Season 6: Trevor (6X17)

Written by: Ken Hawryliw and Jim Guttridge
Directed by: Rob Bowman

At a prison farm in Mississippi, inmate Pinker Rawls is put in to solitary confinement following an assault on a fellow prisoner. Rawls is held in the shack in the middle of the work yard. But while the other inmates prepare for an approaching storm, a passing tornado rips up the shack and deposits it 3 miles away, Rawls is presumed dead. Shortly afterwards the Captain of the prison is found cut in two in his locked office. Mulder and Scully are brought in to work the case, Scully performs an autopsy on the Captain and speculates about spontaneous human combustion as the causing factor. But when Mulder finds the wall in the Captain's office is so brittle he can knock holes in it, he is convinced the Captain was murdered.

That evening a security guard finds Rawls in the Val-U-Mart store stealing clothes and arrests him, handcuffing him while he radios in. But Rawls manages to escape the handcuffs and steals the guard's car. When Mulder examines the handcuffs, he discovers that they too are very brittle, so brittle he can break them in two with his hands. Further investigation reveals that Rawls carried out a robbery eight years earlier and the ninety thousand dollars was never recovered, it appears he is trying to find his old girlfriend June, to get what he is due.

Mulder theories that Rawls is able to pass through objects by some how changing their composition, a possible side affect of his encounter with the tornado. But how can they stop a man with such a power.

Notes:
"Trevor" is named after Trevor Marquiss, a young nephew of Producer John Shiban.

Originally this episode included an effects-laden action sequence in which Mulder pursues Rawls from one end of a motel to the other. Rawls would have taken a shortcut by passing through the motel's interior walls. This scene was never shot both to save money and shift the emphasis of the episode from the supernatural to the emotional.

Guest-stars John Diehl and Catherine Dent later go on to appear in the FX series "The Shield."

When Scully and Trevor are locked in the telephone booth, Scully whispers "shit" when Pinker grabs the rock. Guess it missed the censors.

Quotes:
Scully: Should we arrest David Copperfield?
Mulder: Yes, we should... but not for this. Now this is, uh, Raybert Fellowes, superintendent of Road Farm Six, Mississippi Department of Corrections. One of his guards found him in his office. Not a drop of blood in the place.
Scully: Well, maybe he was killed elsewhere.
Mulder: No, I don't think so. Whoever did it took 40 minutes to do it in the middle of a tornado. What do you make of that?
Scully: I don't know. It's, uh... it's not a simple bisection. There's a considerable amount of his abdomen missing. I mean, it almost looks like a burning but it's too localised. Maybe an industrial acid.
Mulder: There's, uh... no acid found in his office.
Scully: Hmm... Spontaneous human combustion.
Mulder: Scully...!
Scully: Well, isn't that where you're going with this?
Mulder: Dear Diary: Today my heart leapt when Agent Scully suggested spontaneous human combustion.
Scully: Mulder, there are one or two somewhat well-documented cases. Mulder, shut up. Okay. What do you make of this?
Mulder: I don't have a theory. But I know of someone who does.

Mulder: Ugh! Ugh. Gesundheit.

Scully: Oh, my God. Pistol in his hand, slide locked open, shell casings everywhere. I don't see any bullet holes anywhere, Mulder.
Mulder: Don't recognise him from his driver's license, do you?
Scully: Bo Merkle. This is his house.
Mulder: Yeah, but Rawls used to live here and he's come back looking for something.
Scully: $90,000. The wire office robbery eight years ago. The money hasn't been recovered.
Mulder: I don't think he spent that in prison.
Scully: I don't think Mr Merkle did either, judging by the decor.

Episode Number: 134
Season Number: 6
First Aired: Sunday, April 11, 1999
Production Code: 6X17