Production Code: #6ABX07 Original Air Date: 01/10/99 Written by Jeffrey Bell Directed by Kim Manners
IN A SMALL TOWN PLAGUED BY DROUGHT, MULDER AND SCULLY COME UPON A MAN WHO CLAIMS TO BE ABLE TO CONTROL THE WEATHER – AT A HEFTY PROFIT. YET THE AGENTS DISCOVER A FORCE OF NATURE AT WORK, WHICH IS EVEN MORE POWERFUL THAN THE WEATHER.
Kroner, Kansas has been experiencing a three− month drought. It’s Valentine’s Day and Sheila Fontaine waits for her boyfriend, Darryl Mootz. When he arrives home, he’s angry that Sheila has prematurely spread word of their engagement and storms out of the house, leaving Sheila alone with her tears and a box of chocolates. Shortly thereafter, Darryl is caught in a freak hailstorm which causes him to wreck his car.
It’s six months later and nine months into the drought. Mulder and Scully are called to Kroner by the town’s mayor who believes that Darryl is causing the drought so he can charge people for the rain. When the agents check with Holman Hardt, the local meteorologist, Holman substantiates part of the mayor’s claim – Holman believes that Darryl can make it rain. While Mulder and Scully check out Darryl’s side−show, Sheila tells Holman she’s nervous that the FBI are poking around. Shortly thereafter, Mulder’s life is threatened when a cow is picked up by a mini−twister and hurled through the roof of the motel where he’s staying.
Out of guilt, Sheila confesses that she is the one who has been causing all of the terrible weather− related catastrophes that have been occurring in Kroner for the past twenty years. Mulder, however, has another theory. He believes that Holman is the culprit and that it is the feelings he can’t express that have been affecting the weather. To wit, Holman has been pining away for Sheila since they were in high school together. But Sheila has
divulged to Holman that she’s got a crush on Mulder. Holman, in turn, causes it to rain in flash− flood proportions.
To stop the deluge, Mulder gives Holman “dating” advice, telling him that he must tell Sheila how he feels about her. After much prodding, Holman opens his heart to her. One year later finds Holman and Sheila married with a child. And the weather, as you can imagine, is perfect.
S.R. 819
Production Code: #6ABX10 Original Air Date: 01/17/99 Written by John Shiban Directed by Daniel Sackheim
MULDER AND SCULLY HAVE 24 HOURS TO SAVE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR SKINNER FROM BEING KILLED – BUT IN ORDER TO DO SO, THEY MUST
DETERMINE WHO WANTS HIM DEAD, AND WHY.
A man is rushed into the emergency room near death. One of the doctors tells the nurse to call Agent Scully because the sick man works for the FBI. We assume that it is Agent Mulder; only to find, however, that it is actually Assistant Director Skinner.
Flashback twenty−four hours. Agent Mulder finds A.D. Skinner in his office, not feeling well. He calls in Scully who posits that Skinner may have been poisoned. When asked to recall if anything out of the ordinary happened in his day, Skinner remembers that a renowned physicist named Kenneth Orgel stopped him in the hallway earlier in the day. Mulder and Skinner pay a visit to Orgel, only to find him in the process of being kidnapped. The kidnappers get away with Orgel; Mulder captures one of the fleeing bad guys, but must release him when he discovers that the man is a Tunisian with diplomatic immunity.
Scully, in the meantime, examines a vial of Skinner’s blood. Upon close levels of magnification, she finds miniscule foreign bodies that seem to multiply uniformly and rapidly. These specks are forming dams in Skinner’s veins, cutting off his blood flow and building a heart attack.
Mulder rifles through Orgel’s house and finds a connection to Senator Matheson. Paying the Senator a visit, he finds out about Senate Resolution 819 – a health bill which will supply medical technology for third world countries. Ripping apart Skinner’s office, Mulder finds that Skinner was doing a security check on the resolution and that, somehow, his connection to the resolution is what got him poisoned. He confronts Senator Matheson again and finds out that nanotechnology – microscopic atom− sized machines that had been previously thought of as only theoretical – have been injected into
Skinner and someone is programming them to kill him.
Meanwhile, Skinner lies on a hospital bed, his pulse flatlines. The orderly calls time of death. Moments later, Skinner gasps and comes back to life. Weeks later, Scully reports that whatever infected Skinner has gone into remission. Mulder asks for permission to continue the investigation but Skinner closes the case.
At day’s end, Skinner heads for his car. In the backseat, he finds the man who had been driving the nanotechnology atoms – Krycek. Krycek glares at Skinner – he’s got Skinner under his thumb and intends to keep him there.
Tithonus
Production Code: #6ABX09 Original Air Date: 01/24/99 Written by Vince Gilligan Directed by Michael Watkins
PAIRED WITH A NEW PARTNER, AGENT SCULLY INVESTIGATES A CRIME SCENE PHOTOGRAPHER WHOSE SUBJECTS MAY IN FACT BE HIS VICTIMS.
Relegated to doing background checks, Scully and Mulder are bored stiff. Assistant Director Kersh finally calls Scully up and pairs her with New York City field agent, Peyton Ritter, for a special assignment. While scanning old crime scene photos into the computer, Ritter stumbled upon inconsistencies in the times that the photos were taken. He feels that the man who took the pictures, a stringer named Alfred Fellig, is responsible. Ritter theorizes that Fellig kills people, takes their picture, then shows up later when called to do the crime scene photo job for the wire services.
In a dark alley in the Bronx, a mugger tackles and kills his victim. Mid−crime, the mugger looks up to see Fellig on a fire escape, taking pictures. The mugger then turns on Fellig and knifes him in the back. Fellig falls to the concrete, dead, and the mugger takes off. Minutes after he’s gone, Fellig pulls the knife out of his back and staggers off into the night.
Fellig is brought in for questioning but denies killing anyone; he was just there for “the shot”. And since they have no proof that Fellig committed the crime, they release him. But Ritter begins 24−hour surveillance on Fellig. Scully relieves Ritter late at night, only to realize shortly after Ritter leaves that Fellig is watching her. Exasperated, she confronts Fellig about his involvement in the murders that he photographs. He invites her to come for a ride and he will show Scully how he happens to be johnny− on−the−spot when a murder is committed.
After driving around for hours, Fellig finally stops and points to a hooker. He tells Scully that the hooker will be dead within the hour. Not believing
him, Scully confronts the hooker, who backs away from Scully, heads into the street and is run down by an oncoming truck. Scully, in shock at what she may have just caused, looks up in time to see Fellig drive off.
Mulder does some low−tech research on his own and calls Scully to tell her that Fellig has a penchant for changing identities, the farthest one dating back to 1849. This makes Fellig 149 years old. Scully, not wanting Fellig to have another identity crisis, goes to Fellig’s apartment where he ushers her into his darkroom. He explains that he was marked for death a long time ago, but somehow Death missed him. Fellig has been taking photos of dying people ever since in hopes of capturing the visage of Death on film so that he can look into Death’s face and die as well.
During the conversation, Fellig realizes that Scully is marked for Death and readies to take her picture. Agent Ritter arrives and fires instinctively into the darkened room. The bullet hits Fellig as well as Scully. As Ritter moves into the other room to call for help, Fellig takes Scully’s hand and tells her not to look into Death’s face. She closes her eyes and Death finally takes Fellig.