9ABX06 Lord of the Flies

Dr Fountain: Thanks for coming so quickly.

Reyes: Are you the medical examiner?

Dr Fountain: Yes, yes, I'm Dr Fountain. And you're the experts from the FBI?

Doggett: The experts?

Dr Fountain: Well, I was told you were the experts.

Reyes: We work on the X-Files. Our expertise is the unexplained.

Doggett: We were told you had an unexplained death here.

Dr Fountain: Well, you're the experts you tell me.

Doggett: Why don't you explain exactly what happened here, doctor?

Dr Fountain: Well, I can't. That's the point.

Reyes: You can't tell us anything?

Dr Fountain: Well, all things considered, I'd prefer not to go on record.

Doggett: Why is that?

Dr Fountain: Well, it's the kid's parents. They're suing everyone.

Reyes: For what?

Dr Fountain: Everything. They're suing the county for making the street too steep, the supermarket he stole the shopping cart from, the company that made the helmet he was wearing.

Doggett: Off the record, Doc... what the hell has that [Half of Bill Kizzler's head is caved in] got to do with a supermarket shopping cart?

Dr Fountain: You familiar with The Dumb Ass Show?

Reyes: The Dumb Ass Show?

Dr Fountain: It's a cable TV show where the kids act like, well, dumb asses. They videotape themselves doing stupid stunts.

Doggett: You mean this was an accident?

Dr Fountain: I'd prefer not to get sucked into a legal nightmare here. You investigate the unexplained. How about you explain it to me?

Reyes: Dr Fountain?, do you see this? [Bill Kizzler's eyes are moving, as if in REM sleep]

Doggett: What the hell is that?

Dr Fountain: You're asking me?

[Reyes opens the corpse's eyelid with forceps, flies emerge and engulf them]

---

Doggett: Thanks for coming so quickly.

Scully: Well, your message said urgent. What is it you want me to look at here?

Doggett: We were hoping you could tell us.

Dr Fountain: Is she the expert?

---

Dr Fountain: Well? What do you think?

Scully: Well, I have to say that... I've never seen anything quite like this before. [Dr Fountain leaves]

Doggett: Well, something killed this kid.

Scully: Well, judging from the amount of insect faeces in the ear and nasal cavities it appears that they fed at such a furious rate that it caused the boy's skull to collapse from the inside. His helmet protected his head during the crash; there is no impact trauma here whatsoever. None.

Reyes: You're saying flies killed him.

Doggett: All the kids at the scene... the flies choose to attack this boy? Why?

Reyes: Maybe they were attracted for reasons we're not seeing.

Doggett: What if somebody put something in his helmet? Insect pheromone. You know, Spanish Fly — that stuff you see advertised in the back of magazines that guys use to attract girls? [Reyes looks at Doggett] I glance at them for amusement.

Scully: I may have to brush up on my Spanish Fly but I don't think the science works that way. Anyway, before we start looking for MO, I want to find out what kind of fly would act that aggressively.

Dr Bronzino: The musca vetustissima walker. The Australian Bush Fly. It craves protein so much it will actually crawl into your open nose, mouth, ears even your eyes to feed on nutritious blood and moisture. Though, the New Zealand screw-worm fly often kills its victims in mere moments by burrowing into an open wound or cut. I'm sorry. I'm Dr Rocky Bronzino. [to Doggett] Hi. Rocky Bronzino. [to Reyes] Hello there. Rocky Bronzino, field entomological expert, Rutgers University, at your service.

Scully: Dr Bronzino...

Dr Bronzino: Rocky.

Scully: These flies you mentioned neither of them are indigenous to North America. Are you suggesting that we've got a virulent foreign vector here?

Dr Bronzino: No. The specimens you collected are your garden-variety calliphorid. Harmless as, well... flies.

Doggett: What are you suggesting then?

Dr Bronzino: Nothing. Dr Fountain brought me in for my scientific expertise. And I must say... I'm glad he did.

Reyes: Dr Bronzino, you should know we may be looking at a murder.

Dr Bronzino: A murder? Are there any suspects?

[Reyes hands him a bottle of flies]

---

[Doggett and Reyes are in Principal Lokensgard's office watching a video of David Winkle's exploits with a port-a-loo]

Doggett: I think I just solved this case. This kid had crap for brains, the flies couldn't resist.

Reyes: Oh, and you were such a choirboy growing up?

Doggett: I mean, we did some stupid stuff but we didn't know it was stupid at the time. This isn't just stupid, this is glorification of stupid. These kids take enormous pride in being sub-mental.

Reyes: That's why they call it Dumb Ass."

[Principal Lokensgard enters the office with David Winkle]

Principal Lokensgard: Mr David Winkle.

Doggett: Sky Pilot Winky. Just the man we want to see. Come on in. [Principal Lokensgard leaves] That's very entertaining, Sky Pilot.

David Winkle: Sky Commander, if you don't mind.

Doggett: And you can call me Sheriff John when I haul your dumb ass off to jail, Winky.

David Winkle: What are you talking about?

Reyes: We obtained a copy of a recent email you sent, offering to sell the video of your friend's death to the Fox network.

David Winkle: What? No, no, no. I wrote all the networks. Fox was the only one who had any interest in it.

Reyes: I don't think you understand.

David Winkle: Wait... you think I killed him? You think I killed Captain Dare to make money? My best friend?

Doggett: Well, looking at this video you were the last person to have contact with him. You handed him his helmet at the top of the hill. I think you put something in it. [David Winkle stands up, scratching his back] Sit down, Sky Commander...

David Winkle: I can't! I'm being attacked! Oh, god, it's happening to me! [He pulls his shirt off, the words DUMB ASS have appeared in welts on his lower back]

---

Scully: I'm glad you're here. I think we just got our first real break.

Reyes: What did you find?

Scully: Well, it's what the entomologist Rocky Bronzino found. The flies that ate at the brain and skull of the victim are all female. Every last one of them.

Doggett: Exactly how is that a break?

Scully: Well, what are the chances of that?

Reyes: You mean that the absence of males suggests there's a reason for the attack. Behaviourally.

Scully: Well, something biological is going on. Whether it's hormonal or chemical, something has caused these bugs to attack.

Doggett: Or a need to express themselves.

Scully: To what?

Doggett: This is a kid that calls himself Sky Commander Winky. Agent Reyes and I were interviewing him as a suspect, when this happened. [He hands Scully a photograph of David Winkle's back] The paramedics arrived and treated him for an aggressive attack of body lice.

Scully: Hmm. Lice are not altogether uncommon in a school environment.

Doggett: Except that these are better spellers than most of the kids.

Scully: So what are you saying? That this is just another Dumb Ass stunt?

Reyes: Well, that was my first thought. But the victim here was just too freaked out by this incident to make me believe he'd staged this. Which leads me to think, that while you may be right about this being a matter of biology, someone is directing the biology.

Scully: How does one direct bugs?

Reyes: I don't know how, but we've been running down a long list of witnesses. [She hands Scully a series of photographs of the crowd on the video] A loner who was present at every Dumb Ass stunt and who had a run-in with this kid Winky at school just prior to the lice attacking. His name is Dylan Lokensgard. We're going to want to talk to him.

---

Principal Lokensgard: Dylan? Dylan. I want to have a talk with you. Honey, can you come out here? [Dylan Lokensgard climbs out the window] Dylan? Dylan? Dylan! [She intercepts him in the front yard] Where are you going?

Dylan Lokensgard: To school.

Principal Lokensgard: I know where you're going.

Dylan Lokensgard: Well, what did Natalie want?

Principal Lokensgard: You stay away from her. Dylan, she's no good for you. She's only going to get you into trouble.

Dylan Lokensgard: Natalie and I are friends. We've been friends since we were kids.

Principal Lokensgard: But you're not kids any more, Dylan. Which is why we need to talk, honey. You're going through changes. Your body is going through changes.

Dylan Lokensgard: You don't understand anything. I don't want to talk to you. I wish Dad was still here. You don't know anything about me. [He rides off on his bicycle]

Principal Lokensgard: Honey, I want what's best for you. Dylan! Come back here. Dylan!

---

Dr Bronzino: So many flowers... so little time.

Scully: Excuse me?

Dr Bronzino: Pheromones, Dr Scully. Heavy in the air. Nature's natural attractants. Driving the insect world to go forth and pollinate.

Scully: I'm aware of how pheromones work. But according to this device there isn't a single pheromone to be found out here.

Dr Bronzino: Well, that can't be right. The bio-sensor we use is an actual fly antennae over which the pheromones pass. But I modified the EAG to measure in picograms which makes it sensitive to traces a mile in any direction.

Scully: But I'm still not sure why you think that pheromones might cause an otherwise harmless fly to attack a human so violently, Doctor...

Dr Bronzino: Rocky.

Scully: Rocky.

Dr Bronzino: Bugs are small-minded creatures, and therefore very predictable. They don't have moods, per se. They react to circumstance and stimuli, as they have been doing it for millennia.

Scully: So what do you suppose they're reacting to out here?

Dr Bronzino: It may be the bugs are being somehow driven crazy with desire. You know, they say we humans respond to pheromones, too.

Scully: Yeah, I tend to agree with that, yeah.

Dr Bronzino: Women's dormitory syndrome. It's believed that pheromones are the reason that women who live together share the same menstrual cycle.

Scully: Fascinating.

Dr Bronzino: You know, when a male and female calliphorid fly mate they stay joined for up to one and a half hours. One and a half, doctor.

Scully: You know, Rocky... I'm a mother.

Dr Bronzino: Mothers are women, too. [The pheromone bio-sensor beeps] Big hit!

Scully: What is it?

Dr Bronzino: A high concentration of C-13 calliphorone... Incoming.

[The beeping increases as Dylan Lokensgard passes behind them on his bicycle. Scully and Dr Bronzino are looking up at the sky and don't notice him]

---

Dylan Lokensgard: Natalie! [He stacks his bicycle into the bushes]

Natalie Gordon: Dylan? Are you all right?

Dylan Lokensgard: I'm fine.

Natalie Gordon: What about your bike?

Dylan Lokensgard: I'll get it later.

Natalie Gordon: I came by your house to see you.

Dylan Lokensgard: Oh, really?

Natalie Gordon: Yeah, your mom made it sound like there was something wrong with you.

Dylan Lokensgard: Me? I'm fine. What did you want?

Natalie Gordon: I wanted to apologise about what happened yesterday, in the cafeteria. Winky can be such a jerk.

Dylan Lokensgard: I was just worried about you. What'd I say?

Natalie Gordon: Nothing. No one understands. My mom and dad think it's just going to go away. What I'm feeling...

Dylan Lokensgard: You mean about Bill?

Natalie Gordon: I wish I could just turn back time. I wish we could just... make everything go away and start all over again.

Dylan Lokensgard: I know. Like when we were kids.

Natalie Gordon: Remember the night we played hide-and-seek on your street?

Dylan Lokensgard: Manhunt.

Natalie Gordon: We hid in the tree together.

Dylan Lokensgard: Our names are still carved on it. [The buzzer rings]

Natalie Gordon: I'm going to get marked late.

Reyes: Dylan Lokensgard? Can you come with us, Dylan?

---

Dylan Lokensgard: Why are you showing me this?

Reyes: What do you think of it?

Dylan Lokensgard: You mean, The Dumb Ass Show?

Doggett: That, and the kids who make it.

Dylan Lokensgard: I know them, you know...

Reyes: You ever have contact with Bill? The kid who played Captain Dare?

Dylan Lokensgard: No.

Doggett: You have anything against him?

Dylan Lokensgard: No.

Reyes: Do you think it's strange that he was attacked and killed by insects?

Dylan Lokensgard: Who wouldn't?

Principal Lokensgard: What's going on in here?

Reyes: We're talking to Dylan.

Principal Lokensgard: Oh, no, you're not. Dylan...

Doggett: Ma'am...

Principal Lokensgard: No one interrogates my son in my office without my permission.

Reyes: Just calm down, Mrs Lokensgard.

[There are flies gathering on the ceiling]

Principal Lokensgard: He's not a part of that crowd. What are you accusing him of?

Doggett: We're not accusing him. Just trying to see what he knows.

Principal Lokensgard: He doesn't know anything.

Reyes: He was at the crime scene.

Principal Lokensgard: Yeah, well, so were a lot of kids. Dylan...

[Dylan Lokensgard is covered in flies]

---

Doggett: [to exterminators] You're too late, gentlemen. Bugs are gone. Bugs are all gone. [They ignore him] Whatever. [He joins Reyes] How's he doing?

Reyes: He's unhurt, apparently. Not so much as a single bite on him.

Doggett: Mrs Lokensgard? I don't think we've finished talking to Dylan.

Principal Lokensgard: Oh, yes, you have! We're going home. [She leaves with her son]

Doggett: I've said it before and I'll say it again: The whole reason this case is attracting flies is because somebody's full of crap.

Reyes: I think what we just saw was a show. Dylan Lokensgard caused those bugs to attack him to make himself look like a victim instead of the perpetrator.

Doggett: Okay, but how? This guy's a horse whisperer, only for bugs?

Reyes: I don't know how he's doing it, but I may know a way to find out.

---

Scully: Where did you get this?

Doggett: Dylan Lokensgard provided it to us when we interviewed him.

Scully: I have to warn you, there's typically not a lot to be found in a teenage boy's sweaty Kleenex.

Reyes: We were looking for pheromones. Aren't there pheromones produced in adolescent sweat?

Scully: Yes, it's what causes BO. But all too obviously it's not all that attractive — to anything.

---

Dr Bronzino: I've got a reading here that's going right off the scale. Holy toledo! We've got pheromones coming out the ying-yang here. C-13 calliphorone and how. [His machine dies]

Doggett: What happened?

Dr Bronzino: I think my electroantennogram just... tilted.

Reyes: What's C-13 calliphorone?

Scully: Insect pheromone.

Dr Bronzino: Where did you find this mother lode?

Reyes: A boy named Dylan Lokensgard. That specimen came from him.

Dr Bronzino: A boy... is secreting bug pheromones? That's impossible. Preposterous.

Doggett: You're the expert Dr Bronzino. How else do you explain it, then?

Scully: Rocky?

Dr Bronzino: A boy is a boy; a bug is a bug. You can't have it both ways.

Scully: Okay, so this boy's going through puberty, right? I mean, maybe his body chemistry is somehow just going crazy and it's his raging teenage hormones that are attracting all these insects.

Reyes: What if it's more than chemistry or hormones? More than biology? Dylan's not just attracting these bugs he's using them to act out.

Scully: Yes, but against what?

Reyes: We saw him talking to a girl.

Doggett: The one in the Dumb Ass video. Captain Dare's girlfriend.

---

Dylan Lokensgard: Natalie...?

Natalie Gordon: Dylan?

Dylan Lokensgard: What are you doing?

Natalie Gordon: I need to talk to you, Dylan.

Dylan Lokensgard: You have to be quiet — It's my mom, she's going to hear you.

Natalie Gordon: I'm coming up.

Dylan Lokensgard: What? No. [Natalie Gordon climbs up and into Dylan Lokensgard's window]

Natalie Gordon: Hey.

Dylan Lokensgard: You're going to break your neck.

Natalie Gordon: I had to see you.

Dylan Lokensgard: Shh.

Natalie Gordon: I haven't been here in so long.

Dylan Lokensgard: Since 4th grade. After school. And it was a Wednesday in April. A dream in a mist of grey. That's from a Syd Barrett song.

Natalie Gordon: How do you know all these things?

Dylan Lokensgard: My dad told me. Syd Barrett, he was in the band Pink Floyd. He was, like this brilliant guy that nobody understood.

Natalie Gordon: Kind of like you?

Dylan Lokensgard: Me?

Natalie Gordon: I never said I was sorry when your dad disappeared, Dylan. I never said a lot of things. But I want to say them now. I know you've always cared about me. We've grown apart, but... I haven't forgotten you. And... after we talked this morning at school I realised... how special you really are to me.

Dylan Lokensgard: I can't believe this.

Natalie Gordon: After what happened to Bill... I realised how important it is to have someone who does understand you and... I wanted to do this. [She kisses Dylan Lokensgard]

Dylan Lokensgard: That... that was amazing. [They kiss again, but Natalie Gordon pulls away, her mouth is bleeding]

Natalie Gordon: What... was that?

Dylan Lokensgard: What was what?

Natalie Gordon: Your... your mouth, your tongue... there's something wrong with you.

Dylan Lokensgard: No, don't say that.

Natalie Gordon: I got to go.

Dylan Lokensgard: Natalie, please. Please, don't. Just stay. Let me talk to you. [She runs away] Natalie, listen to me! Natalie, please... [Another car arrives]

David Winkle: Hey, bug boy! How about we go for a little buzz around the block.

---

David Winkle: So, Lokensgard... how'd you do it, huh? How'd you kill him?

Dylan Lokensgard: I thought bugs killed Captain Dare.

David Winkle: Yeah, bugs who do what you say.

Dylan Lokensgard: You want to know how I did it? I'll show you. But maybe you should get your camera ready.

David Winkle: What are you talking about?

Dylan Lokensgard: I just have to open my mouth. [A pair of insect mandibles are visible. They spray a webbing over David Winkle who loses control of the car and crashes]

---

Scully: Mrs Lokensgard? Dylan? [The door is open but there is no answer]

Dr Bronzino: I'm getting a reading here. Trace levels inside the house.

Scully: Well, I guess that's probable cause. [They enter the house]

Dr Bronzino: Dr Scully? This is so exciting! I've never had a partner before.

Scully: I have.

Dr Bronzino: I'd like to think of it as a hymenopteran relationship. Two scientists using their special knowledge reaching higher than either of them could ever reach alone. And if I may say so, Doctor, you complete me.

Scully: I got upstairs, you take down.

Dr Bronzino: All right.

---

[Doggett and Reyes peer into the crashed car and find the occupants covered in webbing]

Doggett: David Winkle, is that you?

David Winkle: Yeah.

Doggett: Now that's a dumb ass.

David Winkle: It wasn't a stunt, it was... it was Dylan Lokensgard. He attacked us.

Reyes: He attacked you?

David Winkle: Yeah, the dude's a freaking bug. He chewed right out the back window. Ow!

Reyes: [to Doggett] You stay. I'll go see that Dylan didn't head to that girl's house.

---

Scully: [answering mobile] Scully.

Doggett: Where are you?

Scully: I'm with Rocky at the Lokensgard's house. But there's nobody here.

Doggett: Yeah, well, I'm afraid the kid's on a tear. He's caused a car accident out here on Glenhaven Road.

Scully: How'd he do that?

Doggett: You'd better see for yourself. [Scully makes her way downstairs]

Dr Bronzino: C-13 calliphorone. I'm getting a stiff new reading from up here.

Scully: Yeah, Dylan's bedroom's up there. Unfortunately, he's not in it.

Dr Bronzino: Where are you going?

Scully: The kid's on a rampage.

Dr Bronzino: Whoa! [He gets a high reading on his sensor]

Scully: You got my number, partner. [She leaves]

---

Reyes: Natalie?

Natalie Gordon: Whoever you are, leave me alone.

Reyes: Natalie, I'm Monica Reyes, with the FBI. I'm here because I need your help. It's about Dylan Lokensgard.

Natalie Gordon: Don't say that name around me!

Reyes: It's important. You may be the key to this, to stopping him.

Natalie Gordon: Dylan Lokensgard is a freak! I thought he was the normal one.

Reyes: I think Dylan was normal, just like any other kid. Whatever it is he's going through it has to do with what he's becoming —

Natalie Gordon: He kissed me!

Reyes: And it's probably what he's living for. And now it's probably why he lost all control and attacked David Winkle and his brother.

Natalie Gordon: He attacked Winky?

Reyes: They're going to be okay. We just want to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone else, Natalie. All right? Come with me.

[Dylan Lokensgard is standing at the door]

Dylan Lokensgard: Why did you run from me?

Natalie Gordon: What is wrong with you?

Dylan Lokensgard: I'm different, Natalie... isn't that what you wanted? Someone totally different from Bill and Winky?

Natalie Gordon: You killed Bill.

Dylan Lokensgard: To keep you from being killed. And now you're coming with me.

Reyes: Just stay where you are, Dylan.

---

Dylan Lokensgard: Don't try to stop me. That little talk that you wanted to have with me? It'll have to wait.

Principal Lokensgard: Where do you think you're going?

Dylan Lokensgard: It's where we're going, me and Natalie. I'll be taking the car.

Principal Lokensgard: You'll be doing nothing of the sort.

Dylan Lokensgard: You don't want to cross me, Mom. I am not some kid everybody can kick around any more.

Principal Lokensgard: You think I don't know what you are? It's what I've been trying to tell you, Dylan to save you from what you are about to do. These are the things I couldn't tell you. The things I couldn't tell your father. You are not like the other kids. You never will be.

---

[Doggett finds a large webbed sac in Natalie Gordon's bedroom]

Doggett: Monica! Monica! Holy mother .. Monica, hold on! Can you hear me? Monica, can you breathe? Monica, talk to me. [He rips away the webbing]

Reyes: He's got the girl.

Doggett: Where'd they go?

Reyes: To Dylan's house.

Doggett: That's where Scully is. She lost phone contact with the entomologist, Bronzino.

---

[Scully finds Natalie Gordon at the Lokensgard residence, she is crying]

Scully: Where are they? Natalie!

[Natalie Gordon manages to point upstairs. Scully, armed with her gun and flashlight, makes her way up the attic. She finds large human-sized webbed sacs, one of them whimpers]

Dr Bronzino: Help me. Help me.

---

Scully: [voiceover] Four more bodies were found in the Lokensgard attic including that of Michael Lokensgard, Dylan's father, long reported missing. It now appears that he, like the others, fell victim to Dylan's mother who, in Dr Rocky Bronzino's expert opinion, was neither human nor insect but something in between. A biological anomaly, whose difference from the rest of humanity could be hidden only for so long. However strong Dylan Lokensgard's yearning to fit in, to win acceptance, to love and to be loved, he could not defeat the unseen forces which direct behaviour. In the struggle between our desire to determine who and what we will be and the identity which biology defines for us, there can only be one outcome. But even in victory, there are forces biology can not defeat — the stirrings of the soul, the mysteries of desire, the simple truth that the heart wants... what the heart wants.