5X17 All Souls

Scully: Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.

---

Scully: As much as I have my faith, Father, I am a scientist, trained to weigh evidence. But science only teaches us how... not why...

---

[Flashback]

Scully: Her mother said that she was found in a kneeling position.

Dr Belon: Genuflecting. Are you a religious person?

Scully: Why do you ask?

Dr Belon: I haven't been to church since I was a kid. But I went last Sunday...

---

[Flashback]

[Scully looks at photographs of scars on Dara Kernof's hands]

Scully: Looks like there was surgery done on her hands.

Dr Belon: She was polydactyl, same with her feet. I haven't asked her parents yet, I haven't had the heart to, but I assume they had the extra fingers removed.

Scully: What's the connection?

Dr Belon: I found no other evidence of any other tissue damage or electrical burns or any other serious trauma. It's as if God himself struck her down.

---

[Flashback]

Mulder: Yeah look, I'm... uh... kind of tailing a possible suspect right now so I'm in kind of a rush. So uh...

Scully: I need some birth and adoptive records on a Dara Kernof.

Mulder: Who?

Scully: Dara Kernof. I can't tell you much more than that Mulder, I'm sorry.

Mulder: Want to give me a hint? Anything?

Scully: Not until you get me those records.

Mulder: Then I'll talk to you later. [He runs out of the phone booth into an adult theatre that is showing A Decade of Dirty Delinquents]

---

[Flashback]

Mulder: Scully? Aren't you the secret squirrel?

Scully: What do you mean?

Mulder: Got a look at that body they wheeled out of here. You've been holding out on me.

Scully: Mulder it's not what you think. I didn't want to involve you. I got asked to look into this as a favour for a family.

Mulder: Dara Keroff's family?

Scully: You found Dara's records.

Mulder: No. These are her birth records, the adoption records have been sealed.

Scully: I think one of my questions has already been answered. Dara was a twin.

Mulder: No. Actually she was a quadruplet, one of four girls. Was this cross found like this? [Examining inverted crucifix hanging from Paula Koklos' bed]

Scully: Yes, as far as I know. Why?

Mulder: It's inverted, upside down. That's a protest, a sacrilege against the church.

Scully: Put there by whom?

Mulder: It's your case, remember Scully. Do you have any suspects?

---

[Flashback]

Mulder: Look, Scully, I know you don't... really want my help on this, but can I offer my... professional opinion? You got a bona-fide super-crazy religious wacko on your hands.

Scully: What makes you so sure?

Mulder: Well the mote in the eye, the eyes are the window to the soul, an eye for an eye. He's working from ancient scripture, ancient text, maybe even the bible. He may even think he's doing God's work.

---

[Flashback]

[Mulder flicks through the Book of St Peter the Sinner]

Mulder: Scully, look at this. Agnostic gospels, amina, Book of J, Apocrypha... I'm surprised there's nothing here from Jesus Christ Superstar.

Scully: What kind of church is this?

Mulder: There's no telling.

---

[Flashback]

Mulder: I know people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones blah blah blah, but that guy is paranoid!

---

[Flashback]

Scully: I was raised to believe that God has his reasons, however mysterious.

Mulder: He may well have is reasons but he seems to use a lot of psychotics to carry out his job orders.

---

Scully: I was meant to see Emily... for a purpose.

Chaplain: Which was?

Scully: To save these girls.

---

[Flashback]

Scully: And uh, I know you're going to think that I'm crazy... but I swear I found evidence of something wing-like.

Mulder: Well then maybe she flew here, Scully.

---

[Flashback]

Mulder: What are you asking for Father? Mercy or forgiveness. You know, they say when you talk to God it's prayer, but when God talks to you it's... schizophrenia. What is your God telling you, Father?

Father Gregory: I pray for the girls souls.

Mulder: Oh you pray for their souls now. That's convenient.

Father Gregory: I'm immune to your mockery. You're not interested in the truth.

Mulder: I am only interested in the truth. I would like to know why you did what you did to three defenceless, helpless young girls. What in your sick mind would possess you to burn their eyes out? Did they see you for who you are... like I do? And what does this mean Father?

Father Gregory: Tell him what it is. St Peter. You know the story. St Peter on the cross.

Scully: St Peter would only be crucified upside down... out of humility towards Christ.

Father Gregory: I've risked my life to protect their precious souls, which the Devil has sought to claim for his own. He took two before I could reach them and I was too late to save the third.

---

[Flashback]

Father Gregory: [to Scully] You know. You've already guesses... what they are. The last one is sill out there. The Devil is here. And if he finds her his victory will be complete.

Mulder: Scully, they think they've found the fourth girl.

Father Gregory: [to Scully] As long as I'm in here there's no one to protect her. Let me go, or she will die.

---

Scully: Father Gregory said that the Devil claimed the life of the first three girls.

Chaplain: You don't believe that?

Scully: I know now that Father Gregory was mistaken. The Devil didn't take their souls, but the threat to those girls was real. And Father Gregory gave his life to protect them.

---

[Flashback]

Scully: I've seen things. Things that have made me question if there aren't larger forces at work here.

Father McCue: What have you seen?

Scully: Visions... of my daughter Emily for one.

Father McCue: I think that's understandable. I'm sure you identified with the loss.

Scully: I considered that... but then I saw something last night which I can't explain. I saw a man in dark clothes... but he had four faces... they weren't human.

[Father McCue shows Scully a book]

Father McCue: Is that what you saw? It's a Seraphim, an angel, with four faces. Those of a man, a lion, an eagle and a bull. In the story the angel descends from Heaven and fathers four children with a mortal woman. Their offspring are the Nepholim, the Fallen Ones. They have the souls of angels, but they weren't meant to be. They're deformed, tormented. So the Lord sends the Seraphim to Earth to bring back the souls of the Nepholim, to keep the Devil from claiming them as his own.

Scully: How did he bring back their souls?

Father McCue: They were smote with the brightness of his countenance. To look upon the Seraphim in all his glory is to give up one's soul to Heaven.

Scully: You think that's what I saw?

Father McCue: No. I think what you saw is a figment of your imagination. A half remembered story from your childhood that surfaced because of this case.

Scully: But I saw it Father.

Father McCue: Dana, the Nepholim is a story, the text in which it appears isn't even recognised by the church.

Scully: Father, do you believe that... God has his reasons?

Father McCue: Yes, I'm certain of it. It's how He rewards our faith.

---

Chaplain: You believed you were releasing her soul to Heaven?

Scully: I felt sure of it.

Chaplain: But you still can't reconcile this belief with the physical fact of her death?

Scully: No. I thought I could Father, but I can't.

Chaplain: Do you believe there's a life after this one?

Scully: Yes.

Chaplain: Are you sure? Has it occurred to you that this too is part of what you were meant to understand?

Scully: You mean accepting my loss?

Chaplain: Can you accept it?

Scully: Maybe that's what faith is.