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In voiceover, we hear Albert Hosteen speak of the myth of the White Buffalo
woman, who came to the Native American people to tell them how to lead
virtuous lives. Afterwards, she turned into a white buffalo and ascended
into the clouds, never to be seen again. On the day Mulder was healed,
Albert says, a white buffalo was born in the north. All knew that this
was a powerful omen, and that great change was coming.
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
In Mulder's apartment, Scully holds a gun on Skinner, who she thinks
intends to kill her. He tells her he has come to give her the digital
tape. They see a shadow under the apartment door. While Scully is distracted,
Skinner draws his gun, and the two face off. Suddenly, to the astonishment
of both Scully and Skinner, Mulder bursts in, gun drawn. He tells Scully
to get Skinner's gun, and after a few tense moments, Skinner finally gives
up his weapon.
Scully explains that she was warned she'd be killed by someone she trusted.
Skinner, to show his good intentions, takes the digital tape out of his
pocket. He says he'll keep the tape and make sure it doesn't fall into
the wrong hands. Mulder and Scully agree, and they leave him there.
At the elevator, Scully smiles with relief that Mulder is alive. She
tells him that she went to his father's funeral, and that she told Mulder's
mother that he was going to be okay. Mulder asks Scully how she knew.
"I just knew."
Scully's mother rushes into the hospital, asking for her daughter, Dana.
"Melissa Scully?" the doctor asks. He tells her that he has a Melissa
Scully, who was in surgery with a cranial gunshot wound. Melissa lies
in her hospital bed, head wrapped in bandages, breathing on a ventilator.
She's in a coma, induced to reduce the trauma on the brain.
Mulder and Scully consult with the Lone Gunmen, showing Byers and Langly
the photograph Mulder found at his mother's, showing a group of men. Mulder
points out his father, and tells them that the photo was taken around
1973. Byers asks if they are familiar with Operation Paper Clip. It provided
a safe haven in the U.S. for certain Nazi war criminals in exchange for
their scientific knowlege. Langly recognizes one of the men in the photograph
as Victor Klemper - one of the "most evil" of those Nazis, who'd experimented
on the Jews, now still living comfortably in the United States.
Frohike bursts in, overjoyed to see that Mulder is still alive. He throws
his arms around the diffident Mulder, who tells him he'll "have to wait
a little longer for my video collection." Frohike tells them he's been
at the hospital - he'd heard the report about Scully's sister being shot
on the police scanner.
Scully begins to rush off to the hospital, but Mulder stops her on the
stairs. "That bullet was meant for me," says a grief-stricken Scully.
But Mulder convinces her that it's too dangerous for her to go to her
sister.
46TH STREET, NEW YORK CITY
7:09 AM
The Elders of the Syndicate have gathered. The First Elder says that
a serious mistake has been made. "An innocent woman has been shot." The
Cigarette Smoking Man claims that the mistake will be rectified. "By whom?"
the Well-Manicured Man asks. The Cigarette Smoking Man insists that Mulder
is dead, and that he has the digital tape, which he will produce by tomorrow.
Victor Klemper is in his greenhouse working with his orchids when Mulder
and Scully arrive. Mulder shows him the photograph, and Klemper says it
was taken at the Strockhold Mining Company in West Virginia. He asks if
they know the value of Napier's Constant, then refuses to tell them any
more. After they leave, Klemper calls the Well-Manicured Man and tells
him that Mulder is alive.
Albert Hosteen goes to the hospital at Scully's request, to give her
mother the message that she's all right and wishes she could be there.
Albert stays to pray over Melissa.
Mulder and Scully arrive at the Strockhold Mining Company, a huge abandoned
building of fallen beams and broken windows. Inside, they find a row of
solid-looking locked doorways with keypads for entry codes. Using Napier's
Constant as the code, they try the keypads until they unlock one of the
doors.
The Cigarette Smoking Man visits Skinner in his office. Skinner says
he may have found a tape - but fears it may fall into the wrong hands.
An angry CSM insists that he won't negotiate.
Inside the hidden corridors of the mining company building, Mulder and
Scully find long rows of file cabinets. "Lots and lots of files." The
files contain medical information - smallpox vaccination records and tissue
samples. Mulder locates the files for 1964 and finds a file on Scully
- with a recent tissue sample. Then they find Samantha Mulder's file -
but her name has been taped over Mulder's. Mulder goes back out into the
open part of the building, where he sees a vast, bright light rising beyond
the windows. Outside, he sees a spacecraft passing overhead. Inside, Scully
sees small alien-looking figures running down the hallways.
Cars pull up outside the building. Armed men get out and shoot at Mulder,
chasing him back into the building. He runs back into the secret corridors
full of files, finds Scully, and they escape out a back entrance to the
building.
ROUTE 203A
CREIGER, MARYLAND
Mulder and Scully meet with Skinner at a diner. They tell him about the
attack at the mining company - Mulder says the cars looked like unmarked
CIA fleet sedans. Skinner suggests that they allow him to negotiate a
deal - he'll turn over the digital tape in return for guarantees of the
agents' safety, and their reinstatement. Mulder doesn't want to return
the tape and the answers it contains. Scully protests that the answers
will do them no good if they're going to be hunted down like animals.
She tells Mulder she wants the same thing he does. "But I need to see
my sister." Mulder agrees to let Skinner make the deal.
Albert is at the hospital praying for Melissa. In voiceover, he says
that the white buffalo calf stopped drinking its mother's milk, and the
mother buffalo died. "For something to live, another thing must often
be sacrificed."
Skinner arrives at the hospital to give Mrs. Scully a message. He sees
a man lurking outside Melissa's hospital room, and follows him. In the
stairwell, he is attacked by the man and two others - Hispanic Man and
Krycek. Krycek hits Skinner viciously several times, and takes the tape
from him.
SOUTHEASTERN WASHINGTON D.C.
A car pulls into the parking lot of a truck stop. The driver - the man
Skinner saw lurking outside Melissa's room in the hospital - and Hispanic
Man get out and go into the store, leaving Krycek alone in the car. Krycek
notices that the dashboard clock is blinking 12:00, 12:00, 12:00. He jumps
out of the car and runs, moments before it explodes. As the two other
men watch from the doorway of the store, Krycek escapes.
Mulder and Scully return to Klemper's greenhouse, but Klemper isn't there.
Instead, they find Well-Manicured Man, who tells them that Klemper is
dead. He says that Klemper was trying to create a human/alien hybrid,
and that Mulder's sister was taken as insurance, to prevent Mulder's father
from exposing the project.
At the Syndicate house in New York, the Cigarette Smoking Man receives
a phone call from Krycek. "I'm alive," he tells CSM. "If I so much as
feel your presence, I'm going to make you a very famous man." CSM lies
to the Elders, telling them that Krycek and the tape were destroyed by
a car bomb.
Mulder goes to his mother and asks her whether his father ever asked
her to make a choice between their two children. Weeping angrily, she
replies, "I couldn't choose. It was your father's choice, and I hated
him for it. In his grave, I hate him still."
Skinner and CSM meet at Skinner's office. Skinner says that he has the
tape, but CSM knows Krycek has it. He threatens Skinner and starts to
leave, but Skinner calls him back, telling him with relish, "This is where
you pucker up and kiss my ass." He brings Albert in, and tells CSM that
Albert knows everything on the tape, and "in the oral tradition of his
people" has told 20 others, who've told another 20... Unless CSM kills
every Navajo living in four states, the information is available with
a simple phone call. CSM has no choice but to make the deal in order to
ensure the Navajos' silence.
Melissa's hospital bed is empty. Scully tells Mulder, "She died for me."
She insists that she'll go back to work. Mulder says he's more certain
than ever that the truth is in the X-Files. Scully replies, "I've heard
the truth. Now what I want are the answers." Mulder kneels by her chair
and puts his arm around her.
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