Página PrincipalInternal dating: Story takes place December 28, 1997 - early January/98 in/around the San Diego area. Some inconsistencies do occur in this ep, however, and these are noted in the summary.
"It begins where it ends...in nothingness. A nightmare born from deepest fears, coming to me unguarded; whispering images unlocked from time and distance. A soul unbound, touched by others but never held. On a course charted by some unseen hand, the journey ahead promising no more than my past reflected back upon me...until I at last reach the end."
Scully stops walking, looks down and crouches to pick up a gold cross on a chain which is lying on the sand. Voice-over continues:
"Facing a truth I can no longer deny. Alone, as ever."
As she crouches there, Scully's face begins to harden, losing all life and animation, changing into a sand cast which the wind erodes away until nothing remains but blowing, grey sand.
Credits roll: The Truth Is Out There.
San Diego County Children's' Center. A woman is leading a group of children, possibly on an outing, possibly to the bus stop. She is intercepted by Mulder who asks for directions to the Special Needs Ward. The woman directs him and continues on her way with her young charges as Mulder thanks her and goes ahead into the Children's' Center. He is dressed in a dark suit, possibly charcoal, white shirt and muted, conservative tie.
When he enters the Special Needs Ward, he stops just inside the door as he sees Scully, the expression on his face difficult to categorize. The closest I could come was some kind of sorrowful obligation.
The tableau he sees before him is poignant. Emily Sim and Scully are sitting on the floor. Emily appears to be colouring a picture and Scully is watching her. A rather tender smile graces Scully's face.
Scully is dressed in a dark-coloured jacket and slacks (possibly chocolate brown) with a ribbed V-necked top underneath. On her feet are suede pumps. Emily is wearing a red, rib-knit turtleneck sweater under denim overalls.
Mulder looks down, biting his lip, almost frowning. He looks up again, shifting uneasily on his feet just as Scully glances at him. He gives her a weak smile. As he approaches, Scully tells Emily that she'd like her to meet; "A friend of mine. His name is Mulder. Remember I told you about him?"
Emily makes a small sound of acknowledgment as Mulder crouches down and says; "Hi" in a quiet tone of voice. When Emily does not respond, Scully tells Mulder that; "She's a little shy." Nodding, Mulder asks Emily what she is colouring. "A potato," she tells him. Nodding again, Mulder asks; "Have you ever seen Mr. Potato Head? He looks like this," whereupon he proceeds to make a face -- puffing out his cheeks, frowning and crossing his eyes. His efforts are rewarded by a shy smile from the little girl.
Mulder again looks at Emily with that almost sorrowful expression and then notices the gold cross that is hanging from her neck. He glances at Scully who is still watching Emily and it is as if he is beginning to understand the actuality that is or has taken place; that of Scully bonding with this little girl who is her biological daughter.
Telling Emily; "I'll be right back, okay?", Scully stands and she and Mulder move off so they can talk. Scully thanks Mulder for coming as they walk. When he does not respond, she says; "Something's wrong, isn't it?"
Mulder tells Scully that his research efforts, aided by the ever-resourceful Frohike, who hacked into the California Social Services Adoption database, indicate that Emily's surrogate mother was a woman by the name of Anna Fugazzi. "Fugazzi" is a slang word for "fake" he bitterly tells his partner. When Scully asks; "Why create a false record?", Mulder replies; "Because there are no true records. Emily didn't come into this world through any system that keeps them." Scully appears to be at somewhat of a loss when she then asks; "Well how *did* she come into this world?" Mulder's response is cryptic: "Have you asked yourself that?"
Scully gives Mulder a rather tremulous response accompanied by a look that speaks volumes about her state of mind; distressed, anxious, possibly the glimmerings of understanding of the nature of Emily's birth and what that might mean for Scully. "Well, she was born to someone; she--she had to belong to someone."
"Someone who's proven they will do anything to protect her," Mulder replies. "Or their interest in her."
Scully looks at Mulder, a searching expression on her face and then at Emily who is still colouring. "I can protect her, too," she says coolly. When Mulder asks his partner; "And who is going to protect you?", pointing out that; "Emily's adoptive parents are both dead by no accident." Scully's answer is that, while she's considered that fact, she's also come to the conclusion that; "There's only one right thing to do."
At that moment, Susan Chambliss enters the room and crouches down beside Emily, reaching out to stroke the child's hair. Scully watches Susan and Emily. Mulder asks Scully why she didn't call him sooner. As she told him in "Elegy", Scully again tells Mulder; "Because I couldn't believe it." She sounds very tired, her voice a little ragged. Mulder looks as if he wants to say something, though he appears to think better of it, only nodding his head and looking away. Scully continues, telling him; "But I need you now to be a witness on my behalf in this hearing."
"And I should have declined," Mulder says. "If I never want to see you hurt or harmed in any way." When Scully asks him; "Then, why are you here?", Mulder tells her; "Because I know something that I haven't said; something that they'll use against you to jeopardize your custody of Emily."
Scully looks at Mulder, a tiny vertical frown line appearing between her eyes, perhaps not certain exactly what he is telling her when he goes on to say; "No matter how much you love this little girl, she is a miracle that was never meant to be, Scully."
As the scene fades, Mulder is watching his partner closely, perhaps gauging her reaction to his words. Scully looks up at her partner as if she is not certain what he is saying.
The hearing takes place at the San Diego Hall of Justice. Mulder sits in a chair, eating sunflower seeds and looking as if he wished he could be anywhere but where he is. He turns his head as he hears a door opening behind him and to his left.
Tara Scully, Mrs. Scully and Bill Scully Jr. emerge and come towards Mulder. Mulder rises and steps around Bill when Bill tells him; "They're ready for you." Bill turns to watch Mulder go, an expression of intense dislike or perhaps distrust on his face.
Judge Maibaum appears to be having some difficulty with the facts of this particular case. "Agent Mulder, help me out here," he asks somewhat ironically. "Does 'FBI' stand for 'Federal Bureau of Imagination'? Am I to understand that your partner, along with a dozen other women in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was abducted by employees of our federal government?"
"She was missing for four weeks; that's documented in the files," is Mulder's response. NOTE: this statement appears to contradict the time line of the "Ascension" and "One Breath" episodes as regards Scully's abduction. Those episodes indicated that Scully was missing for a period of three months, not four weeks.
Judge Maibaum tries to confirm further details concerning Scully's abduction: that Mulder had found evidence indicating that experiments had been performed on her; "Where, you say, they extracted her ova?"
"Yes," says Mulder flatly. "All of them."
It is at this point that we realize Scully is actually in the room. She is looking at her partner in consternation. As the judge asks; "Can that be done?" and as Mulder replies; "I believe it can and was and that Emily Sim was conceived as a result of those experiments," Scully appears to become more shocked and dismayed. Apparently, judging by her reaction, this is the first time she has heard anything about this.
The judge asks Mulder; "And that can be done as well?" Mulder responds that; "I don't know how else to explain it. A...a medical exam of Miss Scully would show that she hasn't given birth."
Scully appears to be stunned, almost overwhelmed by the things she is hearing, though she does not say a word.
The judge, appearing to be at somewhat of a loss, says that under normal circumstances; "This petition would be fairly simple. But I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around this...Michael Crichton bit."
Mulder tells the judge that he; "Included this information in anticipation of your reaction and how it might look if you were to receive this information without any explanation." (Try saying *that* fast five times!)
Judge Maibaum asks Mulder if he can provide an explanation as to why someone would kidnap Scully in order to conceive Emily only to put Emily up for adoption. Mulder's response is; "No, but the fact remains that Miss Scully is the mother of this child." When the judge, putting on his glasses declares; "Not in any legal definition," Mulder rather testily challenges him. "Well, if you can show me a legal precedent for *this* case, I'd like to see it."
He goes on to tell the judge that though; "Dana has known for quite some time that she can't bear children. She hasn't known why. Now, however that happened, the fact that she can adopt this child--her own flesh and blood--is something I don't feel I have the right to question and I don't believe anybody has the right to stand in the way of."
The judge glances at Scully after Mulder's final statement, though he says nothing to her. For her part, Scully sits silently throughout the entire exchange between Mulder and the judge and says nothing at all.
Cut to Bill Scully's house at 10:16 P.M. that night. Mulder is playing with one of the figures from the Nativity scene (St. Joseph?), though he hastily returns it to its proper place when Scully comes into the room. She tells him; "It takes two of us just to get my sister-in-law to bed these days." Mulder asks Scully when Tara Scully is due and she tells him; "Two weeks ago."
Scully sits down on the couch. Mulder begins to look uncomfortable. Scully looks down, perhaps at her hands and very quietly asks; "Why didn't you tell me, Mulder?" She does not sound overtly angry; only weary, perhaps a little betrayed.
"I never expected this," he says. "I thought I was protecting you." It isn't clear at this point what it is he means by his first statement; whether it was Emily he wasn't expecting or the fact that Scully survived her cancer. However, he does seem to be sincere in what he is saying.
Scully asks; "Why would they do this to me?" Mulder's response is that; "I only know that genetic experiments were being done; that children were being created." He looks almost disgusted by what he is telling his partner.
"Children being created for who?" Scully asks.
Mulder's voice is soft as he replies, though his facial expression seems to betray anger, carefully held in check. "For who, for what--I don't know."
As Scully mulls over what she has been told, the telephone rings. It rings again, drawing Mulder's attention. Scully answers on the fourth ring. There is no response to her; "Hello, is anybody there?" other than the hiss of an open line.
Mulder calls the San Diego office of the FBI on his cellular phone to get a trace on the incoming call. He gives the telephone number of the Scully house (550-0380), and tells Scully not to hang up. In an amazingly brief period of time, the trace is completed. Unlike Scully did in "Christmas Carol", Mulder does not give his badge number.
"County Children's Center," he tells Scully; the origin of the incoming call.
Mulder and Scully hasten to the Center and ask the employee who answers the door if anyone has been there in the last half hour. When she says "no", they hurry upstairs to the Special Needs ward, very relieved to find that Emily is in her bed. All is not well, however. Emily appears to be running a fever. Her hair is damp and sweat can plainly be seen on her face. While Scully the children's aid employee goes to call 9-1-1, Mulder picks Emily up off the bed.
He holds the child against him, his hand at the back of her neck. A strange expression crosses his face. "Scully, there's something on her neck." When Scully pulls Emily's pajama top away to take a look, she gasps out; "Oh my God." There is a large, raised lump, looking like a cyst clearly visible on the back of Emily's neck, near the base.
Emily is taken to the hospital. While Scully watches two doctors attend to the child, Mulder talks on the telephone in the hall. After he hangs up, he comes to tell Scully that the social worker has been unable to reach Emily's doctor.
One of the doctors who had been in with Emily comes out to tell Scully that he has put Emily on a saline drip to rehydrate her and that she is running a 102-degree fever. In response to Scully's queries as to the nature of the problem, Dr. Vinet posits; "Some kind of infection, probably related to the cyst on her neck." He goes on to say that he is having the cyst biopsied and that it will be sent to the lab for analysis right away.
"Now, are you two the parents?" he asks, causing a moment of consternation. Mulder moves away as Scully appears to wrestle with the situation, finally telling the doctor that she is Emily's mother. The doctor asks for any medical history that Scully can provide. Scully tells him that she knows Emily is being treated for; "Some kind of autoimmune hemolytic anemia," and that; "Her treatment is experimental."
While Scully and Dr. Vinet are conferring, Mulder is watching a second doctor prepare to biopsy the cyst on the back of Emily's neck. He also appears to be listening to what Scully is saying to Dr. Vinet. He raises his hand to his chin as if he is mulling something over in his mind. Scully tells Dr. Vinet about Dr. Calderon, a name that Vinet does not seem to recognize.
Scene cuts to the treatment room where the other doctor is nearly ready to take a sample of the cyst. Mulder can be seen watching through the window in the door. The doctor turns Emily on her side. We can clearly see the cyst which looks larger and darker than it had before. The doctor prepares to insert a needle into the cyst and Mulder, who has been looking more and more uneasy, raps on the glass and calls; "Wait!"
Though the doctor appears to hear him, she proceeds to insert the needle into the center of the cyst. A hiss is heard as the needle goes in and Emily winces and squeezes her eyes closed. In the background, Mulder can be heard shouting; "Move away from her!" repeatedly. The doctor pulls the needle free and a green, bubbly substance immediately begins to drain from the cyst causing the doctor to recoil and to paw at her throat and eyes in obvious distress. At the same time, Mulder is trying to prevent Dr. Vinet from going to the aid of his stricken colleague. He knows that opening the door would be a very bad idea. It seems as if Emily has been revealed to be a hybrid; her blood probably carrying the same deadly retrovirus to which Mulder was exposed during the "Colony/End Game" episodes.
Mulder, Scully and Dr. Vinet can only watch helplessly at the stricken doctor falls to the floor. Emily who is now sitting upright, also watches, a curiously distant expression on her face. A drying, dark green streak runs down the back of the child's neck.
Scene changes to the Quarantine Ward. The time is 7:31 A.M. the following morning. Emily is confined to bed, having been sedated after the events of the previous night. Scully watches over her as best she can from her place behind sealed glass doors.
Mulder comes to tell Scully that the ER doctor is in and out of consciousness. When Scully asks him how he knew, he tells her; "If Emily is someone's creation, then it occurred to me that she might share the same body chemistry that we've seen before, so I had them put the ER doctor in a cooling bath like you did when I was exposed to this." NOTE: guess he forgot to tell them about the aggressive course of anti-viral agents with which he had also been treated after his little bath in Alaska.
Shaken and afraid, Scully asks; "So, what now? I mean, she's still just a little girl. You say that I can't protect her, but...but I can't let this be her life. Just a few days ago, she was fine."
Mulder reminds Scully that a few days ago Emily was also being treated for her "condition".
At this point Dr. Vinet enters the room expressing confusion and concern as to how to proceed with a course of treatment for Emily. He had contacted Dr. Calderon who had refused to transfer Emily's medical records to the hospital. Because Vinet knows nothing about Emily's medical history, he does not know how to proceed from here.
Shocked, Scully says that in refusing to transfer the records, Dr. Calderon is endangering Emily's life. Dr. Vinet's reply is that; "He said Emily was in his care and if you're responsible for stopping that, then you're the one endangering her." Scully insists that Calderon's actions constitute; "An ethical violation."
Dr. Vinet replies that Dr. Calderon told him that he had already informed Scully that Emily was part of a double-blind medical trial. As Scully and Mulder exchange glances, Vinet goes on to tell them; "He (Calderon) also says that you have no authority over this child."
At a dead end for the moment, all Scully can say at this point is; "Well, authority or not, I'm not leaving her side." Vinet appears to be just as stymied as Scully. "It's beyond me, I'm afraid," he says with regret.
"Yeah, but it's not beyond Dr. Calderon," Mulder says grimly.
Scene changes to Transgen Pharmaceuticals. Mulder has arranged a meeting with Dr. Calderon. Calderon, while expressing sympathy for Emily's plight and admiration for her courage, regretfully informs Mulder that there is little he can do to help her until the custody issues are resolved. Once that has happened, he tells Mulder, Emily can resume the treatments she was receiving at Transgen. "But I'm afraid I simply can't release any information about her as relates to our company's experimental drug trials."
When Mulder asks; "What can I say to convince you?", the doctor's response is polite but absolute. "It's purely a business reality; it has to do with Transgen's exposure to litigation and of course our need to protect research which, frankly, represents a significant dollar investment." In retrospect, he might have been safer if he had waved a red flag in front of a bull.
"So, I'm wasting your time," Mulder says flatly. "This is not worth the life of a three-year-old girl."
Calderon protests that; "That's not it at all," apologizes once again and tells Mulder that there is really nothing he can do as he stands to indicate that the meeting is over. He extends his hand to Mulder and tells him; "I do wish you the very best."
"Okay," is Mulder's quiet response as he takes the doctor's hand, applies a nifty joint-lock hold and slams the other man down on his desk, pulling him upright immediately. Briskly slapping the doctor's face, his eyes cold, Mulder asks; "How are you feeling now?" Another slap. "A little more helpful?" Another slap and then, apparently tiring of that, Mulder throws Calderon to the floor, shoving the man over with his foot and calling him a; "Condescending little liar!" as Calderon, calling for help, tries to crawl away. Mulder, losing his temper completely, follows, grabbing Calderon and slamming him against a bookcase. "Why don't you tell me what your company is really in business for, huh?" he demands. The doctor cries out in fear and Mulder slams him against the bookcase once again. "Abducting women and stealing their unborn children--medical rapist, that's all you are!" Mulder is in full kick-butt mode now and shouting. "And now you're gonna let that little girl die! She's just a lab rat to you!" He draws his gun and shoves it in Calderon's face. "Why don't you tell me whose life is worth saving; yours or hers?"
Calderon, though clearly terrified, does not respond. This only seems to add fuel to the fire and Mulder becomes even more angry. "I want everything to help that little girl!" he practically screams.
A security guard bursts into Calderon's office, hesitating when he sees the scene before him. Mulder throws Calderon to the floor a final time, returns his gun to its holster and begins to walk out, telling Calderon; "I'll be back," as he leaves. Calderon, still speechless, rubs his hand across his forehead.
Minutes later, Dr. Calderon is seen hastily leaving the Transgen building. He gets into a black Range Rover and drives off. Mulder, who is waiting outside in his car--a beige Crown Victoria--follows.
Back at the hospital, Scully, dressed in a gown and mask, is watching Emily through the quarantine ward door. Emily is watching cartoons on television. A nurse comes in carrying an IV bag and tells Scully that they're ready. Scully asks for and gets a private moment with Emily. "Sweetie," she tells the little girl, "in a minute a nurse is going to take you to do some tests." Emily's reply is that; "Mommy said 'no more tests'." Scully tries to allay the child's fears by telling her that these tests are to try and determine how to make her better.
Emily is taken to have an MRI performed. She lies quietly on the table as the machine whirs to life, Scully watching the procedure closely through an observation window. Emily disappears into the imaging chamber and as the scan commences, lights flash brightly and a racketing sound can be heard. Scully visibly flinches at this barrage of sights and sounds; perhaps recalling some facet of her abduction, perhaps recalling tests she underwent while she was stricken with cancer. It is not exactly clear why the scene appears to cause her the distress it does.
Scene change; back to Dr. Calderon who has driven to what appears to be a large old home. Inside the place are the two men who were seen in the previous episode and who are more than likely responsible for the murders of Marshal and Roberta Sim.
Calderon tells the two men that Mulder had come to see him and that Mulder knows he (Calderon) is involved. While Calderon is spilling his guts, the clean-shaven man is looking through the window blinds and sees Mulder pull up, park and exit his vehicle, heading for the house, obviously on Calderon's trail.
"And now you brought him to see us," he says, almost off-handedly. Calderon, who appears to be nervous and afraid, asks what he should say to Mulder. He also notices that the bearded man has moved to stand behind him.
"Nothing," says the clean-shaven man. At this point, the bearded man palms a weapon we have seen before, hitting the trigger and exposing the business end. He forces Calderon to the floor and stabs him in the base of the neck. When he withdraws the weapon, green, bubbling liquid oozes from the wound. Calderon is a hybrid--well, an *ex*-hybrid, now.
The bearded man and the clean-shaven man both then morph into Calderon lookalikes.
Mulder is just about to enter the building at this point when one of the Calderons exits, forcing him to hide. Mulder watches as the morph gets into his Range Rover and drives off. He then follows.
Back at the hospital, Scully is looking at an MRI scan of Emily's head. It does not appear to be normal. "I hope you know what this is," she says to Dr. Vinet, obviously baffled. Susan Chambliss, the social worker from the previous episode, is also present.
Dr. Vinet suggests; "A neoplastic mass; a tumorous infection," though he doesn't seem all that certain of his diagnoses either. "The cyst in the back of Emily's neck seems to be the point of origin, and from her blood test last night and her sed rate this morning, it also seems to be growing rapidly."
Chambliss asks the doctor if it is cancer. Vinet's reply on that is definite enough; "No, cancer grows out of control. These are anaerobic channels following the path of the central nervous system. They have the effect of killing the surrounding tissue," (image of Emily's spine on the computer screen) "depriving it of the oxygen it needs to survive. Its point of origin is proximal to the brain and the central nervous system. It couldn't be in a worse place," he finishes darkly.
Scully looks stricken. It looks as if Emily may be dying and that nothing can be done for her now.
One of the Calderon morphs walks past the room in which Scully, Dr. Vinet and Susan Chambliss are conferring. They do not see him.
Scully asks Dr. Vinet if he can prescribe antiviral medication for Emily. Shaking his head, Vinet tells Scully that he has Emily on; "A Levafed drip to keep her blood pressure up and she's getting steroids intravenously to bring down the inflammation." He pauses and then says; "We could attempt radiation therapy."
Scully disagrees, saying that Emily's immune system is too weak to withstand such a procedure. Susan Chambliss asks what can be done and also asks if anyone has spoken to Dr. Calderon about the situation.
At this point, the Calderon morph has entered Emily's room. He prepares a syringe containing a dark green liquid and injects Emily with the substance. It is not clear where he injects her.
Scully emerges from the consultation with Vinet and Susan Chambliss just as the Calderon morph walks past her, ignoring her even when she calls his name. She runs to Emily's room and finds the child lying on her stomach. Running out into the hall, she tells a nurse to get Dr. Vinet and to call the police before she sets off after Calderon. Drawing her gun, she shouts; "Halt! Dr. Calderon? FBI!" The morph keeps on walking. She shouts at an orderly to; "Stop that man!" as Calderon continues to walk away, giving no sign that he has heard her at all. The orderly grabs Calderon who stops obligingly enough. When Scully reaches him and spins him around to face her, the man does not look like Dr. Calderon any longer. NOTE: I believe that Jeremiah Smith morphed into this same individual in "Talitha Cumi".
Cut to the second Calderon morph who has returned to Transgen Pharmaceuticals. The time is 7:02 P.M. Mulder is still following him and parks outside the door. His cell phone rings. It is Scully wanting to know where he is. Imagine her surprise when Mulder tells her; "I've been following Dr. Calderon." Imagine Mulder's surprise when Scully tells him that; "He was here, he came into Emily's room. It appears as if he injected her with something."
The conversation proceeds, Scully telling Mulder in response to his query about Emily's health that she appears to be all right, though they are running a tox screen to be sure. As Scully is talking to Mulder, she sees Detective Kresge approaching her, accompanied by two uniformed police officers.
Mulder is telling Scully that; "Whatever he (Calderon) injected her with, I don't think he meant to harm her." Scully asks him why he thinks that. "I think Dr. Calderon went there to try to treat her." This makes no sense to Scully. "Why would he endanger her before, only to protect her now?" she asks.
Meanwhile, Detective Kresge has dispatched the uniformed officers to Emily's room.
Mulder tells Scully; "As a bluff. I don't think they want her dead either, Scully, but for different reasons." He tells her that he will catch up with her and hangs up.
Baffled, Scully turns her attention to Detective Kresge whose "Happy New Year" greeting falls a little flat. He tells Scully that the uniformed officers will stand guard outside Emily's door. Needless to say, he is somewhat surprised when Scully tells him that may not be necessary as there is; "Some indication that he (Calderon) came here to help her." When Kresge reiterates that Scully told him on the phone that Calderon was somehow connected to the deaths of Emily's adoptive parents and that, therefore, Calderon's motives seem less than altruistic, Scully's response is; "Because Emily's mother wanted to stop the tests, just like I did, and I guess that's why he came here--because as much as they will do anything to remove what gets in their way, it seems that they need Emily to continue the tests."
Though Kresge does not appear to be convinced by Scully's not-so-rational explanation, he does not argue.
Mulder returns to the building to which he had followed the original Dr. Calderon earlier that day. When he enters the unlocked door, he finds a group of elderly people, mostly women, sitting in a large room around a television set. The building appears to be some kind of nursing home.
Looking more than a little perplexed, Mulder spies the name "A. Fugazzi" on a door. He knocks and enters to find an elderly woman sitting in a wheelchair. She greets him. "Anna Fugazzi?" he asks. "Yes," she replies. "Your name is Anna Fugazzi," Mulder says in a tone of outright disbelief. "Yes. Are you the new doctor?" she asks. Mulder tells her that he is not the doctor and asks; "Is that your real name?" The woman patiently confirms that; "It has been for the last 71 years." When she asks Mulder if he was looking for her, his reply is an ironic; "Not until now."
Cut to the hospital. Scully and Dr. Vinet are looking at more MRI scans. "I don't understand," Scully is saying, clearly upset. "Just an hour ago, you said that she was getting better."
Dr. Vinet agrees that that was what he had told her. However, he tells Scully, despite the fact that; "her fever's down, her vital signs are nearly back to normal...but these latest MRIs are telling me that this growth...has continued to spread." He seems to be at a loss for an explanation. "In her arms, I'm now seeing what looks like a necrotizing of the tissue."
"It's killing her," Scully barely whispers, frightened and powerless.
Dr. Vinet speculates that; "Whatever it is, it may have already been present in some amount. Basically, it's shut down her body while it continues to grow. We should be thankful that she's not in any pain."
Scully does not appear to find any comfort in that fact. NOTE: Though Kresge had previously wished Scully a Happy New Year, the date on the MRI in this scene can clearly be seen to be October 31, 1997.
Dr. Vinet leaves Scully staring at the MRI scans. Susan Chambliss comes in, carrying a file folder, to tell Scully that she has "presented all this information to the court and I have to tell you that there is great concern that you are making decisions for this child and they seem to be having no small affect on her health."
Scully's reply is that she is a medical doctor who has made decisions which are "reasonable and right." Chambliss counters this argument telling Scully; "But I have it right here in this report that Dr. Calderon's treatment has actually resulted in a turnaround." Scully apprises the other woman of the recent downturn in Emily's condition, saying that Calderon's injection is actually making Emily worse.
"Miss Scully," Chambliss says carefully, "I want to say something to you...and I don't want you to take this the wrong way...but I don't think that you are capable right now of responding with any clinical ability."
Scully, growing angry, demands; "Do you think I don't want what's best for this child? Do you think that I'm not trying to save her life?"
Chambliss's response is one of bewilderment. "I'm saying that I'm getting wildly differing reports. I have a job to do. I am not the ultimate authority, here, but you don't have the authority either, over this child, or her future."
"You can get a court order; and you can try and enforce it," Scully tells the social worker; "but I suggest that, if your job is to do what is best for this child, you do everything in your power to tell the authorities that if they take Emily out of this hospital," (she is clearly growing more angry by the second during this speech), "they are going to hasten her illness and I will make it known that all of you are responsible!" Barely under control at this point, angry and frustrated, Scully brushes past Chambliss who, perhaps sensing Scully's resolve, asks Scully what Scully wants her to tell the judge.
"I don't know, yet," Scully replies. "But I will." She leaves the room. Chambliss looks distressed and quite at a loss herself.
Cut to Frohike who is typing on a laptop computer, half-gloves on his hands. He is talking to Mulder via a headset telephone, reading out a list of women's names and dates these women gave birth.
"Christina Sherman delivered a healthy baby girl September 25, 1994," he says.
We hear Mulder's voice saying; "Gretchen Miller" as the scene cuts to him. He is still in the nursing home and is holding a list of names. "Gretchen Miller" appears to be very old indeed; too old to have, as Frohike tells Mulder; "delivered a baby boy, March 18, 1996."
"Evelyn Burmeister," Mulder says. Frohike tells him that Evelyn delivered a baby boy June 21, 1994. "That makes eight for eight," Mulder says. In response to Frohike's query as to his location, Mulder tells the Lone Gunman that he is; "at the maternity ward." Other names on the list include; Peggy Moloney and Martha Woods, though Mulder does not read those out. The names of the other three women are never given.
Intrigued, Frohike asks; "Any fetching young mothers in there?" Telling the man that; "Yeah, I think you might have a shot, here," Mulder then asks Frohike if he knows anything about pharmaceuticals.
"Medicinal or, uh..." (Frohike glances surreptitiously over his shoulder), "recreational? is his somewhat tongue-in-cheek response. Mulder tells him that the eight women all have two prescriptions in common on their medical charts, the abbreviated notations of which are: PMZ-200 and DURTAB. Frohike tells Mulder that they are estrogen and progesterone and then goes on to say that it wouldn't make a lot of sense to give those things to a pregnant women as they are hormones that pregnant women have in abundance.
"You would these," is Mulder's cryptic reply as he looks around the room. He disconnects from talking to Frohike and sees Anna Fugazzi coming towards him in her wheelchair. As if a thought has struck him, he asks Anna if the doctor who comes to visit her is Dr. Calderon. She concurs and then asks Mulder if he knows Dr. Calderon's whereabouts, telling Mulder; "He's supposed to be here. I was going to start my beauty sleep."
"Your beauty sleep," Mulder says. "What is that?"
"He said it's taken years off my appearance," is the rather chilling reply.
Cut to the hospital. Emily is shown being placed in a hypobaric chamber. Presumably, the thinking behind this is that since an anaerobic organism is responsible for Emily's illness, perhaps a high-oxygen environment might slow down or stop the growth of the necrosis in her body. This is pure speculation on the part of this viewer. The actual reason for the procedure is never fully explained.
Scully, gowned and masked, communicates with Emily via a one-way intercom; telling the child that she is going to stay with her and explaining in simple terms what is going on.
Scully indicates to the technician that he should proceed and he commences pressurizing the chamber. Emily begins to look uncomfortable almost right away, although not extremely so. As the air pressure reaches 29 PSI, she is clearly seen to be in distress. "Are you okay, sweetie?" Scully asks. Emily quickly shakes her head, her eyes wide and fearful.
Scully tells the technician to turn off the oxygen and she looks through a viewing window in the top of the chamber to see dark streaks suddenly appearing under the skin of Emily's arm, seeming to be growing and moving up the arm towards the shoulder.
Scully again orders the technician to; "Turn it off, *now*!" and then tries to soothe Emily by telling her; "We're going to get you out of there just as fast as we can, okay?" Scully is very upset at this point, her voice shaky and rough.
Cut away to Mulder who is still skulking around the nursing home. He comes upon an unguarded room and behind clear plastic dividers, in small darkened cubicles, he finds six elderly women, all hooked up to monitoring equipment and IV bags of estrogen and progesterone, all having their "beauty sleep" it seems. NOTE: The month on one of the IV bags can be seen to be November, though I could not make out a date or a year). A bracelet on the patient's arm gives her name as "Charmaine Villard". There are also a series of numbers and letters on the bracelet under the woman's name, as follows:
6483988-7368ST
WEU
Mulder goes through another plastic curtain and finds what looks like a refrigerator unit with a clear, glass door. Inside this are stored a rack of empty test tubes and some plastic boxes, possibly for storing medication, on the top shelf. On the second and third shelves there are what looks like four portable cooling units, two to a shelf.
After checking to make sure he hasn't been followed, Mulder opens one of the portable cases. He finds two packages of documentation enclosed in clear plastic bar-coded sleeves. The documents appear to contain medical data. Here is the detail (what I could see of it, at least) from the one set of forms which Mulder examines:
HAE III
Villard, Charmaine
T. Bilirubin 0.07 -
300 - 1200 S.U. / 70 -
Sample
Enchantillon 70 -
9948 DNA (ng/ul)
ADN (ng/ul) 250
T. Protein 5.3 - 7.4
600. 20. 5 (FAD)
A/G 0.6 - 1.11 / 0.45 -
1.19
SGOT 20-80 / 20 - 70
DNA (ng/ul)
And then below this information, Mulder sees more that gives him pause:
SCULLY, DK 13.10.94
02/08/67.0
NUC, RBC
The document he holds appears to be MICR-encoded, which means it is probably machine-readable.
Looking over his shoulder again, Mulder lifts out one of the containers that are stored in the portable case. Inside a jar of green fluid, he sees what appears to be a late-term human fetus. The jar has condensation on the outside of it. When Mulder wipes it away to get a closer look, the fetus kicks its feet, startling Mulder. It is alive.
Mulder presumably puts the container back without dropping it (we do not see this happening on-camera), and finds a box on the top shelf of the refrigerator containing hypodermic-ready vials of green liquid, possibly the same as that with which the Calderon morph injected Emily in the hospital. Before Mulder can do much more than look at the vials, he hears something. Crossing the room to look out a window, he sees one of the Calderons getting out of the black Range Rover and heading toward the nursing home.
Moving fast, Mulder picks up three of the vials and starts to make his escape. He is intercepted in the hallway by Detective Kresge, whose psychic ability is apparently equal to that of Melissa Scully's. Kresge takes the vials from Mulder and orders him to face the wall. As Mulder is explaining to Kresge that he is an FBI agent, the Calderon morph appears and begins to walk towards them.
Telling Kresge to; "Take your gun off me and put it on that man," Mulder stands behind Kresge. Kresge orders the morph to; "Stop right there." As Mulder watches Calderon walking towards them, it seems he figures out who or at least what Calderon is. "Come on, get out of here," he tells Kresge as he starts backing away himself.
Glancing at Mulder, then back at Calderon, Kresge brings up his other hand to steady his service weapon, dropping the vials on the floor. Magically, they do not break. Mulder moves toward Kresge to kick one of the vials down the hall, warning Kresge that he cannot use his gun and repeating his command to; "Get out of there!" Kresge again orders the morph to halt, standing his ground as the morph approaches, his jaw tightening in a rather attractive manner as he glares at the steadily approaching Calderon.
Mulder backs away, and takes off down the hall to grab the vial that he had kicked down there. The Calderon morph grabs Kresge and throws him down the hall in the opposite direction. Kresge lands hard and cries out. The Calderon morph then turns his attention to Mulder. Behind him, Kresge grabs his gun and comes up on one knee, commanding the morph once again to stop. Mulder again shouts at Kresge not to use his gun. At this point I found myself really admiring Detective Kresge's tenacity and guts.
Kresge disregards Mulder's warning and shoots the morph twice. One shot appears to hit the man directly in the heart, the other lower down on the right side of his torso; perhaps hitting a lung. The morph staggers, but does not fall. Green bubbling liquid immediately begins to flow from the bullet holes, though how the bullets exited the morph without hitting Mulder, who was standing almost directly in front of him, is beyond this viewer's grasp of trajectory and physics.
At this point, Mulder decides that discretion is the better part of valour and beats a hasty retreat to avoid the toxic effects of the morph's blood.
The morph turns to face Kresge who, by now, is on his feet. In seconds, Kresge is overcome, pawing at his eyes and sinking to the floor. The morph looms over him in a most threatening manner.
Mulder, now outside the building, has called 9-1-1 asking for an ambulance and some backup. "I don't *know* where I am," he is saying as the door to the nursing home opens and--surprise-- "Kresge" appears to tell him that he has subdued the doctor who is inside with his hands cuffed. Mulder tells "Kresge"; "I got backup coming and they need a location." Replying; "I'll take care of it, just watch the guy," the morph who looks like Kresge passes Mulder, presumably heading for Kresge's car.
Mulder turns away and is telling the 9-1-1 dispatcher that Detective Kresge will radio in the location as he hears the sound of a car alarm disengaging behind him. When he turns back around, it is just in time to see "Kresge" driving off in Dr. Calderon's Range Rover.
Scene cuts to Scully, who is still watching over Emily in the hospital. Mulder comes in and Scully tells him that Emily has gone into a coma. Mulder appears to be stricken by this news and not quite sure what to say.
Scully assures her partner that she is all right and says; "It's what's meant to be."
"But if you could treat her..." Mulder begins.
"I wouldn't," Scully replies. "I wouldn't do it to her." This is obviously a hard thing for her to admit, even to herself.
Mulder asks her if she is sure and Scully replies; "Mulder, whoever brought this child into this world...didn't intend to love her."
Mulder concurs, saying that Emily was; "born to serve an agenda."
"I have a chance to stop that," Scully says. "You were right. This child was not meant to be."
The two partners watch Emily through the glass door. The child is lying on her back in a hospital bed, pale and small, various intravenous lines running into her, a pulse meter clipped to her finger.
Mulder tells Scully that he will stay with her as he places his hand against her back. Scully tells him that; "I think I'd like to be alone." Reluctantly, Mulder complies and withdraws, leaving Scully with Emily.
Once he has left the quarantine ward, Mulder looks at the vial he took from the nursing home, appears to hesitate, but keeps on walking away.
Scully goes into Emily's room and gets into bed beside the dying child. It is difficult to interpret the expression on her face. It appears as if she is determined to see this through to the bitter end.
Scene changes to show a stained glass window of the Madonna with her child. Camera slowly pans from the window to Scully who sits in a church pew, alone, as various people pass by her. She looks troubled and sad and is dressed in a black or dark navy jacket and slacks.
Mrs. Scully, dressed in black, approaches Scully and puts her hand on her daughter's shoulder, asking; "Are you ready?" Touching her mother's arm, Scully replies; "I think I'll get a ride back with Mulder." She stands. The two women embrace. Scully then hugs Bill Jr. who is standing in the aisle of the church. Bill, though dressed in a dark coloured suit jacket, is not wearing a tie.
Tara Scully, dressed in white, is standing near him, holding a new born baby. She appears to be very troubled.
Scully smiles poignantly as she looks at Tara and the baby, then kisses the new born on his forehead, whispering; "Bye-bye, Matthew." She and Tara kiss and Tara says; "We'll see you at home, okay?" Bill puts his arm around his wife's shoulders and they leave the church, followed by Mrs. Scully who gives her daughter a final, searching look as she walks away.
Susan Chambliss, who is also there, is the last to leave, touching Scully lightly on the arm as she passes. She does not speak, though the look she gives Scully is one of compassion and sympathy.
Alone, Scully turns to look at the small, white coffin which sits at the front of the church.
Mulder comes down the aisle carrying a bouquet of pale yellow carnations which he places gently on top of the coffin. He then moves to stand by Scully's side.
"Who are the men who would create a life whose only hope is to die?" Scully asks, her voice hollow and sad.
"I don't know. But, that you found her...and you had a chance to love her...maybe she was meant for that, too," is Mulder's surprisingly sympathetic reply.
"She found me," Scully whispers.
"So you could save her," Mulder affirms.
Scully nods her head slightly as if in agreement. Scully asks Mulder how Detective Kresge is doing and Mulder tells her that Kresge is out of the Intensive Care Unit. This viewer was very happy to learn that this wonderful character had not succumbed to "red shirt syndrome."
Mulder goes on to tell Scully that the nursing home has been sanitized, all the women placed in other facilities. There was no evidence that anyone else at Transgen knew of Calderon's work.
Looking at Emily's coffin, Scully replies; "There is evidence of what they did." She moves to stand beside the coffin, looking down at it, at the flowers, then picks up the flowers.
At this point Mulder turns away looking sorely troubled. In light of the way the rest of the scene plays out, this viewer believes that Mulder already knew what Scully was going to do and what she was going to find when she did. That knowledge obviously did not sit well with him.
Scully opens the coffin to find only sand spilling from a burlap bag. Her gold cross, the one she had given to Emily, is visible in the sand. She simply looks down, taken aback, but not really surprised.
Mulder, his back still turned, appears to be almost angry, biting his lip as he turns to face his partner.
Scully reaches into the coffin and plucks the necklace from the sand, letting it dangle from her fingers. She looks at the tiny gold cross and closes her eyes.
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