Mulder has a dream of himself at the beach, where
a young couple is teaching their son to walk on the beach,
while his mother talks with a doctor. She is upset that his
treatment is not helping him. She visits his bedside and
talk with him, he answers her in his mind, but she cannot
hear him. When she leaves, he is distressed. We then see the
Cigarette Smoking Man in his room, and they converse without
speaking aloud. The Smoking Man gives Mulder an injection
which allows him to move and speak. Only part of Mulder is dying. The Smoking Man
offers Mulder a way out. Mulder again envisions the toddler
on the beach as the words of CSM lull him - "Take my hand,
Fox. I am your father." Mulder again sees the boy on the
beach, and awakens to find himself in CSM's car. CSM tells
him that doctors have worked on him, and the only way he can
be saved from death is to disappear into a kind of witness
protection program. CSM pulls up to a suburban street and
points out Mulder's new life.
The Smoking Man
tells him he could go back to his other life, and probably
die, but encourages him to look around first. Mulder is
curious and in the new house provided to him Mulder finds a
larder well stocked with sunflower seeds. As he pops one into his mouth, he
is startled by the presence of an old ally -- Deep Throat
(killed the first season in "The Erlenmeyer Flask" - 6 years
earlier). Deep Throat boasts about his peaceful life in this
neighborhood and encourages Mulder to join him. But Mulder
is overwhelmed with guilt for his causing this man's
supposed death. Deep Throat tells him not to feel
responsible for his death or the deaths of Mulder's father,
Scully's sister and Duane Barry. Deep Throat explains that
they the two of them are merely puppets in a master plan. He
coaxes Mulder to relax and enjoy his new life. In a dream of
the beach, Mulder sees a boy whose sandcastle, shaped like
an alien ship, has washed away. "That's Ok buddy, you can
just start again," he tells the boy. Mulder wakes and Diana
walks in wearing lingerie. They kiss and the picture fades
out.
The next morning Diana brings Mulder a cup of
coffee in front of their new house and tries to persuade
Mulder that he should become a father. It's all perfect, but
Mulder isn't sure what he is doing there. They go to visit
the Smoking Man who also lives a few blocks away. The
Smoking Man says Samantha has been living there all along,
as well as his three grandchildren. Samantha comes up and
hugs Fox. We see, however, that Mulder is really in a
hospital imagining all this. CSM tells Diana that men like
Mulder have dreams of a simpler life. He says this about the
real Mulder, who lies on a table with his head strapped in a
surgical device. This is where Mulder really is. The
illusion of domestic, suburban bliss is only in his mind.
Meanwhile, Scully is asleep in the X-Files office,
where she had been studying the Navaho texts from the ship.
Kritschgau enters and he explains that exposure to the
spacecraft's energy has activated the alien virus injected
into Mulder two years ago. Kritschgau demands Scully's
research, but they are interrupted by a phone call from
Skinner: Mulder has disappeared from the hospital The
records show that Mulder's mother checked him out. Skinner
tells Scully that he must remove himself from the case and
from knowledge of the agents' whereabouts. Skinner's
position has been compromised and the less he knows, the
better.
Arriving back
home, Scully hears a noise and finds the Navajo elder,
Albert Hosteen (last seen dying in "Biogenesis") in her
apartment, which stuns her because she thought he was very
ill. Hosteen warns her that she must save Mulder for the
sake of mankind. Scully returns to the hospital. She reviews
a surveillance tape of Mulder's room where she can see
through the mostly covered monitors that Mulder's mother is
talking to someone with a cigarette. This convinces Scully
that CSM is behind Mulder's disappearance. Scully tries to
reach Tena (Mulder's mom), without luck. At the FBI, Scully
receives a book on Native American beliefs and practices,
with Navaho writing on it. A section on the Anasasi mentions
the sixth extinction and a myth about a man who can save us
from the coming plague. She feels that the book explains the
symbols on the ship. Scully doesn't know who sent the book
to her. She calls Skinner to question him as the source for
this clue. Scully deduces that they took Mulder because they
think his illness is protection against a coming plague. An
apprehensive Skinner hangs up on her. Scully runs up to his
office and sees Skinner doubled over in pain, while a
bearded man, which we understand is Alex Krycek, escapes.
Scully chases him but she cannot catch him in the crowded
FBI halls.
Scully confronts Kritschgau at his apartment and
accuses him of being telling someone about Mulder, resulting
in Mulder's disappearance. On his laptop she finds her own
files of the symbols on the ship. He claims he was having
them analyzed by the National Institute of Health. Wherever
she got the information, it proves what happened to Mulder,
and that Mulder has biologically transformed into an alien,
he says. Scully deletes the files from the computer. At FBI
HQ, Scully confronts Diana who says Scully could have
prevented what happened to Mulder. Scully tries to convince
Diana to help, asking her to think, "wouldn't he bust his
ass to save you?" Diana responds, "I'm thinking, Agent
Scully, I'm always thinking."
In a lab, a doctor and the Smoking Man talk. The
implication is that Mulder is a compatible human-alien
hybrid. He's immune to the coming viral apocalypse, but he
may not survive the medical procedures. The Smoking Man says
if he doesn't survive, he suffers a hero's fate. Inside his
dream, in rapid succession, Muldr sees himself and Diana
married, and sees her pregnant. He sees himself and Diana
with children and his hair is graying, then he is older and
sees Diana in a coffin, then sees the boy on the beach. The
boy has built a sandcastle of the alien ship, but is kicking
it apart. "You were supposed to help me," the boy tells
Mulder.
Albert is back at
Scully's apartment. This science makes no sense to her. He
answers that she must look inside her heart for Mulder. They
pray together, kneeling on the floor.
Meanwhile, Mulder
and the Smoking Man are both on operating tables. They are
apparently removing genetic material from Mulder and
inserting it into the Smoking Man, who says he will carry on
for Mulder from here. Diana makes a statement confirming
that Mulder is the Smoking Man's son, but suffers an attack
of remorse and leaves. In the dream, Mulder is now a very
old man and CSM is at his bedside. CSM tells him that he
should let go. All Mulder's loved ones are dead and are
waiting for him; it is time for him to go. As they speak,
outside we see flames as alien spacecraft destroy the city,
the world outside is in full apocalypse.
In a different
scene, we see Kritschgau is dead on the floor of his
apartment. Krycek burns various official documents then
leaves with the apartment in flames, taking Kritschgau's
laptop with him. Scully
wakes up on the floor of her apartment. An envelope has been
slipped under her door containing an electronic pass key for
a Department of Defense facility. She rushes to the DOD
hospital and finds Mulder in the operating room with all of
the people gone. As she does so, in his dream she also finds
him, as a very old man. She says he is not supposed to die
in a comfortable bed with the devil outside, to trade his
true mission for creature comforts. "You must get up and
fight," she says in the dream. In the operating room, he
struggles to chose between his fantasy life and reality,
then wakes. Scully says, "we've got to get you out of here.
You've got to get up. Help me." He replies, "you help me."
They hug.
One week later, Mulder is at home, still wearing a
head bandage, and his New York Yankees "Victory Cap." Scully
arrives and Mulder informs her that Albert died last night
in New Mexico - he had been in a coma for two weeks. Scully
can't believe it because she talked with him and they prayed
together. She doesn't know what to believe. She doesn't know
what the truth is. Scully tells Mulder that Diana was found
murdered this morning. Scully believes that Diana helped
save Mulder's life - she gave Scully the book and the
electronic key.
Mulder is emotional, and reveals his dreams about
another life without the X-Files. He admits to Scully that
she was the only one who told him the truth in his dreams
and that "even when my world was falling apart, you were my
constant, my touchstone." . "And you are mine," she replies.
She kisses him on the forehead. In the final scene, we see
Mulder and the boy on the beach again. Mulder is helping the
boy build a huge, very detailed sandcastle of the alien
ship.
