Página PrincipalInternal dating: Episode aired January 11th 1998, but no internal dating
Phil, against his wife/Bobby's mother Patty's advice, drags the boy out of his room and into the yard. Although he never physically abuses the boy, he yells at Bobby for being lazy and a loser. Bobby finally lashes out, taking the shovel and swings it at Phil. When Bobby sees the look of horror on his mother face, who is at the door, and the fear in Phil's eyes, he runs off into the nearby grove.
Phil follows with Patty not far behind. Phil calls out Bobby's name but the boy has a good lead on the older, heavier man.
Bobby sees an older man with an axe walking through the woods. Bobby stops, allowing Phil to catch up. Phil trips on a root and falls to the ground. He suddenly sinks into the mud.
When Patty finds Phil, he's buried to his neck in mud, Bobby struggling with him. It is not clear if he is trying to push Phil into the mud or pull him out.
The credits run: The Truth is out There.
Scully pulls 12 pounds 9 ounces of mud out of Phil Rich's body, largely from his stomach but some in his lungs. The mud in his lungs is the cause of death. Mulder jokes that maybe Phil took the concept of eating mud pies to an extreme.
Scully, unimpressed with the joke, says that Phil may have liked the gag. He was a well liked, respected grove worker in town with no enemies that the sheriff thought would murder him.
Mulder asks if she is sure its murder. Scully thinks it is. There is a suspect -- Bobby -- and the body has marks as if he was pushed down by his head. Mulder didn't think Bobby was a good suspect for killing the 6 foot 4 inch, 250 pound Phil. Bobby was scrawny, nicknamed "dorkweed" at school and the body was found standing straight up in the mud. Phil was so far down in the mud that the sheriff needed a backhoe to dig the body out.
Scully shows Mulder a bruise on the ankle that looks something pulled him in the mud. Scully thinks Bobby could have dug a hole and the rain turned the hole into a trap.
Mulder interviews Bobby, who is wildly disinterested. Mulder is in his best sympathetic psychologist mode, relating to the outcast young man with family problems. The boy is cool to Mulder's kindness.
Bobby tells Mulder that he tried to save Phil, but he couldn't. He was surprised Phil didn't pull him in the mud. Mulder tells Bobby that his answers and attitude are hurting him with the police. Bobby tells Mulder that he is the only suspect since everyone knew he hated Phil.
Scully interviews Patty. She tells Scully that Phil and Bobby were close when Bobby was a little boy but since he became a teenager, he was difficult to deal with. Phil was stern with the boy but never laid a hand on Bobby.
Bobby, meanwhile, tells Mulder that Phil "got off" knocking him around. Mulder asks if Bobby ever fought back. Bobby said he was half Phil's size, he couldn't.
Patty tells Scully that when she found Bobby and Phil the night Phil died, Bobby appeared to be saving his stepfather. Patty gives Scully vague answers when asked who started the fight the night of Phil's death.
Outside the Rich house, Mulder sees a dying tree. Scully, who joins him, explains that the grove has been struck by a blight. Phil, Scully tells him, was frustrated that his trees were dying. Mulder and Scully wonder if Phil took his anger out of Bobby. Scully tells Mulder that Patty says there was no abuse. Mulder tells Scully that Bobby claims otherwise.
At the hole where Phil died, Mulder admits he's still having trouble with the idea that Bobby could rig this. He climbs down into the hole, wondering how almost 13 pounds of dirt wound up in Phil. Scully theorizes that Phil got some in him when he was sinking and his desire to breath caused a vacuum. When he sunk, that vacuum became like a syphon.
Mulder gives Scully the look she usually gives him when he's come up with an odd theory. Scully admits its a stretch. She also tells Mulder that Bobby has been in therapy for a couple of years. He's angry, doesn't make friends easily. Mulder admits that description could be him.
Scully sees the man with the axe. She calls to him but he moves away. As Mulder tries to get out of the hole to see the man, he gets snagged on a root. When he finally gets out of the hole, the man is gone.
At school, Bobby meets a girl named Lisa. As the two talk, he is attacked by a bully. Bobby stands up to the bully, threatening to "kill you too". The bully walks away, as does a frightened Lisa.
Mulder and Scully visit Karin Matthews, Bobby's therapist. She lives and works out of her small, off the main road home. Karin admits she believes Bobby was abused by Phil. She tells them that Bobby spilled his milk one night at dinner. He had to eat all his meals for the next two weeks in the cellar -- no lights, no table, no heat. Sometimes Bobby spent the night in the basement.
Karin gives vague answers, finally admitting that some crimes have more than one victim. Mulder tells Karin that her picture of Bobby makes him look guilty. Mulder does not believe Bobby is the killer.
As Lisa walks home that night, Bobby pulls up beside her in his truck. Bobby tells Lisa to stand up to her father -- to "make it go away forever".
Lisa's father is waiting for her, watching her with Bobby outside their home. Lisa returns home, going to her room. Her father confronts her in her bedroom, ordering her to stay away from Bobby. Lisa tells him to leave her alone and storms out of the room. As Lisa's dad walks to her window, the glass shatters. Lisa's father is suddenly dead on the ground outside her window.
Mulder and Scully arrive the next day and look at the broken window from the ground. Karin is counseling Lisa. When Mulder and Scully enter the home, Mulder takes Karin outside while Scully questions Lisa.
Mulder asks Karin if Lisa was a patient. Lisa was being treated for an eating disorder. Lisa's problems came from a disapproving father. Mulder asks if Lisa's dad was in counseling. Karin said no, she only counseled the victims.
At the broken window in Lisa's room, Scully tells Mulder that Lisa admitted Bobby was outside her house when her dad was killed, that Bobby threatened a kid in school and she thought he could kill someone.
Mulder disagrees. He shows Scully that Lisa's father was pulled out the window, not pushed as they thought, by how the window and window frame broke. Scully isn't sure of his idea, saying that she didn't think Bobby could pull Lisa's father out the window. Mulder thinks that's the point.
Scully examines Bobby at school for any cuts or scrapes that would show that he pushed Lisa's dad out the window. There are no marks.
Mulder, meanwhile, looks at Lisa's dad's corpse, finding a wood sliver in his neck. He takes it to Scully.
Lisa and Karin pack up Lisa's things. She will stay with Karin that night and her aunt Linda will pick her up in the morning. At Karin's later that day, Lisa hears someone yelling cruel insults at Karin.
Now back at Lisa's home, Mulder explains to Scully that the wood sliver from Lisa's dad was not from the house, but may have been from a tree near the home. Mulder climbs that tree to see if there are any broken limbs. As Mulder gets to the top of the tree, he asks Scully if his "boyish agility turns you on"?
Scully can't answer since the man with the axe has come up behind her, surprising her.
Scully asks the man his name and tries to walk away. The man, while walking closer to Scully, says he works in the grove. Scully tries to get Mulder to join her as the man with the axe continues to walk closer to her. To stop him, Scully shows him the piece of wood Mulder got from the body. The axe man tells her that the wood came from the tree Mulder is just climbing down.
He raises his axe and chops into the tree. The tree starts to bleed. The axe man explains that a bad man who ran the groves was responsible for a blight like the one that was happening now.
At Karin's, Lisa follows a trail of mud into the basement. Once there, the voice that mocked Karin calls Lisa a "snoop" and locks her in the basement. Lisa sees what looks like a body sitting on a chair at the foot of the staircase.
The next morning, Karin is confronted by Mulder and Scully about the death of Karin's father. Karin's father died the same way Phil did 20 years ago. Karin, who is 30ish, says she was just a young girl when her father died. Mulder tells her that the axe man told them that her father caused the blight. Karin said that her father was a powerful man who frightened the locals, but he could not cause a blight.
Scully asks for Lisa, but Karin says Lisa's aunt picked her up earlier that morning. As Mulder and Scully leave, Lisa, locked in the basement, tries to get their attention. Mulder and Scully cannot hear her.
Mulder illegally digs up Karin's dad's body, not thinking he'd be in the grave. He was not -- his casket was filled with roots and branches.
Lisa's aunt Linda tries to pick up the girl at Karin's. Karin tells Linda that Lisa caught a bus out of town. As Linda leaves for the bus stop, she hears her niece's cries for help. Linda tries to get help, but is stabbed by a root, pulling her half into the basement window.
Mulder tells Scully that he thinks the link between Phil, Lisa's dad and Karin's dad -- all grove workers -- makes their murders some revenge by nature. Scully sees a more logical explanation -- three abused children may have stopped the abuse.
Mulder confronts Bobby about the abuse. He thinks that Bobby didn't hit Phil with the shovel because Phil never really hit Bobby. Phil was tough, but not abusive. Bobby finally tells Mulder that he was trying to save Phil, that he didn't want Phil to die. Karin forced the abuse story on Bobby. Karin made Bobby yell mean and horrible things at her to make him a victim.
The voice that mocked Karin and locked Lisa into the basement starts telling Lisa that she's in a lot of trouble. When the basement door opens , Karin is standing at the door, speaking in the mocking voice.
Mulder and Scully arrive at Karin's, finding the front door opened. They follow the mud trail into the basement. They see Lisa's dead aunt in the window and find Karin's father's body -- all covered in roots and dirt, sitting in a chair.
Mulder and Scully hear Lisa being abused. Before they can get through the basement door, it is locked. Mulder kicks the door down. Lisa is on the kitchen floor, beaten. While Scully tends to Lisa, Mulder chases, by car, after Karin.
Karin, not wanting Mulder to follow, causes a tree to fall on his car. He ducks before a branch had cut through the window and impale him.
Karin tries to talk to Bobby at this home, but Patty won't let him in. Before Karin can push Patty away, Bobby runs off into the grove. Karin follows.
When Karin catches up to Bobby, he tells her to leave him alone. Karin isn't Karin anymore, she's her father. She is insulting to Bobby, calling him a loser. Bobby suddenly starts sinking into the mud.
Mulder comes up and tries to save Bobby. He tells Karin to fight her father, to stop him the way she should have stopped him when she was a child. Karin doesn't want to hear this. Mulder starts to sink in the mud.
The axe man comes up behind Karin and chops her head off. While her skull sinks into the mud, Mulder and Bobby are able to struggle out.
In his post-case notes, Mulder says the truth about the case is sealed in Karin's hospital files from when she was a child and in the Michigan mud, where Karin's body sank.
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