1997
1997
-
Sometime during
1997, Kathy Lee Tencate changes her story about the disappearance of
her son, Dean. She claims to have killed him and tells authorities
where she left the body, but the body is found. She believes that a
confession claiming temporary insanity might lead the parole board
to release her sooner. In fact, she believes that Dean was taken to
protect his soul from the harm it would suffer in life. (Sein Und
Zeit)
-
Sometime in 1997
-
In a deserted part
of New Mexico, a human body is found with its skull smashed in and
with a strange wound on its back. The murder remains unsolved for
some years. The body has formerly been occupied by a parasite that
is capable of taking complete control of the human body, but which
finds many humans unsuitable. (RoadRunners)
-
January 1997
-
Max Fenig's letters
to his sister take on a different tone, implying he has stolen or
acquired evidence that puts his life in danger.(Tempus Fugit)
-
January ?, 1997
-
El Mundo Gira. In
a San Joaquin Valley migrant worker's camp, near Fresno, a bright
flash in the sky followed by a fall of a hot, yellow-colored rain
kills Mexican woman Maria Dorantes, eating away her eyes and lips. A
companion, Eladio, is infected with an enzyme that causes common
fungi to grow wildly. Migrant workers believe a mythical monster
called the Chupacabra is responsible.
-
Three days later,
Mulder and Scully arrive to investigate. Mulder believes space
debris may have fallen in a nearby lake, superheating the water and
resulting in the yellow rain. Eladio and his brother Soledad escape
to Mexico but greatly deformed by the enzyme, so that they almost
look like aliens.
-
January ?, 1997
-
Kaddish. An
Hasidic Jewish man, Isaac Luria, is murdered by three teenagers. He
returns as a Golem, a being from Jewish tradition that is made in
Isaac's image from the earth itself. The Golem eventually crumbles
to dust after Isaac's fiancee, Ariel, expresses her love for Isaac.
-
January ?, 1997
-
Leonard Betts. In
Pittsburgh, Mulder and Scully encounter Leonard Maurice Betts, who
must consume cancer in order to survive. He can detect cancer inside
a person, and can regenerate body parts, even to the extent of
growing a complete replacement body. He is decapitated in an
ambulance accident, but grows his head back. He generates another
body which dies in a car explosion. The body of Albert Tanner is
exhumed, and both bodies are inspected, side by side.
-
Betts attacks
Scully in an ambulance and tells her that she has what he needs,
i.e. cancer inside her. She kills him with ambulance defibulators.
Scully does not immediately tell Mulder that Betts claimed she has
cancer.
-
January ?, 1997
-
Never Again. In
Pennsylvania Ed Jerse has himself tattooed following his divorce.
The tattoo, listed in the credits as "Betty," is a woman's
face with the words "Never Again." Betty seems to begin
talking to Jerse, inciting him to kill a woman neighbor.
-
Mulder is forced by
Bureau policy to take a week's vacation -- his first in four years,
visiting Graceland. Scully, meanwhile, feels she has lost sight of
her life. Mulder comments to her that he "busted his ass"
to get the X-Files opened, whereas she was simply assigned to them.
He says they are his life, and Scully is unhappy that they have
become her life as well.
-
Scully leaves
Mulder during an interview on the National Mall, to look at the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial -- possibly thinking about the events near
the wall on November 12, 1996, seen in Unrequited.
-
She travels to
Philadelphia to follow a lead for Mulder, and meets Ed Jerse. In a
vulnerable mood, she goes on a date with him, drinks, and gets her
own tattoo. She later learns that the inks used by the tattoo artist
are psychoactive.
-
Scully spends the
night in Jerse's apartment, although he sleeps on the sofa. Jerse
attacks her when he learns she is a cop, incited by Betty. He
finally holds his arm in open flame to burn off the tattoo. The
qualities of psychoactive drug are insufficient to explain Betty as
an hallucination. Scully is hospitalized for treatment of injuries.
-
Scully becomes the
only person to appear twice in separate X-Files. Scully mentions
that her last date was to see Glengarry Glen Ross, released October
2, 1992, and that the characters in the movie had a better time than
she did. She apparently forgot about her date seen in Jersey Devil,
in August 1993.(Never Again)
-
(This episode, produced before Leonard Betts, was broadcast later.
Was Scully's fling the result of her suspicion that she has cancer?
A customer Ed talks to, trying to sell her a stock offering,
comments "it is so hard after the holidays," providing the
January date.)
-
February 1997
-
Beginning this
month, five children are born with vestigial tails in Martinsburg,
WV, each fathered by Eddie Van Blundht. (Small Potatoes)
-
Memento Mori. Tests
at Holy Cross Memorial Medical Center confirm that Dana Scully has a
tumor on the wall of her nasal cavity, near the brain. The condition
is hard to treat and if it should grow into the brain it would be
fatal. It is the same as that faced by eleven women Scully met in
731. Scully and Mulder visit Betsy Hagopian's home and learn she
died 2 1/2 weeks earlier. They discover someone downloading her
computer files, and track it to Kurt Crawford. They intercept him,
trying to sneak out of his apartment building. He says he is also a
MUFON member and is concerned that a governmental conspiracy wants
to cover up the information in the files in Penny's home.
-
Scully visits Penny
Northern in Allentown-Bethlehem Medical Center. Dr. Kevin Scanlon
treats Penny and says she might have had a better chance if the
cancer had been caught earlier. Scully decides to begin treatment to
try to find "the truth" inside her, with chemotherapy
treatments to weaken her immune system so a gene therapy can be
tried. Meanwhile Mulder and Crawford search Betsy's files and find
references to several dead women being treated at the federally
operated Center for Reproductive Medicine in Lehigh Furnace,
Pennsylvania. When Mulder leaves to take Scully her things at the
hospital, Crawford is killed by a man wielding an "alien killer"
ice pick. Crawford's blood fizzes green, revealing him to have alien
DNA.
-
Mulder sneaks into
the Center for Reproductive Medicine and finds another Crawford
clone (although Mulder doesn't realize this). Crawford has been
trying to get into the center's computer system, but can't figure
out the password. Mulder suggests "vegreville," a name on
a deck ornament, and they succeed in getting into the computer
system, where reference is found to Scully in a directory about the
Lumbard Research Facility, although she has not been a patient.
Mulder asks Skinner to set up a meeting with Cancer Man, but Skinner
warns him against giving in. Mulder agrees, and turns to the Lone
Gunmen, who hack into the Lumbard computer and data on the branched
DNA found in Scully's system in One Breath. Because the DNA is
branches, it is active, and may even have caused Scully's cancer.
The Gunmen help Mulder break into Lumbard. Langly and Frohike enter
what they call a storm sewer and locate communications circuitry
that allows them to gain access to security systems. This allows
Mulder and Byers to enter through the front door locks. As, they
wait for one door to open, Mulder sees that Dr. Scanlon is on the
center staff. He sends Byers to find SCully and tell her to
discontinue treatment under Scanlon's care. As Byers tries to leave,
security police arrive and he has to hide from them, possibly
experiencing a bit of a panic attack. Mulder gets so fr into the
building that he loses radio contact with Langly. He finds several
Crawford clones in a room with vats of green liquid containing
bodies. One contains a clone of the blond boy seen with the child
Samantha clone in Herrenvolk. The boy is also a Kurt Crawford clone.
-
Mulder is told that
the clones are working to subvert The Project that produced them. He
is shown stored ova removed from abduction victims, including Scully,
Penny Northern and Betsy Hagopian. He keeps one of the vials of
Scully's ova. The clones tell him that the abducted women who are
dying are their mothers, providing half the raw material for the
hybrids. The operative who killed the first Crawford enters the
facility and almost kills Mulder, who is saved by some bullet-proof
glass and who escapes through a metal door just as the glass begins
to shatter. Penny dies, after telling Scully that she must not give
up hope. Scully decides to return to work in hopes that finding
"the truth" will help her find a cure for her cancer.
-
While the above is
going on, Skinner finds the Cigarette Smoking Man in Mulder's office.
Although Skinner warned Mulder not to approach Cancer Man about
Scully, Skinner himself asks what it will take to save Scully. At
the end of the episode, Mulder phones Skinner to report that Scully
is OK. He thanks Skinner for cinvincing him to not aontact the
Smoking Man. The Smiking Man, however, is in Skinner's office as
they speak and tells him that there is always another way, "if
you are willing to pay the price."
-
(It has been
reported in the media that Chris Carter has a contact at the FBI
with whom he checks various details to improve accuracy. This
contact's name is reported to be Kurt Crawford -- apparently where
the name for the character in this episode originated.)
-
February 1997
-
Mulder later says
that as soon as he acquired the vial containing Scully's ova, he
took it to an expert who determined that the ova were not viable. (Of
course the vial rode around in Mulder's pocket for some time, so
presumably thawed out, possibly resulting in the loss of viability.)
(Per Manum)
-
February 23, 1997
-
Tempus Fugit. Mulder
takes Scully out to celebrate her 33rd birthday. Meanwhile, at about
8pm, Flight 549, carrying Max Fenig, crashes near Northville, New
York, after an apparent encounter with a UFO. Conspiracy forces
mobilize to keep the truth secret. Max's sister, Sharon Graffia, a
private pilot, approaches Mulder and Scully during their birthday
party and informs them of the crash. Mulder suspects that Max was
kidnapped directly from the jetliner, although NTSB investigators
appear to find Max's body. Later evidence suggests that two UFOs
were near Flight 549. Sharon is abducted, and returned to the crash
site by a triangular UFO. Mulder and Scully make contact with
Sergeant Louis Frish, the air traffic controller in contact with
Flight 549. Frish asks for protection, and Scully takes him to
Washington, then, oddly, takes him to a public bar, where a
Conspiracy operative attempts to kill one or both of them. Scully
kills the operative, but Pendrell is shot, taking a bullet for
Scully. Meanwhile, Mulder locates a crashed UFO in a lake. Scuba
diving to it, he finds an apparent grey alien at the controls, but
is approached by two lights underwater. (Note: This episode
covers four days, beginning on the evening of February 23 and
concluding somewhat after midnight on the morning of February 26.)
-
February 26, 1997
-
MAX. Two
divers assault Mulder underwater, he escapes, but is arrested on
land by a military unit. The operative who shot Pendrell escapes but
Pendrell dies from his punctured lung. Scully bails Mulder out,
revealing that Sharon is not Max's sister, but was once a co-worker
at a defense industry company. The Air Force claims Frish erred, and
caused an F-15 to hit Flight 549. Mulder and Scully visit Max's
Airstream trailer, and find a video tape he made. (Max also had the
Sounds From the Key of X CD in his stereo.) The military unit
recovers hardware and bodies from the sunken saucer, and the
operative (now back in the Albany area after having escaped from
Scully in Washington and not limping from his leg wound) states that
they have found what they were looking for. Sharon tells Scully that
she stole a piece of alien hardware from her employer. Max had one
part, which is why the UFO followed Flight 549. She had another
piece, which is why she was abducted. Mulder finds the third in an
airport baggage claim office, and takes it on a commercial flight to
Washington, much like the events that happened to Max a few days
earlier. The operative is also on board the flight. A UFO intercepts
the flight and recovers the final piece of alien hardware. It is
unclear whether this UFO is human-operated or alien-operated, but
the implication is that it is alien-operated, since the Air Force
tried to shoot down the UFO that tried to abduct Max. Mulder is left
with no evidence.
-
March?? 1997
-
Synchrony. Jason
Nichols travels back from the future, from the year 2037, to try to
prevent the discovery of a compound that will someday allow freezing
of living cells without major cellular damage. He kills graduate
student Lucas Menand, visiting oriental professor Dr. Yonechi, a
security guard. He attempts to kill his younger self's girl friend,
Lisa Ianelli, saying that in 2007, she would make the discovery that
would lead to "a world without history and without hope."
This discovery of ways of using tachyons to travel in time was
combined with Jason's research to make time travel practical.
Tachyon wormholes produced extreme heat, but Jason's freezing
compound allowed travel, the older Nichols says.
-
Nichols erases his
own 1997 computer files, then kills his younger self, apparently
eliminating the time line that produced time travel. The body of the
older Nichols disappears, apparently completing the paradox. Lisa,
however, survives, and goes to work to recreate Jason's research.
-
March?? 1997
-
Small Potatoes. The
fifth child is born, fathered by Eddie Van Blundht and born with
vestigial tails. Eddie Van Blundht is arrested for rape after
impersonating Mulder and attempting to seduce Scully.
-
Scully writes a
monograph for a penology publication.
-
Mulder's drivers
license gives his home address as 42-2630 Hegal Place, Alexandria,
VA 23242
-
April 1997
-
Researchers publish
the results of research in which a frog is levitated by a strong
magnetic field. The electrons in the frog's body respond to the
magnetic field uniformly, as if the frog is weightless. Researchers
say the frog suffered no harmful effects from the experience, and
that it would be equally possible to levitate a human. (From
scientific journals -- is this the technique used to levitate people,
as we have seen from time to time in the X-Files?)
-
April?? 1997
-
Eddie Van Blundht
is incarcerated, and kept on muscle relaxants to prevent him from
shape changing. He accuses Mulder of choosing to be a loser for not
courting Scully. (Small Potatoes)
-
Operatives for the
Conspiracy ship seven packages of the Conspiracy to South Carolina
for a test. One package is damaged and sent to a shipping house in
Virginia for inspection. Some of the bees, carrying smallpox, escape
and build a colony in a wall. (Zero Sum)
-
April 12, 1997
-
Demons. Mulder
receives treatment with a psychoactive drug as part of his efforts
to remember the circumstances involving his sister's disappearance.
He experiences a series of flashbacks to events in his family's
summer cottage in Rhode Island during which his parents argue and
Cancer Man is present -- at one point calling young Fox a spy.
Closed captioning reveals Mrs. Mulder repeatedly says "not
Samantha," and Bill Mulder says that the orders came down from
on high. Bill Mulder and Cancer Man also argue during the flashbacks,
which may or may not be true, due to the drugs Mulder has received.
Mulder awakes in a motel, unable to explain how he got there, and
with the blood of two murdered people on his shirt. Murder charges
against Mulder are eventually dismissed when it is discovered that
the victims were abductees, also receiving the psychoactive drug,
who participated in a murder-suicide.
Mulder confronts his
mother about the events in the summer house he has seen in
flashbacks. He accuses her of betraying his father, but then accuses
her of having an affair with Cancer Man, and asks who his father
really is. She rebukes him, and says she will not stand for such
questions, asking Fox if he wants to kill his father all over again.
(This episode contains a significant inconsistency in dates. Act
one is clearly labeled as happening on April 12. April 12, 1997, was
a Saturday, however Scully tells Mulder that April 12 is a Sunday.
Other episodes this season have clearly included the 1997 date,
leaving the inconsistency impossible to resolve.)
-
April 27 1997
-
Zero Sum. Jane
Brody, a worker at a parcel shipping company, is killed by bee
stings. Based on the agreement worked out in Momento Mori, Cancer
Man directs Skinner to clean up the scene of Brody's death and
remove all evidence. Skinner is forced to impersonate Mulder, and a
Conspiracy operative kills a police officer who could identify
Skinner, using Skinner's gun.
-
Scully enters the
hospital for tests on her cancer.
-
The Conspiracy
begins a test of the smallpox-carrying bees, in a school yard in
South Carolina, leading to further deaths.
-
Skinner learns
about Mulder's contact in the United Nations, Marita Covarrubius,
and contacts her, explaining that he has located some of the bees.
She encourages him to inform authorities of what he knows --
something he cannot do without implicating himself in obstruction of
justice.
-
Mulder discovers
from photo evidence that Skinner posed as Mulder, and confronts him.
He eventually comes to believe Skinner's story, and covers up for
him when it is confirmed that Skinner's gun killed the police
detective.
-
Marita is revealed
to be an associate of Cancer Man, although their relationship is
unclear, as are her motivations for feeding information to Mulder.
(Date taken from evidence log.)
-
May 1997
-
After trying
"for years," Bill and Tara Scully conceive a child. (Christmas
Carol)
-
Summer 1997 ??
-
Elegy. Scully
and Mulder investigate a case in which murder victims "appear"
to people nearby, apparently trying to say something. Mulder
discovers that each of the people to whom the murder victims "appear"
has a terminal illness. Twice, people who have died appear to Scully
during this episode, causing her distress. She visits FBI
psychologist Karen Kossoff, who helps her understand that Scully has
great fear of disappointing Mulder.
-
(While it was not
mentioned in this episode, this was not the first time Scully has
seen a vision of a dead person. Bill Scully appeared to his daughter
shortly after he died, trying to say something to her, in Beyond the
Sea. This was before her first abduction, as seen during the series.
Does this mean she already had cancer during the first season, as
the result of even earlier abductions?)
-
July 1997????
-
The sister of
Robert Patrick Modell, Linda, learns that she has a fraternal twin
brother, from whom she has been separated since infancy. She locates
him in a hospital, where he is in a coma as the result of being shot
by Fox Mulder. She visits him, using her "Pusher" powers
to masquerade as a nun. At about this same time, Modell awakens from
his coma. The implication is that she uses her power to awaken him.
Upon learning about his life, Linda is consumed with the desire for
revenge against the law enforcement officers who apprehended Modell.
Following Modell's awakening, the state tries him for murder, and he
is convicted. The prosecutor is Nathan Bowman. (Kitsunegari -- It
was said that Modell's awakening and Linda's learning of him
happened about six months before the episode. The dates for the
trial are unclear, but Modell could not have been tried while in a
coma, so the assumption is made that it is after his regaining
consciousness.)
-
October 1997
-
Gethsemane. Dana
Scully reports to a committee comprised of Section Chief Blevins (who
first assigned her to the X-Files) and several other men and women
who are not identified in the episode. She says she is there to
report on the illegitimacy of Mulder's work over the years, and that
Mulder has been the subject of a complex hoax dealing with alleged
alien life and the abduction of his sister. She reports that Mulder
claimed to have located the frozen body of an extra-terrestrial, but
that two scientists studying the body in a warehouse/lab in
southeast Washington DC were killed and the body stolen. One is
named Arlinsky, the forensic anthropologist who Mulder has been in
contact with over the last four years.
-
Scully reports that
she was also told that several members of a Canadian geodetic survey
team were killed in the cave in the St. Elias Mountains in the Yukon
Territory, where the alleged alien body was located, in an apparent
earlier attempt to take the body. She claims to have learned about a
complex "mechanism of deception" that was designed to
mislead Mulder, resulting in what she calls the "illegitimacy"
of Mulder's work. In fact, at least one of the people in the Yukon,
an associate of Arlinsky's, is shown to be an operative of the
Conspiracy.
-
Scully also
describes locating Michael Kritschgau, assigned to the Pentagon
Research Division in Virginia, who she says she found stealing an
ice core sample. She further relates how Kritschgau describes the
complicated conspiracy to mislead Mulder to deflect scrutiny from
the continued misdeeds of the military-industrial complex by
convincing Mulder to go public with claims of alien life, and that
Kritschgau further claims the same people engineered Scully's cancer.
-
Kritschgau claims
that his son is very ill as the result of Conspiracy chemical
warfare experiments during the Gulf War.
-
Scully also tells
the committee that her cancer has moved into her blood stream, which
she had said in Momento Mori would almost certainly be fatal to her.
She reports that Mulder was found dead in his apartment of an
apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
-
(As always when
The X-Files uses flashbacks, it is difficult to determine what
actually happened, and what is based on imperfect memories and/or
Scully's fabrication as part of her lie.)
-
October 1997
-
Redux. Mulder
is not dead. In fact, Scully is cooperating with him to entrap the
Conspiracy source in the FBI. The dead man is Scott Ostelhoff,
Conspiracy operative who has been videotaping in Mulder's apartment
through a tiny hole in the ceiling. 24 hours before the FBI joint
committee seen in Gethsemane, Mulder kills Ostelhoff in self defense,
then uses his DOD security clearance card to infiltrate the Pentagon.
Mulder finds dozens of apparent alien bodies (or are they hoaxes?),
sees several apparent abductees undergoing medical tests and
irradiation, and finds the secret basement storage room where
Conspiracy evidence is kept. He finds a storage box containing
materials relating to Scully, and takes a vial of fluid, in hopes it
contains a cure for her cancer. He also finds a file card with
Scully's name on it, plus many serial or code numbers. He finds a
card for Michael Kritschgau, Jr., but there are no serial numbers on
the card. Mulder escapes the Pentagon at the last second, through
the intervention of Cancer Man.
-
Cancer Man has
earlier in the day visited Mulder's empty apartment, with a look of
remorse on his face. He discovers that the apartment has been
subject to video observation, without his knowledge. He complains to
the Elder (also known as the Fat Man) Conspiracy that the
information should not have been kept from him, because he has been
keeping Mulder in check, and in fact "created" Mulder. The
Elder denies knowledge of such observation.
-
Scully, meanwhile,
spends the day at the Paleoarcheology lab at American University,
where cells found in the Yukon ice have begun growing into an
organism. She discovers that DNA fragments in a virus in the
organism are also in her body. This proves conclusively to her that
whoever gave her cancer is also responsible for what she sees as the
body hoax.
-
After providing
false information to the FBI joint committee, she reveals the DNA
evidence, and makes the accusation that someone in the committee
room is responsible for both the hoax and her cancer. Her suspicion
centers on Skinner. Her nose begins bleeding, and she collapses.
Skinner leaps across the room to catch her, and calls for a doctor.
-
Mulder takes the
vial of fluid to the Lone Gunmen, who extract some of the contents
to analyze the fluid inside. Spectography reveals it is "de-ionized
water," meaning it is not a cure. Tune in next week for the
conclusion of this three-part story in Redux II.
-
October 1997
-
Redux II. Mulder
rushes to Trinity Hospital Medical Center, where Scully is a patient,
and meets Skinner in the hallway. Skinner says he has been
withholding forensic evidence and Mulder believes he is not
responsible for Scully's cancer.
-
The Cancer Man
tells Mulder that the deionized water contains a computer chip
designed to inhibit the cancer, and the Lone Gunmen find it in the
vial. Dana decides to have the chip implanted, but also finally
returns to her faith. The family priest comes to her hospital room
and they pray.
-
The Elder watches a
Congressional hearing on TV, about human cloning. He orders an
assassination.
-
Cancer Man brings
Samantha (or at least a women pretending to be Samantha, played
by the same actress seen in Colony and End Game) to meet Mulder,
at night in a diner. She says she remembers little about her
abduction, and has been told that her family was dead. She considers
Cancer Man to be her father and has been told that he and Mrs.
Mulder had an affair but kept it secret. She is confused and afraid,
and leaves without giving Mulder a means of contact, but promises to
consider whether to have further contact.
-
Cancer Man tells
Mulder that Kritschgau did not tell him the entire truth. He offers
Mulder the complete truth, if Mulder leaves the FBI and goes to work
for Cancer Man. Mulder is greatly tempted, but ends up declining.
-
Mulder testifies to
the FBI committee and names Blevins as the FBI mole responsible for
Scully's cancer. Later, in private, another member of the FBI
committee kills Blevins and makes it look like suicide.
-
Cancer Man is shot
through a window, but Skinner tells Mulder that no body was found
and they assume he is dead because so much blood was lost.
-
Dana's cancer goes
into remission, but it is unknown whether this is the result of the
chip or prayer or what.
-
A Biotechnology
firm called Roush is implicated with both Kritschgau and Blevins.
Skinner is seen in the Congressional committee room, listening to
the testimony about human cloning and investigating Roush.
-
Mulder ends the
episode crying in the hallway outside Scully's hospital room, happy
that she is in remission, but frustrated that he is still without
answers.
-
(Note: The
federal personnel computer screen seen in Gethsemane contains an
apparent April date for these events. In Redux, the phone records
show October dates. This Timeline assumes that the April date was
something other than a current date.)
-
October 1997??
-
Detour. En
route to a teamwork seminar, Mulder, Scully and two other agents are
stopped at a law enforcement roadblock in western Florida. Two
members of a surveying team are missing, as well as Michael Asekoff,
who had been hunting with his son, Louis. Tracks indicate they were
attacked by a predator. A local law officer named Michele Fazekas
says she cannot tell if the tracks are human or animal. After his
mother is lured out of the house by another predator, Louis is
chased out of his home by a creature he says is invisible, and has
red eyes.
-
Mulder, Scully,
Michele and Jeff Glaser, who operates infrared tracking equipment,
enter the woods to find the predators. Mulder points out that the
predators attack the strongest, not the weakest. Michele and Jeff
disappear. Two predators try to separate Mulder and Scully. Mulder
is injured by a predator. Scully shoots at it, driving it away. The
FBI agents spend the night in the woods together. They discuss death
and Scully cradles Mulder in her lap to keep him warm and prevent
shock from his injuries. At Mulder's insistence Scully sings to him,
so he will know she is still awake and on guard. "Jeremiah was
a bullfrog...." is the first song she thinks of.
-
In the morning,
Scully falls into a network of underground caves. She finds Michele,
who is barely alive, and several dead people. Mulder joins her in
the cave, a predator attacks, and Scully kills it. It is humanoid
but not human. A search team appears and rescues Mulder and Scully.
-
Michele and Michael
Asekoff are still alive and are transported by ambulance. Mulder
notes they are in the area where the Fountain of Youth was claimed
to be 450 years ago. Whatever these creatures are, they are highly
adapted to their environment, and resent the encroachment of the
surveyors plotting a 100,000 acre development. Mulder believes they
may be humans who drank from the Fountain of Youth and have become
adapted to the environment.
-
It seems that the
Predators are not invisible, but have a chameleon-like ability to
hide in their surroundings. Mulder says he has X-Files dealing with
similar primitive men dating back to 1952. They terrorized Point
Pleasant, West Virginia, for a year 30 years ago, he says, and were
known as the Moth Men.
-
This episode is set
in the Appalachicola National Forest in Leon County, Florida. The
forest stretches across several counties in "western
Florida," in the Florida Panhandle. (No date is given in the
episode. It is clear that it follows the remission of Scully's
cancer. October is a guess, based on Redux also being in October.)
-
November 21, 1997
-
Writer Jose Chung
is killed by a pickaxe through his skull after he is targeted by a
militant religious sect known as the Church of Selfosophy. The
killer is known as the "Nostradamus Nutball," a name
coined by Chung himself. Chung is killed as former FBI agent Frank
Black is chasing another Selfosophist, who had just grazed Chung
with a bullet. (The Millennium episode Jose Chung's "Doomsday
Defense," broadcast on this date.)
-
November 1997????
-
Scully tells Mulder
that doctors have determined that she cannot have children. He tells
her about finding her ova (Momento Mori) and says that he
immediately took them to a specialist, who concluded that they were
not viable. (Per Manum)
-
The sister of
Robert Patrick Modell, Linda, locates the prosecutor who got her
brother convicted, Nathan Bowman. Using her "Pusher"
powers, she causes him to fall in love with her, and they are
married two days later. (Kitsunegari -- Linda said they had been
married for two months.)
-
December 1997??
-
Drug Lord Pico
Salazar escapes from Federal custody. He is the drug cartel's
finance boss.(Kill Switch said this happened three months before the
episode.)
FBI Agent John
Doggett and his friend, prosecuting attorney Martin Wells see each
other for the last time until the incidents of December, 2000. (Redrum)
-
December 1997??
-
The Post-Modern
Prometheus. Mulder
and Scully investigate reports of a woman, Shaineh Berkowitz, who
claims to have seen a monster in her home and become pregnant, in
spite of a tubal ligation. She also reports having heard Cher
singing. The monster is very similar to a comic book character
created by her son, Izzy. Izzy explains that a real monster has been
reported around town. He puts out a peanut butter sandwich as bait,
the "monster" appears, and they give chase. In the woods,
they are stopped by an old farmer who says there is no monster,
except for his son, who is a local research scientist. The scientist,
Dr. Pollidori, tells Mulder and Scully of his ability to manipulate
the genes of fruit flies, but denies that he would ever do such
experiments on humans.
-
Mulder and Scully
discover a house covered, as if for fumigation. Cher is playing on
the stereo. It is Dr. Pollidori's house. His wife is in the bedroom,
unconscious. Is she pregnant, like Mrs. Berkewitz? Mulder and Scully
also pass out from fumes, but the elder Mr. Pollidori, wearing a gas
mask, finds them.
-
They wake up as
much as three days later, with several officials and Dr. Pollidori
present. Later, in private, Dr. Pollidori confronts his father, and
kills him. The "monster" is seen to be a deformed person,
with a large head that has two faces on the skull. In a tender scene,
he finds Mr. Pollidori's body and buries it.
-
Mulder and Scully
trace the chemical that caused the anesthetic fumes to Mr. Pollidori's
farm. While they are there, a mob arrives, lead by Dr. Pollidori,
seeking to find and kill the "Monster." Mulder and Scully
find the young man first, and he addresses the crowd. He was created
in an experiment by Dr. Pollidori and the elder Pollidori rescued
him and acted as his father.
-
Because the boy
could not be seen in public, Mr. Pollidori began learning his
scientist-son's art, and caused several pregnancies in the community
in an effort to create a mate for the deformed boy. None was
suitable, and we see that several people in the crowd display
characteristics similar to farm yard animals -- a woman whose head
jerks around like a chicken, a boy who is chunky like a pig, a man
with a goatee like a goat, etc. The "monster" is a great
fan of Cher because of the movie "Mask" in which she
played the loving mother of a deformed son.
-
The crowd concludes
"he's not a monster." Dr. Pollidori is arrested for murder.
Mulder and Scully take the son to a Cher concert, and end up slow
dancing with each other to "Walkin' in Memphis."
-
In time, Mrs.
Berkewitz and Mrs. Pollidori each have a child with two faces --
meaning Mr. Pollidori's experiments were eventually successful. They
appear on the Jerry Springer Show with the children and proclaim
"what's not to love?"
-
At one point in the
episode, Mulder is asked by Mrs. Berkewitz if he is an expert in
alien abductions. He responds that he is not sure if he believes in
that any more.
-
(The local
newspaper read by the agents in several scenes is "Bloomington
Today" and another publication seen is published by the
University of Indiana Press indicating this episode is set in
Bloomington, Indiana. No date is given, but Christmas decorations
are seen, suggesting that it may be around the time of the actual
broadcast date -- Thanksgiving 1997. No name is given for the
deformed "monster," who is said to have been born 25 years
earlier. The beginning and final scenes appear on-screen as comic
book panels. The appearance of the children on the Jerry Springer
show must be 9+ months in the future. The real question is, did this
episode really happen, or is it all just a comic book story?)
-
(Note: Dr.
Pollidori's name is taken from the real story of the creation of
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Dr. John Polidori, spelled
differently, was Lord Byron's personal physician who was part of the
group that also included Byron Percy Shelly. Each member of the
group agreed to write a ghost story and Frankenstein became by far
the most popular. Polidori, wrote _The Vampyre_. "A
Polidori" is also the term given to a story-telling evening.)
-
December 21, 1997
-
Christmas Carol.
Dana Scully
and her mother travel to the San Diego US Naval Air Station to visit
Bill Scully Jr., and his wife, Tara, who is pregnant. Dana answers a
phone call and believes she hears her dead sister's voice saying
"she needs your help." The call is traced to the Sims
residence, where Roberta Sims has committed suicide. The Sims have a
4 year old daughter, Emily, who Dana learns was adopted. Emily looks
almost exactly like Melissa Scully at age 4. Dana reveals to her
mother that because of her abduction some years earlier, Dana cannot
have children -- something that is bothering her more and more.
-
Dana suspects
murder in the Sims case, and an autopsy shows high levels of a
pain-killing drug in Roberta's system, injected via hypodermic. In a
search of the Sims residence, a needle is found. Dana sees two
mysterious men outside, watching. Tests show a 60% chance that Emily
is Melissa's daughter. Dana orders more extensive tests. She learns
that the Sims have been getting large cash payments from Transgen
Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Calderon there tells her that Emily has a rare
medical condition they have been treating experimentally. That
doctor prescribed the drug found in Mrs. Sims blood to Mr. Sims, who
claimed to have severe headaches. Mr. Sims is arrested for murder,
and Emily is taken into custody by Social Services.
-
In the San Diego
County Jail, Mr. Sims is found dead of an apparent suicide just
after the same two mysterious men, who claimed to be his lawyers,
leave his cell. Dana petitions for custody of Emily, but Social
Services discourages her because of her job and lifestyle. On
Christmas morning, a courier arrives with the results of the more
sophisticated DNA tests on Emily. She is not Melissa's daughter, but
is the daughter of Dana Scully.
-
December 31, 1997
-
Emily. Mulder
arrives in San Diego to help Scully. Emily's birth mother is given
in secret records as "Anna Fugazzi," but there is no trace
of a real person by that name. Mulder testifies for Scully before an
adoption judge. Emily is found in the children's home to have a very
high fever and a green cyst on her neck. When a biopsy is done,
green ooze and gas comes out.
-
Dr. Calderon
declines to deliver her medical records. Mulder visits him, roughs
him up, then follows him to a large house. Two Dark Suited Men there
kill Calderon, whose wound bleeds green ooze. They then morph into
Calderon's appearance and leave. One goes to the hospital and
injects Emily with something green. Mulder eventually returns to the
house, and finds it is a nursing home and finds 71 year old Anna
Fugazzi, and several other elderly women, who has each had a baby in
recent years. Dr. Calderon has been treating them with a
"Beauty Sleep." Mulder finds a human fetus in green
liquid, with Dana Scully's name on the documentation. Kresge meets
Mulder at the house, and they are both attacked by a Dark Suited
Man, who escapes after injuring Kresge. Mulder leaves with a vial of
the green fluid.
-
Emily is very ill,
with a growth in her body. She dies. The Scully family attends a
funeral service a few days later. After the service, Dana opens the
casket to recover her necklace, that she had given Emily to wear.
The body is gone, and filled with sand to give it the appropriate
weight. The necklace is in the sand. The nursing home has been
emptied with the women placed in other homes around the state.
Kresge recovers. Nobody at Transgen knows anything about Dr.
Calderon's work. (Several days apparently pass during this
episode. It has been suggested that for Tara to be walking after the
birth of her son, that a week or two must have passed between the
final scene of Emily in the hospital and her funeral.)
End of this
section of the Timeline
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