Episode Summary
Deadly rain in a migrant workers camp sends Agent Mulder and Scully on the trail of a mythical beast — El Chupacabra.
Episode Details
- Writer: John Shiban
- Director: Tucker Gates
- Original Broadcast: AU: 23.04.1997 US: 12.01.1997
Cast
- Scully Gillian Anderson
- Mulder David Duchovny
Guest Cast
- County Coroner Susan Bain
- INS Agent Conrad Lozano Ruben Blades
- Eladio Buente Raymond Cruz
- Maria Dorantes Pamela Diaz
- Barber Markus Hondro
- Rick Culver Mike Kopsa
- Village Woman Janeth Muniz
- Assistant Director Walter Skinner Mitch Pileggi
- Migrant Worker Fabricio Santin
- Gabrielle Buente Simi
- Store Clerk Tony Dean Smith
- Dr Larry Steen Robert Thurston
- INS Worker José Vargas
- Soledad Buente Jose Yenque
Quotes
Village Woman: Two brothers. One woman. Trouble.
Scully: Mulder, this happened how long ago?
Mulder: Tres diaz. Mue incredible, no?
Scully: Only the smell... Mulder, you brought me out under the pretence of investigating an unexplained death. Can you tell me why we're standing out here in the middle of a field looking at a dead goat?
Mulder: Well, according to eyewitnesses, the death we're investigating was preceded by a
Fortean
event. That's a highly unusual or infrequent meteorological phenomenon — also known as a transient.
Scully: A transient?
Mulder: Yeah. Witnesses described a bright flash about 30 degrees off the horizon, then a hot yellow rain fell from a cloudless sky. Fortean researchers call these
liquid falls
. Black and red rains are the most common, but there have also been reported cases of blue, purple and green rains.
Scully: Purple rain?
Mulder: Yeah. Great album. Deeply flawed movie, though.
Scully: Did she die in a similar fashion?
Mulder: I would assume so.
Scully: You assume? Nobody's examined the body?
Mulder: Nobody cares, Scully. The victim and many of the witnesses are illegal immigrants; migrant farm workers. I thought it might be important to talk to them before they migrated.
Mulder: How do you explain the yellow rain then, and the dead goat over the hill?
Soledad Buente: It's a trick. For fools who believe in fool superstitions.
Scully: Thank you, Mr Buente. You've been very helpful.
Scully: Maria. Maria. I just met a girl named Maria.
Mulder: Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, Scully.
Scully: It makes perfect sense, Mulder. Admit it, you fell for it. Your Fortean event turned out to be nothing more than the oldest story in the world; two men, one woman, trouble.
Agent Lozano: Let's see... Okay. We have a Jose Feliciano. We have Juan Valdez. We have Caesar Chavez. We have Placido Domingo here. But I don't see any Eladio Buente.
Agent Lozano: Call it anything you want, but this is an age-old story.
Mulder: You know, I've heard that.
Mulder: They think he's the Chupacabra.
Agent Lozano: That may be. But I will tell you with a tremendous degree of certainty this guy is not Erik Estrada...
[Showing Mulder the claimed name on the paperwork]
[Agent Lozano finishes translating Eladio Buente's statement for Mulder]
Agent Lozano: This guy is better than Erik Estrada.
Scully: Did he tell you what happened?
Mulder: A flash of light, yellow rain, Maria! MARIA!
[Scully looks at Mulder strangely]
Scully: Mulder, I know you don't want to hear this but I think the only aliens in this story are not the villains. They're the victims.
Mulder: [on mobile phone] Scully, I've been thinking. I know that's dangerous, but just bear with me. These Fortean transients, what the women described, they could have been caused by an object falling at a high rate of speed through the atmosphere, creating a sonic boom and a flash of light. What astronomers call a bolide.
Scully: A bolide?
Mulder: Created by a meteorite or a piece of extraplanetary material — of which 2000 tons fall to the earth every day. Now this yellow rain, he space debris could have fallen in a nearby lake, superheating the water and sending it skyward. Which would mean that this is alien.
Scully: Mulder, I think his is beside the point right now.
Mulder: Oh and the fungus —
Scully: Mulder, let me work on the fungus, okay. What you need to do right now is to find the man who is spreading it.
Mulder: Okay.
[Hangs up]
Agent Lozano: So, you got your own stories too, huh.
[Mulder smiles]
Scully: More goats...
[Opening the back of a truck full of dead goats]
Skinner: You would think that with the resources we have, we'd be able to find these men. I'm not hearing a good explanation why this hasn't happened.
Scully: Well, Sir, they have a way of being almost invisible.
Mulder: The truth is... nobody cares.