The X-Files - 3.

French title: Opération Presse-Papiers
translation: Operation Paperclip

Italian title: Il file da non aprire

US Airdate: September 29, 1995

writer: Chris Carter

director: Rob Bowman

STARRING:

David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:

Victor Klemper ........................ Walter Gotell

Well-Manicured Man .................... John Neville

Albert Hosteen ........................ Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman

Cancer Man ........................... William B. Davis

Frohike ............................... Tom Braidwood

Langly ................................ Dean Haglund

Byers ................................. Bruce Harwood

Margaret Scully ....................... Sheila Larken

Special Agent Alex Krycek ............. Nicholas Lea

Mrs Mulder ............................ Rebecca Toolan

MULDER AND SCULLY FIND AN UGLY TRUTH FROM THE PAST--AND THE PRESENT-- HIDDEN IN AN ABANDONED MINE, WHILE SKINNER AND THE CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN BARGAIN FOR THE AGENTS' LIVES.

Agent Scully and Assistant Director Walter Skinner, deadlocked in an armed stalemate, are equally shocked when Mulder, whom they thought dead, stumbles into their midst. Skinner reveals that he has the missing DAT tape given to Mulder by The Thinker, and offers to bargain for their return to the FBI. The Cigarette-Smoking Man reassures the Well-Manicured Man and his cronies that Mulder is dead, but the Well-Manicured Man demands the tape. The Lone Gunmen help Mulder and Scully find an ex-Nazi scientist who claims to have known Mulder's father. He directs them to an abandoned mine where they find a vast filing system containing detailed medical records on millions of people--including Dana Scully and Samantha Mulder. The Well-Manicured Man, alerted by the Nazi scientist to the fact that Mulder is alive, despatches a hit squad. Before they arrive, Mulder witnesses the takeoff of a craft unlike any on earth, and Scully sees a crowd of what may be aliens rushing past her. They follow the aliens out a secret exit, escaping the Well- Manicured Man's trap. They agree to Skinner's offer to negotiate a deal for their safety, but when Skinner stops at the hospital where Melissa Scully is lying in a coma, Alex Krycek ambushes him and steals the tape. Deception piles on double-cross as events build to a tense confrontation between Skinner and the Cigarette-Smoking Man. The latter, knowing Skinner has no tape with which to barter, sneers at his offer, until Skinner reveals the ingenious means by which the contents of the tape have been shared and secured. Finally, in a poignant moment at Melissa Scully's bedside, Mulder and Scully share a reaffirmation of their faith in one another and their quest for the truth. Part 3 of 3.

Mulder's birthday is shown as 10/13/61, the same month and day as Chris Carter.

Samantha Mulder's birthday is shown as 11/21/64, the same month and day as Chris Carter's wife.

"In Memoriam. Mario Mark Kennedy. 1966-1995." Mario was an xphile who organized AOL discussion sessions and he died after being hit by a car.

Personal notes: From the opening scene with the lightning storm, right through to the scenes in the warehouse, this is a gorgeously shot episode and hats must go off again to the art direction team. Even the episodes you may not care for must be seen through the eye of the directors and as of right now, nothing on TV looks as beautiful as this series.

If anyone ever dares to ask you why Krycek is hated by our heros, just pop this one in the VCR, especially the scene where Krycek beats the crap out of poor Skinner as he steals the tape. After the last shot in the face, Krycek even has to shake the feeling back into his hand, he hit him so hard! Ratboy indeed!

So, in the end, what's the deal? Are we all catalogued in some warehouse, tissue samples just waiting to be tested with alien tissue? Did Mulder see a UFO? And what the heck did Scully see in those tunnels?! I leave it to others to debate and gnash teeth over the unanswered questions and plot-holes in this series. As long as Chris Carter and company promise to wrap this all up in the final episode, I'll be here watching every week.

Mulder: "Your Cigarette Smoking friend killed my father for this tape. Then he killed me."

Skinner: "What are you talking about?"

Mulder: "I was a dead man. Now I'm back."

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Mulder: "There are truths out there that aren't on that tape."

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Scully: (smiles warmly) "Mulder I...:

Mulder: "Scully whatever you're gonna say.."

Scully: "I went to your father's funeral...and I told your mother that you were gonna be okay."

Mulder: "How did you know?"

Scully: "I just knew."

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(looking at a picture of Mulder's dad and a group of allegedly nasty Nazis)

Byers: "Using his 'scientific' data on the effects of high altitude flying, we were able to put astronauts on the moon before the Soviets."

Langly: "One giant step for mankind..."

Scully: (to Mulder) "What would he be doing in a photo with your father?"

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Scully: "Whatever happened to Klemper?"

Langly: "He's still here. Living very well at the expense of the American taxpayer."

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Frohike: "Unbelievable! We thought you were history!" (big hug for his old friend)

Mulder: "You're gonna have to wait a little bit longer for my video collection, Frohike."

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Well-Manicured Man: "This is not a profession for men who make mistakes. My God, you presume to make us believe and simply fix it with enough bullets?"

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Klemper: "I'm an old man now, history bores me."

Scully: "Because it escaped you? Or because you escaped it?"

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Scully: [to Klemper] "History may be the only justice you'll ever know."

Klemper: "Do you know my work? Do you know what we accomplished?"

Scully: "As a Nazi or for the blood money we paid you?"

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(re: his father and showing Klemper the pic)

Mulder: "You knew him! Was he a murderer too?"

Klemper: "There are some things you don't have to know."

Mulder: "No, I need to know, I need to know the truth! Isn't that what *you* want? For the truth to be known?"

Klemper: "Do you know the formula of Napier's Constant?"

Scully: "Yes."

Klemper: "The photo was taken at the Strughold Mining Company in West Virginia, and that is *all* I will tell you, the rest you will find out yourselves."

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(re: Mulder's visit)

Well-Manicured Man: "What did you tell him, Victor?"

Klemper: "I told him that you were the most venal man I ever met." (venal means corrupt)

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(inside the "abandoned" mining company)

Scully: "What do you think your father would have been doing here?"

Mulder: "I dunno... but he never came home wearing a miner's cap."

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Scully: "What do you think?"

Mulder: "I'd like to try door number one, Monty."

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Mulder: "I think with a crow bar and a small nuclear device it might be able to get through one of these things."

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(the classic quote for our duo, as they gaze upon miles of files)

Mulder: "Lots of files."

Scully: "Lots and *lots* of files!"

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Scully: "You're looking for a file on ME?"

Mulder: (reading from file) "Scully, Dana Katherine."

Scully: "What?!"

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File reads:

SCULLY, Dana Katherine

3170 W. 53 Road

Indianapolis, Maryland

Small pox vaccination number 29510

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Scully: "That's your sister's file?"

Mulder: "Yeah."

Scully: "What are you looking for?"

Mulder: "I don't know." (scanning through papers, stops and looks at the file ID sticker)

SUBJECT NAME: MULDER, Samantha Ann

BIRTH DATE: 11/21/65 ID 378671

"Take a look at this Scully..." (peels off Samantha's name to reveal his own name)

SUBJECT NAME: MULDER, Fox William

BIRTH DATE: 10/13/61 ID 292544

"...this file was originally mine!"

Scully: "I don't understand.." (the lights go out)

Mulder: "Wait here Scully." (he runs out on her to go watch a UFO!)

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(meeting in a dusty cafe Somewhere...)

Skinner: "This place isn't even on the map, how'd you get here?"

Mulder: "You'd be surprised what's not on the map in this country. And what our government will do to keep it that way."

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(re: a deal to turn over the tape in exchange for their freedom)

Scully: (to Mulder) "I want exactly what you want! But I need to see my sister..."

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Mulder: "They took my sister, why?"

Well-Manicured Man : "They took her as insurance, because your father threatened to expose the Project."

Mulder: "Why her? Why not me?"

Well-Manicured Man: "It's not for me to say, but, *your* life is in danger now too. You also threatened to expose the Project, you've become your father."

Mulder: "Why are you telling me this?"

Well-Manicured Man: "It's what you want to know ... isn't it?" (walks away)

Mulder: "Is there more?"

Well-Manicured Man: "More than you'll ever know."

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(on the phone, Krycek has survived a car bomb, Cancer Man can't really talk as he's with the Well-Manicured Man and the group)

Krycek: "I'm alive...isn't *that* a surprise?"

Cancer Man: "Yes..good, good, good, where are you?"

Krycek: "Somewhere that you'll never find me, you double-crossing son of a bitch!"

Cancer Man: "Are you sure?"

Krycek: "I'm sure of it....if I so much as feel your presence, I'm gonna make you a very, very famous man. Do you understand?"

Cancer Man: "Yes, thank you, I'm going to report that to the group."

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Mulder: (to his mother) "Did he make you make a choice?"

Mrs. Mulder: "No, I couldn't choose. It was your father's choice.....and I hated him for it.....even in his grave, I hate him still."

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Cancer Man: "What did I tell you, Mr. Skinner. I don't negotiate. Especially with punks like you who think they can bluff me."

Skinner: "Bluff you?"

Cancer Man: "You haven't got any tape, you haven't got any deal...you can't play poker if you haven't got any cards Mr. Skinner. You ever wonder what it would be like to...die in a plane crash, of bocholism, even a heart attack's not uncommon for a man your age. You're bluffing." (starts to leave)

Skinner: "I'm not finshed yet. (walks to door, opens to show Albert as he walks out) .... Albert?"

Albert: (says something in Navajo)

Cancer Man: "What is this?"

Skinner: "This is where you pucker up and kiss my ass !"

Cancer Man: "Now listen to me..."

Skinner: "No, you listen to me, you son of a bitch!"

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Skinner: "I'm sure you're thinking, Albert's an old man and there are plenty of ways that you might kill him too. Which is why in the ancient oral tradition of his people he's told 20 other men the information on those files. So unless you kill every Navajo living in four states, that information is available with a simple phone call. Welcome to the wonderful world of high technology."

Cancer Man: "You're bluffing."

Skinner: "Am I?"

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(Melissa has died, Mulder and Scully talk by her bedside)

Scully: (crying) "She died for me and I tried to tell her I was sorry but I don't think that she'll ever really know"

Mulder: "She knows. Melissa knows."

Scully: "You were right, there is no justice."

Mulder: "I don't think this is about justice Scully."

Scully: "Then what is it about?"

Mulder: "I think it's about something we have no personal choice in. I think it's about Fate. (pause) Skinner told me that he talked to you, that you were insistant on coming back to work. And that Melissa's death is..."

Scully: "I need something to put my back against."

Mulder: "I feel the same way. We've both lost so much. But I believe that what we're looking for is in the xfiles, and more certain than ever that the truth is in there."