Schwicky.net - The X-Files

Demons

4.23 Demons

German title: Dämonen
translation: Demons

French title: Crime de mémoire
translation: A Crime of Memory

US Airdate: May 11, 1997

writer: R.W. Goodwin

director: Kim Manners

(Mulder sees his sister Samantha.)

SAMANTHA: Fox! Wake up. Fox!

MULDER: Samantha?

SAMANTHA: Shh. They'll hear you.

(They are in the loft of a cottage and look down to see their parents arguing. Mrs. Mulder is sitting on a sofa, crying, while Mr. Mulder attempts to talk to her. She pushes him away.)

MRS. MULDER: No! My baby!

SAMANTHA: I'm afraid, Fox. I'm afraid.

</FLASHBACK>

(Mulder awakens on the floor in a sweat. He slowly rises and sits on a bed. As he tries to clear his head, he notices a large blood stain on his shirt.)

(Scully's telephone rings. It is 4:50. She awakens and answers.)

SCULLY: Hello?

MULDER: Scully.

SCULLY: Mulder, what time is it?

MULDER: I don't know.

SCULLY: It's almost 5:00 AM. Is something wrong?

MULDER: I think so.

SCULLY: Where are you?

(Mulder looks at a motel key that says Hansen's Motel, room 6, Providence RI.)

MULDER: I think I'm in a... a motel room in Providence, but...

SCULLY: Where?

MULDER: Rhode Island.

SCULLY: What are you doing there?

MULDER: I don't know. There's... t-there's blood all over me.

SCULLY: Are you hurt, Mulder?

MULDER: I don't think so. I don't think it's my blood.

ACT I

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND APRIL 12 6:15 AM

(Scully drives into the motel parking lot, tires squealing. She knocks on the door to room 6.)

SCULLY: Mulder? (opening the door) Mulder? (she hears the water running in the bathroom and approaches the door) Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah?

SCULLY: You okay?

MULDER: I can't get warm.

(She opens the shower curtain to find Mulder sitting naked, shivering, in the tub under a hot shower.)

SCULLY: You're in shock. (she turns off the water and hands him a towel) Dry yourself off. I'll get you a blanket.

(Mulder comes out of the bathroom wearing a towel around his waist. Scully throws a blanket over his shoulders.)

SCULLY: Do you feel sick? Nauseous or dizzy?

(He sits on the edge of the bed and Scully feels his forehead and checks his pupils.)

MULDER: N-no, but I, uh... I woke up on the floor with a pounding headache.

SCULLY: Were you here alone?

MULDER: I think so. I don't know. I don't remember anything.

SCULLY: Track my finger. (he does) Do you know what day it is?

MULDER: Uh... No, what day is it?

SCULLY: It's Sunday. What's the last thing that you remember?>

MULDER: I was in my apartment. I talked to you on the phone.

SCULLY: That was Friday.

MULDER: I've been here since Friday?

SCULLY: I don't know, but you packed a bag. There's a change of clothes in there. Do you feel any pain? Did you receive a blow to your head?

MULDER: No. No.

SCULLY: Did you take anything, Mulder?

MULDER: No. No.

(She picks up the bloody shirt.)

SCULLY: Are you sure you didn't cut yourself?

MULDER: Yeah.

SCULLY: Where's your weapon?

MULDER: I don't know.

(She finds his weapon in his overnight bag and checks the clip.)

SCULLY: Two rounds have been fired.

MULDER: I don't remember that.

(She kneels in front of him.)

SCULLY: Mulder, I need to get you to a hospital. You have to be examined by a neurologist. You have had a serious cerebral event. It could be a viral infection, or possibly the early stages of encephalitis.

MULDER: If there was a crime committed, I need to know what happened.

SCULLY: Mulder, the first thing that you need to do, is to take care of yourself. (he stands and walks across the room) Mulder, listen to me. We are going to figure this out, but first, we have to determine the cause. You cannot take something like this lightly. If this is an aneurysm, it could drop you in a second.

MULDER: (picking up some keys) Are these your keys?

SCULLY: No.

(The key ring has "AMY" engraved on it.)

(Mulder steps out of the room as Scully returns from the motel office.)

SCULLY: You checked in alone around noon on Saturday. The manager's got no record of any phone calls made from the room. No visitors.

MULDER: Well, then, how did I get here?

SCULLY: You drove. He's got a license number of a car registered.

(She walks to a car parked near the room. Through the window, she sees blood stains on the steering wheel.)

SCULLY: Do you have those keys you found in your room?

MULDER: That's not my car.

SCULLY: There's blood on the steering wheel, Mulder.

(He steps back into the room to get the keys. Later, Scully is pulling a registration from the glove compartment. The registration reads "David Cassandra, 3106 Quilchena Avenue, Providence, R.I.")

SCULLY: Car's registered under a David Cassandra. The address is right here in Providence.

MULDER: Who's Amy?

SCULLY: That's what I'm gonna find out, Mulder, but first, I'm gonna check you out, because you have no business even walking around here.

MULDER: No, Scully. If I've shot someone, if my weapon's been used in a crime, I need to know.

SCULLY: You are taking a big risk, Mulder. I feel strongly about this.

MULDER: I know you do, but it's my risk.

(In an unknown location, a man is using an "Exacta" knife to cut his picture out of a series of photographs. Blood stains fall on the photos as he works, and we see blood streaming down his forehead.)

CASSANDRA RESIDENCE PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND

(Mulder and Scully knock on the door. After several seconds without an answer, Mulder starts to try the keys on the lock, but just then a young woman answers. She sees the keys.)

HOUSEKEEPER: Can I help you?

MULDER: Are you Amy?

HOUSEKEEPER: No, she's not here right now.

SCULLY: Is this David Cassandra's house?

HOUSEKEEPER: This is Dave and Amy's house.

MULDER: And who are you?

HOUSEKEEPER: I'm the housekeeper. Who are you?

SCULLY: We're with the FBI. (she flashes her badge)

HOUSEKEEPER: Why do you have Amy's keys? Is something the matter?

SCULLY: Possibly. Is, uh, Amy or David reachable in any way?

(Mulder sees a painting of a white wooden house behind her.)

HOUSEKEEPER: They're out right now. I don't know where they are.

MULDER: That, uh, painting... behind you. Uh... do you think I could take a look at it?

HOUSEKEEPER: Yeah.

(They enter and Mulder takes a closer look.)

MULDER: Who painted this?

HOUSEKEEPER: Amy.

SCULLY: Mulder, what's up?

MULDER: I know this house.

SCULLY: How?

MULDER: I don't know. I've seen it before. Does this house have any special meaning to Amy or David?

HOUSEKEEPER: I know it's her favorite subject. It's the house that she grew up in. Actually, it's all she paints.

(The housekeeper opens the door to an adjoining room. It has over a dozen paintings of the same house. Mulder studies them.)

MULDER: I've been to that house.

SCULLY: When?

MULDER: I don't know, but I've been there.

SCULLY: Do you know anything else about this house?

HOUSEKEEPER: I know it's out in Chepachet.

SCULLY: Where's that?

MULDER: It's about 20 miles from here, on route eight. My parents had a summer house out there when I was a kid, in Rhode Island.

(Scully and Mulder drive up to a house. The house is run down, with faded paint and shrubs growing up high in front.)

SCULLY: If you've been here, Mulder I don't think it was any time recently. The place looks abandoned and completely overgrown.

(Mulder gasps and reaches for his temple. He drops to his knees and continues to gasp as Scully tries to assist him.)

SCULLY: (garbled) Mulder? Mulder?! Do you hear me? Mulder?> Mulder?

(Mulder hears his parents arguing in the next room.)

MRS. MULDER: How can you do this to our family?!

MR. MULDER: I'm not doing it! It's not just me. These orders are coming down from...

(His father appears in the doorway, looks at him, and slams the door shut. Mulder looks over and sees a young Cancer Man in another room, smoking a cigarette.)

CANCER MAN: You're a little spy.

MRS. MULDER: No! No!

</FLASHBACK>

(Mulder comes to flat on his back with Scully kneeling over him.)

SCULLY: Mulder? Mulder, can you hear me? What happened?

MULDER: I don't know. It just hit me.

SCULLY: You fell to your knees and you grabbed your head, like you were in terrible pain. You were completely non-responsive. Do you remember any of that?

MULDER: No. I remember what I saw.

SCULLY: What do you mean, what you saw?

MULDER: I had a very vivid flashback to my childhood. Except, I was there.

SCULLY: Do you remember anything else?

MULDER: No, just that it was very real.

(She helps him sit up and checks his pulse.)

SCULLY: Your heart is racing.

MULDER: What do you think it was?

SCULLY: It was some kind of a seizure. Some kind of acute physiological disturbance. I couldn't tell if you lost consciousness but, uh, it was definitely some kind of clonic event. Kind of an electrical storm in the brain.

MULDER: Brought on by what?

SCULLY: That's what a specialist is going to have to tell you, Mulder.

MULDER: I feel really good right now.

(He stands and looks at the house.)

SCULLY: Mulder, you are not really good.

(He walks to the door and opens it. The house is dark and the furniture covered by sheets.)

MULDER: I think I've been here before.

SCULLY: What, in your childhood?

MULDER: Maybe.

SCULLY: I don't think anybody's lived here in a long time.

MULDER: I'm going to check upstairs.

(Scully walks through the kitchen and sees something.)

SCULLY: Mulder.

(He comes back down the stairs to join her. There is a woman's body on the floor with a large blood stain in her back. Scully kneels to examine her.)

SCULLY: There's a gunshot wound to her heart. This must be Amy Cassandra. And her husband.

(On the other side of the room is a man's body. Mulder kneels and rolls him over, then looks back at Scully.)

ACT II

(At the house, police and ambulances are on the scene. A body on a stretcher is loaded onto an ambulance. Scully is talking to the detectives, then walks over to Mulder, who is sitting in the passenger seat of her car with the door open.)

SCULLY: They'd like to ask you some questions. I told them about your condition. You don't have to speak to them if you don't want to.

MULDER: You mean, not without my attorney present?

SCULLY: Mulder, I refuse to believe that you had any part in this.

MULDER: I had those people's blood on my shirt, Scully. I was missing for two days. I have no recollection of my actions during those two days. There were two rounds discharged from my gun. I had the keys to this house, the keys to their car. Do the words "Orenthal James Simpson" mean anything to you?

(Detective Curtis walks over.)

CURTIS: How you feeling, agent Mulder?

MULDER: I'm a little confused.

CURTIS: Your partner here says you're suffering from some kind of a seizure, that you had one right here in the yard. What brought you to this house, agent Mulder?

MULDER: I don't know. I, uh... I think I may have come here as a kid.

CURTIS: You think?

MULDER: Well, my parents had a summer house in Quonochontaug, so...

CURTIS: But you don't know anything about David or Amy Cassandra, the victims?

MULDER: I don't ever remember meeting them, no.

CURTIS: So what you're saying, then, is--the first time you saw them was when you walked into this house, using their keys, and you found them there on the floor.

MULDER: That's what I'm saying.

CURTIS: We got plenty of prints in that house--some with blood on them. Now, we're going to run those prints, agent Mulder. Is that the story you want to stick with?

MULDER: For now.

CURTIS: Would you like to come down to the station, and elaborate on that statement?

SCULLY: Agent Mulder's not going anywhere but to a hospital.

CURTIS: Okay. But we're all going down there together. Agent Mulder, I'd like you to ride with us.

(Curtis walks away. Mulder stands.)

SCULLY: Mulder, I'd advise you not to say anything more--not until I take a look at those bodies and the forensics reports.

(Mulder follows Curtis to his car.)

(The medical examiner is conducting an examination on Amy Cassandra's body. Scully is with him.)

MEDICAL EXAMINER: Amy Anne Cassandra, caucasian female. Birth records indicate her age at 62 years. The subject is 165 pounds, 67 inches in height. Preliminary exam indicates cause of death due to a gunshot wound to the chest. Powder burns and flashing at the point of entry, approximately four inches below the clavicle, indicating the shot was delivered at point-blank range. Dorsal beveling of the shoulder blade is visible at the exit wound. The surrounding tissue is jagged and torn. There are no other signs of trauma present on the body. [only in Closed-Captioning:] Rigor mortis is present in the extremities...

(Scully has found a small blood mark just below Amy's hair line.)

SCULLY: Did you see this?

MEDICAL EXAMINER: Yeah. From the scabbing, it looks like a preexisting, superficial puncture wound.

SCULLY: Do you mind?

MEDICAL EXAMINER: What are you looking for?

SCULLY: I'm not sure. (she extracts a small piece of metal from the wound) Do you have a magnifying glass? (he hands her one and she examines the wound more closely) Thanks. I just want to make sure that in addition to the autopsy, you also do a craniotomy and a histological examination.

MEDICAL EXAMINER: I think it's clear what killed these people.

SCULLY: Yeah. I think it is, too, but what I'm more interested in right now is why they died.

(Mulder is in an interrogation room. Curtis enters and sets a paper bag in front of him.)

MULDER: What's that?

CURTIS: Have you jogged your memory at all, agent Mulder? You wanna change your story?

MULDER: No. Why?

CURTIS: Because I have evidence here that contradicts what it is you've told us.

MULDER: Well, I haven't really told you anything.

CURTIS: You told us you haven't been to that house since your childhood, and that you didn't know Amy or David Cassandra.

MULDER: And you're telling me what's in that bag is evidence that I'm a liar?

CURTIS: I'm not saying you're a liar, agent Mulder. I would like to believe that this memory lapse was real, and that you murdered these two people in some fit of blind insanity.

MULDER: What's in the bag?

CURTIS: It isn't your gun... which in our preliminary forensics analysis seems to be the murder weapon. Judging from the slugs we pulled from the floor and the wall, the execution-style point-blank range. Is any of this coming back to you, agent Mulder?

MULDER: No. Can I see what's in the bag now?

CURTIS: Be my guest. (Mulder pulls a shirt from the bag) There are two blood types on that shirt, agent Mulder--one matching Amy Cassandra's, the other matching David Cassandra's. Is that your shirt, agent Mulder?

MULDER: Yes.

CURTIS: Can you explain to me how the blood of two people you claim not to know got onto your shirt?

MULDER: No. What about the prints... in the house? Were they my prints? (Curtis doesn't answer) Look, you're not going to get a confession out of me, because I can't answer your questions, because I don't remember.

CURTIS: You have the right to remain silent. If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak with an attorney, and have an attorney present during questioning. If you so desire and cannot afford one, an attorney will be appointed for you without charge before questioning. You understand each of the rights I have explained to you?

(Mulder, in prison garb and handcuffed, is being led through the jail. Scully approaches as Curtis is talking to the jail clerk.)

SCULLY: Mulder. I'm going to get you out of here.

MULDER: You're a doctor, not a lawyer, Scully.

SCULLY: Did you make a confession?

MULDER: No. Only to my own ignorance.

SCULLY: Detective Curtis, before you go through all that trouble, I need you to consider evidence that I think casts doubt on agent Mulder's involvement in this crime.

CURTIS: What kind of evidence?

SCULLY: Medical evidence. The toxicology report on Amy Cassandra indicates there was a rapid-acting anesthetic called Ketamine in her system.

MULDER: Ketamine? That's a veterinary drug, isn't it?

SCULLY: Typically, but when ingested by a person, it can cause hallucinations.

CURTIS: So?

SCULLY: So, I went down to the hospital to go over agent Mulder's medical charts and his blood work, and there are traces of the same drug in his system.

MULDER: How would that get there?

SCULLY: Probably injected--there was a small bruise from an injection on Amy Cassandra's right hip. Now, I think if you were examined again--that we would find a corresponding puncture.

CURTIS: Given by whom?

SCULLY: I don't know, but the presence of such a powerful drug could explain his memory loss or the blackouts.

CURTIS: Given the weight of all the other evidence... I think that's all it explains.

(Curtis turns back to the jail clerk.)

MULDER: Scully... (he motions her aside) you don't have to do this.

SCULLY: Mulder, you have to help me out. There is nothing here that points directly to your guilt. I mean, unless somebody can show me with absolute certainty that you were holding the weapon that killed those two people, the rest of the narrative is far too convenient and suspect. The drug in your system already suggests other explanations.

MULDER: What? That I was partying with a few senior citizens?>

(Curtis returns and leads Mulder to his cell.)

SCULLY: (to Curtis) You're jailing an innocent man.

CURTIS: Yeah, well, this way he won't get lost for two days and do something else he won't remember.

(As they walk away, a deputy, the man we saw earlier, walks into a cell and pulls out a picture of his wife and daughters, with his head cut out. He pulls out his gun and cocks the hammer. A gunshot is heard.)

MAN: Shot fired!

(Scully hears the shot and, along with other officers, runs toward the sound. They find the man, apparently dead, in the cell. Scully pushes them aside and enters the cell to examine him.)

SCULLY: I'm a doctor. Somebody call the paramedics. (checks his pulse) He's dead.

(She sees a small wound just at his hairline, just like the one she found on Amy Cassandra.)

SCULLY: I need to speak with detective Curtis right now.

(Scully and Curtis enter the deputy's residence.)

SCULLY: Did this officer have a history of depression or mental illness?

CURTIS: He'd been remanded from his beat assignment to a desk job a year ago. His former partner had complained on a number of occasions about his tendency toward extreme irritability, and confabulation of the truth.

(On a desk, Scully sees the photos, each with his head cut out.)

SCULLY: How do you mean?

CURTIS: The man we're talking about had become something of a joke on the force, one of those guys who believes in ... you know, extraterrestrials?> Stuff like that.

SCULLY: Do you see these photos?

CURTIS: Yeah.

SCULLY: Does this mean anything to you?

CURTIS: Should it?

SCULLY: Well, I think that it speaks to a pronounced mental illness. The compulsive and repetitive act of removing his own image from these photos leads me to believe that he not only believed these stories, but he was traumatized by them.

CURTIS: I thought you told me this was going to help explain something about your partner's crime. (Scully sees something and walks toward it) What's that?

(Scully has picked up a copy of "Abductee" magazine with Amy Cassandra on the cover.)

SCULLY: Amy Cassandra. Both your officer and Amy Cassandra had identical puncture wounds at the top of the frontal lobe. Now, in her autopsy, Amy Cassandra's was a deep puncture through the cranium to the dura matter.

CURTIS: And my officer had the same thing?

SCULLY: Yes. I think your officer knew of Amy Cassandra, and somehow his suicide is linked to her death, which leads me to believe that what we're dealing with here is not murder. It's something else. It's possibly even a suicide pact.

CURTIS: You're going to have to prove that to me.

(Mulder is sleeping in his cell.)

(Young Mulder sees Cancer Man and Mr. Mulder arguing in the next room. Mr. Mulder closes the door. Mulder climbs back to the loft to join Samantha. Below, he sees Mrs. Mulder approach Cancer Man and pound on his chest.)

MRS. MULDER: Not Samantha! Not Samantha! No! My baby!

</FLASHBACK>

(Mulder awakens in a sweat. He stands and pounds the cell door.)

MULDER: Guard! Guard! I need to talk to someone! Guard!

ACT III

(Scully and Curtis are walking through the jail.)

CURTIS: According to the corrections officer, agent Mulder kept everybody awake last night. He was demanding to talk to you. He finally shut up about an hour ago.

SCULLY: Did he say about what?

CURTIS: I think your partner's memories are coming back to him.

(They come to Mulder's cell.)

SCULLY: (to Curtis) I need to talk to him alone, if you don't mind. (he leaves, locking Scully in the cell with Mulder) (to Mulder) I heard you didn't get much sleep.

MULDER: I didn't kill those people, Scully.

SCULLY: I know that, and I think I've gathered enough proof and evidence of your innocence to get you out of here.

MULDER: From where?

SCULLY: The forensics reports. The, uh, the shirt that you were wearing did have the victims' blood on it, but the blood-spatter pattern doesn't match the point-of-entry detail. In fact, detective Curtis and his team have been able to put together enough contradictory evidence to make a statement to the press saying that the Cassandras' death was as a result of a murder-suicide.

MULDER: But I was there.

SCULLY: Yes.

MULDER: And I still don't remember why.

SCULLY: I think I have an idea about that, too. Amy Cassandra believed that she was an alien abductee.

MULDER: And I contacted her.

SCULLY: Yes... apparently. According to an article I read on Amy, she had begun psychiatric treatment that was effectively recovering her past. The repetitive behavior exhibited in those paintings that we saw, was an expression of that treatment.

MULDER: But why shoot herself and her husband?

SCULLY: I can't say definitively, but judging from an almost identical suicide of a police officer who was receiving the same psychiatric care, I believe that the victims were suffering from something called Waxman-Geschwind syndrome, the symptoms of which are trance-like states, leading to vivid dreams about the past-- dreams that are more detailed than the conscious mind can recall. It's also called Dostoyevsky syndrome because the Russian novelist was suffering from it, too.

MULDER: What was I doing there, Scully, and why didn't I do anything to stop it?

SCULLY: I can't explain that. I've arranged for your arraignment in one hour. I think that by then, detective Curtis and I will have gathered enough forensics data that you'll be released.

MULDER: I still need to know why, though. (she nods)

WARWICK, RHODE ISLAND

(Scully and Mulder pull up in her car.)

SCULLY: This is the office of the psychologist that treated Amy Cassandra. Have you been here before?

MULDER: I don't know, but we found my car.

(They walk to the car, which is locked. Scully wipes pollen from the rear windshield.)

SCULLY: It's been here for a few days.

MULDER: What was the name of that psychologist?

(There is a knock on the psychologist's door. Mulder and Scully enter.)

GOLDSTEIN: Hello.

MULDER: Dr. Goldstein? My name is Fox Mulder. Have we met?

GOLDSTEIN: I don't believe so. My receptionist says you're from the FBI?

SCULLY: Yes. We're investigating the deaths of Amy and David Cassandra. We understand that Amy was a patient of yours.

GOLDSTEIN: Yes. Please, sit down. (they remain standing) I was very upset to learn about Amy. She was a troubled woman who'd struggled through an unfortunate period of darkness in her life.

SCULLY: Are you referring to her belief that she was an abductee?

GOLDSTEIN: This term "alien abductee..." Although I recognize there is an associated syndrome, and a rather remarkable collection of shared experiences for those who believe in the phenomena, my treatment of Amy was simply an aggressive method to access buried or repressed memories.

MULDER: How do you mean, "aggressive"?

GOLDSTEIN: I use a method of therapy that simulates an electrical impulse in the brain, using light and sound.

SCULLY: Did you also use this treatment on a police officer named Michael Fazekas?

GOLDSTEIN: Yes. Why?

SCULLY: Mr. Fazekas shot himself in the head last night.

GOLDSTEIN: (sitting) Oh, my god.

MULDER: Is this an accepted form of medical treatment?

GOLDSTEIN: It's unconventional, but it's not invasive.

SCULLY: Are you familiar with Waxman-Geschwind syndrome?

GOLDSTEIN: Yes.

SCULLY: Did you know Amy Cassandra suffered from it?

GOLDSTEIN: Waxman-Geschwind...if you know anything about it, is not necessarily a destructive condition. In fact, Amy, after undergoing treatment, experienced periods of extreme happiness and creativity.

MULDER: But you had no idea -- you had no indication she might have taken her own life?

GOLDSTEIN: No! Of course not. I have been in practice for over 40 years. I have a very good ethical and professional reputation, if you'd care to check.

MULDER: That won't be necessary.

(Mulder walks out. Scully fixes Goldstein with an icy stare.)

SCULLY: I know what you do.

(She leaves and joins Mulder in the hallway.)

MULDER: I have been here before. I met Dr. Goldstein with Amy Cassandra.

SCULLY: This man is lying about more than that. I think that he administered the Ketamine to Amy and to you. I think that you were treated by him, and I think that your blackouts -- these seizures -- are a result of that.

MULDER: I think you're right.

(They walk outside.)

SCULLY: Why would you do that, Mulder? Why would you undergo something as crazy and dangerous as this?

(Mulder gasps and bends, putting his hands to his face.)

SCULLY: (garbled) Mulder? Mulder! Mulder?

MRS. MULDER: My baby!

(He sees Mrs. Mulder and Cancer Man, with his hand on her shoulder.)

</FLASHBACK>

(He comes to on the pavement with Scully kneeling in front of him.)

SCULLY: Mulder?

MULDER: (standing) I'm fine.

SCULLY: No, I am not going to take that for an answer. You do not belong at work. You need to be somewhere where you can be monitored. You are a danger to yourself, and a danger to me. Are you hearing me?

MULDER: Give me the car keys.

SCULLY: No, you're not driving. You're not doing anything until these symptoms go away.

MULDER: Scully, I don't want these symptoms to go away. Whatever's happening to me, whatever treatment I've received, is allowing me to go back into my unconscious. The truth is in there, recorded, and I've gotten access to it. What happened to my sister--the reason she was taken--it's beginning to become clear to me, and I need to know that. Now give me the keys.

SCULLY: To go where?

MULDER: To my mother's, in Greenwich.

SCULLY: Okay... but I'm driving.

(They pull up in front of Mrs. Mulder's house. She sees them through the curtain and opens the door as they walk up to it.)

MRS. MULDER: Fox.

MULDER: I need to speak to you.

MRS. MULDER: What's happened, Fox? Why have you come here?

MULDER: (looking downward) You've kept things from me. You've kept secrets from me.

MRS. MULDER: (to Scully) What's the matter with him?

SCULLY: He's undergone a treatment. He believes it's helped him to remember things.

MRS. MULDER: Remember what?

MULDER: (still looking downward) You told me that, when they took Samantha, it was because you had to make a choice, but that's not how it happened. It wasn't your choice to make.

MRS. MULDER: What do you want to hear from me?

MULDER: I wanna know what happened that night on Quonochontaug, and I need to speak to you privately.

(Mulder and his mother go into another room.)

MULDER: (now looking at her in the eye) You had some kind of relationship with him.

MRS. MULDER: Who?

MULDER: You know who. The man who worked with my father, the man who came to you that night when I was 12, and forced you to choose Samantha.

MRS. MULDER: No, Fox...

MULDER: Yes! You betrayed my father, your husband.

MRS. MULDER: Never!

MULDER: How far back did it go?

(She slaps him.)

MRS. MULDER: How dare you! How dare you come here and accuse me!?

MULDER: Who is my father?

MRS. MULDER: What do you want, to kill him again?!

MULDER: Just answer the question, mom. (she starts away but he grabs her arm) Just answer the question!

MRS. MULDER: I am your mother, and I will not tolerate any more of your questions. (she sees a trail of blood coming down his forehead) You're bleeding, Fox.

(She leaves the room, going quickly upstairs. Scully enters the room but Mulder isn't there. She walks to the window and sees Mulder speed away in her car.)

ACT IV

9:25 PM

(Goldstein walks across the parking lot and puts a box in the trunk of his car. Mulder pulls up and confronts him.)

MULDER: What did you do to me?

GOLDSTEIN: I told you...

MULDER: You treated me. I asked you to treat me to recover my past.

GOLDSTEIN: I did nothing wrong.

MULDER: You put a hole in my head.

GOLDSTEIN: A slight electrical stimulation.

MULDER: It triggered my memory.

GOLDSTEIN: Yes, as you had hoped.

MULDER: Now I want you to finish the job.

(Back in his office, Goldstein prepares an injection.)

MULDER: Let's do it.

(Goldstein injects him in the hip and helps him into a reclining exam chair.)

MULDER: I want to remember.

(Goldstein puts earphones in his ears and a visor over his eyes. He turns on the equipment and lights can be seen beneath the visor.)

(Mulder sees Cancer Man embrace Samantha and Mrs. Mulder slam a door closed.)

CANCER MAN: Little spy.

(He sees Cancer Man with Mrs. Mulder and an image of Mr. Mulder ...)

MRS. MULDER: Fox...

SAMANTHA: Fox...

CANCER MAN: Little spy.

(... then images of Samantha and Mr. and Mrs. Mulder arguing, then Cancer Man, then Mr. Mulder and Cancer Man arguing, then Cancer Man and Mrs. Mulder, the Stratego board, then Samantha.)

(As Mulder gasps and strains in the exam chair, Goldstein restrains him with Velcro strips.)

(Mulder sees images of Mrs. Mulder and Cancer Man arguing, Mr. Mulder, the Stratego board and Samantha.)

SAMANTHA: Fox!

MRS. MULDER: Not Samantha! Not Samantha!

SAMANTHA: Fox!

(He sees images of items shaking on the mantle, lights outside the window, and a doorknob turning.)

</FLASHBACK>

(Goldstein puts a small bit in a drill and puts the drill to Mulder's forehead.)

(Later, police cars arrive at Goldstein's office. Curtis confronts Goldstein in the exam room. Mulder is not there.)

CURTIS: Dr. Charles Goldstein? Dr. Goldstein, you're under arrest. Please, keep your hands where they are. Bag those gloves as evidence. Someone, read him his rights.

(Curtis sees a depression on the headrest of the exam chair as well as a blood stain on it.)

CURTIS: Where is he? Mulder.

(Outside, Scully pulls up in a car and walks toward Curtis.)

SCULLY: Where's Mulder?

CURTIS: He's not here.

SCULLY: Did you ask Dr. Goldstein?

CURTIS: Goldstein wouldn't say one way or the other.

(She sees Goldstein being driven off in a police car. She runs after it.)

SCULLY: Stop that car!

CURTIS: Hey!

(The car stops.)

SCULLY: (to driver) Open the back door.

(She opens the back door and confronts Goldstein.)

SCULLY: What did you do to him? Look, I know he came back here. This is the only place he would have gone. Did you treat him?

(Goldstein has looked away and says nothing. Scully grabs him by the collar.)

SCULLY: (angrily) Damn it! Answer me!

GOLDSTEIN: Yes.

SCULLY: Where is he now?

GOLDSTEIN: I don't know where he went.

SCULLY: What was the last thing he said to you?

GOLDSTEIN: He said he was going to exorcise his demons.

QUONOCHONTAUG, RHODE ISLAND

(Police officers are surrounding a cottage. A police car pulls up and Scully emerges.)

IMHOF: Agent Scully?

SCULLY: Yeah.

IMHOF: Frank Imhof.

SCULLY: Is he in there?

IMHOF: Saw a light go on a couple of minutes ago. Got to be somebody in there. We got here as soon as you called.

SCULLY: All right... that man in there is armed. He is a federal officer in dire need of medical attention. He is not himself. Now, I'm going in there. If at any time he should flee that house, you need to tell your officers not to shoot.

(She gives him a pat and heads for the cottage. She opens the door and enters a lit room, then moves into a darker room.)

SCULLY: Mulder?

MULDER: (from another room) Leave me alone, Scully.

(She follows the sound into another dark room, finding Mulder on his knees facing away from the door. His eyes are closed as if he's in a trance.)

SCULLY: Mulder, it's me.

MULDER: Scully, leave me alone.

MRS. MULDER: Not Samantha! Not Samantha!

SAMANTHA: Fox!

(Mulder sees the same fleeting images as before, plus one of Samantha levitated out a window toward a very bright light.)

</FLASHBACK>

(Mulder gasps and draws his gun.)

MULDER: It's... all falling into place.

SCULLY: Mulder, put down the gun.

MULDER: No. Don't try to stop me.

SCULLY: Please, Mulder...

SAMANTHA: Wake up, Fox...

(He sees an image of Samantha floating away ...)

MRS. MULDER: No! She's my baby!

(... then one of Samantha, then Cancer man, then Samantha floating away again.)

SAMANTHA: I'm afraid, Fox. I'm afraid.

</FLASHBACK>

(Mulder comes to and turns, pointing his gun at Scully.)

MULDER: Get away!

SCULLY: Are you going to shoot me, Mulder? (he nods) Is that how much this means to you? Mulder, listen to me. You have been given a powerful hallucinogen. You don't know that these memories are yours. This is not the way to the truth, Mulder. You've got to trust me.

MULDER: Shut up!

SCULLY: Put down the gun. Let it go.

(Outside, the officers hear shots.)

IMHOF: We got shots fired. Move!

(Inside, we see Mulder fire several shots. He lowers his head and slumps over, as we see Scully standing behind him. She kneels beside him, touches his shoulder and puts her head on his back.)

[only in Closed-Captioning] MULDER: I'm so tired. I need to know, Scully. I just need to know.

(Later, Scully types her case report into her computer.)

SCULLY: (voiceover) Although cleared of any wrongdoing in the deaths of Amy and David Cassandra, agent Mulder still has no recollection of the events that led to their deaths. His seizures have subsided, with no evidence of permanent cerebral damage, but I'm concerned that this experience will have a lasting effect. Agent Mulder undertook this treatment hoping to lay claim to his past--that by retrieving memories lost to him, he might finally understand the path he's on. But if that knowledge remains elusive, and if it's only by knowing where he's been that he can hope to understand where he's going, then I fear agent Mulder may lose his course, and the truths he's seeking, from his childhood, will continue to evade him...driving him more dangerously forward in impossible pursuit.

THE END

The X-Files - 4.