The X Files: I Want to Believe - The Movie

Written by: Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Chris Carter

Six years after the events of The X-Files series finale, former FBI agent Doctor Dana Scully is now a staff physician at Our Lady of Sorrows, a Catholic hospital, and treating a boy named Christian who has Sandhoff disease terminal brain condition. FBI agent Drummy arrives to ask Scully's help in locating Fox Mulder, the fugitive, former head of the X-Files division, and says they will call off its manhunt for him if he will help investigate the disappearances of several women, including young FBI agent Monica Banan. Scully agrees and convinces Mulder — who is living in a nearby small home, bearded and clipping newspaper articles about the paranormal — to help, despite Mulder's initial misgivings that this is an FBI trick to capture him.

The duo is taken to Washington D.C., where Agent Dakota Whitney wants Mulder's expertise with the paranormal as they have been led to a clue by Father Joseph (Joe) Fitzgerald Crissman, a priest defrocked for pedophilia, who claims God is sending him visions of the crimes. Mulder wants to believe the man, but Scully is disgusted by Father Joe's past and disregards his "visions".

Whitney and Drummy take Father Joe and Mulder to the kidnapped Banan's home, where the former priest overcomes the others' skepticism when, in anguish and on his knees in pain, he begins bleeding from the eyes. A second woman, driving home after swimming in a natatorium, is run off the road by Janke Dacyshyn, a snowplow driver who then smashes the window of her wrecked car and abducts her. The following morning, Scully and Mulder, in bed together and briefly mentioning "our son" (the otherwise unmentioned William, birthed by Scully in the television series, Season 9, 9X17), discuss both the FBI case and that of Scully's patient. Scully mentions that the severed arm found by the FBI contains traces of an animal tranquilizer called Acepromazine. This new clue energizes Mulder into pursuing the FBI case further. He shaves his beard and leaves to visit Whitney. Father Joe is recruited for help with the second abducted woman. After a grueling nighttime search in the snow, he leads the FBI to what turns out to be a frozen burial ground of people and body parts. Scully is frustrated by Mulder's seeming obsession with finding these women, telling him that his sister is dead no matter what he does. Mulder pushes on, trying to ignore her. Father Joe then tells Scully, "don't give up."

Analysis of the remains eventually leads them to Dacyshyn, an organ transporter in Richmond, Virginia, and his husband Franz Tomczeszyn — who was among the youths Father Joe sexually abused. During an FBI raid on the organ-donor facility where Dacyshyn works, Dacyshyn escapes, leaving behind Banan's severed head. Mulder, who accompanied Whitney on the raid, chases Dacyshyn to a building construction site. Whitney follows, and is killed when Dacyshyn pushes her down a shaft several stories high. He then escapes again.

Scully, at the hospital, wants permission from Christian's parents to do a radical and painful experimental stem-cell procedure that may be their boy's last hope. Father Ybarra, head of the hospital, wants Christian removed to a palliative-care facility to live his remaining days, but Scully angrily insists she is the boy's physician and the choice is up to the parents. Torn between her faith in God and the unfairness of a young boy dying, Scully goes to Father Joe's apartment to confront him about his religious visions. She asks him what he meant by "don't give up." He tells her that he doesn't know what he meant. To her despair, he says he knows nothing more about these visions than what he has told the FBI, and collapses (Father Joe suffers a seizure, and we are shown that Tomczeszyn is suffering a seizure at the same moment). Scully calls for an ambulance, and later learns that Father Joe, who is admitted to Our Lady of Sorrows, suffers from advanced lung cancer. Scully, seeking resolution, asks him if Banan is still alive. Father Joe says yes.

With Mulder's handling of Father Joe having helped break the case, Scully says Mulder — with whom she says she fell in love at some unspecified time — should end his involvement, and that she cannot be with him if he continues exploring "the darkness." Mulder, regardless, takes Scully's car to go investigate further. At Nutter's Feed Store in a small town near the abductions, he learns Dacyshyn has purchased animal tranquilizer. When Dacyshyn coincidentally arrives moments later, Mulder slips out and then follows Dacyshyn's snowplow. On an isolated road, Dacyshyn crashes the car and pushes it off an embankment. Dacyshyn soon afterward abandons his snowplow when it stops running. Mulder crawls from the wreckage, starts down the road, and stops at a small compound where many dogs are barking — a major detail of Father Joe's visions. Mulder enters, and the commotion caused by a two-headed guard dog's attack brings Dacyshyn out from one of the building's — where a makeshift Eastern European medical team is attempting whole-head transplants in order to place Tomczeszyn's head on the body of the second abducted woman. Mulder tries to save her, but a doctor comes from behind and injects him with Acepromazine. Mulder is now helpless, and is taken outside to be murdered by Dacyshyn.

When Scully cannot reach Mulder on his cell phone, she calls her old FBI superior, Walter Skinner, for help. They triangulate the phone's location and find Scully's wrecked car. Scully and Skinner find a rural mailbox whose address corresponds to a Biblical chapter and verse Father Joe had told Scully. They race to the address, where Skinner breaks up the medical procedure before the young woman is beheaded, and Scully rescues Mulder from being axed to death by Dacyshyn. Later, Mulder is back at home, where Scully tells him that Father Joe has died. Mulder points out that Father Joe died at the same moment that Tomczeszyn's severed head died due to lack of blood flow to the brain. Somehow, he surmises, the two men's fates were linked by more than just visions. Scully is still troubled by Father Joe's advice to her, "don't give up." Mulder comforts her by telling her to ask herself what Father Joe could have meant by such a statement. Scully says that she is having doubts about Christian's surgery, saying that she is "putting that boy through hell" due to the words of a pedophile priest. Mulder tells Scully that if she goes into that surgery with any doubts, then she should call it off. Scully walks to the operating room, past Father Ybarra and Christian's parents. With everyone looking over her shoulder, a nurse asks Scully if she is ready to begin. Scully thinks for a moment, looks at Christian, and simply replies "yes."

In a post-credits scene, Mulder and Scully are seen together in swimsuits on a boat in a tropical ocean, casually rowing towards an island. The scene is shot from a helicopter whose shadow is visible to the audience.

Notes:
The film has drawn claims of heterosexist overtones due to the relationship between Billy Connolly's character and the homosexual couple involved in the kidnappings. Co-writer/producer Frank Spotnitz stated on his weblog that this was not his intention.

The film grossed $4 million on its opening day in the United States. It opened fourth on the U.S. weekend box office chart, with a gross of $10.2 million. As of September 15, 2008, it had grossed $20,909,448 domestically and an additional $42,600,000 internationally.

The film's stars both claimed that the timing of the movie's release against ''The Dark Knight'' negatively affected its box-office return. Duchovny referred to "mitigating circumstances''. ''We happened to open on the worst day in the history of cinema — the second week of ''Batman - The Dark Knight". The only thing worse would be to open with Batman and nobody would've done that." Anderson believed that "people in the States are so used to lots of , action and sex, and we don't really offer a lot of that in this film."

Producer Frank Spotnitz said the film's DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases would be accompanied by new special-edition DVD & Blu-ray Disc releases of the first movie: ''Fight the Future''. They will both be released on December 2nd, 2008.

Source: Wikipedia

The X Files: Revelations

Before going to see ''The X Files: I Want To Believe'' movie, you should for certain check out the following episodes of the X Files series. Those are the perfect grounding for the movie.

Season 1: ''Pilot'' and ''Beyond the Sea''.
Season 2: ''The Host''.
Season 3: ''Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose''.
Season 4: ''Memento Mori''.
Season 5: ''Post-Modern Prometheus'' and ''Bad Blood''.
Season 6: ''Milagro''.

Enjoy!

Season 9: The Truth (2) (9X20)

Written by: Chris Carter
Directed by: Kim Manners

Scully performs an examination of Roher's badly-burned corpse, later presenting her finding that the corpse is not Rohrer to the military court. Kersh rules that Scully did not have authorisation to perform an autopsy, and orders her removed from the courtroom.

Mulder is then found guilty of murder and sentenced to die by lethal injection. Skinner and Doggett gain access to Mulder's cell and help him escape, but Rohrer discovers the plan and orders the building sealed off. Kersh aids Mulder to escape the building and tells him to head to Canada. Instead, Mulder and Scully drive south.

Doggett and Reyes discover that the X-Files office has been emptied. Skinner concludes that the government is punishing them for taking Mulder's side during the trial, or is aware that they helped Mulder escape. Gibson Praise tells the agents that the aliens within the government know that Mulder is not headed to Canada, and when they finds Mulder and Scully, they will be killed.

With some help from The Lone Gunmen, Mulder and Scully drive to the Texas-New Mexico border and head for some ruins. Mulder explains that he had been sent a message and a key to the government facility at Mount Weather by an Indian who said it came from a wise man who lived in the ruins - the keeper of the truth.

An old woman leads the agents to a room where the Cigarette Smoking Man sits. He explains that aliens fear the ruins because they contain high levels of the metal that brought down the original UFO in Roswell decades earlier. He explains that the date of the final alien invasion will be December 22, 2012, the date that Mayan calendars stopped some ten centuries earlier.

Doggett and Reyes arrive at the site and see Knowle Rohrer step out of a van nearby. Doggett shoots Rohrer repeatedly, but the bullets are ineffective. Suddenly, though, Rohrer begins to vibrate and is hurled into a stone wall. Military helicopters appear on the horizon as Mulder and Scully jump into Rohrer's van and drive off. Doggett and Reyes also make their escape as the helicopters blast the village with rockets, killing the Cigarette Smoking Man.

Inside a motel room in Roswell, Mulder and Scully discuss their situation. Mulder says that although he showed Scully the truth, and changed her from skeptic to believer, he's failed at everything else he set out to do. He wants to believe that the dead speak to the living, and he believes that if he and Scully can listen to what's being said, it can give them the power to save themselves. Scully tells Mulder that they believe the same thing. Mulder holds Scully's cross in his hand, then lays down next to her. Scully says that she'd do the last 9 years all over again. Then, they crawl into bed together and hold each other. He tells her that maybe there's reason to have hope, after all.

Notes:
"The Truth" featured the largest number of cast members in the opening credits than any other episode: David Duchovny (Fox Mulder), Gillian Anderson (Dana Scully), Robert Patrick (John Doggett), Annabeth Gish (Monica Reyes), and Mitch Pileggi (Walter Skinner), bringing the total to 5.

The day in which the aliens will come and take over the world is set on December 22, 2012, the day in which the ancient Mayan calendar ends (the end of the world) is December 23, 2012.

The last scene mirrors a scene in the pilot where Mulder first opens up to Scully.

In this episode, we finally know for sure that Mulder is the father of William. When the guards are questioning him, he says he's thinking about his son and his mother.

Quotes:
Scully: Assistant Director... (to Mulder) I found it.
Mulder: What?
Scully: What's going to get you off.
Skinner: I want to move to dismiss again based on new evidence I just received that there is no victim. That the body of Knowle Rohrer is not Knowle Rohrer, but that of a man who died of a broken neck and whose body was burned post-mortem.
Deputy Director Kersh: Motion denied.
Scully: You can't deny it.
Deputy Director Kersh: You're out of order and in contempt of court, Agent Scully.
Scully: You're in contempt. I have evidence proving that Agent Mulder is innocent.
Deputy Director Kersh: You have no authorisation to examine the body, Agent Scully. Have her removed from the courtroom.
Mulder: If she's got evidence, you got to listen.
Deputy Director Kersh: Order! Remove the defendant from the courtroom. This trial is adjourned.

Deputy Director Kersh: Gentlemen... we have a verdict. If you'd rise. Acting fairly and impartially, this panel finds the defendant... guilty of first degree murder under aggravated circumstances. Is there anything you'd like to say on your behalf, Mr Mulder... before we decide your sentence?

Mulder: Yes. I'd like to congratulate you, on succeeding where so many before you have failed. A bullet between the eyes would have been preferable to this charade. But I've learned to pretend over the past nine years — to pretend that my victories mattered only to realise that no one was keeping score. To realise that liars do not fear the truth if there are enough liars. That the devil is just one man with a plan, but evil, true evil, is a collaboration of men, which is what we have here today. If I am a guilty man, my crime is in daring to believe; that the truth will out and that no one lie can live forever. I believe it still. Much as you try to bury it, the truth is out there. Greater than your lies, the truth wants to be known. You will know it. It'll come to you, as it's come to me, faster than the speed of light. You may believe yourselves rid of your headache now, and maybe you are... but you've only done it by cutting off your own heads.

Deputy Director Kersh: You're never going to make it this way. Come on. (He leads them in another direction, where they meet Reyes who is standing by a hole in the wire fence and has a vehicle waiting. They then drive to a meeting with Scully and Gibson Praise, who have another vehicle waiting)

Scully: Mulder?
Deputy Director Kersh: You've got to move out.
Scully: What's he doing?
Deputy Director Kersh: What I should have done from the start. You want to go north, to Canada. Get to an airport. If you're not off the continent in 24 hours you may never get out, you understand?
Mulder: None of you will be safe now.
Doggett: You let us worry about that.
Reyes: Good luck.

(Mulder is relieving himself by the side of the road)

Frohike: Hey, hot shot! You might have the common courtesy of doing your business there downwind.
Mulder: Oh, boy.
Langly: Why don't you just finish draining the little lizard and then we'll talk?
Byers: We're very worried about you.
Frohike: It's craziness, man. Turn around.
Langly: Just hang a big U-ie and never look back.
Mulder: I can't.
Byers: Why risk perfect happiness, Mulder? Why risk your lives?
Mulder: Because I need to know the truth.
Byers: You already know the truth.
Mulder: I need to know if I can change it.
Langly: Change it?
Frohike: For crying out loud. All you're going to do is get yourself killed.
Scully: Mulder! What are you doing?
Mulder: I'll be right with you, Scully.

Smoking Man: What's the matter, Agent Mulder? You come to see the wise man, but you look as if you've seen a ghost.

Mulder: You're no wise man. You're a dead man. Just like Krycek and X.
Smoking Man: You see a dead man, Agent Scully?
Scully: I hoped and prayed you were dead, you chain-smoking, son of a bitch.
Smoking Man: You waste your time. Ask Mulder. He knows the futility of hopes and prayers. He knows the truth now. You have told her the truth, haven't you, Fox? I helped you find it.
Mulder: You didn't help me. You sent me to that government facility knowing exactly what I'd find.
Smoking Man: And now you refuse to speak it. Not to Scully, not to anyone. You've even refused to testify what you learned... even though it would have saved your life. You damned me for my secrets... but you're afraid to speak the truth.
Mulder: You call me afraid? Look at you sitting here alone in the dark like a fossil.
Smoking Man: It's the final refuge. The last place to hide from those who are insidiously taking power now.
Scully: Who?
Smoking Man: The aliens. They fear this place... its geology. Magnetite. Like that which brought down the original UFO in Roswell. Indian wise men realised this over 2,000 years ago. They hid here and watched their own culture die. The original shadow government.

Smoking Man: It leaves me to tell you what Mulder's afraid to, Agent Scully.

Mulder: Come on, let's go.
Smoking Man: It's a scary story. You want to come sit on my lap?
Scully: You don't scare me.
Smoking Man: My story's scared every president since Truman in '47.
Mulder: You don't have to hear this.
Scully: No, I want to hear it, Mulder.
Smoking Man: Ten centuries ago the Mayans were so afraid that their calendar stopped on the exact date that my story begins. December 22, the year 2012. The date of the final alien invasion. Mulder can confirm the date. He saw it at Mount Weather... where our own 'Secret Government' will be hiding when it all comes down.
Mulder: Yeah, you smile... feeling drunk with power. The power to do nothing.
Smoking Man: My power comes from telling you. Seeing your powerlessness hearing it. They wanted to kill you, Fox. I protected you all these years... waiting for this moment... to see you broken. Afraid. Now you can die.

Doggett: Run, Monica. Get out of here.

Reyes: No.
Doggett: Knowle Rohrer. That's far enough.
Knowle Rohrer: Shoot me, Agent Doggett, if you think it'll make a difference this time.
(Doggett fires, the bullet hits Knowle Rohrer in the chest, but he continues to advance on Doggett and Reyes. They are forced back, when Knowle Rohrer stops advancing and struggles to move forward. He starts to spasm and metallic oxidation appears on his skin. The oxidisation covers him, then he is sucked into the rocks at high speed)
Mulder: Agent Doggett!
Doggett: Mulder, get out of there!
Reyes: They know where you are!

Scully: What are you thinking? Mulder?

Mulder: I'm thinking... I'm a guilty man. I've failed in every respect. I deserve the harshest punishment for my crimes.
Scully: You don't believe that.
Mulder: I believe... that I sat in a motel room like this with you when we first met... and I tried to convince you of the truth. And in that respect, I succeeded, but... in every other way... I've failed.
Scully: You don't believe that, either.
Mulder: Mm. I've been chasing after monsters with a butterfly net. You heard the man — the date's set. I can't change that.
Scully: You wouldn't tell me. Not because you were afraid or broken... but because you didn't want to accept defeat.
Mulder: Well, I was afraid of what knowing would do to you. I was afraid that it would crush... your spirit.
Scully: Why would I accept defeat? Why would I accept it, if you won't? Mulder, you say that you've failed, but you only fail if you give up. And I know you — you can't give up. It's what I saw in you when we first met. It's what made me follow you... why I'd do it all over again.
Mulder: And look what it's gotten you.
Scully: And what has it gotten you? Not your sister. Nothing that you've set out for. But you won't give up, even now. You've always said that you want to believe. But believe in what Mulder? If this is the truth that you've been looking for, then what is left to believe in?
Mulder: I want to believe that... the dead are not lost to us. That they speak to us... as part of something greater than us — greater than any alien force. And if you and I are powerless now, I want to believe that if we listen, to what's speaking, it can give us the power to save ourselves.
Scully: Then we believe the same thing.
Mulder: Maybe there's hope.

Episode Number: 202
Season Number: 9
First Aired: Sunday, May 19, 2002
Production Code: 9X20

You can rate this episode here:

Season 9: The Truth (1) (9X19)

Written by: Chris Carter
Directed by: Kim Manners

At the Mount Weather complex in Bluemont, Virginia, Mulder makes his way to a room containing a computer terminal. He punches in an access code, but before he's able to proceed very far, super-soldier Knowle Rohrer appears and a fight ensues. Tossed through a glass screen by the superhuman Rohrer, Mulder picks himself up and heads for an exit, encountering Alex Krycek, who was thought to be dead. He helps Mulder escape.

Encountering Rohrer again, Mulder gains the advantage and tosses him over a railing into electrical wires. Moments later, military officers take Mulder into custody, where he is brutally interrogated by a guard.

Scully and Skinner meet with Mulder, who appears to have been beaten into submission. On Scully's behalf, Kersh asks General Suveg that Mulder be treated fairly. Suveg allows the FBI to conduct its own hearing within the confines of a military court.

Returning to Mulder's cell, Scully and Skinner realise that he had been putting on an act during the first visit. Mulder asks Skinner to act as his defence attorney, as he knows about the government conspiracy and alien invasion. Reyes and Doggett arrive, and tell them that the government has Rohrer's body. Mulder refuses to tell Scully why he was inside the secret facility at Mount Weather.

At Mulder's trial the prosecution is headed by Special Agent Kallenbrunner. He offers the sworn testimony of thirty witnesses who saw Mulder kill Rohrer. Skinner then calls Scully, who describes how a meteor crashed to earth in prehistoric times, bringing with it an alien virus that lay dormant for thousands of years. The US government learned of the existence of this virus in 1947 when a UFO crashed in Roswell, New Mexico.

The virus, which thrived in oil deposits, communicated with the UFOs. When the government studied the alien technology in the crashed UFO, they learned of an alien plan to colonise Earth. The government then set about creating a breed of human/alien hybrids that the aliens would use as a slave race.

Skinner then calls Mulder's half-brother, Jeffrey Spender, who explains that the aliens distrusted their human collaborators and kept family members of the collaborators as human collateral, including Mulder's sister, Samantha. Mulder spent many years attempting to track her down, but she was experimented upon and died in 1987.

Meanwhile, in the New Mexico desert, a young boy warns Gibson Praise that Mulder is in serious trouble.

Marita Covarrubias testifies that she conspired with members of The Syndicate to develop an alien virus vaccine, but grew to hate her employees when she was turned into a test subject. She says that a group of renegade, faceless aliens destroyed the vaccine and killed off members of The Syndicate.

Despite protests from Mulder, Skinner introduces Gibson Praise as a witness, explaining that he can read people's minds due to DNA believed to be of alien origin. Gibson turns his attention to a panel judge (Toothpick Man), and tells everyone in attendance that the man is not human. Guards pull Mulder from the courtroom.

Next, Skinner calls self-described skeptic Doggett to the witness stand. Doggett believes in the existence of a secret military project that developed super-soldiers, a group of seemingly indestructible men that included Knowle Rohrer. Doggett also believes that Rohrer cannot be dead, as a super-solider can only be killed using a form of magnetite brought to Earth by a falling meteor.

Reyes takes the stand and describes how she protected a pregnant Scully by driving her to a remote location in Georgia. Reyes later learnt that Scully was one of a number of women who had been abducted by the government in order to secretly manipulate their biology to producing a slave race of aliens. Scully later gave up her baby for adoption in hopes of protecting it from the aliens.

Notes:
David Duchovny's name returns to the opening titles in this episode.

The time when Knowle Rohrer (who Mulder was convicted of killing) pulls up to the USMC Base Brig to 'retrieve' Agent Mulder is 11:21 pm. Chris Carter's wife was born on 11/21.

Even though they died in "Jump the Shark" The Lone Gunman's ghosts talk to Mulder for a short time.

David Duchovny (Mulder), Gillian Anderson (Scully) and William B. Davis (Cigarette Smoking Man) are the only actors to appear in both the first and last episodes of the series.

December 22, 2012 is the day the ancient Mayans predicted that the world will end.

Quotes:
Scully: Mulder.
Mulder: Dana. (They embrace)
Scully: Oh, my god.
Mulder: You okay?
Scully: Am I okay? Mulder, I haven't seen you in such a long time. I was so worried.
Mulder: Well, it's okay, I'm all right. They're treating me really well in here.
Scully: What's happened to you?
Mulder: Nothing. I'm squared away. Oh, hey, Walter. It's good to see you, man.
Skinner: Have they told you what the charges are, Mulder? What you're doing here?
Mulder: Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're clear on that.
Scully: You're clear on what?
Mulder: My crimes.
Scully: Mulder —
Mulder: — I murdered a man, Dana. I went looking for something that didn't exist, and I... I made a terrible mistake. I should be punished severely.
Skinner: Whatever you were doing, you have the right to a lawyer... to an inquiry and process of law.
Mulder: I don't think you heard me.
Guard: All right — time's up.
Scully: We're going to get you out of here.
Mulder: And why is that? I'm a guilty man.
Guard: Time's up. Let's go.
Mulder: Uh... excuse me. (He turns his back on Scully, she leaves with Skinner) I don't understand. Why are you helping me?
Krycek: Because you can't do this alone.

General Suveg: Come in. Deputy Director Kersh. I've just been going over my notes on this whole business. Please, have a seat.

Deputy Director Kersh: Thank you.
General Suveg: We both got a problem with this man of yours, Agent Mulder.
Deputy Director Kersh: Mulder's been a running problem for the FBI. But nothing this serious.
General Suveg: I would think...
Deputy Director Kersh: I've been asked by a female agent... Mulder's closest associate to beg mercy of the military court to give Mulder every consideration based on his good character.
General Suveg: You've reviewed the charges, yes?
Deputy Director Kersh: Yes. There's a charge of murder.
General Suveg: This would look bad for the Marines, if it didn't look worse for the FBI. What does Mulder intend to plead? You wanted a chance to clear up this mess, Mr Kersh, and I'm going to give it to you. Give it to the FBI.
Deputy Director Kersh: How?
General Suveg: A fair hearing for your agent by his own agency. Your prosecutor, your judges. Held in my court.
Deputy Director Kersh: That can't be legal. Why do this?
General Suveg: I want a verdict. A guilty verdict. This man Mulder has made a lot of enemies. He's a crusader. And a lot of people do not like the crusade.
Deputy Director Kersh: I can't do that.
General Suveg: Oh, you'll do it, Deputy Director. You and I both know; there are forces inside the government now... that a man would be foolish to disobey.

Scully: Mulder. Mulder!

Mulder: I smelled you coming, Clarice.
Scully: Oh... Damn it, Mulder. It's not funny to see you putting on that act.
Mulder: No, that is funny. What's not funny is what they do to you in here if you don't put on that act. (They embrace, Skinner averts his eyes allowing them a little privacy) Come here, you big, bald, beautiful man.
Skinner: The only thing you're going to be kissing, Mulder, is your sweet ass good-bye, with the trouble your in.
Mulder: Uh-huh, I kind of gathered that, right around the 50th brainwashing session.
Scully: Mulder, why are they doing this to you?
Mulder: They think they're preparing me for my trial. For my testimony.
Skinner: Your testimony's not going to matter. Not with the case they're building.
Mulder: Not building. Rigging.
Skinner: Yeah, I don't think you understand the seriousness of the charges. This isn't some routine wrist slapping. You're on trial for your life.
Mulder: My trial's a forgone conclusion. What they really want is for me to admit my guilt and help them out. What's really on trial here is the truth.
Scully: Mulder, they're saying you killed a man.
Mulder: Have they produced a body? You can't produce a body, because you can't kill a man who won't die.
Skinner: Well, body or not, they've got 30 witnesses from that government facility ready to testify against you.
Scully: Mulder, we'll get you the best lawyer.
Mulder: Would you defend a man who believes in aliens against the FBI and the military? It's never going to happen. Skinner can defend me.
Skinner: I can't represent you.
Mulder: You know all the facts, the details, the whole government conspiracy. More than that, I trust you.
Scully: Mulder...
Mulder: They can't try me without exposing themselves. I know what I'm doing.

Skinner: Please state your name for the court.

Scully: My name is Dana Katherine Scully. I was assigned nine years ago to the X-Files to spy on Agent Mulder, whose methods the FBI distrusted.
Skinner: Assigned not just as an agent, but as a medical doctor. A scientist. And as a serious scientist you came to believe in Agent Mulder's theories.
Scully: I came to believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life and in a conspiracy inside the government to keep their existence a secret.
Skinner: The proof was overwhelming. It was even scientifically undeniable.
Scully: I believe as do many respected scientists that life came to earth millions of years ago from a meteor or a rock from Mars.
Skinner: So, what you're saying is, life — human life — is extraterrestrial by definition.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Objection. What does this nonsense have to do with Mulder murdering a man in cold blood?
Skinner: Agent Scully will prove that a government conspiracy exists to deny the existence of extra-terrestrials.
Deputy Director Kersh: You are not here proving government conspiracies, Mr Skinner. You are here to defend Fox Mulder.
Skinner: And I'm trying to do that.
Deputy Director Kersh: It's your case, Mr Skinner.
Skinner: So, a meteor crashed to earth, but along with the biological building blocks on it there was something else — an alien virus.
Scully: I believe there was a virus which thrived here prehistorically. I believe that virus infected early man and transformed his physiology.
Skinner: Changed him into something else.
Scully: Into an alien life-form himself.

Skinner: And what happened to these aliens?

Scully: They died, in the last ice age, 35,000 years ago.
Skinner: And the virus?
Scully: It lay dormant, underground, until it surfaced once again during our current geologic period.
Skinner: And the government knows of this?
Scully: The government learned of this virus in 1947, when a UFO crashed in Roswell, New Mexico.
Skinner: A UFO crash revealed a virus?
Scully: The virus thrived underground in petroleum deposits. In black oil. It has sentience. It can think. It has the ability to communicate and it communicated with the UFOs.
Skinner: And the government knows this, too.
Scully: In Roswell, they captured aliens from the spacecraft wreckage. They salvaged various alien technology from them and from their data banks they learned of the alien plan to 're-colonise' the earth.
Deputy Director Kersh: Is this all leading anywhere?
Mulder: Yeah. The destruction of mankind.
Deputy Director Kersh: I'll warn you once, Agent Mulder.
Skinner: And what did the government do with this... information of an alien take-over?
Scully: They kept it a dark secret. If it had gotten out there would have been wild panic.
Deputy Director Kersh: Mr Skinner, are we finished?
Skinner: No. There's the matter of Agent Scully's own abduction in 1994.
Deputy Director Kersh: Abduction by whom?
Scully: By the military working with the government conspirators to develop a breed of human-alien hybrids that the aliens would use as a slave race.
Skinner: Thank you, Agent Scully. Your witness, Mr Kallenbrunner.
Agent Kallenbrunner: All these ETs running around... it's hard to keep these aliens straight without a scorecard. I myself have never seen an alien. Could we call one as a witness?
Scully: You're being facetious.
Agent Kallenbrunner: No, I'm not. I'd like to see some proof.
Scully: There are the mars rocks...
Agent Kallenbrunner: No. I need something good. Something amazing. Something really cool.
Scully: I don't know what you mean.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Well, what I mean is, you have no proof to back up one word you just told us. Agent Scully, isn't it true that you and Mulder were lovers, and you got pregnant and had his love child?
Skinner: Objection!
Agent Kallenbrunner: Thank you. Next witness.

Skinner: Can you state your full name?

Jeffrey Spender: Jeffrey Frank Spender.
Skinner: Mr Spender, I know you didn't hear Mr Kallenbrunner, but he'd like to make a mockery of the X-Files. You worked on the X-Files yourself.
Jeffrey Spender: Yes, until three years ago.
Skinner: When you were shot, in the X-Files office. Shot by your father. Can I ask you to please tell the court exactly who your father was?
Jeffrey Spender: He led the government conspiracy to exploit the existence of aliens.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Objection. There's no government conspiracy that I've seen established here.
Deputy Director Kersh: I agree with Mr Kallenbrunner. I don't see where this is going.
Skinner: If I can prove this conspiracy, it will justify Mulder's actions and you will have no choice but to acquit.
Deputy Director Kersh: I hope this isn't the entire basis of your defence, Mr Skinner.
Skinner: You have a relationship to Agent Mulder, don't you, Mr Spender?
Jeffrey Spender: He's my half brother. His mother had an affair with my father.
Skinner: But he never knew that. Not until he met you at the FBI.
Jeffrey Spender: He didn't know both his father and mine were in the alien conspiracy. His father was a reluctant member. When Agent Mulder began to know the truth about this connection, my father had his father killed by an assassin named Alex Krycek.
Skinner: He killed him to silence him?
Jeffrey Spender: Mulder's father lived his life in shame. Not for the conspiracy, but for a terrible decision he made.
Skinner: Involving Agent Mulder's sister.
Jeffrey Spender: The aliens distrusted their human collaborators. Members of the conspiracy were made to surrender family members as human collateral.
Skinner: So, Mulder's father gave up Mulder's sister. His own eight-year-old daughter.
Jeffrey Spender: Mulder witnessed his sister being abducted by aliens. It haunted him to no end. It's why he pursued the X-Files.
Skinner: What became of her? Samantha?
Jeffrey Spender: She was returned. She was sent to California where we were raised together. She was taken many more times and suffered horrible tests.
Skinner: Mulder spent years looking for her... several times thinking that he'd found her, but he was tricked.
Jeffrey Spender: Samantha was... part of the cloning experiment done by the conspiracy. She herself died in 1987.
Skinner: By your own father's hand essentially.
Jeffrey Spender: When I went to work for the FBI, I didn't know of my father's crimes. When I stood up to him, he shot me. When I didn't die, he subjected me to the same horrible tests.

Mr X: Get up.

Mulder: Who's that? Who's there? What are you doing here?
Mr X: That's what I'm here to ask you.
Mulder: I'm putting the truth on trial.
Mr X: What truth? Who's truth? You think these men will even hear it?
Mulder: They're afraid to hear it.
Mr X: They're not afraid. They have too much power to be afraid. You're going to learn that, just like I did. You'll die learning it.
Mulder: I'm not afraid of that.
Mr X: There's a truth even you're afraid to speak now, because you know it's futile.
Mulder: No. Because I refuse to accept it.
Mr X: Then you're going to need help.
Mulder: How can you possibly help me?
(Mr X hands him a piece of paper:

Marita Covarrubias
756 N Maple
Annapolis, Maryland

When he looks up, Mr X is gone)

Skinner: State your full name for the court.

Marita Covarrubias: Marita Covarrubias.
Skinner: And your former government title?
Marita Covarrubias: Special Representative to the Secretary General of the UN.
Skinner: The United Nations. A position giving you... unrestricted access to countries and leaders around the world. Isn't that right?
Marita Covarrubias: Yes.
Skinner: How did you use this power?
Marita Covarrubias: Basically, to further the interests of a secretive group of men who called themselves the Syndicate.
Skinner: What were their interests?
Marita Covarrubias: Developing an alien virus vaccine, before the Russians developed one.
Skinner: And how'd they go about that?
Marita Covarrubias: By testing innocent civilians all over the world. Test subjects were tracked through DNA identifiers in their small pox vaccination scars.
Skinner: Without subjects knowledge?
Marita Covarrubias: Mostly. Some developed suspicions. I saw Russians who cut off their arms to prevent being tracked.
Skinner: As they did to an American man that you worked quite intimately with.
Marita Covarrubias: Yes. Alex Krycek.
Skinner: Did you believe in the Syndicate? In their international conspiracy?
Marita Covarrubias: No. I was paid for my access.
Skinner: In fact, you came to hate them.
Marita Covarrubias: Yes. It's why I helped Agent Mulder when he approached me.
Skinner: But you were found out. And the Syndicate punished you for this.
Marita Covarrubias: They turned me into a... a test subject.
Skinner: Testing what?
Marita Covarrubias: They were pretending to work with the aliens, to infect the entire population with an alien virus, but the conspirators were trying to save themselves, by secretly and selfishly developing a vaccine. The conspirators believed all life in the universe had been infected with the virus, including a race of shape-shifting alien bounty hunters who policed the conspiracy for the aliens. But they were wrong and it led to the destruction of the conspiracy.
Skinner: And who destroyed it?
Marita Covarrubias: A group of renegade aliens who had avoided infection with the virus through self-disfigurement.
Skinner: And the conspirators themselves — what happened to them?
Marita Covarrubias: They're all dead now. Killed by these same faceless aliens.
Skinner: Then what are you afraid of now? Why resist testifying here today? Because the conspiracy continues, just in another form, by other men.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Objection. Mr Skinner can't ask questions and give the answers.
Deputy Director Kersh: Sustained.
Skinner: Fox Mulder's on trial for murder here. The man he's accused of killing is one of these new conspirators. An alien replacement for a human being. What they are calling a super soldier. You can prove this, can't you? You know who these men are, don't you? Ms Covarrubias?
(A hand rests on Mulder's shoulder)
Krycek: (to Mulder) They'll kill her.
Skinner: Ms Covarrubias, I asked you a question. I need an answer.
Mulder: No. It's okay. Let her go.
Skinner: What the hell are you doing, Mulder? She's the last best witness that we have.
Mulder: Doesn't matter.
Skinner: Thank you, Ms Covarrubias. I got nothing else.

Gibson Praise: Gibson Andrew Praise.

Skinner: Do you know this man?
Gibson Praise: Yes. He's my friend. I hid him in the desert for the last year.
Skinner: Mulder met you as a chess protégé. You're life was endangered because of your highly unusual brain activity.
Deputy Director Kersh: Cut to the chase, Mr Skinner.
Skinner: Gibson Praise can read people's minds. Mulder and Scully proved this scientifically. There's a certain 'junk DNA' which all humans share, but has no apparent function. Gibson's 'junk DNA' is functional. DNA which is believed to be alien.
Agent Kallenbrunner: You're trying to tell us this boy can read minds?
Gibson Praise: Yes.
Mulder: He's reading your mind right now.
Agent Kallenbrunner: And the minds of the judges, too?
Gibson Praise: Yes. (He looks at each member of the jury panel) Even his. (He points to the last member, the Toothpick man)
Agent Kallenbrunner: And what makes him so special?
He's not human.
Mulder: He's one of them. One of them! I want that man examined!"
Deputy Director Kersh: Mr Skinner control him!
Skinner: Mulder!
Mulder: You're afraid! (Guards escort Mulder out of the court room) You're afraid of what I know! You're afraid of the truth!

Skinner: Agent Doggett... you've been on the X-Files for two years. And with all that you've seen, how do you feel about this term 'paranormal'?

Doggett: Well, the way I look at it, calling something paranormal is just a way of avoiding a real explanation.
Skinner: You're a sceptic. But I see here in your own case reports some very detailed descriptions of things that a sceptic would never believe in... these so called 'super soldiers'.
Doggett: Well, that's a whole different deal.
Skinner: In what way?
Doggett: 'Cause I've seen it with my own eyes; shot... drowned... even ground up in a garbage truck. And they just come right back to life.
Skinner: What are they?
Doggett: Well, the best I can figure they're some kind of secret military project — ordinary men made invincible.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Objection. What does this science fiction have to do with anything?
Skinner: Agent Doggett is going to tell you that the man that Mulder is accused of killing is a super soldier. A man that Agent Doggett served with in the marines. Name of Knowle Rohrer.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Objection. Agent Doggett was not present at the murder nor has he seen or examined the victim.
Doggett: That's because I've been getting the bum's rush from the government.
Deputy Director Kersh: Objection sustained.
Skinner: Well, then, let me ask you, Agent Doggett if a super soldier is invincible, how could Mulder have killed this man?
Doggett: He couldn't. The way I understand it, the only way to kill a super soldier is with some rare metal. Agent Scully says it's a form of magnetite from some meteor that fell to earth.
Skinner: And Mulder's not accused of doing that, is he?
Doggett: No, Sir.

Reyes: My name is Monica Reyes. I've been with the FBI since 1990.

Skinner: Before coming onto the X-Files, Agent Reyes, you worked in the New Orleans field office investigating cases of satanic ritual abuse.
Reyes: I did.
Skinner: Did you ever prosecute any of these satanic cases?
Reyes: No.
Agent Kallenbrunner: For god's sake, Mr Skinner, we're trying a man for murder not taking a trip down memory lane.
Skinner: I'm showing the court that Agent Reyes is level-headed and objective on strange and extraordinary cases. That her belief in aliens comes from firsthand experience. And she can offer you hard proof that there is an alien conspiracy!
Reyes: I was called on last year, to protect Agent Scully, who was pregnant and whose life was in danger because of her pregnancy.
Agent Kallenbrunner: What does this have to do with aliens?
Reyes: I drove Agent Scully to a secluded location in Georgia where it was believed she could deliver safely. But we soon discovered we weren't alone. I was attacked and had to defend myself against an assailant, who was shot at point-blank range. Who should have died, but didn't. This assailant was then joined by others like him, who surrounded Agent Scully and me, and witnessed her as she gave birth to her son.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Witnessed her? What do you mean?
Reyes: We were confused as well. But we came to understand that her son was a kind of miracle child. His birth was all important to these people; these so-called super soldiers, who I believe are humans replaced by aliens.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Why would Scully's child be important to aliens, Agent Reyes?
Reyes: We came to learn that Scully was one of a number of random women who had miraculous childbirths, and these women all had been abducted as part of a government program to secretly manipulate their biology, operating offshore on a navy ship, using these women as surrogates.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Surrogates?
Reyes: For alien babies.
Agent Kallenbrunner: To create a slave race.
Reyes: Yes.
Agent Kallenbrunner: A program conducted by the Navy, on a ship which is where?
Reyes: The ship housing this program was exploded on the Baltimore dock.
Agent Kallenbrunner: So, in other words, we have no true evidence past your good word. You claim Scully gave birth to one of these alien babies. How can you be sure of this, Agent Reyes?
Reyes: I saw her child do things that could be explained no other way. I saw him display amazing powers. He'd move objects with his mind.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Really? Do you think we could arrange a demonstration for the court? That we could see that ourselves?
Reyes: No. The child was given up for adoption to an anonymous family.
Agent Kallenbrunner: She gave up the miracle child? The proof of everything that she and Mulder claim that they've risked their lives for over the last nine years — she just sent it off to some strangers?
Reyes: Yes, to protect him!
Agent Kallenbrunner: Thank you, Agent Reyes. That's all.
Reyes: You don't care about that child or what Scully had to sacrifice. You're only too happy she had to give it up so there's no proof.
Deputy Director Kersh: Agent Reyes.
Reyes: You don't care what these people have sacrificed over the last nine years — what's been lost to their cause. You make a mockery of it, gladdened it proves your point.
Deputy Director Kersh: Agent Reyes, that's enough!
Reyes: What is the point of all of this? To destroy a man who seeks the truth or to destroy the truth so no man can seek it? Either way, you lose.

Episode Number: 201
Season Number: 9
First Aired: Sunday, May 19, 2002
Production Code: 9X19

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Season 9: Sunshine Days (9X18)

Written by: Vince Gilligan
Directed by: Vince Gilligan

In Van Nuys, California, young slackers Blake and Mike enjoy a beer together. Blake claims that a nearby house is the home used to shoot The Brady Bunch. Mike disagrees, and a few moments later both men sneak inside the house for a better look. Mike is stunned - the interior of the house is exactly like the home from the TV show. Suddenly, a football bounces down the staircase, reminding Blake of an episode in which the Marcia Brady broke her nose after a football hit her in the face. Freaked out, Mike runs off, and Blake walks up the staircase, where he comes face to face with two children who resemble Bobby and Cindy from the TV show. Moments later, Blake's body crashes down onto the roof of the car Mike is sitting in.

Doggett and Reyes investigate the strange death. The agents escort Mike to the front door of the house he claims is the Brady Bunch home, where they speak with the owner, Oliver Martin. Martin allows the agents to enter after Doggett threatens to get a search warrant. Inside, Mike is flabbergasted when the house looks nothing like the Brady's place.

Sensing something amiss, Doggett checks Martin's dustbin, which contains a pile of asphalt shingles. Doggett realizes that the roof of the home has been freshly patched... leading him to speculate that Blake somehow flew through the roof.

Later, Mike sneaks to the front of Martin's house and peers in. He sees three girls and three boys having dinner with their mother and father. Mike bursts through the front door... but the family has disappeared. Mike then advances on Oliver, only to find himself floating in the air. Suddenly, he rockets upward and crashes through the ceiling.

Scully arranges a meeting with Dr. John Rietz, a parapsychologist who documented the strange case of Anthony Fogelman, who later changed his name to Oliver Martin, in 1970. Fogelman, the "Mozart of psychokinesis", possessed otherworldly powers of moving objects with his mind. Described as "a lonely little boy", by Reitz, Fogelman's powers faded as he grew up.

The agents realize that "Oliver Martin" was the name of Carol Brady's nephew, in the Brady Bunch's last season. The character was something of a pest and jinx, and Scully wonders if that's how Fogelman views himself.

Doggett and Reitz make their way to Fogleman's house, but Fogelman levitates Doggett off the floor and crashes him through the ceiling. When Doggett regains consciousness, he's stuck upside down in the attic of the house. Rietz tries reasoning with Fogelman, urging him to relax, at which Doggett crashes back through the hallway ceiling.

Oliver says he simply thinks about things and places and they suddenly appear. He concentrates for a few seconds, and the Brady Bunch living room transforms into scenic grasslands. Amazed, Scully asks Oliver to come to Washington so scientists can learn more about him. The agents escort Oliver to the Bureau, where Oliver levitates Skinner.

Later, Oliver experiences a seizure and is rushed to a hospital, where it turns out that he's suffering from multiple organ failure. Doctors try everything in their power to save him, but nothing seems to work. When Doggett wonders why Fogelman chose The Brady Bunch, Reyes concludes that the Bradys are the family that everyone wishes they had. This causes Rietz to realizes that he represented a father figure to Fogelman, and he apologises to him for treating him like a lab rat. He also makes him promise to never again use his powers.

Notes:
The title is a reference to a song that the Brady children sang in an episode of The Brady Bunch when they formed a band, called "It's A Sunshine Day".

The house isn't really the house the Brady Bunch was filmed in. Agent Reyes made a big point of mentioning that. The real Brady Bunch house was on a Hollywood backlot. This house was a figment of the guy's imagination.

Quotes:
Doggett: I'm telling you. (Staring up at the sky)
Reyes: No. I don't see how.
Doggett: Well, how else do you explain it? A guy falls from a plane or, I don't know, maybe a helicopter, out the door and then... (He whistles) bam. As simple as that.
Reyes: And how, exactly, did he wind up in a helicopter? Supposedly he was busy breaking into someone's house at the time.
Doggett: Details. (He looks over at the roof of the vehicle and spots something small and black where the body was found)
Reyes: What you got?
Doggett: Maybe nothing. (A police car approaches and stops. Michael Daley, bandage on his forehead, emerges from the car)
Michael Daley: Are you the people from the FBI?
Reyes: Michael Daley?
Michael Daley: Is someone finally going to arrest that freak?
Doggett: How about you tell us what you witnessed and then we'll go from there.
Michael Daley: What I witnessed was freaksville, man. My friend was murdered. Who would have thought this could happen at the Brady Bunch house?
Reyes: That's not the Brady Bunch house.
Michael Daley: Yeah, it is. I mean, I know it doesn't look like it, but it is. That's where they shot the show.
Reyes: No, they shot the show on a sound stage in Hollywood. The house they used for the exteriors is a split-level in Studio City. I took a picture of it once.
Michael Daley: I'm telling you. It's like some kind of creepy Brady Bunch museum in there. I told the cops to search the place but they wouldn't listen to me. But whatever the hell happened to Blake, it happened right in there.

Doggett: Oliver Martin?

Reyes: Mr Martin, I'm Agent Reyes. This is Agent Doggett. We're with the FBI.
Oliver Martin: This is regarding the death that happened across the street?
Doggett: Yes, Sir. May we come in?
Oliver Martin: I already talked to the police about this.
Reyes: Yes, Sir. We know.
Oliver Martin: As I told them, I didn't see or hear anything. I wasn't home at the time.
Michael Daley: This guy's stonewalling. Kick the door in.
Doggett: (to Michael Daley) Shut up.
Oliver Martin: I'm... really kind of busy.
Reyes: Mr Martin just five minutes and we'll be out of your hair.
Doggett: Unless you want us to get a warrant and then... we could be here for hours. (Michael Daley bursts through the door)
Michael Daley: Right in here, see? What happened? This isn't what I saw. None of it. It's all different. Where'd it all go?
Oliver Martin: I'm not following.
Michael Daley: What happened to all the Brady Bunch stuff?
Reyes: Mr Daley was under the impression that your house was used for the filming of the Brady Bunch, the television show.
Oliver Martin: Well... it wasn't.

Scully: Case number 14-308. Blake McCormick, a well-nourished Caucasian male, 24 years old. I will begin with my external examination... and here is a likely place to start. (She prepares to remove the piece of roofing from the corpse's head when a rattling sound distracts her. She notices that a scalpel is clattering on the instrument tray, reaching out a finger to touch the instrument, she receives a slight electrical shock) Ah!

Doggett: Help me out here, Agent Scully. Monica thinks I'm losing my marbles. What can you tell us about what happened to this guy?

Scully: Well, for starters, Mr McCormick was dead before he landed on the car. His skull was pulverised from a previous impact and, judging by the roofing material that I found in the wound, I'd say that Agent Doggett's theory holds water.
Reyes: Well, like I asked Agent Doggett, how exactly can that be?
Scully: Electricity.
Doggett: How's that?
Scully: Or maybe electricity is only a by-product. I'm not really sure, but... look, I had an odd experience today and it made me think to try something unusual. I borrowed an EEG machine and I wired Mr McCormick to it. And for the last few hours he's been putting off a faint reading.
Reyes: Are you saying he's alive?
Scully: No, he's dead as a hammer. What I'm reading is some sort of residual electricity like a... like a battery that's draining off its charge. It's fascinating. I mean, I've never seen anything quite like it.
Reyes: But what does it mean?
Scully: Well, if Mulder were here, I'd imagine he'd talk about research linking electromagnetic fluctuations to levitation, poltergeist activity, ghost sightings...
Doggett: Ghosts and poltergeists? That's what Mulder would say?
Scully: At the end of the day I wouldn't have any theory that was any better and I don't now.

Dr Rietz: (on video) April 4th, 1970, 10:36am. Present for this test are John Rietz, speaking, and Anthony Fogelman, age eight. Hello, Anthony. Are you ready to begin? Good. Now, relax. Relax and focus. Almost immediately the EEG is registering an increase in fast beta wave activity on all leads. Theta activity is rising as well. Oh, my goodness! (A blue block moves slightly) Oh, my goodness! (The image fizzles with interference)

Dr Rietz: Well, there you have it. My right hand to god. All four blocks rose off of the table and spiralled halfway to the ceiling before they fell.
Reyes: Too bad that wasn't on film.
Dr Rietz: The understatement of a lifetime. Whatever phenomena caused this I also believe that it radiated an electromagnetic field strong enough to fog the image. Well, don't be polite. Call me crazy. Everybody does.
Doggett: I believe you. Did you recognise that kid? That was our suspect, Oliver Martin, right?
Scully: I went through Mulder's reference books. Van Nuys, California, 1970: One of the best documented cases of what was initially thought to be poltergeist activity. It focused on a young boy, Anthony Fogelman, who has since changed his name. And Dr Rietz was the parapsychologist who investigated it.
Dr Rietz: Objects flew around the house. Rooms would grow inexplicably cold. Strange voices would be heard. Anthony's mother was at the end of her rope. I spent six months with her and her son. Six astonishing months.
Reyes: What did you learn?
Dr Rietz: That Anthony was as bewildered as everyone else, but that he was responsible for all of it.
Scully: He was psychokinetic.
Dr Rietz: He was the Mozart of psychokinesis.
Reyes: Sir, in your line of work, why would you fall out of touch with the Mozart of psychokinesis?
Dr Rietz: Over time, Anthony's abilities faded. The last few months I was with him there were no manifestations of it whatsoever.
Scully: He lost his power.
Doggett: We're looking at this guy for two murders. What can you give us that we could actually take to a judge? Was he an angry kid? Was he violent?
Dr Rietz: I can't say what he grew up to be. I haven't spoken to him in 30 years, but the Anthony I knew was a lonely little boy.

Doggett: You're speaking Greek to me here. What's this case have to do with an old TV show?

Reyes: You remember what Michael Daley claimed he saw inside that house. He said it was the Brady Bunch house. He seemed certain of it. And now this name, Oliver Martin — just connecting A to B to C.
Doggett: Does this make any sense to you? When you knew Anthony, was he nutty for the Brady Bunch?
Dr Rietz: We'd watch it together.
Doggett: Okay, say he is. What's it mean?
Reyes: Well, why name himself after cousin Oliver? None of the other Bradys particularly liked Oliver. He was a self-described pest.
Scully: A jinx. Cousin Oliver, the jinx. Oh, so maybe I watched an episode or two. So what you're saying is that his choice speaks to Anthony Fogelman's character; how he views himself — unlucky, star-crossed, a danger.
Doggett: Okay, so be it. Just tell me how this helps me bust him and... I'm happy.
Scully: Well, I'm staring to hope that it doesn't come to that. Well, the power that this man seemingly possesses is extraordinary. It needs to be studied.
Dr Rietz: It could expand the scope of human knowledge. It could change everything.
Scully: It very well could. I mean, I've been working this unit for nine years now. I've investigated nearly 200 paranormal cases. We are due for some incontrovertible proof. I want vindication, for Mulder and for all of us.

Scully: Oliver... with your help, we could learn so much. I would love to take you back with us to Washington.

Dr Rietz: It would mean so much to me, Oliver... to show the whole world. (Oliver Martin nods) Wonderful. Let's go get you packed.
Doggett: We've got a tiger by the tail.
Reyes: Do you believe he intended to kill you?
Doggett: He wanted me out of his house, and away I went. It was involuntary, like a sneeze. What the hell difference does it make? It means he's not in control of this power of his.
Scully: I think that's where we can help him. I mean, he needs to learn how to control his powers. I mean, my god... there's no end to what he could accomplish.
Doggett: And there's no end to the harm he could cause if he goes off the deep end, which isn't too long a walk for this guy in case you haven't noticed. I mean, this whole Brady Bunch thing... I'm not so sure about this.
Reyes: Well, we can't keep him here. Two people are dead. Clearly, this isn't working.
Scully: And besides, I mean... as grand as this may sound... we owe it to the world.
Doggett: Maybe. Except that I can't shake this feeling that the other shoe's going to drop... that there's something Oliver's not telling us.

Dr Rietz: It was just all the excitement. A little bed rest will do him wonders. And we'll get things right back on schedule. (Scully enters the rooms and indicates that they should talk outside)

Reyes: What do his doctors say?
Scully: Oliver's electrolytes were severely imbalanced — that's what sent him into shock. They've stabilised his fluids...
Dr Rietz: When will they release him?
Scully: Well, there's other problems. His thyroid level is elevated. His glucose is low. CPK, liver enzymes and BUN... they're all elevated.
Doggett: Which, in a nutshell means...
Scully: It points to a multi-system organ failure. Gradually his body is consuming itself. It's been going on for months and... maybe even years.
Reyes: What's causing it?
Scully: His doctors have no idea but I think I'm starting to.
Doggett: This power of his — it's eating him alive.
Scully: And if so, it follows that the more he uses it, the more his health will decline. Until finally...
Reyes: What in the hell? (They look in Oliver Martin's room and see the entire Brady Bunch family standing around the bed)
Scully: Oh, my god. (They enter the room to find that the guests have vanished)
Dr Rietz: Oliver?
Reyes: Oliver, those people just now — was that...? Were they...?
Doggett: Why were they here?
Oliver Martin: To say goodbye.
Scully: Why goodbye, Oliver?
Oliver Martin: Because I'm dying.

Doggett: So close, Dana. I'm sorry you don't get your proof.

Scully: Me, too. Well, maybe I've had it these past nine years. If not proof of the paranormal, then... of more important things.
Doggett: Here's hoping the TV stays off and he learns how to love the real world.
Reyes: I think you are getting the hang of this job.

Episode Number: 200
Season Number: 9
First Aired: Sunday, May 12, 2002
Production Code: 9X18

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Season 9: Release (9X16)

Written by: David Amann
Directed by: Kim Manners

Inside an abandoned apartment building in a deserted part of town, Doggett sees a figure bolt out of one of the rooms into the night. Shortly thereafter, he hears a scratching sound and steps up to a wet plaster wall. He claws away at the plaster until ribbons of red blood begin streaming downward.

With help from morgue assistant Diener, Scully performs an autopsy on the body Doggett found behind the wet plaster. She reviews her findings with FBI cadets, one of whom, Rudolph Hayes, accurately guesses that the victim hooked up with the wrong man at a bar. Using Hayes' uncanny insights, Scully realizes that this murder is connected to another killing two weeks earlier. Doggett wonders why someone tipped him off about the murder to begin with, as it is clearly not an X-Files case.

Later, Doggett and Reyes approach Hayes, who tells them the killer they're looking for is a felon linked to organised crime, contradicting the agents' profile. Reyes and Doggett then visit a bar and talk to Nicholas Regali, a tough mobster who claims he's in town looking for work. Hayes' intuition about Regali proves correct.

Meanwhile, Hayes returns to his apartment, the walls of which are covered with crime scene photos of murder victims, including one of Doggett's son. Doggett is so impressed by Hayes' gift for solving crimes that he asks him to look into his son's murder. Hayes takes Doggett to his apartment and tells him that if he sits very quietly, the photographs tell him things. He also admits that he has been following the case of Doggett's son's death for a very long time, and shows Doggett a mug shot of Robert Harvey, a suspect in the murder. Hayes believes Harvey abducted Doggett's son... but that Regali killed him.

Doggett approaches Brad Follmer, who worked in the New York organized crime division, and asks him to look into any connection between Regali and Robert Harvey. Doggett convinces his ex-wife Barbara to come to an identity parade, but she does not recognize Regali.

Meanwhile, Scully finds similarities between the wounds inflicted on Doggett's son nine years earlier and those on the bodies of the two women recently murdered. Checking through files on Regali, Doggett finds it odd that he has served so little jail time since the late Eighties, despite his connection to illegal activities. He begins to suspect that someone in the FBI is on the take.

Later, Follmer informs Reyes and Doggett that Rudolph Hayes died in an automobile accident in 1978... and that Cadet Hayes' is really Stuart Mimms, a mental patient. Follmer also uncovers evidence that Mimms was living in New York City at the time Doggett's son was murdered. A SWAT team storms Mimm's apartment and takes him into custody. Mimms is placed in a police lineup...and Barbara identifies him.

At a secret meeting between Follmer and Regali, it becomes clear that Follmer took money from Regali to make an indictment go away. Mimms tells Scully that he was drawn to the Doggett case only after he noticed an article about the boy's murder in a newspaper. He claims he lied to the FBI to become a cadet so he could have access to the Bureau's inner workings and help solve the case. He tells Doggett that Regali murdered his son.

Approached by Doggett, Regali tells him a "hypothetical" story, in which a paedophile takes a young boy to a mobster's home. The mobster walks in on the paedophile, and the young boy sees the mobster's face. Fearing the boy might associate him with the crime, the mobster has him killed. Regali then rises and walks towards the exit.

Filled with rage, Doggett unsnaps his holster. A gunshot rings out, but it's from Follmer's gun, and kills Regali. The mystery of their son's death now solved, Doggett and his wife make their way to a beach and scatter their son's ashes into the water.

Notes:
This episode marks the final appearance of Cary Elwes as A.D. Brad Follmer. Presumably, after he killed Regali at the climax, the video tape depicting his accepting a bribe landed at the Washington Post, resulting in Follmer's dismissal from the FBI, and possibly even being sent to prison on charges of taking bribes and murder. Still, it showed that Follmer wasn't a complete creep, as previous episodes led several viewers to think.

The actor who portrays Cadet Hayes (Jared Poe) was actually a writing intern on the show.

The woman playing Agent Doggett's wife in this episode (as well as in ''John Doe'') is Robert Patrick's real life wife, Barbara Patrick.

Quotes:
Scully: Jane Doe. Found last night entombed in a tenement wall by an agent who was following an anonymous tip. Time of death, approximately 2100 hours, from three stab wounds to the abdomen. Dirt and clay were found under the nails of her right hand.
First Cadet: What are those lacerations on her arms and feet?
Scully: Predation — from rats. The agent was led to her body by the sound of their feeding. Anyone?
First Cadet: She was killed some place else. She clawed at the dirt before succumbing to her injuries.
Scully: That's possible. Now what else would help us ID this victim — find the killer?
Cadet Hayes: It's obvious, isn't it?
Scully: What is?
Cadet Hayes: The chipped nail polish. The drugstore hair rinse. This is a single woman, unemployed. That's why no one's IDed her. You found blood alcohol?
Scully: Point zero four.
Cadet Hayes: She hooked up with the wrong man in a bar. He killed her. This man has killed before.
Scully: And you know that because...?
Cadet Hayes: That bruise beneath her ribs? It's from the hilt of a knife. The killer intended a single blow... the blade thrusting upward at a 45° angle into the heart, causing death instantly. But she struggled, so he missed. Then he got mad. Like I said... obvious.

Doggett: Cadet Hayes? Rudolph Hayes? I'm Agent Doggett. This is Agent Reyes. (Cadet Hayes smells the arm) Is that part of the training here, Cadet — smelling body parts?

Cadet Hayes: This man's flesh smells of creosote... but his skin is soft. Untanned. He worked indoors. A hardware store, probably. The tear marks at his elbow go from left to right. He was broadsided in a car accident. His hands gripped the wheel so hard... his thumb bone snapped on impact.
Doggett: You determined all that, just by looking at that arm?
Cadet Hayes: I see things.
Reyes: We came to thank you. Because of your analysis, we were able to work up a profile, to catch the man who murdered those women.
Cadet Hayes: What's the profile?
Doggett: White male, 25 to 35, ex-military. Employed near the bars where he met... why are you shaking your head?
Cadet Hayes: The profile's wrong. Your killer is in his 40s. A felon recently arrived from out of state. His parole officer thinks he's looking for a job. He already has one — working for organized crime. He's killed many people. He's going to keep on killing. (He walks away)
Reyes: Kind of annoying, isn't he?

Doggett: How long you been standing there?

Cadet Hayes: Not long.
Doggett: I'm glad you dropped by. Wanted to tell you we hit pay dirt with your profile. No arrests yet, but we're building our case.
Cadet Hayes: There's something else.
Doggett: There's another case I'd like you to take a look at. Seven-year-old boy... rides his bike around the block. His mom's on the porch, counting his laps. He waves to her every time he goes by, and after six laps, he doesn't come back around. She goes looking for him. She finds this bike lying on the sidewalk. There's... no witnesses no ransom demands, no clue as to who took him or why. The cops search door-to-door, block-to-block for two days. Nothing. No news at all. And after three days, they find him in a field. It's all in here. Particulars... about my son. I've been over this, I don't know how many times, but after nine years, there's not a lot to go on. You were such a big help yesterday. If there's anything you see here...
Cadet Hayes: Agent Doggett, that case I helped you with yesterday? That is your son's.

Doggett: Assistant Director? Can I have a minute?

Assistant Director Follmer: It's not a good time. I'm off to a meeting with the Director.
Doggett: This can't wait.
Assistant Director Follmer: And the Director can? Okay, you've got one minute.
Doggett: When you were in New York, you worked the organised crime task force, right?
Assistant Director Follmer: Mm-hmm.
Doggett: Did you ever hear of a guy named Nicholas Regali?
Assistant Director Follmer: Yeah, he was a... collector, a low-level thug. Why are you asking, Agent Doggett?
Doggett: When the New York office was investigating my son's death, his name never came up.
Assistant Director Follmer: Well, why would it? You have reason to believe he was involved?
Doggett: I've got no evidence, but somebody's telling me he's mixed-up with the suspect in my son's kidnapping, this Bob Harvey.
Assistant Director Follmer: Well, I never heard that. And I'm sure I'd remember. You want me to ask around and pull some files? I'll see what I can find.
Doggett: I'd appreciate it.

Barbara Doggett: Agent Scully? I'm Barbara. John's ex-wife.

Scully: Hi. I'm Dana. Nice to meet you.
Barbara Doggett: He said you'd be coming by.
Scully: You weren't able to make an identification?
Barbara Doggett: I didn't expect to. You know he doesn't think clearly about this. He can't.
Scully: He blames himself.
Barbara Doggett: He thinks he failed Luke. In his mind, he can never do enough, never suffer enough, for what happened. I think if you can help him find the man who did this, maybe... he could move on. He and Monica could really have something together. He just won't let her in. They're letting him go?
Doggett: For now.
Barbara Doggett: I'll be at my mom's 'til tomorrow. (She leaves)
Doggett: Tell me you got something.
Scully: As you asked, I compared the wounds inflicted on your son, with the wounds on these two women.
Doggett: And?
Scully: There are similarities between the trajectory of the wounds and the force with which they were delivered.
Doggett: Meaning Regali's the guy.
Scully: Meaning that it was a brilliant forensic deduction on Cadet Hayes's part. But that's all it is. The killer used different weapons, he demonstrated no consistent MO and no clear victimology.
Reyes: None of it will hold up in court.
Doggett: Well, something out there will.

Nicholas Regali: Nice car. I remember when they had you banging around in a ten-year-old Impala. Now look at you. Mr Assistant Director.

Assistant Director Follmer: You got lucky. He has another suspect.
Nicholas Regali: You came down here to tell me that?
Assistant Director Follmer: There's something I need to know. Were you in any way involved in the death of John Doggett's son?
Nicholas Regali: Since when do you ask me questions?
Assistant Director Follmer: Were you involved!
Nicholas Regali: Course not. What kind of guy do you think I am?
Assistant Director Follmer: That's it, I'm done, Regali.
Nicholas Regali: Done?
Assistant Director Follmer: With you, with this, with this whole thing.
Nicholas Regali: And if I say no, what are you going to do? You know, if I'm you, right now I'm thinking 'I could pop this guy right here and who's going to know it's not self defence'. Well, let me remind you, anything happens to me a videotape lands at the Washington Post showing a young Brad Follmer taking cash from yours truly to make an indictment go away. You're done when I say you're done.

Scully: It's all in there. How you defrauded the FBI with a false identity in order to gain admittance to the Academy. We know who you really are. We know about your history with schizophrenia. We know that you orchestrated this entire thing in order to get close to Agent Doggett.

Cadet Hayes: I've been recognised, by Agent Doggett's ex-wife, who failed to identify Nicholas Regali in that same room yesterday.
Scully: Because Nicholas Regali did not kill Agent Doggett's son. You did.
Cadet Hayes: That's one explanation.
Doggett: It's the explanation.
Cadet Hayes: No.
Doggett: Then what is? WHAT IS?
Cadet Hayes: I told you before, Agent Doggett. I studied the photos of your son's death. They called to me. I don't know why, but it was a message, and I listened.
Scully: And then you killed Agent Doggett's son.
Cadet Hayes: I studied his case obsessively. I'm a schizophrenic. That's what schizophrenics do. Obsess. I watched Agent Doggett. I watched his ex-wife, too. She can't tell you how she recognises me, just that she does.
Doggett: You're a liar. You lied to the FBI. You're lying now.
Cadet Hayes: Would you have listened to me otherwise? A mental patient with insight into your son's death? I wanted to get close to you, Agent Doggett. To help you.
Doggett: You gave me that tip. To find the woman's body in the wall.
Cadet Hayes: Regali associated with the man who abducted your son. I called you so that you could catch him. I've received another message. I'd like to go back home now, to the institution.

Nicholas Regali: Well, well. It's the FBI agent.

Doggett: I'm not here as an FBI agent. I'm here as a father.
Nicholas Regali: Whoa. What could that mean?
Doggett: I want to know what happened to my son.
Nicholas Regali: I don't know who killed your son. But I like you, FBI. I really do. I'll tell you how it could have happened, hypothetically. Say there was this guy — a businessman. And say this businessman, in the course of doing business, has to associate with any number of thugs, sickos, perverts. Like Bob Harvey, for example. Say this Bob Harvey likes little boys. Yeah. Disgusting. Say one day, Bob Harvey sees a little boy riding a bike, and he can't stand it. He grabs the boy. So Harvey takes the boy back to his place only he doesn't tell the businessman what he's doing. So the businessman walks in on him. You see what I'm saying, FBI? The boy sees the businessman's face. The businessman who never did nothing to this little boy. That's a problem. Well... every problem has got a solution, right? (He walks out of the bar. Doggett follows him, but has only just stood up when a shot is heard outside. Nicholas Regali is dead, shot through the eye)
Woman: Oh my god! He shot him! He just took out his gun and shot him!

Episode Number: 199
Season Number: 9
First Aired: Sunday, May 5, 2002
Production Code: 9X16

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Season 9: William (9X17)

Written by: Chris Carter
Directed by: David Duchovny

At a remote farm house, a husband and wife eager to adopt meet with two social workers. The social workers introduce the couple to their new son: Baby William. Outside Scully's apartment, a figure with rasping breath watches from afar as Scully carries William into the apartment building.

Later, at the Bureau, Agent Doggett enters the darkened X-Files office, encountering The Breather. Doggett grabs his gun and orders the mysterious man to put his hands up. The Breather complies - and for the first time we get a look at his disfigured face. Scully is called to the office, where Doggett briefs her on the case. The Breather claims his name is Daniel Miller, and that he gained access to the building by using an access card Mulder gave to him. He also says he's searching for answers about his disfigurement, which he blames on the government's secret research.

It becomes apparent that The Breather is intimately familiar with Mulder's life. He tells Scully that his scars are the result of being injected with an unknown substance. Meanwhile, Doggett has been unable to verify the man's identity and begins to suspect that he may in fact be Mulder. Scully refuses to believe this, and tells The Breather that the FBI knows his name isn't Daniel Miller. He confirms this is true - but refuses to divulge his real name. Scully runs a DNA test.

Later, The Breather claims his scars are the result of the government's failed attempt to turn him into an alien. He then tells the agents the files he was looking for were not in the X-Files office, and Scully admits that she removed them. Mulder knew this, casting doubt on Doggett's theory.

Scully, Reyes and The Breather make their way to Scully's apartment, where Scully lets him hold her baby. Doggett shows up with results from the DNA test proving that The Breather is Mulder, but Scully refuses to believe. The Breather sneaks into William's room and injects him with an unknown liquid. Later, Scully discovers a little blood on William's sheets and rushes him to a hospital, but doctors cannot find anything out of the ordinary.

Scully confronts The Breather, who reveals that he is Mulder's half-brother, Jeffrey Spender. He then explains that he injected William with a metallic liquid that turned off his alien qualities. As William is the one thing the aliens need, Spender achieved revenge against his father by transforming the child into a normal human being. He warns that as long as the aliens know where William lives, he will never be safe.

The scene returns to that of the opening. The husband hangs a hand-carved mobile over the baby's crib. After he leaves the room, William reaches up... but the mobile does not spin on its own.

Notes:
Although David Duchovny is uncredited in this episode, he is seen for a split second, by Scully when she is examining the disfigured man, soon to be named Jeffery Spender (Mulder's half-brother), when she looks in his eyes.

Subtle hint that the Cigarette Smoking Man is still alive? Spender claims that he is seeking revenge on his father by depriving "them" of super-William: not something you typically do if the target of your revenge is...well, dead.

Near the beginning, as Scully is in her car with William, she is singing "Joy to the World" to William, the same song she sang to Mulder while they were stuck in the forest in the Season 5 episode, ''Detour''.

Quotes:
Doggett: You won't talk to me. You going to talk to her, Mr Miller?
Jeffrey Spender: If she'll help me and protect me.
Doggett: You better hope she's feeling more charitable than I am, partner. (Scully enters the room) Agent Scully. He's under arrest for assaulting a federal officer. I've explained to him the penalties, but he still refuses a lawyer.
Scully: How did he get in the building?
Doggett: We found a card key on him. Says it was given to him by Fox Mulder.
Scully: His name is Miller?
Doggett: Daniel Miller of Fredericksburg. He gave us an address, but we're still working on the confirmation.
Scully: What are you doing here?
Jeffrey Spender: I came here to find answers.
Scully: Answers to what?
Jeffrey Spender: To this. What they did to me.
Scully: From your scarring, it appears that you've been burned. Are you claiming that someone burned you and that there is evidence here to incriminate them?
Jeffrey Spender: According to Fox Mulder, the men who did this are part of a government conspiracy.
Scully: Go on.
Jeffrey Spender: You know who these men are.
Scully: Did Mulder tell you that, too? When?
Jeffrey Spender: If I were to tell you that, you might use the information to find him. Mulder doesn't want to be found.
Doggett: When I searched him I found those X-Files stuffed inside his clothes. (Scully pulls out a photo) You know who that is?
Scully: It's his sister.
Doggett: Whose?
Jeffrey Spender: Mulder's. She was abducted from her home when she was a little girl — part of this same government conspiracy.
Scully: You seem to know a lot, Mr Miller. It gives an impression either that you are telling the truth or you just want us to believe that you are.
Jeffrey Spender: If I thought you'd believe me, I wouldn't have snuck in here.
Scully: Agent Doggett. Would you please arrange the transfer of this man to Quantico? I'd like to personally examine his injuries.

Scully: You came here looking for something. What is it that you hope to find?

Jeffrey Spender: I didn't find it.
Reyes: You stole several files pertaining to the 1973 abduction of Mulder's sister. But yet you say there's danger to your life right now.
Jeffrey Spender: The conspiracy to keep the truth about aliens from the American public all but destroyed a few years ago, has given rise to a new conspiracy in the government now, by men who are alien themselves.
Scully: And what does this have to do with you?
Jeffrey Spender: What you can see they did to me, was a failed attempt to turn me into one of these alien men. I was a guinea pig — a test subject. And now I want to expose their evil plans.
Reyes: What plans are those?
Jeffrey Spender: To do this to you... to everyone. Mulder said there were files here — cases like mine. He gave me names and case numbers, but I don't see them. They're not here. Someone's already removed them.
Scully: Yes.
Reyes: Who?

Doggett: Assistant Director. You said you've spoken to the lab.

Skinner: I got some advance info on the exam that Scully performed on the man.
Doggett: What?
Skinner: The blood type matches Mulder's, but there are aspects of the physiology that aren't a match.
Doggett: Such as?
Skinner: Well, the body mass, of course. He's shorter and weighs considerably less than Mulder did.
Doggett: You haven't seen this guy — what they've done to him. They way he's twisted, he's like an old man. He could be a hundred years old.
Skinner: Yeah, I'm just relaying the facts. And the fact is, he's not a hundred years old, is he? Not the way he attacked you. Well, whoever he is, he wants something.
Doggett: He says he wants revenge, against the people that burned him. And Mulder directed him to the place where he could find the files and the people who did it.
Skinner: That doesn't make any sense. Mulder knows those files inside out. Why would he direct him? Why not just tell him? (answering phone) Skinner. Yeah. You're sure about that? All right. (He hangs up)
Doggett: What?
Skinner: That was the lab. They were able to rush the PCR test and they came up with a definitive DNA result.

Scully: It's all been a good act.

Jeffrey Spender: I don't know what you mean.
Scully: I think you do. You knew those files were here. You just pretended not to, so that I'd bring you here to see William.
Jeffrey Spender: No.
Scully: I want the truth from you.
Jeffrey Spender: What truth?
Scully: The truth that you won't speak.
Jeffrey Spender: I want the same truth you do.
Scully: Don't do this to me. Not you.
Jeffrey Spender: I didn't come here to upset you. I didn't plan on being caught. I know you must have a hard life living alone raising a son not knowing whether you'll see Mulder again.
Scully: How do you know my life?
Jeffrey Spender: I know what Mulder knows. I know they used you to create the child. I know they continue to use you to take care of it and raise it.
Scully: What are you saying?
Jeffrey Spender: You know what I'm saying. Your son — your child is part alien.
Scully: Just tell me who you are. Come on, just say your name. Say it! Just say it!
Reyes: Agent Scully...
Scully: (to Reyes) Could you please leave? And close the door?
Reyes: (to Jeffrey Spender) Can you step out, please?
Scully: This was a private conversation.
Reyes: I understand. I'm sorry. (Jeffrey Spender leaves)
Scully: Do you know who that man is?
Reyes: Yes, I do.
Doggett: Agent Scully...
Scully: What is this? What?
Doggett: We got DNA results. A positive ID.
Scully: It's not him. He wouldn't say these things.
Doggett: The DNA's a match to Fox Mulder's.
Scully: It's not him.

Reyes: Here she comes.

Scully: How is he? Is he all right?
Dr Edwards: He's good. He's doing fine.
Scully: Oh, god.
Reyes: Can she see him?
Dr Edwards: We have him in step down right now as a precaution, but I think he'll be going home in no time.
Scully: What did you find?
Dr Edwards: Nothing.
Reyes: How could you find nothing? There would have to be something.
Dr Edwards: There's some slight bruising on the head where something clearly broke the skin, but... he's fine.
Reyes: What about a tox screen?
Dr Edwards: There's an elevated amount of iron in his blood, but other than that, your son is completely normal.
Reyes: That doesn't make sense.
Scully: No... I think it does. It makes perfect sense now.

Jeffrey Spender: You're wrong about that. When I look in the mirror I see something much different than the world sees. He could destroy my face and my dignity when he shot me in that office... but he couldn't destroy the one thing I love most — my hatred of him.

Scully: Your cigarette-smoking, son of a bitch of a father.
Jeffrey Spender: And Mulder's.
Scully: You counted on the DNA... that we'd buy it without question and not look any further. DNA's what Mulder shared with Jeffrey Spender.
Jeffrey Spender: Ah. Half brothers raised apart — that's about all that Mulder and I ever shared.
Scully: You haven't seen Mulder, have you? You haven't even talked to him. So, getting caught at the FBI... winning our trust was all towards one thing. It was only to get to William.
Jeffrey Spender: Sitting here, you'd wish me dead. Shortly, I'll do you the favour.
Scully: I had this checked. It's an unknown metal, that you injected into my son.
Jeffrey Spender: It's a form of magnetite. A gift.
Scully: 'A gift'?
Jeffrey Spender: Having failed as a conspirator to control alien colonisation, my father wanted nothing more than to see the world fail, too.
Scully: So what, you've prevented it now? You've... prevented alien colonisation by injecting this metal into my son?
Jeffrey Spender: Your son is the one thing the aliens need. I took revenge on my father by taking William away from them.
Scully: So, he's all right now? I mean, just like that? (Jeffrey Spender nods) So it's over. They'll let him be.
Jeffrey Spender: It'll never be over. They'll always know what he was. They'll never accept what he is.
Scully: Well, I can protect him.
Jeffrey Spender: And if you can't? Look at me... what they did. Is this what you want for your son?

Episode Number: 198
Season Number: 9
First Aired: Sunday, April 28, 2002
Production Code: 9X17

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Season 9: Jump the Shark (9X15)

Written by: Vince Gilligan, John Shiban & Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Clifford Bole

Morris Fletcher charms a beautiful, silly woman aboard a yacht in the Caribbean, pulling at the knot securing her bikini top. Suddenly, three Bahamian men board Morris' boat, abduct the girl and set fire to the boat. Morris dives into the water moments before a massive explosion destroys the craft. Fluttering down in the debris are schematics for a flying saucer.

The Coast Guard rescues Morris, who requests Reyes and Doggett's presence. Morris claims to have been freelancing for a foreign billionaire, after convincing him that the Air Force lost a UFO over the Bermuda Triangle. In reality, Morris was only interested in cruising the Bahamas. The agents don't believe his story and begin to leave, but when Morris claims to have information about a female super soldier, they grow more interested.

Reyes and Doggett show up at the Lone Gunmen offices with a photograph of Morris' alleged super soldier. The stunned Gunmen immediately identify her as Yves Adele Harlow, a fellow hacker who disappeared a year earlier, and refuse to believe the tale about her being a super soldier. They are outraged when they realize Morris - a scam artist who used them to track down Yves once before - is behind it all. But Reyes and Doggett are less reluctant to dismiss Morris' story.

Meanwhile, Yves enters the office of biology professor Houghton, fires a futuristic-looking pistol at him, then disappears out a window. A college administrator finds Houghton's body, a gaping wound across the middle of Houghton's chest. Yves uses a furnace to incinerate an unidentified human organ vacuum-packed in plastic. Tipped off by Jimmy Bond, the agents speak with the college administrator, John Gillnitz. He explains that Houghton was a marine immunologist experimenting with the remarkable immune system of sharks.

A medical examiner tells Reyes and Doggett that he discovered some type of cartilage grafted into Houghton's body. With Kimmy the Geek's help, the Gunmen locate Yves inside a hotel, apparently stalking a bald man. The Gunmen rush into the man's room, alerting the apparent victim, who rushes outside and escapes. The Gunmen handcuff Yves, only to be told that she's no super soldier, and unless she's allowed to finish what she started, innocent people will die.

The Gunmen realise that Morris is wearing a homing device, which he planned on activating once he found Yves - who he was out to find from the very beginning, at the behest of Yves' father, an international arms dealer and "scum of the earth." Yves explains that the man she killed was a terrorist whose research was funded by her father. Houghton had developed a means of keeping himself alive after having been infected with an engineered virus. Only one other such terrorist remains alive - the bald man Yves tried to kill. Carried within him is a virus-filled vessel which will decay at precisely eight o'clock that evening.

The Gunmen are able to determine where the bald man is headed, but once captured extensive medical testing can find no sign of a virus-carrying vessel within his body. Morris realizes that the bald man is a decoy, leading Yves to conclude that the other man carrying the virus is John Gillnitz, who is about to attend an international bioethics forum at eight o'clock that evening. She, Jimmy and the Gunmen race to the forum with only minutes to spare. Jimmy calls out Gillnitz's name, causing him to leave his seat and make his way to a far exit. The Gunmen and the others give chase. With only a couple of minutes to go before the virus breaks out, the Lone Gunmen corner Gillnitz in a room. Realising that there's not enough time to remove the vessel, they pull the fire alarm, so sealing the room and sacrificing themselves.

The episode ends with Scully, Reyes, Doggett, Skinner, Morris and Kimmer standing in Arlington Cemetery at the funeral of the Lone Gunmen. Scully says that world was a better place for them having been in it.

Notes:
The phrase Jump the Shark comes from the episode of ''Happy Days'' where Fonzie literally jumped over a shark on water skis which was considered "the end of Happy Days".

This is the last episode written by John Shiban. He wrote 24 of the 202 X Files episodes.

Writer Thomas Schnauz (who gave us ''Lord of the Flies'' and ''Scary Monsters'') portrayed the 'Speaker' in this episode.

Although they are billed in the main opening credits, Gillian Anderson and Mitch Pileggi only make a brief appearance at the end of the episode.

This episode marks the deaths of the three Lone Gunmen, effectively making the cancellation of the ''Lone Gunmen'' spin-off permanent.

This marks the reunion of writers Gilligan, Shiban and Spotnitz, who together have written some of the most memorable X-Files stories and are also co-creators of the short lived Lone Gunmen series. Their first episode was season 4's ''Leonard Betts'', and the trio took a short sabbatical to work on TLG after season 7's ''Theef''.

Quotes:
Morris Fletcher: (voiceover) Once upon a time, there were three... how should I put this... geeks. Three more unlikely heroes... there never were. It wasn't long before their naiveté nearly got them killed. Until they hooked up with an FBI agent... And began publishing a — what shall I call it — 'rag' called 'The Lone Gunman'. From their cramped basement office they pointed fingers at powerful, evil forces... And some not so evil. In their own unique way, the three gunmen were patriots, fighting the good fight. And provided... expertise for their friends at the FBI. For a brief time it looked as if they might actually make a difference in this cold, cruel world. They acquired an intern who believed in their cause. And a powerful, beautiful nemesis... who became an ally. But the world is not kind to idealists... and those who fight the 'Good Fight' don't always win.

Doggett: Morris Fletcher?

Morris Fletcher: Finally. What took you so long? You must be Reyes. Enchanté.
Reyes: Yeah. Mr Fletcher we've been told you requested us by name. We're very curious about that.
Morris Fletcher: Well, you two head the FBI's X-Files unit, do you not? I thought you'd appreciate what I have to offer.
Doggett: Which is?
Morris Fletcher: You have no idea who you're sitting here with, do you?
Doggett: A guy who's up fudge creek for violating the federal secrets act. How's that for starters?
Morris Fletcher: Look, I've got top security clearance. I'm supposed to check in every month with my former employer. So I skipped a few phone calls. Big deal. Let me give you a hint. I used to work at Groom Lake, Nevada. Area 51. I was a man in black! The men in black. What, you've never heard of us?
Doggett: I saw the movie.
Morris Fletcher: Yeah, well... there were a lot of technical inaccuracies in that thing. Anyway, I'm ready to make a deal.
Doggett: What deal would that be?
Morris Fletcher: The one that saves my furry pink ass. People are trying to kill me. Did you hear about my boat?
Reyes: Yeah, your female companion told us what she witnessed.
Morris Fletcher: My female...? Oh, you mean they didn't kill...
Reyes: ...Brittany?
Morris Fletcher: Brittany. Well, thank god she's still alive. Look, I need protection. I need to get out of here. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. I can give you guys the keys to the kingdom. UFOs, aliens the whole fifty-year cover-up. I was there for all of it.
Reyes: Tell me, Mr Fletcher... these documents of yours... are they indicative of the kind of secrets you can reveal to us?
Morris Fletcher: Honey... they're just the tip of the iceberg.
(Reyes reveals the schematics rescued from the remains of Morris Fletcher's boat)
Reyes: This is the Jupiter 2 from 'Lost In Space'.
Morris Fletcher: Okay, yeah, those are BS... But only those! See, I was freelancing for this foreign billionaire. I told him the air force lost a flying saucer in the Bermuda Triangle and that I could recover it for him. I just wanted to cruise the Bahamas. I never would've given him the real thing. That would be un-American.
Doggett: Coming out.
Morris Fletcher: Well, he found out about it. Now he wants to kill me. I need protection... Super soldiers!
Doggett: What do you know about super soldiers?
Morris Fletcher: A bit. It may be... there's one I can help you lay your hands on.
Doggett: This super soldier... he have a name?
Morris Fletcher: Not 'he'... 'she'.

Kimmy the Geek: This is a computer, Langly. Com-pu-ter. Step away before you embarrass yourself.

Langly: Always a pleasure, Kimmy.
Kimmy the Geek: Yeah, yeah. So, then, how do you wish to partake of my hacking genius?
Frohike: Thanks to Jimmy, we know Yves real name.
Morris Fletcher: Hey, I told you before he did.
Langly: Jimmy also told us what kind of car she's driving. Silver X5 with New York plates.
Kimmy the Geek: Really? Way to go, Special Ed.
Byers: The New Jersey turnpike has video cameras at every tollbooth. Langly hacked the system and spotted her southbound at Newark.
Kimmy the Geek: Somewhat creative.
Langly: We spotted her again going through the Fort McHenry Tunnel. She passed through not 20 minutes ago.
Byers: We're betting she's headed for DC. We're going to try to intercept her with your help.
Frohike: Think you might find a military satellite you could piggyback — give us a bird's-eye view of the beltway?
Kimmy the Geek: Intriguing. Stand aside, ladies.
Frohike: We'll be on the cell.
Morris Fletcher: I got shotgun.
Langly: Dream on. You're staying here.
(Byers pulls Jimmy aside)
Byers: We need somebody we can trust keeping an eye on Fletcher.
Jimmy: I'm on it. (Byers leaves with Frohike and Langly)
Morris Fletcher: So, how'd you like Malta?

Jimmy: Byers! Frohike! Langly! Yves, come here. Guys! Guys!

(John Gillnitz is on the floor having a seizure. His body spasms uncontrollably and pink glowing liquid drips from his mouth and his chest)
Jimmy: Oh, god. No.
Byers: Don't, Jimmy.
Yves: Jimmy, don't. It's airtight. They're already exposed.
Jimmy: No, guys. (He places his hand against the glass. Byers puts his hand against it on his side... Langly places his hand over Byers... Frohike places his hand over Langly's)
Frohike: Buddy, fight the good fight.
Langly: Both of you.
Byers: Never give up.

Kimmy the Geek: Vaya con dios, amigos. (He touches each of the coffins and leaves)

Doggett: Arlington. You must've pulled some big strings to get those guys in here.
Skinner: It's the least I could do.
Reyes: Are we ready?
Doggett: Yeah.
Skinner: Dana...
Scully: I'll catch up. (Skinner leaves with Doggett and Reyes) They meant so much to me. I'm not sure if they ever really knew.
Jimmy: Nobody knew... what heroes they were.
Yves: It's not right. It's not.
Morris Fletcher: No, it's not. Langly said to me; the ones who never give up, they never die. I still don't know what that means.
Scully: It means that like everyone buried here, the world is a better place for them having been in it. It means that they're gone, but they live on through us all.

Episode Number: 197
Season Number: 9
First Aired: Sunday, April 21, 2002
Production Code: 9X15

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Season 9: Scary Monsters (9X12)

Written by: Thomas Schnauz
Directed by: Dwight Little

Inside his bedroom, a little boy, Tommy Conlon, hears a scratching sound coming from beneath his bed. He calls to his father, Jeffrey, and tells him about something he saw reflected in the bedroom mirror, but Jeffrey dismisses it as a figment of his imagination. He leaves the room... and holds the door shut as Tommy screams for help.

Back at Quantico, overeager young FBI accountant Agent Leyla Harrison shows Scully a photograph of a 30-something woman who stabbed herself to death with a pair of scissors. The woman's son, Tommy Conlin, told investigators that a monster took over his mother, and that his father knows all about it. He also claimed that the same creature killed Spanky, the family cat. Tommy and his father have since moved to a remote Pennsylvanian mountaintop.

Scully dismisses Leyla's fears that the supernatural is somehow involved, but Leyla convinces Doggett and Reyes that the boy's life is in danger, and the threesome head for Pennsylvania. On arrival they speak with Jeffrey Conlon, who seems to have been burying something. After speaking with Tommy, Doggett and Reyes conclude that something is amiss - then blood spits out of the dashboard of Doggett's car as he tries to start it.

Back at her apartment, Scully is approached by Gabe Rotter, a friend of Leyla's, who produces a box containing Spanky's corpse. He explains that Leyla said she would go out with him only if he gave it to Scully, who is understandably repulsed, until something catches her eye.

Stranded in Pennsylvania, Doggett, Reyes and Leyla hear Tommy cry for help. Doggett and Reyes run to the boy's room, pushing Jeffery aside. Inside they discover two creatures resembling giant deformed earwigs. Doggett draws his gun and opens fire, blasting a creature in two, but it regenerates into two new monsters which disappear beneath the wall molding.

After an autopsy on Spanky, Scully concludes that it chewed a hole in its own stomach. She notes the similarity to the way Mrs Conlon stabbed herself to death. She also discovers a strange cavity, as if something had lived inside the cat.

Doggett digs up bits of mirror in the area where Jeffrey buried something. Jeffrey explains that his son was afraid of the mirror. Suddenly, Coogan, the local Sheriff, alerted by a call from Scully, pounds on the front door. When Doggett answers, Coogan tells him it's too cold to leave. Jeffrey Conlon warns that the man standing in front of Doggett is not the sheriff. Coogan suddenly draws his gun and aims at Conlon. A scuffle ensues, Doggett hits Coogan in the ribs... puncturing his chest.

Reyes pushes a wooden spoon into the sheriff's body, finding no organs inside. A little later, Tommy shows Reyes a bunch of drawings he made of the earwig creatures, the sheriff holding a gun... and of a screaming Reyes with a creature exploding out of her stomach.

The sheriff's body suddenly disappears, and Reyes cries out for help, a bulge appearing in her stomach. Trying to confront Tommy, Doggett tumbles through a seemingly infinite blackness after breaking down a door in search of him. When he lands, dozens of the earwig creatures attack him. Conlon makes his way to his son's room, where Doggett appears and explains that the strange events surrounding the agents must mean that is that everything is imaginary. Conlon's wife stabbed herself because she believed the creatures were real.

Doggett realizes that the only way to save Reyes and Leyla is to beat the little boy at his own game. He splashes gasoline around the house, as Tommy watches. Tommy exclaims that Doggett wouldn't dare to light a match. But Doggett does, and drops it into a pool of gasoline, which ignites. Suddenly, both Reyes and Leyla return to normal. Doggett picks up Tommy, whose clothes are smoldering. He explains that he played upon the little boy's imagination by using water instead of gasoline. Later, Tommy is transported to a psychiatric facility, where his mind is busied with television.

Notes:
Jolie Jenkins makes her second appearance on The X-Files on this episode. Her premiere was in "Alone" in the 8th season. She plays an agent that is obsessed with the X-Files, Mulder and Scully.

In this episode we find Tommy uttering the famous phrase "I made this" while showing a drawing he made to Reyes. This is also the phrase spoken over the TenThirteen logo after the credits on every X Files episode.

While Scully was doing an necropsy on "Spanky", Tommy's rotting pet cat, her apron clearly sports the words "something smells goooood!"

Quotes:
Agent Harrison: Agent Scully...
Scully: Leyla Harrison. What a surprise.
Agent Harrison: Oh, good. I was afraid I should have made a call first. How have you been?
Scully: Oh... busy. And yourself?
Agent Harrison: I'm back in accounting now. Happily, mind you. No regrets. Although I did relish my big adventure on the X-Files unit last year.
Scully: I have about five minutes before my next class. Can we talk while I eat?
Agent Harrison: Not a problem. (She opens a file containing a photo of a dead woman covered in blood) It's an X-File. I'm sure of it.
Scully: Where'd you get this?
Agent Harrison: It all started when I tracked down a mileage discrepancy in the bureau's vehicle fleet. It turns out a really nice secretary from our Baltimore field office had used a Ford Taurus without authorisation.
Scully: And what does that have to do with...?
Agent Harrison: Well, she was desperate to visit her grandson which is why she borrowed the car. She's the one who told me about this case. This was her daughter.
Scully: And what makes you think this is an X-File?
Agent Harrison: Well, this dead woman's son — my friend's grandson — this is Tommy Conlon. Tommy is eight years old. And Tommy told her a monster killed his mother. And his father knows all about it. I know, I know. Why take the word of an eight-year-old? But... look at the autopsy report. Clearly this woman was murdered, and yet...
Scully: ...and yet the coroner concludes that she stabbed herself to death. Agent Harrison, I see no reason to disagree with the coroner.
Agent Harrison: But... I mean, how could someone stab themselves sixteen times?
Scully: Look, it is unusual but I have seen it before.
Agent Harrison: Tommy's father took the boy to some mountaintop in Pennsylvania, in the middle of nowhere. He took him away from his friends — his family. They don't even have a phone. Tommy's own grandmother isn't allowed to see him any more.
Scully: I'm sorry, Agent Harrison but unless you have other evidence...
Agent Harrison: Wait, wait. Tommy said that the same monster that killed his mother killed Spanky, his pet cat.
Scully: Unless you bring me Spanky, there's nothing I can do. (The class bell rings, she re-wraps her uneaten lunch and hands the sandwich to Agent Harrison) Apple and tuna salad?

Scully: Who is it?

Gabe Rotter: It's Gabe Rotter. I have the thing you've been waiting for.
Scully: Who?
Gabe Rotter: Gabe... Rotter. I'm a friend of Leyla Harrison.
Scully: Do you know what time it is?
Gabe Rotter: Hey, I just do as I'm told. Enjoy. (He holds out a small dirty box, Scully recoils from the stench)
Scully: Whoa. What the hell is that?
Gabe Rotter: A dead cat.
Scully: Come again?
Gabe Rotter: Yeah, his name's Spanky. Leyla said you're helping her out on a case and you needed it ASAP, so... hey, you're welcome.
Scully: I am going to be exceptionally polite. Leave. Now. Leave now and take that with you. (Gabe Rotter and his box of dead cat enter the apartment)
Gabe Rotter: Do you have any idea what I went through to get this thing? I snuck onto the property where your perp there used to live and I dug up the whole thing looking for it.
Scully: I don't care. Leave! Now! Please!
Gabe Rotter: Uh-uh. Leyla said she'd go out with me only if I got you the cat, and damn it, I got it.
Scully: Oh, god... (Gabe Rotter opens the box, Scully covers her mouth from the stench. Something about the cat catches her attention and she starts to make a phone call)
Gabe Rotter: You calling the cops on me?
Scully: If only. God help me, but Agent Harrison might be on to something after all.

(Gabe Rotter is holding Mulder's badge)

Gabe Rotter: So, this is Johnny Fabulous, huh? (Scully takes the badge away from him) Oh... 'Mulder's so smart. Mulder's so dreamy'. That's all Leyla ever talks about. Mulder and Scully, Scully and Mulder, blah, blah, blah.
Scully: This Sheriff, Jack Coogan, I'm just getting his answering machine.
Gabe Rotter: Hey, you're really worried. I thought you didn't find anything. You told me there wasn't anything inside that cat.
Scully: No, there wasn't. But it certainly seems like there should have been.
Gabe Rotter: What does that mean?
Scully: Well, the pattern of bite marks. I mean, it seems to me that the cat was trying to get at something in its stomach, to chew something out.
Gabe Rotter: Something. What?
Scully: I don't know. I mean, there wasn't any sign of it, but it obviously caused a great deal of pain. And I'm thinking maybe it goes the same for the woman who tried to stab herself. I mean, what if that was a frantic attempt to... to cut something out.
Gabe Rotter: Wait a minute. Is Leyla in danger up there?
Scully: All I know is we're wasting our time talking about this.
Gabe Rotter: Who are you calling now?
Scully: My mom. I'm going to beg her to baby-sit.

Tommy Conlon: I made this.

Reyes: You drew all of these? (Among the collection is a picture is of two earwigs and picture of a dark-haired woman wearing black with an earwig in her abdomen)
Tommy Conlon: This one's you.
Reyes: Why would you draw this, Tommy? Why would you imagine such awful things?
Tommy Conlon: Because I'm afraid.

Gabe Rotter: (reading) 'I want to believe.' Huh? So, this is where the magic happened?

Agent Harrison: It still happens. I'm happy it's in good hands.
Reyes: Hey.
Scully: Speak of the devil.
Doggett: That so?
Gabe Rotter: Leyla keeps going on and on about how you saved the day.
Agent Harrison: I really do have to commend you, Agent Doggett. You solved this case. If it weren't for you... I don't even like to think what would have happened. I have to say, it's clear to me now that you were better-equipped for this challenge than even Agent Mulder would have been. I mean your lack of imagination saved our lives.
Doggett: Gee, thanks.
Agent Harrison: That... didn't come out right. Did it?
Scully: So, any news on the boy?
Reyes: We just got back from the psych centre. Their doctors don't quite know what to make of him. I think it goes without saying. However, they have come up with a stopgap treatment.
Scully: What's that?
Doggett: A way to stifle his imagination.

Episode Number: 196
Season Number: 9
First Aired: Sunday, April 14, 2002
Production Code: 9X12

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Season 9: Improbable (9X14)

Written by: Chris Carter
Directed by: Chris Carter

In a casino, Mad Wayne loses at cards and heads to the bar to converse with Mr Burt, who is playing solitaire. Wayne's attention turns to a woman, who he follows to the bathroom. A short time later, the woman is found dead.

At the FBI, Reyes asks Scully if she believes in the hypothesis that the universe is knowable as a simple mathematical equation. Scully doesn't, and is disbelieving when Reyes attempts to tie together several murders by using a mathematical calculation. Scully notices a pattern in the bruising of the victims' skin, speculating that it was caused by a ring the killer wears. Meanwhile, Mad Wayne returns to the rundown hotel where he lives, and notices Mr Burt playing three-card Monte in the street below. Wayne confronts Burt and warns him to stay away.

Reyes enters Wayne's building to consult a numerologist, Vicki Burdick. Burdick doesn't really believe in numerology, however, but reluctantly promises to run a complete numerology in the hope of producing the killer's profile. Doggett calls Reyes, and reveals that two more victims were found with the pattern bruising on their faces. Returning to the Bureau, she is congratulated by Agent Fordyce for her work. Reyes' revelation of her "special insight" into the case during the debriefing is met with disbelieving silence.

Vicki Burdick calls, but is murdered by Mad Wayne before she can reveal what she discovered. As Scully performs an autopsy on Burdick's body, the patterns around her are all related to the number six. The pattern left on the victims' skin turns out not to be zeroes, but sixes. After Scully and Reyes finish looking for evidence in Burdick's office, they ride the elevator with Mad Wayne. Scully notices the ring on Wayne's finger and draws her gun, but the elevator doors close.

Scully and Reyes use the stairs, and end up in the hotel garage. Suddenly, a car pulls away, a mechanical gate closing behind it. Scully and Reyes realize they're trapped. They search the garage, and discover Mr Burt. He claims he is waiting for a friend, with whom he was to play checkers. With little else to do but wait, the agents busy themselves playing checkers with Mr Burt.

Scully notices the colours red and black on the checkerboard. She stares at Monica's hair, and then touches her own red hair. As the killer strikes in threes - in the order of blonde, red head and brunette - Scully wonders if she and Reyes are the killer's next target. Mr Burt wonders if the numbers are helping the agents catch the killer... or if they're helping him not get caught.

The agents notice a figure watching them from behind a parked car. Suddenly, the lights go out. As Scully heads for the breaker box, Monica tracks the mysterious figure. Suddenly, Mad Wayne jumps out of the darkness and a struggle ensues. But the stairwell door flies open and a dark figure emerges to fire three shots, killing Mad Wayne. The lights come back on, revealing that the shooter is Agent Doggett.

Doggett tells Reyes and Scully that something in the killer's pattern made him realize that they were his next victims. Moments later, the agents realize that Mr. Burt has vanished. Later, Scully asks Reyes about her numerology. Reyes tells her she's a nine. But when Scully asks about the mysterious checker-playing man they met in the garage, Reyes responds, "God knows."

Notes:
The usual "The Truth Is Out There" tagline at the end of the opening credits is replaced with "Dio ti ama" - Italian for "God Loves You". Presumably this is a reference to what might be the true nature of "Mr. Burt".

Chris Carter's "Executive Producer" credit at the end is in Italian.

Former Production Assistant-turned-Actor Angelo Vacco makes his fourth and final X-Files appearance in this episode. He previously appeared in the episodes ''F. Emasculata'' (Season 2), ''Talitha Cumi'' (Season 3), and ''Milagro'' (Season 6).

Quotes:
Scully: Agent Reyes?
Reyes: ...Three plus four is seven. Seven and six are thirteen...
Scully: What are you doing?
Reyes: Ten, thirteen, fourteen, sixteen... I want to ask you to open your mind to something. I don't want you to think I'm crazy, all right?
Scully: Why would I think that you're crazy?
Reyes: Do you believe the universe is knowable as a mathematical calculation of the whole, reducible to a single equation?
Scully: No.
Reyes: Why not?
Scully: Because I don't think that its complexity allows for it to be reduced so simply.
Reyes: But you accept that some people do?
Scully: I presume you mean the so-called 'Unified Theory'? What physicists often refer to as the 'Theory of Everything'? An equation so simple, they say that it might be printed on a t-shirt. It's a holy grail in the world of science. Potentially, the most important question that mankind has ever asked. But that such a complex calculation is even possible is the subject of enormous controversy. Is that what you mean?
Reyes: Um... potentially.

Scully: Agent Reyes, am I to presume that you've solved these unsolved murders by using some kind of numerical calculation?

Reyes: Letters of names assigned values, added to birth dates reduced to the lowest common denominator. A, J, S, equal one. B, K, T...
Scully: Numerology, Agent Reyes? You're trying to solve these cases by using what is essentially a child's game.
Reyes: It's been in use since the sixth century BC. When Pythagoras determined that the world was built on the power and influence of numbers.
Scully: And... when exactly did you stumble upon it?
Reyes: We did it as kids. I still do it. You meet people at a party ask them their birth date. It's kind of an icebreaker. And as I was reading the story of this woman, I calculated she was a 14 — what they call a karmic number — an extremely significant numerological number. Prompting me to look at all of these other unsolved cases, the victims of which, also work out to have karmic numbers — ten, thirteen, and sixteen.
Scully: So, in other words, you haven't actually solved these cases.
Reyes: Maybe 'cracked' is a better word.
Scully: Without any other evidence to directly connect them... circumstantial or forensic.
Reyes: What?
Scully: Can you enlarge this? Can I see the rest of those photos?
Reyes: What is it?
Scully: There's a pattern in the bruising. Yeah... all four of the victims have it. Three small circles. They might be from a ring that the killer wears.
Reyes: So you're saying these cases are connected. That numerology may actually be driving the killer and that I'm definitely not crazy.
Scully: Or that maybe you're both crazy.

Mr Burt: Music.

Reyes: You must really like music.

Mr Burt: Oh, I love it. The classics, of course. Mozart, Bach, the earlier jazz, Louis Armstrong, Sinatra, Doo-wop, Elvis, marching bands...
Scully: Sir, enough.
Mr Burt: Don't get me wrong. I love all music but I prefer the stuff that lasts. (Reyes picks up a couple of the anonymous CDs) You like them? Keep them. Thanks to the wondrous world of digital technology I can always make more.
Scully: What time is your friend coming?
Mr Burt: Soon.
Reyes: What do you want to do?
Scully: I don't know. I don't know.
Mr Burt: I have some nice dance music.
Scully: We happen to be here, Sir, because there is a serial killer on the loose.
Mr Burt: How many did he kill?
Reyes: Seven women now.
Mr Burt: How are you going to catch him?
Scully: We're not, stuck down here.
Mr Burt: You sure there's nothing I can do?
Scully: Do you have the combination to the door?
Mr Burt: No.
Reyes: Do you have a cell phone that works?
Mr Burt: I wish I did. There's always chequers.

Reyes: The killer is driven by an impulse we believe is numerological.

Mr Burt: Of course. He's a serial killer.
Scully: No, that's not what she means. She thinks that his acts are determined by a calculation of numbers.
Mr Burt: So the killer's not in control of his actions the numbers are?
Reyes: Yes.
Mr Burt: Well, are the numbers helping you catch him or are they helping him not get caught?
Reyes: That's a good question.
Mr Burt: So, it's a kind of a game.
Scully: No, it's not.
Reyes: No, maybe it is. Maybe that's what this is about — who wins the game.
Mr Burt: I think she's onto something.
Scully: Agent Reyes, you can't reduce a complex factor as physical and psychological into a game.
Reyes: You're a scientist, Agent Scully. Your world is ruled by numbers: Atoms, molecules, periodicity.
Mr Burt: Wow!
Reyes: And wouldn't it follow that everything made from those things is ruled by numbers, too: Genes, chromosomes, us, the universe.
Mr Burt: Go, girl.
Scully: Agent Reyes, that is utter nonsense, okay? It would mean that all we are are chequers on a chequerboard being moved around by some forces completely outside and unbeknownst to us.
Reyes: What did Einstein say?
Mr Burt: Einstein — now there's a winner.
Reyes: 'God does not play dice with the universe'.
Scully: Nor does he play chequers. Look, Agent Reyes, you can't reduce all of life, all creation, every piece of art architecture, music, literature, into a game of win or lose.
Reyes: Why not? Maybe the winners are those who play the game better; those who see the patterns and the connections like we're doing right now.
Mr Burt: Free will.
Reyes: Maybe we're not the next victims. Maybe we're here because we saw the numbers and read the patterns and we're here to catch the killer.
Scully: But the killer is outside, killing, and we are stuck in a parking garage.
Reyes: What if he's not? What if we didn't look hard enough? What if the killer's still down here? (She draws her weapon. A shadowy figure hiding behind a car withdraws quickly into the shadows)
Scully: What are you looking at? (The lights go out)
Mr Burt: Same thing you are.

Reyes: Hello?

Scully: All right, I need to know.
Reyes: What?
Scully: What my numerology is, and what my number... whatever you call it. What am I?
Reyes: You're a nine.
Scully: Which means what?
Reyes: Nine is completion. You've evolved through the experiences of all the other numbers to a spiritual realisation that this life is only part of a larger whole. Dana, are you there?
Scully: There's something else that's bugging me.
Reyes: What's that?
Scully: Who was that man?
Reyes: God knows.

Episode Number: 195
Season Number: 9
First Aired: Sunday, April 7, 2002
Production Code: 9X14

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