Season 7: Requiem (7X22)

Written by: Chris Carter
Directed by: Kim Manners

A police car races down the highway in Bellefleur, Oregon. In the driver's seat is Detective Miles, who radios to his deputy, Ray Hoese, that he is approaching with backup on a downed aircraft in the woods. Suddenly, the digital clock scrolls backwards. The car loses power as it careens into another sheriff's cruiser, parked on the side of the road. A dazed and injured Detective Miles gets out of his car. A big fire burns in the distance through the trees. He notices the hands on his wristwatch are spinning backwards, as he approaches the other vehicle. An unconscious Ray Hoese slumps over the wheel. The deputy's eyes are swollen shut, the lids and membranes blistered and burned. Detective Miles looks down to see he has stepped in a bubbling, green substance. When he turns around, another Deputy Hoese stands before him. The man's eyes are unscathed. This Hoese has three bullet holes in his chest with the same green substance oozing out of him.

In Washington, Mulder sits before a large pile of receipts. Agent Chesty Short, the deputy chief auditor of the FBI, admonishes both Mulder and Scully for the extravagant expenses racked up by the X-files. He questions what they are investigating, now that the Samantha case has been resolved.

Back in their office, the agents receive a call from Billy Miles, who reports that the abduction experiences are occurring again. This time, however, they are not happening to him. Two teenagers scour the Oregon forest in an excited search for a UFO. One of the boys steps into an invisible force field and gets shaken at warp speed. Spooked by this sudden disappearance, the boy's friend Richie drops his flashlight, which has suddenly become red hot, and runs out of the woods.

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

Determined to rebuke Agent Short and spend more of the FBI's money, Mulder and Scully set off to Oregon to meet with Billy Miles, who is now a sheriff's deputy. The unidentified craft has yet to be found, and Deputy Hoese is still missing. Billy's father, Detective Miles, claims that there was never another craft. The agents follow the Miles officers to the scene. At the spot where Detective Miles' car went dead, Mulder sees an "X" spray painted on the pavement. It is the same mark he made on the road seven years prior to designate an anomalous electrical disturbance. Scully locates shells on the ground from Hoese's gun, but there is no indication of what he might have been shooting at. The agents drive off, and Detective Miles puts the evidence bag in his trunk - next to the body of Ray Hoese.

Mulder and Scully visit Hoese's wife, Teresa, and are surprised to find she is an abduction victim who approached them for help seven years ago. She says that her husband is also an abductee who had been taken and tested many times. As Scully holds Teresa's baby, Mulder watches his partner. The sight of Scully with a child seemingly has an effect on him. Scully comes to Mulder's motel room later that evening, pale and perspiring, suffering from chills. He covers her up in his bed and lies with his arms around her for warmth. He's been thinking that her personal costs are too high when motherhood and her health have been taken away from her. He demands that there has to be an end.

Outside the motel, Krycek sits behind the wheel of a parked car. He is on the phone to the CSM, telling him that no one can find the spaceship, even as Mulder and Scully search for the deputy. The CSM assures him that the ship is really there but it just rebuilding itself. Finding the deputy will uncover the ship. Ever faithful that his minion will be successful, the CSM is only wary of Krycek's true intentions once he finds the ship.

Across town, Teresa Hoese is awakened by the return of her missing husband. When Ray doesn't speak to her, she realizes that he is only an imposter. She gashes him with a pair of scissors, but the stabs don't faze him. Green ooze bubbles from the holes in his chest, causing Teresa's eyes to burn and blister. She stumbles and is grabbed by the imposter.

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

A suspicious Billy returns home and draws his gun on the man that appears to be his father. Detective Miles calms his son before morphing into the Alien Bounty Hunter. At the same time, Mulder and Scully enter the house to warn Billy. Both men have instantly vanished. Mulder sits in his FBI office two days later, when Skinner enters with Krycek and Marita. There is a moment of complete surprise, but Mulder's quickly out of his chair to attack his nemesis. They explain that the CSM is dying, but his final wish is to revive the conspiracy. While the Bounty Hunter eliminates proof of testing on abductees, the spaceship, cloaked in an energy field, rebuilds itself.

That evening, the Lone Gunmen are brought in to Skinner's office to consult. They determine the ship's location even though the military has not picked it up on satellites. Mulder listens suspiciously to Krycek and Marita in silence. Scully abruptly leaves the room and Mulder follows her into the hallway. Since they are reclaiming abductees, he refuses to allow her go back to Oregon.

Scully remains in Washington with the Lone Gunmen, scrutinizing the abductee reports. Each one has reported experiencing the same irregular brain activity that struck Mulder earlier in the year. She concludes that Mulder is really the one in danger of being taken. Without warning, Scully collapses, and the Gunmen jump to save her. Meanwhile, Mulder and Skinner enter the Oregon forest. They lay out a series of laser pointers to detect any abnormal movements. As Mulder follows the red beams, something catches his eye. The red lines deflect in space and define the rough shape of a dome, but it seems as if they are colliding with an energy field. Mulder reaches out to touch the field and his hand vibrates at a high speed.

Looking up from laying down the last laser pointer, Skinner notices that Mulder is gone. Inside the field, a bright cone of light reflects on Mulder. His expression is full of awe. The other abductees are there to greet him with gentle smiles. A spaceship hovers overhead, and the Bounty Hunter enters the circle of abductees. The light grows in intensity and Mulder's look of awe turns to fear.

Outside the force field, Skinner is unaware of this activity and calls out for Mulder. All of a sudden, a spaceship appears from out of nowhere and Skinner watches it rise into the night sky. He is left alone in the darkness. Krycek reports back to the CSM that he failed his mission, but the CSM suggests that perhaps Krycek never meant to succeed. As Marita watches, Krycek shoves the CSM's wheelchair down a flight of stairs. The Cigarette-Smoking Man's body lies on the ground, motionless and apparently dead.

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

Notes:
A 'requiem' is a mass for a deceased person, or a musical composition for such a mass. It is a hymn, composition, or service for commemorating the dead.

In Chris Carter's original script, there was no revelation about Scully's pregnancy. Instead it has Mulder lying on a table aboard the alien ship and his father coming to him and comforting him.

Three deleted scenes in this episode include an extended scene where Mulder and Scully arrive at Oregon for the first time after 7 years, an extended scene where Scully is questioned by the FBI agent, and an extended version of Marita Covarrubias' conversation with Kryceck

The FBI agent states that Mulder and Scully have 160 cases investigated, the same number of episodes done to that point. Of course this could be said to be incorrect, because of the 2 and 3 parters, but it's a nice wink to the audience.

Quotes:
Special Agent Short: Lariat car rentals. Totals. Would you like to see the figure?
Mulder: Is that a lot?
Special Agent Short: A lot? Gas, expenses... the motel rooms alone. By FBI standards these numbers are out of control.
Mulder: We could start sharing rooms.
Special Agent Short: You're under evaluation. There has to be a point when we say no.
Mulder: You can't really compare what we do to other departments in the Bureau.
Special Agent Short: Right. This business with aliens.
Mulder: Well, there's more to it than that.
Special Agent Short: But, at the end of the day you'd say aliens are your real focus.
Mulder: That's the reason I got started, yeah.
Special Agent Short: Investigating your sister's abduction and the government conspiracy around it. Both of which have been resolved, correct?
Mulder: Nothing has been resolved exactly.
Special Agent Short: In this case report here, it's concluded your sister is dead, as well as the men who took her. This is your handwriting here on the report, Agent Mulder?
Mulder: Yeah.
Special Agent Short: So, what exactly is left to investigate?

Special Agent Short: I see the money bleed out, but it just doesn't seem to make the results of your work any better. So many of the cases you investigate are left unexplained. Makes it hard to justify the expense.

Scully: So much of the work that we do cannot be measured in standard terms.
Special Agent Short: How would you measure it?
Scully: We open doors with the X-Files, which lead to other doors.
Special Agent Short: Doors leading to... 'A conspiracy of men who cooperated with alien beings to create human alien hybrids.' So we could all become slaves of an alien invasion.
Scully: I believe that there was once a conspiracy. I believe I was taken by men who subjected me to medical tests, which gave me cancer and left me barren.
Special Agent Short: But you don't believe in aliens?
Scully: I've seen things that I cannot deny.

Nurse Greta: Hi. He's anxious to see you.

Smoking Man: I was worried about you, Alex.
Krycek: Cut the crap, old man.
Smoking Man: I heard about your incarceration.
Krycek: You had me thrown in that hellhole.
Smoking Man: For trying to sell something that was mine, was it not? I hope we can all move forward... Put the past behind us. We have a... singular opportunity now.
Krycek: A singular opportunity?
Smoking Man: There's been a crash in Oregon. An alien ship has collided with a military aircraft. Recovery is all-important. It's Roswell and Corona all over again — 50 years later. It's our chance to rebuild the project.
Marita Covarrubias: How do you know someone hasn't already recovered it?
Smoking Man: It's never quite so easy.

Teresa Hoese: Yes?

Scully: Sorry to bother you, Mrs Hoese. We're with the FBI.
Teresa Hoese: Is this about my husband?
Mulder: You're Teresa? Teresa Nemman?
Teresa Hoese: Yes.
Mulder: Seven years ago you came to Agent Scully and I for help. You were afraid of being abducted.
Teresa Hoese: Oh, my God. Please, come in.
Teresa Hoese: I'm sorry... I sort of lost it when I realised who you were.
Scully: We, uh... we came to see if there's anything that you could tell us that might help to find your husband.
Mulder: We had no idea you were his wife.
Teresa Hoese: I don't know if it's important. Maybe I just hope it's not, but... Ray and I have a connection, that's even deeper for us.
Mulder: He's an abductee, too?
Teresa Hoese: He kept it a secret from almost everyone. It doesn't make you real popular around here. His experiences were a lot more terrifying than mine. He was taken many times and tested. I have extensive medical records on him and photos of his scars. I'll get you the files.

Scully: I, um... I was starting to get ready for bed and I started to feel really dizzy — vertigo or something — and then I just... I started to get chills.

Mulder: You want me to call a doctor?
Scully: No, I just... I just want to get warm.
(Mulder tucks Scully into bed, then lies behind her and embraces her in spooning cuddle) Thank you.
Mulder: It's not worth it, Scully.
Scully: What?
Mulder: I want you to go home.
Scully: Oh, Mulder, I'm going to be fine.
Mulder: No, I've been thinking about it. Looking at you tonight, holding that baby... knowing everything that's been taken away from you. A chance for motherhood and your health and that baby. I think that... I don't know, maybe they're right.
Scully: Who's right?
Mulder: The FBI. Maybe what they say is true, though for all the wrong reasons. It's the personal costs that are too high. There so much more you need to do with your life. There's so much more than this. There has to be an end, Scully.

Marita Covarrubias: Why the trouble? To bring Krycek here and then toy with him?

Smoking Man: Do you trust Alex, Marita?
Marita Covarrubias: Then why bring him here at all?
Smoking Man: You misunderstand. I've great faith that Alex will find the ship. But if I told him how, he'd be... he'd be tempted to sell the information.
Marita Covarrubias: And you're certain it's there?
Smoking Man: Oh, yes. But it won't be there forever. It's rebuilding itself.
Marita Covarrubias: If he finds the ship, then what?
Smoking Man: To possess it, is to possess the answer to all things. Every possible imaginable question.
Marita Covarrubias: To God?
Smoking Man: There's no God, Marita. What we call God is only alien — an intelligence much greater than us.
Marita Covarrubias: They're coming here, aren't they?
Smoking Man: They're only coming back.

Skinner: Agent Mulder! I think you should listen to him.

Krycek: You've got every reason to want to see me dead. But you've got to listen to me now. You have the singular opportunity.
Mulder: Here or you want to step outside.
Marita Covarrubias: Agent Mulder. Cancerman is dying. His last wish is to rebuild his Project, to have us revive the Conspiracy. It all begins in Oregon.
Krycek: The ship that collided with that Navy plane. It's in those woods.
Mulder: There's no ship in those woods.
Krycek: Yeah, it's there. Cloaked in an energy field. Great, mops up the evidence.
Mulder: Who?
Krycek: The Alien Bounty Hunter. Billy Miles. Teresa Hoese, her husband. He's eliminating proof of all the tests. We're asking ourselves, we're asking ourselves, 'Where are they?' They're right there. They're right under our noses. I'm giving you the chance to change that, to hold the proof.
Mulder: Why me and why now.
Krycek: I want to damn the soul of that Cigarette Smiking Son-of-a-Bitch.

Scully: This just can't be.

Frohike: What are you looking at?
Scully: Medical records — Billy Miles and other known abductees in Bellefleur, Oregon. They all experienced anomalous brain activity.
Byers: Electro-encephalitic trauma.
Scully: Which is exactly what Mulder experienced earlier this year.
Langley: I don't understand.
Scully: There was something out there in that field. It knocked me back. Because it didn't want me. Mulder thinks that it's me that's in danger of being taken.
Frohike: When it's Mulder who's in danger. Scully?
(Scully faints)
Lone Gunmen: Scully! Whoa! You okay? Oh, gee.

Skinner: Agent Scully.

Scully: Hi.
Skinner: Hi. How you feeling?
Scully: I'm feeling fine. They're just running some tests on me.
Skinner: Well... um...
Scully: I already heard.
Skinner: I lost him. I don't know what else I can say. I lost him. I'll be asked... what I saw. And what I saw, I can't deny. I won't.
Scully: We will find him. I have to. Sir, um... there's something else I need to tell you. Something that I need for you to keep to yourself. I'm having a hard time explaining it. Or believing it. But, um... I'm pregnant.

Highlights from ''Requiem''

Episode Number: 161

Season Number: 7

First Aired: Sunday, May 21, 2000

Production Code: 7X22