Episode Summary
Agent Mulder discovers the ultimate proof of extraterrestrial life while Scully is forced to confront her own mortality.
Part one of three
Episode Details
- Writer: Chris Carter
- Director: RW Goodwin
- Original Broadcast: AU: 23.07.1997 US: 18.05.1997
Cast
- Scully Gillian Anderson
- Mulder David Duchovny
Guest Cast
- Saw Operator Craig Brunanski
- Section Chief Scott Blevins Charles Cioffi
- Michael Kritschgau John Finn
- Detective Rempulski Rob Freeman
- Agent Hedin Nancy Kerr
- Margaret Scully Sheila Larken
- Dr Vitagliano Barry W Levy
- Scott Ostelhoff Steve Makaj
- Rolston John Oliver
- William Scully Jr Pat Skipper
- Babcock James Sutorius
- Arlinsky Matthew Walker
- Father McCue Arnie Walters
Quotes
Scully: Four years ago Section Chief Blevins assigned me to a project you all know as the X-Files. As I am a medical doctor, with a background in hard science, my job was to provide an analytical perspective on the work of Special Agent Fox Mulder, whose investigations into the paranormal were fuelled by a personal belief that his sister had been abducted by aliens when he was twelve. I come here today, four years later, to report on the illegitimacy of Agent Mulder's work. That it is my scientific opinion... that he became, over the course of these years, a victim. A victim of his own false hopes, and of his belief in the biggest of lies.
Bill Scully Jr: I'm sorry I'm late. My ship got stuck in traffic. You
get my birthday card?
Scully: Yes, I did. Thanks for remembering this year.
Bill Scully Jr: Well, once a decade.
Father McCue: I feel awkward sitting here. I'm sure you do too.
Scully: No. I'm sorry.
Father McCue: I've known your family for so many years. Your mother asked me to come, that I might have a word with you. I know its been some time since we've spoken ourselves, since you drifted from the church —
Scully: Father McCue.
Father McCue: — In this time of personal crisis, a threat to your health, turning back to your faith is important and essential.
Scully: Father McCue. I appreciate my mother's concern, and yours, but I'm being treated for my cancer and I'm taking every precaution —
Father McCue: Faith can make you stronger.
Scully: I haven't felt a need. I have strength... and I'm not going to come running back now, that's just not who I am. I'd be lying to myself and to you.
Mulder: Who else knows about this?
Arlinsky: No one. I know what your first thought was. But the St Elias range? That's a long way to go for a hoax.
Mulder: Well, if you're going to go, why not go all the way?
Mulder: You think its foolish?
Scully: I have no opinion actually.
Mulder: You have no opinion?
Scully: This is your holy grail, Mulder. Not mine.
Mulder: What is that supposed to mean?
Scully: It just means proving to the world the existence of alien life is not my last dying wish.
Mulder: How about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny?
Mulder: Then you accept the possibility that belief in god is a lie?
Scully: I don't think about it actually, and I don't think that it can be proven.
Mulder: But what if it could be? Wouldn't that knowledge be worth seeking? Or is it just easier to go on believing the lie?
Dr Vitagliano: There's some cellular material within the matrix.
Scully: Plant or animal?
Dr Vitagliano: I don't know. It's what I'd have to classify, a chimera — a hybrid cell.
Scully: From what?
Dr Vitagliano: As I said, I don't know.
Scully: Is it capable of cell division?
Dr Vitagliano: I don't know that either. I just now found them. I'd like to get them under our electron microscope, if that's okay?
Scully: Yes. Please.
[Mulder and Arlinsky see a body lying in a snow bank]
Mulder: Funny place to take a nap.
Michael Kritschgau: Please don't shoot. I didn't mean to hurt you. I had no choice.
Scully: PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE CAR!
Michael Kritschgau: If you arrest me, they'll kill me.
Scully: I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.
Michael Kritschgau: The same people who are trying to kill you. The people who gave you your cancer.
Scott Ostelhoff: Where did Mulder go?
Babcock: He got a call.
Scott Ostelhoff: Is he a believer?
Babcock: Oh yeah.
Scott Ostelhoff: Then we're then only ones who know.
Babcock: Right.
Mulder: They would have known that the body would be carbon dated, that it would be proven a fake.
Michael Kritschgau: The body will never be tested, Agent Mulder.
Mulder: What do you mean?
Michael Kritschgau: You were only meant to see it, to make you believe the lie, so that you might finally commit and go public with the news.
Mulder: [to Scully] This man is a liar.
Michael Kritschgau: You can see for yourself, Agent Mulder. The body is all ready long gone.
Mulder: After all I've seen and experienced, I refuse to believe that it's not true?
Scully: Because it's easier to believe the lie, isn't it?
Mulder: What the hell did that guy say to you that you'd believe his story?
Scully: He said that the men behind this hoax, behind these lies, gave me this disease to make you believe.
Scully: Early this morning I got a call from the police asking me to come to Agent Mulder's apartment. The detective asked me, he needed me to identify a body...
Section Chief Blevins: Agent Scully...
Scully: Agent Mulder died late last night from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.