Season 9: Providence (9X11)

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

As Operation Desert Storm unfolds, Captain Zeke Josepho is thrown to the ground by an explosion. Several of his men are killed. Josepho sees four soldiers rush through the building, unaffected by enemy fire and explosions. We see an older Josepho working at the Canadian dig introduced in the previous episode as he helps unearth the buried spaceship.

At FBI headquarters, Brad Follmer briefs a team of agents on the abduction of Scully's baby, telling them that Doggett is in a coma after being run over, while FBI Agent Robert Comer is also in critical condition after being shot by Scully. Scully identifies the Overcoat Woman with the Lone Gunmen's help. It's revealed that Byers managed to slip a cell phone under baby William's car seat during his abduction. The Gunmen pinpoint the car through the phone system, finding it in Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania. By the time Scully and Reyes arrive, though, the baby and the abductor have vanished.

Back at the Canadian dig, a cylindrical bezel rotates around two cult members and then lowers them into the ship. At the hospital, Comer writes the word, "jacket." When Reyes relays this to Scully, she deduces that Comer means the jacket he was wearing when she shot him. Scully brings the alien artefact in Comer's jacket to his hospital room. Comer suddenly grabs Scully's wrist and lowers the artefact to his chest. Scully instructs Reyes to unplug the life support monitors so the hospital staff aren't alerted to the situation. When Comer revives, he tells Scully that her son must die and describes Josepho's belief that the alien ship houses a physical manifestation of God. Josepho also believes baby William will follow in Mulder's footsteps and try to stop the aliens' return. According to Comer, Mulder was killed to fulfill the prophesy, and unless baby William is killed, all mankind will perish. Suddenly, a nurse and the Toothpick Man enter the hospital room and demand to know what's going on.

At the alien dig, the bezel rotates once more, and emerges from the ship with two charred corpses on it - the men seen before. Follmer informs Scully and Reyes that the nurse is claiming they killed Comer by pulling him off life support. Outraged, Reyes bursts into Comer's room and demands to know the location of the alien artefact, but the nurse and the Toothpick Man claim to have no knowledge of its existence.

Josepho arranges a meeting with Scully outside Calgary, Canada. He tells Scully she can have baby William if she brings him the head of Fox Mulder. The Lone Gunmen attach a magnetic transponder to his car to track his whereabouts, but the device goes dead - perhaps because of interference from the ship. Back at the dig, an opening appears in the ship, giving Josepho hope that he can view the face of God. A blast of light shoots out of the hole, illuminating the night sky and clueing Scully to the dig's location. The ship then rises into the air, incinerating the cult members. Scully arrives at the scene and finds William, the sole survivor.

At FBI headquarters, Skinner tells Kersh that Comer's vital signs improved dramatically before he died, confirming Reyes' and Scully's story. Leaving the meeting, Skinner makes eye contact with the Toothpick Man... and we see spiny ridges on the back of his neck.

Quotes:
Lieutenant Colonel Josepho: (voiceover) The bible says god appeared to Moses in a burning bush. He came to Jesus on a mountaintop. For Buddha, god came while he sat under a tree. God came to me in a vision in the desert, February 26, 1991. My recon squad had engaged Saddam's army in a small Bedouin encampment. We'd been ambushed, taken all by surprise and there were casualties. We were holding our perimeter, and we might've held up, but on this day I had a terrible sense of foreboding, I saw the future of those brave men, and they were about to die. Death came to take my men... but not me. I was left as a witness to a vision. Angels... from heaven. 'Behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, and a brightness was about it. And out of the midst, came the likeness of four living creatures, and they had the likeness of a man.' (Ezekiel 1:4-5) I knew why my life had been spared. That I was to deliver the message of these angels, of these sons of god, to deliver the message of the god who came before all other gods.

Skinner: Agent Scully! What are you doing? I thought I told you you didn't need to be here.

Scully: I just had to see this for myself.
Skinner: Go home.
Scully: To what?
Skinner: I'm just saying, you don't need to put yourself through this, Dana. We've got every stop pulled; every available agent working to find your son.
Scully: And AD Brad Follmer leading the charge.
Skinner: Deputy Director Kersh asked him to take the lead. He knows how to run a task force. I think you see that in there.
Scully: I see a man who withholds information for Kersh. A man who not once, but twice, failed to prevent an attack on my son. You see a task force in there. I see a whitewash.
Skinner: I know you're upset but you can't possibly accuse Follmer or Kersh of having any part in this.
Scully: What is it going to take for you? How many people have to be taken out for you to open your eyes to it? My son... Agent Doggett... Mulder.
Skinner: Kersh protected you by not telling you reports of Mulder's death. As did Follmer. As did I.
Scully: You call it protection. I call it a systematic effort inside the FBI to eliminate us.
Skinner: You accuse anyone of anything in the FBI you have to accuse me along with them. Scully, where are you going?
Scully: To find my son.

Scully: We found her.

Reyes: Who?
Scully: The woman that took William. She's a wanted felon, and a part of the UFO cult that the FBI was investigating. I need anything that you can find on her, Monica, but I need you to get it quietly.
Langly: Access denied? Yeah, we'll see about that.
Reyes: If they IDed the woman then why isn't the FBI investigating it?
Scully: I asked them not to tell the FBI.
Reyes: What are you doing, Dana?
Scully: I'm trying to get my son back.
Frohike: We're locked on.
Langly: Like there was ever a doubt.
Byers: Which beings us that much closer to finding William. Langly's inside the system.
Langly: I'm hacked inside the phone company. Going to use their mainframe to scan the map for a locator signal.
Scully: Before William was kidnapped, Byers was able to tuck a cell phone under the padding of the baby's car seat.
Frohike: Call the phone, and Langly can use the signal to find its location. Find the phone, find the baby.
Reyes: You mean, assuming the kidnapper hasn't found the phone.
Byers: We'll keep trying.

Scully: Let go.

Reyes: Oh my god.
Scully: Let go of my hand. (to Reyes) Turn off the monitors, or they're going to alert somebody. (Reyes turns off the monitors and Scully extubates Agent Comer) Now, tell me, who sent you to kill my son, or I will take that pillow from under your head and make them the last breaths that you take.
Agent Comer: Your son has to die. I'm not what you think. Please... please... The FBI sent me uncover on a man named Josepho, to get inside his cult whose followers believe an alien race will rule the world. One day god told Josepho to lead us a thousand miles north to find a ship buried in the ground. You have a piece of that ship in your hand. Josepho believes that that ship is a temple which houses the physical manifestation of god.
Scully: Are you saying that god asked you to kill my child?
Agent Comer: No. Josepho said god spoke to him of a miracle child. A future saviour coveted by forces of good and evil. Josepho believes your son is this child.
Scully: Then why does he want to kill him?
Agent Comer: He doesn't. He wants to protect him. Josepho believes your son will follow in his father's paths and try and stop the aliens' return. Unless his father was to be killed. That is the prophesy.
Reyes: You came here to kill her son against this man and his cult? To stop them? Are you saying you believe this prophesy but acted alone?
Scully: What he's saying, is that Mulder is dead. That that's true. That they killed him to fulfil this prophesy.
Agent Comer: And that your son must die, too. Or everyone... all of mankind will perish from earth. Please... please... let me. Please. Please...
(A nurse, FBI agents and the Toothpick Man enter the room)
Nurse: What is going on here?
Toothpick Man: What are you doing in here?
Nurse: They turned off all the monitors. They removed his intubation.
Toothpick Man: What are you doing in here?
Scully: This patient does not need support. He's breathing on his own.
Toothpick Man: Step outside. Both of you. Let's go. Get me ADs Follmer and Skinner.

Lieutenant Josepho: Sorry to keep you waiting but I had to make sure you were alone. I only wish to protect the boy from those who'd harm him. He's a very special boy.

Scully: I came here to take him back.
Lieutenant Josepho: 'Behold, a whirlwind came out of the north and a brightness was about it. And out of the midst, came the likeness of four living creatures. And they had the likeness of a man.' That's the bible. Did you know it?
Scully: 'Ephesians'.
Lieutenant Josepho: The bible... describing giants who walk the earth. Who'd believe it? Only the faithful and we who have seen them. These... super soldiers. The true sons of god.
Scully: I want to see my son.
Lieutenant Josepho: You struggle to believe. It's so incredible but your son will lead this alien race. He was put here to lead. I'll bring you to him, to see your son. After you do something for me. After you bring something I need. Confirmation that Mulder's dead.
Scully: You killed Mulder.
Lieutenant Josepho: No. I believed he was dead... but now I have reason to doubt that. And if he's alive, he's the one thing preventing your son's true destiny.
Scully: You told me I could see my son. You lied.
Lieutenant Josepho: If you want to see the boy... you'll bring me the head of Fox Mulder.

Episode Number: 192
Season Number: 9
First Aired: Sunday, March 10, 2002
Production Code: 9X11

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