Original Air Date: 03/08/98
Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz Directed by Chris Carter
SCULLY UNDERGOES HYPNOSIS IN AN EFFORT TO REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED AT THE MASS BURNING SITE.
In this continuation of the previous episode… a man, his face unseen, types a letter to his son (whose identity is unknown). The man, who lives in a remote cabin, addresses the letter to the FBI and pays a boy to mail it.
Meanwhile, rescue workers sift through the area near the dam where blackened bodies lie along the length of a bridge. Amongst the bodies is Quiet Willy, the Syndicate’s hit man. Skinner directs Mulder to a nearby provisional tent, where Scully is ministered by medics. Nearby is the body of Dmitri, the Russian boy, his exposed skin blackened by the fire. When Scully regains consciousness, she tells
Mulder she has no memory of what occurred at the dam. Outside of Scully’s room, Spender tells Mulder that rescue workers were unable to locate his mother, Cassandra.
The Well−Manicured Man (WMM) and a physician, Dr. Bronschweig, tend to Marita Covarrubias inside a hospital quarantine room. Later, WMM speaks with Krycek, imprisoned aboard the Russian freighter. WMM is aware that Krycek deliberately exposed Dmitri to the black oil to insure the infection of anyone who attempted to ascertain what he knows about the burnings in Russia. He also believes that Krycek possesses a vaccine that would create resistance to the alien colonists. WMM offers Krycek freedom in return for the vaccine.
Meanwhile, a spacecraft crashes at Fort Wiekamp Air Force Base. A faceless alien pirate drags one of his comrades from the wreckage. Later, members of the Syndicate study photographs of the alien. They realize the man is a resistance fighter, a member of an ongoing battle against alien colonists. WMM explains that Krycek gave him the vaccine, meaning resistance may, in fact, be a possibility. But the Elder concludes that the captured fighter should be turned over to the colonists, WMM has Covarrubias injected with the vaccine to ensure it actually works.
Back at the hospital, Mulder tells Scully that x− rays have revealed the presence of implants inside the people who were at the dam. Mulder recounts his belief that the U.S. government manufactured and implanted the chip as part of a bio−chemical weapons project. Scully agrees to be hypnotized by Dr. Werber in an effort to recall what happened at the dam. In a trance−like state, Scully recalls how a UFO flew overhead, and shortly thereafter, how the faceless aliens set congregants on fire. Then another craft appeared overhead, which began attacking the faceless men. Cassandra was then pulled upward, out of her wheelchair, by the ship. Afterward, Werber tells Mulder that the same event will happen yet again.
Skinner reviews an audio tape of Werber’s session with Scully. Mulder tells Skinner the entire event was staged to cover up a classified military project. Skinner admits, however, that Scully’s UFO scenario is more plausible. Meanwhile, when Covarrubias fails to respond to the vaccine, the Elder informs WMM that the captured alien is being turned over to the colonists.
Spender shows the agents a videotape of himself, as a young boy, answering questions while under hypnosis. As the tape plays, the young Spender describes his abduction by a UFO. Spender then pauses the tape. He tells the agents the story is untrue, a falsehood told to him by his mother many times. He maintains that Dr. Werber’s regression memory theory is without merit. Spender also points out that Mulder has expressed his UFO
theories to Scully many times… suggesting that she has recounted the information in a similar manner.
Krycek surprised Mulder inside his apartment. He explains that Kazakhstan, Skyland Mountain and the site in Pennsylvania are all beacons for colonization. The burnings, Krycek explains, were the work of alien rebels attempting to foil the colonist’s plans for takeover. Krycek gives Mulder the location of the captured alien rebel. He maintains that if the captive perishes, so does the resistance. Accompanied by Scully, Mulder drives to Fort Wiekamp. As they attempt to bluff their way through the front gate, the agents notice Quiet Willy at the wheel of a military truck as it is about to exit the base. As the vehicle pulls away, Mulder sneaks aboard the cargo area. There he finds faceless alien pirate imprisoned inside. Quiet Willy brings the rig to a stop… then morphs into the alien bounty hunter. He climbs into the cargo area, but shortly thereafter, a white light illuminates the truck. A second faceless alien, armed with a firestarter weapon, enters. Mulder opens fire. Shortly thereafter, a confused Mulder is swarmed by MPs and placed inside a car with Scully. Mulder has no memory of how he got aboard the truck. Meanwhile, the envelope seen in the opening teaser is delivered to Spender. Several days later, back at the cabin, the envelope, labeled with the words “return to sender,” is delivered to the Cigarette− Smoking Man.
Travelers
Production Code: #5X15 Original Air Date: 03/29/98
Written by John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz Directed by Bill Graham
IN THE 1950S, TWO FBI AGENTS INVESTIGATE STRANGE DEATHS SOMEHOW LINKED TO MULDER’S FATHER.
In the year 1990, a sheriff escorts a landlord into a boarded−up, dilapidated house for the purpose of evicting the tenant, Edward Skur. Once inside, the pair smell a terrible odor, then discover a human body, collapsed, as if all of the internal organs have been removed. A figure springs from the shadows and the sheriff opens fire. The attacker, an elderly man, falls to the ground, mortally wounded. His last words are, “Mulder… Mulder.”
FBI Agent Mulder, still a year away from working on the X−Files, pays a visit to a man named Arthur Dales. Mulder questions Dales, a former special agent with the Bureau, about his work on an unsolved case from 1952… one focusing on Edward Skur (the attacker from the opening teaser). According to the censored report, Skur disappeared 38 years earlier before he could be arrested for a series of killings in which the victims’ internal
organs were removed. When Mulder utters his own last name, a flash of recognition passes on Dales’ face. Dales makes cryptic reference to HUAC, and the communist witch hunts of the 1950s, prompting Mulder to review newsreel footage of the McCarthy hearings. While watching the tape, Mulder notices his own father sitting amidst McCarthy’s group. When Mulder returns to Dales’ apartment, Dales elaborates on Skur, who, years earlier, was labeled a communist.
The story flashes back to 1952. A young Ed Skur is arrested by FBI agents Dales and Michel, and charged with contempt of Congress for failing to appear before the committee. That night, Dales relaxes at a bar called the Hoot Owl. He receives a phone call from his partner, informing him that Skur hanged himself inside his jail cell. Dales travels back to the Skur residence to inform the family of the death. But before he exits his car, he sees Skur walking down the street. An incredulous Dales gives chase. A struggle ensues, during which black tendrils creep out of Skur’s mouth. The fight attracts attention, and Skur runs off.
Dales files a report about the farfetched incident. Shortly thereafter, he is summoned to the office of Special Assistant Roy Cohn. Cohn tells Dales to amend the report by removing any reference to Skur. Dales does as he is told. A short time later, he and Michel are dispatched to a homicide. They discover the body of a dead German doctor, his body flattened. Dales notices a coaster from the Hoot Owl, on the back of which is a message: “come alone.” That night at the bar, Dales is approached by a young Bill Mulder. He explains that it was he who summoned the agents to the doctor’s home. He confirms that Skur is the perpetrator. He also explains that Skur is not a communist, but a patriot. Skur, along with two other men, Gissing and Oberman, worked for the State Department. Gissing and Oberman both took their own lives. Skur was arrested, and his death faked, so that the government could cover−up what it had done to him. Bill Mulder wants the truth to be known, explaining that Skur was a colleague. But he warns that Skur believes that Dales and Michel are part of the conspiracy against him. Shortly thereafter, Skur attacks Michel. A spider−like creature crawls from Skur’s mouth and enters Michel.
Cohn orders that Michel’s body be transported to Bethesda instead of allowing a county coroner to perform the autopsy. Dales protests until Cohn threatens to label him a communist. When Dales returns to the Bureau, he notices a heavily−censored document on the desk of Dorothy Bahnsen, a clerk. Dorothy explains that the document is a deposition that branded Skur and his co−workers communists. She then states that she recognized one of the men named in the document from an X−File. She explains that an X−File pertains to unsolved cases and that
only the director’s office decides which file is designated with the “X.” She pulls out the file on the man whose named she recognized. It belongs to a German émigré, Dr. Strohman. Dales recognizes Strohman as the man found inside the house. Dales tracks down Gissing’s body and supervises an autopsy. Inside the corpse is a cocoon containing a spider−like creature, which Dales kills. Later, Dales informs Mrs. Skur that her husband, along with two co−workers, was tricked by the government. He elaborates, explaining that all three men underwent surgery for treatment of war injuries, but, in reality, received an operation called xenotransplantation, the grafting of a species into the human body. That night, Bill Mulder and Cohn’s assistant escort Dales to the bar where he is scheduled to meet Skur. Dales is equipped with a hidden microphone and told that Skur will be arrested the moment his guard is lowered. Later, Skur enters the empty bar. He tells Dales the other men will not be coming, explaining that they assumed he (Skur) would kill him.
Dales sees the logic of Skur’s words. A struggle ensues, during which Dales is able to handcuff Skur to the bar. Back in 1990, Dales finishes telling his story to Mulder. But the puzzle still remains: why did Skur die saying the name of Mulder’s father? The story then flashes back to 1952… when a young Bill Mulder stopped on a road and gave Skur the keys to his handcuffs.