Season 8: Patience (8X04)

Written by: Chris Carter
Directed by: Chris Carter

Scully stares at Mulder's nameplate on his desk in the X-files basement office, she is interrupted by voices outside, Doggett enters with two other agents, seeing Scully's glare he dismisses them. Doggett comments on the lack of desks in the office but Scully tells him it is Mulder's office, they are only using it for a while.

She shows Doggett slides of two homicides in Burley, Idaho a husband and wife were killed and human bites were discovered on their bodies. They travel to the crime scene to investigate and are met by Detective Abbott, who believes the couple were the victims of an animal attack and dismisses Scully's theory that the couple were attacked by a human accordingly.

However even Doggett believes that a human was involved after he finds prints. However Scully discounts his idea that it is the work of a deranged killer with a deformed foot, when she finds evidence that part of the victims bodies appear to have been regurgitated and nail marks on the porch indicate something had been hanging there.

At the morgue Scully notes that the scratches on the victims bodies match with those found on their porch. And when the lab reports reveal that the saliva found on the couple contains an Enzyme found only in bats, Scully leaps to the conclusion that they are on the trail of a human bat. With possible links to a 40 year old case when Doggett later produces a newspaper article from 1956 about a human bat reportedly shot by hunters following the murder of several people.

Notes:
As of this episode David Duchovny has been removed from the opening credits.

Quotes:
Scully: Good morning.
Doggett: Morning. (to the agents) Um... I'll catch you guys later. (They leave silently) Some friends... they're just curious.
Scully: I'm not here to be a curiosity, Agent Doggett. I'm here to work.
Doggett: I am, too, Agent Scully. I've been here all weekend and early this morning, I went over every X-File in the cabinet there. I just left to get some coffee.
Scully: Well... do you have any questions?
Doggett: Just a few. Maybe first you could tell me where your area is here and... uh... where mine's going to be.
Scully: This is my partner's office, Agent Doggett. You and I will just be using it for a while. (She sets Mulder's nameplate down firmly on the desk)

Scully: Understand, Detective, that we've seen cases like yours regularly on our unit. Agent Doggett has only just been assigned to the X-Files. I can assure you that there's nothing baffling about human bite marks.

Detective Abbott: Well, that's just what I was getting around to, ma'am. We're not so sure now that these bites are human. The bodies were discovered by neighbours, so there was contamination of the general crime scene. My boys did a real damn good job of separating the various shoe prints and pulling these. Come on over. (He shows them a dusted animal-like footprint with four toes) Right there, see that?
Doggett: What is it?
Detective Abbott: It's not human, I know that.
Scully: It's not quite animal, either.
Detective Abbott: There's only four toes.
Scully: That's not an unheard of birth defect. Uh, no more rare than polydactylism.
Detective Abbott: What did she just say?
Doggett: I assume she means it could be human. Is that a fair assumption?
Scully: I say that assumption is the problem here. A strange print is found and immediately the most important piece of evidence is just thrown out to try and force an explanation. Maybe this print can help explain those bite marks.

Scully: You know, we've been out here for nine hours. The only thing this man seems to be in danger of is terminal loneliness. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is all just a... a grand coincidence and we're wasting our time out here.

Doggett: You were so sure before.
Scully: Yeah, I was sure of the facts as I had deduced them scientifically. Maybe I'm... I'm trying to force them into shape. Maybe I'm manufacturing a theory.
Doggett: Well, what happened to taking a leap?
Scully: Maybe I'm just trying too hard.
Doggett: To do what? To be Mulder? You know, I'm not Oxford educated. About all I know about the paranormal is men are from Mars and women are from Venus. But I don't think you're wrong, Agent Scully.
Scully: What makes you say that?
Doggett: Well, I'm no Fox Mulder, but I can tell when a man's hiding something. Myron Stefaniuk fishes a woman out of the river who's been gone for 40 years. He has a brother he hasn't seen in over 40 years. A brother who just happened to hunt down some kind of creature over 40 years ago.
Scully: Well, what does he have to hide?
Doggett: Well, that's what I'm hoping this good cop work is going to show us.

Scully: Do you believe it, Agent Doggett?

Doggett: Believe it?
Scully: That this thing is still out there and some day it's going to come after us?
Doggett: I'm pretty sure I hit it, Agent Scully. Pretty sure you hit it, too. The guys upstairs were making some noise about this case — about what's in our field report.
Scully: Yeah. You'll get used to it. I, uh... I never had a desk in here, Agent Doggett, but I'll see that you get one.
Doggett: All right.
Scully: And I just want to say, um... thank you for watching my back.
Doggett: Well, I never saw it as an option. I'm sure you don't either.

Episode Number: 164

Season Number: 8
First Aired: Sunday, November 19, 2000
Production Code: 8X04