Episode Summary
Agents Mulder and Scully investigate the bizarre abduction of a young woman. Their only clue is a terrifying and inexplicable photograph developed at the scene of her disappearance.
Episode Details
- Writer: Vince Gilligan
- Director: Rob Bowman
- Original Broadcast: AU: 26.02.1997 US: 27.10.1996
Cast
- Scully Gillian Anderson
- Mulder David Duchovny
Guest Cast
- Mary Louise LeFante Sharon Alexander
- Inspector Puett Ron Chartier
- Officer Corning Michael Cram
- Alice Brant Angela Donahue
- Billy Scott Heindl
- Officer Trott William MacDonald
- Druggist Walter Marsh
- ER Doctor Michele Melland
- Photo Technician Christopher Royal
- Officer John Sampson
- Gerald Thomas Schnauz Jr Pruitt Taylor Vince
Quotes
Mulder: So... which one of us gets to use the stun gun on Bruno Helpmann back there.
Scully: All right, so he doesn't exactly stand out as a suspect. Mulder, take a look at this. You see this smeariness here? I'm thinking that it's heat damage. With the heater sitting under the film right there that the emulsion probably melted.
Mulder: So you think that might make it look like she posed, screaming, for a passport photo?
Scully: Plus the film is two years out of date...
Mulder: Oh...
Scully: ...that the photographic chemistry could have changed...
Mulder: Yeah...
Scully: ...the dyes fade... they... all right, so what's your theory?
Mulder: I'm not sure I have a theory.
Mulder: Yeah but why would she stab her boyfriend through the ear? The magic was gone?
Mulder: Here it is. Stand back, Scully, it's loaded.
[Mary LeFante's camera]
Scully: Oh my god.
Mulder: What is it?
Scully: She's been given what's called a trans-orbital lobotomy. It used to be called an ice pick lobotomy. It involves inserting a leukotome through the eye sockets.
Mulder: So we're looking for a doctor? Someone with training?
Doctor: Not judging by this?
Scully: Whoever did this, Mulder, did it wrong.
Mulder: Is this what you see when you close your eyes, Gerry? Is that what you see? Gerry, tell me where Alice Brant is.
Gerry Schnauz: She's safe... from Howlers. She's all right now.
Scully: It's over, Mulder?
Mulder: Then that photo wouldn't be his fantasy, it would be his nightmare.
Scully: What the hell does it matter?
Mulder: Because I want to know.
Scully: I don't.
Gerry Schnauz: Besides, I've seen them. In that picture that your partner showed me. Pictures don't lie. You saw them too.
Scully: if there are such things as Howlers, Gerry, they live only inside your head.
[Scully's field journal]
Scully: I have no further explanation for the existence of the photographs. Nor am I confident one is forthcoming. My captivity forced me to understand and even empathise with Gerry Schauz — my survival depended on it. I see now the value of such insight. For truly to pursue monster, we must understand them, we must venture into theirs minds. Only in doing so do we risk letting them venture into ours.