's delightful. The photos don't do it justice.

L'IVELY: Anything I can do for you, anything at all, you just holler.

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Thank you, Bob.

LADY MARSDEN: Thanks.

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Thank you very much.

[L'Ively walks down the stairs past them as they start up.]

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Seems like a rather nice fellow, don't you think?

LADY MARSDEN: Very.

[They walk up the stairs and see a painting. It seems to be of Lady Marsden.]

MALCOLM MARSDEN: My God, darling. That painting rather looks like you. Do you think?

LADY MARSDEN: Oh, I don't know.

[Outside, the boys are playing soccer. Cecil walks out and looks at them.]

[Cecil smiles and hears the dog whimpering. He looks over at the dog, who is digging up something a little ways into the woods. He walks up and kicks the dog away. The dog starts barking at him.]

L'IVELY: Bloody little cur, I'll skin you alive.

[The dog whimpers and backs away. Cecil and the dog look at the ground. A hand is sticking out.]

L'IVELY: See? I'm the caretaker now.

[X-Files Office . Mulder walks in and sees Scully sitting at the desk, reading a file.]

SCULLY: So, Sherlock, is the game afoot?

MULDER: I'm afraid so, Watson. But you're off the hook on this one.

[He closes the door. She takes off her glasses.]

446

SCULLY: What do you mean?

MULDER: I mean I'm not going to put you through this.

[He pulls a file out of the file cabinet and walks over to her.]

SCULLY: Put me through what?

MULDER: Phoebe's little mindgame.

SCULLY: What are you talking about?

MULDER: There's something else I haven't told you about myself, Scully.

[He sighs, kneels down and starts digging through the bottom drawer of another file cabinet.]

MULDER: I hate fire. Hate it. Scared to death of it.

[He sighs again.]

MULDER: When I was a kid, my best friend's house burned down. Had to spend the night in the rubble to keep away looters. For years, I had nightmares about being trapped in a burning building.

[He pulls out a file and stands up.]

SCULLY: Wait, and Phoebe knows about this?

MULDER: This is classic Phoebe Green. Mindgame player extraordinaire. Ten years it's taken me to forget about this woman, and she shows up in my life with a case like this.

SCULLY: So she shows up knowing the power she has over you and then she makes you walk through fire, is that it?

MULDER: Phoebe is fire.

SCULLY: Mulder? Are you sure you don't want me to help you out on this one?

MULDER: Sooner or later, a man's got to face his demons.

[He walks out.]

[In the Marsden home. Lady Marsden lights the stove and fills the tea kettle with water. Outside, Cecil watches her through the window, breathing heavily. She takes two cups out and then goes to get the sugar. Cecil hears a coughing and looks over. He looks back at the window briefly, smiles, then walks back around the house to the garage, where the chauffeur is standing. The chauffeur is smoking and coughing harshly.]

L'IVELY: [with American accent] Hello. You're the Marsden's driver?

DRIVER: Who's that?

[They walk towards each other.]

L'IVELY: Bob. Caretaker.

[He smiles.]

DRIVER: Oh.

447

L'IVELY: Bum a smoke?

DRIVER: Yeah, sure.

[He hands "Bob" a cigarette, who promptly puts it behind his ear.]

L'IVELY: I'm going into town. Can I get you anything?

DRIVER: Yeah. [coughs] Some cough medicine if it's not a problem.

L'IVELY: Syrup or, uh... lozenges?

DRIVER: Syrup would be good.

[L'Ively smiles and starts walking.]

DRIVER: Can I give you some money?

[L'Ively makes a "forget-about-it" motion.]

DRIVER: I appreciate that.

[He coughs some more and throws the cigarette down.]

[At Hennesey's Bar, L'Ively pulls up a seat at the bar, putting a paper bag down, presumably with cough syrup in it. People can be heard murmuring, talking and laughing in the background. Cecil nods to the barkeep.]

L'IVELY: Beer?

[The barkeep nods. The woman two seats down looks at him, then moves into the seat next to him, beer in hand.]

WOMAN: They don't let you bring your own around here.

[L'Ively looks at the paper bag.]

L'IVELY: Well, I guess they'll just have to make an exception, won't they?

[She laughs.]

WOMAN: Oh, you're English. God, I just love that accent.

[She takes out a cig and a lighter. L'Ively holds the hand with the lighter.]

L'IVELY: Allow me.

WOMAN: And a gentleman to boot.

[He holds up a finger and moves it to the left of her. Her eyes follow it. He smirks and the tip of his finger lights.]

WOMAN: Oh my God. Now that is a trick.

[She laughs and turns around.]

WOMAN: Hey guys, take a look at this!

448

[She turns back around and Cecil's whole arm is on fire.]

L'IVELY: Care for a light?

[She gets up. He slams his fist down onto the bar, and all the spilt alcohol catches on fire. People start screaming and running out as he watches the fire dance on his arm.]

Boston Mercy Hospital

[Mulder and Phoebe walk into the waiting room.]

MULDER: I pulled this report off the wire last night. Eyewitnesses are saying that a customer in the bar caught fire but they're still looking for a body.

GREEN: Any indication an accelerant was used?

[He goes to the desk and signs a clipboard.]

MULDER: The bar's across the street from the fire station. It burned to the ground before they had a chance to even respond. The fire marshal said it burned so hot, it turned the concrete foundation into sponge cake. This was a woman who was in the bar.

[He knocks on a door labeled 28E. They open the door and walk in. The woman from the bar is lying on the bed.]

MULDER: Hello?

WOMAN: Hello.

MULDER: Miss Gotchek?

WOMAN: Yes?

MULDER: I'm Special Agent Mulder from the F.B.I. This is Inspector Green.

[He closes the door and sits down next to her. Phoebe walks around to the other side.]

GREEN: Can you tell us what happened in the bar last night?

WOMAN: There was this guy. I'd had a few drinks, so... he sat next to me and he did this thing. It was like a magic trick where he lit his finger on fire.

[Green looks at Mulder, who takes notes.]

WOMAN: Next thing, I turned around, he was up in flames.

GREEN: Can you describe him?

WOMAN: Good looking, I think. Brownish hair.

MULDER: Long hair, short hair?

WOMAN: I've already given the police the information.

MULDER: Do you think you could work with a composite artist and come up with a sketch for us?

WOMAN: I said I had a few drinks...

MULDER: Can I get your full name and address?

449

WOMAN: See...

[He looks at her.]

WOMAN: I live with someone. He thinks I was at school last night.

MULDER: That's no problem. You can come down to the field office and work with somebody there. I'll give you a minute to think about it, okay?

[She nods. She sighs as Mulder and Green walk out.]

GREEN: Deftly done, Agent Mulder. Casually disregard her indiscretion. A firm but polite manner until she accedes to cooperate.

MULDER: It's a technique I refined in my relationship with you.

[He writes on his pad. She looks down at the desk.]

GREEN: Oh. Yes, well, I see you haven't lost your sense of humor after all.

[He looks at her.]

MULDER: I'm sorry, that was a cheap shot. I don't want to dredge up the past. Let's just stick to the case.

GREEN: Let's.

[She takes the pad from him and walks away a little. He walks over to her.]

MULDER: Look, Phoebe, I...

GREEN: Unless I'm mistaken, ten years seems sufficient time to have forgiven, if not forgotten, a few youthful indiscretions.

MULDER: I'm cursed with a photographic memory.

GREEN: Then don't you tell me that you've forgotten a certain youthful indiscretion. Atop Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's tombstone on a misty night in Windlesham.

[She smiles.]

MULDER: Like I said, just stick to the case.

GREEN: Well, it occurred to me that we're going to a lot of trouble to find a description of a man who, in all likelihood, has been burnt to a crisp.

MULDER: I would agree with you but they haven't found a body yet.

[He walks back into the woman's room, followed by Green.]

MULDER: So can we count on you?

WOMAN: Yeah, okay.

[Green hands Mulder a paper.]

WOMAN: I don't know if it matters but I remembered something else about the guy who caught fire. He had an English accent.

450

[The agents look at each other.]

[Marsden home. The driver walks out of the bathroom, coughing and hacking. L'Ively, who is folding the sheets, looks at him, smiling.]

L'IVELY: Having a rough time, eh?

DRIVER: Yeah...

[He walks out. L'Ively looks at the open bottle of Pembroke's cough syrup sitting on the dresser.]

L'IVELY: Maybe it's the cough syrup.

[X-Files office. Scully sits at her desk, taking notes. She opens up a folder and looks at some pictures of some burnt bodies. She starts typing up her profile on her laptop. We hear her as a voice-over as she does.]

SCULLY: [voice-over] After reviewing the files of the Scotland Yard arson murders, two points remain unexplained. One is the use of an untraceable accelerant. The other involves the victims. Since they all burned in the presence of family members in safe surroundings, this indicates unusually intimate access to the victims by the arsonist.

[Marsden home. "Bob" coats the swing with argotypoline as Jimmie and Michael run around the yard, laughing. Scully still speaks over the scene.]

SCULLY: [voice-over] The arsonist is most likely a male, less than twenty-five years of age. He will often act out of impulse, satisfying sexual urges or insecurities with destructive behavior, which compensates for his social inadequacies or maladjustment.

[L'Ively looks at the boys.]

L'IVELY: You boys want to see a magic trick?

JIMMIE: Okay!

[They run over to him.]

L'IVELY: What's your names?

MICHAEL: Michael and Jimmie.

L'IVELY: Doesn't he talk?

MICHAEL: Yes!

[The boys laugh, as well as L'Ively.]

MICHAEL: What kind of a magic trick?

L'IVELY: Maybe I'd better not.

JIMMIE: Show us!

L'IVELY: Nah, you might tell your mom and dad.

MICHAEL: We won't tell.

451

L'IVELY: Really? Promise?

JIMMIE: We promise.

L'IVELY: Hope to die? Stick a needle in your eye?

[The boys laugh.]

L'IVELY: Okay, boys. You've taken a solemn oath of trust that can't be broken. Except under penalty... of death.

[The boys laugh a little more. L'Ively takes out a cigarette.]

L'IVELY: Watch...

[He holds it up, then sticks it in the other hand, which is a fist.]

L'IVELY: Is it in there?

JIMMIE: No!

[The boys laugh. L'Ively blows into his fist and opens it. The cigarette is gone.]

L'IVELY: Ah, you're too smart for me.

[He smiles.]

MICHAEL: Where did it go?

L'IVELY: Where did it go... where do you think it went, Jimmie?

JIMMIE: I don't know.

L'IVELY: Ah... I think I remember.

[He makes a fake surprised expression as he reaches over to his right ear with both hands.]

L'IVELY: Ah... ah... ah... ha!

[He "pulls it out" of his ear. The cigarette is lit, and looks like it has been for a while. He puts it in his mouth and takes a puff.]

L'IVELY: Ta-da!

[The boys laugh in amazement.]

MICHAEL: Do it again!

L'IVELY: You want me to do it again?

MICHAEL: Yes!

L'IVELY: Okay, we'll do it again.

[He takes it out of his mouth and exhales smoke.]

[Arson Lab, FBI HQ. Agent Beatty is sitting at his desk, circling parts of a picture on his desk. Scully knocks on his open door.]

452

SCULLY: Agent Beatty?

[He looks up.]

BEATTY: Yes?

SCULLY: I'm Special Agent Dana Scully. Can I... steal a minute of your time?

BEATTY: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Come in, come in. I'm just working on this Mafia torch job here.

[Scully walks over as Beatty takes off his glasses.]

SCULLY: I'm... working with Agent Mulder.

BEATTY: Oh, yeah, wild case. So, what can I do for you?

SCULLY: You mentioned that the arsonist might be using some kind of rocket fuel as an accelerant.

BEATTY: Yeah, well, that's just speculation. It still doesn't explain how he sets bodies on fire.

SCULLY: What if he got some of this fuel into some... hand cream or, uh...

BEATTY: Well, you've got to understand. Even the smallest amounts of this stuff can produce temperatures over 5,000 degrees. But I suppose it's not impossible. Extremely diluted. But he'd still have to find a way to ignite it.

[Marsden home. L'Ively now has three cigarettes in his mouth. The middle one lights suddenly. The boys laugh and clap.]

JIMMIE: Wow! Isn't that a great trick?

L'IVELY: Now sit down.

[They sit down in front of him. He takes them out of his mouth.]

L'IVELY: So... you guys ever smoked a cigarette?

MICHAEL: No, they're bad for you.

L'IVELY: would you like to take a puff, Michael?

MICHAEL: No.

L'IVELY: Make a man out of you.

MICHAEL: I don't want to.

L'IVELY: Why don't you hold one for me?

[He holds out his hands. In front of Michael's face is two cigarettes, one between his index and middle, the other between his middle and ring fingers.]

L'IVELY: How about you, Jimmie?

[He moves his hand in front of Jimmie's face.]

L'IVELY: Huh, little man?

453

[He holds up the other cigarette. They stare at each other, L'Ively smiling. Jimmie goes to take the cigarette when his mother appears at the top of the hill.]

LADY MARSDEN: Jimmie! Michael!

[They run to her. L'Ively puts his cigarettes away.]

LADY MARSDEN: Hello. Hi, Bob.

[She waves. He stands.]

LADY MARSDEN: There you are. We've had a bit of bad news.

[She starts walking towards him, a child under each arm.]

LADY MARSDEN: Our driver has taken ill and we're due at a party in Boston this evening. Is there any chance that we can impose upon you to drive the family into town? We'd be more than happy to pay you for your time and certainly to put you up for the night.

[L'Ively shakes his head, smiling.]

L'IVELY: I'd be very happy to do it as a favor.

LADY MARSDEN: Well, good. Thank you. All right then, boys, let's go, Daddy's got lunch all ready.

[As they walk away, Cecil's face becomes grim. Scully's voice comes over as he watches Lady Marsden walk away.]

[X-Files office.]

SCULLY: [voice over] The arsonist is usually unmarried and prone to obsessive fantasies about women or men who are inaccessible to him. Often, the setting of fires results from his cowardice and inability to develop a natural relationship.

[Scully is still typing on her laptop.]

SCULLY: [voice over] His crimes are often very clever and elaborately planned. The suspicious nature of the fire last night strongly suggests the arsonist has followed Lord Marsden to the United States. A check of all recent immigration in the northeastern area is underway. It has become not a matter of if, but when he will strike.

[A man walks in behind her and hands her a paper.]

MAN: Here's that immigration data you wanted.

SCULLY: Thank you.

MAN: You're welcome.

[He leaves.]

[Cape Cod. Mulder and Green walk down a street, carrying umbrellas. It is raining.]

MULDER: Remember those reports I told you about, about people who could control and conduct fire, pyrokinetics?

GREEN: Faintly...

MULDER: I think this guy just sent us a message that he's far more exotic.

454

GREEN: I should say so, I mean, if he can set himself afire.

[Mulder laughs.]

GREEN: What?

MULDER: I'm just not used to someone so quick to agree with me.

GREEN: Oh.

MULDER: What kind of protection does the family have?

GREEN: The driver's a very capable bodyguard.

MULDER: Well, he should look into getting a few additional men and limit public exposure.

[They reach their car.]

GREEN: Oh, they've got a party being held in their honor tonight in Boston. They're going to have to cancel.

MULDER: Unless you wanted to set a trap.

GREEN: I had thought of that. But we must be careful and discreet. The party's at eight o'clock at the Venable Plaza. I'll be traveling with the family so why don't you go on ahead and have a look around?

[Mulder nods and unlocks the door.]

GREEN: Oh, and I've taken a room at the hotel for the night.

[He looks at her and sighs. She smirks and gets in the car as he folds up his umbrella.]

Venable Plaza Hotel 5:16 p.m.

[A bellhop leads Mulder into his room, putting his bag down on the floor and his key on the dresser.]

MULDER: Thanks.

[He takes out a roll of bills and hands one to the bellhop. The bellhop nods.]

MULDER: All right, thank you.

[The bellhop leaves. Mulder looks around the huge room, then puts his suitcase down on the bed. He sits down. His cell phone rings.]

MULDER: Mulder.

[Scully's office. She's sitting at her desk, her computer on.]

SCULLY: It's Scully, where are you?

[Hotel. Mulder stands.]

MULDER: I'm in Boston.

SCULLY: I've got something to show you.

455

[Scully's office.]

SCULLY: I'm going to come up there.

[Hotel.]

MULDER: What have you got?

SCULLY: I might have some information on the identity of your arson suspect.

[Hotel. Mulder sighs and sits down on the bed. Back to Scully.]

SCULLY: You there, Mulder?

[Hotel.]

MULDER: Yeah, yeah...

[Office.]

SCULLY: Can I meet you somewhere?

[Back to the hotel.]

MULDER: No, it's just that I'm, I'm kind of anticipating having my hands full.

[Scully looks dismayed.]

6:47 p.m.

[A limousine pulls up and a bellhop opens the door. The Marsdens get out. He then opens the front door and Phoebe gets out.]

MICHAEL: Jimmie, we're here!

BELLHOP: Good evening.

GREEN: Thank you.

[The Marsdens talk together unintelligibly.]

BELLHOP: Excuse me, sir.

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Hello.

[The bellhop closes both doors as Green and the Marsdens scurry off. L'Ively, decked out in a tuxedo, gets out of the driver's side, watches them go, and sighs. Inside, Mulder leans up against a wall, drinking some champagne, as people walk by talking. He looks on as the Marsdens walk up the stairs, followed by Phoebe. They are all in evening dress. He watches her walk by. Later, Mulder stands by himself in an empty room with a buffet table. The crowd can still be heard. He looks at his watch as Phoebe walks in. She walks over to him.]

GREEN: Enjoying yourself?

MULDER: Good food, witty conversation. I'm having the time of my life.

[Phoebe laughs.]

GREEN: I wondered if you'd think it's safe enough to indulge ourselves in a dance.

456

MULDER: It doesn't look like your arsonist is going to make an appearance.

GREEN: That doesn't mean there won't be any fires to put out.

[They start slow dancing.]

GREEN: I've thought about you often.

[Scully walks down the hall and sees Mulder and Green dancing. She stops, rolls her eyes a little, and sighs. She looks at her watch, then turns to see L'Ively standing there, smiling. She turns away and sees Mulder and Green kissing. She looks back and sees that L'Ively is gone. She looks around for him and hears a beeping. She turns to see a control panel with a list of the floors and lights next to them, as well as two columns of lights to the right that are for smoke and fire, respectively. The light beeps next the 14th floor, as well as the two lights for smoke and fire for that floor. She runs over to Mulder and Phoebe.]

SCULLY: There's a fire upstairs.

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: On the fourteenth floor.

GREEN: That's where the children are.

[She runs off with Scully as Mulder runs down the hall that Scully came from. Upstairs, the fire dances its way down the hallway. Mulder runs up the stairs as Scully runs past the crowd.]

SCULLY: You've got a fire on the fourteenth floor!

[A bellhop runs off and the crowd murmurs. Lady and Sir Marsden run out and watch her run off. Mulder reaches the door to the fourteenth floor, out of breath. He puts his hand on the door and closes his eyes, trying to control his fear. He takes a deep breath and opens the door. The hallway is covered with smoke and Mulder keeps close to the floor, coughing.]

MICHAEL: Help, help!

[The fire erupts out of the hallway and Mulder stands a little, then drops to his knees, not moving anymore. He coughs and starts to crawl back the other way. He coughs and wheezes, slumping against the wall as firemen start up the stairs. A man runs by carrying Michael and Jimmie. Two firemen stop at Mulder, who is nearly out.]

FIREMAN #1: Here we go, got one down. Come on, buddy, come on. Come on, here we go...

[They lift him to his feet and support him.]

FIREMAN #1: And we go up!

FIREMAN #2: You got him?

FIREMAN #1: Yup, here we go...

[The first fireman puts Mulder's arm around him and helps him off. Downstairs, L'Ively comes out of the elevator with Michael and Jimmie as people watch on in awe.]

L'IVELY: Here we are.

[Lady and Sir Marsden run to their children. Everybody speaks at once, some patting L'Ively on the back.]

LADY MARSDEN: You saved their lives.

[Scully looks back to see the fireman coming out, Mulder being helped by one, wearing an oxygen mask. Scully goes over to him as he slumps down to the floor. She looks back and sees Phoebe shake L'Ively's hand.]

457

GREEN: Well done. Good job. Thank you.

[Scully puts her hand on Mulder's head, but he moves it off, coughing into the mask. Later, Mulder lies in bed with his shirt off, Scully sitting on the bed. Mulder continues coughing and Scully hands him a glass of water, which he drinks.]

SCULLY: You were really out.

MULDER: Where's Phoebe?

SCULLY: She's down the hall.

[Mulder sighs.]

MULDER: What about the kids?

SCULLY: Okay, the doctor checked them out.

[Mulder gets up, wearing only black boxers, picks up his robe and starts towards the bathroom.]

SCULLY: What happened to you up there?

MULDER: I panicked. I couldn't move, Scully.

SCULLY: It could've happened to anyone.

MULDER: Yeah, but it happened to me. I haired out. Plain and simple.

[He goes into the bathroom as Phoebe walks in behind Scully.]

SCULLY: What do you know about this guy that saved the kids? The driver?

GREEN: I checked him out prior to the Marsdens' arrival.

[Scully stands and looks at her as she closes the door.]

GREEN: He's worked on the property for eight years. No record. His references checked out. They were lucky he was here tonight.

SCULLY: Who was watching the kids tonight?

GREEN: He was.

SCULLY: Are you sure? I could have sworn I saw him down in the hallway about the same time that the fire broke out.

[Mulder walks out of the bathroom wearing a robe.]

GREEN: He couldn't have. Anyway, the man we're looking for is English.

MULDER: Hey.

[They look at him. He closes his robe.]

GREEN: I came to see if you were okay.

MULDER: How are the kids?

GREEN: They're fine. Everybody's anxious to get back.

458

MULDER: To the Cape?

GREEN: Only to pack. They've, uh, made travel arrangements back to England the day after tomorrow.

MULDER: And you?

GREEN: I'll be leaving in a few days.

[Mulder nods.]

GREEN: Look, I'll give you a ring back at the Bureau before I leave.

MULDER: Right.

[Phoebe walks to the door and looks at Scully.]

GREEN: Goodbye.

[She leaves. Mulder goes to sit down on the couch.]

SCULLY: You all right?

[He sits and puts his feet up on the table.]

MULDER: Yeah.

SCULLY: You at all interested in what I came all the way up here to show you?

MULDER: Yeah.

[She sits down across from him and unlocks her briefcase.]

SCULLY: Well, I did some checking on my own. I didn't know a whole lot about arson or arsonists so I took the opportunity... for my own edification, of course.

[He smiles. She pulls a paper out of her briefcase and gives it to Mulder.]

SCULLY: I ran a profile of possible incendiary fuels and accelerants that could have been used in the crimes.

[The list says "Representative Liquid Propellant Fuels" at the top and lists a number of fuels, their densities and heat of concentration. The fuels are: Argotypoline, Ammonia [Liquid], Aniline, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon [qr], Decarbonate and a few others.]

SCULLY: I also took the liberty of running a search through Interpol of all the gardeners, manservants and domestic help that were hired by the murder victims at the time of their death.

[She hands him that list.]

MULDER: And?

SCULLY: And these people probably don't even tie their own shoes. There were over two-hundred names. And not a duplicate. Except one. A "Cecil L'Ively." He worked as a gardener for two of the victims.

MULDER: What did you find on him?

SCULLY: Nothing.

459

MULDER: So he's clean.

SCULLY: Apparently, he was questioned by Scotland Yard and they released him but I dug a little further. Cecil L'Ively is a documented citizen of Great Britain, paid his taxes, never been on the dole, a model citizen until he died in 1971 in a London tenement fire.

[He looks at her strangely.]

SCULLY: I know, that's what I thought. So, I checked a little further. Cecil L'Ively, spelled "L apostrophe," came up again. In fact, it came up twice. First, on a list of death certificates, listed among a group of children who died in ritual sacrifice by a satanic cult in 1963 in the Toddingham woods outside Bath, England.

MULDER: Where else did you find him?

SCULLY: You're going to love this. On a list of recent visas issued by the British government. Cecil L'Ively's passport was stamped by U.S. immigration officials two weeks ago at the port of entry in Boston.

[Mulder looks around, stands and takes off his robe.]

MULDER: Call the local field office in Boston of the F.B.I. and get them to fax to you the composite that the witness did of the man who burned down the bar and then get them to fax it to every local law enforcement agency in the area.

[He picks up his suit.]

SCULLY: What are you going to do?

MULDER: I'm going to try and catch Phoebe, this guy could be waiting for them at Cape Cod.

[He runs into the bathroom.]

[Later, Scully is on the phone. She looks at her watch.]

SCULLY: Yes, this is Special Agent Scully. I've been waiting on hold for you guys to fax me a composite of an arson suspect. Right. Hang on a second.

[A whirring starts.]

SCULLY: It's coming through. Thanks.

[She looks down at the fax machine and a composite comes out of Cecil L'Ively.]

SCULLY: Oh my God. It's the driver.

[Scully takes out her phone and, looking at the picture, dials Mulder's number.]

CELLULAR PHONE MESSAGE: We're sorry. The cellular customer you are trying to reach is out of the area.

[She hangs up and stares at L'Ively's picture.]

[L'Ively watches from his window, smoking, as Mulder pulls up. Mulder runs in the front door and finds he has interrupted an embrace between Green and Marsden on the stairs. They pull away from each other, and Marsden clears his throat.]

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Excuse me.

460

[He walks up the stairs. Phoebe walks tentatively to Mulder.]

MULDER: His name is Cecil L'Ively.

GREEN: Who?

MULDER: Your arsonist. Where's the rest of the family?

GREEN: They went outside for a walk.

MULDER: Well, go find them. We've got to get them packed and get them out of here.

[She looks at him, then walks away. Outside, she brings the children and Lady Marsden back to the house. The children whine and complain.]

GREEN: Come on, we have to hurry... let's go. Come on, this way.

[Cecil watches them run into the house, all murmuring. He smiles and walks up the stairs past Lady Marsden's portrait. Later, a knock on the door. Mulder opens it and Scully walks in.]

SCULLY: It's the driver.

MULDER: I know. He disappeared.

SCULLY: What's the matter?

MULDER: Nothing, um... I found this out in the garage.

[He hands her the can of argotypoline.]

MULDER: It's been very hard on the family.

[Phoebe and Sir and Lady Marsden run down the stairs.]

GREEN: Did you get the composite?

SCULLY: Yes.

LADY MARSDEN: I don't believe it, I can't believe it. He's worked for us for over ten years.

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Well, obviously there's been some type of mistake.

[Scully hands him the rendition of L'Ively.]

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Oh...

LADY MARSDEN: Oh my God!

MALCOLM MARSDEN: This isn't the driver, it's the caretaker!

LADY MARSDEN: And he's upstairs with the children!

[Mulder looks up the stairs. Sitting on a dresser is the bottle of Pembroke's cough syrup. Scully walks past the room.]

SCULLY: Michael?

[Mulder walks in.]

461

MULDER: Michael? Jimmie?

[He looks at the cough syrup as Scully walks in. He opens the bathroom door and they see a charred husk of the driver, kneeling over the toilet as if he was vomiting when he died.]

MULDER: It looks like we found the missing driver.

[Phoebe calls from down the hall.]

GREEN: Mulder! In here, quickly!

[They run in and see the other three looking at the drapes, which has caught fire.]

LADY MARSDEN: What's going on?

GREEN: They just went up all by themselves.

[Mulder looks around for something when the painting hanging over the bed behind him erupts in flames.]

MALCOLM MARSDEN: My God!

[Mulder takes a sheet and tries in vain to put out the fires. The bed then starts burning. Phoebe and Lady Marsden scream a little.]

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Oh my God...

MULDER: Everybody out!

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Let's go, get out...

[They run out, Mulder closing the door behind him. Malcolm grabs his wife's hand.]

MULDER: I think he rigged the whole house.

LADY MARSDEN: Oh God...

[She runs into her husband's arms. Mulder smells the sheet he's carrying.]

MULDER: It's fuel.

[Mulder drops it as it catches fire.]

LADY MARSDEN: What?

GREEN: Oh my God...

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Go, go...

[They start running down the hall.]

SCULLY: Quick, come on...

[They run down the stairs, coughing.]

MULDER: Scully, see if you can find a fire extinguisher. Everybody else, outside.

[Scully walks off to get one.]

462

LADY MARSDEN: But what about the children?

[They hear a door close and the dog barking.]

MULDER: I'll take care of the children. Go!

[The Marsdens walk out. Phoebe grabs Mulder's arm.]

GREEN: Are you going to be okay, Mulder?

MULDER: Oh yeah. I'll be fine. There's no place I'd rather be.

[He takes out his gun and runs up the stairs. Phoebe leaves the house. He looks around down the hallway then walks slowly, the only sound his footsteps. He passes a few doors and hears some noise in one. The dog barks inside the room. He tries the doorknob, but it is locked.]

MULDER: Michael? Jimmie?

MICHAEL: Help...

[The children can be heard coughing. Mulder hits the door with his shoulder a few times. Behind him, at the end of the hallway, appears L'Ively.]

L'IVELY: Time to call 911.

[Mulder spins around and points his gun at him in one fluid motion.]

MULDER: Don't move!

[L'Ively raises his hands and snaps his fingers with the left one. The hallway literally explodes in flames, the paintings catching fire one by one down the hall. The fire rises to the ceiling as Mulder stares in awe. Mulder jumps backwards to the ground as the paintings where he was standing burst into flames as well. As the flames cover the ceiling, L'Ively turns and starts down the stairs only to see Scully standing at the bottom, pointing her gun.]

SCULLY: Freeze! Federal agent.

L'IVELY: You won't shoot me.

[He starts walking towards her.]

SCULLY: Stay right where you are.

[L'Ively jumps down a stair.]

L'IVELY: See? 'Cause you don't know the spark from that round won't blow this whole house to kingdom come.

[L'Ively slowly walks. Scully squeezes the trigger. L'Ively smiles as Scully backs away slowly. His face suddenly turns serious. Green turns the corner from the other room and splashes the accelerant in his face. L'Ively staggers back.]

GREEN: Back off, Scully! It's the accelerant!

L'IVELY: No!

[L'Ively staggers and spins out the door. Mulder stares at the fire while the boys scream. He takes a deep breath and starts moving slowly, staying very low to the ground, hands on the walls. He lets out a slight scream in pain and winces, pulling back his hand when he touches a hot part of the wall. He rams his elbow into the door twice, knocking it open the second time. L'Ively staggers out onto the lawn, trying to shake the feeling of the accelerant away. Mulder runs out the door carrying Michael and Jimmie.]

463

LADY MARSDEN: Oh Michael! Jimmie!

MALCOLM MARSDEN: Michael! Jimmie! Thank God, thank God!

[The boys run into their parents' arms. L'Ively stops and turns back to the house. He laughs insanely as he bursts into flame.]

L'IVELY: You can't kill me!

[Scully slowly lowers her gun as they all watch him spin around, laughing.]

L'IVELY: You can't fight fire with fire!

[He finally stops laughing as he falls to the ground, his body burning.]

[Mulder sits at his desk, wearing glasses, thinking.]

SCULLY: [with English accent] Care to take me to lunch?

[Mulder looks back to see Scully at the door, smiling.]

SCULLY: Scare you?

MULDER: You have no idea.

SCULLY: Where is Phoebe?

[She sits down on the desk.]

MULDER: I don't know.

SCULLY: You don't know? She didn't call?

MULDER: No. She did messenger this to me last night though.

[He holds up a tape.]

SCULLY: Did you play it?

MULDER: No.

[He looks at it.]

SCULLY: Why not? Aren't you curious what's on it?

MULDER: Ten-to-one, you can't dance to it.

[He gets up.]

Boston Mercy Hospital

[Scully does a voice-over of her report as a nurse walks into an enclosed room.]

SCULLY: X-File number 11214893. Addendum to the file opened by Special Agent Mulder. The arson suspect Cecil L'Ively was admitted to Boston Mercy Hospital with fifth and sixth-degree burns over his entire body. Military burn specialists have been brought in to study the case which they're calling "extraordinary."

464

[Cut to Scully typing on her laptop.]

SCULLY: Not only for the fact that the suspect survived, but for the rapid regeneration of his basal cell tissue. Full recovery is anticipated in as little as a month.

[Cut back to the hospital. A man unlocks a door for the nurse.]

SCULLY: [voice-over] L'Ively is being held in a high-security medical facility...

GUARD: There you go.

NURSE: Thank you.

[She walks in.]

SCULLY: [voice-over] ...confined to a hyperbaric chamber until he can be tried on murder charges in the death of a Massachusetts caretaker. His body temperature remains at a steady 109 degrees.

[The nurse bends down and adjusts a control on the hyperbaric chamber.]

SCULLY: [voice-over] Health technicians have removed anything flammable from his room due to several fires which have broken out in the vicinity. According to Agent Mulder, further incarceration remains a problem for federal penal authorities.

[The nurse walks around the chamber and looks into the glass casing in the front. L'Ively is laying there, his head visible. His face is charred almost completely black. He has no hair.]

NURSE: Can I get you anything, sir?

[L'Ively's eyes pop open. He looks around, then turns and looks at her.]

L'IVELY: I'm just dying for a cigarette.

[He licks his lips a little, staring at the nurse.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest starring:

Amanda Pays (Phoebe Green Mark Sheppard (Cecil L'Ively) Dan Lett (Sir Malcolm Marsden) Laurie Paton (Lady Marsden)

Co-Starring:

Duncan Fraser (Beatty) Phil Hayes (Driver #1) Keegan Macintosh (Michael)

Featuring:

Lynda Boyd (Woman in Bar) Christopher Gray (Jimmie) Alan Robertson (Grey-haired Man)

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1x11 Fire - notes From "X-Files Confidential": "This is an episode that people were mad at me from the beginning for because I wanted to do something with fire and it's very hard to work with," says Chris Carter with a laugh. "Fire is much hotter than you think it's going to be. Actually, it's amazingly frightening when you're around it and it's burning things down in your studio. Until you're actually confronted with those balls of flame, you can't imagine it. So that was an interesting thing. It's a very popular episode, and I'm just somewhat happy with the way it turned out. Having written it and imagined it in certain ways, I think it could have been a lot better. Although I thought it was generally well directed, the show felt very 'wide' to me – very loose and lacking some things." "Boy," Robert Goodwin moans in mock weariness, "that was a hard one. Any kind of a fire stunt is a major undertaking, because it involves so many overlapping things. First of all, it is a stunt, so you have to have a stuntman who can work fire. A lot of them can't. We had two fully body burns in that show and those were people inside those flames. If it's inside, which many of the film sequences were, because of natural concerns for safety and all the legal concerns by the fire department, you have to carefully design and build the sets in such a manner that they're fireproof and the fire can be controlled. It was a major feat, a real logistical and creative feat, because you wanted it to look good. Mark Sheppard is at the far end of the hall and Mulder is in the foreground. He waves with his arms and these flames come racing down the hallway and along the ceiling. It's just a spectacular moment, but it got to be so hot that the actor could not stand it any longer and had to duck out of the show. I remember that there was a whole lot of trickery we had to pull off because he was supposed to be standing there when he wasn't. Director Larry Shaw, with very short time to prepare, was able to pull it off." One aspect of the show that Carter did enjoy was the attempt to explore a little more of Mulder's background and personality. "I thought it was interesting to show a little bit of Mulder's history by bringing an old girlfriend back," he notes. "I've always wanted to do a Scotland Yard detective who was a woman. I also thought it was an interesting chance to use Amanda Pays and to make a villainess of her." James Wong doesn't feel that the relationship was conveyed effectively. "I thought there was so much more in the script in terms of emotions that Mulder and Amanda Pays's character were supposed to have. There's a lot more to their relationship in the script than there was on the screen. It didn't play at all, and that should have been the subtext of the whole show. We ended up cutting a lot of stuff that just didn't work." "The weird thing about that script," adds Glen Morgan, "is that Chris had that concept and started writing it, and then LA started burning. I think that fueled him a bit. And I think Chris would acknowledge that Jim Wong is a very good editor. At one point the story was muddled and Jim, in editing, put things in a different way and it came out good. That was a situation where you didn't have the time to do an insert and fix it. People have written that they like it. I like that bit with the cigarette in the beginning where it lights itself. Little things like that are effective." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal settings: Boston, Cape Cod, Massachusetts Back story: Carter had been warned about the expense and problems that can arise working with fire, though the only real glitch involved a scene where Duchovny in fact suffered a burn severe enough to leave a scar on his hand. The character of Phoebe Green – played by Amanda Pays, whose credits include The Flash and Mad Headroom – was considered as a possible recurring role, owing to Carter's admiration for the actress and his love of Sherlock Holmes. Carter was intrigued by the idea of incorporating a Scotland Yard detective into the show. The chemistry "didn't work as it might," he says, though Phoebe did achieve the desired effect by becoming a character, as Carter puts it, "who fans on the Internet loved to hate." The original script included a closing exchange where Scully observes, "Well, never let it be said that you wouldn't walk through fire for a woman, Mulder," to which he replies, "And never let it be said that I wouldn't do it for you again, Scully." Margin notes: The famous "black silk boxer shorts" scene was originally a "Jockey underwear" scene. The British lord, Malcolm Marsden, was named after the show's chief hairdresser. From Tiny Dancer: The first victim's name is Sir Malcolm Marsden, the same as the hair stylist for The X-Files. From CarterPhile: Original Air Date: 12.17.93 Episode # 1x11

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Fire is a fascinating episode, a double-layered script that plays on the meanings of "getting burned" -- and the type of people who enjoy being incendiary -- both literally and figuratively. The X-file is the story of a man who can ignite fires at will. And who goes around adding rocket fuel to paint (and, apparently, laundry detergent) in order to make sure he has something to play with. Clearly, his "skills" go beyond just that, though, since his charred flesh regenerates extremely rapidly. The sub-plot involves Mulder's former flame, Phoebe -- mind-game-player extraordinaire -- and her attempts to re-ignite his interest in her. (If only so she can dump him again. Women like her give the rest of us a bad name. Oh, that's right -- she's only fictional, isn't she? Although, if I were a betting person, I'd wager that there was a "Phoebe" in Chris's past. Probably "a very attractive brunette with intelligent, mischievous eyes." And considering his penchant for naming characters after people in his life, that might even have been her name. Well, I'd say that, whoever she is, she has plenty to regret now. *smile*) Yes, Mulder's fear of fire is a convenient plot device -- but it's a heck of a lot more credible than the Wetwired color-blindness. *g* And something that he would reasonably have been able to hide from Scully. The resulting torturous growth during the episode -- from being frozen with fear during the fire at the hotel to braving the flames at the house on Cape Cod -- are a study of the growth we all go through while "facing our demons." Even irrational fears can paralyze us, and working through that fear is something we all face eventually. (I shared Mulder's fear, BTW, and for nearly the same reasons. Although it wasn't a friend's house that burned down, it was my own, on Thanksgiving night when I was eight years old. I still have nightmares about being trapped inside -- or worse, being outside but seeing my family trapped inside, while unable to help them. I was terrified of fire for years, although I was fascinated to watch it, in a fireplace or at a bonfire. As long as I didn't have to go near it. And I could not light a match at all. Thankfully, my "cure" wasn't as dramatic as Mulder's...) At any rate, Chris's usage of dual-imagery continues with this script. Just as Cecil can ignite flames, but needs an incendiary to keep them burning, Phoebe ignited Mulder ... but the flames didn't last. Just an aside ... I recently had the opportunity to hear Mark Sheppard (who plays Cecil) speak at an X-Files seminar here in LA. He was not only fascinating, but wonderfully passionate about the art of acting, with an intensity and a love for the work than just radiated. I hope Chris writes a script for him sometime; he is the kind of actor that writers must dream of, one who will bring their character fully to life. Script Notes: The drafts are: November 9, 1993 (white), November 14, 1993 (blue), November 14, 1993 (pink), November 16, 1993 (green), November 19, 1993 (yellow), and November 23, 1993 (gold). There is no indication of whether those adaptations were full or pages-only, but given that there are no white pages but every other color is represented, I'd say that the blue draft was full, the rest pages-only. The script opens at the country estate in England: A split-rail tudor that reeks of gentility. If this weren't present-day we might imagine a horse-drawn Victorian carriage wheeling up. Instead, a classic Bentley is pulling up the drive. As filmed, Mulder asks Phoebe what brings her "to the Colonies." The script is a bit different, and continues the conversation: MULDER What brings you across the pond? PHOEBE Murder, mayhem, intrigue. The lively arts. MULDER Domestic or imported? PHOEBE Particularly British, this one. There was a lot of shifting of scenes with this script. Scenes written as separate times are put together, or voice-overs allow two scripted moments to occur simultaneously. For example, the scene where the Marsden's dog digs up the hand of the real Bob The Caretaker is scripted as scene 53 -- late in Act Three; however, it appears in the finished show as part of the earlier digging the dog does, in scene 12, towards the end of Act One. Mulder tells Scully that Phoebe is fire, but that he will not involve Scully in this case: MULDER Sooner or later a man's got to face his demons, Scully. She nods. Watching Mulder's uncharacteristic nervous distraction. As he grabs his coat, moves to leave. SCULLY A word of advice: When you do, try to keep both feet on the floor. MULDER (mock effrontery) You know me, Scully. I'm a monk. When Bob/Cecil demonstrates his candle-finger at the bar, the woman turns to a friend and yells, "Lise! Take a look at this." That was changed to a generic, "Hey guys!" for filming.

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I had always assumed that when Bob placed the paper bag on the bar, it contained the cough medicine he was supposedly getting for the Marsden's driver. But in the script, it notes, a small brown paper bag with the shape and outline of a can inside. Presumably, this is a can of rocket fuel, which we see him painting from later. However, later in the bar scene, it is written that Bob puts his hand to the brown paper bag he's set on the bar, tipping over the contents of whatever's inside. As a river of fire streams down the bar -- a stampede for the door starts. The filmed version just shows him setting the bar afire, but the bag is still upright. When Mulder describes the bar fire to Phoebe, he notes that the Fire Marshall said it was so hot "it turned the cement foundation into sponge cake." This was corrected to "concrete" for the filmed version. (Yeah, I make that mistake all the time, too. Cement is a powdery substance that when mixed with water and sand, will become concrete when dry. Basically, what most of us call cement is wet, while concrete is dry.) When Phoebe is castigating Mulder for not forgiving her her "youthful indiscretions" (like, oh, breaking his heart and tossing him in the trash), the script has him saying, "I'm blessed with a good memory." That was changed to, "I'm cursed with a photographic memory." Blessing or curse -- you decide... When Scully drops in on Agent Beatty, the arson investigator who really enjoys his work, he mentions that he is "going over a little Mafia torch job." What was cut out is him telling this charming story: "Mob guy finds his wife cheating, so he burns down her boyfriend's apartment building. Thirty people see him do it but nobody'll testify. The boyfriend collects a million dollars of insurance. Runs off with the mob guy's wife to Tahiti. I'll tell you -- that's what makes this country great." During Scully's voice-over description of what makes an arsonist tick, this was edited out: In some cases, the arsonist will refer to the buildings or objects that he burns as the 'bride' or the 'girlfriend.' The setting of the fire he calls 'the wedding.' (This will come into play later.) While Scully is updating the file, another agent hands her a note. In the filmed version, it's the info on the entry visas, but in the script, it's a handwritten note that reads: Agent Scully, this is the chemical name of the suspected rocket fuel being used in High Temperature Arson fires. ARGOTYPOLINE. Happy hunting, Special Agent Beatty. The timestamp on the scene where Mulder enters the hotel room with the "romantic four-poster bed" is 5:15. It isn't in the script. I'm just mentioning it because it happens to be my birthday. *g* This is the description of the "ball:" INT. VENABLE PLAZA HOTEL - LARGE HALL - NIGHT - LATER MEN IN TUXEDOES, WOMEN IN EVENING DRESSES are filing into a room which looks to be filled with a crowd of similarly-dressed folk. A SMALL COMBO plays somewhere inside the room, the happy music wafting out. AS CAMERA FINDS MULDER, in tuxedo, standing at the edge of the crowd, surveying the scene like one of the President's secret service men. As he scans the crowd he finds: MULDER'S POV - The Marsdens (sans children) coming into the hallway. A few steps behind them is Phoebe, dressed in a beautiful dress. As elegant as Lady Marsden might be, Phoebe is without a doubt the most attractive woman in attendance. Her eyes find: MULDER looking at her. If he had any willpower or indecision about Phoebe, the evening is now a fait accompli. She looks irresistible. She passes Mulder, making quick eye contact. APPLAUSE GOES UP as the Marsdens enter the room. As Phoebe disappears inside with them, Mulder checks his watch. (This was cut.) INSERT WATCH - It is 7:35. DISSOLVING TO: LEAPING FLAMES through which we RACK FOCUS on Mulder's face. RESUME MULDER - LATER standing outside the room, looking in, watching apprehensively as A CHEF prepares cherries jubilee. The occasional guest moves in and out past Mulder who watches intently until the flames die. He checks his watch again. INSERT WATCH - It reads 9:30. (End of cut portion.) Mulder paces nervously to the middle of the large empty hallway. Startled after a moment by: PHOEBE'S VOICE Enjoying yourself? Mulder turns. Phoebe is approaching him. MULDER Good food, witty conversation -- I'm having the time of my life. The band starts to play again. A slow, romantic tune -- These Foolish Things Remind Me Of You. PHOEBE I wondered if you think it's safe to indulge ourselves in a dance? Mulder looks around the room, before:

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MULDER Doesn't look like your arsonist is going to make an appearance. PHOEBE That doesn't mean there won't be any fires to put out. Phoebe smiles, takes Mulder's hand. As they begin to dance, slowly. The only ones in the large hall. (This next part was also cut.) MULDER Elegant couple, the Marsdens. PHOEBE Lovely children. Frightening that anyone might wish them harm. (beat, as she studies Mulder) Ten years, Mulder. You've barely changed. I'm surprised somebody hasn't scooped you up. MULDER How do you know they haven't? PHOEBE Really, darling. You underestimate my investigative skills. Do you think I'd have gone to all the trouble if you were? MULDER Yes. (End of cut.) Phoebe smiles, lays her head on Mulder's chest. PHOEBE I've thought about you often. Have you thought about me? (This part was also cut.) Mulder takes a deep breath. MULDER Nah. Mulder can feel Phoebe smiling. She knows he's lying. ANGLE ON Sir Malcolm Marsden appearing at the doorway of the dining room. Reacting with some surprise at the sight of Phoebe and Mulder dancing. Before slipping back inside. AS CAMERA WHIP PANS TO: (End of cut.) SCULLY coming down the wide adjacent hallway, catching sight of: SCULLY'S POV down the long hall where Mulder and Phoebe are framed, dancing close and intimate. RESUME SCULLY as she stops, sighs impatiently, turns and begins to pace. Catching sight of someone herself: BOB THE CARETAKER standing in suit and tie just down the hall. Staring at her. Scully stares at him for a moment, then turns away, pacing in the opposite direction. When she turns back: BOB IS GONE. Almost as if by magic. (More cut.) RESUME MULDER AND PHOEBE, DANCING PHOEBE What are you thinking? MULDER How incredible that it took 350 years for someone to solve Fermat's last theorem. Phoebe takes her head off Mulder's chest, smiles impetuously. PHOEBE Same thing I was thinking. And they kiss. Softly, tentatively at first. Before the flood gates open. (Ahhh ... saved by the fire alarm ... *g*) The script has the end of Act Three coming after Mulder attempts (and fails) to save the Marsden children, and is himself rescued by the firemen. Very similar to one of the breaks in Anasazi, we have Scully kneeling beside an unconscious Mulder, and the following Act opening with Mulder's out-of-focus POV as he regains consciousness in bed. Nearly naked. *g* (Actually, Scully stripping Mulder to his skivvies and tucking him into bed to take care of him seems to be a recurring theme in Chris's scripts. Hmmm ... there's a "playing doctor" joke in there, but I'll refrain. Sorry, Chris -- didn't mean to make you blush. *g*)

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In the script, after Scully tells Mulder about Cecil Lively's entry into the U.S.: It takes only a beat for Mulder to hop off the bed, throw his robe off and start getting dressed. Right in front of Scully. . . . And Mulder runs out barefoot, carrying his shoes and socks. In the filmed version, he takes his clothes into the bathroom to dress. Back in Cape Cod, the Marsdens realize that Bob The Caretaker is the arsonist when Scully shows them the composite drawing, and things start igniting. Mulder gets everyone back downstairs (except the children, whom Bob has) when: Suddenly, everyone reacts to: BOB (O.S.) (to the tune of the wedding march) Da da da dum... Da da da dum ... (If you've seen the first-season blooper reel, now you understand the blooper of Bob/Cecil doing the very obnoxious version of this. And you thought he was just nuts ... *g*) After Bob is doused with the rocket fuel, he screams, "You - you ruined my wedding night." The voice-over that Scully does at the end is scripted to be Mulder's. The scripted ending -- which I love: after Mulder tells Scully that Phoebe messengered the cassette to him, but that he hasn't listened to it (and doesn't intend to, apparently): Scully gives him a look, reflecting the bittersweet irony. SCULLY Well, never let it be said you wouldn't walk through fire for a woman, Mulder. MULDER (smiles) And never let it be said I wouldn't do it for you again, Scully. She smiles. They exit. And we: FADE OUT THE END X-Files In-Jokes * The first victim, Sir Malcolm Mardsen, shares his name with the X-Files hair stylist. * 1121 - Scully says "X-Files number 11214893" -- 11/21/48 is Chris Carter's wife's birthday.

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- The meaning of the episode title is fairly obvious, as the villain of the piece was able to conduct fire.

-- "Fire" also referred to the Convenient Plot Device tossed into the episode: the revelation that Mulder was afraid of fire. But like so many other X-Files "convenient plot devices" over the years, this fear was never mentioned again (except in fanfic).

-- Chris Carter had been warned about the expense and problems that could arise when working with fire, though the only real glitch involved a scene where David Duchovny suffered a burn severe enough to leave a scar on his hand and Mark Sheppard (Cecil L'Ively) suffered a slight burn on his face.

-- The character of Phoebe Green -- played by Amanda Pays, whose credits included The Flash and Max Headroom -- was considered as a possible recurring role on the series, owing to Carter's admiration for the actress and his love of Sherlock Holmes. Carter was intrigued by the idea of incorporating a Scotland Yard detective into the show.

-- Forgive the puns, but the "Phoebe as Mulder's ex-flame" angle was apparently added after shooting on the episode began to try and add a few "sparks" to the story. The character was originally supposed to be a Scotland Yard detective seeking Mulder's assistance on the case. Sheppard apparently did not care for the addition of that sub-plot and nicknamed the character "Feeble Green."

-- The chemistry "didn't work as it might," Carter said, and scrapped plans to add the Scotland Yard character to the cast -- though Phoebe did achieve the desired effect by becoming a character, as Carter put it, "who fans on the Internet loved to hate."

-- The name "Phoebe" is a Greek name, meaning "the shining one," an appropriate title for a woman sending Mulder into fire. This was also reinforced by Mulder's assertion that "Phoebe is fire." It is the feminine form of "Phoebus," another name for Apollo, the fiery sun god.

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-- When Phoebe Met Scully ... the script did not include Phoebe's whisper to Mulder, "She hates me."

-- The British lord Malcolm Marsden was named after the show's chief hairdresser.

-- "Fire" contained a number of references to Sherlock Holmes:

(a) Phoebe made a reference to a "three-pipe problem." This was an expression used in the novel The Red-Headed League which featured Sherlock Holmes. It referred to the fact that one had to sit and smoke at least three pipes in order to solve a case with the information one had gathered.

(b) Scully called Mulder "Sherlock" and he called her "Watson." Dr. Watson was the faithful friend and colleague of Holmes (and Scully is also a doctor).

(c) Scully asked Mulder if "the game is afoot," an expression used many times in the Sherlock Holmes novels, meaning that the mystery had begun.

(d) Phoebe Green reminded Mulder of the fact that they once had a tryst on the tombstone of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle was the creator of the character of Sherlock Holmes.

-- Oopsie! The digital display of Scully's watch was set to 4:22 while the hands read 5:05.

-- Mulder's comment about having to "spend the night in the rubble" of his friend's house that burned down to keep away the looters was not in the script. The script indicates his fear of fire stemmed from his friend's house burning down when he was a kid.

-- As aired, the scene where Mulder told Scully about his fear of fire ended with his comment, "Sooner or later a man's got to face his demons." But two interesting lines that followed were cut from the final version. SCULLY: A word of advice: When you do, try and keep both feet on the floor. MULDER (mock effrontery): You know me, Scully. I'm a monk. [Mulder just kept unfolding like a flower, didn't he? < g >]

-- Mulder's line, "I'm cursed with a photographic memory," has also provided much fodder for fanfic. But in the script, the line is, "I'm blessed with a good memory."

-- Mark Sheppard's frustration with building up the Phoebe Green storyline was undoubtedly due in part to the fact that it forced the cutting of some of L'Ively's storyline. For example, a portion of Scully's voiceover about the profile of the suspect was cut which then severed a thematic link to Mendelssohn's Wedding March which L'Ively was humming as he went about his business in the climactic scene in the Cape Cod house. (Sheppard's enthusiastic humming was featured quite prominently in the Season 2 gag reel.) The tune Sheppard was humming no longer made sense since this part of Scully's voiceover was cut: "Though he may be academically retarded with below average intelligence, his crimes are often very clever and elaborately planned. In some cases, the arsonist will refer to the buildings or objects that he burns as the 'bride' or the 'girlfriend.' The setting of the fire he calls 'the wedding.'"

-- Although the reason for Sheppard's choice of tune was eliminated, Sheppard found that it did prove his bona fides to on-line X-Files fans when he first went into an AOL chat room shortly after the second season began. "'What was the song' they were asking me," he recalled, "and I realized that they knew more about the show than I did."

-- Mulder's bed-bouncing in the hotel room is not part of the script, though Scully's cold-water telephone call is. (The script notes indicate "He hadn't figured Scully's appearance into his night's activities.")

-- Following the scene where viewers first see Mulder in his tux, the script notes go like this: "As elegant as Lady Marsden might be, Phoebe is without a doubt the most attractive woman in attendance. Mulder, looking at her. If he had any willpower or indecision about Phoebe, the evening is now a fait accompli. She looks irresistible."

-- Although I'm not sure if the same song is used in the episode, the script notes indicated that the song Mulder and Phobe dance to should be "a slow romantic tune -- These Foolish Things Remind Me of You." The most famous version of the song was recorded by Frank Sinatra, but it has also been covered by Billie Holliday, Sarah Vaughn, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Aaron Neville, Rod Stewart, and Michael Buble.

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-- The script contained an exchange between Mulder and Phoebe that did not appear in the episode as aired. After Phoebe's line, "That doesn't mean there won't be any fires to start," (which in the script is "any fires to put out"), the following discussion takes place as Mulder and Phoebe dance:

MULDER: Elegant couple, the Marsdens.

PHOEBE: Lovely children. Frightening that anyone might wish them harm. (beat, as she studies Mulder) Ten years, Mulder. You've barely changed. I'm surprised somebody hasn't scooped you up.

MULDER: How do you know they haven't?

PHOEBE: Really, darling. You underestimate my investigative skills. Do you think I'd have gone to all the trouble if you were?

MULDER: Yes. (Phoebe smiles, lays her head on Mulder's chest.)

PHOEBE: I've thought about you often. Have you thought about me?

MULDER: (takes a breath) Nah. (Mulder can feel Phoebe smiling. She knows he's lying.)

-- In the episode as aired, Phoebe only said "I've thought about you often" before Scully arrived, watched Mulder and Phoebe impatiently, saw L'Ively, looked back and saw Mulder and Phoebe kissing, turned away and saw L'Ively had disappeared, then ran up to announce the hotel was on fire. In the script, before they kiss, Mulder and Phoebe have one more exchange:

PHOEBE: What are you thinking?

MULDER: How incredible that it took 350 years for someone to solve Fermat's last theorem. (Phoebe takes her head off Mulder's chest, smiles impetuously.

PHOEBE: Same thing I was thinking. (And they kiss. Softly, tentatively at first. Before the flood gates open.)

-- That Mulder! What a romantic!! Fermat's last theorem is one of the most famous theorems in the history of mathematics. It states that it is impossible to separate any power higher than the second into two like powers (i.e., the sum of two cubes is not a cube). Despite how closely the problem is related to the Pythagorean Theorem, which has infinite solution and hundreds of proofs, Fermat's subtle variation is much more difficult to prove. Still, the problem itself is easily understood even by schoolchildren, making it all the more frustrating and generating perhaps more incorrect proofs than any other problem in the history of mathematics. No correct proof was found for 357 years, until it was finally proven using very deep methods by Andrew Wiles in the summer of 1993. Wiles devoted seven years of his life to cracking the theorem. All the other theorems proposed by Fermat were proven, either in his own proofs or by other mathematicians, in the two centuries following their proposition. The theorem was not the last that Fermat conjectured, but the last to be proven.

-- After the fire, when Mulder awoke the next day, he script notes were as follows: "Close on Mulder, shirtless, under the covers of the romantic four-poster bed with the lacy pillows. A woman's hand enters frame, gently caressing his forehead. Mulder opens his eyes, groggily. He coughs a little, trying to focus on -- angle to include Scully -- slowly coming into focus. Not the woman he was expecting to end up in this bed with."

-- The famous "black silk boxer shorts" scene was originally a "Jockey underwear" scene. The script notes said: "Mulder coughs some more. He pulls the covers away, rolls out of bed, wearing only his jockey underwear, heading into the bathroom."

-- For what it's worth, Gillian Anderson reported that David Duchovny wore only black satin boxers for their famous Rolling Stone cover photo shoot.

-- When L'Ively went up in flames toward the end of the episode as aired, he said, "You can't fight fire with fire." But in the script, L'Ively's line was "You -- you ruined my wedding night," which had to be changed since that theme was excised (as noted above).

-- In the script, the final voiceover was Mulder's, but in the episode it was Scully who provided the episode wrap-up.

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-- In her voiceover, Scully referred to "X-Files number 11214893" -- 11/21/48 is Chris Carter's wife's birthday, and the episode was filmed in 1993.

-- Scully noted in her voiceover that L'Ively had fifth and sixth degree burns over his entire body. In classical medical literature, there were six degrees of burns, but generally, only the first three degrees are still commonly used by the public. In fifth-degree burns the muscle is irretrievably lost, and in sixth-degree burns the bone is charred. Carter also referred to fifth and sixth degree burns in Season One's "Fallen Angel."

-- The footage of Scully typing at the end of the episode was used for a third time in Season One. It was first seen in "Squeeze" and reused in "Shadows," then appeared again here -- except this time, it was run backwards.

-- In the original script, the scene between Mulder and Scully in the X-Files office followed Scully's voiceover accompanying shots of L'Ively in the hospital (where he said he was dying for a cigarette). The exchange between Mulder and Scully was basically the same in the scripted version and the aired version, except that the aired version ended with Mulder's reprise of the line "Ten to one you can't dance to it" (referring to the second tape Phoebe left). In the scripted version, following that line Scully said, "Well, never let it be said that you wouldn't walk through fire for a woman, Mulder," to which Mulder replied, "And never let it be said I wouldn't do it for you again, Scully." [She smiles. They exit. And we fade out. The End.]

-- "I'll tell you what's weird about my job," said Mark Sheppard in an interview that took place nearly ten years after his appearance as Cecil L'Ively in Season One's "Fire." "We all take it very seriously. We're all in this trying to make a world, and adhere to a set of rules that don't really exist. They only exist in the minds of the writers, the creators, and the actors -- and the fans. We're trying to make this as real as possible. I think that's why The X-Files worked, because of how much everybody put into it. Everybody wanted it to be good!"

-- Sheppard followed his role as Paddy Armstrong in the controversial drama In the Name of the Father with an audition for The X-Files. "I still have the appointment slip," he recalled. "They wanted to know if I could do an American accent -- that was very important. They found actors who could do the American or the English, but not both. They wanted it to be realistic."

-- Sheppard also demonstrated the sleight of hand that Cecil L'Ively used to impress the two young boys -- a trick that he actually did on camera. "I learned the magic trick for palming the cigarette," he said. "I actually did that at the audition. In the episode, I actually did it in one take, but for some reason they ended up editing it so it looked weird. I knew how to do a 'French drop' with a coin, so on the first day I arrived in Vancouver, I had my wardrobe fitting then went back to the hotel. I took a stick of chewing gum, folded it in half lengthways, and worked out how to palm it for six hours!"

-- Sheppard quit smoking six years before filming "Fire," so he smoked Honey Rose herbal cigarettes all the time. "It was weird to have to fake it," he commented.

-- Of course, Cecil L'Ively didn't bother with anything so mundane as a lighter -- he was able to light his own cigarettes simply by thinking about it. Sheppard, however, needed assistance from the special effects department. There were only three of those cigarettes made," he pointed out. "This was the early days of The X-Files when they didn't have a fortune, and on that episode the stunts were pretty big. The cigarette was the first stunt we did. There were three of them with an incendiary device in the end of the cigarette, and a copper wire that ran out into the side of my mouth. We could then hide it down one side of my face. I asked the special effects guys to show me how the cigarette worked. They said that they only had three, but I insisted, and they finally agreed. One of them put one in his mouth, lit it -- and it blew up! They were very embarrassed, and fixed them all, taking the magnesium charge out to make it lighter."

-- If the episode was being made several seasons later, a lot of the fire would probably be created with computer graphics, making it much safer for the actors on the set. In 1993, that wasn't an option. "It was all real fire on the episode," Sheppard said proudly. "It wasn't computer fire. There were real flames everywhere. That was me in the hotel corridor -- and I got a nice tan on the top of my head! If you watch the episode really closely, you can see me drop. As the stuntman playing Mulder dove out of the way, I was at the end of the hallway. The camera was on me, and they only had the one hallway, which they had to blow up at the end. We get there, they blow it up, and suddenly it gets amazingly hot. You see me drop to my knees as Mulder dove to the right because I was afraid that my hair was catching on fire. Entertainment Tonight was filming us, and all you could hear after the stunt finished was 'Cut -- did we get the take?' I was going, 'You bastards, you burned my head!' It was a very real fire, and very frightening."

473

-- One fire stunt that didn't make it as far as the studio floor was a further display by L'Ively of his powers. "There was a quarter mile of white picket fences catching fire," Sheppard remembered, "and other stuff got taken out. It kept getting pared down before we shot it."

-- Sheppard was keen to do as much of his own stuntwork as he could. "When I showed up for the audition, the guy from Stunts Canada showed me a video of his arm on fire outside his garage, and asked if I would be willing to do this stunt. I said, 'If I don't get to do this stunt, I'm not going to do this thing.' He was like, 'Oh, great!' When I was being lit up and prepped, there were guys three feet away from me who would put me out in a second. But it was still scary. Fire's a very powerful thing. My arm was on fire in the bar. I light the bar on fire with my arm, and all the rest of that stuff."

-- The only stunt that was not performed by Sheppard was the full body burn, which was carried out by a stuntman. "He had actually done full body burns for me three times, on three different shows," Sheppard commented. "He's a great guy. He has a lot thinner eyebrows than he should! He's a superb stuntman. He spent 20 minutes with me beforehand working out what my actions would be so he could match it, then I had to match the screen mask -- the copy of my face that he was wearing -- in the close-up, which was also done live, not with CGI. They let me do everything else, but they wouldn't let me do that. They lit him up with rubber cement, which is the hottest burning explosive, and exploded him with propane. He went for 28 seconds on this burn, and they shot it with three or four cameras. When they got to the end and put him out, they found out that he didn't have any oxygen -- and he'd gone for 28 seconds like that."

-- As is often the way with television production, the first scenes of the episode were actually recorded last. "We shot that teaser at the weekend, on the sixth day of a five day shoot," Sheppard said. "We ran out of time and because I'd done so much overtime already, I was feeling very generous. So we went off to this house and shot it at the weekend. They slapped the beard on me, and we filmed it with minimal crew. It was the only way that we could finish the episode."

-- Sheppard remains proud of his association with the series, as well as appearing at number 14 in an X-Files magazine poll of the show's Top 20 Villains. "Think about how many villains there had been," he said. "There was something special about that first season. They were new, and they didn't really have their audience. They made their audience on the back of the first season, and it was really exciting to be part of that."

-- Since his X-Files appearance, Sheppard has been a busy actor, most recently appearing in three episodes of Medium as the very nasty Dr. Charles Walker. He also appeared in the fifth season of 24 as Ivan Erwich, the "Yellow Tie Man."

-- Amanda Pays has been married to actor Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law) since November 1988. The couple has four sons.

-- Larry Shaw directed this episode as well as Season One's "Fallen Angel." Most recently, Shaw has directed numerous episodes of Desperate Housewives.

-- Once & Future Retreads: Lynda Boyd (Woman in Bar) was Elizabeth in "F. Emasculata." Alan Robertson (Grey-Haired Man) was Roosevelt in "Teso Dos Bichos."

1x11 Fire - script

THE X-FILES

"Fire"

Written by

Chris Carter

474

Directed by

Larry Shaw

Episode #1X11 Story No. 4202 November 9, 1993 (White) November 14, 1993 (Blue) November 15, 1993 (Pink) November 16, 1993 (Green) November 19, 1993 (Yellow) November 23, 1993 (Goldenrod)

FIRE

EXT. ENGLISH COUNTRY ESTATE – PRESENT DAY

A LEGEND: Bosham, England. 70 miles Southwest of London.

A split rail tudor that reeks of gentility. If this weren't present day we might imagine a horse drawn Victorian carriage wheeling up. Instead, A CLASSIC BENTLEY is pulling up the drive.

NEW ANGLE ON HOUSE as a GRAY-HAIRED MAN with a regal air (60s) exits the front door. His YOUNG, PRETTY WIFE follows him out to the edge of the steps where he kisses her goodbye, with the doting affection an elderly man has for a woman thirty years his younger. Carrying an umbrella, he looks up to check the weather before walking down the steps toward his waiting car.

NEW ANGLE ON HOUSE

As the Gray-haired Man moves down the walk, feeling on top of the world. His DRIVER exits the Bentley, moving around to the rear passenger door as the Gray-haired Man approaches, passing en route THREE GARDENERS who are busy planting colorful bed flowers from small flatbed dollies.

GRAY-HAIRED MAN (with English accent) Hello. Good morning. Hello.

A DARK-EYED YOUNG GARDENER is the last person he passes as he exits frame.

YOUNG GARDENER Top of the morning to you, sir.

This young man watching with a furtive interest. CAMERA PUSHING IN until only his dark, haunting eyes fill frame.

NEW ANGLE ON WAITING CAR as the Gray-haired Man comes around to enter. His Driver holding the door for him.

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GRAY-HAIRED MAN Thank you, Roger.

Before entering the car, however, the aristocrat stops, waves to his wife who still stands waiting on the steps.

GRAY-HAIRED MAN Goodbye, darling.

When, suddenly, the Gray-haired Man's waving arm BURSTS INTO FLAMES. Startled, he tries to shake the fire off. But they only grow, crawling down his arm to his body. He staggers away from the car now, YELLING IN PAIN. Stumbling backwards onto the lawn.

Before anyone can come to his rescue, his entire body is up in flames. He waves his arms wildly. The gardeners and the Driver encircle him but are powerless to put him out. Even when he falls to the ground.

ANGLE ON YOUNG WIFE as she runs toward her flaming husband. The FLAMES leaping up into frame in the f.g. Running past the DARK-EYED YOUNG GARDENER, the only person who has not reacted or jumped to the rescue. Quite the contrary.

As the CAMERA PUSHES IN THROUGH the leaping flames we see the Dark-Eyed Gardener is SMILING. An evil, devilish grin. As we:

GO TO MAIN TITLES

ACT ONE

EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. – DAY – (STOCK)

To establish, with legend.

CUT TO:

EXT. FEDERAL COURTHOUSE PARKING LOT – DAY

Mulder and Scully each have armloads of files and books as they make their way through the rows of cars.

SCULLY I forgot what it was like to spend a day in court.

MULDER Yeah. That's one of the luxuries in hunting down aliens and genetic mutants. Rarely do you get to press charges.

Scully has to laugh.

ANGLE ON SEDAN as Mulder puts his stack of material atop the car, fishes for his keys and Scully moves around to the passenger door.

SCULLY It's open, Mulder.

MULDER What?

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SCULLY It's unlocked.

As she swings the door open to illustrate.

MULDER That's weird. I'm sure I locked it.

SCULLY (ironically) Maybe it's an X file.

As she gives him a look before ducking inside. He shakes his head, sure he locked the car. Before taking his stuff off the car roof, ducking inside, too.

INT. FBI SEDAN – DAY – CONTINUOUS

As Mulder slides in Scully is pointing to something on the dash near the steering wheel.

SCULLY What's that?

Mulder sees:

AN AUDIO CASSETTE

Propped on its side between the dash and the windshield. It is the clear plastic type. Nothing is written on the label. Mulder's hand reaches in, pulls it away.

RESUME MULDER, SCULLY as Mulder holds it up gingerly with two fingers, rattling it gently. He and Scully trade looks, both Agents instinctively scanning the parking lot outside. Before:

MULDER (his turn at ironic) I told you I locked the door.

SCULLY What do you think it is?

MULDER (shrugs) Ten to one you can't dance to it.

Mulder turns the key to accessory setting, pops the tape in. After a moment a WOMAN'S VOICE sounds. She is BRITISH.

WOMAN'S VOICE (TAPE) Greetings, Agent Mulder. Six months ago British Minister of Parliament Reggie Ellicott received an audio cassette much like the one you are listening to now. Unfortunately for Minister Ellicott, when he popped the tape into the car stereo he armed a device which, when he tried to exit the car, created an explosion which was heard five miles away. the Scotland Yard forensic team could only identify the poor bastard by his dental records. Pity his bereaved family, paying their respects to a jar of dirty old teeth. If only he hadn't reached for the door handle and triggered the detonator.

477

Mulder and Scully, both rigid as two-by-fours, shoot nervous looks down to their respective door handles.

WOMAN'S VOICE (TAPE, CONT'D) But then, how was he to know he was sitting on enough plastique explosive to lift the car forty feet in the air and deposit the engine block on top of a three story building?

As, SUDDENLY, a WOMAN'S TORSO appears outside of the car. The body of someone who YANKS the car door open. Causing Mulder and Scully to UTTER SIMULTANEOUS, GUTTURAL SCREAMS.

The woman bends her head down into the car, smiling as:

WOMAN Aren't we looking rather ghostly?

Mulder shakes his head with dim recognition, the woman, a very attractive brunette with intelligent, mischievous eyes. Her name is PHOEBE GREENE. Mulder, still catching his breath, turns to Scully who is still holding hers.

MULDER An old friend.

EXT. – COURTHOUSE PARKING LOT – CONTINUOUS

As Mulder exits, Phoebe impudently holding the door him.

PHOEBE Aren't you going to thank me?

MULDER For?

PHOEBE (what else?) Saving your life. One tends to not make the same mistake twice.

MULDER (coolly) I'll try to remember that.

PHOEBE Don't tell me you left your sense of humor at Oxford ten years ago.

MULDER It's one of the few things you didn't put a stake through.

Mulder finally smiles. Phoebe gives him a kiss on the lips that she seems to savor more than he. He breaks.

PHOEBE Some mistakes are quite worth making twice.

She smiles slyly. He doesn't give her the benefit of returning the gesture. Mulder looks over to Scully, who has exited and has just been witness to the kiss. She is still in something of a minor state of shock.

MULDER Dana Scully, Phoebe Green. The terror of Scotland Yard.

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PHOEBE (curtly) Oh, hello.

Phoebe disregards Scully beyond this, turning back to Mulder.

ANGLE ON SCULLY

SCULLY (sotto, mocking) Oh, hello.

RESUME MULDER, PHOEBE

There is a certain nervous discomfort for Mulder in Phoebe's presence.

MULDER What brings you across the pond?

PHOEBE Murder, mayhem, intrigue. The lively arts.

MULDER Domestic or imported?

PHOEBE Particularly British, this one.

SMASH CUT TO:

INT. AGENT MULDER'S OFFICE – DAY – LATER

CLOSE ON FORENSIC B&W PHOTOGRAPH OF A BLACKENED CORPSE. Glimpsed for only a moment before the hand holding it pulls it out of frame, revealing Phoebe Greene.

PHOEBE Some clever bloke has been giving the aristocracy a good scare. Killed off a ranking member of Parliament or three for good measure. Set Windsor Castle ablaze in 1992.

ANGLE TO INCLUDE Mulder holding the photograph. Scully leans against Mulder's desk. But as far as Phoebe's concerned she's not even in the room.

MULDER Your car bomber?

PHOEBE No. this one likes to burn his victims alive. Can't figure out how he does it, either. Not a crumb of evidence left at the crime scene. The last one died in his front garden, his poor young wife watching helplessly as he went up in smoke.

Phoebe gives a quick little smile. Mulder squirms a bit, for some reason that is not yet apparent.

MULDER The Irish Republican Army?

479

PHOEBE (shrugs, maybe) Our suspect likes to send love letters to the victims' wives. Sent one to Malcolm Marsden's wife last month. Three days later Sir Marsden narrowly escaped a fire in his garage. Burned to the ground. So they've rented a place out on Cape Cod, bringing the family to the States for an extended holiday. Or until we catch the dirty bugger.

MULDER You must think he's determined.

PHOEBE Judging by his success.

Mulder eyes Phoebe suspiciously.

MULDER So what brings you on this detour to Washington D.C., Inspector?

PHOEBE I figured my friend Mulder couldn't resist a three pipe problem

Phoebe smiles impudently. Mulder eyes the photograph again. looking up to regard Phoebe as one might regard a clever foe.

MULDER I'll see is if I can't get our arson specialist to have a look.

PHOEBE Splendid.

Phoebe smiles slyly. She's hooked him, which is exactly what she came to do.

MULDER Just give me a minute.

PHOEBE Right.

Phoebe starts to exit, then stops. Almost forgetting:

PHOEBE (crisply to Scully) Oh. Goodbye.

Scully manufactures a tight little smile, a stiff wave of her hand. Phoebe exits and Scully eyes Mulder with a who-is-that-and- where-does-she-get-off look.

SCULLY A three pipe problem?

MULDER It's from Sherlock Holmes. A private joke.

SCULLY How private?

Mulder takes a beat – to confess or not to confess.

480

MULDER We knew each other at school in England. She was brilliant. I got in over my head and paid the price.

SCULLY (smiles) You just keep unfolding like a flower, Mulder.

MULDER It was over ten years ago.

SCULLY Yeah. I noticed how you couldn't drop everything fast enough to help her out.

MULDER I'm extending her a professional courtesy.

SCULLY Is that what you're extending?

MULDER (frowns) I'll run her by our arson guys, then she's on her own.

SCULLY I don't think you'll be getting rid of her that easily.

Off their exchanged looks, we:

CUT TO:

EXT. CAPE COD HOME – DAY

With legend to indicate. A lovely clapboard house with a big lawn extending all the way to the blue Atlantic.

CUT TO:

INT. CAPE COD HOME – MASTER BEDROOM – DAY

A PAINTER in white coveralls stands with his back to us, paining the wall with careful strokes. CAMERA DRIFTS IN.

CLOSE ON PAINT CANS as the Painter dips his brush in the can of paint. Then into a can of clear liquid which we assume to be paint thinner. On a half- torn off label we see the letters: YPOLINE.

CAMERA CONTINUES TO DRIFT as the Painter reacts to a noise. The SOUND OF CARS PULLING INTO THE DRIVEWAY. CAMERA DRIFTS with him over to the window, becoming:

PAINTER'S POV from the second story window. A TOWN CAR, followed by a SMALL MOVING VAN, pulling into the drive. TWO YOUNG BOYS exit, along with a HANDSOME FATHER (40s) and a BEAUTIFUL MOTHER (30s). And a frisky little JACK RUSSELL TERRIER. Their conversation with the TOWN CAR DRIVER tells us they are the English Family that Phoebe described. The Young Boys are spirited and rambunctious.

481

CAMERA ADJUSTS TO REVEAL the painter standing in the window. He has a Van Dyke goatee, a thin smile on his face. He pulls a cigarette from a pack in his pocket and puts it to his lips, keeping a watchful eye on the family below. Then:

The cigarette dangling from his lips SUDDENLY LIGHTS ITSELF. A small flame like a match strike ignites at the tip of the cigarette. AS CAMERA DRIFTS AROUND to the man's face, pushing in on a pair of DARK EYES that we've seen before. The gardener's eyes from the Teaser. As we:

CUT TO:

EXT. FBI BUILDING, WASHINGTON D.C. – NEXT DAY

With legend, to establish.

CUT TO:

FLAMES, BRIGHT AND ORANGE – A MAN'S VOICE under –

MAN'S VOICE Beautiful. Just beautiful.

We are in:

INT. FBI BUILDING – ARSON SPECIALIST'S OFFICE – DAY

Mulder and Phoebe are with SPECIAL AGENT MELVIN BEATTY (50s). Beatty is a short, enthusiastic man. Currently he is flashing slides upon a screen from a slide projector. His mood is ebullient.

BEATTY Fourteen hundred, fifteen hundred degrees. Salmon red flames … this is a work of art.

SHOT – A new slide appears. The charred remains of a building interior.

BEATTY Was there an incendiary device used?

PHOEBE Yes, actually. The victim's body.

BEATTY (his eyes light up) Spontaneous combustion?

PHOEBE He was murdered. However, we've turned up no evidence that tells us how the body caught fire.

BEATTY Peculiar. People don't normally just catch on fire. We burn, but as a rule we don't conduct all that well. There is usually some kind of extraneous fuel involved. Candle wax, gasoline – something flammable or incendiary that adheres to the skin –

As Scully quietly enters the room; stands in the doorway listening. Unbeknownst to Mulder or Phoebe.

482

PHOEBE -- like an accelerant.

BEATTY (delighted) Like an accelerant.

PHOEBE But we've found no trace of anything. Save for a dusting of magnesium at two of the sites.

BEATTY Aliphatic pyrolysis. Residue from an exothermic reaction.

PHOEBE But there's no evidence of its source. No pour pattern or ignition devices.

Beatty rubs his chin. Phoebe has him stumped.

BEATTY There've been some arson fires in Seattle. Pennsylvania. Burn so hot that fireman can't put them out. Seven thousand degrees. Hosing them down only makes things worse.

MULDER How's that?

BEATTY Reaction's so intense it splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen. It's like adding fuel to the fire.

PHOEBE What are they using?

BEATTY We don't know for sure. It could be rocket fuel. There's never a trace left. Burns so hot and clean you can't even prove it's arson. It's driving the insurance companies nuts. (shrugs) 'Bout the only explanation I can give you.

He looks to Mulder.

MULDER There've been reports of pyrokinetics. People who can conduct and control fire –

BEATTY (smiling at the notion, but dismissing it) I've seen fire bend around corners, bounce like a rubber ball. Fire has a certain genius – a demon poetry – sometimes it's almost like it has a mind of its own. But I've never seen one yet that defied the laws of physics, once you figured it out. (turns to Mulder) Got yourself a hell of a case here, Agent Mulder. Sort of wish I was in your shoes.

483

With a wink and a nod toward Phoebe. Phoebe smiles at Beatty, then at Mulder. But Mulder does not return the gesture.

As Scully slips out the door, unnoticed, we:

CUT TO:

INT. CAPE COD HOUSE – DAY

The MOVING MEN carry boxes, following Sir Malcolm and Lady Marsden as they ascend the stairs, surprised by the Painter/Gardener/Caretaker whom they meet coming down. He carries two one-gallon paint buckets. Out the window we see a long grassy yard which stretches down to the woody shoreline.

PAINTER (BOB) (with an American Accent now) Howdy.

They react with a start.

BOB I'm Bob. Your caretaker. We've been exchanging letters…?

SIR MALCOLM Oh. Good heavens. Of course.

He steps to offer a handshake. Bob puts the paint cans down, wipes his hand on his coveralls before completing the gesture.

BOB Trying to spruce the place up for you.

LADY MARSDEN It's quite lovely. The photos don't do it justice.

BOB Beautiful time of year. Anyway, you need anything, you just holler.

SIR MALCOLM (as Bob heads off) Seems like a nice fellow, don't you think?

LADY MARSDEN Very.

SIR MALCOLM Did you notice the painting here, dear. It looks quite like you.

An OIL PAINTING hanging in the stairway does indeed look like Lady Marsden. As the couple admires it, we:

CUT TO:

EXT. CAPE COD HOUSE – DAY – CONTINUOUS

Bob exits the house onto the huge back lawn where the TWO YOUNG BOYS are playing and romping down near the water. Bob stops and watches them a minute before his attention is turned to:

THE JACK RUSSEL TERRIER

484 digging at a mound of dirt in an otherwise grassy section over near a white picket fence. When SUDDENLY A BOOT COMES INTO FRAME, knocking the dog away. CAMERA TILTS UP TO BOB. Standing with his paint buckets in his hand. A cold, bloodless expression.

BOB (at the dog, with an English accent) Bloody little cur. I'll skin you alive.

ON THE DOG staring up at Bob with a fearful expression. Before retreating with his tail between his legs. As we:

CUT TO:

INT. AGENT MULDER'S OFFICE – DAY

Agent Scully sitting at Mulder's desk. She wears reading glasses, seemingly concentrated on the work in front of her, when Agent Mulder appears silently in the doorway behind her.

SCULLY (not turning around) So, Sherlock… is the game afoot?

MULDER I'm afraid so. But you're off the hook on this one, Scully.

Scully swivels in her chair, regards Mulder.

SCULLY What do you mean?

MULDER I mean, I'm not going to put you through this.

SCULLY Put me through what?

MULDER Phoebe's little mindgame.

SCULLY What are you talking about?

MULDER There's something else you don't know about me, Scully. I hate fire. Hate it. I'm scared to death of it. My best friend's house burned down when I was a kid. Had nightmares for years about being trapped in a burning building.

SCULLY Wait. And Phoebe knows this?

MULDER Oh, yeah. This is classic Phoebe Greene. The mindgame player elite. Ten years it's taken to try and forget about her. And then she shows up with a case like this.

485

SCULLY She shows up knowing the power she has over you and then makes you walk through fire, is that it?

MULDER Phoebe is fire.

SCULLY You sure you don't want me to help you out?

MULDER Sooner or later a man's got to face his demons, Scully.

She nods. Watching Mulder's uncharacteristic nervous distraction. As he grabs his coat, moves to leave.

SCULLY A word of advice: when you do, try and keep both feet on the floor.

MULDER (mock effrontery) You know me, Scully. I'm a monk.

And Mulder is out the door. Off Scully's thoughtful expression, we:

CUT TO:

INT. CAPE COD HOUSE – KITCHEN – NIGHT

CLOSE ON gas range burner igniting. CAMERA ADJUSTS to reveal Lady Marsden as she puts a kettle on the stove.

EXT. CAPE COD HOUSE – NIGHT

POV THROUGH A WINDOW of Lady Marsden as she moves about the kitchen. Various shots of her face, her hands. A PAN DOWN her slim attractive figure. Somebody is admiring this woman in an intense and sexual way.

CAMERA PULLS BACK to reveal: Bob the Caretaker. Standing in the bushes, peeping through the window. When he reacts to a noise.

He quickly moves from the house, circling around to the driveway where –

BOB'S POV

A DARK FIGURE STANDS. It's a large man with his back to us, the red tip of his lit cigarette glowing in the darkness. He COUGHS LOUDLY.

BOB Hello.

The Man turns, startled. As CAMERA TRACKS WITH BOB over to his position. We may recognize the man as the driver of the Marsden's Town Car. Doing double duty here as a bodyguard.

DRIVER Who's that?

BOB Bob. The caretaker.

486

DRIVER Oh.

BOB Bum a smoke?

DRIVER Sure.

The Driver holds out the pack to Bob and Bob helps himself.

BOB I'm going into town. Can I get you anything?

DRIVER Yes. Some cough medicine. If it's no problem

BOB (waving off any Inconvenience) Syrup or lozenges?

DRIVER Uh… syrup would be good. Can I give you some money? (but Bob's already on the move) Really appreciate it.

As Bob disappears into the darkness, we:

CUT TO:

A HAND coming down onto a bar. In it is a SMALL BROWN PAPER BAG with the shape and outline of a can inside. We are:

INT. PROVINCETOWN PUB – NIGHT – LATER

The hand and the bag belong to Bob the Caretaker. He has seated himself on the bar stool of this dark but crowded establishment. Seated next to him is a WOMAN who regards Bob and his brown bag with the seasick look of someone who's had one too many cocktails.

WOMAN They don't let you bring your own around here.

BOB (with an English accent now) Well, they'll just have to make an exception, won't they?

WOMAN Oh. Oh, you're … English. God, I just love that accent.

As she says this the Woman is pulling a cigarette from a pack she has on the bar. She reaches for her lighter but Bob's hand shoots out and takes her hand.

BOB Allow me.

487

WOMAN And a gentleman to boot.

Bob smiles, holds up his index finger in front of the woman. She regards it with confused wooziness for a moment, until BOB'S FINGER IGNITES. A CANDLE-LIKE FLAME sprouting from the tip of his finger. Bob smiles. The same bloodless smile we've now seen several times.

WOMAN (excited) Oh my god. Now that is a trick. (turning to yell at a friend) Lise! Take a look at this.

The Woman turns back, putting her cigarette to her lips. But when she does – BOB'S WHOLE ARM AND PART OF HIS UPPER TORSO IS ON FIRE. And Bob still has the same smile on his face.

BOB Care for a light.

The Woman stumbles back off her bar stool now. As every head in the room starts to turn, the bar filling with the din of excited patrons. THE CROWD PANICKING WHEN:

Bob then puts his hand to the brown paper bag he's set on the bar, tipping over the contents of whatever's inside. AS A RIVER OF FIRE streams down the bar – a stampede for the door starts. As we:

END ACT ONE

ACT TWO

EXT. BOSTON HOSPITAL – DAY (STOCK)

To establish. With legend over.

MULDER (V.O.) I pulled the report off the wire last night.

INT. BOSTON HOSPITAL – DAY – CONTINUOUS

With legend, to establish. Moving with Mulder and Phoebe down the hall. Mulder is glancing inside a file folder.

MULDER Eyewitnesses are saying that a customer in the bar caught fire, but they're still looking for a body.

PHOEBE Any indication if an accelerant was used?

MULDER (nodding) The bar was right across the street from the fire station. Burned to the ground before they could even respond. Fire Marshall said it was so hot it turned the cement foundation into sponge cake. (stopping at a door, checking the name) This is a woman who was in the abr.

Mulder knocks, pushes the door open.

488

MULDER Hello…?

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM – DAY – CONTINUOUS

Mulder and Phoebe enter. The Woman, who we last saw teetering on her bar stool trying to get her cigarette lit, lies in a hospital bed with both hands bandaged.

MULDER Hi, Miss Kotchik? I'm Special Agent Mulder of the FBI. This is Inspector Greene.

The woman manages a smile.

PHOEBE Can you tell us what happened in the bar last night.

WOMAN There was this guy. I'd had a few drinks so… he sat down next to me and he did this thing. It was like a magic trick where he lit his finger on fire. Next thing I turn around and he's up in flames.

PHOEBE Can you describe him?

WOMAN Good looking, I think. Brownish hair.

MULDER Short hair? Long hair?

WOMAN Medium, I think. Kinda – I've already given the police the information –

PHOEBE Did he have facial hair?

WOMAN Um… maybe. No. I don't think so.

MULDER Do you think you could work with a composite artist and come up with a sketch for us?

WOMAN Like I said, I had a few drinks.

MULDER (removing a small pad, a pen) Can I get your name and address –

WOMAN – See, I live with someone. He thinks I was at school last night.

MULDER No problem. You can come down to the field office and work with somebody there.

489

The woman is hesitant. Mulder nods.

MULDER We'll give you some time.

He motions to Phoebe. They exit the room.

INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY – DAY – CONTINUOUS

Mulder and Phoebe exit back into the hallway.

PHOEBE Deftly done, Agent Mulder. Casually disregard her indiscretion. A polite but firm manner until she accedes to cooperate.

MULDER It's a technique I refined in my relationship with you.

PHOEBE Ah. Yes, well … I see you haven't' lost your sense of humor after all.

MULDER Sorry. That was a cheap shot. I'm not here to dredge up the past. Let's just stick to the case.

PHOEBE (coolly) Let's.

Phoebe turns away from Mulder, studying the file folder now. There's a moment of confused sexual tension. Phoebe's sudden swing eliciting some old need in him to have her affection.

MULDER (moving to Phoebe) Look …

PHOEBE Maybe I'm mistaken, but ten years seems sufficient time to have forgiven, if not forgotten a few youthful indiscretions.

MULDER I'm blessed with a good memory.

PHOEBE Then don't tell me you've forgotten a certain youthful indiscretion atop Arthur Conan Doyle's tombstone on a misty night in Windlesham.

She gives Mulder a thin, devilish smile. Completely aware of the power she has over him.

MULDER Like I said, let's stick to the case.

PHOEBE Yes, the case. It occurred to me we're going to a lot of trouble to get a description of a man who in all likelihood has been burned to a crisp.

MULDER I'd agree with you. Except they haven't found a body.

490

As Mulder pushes the door open, going back into:

CUT TO:

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM (RESUME)

Mulder and Phoebe reenter.

MULDER So… can we count on you?

WOMAN Yeah. Ok. (Mulder removes his pad and pen again) I don't know if it matters, but I remembered something else about the guy who caught fire: He had an English accent.

Off Mulder and phoebe's reaction to this, we:

CUT TO:

EXT. FBI BUILDING, WASHINGTON D.C. – DAY

With legend, to establish.

INT. AGENT MULDER'S OFFICE – DAY

Agent Scully is working at Mulder's desk when something distracts her. It’s a SCOTLAND YARD CASE FILE.

She pushes her own work aside, reaches for the file and opens it, studying its contents. As we:

CUT TO:

INT. ARSON SPECIALIST'S (MEL BEATTY) OFFICE – DAY

Beatty is studying slides on a light table when he looks up, diverted by:

SCULLY (O.S.) Knock knock.

ANGLE TO INCLUDE SCULLY

Standing in the doorway of the office. She steps inside, offering a handshake to Beatty.

SCULLY Agent Beatty? Special Agent Scully. Can I steal a minute of your time?

BEATTY (nods, ushers her in) Come in. I was just going over a little mafia torch job. Mob guy finds his wife cheating so he burns her boyfriend's apartment building. Thirty people see him do it but nobody'll testify. The boyfriend collects a million dollars of insurance. Runs off with the mob guy's wife to Tahiti. I'll tell you – that's what makes this country great.

Beatty loves the story, beaming as he tell sit.

491

SCULLY (smiles) I'm working with Agent Mulder –

BEATTY Right. Wild case. What do you want to know?

SCULLY You mentioned the arsonist might be using rocket fuel as an accelerant.

BEATTY Just speculation. Still doesn't explain how he could be lighting bodies on fire.

SCULLY What if, say, he got this fuel into some hand cream or –

BEATTY (amused) Understand, the smallest amounts can produce temperatures upwards of five thousand degrees. But I suppose it's not impossible. Extremely diluted. But he'd still need a way to ignite it.

Scully nods, thinking.

SCULLY Say I was starting these fires. Give me a profile of the kind of person I'd be.

BEATTY Well, it'd be less of a profile than a surrealist painting.

As Scully takes a seat, preparing to hear what Beatty has to say, we:

CUT TO:

EXT. CAPE COD HOUSE – DAY

LONG SHOT of the house, which sits stark and white against the muted colors of autumn.

CLOSE ON BOB kneeling next to a long white picket fence that separates the property line down to the water. He is painting it with white pain. Dipping his brush into a small PINT-SIZED CAN of clear liquid between each stroke.

BOB (American accent) You boys wanna see a magic trick?

CAMERA ADJUSTS to include The Marsden Boys standing behind Bob.

OLDEST BOY Okay.

BOB What're your names?

MICHAEL Michael. And Jimmie.

Bob turns, puts down his paint brush, regards the boys with his dark, dead eyes.

492

BOB Doesn't he talk?

MICHAEL Yes.

He elbows his brother in the side. Both boys giggle. Bob laughs with them.

MICHAEL What kind of magic trick?

BOB Maybe I'd better not.

JIMMIE Show us.

BOB No. you might tell your mom and dad.

MICHAEL We won't tell.

BOB Really? You promise?

JIMMIE Promise.

BOB Hope to die, stick a needle in your eye?

The boys giggle again. bob smiles, but it is not the smile of a kindly caretaker. It's an evil smile. As he takes out a pack of cigarettes, a book of matches.

BOB Okay, now. I'm trusting you boys. Man to man here. You've taken the solemn oath of trust that can't be broken. Except under penalty of death.

Bob says this with a kind of menacing playfulness as he takes a cigarette from the pack. The boys laugh, enthralled with what they take to be Bob's showmanship.

Bob holds a single cigarette in his palm, holds it out to the boys. Then he closes his fingers around the cigarette and turns his hand over, as if he's now holding it in his fist. A clown's smile on his face.

BOB Think it's in there?

JIMMIE No.

BOB Oh, you're too smart for me.

Bob opens his fist and the cigarette is indeed gone. The boys giggle with nervous delight.

493

MICHAEL Where did it go?

BOB Where did it go? Where did it go? Now that's a good question. Where do you think it went, Jimmie?

JIMMIE I don't know.

BOB You don't know. Well… now, let's see if I can remember where I put it. Hmmm.

Bob scratches his head, pretending to think. When suddenly he looks up at the boys with a clowny, startled look of panic.

BOB I just remembered.

Bob reaches to his ear, pulling a cigarette out from behind it. A LIT CIGARETTE, which he puts to his lips, takes a satisfied puff. Michael and Jimmie can't believe their eyes, clapping and laughing at the wonderful trick.

MICHAEL Do it again.

BOB You want to see it again?

MICHAEL AND JIMMIE Yes. Do it again… (etc etc)

Bob smiles his wonderfully evil smile, as we:

CUT TO:

EXT. BOSTON STREET – DAY – LATER

Mulder and Phoebe walk with a sense of purpose, urgency now.

MULDER Whoever your killer is I think he just sent you a message. How did you get this case? Was it assigned to you?

PHOEBE Why? What are you thinking?

MULDER Remember I mentioned reports of people who can control or conduct fire – Pyrokinetics?

PHOEBE Yes.

MULDER I don't think this is the IRA, Phoebe. I think this guy is far more exotic.

PHOEBE I should say so. If he can light himself afire –

494

(sensing Mulder's stare) What?

MULDER Nothing. I'm just not used to someone so quick to agree with me on these things. What kind of protection does the family have?

PHOEBE A very capable bodyguard.

MULDER You might want to arrange for some additional men. And try and limit their public exposure.

PHOEBE They've got a party being held in their honor in Boston tonight. They'll have to cancel.

As they arrive at their car, parked curbside, Mulder takes a beat, thinking.

MULDER Unless you wanted to set a trap.

PHOEBE I don't want to put them at any risk. ( considering) If they knew… it won't do us any good to alarm them. Alright. But we must be careful. And discreet. (checks her watch) The party is at eight in the Venable Plaza. I'll be travelling with the family. You go on ahead and have a look around. I've taken a room at the hotel for the night.

It hangs there. An invitation? What else could it be? Mulder stares out the front window, conflicted by his own desires.

CUT TO:

EXT. CAPE COD HOUSE – DAY

CLOSE ON BOB. Three lit cigarettes in his mouth now. He puffs on them clownishly, causing the boys to laugh at his antics.

BOB You're killing me, Jimmy. I'm gonna have smoke coming out my ears. (taking the smokes from his mouth) You boys ever smoked a cigarette?

MICHAEL No. They're bad for you.

BOB They are? Then how come you're making me smoke three at a time? Huh?

JIMMIE Cause you're a man.

BOB I see. Cause I'm a man. Oh, now it makes sense. You wanna try a puff, Michael?

495

MICHAEL No.

BOB Make a man out of you.

Bob's won their trust and affection but Michael now seems reluctant and afraid. he holds out a cigarette to Michael.

BOB Why don't you hold one for me.

Michael pulls his arms back, shakes his head no.

BOB Jimmie? What about you, little man? Huh?

Jimmie thinks about it, starts to reach out for the cigarette when:

LADY MARSDEN'S VOICE Michael! Jimmie!

ANGLE TO INCLUDE

Lady Marsden is heading toward them from the house, moving across the expansive lawn. Bob quickly ditches the cigarettes as the boys' mother approaches.

LADY MARSDEN There you are.

The boys try to hide their guilt, but it becomes immediately apparent that Lady Marsden is not so concerned with them as with another matter. Something that involves Bob.

LADY MARSDEN We've had a bit of had news. Our driver has become ill and we're due at a party in Boston this evening. Is there any chance we can impose upon you to drive the family into town this evening? We'd be more than happy to pay you for your time and put you up for the night.

BOB I'd be happy to do it as a favor.

LADY MARSDEN Oh, thank you. (to her sons) Come now, Daddy has lunch all ready. Look at you, Jimmie. You're absolutely filthy… (etc. etc.)

She leads the boys away. They turn back to smile at Bob, keepers of their little secret. Bob smiles back. CAMERA PUSHING IN on his dark, dead eyes.

BOB'S POV

Watching Lady Marsden. Fixing on her as she shepherds the boys back up to the house. Her sheer cotton print dress blowing gently, draping her body so as to reveal its lean, sexy outline. Over:

496

SCULLY (V.O.) The arsonist will often act out of impulse, satisfying sexual urges or insecurities with destructive behavior which compensates for his social inadequacies or maladjustments.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. FBI LIBRARY – DAY – LATER

Where Scully sits at a computer, typing.

SCULLY'S V.O. (CONT'D) He is usually male, less than 25 years of age, reared in a distressing or pathological environment. Often his father is absent from the home and he is raised by a domineering mother. If he is older he is usually unmarried and prone to obsessive fantasies about women or men who are inaccessible to him. Often the setting of fires results from his cowardice and inability to develop a natural relationship. Though he may be academically retarded with below average intelligence, his crimes are often very clever and elaborately planned. In some cases, the arsonist will refer to the buildings or objects that he burns as the "bride" or the "girlfriend." The setting of the fire he calls "the wedding."

Scully stops typing when A CLERK brings a note in, hands it to Scully.

SCULLY Thank you.

INSERT HANDWRITTEN NOTE – It reads: Agent Scully, this is the chemical name of the suspected rocket fuel being used in High Temperature Arson fires. ARGOTYPOLINE. Happy hunting, Special Agent Beatty.

CUT TO:

INT. CAPE COD HOUSE – DAY – SHORT TIME LATER

CLOSE ON FACE of the Bodyguard, very green around the gills as he exits a bathroom off a bedroom. Standing there, removing the bedding from the bed, is Bob the Caretaker.

BOB (American accent) Having a rough time, huh?

The Bodyguard can only manage a queasy nod as he moves to exit and THE CAMERA WHIP PANS to a BOTTLE OF COUGH SYRUP sitting on a dresser. Then WHIP PANS AGAIN to Bob, holding an armload of sheets and blankets. That same devilish smiles on his face.

CUT TO:

INT. HOTEL ROOM – EVENING – SHORT TIME LATER

Mulder enters, after tipping the BELLBOY at the door. The room is well-appointed, the most prominent feature a romantic four- poster bed stacked with lacy pillows.

Mulder takes a deep anticipatory breath as he lays the garment bag on the bed. When HIS CELLULAR PHONE RINGS. He slips it from his coat pocket.

MULDER Mulder

497

SCULLY (FILTER) It's Scully. Where are you?

MULDER Boston.

SCULLY (FILTER) I've got something to show you. I'm coming up there.

MULDER What do you have?

SCULLY (FILTER) I might have some information on the identify of your arson suspect.

Mulder hesitates. He hadn't figured Scully's appearance into his night's activities.

CUT TO:

INT. FBI LIBRARY – DAY – CONTINUOUS

Scully on the phone.

SCULLY Are you there, Mulder?

MULDER (FILTER) Yeah. Uh…

SCULLY Can I meet you somewhere?

MULDER (FILTER) Yeah. But I'm anticipating sorta having my hands full up here.

Off Scully's curious reaction to this, we:

CUT TO:

EXT. VENABLE PLAZA HOTEL – NIGHT

A TOWN CAR PULLS UP. As the Valet moves to assist, Phoebe exits the passenger door. Lord, Lady and children exit the rear. After a moment, Bob the Caretaker exits the driver's side. A thin, malevolent smiles on his face.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. VENABLE PLAZA HOTEL – LARGE HALL – NIGHT – LATER

MEN IN TUXEDOES, WOMEN IN EVENING DRESSES are filing into a room which looks to be filled with a crowd of similarly dressed folk. A SMALL COMBO plays somewhere inside the room, the happy music wafting out. AS CAMERA FINDS MULDER, in tuxedo, standing at the edge of the crown, surveying the scene like one of the President's secret service men. As he scans the crowd he finds:

MULDER'S POV – The Marsdens (sans children) coming into the hallway. A few steps behind them is Phoebe, dressed in a beautiful dress. As elegant as Lady Marsden might be, Phoebe is without a doubt the most attractive woman in attendance. Her eyes find:

498

MULDER looking at her. If he had any willpower or indecision about Phoebe, the evening is now a fait accompli. She looks irresistible. She passes Mulder, making quick eye contact. APPLAUSE GOES UP as the Marsdens enter the room. As Phoebe disappears inside with them, Mulder checks his watch.

INSERT WATCH – It is 7:35. DISSOLVING TO:

LEAPING FLAMES through which we RACK FOCUS on Mulder's face.

RESUME MULDER – LATER standing outside the room, looking in, watching apprehensively as A CHEF prepares cherries jubilee. The occasional guest moves in and out past Mulder who watches intently until the flames die. He checks his watch again.

INSERT WATCH – It reads 9:30.

Mulder paces nervously to the middle of the large empty hallway. Startled after a moment by:

PHOEBE'S VOICE Enjoying yourself?

Mulder turns. Phoebe is approaching him.

MULDER Good food, witty conversation – I'm having the time of my life.

The band starts to play again. A slow, romantic tune – These Foolish Things Remind Me of You.

PHOEBE I wondered if you think it's safe to indulge ourselves in a dance?

Mulder looks around the room, before:

MULDER Doesn't look like your arsonist is going to make an appearance.

PHOEBE That doesn't mean there won't be any fires to put out.

Phoebe smiles, takes Mulder's hand. As they begin to dance, slowly. The only ones in the large hall.

MULDER Elegant couple, the Marsdens.

PHOEBE Lovely children. Frightening that anyone might wish them harm. (beat, as she studies Mulder) Ten years, Mulder. You've barely changed. I'm surprised somebody hasn't scooped you up.

MULDER How do you know they haven't?

PHOEBE Really, darling. You underestimate my investigative skills. Do you think I'd have gone to all the trouble if you were?

499

MULDER Yes.

Phoebe smiles, lays her head on Mulder's chest.

PHOEBE I've thought about you often. Have you thought about me?

Mulder takes a deep breath.

MULDER Nah.

Mulder can feel Phoebe smiling. She knows he's lying.

ANGLE ON

Sir Malcolm Marsden appearing at the doorway of the dining room. Reacting with some surprise at the sight of Phoebe and Mulder dancing. Before slipping back inside. AS CAMERA WHIP PANS to:

SCULLY coming down the wide adjacent hallway, catching sight of:

SCULLY'S POV down the long hall where Mulder and Phoebe are framed, dancing close and intimate.

RESUME SCULLY as she stops, sighs impatiently, turns and begins to pace. Catching sight of someone herself: BOB THE CARETAKER standing in suit and tie just down the hall. Staring at her.

Scully stares at him for a moment, then turns away, pacing in the opposite direction. When she turns back:

BOB IS GONE. Almost as if by magic.

RESUME MULDER AND PHOEBE, DANCING

PHOEBE What are you thinking?

MULDER How incredible that it took 350 years for someone to solve Fermat's last theorem.

Phoebe takes her head off Mulder's chest, smiles impetuously.

PHOEBE Same thing I was thinking.

And they kiss. Softly, tentatively at first. Before the flood gates open.

RESUME SCULLY

Pacing in the hall when she notices:

INSERT – Hotel security status grid – a series of small lights that warn of: 1. Smoke 2. Fire 3. Sprinklers.

500

CAMERA PUSHES IN QUICKLY on the status lights for the 14th floor – the ones indicating SMOKE and FIRE are BLINKING RED.

SMASH CUT TO:

MULDER AND PHOEBE in a post-kiss embrace, startled by the sudden appearance of Scully.

SCULLY There's a fire upstairs!

Mulder, not expecting Scully to begin with, takes a moment to register what she's just blurted out.

MULDER What?!

SCULLY On the 14th floor!

PHOEBE That's where the children are.

On this realization, we:

CUT TO:

INT. VENABLE HOTEL STAIRWAY – NIGHT – MOMENTS LATER

Mulder bursts through a door. He charges upstairs.

INT. VENABLE HOTEL HALLWAY – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Scully runs down the hall, accosting a BELLBOY.

SCULLY You've got a fire on the 14th floor.

Behind her Phoebe and the Marsdens appear, moving quickly, trailing a wake of alarmed PARTYGOERS.

RESUME MULDER climbing the stairs at a sprint as he reaches the door marked 14th floor. He stops, completely winded. He touches the door, checking for heat. Then he pulls the door open and is met by a cloud of HEAVY BLACK SMOKE. And then FIRE ALARMS start to sound.

INT. 14TH FLOOR HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS

CAMERA FOLLOWS Mulder as he feels his way along the wall, the smoke so thick he can't see a foot in front of him. And then he stops, paralyzed. He drops to his knees, coughing – trying to find the courage to go further – but he can't. he begins crawling back in the direction of the stairwell, gasping for air. As:

CLOSE ON MULDER squinting through the smoke, inching his way on the floor, crawling on hands and knees when A PAIR OF FEET APPEAR NEXT TO HIM – someone running past him down the hall.

CUT TO:

INT. STAIRWELL – CONTINUOUS

A charge of FIREMEN climbing the stairs.

501

CUT TO:

INT. ELEVATOR DOORS OFF HOTEL HALLWAY – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

As they open and Bob the Caretaker exits, one Marsden boy under each arm. The crowd of Partygoers reacts, rushing to the sight. Including Lord and Lady Marsden, who drop to their knees, taking the dazed, coughing children in their arms.

And suddenly Bob the Caretaker is being given a hero's welcome. Partygoers are patting him on the back, congratulating him. Including – Phoebe, who appears from the crowd to hear Lady Marsden say:

LADY MARSDEN You saved their lives.

CUT TO:

INT. 14TH FLOOR HALLWAY – CONTINUOUS

Mulder is still on his hands and knees when TWO FIREMEN wearing gas masks appear out of the smoke. They pick Mulder up, carrying him to safety. To:

INT. ELEVATOR DOORS OFF HALLWAY – MOMENTS LATER

The doors open and Mulder is carried out by two Firemen. His body is nearly limp. He wears an oxygen mask hooked to a small portable tank. Scully quickly moves to him – and she's the only one who seems to notice. The rest of the crowd in the lobby focused on the boys and on Bob the Caretaker. Including Phoebe. As we:

END ACT TWO

ACT THREE

INT. VENABLE HOTEL ROOM – AFTERNOON

CLOSE ON MULDER, shirtless, under the covers of the romantic four-poster bed with the lacy pillows. A woman's hand enters frame, gently caressing his forehead. Mulder opens his eyes, groggily. He coughs a little, trying to focus on:

ANGLE TO INCLUDE SCULLY

Slowly coming into focus. Not the woman he was expecting to end up in this bed with.

SCULLY You were really out.

MULDER Where's Phoebe?

SCULLY She's down the hall.

MULDER What about the kids –

SCULLY They're okay. The doctor checked them out.

Mulder coughs some more. He pulls the covers away, rolls out of bed, wearing only his jockey underwear, heading into the bathroom.

502

SCULLY What happened to you up there?

Before he shuts the door.

MULDER (with self-reproach) I panicked, Scully. I couldn't move.

SCULLY It could have happened to anybody.

He opens the door again.

MULDER Except it happened to me. I haired out, Scully, Plain and simple.

Closing the door again.

SCULLY What do you know about this guy that saved the kids? The driver?

PHOEBE (O.S.) I had him checked prior to the Marsden's arrival.

Phoebe has entered the room. There's an immediate vibe of tension between the two women.

PHOEBE He's lived on the property for eight years. No record. His references checked out. They're lucky he was here tonight.

SCULLY Who was watching the kids tonight?

PHOEBE He was.

SCULLY Are you sure? I thought I saw him downstairs in the hallway at about the same time the fire broke out.

PHOEBE You couldn't have. Anyway the man we're looking for is English.

Mulder opens the bathroom door, wearing a hotel bathrobe now. Not expecting to see Phoebe.

MULDER Hey.

PHOEBE I came to check on you.

MULDER (nodding) How're the boys?

503

PHOEBE Fine. Everybody's anxious to get home.

MULDER To the Cape?

PHOEBE Only to pack. They've made travel arrangements back to England for day after tomorrow.

Mulder nods. Feeling as if he's failed Phoebe. Failed himself. And she senses it. Rubbing it in, if only with a look.

MULDER What about you?

PHOEBE I'll be here a few more days. I'll ring you back at the Bureau before I leave.

Phoebe turns to Scully with a curt gesture.

PHOEBE So long.

Scully smiles just as curtly, says nothing. And Phoebe exits. Scully turns to Mulder who has now sat back on the bed, hanging his head.

SCULLY You okay?

MULDER Yeah, yeah.

SCULLY You interested at all in what I came all the way up her to show you?

Mulder had momentarily forgotten why Scully's even there. She goes to her leather satchel, pulls a sheaf of papers. Moves over to him and sits next to him on the bed.

SCULLY I did some checking on my own. Didn't know a whole lot about arson or arsonists so I thought I'd take the opportunity.

Mulder looks at her. A thin smile appears. Scully pretends to ignore it.

SCULLY For my own edification, of course.

MULDER Right.

SCULLY I did a profile, came up with some possible incendiary fuels and accelerants that could have been used in the crimes.

INSERT – Mulder flips through the typed papers, stopping at a page with a short listing of rocket fuels. FEATURING the name at the top of the list: ARGOTYPOLINE.

504

SCULLY Then I took the liberty of running a search through Interpol of the gardeners, manservants and domestic help employed by the murder victims at the time of their deaths.

MULDER And?

SCULLY And, let me tell you, in my next life…. These people probably don't even tie their own shoes. Over two hundred names. Not a duplicate – except for one: Cecil Lively. Worked as a gardener for two of the victims.

Mulder shoots her a look, impressed.

MULDER What did you get on him?

SCULLY Nothing.

MULDER He was clean?

SCULLY Apparently. He was questioned by Scotland Yard and released. But I dug a little deeper. Cecil Lively is a documented citizen of Great Britain. He paid his taxes, never been on the dole. A model citizen. Until he died in 1971. (more)

SCULLY (CONT'D) In a fire in a London tenement. (off Mulder's look) I know. That's what I thought. So I continued checking and the name Cecil L'ively, spelled with an L apostrophe, popped up again. Actually, it came up twice. First on a list of death certificates. Listed among a group of children who died in ritual sacrifice by a satanic cult in 1963 in the Tottingham Woods outside Bath, England.

MULDER (surprised) Where else did it show up?

SCULLY You're going to love this. On a list of recent visas issued by the British government. Cecil Lively's passport was stamped by U.S. immigration officials two weeks ago at the port of entry in Boston.

It takes only a beat for Mulder to hop off the bed, throw his robe off and starts getting dressed. Right in front of Scully.

MULDER Go downstairs and call the FBI field office in Boston. Get them to fax you the composite the witness did of the man who burned down the bar. Get them to fax it to every local law enforcement office in the area.

SCULLY Where are you going?

505

MULDER To try and catch Phoebe. This guy could be waiting for them back in Cape Cod.

And Mulder runs out barefoot, carrying his shoes and socks. Scully grabs her satchel and follows him.

EXT. VENABLE PLAZA – AFTERNOON – CONTINUOUS

Where Bob stands holding the car door for Lady Marsden, stepping in to join the children and her husband.

LADY MARSDEN Thank you. You've been such a help.

BOB Not at all.

Bob closes the door for her, CAMERA DRIFTING IN CLOSE on his thin, lying smile. FOLLOWING him as he gets in the car and pulls from the curb.

CUT TO:

EXT. CAPE COD HOUSE – LATE AFTERNOON – LATER The Jack Russell Terrier is hard at work on a plot of dirt that Bob the Caretaker had kicked him away from in Act One. Digging like he's going to China. As CAMERA PUSHES IN slowly on little Jack Russell a HUMAN HAND is revealed at the bottom of the hole he's dug. About two feet down. As we:

CUT TO:

EXT. CAPE COD HOUSE – MSTR BDRM – LATE AFTERNOON (BUILT SET)

Bob is carefully tucking the clean sheets on the large bed. Doing neat hospital corners.

CLOSE ON THE BIG BEDSPREAD billowing out of frame, floating gently down on the bed.

Bob straightens the bedspread, makes some adjustments, then tucks it up nearly under the pillows at the head of the bed. Satisfied, he moves to edit. But not before straightening AN OIL PAINTING that hangs on the wall.

CAMERA HOLDS ON OIL PAINTING as Bob exits frame. It is a portrait of a woman that quite resembles Lady Marsden.

CUT TO:

EXT. CAPE COD HOUSE – LATE AFTERNOON – LATER

Mulder pushes in the front door of the house, which is partly ajar.

MULDER Hello …

Looking o.s., reacting with a start at what he sees:

MULDER'S POV

On the landing, Phoebe and Sir Marsden separating from a romantic embrace. Unmistakably romantic by the embarrassed, furtive way in which they react. Caught in the act. Sir Marsden hurries upstairs while Phoebe comes downstairs towards Mulder. Covering with a blithe air.

506

MULDER (brusquely) His name's Cecil Lively.

PHOEBE Who?

MULDER Your arsonist. Where's the rest of the family?

PHOEBE They've gone on a walk.

MULDER Go find them. We've got to get them packed and out of here.

Phoebe takes a beat, but decides better on offering any explanations. She moves off. Off Mulder's pinched expression, we:

CUT TO:

INT. PAYPHONE BOOTH – LATE AFTERNOON – CONTINUOUS

TIGHT ON SCULLY, standing with the phone to her ear.

RECORDED VOICE The cellular customer you are trying to reach is out of the service area. Please try –

Scully hangs up the phone in frustration. Pulls a badly transmitted fax copy of a police artist's COMPOSITE SKETCH into frame. As bad as it is, there's no mistaking the man in the picture is Bob the Caretaker.

CUT TO:

EXT. CAPE COD HOUSE – STAIRWAY LANDING – LAST LIGHT

Where we can see, through the window, Lady Marsden, the Marsden boys and Phoebe coming past the picket fence out in the backyard, hurrying up to the house. As CAMERA ADJUSTS, FOCUSES on Bob, aka Cecil Lively, on the stair landing, watching the family's movement. Before he moves quickly upstairs.

SMASH CUT TO:

INT. CAPE COD HOUSE – ENTRYWAY – NIGHT

CLOSE ON SCULLY'S FACE as the front door swings open and reveals her. The urgency shows in her face, her manner.

SCULLY It's the driver.

MULDER They know. He's disappeared.

Scully senses Mulder's clipped tone.

SCULLY What's the matter?

MULDER Nothing. I just found this out in the garage.

507

Mulder holds up a pint-sized metal can, the same can we've established earlier. Scully takes it from him, reads:

INSERT – The label on the side reads: ARGOTYPOLINE.

Before she can respond, Phoebe, Sir and Lady Marsden are coming downstairs, approaching. The Marsdens look quite distraught.

MULDER It's come as quite a blow to the family.

PHOEBE Did you get the composite?

SCULLY Yes.

Scully reaches in her satchel, removes the faxed composite sketch, hands it to Sir Malcolm who looks at it curiously.

LADY MARSDEN I don't believe it. I can't believe it. He's worked for us for almost ten years.

SIR MALCOLM There's been a mistake.

Now Lady Marsden sees it too, Reacting.

LADY MARSDEN Oh my god…

SIR MALCOLM This isn't our driver! This is the caretaker!

LADY MARSDEN He's upstairs with the children!

As we:

END ACT THREE

ACT FOUR

INT. UPSTAIRS BEDROOM – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Agent Mulder is the first one in the door. The room is empty. Scully is steps behind him.

MULDER Michael! Jimmie!

No answer. Mulder moves quickly to a closed door, tries the door. It is locked. He gives it a hard shoulder and door gives way. Revealing:

ANGLE FROM BEDROOM INTO BATHROOM

The original Driver, last seen looking green around the gills, kneels with his hands still wrapped around the toilet bowl, in the universal barfing posture. Only now his body is rigid and black and crispy looking. The clothes seared right into his skin.

508

ON MULDER, SCULLY

Reacting with horror to this. Then reacting to:

PHOEBE'S VOICE (O.S.) Up here!

CUT TO:

INT. CAPE COD HOUSE – MASTER BEDROOM (BUILT SET) – NIGHT

Sir Marsden stands with Phoebe, Lady Marsden. The window curtains are AFLAME.

PHOEBE They just went up! All by themselves!

MULDER Move back!

Mulder is looking for something to put it out with when an OIL PAINTING ON THE WALL catches fire, flames springing from its center.

He grabs a towel from a laundry basket, batting at the flames. As:

LADY MARSDEN

Standing near the bed now – as the master bed itself catches fire. Scully pulls her back from the spontaneous conflagration.

MULDER Everybody out of here!

And the group runs from the burning room, into:

INT. UPSTAIRS HALLWAY (BUILT SET) – NIGHT

Exiting into the wide hall, its walls lined with framed paintings.

MULDER I think he's got the house rigged.

Mulder puts the singed towel he's still holding to his nose, smells it.

MULDER Fuel. (realizing) The whole place could go.

As the towel itself catches fire. Mulder drops it, stomps it out.

SCULLY We've got to get out of here.

As they do, running from the hall, CAMERA STOPS, HOLDS on a single door. A closet door, in the middle of the hall.

CUT TO:

INT. CAPE COD HOUSE LIVING ROOM – NIGHT

509

Mulder, Scully, Phoebe and the Marsdens hurry downstairs. Mulder moves to the front window, removing his weapon.

MULDER (to Scully) See if you can find a fire extinguisher. Everybody else outside.

Scully heads off.

LADY MARSDEN What about the children?!

Suddenly everyone reacts to:

BOB (O.S.) (to the tune of the wedding march) Da da da dum… Da da da dum…

The sound is coming from upstairs. A haunting voice that seems to echo through the walls.

PHOEBE He's upstairs.

MULDER (re: the Marsdens) Go on outside!

Turning back up, his heart pounding, listening to:

INT. UPSTAIRS BEDROOM – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Bob stands in the burning bedroom, singing the wedding march. A crazed smiled on his face.

CUT BACK TO:

RESUME CAPE COD HOUSE LIVING ROOM CONTINUOUS ACTION

BOB (O.S.) (continuing the tune) Da dum da de dum dad a dittle um dum dum.

CLOSE ON MULDER

The fear in his eyes, even though he has his gun drawn. He moves to the base of the stairs. Phoebe moves up next to him.

PHOEBE Are you okay, Mulder?

MULDER (swallowing hard) Oh, yeah. No place I'd rather be.

As he starts up the stairs.

INT. UPSTAIRS HALLWAY (BUILT SET) – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Mulder appears at the end of the hallway, gun at the ready. He moves slowly down the hall which is LINED WITH OIL PAINTINGS. Stopping when he hears MUFFLED BARKING.

510

Mulder moves more rapidly down the hall now, moving to the closet door established earlier. He turns the knob. It's locked.

MULDER Michael! Jimmy! Are you in there?

More MUFFLED DOG BARKING. Somebody's inside. Then he reacts to:

BOB (English accent) Time to call 911.

ANGLE ON END OF HALL

Where Bob stands.

MULDER turns to fire on hi m – when EVERY PICTURE ON THE WALL BURSTS INTO FLAMES, two by two, travelling towards Mulder. Knocking him backwards onto the floor.

ANGLE ON BOB through the flames, smiling.

ON MULDER through the flames. Petrified with fear, huddled on the floor.

RESUME BOB at the end of the hall. Turning and walking casually off.

INT. CAPE COD HOUSE – STAIRS – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

As Bob comes down the stairs he's stopped in his tracks by Scully.

SCULLY Freeze! Federal agent!

Bob freezes but he doesn't seem the least bit alarmed.

BOB You won't shoot me.

SCULLY Stay right where you are!

But Bob keeps coming down the steps. Slowly. One step at a time. Testing her resolve.

BOB See.

CLOSE ON SCULLY'S TRIGGER FINGER, squeezing tighter and tighter.

BOB Because you don't know the spark from that round won't blow this whole house to kingdom come.

511

Bob takes another step down. Scully doesn't fire. Now she takes a step backwards. Allowing Bob to take the last step from the stairs to the ground floor. And when he does –

ANGLE ON PHOEBE

Standing behind the wall adjoining the stairs. She throws the contents of the pint can of accelerant on Bob. The splash of liquid taking him completely by surprise. The smile on his face slowly turns to horror.

BOB No. No no no.

Bob stumbles now. Scully keeps her gun trained on him. He seems dazed and weakened.

BOB This is not right.

Bob stumbles to the front door which is ajar, holding onto the walls as he goes.

CUT TO:

INT. UPSTAIRS HALLWAY – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Agent Mulder lies on the floor, fighting against his own paralyzing fear. Then, slowly, he gets to his feet, finds his gun. Walking defiantly through the smoke and flames. To the closet door.

He aims side angle at the lock, as we CUT ON THE SOUND OF THE GUNSHOT.

EXT. CAPE COD HOUSE – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Scully still has her gun trained on Bob as he stumbles out into the front yard. Almost like a drunk. The Marsdens huddle together on the porch, with Phoebe.

BOB You – you ruined my wedding night.

ANGLE ON MULDER AND THE BOYS gasping for air as they exit the house. The boys still with torn sheet gags around their necks, their hands. Just in time to see:

ANGLE ON BOB as he goes up in flames. Screaming like a banshee.

ANGLE ON SCULLY her disbelief.

ANGLE ON MARSDENS, MULDER, PHOEBE their disbelief. TILTING DOWN to the little Jack Russell, happily wagging its tail.

Over the sound of APPROACHING SIRENS, we:

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. HOSPITAL WARD – NIGHT – LATER

CAMERA TRACKS BEHIND A NURSE who walks down a hallway.

512

MULDER'S V.O. Cecil Lively was admitted to Boston Mercy hospital with fifth and sixth degree burns over his entire body. Naval burn specialists have been brought in to study the case, which they're calling extraordinary. Not only for the fact that he survived, but by the rapid regeneration of the victim's basal cell tissue. Full recovery is anticipated in as little as a month.

The Nurse stops. A MAN in ND guard clothes, unlocks a door marked: SPECIAL QUARANTINE. HIGH SECURITY. The Nurse enters. CAMERA FOLLOWS as she enters an ante room, peers into a small slotted window in another door before entering.

MULDER (CONT'D) Until then lively is being held in a high security medical facility, confined to a hyperbaric chamber until he can be tried on murder charges in the death of a Massachusetts caretaker. His body temperature remains at a steady 111 degrees. Health technicians have removed anything flammable from his room due to several fires which have broken out in the vicinity. Further incarceration remains a problem for Federal Penal authorities.

As the nurse enters the room where a hyperbaric chamber sits by itself in the center. The nurse walks over to the chamber where Lively's burned face can be viewed. He smiles up at her.

LIVELY I'm just dying for a cigarette.

FADE TO BLACK:

INT. MULDER'S OFFICE – DAY – LATER

Mulder is in his chair, reading a report when he reacts to:

WOMAN'S VOICE (English accent) Care to take me to lunch.

Mulder wheels, reacting to:

ANGLE TO INCLUDE SCULLY

A mischievous smile on her face.

SCULLY Scare you?

MULDER You have no idea.

SCULLY What happened to Phoebe?

MULDER I don't know.

SCULLY You don't know? You mean she never called?

MULDER Nope. But I got this messengered to me last night.

513

Mulder holds up a CLEAR AUDIO CASSETTE.

SCULLY Did you play it?

MULDER Nope.

SCULLY Why? Aren't you curious what's on it?

Mulder rises, puts his jacket on. Moving to the door.

MULDER (veiled hurt) Ten to one you can't dance to it.

Scully gives him a look, reflecting the bittersweet irony.

SCULLY Well, never let it be said you wouldn't walk through fire for a woman, Mulder.

MULDER (smiles) And never let it be said I wouldn't do it for you again, Scully.

She smiles. They exit. And we:

FADE OUT

THE END

1x12 Beyond the Sea - transcript

Writers: Glen Morgan and James Wong Director: David Nutter Original airdate: 7 January 1994

Transcribed by: Vic Edited by Libby

[Scully's apartment: William Scully walks over to a small Christmas tree with an angel ornament on top.]

WILLIAM SCULLY: Are you going to leave this up all year?

SCULLY: Yup. All year. Since you always made us take the Christmas tree down the day after Christmas, I'm making up for lost time.

[She starts piling plates on the kitchen table.]

WILLIAM SCULLY: If your idea of a good time is to pick up dried pine needles, treat yourself.

MARGARET SCULLY: As if he's an authority on having a good time.

514

[She walks over, carrying plates from the dinner table. William crosses over to beside Scully.]

SCULLY: That's okay, Mom, I got that.

MARGARET SCULLY: Oh, okay.

WILLIAM SCULLY: Okay, Maggie, let's shove off.

MARGARET SCULLY: Oh, okay.

[She puts the plate down and goes over to Scully. She hugs her.]

MARGARET SCULLY: Well, thank you for having us. Dinner was delicious as usual.

SCULLY: Thanks, Mom.

[Scully walks over to her father and salutes.]

SCULLY: Good sailing, Ahab.

[He hugs her.]

WILLIAM SCULLY: Goodnight, Starbuck.

[Margaret gives William an urging look as if to ask his daughter a question.]

WILLIAM SCULLY: How's work? Good?

SCULLY: Yup. It's good.

WILLIAM SCULLY: Well...

[William and Margaret cross over to the coat rack by the door and put on their coats. Scully throws down the napkin in her hand onto the table and walks over.]

SCULLY: Well, drive carefully.

MARGARET SCULLY: Uh-huh.

[Scully unlocks the door and kisses her mother goodbye.]

SCULLY: Goodnight, Daddy.

[The parents walk out. She watches them go, then closes the door.]

[It is now 1:47. On TV, a man is talking on an infomercial under his picture, it says: "Ron Popeil Inventor".]

RON POPEIL ON TV: Here on Incredible Inventions though, you're not going to spend 110 dollars for it. You all know that. You're not even going to spend a hundred dollars.

[The caption changes to: " Approximate One Month Supply Time May Vary Depending On Frequency of Use or Size of Area to be Covered"]

RON POPEIL ON TV: There's an approximate one-month supply here...

515

[They show two videos, one in the upper right, the other in the lower left, of "hair" being sprayed onto bald people's heads. In the upper left it reads "Only $39.92."]

RON POPEIL ON TV: And all you'll spend for this entire package is just 39 dollars and 92 cents.

[There is applause and cheering. Scully is sleeping on the couch, a blanket draped over her. Her eyes open. Scully sees her father sitting in a chair in front of her, blue light shining down on him. His mouth is moving but no words are coming out.]

SCULLY: Dad? I thought you guys left.

[She sits up.]

SCULLY: Where's Mom?

[There is no answer. He is talking but making no noise. The phone rings, startling her. She looks back at the phone, then to her father. The chair is empty. Scully is very confused as the phone rings again. She gets up, blanket still covering her, and starts walking to the phone. It rings twice more before she picks it up.]

SCULLY: Hello.

[There is no answer except for some muffled crying.]

SCULLY: Hello?

MARGARET SCULLY: Dana?

SCULLY: Mom? What's the matter?

MARGARET SCULLY: We, um... we lost your dad. He had a... a massive coronary... about an hour ago. He... he's gone.

[Scully looks back to where she saw her father sitting. The chair is still empty.]

[main titles]

Jackson University North Carolina

[A teenage boy and girl are making out in a car on the side of the road.]

GIRL: I swear, Christmas Day... my whole family's opening presents and all and I'm just sitting there in my own little world, thinking "I just wish Jim were here."

BOY: Hmmm, I know.

[There is a knock on the window. They look at the window as a flashlight shines through. A police officer, Lucas Henry, is standing there.]

BOY: Oh man, busted.

[She gets off him as he wipes his lips. He rolls down the window.]

BOY: Yes, sir?

HENRY: Out of the vehicle, please.

BOY: We're sorry, sir. We'll be on our way.

HENRY: I said, out of the vehicle.

516

[The boy looks at the girl, rolls up the window and gets out of the car. He can't make out the officer's face because the light is shining in his face. He raises his hand to deflect the light.]

HENRY: Keep your hands down. Let's see some ID.

[The boy looks down and sees that the "officer" is wearing jeans and boots.]

BOY: No, not till I see yours.

[Henry hits the boy in the face with the flashlight. The girl screams as the boy's face slams into the window and slides down, leaving a trail of blood.]

FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C.

[Mulder is reading a file, "Criminal Profile, Subject: Boggs, Luther Lee, Prepared by: Sp. Agt. Fox Mulder"; the date isn't clear but is August 19-something. Scully sneaks up behind him and looks over his shoulder.]

SCULLY: Last time you were that engrossed, it turned out you were reading the Adult Video News.

MULDER: I didn't think you'd be in today. How are you, Dana?

SCULLY: "Dana." I'm fine, thank you. What are you working on?

MULDER: Two days ago, a couple was kidnapped at Jackson University. Elizabeth Hawley and James Summers, both 19.

[Mulder hands her the casefile and shows her a picture of the couple.]

MULDER: Last year, another couple was kidnapped to the day except that abduction occurred at Duke University. One week later, they found both students' bodies dead.

[Scully looks over the casefile.]

SCULLY: They were kept alive, tortured through that period.

MULDER: No arrests were ever made. Police believed it to be a one-time offender but now it appears to be a serial incident. Anyway, if he holds true to form, we have five days to find those kids.

SCULLY: That's a grim deadline.

MULDER: Well, here's another grim deadline.

[He reaches over and picks up a folder off a desk. He gives it to her.]

MULDER: In one week, Luther Lee Boggs will take a seat in the North Carolina gas chamber.

SCULLY: How is he related?

MULDER: He claims to have information relating to the kidnapping. He described Hawley's bracelet down to the last detail. This is information that only family members could have known.

SCULLY: Or the kidnapper.

MULDER: Boggs feels that if his talents help save these kids then his sentence should be reduced to life in prison.

SCULLY: His talents?

MULDER: He claims to have obtained this information through psychic transmission.

517

[He goes over and sits at his desk.]

SCULLY: Mulder, do I detect a hint of skepticism?

MULDER: Perhaps.

[She sits down opposite him.]

MULDER: Boggs has been there before... in the chamber. My profile helped send him there. He was actually strapped to the chair before receiving an executive stay. He claims that this experience activated in him the ability to channel spirits and demons. I believe in psychic ability, without a doubt, but not in this case. Not Boggs.

SCULLY: So you believe that Boggs is orchestrating the kidnapping from the inside. A scam to save his life?

[Mulder nods. He hands her another file.]

MULDER: At the age of six, Luther Boggs slaughtered every pet animal in his housing project. When he was thirty, he strangled five family members over Thanksgiving dinner and then sat down to watch the fourth quarter of the Detroit - Green Bay game. Some killers are products of society. Some act out past abuses. Boggs kills because he likes it.

SCULLY: And they've requested you speak with him?

[Mulder gets up.]

MULDER: Actually, he's requested to speak to me.

SCULLY: Why you?

[He puts his gun in his holster.]

MULDER: He read my profile on him and he feels like I'm the only one who truly understands what he is. Anyway, I leave for Raleigh this afternoon.

SCULLY: I'll go with you.

[She stands.]

SCULLY: The funeral's at noon.

MULDER: I think you should take some time.

SCULLY: I need to work.

MULDER: I'm sorry about your father.

[He puts his hand on her cheek. She nods. He starts out.]

MULDER: I'll see you later.

SCULLY: [whispering] Okay.

[Mulder takes his coat and leaves. Scully goes to the file cabinet and pulls out a file that reads:

"Federal Bureau of Investigation DC-X-167512 Visionary Encounters w/ The Dead" She puts it back in the drawer and slams it shut.]

518

[William Scully's funeral. A man stands on a dock and pours out William Scully's ashes into the water as Bobby Darin's song, "Beyond The Sea", plays loudly. On the shore stands Scully's family. Dana is standing next to her mother.]

SCULLY: As a captain, he was entitled to burial in Arlington with full ceremony.

MARGARET SCULLY: This is exactly how he wanted it. Just the family.

[There is an uncomfortable pause. The man pouring out the ashes holds up the empty urn and takes off his hat.]

MARGARET SCULLY: This song was playing when his ship returned from the Cuban blockade. He marched right off, up to me... and he proposed.

[She starts to cry.]

SCULLY: I know that you and Dad were... disappointed that I chose the path I'm on instead of medicine but I need to know... was he at all proud of me?

MARGARET SCULLY: He was your father.

[A seagull cries out.]

Central Prison Raleigh, North Carolina

[Luther Lee Boggs sits in a chair, handcuffs on. On his left hand, the word "Kiss" is written on his knuckles. On the right, the word "Kill."]

BOGGS: The soul of Luther Boggs drowns in hell's sea of fire. We have him now.

[Scully is sitting, Mulder is standing.]

MULDER: We? You mean the souls of your victims?

BOGGS: The dead. The living. All souls are connected.

MULDER: And you're the conduit?

[Mulder sits. Boggs' breathing becomes labored. His whole speech and movement pattern changes to a more womanly tone.]

BOGGS: Uh... Dana... Fox... please understand that from here, we can return to the past. We can see the present. We can know the future.

MULDER: From here? Where exactly are you?

[Boggs' mood changes back to the previous one.]

BOGGS: Mr. Boggs must be made redemptive for his transgressions.

[Mulder stands.]

MULDER: That's exactly what the state of North Carolina intends to do next week.

[Boggs' tone and movement becomes more of a Brooklyn man.]

BOGGS: Uh-uh. Let's deal. Boggs' life for the kids, you know what I'm saying?

519

MULDER: First you've got to prove you're telling the truth.

[Boggs looks at him warily. Mulder pulls a small package out of his pocket.]

MULDER: Don't get me wrong, Luther. I want to believe.

[He pulls a piece of blue cloth out of an evidence bag, which Boggs takes. Boggs' breathing becomes heavier as he rubs the cloth between his hands, bringing it up to his mouth.]

BOGGS: Oh... ah... oh, God, no. Must stop. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop! Pain! I'm in... pain, terrible pain...

[Mulder sits on the table, smiling slightly.]

BOGGS: Uh... the boy, uh, Jim... he's tied with twine. Uh, packing twine.

[He holds his wrists out. He begins spouting short screams, holding the cloth to his face, fists clenched.]

BOGGS: Uh, he, he whips them with a, a coat hanger, a wire coat hanger. Oh.

[His breathing becomes labored as he looks up at Mulder with wild eyes.]

BOGGS: Dark place. Cold. Cellar. Warehouse, condemned. An angel... of stone. Waterfall. Water falling. It's, it's not a waterfall. Not water. They're there. Oh, God. I got to go. I got to go. I, I got to go.

[He slumps down in his chair. Mulder walks over slowly and kneels down in front of his face. He takes the cloth out of his hand and holds it up.]

MULDER: I tore this off my New York Knicks t-shirt. It has nothing to do with the crime.

[He gets up and leaves. Scully picks up her briefcase and starts out.]

BOGGS: [singing] Somewhere... beyond the sea...

[Scully stops.]

BOGGS: Somewhere... waiting for me...

[She turns around. Boggs looks up. In her eyes, he is replaced by William Scully. She backs away a little, startled, in emotional pain, eyes closed. She opens them and looks at Boggs, who is back to normal. His tone has now assumed that of William Scully's.]

BOGGS: Did you get my message, Starbuck?

[Scully rushes out past Mulder, who is talking to a security guard.]

GUARD: Alright, thanks a lot.

[The guard goes back in his booth. Scully stops at the door. Mulder looks at her. She slowly turns around.]

MULDER: Scully, what's wrong? Did Boggs say something to you?

SCULLY: No. It's my father. I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

MULDER: It's alright. Why don't you go back to the motel? We've exposed Boggs as a fraud. Boggs is not what he claims to be. He may be orchestrating the kidnapping. Now he knows we're on to him, he doesn't have a chance with this charade. I'm going to wait around a couple of hours and try to interrogate him. Hopefully, he'll tell me where the kids are.

520

[Boggs walks out behind them, a security guard on each side leading him back to his cell.]

BOGGS: [singing] Somewhere... beyond the shore... we'll kiss just as before... happy we'll be... beyond the sea...

[The door opens and Scully rushes out.]

BOGGS: And never again...

[Scully is driving her car. She stops at a red light and closes her eyes, remembering what Boggs said.]

BOGGS: [flashback] Water falling. It's, it's not a waterfall.

[A honking car snaps her out of it. She opens her eyes and sees Hotel Niagara, a hotel with a sign that has a waterfall behind the letters. In her mind, she sees Boggs again.]

BOGGS: An angel of stone.

[She looks to her left and sees a stone statue of an angel holding another in its arms, wings spread. Scully makes a sharp right turn and pulls into an alley. She stops the car at a door, which has a condemned sign on it. She walks in to the room, which is very quiet, except for water dripping. Two pigeons fly off and she is startled. She shines the flashlight on the ground and sees some lighted candles and a beer bottle. Bending over, she picks up a small bracelet on the floor. She holds it up to the candle and looks at it, but something catches her eye. She looks across the floor and sees several wire coat hangers.]

[Scully sits in a chair in her hotel room. She sees another vision of her father, sitting across from her, speaking to her with no words. There is a knock at the door.]

MULDER: It's Mulder.

[She gets up to answer the door. No one is in that chair across from her. She opens the door.]

MULDER: I just heard that Liz Hawley's family made a positive ID on the charm you found at the warehouse. The police are searching that place inch-by-inch but they haven't been able to find anything yet. I expected to find you at the crime scene.

[Scully goes over and puts the chairs away.]

SCULLY: Did Boggs confess?

MULDER: No, no, it was five hours of Boggs' channeling. After three hours, I asked him to summon up the soul of Jimi Hendrix and requested "All Along the Watchtower." You know the guy's been dead twenty years but he still hasn't lost his edge.

SCULLY: I lied to the police about how I found the warehouse. I didn't notice any suspicious activities.

MULDER: Then how did you find it?

SCULLY: It was where Boggs said it would be.

MULDER: Scully, I told you about Boggs...

SCULLY: I didn't go looking for it! I came across an area that had landmarks he spoke of...

MULDER: That doesn't matter! That's exactly what Boggs wanted! He could have been setting you up! You could be dead right now! Why did you feel you had to lie in your police report?

SCULLY: I thought it would be a better explanation under the circumstances.

521

MULDER: What you're really saying is that you didn't want to go on record admitting that you believed in Boggs! The bureau would expect something like that from "Spooky" Mulder, but not Dana Scully.

SCULLY: I thought that you'd be pleased that I'd opened myself to extreme possibilities.

MULDER: Why now? After all we've seen, why Boggs?

[Mulder sits down.]

MULDER: Does this have to do with your father?

[She shakes her head.]

MULDER: You said that he didn't approve of you becoming an FBI agent. If being on the job now makes you feel guilty or uncomfortable or uneasy, I think you should back away because if it's clouding your judgment, you're putting yourself in danger.

SCULLY: I love this job.

MULDER: You love your father.

[About to cry, she walks to the other side of the room.]

MULDER: Dana... open yourself up to extreme possibilities only when they're the truth. That goes for Luther Boggs... and your father. As for Luther Boggs, he's the greatest of lies.

[He stands up and goes to her. They both sit down.]

MULDER: I know he's working with someone on the outside and they planted that evidence. We have to be very careful about plotting our next move because he's planned five steps ahead. The only advantage we have is time.

[He holds up a newspaper. An article at the bottom has the headline "Gas Chamber Tested for Boggs' Execution."]

Central Prison Raleigh, North Carolina

[Scully sits at a desk, looking at her watch. Mulder comes over and puts a paper down in front of her.]

MULDER: Scully, look at this.

[The headline reads "Kidnapped College Students Found Safe." Under that, it reads "Police seek suspect."]

SCULLY: That's incredible! They found them?

MULDER: That's exactly what I want Boggs to think.

[He sits down.]

SCULLY: I don't understand, why didn't the police notify us?

MULDER: They haven't been found, the article is bogus. The Carolinian made this one up just for us, only six people know about it. Later on today, Boggs gets his weekly phone privileges. Hopefully, he'll call his accomplice to find out what happened.

522

[Prison. The small slot to Boggs' door open and a hand puts down the fake newspaper. Through the slot, we see Boggs get off his bed and pick up the newspaper. The slot closes. Mulder looks at a camera into Boggs' room, seeing Boggs sit down on his cot and read, and then his watch. Scully sits behind him.]

MULDER: Phone privilege is in two hours.

[Boggs is lead down the hall by two security guards. Mulder, Scully, some security guards and some suit-and-ties watch as he is lead into a room with a phone. Boggs runs his hands through his hair then picks up the phone and starts dialing. Scully leans over to the man next to her.]

SCULLY: Go.

[The man starts the tape recorder. Boggs looks directly at the camera as he puts the phone to his ear. In the security room, a phone starts ringing.]

MULDER: Turn off that phone. Turn it off.

[They all look for the phone until Scully sees Mulder's jacket.]

SCULLY: Mulder, it's you.

[Mulder reaches into his coat pocket, pulls out his cell phone, pulls up the antenna, pushes a button, and puts it to his ear.]

MULDER: Mulder.

[Boggs is on the other end.]

BOGGS: [through phone] How come you don't believe me?

[Mulder looks at the monitor. Boggs is looking right back at him.]

BOGGS: [through phone] Agent Scully does. She believes me.

MULDER: Agent Scully believes what we all believe. That you have the kids. Now where are they?

[Boggs drops the phone and moans. Scully stands.]

SCULLY: Mulder... even if he is setting us up, we have to follow, because in three days...

MULDER: Liz Hawley and Jim Summers will be dead.

SCULLY: And then a day later, our only connection to the case will be pulling up a chair at the gas chamber.

[In the monitor, Boggs is breathing heavy and labored.]

SCULLY: We have to deal.

[In the same interrogation room as before, Boggs sits in the same chair. His breathing is heavy. Mulder sits across from him.]

BOGGS: The kidnapper is aroused by the prospect of becoming a killer.

MULDER: What's the name?

BOGGS: Can't see... male...

MULDER: Describe him.

BOGGS: Small... thin... late twenties... skull...

523

[Flashes quickly to Henry's skull earring.]

BOGGS: Human skull...

[Flashes again to Henry's earring.]

BOGGS: Silver gray... his eyes, cold, very cold...

[Flashes to Henry whipping his head around. His eyes are blue and look dead.]

BOGGS: Staring at Elizabeth...

[On the ground, Elizabeth is tied up and gagged, struggling at her bonds. Boggs grimaces and chokes on his words.]

BOGGS: God, he's got the wire...

[Henry bends the wire coat hanger, thinning it out.]

BOGGS: No... please, no...

[Henry finishes thinning it and whips it down. Boggs reacts as if he was struck himself. We now see Scully is sitting in the back.]

MULDER: Where is he?

BOGGS: He's over... over... by the window...

[We see Henry looking down at a desk next to a hole in the wall. In the back, we see Elizabeth. Henry slowly looks up.]

BOGGS: Holding back... holding back his thoughts of killing... waiting... there's a small boathouse on Lake Jordan.

[Mulder looks back at Scully, who writes it down in her notepad.]

MULDER: You got that?

[Scully closes her notepad and puts it and her pen away. She and Mulder get up. A buzz is heard and the door opens. They start to walk out.]

BOGGS: Mulder...

[They turn back.]

BOGGS: Don't go near the white cross. We see you down... and your blood spills on the white cross.

[They walk out.]

[Henry walks towards Jim and Elizabeth, whipping his leg with the coat hanger. Michael and Elizabeth scream with every whip. Jim is tied to a pole and gagged. Henry bends down to Elizabeth and raises the coat hanger to strike her.]

ELIZABETH: [muffled] No, no, no, no, no more...

[A bang is heard and Henry looks up. Outside, agents surround the boathouse. Scully and Mulder lead the way as a team of FBI agents go to the main door. An agent kicks down the door and they all run in.]

AGENT: Anything?

524

2ND AGENT: Negative.

[Scully and Mulder see Elizabeth on the floor. Scully runs over to check her.]

SCULLY: Sweep the docks!

[While the agents start filing out, Mulder checks down a passage way. He shines his flashlight with his gun right above. As he approaches the back, there appears to be a giant white cross. Hearing a noise, he turns around. Across the water hangs some sheets draped over a line. He sees some rustling and points his gun.]

MULDER: Federal agent!

[A gunshot goes off through the drape and hits Mulder. Mulder screams and falls. Scully hears the shot.]

SCULLY: Mulder!

[Henry, draped in the sheets, drives off in a motorboat. Scully rushes to Mulder's side. We hear agents shouting orders to each other illegibly.]

AGENT: Get in there, now!

SCULLY: We need an ambulance... officer down!

[She undoes her coat, takes it off and drapes it over Mulder. Turning around quickly, she sees the white wooden beams of the warehouse towering over them. The beams are held together by wide metal straps which have rusted, creating blood-like streaks.]

[In a hospital, two men quickly wheel Mulder into an emergency room. Mulder is wearing an oxygen mask.]

PARAMEDIC: What do we got?

DOCTOR: Through and through upper femur...

NURSE: Can't palpate a radial pulse...

DOCTOR: Okay, I want a B.P. on this stat... get him on the gurney.

PARAMEDIC: One, two, three...

[The paramedics lift him off the wheeler and onto the gurney. Mulder coughs and shakes. Scully walks in.]

NURSE: Blood pressure is 67 on palpation.

DOCTOR: Okay, type him and screen him for six, I want two liters of normal saline in him now and give him two units of O-neg after the typing. Let's transfer now.

[In a hospital room, Elizabeth Hawley is looking at pictures of different criminals. Scully is standing next to the bed as a man flips the cards for her. She looks at the first one.]

ELIZABETH: No.

[He flips to the next one.]

ELIZABETH: No.

525

[The next one.]

ELIZABETH: No.

[He flips to the next one and she looks away. The man gives the picture to Scully.]

[Outside, another man reads from a file.]

MAN: Lucas Jackson Henry, 28. Did some time at Angola in Louisiana for sexual assault, narcotics, nothing big, really. His personal history includes being witness to an auto accident in which his high school sweetheart was killed and his mother was decapitated.

[He hands her the file. She looks at the profiles.]

MAN: The seven year anniversary of that accident is in three days.

SCULLY: He's reliving it. That would explain the deadline.

[She walks over to the window.]

MAN: The most important element we found is that there's substantial suspicion that Luther Lee Boggs' last five murders were committed with a partner. Now, the police up in Durham say they could never prove it in court but they know that partner was Lucas Henry.

[Prison. A buzz sounds and the door opens to the same room as before. A security guard walks out as Scully marches in. Boggs sits in the chair.]

SCULLY: You set us up. You're in on this with Lucas Henry. This was a trap for Mulder because he helped put you away. Well, I came here to tell you that if he dies because of what you've done, four days from now, nobody will stop me from being the one that will throw the switch and gas you out of this life for good, you son of a bitch!

[She turns back to the door and waits for it to open.]

BOGGS: Dana...

[She turns back. Instead of seeing Boggs there, she sees Mulder.]

BOGGS: [as Mulder] You're the one that believed me!

[She covers her ears and closes her eyes.]

SCULLY: No! No, I do not believe you!

[She opens them and Boggs is back to normal.]

BOGGS: If you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe yourself.

[He pauses and starts playing with his hair. His mannerism changes again, this time to a little child's.]

BOGGS: There was that one time when I was fourteen and my parents had gone to bed and I snuck downstairs all alone. Got one of my mom's cigarettes and went out onto the porch in the dark. I was so scared. My heart was beating, I mean, they would have killed me if they knew. But I was so excited. Not 'cause of the cigarette, I mean, it was gross, but because I wasn't supposed to.

SCULLY: That could be a moment from any kid's life.

526

[She is shaken by the story. Boggs reverts back to normal.]

BOGGS: I know what you want. And I know who you want to talk to. Why don't you just go ahead and ask me?

[Scully is on the verge of crying.]

SCULLY: I'll believe you... if you let... me talk to him.

[Boggs takes a deep breath, then slumps down and exhales it. He grunts twice. His breathing becomes heavier. He looks at her, his expression and mood like her father's.]

BOGGS: Starbuck...

[Boggs twitches and pulls at his handcuffs, grimacing. His mood and tone become almost demonic.]

BOGGS: No, no, no! Nobody talks to anybody until I get a deal! Don't underestimate my fear of dying and don't downplay my terror of going back to that chair. I know my hell's going to be to go on back to that chair over and over again for all time but in this life, my one and only life, I don't ever want to go back again! Ever! The last time I went to death's door and looked inside...

[The screen grows bright until it goes to black-and-white of a priest reading Last Rites from the Bible. There is no audio.]

BOGGS: I ain't never talked to a minister before in my life ever until that day and he said, "He who doth not love remains in death and he who hates his brother is a murderer..."

[Boggs looks at the minister. A guard comes in and gives him his last meal.]

BOGGS: "And no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." My family, who I killed after their last meal, was right there to watch me over mine...

[Boggs looks to his left and sees his family standing there, watching him. Boggs is led down a hallway past his family, who is duplicated on either side of him.]

BOGGS: And their fear and their horror that I made them feel when I killed them was injected into me...

[Boggs is strapped into the chair and a wire that detects his heart beat is strapped to his chest.]

BOGGS: And their collective fear alone was just one taste of hell. And then I felt myself leave my body. I thought they had already killed me...

[Boggs tilts his head back and closes his eyes. Suddenly, spirits rush into his body, moaning, their clothes and features briefly replacing his as they move into him.]

BOGGS: And I saw thousands of souls rushing into my body.

[The screen brightens until we are back in the interrogation room.]

BOGGS: It is a cold, dark place, Scully. Mulder's looking in on it right now.

SCULLY: It may be a cold dark place for you but it's not for Mulder and it's not for my father.

BOGGS: I'm sure he'd like to tell you hisself but I'm not going to let him. Nobody speaks until you get me a deal.

SCULLY: I don't believe you.

BOGGS: Oh well, there's plenty of room in that cold, dark place for liars, Scully. You go ahead and play it like you need to but I know you believe me. But if you need to convince a judge I'm in on it with Lucas, go ahead. 'Cause either way, whether I'm running the show with Lucas or I'm channeling, no information's coming until I get a deal. Go on, man, I got nothing to lose.

527

[Scully turns around and faces the door.]

SCULLY: Guard!

[Boggs stands up behind her.]

BOGGS: If I die, that boy goes to that cold, dark place.

[There is a buzz and the cell door and outer door open. She walks out and stops as they slam behind her. She closes her eyes for a moment, then walks away.]

Central Prison Raleigh, North Carolina

[Scully meets with the Warden in his office.]

WARDEN: The Governor and the Supreme Court of North Carolina do not intend to make a deal with a mass murderer. Especially one who I know is orchestrating a capital offence two days before his capital punishment.

SCULLY: Yes, sir.

WARDEN: The only thing Boggs will get from me is a timely death. And it's an overdue one at that.

[Hospital. Scully sits at the side of Mulder's bed as he listens. Instruments are hooked up to him and machines beep in the background.]

SCULLY: We're running out of time. There's still no sign of Lucas Henry or Jim Summers. The Raleigh police said...

MULDER: No matter what, don't believe him. Boggs created this whole charade to get back at me for putting him on death row. You'd be the next best thing.

SCULLY: Mulder, I never thought I'd say this... but what if there's another explanation?

MULDER: Don't... deal with him. He could be trying to claim you as his last victim.

[Prison. A buzz sounds and the door opens. Boggs is lead in by a security guard. The security guard walks out and we hear the door slam. Scully is sitting across from Boggs.]

SCULLY: All right, Mr. Boggs... you got your deal.

[Boggs nods and sheds a few tears.]

BOGGS: Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.

SCULLY: Alright, where are they?

[Boggs exhales loudly and slumps back in his chair. Scully watches him with no emotion. Boggs changes moods again. He looks up at the ceiling.]

BOGGS: Uh... I... uh... I see, like, uh... circles. Uh... I don't know, like... barrels. No, no, bigger, like, uh... huge, uh... vats, uh... factory. Uh, condemned. The old, uh, Blue Devil Brewery out by Morrisville. Oh, God, he's getting, uh, he's getting ready. He... he... he's getting ready to, um, uh... he's getting ready to kill, uh, to kill the d... whoo.

528

[He exhales and slumps back down. Scully puts her things in her briefcase.]

SCULLY: Luther, if you really were psychic...

BOGGS: I'd have known you lied. That there never was a deal. I know you tried.

[She picks up her briefcase and goes to the door. A buzz sounds and it opens.]

BOGGS: Scully...

[She turns around.]

BOGGS: Avoid the devil. Don't follow Henry to the devil. Leave that to me.

[She walks out as a security guard walks in.]

[The Blue Devil Brewery. Henry waves an hatchet in the air and screams. He slams the axe head down into a table twice. Tied to a table and his mouth covered with masking tape, Jim groans and starts to cry. Henry walks over to a ledge and jumps down next to Jim. He grabs him by the hair and lifts the hatchet, ready to strike.]

AGENT: Freeze!

[Henry stops and turns around. Agents rush in, guns armed. Scully takes the point, aiming at Henry.]

SCULLY: Federal agents, we're armed! Drop your weapon.

[Henry slowly lowers his weapon. Suddenly he raises it to throw but Scully shoots him in the side of the chest. He screams and recoils as Scully and a few agents start to chase after him. Henry drops the hatchet and runs as the other agents check on Jim.]

AGENT: There he is!

2ND AGENT: Get an ambulance...

AGENT: Hold it...

2ND AGENT: It's gonna be alright, kid...

[Scully's team turns a corner and runs down a hallway.]

AGENT: Somebody get over here!

[Henry runs down the hall, crashing into the wall and heaving. The agents stop at some stairs, getting on either side of the fixture before it.]

SCULLY: Go!

[An agent runs up the stairs and is hit with a metal barrel in the face. The agent falls down the stairs as Henry runs. Scully and another agent run after Henry while another checks on the fallen one. Henry runs into a dark room where rats are squeaking. He turns left. Scully and the agent go into the room. She goes left, he goes right. Henry runs into another room and up some stairs onto a catwalk. In the background, painted on the wall, is a giant blue devil. Scully runs in, gun poised, but she lowers it when she sees the devil. Henry looks at her and hears a creak under his foot. He looks down to see the boards breaking under his feet. He falls through, screaming until a crash is heard. Scully looks over the railing to see Henry, dead two or three flights down. Scully sits down on the stairs as another agent runs in.]

AGENT: Over here!

529

[Scully looks up at the blue devil on the wall.]

[The devil's face fades away, replaced with Boggs, who is sitting on his cot. Scully walks over and looks through his cell bars.]

BOGGS: You come to say goodbye?

SCULLY: I believe... that if you had orchestrated this kidnapping, Lucas Henry would have... been aware of the danger you warned me about. He never would have crossed that bridge. So you saved ... Jim Summer's life. But you saved mine as well.

[Boggs nods, stands and walks to the cell bars.]

BOGGS: You come for some unfinished business. You want your father's message. Not now. Be there tonight. Be my witness. And when they got me in that chair and they... open up that shield ... you get your message.

[He sits back down on the cot. It is now 5:57. A security guard walks into the cell and puts down his last meal. Boggs looks to the left and sees his dead family again, in black-and-white. He covers his face with his hand.]

[Boggs is wearing shackles as he walks down the same hallway. He sees his family lining the halls again, the same way in black- and-white. They whisper to each other. Boggs stops and turns around in emotional pain, but the security guards turn him back around.]

[Boggs breathes heavily as he is strapped into the chair in the gas chamber again. They put the same heart-detecting wire on his chest. The shield over a glass panel in the wall opens in front of Boggs and two men stand there with a priest.]

PRIEST: Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven...

MAN: Would you like to make a statement?

PRIEST: ...our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

[Another man walks into view. This is his witness, not Scully as he had asked for. Boggs shakes his head no. The first man nods to another.]

PRIEST: And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is thy kingdom, thy power and thy glory...

[The contents of a metal cup spill out into some liquid. There's a chemical reaction, the liquid bubbles and gas is produced.]

PRIEST: Forever and ever. Amen.

[The look on Boggs' face is that of pure terror.]

[Hospital. Scully stands at the foot of Mulder's bed.]

SCULLY: I was considering Boggs. If he knew that I was your partner, he could have found out everything he knew about me. About my father...

MULDER: Scully.

[She walks around to him.]

530

SCULLY: "Beyond the Sea" was playing at my parents' wedding. Visions of deceased loved ones are a common psychological phenomena. If he knew that my father had...

MULDER: Dana. After all you've seen, after all the evidence, why can't you believe?

[She sighs and sits down on his bed.]

SCULLY: I'm afraid. I'm afraid to believe.

MULDER: You couldn't face that fear? Even if it meant never knowing what your father wanted to tell you?

SCULLY: But I do know.

MULDER: How?

SCULLY: He was my father.

[Mulder nods and puts his hand on her shoulder.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Special Guest Star:

Brad Dourif (Luther Lee Boggs)

Guest Starring:

Don Davis (Captain Scully) Sheila Larken (Mrs. Scully)

Co-Starring:

Lawrence King (Lucas Henry) Fred henderson (Agent Thomas) Don Mackay (Warden Joseph Cash) Lisa Vultaggio (Liz Hawley)

Featuring:

Chad Willett (Jim Summers) Kathrynn Chisholm (Nurse) Randy Lee (Paramedic) Len Rose (E.R. Doctor)

1x12 Beyond the Sea - notes Video box set commentary by Chris Carter:

Beyond The Sea is my favorite episode from the first season for a number of reasons. The writers of that episode, Glen Morgan and James Wong, had pitched me an idea that I liked a lot about the death of Scully's father which is a big leap but the channelling of Scully's dead father through this death row prisoner, I felt, was a really interesting way to turn the tables on the characters.

531

Thanksgiving Dinner ...

The character of Luther Lee Boggs, played by Brad Dourif, was, I think, certainly the most interesting portrayal of the first season, and the truth is, is that we almost didn't get Brad Dourif for the part. You've got to pay a little bit more money for him. The studio was resistant, reluctant, to do that. I ended up calling Peter Roth, the man who I originally pitched The X-Files idea to, I called him at home on Thanksgiving evening, he was sitting with his family eating Thanksgiving dinner and I think just to get me off the phone, just to get me out of his hair, he said yes to the idea and we spent a little bit more money and got what I felt was a, really a tour-de-force acting job out of Brad Dourif.

Looking for a Song ...

That was Glen Morgan, I believe, looking for a song that would play against the mood of that funeral. It was, I thought, a really eerie song to have playing over a funeral which is, you know, a very solemn moment, and it ended up becoming, of course, very important to the story because it's the song that Luther Lee Boggs sings to Scully to make her believe that he is channelling her dead father. From "X-Files Confidential": "I'm uncomfortable talking about my own work, but I am proud of this episode," Glen Morgan admits. "Jim and I have written maybe thirty hours of television, and before working on this series there were maybe three 21 Jump Streets which I can say I'm proud of. 'Beyond the Sea' is another show I'm proud of. We fought pretty hard for Brad Dourif, and Chris came through for us. [One Flew Over the] Cuckoo's Nest is a movie that means a lot, and to have Brad Dourif [a star of that movie] saying our lines just meant the world to me. If you had someone crummy in there, that's where the show would have fallen apart. The story provided us with a chance to deal with Scully and expand her role a bit and change the rules around. If people say it's derivative of Silence of the Lambs, that's just a brilliant idea Thomas Harris came up with. I hope it's not seen that way, and it's something I tried to avoid as much as possible. I just thought that Brad Dourif and Gillian's performances were great, and David Nutter did a great job directing." For his part, Nutter is justifiably proud of the show. "To me," he says, "I think it’s the most accomplished piece of directing of actors I have been able to do. I thought Brad Dourif was brilliant, and I thought I helped bring him to where he should have been, and we were able to capture what he could really do onscreen. I very much enjoyed working with Gillian on the show. I think she's a young actress with a lot of talent but not a lot of experience prior to this show. I think this episode really made a difference in how the audience looks at Scully. I think it brought a lot of dimension to her character, and for her as a person it definitely had a lot of impact. It also allowed us to explore the emotional side of things, which we don't talk that much about. To me it's right up there with 'Ice'. Certainly one of the most enjoyable shows I did." Robert Goodwin recalls, "The whole thing was spellbinding. One of those episodes where a guy in my position just has to get the sets built, stick the actors in, let the director do his job and let the actors do theirs." "My favorite episode of the first year," Chris Carter enthuses, "and one of my favorites overall, flipping the Mulder and Scully points of view. Actually, the network did not want to do that episode. They had turned it down because they thought it was too much like Silence of the Lambs. I was so sure this was a great episode that I remember running up to the executive building – literally running – into Dan McDermott's office and saying, 'These guys believe in this episode, I believe in this episode, we've got to do this episode.' They finally let us do it, although there was a question of whether or not we'd have Brad Dourif. I remember calling Peter Roth, the president of Twentieth Century Fox, at home on Thanksgiving and saying, 'This is the guy we need for this episode.' There was a money issue. He was the person who signed off on that. I pulled him away from the Thanksgiving table and he said, 'Just cast him,' and that was it. The timing to call him was perfect, though it was inadvertent." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Raleigh, North Carolina Back story: Sheila Larken, who has played Scully's mother, Margaret, in several episodes, is married to The X-Files co-executive producer R W Goodwin. Don Davis, who portrays Scully's father, is one of the five Twin peaks alumni who have appeared on the show, along with David Duchovny, Jan D'Arcy ('Tooms'), Michael Horse ('Shapes') and Michael Anderson (the midget featured in 'Humbug'). Duchovny referred to Horse and Anderson as "big Michael and little Michael". The two names for the serial killers, 'Luther Lee Boggs' and 'Lucas Henry', bring to mind that of actual serious killer Henry Lee Lucas. 'Beyond the Sea' remains a personal favorite of both executive producer Chris Carter and Gillian Anderson, in the latter case due to the depth of emotion the script afforded her character. Margin note: In the scene where Captain Scully appears in Dana Scully's apartment, silently mouthing words, the actor Don Davis was actually reciting the Lord's Prayer. From Tiny Dancer: The title refers to the Bobby Darin song Scully's father requested be played at his funeral.

532

Keep an eye out for Max's NICAP hat (Fallen Angel) on the hat rack in the office. The names of the two murderers in this ep, Luther Lee Boggs and Lucas Henry, are probably derived from real-life serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas. From Autumn Tysko's review: The Carolinian newspaper article entitled "Gas chamber tested for Boggs' execution" is written by a "G. Morgan". X-Files In-Jokes: * Max's Cap - you can see Max's NICAP cap (from Fallen Angel ) on the hat rack in the X-Files office. * The newspaper article about the gas chamber being readied was written by a G. Morgan (Glen Morgan co-wrote this episode with James Wong). * Sheila Larken (the actress who plays Scully's mother) is the wife of co-executive producer R. W. Goodwin. * This episode marks the first Moby Dick reference between Scully and her father. She calls her dad 'Ahab' and he calls her 'Starbuck'. When you combine the names of the 2 killers in this episode (Luther Lee Boggs and Lucas Henry), they can form the name Henry Lee Lucas, a real-life serial killer. From Laura Witte: When Scully's father asks how her work has been, the script says: Dana would love to gush about her career, however, she knows her father doesn't approve and settles for... "Yeah... it's good." When Scully sees her father sitting in her apartment, he is described as "surrounded by a subtle glow, creating an indentation in space, as if somehow set off from the physical surroundings". There is an extra little bit at the end of Mulder & Scully's scene in Mulder's office:

MULDER I'm sorry about your father. She nods. He begins to exit. SCULLY Mulder... He stops. SCULLY In... in the X-Files... have you ever come across... people who have seen... She is apprehensive. He moves to her. MULDER (softly) Seen what? She can't face the confusion. SCULLY ... psychic transmissions, like Boggs claims. He studies her, sensing this was not her real question. MULDER Sure. Check the files. She nods. MULDER See you later.

At Captain Scully's funeral, the script describes Scully's two brothers as ages 25 and 32. The first words Scully speaks to Boggs don't appear in the episode:

MULDER You have to prove you're telling the truth. BOGGS Je ne vous dois pas un sou. SCULLY Then we don't owe you any deal to keep Boggs out of the gas chamber. She's stung him. Boggs eyes Scully. She must work to keep from looking away. His gaze at her is horrifyingly intense. MULDER Don't get me wrong, Luther...

After Mulder admonishes Scully for listening to Boggs and yells that she could be dead right now, the script says:

She knows he's right and is just as confused by her actions. Scully tries to joke her way out. SCULLY Well, at least with Boggs around, we'd still be able to carry on a conversation. Mulder gives her a scorching "it's not funny" look. She averts her eyes.

...just an observation -- Mulder calls her "Dana" a lot more in the script than he does in the epsiode. Much like the aired episode, he only does it when talking to her about her father, but it he does it more frequently in the script. Mulder's comment on opening herself to "extreme possibilities" only when they are the truth is followed by "That goes for Luther Boggs... or feelings toward your father. Believe me... it will save you a lot of pain."

533

In the script, whenever Boggs talks about his abilities he says "believe us" and "We see" such-and-such -- in the episode he always says "me" and "I". After Mulder is shot, Scully has the presence of mind to tell the other agents not to shoot at the boat, as Lucas Henry has the boy with him. After she notices the "white cross", the script says "Her eyes swell with tears. She can barely look at... Mulder... on the dock... his blood spills. Boggs' vision exactly." The doctors working on Mulder in the hospital shout phrases that seem a bit more dire to me. They include "He's gone hypovolemic", "It's a through and through. Upper leg - lliac crest.", "Watch the mask, he's vomiting", "I want his torso immobilized in O.R. transfer!" When Scully confronts Boggs after Mulder is shot, instead of saying "If he dies because of what you've done..." she says "if I lose him too because of what you've done...". Minor difference, but interesting. When Scully is talking to Agent Thomas in the hospital hallway about Lucas Henry's history, they are standing outside Mulder's hospital room with a chart on the wall listing Mulder in "Critical but stable" condition. During the discussion Scully asks if there are any of Henry's family members that they can talk to, to which Thomas replies that the father is long gone, and used to beat Henry with wire coat hangers. When Boggs channels Scully as a young girl (the story about smoking her mother's cigarette), the script describes Scully as "stunned - no one could know.", and confirms that it is a true incident from her past. When Scully goes to the Warden to request a pardon for Boggs (and is turned down), the Warden ends their conversation with "But I'll grant you a favor, Agent Scully. I'll keep this 'request' strictly between you and me." -- after which "Scully sits with the sting of the Warden's words." Here's is the beginning of the post-gunshot reunion of Mulder & Scully:

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY - CLOSE - TWO HANDS One with an I.V. is being being comforted by another. PULLING BACK REVEALS Scully standing over Mulder as he lies in the hospital bed. SCULLY Mulder... I was so worried. MULDER So was I. There is an awkward moment between the two friends who do not often display their emotions to, or toward, one another. She takes her hand away and pulls up a chair.

After Boggs tells Scully the whereabouts of Henry and the boy, then lets on that he knows she wasn't about to get him the deal, the does a parody of the warden and tells her "I'll grant you a favor and keep this between you and me." When she asks him why he told her, he responds "In the hope there'll be one less ghost when they walk me down that hallway." When we see Henry in the brewery with Jim Summers tied to a work bench, the script describes Henry becoming enraged over a newspaper article about his girlfriend and mother being killed in a car accident. He goes over to a snapshot of himself and his father taped to a wall and begins hacking into the photo with a machete over and over.

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

Title: The title of the episode refers to the song "Beyond the Sea" which is adapted from the French song "La Mer" by Charles Trenet. The version that is heard in this episode is sung by Bobby Darin and is probably the best known version of the song.

-- Morgan and Wong chose the song as a focal point of the episode, and eventually the episode's title, because Glen's parents were big Bobby Darin fans and he knew they would like it if they heard one of Darin's songs in his episode. Glen Morgan's brother Darin is named after Bobby Darin.

-- "Beyond the Sea" was the fourth episode of the first season written by Morgan and Wong, and was their favorite. "What typified our episodes," quipped Glen Morgan, "was that they were gorier." But Morgan also saw another side to their writing. "Jim and I were more character-oriented," he said. "Maybe Chris Carter would have had a more epic show with spaceships and fire, but we focused on people." They felt that "Beyond the Sea" was an excellent example of how to mix character development with an absorbing storyline.

-- Hard to believe now, but "Beyond the Sea" had a tough time getting network approval. "They nixed it twice until Chris marched into the office and said, 'We're doing it,'" Morgan recalled. (The network didn't like the showdown between Scully and Boggs.) Just before writing the episode, he had read a book with some startling statistics about the number of women who see the spirits of husbands and sons soon after their deaths, and that served as the inspiration for the episode's story.

534

-- Around that same time, several fans had written internet messages criticizing Scully's character; and Morgan and Wong decided the fans had a point. "We thought Gillian Anderson needed to show off her talents more," Wong said. "And this was a perfect opportunity to dispel those notions that Scully would never believe. It was time for the character to grow, because she was just doing the same kind of thing too often." The result was a story where Anderson could finally let out all the stops, and bring some humanity to Scully.

-- Morgan and Wong believed the best way to achieve this goal was to tie the episode's X-File case to her in a personal way, by introducing her parents, having her father die before the teaser ended, and then linking her need to speak once more with her father to a psychic prisoner on death row.

-- Morgan recalled that, "In the pilot, Scully mentioned that her parents didn't want her to become an FBI agent. We found that interesting. So many people want their own lives, and yet need their parents to accept that life, and we thought it seemed to be a common phenomenon around us. So we put it into the story and hoped it would connect with people. And we thought maybe Scully's parents lived in Washington. And if they lived in Washington, what could her father do? It was kind of obvious to us he was in the government and we put him in the military. Then we thought, 'OK, he has to be a higher rank, a Navy captain's kind of neat.' And we just worked backwards from that."

-- Director David Nutter cast Don Davis, a veteran of Twin Peaks, as William Scully and Sheila Larken as Margaret Scully. "Scully needed to have a father and mother both of whom had very strong qualities and charisma and three dimensions," Nutter said. "I felt that Don and Sheila would bring all that to the roles."

-- Don Davis, who has a Ph.D. in theater, moved to Canada in 1981 to teach in the theater department of the University of British Columbia. He started doing extra work during the summers, and eventually found himself doubling for Dana Elcar in MacGyver. He won a leading guest role in that show, with more series work to follow, and was able to give up teaching for full- time acting. Nutter had worked with Davis previously on several shows, including Broken Badges and called him personally to ask him if he would accept the role of William Scully, despite its brevity.

-- Davis thought the character of William Scully was similar to his role of Major Briggs on Twin Peaks. "William was a military man who, although he loved his child deeply, was unable to verbalize that love until it was too late," Davis said. "It was very much along the line of the Major Briggs character, that this was a guy who was at the top of his field and the way he showed his love to his family was to give his children an example to follow and to provide them with great security. That's kind of where I started off with the character."

-- Davis said producers told him that when you died on The X-Files it didn't necessarily mean the end; and true to form, he found himself back again for "One Breath" to deliver to the comatose Scully the paternal message she had longed for in "Beyond the Sea." Davis said that "One Breath" director Bob Goodwin's concern was that his monologue would not "become maudlin. He wanted me to be on the verge of being overcome, but he didn't want it to happen. He wanted the character to be strong, to be very much the man that had fathered Dana. So what I tried to do was to show a man holding himself in, a man who was filled with emotion but who, as a military man, controlled the emotion. We did a few takes and each time Bob was bringing me down."

-- In between "Beyond the Sea" and "One Breath," Davis made an uncredited, offscreen appearance as a dialogue coach for "Miracle Man." As a native of the Ozark Mountains region, and a former theater professor, he lent his expertise to the guest cast to help them properly pronounce Southern accents.

-- Davis would later re-team with MacGyver star Richard Dean Anderson on the incredibly successful Stargate SG-1 in which he appears as Major General/Lieutenant General George Hammond.

-- Scully's mother Margaret was portrayed by actress Sheila Larken, and in the X-Files world, where almost everyone had a hidden agenda, Larken's maternal warmth and sincerity was a bright spot within all the bleakness. David Nutter had met Larken when he auditioned her for his 1985 film Cease Fire, and although he didn't cast her, she made an impression on the director. Larken's husband, X-Files co-executive producer Bob Goodwin, mentioned her at one point to Nutter, and Nutter immediately thought of her for Margaret. "She was perfect. She was the one, and I hired her."

-- Larken was reluctant to take on the role of Margaret Scully. The New York native had left acting several years before and had obtained a master's degree in clinical social work. But after moving to Washington State with her husband, she found herself busy with acting offers. Her hesitation to take on the role of Margaret stemmed, she said, from her own father's death the year before from a heart attack.

535

-- "It wasn't something I really wanted to do or pull up," she said. "But I did it anyway. I never thought the part would repeat. My interpretation when I did that scene at the funeral was of a woman so involved with her own pain, she couldn't even react to what her daughter was asking her. And they allowed that, even though the daughter was the lead in the show."

-- Larken saw Margaret as "a military wife, married before I graduated college, someone who never got to finish her college degree or find a career for herself, but mainly got enmeshed in her family. You know, the Everymother. Part of her emergence in becoming self-sufficient was during the course of this show with Dana. I think Margaret was ever evolving."

-- Larken's favorite scene came in "Ascension," when Margaret and Mulder met at a park and talked about the missing Scully. "You explore a scene and try to find what you're thinking, and what you're not thinking, and that one just jelled together. There were just so many little itsy-bitsy things that came together and they came together on camera."

-- She found working with Anderson and Duchovny to be a particular treat. "Their depth is multi-layered. A lot of times you work with actors, and when you look into their eyes, they're a blank. You're working alone. But when you get to work with Gillian and David, whatever you send it is received and vice versa."

-- Larken said that as Margaret she usually did not draw on her own experience as a mother, because "it was almost too vulnerable to let in." She did admit to an exception: "There was one scene where being a parent did work. In 'One Breath' where Margaret said to pull the plug on her daughter, Mulder doesn't want her to do it. He moved away on me, and I called him by his first name. I just went, 'Fox!' I could hear that 'mother' voice. And David stopped cold, he stopped in his tracks. It was like the voice of every mother; in that sense, the mother did come through."

-- In the scene where Captain Scully appeared in Scully's apartment, silently mouthing words, Don Davis was actually reciting the Lord's Prayer.

-- This episode marked the first Moby Dick reference between Scully and her father. Ahab and Starbuck were two fictional characters in Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick that was published in 1851. The book follows the adventures of the crew of the Peqoud on a whaling expedition. Ahab is the captain of the ship and Starbuck is the First Mate.

-- The two names of the serial killers, Luther Lee Boggs and Lucas Henry, bring to mind that of real-life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.

-- In the office at the beginning of the episode, Max Fenig's NICAP hat can be seen hanging on the coat rack.

-- This was the first episode that made reference to Mulder's pornography obsession.

--The episode marked the first of only a handful of times that Mulder called Scully "Dana."

-- The scene at William Scully's funeral is described as follows in the original script: "Scully and her family stand overlooking the ocean. Her two brothers, 25 and 32, and their families shed tears. Scully, sad but dry-eyed, is near her mother."

-- The article about the gas chamber being readied was written by "G. Morgan."

-- The tattoos on Boggs' hands reading "KISS" and "KILL" came from a song by the band "X" which included the lyric "It's kiss or kill." "X" was a favorite band of Chris Carter; the band had a song on the Fight the Future soundtrack, "The Crystal Ship."

-- The episode marked the first time either Mulder or Scully was shot.

-- The original script featured this direction when Mulder was brought into the E.R.: "The Emergency Medical Team work rapidly around him. This should be terrifying and intense and real." In the script, Mulder started to vomit, and the direction said, "Scully is pale, watching, as a doctor, she understands what is going on. As a friend, she feels helpless."

-- Scully's line of dialogue during her classic confrontation with Boggs (featured at the top) is slightly different in the script and the difference is worth noting, I think: "... I came here to let you know that if I lose him too because of what you've done ..." ::: shipper sigh :::

536

-- There was also a slight but notable difference in the original script in the beginning of the scene where Scully visited Mulder in the hospital. It's written like this in the script: Cut to -- Interior, Hospital Room, Day, Close, Two Hands -- one with an I.V. is being comforted by another. Pulling back reveals Scully standing over Mulder as he lies in the hospital bed. SCULLY: Mulder, I was so scared. Mulder, wearing a nasal cannula, is pale, perspiring, and tired. MULDER: So was I. There is an awkward moment between the two friends who do not often display their emotions to, or toward, one another. She takes her hand away and pulls up a chair." ::: another shipper sigh :::

-- Oopsie: Scully shot Lucas Henry in the left shoulder. However, a few moments later he was running and holding his right shoulder.

-- James Wong and Glen Morgan won a Digital Hollywood Award for "Best Writing" for this episode; and James Coblentz won a Monitor Award for "best editing" for this episode.

-- Brad Dourif (Luther Lee Boggs) was asked to do this part with only four days of preparation. He originally refused the part, but Morgan and Wong wanted him so badly that they gave him an extra week to prepare. Apparently while getting into character between takes, he would do deep breathing exercises that caused his face to turn bright purple, freaking out Gillian Anderson just a tad.

-- Brad Dourif was born in 1950 in Huntington, West Virginia, where his father owned and operated a dye factory. His father died when Dourif was 3 years old, after which his mother married Bill Campbell, a champion golfer, who helped raise Brad, his brother, and his four sisters. Dourif attended Aiken Preparatory School in Aiken, South Carolina, where he pursued his interests in art and acting. Although he briefly considered becoming a professional artist, he finally settled on acting as a profession, inspired by his mother's participation as an actress in community theater.

-- Dourif joined the Huntington Community Players while attending Marshall University. At age 19, he quit college and headed to New York City, where he worked with the Circle Repertory Company. Dourif made his first big-screen appearance in a bit part in W. W. and the Dixie Dancekings in 1975, but his big break came in a film released later that year: Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. For his portrayal of the vulnerable Billy Bibbit, he earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Acting Debut, a British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actor, and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

-- Skeptical of his instant stardom, Dourif returned to New York, where he continued in theater and taught acting and directing classes at Columbia University until he moved to Hollywood. Despite his attempts to avoid typecasting, he seemed destined to play demented, deranged, or disturbed characters starting in The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978). Dourif teamed up with director David Lynch for Dune and Blue Velvet; and his high strung style served him well in a number of horror films, notably as the voice of the evil doll Chucky in Child's Play and its sequels. Dourif's recent film work includes the role of Frima Wormtongue in the Lord of the Rings trilogy; and his recent television work includes the role of Doc Cochran on HBO's Deadwood.

-- Once & Future Retreads: Don S. Davis (William Scully) played the same role in "One Breath." Sheila Larken first played Margaret Scully in this episode and reprised the role 14 times. Fred Henderson (Agent Thomas) was Agent Rich in "Duane Barry." Don MacKay (Warden Joseph Cash) was Charlie in "The Host," Oates in "The List," and The Judge in "Pusher."

-- As an example of the impact that this episode had, mid-way through Season 2 David Duchovny called the episode "One Breath" "my 'Beyond the Sea,' because it was the one that gave me the most character development to work with."

-- As he was preparing to write his second X-Files episode ("Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose") Darin Morgan said, "I felt I had done 'Humbug' wrong, so I watched 'Beyond the Sea' again to see what the show was really about." "Beyond the Sea" was Darin Morgan's favorite X-Files episode.

-- Even after nine years and 200+ hours of television, Gillian Anderson and Chris Carter also count "Beyond the Sea" among their favorite X-Files episodes.

1x13 Genderbender - transcript

Writers: Larry Barber and Paul Barber Director: Rob Bowman Original airdate: 21 January 1994

537

Transcribed by: Dave Fox Edited by Libby

[A dance club. Loud music is playing and strobe lights illuminate an otherwise dark club. A young man tries to strike up a conversation with a blonde woman, but without success as she walks away. There are brief glimpses of an eye, someone is watching. He goes to a video machine to read his horoscope. A young woman comes alongside him and tries to get his attention, but he appears disinterested and looks back at the video screen. She takes his left hand in hers and suddenly he seems very interested in her. He leans over and she whispers something in his ear. They then walk away hand in hand.]

[Later, in a hotel room. They are in bed and have just had sex. She gets off the bed and stands some distance away from the bed, while he tries to catch his breath.]

YOUNG MAN: Oh, my God! That was ... that was incredible. I mean it. You don't believe me. Can you hear me? Hey, I ... I don't even know your name.

[He sits up in bed but then shows signs of being in pain. He coughs and moans, clutching his throat, and falls back in the bed. The woman continues to stand and watch. A foam comes out of his mouth and he appears dead. Nearby, the woman drops her lingerie to the floor. As she walks across the room, her feet and legs appear to have changed. She starts to put on the man's clothes but as more of her is seen, it appears she has changed into a man.]

Crime Scene Germantown, Maryland Outside Washington DC

[A photographer is taking pictures of the scene while Mulder examines the man's body. Scully stands to the side talking with Detective Horton.]

HORTON: New York businessman calls his wife to say good night, then goes out and picks up some chippy. He brings her back here for sex. Beyond that, well, nothing makes a whole lot of sense.

SCULLY: How's that?

HORTON: Security monitor records the victim entering the room with a woman at 10:13. Same monitor records a male leaving just after midnight.

SCULLY: Couldn't she just have changed clothes?

HORTON: Thought of that. Male is definitely a different person - short hair and at least 30 pounds heavier. The video never recorded his entry, nor the chippy ever leaving.

[Mulder scrapes off some dried foam from the victim's face.]

SCULLY: Well, we're 30 floors up, no other means of egress. Did the medical examiner establish a cause of death?

HORTON: Guy blew an artery. Must have been some roll in the hay.

[Mulder looks up at Scully, who shows no reaction to the Detective's comment.]

SCULLY: It's hard to imagine in this day and age someone having sex with a perfect stranger. Any sign of robbery?

HORTON: The male exited wearing the victim's suit, carrying a suitcase. The wallet's gone.

SCULLY: You know, I don't even know why we got this call in the first place.

538

HORTON: Really? Somebody at the Bureau put out a memo requesting any case involving this exact COD. I assumed it was ...

MULDER: Thanks for the call.

[In Mulder's office, Mulder and Scully are looking at slides of several dead bodies, all lying in bed in various stages of undress.]

MULDER: Five deaths. Four in the last six weeks between here and Boston. In each case, the victim dies in the throes of passion. Two women and three men, including the last one.

SCULLY: All young, healthy adults.

MULDER: All with symptoms of massive coronary arrest.

SCULLY: You think there's a new drug on the streets?

MULDER: The oldest drug, not even illegal. Each body showed the presence of huge amounts of pheromones.

SCULLY: The chemicals animals secrete? You mean, sexual attractants?

MULDER: Radar love. Only about a hundred times stronger than found anywhere in nature, strong enough to product anaphylactic shock or a coronary.

SCULLY: So you think somebody is synthesizing them?

MULDER: It's been done, but in nowhere near these concentrations and hold on to your hat, Scully, 'cause you're gonna love this. The pheromones we're talking about - they contain human DNA.

SCULLY: Well, there's still a question as to whether humans can produce pheromones. So how can that be?

MULDER: I don't know. But if it's true, this guy's a walking aphrodisiac. He's the ultimate sex magnet.

SCULLY: He or she? You've got victims of both sexes. Both a man and a woman on the hotel security monitor.

MULDER: I know. That is a puzzle.

SCULLY: So what is our profile of the killer? Indeterminate height, weight, sex. Unarmed but extremely attractive.

MULDER: It gets weirder. As I said, there's been four deaths matching this MO in the last six weeks - in Boston, Hartford, Philadelphia and here in Washington.

[Mulder circles the cities on a map that is being displayed with an overhead projector.]

SCULLY: The killer's moving south.

MULDER: There was a death I made a note of about a year ago with the same symptoms. A 32 year-old UMW labor organizer was found dead outside a town called Steveston in the woods of Massachusetts. Home to a sect of religious isolationists called 'The Kindred'.

[Mulder shows some slides showing 'The Kindred'.]

SCULLY: Right. They live up there without electricity, phones, any modern amenities, a lot like the Amish.

MULDER: The Kindred are known for their handmade stoneware pottery. They mine the clay themselves in the local hills.

SCULLY: What's so weird about that?

539

MULDER: The white clay in those hills is particular to that region. It's also the same substance I scraped out of the scratches on the latest victim's side.

SCULLY: Well, wait a minute. Aren't these people famous for their abstinence and their pure Christian ways?

MULDER: Yes, but it looks as if one of them may have forgotten to clean under his fingernails.

Steveston, Massachusetts

[Mulder and Scully are walking along what appears to be Main Street. They enter a store run by a man and woman.]

WOMAN: Hi.

MULDER: Excuse me, ma'am, this is federal Agent Scully, I'm Agent Mulder.

SCULLY: We're investigating a possible murder.

WOMAN: Oh, there aren't many killings around here.

MULDER: What can you tell me about the Kindred? They keep pretty much to themselves, huh?

MAN: Yeah, some folks say it's because they're doing ceremonies up there. Voodoo or something. I've got nothing against them, myself. They bring in the tourists.

[Mulder and Scully are looking at a number of framed pictures on the wall behind the counter. There are several spots where the frames have been taken down.]

SCULLY: Did the Kindred let you take those pictures?

MAN: Oh, those. Those are from back in the thirties.

MULDER: What about the missing ones?

MAN: I'm having them reframed. They're right here under the counter.

MULDER: Can I take a look at them?

MAN: Sure.

[The man brings out several additional photographs that Mulder inspects. Outside, a wagon with about a half dozen people, all clothed in black, is being pulled up the street by a pair of horses.]

MULDER: How would I get up to see them?

MAN: Oh, they don't like strangers up there much. Road's in pretty rough shape.

[He hands Mulder a map.]

MAN: That's Steveston.

[The wagon passes the front of the store.]

MAN: That's them now. They usually shop at the feed store.

[The wagon stops in front of the feed store. Those riding in the wagon get off and all but one go into the store. One, Brother Andrew, stays with the horses. Mulder and Scully approach, and Mulder tries to get the attention of three of them as they are entering the feed store.]

540

MULDER: Excuse me. Ladies?

[They pay no attention and enter the store.] [Mulder speaks to Scully.]

MULDER: I think I'm gonna go inside. [in a "rural" accent] You need anything from the feed store?

[Scully shakes her head, remains outside and tries to strike up a conversation with Brother Andrew who is tending the horses.]

SCULLY: Hi.

[Brother Andrew doesn't respond. Scully walks past him and strokes the neck of one of the horses.]

SCULLY: She must have problems on the asphalt. Has she ever thrown a shoe?

[Andrew looks away.]

SCULLY: What's her name?

BRO. ANDREW: [shyly] Alice.

SCULLY: That's sweet. Did you name her?

BRO. ANDREW: We named her all together. I'm not allowed to talk outside.

SCULLY: That's all right.

[She extends her hand.]

SCULLY: I'm Dana Scully. I don't mean you any harm.

[Andrew hesitates, then reaches out and Scully smiles. As they shake hands, Andrew strokes the top of her hand with his thumb. Scully's expression becomes blank, then somewhat glassy-eyed. The other Kindred emerge from the store.]

KINDRED MAN: Brother Andrew.

[Andrew releases Scully's hand and gets back on the wagon. Scully appears disoriented. Mulder comes out of the store.]

MULDER: Scully, what are you doing?

SCULLY: I was just talking ...

[Her voice falls off on the last syllable and she seems confused. Mulder notices her odd expression.]

MULDER: You all right?

SCULLY: Yeah, I think so.

MULDER: You want to sit down?

[Scully doesn't respond. The wagon pulls away from the store, and Mulder and Scully watch them go up the street.]

MULDER: Interesting way of life. You get any sense about them?

SCULLY: There's something up there, Mulder.

MULDER: Oh, I've been saying that for years.

541

[Outside Steveston. It is late afternoon. Mulder and Scully park the car as the road becomes very rough. Mulder pulls out the map that he was given at the store. He flips it several times, trying to orient it properly.]

MULDER: Oh, for a 4-wheel drive. Looks like about a mile walk.

SCULLY: After you.

[Shortly afterwards, Mulder is still struggling with the map.]

MULDER: Now ... this ... that's west.

SCULLY: What does the map say?

MULDER: [annoyed] That we should be there already.

[He crumples the map into a ball and punts it upwards. Scully catches it. She sighs, then hears a stick breaking and sees members of the Kindred approaching.]

SCULLY: Mulder, look.

[They are quickly surrounded by about a dozen of the Kindred who close in on them.]

SCULLY: We're FBI agents. Federal police.

MULDER: I'm Agent Mulder, this is Agent Scully. We're here to investigate a murder.

SCULLY: I'm going to have to ask you to remain at a distance, please, sir.

BRO. OAKLEY: Your weapons are forbidden here. We can outlast you at this spot. You're not leaving where we stand until your guns are handed to our Council. You will have them again, as you leave.

MULDER: We can't do that.

SISTER ABIGAIL: Please. I'm Sister Abby. This is Brother Oakley. We're all saddened by what has happened in your world, but it does not concern us. Up here, no one kills another - ever.

SCULLY: We just want to have a few questions answered.

SISTER ABIGAIL: It is your weapons that are unwelcome here, not you. Come and pray with us, be one of us, and you'll see that we harm no one. Please relinquish your weapons.

[Scully and Mulder exchange a glance.]

SISTER ABIGAIL: Please.

[After several moments, Mulder nods and he and Scully remove the clips from their guns and hand the clips to the Kindred.]

SISTER ABIGAIL: Now there is no reason to be afraid.

[Mulder and Scully walk with the Kindred back to their house. On the way, they see members working in a hayfield, chopping wood and hanging out clothes. They enter the dining room in the main house.]

BRO. OAKLEY: Come. Sit.

[Mulder, Scully and eight members of the Kindred, including Brother Andrew, sit around the table.]

542

SISTER ABIGAIL: Let us pray as one. We who are separate give thanks for our allotted time in this world. We ask for strength that we may bring forth the bounty that God has provided.

[As they pray, one brother is coughing, and Scully and Andrew exchange an awkward glance.]

SISTER ABIGAIL: We pray for the day of the coming, the moment of our release.

ALL: Amen.

SISTER ABIGAIL: Let us eat.

[Food is served.]

MULDER: I was wondering if we might ask a few questions. We're looking for someone we believe may have come from here.

SCULLY: We have pictures.

SISTER ABIGAIL: We do not allow pictures.

SCULLY: A crime has been committed. We have certain questions that we need answered, if you'll forgive us.

BRO. ANDREW: What are these pictures?

SCULLY: Hotel security videos of a man and a woman who may have committed a murder.

BRO. ANDREW: Where was this crime committed?

SCULLY: In a hotel in Washington, DC.

MULDER: If we can arrange for you to look at the video tape, maybe you can identify the individual.

BRO. ANDREW: How much violence has this person caused in your world?

MULDER: Five murders, so far.

SCULLY: And may kill again, which is why we need your help.

MULDER: Has anyone left here recently?

BRO. WILSON: [slamming the table with his hand] Your world does not interest us. We have no need for your violence or your questions. I've said what is needed. They have no right to be here at this time.

[Sister Abigail, at the other end of the table from Brother Wilson, stands.]

SISTER ABIGAIL: Brother Wilson, stand.

[Brother Wilson does.]

SISTER ABIGAIL: Before we can accept any man's person, we must accept our own. And I ask, who can stand in your sight when once you are angry. I am ashamed to lift up my face, and I shall not be ashamed in this evil time. Make atonements for this wrath, Brother Wilson.

[Brother Wilson looks downward.]

MULDER: That's all right. We didn't take any offense.

BRO. ANDREW: Anger, as violence, is not tolerated. Our brother must be admonished.

543

[The brother who was coughing earlier is now gagging, grasping his throat.]

SCULLY: He can't breathe.

SISTER ABIGAIL: He does not need your help.

SCULLY: He's choking to death!

[Scully stands and moves around the table to assist the man.]

SISTER ABIGAIL: Remove Brother Aaron from the dining hall.

[One of the brothers grabs Scully by the arm to stop her, while several brothers lift Brother Aaron and carry him out of the room.]

SISTER ABIGAIL: We did not invite you here to interfere.

BRO. ANDREW: We take care of our own.

[In the dance club, a young man, Marty, approaches a blonde woman.]

MARTY: Would you like to dance?

BLONDE WOMAN: Not right now.

[He takes her hand]

BLONDE WOMAN: Look, I'm really not interested, OK?

MARTY: Just one dance?

[As the man strokes her hand, the woman's expression changes and she smiles at him.]

BLONDE WOMAN: Yeah.

MARTY: One dance.

[He takes her hand and she follows him to the dance floor.]

[The Kindred's property. It is night, and members of the Kindred, carrying lanterns, have led Mulder and Scully into the woods.]

BRO. WILSON: It's a mile to your car. Stay on the path.

MULDER: Thanks for your cooperation.

[Mulder and Scully leave the group, each carrying a lantern. They walk toward the car, now out of sight of the group.]

MULDER: The Addams family finds religion.

SCULLY: Take me back to the 20th century.

MULDER: You believe all that back there, Scully?

SCULLY: Believe all what?

544

MULDER: All that "we take care of our own" business?

SCULLY: Well, they better take care of their own or that man at the dinner table is a dead man.

MULDER: I think it was all an elaborate act.

SCULLY: What? The choking?

MULDER: No, all this simple life, living from abundance crap. These people know something, Scully. You can see it in their eyes - the way they look at one another.

SCULLY: Do you think they know who the murderer is?

MULDER: Did you notice how they managed not to answer a single question of ours? And that outburst at the table was right on cue. Somehow, they got us to answer their questions. Did you ask yourself why there weren't any children around?

SCULLY: I know, that was odd.

[They've stopped along the path.]

MULDER: You want to know what was really odd? You know those pictures we saw down in the store in Steveston today, the ones from the thirties? I swear I saw some of those same faces at the dinner table tonight.

SCULLY: These people have probably been intermarrying for years.

MULDER: Maybe. Maybe not everything is as black and white as it appears to be.

[Mulder turns off his lantern.]

SCULLY: What are you doing?

MULDER: I'm going to go back for a little look-see.

[Scully turns off her lantern and follows. As they get back to the property, they see that the main house is dark.]

MULDER: Maybe they went to the movies. Do you hear that?

[They hear a distant chanting noise.]

SCULLY: Uh-huh.

[They follow the noise and see a group of people carry lanterns and chanting. They quietly approach as the group goes into a barn and closes the door behind them. Mulder and Scully creep to the barn and peer through spaces in the barn wall. They see a solemn procession, with members carrying the motionless body of Brother Aaron, the one who was choking earlier. A horse near the barn wall becomes agitated, and several members look around warily as part of the group goes through a cellar door in the barn. The rest go back out of the barn.]

SCULLY: What do you think?

MULDER: I think I want to see what's in that cellar.

[Mulder goes around to the door while Scully stays. Through the wall, she sees Mulder enter, walk to the cellar door and enter. Just then, Brother Andrew startles her, placing his hand on her shoulder from behind.]

BRO. ANDREW: Come with me. I can give you information.

[Scully rises and follows him.]

545

[Mulder has entered the cellar and is walking down a narrow tunnel. As he nears the chanting noise, he stops and observes though a hole in the wall. Members of the Kindred are in a cave-like opening.]

[Brother Andrew and Scully enter a bedroom in the house.]

BRO. ANDREW: I know who did it.

SCULLY: The murders?

BRO. ANDREW: You've heard our prayers. You've seen how we live our beliefs. I want you to find this killer. I want you to find him for me. He was my best friend.

SCULLY: What's his name?

BRO. ANDREW: Brother Martin. I called him Marty.

[Back in the cellar, Mulder watches the others perform a ceremony around Brother Aaron's body. They mix spring water with clay material and rub the mixture onto his body.]

[In the house, Scully and Brother Andrew are in the darkened bedroom, illuminated by a single lantern.]

BRO. ANDREW: Marty was different.

SCULLY: What do you mean, different?

BRO. ANDREW: How does he kill?

SCULLY: We're not sure. All of the victims died of cardiac arrest.

BRO. ANDREW: He poisons them, doesn't he?

SCULLY: Maybe, how do you know that?

[Andrew wedges a chair under the door to block it. Scully shows some apprehension.]

BRO. ANDREW: I need to show you something ... something about Marty.

[Back in the cellar, the group lifts Brother Aaron's body and leaves it in the cellar, although Mulder cannot see where they put it. They then head back out. After they leave, Mulder moves into the main opening of the cave.]

[In the house, Andrew has brought out a stack of magazines covered in a black cloth. He shows them to Scully.]

BRO. ANDREW: We found them out on route 44. We were wandering. Marty and I used to do that - explore the edges of our world. Someone must have left them for garbage. They are garbage.

[Scully has looked through the magazines. One of them was entitled "Adventurer", another looks like "Bazaar".]

SCULLY: Why did you keep them?

BRO. ANDREW: It was Martin who kept them. Some of what I saw in the magazines ... some of it was beautiful, but most of it I didn't like. It was garish. But Martin - Marty - he couldn't get enough. He liked even the paper it was printed on - slick. Marty was captured by your world. He left us to become one of you.

[In the cave, Mulder samples the clay mixture and examines the clay table that Brother Aaron's body was on. He also sees several holes in the clay wall, one of which has a light behind it and a spongy cover on the opening. He hears voices. Grabbing a lantern, he hurries back toward the entrance but sees that people are coming back into the cellar. He runs back into the main chamber and dives into one of the darkened holes in the wall just as several men enter.]

546

KINDRED MAN #1: Brother Wilton! The woman has returned.

BRO. WILTON: Where is she?

KINDRED MAN #1: With Andrew, in the main house.

BRO. WILTON: What about the other one?

KINDRED MAN #1: He's missing.

BRO. WILTON: Come.

[They leave. Mulder, who has overheard their conversation, looks around where he has been hiding and sees Brother Aaron's body covered in the clay material. His hair seems longer and darker. As Mulder watches, Aaron's eyes open, startling him.]

[Scully and Andrew are still in the house.]

SCULLY: You said Marty was different.

BRO. ANDREW: Yes.

SCULLY: How? How did he kill his victims?

BRO. ANDREW: I could be banished.

SCULLY: Does it have something to do with the ceremony in the barn tonight?

[Andrew walks to Scully and takes her hand, rubbing it with his thumb.]

SCULLY: What are you doing?

[Outside, Mulder has left the barn and runs next to a fence, near the house. He sees a light on upstairs in the house.]

MULDER: [loud whisper] Scully ...

[There is no answer, and Mulder heads toward the house. Inside, Andrew is still stroking Scully's hand and reaches to touch her face. Scully's expression is blank.]

BRO. ANDREW: Marty is different. We're all different.

[He moves closer and nuzzles her neck.]

SCULLY: Oh ... oh.

[Scully's body goes limp and Andrew has no difficulty pushing her down on the bed and laying on top of her. The doorknob starts rattling.]

MULDER: [in the hallway] Scully?

[Mulder breaks through the door and sees them on the bed.]

MULDER: Get off of her!

[He grabs Andrew and shoves him aside, then lifts Scully, who is still limp, off the bed and helps her out of the room. Moments later, they exit the house, with Scully now walking by herself but still dazed. They encounter a group of the Kindred as they come out the door.]

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SISTER ABIGAIL: I asked you not to interfere.

[They all stare at each other for several seconds. Sister Abigail stands aside, clearing a path for them to leave. Mulder nods. Scully is still dazed, and Mulder leads her away by the hand. The Kindred go into the house, as Mulder and Scully get out of hearing range. Mulder has his arm around Scully, who is still walking stiffly.]

MULDER: What the hell were you doing back there?

SCULLY: [weak voice] I don't know.

MULDER: You don't know?

SCULLY: No.

[Scully stops and stumbles a few steps back, coughing.]

MULDER: You all right?

[Scully bends over and becomes nauseous.]

[In the dance club, a young man, Michael, is on the phone as the loud music pounds in the background. As he speaks, a young woman, the same one from the opening scene, approaches and touches his hand.]

MICHAEL: [into phone] I wasn't ignoring you. No. Of course I saw you, I just didn't recognize you, that's all.

[He turns the young woman.]

MICHAEL: Excuse me, I'm having a conversation ...

[She moves to the other side of him and starts to stroke his other hand. He slowly turns to look at her. He puts the phone down and she then leads him away by the hand.]

[Near Steveston, Mulder has stopped at a diner and brings two cups of coffee back to the car, giving one to Scully.]

SCULLY: Thanks.

MULDER: How you feeling?

SCULLY: Better ... a little embarrassed, actually.

MULDER: Why? You don't remember any of it.

SCULLY: It's like I don't remember ...

MULDER: Why didn't you get out of there before he ...

SCULLY: Because he told me he knew who the killer was.

MULDER: How did you know he wasn't the killer?

SCULLY: I believed him.

[Mulder sighs as he drinks his coffee.]

548

SCULLY: So what did you see down in the cellar?

MULDER: Just Brother what's-his-name buried in some gopher hole in the wall. Buried alive.

SCULLY: How do you know he was alive?

MULDER: Because I was in there with him. And his face was ... was different. Even his hair, it was almost feminine. It was like he was going through some kind of a transformation.

SCULLY: Changing sexes?

MULDER: That would explain the hotel security video.

SCULLY: So you're saying these people ...

MULDER: I know what I saw, Scully. And I saw you about to do the wild thing with some stranger.

[Scully stares at him for a few moments.]

SCULLY: Think he was trying to kill me?

MULDER: Maybe it's the sex that kills.

SCULLY: Well, if he was trying to kill me, why did they let us go?

MULDER: I don't know.

[He starts the car.]

[In a parked car, Michael and the young woman are making out in the front seat. She is sitting on his lap, kissing him. A figure with a flashlight approaches and knocks on the window.]

COP: All right. Let's break it up.

[Michael groans.]

COP: Out of the car.

MARTY [FEMALE]: [getting out of the car] Sorry, officer.

COP: [to Michael, still in the car] You, too.

COP: [to Marty] You a pro?

MARTY [FEMALE]: Pro?

[Michael starts groaning and gasping in pain. The cop hears him and looks over to see what's wrong.]

COP: What?

[Marty flattens the cop with a left hook to the jaw. As Michel continues to gasp in the car, the cop gets to his knees and Marty, who now looks like a man, delivers an uppercut to the cop's jaw, knocking him out. Michael wipes away the fog on the driver's window and looks out of the car, seeing a man staring back at him. The man runs away as a wide-eyed Michael coughs.]

549

[Michael is lying in a hospital bed, being questioned by Mulder and Scully.]

MICHAEL: On a scale of 1 to 10, she was a kind 3. But there was something about her.

SCULLY: Did she touch you or make physical contact in any other manner?

MICHAEL: Her touch was ... electric. But after that, I remember only vaguely.

MULDER: What do you remember?

MICHAEL: Nothing, actually.

MULDER: Try to remember, Michael. The policeman at the scene supports what you said, but maybe there was something ... unusual about this woman. Something you wouldn't feel comfortable telling the police on the record.

MICHAEL: But this is off the record?

MULDER: Absolutely.

SCULLY: What did you see, Michael?

MICHAEL: After she left the car and she was fighting with the cop, I saw her in her clothes and she looked like ...

[He laughs nervously.]

MICHAEL: ... she looked like a man.

[Mulder and Scully exchange glances.]

SCULLY: She was a man?

MICHAEL: Hustling in the club scene used to be so simple.

[to Mulder]

MICHAEL: It's off the record?

MULDER: Scout's honor.

[Mulder and Scully are walking down a hallway in the hospital.]

SCULLY: Well, I can't rule out the possibility that who we're looking for is a transvestite.

MULDER: I think Don Juan in there knows the difference between the male and the female of the species.

SCULLY: I just don't want us to ignore the obvious. I mean, how else could you explain a woman overpowering a 200-pound cop? She was a he.

[An agent runs toward them.]

AGENT #1: Agent Mulder? Agent Scully? The credit card that was stolen from the last victim in DC was just used to order takeout in a hotel downtown, about 8 blocks from here.

[In the downtown hotel.]

MARTY [FEMALE]: It was always forbidden, but after the first time I couldn't help myself. Touching a human man, or a woman, is as powerful for me as it was for you.

550

[Mulder and Scully are entering the hotel.]

SCULLY: {into phone] This is Agent Scully requesting police backup and additional agents at 771 Catherine Street. It's the Hotel Catherine.

[Back in the hotel room, as Marty continues to talk, we see that she is talking to an apparently lifeless man lying in the bed.]

MARTY [FEMALE]: Your world offers pleasures - pleasures we don't know because we're different. But you know that now. The others will punish me for what I've done. They'll find me, because the day is coming and they won't leave without me.

[Mulder and Scully have arrived on the floor and run down the hallway. Scully finds the room first.]

SCULLY: Mulder!

[Mulder runs to the door and they draw their weapons and take positions. Mulder knocks on the door.]

MULDER: Delivery!

[There is no answer. Mulder signals that he's going to break in and Scully steps in front of the door.]

MULDER: [breaking in door] FBI! FBI! Clear! Stay down!

[They don't see anyone inside. Scully goes into the adjoining room and finds the man on the bed.]

SCULLY: Dead body!

[Marty, who was hiding behind a curtain, emerges and hits Scully on the head from behind. She groans and falls to the floor. Marty runs back out into the hall.]

MULDER: Scully?

SCULLY: [from the floor, weakly] I'm OK.

[Mulder runs out into the hall. He finds the next door open and starts to enter. From inside, Marty strikes him in the face, knocking him to the floor in the hall. As Mulder watches, the female Marty morphs into a male. Mulder reaches for his gun, but the male Marty kicks him in the face, kicks the gun down the hall and runs away, wearing only socks, a sweatshirt and underwear.]

[Back in the first room, Scully gets up and runs into the hall, seeing Mulder lying there, dazed.]

MULDER: [groggily] Scully. Down the stairs ...

[She jumps over him and down the stairs at the end of the hall. She bursts out into the alley below but doesn't see anyone. As she moves through the alley, she hears a noise and sees shadows appear on the side of one of the buildings. Suddenly, the male Marty runs toward her.]

SCULLY: Federal agent, I'm armed!

[Marty stops.]

SCULLY: Back away!

[Suddenly, Marty is tackled by a figure dressed in black. He is surrounded by the Kindred, including Brother Andrew. They get him to his feet.]

SCULLY: Step away! Step away!

551

[Andrew turns to Scully and walks toward her, while the others hold Marty behind him.]

BRO. ANDREW: Please. Don't hurt him.

SCULLY: No. Step away.

[Andrew continues to approach her.]

SCULLY: I'm armed.

[Andrew continues to block the others from Scully's line of fire. As he gets close, she starts to lower her gun. Mulder comes out of the hotel and into the alley.]

MULDER: Scully!

[Scully turns to him, and Andrew knocks her gun out of her hand, then strikes her in the face. She falls. As Mulder runs to her aid, shadows on the building wall move away and the Kindred disappear as mysteriously as they appeared.]

[Later, there are police cars in the alley and an agent approaches Scully and Mulder.]

AGENT #2: The surrounding ten blocks have been secured for the past hour. We set up roadblocks on all the routes out to Steveston. So far, nothing. No reports of them. There's no way they could have gotten through.

MULDER: What if they did get through? There's only one place they'd hide.

[The next morning, several 4-wheel drive police vehicles approach. Mulder, Scully, the agent and others emerge and start to search the area. Scully heads to the house and finds no one in the dining area.]

SCULLY: They're gone.

[Mulder has run to the barn and opens the door to the cellar. He finds a solid clay wall behind it. The agent approaches from behind.]

AGENT #2: We found something in the hayfield.

[Mulder and Scully are walking through the hayfield.]

SCULLY: I don't understand. How can they just disappear? They have no means of transportation.

MULDER: No earthly means of transportation.

[They come to a large "crop circle" in the field.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Brent Hinkley (Brother Andrew) Michele Goodger (Sister Abigail)

Co-Starring:

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Peter Stebbings (Male Marty) Kate Twa (Female Marty) Nicholas Lea (Michael) Mitchell Kosterman (Detective) Paul Batten (Brother Wilson) Doug Abrahams (Agent #2)

Featuring:

Aundrea Macdonald (Pretty Woman) John R. Taylor (Husband) Grai Carrington (Tall Man) Tony Morelli (Cop) Lesley Ewen (Agent #1) David Thomson (Brother Oakley)

1x13 Genderbender - notes

From "X-Files Confidential": "We had brought in a couple of writing producers, Paul and Larry Barber, who came up with the idea of gender-shifting characters in a sort of Amish setting," Chris Carter recalls. "I think the idea is pretty good, and there are some interesting visual moments. Rob Bowman really rose to the occasion and showed us what he is capable of, which is why he's on the show as a producer now. A terrific episode given real style and passion by Rob." One bit of criticism Carter has received about the episode is its conclusion, with circular burn marks in a field that indicate a UFO may have been involved in the scenario. "I like that ending, though a lot of people complained," he says. "I thinks it's vague: Is it or isn't it? That ambiguity is a hallmark of some of our best episodes." James Wong doesn't agree. "There were problems with the ending of the show," he says, "in that we pretty much wrapped it up relatively quickly and just threw in something [the burn marks]. Those things always seem like a little trick. It's like we tried to play a trick on the audience to make them say, 'Ooh, what the heck was that?' But when it's not integral to the story, it lessens the impact. You don't get a sense of a cathartic moment, because we kind of blew it." "Initially," Glen Morgan adds, "we said we wanted an episode with more of a sexy edge, but it was difficult to find a story that shows sex as scary. As a result, it kind of veered off to, What if there are people like the Amish who are from another planet? I think people have said that we overstepped the bounds on that one. Maybe we went too far. At what point do we become unbelievable?" Rob Bowman was the best of the early directors of Star Trek: The Next Generation, helming episodes in that show's first two seasons that were visually unlike those of anyone else working on the series. Feeling stifled, he left in the middle of year two and was creatively reborn when he joined The X-Files. "At the time of 'Genderbender'," The X-Files was a series that hadn't fully defined itself," Bowman explains. "The script I received was from outside writers who, in Chris's mind, hadn't fulfilled his wishes, whatever they were. The concept of the show was a low-tech episode where they didn't want to have any high-tech anything. They wanted mostly lantern light, and the only tech you would have would be the contrast between the city life and this very primitive farm life. There was a deliberate attempt to come up with swirling lights, multicolored things, people wearing shining clothes, lots of steel and shine and some Gigerisms with very sexual connotations, and you slam that against people carrying lanterns around in these monk-like outfits. "It was a very bizarre story," Bowman elaborates, "especially for me, because it was my first episode. The story challenges were to examine the influence of a superficial society, with its vanity and sex and what's trendy. That's what the Amish people found in the magazine the one guy is enticed by. Reproduction was a very significant part of their culture, as indicated by the cave and the very phallic, lubricated cave walls that were found. I suppose the trick that I had to pull off was to draw the greatest contrasts between the two worlds. "The difficulties of shooting it were just that the cave was so small that we had guys crawling around there and there was no light. Lantern light is not enough to light up a face for film. Production-wise, it was very difficult to get enough light in the cave. I had to go back an extra day and fill out quite a bit of the stuff with Mulder and the cave because it took too long to get the stuff I needed. I'd say that seventy-five percent of the stuff with Mulder down in the caves was shot another day with a smaller unit." For Robert Goodwin, 'Genderbender' was an artistic triumph primarily in terms of art direction. He also cites the female-to- male switch as being a technical challenge.

553

"One of these guys has gone haywire because he's tasted sex and he's off and his pheromones are so strong that they can kill anything he has sex with. He/She doesn't care because they're overpowered by lust. To really pay off the business about this person being able to change gender, we decided we'd have one shot where we would actually morph the female into the male. We wanted to be as believable as possible. We'd already cast the female, who had a very distinct look, and we searched around and found this wonderful young actor who looked very much like the girl. There was a very strong resemblance. In the scene, Mulder has trapped this person and she morphs into the male and comes out, knocks him down, and takes off. When we shot the two parts of the morph and put it together, the two actors really looked so much alike that it didn't look like a morph. It looked like this girl was just standing up. We were too good at casting, I think, and it zapped the energy out of the moment." Graeme Murray notes that the design of this particular episode was a true hybrid. "We were working with an Amish kind of look, also a sleazy downtown look, and a kind of alien center where they brought people to be revived," he says. "It has a nice feel to it. That kind of Amish culture is sort of alien anyway, and combing real alien on top of that was interesting." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal settings: Germantown, Maryland; Steveston, Massachusetts Back story: Written by the fraternal tandem of Larry Barber and Paul Barber, this episode went through various conceptual changes during the writing process as well as at least one more specific alteration because of concerns regarding the content. The teaser sequence initially had a moment where someone's crotch starts to rot away, but the sequence was quickly toned down, with co-executive producer R W Goodwin saying, "If I was watching that with my kid, I'd turn it off." Nicholas Lea, who later played the recurring role of Alex Krycek, first turns up here as the killer's would-be victim, while Kate Twa (the female half of the killer's persona) later returned in a more expansive role as a detective in 'Soft Light'. Director Rob Bowman also marked his debut on the series with this hour, after working on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Bowman, who has become one of the show's most prolific directors, found filming in the Kindred tunnels, which had to be constructed, particularly cramped. Because of the tight logistics and close quarters an extra day of filming was required. Asked if there was any concern about parallels between the Kindred and the Amish – the group featured in the movie Witness, who also shun all modern conveniences and dress in similar fashion – Carter adds wryly, "They don't watch TV, so I wasn't worried about it." Margin notes: The music used for the disco in the opening scene is from Mark Snow's theme music for a television movie, 'In the Line of Duty: Street War'. During filming of the crime scene at the beginning of Act One, Mitch Kosterman (Det Horton) flubbed his lines and said "chum chippy" instead of "some chippy". For the rest of the shoot, David Duchovny joshed him about that line. X-Files In-Jokes: * The disco music in the episode was written by Mark Snow. It was his theme music for a TV movie called 'In the Line of Duty, Street War'. * The large picture we first see Marty standing next to was painted by artist H.R.Giger, the man who designed the aliens for the blockbuster Alien movies - and more recently the alien for the movie Species. 1013 - According to Detective Horton, the time the victim entered the room with a "woman" was 10:13 (creator Chris Carter's birth month & day) * The Kindred lived in Steveson, Massachusetts-Steveson is also the name of a small community south of Vancouver often used on the show for its diversity of locations. * The chant sung by the Kindred was written by co-executive producer Paul Rabwin, and was sung by Paul himself along with 6 other singers. Not an in-joke but -- yes, the "Michael" character in this episode is indeed played by Nick Lea, who is now much more well- known as Alex Krycek! From Tiny Dancer: The title refers to the Kindred's ability to change sexes. The music in the disco was written by Mark Snow and was this theme music for a TV movie called "In the Line of Duty, Street War". Note the picture that Marty stands next to in the beginning. It was painted by H.R. Giger, better known as the designer of the aliens for all the Alien movies, as well as the alien in the movie Species. In this ep, the name of the community that The Kindred live in is Steveson, Massachussets, and is probably a nod to Steveson, British Columbia, a small community often used for filming purposes.

From Laura Witte: The teaser dialogue & whatnot is different, but the general idea is the same.

554

In the episode Marty's victims have problems with their throats -- coughing up foam. In the script the problem occurs in the groin area. The scene from the teaser is described as follows: "the Tall Man blinks... something odd's happening to him. Perplexed, he looks down at the sheet covering his hips -- a growing pain starts to spread out from his groin area. He grabs himself, caught off guard by the intensity. The Tall Man opens his mouth to scream -- nothing comes out. Suddenly the entire sheet around his crotch begins to dissolve, like acid eating away at the fabric and burning into the Tall Man's thighs." ... the script finally describes "a large hole burned through his groin and down into the bedsprings." Here is the scene where we first find Mulder & Scully:

CAMERA PANNING the scene of the crime: a forensic COP takes pictures, another picks up the white robe, puts it in a large evidence bag. LEGEND appears: Washington D.C. MULDER (O.S.) A Texas businessman -- calls his wife, goes out, we don't know where, meets some woman, brings her back to his hotel. Camera FINDS MULDER and SCULLY by the bed, slipping on latex gloves; a sheet is pulled over the Tall Man's body, his form underneath caved where the groin should be. SCULLY There's a lesson here somewhere". Mulder lifts the sheet, blocking our view of the corpse, but allowing Scully to see: she's understandably revulsed. SCULLY Acid. MULDER Formic acid. Like bees and ants produce. Only hundreds of times more concentrated than found in nature. Mulder folds back the sheet so part of the Tall Man's torso and arm shows: Scully checks the body. SCULLY These scratches on his arms, chest, and back -- he didn't get them from struggling. They're not deep enough. MULDER Just the heat of passion. No sign of robbery, although a hotel dry cleaning receipt shows a suit is missing. Mulder notices something on the sheets by the head of the bed; he looks toward the forensic cops -- they're not paying attention to him, so he bends down and checks it out more closely. MULDER'S POV on the sheets beside the pillow is some white crystalline POWDER. Mulder pulls an evidence bag from his jacket and scrapes the powder in. Scully leans by him. SCULLY Cocaine? MULDER Perhaps. SCULLY Mulder... there have been, what did you say, five killings with this same M.O. over the last three months? Why did they call us instead of giving it to Violent Crimes? Mulder gives her a wry smile as he quickly slides his fingers along the top of the bag sealing it shut. -- they return to Mulder's office where they watch video of Marty entering the room as a woman and leaving the room as a man (who is 3 inches taller than the woman who entered). They compare enhanced photos of Male-Marty and Female-Marty, and Mulder posits that they could be the same person if it weren't for the 3 extra inches of height. They then look at photos of the 5 other victims -- SCULLY They all had formic acid poured on them? MULDER How do you know it was poured? SCULLY How else could it get there? MULDER Some insects secrete it. (then) Ever heard of a sect of religious isolationists called "The Brethren"? SCULLY Are they bees, Mulder? MULDER Not even wanna-be's. -- they continue to discuss "The Brethren" (who in the episode are called "The Kindred", and instead of being outside Steveson, Massachusetts, they are just outside Lithia, Massachusetts. -- MULDER The Brethren don't like the outside world, Scully. They live in another time. No electricity, no phones -- the simple life. (then) Coming? SCULLY To Lithia? MULDER To find out what that powder was I took from the crime scene. INT. TESTING LAB - DAY An excited LAB TECH types rapidly at a computer, Mulder and Scully behind him. Shelves about them are filled with beakers containing white powder like that found at the crime scene. LAB TECH Great sex! That's what you gave me. MULDER (to Scully) That's just a lay term. LAB TECH Oh, you want the scientific poop? Well, what you gave me, those few grains of white powder, those were pheromones. SCULLY Sexual attractors? LAB TECH (turns to them) Right. All animals emit them. All animals have receptors to key into them. But we humans, the only creatures always ready for sex, lose our receptors in the early stages of embryo development.

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MULDER Could the killer have bypassed that stage of development and somehow evolved into a sophisticated pheromone system? LAB TECH (doubtful) Well... maybe. (points to beakers) See, I've isolated thirty seven different types of pheromones and manufactured them synthetically. I sell them to the perfume companies. But I've never been able to get the concentrations your killer got. He must be a crackerjack chemist. 'Cause what he's made is the ultimate aphrodisiac. It's so concentrated, nobody could resist it. (re: computer) And look at this. CLOSE - COMPUTER SCREEN A GRAPHICS CHART appears: "Concentration and exposure time". A DOT blinking at the bottom corner, slowly starts an ascent... LAB TECH (O.S.) I tested the formic acid on human tissue like you asked, and discovered its concentration increases after initial contact. The red dot rises rapidly and off the top of the chart. The Lab Tech turns to them. LAB TECH And what blew my mind is that... the cells in the acid weren't the victim's. They were the killer's. SCULLY You mean the formic acid is part of their biology? LAB TECH Appears so. But this is even weirder. When I checked the cell DNA -- CLOSE - COMPUTER SCREEN As the Lab Tech types, a GRAPHIC of a DNA double helix appears, rotating slowly: one strand's blue, the other orange. LAB TECH (O.S.) I realized the cell structure was exactly the same as yours and mine, except for one small thing -- about two dozen extra X and Y chromosomes. O.S. taping of computer keys and the double helix adds several YELLOW STRANDS at the bottom. Mulder and Scully share a look. SCULLY The Brethren in the hills -- they've been intermarrying for generations. That's bound to cause genetic mutations of one sort or another. LAB TECH It might explain the anomalous chromosome count. MULDER It might pinpoint the killer's origin.

When Mulder and Scully talk to the "proprietress" of the country store, the dialogue is a bit different. In response to Mulder & Scully's appearance, she replies that she knew they were coming, because "One of them wackos from the hills kills a girl here -- no one can find him. He mutilates somebody in D.C. -- and what do you know? The FBI. Course I knew you were coming". When asked about the missing photos on the wall, she responds "I believe in hanging murderers, not their pictures." When the proprietress hears that Mulder & Scully are going to up see The Bretheren, she gives them a box of ammo "on the house" -- the script says that "Mulder gives her a look -- he'd like to put one in her." As Mulder and Scully split up in their first attempt to talk to The Brethren, Mulder asks her "The football will be a good icebreaker?" When Scully first talks to Brother Andrew, the script describes it as follows: "Scully reassuringly touches Andrew's hand as it rests on the horse; Andrew's immediately electrified -- something he's never felt from an outsider before, touch. Immediately he grasps Scully's hand." Scully is described as "she can't pull away, eyes wide, lips parted" As Mulder and Scully enter the woods, Scully takes the map and suggests that cutting through the woods can shave an hour off the time it takes to get there (this after the proprietress warned them many times to not leave the path). Mulder points out that the ore in the hills can throw a compass, but Scully determines "true north" and they head out. The cute scene with Mulder saying that the map says that they should have been there by now -- followed by his balling it up and drop-kicking it into the air is not in the script. Just before Mulder and Scully enter the Brethren's dining hall, Abby asks Andrew "The outsiders are changed?", to which he responds "Very nearly." Mulder and Scully "dress" for dinner in clothes similar to that of the Brethren: "Scully wears a black frock and an almost transparent, white crown-bonnet; Mulder's in white shirt, black pants, suspenders." The coughing man, Brother Aaron, does not collapse at the dinner table in the script, instead more time is spent discussing Brother Wilton's outburst and his punishment (standing at the table without eating). The following is a cut scene that follows the dinner:

INT. MAIN DWELLING HOUSE - SCULLY'S ROOM - NIGHT CLOSE ON KEROSENE LANTERN As Scully crosses the dark room with it, it HISSES and casts shadows along the wall. ANGLE WIDENS as Scully puts the lantern on a small dresser with a water pitcher and basin on it; she closes the drapes to her window. Scully removes her crown-bonnet and

556 places it gently on the dresser. As Scully lowers the level of light from her lantern, she notices hallway LIGHT approaching under her door. SCULLY'S POV The light from a lantern moving outside her room seeps under the door. It becomes brighter as someone tries the door handle: there are no locks. Scully's eyes PAN to a nearby chair: her regular clothes with her empty holster on top. Her bedroom door begins to open. Scully picks up her lantern and is about to turn it up when Mulder enters and places his dim lantern on the simple table by the door; he has something under his arm. MULDER This is what it felt like in high school, sneaking into Patty Armstrong's room while her parents were asleep. Mulder takes the 1930 photographs of the Brethern from under his arm and lays them on the bed. SCULLY I hope you frightened Patty Armstrong less than you did me. MULDER She never complained (re: pictures) Bring your lantern here. -- Mulder and Scully note that the people in the pictures from 60 years ago are the same ones that they were just eating dinner with. Scully says that the inbreeding might have something to do with that, when Mulder counters with the fact that there are no children or really old people around. -- MULDER I'm staying in Brother Aaron's room. Did you notice him at the table? The sick one. You know, mole over the eye. Bring the light here. So there are signs that someone lives there. But look around here. You'd never know anyone ever used this room. SCULLY Maybe it's just an extra room. MULDER For what? Guests? My guess is someone did live here, but they left and the Brethren tried to erase all signs. SCULLY Did you notice tonight, after they disciplined Wilton, how the conversation turned? MULDER You mean that they asked about us rather than the other way around? SCULLY Exactly. They were probing about the case. Like they'd planned it as a group beforehand. Mulder's attention suddenly fixes on a drawer he's pulled out. MULDER There's something under this bottom one. Your arm's smaller. Scully joins Mulder on the floor in front of the dresser; he holds the lantern as she reaches under the drawer and struggles to pull something out. SCULLY It's some cloth with something wrapped in it. Feels like it's tied up there. Here, I got it. Scully pulls out a package wrapped in gunnysack. Mulder holds the light close as she unwraps it on the floor: inside are contemporary MAGAZINES and cut out pages. "People", "US", lots of movie magazines, cutouts from fashion magazines, cheesecake of celebrities, glossy advertisements, etc. The pop culture of America at its most alluring. Mulder and Scully sort through the items SCULLY Mulder -- this purse, it looks like the one the woman had in the hotel room. The one from the surveillance video. MULDER Whoever had this room was having trouble with the group rules. A KNOCK at the door interrupts them. Mulder's immediately gathering the magazines, wrapping them back up. ANDREW (O.S.) (outside door) Sister Dana? SCULLY Be there! Mulder's already behind the door with the cache of magazines when Scully opens the door; Andrew steps in only part way, holding a blanket. ANDREW It gets cold up here, so... SCULLY Thanks. She takes the blanket and he notices the kerosene lamp Mulder left on the table by the door. ANDREW Sleep well. SCULLY Yes. You too. Andrew goes to touch Scully's hand on the door, but she pulls it away quickly; he gives her a slight smile, then leaves. Scully closes the door. Mulder gives her a look. MULDER What's happening between you two? SCULLY Not a thing. I don't know. Maybe he's a lonely kid with a crush or something. I don't want to encourage him, is all. You know, things here -- they're uncomplicated. Professionally we can't interfere with that. (then) You'd better get back to your room before they miss you. MULDER (re: magazines) I can't risk carrying these across the hall. They belonged to the killer, Scully. I think this was his room. SCULLY I agree. (wry smile) Now I know I'll sleep well. Mulder gives Scully the wrapped magazines and a reassuring pat on the shoulder; then he cracks the door, checks the hall, and leaves. When the door closes behind Mulder, Scully leans on it and closes her eyes.

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Later on that night Scully wakes up and looks out her window to find the Brethren walking toward the back of the house. She gets dressed and follows them to the cellar behind the house where she sees the sick Brother Aaron being carried on a stretcher. The Brethren place his body on an alter. Sister Abby says something about Brother Aaron tying "the beginning to the end once more" (basically, he died) and the Brethren rub their hands on him as Scully watches from outside. We see a hand appear on her shoulder from behind -- it's Mulder, who comments "Just like you said, Scully. Things here are uncomplicated." -- then we cut to commercial. After the commercial break, Mulder and Scully return to Scully's room where they huddle next to her bed and discuss what they've seen. Mulder comments that the light from the cellar was not lamplight, Scully maintains that it was just a burial ritual. Mulder wants to investigate, but Brother Andrew is breathing down their necks all the time, so Mulder asks Scully to keep him occupied, and although she gives him a look she agrees. The next day, Scully approaches Andrew, who is splitting wood on a tree stump. She asks to talk to him -- this is the conversation that follows:

INT. MAIN DWELLING HOUSE - SCULLY'S ROOM - DAY ANDREW It is against my better judgement to be alone here with you, sister. SCULLY I thought if we could talk... somewhat privately. ANDREW We have no secrets, my people and I. SCULLY That's what I'm counting on. (beat) I admire your life here. It seems so... so true to me. You care for yourselves. For each other. Where I live that's difficult to find. Anyway, it seems that way sometimes. ANDREW Simplicity touches the soul. SCULLY You have a harmony, a peacefulness that's so different from the city. Andrew steps into the room, closes the bedroom door. ANDREW You wish for something you know nothing of. SCULLY How do you know what I wish for? ANDREW I see you want silence. You want peacefulness. But our way of life is difficult. Hard work. SCULLY (smiles) We have that in common, at least. (beat) I wanted to talk to you about my work. ANDREW About your murders. SCULLY Yes. ANDREW I know nothing about that violence. SCULLY Andrew, we know the killer is from your group. I'm certain your know who he is. ANDREW No. SCULLY This person is killing men and women in the outside world. He is taking human life. I've heard your prayers. I've seen how closely you live your beliefs. Andrew shifts with indecision but Scully holds his gaze. SCULLY Help me find this person. Andrew looks away, fighting his desire to confess to her. SCULLY I only want you to be true to yourself, Brother Andrew. True to what you believe. Andrew hangs his head; this is very difficult for him. SCULLY Please, Andrew. ANDREW (after a beat) His name is brother Martin. I called him Marty. SCULLY What's his last name? ANDREW We don't use last names. SCULLY (beat) Thank you, Andrew. Andrew lowers his head in sorrow. -- Cut to Mulder sneaking into the cellar, avoiding the eyes of a woman hanging laundry, attempting to hide his snooping by carrying an armload of firewood. Once inside the cellar he picks the lock on a door that leads down into a mine. After traveling down a ways, the walls change to a honeycomb pattern. He takes a closer look at one of the hexagons and knocks on its hard, semi-transparent covering -- and the sleeping form inside shifts to reveal the face of Brother Aaron. Aaron shifts again and Mulder can no longer see him. Mulder hears voices coming, and shuts off his lantern. The scene then shifts back to Brother Andrew and Scully, where they discuss the magazines just like they do in the episode, then -- SCULLY Did he like any particular thing better than others? ANDREW He loved the movie magazines. He used to call himself James Dean. SCULLY But for Marty... finally the magazines weren't enough? ANDREW They pointed at something, but they were not the thing itself. (beat) Marty was captured by your world. He left us to become one of you. SCULLY (sadly) He has. He certainly has become one of us.

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Scully looks in embarrassment at the shiny images from the magazines: the sex, the violence, the endless consumer goods. Andrew feels her embarrassment and crosses to her. As he sits beside her on the bed, Scully reacts, anxious about his closeness. He looks at her, captured by her face, framed with the simple cap. ANDREW There is also beauty in your world. Simple things... honest things. (beat) Your hair now... is beautiful. He puts his hand on hers and rubs gently with his thumb. Scully stiffens, tries to pull away, but Andrew takes her other hand and begins rubbing it also. Scully is resisting as best she can. ANDREW I want to know about your world, Dana. Tell me the beautiful things, as you know them. THEIR HANDS Andrew continues gently stroking her hands... SCULLY AND ANDREW She fights the pheromones, but they're doing their warming work. SCULLY Andrew... ANDREW Please tell me what it's like. SCULLY I can't. I... Andrew moves closer and Scully is drawn to him despite herself. ANDREW Tell me the things you find beautiful. SCULLY No... please... But Andrew too is caught in this hypnotic dance, feeling Scully's intoxicating alien presence. He continues stroking her hands. ANDREW Yes, Dana. Tell me. Yes. SCULLY I don't want to... I can't... Andrew removes her bonnet with one hand, the other still rubbing. Then he starts unbuttoning her blouse. Scully's resisting but it's no use. She wants him. He leans into her, brushes her lips with his, and she cannot fight it anymore; they kiss with tremendous passion and fall back onto the bed, rolling on the magazines. Scully runs her hands through Andrew's hair, clutches his back, helps him remove his shirt... ANGLE As Abby and two other Brethren enter. They stop in alarm at the sight of Scully and Andrew on the bed, the magazines spread colorfully under them. Abby is so furious she can barely get the words out. ABBY Andrew -- Andrew and Scully separate, startled. ABBY Andrew -- leave this room. Wait for me outside. Andrew rises and quickly leaves, head lowered in shame. Scully stands, composing herself as best she can. SCULLY This is not what... ABBY You are banned from this place. SCULLY Sister Abby, I meant no disrespect. I don't understand what happened. ABBY We will not abide your corrupting presence. You and your companion will leave here now. EXT. END OF ROAD - EDGE OF WOODS - DAY Mulder and Scully, wearing their city clothes, walk toward their car; a group of Brethren, including Abby, stand sternly watching them go. Mulder turns to Scully in disbelief. MULDER You were kissing him? SCULLY Mulder, I don't remember what happened. Not exactly. MULDER (defensive) What do you mean you don't remember? SCULLY (defensive) I don't remember! I know it was unprofessional, stupid. It was -- MULDER Scully, another minute and you two would have been into it. That's how the others died. SCULLY Andrew isn't the killer. MULDER So what? It's the sex that kills. SCULLY What? MULDER The Brethren are not human, Scully. They're biologically incompatible with humans and when they mate with us we die. SCULLY (skeptical) So what we've got, you're saying, is some kind of rogue alien who's killing people with sex. MULDER Yes. And who knows why he left the community. Maybe they threw him out. He obviously wasn't following their rules. SCULLY (wearily) Mulder -- please. Not today. MULDER How do you explain your behavior with Andrew? And not remembering? SCULLY Look -- we've established that these people have some kind of abnormal pheromone count, alright? That doesn't make them Brethren from another planet. They arrive at the car and continue their argument across the roof. MULDER Under the house there are hexagonal cells cut into the walls. SCULLY Like a beehive?

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MULDER I saw Brother Aaron. He was in suspended animation or hibernation. SCULLY They buried him, Mulder. Maybe it's some kind of crypt you saw. MULDER He moved, Scully. He's still alive. SCULLY Lantern light, Mulder. Get used to it. Everything takes on a life of its own in lantern light. But while you were seeing ghosts, I got the killer's first name. That's a start of some kind. Something tangible. MULDER Well let's hope he sits still long enough for us to get him. As they get in the car... ANGLE - THE WOODS The Brethren watch. There's something eerie about the way they're standing -- so close together, so connected.

The battle between Marty and the policeman ends with Marty shooting the officer and stealing his squad car in the script. In the hospital, party-boy Michel (Nick Lea) gives his date's name as "Greta". Some cute Mulder comments, like his "scout's honor" promise and his description of Michel as "Don Juan", are not in the script. Mulder and Scully's argument over whether or not Marty is a transvestite goes on a bit longer:

SCULLY How do you explain a woman overpowering a hundred eighty pound cop? She wasn't a woman. MULDER Or she wasn't human. (off her look) You know about dandelions, Scully? Evolution at its most perfect. Each flower reproduces itself, by itself, because it contains both genders. SCULLY You're saying Marty is a hermaphrodite? He has male and female organs? MULDER Not exactly. I think he literally shifts genders. When he's a man -- he's a man. Scully stops walking, looks at Mulder incredulously. SCULLY And when he's a woman, he's all woman? MULDER That's what their ceremony was about. Brother Aaron wasn't dead. They stuffed him into that honeycomb so he could reproduce himself. SCULLY I don't know what you saw down in that cellar, Mulder. And I can't explain their burial ceremony. But I know one thing. Brother Marty is still out in the world. MULDER And he's going to kill again unless we find him. SCULLY So let's forget wild theorizing and concentrate on facts. She starts walking again and Mulder follows after her in frustration. MULDER You don't mean facts, Scully. You mean what you think is true. (trying to reconcile) Okay -- let's keep it basic. We know Marty's crazy for flash and sizzle. SCULLY And made himself a new identity from the magazines he found. MULDER So as a woman he's Greta. Greta what. It suddenly comes together for Scully. SCULLY Andrew told me Marty liked James Dean. I remember seeing a list in one of his movie magazines -- most popular stars of all time. James Dean was top male. Top female was... MULDER Garbo. Of course. SCULLY Okay -- if Marty's living in D.C., he's got to be plugged in somewhere... electricity, gas, something. MULDER Let's see if we can't locate James Dean. Or the reclusive Miss Garbo.

As Mulder and Scully approach Marty's apartment, there is no little speech from Marty like there is in the episode. Upon finding the apartment, Mulder pivots the door's number (9) to make it a "6" (where the nail has fallen out), and comments "Everything shifts, Scully. And Garbo lives." There is no dead body just inside, in fact the room is fairly barren with only a mattress, a TV, and a stack of pop-culture magazines hidden under his mattress. Here's more of the scene:

Mulder opens the closet door to REVEAL men and women's clothing. Scully joins him as he checks the shelf above -- it's empty. MULDER Clothes for both sexes, but no wigs. How do you dress as a woman with no wigs? (he grins at her) Still not too late to jump on the bandwagon, Scully. SCULLY Gender shifting aliens? Mulder, one deluded individual is not a bandwagon. They're silenced by the SOUND of someone putting a key in the lock, fiddling with it. Drawing their weapons they swiftly take positions on either side of the door. As it opens, Marty (as a man) steps in and flips on the overhead light. Mulder and Scully train their guns on him -- he freezes, startled. SCULLY Federal agents -- don't move. Marty blinks at them, then smiles weirdly and extends his arm, as if to shake hands. SCULLY Don't let him touch you.

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(to Marty) Don't move, you. Scully covers Marty as Mulder steps behind him and cuffs his wrists, avoiding contact with his hands.

After that they take Marty out to their car -- but while trying to load him into the backseat Marty lunges and shoves the agents away -- pushing Scully into the side of a passing truck. As Marty runs away Mulder checks on Scully, who is hurt and holding her arm, but she tells Mulder to not let Marty get away. After turning down a side street, Marty turns into a woman so that she can get her smaller wrists out of the handcuffs. She runs and starts to climb a chain link fence when we see hands pulling her back down. It is Brother Andrew, dressed in street clothes. Then Abby, Aaron, and several other Brethren step out of the shadows, also dressed in street clothes. Abby tells Marty "It is time, sister", then Mulder approaches with his gun drawn and shouts at them to not move. He then recognizes who the people are, including Brother Aaron, and asks what they are doing there. Abby tells Mulder that they came, following in his footsteps, so they could "discipline our own". Mulder tells her that Marty must answer to our justice, but Abby tells him that is not possible. Just then, Scully comes up behind them and Mulder turns to look at her. When he turns back to the Brethren, they have all disappeared. Mulder tries to tell Scully that the Brethren took Marty, but she never saw them so she "looks at him in disbelief." Next we find Mulder and Scully back at the Brethren homestead, however there is no sign of the Brethren themselves.

EXT. MINE HEAD - MORNING CLOSE - SPARKLING GROUND A deep groove in the mica-laden dirt. A hand comes into frame, examines the groove. SCULLY (O.S.) Alien miners? Mulder, even from you, that's a tough one to swallow. WIDER Mulder and Scully examine the mine head. The ground has been scored and gouged by heavy objects dragged out of the mine. MULDER They moved it out, whatever it was they were mining. They've been picked up. SCULLY Mulder, even if I believed that, why would they come here to mine? Every element is dispersed throughout the universe. MULDER Access. Maybe what they were mining was close to the Earth's surface. It might be too deeply buried where they come from. SCULLY And now you're saying they've gone back to... wherever. Mulder gives her a smile. MULDER Let's go see.

Mulder & Scully go through the houses -- nobody's there. Everything is neat and tidy (unlike in the episode, where it looks like they left right in the middle of dinner). Mulder goes into the cellar and finds the spot where the honeycombs were -- now there is nothing but a blank wall. The episode ends on a "high shot of Mulder and Scully, standing in the middle of the abandoned Brethren compound, the woods around them, encroaching... (instead of a high shot of Mulder and Scully in a big crop circle).

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

Scully and Mulder seek answers to a bizarre series of murders committed by one person who kills as both a male and a female.

-- Written by the fraternal tandem of Larry Barber and Paul Barber, this episode went through various conceptual changes during the writing process as well as at least one more specific alteration because of concerns regarding the content. The teaser sequence initially had a moment where someone's crotch starts to rot away, but the sequence was quickly toned down, with co-executive producer Bob Goodwin saying, "If I was watching that with my kid, I'd turn it off."

-- Director Rob Bowman marked his debut on the series with this hour, after working on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Bowman, who would go on to become one of the show's most prolific directors (including directing the feature film), found filming in the Kindred tunnels, which had to be constructed, particularly cramped. Because of the tight logistics and close quarters an extra day of filming was required.

-- The setting of this episode (Steveston, Massachusetts) was named after a real town south of Vancouver that was often used by the crew because of its diversity of locations.

-- The music used for the disco in the opening scene was from Mark Snow's theme music for a television movie, In the Line of Duty: Street War.

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-- The large picture we first see Marty standing next to was painted by artist H.R.Giger, the man who designed the aliens for the blockbuster Alien movies and more recently the alien for the movie Species.

-- Oopsie! As the camera pans through the night club, you can see the steadi-cam operator in the reflection of the stairs as the camera goes up them to the next level.

-- This was the first episode where the credit "Music by Mark Snow" appeared during the opening credits and not the closing credits.

-- The legend at the beginning of the first act said the crime scene was in a motel in Germantown, Maryland, "outside Washington, D.C." Germantown, Maryland, is pretty far outside Washington, D.C. Trust me on that one.

-- During filming of the crime scene at the beginning of Act One, Mitch Kosterman (Detective Horton) flubbed his lines and said "chum chippy" instead of "some chippy." For the rest of the shoot, David Duchovny enjoyed joshing Kosterman about that line.

-- According to Detective Horton, the time the victim entered the room with a "woman" was 10:13 (creator Chris Carter's birth month and day).

-- "Radar Love" was the breakthrough hit by Dutch rock band Golden Earring, a murky tale of late-night driving and ESP. The real attraction was the non-stop parade of musical invention, from the crashing 14-note guitar-and-cymbals introduction to an impressive drum solo to the twin guitar responses to each vocal line in the last verse to the cascading synthesizers that crash the tune to a close.

-- I always chuckle at map-impaired Mulder.

-- A Nitpick: Having Mulder and Scully surrender their ammunition (which in essence is the same as surrendering their guns) is about as silly as Scully giving her gun to the victim in "Roadrunners." It is against Bureau policy for agents to surrender their weapons except at gunpoint, and doing it just because the Kindred cited "religious reasons" added nothing to the plot and could have been left out without changing anything with regard to the story.

-- Mulder must be an Addams Family fan. His line, "The Addams family finds religion," was his second reference to the creepy family (he mentioned Uncle Fester in "Deep Throat"). The Addams Family was a creation of cartoonist Charles Addams about a bizarre family who delight in all things frightening and macabre. They first appeared in the 1930s as a cartoon in The New Yorker and later as part of a popular 1960's television series. In the 1990's the comic was adapted for a series of films.

-- The chant sung by the Kindred was written by co-executive producer Paul Rabwin, and was sung by Paul himself along with six other singers.

-- Oopsie! After the part where the head Kindred woman tells Mulder and Scully "I asked you not to interfere," Mulder leads Scully away. From one camera angle, he is leading her away by the hand. In the same scene, but from a different camera angle, he has his arm around her. In the next shot using the first camera angle, he is once again leading her away by the hand.

-- I think this might have been the only time in the series' history that Scully didn't stop to check on an injured Mulder. She just kept right on going. Later on, he did stop to check on her, though.

-- Tony Morelli played a cop in "Genderbender" and would go on to become the show's Stunt Coordinator for the first five seasons. He also appeared on camera as one of the men who beat up Skinner in "Paper Clip" and as Lord Kinbote in "Jose Chung's From Outer Space."

-- "Genderbender" was notable as the first appearance of actor Nicholas Lea, who played Michael (the club-goer who seemed to be more worried about the implications of making out with a man than with an alien). Lea didn't take up acting full-time until the age of 25, after going to art school and singing in a band. After the group broke up he met an acting coach and, having always wanted to give it a try, took the plunge headfirst. "I went and quit my job the next day and started acting," he said, admitting that he perhaps felt "a little bit bulletproof at that point."

-- After landing parts in Vancouver-based television shows and some low-budget features, Lea earned his first real exposure with a recurring role in ABCs The Commish, where he also met his then-girlfriend Melinda McGraw, who would later play Scully's sister Melissa on The X-Files. Lea did more than 30 episodes of The Commish before landing the part of Michael in

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"Genderbender." But it was that small one-shot role that particularly impressed Rob Bowman, who kept him in mind for a return and immediately thought of him for the role of Krycek.

-- This episode was also notable in that it provided great fodder for the Season 1 gag reel. Bloopers abounded.

-- In commenting on the difficulties of filming The X-Files in the early seasons, David Duchovny said: "Rob [Bowman] had this show called 'Genderbender.' Do you remember that one, with the aliens that would change sex? I think we shot that show for like three months [probably a bit of an exaggeration]. These aliens lived in like a beehive and it was like Spinal Tap where the Stonehenge comes down. It was really tiny and they had to shoot me in the beehive and we kept on going back and shooting and I had goop all over me."

-- Once & Future Retreads: The most notable retread is of course Nicholas Lea (Michael) who would return for a long-running recurring role as Alex Krycek. Michele Goodger (Sister Abigail) played Barbara Ausbery in "Die Hand Die Verletzt." Kate Twa, the female half of Marty, returned as Scully's protégé Kelly Ryan in "Soft Light." Mitch Kosterman (Detective Horton) played the same role again in "Sleepless" and was also Fornier in "The List" and the Sheriff in "Travelers." Paul Batten (Brother Wilson) was Dr. Seizer in "Piper Maru." Doug Abrahams (Agent #2) was a patrolman in the "Pilot," Paul Vitaris in "Die Hand Die Verletzt," Lt. Neary in "Hell Money" and Harbaugh in "The Field Where I Died." Lesley Ewen (Agent #1) was a receptionist in the "Pilot," Carina Maywald in "Revelations," and Renee Davenport in "Unrequited."

-- Asked if there was any concern about parallels between the Kindred and the Amish -- who also shun all modern conveniences and dress in similar fashion -- Chris Carter said, "They don't watch TV, so I wasn't worried about it."

1x14 Lazarus - transcript

Writers: Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon Director: David Nutter Original airdate: 4 February 1994

Transcribed by: CarriK Edited by Libby

Maryland Marine Bank 5:55 p.m.

[Scully opens a briefcase on a bank counter. Pretends to fill out a deposit slip. Agent Jack Willis, attractive, late 30's stands near her. He is restless, looking around. Scully speaks quietly to Willis.]

SCULLY: Relax, they'll be here.

WILLIS: The bank's going to close in five minutes.

SCULLY: Sure it wasn't a bogus tip?

WILLIS: No. It's real. I've been on this long enough. I know the difference. Besides, I can feel it. I can feel them. I'm inside their heads.

[Scully warns him, teasing.]

SCULLY: Just as long as you keep yours.

[Willis smiles.]

WILLIS: Message received, Agent Scully, loud and clear.

[softly into intercom]

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WILLIS: Position five. It's Agent Willis. Do you copy?

[There is a gun in Scully's briefcase. She closes the case.]

[Same time: Outside the bank in a car, Dupre and Lula, hard and rough looking, 30's. Lula is in driver's seat. Dupre loads gun. Lula watches the bank.]

DUPRE: What, are you nervous?

LULA: Nope. I just don't want our luck to run out.

DUPRE: Baby, you are my luck. No matter what happens, whenever I look up at the stars I know you're going to be looking up at the same ones.

LULA: The same ones, baby.

[Dupre kisses Lula passionately. There's a large tattoo on his arm.]

DUPRE: You make every day like New Year's Eve.

[Wearing hockey mask, holding rifle, Dupre bursts into the bank, yelling.]

DUPRE: Come on, people! Get down on the floor, now! Get down on the floor!

[A uniformed guard goes for his gun, but Dupre hits him with his gun.]

DUPRE: I ain't messing around here. You! Down on the floor, now! Now, or you're dead!

[Scully gets to the floor.]

DUPRE: Everyone! Down on the floor! Or I'll execute every one of you! Move!

[He slams down a bag in front of a teller.]

DUPRE: Put the money in the bag now! Move it! Faster!

[Willis pulls his gun and aims it at Dupre. Scully, slightly behind Willis also holds her gun on Dupre.]

WILLIS: Dupre! Drop the gun! FBI! Drop the gun, NOW!

[Pause. All quiet. Dupre lowers his gun. Willis relaxes slightly. Then Dupre pulls it up again quickly and shoots Willis in the chest. Calmly, Scully shoots Dupre three times. Dupre falls, and the hockey mask goes skidding across the floor.]

[In a hospital, Willis is in ER getting defibrillated. Scully stands close, very concerned. A sheet is drawn over Dupre's body on a nearby gurney.]

DOCTOR: I need more saline in here, stat.

NURSE: Up to 360, now.

INTERN: 11 minutes, 55 seconds. Clear.

SCULLY: Come on, Jack.

INTERN: He's been flatlined for over twelve minutes.

564

DOCTOR: Another amp of epi and we'll go again at 360. Clear.

[The doctor administers the shock, Willis's body jerks but there's no change.]

NURSE: Still no pulse.

DOCTOR: We've done all we can. I'm sorry.

INTERN: You want me to pronounce?

SCULLY: No. You can't give up on him.

DOCTOR: It's been over 13 minutes. He's dead.

SCULLY: Go up to 400.

DOCTOR: We lost him. Let him go.

SCULLY: I'm a doctor. Go up to 400, or I'll do it myself.

DOCTOR: Clear.

[As they jolt Willis, Dupre's covered body in the other side of the room jerks.]

SCULLY: Give him another amp of epi intracardial and go up to 400 again.

[They stare at her.]

SCULLY: Do it.

DOCTOR: Clear.

[Dupre's body jerks.]

SCULLY: Again. Come on, Jack.

DOCTOR: Clear.

[Again, Dupre's body jerks.]

[Willis's monitor begins beeping and registering vitals. The doctor is amazed.]

DOCTOR: We got a rhythm. Don't ask me how, but he's back. BP's 80 over 50 and climbing. 90 over 50 ...

[Scully looks relieved. Behind the group around Willis is the gurney on which Dupre's body lies. The movement of Dupre's body has caused his right arm to slide from under the sheet, showing his tattoo.]

[main titles]

Bethesda Naval Hospital 12:51 a.m. Two Days Later

[Hospital room. Willis is lying in bed attached to machines. His eyes suddenly open. We see only his legs as he gets up, walks down the corridor and goes to another patient's room and dresses in the patient's clothes. A nurse comes to check on the patient. Willis hides in the bathroom, ready to garrote the nurse with a strip of rubber. After she leaves, he catches sight of himself in the bathroom mirror. He touches his face in wonder. Has flash of Willis being shot.]

565

[Willis goes to the morgue and opens a drawer and looks at Dupre's body. The body is stiff. He tries to pull the wedding ring off of Dupre's finger, but it sticks. He opens a drawer and gets out a pair of bone cutters and we hear a snap as he cuts off one of Dupre's fingers.]

[Later, Mulder joins Scully in the morgue. Crime scene procedures are underway.]

SCULLY: Any word from Willis?

MULDER: Still missing. He hasn't been home or checked in with the office. I heard something on the way down about a mutilation?

SCULLY: Yeah. Three fingers on Dupre's left hand were severed by surgical shears. We lifted prints. They're Willis'.

MULDER: You said he was chasing this guy for almost a year?

SCULLY: Yeah, he lived the case. It was all he ever thought about, talked about.

MULDER: What are you thinking?

SCULLY: That maybe this is some kind of post-trauma psychosis. Like the way soldiers sometimes mutilate the body of a dead enemy.

MULDER: That still doesn't explain why he would just vanish. Dupre's partner-- who was she? [reads a chart] Lula Phillips.

SCULLY: They met while she was serving a ten year sentence for manslaughter at the Women's Correctional Facility of Maryland.

MULDER: He was a prison guard.

SCULLY: Until the warden found out about their secret. According to Lula's cell mate they carried on quite a torrid romance.

MULDER: It says here she was released on May 2, 1993.

SCULLY: One week before the first robbery at Annapolis Savings and Loan. The 65-year-old female teller was pistol-whipped. Died from a massive subdural hemorrhage all because she didn't put the money in the bag fast enough.

MULDER: Lovely couple.

SCULLY: Well, apparently they took turns --- one pulling a job while the other one drove getaway. Between the two of them, they've killed seven people and gotten away with close to $100,000.

MULDER: That's a lot of money now that she doesn't have to split it two ways.

SCULLY: Well, we're putting her face out there, local newspapers, America's Most Wanted.

[She notices Mulder not paying attention, still reading the file]

SCULLY: Am I boring you?

MULDER: They were married.

SCULLY: Yeah. Last May in Atlantic City. So what?

MULDER: So I don't think this was a simple necrophiliac mutilation. Willis sliced and diced those fingers to get at the wedding ring.

566

[Mulder looks down at Dupre's face and compares it to the file picture.]

[Dupre And Lula's Apartment. Willis arrives, breaks the door window, unlocks the door, and enters.]

WILLIS: Anybody here? Lula?

[There's a sound of a small plane overhead.]

WILLIS: Baby, baby. baby.

[He goes to the fireplace and feels around inside, is disappointed.]

WILLIS: Damn.

[He looks in wonder as Dupre's tattoo begins to form on his arm.]

[In the X Files office, Mulder and Scully looking at evidence from the morgue.]

SCULLY: It's a left thumbprint.

MULDER: You can see by these two bifurcations here that whoever was holding that cleaver was using his left hand.

SCULLY: What do you mean, "whoever"? It was Willis.

MULDER: Willis is right-handed. I checked his pistol grip at the armory. But all the bank surveillance tapes show that Dupre is left-handed.

SCULLY: I'm not sure where you're going.

MULDER: How long did Willis flatline before you revived him?

SCULLY: Just over 13 minutes.

MULDER: This is the EKG strip that recorded his cardiac activity at the time. Now, in your medical opinion, what does that look like?

SCULLY: It could be anything - an instrument malfunction, electrical overload.

[Mulder repeats his question.]

MULDER: But what does it look like?

SCULLY: Two heartbeats.

MULDER: You said Dupre and Willis went into cardiac arrest at the exact same time, right?

SCULLY: Right.

MULDER: Which means for a period of minutes, both men were technically dead.

SCULLY: Technically, but we resuscitated Willis.

MULDER: You resuscitated his body.

567

SCULLY: Mulder.

MULDER: Two men died in that crash room, Scully. One man came back. The question is ... which one?

University Of Maryland Department Of Biology

[Mulder and Scully are in the office of Professor Varnes, energetic, 60ish. Mulder watches Scully listen to Professor Varnes.]

PROF. VARNES: What can you tell me about near-death experiences, Agent Scully?

SCULLY: The usual stuff - the tunnel, the light, people rising up and viewing their own bodies.

PROF. VARNES: And as a scientist, how do you account for the phenomenon?

SCULLY: Some sort of disassociative, hallucinatory activity.

[Varnes chuckles.]

PROF. VARNES: Did you know that half of all the adults who have had a near-death experience cannot wear a watch? The increased electrical activity in their bodies renders the watches on their wrists inoperable. Now, I know this sounds kooky, but as any biologist will tell you, when cells die and genetic material begins to unfold, a tremendous charge of energy is released.

MULDER: Dr. Varnes believes this burst of energy is responsible for the transformational nature of the experience.

PROF. VARNES: People do return from the event profoundly changed.

SCULLY: Changed how?

PROF. VARNES: Personality shifts, perceived psychic abilities, increased zest for life.

MULDER: What about the negative consequences?

PROF. VARNES: Well, they're rare, but apparently, in the process of dying there is a window of time during which the body is vulnerable.

SCULLY: I don't understand.

PROF. VARNES: Well, there was a pilot in my support group who died in a commuter plane crash along with his three passengers. This was a few years ago. He recalls floating up in a brilliant aura of light and then feeling an overwhelming need to return to his body. He was revived in the ambulance on the way to the hospital --- the only survivor. It was soon after that that the visions started. Visions of making love to his wife but in ways and places that weren't in his memory. Now, it turns out that one of the dead passengers on the plane was having an affair with his wife. The dead passenger's memory, his consciousness had survived through the pilot.

SCULLY: What happened?

PROF. VARNES: Well, the pilot became increasingly disoriented - a schizophrenic, his doctor claims - until one day he strangled his wife with an extension cord.

[Professor Varnes smiles and walks away.]

MULDER: That's a nice story.

[Scully sighs.]

[Later, Mulder and Scully walking down the stairs.]

568

SCULLY: I don't discount the near-death experience because it can be explained empirically by stimulation of the temporal lobe.

MULDER: I sense a big "but" coming.

SCULLY: It's my still best guess that Jack's disappearance can be explained in psychological, not supernatural, terms.

MULDER: For instance?

SCULLY: The stress of the case, the trauma of being shot, Jack's personality.

MULDER: How well do you know him?

[Scully tries to be casual.]

SCULLY: We dated ... for almost a year. He was my instructor at the academy.

[Scully keeps walking, Mulder stops and looks at her.]

MULDER: The plot thickens.

[Scully walks back toward Mulder, remembering fondly.]

SCULLY: We even had the same birthday. We used to celebrate in some dive in Stafford that had a slanted pool table. But it was always so hard for Jack to relax. It was impossible for him really. He was always so intense, so relentlessly determined.

MULDER: Do you believe he's predisposed to this type of psychotic episode?

SCULLY: I believe it's a long way from saying Jack had a near-death experience to saying his body's been inhabited by Warren Dupre.

[She walks down the hall, then looks back over her shoulder]

SCULLY: A long way.

[A cheap, messy apartment, belonging to Tommy. Willis breaks in, grabs Tommy's gun and holds it on Tommy who is in bed watching TV, no sound.]

TOMMY: What the hell?

WILLIS: You're such a creature of habit, Tommy.

TOMMY: Who the hell are you?

WILLIS: Get out of bed.

TOMMY: I ain't got no clothes on.

WILLIS: Get out of bed. I don't want to shoot you lying down.

TOMMY: Who are you, the rent man? 'Cause I'm all paid up. I swear, I'm not kidding you. Come on, you can go ask Cosmo.

[Willis gets a soda out of the refrigerator and starts drinking it.]

WILLIS: Shut up. Where is she?

569

TOMMY: Where's who?

WILLIS: Your sister.

TOMMY: Lula? I don't know.

[Willis threatens him.]

TOMMY: I don't know, I swear! I was waiting to see her on the news.

[Tommy points at the news story on the silent television.]

TOMMY: What'd I tell you? Check it out.

[Lula's photograph is shown on the screen. Willis tries to adjust the volume.]

TOMMY: The sound's busted. Looks like they're gonna find her before you do, pal.

WILLIS: Is that what you think? That's not what I think.

[Willis touches the screen image of Lula reverently, then turns off the TV.]

WILLIS: I miss her, Tommy. I miss her so bad. That's why I came back.

TOMMY: Do I know you from somewhere?

WILLIS: Everything I see, I see her.

[Willis's shirt is covered with blood.]

TOMMY: Jesus, man, you're bleeding.

[Willis touches his chest then looks at blood on his fingers.]

WILLIS: Even ugliness is beautiful because of her.

[He aims his gun at Tommy.]

TOMMY: Okay, what are you doing?

WILLIS: You set us up, Tommy. You sold us out to the FBI.

[Tommy realizes, amazed.]

TOMMY: Dupre?

[There's a gunshot.]

Crime Scene Desmond Arms Resident Hotel

[Mulder looks around while Scully talks to Agent Bruskin.]

AGENT BRUSKIN: Neighbors heard a gunshot, but nobody bothered to check it out. The patrol guys responded this morning to an anonymous 911 and found him here, except the rats found him first. The victim's name was Thomas Phillips.

SCULLY: That's Lula's brother.

570

AGENT BRUSKIN: Well, there's not a lot of family resemblance left between the rats and the .45 he took in the face.

[Bruskin puts a piece of gum in his mouth.]

AGENT BRUSKIN: Oh, I hate this nicotine stuff.

SCULLY: What's his story?

AGENT BRUSKIN: He's single. He's lived here alone for the past seven months. A few priors, small stuff, mostly - B and E, narcotics possession. Nothing like his big sister.

MULDER: Was the television turned on when they found him?

AGENT BRUSKIN: No. Why?

MULDER: I don't think Tommy was much of a reader since he doesn't seem to have owned any books and from the position of the body, I'd say maybe he was watching the tube when he was shot.

OFFICER DANIELS: Print kit's right over there. Knock yourself out.

[There's a noise at front door as Willis confronts Officer Daniels at the door. Mulder and Scully turn and look.]

WILLIS: Out of my way, Ace.

OFFICER DANIELS: Regulations state to gain access to a crime scene, you got to show me some ID.

[Mulder turns to Scully.]

MULDER: Looks like you were right.

SCULLY: Excuse me.

[She goes to the door.]

SCULLY: Jack...

[Willis looks at her and has a flashback of her firing the shots that killed Dupre. Scully speaks to Daniels.]

SCULLY: Is there a problem here?

WILLIS: No, I just don't have any ID. And would you tell this gentleman who I am?

SCULLY: It's all right, Officer. This is Agent Jack Willis. He's with the Violent Crimes Section of the Washington Bureau.

[She quietly leads Willis back through the door.]

SCULLY: Come on. Let's talk out here.

[Daniels lets Willis pass.]

OFFICER DANIELS: I was just doing my job, Miss.

[Scully speaks quietly to Willis.]

SCULLY: For God's sake, Willis, what happened? Half the Bureau's been looking for you. Where have you been?

WILLIS: I don't know. I just ... wasn't myself. I just kinda woke up out in the street.

571

SCULLY: I'm taking you back to the hospital. You're in no shape to be ---

WILLIS: No, no, no way! I'm staying right here.

SCULLY: You're not ready to be here.

WILLIS: Who says?

SCULLY: Jack. You're recovering from a major trauma. It's a miracle you're even able to walk around.

WILLIS: Look. This is Tommy Phillip's place, right?

SCULLY: Jack ...

WILLIS: Let me just ask you something. Was he killed with a .45?

SCULLY: As a matter of fact he was.

WILLIS: He was. That's Lula's weapon of choice. I know these people. I've been after them for a long time. We're halfway there.

[Scully gives in, reluctantly.]

SCULLY: You did open the book on this one.

WILLIS: Yeah. And I'm gonna be there when it's closed.

[He slams his fist into his palm.]

SCULLY: All right. But as a colleague and as a friend I'm recommending you undergo a full medical evaluation – physical and psychological.

WILLIS: All right, fair enough.

[They join the others in the bedroom.]

MULDER: Jack, good to see you back among the living.

[Mulder shakes Willis' hand, but watches him warily.]

WILLIS: It's good to be back.

[Bruskin shakes Willis' hand.]

AGENT BRUSKIN: Jack.

WILLIS: So what have we got here?

AGENT BRUSKIN: Mulder here found a print on the TV - a partial oblique - and it's not the victim's.

[Willis looks at Mulder.]

WILLIS: Good work, Agent Mulder. I'm impressed.

[Mulder watches Willis cross to the TV.]

572

[FBI Indoor Shooting Range. Mulder, fingers in his ears, comes up behind Willis who is shooting the target. Willis finishes the clip and pops it out of the gun.]

MULDER: That's fancy shooting.

WILLIS: Yeah, well, I got to get recertified before they give me my weapon back.

[Mulder looks at the target.]

MULDER: Well, by the looks of it, I wouldn't worry about recertification.

WILLIS: Is there anything else you wanted?

MULDER: Yeah. It's, uh, Scully's birthday and I was wondering if you'd sign that for her.

[Mulder places a card on a table and carefully watches Willis for a reaction. Hands him a pen. Willis is relaxed.]

WILLIS: Sure. Be glad to. I'm always glad to celebrate the good times.

[Willis signs the card with his left hand.]

WILLIS: There you go.

[X-Files Office. Mulder tosses the card on Scully's desk.]

MULDER: Happy Birthday, Scully.

[Scully is confused.]

SCULLY: You're two months early.

MULDER: It's from Willis. I thought you two had the same birthday.

SCULLY: We do.

MULDER: Well, that's news to him. I asked him to sign it. And he signed it with his left hand.

[He sits at his desk]

SCULLY: You mean you tested him.

MULDER: Yeah. After I found out that the evidence from the Phillips murder is missing.

SCULLY: What evidence?

MULDER: The print we lifted. Our best lead is gone. Someone stole it before the lab had a chance to take a look at it.

SCULLY: And you think Willis is responsible?

MULDER: I'm not sure Willis is Willis.

[Scully sighs and rolls her eyes.]

MULDER: Can you at least accept the possibility that during his near-death experience some kind of psychic transference occurred?

573

SCULLY: Can't you accept the possibility that this isn't an X-File? Aside from the expected level of post-trauma stress, Jack passed both of his evaluations, physical and psychological.

[Scully continues defensively.]

SCULLY: Anyway, just because someone forgets a birthday doesn't mean that he's been possessed. When I was studying for my medical boards, I forgot my birthday too.

MULDER: Did you forget how to sign your name? This is a copy of the automobile requisition form Willis filed the day before he was shot. Compare the signatures.

[The two signatures are not even close.]

SCULLY: Like I said, Mulder, stress, all right? We both know it can significantly affect someone's cursive standard. I'm afraid this doesn't prove a thing.

[Willis is at his desk in the Violent Crimes Unit. He looks through file on the case. He gazes at a photograph of Lula. His phone rings and he answers it.]

WILLIS: Agent Willis here.

[Willis listens for a moment, then hangs up quickly. As he leaves the office, Scully crosses over to him.]

SCULLY: Jack. Where are you going?

WILLIS: We got a break. A landlord in Boyle Heights thinks he's got our girl.

SCULLY: Hotline?

WILLIS: Yeah. Saw her picture in the post office. Here's the address.

SCULLY: Jack, can I ask you something?

WILLIS: Yeah, sure.

[Scully is hesitant.]

SCULLY: The Phillips murder. The print Mulder lifted off the television – it's missing.

WILLIS: And?

SCULLY: And ... you were carrying the evidence back.

WILLIS: Are you implying something, Agent Scully?

[She doesn't respond.]

WILLIS: I don't know anything about any missing print. Now, I'm ten minutes away from closing the biggest case of my career. Are you coming?

[In an apartment building. Willis and Scully go up the stairs to apartment 202.]

WILLIS: What's that apartment number again?

574

SCULLY: Number 202.

[Willis knocks on the door.]

WILLIS: Oh, yeah. What's this guy's name?

SCULLY: Multrevich.

WILLIS: Multrevich?

[Willis knocks at 202. Multrevich, a large, unkempt man, opens the door.]

WILLIS: Mr. Multrevich? I'm from the FBI. Jack Willis. We spoke on the phone, right?.

MULTREVICH: Oh, yeah.

[Willis holds up a photograph of Lula.]

WILLIS: Have you ever seen this lady?

MULTREVICH: Yeah. 207. Two days ago. First and last month, cash.

SCULLY: Where's 207?

MULTREVICH: Down the hallway, around the corner.

SCULLY: All right, Mr. Multrevich, we want you to go back inside your apartment and stay away from the windows.

[Multrevich closes the door. Willis and Scully walk down the hall.]

SCULLY: Where's our back up? You said you called them, right?

WILLIS: Yeah, they should have been here ten minutes ago. She may be running down a fire escape, or something.

SCULLY: I'm going to call in again.

[Lula opens the door at the end of the hall holding a basket of laundry. Willis sees her and grins widely, happy to see her.]

WILLIS: Look. Hey, that's her.

[Lula flings the basket to the floor and runs back down the stairs. Scully and Willis follow Lula down to the basement.]

WILLIS: Where is she? Where did she go?

SCULLY: I'll check back here.

[Separately and silently they search the dark area for about a minute. Lula attacks Scully from behind. Scully tackles Lula and gets her face down on a mattress.]

SCULLY: Face down! Face down! Hands behind your back. Now!

[Scully gets Lula hand cuffed, then still sitting on Lula turns her head to Willis who has come up behind them.]

SCULLY: She's all yours, Jack.

[Willis looks at Lula.]

575

WILLIS: Yeah, like a dog on a leash.

[Lula looks up at Willis sharply. Willis picks up Scully's gun then tosses his handcuffs onto the mattress beside Scully.]

SCULLY: I already cuffed her.

WILLIS: They're for you, Scully. Put them on.

SCULLY: What's going on, Jack?

[Willis aims his gun at Scully.]

WILLIS: Put them on, or I'll blow you in half.

SCULLY: Jack ...

WILLIS: Shut up! Put them on.

[Scully, staring at Jack, slowly puts the cuffs on her own wrists. Willis goes to Lula and tenderly touches her face.]

WILLIS: Come on, baby. Come on, get up, baby. Look at you. Your face is all dirty.

[Lula tries to push him away.]

LULA: Keep your stinking hands off me.

WILLIS: Baby, you ain't going to believe where I been.

[Scully watches them.]

[In Lula and Dupre's apartment. Scully is handcuffed to the radiator. Her lip is swollen and bloodied. In another room, Willis is talking to Lula who is changing her clothes. ]

WILLIS: Sure it's crazy. You don't think I know it's crazy? This isn't my face, these aren't my hands, but it's me in here. And I know you, I know everything about you, baby. Come on, ask me something. Your birthday's April 7th. Your favorite color is red. Come on. Come on, ask me something else. Come on, ask me.

[Lula is not convinced.]

LULA: Okay. Okay, what did we do after we got married?

WILLIS: Right after?

LULA: After that.

WILLIS: Well, we went down to the beach. I took out my buck knife and I sliced open my palm and then I slit open your palm ...

[He takes her hand.]

WILLIS: ... and we let the blood drip down in the water.

LULA: Then what did you say to me?

WILLIS: I said, "This is so we can be married in all the oceans of the world."

576

[He kisses her hand.]

WILLIS: And then I made you a solemn oath ...

[He holds up his wedding ring.]

WILLIS: ...to never take this ring off my finger.

[He puts it on.]

WILLIS: Ever. I mean to keep that promise.

[Lula shakes her head and pulls away.]

LULA: This is ... this is just too weird. I can't believe it's really you.

WILLIS: Don't worry, baby. It won't make any difference in the dark.

[Willis begins kissing her neck. She looks uncomfortable.]

[Mulder and Agent Bruskin come out of Multrevich's apartment.]

AGENT BRUSKIN: Thank you sir, we'll be in touch.

MULTREVICH: When do I get my reward?

AGENT BRUSKIN: We'll call you.

[Multrevich goes back inside.]

AGENT BRUSKIN: Now I'm worried. Twelve hours with no word. I don't get it. Why's her car still sitting out front? Why didn't Willis call for backup?

MULDER: Because it wasn't Willis who answered the hot line.

AGENT BRUSKIN: What are you talking about? You heard the recording. It was Willis' voice.

MULDER: [tense] Forget it, Bruskin.

AGENT BRUSKIN: Plus which, the manager just ID'd him and Scully.

MULDER: [really tense] I said forget it, Bruskin.

[They go out to the car.]

AGENT BRUSKIN: This isn't one of your X-File theories, is it?

MULDER: It doesn't matter what I think. We're still after the same thing.

[Mulder's cell phone rings. He answers it.]

MULDER: Mulder.

CALLER: FBI Centrex Operator. Please hold.

MULDER: Yeah.

577

WILLIS: Guess who, Ace?

MULDER: Willis?

WILLIS: That depends on who you ask, don't it?

MULDER: Where's Scully?

WILLIS: You're the FBI. You figure it out.

MULDER: Let me talk to her.

WILLIS: Yeah. Sure.

[He puts the phone to Scully's ear.]

SCULLY: Mulder?

MULDER: Dana, are you okay?

SCULLY: Don't –

[Willis pulls the phone away.]

MULDER: Dana?

WILLIS: Okay. That's it. Good-bye.

[He hangs up.]

SCULLY: It's not going to work, Jack.

WILLIS: You don't think so?

SCULLY: Bureau policy prohibits negotiating with kidnappers. But you already know that, don't you, Jack?

WILLIS: Stop calling me that!

SCULLY: Your name is Jack Willis. You were born February 23, 1957. You live at 51 Stanhope ---

WILLIS: My name is Warren James Dupre. And I was born in Klamath Falls, Oregon, in the Year of the Rat.

SCULLY: We spent a weekend up at Pine Barrens. You taught me how to fish through the ice. It was your parents' cabin. Jack, try to remember. We drove up in a snowstorm. Come on, Jack.

[Willis, breathing heavily, has flashes of driving in snow. Brushes the image away and turns angrily back to Scully.]

WILLIS: Don't think I didn't see what you did. I was like a little slip of paper up there on that hospital ceiling. I saw everything.

SCULLY: What did you see?

WILLIS: You left me to die on that table while you tried to save your friend!

SCULLY: You are my friend.

WILLIS: Too bad he was gone already. I watched him go. I just saw him slip away down that long, black tunnel.

578

SCULLY: No. We brought you back.

[He shoves his gun into Scully's face.]

WILLIS: You shot me dead! And then you let me die.

SCULLY: No. You won't kill me, Jack.

[Then he pushes his gun into her side.]

WILLIS: You call me that one more time I'll make you stone-cold.

[Lula enters the room.]

LULA: Easy, baby, easy. Not yet. Remember, she's our ticket.

[He takes an can of soda from Lula tips it up to drink the last drops.]

WILLIS: Got any more of this soda?

LULA: You just drank the last of it.

SCULLY: [realization] Soda. How much of that have you had?

WILLIS: What's it to you?

SCULLY: Jack Willis is diabetic. Which means that you're diabetic. Too much sugar in the system could lead to hyperglycemia.

LULA: Maybe that's why your stomach's hurting so bad.

SCULLY: Abdominal pain is the first sign of impending diabetic coma. You need insulin.

FBI Headquarters Washington, DC

[X-Files office. Mulder, alone, listening to Willis's field notes and looking through the file.]

WILLIS: [voice on tape] I feel myself getting into their heads and I'm scared by what I'm feeling. The intoxicating freedom that comes from disconnecting action and consequence. Theirs is a world where nothing matters but their own needs, their own impossible appetites and while the pleasure they derive from acts of violence is clearly sexual, it also speaks to what Warden Jackson called their operatic devotion to each other. It's a love affair I almost envy.

[Mulder's beeper goes off. He looks at it.]

[Later, Mulder, using a detailed map, is briefing a room full of agents.]

MULDER: Cadenceville PD just reported a drugstore was broken into right here on the corner of Old Forge Road and Madison and I'm betting that Scully is somewhere within this five mile radius.

AGENT BRUSKIN: Am I missing something?

MULDER: 200 units of NPH insulin were taken along with a box of syringes. Willis is diabetic.

AGENT BRUSKIN: Get me a census report. Let's see how many households we're talking about.

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[Bruskin goes over and looks at the map which shows an airport not far from the drugstore.]

[Lula And Dupre's Apartment. Scully, released from the radiator, empties a bag of insulin bottles and syringes on the table and begins opening a package. Willis is weak, desparate.]

WILLIS: Quick, quick, quick. My legs are starting to go numb.

SCULLY: Hold on.

[Lula draws a gun on Scully and pushes the insulin to the floor.]

WILLIS: What the hell ...?

LULA: [to Scully] Drop the needle.

SCULLY: Without this medicine, he dies.

LULA: Yes, so you said. Now, put it down ... unless you want me to put you down with it.

[Scully drops the medicine.]

WILLIS: What the hell are you doing, Lula? I need that medicine.

LULA: You still haven't figured it out, have you?

WILLIS: Figured what out?

LULA: It wasn't my brother who set you up.

WILLIS: [realizing] You?

LULA: Yeah, me. How do you think I got away so clean, huh? The minute you stepped into that bank I was out of there. I got the money, and I got rid of you. At least I thought I did.

[Lula steps on the bottle of insulin, shattering it. Willis moans in pain.]

[Back at the FBI. Phone rings.]

PHONE AGENT: [answering] Tactical.

[Listens a moment, then speaks to people in the room.]

PHONE AGENT: This is it.

[Mulder takes the phone.]

MULDER: Mulder.

LULA: Listen carefully.

MULDER: Where's Willis?

LULA: Oh, he's lying around here somewhere.

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MULDER: Let me talk to Scully.

LULA: Not this time.

MULDER: We don't deal unless we know Scully is alive.

LULA: She's alive. She's not happy, but she's alive.

MULDER: [threatening] You listen to me --- you lay one hand on Scully, and so help me, God ----

LULA: If I were you, I'd stop talking and start passing around the collection hat 'cause if you ever want to see Scully again it's going to cost you a million dollars. Have it by this time tomorrow. I'll tell you when and where.

[She hangs up.]

[The phone agent has been tracing the call.]

PHONE AGENT: We got it. It's a 202 number.

AGENT BRUSKIN: Great.

PHONE AGENT: It's coming through. Here it is.

[He hands Mulder a piece of paper.]

BRUSKIN: Get the address.

[Mulder looks at the paper, then crumples it.]

MULDER: Forget it. It's Scully's cellular number. They're using her phone. We can't trace them.

[Angrily, he throws the wadded paper across the room.]

FBI Headquarters Washington, DC

[Mulder with a technician is in the sound lab listening to Lula's recorded voice.]

LULA: [voice] She's not happy, but she's alive. If I were you, I'd stop talking and start passing around the collection hat.

TECH: That last part, right?

MULDER: Yeah, but can you squelch the voice even more this time?

[The technician adjust some dials.]

TECH: Yep. Done.

LULA: [voice] If I were you, I'd stop talking and start passing around the collection hat.

TECH: Yep. Yeah. There's something there. Definitely something at the high end. Let me throw on an extra Z -14 filter and isolate everything over half a decibel.

LULA: [voice] If I were you, I'd stop talking and start passing around the collection hat.

[There is a motor sound audible under her voice.]

MULDER: There. That engine sound.

581

TECH: Let's clean it up some more.

LULA: [voice] If I were you, I'd stop talking and start passing around the collection hat.

[Motor sound very audible.]

MULDER: Is that a small plane?

TECH: Taking off, by the sound of it. Give me a couple more minutes. We'll guesstimate the altitude within a couple hundred feet.

MULDER: [under his breath] Great!

[Later, briefing room.]

AGENT BRUSKIN: All right, people, settle down and grab a seat. Mulder says he's got something.

AGENT WESTIN: What? An alien virus or new information on the Kennedy assassination?

AGENT BRUSKIN: Hey, Mulder's all right. You should pay attention. You might learn something from the man.

[Mulder enters and goes straight to the map.]

MULDER: Okay, from our last phone contact we've identified what sounds like light aircraft taking off. Now, Washington County Regional Airport happens to fall within our area, just south of the state line. Since takeoffs are north to south it's a fair bet that our target area lies somewhere along this flight path. For those of you who remember ninth-grade math that gives us an area of just over three square miles to cover --- roughly 1000 households. With 100 law enforcement officials at our disposal at about 30 households per man per hour we should be able to canvass the entire area in about three hours. Agent Bruskin will grid the target area and divide it among the teams.

[Agents all begin to get up, talking.]

MULDER: And for those of you ---who don't know already [voice unsteady] this one's important to me. So, uh, let's do it right. Thanks.

[Quiet for a moment, then Agent Bruskin begins reading off assignments.]

AGENT BRUSKIN: Let me see Steinburg, Calder, Westin, Stipley and Mackowitz...

[Willis' apartment, next morning. Willis still lying in the corner, Scully handcuffed again to the radiator, sleeping.]

WILLIS: Scully?

SCULLY: [waking] Hmn? Huh?

WILLIS: Was there snow?

SCULLY: Yes, Jack. There was lots of snow.

WILLIS: I can't ...

SCULLY: It was December. It was the weekend after Thanksgiving.

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WILLIS: I remember a red stove.

[Scully encourages him.]

SCULLY: Yeah. That's right. There was a wood-burning stove right in the middle of the room.

WILLIS: Cold.

SCULLY: Yeah.

WILLIS: So cold. I remember I had to wrap you in a blanket when the wood ran out.

SCULLY: [fondly] Yeah.

[Willis slumps to the side.]

SCULLY: No! Jack, don't close your eyes. Come on, keep talking. Jack, keep talking. Come on.

[Willis has a flashback to the bank.]

DUPRE: Get down on the floor! Get down on the floor, now!

WILLIS: [suddenly angry] I'm gonna execute every one of you!

SCULLY: No. No.

[Scully sees Dupre for a moment instead of Willis.]

DUPRE: Shut up and do it!

[Scully looks again, but his head is in shadow. Then there's a knock at the front door. From the other room, Lula, holding a gun, goes to the door.]

LULA: Just a second. Who is it?

[Lula opens the door.]

BIBLE SALESMAN: This is Brother T. Could I speak with you for just one moment, please?

LULA: What do you want?

BIBLE SALESMAN: Just a few minutes of your time, ma'am. Beautiful day, isn't it? I wonder if I can interest you in the Word of the Lord, leather bound in black or red your choice.

[Lula closes the door.]

LULA: Go away.

[Outside, the Bible Salesman aka Undercover Cop, speaks into his radio.]

BIBLE COP: This is one-four. Target sighted.

[Outside, a utility truck moves into position. Inside, Lula goes into the room with Willis and Scully.]

LULA: Well, I guess it's time to make that call.

SCULLY: He's dead. It's all on you now. He's dead because of you.

583

[Lula kneels down in front of Willis, taking off her wedding ring.]

LULA: Well ... guess it's over. Whoever you are.

[She casually drops the ring. Suddenly, Willis grabs the gun from Lula and points it at her. She falls back in surprise.]

WILLIS: Don't move.

SCULLY: Jack!

WILLIS: Shut up!

LULA: I love you. Don't you know? You're why I came back.

[Outside, agents are all moving into position. Agent Westin is on the utility truck cherry picker.]

AGENT WESTIN: [into radio] This is Westin. They battened down the hatches. There's no clear shot from this side. What about you guys?

[Mulder looks up to an agent on the roof who shakes his head.]

MULDER: [into radio] Ditto. Hold your positions. Keep radios at two.

[Agents surround the house. Agent Bruskin joins Mulder.]

MULDER: How do we look?

AGENT BRUSKIN: Backup's in but we still don't know what's going on in there.

MULDER: We will soon enough.

[Inside the house, Lula is desperately trying to calm Willis.]

LULA: I kept a bottle of medicine in the other room. I'll go get it. What do you say, huh?

[She crawls over to him and begins stroking his face.]

LULA: I'll get it for you. Look, look, look. I love you. I love you, baby.

WILLIS: No.

LULA: Listen, listen, listen. We still have her. We can get away with this.

WILLIS: I don't think so, baby. Not this time.

SCULLY: Jack, put the gun down.

[Willis holds Lula tight to him.]

WILLIS: You remember that light that I talked about? It's beautiful. There's nothing to be afraid of.

[He shoots Lula in the stomach as he kisses her.]

SCULLY: No!

[Mulder and other agents burst into the house.]

AGENT BRUSKIN: All right, FBI! FBI!

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SCULLY: Jack!

MULDER: FB ----

[Agent Bruskin checks Willis, Mulder goes to Scully who is still cuffed to the radiator.]

MULDER: Scully, are you okay?

SCULLY: Jack!?

[Agent Bruskin shakes his head, and steps away from Willis' body. The tattoo on Willis' arm fade away.]

[In the Violent Crime Unit office, Scully is cleaning out Willis' desk. Mulder comes up to her.]

MULDER: Hi. I got this from the morgue along with the rest of his personal effects. I thought you might want it.

[He hands her a watch with an inscription on the back.]

SCULLY: "Happy 35th, Love D." I got it for him three years ago.

MULDER: Next of kin?

SCULLY: Uh .. no. Jack was an only child. Both his parents died when he was in college. There's a kid over in Parklawn. Jack's been his Big Brother so I'm going to go and see him tomorrow. What am I going to tell him?

MULDER: [bitterly] The official story.

SCULLY: Which is?

MULDER: Fugitive Lula Phillips died yesterday in a shoot-out with federal agents which also resulted in the death of Special Agent Jack Willis - killed in the line of duty.

[Scully sighs and sits down.]

SCULLY: What am I supposed to tell myself?

[Mulder starts to leave.]

MULDER: Good night.

[Scully looks at the watch.]

SCULLY: It's not working. It stopped. At 6:47.

[Mulder turns back to her.]

MULDER: The exact time that Jack went into cardiac arrest at the hospital.

SCULLY: What does that mean?

MULDER: It means ... It means whatever you want it to mean. [gently] Good night.

[Mulder leaves.]

Starring:

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David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Christopher Allport (Agent Jack Willis) Cec Verrell (Lula Phillips) Jackson Davies (Agent Bruskin)

Co-Starring:

Jason Schombing (Warren Dupre) Callum Keith Rennie (Tommy) Jay Brazeau (Prof. Varnes) Lisa Bunting (Doctor #1)

Featuring:

Peter Kelamis (O'Dell) Brenda Crichlow (Reporter) Mark Saunders (Doctor #2) Alexander Boynton (Clean Cut Man) Russell Hamilton (Officer Daniels)

1x14 Lazarus - notes

From "X-Files Confidential": Chris Carter enthuses, "A very good and well-acted episode. I like it because it actually seemed so real to me. It played less as a paranormal science fiction show than as whether or not something could really happen. The entire cast was wonderful. Overall that was a terrific episode." According to Howard Gordon, the story initially had Mulder possessed by the person he was hunting. Fox didn't really like the notion of their hero experiencing, firsthand, with a supernatural occurrence. "I think that was a wise decision," Gordon admits, "though at the time we were angry and up in arms." Director David Nutter notes, "Pacing w s the key for that show. It was the opposite of 'Beyond the Sea'. I thought a lot of movement had to happen. The camera was moving, the actors were moving, all of which was designed to move the script along. It wasn't one of the more involved scripts. Just a pretty basic, straightforward story." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal settings: Maryland; Washington, DC Back story: As originally written, 'Lazarus' called for Dupre to jump into Mulder's body instead of Scully's old boyfriend's body, but Fox and the studio argued against that idea. The producers agreed to make the shift with more than a little reluctance, though writer Howard Gordon says in retrospect it was almost certainly for the best. "We'd wanted Mulder to experience the soul switch," he says, but there was a train of thought at that point that neither of the principals should directly experience such phenomena. Gordon points out that introducing Scully's boyfriend provided a welcome opportunity to delve into her history. Also, the hour deftly left room for the possibility of mundane explanations as well as paranormal ones; this was the original series concept, from which it has at times strayed away. From that perspective, "Everyone's point of view was actually very well-reasoned and very well-defended," Gordon says, including the exchange between Mulder and Scully at the end when he says she can take the timing of Willis's death to mean whatever she wants. Scully gets abducted in this episode for the first of what turned out to be several times as the series progressed.

586

Margin note: Chinese astrology: In the script, Dupre said he was born in the Year of the Dragon, which in the Chinese calendar would have been 1964, the same year as Scully. Instead, he says he was born in the Year of the Rat, 1960, the same year as Mulder (and Duchovny). X-Files In-Jokes * Title - the title is a reference to the biblical character Lazarus, who was resurrected by Jesus Christ (which is paralleled by the 'resurrection' of Willis on the operating table).

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- The episode title is a reference to the miracle recounted in the Bible (John 11:1-44) in which Jesus brings Lazarus, a man who was dead for four days, back to life. This is paralleled by the "resurrection" of Jack Willis on the operating table in this episode.

-- As originally written, "Lazarus" called for Dupre to jump into Mulder's body instead of Scully's old boyfriend's body, but Fox and the studio argued against that idea. The producers agreed to make the shift with more than a little reluctance, though writer Howard Gordon said in retrospect it was almost certainly for the best. "We'd wanted Mulder to experience the soul switch," he said, but there was a train of thought at that point that neither of the principals should directly experience such phenomena. This probably explains why Scully was participating in a bank stake-out in the episode's teaser, as the original script probably called for Scully *and* Mulder to be on the bank robbery case.

-- Gordon pointed out that introducing Scully's old boyfriend provided a welcome opportunity to delve into her history. Also, the hour deftly left room for the possibility of mundane explanations as well as paranormal ones; this was the original series concept, from which it has at times strayed away. From that perspective, "Everyone's point of view was actually very well- reasoned and very well-defended," Gordon said, including the exchange between Mulder and Scully at the end when he says she can take the timing of Willis's death to mean whatever she wants.

-- This episode also sets up what would be a bit of continuity in the series: that Scully is attracted to and has been involved with older, authoritative or controlling men. Willis was one of her instructors at the Academy and Daniel Waterston ("all things") was one of her medical school instructors (and of course, Mulder). Her attraction to authoritative men is also mentioned by her in "Never Again" and by CSM in "En Ami."

-- This is the episode where we discover that Scully's birth date is February 23.

-- Speaking of Scully's birthday, the timeline for this one is a bit screwy. "Lazarus" aired in early February. When Mulder gives Scully the birthday card signed by Willis, she says he's two months early, which would put this episode somewhere around Christmas. However, "Beyond the Sea," which was two episodes prior to this one, was set just after Christmas, and of course, in that one, Mulder was shot and would have been out of commission for awhile.

-- Scully gets abducted in this episode for the first of what turned out to be numerous times as the series progressed.

-- In the script, Dupre said he was born in the Year of the Dragon, which in the Chinese calendar would have been 1964, the same year as Scully. Instead, he says he was born in the Year of the Rat, 1960.

-- Callum Keith Rennie who played Tommy (Lula's sister) also played the groundskeeper in "Fresh Bones." He became a well- known actor in Canada and later joined the cast of Due South as Detective Stanley Raymond Kowalski when David Marciano left that series.

-- Other Retreads (or Future Retreads): Jay Brazeau (Professor Varnes) will come back as Dr. Daly in "One Breath." Peter Kelamis (O'Dell) will be back three more times, as Lt. Foyle in "Fresh Bones," as the Second Husband in "Small Potatoes," and Ada Costa in "Mind's Eye." Mark Saunders (Second Doctor) will return as Agent Busch in "Irresistible."

1x15 Young At Heart

Writers: Scott Kauffer and Chris Carter

587

Director: Michael Lange Original airdate: 11 February 1994

Transcribed by: Vic Edited by Libby

Tashmoo Federal Correction Facility Pennsylvania, 1989

[A multi-bedded hospital ward. A wheelchair-bound man named Joe Crandell slowly rolls down a hallway past an empty bed that intrigues him. He hears screaming and rolls down in that direction. The screaming grows louder as he approaches a door. Opening it up, he slowly wheels in. He sees Doctor Ridley working over a man named John Barnett.]

JOE CRANDELL: What are you doing to Barnett?

JOSEPH RIDLEY: Excuse me?

JOE CRANDELL: What are you doing to Johnny?

[Ridley puts down his knife. The sheet covering most of Barnett is blood-stained - it appears his right hand has been cut off.]

JOSEPH RIDLEY: Go on back to your ward. There's nothing you can do for your friend now.

JOE CRANDELL: What?

JOSEPH RIDLEY: John Barnett is dead.

JOE CRANDELL: No, I heard him screaming.

[Ridley picks up a knife and walks over to him, then puts the knife up under Crandell's neck.]

JOSEPH RIDLEY: I said John Barnett is dead. You understand?

[Crandell nods and goes to leave. Barnett looks at him with dead, dull eyes, his pupils completely blue.]

JOSEPH RIDLEY: Go on, Crandell, get out of here. There's nothing more to see here. You understand?

[Barnett blinks. Crandell leaves. Barnett blinks again.]

[main titles]

Washington, D.C. Present Day

[Mulder and Scully get out of their car and start into the jewelry store.]

SCULLY: I still don't get it. What does this have to do with us?

MULDER: Robbing a jewelry store is a federal crime.

SCULLY: Thank you.

MULDER: I don't know. I got a call from some guy I used to work with over at the violent crimes section, said it was important.

[The coroner wheels away a victim as Mulder and Scully walk over to Agent Reggie Purdue. Mulder starts chanting.]

MULDER: Reggie! Reggie!

588

[They shake hands.]

REGGIE PURDUE: Mulder, God, I hate it when you do that.

MULDER: This is Special Agent Scully. Reggie Purdue.

[Scully and Purdue shake hands.]

REGGIE PURDUE: How are you?

SCULLY: What happened here?

REGGIE PURDUE: Lone gunman took out a salesgirl after she filled up a bag for him.

MULDER: You guys turn up anything?

REGGIE PURDUE: Not much... except... this. It's going to blow your mind.

MULDER: Why?

REGGIE PURDUE: I'm telling you, Mulder, this is going to blow ... your... mind.

[He hands Mulder an evidence bag with a piece of paper in it. Mulder reads the paper.]

SCULLY: What is it?

MULDER: Wait, wait a second...

REGGIE PURDUE: You see why I called you?

MULDER: What about witness descriptions?

REGGIE PURDUE: White male, five-eleven to six feet, ski mask.

[Mulder stares at him.]

MULDER: Damn it, Reggie, that's Barnett.

REGGIE PURDUE: Yeah, but it can't be.

SCULLY: Who's Barnett?

[They stare at her. Mulder and Scully walk out.]

MULDER: It was my first case at the bureau. Barnett was doing armed jobs all over D.C. and getting away with it, very trigger- happy. Killed seven people. There was this big task force, Reggie was my ASAC. I was twenty-eight years old, right out of the academy. I had this theory on the case. Reggie thought I was full of it. I was full of it.

SCULLY: What was the theory?

MULDER: That Barnett had an inside connection. An employee at the armored car company was tipping him off about large shipments of cash. Turns out I was sort of right.

SCULLY: Sort of?

MULDER: Yeah, we planted bogus waybills, manifests with the armored car company to try to set a trap but Barnett was way ahead of us. That's... when the notes started.

589

[They stop walking. He hands Scully the bag with the note in it.]

SCULLY: "Fox can't guard the chicken coop."

MULDER: Clever, huh?

SCULLY: So you never caught him?

MULDER: No, we did. We did, but not, uh, not clean. An agent died because I screwed up.

[She stares at him for a second.]

SCULLY: And what happened to Barnett?

MULDER: He avoided the death penalty on a technicality. But he went down for every job he did. Consecutive terms, three- hundred-and-forty years. The judge promised me he would die in prison.

SCULLY: So you think he escaped?

MULDER: No, that's just it. He did die in prison, four years ago.

SCULLY: You're sure?

MULDER: I was paying attention.

[He walks away.]

[In the crime lab, Agent Henderson is looking at the note under an electron-emission microscope. Mulder is looking as well through a second pair of lenses on the same machine.]

HENDERSON: This guy a friend of yours?

MULDER: Yeah, I play golf with him every Sunday. What do you think?

HENDERSON: You just brought this in ten minutes ago.

MULDER: You're slipping, Henderson.

HENDERSON: Ten minutes may be enough time for you, Mulder. Of course, I wouldn't know that from personal experience.

[Mulder looks at her, sitting down.]

MULDER: Yeah... seriously, what do you think?

HENDERSON: Okay, first impressions... the ink is fresh, the note was written in the last forty-eight hours. Ballpoint, but you knew that. A right-hander. Let's see... written by someone sitting down – now I'm just showing off.

MULDER: Yeah, does it match Barnett?

HENDERSON: I'd say it's him.

MULDER: But you're not sure?

[Henderson looks at him.]

HENDERSON: Ninety-five percent. The writing's sloppy. Some of the ascenders and descenders are heavier.

590

MULDER: Could it have been traced over an old note of Barnett's?

HENDERSON: Could be, but it's a damn good job if it is.

MULDER: Thanks, Henderson, I owe you one.

HENDERSON: Promises, promises.

[Mulder leaves.]

[In Reggie Purdue's office, Scully and Purdue are watching a video of the stake-out where they caught Barnett. Agents surround the track as Barnett steps out, holding a gun to his partner's head.]

REGGIE PURDUE: There's Barnett. We staked-out an airport warehouse but everything went to hell when Barnett took the driver of the armored truck hostage.

[Mulder sneaks up behind Barnett.]

SCULLY: Where's Mulder?

REGGIE PURDUE: There, coming around back. Barnett doesn't see him.

SCULLY: He's got a clear shot.

REGGIE PURDUE: Yeah, he should've taken it.

SCULLY: But he couldn't.

REGGIE PURDUE: No, no, not with a hostage so close.

SCULLY: Because it's not by the book.

REGGIE PURDUE: It would have saved one life, maybe two. Bastard Barnett just started blasting away.

[Reggie stands. In the video, Barnett shoots his hostage then another agent before Mulder tags him twice.]

SCULLY: So, Mulder did shoot Barnett.

REGGIE PURDUE: Twice, in the shoulder and hand but not before Barnett killed the driver and Agent Steve Wallenberg. Mulder never forgave himself for that. You should have heard his testimony at Barnett's trial.

SCULLY: Probably had a lot to do with the sentence the judge gave Barnett.

REGGIE PURDUE: I'll never forget Mulder coming down from the witness stand and Barnett turning and saying he'd get Mulder. To tell you the truth, I wish Mulder had killed Barnett right there in the warehouse.

[He walks away. On the video is a still shot of the agents hovering over Barnett.]

[In the basement office, Mulder takes a print-out out of the printer as Scully walks over.]

SCULLY: What did Henderson come up with?

MULDER: Ninety-five percent sure it's Barnett's handwriting.

591

[Scully looks at the paper.]

SCULLY: What's that?

MULDER: Federal Bureau of Prisons sent me a copy of his death certificate. "Name of deceased, Barnett, John Irvin. Cause of death, cardiac arrest. Date, September sixteenth, 1989."

[They start off.]

SCULLY: Then it must be a very clever copycat.

MULDER: The note was written in the last forty-eight hours.

SCULLY: Pull any prints?

MULDER: No prints.

SCULLY: Barnett had a lot of time on his hands while he was in prison, maybe he planned it with someone on the outside.

[Mulder opens the door to an office.]

MULDER: Revenge from the grave? That'd be a neat trick.

SCULLY: He planned to get you, didn't he?

[Mulder stares at her.]

SCULLY: I was just down talking to Agent Purdue.

MULDER: And he showed you the videotape?

[She nods.]

SCULLY: You did the right thing, Mulder.

MULDER: Did I? Steve Wallenberg had a wife and two kids. One of his boys is an all-star on his football team now. If I had pulled the trigger two seconds earlier and Wallenberg would be here to see his kid play. Instead, I got some dead man robbing jewelry stores and sending me haikus.

[He walks into the office.]

[At a football field, a young football team is playing in the mud. The coach is out on the field watching. The kids shout to one another. Parents watch on the bleachers. Mulder also sits there.]

COACH: Go, go, right in there!

[The quarterback throws a pass to his receiver.]

COACH: Yeah, that's better!

WOMAN: Very good! Way to go, Alex!

COACH: Hustle it up! Come on, guys, line it up. Let's go.

QUARTERBACK: Down! Set! Hut!

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[The boys run another play.]

COACH: Go, go, go! You're the man, there it is!

[The quarterback fires another shot to the receiver.]

WOMAN: Very good!

COACH: That was over the line, let's go! Okay, watch the ball.

[Mulder starts off. He passes a strange man, heavily dressed. He walks over to his car. A package is on his car seat. He opens the door and takes it. Opening it up, he sees surveillance photos of him and a note that reads "A hunted Fox eventually dies." Mulder shuffles through the surveillance photos and looks around for Barnett.]

MULDER: I'll get you, you son of a bitch!

[The parents and kids on the bleachers look back at him. Mulder gets in his car and drives off. The strange man looks back at him, eyes glazed over, pupils completely blue and dead.]

[Purdue, sitting at his desk, looks through the various pictures that were in the envelope.]

REGGIE PURDUE: Agent Mulder, and I think that somebody is messing with your head.

MULDER: Barnett said he'd get me, you were there.

REGGIE PURDUE: I don't care what Barnett said, he's dead, Mulder.

MULDER: Apparently not.

REGGIE PURDUE: Aw, come on. Let me tell you something, there are a lot of guys who know that Barnett made the threat.

MULDER: It's Barnett, Reggie.

REGGIE PURDUE: How could you say that?

MULDER: I don't know, I just feel it.

[Purdue stands and signals to a man, who walks out. Purdue closes the door.]

REGGIE PURDUE: You know, all this talk about you, about "Spooky" Mulder, I never used to pay it much mind. I figured it was just talk about how paranoid you were and all.

MULDER: And now?

REGGIE PURDUE: Remember the day you walked into my office wet from Quantico? You pissed me off just looking at you but then I saw how your mind worked. How you were always three jumps ahead. It was scary, Mulder. Everybody said so.

MULDER: I've heard this story.

[Mulder turns, but Reggie grabs his arm and turns him back around.]

REGGIE PURDUE: Yeah, well, maybe you ought to hear it again. You let a lot of people down here in the bureau. They had big plans for you. A lot of people are saying that "Spooky" Mulder has become an embarrassment, a liability.

MULDER: What? Are you saying that somebody from the bureau's behind this?

593

REGGIE PURDUE: Maybe, maybe not. It's always best to cover your ass in any event.

[Scully walks in.]

SCULLY: Sorry. This was just faxed.

[She hands Purdue a paper.]

SCULLY: This is a copy of John Barnett's last will and testament. No surviving relatives, left what little he had to another prisoner... a Joe Crandall... and instructions for his body to be cremated. His will was executed six months after his death and this document states that his ashes were spread along the bank of the Delaware River by an employee of the crematory used by the prison.

REGGIE PURDUE: It's like I said, I think somebody's messing with your head.

MULDER: Killing a sales clerk just to leave me a note? I'd say that's going a little out of your way.

[He picks up the pictures and leaves.]

[In an FBI computer lab, Mulder is sitting next to the computer technician. On the screen is a picture of Barnett with the words "Subject: BARNETT, JOHN."]

MULDER: He's older now, he may have put on some weight.

COMPUTER TECHNICIAN: How much older?

MULDER: Five years.

[She presses some keys and on the screen, Barnett's face grows older and thinner.]

MULDER: He could be wearing any kind of disguise.

[She presses some more keys and Barnett grows a beard.]

[Mulder stands and thinks back to his day in court. He sits on the stand as the prosecutor walks around.]

PROSECUTOR: Take us back to the day in question. Was it your impression, Agent Mulder, that John Barnett took a kind of a perverse pleasure in his crimes? Didn't he send you notes to taunt you?

[She glares at Barnett as she passes him by.]

MULDER: Yes, I felt that he was, uh, daring us to catch him. That he killed his victims almost as if it were part of a game.

PROSECUTOR: Describe for the court if you would, Agent Mulder, what happened when you finally caught John Barnett.

MULDER: We had a customs warehouse at the airport staked out. Now, we knew that Barnett had someone working for the armored car transport tipping him off about large cash shipments but we never figured that he would actually be inside the vehicle when it arrived. That's how Barnett was able to take the driver of the vehicle hostage.

PROSECUTOR: In other words, John Barnett used his own accomplice as a hostage?

MULDER: Yes, ma'am.

[He nods slightly. The judge is taking down notes.]

594

PROSECUTOR: And then what happened?

MULDER: We surrounded Barnett. We ordered him to surrender his hostage and his weapon.

PROSECUTOR: And where were you at this time, Agent Mulder?

MULDER: I was right behind Barnett.

PROSECUTOR: With a clear shot at the suspect?

[Mulder hesitates, then nods and speaks softly.]

MULDER: Yes, ma'am.

PROSECUTOR: But you didn't fire. Why?

MULDER: No, it's against F.B.I. regulations to unnecessarily endanger the life of a hostage.

[Purdue, in the front row, looks at Barnett at his seat at the defense table. Barnett, wearing handcuffs, seems to take great pleasure in Mulder's testimony.]

MULDER: And I thought that with no means of escape, Barnett would give up.

PROSECUTOR: But what happened instead?

MULDER: The suspect, uh, John Barnett, fired his weapon point-blank at his hostage and then he turned his gun on Steve Wallenberg ... shot him in the face.

[Mulder's resolve starts to break.]

PROSECUTOR: Thank you, Agent Mulder. No further questions at this time.

[Mulder stands.]

MULDER: He gunned him down just for spite.

DEFENSE LAWYER: Your honor, we object...

JUDGE: Witness will step down.

MULDER: This was a man with a wife and two small children...

[The judge bangs her gavel.]

JUDGE: Please step down...

MULDER: ...and you, you shot him without hesitation, without conscience, without an ounce of humanity.

[The judge continues to bang the gavel.]

DEFENSE LAWYER: Your honor, do something.

MULDER: Which is why you should die like an animal, you son of a bitch!

JUDGE: Agent Mulder, if you do not stop, I will find you in contempt of court.

[Barnett takes a sip of his water and smiles at Mulder. The crowd continues to murmur.]

595

JUDGE: Order, order in the court.

[Mulder steps down. The crowd continues to murmur and the judge continues to bang the gavel.]

JUDGE: If there is not order in this court, I will be forced to clear the courtroom.

DEFENSE LAWYER: Your honor, the defense finds this highly irregular and inflammatory against the defendant now and we ask that they be stricken from the record.

[Mulder stops and glares at Barnett before sitting down.]

JUDGE: Duly noted, counsel. The jury will disregard the witness' last statement.

[Barnett looks at Mulder as he sits down next to Purdue. He whispers the words.]

JOHN BARNETT: I'll... get... you.

[He winks and blows a kiss, then turns around. Purdue mouths some words to Mulder as Barnett turns around.]

[The present. Mulder leans over to the computer specialist.]

MULDER: I'll need printouts of every variation.

COMPUTER SPECIALIST: Right.

[Scully walks in.]

SCULLY: I just got off the phone with the prison.

MULDER: What did they come up with?

SCULLY: No, I called them on a hunch. John Barnett died of a heart attack, right? At least that's what it says on his death certificate. Well, I had them fax me all of his medical records. Barnett was admitted to the prison infirmary for an infection in his right hand. There isn't any indication or diagnosis of coronary complications. In fact, on his physical six months earlier, he was given a clean bill of health.

Tashmoo Federal Correctional Facility

[An inmate standing next to Crandall points at Mulder and Scully in the doorway.]

INMATE: Crandall. Someone to see you.

[Mulder and Scully walk on either side of Crandall, still in his wheelchair.]

JOE CRANDALL: I don't get many visitors.

MULDER: You knew John Barnett?

JOE CRANDALL: Yes, sir.

MULDER: How well did you know him?

[A guard walks by Scully, squeezing past her.]

GUARD: Excuse me, ma'am.

JOE CRANDALL: Pretty well.

596

SCULLY: He left you everything he had in his will. You must've known him better than pretty well.

JOE CRANDALL: Used to change his bandages, and we just got to... know each other.

MULDER: Are you aware that Barnett died of cardiac arrest in this facility in 1989?

JOE CRANDALL: Cardiac arrest? Where does it say that?

SCULLY: On his death certificate.

[They stop.]

JOE CRANDALL: He ain't dead, is he?

MULDER: Why do you say that?

JOE CRANDALL: Last time I saw John Barnett, it was right in that room over there.

[He nods towards a door.]

JOE CRANDALL: Doctor working on him with a knife took his bad hand clean off.

SCULLY: What doctor?

MULDER: Was it Doctor Ridley?

JOE CRANDALL: Yeah, yeah, it was Doctor Ridley, that's the one. He told me Johnny was dead but, uh, I knew it was a lie. Put a knife right up under my chin just for asking.

SCULLY: How could you tell Barnett wasn't dead?

[Crandall takes a deep breath.]

JOE CRANDALL: I saw him looking at me. I saw him blink. I'll never forget those eyes.

FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C.

[Jail photos are posted on the light screen as Mulder feeds the clip into his gun.]

SCULLY: What are you going to do?

MULDER: I know what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to hang around and wait for Barnett to send me another valentine.

SCULLY: You mean the ghost of John Barnett.

MULDER: I didn't know you believed in ghosts, Scully.

[The phone rings. Scully walks over and picks it up.]

SCULLY: Hello? Yeah, just a minute.

[She looks back at Mulder.]

SCULLY: It's for you.

[He walks over and takes the phone.]

597

MULDER: Mulder.

[It's Barnett, who is completely shrouded in shadow except for portions of his face.]

JOHN BARNETT: Fox Mulder.

MULDER: Barnett?

[He signals to Scully.]

SCULLY: I'll run a trace.

[She runs off to trace the call.]

JOHN BARNETT: You sound surprised.

[He goes over to his tape recorder and presses record.]

MULDER: Well, you know, shouldn't I be?

JOHN BARNETT: You know, it's illegal to tape another's phone call...

JOHN BARNETT: ...without their express permission. Isn't that what they call it?

MULDER: In some states. What makes you think I'm taping you?

JOHN BARNETT: Same thing makes me think you're putting a trace on this call.

MULDER: What state are you in?

JOHN BARNETT: The same state you are. I stood next to you in line for coffee this morning.

MULDER: I don't think so.

[Barnett laughs.]

JOHN BARNETT: Man, I'm everywhere you are. Everywhere. I own you.

MULDER: How do I know it's really you, Barnett?

JOHN BARNETT: What did I say to you in the courtroom? Did you ever... doubt me?

MULDER: I don't know, what did you tell me in the courtroom?

JOHN BARNETT: Huh... if you think you're going to keep me on this phone with this clumsy act...

MULDER: Listen, by all accounts, John Barnett is a dead man.

JOHN BARNETT: Oh, you're the dead man... Mulder.

[Mulder tenses up a little.]

MULDER: Fine. I just need confirmation that you are who you say you are.

JOHN BARNETT: You want confirmation? You got it.

[He blows a kiss and hangs up.]

598

MULDER: Barnett? You there?

[He slams the phone down. Scully walks in.]

SCULLY: You lost him.

MULDER: Yeah, he was hip to the trace.

SCULLY: Was it Barnett?

MULDER: John Barnett was from New Hampshire. He had a slight accent. Listen to this.

[He stops the recorder and rewinds it, then presses stop and play.]

MULDER ON RECORDER: I just need confirmation that you are who you say you are.

JOHN BARNETT ON RECORDER: You want confirmation? You got it.

[Mulder stops the recording and snaps his fingers.]

SCULLY: What did he mean by that?

MULDER: I don't know, but that is... John Barnett. I'm sure of it.

[At Reggie Purdue's house, Purdue lays asleep in his bed, having fallen asleep reading. His crime book is still in his hand and his glasses are half on his face. The phone rings and he wakes up.]

REGGIE PURDUE: Yeah.

[His glasses fall to the floor as he picks up the phone.]

MULDER: Reggie, it's Mulder.

REGGIE PURDUE: Mulder, what do you want? It's the middle of the night.

[Mulder looks at his watch and smiles.]

MULDER: It's only 10:45, old man.

REGGIE PURDUE: Yeah, well... I was sleeping.

MULDER: Listen, Reggie, it doesn't look like Barnett's dead after all.

REGGIE PURDUE: Now what?

MULDER: I got an inmate at the prison who swears he saw Barnett alive the night they say he died.

[Purdue sits up.]

REGGIE PURDUE: Mulder, go home. Get some rest.

MULDER: No, listen, Reggie, there's just one thing that doesn't make sense to me.

[Behind Purdue a shadow creeps down his hallway in the back.]

REGGIE PURDUE: Yeah, what's that?

599

MULDER: That Agent Henderson said that that note that was left at the jewelry store was written by a right-hander.

[The person steps into the bedroom silently.]

REGGIE PURDUE: Yeah, so?

MULDER: Well, this inmate at the prison, he swears he saw Barnett's right hand amputated.

[The person, Barnett, steps on Purdue's glasses and wraps his deformed right hand around Purdue's throat, choking him. Purdue gags in pain, dropping his phone as he is lifted off the bed. Cut to Mulder.]

MULDER: Reggie, you there? Hey, Reggie!

[Purdue is thrown down onto the bed, dead.]

MULDER: Reggie! Reggie, what's going on? Are you there? What the hell is going on, Reggie?

[Barnett tosses a note down onto Purdue's body. Cut to Mulder.]

MULDER: Reggie! What happened? Hey, Reggie!

[Cut back to Purdue. Barnett slinks back into the shadows. The phone is still off the hook.]

MULDER: What's going on? Are you there? What the hell's going on, Reggie?

[Later, Scully walks in to a melee of policemen, agents and crime photographers.]

SCULLY: I hope you guys brought your fine-toothed comb. I want every piece of lint collected and analyzed. If nothing turns up, run it through it again.

[She walks over to Mulder, who is staring at the desk.]

SCULLY: Mulder...

MULDER: His wife died of cancer six years ago. Never liked to talk about it.

[He walks around her.]

MULDER: As long as I knew him, he was working on a mystery novel. He promised to show it to me once, but he never did. I think he was afraid I wouldn't like it. I'm probably the only guy on the bureau he trusted enough to even ask.

SCULLY: I'm sorry.

MULDER: I'm just thinking how different things would've been if I would've taken that shot at Barnett when I had it.

SCULLY: Mulder ... we're still not a hundred percent sure that this is him.

[A siren is heard outside. Mulder points to a note on the desk wrapped in an evidence bag. She picks it up and reads it. The note reads: "Funerals for Fox's friends -- then for Fox" She looks back at him. He seems stoic.]

[In the crime lab, Henderson is looking at the new note under the electron-emission microscope.]

600

HENDERSON: Fresh ink, slightly smeared... I hate to tell you, and I'm not known to be wrong about these things, but this note was most certainly written by a right-handed person.

[She pulls away from the microscope and he looks through.]

HENDERSON: You see the pressure points inside the pen grooves? It's a dead giveaway.

MULDER: Would you be able to tell if this note was written by somebody using a prosthetic hand?

[She looks back through.]

HENDERSON: Well, this fellow... and I'm assuming from the cursive figures here that it is a male suspect... he has a fairly nice, fluid style. Judging from the pressure variations in the connectors, this person would need good finger dexterity. You're not going to get that with a prosthesis.

MULDER: So you think it's the same person that wrote the first note.

HENDERSON: Uh-huh.

[Mulder takes the note.]

HENDERSON: This the guy you think killed Agent Purdue?

MULDER: Yeah.

[He walks around her.]

HENDERSON: You know what occurred to me? You never got any prints off those notes.

[Mulder reaches behind her and takes the other note.]

HENDERSON: If this guy was wearing a glove on his pen hand, the note wouldn't be smeared like it is. For what it's worth.

[In the basement office, Scully is on the phone when Mulder walks in. The phone is still ringing on the other end, though. She hangs up.]

SCULLY: I was just trying to find you. Listen to this. According to the A.M.A., Doctor Ridley, who signed Barnett's death certificate, hasn't officially been a doctor since 1979.

MULDER: What do you mean?

SCULLY: His membership expired and wasn't renewed after the state of Maryland revoked his medical license for flagrant research malpractice and misuse of a government grant.

[He reaches for the papers she is holding.]

MULDER: Where does it say that?

SCULLY: Right here. In the federal journal for the National Institute of Health.

[She hands him the paper. They start towards the door.]

MULDER: What kind of research?

SCULLY: He was conducting experiments on young children afflicted with a disease called progeria.

601

[They walk out.]

National Institutes Of Health Bethesda, Massachusetts

[On the viewscreen is a movie of a young girl who looks very decrepit and old walking around.]

NIH DOCTOR: The patient you see is an eight-year-old girl suffering from the advanced stages of progeria.

[He walks in front of the screen and around to the agents. On the screen, the girl starts talking to a doctor.]

MULDER: She looks about ninety.

NIH DOCTOR: Only about a hundred cases have ever been reported so the disease is rare.

SCULLY: But fatal.

NIH DOCTOR: Some progeria patients make it to early adulthood but others become terminal at age seven or eight.

MULDER: What's the cause of death?

NIH DOCTOR: Clinically, it's cardiac or cerebral vascular disease but actually, these poor kids die of old age.

[The movie flips to that of Doctor Ridley with the young girl.]

MULDER: Is that Doctor Ridley?

NIH DOCTOR: Yes, in 1974. Joe Ridley thought that he could take their accelerated aging and slow it down. Initially, some of his lab work was promising but then... things got out of control. He wanted to begin human trials.

MULDER: Why wasn't he allowed to?

NIH DOCTOR: Because he hadn't met the criteria. It was all too hypothetical, too dangerous. I mean... I knew Joe Ridley. He didn't care about those kids. He talked about them as if they were laboratory animals. This terrible disease, progeria... he saw it as "a wonderful opportunity." He used those exact words with me once. "An opportunity to unlock all the secrets." When they refused to allow the human trials, he became enraged. Do you know what they called Joe Ridley behind his back?

[On the viewscreen, Ridley is talking to the camera but there is no audio.]

MULDER: What?

NIH DOCTOR: Doctor Mengele.

SCULLY: So, how did Doctor Ridley eventually lose his medical license?

NIH DOCTOR: He went ahead with the human trials secretly on an out-patient basis.

[Mulder walks over to the viewscreen.]

NIH DOCTOR: When we learned about it, of course, we terminated his grant and filed charges with the state medical boards.

SCULLY: I'm afraid your colleague, Doctor Ridley, has dropped off the face of the earth.

NIH DOCTOR: Yeah. Although, it's rumored he went to South America to continue his work.

[Mulder and Scully leave and start down the hallway.]

SCULLY: You just don't reverse aging.

602

MULDER: Ridley's found a way.

SCULLY: Listen to what you're saying.

MULDER: He wanted human research subjects, right? Prisoners. Prisoners like John Barnett.

SCULLY: Mulder, it's science fiction.

MULDER: Well, what would you have said twenty years ago about gene splicing, DNA fingerprinting, cloning, artificial intelligence?

[He pushes the down button for the elevator.]

MULDER: Maybe we're not looking for a man in his late forties after all. Maybe John Barnett has found the perfect disguise... youth.

[The elevator door opens and they go inside. Scully pushes a button and the elevator door closes.]

[In the computer lab, on the computer screen is the original picture of John Barnett. The writing in the upper left hand says "Subject: BARNETT, JOHN."]

MULDER: I want to age him backwards now. Let's start with ten years.

[The technician types in some keys and the face becomes healthier, the hair thicker.]

MULDER: Now, five years more.

[More keys are pressed and the face becomes even younger.]

MULDER: And add twenty pounds. A healthy twenty pounds.

[Mulder looks at the final result.]

[In Scully's apartment, Scully is typing on her laptop. We hear her voice over it.]

SCULLY: Ridley's notes from the human trials at N.I.H. indicate he didn't see aging as inevitable but as an opportunistic disease. A disease that could be prevented, reversed even, by changing the chemical cues that trigger certain genes. However, there is no evidence whatsoever that Ridley's work yielded any results or that his theories, all hope to the contrary, hold any validity.

[John Barnett's lizard-like hand turns a doorknob in Scully's apartment. Scully hears the door creak, tries to hear any more discernible noises, and goes back to typing.]

SCULLY: According to the leading scientific journals, projections on this kind of genetic engineering are at best speculative and futuristic.

[There's another creak. Scully, worried about the noise, takes off her glasses and stands. She takes her gun off the mantle, takes it out of the holster and loads it. Walking warily, gun pointed out, she begins to check her apartment. In the shadows, Barnett watches her. There is a knock on the door and Scully slowly makes her way to the door. More knocking.]

SCULLY: Who is it?

JOSEPH RIDLEY: Doctor Joe Ridley.

603

[Scully, perplexed, unchains her door and opens it up, pointing her gun at him. He instinctively raises his hands. Barnett, faced with this new challenge, skulks away into the shadows and out.]

[Mulder, Scully, and Ridley are all sitting down in different chairs. Scully is taking notes. Ridley's eyes have the same dead glaze over them that Barnett does.]

MULDER: If you're really Doctor Joseph Ridley, where've you been for the past five years?

JOSEPH RIDLEY: I originally continued my research in Mexico but for the last three years, I spent my time in Central America. In Belize, to be exact.

MULDER: What about Barnett?

JOSEPH RIDLEY: John Barnett is the only patient left. The only one who survived the experiments.

MULDER: What about you?

JOSEPH RIDLEY: My appearance is deceiving. I have no more than a month to live as I am dying from a rare cerebral vascular disease.

SCULLY: The same disease that kills the kids suffering from progeria?

JOSEPH RIDLEY: That's right.

[He laughs a little.]

JOSEPH RIDLEY: An unfortunate side effect of the treatment. By using the genetic components of progeria, I was able to reverse the aging process in much the same way the disease expedited it. At the same time, I and my patients became genetically susceptible to the same ailments a child of six or eight would if he had the disease.

MULDER: And what about Barnett?

JOSEPH RIDLEY: John Barnett. If I didn't so personally detest the man, I might call him my one triumph.

MULDER: Barnett's not dying.

JOSEPH RIDLEY: Only his eyes, which for some reason do not respond to the gene therapy. Otherwise, John Barnett appears to be thriving.

SCULLY: But how?

JOSEPH RIDLEY: I varied Barnett's treatment. Once I isolated the progeria receptors, I stumbled onto something quite unexpected... these same genes related to the production of myelin.

SCULLY: The material that insulates neurons in the body.

JOSEPH RIDLEY: Yes. You see, myelin is not present in the very young and by reversing the effects of aging, I found, with Barnett, I was able to regulate the production of myelin. Myelin being the material that prohibits you or I from, say, regenerating a new hand if we were to have ours cut off.

MULDER: You were able to grow John Barnett a new hand?

JOSEPH RIDLEY: Not exactly. Not a human hand, anyway. I could never get the cells to divide or behave properly.

SCULLY: I, I'm afraid to ask. What kind of hand did you grow?

604

JOSEPH RIDLEY: There had been some successful work done in London. By taking samples of what we call cell morphogens from an amputated salamander arm and applying them to the back of the creature, they were able to grow a new limb on a completely different part of the body. But only on salamanders.

MULDER: Until John Barnett.

JOSEPH RIDLEY: Yeah.

SCULLY: Unbelievable.

JOSEPH RIDLEY: My work has cost me dearly. I'm an outcast in the medical community. I was called Doctor Mengele, Doctor Frankenstein but I didn't care.

SCULLY: Because you knew that if your theories panned out...

JOSEPH RIDLEY: The man who owns the fountain of youth controls the world. When the A.M.A. censured me, certain sponsors came out of the woodwork. One of them is the U.S. government.

MULDER: They financed your research?

JOSEPH RIDLEY: You might be more surprised to learn just how high up the ladder this dirty little secret goes.

[In a bar, Deep Throat walks in and over to a table in the back, sitting down next to Mulder. He talks relatively quietly compared to the rest of the noise in the bar.]

DEEP THROAT: I know why you've contacted me. Listen and I'll explain. I am not particularly proud of the way in which this matter was handled but, uh, like it or not, John Barnett is a fact of life.

MULDER: I wish Agent Perdue were around to appreciate the irony.

DEEP THROAT: The government knew full well that Barnett was in the country. You, of course, know that Barnett stole all of Ridley's research.

MULDER: Yes, Ridley was...

DEEP THROAT: Well, what Ridley doesn't know is that our government is bargaining with Barnett to buy it from him.

[Mulder looks away, disgusted.]

MULDER: What does he want?

DEEP THROAT: A lot of money, immunity, safe haven.

MULDER: Will he get it?

[Deep Throat laughs.]

DEEP THROAT: He holds all the cards.

MULDER: You're aware that this... freak of science you're negotiating with is a murderer?

[Deep Throat nods.]

DEEP THROAT: The information he has... could change the course of mankind. Consider the options.

MULDER: I will.

605

[He gets up and leaves. Deep Throat sighs and takes a sip of his drink.]

[Scully's apartment. It is 7:20 in the morning. The sun is rising. The phone rings. Once nobody picks up, the machine clicks.]

SCULLY ON MACHINE: Hi. This is Dana Scully. Please leave a message after the tone.

[It beeps, then two more digits are dialed. Scully steps out of the shower.]

ANSWERING MACHINE: Reading messages.

[Scully looks down at the machine.]

MARGARET SCULLY ON MACHINE: Hi, Dana, it's Mom. I just wanted to call and say hi. Um, give me a call, whenever. Okay, bye.

[Another beep and the next message plays. Scully looks shocked.]

KATHY ON MACHINE: Hi, Dana, it's Kathy. Look, I hope you're still going to meet me before my cello recital...

[In the basement office, Mulder is looking at an artist's rendition of the younger Barnett. Scully puts her answering machine down on the desk.]

MULDER: What's that?

SCULLY: It's my private answering machine. Or at least it used to be.

[He puts down the paper as she on the desk.]

MULDER: What do you mean?

SCULLY: When I ran from the shower this morning, I heard someone dialing in my private code and replaying my messages. Last night, before Doctor Ridley arrived, I could have sworn that someone was in my apartment. But when Ridley knocked, I thought I'd mistaken the noise for him.

MULDER: Scully...

[She holds up the answering machine.]

SCULLY: This morning, I took this down to prints before I came here. John Barnett's left index oblique is on the underside of this unit.

[The phone rings and Scully puts the machine down as Mulder picks up.]

MULDER: Mulder.

[Barnett moans. His face is in shadows except for his left eye, which is glazed over blue.]

MULDER: Barnett?

[Barnett groans.]

JOHN BARNETT: Your new friend, Ridley?

606

JOHN BARNETT: Don't grow too fond of him... huh? He's going to die soon like the rest of your friends.

MULDER: The rest of my friends?

[Barnett is smiling.]

JOHN BARNETT: One by one.

MULDER: You're not that smart.

[Barnett chuckles and rubs his chin with a finger from his grotesque hand.]

JOHN BARNETT: Tell me, you're not going to make me prove it to you again, are you? Oh, well, no matter. It'll be your turn soon enough.

MULDER: Well, you won't get that chance.

[Barnett finds this hilarious.]

JOHN BARNETT: Oh, no?

[He laughs.]

JOHN BARNETT: Who's going to stop me, huh? Man, this is... this is the land of the free!

[His laughing dies down.]

JOHN BARNETT: Well, I'm just checking in. Bye. For now.

[Rubbing his chin, he hangs up. Mulder hangs up as well.]

MULDER: What does Barnett know about your phone messages?

SCULLY: Uh, that my mother called for no reason and I'm meeting a friend before her cello recital.

MULDER: Where's that?

Janie Taylor Memorial Recital Hall Washington, D.C.

[Mulder is briefing his fellow agents. Scully hands out various pictures of the artist's renditions of Barnett.]

MULDER: Before the performance and during, we're working at a disadvantage because we don't know exactly what Barnett looks like. Study each of these faces. Know them, particularly the eyes.

SCULLY: I'm including a diagram of the theater. You have six front entrances and four more backstage.

[She finishes handing out fliers and stands next to Mulder.]

MULDER: We know that if he shows, he'll be keying on Scully. So wherever she is, she should not leave your sight. We've got two hours before the performance. Know this place inside and out. We don't want any shots fired if we can help it. We want to take Barnett alive, okay?

[The men walk off. Mulder and Scully start off as well.]

MULDER: How are you feeling?

SCULLY: It's the first time I've ever played the target.

607

MULDER: Let's make sure it's not the last time.

[An agent walks out onto the stage as instruments are being tuned up. On the stage is Scully's friend Kathy with her cello. A man is tuning the piano. The agent walks down the center stairs and out. The man at the piano watches him go, using his grotesque hand to tighten the piano wires, his eyes glazed over in blue.]

[Mulder walks into the main room, which is loud with people talking. He makes his way through the crowd and looks around at the incoming people. Scully looks at him, Mulder winks at her.]

[Barnett, wearing gloves, takes his revolver out of a case and stuffs it under his blue sweater in his pants. He walks offstage and down the aisle calmly as the cello plays behind him. Walking into the main room, he makes his way through the crowd, looking around. He sees Scully and shoves past two people, whipping out his revolver.]

SCULLY: Gun!

[She pushes a man out of the way and is winged. The next shot is dead on in the chest and Scully falls like a rag doll. Mulder runs over, gun drawn. He pushes a man out of the way.]

MULDER: Down!

[Barnett sneers, lowering his gun as people scream. He runs into the main room as Mulder runs over to Scully, looking down at her.]

MULDER: Check her out!

[A man checks on Scully. Barnett runs down the aisle and on stage, grabbing Kathy by the neck and standing behind her, holding the gun to her head. Mulder runs in followed by two other agents. She struggles against his grip.]

JOHN BARNETT: Get back, Mulder!

[Kathy moans and gasps loudly. Mulder turns back to the other agents.]

MULDER: Back off, back off...

[Mulder aims his gun.]

JOHN BARNETT: Don't even think about it!

MULDER: Just let her go.

JOHN BARNETT: Go ahead and shoot. Go ahead, man. Shoot, Mulder! What are you afraid of, huh? What, it's against regulations... huh? No, man. You need me alive, don't you? Because I'm the only one who knows where the research is! Huh? So I could shoot her! And you just to live with it, don't you, huh?

MULDER: Shut up!

KATHY: Please, no. Please, please, please...

[Mulder lowers his gun.]

JOHN BARNETT: How about it, Mulder?

[Mulder raises it back up with steel resolve.]

KATHY: Please, please, please, please, please...

JOHN BARNETT: Just like old times, huh? Huh?

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[Mulder pulls the trigger. Barnett's eyes glaze over differently as his whole body tenses up. Kathy gasps and he slowly falls. She screams and starts crying. Mulder stares at the stage for a second, then looks back at the other two agents.]

MULDER: Call an ambulance!

AGENT: Okay... it's okay, Scully, an ambulance is on the way.

[Scully's eyes burst open. She moves slowly, her eyes focusing.]

AGENT: You all right? Don't try to move...

[She moans and looks down at her chest, pulling open the shirt to reveal damaged Kevlar. She lets her head fall back and sighs in relief. Sirens pull into earshot.]

[In a hospital, Mulder looks in through the window as doctors and nurses work on Barnett. A man-in-black is interrogating Barnett as well.]

MAN-IN-BLACK: Where are they? Can you hear me?

DOCTOR: One, two, three...

MAN-IN-BLACK: Where'd you hide them?

[Mulder looks back at Scully, who approaches him. The noise in the operating room becomes a low din.]

MULDER: How you feeling?

SCULLY: Like somebody kicked me in the ribs.

MULDER: That bullet went through eight layers of Kevlar, you're lucky to be alive.

SCULLY: What about him?

MULDER: Well, they flew in three specialists to try to save his life. That guy in the ugly suit there is probably C.I.A. He's been trying to talk to him.

SCULLY: Is Barnett conscious?

MULDER: Yeah, but he's not talking.

[They stare at the melee in the emergency room.]

SCULLY: Mulder, I know what you did wasn't by the book.

MULDER: Tells you a lot about the book, doesn't it?

[They stare at each other. Barnett tenses up as nurses hold his hands down.]

MAN-IN-BLACK: Barnett! Barnett, come on! Where are the papers?

[Barnett's salamander hand falls limp as he flatlines.]

MAN: Vitals dropping...

DOCTOR: Barnett... shock him, now!

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[Barnett stares at Mulder through the glass, dead.]

SCULLY: They lost him.

MULDER: Bastard will take that research with him to the grave.

SCULLY: Where do you think it is?

[A busy airport. Mulder talks to Scully over the scene.]

MULDER: Who knows? If Barnett didn't destroy it, he could have stashed it anywhere. Which would have a certain cruel irony, wouldn't it? Scientific knowledge that could change the course of mankind buried out in a field somewhere or sitting in some safe deposit box. Getting old, just like the rest of us.

SCULLY: If he didn't destroy it, chances are that somehow, someday, somebody will find it.

MULDER: And when they do... maybe he can get his revenge from beyond the grave but somehow, I feel like we haven't heard the last from John Barnett.

[Many people pass the airport locker numbered 935, never suspecting what lies inside.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Dick Anthony Williams (Reggie Purdue) Alan Boyce (Young John Barnett) Christine Estabrook (Agent Henderson) Graham Jarvis (NIH Doctor) and Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat)

Co-Starring:

Robin Mossley (Dr. Ridley) Merrilyn Gann (Prosecuting Attorney) Gordon Tipple (Joe Crandall) William B. Davis (CIA Agent)

Featuring:

Courtney Arciago (Young Child) David Petersen (Older Barnett) Robin Douglas (Computer Tekkie)

1x15 Young at Heart - notes From "X-Files Confidential": "I liked the script very much," recalls director Michael Lange, "and I think I stayed fairly close to the original draft. I liked it because it had a lot of good spookiness to it. To me, the intriguing part was the doctor's research into being able to reverse the aging process, which I wish we could have explored more.

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In my first meeting with Chris Carter on the tone of the show," he adds, "Chris said, 'Remember one thing: On The X-Files, the Devil is in the details.' I write it big on my script whenever I do the show, because it's the details that make it work, as opposed to broad strokes. As a director, you really have to pay attention to all those details, or else no one is happy." One problem, according to Glen Morgan, was the fact that the episode aired right after 'Lazarus,' and there were certain similarities between the shows. "When I looked at my bulletin board at the time," he reflects, "I saw that there was a pattern of 'Shadows' through 'Space' where we were trying to scare people. Then starting with 'Beyond the Sea' I think we were trying to do more intellectual stories. Then we tried to go back to a little more visceral storytelling. I think we may have been a little off course on some of them. Chris has said, 'Where's the big boo? Where's the real scare scene?' And I don't know if they had those." For Robert Goodwin, 'Young at Heart' is one of the most emotional episodes of the first season. "When Mulder and Scully are finding out about this doctor, they're running this old scratchy black and white footage of him in the institute he ran back in the fifties and sixties, in which he was working with children who had progeria, the disease that aged them, so that by the time they're ten they're like seventy-year-olds. We needed that footage to run, and Paul Rabwin contacted the Progeria Society and we actually brought a darling little girl up from San Diego who had the disease. We shot this footage with her. Michael Lange directed. He has two little girls and I have a couple of kids, and it was a very, very touching moment for all of us. We felt it was good because it made the disease visible, so it helped create more public awareness of it. On an individual basis, when we contacted the parents we found out they were big fans of the show, as was the little girl. It was almost like a 'Make a Wish' kind of thing; it was wonderful." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Washington, DC Back story: Carter had another fight with Fox's standards and practices department over the scene where Agent Purdue is strangled by Barnett's salamander hand. The producer admits to losing that particular skirmish, with Fox – citing concerns about the violence issue – feeling uncomfortable about letting the murder scene drag on, so Carter shortened the sequence considerably. Margin note: John Barnett was Mulder's very first case with the Violent Crimes Unit. This is the first episode where Mulder kills anyone. From CarterPhile: Original Air Date: 2.11.94 Episode # 1x15 Written by Scott Kauffer and Chris Carter Young at Heart is a standalone ep that examines the possibility of medical research being pushed far beyond moral boundaries. Financed by our government (covertly, of course) a doctor experiments on prison inmates to discover a means of reversing aging. That he succeeds on at least one subject causes Mulder immense grief: a cold-blooded killer whom Mulder put away on his first case out of the academy comes back to kill Mulder's former ASAC, Reggie Purdue. (That straight-arrow Reggie sees fit to warn Mulder that it might be someone inside the FBI setting up the taunting notes found at the crime scenes makes you wonder whether Mulder really is paranoid enough!) The chillingly real salamander hand grafted onto Barnett is a wonderfully creepy touch, as are the dying eyes which don't respond to the gene therapy. Although the ending action sequence relies on a highly-unlikely event (it takes years to learn to tune a piano, and the cellist would have known if it was being done incorrectly), nevertheless the stake out and subsequent shooting of Scully make for a taut finale. (Even if we all guessed that Scully was wearing a vest. *g*) The final irony of CSM-as-CIA-guy desperately trying to learn the location of the hidden "Fountain of Youth experiment" notes -- unsuccessfully -- gives us something to cheer about. Always nice to see him lose a round. *g* Script Notes: Four drafts: January 4, 1994 (white), January 10, 1994 (blue), January 11, 1994 (pink), and January 18, 1994 (yellow). At the end of the Teaser, when inmate Crandall starts to leave the seemingly lifeless Barnett after Dr. Ridley threatens him, he looks back at Barnett and sees: THE DEAD FACE OF JOHN BARNETT Featuring his cloudy eyes. Dead as the eyes of a Great White. But staring out at Crandall nonetheless. Until they BLINK. (Those lines were added in the blue revision.) Another blue revision item is this description of the handwriting analyst: The woman's voice belongs to HEATHER HENDERSON, late 30s. A brilliant lab technician. She and Mulder are friends, though their mutual admiration has become a kind of mock-annoyed one-upsmanship. A gruff flirtation. As Mulder pushes Henderson for answers, we have this exchange:

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MULDER So what do you think? HENDERSON You just brought this in ten minutes ago. MULDER You're slipping, Henderson. HENDERSON Ten minutes may be enough time for you, Mulder. Of course, I wouldn't know that from personal experience. When Mulder and Scully visit Crandall at the prison, he tells them that he knew Barnett "pretty well." Scully comments that since Barnett left him everything in his will, he must have known him better than just "pretty well." Crandall looks somewhat sheepish in light of the fact. CRANDALL I used to change his bandages. We got to ... know each other. The feeling being that this relationship might have been more than a little friendly male bonding. After Reggie is killed and his assailant leaves the taunting note for Mulder, the camera focuses on: Reggie, the phone receiver and the handwritten note making up a rather macabre still life. Deep Throat tells Mulder about the government trying to buy Ridley's stolen notes from Barnett. Mulder can only stare at Deep Throat. Rage would be futile at this point. Any outburst a waste of time. Having learned of our government's role in the experiments, Mulder walks away from Deep Throat. The next scene starts: EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - SUNRISE (STOCK) The first golden rays casting long shadows on America's capital. Shedding new light on the inner workings of power. When Scully brings her answering machine to Mulder, the code number for retrieving the messages was written on the bottom of it. The code was 13. The biggest change from the script was that it was Scully, not Mulder, who shot Barnett. Here's how it reads, as Barnett stands on the stage with Scully's friend -- the cellist -- in a headlock, holding a gun to her head: Barnett squeezes the trigger slightly. ANGLE ON MULDER still with his gun aimed at Barnett. When - BANG!! A shot rings out. WIDE ON SCENE Everyone has their gun pointed at someone but it is not apparent who fired the shot. CLOSE ON BARNETT a strange, confused look on his face. Until his grip on the Cellist weakens and his eyes roll back in his head. As his knees buckle and he slumps from frame, the Cellist starts to SCREAM. CAMERA RACKS FOCUS on Scully, standing in the wings, still in the shooting position. ANGLE ON MULDER bringing his gun slowly down. Staring at Scully for one startled instant, before: MULDER Call an ambulance! Later, after Scully has her ribs wrapped (Mulder tells her that the bullet went through "both" -- not eight -- layers of Kevlar), Scully's line to Mulder is, "I know what I did wasn't by the book, Mulder." There is no voiceover scripted at the end. The number of the locker where the notes are stashed was originally designated as 101356.

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- Title: "Young at Heart" refers to the newly youthful nature of the Monster-of-the-Week in this episode. It's also the title of a song, written by Johnny Richards and Carolyn Leigh. Frank Sinatra was the first performer to record the song, which became a million-selling hit in 1953. The song was such a hit that a movie that Sinatra was filming with Doris Day at the time was renamed to coincide with the title of the song, and the song was included in the opening and closing credits of the film.

-- An important timeline reference: Mulder said he was 28 years old, right out of the Academy.

-- Michael Lange also directed "Miracle Man," "Ascension," and "Unrequited."

-- Reportedly, Gillian Anderson had a frightening dream about Scully being shot in this episode and as a result, was just a bit shaky on the set when the scene was actually filmed.

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-- Carter had another fight with Fox's Standards and Practices Department over the scene where Agent Purdue is strangled by Barnett's salamander hand. The producer admitted to losing that particular skirmish, with Fox -- citing concerns about the violence issue -- feeling uncomfortable about letting the murder scene drag on, so Carter shortened the sequence considerably.

-- "Young at Heart" was William B. Davis's first appearance on the show since the "Pilot." He had no lines in this episode either, and was in an uncredited role referred to as the "CIA Agent" in the script, rather than as the Cigarette Smoking Man.

-- Oopsie! In the close-up shot of Mulder just before he shot Barnett, his black ear piece disappeared.

-- Esteemed African-American actor Dick Anthony Williams (Reggie Purdue) played Malcolm X in the 1978 miniseries King and also appeared in Edward Scissorhands, Omen III: The Final Conflict, and the TV series The Man From Atlantis and a recurring role on Home Front among his credits. Williams is the father of actor Gary Anthony Williams, who played Abraham "Abe" Kenarban (Stevie's father) in Malcolm in the Middle.

-- Christine Estabrook, who played handwriting expert Agent Henderson in "Young at Heart," found greater fame a few years later as the eventually murdered busybody of Wisteria Lane -- Martha Huber in Desperate Housewives. Her sister on Desperate Housewives was played by Harriet Sansom Harris, who played Eve in the X-Files episode of the same name. Continuing the X- Files/Desperate Housewives Season 1 nexus, Felicity Huffman, one of the stars of Desperate Housewives played Dr. Nancy Da Silva in "Ice."

-- Graham Jarvis (NIH Doctor) played Charlie Haggers in the 70's soap opera send-up Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Jarvis also had a recurring role as Charles Jackson on 7th Heaven. He passed away in April 2003.

-- Once & Future Retreads: Robin Mossley (Dr. Joe Ridley) was Dr. Vance Randolph in "Our Town," and Dr. Kingley Looker in "Tunguska/Terma." Merrilyn Gann (Prosecuting Attorney) was Mrs. Asekoff in "Detour." Gordon Tipple (Joe Crandall) was a Detective in "Eve," Hepcat Helm in "Humbug," and the Assistant Manager in "Chinga."

1x16 E.B.E. - transcript

Writers: Glen Morgan and James Wong Director: William Graham Original airdate: 18 February 1994

Transcribed by: Vic Edited by Libby

The Skies Of Iraq 37th Parallel Present Day

[An Iraqi fighter pilot is flying when he spots a UFO. He looks down at his radar and sees that the UFO does not show up.]

IRAQI PILOT: [in Arabic] Base, this is patrol six. Request I.D. on object 25 miles from my position bearing three-four-one.

[In the Iraqi base, the UFO does not show up on Ground Control's radar either.]

IRAQI OFFICER: [in Arabic] Negative on object. Are your bearings correct?

[The pilot looks around for the object.]

IRAQI PILOT: [in Arabic] It was there a second ago.

[There is a bright flash, he screams.]

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[The radar now shows the plane and various other blips on the screen.]

IRAQI OFFICER: [in Arabic] You're under attack! You're under attack!

[The pilot attaches his helmet. The officer screams various Arabic words over the intercom. There is another bright flash, and the pilot grunts. The UFO whizzes by as the pilot locks on.]

IRAQI PILOT: [in Arabic] I'm locked on!

[He fires a missile and a huge fireball erupts in the sky.]

IRAQI PILOT: [in Arabic] I got him!

Hakkari, Turkey Nato Surveillance Station Turkey/Iraq Border

[Various military calls can be heard over the radio. There are officers sleeping. The lights grow a little dimmer and a loud explosion is heard outside. The two men run over to the window and see the UFO exploding in the forest.]

1st OFFICER: Oh, man.

[The second officer pulls up a seat at the radio and picks up the headphones.]

2nd OFFICER: This is Southern Crescent to Red Crescent. We've got a downed plane at camp perimeter.

RADIO: This is Red Crescent, that's a negative, we have nothing in the sky at this time.

[The second officer looks back out the window briefly.]

2nd OFFICER: Well, we've got something down here. Advise Medivac unit to be on stand-by, we're going to check it out.

RADIO: Roger.

[The two officers get up and put their hats on. The 1st Officer takes a fire extinguisher. The 2nd takes a first aid-kit.]

RADIO: Medivac One, Medivac One, this is Red Crescent, vector one reports downed aircraft in their area, over.

[Another UFO flies down and hovers over the crash site.]

12:20 a.m. Central Time Route 100 Reagan, Tennessee

[An unmarked truck drives down the road.]

MAN ON C.B.: Breaker, breaker, this is Big Flight, anybody out there with me, come back to me, over.

WOMAN ON C.B.: I read you loud and clear, this is Betty Blue, come on...

[The truck driver turns on the radio.]

RADIO: From Opryland, it's the Grand Old Opry on WSM Radio 650. Brought to you by Goody's Headache Powder. When the night's been too long and the party's been too hearty, Goody's Headache Powder will straighten you right out.

[The truck driver looks down at his shotgun in the passenger seat.]

RADIO: And you have my word on that. Goody.

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[The radio grows very staticky and the channels rapidly change. The driver fiddles around with the controls, but to no avail. He turns it off.]

C.B. MALE CALLER #1: I saw it, it was cigar-shaped, red and green lights, fast as hell.

C.B. FEMALE CALLER: I seen three of them flying over Chester County.

C.B. MALE CALLER #2: Right, right, and six troopers were chasing them down 22! Whoa, I see one now! And he's over the watertower!

[The driver looks up at the C.B., then hears sirens. A police car races by his truck.]

C.B. FEMALE CALLER: I see it too! Red and green lights, just like you said!

[The C.B. grows garbled when suddenly everything in the truck shuts off. The truck skids along the road as the driver desperately tries to stop and steer the truck on the road. It finally stops, and the driver looks at the sky, takes his shotgun and flashlight, and gets out of the car. Another loud hum can be heard. He cocks his gun and walks around to the back. Looking up, he sees a UFO. The cargo doors behind him swing opening, revealing various brown boxes. He spins around and shines the flashlight. Some bushes near him start rustling, and he shoots his gun at the bushes three times.]

[Route 100, Reagan, Tennessee. It is now morning. A person starts two stopwatches, leaving one on the truck. He pulls out a geiger counter and takes his backpack. We see it is Mulder. Scully picks up a shell off the ground and puts in an evidence bag. Mulder turns on the counter and starts walking around. The counter clicks.]

SCULLY: From the trucker's description, the shape he fired upon could conceivably have been a mountain lion.

MULDER: Conceivably.

SCULLY: The National Weather Service last night reported atmospheric conditions in this area which were possibly conducive to lightning.

MULDER: Possibly.

[The clicking grows stronger. Scully takes a picture of another shell on the ground. The Geiger counter goes off the charts at a leaf that was crushed by something.]

SCULLY: It is feasible that the truck was struck by lightning, creating the electrical failure.

MULDER: It's feasible.

[He opens an evidence bag and takes a sample of the leaf. Scully stands up.]

SCULLY: And you know, there's a marsh over there. Those lights the driver saw may have been swamp gas.

MULDER: Swamp gas?

SCULLY: It's a natural phenomenon in which phosphine and methane rising from decaying organic matter ignite, creating globes of blue flame.

[She crosses over to him.]

MULDER: Happens to me when I eat Dodger Dogs. How can a dozen witnesses including a squad of police vehicles in three counties become hysterical over swamp gas?

[He gets up and walks back to the car. Scully follows.]

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MULDER: I've investigated multiple sightings before: Chesapeake Bay, the Okobogee Lake, Area 51 in Nevada. None had this much supporting evidence. Anecdotal data, exhaust residue, radiation levels five times the norm.

SCULLY: Mulder, none of that evidence is conclusive.

MULDER: The only question for me is, why was the truck driver singled out?

SCULLY: Isn't it more plausible that an exhausted truck driver became swept up in the hysteria and fired upon hallucinations? I mean, after all, the road can play tricks on you.

MULDER: Yeah, it can play tricks on you. But not like this.

[Mulder stops both stopwatches. He places them down on the truck.]

MULDER: I started these stopwatches at the same time.

[The one on the left, that he had taken with him, reads around 37 seconds. The one on the right, that he had left on the truck, reads about 28.]

Police Station Lexington, Tennessee

[The truck driver, named Ranheim, is sitting in an interrogation room with Mulder and Scully. The driver has rashes all over his face.]

RANHEIM: I don't know why they're holding me. This "firing a weapon on a county road" charge is a lot of horse manure. I'm a vet and I know how to handle a gun.

MULDER: Mr. Ranheim, I'd appreciate it if you could elaborate on the report you filed last night regarding your encounter.

[Ranheim rubs his eye and sighs. Pause.]

RANHEIM: It was round. Like a saucer. And green and orange lights.

MULDER: Last night, you said it was cigar-shaped and black.

RANHEIM: I didn't ask for this to happen.

[He coughs.]

RANHEIM: All I want is to deliver my shipment of auto parts and forget...

[He starts coughing wildly. Mulder and Scully watch momentarily, then Scully pours him some water. She pushes it over to him.]

SCULLY: Pardon me for asking, but how long have you had that cough?

[He pushes the water back.]

RANHEIM: Why?

SCULLY: I'm just concerned, you said you were a veteran.

RANHEIM: What's that got to do with this?

SCULLY: The cough, the fever, the rash. Those are all symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome.

RANHEIM: I was never in the Gulf War.

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MULDER: Ok. So, how long have you not been yourself?

[Pause.]

RANHEIM: Since the thing last night.

[Mulder is about to ask another question when a man in a suit, Police Chief Rivers, walks in with an officer.]

RIVERS: Mr. Ranheim, I'm Police Chief Rivers.

[He shakes Ranheim's hand.]

RIVERS: Please, forgive the misunderstanding. Your truck's been squared away. You may go.

MULDER: I'd like to examine the truck.

RIVERS: That won't be necessary.

[Ranheim gets up and leaves. Mulder starts to follow.]

MULDER: This man has had an alleged close encounter. The truck undoubtedly contains important trace evidence.

[Ranheim stops Mulder.]

MULDER: Sir! If I may...

RIVERS: You've gotten all you're going to get out of this county. We will no longer cooperate in your investigation.

SCULLY: Why?

RIVERS: Just... go away.

[He leaves. Scully looks at Mulder and is about to say something.]

MULDER: Not... not here.

[They take their things, and Mulder holds the door for Scully as they leave. He closes the door behind him.]

[At an airport. A man prints out a rent-a-car slip for the agents and hands it to Scully, who starts filling it out. Behind them, a woman is shaking her pen, which is obviously not working. She is trying to fill out a form as well. Her son is standing next to her and her daughter is sitting on the desk.]

MULDER: It's obvious someone got to the police chief. Ranheim was hiding something.

SCULLY: Ranheim was sick.

MULDER: He only became sick last night.

[A woman walks up to Scully.]

WOMAN: Excuse me, can I use your pen?

SCULLY: Mm-hmm.

[She hands the pen to the woman.]

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SCULLY: What are you suggesting, that Gulf War Syndrome is caused by UFOs?

MULDER: UFOs are frequently witnessed by soldiers during wartime.

[The woman hands the pen back.]

WOMAN: Thanks.

[The two agents start off towards the bus.]

SCULLY: Mulder, the only UFOs that soldiers are likely to see are secret military aircraft.

MULDER: What if that's what made the soldiers in Iraq sick? The exhaust or fuel from a classified aircraft or its weapon.

[They board the bus and sit down.]

SCULLY: Well, there is a base in Little Rock. You think that's what the Air Force was flying that night?

MULDER: They'd deny it, but it could possibly explain how Ranheim developed his symptoms.

SCULLY: Possibly.

[The bus starts moving.]

MULDER: I want to talk to some people when we get back to Washington.

SCULLY: Mulder, the military isn't going to talk about classified aircraft.

MULDER: No, these guys are like an extreme government watchdog group. They publish a magazine called "The Lone Gunman." Some of their information is first-rate; covert actions, classified weapons. Some of their ideas are downright spooky.

[In the Lone Gunmen's Office. Mulder and Scully are sitting in front of the window. A man named Langly, long hair, unshaven, Ramones t-shirt on, is walking around. Another man named Byers, clean-cut, moustache and beard, suit and tie, is standing in the corner. The third man, named Frohike, is small and toad-like, takes a picture of Scully.]

LANGLY: So, check it out, Mulder, today I had breakfast with the guy who shot John F. Kennedy.

MULDER: Is that so?

LANGLY: Old dude now, but yeah. Says he was dressed as a cop on the grassy knoll.

BYERS: And, Mulder, listen to this. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Russian Social Democrats? He's being put into power by the most heinous and evil force of the 20th century.

MULDER: Barney?

[Scully smiles, Langly chuckles. Byers seems unamused.]

BYERS: The C.I.A.

SCULLY: Huh?

LANGLY: Is this your skeptical partner?

[Frohike takes another picture.]

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FROHIKE: She's hot.

BYERS: You don't believe that the C.I.A., threatened by a loss of power and funding because of the collapse of the cold war, wouldn't dream of having the old enemy back?

SCULLY: I think you give the government too much credit.

[The phone rings. Langly walks over and picks up the phone and turns on a tape recorder.]

SCULLY: I mean, the government can't control the deficit or manage crime...

LANGLY: [into phone] Lone Gunman.

SCULLY: ...what makes you think they could plan and execute such an elaborate conspiracy?

FROHIKE: She is hot.

MULDER: Settle down, Frohike.

[Byers walks over to them.]

BYERS: I'm not talking about a bunch of idiots up on the hill trying to bone the Capitol pages. We're talking about a dark network, a government within a government, controlling our every move.

SCULLY: How can they do that?

BYERS: How? I'll show you how. You got a twenty dollar bill?

SCULLY: Hmmm... I'll check.

[She digs into her back pocket, looking at Mulder, who smiles back. She pulls out a twenty.]

SCULLY: Um-hmmm.

[She hands it to Byers and he goes over to the table. Mulder waves his hands like "I don't know."]

LANGLY: [still on phone] Uh-huh... yeah...

[Byers holds the bill in front of him and rips off its left side. Scully crosses over to him. Langly can still be heard unintelligibly in the background.]

SCULLY: Hey!

[Mulder laughs. Scully looks back at him. Byers pulls out the magnetic anti-counterfeiting strip.]

BYERS: That's just one method. They use this magnetic strip to track you. Whenever you go through a metal detector at an airport, they know exactly how much you're carrying, and where you're carrying it.

MULDER: Hey, Byers, it is a federal crime to deface money.

[Scully crosses back to Mulder, holding the ripped bill. Langly hangs up.]

SCULLY: This strip is an anti-counterfeiting measure.

LANGLY: How come it's on the inside? Other countries put that strip on the outside.

BYERS: What are they hiding?

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[Mulder waves his hands to get their attention.]

MULDER: O... o... ok, alright. What do you know about the Gulf War Syndrome?

LANGLY: Agent Orange of the 90's.

BYERS: Artillery shells coated with depleted uranium.

MULDER: Have you heard of any classified planes being flown during the Persian Gulf War?

BYERS: Why would you need to expose a secret plane to an air force that runs to Iran whenever you take to the air?

MULDER: What about UFO activity during that period?

[Langly and even Byers laugh.]

LANGLY: Yeah, UFOs caused the Gulf War Syndrome, that's a good one.

BYERS: That's why we like you, Mulder, your ideas are weirder than ours.

[Mulder laughs a bit. Scully nods her head slightly in agreement.]

[In the basement office, Mulder is looking at the picture she took of the shell on the ground with a magnifying glass and another one of the road. Scully is writing.]

SCULLY: Those were the most paranoid people I have ever met. I don't know how you could think that what they say is even remotely plausible.

MULDER: I think it's remotely plausible that someone might think you're hot.

[Scully looks at Mulder. She shakes her pen and smiles. It still doesn't write, so she pulls out ink and unscrews her pen.]

SCULLY: Did you see the way they answered the telephone? They probably think that every call that they get is monitored and they're followed wherever they go. It's a form of self-delusion. It makes them think that what they're doing is important enough that somebody would...

[She looks at her pen, which has various forms of circuitry in it.]

MULDER: What's the matter?

[He looks back and crosses over to Scully, who is holding the pen with her hand on her desk. Mulder kneels down and pulls her hand closer, inspecting the pen. It contains a listening device.]

[Mulder's apartment. Mulder walks over to his light, unscrews the lightbulb and puts in a blue one. He opens the blinds, turns off all the other lights and sits down. The blue glow can be seen from outside.]

[Hours have seemingly passed, and Mulder is asleep on the couch. The phone rings and Mulder wakes up. He gets up, crosses to his desk and picks up the phone.]

MULDER: Hello?

[A click is heard.]

620

[Mulder is sitting on a park bench, eating sunflower seeds. Deep Throat walks up behind him and sits down.]

DEEP THROAT: Pitchers and catchers report for spring training this week.

MULDER: Yeah. What are we doing here?

[Deep Throat chuckles.]

DEEP THROAT: Missed your calling, did you, Mr. Mulder? Ah, maybe this year we can catch a game at Candleton Yards. Of course, we wouldn't be able to sit together.

MULDER: That's too bad. Something tells me you'd have the connections to get great seats.

DEEP THROAT: Any park in the country.

[A camera clicks. Deep Throat quickly turns away, facing Mulder, to avoid more pictures.]

MULDER: It's just a tourist.

DEEP THROAT: In our line, nothing is just what it seems.

MULDER: What am I onto? We go down to investigate a truck driver's encounter with a UFO and the next thing we're discovering electronic surveillance equipment. Who's listening to us?

[Deep Throat looks at him, then turns away.]

MULDER: Why won't you tell me?

[Deep Throat sighs, pulls an envelope out of his trenchcoat, hands it to Mulder and walks away.]

MULDER: What am I onto?

[Deep Throat stops and turns a bit.]

DEEP THROAT: A dangerous path.

[He keeps walking.]

[In the basement office, Mulder is reading a paper that reads this at the top:

"Subject: Response to Request for Inf -- Contact and Other Related I -- Via: INTERCEPT IRAQI TRANSMISSION To: Commanding Officer, Majestic Project,"

The folder it is in reads "TOP SECRET." We can hear the fight between the Iraqi pilot and the UFO in the background, we then switch to the same shots as before: the flash, the man screaming, the shot and the UFO explosion in the air. Scully walks in. She crosses over, hands some papers to Mulder, and sits down.]

SCULLY: The truck is bogus. And so's the truck driver, Ranheim. First I checked his manifest. It listed a truck carrying 180 cartons of auto parts weighing 3,100 pounds. Then I checked with three weigh stations along his route and they have it listed at 5,100 pounds. There's something in that truck, Mulder, and it's not auto parts. And of course, nobody ever reported him. Furthermore, Ranheim lied to us about being in the Gulf War. His real name is Frank Druce - and I worked hard to get this one. He was Special Operations Black Beret in Mosul, northern Iraq. Also, he didn't get sick from the encounter the other night. He's been to the V.A. hospital for treatments three times this past year.

621

[Mulder shakes his head angrily.]

MULDER: We had it.

[He gets up.]

MULDER: We had it and we let it go. Four days ago, an Iraqi Air Force pilot shot down an unidentified flying object. The wreckage, and possibly the occupants, were recovered by the army. Ranheim, the truck driver, would be a perfect escort for the wreckage and/or bodies out of Iraq to a laboratory in the United States. That would explain why the truck weighs so much more than listed. The military has, in the past, transported dangerous materials and weapons in unmarked trucks across the country.

[He laughs. Scully looks perplexed.]

MULDER: I'm beginning to sound like those guys over at "The Lone Gunman," right?

SCULLY: Where did you obtain this information?

MULDER: Let's just say it's a source with a deep background.

[Pause. Mulder sits down next to her.]

SCULLY: I want to know all about him.

MULDER: All I know is that he's guided us away from harm.

SCULLY: How do you know that? We work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and we're being bugged. What does that tell you?

MULDER: That tells me that not everything is as it appears to be.

SCULLY: Exactly. And for all we know, this "deep background" is the one responsible for the bug.

MULDER: He's never lied to me. I won't break that confidence. I trust him.

SCULLY: Mulder, you're the only one I trust.

MULDER: Then you're gonna have to trust me.

[Pause. Scully leans back in her chair.]

MULDER: Did you find out where the truck is now?

SCULLY: Generally. It's heading west. Towards Colorado.

MULDER: Ok, we've got to try and intercept it and see what's on board.

[He gets up.]

MULDER: I'm gonna go get a few things, I'll meet you back at your place in an hour, okay?

[He takes his coat, then puts his hand on her shoulder. He walks out and she leans forward onto the desk.]

[Mulder's apartment. Mulder unlocks his door and walks in. He tries the light switch, but it doesn't work.]

622

DEEP THROAT: I cut the main breaker.

[Mulder is about to pull his gun when he sees it is Deep Throat sitting in a chair. He sighs, closes the door and crosses over to him.]

MULDER: You risk exposure coming here.

[Deep Throat takes out another envelope.]

DEEP THROAT: What I have here is too important.

[He stands up, crosses over and hands Mulder the envelope.]

DEEP THROAT: The photograph in that envelope was taken by an officer at Fort Benning, Georgia. 17 UFOs were spotted in one hour.

MULDER: Is that where the Iraqi wreckage is being held? Are UFOs monitoring the area?

DEEP THROAT: Nice place you have here.

[He turns and opens the door.]

MULDER: Wait, wait.

[Deep Throat stops in the doorway and looks back at Mulder.]

MULDER: I, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you. You've helped my work so much and you've never asked for anything in return. And I know you've put yourself at great risk to do so.

[Deep Throat looks a bit ashamed and leaves, closing the door behind him. Mulder crosses over to the table and picks up the envelope. Opening it, he finds the picture.]

[Scully's apartment. The picture is of a policeman standing by a car with trees in the background. The UFO hovers above the trees next to the moon. The UFO is clearly visible in the windshield. Scully is looking at it with a magnifying glass.]

MULDER: This is the best photographic evidence I have ever seen. When I first saw the Gulf Breeze photos, I knew they were a hoax but this... this is the quality of evidence the government has amassed for decades at the highest classified levels. That business with the truck was just a decoy to keep anyone looking closely away from Fort Benning where they are keeping the remains of the Iraqi UFO. We've got to leave for Georgia immediately, Scully...

SCULLY: Mulder, this photograph is a fake.

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: Look.

[He kneels down and she shows him the policeman through the magnifying glass.]

SCULLY: This soldier's shadow is allegedly created by the lights from the UFO. But it falls in a direction contradictory to the craft's position.

MULDER: There can be an off-camera light source creating that shadow.

SCULLY: Now look closely at the color of the light reflected in the windshield. Now that reflection should be from the red lights in the UFO but it doesn't match the color of the ship's light.

623

MULDER: There's probably a degree of tint in the windshield or the gradation could be attributed to atmospheric conditions.

SCULLY: Mulder, we should have it analyzed.

[Mulder stands.]

MULDER: Why don't you just admit it, Scully? You're determined not to believe him.

SCULLY: Well, maybe you're too determined to believe him.

[Mulder collects the pictures and takes his coat.]

MULDER: I am determined to follow a lead that may result in the proof of the existence of extraterrestrial biological entities. I need to go.

[He starts off.]

SCULLY: Mulder, listen to me.

MULDER: No.

SCULLY: Please, will you just hear me?

[She stands. He stops and turns around.]

SCULLY: I have never met anyone so passionate and dedicated to a belief as you. It's so intense that sometimes it's blinding. But there are others who are watching you, who know what I know and whereas I can respect and admire your passion, they will use it against you. Mulder, the truth is out there but so are lies.

MULDER: Thank you.

[He turns and leaves.]

8:30 a.m. Eastern Time F.B.I. Headquarters Washington, D.C.

[Scully opens the door to the basement office, puts down her coat and briefcase, takes her cup and goes to get coffee. She pours some, then some sugar and then she stirs it. She returns to the room and is shocked to see that the desk lamp is on and her briefcase is now laying down on the desk instead of standing up. She turns to see Mulder walking towards her, photo in hand.]

MULDER: I had the photo analyzed by the bureau's computers. Initially, it appears to be legitimate. The film grain matches, the pattern and density, color levels, shading... then I noticed this.

[He sits down and shows her the moon in the picture. He then shows her the reflection.]

MULDER: It's the moon, half full. I had the reflection in this window enlarged to 25. There's the moon again, a quarter full. Not to mention the fact that the window couldn't even catch the moon's reflection from that angle. You were right, Scully. It's a fake. He tried to deceive us. Now we're alone on this. There's no one we can trust. They went to a lot of trouble to put us on the wrong track. There's something here that no one's supposed to find.

[An aquarium. Mulder is standing at the shark tank, watching them swim. Deep Throat comes over.]

DEEP THROAT: Why didn't you leave for Fort Benning?

624

MULDER: The photograph was a fake.

[No response]

MULDER: At least you're not insulting me further by feigning appalled surprise.

DEEP THROAT: On the contrary, I think a compliment is in order. That photo was prepared by our very best.

MULDER: I thought you were my ally.

DEEP THROAT: Oh, I am.

MULDER: Yeah, imagine if Eisenhower told the rest of the Allies that D-Day would take place in Belgium.

DEEP THROAT: [angrier] Mr. Mulder, I place my life in great jeopardy every time we speak.

[Mulder looks away, calmer.]

DEEP THROAT: I've been a participant in some of the most insidious lies and witness to deeds that no crazed man could imagine. I spent years watching you from my, uh, lofty position to know that you were the one I could trust.

MULDER: Then why did you lie to me?

DEEP THROAT: I needed to divert you. You and Scully are excellent investigators and your motives are just. However, there still exist some secrets that should remain secret - truths that people are just not ready to know.

MULDER: Who are you to decide that for me?

DEEP THROAT: The world's reaction to such knowledge would be far too dangerous.

MULDER: Dangerous. You mean in the sense of outrage, like the reaction to the Kennedy assassinations or M.I.A.s or radiation experiments on terminal patients, Watergate, Iran-Contra, Roswell, the Tuskegee experiments, where will it end? Oh, I guess it won't end as long as... men like you decide what is truth. That transcript you gave me of the Iraqi pilot, that was the truth, wasn't it?

DEEP THROAT: [in agreement.] Hmmm.

MULDER: Why'd you even bother to show it to me?

DEEP THROAT: Well, I was aware that you were onto the truck so I knew that down the road I would have to steer you away. That I would have to lie to you. And a lie, Mr. Mulder, is most convincingly hidden between two truths.

[Mulder starts to walk away.]

DEEP THROAT: Mulder.

[Mulder turns back.]

DEEP THROAT: When a shark stops swimming, it will die. Don't stop swimming. I'm not responsible for the electronic surveillance but I do know they can still hear you.

[Deep Throat walks away. Mulder watches the sharks swim.]

[Mulder's apartment. Mulder tears apart his apartment looking for the surveillance, even smashing a light bulb. He finally finds the bug by unscrewing the plug fixture in the wall. The doorbell rings.]

625

SCULLY: Mulder? Are you home?

[Mulder goes to the door and opens it.]

MULDER: Hey, Scully, glad you dropped by.

SCULLY: Mul...

[Mulder signals for her to be quiet and leads her into the room.]

MULDER: I been thinking about this whole situation, y'know? And I think you're right. I think they won this one, I think we should just move on.

[He points down at the fixture. Scully kneels down, looks at it and stands up. Mulder writes on some paper "We have to find the truck." Scully nods in agreement.]

SCULLY: I think this time you're right, Mulder.

[Mulder and Scully drive down a busy street and pull over to the side. Another car keeps going and pulls over two cars ahead of them. Scully gets out of the passenger seat, as does a man from the other car. Mulder pulls out and drives down the street. The other car follows him. Scully starts to walk and looks back, seeing the man tail her. She signals for a taxi, gets in, and drives away.]

MAN: Taxi!

[He signals for the next taxi, but the taxi doesn't stop.]

9:16 a.m. Eastern Time Dulles Airport Washington, D.C.

[Scully is standing on line, buying tickets. The woman hands her a ticket.]

WOMAN: Here you are, Ms. Scully, your round-trip ticket to Chicago.

[She hands Scully her credit card, which Scully puts in her pocketbook along with the ticket.]

WOMAN: Here's your credit card, and the plane departs at Gate 35.

SCULLY: I'd also like a one-way ticket to Los Angeles with a stop in Las Vegas, and for that I'll be paying cash.

[Mulder is still being tailed by the man in the car. He comes to a red light and looks in his rearview mirror, seeing the car two cars behind him. The light turns green and Mulder jams on the accelerator, making a sharp left turn, causing traffic to swerve to avoid him. The other car cannot follow for the moment, but eventually gets through. Mulder heads for Baltimore airport.]

11:30 a.m. Pacific Time McCarran Airport Las Vegas, Nevada

[Scully is in a gift shop, looking at the small books. Mulder nonchalantly walks by, and neither acknowledge each other. Mulder heads for the magazine racks, and Scully follows. They both pick up magazines, pretending to read.]

626

MULDER: I called every weigh station and bureau office west of Colorado. Tied up an airphone for three hours. I don't speak Japanese, but I think some businessman told me to stick a piece of sushi where the sun don't shine.

SCULLY: My ear's numb from being on hold for so many hours.

MULDER: At least we can be sure they didn't trace our call. I couldn't find the truck. Did you have any luck?

SCULLY: Yep. It's heading northwest on I-90. We have to get a couple of tickets to Seattle.

6:30 p.m. Pacific Time Junction Of Highways 90 & 283 Washington State

[The truck heads down I-90. Mulder and Scully are waiting in their rental car. Scully is looking through binoculars, and Mulder is eating sunflower seeds.]

MULDER: Y'know, think about it. This truck drove across America. People it passed on the road probably thought it was hauling auto parts or furniture, livestock, whatever. Nobody would have suspected it was hauling a craft from another world.

SCULLY: Here we go.

[Scully lowers her binoculars as the truck passes by. Mulder starts the car and they turn onto the highway.]

[Much later, they are still chasing the car, Scully now driving. It is now dark outside. Mulder yawns.]

SCULLY: Mulder, we've been following this truck for hours. Maybe he knows we're following him, and he's taking an evasive route.

MULDER: Well, if that were the case...

[The radio turns on and starts flipping through channels rapidly. Hail starts hitting the car, there is a loud hum, and then a bright light. Scully hits the brakes. The car stops suddenly in front of the truck, which is now vacant and turned around. Mulder gets out of the car with his flashlight.]

MULDER: You all right?

SCULLY: Yeah.

MULDER: Come on.

[Scully gets out of the car.]

SCULLY: Ranheim? Ranheim?

[They go to the back of the truck. The doors are open. Climbing in, they start moving boxes. Mulder pushes through until he is faced with a bright red glow. Scully is close behind.]

MULDER: Scully?

[They are looking at what looks to be a life-support unit.]

SCULLY: Oh my God.

MULDER: It was an extraterrestrial biological entity... alive.

SCULLY: Where'd it go?

627

MULDER: I think we were just witness to a rescue mission.

[They look at the tubing and the platform where the alien was lying.]

[There's a stopwatch on the ground outside the truck. Mulder climbs out of the truck, having used his Geiger counter. Scully is holding the flashlight. They start walking away from the truck.]

SCULLY: God, Mulder, I can't stop shaking. What just happened - did it fit the profile?

MULDER: Are you asking me if it was real? Did we just have a close encounter?

[She nods yes. They stop. He bends down and picks up the stopwatch. He pulls out another stopwatch from his coat pocket and stops them both.]

MULDER: No, it was another hoax.

[He shows them to Scully. Both stopwatches read the same. They start walking back to the car.]

SCULLY: But how could anyone generate such force?

MULDER: Whatever they used, we probably haven't heard of it. Sound weapons, stealth helicopter with an ultra-intensity light. It doesn't matter, there's no evidence that this was a UFO.

SCULLY: So they created this elaborate show just to deflect us again. I mean, wouldn't it have been easier for them just to -

MULDER: Just to kill us? Yeah, I wondered that myself. Maybe they're using me against myself like you said before. That I want so badly to believe that I'd just accept the obvious conclusions and walk away.

[They stop at the car.]

SCULLY: Now we have nothing to go on. No one to turn to.

MULDER: There's still one person in all this who hasn't lied to us. But it's not quite someone we can turn to.

[Hotel room. Scully is writing at the desk. Mulder is on the phone with various maps in front of him.]

MULDER: [into phone] Leverling and Priest Rapids? East bank of the Columbia River? Did you send a field investigator? And you can substantiate the sighting? Ok, Nick, thanks a lot.

[He hangs up and crosses to Scully with a map.]

MULDER: I've contacted several organizations that have hotlines for UFO reports. Center for UFO Studies in Chicago, MUFON, NICAP... none of them have ever reported a week of such activity. It began in Tennessee where Ranheim was encountered.

[He traces his finger down the line where the truck went, which is covered with red circles marking UFO sightings.]

SCULLY: The sightings are following the path of the truck.

MULDER: And after last night's hoax... look at this.

[He takes out another map and circles another spot.]

MULDER: Seven sightings in Mattawa, Washington. That's 100 miles away.

SCULLY: Aliens?

628

MULDER: Looks like they want their colleague back.

[Mulder and Scully are driving in their car.]

SCULLY: We've driven full circle through Mattawa twice. There's nothing here.

[Mulder spots something and stops the car.]

MULDER: What's over there?

[About 20 people are gathered around a fire in the woods. Loud music is blasting. Mulder and Scully get out of the car and go to the center of the campsite. There is a sign that says "Welcome, Space Brothers." Many people are dressed like aliens as well.]

GUY IN ALIEN SUIT: We have been waiting! Welcome to our home! We are willing to go with you!

[Mulder waves to some people. They stop at a man dressed in all red carrying a beer.]

MAN: Ahh-doo-nay-va-so barahghas. That's an intergalactic space greeting. That means, "hello, space brothers."

MULDER: Hello.

SCULLY: What's going on here?

MAN: A UFO party.

MULDER: You've seen UFOs?

MAN: The last two nights. They're drawn to our electric power. They hover over the power plant down there.

[He points to the power plant.]

GUY IN ALIEN SUIT: Everyone! They are here!

[Mulder and Scully look at the plant through binoculars. Ranheim is being led through a gate by a guard.]

GUARD: Alright. Back it up.

[Mulder and Scully are in the car. Mulder is looking through the binoculars.]

MULDER: This is it. There's Ranheim.

SCULLY: This place has got to have the highest level of security.

MULDER: It's just the kind of challenge they're looking for.

SCULLY: Who?

[Mulder starts dials the phone. At "The Lone Gunman" Office, Langly picks up.]

LANGLY: Lone Gunman.

MULDER: It's Mulder. Turn the tape recorder off.

[Langly pauses.]

629

LANGLY: Ok, it's off.

MULDER: Turn it off!

LANGLY: It's off already.

MULDER: How would you like to have, on your front page, the first substantiated photo of an extraterrestrial biological entity?

LANGLY: No way, an E.B.E.? What do we have to do?

MULDER: Just hack me some identification numbers.

[Power plant. A printer is producing two security passes that read:

"SECURITY PASS Northwest Facility Mattawa, WA P.I.N. NAME LEVEL 7593 Braidwood, Tom 5 5311 Stefoff, Val 5 AUTHORIZED FOR SECURITY ACCESS LEVEL INDICATED ABOVE"]

MULDER: Braidwood and Stefoff.

[A man tears off a pass and comes out of the booth.]

MAN: Personal identification number?

MULDER: 7-5-9-3.

SCULLY: 5-3-1-1.

MAN: Open the trunk, please.

[Mulder pops the trunk as the man goes to the back of the car. He looks through the trunk and closes it.]

MAN: Park in Lot 4.

[He puts a sticker on the windshield.]

MULDER: Thanks.

[The gate opens and Mulder starts the car. As they start to go through, the man comes out of the booth again.]

MAN: Hey, wait!

[Mulder and Scully look at each other. The man comes up the window with two clip-on passes bearing the number 5.]

MAN: Display these at all times. Proceed.

[Mulder takes them and nods, then drives on.]

[The two walk through hallways where phones are ringing.]

630

MULDER: Langly said he couldn't gain access to Level 6, so that's where we...

[They spot a security guard in front of a door which states:

"LEVEL 6 CLEARANCE AA ACCESS ONLY"

They keep walking until they get to a pair of double doors. They stop.]

MULDER: We have to go back, we have to go through that door.

SCULLY: We're going to look suspicious going back.

MULDER: Well, we'll have to find another access, then. Come on.

SCULLY: Mulder, they're not going to let us.

[They turn around to head back but are met by the security guard.]

SECURITY GUARD: You folks come with me, please?

MULDER: Yeah, we're lost, we're just looking for, we're trying to...

SECURITY GUARD: Just proceed down the hallway.

MULDER: Yeah, if you could just help us...

SCULLY: Mulder, stop. We're agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

[She reaches for her badge, he reaches for his gun.]

SCULLY: I'm reaching for my ID.

[He nods, she shows it.]

SCULLY: We're here conducting an investigation.

SECURITY GUARD: Proceed down the hallway, please.

[Scully sighs and they all walk down the hallway. The guard starts talking into his walkie-talkie.]

SECURITY GUARD: This is Level Two to Level Six. I have a male and a female who have identified themselves...

[Mulder runs to the Level Six door. The guard pulls out his gun but Scully blocks his line of fire.]

SCULLY: Mulder, no!

SECURITY GUARD: Hey, stop!

[The guard shoves Scully out of his way. Mulder opens the door and dashes down the stairs. Many other guards with assault rifles charge the hall.]

SECURITY GUARD: He took the stairs! Go, go, go!

[The guards rush down the stairs, and the guard takes Scully away. Mulder passes a sign that says:

631

"NO ENTRY UNLESS: 1. Accompanied By a Staff Member Of High Voltage Research. Or 2. Written Permission Obtained From Security Level 6" The security guards are close behind.]

SECURITY GUARD #2: C'mon guys!

[Mulder, about to go down a catwalk, tries to jump over a sign that says "DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE" but misses and hurts his leg. He gets up and limps down the catwalk.]

SECURITY GUARD #2: Stay armed and loaded!

[Mulder enters a room with a humongous, futuristic machine in the middle, with a red glass pane on one of the walls.]

SECURITY GUARD #2: Hold it! I said hold it!

[He limps over, but before he can look inside, the guards surround him.]

SECURITY GUARD #2: Halt!

[The guards cock their guns and Mulder turns around. One grabs him by the wrist and takes Mulder's gun. Mulder puts his hands up.]

DEEP THROAT: Let him go.

[Deep Throat walks in, carrying a gun.]

DEEP THROAT: Let him go! You've done well. You're dismissed.

[The guards walk out. Deep Throat takes Mulder's gun back and gives it to Mulder, who warily takes it.]

DEEP THROAT: I know how badly, how... very badly you want to look through that window...

[Mulder tries to look, but Deep Throat gets in his way.]

DEEP THROAT: But it would be pointless. It's dead. After the Roswell incident in 1947, even at the brink of the Cold War, there was an ultrasecret conference attended by the United States, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, Britain, both Germanies, France. And it was agreed that should any extraterrestrial biological entity survive a crash, the country that held that being would be responsible for it's extermination. I, uh... have the distinction of being one of three men to have exterminated such a creature.

[Mulder looks at him in awe, yet betrayed. Deep Throat walks around.]

DEEP THROAT: I was with the C.I.A. in Vietnam. A UFO was sighted for five nights over Hanoi. The marines shot it down and brought it to us. Maybe... it didn't know what a gun was or perhaps they don't show emotion but that... innocent and blank expression as I pulled the trigger has haunted me. Until I found you. That's why I come to you, Mr. Mulder, and will continue to come to you to atone for what I've done. And maybe sometime, through you, the truth will be known.

[Mulder goes over and looks through the window. There is an empty cot. Deep Throat looks through as well.]

[The doors to the outside open and Mulder and Deep Throat step outside.]

DEEP THROAT: You're awfully quiet, Mr. Mulder.

MULDER: I'm wondering which lie to believe.

[Deep Throat chuckles and walks off. The security guard shows Scully out, who crosses to Mulder. They watch Deep Throat walk off, shrouded in fog.]

632

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest starring:

Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat)

Co-Starring:

Allan Lysell (Chief Rivers) Peter Lacroix (Ranheim) Bruce Harwood (Byers) Dean Haglund (Langly) Tom Braidwood (Frohike)

1x16 E.B.E. - notes Video box set commentary by Chris Carter: When I think back to E.B.E., I think of that scene, sitting, with Deep Throat and Mulder sitting in Washington when they have a very sort of interesting discussion where Deep Throat gives him some information that sets the whole caper in motion, and then Deep Throat ends up becoming a character of certain misinformation, and in the end, prevents Mulder and Scully from learning what it is that they want to learn. So I think it helps to take his character in an interesting direction, which is to make him as much a man who can be trusted as sometimes mistrusted. Wild Conspiracy Ideas ... We cast Jerry Hardin in the role, and I think he has just brought that character to life in a way that helps give the show a believability, which is so important if you are to do these wild conspiracy ideas. Creepy and Wonderful ... There is a scene in E.B.E., which is a kind of abduction scene, that is preceded by Mulder and Scully having a bright flash of light as they are following a semi down the road, they get out of their car and realize that the alien is gone. I just thought that it was so creepy, the inside of that truck, picking though those boxes and finding an elaborate little medical laboratory where something had been in this truck. It was, I don't know, it's a very strange scene and kind of creepy and wonderful, and it led to the finding of a similar kind of operation at the ending of the show, a nice little bookending of those elements. A very successful episode, I think, overall and we didn't see an alien during the show, which was the amazing thing; we only suggested that, in fact, one was in that truck at some point. From "X-Files Confidential": "When we tested 'Squeeze' with an audience," Glen Morgan recalls, "they said, 'Well, it was okay. I don't know if a person could stretch like that. But I like the UFO and conspiracy stuff,' so Jim and I had a chance to do one, and 'E.B.E.' was the result. A lot of that was from fan mail, what people wanted us to deal with. I think 'E.B.E.' was written for people who we felt were hardcore X- Files fans: people into UFOs and every conspiracy imaginable. The thing is, they screened 'E.B.E.' and people were saying, 'I like the UFO episodes, but there was one where this guy kind of stretched …' C'mon, make up your mind. Anyway, the movie I kind of really looked at in order to catch the tone for 'E.B.E.' was All the President's Men, dealing with dark parking lots and that kind of paranoia." James Wong isn't as pleased with the final product. "I really felt we didn't do a great job on the script," he says. "We wanted to do a show that's all about paranoia and a conspiracy theory, but at the end I felt like we didn't really gain a lot of new ground or learn a lot of new things. I think we played a lot of texture instead of substances." "Another of our most popular first-season episodes," says Chris Carter. "Jim and Glen wanted to do an alien episode, and this is what they came up with. I thought it was well directed by Bill Graham. I thought there were some really memorable scenes in it, particularly Deep Throat and the shark tank, also the teaser with the Iraqi pilot. Some really wacky stuff: the UFO party, and the introduction of the Lone Gunman, and they've served us well since then. Glen and Jim had both gone incognito to things like UFO conventions and saw folks setting up their booths, selling rather paranoid literature. These guys represented a certain type that we had run across."

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Says Graeme Murray, "A lot of the episode took place in a facility in Vancouver where they do high-voltage electrical research, which is where we created the containment facility where they hold the alien. That was a fascinating kind of place, where they create lightning and high-voltage electrical effects. A wonderful location for us. Then we built a couple of things. There was a forty-foot truck that transported the alien, and we built an interesting room in there, although you didn't see much of it actually in the show. It was like a traveling life support room for an alien." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal settings: Reagan, Tennessee; Washington state Back story: Though it features a memorable sequence where Deep Throat discusses his motivation in helping Mulder – having killed an alien while working for the CIA – this episode's most lasting and durable legacy has clearly been the Lone Gunmen, the paranoid conspiracy theorists who periodically aid Mulder. The idea first arose when producer Glen Morgan and writer Marilyn Osborn ('Shapes') went to a UFO convention in Los Angeles in June 1993, shortly before Morgan and James Wong began to write any material for the series. Morgan recalls a trio of guys – dressed similar to Langly, Byers, and Frohike – sitting at a table pushing what he describes as "a mixed bag of paranoia". According to Morgan, "They started telling people about the magnetic strips in twenty-dollar bills, and in no time there were a half-dozen people tearing up ten- and twenty- dollar bills." The Lone Gunmen were initially thrown in just for a laugh in this episode, and Morgan wasn't happy with the result, feeling he and his partner had botched things a bit in terms of execution. "We had kind of written them off," he notes, until the producers started to hear about the response to the Gunmen along the Internet. That prompted a return appearance during the second season and eventually a recurring role on the series. From Tiny Dancer: The title stands for Extraterrestrial Biological Entity, in other words an alien. Two of the names Mulder and Scully use to get into the army base, Tom Braidwood and Val Stefoff, are both first assistant directors (and Tom Braidwood is also Frohike). X-Files In-Jokes: * Tom Braidwood and Val Stefoff - both first assistant directors (and Tom Braidwood is also Frohike) were names used by Mulder and Scully as aliases to get into the base. (See "Tempus Fugit" for another reference to Val Stefoff)

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- Though it features a memorable sequence where Deep Throat discusses his motivation in helping Mulder -- having killed an alien while working for the CIA -- "E.B.E"s most lasting and durable legacy was clearly the Lone Gunmen. The idea first arose when producer Glen Morgan and writer Marilyn Osborn ("Shapes") went to a UFO convention in Los Angeles in June 1993, shortly before Morgan and James Wong began to write any material for the series. Morgan recalls a trio of guys -- dressed similar to Langly, Byers, and Frohike -- sitting at a table pushing what he described as a "mixed bag of paranoia." According to Morgan, "they started telling people about the magnetic strips in twenty-dollar bills, and in no time there were a half dozen people tearing up ten- and twenty-dollar bills."

-- The Lone Gunmen were initially thrown into this episode just for a laugh, and Morgan wasn't happy with the result, feeling he and his partner had botched things a bit in terms of execution. "We had kind of written them off," he noted, until the producers started to hear about the response to the Gunmen along the Internet. That prompted a return appearance during the second season and eventually a recurring role on the series.

-- This episode was famous for introducing us to the Lone Gunmen for the first time, but there were a couple of other notable "firsts" in this episode too: -- We see Mulder sleeping on his couch for the first time. -- We see Mulder use his apartment window to signal Deep Throat for the first time, but he didn't use the "X" made of tape. He put a blue light bulb in his desk lamp, opened the blinds, and turned off all the other lights. Mulder didn't get a roll of masking tape until "One Breath."

-- The aliases for Mulder and Scully to get into the power plant provided by the Lone Gunmen are Tom Braidwood and Val Stefoff, two of the show's First Assistant Directors. (And of course, Tom Braidwood also plays Frohike.)

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-- Peter LaCroix (Ranheim/Frank Druce) will appear again in "Ascension" as Dwight the tram operator and in "Unrequited" as Teager. Allan Lysell (Chief Rivers) will return in Season 2's "End Game" as Able Gardner.

-- Mulder's apartment door seems to have the right equipment for every occasion. Sometimes it has a peephole (when one is needed), and in this episode, it appears to have a doorbell.

-- Deep Throat tells Mulder that following the Roswell incident of 1947, a secret conference of the world's major powers was held which included the People's Republic of China. He doesn't say *exactly* when that meeting was held, of course, but the People's Republic of China was not founded until 1949.

-- When discussing the photo that Deep Throat give him, Mulder says "When I first saw the Gulf Breeze photos, I knew they were a hoax." Gulf Breeze is a small town in Florida which became famous in 1987 as the site of a large number of UFO sightings.

-- Deep Throat explains that he comes to Mulder seeking absolution for his sins. Was CC setting up Mulder in the Jesus role even this early?

-- I think "E.B.E." includes the conversation that will perhaps define Mulder and Scully's relationship from this point on. I'm paraphrasing here: He says she’s determined not to believe, she says he’s too determined to believe. He says I need to go prove that I’m right. She says listen to me. She says I believe in you because of your passion and your dedication, but sometimes you are so intense that you’re blinded to the truth. He says sure, fine, whatever. She says I respect and admire your passion but there are other people who don’t love you like I do. He says, okay I guess you could have a point. She says, “The truth is out there, but so are lies.” He says thanks for that information, but I’m leaving anyway. And in the next scene we learn he did listen to her and found out the photo was a fake, just as she said. That sets the tone for the rest of the series.

-- This episode is ultimately about trust and the loss of it. Deep Throat says he trusts Mulder, but really trusts no one, not even the tourists around the Jefferson Memorial. Byers, Langley, and Frohike don’t trust anyone either, not even Mulder. Mulder defends his trust of Deep Throat, even goes so far as to thank him for all he has done, only to find that his unquestioning loyalty was perhaps misplaced. He learns that his crusade isn’t quite as noble as he once thought, and that while the truth is out there, so are lies. Scully defends her trust in the government that she serves, only to find out that the only one she can trust is Mulder. And in the end, Mulder realizes that this woman who was sent to spy on him has become the only ally that he can trust, implicitly and passionately.

1x17 Miracle Man - transcript

Writers: Howard Gordon and Chris Carter Director: Michael Lange Original airdate: 18 March 1994

Transcribed by: Dave Fox Edited by Libby

Kenwood, Tennessee, 1983

[A fire is raging in a building, and the fire chief is directing operations.]

FIRE CHIEF: Hurry and get him out of there. I need two men on the left side, now.

[To an E.M.T. pushing a stretcher.]

FIRE CHIEF: Wait a second. Where are you going with him?

E.M.T.: He's dead.

FIRE CHIEF: Well, there's a woman over there who isn't, and she needs some oxygen.

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[The E.M.T. leaves the stretcher. As policemen hold the crowd back, Reverend Samuel Hartley and a young boy, Samuel, make their way to the stretcher.]

FIRE CHIEF: [in background] Get on the horn, let them know we can release the hook and ladder in five minutes.

[Hartley unzips the body bag on the stretcher, and a lifeless, charred arm falls out.]

SAMUEL: I want you to rise. Rise up and heal!

FIRE CHIEF: [approaching them] What the hell are you doing?

REV HARTLEY: The boy's laying on hands.

SAMUEL: Rise up and accept the miracle He has given you.

[Samuel holds the lifeless hand in his.]

REV HARTLEY: Amen. Hallelujah.

SAMUEL: I have the Holy Spirit of God within me tonight.

FIRE CHIEF: You don't understand. The man's dead.

REV HARTLEY: Then the boy can't possibly do any harm, now can he?

SAMUEL: For this is the power of belief, the power to separate the light from the darkness. To create life from death.

REV HARTLEY: Amen.

FIRE CHIEF: All right, everyone! Show's over! Let's clear the area! Go on home! Let's start getting that 1-inch back in the truck.

[The crowd begins to disperse and the fire chief walks away. The lifeless hand suddenly moves, reaching up and clasping Samuel's hand.]

REV HARTLEY: Hallelujah, Samuel. Hallelujah.

[main titles]

[Scully is playing a video tape for Mulder. On it, Reverend Hartley is starting a Miracle Ministry revival in a tent. As the crowd sings and claps, he comes down the aisle to the stage.]

REV HARTLEY: Yes, indeedy, oh hallelujah! Hallelujah, praise God! Yes, indeedy, praise God! Yes. I want everybody to say 'Hallelujah'!

CROWD: Hallelujah!

REV HARTLEY: Praise the Lord!

[Scully pauses the tape. There is a woman lying on a table beside Hartley. Behind them sits Samuel.]

SCULLY: The woman on the table has a malignant tumor on her spine. This boy, here, is going to attempt to heal her by simply laying his hands on her.

MULDER: Where'd you get this?

SCULLY: It came in from the regional office in Tennessee. The preacher's name is ...

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MULDER: Reverend Calvin Hartley.

SCULLY: You've heard of him?

MULDER: The boy's his adopted son, Samuel. He claims to have found him as an infant lying in the tall weeds on the banks of the muddy Mississippi.

SCULLY: Did you know that he also claims the boy brought a man back from the dead?

MULDER: It's more than a claim. The man he saved appears as a regular attraction in the Reverend's tent ministry. The boy's been performing miracles every week for the past ten years. Twice on Sundays.

SCULLY: Well, not according to the Kenwood Country sheriff. Local authorities think that Reverend Hartley and his son are a scam. They've been trying to shut him down for some time now, but without any luck, so they've turned to the FBI to try and get a prosecution.

MULDER: For what? Fraud?

SCULLY: No, murder. Watch the tape.

[She starts the tape, and Mulder watches while munching sunflower seeds.]

REV HARTLEY: Lucy Kelly has the cancer. Her doctors say it is inoperable. They say it is incurable. But I say to you that what the doctors cannot cure, the Lord can.

[The crowd cheers and shouts 'amen'.]

REV HARTLEY: Yes, indeedy, praise God! Because God can work miracles. Today the clear light of God's healing love is flowing through Samuel's healing hands.

[Samuel has laid his hands on Lucy Kelly. Scully stops the tape.]

SCULLY: Twenty minutes later Lucy Kelly was rushed to the hospital. She was pronounced dead on arrival.

MULDER: What was the cause of death?

SCULLY: I don't know, but it wasn't cancer. They've requested someone with a medical background to assist local police in the investigation. I know this isn't an X-File ...

MULDER: When do we leave for Tennessee?

Miracle Ministry Kenwood, Tennessee

[The sign on the front of the tent reads "Reverend Calvin Hartley presents his Miracle Ministry featuring healer Samuel Hartley. Come as you are ... leave as you always wanted to be." Mulder and Scully approach the tent, passing a souvenir stand selling shirts and baseball caps. There is a crowd around the stand and around the entrance to the tent.]

MULDER: I think I saw some of these same people at Woodstock.

SCULLY: [smiling] Mulder, you weren't at Woodstock.

MULDER: I saw the movie.

[They give their tickets to a man at the entrance and he hands them flyers. They enter the tent.]

[Nearby, Sheriff Daniels gets out of his van. He walks around to the passenger's door, and his wife Lillian is sitting in the van.]

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SHERIFF DANIELS: You all right by yourself?

LILLIAN DANIELS: I'll be fine.

SHERIFF DANIELS: Good. I won't be long.

[He touches her cheek and she smiles at him. The Sheriff walks away. After he leaves, Lillian sighs and looks downward. There's a "disabled" badge on the dashboard.]

[Hartley is addressing the crowd, which includes Mulder and Scully.]

REV HARTLEY: Most of you here today I know as neighbors and as cherished members of our Miracle Ministry. But some of you have come from far away, as far away as...

[He points to one side of the crowd.]

REV HARTLEY: Pensacola, Florida

[The crowd cheers.]

REV HARTLEY: ...and...

[He points toward the other side.]

REV HARTLEY: ...Uniondale, Long Island.

[More cheers.]

REV HARTLEY: Wayne Ashton and his family. And it is especially to those of you who come from so far that I must apologize from the bottom of my heart, because unfortunately Samuel cannot be here this afternoon.

[Groans from the crowd.]

REV HARTLEY: I know, I know how very deeply disappointed each and every one of you must be feeling right now, but I say unto you, do not be dismayed. Do not despair. Do not lose your hope ... because in two short days, Samuel will be back here at our very special Miracle Mission.

[Cheers.]

REV HARTLEY: Yes, indeed, praise God, he will be back here ...

SCULLY: Maybe we should head backstage and see what the Reverend has to say.

MULDER: No, wait, wait, this is the part where they bring out Elvis.

REV HARTLEY: ... on the faithful. Because as these blessed people up here are about to testify, Samuel can heal you. Samuel will heal you, but ... only if you believe.

[Several people in the crowd shout "I believe!".]

[Reverend Hartley is exiting from the back of the tent. He is followed by Leonard Vance, who is dressed in black with sunglasses, a black hat and black gloves. A man calls to Hartley as he steps out. Mulder and Scully are waiting for Hartley.]

MAN: Fine sermon, Reverend!

REV HARTLEY: God bless you!

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SCULLY: [flashing her badge] Reverend Hartley? We're with the FBI.

REV HARTLEY: I see Sheriff Daniels has sent in the cavalry.

SCULLY: We just want to talk to Samuel for a couple of minutes, that's all.

REV HARTLEY: He's not here.

MULDER: Well, where is he?

REV HARTLEY: I don't know. I haven't seen him. The boy's been a bit troubled lately.

VANCE: We're running late, Reverend.

REV HARTLEY: If you'll excuse me ...

[Hartley gets into the back of a white Cadillac. Vance stares at Mulder and Scully for a moment, then gets in the back seat as well. The car, which has license plate "B HEALD", then pulls away, passing Sheriff Daniels. Daniels approaches Mulder and Scully.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: Agent Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah.

SHERIFF DANIELS: Sheriff Daniels. We spoke on the phone.

MULDER: Oh, yeah. This is Special Agent Dana Scully.

[Daniels shakes hands with both.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: Right. You requested a copy of the coroner's report.

SCULLY: Right. Thank you.

[Daniels gives her an envelope. Scully opens it and reads the contents as they all walk along.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: I see you folks got a chance to take in the Holy Roller Sideshow.

MULDER: Something tells me you're not a member of the Reverend Hartley's flock.

SHERIFF DANIELS: Well, I remember Hartley when he was a soapbox preacher collecting dollar bills in coffee cans. Since the boy joined the act, he's got himself a Cadillac for every day of the week ... bought for with money that should be used to improve our roads and schools.

MULDER: People want to believe, you know.

SHERIFF DANIELS: Ninety-nine percent of the people in this world are fools ... and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.

MULDER: Well, even if Hartley and Samuel are fakes, it's still a long way from accusing the boy of murder.

SHERIFF DANIELS: I got witnesses that say the boy was there laying hands on those people when they died.

MULDER: You think that's how he killed them? With a touch?

SHERIFF DANIELS: I don't claim to know how or why he did it. But we've been looking for the boy since Tuesday, and he does not want to be found.

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SCULLY: Well, there's nothing out of the ordinary about these reports, except that there were no autopsies performed.

SHERIFF DANIELS: Hartley managed to block my autopsy requests on religious grounds. Also doesn't help that the country coroner is a dues-paying member of the Miracle Ministry.

SCULLY: Well, maybe we can arrange to have the bodies exhumed.

[That night, Mulder, Scully, the Sheriff and a deputy are in the cemetery as a backhoe digs up a grave. Mulder looks behind them and sees a group of people approaching, some carrying candles.]

MULDER: Sheriff.

SHERIFF DANIELS: It's Reverend Hartley's group. Damn. I told my people to keep quiet so this wouldn't happen.

MULDER: Looks like you may have a few believers on the payroll.

[The group approaches. They are led by Vance.]

VANCE: On behalf of the Miracle Ministry, we demand that you stop this sacrilege.

SHERIFF DANIELS: You're not just dealing with me any more, Vance. You're dealing with the FBI.

SCULLY: We don't mean you any disrespect. We're investigating a possible homicide, and federal law requires that we do a post-mortem examination on these bodies.

VANCE: I'm afraid we answer to an even higher authority than the U.S. government - one that considers grave digging and defiling corpses mortal sins.

[Vance is still wearing his all-black outfit. The skin on his face is rough, as if from skin grafts.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: We'll get that autopsy, Vance, sooner or later. You know we will.

VANCE: The deceased's family does not want her grave disturbed.

SHERIFF DANIELS: Carol Wallace had no family.

[Daniels has been listening to traffic on his radio. He steps aside to talk to his deputy.]

VANCE: We were her family. We were her family, and it was hard enough to bury her once. So if you insist on going through with this, we are prepared to maintain a vigil and do whatever it takes to stop you.

SHERIFF DANIELS: Mulder? Scully?

[They step aside with him.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: One of my men just spotted the boy's car downtown.

SCULLY: We can't do much here, anyway.

MULDER: Let's go.

[Their cars arrive downtown.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: Not a very likely place to be saving souls.

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[They enter a pool hall. A number of chairs are turned over. The proprietor, Zook, is uprighting them.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: Where's the boy, Zook?

ZOOK: He's in the can.

SHERIFF DANIELS: What happened here?

ZOOK: That damned fool started a fight. Figures them Bible-thumpers wouldn't know how to hold their liquor.

[Samuel has staggered back to his seat at a table near the bar. His face is bruised. Daniels approaches him. Mulder and Scully follow.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: Where you been, Samuel? We've been looking for you.

SAMUEL: [lighting a cigarette] Yeah. I've been thinking.

SHERIFF DANIELS: Well, you're gonna have plenty of time for that now, son. I'm putting you under arrest.

SAMUEL: For murder?

SHERIFF DANIELS: For suspicion of murder.

SAMUEL: Mind if I finish my beer first?

SHERIFF DANIELS: No, you go right on ahead. I'll have someone take a statement from you. I'll see what I can do about getting your Caddy towed.

[Daniels moves away but Mulder calls after him.]

MULDER: Hey, Sheriff? What evidence do you have to charge the boy with murder?

SHERIFF DANIELS: Well, what more do you want? The boy's practically giving himself up.

MULDER: Look at him, though. He's drunk.

SHERIFF DANIELS: Then I'll add 'drunk and disorderly.' Let's get this straight. It's not a question about the boy's guilt - just how he did it.

MULDER: Let me have a minute with him?

SHERIFF DANIELS: Suit yourself.

MULDER: Samuel, I'm Agent Mulder. This is Agent Scully - from the FBI.

[They sit down with him.]

MULDER: Looks like you took quite a beating there.

SAMUEL: Penance, Mr. Mulder.

SCULLY: Some might call it a plain old bar brawl.

SAMUEL: You know what they say - he giveth then he taketh away. A man gets too proud - sometimes it does him good to get the crap kicked out him. Saves God the trouble.

SCULLY: The trouble of what?

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SAMUEL: Humbling the guilty sinner.

MULDER: Guilty of murder?

SAMUEL: Yes, sir.

MULDER: How'd you do it, Samuel?

SAMUEL: Apparently, my pride and weakness were an invitation to the Devil. I muddied the river of my own faith. Now my gift has been corrupted.

SCULLY: So you're saying that you killed those people with a touch?

SAMUEL: I've laid my hands on the ill. Given them health. I've healed the sick. I've even touched the dying and given them life. God has given me a special gift.

SCULLY: Did he buy you all that jewelry, too? I think there's something missing in your story, Samuel.

SAMUEL: [sharply] Do you doubt the power of God, ma'am?

SCULLY: No. But I doubt the veracity of your claims.

SAMUEL: I've looked on the infirm and seen their sickness ... their cancer. Just as I can see the pain on this man [points at Mulder] right here.

MULDER: Really? What pain is that?

SAMUEL: The pain you have regarding a brother or a sister. It's an old pain. It's never been healed.

SCULLY: Is this some kind of a trick?

SAMUEL: No trick, ma'am.

SCULLY: [standing up] I think we should get the sheriff ...

MULDER: [remaining seated] I want to hear more about this pain. Tell me.

SAMUEL: I can see it, plain as day. It was a sister. You lost a sister quite young. Someone took her away.

MULDER: What else do you see?

SAMUEL: Strangers. A bright light.

SCULLY: Sheriff?

SAMUEL: You should have come here earlier. Chance I could have healed your pain.

SHERIFF DANIELS: All right, let's get this over with.

MULDER: Hey, I need another minute with him.

SAMUEL: I can't help you. Not any more. My gift is gone.

SHERIFF DANIELS: Cuff him.

[The deputy does so.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: All right, let's go. You have the right to remain silent ...

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[As the sheriff and deputy lead Samuel away, Mulder puts his hand to his eyes, affected by Samuel's words.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: You have the right to an attorney ...

SAMUEL: [turning back to Mulder] I'll tell you, Mr. Mulder. God watches over his flock. He gives us signs every day. Open your heart. He might just open your eyes.

[Samuel is led away. Mulder is still shaken.]

SCULLY: How do you think he does it?

MULDER: I don't know.

Kenwood County Courthouse

[A preliminary hearing is being held for Samuel. Mulder and Scully are in the gallery.]

DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Given his exemplary record, and the highly circumstantial nature of this case, I ask that my client be released on his own recognizance, without bail ...

SAMUEL: [stands up] Judge! That is not a good idea.

REVEREND HARTLEY: [from the gallery] Samuel!

SAMUEL: Let me go and it'll be on your head!

JUDGE: [banging gavel] Enough! This is not a pulpit. This is a court of law. Is that understood?

SAMUEL: Yes, sir.

[He sits down.]

DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Sorry.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Your honor. Despite the defendant's avowed guilt, we see no reason to burden the county with his maintenance until trial. But we do request a minimum bail of $100,000.

JUDGE: All right. If there are no objections, bail is set at $100,000, to be deposited directly into the clerk's probation account.

[As the judge speaks, locusts start flying around the courtroom. There are scattered screams from the gallery. The judge stands and waves at the locusts flying around him.]

JUDGE: My God! What the ... Good God! What is this? What?

[The bench and tables are covered with locusts.]

DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Oh God!

SAMUEL: [standing and addressing the crowd] How much more will it take for you to believe? The Lord has testified against me. Does the serpent have to bite you all on the ass 'til you understand?

BAILIFF: Everybody, clear this courtroom!

[Samuel raises his arms to heaven and clenches his fists as the rest hurry out of the courtroom. Reverend Hartley encounters Sheriff Daniels outside the courtroom and stops, as if to say something to him. From behind, Leonard Vance puts his hand on Hartley's shoulder. Hartley and Vance then leave.]

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[Mulder and Scully are in his motel room. Mulder reads from the Bible while Scully examines one of the locusts.]

MULDER: "And when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened and they did eat every herb of the ...

SCULLY: Why, Mulder?

MULDER: [lying down on the bed] ... land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left."

SCULLY: A few thousand grasshoppers does not constitute a plague. Besides which, we're in farm country. This area is an agricultural smorgasbord for this type of infestation.

MULDER: Yeah, maybe in a cornfield, but this happened in a courtroom.

SCULLY: So what's next? The slaying of the firstborn? [Mulder chuckles] Mulder, does this have something to do with what Samuel said in the bar last night - about your sister?

[Mulder closes the Bible and hands her a file that was lying on the bed. She looks through it.]

MULDER: I had these patient cases sent over from Kenwood County Hospital. These are physician-documented cases of patients who went to Samuel after conventional treatments failed.

SCULLY: "Spontaneous remission of metastatic cancer ... regenerated nerve growth after post-trauma paraplegia ..."

MULDER: I've encountered dozens of psychic healers in the X-Files, but none like this. I think the kid's for real.

SCULLY: Mulder, I admit this is intriguing, but there's a whole library of medical literature dealing with unexplained spontaneous cures.

MULDER: Well, western medicine treats the human body in biochemical terms, right?

SCULLY: Um-hmm.

MULDER: But the body can also be treated as an electromagnetic system.

SCULLY: So your theory is that if Samuel can repair this energy field in order to heal, he can also destroy it in order to kill.

MULDER: Why not?

SCULLY: OK, say that Samuel's touch can kill. Why would he want to?

MULDER: Well, you heard him, Scully. He muddied the river of his own faith. That means he's ...

[There's a knock on the door. Mulder answers. It is Leonard Vance.]

VANCE: If you're available, the Reverend would like to see you.

[Mulder and Scully visit Hartley in his home. He sits behind a large desk, his back to the window.]

REV HARTLEY: I've been under a great deal of stress lately ... which I know doesn't excuse my rude behavior yesterday, but I hope, somehow, you find it in your hearts to forgive me.

MULDER: Why did you want to speak with us?

644

REV HARTLEY: I need your help.

MULDER: Samuel's being tried for murder. I think what you need is a good lawyer.

REV HARTLEY: Samuel is innocent.

MULDER: Well, how can you be sure of that?

REV HARTLEY: Because he's my son.

MULDER: Somehow, I don't think that argument will work on a jury. And Samuel's confession won't help much, either.

REV HARTLEY: You have to understand. Samuel is a very complicated young man. He feels things like no one else. To him, a pinprick becomes a gaping wound. His power comes from this ability to feel. But you see, some people fear that power. And out of their weakness and their fear, they seek to destroy it.

SCULLY: You mean Sheriff Daniels?

REV HARTLEY: I mean, it's no secret Sheriff Daniels has been trying to shut me down since I first opened my tent ten years ago.

SCULLY: Well, he seems to think that your ministry is a fraud.

REV HARTLEY: He's a faithless man, Agent Scully. His wife - she suffers from a most painful arthritis, her fingers twisted like bitter roots. Yet he keeps Samuel from ministering to her.

SCULLY: In light of recent events, you can't blame him.

REV HARTLEY: I don't know how those poor people died. I can't explain that. Which is why I'm asking you to be there tonight so you could see for yourselves, Samuel doing God's work. Can I count on you both to be there?

[Mulder looks past Hartley and sees a young girl with long brown hair, wearing a red dress, in the yard.]

SCULLY: I think so. Mulder, what do you think?

MULDER: Excuse me.

[He leaves abruptly, to the surprise of Scully and Hartley. Mulder runs out the front door and looks around but sees no sign of the little girl. There is a man waxing one of the cars in the driveway.]

MULDER: [to Man] Hey, where'd she go?

MAN: Who?

MULDER: A little girl.

MAN: There's no little girl around here.

[Mulder looks upstairs and sees Samuel standing in the window. Scully comes out of the front door.]

SCULLY: Mulder. What is it?

MULDER: It's a girl.

SCULLY: Who? Jessica Hahn?

MULDER: A little girl.

645

[He looks back at the upstairs window but Samuel is no longer there.]

[That evening, guests are entering the Miracle Ministry's tent, passing a table with refreshments. Leonard Vance is greeting them.]

VANCE: Well, brothers and sisters, help yourselves. Now, let folks with the wheelchairs though, now, that's right, don't be shy.

[Margaret Hohman, a young woman in a wheelchair, enters followed by her parents]

VANCE: Hello there, welcome to the Miracle Ministry. Y'all come to see Samuel tonight?

MARGARET'S MOTHER: Yes. Is he going to be here? The papers said ...

VANCE: Oh, and don't mind what you read in the papers. God's work will be done. [hands Margaret a cup] Young Samuel's here to cast out the Devil and heal the sick.

MARGARET'S FATHER: Did you hear that, honey?

MARGARET HOHMAN: Will he be able to see me?

VANCE: Well, I'll tell you what. I'm gonna put in a special word, hmm. What's your name, darling?

MARGARET HOHMAN: Margaret Hohman.

VANCE: Margaret? Well, Margaret, you wait right here. I'm gonna see if I can't get somebody to put you in the front row. How'd that be, huh?

[Margaret's mother hugs her as she takes a sip from the cup.]

[Backstage, Samuel sits at a dressing table. Hartley is behind him.]

SAMUEL: I can't go out there ... not after what's happened.

REV HARTLEY: God tests the faith in us all, son. And because He's chosen you to act in His likeness, He's given you the toughest test of all.

[Vance enters the room.]

REV HARTLEY: Do not forsake your gift, Samuel.

[Hartley lifts Samuel by the shoulders and turns him around.]

REV HARTLEY: I'm a preacher, son. That's my gift. But all the preaching in the world could never equal even a small miracle in consolidating the faith and hope of these people. Let this man - [puts a hand on Vance's shoulder] - whose life you saved, give witness tonight to the grace and goodness of your healing power.

VANCE: They're all waiting on you, Samuel.

[In the tent, the choir is singing "Ready, you got to be ready" over and over while the crowd claps and sings along. Mulder and Scully enter and find a seat.]

ANNOUNCER: Reverend Calvin Hartley.

[Hartley enters and waves to applause.]

REV HARTLEY: Yes, indeedy, praise God. Hallelujah!

646

ALL: Hallelujah!

REV HARTLEY: Praise the Lord!

ALL: Praise the Lord!

REV HARTLEY: God is here tonight. Oh, yes!

[An assistant hands Mulder the collection plate.]

ASSISTANT: Pass it down please.

REV HARTLEY: I feel his presence. Oh, amen.

[Mulder hands the plate to Scully, who notes the money in it. She passes it down.]

SCULLY: Apparently miracles don't come cheap.

REV HARTLEY: God is here, and He is here to heal!

[The crowd cheers.]

REV HARTLEY: Yes, heal. Hallelujah. There's a man I'd like to introduce to you - a man who has seen the face of God but who was not satisfied to go to that great place, oh no. No, God had work for him to do right here on earth ... as it is in heaven, mm- hmm. [crowd cheers] I saw this man come back from beyond death's door.

[He points to Vance.]

REV HARTLEY: He stands here today as a living testament to the ability of God to work miracles. Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, our beloved friend, Leonard Vance.

[He hands the microphone to Vance.]

VANCE: As it says in John, chapter 3, "no man can do these miracles unless God be with him." That man, to whom I owe my life, is Samuel Hartley, and he is here tonight to heal you.

REV HARTLEY: Thank you, Leonard. Ladies and gentlemen, God's soldier ... Samuel Hartley.

[As Samuel comes out to cheers and singing, Mulder looks over and sees the little girl at the side of the tent. He rises and walks in that direction.]

SCULLY: Mulder?

[Samuel walks over to those on the front row.]

SAMUEL: [touching a woman's cheek] Receive God's love.

SAMUEL: [taking a young man's head in his hands] You have the power of God.

[Mulder is moving through the crowd but no longer sees the little girl. Samuel kneels in front of Margaret's wheelchair.]

SAMUEL: Pray with me.

[He touches her cheek. Margaret's parents, each with a hand on her shoulder, pray as well.]

[Mulder continues to move through the crowd but doesn't see the little girl.]

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SAMUEL: Close your eyes.

[He continues to touch her cheek. Margaret gasps, then starts to choke. Shocked, Samuel rises and backs away as Margaret's parents try to help her.]

MARGARET'S FATHER: What have you done, boy?

REV HARTLEY: All right, everyone, remain calm. Let's give the young woman some room here.

[Scully is pushing her way through the crowd toward Margaret.]

SCULLY: I'm a doctor.

REV HARTLEY: Everybody, praise God. Say hallelujah!

[Scully reaches Margaret and kneels in front of her. Margaret is having convulsions.]

SCULLY: Somebody get an ambulance!

REV HARTLEY: All right now, don't panic, now. Just praise the Lord!

[Sheriff Daniels and Mulder approach the front as well. Margaret falls silent and Scully checks her pulse and then stands.]

SCULLY: [to Mulder] She's dead.

[Margaret's mother sobs loudly and hugs her daughter. Hartley hustles Samuel, who is also in tears, off the stage.]

Kenwood County Hospital

[Outside, Vance speaks with a group of mourners carrying candles.]

VANCE: ... a loving friend. Children of God. Brothers and sisters. If you desecrate the body, then you slay the soul. Let's keep this poor woman's body intact.

[Inside, Scully talks to Margaret's father in a hallway, as Mulder leans on the wall nearby.]

SCULLY: We know the Reverend Hartley's been pressuring you, but this is the third death linked with the Miracle Ministry.

MARGARET'S FATHER: Reverend Hartley says an autopsy is against scripture.

SCULLY: What illness did your daughter suffer from, Mr. Hohman?

MARGARET'S FATHER: She had M.S.

SCULLY: And has she ever had a seizure before this?

MARGARET'S FATHER: Not to my knowledge.

SCULLY: You see, I think that the seizure she had is indicative of some kind of embolism or aneurysm.

MARGARET'S FATHER: The boy only touched her forehead.

SCULLY: And are you going to be content to bury her without knowing the true cause of death? Without knowing if there was foul play involved?

MARGARET'S FATHER: Give me a moment.

[He steps over and kneels beside his wife, who is sitting in a chair and crying.]

648

[Mulder and Scully move farther down the hall and talk quietly.]

MULDER: Do you think the boy really did it?

SCULLY: No.

MULDER: Why not?

SCULLY: I was raised a Catholic, and I have a certain familiarity with the scripture. And God never lets the Devil steal the show.

MULDER: [smiling] You must have really liked 'The Exorcist'?

SCULLY: [nodding and smiling] One of my favorite movies.

[Mulder leans against the wall again, looking drained.]

SCULLY: So who were you pursuing in the crowd tonight?

MULDER: I thought I saw someone I knew.

SCULLY: That boy really has you going, doesn't he?

MULDER: Why do you say that?

SCULLY: In the bar, Samuel mentioned your sister. Is it your sister you keep thinking you're seeing?

MULDER: I've seen her twice now.

SCULLY: Maybe you just want to see her.

MULDER: Oh ... I'm not delusional, Scully.

SCULLY: Mulder, don't discount the power of suggestion. A healer's greatest magic lies in the patient's willingness to believe. Imagine a miracle and you're halfway there. We learned that in med school.

MULDER: You think this is what Margaret Hohman and her parents were imagining?

[They start back up the hall. Margaret's father approaches.]

MARGARET'S FATHER: [nodding] We're gonna go along with your investigation.

[Scully is in full surgical gear, preparing to conduct the autopsy. She sharpens a large knife.]

SCULLY: [into microphone] 11:21 pm, March 7. Subject's name is Margaret Hohman, female, caucasian, 107 pounds.

[Mulder turns his head as she begins.]

[It is now 12:29.]

SCULLY: Mulder, take a look at this.

MULDER: Do I have to?

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SCULLY: [with a lung in her hands] Lesions on the lungs here. I'm finding them throughout the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems. There's also a lot of damage to the mucous membranes. I think that she must have died from cellular hypoxia - a lack of oxygen to the cells.

MULDER: What would cause that?

SCULLY: My guess? Ingestion or injection of sodium or potassium cyanide, maybe arsenic. I won't know exactly until I run a toxicology screen on her.

MULDER: How soon?

SCULLY: Labs won't be open 'til morning.

MULDER: See who you can push to have it done, as soon as possible.

[He leaves.]

Kenwood County Jail

[Samuel is lying on the cot in his cell. Mulder approaches with a deputy.]

MULDER: Samuel? It's Agent Mulder.

SAMUEL: Yeah. What do you want?

MULDER: I want to talk with you. If you'd prefer your attorney were present ...

SAMUEL: Whatever. No.

[The deputy opens the door and Mulder enters.]

MULDER: I put a call in to Sheriff Daniels. He's on his way down here. I'm gonna ask him to release you.

[The jailer closes the door. Samuel gets up.]

SAMUEL: Why are you doing this? You were there, man. You saw for yourself.

MULDER: Did you poison Margaret Hohman?

SAMUEL: Did I poison her?

MULDER: Did you poison her using potassium or sodium cyanide, because that's what killed her.

SAMUEL: What are you talking about?

[He sits on the cot.]

MULDER: You're innocent, Samuel - unless you had a hand in administering it, and I don't think you did.

SAMUEL: Whatever the cause, Mr. Mulder, I am responsible.

[He lies back on the cot.]

MULDER: Well, the evidence will be presented at your arraignment tomorrow. The habeas corpus law will force them to release you, so you might as well go home and get some rest anyway.

SAMUEL: Just leave me alone, OK?

650

MULDER: Look, Samuel, if you think that the punishment for your sins is the deaths of those people ...

SAMUEL: The Lord has testified against me, Mr. Mulder!

MULDER: I can't stand here and argue with your Biblical rhetoric, but I do know that the law will find you innocent!

[Samuel says nothing but looks down. Mulder kneels in front of him.]

MULDER: You said you could see my pain. Look at me.

[Samuel does.]

MULDER: What do you see now?

SAMUEL: I see nothing. I am blind.

MULDER: I don't believe you. I've seen her. It was her, wasn't it?

SAMUEL: Your sister?

MULDER: You made her appear to me, didn't you? Look at me.

SAMUEL: [sharply] I am very tired, Mr. Mulder.

MULDER: [loudly] Is she alive? Is that what I'm supposed to believe, or is this a trick?

SAMUEL: You mean ... a trick of the Devil?

MULDER: [sighs in exasperation] Jailer!

[Mulder, annoyed, strides out of the cell block, encountering Sheriff Daniels and another deputy.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: I see I'm a little late for this ball.

MULDER: I called you down here to ask you to release the boy.

SHERIFF DANIELS: On what pretense?

MULDER: His innocence.

SHERIFF DANIELS: Aren't you a little out of your depth here, Agent Mulder? This may be Hicksville to you, but we do try and hew to the legal system.

MULDER: I don't want to pick a fight. He seems determined to stay here anyway.

SHERIFF DANIELS: What does that tell you?

MULDER: It tells me you're determined to have him charged, while your real homicide suspect is still at large.

[He leaves.]

[Later, the deputy, the same one that was standing with Daniels, brings two men into the cell block and opens the door to Samuel's cell.]

DEPUTY: I got some company for you, Sam.

651

[The men enter and the deputy closes the door and walks away. The men slam Samuel against the door. Down the corridor, a prisoner stares at the deputy as he walks by.]

DEPUTY: [to prisoner] What are you looking at?

[Back in Samuel's cell, the two men punch him repeatedly.]

[The next morning, Deputy Tyson rings the bell at Sheriff Daniel's house. His wife starts for the door in her motorized wheelchair as the Sheriff comes down the stairs.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: I'll get it. I'll get it.

[They go together to the door. The sheriff opens it.]

DEPUTY TYSON: Ma'am. Sheriff.

LILLIAN DANIELS: Hey, Dennis. How are you?

DEPUTY TYSON: Just fine, ma'am, just fine. [to Sheriff] Except we had an incident down at the jail.

SHERIFF DANIELS: What incident would that be, Tyson?

DEPUTY TYSON: The preacher boy - he's dead.

Kenwood County Jail

[Outside, Samuel's body is being taken away as a small crowd watches. Scully and Mulder are with the Sheriff.]

SCULLY: He was alone in his cell when Mulder left him this morning. How could this have happened?

SHERIFF DANIELS: The boy started a fight with a couple of rowdies we picked up on a DUI. He took some pretty mean blows to the head. He died before the ambulance got here.

[Hartley and Vance arrive in a car. Daniels starts to walk away.]

REV HARTLEY: [to Sheriff] His blood is spilled! And it's all over you!

[Points at him.]

VANCE: Reverend ...

[The sheriff stops and Hartley approaches him.]

REV HARTLEY: How much longer are you gonna hide behind that badge [pokes at the badge] before the truth is revealed.

SHERIFF DANIELS: I have work to do.

[He walks away. Hartley starts to follow, but Vance grabs him by the arm. Scully approaches them.]

SCULLY: Reverend Hartley. We're sorry for your loss.

REV HARTLEY: [near tears] That boy ... he was blessed. He never hurt a soul.

VANCE: Come on now, Reverend. Our friends will be finding out about Samuel sooner than later, and well, it's probably best if they hear it from you. Come on. [to Scully] Ma'am.

652

[They leave. Scully steps back to Mulder, who has been standing alone gazing into space.]

SCULLY: You've got that look on your face, Mulder.

MULDER: What look is that?

SCULLY: The kind when you've forgotten your keys and you're trying to figure out how to get back in the house.

[He gives her a tight-lipped grin.]

[Later, they are in the empty courtroom. Mulder looks around the judge's bench.]

SCULLY: What exactly are we trying to find?

MULDER: Clues.

SCULLY: Oh.

[Mulder walks over and steps on a dead locust. He picks it up and examines it.]

SCULLY: What does it mean?

[They look up and see a couple more dead locusts in the vent overhead.]

MULDER: Let's find out.

[On the roof, Mulder finds a small morsel near the ventilation intake. He calls Scully over.]

MULDER: [showing it to her] Scully. It's potato.

[He looks into the intake.]

MULDER: Someone left a trail of food in the ventilation system, leading to the courtroom. You dump your locusts in here ... instant plague.

SCULLY: Well, where did they all come from?

MULDER: Biological supply houses usually hatch them on order to farms and universities. It shouldn't be too hard to find out who set this up.

SCULLY: And you think whoever did this is responsible for the murders.

[Mulder nods.]

[That night, a thunderstorm rages outside. Vance tosses and turns in an upstairs bedroom at Hartley's mansion. There is a crash of thunder and Vance sees Samuel standing in front of the bed. There is an aura around Samuel's body. Vance gasps and climbs out of bed.]

VANCE: You're dead. They killed you.

SAMUEL: I was dead. But here I am.

VANCE: No!

653

SAMUEL: Why did you betray me?

[Vance swings his cane at Samuel but hits nothing. Now Samuel is behind him.]

SAMUEL: You murdered those people.

[Vance turns and gasps again.]

SAMUEL: They came to me to be healed, and you murdered them. Why? After I gave you back your life?

VANCE: [holding out his damaged hands] You call this life?

[Downstairs, Hartley answers a knock on the door. It's Sheriff Daniels with Mulder and Scully.]

REV HARTLEY: [to Sheriff] What in tarnation do you want?

SHERIFF DANIELS: We have a warrant for the arrest of Leonard Vance. Where is he?

REV HARTLEY: You must be mistaken.

SCULLY: I'm afraid not, Reverend. We've traced a pesticide order to him from a chemical company in Knoxville. Cyanogen bromide - it's a cyanide derivative.

REV HARTLEY: Leonard poisoned those people?

[As they enter his bedroom, Vance lies on his bed, whimpering.]

SHERIFF DANIELS: Get your clothes on, Vance. You're under arrest.

VANCE: [gasping] I betrayed him.

[Scully sniffs the contents of a glass by his bedside.]

SCULLY: Cyanide - there's no way to tell how much he's ingested.

MULDER: I'll call an ambulance.

SCULLY: It's too late, we have to get him to the hospital ourselves.

VANCE:[breathlessly] I thought, "why didn't he let me die?" Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves. That's what I thought he was, because who else would bring me back ... looking like this. He was here.

MULDER: Who?

VANCE: Samuel.

SHERIFF DANIELS: The man's delirious.

VANCE: He was here, Reverend. Right in this room. And he forgave me.

[Vance gasps again and dies.]

[Later that night, Scully types on her laptop computer.]

654

SCULLY: [voiceover] Rather than simply killing Samuel, Vance contrived to kill the ministry's faith in him. We have conclusive evidence connecting him both to the courtroom infestation and to the poisoning deaths of three members of the ministry. Vance's obsession outlived Samuel, however. His conscience haunted him until he became delusory and finally took his own life, effectively ending our investigation. In light of this information, it is highly doubtful that there have ever been any miracles in Kenwood, Tennessee.

[Mulder is in his room, packing his things, including a framed photograph of young Samantha. His phone rings.]

MULDER: [into phone] Mulder.

[As Scully closes her computer, there's a knock on her door.]

MULDER: [from outside the door] Scully.

[She opens the door.]

MULDER: Sheriff Daniels just called. Samuel's body is missing from the morgue.

[At the morgue, Mulder pulls out the empty tray where Samuel's body was being kept. He is with Scully, Sheriff Daniels and Deputy Tyson.]

MULDER: Any witnesses?

DEPUTY TYSON: One, so far. The night nurse who made the report - Beatrice Salinger.

MULDER: She saw somebody take the body?

DEPUTY TYSON: Not actually.

MULDER: What do you mean, not actually?

SHERIFF DANIELS: Talk sense, deputy.

DEPUTY TYSON: She didn't exactly see anyone taking the body.

SHERIFF DANIELS: Well, what then?

DEPUTY TYSON: She, uh, she claims she saw Samuel walking out by himself. Sounds crazy, I know, but that's what she told me.

MULDER: [heading out of the morgue] You coming, Sheriff?

[Mulder, Scully and the sheriff are now talking to Beatrice Salinger.]

BEATRICE SALINGER: I was drinking my coffee and going over the night orders for my ward, 7 South, when he walked right by me. His face was all black and blue.

MULDER: And you're sure it was him?

BEATRICE SALINGER: Well, at first I thought my eyes were playing tricks, which happens a lot on graveyard. So I got up to look again, but I lost him around the corner. He just vanished. Then I went to check the morgue, and his body was gone.

SHERIFF DANIELS: I don't believe this. This is insane. I'm not gonna listen to any more of this woman's crazy talk.

[He starts to leave.]

655

BEATRICE SALINGER: I'm not the only one who saw him, Sheriff, so I know I'm not crazy. Other people saw him, too.

[The sheriff leaves.]

BEATRICE SALINGER: I'm not crazy. It was Samuel.

[Daniels returns home the next morning. He pauses on a wooden bridge over a culvert in his front yard and sits on the railing, thinking.]

[Later, his wife reads the morning paper, which has a large headline that reads "MURDERED FAITH HEALER RISES FROM DEAD / NURSE CLAIMS TO BE WITNESS." The sheriff sits quietly near her.]

LILLIAN DANIELS: This isn't true, Maurice? Is it? The boy was an awful fake, just like you said, wasn't he Maurice? [emotionally] Wasn't he, Maurice?

[He looks at her but doesn't answer. She starts to cry. There's a knock on the door. The sheriff opens to door to the flashing lights of Deputy Tyson's car beacons.]

DEPUTY TYSON: Sir ... gonna have to ask you to come with me. District Attorney wants to ask you some questions concerning the boy's death.

[Later, Scully and Mulder are in front of the ministry's tent as workers carry a large sign by that reads "Miracle Ministry - Samuel Saves." They are also discarding "Samuel Heals" posters.]

SCULLY: Sundays will probably never be the same again in these parts.

MULDER: I have a strong sense the Reverend Hartley's not going to be able to give up the pulpit.

SCULLY: Even without his son?

MULDER: It might even strengthen his faith. Remember, the boy did rise from the dead. That kind of thing happens only once or twice every two thousand years or so.

SCULLY: Yeah, and I have a story about a plague of locusts. I just hope Reverend Hartley didn't arrange this body snatching as his miracle of miracles.

MULDER: Somehow, I don't think so.

SCULLY: What exactly do you think?

MULDER: I think people are looking hard for miracles ... so hard that maybe they make themselves see what they want to see.

[He steps to the car and unlocks the door. In the door window, he sees the reflection of the little girl again. He whirls but doesn't see her. As he stares at the area, Scully gets into the passenger's seat.]

SCULLY: You coming, Mulder?

[He gets in and they drive away, passing a trash can with several "Samuel Heals" posters.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

656

R.D. Call (Sheriff Daniels) Scott Bairstow (Samuel) George Gerdes (Rev. Hartley) Dennis Lipscomb (Leonard Vance)

Co-Starring:

Walter Marsh (Judge) Campbell Lane (Hohman's father) Chilton Crane (Margaret Hohman) Howard Storey (Fire Chief) Iris Quinn Bernard (Lilian Daniels) Lisa Ann Beley (Beatrice Salinger) Alex Doduk (Young Samuel) Roger Haskett (Deputy Tyson)

1x17 Miracle Man - notes From "X-Files Confidential": 'Miracle Man' marked the first collaboration between Howard Gordon and Chris Carter, following Alex Gansa's departure from the series. "Howard came to my house," Carter says, "and said, 'Help me out,' so we went to my living room and put up this bulletin board and in a matter of hours we came up with this story. Then Howard and I split up the scenes. It was a blast, because Howard and I had never written together before. We had a great time. And I think it set the tone and laid a foundation for what our relationship is. Besides that, we wanted to do something with the bright side of the paranormal, and of course we had to contrast it against the dark side, with this kid who had been able to heal people with his hands and believed he had lost his gift. It was really a story about human nature, jealousy, and the tragedy of this kid's death set against the idea of Mulder and Scully's faith and the appearance of Mulder's sister." Of the scenario itself, Gordon adds; "We said, 'This is a show about belief, about possibilities.' We're all believers at some level. There's healing beyond what you get at your local MD. Given that, I think there's a power of faith, and so we set out right away to not do the obvious, which would be to make these people into buffoons. Ina way, it was a kind of Jesus story. You don't have to look too hard to see the parallels. Samuel was a kid who was given a gift. Our premise was, What if a prophet or someone with special powers was set down on Earth? What would happen to him?" "On an intellectual level," says director Michael Lange, "it really dealt with the subject of God – the power of God – and the power of man in kind of a neat way. There were a lot of things to think about, working on it as a director, and also for the viewer. If you want to go along with it, it can really take you to some neat places. I was trying to kind of create the image of the son of Jesus, basically. Some of the things I put in were actually pulled back by the network when they saw it. Networks, and I think human beings in general, always have a problem with compositing violence with religion. There was one scene where Samuel was beaten up by the guys in the jail cell and was killed, as we find out in the next scene. I had this one image that I shot, which was the silhouette of him against the wall with the bars, and he actually had taken a crucifix pose, and that of course went bye-bye. Even the bold Fox network couldn't handle that one. "All of the tent stuff with the faith healing was done in one day," he continues. "We had three hundred extras and managed to get it done in one day. I, myself, have a kind of skepticism about all these faith healers, but by the end of that day I could see how people would be drawn into it, because it's very compelling. There were some very inspirational things in there, and everyone became so infused with this fervor that you really could understand how it could all happen. It doesn't happen often on TV that you can explore an area of the human experience and feel it that much." Glen Morgan is a little more critical of the episode. "I think it's kind of easy to pick on religion," he says, "especially one of the fundamentalist backgrounds. It's easy to portray them as Bible thumpers. To tell you the truth, there are a lot of people for whom it's their faith, and I would like to have had a little more respect towards that. Overall, my personal belief is that some of the phoniness needs to be exposed; however, it's just kind of easy to say this is all that it is. I think there is more to it. There are good people who have Christian faith in their background. They're not just on bad cable. It's a tough challenge because, really, on network TV they don't want you to deal with religion." Robert Goodwin's difficulties with the episode were of quite a different nature. "The problem with 'Miracle Man' is always a problem when you shoot a show that's set in the South anywhere but in the South," he explains. "It's really easy to do a bad Southern accent. That, for me, was one of the bigger challenges, because a lot of the supporting actors come from Vancouver,

657 but there are also people up here who come from the South. I hired a dialect coach to help even it all out so it didn't sound like they were coming from fifteen different parts of the South." "Setting up the tent and getting that Southern atmosphere in Vancouver was kind of interesting," says Graeme Murray. "That episode was kind of difficult to put together logistically. There were a lot of different little places, and trying to get that Southern atmosphere was a little tough. It was a real location show. A lot of time in the shows like that is spent trying to put together a day of shooting where you have what are supposed to be four or five different locations and we don't really have the time to move during a day. You pretty much have to shoot a day in the location, so everything has to be found within walking distance of the major set of that day. 'Miracle Man' was particularly like that, and putting it all together was very tricky." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Kenwood, Tennessee Back story; 'Miracle Man' marked the first script written by then supervising producer Howard Gordon without his longtime partner, Alex Gansa, with whom he'd worked on Beauty and the Beast as well as Spenser: For Hire. While television is sometimes criticized for the manner in which it treats religion, the episode is extremely respectful toward religious faith, underscored by Scully's comments regarding hr Catholic upbringing. Mulder does get in one gag at the revival meeting, however, when Scully suggests they venture backstage. "Hang on," he says. "This is the part where they bring out Elvis." X-Files In-Jokes * The reverend's license reads 'BHEALD' * 1121 - Autopsy time: 11:21 (Chris Carter's wife's birthday)

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- After graduating from Princeton University in 1984, New York native Howard Gordon came to Los Angeles with his writing partner Alex Gansa to do a movie based on the life of Lord Byron. Once in L.A. they ran into a small problem: "No one knew who Lord Byron was," Gordon said.

-- So instead, Gordon and Gansa wrote and sold a spec script for St. Elsewhere and began tutoring high school students for the SAT test. The SAT work turned into a thriving business and led to Gordon's first real job, as one of his students was the daughter of a producer on ABC's Spencer: For Hire. Gordon and Gansa pitched some ideas for Spencer and went on to write more than a half-dozen scripts for the detective show.

-- From there, the team joined the Emmy-nominated series Beauty and the Beast as staff writers, and were later named producers, which gave Gordon a chance to learn the inner workings of a TV show. Gordon and Gansa were then signed to a two year deal with Witt-Thomas Productions during which they produced several pilots. Country Estates, a pilot produced for ABC, caught the attention of Chris Carter who invited them to join The X-Files as supervising producers. The team wrote the Season 1 episodes "Conduit," "Ghost in the Machine," "Fallen Angel," "Lazarus," and "Born Again"; and then Gansa departed from the series to pursue independent projects. ("Born Again" was filmed after Gansa's departure.)

-- "Miracle Man" was Howard Gordon's first script written without his longtime partner.

-- Gordon wrote or co-wrote several scripts each season before departing from the series in 1997 to pursue other projects. After writing several episodes of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, Gordon created his own show, the short-lived Strange World in 1999. Strange World went to seed after 13 episodes, but Gordon and Strange World (and former X-Files) writer Tim Minear's services were quickly snapped up by Buffy creator Joss Whedon on another project: Angel. After two years with Angel, Gordon jumped ship in 2001 for Fox's mega-successful 24, where he would write several episodes in Season 1 and 2, then craft the entire story arcs for Seasons 3 and 4. Gordon temporarily left 24 in the middle of the 2004 season to re-join Minear as co- creator of another Fox series, The Inside. Following that series' quick cancellation, Gordon rejoined 24 as executive producer and show runner. The series won the Outstanding Drama Series Emmy for its excellent fifth season.

-- In addition to this episode, Michael Lange directed "Young at Heart," "Ascension," and "Unrequited."

-- "Miracle Man" was our first season clue that religion was going to be an important part of the X-Files. Though Scully had worn her cross since the "Pilot," her religious beliefs really hadn't been touched upon until this episode. And of course, as we learned later, we would get at least one (sometimes more) episode with religious overtones in every season and Chris Carter would ultimately weave religious symbolism into the very fabric of the show.

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-- The episode took place in the town of Kenwood and Kenwood County, Tennesse. There is a town of Kenwood in the Clarksville area, but it is in Montgomery County, Tennessee.

-- When Mulder and Scully visit the Miracle Ministry, Mulder said, "I think I saw some of these people at Woodstock." He probably saw them in Scully's video, as it was quite obvious that all the tent revival scenes that supposedly took place on three different days were shot at the same time. Close-ups of the same extras sitting in the same places wearing the same clothes were used for different revival meetings, and the woman who later died was clearly shown sitting in the front row at an earlier prayer meeting.

-- Reverend Hartley may have had a Cadillac for every day of the week, but he apparently only had one suit and one tie. He hadn't changed clothes since Scully's video either.

-- The episode featured Mulder's second "Elvis" reference: "This is the part where they bring out Elvis." (The first was in "Shadows.") Mulder's fascination with Elvis was a trait created by Glen Morgan and James Wong as a joke because they knew that David Duchovny was not a fan of the King.

-- The Reverend Hartley's vanity license plate read "BHEALD."

-- Oopsie! In the establishing shot of the courthouse, the subtitle read "Kenwood County Courthouse," but you could clearly read on the building that it is the "DeKalb County Courthouse."

-- When Scully reads through the list of diseases that have been healed by Samuel, one of them is "spontaneous remission of metastatic cancer," which is exactly what will happen to her five years in the future.

-- Another example of why Scully is a pathologist: when the girl collapses at the revival, she shouts for someone to get an ambulance, checks the girl's pulse, and proclaims her dead. Shouldn't Dr. Scully have made an attempt at reviving her (no pun intended)?

-- Scully's fondness for horror films also gets a mention in this episode, as she said that The Exorcist was one of her favorite movies.

-- The autopsy Scully performs on Margaret Hohman sets the timeline for this episode: March 7, 1994. It also provides an 1121 reference; the time is 11:21 (11/21 is Chris Carter's wife's birthday).

-- The autopsy also gives us an early glimpse of Squeamish!Mulder.

-- I know Mulder loved his sister, but I found it hard to believe that he toted around her picture while he was out investigating cases. The gratuitous photo-packing was a little too heavy-handed for my taste.

-- Faith healer Samuel Hartley was one of Scott Bairstow's first acting roles. He went on to play Newt Call in Lonesome Dove: The Series and Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years. He later played the abusive Ned Grayson in the Fox series Party of Five. Bairstow worked for Chris Carter again as the star of the short-lived Harsh Realm playing Lt. Thomas Hobbes.

-- Bairstow ran into legal trouble a few years ago. In January 2004 he was sentenced to four months in jail in Washington State following a modified guilty plea to second-degree assault. He also agreed to undergo a sexual deviancy evaluation and to be under supervision for one year following his release. He had originally been charged with second-degree rape after he was accused of having sex in 1998 with a 12-year-old girl related to his ex-wife, continuing the relationship with her until 2001.

-- Once & Future Retreads: Walter Marsh (Judge) was the Druggist in "Unruhe" and the Pathologist in "Christmas Carol." (He passed away on September 17, 2005.) Campbell Lane (Hohman's Father) was Calusari #3 in "The Calusari," and the Committee Chairman in "Tunguska/Terma." Lisa Ann Beley (Beatrice Salinger) was a Student in "Little Green Men." Roger Haskett (Deputy Tyson) was the Coroner on "Travelers."

1x18 Shapes - transcript

659

Writer: Marilyn Osborn Director: David Nutter Airdate: April 1, 1994

Transcribed by: Dave Fox Edited by Libby

Two Medicine Ranch Browning, Montana

[It is a dark and stormy night. A log cabin, with many stuffed animals: wolf, bird of prey, tiger, bear. Inside their home, Jim and Lyle Parker load their shotguns. The sound of an animal roaring can be heard. The Parkers step outside and walk toward their barn. Lyle, the son, enters a stall in the barn to check on a horse. He then steps out of the barn and finds a cow lying dead. He hears a growl nearby and looks around. With his gun raised, he enters the barn again. A hideous face is seen watching him, and then Lyle is attacked from behind by a large animal and falls on the barn floor. Jim Parker hears the roar. The animal, which looks like a man-beast of some sort, swipes at Lyle, then throws him outside the barn and through a fence. Jim Parker fires his shotgun, and the beast is hit in the back and falls. Jim runs to assist Lyle, who is still lying on the ground. He looks over at the beast, but instead sees a dead man lying on his back, blood flowing from his chest.]

[main titles]

[Mulder and Scully are talking with Jim and Lyle Parker in their ranch house. The Parker's attorney, David Gates, is also in the room.]

JIM PARKER: I'm not a killer ... and I never meant to hurt no one. But I'm tired of my cattle being butchered a hundred miles from the slaughterhouse. That's the fourth one this month alone.

MULDER: Then who or what do you think was responsible?

JIM PARKER: Look, mister. That cow looked like a piece of paper that had gone through a shredder. I don't know of no animal that could have done that.

MULDER: Then are you saying that a person or persons was responsible for this?

DAVID GATES: I want to remind you that Mr. Parker is free on bond pending trial. He's willfully speaking with you solely in regards to this incident and not about any other pending litigation.

SCULLY: So we can't talk about Mr. Parkers federal court case against the Trego indian reservation?

DAVID GATES: That's exactly what I mean.

JIM PARKER: Now wait just a damned second ...

DAVID GATES: Jim, don't say a word.

JIM PARKER: [angrily] No, this ain't the time for that lawyer crap. I want to get this out in the open. You people think I went and killed me an Indian just because we're having an argument about where my land ends and their land begins.

LYLE PARKER: We want to settle that peacefully, in court.

SCULLY: Well, Joseph Goodensnake is dead with a wound from your shotgun to indicate otherwise.

JIM PARKER: All I'm saying, it was no kind of animal that I know of. But it damn well didn't seem human neither, that night. Take a look at my boy's scars.

[Mulder walks over to look at Lyle]

660

JIM PARKER: It was dark, we heard a growl and we went out there to protect the cattle. I could have swore I saw ... red eyes and fangs. I thought my boy Lyle was ... look, nobody - nobody - was more shocked and upset than I was to find out it was that young Indian boy, but if he was the one that was killing our cattle, I'm very, very sorry that we had to find out about it that way, but as far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it.

MULDER: Can we see the corral?

LYLE PARKER: I'll take you out there.

[Lyle takes Scully and Mulder outside, closing a sliding door behind them. They stop to talk on the porch.]

LYLE PARKER: Agent Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah?

LYLE PARKER: Agent Scully? I suppose if I were hearing our side of the story, it might not hold up too well. Parts I don't understand myself - things my father could never try to explain to a stranger.

MULDER: What kinds of things?

LYLE PARKER: For the last few months, whenever we'd go outside at night and check on the cattle - never saw anything out of the ordinary. Not a mountain lion, not a coyote, not even any Tregos, Agent Scully. But I could feel it. Something not human ... out there ... watching me. The air was more still, the night animals more quiet. It was like nature herself was terrified. It gave me the creeps.

SCULLY: The creeps?

LYLE PARKER: Yeah, the creeps.

[To Scully.]

LYLE PARKER: Don't you ever get the creeps?

[Mulder is staring at Scully as Lyle walks away. Scully sees Mulder, then self-consciously looks away from him and follows Lyle.]

[Mulder and Scully are inspecting the corral. They are carrying umbrellas, as a light rain is falling.]

SCULLY: The victim was shot there, about three meters from where Parker fired. There's no way he could have mistaken a person for an animal. It's open-and-shut, Mulder. You know, I'm surprised you volunteered for this assignment. Any Bureau agent could have investigated this reservation homicide. Why are you interested?

[Mulder has found an unusual set of tracks in the mud. The tracks look like boot footprints at first, but change to a barefoot animal track.]

[Later, they are preparing to leave the ranch. Scully walks out of the barn to join Mulder.]

SCULLY: Well, there seems to be nothing unexplainable about this case.

MULDER: Nope. Not a thing.

[He holds up a large, thin piece of skinlike material.]

[Scully is examining the skinlike material, now in an evidence bag, as they drive away.]

661

SCULLY: Mulder, this is so odd. It's almost like a snakeskin that's been shed. I suspect that the Parkers knowingly killed Joe Goodensnake, but they hardly seem the type to skin their victim.

MULDER: Besides which, police and coroner's report make no mention of such an act.

SCULLY: Well, we're going to have to take a look at the body ourselves.

MULDER: The body's been transferred to the reservation authorities. We're supposed to get in touch with, uh, um, Sheriff Charlie Tskany.

Trego Indian Reservation Northwest Montana

[They pull into the main area of the reservation, which is an area made muddy by the rains. They enter a small diner and approach the man behind the counter.]

MULDER: Excuse me, uh, we're not from around here. We're looking for Sheriff Tskany.

[The man behind the counter walks away without answering. A young woman playing pool notices Mulder and Scully. Mulder turns from the counter and addresses the diner patrons.]

MULDER: Anyone, uh, know Charlie Tskany?

ISH: Go home, FBI.

[They've been answered by Ish, an old man sitting in the shadows behind a pool table at the back of the diner. They walk toward him.]

MULDER: How'd you know?

ISH: I could smell you a mile away.

MULDER: Well, they told me that even though my deodorant's made for a woman, it's strong enough for a man.

[The old man does not smile.]

ISH: I was at Wounded Knee in 1973. What I learned fighting the FBI is you don't believe in us and we don't believe in you.

MULDER: I want to believe.

ISH: Why you here? What are you looking for?

MULDER: I think you already know what we're looking for.

ISH: You tell me what I know.

SCULLY: We're looking for any individuals who might be able to provide information on the homicide of Joe Goodensnake ...

MULDER: [interrupting her] We're looking for anything that can create human tracks in one step and animal tracks in the next.

ISH: Parker. He found what you're looking for. He killed what you're looking for, FBI.

[The young woman, Gwen Goodensnake, slams a pool cue down on the table.]

GWEN GOODENSNAKE: What Parker and his kid killed was my brother ... and you're all too afraid of some stupid Indian legend to do anything. I hate it.

ISH: Gwen!

662

GWEN GOODENSNAKE: And I hate suits who are always here when they want something from us, but when we need help, they're nowhere to be found.

[She walks out of the diner, passing a man wearing a sheriff's badge. Scully walks over to meet him.]

SCULLY: Sheriff Tskany?

[She extends her hand but the sheriff does not extend his.]

SCULLY: I'm Agent Scully and this is Agent Mulder.

SHERIFF TSKANY: Goodensnake's body is in my office.

[They follow him out of the diner. Outside, they approach the sheriff's office. There are two Trego men standing in front of the door.]

SHERIFF TSKANY: [to the men] Bill, Tom. Let 'em through. Come on, boys, let 'em through.

[They stand aside and let them through into the office.]

MULDER: Who were they?

SHERIFF TSKANY: Guardians of the dead. They escort the deceaseds' spirits to the new world. I only let them as far as the front door. Anybody that knows me knows that I keep the ancient beliefs out there and the police work in here.

MULDER: The woman in the pool hall said that people were afraid of some Indian legend. What do they believe happened in the Parker case?

SHERIFF TSKANY: [annoyed] Look, I'm not a park ranger here to answer all your questions about Indians. Whenever I need federal help, I never get it. Since this case falls under the jurisdiction of the FBI, you're entitled to examine the body. So let's get it over with.

[They walk into a back room where the body is kept.]

MULDER: Was the woman in the pool hall his sister?

SHERIFF TSKANY: Gwen. She and Joe are primarily responsible for fueling the boundary dispute with Parker. They felt that he had been grazing his cattle farther and farther onto the reservation. Parker probably told you it was his idea to settle in court. Joe and Gwen filed the suit.

[Mulder has pulled the sheet from the man's body, and he and Scully see four partially-healed scars, as if from an animal, on his upper chest.]

SCULLY: Take a look at that scar tissue.

MULDER: Yeah.

SCULLY: Looks like he'd been attacked by an animal as well.

SHERIFF TSKANY: Could Joe have been attacked also? Maybe the Parkers did see an animal.

SCULLY: No. Those wounds have been healing for quite some time. The shotgun wound indicates point-blank range. The pellets entered the body in a single mass. The assailant couldn't have been more than three feet away.

[Mulder is examining the dead man's mouth and teeth.]

MULDER: We're gonna need to take a look at Joe Goodensnake's dental records.

663

[Scully comes closer to look as Mulder holds his mouth open. Two of his upper teeth are sharp, pointed fangs.]

[Mulder and Scully are looking over dental X-rays.]

MULDER: See, these are the canine cuspids. They're normal.

SCULLY: Well, could his records have been switched or misplaced?

MULDER: You see the second incisor here is chipped just like the ones in his mouth. These match Joe Goodensnake's.

SCULLY: Well, there are cases of calcium phosphate salts developing abnormally with age, but ...

[Mulder shakes his head, mildly annoyed with Scully's attempt at an explanation.]

SHERIFF TSKANY: That could account for what Jim Parker claims to have seen. He was out that night, expecting to see a mountain lion killing his cattle. He gets rattled and the flashlight beam catches Joe, here.

SCULLY: So Parker saw what he wanted to see, an animal.

MULDER: Lyle Parker was attacked, he has scars just like Joe. Do you have a facility where we can perform an autopsy?

SHERIFF TSKANY: Why?

MULDER: Well, if Joe's teeth are abnormal, an autopsy might reveal abnormalities in the interior of his anatomy as well.

SHERIFF TSKANY: I can't allow that.

[Tskany walks back to the front office and sits at his desk. Scully and Mulder follow him.]

SCULLY: I'm fully qualified.

SHERIFF TSKANY: No. I can't let you do an autopsy. The funeral is tonight.

MULDER: It's a cremation. After that, we'll have nothing.

SHERIFF TSKANY: Tregoes believe that the recent dead are unsettled by their new condition as spirits. Any desecration of the body angers the spirit and keeps it haunting this world.

SCULLY: But you're a law enforcement officer. You can't destroy evidence.

SHERIFF TSKANY: Don't tell me what I can't do. Native Americans believe that their law is greater and more just than that of the U.S. government. If they want Joe at rest rather than used as a piece of evidence, that's the way it's gonna be. If you want to make an issue out of it - you're a higher authority - go right ahead.

[He walks away from them.]

MULDER: Charlie? Do you believe that the spirit of Joe Goodensnake is in that room?

SHERIFF TSKANY: [turning back to him] All I know is, tomorrow, the day after, you're gonna leave. But I have to stay here. I've gotta answer to these people. You can continue your investigation, but you're gonna have to do it without Joe Goodensnake's body.

[Mulder hands him the dental records, and he and Scully leave.]

664

[It is late afternoon, and the dead man's body is lying on a cremation platform. The two Trego guardians are in front of the platform, while a third, in ceremonial attire, chants and performs a ritualistic dance. Mulder and Scully are sitting in their car a short distance away.]

SCULLY: Mulder, since we've been here, you've acted as if you've expected to find every piece of evidence that we've come across. What aren't you telling me? Why are we here?

MULDER: A true piece of history, Scully.

[He reaches behind the seat to get a file.]

MULDER: The very first X-file, initiated by J. Edgar Hoover himself in 1946.

[He hands it to Scully.]

MULDER: During World War II, a series of murders occurred in and around the northwest, seven here in Browning alone. Each victim was basically ripped to shreds and eaten, as if by a wild animal. However, many of the victims were found at home, as if they allowed their killer to enter. In 1946, police cornered what they believed to be such an animal in a cabin in Glacier National Park. They shot it, but when they went in to retrieve the carcass, they found only the body of Richard Watkins.

SCULLY: Sounds like the Parker scenario.

MULDER: The murders stopped that year. Because the cases were unsolved and considered so bizarre, Hoover locked them away, hoping that in time people around here would forget about them.

SCULLY: This file indicates that they started again in 1954.

MULDER: In '59, '64, '78 and now again in '94. But ...

[He reaches back for something else from the back seat.]

SCULLY: Here it comes.

MULDER: ... these animal-man related murders predate the oldest X-file by 150 years. Members of the Lewis and Clark expedition wrote of Indian men who could change their shape into that of a wolf.

[He is looking at a drawing showing a large, wolf-like creature with a man between his jaws.]

SCULLY: Mulder, what this, what this folder describes is called lycanthropy.

[Mulder bites his lip and looks away]

SCULLY: It's a type of insanity in which an individual believes that he can turn into a wolf. I mean, no one can physically change into an animal.

[She gets out of the car. Mulder gets out as well and follows her.]

MULDER: How can you just dismiss the evidence - the tracks in the mud, the shredded skin, a man with the teeth of an animal?

SCULLY: Mulder, even if you're right and Joe Goodensnake did somehow have the ability to transform physically into an animal, he's dead. Jim Parker shot him and in a couple of moments, his body will be burned. End of mystery.

MULDER: Let's hope so.

[Scully walks closer to observe the ceremony. Gwen Goodensnake stands near the platform. Mulder remains farther back. He and Ish nod to each other. Scully approaches Gwen.]

665

GWEN GOODENSNAKE: [to Scully, but not looking at her] You don't belong here.

SCULLY: Gwen ...

GWEN GOODENSNAKE: You're only around to wrap up your investigation.

SCULLY: I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about your brother. I feel sad for anyone who loses a part of their family.

GWEN GOODENSNAKE: A part? He was my whole family. I'm it now. As a demonstration of sorrow ... I'm supposed to give away all my brother's possessions.

[She hands Scully what appears to be a bracelet with several large animal claws.]

SCULLY: Gwen, I don't know what to say. I'm ...

GWEN GOODENSNAKE: It's no big deal. He had more possessions than he had friends.

[She walks away, and Scully looks at the claws. Sheriff Tskany pulls up in his vehicle and approaches. Mulder steps over toward him.]

MULDER: I read the report of your investigation into the Goodensnake homicide. It was very good, thorough, professional. But what I want to know is off the record. What do you think really happened?

SHERIFF TSKANY: Your explanation, Agent Mulder, is lying on that burial platform. Why don't you just accept that and go home?

MULDER: Charlie, do you believe in shape-shifting?

SHERIFF TSKANY: This is a funeral.

[It is now dark, and drums are beating as the funeral pyre is lit. A Trego begins a chant and is then joined by other members of the tribe. Lyle Parker rides up on his horse. He removes his hat. Gwen Goodensnake hears his horse and runs back toward him. Tskany, Mulder and Scully follow her.]

GWEN GOODENSNAKE: Get out of here!

LYLE PARKER: Please, I just want to show my respects.

GWEN GOODENSNAKE: I don't want your respects. I want your heart to grow cold. I want you to feel what I'm feeling.

[She spits on the ground.]

SHERIFF TSKANY: I think you better leave, Mr. Parker.

LYLE PARKER: [putting his hat back on] I wish your brother could be here. I wish that more than anything else.

[He rides off, and Gwen angrily walks back to the funeral platform, which burns brightly in the night.] [Charlie Parker is sitting alone on the porch of his ranch house. He lights a cigar and then hears a faint growl. He sets down his drink and quietly walks down from the porch, looking around. The wind causes a set of riding gear to jingle nearby, and Charlie assumes that it was the wind that he heard. As he walks back to the porch, the hideous face appears and Charlie is attacked from behind. He falls onto the porch, then is picked up and shaken by the beast, then thrown across the porch. The beast then slashes at him wildly.]

[The next day, the authorities are at the ranch house investigating Charlie Parker's death. Scully lifts the plastic covering over the body, then approaches Tskany.]

666

SCULLY: By the way the body's been mutilated, I'd say he's been attacked by a large predator, or somebody wanted it to look that way. Do you think this is retaliation for the death of Joe Goodensnake?

SHERIFF TSKANY: I don't know.

SCULLY: Have you talked to Gwen Goodensnake? She seemed pretty upset last night.

SHERIFF TSKANY: She's gone. Nobody's seen her since the funeral. I put an APB out on her.

SCULLY: And what about Lyle Parker?

SHERIFF TSKANY: We can't find him either.

SCULLY: He could be dead as well. I'll take a look around.

[Mulder is searching an area near the ranch house. He finds a fist-sized clump of animal fur and another skin nearby.]

[Scully finds some small animal cages next to a gate. From behind her, she hears a loud growl and turns to see a caged mountain lion snarling at her. She gasps in surprise as the mountain lion claws the metal bars of his cage. She then sees Lyle Parker lying in a field a short distance away.]

[Tskany pulls a very large claw from Charlie Parker's body.]

MULDER: That's not from any animal I've ever seen. Sheriff, I think it's time we had a talk. An exchange of ideas?

[Scully approaches with Lyle Parker, who is wrapped in a blanket.]

SCULLY: Mulder! Mulder, I'm taking Lyle to the hospital. He's suffering from exposure, and when he's been checked out, I'm gonna question him.

[Scully and Parker get into the car and she drives off.]

MULDER: [to Tskany] What are you hiding?

SHERIFF TSKANY: I thought it was over.

MULDER: Over? Is that why you wouldn't allow an autopsy on Joe Goodensnake's body? You thought it would all end when he was cremated? What were you afraid we'd find?

SHERIFF TSKANY: I can't tell you. But I'll take you to somebody who can.

Grove Medical Clinic Browning, Montana

[Lyle Parker is lying in a hospital bed. A nurse exits with a blood sample, leaving Scully to question him.]

LYLE PARKER: I'm ashamed to say it after what happened after the funeral. I picked up some bourbon, and I don't remember a thing after that. Sometimes when I'm down, I go out to where me and my dad keep stray animals that wander in on the ranch. I just watch them, you know, it keeps things in perspective.

[Scully sits in a chair beside the bed.]

LYLE PARKER: Anyway, my mom, when she was alive, was the one that started keeping those animals. I guess I go out there and think about her, too. God, I must have been really wasted to run around there naked. You must have thought I was one of those animals.

SCULLY: When you did go home, did you talk to your father?

667

LYLE PARKER: No, he'd have been mad I even went to the funeral. I, I have an, uh, image of him sitting on the front porch but ... I don't remember talking to him. Why?

SCULLY: Your father's dead. I'm sorry.

[Lyle closes his eyes]

SCULLY: It appears as if he's been attacked by an animal, but I suspect it may be homicide. Lyle, I lost my father recently and I know how overwhelming ...

LYLE PARKER: [in a shaky voice] Was it my fault? By going to the funeral, did it anger them into killing my father?

SCULLY: I don't know.

LYLE PARKER: I can deal with death, you know, living on the ranch, being close to nature and all, you see how it all works. Things are born, things die, everything else falls in between.

[Lyle is almost crying.]

LYLE PARKER: But if I caused it, if I brought it on, I couldn't, uh, I, I ...

[He can't finish the sentence. Scully touches his arm in sympathy.]

[Mulder and Tskany are in Ish's cabin.]

ISH: I saw it once with my own eyes. It was a long time ago. It seems like a dream. I was a boy.

[The three sit close together on the floor.]

MULDER: In 1946? The Watkins case?

ISH: I sense you are different, FBI. You're more open to Native American belief than some Native Americans.

[He looks at Tskany, who looks downward.]

ISH: You even have an Indian name - Fox. You should be "Running Fox", or "Sneaky Fox".

MULDER: [smiling] Just as long as it's not "Spooky Fox". Tell me, Ish ... what did you see?

ISH: Watkins had been attacked by an animal when he was alone in the woods. His scars healed. It was forgotten. Then the murders began. The Tregoes, we realized that Watkins had been attacked by what the Algonquins called the manitou ... an evil spirit capable of changing a man into a beast. To be attacked by a manitou causes the victim to become one.

MULDER: The healed scars on Joe Goodensnake's body.

ISH: A manitou overtakes a man by night, not by full moon. But when its blood lust builds to an uncontrollable level, the man changes to a sickening creature. It kills, releasing a savage energy. The man returns to his true self, unaware of what has happened. The cycle begins anew the next day. This continues until death. One night, when I was 16 years old, I was coming back from fishing at the Cut Bank Creek. I knew a shortcut behind Watkins' house. There was a groan, not animal but not human. I looked into his window. He was covered in sweat and blood. He was in a great, great pain. His arm - the skin ripped, tore up and fell to the floor. Claws sprang from his fingernails. He turned, screaming, and he saw me. His eyes ... his eyes were still human. They begged me to kill him. If I had been hunting and had my gun, I'd have done it without a second thought, but being a boy and scared to death, I ran away.

MULDER: Shortly after, the police killed him.

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ISH: But the manitou rose again.

MULDER: Eight years later. But with Watkins dead, how could there have been an attack by manitou?

ISH: Watkins had a son. It can be passed along blood lines.

SHERIFF TSKANY: Gwen. If Joe Goodensnake was this creature, then perhaps it didn't originate in him by the first attack but was handed down through the blood lines. This means Gwen could have it also. Gwen could have killed Parker.

[There is a noise outside the door. The three, all armed, rush outside but don't see anything at first. Mulder waves Ish back. Ish's truck starts, and Gwen appears in the front seat. She backs out toward the road.]

MULDER: Gwen!

[Mulder and Tskany run after her.]

SHERIFF TSKANY: Hey!

[Tskany reaches the truck as Gwen halts it to change direction. He reaches in and shuts off the motor.]

GWEN GOODENSNAKE: No! No!

[Tskany pulls her out of the car and onto the ground.]

SHERIFF TSKANY: You're under arrest, Gwen, for stealing Ish's car!

ISH: What happened, Gwen? What are you running away from?

GWEN GOODENSNAKE: [breathless] I saw it. I, I saw it kill Parker.

MULDER: Let her up.

GWEN GOODENSNAKE: [crying] I went there after the funeral. I was gonna mess up the kid, and so I waited. But Parker was on the porch, and then this thing, this animal - oh my God. I've never been so scared. I ran and I hid in the woods all day. I wanted to get out ... I wanted to get out of here. I wanted to get out of here.

[Tskany puts his arms around her.]

ISH: Bring her inside.

[Mulder and Ish nod to each other as Tskany helps her back to the house.]

[At the hospital, a nurse hands the phone to a doctor.]

DR. JOSEPHS: Thank you.

DR. JOSEPHS: [into phone] Hello, this is Dr. Josephs.

[Mulder is calling from Ish's house.]

MULDER: Yeah, this is Agent Mulder from the FBI. I was told I could reach Agent Scully at this number.

DR. JOSEPHS: Oh, yes, we released Lyle Parker from the hospital and she's taking him back to the ranch.

MULDER: So I can reach her there?

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DR. JOSEPHS: Uh-huh. They just left. Agent Mulder, there's something I feel you should know. I received a blood test performed on Lyle Parker, and there's something rather unsettling.

MULDER: What's that?

DR. JOSEPHS: Traces of his father's blood type. It can only be there through ingestion.

[In late twilight, Scully drives Lyle Parker back to the ranch. Lyle appears to be dozing, but opens his eyes ominously.]

[Under a full moon, Scully and Lyle have arrived at the ranch. They enter and Scully tries the light switch.]

SCULLY: Power's out.

LYLE PARKER: Yep. Happens to us all the time, being out here in the sticks. I'll fire up the generator.

[He walks across the room but doubles over in pain, leaning over a railing. Scully comes to assist him.]

SCULLY: You OK?

LYLE PARKER: [gasping] I feel sick. Please, help me into the bathroom.

[Scully does.]

[Mulder and Tskany are speeding down a road, with the lights flashing on top of the vehicle. Mulder is trying his cell phone.]

MULDER: Damn! It keeps disconnecting. The mountain must be blocking the signal. How much farther?

SHERIFF TSKANY: About 7 miles.

[He speeds up.]

[At the ranch, Lyle is in the bathroom. He takes off his coat and runs the water, while Scully calls to him from outside.]

SCULLY: Lyle? Let me come in. Lyle, I want to take you back to the hospital, OK?

LYLE PARKER: No. I'll be all right.

[Mulder and Tskany are still speeding toward the ranch.]

SCULLY: Lyle? Lyle, answer me. Lyle, are you all right?

[Lyle rips off his shirt and flexes his back. Scully squats to inspect the lock on the door. Inside, Lyle begins to transform, showing large fangs. Scully starts unscrewing the door lock with a screwdriver, while Lyle gasps and rips at the curtains inside. He growls and his skin starts to tear.]

[Mulder and Tskany are just entering the ranch.]

[Scully has gotten one screw out of the door. Suddenly a large, furry arm breaks through the upper part of the door, startling Scully. She drops her flashlight as she falls backward.]

[Mulder and Tskany pull up at the ranch house. Mulder enters and tries the light switch. He doesn't see or hear any sign of either Scully or Lyle. He quietly moves through the house and turns on a small flashlight, seeing a large set of scratches on the wall. He picks up Scully's flashlight.]

MULDER: [whispering loudly] Scully?

670

[Tskany is looking around outside. His flashlight catches the mountain lion, still in its cage.]

[Mulder continues through the house, moving into the kitchen. He hears a roar behind him and turns to see a large, furry creature run into the next room. He fires twice but doesn't hit it. He follows the creature and starts up the stairs. As he nears the landing, there is another roar and Mulder turns, instinctively firing above him at something. It is only a mounted bear head. Mulder gets up and continues to the top of the stairs. A nearby noise startles him.]

MULDER: Aagh!

SCULLY: [coming out of the shadows] It's OK, it's me. It's me. I don't know what happened. Something jumped me downstairs and I lost my gun.

MULDER: I heard it come up here. Come on.

SCULLY: [breathless] OK.

[They continue into the next room, Mulder leading the way with a flashlight. They hear a faint growl. They move into the next room. From the corner, a beast springs out to attack. Mulder wheels to fire, but before he can, a rifle blast is heard. Tskany has shot the beast.]

SHERIFF TSKANY: You all right?

[Mulder shines the flashlight at the beast.]

SCULLY: Oh my God!

[Lyle lies dead in the corner]

SCULLY: He was in the bathroom, sick, and then the next thing I knew we were attacked by the mountain lion.

MULDER: It wasn't a mountain lion, Scully.

SHERIFF TSKANY: It's still in a cage out back.

[The next day, Mulder, Scully and Tskany come out of the sheriff's office.]

MULDER: Where's Gwen? She said she'd come see us before we left.

SHERIFF TSKANY: She left last night. Gave away all her possessions to her friends.

MULDER: Just pulled up and left? Why would she do that?

SHERIFF TSKANY: Brother's gone, no family. Trouble with Parker is all over. Maybe she saw something that she wasn't ready to understand.

SCULLY: Maybe.

MULDER: [shaking Tskany's hand] Thank you.

[He walks off. Scully shakes Tskany's hand as well, then follows Mulder. Mulder opens the car door.]

ISH: [standing on a porch] FBI! See you in about ... eight years.

MULDER: I hope not.

[They smile and nod at each other.]

[Mulder and Scully drive off through the fog-shrouded mountains.]

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Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest starring:

Ty Miller (Lyle Parker) Michael Horse (Sheriff Tskany) Donnelly Rhodes (Jim Parker) Jimmy Herman (Ish) Renae Morriseau (Gwen Goodensnake)

Co-Starring:

Dwight McFee (David Gates) Paul McLean (Dr. Josephs)

1x18 Shapes - notes From "X-Files Confidential": "People would say to me, 'When are you going to do the vampire and werewolf thing?' Glen Morgan recalls. "Well, here it is. Like a good rock band should be able to play standards by Chuck Berry, I feel we should be able to do the basics. I think there's room for the straight-out, scare-the-hell-out-of-people type of show." "The network wanted a monster show," notes David Nutter, "and that's what they got. The main crux for me on that show was to create an atmosphere that would make it as different as possible from other episodes. Also, the manitou wasn't too much in your face. You only saw a little bit of the monster here and a little bit of it there, and it was all very well handled." The visual execution of the manitou especially pleased Robert Goodwin. "That monster was put together in a combination of traditional and computer way," he says. "We had a man in a suit with an articulated mask. Then we had a dog's-head mask that was also articulated for the teeth and the fangs, and those elements were brought together." The final ingredient needed to bring the manitou to life came in postproduction, where Paul Rabwin supervised the sound effects. "We needed a combination of sounds in order to make it frightening," he recounts. "A sound that was part animal and part human. We had several groans and screams from different animals, ranging from a hawk's screech to a lion's roar. Then I had an actor who specializes in voices do a number of different screams and sounds. In the end, the manitou is a combination of eleven or twelve different sounds of varying degrees, varying pitches, and varying speeds. The sound was familiar in that we heard elements of the Wolf Man, but different in that it was definitely The X-Files. "I thought Jim and Glen, in rewriting Marilyn Osborn's script, did a terrific job of giving us a good sort of meat-and-potatoes werewolf story by calling it a manitou, which was our X-Files twist on it," says Chris Carter. "I thought it was very well directed by David Nutter. Glen's right in his feeling that show should be able to deal with more traditional monsters. I defend that. When you do twenty-five episodes a year, you are going to get some that are a little more down the pipe, and I think this one is an example of that." Graeme Murray explains, "We were trying to re-create this big-sky Montana ranch country in Vancouver. We shot in a town that was created for a show called Bordertown. It was one of those shows where you just try and get it done on schedule and on budget."

From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Browning, Montana Back story: Fox had suggested doing a more conventional monster show, and Glen Morgan and James Wong – who had been wanting to come up with something exploring Native American mythology – proposed the Manitou, a slightly different approach to werewolves designed to serve fans of that genre while still feeling distinctive in The X-Files fashion. "A horror show should be able to do these legends that have been around since the thirteen hundreds," Morgan says.

672

When the old man points out that Mulder's name "should be Running Fox or Sleepy Fox," the agent responds, "Just as long as it's not 'Spooky Fox' " – a reference to the disparaging nickname Mulder earned at the FBI Academy (mentioned in the pilot) stemming from his belief in the paranormal. One potentially humorous scene that failed to make the cut has a cow blocking the agents' car with Scully waving her arms and yelling, "Baseball glove! Leather purse!" trying to shoo the beast out of the road.

From Chambers Dictionary: Manitou, a spirit or sacred object among certain North American Indian tribes [Algonquin].

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- The episode title comes from the shape shifting (from man to animal) that is the subject of the episode.

-- Fox had suggested doing a more conventional monster show, and Glen Morgan and James Wong -- who had been wanting to come up with something exploring Native American mythology -- proposed the Manitou, a slightly different approach to werewolves designed to serve fans of that genre while still feeling distinctive in The X-Files fashion. "A horror show should be able to do these legends that have been around since the thirteen hundreds," said Morgan.

-- Manitou, The Great Spirit, is an Algonquin term, often erroneously applied as spirit monster. Manitou combines the meanings of Spirit, mystery, magic, and generally is applied to the manifestation of some form of power that is not readily understood or coming from elsewhere.

-- When the old man points out that Mulder's name "should be Running Fox or Sleepy Fox," the agent responds, "Just as long as it's not 'Spooky Fox'" -- a reference to the disparaging nickname Mulder earned at the FBI Academy (mentioned in the "Pilot") stemming from his belief in the paranormal.

-- One potentially humorous scene that failed to make the cut had a cow blocking the agents' car, with Scully waving her arms and yelling, "Baseball glove! Leather purse!" trying to shoo the beast out of the road.

-- Marilyn Osborn, who wrote this episode, also wrote several episodes of Morgan and Wong's Space: Above and Beyond, and served as executive story editor for that series.

-- David Nutter enjoyed directing this episode, especially the technical challenges like lighting the sequence around the bonfire. "If you have people standing around this magnificent bonfire," said Nutter, "you should light them as if they are part of it." For that scene, Nutter said, "I actually went down to a part of Vancouver where they had an assembly every week for Native Americans. Basically, I grabbed these guys and I cast them and put this in part of the show which I thought could actually help give a lot of authenticity."

-- The sound effect of the Manitou's roar consisted of 12 different elements.

-- The Native Americans mentioned were the Trego Indians, but the episode took place in Browning, Montana. The only Reservation near Browning belonged to the Blackfeet Nation, not the Trego. While there was a Nation known as the Trego, they were neither in Montana, nor did they even have a Reservation.

-- Oopsie! During Joe Goodensnake's funeral, the part in Mulder's hair switches in between shots. After he got out of the car, his hair was parted on the left. Then in the shot after Gwen gave Scully one of her brother's possessions, his hair was parted on the right. In the next shot when Mulder talked to Sheriff Tskany, his hair was once again parted on the left.

-- Ish said he was at Wounded Knee, which referred to the 71-day standoff between federal authorities and militants of the American Indian Movement at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Wounded Knee held some significance in American Indian history as it was the site of the last armed conflict between the Great Sioux Nation and the United States in 1890.

-- Donnelly Rhodes (Jim Parker) started his acting career on 1960s westerns including Maverick and Wagon Train and has continued to work steadily in television including current roles in Battlestar Galactica (Dr. Cottle) and Three Moons Over Milford. Before his role on The X-Files, he was probably best known for playing Dutch Leitner on the long-running comedy Soap.

673

-- Michael Horse (Charley Tskany) made a rather lackluster debut as Tonto in a poorly-received film remake of The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981), but he moved on to better projects, including playing Deputy Tommy "Hawk" Hill in Twin Peaks when David Duchovny played transvestite Dennis/Denise Bryson. His opinion of David in a dress: "It's a good color on him."

-- Ranae Morriseau's (Gwen Goodensnake) most recent project is a yet-to-be-released made-for-TV movie called Open Season (not to be confused with the animated film of the same name) about a woman who returns to her small home-town to investigate her father's death, which authorities considered a hunting accident. Morriseau plays the town sheriff. The movie includes another familiar X-Files face: William B. Davis as Judge Landers.

-- Ty Miller (Lyle Parker) was best known for playing "The Kid" on the western series The Young Riders. He later had a recurring role as a Tech Agent on Without a Trace.

-- Once & Future Retreads: Donnelly Rhodes (Jim Parker) appeared as General Francis in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man." Ranae Morriseau (Gwen Goodensnake) was Josephine Doane in "Anasazi." Dwight McFee (David Gates) was the Commander in "Little Green Men," the Suspect who tells Donnie Pfaster Scully's name in "Irresistible," and Havez in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose." Paul McLean (Dr. Josephs) was Special Agent Kautz in "Anasazi" and "Zero Sum," and a Coast Guard Officer in "Nisei."

1x19 Darkness Falls - transcript

Writer: Chris Carter Director: Joe Napolitano Airdate: April 15, 1994

Transcribed by: Vic Edited by Libby

Olympic National Forest Northwest Washington State Present Day

[In the forest, a large group of loggers are congregated loosely around two people in the center, who are arguing.]

DYER: You're supposed to be in charge here, Perkins.

PERKINS: I am in charge.

DYER: Well, these men want some answers. They want to know what your plan is. Let's face it, this thing could kill us all.

PERKINS: We should've been gone two days ago. No-one would listen to me.

DYER: Nobody knew what it was two days ago, Perkins. Nobody knows now.

PERKINS: Somebody has to go for help.

DYER: What about the rest of us? What are we supposed to do? Just wait here until help arrives?

PERKINS: We have to take a chance, one of us has to hike out!

DYER: That person might not make it in time. He might not make it down to the road before nightfall! Then what? I say we make a run for it, split up, take our chances!

[The men murmur and yell in agreement.]

PERKINS: It's suicide, Dyer.

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[Dyer walks right up to him.]

DYER: Fine. You stay here. Tell us how it turns out.

[He pushes past him. The men start to run. Perkins runs with them. Indiscernible yells can be heard.]

MAN: Hurry up!

[Perkins runs after Dyer.]

ANOTHER MAN: You're going the wrong way!

[It is sundown, and now nightfall. Animals screech and howl. Dyer trips over a log and grunts. Perkins jumps over the log and kneels down beside him. Dyer checks his ankle.]

DYER: I think it's broken.

PERKINS: Come on, you got to get up.

DYER: I don't think I can make it.

[Perkins lifts Dyer to his feet. He tries to help Dyer, but Dyer grunts and moans in pain.]

PERKINS: We gotta keep moving.

[Dyer falls to his knees.]

DYER: We're not going to make it. We're not going...

[A humming starts within the forest. Perkins and Dyer look around frantically. The humming grows louder and louder. They look up to see a giant swarm of green bugs coming down towards them. Dyer screams. Perkins can do nothing but look on in horror.]

[X-Files office. A slide is up of the loggers. Scully is sitting at a desk. Mulder sits down in front of the slide.]

MULDER: Take a good look, Scully.

SCULLY: What am I looking at?

MULDER: Thirty loggers working a clear-cutting contract in Washington State. Rugged, manly men in the full bloom of their manhood.

SCULLY: Right, but what am I looking for?

MULDER: Anything strange, unexplainable, unlikely... boyfriend?

SCULLY: I don't know, I... I give up, Mulder.

MULDER: You give up? Funny, that's apparently what the Federal Forest Service has done as well.

SCULLY: Why, what happened to them?

[Mulder changes the slide to a blank screen.]

675

MULDER: In a word, they vanished. Or so it would appear.

[He changes the slide to two men.]

MULDER: This is Doug Spinney and Steven Teague. They call themselves "monkey wrenchers." The guys who drive spikes into trees, sabotage logging equipment and otherwise make life miserable for lumberjacks and lumbermills.

[Scully stands and walks towards him.]

SCULLY: Ecoterrorists or militant environmentalists.

MULDER: Right. Two weeks ago, the group of loggers I just showed you radioed a message that Spinney and Teague had gone on a spree. Spiking trees, sabotaging equipment, causing general mischief. One week later, all radio communication was cut off.

SCULLY: Do they know why?

MULDER: No. The lumber company that employs the men has asked the Federal Forest Service to look into the matter. Two officials were sent in a week ago and no one has heard from them since.

SCULLY: It appears as if these monkey wrenchers are doing more than just a little mischief-making.

MULDER: That's what the lumber company and the Federal Forest Service are accusing. They've asked the F.B.I. to investigate. I had to pull a few strings to make sure we got the case.

[He walks over to his desk.]

SCULLY: For an ecoterrorism case? Do I dare ask why?

[He changes the slide to an old picture of some lumberjacks dressed in 1930's clothes.]

MULDER: In 1934, long before anyone even knew what an ecoterrorist was, a W.P.A. crew working that same area vanished without a trace. Not one of those men was ever found or heard from again.

SCULLY: And you suspect what? Bigfoot?

MULDER: Not likely. That's a lot of flannel to be choking down even for Bigfoot.

[Scully smiles.]

MULDER: Come on, Scully, it'll be a nice trip to the forest.

[Scully looks back at the picture.]

[Ranger Station. A truck carrying lumber drives by as Mulder and Scully pull into the parking spaces. Ranger Moore is looking at a map on the hood of his truck. He looks up at them as they walk over.]

MULDER: Hi. Fox Mulder, this is Dana Scully, we're with the F.B.I.

MOORE: Larry Moore, Federal Forest Service.

[He shakes both their hands.]

MOORE: You can put your gear in the back of the truck.

[Mulder takes Scully's bag and puts it and his bag into the back.]

676

SCULLY: Must be pretty rugged where we're going, huh?

MOORE: Yeah.

MULDER: What's that in your windshield there? Is that a bullet hole?

MOORE: .22 caliber.

MULDER: Somebody took a shot at you?

MOORE: So it would appear. There's not much to hunt around here with that type of ammo except Freddies.

SCULLY: "Freddies?"

MOORE: Employees of the Federal Forest Service. It's, uh, it's what the ecoterrorists call us.

MULDER: Is that who you think took a shot at you?

MOORE: Let me get this out of the way. I have no quarrel with these ecoterrorists in principle. I'm as concerned for this forest and the environment as anybody. It's their methods I can't condone.

SCULLY: Do you think they'd go so far as to kill a man?

MOORE: Well, there's thirty men up there unaccounted for, each with survival experience. Something happened to them.

[He takes his papers off the hood. A man walks over to them with a bag and some other things.]

HUMPHREYS: Sorry I'm late. I was down talking to Bob Perkins' wife. He's one of our missing loggers. Hey, Larry.

MOORE: Hey.

[He hands Moore a yellow box.]

HUMPHREYS: Steve Humphreys, head of security for Schiff-Immergut Lumber.

[He shakes both their hands.]

MULDER: Mulder, Scully.

HUMPHREYS: Well, we've got a four hour drive ahead of us. Plenty of time to get to know each other.

[Moore gets in the driver's seat, Humphreys gets into the passengers side.]

SCULLY: Get the impression that we've walked into the middle of a war that's already started?

[Mulder smiles as Scully heads towards the back.]

[Later, down the road, they're driving. It's drizzling and the windshield wipers are on.]

SCULLY: Why do these men work so far up in the wilderness?

HUMPHREYS: That's where the trees are.

SCULLY: You're kidding, right?

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HUMPHREYS: No, environmentalists have pretty much made sure that all the land you see here is untouchable. Force us to take our timber where we can get it. Even then, we plant saplings for every tree we take.

MULDER: So why do the ecoterrorists target you?

HUMPHREYS: See, these tree-huggers come from the same kind of boys that were going up to Canada during the Vietnam war. They're cowardly and so are their tactics.

[The car starts shaking wildly.]

MOORE: Damn it.

[They get out and we see that there is a spike in the tire.]

MOORE: Homemade tire spike. Clear through the sidewall. It's unfixable.

MULDER: You got a spare, don't you?

HUMPHREYS: Right tire's history too.

[Humphreys holds up a weird-shaped piece of metal almost completely made up of jagged edges.]

HUMPHREYS: Monkey wrenchers call it a caltrop. The roads back here are littered with them. Indiscriminate terrorism. You imagine somebody putting these down or spiking the roads of Washington, D.C.? I'd like to see how much sympathy they get then.

SCULLY: So how are we going to get up to the camp?

[Moore walks past them and puts his bag over his shoulder.]

MOORE: We're going to have to hike.

[They watch him walk away.]

[Evening. The four get to the campsite, which is abandoned. There is scattered machinery and cars.]

MOORE: Anybody here?

[Mulder and Scully walk into the cabin and see that there is still dinner sitting on the table, food intact.]

MULDER: Someone forgot to clean their plate.

SCULLY: Looks like they left in a hurry too.

[Scully walks into the bathroom. Mulder rubs his finger across the top of the refrigerator door and picks up some sticky film on his finger. He picks a plastic bag up, opens it, smells it, and closes it. Humphreys walks in.]

HUMPHREYS: Find anything?

[Mulder holds up the bag.]

MULDER: Party favors.

[Scully walks out of the bathroom.]

HUMPHREYS: All the vehicles have all been monkey wrenched, power generator's busted.

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SCULLY: Somebody really turned this place upside-down.

HUMPHREYS: Whoever did it didn't want the fact broadcast, either.

[The radio on the desk next to him is smashed in. He picks up a piece and throws it back down. Outside, Moore opens up the radiator and pulls out some rice. Mulder, Scully and Humphreys walk over to the side of him.]

MOORE: Radiators are all full of rice. Looks like sugar or sand in all the crankcases. They really did a number here.

[Humphreys looks at his watch.]

HUMPHREYS: Sun's going down in an hour and a half.

MOORE: Better take a look around before it gets dark.

[He picks up his bag and walks off.]

HUMPHREYS: I'll see if I can get that generator working.

[He walks off too.]

SCULLY: Well, you were right about one thing.

MULDER: What's that?

SCULLY: It definitely wasn't Bigfoot.

[Scully, Mulder and Moore walk through a wasteland full of broken branches and giant tree stumps. They soon come back to actual forest. Mulder spots a cocoon-ish sort of web tied to a long branch horizontally.]

MULDER: Look at that.

SCULLY: What is it?

MOORE: Looks like a hive. Maybe a cocoon of some kind.

MULDER: Made by what?

MOORE: I don't know, I've never seen anything like it.

[Moore and Mulder hoist Scully up on a pulley swing to the cocoon. She grabs the branch.]

SCULLY: Got it.

MOORE: Can you cut it down?

SCULLY: Yeah, I think so.

[She takes out a swiss army knife and is about to cut through the webbing when something catches her eye. Rotting fingers protruding through a part of the web.]

MULDER: You alright, Scully?

[Soon after, down on the ground, Moore cuts open the cocoon. He and Scully pull it apart to reveal a half-rotted human.]

SCULLY: Oh God...

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[She reaches in and feels the body's neck and face.]

SCULLY: It feels, uh... it feels desiccated and hard and dry, almost... preserved.

MOORE: Like it's been embalmed.

SCULLY: No, more like all the fluids have been bled from this body. Almost like it's been cured.

[She feels the body some more.]

SCULLY: I think... it's a male.

MULDER: Barely.

MOORE: I'd say it's, uh, some kind of spider's nest or insect cocoon.

SCULLY: What kind of an insect could have gotten a man all the way up into that tree?

[Mulder stands and looks up.]

MULDER: Itsy-bitsy spider.

[Back at camp, Humphreys tries to fix the generator when he hears the door creaking. He picks up his shotgun and moves around to the front, looking around. He hears a clanking inside the house. Somebody is eating and drinking the leftover food. He puts a cup to his mouth when Humphreys comes in.]

HUMPHREYS: Don't move. Who are you?

[The man puts the cup down and turns around. Humphreys recognizes him.]

HUMPHREYS: Doug Spinney. I oughta shoot you where you stand.

SPINNEY: Might as well shoot yourself too.

HUMPHREYS: You're in a hell of a spot to be testing me. What happened to my men?

[Spinney walks over to the cupboard. Humphreys walks the same way, still aiming his gun at him.]

SPINNEY: What men?

HUMPHREYS: The men who were working this camp.

SPINNEY: I don't know what happened to them. Probably the same thing that'll happen to us when the sun goes down.

[Spinney looks out the window. Mulder, Scully and Moore come in.]

MULDER: What are you doing?

HUMPHREYS: This animal is Doug Spinney. He's the man responsible for all the monkey wrenching. He's probably a murderer as well.

SPINNEY: I'm no murderer.

HUMPHREYS: You're a liar.

MULDER: Let's just hear what he has to say.

[Mulder puts his hand on Humphreys' shotgun. Humphreys lowers it.]

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SPINNEY: If we stand around here talking, there'll be nothing left to say. I'd start thinking about how to get that generator started. Darkness is our enemy.

[Spinney walks past them to the door, where Scully and Moore are standing.]

HUMPHREYS: What's he talking about?

SPINNEY: Someone want to give me a hand?

[He and Moore walk out.]

HUMPHREYS: Now he's giving orders? I'm the one who fixed the damn thing!

MULDER: Hey, it's alright.

[Spinney, followed by the other four, walks to the generator, unscrewing the cap off of a gas tank.]

MULDER: Why did you say that darkness was our enemy?

SPINNEY: That's when they come.

[He pours some petroleum in.]

SCULLY: When who comes?

SPINNEY: I don't know what it is. They come from the sky, take a man right off his feet and devour him alive. I saw it happen.

MULDER: Happen to who?

[Moore screws the cap back on as Spinney starts the generator. It works.]

SPINNEY: I need to eat. I haven't eaten in three days.

[He walks past them back into the cabin.]

HUMPHREYS: What kind of a B.S. story is that, huh? You believe that?

SCULLY: We found something in the forest.

HUMPHREYS: What?

MOORE: A man caught in some kind of insect cocoon.

[In the cabin, Spinney starts to devour a bowl of stew. Mulder sits across from him. Scully is sitting next to them. Moore stands behind them and Humphreys sits off to the side.]

MULDER: What happened here?

SPINNEY: We camped two valleys over, four of us. Three now.

HUMPHREYS: More rats in the wood pile.

SPINNEY: Our truck has a dead battery so we drew straws to see who would make the hike over here to steal one from the loggers.

[Moore pours Mulder and Scully some tea.]

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MULDER: Why not just hike out?

SPINNEY: It's more than a day's hike. No way we'd want to be caught out in the forest after dark. Not after what happened to Teague.

SCULLY: That's the man you said that was devoured alive?

SPINNEY: Yeah.

MULDER: What are you guys doing out here?

SPINNEY: Camping.

HUMPHREYS: Yeah, right. The kind of camping you do is a federal offense.

[Moore sits down.]

MULDER: Just, just hold off a second, okay?

MOORE: No, he's right. This man is an admitted felon. He could be placed under arrest.

SPINNEY: [to Humphreys] What about your offense, my friend, huh? What about the offense against nature you perpetrate?

HUMPHREYS: We operate completely within the law. We pay for the right to take those trees.

SPINNEY: Oh, yeah? Well, I got news for you. Your logging crew has taken trees that nobody has the right to, trees that are marked and protected so don't talk to me about breaking the law! Sir.

MOORE: They've been taking marked trees?

SPINNEY: Yes sir, marked in orange.

MOORE: Old growth trees? You know anything about that, Steve?

HUMPHREYS: No.

[He gets up and takes his coat.]

HUMPHREYS: You going to take this man's word over mine?

[No answer. He puts his coat on.]

SPINNEY: You don't want to go out in the night. Take my word on that. It's out there.

HUMPHREYS: What? If I go out that door, something's going to attack me, eat me alive and spin me in its web?

SPINNEY: Yes.

HUMPHREYS: What, it's too polite to come in here and get me?

SPINNEY: For some reason, it's, uh, afraid of the light.

HUMPHREYS: It's afraid of the light.

MOORE: There may be something to what he's saying, Steve.

HUMPHREYS: You know what I think? I think this man is a liar and a murderer and just clever enough to make up a story like that. Even whip up that cocoon just to save a few trees and I'm going to prove I'm right.

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[He walks out, shotgun in hand.]

HUMPHREYS: This is ridiculous.

[Mulder and Scully walk outside a little. Spinney and Moore stand in the doorway.]

HUMPHREYS: Where is it, Spinney? I thought it was going to come and, uh, devour me!

[The bug zapper starts going off fairly rapidly.]

HUMPHREYS: Hey! Here I am! Come out, come out wherever you! Aw, don't be shy!

[Behind a tree crawls millions of the same little green bugs as before.]

HUMPHREYS: Come on! Huh?

[He starts back.]

HUMPHREYS: It's just like a told ya. There's nothing out here but a bunch of trees. Trees that this man values more than human life. And I'm going to see him tried on murder charges.

[He walks past them and into the cabin.]

SCULLY: [to Mulder] What do you think?

MULDER: I think I'm going to suggest that we sleep with the lights on.

[Scully sighs and they walk inside, Mulder closing the door behind him. The bug zapper goes off a few more times.]

[Morning. Spinney leads the others to a huge tree cut down. It has an orange "X" on it.]

SPINNEY: You see this Douglas Fir? It's been standing here since before time and your men cut it down.

SCULLY: Who marks these trees?

MOORE: Federal Forest Service. They're only supposed to cut trees with a blue "X."

[Mulder stands on the stump.]

MULDER: This tree must be hundreds of years old.

MOORE: At least.

SCULLY: You must get a lot of lumber from a big tree like this.

SPINNEY: Thousands of board feet. Hell of a lot easier than taking a lot of smaller, younger trees.

HUMPHREYS: Well, let me remind you that monkey wrenchers like Spinney here are not above marking trees with their own paint.

MOORE: This tree's 500 years old if it's a day, Steve.

MULDER: Hey, look at this.

[Moore walks over. Mulder points out a yellowish-green ring near the center.]

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MULDER: What would this represent?

MOORE: I don't know. I've never seen a ring like that before.

SCULLY: Those center rings are the older rings, right?

MOORE: Yeah. Every ring represents a season of growth. And you see these?

[He points out the very center rings.]

MOORE: These are 500, 600 years old. They're a recorded history of rainfall and climate. But this one... I don't know. I should take a core sample.

[He takes off his backpack.]

HUMPHREYS: Have we finished with this nature walk? I want an answer to what happened to those loggers.

SCULLY: That's what we're trying to determine, sir.

HUMPHREYS: Looking at a tree stump? Don't you think you should be interrogating this man?

[He points to Spinney.]

MULDER: I don't think he did it.

HUMPHREYS: Well, I think he did and I want him arrested.

MULDER: Well, he's not going anywhere!

HUMPHREYS: No, not with a gun on him. But what happens if you're poking around and his three buddies show up and do to you what they probably did to those two Federal Forest officers? Huh? Larry?

MOORE: I just want to take a core sample of this tree, Steve.

HUMPHREYS: Hey, I got families down there who want some answers about their loved ones and so do you! Answers that aren't going to be found in that tree.

SPINNEY: The only crime we're here to investigate is the death of that tree.

HUMPHREYS: Yeah, well, we'll see about that.

[He starts off.]

MOORE: Steve, where you going?

[He stops and turns around.]

HUMPHREYS: I'm going to hike down to your truck, get on the horn and get some people up here who'll take some action!

MOORE: Steve!

SPINNEY: Aw, let him go. Let him find out for himself.

[Humphreys walks off.]

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[Back at the cabin, Moore is looking at the core sample through a microscope.]

MOORE: This is odd. This yellow ring's got something living in it, some kind of... tiny bug. It doesn't make sense.

[Mulder looks into the scope.]

SCULLY: Why not?

[Inside the sample are thousands of tiny bugs scampering around.]

MOORE: Well, parasites attack a tree in a variety of ways, but they always attack the living parts. The leaves, the roots, the new growth rings. Even if they're borers of some kind, they wouldn't be working so deep in the tree.

MULDER: Maybe the wood in this ring is different. They seem to be feeding on it.

SCULLY: Can you identify them?

[Mulder gets up. She slides the microscope over and looks in.]

MOORE: It's a wood mite of some kind. It's nothing I've ever seen before.

MULDER: Could they have been living in that tree for hundreds of years?

MOORE: I don't see how. These inner rings are essentially dead wood. The tree's vascular system is limited to the outer few rings, they need water to survive.

SCULLY: Well, they appear to be hatching out of the porous wood. Maybe when you drilled this core, you tapped into a larger nest.

SPINNEY: Can they build a cocoon?

[They turn to see Spinney walk in.]

SPINNEY: Right after that tree was cut down is when Teague died. It's about the same time the loggers disappeared too.

SCULLY: You think these mites are what killed the men?

SPINNEY: Maybe they been lying there dormant for hundreds of years. Maybe they woke up hungry.

[Humphreys marches through the woods and gets in the truck. He puts his bag down and notices there is no key. He checks around but cannot find one.]

HUMPHREYS: Damn it!

[He sighs. Night falls as he tries to hotwire the car. With no success, he gets out and goes to the front hood. He looks around with a flashlight, turning knobs. A high-pitched humming begins. He looks around, then picks up his shotgun.]

HUMPHREYS: Alright, you monkey wrenchers! Come on out now!

[He shines it into the trees. Nothing.]

HUMPHREYS: I know what you're up to!

[Still nothing. The humming grows louder. He looks to see the mites swarming down to him. He runs into the car and closes both doors. Looking up at them through the windshield, he tries to jumpstart the car again. The engine finally turns. He shifts gears and pushes down on the accelerator, but the tires spin in the mud. He shifts gears and tries again, but still nothing. The

685 swarm grows closer. He finally drives off but hits a rock in front of him. He falls forward into the steering wheel, honking the horn. He shifts gears but sees the swarm gather around the car. They seep in through the filtration. He tries to open the door but it is jammed by another rock. He tries to push the door open repeatedly with no luck until the bugs overwhelm him. He claws at the window, screaming.]

[Back at the cabin, the generator keeps running. Scully is still looking through the microscope as Moore and Mulder walk around. Spinney sits on a table.]

MOORE: Humphreys should've been back by now.

SCULLY: These bugs aren't moving anymore. They're either dead or they're asleep.

SPINNEY: It's the light. They don't like the light.

SCULLY: That's weird, I mean, usually bugs are attracted to light.

SPINNEY: These obviously are not your ordinary bugs, to say the least.

[Mulder runs his fingers over more surfaces. He picks up more of the film he found before.]

MULDER: What do you know about insects, Scully?

SCULLY: Uh, just what I learned in my biology courses. That they're the foundation of our ecosystem. That there are lots of them, something like 200 million per person on this planet.

MULDER: And they've been around a long time, right?

SCULLY: Yeah, something like 600 million years, even before the dinosaurs. Why?

MULDER: And this tree is what, 5, 6, 700 years old?

MOORE: Yeah.

MULDER: And these rings represent a history of climatic changes, which means that in this year or season in the life of the tree, there was some kind of strange event that produced an abnormal ring.

SCULLY: Well, like what, exactly?

MULDER: A volcanic eruption. This whole chain of mountains running from Washington to Oregon is still extremely active. Remember Mt. St. Helens?

SCULLY: Yeah, but how does that explain the bugs?

MULDER: Well, after Mount St. Helens erupted, there was a large amount of radiation that was unleashed from inside the earth. Strange things started to grow. There's actually this lake where they've discovered a kind of an amoeba that can literally suck a man's brains out.

SCULLY: Oh, a brain-sucking amoeba.

SPINNEY: No, it's true. Spirit Lake. And there's documented cases of swimmers being infected.

SCULLY: But an amoeba is a single-celled organism. It can be mutated. An insect is a complex animal. A mutation would take years and years to evolve.

MULDER: Well, then maybe what we're dealing with isn't a mutation at all. What if it's some kind of... extinct insect larvae in that ring, deposited during a period of volcanic activity, brought up through the tree's root system. Ancient insect eggs. Thousands, maybe millions of years old lying dormant until...

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SPINNEY: Until those loggers cut down that tree.

[He stands.]

SPINNEY: That would be rather poetic justice, don't you think? Unleashing the very thing that would end up killing them and your friend Humphreys?

[He walks past Moore to the bedroom door.]

SPINNEY: And who knows? Maybe us. Sweet dreams.

[He goes inside.]

MOORE: Humphreys might have just hiked out of here. We don't know that he didn't. Maybe we're letting ourselves get carried away with this bug story.

MULDER: Yeah, maybe.

[Sunrise. Spinney skulks through the cabin, grabs his bag and goes outside. He goes to the side of the cabin and takes the gas tank. He starts unscrewing a truck battery when Mulder sneaks up on him and points a gun.]

MULDER: Going somewhere?

SPINNEY: No, I was just...

MULDER: Doing a little auto repair. Looks to me like you're planning on cutting out of here.

SPINNEY: I gotta save my friends. They only had enough gas to keep their generator running fifteen, twenty hours max. They're gonna die if I don't get back there.

MULDER: So why are you sneaking around?

SPINNEY: Freddy, the Forest Service guy, he wouldn't go for it. He'd never trust me.

MULDER: He's got no reason to. Neither do I.

SPINNEY: Look, I can save us all, man. We've got a jeep over there, it's just two valleys over, all it needs is a battery. Now, I can get there, I can get back here in the morning. We can all drive out tomorrow. You got to trust me, man.

[Later. Mulder is fixing the radio. It turns on, but all it gets is static.]

MULDER: Radio is back up.

[Scully runs in.]

SCULLY: It's working?

MULDER: I'm not getting any reception so the receiver could be trashed.

SCULLY: What about transmissions, can you send a message?

MULDER: We could try.

[He picks up the transmitter.]

MULDER: This is a call for help, is there anyone at this frequency?

[Static. He adjusts the frequency control, but still only gets static.]

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MULDER: This is Special Agent Mulder of the F.B.I., we have an emergency and a possible quarantine situation. Our position is...

[He nudges Scully to go get the map, which she does. Suddenly, the generator goes out. They walk to the side of the house where Moore is.]

MULDER: What happened to the generator?

MOORE: I turned it off.

MULDER: Well, turn it back on, I got the radio working.

MOORE: What happened to the gas can?

MULDER: Spinney took it.

MOORE: He took it? You mean he's gone?

MULDER: He left earlier this morning. He took a battery and some gas. He's gonna come back for us in the morning.

MOORE: Yeah, what, he gave you his personal guarantee on that?

MULDER: He gave me his word, yeah.

MOORE: Did you stop to think that the man who gave you his word has made an art out of sabotage? And defying authority? And is probably the same man who put that bullet through my windshield?

MULDER: Well, what would you have done? At least now we've got one chance of getting out of here alive which is one more chance than we had before.

MOORE: Or one less.

SCULLY: What do you mean?

MOORE: Your partner let Spinney leave with the last of the gas. This generator's got about a quarter tank left, maybe less.

SCULLY: What about the gas in the trucks?

MULDER: There is no more gas, the other tanks have all been ruptured or filled with sugar.

MOORE: By the same man who we are now trusting to keep his word and come back for us.

SCULLY: Well, then we've got to get back on the radio, we've got to send out a mayday.

MOORE: Every drop of fuel we waste is fuel that's gonna keep this genny powered tonight. I mean, I don't want to be waiting around hoping somebody heard that transmission when this thing quits running about two o'clock in the morning. Do you?

[He walks back in the cabin. Scully looks at Mulder, who does not look back. He sighs. Mulder walks into the cabin and groans, knowing he made the wrong move. Scully walks in and closes the door.]

SCULLY: Mulder...

MULDER: Look, it's done. I shouldn't have let him go. Let's just move past it, okay?

SCULLY: Fine. What do you suggest?

MULDER: I don't know. We'll think of something.

688

SCULLY: Look, I think we both have a pretty good idea of what happened to those loggers and what happened to the group in 1934.

MULDER: They only found one cocoon.

[He stands and crosses to the door.]

SCULLY: It's a very big forest.

MULDER: Look, Scully, what would you have done?

SCULLY: You mean, would I have made a decision by myself that would have affected the whole group?

MULDER: Oh, will you cut the sanctimonious crap?

SCULLY: Well, what do you want me to say? Let's face it, Mulder, we might die up here! If we're lucky, they'll find our bodies spun up in a tree or they may not find us at all!

MULDER: You're right. And we're wasting time arguing about it.

[Mulder walks past her to the window. She walks over to him after a few seconds.]

SCULLY: What are you going to do?

MULDER: Button this place up. If we've got to spend the night in here, we've got to do everything we can to make sure the bugs stay out there.

[Mulder hammers some sheets to the wall with boards. Moore walks in carrying more supplies. Scully is screwing in the light bulb.]

MOORE: I'd be careful with that. It's the only bulb that works.

[Nightfall. The generator keeps running, rougher. Mulder and Scully lay on cots, Moore sits on his bed. They all watch the glowing lightbulb. Scully looks into the corner and sees the mites running around in the shadows.]

SCULLY: I can see them. You guys, look at this.

[She walks over to the corner. They follow.]

SCULLY: Look, they're coming through the wall down where it's dark. You see them?

[She leans forward and looks at her hand. As her shadow covers it, she sees mites crawling all over her. She lets out a loud gasp. She stands and starts trying to brush them off.]

SCULLY: They're on me.

MULDER: It's alright, Scully, Scully...

[She walks backwards, rubbing her arms.]

SCULLY: Get them off me!

MULDER: Stop moving! Stop!

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[She flails her arms wildly, smacking the lightbulb. Moore reaches forward and grabs it.]

MOORE: Whoa, watch it!

[Mulder grabs her and holds her against the wall.]

MULDER: Stop it! Stop it!

SCULLY: Can you see them? Mulder, get them off me!

MULDER: They're not just on you. They're everywhere. I think that's what that greasy residue is over everything.

SCULLY: I thought we were supposed to be safe in the light!

MULDER: We are. I think the light keeps them from swarming. We'll be safe as long as we stay in the light.

[The mites continue to crawl in the shadows.]

[Later. The tank on the generator is nearly empty. Everyone is sitting back down.]

MULDER: How are you doing?

SCULLY: I'm okay.

[They both take a deep breath. Later, they sit together and watch the mites crawl around.]

SCULLY: They're oxidizing enzymes. Just like fireflies. Maybe that's why they cocoon their prey... so they can oxidize the proteins taken from the fluids in the body.

[The light nearly fades out. They look at it. It builds back to normal again. The generator outside is running out of fuel.]

SCULLY: What if the generator goes? Are they all going to swarm in here and drain the life out of us?

MULDER: We got an hour and a half till sunrise.

SCULLY: And then what? It's over a day's hike out of here. We won't make it on foot by nightfall.

MULDER: Maybe somebody heard our radio transmission. Help could be on the way.

SCULLY: Oh, you sent that call hours ago. I mean, help would have been here by now.

MULDER: Well, I'm not going to give up on Spinney. He gave me his word he'd come back to get us.

SCULLY: And if he doesn't?

MULDER: We'll think of something.

[The generator sputters out and dies. The light bulb slowly fades out. But light still shines through the other way. Mulder and Scully turn around to see that the sun is rising slowly. Mulder and Moore run out to the truck and check the tires.]

MULDER: You got a patch kit or an extra tube in your truck?

MOORE: Yeah.

690

MULDER: Maybe we can patch this or at least get it to hold some air. With the spare in your truck, maybe we can limp down the mountain. If not, at least we can get on the radio and warn them what's out there.

[Mulder, Scully and Moore hike down to the truck. Mulder is rolling the spare tire. They get to the truck and walk towards it.]

MOORE: See it?

MULDER: Yeah.

[They look through the driver's side window to see what's left of Humphreys leaning against the door, cocooned. They hear a low humming.]

MOORE: Listen. You hear that? It's a car!

[They turn to see a jeep barreling down the road.]

MULDER: No, it's a jeep!

[The jeep swerves to a stop and the three run to it. Spinney opens the door.]

SPINNEY: We gotta move, let's go! Let's go!

MOORE: Wait! What about the body... Humphrey's body?

SPINNEY: Leave it, I've radioed for help.

[Scully gets into the passenger side.]

MULDER: What happened to your friends?

SPINNEY: They didn't make it. We're not going to make it either unless we haul ass!

[The two get in the car and they drive back the way they came. The headlights go on as a fog envelops the road and it grows dark. Everything is fine until they hit a row of caltrops.]

SPINNEY: Damn it!

[He gets out of the car and looks at the tires.]

SPINNEY: I don't believe it.

MOORE: When you talk about shooting yourself in the foot...

[Moore opens the door and looks out. A familiar buzzing grows. Suddenly, Spinney is attacked by the swarm. Moore watches from outside the car.]

MULDER: Get out of there! Get back in the car!

[Moore gets back in the car and they watch as Spinney helplessly tries to stop the onslaught. Spinney slams his fists down on the hood, moaning and screaming, until he runs off. The mites begin to seep into the car. The three try to brush the mites away as they moan and groan. Their yelling grows louder and longer as they are overwhelmed.]

[Morning. A helicopter flies in as three trucks pull up to the jeep. Men file out, all wearing containment suits. They open up the door and look in the jeep. It is a mess of cocooning and bodies.]

691

MAN: We have an emergency evacuation situation. Requesting quarantine facility for two, possibly three victims with undiagnosed infection or exposure to unknown biological vectors. Repeat, that's an emergency evacuation situation. Two, possibly three victims...

[Someone stirs under the cocooning.]

High Containment Facility Winthrop, Washington

[A small door slides up and a man in a containment suit takes out a canister.]

ANNOUNCER: Attention, all personnel. High level bio-clearance required on third floor.

[He carries it into a room with many other containment suited men walking around. One man walks over to Moore, who is on a gurney with machines hooked up. He presses a few buttons on a machine, then does the same for Scully. Mulder walks in, severely burned, dressed in white, wheeling an oxygen tank that is hooked up through his nose.]

MAN: How are you feeling?

MULDER: Better. How did the tests come back?

[The man walks over to a desk and picks up a chart.]

MAN: Your respiratory charts were good. We were concerned with the extent of damage due to inhalation. There were large concentrations of the chemical determined as luciferen.

MULDER: Which is what?

MAN: The same enzyme we find in fireflies and other bioluminescent insects. Our entomologists are still trying to determine the specific epithet of the insects you encountered.

[Mulder and the man walk over to Scully.]

MULDER: Scully?

[She is unconscious with severe burns as well.]

MULDER: How is she doing?

MAN: She's still not out of the woods, so to speak. She lost a lot of fluids. Two or three more hours of exposure, she might not have made it.

MULDER: I told her it was going to be a nice trip to the forest.

[The man starts to walk away.]

MULDER: How you going to contain it to the forest?

[He turns back.]

MULDER: What if the swarm migrates?

MAN: The government has initiated eradication procedures. They're quite certain that by using a combination of controlled burns and pesticides, they will be successful.

MULDER: And if they're not?

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MAN: That is not an option, Mr. Mulder.

[He walks out, leaving Mulder to his thoughts.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Jason Beghe (Larry Moore) Tom O'Rourke (Steve Humphreys) Titus Welliver (Doug Spinney)

Co-Starring:

David Hay (Clean Suited Man) Barry Greene (Perkins) Ken Tremblett (Dyer)

1x19 Darkness Falls - notes Video box set commentary by Chris Carter: When I came up with the idea for Darkness Falls, it was really a result of a college experience I had, where we had studied dendrochronology, which is the reading of the rings in tree-trunks, and I always wondered if a tree is thousands of years old why couldn't it be a time capsule for something that had existed that far back? And so, I wanted to do something that had cocoons and nests, and I wanted to also do a bottle show, which is a show where you take the characters up into the woods and keep them there for a certain amount of time and pit them against each other. Digital Bugs ... I think it turned out to be one of the most successful episodes because it was a good idea and I think the special effects, which were these bugs, which were all digital bugs, these swarms of green, I think really sort of stole the show. From "X-Files Confidential": Chris Carter reflects, "This came right from my college biology class, where we studied the reading of tree rings. I thought, 'Let's go to the woods and cut open one of these big trees, which are really historical time capsules of everything that has gone on in the past couple of thousand years. What if there are these bugs that escape and hold everyone hostage?' It was supposed to be a bottle show, but in fact it turned out to be one of our hardest shows. The first day of that episode, I woke up and looked out the window and there was a blizzard and I thought they were never going to make it; that nothing would match from that day on. You see some scenes where the actors are just miserably soaked. We didn't make that rain." Indeed, 'Darkness Falls' is probably most noteworthy for the physical hardships it imposed on the cast and crew. "It was the dead of winter," Robert Goodwin moans. "Out of eight days of shooting, six of them were in the forest. There were terrible rainstorms and mud, and it became a logistical nightmare. On a television series you don't usually tackle that kind of thing. That's usually reserved for big-budget features. In any case, at one point I just sent the company home because it was raining so hard. It was like trying to see through a waterfall. But it all came out in the end, and the episode was pretty scary." "It was very tough on the crew," seconds Glen Morgan. "No one wanted to go through that again. The next episode was 'Tooms' and Bob Goodwin called me up and said, 'You know those keys on your typewriter that spell EXT for exterior? They're now broken.' So 'Tooms' had a lot of interiors." Perhaps the producer with the most legitimate reason for complaining about the episode is Paul Rabwin, who had to case 10,000 extras for the episode – without getting an increased budget. "I spent a lot of time trying to find the right stock footage of the thousands of insects we needed for the show," he says. "Ninety-five percent of the insects you see are computer generated, particularly the descending swarm and the specks in the corner of the room. But there were a couple of shots where we wanted to see thousands of bugs up close, and we couldn't find any stock footage that had the feel we were looking for." Rabwin ultimately hooked up with a cameraman who specializes in microscopic photography, which in turn led to his "casting" 10,000 mites, which were extremely temperamental.

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"They tend to shy away from the light," he points out. "And photographing them was difficult – they were so small you couldn't corral them. We finally figured out that they're slowed down by the cold, so we took this nitrogen solution and placed it on the bottom of the slide, and all these little buggers congregated around the nitrogen. Then we removed the nitrogen and quickly put it on the microscope, and we had about a thirty-second window of opportunity to photograph them before they started to disperse. It was an effects-heavy show, and there were a number of scenes that these insects were in, so it had to be staged properly." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Olympia National Forest, Washington State Back story: Shooting in the forest near Vancouver, production was delayed frequently and made more difficult by heavy rains. "It was miserable," Carter recalls, noting that the actors were soaking wet much of the time and that various inserts and pick-up shots had to be added at a later time to compensate for the inclement weather. One saving grace was the casting of Jason Beghe, who plays Ranger Larry Moore. A childhood friend of David Duchovny's, Beghe had prodded him to pursue acting and worked with him for a time as a bartender. Having him on hand (at Duchovny's suggestion) helped lighten the mood around the set, making the shoot something of a reunion and thus less of an ordeal for the cast. Carter based the episode on his interest in dendochronology – the reading of rings in trees – dating back to a course he'd taken in college. The green mite effects were computer-generated and added in postproduction, synchronized to the movements of the actors. From CarterPhile: Original Air Date: 4.15.94 Episode # 1x19 I have to confess to having a special affection for Darkness Falls: I had nightmares for three days after I first saw this episode. (Gee, thanks, Chris! *g*) In addition to having a near-phobia about bugs, the tense inevitability of the attack did me in. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the episode, with minimal actors and sets, produces a tightly-wound show that relies more on psychological terror than the fear of the swarming insects. In fact, the sets, other than the brief early scene in Mulder's office and the ending in the hospital quarantine, are simply the cabin, the forest clearings, and the inside of the vehicles. The cast, other than Mulder and Scully, is limited to two characters killed off in the teaser, one speaking role in the hospital scene, and the three characters pivotal to the interaction at the core of the story, two of whom will also die before the ending credits. The script, which Chris has stated was inspired by memories of a college course in dendrochronology (the study of growth rings in trees), revolves around the idea that those growth rings are, in effect, biological time-capsules capable of revealing what was happening in the environment surrounding the tree hundreds of years ago. By taking the concept that when we 'mess with nature' we can never be too sure of what we might unwittingly release and adding the X-Filian idea of very hungry green glowing wood mites, Chris developed a Man vs. Nature script that explored many sides of the issue, showing how complex it really is. The lumber company representative, Steve Humphreys, is a no-nonsense type who wants to be able to provide the public with the lumber it demands, and is justifiably angry about the deaths of so many of his coworkers. The ecoterrorist Doug Spinney flaunts the law for what he believes is a higher accountability; nevertheless, he risks (and eventually loses) his life to save the others. And the Federal Forest Service officer, Larry Moore, is a man who respects both nature and the law. He walks a fine line between the two sides, understanding the beliefs of both, sort of an amalgam of Mulder and Scully themselves. Darkness Falls is an episode that contains elements of nearly everything that makes TXF a remarkable series: philosophical considerations, an unknown enemy, edge-of-your-seat chills (including a scene-ending fade-out that seems to leave Our Favorite Fibbies as sure goners), and complex, multi-dimensional characters whose ideas and arguments linger in your mind long after the final credits roll. Script Notes: The script contains five drafts: February 18, 1994 (white), February 23, 1994 (blue), February 24, 1994 (pink), February 25, 1994 (green), and March 2, 1994 (yellow). The opening scene: FADE IN: EXT. FOREST - MORNING - PRESENT DAY A swaddling of dense fog curls around the trunks of massive conifer trees. Age-old sentinels spiring skyward 200 feet. The forest is still and quiet save for the croaking of a lone tree frog. A picture that on any other day would leave no doubt about God's hand in creation. When we first see the swarm of bugs in the Teaser: The dark, rim-lit forest canopy above is suddenly in motion. STRANGE GLOWING PARTICLES seem to be swirling.

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Flitting and moving like some kind of cosmic spindrift. Gathering light intensity as the particles begin to gather mass. Until they begin to move in unison, like a swarm of some kind. Our first glimpse of the Federal Forestry Service agent, waiting by his impressive 4x4 truck: Standing with a map spread out on the hood is a lean man with neatly trimmed hair. As the Agents exit their car, the man, LARRY MOORE, watches them carefully. As we'll come to see, Moore is reserved to the point of inscrutability. A watchful, perhaps distrustful man, who, while not impolite, seems to be without grace or affect. After Mulder introduces himself and Scully, Moore is not quick to offer a handshake, but after a momentary sizing up of the Agents, he does. After Humpheys goes out into the dark clearing to prove Spinney's assertations wrong, we get a view of the bugs again: AS CAMERA STARTS TO SLOWLY TRACK across TREES in the f.g. [foreground], CAMERA SLOWLY RACKING on these trees, which, when they come into focus, seem to be GLOWING AND ALIVE. As if thousands, maybe millions of tiny PHOSPHORESCENT INSECTS are clinging to the bark, much the same way bees would. Some of the glowing creatures taking momentary flight before lighting back on the tree trunk. And accompanying this is a sound: like a million tiny creatures smacking their lips. Waiting to devour something alive. One of my favorite script jokes -- a description of the giant tree trunk that eventually is revealed to be the source of the mites: Its stump looks big enough to open another Starbuck's on. And if it were Vancouver they just might. Act Three ends with an extreme close-up of the bugs: So dense on the tree they are crawling on top of one another, in constant motion, like a marauding army. Their grotesque mandibles in continuous motion, too. Creating A SOUND that, like fingernails on a blackboard, is at once disturbing and horrible. The sound of millions of voracious mites getting ready for a three-course meal. (Uhh ... that would be Mulder, Scully, and Moore...) X-Files In-Jokes: * Jason Beghe, the actor who plays Ranger Larry Moore, is one of David Duchovny's childhood friends, as well as someone who prodded Duchovny to take up acting (everyone thank him now).

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- Director Joe Napolitano also directed "Jersey Devil." He's gone on to direct numerous episodes of popular series, most recently Bones.

-- Shooting in the forest near Vancouver, production of this episode was delayed frequently and made more difficult by heavy rains. "It was miserable," Chris Carter recalled, noting that the actors were soaking wet much of the time and that various inserts and pick-up shots had to be added at a later time to compensate for the inclement weather.

-- A saving grace of the situation was the casting of Jason Beghe, who played Ranger Larry Moore. David Duchovny's "best friend since the 9th grade," Beghe had prodded Duchovny to pursue acting and worked with him for a time as a bartender. Having Beghe on hand (at Duchovny's suggestion) helped lighten the mood around the set, making the shoot something of a reunion and thus less of an ordeal for the cast.

-- Carter based the episode on his interest in dendrochronology -- the reading of rings on trees -- dating back to a course he'd taken in college.

-- The green mite effects were computer-generated and added in post production, synchronized to the movements of the actors.

-- Though Chris Carter said "Darkness Falls" was not specifically designed to push a message about conservation, the episode was honored nevertheless at the Environmental Media Awards.

-- Ranger Larry Moore worked for the Federal Forest Service. The Federal Forest Service along with the National Parks Service is part of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture).

-- Oopsie! Apparently Scully is so tired from her hike up to the camp that when Mulder stops she runs right into his backpack.

-- We're used to "dumbed down" Scully in Seasons 8 and 9, but we forget that way back in the beginning both of the leads were "dumbed down" on occasion to make sure that the viewing audience "got it." For example, in this episode, Scully gets saddled

695 with the unfortunate lines, "You must get a lot of lumber from a big tree like this" and "Those center rings are the older ones, right?".

-- As noted above, Jason Beghe was a childhood friend of David Duchovny. They attended the prestigious Collegiate School in Manhattan along with classmates Zach Galligan and the late John F. Kennedy, Jr. "I was the gregarious one," Beghe once said. "David was the one who applied himself."

-- During his Vanity Fair interview, DD was asked if he did one reckless thing during his Collegiate years. DD said, "My best friend, Jason Beghe and I, used to think that we had a chance with the lower-school teachers because they were relatively young. So we used to sit in the lounge area of the cafeteria, and Jason used to take his down jacket off, the kind you could crush into a pretty small shape, and he used to stuff it down his pants, so it looked like his penis went down to his ankle, and was the size of an elephant cock. We'd sit there as they went by. And his expression when he was doing it was: 'It's not a coat'."

-- Duchovny was a second-year teaching assistant, starting classes for his doctorate, when Beghe made a fateful suggestion. Duchovny needed to earn $2,000 during the summer of 1987 for school-year expenses, and was bartending. Beghe pointed out that if Duchovny landed a single commercial he could make that much money in a day. "I'd known him already 12 years," Beghe said. "Everything he set out to do, he did. And I loved him, why wouldn't everyone else?" With an agent and some acting lessons, Duchovny landed a Lowenbrau commercial; and before long, to his mother's lasting regret, he let Yale and academia go.

-- Beghe credits DD's marriage to Téa Leoni as the point when everything fell into place for his good friend. "He's worked his butt off to get to this place in his life," Beghe said. "He's rooted, with a new family, his own home." Beghe told a magazine that Duchovny and Leoni "love to howl together," and noted, "There's always a salt shaker on Téa's nightstand, because they like to eat in bed."

-- Beghe may not have made it as big as the friend he pushed into acting, but Beghe has continued to work steadily over the years. He appeared in Thelma and Louise and G.I. Jane and most recently had recurring roles on Everwood and Huff. He also had an uncredited role in Fight the Future playing an FBI agent at the bomb site.

-- Tom O'Rourke (Steve Humphreys) has found a home in the Law and Order franchise. He has appeared in Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, and has a recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit playing Judge Mark Seligman. He also recently appeared in the film United 93. He was a regular on the short-lived TV series Working Girl which starred Sandra Bullock and which was based on the movie of the same name -- in which David Duchovny made his acting debut.

-- Titus Welliver's (Doug Spinney) most recent acting role is as Silas Adams in Deadwood.

-- Once and Future Retreads: Barry Greene (Bob Perkins) appeared as Dr. Emile Linzer in "Zero Sum." Ken Tremblett (Dyer) appeared as a police officer in "Elegy." Both appeared in the teaser of this episode (as some of the manly men in the full bloom of their manhood).

-- "Darkness Falls" uses the "Ice" formula again except it's a nice trip to the forest instead of the Arctic: (1) Agents go to remote location. (2) Agents are pitted against the elements. (3) Agents are pitted against each other and/or the guest stars. (4) Someone gets killed (but not M or S). (5) One Agent or the other (or both) are put in peril. (6) Agents work together to save selves, each other, or designated guest stars (or to stay alive until help arrives). (7) Evidence is destroyed before Mulder can return to get a better look. "Darkness Falls" did deliver the unexpected when Mulder, Scully, and Moore were actually overcome by the swarm and cocooned; the heroes of most shows are usually saved before getting that close to buying the farm. "Darkness Falls" taught us that no one is safe on The X-Files.

1x19 Darkness Falls - script

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THE X-FILES

"Darkness Falls"

Written by

Chris Carter

Directed by

Joe Napolitano

Episode #1X19 Story No. 4224 February 18, 1994 (White) February 23, 1994 (Blue) February 24, 1994 (Pink) February 25, 1994 (Green) March 2, 1994 (Yellow)

THE X-FILES

"Darkness Falls"

CAST

FOX MULDER DANA SCULLY

STEVE HUMPHREYS LARRY MOORE DOUG SPINNEY

DYER PERKINS

THE X-FILES

"Darkness Falls"

SETS

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EXTERIORS:

FORESTED MOUNTAINS / CLEARCUT STRETCH OF FOREST / FOREST / LOGGING ENCAMPMENT CABIN SAWMILL

INTERIORS:

4X4 TRUCK CABIN / BEDROOM / KITCHEN AREA / AREA MULDER'S OFFICE

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DARKNESS FALLS

FADE IN:

EXT. FOREST – MORNING – PRESENT DAY

A swaddling of dense fog curls around the trunks of massive conifer trees. Age old sentinels spiring skyward 200 feet. The forest is still and quiet save for the croaking of a lone tree fog. A picture that on any other day would leave no doubt about God's hand in creation. Over this, a legend appears: Olympic National Forest, Central Washington State. Present Day.

And the MEN'S VOICES can be heard, the sound of heated argument, COMMOTION.

CAMERA begins to push into the fog in the direction of the voices, enveloping us and obscuring the trees and the forest floor as it searches.

A MAN'S VOICE (DYER) This thing could kill us all!

MORE COMMOTION, a disturbance of rising voices and echoes.

ANOTHER MAN'S VOICE (PERKINS) We should have gone two days ago! No one would listen to me!

CAMERA continues pushing through the dense shroud of mist until THIRTY LOGGERS become visible, standing in a clearing where several tall trees have been recently cut. Many of the men wear hardhats, climbing belts.

We have come upon a heated standoff between the men, particularly DYER and PERKINS who might attack each other at any moment. They are lean, raw-boned men who would otherwise be afraid of little. But they're afraid of something now.

DYER Nobody knew what it was two days ago, Perkins! Nobody knows now.

PERKINS Somebody's got to go for help.

DYER And what about the rest of us?! What are we supposed to do?! Wait here until help arrives?!

PERKINS We have to take a chance. One of us has to hike out.

DYER That person might not make it in time. He might not get down to the road before nightfall. Then what?! (to the others) I say we all make a run for it. Split up and take our chances.

The men sound a chorus of agreement with Dyer. Perkins backs off as the men shout him down.

PERKINS It's suicide, Dyer.

DYER Fine. You stay here and let us know how things come out.

And Dyer is non the move, taking off his climbing belt, letting it fall to the ground as he starts into the forest. First at a trot, then breaking into a run. The other men start to run, too. Each in a different direction.

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CUT TO:

EXT. FOREST – DAY – LATER

TRACKING WITH Dyer as he runs full speed through the forest now, hurdling fallen logs. TWO OTHER MEN doing the same in the b.g.

TRACKING WITH PERKINS sprinting full out behind Dyer, running on pure fear-produced adrenalin.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. PANORAMA OF FORESTED MOUNTAINS – LATE DAY

The sun dips down behind the ridge line, sending the valleys into darkness.

CUT TO:

EXT. FOREST – EVENING

DYER is running through frame when he trips and falls, going down hard to the ground. He grabs at his ankle, wincing in pain. With labored effort he pulls himself to a sitting position next to a tree. Struggling to get his boot unlaced. As:

PERKINS runs through the forest, stopping when he hears Dyer's struggling. A moment of indecision about continuing on. Then he moves toward Dyer.

DYER I think it's broken.

PERKINS Come on. You gotta get up.

DYER I don't think I can make it.

But Perkins isn't taking no for an answer. He gets his arm under and around Dyer, lifts him to a standing position. Then they resume their journey, at a markedly slower pace. Only traveling a short distance, though, when THEY STOP, reacting to A DISTANT HUMMING.

PERKINS We gotta keep moving.

The sound of desperation in both men's breathing now, a panic and urgency due to the fact they are running for their lives.

DYER We can't make it.

Perkins stops, reacting again to the HUMMING which has drawn closer now and appears to be coming not from behind them but in front of them. Then it seems to change directions completely, coming from the right, then the left. Perkins and Dyer are scanning the trees tops, loving every which way.

THEIR POV

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The dark, rim-lit forest canopy above is suddenly in motion. STRANGE GLOWING PARTICLES seem to be swirling. Flitting and moving like some kind of cosmic spindrift. Gathering light intensity as the particles begin to gather mass. Until they begin to move in unison, like a swarm of some kind.

ANGLE FROM ABOVE

Looking down on Dyer and Perkins as they try to resume their flight, looking skyward in terror as they go.

THE GLOWING SWARM descends. Moving in rapid undulating motions, like a giant whirling cloud. The HUM growing as the swarm grows closer.

ANGLE FROM ABOVE

CAMERA MOVING IN RAPIDLY on the two men as Dyer can no longer keep his feet. He goes down, leaving Perkins standing over him, shielding his face as the CAMERA DROPS RIGHT INTO HIS TERRIFIED EYES. The TERRIFYING HUM reaching a VIOLENT CRESCENDO with Perkins' scream, as we:

GO TO MAIN TITLES

ACT ONE

INT. MULDER'S OFFICE – DAY

FILL FRAME with the illuminated slide projector screen, where a group of THIRTY CRUSTY LUMBERJACKS are posed for a group photo. A beat, then Mulder walks into frame.

MULDER Take a good look, Scully.

SCULLY What am I looking at?

MULDER Thirty loggers, working in a clearcutting contract in Washington state. Rugged, manly men.

SCULLY Right. But what am I looking for?

MULDER Anything strange. Out of the ordinary. Unexplainable.

Scully stares at the screen, furrowing her brow.

SCULLY Okay, Mulder. I give up.

MULDER You give up. Funny, that's apparently what the Federal Forest Service has done.

SCULLY Why? What happened to them.

MULDER In a word –

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He uses the remote to advance the slide carousel, and the screen flashes to only white light.

MULDER (CONT'D) They vanished. Or so it would appear.

Mulder flashes another slide up on screen. A snapshot type photo of TWO MEN with their arms around each other. Aging hippies.

MULDER This is Doug Spinney and Steven Teague. They call themselves "monkeywrenchers." The guys who drive spikes into trees, sabotage logging equipment and otherwise make life miserable for lumberjacks and lumber mills.

SCULLY Ecoterrorists. Militant environmentalists.

MULDER Right. Two weeks ago the group of loggers I just showed you sent a radio message that Spinney and Teague had gone on a spree: spiking trees, damaging equipment and causing general mischief. A week later, all radio communication was cut off.

SCULLY Do they know why?

MULDER No. The lumber company who employs the men asked the Federal Forest Service to look into the matter. Two officials were sent in a week ago. No one has heard from them since.

SCULLY It would appear these monkeywrenchers are doing more than a little mischief making.

MULDER That's what the lumber company and the Federal Forest Service are accusing. They've asked the FBI to investigate. I had to pull a few strings to make sure we got the case.

Scully gives Mulder another curious look again.

SCULLY To get an ecoterrorism case? Do I dare ask why, Mulder?

Mulder smiles, a mischief maker of sorts himself. Then he flashes a new photo up on screen. This one another group photo of loggers, CIRCA 1930s.

MULDER In 1934, long before anyone even knew what an ecoterrorist was, a WPA crew working this same area vanished without a trace. Not one of the men was ever found or heard from.

SCULLY (lightly sarcastic) So you suspect what? Bigfoot?

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MULDER (deadpan) Not likely. That's a lot of flannel to be choking down. Even for Bigfoot.

Scully frowns at Mulder's joke.

MULDER C'mon, Scully. It'll be a nice trip to the forest.

Scully knows better, especially with Mulder. She gives him a look, then shifts her gaze back to the slide screen. CAMERA PUSHES IN on this sixty year old picture of the lumber crew, standing in the parking lot of a large sawmill. What did happen to them?

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. LUMBER CO. OFFICE – EARLY MORNING

A TRUCK HAULING LOGS rolls by as Mulder and Scully's ND rental sedan pulls into the large parking lot next to a fully equipped 4X4 truck (mud tires, winches, bumper guards, windshield screen, etc. Not for show, but for purpose.) On the doors are FEDERAL FOREST SERVICE emblems.

Standing with a map spread out on the hood is a lean man with neatly trimmed hair. As the Agents exit their car, the man, LARRY MOORE, watches them carefully. As we'll come to see, Moore is reserved to the point of inscrutability. A watchful, perhaps distrustful man, who, while not impolite, seems to be without grace or affect.

MULDER Hi. Fox Mulder. This is Dana Scully. We're with the FBI.

More is not quick to offer a handshake, but after a momentary sizing up of the Agents, he does.

MOORE Larry Moore, Federal Forest Service. You can put your gear in the back of the truck.

SCULLY (re: truck) Must be rugged where we're going.

MOORE Yup.

MULDER What's that in the windshield there. A bullet hole?

Indeed, in the middle of the windshield is a conical hole.

MOORE Twenty two caliber.

Moore starts folding up his map.

MULDER Somebody shoot at you?

MOORE That's what it would appear. Not much to hunt around here with that type ammo. 'Cept Freddies.

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SCULLY Freddies?

MOORE Employees of the Federal Forest Service. That's what the ecoterrorists call us.

MULDER Is that who you think shot at you?

Moore fixes Mulder with a level gaze.

MOORE Let me get this out of the way. I don't have any quarrel with these ecoterrorists in principle. I'm as concerned about the forest and the environment as anybody. It's their methods I can't condone.

SCULLY You think they'd go as far as killing a man?

MOORE There're over thirty men up there unaccounted for. All of them with survival experience. Something happened to them.

Moore puts the last fold in his map, walks away to put it in the cab of the truck. Mulder and Scully trade glances. As:

A CHEVY SUBURBAN is pulling up to them. On its doors are company logos that read SCHIFF-IMMERGUT LUMBER CO. Exiting is STEVE HUMPHREYS (late 40s), a no nonsense bulk and swagger about him as he hefts two large packs out of his car, throwing them onto his shoulders. In his hands, two cases of shotgun shells.

HUMPHREYS Sorry I'm late. I was just down talking to Bob Perkins' wife. He's one of our missing loggers.

HUMPHREYS (nods to Moore) Larry. (moving to Mulder and Scully) Steve Humphreys. Head of security, Schiff-Immergut lumber. You must be the FBI.

MULDER Mulder and Scully.

Humphreys nods, hands the cases of ammo to Moore who, with a look first to Mulder and Scully for punctuation of what he'd said earlier, puts them into the cab of his 4X4. Humphreys offers Mulder a handshake.

HUMPHREYS Got about four hours of driving ahead of us. Plenty of time to get to know each other.

Humphreys goes back to his car. Scully looks to Mulder.

SCULLY I get the distinct impression that we're arriving in the middle of a war that's already started.

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Off Mulder's look of amused agreement, we:

CUT TO:

EXT. FORESTED MOUNTAINS – DAY – LATER

A postcard vista of mountains covered with tall, dense green woods.

CUT TO:

INT. 4X4 – TRAVELING – DAY

Mulder and Scully sit between Humphreys and Moore as they bump along the rutted logging road, climbing in altitude.

SCULLY (checking her watch) Why do these men work so far up in the wilderness?

HUMPHREYS That's where the trees are.

Scully has to chuckle, being that the road they're on is lined deep with trees.

SCULLY You're kidding, right?

HUMPHREYS No. Environmentalists made sure all this land you see here is untouchable. They force us to take our timber where we can get it. Even then we replant samplings for every tree we take.

MULDER So why do these ecoterrorists target you?

HUMPHREYS See – these tree huggers – most of them are the same kind of boys who'd have run up to Canada during the Vietnam War. They're cowardly and so are their tactics –

At that moment, the 4X4 bucks and lurches. There are two distinct LOUD BANGS.

MOORE Dammit!

SCULLY What was that?

MOORE Tires.

CUT TO:

CLOSE ON BIG TIRE

A sharpened piece of rebar is stuck deeply into the sidewall of the tire at an angle.

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MOORE (O.S.) Homemade tire spike.

WIDEN TO:

EXT. LOGGING ROAD – DAY – MULDER AND SCULLY stand behind Moore as he inspects the tire.

MORE Right through the sidewall. Unfixable.

MULDER You've got a spare, don't you?

As Humphreys comes around the front of the vehicle.

HUMPHREYS Right tire's history, too.

He hands Scully a BENT METALLIC OBJECT with four sharp points.

HUMPHREYS Monkeywrenchers call it a caltrop. The roads back here are littered with them. Indiscriminate terrorism. Imagine somebody putting these down or spiking the roads in Washington D.C. I'd like to see how much sympathy they'd get then.

SCULLY How're we going to get up to the camp?

MOORE (already heading for his gear) We're going to have to hike.

Mulder and Scully turn and look up the mountain road ahead of them. It snakes up toward high mountain terrain.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. FORESTED MOUNTAINS – DAY – LATER

As the sun sinks lower and the shadows begin to grow longer, deepening the relief of the rugged terrain.

CUT TO:

EXT. LOGGING ROAD – LATE DAY

CLOSE ON the big, deflated waffle tire of a skiploader. Embedded in the sidewall is a rebar spike like the one we've already seen. CAMERA ADJUSTS to reveal:

MULDER, SCULLY, HUMPHREYS AND MOORE coming up the road toward us, seeing the disabled skiploader and:

ANGLE ON LOGGER'S ENCAMPMENT

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Two large logging trucks and a small Manitowoc crane are parked near a small wooden cabin and half a dozen medium-sized olive green tents. The logging trucks' doors are open, their hinges creaking lightly in the breeze. It is otherwise eerie and still, not a soul stirring. Our group enters frame, stopping to doff their packs, surveying this ghost town.

MOORE Anybody here?!

The light wind in the trees is their only answer.

CUT TO:

INT. CABIN – LATE DAY – CONTINUOUS

Mulder and Scully push open the door of the two-room cabin. (An empty bunk room with a half dozen beds and cots adjoins the central dining room.) In the middle of the central dining room is a table, chairs lying sideways on the floor. On the table, amid general disarray, are dirty dishes. On which, given closer inspection, is moldy, half-eaten food.

MULDER Someone forgot to clean their plate.

SCULLY Looks like they left in a hurry, too.

Something captures Mulder's attention atop the old refrigerator which sits with its door hanging open. He lifts a ziplock baggie full of marijuana buds.

MULDER And they forgot to pack.

Mulder is opening the bag, smelling its contents. Noticing some kind of GREASY RESIDUE on the bag, and atop the fridge. He wipes at it with his finger, studying it when Humphreys enters.

HUMPHREYS Find anything?

MULDER Party favors.

Humphreys acknowledges Mulder by ignoring him, moves over to a table where a short wave radio unit sits.

HUMPHREYS Vehicle have all been monkeywrenched. Power generator's busted.

SCULLY Somebody really turned this place upside down.

HUMPHREYS Whoever it was didn't want the fact broadcast either.

He picks up the unit. The glass and metal have been smashed and broken. Humphreys nods with a certain grim satisfaction that he knows exactly who that somebody was.

EXT. LOGGING ENCAMPMENT – LATE DAY – CONTINUOUS

Larry Moore is under the hood of a half ton pickup that's also been disabled. He removes the radiator cap, finding soaked and plump kernels of white rice inside.

As Mulder, Scully and Humphreys approach.

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MOORE Radiators are all full of rice. Looks like sugar or sand in all the crankcases. They really did a number here.

HUMPHREYS (checking his watch) Sun's going down in an hour and a half.

MOORE Better take a look around before it gets dark.

HUMPHREYS I'm going to see if I can get that generator working.

He and Moore move off as Scully moves to inspect the rice in the radiator, then turns to Mulder.

SCULLY You were right about one thing.

MULDER What's that?

SCULLY It definitely wasn't Bigfoot.

CUT TO:

EXT. CLEARCUT STRETCH OF FOREST – LATE DAY

Mulder, Scully, and Moore are moving through the wide swath of deforested land. Traversing the stumps and downed trees in the field that is bounded by tall uncut pines on its perimeters.

EXT. PERIMETER OF CLEARCUT AREA – LATE DAT

The group continues along the edge of the area, when Mulder stops, pointing up into the branches of a tall pine.

MULDER Look at that.

Affixed to one of the lower branches, hanging like a large gunny sack, is a kind of spun cocoon. Grayish white in color, its weblike shell obscuring whatever is held inside. Something, by the look of it, of quite some weight and mass.

SCULLY What is it?

MOORE It looks like a hive. Or maybe a cocoon of some kind.

MULDER Made by what?

MOORE I don't know. I've never seen anything like it.

CUT TO:

CLOSE ON SCULLY'S FACE

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as she is pulled up into frame near the cocoon, sitting in a makeshift rope harness that has been thrown over the big branch which the cocoon is fastened to.

MOORE (O.S.) Can you cut it down?

SCULLY Yeah. I think so.

Scully's reaction to the strange weblike creation is less scientific than visceral. Up Close it appears GREASY and vile, its fibrous exterior a dead gray. Scully has a leather sheathed knife in her hands. Carefully she takes the knife and begins cutting at the point of attachment. Then she stops, having to catch her breath, seeing:

A BONEY HUMAN FINGER protruding through a tear in the cocoon's webbing, its skin shrunken and desiccated. And a partial view of what looks like a human skull peaking out behind it. Off this image, we:

END ACT ONE

ACT TWO

EXT. FOREST FLOOR – LATE DAY – SHORT TIME LATER

The cocoon lies on the ground. Scully, Mulder and the Forest Service Official stand over it, giving us a sense of scale now. It is about four feet long, tapering from the bottom to the top. Moore is doing the cutting on the object now, slicing with some difficulty through the greasy silken fiber, about an inch thick.

SCULLY Oh my god.

The body inside lies in the fetal position, its grotesque shrunken features do indeed look like a mummy's. Or even insect like. Scully ventures a touch of its skin.

SCULLY It feels … desiccated. Hard and dry. Almost… preserved.

MOORE Like it's been embalmed.

SCULLY More… like all the fluids were bled from the body. Like he's been… cured. (checking) I think it's a male.

MULDER (checking too) Barely.

Scully gives him a look.

MOORE I'd say it's some kind of spider's nest. Or an insect cocoon.

SCULLY What kind of insect could have gotten a man all the way into that tree?

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The threesome looks back up at the high branches again, imagining who or what might have done it.

MULDER (dryly) Itsy bitsy spider…

CUT TO:

EXT. LOGGING ENCAMPMENT – LATE DAY

Steve Humphreys kneels down over the gas generator, taking out a spark plug that's been broken off at the top and replacing it with another one. Wrenching the new plug down into place. When A NOISE catches his attention. Humphreys remains motionless for a moment, listening.

NOISE AGAIN, movement somewhere in the camp. A shuffling of feet, then the slow creaking of the cabin door being opened. Humphreys looks down at his pump shotgun leaning up against the building.

ANGLE ON FRONT OF CABIN

As Humphreys moves slowly toward the front door. More SHUFFLING inside as the big, bulky man steps as lightly as he can up to the cabin door. Then he PUMPS his shotgun.

The shuffling has stopped now. Humphreys stands stock still, holding his gun low but ready. Then more SHUFFLING. Then the sound of DISHES CLINKING, something glass or ceramic FALLING TO THE FLOOR.

Humphreys put his finger to the trigger now, pulling his gun up at the ready across his chest. Then, in one quick motion, he throws the door open and aims his gun at:

INT. CABIN – LATE DAY – CONTINUOUS

In the dim light stands a MAN hunched over the table, with straggly hair, a beard and the rangy look of something wild. He freezes only momentarily, before resuming what he'd been doing before: eating the MOLDY OLD FOOD off the plates on the table. Watching Humphreys with eyes that have seen something far more frightening than a man with a gun pointed at him.

HUMPHREYS Don't move! Who are you?!

The man takes a few steps back, wiping the food from his mouth with the back of his hand. His face is more visible now and Humphreys recognizes him.

HUMPHREYS Doug Spinney. I ought to shoot you where you stand.

SPINNEY Might as well shoot yourself, too.

HUMPHREYS You're in one hell of a spot to be testing me. What happened to my men?

SPINNEY What men?

HUMPHREYS The men who were working this camp.

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SPINNEY (beat) I don't know what happened to them. Maybe the same thing that'll happen to us when the sun goes down.

At this moment the VOICES of Mulder, Scully, Larry Moore filter in. in another moment they are in the doorway, staring at Humphreys holding Spinney at gunpoint.

MULDER What are you doing?

HUMPHREYS This animal is Doug Spinney. The man responsible for all this monkeywrenching. And probably a murder as well.

SPINNEY I'm no murderer.

HUMPHREYS You're a liar!

Humphreys pulls his gun up, to intimidate Spinney.

MULDER Wait a second. Let's hear what he has to say.

Mulder steps to Humphreys, pushing his gun stock down.

SPINNEY We stand here talking and there'll be nothing left to say. I'd start thinking about trying to get that generator started. The darkness is our enemy.

HUMPHREYS What's he talking about?

SPINNEY One of you want to give me a hand.

Spinney pushes past Humphreys and the others, exiting the cabin.

HUMPHREYS He's giving orders? I'm the one who fixed the damn thing.

CUT TO:

EXT. CABIN – LATE DAY

Spinney is carrying a five gallon gas can of gas toward the generator. Mulder, Scully, Humphreys and Moore trail him as he prepares to pour it in the small power unit. Larry Moore moves over to the generator, unscrewing the cap on the fuel tank.

Spinney pours the fuel into the machine.

MULDER What did you mean about the darkness being our enemy?

SPINNEY That's when they come.

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SCULLY When who comes?

SPINNEY (darkly) I don't know what it is. They come from the sky. Can take a man right off his feet, devour him alive. I saw it happen.

MULDER Happen to whom?

Spinney yanks on the rope pull starter and the machine fires to life. He does not answer Mulder's question. Instead, he starts back toward the cabin.

SPINNEY I need to eat. I haven't eaten for three days.

HUMPHREYS (incredulous) What kind of B.S. story is that? Huh? You believe that?

In fact, they just might. A minute of tense silence, then:

SCULLY We found something in the forest.

HUMPHREYS What?

MOORE A man caught in some kind of insect cocoon.

Off Humphreys' surprise, and added annoyance, we:

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. CABIN – NIGHT

The lights in the cabin are on. A FLUORESCENT BUG LAMP hangs on one of the rather tailings near the front door.

CUT TO:

INT. CABIN – NIGHT – SCULLY

Takes a bottle of boiling water off the burner of the small, old electric stove top. Pouring cups of tea.

MULDER AND LARRY MOORE sit at the table watching Doug Spinney eating voraciously, barely taking time to look up.

HUMPHREYS sits in a chair in the corner with his shotgun laid across his lap. Watchful and suspicious.

MULDER What happened out here?

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SPINNEY We're camped two valleys over. Four of us. Three now.

HUMPHREYS (under his breath) More rats in the woodpile.

SPINNEY Our truck has a dead battery. We drew straws to see who'd make the hike over here, steal one from the loggers.

Humphreys lets out a long, low sigh in the corner.

MULDER Why not just hike out?

SPINNEY It's more than a day's hike. No way we wanted to be caught out in the forest at night. Not after what happened to Teague.

SCULLY This is the man you say was… devoured alive?

Spinney nods. Either this is a good act or Spinney seems to carry some of the terror with him still.

MULDER What are you guys doing up here?

Spinney casts a sidelong glance at Humphreys, as if to preface the obvious lie he is about to commit.

SPINNEY Camping.

HUMPHREYS Yeah. The kind of camping you do is a federal offense.

MULDER Hold off a second –

MOORE He's right. This man is an admitted felon. He could be placed under arrest.

SPINNEY And what about your offense, my friend?! What about the offense against nature you perpetrate?!

HUMPHREYS We operate completely inside the law. We pay for the right to take those trees –

SPINNEY Yeah, well I've got news for you – your logging crew was taking trees nobody has a right to. Trees that are marked and protected. So don't talk to me about breaking the law, sir.

MOORE They were taking marked trees?

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SPINNEY Yes, sir. Marked in orange.

MOORE Old growth trees. You know anything about that, Steve?

HUMPHREYS No. (off Moore's stare) You're going to take this man's word over mine?!

Humphreys bolts angrily from his chair, moves to the door.

SPINNEY You don't want to go out into the night. Take my word on that. It's out there.

Humphreys leaves his hand on the knob but does not exit.

HUMPHREYS (chuckling) What? If I walk out this door I'm going to be attacked by something that's going to eat me alive and spin me in its web?

SPINNEY Yes.

HUMPHREYS So what – it's too polite to come in and get me?

SPINNEY For some reason, it's afraid of the light.

HUMPHREYS (mocking) It's AFRAID of the light?

MOORE There might be something to what he's saying, Steve.

HUMPHREYS You know what I think? I think this man is a liar and a murderer who's just clever enough to make up a story like this. Even to whip up that cocoon. Just to save a few trees. And I'm going to prove I'm right.

Humphreys opens the door, exits into the night. The others get up and move to the door.

SPINNEY He's crazy.

CUT TO:

EXT. CABIN – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

Humphreys walks out into the middle of the encampment, still holding his shotgun. Scanning the woods for any sign of life or danger.

ANGLE ON CABIN

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Mulder, Scully and Larry Moore stand in the lighted doorway watching Humphreys parade his lack of fear.

HUMPHREYS Where is it, Spinney? I thought it was going to come devour me.

Spinney doesn't respond to this, but the group does REACT to a sudden ZAP… ZAP ZAP from the fluorescent bug light hanging near them. But there is nothing more than that.

LONG SHOT THROUGH THE ADJACENT WOODS of Humphreys standing in the middle of the encampment, with the lighted cabin in the b.g.

HUMPHREYS Come out, come out wherever you are!

As CAMERA STARTS TO SLOWLY TRACK across TREES in the f.g. CAMERA SLOWLY RACKING on these trees, which, when they come into focus, seem to be GLOWING AND ALIVE. As if thousands, maybe millions of tiny PHOSPHORESCENT INSECTS are clinging to the bark, much the same way bees would.

Some of the glowing creatures taking momentary flight before lighting back on the tree trunk. And accompanying this is a sound: like a million tiny creatures smacking their lips. Waiting to devour something alive.

RESUME LIGHTED ENTRANCE OF CABIN as Humphreys marches back toward the waiting group.

HUMPHREYS Just like I told you. There's nothing out there but a bunch of trees. Trees that this man values more than human life. And I'm going to see him tried on murder charges.

Humphreys pushes roughly past Spinney while Mulder and Scully continue looking curiously, if not more skeptically, into the dark night.

SCULLY What do you think?

MULDER I think I'm going to suggest we sleep with the lights on.

He closes the cabin door. CAMERA MOVES to the bug lamp which glows still and purple until… ZAP. ZAP ZAP. Another momentary burst of activity. A forbidding preview of horrors to come. As we:

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. THE FOREST – DAY

Still and serene, until Doug Spinney enters frame, marching purposefully into the woods. He is followed momentarily by Scully, Mulder, Larry Moore and Humphreys who trails a bit behind carrying his shotgun.

ANGLE ON GIANT TREE TRUNK

Lying in the woods. Ten feet in diameter and over a hundred and fifty feet long. Moving along its length the group is dwarfed by its enormity. Near its base, where it has been cut down, A BRIGHT ORANGE X has been spraypainted. Its stump looks beg enough to open another Starbuck's on. And if it were Vancouver they just might.

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SPINNEY See this redwood – this tree has been standing here since time began and your men cut it down.

Humphreys reaches out to touch the orange X that's been spraypainted on the side.

SCULLY: Who marks these trees?

MOORE Federal Forest Service. You're only allowed to cut trees marked with a blue X.

Mulder has climbed on top of the giant stump.

MULDER This tree must be hundreds of years old.

MOORE At least.

SCULLY You must get a lot of lumber from a big tree like this.

SPINNEY Thousands of board feet. Hell of a lot easier than taking a lot of smaller, younger trees.

HUMPHREYS Let me remind you that monkeywrenchers like Spinney here are not above marking trees with their own paint.

Moore looks at Humphreys with a brief displayer of emotion: disdain.

MOORE This tree's five hundred years old if it's a day, Steve.

MULDER (examining the top of the stump) Hey, take a look at this.

CLOSE ON MULDER kneeling in the centre of the stump, looking closely at one of the small center rings. Moore and Scully climb up and kneel down to see what he's looking at:

CENTER STUMP

There is a ring thicker than the others. It is also irregular in shape and is colored a sulfurous yellow.

MULDER What would this represent?

MOORE I don't know. I've never seen a ring like that before.

SCULLY These center rings, these are the oldest ones, aren’t they?

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MOORE Yeah. Every ring represents a season of growth. See these –

Moore's fingers run over the alternating strata of brown and dark brown rings.

MOORE (CONT'D) -- these could be five, six hundred years old. They're a recorded history of rainfall and climate. But this one, I don't know. I should take a sample.

HUMPHREYS (O.S.) Are we finished with this nature walk?

ANGLE TO INCLUDE HUMPHREYS looking on with his shotgun cradled between his folded arms.

HUMPHREYS I want an answer about what happened to those loggers.

SCULLY That's what we're trying to determine.

HUMPHREYS Looking at a tree stump?! Don't you think you should be interrogating this man –

He points at Spinney who sits squatted caveman style a few yards away. Spinney's general appearance doesn't inspire confidence that he is a completely honest man.

MULDER I don't think he did it.

HUMPHREYS Well, I think he did. And I want him arrested.

MULDER He's not going anywhere.

HUMPHREYS Not with a gun on him. What if you're poking around here when his three buddies show up? Do to you what they probably did to those two Federal Forest Officials. Larry?

MOORE I just want to take a core sample of this tree, Steve.

HUMPHREYS I got families down there who want some answers about their loved ones. So do you. Answers you ain't going to find in that tree.

SPINNEY The death of that tree's the only crime here to investigate.

HUMPHREYS We'll see about that.

Humphreys turns, starts heading away. Moore starts out after him.

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MOORE Where're you going, Steve?

HUMPHREYS (on the go) I'm going to hike back down to your truck and get on the horn. Get some people up here who'll take action.

MOORE Steve!

SPINNEY Let him go.

Moore stops, glares at Spinney, squatting smugly, chewing on a pine needle.

SPINNEY Let him find out for himself.

Moore watches Humphreys head out, as do Mulder and Scully. A sense of foreboding as he disappears into the forest.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. CABIN – LATE DAY

CLOSE ON GENERATOR as Spinney appears. He checks the fuel level, the gauge reading less than half full. Then he moves to the gas can sitting nearby, shakes it to gauge how full it is. From the sound of it, it is more empty than full. He thinks for a moment, puts the can down, exits.

CUT TO:

INT. CABIN – LATE AFTERNOON – CONTINUOUS

Larry Moore has a long slender cylinder of wood laid out on the table in the middle of the room. Studying the rings closely with a magnifying loupe.

MOORE This is odd.

ANGLE TO INCLUDE MULDER AND SCULLY standing over him.

MOORE This yellow ring, it's got something living in it. Some kind of tiny bug.

He hands the loupe to Mulder.

MOORE It doesn't make sense.

SCULLY Why?

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MOORE Parasites attack a tree in a variety of ways. But they always attack the living parts: the leaves, the roots, the new growth rings. Even if these are borers of some kind… they wouldn't be working so deep in the tree.

Mulder bends down, training the loupe on the yellow ring of the core sample.

MULDER'S MAGNIFIED POV

Crawling over the yellow wood are tiny spider-like mites.

MULDER Maybe the wood in this ring is different. They seem to be feeding on it.

Mulder hands the loupe to Scully. She takes a look now.

SCULLY Can you identify them?

MOORE Wood mites of some kind, but nothing I've ever seen before.

MULDER Could it be they've been living in that tree for hundreds of years?

MOORE I don't see how. These inner rings are essentially dead wood. The tree's vascular system is limited to the outer few rings. And they'd need water to survive.

SCULLY (still looking through the loupe) It appears as though they might be hatching out of the porous wood. Maybe when you drilled its core you tapped into a larger nest.

SPINNEY (O.C.) Can they build a cocoon?

Everyone turns to see Spinney standing in the doorway.

SPINNEY Just after that tree was cut down was when Teague died. It's right about when the loggers disappeared, too.

SCULLY You think these mites are what killed them?

SPINNEY Maybe they've been lying there dormant for hundreds of years. Maybe they woke up hungry.

CUT TO:

EXT. LOGGING ROAD – LATE DAY

Steve Humphreys, a pack slung over his back, carrying his shotgun. Up ahead is the big 4x4 sitting in the middle of the road, resting on its two blown front tires.

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INT. 4X4 – LATE DAY

As Humphreys opens the driver's door, reaching up to the steering column where his hand searches for the keys in the ignition. But they are not there.

Humphreys removes his pack, puts his gun down and climbs up inside the cab. Sitting in the driver's seat, he continues pulling down the sun visor, checking the glove box. Still no keys.

HUMPHREYS Dammit.

CUT TO:

EXT. FORESTED MOUNTAINS – LATE DAY

Once again, the sun drops over the mountain tops, bringing night quickly to the valleys below.

CUT TO:

INT. 4X4 – NIGHT – SHORT TIME LATER

Working with a pen flashlight, Humphreys is under the dash trying to hotwire the car. The two ignition wires SPARK and the car starts to turn over – but it doesn't start. Humphreys tries it again. Again it turns over, but it does not start.

EXT. 4X4 – NIGHT – MOMENTS LATER

Humphreys throws the hood open, scanning the engine with his flashlight when he reacts to a noise. A DISTANT BUT DISTINCT HUM. Humphreys turns, points his flashlight out into the night.

THE THIN FLASHLIGHT BEAM cuts across the deep dark woods, illuminating nothing more than trees.

ON HUMPHREYS squinting into the darkness when he spins around, reacting to MORE HUMMING, coming from yet a different direction. Scared now, he moves around to grab his gun which is leaning against a fender.

Holding it and the flashlight, Humphreys calls out into the night.

HUMPHREYS You monkeywrenchers come on out now. I know what you're up to.

There is no respond. Only more HUMMING. And then Humphreys looks up into the sky. The same glowing, cosmic spindrift that we saw in the Teaser is beginning to form above him. Its particles coming from several different directions but amassing into a whirling phosphorescent cloud.

CLOSE ON HUMPHREYS FACE reacting to this sight. And then running for the truck. He climbs up into the cab and slams the door closed. Rolling up the windows tightly. He hurriedly reaches down, continues trying to hot wire the truck but it still won't turn over. While:

THROUGH THE MOON ROOF on the ceiling of the cab, the glowing cloud begins to appear. And finally THE CAR STARTS. Humphreys throws it in gear. He hits the gas, the car lurching forward jerkily on its flat tires. When THE GLOWING BUGS begin to stream in through the air vents in the dashboard, filling the cabin.

720

Humphreys steers the car on a wild course, as he starts to bat the swarming insects off his face with one hand at first. Then he starts using both hands. Before long, though, the whole cab is aglow in fluorescent particles and Humphreys is flailing his arms like a madman, trying to beat them away. But it's to no avail.

EXT. LOGGING ROAD – NIGHT – CONTINUOUS

As the 4x4 careens to the edge of the road, jumping the embankment and driving head on into a tree.

CLOSE ON HUMPHREYS' FACE through the side window as he tries to get out of the truck. But it's too late. The door seems to be jammed shut. And the glowing insects are crawling over his entire face, obscuring his vision. Driving him mad. Humphreys' face is pressed up against the window, his hands clawing at the glass. He lets out a blood-curdling scream. Off this image, we:

END ACT TWO

ACT THREE

EXT. CABIN – NIGHT – CLOSE ON GENERATOR putt putting away. nearby is the five gallon gas can.

RACK TO BUG LAMP glowing purple. It is now covered in an accretion of thick dark crud which partially occludes its louvers. Still it's doing its work: a startling ZAP… ZAP ZAP. Unseen victims of its electric field.

CUT TO:

INT. CABIN – NIGHT – CLOSE ON SINGLE LIGHT BULB hanging over the table in the center of the room. Its glowing filaments now perhaps the difference between life and death.

MOORE (O.C.) Humphreys should have been back by now.

TILT DOWN TO MOORE moving across the room to the window, looking out with an expression of concern. Scully sits at the table, continuing to examine the core sample from the tree. Mulder is at the stove, pouring himself a cup of tea. Spinney now occupies the corner chair Humphreys did in the earlier scene. The mood is tense.

SCULLY These bugs aren't moving anymore. They're either dead or asleep.

ON MULDER

He finishes pouring his tea, then stops to look at the wood counter his cup is sitting on. He wipes a greasy residue with his finger, examining it. It's like stove top grease but as he wipes again in another spot he sees it's everywhere. Over:

SPINNEY It's the light. They don't like the light.

SCULLY It's weird. Bugs are usually attracted to the light.

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SPINNEY These are obviously not your typical bugs. To say the least.

Scully begins to carefully bush some of the insects off the wood and into a small plastic container. (This can be done without real bugs, in a pantomime.)

MULDER (still studying the residue) You know anything about insects, Scully?

SCULLY Just what I remember from my biology courses. They're the foundation of our ecosystem. And there are a lot of them. Something like two hundred million bugs for every person on the planet.

MULDER They've been around for a long time, right?

SCULLY Six hundred million years, they say. Since before the dinosaurs. Why?

Mulder moves over to her, fingering the core sample.

MULDER This tree's how old? Five, six, seven hundred years?

MOORE Yeah.

MULDER And the rings represent a history of climatic changes. That would mean this year or season in the life of the tree there was some kind of strange event that produced an abnormal ring.

SCULLY For example…?

MULDER A volcanic eruption. This whole chain of mountains running from Washington to Oregon is still extremely active. Remember Mount St. Helens?

SCULLY But how would that explain the bugs?

MULDER After Mount St. Helens erupted there was a large amount of radiation unleashed from inside the earth. Strange things started to grow. There's a lake there where they've discovered a kind of amoeba that can literally suck a man's brains out.

SCULLY (skeptically) A brain sucking amoeba…?

SPINNEY It's true. In Spirit Lake. There are documented accounts of swimmers being infected.

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There is still a general distrust of Spinney, particularly by Larry Moore. He doesn't appreciate that the ecoterrorist is suddenly being included as one of the group.

SCULLY But an amoeba's a single celled organism. It can be mutated. Insects are complex animals. A mutation would take years to evolve.

Mulder's stumped momentarily by this, but his brain is spinning, making the kind of leaps we've come to expect.

MULDER Then maybe what we have here isn't a mutation at all. What if it's some kind of extinct insect larvae in that ring? Deposited there during a period of volcanic activity, brought up through the tree's root system. Ancient insect eggs – thousands, maybe millions of years old – lying dormant –

SPINNEY -- until those loggers cut down that tree.

Spinney gets up from his chair, staring at Moore, as if to taunt him.

SPINNEY That would be rather poetic justice. Unleashing the very thing that would end up killing them. And your friend Humphreys. (beat, then to the room) And who knows. Maybe us.

He starts to the adjoining bunk room.

SPINNEY Sweet dreams.

Spinney exits the room, leaving Mulder, Scully and Moore with that thought. The weight of which leaves them with a creeping and growing sense of doom.

MOORE Humphreys might have just hiked out. We don't know that he didn't. maybe we're letting ourselves get carried away with this bug story.

MULDER Yeah, maybe.

Mulder says this, not believing it for a second. He gets up and moves to the front window, looking out into the night. Moore is suddenly feeling very responsible for Humphreys.

ON SCULLY as she carefully puts the lid on the specimen jar. CAMERA TILTING UP to follow her look to the single light bulb which hangs above the table (which is where we began the scene). The raw glow of its filaments quite possibly their only protection against the plague that lurks in the night.

DISSOLVE TO:

THE LIGHT BULB – MORNING its filaments still glowing, though ineffectively in the gloaming of the dawn. CAMERA REACTS to a GENTLE CREAKING, adjusting to find Doug Spinney slipping quietly out the door of the bunk room. He grabs one of the backpacks that's been stowed near the front door. Sneaking out of the cabin so as not to be heard.

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CUT TO:

EXT. CABIN – MORNING – THE GENERATOR still putt putting away. We anticipate that Spinney is going to turn the generator off, but he doesn't. He moves past it, grabbing the five gallon can of gas and striding quickly away.

CLOSE ON SPINNEY working a crescent wrench, QUIETLY AND CAREFULLY loosening the bracket which holds a 16 volt truck battery in place. When A PISTOL enters frame, pointed at the back of his head. Spinney jumps when it is COCKED.

CAMERA ADJUSTS TO reveal Mulder standing behind him, looking like he just woke up. And none too happy to be finding Spinney working secretly on something.

MULDER Going somewhere?

SPINNEY No. I was just –

MULDER Doing a little auto repair? Looks to me like you plan on cutting out of here.

SPINNEY I've gotta save my friends. They only had enough gas to keep their generator running fifteen, twenty hours max. they're going to die if I don't get back there.

MULDER So why the sneaking around?

SPINNEY The Freddie – the Forest Service Guy – he wouldn't go for it. He'd never trust me.

MULDER He's got no reason to. Neither do I.

SPINNEY I can save us all, man. We've got a jeep over there – just two valleys over – all it needs is a battery. I could get there, be back here in the morning. We could all drive out tomorrow.

Mulder keeps his gun on Spinney, not know whether to trust him or not.

SPINNEY -- Trust me, man. Maybe I've done some things you don't agree with. Maybe I've broken the law – but it's not just vandalism. There's a reason behind it. It's about the preservation of life.

Spinney is emoting here – the question is: is it honesty or dubious salesmanship. Again, his manner and appearance would suggest the latter. Mulder weighs his options, looking back at the cabin behind him. Considering that he is making a decision not just for himself and Spinney, but for everyone. Off this indecision:

EXT. PANORAMA OF FORESTED MOUNTAINS – MORNING

The sun rising up now over the snow-capped peaks, high above the timber line. Bringing day to the valleys below.

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CUT TO:

INT. CABIN – MORNING

Mulder is working on the short save radio. He has the casing off it. He touches two wires together and the unit sparks to life, its lighted face blinking on and a static fading up.

MULDER Radio's back up.

Mulder twists the wires together, then dials through the frequencies, trying to find a channel. He gets no reception, though. Only a series of different static frequencies. Scully comes out of the bunk room, standing behind him as Mulder continues to spin the dial.

SCULLY It's working?

MULDER I'm not getting any reception. The receiver could be trashed.

SCULLY What about transmission? Can you send a message?

MULDER I can try. (taking the mike) This is a call for help. Is there anyone on this frequency?

Only static. Mulder and Scully trade a grim look.

MULDER This is Special Agent Mulder of the FBI. We have an emergency and a possible quarantine situation. Our position is …

Scully quickly reaches for a map that's laid out on the table, handing it to Mulder. As the radio suddenly goes dead again. along with the sound of the generator.

SCULLY Generator quit.

Off the Agents' reaction to this, we:

CUT TO:

EXT. CABIN – MORNING – CONTINUOUS

Mulder rounds the corner quickly, seeing Larry Moore kneeling over the generator. Scully a few steps behind him.

MULDER What happened to the generator?

MOORE I turned it off.

MULDER Well, turn it back on. I've got the radio working.

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MOORE What happened to the gas can?

Mulder takes a beat, before;

MULDER Spinney took it.

MOORE He took it? You mean he's gone?

MULDER He left early this morning. He took a battery and some gas. He's going to come back for us in the morning.

MOORE And what? Did he give you his personal guarantee on that?

MULDER He gave me his word.

Moore, though a restrained man, is clearly becoming more and more intense and angry.

MOORE Did you stop to think the man who gave his word has made an art out of sabotage and defying authority. And is probably the same man who put that bullet through my windshield?

MULDER What would you have done? At least there's a chance we can get out of here alive. That's one more chance than we had before.

MOORE Or one less.

SCULLY What do you mean?

MOORE Your partner let Spinney leave with the last of the gas. This generator's got about a quarter tank left, maybe less. We'll be lucky if we make it through the night.

SCULLY What about the gas in the trucks?!

MULDER (realizing their predicament) There is no gas. The tanks have all been ruptured or filled with sugar.

MOORE By the same man we're now trusting to keep his word and come back for us.

SCULLY Then… we've got to keep trying on the radio. We've got to get a mayday out –

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MOORE Every drop of fuel we waste is fuel that's going to keep this genie powered tonight. I don't want to be waiting around hoping somebody heard that transmission when this thing quits running at about two in the morning. Do you?

There is only one answer to that question and it need not be spoken. Off the gloomy, doomsday pall, we:

CUT TO:

CLOSE ON A HAMMER POUNDING A NAIL

INT. CABIN BUNKROOM – LATE DAY

Mulder is putting nails in aboard under which a sheet of clear, but dirty plastic tarping is draped. AS CAMERA ADJUSTS, we see ALMOST the whole room has been draped in sheets of dirty plastic. An attempt to seal the room.

INT. CABIN DINING ROOM – LATE DAY – CONTINUOUS

Larry Moore is entering the building carrying more dirty plastic sheeting, seeing Scully unscrewing the single light bulb which hangs over the dining table.

MOORE I'd be very careful with that. It's the only bulb we've got.

Moore is still smoldering from the Spinney incident, his tone reflecting this. Then he continues on into the bunkroom.

CLOSE ON SCULLY with the bulb halfway out of its socket. She takes a deep breath, unscrewing the bulb with extreme care now. As we:

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. CABIN – NIGHT – LATER

The generator is humming away, the occasional hiccup of its little one cylinder engine, or a suddenly change in pitch, making it feel like any moment it could cough and wheeze and die.

CUT TO:

INT. CABIN – BUNKROOM – NIGHT – CLOSE ON THE SINGLE BULB

Dimming slightly, then brightening with each change of pitch of the generator outside. TILTING DOWN to Agent Mulder, lying on his bunk with his hands behind his head, watching the little bulb intently.

ANGLE ON LARRY MOORE sitting on the edge of his bunk, his elbows on his knees, trying not to look at the dimming little bulb. But unable not to take a brief sidelong glance. PANNING OFF the Forest Service Official to:

SCULLY lying on her bunk, on her stomach, not looking at the bulb at all. But wide awake, staring at the wall.

SCULLY I can see them. Look at this.

TINY GLOWING PHOSPHORESCENT DOTS

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have appeared on the wall. Visible only in the deepest shadows or recesses near the floor, in the corner.

ANGLE ON

Scully, sitting up. Mulder and Moore rising, moving to take a look. They all remain motionless, staring at this.

SCULLY They're coming through the walls. Down here where it's dark.

CLOSE ON SCULLY'S ARM as she reaches down to push the plastic flush to the wall for a better look – when THE GLOWING DOTS ARE SUDDENLY VISIBLE ON HER ARM, TOO. Moving, migrating slowly up her forearm.

WIDER as Scully panics, leaping up and freaking out.

SCULLY They're on me! Get them off of me!!

She wheels past the men, pawing wildly at her arms. And, in doing so, she KNOCKS the single bulb, hard enough that it might break. Causing it to swing out, hitting Scully on the way back down. Larry Moore lunges to catch it. While Mulder tries to get Scully under control.

MOORE Watch it!

MULDER Scully! It's okay! It's okay!

But she continues to struggle against him.

SCULLY Get them off!

MULDER Stop it! Stand still.

And finally she does, breathing hard. Closing her eyes, clenched in fear and disgust. If she can't feel the bugs crawling on her, she sure as hell is imagining it.

SCULLY Where are they? Do you see them?

MULDER They're not just on you, Scully. I think they're everywhere. That's what the greasy residue is over everything.

SCULLY I thought we were safe in the light!

MULDER I think we are. The lights keeps them from swarming. I think we'll be safe if we just stay in the light.

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SCULLY (calming herself) I'm sorry.

MOORE (still holding the light) Not as sorry as you almost were.

Off the heightened fear and tension, we:

CUT TO:

EXT. CABIN – NIGHT

Long shot through the trees. The dim glow of the light in the cabin windows in the b.g. In the f.g. a tree infested with millions of tiny glowing insects. Just waiting for the lights to go out.

ECU BUGS (STOCK)

So dense on the tree they are crawling on top of one another, in constant motion, like a marauding army. Their grotesque mandibles in continuous motion, too. Creating A SOUND that, like fingernails on a blackboard, is at once disturbing and horrible. The sound of millions of voracious mites getting ready for a three course meal.

END ACT THREE

ACT FOUR

INT. CABIN BUNKROOM – NIGHT

Larry Moore has resumed his position on his bunk. Across the room Mulder sits with Scully. She is still shaken from her violent episode, though trying her best to hid her fear. They talk in hushed tones.

MULDER Are you okay, Scully?

SCULLY Yeah, I'm okay. (staring off) They're oxidizing enzymes. Just like fireflies.

INSERT – On top of Scully's gear in her open pack sits the specimen jar she filled with bugs earlier. It is now glowing in the shadows of the backpack.

SCULLY Maybe that's why they cocoon their prey, so they can slowly oxidize the proteins taken from their body fluids.

Heads all turn again when the generator MOANS and the single bulb dims with it.

SCULLY What's going to happen if that generator goes? Are these things going to swarm in here and drain the life out of us?

MULDER We've only got an hour and a half to sunrise.

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SCULLY Then what? It's over a day's hike out of here. We can't make it out on foot before nightfall.

MULDER Maybe somebody heard our radio transmission. Help could be on the way.

SCULLY You sent that call hours ago. Help would be here by now.

MULDER I'm not giving up on Spinney. He gave me his word he'd be back to get us.

They both know, however, that this is an outside chance. Both of the Agents casting looks at Larry Moore who sits stoically across the room.

SCULLY And if he doesn't?

MULDER We'll think of something.

Exactly what he isn't saying. And doesn't know.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. CABIN – EARLY MORNING – CLOSE ON GENERATOR

With the first rays of sunlight the generator WHIRRS, WHEEZES and finally dies. CAMERA ADJUSTING to find Mulder and Moore hurrying across the encampment to the pickup truck that Spinney took the battery from.

ANGLE ON TRUCK as the two men circle it, looking at its four flattened tires. Mulder stops at one of the tires, kneels and inspects it.

MULDER Have you got a patch kit or an extra tube in your truck?

MOORE Yeah.

MULDER Maybe we can patch this tire, or at least get it to hold some air. With the spare you have down on your truck... we might be able to limp out of here. (beat, then bluntly) If not... at least we can get on the radio. Warn them what's up here.

Moore nods, moves quickly to the cab, pulling back the seat and removing a tire iron.

CUT TO:

ANGLE ON WOODS a dense swaddling of fog, early morning mist wrapping itself around the bases of the thick pines, much as we saw in the opening teaser. After a moment, Mulder, Scully and Moore appear out of the mist, wearing their backpacks and running at something of a clip. Mulder is also rolling the FLATTENED TIRE AND WHEEL.

730

DISSOLVING TO:

HIGH ANGLE IN WOODS – SHORT TIME LATER

Larry Moore rolls the tire now as the threesome runs along a path in the dense thicket of undergrowth.

CUT TO:

EXT. LOGGING ROAD – AFTERNOON – LATER

Moore's 4x4 sits where we last left it, rammed into a tree. When THE TIRE rolls into frame, falling over as CAMERA ADJUSTS to reveal Mulder, Scully and the Forest Service man stopped short distance away, slowly circling the vehicle. Larry Moore the first one to react.

MOORE You see it?

MULDER Yeah.

ANGLE ON PASSENGER SIDE WINDOW where the face of Steve Humphreys is pressed up against the glass, only partially visible, though, because his entire body, and part of his face, have been cocooned inside the cab of the truck.

As Mulder, Moore and Scully move in to see this, Scully has to turn away at the sight. Not wanting the men to see her reaction.

MOORE Listen. You hear that?

From somewhere in the distance is the sound of a car.

MOORE It's a car.

MULDER (on spotting it) No, it's a jeep.

ANGLE DOWN LOGGING ROAD where a CAMOUFLAGE JEEP appears, roaring up the road. It comes to a sliding stop as it approaches. After a moment, Doug Spinney exits.

SPINNEY We've got to get moving. Grab your gear.

As our crew drops everything, hustling to get their packs.

MOORE What about the body? (off Spinney's look) Humphreys' body.

A moment of realization – maybe of guilt – from Spinney, as the others move to put their gear in the jeep.

SPINNEY Leave it. I've radioed for help.

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Moore hesitates, then hefts his pack, carrying it to the jeep. Mulder helps him put it inside, then turns to Spinney.

MULDER Your friends? What happened to them?

SPINNEY (emotionless) They didn't make it. And we won't either unless we haul ass.

Spinney gets in the jeep, followed by the others (Scully and Mulder get in the back seat). He guns the vehicle into a big 180 turn.

DISSOLVING TO:

EXT. LOGGING ROAD – LATE DAY

The jeep blasts past us, probably going too fast for such a rugged mountain road.

ANOTHER SECTION OF ROAD

Through the trees, where the shadows have deepened, as the jeep speeds by.

CUT TO:

EXT. FORESTED MOUNTAINS – LATER AFTERNOON

The setting sun sending hard shadows from the ridge lines into the valleys below.

CUT TO:

LOW CAMERA ANGLE ON ROAD – NIGHT as the jeep appears in the distance, its HEADLIGHTS on now, heading fast toward us. CAMERA ADJUSTS, RACKS on a CALTROP (the sharp metal device established earlier) lying in the road, in the jeep's path. As the vehicle bears down on us, we:

CUT TO:

INT. JEEP – TRAVELLING – DUSK – CONTINUOUS

As the tire BLOWS. Spinney fights hard to keep the jeep in control but is able to bring it to a safe stop.

SPINNEY Dammit!

And he's out of the car without comment, moving to the front of the vehicle where, with the headlights washing over him, we can see him checking the damage.

MOORE I don't believe this. Talk about shooting yourself fin the foot.

As Larry Moore starts to exit. Opening the passenger door when:

INT. JEEP – THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD

Faster than we might expect, a SWARM OF GLOWING BUGS sweeps down in front of the jeep. A cloud of frenetic green particles which envelope Spinney, causing him to thrash wildly at them, flailing his arms like a man being attacked by a swarm of killer bees.

732

REVERSE ANGLE ON MULDER, SCULLY reacting to this, then calling out to Larry Moore.

SCULLY Get out of there!

MULDER Get back in the car!

ANGLE ON PASSENGER DOOR as Moore, who had left the door open, caught completely unaware by the descending swarm, attempts to get back in the jeep. He is panicked, unable to get easily into the vehicle. But he is just able to, as the threesome watch in horror as Spinney runs through, and out of the headlights. Disappearing into the darkness beyond.

REVERSE ANGLE ON MULDER, SCULLY, MOORE watching this for several tense beats. Safe from the killer swarm until – WHOOSH – a cloud of glowing green mites comes flushing out of the air vents in the dashboard, filling the jeep instantly with a million glowing bugs. Causing the three occupants to beat at the air. Continuing to beat and flail until – SCREEN FLARES TO PHOSPHORESCENT GREEN.

DISSOLVING TO:

BRIGHT WHITE and the sound of a car engine. CAMERA ADJUST TO REVEAL that the whiteness that filled frame was the bodice of a clean suit. Being worn by A MAN who is exiting the passenger side of a large white van. CAMERA CONTINUING TO ADJUST, revealing TWO MORE WHITE VANS pulling up with SEVERAL MORE MEN IN CLEAN SUITS. It is:

EXT. LOGGING ROAD – NEXT DAY

The clean-suited men are moving their way carefully to the jeep which sits where we last left it: in the middle of the road with a flat tire. Nothing is immediately visible inside because the windows are covered on the inside with a layer of dirty grease.

The men circle the vehicle slowly, one of the men with a handheld Geiger counter.

CLOSE ON PASSENGER DOOR as it is opened, revealing A FIBROUS COCOON. Covering the entire interior of the jeep, its organic matter fitting over the contours of the seats and the bodies in them. Including Moore's, Mulder's and Scully's.

CLOSE ON COCOONED BODIES

Their features obscured but recognizable under the matted web of cocooning material. As CAMERA SEARCHES it finds that the webbed matting over Scully's mouth is moving. As if she is breathing or trying to say something. But more importantly, we see that she is still alive. As we:

CUT TO:

A CLEAN-SUITED MAN on the radio at one of the vans.

CLEAN-SUITED MAN We have an emergency evacuation situation. Requesting quarantine facility for two, possibly three victims with undiagnosed infection or exposure to unknown biological vectors. Repeat –

CUT TO:

733

EXT. MILITARY MEDICAL FACILITY – DAY (STOCK)

A large hangar-like structure sits aid other ND buildings. A legend reads: HYMAN RICKOVER NAVAL HOSPITAL, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON.

CUT TO:

INT. MEDICAL FACILITY – DAY

STEADYCAM FOLLOWING A CLEAN-SUITED MAN down a long plastic tube as it winds toward, and opens up onto a brightly lit plastic bubble dome.

Inside the dome are the three white vans, being vacuumed by other CLEAN-SUITED MEN with small hoses that are connected to a central filtration unit.

FINDING nearby three beds, containing two bodies. The extreme whiteness and brightness of the bedding and the stainless steel medical equipment suggesting a need for extreme environmental contamination control.

MOVING IN to see that the beds' occupants are Larry Moore and Dana Scully. Both asleep, wearing nasal cannulas attached to oxygen units. The third bed is conspicuously empty as the CLEAN-SUITED MAN moves from bed to bed, checking the sleeping patients, both of whom have spotty red rashes over their faces, their exposed arms. THE MAN looking up when –

MULDER dressed in a white hospital gown, exits a makeshift toilet area, surrounded with modular white panels. He is pushing a bottle of oxygen on a car. The oxygen attached to a cannula fixed to Mulder's nose.

The Clean-Suited Man approaches him. We see Mulder also has a spotty rash over one side of his face, on his arms and legs.

CLEAN-SUITED MAN How are you feeling?

MULDER Better. How did the tests come back?

C.S. MAN Your respiratory charts were good. We were concerned about the extent of damage due to inhalation. There were large concentrations of a chemical we determined was luciferin.

MULDER Which is what?

C.S. MAN The same enzyme we find in fireflies and other bioluminescent insects. Our entomologists are still trying to determine the specific epithet of the insects you encountered.

Mulder begins walking back to his bed, the C.S. Man walking along with him as Mulder tows his O2 bottle. Pulling up beside Scully's bed. Looking down at her gaunt, reddened features. She looks deep asleep.

MULDER Scully?

But Scully does not stir.

734

C.S. MAN She's still not out of the woods, so to speak. She lost a lot of fluids. Two or three more hours of exposure – she might not have made it.

He looks at her, feeling a twinge of guilt.

MULDER I told her it'd be a nice trip to the forest.

The C.S. Man makes no comment, starts away, but Mulder calls to him.

MULDER How're you going to contain it to the forest? What if that swarm migrates?

C.S. MAN The government has initiated eradication procedures. They're quite certain that by using a combination of controlled burns and pesticides that they will be successful.

MULDER And if they're not?

C.S. MAN (bluntly) That is not an option, Mr. Mulder.

The Man walks away. CAMERA PULLING BACK, leaving Mulder standing next to his bed, watching the man go. Dwarfed by the stark whiteness and sterility of his bubble environment. As we:

FADE OUT

THE END

1x20 Tooms - transcript

Writers: Glen Morgan & James Wong Director: David Nutter Airdate: April 22, 1994

Transcribed by: Vic Edited by Libby

Druid Hill Sanitarium Baltimore, Maryland

[Barbed wire surrounds a tall red-brick building. Inside a hallway, there is screaming, moaning and indiscernible babbling. On various doors, we see name plates like "Maier L, Robbie" and "Schalin, Scott." Under each of the name plates is a small door through which food is passed. A door where the name plate reads: "Tooms, Eugene Victor." A face appears through the small door, with evil yellowish eyes. He peers down the hallway then sticks his hand through the slot. He reaches up towards the latch, growling. As he sticks his arm further through, we hear a dull pop as his shoulder dislocates. He smiles and lets out a dull sigh. His breathing becomes slow and heavy, his hand and arm stretching out beyond normal human proportions. His fingers actually grow until they are almost at the lock. Suddenly, the main door in the hallway opens, flooding the dark hallway with light. A man, Dr. Aaron Monte, and a security guard walk down to Tooms' door. Monte knocks on the door.]

AARON MONTE: Eugene?

735

[He knocks again.]

AARON MONTE: Eugene, it's Dr. Monte.

[Hearing no answer, he signals to the security guard. The guard unlatches the door and Monte walks inside.]

AARON MONTE: Eugene, are you asleep?

[Tooms sits up on his bed.]

EUGENE TOOMS: No.

AARON MONTE: I was on my way out and wanted to stop by and see how you were feeling.

EUGENE TOOMS: Fine.

[Monte sits down.]

AARON MONTE: Good. You nervous about tomorrow? Don't be. I know you think they won't let you out so I snuck a peek at the reports of the doctors that will testify at your review tomorrow and they concur with my opinion that you're ready to be released from here...

EUGENE TOOMS: Hmmm...

AARON MONTE: And rejoin the community. So...

[He stands.]

AARON MONTE: Why don't we get some sleep and relax and I'll see you tomorrow at the review, okay?

[He goes over and picks up his coat.]

AARON MONTE: Let's just keep our fingers crossed.

[He walks out and the security guard closes and latches the door. Tooms looks up from the floor, the same evil yellowish glow as before. Slowly, he crosses his fingers.]

[Skinner's office. Skinner is sitting at his desk, Scully sitting at the opposite side. The Cigarette-Smoking Man is standing behind Skinner next to the window, smoking.]

SKINNER: Agent Scully, we have reviewed your reports and frankly we are quite displeased. Irregular procedure, untenable evidence, anonymous witnesses, inconclusive findings aggravated by vague opinion.

SCULLY: But sir, the very nature of the X-Files cases often precludes orthodox investigation.

SKINNER: Are you suggesting that the bureau adopt separate standards for you and Agent Mulder?

SCULLY: No, sir.

SKINNER: Are you suggesting Agent Mulder obstructs you from proper procedure?

SCULLY: No, sir. If anything, I'm suggesting that these cases be reviewed with... an open mind.

SKINNER: Maybe your mind has become too open.

736

SCULLY: On x-files cases investigated by Agent Mulder and myself to date, we have a conviction or case solution of seventy- five percent. That's well above the current bureau standard.

SKINNER: And that is your only saving grace.

SCULLY: May I ask, sir, what more you require?

[Skinner looks away towards the Cigarette-Smoking Man, who looks out the window. Scully looks at the Cigarette-Smoking Man as well. Skinner looks back at Scully.]

SKINNER: What I require is increased frequency of reports. Conventional investigation. In short, Agent Scully, it is your responsibility to see that these cases are by-the-book.

SCULLY: I understand, however... conventional investigation of these cases may decrease the rate of success.

[Scully watches as the Cigarette-Smoking Man puts out his cigarette.]

[Court hearing Of Eugene Victor Tooms in Baltimore, Maryland.]

JUDGE KANN: By order of the state of Maryland, the court shall review the psychological status of Eugene Victor Tooms. We'll begin with the court-appointed expert witnesses. The court calls Dr. Pamela Karetzky.

[Eugene Tooms is sitting at a table with a female, obviously his attorney. A board of three judges are seated at a table at the front of the room. Dr. Karetzky gets up and we see Mulder is sitting behind her. He looks at his watch.]

DR. KARETZKY: I performed several diagnostic procedures on Mr. Tooms in order to determine any organic physiological dysfunction - an electroencephalogram, chromosomal analysis, a computerized axial tomograph. All of these were negative.

[Another doctor is now sitting in the chair talking. He is reading off a paper.]

DR. COLLINS: "Mr. Tooms had recently lost his job," parenthesis: "Baltimore Animal Regulation" slash "Dog Catcher," close parenthesis. "Aggravated by a false arrest incident with the FBI, his assault on Agent Scully was," quote, "frustration directed at the wrong person," end quote.

[Now Dr. Aaron Monte is in the same seat.]

AARON MONTE: I'm reading from a recent interview I did with Mr. Tooms at the Druid Hill Sanitarium. "Question: If you were released, what is the first thing you would do? Answer: I'd like my old job back. Question: Why? Answer: The animal shelter made me feel I was helping everyone, people and animals."

[Mulder leans back in his chair, disgusted. Monte taps his pen in time with the emphasized words.]

AARON MONTE: So you see, what is occurring here is that Mr. Tooms is learning to articulate his feelings and invest his emotional energy towards creative and constructive activity...

[Tooms looks at Dr. Monte with the yellowish eyes. From Tooms' point of view, the audio fades away and everything becomes black-and-white except for Monte. Monte looks back at Tooms, who looks down. The audio and visual status return to normal.]

AARON MONTE: ...stratagems a neurotic can build up in himself.

[Tooms looks up, his eyes back to normal.]

AARON MONTE: It is my opinion that Mr. Tooms has had a very excellent response to the months of treatment and therapy and I would see no reason why he would be considered of any danger to himself or any member of society.

[Mulder takes the stand. He is being sworn in.]

737

WOMAN: Do you swear that the testimony you are about to deliver is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

MULDER: I do.

[He is seated. The prosecution attorney stands up and walks towards Mulder.]

PROSECUTION COUNSEL MYERS: Mr. Mulder, as an expert witness for the state of Maryland, can you list your qualifications?

MULDER: I'm a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, I worked for three years at the F.B.I.'s behavioral science unit profiling serial killers.

DEFENSE COUNSEL NELSON: Your honor, I know where he's going with this. May I remind the court that Mr. Tooms was placed in psychiatric care solely for the previous assault on Agent Scully. He has never been charged, nor has any evidence linked him to any other crime.

JUDGE KANN: You may proceed... with caution.

[Mulder sees Scully walk in and take a seat in the back.]

PROSECUTION COUNSEL MYERS: Agent Mulder, I understand that you've drawn upon your experience and developed a profile on Mr. Tooms.

MULDER: Yes, I have.

PROSECUTION COUNSEL MYERS: Please.

[He motions for Mulder to show it. Mulder starts a slideshow. The first picture is of a woman, face down.]

MULDER: These murders span nearly a century. Nineteen homicides, five occurring every thirty years since 1903, all in the Baltimore area. In each case, the liver was extracted and presumably eaten.

[The slides cycle through, showing various people lying face down. The judges are disturbed by the pictures. The pictures change to knick-knacks with a tag marked "Evidence" next to them.]

MULDER: A trophy was taken from each victim, many of which were found in the living quarters of Eugene Tooms at 66 Exeter Street. Records show that a Eugene Tooms has resided at that same address since 1903, the same year a man was murdered in that building.

[Scully looks down, knowing the testimony seems incredulous. The judge looks at Mulder warily.]

MULDER: Besides the liver extraction, the most notable element connecting these cases is the undetermined point of entry. Many of the victims were found with their windows and doors locked from the inside.

[Various fingerprints are shown in the slides.]

MULDER: These elongated fingerprints found at seven of the nineteen crime sites match Eugene Victor Tooms.

[Mulder motions to Tooms.]

JUDGE KANN: Agent Mulder! Look at his fingers. Look at him! 100 years old?

MULDER: I contend that perhaps through genetic mutation, Eugene Tooms is capable of contorting and elongating his body in order to gain access to victims so that he may extract the livers which provide him with sustenance for the hibernation period of 30 years. He needs one more victim to complete this cycle.

[Everybody finds this testimony incredulous, and slight murmuring can be heard from the back.]

738

DEFENSE COUNSEL NELSON: Your honor...

MULDER: A preliminary exam done at the time of Tooms' arrest revealed abnormalities in his striated muscles and axial bones. His attorney blocked further study...

PROSECUTION COUNSEL MYERS: Thank you, Agent Mulder!

MULDER: I ask you to place the safety of...

JUDGE KANN: Counsel?

MULDER: ...the people first and foremost...

DEFENSE COUNSEL NELSON: No further questions, your honor.

MULDER: This is a rare and unusual human creature...

JUDGE KANN: Agent Mulder!

MULDER: ...who should not be released, but should be retained for further study.

JUDGE KANN: You may step down!

MULDER: If you release Eugene Tooms, he will kill again. It's in his genetic make-up.

[The judge bangs her gavel.]

[Mulder is now sitting on a bench in the hallway outside the courtroom. Scully walks out and over to Mulder.]

MULDER: You think they would have taken me more seriously if I wore the grey suit?

[She sits down next to him.]

SCULLY: Mulder, your testimony, you sounded so...

MULDER: I don't care how it sounded as long as it was the truth.

[Scully sighs.]

MULDER: And where were you? Your testimony was important.

SCULLY: I was called into a meeting by Assistant Director Skinner.

MULDER: What did he want?

SCULLY: Just wanted to reel me in.

[The door opens and Prosecution Council Myers walks out.]

PROSECUTION COUNSEL MYERS: They're ready.

[Back in the courtroom, Tooms and Defense Counsel Nelson are standing. Mulder and Scully sit in the back of the room.]

JUDGE KANN: It is the opinion of this court that Eugene Victor Tooms shall on this day be released from the Druid Hill Sanitarium.

739

[Tooms smiles. Mulder sighs a heavy breath.]

JUDGE KANN: The court also attaches these conditions. One, that Mr. Tooms remain in counseling under the care of Dr. Aaron Monte; that he retain his job at the Baltimore Regulations Animal Shelter; and last, that he take residence in the house of Mr. and Mrs. Arlan Green...

[Mr. and Mrs. Green stand. Tooms looks back at them.]

JUDGE KANN: ... trained in a program to assist patients released from Druid Hill in their transition to society.

[They nod at him.]

JUDGE KANN: Mr. Tooms?

[He looks back at her.]

JUDGE KANN: Do you understand and accept these conditions?

EUGENE TOOMS: Yes, your honor.

[He nods.]

JUDGE KANN: Very well. You're free to go.

[She bangs her gavel again. Mulder and Scully walk out of the courtroom.]

MULDER: I'm not taking my eyes off him.

SCULLY: Mulder, wait...

MULDER: He needs to kill, he'll do it the first chance he can but he won't kill the old couple. He won't be that obvious. Tooms didn't remain a secret for a hundred years by not being careful. Think of him as an animal. He'll only kill out of necessity or self- defense. If he makes an attempt, I'll be there to stop him.

[They stop walking.]

SCULLY: Okay, well then I'll keep surveillance with you.

MULDER: I'll watch him. If he can't be tied to the most recent evidence, you'll have to go back to the earlier murders to prove it was him.

SCULLY: That was thirty or sixty years ago.

MULDER: There's no statute of limitation on murder.

SCULLY: Mulder, that's going to entail unorthodox methods of investigation.

MULDER: Look, Scully, if you're resistant because you don't believe, I'll respect that. But if you're resistant because of some bureaucratic pressure, they've not only reeled you in, they've already skinned you.

[Tooms walks out of the courtroom followed by Mr. and Mrs. Green. Tooms slows down a bit as he passes Mulder and Scully and smiles at them. They keep walking, turning the next corner.]

ARLAN GREEN: I hope you'll be comfortable, Eugene. The room in the back is small, but I'm sure you'll be able to squeeze in.

EUGENE TOOMS: I'm sure.

740

[Tooms steps out of his Baltimore Animal Regulation van, walks to the back, takes out a garbage bag, puts on rubber gloves, walks a little down the street, bends over and picks up a rat. He puts the rat in the bag and the bag in the van. He licks the glove where he had touched the rat. He slams the door shut and goes around to the front of the truck again. Before he gets in, he looks over at a woman wearing a blue raincoat who is buying a cappuccino at a stand. His breathing becomes heavy and the audio goes out. His eyes turn yellowish. As she starts walking down the street towards him, he starts walking towards her. Everything fades to black-and-white again except for the woman. He growls and his point of view is suddenly interrupted. He looks at the man in front of him and sees it is Agent Mulder. He snarls at him.]

MULDER: Excuse me.

[Tooms' eyes go back to normal.]

MULDER: Could you help me find my dog?

[Tooms walks back to the car and opens the door.]

MULDER: He's a Norwegian Elkhound. His name is Heinrich. I use him to hunt moose.

[Tooms gets in and drives away. Mulder watches him drive by.]

Lynne Acres Retirement Home

[Detective Frank Briggs looks at a newspaper clipping with the headline "Suspect Caught in Serial Killings." Under the title is a picture of Tooms. Briggs crumples up the paper and throws it down. He rubs his forehead and sighs. Scully is standing.]

FRANK BRIGGS: If Tooms gets away now then the next time he takes a life, you'll be nearly my age.

SCULLY: Detective Briggs, you've helped us so much before. Now we have to prove that Tooms was involved in the killings you investigated thirty years ago. You've lived with this case half your life.

[She walks towards him and sits down.]

SCULLY: There must be something. Maybe a connection between the victims. Now, I know that we've seen all of the evidence, but is there anything, anything at all amongst the evidence that does not fit?

FRANK BRIGGS: There was something that never did sit quite right with me. All of the victims that I investigated in '63 were found at the crime scene, liver extracted. All five.

SCULLY: As were the four most recent murders.

[Briggs wheels himself over to the bed with a box on it.]

FRANK BRIGGS: When I was a sheriff during the Powhattan Mill killings of 1933, only four of the victims were found at the crime scene. However, there was a fifth person who was missing and never found.

[Scully walks over to him. He takes out a piece of liver in a jar marked "Evidence."]

FRANK BRIGGS: But this, this was discovered at the Ruxton Chemical Plant when it was under construction.

[He hands the jar to her. She sits down.]

FRANK BRIGGS: But it doesn't belong to the other victims.

SCULLY: That doesn't prove that it belongs to a person murdered by Tooms.

FRANK BRIGGS: I'm positive that Tooms hid this one victim because there was something about the body that could prove he was the killer.

741

SCULLY: And what makes you positive?

FRANK BRIGGS: A hunch. An old-fashioned hunch. You've got to trust your instincts.

SCULLY: And what does your instinct say about where Tooms buried the body?

FRANK BRIGGS: In the cement where they poured the foundation of the chemical plant.

[Ruxton Chemical Plant. A man with some sort of scanner moves the machine along the foundation as a read-out is being printed from the machine. The rock inside the foundation is shown on a screen. Scully and Briggs are behind a man who is watching the screen and making notes on the print-out.]

SCULLY: Ground-penetrating radar. It bounces signals off of objects or cavities.

FRANK BRIGGS: Tells you where the body is.

SCULLY: Well, it signals if something inordinate is present. An experienced operator attempts to differentiate if the signal is a body or is stone or a hole in the ground.

FRANK BRIGGS: Differentiate?

SCULLY: Mm-hmmm.

FRANK BRIGGS: You mean he guesses?

SCULLY: Well, it's an educated guess.

FRANK BRIGGS: Mm-hmmm.

[Scully walks over to the man at the machine.]

SCULLY: How are we doing?

OPERATOR: Well, it's really hard to tell. There are some possibilities, nothing very conclusive.

[The sound of the man's voice trails off as Briggs wheels around some pipes and columns. He stops at a piece of the ground.]

FRANK BRIGGS: It's here. Here!

[He points at the ground as Scully and a few men run around the corner.]

MAN: What is it?

FRANK BRIGGS: It's here. It's right here!

[Tooms puts an unidentifiable roadkill of some sort into another garbage bag. As he stands up, a man in a blue trenchcoat walks by. Tooms turns to look at him. He gets in the back of the van and watches the man get in his car. His eyes turn yellow and the noises of the crowd fade away. Everything fades to black-and-white but the man. Tooms slams the door shut and watches him through the glass.]

742

[Chemical Plant. A man with a jackhammer digs through the foundation at the part Briggs pointed out. Scully, Briggs, and various men watch. They all have protective earpieces and safety goggles. He stops and another man bends down with an air hose, blowing away the loose dirt.]

AIR HOSE MAN: Agent Scully? Look at this.

[Scully takes off her earpieces and goes over to the spot. Scully bends down and pushes away the dirt with a brush. Briggs goes over as well. Looking closely, Scully sees that there are three bone fingers, one with a silver ring on it.]

[The man in the blue trenchcoat pulls up in his car at a house. Tooms pulls up in his van, followed by Mulder in his car.]

[Later. Inside the house, the man, Frank Ranford, is in a sweatshirt looking at data charts on his computer. His wife, Christine, is standing next to him.]

CHRISTINE RANFORD: Robotoddler's finally sleeping. I'm going to watch TV in bed.

FRANK RANFORD: Okay.

[She walks out of the room. Outside, we hear a dog barking. Mulder is sleeping, but a passing car wakes him up. He looks at his watch and gets out of the car. He goes to the Baltimore Animal Regulation van and shines his flashlight in the front seat. He goes to the back of the van, opens the door, and shines his flashlight in. He looks out and runs off to the house. Under the van, we see the manhole cover close. Inside the bathroom, Christine Ranford fixes her hair. She blows her nose and goes over to the toilet. Looking in, she sees the water is green and bubbling. Mulder skulks around outside. In the bathroom, Christine tries to unclog the toilet. The toilet flushes and the baby starts crying.]

CHRISTINE RANFORD: I'm coming, honey. Mommy's right here. Shh, shh.

[She goes out of the bathroom. The wire on the tool she was using starts being pulled down the toilet drain. Frank is still typing on his keyboard. Christine comes in wearing gloves.]

CHRISTINE RANFORD: Screw it.

[She goes to pull out the wire but it is pulled back in. She yanks it again, pulling it out this time. She starts to walk out, but turns around, puts the lid down and latches the child-proof lock. We see Mulder searching outside. Frank is writing something down. Tooms skulks around to the side of the house. His fingers slide under the small hole between the window and the window ledge. He pulls open the window. As Frank continues typing, Tooms, covered with sludge, puts his foot through the iron bars on the window and steps on the desk. He struggles to pull himself through. He gets through, growls, and moves off towards his prey. Frank pulls a paper out of a desk drawer as yellow eyes watch him. The area around Frank grows black-and-white, and all we can hear is heavy breathing. Frank sits down at his computer. Mulder spots marks, hand prints, on the windowsill. He hurries off towards the house and knocks on the door. Christine calls to her husband.]

CHRISTINE RANFORD: Would you go down and get that?

[Frank sighs and closes the door behind him. He goes down and moves the curtain away, looking through the door. Mulder is standing there, holding his badge.]

MULDER: F.B.I.

[Frank opens the door.]

MULDER: I suspect an intruder in your house.

FRANK RANFORD: What?

743

[Mulder walks into the room, followed by Christine and Frank. Frank points at the open window.]

FRANK RANFORD: Someone opened my window.

[Mulder walks over to the window and shines his flashlight outside. He looks down at the windowsill and sees the same handprints as before, this time from the inside. He rushes out the front door and sees that the van has gone, the manhole that was under it releasing steam.]

Smithsonian Institute Forensic Anthropology Lab

[Doctor Collins and Scully walk in and over to the block of cement containing the skeleton, which was apparently dug up.]

DR. PLITH: I suspect the year of death to be in the mid-1930's. The anterior surface of the right femur was green indicating a long-term exposure to copper. So we concentrated on the area and we found several pennies.

[They walk over to his desk, where he picks up a few pennies and shows them to Scully.]

DR. PLITH: 1933, '31, 1933...

SCULLY: Can you determine the cause of death? My instinct says that burial in cement is murder.

DR. PLITH: Ah, no. At the moment, I have found no definite proof of murder. There are gnawing marks near the ribs. However, I suspect that's the result of rodent activity prior to the body being set in cement. We'll need to see much more of the remains to determine cause of death. As you know, it's a slow but necessary process. Uh, I did try a little something. It's a little premature if we're going to go by-the-book.

SCULLY: Well, we'll keep it off the record.

DR. PLITH: Good, thank you.

[He walks over to a computer. Scully follows.]

DR. PLITH: The old man, Mr. Briggs, he gave me a photograph of the missing person in 1933 suspected of being a murder victim. I ran a computer-assisted photographic superimposition on what we have of the skull.

[He holds up a picture of a man with glasses.]

DR. PLITH: Now, this is not official... but that skeleton was that person.

[He holds up a picture, half of which is the skull, half of which is the man. The basic structures seem to match.]

[Mulder and Scully are in the car. Mulder is looking at the picture. He is in the driver's seat, Scully's in the passenger seat.]

MULDER: It's not enough. It doesn't tie it to Tooms.

SCULLY: Well, it's a start.

[Mulder nods. Scully looks at the various take-out food trays.]

SCULLY: Mulder, it's getting a bit ripe in here, don't you think?

[Mulder reaches over into the glove compartment, pulls out an air freshener, and tears off the wrapper. He holds it up.]

MULDER: Pine-scented.

744

[He smells it, then puts it in front of Scully's nose.]

SCULLY: Ooh!

[He hangs it on the rear-view mirror. He sniffs the air.]

MULDER: Better?

[He exhales. Scully looks at him, a slight smile.]

MULDER: Tooms hasn't come out of the house all day. I sat through a Phillies game, an Orioles game, and four hours of Ba-Ba- Booey. When it got dark, I took a walk around the block. Do you have that sandwich that I asked you to bring?

[Scully digs through a paper bag and pulls out a sandwich.]

SCULLY: It's liverwurst.

MULDER: Ha-ha.

[He opens up the wrapper.]

SCULLY: Mulder, you know that proper surveillance requires two pairs of agents, one pair relieving the other after twelve hours.

MULDER: Article 30, paragraph 8.7?

SCULLY: This isn't about doing it by the book. This is about you not having slept for three days. Mulder, you're going to get sloppy and you're going to get hurt. It's inevitable at this point.

MULDER: A request for other agents to stake-out Tooms would be denied. Then we have no grounds.

SCULLY: Well, then I'll stay here. You go home.

[Mulder sighs.]

MULDER: They're out to put an end to the X-Files, Scully. I don't know why, but any excuse will do. Now, I don't really care about my record, but you'd be in trouble just for sitting in this car and I'd hate to see you to carry an official reprimand in your career file because of me.

[Scully sighs.]

SCULLY: Fox...

[Mulder laughs. Scully looks at him.]

MULDER: And I... I even made my parents call me Mulder. So... Mulder.

SCULLY: Mulder, I wouldn't put myself on the line for anybody but you.

[They look at each other.]

MULDER: If there's an iced tea in that bag, could be love.

[She takes out the drink.]

SCULLY: Must be fate, Mulder. Root beer.

[Mulder kiddingly sighs.]

745

SCULLY: You're delirious. Go home and get some sleep.

[Mulder hands her the sandwich.]

MULDER: Here. Take my sandwich, I only had one bite. You're gonna want it later, believe me. And you'll call me if anything happens, immediately. I'll be here.

[She starts to get out of the car.]

MULDER: Oh, and 11:30, station 790, Pete Rose Late Night Sports Talk Radio Show.

[He nods grinning. Scully, grinning in a half-doubting-his-sanity sort of way, gets out of the car and walks away. We hear a dog barking.]

SCULLY: Wouldn't miss it for the world.

[Mulder starts the car. We see the trunk latch shut before he drives away. Scully gets in her car and looks at the sandwich.]

[Mulder is asleep on the couch. "The Fly" is on TV. In it, David Hedison walks out of his chamber with a black cloth over his head.]

NURSE ON TV: It has worked, hasn't it? You'll be all right now. I know it worked!

[She pulls the black hood off David Hedison's head to reveal a fly's head. She screams as dramatic music plays. Mulder sleeps soundly through it all. A screw on the air vent loosens, squeaking.]

NURSE ON TV: No! No! Nooo!!!!

[The screw falls to the floor. The next one starts turning and squeaking. Mulder wakes up and the screw stops turning. He goes back to sleep and the screw falls out. Tooms steps in and looks at Mulder, yellow eyes blazing. He puts his finger to his face and pushes in. Blood pours down his face. He drags the blood down his cheek with his finger. He groans.]

[Hospital. Tooms is sitting on an examination table. Detective Talbot takes down notes as Doctor Richmond looks at him.]

DETECTIVE TALBOT: Yeah, they found him out cold in the street.

DR. RICHMOND: He's been beaten up pretty badly. Contusions, multiple lacerations. Shoulder's been pulled right out of joint. Let's get him prepped for some blood work and x-rays.

MALE NURSE: Yes, doctor.

[She looks at his face. We see Tooms' face now, bloodied in various places. A shoeprint is on his face.]

DR. RICHMOND: He's been kicked in the jaw and it may be fractured. Look, there's a partial shoeprint.

DETECTIVE TALBOT: I want to get a photo of that, we might be able to find the shoe that matches it later.

DR. RICHMOND: Do you know who did this to you?

[Tooms mouths some words. The doctor leans in and Tooms is barely audible.]

DR. RICHMOND: We'll be right back, Mr. Tooms.

746

[She goes to the back room with Talbot.]

DR. RICHMOND: Says it's an F.B.I. agent named Mulder.

DETECTIVE TALBOT: So would you say he's delusional or just schizophrenic?

DR. RICHMOND: Well, it's just a cursory exam, but there's nothing to indicate that.

[Tooms snaps his shoulder back into place with a resounding pop. He smiles slightly.]

[Mulder's Apartment . Mulder is awakened by a knock on the door. He gets up and opens it. Talbot shows him his badge.]

DETECTIVE TALBOT: Agent Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah.

[Talbot comes in followed by a police officer. Talbot motions for the officer to check out the back room where the couch is.]

MULDER: What's going on?

[Mulder follows the officer and sees him kneel over and pick up a pair of Mulder's sneakers.]

MULDER: What's this about?

DETECTIVE TALBOT: Agent Mulder, get your things. You're in some trouble.

[The officer and Talbot start out the door. Mulder starts to follow when he steps on something metallic, hearing a click. He bends down and picks up the screw from the air vent. He looks at the vent and sees it is missing a screw.]

[Skinner's office. Skinner walks from the door to his desk, around Mulder and Scully, both are seated. The Cigarette-Smoking Man is seated off to the side.]

SKINNER: These are serious allegations, Agent Mulder, the evidence is incriminating.

MULDER: A good forensic scientist would know that there is not only a shoe print but also an impact point of the foot from inside the shoe. An in-depth analysis of Tooms' injury would show that my foot was not inside the shoe at the time of impact.

SKINNER: Mulder, are you suggesting that Tooms is framing you?

MULDER: Of course.

SKINNER: If indeed you were engaged in an unauthorized round-the-clock surveillance of Tooms, how could he possibly gain access to your shoe without you seeing him?

[Mulder goes to speak, but Scully cuts him off.]

SCULLY: Sir? I was engaged in the unauthorized surveillance as well and Agent Mulder was orienting me on the situation at the time Tooms was admitted into the hospital. Agent Mulder could not have done it because he was with me.

SKINNER: Agent Scully, you wouldn't be lying to me, would you?

SCULLY: Sir, I would expect you to place the same trust in me as I do in you.

SKINNER: Agent Scully, may I have a word with Agent Mulder, please?

747

[Scully looks at Mulder, sighs, and leaves. The Cigarette-Smoking Man lights a cigarette. Skinner gets up, takes off his glasses and walks around to Mulder.]

SKINNER: Fox, you are one of the finest, most unique agents in the nearly sixty-year history of this institution.

[He sits down where Scully was sitting.]

SKINNER: I mean, we were talking about you when you were in the academy. Now, most of us, including the director, feel that your talents are wasted on the X-Files but we respect that you're deeply invested in those areas. But if these cases are creating such stress as to cause not only you to act inappropriately but those agents close to you as well, then may I advise you to step away, for a while. Clear your head, take an extended vacation.

MULDER: That's a good idea. Thanks for your concern.

[Skinner looks at the Cigarette-Smoking Man, who takes a drag. He gets up, sighs, goes back around his desk and puts on his glasses.]

SKINNER: You're forbidden to go near Eugene Tooms.

[Mulder gets up and goes to the door.]

SKINNER: Mulder...

[Mulder stops. The Cigarette-Smoking Man crosses to Skinner.]

SKINNER: This was close. Any closer and a thousand friends at the capitol won't be able to help you.

[At the Smithsonian Forensic Anthropology lab, Mulder is looking at an x-ray of Tooms' dental x-rays.]

SCULLY: These are Eugene Tooms' dental x-rays obtained from the Druid Hill Sanitarium. Your sandwich the other night gave me an idea. Dr. Plith had mentioned that he found gnawing on the rib cage near the location of the liver.

[They walk over to the skeleton in cement.]

SCULLY: Further excavation revealed more pronounced bite marks, human teeth marks.

MULDER: Tooms will never voluntarily submit to a dental cast.

[Scully walks over to Dr. Plith, who is seated at the computer, and sits down. Mulder follows.]

SCULLY: This software can create an exact three-dimensional model of Tooms' mouth from the dental radiograph.

[A three-dimensional image appears of Tooms' mouth on the computer, followed by a 3-D image of the bitten rib.]

DR. PLITH: We've also mapped out the bite marks on the skeleton's rib ... there.

[He points out the bite marks on the image. He presses a few buttons and the jaws appear above and below the bone. The areas around the bites and teeth blink green.]

DR. PLITH: They match.

[Mr. & Mrs. Green's house. Tooms is tearing up newspaper at his desk to make his nest when there is a knocking at the door. Arlan Green comes in followed by Dr. Monte.]

748

ARLAN GREEN: Eugene, Doctor Monte.

AARON MONTE: Hi, Eugene. I just wanted to stop by and see how everything was going.

ARLAN GREEN: Susan and I are going out for the evening. See you later.

[He shakes Monte's hand.]

AARON MONTE: Thanks.

[Green leaves.]

AARON MONTE: Great place. Wonderful place. How are you feeling?

[Tooms' breathing becomes erratic. The color fades out of the room and Monte is no longer audible. Monte sits on the bed. Suddenly, it all goes back to normal.]

AARON MONTE: Why the newspaper strips, Eugene? Are you making some papier-mâché?

EUGENE TOOMS: Yes.

AARON MONTE: That's terrific. Wonderful, I had no idea you were interested in art.

[Tooms stands.]

EUGENE TOOMS: I like art.

AARON MONTE: I do too and I'm very proud of you.

[Tooms goes to the door and his eyes turn yellow.]

AARON MONTE: You know, art can provide a window to your thoughts and your feelings ...what are you doing, Eugene?

[Tooms closes the door.]

AARON MONTE: Eugene? Are you alright?

[We hear a short scream, a bang, and a long scream. Obviously, Monte is the one screaming. Mulder and Scully pull up to the house. They get out and Mulder knocks on the door. Mulder opens the door and they go inside. They go into Tooms' room. Mulder tries the light switch, but it does not work. He takes out his flashlight. We see a bloody hand laying across the top of a chair.]

MULDER: That makes five.

[He walks over to the desk and picks up a piece of bloody newspaper.]

MULDER: He's building his nest. Thirty year hibernation.

SCULLY: Where would he go?

MULDER: Where he's gone for the last ninety years, 66 Exeter Street.

SCULLY: No, I already checked on that. They tore down that apartment building he lived in.

MULDER: What's there now?

66 Exeter Street; Baltimore

749

[A giant shopping mall with the words "City Square" is in place of the run-down apartment building. A security guard unlocks the door for Mulder and Scully.]

MULDER: Thanks.

[They walk through, both carrying flashlights.]

MULDER: He's got to be here.

SCULLY: If he is drawn to this location for some reason, maybe this nest is in the approximate location of the previous nest.

[They stop.]

SCULLY: This is the area. There's a storage facility on the second floor.

[Mulder starts up the escalator but stops and turns around, shining the light at Scully.]

SCULLY: What?

[Mulder shines the light down at the door leading to under the escalator for utility purposes. They open up the door.]

SCULLY: There's only room for one.

[Scully starts to take off her trenchcoat, but Mulder stops her.]

MULDER: You can get the next mutant.

[Mulder takes off his coat and tie, unbuttons the top of his shirt, puts his gun in the holster and, flashlight in hand, climbs down into the crawlspace. He shines the flashlight down on the floor and sees some traces of bile. He takes out his gun and starts crawling through the passage. He dislodges a grate and continues on his way. Down the passageway, we can barely make out the same kind of nest that he previously had: a yellowish paper construct.]

SCULLY: [off in distance] Mulder?

[Scully shines her flashlight down into the hole, trying to see Mulder. Mulder shuffles through left-over newspaper and comes right up to the nest. Mulder inspects the nest closer and sees a tiny hole with bile dripping off of it. Suddenly, a hand bursts through and grabs Mulder's shoulder. Mulder drops the gun as he starts to be pulled into the nest. He breaks free and Tooms tears through the rest of the hole, naked, covered in bile, yellow eyes, growling.]

SCULLY: [off in distance] Mulder!

[He charges at Mulder but is smashed in the face by the flashlight. A quick backhand with the flashlight sends Tooms down. Mulder shimmies down the vent, closely followed by Tooms. Mulder comes to the opening and Scully offers her hand to pull him up.]

SCULLY: Mulder! Mulder, here! Quick, grab my hand! Come on! Just a little...

[Before he can do so, Tooms, growling, grabs his ankle and pulls him back into the hole.]

SCULLY: Mulder, what's happening?

[Mulder struggles to not get pulled in. He kicks Tooms in the face and grabs Scully's hand. Scully pulls him up as Tooms struggles to get out. Mulder jumps forward and presses a button, turning the elevator on. Tooms screams and is dragged under. Blood rolls up on the stairs. Mulder and Scully watch as they recover from their ordeal.]

750

[Skinner's office. Skinner looks at the file for Tooms. A picture and fingerprints are on a paper. He closes the file, which reads on the cover: "Federal Bureau Of Investigation Bureau File Number: X 129202 Eugene Victor Tooms - Closed"]

SKINNER: You read this report?

[The Cigarette-Smoking Man walks towards the window. Skinner looks at him.]

SKINNER: Do you believe them?

CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN: Of course I do.

[Street. Mulder is looking at a tree where a caterpillar cocoon is hanging off a branch. Scully walks up next to him.]

SCULLY: Okay, let's go.

MULDER: It's amazing how things change, isn't it?

[Scully looks at the cocoon.]

SCULLY: The caterpillar?

MULDER: No, a change for us. It's coming.

SCULLY: How do you know?

MULDER: A hunch.

[He walks away. Scully looks at the caterpillar, turns and follows.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Doug Hutchison (Eugene Victor Tooms) Paul Ben Victor (Dr. Aaron Monte) Mitch Pileggi (Walter Skinner) Henry Beckman (Detective Frank Briggs)

Co-Starring:

Timothy Webber (Detective Talbot) Jan D'Arcy (Judge Kann) Jerry Wasserman (Doctor Plith)

Featuring:

Frank C. Turner (Doctor Collins) Gillian Carfra (Christine Ranford) Pat Bermel (Frank Ranford) Mikal Dughi (Dr. Karetzky) Glynis Davies (Nelson) Steve Adams (Myers) Catherine Lough (Dr. Richmond)

751

William B. Davis (Smoking Man) Andre Daniels (Arlan Green)

1x20 Tooms - notes Video box set commentary by Chris Carter: As the season was coming to an end, winding down to an end, we thought, how would we like to scare people again in the same way, and we thought, why not just bring that character back, this wonderful, weird character that Doug Hutchison plays, of Eugene Victor Tooms. Skinner ... It was an opportunity to introduce the character of Walter Skinner, who became Mulder and Scully's superior now, who has become a very important part of the show, one of the regular cast members now, who plays an important part of the telling of the mythology episodes. You can't kill the Devil ... The Cigarette-Smoking Man, who has now become known as the Cancer Man as an alternate name, he was never supposed to speak. In fact we cast an actor who we never imagined would be speaking even though he's quite a competent actor. He was supposed to be more mysterious and dark and a little bit more forbidding because he didn't speak. And he is a complete self- interest, he is the person who we trust least on The X-Files, he is the devil, if you will. Some people ask whether he'll ever die on the show and my answer always is, you can't kill the devil. Tooms' hideaway ... Doug Hutchison, the actor, who is an interesting character himself, decided he wanted to actually shoot the whole thing naked, was naked on the set. It caused a little bit of discomfort which was good, I think it actually added to the scene, I think David was very nervous about being in a little tiny confined space with a naked man, to be honest. And I think it made the scare, the creep, all that more real, certainly for David, and for the audience in turn. From "X-Files Confidential": "Here's the weird thing," muses Glen Morgan, "and I can't explain it. When we were finishing 'Shapes', I said, 'This is really good; I like it.' When I saw it aired, I said, 'Kind of a letdown. I don't know why.' When we were doing 'Tooms', I was disappointed, and then we were mixing in the sound and I thought 'Man, I love this.' Doug Hutchison really stole the show. He had the character down. "Jim and I had never done a follow-up to a show we had written. You have the challenge that you just assume that a lot of people hadn't seen the first one, so you have to quickly recap what this guy is about and that's why act one is at Tooms's trial. You could recap what the rules were with this monster. With this character, it's kind of like, 'What would you like to see him do?' "The other thing was that the first show ['Squeeze'] had a director who was a problem, so this was a real chance to correct that part of it and do some of those things that were cut out of the first episode. I cannot tell you how unwatchable the first cut of 'Squeeze' was. When I watch it, I can't even follow the story. I just see where we solved problems, or hope that we solved problems." Robert Goodwin says, laughing, "Nothing brilliant to say about the episode. We brought back Pepper, our contortionist from Seattle. My kids and their friends kep showing up at the set, because Tooms is their hero." Chris Carter admits, "This was sort of the command performance of Tooms. We had had such a difficult time with 'Squeeze' – it took so much care in postproduction to make it was it was – that this was an opportunity to take the character and do a sequel using David Nutter, who that season was definitely our best director. To have him come in and give it is take. In a way, it was almost a vindication episode. I think it turned out very well, and Tooms remains a very popular character." "The main thing for me on that show," says David Nutter, "was knowing how popular this character was, I felt it was important to give him his just deserts on the second show. The producers weren't so happy with how the first show turned out. The character caught on; they had worked very hard to make it work to the point they wanted. But for the second show, they really wanted to make it good. I'm lucky I was available to do that one. I think it's a real classic horror story; I think Tooms is a real classic character in the horror genre, and I wanted to punch that up as much as possible. I think I'm really happy with the finale of that show." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Baltimore, Maryland Back story: Producers Glen Morgan and James Wong often would construct episodes around a certain moment or visual concept, as the duo did with the original 'Squeeze'. In this case, Morgan says he was Christmas shopping at a Los Angeles mall

752 and saw men working on the escalator, which was open and exposed. That prompted him to consider the scare factor of an urban myth stemming from some sort of monster living underneath an escalator. And who, he thought, better to be doing that than Eugene Tooms? "Everything worked backward from there," he says. 'Tooms' remains the only encore appearance thus far by a villain, but the episode is equally noteworthy in that it features the first appearance by Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Skinner (who isn't seen again until the second season) and the first line of dialogue from the Cigarette-Smoking Man. The producers joke now that they didn't even know until then if William B Davis could speak, only to be delighted by what he's brought to the role. Guest star Hutchison was the one who suggested that he play the final scene under escalator nude. "They covered me with Karo syrup and food coloring," he recalls, "and it was cold! I kept sticking to the walls." Despite his gruesome demise, Hutchison has used frequent appearances at The X-Files conventions to relentlessly lobby for a return engagement. From Tiny Dancer: Morgan and Wong say the idea came from Jack the Ripper and a ventilation shaft outside their office. Apparently Morgan asked Wong: 'What if we were working late at night and some guy came through that thing.' CC contributed the idea of someone eating liver, after he returned from Paris having consumed lots of foie gras. But Morgan says they decided to use liver because it was funnier than any other organ. The actor Doug Hutchinson (Tooms) is a vegetarian. X-Files In-Jokes: * The name on the door adjoining Tooms' cell is L. Robbie Maier. Rob Maier is the construction coordinator on the X-Files.

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- The first episode written by X-Files writers and producers Glen Morgan and James Wong was the series' first non-UFO episode, "Squeeze," with Mulder and Scully chasing down Eugene Victor Tooms, the liver-eating, elastic-limbed mutant from Baltimore. The shoot was a difficult one. "I felt the director had no respect for us or our ideas," Wong said. "In fact, he had no respect for the script. He didn't shoot coverage and we didn't like the dailies that were coming back. Ultimately, we had to go back up and reshoot some coverage, shoot a scene he didn't shoot, and add a lot of inserts to make it work. I'll always be disappointed because of what it could have been, but I think it turned out okay."

-- Despite those problems, the episode got high marks from fans. "We liked him a lot," Wong noted of the character, who was voted Best Villain by X-Files fans on the American OnLine computer network. He and Morgan felt another Tooms episode would be their chance to do right by him. "The fans liked him and he was scary and we decided to finish him off," Wong said. "When David Nutter was chosen to direct, we thought, 'What a perfect combination.' We liked the character, we liked the actor who played him, and we had a great experience with David" [who directed Morgan and Wong's "Ice" and "Beyond the Sea"].

-- Morgan and Wong would often construct episodes around a certain moment or visual concept, as the duo did with the original "Squeeze" (what would happen if someone squeezed in through the large ventilator shaft next-door to their office). In this case, Morgan said he was Christmas shopping at a Los Angeles mall and saw men working on the escalator, which was open and exposed. That prompted him to consider the scare factor of an urban myth stemming from some sort of monster living underneath an escalator. And who, he thought, better to be doing that than Eugene Tooms? "Everything worked backward from there," he said.

-- After playing Tooms in "Squeeze," actor Doug Hutchison was so eager and determined to reprise the role that he wrote a sequel script entitled, "Dark He Was and Golden-Eyed" and sent it to executive producer Chris Carter. "I was adamant about coming back on the show," Hutchison declared. In return, he received a phone call from one of the network lawyers informing him that legal ramifications prevented his script from even being read. By then it was a moot point anyway; shortly after he sent his script to Carter, his agent called with the news that The X-Files wanted him back for "Tooms."

-- "I fell in love with Tooms," he explained. "It was a very sweet challenge for me. I'm a very animated person, and I tend to bring a lot of animation to my roles. This was a particularly good challenge because I felt there was a stillness to this character. I had been intrigued by stillness for quite a while since seeing Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter [another fan of raw human livers] in Silence of the Lambs. He captured the art of stillness so well, and I was inspired by his performance."

-- Hutchison's ideas about the character that he included in his script differed quite a bit from Morgan and Wong's. "The fly in the ointment for me was how Tooms hibernated for 30 years if he gets five livers," Hutchison said. "I wanted to figure out a way

753 to have him around forever. So in my script, Tooms was in an experiment to find out how he could remain so young and immortal; he was infused with a drug that backfired and ended up escaping the asylum. Then he started eating livers like M&M's -- he went on a rampage! I also dealt with where Tooms might have come from." Hutchison's script suggested he was an incarnation of a ravenous, liver-eating Central American Indian God -- "So it had a lot of flashbacks. And Tooms talked a lot at the end because Scully and I had a confrontation."

-- "Tooms" was the first encore appearance by a villain, but was equally noteworthy for several other "firsts."

-- The episode featured the first appearance by Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Skinner (who wasn't seen again until the second season). Landing the role of Skinner (named for a family friend of Glen Morgan) was a case of third time lucky for Mitch Pileggi. On two previous occasions, he had auditioned to play FBI agents on the series, but when the original Section Chief Blevins played by Charles Cioffi was unavailable for "Tooms," Skinner was created.

-- "At the time of my first auditions, I was shaving my head," said Mitch Pileggi, "and Chris didn't think the look was right for the characters I was reading, which were both FBI agents. I came back the third time for Skinner, and fortunately my hair, what I have of it -- all of it, my flowing locks -- had grown back, and it worked. It just clicked. I went in and read for I think Chris and Jim Wong were there, and I guess I had the right attitude for Skinner. So they hired me for just the one episode."

-- But during the summer hiatus between seasons one and two, The X-Files came calling for Pileggi again. "They called and asked if I would do the eight-episode arc at the beginning of the season and do a recurring bit," Pileggi said. "I don't know what kind of reaction from fans they got to the character of Skinner initially, but I know a lot of the decision to bring in the character on a recurring basis was because Gillian was pregnant. They needed to take the show in a different direction while she was dealing with that, so I think bringing in Skinner was to help compensate for her situation. Things seemed to be working well and I think Chris was happy with the way things turned out. So at the end of season two, they asked me if I wanted to sign a contract -- a six year contract -- and I said yes. But I couldn't tell anyone because Chris always wanted fans to worry whether or not Skinner would be killed off."

-- "Tooms" didn't reveal much about Skinner, but Pileggi said that each subsequent script peeled away another layer of Skinner's life. "Until 'One Breath,' I didn't know that he was an ex-Marine," Pileggi said. "They may have come up with that because of the way I was playing the character, but Jim Wong told me that Skinner was pretty much somebody who at one time had been in the same place as Mulder was. He was a field special agent, and worked his way up through the ranks, eventually to the bureaucratic position he had as Assistant Director. I like to think that he was trying to direct Mulder -- a bit like the stern father with the disobedient son. Even though Skinner wasn't that much older than Mulder and Scully, I felt his feelings for them were very paternal."

-- Pileggi explained that much of Skinner stemmed from a source close to home. "He was based a lot on my father, who was once in a very similar position to Skinner. I remember when I was a kid sitting in his office, and watching how he dealt with his employees. I think I did it unconsciously, but my family certainly pointed out what they saw on screen was a lot like my dad."

-- "Skinner was very much by the book," Pileggi said, "whereas Mulder was kind of a loose wire whose methods were a lot more unorthodox than what Skinner envisioned. That's where the conflict came in. I felt it was important for there to be conflict between the characters, even though some people perceived Skinner as being too much of a hardass and wanted him to soften up on Mulder. But if he had, it would have been boring. You had to have that conflict -- that's what makes drama."

-- "A big aspect of the character was the atmosphere that I worked in," Pileggi explained. "You walk into that office and you get such a feeling of power, so as soon as I put that suit on, and my glasses, and walked into that office, it was like the character was there. That set was so important to the development, sitting behind that desk, and what I had on the desk, the pictures on the wall, the flag; that whole feeling was very important. Once I had the recurring role, I hoped that they could work in more situations where Skinner got out into the field more -- but I did like that office!"

-- The episode also featured the first line of dialogue from the Cigarette-Smoking Man ("Of course I do."). Chris Carter originally wanted the Cigarette-Smoking Man to remain very mysterious and thus he never envisioned the character speaking at all. But Morgan and Wong changed all that. The producers joked that they didn't even know until then if William B. Davis could speak, only to be delighted by what he brought to the role.

-- He called her "Dana" several times, but "Tooms" marked the one and only time that Scully called Mulder "Fox." Interestingly, Skinner also called him "Fox" in this episode, but he didn't tell Skinner that he "even made my parents call me Mulder."

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-- The Conversation In the Car scene raised the vague possibility that someday there might be more between Mulder and Scully than just a working relationship, but at the time, Morgan and Wong said they were opposed to any romance between the two. "We don't see them having a relationship beyond the professional one," Wong said.

-- The name on the door adjoining Tooms' cell was L. Robbie Maier. Rob Maier was the construction coordinator on The X-Files.

-- Oopsie! When Mulder first started his surveillance and watched Tooms drive away in his work van, the last shot of Mulder was reversed (the mole is always a dead giveaway).

-- The movie Mulder was watching in his apartment was the original version of The Fly (1958). The movie was directed by Kurt Neumann.

-- Why did Tooms waste time trying to frame Mulder for beating him up, when he could just have easily ate Mulder's liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti and gone on his merry hibernating way since Mulder would have been number five? (I guess you can do a lot of things to the stars, but you can't remove their livers! < g >)

-- Guest star Doug Hutchison was the one who suggested that he play the final scene under the escalator nude. Originally, he was supposed to be wearing his dog catcher's uniform. "I shed my inhibitions like my clothes in 'Tooms,'" Hutchison philosophized. "Sometimes one has to get naked to strip down to raw truth. If others don't like it or find it offensive, oh well -- you can't please all of the people some of the time, but if you try sometimes you get what you need -- or something like that."

-- "The character that Doug Hutchison played was a person who excreted bile," recalled Chris Carter, "and he decided he wanted to play that last scene stark naked. So I walked onto the stage and here’s this stark naked man covered in gooey yellow substance. And it was shocking because -- well, having a naked man walking around is always shocking."

-- "The thing I felt worst about was that David Duchovny was going to actually have to get into this elevator shaft with this naked, greasy, grimy, sweaty man and pretend to be afraid of him -- which was probably the easy part. David was a little nervous about being in this confined space with a naked man, but that made the scare all the more real -- certainly for David and for the audience in turn."

-- To create the excreted bile effect on Tooms' skin, Hutchison was covered with Karo Syrup and food coloring. "It was cold!" he recalled. "I kept sticking to the walls."

-- Despite his gruesome demise, Hutchison used frequent appearances at The X-Files conventions to relentlessly lobby for a return engagement. "I was aware of the Star Trek conventions," he noted, "but I had no concept of what they were really about and how many people actually showed up. My first X-Files convention was in San Diego. There were over 2,000 people -- I signed autographs for five and a half hours!" His insistence on greeting each autograph seeker personally resulted in the convention personnel finally giving up and leaving him to find his own way home.

-- "Tooms isn't dead," he told X-Files convention-goers. "He's a human toothpaste tube. You didn't see him die. You saw some blood, and that was it. I have visions of Tooms being eaten up in the escalator and coming out the other side, looking like an animated piece of spaghetti, and congealing and forming into his nest and rejuvenating himself."

-- The escalator where Tooms met his demise was actually in the City Square Mall in Vancouver.

-- Can you find a correlation between Eugene Victor Tooms and Mike Tyson? (No, Tooms liked livers, not ears!!) Only 10 weeks after his first fight in four years (which he won against Peter McNeeley), heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson signed to fight undefeated Buster Mathis, Jr., on November 4, 1995. However, on October 31, four days prior to the fight, Tyson had to withdraw because of a broken right thumb sustained while training. The Fox network was scheduled to carry the bout and had promoted it heavily, and with Tyson's withdrawal, the network was faced with a two-hour hole in their schedule. So what did they do? The network reached into its storage cabinet and offered up a "Tooms Night," airing "Squeeze" and "Tooms" back-to- back, much to the surprise and delight of X-Files fans.

-- While looking over Doug Hutchison's filmography, you'd be hard pressed not to conclude that he was the spawn of Satan. He seems to gravitate toward roles in which he plays, if not flat out monsters, then monstrous men. But Hutchison is not evil ... he's just written that way. "I haven't necessarily chosen to play villains," he said, reflecting on his life of crime. "My villain phase -- Eugene Tooms, the Polaroid Man, and Percy -- paid the rent. I have a plethora of roles inside me -- not just bad guys."

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-- But the bad guys were what Hutchison was best known for. He played sadistic silicate Elroy-EL on the short-lived Space: Above & Beyond, a psychopathic stalker known only as "The Polaroid Man" on Millennium, and a glowing street punk in the feature film Batman and Robin. In the film version of John Grisham's A Time to Kill, he was redneck rapist Pete Willard, and he played the bad guy again as prison guard Percy Wetmore in the film of Stephen King's The Green Mile. But he was probably best known for his performance as Eugene Victor Tooms in "Squeeze" and its sequel "Tooms."

-- "I've played lots of sympathetic characters that people haven't had the opportunity to see because they were incarnated on stage, non-aired TV pilots, or passing guests spots," Hutchison said. He pointed specifically toward an early episode of The Young Riders in which he played an idiot savant harmonica player. "I wouldn't say it's an Emmy-award winning performance or anything, but it's a far cry from villainous."

-- That's not to say that Hutchison is unhappy with his many dastardly roles. "If there's anything that attracted me to villains," he said, "it was the challenge of humanizing them." But Hutchison scoffed at the thought of being pigeon-holed as the perpetual villain. "Typecasting is for unimaginative casting directors and limited actors. My heroes include actors who've managed to break typecasting molds because of their dynamic range -- Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Holly Hunter, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Jennifer Jason-Leigh. These artists have transcended their 'character actor' roles and redefined 'the leading (wo)man.' I'm unafraid of typecasting because I believe, ultimately, in my versatility. I just need the right vehicle to prove I'm 'leading man' material."

-- Hutchison may someday be able to write that leading role for himself, as screenwriting counts among his many talents (a documentary Hutchison and his brother Eric made about their grandfather won second prize at a Seattle film festival). "My stuff ranges from supernatural love stories, cheesy horror, quirky romance, to mythological, symbolic, and gothic-esque tales," he explained. "I think more stories need to be told about love, survival, hope, and salvation. With all due respect to Quentin Tarantino, I'm unimpressed with the 'copycat' films he's inspired dripping with senseless greed, violence, and sex. It worked for Shakespeare, it worked in Pulp Fiction, but now, we're hungry for hope. At least I am. Otherwise, I'd rather watch porn, frankly. It's more stimulating, raw, and honest than a lot of the dreck Hollywood has pumped out over the last decade."

-- "I have turned down my share of crappy scripts that I thought degraded women and/or humanity at large," Hutchison said. "My taking a role depends on a number of things: the script, the director, the cast, whether or not the part turns me on, and how much food I have in my refrigerator -- and not necessarily in that order."

-- A number of the roles that Hutchison hasn't turned down came from writers/producers Glen Morgan and James Wong, who first worked with Hutchison in "Squeeze." "What appeals to me about working with Morgan and Wong?" Hutchison pondered. "They hire me. Seriously though, Morgan and Wong have been very, very good to me over the years. Not only did they insist I play Tooms on The X-Files when the director of 'Squeeze' Harry Longstreet didn't want to cast me, but then they wrote a sequel for me ["Tooms"], wrote a recurring role for me on Space: Above & Beyond, tracked me down to play Polaroid Man in the second-season opener of Millennium, and then went to bat for me at CBS to play a regular on their hoped-for series, Skip Chasers [which never got picked up]. I owe those guys my SAG card. Morgan and Wong are tops. When they believe in someone or something, they'll carry the torch. I can't sing their praises enough."

-- Playing all these villainous roles, Hutchison hoped that there might someday be an action figure in his future. His preference? "Tooms, of course. He'd streeeeeeeeeeeetch!"

-- Morgan and Wong had written six solid episodes of The X-Files during its first season (five of which were arguably some of the best of Season 1); and although Chris Carter had planned to write the second season premiere himself, after some discussion he asked Morgan and Wong to write the episode which became "Little Green Men." "The second season began with the X-Files shut down and Mulder and Scully separated and reassigned," Wong said. "Originally, Chris had planned to send Mulder to Moscow, but the idea didn't pan out. So he asked us to write the first episode of season two. It was a very nice gesture on Chris's part in boosting our confidence and telling us how much he appreciated us."

-- Once & Future Retreads: In addition to Doug Hutchison, Henry Beckman (Detective Frank Briggs) played the same role in "Squeeze" and was the Old Man in "Chinga." Timothy Webber (Detective Talbot) was Jess Harold in "Our Town" and Dr. Paul Farraday in "Quagmire." Jerry Wasserman (Dr. Plith) was Dr. John Grago in "Excelsius Dei." Frank C. Turner (Dr. Collins) was Dr. Del Hakkie in "Duane Barry." Pat Bermel (Frank Ranford) was The Therapist in "The Walk." Glynis Davies (Defense Counsel Nelson) was Ellen in "Irresistible" and Monica in "2Shy." Andre Daniels (Arlan Green) was Harry McNally in "Blood."

-- "Tooms" was the second highest rated episode of the first season. Only the season finale, "The Erlenmeyer Flask," garnered more viewers.

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1x21 Born Again - transcript

Writers: Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon Director: Jerrold Freedman Airdate: April 29, 1993

Transcribed by: Dave Fox Edited by Libby

14th Precinct House Buffalo, New York

[A car pulls up in front of the precinct house, and two detectives enter the building. One of them, Detective Rudy Barbala, greets Detective Sharon Lazard, who is at her desk.]

DET. BARBALA: What ho.

DET. LAZARD: What ho.

DET. BARBALA: Hey, Lazard. Now why do the night guys get a piece like you when we're stuck with old eel breath?

DET. LAZARD: It's fate, Detective, conspiring to keep us apart. All right, I'm outta here.

[To Barbala]

DET. LAZARD: See ya.

[To another co-worker]

DET. LAZARD: Tomorrow.

[She leaves the building and walks down the street. In an alley, she sees a little girl sitting alone near some trash bags. She enters the alley and walks toward the little girl.]

DET. LAZARD: You all right? You lost?

[The little girl doesn't respond at first, then nods.]

[Lazard and Barbala are walking through the station house.]

DET. LAZARD: Anyway, I got her in the holding room. She's not talking, she won't say a word ... at least not to me.

DET. BARBALA: [smiling] And you're asking me because you know how good I am with kids, right?

DET. LAZARD: [also smiling] Yeah, a regular Mr. Greenjeans.

[They enter the holding room, where the little girl, Michelle Bishop, is sitting at a table facing the window.]

DET. LAZARD: Hi. This is Detective Barbala. He's gonna help you find your parents.

DET. BARBALA: Hi ya sweetheart. What's your name?

MICHELLE: Michelle.

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DET. LAZARD: Everything's gonna be all right. OK? Don't be scared now.

[Lazard leaves the room, closing the door behind her. Barbala moves around the table and sits facing Michelle, his back to the window.]

DET. BARBALA: Michelle what?

[she stares at him but doesn't respond at first]

DET. LAZARD: Well, you said your first name was Michelle, now what's your last name?

MICHELLE: Bishop.

[Barbala writes on his note pad.]

DET. BARBALA: Bishop. Michelle Bishop. And where do you live, Michelle? Here in Buffalo?

[She stares at him again. Moments later, something crashes through the window. The loud crash is heard in the precinct house.]

VARIOUS IN PRECINCT HOUSE: What was that? Did you hear that?

[Lazard runs back to the holding room and enters. She sees the broken window and approaches it.]

MAN FROM STREET BELOW: Somebody call an ambulance!

[She looks out the window and sees a body lying on the roof of a car below. She turns to look at the little girl, who stares back at her.]

[main titles]

[Outside the station house, news crews and police cars surround the scene. Inside, Lazard talks with Mulder and Scully.]

MULDER: How'd you hear about us?

DET. LAZARD: My brother. My brother's a cop. Baltimore. He told me about your work on the Tooms case, said you got a good feel for things out of the ordinary.

[Mulder and Scully exchange a brief glance]

DET. LAZARD: Look, the truth is Barbala never won any popularity contests here at the one-four, but he's, he's still a cop, you know. I guess that's why I can't just let this rest.

SCULLY: You said there was one witness, a little girl. What did she say happened?

DET. LAZARD: She said there was another man in the room.

SCULLY: Well, it stands to reason that somebody ...

DET. LAZARD: I was right outside. I'm telling you, there was nobody else there except for Barbala and the kid.

[They start walking through the station house.]

MULDER: So you didn't get a description of who the kid saw?

DET. LAZARD: I'm telling you, there was no one else. Listen. The department is treating this as a suicide, but I gotta tell you. I knew this guy. There's no way he did himself.

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SCULLY: Was he depressed or under psychiatric care of any kind?

DET. LAZARD: No. Only time he ever looked at himself was in the mirror. And he always liked what he saw.

[They've reached the holding room. Mulder walks toward the window.]

MULDER: Plus jumpers tend to open the window before they jump. Where's the kid now?

DET. LAZARD: She was released about an hour ago. Her mother came to pick her up.

SCULLY: You don't really think the girl had anything to do with it, do you?

DET. LAZARD: I don't know what to believe any more. You know, eight years I've been on this force, I've seen a lot of strange things. But I'm telling you ... this kid ... something's just not right about her.

[At the Bishop residence, Michelle is sitting next to Harry Linhart, an FBI technician. He is developing a sketch on a computer based on her description. Mulder stands behind them.]

LINHART: Did he have long hair or short hair?

MICHELLE: Short.

[Linhart hits a key, and the face on the computer fills in short hair.]

MULDER: Like that?

[She nods]

MULDER: Was his hair dark like mine or lighter like yours?

MICHELLE: Like mine.

[Linhart types some more and the hair color lightens.]

LINHART: What about a beard or a moustache?

MICHELLE: Moustache.

[Mulder whispers something in Linhart's ear and he nods.]

LINHART: Like this?

[A very long, pointed moustache appears on the screen; Michelle smiles.]

LINHART: Or this?

[The moustache curls at the ends into a handlebar moustache. Michelle laughs. Suddenly the computer monitor flashes and the screen shows a man with a normal mustache.]

LINHART: Whoa! What happened? Weird. I didn't even hit a key. Must be a glitch in the new software.

MULDER: Michelle? Was his mustache like that?

[She nods. Meanwhile, Scully and Mrs. Bishop are talking in the living room.]

SCULLY: Do you have any idea how your daughter might have gotten there? Buffalo's half an hour away by train and the station is a five minute car ride.

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MRS. BISHOP: When I came home, Mrs. Dougherty was locked in the wine cellar. I called the police immediately.

SCULLY: And Mrs. Dougherty is?

MRS. BISHOP: Michelle's nanny. Her latest, that is. She's already gone through four this year, and it's only April.

SCULLY: What seems to be the problem?

MRS. BISHOP: Michelle is the problem.

SCULLY: How do you mean?

MRS. BISHOP: As hard as it is for a mother to admit ... Michelle is a disturbed child. Oh, I know this sounds terrible to say, but the truth is that sometimes she frightens me.

SCULLY: Frightens you how?

MRS. BISHOP: She's not like other girls, Agent Scully.

SCULLY: Tell me.

MRS. BISHOP: She just isn't. She doesn't have any friends. She hardly ever smiles. It breaks my heart that I can't comfort her. She says she sees things that I can't see. She hears people yelling in her head.

[They've stepped outside and are walking next to a covered swimming pool.]

MRS. BISHOP: Last summer we had to cover our pool. Jim was trying to teach her how to swim, but every time that Michelle would get close to the water, she would just start to scream - scream like you've never heard in all your life.

SCULLY: Your husband? Where is he now?

MRS. BISHOP: We're divorced.

[Mulder comes out of the house carrying the finished sketch.]

MULDER: Mrs. Bishop?

MRS. BISHOP: Um-hmm.

[Mulder shows her the sketch.]

MULDER: This is the man Michelle says she saw at the police station. Do you recognize him?

MRS. BISHOP: No, I'm sorry.

MULDER: She also mentioned a friend ... someone named Sheila. Do you know who that is?

MRS. BISHOP: That would be Dr. Braun. She's the developmental psychologist over at Brylin Hospital. Michelle sees her twice a week.

[Mulder looks up to see Michelle looking at them from an upstairs window. She tosses something out and it flutters to the ground next to them. Mulder picks it up - blue paper folded in the shape of a bird.]

MULDER: Look at that? Looks like a hawk or a falcon.

SCULLY: It's beautiful.

MRS. BISHOP: It's called origami.

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MULDER: Japanese paper folding. Where'd she learn how to do that?

MRS. BISHOP: I have no idea.

[Out front, Linhart has his computer equipment in the back of a car. He feeds the sketch into a fax machine as Mulder and Scully approach.]

MULDER: So Harry, you'll put that face into the system?

LINHART: As we speak.

MULDER: Can you give Scully a ride back into the city?

SCULLY: Wait a minute. We have an autopsy at 7.

MULDER: That's your department. I'm gonna go over to Brylin Hospital, see if I can have a little chat with Michelle's shrink.

[He starts away but stops and turns back to her.]

MULDER: Oh, oh, and check for burns or lesions on Barbala's body.

SCULLY: Why?

MULDER: Psychokinesis is usually associated with an electrical charge.

SCULLY: Are you saying Michelle possesses the ability to psychically project her own will?

MULDER: How else could a 60-pound kid throw a 200-pound detective out the window?

Brylin Psychiatric Hospital Buffalo, New York

[Mulder talks to Dr. Sheila Braun in her office. Mulder has shown her the sketch which she hands back to him.]

DR. BRAUN: Nope. I don't recognize him. I have no idea who this man is.

MULDER: Could Michelle have fabricated him?

DR. BRAUN: Quite possibly. As with many dissociative disorders, the intensity of the patient's emotions is often too much for one personality to process. So in defense, part of the personality splits itself off.

MULDER: As in schizophrenia?

DR. BRAUN: I'm afraid Michelle's diagnosis is not quite that simple. You see, my primary challenge has been to discover the source of her extreme rage. In most cases, it's a traumatic event in the patient's past.

MULDER: And in Michelle's case?

Dr. Braun sighs and steps to a cabinet next to her desk.]

DR. BRAUN: Occasionally, I would leave Michelle alone for part of our session - with this doll.

[She opens the cabinet, which has several identical dolls on a shelf.]

DR. BRAUN: Each time a new doll, anatomically intact.

[She hands one to Mulder.]

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DR. BRAUN: And each time, she dismembers and disfigures it in exactly the same way.

[The doll is missing an arm and an eye.]

DR. BRAUN: First I thought she was being abused, but after a number of sessions with her parents, I became convinced that there was something else behind Michelle's anxiety. Something much deeper, much more elusive.

MULDER: Any theories?

DR. BRAUN: Frankly, no. I'm at a loss.

MULDER: Have you tried deep regression hypnosis?

DR. BRAUN: I've found hypnosis an unreliable approach at best.

MULDER: OK. Well, in the meantime, how have you been treating Michelle?

DR. BRAUN: Well, the thorazine has been quite effective in regulating her more bizarre behavior.

MULDER: I'm sure. Have you observed any unexplained phenomena in Michelle's presence?

DR. BRAUN: Unexplained phenomena?

MULDER: Inordinate physical strength, psychic ability, telekinesis...

DR. BRAUN: You're joking, of course.

[He shakes his head. She looks at her watch.]

DR. BRAUN: I have a patient waiting, Agent Mulder. If you'll excuse me.

[Scully is performing an autopsy on Barbala. A photographer works with her.]

SCULLY: Note postmortem examination is being conducted 11 hours and 45 minutes after subject was pronounced.

[She sees a large red area on the body's lower chest.]

SCULLY: Note raised lesion approximately 7 centimeters below sternum. Deep necrosis inconsistent with cause of death as pronounced by Dr. Gilder, and suggests localized electrocution ... but a further tissue analysis will be necessary.

[Lazard sticks her head through the door, looking none too eager to come any further into the room.]

DET. LAZARD: Excuse me. Could I talk to you for a second?

SCULLY: I just started the autopsy.

DET. LAZARD: Yeah. Um, I don't think he's going anywhere.

SCULLY: [to photographer] Will you, uh, take a couple for scale, please. Thank you. I'll be right back.

[She steps out to speak with Lazard, who hands her the sketch along with a photograph of a man.]

DET. LAZARD: So what do you think?

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SCULLY: Looks like a match.

DET. LAZARD: Yeah. Name's Charlie Morris. Officer Charlie Morris. Used to work narcotics out at the two-seven.

SCULLY: Do you know him?

DET. LAZARD: No. Before my time.

SCULLY: Where is he now? Has he been transferred?

DET. LAZARD: You could say that. Agent Scully, this guy's been dead for nine years. Which means that little girl saw ... a ghost.

14th Precinct House Buffalo, New York

[Scully enters with a case file and walks toward Mulder, who is looking at Charlie Morris' photograph.]

SCULLY: He was killed in Chinatown, gangland style, allegedly by the Triads, although no arrests were ever made. Now Mulder, if you're gonna tell me that you think Michelle Bishop saw a poltergeist ...

MULDER: Hey, you're the one that found a lesion on Barbala's body. You said it could have been caused by an intense concentration of electrothermal energy.

SCULLY: "Could have been" being the operative phrase. Now, I'm not going to know for sure until the lab results are in, and even then ...

MULDER: Why is it still so hard for you to believe, even when all the evidence suggests extraordinary phenomena?

SCULLY: Because sometimes ...

[She starts walking across the room. Mulder follows.]

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: ... looking for extreme possibilities makes you blind to the probable explanation right in front of you.

[She has walked to a trophy case along the wall near the holding room. In it is a plaque with Charlie Morris' picture on it.]

SCULLY: This is the face that Michelle Bishop saw. She walked right by here and she saw the face of Charlie Morris ... which means that there weren't any ghosts flying around the precinct.

MULDER: Do you have the police report describing Morris' death?

SCULLY: Yeah, I have what's been declassified. Why?

MULDER: Does it describe how he was murdered?

SCULLY: Yes, I told you. It was a signature hit.

MULDER: Give me the grisly details.

SCULLY: His arm was severed just below the shoulder, presumably by a chainsaw, and his right eye was gouged out.

[Mulder walks to his briefcase and pulls out the doll that Dr. Braun showed him.]

MULDER: This is what Michelle did to a dozen dolls in her shrink's office. Hell of a coincidence, wouldn't you say? Now before we discount anything, I think we should find out more about Charlie Morris. I got the address of his partner on the force. Hopefully, he can tell us something.

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Fiore Residence Kenmore, New York

[Mulder and Scully drive up, then knock on the front door. A man answers.]

MULDER: Detective Fiore? We're with the FBI. Can we talk to you for a minute? Do you know this man?

[Mulder holds up the drawing. The man closes the door, unlatches the chain, and comes out onto the porch, closing the door behind him.]

DET. FIORE: You mind if we do this out here? Uh, I don't want to wake my wife.

SCULLY: Yeah, this won't take long.

DET. FIORE: Yeah, sure I know him. That's, uh, Charlie. Charlie Morris.

MULDER: You two were partners?

DET. FIORE: Yeah, we rode together his first nine months out of the academy.

MULDER: What can you tell us about the circumstances surrounding his death?

[Fiore looks back toward the house, then moves farther from the door, toward the end of the porch.]

DET. FIORE: That matter is still under investigation and so I can't comment on it.

SCULLY: Detective, we're under the direct authority of Captain Gersham at the 14th precinct.

DET. FIORE: 14th precinct? I never worked out of the one-four. What's all this about?

MULDER: Well, we believe that the death of Detective Rudy Barbala yesterday can be linked to the death of Officer Morris nine years ago.

DET. FIORE: Linked how? I thought this Barbala flipped his wig and jumped out of a window.

SCULLY: Did you know the detective?

DET. FIORE: By reputation. Look, what's all this got to do with Charlie?

MULDER: Well, that's what we need your help with. The police report said that Officer Morris was killed off-duty.

DET. FIORE: That's right. Best we can figure, it was some kind of payback.

MULDER: For what?

DET. FIORE: Well, around that time, the organized crime division was doing a major sweep in Chinatown.

MULDER: The Triads.

DET. FIORE: Yeah. Some very heavy busts went down against the Woo Shing Woo. A lot of smack never made it to the street. You can bet there were some pretty pissed off people playing Mah-Jongg that week.

MULDER: So you think that Charlie Morris was killed as a warning to back off?

DET. FIORE: I think they picked a cop - any cop - and they whacked him.

[Mrs. Fiore steps out the front door.]

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MRS. FIORE: Who is it, Tony?

DET. FIORE: Oh, it's nothing to worry about, honey. Just some people from the FBI asking about a case I'm working.

SCULLY: Sir, would you mind ...

DET. FIORE: Hey, it's the weekend. You guys mind? You can get me at the squad, first thing Monday morning, OK?

SCULLY: Sure.

DET. FIORE: Good luck.

[He closes the door. Mulder and Scully walk down the steps and sidewalk toward their car.]

MULDER: Is it me or did we just get the brush-off?

SCULLY: Did you notice her hands?

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: He said she was sleeping, but her hands were dusted with baking flour.

Buffalo Mutual Life Main Office Buffalo, New York

[Detective Fiore is pacing the floor, talking nervously with another man, Felder.]

FELDER: Not a big deal, all right? Don't jerk yourself around Tony. You're acting like a little bug.

DET. FIORE: They were FBI.

FELDER: So what?

DET. FIORE: They start sniffing around too much, they're gonna turn something up.

FELDER: Relax. They're just people like us, going through the motions.

DET. FIORE: Oh, yeah? Then how are they connecting Charlie to Barbala?

FELDER: And what do they know? Huh? Nothing.

DET. FIORE: Come on. We're going to Citibank right now.

FELDER: For what?

DET. FIORE: The safety box.

FELDER: And what should we do, Tony? Huh? Make a donation to the Little Sisters for the Poor?

DET. FIORE: Dump it somewhere.

FELDER: Tony. There's only two of us left now. That's over a million each.

DET. FIORE: Take it all, I don't care! Do your dream on the beach in Costa Rica or wherever the hell it is you want to do it.

765

FELDER: You think I like this? Selling disability insurance to morons? "Well sir, uh, excuse me, but what if you should break your neck on the shore on lose your leg in a car crash?" You listen to me, Tony. We agreed to wait ten years, and that is exactly what we're gonna do.

DET. FIORE: I listened to you once before and look what happened.

FELDER: Nobody - not me, not Barbala - wanted to see Charlie wind up like that. We were just trying to scare a little sense into him. It was an accident. End of story. And you better pull yourself together, Tony.

[That evening, Felder walks along a city street. An old woman comes out of an alley.]

OLD WOMAN: Excuse me, sir.

[He ignores her. He gets onto a bus. Later, the bus comes to another stop and he gets off at the door at the rear of the bus. He throws his scarf over his shoulder. The end of the scarf mysteriously rises and extends back into the bus, wrapping itself around the railing. When the bus door closes, Felder feels the tug around his neck.]

FELDER: Hey, what? Hey! Hey, open the door! Hey!

[The bus starts to pull away. Felder pounds the door and runs along with the bus.]

FELDER: Hey, open the door! Hey! Open the door! Hey! Open the door! Open the door! Hey! Open the door!

[The driver hears him shouting and sees him in his side rearview mirror. He hits the break, but the accelerator mysteriously floors itself. The bus picks up speed and Felder is now running at full speed.]

FELDER: Hey! Hey! Open the door! For God's sake! Help me!

[Felder can't keep up and falls, now being dragged by the bus. The driver still sees him and pumps the brake but the bus doesn't slow down and Felder screams. Finally the accelerator releases and the bus comes to a halt. The driver runs back to Felder. As he approaches, we see that Michelle Bishop is sitting on the bus just behind the door.]

[Mulder, Scully and Mrs. Bishop are in the precinct house.]

MULDER: A patrol unit picked her up a few blocks away from the bus stop.

MRS. BISHOP: [crying] What's going on?

SCULLY: We don't know. All we know is that your daughter has witnessed two deaths in the past two days.

MRS. BISHOP: She's only eight years old. She couldn't have possibly done anything.

MULDER: Mrs. Bishop, no one is accusing Michelle of anything.

MRS. BISHOP: She's just a little girl.

SCULLY: Is there anything that you haven't told us? Is there anything at all that you can think of that might shed some light on what happened tonight?

MRS. BISHOP: No.

SCULLY: Well, this police station has a designated room at the Sheraton. An officer will take you and Michelle over there.

MRS. BISHOP: Why is this happening to us. Why?

[Scully puts a hand on her shoulder. Detective Lazard approaches and motions Mulder aside.]

766

MULDER: I'm sorry, excuse me.

[They step a short distance away.]

DET. LAZARD: Listen to this. You know that guy that bought it tonight - Leon Felder? Before he started peddling life insurance, he was a cop out of the one-four. Guess who his partner used to be? Rudy Barbala.

[Mulder and Scully are in a room at the precinct reviewing the case files. Mulder has written on a blackboard. Under "Precinct 27" he has Morris' and Fiore's names. Under "Precinct 14" are Felder's and Barbala's names.]

SCULLY: Four cops.

MULDER: Three of whom are now dead.

[He crosses through the names of Morris, Felder and Barbala and circles Fiore's.]

SCULLY: Their only connection being a drug bust in Chinatown almost nine years ago.

MULDER: And a little girl from Orchard Park.

[He looks at a photo of a half dozen officers surrounding a cache of money from a bust and points out individual officers.]

MULDER: Morris, Fiore, Barbala and Felder. What's wrong with this picture?

SCULLY: Well, for one thing Fiore said he only knew Barbala by reputation.

MULDER: Right. Why would he say that?

SCULLY: I don't know.

[Scully pages through the file, looking puzzled.]

MULDER: What?

SCULLY: There's a page gone from Morris' homicide file.

MULDER: Is there a log sheet?

SCULLY: Should be. Yeah.

[She reads from the log sheet on the file folder.]

SCULLY: Tony Fiore - checked out this afternoon.

[Scully and Mulder are back at Detective Fiore's residence. She knocks and Mrs. Fiore answers.]

SCULLY: Mrs. Fiore, we're sorry for the early hour, but is your husband home?

MRS. FIORE: No, he's not. He never came home last night.

MULDER: May we come in?

[Mulder looks around in the living room. He sees a salt-water aquarium with a "diver" giving off bubbles at the bottom. He also sees a cabinet with a number of origami figures of animals. There is a painting of animals on the wall behind it.]

MULDER: Scully. Look familiar?

767

[Mrs. Fiore enters with coffee.]

MRS. FIORE: He said he was working a double shift, but when I called the precinct, he wasn't scheduled. It's just not like him not to call.

SCULLY: Does your husband have any family or close friends in the area that he might go to if he were in trouble?

[Mrs. Fiore shakes her head.]

MRS. FIORE: I've been on the phone all night. Is he in any trouble?

SCULLY: Mrs. Fiore, did your husband ever mention a detective by the name of Rudy Barbala or an ex-police officer named Leon Felder?

MRS. FIORE: I don't think so.

MULDER: Someone you might have had dinner with once, a friend of Tony's from work? A name you can't remember, anything?

MRS. FIORE: We don't normally socialize with other cops.

MULDER: Mrs. Fiore, I couldn't help noticing your origami collection. Did you do all these yourself?

MRS. FIORE: Oh, no, not me. No, that was Charlie's hobby.

MULDER: Charlie?

MRS. FIORE: My first husband. He was born in Japan, his father was stationed there.

SCULLY: Not Charlie Morris, Tony's ex-partner?

MRS. FIORE: Yeah.

[Mulder and Scully exchange a glance.]

MRS. FIORE: I was waiting for him to come home too, nine years ago. Just like this. He was working on a whole set, you know, from the painting. The only animal he never got to was the giraffe - see, right there behind the zebra.

[Mulder and Scully leave the Fiore house and walk down the street.]

MULDER: Michelle is eight years old, that means that she was conceived at roughly the same time that Officer Morris was killed.

SCULLY: Do me a favor, Mulder. Let me say it. Reincarnation.

MULDER: Metempsychosis, transmigration, re-embodiment, call it what you will.

SCULLY: All based on the coincidence that Michelle Bishop and Officer Morris both practice the obscure art of paper folding?

MULDER: Well, what about the composite drawing and the dolls and the fact that Michelle was witness to two deaths that can be tied to Charlie Morris?

SCULLY: So what, you think he's back like Peter Proud to avenge his murder?

MULDER: It's not so far-fetched, Scully. Reincarnation is a basic tenet of many major religions.

SCULLY: That still doesn't explain how an eight-year-old girl can kill two grown men.

768

MULDER: Well, individuals with strong past-life memories often exhibit enhanced psychic abilities - ESP, telekinesis.

SCULLY: So where does that leave us?

MULDER: One short step away from proving the pre-existence of the human soul.

[Michelle Bishop is being hypnotized by a Dr. Spitz. The session is being videotaped, and Dr. Braun is in the room with the two of them. Mulder, Scully and Mrs. Bishop are watching through a window from the next room.]

DR. SPITZ: On a count of five, tell me where you are now ... one ... two ... three ... four ... five. Do you know where you are?

MICHELLE: Yes.

DR. SPITZ: Where? Tell me where you are.

MICHELLE: At home.

DR. SPITZ: What time of day is it?

MICHELLE: Night time.

DR. SPITZ: And how old are you?

MICHELLE: Twenty-four.

[She suddenly becomes agitated.]

MICHELLE: No! We can't! We can't do this! It's wrong!

DR. SPITZ: What's wrong? What can't you do?

[She doesn't respond but breathes rapidly.]

DR. SPITZ: It's all right, you can trust me.

MICHELLE: No! I can't! I can't! I can't! I can't! I can't!

[Dr. Braun has come out of the room and angrily confronts Mulder.]

DR. BRAUN: This is dangerous and irresponsible!

MULDER: Dr. Spitz has conducted hundreds of these sessions and ...

DR. BRAUN: [to Mrs. Bishop] If you allow this to continue, you could push Michelle deeper into withdrawal, maybe permanently.

MULDER: Is it any more dangerous than pumping her full of thorazine?

MICHELLE: [from the other room] They're killing me! They're killing me!

[Mrs. Bishop heads for her daughter.]

MRS. BISHOP: That's enough!

MICHELLE: No! No! No!

MRS. BISHOP: [hugging Michelle] It's OK. It's over. It's over. It's over.

769

[Later, Scully comes out of the office, finding Mulder in the hall.]

SCULLY: They just left.

MULDER: We almost had it, Scully. We were right there.

SCULLY: I know.

MULDER: We'll have to try it again.

SCULLY: Mrs. Bishop won't go for that, not in this lifetime anyway.

MULDER: Well, we have to change her mind.

SCULLY: How? And to what end? I mean, what exactly do you hope to discover by all this?

MULDER: The truth. What really happened to Charlie Morris nine years ago.

SCULLY: We'll find the truth when we find Fiore.

MULDER: If we find Fiore. And if he's still alive. Scully, you saw what happened in there.

SCULLY: What I saw was some traumatized little girl who for no apparent reason has some connection to Charlie Morris.

MULDER: All evidence suggests that Michelle Bishop IS Charlie Morris.

SCULLY: Mulder ...

MULDER: Short of her growing a moustache, how much more apparent does it have to become for you to accept it?

SCULLY: OK. Let's just say that, by some small miracle, you manage to convince Michelle's mother, and the next hypno- regression provides you with everything you could possibly hope for. No grand jury is gonna listen to that kind of testimony. We still will not have an actionable case.

[Both are annoyed. Scully walks away.]

FBI Regional Headquarters Buffalo, New York

[Mulder is writing in his case journal. The video of Michelle's hypnosis session is playing on a monitor.]

MULDER: [voice-over] The inconclusive results of Michelle's past life regression do not shake my basic belief in hypnosis as a tool for psychological healing. Whether or not it offers us definitive proof of previous lifetimes is another matter. However, in this particular case, all other explanations seem to be even more wanting.

[He glances up at the monitor.]

ON VIDEO: And how old are you? - Twenty-four. No, we can't! We can't do this! It's wrong! - What's wrong? What can't you do?

[Mulder has noticed a burst of static just as Michelle become agitated. He rewinds and looks again.]

ON VIDEO: And how old are you? Twenty-four. No we can't!

[He sees the static again, just before Michelle says "no we can't". He rewinds.]

ON VIDEO: Twenty-four.

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[He advances the tape frame-by-frame, isolating the static-filled image.]

[At the Fiore residence, Mrs. Fiore is on the phone.]

MRS. FIORE: [into phone]No, no, I, I, I want to be here. In case he shows up. Thanks again. I'll, uh, I'll call you the minute I hear anything. OK, yeah, OK, bye-bye.

[She hangs up, turns off the light and heads upstairs for the night. As she nears the top, she hears a knock on the door and hurries to it.]

MRS. FIORE: Tony!

[She opens the door.]

MRS. FIORE: Tony? Tony?

[No one is there. She looks down and finds an origami figure of a giraffe on the porch.]

FBI Regional Headquarters Buffalo, New York

[Linhart is working in front of a series of video monitors. Scully and Mulder are behind him.]

LINHART: I checked the windup profiles. They're up to speed.

SCULLY: Which means?

LINHART: Whatever this image is, it was recorded in the room with the girl.

SCULLY: How is that possible?

MULDER: There was a documented case in the early seventies of a man from Porlock, Ohio, who could influence undeveloped film. He could create shapes on the negative from his mind.

LINHART: I don't know how much of this noise I can clean up. It depends on the strength of the latent image.

[Lazard enters.]

DET. LAZARD: I tracked him down. He's retired in Palm Beach. You were right, Agent Scully. He backed up all his records on disk.

SCULLY: Pathologists are paranoid by nature.

DET. LAZARD: Well, he faxed me the missing page from the autopsy report.

SCULLY: Great.

[She reads it.]

SCULLY: Apparently, Charlie Morris did not die as a result of his wounds. Says here there's a frothing of fluid in the respiratory tract. That indicates death by drowning.

MULDER: So you're saying he was drowned first and then mutilated to make it look like a signature execution?

DET. LAZARD: Dr. Yamaguchi said on the phone that there were no signs of submersion such as goose skin or wrinkled flesh except for around the face and head.

771

SCULLY: Um-hmm. That's right. Suggesting that he was killed in either a bathtub or a toilet. Except ...

MULDER: Except for what?

SCULLY: The marked bradycardia. That indicates a raised plasma sodium level. He was killed in sea water.

[A car screeches to a halt in front of the Fiore residence. Detective Fiore emerges carrying a tote bag. He runs into the house.]

DET. FIORE: Anita! Anita!

[Mrs. Fiore rushes downstairs and hugs him.]

MRS. FIORE: Tony! Tony! What's going on? Where've you been? I know something's going on.

DET. FIORE: I need you to listen to me right now. I need you to go upstairs and pack a bag.

MRS. FIORE: Why? What kind of trouble are you in?

DET. FIORE: I think someone's trying to kill me.

MRS. FIORE: Who?

DET. FIORE: I don't know.

MRS. FIORE: Why would anybody want to kill you? Tell me what's going on.

DET. FIORE: [angrily] Will you please just do what I'm asking you?

[He calms down.]

DET. FIORE: Please, I'm your husband and I love you and I need you to trust me on this, OK?

[He goes upstairs. Through the window we can see Michelle Bishop on the front porch.]

[Linhart is still working on the image from the video.]

LINHART: Almost there.

[Mulder and Scully walk toward him.]

LINHART: What I've done is to map the frequencies of the interference. Coefficients for sine on this monitor, cosine on that one. Now using an algorithm program, I can remove the frequencies, like this. Presto! What the hell?

[The image clears up, showing a diver in a pressure suit with helmet. Mulder recognizes it.]

SCULLY: Mulder, what is it?

MULDER: You said salt water, right?

SCULLY: Right. So?

MULDER: So Charlie Morris was drowned in his own tropical fish tank, and that's the last thing he saw before he died. We better hope Michelle Bishop is at home, tucked in bed.

772

[At the Fiore residence, Detective Fiore is packing some clothes, and we see that the tote bag is full of money. Mrs. Fiore enters the room and he quickly zips up the bag.]

MRS. FIORE: Tony? Tony, somebody, somebody left this on our doorstep tonight.

[She shows him the origami giraffe.]

MRS. FIORE: Do you know who?

[Ee doesn't reply.]

MRS. FIORE: Answer me, Tony!

[The lights go off. Fiore draws his gun.]

DET. FIORE: Right, you stay here and keep the door closed.

[He closes the door and walks off. The key in the lock mysteriously turns, locking the door.]

[He comes downstairs slowly, gun raised. As he steps across the living room, an electrical cord unplugs itself from the wall and quickly wraps around his legs, tripping him to the floor. He drops his gun onto the floor in front of him. Mrs. Fiore hears the commotion.]

MRS. FIORE: [from upstairs] Tony, are you all right? Tony, answer me!

[Fiore reaches for the gun, but it slides farther away from him, out of reach. He looks up and sees Michelle standing in front of him.]

[Mulder and Scully pull up in front. They hear a crash from inside the house and run up to the porch. Mulder tries the door but it slams and locks in his face. They hear Mrs. Fiore.]

MRS. FIORE: [from upstairs] Tony! Tony, please! Who's there? What's happening?

[Mulder walks across the porch to the window but the shutters slam closed in his face.]

[Inside, Michelle looks around the room and glass shatters and other items go crashing to the floor.]

SCULLY: Mulder!

[Scully has called Mulder to the side of the house, where there is a door to the basement with a glass window. They shield their eyes, and Mulder breaks the glass with his elbow, reaches in and unlocks the door.]

[Back in the living room, Detective Fiore has gotten to his knees in front of Michelle.]

DET. FIORE: [emotionally] They said they were just gonna talk to you. Talk some sense into you. What was I supposed to do, huh? All you had to do was take the money, man! Why didn't you just take the money?

[Michelle looks aside, and a fireplace poker hurtles across the room, catching Fiore a glancing blow. He falls over and moans in pain. Several vases fly across the room and break across his head as well.]

[Mulder and Scully have climbed the stairs from the basement to the main floor.]

MRS. FIORE: [from upstairs] What's going on, Tony? Let me out!

MULDER: [to Scully] Go check out upstairs.

[She heads up the stairs.]

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MRS. FIORE: [from upstairs] Please open the door! I'm scared! Tony!

[More objects are flying off cabinets in the living room as Mulder enters. He sees Michelle with Fiore on the floor.]

MULDER: Michelle! This won't make right what happened.

MRS. FIORE: [from the upstairs bedroom] Please, I can't get out! Who's there? I can't get out!

[Scully unlocks the bedroom door, and they both then run down to the living room. Mrs. Fiore rushes to her husband and sees Michelle. She kneels on the floor behind him.]

MRS. FIORE: Tony! Tony! Tony ...

[Fiore starts to look back at her, then just looks downward at the floor.]

DET. FIORE: [to Mrs. Fiore] I'm sorry! I knew what they did to Charlie. I was a part of it and I never said anything. I couldn't.

MRS. FIORE: No.

[Det. Fiore now looks back at her.]

DET. FIORE: I just wanted to take care of you. Who else would have taken care of you?

[The room is filled with a bluish light and the aquarium shakes. Glass in the room shatters and plaster flies off.]

DET. FIORE: Oh, God. No. No more.

MRS. FIORE: [to Michelle, pleadingly] Please, please don't hurt him any more.

[Michelle looks quickly at the aquarium, and its walls shatter, sending water to the floor. The lights come back on. Scully walks across and picks up Fiore's gun. The diver ornament from the aquarium is on the floor nearby.]

[Some time later, Mulder and Mrs. Bishop walk alongside her pool. Michelle is laughing and playing in the pool with a friend and an instructor. Mrs. Bishop smiles as she watches the scene, and Mulder has traces of a smile as well.]

MULDER: [voice-over] Closing entry, file number X-40271. Detective Anthony Fiore pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to charges of first-degree murder after the fact, grand larceny and obstruction of justice. The deaths of Detective Rudy Barbala and former police officer Leon Felder are being ruled as accidental, although their complicity in the murder of Officer Charlie Morris has been definitively established. No charges were brought against Michelle Bishop, who today took her first swimming lesson. She claims no memory of the preceding events and both her mother and Dr. Braun have denied my request for a second past-life regression. End of field journal, April 19, 1994. Agents of record: Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Status: unexplained.

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Brian Markinson (Tony Fiore) Mimi Lieber (Anita Fiore) Maggie Wheeler (Det. Sharon Lazard) Dey Young (Judy Bishop) Andrea Libman (Michelle Bishop)

Co-Starring:

P. Lynn Johnson (Dr. Sheila Braun)

774

Leslie Carlson (Dr. Spitz) Richard Sali (Felder) Dwight Koss (Detective Barbala) Peter Lapres (Harry Linhart)

1x21 Born Again - notes From "X-Files Confidential": Says Howard Gordon, "The idea of reincarnation hadn't been done yet, and there were parts of it that I think were interesting, but I don't think it was very well executed on any front. It was a pretty classic back-from-the-dead revenge tale, and not done particularly interestingly. And it had elements that were repetitive to one of my previous [X-Files episodes], 'Shadows'. "One of our least successful episodes," Chris Carter admits. "I thought the direction was a little sloppy, but it's one of those episodes that plays a little closer to reality and I like that about it. There's a nice twist in it about a man marrying the wife of another man he had killed. There were actually some nice effects. Just not one of my favorites." Robert Goodwin's strongest memory of the episode was its teaser, in which a police officer went through a window. "We were shooting the exterior portion of the body exploding out this window. There were actually a pair of windows in this room. We took out the glass from one of them and put in what we call candy glass. And we used this cannon that blasted the debris out the candy-glass window. We had three or four cameras shooting the thing. They call 'Action', the window blows out, and we realize that the force of the concussion from this cannon has also knocked a hole about three feet across and a foot high in the real window next to our phony window. Al Campbell, our key grip, sort of a Will Rogers kind of guy, says 'I have a perfect solution for this. When the woman goes to the window, and looks down to see the dead guy, just pan over and next to him will be his dead dog.' " From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Buffalo, New York Back story: Dealing with reincarnation, 'Born Again' is another episode that fell short of the producers' self-imposed expectations, the feeling being that the premise was perhaps too similar to the soul transfer or possession themes dealt with in some of the shows that aired around the same time. "The impetus was desperation, I believe," producer Howard Gordon quips, adding that in the final analysis the hour proved "a little too cop show-y" for his taste. Margin note: This is the first time Mulder tells the story. Instead of Scully typing computer reports we see him writing longhand in a field journal; instead of Scully's voice-over wrap-up we hear Mulder's summation. X-Files In-Jokes: * The actress that portrays Detective Sharon Lazard, Maggie Wheeler, appeared in the movie 'New Year's Day' with an un- clothed David Duchovny. The two reportedly dated each other around the time of the movie. * The plaque with Charlie Morris' picture also contains the names of quite a few other previous recipients of the reward who actually work on the X-Files production! 1985's recipiant was Ken Hawryliw (the prop-master for the show), 1986 went to Robert Maier (construction coordinator). 1989's winner was Judy Fairly (script coordinator). 1992's recipiant was Jim Pate (assistant prop manager).

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

A series of murders is linked to a little girl who may be the reincarnated spirit of a murdered policeman.

-- Usually used to describe someone who has found religion, this episode title "Born Again" refers to reincarnation.

-- Jerold Freedman also directed Season 1's "Ghost in the Machine."

-- "Born Again" was another episode that fell short of the producers' self-imposed expectations, the feeling being that the premise was perhaps too similar to the soul transfer or possession themes dealt with in some of the shows that aired around the same time. "The impetus was desperation, I believe," producer Howard Gordon quipped, adding that in the final analysis, the hour proved "a little too cop show-y" for his taste.

775

-- Detective Lazard jokingly tells Detective Barbala he is a "regular Mr. Greenjeans" with kids. Mr. Greenjeans was the sidekick to Captain Kangaroo on the popular CBS children's educational show which ran from October 1955 to December 1984.

-- Once again, Mulder and Scully defy the laws of time and space by arriving at the crime scene in Buffalo while it is still being examined and photos are still being taken.

-- As mentioned in the episode, origami is the art of paper folding. In Japanese, the word literally means to fold (oru) paper (kami).

-- The episode says that Charlie Morris was killed in the Chinatown section of Buffalo; but the real Buffalo doesn't have a Chinatown.

-- The plaque with Charlie Morris' picture contains the names of quite a few other previous recipients of the award, but the names are of X-Files production crew members. 1985's recipient was Ken Hawryliw (the prop-master for the show), 1986's award went to Robert Maier (construction coordinator). 1989's winner was Judy Fairly (script coordinator), and 1992's recipient was Jim Pate (assistant prop manager).

-- Scully's line, "So what, you think he's back like Peter Proud to avenge his murder?" refers to the 1975 movie The Reincarnation of Peter Proud by director J. Lee Thompson. The movie tells the story of a college professor who starts to have flashbacks from a previous incarnation.

-- Mulder has a line in this episode ("There was a documented case in the early seventies of a man from Porlock, Ohio, who could influence undeveloped film. He could create shapes on the negative from his mind.") which foreshadows Season 4's "Unruhe," in which Mulder tells Scully about Ted Serios, a bellhop from Chicago who gained notoriety in the 1960s by producing "thoughtographs" on Polaroid film supposedly using only his psychic powers of imagination. The "monster" in "Unruhe," Gerry Schnauz, had a similar ability.

-- This was the first time that Mulder tells the story. Instead of Scully typing computer reports, the viewer saw Mulder writing in longhand in a field journal; instead of Scully's voiceover wrap-up, the episode featured Mulder's verbal summation.

-- Maggie Wheeler (Detective Sharon Lazard) appeared in New Year's Day with an in-the-buff David Duchovny (though why anyone would toss a naked Duchovny out of their apartment, I'm sure I don't know); the two dated around the time the film was made. She played Marcy in the original pilot for the comedy series Suddenly Susan starring Brooke Shields. A few months after the pilot was shot, the format of the show was changed and the character later became Vicki and the part went to Kathy Griffin.

-- Wheeler auditioned for the role of Monica on Friends and Debra on Everybody Loves Raymond. She didn't get either part, but she landed memorable recurring guest starring roles in each series, appearing as -- "Oh. My. Gawd." -- Chandler's one-time girlfriend Janice Hostenstein (later Janice Litman-Garelnick) on Friends and as one of Ray and Debra's friends Linda Gruenfelder on Everybody Loves Raymond.

-- With her husband Daniel, Wheeler now has two children, both girls and five years apart in age. She really was pregnant with her elder daughter when her Friends character Janice turned up heavily pregnant in one episode of the sitcom.

-- Wheeler's birthday is August 7 -- the same as former flame David Duchovny. She is one year younger, born in 1961.

-- Actress Dey Young, who played Judy Bishop, is the wife of actor-producer David Ladd, son of actor Alan Ladd (Shane). She's also the younger sister of actress Leigh Taylor-Young, whose major break came when she was cast in the popular prime-time soap opera Peyton Place in 1964. She got some bad publicity when she walked off the series after only one year -- and into the arms of the very married Ryan O'Neal. The couple married in 1967 after his divorce from Joanna Cook Moore (mother of Tatum O'Neal) and had one son, Patrick O'Neal who later married actress Rebecca De Mornay.

-- Actress Andrea Libman who played little Michelle Bishop is still acting but does mostly voiceover work. She's now 22 years old and working on her Civil Engineering Degree from the University of British Columbia. In one of those strange XF coincidences, she shares her birthday with Jenny-Lynn Hutcheson, who played Polly Turner in "Chinga."

-- Once and Future Retreads: Brian Markinson (Tony Fiore) appeared as Vinyl Right Employee Gary Lambert who shared his madness with Mulder in "Folie a Deux." P. Lynn Johnson (Dr. Sheila Braun) was Deborah Brown in "Die Hand Die Verletzt" and

776 the Health Department Doctor in "Small Potatoes." Leslie Carlson (Dr. Spitz) was Dr. Troisky in "Little Green Men." Peter Lapres (Harry Linhart) was a Video Technician in "Ascension." Jonathan Walker (Charlie Morris) was Chuck Lukerman in "Synchrony."

1x22 Roland - transcript

Writer: Chris Ruppenthal Director: David Nutter Airdate: May 6, 1994

Transcribed by: Dave Fox Edited by Libby

Mahan Propulsion Laboratory Washington Institute Of Technology Colson, Washington

[A janitor, Roland Fuller, is cleaning the floor in a hallway. He swipes his badge through a reader and then enters a code on the keypad, but the door doesn't open. Another man, Dr. Keats, approaches as Roland tries it again, unsuccessfully. Impatiently, the man grabs the badge from Roland.]

DR. KEATS: Here, let me do it. Put your number in, then your card. What's your number, Roland?

ROLAND: 315.

[Keats punches in the code and then swipes the card through the reader. The door opens.]

DR. KEATS: See how easy it is?

[As Keats enters, a jet engine is running in a wind tunnel. Drs. Nollette and Surnow are in front of the controls.]

DR. NOLLETTE: Engine efficiency?

DR. SURNOW: 94%.

[The mach indicator climbs above 13.0.]

DR. NOLLETTE: We need more. How's the backpressure holding?

DR. SURNOW: What do you think? It's climbing.

DR. NOLLETTE: Increase the blade inclination. I said, increase the blade inclination!

DR. SURNOW: The inclination of the blade is pi over 9. We've reached maximum velocity.

[Surnow reaches for a switch on the controls but Nollette grabs his hand.]

DR. NOLLETTE: No. Let it go! It will work!

DR. SURNOW: The engine's going to destroy itself! I'm not going to do that!

[Surnow hits a key on the keyboard. The engine starts to wind down.]

DR. NOLLETTE: It's not going to destroy itself. Come on, we're almost there!

777

DR. SURNOW: There's something wrong with our equation.

[The engine continues to wind down as Keats approaches from behind.]

DR. KEATS: What happened?

DR. NOLLETTE: Nothing. Because Surnow pulled the plug.

DR. SURNOW: I'm just protecting the baby ... and four years of work, Frank!

DR. NOLLETTE: Four years of work that's going to add up to zilch, because unless we show some progress, they're going to pull the plug on us, Ron.

[Nollette leaves.]

DR. KEATS: He's right, you know. We should have continued with the test.

DR. SURNOW: Somebody's going to crack Mach 15, and I want that someone to be us. I'm not going to jeopardize everything just because you two guys can't wait to see your name in print!

DR. KEATS: It's the print that gets the money, Ron.

DR. SURNOW: If you want to go down in flames together, fine. You go ahead. I'm gonna do the math.

[Keats leaves.]

ROLAND: Good night, Dr. Keats.

[Surnow is writing an equation on a whiteboard while Roland cleans the floor. Surnow then inputs an access code on the computer keyboard and the door to the wind tunnel opens. He steps in and opens an interior panel to get at the controls. Roland goes to the keyboard and hits a key. The door to the wind tunnel closes with Surnow still inside.]

DR. SURNOW: What the hell?

[He tries the door then looks through a window and sees Roland at the keyboard.]

DR. SURNOW: Roland, open the door. Open the door! Roland, I want you to listen to me very carefully. We have to open this door, Roland. Stop typing, Roland!

[Roland has continued typing at the keyboard, and the inlet vanes for the wind tunnel open. Then the engine starts and the wind velocity begins to climb.]

DR. SURNOW: Roland, open the door! What are you doing? Open the door!

[The mach indicator approaches 1.0, and Surnow's clipboard is carried into the engine by the wind.]

DR. SURNOW: Roland! Are you listening?

[Roland stops typing and moves to the whiteboard, as Surnow struggles against the wind to the inlet end of the tunnel. Roland erases the equation that Surnow had written. Surnow hooks his fingers on the metal grating at the end of the tunnel as the wind lifts his feet. Surnow screams as the mach indicator passes 3.0. Roland starts writing his own equation on the whiteboard. The mach indicator passes 4.0, and Surnow is now horizontal, hanging onto the screen and screaming. Roland finishes writing the equation, and the mach indicator approaches 7.0. As Roland walks back to the keyboard, through the window Surnow is seen flying down the tunnel toward the jet engine. There is a squishing noise. Roland resumes cleaning the floor.]

[main titles]

[Mulder and Scully walk down the hallway leading to the wind tunnel control room.]

778

MULDER: How was the wedding?

SCULLY: You mean the part where the groom passed out or the dog bit the drummer?

MULDER: Did you catch the bouquet?

SCULLY: May-be. [looking at a folder in Mulder's hand] So is that what you couldn't talk to me about over the phone?

MULDER: [handing her the folder] The project that everyone says doesn't exist, does exist.

SCULLY: [reading the label on it] The Icarus project?

MULDER: The next generation in jet engine design, capable of doubling current supersonic speeds using half the fuel. At least in theory.

SCULLY: And Ronald Surnow was an aeronautical scientist who worked on it here at the university.

MULDER: Yes.

SCULLY: How close are they?

MULDER: I'm not sure, but Surnow is the second scientist on the team to die in the last six months.

SCULLY: OK, but how is this an X-file? Mulder, you don't think this has anything to do with UFO technology?

MULDER: There's something unexplainable here, Scully, but it's certainly not unidentifiable.

[Mulder shows his badge to a man standing outside the control room, and they enter.]

MULDER: [to a man inside the door] Keats?

MAN: [pointing at Keats] There.

MULDER: Dr. Keats? We're with the FBI. I'm Agent Mulder, this is Agent Scully.

[Mulder flashes his badge and they shake hands]

MULDER: We understand you discovered Dr. Surnow this morning.

DR. KEATS: What was left of him.

[They walk into the wind tunnel, where several other scientists, including Nollette, are inspecting the engine.]

SCULLY: How do you suppose he became trapped in the wind tunnel?

DR. KEATS: Someone must have shut him in. The door can only be opened or locked from in there.

SCULLY: By computer?

DR. KEATS: We've already been through this with the police. How many times do we have to rehash it?

SCULLY: Another member of your team died a short time ago. Isn't that correct?

DR. NOLLETTE: [walking over to them] Yes. Arthur Grable. He was killed in an automobile accident in November. I'm Frank Nollette. I'm also on the project.

[He shakes hands with Mulder and Scully.]

779

SCULLY: Are you certain it was an accident?

DR. KEATS: What are you driving at?

[Mulder exits the wind tunnel.]

SCULLY: Your work seems to be a perfect target for industrial espionage.

[Keats and Nollette exchange glances. Mulder is in the control room, looking at the whiteboard, which has several equations written on it.]

MULDER: [pointing at the bottom line] Who wrote this?

[The other three join Mulder in the control room.]

DR. NOLLETTE: Ron was working on it when I left.

MULDER: You see, the handwriting here doesn't seem to match any of the other handwriting on the board.

DR. KEATS: It isn't mine.

MULDER: [checking the folder] What about Roland Fuller?

DR. NOLLETTE: Uh, Roland's the, uh, janitor.

MULDER: Well, according to the police report, he was the only other person here last night.

DR. KEATS: Roland didn't do that.

SCULLY: How do you know?

DR. KEATS: Let's just say Roland isn't exactly a rocket scientist.

Heritage Halfway House Colson, Washington

[Roland is licking and applying adhesive stars to a poster that has "Tracy" written on it. He pushes it across the table to Tracy.]

ROLAND: Here.

TRACY: "Tracy."

ROLAND: With stars.

MRS. STODIE: [walking in with Mulder and Scully] Roland? There are some people here would like to talk with you.

ROLAND: Uh-oh. I went off the paper. Sorry.

MRS. STODIE: That's all right, Roland. Tracy, would you like to come help me in the TV room?

TRACY: OK.

[Mrs. Stodie and Tracy exit.]

MULDER: Hi, Roland. Do you mind if we sit down?

ROLAND: OK.

780

MULDER: Thanks. You mind if we ask you a couple of questions? Do you remember working last night?

ROLAND: Uh-huh.

SCULLY: Do you remember seeing anything unusual? Seeing any strangers?

[Roland shakes his head.]

SCULLY: Did, um, did Dr. Surnow or Dr. Keats or Dr. Nollette do anything unusual?

ROLAND: Nope.

SCULLY: You must like stars.

ROLAND: One hundred and forty-seven.

SCULLY: Sorry?

ROLAND: [pointing at Scully's blouse] Stars.

[Scully looks down at her blouse, which has stars on it.]

MULDER: You like numbers, too, huh?

[Roland has a sudden vision in which Dr. Keats' head is frozen. He reacts violently, pushing the container of stars off the table. He runs around and starts to gather them. Scully comes around to help.]

SCULLY: Roland, let me help you.

ROLAND: [as he picks up the stars] One, two, three, four, five ...

[Mulder looks down at a piece of paper that Roland was working on. It has the number 15626 written on it in several places.]

ROLAND: ... six ...

MRS. STODIE: [entering the room] Roland.

ROLAND: ... seven ...

MRS. STODIE: Is everything ok?

ROLAND: ... eight, nine ...

[Mulder folds and pockets the piece of paper.]

MRS. STODIE: Roland, are you all right?

ROLAND: ... ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen ...

MRS. STODIE: What happened?

ROLAND: ... fourteen ...

MRS. STODIE: What did you say to upset him so?

ROLAND: ... fifteen, sixteen, seventeen ...

781

FBI Regional Headquarters Seattle, Washington

[Mulder and Scully are consulting with a handwriting analyst, who has the whiteboard writing displayed on the wall with an overhead projector.]

ANALYST: It's definitely the work of a fourth and distinct individual. Dr. Surnow's, Dr. Keats', and Dr. Nollette's cursive standards don't match what you found on the whiteboard.

MULDER: Would you do me a favor and try this?

[He hands the analyst the paper that he took from Roland.]

SCULLY: What is it?

MULDER: It's something Roland was doodling at the home.

SCULLY: You don't really think that Roland ...

MULDER: Besides Nollette and Keats, he's the only person we can prove was in the lab that night.

SCULLY: Yes, but we're talking about a sophisticated fluid dynamics equation. Roland Fuller barely has an IQ of 70.

MULDER: Well, you saw his facility with mathematics. Don't some autistic individuals display unusual abilities?

SCULLY: Yes, but even savants behave only as human calculators. I mean, they can perform certain functions but they can't tell you the value of anything or even the meaning of a number.

ANALYST: I hate to take sides, guys, but the bottom line is no. The terminal stroke on the 6, the roof on the 5 - I'm sorry. He didn't write it.

[Roland is tossing and turning in his sleep. He sees a fleeting vision of Dr. Keats struggling with someone. He awakens.]

Mahan Propulsion Laboratory Building 214

[Keats is working in the laboratory. He is listening to music through headphones as he sits at a terminal. The door to the lab opens and Roland enters. He sneaks up on Keats from behind and smashes an object over his head. He then drags the unconscious Keats over to a large container of liquid nitrogen and takes off the lid. Wearing cryogenic gloves, he grabs Keats and tries to put his head down into the liquid nitrogen. Keats revives and struggles, but Roland grabs his hair and forces his head down into it. Seconds later, he lifts his frozen head out of the container and throws his body to the side. There is a shattering noise. As Roland walks away, there are pieces of Keats' head on the floor. Roland steps on what looks like an ear. There is the sound of typing on a keyboard.]

[Scully and Mulder are at the scene of Keats' murder. On the floor is the usual outline of the body, except there is no head. There are a couple dozen "X" marks around the body as well as the outlines of several larger pieces. A policeman, detective and police photographer are also there.]

SCULLY: An organic object exposed to liquid nitrogen at minus 320 degrees will become frozen, exhibiting great tensile strength, but is vulnerable to stress from compression or impact. Now, I've seen this demonstrated on a fish before ...

MULDER: I don't think they'll be performing this experiment on Beakman's World.

[He walks over to the detective and points at the computer]

782

MULDER: Has this been dusted?

DETECTIVE: Treat yourself.

[Mulder sits at the terminal and pulls up a file directory showing filenames, times and dates. The directory shows the last two entries are KMAN.DOC and ARTHUR.DOC. Below is a password prompt.]

MULDER: Hey, Scully! Look at these files. KMAN, must be Keats. This file was turned off at 12:31 last night.

SCULLY: But look, someone else entered a file under the name ARTHUR after 12:31.

MULDER: And worked on it for nearly 5 hours.

SCULLY: Well, it couldn't have been Keats. Judging from the rigor of the body, he was dead around 12:30.

MULDER: So you're saying that someone came in here, killed Keats, and then just did some work on an old Dr. Arthur Grable file?

[Scully tries to look at the file but gets an "access denied" message.]

SCULLY: Well, I can't access the ARTHUR file. We're gonna need the password.

MULDER: Try 15626.

[Scully looks puzzled but tries it. A graph of turbine entry temperature appears on the screen.]

SCULLY: How did you know that that ...

MULDER: This is Arthur Grable's work on the same fluid dynamics equation the others were working on.

[he pages through other graphs]

MULDER: Look at all those entries. Someone has been continuing his work in the six months since he died.

SCULLY: How did you know what the password was?

[He shows her Roland's page of doodling that has 15626 written on it.]

[Roland is having a nightmare: A small child stands on a porch in front of a woman who says "Wave bye. Wave goodbye." Another child, a twin of the first, is crying as a woman puts him into the back seat of a car. The woman's voice continues to say "Wave goodbye."]

[Roland awakens. He is in bed but wearing his work clothes. Mrs. Stodie enters.]

MRS. STODIE: Roland? Why did you sleep in your clothes last night? Well, let's get you dressed. You have visitors.

[Mulder and Scully walk in behind her. Roland sits up, but nods to Mulder and Scully. Mrs Stodie sits on the bed next to him.]

ROLAND: [to Mrs. Stodie] I'm not supposed to talk to them.

MRS. STODIE: Who told you that? Remember that talk we had about being shy. These are nice people, Roland.

[Mulder has ducked into Roland's closet.]

MULDER: Hey, Roland, you've got more shirts than I do.

783

[holds up a navy blue shirt with white patterns on it]

MULDER: I think this one would look stylin' today. What do you think?

ROLAND: The green one.

MULDER: The green one?

ROLAND: Please.

SCULLY: Mrs. Stodie, can I talk to you a second? See you later, Roland.

[Scully and Mrs. Stodie leave the room.]

MULDER: [pulls out the green shirt] This one? Here you go. So you like your job at the college, Roland?

[Roland starts changing his shirt.]

ROLAND: Yes.

MULDER: I hear you're very good at it. You remember how you got your job?

ROLAND: A man talked to Mrs. Stodie.

MULDER: What man?

ROLAND: Dr. Grable.

MULDER: Was Dr. Grable nice to you?

ROLAND: Yes.

MULDER: When was the last time you spoke to him? Last week, the day before?

ROLAND: Dr. Grable died.

MULDER: I'm sorry.

ROLAND: Yeah. People die. They go away ... and they're not supposed to come back.

[Mulder reacts to this strange comment.]

[Scully and Mrs. Stodie talk in another room. Lisa is cleaning the floor nearby.]

SCULLY: Has Roland ever mentioned the name Arthur?

MRS. STODIE: That was Dr. Grable's first name. But we only called him Dr. Grable. I doubt Roland even knew his first name was Arthur.

[Lisa has stopped cleaning and is eavesdropping.]

SCULLY: Mrs. Stodie, can I get a copy of Roland's file and past history?

MRS. STODIE: Our patients' histories are confidential.

SCULLY: I understand, but I have grounds to obtain them, and the less time we have to spend in court, the more time we have to help Roland.

784

[Later. Mulder and Scully are sitting at a table in a library.]

MULDER: Roland Fuller was hired by Arthur Grable. He went to the halfway house specifically to find a mentally challenged person.

SCULLY: Are you suggesting that Arthur Grable hired Roland in order to use him?

[Mulder arches his eyebrows]

SCULLY: And are you suggesting that Arthur Grable is not dead?

MULDER: Well, if he had intentions of killing Nollette, Keats and Surnow, why not set it up to appear the least likely suspect?

SCULLY: Yeah, but by the look of this, [she holds up a photo of Grable's accident scene] he's hamburger.

MULDER: Maybe he staged it. That would explain why his work is continuing on, six months after his "death".

SCULLY: [reading from Grable's file] This obituary says that Arthur Grable was born in Seattle. His father was a big banker, his mother was active in a number of charities. Only child. Summa cum laude in physics. Doctoral and post-doctoral in aeronautical engineering at Harvey Mudd. Brilliant future, tragically cut short.

MULDER: [reading from Roland's file] Roland's also from Seattle. He spent most of his life at the Heritage Halfway House. The identity of his parents has been sealed by the courts. There's very little information on Roland before the age of three. That's when he was put in the Heritage program.

SCULLY: Does it say when he was born?

MULDER: [flipping through some pages] July 15, 1952.

SCULLY: [also flipping through pages] That's also Arthur's birthdate.

[Tracy and Roland are at the halfway house, drawing. Roland is drawing an airplane.]

ROLAND: Don't you wish you could fly?

TRACY: I can ... when I dream. [walks over to him] People can do anything in a dream, you know. Once, one time I had a dream we were married and lived in a house. Do you have dreams, Roland?

[He looks agitated. Tracy kneels next to him.]

TRACY: You can tell me. Roland? Who's Arthur?

[Roland turns to her suddenly. He has a vision of pushing Tracy to the floor and choking her. He screams, pushes her aside and runs out of the room.]

TRACY: [crying] I'm sorry, Roland. I'm sorry!

[Roland has run upstairs and locked himself in the bathroom. He sits on the floor.]

TRACY: [knocking on the door] Roland! Roland.

ROLAND: [shouting] Go away!

[He has another vision of him choking Tracy.]

TRACY: Roland, what's the matter?

785

ROLAND: Go away! I don't want to hurt you. Go away!

[Tracy is crying at the door]

ROLAND: Go away.

[Mulder and Scully are with Nollette in his office. Mulder points at a photo showing some "hippie" students in an office. There is a Volkswagen behind them.]

MULDER: Is that you?

DR. NOLLETTE: Yes.

MULDER: Cool 'do. What's the story here?

DR. NOLLETTE: [sighs] Um, a quantum physics professor of mine at Harvey Mudd flunked me. He challenged the tenets of one of my theories - a theory I later published in 'Nature'. Anyway, uh, to get back him, [laughs] one afternoon we decided to take his car apart and put it back together again in his office and left it running.

MULDER: [to Scully] Hmmm, an egghead classic.

DR. NOLLETTE: It was Arthur Grable's idea.

SCULLY: Is that Arthur Grable there, sitting on the chair?

[She's referring to a bearded man sitting in the foreground.]

DR. NOLLETTE: Yeah.

SCULLY: Was he a practical joker?

DR. NOLLETTE: On top of all his brilliance, he had a genius for executing elaborate schemes.

MULDER: Could he be making it seem like a man with a 70 IQ is gaining access to and, uh, operating his old computer files?

DR. NOLLETTE: Arthur would still have to be alive.

SCULLY: Could he have faked his own death?

DR. NOLLETTE: No.

MULDER: The police report on the auto accident that killed Arthur Grable is woefully incomplete. It was a dry road surface, no mechanical problems found. The body was never admitted to the county morgue and there was no funeral.

DR. NOLLETTE: [standing] If, uh, you are trying to suggest that Arthur Grable killed Surnow and Keats and is after me next, you're way off. Art could not have done the murders.

SCULLY: How can you be so certain?

Avalon Foundation Washington Institute Of Technology Colson, Washington

[Mulder and Scully are talking to a Dr. Barrington. They are looking at a stainless steel tank, numbered '18', that has a temperature indicator on it that reads -320F.]

786

BARRINGTON: This is Arthur Grable. Uh, because of the massive internal damage to his body caused by the car accident, we could only preserve the head.

SCULLY: Wouldn't your client find it somewhat inconvenient to be thawed out in the future, only to discover he had no functional mobility?

BARRINGTON: We believe that by the time science figures a way to revive our clients ...

MULDER: ... you'll also know how to clone new bodies for them.

BARRINGTON: Exactly. This technology is progressing faster than anyone thought possible. Ask anyone here at the university. So, while for us the passing of each second brings our bodies closer to death, for our clients it brings them closer to life.

[Mulder notices that the temperature indicator is fluctuating between -319 and -320.]

MULDER: These fluctuations in temperature - do they happen often?

BARRINGTON: No, we've had some problems with Dr. Grable's capsule, and the technicians have checked it for possible malfunctions but they found nothing.

MULDER: Is it possible the brain is causing the fluctuation?

BARRINGTON: No, but we are looking for the explanation. The patient's in no danger. He remains perfectly preserved as long as there's liquid nitrogen in the capsule.

SCULLY: May we take a look at Arthur Grable's records?

[He hands her a file]

SCULLY: Thank you. Dr. Barrington, in your conception of future medical science, what requirements will exist to be an organ or tissue donor?

BARRINGTON: Same requirements as there are today, compatible genetic make-up. It's best if the donor's related.

[The temperature indicator fluctuates again and beeps. Barrington walks over to investigate. Scully calls Mulder over to her.]

SCULLY: Mulder? Arthur Grable put down only one donor.

[The form lists Roland Fuller.]

MULDER: Roland Fuller and Arthur Grable had the same birthday. I think they're twins.

[Mulder and Scully are working with a technician in front of a computer. They are altering a photo of Arthur Grable.]

TECHNICIAN: Older or younger?

MULDER: Same age, just less hairy and with better eyesight.

TECHNICIAN: Gotcha. And the moustache?

SCULLY: No, lose the whole beard.

[As the technician types, Arthur Grable's glasses disappear as well as his beard and moustache.]

TECHNICIAN: Next?

787

MULDER: Close cropped hair, with a slightly receding widow's peak. Lose the glasses.

[The face on the screen looks exactly like Roland.]

SCULLY: That's Roland.

MULDER: Give or take a few pounds.

[Mulder is talking to Roland at the halfway house.]

MULDER: Tell me about your dreams, Roland.

[he doesn't respond]

MULDER: It's all right, I won't tell anybody.

[Still no response. Mulder moves his chair closer.]

MULDER: You know, I had a dream last night. I dreamt I was, uh, swimming in this pool. And I could see my father underwater, but when I dove down, the water stung my eyes. Then there was another man at the pool, watching me. He upset me. He was asking me questions I didn't want to answer. And I had to leave. I couldn't find my father.

ROLAND: I can't tell you my dreams.

MULDER: Why not?

ROLAND: Bad.

MULDER: [putting his hand on Roland's shoulder] Your dreams are bad, Roland. Not you. You're a good person.

ROLAND: I hit Tracy.

[Nearby, Tracy looks over at Roland.]

MULDER: Your dreams make you hit Tracy?

[He nods. Mulder sees a remote control spaceship toy on the shelf. He picks it up.]

MULDER: You know how to work this toy, Roland?

ROLAND: Yeah.

[Mulder puts the toy on the floor and gives the remote control to Roland. He operates the control and the ship scoots across the floor.]

MULDER: Now, you see the way you work that toy is like what's happening to you. You're the spaceship, Roland, and your dreams are the controls.

ROLAND: But who ... who runs the controls?

MULDER: [showing him a photo of Arthur Grable] Have you seen this man recently?

[Roland looks at the photo and reacts strongly. He sees visions of two small boys, twins, running out on a porch. One, crying, is loaded into a car, while the other stays on the porch. A voice says "wave bye-bye to Roland." He then sees the coffee cup being

788 broken over Keats' head, Surnow flying toward the jet engine, Keats' frozen head and Tracy being choked. Roland screams and thrashes about in his chair.]

MULDER: [trying to calm him] Roland! Roland! Roland, stop!

[He runs out of the room, screaming. Tracy follows him.]

TRACY: Roland!

[Scully and Mrs. Stodie have heard the commotion and come out to see Tracy following Roland up the stairs. Roland locks himself in the bathroom again.]

TRACY: Roland! Roland!

MULDER: [heading upstairs with Scully and Mrs. Stodie] We need to arrange to keep Roland under observation.

TRACY: [at the bathroom door] Roland! Roland!

[Roland sees a vision of the bathroom window broken. Moments later, there is a crashing sound.]

MULDER: He's trying to get away.

TRACY: Roland! Roland!

[Mulder runs downstairs and out the door, looking for Roland.]

MULDER: Roland! Roland! Roland! Roland! Roland!

[He doesn't find him. Upstairs, Scully looks out the broken window.]

Mahan Propulsion Laboratory

[It is late evening. Mulder and Scully are in a hallway. He has just gotten off the phone.]

MULDER: Nollette's gone. We should arrange a security guard to find him.

SCULLY: Mulder, no one's gonna provide you with anything once you explain your theory on how Roland Fuller is capable of these murders.

MULDER: You've got a brother, don't you Scully?

SCULLY: Yeah. I've got an older one and a younger one.

MULDER: Well, have you ever thought about calling one of them all day long and then all of a sudden the phone rings and it's one of them calling you?

SCULLY: Does this pitch somehow end with a way for me to lower my long distance charges?

MULDER: I believe in psychic connections, and evidence suggests that it's stronger between family members, strongest of all between twin siblings that shared the same womb.

SCULLY: OK, maybe. But in this case, one sibling has closer ties to a frozen fudgesicle than he does to his own brother.

MULDER: Arthur Grable is not dead. He's in a state of consciousness that no human has ever returned from. And what if that state allows one to develop psychic ability to a potential that the conscious mind is too preoccupied to explore or believe in? He could use that ability to control his brother to kill those scientists.

SCULLY: But why? He's been working with these colleagues for years.

789

MULDER: Well, that's a question that only Dr. Nollette can answer.

SCULLY: OK. Let's go. I have to call my brother.

[As they walk away, Nollette is watching them on a security TV monitor. He has heard their conversation. The monitor shows them walking down the hall.]

MULDER: We've got to find Nollette.

SCULLY: Let's talk to campus security.

MULDER: [pointing straight ahead] We go this way?

SCULLY: No, we go left.

[Mulder follows Scully.]

[Later, Nollette is at the Avalon Foundation.]

DR. NOLLETTE: Well, wherever you are, Arthur, I'm sure you'll appreciate this.

[Nollette wraps aluminum foil over a badge and swipes it through a reader. The door opens and he walks to Arthur Grable's tank. Using a pen, he punches buttons on the control panel. The temperature display begins to rise, up to -312 as Nollette leaves.]

[Back at the Mahan Propulsion Laboratory, Roland is writing, with both hands, on either side of a notebook. The temperature in Grable's tank reaches -307 and Roland reacts, looking slightly ill. He continues to write equations in the notebook.]

FBI Regional Headquarters Seattle, Washington

[Scully and Mulder are reviewing the case. Scully reads from a file.]

SCULLY: Arthur and Roland Grable, born at Puget Presbyterian to Mr. and Mrs. Louis Grable on July 15, 1952. Arthur was four minutes older than Roland.

[She puts the file in front of him.]

MULDER: Identical twins.

SCULLY: Which means that they're the result of a single egg fertilized by a single sperm.

MULDER: I've read studies which suggest that in some cases the identical twin arises very early in the embryonic stage when a mutation in one cell is rejected by the other cells as foreign.

SCULLY: So that maybe Roland's condition is the result of a damaged chromosome rejected by one of Arthur's cells?

MULDER: In a way, that would explain Arthur's genius and Roland's strange mathematical gift.

SCULLY: In a way.

[The phone rings, Scully answers it.]

SCULLY: Agent Scully.

790

BARRINGTON: [on phone] This is Larry Barrington at the Avalon Foundation. We've, uh, got a situation here.

[Barrington is talking on a cell phone. He is near Arthur Grable's tank, which now reads -168.]

SCULLY: Uh-huh.

BARRINGTON: Last night we had a break-in at the facility.

[pause]

BARRINGTON: That's right. Yeah, it's Arthur Grable's storage unit. His internal thermostat's been compromised.

SCULLY: Was there any tissue damage?

BARRINGTON: We're trying to assess that now. The temperature's still rising. Something's blocking our access to the cooling program.

[Scully hangs up.]

SCULLY: Someone tampered with Arthur Grable's capsule. They're attempting to stabilize it now.

MULDER: Nollette?

[At the laboratory, Roland is operating the wind tunnel, typing rapidly on the keyboard. Roland is sweating. The temperature on Arthur Grable's tank continues to rise. The mach indicator hovers at 13.8 as Roland looks ill. He types some more on the keyboard and groans.]

ROLAND: What? What is it?

[He concentrates, and the temperature on Arthur Grable's tank goes from -158 to -161. He types again and the engine speeds up and the mach reading rises, to a high of 15.13. A bell sounds, and Nollette appears behind Roland. Nollette quotes Isaac Newton.]

DR. NOLLETTE: If I have seen further than other men, it's because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.

ROLAND: No. This isn't yours!

DR. NOLLETTE: It's amazing. There's this body, sitting there in front of me, talking. But you're controlling it, Arthur.

[Roland stands up.]

ROLAND: You ... took my work!

DR. NOLLETTE: What good was your work going to do you? You died before you could finish it, before you could publish it.

ROLAND: It was mine!

DR. NOLLETTE: And a brilliant piece of work, too. When I saw the writing on the whiteboard, I knew someone had found the key. Mach 15 was within our reach. Our futures were guaranteed. Ironic, isn't it? You did all the work, and I get all the glory.

ROLAND: [screaming] No!

[Nollette produces a gun from his pocket.]

DR. NOLLETTE: Yes. Yes, Arthur. I was here, working on the intake problem, moments away from a solution when you attacked me.

791

[he backs Roland away and sits at the controls]

DR. NOLLETTE: Fortunately, I was carrying a gun. After the murder of my colleagues, who could blame me?

[Roland sees a vision of Nollette flying toward the jet engine.]

ROLAND: No!

[Nollette is looking at Roland's work on the computer screen and typing.]

DR. NOLLETTE: That's, that's interesting. [laughs] I've got it. That's it. I've got it.

[Roland picks up a nearby keyboard and hits Nollette with it, knocking him to the floor.]

[Mulder and Scully arrive outside the laboratory. They pound on the door and flash their badges, and a guard lets them in.]

[The wind tunnel door closes with Nollette inside. At the controls, Roland struggles, then types. Nollette revives in the wind tunnel just as the engine starts. He goes to the window and pounds on it, looking at Roland.]

DR. NOLLETTE: Arthur! Arthur, open the door! Arthur!

[Mulder and Scully are running through the halls. Nollette moves back toward the tunnel inlet as the Mach indicator reaches 1.0. Scully swipes a badge through the door and they enter as Nollette grabs the metal grating in the tunnel. Mulder goes to the controls but doesn't know how to operate them. The wind speed is over mach 3.0, and Nollette is now hanging horizontally to the grate.]

MULDER: [to Roland] Arthur, how do you stop this? Tell me how! Arthur!

[Scully moves between Roland and Mulder.]

SCULLY: [to Mulder] Hey!

[to Roland]

SCULLY: Roland, we need you to help us. Please, we need you to help us to stop the machine.

[Roland is having flashbacks to the separation of the twins. A woman is saying "Bye-bye, Roland. Arthur, say goodbye to your brother."]

SCULLY: Try to remember how. Roland, you've got to help him or he's going to die.

[The tunnel is at mach 4.0. Nollette is barely hanging on. Roland has a flashback of the car carrying him away while the woman's voice says "Wave good-bye, Arthur." As the tunnel reaches mach 7.0, Roland goes to the keyboard but seems uncertain.]

MULDER: Come on, Roland.

ROLAND: I can't remember.

[He finally enters a command and the engine starts to slow just as Nollette loses his grip. He flies down the tunnel but lands several feet in front of the engine. Scully puts her hand on Roland's shoulder and gives him a reassuring nod.]

[The temperature of Arthur Grable's tank reaches -150 and an alarm goes off.]

[A Colson police car is in front of the halfway house.]

SCULLY: He'll be held in psychiatric custody for evaluation.

MRS. STODIE: Is he being charged with a crime?

792

SCULLY: The D.A. hasn't made that determination yet.

MULDER: But we've recommended that he be remanded to your custody as soon as the court deems it appropriate.

MRS. STODIE: How could this happen? Roland never exhibited any violent tendencies.

MULDER: It's my belief that he wasn't acting under his own volition.

[Scully gives Mulder a stare.]

MRS. STODIE: What do you mean?

[Mulder opens a notebook and shows it to her.]

MULDER: This is the work of Arthur Grable, Roland's brother. It's a new theory of jet propulsion, unfinished at the time of his death. In the last two weeks, Roland has completed the calculations.

MRS. STODIE: How?

[Mulder is about to answer but Scully interrupts.]

SCULLY: We're not sure, Mrs. Stodie. All we know is that Roland was somehow able to finish his brother's research.

[Roland is folding a shirt and putting it into a suitcase. Tracy enters the room.]

TRACY: Roland? Where are you going? Roland, don't go.

ROLAND: I have to.

TRACY: OK. Bye.

[Hurt, she walks toward the door. Roland calls her back.]

ROLAND: Tracy. Wait.

[He picks up his jar of stars and hands it to her.]

ROLAND: Keep my stars.

[She starts to cry as he walks past her.]

TRACY: I love you.

ROLAND: Me too.

[He passes Mulder and Scully in the hall, giving them a gesture of good-bye. He stops in front of a mirror to brush his hair and stares into the mirror before walking away.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Zeljko Ivanek (Roland Fuller/Dr. Arthur Grable) Micole Mercurio (Mrs. Stodie)

793

Kerry Sandomirsky (Tracy) Garry Davey (Dr. Keats) and James Sloyan (Dr. Frank Nollette)

Co-Starring:

Matthew Walker (Surnow) Dave Hurtubise (Barrington) Sue Mathew (Lisa Dole)

1x22 Roland - notes

From "X-Files Confidential": "Probably the weakest script from start to finish that I got," David Nutter admits. "I was really fortunate to get a really fine actor named Zeljko Ivanek, who was wonderful. I thought he was just great. Basically when I knew I had him, I thought it was important to push that as much as possible, to help outweigh the frailties in the script. I felt like it was a real strong character piece. Some of the shows are going to be like that. You're not always going to get the best scripts in the world, but if you get a good actor involved with it and really push that aspect of it, it will definitely help to make it better." Chris Carter concurs. "Just an amazing performance. This guy, Zeljko, should have won an award for this. I thought he was just fantastic. He was actually the first person to come in and read for this part, and then we had about ten people come in after him, but they just didn't get it. We cast this guy and he turned in a terrific performance which, for me, made the episode. Hats off to David Nutter and to the writing staff for falling in and making the episode really work." Glen Morgan offers, "Overall, ultimately it probably wasn't completely effective, but I think the show should do some softer, so to speak, episodes; episodes that demonstrate the paranormal isn't always horrifying. It can offer different notions of hope, a life afterwards, consciousness, and things like that." "You may not notice it in the episode, but there were a lot of scientific rooms and a wind tunnel to be created," says Graeme Murray. "It was all kind of fund. It was interesting for us just learning some of these things; we spent a lot of time in some of the scientific research places around Vancouver and in the universities." From "The Truth is Out There": Principal setting: Colson, Washington Back story: The episode contains one truly inspired and twisted visual gag, with the scattered markings on the floor indicating where the scientist's head had shattered after being forced into the liquid nitrogen. "Any shock and horror was eliminated," Chris Carter says, "by the laugh you got when you saw those little pieces on the floor." The actual moment is also dealt with offscreen by just the sound of the head breaking. Capping it off is Mulder's dry observation, "I don't think they'll be performing this experiment on Beakman's World." Actor Zeliko Ivanek (pronounced Zel-ko Eve-on-ek) was the first actor to read for the producers as Roland – who was seen as being pivotal in making the episode come across right dramatically – and "just blew us away," says Carter, to the point where they knew immediately he had landed the part. Born in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, Ivanek's credits include the movies Mass Appeal and Agnes of God. Margin note: Mulder tells Roland about a dream he (Mulder) had, wherein he dove down into a pool searching for his father. In the script, Mulder was searching for his sister.

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- Mulder tells Scully the case they are investigating is about a project that everyone says doesn't exist: the Icarus project, "the next generation in jet engine design, capable of doubling current supersonic speeds using half the fuel -- in theory anyway." In Greek mythology, Icarus was the son of the artisan and builder Daedalus, who built the Minotaur's Labyrinth and a number of intricate devices for King Minos of Crete. Daedalus fell out of favor with the king, and he and Icarus were imprisoned in a tower. To escape, Daedalus made two pairs of wings out of feathers and wax with which he planned to fly to freedom. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too low or the sea spray would wet the feathers, nor too high, or the sun would melt the wax. However, caught up in the ecstasy of flight, Icarus climbed too high, and, as warned, the wings melted and he fell into the sea

794 and drowned. The story of Icarus has become a cautionary tale against hubris and overreaching one's limits. There is also an asteroid, 1566 Icarus, discovered in 1949; it is also the title of a scientific journal of solar system studies and the name of a number of literary and film characters.

-- The episode contains one truly inspired and twisted visual gag, with the scattered markings on the floor indicating where the scientist's head had shattered after being forced into the liquid nitrogen. "Any shock and horror was eliminated," Chris Carter said, "by the laugh you got when you saw those little pieces on the floor." The actual moment is also dealt with offscreen by just the sound of the head breaking. Capping it off is Mulder's dry observation, "I don't think they'll be performing this experiment on Beakman's World.

-- Beakman's World was a kids science show which ran on CBS from 1992 - 1997 where the scientist (Beakman) answered questions about science and nature topics.

-- Mulder tells Roland about a dream he (Mulder) had, wherein he dove down into a pool searching for his father. In the original script, Mulder was searching for his sister.

-- This is one of those rare episodes where Mulder actually asks Scully about her personal life (perhaps to see if she has one). But just what kind of wedding did Scully attend anyway? "You mean the part where the groom passed out or the dog bit the drummer?" I hope she *did* catch the bouquet.

-- Mulder asks another personal question, and thus, in this episode, Scully confirms that she has two brothers, one older and one younger.

-- Actor Zelijko Ivanek (pronounced Zel-ko Eve-on-ek) was the first actor to read for the producers as Roland Fuller -- who was seen as being pivotal in making the episode come across right dramatically -- and blew the producers away, so much so that they knew immediately had had landed the part. Born in Ljublijana, Yoguslavia, Ivanek's credits included the movies Mass Appeal and Agnes of God.

-- Actress Micole Mercurio played Mrs. Stodie, the caretaker at the halfway house where Roland lived. A year later, she would play Midge Callaghan in the Sandra Bullock comedy While You Were Sleeping, with her husband played by Clyde Bruckman himself, Peter Boyle.

-- Kerry Sandomirsky, who played Roland's mentally challenged friend Tracy, returned to play Joanne in Season 3's "2SHY."

-- Garry Davey has appeared on the XF four times, as Hunter in "Eve"; as Dr. Keats in this episode; as the Captain in "End Game"; and as Bob Spitz in "Syzygy." And three other actors have appeared twice: Matthew Walker as Dr. Surnow in this episode, and as Dr. Arlinsky in "Gethsemene"; David Hurtubise as Larry Barrington in this episode and as the Pathologist in "Leonard Betts"; and Sue Mathew who played Lisa Dole in this episode and Agent Caleca in "Apocrypha."

-- Dr. Nollette's line, "If I've seen further than other men, it's because I have stood on the shoulders of giants," is a famous quote from Sir Isaac Newton that he wrote in a letter to Robert Hooke in 1676.

-- One of those wacky phrases that has appeared in numerous XF episodes over the years appears in this one: "Treat yourself." Sort of like "I think you know." I have never heard "treat yourself" in any other context except X-Files, but maybe I've missed something. Maybe it's a Canadian thing.

-- If you appreciate this episode for nothing else, you should appreciate it for Mark Snow's score. It's terrific.

1x23 The Erlenmeyer Flask - transcript

Writer: Chris Carter Director: R W Goodwin Original airdate: 13 May 1994

Transcribed by: Vic Edited by Libby

795

[A car speeds down a small hill in the road towards a shipworks, followed by a police car with sirens blaring. The car goes up a short hill and catches a few feet of air before hitting the ground. The police car does the same. The car does a sharp left turn as it passes a train. The train honks its horn as the police car follows pattern. The man in the car looks in his rear-view mirror.]

WOMAN ON APB WIRE: Roger your request for assistance, Fifty, what is your present location? Unit Fifty, go ahead.

[The man in the passenger's side talks into the transmitter. The cars race through a gate into a shipworks.]

OFFICER #1: Suspect is now westbound. Has entered the shade of the shipworks off April Street. Unit Fifty still in pursuit, over.

WOMAN ON APB WIRE: Roger, Unit Fifty, I copy. Be advised when you are...

[A truck backs up and the man swerves around it. The officer looks to his partner, a heavy-set man, who slams on the brakes and swerves to a halt. They drive around the truck. The man drives into a pier area with a dead end. He smashes into some boxes, seeing the police behind him. The skinnier officer gets on the bullhorn.]

OFFICER #1: This is the police! Pull your vehicle over and stop! Stop your vehicle! Put your hands on the roof and freeze!

[He turns around and sees the car coming towards him. He gets out. Nearly stumbling over a box, he runs to the fence behind him and jumps up. The heavier officer hits him in the back of the knee with the nightstick, sending him falling.]

OFFICER #1: Hold it!

[The suspect tries to get up but is met with more nightstick shots to the back.]

OFFICER #2: Get down there!

OFFICER #1: On the ground! Do it!

[The fatter one continues to prod him with it.]

OFFICER #2: Did you hear me?

OFFICER #1: Face down! Do it!

OFFICER #2: Stay there! Get down!

[A second police car pulls up. The suspect shrugs off the last shot to the head and grabs the first officer's nightstick. He swings it into his kneecap, nearly shattering it. The officer goes down in pain. A third officer gets out as the man drives the nightstick into the fat officer's gut, then smashes him in the face with it. The cop flies back into some boxes. The third officer runs to their aid, only to be greeted with a blow to the chest. A fourth officer, a young man, gets out and aims his taser at the man, who looks on his shock. The two conductors fly out and hit the man on his chest. He simply looks at them and pulls them out, then runs up a flight of stairs for boats. Two more cars pull up.]

OFFICER #4: Stop! Armed officer!

[The fourth officer takes out his gun and shoots the man in the side. He flinches. The officer shoots at him again as the man jumps off the stairs and into the water an incredible distance. The fourth officer and another one run up and look at the rippling water.]

OFFICER #4: I hit him. I know I hit him. Where the hell did he go? He'd be bleeding bad.

[The fourth officer notices some strange green spots on the last step. They look at each other, confused.]

Sunday, May 8, 1994

796

[Mulder is asleep on his couch. The TV is playing. Two scientists are talking in the show.]

MAN #1: The Lipari Island group off the coast of Italy. MAN #2: But, but theirs is a very light lava. MAN #1: That's exactly what stumped me. Because inside there must be something, the weight of the heaviest rock in existence. MAN #2: But, professor, that... that would be Icelandic peridotite. MAN #1: Precisely. MAN #2: There's a piece chipped off. MAN #1: By me. MAN #2: Well, what, what's the rock inside? MAN #1: Icelandic peridotite, naturally.

[The phone rings. Mulder wakes up.]

MAN #1: When I saw this, I stopped chipping. MAN #2: In a rock from Iceland?

[Mulder picks up the phone.]

MULDER: Mulder.

[Deep Throat is at an unknown dark location.]

DEEP THROAT: Are you watching channel eight?

[Deep Throat hangs up. Mulder hangs up the phone and sits up.]

MAN #2: ...across the world. MAN #1: What's your conclusion? MAN #2: Science does not jump to conclusions. Science is not a guessing game...

[Mulder changes the channel to channel eight, where the news is on. They are at the pier where the man jumped in.]

FEMALE REPORTER: ...Shipworks, where a sixty-mile high-speed car chase ended early this evening. The suspect eluded capture by leaping into the harbor but not before reportedly injuring several Ardis officers.

[Mulder takes a video tape and puts into the VCR, then presses record.]

FEMALE REPORTER: We have Captain Roy Lacerio standing by. Captain? How was the man able to escape and how seriously injured were the officers involved?

LACERIO: Those details are still unclear, I'll be talking with several of the off...

[A man comes over.]

MAN: We need you, Captain.

LACERIO: I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me.

FEMALE REPORTER: Captain Roy Lacerio here being pulled away during an intense manhunt.

[Lacerio walks past a number of people, a few of which are not police officers and are wearing trenchcoats. Mulder rewinds the tape.]

FEMALE REPORTER: Captain Roy Lacerio here being pulled away during an intense...

797

[Mulder and Scully are in the basement office, watching the video. Mulder pauses the tape.]

SCULLY: Mulder, you've been through this tape a hundred times. What exactly are you hoping to find?

MULDER: I don't know.

[He presses a button on a machine and a picture prints out of the current shot. It is of the various men in trenchcoats as Lacerio walks by. He looks at the picture. A man in the front is very evident.]

SCULLY: And all he told you to was to watch channel eight?

MULDER: Yeah, that's all he said.

SCULLY: Do we even know why the suspect was being chased?

MULDER: As far as I can tell, he wouldn't pull over for a moving violation.

SCULLY: Well, that ought to put him in the Ten Most Wanted list.

MULDER: There's got to be something here. Some detail. Something we're not seeing.

[He prints out a picture of the silver Ciera the suspect was driving. Scully looks at it.]

SCULLY: How do you know he's not just yanking your chain, this Deep Throat character?

MULDER: Why would he do that?

SCULLY: Well, he has lied to you by his own admission.

MULDER: I don't think he'd call if there wasn't something here... something I'm supposed to see. Something he wants me to see.

SCULLY: Then what are you missing?

[The Shipworks. Lacerio looks at the picture of the various people as Mulder and Scully look at him. Various people talk to each other in the background. Lacerio gives the picture back.]

LACERIO: Well, I don't know if you were aware but there were three different law enforcement agencies out here last night.

MULDER: Hunting a man on a moving violation?

LACERIO: I know it's not "Silence of the Lambs," but it's what we do.

MULDER: The man in the photograph doesn't appear to be wearing a badge or a uniform. He's not one of yours?

LACERIO: No, sir. But like I said, it was a zoo out here.

MULDER: You say the suspect was shot.

[They look at a scuba diver diving from a boat, searching the water.]

MULDER: Any explanation why the body hasn't been recovered?

LACERIO: Well, as you can see, we've got our search ongoing. Divers down there in shifts. We're quite certain he'll be found.

798

MULDER: It's been almost eighteen hours, Captain. Where could the body be?

LACERIO: Well, there are cables and debris all over the bottom. It's a painstaking business. Can I ask what the F.B.I.'s interest in this case would be?

[Scully looks at Mulder.]

MULDER: The suspect matches the description of a federal fugitive.

LACERIO: Really? How's that? No description of the suspect has been released.

[Mulder looks away, slightly embarrassed.]

MULDER: If you don't mind, can we take a look at the car, please?

LACERIO: It's been taken to impound.

[At the impound. Scully looks at a folder as Mulder is sitting in the front seat of the car.]

SCULLY: The report says that the car was registered to a rental agency in Gaithersburg. They had no idea that the car was even missing. You know, Mulder, I think that we're wasting our time here.

[Mulder gets out.]

MULDER: I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to find.

[He picks up the pictures, which he accidentally dropped, and moves to the front of the car.]

MULDER: You can't make out the license plate in this photo.

[He leans up against the red van in back of him. He looks at the picture again, then at Scully, who is reaching through the car window.]

MULDER: Hey, Scully, look at this.

SCULLY: What?

[She walks around to him.]

MULDER: Look at the car in this photo. Look at the windshield.

[She looks at the photo and sees there is a sticker on the windshield. The car in front of them does not have it.]

SCULLY: It's not the same car.

[Mulder shakes his head.]

[In the basement office, Scully looks at the picture of the windshield and the sticker under a magnifying glass.]

SCULLY: It's called a caduceus. It's sort of the adopted symbol of the medical profession.

MULDER: So, probably, only a doctor would have that on his car.

799

SCULLY: Mm-hmmm.

[Mulder fast-forwards the tape frame-by-frame. The quality looks to be better.]

MULDER: I had the picture enhanced and the plate is different. "3-A-Y-F."

SCULLY: Fast-forward.

MULDER: That's all you can make out. The rest is obscured.

[Scully advances the tape frame-by-frame as Mulder picks up the phone and dials someone's number.]

MULDER: Hey, Danny, it's Mulder. I need you to run a Maryland plate for me. All I got is a partial. Registered to a doctor. Or used to be. Yeah, I'll hold.

[He looks at Scully, who notices something on the tape.]

MULDER: They switched cars on us, Scully, and they lied about it.

SCULLY: Why would they do that?

MULDER: Maybe the, uh, real owner of the car has got something to hide.

Emgen Corporation Gaithersburg, Maryland

[Doctor Berube pours some reddish liquid into a container from an erlenmeyer flask and closes the lid. His hands are inside a glass case with gloves on. Monkeys squeal in the back. Mulder and Scully walk in.]

MULDER: Doctor Berube?

BERUBE: Yes?

[Mulder walks over to him and shows him his badge.]

MULDER: We're with the F.B.I., can we have a minute of your time?

BERUBE: I'm actually very busy.

MULDER: I'm sorry. Are you aware that a car registered to you was involved in a high-speed chase in Arlis yesterday?

BERUBE: Excuse me?

MULDER: A silver Ciera, doctor. Do you own a silver Ciera?

BERUBE: Yes. It was used for what?

MULDER: A crime. Were you aware that it was even missing?

BERUBE: Not until you mentioned it. I have a housekeeper and she often uses the car.

[Scully looks at a monkey in a cage next to her.]

BERUBE: It's a second car...

[Scully taps the cage bars and the monkey lunges at her fingers. Scully pulls her hand away as Berube and Mulder look at her. Other monkeys start making noises again.]

800

BERUBE: Please! They should not be excited. Nothing should be touched.

SCULLY: I'm sorry, I thought they were friendly.

BERUBE: They're part of an experiment.

MULDER: What kind of experiment?

BERUBE: Am I under some kind of suspicion?

MULDER: No.

BERUBE: Then I think I've answered all your questions. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have more work than time.

MULDER: Thank you.

[He and Scully walk out. They stop outside the door.]

MULDER: Did he bite you?

SCULLY: No, but he tried to.

[Mulder looks at his watch.]

MULDER: Well, it's almost five o'clock. We should check with the doctor's housekeeper about the car while we're out here.

[He starts off.]

SCULLY: No.

[Mulder stops and looks back at her.]

MULDER: "No?" What do you mean, "no?"

SCULLY: I mean, this has reached the point of absurdity, Mulder. We're out here on half a hunch off of a cryptic phone call chasing down a, a clue that's based on nothing but speculation.

MULDER: Well, that's all we've got.

SCULLY: That's all he's given us. Who is this Deep Throat character? I mean, we don't know anything about him. What his name is, what he does...

MULDER: He's in a delicate position. He has access to information and indiscretion could expose him.

SCULLY: You don't know that this isn't just a game with him. He's toying with you. Rationing out the facts.

MULDER: You think he does it because he gets off on it?

SCULLY: No. I think he does it because you do.

[She walks into the ladies' room, stopping and looking back at him for a moment.]

[Mulder's apartment block. Mulder gets out of his car and starts walking to his building. Deep Throat walks up behind him.]

DEEP THROAT: Calling it a night, Mister Mulder?

801

MULDER: My mother usually likes me home before the street lights come on.

[Deep Throat walks up to him and they start walking.]

DEEP THROAT: I'm surprised at you.

MULDER: Why?

DEEP THROAT: Your level of commitment seems to have diminished.

MULDER: My level of commitment?

DEEP THROAT: I should have expected that you'd be working through the night trying to put the pieces together.

MULDER: Well, maybe if you'd given me something more to work with.

DEEP THROAT: Under the circumstances, I've given you all I can.

MULDER: A news report?

DEEP THROAT: And where has it led you?

MULDER: Not very far.

[Deep Throat chuckles a little.]

DEEP THROAT: It may be further than you realized.

[Mulder stops in front of him.]

MULDER: You know, from day one, this has always been on your terms. I've gone along. Been the dutiful son. But maybe this time, we can just cut out the Obi-Wan Kenobi crap and you can save me the trouble.

DEEP THROAT: I fear you've become too dependent on me.

MULDER: Let me tell you something. I've got plenty to do without chasing down your vague leads or trying to decode your circular logic. Maybe it's you who's become too dependent on me ... on my willingness to play your games.

[Mulder walks off.]

DEEP THROAT: Mister Mulder?

[Mulder turns back.]

MULDER: What?

[Deep Throat walks up to him.]

DEEP THROAT: Don't give up on this one. Trust me. You've never been closer.

MULDER: Closer to what?

[Deep Throat sighs and walks away. Mulder sighs.]

[Emgen Corporation. Berube sits at his desk, looking through a microscope. A monkey rolls around in his cage and squeaks. Berube looks at him for a second, then goes back to his work. The door unlocks and a man walks in, remaining in the shadows.]

802

BERUBE: Hello? Hello? Who's there?

CREW-CUT MAN: Working late tonight, doctor?

[Berube stands.]

BERUBE: What do you want here?

[The man steps partially into the light. He is the Crew-Cut Man, and he is the man in Mulder's picture.]

CREW-CUT MAN: He's alive, isn't he? Has he contacted you?

BERUBE: Please. You're going to have to leave.

[The Crew-Cut Man bangs on the cages, sending the monkeys screaming. Berube runs over to him.]

BERUBE: If you're from the F.B.I., I've already answered all your questions!

[The Crew-Cut Man walks over to Berube's desk.]

CREW-CUT MAN: What questions?

BERUBE: I had nothing to say to them. I have nothing to say to you.

CREW-CUT MAN: Where's Doctor Secare?

BERUBE: I don't know what you're talking about.

[The Crew-Cut Man chuckles to himself slightly. Berube walks over to him.]

BERUBE: Please. My work is very important. I must get on with my work.

CREW-CUT MAN: I'm afraid...

[He turns and faces Berube.]

CREW-CUT MAN: Your work is done.

[Sounds of equipment breaking, glass falling and Berube groaning as the monkeys run around their cages, screaming.]

[At the shipworks. The men on the boat talk.]

MAN #1: Anybody see anything?

MAN #2: No.

[The scuba diver pops out of the water. Lacerio and a few other people watch on the shore.]

SCUBA DIVER: Nothing!

LACERIO: That's it. I'm calling it off. Get those guys out of the water.

[He walks off. Another man takes out his walkie-talkie.]

OFFICER: Yes, sir. Shore to R.C. One, bring it in.

803

[The men on the boat pull the scuba diver out of the water. ]

MAN #1: Visibility...

[They talk as the boat starts moving.]

MAN #2: There's nothing down there.

MAN#1: Three days. Forget it.

[As they drive by, they do not notice Doctor Secare sticking his head out of the water and looking around.]

[Emgen Corporation. Scully is reading the folder and Mulder stands next to her. In the photos, there are pictures of Berube lying face down, a roll of medical gauze around his neck. The next one is from a different angle, and the next is somebody's hand holding the medical gauze that is tied around his neck with another man pointing to a knot near his neck. Berube's shirt is open. The fourth picture is an even further close-up of the third. The final picture is of broken flasks covering the floor. Various policemen, agents and men in suits are in the background. The room is in shambles.]

SCULLY: The county sheriff's office is conducting the investigation. On the preliminary reports, it's being listed as a suicide.

MULDER: Suicide?

SCULLY: Yeah, they think that for whatever reason, he trashed his lab and then killed himself.

MULDER: How?

[He walks over to a desk with some glass containers on it. Scully follows.]

SCULLY: Well, it says he tied one end of a roll of medical gauze around his neck and the other end to this gas outlet.

[She puts her hand on a gas outlet that has medical gauze tied around it.]

SCULLY: Then he jumped.

MULDER: I don't suppose there were any witnesses?

SCULLY: Nope.

MULDER: The man we met yesterday kept this place like he was waiting for the people from Good Housekeeping to show up. I would have never pegged him as someone to do all this... or a Greg Louganis out the window.

[He looks out the broken window next to him.]

SCULLY: I know, that gauze is troubling.

MULDER: It's a bit too calculated, huh?

[He holds the gauze.]

MULDER: Almost as if someone wanted to make doubly sure he'd break his neck before he hit the ground.

[He throws the gauze away and starts walking. Scully follows.]

MULDER: What else do we know about Doctor Berube?

804

SCULLY: Ummm... "Terrence Allen Berube. Harvard Med., 1974." He was working on the Human Genome Project. Are you familiar with that?

MULDER: Yeah. The mapping of all human genes. Maybe the most ambitious scientific endeavor in the history of mankind.

[He walks past her.]

SCULLY: Right, but there's nothing extraordinary about that. I mean, there were thousands of scientists working on that project.

[Mulder looks at a glass, then puts it down.]

MULDER: Yeah, but only one who owned a silver Ciera and went bungie-jumping with medical gauze wrapped around his neck.

[Mulder opens up a metal case.]

SCULLY: I'm sorry, Mulder. I'm seeing the pieces but I'm not seeing the connection.

[He takes out the erlenmeyer flask containing the red liquid. It has a label on the bottom that reads "Purity Control."]

MULDER: Well, maybe that's just it. Maybe we're not seeing it because it can't be seen, not in any obvious way. What do you think this is?

SCULLY: I don't know.

MULDER: Well, can you find out for me?

[Scully sighs and takes the vial.]

SCULLY: What are you going to do?

MULDER: I'll see what else I can find out about Doctor Terrance Allen Berube.

SCULLY: Okay, Mulder, but I'm warning you... if this is monkey pee, you're on your own.

6:30 p.m.

[Mulder pulls up to Berube's house. He gets out of the car and rings the doorbell twice. He takes a piece of mail that reads: "Dr. T.A. Berube 2650 W. 1st Ardis Maryland 149376". He goes back to the door, then walks around the side of the house. He sees that a window to the cellar is open and he climbs inside.]

Georgetown University Microbiology Department

[Dr. Carpenter, a woman who works there, feeds a sample of the bacteria into a machine with a microscope. Scully stands next to the computer.]

CARPENTER: My first impression is it's some kind of bacteria specimen. Can I ask you where you got it?

SCULLY: It was recovered at a crime scene.

CARPENTER: Well, we've come a long way from Colonel Mustard in the den with the rope, haven't we?

[Scully laughs as Carpenter types.]

SCULLY: No, I'm expecting it'll turn out to be nothing.

805

[Carpenter looks at the computer screen.]

CARPENTER: No... no, you've definitely got something here.

[There are a few white balls on the screen which have little holes, looking like some sort of bacteria. She zooms in.]

CARPENTER: Wow... look at this.

[It zooms in slowly.]

SCULLY: What are they?

CARPENTER: Well, they're the size of bacteria but no bacteria I've ever seen.

SCULLY: How do you mean?

CARPENTER: Well, most bacteria are symmetrical and smooth. These are... I don't know. It's strange.

SCULLY: You have no way of identifying them?

CARPENTER: Well, we could do a freeze fracture. Take a thin slice off and see what's going on inside these babies. If you don't mind waiting.

SCULLY: No, no, I'll wait.

7:45 p.m.

[Mulder turns on Berube's desk lamp and sits down in his chair. He opens up a drawer and looks through the files. Stopping at a telephone bill, he takes it out and sees that there are many calls to the same number: "[301] 555-2804." He picks up the phone and starts dialing.]

MULDER: Hi, Danny. Yeah, it's Mulder again. Look, I got a number this time. 555-2804. Area code 301. I need an address, a name if you can get it for me. All right, I'm at... same prefix... fifteen-seventeen. All right, thanks, Danny.

[He hangs up and puts the telephone bill away. A white van pulls up outside the house. Mulder opens up the top drawer and pulls out a set of keys. He pockets them and the phone rings. Outside, the Crew-Cut Man sits in the front seat, headphones on, a satellite dish in hand to pick up the phone call. Mulder picks up the phone.]

MULDER: That was fast.

SECARE: Terry? Is that you?

[Mulder pauses.]

MULDER: Yeah. Who's this?

[Secare is standing at a phone booth.]

SECARE: They shot me, Terry. Oh, God.

[The Crew-Cut Man is listening intently.]

SECARE: I've been in the water for three days. I'm hurt.

MULDER: Where are you now?

SECARE: I'm at a pay phone.

806

MULDER: I'm going to pick you up. Where are you?

[Secare grabs his bullet wound in pain. A man in a leather jacket walks by.]

SECARE: Terry...

[He slumps down against the glass. The man stops.]

MULDER: Hello?

MAN: Are you okay?

MULDER: Are you there? Hello?

[The man takes the phone.]

MAN: Hello? This man's been hurt here. I, I think he needs medical attention. He's in pretty bad shape.

MULDER: What's the street? What's the street?

MAN: I'm gonna call an ambulance.

MULDER: Sir?

[The man hangs up. Mulder slams the phone down in anger. He stands and the phone rings. He picks up and sits down.]

MULDER: Don't hang up.

DANNY: I got it.

MULDER: Hi, Danny.

[The Crew-Cut Man takes off his headphones.]

MULDER: Let me get the address...

DANNY: All right, you ready?

[Mulder reaches over and takes some paper. As he does, he sees the white van.]

DANNY: Mulder?

MULDER: I'm just writing it down now, go ahead.

[The van speeds off.]

DANNY: All right, the number belongs to a company called Zeus Storage.

MULDER: Yeah...

DANNY: Sixteen-sixteen...

MULDER: Sixteen...

[Mulder writes this down.]

DANNY: Pandora Street.

807

MULDER: Sixteen... Pandora Street.

DANNY: That's it.

MULDER: All right, thanks.

[Danny hangs up. Mulder does right after.]

[An ambulance speeds down a road carrying Secare, who does not have a shirt on.. A man is pumping an oxygen mask over his mouth while another is talking to headphones.]

MAN: OK, we've got a white male, forty, weak vitals and signs of severe dyspnea and hypotension. He also has what appears to be a green fluid coming from a wound in his right upper quadrant.

[The other man takes off the oxygen pump and starts taping the wound.]

MAN AT HOSPITAL: I don't know what the hell that is. Is he responding to ventilation?

MAN: No, and we're noticing those rope veins at the neck and a hyposonant sounding chest. He's going real blue on us now.

MAN AT HOSPITAL: Okay, you've got a tension pneumothorax. I want you to perform a thoracotomy and release the pressure in his chest.

[The man turns to the other man.]

MAN: Okay, we're going to need a cannula. We're going to do a needle decompression.

[The second paramedic hands the first one a needle and a cannula. Secare's head lifts up as the paramedic pushes the needle in. He looks at the two as air rushes out and they cringe, holding their eyes. The second man coughs. The ambulance swerves off the road.]

MAN AT HOSPITAL: Mobile van, what's going on?

[The driver falls out of the car. Secare plucks the needle out.]

MAN AT HOSPITAL: Mobile van, can you hear me?

[Secare opens the doors and runs out.]

MAN AT HOSPITAL: Mobile van, answer me! Mobile van, what is the problem? Mobile van, come in please!

[Georgetown University. Scully is phoning Mulder.]

MULDER: Mulder.

SCULLY: It's me.

[Mulder is driving.]

MULDER: He's alive, Scully.

SCULLY: Who?

808

MULDER: The fugitive, the driver of the silver Ciera. He called the doctor's house while I was there.

SCULLY: Where is he now?

MULDER: I don't know. Where are you?

SCULLY: I'm at the Georgetown Microbiology Department.

[She sighs.]

SCULLY: I've got something for you.

MULDER: Is it smaller than a silver Ciera?

[She walks over to Carpenter, who is sitting at a computer.]

SCULLY: Much. And it's not silver, it's green.

MULDER: What is it?

[On the computer, there is a picture of the freeze fracture. It is green with little blue spots.]

SCULLY: Some kind of bacteria, each containing virus and it looks as if Berube may have been cloning them. They also contain something that looks like chloroplasts... Plant cells. But they, they've never seen anything like it here.

MULDER: Any idea what he could have been doing with them?

SCULLY: Well, the only reason why you clone a virus inside a bacteria is in order to inject it into something living. It's called gene therapy and it's still highly experimental.

MULDER: Well, maybe that's what he was doing with those monkeys. Can they tell you anything else there?

SCULLY: Yeah, they're just about to run some primary cell cultures and a DNA sequence.

[She walks away from Carpenter.]

SCULLY: Now, I may be understating the strangeness of this, Mulder. Bacteria like this... it may have existed, but not for millions of years, not since before our ancestors first crawled out of the sea.

[Mulder pulls up at Zeus Storage.]

SCULLY: Are you there, Mulder?

[Mulder does not answer.]

SCULLY: Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah, Scully. Keep up the good work.

[Scully exhales sharply, feeling cast away.]

[Mulder walks in and down a flight of stairs. He sees a number of doors. He looks through the keys and sees one marked "1056." Walking to the door with the same number, he unlocks it and slides the door open. Inside, he sees five glass cases, like aquariums, each hooked up to various computers. Inside each case is a naked man, perfectly still. As he walks past them, he looks at them in disbelief. Suddenly, one of them moves. Mulder realizes that they are all alive and breathing underwater.]

Georgetown University Microbiology Department

809

11:45 p.m.

[Scully is sleeping on a couch in the employee's lounge. Dr. Carpenter walks in and closes the door. She nudges Scully on the shoulder.]

CARPENTER: Agent Scully?

[Scully wakes up.]

SCULLY: Oh, Doctor Carpenter. I fell asleep.

[Dr. Carpenter sits down next to Scully. She holds out a piece of paper that has a pattern of dashes up and down the paper until a point where they become sparser.]

CARPENTER: I've done some work. These are the DNA sequences from the bacteria sample you brought in. You seem to know something about molecular biology. Do you know what you're looking at?

SCULLY: Yeah, I think those are genes.

CARPENTER: Right. They're called base pairs. Each pair is made up of something called a nucleotide. Only four nucleotides exist in DNA. Four. And through some miracle of design that we have yet to fathom, every living thing is created out of these four basic building blocks. What you're looking at is a sequence of genes from the bacteria sample. Normally, we'd find no gaps in the sequence. But with these bacteria, we do.

SCULLY: Why is that?

CARPENTER: I don't know why. But I tell you, under any other circumstances, my first call would have been to the government.

SCULLY: What exactly did you find?

CARPENTER: A fifth and sixth DNA nucleotide. A new base pair. Agent Scully, what are you looking at... it exists nowhere in nature. IT would have to be, by definition... extraterrestrial.

[Zeus Storage. Mulder walks out of the building and sees a white van pull up. Two men get out. He starts walking the other way and sees that they are following him. A third man comes running at him. He runs down an alley and jumps the fence. He runs down that side of the alley as fast as he can until he turns a corner, stops and draws his gun. Seeing no one, he runs the other way.]

[Mulder's apartment. It is morning. Mulder walks in and sees his phone is ringing.]

MULDER: Hello.

SCULLY: Mulder? Where on God's earth have you been? I've been trying to call you all night.

MULDER: I had a situation. I left my phone in the car.

SCULLY: Mulder... that bacteria I had analyzed... they're saying that it doesn't exist in nature.

[Mulder sits down.]

SCULLY: They're saying that it could be extraterrestrial.

MULDER: Scully...

810

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: How soon can you be here? There's something I got to show you.

7:30 a.m.

[Mulder and Scully pull up. Mulder's car is still parked out front. Mulder walks towards the building and Scully follows.]

SCULLY: Wait a second... Mulder?

[He stops.]

SCULLY: I, I just want to say that I was wrong.

MULDER: It's all right, don't worry about it.

SCULLY: No, um... if you'd have listened to me, we wouldn't be here right now. I should know by now to trust your instincts.

MULDER: Why? Nobody else does.

[She smiles.]

SCULLY: You know, I've always held science as sacred. I've, I've always put my trust in the accepted facts. And what I saw last night... for the first time in my life, I don't know what to believe.

MULDER: Well, whatever it is you do believe, Scully... when you walk into that room? Nothing sacred will hold.

[He looks at her and walks in. She follows. Downstairs, he unlocks the sliding door and walks in, flicking on the switch. The room is completely barren except for a table. He walks to the middle of the room and she follows.]

MULDER: There were tanks here and five bodies suspended in solution. There were computers monitoring them. They were alive, Scully, underwater.

SCULLY: What happened to them?

DEEP THROAT: God only knows.

[They turn to see Deep Throat standing in the doorway, carrying an envelope. He walks over to them.]

DEEP THROAT: Most likely, they've been destroyed.

[He looks at Scully and nods to her.]

DEEP THROAT: Miss Scully. I believe we've met ever so briefly.

MULDER: Destroyed by whom?

DEEP THROAT: I don't know.

MULDER: I don't believe you.

DEEP THROAT: There are limits to my knowledge, Mister Mulder. Inside the intelligence community, there are so-called "black organizations." Groups within groups conducting covert activities, unknown at the highest levels of power.

MULDER: There were three men last night, I was chased.

DEEP THROAT: Hmmm. If you were chased, you would have been killed. Those men are trained for that sort of business and they are trained well.

811

SCULLY: Were those the same men who killed Doctor Berube?

DEEP THROAT: Presumably.

SCULLY: Why?

DEEP THROAT: Why? Good lord, you've worked so hard and you still don't see it.

MULDER: Doctor Berube was conducting human experiments with extraterrestrial viruses.

DEEP THROAT: Yes, but that's been going on for years. We've had the tissue since 1947 but not the technology.

MULDER: Roswell?

DEEP THROAT: Roswell was a smoke screen, we've had a half-a-dozen better salvage operations. Doctor Berube was killed because his work was too successful. You're standing in the room where the first DNA transplant took, the first human-alien hybrid was created.

[He puts the envelope down on the table and opens it up, spreading pictures over the table.]

DEEP THROAT: Six volunteer patients, all terminally ill.

[He holds up a picture of Secare.]

DEEP THROAT: One, Doctor William Secare, an old friend of Doctor Berube's, was dying of melanoma cancer. And as a result of the E.T. gene therapy, all six patients treated in this room began to recover from their illnesses. Doctor Secare was able to live a more or less normal life. As normal as possible for a man who has developed inhuman strength and the ability to breathe underwater.

[Mulder starts to walk around.]

MULDER: That's how he was able to elude capture.

DEEP THROAT: Hmmm.

SCULLY: What was he running from?

DEEP THROAT: Doctor Secare was never supposed to have survived. Doctor Berube's research was part of a top secret government project being run out of Los Alamos. All they were interested in was the technology, the science. To have a hybrid living out in the real world? Too great a liability. What if he should need emergency medical procedure? The man has a blood chemistry that is alien and very likely toxic. If that story should hit the press...

MULDER: It was just easier to kill Doctor Secare.

DEEP THROAT: Of course. There was only one problem. He was Doctor Berube's old friend and he was able to warn him.

SCULLY: There's just one thing I don't understand. Why you gave us so little to go on in the beginning and why are you giving us so much now?

DEEP THROAT: I didn't anticipate the speed and precision of their clean-up operation. They're systematically destroying all the evidence... Doctor Berube, the bodies here. Without the evidence, you two have no case. Who would believe the story I just told you? You must put together everything that you have found and you must find Doctor Secare before they do. I'll have no further contact with you on this matter.

[He walks out. Mulder and Scully look at each other. After, they walk out.]

SCULLY: I'm going to get back to Georgetown and get all the lab work.

812

MULDER: I'm going to find Doctor Secare.

SCULLY: Where?

MULDER: I don't know. I'm going to trust my instincts.

Georgetown University

[Scully walks into the employee's lounge and sees various female doctors lounging around, drinking coffee, eating lunch and reading.]

SCULLY: Excuse me? I'm looking for Doctor Ann Carpenter. I've been unable to reach her by phone and she's not in her office.

WOMAN: She was in a terrible car accident, her whole family. And Doctor Carpenter is, um... dead.

Berube Residence Ardis, Maryland

[Mulder unlocks the front door and goes inside. He looks around and hears a thump from upstairs. He draws his gun and slowly walks up the stairs, waiting before turning each corner. Another thump comes from the attic door above him. He climbs up and looks around the dark room.]

MULDER: Doctor Secare?

[He starts walking to the back of the attic when Secare jumps out from behind him and tackles him into the wall, knocking the gun out of his hand.]

MULDER: Wait!

[Secare punches him, literally sending him flying across the room into a pile of boxes. Secare picks him up by his trenchcoat.]

MULDER: I'll protect you.

[Secare looks at him strangely. A gunshot sounds and Secare's head jerks back. He falls to the floor, letting Mulder see the Crew-Cut Man standing up through the hatchway, gun in hand and gas mask on. Mulder looks down at Secare and sees that he has been shot in the back of the neck, green ooze fizzing out. He gasps in pain and starts holding his eyes, coughing. He falls to his knees.]

[Later, Mulder lies on the floor, hands and feet tied. His phone is ringing. Two men in the back carry the doctor's body down the stairs, both wearing gas masks. The Crew-Cut Man walks over, kneels next to Mulder, and takes off his gas mask. Mulder's eyelids, nose and mouth are inflamed.]

CREW-CUT MAN: Your cellular phone's been ringing off the hook.

MULDER: I'm a popular guy. Why don't you answer it for me?

CREW-CUT MAN: Oh, I don't like talking on the phone. I have this thing about unsecured lines. When you feel like talking, let me know, though.

6:10 a.m.

[Mulder's apartment block. Scully pulls up and gets out of the car. She walks over to the door and presses the button to the buzzer in Mulder's apartment. Deep Throat walks around from the side of the building.]

DEEP THROAT: He's not home.

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[She looks at him.]

SCULLY: Where is he? He's been gone all night.

DEEP THROAT: I wish I knew.

SCULLY: Something's happened to him.

DEEP THROAT: They won't kill him.

SCULLY: How do you know that?

DEEP THROAT: He's become too high-profile and you've got evidence that could expose them.

SCULLY: I don't have any evidence. They took the evidence and they may have killed in order to get it.

DEEP THROAT: Listen to me. Evidence still exists.

SCULLY: Where?

DEEP THROAT: It might be difficult to obtain but with your medical background, I might be able to get you inside.

SCULLY: Inside where?

DEEP THROAT: The high containment facility at Fort Marlene, Maryland.

SCULLY: What do they have there?

DEEP THROAT: The wellspring, Miss Scully. The original tissue. If they've got Agent Mulder, they might be willing to make a deal. It could save his life.

Fort Marlene High Containment Facility

[Scully walks in carrying a briefcase, an I.D. attached to her trenchcoat. Two doctors walk up to a guard in front of a door. The guard checks one of their credentials and pushes a button, opening the door. The first doctor walks in. Scully looks up at the video camera positioned above the door. The second doctor leaves and Scully walks up to the guard. She shows him her I.D. which reads: "6D Dana Scully, MD 26-38-90 Class A Bio-Medical Division" There is a picture of her next to the writing.]

GUARD: Clear.

[He pushes the button and the door opens. She walks through and turns right. A man closes a filing cabinet and walks past her. He looks back at her for a second, then keeps walking. Scully looks back at the man and puts the briefcase in the other hand. She walks past a few more doctors until she reaches the elevator. The board next to it reads: "Level 7 Cryology Level 6 Virology Level 5 Oncology Level 4 Radiology Level 3 Immunology Level 2 Toxicology Level 1 Admin Level G Security" She plucks the I.D. off her trenchcoat and runs it through the keycard sensor. The machine beeps and the doors slide opens. She walks in and pushes a button. The doors close. On the seventh floor, she walks out of the elevator and to a door with a sign that says "Cryology." She slides her I.D. through the keycard sensor, which beeps. She opens the door and closes it behind her. She slides her I.D. through the next keycard sensor, which beeps a different way and does not switch from a green light to a red light. There is a speaker above the sensor. A guard speaks through it.]

GUARD: Name?

[She looks at the speaker, then walks over to the glass pane. She sees the guard sitting there.]

SCULLY: Dana Scully.

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GUARD: Company or institution?

SCULLY: Federal government.

GUARD: Project password?

[He takes a pen and prepares to write something down. Her face goes blank, she looks at the alarm bell, then at the video camera. The guard looks at her and presses the intercom button again.]

GUARD: Project password?

[She thinks back.]

SCULLY: Purity control.

[He writes it down, then starts tapping number out on a keypad. The door unlocks. She opens it and walks over to the guard.]

GUARD: Log in, please?

[He holds up a clipboard, which she signs. She walks through an open door. She enters a room where there are glass-fronted cabinets containing canisters. Wearing rubber gloves now, she opens a door marked "Purity Control." She slides out the nitrogen canister and opens off the lid. Reaching in, she pulls out a metal container with glass all around it. It contains a small alien fetus-like creature.]

[Night. Scully sits in her car on a bridge, waiting. Another car drives up a short distance behind her. She gets out of the car, carrying a box that presumably contains the evidence. She walks over to the other car and Deep Throat rolls down the window.]

SCULLY: You're late.

DEEP THROAT: Do you have it?

SCULLY: Yes.

DEEP THROAT: Good. They're willing to make the exchange.

SCULLY: You spoke to them?

DEEP THROAT: Yes.

[He reaches out his window.]

DEEP THROAT: I'll take the parcel.

SCULLY: No, sir. I'll make the exchange.

[He pulls his hand back in.]

DEEP THROAT: I made the deal, Scully, they're expecting me.

SCULLY: I don't trust you.

DEEP THROAT: You've got no one else to trust.

SCULLY: I don't know who you are. I know nothing about you.

815

DEEP THROAT: Oh, for God's sake, don't screw this up! Let me tell you something you should know. In 1987, a group of children from a southern state were given what their parents thought was a routine inoculation. What they were injected with was a clone DNA from the contents of that package you're holding as a test. That's the kind of people you're dealing with!

SCULLY: So why give it back to them?

DEEP THROAT: To save Mulder's life.

SCULLY: At the risk of so many other lives?

DEEP THROAT: Oh, it's the tip of the iceberg. You and Mulder are the only ones who can bring it to light.

[He reaches out again.]

DEEP THROAT: Now, give me the parcel.

[She stares at him, not knowing what to do. A white van briefly pulls up in the distance.]

DEEP THROAT: Give me the parcel, Scully.

[She hands him the package and runs back to her car. As the van passes her, she looks at the man driving the car. He is the Crew-Cut Man. He looks at her as he drives by. She gets in her car. The van pulls up next to Deep Throat's car. The two men step out of their cars as Scully breathes deeply, watching in her rear-view mirrors. Deep Throat hands the Crew-Cut Man the package. Scully turns around and watches through her back window. The Crew-Cut Man walks over to his open door, puts the package, turns around to face Deep Throat, and shoots him.]

SCULLY: No!

[Deep Throat falls to the ground. The back doors to the van open and a man pushes Mulder out onto the concrete. Scully runs towards the van with her gun in hand. She goes to Mulder as the van drives away.]

SCULLY: Mulder. Mulder!

[He groans. She checks his pulse and runs over to Deep Throat. She feels his neck and opens up his jacket, revealing the gunshot wound.]

DEEP THROAT: Trust...

[She lifts his head up so he can speak.]

DEEP THROAT: Trust... no one.

[He exhales sharply. And with that, Deep Throat dies in Scully's arms.]

Washington, D.C. 13 Days Later

[Scully is asleep in her bed. She wakes with a startle. Looking at the clock, which reads 11:21, she takes deep breaths. The phone rings and she picks it up.]

SCULLY: Hello?

MULDER: Hey, Scully. It's me.

SCULLY: Where are you?

[Mulder is sitting in his apartment with the lights off.]

816

SCULLY: They're shutting us down, Scully.

[Scully sits up.]

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: They called me in tonight and they said they're going to reassign us to other sections.

SCULLY: Who told you that?

MULDER: Skinner.

[He spits out the word.]

MULDER: He said word came down from the top of the executive branch.

SCULLY: Mulder...

[Mulder still seems amazingly placid.]

MULDER: It's over, Scully.

[Scully is in disbelief.]

SCULLY: Well, you have to lodge a protest. They can't...

MULDER: Yes, they can.

[He nods to himself. Scully sits in silence for a few seconds.]

SCULLY: What are you going to do?

MULDER: I'm... not going to give up. I can't give up. Not as long as the truth is out there.

[Scully hears a click. She lowers the phone from her ear.]

[In the hidden room in the Pentagon, the Cigarette-Smoking Man turns a corner and walks through a narrow row of shelves in the same room that he hid the communications device taken out of Billy Miles so long ago. He walks over to a box that is labeled "Evidence, 16604." He holds up a jar that contains the alien fetus in it. He looks at it, then puts it in the box, which contains many others like it. He pushes the box back onto the shelf and walks all the way down the hallway. He walks out and closes the door, then runs his keycard through its sensor. The sign on the door reads: "In Case Of Fire Or Emergency Know Your Exits PENTAGON Evacuation Procedure" There is a map of the Pentagon next to it. The Cigarette-Smoking Man walks away.]

Starring:

David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully)

Guest Starring:

Lindsey Ginter (Crew Cut Man) Anne DeSalvo (Dr. Anne Carpenter) Simon Webb (Dr. William Secare) and Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat)

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Co-Starring:

Jim Leard (Captain Lacerio) Ken Kramer (Dr. Berube) Phillip MacKenzie (Medic)

Featuring:

William B. Davis (Smoking Man) Jaylene Hamilton (Reporter) Mike Mitchell (1st Uniformed Cop) John Payne (Guard)

1x23 The Erlenmeyer Flask – commentary (R.W. Goodwin)

Transcript of the DVD Commentary by R.W. Goodwin

Transcribed by Libby

Hi, I'm Bob Goodwin. I directed this episode, The Erlenmeyer Flask, which was our season finale the first year, and one of the episodes that sort of helped kick us up into kind of hit status there.

[A car is being driven at high speed, followed by a police car. The chase goes into a shipyard, narrowly missed by a train, and ends on a pier. The suspect tries to flee but is caught by the police officers. A fight ensues, more police officers arrive. The suspect is tazered to no effect, and is then shot. He falls from the pier into the water, disappearing from view.]

This opening piece, here, all these shots of these cars chasing each other with the train, and flying over the tracks, and stuff, a lot of those were shot by JP Finn, who was our line producer and he directed this big piece of the second unit, did a great job, got a lot of excitement. This was a place called Versatel Shipyard, which was an abandoned shipyard in north Vancouver, as you could have seen in that last shot there, it has a beautiful view across the water in downtown Vancouver. Since then, of course, it's been mostly dismantled and now is being rebuilt as luxury condominiums and that sort of thing, but at the time it was perfect for us, it was a great spot for us to stage this exciting chase and fight and eventually this character, who's called Doctor Secare, played by an actor named Simon Webb who was a local man in Vancouver. He seems to have inhuman strength and, you know, the ability to withstand anything including the tazer gun and to elude the police that were coming at him, he just simply dove into the bay. Really exciting teaser, it was one of the most exciting ones. This episode was the first episode I directed. I was with the show for five years as Co-exec producer and Exec producer and was lucky enough to direct about nine episodes altogether, but this was my first one and when I read the script I was, sort of, had two completely mixed emotions. I was absolutely thrilled because the script was just incredibly well written and Chris Carter wrote it, but it was also extremely difficult, it was just packed to the top with action and effects and odd and weird goings-on.

[The main titles, with a different tag.]

'Trust No One'. I think that's the first time we didn't use 'The Truth Is Out There'.

[Mulder is asleep on his couch. His television is showing 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'.]

I love that clip. James Mason and Pat Boone in an old technicolor movie.

[He is awakened by a phone call from Deep Throat, who suggests changing the TV channel. Mulder does so, and watches a news broadcast from the shipyard about the chase.]

Deep Throat - he'd been on all that first season, he was Mulder's sort of link to the nefarious goings-on, the government and hidden forces behind them were plotting. So now, we saw the guy dive into the water, but it's now nighttime so it's some time later and he's still not appeared.

818

[Mulder is showing Scully the tape he made of the newscast.]

This next little sequence which was beautifully shot -

[Mulder prints off a screen capture, with one dark-suited man shown clearly.]

Lindsey Ginter was one of our early bad guys, here we called him the Crew Cut Man, and again like all of our bad guys, extremely nice guy, very gentle soul.

[Mulder prints off another screen capture. He thinks there's some detail they're not seeing. Scully wonders if Deep Throat is yanking Mulder's chain.]

And you probably see that Gillian at this point is a few months pregnant. This was shot in May, I believe, April/May and she gave birth to Piper four months later.

[Back at the shipyard, Mulder shows the print of the Crew Cut Man to the police officer in charge. Divers are still searching for the missing man.]

Again this was one of those scenes that was serendipitous because of that beautiful sky, you know, the sunset and fading in the background. Of course, we were all in blind panic because we had such a busy, hectic day shooting that whole opening chase and the fight and the dive into the water, all of that stuff that we had to do, that we were just fighting to not lose the light here at the very last minute.

[Mulder and Scully have gone to the car pound to look at the car the suspect was driving.]

You see, Mulder is a clever guy, you know, nothing gets past him.

[Mulder compares the car to one of his screen capture prints.]

Look at this, he's gonna make a ... something, a discovery that probably none of us would make.

[There's a sticker on the windscreen of the car in the print but there's no sign of it on the car in the pound. Later, in the basement office, Scully views the print under a magnifying glass and identifies it as a caduceus.]

OK, we got our first clue, it's a Caduceus and he was probably a doctor.

[Mulder had the tape enhanced and identifies a partial plate. He phones Danny for help in identifying the plate.]

I think Danny was David Duchovny's brother's name, so Danny became this unseen character that we called all the time for stuff.

[Danny has found the information and Mulder and Scully visit Dr Berube in his animal laboratory.]

Here was a scene - this is a guy named Ken Kramer, a really good actor, played Doctor Berube, and the big challenge in this scene is we had all these monkeys that we had, had to be all crazy on cue. Among other things, the room was quite warm and the monkeys had been there for a little while, I mean it wasn't uncomfortably warm, but warm enough so that there was this extremely ripe odor permeating this room.

[Scully gets too near one of the cages and the monkey reacts angrily.]

The monkeys actually did a pretty good job, I mean it was a bit of trickery here and there, staging it and shooting it in such a way that you could piece it all together, but all of the little moments that were required, somehow they managed to pull it off for us.

[Mulder and Scully leave and Dr Berube returns to his work.]

This guy looks a little untrustworthy, doesn't he? Of course, I don't think you can trust anybody on the X-Files.

[Mulder suggests checking with the doctor's housekeeper about the car. Scully objects, saying that it's absurd, relying on a clue that's based on nothing but speculation.]

819

So again, now, Deep Throat is obviously deeply involved in whatever this mythology, this secret goings-on that somehow Mulder is insistent upon uncovering.

[Mulder returns to his apartment building where Deep Throat intercepts him outside and says Mulder's commitment has diminished. Mulder asks for more information, but Deep Throat says under the circumstances he has given all he can.]

So Deep Throat was this sort of enigmatic guy who for some reason would dole out just as much information as he wanted to and then stop and withhold information so that his motives were always very questionable and of course somebody, you know, would wonder why or how you could trust such a guy, so Mulder played it right, he played it as he could.

[Mulder questions whether Deep Throat has become dependent on Mulder's willingness to play his games. Deep Throat urges Mulder to keep going as he's never been closer – but doesn't tell Mulder what he's close to.]

You see, he just keeps urging him along, trying to persuade him to discover something even though he doesn't know what it is. And here we are back with our monkeys and this was a challenge getting our monkeys to all act crazy and nuts like that. They probably had good reason because in comes the Crew Cut Man.

[Dr Berube denies knowing where the suspect, Secare, is and the Crew Cut Man attacks and kills him.]

Now if you do the chronology here, I think two days had passed because it was daylight when the strange man jumped into the bay, and then we saw sunset and then it was daylight again and now it's night again, so this is the second night and the guy has been gone, disappeared in the water, ever since.

[Back at the shipyard, the search is called off. As the divers return to land, Secare surfaces.]

For this sequence, we actually designed a method to shoot the scene in real time in the real place. In other words, the actor, Simon Webb who played Doctor Secare who has now been in the water for at least two days, we actually had this actor reading through to on a crane that we had under the water that we had levered so that we could actually raise him up out of the bay, but the timing of it wasn't quite right. It worked, he came up and you know it was a fascinating shot, but the timing wasn't right, it was all done as one shot so I had to take him back later and shoot that piece of his head coming up out of the water in a tank on the stage. What we didn't know when we cast him in the part and later found out was that he had a phobia about water, he was absolutely terrified of it, and so here this poor guy, actually the first night spent all that time in the cold, icy waters of north Vancouver, hiding, crouching down so that he could be lifted up by the crane, up to make his big reveal on the surface of the water, and he spent the whole night just absolutely terrified at the prospect of having to do that. And then, unfortunately, it didn't really work so we had to bring him back and put him in the water, and even in the little four foot tank on stage he was just as frightened of that, so that's what you call going beyond the call of duty.

[Mulder and Scully are investigating the crime scene in Berube's lab. Mulder looks at various pieces of equipment, then picks up an Erlenmeyer flask labeled 'Purity Control'.]

That, see, is the Erlenmeyer Flask, that's where we get the title of the episode. Purity Control - now that isn't cryptic, that doesn't lead to some interesting thoughts.

[Mulder asks Scully to analyze the liquid in the Erlenmeyer flask, to which she responds: 'Okay, Mulder, but I'm warning you. If this is monkey pee, you're on your own.']

No, it wasn't monkey pee, we had enough of that already, we had enough of the real deal.

[Mulder goes to Berube's house.]

So Mulder now has to go to Doctor Berube's house to see what he can see.

[Mulder rings the doorbell, but there's no response.]

And Mulder being Mulder, doesn't really have to follow the rules, I mean, technically I suppose he has to have some kind of a search warrant to actually go into this house but for him it's easier just to sneak in the back window.

[Scully has gone to Georgetown University and consults a biologist. A screen attached to a powerful microscope shows what the biologist has found in the Erlenmeyer flask.]

820

Now these, I think, were real, I think these were viruses there or something. Paul Rabwin managed to find these for us somewhere in L.A. but they were something odd but something real that we felt looked alien enough.

[Back in Dr Berube's house.]

So he's been in this house for quite a while. I guess he still hasn't found anything but now suddenly he's getting something that's going to help.

[Mulder finds an itemized phone bill, showing many calls to the same number. He phones Danny for help in identifying the name and address for that phone number.]

Look, there's Danny again, good old Danny.

[Through the window behind Mulder, a van can be seen driving up and parking on the street.]

This was, of course, a tiny bit of a challenge, finding a location that would work right for this so that we could stage the scene in such a way that that van could pull in behind and this microphone was a creation of the props department.

[The phone rings but it's not Danny, it's Secare using a payphone. The driver of the van, the Crew Cut Man, points a microphone at the house and listens to the conversation. Secare collapses and a passer-by picks up the dropped phone and fails to tell Mulder where Secare is.]

No, but, listen, don't hang up the phone, no don't, tell him where you are before you - oh. Isn't that just like that.

[The phone rings again and this time it's Danny. Mulder then notices the van. Danny gives Mulder the address: Zeus Storage, Pandora Street.]

Oh, oh my goodness. So now the plot thickens even more. So this next place, this Zeus Storage that Mulder's been led to, this offered an interesting challenge.

[In an ambulance, paramedics who are treating Secare determine that he has a pneumothorax and push a cannula into his chest. The air that is expelled is noxious.]

Oh, this sequence here, this was an ambulance, actually Chris got this idea because of a real event in L.A., a woman was brought into the emergency hospital someplace, I think Lakewood or something like that, and when they went to, I guess intubate her or something, and they had to break through her skin, she suddenly emitted some noxious gas that actually knocked out the doctors and the nurses in the room. I'm not sure they ever found out what it was all about, but Chris kind of put that together and said, well, that's a great thing for aliens, you know, aliens probably have that and so that's what led to this sequence with the alien gasses escaping from the body and blinding our poor paramedics.

[The ambulance comes to a halt. Secare recovers sufficiently to escape from the ambulance.]

For a skinny little guy, this doctor, boy he sure is a tough guy.

[Scully phones Mulder who tells her that Secare is still alive.]

What is nice is them all in Georgetown Microbiology Department to stay up so late and help her out.

[Scully tells Mulder that what has been found is some kind of bacteria, each containing virus, and Berube may have been cloning them.]

'Cloning them' - so this was the beginning, I mean I guess we had some elements of the mythology through the first season, but this Erlenmeyer Flask was the first, the one that really sort of ramped it all up and really kind of churned up the pot, everything, and it was interesting we got, a lot of people watched this and we kept building our rating all through the season and apparently enough people were intrigued by it because when we came back at the beginning of the second season there was suddenly a whole lot more people watching than we were used to.

[Mulder has arrived at Zeus Storage.]

Zeus Storage, Pandora Street, maybe that's a box that they shouldn't open. So Scully, you know, her skepticism is being shaken. This shot here is a zoom in dolly out which kind of gives an odd effect, a little bit of mystery thing as Mulder is looking at the key, but we had to create this room now, this lab, where he's going to go into this room and find some very mysterious things

821 going on. This was a set that we built on the stage, I designed it so that I could do all the shots I needed to do, you'll see a big crane shot towards the end, but it was a challenge to figure out to do this one, because what he sees is a room with all these tanks and in these tanks are what appear to be a bunch of naked men. What we're finding out is that they're cloning, they're making clones of these alien hybrids. And the question was how do we do this, the first one of the thoughts we would create these bodies out of plastic or some form, just to sculpt them and then make them, but that proved to be not only expensive but probably not very effective, so ultimately what I decided to do was we hired a bunch of guys who were scuba divers and they were used to spending a lot of time under water without a problem and they weren't averse to coming in and getting naked, so we had these naked men in these tanks and we had provided them a breathing tube so that between takes they would breathe and they would take a deep breath and then they'd put the tube down, they'd hide it when we were ready to make a take, and it became a very popular set, especially the ladies in the office, there seemed an awful lot of people interested in filming at that particular time.

[At Georgetown University, the biologist tells Scully that her research has shown that the bacteria have two extra DNA nucleotides, not found in nature, so would have to be extraterrestrial.]

I'm not sure she ever quite says it right - 'extraterrestarol'. Keep in mind this is the first season and Scully is very skeptical of all of this alien nonsense that Mulder is believing in. So, did she say that right or not? 'Extraterrestrial'. Anyway, here comes Mulder.

[Mulder leaves Zeus Storage. The van drives up. Crew Cut Man and another man get out and Mulder walks away. A third man approaches him and Mulder runs.]

This is the sequence where I first discovered how fast David Duchovny can run, he's a very athletic guy and this was a big chase sequence and he had to jump a fence and run down the alley. He, again, doesn't like to use stuntmen, he likes to do everything himself. I think we possibly used stuntmen in one big wide shot going over the fence, but for the most part this was all David and the problem we had here was keeping up with him. I had a golf cart to start with and he just passed that like a bolt of lightning and ultimately I ended up having to be on a regular pick up truck that could travel up to 50 miles an hour just in order to keep up with him running down that alleyway. And that was a lesson learned because when David was supposed run, he ran, he didn't hold back, he didn't want to hold back and he didn't hold back so it was up to us to figure out ways to keep up with the guy.

[Mulder has returned to his apartment. The phone rings – it's Scully.]

You can see here that Scully, oh excuse me, that Gillian is starting to show just a little bit of her pregnancy.

[Scully tells Mulder that the bacteria could be extraterrestrial. She collects him from his apartment and they drive to Zeus Storage.]

So, another one of these great X-Files moments, he's going to take her back and show her all the naked guys and, you see we kept her in some coats and things to kind of keep her covered up over there, she was starting to show a little bit, I think she was in about her fourth month or something.

[Before they enter the building, Scully tells Mulder that she was wrong, that she'd always trusted science but now doesn't know what to believe.]

Nice moment between the two of them, clearly we're seeing the evolving character of Scully as she's starting to at least be open to more of the ideas that Mulder has been espousing. And here we go, now finally he has the proof, he's gonna show her just exactly what these people are doing - or, is he?

[Mulder unlocks the door, but the room is now empty. Scully asks what happened to the bodies, which Deep Throat answers: 'God only knows.']

There he is. Boy, that guy Deep Throat, he just shows up at the oddest places at the oddest times.

[Deep Throat says he doesn't know what happened to them, but there are secret groups at the highest levels of power.]

Of course, this is just the beginning of this theme within the intelligence community, government, there are these black groups, these hidden secret agendas going on, and god knows what they're all about, but they're there. Mulder knows that, he's always known that. His job is to uncover it.

822

[Deep Throat says that experiments with humans and extraterrestrials have been going on for years, that the tissue has been available since 1947 but not the technology.]

Human-alien hybrids were created in this very room and as we'll see over the next few years, the program has gotten only bigger and bigger and bigger.

[Deep Throat says that Secare was a volunteer as he was dying from melanoma cancer, and he and the other patients recovered from their illnesses but had acquired inhuman strength and the ability to breathe underwater.]

So that's why that little skinny guy was able to stay under water and all that, he has inhuman strength, he can breathe under water.

[Deep Throat explains that Secare wasn't supposed to have survived, that a living hybrid would be too great a liability, especially if he needed medical procedures.]

So Scully is obviously having trouble with this, but it's hard for her to deny it, I mean she's knows a that lot of these events have occurred.

[Deep Throat says Mulder and Scully have to put together everything they have found and they must find Secare.]

So Deep Throat's an interesting character, it's like she said, you didn't give us much to begin with and now you give us so much. It is a little unclear what his motives are but clearly they're not completely up and up.

[While Mulder looks for Secare, Scully goes back to Georgetown University where she learns that the biologist and her family have been involved in a car accident and the biologist is dead.]

And once again, part of this over-reaching conspiracy, the doctor who found that alien virus is killed with her whole family in a mysterious car accident. And now Mulder is back to Doctor Berube's house but something's wrong here.

[Mulder hears a sound from upstairs. He eventually locates Secare hiding in the attic.]

This attic, of course, was a set that we built on stage because it's very difficult to find an attic in a real house that has the room to stage a scene and get a crew in with their cameras and lights and all that sort of stuff, so this was built. But here's a very good example of how this ongoing aspect of aliens and their blood being toxic to humans, has this terrible effect on people.

[Secare attacks Mulder who assures him that he'll protect him.]

Oh, no, he won't protect him.

[A shot rings out. Crew Cut Man has shot Secare. Crew Cut Man is wearing a gas mask. Noxious gas emanates from Secare, affecting Mulder who collapses.]

Not good.

[The clean-up operation is underway. Mulder is on the floor, hands bound, showing signs of the effects of the noxious gas around his eyes and mouth.]

Well, once again, Mulder came very tantalizingly close to solving the mystery but was stopped at the last minute by the bad guys. This was apparently very painful this makeup, or at least very uncomfortable, for David, he had to wear it for quite a while.

[Scully arrives at Mulder's apartment block. Deep Throat appears. He says that Mulder won't be killed because he's too high-profile. He says there still is evidence, it would be difficult to obtain but Scully might succeed, and it could be used to trade for Mulder.]

So what do you do in a situation like this. You got a guy you can't trust, but on the other hand you don't have anything else to do. I mean, you're sort of up against a wall, so poor Scully, she's kind of got to forward with what he's suggesting. She's got to save Mulder's life.

[Scully goes to the high containment facility at Fort Marlene.]

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Another one of those great X-Files moments where Scully makes this discovery here in this secret lab where she's managed to get false ID and get herself in. Of course, once she's through that door she doesn't have any guarantee she's ever going to get back out again. And again, this next sequence is kind of an example of how talented our craftspeople were on the show, props and art department and that sort of thing, because they had to create this wonderful little creature in this cool little container. And again, this was one of those moments where I was, as a director, getting nervous about whether or not we were going to able to pull it off because what we found was that we had to use dry ice to create the effect of the smokiness coming out of the container but what that did was it had a very sort of adverse effect on the prop itself. And we found after the first take that pieces of it were starting to break off and flake off and that sort of thing, but fortunately we had a back-up, one back-up, and we got the shot.

[Eventually Scully reaches the required floor where she is asked by a guard for the project password which she doesn't know.]

'Purity Control', 'Purity Control'.

[She suddenly realizes.]

Good work. That Erlenmeyer flask proved to be worth its weight in gold.

[The guard lets her in. She enters a room where there are glass-fronted cabinets containing canisters.]

Now here we are. So this whole little set was designed and everything just for this one moment and this was where we discovered that we were in danger of not getting the sequence because this little object in this container was being frozen by the dry ice and was breaking and cracking and falling to pieces. But, as you'll see, we got lucky and we got a couple of shots that made it work great.

[Wearing thick gloves, she opens a door marked 'Purity Control'. She slides out the canister and opens the lid. She pulls out a container holding an alien fetus.]

That little alien baby.

[Later that night, Scully is parked on a bridge and Deep Throat drives up to trade the alien fetus for Mulder.]

So this sequence here, which is the last sequence in The Erlenmeyer Flask, and again another one of our season finales with the great ending. It was a really difficult experience for me because what happened was that this particular bridge that we chose was sort of under the jurisdiction of two different authorities. On one side was the Port of Vancouver and the other side was the City of Vancouver, and in order for us to shoot there we had to have some Port policemen with us as well as some City policemen with us, and I had planned the entire night because it was done in late April, and in April the nights are getting pretty short because we're pretty far north in Vancouver so it didn't get dark until late and it was going to get light very early, and unfortunately the police officers who were supposed to be with us were not there and we were not allowed to shut this bridge down until the officers arrived. So I ran up to the top of this huge factory building that was nearby to get this big high shot that sort of gave us the wide sweeping view of everything. We were all ready to shoot as soon as the policemen got there and then it was just a race against time, and I think the sequence came out great, I mean I was really happy with what we got and it seemed to work well in the show, but this closeup of Gillian, this was her only dialogue in the whole scene and I had held off on her close-up because I knew that in the worst case scenario these close-ups I could shoot on a stage or somewhere else, I could fake the night because it's not that big an area to cover, so I shot all of the wide stuff like the van coming up the road and the meeting on the bridge and all of that sort of thing first, and saved the closeups to the very end. In point of fact by the time we shot Gillian closeup the sky was already starting to lighten. And she was upset because, rightfully so, she had been waiting all night long to do her dialogue and she was very tired by the time we got to it, but I promised her if it didn't work, if it was not acceptable, that we'd reshoot it and I would make sure that she looked great. Well, as it turned out she was just fantastic, she was just wonderful in the scene.

[The Crew Cut Man arrives in his van. Deep Throat gets out of his car and hands over the alien fetus. Crew Cut Man then shoots him. Mulder is pushed out the back of the van.]

And here again, this is one of these moments that people sort of always remember about the X-Files because this was the first time a regular character, Deep Throat, was killed, just completely shocking to people, it was the shock, how can you kill off a regular character on the show? And of course he says the famous words:

[Scully runs over and checks Mulder, then Deep Throat. Deep Throat's last words: 'Trust, trust no-one.']

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'Trust no-one' - well, that's good advice especially if you're an FBI agent named Scully or Mulder. Trust no-one. And there's that wonderful ending shot.

[A bird's eye view of the bridge and the city lights beyond.]

[Later, Scully is in her apartment, in bed.]

This is of course the ending of this episode is a moment that will occur more than once over the course of the years, but it's one of the first times that Mulder's been confronted with this thing and was one of David's first emotional moments and he was just real good at it, really really good at it.

[Her phone rings. It's Mulder to tell her that the X-Files has been shut down.]

So, can this all be true? Kill Deep Throat and now they're going to shut down the X-Files.

[Mulder says he can't give up as long as the truth is out there. Elsewhere, Cigarette Smoking Man deposits the alien fetus in a box containing many others. He exits the room which has a sign on it showing it is in the Pentagon.]

'The truth is out there'. And of course this nice moment is recreation of the scene in the pilot, where Cigarette Smoking Man had gone in the pilot into this warehouse and now of course he's putting the fetus of the alien. And at this point we don't even know who this mysterious man is, except he's in the Pentagon.

1x23 The Erlenmeyer Flask - notes Video box set commentary by Chris Carter:

I had been wanting to do a story about alien genes and alien hybrids, and the idea that there were scientists who were using this material from aliens that had been collected or recovered or salvaged, and trying to mix them with human DNA. And so, for the first time, I think, we have Scully in a situation where she has a scientist, someone like herself, a doctor, say to her, you are looking at something that is essentially extra-terrestrial, and it's a big, big moment for her.

1616 Pandora

The address of the storage facility where Mulder finds these tanks with these bodies in solution is, I believe, 1616 Pandora; which, to be honest, is the actual address of the warehouse that we used. I had come up with an elaborate address that had some kind of strange significance to genetics, and we got to the location and they said, so you want us to paint a sign for this place, and it's supposed to say this, this, and this... and I said, no, you know, I think 1616 Pandora is actually a better address. It is an opening of Pandora's Box, in a way, so I thought it was very useful.

In cahoots with Aliens

The Erlenmeyer Flask, which is the season-ender for year one, was something that I had thought about all year long. I think that it was an episode that really, I feel, established a mythology: what the government may be up to, how they might be in cahoots with the aliens. For me it was the result of a year-long learning experience and I think that it may have been, really, the signature mythology episode; not only a sign to the audience of what we were capable of, but certainly a realization for me, of where we could take this show if we explored these different avenues of government conspiracy and turn it into more than just flying saucers. It became about mankind and about science and the misuse of it. From "X-Files Confidential":

Says Chris Carter, "'Erlenmeyer Flask' brings back nothing but good memories. It just has terrific images in it; it really brought the series in its first year full circle. It was successful in doing what we wanted to do, which was to close down the X-Files. It shocked a lot of people. Glen told me he got a message on his machine when the show ended, a woman with a shaky voice saying, 'What have you done?' They couldn't believe we had killed off a very popular character and closed the X-Files. I think it led us into the second season in a very interesting way."

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"That was another case where we had to fight the network," Glen Morgan notes. "They said, 'Closing the X-Files is completely unacceptable. We will not air it because people will believe the show's been canceled.' My response was, 'It's your job to let them know it hasn't, and this is the best way to end the season."

"That was a big show for us," says Graeme Murray, "creating all the tanks that the bodies were floating in. We tried to make this kind of life support facility that looked real but also had an eerie aspect to it as well. That was a big set show and pretty interesting; a show where the script really inspired everybody to do the best job they could do."

For Robert Goodwin, who directed this season finale, the episode held special meaning. "In terms of a challenge, and coming at the end of the season – after a real long, tough time – this was a very difficult show, demanding physically, mentally, and every other way. It's the hardest series I've ever worked on. At the end of a very long year, the cast and crew were so tired, yet they all took a deep breath and just aid, 'Here we go, guys,' and they gave the finale a two-hundred-percent effort. There's not one department that fell down. Everything about that episode is absolutely first class. The acting, the art direction, the camera work. There's nothing in it that isn't the best you can get, and that's really a credit to a lot of very talented people."

A highlight of the production for Goodwin was a sequence in which Scully is sitting on a bridge, waiting for Deep Throat to show up. His car finally arrives and she crosses the bridge to reach him.

"She's now got the alien fetus she's taken from a top-secret facility," Goodwin explains, "and he says, 'Okay, give it to me, I'm going to make the exchange [for Mulder]." She says 'No, I'm going to do it.' Scully's very distrustful of him. Mulder's disappeared, she's stressed out. What happened was, the night we shot that scene, we had a little scene to shoot somewhere else and we had to move over to this bridge. The plan was to get there an hour before it got dark so we could block the scene, and I had one shot I wanted to do, which was way up high on this crane elevator. We got to the location to block the scene. One end of the bridge was handled by the Vancouver police, and they didn't show up. By the time they got there, I had lost an hour. My plan had originally been to shoot this high scene, get down on the bridge and shoot this dialogue scene, the little piece with the two of them at the car where she's not going to give him the embryo. Then we go and do all the physical stuff that was needed for the whole sequence.

"Because of the hour lost," Goodwin continues, "I realized that the one part of it I could shoot on a stage was the dialogue: essentially two close-ups of them talking. So I didn't do the dialogue. I did everything else first. What happened was, I finally got to the dialogue and it was five in the morning. All night long, all these actors have been running back and forth and getting shot and dropping dead and doing all the things they had to do. And Gillian was very tired. Now I wake her up – she's been sleeping in the back of the car – and I say, 'Okay, let's do the dialogue.' And she got angry, rightfully so. Actually, not really angry. She was tired. I said, 'Listen, we're about the lose the darkness. The sun is going to come up in about twenty minutes. Let's just shoot it. If it's no good, I promise you we won't use it.' She said okay. The same thing with Jerry. We shot the scene and the both of them were so tired and stressed that it came out so strongly on film and was great. It taught me a lesson. If I'm in a similar situation, I'm going to do the same exact thing. If you look at her performance, she's just wonderful. We never had to reshoot it." From "The Truth is Out There":

Principal setting: Washington, DC Back story: By taking the shocking step of killing off Deep Throat, Carter wanted to establish that other than perhaps the leads "everyone is expendable" on the series – a way of keeping viewers guessing as to what twists and turns may occur. Disbanding the X-Files unit also separated Mulder from Scully, providing the means to work around Anderson's pregnancy through the start of the second season.

Jerry Hardin, who played Deep Throat, recalls that his death scene was the sort of big dramatic moment "you want to take your time on and get perfect. The truth of the matter is, we were fighting the light like crazy" to get the shot completed in time before the sun came up. "It was about to be dawn," he recalls.

The episode received a nomination for an Edgar Award, an honor presented by the Mystery Writers of America. Margin note: The closing sequence of this episode exactly tracks the closing few minutes of the series pilot, right down to the time: 11:21.

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From Tiny Dancer:

Very familiar ending to this ep, not Deep Throat's death, but the phone call at 11:21 and Cancer Man shelving the paperwork deep within the belly of the Pentagon, just like The Pilot ep. From CarterPhile: Original Air Date: 5.13.94 Episode # 1x23 Season One Finale "Trust No One" The Erlenmeyer Flask was the first season finale, an episode rich with mytharc expansion, a deepening of the relationship between Mulder and Scully, and two stunning events within the final minutes. Written in early April of 1994, just over a year had passed since the Pilot had been filmed. The ratings had been less than stellar, (and the numbers would have meant certain death on any of the Big Three networks) but the fan base was growing. People who had discovered the show were turning their friends on to it, and the cult status of the series was attracting positive press. Still, at the time Chris wrote this script, this was the last contracted episode. There was no guarantee that there would be a second season, no way of knowing whether there would be more stories to tell. No way of knowing, as he typed the final THE END of the script, whether he was also marking the end of the series. In constructing this cliff-hanger, Chris just exploded the basic mytharc into the human/alien hybridization project that continues to be the richest vein in the series: that humans could be injected with alien DNA and not only survive but become more powerful, that the government is in it up to their tight white collars, and that even the insiders don't know all the players on the field. The death of Deep Throat is a stunning conclusion to the episode, and as much as I hated to lose him, the dramatic "rightness" of the moment underscores Chris' deft touch and brilliant pacing. It threw down a gauntlet, declared nothing sacred, and put us on alert: Anything Can Happen Here. (Since his previous television work was primarily comedies, I presume that Deepie was the first of his on-going characters that Chris ever killed off. That's not an easy thing for a writer to do, and I applaud him for making the artistically correct choice. And, of course, we have since enjoyed a few re-appearances of Deep Throat, notably in The Blessing Way and Talitha Cumi.) Then, a further surprise: "They're shutting us down." The X-Files assignment is over, the agents are reassigned. What will happen to Mulder's quest? Fortunately for all of us, the decision-makers at Fox wanted to know, too, and renewed the series for a second year. (That second year would start up where this one ended, with the agents working in separate units, a preparation for the opening arc of stories designed around Gillian Anderson's unexpected pregnancy.) The ending of this episode is a direct and deliberate parallel to the Pilot. The scene of Scully in bed, awakened at 11:21, and receiving a call from Mulder with news of the higher-ups trying to stop their work, followed by the CSM in the Pentagon warehouse, filing away more proof of extra-terrestrial life, bring the show full-circle to where we began. (Chris's Libra tendencies showing. *g* Had the series ended here, there would still have been a completeness to it, even without the answers we all so desperately wanted.) By the end of Season 1, Chris had written seven episodes (including the Pilot) and co-written two others, his most prolific year to date. And while that total included what is considered to be (by him, as well) his weakest script, it also included the foundation scripts upon which the series was built: not just the Pilot, but Deep Throat as well. And one of the best of the standalone eps, Darkness Falls. To cap it off with The Erlenmeyer Flask was just wealth beyond measure. Script Notes: The script contains three drafts: April 8, 1994 (white), April 14, 1994 (blue), and April 18, 1994 (pink). The script begins: OPEN HARD, INTO: EXT. CITY STREET - DAY A SILVER SEDAN comes flying at us, coming off a hill. Traveling at high speed. Followed momentarily by a POLICE CAR in hot pursuit. And then a 2nd POLICE CAR. CAMERA PANNING as the cars zoom off into an abandoned shipworks yard. INT. SQUAD CAR - DAY A squad car, traveling at high speed. TWO UNIFORMED COPS shadowing the erratic driving of the silver sedan which we see through the windshield. The dizzying sound of rapid engine acceleration; the yelp-scream-wail of three-phase sirens. (If the audience isn't holding on tight to the arms of their sofas during this, the sequence isn't hairy enough.) Act One opens: FADE IN: INT MULDER'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

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The room is dark. Only the dancing light from the TV illuminates the room. CAMERA TRACKS LOW across stacks of books, crime photographs, X-file folders strewn on the floor, the sofa and the coffee table. FINDING Mulder's stocking feet propped up on the table. A small hole in the big toe of his right sock. A LEGEND appears: SUNDAY, MAY 17, 1994. (This was changed in the filmed version to May 8, 1994.) MULDER is slumped on the couch. He's fallen asleep reading, an open X-file lying across his chest. ANGLE ON TV where Walter Pidgeon, as Professor Morbius, is talking to Anne Francis about his creation of a master race in a scene from the 1956 sci-fi classic, Forbidden Planet. CLOSE ON MULDER dead to the world, until THE PHONE RINGS. His eyes blink open. It takes him a moment to get his bearings before he reaches down on the floor where among the pile of folders he finds his portable phone. Which he answers. The episode was originally set not in Ardis, but either in Annapolis (page 6 of the blue draft) or Ardmore (page 13 of the blue draft). Well, he knew he wanted it to start with an A, anyway ... *g* The description of the printing of the Polaroid pictures: ZWIIIIIIIT. Another picture is born. This script is full of two things Chris often does: great scene-segues (such as when we see Scully holding the photo, and the camera pushes in tight to the picture, pulling back to have us now in another scene, with the police captain taking the photo) and scene-reprises (such as the angle on Crewcut Man coming into Dr. Berube's lab re-creating Mulder and Scully's earlier entrance.) In the script, when Scully and Mulder leave Dr. Berube's office and talk in the hallway (prior to Scully walking into the restroom), Dr. Berube is shown listening to their conversation from his side of his office door. The end of Act One: NEW LOW ANGLE ON THE WATER with the dock and the floodlights far in the b.g. (background) The divers are being pulled into the search boat. Which, when they have gotten aboard, is throttled up, heading toward and then passing us. CAMERA HOLDS as the wake curls and breaks the dark water, the reflection from the bright light in the distance coruscating off its surface. HOLDING until the water settles, undisturbed except for the natural movement of tide and currents. Until A MAN'S HEAD slowly breaks the surface, stopping with the waterline just over the tip of his nose. It is the Fugitive from the Teaser, his eyes wary and watchful, like some kind of sea creature who does not have to breathe. Off this tight, disturbing image, we: END ACT ONE. When Dr. Carpenter examines the contents of the Erlenmeyer flask under the microscope: on screen are numerous elliptical objects with strange craters, bumps and outgrowths. (PRODUCTION NOTE: To achieve this we'll have to use magnified pollen.) I've always loved the way that, when Mulder calls Danny from Berube's house and gives him the phone number to track, then the number at which to call him back, he doesn't read the "555" again, instead saying, "The number's the same prefix, 1517." Think Chris hates how phony the requisite tv-land-only 555 phone numbers sound? *g* In case you're wondering, the script does not list the original address he planned for what morphed into 1616 Pandora Street. These are the scenes when Mulder enters Zeus Storage: INT. STORAGE FACILITY HALLWAY - NIGHT FAST TRACKING SHOT moving down a long dimly-lit hallway with doors on both sides, moving toward a single door at the end. Stopping at this door as Mulder enters. CAMERA TRACKS slowly backwards with Mulder as he moves down the hallway. He looks closely at the doors, each marked with a number, each secured with a padlock. Finally stopping at a door with the number 1056. ON MULDER'S HAND reaching into his pants pocket, pulling the set of keys he took from Dr. Berube's desk out. He fingers the keys which have the numbers 1056 stamped on them. He puts one of the keys in the padlock. It pops open. INT. STORAGE ROOM - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS As the door opens and the dim light from the hallway spills through. Mulder steps in, not quite believing what he is beholding. As he steps in, his disbelieving eyes coming tight into frame, a faint blue light plays across his features. WIDE ANGLE ON STORAGE ROOM - SIX TANKS are lined from one end to the other. Coffin-sized but half again as tall, filled with water or some kind of clear liquid. Inside each is a HUMAN BODY, lying prone but suspended horizontally in solution. (Discreetly hiding their "modest parts" from view by being in semi-fetal positions.) Attached to each are a number of thin white wires that lead to sensor patches fixed to points on the head, the heart and the lower back. MULDER enters frame, moving along these tanks.

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THE BLUE GLOW is coming from SIX COMPUTER SCREENS opposite the tanks which are monitoring the state of the bodies. The information on these screens is changing constantly, reflecting heart rate, blood pressure, brain activity, etc. RESUME MULDER Stopping at the last one which we see is EMPTY. Then he fairly jumps when the body next to it MOVES SLIGHTLY. A gentle stretch indicating that the bodies in the tanks are alive. As we: END ACT TWO When Mulder and Scully return to Zeus Storage the next morning, there is this exchange: SCULLY ...I should know by now to trust your instincts. MULDER Why? Nobody else does. She smiles with an affection for him that will never be spoken. As Deep Throat explains to them the experimental gene therapy that was performed on the bodies: Scully looks from Deep Throat to Mulder like they have just accepted the fact that pigs can fly. Scenes 49 and 50 were switched in the filmed version. The script has Act Four opening with Scully being approached by Deep Throat outside Mulder's apartment, followed by the scene in which we see Mulder bound in the attic, face swollen by the toxic fumes from the green goo, while Crewcut Man and his cohorts wrap Dr. Secare's body. When Scully removes the alien fetus from the nitrogen tank it was to be: Curled up in, what else?, the fetal position. After Scully sees Deep Throat shot: She bolts from the car, pulling out her gun as she does and running at the van. RACK FOCUS on van. The back doors fly open and Agent Mulder's limp body is kicked out onto the street. ON SCULLY running on fear and adrenaline. Coming to Mulder's body. His slight movement tells her he is still alive, though his eyes are still swollen shut and he looks like he's been through the works. Twice. The closing scenes begin: INT. SCULLY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - CLOSE ON SCULLY hard asleep when something wakens her with a START. Was it a bad dream? She lies with her eyes wide open, her head up off the pillow for a few moments, her breathing shallow and tight. Slowly she puts her head back on the pillow, though she remains awake, in thought. (PRODUCTION NOTE: This scene is a reprise from The Pilot. It will be played tight, therefore the set can be two walls, or a minimal arrangement.) When THE PHONE RINGS on the night table next to the bed. Scully reaches over, lifts the receiver. The time on the clock is 11:21. X-Files In-Jokes: * The ending of this episode mirrors the ending of the pilot, Mulder calls Scully at 11:21 (Chris Carter's wife's birth date), and the Smoking Man stores proof of alien existence deep within the Pentagon. * 1013 - The room containing the people in tanks is behind door number 1056 - Chris Carter's birth month and year * The alien fetus is being kept at the High Containment Facility at Fort Marlene. While there is no real-life Fort Marlene, there is a Fort Dietrich in Maryland-a site known for its experimentation with biological weapons. Is the X-Files fort an homage to Marlene Dietrich, or a play on the actual Fort Dietrich in Maryland? * Tag Line - the familiar "The truth is out there" tag line in the opening credits was changed for the first time in this episode. It was replaced with "Trust no one" - the phrase uttered by Deep Throat to Scully as he died.

From Polly's "Cherish the Past" notes:

-- Title -- An "Erlenmeyer Flask" is a conical laboratory flask with a narrow neck and flat, broad bottom, named for Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer (1925 - 1909), German chemist. In this episode, Scully was afraid it contained "monkey pee."

-- The series gets its very first tagline change. The familiar "The Truth is Out There" was changed to "Trust No One." This phrase was spoken by Deep Throat with his dying breath.

-- The movie that Mulder was watching in his apartment was the 1959 film Journey to the Center of the Earth. The movie was directed by Henry Levin and based on the classic novel by Jules Verne.

-- When Mulder contacted Danny, the numbers he dialed on the phone played Mary Had a Little Lamb.

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-- Danny speaks! This episode marked the first time -- and the last time -- viewers heard Mulder's FBI contact Danny speak.

-- Zeus Storage, 1616 Pandora Street: According to Greek classical religion, Pandora was the first woman. Zeus, the king of the gods, was angered because Prometheus stole fire and gave it to mankind. Zeus ordered the gods to create a woman as a punishment for mankind. Pandora is credited (or blamed) for opening a box and releasing a host of troubles on the world.

-- 1013 reference: The room containing the people in tanks was behind door number 1056, Chris Carter's birth month and year.

-- "The Erlenmeyer Flask" was the only time Mulder's apartment building had a "buzz-in" entrance system.

-- The alien fetus was being kept at the High Containment Facility at Fort Marlene. While there is no real-life Fort Marlene, there is a Fort Dietrich in Maryland -- a site known for its experimentation with biological weapons. The first name of another famous "Dietrich" was used for the name of the Fort.

-- Marlene Dietrich was an Academy-Award nominated German-American actress, entertainer, and singer. She was born in Germany and moved to Hollywood in the 1930s to pursue a film career. In 1937, when her film career stalled in the U.S., she went to London to make a film. While there, she was approahced by representatives of the Nazi party to return to Germany, but turned them down flat. Her U.S. film career was revived with the Western Destry Rides Again with Jimmy Stewart. When the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, Dietrich became one of the first celebrities to raise war bonds. She was known to have strong political convictions and the mind to speak them, and was a staunch anti-Nazi who despised anti-Semitic policies of National Socialism. Dietrich entertained troops on the front lines in Algiers, France, and into Germany in a USO revue that included future TV pioneer Danny Thomas as her opening act. When asked why she had done this, in spite of the obvious danger, she replied, "It was the decent thing to do." Dietrich was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the U.S. Government for her war work.

-- The main hallway of Fort Marlene was later recycled into the FBI's main hallway.

-- When Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat) received his copy of "The Erlenmeyer Flask" script, a note from series creator Chris Carter was attached to it. The note read: "Nobody ever dies on The X-Files."

-- Hardin thought perhaps the decision to kill off his character of Deep Throat was because he had expressed a desire to gain a more regular appearance schedule on the show. But according to Chris Carter, the decision was made because he wanted to establish that, other than perhaps the leads, "everyone was expendable" on the series -- a way of keeping viewers guessing as to what twists and turns might occur.

-- Hardin recalled that his death scene was the sort of big dramatic moment "you want to take your time on and get perfect. The truth of the matter was, we were fighting the light like crazy" to get the shot completed in time before the sun came up. "It was about to be dawn," he recalled.

-- Chris Carter lived up to his word and brought Hardin back for periodic guest appearances, beginning with Season 3's "The Blessing Way," and Hardin was always glad to oblige. "I like to think it was because the fans wanted me back," he said. "It was remarkable how many of the people want to meet Deep Throat. When you come right down to it, in the seven episodes I did [in Season One], there was probably no more than three or four minutes at a time, so I take it as a great compliment."

-- Hardin's dying words to Agent Scully stuck with the show's viewers. He says with some pride that when he's met with fans, "People by the hundreds ask me to sign 'Trust no one,' and I have to assume that my delivery of that line made it something that they felt strongly about, and that they connected strongly with that character."

-- The ending of this episode mirrored the ending of the "Pilot." Mulder called Scully at 11:21 (Chris Carter's wife's birth date), and the Smoking Man stored proof of alien existence deep within the Pentagon.

-- "Gillian Anderson came to me in the second half of the first season to tell me that she was pregnant," recalled Chris Carter. "There were many thoughts about how we should handle the pregnancy — alien baby being one of them. Ultimately I think we all kind of group-decided that what we should do is write around Gillian’s pregnancy, we should not deal with it at all on camera. But at the end of Season One, you could see noticeably that Gillian began to be transformed into the beginning of motherhood."

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-- Disbanding the X-Files unit at the end of "The Erlenmeyer Flask" separated Mulder from Scully, providing the means to work around Gillian Anderson's pregnancy through the start of the second season.

-- "The Erlenmeyer Flask" was co-executive producer Bob Goodwin's first directing effort for the series and started a tradition of his directing the first and last episode of each season (except for Season 2's "Little Green Men") until the show left Vancouver. "The Erlenmeyer Flask" was one of his favorite episodes of the entire series.

-- It was also a favorite of Mark Snow, the show's music composer. "It was a big, big show," said Snow. "It was a very exciting score and that was my favorite score."

-- The episode received a nomination for an Edgar Award, an honor presented by the Mystery Writers of America.

-- "The whole idea of the show was really about Mulder's quest to find the truth about his sister and to possibly find his sister," said Chris Carter, summing up the first season. "So, the idea of a mythology is kind of built in to the show because Mulder's quest takes him far and wide and into the paranormal. So I really think of every episode as a mythology episode in a sense, but then there are these episodes that really become about that specific quest, which is the search for his sister, the episodes that involved specifically the truth about alien extraterrestrial life and the possibility that his sister was abducted by aliens."

-- "Mulder's main motivation in Season One was uncovering the secret about his missing sister," added executive producer Howard Gordon, "and that was really, I think, what drove Season One and certainly the entire mythology of the X-Files was the basis that was Samantha Mulder."

-- When Carter wrote "The Erlenmeyer Flask," he didn't know if it would be the season or the series finale. At the end of Season 1, The X-Files was rated 113th out of 132 primetime series. But the audience had been steadily building as the season progressed, and "The Erlenmeyer Flask" attracted more than 8 million viewers, the series' highest rating of the first season. Fox was a fledgling network at the time and the show was doing reasonably well for a Friday night time slot, so Fox decided to renew the series for a second year. They put more advertising dollars behind the show during summer reruns and it paid off: The Season 2 premiere attracted over 10 million viewers.

-- Once & Future Retreads: Lindsey Ginter (Crew Cut Man) played the same role (known as The Cleaner) in "Red Museum." Jim Leard (Captain Roy Lacerio) was Sgt. Al Dixon in "Colony." Ken Kramer (Dr. Terrance Berube) was Dr. Browning in "3" and Dr. Ivanov in "War of the Coprophages." John Payne (Guard) was Jerald Glazebrook in "Humbug."

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