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In the desert, the boxcar burns.
Soldiers in camouflage break into Albert Hosteen's house, striking his
son with a rifle butt. The Cigarette Smoking Man follows them in, demanding
to know where Mulder is, and what he has done with the digital tape. When
Albert says he doesn't know, the soldiers move in on him.
Scully pulls up in front of Albert's house. Inside, she finds him and
his family beaten and bruised. When she asks about Mulder, they don't
know what to tell her. She goes out to the quarry where the smoking remains
of the boxcar lie. Into the empty desert, she calls out, "Mulder!"
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
NAVAJO RESERVATION
NORTHWEST OF LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO
Scully is driving along the highway in the dark. Suddenly, she hears
a helicopter flying behind her, its bright spotlight nearly blinding her.
She pulls over, and armed soldiers order her out of the car and up against
its side. They take her gun, and demand the files. She tells them they
are in the trunk. They find papers, but no tape. "We need the DAT copy,"
they insist, but she tells them she doesn't have it - Agent Mulder does.
FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
In Skinner's office, a hearing is being held on Scully's future. An agent
tells her that the Office of Professional Conduct has determined that
she is to be suspended without pay while an investigation into her misconduct
is held. She is forced to turn in her gun and badge. When asked about
Mulder, she says that to the best of her knowledge, he is dead.
As she is leaving, Skinner calls her back. She is angry and demands to
know what is being done about the men who poisoned Mulder's water supply
and killed his father. Skinner says they will be found. "With all due
respect, Sir, I think you underestimate your position in the chain of
command." She goes to Mulder's office and searches his desk drawer. She
finds the cassette case, but the tape is missing.
46TH STREET
NEW YORK CITY
The Elders meet to discuss the lost files. The Cigarette Smoking Man
says that the files have been recovered, and tells the others that he
will deal with the FBI. When asked about the "Mulder problem," he tells
them that Mulder is dead.
Late at night, Scully arrives at her mother's house, carrying her shoes
in her hand - she has walked all the way there. She falls into her mother's
arms, crying. "I've made a terrible mistake. Dad would be so ashamed of
me."
It's morning in the desert. Boys from the reservation have come to Albert's
house to tell his grandson, Eric, that they have seen buzzards flying
over the quarry where the boxcar was found. A number of people from the
reservation go out to the quarry. Albert remembers a hole in the rocks
where he had once found one of the small, strange bodies, and here they
also find Mulder, near death.
Mulder is taken to a hogan, where the men prepare for the Blessing Way
chant. They build a fire, and Albert begins to create the sand painting
in the dirt floor of the hogan. The men chant, asking the Holy People
to help Mulder.
Scully is in bed when her doorbell rings. At her door is Frohike, drunk,
grieving for Mulder. They sit at her kitchen table, drinking coffee. Frohike
tells Scully that the torch is being passed to her now. But Scully says
she's afraid not - she's about to be out of a job. Frohike shows her a
newspaper clipping about Kenneth Soona - The Thinker - describing his
execution-style murder. Scully sees the date on the clipping - April 16,
the day after Mulder disappeared. She exclaims, "Can they be that
stupid?"
The Blessing Way chant continues. Albert fears that Mulder doesn't want
to be healed, but wants to join his father in the spirit world. In his
vision, Mulder floats among the stars, surrounded by dark figures. Deep
Throat, Mulder's former friend and informant, appears to him, speaking
of what it's like to be dead. He urges Mulder to go back and fight. Mulder
sees the boxcar, with many small figures scurrying about in it. He sees
a canister of cyanide gas being thrown in, and the small figures running,
screaming with strange voices.
Next, Mulder is visited by his father, who tells him that he's ashamed
of the choices he's made. If Mulder dies now, his father says, the truth
will die with him. Mulder asks about his sister, and his father tells
him she is not there.
FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Scully enters the J. Edgar Hoover building by the public entrance. As
she passes through the metal detector, the alarm is set off. She's puzzled,
since she isn't carrying any metal. Apologetically, the guard runs the
wand over her, finding nothing.
Scully meets Skinner in his office, showing him the article about Kenneth
Soona's murder. She asks him to run a ballistics test comparing the bullets
that killed Soona and Mulder's father, since, if they were the same, this
would prove that Mulder didn't kill his father. Skinner, seeming uninterested,
tells her that she's been relieved of her investigative function, and
that if there had been a match, they would have found it already. Then
he shows her a search warrant he's been asked to execute on her apartment,
to look for the digital tape. She says she doesn't have it. Discouraged,
Scully leaves - and the Cigarette Smoking Man comes into the office from
the side door. "Did you ask her about the tape?" Skinner says she denies
having it.
As she leaves, Scully, curious about the metal detector alarm, asks the
guard to run the wand over her again. This time, it goes off near her
neck, but she isn't wearing her necklace that day. Determined to find
out what it is, Scully meets with a doctor, who x-rays her and discovers
something implanted in the back of her neck, just under the skin. Under
a local anasthaetic, he removes it.
After three days of the Blessing Way chant, Mulder's fever breaks, and
he wakes up.
Using a microscope to inspect the small piece of metal that's been removed
from her neck, Scully sees that it looks like a tiny computer chip.
Visiting her sister, Melissa, Scully shows her the implant. Upset and
frightened, Scully says that she has no memory of how it could have gotten
there. Melissa urges her to see a doctor she knows, who can help her recover
her memories. Angrily, Scully refuses, but Melissa begs her to reconsider.
Reluctantly, Scully goes to see Dr. Mark Pomerantz, a hypnotherapist.
He puts her in a light trance and asks her about what happened during
the time she was taken away. She remembers only fragments: men, a light,
loud sounds. He asks her about the procedure - was there someone there
that she trusted? Agitated, Scully struggles but cannot remember. Suddenly,
she comes out of the trance, mutters that it isn't working, and hurries
out of the office.
As she pulls up in front of her building, Scully sees Skinner leaving
it.
At the hogan, Albert tells Mulder how to complete the healing ritual.
The boys give him a gift - a pouch of sunflower seeds, which he'd asked
for during his fever. Mulder asks Albert about the place he went to during
his fever. When Albert says he knows the place, Mulder says, "Then it
wasn't a dream?" "Yes," Albert replies. Then Albert destroys the sand
painting, to end the ritual.
Skinner is in his office when he receives a phone call from Scully. She
asks what he had wanted to see her about, but he denies having been to
her building. After he hangs up, the Cigarette Smoking Man is seen sitting
across from Skinner's desk, smoking.
Mulder remembers the spirit world, and standing on the bridge between
life and death. He speaks to Scully, telling her that he has returned
from the dead to continue with her, but that she is in danger.
Scully, asleep in her bed, suddenly bolts upright.
GARDEN OF REFLECTION
PARKWAY CEMETARY
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Scully attends William Mulder's funeral, where she speaks to Mulder's
mother, telling her that she has a very strong feeling that Mulder is
still alive. Mulder's mother is startled, but grateful for Scully's assurance.
Also at the funeral is the Well-Manicured Man, who greets Scully and
tells her that he is a member of an international consortium - one that
is threatened by the existence of the digital tape. He warns her that
her life is in danger. "They'll kill you one of two ways," he says: either
they will send an unknown assassin, or it will be someone she knows and
trusts.
MARTHA'S VINEYARD
WEST TISBURY, MASSACHUSETTS
When Mulder's mother returns home, she is astonished and overjoyed to
find Mulder there. He begins to ask her questions about his father and
the work he did at the State Department. He shows her a picture he has
found, taken in 1972, that shows Bill Mulder in the company of a number
of other men - including Deep Throat, and the Well-Manicured Man. She
insists she doesn't remember them.
Scully's phone rings as she returns home. It's Melissa, worried about
Scully, wanting to come over and see her. After she hangs up, the phone
immediately rings again, but this time there is no one there. Remembering
the warning from the man at the funeral, Scully calls her sister back,
and leaves a message telling her that she's on the way to her house instead.
Then she takes her gun and leaves.
Skinner pulls up in front of Scully's building, and urges her to get
in the car - he needs to talk to her in private. She takes him to Mulder's
apartment. As soon as they are inside, she pulls her gun, and orders him
to sit on the couch. Keeping her gun on him, she sits opposite him, demanding
to know who sent him.
Melissa arrives at Scully's, and enters with her key. A shot rings out,
muzzle flash illuminating the shooter for an instant. Melissa falls. Another
man steps out from behing a doorway - Krycek. He nudges her body over
with his foot and sees that they've killed the wrong Scully. "Oh no,"
he mutters. The other man asks what's wrong. Krycek says only, "Let's
get out of here." Leaving the gun on the floor by Melissa's head, they
leave.
Convinced that he's been sent to kill her, Scully continues to pump Skinner
for information. He tells her that he didn't come to kill her, but to
give her something. "I've got the digital tape." Suddenly, they hear footsteps
outside the door. Scully glances toward the door. In the moment of her
distraction, Skinner pulls his own gun. Scully and Skinner face off, guns
at each other's faces.
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