A
graveside service is held for Fox Mulder in North Carolina. Doggett,
the Gunmen, Skinner, and Maggie and Dana Scully are among those
gathered. The pastor recited the Bible verse, "Whosoever
believeth in me shall never die." Scully murmurs to Skinner how
everyone else on Mulder's family is now gone, but the truth he
worked so hard to find was never truly revealed to him. She can't
believe she is really standing there. Scully crumbles a handful of
dirt into the grave.
Three months
later...Doggett and Skinner meet with Kersh. He is commending them,
citing their efforts in the recovery of Mulder. Kersh has asked
Skinner to also write a letter transferring Doggett off the X-Files
and Doggett is being considered for promotion. Doggett thanks Kersh,
but says he'd like to give the transfer some thought. In The X-Files
office, Doggett and Scully talk. Her pregnancy is showing. Skinner
told Scully about the meeting the Kersh. Scully tries to convince
Doggett that it would be crazy to stay. He counters that in six
weeks, Scully goes on maternity leave. If Doggett is transferred
out, the X-Files office door will be locked, maybe forever. Doggett
still has lots of questions about the Mulder disappearance and
considers it an open case. Scully tells him to get out when he can
or he may never get out.
On a fishing
trawler in a storm off the coast of North Carolina, the crew sees
something in the water. It is apparently a body. Later, at the
morgue, the medical examiner begins the autopsy but he body, which
has clearly long been in the water, begins to move. Doggett gets a
call at home, from Skinner. The body found in the ocean is Billy
Miles and he is alive, in Wilmington, NC. Skinner and Doggett drive
to the cemetery where Mulder is buried. Skinner is determined to
open Mulder's grave but Doggett thinks it's crazy. Skinner feels
that if Billy appeared to be dead but is now alive, Mulder may also
really be alive, even after three months. A local coroner attempts
to intervene, but Skinner has the casket taken to the same medical
examiner who helped revive Billy. They open the casket and find
Mulder, his body showing signs of decay. He appears to be dead.
Scully rushes up to
Skinner at the US Naval Academy medical center. She demands to know
if what she has heard is true. Mulder is alive, clinically, but his
body and brain are all in a state of decomposition. Doggett urges
her not to see Mulder, but she does, entering the room alone. She
feels his chest to feel him breathe, and puts her head to his chest,
crying. Back at FBI headquarters, Doggett is called into Kersh's
office at night. Kersh has been in that office for six months and
hasn't yet seen a sunrise from it. Kersh got a call about Mulder -
he wants Doggett to drop the investigation. It's bad for the FBI. At
the hospital, Scully looks in on Billy Miles, who has a brief
convulsion while she is there. Scully has to explain to a nurse -
she was just looking for an indication that Billy might be getting
better, but she thinks the equipment may have malfunctioned, because
for a moment there appeared to be two heartbeats. At the FBI,
Skinner isn't feeling well. He staggers while walking down a hall,
holding his chest. It is certainly the nanobots Alex Krycek
implanted in Skinner's system months earlier. Making his way to an
elevator, he finds Krycek. Skinner tells him to go to hell, but
Krycek sends him another attack and Skinner returns to ask what
Krycek wants. They go to the X-Files office. Krycek wants to give
Skinner a chance to save Mulder's life but Skinner isn't sure it can
be saved. Krycek tells Skinner that he has a vaccine developed by
Mulder's father to fight the alien virus.
In the hospital,
Billy regains consciousness, his body still decayed from weeks in
the water. He gets out of bed and showers. The dead skin washes off
his body. Doggett comes to Mulder's room. Scully is sitting there,
holding Mulder's hand. Doggett has concerns about Scully's well
being. Scully says that after her initial reaction to Doggett, he
changed her opinion about him. She is thankful to know about him,
and thankful for his concern, but that he was wrong to feel that the
grave should not be opened. The truth about what caused this is what
matters. A nurse enters and asks Scully to come - it is Billy Miles,
standing in the hallway, naked and disoriented.
Billy's body looks
healthy. He doesn't remember much when Scully gently questions him.
He remembers the water and being on the spacecraft. They took so
many people this time, but now he understands, he says.
"They're here to save us." Doggett walks off and Scully
follows. She accuses that he doesn't believe the evidence of his
eyes. He says he isn't ready to accept a load of crap but Scully
says he's just bull-headed. He asks if Scully believes the story
about aliens coming to save the world, a question she doesn't
answer. Later, Scully and Skinner talk. He came down after hearing
about Billy. Scully reports that there isn't a piece of medical data
on Billy that isn't 100% normal. It doesn't make sense, but it's
like Billy literally became a new person. Skinner asks if it could
be due to an alien influence, such as a virus. Scully demands to
know what Skinner knows. He says there may be a vaccine, but it
doesn't come without a price. At a corrections facility in West
Virginia, Doggett talks with Absalam. Doggett wants to know about
the people he finds left for dead. Absalam quotes scripture but
Doggett wants to know how he healed the people.
Skinner goes to
Mulder's room and finds Krycek there. Krycek says to get the
vaccine, Skinner will have to make sure Scully's pregnancy doesn't
come to term. Skinner is shocked and refuses. Krycek says we all
have lives in our hands - the question is who is willing to
sacrifice. Doggett returns and sees Krycek, making him suspicious.
Doggett talks with Scully, who tells him that she believes that
Mulder is infected by a virus that keeps him just alive enough to
transform him into an alien. Absalam also told Doggett that the
abductees, if not cured, would be resurrected as aliens as part of
the plot to take over the world. The double heartbeat Scully heard
in Billy maybe be evidence for this. Scully is on her way to a
surgical bay - Mulder's body has to be stabilized in order to
administer the vaccine she has asked Skinner to get her. Doggett
searches out Skinner, who is in Mulder's room disconnecting Mulder
from the equipment, apparently an attempt to kill Mulder. Krycek
wanted him to kill Scully's baby in order to get the vaccine.
Skinner couldn't do that. Doggett wants to know where Krycek is and
finds him in a car in the parking garage. Krycek tries to run
Doggett down and Doggett grabs him through the car window as the car
careens through the garage, but Doggett is finally thrown free.
Krycek, however, stops, backs up and gets out of the car, holding up
the vial containing the vaccine. As Doggett approaches him, Krycek
drops the vial, allowing it to break on the floor, then drives off
before Doggett can get to him
Doggett storms back
into the hospital. He doesn't have the vaccine. Doggett tells
Skinner he was right - Krycek wasn't to be trusted. Scully is in the
operating room with Mulder when Doggett enters. Scully has realized
that by keeping Mulder on life support they were helping the virus
incubate. When Skinner took him off the equipment, Mulder's
temperature dropped and the virus got weaker. Maybe they can give
him courses of antiviral drugs to help him. Doggett is called to
Kersh's office again. It's going to be awful crowded down in that
X-Files office, Kersh says, meaning that the promotion is no longer
available to Doggett.
At the hospital,
Mulder wakes up. Scully is holding his hand and cries tears of joy.
Anybody miss me? He asks. Doggett looks in, but when he sees what is
happening he withdraws.
