Tallahassee, Florida, at a funeral on December 11,
a man, Mr. Johnson, remains after the widow leaves. He is
chanting over and over - that he will resurrect the body.
The body is a man who committed suicide. Johnson opens the
casket and exchanges his own shirt for the shirt the body is
wearing. Then he places a cell phone in the casket. On
December 29, Johnson is parked at a cemetary, waiting. The
cell phone rings and he gets out of his vehicle with a
shovel.
On December 30,
Scully arrives at the cemetary. She is met by the mortician
who tells her that he knows that the men buried was "one of
their own", an FBI agent, but that he doesn't like the
rumors going around that he buried someone alive. He knows
that the man was dead. He tells her that they better get
their facts straight really fast.
Mulder is in the
grave hole, which is now open. Scully walks over to the hole
and looks down at Mulder ("Merry Christmas By the way
Scully", "Thank you. Merry Christmas to you too") Mulder
finds that the lining of the casket is shredded and the dead
man's finger prints are on the inside of the casket and
on the headstone. It looks like someone was trying
to get out but the rain didn't leave much evidence. He tells
her that it was a "grave robbery with a twist". Scully
thinks the evidence is rigged and it had been faked by
whoever exhumed the body. Around the grave there is a circle
of blood. Johnson is driving, reciting the passage again. He
looks into his rearview mirror and sees a hand reaching up.
At a later staff
meeting in Skinner's office, The agents look over the
profile of the victim, Raymond Crouch. He had commited
suicide. Mulder says it looks like necromancy, the attempt
to summon the dead to divulge ritual knowledge and perform
mystic tasks. Mulder shows in a picture of the crime scene,
the circle of goats blood, but that it was partially washed
away by the rain. He tells them that the blood attracts the
spirits of the dead, while the magic circle focuses the
necromancer's powers, and at the same time protects him from
the spirits that he's conjuring. The necromancer may also
desire to wear the clothes of the body to create a bond with
it.
After the
meeting, Skinner shows Mulder and Scully the snake eating
it's own tail symbol (Ouroboros, representing never-ending
or infinity) of the Millennium Group. Mulder and Scully
describe the group as composed of former FBI agents who fell
out of favor. They were actually an end of times cult. The
group disbanded several months ago, but the blood circle
around the grave looks like the symbol the group used.
Skinner shows the agents information on three other similar
grave robbings of dead FBI agents and desecration incidents
in the last six months. He sends Mulder and Scully to
investigate the Millennium Group.
They go to a mental institution where Frank Black
checked himself in for a 30 day observation. Mulder knows
him by reputation - Frank was in the same violent crimes
unit as Mulder, before Mulder was assigned to it. When
Mulder implies that the man is single minded, Scully says
that it sounds like someone she knows. The agents tell Frank
that they can't find any info about the group, its
membership and practices. Frank admits that he knows who the
four dead agents were but he declines to help - he's trying
to put his life back together. Mulder points out that
tomorrow, the 31st, is a significant date for the group
which doesn't leave much time. Frank keeps looking at the
football game that he was watching and ignores him.
In Rural Maryland
11:21 PM, Johnson has a flat tire and a deputy stops to
help. The deputy smells something then notices flies in the
vehicle. As he searches, Johnson takes some salt out of his
pocket and sprinkles it around him in a circle, chanting.
The cop opens the trunk and the corpse, now a zombie, kills
the cop.
The next day,
December 31 at 7:32 AM, at the scene of the deputy's death,
Mulder concludes that the Necromancer was there - there is
salt, which is heavy magic, on the ground in a protective
circle, just large enough for one person to stand inside.
However, Scully is not convinced & didn't understand
what the man was protecting himself from. Mulder says that
he was protecting himself from "Whatever it was that did
that"
Nearby the
deputy's body is found with a note inside the mouth and the
mouth fastened shut with large staples. The note is a
quotation from the Bible (Book Revelations, Chapter One,
Verse Eighteen) "I am he that was dead and lives again."
The agents go back to Frank. Scully understands he
is afraid of losing his daughter - he is in a custody battle
with the parents of his dead wife, Catherine. He tells her
that they claimed he was an unfit father, obsessed with
conspiracies and the end of the world, and that his work
meant more to him than his daughter, Jordan. He says that
the thing is, they were right. He says that he will do
anything but not mention the Millennium group again, but Mulder convinces him to
give just a little clue.
Frank tells them
that the Group believed that the time of the battle between
good and evil described in Revelation was upon them. The four men died in order
to be returned to life as the Four Horsemen of the
apocalypse - the four men that will bring with them war,
pestilence, famine and death, in order to force the end of
times. Frank says it is so all the dead or the earth will
arise - Armageddon. They believe that it must begin with the
dawn of the Millennium, or not at all.
They sought out
the Necromancer who believes he is doing God's work. Frank
doesn't tell them who the Necromancer is, but profiles him
for them. He exhumed all of the men according to their
wishes, but he was not a member of the Millennium group. He
believed that he was doing God's work, but he was mistaken.
Frank says that the necromancer stapled the cop's lips
together, even with the fear of being caught, because it
would prevent him from coming back to life. It is too soon
for that, so when he realizes that they found the deputy's
body, he'll feel a need to take action, and return to the
body the first chance he gets. Frank thinks that they will
catch him at the morgue. Mulder says that the four members
of the Millennium group, the ones who live that were dead,
are who they need to be looking for. Scully points out that the end of the
millennium is actually a year away and this is an artificial
deadline. Mulder brushes off the argument ("Nobody likes a
math geek, Scully") and says he thinks the deputy was killed
near the Necromancer's home. Mulder asks Scully to make sure
that the staples are left in the deputy's mouth.
At the Rice
County morgue at 10:32 AM, the doctor removes the staples
from the deputy's mouth and finds the mouth filled with
salt. The phone rings, but she ignores it as she removes
some of the salt. As the phone rings again, she picks it up.
There is a message from Scully telling her not to do an
autopsy, and to stop if she had already started. But it was
too late, the deputy comes up behind her to kill her. Scully
enters the autopsy room where she sees three bodies. She
finds the doctor, who was bleeding really bad, in the other
room. Suddenly, Johnson and the Deputy appear. Scully shoots three bullets into the
zombie's chest, but it doesn't affect him at all. He keeps
going, reaching Scully as her gun is knocked to the floor.
Later, Skinner
arrives. The doctor is being taken away on a stretcher. The
deputy's body is on the floor with gunshots to his chest and
one to his head. Scully, who is injured, says the deputy
attacked her. Johnson, whom Mulder calls the necromancer,
fired the shot into the deputy's head using Scully's gun and
saved her, but Johnson got away, since Scully was in no
condition to chase him. Skinner and Scully are now concerned
about Mulder, who is not answering his cell phone.
Mulder is checking residences near the scene of
the deputy's death, one by one. He is out of cell phone
service range. He pulls up at Johnson's. The gate is locked
so he checks the trash and finds an empty salt sack. He
grabs some salt and sticks it in his pocket. He climbs the
gate. Johnson is not home. Mulder enters the basement
through a door that had been locked. Three bodies under the
dirt floor rise up and attack him. Johnson, who has arrived
home, seals the door shut as Mulder fires his gun again and
again.
9:17 PM, Frank
still won't help Scully, although she is more and more
concerned about Mulder. Frank has spent years trying to
unravel the belief of the Group. In spite of her disbelief,
Scully asks if the Group can they really bring about the end
of times. Frank still won't answer her questions, but after
she leaves he checks himself out of the institution. Later,
Skinner contacts Scully with phone records showing that
Frank has been called repeatedly from a Rice County,
Maryland, phone number.
In Johnson's
basement, Mulder is standing still with a ring of salt at
his feet, however he is already hurt. Frank arrives at
Johnson's, who says, "We'd given up on you." It becomes
clear that Frank was originally intended to be one of the
four horsemen. Johnson says that Mulder has killed one of
the four with a shot to the head. Now that Frank is there,
he can still kill himself and be brought back to life to be
the fourth. Frank didn't want to be involved, but now that
he knows Johnson has succeeded with the necromancy, Frank
can't remain uninvolved. Johnson says they had taken his
daughter away from him, had murdered his wife, and that
there was no justice in this world but there will be in the
next one. Johnson gives Frank a gun, but Frank
surprises him by pulling
the gun on him and tying him up.
Frank then goes
to the basement. Mulder is wounded and says that a shot to the head stops them. The remaining
three backed off when Mulder killed the first one. Frank
drops flares and in the light shoots another. As he helps
Mulder up from the floor, the third attacks Frank and they
struggle. Mulder grabs gun and shoots, saving Frank but the
last horseman attacks Frank and the gun is empty. Scully
fires from the basement steps, killing the last one.
On New Year's
eve, Frank, Mulder and Scully are at the hospital where
Mulder's arm is now in a sling. Frank also has some bandages
over his wounds. Johnson is under suicide watch. Scully
brings Frank's daughter, Jordan, to see him, and Frank says
goodbye. It is midnight and Dick Clark is on television as
The Millennium Ball drops in Time Square. At midnight, as
the crowd on television sings in the year 2000 and a couple
kisses on the screen, Mulder and Scully kiss on the lips,
slowly. Mulder smiles & says, "The world didn't end?"
"No, it didn't," answers Scully. Mulder: "Happy New Years,
Scully". Scully: "Happy New Years, Mulder". They leave the
hospital, his arm around her shoulder.
