Episode Summary

In Florida during hurricane season, agents probe strange disappearances.

Episode Details

Cast

Guest Cast

Quotes

Mulder's Answering Machine: Hi, this is Fox Mulder. You can leave me a message after the beep.

Arthur Dales: Agent Mulder, this is Arthur Dales calling from Florida. I don't know if you're watching the news but we're in for a hell of a blow in the next 12 to 24. I been through hurricanes, Mulder, been through the alphabet. But I just got a distress call from my neighbour down the road to set my teeth on edge. You don't have much time to get to the airport but if you're the X-Files man you say you are you better get your butt in gear.

[Arthur Dales is listening to a scanner]

First Man: [on scanner] We got no sign of anything amiss here at the residence out on the spit. Place is all boarded up tight, over.

Second Man: [on scanner] Roger that. Maybe the occupants have evacuated, over.

First Man: [on scanner] Well, that would be the Shipleys, but a neighbour called and says they couldn't have gone too far without their only vehicle which is still in the carport out here, over.

Second Man: [on scanner] Well that sounds like a real mystery, don't it?

Arthur Dales: It sure does, you dumb fathead. [He answers the door to Mulder and Scully] Well, it couldn't be that all the planes out were fully loaded, huh?

Mulder: Mr Dales, there's a reason that people don't head out into hurricanes.

Arthur Dales: Yeah. The hurricane's 20 miles offshore.

Mulder: Mr Dales, can we come in?

Arthur Dales: Come in. Who's this?

Scully: Special Agent Dana Scully.

Arthur Dales: Scully?

Mulder: She's my partner.

Arthur Dales: Uh-huh. Well, don't get too comfortable. You're going to want to get right back out there.

Scully: Out where?

Arthur Dales: Did you tell her what I told you?

Mulder: Yes, but she's... she's not the type that's easily persuaded.

Arthur Dales: Is that so?

Scully: What he means is I don't hear a story about a sea monster and automatically assume it's the Lord's gospel truth.

Arthur Dales: Why did you bring her here?

Mulder: Well, she knows your reputation, your early work on the X-Files and she has a knack for getting to the bottom of things.

Scully: Apparently, so does Mr Dales. [There are several empty liquor bottle in the garbage bin]

Arthur Dales: It's a good thing I have a reputation. Otherwise, how could it be impugned?

Scully: Look, Mr Dales, I'm sure that there is good reason for your alarm. I listened to the message that you left for Agent Mulder about your friends.

Arthur Dales: The Shipleys — a young couple with a son. Yeah, he lives out on the end of the sandspit. Sara called me in a panic. She said that something in the house had grabbed Jack, her husband.

Scully: In the bathroom, you said?

Arthur Dales: Yeah... of all places.

Mulder: It was your description that caused Agent Scully's... dubiousness.

Arthur Dales: No. Not my description. No. That was Sara's. She said... that it had tentacles, wrapped around her husband's neck and choking him.

Scully: And you have no reason to doubt Ms Shipley's report?

Arthur Dales: No. Both she and Jack are marine biologists. Or at least they were. I fear the worst.

Mulder: She's missing, too?

Arthur Dales: Uh-huh. Yeah. I got on the horn to the local constabulary but they're about as... helpful as a fart in a windstorm. I would have gone out there myself but for my bad hip.

Mulder: It's not a night that anybody should be out in.

Arthur Dales: Well, I don't see that there's a choice. If anyone wants to get to the bottom of all this...

Scully: What is it that brought you out here in the first place, Mr Dales?

Arthur Dales: I came down for the weather. Don't sneer at the mysteries of the deep, young lady. The bottom of the ocean is as deep and dark as the imagination.

Mulder: Hello! Mrs Shipley!

Scully: At least it looks like they had the time and the presence of mind to prepare for the hurricane.

Mulder: The place is all boarded up. It's from the inside. It makes you wonder how they got out.

Scully: Hello! Mrs Shipley! Mulder... No sign of life.

Mulder: There's something... on the drainpipe. I can't get it off. [The washing machine lid rises then falls. Mulder picks up a broom] I don't know if I'm going to need my gun or a harpoon here.

Scully: How the hell did the cat get in the washing machine?

Mulder: Maybe he was taking a dip... After he finished boarding up the windows.

Scully: Where do you think this leads to?

Mulder: Must be the bathroom. Dales told me the wife told him that the... the husband was grabbed from the bathroom. [Mulder begins pulling boards off the door]

Scully: Mr Shipley!

Mulder: Give me a hand with this? [Scully starts helping Mulder, they are startled by Deputy Greer, who enters holding a gun on them]

Deputy Greer: Well, howdy do! Yeah. Right like that. Keep your hands up there where I can see them. Now who are you and what the hell do you think you're doing? [Mulder mumbles around the torch in his mouth] Yeah. Nice and slow.

Mulder: You can put the gun down. We're FBI.

Deputy Greer: Don't all the nuts roll downhill to Florida.

Deputy Greer: I'm putting you under arrest.

Mulder: We're out here looking for the Shipleys, too.

Deputy Greer: You have the right to remain silent.

Mulder: Arthur Dales called us.

Deputy Greer: Anything you say can and will be used against you. You have a right to a lawyer. If you don't have one...

Mulder: Does that name mean anything to you? Arthur Dales?

Deputy Greer: I know Dales.

Mulder: All right.

Deputy Greer: I got a call from him, too. Drunk as a skunk. What's new?

Scully: Well, what else would we be doing out here on a night like this?

Deputy Greer: You could be looters. For all I know, you could be part of the Manson family. [The cat runs past, startling Deputy Greer, as he looks away, Mulder grabs his gun] Oh, no. You're going to kill me.

Mulder: No, I'm not, but I'd like to.

Scully: Deputy... [She holds up her badge]

Deputy Greer: The FBI? For real?

Mulder: No one in the bathroom. The deputy helped me pull off the plywood. There's no sign of anything except more of that slime in the bathtub and maybe three inches of water on the floor. It's weird. It's like somebody left the taps running before they boarded up the door.

Scully: Great. Mulder, they're threatening to close the airport. I think we better get out of here.

Mulder: Aren't you even curious what happened to these people?

Scully: Yes, I'm curious, Mulder, but I'm also suspicious. I mean, I... I think that Mr Dales' story is fuelled by more than his imagination and not much deeper than the bottom of a highball.

Mulder: Don't dismiss him so easily. He discovered the X-Files 40 years ago. He's seen things that I've only read about.

Scully: Because sea monsters can only be read about, Mulder, because they don't exist.

Mulder: If the sea is where life began — where our ancestors first walked ashore — then who's to say what new life may be developing in its uncharted depths.

Scully: You know what? Maybe you are a member of the Manson family. Mulder, look — there is nothing more for us to do here. There's nothing that the local law enforcement can't do for us. I mean, these people are missing. There's nowhere else to look. I've done my duty for... for Mr Dales, for my conscience... I mean, haven't you?

Mulder: Well, we should at least tell him that we're giving up... shouldn't we?

Deputy Greer: [to himself] Sea monsters... FBI agents... I'm the one who could use a drink.

Road Block Deputy: How do you do, folks? You're going to have to turn around and find yourself someplace dry to spend the night.

Mulder: What's the problem, officer?

Road Block Deputy: The road's washed out up ahead.

Scully: This is an emergency.

Road Block Deputy: I understand, ma'am, but unless your car has wings there's no getting through on this road.

Scully: What about the airport? Is there an alternate route?

Road Block Deputy: Airport? Not tonight. This hurricane's really bearing down on us. We got trees, power lines down all over the place. You folks really shouldn't be out here. I want you to drive to the first safe place you can find. You understand?

Scully: Sir, it's important that we evacuate the area. We're FBI agents and we need to get to where we're going.

Road Block Deputy: Don't all the nuts roll downhill to Florida.

Scully: I'd be happy to show you my ID...

Mulder: Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate the concern. [He talks over Scully, rolls up the window and drives away quickly]

Scully: Mulder.

Mulder: I was just one howdy do over the line.

Scully: [on mobile] Hello?

Mulder: The good thing about zero visibility, Scully? Can't get any worse.

Scully: [on mobile] Is this the Collier County Sheriff? Yes. Oh, hi. We're driving on, uh...

Mulder: Nance Road... N-A-N-C-E Road.

Scully: [on mobile] Nance Road. No, it isn't very smart, is it? Not... Yes, that would be much appreciated. [to Mulder] He's going to guide us to the nearest emergency shelter.

Mulder: Not a moment too soon.

Scully: [on mobile] Hello? Hello... [Hangs up] No service.

Mulder: You know, Scully, some day we're going to look back on this and we're going to laugh. And we'll just think of it as, uh... you know man pitted against the forces of nature. Think of it as a test of our mettle.

Scully: I don't need my mettle tested. [Something hits the roof of their car] What was that?

Mulder: I think that was a tree branch. Debris is starting to fly.

Scully: Mulder, we have to pull over. We have to wait out this storm somewhere away from the trees.

Mulder: We're not going to dodge any trees in a parked car. At least if we're driving, we're a moving target.

Scully: We don't know where we are and we don't know where we're going.

Mulder: There's somebody, I think, who's about to give us directions. Who says there's never a cop when you need one? [Deputy Greer's patrol car is in the car park]

Scully: Mulder, isn't that...

Mulder: Forrest Gump.

Scully: Deputy? Hello? Anybody... Mulder, he's in here. [Deputy Greer is lying on the floor gasping for air, his neck is covered in red welts] Can you talk to me? [He's choking] You're having trouble breathing? This man needs a trach or he's going to die real soon.

Mulder: [to himself] I've heard of passing the time... Ouch. [He pulls a man's watch out of the slimy toilet]

Scully: Mulder, I need you to hold his head real steady. Deputy, just try and relax. Okay. Here we go.

Mulder: Looks like he was attacked or stung. What are those? [The marks of the Deputy's neck]

Scully: I don't know but he's having a reaction which is affecting his autonomic response.

Mulder: Whatever it was, I think it came through the plumbing, through the toilet.

Scully: All I know is we have to get a medivac unit out here as soon as possible.

Mulder: If it's in the plumbing I got to make sure nobody else is in this building.

Mulder: You don't know this man, Mister...?

Walter Suarez: Uh, Suarez. Walter Suarez. Uh, no. He's not with you?

Dougie: I'll put it back. [The television set he is carrying]

Mulder: Yeah. Everything in your pockets, too.

Mulder: Right now, I just want to get you some place where I know you'll be safe.

Angela Villareal: From what?

Mulder: I don't know but whatever it is it may have seriously injured a Sheriff's deputy.

Walter Suarez: Who? Where?

Mulder: In the manager's apartment. It could be in the complex's plumbing right now.

Walter Suarez: In the plumbing?

Angela Villareal: That's great. I have to go to the bathroom about every ten seconds.

Mulder: Mr Vincent, your life may be in danger if you refuse to leave your apartment.

George Vincent: You may be in danger if you refuse to quit harassing me. Now, I'm armed in here and I'm within my rights.

Mulder: Well, that's great. But you may not be armed for what it is I'm talking about.

George Vincent: What the hell are you talking about? Hmm? It don't matter. I'm armed against it. The Junta, Cuba and Castro. I'm not going to cede my home to no revolutionaries without a fight. You got anything else you want to throw at me — you bring it on. [He slams the viewing window in the door shut]

Mulder: All the nuts roll down to Florida.

Scully: He's had some kind of foreign organism released into his body. His condition's worsening.

Angela Villareal: I can see that. What the hell was chewing on his neck?

Scully: I don't know. It may have been some kind of a water-borne parasite.

Angela Villareal: [to Walter Suarez] Uh huh. You see that? You see what happens when you live in a dump?

Walter Suarez: Where's Harry?

Scully: I'm sorry. I don't know who Harry is.

Angela Villareal: The slumlord who owns this place.

Scully: He may have evacuated.

Angela Villareal: Harry? Right. And I'm giving birth to the Christ child.

Walter Suarez: Harry's legs hardly work. He's got to use those crutches.

Angela Villareal: He don't have no car. Nobody likes him 'cause he never lifts a finger on this rat trap.

Angela Villareal: Now, who are you?

Dougie: Nobody.

Angela Villareal: Nobody? Oh, well, it is so nice to be surrounded by so many great men.

Mulder: We got to get out of here as soon as possible.

Scully: We can't.

Mulder: We can put the deputy in his car and take him to the hospital.

Scully: Mulder, I just got off the radio. They won't even chance sending a rescue vehicle at this time. The roads are impassable, and I don't even know if the deputy is movable in this condition.

Mulder: You mean we're stuck here?

Scully: It looks that way. At least until the weather breaks.

Scully: I don't think these wounds are bites or stings. There's something in here, Mulder, right under the skin. Tongs. [Angela Villareal passes kitchen tongs to her] Mulder, what's his temperature?

Mulder: Well, either he's got no temperature or he's about to spontaneously combust.

Scully: You're not far off. It's 106. Okay, somebody fill the tub with cold water and find as much ice as they can in the freezer.

Dougie: But that thing is in the... plumbing.

Scully: Yeah, well it may be, but unless we get his temperature down he's not going to survive this. Now get moving.

Mulder: Mr Vincent? Drop your weapon! Put it down!

George Vincent: It's going to take a whole lot more than this to kill whatever it is I just saw.

George Vincent: I don't know what the hell it was but it came down out of there. [An exposed pipe in the ceiling has a large hole in it]

Mulder: You didn't see it?

George Vincent: I caught it out of the corner of my eye but it swooped down at me. I...

Scully: All that happened here is a sewage pipe burst.

George Vincent: No, no, this thing came at me.

Mulder: That looks like the four-inch tie-in to the second floor. Whatever it is didn't just rip through the ceiling. Looks like it ripped right through the pipe.

Walter Suarez: Where did it go?

Mulder: I don't know. It must still be in the building. It's probably in the outflow system.

Walter Suarez: Well, maybe it'll just flow back out.

George Vincent: Or maybe it'll come up through the can and grab you by the nugs.

Mulder: Someone's already got him by the nugs.

Scully: Look, you guys, whatever this thing is there's no evidence yet that it's going to kill anybody.

Walter Suarez: Well, what about the man in the bathtub?

Scully: The man in the bathtub may very well be saved if he can just last out this storm. In fact, we may all be safe if we just remain calm.

Angela Villareal: Remain calm? I got to pee so bad my back teeth are swimming.

Angela Villareal: Supertanker coming through. [Pushing into the bathroom]

Walter Suarez: Here, Angela, you can't go in there.

Angela Villareal: My bladder is pressing against your unborn child, Walter. He's going to have a head like a tortilla.

Walter Suarez: This thing is in the plumbing!

Angela Villareal: The volume alone could push it right back out to sea.

Mulder: Scully, that's how this thing is here. The hurricane is sitting offshore dredging up God knows what and this thing must have been driven into the city's reclamation system through some offshore outfall pipe. From there it gained access to the sewer pipes in this building.

Scully: We'll be waiting for you out here. [Handing Angela Villareal a bucket]

Angela Villareal: Thank you.

Mulder: Scully, something welled up out of the uncharted depths of the ocean — something that had been lying there undiscovered for ages, probably.

Scully: Mulder, there is no evidence of any creature here. Those organisms might just simply be waterborne parasites, but something from Jules Verne they are not.

Mulder: He's gone.

Scully: It's gone?

Mulder: No. He's gone. The deputy. [Holding up the empty wet uniform]

Scully: Where'd he go?

Mulder: I think the deputy went out with the bath water.

George Vincent: And he was... he was in there with it?

Mulder: No, I don't think he was.

Walter Suarez: Well, she said she saw it.

Mulder: I'm sure she did. Look, Scully, I think I know why nobody's ever seen this thing before. It just doesn't live in water. It is water, taking shape only when it attacks, like it did when the hurricane backed seawater into the plumbing. Virtually unseeable until then.

Scully: Mulder, if that were true then this wouldn't be visible, would it? [She holds up a glass jar with the parasite from the deputy's neck] I mean, what this is showing us is that water actually attempts to kill it.

Mulder: Maybe you just impeded its reproductive process. Maybe it needs time to complete its cycle like it had with the Shipleys.

Scully: Mulder, the Shipleys weren't even in their house.

Mulder: No, they were when they were attacked just like the deputy was here — using their bodies to lay its own spawn — using the body's water content to reproduce itself — to make itself anew.

Walter Suarez: You mean, he turned into one of those things?

Angela Villareal: There are more of them?

Mulder: We got to get out of here.

Scully: We're in the middle of a hurricane.

Mulder: We got to get to another building.

Scully: Mulder?! Hey, Mulder, are you okay?

[Gasping for breath, he shows her the red marks on his throat. Before Scully can react, George Vincent grabs her, pushes her back into the apartment and slams the door in Mulder's face]

Scully: Hey... wait a second. What are you doing?!

George Vincent: I am saving our lives. [Aiming his gun at her]

Scully: That's my partner out there!

George Vincent: If he's your partner he should have listened to you.

Scully: You can't just leave him there!

George Vincent: I'm not letting him in.

Scully: He's going to die!

Walter Suarez: What are you going to do for him?

Scully: Well, I can at least keep him breathing!

Walter Suarez: You couldn't save the deputy.

Scully: Look, at least let me try. I'm a medical doctor.

Angela Villareal: That's good... because my water just broke.

Scully: We're going to need water. If I'm going to deliver this baby you can put that gun down.

George Vincent: How do we know you're really a doctor?

Scully: You don't. The truth is I've never delivered a baby before. So stand back or make yourself useful but stay out of my way.

Scully: Well, it's official. Ten pounds, ten ounces of piss and vinegar. El nino grande — Leroy Walter Villareal Suarez, Jr.

Mulder: Oh, no.

Scully: Oh, yes.

Arthur Dales: Oh, it's amazing. It's truly amazing.

Scully: What's that?

Arthur Dales: That you could come here in the face of a hurricane chasing a sea monster yet, and end up bringing a new... life into the world. And then slaying the monster and save this one's life as he was quite literally circling down the drain.

Mulder: She didn't save my life, really...

Arthur Dales: Oh, yes, she did. Oh yes, yes, with a gun to her head, no less.

Scully: Well, you wouldn't have known to go out in the rain if I hadn't pointed it out that to you that it was the fresh water that killed the organism...

Mulder: No. No no no no... I saw the Shipley's cat.

Arthur Dales: Uh, well, I can't swallow that...

Mulder: No, no, no. I saw the cat, which had been saved which had been in the washing machine. And the Shipleys had boarded up their house which means that the only way that they could have vanished was if the creature came up through the plumbing in a backwash of seawater... seawater. And then the deputy who vanished from a bathtub full of Epsom salts.

Arthur Dales: If Agent Scully had not been there with you I shudder to think what would have happened to you. I'd say you owe her your life. It takes a big man to admit this, but... if I had had someone as savvy as her by my side, all those years ago in the X-Files, I might not have retired. I suggest that we have a toast to your good fortune. And I insist that we have it. So... what'll it be? A little of the... oh, uh... anyone for water?

Mulder and Scully: No!

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