Pusher

Internal dating: No date given. Should be February 1996, if internal dates track episode order.

Agent Frank Burst, the senior agent in the car with Modell, tells Mulder and Scully what had happened. He was only slightly injured, but the driver, although mortally injured, released Modell before dying. Modell himself had called a few months ago to confess to a series of killing passed off as suicides, taunting them to find him. "It's a game to him," he says, "Pusher lies to leave clues." Looking at the photos of the crash, Mulder notices the words "Ro Nin" written in blood on the crashed car. This is a Samurai without a master, he says.

Mulder and Scully study Ninja magazines looking for clues. Holly, the girl who brings them the magazines, has a bruised eye from having been attacked in the street. In the small ads of the magazines they find a repeated advert reading "I solve problems OSU". This is the Japanese word meaning "to push." Mulder speculates that "Pusher" can literally force him will on people.

Mulder, Scully, Burst and his men stake out the three pay phones whose numbers were given on the advert. It is late, and Scully is dozing, her head slumped to one side (on Mulder's shoulder?) "I think you drooled on me," he says, touching her cheek to wake her up. Suddenly someone calls the pay phone and they rush to answer it. It is Pusher, saying he had been watching them up to an hour ago. "You and your pretty partner seem close," he tells Mulder, "Do you work well together?" He won't give his name, saying they have to "follow my little bread-crumb trail, prove your worth." Mulder asks why he's playing it like this - does he want to be found - but then, sighing, asks for the next "breadcrumb". Modell tells him it's just in front of him - "Let your fingers do the walking, G-Man." He then hangs up, and Scully has been unable to get a trace. Heeding his clue, they manage to find the last number that was called from the payphone and find it's a driving range. "Let's go, G-woman," Mulder says.

At the driving range the following day, Modell is lively and seemingly relaxed, although he knows that the FBI is watching him. He then goes and waits in a dark room, where he is found by Agent Collins, a solitary agent. He talks soothingly to Collins, saying he needs him to do something for him. When Mulder and Scully arrive, Collins, weeping, is covering himself with gas and holding an lighter. "Stop it!" he cries, even as he sets himself alight. As Scully and Burst tend to him, Mulder hears a car horn and rushes over, finding Modell slumped in a car, muttering "light up." "Bet you five bucks I get off," he says, his speech slurred.

Modell is brought to court for a preliminary hearing. Mulder tells the court that he believes Modell is responsible for fourteen so-called suicides, on the grounds that he has confessed on tape, and knows crime scene details no-one should have known. As Scully shuts her eyes and looks away, Mulder tells the court how he believes Modell can will people into killing themselves. Another agent buts in before Mulder can go too far, pointing out that they don't know how he does it, but that his confession should be grounds enough to hold him while they pursue their investigation. Modell, when questioned, says the confession was a drunken phone prank and denies the charges absolutely. He looks intently at the judge, who released him.

Outside the court room, Modell asks Mulder for the five dollars he owes him for winning his bet. As he reaches for his wallet, Mulder tells Modell his shoe lace is undone. "Made you look," he says. "How do you do it?" As Modell leaves, Burst shouts after him that he knows his name and address.

Mulder is at the shooting range, when Scully comes in with more information on Modell. Modell applied to the FBI but failed the psych screen for treating people as objects, distrusting authority, and lying about his past. For example, he claimed to have been trained by Gurkhas and Ninjas, but neither were true. Mulder, ignoring this, talks about the stories that say Ninjas can affect the minds of their enemies. Modell certainly affected the judge's mind, he says - "He put the whammy on him." "Please explain to me the scientific nature of the whammy," Scully says, calmly. She rejects all Mulder's theories of Modell's powers. "He's just a little man who wishes he was someone big, and we're feeding that wish." She points out that if Modell could control minds, he would have ensured that he passed the FBI entrance tests. Mulder, however, thinks that whatever caused his abilities happened only in the last two years - the dates the "suicides" started. He challenges her to explain what she saw when Collins set himself on fire. "What do you need me to say, Mulder?" she says. "That I believe Modell is guilty of murder? I do. I'm just looking for an explanation a little more mundane than the whammy."

Modell walks into the FBI lobby. He scribbles "Pass" on a scrap of paper, but the man at the security beepy thing (F Johnson, as in "Blessing Way") lets him through and directs him to the computer records section. (fourth floor, west wing.) Holly, the girl from earlier, is there, and she willingly does what he asks, looking up personnel records for him. He touches her bruise, saying he wishes he could get his hands on the guy who did that. Just then Skinner walks in, asking what is happening. He challenges Modell, pushing him up against the wall and shouting at Holly to call security, but Modell tells Holly Skinner is the one who mugged her. She sprays Skinner's eyes, then kicks him.

Later, Holly, in tears, apologises over and over. "It's like suddenly I was watching myself from across the room, doing these things. It's like he was with me inside my head."

Mulder tells Skinner that the security tapes reveal how Modell got in past the guards, but that none of them can remember even seeing him. Skinner asks if this is the same "mysterious phenomenon" behind his attack. Scully says she has to agree with Mulder. (He looks surprised and pleased at this.) She says she can't begin to explain it, but it seems that Modell is responsible for what happened. Skinner tells them that the only file Modell accessed was Mulder's.

An FBI SWAT team go to Modell's apartment, to find nothing but an endlessly playing video of Svengali hypnotising some girl and a refrigerator full of high-energy drinks. Scully finds some drugs, and contacts Modell's doctor, finding out that Modell has had epilepsy for the last two years. One cause of late-onset epilepsy could be a brain tumour, and Mulder says that brain tumours have been associated by telekinetic powers. Maybe Modell is expending vast amounts of psychic energy, hence the high-energy drinks. Scully says if he does have a tumour he wouldn't be well enough to play these games, but Mulder says maybe this is the explanation - the reason he's leaving clues as if he almost wants to be caught. "He wants to go out in a blaze of glory," Scully says. "Not with a whimper but a bang," Mulder replies.

The phone suddenly rings in Modell's apartment. Burst answers it, although Mulder and Scully listen in on another extension. Modell asks Burst about his weight, and Burst replies, thinking only to humour him long enough for the call to be traced. Modell them urges Burst to think about the affect of what he eats on his arteries. Mulder, realising what is happening, tells Burst to hang, his voice getting increasingly urgent. Burst ignores him, and begins to cry in pain, clutching his chest. He physically pushes Mulder away when he tries to stop him, and several agents end up holding Mulder away. Hearing Mulder's desperate cries, Scully tries to pull the phone cable out of the wall, but she too is stopped. Burst collapses to the floor, dead of a heart attack.

While Scully tries to revive Burst, Mulder picks up the phone, asking Modell what exactly he wants. "A worthy adversary," Modell says.... "I'm hoping it's you." He says he's read all about him - top criminal profiler, Oxford graduate, "all-round bright young man." He says Mulder thinks he knows what makes people like him tick. He then tells Mulder where he was calling from - the same number they had managed to trace by Burst staying on the phone for so long, even though it killed him. "You mean, you killed this man for nothing, you sick bastard?" Mulder says in disgust.

The phone number was a pay phone outside Fairfax Mercy Hospital, the place where Modell's drugs had been prescribed. They deduce he is there having a check-up, and an SWAT team surrounds the hospital. They find his car, engine still warm, but Mulder advises against going in in case Modell makes they turn their guns on each other, thus endangering patients. Instead he says he should go in alone - give Modell what he wants. "You," Scully says, looking highly displeased at the plan.

Mulder is set up with a bullet-proof vest and a camera and microphone. "Can I get the Playboy channel?" he jokes. Scully can't bring herself to smile, even though Mulder crouches down next to her, smiling. He gives her his gun. "I wouldn't want to end up pointing it at anybody except Modell," he says. She rests her hand on his.

Mulder goes into the hospital, giving Scully a running commentary on what's happening. Suddenly there is the sound of gun shots, and the reception goes fuzzy. Scully is about to rush in, but then Mulder's voice is heard again. Mulder finds two bodies - the guard shot the technician and then shot himself, and now his gun is missing. He also finds a computer screen with Modell's records, revealing that he does have a brain tumour. "Modell's dying," Mulder says. "He's got nothing to lose." Scully anxiously urges him just to get out of there, but Mulder stands still, staring ahead. The last thing Scully sees in the camera is Modell pointing the gun straight at Mulder, then the screen goes blank. She cries out and is out of her chair in a flash.

The SWAT team go into the hospital, but daren't make any rash moves. Scully goes down the corridor alone, to the room they think Modell is in. She finds Mulder and Modell facing each other across a table, a revolver in between them. Mulder is just staring ahead, not acknowledging her at all. She tells Modell the place is surrounded and he won't be able to do what he planned. "You don't know what I've got planned," he says. He then picks up the revolver, saying it will be a fight to the death between "two warriors of equal skill." Due to his Ninja training, he says, he has learnt to disregard his own death and feels no fear, thus he will win. He gives Mulder the gun, saying he has one pull of the trigger - a one in six chance. Scully urges Mulder not to do it, reminding him that there is oxygen in the room that might ignite. Mulder shows no signs even of hearing her, and pulls the trigger. Modell pretends he felt no fear, but is obviously lying. It is then Mulder's turn....

Scully (a look of horrified realisation) "Mulder, no."

Modell: "Mulder, yes. Go."

Scully: "Mulder, listen to me. Give me the gun. We can stop this thing right now. You and I can just walk right out of this room..."

Mulder puts the gun to his head and pulls the trigger.

Scully (jumping to her feet, shouting) "No! Damn you! You bastard! Mulder, hand me the gun!"

Mulder pushes her hand away and points the gun at Modell, then turns it around to point at her.

Scully: "Mulder, you don't have to do this. You're stronger than this."

Modell: "Your turn, Scully. Got to play by the rules. Pull the trigger, Mulder.

Scully (a tear on her face): "Mulder, fight him. You can fight this."

Modell: "Come on. She shot you, I read it in her files. Pay-back time. Shoot the little spy."

Mulder (not taking the gun off Scully): "I'm going to kill you, Modell."

Modell: "Yeah, pull the trigger you get another crack at me."

Mulder (about to pull the trigger) "Scully, run..."

Scully runs and pulls the fire alarm. Mulder is able to pull away and shoots Modell, over and over and over, even though there is only one bullet in the gun. When the SWAT team burst in, Mulder sinks down into a chair and hands the gun to Scully without looking at her. His head sinks into his hands.

Modell is in intensive care, and Mulder stands watching him. Scully comes in, saying there is no hope. Mulder says he could have been treated all along, but refused treatment, preferring to keep the tumour and the power it gave him. "He was always such a little man. This was finally something that could make him big. " They hold hands briefly. "I'd say we don't let him take up another minute of our time," Scully says, leaving. Mulder follows her.

Página Anterior

Página Principal

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