Internal dating: The teaser is set on September 12th 1995, as seen on the video game being played by Darin Oswald. Nevertheless, Scully refers to the events of the Anasazi trilogy, set in April 1995, as "what we've just been through." Also, 2Shy, some three episodes later on, is set in late August, before this case.
Scully studies the body, finding the signs of electrocution, though no signs of contact with an electrical source. The pathologist, who says there have been five other similar deaths, say it's clearly death by lightning strike. Scully points out that only 60 people in the whole country die a year from being struck by lightning, and here he is suggesting 5 in one town alone.
Sheriff Teller comes in, dismissing the pathologist. He is hostile, asking them why they're there. Scully looks at Mulder, but Mulder shrugs and turns away, leaving her to do the talking. The sheriff gives her a lecture on lightning, saying he knows about it as there is a local lightning observation point, stimulating lightning. "You didn't do your homework," he tells her. "You came here to do work that's already been done." Scully isn't cowed, saying the autopsies don't add up, although, when pushed, has to admit lightning is the most probable cause. Teller says he doesn't want to hear her suggesting anything else.
"Feel free to jump in any time," Scully says after the sheriff's gone. Mulder says she was doing just fine by herself, and Scully asks him if he has a theory. He just says he doesn't think it's lightning, then walks out. She gives chase, telling him to stop. "After everything we've just been through - after all we've just seen - I hope you're not thinking this has anything to do with government conspiracies or UFOs." (though the events they've "just" been through in the Anasazi trilogy are 5 months away now.) He says he sees no evidence of alien involvement, but things it's odd that all the people killed "by lightning" were young men between 18 and 21. He suggests they go to the crime scene and try to find something they can both agree about.
At the crime scene they work out Hammond died around eleven thirty, and Mulder says that the only reason he was likely to have been in the area at all at this time was if he was at the video arcade, as all the other stores would have been shut.
Inside the video arcade, Scully talks to Zero, who claims at first not to recognise the photo of Hammond. Mulder notices a game displaying a high score table topped by a DPO, at 11.41 the previous night. Reading from the list of other people struck by lightning, he suggests this could be Darin Peter Oswald, who was struck by lightning but survived.
Darin is working under a car in a garage. His boss's wife, Sharon Kiveat, comes in, and he's very attentive to her, though she's clearly uncomfortable with him. He begins to talk "about those things I said yesterday," but then Mr Kiveat drives in.
Mulder and Scully talk to Darin, who, like Zero, says he didn't see anything the previous night. Mulder asks him if he's a lucky person, surviving a lightning strike, but suddenly Mulder's cellphone gets burning hot in his pocket. "Bummer," mutters Darin.
Darin's mother is slumped in front of the television. Although she has the remote control herself, the channel keeps changing. Zero knocks on the door, and Darin accuses him of telling the FBI about him. Darin says he's in the mood for a barbecue ("Oh no! Not the cows again!") and throws his arms up to the sky, calling on the lightning to come and talk to him. A great bolt hits him and he falls to the ground, but gets up, smiling, saying he feels "excellent."
Mulder and Scully are at the scene, watching the dead cows get dragged away. The sheriff launches on another lightning lecture, but Mulder interrupts him, saying he knows that lightning emits radio waves at the same frequency as humans ("I did my homework") The sheriff also shows them an area where the soil has been fused into glass, which even Mulder admits is only caused by lightning. "I'd say your business here is finished," he says. Scully says she agrees with him, but then Mulder finds a footprint in the glass.
Scully makes a plaster cast of the footprint. "That's great," says Mulder. "Now can you make me a little cherub that squirts water?" She smiles, and explains the shoes are size eight and a half, with traces of antifreeze in the tread. Mulder says tat sounds like Darin Oswald. "But why? And how?" Scully asks.
Darin and Zero are sitting by some traffic lights, laughing as both lights show green and cars keep on nearly crashing. Zero says they should go to Las Vegas together, but Darin says he doesn't want to go anywhere without Mrs Kiveat, who was clearly his teacher at school. Zero objects, saying she's married to his boss, but Darin says he won't be his boss is he's dead. "A woman like that wants someone special," Zero says. "I'm special," Darin says. "I'm going to show her just how special I am." The lights go green and two cars collide. Darin laughs, but Zero only smiles, grudgingly.
Mulder and Scully visit Darin's home, going into his cluttered bedroom. Mulder picks up a magazine, turning it round to look at the centre-fold. "I'm surprised you haven't already read that issue," Scully comments. Mulder says he has, but his copy didn't have a photo stuck between Miss April and Women of the Ivy League. It looks like a photo cut from a yearbook, and they find out it's of Mrs Kiveat. They also find out that Darin's shoes are the right size for the print they took.
At the crash, Mr Kiveat arrives with his tow truck, but suddenly collapses with a heart attack. The paramedics can't get their kit to work, but Darin touches his chest, and Mr Kiveat leaps into the air as if hit by a great shock, and his heart restarts. "Rescue 911," says Darin, smiling.
Felton Community Hospital. Mulder introduces himself to Mrs Kiveat and asks about Darin Oswald. She won't talk and rushes off to her husband's side. Scully comes up with Mr Kiveat's electrocardiogram, showing a large electrical charge, even though the defibrillator didn't work. Mulder shows her Darin's medical chart, and she says it shows an odd electrolyte imbalance. He speculates that Darin can generate electrical charges way beyond normal. "The body doesn't work like that," Scully says, but Mulder says "he is lightning, and we've got to get to him before he strikes again."
Mulder and Scully go to Darin's house, seeing him walking away. "Don't you touch me!" he shouts, as Mulder tries to grab his shoulder.
They take Darin into custody and question him. He says he deserves a medal for saving his boss's life. "We're not so sure," Scully says, and Darin asks her if Zero was the one who told her that.
Outside the cell, Mulder says he thinks Darin caused Mr Kiveat's heart attack, just as he caused his own cell phone to burn. ("Are we supposed to charge him with assaulting a cellular phone?" Scully asks.) He wants to run a whole battery of tests on the youth. but Scully says they have no time as they have to release him in 72 hours, unless they charge him.
They visit Mrs Kiveat, who once again tries not to talk until Mulder says they need her help to press charges against Darin. She lets them in, and tells them how she was Darin's teacher, and felt sorry for him so helped him get the job. He started making prank calls, then told her he had "dangerous powers." She didn't' tell anyone, as didn't think anyone would believe her, and also feared what Darin would do. Scully assures her she'll be safe, as long as they can count on her testimony.
Back at the cell, they find the sheriff's released Darin. Scully says the sheriff was "irresponsible," and, when asked if she believes Darin can throw lighting bolts, she says that "in effect" he can. The sheriff says they have no hard evidence or scientific explanation, but Scully says that even science can't explain how lightning works.
Having found that Mrs Kiveat is on her way to the hospital, Mulder and Scully set off there.
Zero, at the video arcade, watches in horror as the jukebox starts playing by itself. "I said I didn't tell them!" he shouts, but is struck by lightning and killed. As the background music plays "Nice shot", Darin watches impassively.
At the hospital, Mulder and Scully warn Mrs Kiveat about Darin being free, but she refuses to leave her husband's side. Just then the lights go out, and they find Zero, dead, dumped in an elevator. Mulder rushes off to the staircase, trying to find Darin, while Scully stays with the Kiveats.
Darin goes into the hospital room, looking for Mrs Kiveat, and Scully holds him at gum point. Darin asks Mrs Kiveat to come with him, warning Scully that he can hurt her. "I can hurt you too," she says, unwavering. Mrs Kiveat then agrees to go with him, as long as he stops what he's been doing. As they walk off, Scully can't shoot as Sharon's always between her and Darin.
Outside, Darin tells Mrs Kiveat that she was the only person who was ever nice to him. He holds he hand, but she walks stiffly and awkwardly, obviously scared. He says he will take her anywhere she wants to go, starting up several cars just by looking at them (one of these is Mulder and Scully's own Taurus).
The sheriff drives up and Sharon takes the opportunity to run away. Darin chases her, and the sheriff chases him. Mulder, hiding in the bushes, grabs Mrs Kiveat and holds her quietly as Darin shouts for her. "I'd have given you anything!" he says. As he gets more furious, lightning builds up. The sheriff ignores Mulder's warning to get out of the way, and is killed. Darin falls to the floor, struck by lightning. Scully, of course, appears just as it's all over.
In a psychiatric hospital, Darin is detained, but his tests are normal and the DA has no idea of how to build a case against him. Mulder asks Scully if she believes Darin is normal. She is silent, but he reads her face. "Neither do I," he says.
The camera then shows a rapidly changing array of television pictures, cutting to the credits.
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