Internal dating: No date given. Episode aired 11 April 1999
Opens in a prison camp in Mississippi, Wilson P. (Pinker) Rawls is confined to "the box" as punishment, despite the warnings of the staff to the Captain of the place that a tornado is coming. The storm hits, chaos ensues, and we see Pinker screaming in terror as the tornado hits hard. After the storm, a guard notices "the box" missing, along with the inmate, and goes to tell the Captain. He has to force the man's door open and reacts in horror. As he leaves, calling for help, we see a body, charred, missing everything from the waist down.
Bring up music and "The Truth is Out There"
Act I:
Opens with Scully frowning over a body.
Scully: "Should we arrest David Copperfield?"
Mulder: "Yes, but not for this."
The whole episode is full of this kind of good, friendly, close banter. Faced with the evidence at hand, Scully is the one who first pops the theory of spontaneous human combustion.
Mulder: "Dear Diary, today my heart leapt when Agent Scully suggested spontaneous human combustion."
Scully, of course, backs it up with comments about the scientific validity of such an occurrence, then at Mulder's still teasingly incredulous looks says, "Mulder, shut up!" Great banter.
During his rounds, a security guard runs into the missing inmate in a value-mart, casually getting dressed. He cuffs him and walks away, calling in to report the incident. Pinker, meanwhile, slips the cuffs and walks out, stealing the security guy's car. Mulder and Scully talk to the guard and Mulder casually snaps the abandoned cuffs in half. He and Scully exchange incredulous looks.
Meanwhile, Pinker is trashing a house when Bo, an old friend, walks in. Bo not only knows Pinker, he used to sleep with Pinker's ex - Pinker tells Bo to get the ex's address. Bo pretends to do that, but grabs his gun instead. Bo points it at Pinker, who "boo's" Bo into firing his gun at him. Point blank, directly at Pinker's chest, Bo empties the clip, but nothing happens. Act I closes with Bo in a chair screaming "Nooooo!" as Pinker slowly approaches him.
Act II
Mulder and Scully arrive at Pinker's last known address, peek in, and kick the door in to find a body slumped in a chair. It's Bo. Mulder tips the head back and sees the charred remains of Bo's face.
Mulder: "Ugh! Guzundheidt". He wipes the hand he used to tip Bo's head back on his trousers, grimacing at the site of Bo and his missing face.
The house is actually Bo's house, and Scully reveals that 90K that was never recovered from a robbery Pinker did is probably the object of the search.
Scully calls the coroner and police to report Bo's death while Mulder investigates the bullet holes, which are very shallow, and the slugs are easy to pry loose. The wall and slugs are sort of charcoaled looking. The slugs, like the handcuffs, break apart easily, as if "chemically altered" according to Mulder.
Scully finds the name of the ex-girlfriend, a June Gerlich. Mulder tells Scully he thinks the bullets passed completely *through* Pinker. Scully argues ballistics, science and no body, Mulder argues changing composition and Scully asks, "Where's the science?" Mulder reminds her that she brought up the theory of the tornado and electromagnetic surge possibly being related to all of this.
Scully: "I'm sorry I ever brought it up."
Mulder and Scully go looking for June's sister Jackie, believing she might know where to find June.
Cut to the sister, Jackie, on the phone with June and in a panic because the police are looking for June and Pinker. On June's end, her current new guy, a boring, accountant-type calls her away from the phone. It's obvious that June hasn't told the new boyfriend of her past with Pinker.
We go back to Jackie, who is frightened to death by a door closing loudly in her house. She grabs a butcher knife and goes to investigate the noise. Of course, it's Pinker and he, now with his shirt off for some unexplained reason, follows her into a locked room. In burst Mulder and Scully, flashlights and guns up and ready. They find a sign on the door, "I want what's mine", enter the room, and find Jackie huddled on the bed, in shock, saying only "he's left".
Scully tells Mulder that Jackie's going to go stay with her son, who's staying with a friend.
Scully, looking a little dazed: "Mulder, she said that he walked right through the wall".
This episode is full of great music. As Mulder and Scully reverse the car, we get a not so subtle shot of the trunk. Three guesses as to who's inside. Act II ends with a tight shot of the still shirtless Rawls in the trunk.
Act III
Mulder and Scully find June's new house and tell the new boyfriend about her history. June is not happy camper and the boyfriend is even unhappier. She immediately asks about Jackie and her son and is assured they're fine. June begins to try to tell Mulder and Scully what Pinker is like. She reveals she found the money missing 90K years earlier.
Her boyfriend is really unhappy now; June says she used the money to start a new life, including a computer for the new boyfriend. This really cranks him off and he walks out of the room.
June: "I just wanted another chance."
Mulder and Scully take June and the boyfriend into protective custody and begin to take them to a Safe House. The boyfriend is mad about them going into protective custody, dumps June on the spot and leaves the picture. We don't see him again. Mulder tosses June's bag into the trunk and realizes from the decay of the metal in the car that Rawls was in the trunk. He tells Scully to get June over to the Safe House right away. Scully hands June over to another agent.
Mulder reenters the house and we still don't know why the guy apparently has no clothes on. Mulder wanders through the house until Scully calls his name. She shows him what's written on a wall, "I want what is mine" It's in charcoal, or something. Mulder is perplexed. From the pattern of the writing, and the fact that it stops at a large mirror, Mulder figures that Pinker can't go through glass. Scully finds old hospital bills and figures out from the coding on the billing statement that June had a baby by Cesarean section 10 years before.
Scully says something about what it is that Pinker can be looking for, and she and Mulder suddenly realize that Pinker's not looking for the money or June, he's looking for his child. Scully figures that June gave the child up for adoption and she and Mulder begin to make some calls.
Meanwhile, June is in a motel room with a hunky FBI guard, unhappily in protective custody. Low shot of June sitting on the bed, and over her shoulder we see the ceiling begin to bulge downward. Act III ends with Pinker oozing out of the ceiling.
Act IV
Opens with Mulder and Scully checking out the body of the dead hunky FBI guy and then discussing what to do next. Mulder suddenly asks for special equipment.
Pinker now has June, is dressed and he and June are sitting in a car under an overpass. She's crying and upset, he's silent, then begins to question her about the kid she had. She tells him the boy's name is Trevor Andrew. Now he's cranked. He's convinced that God wanted him to know of the boy, which is why he's able to do the things he's done; i.e. find out about the kid (which he did from another inmate), not be killed by the tornado and walk through walls. Pinker is determined to get the boy and tells June to take him to the kid.
While on the phone checking adoption records, Mulder gets a delivery of hard rubber riot bullets. Scully makes a comment about Pinker having no living relatives, and suddenly it clicks for her and Mulder. Jackie's son is actually June's and Pinker's son. Jackie's been hiding him out; the boy thinks Jackie is his Mom and June is his "Aunt June".
Cut to Jackie's house and Trevor playing on the floor. He's a sturdy little kid with black hair and huge eyes. A knock sounds as the phone rings. As Jackie answers the door, Mulder leaves a message on the machine. June is at the door when Jackie opens it. She says, "I'm sorry", steps aside and reveals Pinker, who sees his kid and tells the June and Jackie he's going to take Trevor away now.
Pinker meets the boy, who says hi to "Aunt June" which really flips out Pinker. He shoves June into the closet and tries to chat with the boy, but the kid's frightened out of his mind. After another attempt to get the boy to talk, Pinker and Jackie tell Trevor to go pack a bag. When he's gone, Jackie picks up the boiling hot chicken soup and flings it at Pinker.
It goes right through him. He attacks her, she fights, and he knocks her out cold. Trevor runs outside and runs into Mulder and Scully. Mulder fires shotgun blasts of rubber bullets at Pinker while Scully and Trevor race to her car. Pinker is downed by the rubber bullets and falls against a wall. He disappears through the wall, leaving his clothes behind. That explains the naked Pinker we've been encountering.
Mulder is in the house looking for Pinker, when we cut to Scully and the kid out by the car. Scully is uncharacteristically clumsy and drops her keys. She notices Trevor's terrified gaze and sees Pinker heading toward them. There's a great shot of Scully taking the kids' hand.
She spots an old glass phone booth and they make a break for it. The naked Pinker begins to smash the glass. He makes a hole in it and instead of reaching in to hurt Scully; he turns away suddenly and moves to stand in the street. Out of nowhere, a car driven by June suddenly hits him. He passes through the hood and is sliced in half by the windshield. Mulder arrives and the scene ends with a grief-stricken June sobbing into her steering wheel, trying to figure out what it was Pinker wanted. Pinker is smeared all over the windshield. Mulder appears shaken by the whole thing and quietly tells June that maybe Pinker just wanted a "second chance."
End Credits...
General episode comments (by SetMedic, so please don't mail me (Pellinor) with your agreements / objections / discussion):
Overall the episode was built on an interesting subject matter, spontaneous human combustion, but handled badly. The topic itself is spooky enough by itself without the element of the weird guy. They never really explained what it was he did how he did it, and why whatever happened to him didn't kill him. Too many ideas in one little episode. The Discovery Channel did a better investigative report on spontaneous human combustion that had me more spooked than did this episode. As much as the X-Files has wide-ranging appeal for its unanswered questions, this episode gets a low grade for not providing enough food for thought. We're left with nothing to ponder other than why did this guy suddenly turn away when he had exactly what he wanted? Why it was named for a kid we saw onscreen for less than 10 minutes overall is beyond me. The interaction between Mulder and Scully was terrific; comfortable, friendly and professional, with tons of nonverbals.
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