Episode Summary
Mulder's return leads to his being tried before a military tribunal that seeks to justify and prove the very existence of an alien conspiracy — and the X-Files.
Double Episode
Episode Details
- Writer: Chris Carter
- Director: Kim Manners
- Original Broadcast: AU: 29.01.2003 US: 19.05.2002
Cast
- Scully Gillian Anderson
- Mulder David Duchovny
- Reyes Annabeth Gish
- Doggett Robert Patrick
- Skinner Mitch Pileggi
Guest Cast
- Knowle Rohrer Adam Baldwin
- Post Guard John Eric Bentley
- Frohike Tom Braidwood
- Toothpick Man Alan Dale
- Smoking Man William B Davis
- General Mark A Suveg William Devane
- Special Agent Kallenbrunner Matthew Glave
- Gibson Praise Jeff Gulka
- Langly Dean Haglund
- Byers Bruce Harwood
- Marita Covarrubias Laurie Holden
- Alex Krycek Nicholas Lea
- Young Indian Man Cody Lightning
- Jeffrey Spender Chris Owens
- Deputy Director Kersh James Pickens Jr
- Yuri Volkov Lee Reherman
- Guard Patrick St Esprit
- Guard Christopher Stapleton
- Mrs Lana Chee Julia Vera
- Mr X Steven Williams
Quotes
[Mulder is running from Knowle Rohrer, he runs past a familiar man who closes the door, shutting Knowle Rohrer out]
Mulder: No! You're dead.
Krycek: Go. There's others.
[A klaxon sounds and Mulder sees armed men heading toward him, he turns back but Krycek is gone]
Guard: What are you thinking?
Mulder: Where am I?
Guard: Wrong answer! What are you thinking?
Mulder: I'm thinking about getting the hell out of here.
Guard: Wrong... answer!
[He hits Mulder and walks to the door of the cell] No sleeping!
Guard: What are you thinking?
Mulder: About my son... about his mother.
Guard: Wrong answer!
[He swings at Mulder and misses] What are you thinking?
Mulder: What do you want from me?!
Guard: Wrong... answer!
[He swings at Mulder again, they grapple before the guard throttles Mulder with his baton] I want answers, you hear me? I want answers!
[He leaves]
Guard: No sleeping! Did you hear me?
Mulder: Yes.
Guard: What are you thinking?
Mulder: What should I be thinking?
Guard: You're a guilty man. You entered a government facility
illegally in search of non-existent information! You failed in every respect!
Mulder: Yes.
Guard: Say it!
Mulder: I am a guilty man. I failed in every respect. I deserve the harshest punishment for my crime.
[The guard leaves]
Scully: How long has he been here?
Skinner: I'm trying to get someone to say.
Scully: Who called you?
Skinner: Kersh's office.
Scully: Who called them?
Skinner: I don't know; I just know that Mulder's being held here indefinitely.
Scully: What for?
Skinner: For the murder of a military man.
[Mulder's cell is opened by a guard]
Scully: Mulder.
Mulder: Dana.
[They embrace]
Scully: Oh, my god.
Mulder: You okay?
Scully: Am I okay? Mulder, I haven't seen you in such a long time. I was so worried.
Mulder: Well, it's okay, I'm all right. They're treating me really well in here.
Scully: What's happened to you?
Mulder: Nothing. I'm squared away. Oh, hey, Walter. It's good to see you, man.
Skinner: Have they told you what the charges are, Mulder? What you're doing here?
Mulder: Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're clear on that.
Scully: You're clear on what?
Mulder: My crimes.
Scully: Mulder —
Mulder: — I murdered a man, Dana. I went looking for something that didn't exist, and I... I made a terrible mistake. I should be punished severely.
Skinner: Whatever you were doing, you have the right to a lawyer... to an inquiry and process of law.
Mulder: I don't think you heard me.
Guard: All right — time's up.
Scully: We're going to get you out of here.
Mulder: And why is that? I'm a guilty man.
Guard: Time's up. Let's go.
Mulder: Uh... excuse me.
[He turns his back on Scully, she leaves with Skinner] I don't understand. Why are you helping me?
Krycek: Because you can't do this alone.
Guard: Let's go.
[He grabs Mulder and removes him from the cell]
Doggett: You saw him? Mulder?
Reyes: They've accused him of murder?
Scully: And they have him believing that he did it.
Doggett: Murdered who?
Scully: Knowle Rohrer.
Doggett: Knowle Rohrer? It can't be. I watched Knowle Rohrer die.
Reyes: He can't die. Knowle Rohrer's a super soldier.
Skinner: Mulder side-stepped security at a facility known as Mount Weather — a place where they say our so-called
shadow government
's installed.
Reyes: What about this murder charge?
Skinner: Thirty government workers are ready to testify they witnessed Mulder push a military officer to his death.
Doggett: Killing the man who can't be killed?
[Scully leaves] Where are you going?
Scully: To beg mercy with the man upstairs.
General Suveg: Come in. Deputy Director Kersh. I've just been going over my notes on this whole business. Please, have a seat.
Deputy Director Kersh: Thank you.
General Suveg: We both got a problem with this man of yours, Agent Mulder.
Deputy Director Kersh: Mulder's been a running problem for the FBI. But nothing this serious.
General Suveg: I would think...
Deputy Director Kersh: I've been asked by a female agent... Mulder's closest associate to beg mercy of the military court to give Mulder every consideration based on his good character.
General Suveg: You've reviewed the charges, yes?
Deputy Director Kersh: Yes. There's a charge of murder.
General Suveg: This would look bad for the Marines, if it didn't look worse for the FBI. What does Mulder intend to plead? You wanted a chance to clear up this mess, Mr Kersh, and I'm going to give it to you. Give it to the FBI.
Deputy Director Kersh: How?
General Suveg: A fair hearing for your agent by his own agency. Your prosecutor, your judges. Held in my court.
Deputy Director Kersh: That can't be legal. Why do this?
General Suveg: I want a verdict. A guilty verdict. This man Mulder has made a lot of enemies. He's a crusader. And a lot of people do not like the crusade.
Deputy Director Kersh: I can't do that.
General Suveg: Oh, you'll do it, Deputy Director. You and I both know; there are forces inside the government now... that a man would be foolish to disobey.
Scully: Mulder. Mulder!
Mulder: I smelled you coming, Clarice.
Scully: Oh... Damn it, Mulder. It's not funny to see you putting on that act.
Mulder: No, that is funny. What's not funny is what they do to you in here if you don't put on that act.
[They embrace, Skinner averts his eyes allowing them a little privacy] Come here, you big, bald, beautiful man.
Skinner: The only thing you're going to be kissing, Mulder, is your sweet ass good-bye, with the trouble your in.
Mulder: Uh-huh, I kind of gathered that, right around the 50th brainwashing session.
Scully: Mulder, why are they doing this to you?
Mulder: They think they're preparing me for my trial. For my testimony.
Skinner: Your testimony's not going to matter. Not with the case they're building.
Mulder: Not building. Rigging.
Skinner: Yeah, I don't think you understand the seriousness of the charges. This isn't some routine wrist slapping. You're on trial for your life.
Mulder: My trial's a forgone conclusion. What they really want is for me to admit my guilt and help them out. What's really on trial here is the truth.
Scully: Mulder, they're saying you killed a man.
Mulder: Have they produced a body? You can't produce a body, because you can't kill a man who won't die.
Skinner: Well, body or not, they've got 30 witnesses from that government facility ready to testify against you.
Scully: Mulder, we'll get you the best lawyer.
Mulder: Would you defend a man who believes in aliens against the FBI and the military? It's never going to happen. Skinner can defend me.
Skinner: I can't represent you.
Mulder: You know all the facts, the details, the whole government conspiracy. More than that, I trust you.
Scully: Mulder...
Mulder: They can't try me without exposing themselves. I know what I'm doing.
[Doggett and Reyes enter the cell] Whooo, now it's a party.
Doggett: Agent Mulder.
Scully: What's the matter?
Reyes: We've been working off what little we have, but the military just got back to us.
Doggett: You ready for this? I know this is impossible, but they're saying they got Knowle Rohrer's body.
Scully: Mulder, it's me.
Mulder: Oh. Is it time to go?
Scully: No. That's why I'm here. Mulder, I need you to talk to me. Confide in me... or we'll lose.
Mulder: We can't win, Scully. We can only hope to go down fighting.
Scully: You're scaring me. Mulder, I'm so scared that I've just got you back and now I'm going to lose you again.
Mulder: I know what I'm doing.
Scully: Well... whatever you're doing... you have no idea how much has already been lost... What I've had to do...
Mulder: I do know. Skinner told me.
Scully: Our son, Mulder... I gave him up. Our son. I'm so afraid you could never forgive me.
Mulder: I know you had no choice. I just missed both of you so much.
Scully: God, where have you been? Where have you been hiding?
Mulder: In New Mexico.
Scully: Doing what?
Mulder: Looking for The Truth.
Scully: You found something, didn't you? Huh? What did you find?
Mulder: I can't tell you.
Scully: You found something in that facility? That's what you were doing, right? Mulder, what did you find out there?
Mulder: Scully, I can't tell you.
Scully: That doesn't make sense.
Mulder: You've got to trust me, Scully. I know things. It's better you don't.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Assistant Director Skinner. Special Agent Kallenbrunner. I'll be handling the prosecution. I'm out of the LA Field office.
Skinner: How did you get this assignment?
Agent Kallenbrunner: I was a Federal Prosecutor in DC. Before joining the FBI. And you?
Skinner: That's a good question.
[The five member jury panel arrives, Deputy Director Kersh and the Toothpick Man are among the members]
Deputy Director Kersh: Let's bring in the defendant. This proceeding is called to order.
[Mulder is brought in] Mr Kallenbrunner you may proceed.
Agent Kallenbrunner: I have no witnesses to call. I will submit to the court, however, the sworn testimony of 30 men and women who saw the crime.
Deputy Director Kersh: Assistant Director.
Skinner: I move to dismiss these proceedings on the grounds it violates the accused's rights to a fair trial. I'm not a lawyer. You're not a judge. This is not a court of law.
Deputy Director Kersh: This is a military court of law. You may want to familiarise yourself with title 10 of the US Code. But I suggest you call a witness.
Skinner: Then I move to delay this trial. My central witness, Marita Covarrubias works for United Nations and I can't locate her. And I've received no help from the US Government locating her.
Deputy Director Kersh: I have to deny that request. Do you another witness, Mr Skinner?
Skinner: I'll call a witness, but I would like to do so under protest.
Deputy Director Kersh: Both the panel's judgements and rulings are sovereign, Mr Skinner. There is no record.
Skinner: Excuse me? This isn't a secret tribunal. As you've so kindly informed me, it's a court of law.
Deputy Director Kersh: Military court of law, Mr Skinner.
Mulder: [to Skinner] It's okay. Try your case.
Skinner: Please state your name for the court.
Scully: My name is Dana Katherine Scully. I was assigned nine years ago to the X-Files to spy on Agent Mulder, whose methods the FBI distrusted.
Skinner: Assigned not just as an agent, but as a medical doctor. A scientist. And as a serious scientist you came to believe in Agent Mulder's theories.
Scully: I came to believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life and in a conspiracy inside the government to keep their existence a secret.
Skinner: The proof was overwhelming. It was even scientifically undeniable.
Scully: I believe as do many respected scientists that life came to earth millions of years ago from a meteor or a rock from Mars.
Skinner: So, what you're saying is, life — human life — is extraterrestrial by definition.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Objection. What does this nonsense have to do with Mulder murdering a man in cold blood?
Skinner: Agent Scully will prove that a government conspiracy exists to deny the existence of extra-terrestrials.
Deputy Director Kersh: You are not here proving government conspiracies, Mr Skinner. You are here to defend Fox Mulder.
Skinner: And I'm trying to do that.
Deputy Director Kersh: It's your case, Mr Skinner.
Skinner: So, a meteor crashed to earth, but along with the biological building blocks on it there was something else — an alien virus.
Scully: I believe there was a virus which thrived here prehistorically. I believe that virus infected early man and transformed his physiology.
Skinner: Changed him into something else.
Scully: Into an alien life-form himself.
Skinner: And what happened to these aliens?
Scully: They died, in the last ice age, 35,000 years ago.
Skinner: And the virus?
Scully: It lay dormant, underground, until it surfaced once again during our current geologic period.
Skinner: And the government knows of this?
Scully: The government learned of this virus in 1947, when a UFO crashed in Roswell, New Mexico.
Skinner: A UFO crash revealed a virus?
Scully: The virus thrived underground in petroleum deposits. In black oil. It has sentience. It can think. It has the ability to communicate and it communicated with the UFOs.
Skinner: And the government knows this, too.
Scully: In Roswell, they captured aliens from the spacecraft wreckage. They salvaged various alien technology from them and from their data banks they learned of the alien plan to
re-colonise
the earth.
Deputy Director Kersh: Is this all leading anywhere?
Mulder: Yeah. The destruction of mankind.
Deputy Director Kersh: I'll warn you once, Agent Mulder.
Skinner: And what did the government do with this... information of an alien take-over?
Scully: They kept it a dark secret. If it had gotten out there would have been wild panic.
Deputy Director Kersh: Mr Skinner, are we finished?
Skinner: No. There's the matter of Agent Scully's own abduction in 1994.
Deputy Director Kersh: Abduction by whom?
Scully: By the military working with the government conspirators to develop a breed of human-alien hybrids that the aliens would use as a slave race.
Skinner: Thank you, Agent Scully. Your witness, Mr Kallenbrunner.
Agent Kallenbrunner: All these ETs running around... it's hard to keep these aliens straight without a scorecard. I myself have never seen an alien. Could we call one as a witness?
Scully: You're being facetious.
Agent Kallenbrunner: No, I'm not. I'd like to see some proof.
Scully: There are the mars rocks...
Agent Kallenbrunner: No. I need something good. Something amazing. Something really cool.
Scully: I don't know what you mean.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Well, what I mean is, you have no proof to back up one word you just told us. Agent Scully, isn't it true that you and Mulder were lovers, and you got pregnant and had his love child?
Skinner: Objection!
Agent Kallenbrunner: Thank you. Next witness.
Skinner: Can you state your full name?
Jeffrey Spender: Jeffrey Frank Spender.
Skinner: Mr Spender, I know you didn't hear Mr Kallenbrunner, but he'd like to make a mockery of the X-Files. You worked on the X-Files yourself.
Jeffrey Spender: Yes, until three years ago.
Skinner: When you were shot, in the X-Files office. Shot by your father. Can I ask you to please tell the court exactly who your father was?
Jeffrey Spender: He led the government conspiracy to exploit the existence of aliens.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Objection. There's no government conspiracy that I've seen established here.
Deputy Director Kersh: I agree with Mr Kallenbrunner. I don't see where this is going.
Skinner: If I can prove this conspiracy, it will justify Mulder's actions and you will have no choice but to acquit.
Deputy Director Kersh: I hope this isn't the entire basis of your defence, Mr Skinner.
Skinner: You have a relationship to Agent Mulder, don't you, Mr Spender?
Jeffrey Spender: He's my half brother. His mother had an affair with my father.
Skinner: But he never knew that. Not until he met you at the FBI.
Jeffrey Spender: He didn't know both his father and mine were in the alien conspiracy. His father was a reluctant member. When Agent Mulder began to know the truth about this connection, my father had his father killed by an assassin named Alex Krycek.
Skinner: He killed him to silence him?
Jeffrey Spender: Mulder's father lived his life in shame. Not for the conspiracy, but for a terrible decision he made.
Skinner: Involving Agent Mulder's sister.
Jeffrey Spender: The aliens distrusted their human collaborators. Members of the conspiracy were made to surrender family members as human collateral.
Skinner: So, Mulder's father gave up Mulder's sister. His own eight-year-old daughter.
Jeffrey Spender: Mulder witnessed his sister being abducted by aliens. It haunted him to no end. It's why he pursued the X-Files.
Skinner: What became of her? Samantha?
Jeffrey Spender: She was returned. She was sent to California where we were raised together. She was taken many more times and suffered horrible tests.
Skinner: Mulder spent years looking for her... several times thinking that he'd found her, but he was tricked.
Jeffrey Spender: Samantha was... part of the cloning experiment done by the conspiracy. She herself died in 1987.
Skinner: By your own father's hand essentially.
Jeffrey Spender: When I went to work for the FBI, I didn't know of my father's crimes. When I stood up to him, he shot me. When I didn't die, he subjected me to the same horrible tests.
Skinner: Your witness.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Mr Spender, I'm sorry for your suffering. I'm sure none of us can really imagine what it's like. Your father must be brought to justice.
Jeffrey Spender: I believe my father is dead.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Mr Spender, you're here to speak for the character of Agent Mulder. In reports you filed while an FBI agent I see here you describe Mulder as
arrogant
, difficult
, a control freak, widely disliked by his peers
.
Jeffrey Spender: Those reports were written before I knew the truth.
Agent Kallenbrunner: This report calls him
unstable, prone to violent outbursts
. I have the report right here, if your memory needs refreshing. Thank you, Mr Spender.
Gibson Praise: You found out about Mulder. You found out he's in trouble. I'll get ready now.
Mulder: I know why you're here and what you want. I can't give it to you.
Scully: Make them a deal, Mulder. Guilty on a lesser charge. Maybe they'll go for it and they'll let you walk out of here.
Mulder: I'd rather die, Scully.
Scully: How can you say that? How can you say that, Mulder, to me?
Mulder: Because this is greater than you or me. This is about everything we've worked for for nine years. The truth that we both sacrificed so much to uncover and to expose.
Scully: Well, then, expose it, Mulder! Take the stand. Whatever it is that you're withholding, take the stand and hit them full force.
Mulder: I can't.
Scully: Why?
Mulder: I just can't.
Scully: You say this is greater than us, and maybe it is, but this is us fighting this fight, Mulder, not you. It's you and me. That's what I'm fighting for, Mulder. You and me.
[She leaves]
Mr X: Get up.
Mulder: Who's that? Who's there? What are you doing here?
Mr X: That's what I'm here to ask you.
Mulder: I'm putting the truth on trial.
Mr X: What truth? Who's truth? You think these men will even hear it?
Mulder: They're afraid to hear it.
Mr X: They're not afraid. They have too much power to be afraid. You're going to learn that, just like I did. You'll die learning it.
Mulder: I'm not afraid of that.
Mr X: There's a truth even you're afraid to speak now, because you know it's futile.
Mulder: No. Because I refuse to accept it.
Mr X: Then you're going to need help.
Mulder: How can you possibly help me?
[Mr X hands him a piece of paper]
Marita Covarrubias
756 N Maple
Annapolis, Maryland
[When he looks up, Mr X is gone]
Doggett: [on phone] They said this is where I could find the body, at Fort Marlene... Right... The deceased's name is Knowle Rohrer, former marine, last employed by the DoD... No, I don't want to call back. I want to talk to your superior —
[He is disconnected] Son of a bitch hung up on me!
Reyes: Sh! There's somebody in your yard.
Doggett: Where is he?
Reyes: He was at the back door.
[They go to the back door, Doggett turning lights out as they go]
Doggett: I got him. He's coming around.
[The front doorknob rattles] Stay where you are! Federal agent! Hands in the air!
[A young Indian man raises his hands, Doggett searches him, finding no weapons] Who are you? What are you doing skulking around my house?
Young Indian Man: I didn't want to be seen. I don't want to endanger him.
Doggett: Who are you talking about?
Young Indian Man: Someone who wants to help Mulder.
Skinner: State your full name for the court.
Marita Covarrubias: Marita Covarrubias.
Skinner: And your former government title?
Marita Covarrubias: Special Representative to the Secretary General of the UN.
Skinner: The United Nations. A position giving you... unrestricted access to countries and leaders around the world. Isn't that right?
Marita Covarrubias: Yes.
Skinner: How did you use this power?
Marita Covarrubias: Basically, to further the interests of a secretive group of men who called themselves the Syndicate.
Skinner: What were their interests?
Marita Covarrubias: Developing an alien virus vaccine, before the Russians developed one.
Skinner: And how'd they go about that?
Marita Covarrubias: By testing innocent civilians all over the world. Test subjects were tracked through DNA identifiers in their small pox vaccination scars.
Skinner: Without subjects knowledge?
Marita Covarrubias: Mostly. Some developed suspicions. I saw Russians who cut off their arms to prevent being tracked.
Skinner: As they did to an American man that you worked quite intimately with.
Marita Covarrubias: Yes. Alex Krycek.
Skinner: Did you believe in the Syndicate? In their international conspiracy?
Marita Covarrubias: No. I was paid for my access.
Skinner: In fact, you came to hate them.
Marita Covarrubias: Yes. It's why I helped Agent Mulder when he approached me.
Skinner: But you were found out. And the Syndicate punished you for this.
Marita Covarrubias: They turned me into a... a test subject.
Skinner: Testing what?
Marita Covarrubias: They were pretending to work with the aliens, to infect the entire population with an alien virus, but the conspirators were trying to save themselves, by secretly and selfishly developing a vaccine. The conspirators believed all life in the universe had been infected with the virus, including a race of shape-shifting alien bounty hunters who policed the conspiracy for the aliens. But they were wrong and it led to the destruction of the conspiracy.
Skinner: And who destroyed it?
Marita Covarrubias: A group of renegade aliens who had avoided infection with the virus through self-disfigurement.
Skinner: And the conspirators themselves — what happened to them?
Marita Covarrubias: They're all dead now. Killed by these same faceless aliens.
Skinner: Then what are you afraid of now? Why resist testifying here today? Because the conspiracy continues, just in another form, by other men.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Objection. Mr Skinner can't ask questions and give the answers.
Deputy Director Kersh: Sustained.
Skinner: Fox Mulder's on trial for murder here. The man he's accused of killing is one of these new conspirators. An alien replacement for a human being. What they are calling a super soldier. You can prove this, can't you? You know who these men are, don't you? Ms Covarrubias?
[A hand rests on Mulder's shoulder]
Krycek: [to Mulder] They'll kill her.
Skinner: Ms Covarrubias, I asked you a question. I need an answer.
Mulder: No. It's okay. Let her go.
Skinner: What the hell are you doing, Mulder? She's the last best witness that we have.
Mulder: Doesn't matter.
Skinner: Thank you, Ms Covarrubias. I got nothing else.
[Marita Covarrubias leaves as Doggett enters the court room]
Doggett: Assistant Director.
[He confers with Skinner at the back of the court room]
Skinner: I have an unscheduled witness that I'd like to call here today.
[Gibson Praise enters the court room]
Mulder: No, not him.
Skinner: Mulder, sit down.
Mulder: [to Skinner] You don't understand. I'm trying to protect that boy.
Skinner: Well, now he's here to protect you.
Deputy Director Kersh: Mr Kallenbrunner? Do you have any objections to this witness?
Agent Kallenbrunner: Not like Mr Mulder here does.
Skinner: Can you tell us your name?
Gibson Praise: Gibson Andrew Praise.
Skinner: Do you know this man?
Gibson Praise: Yes. He's my friend. I hid him in the desert for the last year.
Skinner: Mulder met you as a chess protégé. You're life was endangered because of your highly unusual brain activity.
Deputy Director Kersh: Cut to the chase, Mr Skinner.
Skinner: Gibson Praise can read people's minds. Mulder and Scully proved this scientifically. There's a certain
junk DNA
which all humans share, but has no apparent function. Gibson's junk DNA
is functional. DNA which is believed to be alien.
Agent Kallenbrunner: You're trying to tell us this boy can read minds?
Gibson Praise: Yes.
Mulder: He's reading your mind right now.
Agent Kallenbrunner: And the minds of the judges, too?
Gibson Praise: Yes.
[He looks at each member of the jury panel] Even his.
[He points to the last member, the Toothpick man]
Agent Kallenbrunner: And what makes him so special?
Gibson Praise: He's not human.
Mulder: He's one of them. One of them! I want that man examined!
Deputy Director Kersh: Mr Skinner control him!
Skinner: Mulder!
Mulder: You're afraid! [Guards escort Mulder out of the court room]
You're afraid of what I know! You're afraid of the truth!
Mulder: Where's Gibson?
Reyes: He's with Scully... in good hands.
Doggett: We spent the night talking to him. Gibson knows you're concerned. We're protecting him now.
Mulder: He shouldn't have done what he did — exposing himself like that.
Skinner: Well, the boy was trying to protect you and it looks like it may have worked.
Reyes: He says three judges are wavering. They're leaning in your favour.
Mulder: It's going to take a little more than that, the way things are going. We were never going to win.
Skinner: Take the stand, Mulder. Testify.
Mulder: No.
Doggett: Then we'll testify, me and Monica.
Mulder: No.
Reyes: Both of us have seen too much...
Mulder: Listen to me, they'll destroy you. They'll put you out on the street.
Doggett: What's left for us on the X-Files?
Reyes: We came to this job to give it our best. It's the way we're going to leave.
Mulder: It's not about how good you are. They control the game. They own it.
Doggett: Then let's shove it up their ass.
Deputy Director Kersh: Mr Skinner?
Skinner: I'd like to call John Doggett.
[Doggett enters the court room] Agent Doggett... you've been on the X-Files for two years. And with all that you've seen, how do you feel about this term
paranormal
?
Doggett: Well, the way I look at it, calling something paranormal is just a way of avoiding a real explanation.
Skinner: You're a sceptic. But I see here in your own case reports some very detailed descriptions of things that a sceptic would never believe in... these so called
super soldiers
.
Doggett: Well, that's a whole different deal.
Skinner: In what way?
Doggett: 'Cause I've seen it with my own eyes; shot... drowned... even ground up in a garbage truck. And they just come right back to life.
Skinner: What are they?
Doggett: Well, the best I can figure they're some kind of secret military project — ordinary men made invincible.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Objection. What does this science fiction have to do with anything?
Skinner: Agent Doggett is going to tell you that the man that Mulder is accused of killing is a super soldier. A man that Agent Doggett served with in the marines. Name of Knowle Rohrer.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Objection. Agent Doggett was not present at the murder nor has he seen or examined the victim.
Doggett: That's because I've been getting the bum's rush from the government.
Deputy Director Kersh: Objection sustained.
Skinner: Well, then, let me ask you, Agent Doggett if a super soldier is invincible, how could Mulder have killed this man?
Doggett: He couldn't. The way I understand it, the only way to kill a super soldier is with some rare metal. Agent Scully says it's a form of magnetite from some meteor that fell to earth.
Skinner: And Mulder's not accused of doing that, is he?
Doggett: No, Sir.
Skinner: Your witness.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Agent Doggett... in going over your files, I must say... it's an honour to speak to a man whose record is distinguished by such duty to his country. Now, I'm not going to doubt a man of your integrity, Agent Doggett, even if he tells me a story I find too incredible to believe.
Doggett: Thank you.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Just as you must not doubt the integrity of Fox Mulder on whose behalf you're here to testify.
Doggett: Correct.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Even if Mulder believes these so-called super soldiers are aliens? He believes they're aliens, you know. You said you were a sceptic.
Doggett: That's right.
Agent Kallenbrunner: So an alien conspiracy which Mulder has built his defence on must be entirely unbelievable to you, too.
Reyes: My name is Monica Reyes. I've been with the FBI since 1990.
Skinner: Before coming onto the X-Files, Agent Reyes, you worked in the New Orleans field office investigating cases of satanic ritual abuse.
Reyes: I did.
Skinner: Did you ever prosecute any of these satanic cases?
Reyes: No.
Agent Kallenbrunner: For god's sake, Mr Skinner, we're trying a man for murder not taking a trip down memory lane.
Skinner: I'm showing the court that Agent Reyes is level-headed and objective on strange and extraordinary cases. That her belief in aliens comes from firsthand experience. And she can offer you hard proof that there is an alien conspiracy!
Reyes: I was called on last year, to protect Agent Scully, who was pregnant and whose life was in danger because of her pregnancy.
Agent Kallenbrunner: What does this have to do with aliens?
Reyes: I drove Agent Scully to a secluded location in Georgia where it was believed she could deliver safely. But we soon discovered we weren't alone. I was attacked and had to defend myself against an assailant, who was shot at point-blank range. Who should have died, but didn't. This assailant was then joined by others like him, who surrounded Agent Scully and me, and witnessed her as she gave birth to her son.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Witnessed her? What do you mean?
Reyes: We were confused as well. But we came to understand that her son was a kind of miracle child. His birth was all important to these people; these so-called super soldiers, who I believe are humans replaced by aliens.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Why would Scully's child be important to aliens, Agent Reyes?
Reyes: We came to learn that Scully was one of a number of random women who had miraculous childbirths, and these women all had been abducted as part of a government program to secretly manipulate their biology, operating offshore on a navy ship, using these women as surrogates.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Surrogates?
Reyes: For alien babies.
Agent Kallenbrunner: To create a slave race.
Reyes: Yes.
Agent Kallenbrunner: A program conducted by the Navy, on a ship which is where?
Reyes: The ship housing this program was exploded on the Baltimore dock.
Agent Kallenbrunner: So, in other words, we have no true evidence past your good word. You claim Scully gave birth to one of these alien babies. How can you be sure of this, Agent Reyes?
Reyes: I saw her child do things that could be explained no other way. I saw him display amazing powers. He'd move objects with his mind.
Agent Kallenbrunner: Really? Do you think we could arrange a demonstration for the court? That we could see that ourselves?
Reyes: No. The child was given up for adoption to an anonymous family.
Agent Kallenbrunner: She gave up the miracle child? The proof of everything that she and Mulder claim that they've risked their lives for over the last nine years — she just sent it off to some strangers?
Reyes: Yes, to protect him!
Agent Kallenbrunner: Thank you, Agent Reyes. That's all.
Reyes: You don't care about that child or what Scully had to sacrifice. You're only too happy she had to give it up so there's no proof.
Deputy Director Kersh: Agent Reyes.
Reyes: You don't care what these people have sacrificed over the last nine years — what's been lost to their cause. You make a mockery of it, gladdened it proves your point.
Deputy Director Kersh: Agent Reyes, that's enough!
Reyes: What is the point of all of this? To destroy a man who seeks the truth or to destroy the truth so no man can seek it? Either way, you lose.
Doggett: Are you ready for this? We may have found Knowle Rohrer.
Scully: You found him?
Reyes: His body.
Scully: What are you talking about? There can't be a body; he can't die. Knowle Rohrer is a super soldier.
Reyes: Exactly. But they're saying it's him — the man Mulder killed.
Scully: Who's saying it's him?
Doggett: I got some guy on the phone at Fort Marlene who didn't know that he was supposed to give me the run-around. I got him to send the victim's corpse to Quantico.
Scully: It's there now?
Reyes: We got a car out front.
Gibson Praise: Agent Scully?
Reyes: Agent Doggett can stay with him.
Reyes: Oh, my god. This is Knowle Rohrer?
Scully: That's what it says here.
Reyes: Well, how could anyone tell if it wasn't?
Scully: I need you to get me Knowle Rohrer's medical records.
Reyes: They'd have to come from the military. I don't know if I can.
Scully: You've got to, Monica; whatever it takes. I need those records for Skinner. I need them for Mulder.
Deputy Director Kersh: Mr Skinner. Please call your next witness.
[Scully enters the court room holding a report]
Scully: Assistant Director...
[to Mulder] I found it.
Mulder: What?
Scully: What's going to get you off.
Skinner: I want to move to dismiss again based on new evidence I just received that there is no victim. That the body of Knowle Rohrer is not Knowle Rohrer, but that of a man who died of a broken neck and whose body was burned post-mortem.
Deputy Director Kersh: Motion denied.
Scully: You can't deny it.
Deputy Director Kersh: You're out of order and in contempt of court, Agent Scully.
Scully: You're in contempt. I have evidence proving that Agent Mulder is innocent.
Deputy Director Kersh: You have no authorisation to examine the body, Agent Scully. Have her removed from the courtroom.
Mulder: If she's got evidence, you got to listen.
Deputy Director Kersh: Order! Remove the defendant from the courtroom. This trial is adjourned.
Deputy Director Kersh: Gentlemen... we have a verdict. If you'd rise. Acting fairly and impartially, this panel finds the defendant... guilty of first degree murder under aggravated circumstances. Is there anything you'd like to say on your behalf, Mr Mulder... before we decide your sentence?
Mulder: Yes. I'd like to congratulate you, on succeeding where so many before you have failed. A bullet between the eyes would have been preferable to this charade. But I've learned to pretend over the past nine years — to pretend that my victories mattered only to realise that no one was keeping score. To realise that liars do not fear the truth if there are enough liars. That the devil is just one man with a plan, but evil, true evil, is a collaboration of men, which is what we have here today. If I am a guilty man, my crime is in daring to believe; that the truth will out and that no one lie can live forever. I believe it still. Much as you try to bury it, the truth is out there. Greater than your lies, the truth wants to be known. You will know it. It'll come to you, as it's come to me, faster than the speed of light. You may believe yourselves rid of your headache now, and maybe you are... but you've only done it by cutting off your own heads.
Doggett: [answering phone] Yeah... I'll tell her.
[He hangs up]
Scully: Who was it?
Doggett: Skinner.
Scully: Agent Doggett?
Doggett: Death by lethal injection.
Post Guard: Evening. ID, please. Master Sergeant Rohrer? Go on ahead.
Doggett: Get up.
Mulder: Who's there?
Doggett: I'm here with Skinner. Get up.
Skinner: Move it, Mulder.
Mulder: What are you doing?
Doggett: We're getting you out of here. Come on.
Knowle Rohrer: Guard! Where is he? Seal the building. Seal the base.
Guard: [on radio] We have an escaped prisoner.
[Mulder, Doggett and Skinner run into Deputy Director Kersh]
Deputy Director Kersh: You're never going to make it this way. Come on.
[He leads them in another direction, where they meet Reyes who is standing by a hole in the wire fence and has a vehicle waiting. They then drive to a meeting with Scully and Gibson Praise, who have another vehicle waiting]
Scully: Mulder?
Deputy Director Kersh: You've got to move out.
Scully: What's he doing?
Deputy Director Kersh: What I should have done from the start. You want to go north, to Canada. Get to an airport. If you're not off the continent in 24 hours you may never get out, you understand?
Mulder: None of you will be safe now.
Doggett: You let us worry about that.
Reyes: Good luck.
Scully: Mulder, Kersh told us to head north. You just got on a road going south.
Mulder: That's right.
Scully: Where are you going?
Mulder: To see a man about the truth.
Gibson Praise: You can't hide me forever.
Reyes: We can destroy your files — make it next to impossible to find you.
Gibson Praise: You don't know these people.
Doggett: I'm going to protect you, Gibson.
Reyes: John...
Doggett: What the hell is this? What the hell's going on?
[The X-Files office has been stripped bare of all the filing cabinets, desks and other office furniture] They can't do this. Who authorised this?
Reyes: I'm going to find out.
Skinner: [answering phone] Skinner.
Reyes: They've packed up the X-Files.
Skinner: I know. It's out of control. I'm trying to get to the bottom of it. I'm trying to get to Kersh.
Skinner: All I can think is it's punishment for taking Mulder's side. Unless they found out that we helped him escape.
Doggett: Then they know about the Deputy Director's involvement, too.
Skinner: I need to see the Deputy Director.
Toothpick Man: And he needs to see you.
[Skinner enters the office and the door is closed behind him]
Gibson Praise: He knows.
Doggett: Then we're all in danger here.
Gibson Praise: No. He knows about Mulder and Scully — where they're going.
Reyes: You mean the border?
Gibson Praise: No, that's not where they went and they know that. They're going to find them and kill them.
Doggett: Where are they, Gibson? Mulder and Scully — where'd they go?
[Mulder is relieving himself by the side of the road]
Frohike: Hey, hot shot! You might have the common courtesy of doing your business there downwind.
Mulder: Oh, boy.
Langly: Why don't you just finish draining the little lizard and then we'll talk?
Byers: We're very worried about you.
Frohike: It's craziness, man. Turn around.
Langly: Just hang a big U-ie and never look back.
Mulder: I can't.
Byers: Why risk perfect happiness, Mulder? Why risk your lives?
Mulder: Because I need to know the truth.
Byers: You already know the truth.
Mulder: I need to know if I can change it.
Langly: Change it?
Frohike: For crying out loud. All you're going to do is get yourself killed.
Scully: Mulder! What are you doing?
Mulder: I'll be right with you, Scully.
Scully: What are they?
Mulder: Pueblos. Anasazi Indian. Abandoned 2,000 years ago. Nobody knows why.
Scully: Yeah, Mulder, but what are we doing here?
Mulder: Hello. My name is Fox Mulder. Do you understand me?
[The old Indian woman rises from her chair and walks through a cloth curtain into another room]
Scully: Mulder, what is it?
Mulder: I was sent a message and a key to the government facility at Mount Weather. The Indians said it was from a wise man who lived in the ruins: a keeper of the truth.
Smoking Man: What's the matter, Agent Mulder? You come to see the wise man, but you look as if you've seen a ghost.
Mulder: You're no wise man. You're a dead man. Just like Krycek and X.
Smoking Man: You see a dead man, Agent Scully?
Scully: I hoped and prayed you were dead, you chain-smoking, son of a bitch.
Smoking Man: You waste your time. Ask Mulder. He knows the futility of hopes and prayers. He knows the truth now. You have told her the truth, haven't you, Fox? I helped you find it.
Mulder: You didn't help me. You sent me to that government facility knowing exactly what I'd find.
Smoking Man: And now you refuse to speak it. Not to Scully, not to anyone. You've even refused to testify what you learned... even though it would have saved your life. You damned me for my secrets... but you're afraid to speak the truth.
Mulder: You call me afraid? Look at you sitting here alone in the dark like a fossil.
Smoking Man: It's the final refuge. The last place to hide from those who are insidiously taking power now.
Scully: Who?
Smoking Man: The aliens. They fear this place... its geology. Magnetite. Like that which brought down the original UFO in Roswell. Indian wise men realised this over 2,000 years ago. They hid here and watched their own culture die. The original shadow government.
Smoking Man: It leaves me to tell you what Mulder's afraid to, Agent Scully.
Mulder: Come on, let's go.
Smoking Man: It's a scary story. You want to come sit on my lap?
Scully: You don't scare me.
Smoking Man: My story's scared every president since Truman in '47.
Mulder: You don't have to hear this.
Scully: No, I want to hear it, Mulder.
Smoking Man: Ten centuries ago the Mayans were so afraid that their calendar stopped on the exact date that my story begins. December 22, the year 2012. The date of the final alien invasion. Mulder can confirm the date. He saw it at Mount Weather... where our own
Secret Government
will be hiding when it all comes down.
Mulder: Yeah, you smile... feeling drunk with power. The power to do nothing.
Smoking Man: My power comes from telling you. Seeing your powerlessness hearing it. They wanted to kill you, Fox. I protected you all these years... waiting for this moment... to see you broken. Afraid. Now you can die.
Doggett: Run, Monica. Get out of here.
Reyes: No.
Doggett: Knowle Rohrer. That's far enough.
Knowle Rohrer: Shoot me, Agent Doggett, if you think it'll make a difference this time.
[Doggett fires, the bullet hits Knowle Rohrer in the chest, but he continues to advance on Doggett and Reyes. They are forced back, when Knowle Rohrer stops advancing and struggles to move forward. He starts to spasm and metallic oxidation appears on his skin. The oxidisation covers him, then he is sucked into the rocks at high speed]
Mulder: Agent Doggett!
Doggett: Mulder, get out of there!
Reyes: They know where you are!
Mulder: Get out of here!
Doggett: Get in the car.
Mulder: No! Go! Go!
Scully: What are you thinking? Mulder?
Mulder: I'm thinking... I'm a guilty man. I've failed in every respect. I deserve the harshest punishment for my crimes.
Scully: You don't believe that.
Mulder: I believe... that I sat in a motel room like this with you when we first met... and I tried to convince you of the truth. And in that respect, I succeeded, but... in every other way... I've failed.
Scully: You don't believe that, either.
Mulder: Mm. I've been chasing after monsters with a butterfly net. You heard the man — the date's set. I can't change that.
Scully: You wouldn't tell me. Not because you were afraid or broken... but because you didn't want to accept defeat.
Mulder: Well, I was afraid of what knowing would do to you. I was afraid that it would crush... your spirit.
Scully: Why would I accept defeat? Why would I accept it, if you won't? Mulder, you say that you've failed, but you only fail if you give up. And I know you — you can't give up. It's what I saw in you when we first met. It's what made me follow you... why I'd do it all over again.
Mulder: And look what it's gotten you.
Scully: And what has it gotten you? Not your sister. Nothing that you've set out for. But you won't give up, even now. You've always said that you want to believe. But believe in what Mulder? If this is the truth that you've been looking for, then what is left to believe in?
Mulder: I want to believe that... the dead are not lost to us. That they speak to us... as part of something greater than us — greater than any alien force. And if you and I are powerless now, I want to believe that if we listen, to what's speaking, it can give us the power to save ourselves.
Scully: Then we believe the same thing.
Mulder: Maybe there's hope.