THE COMPLETE CONSPIRACY

THE ERLENMEYER FLASK

Deep throat tips Mulder to a critically important case involving a missing fugitive and the cloning of extraterrestrial viruses. Mulder receives a cryptic tip from Deep Throat regarding an incident in which a fugitive eluded police after a high speed chase. During the escape, the suspect was shot and wounded by police before he fell into a lake. Despite many hours of dredging, the fugitive's body is not recovered. After some investigating, Mulder realizes that someone deliberately switched the car the suspect was driving with another vehicle.

The agents trace the original car to a Dr. Burette, a scientist who is not eager to cooperate with the FBI investigation. With the puzzling case at a dead end, Mulder prepares to give up. But Deep Throat makes contact and convinces him that case is of extreme importance. Meanwhile, Dr. Berber's dead body is discovered inside the lab.

The police end their search for the fugitive without recovering a body. When they leave the lake, the mysterious fugitive resurfaces from beneath the water. Tiny gills in his neck allowed him to remain submerged for a long period. The fugitive makes his way to the city, and after attempting to contact Burette collapses on the street. As paramedics rush the fugitive to a hospital, they insert a needle into his skin. Suddenly, a rush of toxic gas is emitted from the fugitive's body. The paramedics are overcome by the fumes and the fugitive escapes into the night.

With the help of Dr. Carpenter, Scully analyzes a flask taken from Dr. Berber's lab. The bacteria inside is suspected of being extraterrestrial in origin.

Mulder discovers a storage room containing human bodies suspended in a clear liquid. But when he returns to the room with Scully, he finds that it has been emptied. Deep Throat explains that Dr. Burette had been experimenting with extraterrestrial viruses. He used humans afflicted with terminal illnesses as his guinea pigs. The experiment was funded by the US government, but officials were interested only in technology-not the patients' well being. One of those patients was Dr. Secare, a friend of Dr. Berube's. When it became clear that the government wanted Secare eliminated, Berube warned his friend and gave him his car to escape. When Secare was hunted down by police, he used his mutation to his advantage and hid beneath the lake.

Scully is stunned to learn that Dr. Carpenter was killed in a car accident. Shortly thereafter, Mulder locates Dr. Secare hiding in the attic of his house. The pair are surprised by a government official who shoots and kills Secare.

When Mulder disappears, Scully makes contact with Deep Throat. Deep Throat arranges for Scully to gain access to a top secret containment facility in Maryland. Scully steals an alien fetus, and with Deep Throat's help arranges for an exchange-the fetus for Mulder. After Deep Throat makes the exchange, he is shot and killed by the government agents.

Later, Scully learns from Mulder that the government is shutting down the X-File project.

LITTLE GREEN MEN

Mulder travels to Puerto Rico in advance of a beret team out to destroy evidence of an extraterrestrial encounter. With the X-Files project officially disbanded, Mulder and Scully return to rank and file FBI investigations. But the agents, having been exposed to extraordinary cases involving extraterrestrials and the paranormal, can hardly conceal their boredom. Believing that the agency has them under surveillance, they meet in the parking garage of the Watergate Hotel. There Mulder confesses to Scully that he has grown depressed about his mission in life-finding evidence that proves his sister was abducted by aliens years earlier. He laments that despite having numerous close encounters with UFOs, he still possesses no physical evidence that proves extraterrestrials exist. He is losing interest in finding "the truth." But Mulder is later summoned to the Capitol Building by Senator Richard Matheson, an X-Files patron, who lets him in on a big secret: an abandoned radio telescope in Puerto Rico was the site of a UFO encounter.

Mulder flies to Puerto Rico immediately, hoping to beat the Blue Beret UFO Retrieval Team before they can confiscate evidence that contact was made. He makes forced entry into the facility, where he discovers a reel to reel tape spinning unattended on a tape recorder. A terrified Puerto Rican man named Jorge draws Mulder an image of an extraterrestrial that he witnessed at the site.

When Mulder does not show up for work, Scully begins an investigation. She searches his apartment and discovers a piece of paper containing a "Wow Signal," a radio transmission from deep space containing a transmission code thirty times stronger than galactic background noise. Dr. Kip Troitsky tells Scully that only a handful of radio telescopes actively search for such signals. Scully searches through airline manifests and finds one containing Mulder's pseudonym, "George E. Hale." That flight was bound for Puerto Rico. Scully's progress is slowed when a hurricane strikes the island. She grows even more concerned when she realizes FBI agents are following her.

Mulder and Jorge listen to the reel to reel tapes as the force of the hurricane intensifies. Suddenly, Jorge hears noises that terrify him. He runs from the building. Mulder runs after him, but after a short search discovers the man's dead body, his expression frozen in fear, as if he were frightened to death. Feeling more isolated than ever, Mulder records his thoughts into a tape recorder. He wonders aloud what he would do if he did indeed come face to face with extraterrestrial life. Moments later, an intense, blinding force rocks the building. Mulder watches, horrified, as an alien being walks towards him. He is engulfed in a blinding light.

When Mulder regains consciousness, Scully is at his side. But they soon realize that the Blue Beret team has arrived. Confident the Berets will kill them, the pair scramble for a nearby jeep and head into the wilderness. The Berets open fire, striking the jeep. But Mulder outmaneuvers them and escapes down a roadway. When he returns to Washington, Mulder is reprimanded by Skinner for missing work. Mulder counters that his phone was tapped illegally. Mulder is allowed to keep his job. Later, he and Scully listen to the reel to reel tape, only to realize it is blank.

DUANE BARRY Part 1 of 2

A former FBI agent who claims he was abducted by aliens takes several people hostage.

Mulder and Alex Krycek are assigned to a hostage negotiation. They are briefed by Agent Lucy Kazdin, who explains that a mental patient named Duane Barry has taken his psychologist, Dr. Hakkie, and three other people hostage at a travel agency. Barry demands safe passage for himself and Hakkie to an alien abduction site-although he cannot remember where the site is. Mulder phones Barry and tries calming him. It soon becomes apparent that Barry is well acquainted with hostage crises. Kazdin explains that Barry is a former FBI agent.

A strange light envelopes the scene. Barry becomes unglued and fires his gun, wounding some of the hostages. Kazdin explains that a power generator blew, but Mulder suspects otherwise. Mulder and Agent Janus volunteer to aid the wounded. They are equipped with a flak jacket and a wire. As Janus tends to an injured man, Mulder speaks with Barry in person for the first time. He strays from the FBI script and talks about UFOs candidly. Barry is taken aback; it's the first time someone given credence to his past experiences. He allows Mulder to trade himself for one of the hostages. As Mulder walks Barry through his UFO encounters, the FBI agents listen in, convinced that Barry is being driven over the edge.

When Scully is updated of the situation, she urges the FBI to get Mulder out immediately. She explains that in 1982, Barry was shot in the line of duty. The injury effectively destroyed the moral center of his brain, leaving him a pathological liar who suffers from severe delusions. Scully speaks to Mulder via the hidden two-way receiver wired to his body. She urges him to get the hostages away from Barry. Barry concedes to Mulder's request and releases the remaining hostages. Soon after, an FBI marksman shoots Barry.

Barry is rushed to a hospital. Kazdin tells Mulder that x-rays revealed strange pieces of metal inside Barry's nasal cavity, lending credence to the man's claim that he was kidnapped and tortured by aliens. Scully discovers that the metal is encoded with strange symbols.

Barry escapes from his hospital room. Without warning, he bursts into Scully's apartment and attacks her.

Mulder attempts to rescue Scully after a deranged man who believes in UFOs abducts her. Mulder rushes to Scully's apartment when he realizes that she was attacked by Duane Barry. When he arrives at the scene, a police investigation is already in progress. There are signs of a struggle, broken glass and human blood dot the floor. Scully's mother Margaret speaks to Mulder about the abduction; she describes a nightmare she experienced that foretold the incident. FBI agents are skeptical when Mulder hints that Barry's UFO story might be legitimate. Skinner removes Mulder from the investigation and sends him home.

Meanwhile, Barry makes his way to the alien landing site. A patrolman pulls Barry over for speeding. He notices blood on Barry's hands and draws his weapon. But Barry pulls a gun and kills the police officer. Mulder reviews videotape of the incident that was recorded by a camera mounted inside the patrolman's car. Using video enhancement, Scully's image is pinpointed-and she is alive.

Mulder reviews audiotapes of his hostage negotiations. He realizes that Barry is heading for Skyland Mountain in Virginia. Accompanied by Krycek, Mulder drives to the remote location. They are told by a tram operator that Barry is driving up the mountain using back roads. Hoping to beat Barry to the summit, Mulder boards the dangerous passenger tram and journeys up the mountain. But before the tram reaches its destination, Krycek kills the tram operator and sabotages the controls, stranding Mulder in the process. When Mulder attempts to climb off the tram, Krycek engages the power, hoping to crush him. But Mulder outmaneuvers Krycek and continues his search.

Mulder sees a blinding light pass overhead. When he locates Barry, Scully is nowhere to be found. Barry begins laughing hysterically. He describes how the aliens will no longer bother him now that they have another guinea pig. But Mulder remains skeptical; he questions Barry's sanity and lashes out at him during an interrogation. Shortly after Krycek conducts his own interrogation, Barry lapses into cardiac arrest and dies.

Mulder tells Skinner that Krycek poisoned Barry-and that the military is aware of Scully's location. He believes that Scully got too close to the truth, especially when she discovered the metallic implant. Mulder concludes that a covert military operation-assisted by the mysterious Smoking Man-is behind the cover-up. Those suspicions are confirmed when Krycek vanishes without a trace. Left with little choice, Skinner officially reopens the X-Files.

ONE BREATH

Despite Mulder's objection that it is still too soon to give up hope, Margaret Scully orders a gravestone for her missing daughter, Dana Not long afterward, Dana's comatose body mysteriously appears at a local hospital. She is hooked to a life support system, her condition critical. There are no records indicating how she arrived at the hospital... or who brought her there. Mulder is furious. A doctor reveals that Dana's living will specifically requests termination of life support should such a situation develop.

Melissa Scully visits the hospital. She claims that, through channeling, she can communicate with her sister. Dana also receives a visit from Frohike, one of the Lone Gunmen. Frohike and his colleagues discover that Dana's DNA exhibits signs of genetic tampering. They conclude that with her immune system decimated, Dana does not have long to live.

When Mulder returns to the hospital, he sees a mysterious man steal a vial containing Dana's blood sample. Mulder gives chase. A fight ensues between the two men. Suddenly, X emerges from the shadows and shoots the mysterious man. Mulder is shocked at the senselessness of the killing. He does, however, recover the blood sample. Soon after, the Scullys honor Dana's wish and the life support system is disconnected.

Mulder approaches Skinner and demands he have access to the mysterious Cigarette-Smoking Man, convinced he is responsible for the cover-up. But his request is denied. Some time later, at the hospital, a mysterious woman leaves behind a pack of cigarettes containing the Smoking Man's address. Mulder secretly enters the Smoking Man's apartment and puts a gun to his head. But the Smoking Man holds all the cards; he reminds Mulder that if he dies, he takes all the secrets with him. Realizing he has arrived at a dead end, Mulder gives Skinner his resignation.

Skinner refuses to accept Mulder's resignation. Later, Mulder is approached by X and leaked information regarding an illegal search that will occur at his apartment, a search that will be performed by government operatives. Mulder is instructed to kill the intruders and claim self-defense. As Mulder waits in the darkness for the agents, Melissa appears at his door. She tells him that Dana's condition is deteriorating, and that now more than ever, Dana needs him at her side. Mulder visits Scully's bedside and gives her words of encouragement. When Mulder returns to his apartment, he finds that it has been ransacked.

The next day, Mulder receives a telephone call from the hospital. Dana has regained consciousness.

COLONY Part 1 of 2

As Mulder searches for a killer capable of altering his shape, a woman who claims to be his long-lost sister suddenly appears.

Agent Mulder, unconscious and suffering from severe hypothermia, is transported by helicopter to a base in Alaska. Scully rushes to her partner's aid, and immediately clashes with doctors at the scene. When Mulder's heart stops, she insists he be removed from a tub of warm water because the cold is the only thing keeping him alive. With the doctors locked in a stalemate, the sequence of events leading to Mulder's condition unfolds...

A research vessel sailing in the Arctic Circle encounters what appears to be a UFO crashing into the Beaufort Sea. But the news media reports that the spacecraft was, in actuality, a Russian plane. The pilot of that craft, a bounty hunter, disappears, and later begins killing doctors at abortion clinics across the United States, setting fires to cover the crime. Mulder discovers that the doctors, though unrelated by birth, look identical. The mystery deepens when it is discovered that officials never recovered bodies from the burned clinics.

The agents uncover evidence that the killer ran ads in local newspapers in an effort to locate his targets. They realize his next intended victim is a doctor in Syracuse. Mulder notifies Agent Weiss to guard the doctor until they arrived at the scene. But Weiss discovers the bounty hunter standing over the doctor's corpse (which is slowly dissolving-as if dipped in acid). Weiss opens fire on the bounty hunter, but his bullets proves ineffective. When Mulder and Scully arrive in Syracuse, Weiss tells them there was no sign of the doctor. Unknown to the agents, the bounty hunter is capable of morphing into different shapes, allowing him to assume Weiss' identity. When Mulder return to Washington to meet with Skinner, he learns that Weiss has been killed.

A CIA agent named Ambrose Chapel approaches Mulder and Scully. He claims that during the Cold war Soviet scientists discovered how to clone DNA. They planted clones in strategic positions within America's medical establishment, hoping to sabotage the country's immune system in the event of war. Chapel believes a secret agreement exists that sent the bounty hunter to eliminate the clones in exchange for absolute suppression of the program's existence. The clones, Chapel suspects, were attempting to contact the agents, hoping they would expose the plot.

Mulder flies home when he receives word there was a family emergency-losing contact with Scully in the process. When he arrives, he is shocked to discover his sister Samantha-who had been abducted by a UFO as a child-in the company of his parents.

Samantha tells Mulder that after her abduction she was placed in the care of visitors from another planet, and then made to forget her real family. She used hypnotic therapy to uncover her buried memories and locate her family. She asks Mulder to help stop the bounty hunter before he kills her adoptive father.

Scully discovers more of the clones hiding in an industrial building. She has them placed in maximum protective custody. Mulder finally locates Scully and enters her hotel room. But Scully realizes the man standing in her room is not the real Mulder...

END GAME Part 2 of 2

Mulder attempts to catch an alien bounty hunter who holds the key to his sister's whereabouts.

Deep beneath the frigid waters of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Circle, crewmen aboard a submarine investigate sonar readings that indicate a huge, unidentified craft is floating nearby. The submarine's captain receives orders to destroy the vessel without further investigation. Before torpedoes are launched, however, a powerful shock wave disables the submarine's reactors.

Meanwhile, a bewildered Scully receives a telephone call from Mulder as, simultaneously, a man who appears to be Mulder (the alien bounty hunter from the previous episode) shows up at her motel room. The doppelganger overpowers Scully, and demands to know where he can find Mulder. When Scully refuses to cooperate, the doppelganger throws her across the room.

The real Mulder and his sister, Samantha, arrive at the motel some time later. Scully is gone, but signs of a struggle are evident. Samantha tells Mulder that the bounty hunter is interested in her, not Scully. Samantha explains that the only way the bounty hunter can be killed is to pierce the base of his skull. She warns, however, that his blood is toxic, and exposure to humans is fatal.

Samantha assures her brother that the bounty hunter will contact them. As they await word, Samantha explains that aliens have been attempting to establish a colony on Earth since the late 1940s. But their experiments with cloning was not sanctioned, and others of their race considered it a dilution of the species. A bounty hunter was dispatched to terminate the colony.

Scully, held at gun point, telephones Mulder and arranges a rendezvous at a bridge. Mulder informs Skinner of the situation, and an FBI sharpshooter is positioned nearby. The exchange is made, and the bounty hunter walks Samantha toward an awaiting van. Suddenly, the sharpshooter's bullet rings out. The bounty hunter is struck in the neck. He falls backwards over the bridge, still clinging to Samantha. The pair plummet into the dark, icy waters below.

Mulder relays news of his sister's apparent death to his father. Mr. Mulder gives his son an envelope, which Samantha had left behind during her visit. Mulder opens it and finds a key and address inside. Mulder travels to the address, which turns out to be an abortion clinic. Inside, Mulder is shocked to discover alien clones who look like his sister. Suddenly, the bounty hunter appears and knocks Mulder unconscious. A fire races through the building, but Mulder is saved by firefighters.

X tells Mulder that all the clones, save the original "Samantha," was killed in the fire. He also admits that the bounty hunter is inside a vessel beneath the Beaufort Sea. Meanwhile, pathologists tell Scully that a strange retrovirus found in Agent Weiss's blood is inhibited by extreme cold. This leads Scully to conclude that the bounty hunter may have survived his fall into the icy river.

Mulder makes the trip to Alaska by himself in secret. He finds the submarine's conning tower protruding from the ice. Inside, he encounters the bounty hunter. During a struggle, the bounty hunter bleeds green ooze onto Mulder. Mulder is pushed outside the sub, and shortly thereafter the vessel descends beneath the ice. Mulder's body is rushed to a military field hospital. Scully arrives at the scene. She realizes that Mulder has been infected with the alien retrovirus. She convinces physicians to lower Mulder's body temperature to counteract the virus. Her efforts are successful, and Mulder's life is saved.

ANASAZI Part 1 of 3

Mulder receives an encrypted computer disk containing the defense department's top secret files on extraterrestrial life.

A computer hacker nicknamed The Thinker gains access to top secret Defense Department files on extraterrestrial life. He gives Mulder the files on a computer diskette-with the proviso that government officials be held responsible for UFO cover-ups throughout the years. Mulder's initial enthusiasm is dampened when he realizes the files are encoded in Navajo. But Scully promises to find a translator as soon as possible. When Skinner questions Mulder about the rumor he possesses sensitive information, Mulder suddenly punches him. Mulder is at a loss for his inexplicable behavior. Skinner later informs Scully that a disciplinary hearing will determine if Mulder is to be dismissed without reinstatement.

The Cigarette-Smoking Man pays Mulder's father an unexpected visit on Martha's Vineyard. He informs him about the top secret files falling into his son's hands. Mr. Mulder realizes his name is on those files. He telephones his son and asks him to come home. Later, Scully lets herself into Mulder's apartment when he fails to answer his door. Suddenly, a gunshot rings out, smashing a window. Scully narrowly avoids injury.

When Mulder arrives at Martha's Vineyard, his father speaks cryptically about his work for the State Department. Before he can explain the truth, Alex Krycek shoots and kills him. When Scully learns of the killing, she urges Mulder to leave Martha's Vineyard less the authorities suspect him of the murder.

When Mulder returns home, he is very ill. Scully attends to his sickness. She notices a suspicious delivery person carting a soft water canister to the basement of the apartment building.

Mulder spots Alex Krycek sneaking around outside his apartment building. He wrestles the agent to the ground and grabs his revolver. Certain that Mulder is about to kill Krycek, Scully draws her weapon and shoots Mulder in the chest.

When Mulder regains consciousness, he is lying in a motel room in New Mexico, his bullet wound having been ministered by Scully. She explains that lab tests revealed that water flowing into Mulder's apartment building was spiked with a strong hallucinogen, explaining Mulder's aggressive behavior.

An Indian man named Albert Hosteen begins translating the encoded Defense Department files. He explains to Mulder how a tribe of Indians who once lived in New Mexico disappeared without a trace. Their name was Anasazi, which means Ancient Aliens. Albert believes they were abducted by visitors from another planet. Albert's nephew Eric leads Mulder out into the desert. There, Eric shows the agent a railroad train boxcar buried in a rock quarry. Inside the car are the corpses of what appear to be alien beings. The Smoking Man calls Mulder on his cellular phone. He claims that Mulder's father authorized the project. But Mulder insists he will expose the Smoking Man.

The Smoking Man traces Mulder's location by pinpointing the source of the cellular phone transmission. But when he arrives in the desert by helicopter, Mulder is not to be found. The Smoking Man orders his men to destroy the boxcar.

THE BLESSING WAY Part 2 of 3

As Scully faces possible dismissal from the FBI, a manhunt ensues for the missing agent Mulder.

In this continuation of the previous episode... A team of camouflaged soldiers, lead by The Cigarette-Smoking Man, searches for Mulder and the computer tape believed to be in his possession. Albert Hosteen and his family are interrogated and beaten, and Scully-whose visit to the smoldering boxcar produces no leads-is detained, searched, and questioned. But the Cigarette-Smoking Man's efforts are in vain.

At FBI headquarters, Scully is given a mandatory leave of absence until a review board investigates the nature of her insubordination. Crestfallen, Scully returns home to her family. She tells her mother she erred by countermanding her superiors. When Scully returns to Washington, Frohike informs her The Thinker-the computer hacker who accessed the MJ files-was professionally executed by unknown assailants. When Scully approaches Skinner with the news, and theorizes how Mulder and The Thinker could have been gunned down by the same individuals, Skinner shows interest only in the missing computer tape.

Meanwhile, Albert and his family investigate when buzzards begin circling high above the New Mexico desert. They find Mulder's limp, lifeless body near a tunnel in the red rock quarry. He is transported to a Navajo hogan, an igloo-like dome of mud, where a healing ritual called The Blessing Way is performed over his body. As the ceremony progresses, Mulder's soul encounters a bridge spanning two worlds. He encounters visions of Deep Throat, and his father, and of the aliens trapped inside the boxcar. On the third day of the ritual, the Navajos watch as Mulder regains consciousness.

While passing through a security checkpoint at FBI headquarters, Scully sets off a metal detector. A security guard waves a magnetic wand near her neck and again trips the security alarm. Puzzled, Scully visits the medical lab, where a physician removes a computer chip from beneath her skin. Melissa convinces her sister to visit Dr. Pomerantz, a hypnotist. While under hypnosis, Scully encounters repressed visions of men, lights and alarms.

Having recovered from his close brush with death, Mulder returns to his mother's home in Martha's Vineyard. He searches for clues about his father and the people he worked with, certain they will lead him to his missing sister.

While attending Mr. Mulder's funeral, Scully is approached by a Well-Manicured Man. The stranger claims Mulder is dead, and that a hit squad is out to kill her. Later, Skinner approaches Scully outside her apartment. The pair drive to Mulder's apartment, where a very suspicious Scully pulls out a revolver and demands Skinner answer her questions.

Searching through Scully's darkened apartment, Alex Krycek and his assistant encounter Melissa. A shot rings out and Melissa slumps to the floor.

As the standoff between Scully and Skinner continues, someone approaches the front door to Mulder's apartment. Catching Scully off-guard, Skinner pulls out a gun.

PAPERCLIP Part 3 of 3

As a government hit squad closes in on the agents, Mulder searches for clues about his father's involvement in a secret project.

As the standoff between Scully and Skinner (from the previous episode) continues... Mulder bursts through the front door of his apartment and orders Skinner to drop his weapon. Skinner complies, then produces the computer disk containing the Defense Department's top secret files on extraterrestrial life. He realizes the disk is the only leverage the trio has in bringing Mr. Mulder's killers to justice, and insists on keeping it himself. Mulder and Scully examine an old group photograph of Mr. Mulder with his government colleagues. With the Lone Gunmen's help, Mulder and Scully identify a man named Victor Klemper from the group. Klemper is a Nazi War criminal and a participant in Operation Paper Clip, a U.S. government operation that provided safe haven for war criminals in exchange for their scientific knowledge. Before the agents interview Klemper, Scully learns that her sister Melissa is in critical condition at a nearby hospital. But fearing an ambush by assassins, Scully joins Mulder in his quest to locate Klemper.

The agents elicit little information from the elderly Klemper, except that the group photo was taken at the Strughold Mining Company in West Virginia, and his mention of Napier's Constant, the base of all natural logarithms.

When the agents visit the ramshackle mine, they discover heavy metal doors built into the rocky walls of the mountainside. The agents gain access by entering Napier's Constant into an electronic keypad. Inside, they find a seemingly endless row of filing cabinets containing files and tissue samples on hundreds of U.S. citizens. Their search is interrupted when a UFO drops from the sky. Simultaneously, a government hit squad surrounds the building. Mulder comes under fire and runs for cover. He and Scully find an escape route and make their way to safety.

Skinner pays a visit to the hospital where Melissa is being monitored. There he meets Mrs. Scully, and Albert Hosteen, who prays for Melissa's recovery. Skinner is alerted to a shadowy figure monitoring the room. In a darkened stairwell, he is attacked by Krycek and his accomplice. They overpower Skinner and steal the computer disk.

Mulder and Scully make a second trip to question Klemper, but when they arrive, they are informed by the Well-Manicured Man that Klemper is dead. Mulder recognizes him as one of the people in his father's group photograph. The Well-Manicured Man recounts how, in 1947, a spacecraft was reportedly recovered in New Mexico. This event coincided with the formation of Operation Paper Clip. Mulder suspects that Klemper was experimenting with the creation of a super race-a hybridization of humans and aliens. The files stored in the mountain, Mulder realizes, are vaccination records on hundreds of millions of Americans who received smallpox vaccinations-a DNA database of virtually everyone born since the 1950s.

Skinner threatens to expose the Cigarette-Smoking Man if any harm should befall Mulder or Scully. He reveals that Albert Hosteen-who read the computer disks-spread the contents amongst his Navajo people in the ancient oral tradition, chapter and verse, file for file.

Later, Mulder visits Scully at the hospital, and learns that Melissa passed away during surgery.

NISEI Part 1 of 2

An "alien autopsy" videotape and a Japanese diplomat's murder spark Mulder's search for a strange creature aboard a train. Scully encounters a group of people who reveal information about her disappearance.

With great interest, Mulder views a mail order videotape which purportedly contains an actual alien autopsy. The footage shows a team of Japanese surgeons performing the procedure. The tape suddenly ends when a group of armed soldiers storms the operating room. Mulder and Scully trace the tape's origin to a video piracy operation in Allentown, Pennsylvania. When the agents arrive at the scene, they find a man's body with a pillowcase tied over its head. Mulder chase a Japanese man fleeing the scene and takes him into custody. Skinner reveals that the suspect, Kazuo Takeo, is a high-ranking government official from the Japanese diplomatic corps.

Mulder searches Takeo's leather satchel, uncovering satellite photos and a list of names containing members of the Mutual UFO Network. Mulder learns that the satellite photos contain images of a salvage ship named the Talapus, which spent months searching for a Japanese sub sunk during World War II. The ship made port in Newport News, Virginia, leading to speculation that perhaps the Talapus found something other than the downed sub.

The list of Mutual UFO Network members leads the agents to a Lottie Holloway and Penny Northern. They tell Scully that she is one of them. Confused, Scully insists she is conducting an FBI investigation into the murder of Steve Zinnzser (the man found with the pillow case over his head). The women tell the agents that Zinnzser was a member of their group. They also describe their experiences in a "bright white place," triggering Scully's partial memory of what transpired during her disappearance. The women display small pieces of metal which were surgically removed from the back of their necks. They bring Scully to the hospital, where another member of their group, Betsy Hagopian, is dying of an undiagnosed cancer ailment. Penny claims everyone who was abducted will die in the same fashion.

Meanwhile, Mulder travels to Virginia where he discovers the Talapus hidden between much larger vessels. Nearby, Mulder discovers an airplane hangar that houses a large circular object-which the Talapus must have dredged from the bottom of the sea.

Skinner tells Mulder that the Japanese diplomat was found murdered. Later, Mulder visits Senator Matheson, who requests the return of the satellite photographs. Mulder believes that doing so would entangle him in the murder investigation. In a cryptic gesture, Matheson gives Mulder a list containing the names of four murdered Japanese scientists.

Scully and Mulder meet at FBI headquarters. Mulder displays a photograph of Japanese medical officers taken during World War II. Four of the men are the same surgeons found murdered the previous day. Mulder suspects that the scientists were trying to create a human-alien hybrid, a continuation of their work, and similar work done by the Nazis, during the war. He suspects that the U.S. government may be behind the murders. Mulder also shows Scully a photo of train cars which he believes are part of the government's secret railroad, one of which was used to carry out the alien autopsy.

Mulder travels to Quinnimont, West Virginia, where he discovers train cars from the satellite photos. As Mulder prepares to jump onto one of the moving cars, Scully contacts him on his cellular phone. She passes on information, given to her by X, that his life is in great danger. Nonetheless, Mulder jumps on top of the train car.

731 Part 2 of 2

When Mulder becomes trapped aboard a train rigged with an explosive device, Scully searches for the truth behind the government's involvement with secret experiments.

In this continuation of the previous episode... X tells Scully that the metallic implant (which was surgically removed from the back of her neck) is the key to all the answers she's been searching for.

Meanwhile, Mulder--who clings precariously to the top of a train bound for Canada--makes his way to safety and climbs aboard one of the cars. He the car which is quarantined and cut off from the rest of the train. With assistance from the train's conductor, Mulder searches for Dr. Shiro Zama, whom he suspects is behind the experiments. But the Red-Haired Man (an assassin who murdered the Japanese diplomat in the previous episode), kills Zama and hides his body inside a lavatory.

With the aid of Agent Pendrell, Scully learns that the implant collects information and artificially replicates a person's mental processes. Pendrell discovers the name of the chip's manufacturer, a Japanese firm, and traces a delivery to Dr. Zama at Hansen's Disease Research Facility in Virginia. Scully attempts to contact Mulder by cellular phone to relay the information, but unknown to her, Mulder dropped the device when he jumped onto the train. Scully drives to the research facility, where she encounters Escalante, a hideously deformed man. Escalante explains that the facility was once a leper colony, but the staff, including Zama, fled when death squads arrived to kill the patients. Escalante was being treated for leprosy, but hundreds of other patients were interned at the camp with symptoms that resembled the disease. The creatures were kept apart from the patients and apparently tortured.

Meanwhile, Mulder finds Zama's body inside the lavatory. He is suddenly attacked by the Red-Haired Man. With the conductor's help, Mulder overcomes him. The Red-Haired Man claims the quarantined car is rigged with an explosive device, which was installed by Zama in case he could not escape to Canada with his creature. Mulder and his captive are unable to leave the quarantined car out of fear that opening the door without the proper access code might detonate the bomb.

Scully is captured by soldiers and brought before an Elder, a member of the Syndicate. He explains how Zama-a brilliant scientist whose real name is Ishimaru-was hidden in the U.S. after World War II so he could continue his experiments. But Ishimaru kept his discoveries secret, unwilling to share his knowledge with the government that had granted him asylum. Scully and the Elder dial the Red-Haired Man's cellular number and contact Mulder. Scully believes the creature aboard the train isn't an alien being after all. She's convinced Ishimaru used the railroad to conduct secret radiation tests on lepers, the homeless, and the insane. As proof, she reminds Mulder about the President's public apology for secret radiation tests that were conducted on innocent people until 1974. Only those tests never ended.

The quarantined car is uncoupled from the train in an isolated area. Mulder questions the Red-Haired Man about the creature, and theorizes how Zama developed a human-alien hybrid with super immunity, capable of withstanding the effects of atomic and biological weapons.

Scully reviews the alien autopsy tape and realizes Zama was caught on video punching in the proper code to open the door of the quarantine car. She phones Mulder with the code. But before he can exit the car, Mulder is attacked by the Red-Haired Man. X arrives, shoots the Red-Haired Man, and rescues Mulder moments before the train car explodes.

PIPER MARU Part 1 of 2

The agents investigate the mystery surrounding a sunken world war ii aircraft.

A salvage vessel, the Piper Maru, sets anchor on the wind-scarred waters of the Pacific Ocean. The French-speaking crew lowers a diver, Gauthier, into the briny depths. Gauthier discovers the wreckage of a World War II fighter on the ocean floor, creating jubilation amongst his comrades. But as Gauthier peers into the glass canopy of the aircraft, he sees a living World War II pilot, his eyes covered with a thick black membrane, trapped inside. Certain he is hallucinating, Gauthier goes topside. But as the crew works to unsuit him, they fail to notice a black filmy membrane that now covers Gauthier's eyes.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, Skinner informs Scully that due of a lack of new leads or evidence, local police have made her sister's murder investigation inactive.

Afterward, Scully joins Mulder in his office. Mulder shows her evidence that the Piper Maru had been anchored in the exact location where the crew of the Talapus (see episode 3X09) had performed scavenger work. He also reveals that everyone aboard the Piper Maru, except Gauthier, suffered acute radiation burns. The agents travel to a ship yard and examine the vessel. Mulder notices an oily film covering the diving suit. He and Scully find videotape footage of Gauthier's dive-and see the remains of the submerged World War II aircraft.

Gauthier, meanwhile, returns to San Francisco and begins ransacking a home office. His American wife, Joan, catches him in the act. Gauthier attacks Joan, and shortly thereafter, her eyes become covered by the same black film. Mulder finds Gauthier semi-conscious, on the kitchen floor. Gauthier only remembers events up to his discovery of the sunken aircraft, and nothing about the ransacked apartment. Mulder also finds a letter linking J. Kallenchuk Salvage Brokers to the mystery.

Scully tracks down an old neighbor and World War II vet, Commander Christopher Johansen, hoping he can shed some light on the sunken aircraft. As luck would have it, Johansen reveals he was aboard the submarine Zeus Faber during its mission to locate the plane-which had been transporting an atomic bomb during the war. He recounts how the sub crew took ill during the mission, and how he took over command when the Captain became irrational.

Mulder follows Geraldine Kallenchuk (who runs the salvage brokerage) to Hong Kong. He handcuffs himself to Geraldine and breaks into her office. Alex Krycek suddenly appears and gets the drop on Mulder. He forces Geraldine (still handcuffed to Mulder) into the hallway and dead bolts the door, separating the two. Gunshots suddenly ring out, and Geraldine is killed. Krycek escapes through a window. Mulder unlocks the handcuffs and he, too, flees the scene.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Skinner is shot in the stomach by the Hispanic Man (Luis Cardinal) (who, with Krycek, killed Scully's sister). Skinner is rushed to the hospital.

Mulder surprises Krycek at the Hong Kong airport. He punches him in the face, pulls a gun and demands the return of the digital tape. Krycek gives the agent a key, claiming the tape is kept inside a locker back in Washington. Mulder allows him to use a rest room so he can remove the blood from his face. But Joan Gauthier suddenly appears inside the men's room and attacks Krycek. The filmy black substance transfers from Gauthier to Krycek.

APOCRYPHA Part 2 of 2

Mulder uncovers more clues about a government cover-up involving an alien entity and a sunken world war ii aircraft. Scully pursues the man who murdered her sister.

In flashback, government agents (among them a young William Mulder and The Cigarette-Smoking Man) visit the deathbed of a radiation-scarred crewman who served aboard the submarine Zeus Faber (see episode 3X15). The man insists the Navy tricked the submarine's crew into believing that their mission was to recover an atomic bomb from a sunken aircraft. But he believes the real purpose of the mission was to guard an alien entity living on the ocean floor-a life-form that invaded the sub and killed crewmen with deadly radiation. The Cigarette-Smoking Man assures the crewman that the government will make the truth public.

In present day Washington, Scully visits Skinner at a hospital. Skinner, semi-conscious, reveals that he recognized his assailant. Fearing further attacks, Scully assigns guards posted outside his hospital room.

Meanwhile, Mulder orders Krycek to drive him to the location where the digital tape is stored. During the journey, another vehicle deliberately slams into Mulder's car, forcing it off the road. Mulder is injured in the crash and loses consciousness. Armed men confront Krycek and demand the tape. Moments later, a blinding white light emanates from Krycek's body and strobes the armed men.

Scully visits Mulder at the hospital where he's recuperating from injuries suffered in the car crash. Scully produces lab tests that prove Skinner's assailant and her sister's killer are one and the same. Later, the agents examine the diver's suit Gauthier wore during the salvage mission. Mulder points out a layer of diesel oil covering the suit. He believes the oil is a medium used by an extraterrestrial to jump from host to host. Krycek, Mulder postulates, is the alien's latest host.

With the aid of the Lone Gunmen, Mulder recovers a package believed to contain the digital tape. The tape case inside the package is empty, but faint pen strokes on the outside of the paper package reveal the Well-Manicured Man's phone number. Mulder arranges a face-to-face meeting in hopes of learning Krycek's location. Krycek, meanwhile, gives the tape to the Cigarette-Smoking Man.

During their meeting, the Well-Manicured Man tells Mulder a UFO was downed by American pilots over the Pacific Ocean during the second World War. Missions to salvage the craft failed because of intense radiation. Mulder realizes that the Well-Manicured Man doesn't know where Krycek is.

Meanwhile, Scully guards Skinner as he is transported to another hospital. The Hispanic Man, Luis Cardinal, attempts to gain access to the ambulance. But Scully surprises him and a chase ensues. Cardinal is struck by an automobile and falls into an alleyway. Terrified Scully will shoot him, he reveals that Krycek is headed for an abandoned missile site outside Bismarck, North Dakota.

The agents gain access to the site, but the Cigarette-Smoking Man has them taken into custody before they can search all the silos. Later, we see Krycek inside a silo where an alien spacecraft is hidden. The entity exits Krycek's body, leaving him entombed within the silo.

Later, Mulder tells Scully that Luis Cardinal was found dead inside his jail cell-a death made to look like a suicide.

TALITHA CUMI Part 1 of 2

After his mother suffers a stroke, Mulder searches for an alien being who possesses miraculous healing powers.

At a busy fast food restaurant in Arlington, Virginia, a distraught man, Galen, suddenly pulls out a gun and begins shooting at customers. A police sharpshooter returns fire, severely wounding him. A Gentle-Looking Man steps from the crowd and places his open palm on Galen's wound, miraculously healing it in a matter of moments. When Scully and Mulder arrive at the scene, paramedics and detectives are unable to describe the incident in a coherent fashion, as all of the customers who were struck by gunfire are now uninjured. Even more puzzling, the Gentle-Looking Man disappeared from the scene without a trace.

Meanwhile, at the Mulder's beach front summer home in Rhode Island, Mrs. Mulder is approached by The Cigarette-Smoking Man. They become embroiled in a heated argument. Shortly thereafter, Mulder receives word that his mother was rushed to an emergency room in serious condition. Accompanied by Scully, Mulder races to the hospital. From her bed, Mrs. Mulder asks her son for a pen. She then writes the word "palm" on a sheet of note paper.

The agents return to Washington, where they view unedited videotape footage of the fast food restaurant shooting. Analyzing the footage frame by frame, the agents watch in astonishment as the Gentle-Looking Man seemingly morphs into another man.

Shortly thereafter, a group of agents, headed by The Cigarette-Smoking Man, corner and arrest the Gentle-Looking Man at a Social Security Office where he is employed. Almost simultaneously, Scully stops a person who looks exactly like the Gentle-Looking Man at FBI headquarters. The man, Jeremiah Smith, claims he is about to turn himself in. Smith is questioned by Skinner and released.

Back at the summer house, X shows Mulder photographs of his mother and The Cigarette-Smoking Man having an argument. Mulder claims he does not know what the discussion was about. Mulder leaves the house, then doubles back under the cover of darkness. Using a pen, he rearranges the letters of the word "palm" to spell "lamp." He then smashes a ceramic lamp against a wall and uncovers a stiletto weapon (the same device the Bounty Hunter used to kill alien colonists in previous episodes).

The first Jeremiah Smith (arrested at the Social Security Offices) is thrown in prison and interrogated by The Cigarette-Smoking Man. During the interrogation, Smith transforms into Deep Throat and Mr. Mulder, (both of whom The Cigarette-Smoking Man had killed). The Cigarette-Smoking Man tries to hide his astonishment. During the conversation, Smith tells the Smoking Man he is dying of lung cancer.

Meanwhile, Mulder tracks the second Smith to the Social Security Offices. But Smith suddenly breaks away and disappears into a crowd. Back at the prison, the Bounty Hunter, stiletto in hand, enters Jeremiah's cell. But it is empty.

At the hospital, doctors tell Mulder that his mother's condition is worse than previously thought. Mulder is approached by The Cigarette-Smoking Man. He claims to have information pertaining to the whereabouts of Mulder's sister. Mulder counters that he possesses what the Smoking Man is looking for.

One of the Jeremiah Smiths arrives at Scully's apartment unannounced. Scully drives him to a secluded location and rendezvous with Mulder. Suddenly, the Bounty Hunter arrives at the scene, stiletto in hand.

HERENVOLK Part 2 of 2

Scully and Mulder go up against an invincible alien assassin to protect a traitor to the conspiracy who can lead them to the truth...and save the life of Mulder's mother.

Mulder and Scully desperately try to protect the life of Jeremiah Smith. Not only is this mysterious man a link to the colonization plan-- his paranormal healing powers are Mulder's only hope of saving his mother's life. Close on their trail is the relentless alien bounty hunter: an assassin who is hard to escape. And harder to kill.

With the assassin close behind, Smith leads Mulder to an eerie, isolated farm community. There, Mulder is stunned to see clones of his sister Samantha, who had been abducted by aliens as a child. Smith tells Mulder that these children have been bred as worker drones. Before Smith can reveal more about the "Colonization" conspiracy, they are set upon by the alien assassin. Mulder is helpless to save Smith or Samantha.

Back in Washington, Scully's investigations into Smith's background lead her to a disquieting conclusion. All five of the identical men named Jeremiah Smith were secretly cataloguing the entire human population. But at whose orders? And why?

Meanwhile, the Cigarette-Smoking Man and the Elder have identified X as a traitor. He is ambushed and gunned down. As he dies, he leaves behind one last ambiguous clue: the letters "SRSG" scrawled in blood.

With his mother still in a coma, a despondent Mulder follows the last of his meager clues to the end of the line: the United Nations office of Special Representative to the Secretary General. An enigmatic official denies the Colony ever existed...as she hands him a folder containing photographs of the farm and of Samantha.

And finally, because "the fiercest enemy is the man who has nothing left to lose," the Cigarette-Smoking Man directs the Alien Bounty Hunter to heal Mulder's mother.

TUNGUSKA Part 1 of 2

Scully risks contempt of congress when she refuses to divulge Mulder's whereabouts to a senate subcommittee.

While performing a random search of a suitcase being carried by a man claiming to have diplomatic immunity, an airport customs agent is attacked by a black oil that congeals into tiny worms which penetrate his skin.

An anonymous tipster warns Mulder about a right-wing militia organization planning a bombing which could be the next Oklahoma City. The informant turns out to be Alex Krycek, the traitor Mulder blames for his father's murder. Left trapped in an abandoned missile silo by the Cigarette-Smoking Man, Krycek says he was freed by a militia group during a salvage operation. Claiming he wants revenge on the Cigarette-Smoking Man, Krycek promises Mulder that he can help expose the Cigarette-Smoking Man and the Shadowy Syndicate. Despite his hatred for Krycek, Mulder reluctantly believes him.

Krycek leads Mulder and Scully to intercept a Russian courier at the airport. The courier escapes, but the diplomatic pouch he is carrying is recovered. The pouch contains a four-billion-year-old rock of extraterrestrial origin. Dr. Sacks, a government exobiologist, drills into the rock. The same black worms which killed the customs agent emerge from the rock and attack him. Scully and Pendrell investigate this deadly enigma. Mulder's possession of the artifact alarms the Well-Manicured Man, who orders the Cigarette-Smoking Man to take care of the problem.

Mulder seeks out his UN contact, Marita Covarrubias, who finds out the origin of the Russian courier's flight. Mulder learns the flight originated near Tunguska, Siberia and instantly recognizes the significance. In 1908, a fireball crashed to earth in Tunguska, igniting a series of cataclysmic explosions. It was the most massive and most mysterious event of its kind in history. Until now, no one had been able to discover what really happened. Maybe someone has finally found out the truth...

Marita helps Mulder with credentials that will get him to Tunguska. At the last minute, Mulder discovers Krycek is fluent in Russian, and brings him along as a translator.

Mulder and Krycek discover a Siberian Gulag located at the site of the crash -- its hard-laboring prisoners sentenced to mine the extraterrestrial rocks. Before they can learn any more, they are captured, beaten and jailed. Mulder realizes Krycek is in league with their captors. Krycek is freed, and Mulder is subjected to an inhuman medical experiment. Under the most primitive of conditions, Mulder and other prisoners are infected with the oily black worms, and injected on the left arm with an amber liquid.

Will Mulder survive?

TERMA Part 2 of 2

A Russian assassin is brought out of retirement to erase all links to American experiments involving the mysterious "black cancer".

In Tunguska, Mulder has survived his ordeal for now, but is still being held captive in a Siberian Gulag. The prisoner in the next cell explains that all the men in the camp are injected with "black cancer" until the toxin finally kills them. Escape is impossible. Resistance is futile. Mulder swears he will survive, long enough at least to kill Krycek. Impressed by Mulder's will to survive, the prisoner gives Mulder his own home-made knife. Back in Washington, Dr. Sacks is alive after being infected by the black worms from the rock that was recovered in the diplomatic pouch, although he is comatose. For Scully and Agent Pendrell, the medical mystery starts to unravel when tests reveal a black vermiform organism attached to his brain's pineal gland.

St. Petersburg. A former KGB assassin, Vassily Peskow, comes out of retirement when a messenger from "Comrade Arntzen" requests his help, and tells him the Cold War isn't over. Peskow makes his way to a horse farm which belongs to the Well-Manicured Man where he assassinates Dr. Bonita Chung-Sayre, a well-known authority on viruses and the Well-Manicured Man's personal physician.

Due to testify before the Senate Subcommittee hearing, Skinner presses a reluctant Scully for more information about the pouch and its contents. Skinner surprises her with his news: the pouch's intended recipient was the late Dr. Chung-Sayre, who was killed in a "riding accident."

Tunguska. The prisoners, including Mulder, are on the march. Nearby, Krycek is laughing it up with Mulder's tormentors. The sight spurs Mulder to action. Armed only with the knife, Mulder steals a battered truck and makes his escape, knocking Krycek into the back of the truck and taking him along for the ride. The chase ends when the truck's brakes give out. Krycek bails out before the crash, but Mulder is trapped inside. Krycek flees through the woods where he runs into a group of men - all of which are missing their left arm. Krycek tells them he is an escaped prisoner, and the men take him in. Meanwhile, Mulder has survived the accident and hides in the forest from his pursuing captors.

In Washington, Scully is jailed for contempt of Congress when she refuses to reveal Mulder's whereabouts at the Senate hearing. As she explains to Skinner, someone with a secret agenda is deliberately obfuscating the case: focusing on a missing FBI agent, rather than the existence of a toxic biohazard of extra-terrestrial origin and the deaths of those connected to it.

Mulder is discovered hiding in the woods by a family, who explains that the villagers' only means of saving themselves from the fatal experiments is a drastic one: amputation of the left arm. Mulder must persuade them to take him to St. Petersburg, or they may amputate his arm to "save" him. Unfortunately for Krycek, his rescuers "save" him as he sleeps.

Peskow continues his mission, paying a visit to the comatose Dr. Sacks whom he injects with the same amber fluid that had been shot into Mulder at the Gulag. The worms emerge, and he kills Sacks. At the Senate hearing, Scully is just about to be charged with contempt again...when Mulder appears, arm intact. Mulder's presence puts the attention back on the rock and the biotoxin, but when Scully tries to bring up the subject of the biotoxin's extraterrestrial origin, her claims are not taken seriously. Mulder interrupts the hearing, challenging the skepticism of the Senators when the most conservative scientists and science journals have every reason to believe that life exists outside our terrestrial sphere. Taken aback by Mulder's statement, the chairman of the subcommittee abruptly adjourns the hearing, calling for a recess until the evidence can be properly evaluated.

Following the lead that Dr. Chung-Sayre was the supervising physician at a nursing home in Boca Raton, Mulder and Scully travel to Florida to investigate. She and Mulder arrive too late. Peskow has already poisoned all of the patients and black worms have emerged from their deceased bodies. Mulder realizes a similar experiment to the one being conducted in Russia had been conducted at this nursing home. Still bent on finding a trace of evidence left behind, Mulder and Scully travel to New York where they interview the head of the militia group Krycek was running with. The militia member tells them Krycek told them his name was Arntzen, and that Krycek approached them. Everything Krycek told him was a lie. They also learn that the US government covered up their knowledge that Soviet-developed "black cancer" was deployed by Saddam during the Gulf War. Mulder now believes the whole thing was a set up from the beginning by someone who doesn't want the rocks in American hands. Finally, he discovers where Krycek is hiding another rock: Terma, North Dakota, in the stolen truck carrying the Militia's fertilizer bomb.

Again, Peskow is one step ahead of Mulder and Scully. He drives the truck to a Canadian oil refinery, intending to destroy the remaining rock. Mulder and Scully arrive too late to prevent Peskow from igniting a fiery explosion which engulfs the last piece of evidence. Both barely escape with their lives.

The final report on their investigation is turned over to the Senate subcommittee, but in vain. The Cigarette-Smoking Man controls the Senator who chairs the committee. In St. Petersburg, Peskow returns home to find Krycek, sporting a prosthetic left arm, who commends Peskow for a job well done.

MEMENTO MORI

When Scully is diagnosed with cancer, Mulder hunts for research files pertaining to a group of female abductees who also contracted the disease.

Scully shows Mulder an MRI x-ray indicating a cancerous mass has been detected on the wall between her sinus and cerebrum. The tumor is inoperable and if it grows, the chance for survival is slim. Instead of requesting a leave of absence, Scully opts to follow another avenue of investigation: contacting a group of purported female abductees who experienced similar symptoms after having implants removed from the base of their necks.

The agents travel to the home of Betsy Hagopian in Allentown, Pennsylvania where Scully had met these women before. A realtor informs them that Hagopian (one of the female abductees) passed away two weeks earlier. While searching through Hagopian's house, the agents realize someone is downloading computer files via phone modem. The call is traced, and the agents apprehend Kurt Crawford, the man who downloaded the files. Crawford explains that he and Hagopian were both members of the same UFO network and downloaded Hagopian's files because the government is out to destroy them. Crawford also reveals that all of the women who claimed they were abducted by aliens died of similar tumors, with the exception of Penny Northern, who is now hospitalized and near death from cancer.

Scully visits Northern at the hospital, who reveals that Dr. Scanlon, who has been treating her cancer, may have isolated the cause. Seeing her future self in Penny's condition, Scully checks herself in and Dr. Scanlon begins treating her cancer. Meanwhile, Mulder and Crawford search through hard files in Hagopian's basement. They discover that all of the woman abductees, including Northern, were treated at the same fertility clinic in Pennsylvania. When Scully asks Mulder to bring her overnight bag to the hospital, Mulder leaves Crawford in the basement to attend to Scully. Later that evening, the Gray-Haired Man (the same man who killed X) shows up and kills Crawford, whose body melts into a pool of green liquid.

Meanwhile, Mulder breaks into a federally-subsidized fertility clinic where all the female UFO network members were patients. Inside, he discovers Kurt Crawford (Mulder is unaware of the other Crawford's death). They access a computer terminal and download a directory containing Scully's name. Near the breaking point, Mulder demands that Skinner arrange a meeting with The Cigarette-Smoking Man. But Skinner refuses, insisting The Cigarette-Smoking Man deals only in lies. Nonetheless, Skinner secretly enlists The Cigarette-Smoking Man's help.

Mulder turns to the Lone Gunmen, who tell him that the fertility clinic's mainframe is housed in a high-security federal research facility. The foursome infiltrate the research facility, and once inside, Mulder realizes Dr. Scanlon is on staff. He instructs Byers to find Scully and stop her treatment immediately. As he continues through the building's corridors, Mulder encounters additional Crawfords and realizes Kurt is a clone. He finds several of them dressed as doctors inside an incubator room housing tanks containing human forms, including those of Samantha. One of the Kurts shows Mulder a cold storage room containing vials of human ova--including a vial with Scully's name on it. The eggs were harvested from women during their abduction, which were later used for reproduction. Mulder realizes the women are the Kurts' birth mothers and the clones are actually working to save their mothers' lives.

The Gray-Haired Man arrives at the clinic and traps Mulder between two security doors in a quarantine wing. The Gray-Haired Man opens fire, slowly cracking the bullet proof glass that stands between himself and his prey. Working feverishly, Frohike breaks a computer code from a remote location, allowing Mulder to open the outside door and run to safety.

When Mulder returns to the hospital, he finds Scully at Penny's bedside. Byers arrived in time to stop Scully's treatment, but Penny Northern had died and Dr. Scanlon was gone. Scully tells her partner she has decided to fight the disease and continue her work.

GETHSEMANE Part 1 of 3

Mulder and Scully search for the truth when an anthropologist discovers what could be the frozen remains of extraterrestrial life.

Scully enters Mulder's apartment, where a group of detectives and forensic technicians are waiting. Detective Rempulski introduces himself, then pulls back a sheet draped over a body lying on the floor. Scully positively identifies the victim. Later, Scully appears before a group of FBI officials led by Section Chief Scott Blevins. During the meeting, Scully recounts how, four years earlier, Blevins assigned her to a project known as The X-Files. She states that the purpose of the current meeting is to report on the illegitimacy of Mulder's work.

In flashback, a pair of anthropologists, Arlinsky and Babcock, are flown by helicopter to a snowbound camp at the base of a mountain. Accompanied by a guide, the pair make their way up the steep terrain. Upon reaching the summit, the men enter a cave where the body of a gray alien is perfectly preserved in ice.

A group of guests gather at Mrs. Scully's house for a dinner party. Amongst the attendees are Dana's brother, Bill Scully, Jr., and a Catholic Priest, Father McCue. Scully realize McCue was invited by her mother for the purpose of discussing her faith at a time when Scully's health is at great risk due to her cancer. After dinner, Father McCue and Scully briefly talk about her drifting from the church before their discussion is interrupted by a phone call from Mulder. He has received information about a something that was discovered in Canada.

Mulder arranges for Scully to meet he and Arlinsky at the Smithsonian. Arlinsky claims that, based upon ice core samples taken from the scene, the alien body is some two hundred years old. He asks for the agents' assistance in verifying the alien remains. Mulder and Arlinsky fly to the base camp, which is eerily deserted. Unbeknownst to them, a mysterious assassin armed with a shotgun pistol has murdered the Summiteers. Upon reaching the summit, the men discover the bodies of Babcock and a foreman. Inside the cave is a rectangular hole where the alien body had been entombed. Later, Babcock, injured but alive, tells the pair that he buried the alien body beneath his tent.

Meanwhile, Scully and lab scientist Vitagliano examine ice core samples taken from the cave. Later that night, Scully returns to the Bio Lab, where she is assaulted and thrown down a flight of stairs by an unidentified attacker. Agent Hedin matches fingerprints found on the stairwell to a Michael Kritschgau, who works for the Pentagon's research division. After viewing a personnel file, Scully positively identifies Kritschgau as her attacker. Later, she confronts Kritschgau inside a parking garage and places him under arrest. But Kritschgau warns that if he is taken to jail, the same people who gave Scully cancer will kill him.

Mulder and Arlinsky transport the alien body to a warehouse where an autopsy can be performed. Scully contacts her partner at the warehouse and arranges a meeting so he can hear Kritschgau's story firsthand. Soon afterward, the assassin, Ostelhoff, shoots and kills Arlinsky and Babcock at the warehouse. Meanwhile, Kritschgau, who claims to have run the Department of Defense's agitprop arm, tells the agents that the government has been orchestrating an elaborate hoax to divert attention away from itself. The alien corpse, Kritschgau claims, was forged from bio-materials and frozen into place over the course of a year. He insists Mulder was only meant to see the alien--to make him believe the lie. Mulder counters that it is Kritschgau who is the liar. But when Mulder returns to the warehouse, he discovers the dead bodies of Arlinsky and Babcock--and the alien specimen missing. Shortly thereafter, Scully tells him the men behind the hoax gave her cancer all in an effort to make him a believer in their lies. Mulder is stunned by the revelation.

Back in the current day, Scully tells FBI officials that she received a phone call from the police department asking her to identify a body inside Mulder's apartment. Struggling to maintain composure, Scully reveals that Mulder died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

REDUX Part 2 of 3

Mulder accesses a secret research facility that may hold a cure for scully's illness. Meanwhile, Scully performs an experiment in hopes of determining the origin of the disease.

In flashback, twenty-four hours before Agent Scully told an FBI assembly that her partner was dead (see previous season's cliffhanger)... Mulder receives a tip from Kritschgau that their conversations have been monitored. Mulder looks upward--and notices a small pinhole in the ceiling of his apartment. He races upstairs, where he encounters Scott Ostelhoff, in the apartment directly above his own, igniting flash paper. A struggle ensues, during which a shot rings out.

Mulder tells Scully he killed Ostelhoff. He also informs her that the flash paper Ostelhoff attempted to destroy contained a record of seventeen phone calls placed to the PBX operator at the Bureau. The agents conclude their own agency is behind the cover-up... and that they have been pawns in a conspiratorial game since the very beginning. Mulder suggests they create their own lie in hopes of uncovering the truth.

Shortly thereafter, Scully travels to Mulder's apartment and identifies Ostelhoff's faceless body (the result of the shotgun blast) as that of her partner. Later, during a meeting with Blevins and Skinner, she is instructed to appear before a joint FBI panel. Afterward, Scully traces the phone number listed on Ostelhoff's flash paper to an FBI branch extension that includes Skinner. This leads Scully to conclude that Skinner may be a mole. Meanwhile, the Cigarette-Smoking Man tells the Syndicate he questions reports of Mulder's demise.

Mulder uses Ostelhoff's identification card to infiltrate DARPA, a secret research facility. There he encounters Kritschgau, who explains that the card will give him access to the entire building. Kritschgau then claims the hoax Mulder has been drawn into dates back to the days just after World War II, a time when generals were desperate to continue fueling the nation's economy via a military build-up. In 1947, Kritschgau states, the government began using the Roswell incident as a cover story to distract the American public from the truth-and a top secret program involving DNA. He laments he went along with the lie... until his own son was exposed to bioweapons during the Gulf War. Shortly thereafter, Kritschgau is led away by sentries. Mulder manages to escape detection and make his way deeper into the research complex. He discovers a room containing dozens of alien bodies, identical to the one he discovered at the ice cave-giving credence to Kritschgau's story.

Dr. Vitagliano finishes his examination of the ice core samples given to him by Scully. The cells contained within, he concludes, are the beginnings of a new life form. Scully decides to perform a test that will compare the strange organism to her own DNA. Before she does so, she encounters Skinner, who reveals how a pathology report concluded the body found in Mulder's apartment is not her partner. Later, the DNA test between the samples proves a match. Scully concludes her cancer resulted from being deliberately exposed to the organism.

As Mulder continues his journey through the facility, he discovers a warehouse--a "repository for all the alien-related odds and ends that the Cigarette-Smoking Man has taken from Mulder over the years." There he discovers a gigantic index system, which contains cards for Scully, Kritschgau, and a blank card for Kritschgau, Jr. He also discovers a metallic vial--which could contain a cure for Scully's illness.

Scully appears before the FBI panel and announces she will expose the "mechanism of deception" that drew her partner, and herself, into the government's lies. She then informs the panel that her partner died the previous night of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. As she begins to present scientific evidence that will support her claim, she is suddenly taken ill. Meanwhile, the Cigarette-Smoking Man, working in the shadows, arranges Mulder's escape from the research complex. The Lone Gunmen analyze the contents of the vial... and conclude it contains only deionized water.

REDUX II Part 3 of 3

Illness-and the identity of a mole operating from within the Bureau-he receives help from a most unlikely source.

A frantic Mulder enters a hospital in search of Scully, who had suddenly collapsed during the FBI hearing (see previous episode). He finds her unconscious body lying in a bed, her breathing aided by a ventilator. Skinner explains that Scully went into shock and is close to death. When Mulder refuses to cooperate with Skinner, he is escorted to the main FBI building, where he is questioned by Section Chief Scott Blevins and a Senior Agent. But Mulder fails to cooperate with the inquiry and leaves the room.

The Cigarette-Smoking Man meets with the Elder and fellow Syndicate member Quiet Willy. The Elder chastises the Cigarette-Smoking Man for allowing Mulder to escape from the research facility, leaving their project vulnerable to exposure. But the Cigarette-Smoking Man counters that Mulder is much more valuable alive, and plots to assure his loyalty. When the Cigarette-Smoking Man leaves the meeting, the Elder tells Quiet Willy he can "proceed." Scully regains consciousness. She tells Mulder that Skinner is the mole operating from within the Bureau. But Mulder counters that Skinner is withholding Ostelhoff's forensics information, casting doubt on the theory. Their conversation is interrupted by Mrs. Scully and Dana's brother, Bill Jr. Bill blames Mulder-and his cause-for his sister's condition. Shortly thereafter, the Cigarette-Smoking Man approaches Mulder. He informs him that the metallic vial contains a tiny microchip that will cure Scully's illness. Later, Bill Jr. voices grave concern about the chip. But Scully tells Dr. Zuckerman she is willing to give it a try. Meanwhile, Kritschgau testifies before the FBI's investigative panel. He denies knowing the identity of Ostelhoff's killer, states that his own son died earlier that day, and reveals that part of his remuneration is funded by a Congressional lobbying firm called Roush.

In an effort to cement Mulder's trust, the Cigarette-Smoking Man arranges a meeting between Mulder and his sister, Samantha. She reveals that, some time after her abduction, she was taken to a hotel room and told that the Cigarette-Smoking Man is her father. Mulder tells Samantha that their mother is still alive... and that she was lied to by the Cigarette-Smoking Man. Her head spinning with confused emotions, Samantha makes her way back to the Cigarette-Smoking Man's car and disappears into the night. Later, the Cigarette-Smoking Man tells Mulder that Kritschgau deceived him with a host of "beautiful lies." He asks Mulder to quit the Bureau and work for him, but Mulder refuses.

While watching a televised Congressional hearing on biotechnology, the Elder notices Skinner lingering in the audience. He instructs a subordinate to "fix" the problem. Blevins informs Mulder that a ballistics test matched the bullet from Ostelhoff's body to Mulder's service revolver. Blevins also claims that Skinner has been working inside the Bureau with a secret agenda. Mulder refuses to believe the story... and refuses to finger Skinner as a mole during his testimony before the FBI panel (even though such testimony would exonerate himself from wrongdoing).

Mulder takes his place before the FBI panel. Simultaneously, Quiet Willy, rifle in hand, positions himself inside a parking garage opposite the Cigarette-Smoking Man's apartment. Before answering questions regarding his culpability in Ostelhoff's death, Mulder announces the name of the mole who has acted from within FBI: Section Chief Scott Blevins. At almost the same moment, Quiet Willy opens fire, shooting the Cigarette-Smoking Man. Blevins makes his way back to his office. There he encounters the Senior Agent, gun in hand. A shot rings out, and Blevins falls to the ground. The Senior Agent then places the weapon in Blevins' own hand. Shortly thereafter, Skinner tells Mulder that the Cigarette-Smoking Man is dead. Though no body was recovered, the massive loss of blood found inside the apartment leaves no other conclusion. During their conversation, Mulder tells Skinner he guessed as to Blevins' identity as a mole. Skinner confirms that Blevins had been working for a biotechnology company called Roush for four years. Mulder then informs Skinner that Scully's cancer has gone into remission.

PATIENT X Part 1 of 2

The agents search for answers when UFO abductees gather en masse--and are burned alive.

In Kazakhstan, former Soviet Union, two teenage boys watch as a UFO disappears behind a mountain top. The boys run off to tell their families, but as they sprint through the woods, they come upon an area filled with burning automobiles. A screaming man, his body ablaze, appears out of the dense smoke, causing the boys to run. One of them, Dmitri, takes refuge in the woods. The next morning, he is discovered by Krycek, who is in the company of a unit of Russian soldiers. With the boy in custody, Krycek and his men approach Maria Covarrubias, who, along with UN troops, is sifting through the burned out wreckage. Krycek tells Maria he knows who she works for--and to tell her superiors he has a witness (Dmitri).

Back in the United States, Mulder takes part in a visiting lecturers forum. He disagrees with the opinions voiced by his fellow panelists regarding a woman referred to as "Patient X," an apparent abductee who seeks answers as to why aliens are on Earth. Mulder maintains that there is no complicity between the military and alien abductions. Instead, he believes the government is developing biological warfare and hiding the fact by concocting stories about "little green men." When the discussion ends, Mulder is approached by Dr. Werber, the man who performed regression hypnosis on him five years earlier (leading Mulder to believe his sister was abducted). Werber reveals that he is Patient X's doctor. He arranges a meeting between Mulder and the woman, Cassandra, believing that she will change his mind regarding his new theory. Cassandra believes the aliens are on Earth to deliver a message. But something, she fears, has gone wrong.

Krycek extracts information from Dmitri by subjecting him to a beating. He then orders a Russian doctor to expose the teenager to the alien black oil. The liquid enters Dmitri's body through his mouth and nose. Dmitri, his eyes and mouth sewn shut, is then transported back to the US on a Russian freighter. Meanwhile, Covarrubias briefs Syndicate members on the mysterious burn site in Kazakhstan. Covarrubias believes the act was aimed at the Syndicate, and reveals that Krycek captured a witness at the site. Krycek phones the group and offers to trade Dmitri for all research information pertaining to a vaccine against the black oil.

At the FBI building, Scully is approached by Agent Spender, who identifies himself as Cassandra's son. Spender tells Scully that his mother is a very disturbed woman. Later, Scully tells Mulder about the conversation. She then peruses Cassandra's medical file, growing intrigued when she realizes Cassandra claims to have been abducted at Skyland Mountain, the same site where Scully was taken by Duane Barry. The file also reveals that Cassandra has an implant in the base of her neck. Mulder brushes off the findings, agreeing with Spender's conclusion. But so intrigued is Scully by the developments that she pays Cassandra a visit at the psychiatric hospital. There, she grows unnerved when Cassandra tells her that some nights she awakens feeling as though she must be somewhere, but not knowing where to go.

Meanwhile, a group of abductees gather at Skyland Mountain. As an Unknown Man drives down the mountain road, he encounters faceless men chasing another man. One of the faceless men drives a metallic wand into the Running Man's back, setting him ablaze. Later, Mulder and Scully inspect the site. The situation forces Scully in the opposite position she would normally take, for despite a lack of evidence, she believes the event is linked to her abduction. The agents are contacted by Cassandra, who warns "they" must be stopped. The agents are then approached by Spender, who explains that his mother was part of a UFO cult.

Back at the Syndicate office, group members conclude that the latest burning is aimed at sabotaging their work. Quiet Willy is dispatched to deal with the situation. Meanwhile, Covarrubias rendezvous with Krycek at the freighter, which is docked in New York Harbor. The two share a hungry kiss, then exit so they can be alone. When Krycek returns, Dmitri has vanished. The Well-Manicured Man appears, demanding to know where the boy has gone.

After examining the evidence, Mulder concludes the victims of the mass burning were led to Skyland Mountain by the government when it triggered the implant devices. But he is at a loss to explain why they were killed. Their conversation is interrupted by a call from Covarrubias, who informs Mulder of the similar incident in former Soviet Union, and of the witness, Dmitri. Suddenly, the black oil oozes from Dmitri, and Covarrubias drops the phone.

Scully suffers an attack--not unlike the one Cassandra described earlier. She travels to Ruskin Dam, where a throng of people have gathered, including Cassandra, in the company of Quiet Willy, and Dmitri, the stitches having been torn from his eyes and mouth. A glowing ship passes overhead and disappears over adjacent treetops. Suddenly, screams are heard from the far edge of the congregation, where faceless men wielding alien weapons set people ablaze.

THE RED AND THE BLACK Part 2 of 2

Scully undergoes hypnosis in an effort to remember what happened at the mass burning site.

In this continuation of the previous episode... a man, his face unseen, types a letter to his son (whose identity is unknown). The man, who lives in a remote cabin, addresses the letter to the FBI and pays a boy to mail it.

Meanwhile, rescue workers sift through the area near the dam where blackened bodies lie along the length of a bridge. Amongst the bodies is Quiet Willy, the Syndicate's hit man. Skinner directs Mulder to a nearby provisional tent, where Scully is ministered by medics. Nearby is the body of Dmitri, the Russian boy, his exposed skin blackened by the fire. When Scully regains consciousness, she tells Mulder she has no memory of what occurred at the dam. Outside of Scully's room, Spender tells Mulder that rescue workers were unable to locate his mother, Cassandra.

The Well-Manicured Man and a physician, Dr. Bronschweig, tend to Maria Covarrubias inside a hospital quarantine room. Later, the Well-Manicured Man speaks with Krycek, imprisoned aboard the Russian freighter. The Well-Manicured Man is aware that Krycek deliberately exposed Dmitri to the black oil to insure the infection of anyone who attempted to ascertain what he knows about the burnings in Russia. He also believes that Krycek possesses a vaccine, that would create resistance to the alien colonists. The Well-Manicured Man offers Krycek freedom in return for the vaccine.

Meanwhile, a spacecraft crashes at Fort Wiekamp Air Force Base. A faceless alien pirate drags one of his comrades from the wreckage. Later, members of the Syndicate study photographs of the alien. They realize the man is a resistance fighter, a member of an ongoing battle against alien colonists. The Well-Manicured Man explains that Krycek gave him the vaccine, meaning resistance may, in fact, be a possibility. But the Elder concludes that the captured fighter should be turned over to the colonists, the Well-Manicured Man has Covarrubias injected with the vaccine to ensure it actually works.

Back at the hospital, Mulder tells Scully that x-rays have revealed the presence of implants inside the people who were at the dam. Mulder recounts his belief that the U.S. government manufactured and implanted the chip as part of a bio-chemical weapons project. Scully agrees to be hypnotized by Dr. Werber in an effort to recall what happened at the dam. In a trance-like state, Scully recalls how a UFO flew overhead, and shortly thereafter, how the faceless aliens set congregants on fire. Then another craft appeared overhead, which began attacking the faceless men. Cassandra was then pulled upward, out of her wheelchair, by the ship. Afterward, Werber tells Mulder that the same event will happen yet again.

Skinner reviews an audio tape of Werber's session with Scully. Mulder tells Skinner the entire event was staged to cover up a classified military project. Skinner admits, however, that Scully's UFO scenario is more plausible. Meanwhile, when Covarrubias fails to respond to the vaccine, the Elder informs the Well-Manicured Man that the captured alien is being turned over to the colonists.

Spender shows the agents a videotape of himself, as a young boy, answering questions while under hypnosis. As the tape plays, the young Spender describes his abduction by a UFO. Spender then pauses the tape. He tells the agents the story is untrue, a falsehood told to him by his mother many times. He maintains that Dr. Werber's regression memory theory is without merit. Spender also points out that Mulder has expressed his UFO theories to Scully many times... suggesting that she has recounted the information in a similar manner.

Krycek surprised Mulder inside his apartment. He explains that Kazakhstan, Skyland Mountain and the site in Pennsylvania are all beacons for colonization. The burnings, Krycek explains, were the work of alien rebels attempting to foil the colonist's plans for takeover. Krycek gives Mulder the location of the captured alien rebel. He maintains that if the captive perishes, so does the resistance. Accompanied by Scully, Mulder drives to Fort Wiekamp. As they attempt to bluff their way through the front gate, the agents notice Quiet Willy at the wheel of a military truck as it is about to exit the base. As the vehicle pulls away, Mulder sneaks aboard the cargo area. There he finds faceless alien pirate imprisoned inside. Quiet Willy brings the rig to a stop... then morphs into the alien bounty hunter. He climbs into the cargo area, but shortly thereafter, a white light illuminates the truck. A second faceless alien, armed with a firestarter weapon, enters. Mulder opens fire. Shortly thereafter, a confused Mulder is swarmed by MPs and placed inside a car with Scully. Mulder has no memory of how he got aboard the truck. Meanwhile, the envelope seen in the opening teaser is delivered to Spender. Several days later, back at the cabin, the envelope, labeled with the words "return to sender," is delivered to the Cigarette-Smoking Man.

THE END

A boy possessing psychic powers may hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of the X-Files.

Inside a sports arena, two chess masters, a Russian man and an odd-looking 12-year-old boy named Gibson Praise, engage in a battle of the minds as an audience sits in reverential silence. High above the crowd, on a catwalk overhanging the arena, a sniper aims his rifle towards the back of the child's head. As the gunman slowly squeezes the trigger, the little boy announces "checkmate," and slides back in his chair. A gunshot rings out... and the Russian falls to the floor, dead. Meanwhile, two armed, masked figures close in on the cabin where the Cigarette-Smoking Man has holed up. A sensor alerts the Cigarette-Smoking Man to their presence, and he manages to kill one of them before making his escape into the woods. The second masked gunman gets the drop on his prey... and reveals himself as Alex Krycek.

Skinner briefs Mulder on the death of the Russian chess player. It turns out that the sniper is a former member of the National Security Agency. The case was assigned to Agent Spender, who specified that Mulder be excluded from the investigation. Despite this, Mulder and Skinner crash Spender's briefing. While viewing videotape of the assassination, Mulder reaches the conclusion that the shooter's target was Gibson--not the Russian--as the boy reacted in an almost precognitive fashion moments before the shot rang out. Spender disagrees with the theory. Agent Diana Fowley, an attractive woman in her thirties, opines that Mulder is correct. Spender rewinds the tape... and forms the same conclusion.

The Cigarette-Smoking Man meets with the Syndicate Elders. Labeling Gibson a threat, they ask for the Cigarette-Smoking Man's help in orchestrating his elimination.

Mulder, Scully and Diana Fowley visit Gibson inside a psychiatric hospital. The boy declines Mulder's invitation to match wits against a cheap chess computer... giving credence to Mulder's suspicion that the boy is not a chess master, but a mind reader. Tests on the child's brain reveal that Gibson is, indeed, clairvoyant. Later, Mulder visits the shooter in his cell. He offers him immunity from prosecution in exchange for his cooperation.

Scully cannot help but notice chemistry between Mulder and Fowley. She pays the Lone Gunman an unexpected visit. She gives them data from the tests performed on Gibson, and asks that it be analyzed. Scully also asks for information on Diana Fowley. The three men confirm that she and Mulder were an item back when Mulder graduated from the Academy and first discovered the existence of the X-Files. Scully returns to the psychiatric hospital intending to show Mulder the data she has accumulated. But when she approaches the observation room, she notices Mulder and Diana inside... and Diana holding Mulder's hand. Scully, a confusion of emotions, both personal and professional, leaves the hospital. When Mulder enters the hospital's parking garage to retrieve his car, he notices Spender talking to the Cigarette-Smoking Man. Mulder pushes Spender hard in the chest, demanding to know his business. Spender explains that he does not know the identity of the mysterious man. He then reveals that the shooter wishes to speak with Mulder.

Scully meets with Skinner and Mulder to reveal the results of the psychiatric tests on Gibson. It turns out that an area of the child's brain, dubbed the "God Module" by neurophysicists, exhibits extraordinary activity. Mulder believes the child's life is in danger because of his gift, as it might be the key to solving the unexplained phenomena contained within the X-Files. He also suspects that the assassin holds the key to the vast conspiracy working against him. Skinner points out that the very existence of the X-Files would be put at risk if he asks the Attorney General to grant immunity to the assassin. Later, Mulder approaches the shooter and asks him for information he can corroborate. He reveals that Gibson is a missing link--genetic proof of man's relationship to an alien race .

The Cigarette-Smoking Man puts his plan in motion. The assassin is murdered inside his cell. Shortly thereafter, a bullet strikes Fowley as she stands watch over Gibson. The Cigarette-Smoking Man delivers the child to the Well-Manicured Man and Krycek.

When Mulder sees Spender at the Bureau, he pushes him into a wall. He angrily accuses him of orchestrating Gibson's disappearance in conjunction with the Cigarette Smoking Man. Other agents restrain Mulder, dragging him away. Spender responds by stating that Mulder's days are numbered. Later, Scully informs her partner there is talk of shutting down the X-Files. That night, the Cigarette-Smoking Man sneaks into Mulder's office and steals a file on Samantha Mulder. He then addresses Spender face-to-face. He informs him that he is his father. Suddenly, a fire alarm sounds and agents make their way into the hallway. The Cigarette-Smoking Man disappears into the crowd. Later, Mulder inspects the damage to his office, where the cabinet containing the X-Files is a melted skeleton. Scully places her arms around her partner, offering support.

THE X-FILES MOVIE

FIGHT THE FUTURE

In Texas, a young boy falls into a hole and is overtaken by the black oil. Four fire fighters who go down to rescue him are infected, too. A phalanx of government troops and vehicles descend on the scene and quarantine it. Mulder and Scully have been reassigned. In Dallas, the pair help look for a bomb; they find nothing. On a trip to a vending machine, Mulder finds the bomb after all. The Special Agent in Charge ushers everyone out so he can defuse the bomb - but once everyone's gone, he makes no effort to do so, and is killed in the blast. An inquiry blames Mulder and Scully for the SAC's death, and those of a young boy and three men found in the FEMA office in the building. After the inquiry, Scully tells Mulder of the FBI's plan to split them up, and of her plan to quit the FBI. Mulder is contacted by Alvin Kurzweil, who says he knew Mulder's father. He tells Mulder to investigate the other bodies found in the bomb blast. In Texas, the CSM is shown the fourth fireman, whose skin is now translucent, and who is playing host to a growing lifeform. The lifeform leaves its host and kills a scientist; the whole project is closed down and covered over. Scully examines one of the bodies in the morgue and finds an odd state of decomposition; she finds unknown proteins in the samples she took. Mulder and Scully go to Texas, but only find a freshly-greened playground. Several boys tell them that trucks just left an hour ago - they set out to find them. When they find the tankers the trucks were hauling, they are on flat cars on a railroad. They follow the train to a huge cornfield with large, inflated domes in the middle. They go into one of the domes just as its contents are being released - bees. They flee, unstung, and quickly are chased off by black helicopters. They return to Washington, where Scully is set to resign. She meets Mulder back at his place to say goodbye, but she is stung by a bee that hitched a ride in her clothes - she goes into shock. Mulder calls an ambulance, which quickly arrives and whisks her off - the driver shoots at Mulder when he inquires as to where they are taking her. Mulder arranges to meet with Kurzweil again, but at the meeting place, he finds the Well Manicured Man. The WMM tells Mulder that the discovery of the black oil in Texas has thrown the Syndicate into disarray. He tells Mulder that the oil contains a virus that triggers growth inside the host, growth of the original inhabitants of this planet. The Syndicate has known that the oil would soon be taking over all of humanity, serving it in a deadly way; their efforts to covertly develop a vaccine have not been as successful as they'd hoped, but there has been some progress. He tells Mulder he is doing this because Mulder's efforts might save the lives of his grandchildren some day. He gives Mulder a vial of the vaccine and Scully's location. The vaccine must be administered within 96 hours, or it will be ineffective. He also says that by telling Mulder all of this, his life was essentially over. As Mulder walks away from the car, it explodes. He travels to Scully's location, in the Antarctic. He finds a huge underground operation, with seemingly millions of cocoons filled with people with beings growing inside them. He is able to find Scully and give her the vaccine. The backwash of fluids from her body set off an alarm in the site's control center, manned by humans; the CSM is there, and notes that the system has been contaminated by the vaccine - he evacuates the premises. Mulder has to carry Scully out of the site, as enraged aliens burst out of their hosts and cocoons and give chase. As they collapse from exhaustion, a great ship emerges from underground and leaves the site, leaving a huge hole in its place. Scully presents the evidence to the OPR, including the bee that stung her, and tells them that no unit in the FBI has the ability to investigate the events. Scully finds Mulder to tell him the X-Files have been reopened; she will stay with him. In Algeria, a new, larger corn field, with dozens of inflated domes arises in the desert, with the CSM wondering what the next step should be.

THE BEGINNING

Mulder and Scully's ability to pursue the X-Files - and their partnership - is threatened by the hunt for a deadly creature in the Arizona desert, whose capture may or may not prove Mulder's theories about the existence of extraterrestrial life.

Mulder and Scully are brought before a review board to justify their re-assignment on the X-Files. The board needs scientific proof of extraterrestrial life. Mulder argues that concrete evidence exists via Scully, who had earlier been infected by an alien virus. When Scully is vague regarding this infection, the board gives the team their final warning - find concrete evidence or else.

On the sly, A.D. Skinner gives Mulder a lead on a strange case in Arizona that might give him the hard evidence he needs. At the crime scene, Mulder theorizes that the victim was infected by an alien virus and that this virus ultimately produced an alien entity. The entity then ripped away the victim's chest from the inside as it birthed itself.

Meantime, the Syndicate is irate that this "situation" has surfaced and is getting so much attention. Cigarette-Smoking Man assures them that he is taking care of the problem. He brings Gibson Praise, the young chess prodigy, to the crime scene in hopes that Praise can divine where the creature has escaped to.

The agents are drawn to a nearby power plant where another murder has occurred. They are met by agents Spender and Fowley who deny Mulder access to the new crime scene. When Mulder and Scully return to their car, they find Praise hiding in the back seat.

Mulder wants to use Praise to find the alien creature, but Scully talks him out of it, explaining that Praise is the scientific evidence Mulder's been looking for. Praise can corroborate everything Mulder's been saying. Scully tells Mulder that Praise needs medical attention and just as they're about to drive him to the hospital, Agent Fowley arrives. Scully continues on to the hospital with Praise, while Mulder and Fowley go to the plant to find the creature.

At the plant, Mulder and Fowley discover evidence that the alien is there. He calls Scully at the hospital to tell her this; in turn, she reveals that Praise has traces of the alien virus in his body -- somehow, Praise is part extraterrestrial. While Scully's attention is diverted, Black-Haired Man kidnaps Praise and takes him to the power plant to find and destroy the alien. Mulder catches up with Praise and Black-Haired Man, but it is too late. They have locked themselves inside the core reactor room. Mulder watches helplessly as the alien kills Black-Haired Man. The alien turns on Praise just as the plant's alarms sound and FBI agents swarm the area. Fowley, now seeming to be on Spender's side, approaches Mulder and tells him to back off.

Back at the review board, the panel tells Mulder and Scully to cease all association with the X-Files. They are put on probation and told to report to a new boss, Assistant Director Kersh.

TWO FATHERS Part 1 of 2

In a railroad yard in Arlington, Virginia, doctors in biocontainment suits make an incision in a patient's stomach. Green acid boils out and the cut heals itself. Another doctor arrives and is told that after twenty-five years the work is complete, but a faceless alien arrives and sets fire to the medical team. We see that the patient is Cassandra Spender, who has been missing for a year.

The Cigarette Smoking Man discusses the conspiracy for his unseen guest. It is hard to believe that the end is here. It was a perfect conspiracy, preparing the way for the invasion of an alien race and creating a slave race of human-alien hybrids. They kept it secret for fifty years but a rebel alien race came to upset their plans.

Skinner tells agent Spender that his mother is in the hospital, having survived the attack in the rail car. At the hospital, she does not explain what happened but asks to talk to agent Mulder. Not happy about it, Spender eventually asks Mulder for help, but Mulder believes that it is a set-up, designed to entrap Mulder and get him out of the FBI completely. Meanwhile, the Cigarette Smoking Man visits the one doctor who survived the rail car attack. He is in a hyperbaric chamber because of his burns. The doctor says the rebels came to take Cassandra so they can expose the conspiracy. The doctor points out that he must not be questioned, and with regrets, the Cigarette Smoking Man turns off his oxygen supply.

In Silver Spring, Maryland, an elder is informed by the Cigarette Smoking Man that an emergency meeting of the Syndicate has been called, but a faceless man arrives and burns the elder.

Mulder and Scully realize that they have seen these burned bodies before and that Scully has been kidnapped and subjected to tests in a rail car in the past. They meet with Cassandra in secret at the hospital. Long confined to a wheelchair, she can now work fine and feels wonderful. She says the woman Mulder saw last year was not his sister. Samantha is with the aliens. The doctors were also working with the aliens who are here to wipe the human race off the planet. They are taking over the universe, infecting all other life forms with a black substance called "purity," which is their life force. Agent Spender is also in danger, because he is allied with the men who are working with the aliens, Cassandra says.

The Cigarette Smoking Man tells his unseen guest that he killed to keep his colleagues from finding Cassandra because he couldn't bring himself to allow the death of his ex-wife, and that his colleagues did not realize that their group had been infiltrated. In the meeting of the Syndicate, we see the burned elder alive and well. He suggests that the Syndicate should ally with the rebels but Krycek refutes the suggestion, saying that helping the invaders has provided time to develop a way to fight them.

At the FBI, Mulder and Scully use Spender's computer to research Cassandra and agent Spender. They locate a photograph of Cassandra's ex-husband, CGB Spender, and it is the Cigarette Smoking Man. Skinner warns them to leave the x-files office, but Spender arrives with other men and Mulder and Scully are put on administrative leave for unauthorized access to the X-Files office.

Spender reports to his father that Mulder has been suspended. They argue and Spender is told "you pale to Fox Mulder." But later, because he has been exposed, the Cigarette Smoking Man goes back to Spender and assigns him to kill the rebel masquerading as an elder, using an alien stiletto. Krycek drives Spender to the elder's mansion but Spender bungles the attack and Krycek barges in and kills the alien. Spender is shocked at proof of his mother's claims. Krycek admits that Cassandra has been the subject of experiments for twenty-five years and that agent Spender has, in effect, been protecting the project that has harmed his mother. Meanwhile, Scully has researched CGB Spender. The name is certainly an alias, but Scully has a box full of information, including a 1973 photograph of CGB and Bill Mulder. They worked together for twenty-five years on a classified project and it is clear that the project is still going on.

We finally learn that the Cigarette Smoking Man has been talking to Diana Fowley. He says she has never failed him and she answers that it's not too late, she will help.

Cassandra is not in her hospital room and her guard is gone. She shows up at Mulder's apartment, scared because "they" are right behind her. As someone else knocks on Mulder's door, Cassandra says she is "the one," and tells Mulder he must kill her. As the pounding on Mulder's door continues, Scully says "No, we have to protect her." Mulder draws his gun and aims at Cassandra.

ONE SON Part 2 of 2

Flashback to October 13, 1973, in a giant hangar. The hangar doors open and a great deal of Colonists enter. They are presented a folded United States flag.

Meanwhile, back in Mulder's apartment, Mulder has his gun aimed at Cassandra, but the door bursts open and several men dressed in biocontainment suits enter, saying they are with the Center for Disease Control. Diana Fowley is also there, claiming that they have been infected with an unknown disease. They are taken to Fort Marlene where they go through decontamination procedures. Cassandra is kept separate from Mulder and Scully. Diana tells them that the CDC was called by Agent Spender. Scully argues that nobody is infected and wants to see Cassandra. She is suspended from the FBI, however, and cannot see Cassandra. Scully thinks Cassandra has been taken to continue the experiments. Mulder thinks she was taken because she is the first successful hybrid - "the one."

Krycek reports to the Cigarette Smoking Man, saying that he has recovered all of Cassandra's medical records and concludes that the faceless aliens struck because if the Colonists find out about her, they will begin the Colonization. The Cigarette Smoking Man says maybe they need to let Colonization begin because it's the only way for them to be safe and see their loved ones again.

At Fort Marlene, Mulder sneeks through the halls and in a darkened room finds Marita Covarrubias. Her hair is tattered and she is far from her usual appearance. She says if "they" find her with Mulder they will kill her. She has been subjected to terrible tests - infected with Purity to test the vaccine. Mulder realizes that the hybrid program was done in co-operation with the aliens, but was just a way of buying time. If the aliens learn that a successful hybrid exists, they will begin the Colonization.

Spender and Fowley visit Cassandra Spender at Fort Marlene. Spender had her taken into medical isollation to protect her (not realizing that Fort Marlene is under the control of the Syndicate). Cassandra says the Syndicate must get her, or everyone dies.

Meanwhile, Mulder is summoned to the office of the Lone Gunmen - Frohike, Langly, and Byers. Scully has had them research Diana Fowley. She took a position in Europe with the FBI counter-terrorism unit but there are no records of her cases. Other sources show that she spent her time visiting every MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) chapter, showing particular interest in female abduction victims. She also visited Tunisia weekly. Scully thinks she's monitoring the abduction experiments. Mulder says he is not convinced.

Mulder, however, goes to see Diana. She is not home so he picks her lock and searches her apartment, finding nothing incriminating. While he is there, the Cigarette Smoking Man enters, and Mulder holds him at gunpoint. He came looking for his son, who has chosen the wrong side. Mulder counters that Spender isn't the one experimenting on women without their permission. The Cigarette Smoking Man says Bill Mulder was against it, but came to his senses and gave up Samantha. The Project was approved by majority vote in 1973, and became an organization outside of any government. They voted to co-operate with the aliens and the aliens insisted that they turn over their children and loved ones, including Cassandra. They were sent with the aliens on the promise that they would be returned when the Colonization began. The choices, the Cigarette Smoking Man says, were not made lightly. Samantha was abducted from her home because Bill Mulder resisted, but the only way to get the alien fetus was for Samantha to also be taken. The DNA from the alien fetus was the only way to develop a race of hybrids that could survive the holocaust. Bill Mulder's idea was to use the alien DNA to develop a vaccine. They have succeeded, he says, in spite of himself. Colonization will now begin. Mulder argues that it has to be stopped or everyone dies. The Cigarette Smoking Man makes clear to Mulder they they will both survive and that Fox can see his sister returned, or die in vain like the rest of the world. He urges Mulder to save her and save himself, and leaves the apartment without objection from Mulder.

Meanwhile, Spender arrives at the meeting place of the Syndicate in New York. Only Krycek is there, and he says they have all left for West Virginia where they will be prepared to receive the alien genes to become hybrids and be taken by the Colonists. The doctors enter Cassandra's room to begin her for transportation, injecting her with a drug to immobilize her. The Cigarette Smoking Man is there and he and Cassandra talk privately. She calls him the biggest bastard of all and he does not defend himself, except to say that were it not for his actions everyone would be dead. He ordered the abductions to save her and Jeffrey. She pleads with him to kill her, to stop the Colonization, but he cannot.

Mulder is still in Diana Fowley's apartment when she returns. He tells her about his conversation with the Cigarette Smoking Man and says sometimes the only way those you love can survive is for you to give up. Fowley has no reaction, other than to kiss and hug him. Meanwhile, Spender finds his mother gone from Fort Marlene. Marita finds him and says they are packing everything up. They are going to leave and not take her, but she tells Spender she knows where they are going and how they will take Cassandra there and she begs him to help her. A doctor enters the room where the original alien fetus is kept in liquid oxygen, in order to prepare it for transportation. A nurse enters - she is a faceless alien and kills the doctor, taking the fetus and assuming the identity of the doctor.

Mulder and Scully talk by phone. He wants to take Scully to West Virginia, presumably to get her included in the group that is saved. She, however, has learned from Spender where Cassandra is, in the Potomic Yards where she will be transported by train. Mulder sends Diana on ahead to West Virginia and goes to meet Scully, because it is their last chance to stop the Colonization. The train is already rolling when they get there. Scully, driving, blocks the rails with their car, but the train wrecks the car and continues unstopped. Skinner arrives and Mulder and Scully tell him they must head for El Rico Air Force Base, in West Virginia. In the giant hangar at the air force base, the Cigarette Smoking Man arrives and notes that there are still people missing. The First Elder says they are waiting to send the signal summoning the Colonists until everyone has arrived.

One person missing is Alex Krycek, who is at Fort Marlene. He discovers the dead doctor and that the alien fetus has been taken by faceless aliens. In the hall, he finds Spender and Marita. They can't get out because the security guards will not recognize Spender's authority to remove a patient. Krycek says it is all going to hell and that the rebels are going to win. Fowley arrives at the hangar. An alien ship arrives, but the Syndicate is puzzled because they have not yet sent the signal. Faceless aliens rush into the hangar and surround the Syndicate Elders and their families, but the Cigarette Smoking Man and Diana are to the side and quickly escape as we hear screams from the remaining humans.

Later, back at the FBI, Assistant Director Kersh is horrified at the pictures of the burned victims at El Rico Air Force Base. Skinner is also in the meeting. Spender says he might have prevented the deaths. Agents Mulder and Scully might also have prevented the deaths, he points out, if they had not been suspended. Spender says he was wrong to bring charges against Mulder and Scully, and urges that the two assistant directors do everything they can to get Mulder and Scully back on the X-Files. Kersh asks Mulder if he has answers and Mulder says that he has had answers for years but nobody would listen. The future is here and all bets are off.

Later still, in the X-Files office, Spender arrives to clean out his things and finds the Cigarette Smoking Man waiting for him, holding the picture of himself and Bill Mulder from 1973. The Cigarette Smoking Man says Bill Mulder was a good man, but he betrayed him. Spender says he knows enough about his father to hate him. The Cigarette Smoking Man draws his gun and fires at Spender, then sadly leaves the office.