Season 4 Episode #13
Never again.

Ed Jerse, a handsome Philadelphia resident, is devastated as a judge decrees the harsh terms of his divorce settlement. After downing too many drinks at a neighborhood bar, Ed enters a tattoo parlor and selects a Betty Page-like design (on which is printed the words, "Never Again.") The next day, while at work, Ed hears a female voice refer to him as a "loser." Angered, Ed picks a fight with some women close to his cubicle, but they don't understand his anger. His boss sends him home for the day.

Meanwhile, Mulder tells Scully he must take time off for vacation or face losing several week's pay. Tension erupts between the pair when Mulder tells his partner what cases need her attention during his absence. Scully refuses to waste her time on a dubious case involving a Russian living in Philadelphia whom Mulder believes possesses valuable information on UFOs. Scully tells Mulder she feels as though she has lost sight of herself--as if her own life does nothing but stand still.

Now in his shabby apartment, Ed hears the female voice taunting him again, mocking him. Not realizing where the voice is coming from, he thinks it's his downstairs neighbor. The voice eventually drives Ed to the point of madness. In a rage, Ed bursts into the woman's apartment and attacks her. Later, he drags the body into the basement and stuffs it inside an incinerator.

Despite her reservations, Scully decides to keeps tabs on Mulder's Russian. She quickly realizes the man is an extortionist and his activities have nothing to do with the X-Files. Scully follows the Russian into a nearby tattoo parlor, where she strikes up a conversation with Ed (who is in the process of begging the tattoo artist to cover his handiwork). They strike up a conversation and an undeniable chemistry develops between the pair. Ed hands Scully his business card, and suggests they have dinner. She politely declines, but takes his card anyway.

After a tense phone conversation with Mulder about the Russian, Scully sets up a date with Ed. Scully tells Ed how her whole life, she's followed some type of father figure around, until she has to rebel. Ed observes that it looks like she's ready to rebel again. After consuming a few drinks, Scully and Ed return to the tattoo parlor, where Scully has the image of a snake eating its own tail tattooed on her back. The pair return to Ed's apartment. Noting the bad weather, Ed suggests Scully spend the night. Scully notices blood dripping from Ed's tattoo and, doctor-like, helps him pull off his shirt. A moment of intimacy develops, but before Ed can act upon his feelings, the Betty tattoo cries out: "Kiss her... and she's dead."

The next morning, Ed awakens on the couch. He leaves Scully a note that he is going to get breakfast. While Ed is away, detectives roust Scully from her sleep. They reveal that a resident downstairs was reported missing, and that a blood type different from her's was found inside the apartment. The detectives tell Scully that the blood contains chemical abnormalities. Seeing the chemical breakdown, Scully realizes it is composed of the same odd ingredients the Russian tattoo artist used to make the ink he used in their tattoos.

When Ed returns with breakfast, Scully tells him about the detectives' visit. She also reveals that the chemical found in the blood is an ergot alkaloid that can produce dangerous hallucinations. Ed confides in Scully about hearing Betty's voice in his head, taunting him, controlling him--but now that Scully is here, the voice has gone away. Now afraid for herself, Scully prepares to take them both to the hospital. But when Ed learns Scully is an FBI agent, he snaps. He attacks her and Scully is knocked unconscious. As Betty's voice urges him on, Ed drags Scully's body into the basement, intending to stuff it inside the incinerator. Scully regains consciousness and tells Ed to "take control." Suddenly, Ed gathers the strength to thrust his arm inside the incinerator, burning off the tattoo. He is transported to a burn center for treatment.

When Mulder returns from vacation, the air between him and Scully remains tense. Scully reminds her partner that not everything revolves around him-and that she intends to live her own life.

Season 4 Episode #14
Leonard Betts.

Michele Wilkes, an Emergency Medical Technician, races an ambulance through the streets of Philadelphia as her highly-regarded partner, Leonard Betts, attends to a dying man. As the ambulance speeds through an intersection, it is broadsided by a truck. Wilkes survives, but she is horrified to discover Betts' decapitated body nearby.

Mulder and Scully are brought into the case when Betts' headless corpse disappears from a hospital morgue. Scully theorizes that someone attempted to steal the body and sell it to an unscrupulous medical supplier. But when security camera footage shows an unidentified person with a strange distortion around the head area leaving the hospital. Mulder suspects something strange is going on--perhaps the body left by itself.

With Mulder's reluctant help, Scully fishes through the hospital's bio-disposal unit for the missing corpse. The agents recover the missing head, but the whereabouts of the body remains a mystery. As Scully prepares to perform an autopsy on the head, its eyes and mouth suddenly snap open.

A tissue sample taken from Betts' head is analyzed by a pathologist who determines that Betts was riddled with cancer, so much that a normal human could have never lived that way. Mulder hypothesizes that Betts had somehow incorporated cancer into his body, and possessed unimaginable regenerative powers--perhaps the next step in Man's evolution. A fingerprint search reveals that Betts' real name is Albert Tanner. The agents interview his mother, Elaine, who claims that Albert died in an automobile accident six years earlier.

As Wilkes is transporting another patient, she recognizes Betts' voice transmitting over the ambulance radio. She locates Betts working as an EMT at another hospital. As the two embrace, Betts sadly pulls out a syringe and injects Michele with a lethal substance. A security guard witnesses the murder and handcuffs Betts to his car. Betts slips out of the cuffs by tearing off his own thumb. When the thumb is found, Mulder guesses he tore it off because he knew he could grow another.

When the agents search the trunk of Betts' car, they discover plastic bags filled with human tumors. Mulder postulates that Betts is ingesting the cancerous tissue in order to survive. They learn that the car is registered to Albert Tanner's mother.

Weak and needing sustenance, Betts attacks and kills a heavy-smoking bearded man after he leaves a bar. Strengthened, Betts is then able to "gives birth" to a duplicate of himself.

The agents discover a storage locker key at Mrs. Tanner's home. When they open the door to the locker, they find the smoking man's body, its left lung missing. Suddenly from within the locker, a car roars to life, and Betts attempts to run down Mulder and Scully. The agents dive for cover and open fire. The car bursts into flames, incinerating Betts.

Though Mulder is convinced that something else is going on, Scully reminds her partner that Betts is quite dead and his not coming back to life, and the case is over. Nonetheless, Mulder exhumes the body of the man Mrs. Tanner claimed was killed in the automobile accident. Inside the casket is a corpse identical to Betts. Mulder concludes that the fiery crash was a ruse-and the real Leonard Betts is still alive.

The agents stakeout Mrs. Tanner's home waiting for Betts to return. When an ambulance arrives at the scene, Mulder and Scully race inside. They find Mrs. Tanner, still clinging to life, with a fresh surgical incision on her chest. Mulder searches the neighborhood while Scully accompanies Tanner to the hospital, but when the ambulance pulls into the hospital parking lot, she realizes Betts hitched a ride by hiding on the vehicle's roof. Betts jumps inside the ambulance and slams the rear doors behind him. Wielding a scalpel, he tells Scully she possesses "something I need." A scuffle ensues, and Scully kills Betts using defibrillation pads. Later that night, as Scully lies in bed, she wakes up coughing and finds a few drops of blood on her pillow. As her nose continues to bleed, she recalls Betts' haunting words.

Season 4 Episode #15
Momento Mori.

Scully shows Mulder an MRI x-ray indicating a cancerous mass has been detected on the wall between her sinus and cerebrum. The tumor is inoperable and if it grows, the chance for survival is slim. Instead of requesting a leave of absence, Scully opts to follow another avenue of investigation: contacting a group of purported female abductees who experienced similar symptoms after having implants removed from the base of their necks.

The agents travel to the home of Betsy Hagopian in Allentown, Pennsylvania where Scully had met these women before. A realtor informs them that Hagopian (one of the female abductees) passed away two weeks earlier. While searching through Hagopian's house, the agents realize someone is downloading computer files via phone modem. The call is traced, and the agents apprehend Kurt Crawford, the man who downloaded the files. Crawford explains that he and Hagopian were both members of the same UFO network and downloaded Hagopian's files because the government is out to destroy them. Crawford also reveals that all of the women who claimed they were abducted by aliens died of similar tumors, with the exception of Penny Northern, who is now hospitalized and near death from cancer.

Scully visits Northern at the hospital, who reveals that Dr. Scanlon, who has been treating her cancer, may have isolated the cause. Seeing her future self in Penny's condition, Scully checks herself in and Dr. Scanlon begins treating her cancer. Meanwhile, Mulder and Crawford search through hard files in Hagopian's basement. They discover that all of the woman abductees, including Northern, were treated at the same fertility clinic in Pennsylvania. When Scully asks Mulder to bring her overnight bag to the hospital, Mulder leaves Crawford in the basement to attend to Scully. Later that evening, the Gray-Haired Man (the same man who killed X) shows up and kills Crawford, whose body melts into a pool of green liquid.

Meanwhile, Mulder breaks into a federally-subsidized fertility clinic where all the female UFO network members were patients. Inside, he discovers Kurt Crawford (Mulder is unaware of the other Crawford's death). They access a computer terminal and download a directory containing Scully's name. Near the breaking point, Mulder demands that Skinner arrange a meeting with The Cigarette-Smoking Man. But Skinner refuses, insisting The Cigarette-Smoking Man deals only in lies. Nonetheless, Skinner secretly enlists The Cigarette-Smoking Man's help.

Mulder turns to the Lone Gunmen, who tell him that the fertility clinic's mainframe is housed in a high-security federal research facility. The foursome infiltrate the research facility, and once inside, Mulder realizes Dr. Scanlon is on staff. He instructs Byers to find Scully and stop her treatment immediately. As he continues through the building's corridors, Mulder encounters additional Crawfords and realizes Kurt is a clone. He finds several of them dressed as doctors inside an incubator room housing tanks containing human forms, including those of Samantha. One of the Kurts shows Mulder a cold storage room containing vials of human ova--including a vial with Scully's name on it. The eggs were harvested from women during their abduction, which were later used for reproduction. Mulder realizes the women are the Kurts' birth mothers and the clones are actually working to save their mothers' lives.

The Gray-Haired Man arrives at the clinic and traps Mulder between two security doors in a quarantine wing. The Gray-Haired Man opens fire, slowly cracking the bullet proof glass that stands between himself and his prey. Working feverishly, Frohike breaks a computer code from a remote location, allowing Mulder to open the outside door and run to safety.

When Mulder returns to the hospital, he finds Scully at Penny's bedside. Byers arrived in time to stop Scully's treatment, but Penny Northern had died and Dr. Scanlon was gone. Scully tells her partner she has decided to fight the disease and continue her work.

Season 4 Episode #16
Unrequited.

A crowd gathers at the U.S. Capitol Mall, near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. As the re-dedication ceremony begins, General Benjamin Bloch steps up to a podium and delivers his speech. A short distance away, Mulder, Scully and other FBI agents feverishly hunt down an armed man making his way through the crowd. When Mulder attempts to focus on the suspect, he seemingly vanishes.

As the story unfolds in flashback, Lieutenant General Peter MacDougal is gunned down at close range in the back seat of a limousine, a Death Card at his side. Though the murder weapon is never located, the General's driver, who has ties to a radical paramilitary group called the Right Hand, is held on suspicion of murder. But the driver, who maintains his innocence, passes a polygraph test, and lab tests reveal he did not fire a weapon. With dozens of high-ranking military officials arriving in Washington for the re-dedication ceremony, Skinner assigns his agents to investigate the Right Hand movement, and its leader, an ex- Marine named Denny Markham.

Markham gives the FBI a photograph of a man named Nathaniel Teager, a Green Beret captured by the enemy in 1971. Markham's group liberated Teager from a POW camp in 1995. When U.S. government commandos attempted to kidnap Teager, he suddenly disappeared. Scully suspects Markham's story is a cover-up for an elaborately orchestrated conspiracy plan. Meanwhile, Teager approaches a woman, Renee Davenport, as she views the Memorial. He informs Davenport her husband is still alive and gives her his dog tags as proof. Suddenly, Teager disappears.

Davenport positively identifies Teager as the man she saw at the memorial. Scully takes Davenport to an ophthalmologist when her eye hemorrhages. She is diagnosed with a floating blind spot-but the cause is undetermined.

Mulder learns that MacDougal was one of the original military officials who signed Teager's death certificate (even though forensic evidence was inconclusive). Mulder assigns two FBI agents to guard General Steffan, one of MacDougal's counterparts (who also signed the certificate). But Teager slips by the agents and murders Steffan.

A security camera captured Teager's image passing through a metal detector at the Pentagon. Skinner is outraged. Mulder tells Skinner that Teager has the ability to hide himself from a person's field of vision. He notes that, during the war, U.S. soldiers reported that Viet Cong guerrillas had the ability to appear and disappear at will. He speculates that Teager learned this trick during his 25 years in the POW camp.

Mulder believes the only way to stop Teager is to find his next victim. Marita Covarrubias tells Mulder that MacDougal, Steffan and a third general headed a secret three-man commission that covertly disposed of South Vietnamese soldiers who cooperated with the U.S. government during the war. Covarrubias reveals that testimony from the generals could have been used in the calculation of reparations. Mulder realizes the government wanted the generals dead all along. Covarrubias gives him the name of the third general: Bloch.

Bloch is rushed from the podium at the re-dedication after the agents spot Teager in the crowd. Skinner escorts Bloch toward an awaiting limo. Mulder, however, realizes Teager is hiding inside. Skinner tackles Bloch moments before gunshots flash from inside the limo. Teager puts the limo in gear and attempts to make a getaway. Agent Hill opens fire, killing him.

Season 4 Episode #17
Tempus Fugit.

At the Headless Woman's Pub, waiters singing "Happy Birthday" approach Mulder and Scully's table. Scully is surprised that her partner remembered the occasion. Before the celebration continues, the agents are approached by Sharon Graffia, who identifies herself as the sister of Max Fenig (the alien abductee seen in "Fallen Angel"). Fenig was killed in an airplane crash in Upstate New York two hours earlier. It was Fenig's wish that the agents be sought out should any harm befall him.

The agents attend a Go-Team meeting assembled by the National Transportation Safety Board. Mike Millar, the man in charge of the operation, plays a tape recording of the last radio exchange between Flight 549 and air traffic control in Albany. During the recording, the pilot makes reference to an "intercept." Mulder believes is an indication the airliner was forced out of the sky. But his comments before the group are met with great skepticism.

The agents comb the crash site for possible clues. Mulder realizes there is a nine minute discrepancy between the official time of the crash and the time indicated on passengers' wrist watches. In the distance, an investigator named Garrett sprays an acid-like substance on one of the bodies, dissolving the victim's fingertips and face. A few moments later, other Go-Team members pull a survivor, Larold Rebhun, from the wreckage. Scully concludes he was exposed to extreme radiation. Mulder tells Scully that he believes Fenig was abducted from the aircraft by being sucked out of the emergency exit door. However, Go-Team members find Fenig's body amongst the debris field.

The agents interview Louis Frish, who, along with Armando Gonzales, manned the Air Force Reserve air control tower on the night of the crash. Louis claims there was no radio contact between the Air Force and the civilian plane. Later, Louis finds Gonzales' dead body inside the control tower. Several government men storm the tower. Louis avoids capture by hiding on the roof. Later, Sharon Graffia disappears from her motel room. Mulder concludes she was abducted by a UFO.

Louis Frish tells Mulder, Scully, and Millar that he-not an air traffic controller in Albany-was the last person to communicate with Flight 549. Louis explains that his commanding officer ordered him (along with Gonzales) to lie to investigators. The men saw an unidentified radar blip enter Flight 549's airspace. Moments later, there was an explosion. Mulder speculates that a third, unidentified aircraft shot down the intercept craft-but is at a loss to explain the absence of a second crash site. As the agents drive Louis away from the Go-Team's headquarters, two automobiles give chase. In an attempt to outmaneuver his pursuers, Mulder drives onto a runway. An airliner lands on the strip, narrowly missing Mulder's car. The two chase cars break off their pursuit. Later, Mike Millar encounters a UFO hovering above the crash site. He finds Sharon Graffia nearby.

Scully and Louis await a Federal Marshal at the Headless Woman's Pub. Garrett enters with a gun. Scully draws her weapon and a shoot-out ensues. Agent Pendrell, who happened to be frequenting the bar, is shot in the chest. Scully manages to shoot Garrett in the leg.

After examining a map, Mulder concludes that the second craft crashed into Great Sacandaga Lake. He scuba dives into the murky water, where he encounters twisted wreckage-and the body of a gray alien. Suddenly, a bright beam of light emanates from the surface. Mulder shields his eyes from the impossibly intense light. To Be Continued...

Season 4 Episode #18
Max.

As seen in the previous episode, Mulder, clad in scuba gear, inspects (what appears to be) the wreckage of a UFO deep beneath the murky waters of Great Sacandaga Lake in Upstate New York. A bright beam of light penetrates the darkness, illuminating the agent. The light's source is revealed to be a team of frogmen, accompanied by an amphibious craft equipped with large searchlights. Mulder attempts to make an escape, but he is placed under military arrest.

A wounded Garrett escapes from the Headless Woman Pub. Scully immediately turns her attention to Agent Pendrell, who was caught in the crossfire. Paramedics are called to the scene and Pendrell is transported to a nearby hospital. Skinner tells Scully that Louis Frish is being placed under military arrest (for suspicion of murder and providing false testimony to a federal investigation).

Mulder is released from jail. The Air Force asserts that Flight 549 collided with a military fighter jet when Frish and his tower co-controller made an error in judgment. Based on the wreckage he saw beneath Lake Sacandaga, Mulder believes Flight 549 collided with a UFO (after it was shot down by a military jet). Scully tells Mulder that Agent Pendrell died of his injuries. Mulder conveys his sympathies.

Records reveal that Sharon Graffia is not Max Fenig's sister, but an unemployed aeronautical engineer who spent time in mental institutions (where she met Fenig). The agents search Fenig's mobile home. They discover a videotape in which Fenig states that the military salvaged alien technology for use in their own technological applications. He claims to have undeniable, irrefutable proof to back up his assertion.

Mulder describes for Mike Millar the sequence of events that (he believes) led to the downing of Flight 549. According to Mulder, Max boarded the plane carrying physical proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life. Someone followed him aboard the craft, intending to obtain the object at any cost. But before the assassin could carry out his plot, Flight 549 was intercepted by a UFO. As the UFO began to abduct Fenig, flight controllers ordered a military jet into 549's airspace on a mission to destroy the alien craft. When the Air Force shot down the UFO, the airliner, caught in its "tractor beam," spun out of control and crashed.

The manager of the trailer park where Fenig lived gives Mulder Fenig's undelivered mail. One envelope contains a luggage claim ticket bearing a three-letter designation for Syracuse. Meanwhile, Scully meets with Sharon Graffia at a mental health center. She admits she stole an object from her employer after Max insisted it could prove the existence of alien life. The object was divided into three parts. Max and Sharon each took a segment, but they were later confiscated.

Mulder finds the third piece inside Fenig's luggage at the Syracuse airport. He boards a flight for Washington, but is followed by Garrett (Agent Pendrell's killer). Mulder gets the jump on Garrett and confines him to a bathroom aboard the plane. He telephones Scully and instructs her to meet him at Dulles airport. Suddenly, Mulder's wrist watch stops running. A UFO intercepts the aircraft and, during the commotion, Garrett escapes from the lavatory. He grabs a knapsack containing the third stolen alien segment. As a bright light from the UFO engulfs the plane, Mulder instructs Garrett to drop the bag. But Garrett refuses to do so. When the plane lands at Dulles airport, Garrett is not on board. Mulder tells Skinner that Garrett "caught a connecting flight."