F Emasculata

Internal dating: No dates given. If internal dates follow air-date order, this episode and the two preceding it should all be crammed into the latter half of March 1995, after Mulder and Scully are recovered from Dod Kalm.

Guanacaste rainforest, Costa Rica. A scientist with the Biodiversity Project, Dr Robert Torrence, finds the dead boar, all covered with rather gruesome pulsing boils and insects. A boil explodes in his face.

At night, Torrence calls base, asking for immediate evacuation. His own face is now covered with boils. By the time the rangers find him he is dead, being picked at by vultures.

Cumberland State Correctional Facility, Dinwiddie County, Virginia. A prisoner, also called Robert Torrence, receives a strange package, which has been redirected from a scored out address. He opens it to find a bloody pig's leg.

Covered with sores and critically ill himself, Torrence is studied by doctors who express their amazement at the short incubation period. They are all wrapped up in protective clothes and tell him they're specialists.

Two prisoners discuss what's happening, and speculate on all the activity at the infirmary. They want to get out as fast as they can, and eye the laundry card meaningfully.

Mulder and Scully are escorted into the prison by heavily armed guards, where they've been called in to help with the escaped prisoners. They notice the men in protective suits, but clearly haven't been told about the outbreak. The Federal Marshall doesn't know why Mulder and Scully are there and say they should stay out of the way. He says the prison has been closed and the national guard has taken over, but his interest is only in finding the prisoners. Mulder and Scully speculate on why they've been called in, when this is not usually FBI business. The request came through Skinner's office, though he didn't say where he got it. "I've got a feeling we're not being told the whole story here," Mulder says, and Scully agrees.

At a service station, a family stop to go to the bathroom, the woman emerging to find their trailer being driven away.

Scully uses her medical credentials, plus a few threats, to get into the quarantine area, talking to Dr Osborne from the Centers for Disease Control. He's anxious, saying he's under orders not to talk. 14 men have been infected, he tells her, of which 10 are already dead. Scully realises the men who escaped could have been infected.

Mulder, who'd told Scully he was planning to "get in the way", arrives the service station. Scully calls to tell him what she's learnt, as he looks at the father of the family, lying dead from a head injury.

Another man in a protective suit tries to get Scully to leave, telling her she's in violation of federal statutes. She replies that she's a federal agent, and demands to see medical charts. "You see what I let you see," he says.

The fugitives fill up at a gas station, while one of them (Paul) calls his girlfriend and tells her he's coming home. The attendant meanwhile finds the other fugitive shivering on the bathroom floor, covered with boils.

Scully goes to the incinerator in the prison, her mouth covered with a small mask. She opens up the plastic wrapping round the first the die, Torrence, but Osborne stops her. He looks terrified, saying the bodies mustn't be exposed to the air. She demands that he tell her the truth. He'd said it was a flu-like illness, but there are horrible sores all over the bodies. As he tries to wrap the body up, a sore bursts, hitting the doctor in the face.

The Marshall's men make a spectacular entrance into the gas station, with guns rather bigger than Mulder's. Mulder finds the attendant in the bathroom with a head injury, but alive. Mulder wants to find out if the fugitives have girlfriends, speculating that, if they had, they would have called them. He goes to the pay phone and accesses the last number dialled. To do this, he calls the operator, and quotes his badge number, JTT047101111. As he's doing this, a helicopter lands and men in protective suits put the attendant in a sealed unit and carry him away.

The fugitives arrive at the girlfriend's house.

Scully finds out about the package sent to Torrence and discovers it was sent by Pinck Pharmaceuticals, one of the biggest manufacturers of drugs in the country. She calls Mulder, and together they work out that the fugitives are definitely infected.

Scully, still without any more protection than a small mask over her mouth, finds an insect in one of the bodies.

Tending to her boyfriend's fellow fugitive, the girlfriend gets splashed by an exploding boil just as the Marshall and his men burst in and arrest her.

Osborne shows Scully that he is also infected. He admits that he works for Pinck Pharmaceuticals, and tells her about the discovery we saw in the teaser. Scully shows him the insect she found, and he says it's called F Emasculata - the insect that carries a parasite that carries the infection. He tells her she could also be infected, as she was there when the pustule erupted on him.

Mulder goes to see Skinner, saying he thinks they've been deceived on this case. Cancerman is sitting in a dark corner, and Mulder challenges him with not letting them about the contagion. "Why weren't we told the truth?" Mulder demands. "We didn't know the truth," Cancerman says. "What we knew would only have slowed you down.... the truth would have caused panic." Controlling information, he says, saves lives. "You can't protect the public by lying to them," Mulder says. Cancerman says it's done every day, but Mulder says he won't be a party to it. "You're a party to it already," Cancerman says, saying people are being infected now while he stands around neglecting his duty.

Scully calls Mulder and says the infection was no accident, and the government is covering up for Pink Pharmaceuticals. Mulder says they must tell the public but she says there's no way they can do that, not until they know more. Echoing Cancerman's words, she says the panic could kill more than the infection. "There's a time for the truth, Mulder, but this isn't it." He asks her if she's okay, and she says he is, saying the only thing he should worry about is catching the fugitive. "Look after yourself, Mulder," she says.

After she finishes the phone call, Scully lets Osborne attach an insect to her arm, saying it will show whether she is infected or not. This insect is unaffected, but if it bites her and then the parasite shows up on it, it will show she has been infected.

At the hospital, the girlfriend is in isolation. She refuses to tell Mulder where Paul has gone, but he tells her a lot of people could die unless she tells the truth. "Why should I tell the truth if you don't" she says, asking why, if the contagion's so bad, there's nothing on television about it. Mulder manages to win her over, and she admits they had been planning to travel together by bus to Toronto. Mulder won't let the Marshall send out a large team, saying it should be done in a controlled way.

Paul, now with sores on his face, buys a ticket to Toronto.

Dr Osborne collapses, but continues to work on, though close to death. Speaking to Scully from inside an isolation unit, he tells her how to do the test, and tells her to make sure the truth gets out. "Don't believe for a second that this is an isolated incident," he says.

Scully completes the blood test of the insect which bit her, finding out that she's not infected. When she goes to tell Osborne, someone's removed him.

At the bus station, a boy gets on the bus, sitting behind Paul, now very clearly infected.

Scully finds Osborne's body being incinerated. A menacing man tells her no-one can corroborate what Osborne told her, and she should be thankful the thing is under control.

Mulder and the Marshall's men arrive at the bus station and hunt around for Paul. Scully calls Mulder saying that everything is under control at the prison, but all the evidence is destroyed. She says the prisoner is the last piece of evidence and must be found alive, to make a statement.

The Marshall's men climb all over the tops of the buses, though no-one seems to see them. Mulder warns that Paul could panic if he sees uniforms, and he thinks he should go in alone, take the seat behind the fugitive, and then hold him at gunpoint, telling everyone else to leave.

Mulder goes onto the bus, but there is no sign of Paul, who's gone to the bathroom. Mulder whispers to the driver, telling him what's happening, but the driver is indiscreet and Paul grabs the boy as a hostage. His sore bulges nastily next to the boy's face. "I'm dying, ain't I?" Paul says. Mulder asks how many others he wants to kill, urging him to give himself up. Paul mentions a package, and Mulder orders everyone off the bus, so he can talk more. Paul, crying, puts down the gun and lets the boy go. Mulder asks him over and over what was in the package, saying he wants to expose the company that was using them as guinea pigs. Just then a shot rings out, and men in protective suits hustle Mulder away.

Mulder tells Skinner that the whole thing was orchestrated by Pinck Pharmaceuticals, to circumvent years of proper trials for their drug. He wants to go public, but Skinner warns him to let it drop, saying he has no real evidence. Mulder accuses Skinner of being guilty of condoning murder. "You really have no idea who you're dealing with, do you?" Skinner says. "I thought I was dealing with you," Mulder says.

Scully comes in, having found out about the scientist in the teaser having the same name as the prisoner. It was a fail safe, she says, so the whole thing can be passed off as a simple postal error, should Mulder try to expose it. Mulder is disgusted. "You never had a chance," Skinner tells him. "For every step you take they're three steps ahead." Mulder asks him where he stands in this. "I stand right on the line that you keep crossing," Skinner replies. As Mulder and Scully turn to go, Skinner calls Mulder back. "I'm saying this as friend," he says. "This is just the beginning. Watch your back."

Página Anterior

Página Principal

Número de vezes que este site foi acessado desde 01/10/96: