Schwicky.net - The X-Files

One Son

6.12 One Son

US Airdate: February 14, 1999

writer: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz

directed by: Rob Bowman

(Photograph of a young Bill Mulder and Young Cigarette Smoking Man <with really bad Elvis hair> going up in flames.)

MULDER: (voiceover) Two men, young, idealistic -- the fine product of a generation hardened by world war. Two fathers whose paths would converge in a new battle -- an invisible war between a silent enemy and a sleeping giant on a scale to dwarf all historical conflicts. A 50-years war, its killing fields lying in wait for the inevitable global holocaust.

(The picture in flames now fades into flashback of large hanger at an Air Force base with younger Elders.)

MULDER: (voiceover) Theirs was the dawn of Armageddon. And while the world was unaware, unwitting spectators to the hurly-burly of the decades-long struggle between heaven and earth there were those who prepared for the end; who measured the size and power of the enemy, and faced the choices: stand and fight, or bow to the will of a fearsome enemy. Or to surrender -- to yield and collaborate. To save themselves and stay their enemy's hand. Men who believed that victory was the absence of defeat and survival the ultimate ideology ... No matter what the sacrifice.

(A bright light appears at one end of the hanger. YOUNG CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN walks forward and lays down a folded American flag. Several small gray aliens approach.)

Opening Credits. Mulder … Whooo. Scully rocks.

(SCENES from last week's episode, Two Fathers.)

(MULDER's apartment. MULDER is aiming his gun at CASSANDRA SPENDER. SCULLY is protesting loudly.)

CASSANDRA SPENDER: (desperate) Shoot me now, before it's too late!

SCULLY: Mulder?!

CASSANDRA SPENDER: Shoot!

(Several people in biohazard suits knock down the door and enter the apartment with hoses blasting out water (?) full force onto MULDER, SCULLY, and CASSANDRA.) [TD NOTE: I believe they were spraying some kind of gas against whatever toxin they were supposedly infected with.]

MULDER: Who are you!

CDC BIOSUIT MAN: Get down! Get down!

MULDER: Who are you?!

CDC BIOSUIT MAN: Down! Down! On the floor!

MULDER: What's going on?!

CDC BIOSUIT MAN: Get on the ground! Get on the ground!

MULDER: Who are you?!

CDC BIOSUIT MAN: Drop down! Drop! Drop!

(MULDER, SCULLY, and CASSANDRA all lie down on the floor as the hoses blast away at them. One of the CDC men pneumatic nails a plastic sheet to cover the door and the hole left by their entrance.)

MULDER: Who are you?!

CDC BIOSUIT MAN: We're with the Centers for Disease Control. Remain calm and where you are for your own good. You're gonna be transported to a quarantine facility as soon as we can secure the environment.

SCULLY: Quarantine for what?

(DIANA FOWLEY enters the apartment, also wearing a biohazard suit.)

DIANA FOWLEY: A contagion. A contagion of unknown origin.

(MULDER is standing naked under a showerhead, eyes closed. Camera pans around to show SCULLY in a stall next to him also standing quietly under the spray. A very low wall separates them. [TD NOTE: Not quite low enough ;-)] The water shuts off. MULDER turns to SCULLY and glances down at her briefly. They look at each other briefly. SCULLY turns away. CarriK: Oh, for the lines that were cut. TD NOTE: Which were: Scully: "My, my ..." Mulder: "Right back at ya, Red.")

(Later. MULDER and SCULLY now dressed in medical scrubs but still very wet, are being checked for radioactivity by a pair of technicians.)

MULDER: There must be some kind of mistake. I signed up for the aromatherapy treatment.

SCULLY: Are we going to be able to talk to somebody who can tell us what this is all about?

(The radioactivity technicians leave.)

MULDER: Where the hell do you think we are?

SCULLY: I think, based on our travel time probably Fort Marlene. High risk decontamination and quarantine.

(A pair of doctors, male for MULDER, female for SCULLY, enter with kits and begin checking them out. DIANA FOWLEY, no longer in the biohazard suit, enters. SCULLY is very defensive throughout the scene.)

DIANA FOWLEY: I'm going to beg for your understanding and forgiveness and offer my humblest apologies for the way this went down. I didn't have a lot of choices. I owe your neighbors apologies as well. It's going to be some time before they get back in the building. We're still acting on a CDC Level-Four quarantine protocol.

SCULLY: Based on what information?

DIANA FOWLEY: That Cassandra Spender had contracted a highly contagious vectoring organism which produces a spontaneous cellular breakdown and combustion.

SCULLY: What?

DIANA FOWLEY: She was and remains the only surviving victim of an unspecified medical experiment that killed seven doctors with violent and unexplained burning.

MULDER: Who called you?

DIANA FOWLEY: Agent Spender.

SCULLY: Where's Cassandra?

DIANA FOWLEY: She's isolated... pending full and satisfactory medical evaluation.

SCULLY: Cassandra Spender was in a general hospital environment for days. We met with her, and yet on a whim you call in the third battalion. It's unjustified and highly suspicious as to motive.

MULDER: (patiently) Scully...

DIANA FOWLEY: What motives are you suspecting?

SCULLY: Your isolation of Cassandra.

DIANA FOWLEY: She's Patient Zero.

SCULLY: No one is sick or infected here. I mean, I assume that based on you walking in here dressed to the nines offering apologies masquerading as explanations.

MULDER: (firmly) Scully...

SCULLY: Mulder, I want to see Cassandra.

DIANA FOWLEY: I told you -- she's isolated.

SCULLY: Yes, and I am a medical doctor.

DIANA FOWLEY: Who is suspended indefinitely from her position at the FBI.

(SCULLY angrily pulls the blood pressure cuff from her arm and strides out of the room. MULDER and DIANA FOWLEY look at each other.)

(Later. Scully opens a locker and removes a plain gray dress, looks at it in disgust and puts it back in the locker as MULDER enters the locker room.)

SCULLY: They've burned our clothes.

MULDER: Hey... I heard gray is the new black.

SCULLY: Mulder, this stinks, and not just because I think that woman is a ... well, I think you know what I think that woman is.

MULDER: (sarcastic) No. Actually, you hide your feelings very well.

SCULLY: Agent Spender calling the Centers for Disease Control? Mulder, this is just somebody using their position to stage a hi-tech government kidnapping.

MULDER: Apparently not. I just spoke to AD Skinner. He was at the hospital when Cassandra went missing. He heard Spender make the phone call to the CDC.

SCULLY: But she wasn't sick, Mulder. I mean, the remarkable thing is she was well.

MULDER: Well, then why did she come to my apartment demanding to be killed?

SCULLY: Because of everything that had been done to her. Because of the tests, because of the medical experiments and the implant put in her neck -- the same thing that was done to me. She just wants it to stop. And I'm telling you, they have taken her so that it can continue.

MULDER: No. It won't continue. It doesn't have to anymore. She knows what she is, Scully. That's why it's so dangerous for her to be alive. That's why she came to my apartment asking to be killed.

SCULLY: What is she?

MULDER: I think she's the one, Scully.

(ELDER's conference room. KRYCEK is holding a medical file.)

KRYCEK: I recovered all the medical records form the hospital. The doctors who examined her before she escaped are telling us Cassandra Spender may be the culmination of 25 years of this group's finest efforts.

ELDER 3: That's why the rebels struck. They were trying to kill her.

KRYCEK: They killed everyone but her. They struck to keep her alive -- keep us from killing her.

FIRST ELDER: What do the rebels want?

ELDER 3: To destroy us. They know that when the aliens learn of Cassandra, colonization will begin.

ELDER 4: We must destroy Cassandra.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: No. Let colonization begin. We must turn over Cassandra. Save ourselves.

ELDER 4: Bill Mulder was against this. He said this would be our tragic mistake.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Bill Mulder sacrificed his only daughter because he knew this day would arrive. What choice have we ... if you want to see your families survive? If we want to see those we sacrificed returned to us?

(MULDER enters a deserted hallway. He is wearing a suit that is much too small for him and white socks. Very funny. He sees a nurse with very large white hair.)

MULDER: Hello? Hello? Oh, oh, Ma'am. These shoes? They're … they're two sizes too small. I was wondering if I could get a ….

(NURSE disappears.)

MULDER: (frustrated) A pair that fit, maybe?

(The nurse with big white hair disappears. Down the hall, MULDER sees a woman in a hospital gown duck out of view. He limps/runs after her. He enters a lab and looks around.)

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: (voice) I can't be seen with you.

MULDER: Marita?

(MARITA COVARRUBIAS shows herself. She looks bad - hair unkempt, face is lined and tired, eyes lined in red.)

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: If they catch me with you, they'll kill me this time.

MULDER: Who?

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: The Smoking Man and ... his group.

MULDER: What have they done to you?

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: Tests. Terrible, terrible tests.

MULDER: Like the tests on Cassandra Spender?

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: No. No, Cassandra Spender is part of a program that's been going on for 25 years. A hybrid program.

MULDER: Then what were the tests on you?

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: (bitter) I was infected with the alien virus -- the black oil. My tests were on the vaccine against it ... being developed in secret.

MULDER: In secret from the alien colonists. The hybrid program was in cooperation with the aliens but the conspirators never intended to succeed ... to finish the work.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: They were buying time.

MULDER: To make a vaccine and build a weapon.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: But Cassandra Spender happened.

MULDER: She's the first, isn't she? She's the first successful alien/human hybrid.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: If she is ... and the aliens learn a hybrid exists ... colonization of the planet will begin. With no stopping it.

(CASSANDRA SPENDER is tied to a medical gurney in a room with lots of medical equipment. SPENDER enters with DIANA FOWLEY.)

CASSANDRA SPENDER: Jeffrey. Jeffrey. Jeffrey.

SPENDER: Mom... How are you feeling?

CASSANDRA SPENDER: Uh, fine. Why are they keeping me here?

SPENDER: I'm keeping you here because you're safe here.

CASSANDRA SPENDER: Safe from who?

SPENDER: You know who. From my father.

CASSANDRA SPENDER: You can't keep me safe from him.

SPENDER: I can, Mom and I'm going to. There won't be any more tests on you.

CASSANDRA SPENDER: You don't understand. You don't understand about me.

SPENDER: I do. I understand everything now.

(FOWLEY becomes very interested in this discussion and listens in in the background.)

CASSANDRA SPENDER: You don't understand what will happen ... what will happen to you if they find me out. You've got to let me go.

SPENDER: They'll just hurt you again, Mom.

CASSANDRA SPENDER: Yes. You must let them. Or everyone dies. Everyone. Jeffrey ... please ... (SPENDER walks to the door, FOWLEY leaves and SPENDER takes a look at his mother then leaves as well) Jeffrey ... Jeffrey! Jeffrey ...

(SPENDER leaves the room closing the door behind him.)

(Commercial 1.)

(LONE GUNMAN office. There is a buzz at the door. FROHIKE turns off an old-time radio which was playing (a news report, I believe, too hard to hear anything) then goes to the door and unlocks all eight locks and opens the door for MULDER.)

MULDER: The latest in home security.

FROHIKE: Hey, you get through this, you got to come through me.

MULDER: I got a call from Scully. Said it was urgent.

(MULDER enters the office. All three GUNMEN are present and also SCULLY in a fetching black turtleneck ensemble.)

SCULLY: I'll ask you to hear me out before you launch any objection. Mulder, I asked them to pull up everything they could on Diana Fowley.

MULDER: (sigh) I don't have time for this.

SCULLY: Mulder, she's playing you for a fool.

MULDER: I know her, Scully. You don't.

SCULLY: You knew her. You don't anymore. I think we can prove that to you.

BYERS: She took a position in the FBI's foreign counter-terrorism unit in 1991. Seven years in Europe.

(TD NOTE: MULDER crosses his arms, body-language for "I'm cutting myself off from this discussion"!)

SCULLY: Yet there isn't a single piece of information available on her activities in the FBI files.

MULDER: (gives a sarcastic melodramatic gasp) I hope you've got something more than that to indict her with.

SCULLY: Travel records pulled from airline manifests that had been purged from her FBI records. Extensive movement throughout Western Europe. Almost weekly trips to and from Tunisia.

MULDER: For the purpose of what?

LANGLY: That's what we couldn't figure until we took a flyer and we found this.

FROHIKE: Mutual UFO network logs.

MULDER: MUFON.

SCULLY: Special Agent Diana Fowley of the FBI was visiting every European chapter collecting data on female abductees.

MULDER: So she's collecting data. Big deal.

SCULLY: Or hiding it.

MULDER: Scully, you're reaching.

SCULLY: Mulder, when I was abducted a chip was put in my neck. When I happened upon a MUFON group filled with women who'd had the same experience.

MULDER: So you're suggesting that Diana is monitoring these abductees? Monitoring these tests?

SCULLY: You tell me that Cassandra Spender is the critical test subject -- the one who could prove everything. And yet, who is watching over her? Mulder, I can prove what you're saying or I can disprove it but not when Diana Fowley is keeping us from even seeing her. Mulder, ask yourself why there is no information whatsoever on Special Agent Diana Fowley. Why she would suddenly happen into your life when you are closer than ever to the truth. I mean, you ... you ask me to trust no one and yet you trust her on simple faith.

MULDER: Because you've given me no reason here to do otherwise.

(Long Pause. FROHIKE and BYERS look away from him.)

SCULLY: Well, then I can't help you anymore.

(SCULLY walks away from the Gunmen, stops next to MULDER.)

MULDER: Scully, you're making this personal.

SCULLY: Because it is personal, Mulder. Because, without the FBI, personal interest is all that I have. And if you take that away then there is no reason for me to continue.

(MULDER watches her as she walks out of the office.)

(MULDER gets out of the elevator and walks down the hall checking the door numbers. He is obviously unfamiliar with this hallway. He knocks at one of the doors.)

MULDER: Diana? Diana?

(There is no answer. MULDER gets out his lockpick kit and opens the door and enters the apartment. He turns on his flashlight and looks around the apartment. He finds a carton of cigarettes in one drawer and a lot of lingerie in two other drawers. He draws his gun as the door opens again and CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN enters.)

MULDER: (aiming gun at CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN) Sorry. Nobody home. (CSM puts a ciggie in his mouth.) What are you doing here?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: The door was open. I came in.

MULDER: Interesting company you keep.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: No more interesting than your apparent … ah... lingerie fetish.

(MULDER pushes CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN into a chair.)

MULDER: You feeling smug, C.G.B.? Yeah, I know your name. I know your game and I got nothing to lose.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I remember looking over a gun barrel at you once before, Agent Mulder. You couldn't pull the trigger then. What makes you think you can do it now?

(MULDER cocks the gun.)

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I came here looking for my son.

MULDER: Why?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Because he's betrayed me. He's chosen the wrong side. He's chosen to believe in your cause.

MULDER: That presumes my cause is wrong.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Oh, it is, Agent Mulder. It is.

MULDER: I'm not the one using innocent people -- innocent women -- as lab rats, trying to create a hybrid -- an alien/human hybrid -- so that I might save my own sorry ass when they finally come knocking! (CSM smiles.) You find that funny?!

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Your father was against it, too, back in '73. The lone dissenter. But he came to his senses. And gave up your sister, Samantha.

MULDER: He didn't give up my sister. He was forced to. You made him do it.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN (with a laugh): Oh, you're wrong, Agent Mulder. I can't tell you how wrong you are. How wrong you've always been. We had agreed to cooperate with the alien colonists. By a majority vote taken by the group that your father and I worked for. A group that came together at the State Department on a project dating back to 1947, to Roswell.

(Flashback to YOUNG BILL MULDER striding angrily up to ELDERS in the HANGER in 1973.)

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: The vote changed that, though. It changed everything. We no longer cleaved to any government agency. We would now operate privately, on our own project. That was your father's objection: that we would ally ourselves with the alien colonists

MULDER: Towards your own selfish end.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: We forestalled an alien invasion.

MULDER: No, no, no, you only managed to postpone it.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: We saved billions of lives.

MULDER: You put those lives on hold so you alone could survive!

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: No, Agent Mulder, so you could. That's exactly what your father failed to realize. He railed at us and our plans even as the process had begun. While the group had agreed to the most painful sacrifices. Sacrifices that ... no one else would ever be asked to make.

(Flashback of group of children and YOUNG CASSANDRA walking through the hanger.)

MULDER: You gave them your children! You gave them your wife! You sent them away ... like they were things.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: We sent them away, Agent Mulder, because it was the right thing to do.

MULDER: You sent them away to be tested on.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: We sent them so they would come back to us. Don't you see?

(Flashback of doors of hanger opening into a bight light and children and YOUNG CASSANDRA walking into it. ELDERs watch sadly.)

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: You can't think these choices were made lightly. They were the most painful decisions of our lives. Watching our families' faces ...

(Light from flashback changes into MULDER's flashlight, still shining in CSM's face.)

MULDER: You're a liar. My sister wasn't taken from any hangar. She was abducted from our home right in front of me.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Because your father was late to understand the necessity. That he, too, must give up one of his children to the alien colonists. The aliens insisted on it. It was the only way they would give us the one thing that we needed.

(Flashback of biosuited doctors handling the alien fetus from "The Erlenmeyer Flask".)

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: The one thing without which we could not proceed. You see, the alien fetus would give us the alien genome ... the DNA with which we could make a human hybrid. A new race, Agent Mulder. An alien/human hybrid who could survive the holocaust. So you could survive. And live to see your sister.

MULDER: (lowering the gun, walking away) And now you've succeeded?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Quite ... in spite of ourselves. (taking out cigarette) The plan was to stall, to resist.

MULDER: To work secretly on a vaccine.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: That was your father's idea. To use the alien DNA to make a vaccine. To save everyone. The world. It was the reason he came along. But it's too late now. Colonization is going to begin. There will be a sequence of events. A state of emergency will be declared because of a massive outbreak of the alien virus delivered by bees. And the takeover will begin. I have only to hand over Cassandra.

MULDER: You can't do that.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Our hand's been forced by the faceless rebels. We've no choice.

MULDER: (standing) Stop it now or … I will stop it.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: No, Agent Mulder. You won't stop it. Not if you want to see your sister again.

MULDER: You stop it ... or everyone dies.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: No. (standing) I live. You live ... to see your sister return. It's what your father realized. It's what you'll realize as your father's son. Or die in vain with the rest of the world.

(MULDER looks down at a folded piece of paper in CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN's hand.)

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Save her. Save yourself.

(CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN hands MULDER the paper and walks out of the apartment. MULDER looks very troubled.)

(Commercial 2.)

(SPENDER enters the ELDER's conference room. It is deserted except for KRYCEK.)

KRYCEK: You're looking for your father. He's gone. They've all gone.

SPENDER: But they're coming back.

KRYCEK: No. No, they left for good.

SPENDER: What do you mean?

KRYCEK: Well, they've abandoned these offices.

SPENDER: But they've been here for 50 years.

KRYCEK: I don't think you understand.

SPENDER: Where did they go?

KRYCEK: To West Virginia. They'll be transported by the colonists and begin medical preparations to receive the hybrid genes. Except for your father. He's gone to get your mother.

SPENDER: No one can get to her. I've got her secured away.

KRYCEK: Secured away? He's already had his doctors looking at her.

SPENDER: I've got her under guard.

KRYCEK: She's probably being prepared as we speak, Jeffrey.

(SPENDER leaves quickly.)

(CASSANDRA's medical room. DOCTORs enter with a hypodermic needle.)

CASSANDRA SPENDER: What do you want now?

DOCTOR: Just lie back, Cassandra. We're just going to remove ...

CASSANDRA SPENDER: You leave me alone. Leave me alone!

DOCTOR: Cassandra. Lie back. Relax. It'll be easier.

CASSANDRA SPENDER: Damn it. Help! Leave me alone! Oh, no, you're not going to dope me! No, don't dope me!

DOCTOR: Roll her over, please. Roll over.

CASSANDRA SPENDER: (screaming) No! No! Don't! Damn you! Bastards!

(They inject her. CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN enters the room.)

CASSANDRA SPENDER: ( sighs ) The biggest bastard of all.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN (to DOCTORS): I need a few minutes.

(DOCTORS exit.)

CASSANDRA SPENDER: They never question it, do they?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: What?

CASSANDRA SPENDER: Your power and authority ... When you're really such a coward.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I ... I came in hopes that we might speak of the future ... not the past.

CASSANDRA SPENDER: I'm at a disadvantage ... since you've stolen the past from me.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I won't defend myself. Except ... except to say that ... we're here now only because of what I've done. It's due to it.

CASSANDRA SPENDER: I know it now. Only now. But for so many years, I didn't understand -- through all the abductions and the tests -- that it was you.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I ordered them, yes. But it was never my intention to harm you.

CASSANDRA SPENDER: God.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: It was to save you. And Jeffrey.

CASSANDRA SPENDER: You can never save our son. He knows what you've done to me.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I saved you.

CASSANDRA SPENDER: There's only one way ... to save him. Only one thing you must do.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: (shaking his head on the verge of tears) I can't do it to you. I can't.

(CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN exits the room quickly.)

CASSANDRA SPENDER: I must die or they all die. No! No!

(MULDER is still sitting in DIANA FOWLEY's apartment as she enters and is startled.)

DIANA FOWLEY: Geez.

MULDER: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you.

DIANA FOWLEY: Fox, what are you doing?

MULDER: Nothing. Not a damn thing.

(DIANA FOWLEY turns on the light.)

MULDER: I came here looking for evidence.

DIANA FOWLEY: What are you talking about?

MULDER: Evidence that you'd lied to me -- that you had loyalties other than to me or to the X-Files.

DIANA FOWLEY: Nothing could be further from the truth, Fox. Nothing.

MULDER: I didn't find anything, Diana. But something found me.

DIANA FOWLEY: What?

MULDER: Fate. Destiny. Whatever it's called when you ... when you realize the choices you thought you had in life were already made.

(FOWLEY sits on the edge of the coffee table in front of MULDER.)

DIANA FOWLEY: Fox, what happened here?

MULDER: You were being paid a visit by young Jeffrey Spender's father. The Cigarette-Smoking Man came looking for his son who has now taken up the futile cause that used to be mine -- against his father.

DIANA FOWLEY: Why futile?

MULDER: Because there's nothing to be done. And at some point, you just have to accept that the only way those you love are going to survive is if you give up.

(MULDER hands her the slip of paper from CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN - which reads EL RICO AIR FORCE BASE.)

MULDER: That's where it all begins. That's where we need to be if we want to survive it.

(DIANA FOWLEY leans in and kisses him on the lips gently. MULDER puts his arms around her shoulders, breaking the kiss, but still holding her.)

(Medical facility. SPENDER enters the room where CASSANDRA SPENDER was kept. He looks at the empty bed in frustration. MARITA COVARRUBIAS enters.)

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: Please help me. They're going to leave me here.

SPENDER: (nervous) Please stay away from me. I can't help you.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: They're packing everything up. They aren't coming back here. I know you. I can help you.

SPENDER: You can't help me.

MARITA COVARRUBIAS: I know where they're taking her. I know how they're taking her. You've got to trust me, Jeffrey.

(Room 36 CRYOLAB PURITY CONTROL)

(DOCTOR puts on protective gear and enters cryolab. He pulls the alien fetus out of liquid nitrogen and puts it into another container. The White haired nurse enters the room.

DOCTOR: Shut the door. This is a highly sensitive area. Go back. You're at a high risk of contamination. Leave the room.

(The "NURSE" grabs the DOCTOR by the throat and strangles him. DOCTOR scrapes off the nurse's face showing that it is actually a faceless rebel. A few moments later "he" leaves the lab.)

(MULDER comes out of the apartment with DIANA FOWLEY.)

MULDER: (on phone) Hey, Scully. It's me.

SCULLY: (on phone, driving) Mulder, I was just dialing you. Where are you?

MULDER: (on phone) I'm with Diana.

SCULLY: (on phone) I'm coming to get you.

MULDER: (on phone) No. We're coming to get you. You're coming with us.

SCULLY: (on phone) No, Mulder, listen to me. I'm going to take you to Cassandra.

MULDER: (on phone) Cassandra's gone, Scully.

SCULLY: (on phone) I know, but I know where she's gone to, Mulder.

MULDER: (on phone) Scully, it's no use.

SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, I'm going there whether you're coming or not.

MULDER: (on phone) Going where?

SCULLY: (on phone) To the Potomac yards. They're transporting her by train car.

MULDER: (on phone) Who gave you this information?

SCULLY: (on phone) Agent Spender called me.

MULDER: All right. (hangs up phone) I'm going to send you on ahead.

DIANA FOWLEY: What is it? What did she say?

MULDER: This may be our last chance to stop them.

(Train yards. Sound of bell clanging. SCULLY is driving car with MULDER alongside the moving train.)

MULDER: Turn around. Turn around, Scully.

(SCULLY U-turns. Train whistle blowing as train accelerates. SCULLY pulls car in front of train. MULDER and SCULLY get out and start shooting at the train, about 14 shots, appearing to kill the engineer as he puts on the brakes. TD NOTE: Is that green blood that spurts onto the engineer's window?!)

DOCTOR: What the hell is that?

(They jump out of the way as the train crashes into their car. Inside the train, we see the "doctor" that is actually a rebel.)

(Commercial 3.)

(The ELDERS and their families have gathered.)

(Train yard.)

MULDER: This is him.

(A car pulls up in front of MULDER and SCULLY, SKINNER's driving.)

SKINNER: You gonna tell me what the hell is going on?

MULDER: Our lives are in danger. We don't have much time.

SKINNER: Why couldn't you tell me that over the phone?

MULDER: If somebody overheard us, it might create mass panic.

SKINNER: Mass panic over what?

MULDER: El Rico Air Base.

(MULDER gets in the back seat, SCULLY up front.)

(EL RICO AIR BASE. Medical jeep pulls up. Doctors and CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN get out with CASSANDRA still on a gurney.)

FIRST ELDER: We waited to send our communication.

ELDER 3: We were worried something had happened.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Shots were fired at us.

ELDER 3: By who?

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: I don't know.

(CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN looks around.)

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: We have people missing. Where's Alex Krycek?

((KRYCEK is walking through halls of FORT MARLENE. He goes into PURITY CONTROL cryolab in a biosuit. He finds the dead DOCTOR and the now missing alien fetus. He is very upset.)

(Later, KRYCEK is walking purposefully down the hall. SPENDER calls to him from a doorway.)

SPENDER: Krycek! I'm trying to get out of here.

KRYCEK: What are you talking about?

SPENDER: We can't get past security. They won't recognize my authority to remove a patient.

(KRYCEK looks in the room and is shocked to see MARITA COVARRUBIAS.)

SPENDER: My father did this to her. She wants to tell her story.

KRYCEK: You sorry son of a bitch. You don't get it, do you? It's all going to hell. The rebels are going to win. They took it.

SPENDER: They took what?

(KRYCEK and MARITA look at each other, then KRYCEK leaves.)

(EL RICO AIR FORCE BASE. A car pulls up and DIANA FOWLEY gets out. FOWLEY and CSM begin to walk towards each other. Suddenly, her eyes are blinded by a bright light which appears at the end of the hanger as the doors begin to open. Figures begin approaching.)

ELDER 3: Who sent the communications?

ELDER 4: No one.

FIRST ELDER: This isn't supposed to be.

(CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN and DIANA FOWLEY run back to their car and drive off.)

ELDER 3: What is this?

FIRST ELDER: Get back. Back! Back! Back! Back! Get back. Back. Back.

(The DOCTOR/ALIEN walks over to CASSANDRA on her stretcher. She's smiling at the bright light. The DOCTOR morphs into faceless alien. FACELESS ALIENS approach with fire sticks. ELDERS surround their families, trying to protect them. Fade into darkness, the sound of a fire stick coming to life then muted sounds of screaming.)

(AD KERSH's office. SKINNER, SPENDER, MULDER, and SCULLY are present. AD KERSH is looking at photos of the burned bodies from the Air Force base. He is very upset by them.)

AD KERSH: The way these people died ... the loss of life here -- it is beyond words. I can't imagine how it must be for you -- losing your mother.

SPENDER: Yes, sir. But that's not why I asked for this meeting.

AD KERSH: Why did you ask for it?

SPENDER: Because I'm responsible for the deaths of those people at the Air Base hangar in no small way. I certainly didn't prevent them.

AD KERSH: I can assume then you can explain how they died? Because I have yet to hear any explanation.

SPENDER: Agent Mulder can explain it. I think Agent Scully, to an extent. They might have even prevented what you see in those photos.

AD KERSH: Agents Scully and Mulder have been suspended by the FBI.

SPENDER: Also my doing... and my mistake.

AD KERSH: I would ask...

SPENDER: I'd ask, sir -- before you tell me that it's not my business -- that you do everything you can to get them back on the X-Files. Far worse can happen ... and it will.

(SPENDER gets up, places a comforting hand briefly on MULDER's shoulder and begins to leave the room.)

AD KERSH: Where are you going?

SPENDER: To pack up my office.

AD KERSH: Agent Spender...

(SPENDER leaves the office.)

AD KERSH: (to MULDER, angrily) You have answers now? Why didn't I hear about those answers before?

MULDER: I've had answers for years.

AD KERSH: Then why didn't we hear about them?

MULDER: Nobody ever listened.

AD KERSH: Who burned those people?

MULDER: They burned themselves. With a choice made long ago by a conspiracy of men who th... (looks at SCULLY then back at KERSH) thought they could sleep with the enemy. Only to awaken another enemy.

AD KERSH: What the hell does that mean?

MULDER: It means the future is here, and all bets are off.

AD KERSH: Agent Scully, make some sense.

SCULLY: Sir, I wouldn't bet against him.

(X-Files office. CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN is looking at picture of BILL MULDER and CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN. SPENDER enters.)

SPENDER: Get out of here.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: This picture you have -- I haven't seen it since you were born. You probably don't even know who the other man is.

SPENDER: I don't care. Get out.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: It's Bill Mulder, Fox Mulder's father. Isn't that something? He was a good man ... a friend of mine ... who betrayed me in the end.

SPENDER: I know more than enough about your past ... enough to hate you.

CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Your mother was right. I came here hoping otherwise. (takes a gun out of a drawer) Hoping that my son ... (he stands up) might live to honor me ... like Bill Mulder's son.

(CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN reluctantly aims gun at SPENDER, the scene cuts to outside the office as we hear the gun fire. CSM leaves the office, stops for a minute and tucks away the picture in his jacket pocket and walks down the hallway.)

The End

US Airdate: February 14, 1999

writers: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz director: Rob Bowman

STARRING: David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast: Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Walter Skinner Nic Lea as Alex Krycek William B. Davis as Cancer Man Chris Owens as Agent Spender Veronica Cartwright as Cassandra Spender James Pickens Jr. as AD Kersh Peter Donat as William Mulder Don S. Williams as 1st Elder George Murdock as 2nd Elder John Moore as 3rd Elder Mimi Rodgers as Agent Diana Fowley Ashlynn Rose as Young Samantha Nick Lashaway as Young Fox Mulder Tom Braidwood as Frohike Dean Haglund as Langly Bruce Harwood as Byers Laurie Holden as Marita Covarrubias Scott Williamson as CIDC Leader Jo Black-Jacob as Nurse Mare Bramhall as Surgical Team Member

(same as last week, the following names appeared in the opening credits, I have no idea yet who they played)

Al Ruscio as ? Frank Ertl as ? Robert Lipton as ?

The X-Files - 2.