Soft Light

Internal dating: This case begins on March 31st 1995, which is date of the death seen in the teaser. (This is taken from the scene on the railway station, when Mulder says Banton was there on the 17th and 31st and "last night" - the dates of the last three disappearances.)

Hotel George Mason, Richmond, Virginia. An anxious looking man (Dr Chester Banton) knocks on a hotel room door, calling for "Morris," saying he needs to talk to him - that Gail Ann is dead. A businessman in the room opposite, hearing this, looks through his peep-hole. Banton steps back and his shadow falls on the crack at the bottom of the businessman's door. There is a flash of blue light, and the businessman disappears into a small blackened pool. "On no!" Banton cries, twisting the bulb on the light so it goes out and then fleeing.

Scully and Mulder arrive at the scene. Scully tells him it came after 2 other disappearances, and the Richmond PD is stumped. Her contact in the case is the newly-promoted Detective Kelly Ryan, one of her students at the Academy, who is anxious that her supervisor doesn't know about the FBI involvement. "I've heard a lot about you," Kelly tells Mulder when they're introduces. "We'll talk later," Mulder says to Scully, pretending to be stern, but Scully smiles.

Kelly Ryan says the missing man worked for a Morley Tobacco (remember Cancerman's Morleys). Mulder asks how she knows he's missing. She says the door was locked, the windows locked, and there was no sign on forced entry. "What are you looking at?" she asks, as Scully peers at a ventilation grille. (Tooms!) The only evidence at all is a burn mark behind the door, similar to burn marks found at the other disappearance scenes, although the man didn't smoke. The mark, which has the same composition as the residue that would have been left by burning human flesh, is roughly circular, though with an extension that Mulder speculates could have been made by an arm. He says it would be exactly where someone would stand if they were looking out of the peep-hole, so tries to find out what he could have been looking at in the corridor. This leads him to the loose bulb, which he wants dusted for prints.

"Is this your first case?" Mulder asks Ryan, who's been following him around making notes of everything he says. She says it is, and she was given it because no-one else wanted it, due to the lack of evidence and the fact that it wasn't likely to end up on the front page of the papers. "I wouldn't be so sure of that," Mulder says, saying he thinks it's Spontaneous Human Combustion. Ryan and Scully exchange looks. "You're doing just fine," Scully tells her, then accuses Mulder of "having a little fun." She says there's no evidence of SHC. "Okay," he says, disappearing into the elevator.

Mulder and Scully go to the site of the last disappearance. "Can you spare a prophylactic?" Mulder asks her, removing yet another bulb with a fingerprint on it, from a street light this time. There is another burn mark on the floor, and they find out that this missing person also worked for a tobacco company, but decide this is probably not relevant as the other missing person didn't, and about half the town work for tobacco companies anyway. They discover she travelled into town by train the day she disappeared, as did the businessman. Mulder theorises that the people may have been hunted by someone working from the station. Scully asks about the SHC theory. "Maybe it's not so spontaneous," he says.

Dr Banton is sitting at the station, looking anxiously at the overhead light and at the ground at his feet. he goes outside, hesitating before walking under a light. A police car drives up and he runs, but is cornered. "Stay away from me," he warns, backing way from one of the officers so that, behind him, his shadow falls on the other officer, who is vaporised. Scared, the other one moves up to Banton and the same happens to him. "Oh God!" he cries.

Next day, Kelly is stressed, since she was the one who sent the two patrol men to the station (acting on Mulder's theory) and her superiors want to know why. They'll be furious if they find out she was acting with the FBI. She's checked the prints from the light, but there's no match in the databases.

As they leave, Scully asks Mulder if he cares to share his ideas, but he refuses. "You don't have a clue, do you?" she says, rather snappily, but he says he was at least right that the killer was there the previous night. Assuming that he could have been there the nights of the other disappearances, they search the security videos and notice Banton sitting on a bench all the time. Scully seems to feel the whole thing isn't worthwhile, sitting in the background making bored sounding comments. She perks up when Mulder gets the picture blown up and they see a logo for Polarity Magnetics on his jacket - the place the first missing person worked at.

At Polarity Magnetics, Mulder and Scully talk to a Dr Davey, who identifies Dr Banton from the photo but says he's been missing for five weeks. He tells them Dr Banton was involved in a terrible accident. He had been researching dark matter, which Scully reminds Dr Davey may not exist, and had an accident with a particle accelerator. He shows them Banton's shadow burnt into the wall, and tells them how Banton looked totally calm, as if he was finally learning the truth about what he had studied with such an obsession.

Scully, a wondering look on her face, thinks it could perhaps we SHC after all, but Mulder says he's no longer sure of this. As they speak, alone in the particle accelerator (which is switched off!) Dr Davey listens to them and watches on a screen.

Mulder and Scully wait in the station for Banton. As Mulder stares at the floor, trying to work out why Banton had been doing this in the video, Scully reminds him that they have more questions than answers. Even if Banton is a suspect, they have no motive or weapon. Mulder interrupts her to point out that there are no shadows cast in the station, and maybe that's what he was looking for.

Banton arrives at the station and Mulder and Scully give chase, cornering him on a platform. "Leave me alone," he urges them, looking down at his shadow. "It will kill you It doesn't care who you are." Just as Scully is nearly on his shadow, Mulder shoots out the light bulbs. "Thank God!" Banton mutters.

Banton is confined in a psychiatric hospital, in a room lit by soft light - light that casts no shadow. He talks about dark matter, saying it reduces matter to pure energy. He looks upset when talking about Gail Ann, the first victim, who just disappeared when he was talking to her the night after the accident. He has no control over the power of his shadow, which is why he lurks in the station, where his shadow can't exist. "They" are after him too, he says, explaining that he means the government. They want to do a "brain suck" on his to steal his work (even Mulder looks a little sceptical at this) and they must protect him. If he dies, there is no way of being sure that the shadow force will die too. Instead it could be free, without him to tether it.

Kelly Ryan walks in on their interrogation, ordering them to stop. She has her superior with her - Detective Barron - who asks them what they're involvement is. "We caught the guy," Mulder says, not very tactfully, but Scully stresses that they are here purely unofficially, attracted by the unexplained aspects of the case, and were not called in by anyone. Barron says the case is certainly explained, as Banton's prints match the ones found at two of the crime scenes. Mulder opposes, accuses Barron of knowing nothing about the case, giving it to Kelly Ryan to get it out of site, and now trying to take it away from her now it's getting serious. Ryan looks embarrassed at this. Barron says Banton will be transferred to the city jail. Mulder objects, but both Barron and Ryan remind him that he has no say in the case and should leave it alone. "Come on Mulder. Let's go," Scully says. As they leave, Mulder reminds Ryan that Banton needs soft light.

Mulder thinks Scully shouldn't have put Ryan's ambition before the case, but Scully gets angry. "She's a woman trying to survive the boys' club," she says, "and, believe me, I know what that's like." "The difference is that you never put yourself before your work," Mulder tells her, "and that's what's happening here." Scully reminds her they have no jurisdiction here and were called in as a favour, so should back off as a favour too. She thinks Mulder's being over paranoid fearing that the government will harm Banton or misuse his work, saying that he is clearly delusional. "We've both seen the physical evidence, Scully," he reminds her. She admits she can't explain it, but believes it isn't their job to even try. Mulder walks off.

Mulder meets X at the station, but X says he knows nothing about the case and asks Mulder to tell him about it, including the location of where Banton's being held. "I can't help you," he says, when Mulder's finished. "The last time I helped you I bloodied my fist and regrettably exposed my identity to associates of yours," he says, referring to End Game. Mulder promises him that he can trust Scully and Skinner like he can trust him, but X ominously tells him that "dead men can't keep promises. The next time the blood and regret could be yours. I'm not at your beck and call, Agent Mulder. I have nothing to gain and everything to lose by helping you." He tells Mulder not to contact him again.

At the institution holding Banton, the lights go out. X tells the nurse that he's come to transport Banton, but as his men tie him up the lights come on again and they are vaporised. X backs off and Banton runs.

Mulder and Scully visit the empty cell, where Ryan storms out with a dark glare at Mulder. Scully tells how someone posing as an engineer switched off the power two blocks away, and asks Mulder if he thinks he's someone from the government who's taken him. "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you," Mulder says, but he thinks Banton killed the government men who came to get him and is now on the loose. He thinks Banton's trying to reverse the process and free himself from the shadow.

Banton goes to Polarity, asking Davey for help in destroying "this thing" before "they" get to it. Ryan bursts in to arrest him, and he warns her lots of people could die if she stops him. As she approaches, he steps forward and lets her step into his shadow. She is vaporised, but, although he did it deliberately, he looks upset. Davey looks horrified.

In the particle accelerator, Banton locks himself in, saying that whatever happens Davey mustn't stop the process. Once he's in, Davey reveals he's working for "them". "You're lightning in s bottle, Chester," he says. "We're not about to let you die." Davey calls "them", but is shot himself by X.

By the time Mulder and Scully arrive there is no sign on Banton, or of X, though they see the burn mark on the floor where Ryan died. They arrive in time to see a body in the accelerator being vaporised, and Scully assumes it's Banton who's killed himself, but Mulder points out that the door is locked from the outside.

Mulder meets X and accuses him of using him to lead him to Banton. "I won't be your stalking horse!" he tells X. X says he over-estimates his own role in this relationship. He exists for X to use, not vice versa. Mulder accuses X of killing Banton and Ryan. "Who do you answer to?" he asks. X says that, despite his loyalty to his "predecessor" (Deep Throat) he's never made Mulder any promises. Mulder walks off in disgust. "We're finished," he tells X. "You're choosing a dangerous time to go it alone," X shouts after him, then tells him he didn't kill Banton.

Scully attends Ryan's funeral, looking moved. Mulder (in sunglasses) is waiting for her at the car, and asks her how she's doing. Scully says Ryan was her student, and came to her for help. "This shouldn't have happened," she says. Mulder tells her that Dr Davey is missing as well, and he thinks it was Davey they saw in the accelerator, not Banton.

Banton is seen attached to wires and electrodes, tears running down his face as scientists flash lights at him. "We'll be studying this man for a long time," one says, as X watches.

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