Season 8: This is Not Happening (8X14)

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

A car chases a white light as it moves through the sky in Helena, Montana. The driver, Richie Szalay (last seen in Season 7, ''Requiem (7X22)''), snaps photographs of the light until it comes to a halt. It is a UFO, hovering above the trees. Richie gets out of the car and is speechless. The craft gets away before he can take its picture, and Richie yells "This is not happening!" in frustration to himself. He notices a man walking toward the spot where the spaceship landed and Richie calls out to him. As the man runs away, Richie follows, but he stumbles over a woman's body lying naked on the ground.

Back at the FBI, Doggett opens up a desk drawer to find Mulder's nameplate inside. He is somewhat troubled, but is startled by Scully rushing in the office. He won't tell her why he called her, but instead takes her up to Skinner. Both men are reluctant to tell Scully whatever news they are hiding. Skinner finally reveals that there was a UFO encounter in Montana and the man who reported it is Richie Szalay, whom Mulder and Scully met the previous spring in Oregon. "Are you trying to tell me this has something to do with Mulder?" she asks. Richie found Teresa Hoese, the woman abducted the same time as Mulder. She was returned, but she is barely alive.

The agents travel to Montana to see Teresa. Her doctor describes her condition as if someone was performing torturous experiments. She has scars on her cheeks, and there is damage to her soft palette and abdomen, but there are no foreign implants in her body. Scully, Doggett and Skinner pay a visit to Richie, who had been trying to find his friend Gary. Gary was also abducted right before Mulder. Richie had followed UFO sightings to Montana where he came across the craft. Doggett shows Richie plaster castings of footprints from the scene. The prints are of Nike sneakers, and Doggett doubts that the man Richie saw was actually an alien. After the questioning, Scully confronts Doggett about his refusal to accept any explanations outside of the ordinary. Doggett says that she is the one who is afraid to confront the truth about what might have happened to Mulder.

Mulder lies bound in the alien chair, but no experiments are being done. His body has decayed so much that he appears to be dead. Suddenly Scully awakes from her sleep and realizes that it was merely a nightmare. She knocks on Skinner's motel room door, teary-eyed. "What if he's dead?" she cries. Skinner tries to comfort her, assuring her that they still might find Mulder alive. Meanwhile, Jeremiah Smith, the alien healer (last seen in Season 4, ''Harrenvolk (4X01)'') walks into the hospital wearing Nike sneakers. When a nurse approaches him, he immediately morphs into Teresa Hoese's doctor and tells the nurse that he wants Teresa transferred.

The phone wakes Scully in her motel room. She is notified about Teresa Hoese being moved. Scully meets Doggett and Skinner in the field where Teresa was found. Doggett asks that they listen to another point of view, and introduces them to Special Agent Monica Reyes, who is standing alone on a cliff, smoking. Doggett thinks Reyes has some expertise that might come in handy. Reyes explains that she has been briefed of the case and describes it as "interesting." She characterizes Teresa's injuries as similar to what has been found in cult abuse cases, wondering if perhaps there was some kind of abduction group of followers that Mulder got caught up with. Much to the consternation of Scully and Skinner, Doggett insists that they go after the cult leader. Based on a hunch, Reyes believes that Teresa was meant to be left alive. Scully walks away, telling Doggett that Reyes makes no sense, but Doggett insists that he will not go on a wild goose chase after another Alien Bounty Hunter. Meanwhile, a man named Absalom walks into a small boarding house where Jeremiah Smith is treating the ailing Teresa Hoese. Absalom watches as the alien healer places his hand over Teresa's face. Her bruising magically disappears.

In the hospital, Scully catches Reyes examining Teresa's brain scans. Reyes admits that she is looking for alien implants. Scully questions why a disbeliever like her would be looking for such a thing. Reyes disputes the claim. "Let's just say I don't not believe," Reyes says. "I try to stay open." Reyes explains that she has certain spiritual notions, and although she doesn't have any feelings about Mulder she does sense Scully's fear. She advises Scully to try and stay open too. Later, Reyes drives along a Montana highway. Her car putters off and then immediately turns back on. She sees a bright light in the sky above her. "No freakin' way," she mutters and sets off after it. The light disappears over the mountain, and she sees Jeremiah Smith (wearing Nike sneakers) and Absalom pick up a body stranded in the field. Reyes pulls out her gun and orders them to halt. They manage to escape in a pickup truck, but Reyes sees another body lying on the ground. It is Gary Cory, Richie's friend who was abducted in ''Requiem'' (7X22).

Scully performs the autopsy on Gary, finding radial scarring on his ankles, wrist and face. This matches what she dreamed Mulder had been exposed to. Skinner and Doggett look on, but she becomes emotional and stops the autopsy. Richie is brought into the medical bay and is stunned by the sight of his friend's body. Scully breaks down. Waiting outside, Doggett is approached by Reyes. She senses that he is hurting for his partner. Reyes compares this to a past case where they unsuccessfully looked for Doggett's missing son. She believes that this is why Doggett is so determined to find Mulder. Reyes shows him a police wanted poster of Absalom, the man she saw in the field. He was the leader of a doomsday cult and the license plate on the pickup truck they were driving is registered to a nearby farm.

At the farm, Jeremiah Smith orders Absalom to move the legion of followers out. "They're coming," he says. "You can't let them find him." Federal agents swarm the farm and round up the people. Skinner, Scully, Doggett and Reyes are among the SWAT team. They find Teresa Hoese, fully healed, in one of the beds. While interrogated by Doggett, Absalom says that he can't explain why it happens. The spaceship drops off the injured abductees, and he comes to retrieve them with the sole purpose of helping them. Doggett doubts his intentions. Although there are cameras on the compound, there is no footage of Teresa being healed. Scully shows Absalom a photo of Mulder and asks if there is videotape of him. Absalom has no answer.

That night, Scully returns to the motel, but the lights in her room do not work. She is amazed to see Mulder standing by the window of her room. Reyes approaches and the image of Mulder disappears. Reyes brings her to see tapes from the compound. Scully recognizes the other man on the tapes as Jeremiah Smith, the Alien Healer. On the videotape recorded during the FBI raid, Smith morphs into Agent Doggett. The agents return to the farm compound to look for Jeremiah Smith. Scully pulls out one unrecognizable man who is wearing the Nike sneakers and he morphs into Jeremiah Smith. He tells her that by exposing him she is putting abductees in danger. "Where's Mulder?" she pleads with the healer, but before he can answer, Skinner asks her to come outside. "You must protect me," Smith says to her. Skinner tells Scully that they found Mulder and she takes off for the field. Mulder is lying on the ground, dead. She runs back to get Jeremiah Smith for his healing powers, but the lights of a spacecraft shine overhead. The ship hovers over the compound and the other agents watch as the light radiates the building. Scully rushes into the room where she had just interrogated Smith. He is gone. Scully cries out in frustration and horror: "This is not happening!"

Notes:
Annabeth Gish is billed under the ''Also Starring'' heading, not bad for her debut episode considering others like Mitch Pileggi had to make a few appearances before being billed with an ''Also Starring'' credit.

Arlene Pileggi, plays Assistant to her actual husband Mitch (A.D. Skinner).

The title of this episode strangely echoes a scene from the Season 3 episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space". Where the cigarette smoking alien exclaims "this is not happening" over and over. Both episodes deal with extra terrestrials as well.

Quotes:
Skinner: A report came in last night from Montana. About a UFO encounter.
Scully: What kind of encounter?
Skinner: A young man chased a bright object flying low across the sky. Tracked it all the way to a big field where the UFO disappeared... but where he claimed he saw an alien.
Scully: Assistant Director, I've got drawers full of reports that begin just like that. Are you going to tell me what's so important about this case?
Skinner: Young man's named Richie Szalay. UFO nut from Bellefleur, Oregon. You and Agent Mulder met him out there last spring.
Scully: Are you trying to tell me this has something to do with Mulder?
Doggett: He's trying to tell you that it might.
Skinner: Richie Szalay didn't find an alien last night. He found a woman. A woman whose name you will remember — Teresa Hoese.
Scully: Teresa Hoese was the young mother who was abducted the night before Agent Mulder was.
Skinner: And who was returned last night.
Scully: Returned?
Skinner: Hanging onto life by a thread.

Richie Szalay: But, I know you. Do I know you?

Scully: You do... Richie. From Oregon. We met late last spring, you remember?
Skinner: Richie, if you live in Oregon... what are you doing in Montana?
Richie Szalay: My buddy, Gary, right? He was abducted. Right before your partner. I came looking for him.
Doggett: So, you just came out here on a lark?
Richie Szalay: No. I was following the news.
Doggett: The news?
Richie Szalay: All, all that's in the last two weeks. Yeah, I go on these Internet chat rooms to talk about sightings and junk. After Oregon there wasn't a whole lot but then all of a sudden in Montana... I never... I never thought I'd find Mrs Hoese like that. Not in a million years.
Doggett: Richie, when you found that woman's body you said you saw somebody with her. You told the police it was an alien. You know what a moulage casting is, Richie? It's what the cops take when they find shoe prints. They do these plaster castings and the ones they got from the field that night were from 9½ Nikes. You ever hear of an alien in Nikes?
Richie Szalay: Doesn't mean it wasn't.
Doggett: Did it ever occur to you that it wasn't an alien but a man?
Richie Szalay: Then what about his spaceship?

Scully: I once had a talk with Mulder about starlight. How it's billions of years old. Stars that are now long dead whose light is still travelling through time. It won't die, that light. Maybe that's the only thing that never does. He said that's where souls reside. I hope he's right.

Skinner: If you're trying to prepare yourself I want you to stop. Nothing says that we're going to stumble over him in some field. Nothing says he won't be fine.

Doggett: You should just hear her out.

Scully: Hear who out?
Doggett: Her name's Monica Reyes. I worked a case with her once.
Skinner: She's FBI?
Doggett: Yeah. She's got some expertise I thought we might take advantage of.
Scully: Expertise in what?
Doggett: She's got her master's in religious studies. Her specialisation is ritualistic crime.
Scully: Ritualistic crime? Are we working the same case here?
Doggett: Agent Reyes. Assistant Director Skinner, Agent Scully... Monica Reyes.
Agent Reyes: Hi. Beautiful country out here. (She crushes out a cigarette) I know it's not very FBI of me, but I'm really trying to quit. So, Agent Doggett's been taking me through the case. Interesting.
Scully: Interesting?
Agent Reyes: What do you think happened?
Scully: Isn't that what you're here to tell us?
Agent Reyes: Oh, I have my own thoughts. It's just, what we think happened and what actually happened aren't always the same thing, but not altogether insignificant, either.
Scully: I'm sorry, this feels like therapy.
Agent Reyes: What happened being different from what we want to have happened.
Scully: What 'who' wants to have happened?
Agent Reyes: Well, I'm told this case involves you.
Scully: It may involve someone close to me. Can we stick to the facts, please?
Agent Reyes: Well, it's pretty clear that the woman who was found out here did not inflict her own injuries. That she was dropped here by someone and whoever it was cared about her enough not to kill her.
Scully: Did you happen to know the peculiar nature of her injuries?
Agent Reyes: Yes. They were peculiar, but not altogether different from your typical cult ritualistic abuse.
Skinner: Agent Reyes, we're dealing with abductions here... not by any cult.
Agent Reyes: Okay. Good. I mean, if it's not.
Scully: But you think that it is.
Agent Reyes: Well, I go on what I know, of course but I try to stay, you know, open.
Scully: So, what do you think happened?
Agent Reyes: Well, I'm told that Agent Mulder and the other people who were taken were true believers. People 100% convinced in the abduction phenomenon.
Skinner: If this is about these people staging their own abductions...
Agent Reyes: No, it's about people coming together. Like minds as a group.
Scully: So you're basically saying that Agent Mulder has joined some sort of UFO cult.
Agent Reyes: Call it a group.
Skinner: For what?
Agent Reyes: Well, we've all heard the news stories about transport to a mothership, the idea of a giant motherwheel. The whole Heaven's Gate thing.
Scully: I see.
Doggett: It'd make sense. The leader of the cult leaves this woman out here to die. Learning she's still alive he comes back to kidnap her again for fear of exposure. It'd make sense, too that if we find this guy, maybe we find Mulder.
Scully: Are you asking me to believe this?
Agent Reyes: No. That's not what I said. I don't think he left her to die. I don't think she's dead.
Scully: Based on what?
Agent Reyes: Nothing, really. It's just a feeling.

(Scully walks away, Doggett follows)
Doggett: What are you walking away for? It makes some kind of sense.
Scully: I'm glad you agree with her, Agent Doggett, because I'm not even sure that she agrees with you. Nor has she made any sense for me of how the doctor who removed Teresa Hoese from the hospital last night seems, by all accounts, to have been in two places at once.
Doggett: I know where you're going with this, Agent Scully, but if you're going to tell me this is another alien bounty hunter this is where we part company.
Scully: Enjoy your new company.

Scully: You believe in extraterrestrials?

Agent Reyes: Let's just say I don't not believe. As I said, I try to stay open.
Scully: What is it you specialise in again? Ritualistic crime?
Agent Reyes: Right. Satanic ritual abuse. Or, I should say claims of it. We never found any hard evidence.
Scully: We should talk sometime.
Agent Reyes: Not that I don't believe in it. I was something of a black sheep in the field office in New Orleans... because of my beliefs.
Scully: And what beliefs are those?
Agent Reyes: I just have certain spiritual notions. I believe there are energies in the universe. It might sound kind of cosmic, but I think I'm sensitive to them. I mean, I get these feelings.
Scully: And do you have any feelings about Agent Mulder?
Agent Reyes: I don't know Agent Mulder. And I don't have any feelings about him. But I am feeling your fear. And fear's not going to help you find him or anyone else. Maybe you can try and stay open, too.

Agent Reyes: You're hurting for her, I know. Agent Scully.

Doggett: I don't know how she's doing it in there. With everything she's feeling. What she's afraid of.
Agent Reyes: You know all too well.
Doggett: Let's leave the past in the past.
Agent Reyes: It was your fear, too. Those three days we looked for your son. The fear of finding what we did. I understand. That's why you're so determined to find Mulder alive.
Doggett: It's why I can't stand here and listen to all this mumbo jumbo about spaceships.
Agent Reyes: I saw what I saw, John. I'm not going to lie to you. But whatever it was, it led to this. It's the man I saw in the field. He goes by the name Absalom. A religious zealot who escaped a shoot-out in Idaho. Where he was the nominal leader of a doomsday cult who believed aliens would take over the world at the millennium. Disgraced when they didn't, he fled and tried a more ecumenical scam: credit card fraud. I ran the plate on the pickup truck. It's registered to a farm about an hour from here.

Jeremiah Smith: You're going to expose me. You're putting people in danger — Abductees all over the country. I save them. I'm the only one.

Scully: Where's Mulder?
Jeremiah Smith: You came crashing in here. I was trying to help him, too.
Scully: Where is Mulder? (The door opens)
Skinner: You'd better come with us.
Jeremiah Smith: You must protect me.
(Scully leaves with Skinner and Agent Reyes)
Scully: What is it?
Skinner: It's Mulder.

Scully: Where is he?

Doggett: Agent Scully, he's over there.
Scully: How bad is he? How bad is he? How bad is he hurt? (She breaks free and runs to Mulder's side) No. No. No. No. He needs help.
Doggett: It's too late.
Scully: He needs help!
Doggett: Agent Scully.
(Scully runs as fast as she can through the woods back to the compound. As she gets there, she pauses in shock at the sight of a brightly lit UFO over the compound. She runs toward the building, but is too late. Jeremiah Smith is gone)
Scully: Jeremiah. No... no. This is not happening! No!

Episode Number: 175
Season Number: 8
First Aired: Sunday, February 25, 2001
Production Code: 8X14

Season 8: Per Manum (8X08)

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

Pregnant Kath McCready is in labor. She sweats in the delivery room as Duffy Haskell coaches her breathing. "You're in safe hands now," he says. The baby's heart registers unusually high on the monitor, and the doctor orders an emergency C-section. When Haskell goes out to scrub up for the surgery, a nurse locks him out of the delivery room. Through her drug-induced haze, McCready can barely see the baby being pulled out of her stomach. It is an alien.

In her apartment, Scully scans her own ultrasound image and strokes her growing belly. Later, she heads into the office to find Doggett talking to Duffy Haskell. The man had contacted Mulder eight years ago about his wife, who is now dead. "They killed her," he tells the agents. He says that Kath was a multiple abductee, and aliens had performed procedures on her that gave her cancer. Although she was subsequently cured, she was left barren. She was later implanted with an embryo and gave birth to an alien. All the doctors who were in cahoots with this procedure murdered Kath and stole her alien baby because it was proof. Although his story rings a bell with Scully, she dismisses Haskell. Doggett says that his tale sounds familiarly like Scully's case, "except for the pregnancy." Walking out of the office, she chastens Doggett and tells him to stay out of her personal files.

Scully's head is spinning with fear and confusion when she enters the elevator. She thinks back to a prior conversation with Mulder where she acknowledged that she wasn't ready to accept that she will never have children. "There's something I haven't told you," Mulder confesses. He admits to having found her ova in a lab (seen in 4X15 ''Memento Mori'') and after taking them to a specialist, learned that they were not viable. Still in the elevator, Scully wakes from her daydream to find Doggett staring at her. She tells him that there is nothing to do about Haskell's case.

Scully roams the stark white interior of Zeus Genetics in Germantown, MD looking for somebody to assist her. Suddenly she hears screaming from an examination room. It is a woman begging for another opinion. Scully ducks into a door to prevent being caught spying, and finds herself in a room with scores of jars. The jars are filled with deformed fetuses. Dr. Lev startles her, and she tells him she is worried about her friend. "You're here with Mrs. Hendershot?" he asks, before ushering her out the office. Scully rushes back to her apartment to call her personal geneticist, Dr. Parenti. She asks him to compare her own ultrasound against the one that Duffy Haskell provided. Parenti assures her that she will be fine and hangs up, but Parenti is standing in Zeus Genetics' room of fetus jars. He unwraps a small alien corpse on a dissecting table. It is the baby that Kath McCready gave birth to.

Flashback to the previous year: In his waiting room, Dr. Parenti notifies Scully that her ova can be successfully used to impregnate her. He asks if she has someone in mind as a donor, and Scully nods thoughtfully, saying that she has to figure out how to ask the person. Scully sits in the same waiting room, present day. After reviewing the images, Dr. Parenti certifies that both her ultrasound as well as the Haskell results are both normal. Yet he advises her to let the FBI know about her condition. When Scully returns to the office, Doggett says that Parenti's office called about an ultrasound she dropped off, and since Parenti was the doctor who Duffy Haskell consulted, Doggett questions Scully's investigating the Haskell case when she specifically told him not to. Later, Skinner and Doggett interrogate Haskell about his threatening letters to doctors. He tells them that Dr. Lev was the one who stole Kath's baby. The agents warn him not to keep up with the threats, and Haskell says "there are other women out there, just like Kath." Haskell leaves them and dials Dr. Lev at Zeus Genetics, revealing that he too is involved in the conspiracy. Regarding Mrs. Hendershot, the doctor tells Haskell that "it's time to let her go."

Scully returns to her apartment and remembers another Mulder discussion from the year before. She is nervously awkward when he arrives at her door with an answer to her request. "I wouldn't want this to come between us," Mulder says, in response to his being her sperm donor. "But the answer is yes." Scully cries tears of joy and hugs him. Scully resumes present day, when there is a knock on her door. It is a distraught Mary Hendershot from the genetic clinic. "My baby is in danger," she says. "So is yours."

Doggett pulls up to a diner in downtown Washington at 3:33 am where Skinner and Scully are waiting. Scully has asked for a leave of absence from the FBI, but is cryptic about her reasons. Smarting from the disrespect, Doggett gets up, saying offhandedly "Drop me a line if you get a chance." Mary Hendershot is in Scully's front seat, but neither Skinner nor Doggett know who she is. The women go to the Walden-Freedman Research Center and are met by Dr. Miryum. Scully explains that Mrs. Hendershot's life may be in danger and that she believes this baby is not hers. Mrs. Hendershot's conception dates do not add up and she is sure that her pregnancy was caused by an abduction. Dr. Miryum performs an ultrasound test on Scully that proves her child is normal and healthy, but to be sure she suggests an amniocentesis test.

Meanwhile, Doggett learns that Duffy Haskell has gone under a different first name and was buried as a Marine in 1970. He assumes that Haskell is really working for an underground conspiracy and he approaches an old friend, Knowle Rohrer, about Haskell's identity. Although Rohrer's job is not apparent, he assures Doggett that there is no conspiracy at work and he will look further into Haskell's files.

Dr. Miryum withdraws the amnio needle, warning Scully to be still. After the doctor leaves the room, Scully notices that her ultrasound image is being retrieved from a VCR. She removes the videotape and realizes she has been viewing someone else's fetus. Scully goes into the delivery room for Mrs. Hendershot, clutching the wound from the amnio needle on her stomach. "I have to get you out of here," she tells her, putting the woman's baby and her own health at risk.

That same night, Doggett rushes to the FBI, demanding Skinner to locate Scully. He believes that she may be in danger, knowing that Haskell can not be trusted. Scully and Mrs. Hendershot escape the research center and run right into Knowle Rohrer, who claims that Doggett sent him. A team of armed men described as experienced field medics throw the women into a black truck. When police cars intercept the truck, it travels off-road into the woods. Suddenly, Mrs. Hendershot goes into labor, and Scully orders the truck to stop so as not to endanger the pregnant woman's life. As the men lay down Mrs. Hendershot, Rohrer drugs Scully and prevents her from witnessing the birth. In her haze, she hears the distorted cry of an alien baby.

Scully awakes the next morning in a hospital room. Doggett is at her side, assuring her that she and her child are both healthy. He also tells her that Mary Hendershot is fine and delivered a normal baby boy. Scully contends that the men switched the babies, but Doggett thinks she has overreacted to everything. The tape that showed her ultrasound was recorded onto an old cassette, and Rohrer's men say that they saved her life. Scully insists that, from the minute Duffy Haskell walked into their office, they were set up to get Mary Hendershot's baby and cover it up. Doggett asks why she didn't reveal her pregnancy, and Scully reluctantly responds that she was afraid that the FBI would take her off the X-files. "Then I couldn't find Mulder," she says. Doggett comforts her, and promises that he will help her find Mulder.

Scully thinks back again to the previous year, finding Mulder in her apartment. She tells him that the artificial insemination - her last chance to get pregnant - did not work. "Never give up on a miracle," Mulder says, and gently kisses her forehead.

Notes:
"Per Manum" means "by hand" in Latin.

Mulder appears in flashback form several times during this episode, and his badge returns to the opening credits.

Quotes:
Doggett: This is Duffy Haskell. He says he knows you or you know him.
Scully: I'm sorry. I don't remember.
Duffy Haskell: I contacted you about my wife. About eight years ago because she was an alien abductee.
Scully: That was before my time here. But is there something I can help you with?
Duffy Haskell: She's dead. My wife is dead now. They killed her. Kath — my wife.
Doggett: I checked the files. Mr Haskell wrote several letters to Agent Mulder describing his wife's abduction experiences.
Duffy Haskell: My wife gave birth to an alien.
Scully: I thought you said that your wife was murdered.
Duffy Haskell: That's the reason they did it.
Scully: Okay, Mr Haskell. Why don't you start from the beginning.
Duffy Haskell: Kath was a multiple abductee. The aliens did these procedures on her — tests and what not. One procedure would give her cancer while another one would cure her. Stuff like that. For years, you see. And then, this year, they came right into our bedroom and implanted an alien embryo in Kath.
Scully: I don't suppose that you have any medical proof of this.
(Duffy Haskell hands her an envelope labelled 'Zeus Genetics Germantown, Maryland 1-800-555-0100')
Duffy Haskell: I have an ultrasound here. Anyone with a trained eye can see that is a bizarre pregnancy. Especially for a woman who was never supposed to be able to conceive. I doubt you'd ever get the doctors to cop to any of that.
Scully: What doctors?
Duffy Haskell: We've been through three sets. They're all in on it. They're all in cahoots.
Scully: So you're... saying that it was the doctors that killed your wife?
Duffy Haskell: And stole the alien baby. That ultrasound is proof.

Mulder: There you are. I've been looking all over for you.

Scully: Hi. I'm sorry. I had a doctor's appointment and, I don't know, I guess time just got away from me.

Mulder: Is anything the matter?

Scully: Nothing. No, I just... I went for a walk.

Mulder: Mmm. Then what's wrong?

Scully: I'm sorry I haven't told you. I don't know why I haven't. I mean, you were always there for me during my illness but...

Mulder: Don't make me guess.

Scully: I was left unable to conceive with whatever test that they did on me. And I am not ready to accept that I will never have children.

Mulder: Scully, there's... there's something I haven't told you either and I hope you forgive me and understand why I would have kept it from you.

Scully: What?

Mulder: During my investigation into your illness I found out the reason why you were left barren. Your ova were taken from you and stored in a government lab.

Scully: What? You found them?

Mulder: I took them directly to a specialist who would tell me if they were okay.

Scully: I don't believe this.

Mulder: Scully, you were deathly ill, and I... I couldn't bear to give you another piece of bad news.

Scully: Is that what it was? It was bad news?

Mulder: Well, the doctor said that the ova weren't viable.

Scully: I want a second opinion.

Doggett: Agent Scully, I just got a call from a Dr Parenti's office. About an ultrasound you left there this morning.
Scully: Dr Parenti is my doctor.
Doggett: Come on, Agent Scully.
Scully: You don't believe me?
Doggett: That ultrasound is the one Duffy Haskell left here yesterday. Dr Parenti is one of the doctors he consulted with during the course of that pregnancy.
Scully: Excuse me, Agent Doggett, but are you investigating me?
Doggett: No, I was doing a background check on Mr and Mrs Haskell before I dropped the case, like you asked me to do.
Scully: No, I didn't ask you to drop the case. I said there was nothing to do.
Doggett: Well, if there's nothing to do, then why are you investigating?
Scully: You are jumping to conclusions.
Doggett: No, I'm just trying to do my job, only it gets hard to do if the person you're working with is keeping secrets and telling lies.
Scully: I am not investigating these people, Agent Doggett. Parenti is my doctor. Is that so strange? Is there something about him I don't know?
Doggett: No. But Duffy Haskell's a piece of work. I'll tell you that much.

Doggett: Knowle... can I talk to you?

Knowle Rohrer: John, what are you doing here?
Doggett: Well, your assistant said you were going to get right back to me about this David Haskell fingerprint.
Knowle Rohrer: I've got a day job, John. The government gets suspicious if I work at too fast a pace.
Doggett: I can't wait, Knowle, it can't wait. Is it the same guy, or not?
Knowle Rohrer: How about we take a walk? How'd you hook up with this guy, anyway?
Doggett: The man was in my office, Knowle. Military records show he died in 1970. What the hell's the story?
Knowle Rohrer: Possible. He's intelligence.
Doggett: Doing what? Working for who?
Knowle Rohrer: What did he say he wanted?
Doggett: He wanted us to investigate the murder of his wife. He claims she was an alien abductee. Look... I don't buy this crap, but if the guy's CIA he wasn't just in my office killing time.
Knowle Rohrer: Why go to the trouble at all?
Doggett: All I can think is that there must be documentation in our files of a conspiracy to hide the truth.
Knowle Rohrer: About what, extraterrestrials?
Doggett: Look, it's not my work. It's the woman I work with — an Agent Scully.
Knowle Rohrer: John, there's no conspiracy. You and I go back a long time. You know I'll do anything I can for you. Just give me a little more time to find out who this Haskell guy is, okay? By the end of the day.

Mulder: Scully? I must have dozed off. I was waiting for you to get back. It didn't take, did it?

Scully: I guess it was too much to hope for. It was my last chance.

Mulder: Never give up on a miracle.

Episode Number: 174
Season Number: 8
First Aired: Sunday, February 18, 2001
Production Code: 8X08