The X-Files Episode Guide

Season Seven

(1999/2000)

140 "THE SIXTH EXTINCTION"
US Airdate: November 7, 1999
writers: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
director: Kim Manners

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:
Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Walter Skinner
Mimi Rogers as Agent Diana Fowley
Conrad Roberts as Primitive African Man
Jo Nell Kennedy as Amina Ngebe
Warren Sweeney as Dr. Harriman
Michael Ensign as Dr. Barnes
John Finn as Michael Kritschgau
Mari Weiss as ICU nurse
Anthony Okungbowa as Barnes' driver
Abdoulaye N'Gom as driver


While Scully tries to piece together the meaning of the symbols on the spaceship beached in Africa, Mulder is imprisoned by his own frenetic brain activity. On the beach of Africa's Ivory Coast, Scully tries to piece together the cryptic symbols on the surface of the beached spaceship, hoping to find some answers to save the life of her ailing partner. Mulder contracted his illness after coming in contact with a carbon rubbing from the craft. While working late one night she does not notice a primitive African warrior who appears and then disappears. Thousands of bugs instantly swarm inside the tent. The next morning, an African biology professor named Amina Ngebe arrives at the camp to help Scully with the research. Amina warns Scully not to tell the African men hired to unearth the spaceship about the bugs because they would consider it an omen. After that, one of the workers in the ocean screams in pain as if he had been boiled in the water. At the sight of his blistered skin, Amina tells Scully that this is another warning.

Skinner goes to visit Mulder in the padded cell of a Washington hospital. He tries to speak to him, but Mulder attacks and is placed in restraints. Outside the cell, Skinner realizes he has a note in his pocket: a ripped cloth with the words "help me" written in dried blood. He sees Mulder again and manages to discern a name. Although reluctant at first, Michael Kritschgau (last seen in Redux and Redux 2) is persuaded by Skinner to see Mulder. Kritschgau explains that he has witnessed this condition before in a CIA study of ESP. The electrical impulses in Mulder's brain are working harder than his body can sustain. Kritschgau has Skinner inject Phenytoin, causing an immediate effect in awakening Mulder. Diana Fowley attempts to intervene but Skinner, in an attempt to keep his dealings with Kritschgau secretive, dismisses her. Kritschgau puts a more responsive Mulder through a battery of tests with video monitors to determine his brain's over-activity and psychic ability.

Dr. Barnes (from Biogenesis) arrives at Scully's tent to help her read the symbols but she is wary of him. The water around the spaceship turns into blood--another omen--and again Scully sees the manifestation of the primitive African man. Scully and Amina figure out that the symbols describe human genetics and ancient religious passages. In a delirious frenzy, Barnes claims that the spaceship is the ultimate source of power--the source of life itself--and traps the two women in the tent to ensure that he gets all the credit. Barnes' sack rumbles underneath a table. The fish he caught have magically come back to life, but only in Barnes' mind. This proves to him his theory that the spaceship is an animating force. Scully takes advantage of the opportunity to hit Barnes so that she and Amina can escape. The women frantically drive for help, but on the desolate road Scully sees the primitive African man in their path. She yells for Amina to stop the car, but the man has disappeared. Suddenly the man is in Amina's place and tells Scully, "Some truths are not for you." In the next instant he turns back into Amina. Scully tells her that she needs to get home.

Skinner and Kritschgau inject Mulder with an even greater dose in order to free him from the hospital. But when Diana rushes in with the doctor to confront Skinner, Mulder lapses into violent convulsions. Early the next morning, Diana pledges her love to the sedate Mulder. She vows to help him and not let him die. As she leaves, Mulder's eyes follow her--he cannot speak, but he has heard every word she said. At the beach, Barnes' driver comes into the seemingly empty tent and Barnes slashes him in the neck with a machete. Barnes places the man's body in the spot where the fish came to life. Later, Barnes discovers the driver's body gone and he goes out to the shoreline to look for him. The driver has returned to life, and strikes Barnes with the same machete.

Scully goes to Skinner in Washington and demands to see Mulder. Skinner tries to convey Mulder's impending death. Scully responds that Mulder is more alive than ever, acknowledging that the cause may be extraterrestrial. Skinner warns her that the security in the hospital will deny her access. An emotional Scully pleads with Mulder to hold on. He is unresponsive.

Amina returns to the beach with the police. They find Barnes' body in the ocean, but the spacecraft has disappeared.

TO BE CONTINUED


141 "THE SIXTH EXTINCTION II: AMOR FATI"
US Airdate: November 14, 1999

writers: David Duchovny and Chris Carter
director: Michael Watkins

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast: Mitch Pileggi as A.D. Walter Skinner
Mimi Rogers as Agent Diana Fowley
William B. Davis as Cancer Man
Nicholas Lea as Alex Krycek
Jerry Hardin as Deep Throat
Rebecca Toolan as Teena Mulder
Floyd Red Crow Westerman as Albert Hosteen
Warren Sweeney as Dr. Geoff Harriman
John Finn as Michael Kritschgau
Martin Grey as Agent Flagler
Megan Leitch as Samantha Mulder
Andrew Cavarno and Steven Cavarno as Dream Boy
Arlene Pileggi as Skinner's secretary
Fritz Greve as Bearded Man
Brian George as Project Doctor
David Brisbin as 2nd Doctor
Anthony Anselmi as Paramedic
Henry Schwartz as Toddler


An unconscious Mulder's dreams lead him astray from the X-Files, but Scully stays the course in her search to find him.

Mulder dreams about a young couple teaching their son to walk on a beach. In reality, Mulder is still in the hospital, lying in a coma. His mother tries to speak to him and receives no response. Mrs. Mulder doesn't hear her fully-alert son calling out to her in his head. But the Cigarette-Smoking Man (CSM) knows Mulder can read his thoughts. He injects Mulder's head with a serum that allows Mulder to move and speak. CSM offers his hand. Mulder again envisions the toddler on the beach as the words of CSM lull him: "Take my hand because I am your father."

Scully is working round-the-clock to find the cause of Mulder's illness, when Kritschgau sneaks into the office. He explains that exposure to the spacecraft's energy has activated the alien virus injected into Mulder two years ago. Kritschgau demands Scully's research, but they are interrupted by a phone call from Skinner: Mulder has disappeared from the hospital. She hurries to the hospital and learns that it was Mulder's mother who has checked him out. Skinner tells Scully that he must remove himself from the case and from knowledge of the agents' whereabouts. Skinner's position has been compromised. Mulder again sees the boy on the beach, and awakens to find himself in CSM's car. CSM tells him that doctors have worked on him, and the only way he can be saved from death is to disappear into a kind of witness protection program. CSM pulls up to a suburban street and points out Mulder's new life. CSM offers him the chance to return to his previous existence with the X-Files, but Mulder is curious about this new home. He is pleased to find a refrigerator stocked with his favorite sunflower seeds. As he pops one into his mouth, he is startled by the presence of an old ally -- Deep Throat (killed the first season in The Erlenmeyer Flask). Deep Throat boasts about his peaceful life in this neighborhood and encourages Mulder to join him. But Mulder is overwhelmed with guilt for his causing this man's supposed death. Deep Throat tells him not to feel responsible for his death or the deaths of Mulder's father, Scully's sister and Duane Barry. Deep Throat explains that they the two of them are merely puppets in a master plan. He coaxes Mulder to relax and enjoy his new life.

Scully finds the Navajo elder Albert Hosteen (last seen dying in Biogenesis) in her apartment. Hosteen warns her that she must save Mulder for the sake of mankind. Scully returns to the hospital. She reviews a surveillance tape of Mulder's room where she can see through the mostly covered monitors that Mulder's mother is talking to someone with a cigarette. This convinces Scully that CSM is behind Mulder's disappearance. At the FBI, Scully receives an inter-office envelope containing a book on Native American practices. The symbols on the book's cover match the ones she had been studying on the spaceship in Africa. She reads a myth foretelling a mass extinction with a man who can save the world from this tragedy. She calls Skinner to question him as the source for this clue. Scully deduces that they took Mulder because they think his illness is protection against a coming plague. An apprehensive Skinner hangs up on her. Scully runs up to his office and sees Skinner doubled over in pain, while a bearded man escapes. Scully goes to Kritschgau and admonishes him for revealing the secrets about Mulder's illness. Kritschgau has hacked into her computer files and explains that her research will prove that Mulder has biologically transformed into an alien.

Mulder has another vision of the beach. The boy is sad that his sand sculpture has been washed away by the tide. Mulder comforts him and encourages the boy to build it again. Mulder is awakened by Diana Fowley who comes to his bed, convincing him of the joys of marriage. They make love. The next morning, Diana tries to persuade Mulder that he should become a father. She brings him to CSM's house nearby and points out CSM's daughter, Samantha Mulder. Suddenly we are in an operating theater. CSM tells Diana that men like Mulder have dreams of a simpler life. He says this about the real Mulder, who lies on a table with his head strapped in a surgical device. This is where Mulder really is. The illusion of domestic, suburban bliss is only in his mind.

At the FBI, Scully tries to appeal to Diana for help, causing Diana to question CSM's motivation for using Mulder in the experiments. Albert Hosteen reappears in Scully's apartment. He tells her to look inside her heart for Mulder. The two pray together.

Still in his dream, Mulder's life progresses with Diana. He physically ages as he goes through their wedding, her pregnancy and children, and then her death. Mulder slips back into his subconscious where the sand sculpture has become a spaceship. The boy starts to smash the sculpture, telling him that it is really Mulder's spaceship and he is the one destroying it. A now aged Mulder wakes up to CSM at his bedside. CSM tells him that he should let go. As Mulder closes his eyes, the world outside is in full apocalypse. Yet in real life, Mulder and CSM are side-by-side on a medical table for some kind of procedure transplanting Mulder's alien genetic material into CSM.

The bearded man from Skinner's office kills Kritschgau and torches all his research. Only now is his identity revealed: it's Alex Krycek. An envelope is slid under Scully's door with a key card that leads Scully to the surgical facility where Mulder is being held. In Mulder's dream he is ready to give up, but Scully forces him to persist with their mission. In reality, Scully does come to the surgery room to save Mulder. She wakes him up and he draws strength from her presence. She helps him escape.

Scully checks up on the still weakened Mulder is in his apartment. He wears bandages on his head from the operation. He informs her that Albert Hosteen has died in New Mexico. This upsets Scully. She doesn't believe that her experience was imagined. Then Scully breaks her bad news to Mulder: Diana was murdered because she helped save him. Mulder is emotional, and reveals his dreams about another life without the X-Files. He admits to Scully that she was the only one who told him the truth in his dreams and that "even when my world was falling apart, you were my constant, my touchstone." She tells her partner that she feels the same way, then leaves. One more time, Mulder dreams of the boy on the beach. This time they are rebuilding a huge sandcastle spaceship together.

The bodies on the surgical table have scoop marks on the arms and knees. Scoop marks and deep impressions in the skin are occasionally reported by people as physical evidence of their abductions, theorized to be from an invasive physical examination. Skeptics claim that these are caused by everyday injuries.

Although Cigarette-Smoking Man only quotes the first line, here is the full text of Shakespeare's Sonnet XXIX:

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deal heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.


142 "HUNGRY"
US Airdate: November 21, 1999
writer: Vince Gilligan
director: Kim Manners

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:
Chasen Hampton as Hungry Guy
Chad E. Donella as Rob Roberts
Mark Pellegrino as Derwood Spinks
Bill Lee Brown as Mr. Rice
Kerry Zook as Lucy
Judith Hoag as Dr. Mindy Rinehart
Kevin Porter as Motivational Speaker
Lois Foraker as Sylvia Jassy
Susan Slome as Woman at O.A.
Steve Kiziak as Steve Kiziak


A monster starving for human brain matter tries to remedy his own unusual eating habits.

It is after midnight when an LTD pulls into the drive-through of Lucky Boy Burgers in Costa Mesa, California. The young guy at the wheel waits impatiently and receives only silence from the speaker. He calls out for service and the neon "open" sign instantly flickers out. Angered, the guy honks his horn. The microphone clicks on and a man says the restaurant is closed. The driver doesn't give up easily and yells threats to the speaker. The voice at the other end sheepishly tells him to drive through. The guy pulls up, but no one is there. So he leans out of his car to get a better look. In one quick instant, a monster appears in the window and ferociously yanks the guy from his car. The driverless car, still in gear, creeps toward a curb.

Three days later, Lucky Boy employee Rob Roberts pulls up to the restaurant and gives himself a pep talk before heading in. He works at the front register as Mulder and Scully approach, flashing their badges. They ask Rob's manager to round up the employees for questioning. They inform the group that a Lucky Boy Burger promotional button was found on a body in the trunk of a car. The employees, including Rob, all pull out their buttons. A thuggish-looking Derwood Spinks hides in the back, claiming he left his button at home. His co-workers eye Derwood suspiciously. Mulder and Scully clear out the restaurant and search the kitchen. They don't see Rob outside as he switches on the drive-through microphone and listens to their conversation at the menu board. Mulder theorizes that the victim's brain was sucked out by a tongue or some kind of proboscis. Scully is not convinced. Mulder spots dried blood under a counter. He is squeamish that it is brain matter. Scully notes that it is merely ground beef. Rob isn't settled by this news.

Rob comes home and rushes into the bathroom where he pulls from the bathtub a Lucky Boy uniform soaking in pink water. He cannot scrub out the blood stains and decides to dump the shirt. He is about to remove the trash bag when there is a knock at the door. Mulder wants to ask Rob a few more questions about his closing up the restaurant on the night of the murder. Rob complies, telling him that he dumped thirty-five pounds of spoiled beef that night. Out of the corner of his eye he catches the bloody water seeping out from the trash bag but Mulder doesn't see it. After Mulder leaves, Rob tosses the wet bag into a garbage truck outside. He realizes his hands are covered with dried blood and sucks his fingers, enjoying the taste. While doing so he notices a man parked across from the apartment building watching him. Rob nervously approaches, thinking the man is Mulder. The unidentified man tells Rob to get lost.

Back in the apartment, Rob's answering machine tapes a message from Dr. Mindy Rinehart, a psychiatrist assigned by Lucky Boy to aid its employees. He ignores the message, intently watching the man staked outside the building. Rob goes in the bathroom and pops out his triangle-shaped, shark teeth. As they clink in the sink, his stomach loudly growls. Later that night, Rob tries to overcome his hunger. He chomps on appetite suppressant gum and memorizes the words of a videotaped motivational speaker. But he is still starving. He goes outside to the man in the parked car and opens his toothless mouth. Needle-sharp teeth spring into place as he lunges at the man.

Rob is asleep on his couch the next morning when Derwood breaks in. He tells Rob that he has been fired from Lucky Boy. He also says that he found Rob's prescription bottle of diet pills in the restaurant the morning after the murder. He shows Rob the bottle and the bloody thumbprint on its cap. Derwood demands payment to keep his mouth shut. They are interrupted by a neighbor, Sylvia, who asks if Rob saw a man that had been parked outside. Rob dismisses her, and Derwood warns him not to skip town. Rob heads to his car and sees Mulder approaching. Although Mulder doesn't give any indication that he suspects Rob, he does tell him that the police believe that Derwood is the killer. Rob goes to Dr. Rinehart's office for his mandatory consultation. He can't concentrate as his stomach growls. When the doctor gets a call from Mulder, Rob bolts out, claiming he has to be at work.

Rob hallucinates that the burgers he is frying are brains. Derwood shows up at Lucky Boy to threaten Rob again. Scared of getting caught, Rob rummages through Derwood's house for the prescription bottle. When Derwood comes home, Rob hides in the closet. As Derwood approaches the closet armed with a baseball bat, Rob starts to dismember his fake human parts to reveal the monster underneath. Derwood opens the door and the monster's tongue lashes out, poking a hole through Derwood's forehead.

Rob goes to see Dr. Rinehart again and admits that he has an eating disorder. She writes down the location of an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. Rob's stomach growls and he rushes out, saying "I really am trying to do right." Dr. Rinehart ponders his statement. Rob returns home to find Mulder and Scully waiting to ask him about Derwood Spinks's disappearance. Mulder tells Rob that he believes the killer is some sort of genetic freak who feeds on humans, but Rob plays dumb.

With no other hope, Rob attends the Overeaters Anonymous meeting and runs into his neighbor, Sylvia. She encourages him to introduce himself. He describes in salacious detail his cravings for meat. The group members salivate. Rob stops when he spots a bald man in the front row. The man's brain seems to be throbbing through the skull, causing Rob to lick his lips in hunger. Rob makes a friend in Sylvia as he walks her to her apartment after the meeting. She says goodnight and closes her door. He turns to leave but his stomach begins to growl. He turns back to her door, knocks, and removes his teeth, ready for his next meal.

Rob makes a plan the next day. He demolishes his apartment with Derwood's baseball bat and screams in terror. He beckons his neighbors to call the police. Mulder and Scully arrive and listen to Rob's questionable story that Derwood threatened him to keep quiet. The agents ask Rob about a missing private eye hired by Sylvia's husband who was staked out in front of the building. Rob has no answers and quickly tells them that Sylvia is not at home.

Rob frantically packs his belongings when Dr. Rinehart shows up. She senses that Rob is at fault for the murders and tries to soothe him. Enraged, Rob begins to pull off his human body parts to show her his secret. Dr. Rinehart is horrified but still sympathetic. She touches his face. Suddenly, the door crashes in and Mulder and Scully enter with guns drawn. They yell for the doctor to move away, but she defends Rob and tells him to be the good person he means to be. Rob is hesitant, then lunges at the agents, knowing they will open fire. A dying Rob falls to the floor as Dr. Rinehart's eyes tear up. She asks him why he caused his own death. He whispers, "I can't be something I'm not."


143 "MILLENNIUM"
US Airdate: November 28, 1999
writers: Vince Gilligan and Frank Spotnitz
director: Thomas J. Wright

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:
Mitch Pileggi as A.D. Walter Skinner
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Brittany Tiplady as Jordan Black
Colby French as Deputy
Holmes Osborne as Mark Johnson
William Forward as Funeral Director
Marilyn McIntyre as Widow
Mone' Walton as Female Coroner
Michael Dempsey as Sheriff
Octavia L. Spencer as Nurse
Stephen Ramsey as Agent #1
Romy Walthall as Agent #2
Eulan Middlebrooks as Young Cop
Dick Clark as himself

Mulder and Scully enlist criminal profiler Frank Black to help prevent members of the Millennium Group from attaining an Armageddon new year.

At a memorial service in Tallahassee, Florida, a widow complains that her husband, Raymond Crouch, left no suicide note. She is greeted by Mark Johnson who tells her that he worked with the deceased. As the mourners file out of the funeral parlor, Johnson sneaks out from the shadows. He begins to undress the corpse and recites a passage from the Bible over and over like a mantra. Johnson switches on a cell phone and places it in the hand of the deceased, positioning the man's thumb over the "talk" button. Eight days later, on December 29, 1999. Johnson waits outside a cemetery. The rain splashes on his truck as he stares out at a freshly-laid gravesite. A cell phone on his dashboard chirps and, without answering it, Johnson pulls out a shovel and heads toward the tombstone.

The next day, Mulder and Scully are at the crime scene, examining the now dug up grave. The body of Raymond Crouch is gone. Scully notes the shredded lining inside the empty casket and comments that it looks like someone was trying to get out. Mulder confirms this by pointing out that the fingerprints around the grave are from the deceased Crouch. Scully concludes that the evidence is faked and that this is a grave robbery, but both are intrigued by an arc of dried blood on the nearby grass. Mulder and Scully join a briefing on the case led by A.D. Skinner. Other agents report that there are no motives for Crouch' suicide or the grave robbery. Mulder chimes in that this is a case of necromancy -- the summoning of the dead. He describes the arc of blood as part of a magic circle drawn to protect the necromancer from the conjured spirits: Mulder also believes that the necromancer may have donned the dead man's clothes as a means of creating a bond with the deceased. Oddly, Skinner is content with Mulder's theory and dismisses the other agents. He shows Mulder and Scully the files of three other men, all former FBI agents like Crouch, who were also recently exhumed after committing suicide. Skinner thinks these men were all members of the Millennium Group, a consulting organization of former FBI agents with a prophesy centered around the coming millennium. He tells the pair to keep a low profile as they investigate this Millennium Group.

Mulder and Scully's first stop is a psychiatric hospital to meet Frank Black, the criminal profiler who was once a consultant for the Millennium Group. Frank had apparently checked himself into the hospital for observation. The agents ask him about the Millennium Group, but Frank gives no assistance and quietly focuses on a television football game. He refers to the TV, claiming the game is at first and eighteen. Mulder corrects him and says it is actually third and ten. But Frank does not answer. Frustrated, Mulder and Scully leave him.

Mark Johnson, still repeating his burial mantra, drives north with the body. He pulls over to fix a flat tire in Maryland and a sheriff stops to help him. The deputy is suspicious of the smell emanating from Johnson's car and opens the door. As the deputy examines the vehicle, Johnson strangely makes a circle of salt around his own feet and repeats his prayer. The deputy opens the back of the van and is horrified at what he sees: the corpse of Raymond Crouch. But Crouch is not dead and rises from the van to attack the deputy. Johnson closes his eyes to the struggle.

The next morning Scully and Mulder investigate the crime scene. Local police found the body of the deputy carefully buried. Stuffed in his mouth is salt and a message with a Biblical passage from the Book of Revelation -- Chapter one, verse eighteen. Mulder makes the connection. He returns to the psychiatric hospital with Scully and asks Frank Black why, after not wanting to be involved, did he drop the hint about first and eighteen. Frank admits that he is trying to regain custody of his daughter and wants to separate himself from his past work. He reluctantly agrees to help them, explaining that a schism of the Millennium Group believed they could bring about the end of the world by killing themselves before the dawn of the new millennium. Frank profiles the necromancer as a solitary man comfortable with death. He theorizes that the note and the salt were placed in the deputy's mouth to prevent the deputy from rising up from the dead. Frank believes that the necromancer will return to the body when he hears that the deputy has been found. Scully heads for the morgue to intercept the necromancer. Using Frank's profile, Mulder goes on his own search for Johnson.

The coroner is busy removing the salt and does not hear Scully's repeated calls. When Scully arrives, the coroner is nearly dead. She sees Mark Johnson and raises her gun, but she is stunned to see the dead deputy lurching toward her. Although she fires three rounds to his chest, he keeps moving and attacks her. Scully's gun is knocked aside. Skinner arrives later, and is relieved to see Scully with only scratches on her neck. She is unsure how to explain what has happened, but says that the necromancer saved her by using her gun to shoot the deputy in the head.

Meanwhile, Mulder pulls up before a house in Maryland. He is going down a list fitting Frank's description, and Mark Johnson is the last name on the list. Mulder notices an empty bag of kosher salt in the garbage can. He pockets a handful of salt and climbs the fence, searching the house. A basement door is latched with huge wood beams. He opens it and heads down the steps into the darkness. At first he doesn't see the bodies climbing out of the ground, but when four undead creatures surround him, he makes a break up the stairs. As he reaches the door, Johnson appears and slams it shut. Mulder is trapped in the necromancer's basement surrounded by zombies.

Back at the hospital, Scully pleads with Frank for help finding the missing Mulder. She recounts her earlier attack by the resurrected deputy at the morgue and asks Frank if he believes that the Group is capable of bringing about Armageddon. Again, Frank is silent. But after she leaves, Frank checks himself out of the hospital and goes to Johnson's house. Johnson is happy to see Frank because Mulder has killed one of the zombies and Johnson needs a fourth member. Frank says that he did not believe Johnson could resurrect the dead, but came when he heard the necromancy had succeeded. The clock strikes 10:13 when Johnson loads a five-shot revolver and begins reciting the familiar burial rite. Frank completes the passage and takes the gun. But instead of pointing it at his own head for the suicide pact, Frank turns the weapon on Johnson. Meanwhile, Scully receives a call from Skinner in her car. They have traced calls from Frank and the other Group members to an address in Maryland. Meanwhile, Frank ties up Johnson and opens up the basement door. He calls out to Mulder, who is standing in a small circle of salt. Although his arm is bleeding, Mulder is protected by the circle. He tells Frank to aim for their heads because it's the only way to stop the zombies. Frank lights a flare and searches the basement. One of the zombies charges and Frank kills it with a head shot. Another zombie rises, grabs Frank and takes him down. They struggle until Mulder grabs the revolver and shoots the creature in the temple. Mulder reaches to help Frank when the last surviving zombie starts to lunge toward them. Mulder raises the gun, but it just clicks empty. The creature falls, shot from behind by Scully who has appeared at the top of the stairs.

With only minutes before midnight, Frank sits alone in a waiting room watching Dick Clark on television as he celebrates the new millennium in Times Square. Scully enters to tell him that Mark Johnson has been taken for psychiatric evaluation. But she smiles and informs him that he has a visitor: his daughter Jordan, who leaps into her father's arms. Mulder comes in with one arm in a sling, but Frank and his daughter leave with only moments before midnight. The agents stay to see the ball drop on television and blankly stare at the revelers kissing in Times Square. Mulder looks over at Scully and she catches his glance. He leans in to kiss her, and it lasts a bit longer than a kiss between two friends. Their lips part and they both smile. "The world didn't end," Mulder mumbles. "No, it didn't," she replies. And the two partners head down the hall to begin the new year.


144 "RUSH"
US Airdate: December 5, 1999
writer: David Amann
director: Rob Lieberman

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:
Rodney Scott as Tony Reed
Scott Cooper as Max Harden
Nicki Aycox as Chastity Raines
Ann Dowd as Mrs. Reed
Tom Bower as Sheriff Harden
David Wells as Mr. Babbitt
Les Lannom as Deputy Foster
Christopher Wynne as Deputy
Rachel Winfree as Nurse
Bill Dow as Chuck Burks

High-school student Tony Reed drives into a wooded area of Pittsfield, Virginia passing "No Trespassing" signs along the way. It is late at night and he is spooked by the eerie quietness of the woods. He meets up with two other teenagers, Max Harden and girlfriend, Chastity Raines. Chastity is hesitant about letting Tony in on their secret, but Max makes Tony swear never to reveal anything about what he sees in the forest. Lights glaring from a police car interrupt the conversation, but when Max turns around, both Max and Chastity have vanished. Deputy Foster questions Tony about being on private property and goes to his car radio. Suddenly, Tony hears a sickening thud. The officer's flashlight falls to the ground and Tony picks it up. It is covered with blood. Tony looks in the police car: Foster has been brutally murdered.

The next morning Scully meets Mulder in the hospital where he shows her the body of the deputy. One blow of the flashlight was enough to drive the deputy's eyeglasses through the back of his skull. They meet with Sheriff Harden, who is convinced that the fingerprints on the flashlight link Tony to the crime. Mulder and Scully try to get answers from Tony, but he denies any knowledge of the murder. The partners suspect that Tony is innocent, but while Mulder thinks that a spiritual force caused the violent act, Scully is more inclined to believe that Tony is covering for some friends.

Back at the high school, Max strolls into science class with one minute left to take an exam. The teacher, Mr. Babbitt, is surprised when Max instantly finishes the exam with all correct answers. Mulder and Scully approach Chastity after class and ask her what she knows about Tony. They remind her that Tony could spend the rest of his life in jail. Before she can speak, Max intercedes -- Mulder notes that Max is Sheriff Harden's son. Scully's cell phone rings with news that the murder weapon has disappeared. The agents review the security tape at the sheriff's office and Mulder notices a blurred image over the evidence room's locker in one video frame. They consult with paranormal expert Chuck Burks and determine that the image is a solid object and that the color of the blur matches the high school colors: purple and gold.

Tony is released from jail and his mother scolds him for hanging out with the wrong crowd. He sneaks out of his house with Max for a joyride in a stolen car. Max commends him for keeping his mouth shut, then crashes the car into a tree. Tony is shocked to discover not only is he unharmed, but has somehow been plucked from the car before the wreck. Max stands next to him on the road, also untouched. Max tells Tony that he too will become "one of us."

The next day, Mr. Babbitt flunks Max for "cheating" on his science exam. Max storms out of the classroom. Tony tells Chastity that he wants out, but she reluctantly says that it's too late. At lunch, Mr. Babbitt gets pinned to the school cafeteria wall by a table that has apparently moved on its own. Tony, horrified, suspects something when he notices Max quickly disappear from the room. Then a chair flies into Babbitt, crushing him. Although eyewitnesses saw no one near Babbitt, Mulder's theory is that Max used some paranormal ability to exert force without touching the victim. Max, however, was brought to the hospital when he collapsed from exhaustion. They question Max, whose defiant attitude sparks doubt in Sheriff Harden's mind about his son's innocence. Mulder thinks that Max feels a rush from causing these murders. Scully reviews Max's medical charts and sees that he is suffering from some kind of withdrawal, but also exhibits signs of physical damage that might be found in a football player or race car driver.

Tony secretly follows Chastity into the woods, watching as she sneaks through a seam in a boulder. As he steps inside, he sees a cave, but no Chastity. Suddenly his body starts to spasm and he discovers the "rush" that allows Max and Chastity to move faster than the eye can see. Meanwhile, Chastity uses her speed to help Max escape from the hospital unseen. She takes him back to the cave to get another dose of the "rush" and is surprised to find Tony there. He too has become addicted to the rush, but wants to warn the police about Max's crime spree. Chastity warily tells him that Max is out of the hospital.

Sheriff Harden searches his son's room, finding the missing flashlight taken from the sheriff's evidence room. Max instantly appears and admits to killing Deputy Foster. Moving inhumanly fast, he begins to pummel his father and is about to kill him with the same flashlight, when Tony, using the "rush" himself, suddenly arrives to intervene. The sheriff is brought to the hospital, and Mulder and Scully deduce that someone else prevented Max from murdering again. Chastity and Tony, fearing Max will kill them, try to beat him back to the cave. But he is already there when they arrive. Tony and Max struggle, and Chastity kills Max by shooting him in the back. As the bullet exits Max's body, Chastity tells Tony that she can't go on living without the rush and walks around Max to stand in front of him -- allowing the bullet to hit her in the chest. Mulder and Scully arrive at the cave to find Tony holding Chastity's body and Max lying nearby.

Back at the hospital, Mulder reports that nothing was found in the cave to produce a physiological effect, and that the cave was sealed with concrete. He suggests to Scully that perhaps the cave only affected teenagers because of their physical and chemical difference from adults. The agents look in at a recovering Tony. He stares at the clock advancing slowly, knowing he will forever be trapped in a world at normal, slow speed.

145 "THE GOLDBERG VARIATION"
US Airdate: December 12, 1999
writer: Jeff Bell
director: Tom Wright

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:
Willie Garson as Henry Weems
Marshall Manesh as Mr. Jank
Dom Magwili as Mr. Ng
Nicholas Worth as Mr. Haas
Tony Longo as Dominic
Ramy Zada as Joe Cutrona
Alyson Reed as Maggie Lupone
Shia La Beouf as Richie Lupone
Ernie Lee Banks as Maurice Albert
Bobby Moynahan as Paramedic
Chip Fogleman as Billy
Dominique DiPrima as Megan MacLean

Tension fills the room of a high-stakes poker game in Chicago as the men place their bets. The meek Henry Weems does not belong in this group of gangsters. Henry asks for five new cards and lays them down with a perfect straight flush, winning the $100,000 pot. Mob boss Jimmy Cutrona motions to his henchmen, and Henry is taken to the roof. The thugs toss him off the building, and he falls thirty floors into an open service elevator. Miraculously, Henry pulls himself up onto the street and runs off unharmed.

The next day, Scully arrives in Chicago to meet Mulder. Agents staking out Cutrona saw an unidentified man fall from the roof and walk away. Mulder believes the man may have some kind of healing power. Scully thinks the guy just got lucky. They go down through the service elevator into a basement, where they find a laundry cart that has been broken, as if something heavy had landed in it. Among the towels in the cart is an artificial eyeball. Mulder and Scully track down their suspect through an appointment he made to get fitted for a new prosthetic eye. As they enter Henry Weems' apartment building, they are approached by Maggie Lupone shouting for help. Her sink is spraying water and she can't find Henry, the building superintendent. She urges her young son, Richie, to go back to bed. In an attempt to assist her, Mulder breaks the valve and causes more water to spurt from the sink. Suddenly, the floor gives way from all the water and Mulder drops into the apartment below -- where Henry Weems has been hiding.

Mulder returns the artificial eye, and Henry discounts any dramatic description of his fall. He says it was a lucky break. Henry's hobby is constructing complex, Rube Goldberg-like machines that perform simple tasks and Mulder admires his work. Henry admits that he lost all of his poker winnings but refuses to testify against Cutrona. Scully tries to persuade him that Cutrona will go after him. "I'll take my chances," he shrugs. The agents leave and narrowly miss one of Cutrona's hit men as he enters the building. Mulder realizes he dropped his car keys and buzzes Henry. When they hear gunshots, Mulder and Scully rush back to Henry's apartment. Henry has disappeared, but the thug is dead, suspended by the swirling ceiling fan.

Mulder comes up with a complex theory of how the assassin was killed by a series of events that coincidentally occurred in the apartment, much like one of Henry's contraptions. Scully chalks it up to dumb luck, but then notices Richie in the doorway. Seeing that he is sick, she leads him back to his bedroom. Richie shows Scully the Goldberg device that Henry made for him when he was in the hospital for liver disease. He tells her that Henry always says that everything happens for a reason. Scully reports back to Mulder that the boy doesn't know of Henry's whereabouts. She speculates that if Henry was really supernaturally lucky, then he would be out playing the lottery. Hiding in the air vent, Henry hears their conversation. He sneaks out to visit with Richie when the agents depart.

Going over Henry's file, Mulder surmises that Henry's lucky streak began when he was the lone survivor of a plane crash, but he has since gone underground. Only recently has he tried using his lucky fortune. Henry slips out to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket and wins $100,000. However, when he learns that the payment is spread out over months, he tosses it into a garbage can. Another man in the store grabs the ticket, despite Henry's pleadings to throw it away. The man is immediately hit by a truck. When Mulder and Scully investigate, they figure out that Henry had heard their conversation about the lottery ticket. They separate and search the building. Mulder finds Henry in the air vent and holds him while he calls Scully. As he dials, another of Cutrona's gunmen arrive and fire a shot at Henry. The bullet ricochets off Henry, grazes Mulder's arm, and bounces around before it lands in the chest of the thug. Scully arrives in the room just as the hit man drops, not believing that she's seeing Henry unharmed.

Later, Mulder's wound is dressed at the hospital, where he tests Henry at playing cards. Henry draws the highest card every time, confessing that he is extremely lucky and that other people suffer. This is why he keeps a low profile. He says that he tried to get $100,000 for a liver transplant for a new experimental treatment for Richie's liver disease. Although Henry's life is in danger, Mulder believes that his luck will save him, and he allows Henry to leave. Scully pulls one last card and draws one higher than Henry's. Mulder is alarmed by this and runs after Henry, who is also being followed by one of Cutrona's men. Henry gets hit by a truck, but survives. Sensing that his luck has run out, Henry agrees to testify against Cutrona. Richie becomes seriously jaundiced and is taken to the same hospital. His mother Maggie goes to follow the ambulance, but is kidnapped by the mobsters. Henry knows that Maggie was taken to prevent him from testifying, so he goes to speak to Cutrona himself. Cutrona has him brought to the basement where Maggie is being held captive. As the men raise Henry onto a crane, a series of mishaps ensue that kill the gangsters and release Henry. Mulder arrives with the police to find Cutrona dead, and Henry and Maggie saved. It turns out that Cutrona's rare blood type is a perfect match for Richie's, and Richie gets his transplant after all. Henry was right when he said that everything does happen for a reason.

146 "ORISON"
US Airdate: January 9, 2000
writer: Chip Johannessen
director: Rob Bowman

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:
Nick Chinlund as Donnie Pfaster
Scott Wilson as Reverend Orison

Reverend Orison preaches in a small chapel in the Marion, Illinois maximum security penitentiary. Each time he exclaims the phrase "Glory, amen," the prisoners stomp their feet in unison. However, sitting stone-faced and silent is Donnie Pfaster (last seen in "Irresistible" 2X13), a fetishist who had once kidnapped Scully. Later in the garment machine shop, Brigham, an inmate from the sermon, gets his fingers caught in an electric saw. As the guards and other prisoners rush to help him, time seems to slow down and Pfaster slips out unnoticed.

In Washington, Scully is awakened by a gust of wind. She gets up to close the window, noticing the Bible on her bureau. Her clock radio blinks 6:66. She reaches for the clock, but the power switches off, and then back on. Her clock now reads 6:06.

The next day, Mulder and Scully are summoned to the Marion Penitentiary to help find the escaped prisoner they had previously put behind bars -- Donnie Pfaster. Mulder tries to persuade Scully to remove herself from the case, but she is adamant about staying on, saying that she has no other choice. The agents interview the inmate Brigham whose hands are now intact. He proclaims his healing a miracle of God, and reciting "Glory, amen," he unconsciously raps his feet. Mulder recognizes the post-hypnotic suggestion and suggests a talk with the prison chaplain. A song faintly drifts in through the vents and startles Scully. She says she hasn't heard it since high school.

Teenage runaway Blueberry approaches Pfaster in a diner. He offers to give her dirty hands a manicure. Reverend Orison interrupts, telling Pfaster that it was he who helped orchestrate the prison break. Federal marshals storm the diner and Pfaster accuses Orison of turning him in. Orison quickly hands him his car keys, and with time again seeming to slow down, Pfaster inconspicuously escapes. In the parking lot, Pfaster plows down Orison, leaving him severely wounded. Later in the hospital, Orison tries to appeal to Scully's faith, and she is unsettled when he calls her "Scout." She is further disquieted when she hears the song from her youth again. Mulder arrives with news of Pfaster's latest victim, calling Orison a liar. He believes that Orison is a convicted murderer who intended to kill Donnie Pfaster once he got out of prison. Scully has her doubts about Mulder's theory. She tells him that she had been woken up at 6:06, the time Pfaster escaped prison. The song she keeps hearing was on the radio on the day she learned that her Sunday school teacher was murdered. This teacher had called her "Scout." She tells Mulder that she first believed that evil existed in the world when her teacher was killed. Mulder tries to disprove her thoughts of divine intervention by pointing to a lightspeed image of Orison's brain on a computer. Orison pierced a hole in his own skull to allow more oxygen to the brain, presumably giving him special powers to "stop" time. Mulder predicts that Orison really believes he is working as God's tool to stop Pfaster from killing. Meanwhile, Orison uses his chant of "Glory, amen" to hypnotize the marshal guarding him, and he escapes.

A red-headed prostitute visits with Pfaster, but when he realizes she is wearing a wig, he is furious and attacks her. The prostitute knocks Pfaster unconscious and leaves. Orison arrives and takes Pfaster to a cemetery. While digging him a grave, he asks Pfaster to repent for his sins. Pfaster says that Orison can not kill him. When Orison looks at Pfaster's face, he has transformed into the Devil Incarnate. Pfaster kills Orison and buries him in the grave. The next morning, the agents inspect the gravesite and decide that their side of the case is over. They return to Washington.

Scully arrives in her apartment and is getting ready for bed when her electricity turns off and her clock radio flashes the time 6:66. Suddenly, Donnie Pfaster bursts out of the closet and attacks Scully. They struggle, and Pfaster succeeds in tying Scully up. At his own bed, Mulder sets his alarm clock, and he hears Scully's song on the radio. He thinks about this coincidence and decides to phone Scully. She doesn't answer. Meanwhile, Scully manages to move her tied hands in front of her so that she can crawl across the floor to get to her gun. Pfaster is busy lighting candles and preparing a bath. He catches sight of Scully when Mulder breaks through the door with his gun drawn. As Pfaster is held at gunpoint, Scully breaks out of her ties and shoots Pfaster.

Later as the police pour over the crime scene in the apartment, Mulder tries to comfort a shaken Scully, telling her that his report will reflect that she had no choice but to kill Pfaster. He asks if she thought God made her pull the trigger. Instead, Scully questions whether it was really Evil who made her commit an act in vengeance.

147 "THE AMAZING MALEENI"
US Airdate: January 16, 2000
writers: Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan and John Shiban
director: Tom Wright

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:
Ricky Jay as The Great Maleeni / Albert Pinchbeck
Jonathan Levit as Dude / Billy LaBonge
Robert LaSardo as Cissy Alvarez
Jim Maniaci as Bullethead
Rick Marzan as Holding Cell Officer
Mark Chaet as Bank Officer
Dennis Keiffer as Bullethead
Dan Rice as Uniform Cop
Sherri Howard as Female Employee
J. David as Young Boss
Steven Barr as Courier Guard
Adam Vernier as Driver


On the Santa Monica Pier in California, the Amazing Maleeni sits on the bumper of his dilapidated van, dressed in full performance tuxedo in anticipation of his magic act. A young boss tells him he's ready to go on. "This will be my greatest show ever," Maleeni says before approaching the stage. He performs a rudimentary sequence of cups and balls while reciting the history of the great magicians. A guy in the audience heckles him to do a more exciting trick. Maleeni makes a retort to the guy, Billy LaBonge, then announces that he will attempt a feat of the Egyptian Dedi by reattaching his severed head. As the crowd silences, Maleeni incredibly turns his head all the way around his neck. The audience applauds and Maleeni throws a look at LaBonge, who leaves. After the show, the young boss goes to Maleeni in his van, but the magician sits motionless. The boss taps him. Maleeni's head rolls off his body and out the open window, as his headless corpse stays behind the wheel.

Mulder and Scully peruse the crime scene the following day. She is uninterested, thinking this was merely a murder case. But Mulder believes that Maleeni's great magic trick somehow went wrong. They examine a camcorder from a tourist who taped the show. They suspect the heckler, but do not see his face. Scully notices that the heckler throws away a soda cup. The fingerprints on the cup lead them to Billy LaBonge, another small-time magician with a criminal record. LaBonge writes off Maleeni as a hack with gambling debts. As the agents turn to leave, LaBonge stops them to return their FBI badges. They didn't even realize they had been pickpocketed. Later, LaBonge pays a visit to loan shark Cissy Alvarez regarding Maleeni's debts. LaBonge offers to help him make back ten times the amount of money he is owed. Alvarez is interested in hearing the proposal.

Scully finishes the autopsy on Maleeni (aka Herman Pinchbeck) and finds that his head was sawed off and glued to the body with spirit gum. Pinchbeck, however, died from a heart attack and had been refrigerated for over a month. Mulder and Scully go to a Los Angeles bank to see Pinchbeck's brother, Albert. He is an exact twin of Maleeni, and he is wearing a neck brace. Albert says he and his brother used to have a magic act together, and he proceeds to show a trick that involves Mulder pulling a card from the deck. Mulder suspects that Albert performed one last trick on the Pier in honor of his brother Herman. Albert says that he couldn't have been at the show, revealing he is in a wheelchair with no legs. Scully apologizes. With no other leads, Mulder and Scully bring LaBonge to Maleeni's van to look for clues. LaBonge thinks he will uncover a secret compartment for the body, but nothing turns up. Mulder does find one of Pinchbeck's gambling markers.

At the bank, Albert Pinchbeck admires the courier guard's gun. He is then visited by Alvarez who threatens him. Albert notices the distinctive tattoos on Alvarez's hand. Meanwhile, the courier guards find a masked man inside their armored car and shoot at him. The man escapes, but the guards take note of the tattoos on his hand. Out of sight, the man pulls off his mask. It is LaBonge, unharmed. He wipes the tattoos off with a towel. Mulder and Scully question Alvarez about his gambling marker, but he denies any knowledge of a murder. Mulder confides to Scully that he thinks they are being misdirected, like a sleight-of-hand trick. LaBonge watches them leave Alvarez's pool hall and places a 911 call. He goes inside and is threatened by Alvarez. As he runs out with a gun in his hand, LaBonge is picked up by the police. The agents return to the bank where Mulder dumps Albert Pinchbeck from his wheelchair. He does have legs, hidden by holes in the wheelchair. He confesses that he is really Herman Pinchbeck/Maleeni, and he was afraid for his life because of gambling debts to Alvarez. When he went to Albert for a loan, he found his brother dead of a heart attack. He schemed to slip into his brother's life, right after retiring with his greatest performance. Mulder doesn't believe his sob story and has him arrested. He looks through Pinchbeck's computer. The bank officer says that electronic transfer funds would require Mulder's badge number and thumbprint. Scully notices a robbery attempt was made on an armored car that Pinchbeck signed out. The bank officer says that no money was stolen. Pinchbeck is taken to a holding prison, where someone in the next cell raps on the wall. It is LaBonge. Pinchbeck tells him that everything went "swimmingly." The former rivals seem to be partners in crime.

The next morning, the bank vault is emptied. Security footage shows nothing, but a previous tape shows Alvarez entering the building, and the courier guard recognizes his tattoos. The FBI raids the pool hall and finds the money. Alvarez claims he was set up by LaBonge. Mulder and Scully realize that Pinchbeck and LaBonge are working together. They get to the prison just as the magicians are about to be released on bail. The agents unravel their theory: the death of Albert Pinchbeck opened a door of opportunity for the two men. Maleeni intentionally lost money to Alvarez and then faked his own death. LaBonge, Maleeni's protŽgŽ, set up Alvarez to take the fall for the heist, hoping to enact revenge on Alvarez, a former prison mate. Maleeni placed blanks in the courier guard's gun, so that the masked LaBonge was not killed. While the two were locked up overnight, they used their magic tricks to escape, rob the bank, plant the money with Alvarez and return to prison by morning. Since the money has been returned, the agents release Maleeni and LaBonge.

Afterwards, Mulder tells Scully that he was still puzzled as to why they used an elaborate set-up without a payoff. He shows her Maleeni's wallet, pilfered from the evidence room. Framing Alvarez was merely a way to misdirect the agents' attention. The pair's real plan was to access the bank's electronic transfer funds using Mulder's badge number, obtained when LaBonge pickpocketed the ID. They would have also needed a thumbprint, and Mulder pulls out of the wallet the playing card that he picked from Pinchbeck's card trick. The only question still lingering is how Maleeni turned his head around. Scully says she knows the trick. She turns her hand all the way around on the floor as Mulder looks in wonder. He asks her how she did it, and she merely replies, "Magic."

148 "SIGNS AND WONDERS"
US Airdate: January 23, 2000
writer: Jeffrey Bell
director: Kim Manners

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:
Randy Oglesby as Reverend Mackey
Tracy Middendorf as Gracie
Michael Childers as Reverend O'Connor
Eric Nenninger as Jared Chirp
Beth Grant as Iris Finster
Philip Lenkowsky as Holy Spirit Man #1
Clement E. Blake as Holy Spirit Man #2
Stevie Johnson as EMT
Phyllis Franklin as Middle Aged Woman
Dan Manning as Deputy
Elyse Donalson as Elderly Woman
Donna May as Holy Spirit Woman #1

Jared Chirp scans a medical test report and, disgusted, throws it in the trash. He hurriedly packs a suitcase while mumbling some religious prayers. An unseen figure watches through the window as the rain crashes outside the home in McMinn County, Tennessee. Jared grabs one last item — a revolver — and runs through the storm to his car. Once inside the car he drops his keys, and as he reaches for them on the floor, he sees a rattlesnake hissing. He grabs the gun, but a second rattlesnake comes into view. Suddenly Jared is swarmed by dozens of snakes. He fires into the pile with all six shots. The snakes attack and kill him.

In his office, Mulder reads from the report about the 116 separate bite marks from 50 different snakes. Although Jared's car was locked, there was no trace of snakes. He informs Scully that rattlesnakes usually hibernate in the winter. She notes that serpents are symbolic of religion. They travel to the Blessing Community Church in Tennessee to talk with Reverend Mackey about Jared's death. Jared's pregnant girlfriend Gracie overhears the conversation. Mackey has misgivings about the tragedy, and points them in the direction of Jared and Gracie's former church. This denomination practices snake handling. He names Reverend Enoch O'Connor as the prime source of animus toward the couple. O'Connor's Church of Signs and Wonders is an old, run-down shack with no lights. The agents are trying to find their way around in the dark and are startled to see snakes loose in the building. Before they can move, O'Connor turns on the lights to reveal not one, but many snakes on the church floor. He calmly stuffs them into a burlap sack as he tells Mulder and Scully that the death was a test of Jared's faith.

Iris, a volunteer at Mackey's church and the owner of the boarding house where Gracie is living, tells Mackey that Jared called the night he died looking for Gracie. She had kept this a secret. Mackey reassures her that he will help her deal with this later, and Iris goes into an office to work on church bulletins. Suddenly, her staple remover turns into a snake head and bites her hand. She washes the wound in the bathroom sink and notices snakes slithering from out of nowhere. She screams. Later, Iris' body is removed as Mulder and Scully talk to Mackey. He tells them that Jared called the boarding house looking for Gracie and mentioned something about paying for his sins. They question Gracie, but she does not believe O'Connor was responsible for the murders because he is her father. When she became pregnant, O'Connor kicked her out of the house and the church. Mulder and Scully return to Signs and Wonders and split up to investigate. Scully enters a room with snakes and O'Connor appears. He forces her hand into a box of serpents, preaching that she must be judged by God. Before a snake reaches her, Mulder crashes in with his pistol raised. O'Connor is arrested. He tells Mulder that Satan is near. In his jail cell that evening, O'Connor kneels down to pray. Dozens of snakes slide into the cell between the bars.

Reverend O'Connor lies in an ICU hospital bed with serious snake bites. Yet Gracie has forbid any anti-venom medicine to be given to him on the basis of religious grounds. Scully speculates that perhaps Gracie is the killer. The agents comb Jared's room and find the medical report. Jared could not have been the father of Gracie's child because he was sterile. They wonder if Jared was killed because he learned the truth. In the hospital, Mackey convinces Gracie to rely on medicine to save her father. He leaves her alone with the unconscious O'Connor. Mulder and Scully arrive to find that O'Connor has escaped with Gracie. Mackey tells them that O'Connor fathered Gracie's baby, and this was the reason she wanted to leave her father's snake church.

Late that night, O'Connor brings Gracie to his church where the other members of the congregation are waiting. She struggles, but they manage to hold her down. O'Connor tells her to "resist the Devil and he will flee." Gracie's pregnant belly squirms and she miraculously delivers baby rattlesnakes instead of a child. O'Connor and the others are shocked. The next morning, Mulder and Scully arrive at the Church of Signs and Wonders as Gracie is being put into an ambulance. She is in deep shock and suffers from loss of blood, but there was no baby found with her. O'Connor has also disappeared. They see the snake tracks in the amniotic fluid, and an elderly woman in the church says that the "Devil was cast out." Scully gets in the ambulance and Mulder goes to rescue Mackey from O'Connor.

O'Connor confronts Mackey with a knife, but Mulder bursts in and fires at O'Connor. In the ambulance, Gracie tells Scully that her father did not harm her. He was the one who saved her. Meanwhile, O'Connor lies bleeding on the floor. He tells Mulder that he does not realize which side he is on, and, as he points to Mulder's heart, says to be "smart down here." Mulder considers this and approaches Mackey in the outer church office. Mulder accuses Mackey of being the father of Gracie's child and wanting to destroy O'Connor. He draws his weapon, but Mackey asks if Mulder would do well if put to the test. Snakes suddenly appear and swarm Mulder. He falls to the ground as they crawl in his clothes and bite him. Scully hurries to the church and hears Mulder cry out. She breaks down the door just as the last snake escapes. Later at the hospital, Mulder recuperates as Scully reports that police have not yet found Reverend Mackey.

At a church in Connecticut, a woman welcomes a Reverend Wells to the parish. Wells is really Reverend Mackey. He pulls out a mouse from the desk drawer. He opens his mouth as if to put it in, but a snake rises out of Mackey's mouth. The snake swallows the mouse in a single gulp and slips back inside Mackey's throat.

 

149 "SEIN UND ZEIT"
US Airdate: February 6, 2000
writers: Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter
director: Michael Watkins

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:
Mitch Pileggi as AD Walter Skinner
Mark Rolston as Bud LaPierre
Rebecca Toolan as Mrs. Teena Mulder
Shareen Mitchell as Billie LaPierre
Megan Corletto as Amber Lynn LaPierre
Spencer Garrett as Harry Bring
Kim Darby as Kathy Lee Tencate
Martin Grey as Agent Flagler
Randall Bosley as Paunchy Man
John Harnagel as World Weary Dad
Marie Chambers as Guard
John Bisom as News Anchor #2
Nancy Tiballi as News Anchor #1
Dylan Stjepovic as Kathy Lee's Son

Five year-old Amber Lynn LaPierre says her prayers before her parents tuck her into bed. Bud LaPierre sets in for the evening to watch television, but he hears a noise in the house. He checks Amber Lynn's room and is horrified to see the little girl's face has turned blue from strangulation. He recoils at the sight. Yet at second glance, she appears to perfectly fine and still asleep. Meanwhile, his wife Billie is in their bedroom. She is oddly concentrating on writing an abduction note. Bud moves down the hallway to tell his wife of the strange hallucination when Amber Lynn's bedroom door slams shut. He struggles to open it. Blood oozes out from under the door. Bud breaks in to find Amber Lynn has vanished.

That same evening, Skinner assembles a team of agents to find the girl. Mulder insists that he be put on the case. Although Skinner does not consider this to be an X-file, he gives Mulder until noon to file a report. The next morning, Mulder arrives at the media circus surrounding the LaPierre home in Sacramento, California. He inquires about the ransom note. Bud tells him that the note was in Amber Lynn's room. Billie lies and says she was already in bed. Mulder is unsure what to believe. Later, Scully arrives at the motel to find Mulder deep in thought. Skinner sent her to retrieve Mulder's report. Mulder's cell phone interrupts their conversation. It is Mrs. Mulder, who asks her son if he is investigating the abduction case. She seems troubled, and wants him to call when he gets back.

Mulder and Scully return to Washington, where Skinner is analyzing the letter with his team. Handwriting analysis seems to shows that Billie LaPierre did write the note, but there is no demand for money or ransom. Although the other agents believe that the parents are involved, Mulder knows that none of their theories explain what happened to the little girl. Scully follows him back to his office and attempts to convince him that he is identifying the case with the disappearance of his sister. Mulder rummages through old files and he finds a document from a 1987 case in Idaho. The last line of the ransom note matches the one found in the LaPierre home: "Nobody shoots at Santa Claus!" The agents visit the woman whose handwriting is on the note, Kathy Lee Tencate, who is imprisoned for kidnapping her six year-old son. Although the boy was never found, she confessed to the murder. Mulder notes that her case resembles the LaPierre situation and believes she is innocent. Kathy Lee refuses to help, so they leave. Alone in her cell, Kathy Lee has a ghostly vision of her son and summons the agents.

Mrs. Mulder calls her son again, but leaves an answering machine message, saying there has been much unsaid that she hopes he will understand. She proceeds to burn photographs of Mulder and his sister. Mulder returns to Sacramento to show the LaPierres a videotaped confession by Kathy Lee. She assures them on the tape that their daughter is protected. The couple react emotionally. The LaPierres change their statements about the event on the night of the abduction, and they are released from police custody.

Back in the office, Skinner scolds Mulder for bringing his paranormal ideas into the case. Scully interrupts. She informs Mulder that his mother is dead. They investigate Mrs. Mulder's house, finding an open gas oven and a bottle of sleeping pills. Mulder believes that his mother was trying to contact him about the LaPierre case and that whoever took his sister has now killed his mother, staging a suicide. He notices the missing family photos, and pleads with Scully to do the autopsy. Looking for answers, Mulder goes to the Idaho prison to see Kathy Lee Tencate again. She tells him that his mother was trying to tell him that his sister Samantha is with the "walk-ins" -- old souls lurking in starlight who protect other souls from harm that they would have suffered in real life.

A paunchy man watches some children play in the Santa's North Pole Village theme park. He changes into a Santa suit next to a group of television monitors taping the village. Nearby are stacks of videotapes. Mulder, meanwhile, replays his mother's message for Scully, trying to discern what she was trying to warn him about. Scully found that Mrs. Mulder suffered from an incurable cancer and did commit suicide. She tells Mulder that his mother would want him to stop looking for Samantha. She had probably hoped to take away his pain. Mulder breaks down in Scully's arms.

Billie LaPierre sees a vision of Amber Lynn next to her bed. The little girl is mouthing something. Skinner and Scully take Mulder to Sacramento because Billie wants to see him. Billie tells Mulder that the apparition of Amber Lynn said the number seventy-four. No one understands the significance of the word. As the agents drive from the LaPierre home, a beaten and exhausted Mulder asks to be removed from the case. Scully notices a highway sign for Route 74 and she looks on the map. They head down the route toward Santa's North Pole Village. Skinner checks the grounds while Mulder and Scully enter the building. They come upon a bank of video monitors and stacks of videotapes dating back to the 1960s. One tape has footage of Amber Lynn LaPierre. Suddenly, the paunchy man appears and locks Mulder and Scully in the office. Skinner chases the man around the property and arrests him. Mulder and Scully catch up and find themselves standing on freshly turned earth. They realize that there are dozens of unmarked plots -- each the size of a child's grave.

TO BE CONTINUED

150 "CLOSURE"
US Airdate: February 13, 2000
writers: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
director: Kim Manners

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:
William B. Davis as Cancer Man
Randall Bosley as Ed Truelove
Sal Landi as Detective Kadri
Stanley Anderson as Agent Schoniger
Patient Cleveland as Arbutus Ray
Anthony Heald as Piller

Small bodies are excavated from graves outside the Santa's North Pole Workshop in Sacramento (discovered in 7X10). The ghosts of the children rise up out of the earth, look up to the heavens and fade into starlight.

Mulder pores over the tapes found at the crime scene. Scully reports that Ed Truelove confessed to all the children's murders, but did not take responsibility for the disappearance of Amber Lynn LaPierre. Mulder admits to Scully that he had hoped his sister Samantha was among the dead. "I just wanted it to be over," he says. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of police psychic Harold Piller who offers to help find Amber Lynn. Piller has previously explained cases where children were transported through spiritual intervention. Although Scully readily dismisses Piller and his theories, Mulder is interested, and notes that Piller's claims match what Kathy Lee Tencate had told him in the prison.

Disapproving of Mulder's blind belief, Scully returns to Washington and shows Special Agent Lewis Schoniger a video of Mulder's 1989 regression hypnotherapy session. As Mulder recalls Samantha's abduction on the tape, the FBI expert points out that Mulder's delusion played into his unconscious hope that his sister was still alive. This caused him to pursue her. The case file reveals that an unsuccessful search for Samantha occurred at the highest levels of government in 1973. Schoniger surmises that Samantha is probably dead, and advises Scully not to dig any deeper. Scully disagrees, saying that someone owes Mulder an explanation because "he deserves closure, like anyone."

Back in Sacramento, Mulder brings Piller to the graves. The psychic senses that Ed Truelove's victims all died while suffering. Walk-ins, however, intervene before anything violent happens to the children. Piller believes that while Amber Lynn was not among the dead children in the graves, she has a connection to Mulder and his missing sister. That night, Piller comes to Mulder's motel room because a "visitor" wants to speak to him. A ghostly vision of the late Mrs. Mulder appears, trying to tell Mulder something. When she quickly disappears, Mulder discredits Piller's abilities, but then realizes that he has unknowingly written the words "April Base" on a piece of paper.

Scully proceeds with her own investigation of Mrs. Mulder's house and finds remnants of burned photos and documents. She calls Mulder to tell him that one of the documents has the Cigarette-Smoking Man's signature calling off the search for Samantha. Mulder discounts the importance of this lead. When Scully gets home later that night, the Cigarette-Smoking Man is waiting for her. He warns her to stop the search for Samantha because he believes she is dead. Although Scully pleads for the truth, CSM contends that Mulder must remain ignorant. It is the only thing that gives him hope. Meanwhile, Mulder and Piller sneak onto the decommissioned April Air Force Base. Piller has a vision of Samantha and other children given tests in train cars. Mulder is at first skeptical, but then finds a child's handprint in the cement outside one of the base houses. Samantha's name is etched underneath. Next to the small hand is another print with the name Jeffrey.

Mulder refutes what the CSM said to Scully, believing that Samantha was returned after her abduction to be raised by CSM and his son, Jeffrey Spender. Scully thinks that Piller is leading Mulder on. The agents confront Piller with the knowledge that he has been institutionalized for schizophrenia and is currently being investigated for the murder of his own son. Piller argues that he only wants to find his son. He tries to prove that he knows Samantha is still out there by taking them back to the base. In the CSM's abandoned house, the three hold hands for a seance to summon the spirits. Ghosts appear around them. A small boy ghost takes Mulder's hand and leads him into an adjoining room. Inside a wall cavity, Mulder finds a diary belonging to Samantha. Later in a diner, he reads the passages to Scully. A fourteen year-old Samantha remembers another family and an older brother, but she seems to think that the doctors performing tests on her have stolen her memories. Her final entry is about running away. Outside, Mulder looks up at the night sky and ponders whether the stars are really comprised of lost souls. He tells Scully that he wonders what his mother was trying to tell him before she died. Late at night, as Mulder sleeps, the ghost of Mrs. Mulder whispers into her son's ear.

The next morning, Scully uncovers a 1979 police report on a runaway who matches Samantha's description. The agents scour old hospital records, finding a "Jane Doe" patient with signs of paranoia. The girl also exhibited strange cuts on her limbs. They go with Piller to the house of Arbutus Ray, the emergency room nurse who signed the patient in. Mulder is hesitant to approach the woman's front door because he somehow senses that he has reached the end of the road. Scully and Piller knock on the door as Mulder waits at the car. Ray does recall the patient and remembers that she had a vision of the girl murdered. A frightened Ray blinked, but realized the girl was sleeping safely. This story matches Bud LaPierre's hallucination. Ray also recounts how a group of men came with the father -- a smoking man -- to take the girl away. When the men opened her locked room, the girl had vanished. Scully turns to Mulder, but he has disappeared. She doesn't see him being led by the same boy from the house at the Air Force base. Mulder walks through a clearing in the woods and sees a group of ghostly children happily playing. Amber Lynn LaPierre is there. Mulder senses that his guide is Harold Piller's son. Suddenly, Samantha runs to Mulder and jumps into her brother's arms. The joyous reunion brings him to tears.

A peaceful Mulder appears out of the darkness, walking towards Scully and Piller. Piller is in denial when Mulder assures him that his son is protected among the Walk-ins. But Scully is concerned about her partner. "I'm fine," he calmly says. "I'm free."

151 "X-COPS"
US Airdate: February 20, 2000
writer: Vince Gilligan
director: Michael Watkins

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast: Judson Mills as Deputy Keith Wetzel
Dee Freeman as Sgt. Paula Duthie
Michael Maher as Redhead Deputy
Perla Walter as Mexican Lady
J.W. Smith as Steve
Curtis C. as Edy
Tara Karsian as Coroner's Assistant
Lombardo Boyar as Spanish Speaking Deputy
Maria Celedonio as Chantara Gomez
John Michael Vaughn as Soundman
Daniel Emmett as Cameraman
Frankie Ray as Crackhead
Solomon Eversol as Sketch Artist Ricky
Cheryl Comstock as Sheriff #1
Ron Gilbert as Sheriff #2
Diane Harris as Sheriff #3
Boris Nikolof as Sheriff #4
Scott Arger as Sheriff #5
Kevin Beggs as Sheriff #6
Esther Myare as Sheriff #7
Steve Sciacca as Sheriff #8
Mary Campbell as Sheriff #9

WILLOW PARK, CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT
6:48 pm
Deputy Keith Wetzel cruises the streets, but he's not alone in his patrol car -- a camera crew from the television show "Cops" follows his every move. He responds to a call about a possible "monster" prowler. Wetzel finds huge scrapes on the front door of the house, and a quick search corners the suspect in the backyard. As Wetzel advances toward the perpetrator, something startles him. He bolts back toward the squad car, shrieking in terror. The frightened camera crew follows. As Wetzel frantically radios for assistance, an unseen force attacks the police car and flips it completely over. The terrified occupants scream.

Backup arrives in the form of Sergeant Paula Duthie. She is astounded by the upside-down vehicle and questions Wetzel about the incident. Although the camera crew is no help in confirming his story, Wetzel lies to his superior, telling her that a street gang was responsible for the wreck. They are interrupted by the radio squawking with a report of two armed suspects fleeing on foot. The officers on the scene rush to apprehend a very surprised pair of FBI agents investigating the same "monster": Mulder and Scully.

Mulder asks Wetzel to describe what it was that attacked him. Although Wetzel attempts to downplay the incident, Mulder believes that they are really chasing a werewolf. He speculates that the bite marks on Wetzel's wrists may indicate that he will soon become a werewolf himself. When Mulder suggests that the deputy be quarantined, Sgt. Duthie skeptically asks, "Could I see your badge again?"

Scully tries to avoid the camera crew when discussing the case, but Mulder is giddy with the prospect of solving an X-file under the watchful eyes of a worldwide audience. She is merely trying to keep herself and her partner from looking ridiculous in a werewolf hunt. Police sketch artist Ricky draws the attacker described by a resident. The perpetrator seems to closely resemble horror movie character Freddy Krueger. Although Ricky begins to fear the "claw monster" that the woman described, Mulder is no longer certain that the werewolf theory still stands. Scully confirms this by reporting that the marks on Wetzel's wrists are merely insect bites.

The police radio reports another attack nearby, and the team runs to the scene. Ricky's body lays dead, savagely clawed through his protective Kevlar vest with five parallel slashes. Scully combs the crime area and uncovers a long, fake fingernail, painted bubblegum pink and covered in blood. The agents interview Steve and Edy, a colorful couple who heard Ricky's cries and called 911. They recognize the nail polish on the fake fingernail as the signature hair and nail color of local prostitute Chantara Gomez.

9:26 pm
The agents search for Chantara. Mulder drives and addresses the camera, cheerfully updating the audience on the case. Scully, still ignoring the camera crew, easily spots the prostitute's pink hair. Chantara confesses that it was not Freddy Krueger but her boyfriend, Chuco, who killed Ricky. She is afraid that Chuco will twist her neck when he learns that she ratted on him. The police raid Chuco's house and find that he has overdosed. Dead for several days, Chuco is ruled out as a suspect. Suddenly, gunshots blast outside. Dep. Wetzel is blindly firing at an invisible assailant. Although he was assigned to protect Chantara, she was somehow killed in the locked squad car. Her neck was snapped. Wetzel describes to Mulder a childhood story about a monster with a head like a wasp. He says that what he shot at was the same Wasp Man.

1:32 am
Mulder switches theories about the nature of the case. He now believes that the suspect is really a single entity that, when it attacks, appears as the victim's worst nightmare. It appears at a full moon and feeds on fear, jumping to various sources like a chain reaction. Scully still does not buy his claims, but returns with him to the home of Steve and Edy. They are the only people to not fall prey to this killer. But after talking with Steve and Edy, it becomes clear that the couple does not fear their neighborhood or any killer on the loose. Mulder decides that they are not in any danger. He heads off with Wetzel to scour the streets, and Scully goes to the morgue to examine Chantara's body.

2:47 am
Much to Scully's chagrin, half the camera crew has followed her, but she works earnestly to find any clues before sunrise. The nervous medical examiner assisting her has heard that some kind of contagion killed the prostitute. Scully assures her that the victim was murdered and not exposed to the Hantavirus. As the assistant asks more questions about the Hantavirus, she sneezes blood and faints. She convulses on the floor, exhibiting symptoms of Hantavirus. Scully yells at the camera crew to call 911.

4:41 am
At the morgue, Mulder assimilates this latest incident into his theory, realizing that the Hantavirus only affected the examiner after she began fearing it. Mulder suddenly realizes that Deputy Wetzel, who was not afraid while Mulder was with him, is now on his own again and at risk of another attack. Wetzel, meanwhile, has returned to the previously raided house with the camera crew. He is determined to search it one more time. Unfortunately for Wetzel, his fears begin to overwhelm him and he is locked inside the house with the cameras. Mulder and Scully arrive quickly and break down the door. Behind a locked closet, Wetzel screams in pain. Mulder yells at him to "cowboy up" and not show any fear. Suddenly, the screaming stops, and Mulder breaks in to find an injured Wetzel sitting dazed on the floor, cradling his bloody arm. Mulder realizes that the sun has risen, meaning that the terror is gone. With no concrete proof to back up Mulder's theories, one question hangs over the case: is the entity gone for good, or only to return at the next full moon?

152 "FIRST PERSON SHOOTER"
US Airdate: February 27, 2000
writers: William Gibson and Tom Maddox
director: Chris Carter

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:
Krista Allen as Maitreya
Jamie Marsh as Ivan Martinez
Constance Zimmer as Phoebe
Billy Ray Gallion as Retro
Tom Braidwood as Frohike
Dean Haglund as Langly
Bruce Harwood as Byers
Michael Ray Bower as Lo-Fat
Ryan Todd as Moxie
James Geraldne as Detective Lacoeur
John Marrott as Security Guard
Christopher Ng as Darryl Musashi

Three teen guerrillas, bursting with testosterone, buckle up their stun suits in a dimly lit equipment bunker. They rack their futuristic, automatic weapons in preparation for war. But their battlefield is a virtual reality game, where they are pitted against imaginary gunmen. Game controllers Ivan and Phoebe monitor the players' vital statistics from an outside console. One of the players is "shot" and another waits as Retro moves farther into the depths of the virtual environment to encounter a beautiful female warrior in leather and stilettos. "I am Maitreya," she tells him, slinking closer. "This is my game." She brandishes an antique flintlock pistol and aims it at him. Retro can only watch as sparks flash from the powder-pan when she pulls the trigger.

Later that night, Mulder and Scully enter the FPS corporate building amid stringent security. They are met by the Lone Gunmen, who are uncharacteristically enthusiastic about the company. The trio explains that they serve as consultants to the game, but that Retro's death has put a damper on the company's upcoming initial public stock offering.

Scully checks Retro's body and notes that the man was obviously shot. Ivan vehemently refutes the visual proof, saying there is no way a real gun could have gotten into the highly-secured complex. The entire scenario, Phoebe explains, is digital. Nothing exists outside the game space. Mulder reviews the videotape of the game that shows nothing out of the ordinary. Yet when they switch the game environment to wire mode and all the textures and surfaces are stripped, the tape reveals a female pointing a gun at Retro. Mulder and the Lone Gunmen are shocked, but Phoebe's face shows a spark of recognition. After the men leave the room, she stares at the cyber-vixen on the monitor. "Goddess," she whispers in disbelief.

Mulder gives a detective the printout of Maitreya as the suspect, but Scully remains skeptical that a fictional female character could commit a real murder. Their ensuing discussion is cut short by the entrance of Darryl Musashi, a revered virtual programmer and game-playing legend. Like fan-crazed little boys, Mulder and the Lone Gunmen leave to watch Musashi take on the game and its unexpected female challenger. They are shocked when Musashi meets a gruesome end in a matter of minutes, decapitated by the Samurai sword-wielding Maitreya.

Completing her preliminary examination of Retro, Scully is confused about how his wound left no trace of evidence. She and Mulder argue lightly about the merits of computer games, questioning whether they add to a culture of violence or provide a necessary outlet. As the remains of Darryl Musashi are brought into the autopsy bay, Mulder receives a call from the Sheriff's Department that their female suspect is in custody at the station house. At the station, Mulder and Scully must maneuver around the many male officers hovering over the sexy suspect, an exotic dancer who goes by the name Jade Blue Afterglow. Confronted by the printed image of her likeness, she tells them that she was paid for allowing a medical imaging company make a computer scan of her body. The agents release the woman.

Back in the offices of FPS, the Lone Gunmen prepare to enter the game space to implement a patch program that will override the software problem. Before they are ready, the game begins on its own and the Gunmen are shot at. Mulder rushes to enter the game space in order to rescue the trio, but he is unable to follow them out before the module closes. He is trapped inside the game. Phoebe and Scully watch as Mulder's image disappears from their monitor. His vitals are still registering on the console, and they realize that even though Mulder isn't physically in the game space, he is lost somewhere inside the game.

Scully angrily confronts Ivan about putting the female figure into the game, but it's Phoebe who runs out of the room with a guilty sob. As Scully follows her into the hall, the young woman admits that she created Maitreya to be her own game character in an attempt to make her mark as a woman in the gaming world. Yet, she maintains, she has no idea how the character moved from her computer to the game mainframe.

Inside the game, Mulder and Maitreya square off. She is able to move and disappear at will, but Mulder manages to survive against her. Maitreya multiplies herself and continues to fire at him. Her electronic advantage takes its toll on Mulder, and he quickly loses ammunition. Finally, in desperation, Scully suits up and enters the game space herself, brandishing her own high-powered weapon. Round after round, she overpowers Maitreya, but the confrontations continue to grow difficult. Maitreya comes after them with a tank.

Phoebe finally decides that she must enact the game's kill switch. Ivan tries to stop her, because the kill switch will erase the whole game, but she succeeds. With the push of a few buttons, the game completely evaporates. For a brief moment, it appears that Mulder and Scully have been erased with the game, but when the module opens, the two agents are safely inside, battle-worn and weary.

Later, while Ivan sits working at his computer, a new female figure suddenly appears that resembles a warrior who once mastered the game -- Special Agent Dana Scully.

153 " THEEF"
US Airdate: March 12, 2000
writers: Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz
director: Kim Manners

STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:
Billy Drago as Mr. Peattie
James Morrison as Dr. Robert Wieder
Kate McNeil as Nan Wieder
Cara Jedell as Lucy Wieder
Tom Dahlgren as Dr. Irving Thalbro
Sage Allen as Landlady
Michael Sidney as Security Guard
Matthew Sutherland as Records Clerk
Dylan Kussman as Med Student
Aaron Braxton as Radiology Tech
Leah Sanders as Reporter #1
Mark Thompson as Reporter #2

Dr. Robert Wieder and his family return home from a banquet honoring him as the San Francisco Bay Area Doctor of the Year. Feeling joyous and celebratory, Dr. Wieder, his wife Nan and daughter Lucy prepare for bed, and invite the doctor's father-in-law, Dr. Irving Thalbro to stay the night. Dr. Thalbro is startled in his room by a haggard, rough-looking man standing behind him. The security alarm's motion sensor wakens the Wieders. Dr. Wieder goes downstairs to investigate, and finds Thalbro's body, hanging from the skylight, covered in blood. Scrawled in blood on the wall is the word "THEEF."

The agents are called to the crime scene, where Mulder ponders the word's meaning. There is no evidence that it is a case of murder. Mulder theorizes that the cause is hexcraft when he finds dirt splayed on the victim's bed, since dirt is commonly used to cast spells. Scully uncharacteristically agrees that this is a possibility. Mulder is surprised at her acquiescence.

Across town, in a run-down building, the landlady smells something suspicious in one of the apartments. She knocks on the door of its tenant, Mr. Peattie, who is the same man from the Wieder break-in. He tells her that he is cooking medicine and offers her a poultice for her sore back. She goes, leaving Peattie to finish sewing a number of crudely designed voodoo dolls. One of them hangs by the neck in the same manner as Dr. Thalbro.

Mulder finds out that the mysterious dirt was from a graveyard, meaning that it is conjure dust, a powerful tool for magick arts practitioners. Scully tells Mulder that Dr. Thalbro suffered from Kuru, a New Guinea disease that is extremely rare. Since Kuru causes irrational behavior, Scully concludes that Thalbro must have killed himself. Mulder believes that the disease was intentionally inflicted on the man so that he would kill himself.

Nan Wieder is disturbed when she discovers that a family photo was removed from the house. Dr. Wieder tries to console his wife, but when he pulls back the covers of their bed, dirt in the shape of a stick figure is on the sheets. Suddenly, Nan lapses into convulsions, and cyst-like sores erupt all over her body. As the doctor attends his wife, he doesn't notice Peattie standing outside the house, clutching one of his voodoo dolls with Nan's photo sewn inside.

At the hospital, Dr. Wieder tells Mulder and Scully that his wife has contracted a rare disease common only in central Africa. Angered by Mulder's folk magick theory, Wieder ignores Scully's offer of protection. The agents inquire at a magic shop about the use of conjure dust for murder. The proprietor tells them that in order to kill someone the magickian must draw power from a charm that holds great personal significance. The only way to prevent his power is to separate him from such a source.

Dr. Wieder studies his wife's MRI results and is shocked to see the word "THEEF" inscribed in the scan. Suddenly, Peattie appears behind him. "Truth hurts, don't it?" the man laughs. When the doctor asks why he is harming his family, Peattie utters "Lynette Peattie." Wieder does not recognize the name, and Peattie disappears. Confused, Dr. Wieder runs a record search, but no Lynette Peattie turns up. Then he looks for "Jane Does" under his care and finds one patient's file has a personal effect in it. It is a handwoven wristband, with the inscription "Flax hair lamb, theef of mans heart." This triggers Wieder's memory.

Later that night, Peattie buys a bag of popcorn from a hospital vending machine and cooks it in a machine he's never seen before -- a microwave. Meanwhile, Nan recovers, but must go through another MRI exam. As she slides into the radiology tube, Peattie removes the popcorn from the microwave and replaces it with a poppet doll. Inside the cylinder chamber, Nan begins to convulse and her body burns to a charred black. Peattie pulls the Nan doll out of the microwave and calmly says "All done."

When Dr. Wieder sees that the word "THEEF" was branded into his dead wife's chest, he tells Mulder and Scully about the strange man who confronted him. He also recounts the story of Lynette Peattie, a dying girl he had treated after a bus accident. Wieder had deliberately upped her morphine dosage to ease her pain even though the overdose would take the last twenty minutes of her life. Mulder realizes the killer must be Lynette's father, so he and Scully track down the girl's gravesite. They exhume the coffin, but it is empty.

Back at Peattie's apartment, the landlady lets herself in to look for another poultice. She gasps at Lynette's skeletal remains in the bed. She turns to leave and runs into Peattie.

The agents send Dr. Wieder and his daughter off to a safe house cabin, with Scully accompanying. Unseen, Peattie watches them go. The news reports a woman suffering from a sudden onset of a rare, flesh-eating disease, and Mulder quickly connects it to Peattie. When he reaches the apartment, Lynette's skull has been removed from the body. He phones Scully to warn her that their suspect may be heading towards the Wieders. Outside the cabin, Peattie waits. His daughter's head rests in a box on his lap.

Peattie breaks into Scully's car and takes her ID photo and a strand of hair from the seat. He puts them into a poppet and pokes the doll's eyes with coffin nails. Scully becomes blinded and her eyes are cataracted milky white. She stumbles about, and shoots blindly at Peattie when he bursts through the door. He merely knocks her gun aside, heading upstairs after the doctor and his daughter.

Dr. Wieder tells Peattie that he did everything medically possible for the man's daughter and that he eased her suffering when he could do no more. Peattie says that if he had been there, he could have saved her himself. He pulls out another cloth doll and twists a knife into it. Dr. Wieder falls to the floor, clutching his heart.

Mulder arrives at the cabin, finding the hex doll used to blind Scully. Scully's sight returns instantly, and she shoots Peattie to save Dr. Wieder.

The next day at the hospital, Scully admits that she would have followed the same procedure as Wieder had she been faced with Lynette's prognosis. However, she wonders whether Peattie really could have saved his daughter. Mulder is once again surprised and appreciative of Scully's admission of belief. Nearby, Peattie lies comatose on a hospital bed, dependent on the marvels of modern science and medicine.

 

154 "EN AMI"
#7ABX15
Original Air Date: 03/19/00

Written by William B. Davis
Directed by Rob Bowman

Starring:
DAVID DUCHOVNY as Special Agent Fox Mulder
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully

Also Starring:
William B. Davis as the Cigarette-Smoking Man
Mitch Pileggi as A.D. Walter Skinner
Michael Shamus Wiles as the Black-Haired Man
Louise Latham as Marjorie Butters
Tom Braidwood as Frohike
Dean Haglund as Langly
Bruce Harwood as Byers
Timothy Landfield as Cobra
Cory Parravano as Jason McPeck
Michael Canavan as Cameron McPeck
Jacqueline Schultz as Irene McPeck
Thomas Roe as Guard
Tom Bailey as Apartment Manager

A sick young boy is awakened at night by a storm and a bright light. He watches in awe as figures walk out of the light.

Scully finds a copy of the Goochland Guardian newspaper on her doorstep. An article about the young boy is on the front page. Although his family had refused medical treatment for him because of their beliefs, the boy had miraculously been cured. At the office, Mulder receives an anonymous email from someone at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency about the same incident. Someone is insistent that they investigate the case. Mulder goes to DARPA, while Scully visits the boy.

The McPeck family is grateful for their son's miracle cure. The boy tells Scully he saw "angels" who looked like men, and one of them pinched his neck. Scully sees that he has a mark similar to her own implant scar. The Cigarette-Smoking Man waits outside the McPeck home in Scully's car. He claims that he was responsible for saving the boy's life, as well as hers. He questions why she is not curious about his technology since he went to considerable trouble to prove his intentions. Scully is not swayed in her distrust. The CSM admits that he is dying, but hopes to pass his knowledge and power onto her. This knowledge includes the cure for cancer. He chose her because he has grown tired of Mulder's stubbornness. He leaves his card with the warning that one word to Mulder will rescind the offer.

Scully traces the phone number on CSM's card and finds the address. It is a large, unmarked office building. The security guard demands her ID, and sends her to an office where the door's nameplate reads "Spender, C.G.B." As if expecting her, the CSM cordially welcomes her in. He tries once again to appeal to Scully. He is dying of a cerebral inflammation caused by brain surgery and wants to leave a legacy. To retrieve the cure for cancer, they must take a trip. Intrigued, Scully agrees. She leaves a message on Mulder's answering machine, saying that she will be out of town for a family emergency. The CSM watches her pack when Mulder phones back. Although she ignores Mulder's call, she manages to discreetly conceal a small microphone in her bra.

The mood in the car is tense, but Scully drives CSM to an undisclosed location. She protests when he begins to light a cigarette, and he agrees to quit smoking in order to gain her trust. He then directs her to the home of Marjorie Butters, a sprightly, energetic older woman. Scully is shocked to hear that Marjorie is actually 118 years old, and that the CSM is the reason for her overcoming cancer. He comments that a miracle such as Marjorie must be the reason Scully became a doctor.

Worried about Scully, Mulder questions her building manager. The man says that she left with a man who smoked cigarettes, and Mulder immediately makes the connection. Skinner tells Mulder that Scully requisitioned a fleet sedan, but there have been no gas charges to track her whereabouts. Mulder is concerned because Scully's mother knew nothing about a supposed family emergency. Suddenly, Skinner's private phone line rings. It is Scully, who asks her boss to relay to Mulder that she is okay. When Skinner offers to let her speak to Mulder herself, she refuses. Mulder is even more convinced that she is in danger.

When CSM and Scully stop at a gas station, she speaks frantically into her hidden microphone, asking Mulder to comprehend what she's recorded. She drops the tape into a mailbox and gets back in the car with CSM. As they drive away from the station, it is revealed that the Black-Haired Man (last seen in "The X-Files" feature film) has followed the pair. He reaches into the mailbox and pulls out the envelope she attempted to mail Mulder.

Late that evening, CSM pulls up to a lakeside cabin. With black leather gloves, he reaches for the sleeping Scully. The next morning, Scully wakes in the cabin. She's been changed into pajamas, and she quickly reaches for the microphone still taped to her chest. Scully accuses the CSM of drugging her, but he humbly says that she was tired and delirious when he put her to bed. He even admits to dressing her in the dark. Scully is determined to leave, but when the CSM tells her she has always been free to go, she hesitates. From a distance, the Black-Haired Man watches the exchange in the cabin.

Meanwhile, Byers, Frohike and Langly show Mulder the emails they uncovered on Scully's computer from a "Cobra" at the Department of Defense. They suspect she had been hiding this correspondence from him, but Mulder does not believe their theory. He and the Lone Gunmen inform Skinner that someone hacked into her computer to arrange a meeting between Cobra and Scully.

The CSM brings Scully a dress for a dinner meeting with their contact. She hides her revulsion for the man and is somewhat alarmed to see that the low-cut dress can not accommodate her hidden microphone. At the restaurant, CSM tells Scully that he involved her because Cobra was skittish about his research falling into the wrong hands. He then confesses that he has not been forthcoming with all the facts about this secret research. Not only is it a cure for cancer, but a cure for all human disease. Its origin is extraterrestrial. Excusing himself, CSM heads outside for a cigarette. The Black-Haired Man approaches him. Troubled, the CSM reports to him that Cobra has not shown. Scully, alone at the table, discovers a note under her plate. It reads "Calico Cove. First light of day."

At sunrise, CSM instructs Scully to take a small motorboat from the dock. She speeds away to meet Cobra. Scully cuts the engine and sits idle in the middle of the inlet. Another boat approaches and parks alongside her. The man driving the boat is Cobra, and he speaks to her as if they had been corresponding for a while. He hands her a black computer disk. Scully tells Cobra that they have never corresponded before and then asks about the information on the disk. This unsettles Cobra, but before he can speak a gunshot rings out. The Black-Haired Man shoots Cobra out of the boat and sets his sight on Scully. She scrambles to restart the boat, but another shot fires. This time the CSM kills the Black-Haired Man with a pistol at point blank range. Scully returns to the dock, furious, and hands the disk to the CSM. He hesitates, and then gives it back to Scully. She takes it and storms off.

An angry Mulder is silent to Scully while the Lone Gunmen check the disk. It is completely blank.

She takes Mulder back to the building of CSM's office. It has been vacated. Mulder says that the CSM used her, but can not figure out why she is still alive. Scully is incredulous, believing that the CSM had told her the truth. She questions why the CSM would use her to save himself at the expense of the human race.

At the cabin, the CSM stands on the dock, holding the disk. He contemplates it for a second, tosses it into the water, and then lights up a cigarette.

 

155 "CHIMERA"
#7ABX16
Original Air Date: 04/02/00

Written by David Amann
Directed by Cliff Bole

Starring:
DAVID DUCHOVNY as Special Agent Fox Mulder
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully

Also Starring:
Mitch Pileggi as A.D. Walter Skinner
Michelle Joyner as Ellen Adderly
Gina Mastrogiacomo as Jenny Gurgich
F. William Parker as Dr. Blankenship
John Mese as Sheriff Adderly
Wendy Schaal as Martha Crittendon
Charles Hoyes as Howard Crittendon
Ashley Edner as Michelle Crittendon

At an Easter day picnic in a picture-perfect town, little Michelle Crittendon is startled by a raven in the woods. Her mother, Martha Crittendon, isn't happy when her husband won't cut short his business trip to tend his distraught daughter. Forced to stay home alone that night, Martha's worry turns to fear at the sight of the raven on her mantle. Suddenly, a mirror shatters and a large, monstrous creature appears from nowhere and attacks Martha.

Mulder is called away from a strip club stakeout, leaving Scully to handle the surveillance alone. Skinner wants Mulder to investigate Martha Crittendon's disappearance since the presence of ravens suggests an oddness about the case. The fact that Martha's father is a federal judge certainly makes the case a priority.

Sheriff Phil Adderly fills Mulder in at the crime scene. There is no ransom note, prints or blood evidence, but there are four deep scratches on the mantle in the otherwise pristine house. Mulder wonders if raven talons could have made the marks and carefully notes the broken mirror. Howard Crittendon, Martha's husband, shows Mulder birth control pills in Martha's name. Since he has had a vasectomy, Howard thinks Martha has run off with a lover, and he produces an unknown key he found among Martha's things.

Ellen Adderly, the Sheriff's wife and a close friend of Martha's, posts flyers regarding Martha's disappearance. A tough-looking woman named Jenny approaches her as Martha spots a raven nearby. Although they have a mutual dislike, Jenny tells Ellen that they have more in common than she knows. Ellen turns away from Jenny to see a monstrous reflection in a car window. The window shatters instantly.

Scully phones Mulder from the stakeout. She's cold, hungry and not finding anything of substance on her surveillance. Mulder has no time to sympathize with her plight as he digs in to Ellen Adderly's home cooked meal. Ellen invites him to stay at her home while he works on the case.

Young Michelle Crittendon sees the raven again outside her house, and her father Howard follows the bird into the garden to find a siege of ravens pecking at the flesh of a human hand. It is Martha's body, buried in her own backyard. Later, the coroner tells Mulder the gashes on her body resemble a bear attack, although bears don't generally bury their prey. Sheriff Adderly and Mulder both agree that Howard Crittendon murdered his wife. Ellen arrives at the crime scene, devastated. She admits that she may have seen the creature earlier that day.

As the Sheriff calms his wife at their house, Mulder theorizes that reflective surfaces act as doorways to the spirit world. An evil entity might be summoned through that portal, taking the form of a raven. Mulder is lead to Jenny as a possible enemy to Martha, but she denies any connection to the murder. Mulder doesn't question her innocence, but is suspicious when she says that she was alone all night.

Ellen is puzzled to find a key in her carpet that matches the one Howard Crittendon gave to Mulder. Suddenly, a noise emanates from her baby's room and distracts her. She runs in to see a raven sitting on the edge of the crib. Ellen shoos it away, but then sees a reflection of the creature in a mirror, which shatters. Terrified, she grabs the baby and hides in a closet. After her husband rescues her, she tells Mulder that the creature had chased her. The sheriff takes Mulder aside and asks him not to encourage his wife in what he feels are her stress-induced delusions. Mulder spots the key on the floor and asks Ellen about it. She says she found it right before the raven attacked her.

Late that night, the sheriff rises from his and Ellen's bed and dresses to leave. He goes to a motel and unlocks a room with the key his wife uncovered. Inside is Jenny, awaiting her lover. Although Sheriff Adderly protests that they need to discontinue their affair, Jenny lures him into bed.

The next morning, Mulder is up early and finds that Ellen has laundered his shirt and prepared a huge breakfast for him. She senses that he likes to be taken care of, and asks why he has no one in his life. The sheriff returns home, interrupting their conversation. He makes up an excuse that he had to cover for another deputy. Mulder lets him know that the medical examiner found that Martha had been four weeks pregnant when she died, in spite of taking birth control pills. Since her husband had a vasectomy, Mulder questions whom the sheriff may suspect. When Adderly has no answer, Mulder calmly asks for the motel key.

Jenny hears ravens cawing outside the motel room and she dresses. The mirror above the bed suddenly shatters, and Jenny is attacked. She manages to slash at the creature's shoulder with a bit of broken glass before it kills her. At this newest crime scene, Mulder discovers the key fits the lock to the motel room. He confronts the sheriff about an affair with both Martha and Jenny. Now a suspect, Adderly is finally ready to listen to Mulder's theories about the ravens.

Ellen gets ready to take a bath and discovers a bloody gash on the back of her shoulder. Distressed, she flashes back to her struggles with Jenny. Mulder heads back to the Adderly house, but takes a phone call from Scully about wrapping up her stakeout. The perpetrator they were looking for had been right under their noses, dressed like a woman. Mulder makes a connection to the Crittendon monster and rushes to the house. He tries coaxing Ellen from the bathroom, telling her that he knows what she's done. She tells him that her whole marriage was a lie, and she wished Mulder had never come there. Suddenly, the creature bursts through the door and attacks Mulder, pushing him under the bathtub's water. As he struggles for air, the creature sees its reflection in the water and stumbles back, releasing Mulder. Ellen, having transformed from the creature back to her normal self, is curled up in the corner of the bathroom weeping.

Mulder visits Ellen later at a psychiatric facility. The sheriff says that his wife has a dissociative disorder, or split personality, but that he doesn't understand how it that is responsible for the turn of events. Mulder thinks that Ellen found a way to rationalize her husbands' affairs to protect her family. He suggests that this may be as close as science can get to an explanation for what happened. In her cell, Ellen stares at a raven outside her window.

156 "ALL THINGS"
#7ABX17
Original Air Date: 04/09/00

Written and Directed by Gillian Anderson
Starring:
DAVID DUCHOVNY as Special Agent Fox Mulder
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully

Also Starring:
Nicolas Survoy as Dr. Daniel Waterston
Colleen Flynn as Colleen Azar/Red-Headed Woman
Stacy Haiduk as Maggie Waterston
Stephen Hornyak as Dr. Kopeikan
Victoria Faerber as Woman with Hat/Nurse #1
Carol Banker as Carol
Elayn Taylor as Nurse #2
Cheryl White as Nurse #3
Scott Vance as Healer

Scully dresses in front of a bathroom mirror and quietly heads in to the bedroom to grab her jacket. She pauses for a brief moment, looking towards the bed, and heads out the door. Sound asleep in the bed is Mulder.

Sixty-three hours earlier: It's Saturday afternoon when Scully enters Mulder's office with lunch. He rambles on with a slide presentation of fractal crop circles and notices that she's only listening half-heartedly. When he says that he's booked two plane tickets to investigate the crop circles in England, Scully bemoans the fact that she has plenty of work to finish over the weekend. Mulder is annoyed, muttering that he can cancel her ticket. "Why can't you ever just stay still?" she asks. "I wouldn't know what I'd be missing," he answers as he leaves.

Scully waits at the nurse's station in the Washington National Hospital for autopsy results on a case, but when she's given a folder, she realizes it's for the wrong patient. Coincidentally, she recognizes the name on the x-ray -- Dr. Daniel Waterston, her former medical school teacher with whom she had a romantic relationship. She is drawn to check up on him in the coronary unit, and is intercepted by his doctor, Dr. Kopeikan, who tells Scully that Waterston mentioned her. She is briefed on his heart condition, but declines the doctor's offer to speak with Waterston.

She returns home to a phone call from Waterston's daughter Maggie, who has openly hostile feelings towards Scully's relationship with her father. Maggie reluctantly invites Scully to visit on her father's behalf. While Scully mulls over the invitation, Mulder beeps in to ask her to pick up a folder of crop circle information from a research facility near the hospital. She is flustered from Maggie's call, but agrees to help her partner. Scully goes to the hospital and accidentally walks into the wrong room. She notices a red-headed woman, and apologizes for her mistake. She visits Waterston next door, and he is quick to question her leaving medicine for the FBI. She says that he truly understands why she left. Waterston was married, and Scully refused to be responsible for breaking up his family.

As Scully drives away from the hospital, Mulder calls on her cell phone to inquire about his documents. As they speak, Scully slams on the brakes to avoid hitting a female pedestrian, and she narrowly avoids an even more catastrophic collision with a truck. The woman continues on without pause, but looks back and smiles serenely at a stunned Scully. Scully runs Mulder's errand and is startled to see the contact for the crop circle information is Colleen, the red-headed woman from the hospital. Scully is a little galled when Colleen tells her that her near-accident may have been a sign to slow down and pay attention to the larger picture of her life. She walks out of Colleen's house and drops the folder of information. As she picks up the papers, her eyes zero in on a heart chakra formation. Her phone rings; it is the hospital with news on Waterston's worsening heart condition.

Back at the hospital, Scully helps the doctors decide on a course of treatment, and she and Waterston have a heart-to-heart discussion. He tells her that his marriage broke up after she left him, which resulted in Maggie's anger toward her. He then admits that he has been in Washington for ten years, following her trail. Scully becomes emotional and reveals that she sometimes wonders if she chose the right course in her life. She rests her head on his chest as he comforts her. Suddenly, his heart monitor rings in alarm. Waterston goes into cardiac arrest, and Scully goes into emergency medical mode to revive him. He lapses into a coma.

With nowhere else to turn, Scully is compelled to visit Colleen again for more answers. She tells Scully, "You may be more open to things than you think." Colleen says that Waterston's condition is most likely caused by pain in need of healing. Later, Scully walks through the streets deep in thought. She notices the female pedestrian who prevented her car accident across the street. Scully follows the woman into a Buddhist temple, but inside finds herself alone. She falls to her knees before the Buddha statue, overwhelmed with sadness and confusion. Her life rushes before her eyes, ending abruptly at the dying body of Waterston. Scully snaps awake.

She returns to the hospital to conduct a holistic healing ritual in the hopes of bringing Waterston out of his coma. Although the process works, Waterston scoffs at the notion that anything other than practical medicine might have saved his life. Scully tells him that he should be more open to other possibilities, but when he suggests that the two of them discuss their future together, Scully cuts him off. She says that it's time he took responsibility for the hurt he caused in his family and that he should stop running from the truth. "I'm not the same person," she confesses. "I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't seen you again."

Outside the hospital, Scully sees the female pedestrian a third time. She runs up to the woman, but realizes the person is really Mulder. He has returned from England unsuccessful and was looking for Scully. Noting with a smile that "everything happens for a reason," Scully and Mulder return to his apartment. She recounts for him the past two days' events on his couch. Mulder is surprised and amused at Scully's epiphany in the Buddhist temple. She wonders aloud if all the choices in a person's life are simply random, or if there is a greater force at work. Mulder considers this, but before he can reply, he realizes that Scully has fallen asleep. He covers her gently with a blanket gets up from the couch to leave her sleeping. Coincidentally, under Mulder's fish tank, a small Buddah statue sits, smiling.

 

157 "BRAND X"
#7ABX19
Original Air Date: 04/16/00

Written by Steven Maeda & Greg Walker
Directed by Kim Manners

Starring:
DAVID DUCHOVNY as Special Agent Fox Mulder
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully

Also Starring:
Mitch Pileggi as A.D. Walter Skinner
Dennis Boutsikaris as Dr. Peter Voss
Richard Cox as Daniel Brimley
Tobin Bell as Darryl Weaver
Mike Hungerford as Thomas Gastall
Shannon O'Hurley as Ann Voss
Arthur Rosenberg as Lead Counsel
Ron Marasco as Doctor
Pat Destro as Joan Scobie
Caryn West as Dr. Libby Nance
Rick Deats as Dr. Jim Scobie
David Sawyer as Security Man
Greg Poland as Second Windbreaker Man
Matthew T. Wilson as Manager

Smoke emanates from the chimney at the Scobie house in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Skinner runs the team of FBI agents keeping protective custody of Dr. Jim Scobie, who will testify before a grand jury against his former employer, Morley Tobacco, the next morning. Although no one knows the specifics of his research or what he will say in court, the doctor has received death threats. Dr. Scobie lets out a ragged cough into his fist and takes a sip of water. He doesn't notice the small amount of blood and the lone beetle squirming inside the glass he drank from. Later that night, Joan Scobie awakens to find that her husband is not in bed. She knocks on the locked bathroom door, calling out to Skinner for help. Skinner breaks down the door to reveal Dr. Scobie's body on the floor. The flesh from the man's nose to his throat has been stripped away.

The following morning, Mulder and Scully arrive at the Scobie residence to examine the crime scene. There is no signs of a break-in and no fingerprints. Scully infers that acid may have caused the damage to Scobie's face, but Mulder is not convinced, asserting that the man's screams would have alerted the many agents surrounding the house. Skinner has been ordered to quickly solve the case, and asks Scully to perform the autopsy. Mulder notes the lack of ashtrays in the house of a tobacco company executive, finding it odd that Scobie did not smoke. He requests to accompany Skinner in questioning Dr. Peter Voss, Scobie's supervisor at Morley. On the way out, Mulder notices the beetle in Scobie's water glass.

Skinner and Mulder are met with a cold reception as they flash their FBI badges at Morley Tobacco headquarters. Daniel Brimley, head of corporate security, amiably escorts them to Dr. Voss. The team of lawyers flanking Voss prohibits him from answering any of Skinner's questions. Mulder produces a baggie with the beetle and asks Voss if he can identify it. Voss replies that it is a tobacco beetle, common to the area surrounding Morley. Visibly shaken, Voss returns home and is met by Daryl Weaver, a man with a sickly complexion, yellow teeth and nicotine-stained fingertips. Weaver demands that Voss continue Scobie's arrangement in supplying cigarettes, figuring that his silence is in demand. Unnerved, Voss hands him unmarked packages of cigarettes and a wad of cash, and begs the man to leave.

Concluding her autopsy, Scully explains to Mulder and Skinner that Dr. Scobie choked to death. Mulder asks about any traces of beetles, but Scully has found none. Meanwhile, in a skid row hotel, Weaver puffs away as his neighbor, Thomas Gastall, complains through the air vent about the smoke that has reached the next room. The man coughs violently into his hand, but Weaver ignores his pleas. Suddenly quiet, Gastall sees that his fingers are flecked with blood and he falls to the floor. Several tobacco beetles scamper across the floor near his face, which is eaten away like Dr. Scobie's.

The agents observe that Gastall died in the same manner as Scobie, but Skinner and Scully can not conceive of a motive for the transient's death. Finding more beetles, Mulder is convinced that no murders were actually committed. Scully surmises that there may be some sort of insect-borne contagion, and Mulder goes door-to-door to investigate. He finds Weaver, who tells him that Gastall was annoyed at his smoking. As Weaver speaks, he lights up a cigarette and blows smoke on Mulder. Having found nothing, Mulder decides to pay another visit to Dr. Voss. Although he is sorry that another victim has surfaced, Voss is still uncooperative and heads into his house to a ringing phone. It is Brimley, who has been watching Voss from outside the house, wanting to know what Mulder talked about. Voss is shaken and begs to go forward with what he knows. Brimley tells him to sit tight, and he asks where Weaver is. Voss replies that he does not know. Later, he goes to the skid row motel to pay off Weaver to leave town. Knowing that Morley Tobacco won't kill him, Weaver is adamant about staying put and getting more of his special cigarettes. Voss is unaware that he has led Brimley right to Weaver.

Skinner and Scully consult with an entomologist, who examines the beetles from the dead bodies and explains that the insects are not normal. Scully thinks that perhaps the tobacco plants were genetically altered, which affected the beetles that fed off the plants. Back at the morgue, Scully tells Mulder that the beetles had nested in the dead men's lungs. As she explains, Mulder begins coughing uncontrollably. He looks into his hands. They are covered in blood. He is brought to surgery, where doctors attempt to suction the beetle larvae from his lungs. Scully informs Skinner that although the procedure is working, it will only buy time until more beetles are gestated. The two surmise that the beetles may have hatched from eggs that were transported through smoke. Outraged, Skinner obtains a search warrant for the Morley facility and demands answers. Out of guilt, Voss finally gives in, telling Skinner that they had tried to engineer a safer tobacco that killed all but one of its test subjects -- Darryl Weaver. Skinner breaks into Weaver's hotel room, but finds only Brimley, bound and gagged. As the knot is loosened, beetles swarm out of Brimley's mouth and his face is quickly covered with the insects.

After the operation, Scully informs Mulder there is a hunt for Darryl Weaver so that they can learn something from his immunity to the tobacco. Suddenly, Mulder gasps for air and he goes into arrest. The doctor wants to open up Mulder's chest, but Scully protests, saying that he is too weak for such a surgery. She is frustrated and helpless, but makes the decision to wait for more answers from the investigation.

Skinner, meanwhile, finds Voss held at bay by Weaver, who wants more of his cigarettes. Skinner draws his gun on Weaver and the two are at a standoff. Yet when Weaver attempts to light up a cigarette, Skinner shoots him in the shoulder. They bring him into the hospital for testing, and Scully notices Weaver's nicotine-stained fingers. She gets an idea, and immediately orders that Mulder be injected with nicotine.

Two weeks later, Scully welcomes the recovering Mulder back to the office. She explains that the high levels of nicotine in Weaver's blood acted as an insecticide and kept him alive. The same happened to Mulder when he was given high doses of nicotine. Unfortunately, he has become addicted and pulls out a pack of Morley Red cigarettes. Scully is surprised, and insists that he can't start smoking. He surrenders, and tosses the pack in the trash can. She exits, and Mulder looks longingly at the red and white pack, fighting off the temptation.

 

158 "HOLLYWOOD A.D."
#7ABX18
Original Air Date: 04/30/00

Written and Directed by David Duchovny

Starring:
DAVID DUCHOVNY as Special Agent Fox Mulder
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully

Also Starring:
Mitch Pileggi as A.D. Walter Skinner
Garry Shandling as Garry Shandling
Tea Leoni as Tea Leoni
Harris Yullin as Cardinal Augustine O'Fallon
Wayne Federman as Wayne Federman
Paul Lieber as Micah Hoffman
Bill Dow as Chuck Burks
Tim Roe as Zombie
Barry K. Thomas as Sugar Bear
Tina M. Ameduri as Tina
Bill Millar as the Director

A gunfight ensues in a makeshift graveyard, as actor Garry Shandling, dressed in the requisite FBI suit, checks the clip on his gun and clutches at a pottery bowl under his arm. A priest in the flowing robes of a Catholic Cardinal holds red-wigged actress Tea Leoni at gunpoint. This "Cigarette-Smoking Pontiff" addresses Shandling as "Mulder," offering to trade "Scully" for the bowl. Shandling warns the CSP that if the Lazarus Bowl is smashed, then all the sniper zombies that the CSP has ready to attack will revert back to being corpses. A zombie steps forward to plead with Shandling: "C'mon man, don't break the bowl. We don't wanna go back to being dead -- no food, no women, no dancing." The zombie offers to make Shandling the king of the dead, but Shandling refuses, stating that he'd "rather serve in heaven than rule in hell." And with that nod to Milton, he throws the Lazarus Bowl high in the air to allow Leoni to disarm the CSP. As Shandling leaps toward her, a zombie dives for the falling bowl. Shandling and Leoni tumble down the hill and fall into an open casket. Lying on top of "Scully," "Mulder" professes his love after seven years of waiting and passionately kisses her.

The graveyard scene, it is revealed, is really only a movie. The well-dressed audience watching the film includes Shandling and Leoni, as well as the real Scully, who stares up at the screen with wide-mouthed disbelief. Next to her is the real Mulder, his head held low in abject humiliation. He looks across the aisle to Skinner, who is beaming from ear to ear. Skinner raises his hands and shrugs innocently at Mulder.

Eighteen months earlier: Skinner briefs Mulder and Scully in his office about a bombing in the crypt of a D.C. church. Wayne Federman, a screenwriter and college friend of Skinner's, listens to the conversation, but his ringing cell phone and commentary into a tape recorder disrupts the meeting. Skinner instructs the agents to allow Federman to tail their investigation for research on his latest script. With Federman on his heels in the crypt of the church, Mulder questions Cardinal O'Fallon about the incident. The crypt contained only relics and documents, but nothing of any monetary value. Suddenly a cell phone rings, and Mulder immediately looks disapprovingly to Federman. The ringing, however, is coming from a phone held by a body beneath the rubble. Mulder identifies the corpse as one of his idols, Micah Hoffman, a counterculture revolutionary from the 1960's.

Federman follows Mulder and Scully to Hoffman's apartment, where they find not only bomb-making materials, but forging instruments and fake religious documents describing an account of Christ's life on earth after his resurrection. As they return to the crypt, Federman tells Mulder that he admires the agents' underhanded way of working. "No warrants, no permission, no research -- you're like studio executives with guns," he says. While Mulder discovers remnants of Hoffman's forgeries, Federman watches in astonishment as human bones animatedly try to reassemble broken pottery. He recounts the scene over breakfast at a diner, and Scully acknowledges that he must have been hallucinating the events. Yet Federman, filled with enough "flavor" for his movie, decides he's had enough and leaves. Scully admits that his story reminded her of an old Catholic school tale about the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. His incantations were engraved on a bowl being spun on a wheel nearby, like the grooves on a record. Mulder is intrigued by this idea, and sends Scully to consult with their expert friend Chuck Burks. Chuck analyzes the bowl and finds that all the notes vibrate in exactly the same key -- a feat unheard of in music.

Meanwhile, the Cardinal despondently tells Mulder that he purchased the forgeries from Hoffman and intended to hide them because he believed they were real. The Cardinal had hoped to protect others from the despair and anger he felt when he read the documents. Mulder phones Scully to ask her to do Hoffman's autopsy, suspecting that the Cardinal may have murdered Hoffman for blackmail over the forged papers. Federman beeps into Mulder's phone and invites him to Hollywood to watch the filming of the movie based on their X-file. Mulder is somewhat flattered, but his interest is tempered when he learns that while Tea Leoni and Richard Gere have been cast to play Scully and Skinner, Garry Shandling will play Mulder.

In the autopsy bay, Scully dissects Hoffman's heart when, suddenly, the corpse sits up. "I'm gonna need that when you're done with it," Hoffman says as he hops off the gurney and gives himself a shake. Scully gapes, reaching out to touch him with her scalpel. Hoffman warns her off and she drops the scalpel. She reaches for it and looks up again, but the body is back on the table. She brushes off her hallucination to fatigue. Mulder arrives later and Scully informs him that Hoffman's stomach was filled with red wine and strychnine. Mulder theorizes that the Cardinal must have poisoned him with Communion wine. Cardinal O'Fallon is conducting Mass when Mulder and Scully arrive with an arrest warrant. Scully asks her partner to allow the Cardinal his dignity and the two wait. She goes to kneel before a crucifix and sees Micah Hoffman on the cross. He looks directly at Scully and says "Consummatum est." When she turns around, the crucifix is back to normal. Disturbed, she leads Mulder to arrest the Cardinal. As Mulder reads the Miranda Rights, a man walks into the church. It is Micah Hoffman, very much alive.

Skinner angrily censures the agents for misidentification of a corpse and false arrest, while Mulder and Scully seem scared to meet his gaze. Skinner forces them to take four weeks' probationary leave while their actions are investigated. They head back to their office to find Chuck Burks waiting. The clay bowl's vibrations rendered into actual words in ancient Aramaic, the language that Christ spoke. He says that the first part roughly translates into "I am the walrus, I am the walrus, Paul is dead, coocoocachoo." The second part seems to be one man commanding another to rise from the dead. Mulder and Scully decide to visit Hoffman, who announces that he has become Jesus Christ. Off their skeptical expressions, he explains that in order to forge Christ's words, he immersed himself in Christ's life and actually converted into the deity. He bombed the crypt because the blasphemous forgeries had to be destroyed. When Mulder asks how his cell phone got on the dead body, Hoffman smiles. "God works in mysterious ways," he answers.

Scully stops by Mulder's apartment later that night and finds him watching Plan Nine From Outer Space for the forty-second time. Scully wonders whether true faith might be a form of insanity, and Mulder convinces her to take up Federman's invitation. The agents arrive at the Twentieth Century Fox lot in Los Angeles to see the movie's filming, and Federman introduces them to their acting counterparts - Shandling and Leoni. They watch a scene being shot in a graveyard with zombies. Back at their luxurious hotel, Scully calls Mulder from her bubble bath. Sitting in his own bubble bath, Mulder tells her that he thinks the undead really just miss the life they had when they were alive. They merely want to eat and dance and make love. Skinner clicks into Mulder's phone call to apologize for being hard on the agents. He tells him that Federman arranged for Skinner to get an associate producer credit on the movie.

Sixteen months later: The movie premiere from the beginning resumes. On screen, Shandling's Mulder professes his love for Leoni's Scully. She pulls away from his kiss and tells him she's really in love with Assistant Director Walter Skinner. The real Mulder shoots up from his theater seat, waving his arms like a referee stopping a fight. "That's it! I just can't take it anymore!" he shouts. The real Scully shushes him, but he storms out past Federman, Shandling and Leoni. Scully finds him moping on the graveyard movie set, munching popcorn out of the plastic Lazarus Bowl from the concession stand. She tells him that earlier in the evening, Cardinal O'Fallon murdered Micah Hoffman and then hanged himself. Mulder bemoans the fate of the two complex and flawed men who would now be remembered as caricatures from The Lazarus Bowl movie. He wonders how they themselves will be remembered. Scully philosophically predicts that the movie will tank at the box office, but Mulder is preoccupied with the notion that dead people will be represented through history in such an oversimplified way. Scully teases him out of his sulk, telling him that Skinner was so pleased with the movie he gave her a Bureau credit card for the night. She takes Mulder's arm and pulls him to his feet, joking that she's got a confession to make: she is in love with Associate Producer Walter Skinner. Mulder tosses the plastic Lazarus Bowl and quips, "Me too." As they walk away, a tree branch scratches against the bowl's surface like a record needle. Samba music swells, and wispy apparitions begin to dance joyfully around the graveyard set.

 

159 "FIGHT CLUB"
#7ABX20
Original Air Date: 05/07/00

Written by Chris Carter
Directed by Paul Shapiro

Starring:
DAVID DUCHOVNY as Special Agent Fox Mulder
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully

Also Starring:
Kathy Griffin as Betty/Lulu
Randall "Tex" Cobb as Bert Zupanic
Art Evans as Argyle Saperstein
Jack McGee as Angry Bob
Rob Van Dam as Opponent
Gene LeBell as Bartender
Arlene Pileggi as Woman Who Looks Like Scully
Steve Kiziak as Man Who Looks Like Mulder
Cory Blevins as Missionary #1
John O'Brien as Missionary #2
Christopher Michael as Trusty
Brian Chenoweth as Koko's Manager #1
Jim Hanna as Koko's Manager #2
Nicole Bush as Customer #1
Paul Hansen Kim as Customer #2
John Mack as Customer #2Two neatly dressed missionaries ride their bikes up to a blue house in Kansas City, Kansas. The license plate on the red sports car in the driveway reads "Betty." At the front door, Betty Templeton shoos them away and says that she just moved in. A short while later, the missionaries ride to a pink house similar to the first house. The blue sports car in the driveway has a license plate that says "Lulu." When Lulu Pfeiffer opens the door, she is eerily identical to Betty. Surprised, the two men inform her that she has a twin who just moved in several blocks away. Lulu slams the door angrily, telling them to leave. All of a sudden, the two men begin to viciously shove each other, even though they are surprised by their own actions. Later, two FBI agents, bearing a striking resemblance to Mulder and Scully, interview Betty about the incident. They recount the explanation about her supposed twin, and the male agent brings up the possibility of a paranormal explanation. They turn to see Lulu drive past the house with a moving truck. The twins glare at one another, and without warning, the two agents begin to fight.

At the FBI, Mulder is showing a slideshow of the FBI agents' wrecked car and their tractioned bodies in a hospital room. He explains to Scully that the two agents have identical stories, and yet they can't explain their odd behavior. He does his usual play of throwing out several explanations, and Scully counters with her own theory: the missionaries and the agents, both similar, came into contact with doppelgangers who represent a person's secret desires and impulses.

Back in Kansas City, Lulu applies for a job at Koko's Copy Center. The manager notes her varied work history and many residences. Betty's car pulls up in front of the store and the copy machines go haywire. In a state of panic, the manager hires Lulu. Betty moves on as the manager takes the help wanted sign out of the window. Nearby, at a different branch of Koko's Copy Center, Betty applies for a job. This manager also notes her wide range of work history and addresses. Betty's resume parallels Lulu's. Later that evening, Bert Zupanic loads a briefcase with money at the Porcherie Motel. Mulder and Scully arrive, brandishing a photo of him with Betty Templeton. Scully tells him that Betty abruptly moved, and when he asks if she lived in a pink house on Moreton Bay, Scully responds that she lived in a blue house on Alderwood. Bert denies knowledge of her whereabouts. The agents leave, but Scully insists that he knew Betty. Mulder disagrees, and Scully goes to check out the pink house. Mulder stays back to search Zupanic's room. Bert takes his briefcase of cash to Froggy's Bar and sees Betty at the bar. Believing she is Lulu, he orders her favorite drink and inquires about her legal trouble. Betty is amazed that this stranger knows what she drinks, and introduces herself. Bert makes the connection just as Lulu enters the bar. Everything in the bar instantly begins to rattle. The ground shakes, glasses shatter and chairs topple over. Betty and Bert make a dash out the back door.

Scully arrives at Pat Devine's Kansas City auditorium to find Mulder having a conversation with promoter Argyle Saperstein. Mulder tells Scully that Betty will be at the auditorium in two days to watch Bert in a wrestling match. Scully says that they must also find Lulu. The two women have traveled across seventeen states with one alternately trailing the other, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. After the agents leave, Saperstein calls Bert to demand money for the fight. Bert, in bed with Betty, assures Saperstein that he'll get his money. Betty, meanwhile, realizes she is late for work and runs into the bathroom. Lulu arrives at the motel and accuses Bert of cheating on her. She finds Betty's hair clip in the bed and forgives Bert, thinking the clip is a gift for her. She leaves, and Betty comes out of the bathroom. Gunshots fling through the ceiling and the sound of a body thumps down on the floor in the room above.

At the bar, Saperstein is eating lunch when Betty comes in. He tells her that Bert is coming and she goes to the bathroom to freshen up. Bert arrives with the money, followed by Lulu. Saperstein looks puzzled to see her in the front door. Bert realizes both women are in the same building and convinces Lulu to leave. Betty exits the bathroom and sees Lulu. The glass and mirror in the bar shatters and people take cover. Bert is knocked unconscious, and Saperstein grabs the suitcase of money. Later, Mulder and Scully arrive to investigate the scene and wake Bert up. Mulder goes to Koko's to see Betty. She blames it on Lulu and demands to stay in Kansas City. Mulder calls Scully at the other Koko's. She gets the exact same story from Lulu. Both agents watch their targets get in their vehicles. Mulder is standing in the middle of the street as Lulu drives by on one side with Betty on the other. All of a sudden, he gets sucked into a manhole. Scully pulls up to where he was but doesn't see him.

Later that evening, Scully visits the Kansas City Penitentiary to see Bob Damphouse, a very angry inmate who screams back to all of her questions. She informs the man that he is the biological father of Lulu and Betty via a donation to a sperm bank. She requests his genealogical history to prevent further harm. He responds that "a big, ugly dog lifted its leg on my family tree." Meanwhile, Betty goes to Bert's room. He admits that he lost his financing for his last chance to fight that evening. She agrees to help him and leaves. Immediately, the door knocks again. It is Lulu, who also consents to aid Bert. Both women break into their respective Koko's stores to color photocopy money.

Mulder finally crawls out of the manhole and calls Scully at the penitentiary. Scully tells him that she has found Lulu and Betty's father. Mulder surmises that both women are in love with Bert and won't leave Kansas City for that same reason. As Scully walks down the cellblock, she is surprised to find an inmate who looks exactly like Bert Zupanik. Back at the auditorium, Saperstein asks for his money and Betty shows up just in time with the counterfeit currency. As Bert begins to wrestle, Mulder approaches Betty. Lulu comes up behind Mulder, who grabs Betty to carry her out of the arena. Everyone in the audience instantaneously starts to fight each other. Upon seeing Scully enter with Bert's twin, Mulder stops and puts Betty down. The auditorium immediately goes quiet. Scully smiles, proud of herself. Bert is the last one to notice his doppelganger, and when he does, all hell breaks loose again.

Sometime later, back in Mulder's office, Scully shows slides of bruised and bandaged people: Bert, his twin, Lulu, and Betty. She summarizes their arrests for Saperstein, who asks her what it means. She responds, in Mulder-esque fashion, that when two originals meet the result is unpredictable. Yet if four should meet, she says, "well, these encounters are best avoided at all costs." She is beaten, bruised and bandaged like the people in the pictures. She turns to Mulder, who is also battered. He mumbles a response, and barely opens his mouth to reveal that his broken jaw is wired shut.

 

160 "JE SOUHAITE"
#7ABX21
Original Air Date: 05/14/00

Written and Directed by Vince Gilligan

Starring:
DAVID DUCHOVNY as Special Agent Fox Mulder
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully

Also Starring:
Mitch Pileggi as AD Walter Skinner
Paula Sorge as Jenn
Will Sasso as Leslie Stokes
Kevin Weisman as Anson Stokes
Paul Hayes as Jay Gilmore
Brett Bell as Morgue Attendant Jay Gilmore is annoyed. His employee, Anson Stokes, won't respond to calls on the walkie-talkie and is nowhere to be found on the self-storage lot in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Anson is hiding out, idly reading a yachting magazine. Jay spots the slacker and orders him to clean out the unit numbered 407. Muttering under his breath when the boss leaves, Anson opens up the unit to find it filled with dusty furniture and molding cardboard boxes. Groaning at the task ahead of him, he grabs a rolled-up Persian rug but it moves by itself. Anson unravels it and a dark-haired woman flops out. Underneath her right eye is embedded an emerald teardrop. When Jay pulls up to the opened door of unit 407, no one is in sight. He shouts for Anson, but his voice suddenly strangles off and goes silent. His mouth has disappeared.

Scully enters the office, and Mulder is interviewing Jay. A monstrosity of stitches has created the man's mouth. He has difficulty talking, but tells them that Anson Stokes is somehow responsible because he told his boss to "shut up." The agents pay a visit to Anson in Missouri. His small trailer is overshadowed by the huge yacht parked in its driveway. When they approach the front door, Anson hides from what he believes to be tax collectors. He sends his paraplegic brother, Leslie, to answer the door. Mulder and Scully identify themselves to Leslie, noting his motorized Rascal scooter. He tells them his brother is not home. In the back room of the trailer, they notice that a dark-haired woman. The agents go to the storage lot and find a photograph of a large man. In the background is the dark-haired woman from Anson's trailer. Although the picture is more than twenty years old, the woman looks the same as she did earlier that day.

Anson tries to come up with a third wish. He is clearly not happy with his first two -- Gilmore's mouth and the boat. He argues with the genie about not putting the yacht in the water. She replies that he didn't "specify" water. As the two brothers make suggestions for the third wish, the genie gestures to Leslie's wheelchair. The boys don't understand her subtlety, and Anson finally chooses to be made invisible. She acknowledges his command and he disappears. In his transparent state, Anson runs out of the trailer, is hit by a truck and dies. A bicyclist runs into the invisible obstacle and Anson is brought to the morgue. Scully is amazed at what has been found, and dusts Anson's body with yellow fingerprint powder in order to make the body discernible. Mulder arrives with news of the man in the photograph. Henry Flanken died in 1978 of chronic tumescence after mysteriously coming into a wealth of money. Mulder believes that the dark-haired woman is the link to their case and he leaves to see Anson's brother. Leslie tells him that the dark-haired woman is gone, but he gives Mulder a brass knickknack, saying that it is the genie's home.

Leslie retrieves the rug from the storage unit. Meanwhile, Mulder drags Scully from the morgue to show her the dark-haired woman's appearance in historical videos. She stands next to Mussolini and Nixon, two men who received extreme power only to have it stripped away. The next morning, Scully gets ready to present the invisible body to experts from around the country but Anson's body has disappeared. Alive and still covered with the fingerprint powder, Anson sits silently in his trailer. Leslie wished for his brother to come back, but instead received a zombie-like Anson whose body is still suffering from the road accident. Leslie asks the genie to give Anson a voice. When the wish is granted, Anson only complains of being deathly cold. Leslie is miffed at his selection of wishes and searches for a third one. He doesn't notice Anson looking for warmth by turning on the gas stove. Leslie announces that his final wish is for legs at the same time Anson strikes a match. The trailer explodes in a big fireball. Mulder and Scully, who had been approaching outside, are thrown to the ground by the blast. They rise to look at the destruction, and the rolled-up Persian rug lands near them. From inside the rug, a faint, muffled voice says "Ow."

Mulder and Scully interrogate the genie in the trailer park's office, as the fire trucks corral outside for the explosion. Mulder calls her Jenn, which is short for "jinniyah" -- the term for a spirit or demon of Middle Eastern folklore. In her five hundred years of practice, Jenn has found that people use greed to make their wishes. She asks the agents if she is under arrest and Scully says that, with no evidence, she is free to go. Unfortunately, she can't. She is beholden to Mulder because he released her from the rug. He now has three wishes. Taking her back to his apartment in Washington, Mulder asks Jenn what she would wish for if she were in his shoes. She dreams of being released from her genie binds to be a normal person again. "I'd sit down somewhere with a great cup of coffee and I'd watch the world go by," she sighs. Hoping he has the solution, Mulder thinks of something more universal and asks Jenn for peace on earth. He is alarmed when his wish truly comes true. The deserted city outside is eerily quiet, with no signs of life. Remembering his partner, Mulder rushes to the FBI. It, too, is completely empty. He calls out for Jenn, who rescinds his initial wish. The office returns to normal. With one wish left, Mulder decides to cover all his bases. He types up a document that clearly and specifically states his third wish for a safer and happier world. Yet, when Scully doubts the wish, he reconsiders.

Later that night, Mulder invites Scully over to watch a video. Since he never asked for world peace, Scully asks about his final request of the genie. At a diner somewhere, Jenn sits at a lunch counter, sipping coffee. The emerald teardrop has disappeared from her face. Mulder wished for her freedom.

 

161 "REQUIEM"
#7ABX22
Original Air Date: 05/21/00

Written by Chris Carter
Directed by Kim Manners

Starring:
DAVID DUCHOVNY as Special Agent Fox Mulder
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully

Also Starring:
William B. Davis as the Cigarette-Smoking Man
Mitch Pileggi as A.D. Walter Skinner
Nicholas Lea as Krycek
Leon Russom as Detective Miles
Zachary Ansley as Billy Miles
Andy Umberger as Agent Chesty Short
Laurie Holden as Marita Covarrubias
Tom Braidwood as Frohike
Dean Haglund as Langly
Bruce Harwood as Byers
Brian Thompson as the Bounty Hunter
Sarah Koskoff as Teresa Hoese
Gretchen Becker as Greta
Darin Cooper as Deputy Ray Hoese
Eddie Kaye Thomas as 1st Young Man
Judd Trichter as 2nd Young Man
Peter MacDissi as Prison Guard
Grace Demontesquiou as Baby
Kelly Demontesquiou as Baby A police car races down the highway in Bellefleur, Oregon. In the driver's seat is Detective Miles (last seen in the "Pilot" episode), who radios to his deputy, Ray Hoese, that he is approaching with backup on a downed aircraft in the woods. Suddenly, the digital clock scrolls backwards. The car loses power as it careens into another sheriff's cruiser, parked on the side of the road. A dazed and injured Detective Miles gets out of his car. A big fire burns in the distance through the trees. He notices the hands on his wristwatch are spinning backwards, as he approaches the other vehicle. An unconscious Ray Hoese slumps over the wheel. The deputy's eyes are swollen shut, the lids and membranes blistered and burned. Detective Miles looks down to see he has stepped in a bubbling, green substance. When he turns around, another Deputy Hoese stands before him. The man's eyes are unscathed. This Hoese has three bullet holes in his chest with the same green substance oozing out of him. Miles recoils in horror.

In Washington, Mulder sits before a large pile of receipts. Agent Chesty Short, the deputy chief auditor of the FBI, admonishes both Mulder and Scully for the extravagant expenses racked up by the X-files. He questions what they are investigating, now that the Samantha case has been resolved. Back in their office, the agents receive a call from Billy Miles (from the "Pilot"), who reports that the abduction experiences are occurring again. This time, however, they are not happening to him.

Two teenagers scour the Oregon forest in an excited search for a UFO. One of the boys steps into an invisible force field and gets shaken at warp speed. Spooked by this sudden disappearance, the boy's friend Richie drops his flashlight, which has suddenly become red hot, and runs out of the woods.

Marita Covarrubias releases Krycek from a Tunisian prison on orders from the Cigarette-Smoking Man. The pair find the CSM near death, in a wheelchair, and attended by a nurse. Krycek is furious with the old man for sentencing him to a foreign jail. The CSM is eager to report that an alien ship collided with a military aircraft in Oregon. He needs them to recover it. "Our chance to rebuild the project," he whispers with a faint voice squeezed through a neck shunt.

Determined to rebuke Agent Short and spend more of the FBI's money, Mulder and Scully set off to Oregon to meet with Billy Miles, who is now a sheriff's deputy. The unidentified craft has yet to be found, and Deputy Hoese is still missing. Billy's father, Detective Miles, claims that there was never another craft. The agents follow the Miles officers to the scene. At the spot where Detective Miles' car went dead, Mulder sees an "X" spray painted on the pavement. It is the same mark he made on the road seven years prior to designate an anomalous electrical disturbance. Scully locates shells on the ground from Hoese's gun, but there is no indication of what he might have been shooting at. The agents drive off, and Detective Miles puts the evidence bag in his trunk -- next to the body of Ray Hoese. Mulder and Scully visit Hoese's wife, Teresa, and are surprised to find she is an abduction victim who approached them for help seven years ago. She says that her husband is also an abductee who had been taken and tested many times. As Scully holds Teresa's baby, Mulder watches his partner. The sight of Scully with a child seemingly has an effect on him.

Scully comes to Mulder's motel room later that evening, pale and perspiring, suffering from chills. He covers her up in his bed and lies with his arms around her for warmth. "It's not worth it, Scully," he says. He's been thinking that her personal costs are too high when motherhood and her health have been taken away from her. He demands that there has to be an end. Outside the motel, Krycek sits behind the wheel of a parked car. He is on the phone to the CSM, telling him that no one can find the spaceship, even as Mulder and Scully search for the deputy. The CSM assures him that the ship is really there. Finding the deputy will uncover the ship. The CSM hangs up with Krycek, and Marita asks why he has him on a goose chase. "The ship is rebuilding itself," the CSM says. Ever faithful that his minion will be successful, the CSM is only wary of Krycek's true intentions once he finds the ship. Across town, Teresa Hoese is awakened by the return of her missing husband. When Ray doesn't speak to her, she realizes that he is only an imposter. She gashes him with a pair of scissors, but the stabs don't faze him. Green ooze bubbles from the holes in his chest, causing Teresa's eyes to burn and blister. She stumbles and is grabbed by the imposter.

The next morning, Billy reports to Mulder and Scully that Teresa is missing. They immediately recognize the green acid burn on the floor, and as Scully touches it, she experiences another wave of vertigo. Outside the Hoese home, Mulder and Billy spot Richie eyeing the crime scene. Richie admits that "they" took his friend, and that Detective Miles does know what's going on because he was there. Richie leads the agents to the area in the forest where his friend vanished. Scully is quickly jerked into a force field and shook at a high frequency. Noticing Scully is missing, Mulder calls out for her. She lies on the ground semi-conscious, as if from another bout of vertigo. As Mulder cradles his partner's head, Scully questions why this is happening to her. Mulder determines that these aren't merely random abductions, but a case of abductees not coming back.

A suspicious Billy returns home and draws his gun on the man that appears to be his father. "I don't know who you are, but you're not going to take me," he proclaims. Detective Miles calms his son before morphing into the Alien Bounty Hunter. At the same time, Mulder and Scully enter the house to warn Billy. Both men have instantly vanished.

Mulder sits in his FBI office two days later, when Skinner enters with Krycek and Marita. There is a moment of complete surprise, but Mulder's quickly out of his chair to attack his nemesis. They explain that the CSM is dying, but his final wish is to revive the conspiracy. While the Bounty Hunter eliminates proof of testing on abductees, the spaceship, cloaked in an energy field, rebuilds itself. That evening, the Lone Gunmen are brought in to Skinner's office to consult. They determine the ship's location even though the military has not picked it up on satellites. Mulder listens suspiciously to Krycek and Marita in silence. Scully abruptly leaves the room and Mulder follows her into the hallway. Since they are reclaiming abductees, he refuses to allow her go back to Oregon. "I won't risk losing you, Scully," he says. She hugs him, vowing that she won't let him make the journey alone.

Scully remains in Washington with the Lone Gunmen, scrutinizing the abductee reports. Each one has reported experiencing the same irregular brain activity that struck Mulder earlier in the year. She concludes that Mulder is really the one in danger of being taken. Without warning, Scully collapses, and the Gunmen jump to save her. Meanwhile, Mulder and Skinner enter the Oregon forest. They lay out a series of laser pointers to detect any abnormal movements. As Mulder follows the red beams, something catches his eye. The red lines deflect in space and define the rough shape of a dome, but it seems as if they are colliding with an energy field. Mulder reaches out to touch the field and his hand vibrates at a high speed. Looking up from laying down the last laser pointer, Skinner notices that Mulder is gone. Inside the field, a bright cone of light reflects on Mulder. His expression is full of awe. The other abductees are there to greet him with gentle smiles. A spaceship hovers overhead, and the Bounty Hunter enters the circle of abductees. The light grows in intensity and Mulder's look of awe turns to fear. Outside the force field, Skinner is unaware of this activity and calls out for Mulder. All of a sudden, a spaceship appears from out of nowhere and Skinner watches it rise into the night sky. He is left alone in the darkness.

Krycek reports back to the CSM that he failed his mission, but the CSM suggests that perhaps Krycek never meant to succeed. As Marita watches, Krycek shoves the CSM's wheelchair down a flight of stairs. The Cigarette-Smoking Man's body lies on the ground, motionless and apparently dead.

The next morning, Skinner is awkward when he visits Scully in her hospital room. She is better, but waiting on more tests. Skinner tries to hold back his emotion in telling her that he lost Mulder. She takes his hand and says she already heard the news. "What I saw I can't deny. I won't," he promises. They both begin to cry, and Scully assures him that she must find her partner. "There is something else," she says to Skinner. Although she can't explain it or believe it herself, she is pregnant.

TO BE CONTINUED

 

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