Season 8: Invocation (8X06)

Written by: David Amann
Directed by: Richard Compton

Flashback to September 1990, Lisa Underwood is sitting talking to a friend while her 7 year old son Billy plays on a swing set at the Bethune Elementary's school carnival. When she looks for her son again he has vanished. As she searches frantically for Billy a dark-haired boy walks off holding Billy's backpack.

Ten years later, Lisa goes to the Elementary school to pick up her son Josh. The principal takes her to the swing set, where her son Billy is sitting there, the same age as when he disappeared. Scully and Doggett arrive at the hospital where Billy is being checked out.

Scully pronounces him fit and health but he refuses to talk. Doggett treating the case as a kidnapping attempts to interview Billy to find out who took him, much to Lisa's annoyance that she refuses to co-operate further. Scully believes that Billy is not the same child, however test results prove he is.

Doggett uses the original case file on Billy's disappearance to track down the dark-haired boy, Ronnie Purnell, he goes to question him but Ronnie denies having anything to do with it. That night Lisa argues with her husband Doug about Billy's return. Next morning Josh is found covered in blood although he is unharmed. A knife found in his bedroom has never been seen before.

Tests reveal that the blood is Billy's but he too is unharmed. When Ronnie is seen outside the Underwood house, Scully and Doggett question him, he claims he did not believe Billy was really there. Leading them to believe he knows more about the case.

Later, Ronnie goes into the woods and unearths the skeleton of Billy. While Doggett and Scully were questioning Ronnie, Josh goes missing. Ronnie eventually leads them to the killer and to Billy's grave. Doggett refuses to believe.

Quotes:
Doggett: How you doing, Billy? My name's John. I'm going to have a seat over here, is that okay? Is that all right? Billy, I want you to know that you're not alone. I've talked to lots of other boys and girls who've been hurt just like you. Sometimes when they talk about it the hurt starts to go away. You want to talk about it, Billy? You know, maybe you think bad things happened to you because you've been a bad boy... but I'm here to tell you, that's not true. The bad guy is the one who took you away and it's up to you and me to get the bad guy. See, 'cause as big and tough as I am, I can't do it alone. I need your help. Can you tell me about him, Billy? What's his name? What did he look like? You remember this, don't you, Billy? Would you like to have that back? (Billy Underwood reaches for the backpack, but Doggett moves it away from him)
Lisa Underwood: What is he doing?
Scully: Uh...
Doggett: All I want is his name.
(Lisa Underwood angrily enters the room, picking up Billy Underwood and the backpack)
Lisa Underwood: Who the hell do you think you are? He's only a little boy. (She carries her son out of the examination room)
Scully: You think this is a game?
Doggett: A serious game; one we have to win.
Scully: Have you really worked kid cases before, Agent Doggett? Child abductions?
Doggett: I worked the child abduction task force. I know the horror stories, but this kid can help us.
Scully: This isn't just a horror story. This is a biological impossibility.
Doggett: Well, that's your area of expertise. I just want to put the person who did this out of business. Billy just didn't show up. He got away or was let go. And if he can talk, he can tell us by who. Or he can look at photos in the files and point to the man who did this so this doesn't happen to some other little boy.
Scully: You are ignoring the fact that he is still seven years old.

Scully: I mean the same boy. He has no cavities. He has no tooth decay. He still has four baby teeth that he's never lost. He had a routine blood test six weeks before he disappeared in 1990. His cell counts, his enzymes, his hormone levels, they are all exactly the same as they were ten years ago.

Doggett: Now how can that be possible?
Scully: It's medically impossible.
Doggett: So, what's the punch line? Where are you saying he's been?
Scully: There are... X-Files cases that describe similar paranormal findings. Alien abductees who came back with anomalous medical stats.
Doggett: You know, these words: 'anomalous', 'supernatural', 'paranormal'... They purport to explain something by not explaining it. It's lazy.
Scully: I'm not saying that I can explain it, Agent Doggett, but this is definitely not normal.

Scully: Count to ten, Agent Doggett.

Doggett: He took Billy.
Scully: He couldn't have.
Doggett: How are you going to back that up with Billy now missing from his home?
Scully: By the certain knowledge that not five minutes earlier, I saw him enter his home with his mother.
Doggett: I saw him! I saw Billy riding in the car with Ronnie. Why else would Ronnie take off like he did?
Scully: It's impossible, Agent Doggett, like everything else about this case. Like how Billy can be in his home one minute and then in Ronnie's car the next. Everything about this case is impossible.
Doggett: This kid is the key, Agent Scully. I've been saying that from the beginning and I'll say it now.

Doggett: I don't believe it.

Scully: Okay, the clothes, the age and condition of the bones, the location of the grave. There is no doubt that that is Billy Underwood's skeleton that is in that grave.
Doggett: We spent time with this boy. Doctors took Billy's blood. You examined him yourself. Now, I can't accept it. I can't believe we're asking them to.
Scully: I know, but the forensic evidence is going to come out, and what then? What if I'm right?
Doggett: Well, what then, Agent Scully? What we do? We move on, let it go, case closed?
Scully: Look, I know where you are with this. I have been there. I know what you're feeling — that you've failed and that you have to explain this somehow. And maybe you can.
Doggett: Not if that's Billy's body, I can't.
Scully: But maybe that's explanation enough. That that's not Billy's brother lying in that grave, too. That that man who did this is never going to be able to do it again. Isn't that what you wanted, Agent Doggett?
Doggett: Agent Scully, don't ask me to believe that this is some kind of justice from beyond the grave.
Scully: All I'm saying is that maybe you succeeded... whether you're willing to see that or not.

Episode Number: 166

Season Number: 8
First Aired: Sunday, December 3, 2000
Production Code: 8X06