Página PrincipalInternal dating: This picks up immediately at the end of Two Fathers.
Credits roll: "The Truth is Out There"
As Mulder wavers between Cassandra Spender's pleas to shoot her and Scully's objections, his door is knocked down. Several men in Level 5 contamination suits enter the apartment, spraying Mulder, Scully and Cassandra with a disinfectant. Mulder's door is replaced by a lab door.
Mulder demands to know what is going on, who are the men in the suits. Diana Fowley, in a contamination suit, enters the apartment as one of the men explains he is a doctor from the CDC and the three of them are going to be decontaminated and quarantined.
Scully demands to know why. Fowley explains that they have been exposed to a "contagion of unknown origin". Cassandra is furious.
Mulder and Scully are forced to share a decontamination shower. Both are a little weary, but Scully is obviously angry. After the shower, they are dressed in white hospital scrubs. Doctors in the contaminations suits run a wand over them, taking readings.
Scully demands to talk to someone in charge. The doctors leave. Mulder asks if Scully has any idea where they are -- she guesses by their travel time Ft. Marlene, which has the facilities for what is happening to them.
The contamination suit doctors are replaced by ones in regular scrubs, who begin a basic check of Mulder and Scully -- checking their eyes, ears, pulse, blood pressure. A well dressed Diana Fowley joins them.
Fowley begs their forgiveness and that of Mulder's fellow tenants. His apartment building is quarantined. They were acting, according to Fowley on CDC protocols.
Scully, not buying any of this, wants to know on whose authority was the CDC called. Fowley tells her Spender called it in. Fowley and the CDC believe the doctors burned in Two Fathers were exposed to a contagion that caused them to die.
Scully does not believe a word of this and demands to see Cassandra.
F: She's isolated pending a full and satisfactory medical evaluation.
S: Cassandra Spender was in a general hospital environment for days. We met with her, yet on a whim you call in the 3rd Battalion. It is unjustified and highly suspicious to motive.
F: What motives are you suspecting?
S: Your isolation of Cassandra.
Mulder tries to interrupt but is ignored.
F: She is patient zero.
S: No one is sick or infected here. I mean I assume that based on your walking in here dressed to the nines offering apologies masquerading as explanations.
M: Scully!
S: Mulder, I want to see Cassandra.
F: I told you, she is isolated.
S: Yes, and I am a medical doctor...
F: One on suspension indefinitely from her position in the FBI.
Furious, Scully rips off her blood pressure cuff and leaves the room.
Mulder is uncomfortable with the whole exchange.
In a changing room, Scully is left with an old, grey, formless dress. Her belongings and Mulder's were burned as a precaution.
Mulder joins Scully, joking about the dress but she is having none of it.
S: Mulder, this stinks and not just because I think that woman is a...well I think you know what I think this woman is.
M: (Sarcastically) No, actually, you hide your feelings very well.
S: Agent Spender calling the Centers for Disease Control? This is just someone using their position to stage a high tech kidnapping.
Mulder confirms that Spender actually called the CDC-- after Cassandra disappeared from her room and in Skinner's presence (back in Two Fathers). Scully knows Cassandra wasn't sick and Mulder agrees, but wonders why Cassandra wanted to be killed.
Scully has a theory -- Cassandra was tired of the experiments, of the tests, of the chip in her neck, just like Scully's. Mulder thinks it is because Cassandra knew she was "the one" -- an alien/human hybrid.
Back in New York, Krycek meets with a limited group of the consortium. CSM is there. Krycek has Cassandra's medical records. The consortium members argue among themselves. Bill Mulder, it is learned, was against the idea of a hybrid. That once it was created a decision about killing the hybrid or allowing colonization to begin would have to be made. Some want Cassandra killed but CSM believes that it is time to start colonization.
CSM orders the men to collect their loved ones, they are going to turn over Cassandra and let the colonization begin.
While Scully's formless grey dress was bad, Mulder is left with a too small tweed jacket, a blue checked shirt, pants that end well above his ankles, white socks and a pair of shoes two sizes to small. A nurse, a rather large woman with white hair, passes by Mulder. He asks her for a better fitting pair of shoes, but she does not respond.
Down the hall, Mulder sees a woman in a white hospital gown who runs when she sees him. Mulder follows the woman into a storage room. It is Marita. She is hoarse, frail and her eyes glow abnormally (reddish). She tells Mulder that she will be killed by the CSM if she is found talking with him.
Marita explains that she has been subjected to "terrible, terrible tests". Mulder asks if they are the same tests as Cassandra Spender, but Marita says no. Cassandra Spender has been a test patient for 25 years. Marita tells Mulder she has been infected by the black oil. She was a test subject for its vaccine, different tests.
The alien colonists teamed up with the consortium to create the alien/human hybrid according to Marita while the consortium worked behind their backs to create the vaccine. The hybrid program was to buy time, time that was gone once the aliens know the hybrid exists. Colonization, Marita tells Mulder, will begin and "there is no stopping it."
Cassandra is visited by Jeffrey Spender and Diana Fowley. Spender tells his mother that she is safe now, but Cassandra tells him that Spender can not protect her from either the CSM or the oncoming disaster. Cassandra begs to die, to stop it from all starting. Spender thinks she is crazy and is lead out of the room by Fowley, who was listening in.
Mulder gets a call to meet Scully at The Lone Gunmen's place. Scully stands with Byers, Langly and Frohike.
S: I'll ask you to hear me out before you launch any objection. Mulder, I asked them to pull up everything they could on Diana Fowley.
M: (Sighing, looking like, "not again") I don't have time for this.
S: She's playing you for a fool.
M: I know her, Scully. You don't.
S: You don't anymore and I can prove that to you.
Byers explains that Fowley took a position with the FBI's foreign counter-terrorism unit in 1991. Scully tells Mulder that in seven years, she has no case files. Mulder is unimpressed.
Scully shows him travel files that were purged from the FBI mainframe but the boys found. Diana travelled through Western Europe and Tunisia. Langly matched her travels with MUFON chapters. Fowley visited every one in Europe, collecting data.
M: So, she's collecting data, big deal.
S: Or hiding it.
M: Scully, you are reaching
S: Mulder, when I was abducted, a chip was put in my neck. Then I happened upon a MUFON group of women with the same experience.
M: So you're suggesting that Diana is monitoring abductees, monitoring these tests.
S: You tell me that Cassandra Spender is the critical test subject. The one who can prove everything. Who is watching over her? Mulder, I can prove what you're saying or I can disprove it but not when Diana Fowley is keeping us from seeing her.
S: Ask yourself why is there no information whatsoever on Special Agent Diana Fowley? Why she would suddenly happen into your life when you are closer than ever before to the truth? You ask me to trust no on and yet you trust her on simple faith.
M: Because you've given me no reason to do otherwise. Scully looks like she's been slapped, the Gunmen are amazed, disappointed and disgusted with Mulder.
S: Well then, I can't help you anymore.
Scully moves to leave but Mulder grabs her.
M: Scully, you're making this personal.
S: Because it is personal Mulder. Because without the FBI, personal interest is all I have and if you take that away, there is no reason to continue.
Scully walks away.
Mulder goes to confront Diana at her apartment -- in the Watergate (note: a very expensive place to have an apartment). It is obvious that Mulder has never been there before, reading all the door numbers before he finds Diana's door.
He knocks but no one is there. With his pick, he breaks in. Mulder goes through Diana's desk drawers before moving into her bedroom. As he is going through that room, the door opens again. The Cigarette Smoking Man arrives.
Mulder pulls his guns and confronts him. Pushing the older man into the chair, Mulder towers over him with his weapon pointed at the CSM's head. Mulder tells CSM that he knows his name, his game and has nothing to lose.
The CSM remembers a time when Mulder had him in the same position. Mulder takes the safety off his gun to prove things are different now. The CSM tells Mulder that he is looking for Spender, his son who wrongly decided to take up Mulder's side of the cause. Mulder is offended, his cause isn't wrong. The CSM tells Mulder that Mulder's cause has always been wrong.
Mulder reminds the CSM that his cause isn't using "innocent people, innocent women" to create a hybrid to save his "sorry ass when they finally come knocking."
CSM laughs, infuriating an already angry Mulder. CSM tells Mulder that Bill Mulder was at the center of all this. That is why Bill Mulder gave up Samantha.
Mulder tells CSM that Samantha was never given to anyone, she was taken..
CSM explains the history of the deal. The consortium agreed by majority vote. They moved away from the governments they were affiliated with and into a private enterprise. Bill Mulder objected to any alliance with the alien colonists. CSM tells Mulder that the consortium believed the alliance would buy them time, forestall an alien invasion, saving billions of lives.
Mulder tells CSM that those lives were put on hold to save the consortium members' lives. CSM tells Mulder no, that the lives saved were those of their children. Mulder's father railed at the decision to sacrifice a loved one. While he is telling this story, a flashback to November 27, 1973 is shown. A group of children with a few older women, including Cassandra Spender, are at the air force base where the surrender was in the episode's opening. A bright light arrives at the group walks to the end of the hanger.
Mulder is disgusted, "You sent them away like they were things". The CSM explains that the aliens wanted them for tests and this was a guarantee the consortium members would see their loved ones again.
As for Samantha, CSM explains that Bill Mulder could not get out of the project in time and Samantha had to be taken over his objection. The family members were traded for the alien fetus first shown in The Erlenmeyer Flask. They would use the fetus to create the hybrid, a new race who would survive the holocaust and see their loved ones again.
Mulder is blown away by all of this.
CSM explains that Mulder's father wanted to create a vaccine but the successful hybridization -- Cassandra Spender -- would cause the alien colonists to come. A state of emergency will be declared as the virus is spread by the bees. A takeover will begin.
Mulder orders the CSM to stop it. CSM tells Mulder if it is stopped, Mulder will never see Samantha again. Torn, Mulder still wants it stopped, everyone will die. CSM tells Mulder no, he (CSM) won't die and Mulder will live to see Samantha again or die in vain trying to save the world.
He gives Mulder a piece of paper with an address El Rico Air force Base, West Virginia -- the air force base used throughout the episode -- "Save her, save yourself."
Spender arrives at the consortium's New York office. Only Krycek is there, doing clean up. Krycek explains that the members are all in West Virginia, waiting for hybridization. Krycek tells Spender that CSM is getting Cassandra, but Spender tells him that Cassandra is under guard and medical care. Krycek explains that her doctors work for CSM, Cassandra is being prepared to travel. Spender runs to save his mother.
In her hospital room, a group of doctors try to sedate Cassandra. Although she struggles mightily, she is overpowered. She is being prepared to be transported when the CSM arrives. He asks for a few minutes with his wife. She insults him, calling him a coward. She also tells him that Jeffrey is wise to him and his involvement in her abductions. Cassandra begs him to kill her, but he won't do it.
Fowley arrives home, shocked to find Mulder sitting in her living room. Her desk drawers are still opened. Mulder explains he was suspicious of her motives, her loyalties. She tells him nothing could be farther from the truth. Mulder tells her he found nothing, and she is visibly relieved. Mulder is oddly emotionless.
Mulder, stating that sometimes you have to give up to save the ones you love, tells her that they have to go to El Rico. Diana kisses an unresponsive Mulder and hugs him.
Spender arrives at Ft. Marlene to save his mother. She is gone, however. He does find Marita in her room, begging for help. He is reluctant to help until she tells Spender that she knows where Cassandra is.
In a Level 5 Contamination suit, Cassandra's doctor enters a room called "Purity Control". He takes the alien fetus from a cold storage unit. The large nurse who was in the hallway with Mulder enters the room with no protective gear. The doctor orders her out of the room but she attacks him. He pulls at her face and it comes off -- the woman is actually a faceless alien rebel. She morphs into the doctor, taking the fetus.
Mulder and Diana leave her apartment, he is on his cell phone to Scully. Scully was trying to call him -- she has found Cassandra Spender. Mulder wants to pick her up so they can all go to El Rico but Scully is going to save Cassandra, with or without Mulder.
Mulder agrees to meet with Scully, realizing this is a way to stop the invasion. Mulder sends Diana ahead and goes to meet with Scully at the Potomac Train Yards. Cassandra is going to West Virginia in a train car. Mulder finally shows some life.
Scully and Mulder pull up along the train transporting Cassandra. Flooring it, Scully gets ahead of the train and tries to use her car to stop it. Scully and Mulder get out of the car, taking some shots at the motorman. He tries to stop, but can't. Mulder and Scully get off the tracks but her car is history. The train continues on.
Inside, they hear the shots in a medical train car -- just like the ones in Nisei/731. One of the doctors is the morphed alien rebel.
At 11:21pm in El Rico Air Force Base, the consortium members arrive with their families.
Mulder and Scully are met by Skinner. They explain their lives are in danger and they could not tell him why over the phone. Skinner demands to know why they could not tell him but they feared mass panic. They ask him to take them to El Rico.
At El Rico, Cassandra, her doctors and the CSM arrive.
Krycek goes to Ft. Marlene to get the alien fetus. He finds the murdered doctor and the empty storage bin. He runs from the room, and right into Spender. Spender is trying to sneak Marita out of Ft. Marlene with no success. Krycek is surprised to see Marita, but won't help, "You sorry son of a bitch, it is all going to hell. The rebels are going to win, they took it." He leaves.
Fowley arrives late and alone. She and the CSM give each other warm looks. They are away from the main group.
Aliens begin to arrive -- bright lights and all. Well Fed Man wonders why they are there -- no one sent a message to the aliens. The CSM and Diana realize it is the rebels and flee.
Cassandra also realizes it is the rebels. She is pleased.
When the consortium realizes the rebels, not the colonists have landed, they form a circle, putting their family members in the center and using their bodies as a shield.
Cassandra's doctor morphs back into a rebel. The rebels circle the consortium members. With the fire spitting wands from Patient X/The Red and the Black, they set the all the consortium members, including Cassandra Spender and their family members, on fire.
Several days later, A.D. Kersh is horrified by the photos from El Rico. Everyone is burned to death -- just like the worst victims in Patient X/The Red and The Black. In the meeting with Kersh is A.D. Skinner, Jeffrey Spender, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
Kersh offers his condolences to Spender over Cassandra. Spender is respectful but tells Kersh that is not why he called this meeting. Spender feels responsible for the deaths. Kersh wants to know how the victims died.
Sp: Agent Mulder can explain it. I think Agent Scully too, to an extent. They might have even prevented what you see in those photos.
K: Agents Scully and Mulder have been suspended from the FBI.
Sp: Also my doing and my mistake.
K: I would ask...
Sp: (Interrupting) I would ask sir before you tell me it is not my business that you do everything you can to get them back on the X Files. Far worse will happen and it will.
Spender stands to leave, patting Mulder on the shoulder once. He tells Kersh he is packing up his office. Mulder realizes he is going to get the X Files back.
Kersh is furious and lashes out at Mulder:
K: You have answers now. Why haven't I heard them before?
M: I've had answers for years.
When Kersh wants to know why he never heard them, Mulder tells him that "No one would listen."
K: Who burned those people?
M: They did, with a choice made long ago, with a conspiracy of men who thought they could sleep with the enemy.
Mulder gives Scully a knowing look. She nods slightly.
M: Only to awaken another enemy.
K: What the hell does that mean?
M: It means the future is here, all best are off.
K: Agent Scully, make some sense.
M: Sir, I wouldn't bet against him.
Down in the basement, the CSM sits at Spender's, soon to be Mulder's desk. He is holding the photo of himself and Bill Mulder arguing. The photo that is burned in the beginning of the episode. Spender arrives.
Sp: Get out.
CSM: This picture you have, I haven't seen it since you were born. You probably don't know who the other man is.
Sp: I don't care, get out.
CSM: It is Bill Mulder. Fox Mulder's father....isn't that something. He was a good man...a friend of mine...who betrayed me in the end.
Sp: I know more that enough about your past. Enough to hate you.
CSM: Your mother was right. I came here hoping otherwise.
The CSM pulls a gun out of the top drawer. Standing up, he points it at Spender. Spender doesn't flinch.
CSM: Hoping my son would honor me, like Bill Mulder's son.
Off camera, we hear a shot and the CSM walks from the X Files office.
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