WRITTEN BY
Jim Guttridge
&
Ken Hawryliw
DIRECTED BY
Rob Bowman
AIRED ON
April 11, 1999
RUNTIME
45 minutes
STARRING
VIEWS
463
LAST UPDATE
2024-08-13 08:30:06
PAGE VERSION
Version 4
LIKES
0
DISLIKES
0
SUMMARY
Mulder and Scully investigate a string of brutal murders in a small town, where the victims are all linked to a young man named Trevor. The episode follows Trevor, a troubled teenager with a violent past, who appears to be the key suspect in the killings. As the investigation unfolds, Mulder and Scully discover that Trevor's violent tendencies are linked to a traumatic childhood experience and the influence of a seemingly benign, yet sinister, town elder who manipulates Trevor’s actions. The episode explores themes of psychological trauma, manipulation, and the impact of past experiences on present behavior, revealing how hidden influences can drive a person to commit heinous acts.
STORY
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BEHIND THE SCENES
No trivia yet.
QUOTES
Scully: Spontaneous human combustion.
Mulder: [grinning] Scully!
Scully: Well, isn't that where you were going with this?
Mulder: Dear Diary, today my heart leapt when Agent Scully suggested spontaneous human combustion.
Scully: Mulder, there are one or two somewhat well-documented cases.
[Mulder nods, grinning]
Scully: Mulder, shut up.
FILMING LOCATIONS
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REVIEWS
Good episode
Written by
Pike on 2016-01-01
★
★
★
I had not seen this episode since years, and forgot a bit about the storyline. I love to wait years before watching an episode and forgetting a lot about it. It's like watching new X-Files episodes! So, I watched it again and it struck me since the teaser: the coming of the tornado was very well done with the wind all over the place! Then, the story begins and we learn about Pinker Rawles's ability to go through stuff. At this point of the series, we've seen so many times the story of "the guy with the special ability". But even if the script isn't amazing, it's still enjoyable. And the direction was really good! Action, humour between Mulder and Scully ("Oh shut up Mulder", "Dear Diary, today my heart lept when agent Scully said 'spontanous human combustion'"), good muic, good acting (the Pinker Rawles character!, his crazy inmate in the teaser, his ex-girlfriend, etc.). So, in the end, I think this was a pretty good episode, with a lot of good things in it. That's why I give it a 3 out of 5.
TRANSCRIPT
SCENE 1
JASPER COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
(A prison farm in Southern California, oops, Mississippi. A pickup truck pulls into the compound with plywood. High winds blow dust and sand around as prisoners frantically nail boards over windows in preparation for a tornado. Armed guards watch over them. Two of the prisoners, WHALEY, a large belligerent African -American man, and PINKER RAWLS, small, wiry and tough looking, work together. WHALEY holds the board as PINKER RAWLS nails.)
GUARD: Last wall... Pour it on!
WHALEY: (thinking this is all a waste of time) Man, this little piece of wood ain't gonna hold no twister! We need to dig a hole, you know what I'm saying?
GUARD: (warning) Whaley!
WHALEY: A big hole. The man ought to be givin' us shovels. This whole damn place is going to blow away. Why even bother? Yo, boy, back me up, here!
PINKER RAWLS: Shut up and hold it still.
WHALEY: I know you ain't talkin' to me! You a big man, huh? Is that right? Charley potatoes. Big-ass criminal. You a bad man? (no response) You a bitch, that's all you are. You ain't got no money. You ain't got nothing. I'll hold it still.
(WHALEY begins shaking the plywood forcefully, laughing. PINKER RAWLS stares at him, sucking on a nail to make it easier to drive.)
WHALEY: (laughing) Is that still enough for ya?! Huh?!
(WHALEY continues laughing and looks over at the GUARD to share the joke. Suddenly, he begins screaming as PINKER RAWLS hammers the nail into WHALEY's hand. GUARD aims his rifle at PINKER RAWLS.)
GUARD: Put down the hammer, Rawls! Rawls!
(Later, in the Captain's office. Under guard, PINKER RAWLS faces the Captain, RAYBERT FELLOWES. FELLOWES gazes out the window at the approaching storm, then turns back to PINKER RAWLS.)
FELLOWES: Messed up old Whaley, did he?
GUARD: Messed him up good.
FELLOWES: Now what'd you go and do that for?
PINKER RAWLS: Man pissed me off, Boss.
FELLOWES: Who the hell doesn't? (to the GUARDS) Box him.
(GUARD is surprised.)
PINKER RAWLS: (terrified) You can't put me in that box, Boss. The... the storm's coming.
FELLOWES: Should have thought of that before you messed up old Whaley.
PINKER RAWLS: (on the verge of hysteria) Well, to hell with Whaley. You can't put me in that box! Boss! You can't put me in there! You can't put me in that box! You can't do it! You're going to kill me, Boss! Boss!
(OTHER GUARDS drag RAWLS out of the room. The GUARD looks a little concerned.)
GUARD: You know they're saying tornado touchdowns all over the county.
FELLOWES: (unconcerned) I can't be responsible for Acts of God.
(Outside, the GUARDS lock a struggling RAWLS inside a tiny wooden shack about the size of an outhouse. The storm winds are getting worse.)
GUARD: Sorry, Rawls.
PINKER RAWLS: Let me out! Let me out!! Heeeelp!! Somebody!! Somebody help me, please!
(Camera shot of shack in the high winds and sound of PINKER RAWLS screaming.)
(Later, the storm is over. GUARDS and PRISONERS come outside to survey the damage. The GUARD goes over to where the shack stood. All that remains are the foundations.)
GUARD: Oh, hell.
(GUARD enters the office building and goes to the Captain's office.)
GUARD: Hello, sir?
(He knocks at the door, then unlocks it and opens the door. He looks in the office in horror. Opening the door knocked something to the floor.)
GUARD: Oh, my god...
(He sees the body of RAYBERT FELLOWES. It has been completely cut in half at the abdomen. Ewww.)
[OPENING CREDITS] [OPENING CREDITS] [OPENING CREDITS] [OPENING CREDITS] [OPENING CREDITS]
SCENE 2
HINDS COUNTY MORGUE
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI
(MULDER and SCULLY in an autopsy bay. SCULLY in scrubs and mask pulls sheet off of the two halves of the body of RAYBERT FELLOWES. MULDER puts his hand over his mouth and turns away for a moment.)
SCULLY: Should we arrest David Copperfield?
MULDER: Yes, we should... but not for this. Now this is, uh, Raybert Fellowes superintendent of Road Farm Six, Mississippi Department of Corrections. One of his guards found him in his office. Not a drop of blood in the place.
(She touches the carbon residue left on one side of the bisected body and it crumbles.)
SCULLY: Well, maybe he was killed elsewhere.
MULDER: No, I don't think so. Whoever did it took 40 minutes to do it in the middle of a tornado. What do you make of that?
SCULLY: I don't know. It's, uh... it's not a simple bisection. There's a considerable amount of his abdomen missing. I mean, it almost looks like a burning but it's too localized. Maybe an industrial acid.
MULDER: (looking at the report) There's, um... no acid found in his office.
SCULLY: Oh. (long pause) Spontaneous human combustion.
MULDER: (grinning in disbelief) Scully...!
SCULLY: Well, isn't that where you're going with this?
MULDER: Dear Diary: Today my heart leapt when Agent Scully suggested spontaneous human combustion.
SCULLY: Mulder, there are one or two somewhat well-documented cases.
(MULDER says nothing, just sort of looks off to the side and nods thoughtfully.)
SCULLY: Mulder, shut up.
(MULDER has helpless, "What did I do?" look on his face. Very funny exchange.)
SCULLY: Okay. What do you make of this?
MULDER: I don't have a theory. But I know of someone who does.
SCENE 3
(Captain's office at the prison farm. MULDER and SCULLY are interviewing the GUARD. MULDER is looking around the room.)
GUARD: Hell, yes, Pinker Rawls who did it. Though you got me as to how.
SCULLY: And who is Pinker Rawls?
MULDER: An inmate.
GUARD: Mean son of a bitch.
MULDER: Rawls was the prisoner who supposedly died in the tornado that preceded superintendent Fellowes's murder.
SCULLY: So you're saying that a ghost did this?
GUARD: I'm not putting the word to it. That's up to y'all. All I know is that Rawls hated the Captain. Captain locked him in the box when the storm hit and Rawls didn't want to be locked in the box and when we found the box biggest piece was about yay big... (indicates something about 7 inches long) ? three miles from here. Now, this whole place was locked and boarded up tight. No man got in here. That's all I'm saying.
(GUARD leaves the room.)
SCULLY: So we're looking for a dead man?
MULDER: (walking around the room, tapping on walls) I disagree. I think this Pinker Rawls is still very much alive. You know, they never found his body.
SCULLY: Okay. Well, at the risk of further ridicule, Mulder, what if this wasn't a murder? I mean as I understand it, current theory on spontaneous human combustion is that climatic conditions play a large part. So, possibly a tornado may fit the bill. We've got lightning, um, static electricity at a high potential.
MULDER: (still looking around the room) I can't argue with that. But I do think it's murder.
SCULLY: Well, then how did Rawls or whoever do this? How did he get in and out of a locked office and prop a body up against the inside of a door?
(MULDER, in searching the office comes to a section of the wall that strikes him as odd. He taps on the wall, it sounds hollow, then he easily breaks a large hole in the brittle substance.)
MULDER: (looking at the hole) Termites?
(Later, in a storage area of the prison farm they look through PINKER RAWLS's belongings.)
GUARD: This is all he had in his bunk area.
SCULLY: (reading his file) Wilson Pinker Rawls, age 34. Eight years into 30 for robbing a wire office in Bay Saint Louis. The $90,000 he stole was never recovered.
MULDER: Well, it's not in here. Hey. Look at this.
(MULDER holds up a long package of what look like very large condoms.)
MULDER: (in ET voice) Ouch.
SCULLY: (ignoring him) His record dates to 1978. Mostly small-time. History of violence throughout.
(She hands MULDER a picture of PINKER RAWLS and he compares it to a picture of RAWLS and a very ? trashily dressed young blonde woman standing in front of a very modest house.)
MULDER: I wonder who she is.
(SCULLY looks at the picture.)
SCENE 4
MERIDIAN, MISSISSIPPI
(Southern Martha Stewart style house. Nice furniture, bows on the walls, everything in its place. The owner, JUNE, atttractive, well-dressed, mid thirties, sits beside a man, ROBERT WERTHER, 40ish. She pours coffee out of a silver urn into china cups.)
WERTHER: Thanks, Cutie. (chuckles) Hey, you broke out the good stuff.
JUNE: (smiling) Well, we're worth the good stuff.
WERTHER: Mmm.
JUNE: Hey, Robert?
WERTHER: Hmm?
JUNE: Can I show you something? I mean, just a little food for thought?
(She tries to show him a bridal magazine. "I DO, the Bridal Magazine - Dream Weddings: How to plan yours. No regrets: Choose the gown you'll love forever. How to have a champagne ? nuts ? " He is more interested in the TV.)
WERTHER: Wh... Oh. Wait, Sweetie. They're talking about the tornado.
NEWSCASTER: Take a look at this video just in. Hardest hit was a state prison farm outside the village of Stringer where two deaths are reported in the wake of the storm. A funnel cloud with winds topping 150 miles per hour tore through the isolated work camp passing within yards of a barracks filled with terrified inmates. Among the dead, Captain Raybert Fellowes, the farm's superintendent a 28-year veteran of the Department of Corrections. A second casualty was a prison inmate: Wilson P. Rawls, age 34, of Pascagoula. Prison authorities say...
(JUNE, who has been watching the TV nervously, suddenly drops her coffee cup. She gets up looking very upset.)
JUNE: Excuse me.
NEWSCASTER: ...whose job was to secure the prison...
WERTHER: You okay, June?
(JUNE quickly leaves the room. WERTHER watches her with concern.)
NEWSCASTER: ...from the oncoming storm. High winds apparently carried the man away. Though his body has not been found, Rawls is presumed dead. In other news ?
SCENE 5
10:54 PM
(Late evening. A SECURITY GUARD's car pulls up in front of a darkened Val-U-Mart store. BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD shines his flashlight through the windows, sees something and quickly goes into the store. Inside, PINKER RAWLS is putting on clothing he has pulled off the shelves. BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD approaches him holding a gun.)
BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD: You got a gun pointed at you. Don't try to run.
PINKER RAWLS: (casual, continuing to dress) I ain't runnin'.
(PINKER RAWLS opens a bag of athletic socks.)
BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD: Oh... Hey! Hey, that's store property. Take those off.
PINKER RAWLS: Oh... There's something so nice about putting on a brand-new pair of socks. I don't know what it is.
BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD: I said, take those off, boy.
PINKER RAWLS: Mmm... Ooh! Oh... Oh, my. (takes a pair of sneakers and holds them against the sole of his foot) What you think? That's me, right? And room to grow in.
BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD: You got an attitude, I'll say that.
(PINKER RAWLS giggles.)
BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD: Get the hell up. Turn around. Hands behind the pole.
(He cuffs PINKER RAWLS's hands behind a building support pole. He pulls out his radio and steps a few yards away from him.)
BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD: (on radio) This is Bobby in security. I've detained an intruder at the Val-U-Mart on Nine Mile Road and Route 60. ? I don't know how the hell he got in here? Got him cuffed in the back.
(PINKER RAWLS grunts with slight effort, then moves away from the pole. Camera focuses on the handcuffs, still clasped, lying on the floor. BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD hears his car horn honk, then looks out the window in surprise as he sees PINKER RAWLS waving and driving his car away. )
SCENE 6
(Later, BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD leads MULDER and SCULLY down the aisle at the Val-U-Mart. They show him a picture of PINKER RAWLS.)
MULDER: Is that the guy?
BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD: Yeah, could be. I guess. It was pretty dark.
MULDER: How'd he get away?
(BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD looks at SCULLY.)
SCULLY: Whoever he was.
BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD: You got me. The guy's like Houdini. Turned my back and he was gone. I had him right here.
MULDER: (looking at the pole) You had him handcuffed... here. Can I see your handcuffs?
(BOBBY THE SECURITY GUARD looks at SCULLY again. She shrugs, and he hands the cuffs to MULDER who takes them and taps them against the pole, then easily breaks them in several pieces.)
MULDER: We have a last known address for Pinker Rawls?
SCENE 7
(Later, BO's house, trailer? Decorated with hubcaps on the walls. Not Martha Stewart. PINKER RAWLS is frantically going through drawers and cabinets searching for something. BO, mid-thirties, sloppily dressed, enters the house.)
BO: Hey, hello? Rawls?
PINKER RAWLS: What's up?
BO: You're on the news, man. They're saying you got killed.
PINKER RAWLS: Where is she?
BO: June? She's gone. Long gone, man. She left me, like, four years ago. You mad 'cause her and me shacked up? I'm sorry, buddy.
PINKER RAWLS: Bo, I want what's mine.
BO: (nervous) I might have her address.
(BO casually goes to a desk drawer and looks at the gun inside.)
PINKER RAWLS: (knowingly, not looking at him) You got nothing in there but your nine.
(Bo pulls out the gun and aims it at PINKER RAWLS.)
BO: Get the hell out of my house.
PINKER RAWLS: (confidently approaching BO) Bo, you're going to shoot me? (taunting) Boo! Bleah! Are you gonna do something? Ha!
(BO shoots a bullet into PINKER RAWLS's chest. PINKER RAWLS advances menacingly on BO who cringes in terror. He fires seven more bullets, emptying the clip into PINKER RAWLS, who just keeps walking forward.)
BO: (screaming) No! No!
SCENE 8
(Outside BO's house, next day. MULDER and SCULLY arrive. The SECURITY GUARD's car is parked outside. MULDER is in rolled up shirt sleeves and dark sunglasses. They pull out their guns and begin cautiously looking around the yard.)
MULDER: This is Rawls's last known address. Security guard's car.
(SCULLY looks in the window and sees something.)
SCULLY: Mulder.
(MULDER kicks in the front door and SCULLY swings into the door, gun ready. They walk in and find BO's remains. MULDER reaches out and lifts BO's head. The head has been hollowed out. Only the back of his skull remains.)
MULDER: (completely disgusted, letting go of the head) Ugh! (looks at his hand and wipes it on his pants) Ugh. Gesundheit.
SCULLY: Oh, my god.
(MULDER groans sickly, looks away for a moment, then gets BO's wallet.)
SCULLY: Pistol in his hand, slide locked open, shell casings everywhere. I don't see any bullet holes anywhere, Mulder.
(MULDER retrieves BO's wallet and looks inside. He sighs.)
MULDER: Don't recognize him from his driver's license, do you?
SCULLY: Bo Merkle. This is his house.
MULDER: Yeah, but Rawls used to live here and he's come back looking for something.
SCULLY: $90,000. The wire office robbery eight years ago. The money hasn't been recovered.
MULDER: I don't think he spent that in prison.
SCULLY: I don't think Mr. Merkle did either, judging by the decor.
(MULDER pulls out the picture of PINKER RAWLS and the woman he got in the prison. They are standing in front of the same house.)
MULDER: Maybe she knows. That's this house, isn't it?
SCULLY: Yeah.
MULDER: Yeah.
SCULLY: (taking out her phone) I can run down the name.
MULDER: Yeah, I bet Rawls is looking for her.
SCULLY: (on phone) Yeah, this is Special Agent Dana Scully with the FBI. There's been a murder here at 922 Washington Avenue in Jackson. I need crime scene support on-site as soon as possible. Thank you. Oh, and could you transfer me to the records division, please?
(As SCULLY talks on the phone, MULDER finds a door with several bullet holes in it. He takes out a knife and removes one of the bullets. It crumbles in his fingers.)
(Later, a crime scene team is on the site. MULDER looks at the remains of the bullets inside an evidence bag. SCULLY comes over to him.)
SCULLY: Got a name to go with the face. June Gurwitch. There's no current address, though and, uh, no record of her since 1996.
MULDER: Maybe she changed her name. Maybe she was afraid she'd end up like that.
(They look over to where BO's body is being removed from the house.)
SCULLY: The state police have put out an APB on Rawls.
MULDER: You might warn them not to shoot to kill. He seems to find that annoying.
SCULLY: Look, Mulder, even if those were bullets...
MULDER: They are. It's just that their composition has been changed just like the handcuffs and just like the prison wall.
SCULLY: Even if these were bullets, there is no way that they could pass through Rawls in the way that you're describing-not, not without leaving him sprawled dead on the ground for us to find.
MULDER: I think they just went right through him, - whsssht - like his wrist went through the handcuffs and like he walked right through that prison wall.
SCULLY: He walks through solid objects?
MULDER: Changing their composition fundamentally-- making steel brittle, turning lead bullets into powder.
SCULLY: And flesh into carbon.
MULDER: I don't know how else to explain what happened to that prison superintendent or to poor Mr. Merkle over there, who's got no face anymore.
SCULLY: But where's the science in all of this, Mulder? You're talking alchemy.
MULDER: (small smile) I'm not saying that it can't be explained scientifically. Maybe it's the tornado. You suggested it yourself. Unusual climatic conditions... high electrical potential...
SCULLY: I'm sorry I even brought it up.
MULDER: Okay, we both agree on who he's looking for?
SCULLY: June Gurwitch.
MULDER: And do we have any idea of how to find June Gurwitch?
SCULLY: She has a sister named Jackie, and I have the address.
(They get into the car.)
SCENE 9
(JUNE is in her house working on some floral basket thing. She answers the ringing phone.)
JUNE: (on phone) Hello.
JACKIE: (on phone) Hey, it's me. Is this a good time?
JUNE: (on phone) No, Jackie, it is never a good time.
(JACKIE is in the kitchen of her modest home. She is dressed in a halter and tight pants. She is smoking and very upset. There are children's toys lying around.)
JACKIE: (on phone) Look, the Jackson City police just called me? Yeah. They're looking for you.
JUNE: (on phone) What'd you tell them?
JACKIE: (on phone) Nothing but they brought up Pinker and they wanted to know what he might want with you.
JUNE: (on phone) Pinker's dead. I heard it on the news today.
JACKIE: (on phone) Well, maybe you'd better call him... just in case he's not.
(Sound of a door opening in June's house.)
WERTHER: (off camera) June?
JUNE: (on phone) I got to go.
JACKIE: (on phone) June?
(She hangs up the phone and takes a drag off her cigarette. Sudden sound of a door slamming open. JACKIE ducks down behind a counter and pulls a large kitchen knife out of a drawer. She slowly looks around the house and goes into the hall and turns on a light. PINKER RAWLS steps in front of her. He is wearing different clothes.)
PINKER RAWLS: (calmly) Hey, Jackie.
(JACKIE runs away from him into another room and slams the door and locks it.)
PINKER RAWLS: That's not very friendly, Jackie.
(JACKIE frantically pushes furniture in front of the door and begins fumbling at the window. Outside the door, PINKER RAWLS has stripped.)
PINKER RAWLS: Jackie...
(JACKIE gasps as she turns and sees a naked PINKER RAWLS standing in the room.)
PINKER RAWLS: Tell me where she is.
JUNE: (breathlessly, brandishing the knife) I'm not telling you anything.
(At the sound of a car approaching, PINKER RAWLS goes to the window and sees a car pull up. He turns to jackie.
CUT TO:
(MULDER and SCULLY, guns and flashlights in hand, kicking in the front door and entering the house.)
SCULLY: Jackie Gurwitch? FBI!
(MULDER and SCULLY silently walk through the house separately, searching. They meet again in the hall. On the door to the room where JACKIE ran, they see the words "I WANT WHAT'S MINE" burned into the wood. MULDER kicks in the now brittle door and they find JACKIE sitting despondently on the bed.)
MULDER: Where'd he go?
JACKIE: (weakly, shrugging) He left.
(Later, house is now a crime scene. SCULLY comes over to MULDER near the car.)
SCULLY: Her son's spending the night at a friend's house and she's going to meet them there. She said that she didn't tell Rawls where her sister was. (hard for her to say) Mulder, she said that he walked right through the wall.
MULDER: Bo Merkle's car is parked down the street. That's how he got here. I don't know how he left.
SCULLY: Maybe he left on foot or he stole another car.
MULDER: Why would he leave without getting the information he wanted?
SCULLY: Well, maybe he's still in the neighborhood. I think the, uh, local PD can search but we have to get going.
MULDER: (getting in the car with her) Where to?
SCULLY: To Meridian. That's where June Gurwitch lives... or June Burdett as she's now called.
(Camera does close up on their trunk. Inside shot of the trunk shows PINKER RAWLS hiding.)
SCENE 10
6:12 AM
(MULDER and SCULLY arrive at JUNE's house. White picket fence. Lariat bumper sticker and Mississippi plates. 249 BAR. They go up to the house. SCULLY knocks at the screen door. WERTHER answers the door. SCULLY shows her badge.)
WERTHER: Yes?
SCULLY: (showing badge) Agents Scully and Mulder with the FBI. We are looking for June Gurwitch, also known as June Burdett.
WERTHER: "also known as..." (calling into the house) June. (to SCULLY) Look, what's this all about?
SCULLY: An escaped convict by the name of Wilson Pinker Rawls-- we believe that he may be pursuing Ms. Gurwitch with the intention of harming her.
WERTHER: "Gurwitch"? I don't understand.
MULDER: June?
(WERTHER turns to see JUNE standing in the doorway in her bathrobe. She looks tired and resigned.)
JUNE: Pinker's alive, isn't he?
(SCULLY nods. WERTHER stares at JUNE in surprise.)
(Later, JUNE has dressed and they are all sitting in the living room.)
JUNE: Jackie? She and her son...?
SCULLY: They're fine.
MULDER: Who is Rawls to you?
JUNE: A mistake. The biggest one of many. We lived together. (looks up at WERTHER who is standing in the doorway, arms crossed) Are you sure you know who you're looking for? I remember one time this guy cuts Pinker off on the highway. I mean, just cut him off-you know, kind of thing that happens to everybody every day. He followed this guy for 62 miles right over the state line-- 62 miles-me pleading with him the whole way to stop. Follows the guy up to his house. The guy gets out of his car, smiling. He doesn't know what's coming to him. Pinker pulls a picket off a white picket fence and cracks that guy's skull open with it. He's not going to stop.
MULDER: What does Rawls want? The money? $90,000 from the Bay Saint Louis robbery?
JUNE: I didn't even know about that till they came to the door to arrest him, okay? I mean, Pinker was already in prison before I found that money.
(WERTHER shifts uncomfortably. First he's heard of this.)
JUNE: By accident.
SCULLY: So you took it.
JUNE: Eventually, yeah. I thought about it for about a week or two.
MULDER: And where's the money now?
JUNE: Put a down payment on this place. Bought a couple of sofas... chintz curtains... PC for Robert.
(WERTHER angrily walks away.)
JUNE: (to MULDER) I just wanted another chance.
(Later, they come out of the house. JUNE is carrying a suitcase. State troopers are waiting. MULDER unlocks the trunk.)
ROBERT WERTHER: Look, I have a job. I've got responsibilities. I can't just disappear like this.
SCULLY: It's best you both stay under 24-hour guard until Rawls is apprehended. It's for your protection.
ROBERT WERTHER: No, it's for her protection. Let's be clear here. This guy Rawls or whoever, he's not looking for me. She took his money.
JUNE: Robert, I'm sorry...
WERTHER: Excuse me. I've got my own place. I promise to stay the hell away from here, okay? How about it?
(SCULLY and MULDER look at each other.)
WERTHER: Look, I just want to get out of here, okay? I didn't break any laws.
(MULDER looks at SCULLY and shakes his head in an "I give up" look. WERTHER walks to his own car.)
SCULLY: Don't discuss this with anyone, Mr. Werther.
ROBERT WERTHER: I'm forgetting it ever happened.
(With another accusing look at JUNE, he leaves. MULDER takes JUNE's suitcase and puts it into the trunk and closes it. He looks at the trunk lid which is now cracked. He touches the metal. It is brittle. MULDER and SCULLY look at each other.)
MULDER: (to JUNE) Give me your keys.
(MULDER takes the house keys and hands her over to the State Troopers.)
MULDER: Get her out of here. I want a guard on her at all times.
(MULDER and SCULLY begin walking to the house, pulling out their guns.)
SCULLY: Rawls was in the trunk?
MULDER: Yeah. And we took him right where he wanted to go.
(Inside the house, PINKER RAWLS, naked again, is looking through drawers. He turns at the sound of a key in the door. We see MULDER and SCULLY enter. MULDER walks cautiously through the house.)
SCULLY: (from another room) Mulder?
(MULDER joins SCULLY. They look at the words "I WANT WHAT'S MINE" burned into the wall. The last word is slightly cut off where the "E" enters a mirror hanging on the wall.)
MULDER: You think he's trying to tell us something?
(Later, MULDER, wearing latex gloves, is tracing the words on the wall. He thoughtfully fingers the edge of the glass in the mirror where the word cuts into the frame.)
MULDER: Scully, look at this. I'm assuming Rawls wrote this with his finger just like the other one. Look here.
SCULLY: He stopped at the mirror.
MULDER: Or the mirror stopped him. What makes an object solid, Scully? I mean, what, what prevents one solid object from passing through another solid object, usually?
SCULLY: Electrostatic repulsion. Individual electrons repelling one another like magnets.
MULDER: Electrons. What if Rawls's ability somehow has to do electricity? What would preclude it or contain it?
SCULLY: Resistance against electrical current. A good insulator like rubber, like glass.
MULDER: Exactly. Rawls couldn't pass through this.
SCULLY: Say... say that your theory is correct- that he can walk through walls. Why go through all this effort over an old robbery score? It's $90,000-- he could get that anywhere, right?
MULDER: (considering) It's not about the money. It's never been about the money.
SCULLY: Yet he turned this place upside down which means he was looking for something. And I think it has to do with this. (showing him a bill) It's a lien on unpaid hospital bills dating back to 1992 and the patient name is June Gurwitch. And this is an IC D-9 number-- a hospital diagnostic code. This particular one means...
MULDER: Pregnancy.
SCULLY: Right. Specifically, c-section.
MULDER: This is seven years ago. That's just a few months after Rawls was sent to a prison farm.
SCULLY: Uh-huh. "I want what's mine." This man is looking for his child, Mulder.
(MULDER looks at SCULLY.)
SCENE 11
(Hotel room. JUNE and TROOPER COLLINS are listening to the TV. JUNE is nervous.)
NEWSCASTER: ...and will return in time to take part in meetings at the UN. a statewide manhunt is underway at this point as escaped convict Wilson Pinker Rawls-- a man previously thought to be a victim of Tuesday's storm-- continues to elude police. He is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous.
JUNE: I'd like to call my sister.
TROOPER COLLINS: Sorry, ma'am. No calls.
(JUNE gets her purse and lights a cigarette.)
TROOPER COLLINS: This is a non-smoking room, ma'am.
(JUNE angrily pinches the cigarette out with her fingers and flings it away. Overhead we see a man's hand and face coming silently through the ceiling.)
SCENE 12
(MULDER and SCULLY and crime scene team are investigating the hotel room. Close up of TROOPER COLLINS' severed arm, which is still holding a gun, then of MULDER stepping over it.)
ANOTHER TROOPER: Looks like Collins put up a fight. Guess it wasn't enough. I can't tell you what happened here-- how Rawls got in-- but he took the woman with him.
MULDER: Where are they headed?
ANOTHER TROOPER: They stole a station wagon. Last seen headed south.
(MULDER and SCULLY step to a corner of the room and speak privately.)
SCULLY: He has to intend for June to lead him to his child.
MULDER: Yeah, we got to get there first.
SCULLY: Yeah, but where? We don't have a name or an address. I mean, June may not either, for that matter. If the child was ? was adopted... I think our best bet is to go through state records but it's going to take some time.
MULDER: (to the TROOPER) I'm going to need some equipment. Special issue.
SCENE 13
(PINKER RAWLS and JUNE are sitting in an old station wagon on a deserted road. Country music is playing on the radio. PINKER RAWLS sits with his eyes closed.)
JUNE: Pinker, I apologize. Look, I'm really scared right now, okay? Talk to me. Please... please say something. Anything. (no response) Look, I'm sorry about the money-- your money. I shouldn't have taken it. It was wrong. I was wrong. Pinker, I can pay you back.
PINKER RAWLS: (turns off the radio) What was it? What'd you have?
(She doesn't answer.)
PINKER RAWLS: You dumb bitch. You don't even know what I'm talking about. What'd you have? Was it a boy or a girl?
JUNE: (quietly, resigned) A boy... a boy.
PINKER RAWLS: A boy ? a boy... a boy. (pause) What's his name? You know his name, don't you?
JUNE: Trevor Andrew.
PINKER RAWLS: Trevor what?
JUNE: Trevor Andrew.
PINKER RAWLS: Trevor Andrew ? Rawls. You never were going to tell me. I'd have gone to my grave never knowing. But years later, a million-to-one shot, I hear on the Farm from a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy. You know what that means? That means God wanted me to know. He fixed it so I'd hear... and then he fixed it so I'd have passage. And I'm here. God's will.
JUNE: (afraid, crying quietly) What do you want with the boy?
PINKER RAWLS: He's my son. Now you're going to take me to him.
SCENE 14
(Hotel room. MULDER and SCULLY are on their respective cell phones talking to separate offices.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Yeah, can you also check her alias, please? It's Burdett, B-u-r-d-e-t-t. ?
MULDER: (on phone) It was a live birth-- that's all you can tell me? Yeah, can you check on that, please?
TROOPER: (holding out box to MULDER) This what you were looking for?
MULDER: Yes. Thank you.
(MULDER opens the box and looks at one of the large rubber bullets inside.)
SCULLY: (on phone) All right, thank you very much. (she hangs up and turns to MULDER) No match on Burdett or Gurwitch.
MULDER: (showing her bullets) Riot slugs-- rubber. (into phone) Uh-huh. ? Yeah. ? No. ? Thank you. (hangs up) It's a boy. That's all I got.
SCULLY: Sealed files?
MULDER: No official files. No adoption records, no records of foster care in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, nothing.
SCULLY: Well, maybe she didn't go through official channels. Maybe the kid's with a friend or a relative somewhere.
(MULDER and SCULLY stare at each other in realization.)
SCENE 15
(JACKIE's house. TREVOR, a seven year old boy is playing with toy cars in the living room.)
TREVOR: Vroom, vroom, blam!
JACKIE: Come on, Trevor, put your...
TREVOR: Blam!
JACKIE: Trevor, put your toys away. Dinner's almost ready. Trevor?
(The phone rings.)
TREVOR: (jumping up) I'll get it.
JACKIE: No. Go wash your hands. I'll get it.
(JACKIE is cooking chicken noodle soup. She hears knocking at the door and lets the machine pick up the phone as she goes to the door and sees JUNE.)
MULDER: (on answering machine) Jackie, this is Agent Mulder?
(JACKIE opens the door in relief.)
JACKIE: June.
JUNE: I'm so sorry.
(PINKER RAWLS enters behind JUNE.)
PINKER RAWLS: You could have saved me a trip. Where is he? My boy, where is he?
(PINKER RAWLS pushes JUNE into the house and closes the door. He sees TREVOR come out of the bathroom and sit at the kitchen table. PINKER RAWLS stares at him in awe.)
PINKER RAWLS: (to JACKIE) Right. I appreciate all you've done. Taking care of him. You're a good mother. Better than some, I could say.
(He looks accusingly at June, then crosses cautiously over to TREVOR at the table.)
PINKER RAWLS: (gentle) Something smells good in here. What are you going to have?
TREVOR: Hi, Aunt June.
JUNE: Hey, baby.
PINKER RAWLS: You shut up!
(PINKER RAWLS grabs JUNE roughly and shoves her into the pantry and locks it. TREVOR looks on in fear.)
JUNE: No! No!
PINKER RAWLS: (to JACKIE) Now you... you sit him back down, and you feed him his supper. (calming, to TREVOR) It's all right. It's going to be all right. D-d-don't be upset. I ain't mad at you, buddy.
JACKIE: It's okay, Trevor, Mama's here, okay?
PINKER RAWLS: Come on, I'm not going to hurt you. It's okay, buddy. Why don't you come over here. We'll have a man-to-man. Just have uh, a nice talk, you and me.
(JACKIE goes into the kitchen and looks down at the boiling soup.)
PINKER RAWLS: Uh... you're Trevor, right? Trevor Andrew. That's your name. My name is Pinker. But you can call me Pinky.
(TREVOR is scared. PINKER RAWLS is nervous, trying to put him at ease.)
PINKER RAWLS: Any-anyway, uh... You and me, we're going to take a trip.
JACKIE: Pinker.
PINKER RAWLS: (tense) Shut up, please. (to TREVOR, gentle) You got some stuff you want to pack up? Some toys and stuff? Trevor...? Jackie?
JACKIE: Trevor, go. Go and pack some stuff, okay?
TREVOR: (going to his room) Okay.
PINKER RAWLS: He's a good boy.
(JACKIE picks the glass, Visionware pot off the stove and flings the boiling soup at PINKER RAWLS. It passes right through his body. She then flings the glass pot at him and he grunts in pain as it bounces off his head.)
JACKIE: (screaming) Trevor, run!
( As TREVOR runs out the door, JACKIE keeps hitting PINKER RAWLS with the pot. He grabs her leg and pulls her to him. Her scream is cut off suddenly as he brings his fist down on her. JUNE, in the pantry is hearing everything.)
PINKER RAWLS: Trevor! Trevor...!
(PINKER RAWLS runs outside, searching.)
PINKER RAWLS: Trevor...! Trevor? Hey, buddy.
(TREVOR is hiding behind a tree.)
PINKER RAWLS: Hey, buddy. Hey, Trevor.
(PINKER RAWLS begins pursuing TREVOR through the yard.)
PINKER RAWLS: Hey, buddy!
(MULDER, holding a shotgun, and SCULLY arrive. MULDER grabs TREVOR and pushes him to SCULLY who begins running him back to their car.)
MULDER: Get him out of here, Scully.
(MULDER aims his shotgun at PINKER RAWLS.)
MULDER: Don't make me shoot you. Don't make me shoot you.
PINKER RAWLS: Trevor!
(He starts to run, but MULDER fires. The four rubber bullets impact, and PINKER RAWLS reacts in pain. He runs to a wall of the house and as he passes through the wall, his clothing falls to the ground. Very cool. MULDER enters the house, looking around for PINKER RAWLS. He kneels down and checks JACKIE's pulse. She is still alive.)
(CUT TO: SCULLY and TREVOR running through the yard. They get to MULDER and SCULLY's car. SCULLY drops her keys, then picks them up and unlocks the door.)
SCULLY: Okay... Everything's going to be all right. We're going to get you to a safe place.
(SCULLY looks at TREVOR who is staring into the yard. SCULLY turns and sees a naked PINKER RAWLS slowly approaching them. SCULLY reaches her hand out to TREVOR who takes it, trustingly. SCULLY and PINKER RAWLS stare at each other. SCULLY sees a glass telephone booth close by. She takes a deep breath then turns and runs to the booth with TREVOR.)
SCULLY: Let's go. Run. Run. Run. Get inside. Get inside. Get inside. Get inside.
(They get inside the booth, and SCULLY slams the door shut just as PINKER RAWLS catches up and begins banging on the glass. She wedges her gun in the door handles.)
PINKER RAWLS: (yelling) Give me my son! Trevor! Give me my son! Trevor! (yelling) Give me my son, now!
(PINKER RAWLS picks up a rock and breaks a hole in the glass.)
SCULLY: No!
(PINKER RAWLS is yelling in frustration.)
PINKER RAWLS: Trevor!
(He looks at TREVOR who is terrified. SCULLY holds him tightly, leaning over him. PINKER RAWLS drops the rock and walks away sadly into the road. Suddenly, a car driven by JUNE whips around and hits PINKER RAWLS. The engine and hood of the car passes through him, but he splatters on the windshield. Ewww. SCULLY shields TREVOR from seeing it. She then leads him out of the booth to MULDER. She and MULDER look at each other, then she leads TREVOR back into the house while MULDER walks over to the car. He reaches in and turns off the ignition.)
JUNE: (still shaking) I had to do it. He would have hurt Trevor. He would... God only knows what he was thinking.
(She looks up at MULDER.)
JUNE: What did he want?
MULDER: Maybe another chance.
(JUNE puts her head down on the steering wheel and begins crying.)
[THE END]
No history.
