A YOUNG FBI AGENT IS ASSIGNED WATCHDOG DUTY OVER A FELLOW AGENT, BUT FINDS HERSELF
DRAWN INTO HIS INVESTIGATIONS OF PARANORMAL AND UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA.
A young woman is found dead of no discernible cause in a forest in Oregon, the fourth
member of her high school class to die this way. Agent Dana Scully is assigned to assist
Agent Fox Mulder in his investigation of this and other unexplainable cases, labeled by
the FBI as "X-Files." Although Mulder believes in extraterrestrial abductions,
UFOs and the paranormal, Scully believes in nothing not upheld by science and scoffs at
his theory that the dead girl and her friends may have been involved in an alien
abduction. She is surprised, then, when the coffin of an earlier victim turns out to hold
a bizarrely deformed, nonhuman body. As Mulder opens up to her, revealing that his younger
sister was abducted when they were children, she begins to understand his pressing need to
find the truth. A suspicious fire, the disappearance of the exhumed body and a desperate
plea for help from the uncooperative coroner's daughter convinces Scully that local law
enforcement is hiding some dangerous secret. Together, Mulder and Scully determine that
the sheriff's comatose son is behind the mystery, a theory that leads them to an armed
confrontation, a headlong chase through deep woods and a midnight epiphany.
Notes
The first appearance of the number 1121 (Chris Carter's
wife's birthdate 11/21) as the time on Scully's clock at the end of the episode. Let's get
this out of the way, Ten Thirteen Productions, Chris Carter's production company, is a
reference to his own birthdate of 10/13. "I made this" - The words spoken at the
end of every episode, are the voice of Nathan Couturier, the son of the supervising sound
editor, Thierry Couturier. This episode takes place in Bellfleur, Oregon, and Chris Carter
was born in Bellflower, California.
Quotes
FBI Man: "Are you familiar with an agent named Fox Mulder?"
Scully: "Yes I am."
FBI Man: "How so?"
Scully: "By reputation. He's an Oxford educated Psychologist, who wrote a
monograph on serial
killers and the occult, that helped to catch Monty Props in 1988. Generally thought of
as
the best analyst in the violent crimes section. He had a nickname at the
academy,...Spooky Mulder." (she smiles at the smoking man, Cancer Man as we will
later
know him, gets no reaction)
Blevins: "What I'll also tell you is that Agent Mulder has developed a consuming
devotion to an unassigned project outside the bureau mainstream. Are you familiar with the
so-called X-Files?"
Scully: "I believe they have to do with unexplained phenomena."
Blevins: "More or less. The reason you're here Agent Scully is we want you to
assist Mulder on these X-files. You'll write field reports on your activites, along with
your observations on the validity of the work."
Scully: "Am I to understand that you want me to debunk the X-Files project,
sir?"
Blevins: "Agent Scully, we trust you'll make the proper scientific analysis.
You'll want to contact
Agent Mulder shortly, we look forward to seeing your reports."
Mulder: "Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted."
Scully: "Agent Mulder? I'm Dana Scully. I've been assigned to work with you."
Mulder: "Oh, isn't it nice to be suddenly so highly regarded? So, who did you tick
off to get stuck
with this detail, Scully?"
Scully: "Actually, I'm looking forward to working with you. I've heard a lot about
you."
Mulder: "Oh really? I was under the impression that you were sent to spy on
me."
Scully: "If you have any doubt about my qualifications or credentials th..."
Mulder: "You're a medical doctor, you teach at the academy, (Mulder takes out a
folder from one on the trays on the desk) you did your undergraduate degree in physics,
"Einstein's twin paradox - A new interpretation" Dana Scully senior thesis. Now
that's a credential, rewriting Einstein."
Scully: "Did you bother to read it?"
Mulder: "I did. I liked it. It's just that in most of my work, the laws of physics
rarely seem to apply."
Mulder: "I have plenty of theories. Maybe what you can explain to me why it's
bureau policy to label these cases as unexplained phenomenon and ignore them. Do you
believe in the existence of extra-terrestrials?"
Scully: "What I find fantastic is any notion that there are answers beyond the
realm of science. The answers are there...you just have to know where to look."
Mulder: "I've arranged to exume one of the other victim's bodies to see if we can
get a tissue sample to match the girl's.You aren't squeamish about that sort of thing, are
you Scully?"
Scully: "I don't know. I've never had the pleasure."
Scully: "Distinguishing features include large ocular cavities, oblique
cranium...indicate subject is not human. Would you point that flash away from me,
please?"
Scully: "Dammit Mulder, cut the crap. What is going on here? What do you know
about those marks? What are they?"
Mulder: "Why? So you can put it down in your little report. I don't think you're
ready for what I think."
Scully: "I'm here to solve this case Mulder, I want the truth."
Mulder: "The truth. I think those kids have been abducted."
Scully: "By who?"
Mulder: "By *what*?"
Scully: "You don't really believe that?"
Mulder: "Do you have a better explanation?"
Scully: "I'll buy that girl is suffering some kind of pronounced psychosis whether
it's organic or the result of those marks, I can't say. But to say that they've been
riding around in flying saucers, it's crazy Mulder, there is nothing to support
that."
Scully: "What are you looking for? (a bright light suddenly covers the car, both
Mulder and Scully try to avert their eyes from it. The car goes dead and comes to a
standstill) What happened?"
Mulder: (tries to start car) "We lost power, brakes, steering, everything. (looks
at his watch) We lost nine minutes. (he gets out of the car) Waaaooo!"
Scully: (gets out of car) "We lost what?"
Mulder: "Nine minutes. I looked at my watch just before the flash and it was
nine-o-three. It just turned nine-thirteen. (Mulder walks along the road in front of the
car and discovers the X he sprayed on the road a few days earlier) Look! Look! Ohoo, yes.
Abductees, people who have made UFO sightings, they have reported unexplained time
loss."
Scully: "Come on."
Mulder: "GONE. Just like that."
Scully: "No, wait a minute. You're saying that, that time disappeared. Time can't
just disappear, it's, it's, it's a universal invariance." (the car's engine restarts
and the headlights come on)
Mulder: "I was twelve when it happened. My sister was eight. She just disappeared
out of her bed one night. Just gone, vanished, no note, no phone calls, no evidence of
anything."
Scully: "You never found her."
Mulder: "Tore the family apart. No one would talk about it. There were no facts to
confirm, nothing to offer any hope."
The notes blatted skyward as they rose over the Canada geese, feathered
rumps mooning the day, webbed appendages frantically pedaling unseen
bicycles in their search for sustenance, driven by cruel Nature's maxim,
'Ya wanna eat, ya gotta work,' and at last I knew Pittsburgh. Winning sentence, 1987 Bulwer-Lytton bad fiction contest.