It is the day after
Scully discovered she was pregnant. She dreams both of her baby
and of Mulder (a fetus floating around a yellowish liquid and the
attached umbilical cord coming out of Mulder's mouth). Her visions
of him are disturbing.
At work, she finds
men in the X-Files office who tell her that they are looking for
anything that might be pertinent for the manhunt. She thinks a conventional
search for Mulder is crazy. She goes to Skinner -- who says that
it wasn't his idea and they agree that they won't find Mulder that
way. Kersh has been named Deputy Director and is now Skinner's superior.
Scully: We’re
not gonna to find Mulder this way. You know that and I know that.
Skinner: I told you last night I will find him. I’m gonna
do that. Okay? Now I want you just to cool it. I don’t want you
doing anything that could upset your pregnancy.
Scully: I don’t understand. You are the assistant director.
Who’s going over your head on this?
Skinner: Our brand new deputy director.
Kersh tells Scully
and Skinner that the only acceptable solution is to find Mulder
safe and alive. Scully feels she and Skinner should be directing
the search. Kersh says FBI agent John Doggett has been named the
leader of the search. Kersh warns that of anything gets out about
aliens or abductions, Scully and Skinner will be fired.
Scully: With
due respect, there aren’t two people better qualified to be directing
this action, Sir.
Kersh: Right now you and AD Skinner are the two primary witnesses
to Mulder’s disappearance. I want your statement taken ASAP.
Scully: You make us out to be suspects, Sir.
Skinner: Taken by who?
Kersh: My task force leader on this, Special agent John Doggett.
Skinner is called
to give a statement about Mulder's disappearance. He vows to tell
the truth, but Scully says that he won't be any good to Mulder if
he gives them the power to ruin his career.
Skinner: Look.
I saw what I saw. I have to make a statement in there; I’m not going
to tell them it didn’t happen.
Scully: But you heard Kersh. You don’t want the truth. You
give them the truth and they’ll hang you with it.
Skinner: Then they’ll hang me with a lie too. I’m not gonna
sell Mulder out.
Scully: What good are you to Mulder, if you give them the
power to ruin your career? We *will* find him.
Scully sits while
Skinner gives his statement. Another agent is near her and strikes
up a conversation. He offers her a cup of water telling her that
it could be a long wait.
Doggett: Aren’t
you his partner, Mulder?
Scully: Yes.
Doggett: I guess nobody’s beyond suspicion on this thing.
Scully: Why are they talking to you?
Doggett: Me? Oh, I knew Mulder back a bit. Been developing
a working profile and character background.
Scully: I’d say they have all the character profiling they
need on him.
Doggett: Certainly his reputation. I doubt we agents ever
truly know each other, even our partners, not at the end of the
day. Their real lives, their friends, girlfriends, deeply personal
things, issues.
Scully: I think I know Mulder as much as anybody.
Doggett: Yeah, probably so. I always took the rumors with
a grain of salt.
Scully: What rumors are those?
Doggett: Well, you know. Well, that, from the beginning he
never felt a real trust with you. That you were ambitious.
Scully: Where’d that come from?
Doggett: There are women here at the bureau that he would
confide in. I don’t know if you knew that or not. Scully:
No. When was this?
Doggett: I don’t know. It’s just talk. So, what do you think
happened, to Mulder? What’s your theory?
Scully: What’s my theory? My theory is you don’t know Mulder
at all. You never did. [Scully reaches over and flips over Dogett's
id] Kersh’s task force leader. You might have just introduced yourself.
Doggett: Well, I was getting around to it.
She throws a cup
of water in his face for trying to manipulate her, and walks out.
The camera zooms on Doggett's dripping face, as Skinner and the
other agents are stunned. Later, at home, she checks Doggett's computer
file, but runs to the bathroom because she has to vomit. She calls
her mom, but gets an answering machine - on the verge of tears she
leaves a message that she needs to talk, but hears sounds on the
line indicating that the line is tapped. She sees someone outside
[Doggett?] watching her apartment. She calls Doggett and tells him
to keep away from her, but he is still at his office and appears
perplexed. She sees the shadow of someone outside her apartment
door, grabs a gun and pursues, but bumps into the landlord who is
tyring to fix the roof. He claims he saw Mulder in her building
a few moments earlier. She runs back to her apartment and finds
that her computer is gone.
Scully goes to Mulder's
apartment. His computer is also gone. His bed still has some of
his clothes on it. She lies down. In a dream (or reality) we see
Mulder with his face skin stretched by mechanical claws. A drill
enters his mouth and begins cutting. The Lone Gunmen are with Skinner
at a satellite dish field - they are pulling down UFO information
from the Pacific Northwest. Skinner wants to know where the spaceship
is headed next, but they can't determine where the UFO went.
Doggett calls on
Kersh and asks if anyone else is also assigned to look for Mulder
that Doggett doesn't know about or whether someone out there was
taking orders from another office. Kersh denies it, but asked him
what prompted this question. Doggett tells him it was his wits.
Kersh tells Doggett that he's got a chance to shine and stand in
the spotlight and to show everyone he is an ace.
Scully wakes up in
Mulder's bed and finds Doggett in the apartment.
Scully: What
are you doing her?
Doggett: I could ask you the same.
Scully: I came by to feed Mulder’s fish.
Doggett: And then you got tired and decided to take a nap.
Scully: You’ve got a way about you, Agent Doggett, that might
have worked with the NYPD, but you’re talking to a fellow FBI agent
now. I’d appreciated some respect.
Doggett: Respect like you showed me on the phone? Give a
little, get a little, Agent Scully.
Scully: Who ambushed me with the phony chitchat about Mulder
and then put a wire tap on my phone?
Doggett: That’s BS.
Scully: And now you’re followin’ me!
Doggett: I just came by to feed the fish.
Doggett: I
know the answer, Agent Scully.
Scully: I don’t even know the question.
Doggett: What happened to Mulder. I know what you’re gonna
say or not, because you think I’m the big bad wolf. Do you really
believe it?
Scully: You think by talking in circles I’m just gonna get
dizzy and, and blurt it out, this so-called answer?
Doggett: That he was abducted by aliens?
Scully: You said it, I didn’t.
Doggett: I guess I just find it hard to swallow that a scientist,
a serious person could buy that. Ever see an alien, Agent Scully?
Scully: You want me to go on record? I will go on record
to say this: That I have seen things I cannot explain. I have observed
phenomena that I cannot deny. And that as a scientist and a serious
person, it is a badge of honor not to dismiss these things because
someone thinks they’re BS.
Doggett: You think he was abducted.
oggett tells her
that he knows where Mulder has been going, he found car rental receipts
for a series of 370-mile trips Mulder took in May without telling
anyone. Scully doesn't know what he was doing to which Doggett says
that maybe she didn't know her partner.
As they talk, Doggett
gets a call about Mulder being seen at the FBI headquarters. Skinner
and Scully are called to the task force room -- somebody removed
some files after office hours. Skinner is questioned -- it was Mulder's
pass card that was used to enter the room and Skinner was at the
building until 10pm the night before. They wonder if Skinner is
helping Mulder and used Mulder's pass card. Skinner says that Mulder
is only after the truth, and would not do such a thing just to get
back at the bureau as they are implying. Scully tells Doggett that
Skinner was telling the truth and Doggett tells her that he believes
him, but finds that Mulder's credit card was used two days ago in
Raleigh, NC to buy flowers. Scully realizes that Raleigh is where
Tina Mulder is buried, which explains the rental car trips. Doggett
has also found that the Mulder family cemetery marker is newly engraved
to say "Fox Mulder 1961-2000." Scully doesn't know what
to think, but Skinner tells her that he doesn't believe it.
Doggett finds medical
records of additional treatment Scully knew nothing about following
Mulder's hospitalization a year ago for unusual brain activity.
Scully said that it was in Mulder's temporal lobe to which Skinner
added that Mulder had made a full recovery. However, it is clear
from the records with Doggett that Mulder was dying but didn't tell
Scully.
Doggett: How
far would Mulder go?
Scully: How far would he go for what?
Doggett: The truth. His truth. Whatever it was he was trying
to prove. How bad did he need to prove it?
Scully: It was his whole life.
Doggett says that
Mulder found himself in a place where no one wants to go. His life
and work were threatened, his search was in vain and nothing was
proven, unless Mulder took one last big chance. Doggett asks if
Mulder is trying to create doubt and leave a mark. Would he stage
his own disappearance - steal files from the FBI and break into
his and Scully's apartment? Skinner, though, knows that he saw a
UFO at close range. Scully asks Doggett to not report Skinner's
statement. Doggett says that it wouldn't do any good to him, because
it won't help him find Mulder and thats all he wanted to do.
Skinner and Scully
go back to the Gunmen - there was lots of microburst activity in
the Arizona desert meaning that is probably where the UFO took Mulder.
Scully thinks its a waste of time, but Skinner believes that its
the only thing they have. Scully asks that even if it were true,
where would they begin to which Langly suggests that maybe they
should go to whoever was going to abducted next.
Scully suddenly realizes
that it is the aliens removing evidence of their existence and that
they are in Arizona because they are looking for Gibson Andrew Praise,
who is hard proof of alien DNA. Doggett also finds a file on Gibson
-- they believe Gibson's file is what was stolen.
The boy was last
seen in Arizona and the general consensus is that to find Mulder
they need to find Gibson. We see another scene of Mulder undergoing
medical tests - a medical saw cutting into his chest - and Scully
wakes up. She is in a vehicle with Skinner in Arizona. While trying
to the find the way:
Skinner: What’s
out there?
Scully: According to this map, a whole lot of nothin’.
Satellite data shows
UFO activity 100 miles north of Phoenix. Doggett and his task force
are also there, flying helicopters. An agent reports that Gibson
has been found at a school for the deaf. Scully and Skinner also
head for the school. While at a gas station Scully notices that
the air ripples across the desert (the spaceship's force field).
School officials pull Gibson out of class pending arrival of the
FBI, and Gibson gives a meaningful look at a girl also attending
the school.
Doggett, Scully and
Skinner all arrive at the school at the same time. Gibson escaped
out of the window of the office where he was being held. The task
force agents spread out. Gibson walks up to a man (we don't see
who it is) and Doggett soon after finds their footprints lead off
into the mountains. Doggett catches up with them and points his
gun at the man pulling Gibson toward a cliff. The camera pans to
show Mulder's face ....to be continued.
