Season 9: Nothing Important Happened Today (2) (9X02)

Written by: Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Tony Wharmby

A ship captain delivers a message to Dr. Nordlinger, who upon reading the contents instructs the captain to return the vintage World War ll merchant marine craft to its base. Follmer leaves the reclamation plant when he sees no sign of Doggett. Shannon McMahon has held him underwater but passes air into his lungs to help him breathe.

Doggett regains consciousness at his house to find McMahon there. She tells him she is a bioengineered soldier and that Knowle Rohrer was part of the same programme. Doggett thinks Rohrer is dead but she tells him that his kind cannot be killed. Meanwhile Rohrer approaches the captain aboard the ship and informs him that he is the new second in command. He quizzes the captain about the vessel's mission. Later, the body of the original younger officer is found in the water.

Reyes, Doggett and McMahon meet with Scully. McMahon tells her that the US government has changed the molecular structure of chloramine to breed a generation of super soldiers. She is a Stage One prototype.

The Lone Gunmen break into the X-Files office after Reyes requests their help. As they access a phone system, they happen upon someone dialing Carl Wormus' phone number. The caller turns out to be the captain, warning that the FBI must be contacted so the lab aboard his ship can be exposed. Rohrer is nearby, eavesdropping. The call is traced to a phone booth.

The Captain gets the jump on a Navy SEAL guarding the lab aboard the ship. He orders Nordlinger to hand over every scrap of data on the project. He doesn't see Rohrer creeping up behind him. Doggett, Scully and Reyes arrive at the phone booth to find Rohrer. Doggett tries to shoot him but bullets don't work. As Rohrer is about to kill him, McMahon appears and decapitates him. Rohrer's headless body rises and stabs McMahon with its arm. They both fall into the water.

Scully discovers an electronic filing system on board the boat. She realises the scientists were manipulating human ova in the lab for transplantation. Doggett finds a bomb and urges them to leave. They take cover as the ship explodes.

Deep beneath the water, Shannon McMahon's eyes suddenly pop open. And later, after Scully tucks William in for the night, the child's mobile begins to turn, seemingly by itself.

Notes:
The first tag line change for season nine is the title, 'Nothing Important Happened Today'.

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Chad Keller, who was killed in the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Chad Keller, a rocket scientist, was a family friend of Chris Carter and his wife, Dori.

Quotes:
Skinner: Agent Reyes. You probably want to zip it and try to co-operate.
Assistant Director Follmer: Like it or not, I'm charged with the task of reining you in.
Reyes: Reining us in? For what?
Assistant Director Follmer: Unauthorised autopsies. Breaking and entering into a state water facility. Wilful misuse of your positions.
Reyes: I really don't want to go into any of this without my partner here.
Assistant Director Follmer: Your partner. Your so called partner, who's running this circus, is right now nowhere to be found.
Reyes: What are you doing, Brad?
Assistant Director Follmer: Giving you and Mr Skinner the opportunity to put a nice spin on this mess that Doggett's making.
Skinner: Agent Reyes. If you're not going to zip it, at least recognise that he's trying to help you.
Reyes: We were given a tip we believe lead us to a larger conspiracy.
Assistant Director Follmer: A conspiracy? Involving the FBI?
Reyes: John Doggett and I are running a legitimate investigation into the FBI. Neither one of us feels...
Assistant Director Follmer: Agent Reyes, I'm trying to help you keep your job. But that's not going to happen, if you insist on chasing shadows, chasing conspiracies.
Reyes: How do you know there isn't one?
Assistant Director Follmer: You're taking on the entire FBI here, Monica. This witch hunt... isn't going to expose... anything... but you. That is, unless you distance yourself from John Doggett. What are you doing?
Reyes: I'm distancing myself, Brad. From you, from your political games. You just want to get John Doggett.
Assistant Director Follmer: You're making a big mistake here.
Reyes: Yeah, I seem to make one every time I walk in your door.

Reyes: Dana, this is Shannon McMahon.

Shannon McMahon: Hi.
Scully: Let's start with the water.
Shannon McMahon: Well, you're a scientist, you'll appreciate the science involved. A new additive is being put in the water supply. It's called chloramine, it's not news, well let me say it's been reported but no one's asking questions yet.
Scully: And what should they be asking?
Shannon McMahon: If you want to deliver something to everyone's home in America, what better way than through what's what's most taken for granted, water.
Scully: Look, I've had my fair share of outrageous conspiracy theories, okay, so cut the mystery crap and get to the science. Chloramine is just a substitute for chlorine, you can drink it and it's harmless.
Shannon McMahon: Unless someone were to quietly go and change its molecular make-up.
Scully: Who? And how?
Shannon McMahon: I think you'd be more interested in why.
Scully: All right then, why?
Shannon McMahon: To prime a population to breed a generation of Super Soldiers.
Scully: By adding something to our water?
Shannon McMahon: Something which promotes the mutation of offspring. And fertilisation. And pregnancy.
Scully: What you're saying is absurd.
Shannon McMahon: Is it? No more absurd than I am. I am a first generation prototype. Now they're seven stages advanced on the science that created me, to the point where now they have successfully given birth to a Super Soldier from a mutated egg.
Scully: Huh. How can we trust any of this? Or you? What you say you are?
Shannon McMahon: We all have a standard mutation...
(She pulls her hair aside to reveal a lump on the back of her neck)

Doggett: You want to turf me now? You going to take my badge and gun?

Deputy Director Kersh: Agent Doggett, you can't just burst in here.
Doggett: How's it going to look, Deputy Director, you suspending me right before I nail you up against a wall as a co-conspirator.
Assistant Director Follmer: Glad you dropped in, Mr Doggett. Assistant Director Follmer.
Doggett: You're Brad Follmer.
Assistant Director Follmer: I was just explaining to the Deputy Director the reasons why you were being suspended, but I think your actions here speak for themselves.
Doggett: I see what this is, this is just a little bureaucratic pimp job.
Deputy Director Kersh: I'd watch your mouth, John.
Assistant Director Follmer: What this is, is a testament to your gross subordination and reckless disregard for the FBI.
Doggett: The orders start here and then they come out your wishy-washy mouth.
Assistant Director Follmer: Paranoia must go with the job. You're starting to sound just like Fox Mulder, Mr Doggett.
Doggett: Don't you Mr Doggett me. I don't answer to you, I answer to AD Skinner.
Assistant Director Follmer: The job suspension stands, Mr Doggett.
Doggett: Try and stop me.

Deputy Director Kersh: My sources tell me you've wrapped up your investigation, John.

Doggett: I have my report ready, Sir, yes.
Deputy Director Kersh: How do I come out? Super Soldiers, a Navy ship, a woman at the Department of Justice who drowned two men, all disappeared now, but which constitute a conspiracy like a cancer in the US Government. Not a mention of my name, John?
Doggett: No, Sir. I found nothing on you, nothing damning I can honestly include in my report, let me say. And 'cause I got nothing to lose, let me say that I know that your hands are dirty on this thing, Sir, filthy.
Deputy Director Kersh: That's why you're here? Take a last wild push before the bell.
Doggett: There's one thing I can't figure, and then I'll be on my way. Is why you slipped that obituary under my door?
Deputy Director Kersh: You think I did that?
Doggett: Over and over in my mind, it had to be you. You're the only one that had a reason.
Deputy Director Kersh: What's my reason?
Doggett: You tell me. Are you looking just to get me fired or to get me killed?
Deputy Director Kersh: You ever hear of King George III?
Doggett: You answer my question!
Deputy Director Kersh: He was King of England when America declared Independence in 1776. King George III kept a diary. On July 4th 1776, he made an entry in it: 'Nothing important happened today'.
Doggett: What the hell has that got to do with me?
Deputy Director Kersh: Revolutions start, things that change the world forever, and even kings can miss them if they're not paying attention.
Doggett: Are you saying that you left that obituary to help me? To help me find the things that I found? Nah, why would I believe that you'd help me?
Deputy Director Kersh: Agent Mulder believed me.
Doggett: Mulder? What the hell are you talking about? Mulder's long gone.
Deputy Director Kersh: Say I told Mulder that he would be killed if he stayed. The same people who threatened to kill me if I didn't go along. Would you believe that, John?
Doggett: No. Mulder wouldn't hear it, not from you, not from anybody.
Deputy Director Kersh: I said I told him to go. I didn't say I persuaded him.
Doggett: Holy god. It was Scully. Scully made him go. That's it isn't it?

Episode Number: 184
Season Number: 9
First Aired: Sunday, November 18, 2001
Production Code: 9X02

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