WRITTEN BY
Chris Carter
DIRECTED BY
Kim Manners
AIRED ON
November 7, 1999
RUNTIME
44 minutes
STARRING
VIEWS
437
LAST UPDATE
2024-08-13 08:30:06
PAGE VERSION
Version 5
LIKES
0
DISLIKES
0
SUMMARY
Mulder is critically affected by an ancient alien artifact he uncovered in a recent case, leading to severe psychological and physical changes. He becomes increasingly detached and exhibits erratic behavior, which concerns Scully and puts their partnership at risk. Meanwhile, Scully, struggling with her own crisis of faith and the loss of Mulder, is drawn into an investigation involving a mysterious archaeological dig linked to the artifact. The episode explores themes of existential crisis, alien influence, and the tension between belief and scientific discovery as Scully works to uncover the truth behind the artifact and its connection to Mulder's condition.
STORY
No story yet.
BEHIND THE SCENES
No trivia yet.
MYTHOLOGY
Scully continues her investigation in Africa, discovering more about the ancient alien artifact and its connection to human evolution.
Mulder's condition worsens, and it becomes clear that his mind is being overwhelmed by knowledge from the artifact.
The artifact suggests that the aliens were responsible for the development of human consciousness.
QUOTES
Scully: (voiceover) I came in search of something I did not believe existed. I've stayed on now, in spite of myself. In spite of everything I've ever held to be true. I will continue here as long as I can... as long as you are beset by the haunting illness which I saw consume your beautiful mind. What is this discovery I've made? How can I reconcile what I see with what I know? I feel this was meant not for me to find but for you ... to make sense of—make the connections which can't be ignored... connections which, for me, deny all logic and reason. What is this source of power I hold in my hand—this rubbing—a simple impression taken from the surface of the craft? I watched this rubbing take its undeniable hold on you, saw you succumb to its spiraling effect. Now I must work to uncover what your illness prevents you from finding. In the source of every illness lies its cure.
FILMING LOCATIONS
TOPICS
No topics yet.
REVIEWS
It works
Written by
Pike on 2017-09-10
★
★
★
★
It works well.
___________________________________________
Character development
Written by
RMuldrake on 2007-12-17
★
★
★
★
An interesting deviation from ordinary mythology format but an interesting combination of the plotlines developed in the season 6 finale and a character study all on its own.
The teaser is a nice segue to "Biogenesis" in that it really reflects Scully's state of mind after the events of that episode. She tells herself she does not believe in what she is doing. But she presses on out of devotion to her partner and her determination to find a cure for his illness, something she has always been able to do. This has always been her strength as an investigator – applying strict rationalism and scientific principles to matters that are designated as "unexplained" because previous attempts to do so have failed. The entirely supernatural "signs" and "warnings" that she receives while on the Cote d'Ivoire, are so clearly inexplicable that all Scully can do is ignore them and continue with what she does know. These happenings all continue to push her in the direction she was headed at the end of "Biogeneis" – to finally "believe." The scene between her and Skinner echoes nicely the final scene of "The Beginning." But this time, Scully does not state extraterrestrial life as a mere theory, she states it rather definitively and bases the rest of her argument around it. More interestingly, Skinner, for the first time, announces his willingness to believe. Undoubtedly Skinner's involvement with Michael Kritchgau was the catalyst for this belief, but the seeds had been planted over years of work with the x-files, albeit not in the field. Michael Kritchgau returns as a man clearly vengeful of what the government did to him and his son. He is obsessed in finding proof, and it makes it easier to compromise any morals since the potential sacrifice for this proof is Mulder, the man who effectively ruined him.
The resolution is definitely not satisfying, even though it was the middle chapter. The climax and "to be continued" moment was lacking (literally) compared to "Biogenesis." Scully's second voice over needed more emphasis on her character, more like the one beginning this episode or the one beginning the final act of "Biogenesis." However, "The Sixth Extinction" lays a foundation for what is to come on the series, especially in season 7. It puts more emphasis on character than most mythology episodes have in a while.
Entertainment 1/2;Writing 1/2 Directing 2/2 Acting 2/2 Character 2/2: 8/10
TRANSCRIPT
[FLASHBACKS TO BIOGENESIS - 6X22]
ANNOUNCER: Previously on the X-Files...
(DR. MERKMALLEN finds a piece of the metal artifact with mysterious writing on it buried on the Ivory Coast beach in Africa.)
SKINNER: (voice) Dr. Merkmallen found an artifact in his country. He claimed it contained a message.
(DR. MERKMALLEN talking to DR. BARNES.)
DR. MERKMALLEN: I told you of its power.
(DR. MERKMALLEN is studying the artifact in Africa, when it suddenly flies across the room embedding itself in the Bible.)
MULDER: Genuine artifact.
(MULDER is looking at the rubbing of the artifact with SCULLY and CHUCK BURKS. Also a shot of the actual artifact.)
MULDER: Dr. Barnes has one now, too. That's why he killed Solomon Merkmallen.
(MULDER holding his head in pain in the basement hallway. SCULLY is concerned.)
SCULLY: What is it, Mulder?
MULDER: Sounds weird, but I think it's that thing.
(SCULLY and DR. HARRIMAN are observing MULDER who is screaming in a padded cell.)
DR. HARRIMAN: He's got extremely abnormal brain function. There's brain activity in areas we've never seen before.
(SCULLY confronting SKINNER and DIANA FOWLEY in the hallway outside MULDER's room.)
DIANA FOWLEY: He said I was the only one who'd believe him.
SCULLY: You're a liar.
(SCULLY tracking down leads in New Mexico, looking at a Genesis translation of the artifact.)
SCULLY: The passage from the Bible on an artifact that you were saying is extraterrestrial?
(SCULLY on the beach in Africa in her lovely linen outfit with socks getting ready to look at the source of the artifact.)
MULDER: (voiceover) That would mean that our progenitors were alien, that our genesis was alien, that we're here because of them, that they put us here. And once you see all the mysteries of science, everything we can't understand or won't explain, everything in the X-Files, it all leads to them; it's from them.
(SCULLY puts her hand in the wet sand and uncovers part of the alien ship and stares at it in amazement.)
SCENE 1
IVORY COAST, WEST AFRICA
(Beach. Night. Scully is alone, working by lamplight in a tent, looking at the rubbing of the artifact which first affected MULDER. She is wearing linen pants and a white t-shirt. More on that later. Her hair is up, loosely falling around her face)
SCULLY: (voiceover) I came in search of something I did not believe existed. I've stayed on now, in spite of myself. In spite of everything I've ever held to be true. I will continue here as long as I can... as long as you are beset by the haunting illness which I saw consume your beautiful mind. What is this discovery I've made? How can I reconcile what I see with what I know? I feel this was meant not for me to find but for you ... to make sense of -- make the connections which can't be ignored... connections which, for me, deny all logic and reason. What is this source of power I hold in my hand -- this rubbing -- a simple impression taken from the surface of the craft? I watched this rubbing take its undeniable hold on you, saw you succumb to its spiraling effect.
(She takes off her glasses tiredly. A large locust-like bug lands on the rubbing. )
SCULLY: (voiceover) Now I must work to uncover what your illness prevents you from finding. In the source of every illness lies its cure.
(SCULLY gets up and turns down the lamp which seems to be attracting the bugs. As she does, she gasps as she sees the reflection of a PRIMITIVE AFRICAN MAN holding some sort of staff standing in the entrance to the tent, but when she turns he has disappeared. )
SCULLY: Who's there? Who's there?!
(There is no answer, only the sound of the surf. She turns the lamp back up, then picks up a very large machete and goes out to the beach to investigate. Very tight white T-shirt. The insects now cover her papers inside the tent. Finding no one outside, she goes back into the tent and is horrified at the sight of hundreds of the insects swarming around the tent. She starts to turn down the lamp, but then screams and waves her arms as they surround her. The lamp is knocked to the floor)
[OPENING CREDITS]
SCENE 2
GEORGETOWN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
WASHINGTON, DC
(MULDER is seen on a video monitor in a padded cell going in and out of a fetal position. DR. HARRIMAN and SKINNER watch him. Music is sad.)
DR. HARRIMAN: He's been quiet for the last 36 hours, but he doesn't sleep. There's activity in the temporal lobe we've just never seen. It won't allow his brain to rest or shut down, manifesting in episodes of aggression ... sometimes against himself.
SKINNER: You can't sedate him?
DR. HARRIMAN: Yes. We slow him down for short periods and put him in the neuro ward. It's the only way we're able to run tests. But over time... his brain is going to just die.
(SKINNER looks concerned.)
(Short time later. There is the sound of a door unlocking as DR. HARRIMAN and SKINNER enter MULDER's padded cell.)
SKINNER: (gently) Agent Mulder? (no response, SKINNER kneels down) Agent Mulder, can you hear me?
(MULDER stares at him. Two of MULDER's fingers on his right hand are bandaged.)
SKINNER: Do you know who I am? It's Skinner, Walter Skinner. (to DR. HARRIMAN) Can we get him out of here and get him some fresh air, at least?
(Without warning, MULDER suddenly lunges at SKINNER and grabs him by the throat and begins choking him against the wall. MULDER's face is stoic and impassive - almost calm. DR. tries to restrain MULDER.)
DR. HARRIMAN: Let him go! He can't breathe!
(MULDER pushes SKINNER to the floor, maintaining the choke-hold. DR. HARRIMAN runs out of the room and rings an alarm on the wall. MULDER still has Skinner pinned to the floor.
SKINNER: (barely able to speak, blood trickling down from his nose) Let go, Mulder. I don't want to hurt you.
(DR. HARRIMAN enters with two ORDERLIES. They pull MULDER off of SKINNER and push him up against the wall.)
ORDERLY: Come on, let him go.
DR. HARRIMAN: Stay there, Mr. Skinner.
SKINNER: No, it's all right. Just let me get up.
(SKINNER looks at MULDER who desperately stares back at him from where he is being held against the wall. SKINNER goes out alone into the hall and regains his composure. He cleans off his glasses with his tie. Behind him we hear MULDER screaming in his room as the ORDERLIES restrain him. The alarm continues ringing.)
DR. HARRIMAN: (angry, voice) Five milligrams of Haloperidol IM! I want him in five-point restraints!
ORDERLY: (voice) Yes, sir.
DR. HARRIMAN: (voice) Let's keep him locked down all night.
(While still listening to the alarm and the voices, SKINNER reaches into his breast pocket and finds a small square of fabric from MULDER's hospital gown. Crudely written in fresh blood are the words, "Help Me." He looks back at MULDER's room.)
SCENE 3
IVORY COAST, WEST AFRICA
(Two trucks full of several AFRICAN MEN pull up to SCULLY's tent site. They get out of the trucks and run toward the ocean and the buried craft. Still in one of the trucks, a man and a woman, the DRIVER and AMINA NGEBE speak to each other in an African dialect. He points at the tent. AMINA NGEBE, a very lovely, young African woman, gets out of the truck and goes into the tent. Insect massacre has taken place. Dead bugs are all over the tent, on the table, walls, everything. Go Scully. SCULLY still has wet hair, as if she has just finished bathing. SCULLY is packing and seems to be surprised to see someone.)
AMINA NGEBE: (looking around the tent) My God. What happened here?
(SCULLY stares at her suspiciously.)
AMINA NGEBE: They said you speak English.
SCULLY: What do you want?
AMINA NGEBE: I am sorry. You must wonder who I am. I am Amina Ngebe. I've come to see your discovery.
SCULLY: I asked that no one be told about it... nor that I'm here.
AMINA NGEBE: Yes. Well, uh, it is still a secret but a well-known one, I'm afraid. Dr. Merkmallen called it the African Internet, God rest him.
SCULLY: You knew Dr. Merkmallen?
AMINA NGEBE: I, too, am a professor of biology at the university but, uh, hardly one qualified to say what must have gone on here.
SCULLY: Well... I was working late last night by lamplight and, uh, I saw a man who vanished... and then they just swarmed.
AMINA NGEBE: (looking around the tent) You must not let the men know what happened to you last night-- the vanishing man, none of it.
SCULLY: Why?
AMINA NGEBE: They are animists, believing nature is vengeful. They'll take this as a sign to leave what you have found alone, a bad omen.
SCULLY: Caused by the ship out there?
AMINA NGEBE: Mmm. Caused by God... who will be much less helpful than those men if we are to continue this work.
(Outside, the men are working in the water to uncover more of the craft. One of the men begins screaming.)
MAN IN WATER: (subtitled): Help ... Help me!
(SCULLY and AMINA NGEBE come out of the tent at the sound of the commotion.)
MAN IN WATER: (subtitled): The water, it boils!
(He splashes around as if in great pain. The other men exit the water, followed by the MAN in pain. SCULLY and AMINA NGEBE run to the water's edge just as the MAN stumbles out of the water. He is covered in second and third degree burns.)
SCULLY: Let's get him in the truck! He's got to get to a hospital! Hospital!
(The other men lead the BURNED MAN to one of the trucks.)
SCULLY: Okay!
AMINA NGEBE: You see? Another warning.
(Disturbed, SCULLY runs after the wounded MAN.)
SCENE 4
GEORGETOWN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
11:32 PM
(SKINNER walks covertly through the hospital corridors. MULDER is now strapped down to a bed - hands and feet - in a typical hospital room. He lies still, but looks tense, his bare foot rigid. SKINNER enters quietly and closes the door.)
SKINNER: Agent Mulder. (holding the scrap of fabric) I want to help you. I don't know what to do. I don't have much time.
(MULDER taps the bed with his bound right hand impatiently.)
SKINNER: Can you write?
(At MULDER's affirmative glance, SKINNER takes a pen and places it in MULDER's hand and holds out his own hand. MULDER slowly and deliberately writes the letters "K-R ..." He continues writing, but we don't see the rest.)
SCENE 5
(Night. SCULLY's tent on the beach in Africa. She is lying on her cot staring at the roof. AMINA NGEBE sleeps in the cot beside her.)
SCULLY: (voiceover) I feel you slipping away from me with every minute I fail here. What are the elusive meanings I cannot see that are hidden here? If I could understand it, know how it affected you, learn how to use its power to save you.
(There is the sound and lights of a vehicle pulling up and stopping. SCULLY gets up and goes outside with her machete in hand. She slowly approaches the truck. Another DRIVER is sitting behind the wheel.)
SCULLY: What is it?
(The African DRIVER gets out and speaks in his native language to her.)
SCULLY: Look, I'm sorry. I don't speak your language.
(He speaks again, indicating the ocean with his flashlight, then walks away a few yards towards the site of the craft.)
DR. BARNES: Perhaps you need an interpreter.
(SCULLY turns sharply and sees DR. BARNES [from Biogenesis] staring at her. He looks a little less than sane. This is the man they suspect killed DR. MERKMALLEN. She raises the machete defensively.)
SCULLY: Stay away from me!
DR. BARNES: Are you going to hack me up in front of my driver? Word is you're under suspicion already.
SCULLY: You're the murderer here.
AMINA NGEBE: (coming out of the tent) Murderer of who?
SCULLY: Dr. Merkmallen!
DR. BARNES: I murdered no one but I won't be sent away from here. I know what we've got. This craft that's come ashore? Its extraterrestrial origins?
SCULLY: You don't even believe in that.
DR. BARNES: Nor do you. But here we are.
SCULLY: (breathes heavily) I'm here only to help my partner.
DR. BARNES: Then let me help you... to read it. I've spent my life looking for what's out there ... the answer to what theologians have pondered for millennia... the key to everything... to life itself. I've already been threatened by men in Washington about what I know. How long would your secret keep if you were to send me away?
(At the water's edge, DR. BARNES' DRIVER calls to them, beckoning them to the shore. DR. BARNES, AMINA NGEBE and SCULLY run towards the shore as DR. BARNES yells to his DRIVER in the man's native tongue.)
SCULLY: (to DR. BARNES) What is it?
(Under the glare of the DRIVER's flashlight we see the water has turned red.)
AMINA NGEBE: It is a sea of blood.
(Indeed, the water around the craft is blood-red, visible even in the darkness. SCULLY looks out over the water, concerned.)
SCENE 6
G STREET
WASHINGTON, DC
6:06 AM
(Hallway of an average middle-lower class Washington, DC apartment building. SKINNER looks at his hand where MULDER has written "KRITSCHGAU," knocks at a door, #6, and a man, MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU from the beginning of season 5, opens the door, leaving it still chained. He is unshaven and dishevelled.)
SKINNER: Michael Kritschgau.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: It's 6:00 in the morning.
SKINNER: I don't know if you remember me. My name's Skinner. I'm here to talk to you about Fox Mulder.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: Yeah, I'm listening.
SKINNER: He's in serious condition, Mr. Kritschgau; he has to talk to you.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: I got nothing to say to the man.
(MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU starts to close the door but SKINNER holds the door open.)
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: You know, I had a job... with a government pension coming and two years ago, Fox Mulder asked me to do him a favor -- blow the whistle on Uncle Sam's UFO propaganda mill. And all it got me was this swanky address.
SKINNER: Look, he doesn't have much time.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: Hey, I'm not a doctor. What is it you think I can do for him?
SKINNER: All I know is that he asked for you.
(Later, SKINNER and MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU enter MULDER's hospital room. MULDER is still in restraints and apparently comatose, eyes wide open. Monitors register MULDER's brain activity.)
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: Can he even recognize me?
SKINNER: To be honest, I don't know.
(SKINNER crosses to MULDER's bedside.)
SKINNER: Agent Mulder?
(The monitor registers some brain activity, but there is no physical response.)
SKINNER: His brain is on constant redline. They've got him on Haloperidol just to keep him on the monitors.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: Haloperidol?
SKINNER: He becomes violently agitated. He just won't speak or sleep even when he's medicated. There's activity in part of his brain they've never seen before.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: Was his...
(MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU stops speaking as the monitor attached to MULDER's brain registers some more activity.)
SKINNER: Was his what?
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: I started to ask you a question about his prior mental state but he anticipated it. Second time. Agent Mulder?
(The monitor registers activity again.)
SKINNER: He claimed to be hearing voices.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: I might know why Agent Mulder asked for me. Doesn't mean I can do anything for him.
SKINNER: What just happened?
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: I think he responded to a question that ... I didn't ask.
(Later, SKINNER and MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU pick the lock of a door and wheel MULDER into a deserted lab type of room in the hospital. There is an IV attached to the wheelchair, and MULDER seems non-responsive.)
SKINNER: I don't know how long we can keep him out of that unit. We can be held responsible.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: You asked me to come down here. You better be prepared to accept the responsibility, Mr. Skinner.
(MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU goes to a cabinet and readies a syringe.)
SKINNER: You're going to inject him?
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: No. You are. With a thousand milligrams of Phenytoin.
SKINNER: I'm not injecting him with anything, not now and not till after I've talked to his doctor.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: He's being given the wrong treatment.
SKINNER: You're not a doctor.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: No, but I've seen his condition. Who do you want to trust?
SKINNER: Seen it where?
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: In a study. There's something like E.S.P. called "remote viewing."
SKINNER: Whose study?
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: The company's-- the CIA, Mr. Skinner. Extreme subjects would go into arrest their minds working harder than their bodies could sustain. They became, in effect, all brain. Phenytoin was the only thing that could slow the electrical impulses to a normal rate.
SKINNER: Agent Mulder knew about this. That's why he asked for you.
(KRITSCHGAU nods. SKINNER slowly takes the proffered syringe which is REALLY full, and injects it into MULDER's IV line. Immediately, MULDER's expression relaxes and he becomes more aware.)
MULDER: (gritting his teeth, in a raspy voice) They're coming.
SCENE 7
(Hospital corridor. AGENT DIANA FOWLEY and the ICU NURSE are walking rapidly toward MULDER's room.)
DIANA FOWLEY: Who last saw him?
ICU NURSE: I'm looking here.
DIANA FOWLEY: I come here and find a patient missing, and nobody knew?
ICU NURSE: I just came on. Sorry. Fox Mulder, right? He's restrained, it says; and he's not in his bed?
DIANA FOWLEY: No. How many times can I say it?
(The two women enter the room and see MULDER lying peacefully on the bed, SKINNER standing next to him.)
ICU NURSE: (slightly over DIANA) He's right here.
DIANA FOWLEY: (irritated) He wasn't here when I came in.
SKINNER: No, we just found him down the hall. I just got him back into bed.
ICU NURSE: Who are you?
SKINNER: I'm his boss, ... (turns to DIANA FOWLEY) ... and hers.
ICU NURSE: Well, I don't know how he could have gotten up by himself or pulled all this stuff out.
SKINNER: Well, I hope someone's calling a doctor making a report on this.
ICU NURSE: He's got to remain in this bed.
SKINNER: I'll stay with him. Agent Fowley, why don't you see if you can help her?
(DIANA FOWLEY glares at SKINNER.)
SKINNER: That's an order, Agent Fowley.
(Angrily, DIANA FOWLEY follows the ICU NURSE out of the room. MULDER licks his lips weakly, then looks up at SKINNER. His voice is hoarse.)
MULDER: She knows.
SKINNER: You can read her mind?
MULDER: Yeah. We got to act fast.
SKINNER: The doctor's on his way.
MULDER: No doctors. Get me Scully.
SKINNER: I don't know where she is.
MULDER: Look... I know you've been compromised. I know Krycek is threatening your life... Blackmailing you. You don't think I can trust you but it's not you that I need.
SKINNER: Then who?
(MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU is entering the room as MULDER speaks.)
MULDER: Him. Kritschgau. Ask him to prove it.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: Prove what?
MULDER: What's causing this.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: It's a brain abnormality. It's how you're able to read minds.
MULDER: What's causing this is alien. That's why my doctors can't help me.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: I don't believe in aliens, Agent Mulder. I think you know that.
MULDER: I do. That's why I need you.
SCENE 8
(Beach. Day. SCULLY is piecing together the rubbings from the craft into a large jigsaw puzzle on the floor of the tent.)
SCULLY: (voiceover) The work here is painstaking-- a slow and tedious piecing together. It appears to be a craft, its skin covered in the intricate symbols you and I both saw but which I now understand are part of a complex communication. Dr. Barnes has broken some of the symbols into letters using an ancient Navajo alphabet and, though it has helped to uncover some of what's here it has also made for greater confusion. On the top surface of the craft I'm finding words describing human genetics. (On graph paper she translates the names of the four basic nucleotides - CYTOSINE, GUANINE, ADEMINE, THYMINE. [CarriK: I think that either Scully or the Aliens spelled one of those wrong. Adenine is how I learned it.{DrWeesh who has a Degree in Medical Science agrees with CarriK!}]) Efforts to read the bottom of the craft have been harder. Our workers were scared away by phenomena I admit I can't explain-- a sea of blood, a swarm of insects. But what little we have found has been staggering-- passages from the Christian Bible, from pagan religions, from Ancient Sumeria... science and mysticism conjoined. But more than words, they are somehow imbued with power. I've ignored warnings to quit this work, remaining committed to finding answers, afraid only that our secret here won't last and that I might be too late.
(Outside, DR. BARNES begins walking slowly toward the tent carrying a bag. AMINA NGEBE arrives, glances at DR. BARNES, and hurriedly enters the tent with some papers.)
AMINA NGEBE: I have something to show you...more pieces of the puzzle. I couldn't believe it. I thought I was making it up in my head, that it could not be true.
SCULLY: What?
AMINA NGEBE: What this is. What the symbols spell out is a passage from the Koran. Qeyaamah. "The day of final judgment." (amazed) On a spacecraft? Teachings of the ancient prophet Mohammed?
SCULLY: I found more, too.
(SCULLY leads AMINA NGEBE over to the section of rubbings she has been piecing together.)
SCULLY: 24 panels... One for each human chromosome. [CarriK: Yes, 24 chromosomes is correct. 22 pairs plus the two sex chromosomes. They get special treatment. Go to http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/resource/info.html for more info on the subject. Thanks Sis 80K and CathyS.] A map of their makeup-- maybe a map of our entire genetic makeup... (she sighs in amazement) A complete human genome. I mean, it's like... it's the most beautiful... intricate work of art.
AMINA NGEBE: (agreeing) It is the Word of God.
DR. BARNES: (entering the tent with a burlap sack in his hand) You're wrong. There is no God. (he puts the bag under a table.) What's out there on the water... is only what we call "God"... What we call "creation"-- the spark that ignited the fire that cooked the old primordial soup... made animate from inanimate... made us.
AMINA NGEBE: (clinically) I believe he is mad from the sun.
DR. BARNES: Mad? I'm perfectly sane... because today I understand everything, beginning and end, alpha and omega, everything in between. It's all been written. But the word is "extraterrestrial."
SCULLY: You're sick, Dr. Barnes. You need to get off your feet, lie down.
(DR. BARNES picks up SCULLY's machete and holds it threateningly.)
DR. BARNES: You think you're going to take the credit? This is my discovery.
SCULLY: I'm only here to help my friend.
DR. BARNES: You can't help him. You're wasting your time reading it.
SCULLY: It has power.
DR. BARNES: It IS power... the ultimate power. Your friend just got too close.
(He crosses to a corner of the tent by the opening and sits.)
DR. BARNES: No one leaves here before me.
(SCULLY and AMINA NGEBE watch him nervously.)
SCENE 9
(MULDER's hospital room. SKINNER and MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU have set up three small video monitors facing away from MULDER but within his reach. Several different pictures, including that of a flying saucer, flash in random sequence on each of them.)
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: We developed this to test remote-viewing capabilities. It works much like a card trick. You tap the monitor where the saucer image appears when it appears or when you think it does. Okay?
MULDER: (half-hearted attempt at making a joke) Who ya gonna call?
(MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU gives a signal and MULDER begins tapping the monitors in succession. Only a few times does he hit the correct monitor when the flying saucer appears.)
MULDER: Now. Now. Now. Now. Now. Now. Now. Now.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: (disappointed) All right, Agent Mulder, fine. You're at about five percent accuracy.
SKINNER: I'm assuming that's low.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: Yeah. At the CIA a high degree of ability was 20%. 25% was extraordinary.
MULDER: But I see them in my head.
SKINNER: You saw his ability earlier. It was you who pointed it out.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: Well, our tests showed that some people have psychic abilities, sure. I mean, E.S.P., clairvoyance, remote viewing, but it was never attributed to aliens.
MULDER: You don't want to believe. You're not looking hard enough.
(MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU reaches to turn off the monitors, but SKINNER stops him.)
SKINNER: One more time, faster.
(MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU reluctantly starts the test again, this time increasing the speed of the images. MULDER begins tapping rapidly, with perfect accuracy.)
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: He's ahead of the images. He's anticipating.
SCENE 10
(SCULLY's tent in Africa. Night. SCULLY and AMINA NGEBE lie awake on the cots. DR. BARNES, still holding the machete, sits guard in the corner. Suddenly, everything in the tent shakes, as if a low-level earthquake has hit nearby. Glasses on the table clink. DR. BARNES looks in amazement at the burlap bag he brought in with him. It is moving from within. He pulls out several live squirming fish.)
DR. BARNES: They've come back! They were dead! They've come back to life! The ship-- it brought them back to life!
(DR. BARNES turns just in time to see SCULLY hit him over the head with a chair. Go Scully! She and AMINA NGEBE run to the truck. AMINA NGEBE starts the engine and they quickly drive away.)
SCULLY: We have to get to the police.
AMINA NGEBE: That is where I'm going. This is the road to Abidjan.
(Ahead in the middle of the road, SCULLY sees the PRIMITIVE AFRICAN MAN.)
SCULLY: Stop!
(Sound of tires squealing as AMINA NGEBE slams on the brakes. When SCULLY looks again, the PRIMITIVE AFRICAN MAN is no longer there.)
SCULLY: That was him. That was the man I saw in the tent... in the road.
(SCULLY turns to look at the empty road behind them then turns back to AMINA NGEBE, but in the woman's seat, she sees the PRIMITIVE AFRICAN MAN staring at her.)
PRIMITIVE AFRICAN MAN: Some truths are not for you.
(He reaches out and touches her forehead. She sits frozen, immobile. Suddenly, the PRIMITIVE AFRICAN MAN is once again AMINA NGEBE. She is touching SCULLY's forehead. SCULLY stares at her.)
AMINA NGEBE: Are you all right?
(SCULLY gasps.)
SCULLY: Oh, God. What are you doing?
AMINA NGEBE: You were cold. I was just feeling to see if you were still alive.
SCULLY: What happened to you?
AMINA NGEBE: To me?
SCULLY: You slammed on the brakes. There was a man.
AMINA NGEBE: That's right-- in the road.
SCULLY: No. He was right there-- sitting right where you are in your seat.
AMINA NGEBE: The men were right. This is a bad sign. A sign to give up.
(AMINA NGEBE starts the engine and begins driving again.)
SCULLY: Turn us around.
AMINA NGEBE: Not back to the beach.
SCULLY: No ... I'm going home.
SCENE 11
(MULDER's hospital room. MULDER stares into space. SKINNER is in the room.)
SKINNER: Agent Mulder. (takes MULDER's face in his hand) Agent Mulder, I don't know if you can hear me but we're going to try to get you out of here.
(SKINNER begins unfastening the restraints.)
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: (entering quickly) A.M. nurse is on in five minutes. We got to move.
SKINNER: I don't think he's in any shape.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: (preparing a syringe) I'm going to hit him pretty hard. Maybe we can get him on his feet. (SKINNER grabs the bottle of Phenytoin from KRITSCHGAU'S hand) What are you doing?
SKINNER: I know what you're doing.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: (defensively) I'm trying to help him.
SKINNER: No, this isn't about him -- it's about you, it's about revenge against the government for trying to destroy your life.
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: I was destroyed to protect what Mulder knew all along. Now he's the proof-- he's the X-File.
SKINNER: We can't just keep shooting him full of drugs. It's gone too far!
MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU: How far should it go?! How far would Mulder go?!
(SKINNER considers, looks at MULDER, then hands the drug back to the other man. Monitors beep. Just as MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU gives MULDER the injection, DIANA FOWLEY, followed by a doctor and a nurse bangs into the room. Monitors beep faster.)
DR. HARRIMAN: Hey! What's going on here?
DIANA FOWLEY: (to MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU) Let me see your hands. Hands!
(MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU holds up his now empty hands.)
DIANA FOWLEY: Step away.
SKINNER: Agent Fowley, what the hell do you think you're doing?
DIANA FOWLEY: What am I doing? What are you doing, sir, with this? (holds up the used syringe that was still on the bed - she turns back to MICHAEL KRITSCHGAU) I want you to face the wall. Do you hear me? Face the wall.
SKINNER: Let me explain.
DR. HARRIMAN: What was this man given? What was in this syringe?
DIANA FOWLEY: (reading) Phenytoin.
SKINNER: Let me tell you what it does.
DR. HARRIMAN: How much did you give him? What dosage was this?
SKINNER: Let me tell you why we did it.
(Just then, the medical equipment attached to MULDER begins beeping rapidly and MULDER begins convulsing. The hospital staff, SKINNER and DIANA FOWLEY move to hold him down. )
DR. HARRIMAN: He's going into seizure. Watch his head. Mr. Mulder? Hold him. Hold him.
SCENE 12
(Beach. Africa. Day. DR. BARNES' DRIVER is looking for DR. BARNES in the tent.)
DR. BARNES' DRIVER: Dr. Barnes... (speaks in his native language) ...Dr. Barnes. Dr. Barnes?
(DR. BARNES' DRIVER turns to see DR. BARNES standing behind him with the machete.)
DR. BARNES: I'm so sorry.
(DR. BARNES' DRIVER screams as DR. BARNES slams the machete into his neck, killing him instantly. Lots of blood. DR. BARNES then drags the dead man into a corner of the tent. )
SCENE 13
(MULDER's hospital room. He is still restrained. DIANA FOWLEY is standing beside his bed.)
DIANA FOWLEY: I know what's happened to you. I know what you're suffering from. I've been sitting back and watching. I know you know. I know you know about me... That my loyalties aren't just to you... but to a man you've grown to despise. You have your reasons but, as you look inside me now you know that I have mine. (touches his cheek.) Fox... Fox, I love you. I've loved you for so long. You know that, too. And I won't let you die... to prove what you are, to prove what's inside you. There's no need to prove it. It's been known for so long. Now we can be together. (She kisses his forehead and turns and leaves.)
(Throughout her monologue, MULDER has remained as if comatose, but as she leaves and the door closes behind her, his eyes follow her as if he is thoughtfully considering what she told him.)
SCENE 14
DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
9:25 AM
(Plane lands. Cut to FBI Building. People get out of the way as SCULLY, still in her African outfit, looking quite rumpled and travel weary and probably not smelling her best, yet marching with the purpose that only she can have when her partner is in jeopardy, gets off the elevator and enters SKINNER's office without even knocking.)
SCULLY: Where is he? Is he still in the hospital?
SKINNER: Where have you been?
SCULLY: Is he still at Georgetown Memorial?
SKINNER: You can't get to him.
SCULLY: Do you know where he is or don't you?!
SKINNER: He's in the neuro-psych ward but it's no good, Agent Scully.
(SCULLY starts to leave.)
SKINNER: Agent Scully!
SCULLY: I have been on a plane for 22 hours. I have to see him.
SKINNER: Then I think you should know what you're going to see if you can even get on the ward. There's been some trouble.
SCULLY: What kind of trouble?
SKINNER: I got this man, Kritschgau, involved.
SCULLY: Kritschgau?
SKINNER: It's a long story, but it ended badly. They've got Mulder under security now around the clock. I take full responsibility.
SCULLY: Responsibility for what?
SKINNER: He can't even communicate, Agent Scully. They won't treat him because they don't know what's wrong with him! They said he was dying. I had to do something.
SCULLY: He's not dying.
SKINNER: I'm afraid it's true.
SCULLY: (calm and deliberate) He's not dying. He is more alive than he has ever been. He's more alive than his body can withstand and what's causing it may be extraterrestrial in origin.
SKINNER: I know. But there's nothing to be done about it.
(SCULLY starts to leave again.)
SKINNER: They're going to deny you access.
SCULLY: Maybe as his partner... but not as his doctor.
(She turns and leaves the office.)
SCENE 15
(Africa. Night. Remains of a fire are outside. Another earthquake like rattling. DR. BARNES is clearing away papers. He looks to where the dead body of his DRIVER had been lying, but the body is gone leaving only a pool of blood on the floor. He looks around nervously.)
DR. BARNES: (awed) He's alive! He's come back to life! Holy Mother of God!
(DR. BARNES picks up the lamp and goes out onto the beach.)
DR. BARNES: Hello?
(DR. BARNES sees a trail of footprints leading to the shore, smiles and begins running on top of them, toward the ship. He gasps as he turns and sees his now-resurrected DRIVER standing behind him, his eyes pure white and blood all over his shirt. DR. BARNES screams as the DRIVER cuts him down with the machete. He falls dead into the surf. )
SCENE 16
(MULDER's hospital room. MULDER is staring straight ahead, unseeing. Through the babble of voices that we are hearing in his head, one voice comes through clearly, though as if from a distance. MULDER weakly turns his head in the direction of the voice.)
SCULLY (voice): Please. I need to see him. I'm begging you, please. Thank you.
(We see her standing in the doorway to his room talking with DR. HARRIMAN and two SECURITY GUARDS. They let her pass and close the door as she approaches MULDER's bed.)
SCULLY: (gently) Mulder, it's me. I know that you can hear me. If you can just give me some sign. (No response.) I want you to know where I've been... what I found. I think that, if you know, that you could find a way to hold on. (whisper) I need you to hold on. I found a key... the key... to every question that has ever been asked. It's a puzzle... (her voice begins to break) ... but the pieces are there for us to put together and I know that they can save you if you can just hold on. (She is almost crying as she pleads with him, gripping his hand tightly, staring into his blank face.) Mulder... please. Hold on.
SCENE 17
(Africa. Morning. AMINA NGEBE arrives with several police officers. They find DR. BARNES' dead body on the beach. AMINA NGEBE looks into the ocean. The craft that was buried in the sand now appears to be gone.)
[TO BE CONTINUED ...]
2024-09-16 19:50:54 -
Pike:
New quote added.
