Season 9: William (9X17)

Written by: Chris Carter
Directed by: David Duchovny

At a remote farm house, a husband and wife eager to adopt meet with two social workers. The social workers introduce the couple to their new son: Baby William. Outside Scully's apartment, a figure with rasping breath watches from afar as Scully carries William into the apartment building.

Later, at the Bureau, Agent Doggett enters the darkened X-Files office, encountering The Breather. Doggett grabs his gun and orders the mysterious man to put his hands up. The Breather complies - and for the first time we get a look at his disfigured face. Scully is called to the office, where Doggett briefs her on the case. The Breather claims his name is Daniel Miller, and that he gained access to the building by using an access card Mulder gave to him. He also says he's searching for answers about his disfigurement, which he blames on the government's secret research.

It becomes apparent that The Breather is intimately familiar with Mulder's life. He tells Scully that his scars are the result of being injected with an unknown substance. Meanwhile, Doggett has been unable to verify the man's identity and begins to suspect that he may in fact be Mulder. Scully refuses to believe this, and tells The Breather that the FBI knows his name isn't Daniel Miller. He confirms this is true - but refuses to divulge his real name. Scully runs a DNA test.

Later, The Breather claims his scars are the result of the government's failed attempt to turn him into an alien. He then tells the agents the files he was looking for were not in the X-Files office, and Scully admits that she removed them. Mulder knew this, casting doubt on Doggett's theory.

Scully, Reyes and The Breather make their way to Scully's apartment, where Scully lets him hold her baby. Doggett shows up with results from the DNA test proving that The Breather is Mulder, but Scully refuses to believe. The Breather sneaks into William's room and injects him with an unknown liquid. Later, Scully discovers a little blood on William's sheets and rushes him to a hospital, but doctors cannot find anything out of the ordinary.

Scully confronts The Breather, who reveals that he is Mulder's half-brother, Jeffrey Spender. He then explains that he injected William with a metallic liquid that turned off his alien qualities. As William is the one thing the aliens need, Spender achieved revenge against his father by transforming the child into a normal human being. He warns that as long as the aliens know where William lives, he will never be safe.

The scene returns to that of the opening. The husband hangs a hand-carved mobile over the baby's crib. After he leaves the room, William reaches up... but the mobile does not spin on its own.

Notes:
Although David Duchovny is uncredited in this episode, he is seen for a split second, by Scully when she is examining the disfigured man, soon to be named Jeffery Spender (Mulder's half-brother), when she looks in his eyes.

Subtle hint that the Cigarette Smoking Man is still alive? Spender claims that he is seeking revenge on his father by depriving "them" of super-William: not something you typically do if the target of your revenge is...well, dead.

Near the beginning, as Scully is in her car with William, she is singing "Joy to the World" to William, the same song she sang to Mulder while they were stuck in the forest in the Season 5 episode, ''Detour''.

Quotes:
Doggett: You won't talk to me. You going to talk to her, Mr Miller?
Jeffrey Spender: If she'll help me and protect me.
Doggett: You better hope she's feeling more charitable than I am, partner. (Scully enters the room) Agent Scully. He's under arrest for assaulting a federal officer. I've explained to him the penalties, but he still refuses a lawyer.
Scully: How did he get in the building?
Doggett: We found a card key on him. Says it was given to him by Fox Mulder.
Scully: His name is Miller?
Doggett: Daniel Miller of Fredericksburg. He gave us an address, but we're still working on the confirmation.
Scully: What are you doing here?
Jeffrey Spender: I came here to find answers.
Scully: Answers to what?
Jeffrey Spender: To this. What they did to me.
Scully: From your scarring, it appears that you've been burned. Are you claiming that someone burned you and that there is evidence here to incriminate them?
Jeffrey Spender: According to Fox Mulder, the men who did this are part of a government conspiracy.
Scully: Go on.
Jeffrey Spender: You know who these men are.
Scully: Did Mulder tell you that, too? When?
Jeffrey Spender: If I were to tell you that, you might use the information to find him. Mulder doesn't want to be found.
Doggett: When I searched him I found those X-Files stuffed inside his clothes. (Scully pulls out a photo) You know who that is?
Scully: It's his sister.
Doggett: Whose?
Jeffrey Spender: Mulder's. She was abducted from her home when she was a little girl — part of this same government conspiracy.
Scully: You seem to know a lot, Mr Miller. It gives an impression either that you are telling the truth or you just want us to believe that you are.
Jeffrey Spender: If I thought you'd believe me, I wouldn't have snuck in here.
Scully: Agent Doggett. Would you please arrange the transfer of this man to Quantico? I'd like to personally examine his injuries.

Scully: You came here looking for something. What is it that you hope to find?

Jeffrey Spender: I didn't find it.
Reyes: You stole several files pertaining to the 1973 abduction of Mulder's sister. But yet you say there's danger to your life right now.
Jeffrey Spender: The conspiracy to keep the truth about aliens from the American public all but destroyed a few years ago, has given rise to a new conspiracy in the government now, by men who are alien themselves.
Scully: And what does this have to do with you?
Jeffrey Spender: What you can see they did to me, was a failed attempt to turn me into one of these alien men. I was a guinea pig — a test subject. And now I want to expose their evil plans.
Reyes: What plans are those?
Jeffrey Spender: To do this to you... to everyone. Mulder said there were files here — cases like mine. He gave me names and case numbers, but I don't see them. They're not here. Someone's already removed them.
Scully: Yes.
Reyes: Who?

Doggett: Assistant Director. You said you've spoken to the lab.

Skinner: I got some advance info on the exam that Scully performed on the man.
Doggett: What?
Skinner: The blood type matches Mulder's, but there are aspects of the physiology that aren't a match.
Doggett: Such as?
Skinner: Well, the body mass, of course. He's shorter and weighs considerably less than Mulder did.
Doggett: You haven't seen this guy — what they've done to him. They way he's twisted, he's like an old man. He could be a hundred years old.
Skinner: Yeah, I'm just relaying the facts. And the fact is, he's not a hundred years old, is he? Not the way he attacked you. Well, whoever he is, he wants something.
Doggett: He says he wants revenge, against the people that burned him. And Mulder directed him to the place where he could find the files and the people who did it.
Skinner: That doesn't make any sense. Mulder knows those files inside out. Why would he direct him? Why not just tell him? (answering phone) Skinner. Yeah. You're sure about that? All right. (He hangs up)
Doggett: What?
Skinner: That was the lab. They were able to rush the PCR test and they came up with a definitive DNA result.

Scully: It's all been a good act.

Jeffrey Spender: I don't know what you mean.
Scully: I think you do. You knew those files were here. You just pretended not to, so that I'd bring you here to see William.
Jeffrey Spender: No.
Scully: I want the truth from you.
Jeffrey Spender: What truth?
Scully: The truth that you won't speak.
Jeffrey Spender: I want the same truth you do.
Scully: Don't do this to me. Not you.
Jeffrey Spender: I didn't come here to upset you. I didn't plan on being caught. I know you must have a hard life living alone raising a son not knowing whether you'll see Mulder again.
Scully: How do you know my life?
Jeffrey Spender: I know what Mulder knows. I know they used you to create the child. I know they continue to use you to take care of it and raise it.
Scully: What are you saying?
Jeffrey Spender: You know what I'm saying. Your son — your child is part alien.
Scully: Just tell me who you are. Come on, just say your name. Say it! Just say it!
Reyes: Agent Scully...
Scully: (to Reyes) Could you please leave? And close the door?
Reyes: (to Jeffrey Spender) Can you step out, please?
Scully: This was a private conversation.
Reyes: I understand. I'm sorry. (Jeffrey Spender leaves)
Scully: Do you know who that man is?
Reyes: Yes, I do.
Doggett: Agent Scully...
Scully: What is this? What?
Doggett: We got DNA results. A positive ID.
Scully: It's not him. He wouldn't say these things.
Doggett: The DNA's a match to Fox Mulder's.
Scully: It's not him.

Reyes: Here she comes.

Scully: How is he? Is he all right?
Dr Edwards: He's good. He's doing fine.
Scully: Oh, god.
Reyes: Can she see him?
Dr Edwards: We have him in step down right now as a precaution, but I think he'll be going home in no time.
Scully: What did you find?
Dr Edwards: Nothing.
Reyes: How could you find nothing? There would have to be something.
Dr Edwards: There's some slight bruising on the head where something clearly broke the skin, but... he's fine.
Reyes: What about a tox screen?
Dr Edwards: There's an elevated amount of iron in his blood, but other than that, your son is completely normal.
Reyes: That doesn't make sense.
Scully: No... I think it does. It makes perfect sense now.

Jeffrey Spender: You're wrong about that. When I look in the mirror I see something much different than the world sees. He could destroy my face and my dignity when he shot me in that office... but he couldn't destroy the one thing I love most — my hatred of him.

Scully: Your cigarette-smoking, son of a bitch of a father.
Jeffrey Spender: And Mulder's.
Scully: You counted on the DNA... that we'd buy it without question and not look any further. DNA's what Mulder shared with Jeffrey Spender.
Jeffrey Spender: Ah. Half brothers raised apart — that's about all that Mulder and I ever shared.
Scully: You haven't seen Mulder, have you? You haven't even talked to him. So, getting caught at the FBI... winning our trust was all towards one thing. It was only to get to William.
Jeffrey Spender: Sitting here, you'd wish me dead. Shortly, I'll do you the favour.
Scully: I had this checked. It's an unknown metal, that you injected into my son.
Jeffrey Spender: It's a form of magnetite. A gift.
Scully: 'A gift'?
Jeffrey Spender: Having failed as a conspirator to control alien colonisation, my father wanted nothing more than to see the world fail, too.
Scully: So what, you've prevented it now? You've... prevented alien colonisation by injecting this metal into my son?
Jeffrey Spender: Your son is the one thing the aliens need. I took revenge on my father by taking William away from them.
Scully: So, he's all right now? I mean, just like that? (Jeffrey Spender nods) So it's over. They'll let him be.
Jeffrey Spender: It'll never be over. They'll always know what he was. They'll never accept what he is.
Scully: Well, I can protect him.
Jeffrey Spender: And if you can't? Look at me... what they did. Is this what you want for your son?

Episode Number: 198
Season Number: 9
First Aired: Sunday, April 28, 2002
Production Code: 9X17

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