The X-Files - 3.

French title: Anagramme
translation: Anagram

Italian title: Master Plan

US Airdate: May 17, 1996

Teleplay by: Chris Carter

Story by: David Duchovny and Chris Carter

director: R.W. Goodwin

STARRING:

David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:

HROTHGAR MATHEWS as Galen

ROY THINNES as Jeremiah Smith

ANGELO VACCO as the door man

STEPHEN DIMOPOULOS as the detective

MITCH PILEGGI as Assistant Director Walter Skinner

WILLIAM B. DAVIS as The Cigarette-Smoking Man

STEVEN WILLIAMS as X

BONNIE HAY as the Night Nurse

BRIAN BARRY as the Last Man

ROSS CLARKE as Pleasant Man

MULDER AND SCULLY'S SEARCH FOR A MAN WHO CAN HEAL WITH A TOUCH IS MADE MORE URGENT BY THE APPARENT INVOLVEMENT OF SOMEONE VERY CLOSE TO MULDER.

A deranged man goes postal in a restaurant with a handgun, shooting several victims before he is himself shot by a SWAT team. But a serene and gentle man speaks soothingly to him, heals him and all the shooting victims with a touch of his hand,and then disappears from in front of a police detective while he is being questioned. Mulder starts a full-scale search for this elusive "Jeremiah Smith", racing the Cigarette-Smoking Man to find a wonder worker. The investigation is hampered by the re-appearance of the Alien Assassin we saw in "Colony " and "End Game", who is also looking for Jeremiah Smith. As Scully searches Social Security files and finds a myriad of Jeremiah Smiths, Mulder hastens to the bedside of his stricken mother, whose last conversation appears to have been with The Cigarette-Smoking Man. Alerted by his mother to a secret hidden in an old vacation home, Mulder finds evidence that she has known more than she is telling for a long, long time. A battle between Mulder and X, a metaphysical dialogue between The Cigarette-Smoking Man and the real Jeremiah Smith, and hints that some deadline fast approaches us leaves Mulder facing a deadly warrior from another world, and Scully caught between two mysteries...

When Mulder visits his mother in the hospital, the time at the bottom of the screen is 11:21PM (Chris Carter's wife's birthday)

When Scully finds the multiple pictures for Mr. Smith on her computer, the time at the bottom of the screen is 11:21PM (not the same day as the above entry).

Other than the concerns about what the rest of the conversation tells us, when Cancer Man tells Mrs. Mulder that he's a good waterskier it's a reference to the actor himself, William B. Davis, as he is one of Canada's top waterskiers in the 55 - 65 age group.

About this ep, Chris Carter says, "That is really a summation of my feelings about science. That it has definately usurped religion and can explain everything now." And about the scene between Cancer Man and Smith: "His speech was greatly inspired by 'The Grand Inquisitor ' chapter of "The Brothers Karamazov", where the Inquisitor imprisons Christ and won't let him speak."

Personal notes: What a way to end the season! Cancer Man and Mrs. Mulder?! What's up with that?! Those of us xphiles online that summer spent countless hours debating that one conversation between these two characters....and we're still at it!

Cancer Man: "It struck me as I was sitting here."

Mrs. Mulder: "What?"

Cancer Man: "Everything changes but the sea."

Mrs. Mulder: "What do you want from me?"

Cancer Man: "I thought we might at least allow ourselves to reminisce."

Mrs. Mulder: "I have nothing to say to you."

Cancer Man: "Really? We used to have so much to say to each other, so many good times at the Mulder's summer place. (smiling) Your kids.. young and energetic. I remember water-skiing down there with Bill. He was a good water-skier your husband, not as good as I was but then that could be said about so many things...couldn't it?"

Mrs. Mulder: "I've repressed it all."

Cancer Man: "Well, I find that hard to believe, particularly since I came here today to ask you to remember something. Something I'm gonna have to ask you to try very hard to recollect."

____________________________________________________________

Mr. X: "He was here with her."

Mulder: "What?"

Mr. X: "With your mother, the Cancer Man."

____________________________________________________________

Cancer Man: "This becomes a responsibility. The thing I am now called upon to put right and put down. Certainly you expected nothing less."

Smith: "I'm not ashamed of my actions."

Cancer Man: "Ashamed? You're not allowed the luxury of human weakness in penitence. You're not allowed to put your indulgences ahead of the greater purpose."

Smith: "I no longer believe in the greater purpose."

Cancer Man: "Then your fate is just."

Smith: "My justice is not for you to mete out. You may have reasons, you have no right, you have no means."

Cancer Man: "You presume to dictate duty to *me*? Have you any idea what the cost of your action is? What their affect might be? Who are you to give them hope?"

Smith: "What do you give them?"

Cancer Man: "We give them happiness, and they give us authority."

Smith: "The authority to take away their freedom in the guise of democracy."

Cancer Man: "Men can never be free, because they're weak, corrupt, worthless and restless. The people believe in authority, they've grown tired of waiting for miracle or mystery. Science is their religion, no greater explanation exists for them. They must never believe any differently if the project is to go forward."

Smith: "At what cost to them?"

Cancer Man: "The question is irrelevant, and the outcome inevitable, the date is set."

Smith: (morphs into Deep Throat and freaks out Cancer Man) "At what cost to them for your own selfish benefit? How many must die at your hand to preserve your stake in the project?"

Cancer Man: (stands up and pounds on the door) "I'm not impressed by your miracles or moved by your trickery. Your justice will be meted out."

Smith: "By whom this time, and by what tool?"

Cancer Man: "By those who possess the tool of your destruction."

____________________________________________________________

Mulder: "I want The Smoking Man smoked out, I want him exposed for the murdering sonuvabitch that he is!"

Skinner: "What's your problem Mulder?"

Scully: "Where have you been?"

Mulder: "To our summer house, he was there with my mother. (shows them the pictures) He's the reason for what happened to her."

Skinner: "Where did you get these?"

Skinner: "I don't know his name."

Mulder: "You know how to get it."

Skinner: "These men don't have names."

Mulder: "Well then you tell me how to find him."

Skinner: "Agent Mulder, there was a time when I might have been able to tell you, but that time is passed."

____________________________________________________________

Cancer Man: "It's only a matter of time now."

Smith: "You put me in a cage, within a cage, why are you so afraid of me?"

Cancer Man: "I'm not."

Smith: "Yes you are, you *live* in your fear, that's your whole life."

Cancer Man: "You don't know anything about me."

Smith: "I know everything about you. You think the miracles I perform..are the extent of my power."

Cancer Man: "You think you're God. You're a drone, a cataloguer, chattel!"

Smith: "What you're afraid of is.. *they'll* believe I'm God."

Cancer Man: "It doesn't matter, most of them have ceased to believe in God."

Smith: "Why?"

Cancer Man: "Because God presents them with no miracles to earn their faith."

Smith: "You think when man ceases to believe in miracles, he rejects God?"

Cancer Man: "Of course."

Smith: "You rule over them in God's name."

Cancer Man: "They don't believe in Him but they still fear Him. They're afraid not to because they're afraid of freedom."

Smith: "And you give them happiness."

Cancer Man: "We appease their conscience, anyone who can appease a man's conscience can take his freedom away from him." (looks down as he steps on one of his cigarettes, he looks up)

Smith: (who has morphed into Bill Mulder) "And if you can't appease their conscience, you kill 'em but you can't kill em all. You can't kill their love, which is what makes them who they are, makes them better than us, better than you."

Cancer Man: "You talk, I'm not one of you."

Smith: "No. All you want is to be part of it, is to be one of the commandants, when the process begins. (morphs back to himself) But you are wrong."

Cancer Man: "Oh, am I?"

Smith: "Yes, you are dying of lung cancer."

Cancer Man: "It's a lie."

Smith: "You think it's a lie?"

Cancer Man: "You wanna save your life."

Smith: "And you?"

____________________________________________________________

(Mulder sees Cancer Man outside his mother's hospital room, runs over to him, shoves him against the wall, sticks his gun in his face)

Mulder: "You gonna smoke that? Or you wanna smoke on this?"

Cancer Man: "Are you giving me a choice?"

Mulder: "I should shoot you right here, but they probably would be able to save you."

Cancer Man: "Do it, do it Agent Mulder."

Mulder: "Or maybe shoot a bullet through your brain so you'd be bedridden on a bed for the rest of your life."

Cancer Man: "How is she?"

Mulder: "What do you care?"

Cancer Man: "I've known your mother since before you were born, Fox."

Mulder: "I don't care."

Cancer Man: "I've gone to see her recently."

Mulder: "And I know what you are looking for."

Cancer Man: "I wasn't looking for anything. It's what she was looking for actually. She contacted me."

Mulder: "Liar!"

Cancer Man: "I had information, possibly..on the whereabouts of your sister."

Mulder: "Where is she? Where is she?"

Cancer Man: "It seems the..the man who has the information has disappeared."

Mulder: "I have what you want."

Cancer Man: "There's nothing I want Agent Mulder, except to see how your mother's doing."

____________________________________________________________