Episode Summary
A string of mysterious deaths of recent Chinese immigrants brings Agents Mulder and Scully to San Francisco's Chinatown. The Agents team up with a Chinese detective to better understand the language and customs of the Chinese culture, but one thing remains frightening clear; all of the bodies are missing various internal organs.
Episode Details
- Writer: Jeff Vlaming
- Director: Tucker Gates
- Original Broadcast: AU: 10.07.1996 US: 29.03.1996
Cast
- Scully Gillian Anderson
- Mulder David Duchovny
Guest Cast
- Detective Neary Doug Abrahams
- Large Man Stephen Chang
- Vase Man Donald Fong
- Dr Wu Diana Ha
- OPO Staffer Ellie Harvie
- Hard-Faced Man James Hong
- Money Man Ed Hong-Louie
- Kim Hsin Lucy Alexis Liu
- Johnny Lo Derek Lowe
- Patrolman Tim O'Halloran
- Night Watchman Graham Shiels
- Detective Glen Chao BD Wong
- Wiry Man Paul Wong
- Hsin Michael Yama
Quotes
Scully: What a way to go... Have you seen this MO before Detective? A man cremated alive?
Detective Neary: Yeah. Third time this year.
Mulder: Eleventh time actually.
Detective Neary: We got lucky with this one.
[Finding such an intact body]
Mulder: Lucky? That's an interesting word for it.
Scully: His name was Johnny Lo. He moved here about six months ago from Canton — still in the INS application process. He was a dishwasher in Chinatown.
Mulder: How many dishes do you have to break before your boss tosses you in an oven?
Scully: So now we're chasing ghosts?
Mulder: Who you going to call...? Ghosts or ancestral spirits have been central to Chinese spiritual life for centuries.
Scully: So you're saying the ancestral spirits pushed Johnny Lo into the oven and turned on the gas?
Mulder: Well, it sure would teach him to respect his elders wouldn't it?
Scully: Its still tacky.
[Chinese ideogram painted on the door]
Mulder: Can you copy it down for me?
Detective Chao: Yeah, sure...
Mulder: Talk about tacky...
[Looking around apartment]
Scully: What slum lord would spring for a new carpet in a dump like this?
Mulder: Looks like they saved some money on carpet tacks and didn't even bother replacing the old padding.
Detective Chao: I find it hard to argue with 2000 years of Chinese belief. The stuff my parents and grandparents believe in. But the truth is I'm more haunted by the size of my mortgage payments.
Scully: Do you know how much the human body is worth, Mulder?
Mulder: Depends on the body. I don't know, a few bucks. How much?
Scully: It's worth a fortune.
Mulder: You're saying that this guy was selling his body parts for money?
Scully: A kidney, a portion of the liver, a cornea, bone marrow... a person can lose these things and live to cash a social security cheque.
Mulder: He won't be cashing any social security cheques any time soon.
Scully: No, but if I'm right this is one man who left his heart in San Francisco.
Scully: Look like you just saw a ghost.
Mulder: I'm just a little tired... jumpy. One more string of firecrackers goes off and I'm going to get out of the car and shoot somebody.