Season 8: Alone (8X19)

Written by: Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Frank Spotnitz

In a small house in Ellicot, NY, Gary Sacks tends to his ailing father, Arlen. Gary goes into the kitchen, and Arlen panics when he sees something on the ceiling. Gary hears the heart monitor flatline in the other room and sees that his father has disappeared from his wheelchair. Gary looks for him and hears a hissing sound. Suddenly, a huge reptilian face lunges at him, and he is sprayed with venom.

At the FBI, Scully cleans out her desk in preparation for maternity leave. She finds memorabilia from past cases, and gives Doggett an Apollo 11 key chain that was given to her by Mulder (in 4X17 Tempus Fugit). The medallion symbolizes teamwork and partnership, and she thanks Doggett for his help over the past year. She exits the office. Moments later, Agent Leyla Harrison enters, having been assigned to partner with Doggett on the X-files during Scully's leave. Harrison, a fan of Mulder and Scully's work, is excited about being on an actual X-file and accompanies Doggett in examining the crime scene at the Sacks' home. There are some remnants of slime in the home and near where Arlen's body was found. Based on her study of Mulder and Scully's past cases, Harrison immediately jumps to otherworldly conclusions about the nature of the slime. Doggett shoots down her theories.

Doggett wanders alone toward a deserted mansion near the crime scene, and after entering, finds a book on the Sixth Extinction on a desk. He hears a noise and pulls out his gun, only to find Agent Harrison. He tells her that it is here and orders her to wait outside. Gunshots ring outside, and he looks for Agent Harrison, but she has disappeared. He goes into the nearby woods and accidentally falls through a trap door on the ground. He finds himself in some sort of underground wine cellar.

Mulder assists Scully in going to her Lamaze class. She admits to feeling like she has deserted her work. Mulder assures her that Doggett can take care of himself. Skinner, meanwhile, leads a pack of agents to search for Doggett. Scully is worried, and expresses a desire to go back to work to help the search. She performs an autopsy on Arlen Sacks' body and discovers that the slime on his body is actually venom that has been excreted by a reptile. Mulder tries to convince her to stop working as he steps in to conduct his own investigation.

In the underground lair, Doggett is wondering what to make of an amber-colored shell of a dog when he sees something quickly move past him. A giant, snake-like creature attacks him and sprays venom in his eyes. With his sight impaired, Doggett shoots blindly at the creature, and it manages to get away. Harrison hears his gunshots and finds Doggett. Her eyes are also affected, but she brings him to the sickly body of Gary Sacks.

Mulder arrives at the crime scene where Skinner is redirecting the search farther away. Mulder, no longer an FBI agent, takes off into the woods on his own and comes upon the mansion. He sees something in the brush and picks it up, but is startled by Herman Stites who claims to own the property. Mulder asks him if he has seen a reptile and the man bristles at any accusations. Mulder walks away and misses Doggett, who has climbed up to a grating and is calling out to Stites from below. I need a hand, he begs Stites, who ignores the plea. Stites steps on Doggett's outstretched hand, and the agent falls back down in the cellar. Doggett and Harrison hear Stites seal the trap door closed. They then realize that Gary Sacks' body is gone.

Scully calls Mulder to tell him that Skinner is angry that he is tampering with a federal investigation. Mulder believes that it may be a man and not a reptile that they are looking for. He found the Apollo medallion and believes that Doggett is probably still nearby and that Stites is somehow involved. Doggett and Harrison blindly walk through the tunnel in the cellar. She fears that she is afflicted with the same thing as Sacks, because she has become completely blind. The creature appears once again and Doggett wildly shoots at it, but it gets away. Harrison finds Sacks' body. It has deteriorated even more.

Mulder sits in his car near the mansion, waiting. Scully discovers that the venom hardens the body's skin to form a shell. Then, its organs liquefy. She tells Mulder that Stites had been working on creating a new species of reptile. Mulder takes off after something moving in the woods. He watches as a human-sized reptile climbs up the house and into the window of the mansion. As Mulder bangs on the front door, he does not see the creature morph into Stites. Mulder confronts Stites, and Stites brings him into the underground wine cellar. There, Mulder sees Doggett and Harrison, who senses that Stites is really the creature. Suddenly, Stites disappears and the creature crawls along the ceiling. Without an issued gun, Mulder orders a blinded Doggett to shoot at the monster, but Doggett can't see what he's shooting at. Mulder demands that Doggett aim for the sound of his own voice. Although Doggett is hesitant about firing towards Mulder, he shoots and hits the creature. It transforms into Herman Stites, who lies there dead.

At the hospital, a healed Doggett checks in on Harrison. She will not return to the X-files. Mulder hands Doggett the Apollo medallion, but he asks that they give it to Agent Harrison. Mulder and Scully visit with Harrison, who asks them about a past investigation. As they reminisce with the agent, Doggett walks away down the long hallway, heading back to work - alone.

Notes:
Agent Leyla Harrison was named for X-Files fan Leyla Harrison, whose life was tragically cut short in February 2001 when she lost her battle with skin cancer.

Much like a real fan of the show, Leyla is full of information about the X-Files and makes references to several cases including ''Squeeze''/''Tooms'' (the liver eating mutant), ''The Beginning'' (an alien who sheds its skin), and ''Detour'' (the subterranean men). In the end she asks Mulder about how he saved Scully from the spaceship, referring to the feature movie ''Fight the Future''.

When Scully is cleaning out her desk, the penny & dime was from "Dreamland I & II", the dog tag was from her dog she got in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose".

Dr. Stites had been reading ''The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Mankind'' by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin. The title of the book provides a reference to the title of the first episode of the seventh season.

Quotes:
Doggett: Agent Scully. Can I take your coat?
Scully: I'm not staying, Agent Doggett. My doctor told me to take my maternity leave, in fact, she insisted on it.
Doggett: That's not bad, Agent Scully, you could use some time for yourself. What is it?
Scully: It's a medallion commemorating the Apollo 11 space flight. I'd like to give this to you, Agent Doggett.
Doggett: Thanks. Because?
Scully: Agent Mulder gave it to me a few years back. It symbolises teamwork, partnership... it means no one gets there alone. And after this past year and... everything that we've been through, I just... I wouldn't be here without you. (She hugs Doggett)
Doggett: Agent Scully, this pregnancy leave, it is just a leave right? I mean, you are coming back eventually? (She smiles and leaves the office. Doggett looks around the office shaking his head, he smiles as he hears the sound of woman's shoes in the hallway) You're not gone five minutes, Agent Scully and I already I'm starting to feel like a stranger in my own off ..." (It isn't Scully standing in the doorway)
Agent Harrison: I'm sorry?
Doggett: Can I help you?
Agent Harrison: I'm here to help you, actually. I'm Leyla Harrison. I've been looking forward to meeting you.
Doggett: Uh huh.
Agent Harrison: I've got a case here, an X-File, I think. At least the local PD can't explain it. A murder last night in upstate New York. I booked us on a flight to Buffalo Niagara. Here's the crime report.
Doggett: I'm sorry, Miss Harrison, who are you?
Agent Harrison: Oh gosh, they didn't tell you? This is so embarrassing — I'm... I'm your new partner.

Agent Harrison: I gave the slime to the Buffalo PD. I told them we wanted to see the results right away.

Doggett: How much field experience do you have, Agent Harrison?
Agent Harrison: Um, actually this is my first time in the field.
Doggett: Let me guess, Deputy Director Kersh handed you this job, filling in for Agent Scully.
Agent Harrison: Yes. Yes he did.
Doggett: I don't know how to tell you this, Agent Harrison, but you're being used. Deputy Director Kersh is no friend to the X-Files.
Agent Harrison: I don't think you understand something, Agent Doggett. I begged for this assignment.
Doggett: You begged for it?
Agent Harrison: I was in accounting. I processed Agents Mulder and Scully's travel expenses.
Doggett: Then you are qualified.
Agent Harrison: Maybe I'm not. But I know the X-Files, Agent Doggett, inside and out. Other people don't even want to admit these questions exist, but you face them every day. I am just so excited to be a part of this. Aren't you? Mr Sacks' body was found here, but they found no foot prints leading to it. Oh my god. There's more of it.
Doggett: Looks like it.
Agent Harrison: You know what that could be? It could be bile.
Doggett: Bile?
Agent Harrison: From a liver-eating mutant. Mulder and Scully chased one into an escalator once. It died, but there was...
Doggett: This is not a liver-eating mutant, Agent Harrison.
Agent Harrison: It could be an alien who send its skin. According to Agent Mulder's case reports they leave behind a mucous-like residue when they... You don't think it's that either. I'll take a sample of this, have it sent to the lab for comparison.
Doggett: That's good thinking, Agent Harrison.

Mulder: Seems like old times. You in scrubs, slicing and dicing.

Scully: What are you doing here, Mulder?
Mulder: Actually, I wandered away from my tour. A better question is; what are you doing here?
Scully: I found something that may prove helpful in locating Agent Doggett. This is Arlen Sacks, the murder victim Doggett was investigating. This old man was not murdered, Mulder. He died of heart failure, evidently after he was blinded by a chemical substance of some kind. The orbits have residual traces of a slimy substance, known as hydrolytic enzymes.
Mulder: Venom. Produced by reptiles.
Scully: How'd you know that?
Mulder: Before Agent Doggett and his partner went missing, they send in samples to be analysed — hydrolytic enzymes. Skinner told me.
Scully: I also found some bacteria in the venom, which I'm going to do a culture on.
Mulder: Let someone else do it. There are other concerns right now.
Scully: I know. But this is an X-File, Mulder and you are out of the Bureau. And now If I go home, where is Skinner going to find someone qualified to look into this?
Mulder: I know where he could find somebody.

Agent Harrison: This means... I can't tell you what this means to me. Can I ask you something?

Mulder: Sure.
Agent Harrison: When you went to Antarctica, to save Agent Scully from being taken by that spaceship, and you ran out of gas in your snowcat, how did you get back?
Scully: Um, well first of all it was never... actually proven that it was a spaceship.
Mulder: It wasn't?
Scully: Well, no, what...
Mulder: Proven?
Scully: What happened was that we fell off of something that...
Mulder: Something?
Scully: ...rose out of the ice.
Mulder: Well, what do you think that was?
Scully: Well, I don't know what it was, but we never, we didn't actually see...
Mulder: Was it a spaceship?
Scully: ...a spaceship.
Mulder: I can't believe you're saying it's not a spaceship, when you saw it.
Scully: Ah, I mean, it could have been a spaceship. Mulder, but you don't...
Mulder: Of course it was a spaceship.
Scully: Look, we don't know that it was, but you don't have a picture of it or anything.
Mulder: You know it was a spaceship, you saw it!
Scully: No, I did, no no no no no. Remember, I was unconscious. And when I woke up there was no spaceship.
Mulder: You saw the spaceship.
Scully: No no no.

Episode Number: 180
Season Number: 8
First Aired: Sunday, May 6, 2001
Production Code: 8X19

Season 8: Vienen (8X16)

Written by: Steven Maeda
Directed by: Rod Hardy

As the Galpex Petroleum Orpheus oilrig sits in the Gulf of Mexico, its crew eats dinner in front of the television. They don't notice Mexican worker Simon De La Cruz steal a knife from the kitchen. He slips out to the ship's communication shack and stabs the engineer. When the television fizzles out in the mess hall, Chief Bo Taylor goes to the Comm Shack to find De La Cruz smashing all the radio equipment. He notices the fallen engineer's eyes have welled with the alien black oil. Now you've gone and done it, Bo says. His face lights up in a blinding white glow that overtakes his entire body.

Back at the FBI, Doggett finds Mulder rummaging through the X-file cabinets. Although he is no longer assigned to the office, Mulder believes that a recent death of an oilrig worker exposed to radiation is extraterrestrial-related. Scully calls Doggett to remind him that she is waiting with Kersh and an executive from Galpex Petroleum, who had come when contacted by Mulder. Kersh sends Doggett to the rig. When he arrives, Doggett is angry to see Mulder is already there. In Washington, Scully's autopsy on Simon shows that he was infected with the black oil, but that his body had some sort of immunity to it. She tells Skinner that they need to evacuate the ship for Doggett's safety, fearful that others may be infected. Scully shows the body to the Galpex executive and orders him to shut down the rig. She is alarmed when he chooses to bring the ship and its crew back to shore. Meanwhile, another sailor named Yuri notices that the radio on the boat is intercepting some strange frequency. Bo attacks Yuri and leaks the black oil on him.

Scully tries to radio Doggett on the oilrig and is surprised when Mulder answers. Doggett orders quarantine from a possible contagion, and Mulder finds that there is one man missing from the ship's manifest. While Mulder and Doggett go out looking for this man, Diego Garza, Doggett attempts to wrestle control of the investigation, and demands to know what the crew might possibly be protecting. Mulder admits to having seen the alien black oil substance. He also believes that the Galpex executive was lying to the FBI because the ship's crew has already drilled the oil that the ship was supposedly looking for. Suddenly, an alarm goes off and the agents see a fire in the Comm Shack. Mulder comes upon the remnants of a molotov cocktail in the Comm Shack, and he is convinced that the fire was set purposefully. Doggett runs to seek another extinguisher and gets pelted over the head by the hiding Diego Garza. Garza slices Doggett's arm and is relieved that the agent's blood is indeed red. He tells Doggett in Spanish that the flying ships are coming.

Despite Scully's pleas, Kersh orders the quarantine to be lifted as soon as radio transmission is renewed. In her autopsy, Scully realizes that De La Cruz's Mexican Indian background may have caused his immunity to the alien virus. The crew probably irradiated him because he knew something, and they could not control him.

Doggett convinces Garza that he can help him get off the ship without the crew finding out. Looking for Garza himself is Bo, who attacks Doggett. The chief is about to infect Doggett with the black oil when Mulder saves him. The agents lock themselves in the Comm Shack and try to fix the radio as the black oil infected crew bangs on the door. Mulder holds them off, and Doggett somehow fixes the radio. Scully is waiting on the other end of the transmission to tell them that choppers are on the way. Doggett says that he, Mulder and Garza are the only ones not infected, so the helicopter should not land on the ship. Suddenly, Mulder smashes the radio. Doggett isn't sure if he too is infected, but Mulder explains that the radio is actually making contact with the mother ship.

Mysteriously, the crew stops banging on the door. Doggett goes back to find Garza after promising the man he would help him. Garza is dead, charred from radiation. The crew begins to demolish the rig, and Mulder and Doggett run to escape the fires. The agents get to the side of the rig and see the helicopter in the distance. The pilot is mouthing something to them, and they think they're being told to jump. As the rig explodes, Mulder and Doggett leap off into the water.

In Washington, Mulder is in the X-files office when Doggett enters. Galpex still intends to keep drilling, and Doggett is prepared to take responsibility for the mishandled case. Yet Mulder says that he has been fired from the FBI, taking the fall for both Doggett and the X-files. You've seen it, Mulder says, urging Doggett to prevent any more drilling. Whereas on the oilrig, Doggett wanted Mulder off the case, now he tries to convince him to stay. Mulder leaves the office, telling Doggett that he's in charge here now.

Notes:
This is the only mention and appearance of the Black Oil in Season 8, it is also the last. It would be later referenced in flashbacks during the series finale in Season 9. The apparent changes in plot are obvious as the writers seem to be doing away with former plot lines and adding new ones.

"Vienen" is Spanish for 'They Come'.

Quotes:
Doggett: Agent Mulder, I understand that you had more than a proprietary interest in these cases, but I can't help it if you're not assigned to this unit any more. I didn't see any reason to pursue this oil worker case.
Mulder: Oh, well maybe you missed the fact that this victim's corpse washed ashore at Port Arransis, Texas, massive flash burns on 90% of his body.
Doggett: I read the report, Agent Mulder, if you're insinuating I didn't.
Mulder: Then you must also know that this man was not the only man to disappear from the Galpex-Orpheus platform that night, but one of two men. The communications officer is also missing.
Doggett: The company attributes that to an explosion on the rig, a blow-out. Which is what they say caused Simon de la Cruz his burns.
Mulder: Burns, the ME said in his report, were not inconsistent to exposure to high levels of radiation.
Doggett: Not inconsistent. It's not exactly what I call a ringing endorsement.
Mulder: These files include the same kind of radiation phenomenon. Tissue destroyed by exposure to —
Doggett: Black oil. Five years ago, you and Agent Scully investigated a case of a World War Two plane salvaged from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, where a substance was brought to the surface. Which you described as a highly contagious virus of extra-terrestrial origin, that has radioactive properties and can take over a man's body. And it's part of an alien conspiracy to colonise the planet, if I'm not mistaken.
Mulder: And you'd love to help, but you left your light-sabre at home. How'd you get stuck down here, Agent Doggett? Kersh catch you peeing in his Cornflakes?

Skinner: Scully.

Scully: Close the door and lock it.
Skinner: What's going on? You said you want to see me straight away.
Scully: I didn't know who else to talk to, and I haven't been able to reach Agent Mulder.
Skinner: About what?
Scully: About what I found in my autopsy of the oil rig accident victim, Simon de la Cruz.
Skinner: Agent Scully, this man's body was supposed to be transported back to Mexico completely intact.
Scully: I found it by accident in the third ventricle of his brain.
(She probes the brain with a scalpel and a pool of Black Oil forms on the table beside the head)
Skinner: Scully!
Scully: No it's okay, it's all right.
Skinner: What do you mean? I was under the impression that this stuff could literally jump into a man's body.
Scully: No, it can, and I've seen that happen. But that's the thing — this man was clearly infected by the alien virus. It entered his system and it was massing in the pineal gland — but it's dead.
Skinner: What killed it?
Scully: Well, intuitively, you would say the same thing that killed him — exposure to high levels of radiation — but it makes no sense because the virus itself has radioactive properties.
Skinner: Somebody needs to tell Agent Doggett that, he needs to have some kind of idea as to what he's dealing with out there.
Scully: No, you need to tell Deputy Director Kersh that he has to order a controlled evacuation of that rig right now.
Skinner: Don't tell me to go to Kersh with this evidence. Telling him to order an evacuation for something that you can't even explain.
Scully: If the virus is loose, Agent Doggett's life is in danger.

Doggett: So what are hoping to find, Agent Mulder, honestly?

Mulder: I'm hoping to find Diego Garza.
Doggett: There's no chance of that if you ask me. The crew boss said it; a man could disappear of this platform and no one'd even notice.
Mulder: Did you see the crew manifest listed Diego Garza as mestizo, of mixed Mexican descent, just like his friend who died?
Doggett: Yeah. So what?
Mulder: Well the crew chief said these mestizo were particularly good workers, but we've got one dead trying to sabotage the rig and another who's missing. For one of their best workers you'd think somebody would've noticed him missing.
Doggett: Yeah, so maybe he's still here. Maybe he's just waiting to finish the job that killed his friend to protect Mexican oil interests.
Mulder: These men are hiding something, but that's not it.
Doggett: You know, I quarantine a whole damn oil rig without any evidence to support what you're saying, not one damn thing, but you still have yet to give me straight answer as to what you think is going on out here. And if these men are hiding something, if they're protecting something, then what the hell is it?
Mulder: I don't know yet.
Doggett: And when you do, let me know, 'cause I've got to get on the radio to justify this action.
Mulder: Agent Doggett, I didn't come out here just to bust your ass. I'm telling you, I've seen this substance. I've seen it can take over a man's body. This crew could be infected and not even know it. They may have no idea they're being controlled.
Doggett: This? This is what you're saying is going to take over my body? Well, when's it going to kick in?
Mulder: That's not how it works. It body-jumps from man to man, and I'm not sure that it's in all oil.
Doggett: Well that's a relief, because only ninety percent of the planet is dependent on the stuff.
Mulder: The man from Galpex Oil lied...
Doggett: What, he's infected too?
Mulder: No, that new oil province that he wants protected, it's already in production. It's being pumped by this rig. That's how this crew got infected.
Doggett: You're reaching, Agent Mulder.
Mulder: Billions and billions of barrels lying right underneath us, waiting to be produced, waiting to infect that ninety percent of the planet you talked about.
Doggett: These men are hiding something, that'd sure be something to hide.
Mulder: Agent Doggett, what if that's why this man is in hiding — Diego Garza — because he knows what they're up to, and he knows what they're up to, because he's the only one who's not infected with this alien virus.
Doggett: All right, he knows. Then why doesn't he just come down and tell us?

Deputy Director Kersh: Agent Scully.

Scully: Sir.
Deputy Director Kersh: You're in a hurry. To do what?
Scully: To continue with my work, Sir.
Deputy Director Kersh: I'm not privy to this work. I'd have thought this body would have been well on its way back to Mexico. (Skinner enters the room) I obviously haven't been able to rely on those whose job it is to keep me apprised and informed. I have to rely on phone calls. Like the call I received from Martin Ortega. Why doesn't somebody make me privy to who the hell gave the order to shut down that rig.
Skinner: I did.
Deputy Director Kersh: Well, I'm giving the order, this quarantine is lifted.
Scully: We could do that, Sir, but all radio contact's been cut off.
Deputy Director Kersh: As soon as it's re-established I want that rig up and running, and the entire crew choppered off the Galpex-Orpheus and debriefed.
Scully: Sir, I think that's a mistake...
Deputy Director Kersh: I think it would be a mistake not to, Agent Scully. And you're running out of mistakes — both you and the Assistant Director. If I didn't know better, I'd say this was a Mulder stunt.

Mulder: Where's the fire, Agent Doggett?

Doggett: I've been called up to see Deputy Director Kersh. As have Agent Scully and AD Skinner. I think it's all hitting the fan.
Mulder: You mean with Galpex Oil?
Doggett: The word came down that Galpex has lost the right to drill that entire Texas oil province.
Mulder: That oil should stay right where it is. You should do everything in your power to make sure that it does.
Doggett: Me? (The phone rings)
Mulder: That is the Deputy Director calling to tell you there's no need to see you. That the blame has been properly assigned for what happened out on that platform. I'm out. I'm 86'd, Agent Doggett.
Doggett: What do you mean? You're out of the FBI?
Mulder: Kersh could barely contain his happiness when he... stuck it to me.
Doggett: So you're taking the fall? Not for me?
Mulder: For you, for the X-Files. You're all the credibility this office has left. You have Kersh's ear and you've seen it now, out on that platform, you saw it for yourself. (The phone rings again) Answer the phone, Agent Doggett. You're in charge here now.

Episode Number: 179

Season Number: 8
First Aired: Sunday, April 22, 2001
Production Code: 8X16

Season 8: Empedocles (8X17)

Written by: Greg Walker
Directed by: Barry K. Thomas

Mild-mannered Jeb Dukes gets fired from his job in New Orleans, while his boss, Gary Garber, apologizes profusely. Jeb calmly strolls out of the office and out on to the street where, coincidentally, he witnesses a police chase that ends in a fatal auto accident. Jeb stays back, but is approached by a man awash in flames from the burning wreckage. The man seemingly walks into Jeb's body and then disappears. Suddenly, Jeb's eyes turn flaming red. That night, Jeb enters his office building and goes right up to his boss. He lifts a gun and fires at Garber.

Detective Franklin Potter is examining the crime scene when Agent Monica Reyes arrives. He shows her some artwork from Jeb Dukes' desk, but Reyes tells him that it is merely the insert from a popular rock CD. She dismisses the case as being satanic-based. Yet when she sees the victim's body, it appears to be charred from a fire. A second glance proves that it was only in her imagination. She is still unsettled by what she saw. Meanwhile, Mulder visits Scully and brings her a present. Before opening it, she doubles over in pain and Mulder rushes her to the hospital. Reyes calls Mulder on his cell phone, saying it is important she see him.

Jeb Dukes sits alone in a motel room, staring in fear at his gun. He raises it to his own head, but it gets hot and burns his hand. His face suddenly crackles. He rips at his skin, revealing flames underneath.

Mulder meets Reyes in an FBI file room. Showing him the file, Reyes asks if he is familiar with Doggett's son's case, which was the most emotional case she has ever worked on. When they found the boy, she had a vision of the body as ashes. Doggett also admitted to seeing the ashen body, but convinced himself that it meant nothing. Reyes once again saw the vision on a new case and senses that there is a reason for it happening a second time.

At the hospital, Doggett checks in on a sleeping Scully. He envisions himself in a crime scene in a field, but a nurse enters the hospital room and shakes him out of it. Later, Mulder is in the FBI hallway when Doggett attacks him. "Stay out of my life!" he yells. Mulder tries to cool him down, saying that he was asked to investigate. Reyes approaches the men and explains about the recent case where she had a recurring vision similar to what they both saw in Luke Doggett's case. A suspect in Luke's case was killed in a car accident in New Orleans right outside of where the Jeb Dukes shooting took place. Doggett again warns her to leave it alone.

Reyes goes to the home of Jeb's sister, Katha Dukes, to plead for her help. Jeb calls Katha from South Carolina, claiming that someone else killed those people. A woman knocks on his phone booth door because she needs help with her flat tire. The next morning, Jeb wanders in a daze to a car pulled over with tire trouble. He is unaware of any events that may have taken place. He sees flames in the reflection of the car window, gets in and throws out the woman's purse. When he pulls off, the tire iron falls to the side of the road.

Scully awakes and sees Doggett in her hospital room. He asks her what changed her mind about not believing any of the paranormal on the X-files. She admits to being afraid to believe. Suddenly Doggett sees a vision of Reyes in a field at the familiar crime scene. She is surrounded by sheriffs and looking at a body on the ground. Meanwhile, Reyes comes to Mulder in the X-files office. He has found no connection to other cases with the same kind of visions. Reyes tells him he is wrong because she believes there are patterns.

Doggett arrives at a crime scene in Spartanburg, SC where Mulder is waiting for him. Reyes' case has another murder victim. Doggett's reoccurring hallucination turns into reality when he sees her standing over a body, surrounded by sheriffs. He looks at the woman lying on the ground and tells Reyes that he does not see the ashen remains. Reyes is insistent that there are connections and that it may be a thread of evil. Mulder asks her to leave Doggett alone if the man really doesn't see anything.

Later, Mulder stops by the hospital to see Scully. She had a partial abruption in the uterus wall but she will be fine. He places his hand on her belly and they smile. Scully tells him that she likes Agent Reyes. Mulder is surprised. "You're nothing at all alike." "Neither are you and I," Scully responds. He says that he can't help Doggett if he doesn't want to be helped. She is convinced that Doggett is worth the effort.

Jeb Dukes is at his sister's house. Although he claims he hasn't committed any murders, Katha sees blood on his face and doesn't believe him. Jeb asks her for help, but Katha's fears deepen over the safety of her daughter. Doggett, meanwhile, submits to investigating the Jeb Dukes case when Monica enters the office. She wants him to be honest with himself about what he saw at the Spartanburg crime scene, but he says that feelings don't solve crimes. "What are you scared of?" she asks. Reyes assures Doggett that he did everything he could to save his son. She receives a call from Katha who says that Jeb is at her house. Doggett wants to know what link Jeb may have to his son, and the agents race off to the Dukes home. When they arrive, Katha tells her brother that Reyes only wants to talk to him, but Jeb is scared and takes Katha's daughter as hostage. Doggett holds him at the stairs, but puts down his gun when Jeb threatens to kill the little girl. Reyes shoots Jeb from the other side and Doggett calls for help.

Jeb is transported to Washington Memorial Hospital and the agents follow. Reyes surmises that perhaps saving the little girl was the connection to Doggett's son. She tells Doggett that there is nothing more for him to do, and he goes down to Scully's room. Watching her sleep, he again sees the vision in the field where Reyes is surrounded by the sheriffs. The men back away to reveal that Luke Doggett is the unseen body lying at their feet. The body turns to ash. Mulder interrupts him and asks if he thought there really was a connection to his son's death. Mulder wonders whether evil is like a random disease: while most people have immunity, others may catch it at a weak moment. In the ICU, Katha witnesses her brother's body seizing. The doctors try to revive him but his heart stops, and Jeb Dukes is declared dead. Katha stands crying over him, accusing Reyes of killing him. An invisible spirit floats from Jeb to Katha, causing her body to convulse and her eyes turn to flame red. She strikes Reyes and grabs the agent's gun. Doggett arrives in time to capture Katha. "It's over," he tells Reyes. "It's never over," she says.

Mulder comes once again to Scully's house and reminds her to open his gift. It is an heirloom doll from his family. She thanks him for the other gift he gave her - the courage to believe. "I hope it's a gift I can pass on," she says, tearfully. Back at the hospital, Katha Dukes is alive and strapped to her bed. Doggett stares intensely at the woman, wanting to believe that this will prevent the evil from spreading again.

Notes:

"Empedocles" is the name of a Greek scientist-philosopher-poet circa 450 BC. He was known for his belief in the "four-element" theory - that all things are composed of four basic elements: earth, air, fire, and water. He believed that opposing forces (love and hate) acted upon these elements to combine and separate them into their varied forms (hate separates them, love combines them). He also formulated a primitive theory of evolution in which he claimed that humans and animals evolved from antecedent forms.

Quotes:
Scully: Mulder?
Mulder: What?
Scully: I was just about to jump in the shower, but I was waiting for the pizza man.
Mulder: You got something going on with the pizza man I should know about?
Scully: The pizza man?
Mulder: Well, correct me if I'm wrong but you just said you were waiting for the pizza man to jump in the shower.
Scully: No, what I mean was the pizza man's usually late, and so... You want to come in?
Mulder: Thank you.
Scully: I feel like I'm stuck in an episode of 'Mad About You'.
Mulder: Well, yeah, but small technicality. 'Mad About You' was about a married couple and we just work together.
Scully: Yeah, well, you know what I'm talking about.
Mulder: I do, I do. What I'm trying to say is that, uh... we have no good reliable information on this man. I mean, what I am saying is the pizza man... (He indicates her swollen belly) ...is not above suspicion.
Scully: Ah, I see. Is that for me?
Mulder: Yeah.
Scully: Nice package.
Mulder: Thank you.
Scully: What's the occasion?
Mulder: Oh, I was going through some stuff after my mother died and, um, it's just an old family keepsake and I wanted you to have it.
Scully: Well, I'm touched.
Mulder: Little Caesar, I presume?

Agent Reyes: You're taller than I thought.

Mulder: You keep on alluding to a time that we've met and I don't remember.
Agent Reyes: I was there when they found you in the woods. You were... Yeah. I'm not surprised you don't remember.
Mulder: Yeah. I have somewhere I have to be... if we could cut to the chase.
Agent Reyes: As I said before, it involves Agent Doggett... the death his son. I don't know if you're familiar at all with that case.
Mulder: No, I'm not at all familiar with Agent Doggett.
(Agent Reyes hands Mulder a file:

Luke John Doggett
Age at Disappearance: 7
Date of Birth: 7/9/90
Date of Last Contact: 8/12/97
Race: White
Gender: Male
Height: 48"
Weight: 52
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
AKA: Unknown
Missing From: Long Island, NY
Child is suspected to have been...)

Mulder: I wasn't aware of this. You were the lead investigator?
Agent Reyes: Once it fell to the FBI. Agent Doggett was with the NYPD at the time. We worked it together. We never caught the killer. It was the hardest case I've ever had. As in stealing-

into-the-bathroom-to-cry-my-eyes-out kind of hard. I can't begin to imagine what it was like for John. I couldn't bear to put him through this again, but if it means we could catch his son's killer... I just can't go to him until I know if what I saw means anything.
Mulder: You said this case involves some kind of phenomenon?
Agent Reyes: I don't know if it was a psychic experience or what, but when we found his son, I had a vision. It was as if for just a moment... The body was changed.
Mulder: Changed? Into what?
Agent Reyes: Ashes. It looked like ashes. The thing of it is Agent Doggett told me he saw it, too... although he spent the last few years convincing himself he didn't, that even if he did, it didn't mean anything.
Mulder: What do you think it means?
Agent Reyes: I can't shake the feeling that it's a clue, that it could somehow point to who's responsible, if only I let it. And now I've seen it again. A thousand miles from here, a seemingly unrelated case and I've had the same vision. There has to be a reason for it, a reason it's happening now.

Mulder: Hey! Hey!

Doggett: You stay out of my life!
Mulder: Take it easy!
Doggett: You stay out of my business!
Mulder: Take it easy, Agent Doggett.
Doggett: You want to get something on me, you ask for it! I don't want to get calls about you going behind my back! You got that straight?
Mulder: I don't want anything on you. I was asked to look into this file.
Doggett: Who asked you?
Agent Reyes: Agent Doggett. What are you doing?
Doggett: Is this you? Is this you looking into this?
Agent Reyes: Yes. I asked Agent Mulder.
Doggett: You asked him what? There's nothing in there for him to bother with.
Mulder: Why don't you just calm down, Agent Doggett and let her explain the connection to you.
Doggett: The connection? To what?
Agent Reyes: I was going to tell you, John. I was in New Orleans on a case — a shooting. Something that I saw connected back to Luke. A vision.
Doggett: Not this again. You're not going to make something out of nothing.
Mulder: Bob Harvey. Does that name mean something or nothing to you?
Doggett: Bob Harvey was a suspect in the death of my son. We questioned him but then we realised he wasn't our man.
Agent Reyes: Agent Mulder pointed it out. Bob Harvey was killed last night in a car crash fleeing the police near a shooting in New Orleans. He died in front of the building where the shooting occurred.
Doggett: What's the connection?
Mulder: That's it.
Doggett: That's it?
Agent Reyes: And then there was the vision.
Doggett: No, there's no connection. I don't care what you saw, you leave it alone... and you leave it the hell alone. (He takes his son's file and leaves)
Agent Reyes: I know there is something here.
Mulder: Good.

Mulder: You awake?

Scully: Yeah.
Mulder: What did the doctor say?
Scully: That I had a partial abruption. Which means that my placenta started to tear away from the uterine wall. They're going to need to monitor me for a while.
Mulder: But you're going to be fine?
Scully: Yeah. Where have you been?
Mulder: I've actually been out in the field with Agent Doggett and this female Agent from New Orleans.
Scully: Agent Reyes.
Mulder: Yeah.
Scully: I like her.
Mulder: You're nothing at all alike.
Scully: Well, then neither are you and I. So this is a case you're working on?
Mulder: Yeah. Actually, one that involves Agent Doggett's son, the son who died.
Scully: Yeah, he's never talked to me about him, but I know something. Are you able to help him at all?
Mulder: You can't help a man who can't help himself.
Scully: He's worth the effort, Mulder.

Mulder: Agent Doggett... She just fell back to sleep.

Doggett: I just wanted to check to see how she's doing. Anyways, I'm here with this other thing. We... we caught this killer, Jeb Dukes. He's in the ICU. He may not make it.
Mulder: And now you're wondering if there really was a connection. You know, when I... I first came to work at the FBI, I worked at Violent Crimes, and I saw, I saw the worst of humanity. I saw monsters, and I wondered, how they became that way, how these men became so evil. I know there were... psychological explanations — victims of their environment, victims of their parents — but the scientific explanations were never truly satisfying. And I began to think about evil like, like a disease. You know, that it goes from man to man, or age to age. Most of us walk around thinking we're incapable of any acts of evil and we are. You know, we can stifle that momentary urge to kill or to hurt. We have some kind of immunity to it. But I think it's possible that there's... an occurrence in somebody's life, a tragedy or a loss that leaves them vulnerable, hurts their immunity to evil, and all of a sudden at that point in their lives when they're weakened, they're open to evil and they can become evil.
Doggett: If that were true, then what you're saying is... is that this man we wheeled in here tonight is infected with evil, the same evil that killed my son. You really believe that, Agent Mulder?
Mulder: Uh, I'm not really a good test for questions like that. I'll believe almost anything, you know, but the... the pisser is you may never know. It may be like Agent Reyes says. It could be random and meaningless — who it affects, who it goes to.
Doggett: What if it isn't?
Mulder: Well, then you'd be seeing something that I don't, Agent Doggett.

Episode Number: 178

Season Number: 8
First Aired: Sunday, April 15, 2001
Production Code: 8X17

Season 8: Three Words (8X18)

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

Federal census worker Howard Salt hops over the fence at the White House, and a squadron of Secret Service agents ambushes him. "The aliens are taking over the United States!" he exclaims. Suddenly a gunshot goes off, and the agents realize Salt has accidentally shot himself. Before succumbing to death, he hands one agent a CD-ROM with the words "Fight the Future" written on it.

In his hospital room, Mulder puts his hand on his face and chest scars, seeing flashbacks of the alien torture he endured. Scully interrupts these visions when she tells him that he is completely healthy and miraculously healed of whatever brain disorder he may have suffered. She takes him back to his apartment, which is still intact. "I don't know if you'll ever understand what it was like," a visibly moved Scully acknowledges. Mulder, however, is still unsettled, not knowing how he fits in his newly restored life.

Skinner and Doggett are summoned to Kersh's office to be briefed about Mulder's reinstatement to the X-files. Because of Doggett's success rate of arrests, Kersh is prepared to deny Mulder's application. He orders the two to tell Mulder that he is off the X-files. Doggett resists and Kersh threatens to shut down the X-files altogether. Skinner and Scully come to Mulder's apartment to bring him the bad news. Mulder first learns of Agent Doggett's assignment to the X-files and realizes that they have all become pawns in some larger conspiracy. He gets up to get dressed, telling Scully and Skinner, "For the first time, I feel like getting back to work."

At a Federal Correction Facility in West Virginia, a trusty brings Absalom a book entitled "The Coming Apocalypse." Inside is a newspaper clipping about Howard Salt being killed when he jumped the White House gate. Later, as the prisoners work on a roadside gang, Absalom breaks away and escapes into the woods. That night, Doggett returns home to find Absalom waiting for him. Absalom checks the back of the agent's neck for traces of reptilian-looking alien vertebrae. "You're going to spread the word," he tells Doggett before kidnapping him. From the FBI, Scully tries unsuccessfully to reach Doggett while Skinner briefs his task force on the hunt for Absalom. Skinner tells the agents that the man's claims of alien invasion are to be taken seriously. He shows them a photo of the words "Fight the Future" scrawled on Absalom's cell wall.

Scully and Skinner find Mulder in the X-files office. He has picked out Howard Salt's face in an Absalom cult photo and informs them that Salt was a multiple abductee. Mulder is convinced that the man was killed for what he knew. Mulder and Scully sneak into the FBI Evidence Room to discover Howard Salt's laptop computer has its entire memory filled with an encrypted program. Mulder removes the hard drive.

With a gun taped to the small of his back, Doggett enters the Federal Statistics Center. Absalom's hand is on the trigger. When passing the security guard, Doggett notices the x-ray scanner and warns Absalom that they will be stopped. Absalom pushes Doggett on, saying that he is looking for proof that aliens are "already here, among us." Security guards quickly surround them, and Doggett is shocked when they shoot Absalom, nearly missing Doggett's head. Later, when Doggett briefs Skinner on the previous events, Mulder bursts into the office. Doggett is about to introduce himself when Mulder attacks him. He blames Doggett for getting Absalom killed, suspecting that he is part of the conspiracy to hide the truth.

At Scully's apartment, the Lone Gunmen tap into Salt's hard drive and unearth file directories from the Statistics Center. Fifteen minutes after Salt's death, computer firewalls had gone up around the facility. Mulder is convinced that he is onto something in those files. However, even if they were to uncover a password, the firewalls would block them from opening the files. The pass code can only be used in the secured facility itself. Much to the consternation of Mulder, the Gunmen agree with Scully that they have hit a dead end. Meanwhile, Doggett secretly meets with his informant Knowle Rohrer (last seen in Season 8 ''Per Manum'') to ask why Absalom was shot in cold blood. Doggett suspects that he was merely used to get the man killed. Rohrer tells him that there are three words he should know.

Doggett meets Scully outside Mulder's apartment, asking her to give Mulder information he has recently learned. Salt was carrying a diskette that he wanted to give to the President. The password on it contains three words: Fight the Future. Scully goes back into Mulder's apartment but is hesitant to tell him what Doggett told her. She fears that he will get in over his head. Skinner rushes to Doggett's house that night with urgent news about Mulder having some kind of password to access names tracked by the government. When Doggett admits to giving Scully the password, Skinner begins to question whose side Doggett is on. He is even more concerned because he can't contact either Scully or Mulder. "You're gonna have to trust me on this," Doggett tells the Assistant Director and sets out after them alone.

Doggett finds Scully outside the Statistics Center and orders her to leave. "I may have set you up," he pleads. He runs inside to get Mulder out. The Gunmen, meanwhile, have bypassed the security system to allow Mulder access to the building undetected. They lead him into the databank and Mulder types the words "Fight the Future" in the computer. Doggett bangs on the glass door, but Mulder ignores him. "Your life's in danger!" Doggett yells and blows out the window with his gun. Doubting Doggett's intentions, Mulder says that he believes the government is using the census to protect aliens in hiding. Armed military troops storm the building, and Mulder accuses Doggett of setting him up. Doggett tries to convince him that really they have both been set up and are in danger. The Gunmen direct Mulder and Doggett toward an air duct in the ceiling, and they escape.

Doggett again covertly meets with Rohrer and accuses the informant of manipulating him. "You need me worse than you know," Rohrer says emphatically. He tells Doggett that the truth lies in the X-files. An angry Doggett walks away. When Rohrer leans over to the water fountain, enlarged alien vertebrae pop up under the skin on his neck.

Notes:
The title of this episode refers to the three words "Fight the Future".

When Doggett and Absalom are about to pass through the X-Ray scanner, and Doggett show's his badge to the guard, it's upside-down.

''Remember boys, this is America. Just because you get more votes, doesn't mean you win.''

Reference to the fact that George W. Bush became president of the United States of America despite Al Gore getting more votes than him.

Quotes:
Scully: Whatever neurological disorder you were suffering from, it's no longer detectable. After a course of transfusions and antivirals it has rid your body of the virus that was invading it. The scars on your face on your hands, on your feet, on your chest, they seem to be repairing themselves. Mulder, you are in perfect health.
Mulder: Wow.
Dr Lim: How do you feel, Agent Mulder?
Mulder: Like Austin Powers.

Scully: Must feel good to be home.

Mulder: Mmm. Something looks different.
Scully: It's clean.
Mulder: Ah... that's it. Missing a molly.
Scully: Yeah. She wasn't as lucky as you. Mulder... I don't know if you'll ever understand what it was like. First learning of your abduction... and then searching for you and finding you dead. And now to have you back again.
Mulder: Well, you act like you're surprised.
Scully: I prayed a lot. And my prayers have been answered.
Mulder: In more ways than one. (He indicates her stomach)
Scully: Yeah.
Mulder: I'm happy for you. I think I know... how much that means to you.
Scully: Mulder...
Mulder: I'm sorry. I don't mean to be cold or ungrateful. I just... I have no idea where I fit in. Right now. I just... I'm having a little trouble... processing... everything.

Skinner: Reinstatement?

Deputy Director Kersh: To the X-Files.
Doggett: I thought Mulder just went home.
Deputy Director Kersh: Well, somebody's very anxious for him to get back to work. I wanted you both to see this before I deny the application.
Skinner: What is it?
Deputy Director Kersh: It's a review of the success rate of your X-Files since Agent Doggett joined the team. Damn impressive, John.
Doggett: Impressive, sir? The only thing impressive about my work on the X-Files is that I even know what's going on half the time.
Deputy Director Kersh: From this report, you and Agent Scully have had more arrests on percentage than she and Mulder over seven years. Take a look.
Skinner: Well, that's not very fair to Agent Mulder. So many of his cases involve —
Deputy Director Kersh: Aliens? There lies the problem. The FBI isn't a place for personal crusades. I'm asking you both to make that understood... on my behalf.
Doggett: Well, you can't ask me to tell Mulder he's off the X-Files. It's his unit. He created it.
Deputy Director Kersh: I'm not asking you, John.
Doggett: You sent me to find Mulder. I found him. Don't charge me with driving a stake through his heart.
Deputy Director Kersh: Maybe you'd rather I close the X-Files. Then we'd both be getting what we want.
Skinner: Let's go, Agent Doggett. Now.

Scully: Mulder, I know you know this, but if anything leaves this room you could be in violation of the law.

Mulder: Really? When I was dead I was hoping maybe they changed the rules.
Scully: Mulder, just being here could be used by Kersh as cause for dismissal.
Mulder: Then why don't you shut the door so he doesn't find out.
Scully: I just don't know what you're hoping to find in Howard Salt's personal effects.
Mulder: Neither do I, really. But maybe it's like Howard Salt's picture. I'll know it when I see it.
Scully: So you'll risk the consequences even though there may be nothing here?
Mulder: You don't get it, do you, Scully? The man shot at the White House, the prison escapee, there's something bubbling to the surface here. I want to know what it is.
Scully: Mulder, you've been through an ordeal that defies all logical explanation. How can you think that these two men have the answers when they defy all standard of credibility?
Mulder: Since when has an X-File not defied a certain standard of credibility? At least that's the way it used to work. Look, Scully, I need to make sense of what happened to me. So that I can stop it. Because if I can't stop it, it could happen to anyone. It could happen to you. And who's to say it's going to stop there?
Scully: Mulder, if you go down, the X-Files will go down, too. I mean, theoretically, they could put you in prison for what you're doing here.
Mulder: Yeah, well, compared to where I just was, prison would be a Princess cruise. Ho. Hey. What the hell is this? The entire hard drive is taken up with this. Ten gigabytes of memory.
Scully: It's been encrypted.
Mulder: Mm. (He closes the laptop and removes the hard drive)
Scully: What are you doing?
Mulder: I'm going to book myself on that Princess cruise.
Scully: I'll book it for you.

Mulder: Is this John Doggett? You Agent Doggett? (Doggett stands up and offers Mulder his hand, Mulder pushes him back down) I hope you're not commending him as a hero for what he did...

Skinner: Agent Mulder, back off.
Mulder: ...in this thing, 'cause he's not.
Skinner: Back off! I'm not about to referee a boxing match.
Doggett: Just what's the problem here?
Mulder: The problem? You occupy an office that used to be devoted to finding the truth and now you're busy burying it. That's the problem.
Doggett: Whoa, you must've got your wires crossed somewhere, Agent Mulder.
Mulder: You got that man killed.
Doggett: I got him killed?
Mulder: Because of what he knew. What he was going to expose.
Doggett: You see this, Agent Mulder?
Mulder: I see you sitting there, Agent Doggett. That's good enough for me.
Skinner: You've got to understand what he's been through. I mean, now he's back and you're... (He leaves)

Knowle Rohrer: Your name came up today, John. Folks are all worked up. They say you dodged a bullet.

Doggett: You can't dodge what you don't see coming, Knowle, that's for sure.
Knowle Rohrer: That should tell you something about who you're dealing with.
Doggett: Who am I dealing with? NSA? Secret Service? Military? Who?
Knowle Rohrer: You know better than that, John.
Doggett: They shot the man in cold blood. Didn't even stop to ask him his name.
Knowle Rohrer: The way I hear it he made it too easy. Taking a federal agent hostage in a government facility.
Doggett: They'd have shot him anyway.
Knowle Rohrer: Without a doubt.
Doggett: Why?
Knowle Rohrer: You and I have been friends a long time, John. I tell you things. But this is a whole other level.
Doggett: Don't give me that doublespeak crap, Knowle. I'm being accused.
Knowle Rohrer: Accused? Of what?
Doggett: Of being used to get that man killed.
Knowle Rohrer: Well, that's insane.
Doggett: Oh, is it? Maybe I am being used, and I just don't know it. That's what I want to know from you.
Knowle Rohrer: I can't tell you that, John. But I can tell you something. One thing you already know. These men are very good shots.
Doggett: What don't I know?
Knowle Rohrer: Three words.

Doggett: Agent Scully, I'm sorry to surprise you. I don't mean to.

Scully: What are you doing here at is hour? You're freezing cold.
Doggett: I got something for Agent Mulder, only I can't go up there. I don't know him, and I know he doesn't trust me, so I'm going to ask you to get it to him.
Scully: What do you have to give him?
Doggett: Information, about this escaped convict who took me hostage. One of his disciples was the man shot on the White House lawn.
Scully: Oh, yeah, Agent Mulder knows that already.
Doggett: What he doesn't know is that man had a computer diskette that he was trying to get to the President.
Scully: Who gave you this information?
Doggett: I can't tell you that, but what I can tell you is... is this diskette was labelled with a pass code.
Scully: You have this, this password?
Doggett: It's three words: 'Fight the Future'.

Episode Number: 177
Season Number: 8
First Aired: Sunday, April 8, 2001
Production Code: 8X18