The X-Files - 4.

French title: L'Homme Invisible
translation: The Invisible Man

US Airdate: February 23, 1997

writers: Howard Gordon and Chris Carter

director: Michael Lange

STARRING:

David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:

MITCH PILEGGI as A.D. Skinner

SCOTT HYLANDS as General Benjamin Bloch

PETER LACROIX as Nathaniel Teager

RYAN MICHAEL as Agent Cameron Hill

DON MCWILLIAMS as P.F.C. Gus Burkholder

BILL AGNEW as Lt. General Peter MacDougal

MARK HOLDEN as Agent Eugene Chandler

LARRY MUSSER as Denny Markham

LESLEY EWEN as Renee Davenport

ALLAN FRANZ as Dr. Ben Keyser

WILLIAM NUNN as General Jon Steffan

WILLIAM TAYLOR as General Leitch

JEN JASEY as Female Private

LAURIE HOLDEN as Marita Covarrubias

A SEEMINGLY INVISIBLE VIETNAM VET BEGINS KILLING THE MILITARY'S TOP BRASS.

A crowd gathers at the U.S. Capitol Mall, near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. As the re-dedication ceremony begins, General Benjamin Bloch steps up to a podium and delivers his speech. A short distance away, Mulder, Scully and other FBI agents feverishly hunt down an armed man making his way through the crowd. When Mulder attempts to focus on the suspect, he seemingly vanishes. As the story unfolds in flashback, Lieutenant General Peter MacDougal is gunned down at close range in the back seat of a limousine, a Death Card at his side. Though the murder weapon is never located, the General's driver, who has ties to a radical paramilitary group called the Right Hand, is held on suspicion of murder. But the driver, who maintains his innocence, passes a polygraph test, and lab tests reveal he did not fire a weapon. With dozens of high-ranking military officials arriving in Washington for the re-dedication ceremony, Skinner assigns his agents to investigate the Right Hand movement, and its leader, an ex- Marine named Denny Markham. Markham gives the FBI a photograph of a man named Nathaniel Teager, a Green Beret captured by the enemy in 1971. Markham's group liberated Teager from a POW camp in 1995. When U.S. government commandos attempted to kidnap Teager, he suddenly disappeared. Scully suspects Markham's story is a cover-up for an elaborately orchestrated conspiracy plan. Meanwhile, Teager approaches a woman, Renee Davenport, as she views the Memorial. He informs Davenport her husband is still alive and gives her his dog tags as proof. Suddenly, Teager disappears.

Davenport positively identifies Teager as the man she saw at the memorial. Scully takes Davenport to an ophthalmologist when her eye hemorrhages. She is diagnosed with a floating blind spot-but the cause is undetermined.

Mulder learns that MacDougal was one of the original military officials who signed Teager's death certificate (even though forensic evidence was inconclusive). Mulder assigns two FBI agents to guard General Steffan, one of MacDougal's counterparts (who also signed the certificate). But Teager slips by the agents and murders Steffan.

A security camera captured Teager's image passing through a metal detector at the Pentagon. Skinner is outraged. Mulder tells Skinner that Teager has the ability to hide himself from a person's field of vision. He notes that, during the war, U.S. soldiers reported that Viet Cong guerrillas had the ability to appear and disappear at will. He speculates that Teager learned this trick during his 25 years in the POW camp.

Mulder believes the only way to stop Teager is to find his next victim. Marita Covarrubias tells Mulder that MacDougal, Steffan and a third general headed a secret three-man commission that covertly disposed of South Vietnamese soldiers who cooperated with the U.S. government during the war. Covarrubias reveals that testimony from the generals could have been used in the calculation of reparations. Mulder realizes the government wanted the generals dead all along. Covarrubias gives him the name of the third general: Bloch.

Bloch is rushed from the podium at the re-dedication after the agents spot Teager in the crowd. Skinner escorts Bloch toward an awaiting limo. Mulder, however, realizes Teager is hiding inside. Skinner tackles Bloch moments before gunshots flash from inside the limo. Teager puts the limo in gear and attempts to make a getaway. Agent Hill opens fire, killing him.

"Millennium" viewers also had a sense of deja vu with the "death cards" that Teager handed out, as a very similar card was used in a recent ep. For those who don't know, both shows are being overseen by Chris Carter.

For what it's worth, this is not a Hollywood screen writers device, but supposedly based on fact. I can't confirm, having never been to Vietnam myself, but fans of the movie "Apocalypse Now" report seeing these same cards used. Maybe an actual vet can confirm their existence.

My own personal problems with this ep start with the plotline. Remember "Sleepless"? Same main writer, Howard Gordon, and same damn plot. It's hard to believe that the writers are running out of ideas, but this season seems to confirm our worst fears. The inkwell's running dry.

Another major problem stems from the fact that Skinner, a Vietnam vet, and Scully, a Navy brat, didn't seem to have anything to do with the plotline at all! Where's the Skinner angst? Sure, we have the last few minutes of the ep, with Mulder finally mentioning that the POW could have been Skinner, but what a waste of a good storyline. And Scully seemed to be used as merely window dressing, as was Mulder. Good people wasted.

Teager can be seen on video huh? So why didn't they have the rally absolutely covered by high-tech video equipment to be sure and catch him?! Details, schme-tails.

I've been willing to give this new informer, Marita, a chance, hoping she would turn out to be either a plant by Cancer Man, wouldn't that be fun, or even an actual informant, but nope. Once again she shows up, hands over useless info and disappears. Yawn. But hey, at least she wore an incredibly short skirt to keep the male fans awake.

As a matter of interest, the official site didn't even bother listing her in the credits, I added that myself. See how useless she is? :-)

Fans such as myself that devour every detail of the series probably would notice that Scully's cancer hasn't been mentioned for a couple of eps, but that the eps shown have been set "before" the cancer ep. BUT, to the casual viewer, it's got to be unnerving. Looky, Scully has the big C! Oh, now she doesn't? Wow, what a quick cure! Details...

As you may be able to tell from my tone, and the lack of quotes, I was not impressed by this one. I taped it, as I do every single one, but I admit, I switched over to "Schindler's List". I wonder how many others did too. I'm not losing faith though, I'm a stubborn fan.

Scully: "Was that for the benefit of the general, or have you been able to develop a real strategy?"

Skinner: "Right now, I'm flying by the seat of my pants."

Mulder: "You mean there's no procedure outlined for an invisible assassin?"

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Mulder: "Well, that might account for Teager's vanishing..."

Scully: "I asked the doctor that, and he laughed at me."

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Skinner: "If he's invisible, then why is he on this video as clear as day?"

Mulder: "I think that he can hide himself from human sight by manipulating something that Scully has referred as naturally occurring; a blind spot."

Scully: "That is conjecture, sir."

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Skinner: "We've got it out to local law enforcement, but not to the exclusion of the other suspects."

Mulder: "I thought she IDed Teager."

Skinner: "She did, but I cannot authorize or promote a strategy here that is going to target a soldier who is officially dead."

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Mulder: "That's the closest thing to an explanation that we've got."

Scully: "Or it's just a clever story being proffered as a cover-up for what is actually an elaborately orchestrated conspiracy."

Mulder: "Well, there is that possibility, too."

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Scully: "Shooter! Get down!"

Skinner: "Where? Where is he?"

Scully: "There! I saw him. It was him, sir, it was the man in the photo!"

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Skinner: "I've already seen more dead soldiers than I ever want to see."

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Mulder: "You heard him. We both did. It's happening again. They're covering lies with more lies. We've got to subpoena Markham and General Bloch and petition the State Department to release Teager's body."

Skinner: "I can't do that."

Mulder: "Why not?"

Skinner: "This investigation's been turned over to C.I.D."

Mulder: "Don't let them do it."

Skinner: "Let it go -- you did your job."

Mulder: "So did Nathaniel Teager."

Skinner: "You found him, but now he's dead. It's over."

Mulder: "Is that what you believe? Is that what you really believe? They are not just denying this man's life; they're denying his death. And with all due respect, sir, he could be you."