WRITTEN BY
Gillian Anderson
DIRECTED BY
Gillian Anderson
AIRED ON
April 9, 2000
RUNTIME
44 minutes
STARRING
VIEWS
479
LAST UPDATE
2024-09-30 18:24:31
PAGE VERSION
Version 6
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SUMMARY
Scully reflects on her past and the choices that have shaped her life after a chance encounter with a former lover, Dr. Daniel Waterston, who is gravely ill. As she navigates her feelings of guilt and unresolved emotions, she becomes involved in a series of events that seem to be guided by fate or a higher power. The episode delves into Scully's personal journey, exploring themes of destiny, spirituality, and the interconnectedness of life's events. It offers a rare, introspective look at Scully's character, her beliefs, and her relationship with Mulder, culminating in a moment of profound self-awareness and acceptance.
STORY
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BEHIND THE SCENES
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PLAYLIST
Moby: "The Sky is Broken"
QUOTES
Time passes in moments... moments which, rushing past define the path of a life just as surely as they lead towards its end. How rarely do we stop to examine that path, to see the reasons why all things happen, to consider whether the path we take in life is our own making or simply one into which we drift with eyes closed. But what if we could stop, pause to take stock of each precious moment before it passes? Might we then see the endless forks in the road that have shaped a life? And, seeing those choices, choose another path?
— Dana Scully
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REVIEWS
Delicate episode written and directed by Gillian Anderson
Written by
Pike on 2016-01-01
★
★
★
all things is an episode written and directed by co-lead star Gillian Anderson. Regular X-Files director Kim Manners helped her a lot and mentioned that Anderson had done her work. She was ready to shoot, had thought about everything. But of course, she did not just manage everything on her own.
In terms of the result, the episode is very delicate as, for once, a women wrote the script. We can obviously see that Gillian struggled to find a paranormal aspect inside the storytelling. It's always funny to see that Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny always tried to get away from the true X-Files. But it's obvious that they wanted to try something else after years of classic paranormal stories, usually with a killer having paranormal abilities. The directing also isn't classic and tries to be original. I liked it. And the acting between her and her ancient lover is really good. As I said, a very delicate episode. I give it a 3 out of 5.
SCRIPT
DVD/BLU-RAY COMMENTARY
The only episode written and directed by Gillian Anderson (playing Dana Scully). Gillian Anderson : "I wrote it with the intention of directing, but I did not pre-think the fact that I would be directing myself in every scene. I needed to split my mind, so I could only focus on the fact that I was writing it for the longest period of time, until probably about two days before I started directing. (Thinking...) Four days before I started directing. And then I could switch over to director's mode. But while I was writing it, it didn't occur to me the difficulty of directing myself in every scene."
Gillian Anderson again : "I had an idea of how I wanted the episode to look and how I wanted certain scenes, certain environments and locations to look. I had very specific ideas. So I asked a lot of questions about film stock, about lenses, about filters."
Gillian: "When I first wrote this episode, it did not hint at the fact that, or the notion, that Mulder and Scully may have spent the night together. But at some point, Frank Spotnitz had said to me, "You know, around this time in the season, we were thinking that it might be a good idea to imply that, and it might be possible for us to add it into this script." And so that's kind of how it came about, that Scully starts this episode, basically in Mulder's bathroom, putting on her clothes, and the insinuation that they have indeed spent the night together."
About the teaser: "It's actually quite funny. I wanted the rain and the tree knocking against the window outside, and we did a few takes where the greensman got overly enthusiastic with the tree, and it was like there was a hurrican going on outside.
The shot of the water dripping, it was something, I wanted there to be a continuation of sound, rhythmic sound, that added to the musicality of the show, and the first hint of that was the drip.
And so it was important to end up on the drip in that first shot and the faucet. And negotiating the camera coming around and the wall moving and the camera getting at the right angle to see the drip and also see Scully go out of the door in the background, was quite an effort."
About Moby's songs: "I was driving home one night after work and listening to Moby, and this song started playing, and it was... Even way early on in the writing of the episode, it was important that I use it. I was determined that we were gonna use this track. The more I actually listened to the words and the dialogue, the more it fit with my idea that was unfolding for the script."
About the crop circle X-File: "The whole crop circle idea, I was trying to find something... I think it was important for me, early on, that crop circles were involved. I wanted whatever Mulder was involved in, that took him away from me, away from Washington, to somehow tie in to what it was that I was going through, the journey that I was going through in the episode.
I started researching and asking people to research crop circles and crop circles that had to do with the heart chakra. It was interseting how it unfolded. Frank Spotnitz helped a lot with the crop circle aspect, just in terms of what would be important to take Mulder away, but also something that Scully could eventually find interest in. It was important that at the beginning of this scene [the first one in the X-Files office], that she be disinterested enough, or have a certain attitude, that they were at odds. It was important to show Mulder and Scully at odds in this episode, to juxtapose her ralationship with Waterston. And it's actually quite complicated, where her eventual relationship with Waterston at first appears to have more positive than negative attributes, and her relationship with Mulder appears to have more negative than positive, because he has pulled her from the medical profession. He tells her to do things or assumes that she will do things. Whereas Waterston, you know, loves her. And as the course of the episode goes on, they find actually that, even though he loves her, he actually has a stronger hold on her, in terms of what she should be and should do in her life, than Mulder. And it's actually her relationship with Mulder that helps to guide her, on some level, down her spiritual path. And this moment where Mulder puts the burrito down and walks out of the room... I think there was a fishing wire attached to that piece of paper, so that when he walks out of the room, it falls on the floor. I love that moment. Also wanting to have the slides continuing to... The burrito had to fall on the slide projector button, so that they would continue to flash, and the light effect was on... for the end of that scene. And then the beginning of this scene, with that rhythmic tapping of the pencil. Which also then becomes part of the throughline in the episode and ties us in to these moments, these suspended moments in time, where Scully comes to some kind of realisation, or she notices there's something she needs to be paying attention to in these moments. And I was never quite satisfied with how the pencil effect was working, just in terms of how one taps a pencil. And it was never satisfying to me. It's a difficult thing to do. And also how it slows down, and the passing of the slides, of the medical slides."
"The woman who actually hands Scully the slides at first ends up being the same woman sho Scully almost hits with the car. It all started just with that one scene, where Scully almost hits a woman with a car. Actually, what she almost does is gets run over by a truck, and it's this woman walking across the street who saves her life, essentially. And then through the working through the episode, we realised that actually that was the paranormal aspect of the episode. That this woman somehow in these moments, somehow had to tie in to what would eventually be the single paranormal aspect of the show. Which was obviously important because it's a show about paranormal activity. So we had to play up on this woman's involvement in the episode. Initially, it was just her in that one moment with the car. And then we found places where we could continue to add her in to play out that throughline. So she was sitting behind the desk and starts the ball rolling by handing me that envelope."
"And here we have Dr Waterston... and... the tear. It was really wonderful to work with Mark Snow in the post process, with the music. I had given him a couple of CDs and asked him to come up with something that had certain flavours to it. Then we got to si down in post and really toy with it, and add particular kinds of flutes. That pinging sound when Scully first pulls back the curtain and sees Waterston was Mark's idea, and really a wonderful effect. I think we played up on it a bit more, even. But he did a tremendous job on the music and just the whole mood of the show. And the music actually became Scully's theme, I think, and continued a little bit into the next season after David wasn't there any more and Scully being out on her own."
"And here we have the toggle. The weight of the toggle was very, very important. I have one of these in my possession. They're extremely heavy. But it was very important that it had weight to it was it swung back and forth. And the figuring out of how to work these moments, these suspended moments in time, where she has an opportunity to make a decision one way or another that ends up affecting her life considerably.
Just interesting dilemmas in shooting these moments work without making them cheesy or pointing to them too much, and I hope we succeeded."
"And having Mulder on speakerphone as opposed to just answering the phone, so that we could hear the movie in the background. I had Paul Rabwin find something where somebody says, in some black and white movie, something about "breaking my heart". I think originally, I had David packing a basketball, too, for wherever he's going. But it just became too big and bulky. It was kind of silly. Here's this moment. (Teasy:) I love this toggle. It's a good toggle. Look at all that texture."
"I love what Mark did with the music and those moments, too. And the worldliness of it. There's something almost... There's something very Tibetan about that kind of gong sound, which was appropriate for this episode."
"There were so many different parts of the process of directing. About how to start scenes. How to start openings of scenes and coming off objects and movements. I wanted things to always be cyclical, and the gurney wheel was part of that. So obviously, this scene right now is... She walks into... Mistakenly she walks into the wrong room, and there is a warm glow. People are obviously sharing love and respect, and honouring someone who's in the hospital room, and she catches a moment of that. Juxtaposed with this very stark, cold, grey room that Waterston is in. And despite their obvious connection, past emotional connection, there's still... Everything around it is indicating that it's not the direction she should be going in. That actually she should be going towards the warmth and not the cold. But it's hard to see those things when one's heart is engaged."
"These scenes with Waterston, there was so much more dialogue initially, and so much more that I wanted them to say to each other, and, in fact, in the filming, that they did say to each other, that we had to take out. Almost ten minutes I had to take out of the episode in the editing process to cut it down to 42-point-whatever minutes. And also, just in terms of their story together. I didn't want it to be implied that they had actually had an affair. In my story, they were getting close to having an affair, and because he was married, Scully ended it and left town. And that's when she made the decision to move to Washington and to to Quantico, and not pursue the medical profession, because it reminded her of Daniel. She loved him very, very much, but she was distraced by him. And she also was not willing to ruin a marriage. And after she left, he completely shut down... and became very depressed, and his wife and his daughter thought that he was having an affair. And the way that I had originally written it in my tome that I wrote and initially handed in, I think I handed in 72 pages for the first three acts, as opposed to 50 for four acts. My history of the story was that, after she left town, the mother was determined that he had shut down because he was having an affair. And she started following him to work. And eventually they bluew up and had a fight. And he moved out, because he wanted to be with Scully, and she had moved. And his wife thought that he had moved in with this woman, or was continuing this affair with Scully, and went to his apartment one night and confronted him about it. He denied it, of course. But she ended up going home and hanging herself above their bed. And their daughter Maggie had found her mother's body, and, of course, thought that it was Scully that was responsible for her mother's death. That's initially where all of her anger came from. So in the taking out of that aspect of the story, it was always a little confusing to me as to why Maggie is so angry, from the beginning to almost the end of the episode. But there was an apsect of that that we needed to keep in order to have some conflict within the episode and move the story forward. So there was a lot that ended up being missing that I'm still obviously emotionally attached to, cos it's part of my story. But these are the things that you have to compromise."
"Then there's this huge sculpture in the background that you only glimpse as she walks up. As she waits on the doorstep, it's important that from the moment she walks to the door that there be warm light and a golden quality to once again juxtapose against what she experiences with Daniel. And she's taken by it. I mean, she's affected by the warmth, but doesn't know what's going on. Doesn't know how comfortable and comforting that feels in comparison. But I also wanted to have sculptures on the porch that were making comforting, tingly sounds as she's waiting. And there's this big sculpture, we don't see yet, that I bought and I have hanging outside my home. It's a nice memory of that, even though you never actually really get to see it in the show."
"And then the dilemma of, I keep talking about dilemmas, but they were actually just... little problems that you have to work out in the doing of things. But the slow motion, how... What moment is it that gets her to seing the crop circle? I mean, it's this moment that she starts to kind of put things together a little bit. She needed to go and do something for Mulder to tie him in to the episode and continue to have their relationship moving forward, but it had to somehow tie into her journey. And so at that moment on the porch, how to make it so that she gets to see this picture that starts her... is another step on her journey towards helping to heal, not only Dr Waterston's heart, but also, essentially, her own heart in the process. So that was that moment on the porch."
"And then... this scene, where we have to show them all at odds. Show Scully at odds with Maggie. And also see Waterston's stubbornness... to exemplify the fact that, even though he is a brilliant doctor and someone that Scully, at one time and apparently now, still cares a great deal for, is a very heavy-handed influence on her life, and not necessarily the direction that she should go towards. I think what was important to me in the writing of the character and the history of their relationship was to make it complicated, as human relationships are. Things aren't as, at least in my experience, are not as cut-and-dried as we would sometimes like them to be. And having Waterston, on the one hand, be very appealing, in he's got a certain sexiness to him and his intelligence is attractive, and their history and their care at one time for each other is attractive, but... And sometimes that is enough to blind us from the practical aspects of relationships. It's those things we can attach ourselves to as being enough, when, in fact, if we are able to remove ourselves and step back and come at it from a more centred perspective that has less to do with need and certain ego strokes on one level, that it's actually not something that's right for us. If we can pay attention to these lessons, and see that we don't have to settle for things that either shut us down or pull us away from the important things in life and the important things to us in life. And in this scene, Scully's not able to see that yet. She's very attached to the past and to the love that she had with this man. Mulder's away, and she's in turmoil with Mulder, in terms of what he asks of her and expects of her. It's very confusing for her right now."
"It's complicated trying to work out this moment where she things that... She has an intuition, essentially, about something going wrong in his heart. But it wasn't a dramatic enough moment for this beat, and so she ends up being alerted by the machines."
"As we come back down, this was all initially one movement, the camera. They built this whole contraption on a jib arm above, so that we could do this all in one shot, and it wasn't dramatic enough. We had to cut in here and there to inserts. This is all still the same shot, but every once in a while, to heighten... There we go. Insert. And POVs of his heart either not responding or responding. Those are some of the things that you have to think about. But the coreography of this, initially in the one-shot before these inserts were added, was very exciting. There is the issue of having to have a camera over a certain shoulder on to another person, in order to... There's... It's just about axis, and where the camera is, in terms of where the people are and whose shoulder is over... whose... (laughing) Obviously, it confuses the hell out of me because i can't even talk about it. But for some reason, I've been able to intuitively know where the camera should be behind somebody's shoulder in order to... (laughing) do what it has to do."
"And here again, in this scene where Scully comes back into... when we comes back into Colleen's house. Once again, it was part of the show, was to juxtapose the turmoil and the coldness of Waterston's life and existence with the warmth of this woman who is living in her truth, and... You know, I wanted her to have some... Initially, the character of Colleen was a scientist, as she speaks about, and worked incredibly long hours. And, basically, that's all she did, at the expense of her relationship. Then she gets sick, and it's through the getting sick that she learns that actually the getting sick was actually a gift in her life. That sometimes we need to have physical and emotional breakdowns in order to stop us and show us that we, perhaps, are doing things in ways that are not benefiting our greater selves. She then started sculpting, is what my plan was. That in not being a scientist any more, maybe doing it part-time, that she started to pursue her desire to be a sculptor. And even though, perhaps, the money and the prestige is not the same, the doing ot that creative act is what fed her, and essentially attributed to her healing.
But the sculpture turning, and the sculptures in the other room turning in the wind. And the movement and the Japanese feel of the house. There's a couple of paintings - one right there in the background and in the living room - that a very, very good friend of mine, who's an artist, painted. It was important for me to have them about in the house."
"I always felt for Colleen in the playing of - Colleen the actress, as opposed to Colleen the character - in the playing of these scenes, because her character's basically all exposition. There's certain things that need to take place in the scenes with her that have to move the story forward. Initially, our second meeting was in Chinatown. Initially, I had a scene where Scully walks into an apothecary, and she was going to go so far as to actually try and find some alternative medicine, tinctures and salves, to help heal Dr Waterston, when nothing else in the world of Western medicine was working. She finds herself in this wonderful - in my mind - apothecary, with this wonderful old woman behind the counter. And, initially, right when she's about to leave, a woman comes from the back, who's had acupuncture, and it's Colleen. And they end up going through a walk through Chinatown, and having a conversation that had a lot more dialogue than those scenes, and less exposition for her... and more colour and everything. But neither of those things worked out. And also the importance of showing her environment, and which scenes needed to exemplify that. So the constant paring down of the script became part of the challenge, but also a huge lesson in letting go and not being attached to things."
About the first Chinatown sequence: "We needed to find a place in town where there was a street showing that she was moving from, on the left, the business district, into Chinatown. So I wanted to have a wide shot where the wind is blowing and papers blowing, and you see her making that transition, so she's not all of a sudden in Chinatown. Or there's not another needed shot of her in the business district, cos obviously, she's walking out of the hospital, and... The apothecary sign. This... I guess this... So this scene was supposed to take place earlier in the episode, and she ends up going into the apothecary and seing Colleen for the first time. We ended up moving it later on, and, in having to tie in this other aspect - the paranormal aspect of Scully continuing to see this woman who then just disappears, but ends up leading her on her journey in some way - that's how Chinatown came into it."
About the temple: "Now, when she opens the door... Obviously, outside she was in Chinatown, inside we're on one of the stages at Fox. I remember describing - I think, over the phone - to Corey (Kaplan), in the art department, what it is that I wanted this temple to look like, with the courtyard on the outside and the running water and the big doors, the cushions on the side, and this huge Buddha in the centre, with some kind of shafts of light coming in front of it. She drew me a picture. The first picture was exactly what I had envisioned for this space. And then within a few days, it was built in front of me. It was the most miraculouse thing. It was like "Hang on a second." Things happened so fast in the shooting, and once a decision is made... I remember when we first found Colleen's house, and driving home from the site where the house was - we had decided on the site - and somebody in the transportation department in the back of the van saying, "OK, we bought the house." That's their term for renting a house or a location that we're shooting in. And it sounded so huge and final and such a momentous thing. I was like "Wait, wait, wait. I didn't... Can I still think about it? Can I...?" But things had to happen quickly in order for them to move and to design it in the way that it needed to be, and set-dressed."
About the special FX with the body of Dr Waterston: "The special effects thing... I remember being on the phone, once again, with John Walsh, in the special effects department, and trying to describe to him over the phone what I wanted those pictures to look like as they flash by. And trying to put words to what I had in my head was such a challenge. Because, in terms of the edges being... I don't... I was just... It's, um... A lot of patience is involved. You just wanna go "Don't you see what I see? Don't you get what I have in my head?", "Why doesn't this look anything like what I am describing to you?" But it's all, you know... complicated."
"Casting-wise, this is Steve Hornyak, who is Colleen Flynn, the actress who plays Colleen Azar... It's her husband. And they're both actors. And "Azar" was actually taken from Edie Azar, who's a woman who I became friends with, who I did Pilates with for a while. I love having the control of being able to choose people's names. And this woman who plays Maggie, actually, during the shooting of this scene, she had just had a baby and she had a newborn on set with her. During a good portion of the coverage, it was time for the baby to eat. And so she was actually, in some of it, breast-feeding while the scene is being shot. And before some voice-over, you could actually hear the baby suckling in the background."
About Scully's dream sequence: "There were more of those cuts, I think, originally, from one scene in to the next. I don't know how many times Scully has been in bed with pyjamas, answering the phone, and I don't think she's ever worn the same pyjamas twice."
About the final scene between Scully and Waterston: "And this scene... I guess, a defining moment for Scully. Where she, through the course of what she's learned on this journey, and where she's been led and the realisations that she's come to as a result of paying attention and listening to her own heart and her own needs in her life, is able, for the very first time, to stand up to Waterston."
"This episode was really the beginning of Scully on a more spiritual than religious path. And that's a lot of... well, my doing, I guess. As in the fact that I am not a religious person, but I try to be a spiritual person, and... And her standing up against someone that she cares for very much but who believes in none of it. And that Scully, on one level, feels like she has opened up to a whole other world, finally, even in Mulder's absence. That she's opened up to this other world where she sees the order of things. And she sees how one event in life leads to another, and the cause and effect, and the cyclical aspect of human life, of spiritual life. And Maggie, in her own way, has come to she same sense of peace. Not only in understanding that it's not Scully's fault, but also her need to confront issues with her father and be in a place of forgiveness and love, and wanting to move forward and make things work out."
About the scene where Scully sees Mulder with the cap: "This was actually... Originally, we shot three of these sequences, this being the last. The first being outside the hospital room. Scully was going to leave and stand outside the room. We shot it where the camera encircles her, and then dissolves in to a shot of her sitting on a pew in a church. But instead of... She's actually... Her hands are placed in more of a meditative way than... So she's actually sitting in the church, but meditating. Just that leap for her character. I liked the juxtaposition of that and what that represented. And thise one, which was, time-wise, the only one that we could end up keeping, and how it... There were certain aspects that we eneded up having to keep, in order to move the story forward in an unexplainable way that, unfortunately, I wish didn't have to be there, because of the nature of a certain cheesiness to it. A cheesiness to always seeing the same woman. Where does she go? Who is she? And she ends up being Mulder at the end. But it is a necessity in the doing of it. There's certain things that, when you've got 42 minutes, you just have to settle with."
About the very last scene, on Mulder's couch: "This scene, I love this scene. But I had to be... Scully had to be tired enough and slurry enough that it would make sense that she would actually fall asleep by the end of this scene. (laughing) Which is a pretty tall order. So she mumbles a bit and... But I love how the music ties in to this. I love the fish tank in the background. I love that she falls asleep with her head on his shoulder and he keeps rambling. There's so much care... in the way that Mulder looks at Scully and moves her hair to the side, and that he covers her with the blanket. And here we have the throughline of the slow motion, and these moments that are so important in our lives, whether we are asleep or awake for them, that they're still there. And I wanted this two-shot of them, and then the camera to leave them. And you're not quite sure if he's leaving, or moving her to the bed, or what the situation is, but moving over.
Lisa in the set dec department put the UFO in there, which was such a fantastic touch. And then going down to what it's all really about. And Moby. And the editing process, too, of finding that last moment. Which moment is it that it goes out? Does the music stop before, or does...? I'd asked Kim Manners to be my right-hand person, and was so grateful that he was there. From the beginning to the end, he was an amazing person to bounce ideas off of. He said "You have got to go home and do your homework and show up knowing exactly where the camera goes." I would do these diagrams over the weekends and at home at the end of the night, and set up these huge graphs of where the camera was gonna be, and it because of Kim."
"Yeah, that's all I have to say. Thank you for listening".
TRANSCRIPT
SCENE 1
(Early morning. Rhythmic dripping sound. SCULLY is getting dressed in a bathroom. A ceiling fan spins slowly above her. She pulls down her green t-shirt, then zips up her black skirt. The old faucet drips rhythmically as she looks at herself in the mirror, fixes her hair, then walks into the other room, a bedroom.)
SCULLY: (voiceover) Time passes in moments ... moments which, rushing past define the path of a life just as surely as they lead towards its end. How rarely do we stop to examine that path, to see the reasons why all things happen, to consider whether the path we take in life is our own making or simply one into which we drift with eyes closed.
(She picks up her black jacket and puts it on. She looks thoughtfully at the figure in the bed for a moment, then walks quietly out of the room.)
SCULLY: (voiceover) But what if we could stop, pause to take stock of each precious moment before it passes? Might we then see the endless forks in the road that have shaped a life? And, seeing those choices, choose another path?
(The camera pans across the bed. We see a man's naked foot and leg lying tangled among the blue sheets and beige comforter. Moving up, we see his bare arms and chest and peacefully sleeping face. It is MULDER.)
[OPENING CREDITS] [OPENING CREDITS] [OPENING CREDITS] [OPENING CREDITS] [OPENING CREDITS]
SCENE 2
63 HOURS EARLIER
(X-Files office. Close up on the slide projector's light as it flickers in time to the music playing loudly on the boom box on the desk. "The Sky is Broken" by Moby. Very hypnotic style, rhythmic drumbeat. MULDER, casually dressed, is dancing slightly to the beat as he arranges the slides. SCULLY enters carrying a paper bag.)
MUSIC: "See, the storm has broken in the middle of the night nothing left here for me, it's washed away the rain pushes the buildings aside... "
SCULLY: I got the lab to rush the results of...
(SCULLY turns off the music.)
SCULLY: I said, I got the lab to rush the results of the Szczesny autopsy, if you're interested.
(SCULLY pulls out a packed salad and sets it on her desk.)
MULDER: I heard you, Scully.
SCULLY: And Szczesny did indeed drown but not as the result of the inhalation of ectoplasm as you so vehemently suggested.
MULDER: Well, what else could she possibly have drowned in?
SCULLY: Margarita mix, upchucked with about 40 ounces of Corcovado Gold tequila which, as it turns out she and her friends rapidly consumed in the woods while trying to reenact the Blair Witch Project.
MULDER: Well, I think that demands a little deeper investigation, don't you?
SCULLY: No, I don't.
MULDER: Well, it doesn't matter. We got bigger fish to fry.
(SCULLY pulls a wrapped sandwich out of the bag as MULDER advances the slide projector to show three crop circles.)
MULDER: Have a seat, Scully. Check this out. Is that beautiful or what?
SCULLY: Crop circles, Mulder?
MULDER: Computer-generated crop circles. It's a fractal image predicted by a computer program and using data of every known occurrence of the phenomena over the past 40 years.
(MULDER takes a bite of the sandwich that she hands him.)
MULDER: What most people don't realize is that, since 1991...
(Sound of slides changing. MULDER continues his monologue while watching SCULLY prepare and eat her salad. She doesn't look up once.)
MULDER: ... there's been a dramatic increase in size and complexity of circle design. That's when the Mandelbrot Set appeared in England.
(SCULLY methodically drips dressing using a fork from a small cup onto her salad.)
MULDER: A series of geometrically perfect rings appearing almost impossibly overnight in a field near Cambridge.
(MULDER pauses and watches her. He clicks to the next slide.)
MULDER: But that was merely prelude of what was to come. Three years later, in 1994 even more complex formations occurred simultaneously on opposite ends of the English countryside with the Mandelbrot Set, were it still there, at its center. Then, in 1997, even more complex formations occurred...
(SCULLY is completely engrossed in her salad. MULDER pauses.)
MULDER: ... and I'm not wearing any pants right now.
(SCULLY looks up from the salad after a beat of silence.)
SCULLY: Hmm?
MULDER: You're not listening.
SCULLY: I am.
(He looks at her.)
SCULLY: I guess I just don't see the point.
MULDER: The point is is that a computer program has shown us that these are not just random, happenstance coincidental occurrences and that same program has predicted that in just 48 hours even more complex formations are going to be laid down in a field near Avebury-- 48 hours, Scully-- but I wouldn't mind getting there earlier if you don't mind.
SCULLY: Getting where?
MULDER: England - I got two tickets on a 5:30 flight.
SCULLY: Mulder, I still have to go over to the hospital and-and-and finish the final paperwork on the autopsy you had me do. And, to be honest, it's Saturday and I wouldn't mind, I don't know, taking a bath?
MULDER: Well, what the hell does that mean?
(As SCULLY speaks, she stabs the air with her fork containing a piece of lettuce to emphasize her remarks.)
SCULLY: What it means, Mulder, is I'm not interested in tracking down some sneaky farmers who happened to ace geometry in high school.
(MULDER looks hurt.)
SCULLY: And besides, I mean... what could you possibly get out of this? Or learn? I mean, it's not even remotely FBI-related.
(MULDER is disappointed, but not devastated.)
MULDER: I'll just cancel your ticket.
(He takes another bite of the sandwich thing she brought for him.)
MULDER: Thanks for lunch.
(He puts the rest of the sandwich next to the slide projector on top of the hand-held advance unit. Then he picks up his coat and starts out the door.)
SCULLY: Mulder...
(He stops in the doorway and looks back at her.)
SCULLY: Look, we're always running. We're always chasing the next big thing. Why don't you ever just stay still?
MULDER: I wouldn't know what I'd be missing.
(MULDER leaves. The half-eaten sandwich and advance unit falls to the floor. SCULLY sighs as she is left alone with the now auto-advancing slide projector. The clicking sound segues into the next scene.)
SCENE 3
WASHINGTON NATIONAL HOSPITAL
(Hospital nurses station. Two NURSES are at the desk. One NURSE with blonde hair, is tapping a pencil rhythmically on the surface of the desk as SCULLY walks up.)
SCULLY: My name is Dana Scully and I was told I could pick up a postmortem folder for a Ms. Szczesny here. It's, uh, for the FBI.
NURSE 2: Let's see...
(NURSE 2 is surprised as NURSE 1, the blonde, silently hands SCULLY a file from the holder on the desk.)
NURSE 2: Oh!
(In slow motion SCULLY takes the file. The pencil keeps tapping. Time slows down around it.)
NURSE 2: You just sign here, please.
(SCULLY looks at her. All is normal again.)
SCULLY: Thank you.
(SCULLY signs, takes the folder and removes an image of a patient's brain from the folder. She looks down at the folder. The name SZCZESNY is on the folder, but the name D. WATERSTON is on the x-ray. SCULLY looks at it in surprise and confusion. She returns to the NURSES station. The blonde NURSE is no longer there.)
SCULLY: Hi, um... I was given the wrong test results. This, uh, x-ray marked "D. Waterston" was in the envelope marked "Szczesny." I was expecting autopsy results.
NURSE 2: Oh, I'm sorry. They must've gotten switched. Sorry for the inconvenience.
(NURSE 2 hands her another folder.)
SCULLY: Thank you. Is the, um... is the "D. Waterston" that was on the x-ray is that a Dr. Daniel Waterston?
NURSE: (Looking at her charts) Let's see: Waterston, Waterston... Yes, it is. Admitted yesterday, coronary care unit, room 306.
SCULLY: Thank you.
(SCULLY goes to room 306. A man, DR. KOPEIKAN, is talking to a young woman, MAGGIE WATERSTON. SCULLY watches from the doorway.)
DR. KOPEIKAN: I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say. Everything appears to be as it should under the circumstances so don't worry. If you'd like, I can show you the hospital cafeteria.
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (upset, not sure of what to do) Uh, yeah, I guess... Yeah, okay.
(SCULLY ducks out of the way and grabs a magazine as MAGGIE WATERSTON and DR. KOPEIKAN pass her. She is not looking at the magazine, "FUNG SHUI LIFE.")
MAGGIE WATERSTON: Are there phones down there, too? I need to make some phone calls.
DR. KOPEIKAN: Yes.
(They are gone. A heart monitor is beeping. SCULLY enters the room and pushes back the curtain. All other sound stops as she looks at the patient. Slow motion. A bell chimes ten times. A man, DANIEL WATERSTON, is lying in the bed asleep. He is a handsome older man, late 50's. SCULLY gazes at him.)
DR. KOPEIKAN: Excuse me...
(SCULLY is startled. Sound of heart monitor starts again. Slow motion stops. DR. KOPEIKAN is in the doorway.)
DR. KOPEIKAN: Can I help you with something?
SCULLY: Um, I'm sorry. I'm Dr. Scully. I-I was just in the hospital and...
DR. KOPEIKAN: Can we step into the hallway?
SCULLY: Yeah.
(SCULLY follows him into the hallway.)
DR. KOPEIKAN: I'm Dr. Waterston's cardiologist, Paul Kopeikan. Did you say your name was Scully?
SCULLY: Uh, yes, Dana Scully.
DR. KOPEIKAN: Dr. Waterston's mentioned you.
SCULLY: I'm sorry, you must be mistaken.
DR. KOPEIKAN: No, you were a student of his, right?
(SCULLY does not answer.)
SCULLY: He has a heart condition?
DR. KOPEIKAN: Dr. Waterston came in yesterday with severe chest pains and he ordered us to do an echocardiogram and a biopsy because he'd had symptoms of an upper respiratory infection the week before. Fortunately, it was the right call.
SCULLY: Then it's serious.
DR. KOPEIKAN: But treatable. I have to wake him up soon, if you'd care to...
SCULLY: No, that's all right. But, uh, thanks for your time.
DR. KOPEIKAN: He must've been a wonderful teacher. I've been following his work on constrictive pericarditis for years now.
SCULLY: Yes... he's a remarkable man.
SCENE 4
(SCULLY's apartment. Late afternoon. In the foreground, one of the curtain pulls is swinging back and forth tapping the window frame rhythmically, like a heartbeat. SCULLY enters just as the phone rings. She answers it. )
SCULLY: (on phone) Hello?
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (on phone, voice) You came to see him.
SCULLY: (on phone) I'm sorry, who is this?
(MAGGIE WATERSTON is in the hospital waiting room.)
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (on phone) Margaret Waterston.
SCULLY: (on phone) Maggie. Is everything all right?
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (on phone) Well, that depends, doesn't it?
SCULLY: (on phone) I'm sorry?
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (on phone) Whatever. Dr. Kopeikan told my father you were here and now he wants to see you.
SCULLY: (on phone) About what?
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (on phone) Look, he asked me to call, so I'm calling.
SCULLY: (on phone) I don't know, Maggie. I don't know if I've got time.
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (on phone, voice) Don't know if you have the time.
(The call waiting signal on SCULLY's phone beeps.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Maggie, can you hang on a second? I have another call coming through.
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (on phone, voice) Listen... it's your choice, but if you come it doesn't mean I accept you being in his life.
(MAGGIE WATERSTON hangs up quickly. SCULLY presses the flash button to connect to the other call. The curtain pull keeps tapping.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Hello?
(In his apartment, MULDER is packing. An old black and white movie is on TV. [Camille?] It is a critical moment in the movie where the hero is saying goodbye to his heroine. MULDER's phone is on speaker, so SCULLY can hear the movie.)
MAN ON OLD BLACK AND WHITE MOVIE ON TV: I'll never see you again.
SCULLY: Hello?
(Surprised to hear her voice, MULDER stops packing and runs to turn down the TV.)
MAN ON OLD TV MOVIE: You're breaking my heart.
MULDER: (on speaker phone) Hey, you're there?
(MULDER picks up the receiver.)
MULDER: (on phone) Hey.
SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, aren't you supposed to be on a plane?
MULDER: (On phone) I got a 5:30 flight, remember?
SCULLY: (on phone) Right. Guess I lost track of time.
MULDER: (on phone) Listen, uh, the reason I called-- am I catching you at a bad time?
SCULLY: (on phone) No, I just walked in. Why?
MULDER: (on phone) Uh, there's this group in D.C. that is researching crop circles. They've got a totally different set of coordinates from the one that I got already.
SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, I'm not going.
MULDER: (on phone) I got to ask you a favor. One of the researchers lives out near the hospital and they've got these sensitive photos and data and stuff that they won't fax to me so I was just wondering if you would just, maybe go over there and, you know, and get it and put it in the bureau pouch for me...
(Mulder's voice fades out as SCULLY gazes at the swinging curtain pull. It goes into slow motion. MULDER's voice breaks through again and the pull begins tapping in normal time.)
MULDER: (on phone) Speak to me, Scully.
SCULLY: (on phone) I'm out for the evening, Mulder.
MULDER: (on phone, shutting down defensively) Well, why didn't you just say so in the first place?
SCULLY: (on phone) Look, um... why don't you leave that address on my answering machine and, uh, I'll try for you.
(She hangs up.)
SCENE 5
(Back at the hospital. Close up of wheels of a gurney being pushed down the hall. SCULLY walks down the cardio hall and enters the room. A person lies in bed surrounded by family and friends, including a tall RED-HAIRED WOMAN who looks up at SCULLY. SCULLY steps back in surprise. She looks up at the room number. She had entered room 304 by mistake.)
SCULLY: I'm sorry. I-I have the wrong room.
RED-HAIRED WOMAN: (friendly, smiling) It's okay.
(She walks on down to room 306 and enters. DANIEL WATERSTON is sitting up in bed. MAGGIE WATERSTON looks up from her magazine and angrily leaves the room. SCULLY and DANIEL WATERSTON look at each other for a moment.)
SCULLY: Hi.
DANIEL WATERSTON: So I have to lock eyes with the Devil for you to grace me with your presence?
SCULLY: Surely not the Devil.
(He gives a little nod of acknowledgement.)
SCULLY: How are you feeling, Daniel?
DANIEL WATERSTON: It's a real drag when the body doesn't want to play anymore.
SCULLY: You're extremely lucky you called that diagnosis.
DANIEL WATERSTON: Luck has nothing to do with it, Dana. It's what doctors do everyday. You may have forgotten that.
SCULLY: (softly, looking away for a moment) Daniel...
(Pause.)
SCULLY: So, how did you happen to be here in Washington?
DANIEL WATERSTON: That's a long story.
(He reaches out and takes her hand. She stares at their intimately clasped hands for a moment, then she sits in the chair beside him.)
DANIEL WATERSTON: How's the FBI?
SCULLY: Is that why you wanted to see me? To remind me once again what a bad choice I made?
DANIEL WATERSTON: (pressing her hand to his lips, shaking his head) Believe me. My motivation is far more selfish than that.
SCULLY: You scare me, Daniel.
(He lets go of her hand.)
DANIEL WATERSTON: I know. I scare you... (he doesn't like scaring her) ... because I represent that which is ingrained not only in your mind but in your heart-- that which you secretly long for.
SCULLY: You never accepted my reason for leaving.
DANIEL WATERSTON: It wasn't a reason, it was an excuse.
SCULLY: But you understood why.
DANIEL WATERSTON: I can't believe the FBI is a passion. Not like medicine.
(SCULLY rises.)
SCULLY: I'm sorry I came.
(DANIEL WATERSTON gently strokes her face with his finger.)
SCULLY: I just wanted to make sure you were okay.
DANIEL WATERSTON: (looking at her longingly) I know how difficult it must have been for you... just walking through that door but you wouldn't have come if you didn't want to and that says something, doesn't it?
(Later, outside the hospital, SCULLY gets into her silver car. Just as she closes the door, her phone rings, so she doesn't put on her seatbelt. She starts the car and enters traffic.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Scully.
(MULDER is in an airport.)
MULDER: (on phone, voice) I was just about to leave you a message. Listen, I got that, uh, that address that I wanted you to go to for me. It's a woman you're going to be dealing with. She's affiliated with The American Taoist Healing Center.
SCULLY: (on phone) She researches crop circles?
MULDER: (on phone, voice) Don't roll your eyes, Scully.
(SCULLY rolls her eyes. She turns on her left turn signal as the light turns yellow. It clicks rhythmically. The car in front of her makes the left turn, and SCULLY starts to follow.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder you want me to...?
(As SCULLY pulls forward to turn left, a woman with a blonde ponytail in a baseball cap walks in front of her car. It is the blonde NURSE from earlier, now in casual clothes. SCULLY drops the phone and slams on the brakes just as a large truck speeds through the intersection. In slow motion, the blonde woman looks over her shoulder and smiles at SCULLY. The turn signal clicks rhythmically.)
MULDER: (on phone, voice) Scully? Scully, you there?
(SCULLY stares after the woman.)
SCENE 6
(Night. Close-up of a sprinkler running. SCULLY arrives at a house in a nice neighborhood. She parks her car in the driveway, gets out and walks up to the doorway. She rings the doorbell. The RED HEADED WOMAN from the hospital answers the door.)
SCULLY: Hi. I'm...
(They recognize each other.)
SCULLY: You were...
WOMAN: (nodding) ... at the hospital today.
SCULLY: Right. That's strange. Um, I-I'm Agent Scully. I'm-I'm here on behalf of my partner.
WOMAN: About my research.
SCULLY: For the FBI, as odd as that may sound.
WOMAN: Right. I'm Colleen Azar. Would you like to come in?
SCULLY: No, thank you. I think I need some fresh air.
COLLEEN AZAR: (concerned) Are you all right?
SCULLY: Yes, I... I mean, yes, I-I'm just a little shaken. I... a near car accident, I think. It's nothing, really.
COLLEEN AZAR: A car accident isn't "nothing."
SCULLY: I'm sorry?
COLLEEN AZAR: In my experience they're often the end results of us not paying attention to something.
SCULLY: Look, I-I don't mean to be rude but I really don't have much time.
COLLEEN AZAR: Sure. I'll go get my papers.
(COLEEN gets a folder.)
COLLEEN AZAR: You think what we do is a little ridiculous, don't you?
SCULLY: Uh, to be honest, I don't know exactly what it is that you do.
COLLEEN AZAR: But you've already formed a judgment about it.
SCULLY: I really should be going.
COLLEEN AZAR: There is a greater intelligence in all things. Accidents-- or near accidents-- often remind us that we need to keep our mind open to the lessons it gives.
(She hands the folder to SCULLY.)
COLLEEN AZAR: (directly) You may want to slow down.
(COLLEEN AZAR releases the folder and shuts the door. SCULLY sighs in displeasure at the woman's audacity. As she turns, she drops the contents of the folder. In slow motion, she sighs and bends down to pick up the papers. She stares at one of the images on a paper. It is an Oriental symbol on a green crop circle - the heart chakra. SCULLY is snapped back into real time by her ringing cell phone.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Hello.
SCENE 7
(Hospital. DANIEL WATERSTON's room. Heart monitor beeping. SCULLY and DR. KOPEIKAN join DANIEL WATERSTON and MAGGIE WATERSTON.)
DANIEL WATERSTON: Aw, Hurricane Scully has arrived.
SCULLY: I was summoned.
DANIEL WATERSTON: Would you please tell the doc here why he should listen to me.
DR. KOPEIKAN: Sir, we've already agreed to doses of digoxin that are far beyond what I normally recommend.
DANIEL WATERSTON: I guarantee you, Doctor, you're doing it right.
DR. KOPEIKAN: But I can't be responsible for treatment that might exacerbate your illness. There hasn't even been a double-blind analysis of prednisone's effect.
SCULLY: Prednisone? That won't complicate cardiac arrhythmia. Not if it's just a short burst.
DANIEL WATERSTON: There. An informed opinion.
(DR. KOPEIKAN leaves the room.)
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (bitterly to SCULLY, as she leaves the room) You come off so rational but maybe you know less than you think.
(DANIEL WATERSTON sighs.)
DANIEL WATERSTON: She's ... been through some difficult times and she's very angry.
SCULLY: How did she even find out?
DANIEL WATERSTON: There are things you don't know... things I'm not proud of.
SCULLY: What things?
DANIEL WATERSTON: I screwed up, Dana. Things got bad at home after...
(SCULLY sits. Pause.)
SCULLY: Bad how?
DANIEL WATERSTON: I haven't been completely honest with you. It was hard for me... when you walked away. Shut down from my family and needless to say, it was very difficult for Barbara.
SCULLY: You divorced.
DANIEL WATERSTON: Only after an interminable period of discomfort for us both.
SCULLY: Where did you go?
DANIEL WATERSTON: Here. Washington.
SCULLY: When?
DANIEL WATERSTON: (softly) Almost ten years ago.
SCULLY: (also softly) Daniel... you didn't move here for me?
DANIEL WATERSTON: I didn't mean for it to happen this way, of course.
(SCULLY does not know how to process this information.)
SCULLY: Oh, God.
(She begins to cry.)
SCULLY: You've come at such a strange time.
DANIEL WATERSTON: I know, I know. You-you have a life.
SCULLY: (shaking her head) I don't know what I have. I mean... your x-rays were in the wrong envelope. I never would have even known you were here if it wasn't for a mix-up. It's just...
DANIEL WATERSTON: What do you want, Dana?
SCULLY: I want everything I should want at this time of my life. Maybe I want the life I didn't choose.
(SCULLY is crying softly. He holds his hand out to her. She clasps it with her own, then lays her head down on DANIEL WATERSTON's chest. He softly strokes her hair. She calms, her crying stops. She looks peaceful. The beep of the heart monitor matches the beat of the music under it. As SCULLY rests on his chest the monitor changes tempo, getting faster, then flat-lining. SCULLY jumps up in full doctor mode and begins performing CPR. She frantically calls to the nurse down the hall.)
SCULLY: Nurse! We have a code in here! Nurse!
(Hospital room. SCULLY is still trying to revive DANIEL WATERSTON. The NURSES arrives with the crash cart.)
INTERCOM VOICE: Code blue, C.C.U.
SCULLY: He's in v-fib, get his head.
(A NURSE switches pillows under DANIEL WATERSTON's head. SCULLY gives mouth-to-mouth until another NURSE arrives with an oxygen mask.)
SCULLY: In!
NURSE: In.
(SCULLY gets the defibrillator paddles off the crash cart.)
SCULLY: 200 joules. All clear?
NURSE: Clear.
(SCULLY applies the defibrillator paddles. Still there is the flatline tone.)
NURSE: No pulse, no resp.
SCULLY: 300 joules.
NURSE 3: 300 charge.
SCULLY: Clear!
NURSE: Clear.
(SCULLY applies the paddles again. Still the flatline tone continues.)
NURSE: No pulse, no resp.
SCULLY: Epinephrine, one milligram, I.V. Push. Now! Who's paying attention?!
(The injection is readied.)
NURSE 3: Ready.
SCULLY: Clear!
NURSES: Clear.
(SCULLY applies the paddle again. There is the sound of the flatline tone, then the heart monitor begins beeping normally again.)
SCULLY: We have a pulse.
(The blonde NURSE checks the heart beat.)
SCULLY: Okay. Thank you.
(SCULLY is gasping for breath, relieved and exhausted.)
SCENE 8
(Next day. Raining. SCULLY arrives at COLLEEN AZAR's house and rings the buzzer. A woman, CAROL, answers.)
CAROL: Hi, can I help you?
SCULLY: Uh, I'm looking for Colleen.
CAROL: You want to come in?
SCULLY: I just need to speak with her that's all.
(CAROL steps aside so SCULLY can enter. The house is tastefully decorated with lots of Eastern influences. SCULLY, awed, admires the simplicity of the furnishings. A small chime is ringing, slow motion. The moment is broken when CAROL and COLLEEN enter the foyer.)
CAROL: I have to go. Call me if anything interesting happens.
COLLEEN AZAR: Okay. Bye.
(The two women kiss on the lips and CAROL leaves. SCULLY looks away, then COLLEEN AZAR approaches her.)
COLLEEN AZAR: I'm surprised to see you again.
SCULLY: I'm sorry that I was rude before. I'm a medical doctor and a scientist and, you're right, I don't know what it is that you do ... but there was something that you said that I wanted to ask you about.
COLLEEN AZAR: About slowing down? Would you like to sit down? Please.
(SCULLY joins her on the couch. A small fountain is on the coffee table.)
SCULLY: I have a friend who's ill, and, um... I had a strange feeling today-- just a short while ago, actually-- that he may be dying from a more serious condition than anyone realizes.
COLLEEN AZAR: You sense something? Holistic practitioners believe, as do many eastern religions, that living beings exist beyond the physical dimensions of time and space that we're composed of layers of energy and consciousness. You've probably heard it referred to as an "aura."
(Oh boy, has she.)
SCULLY: Hmm... Yes.
COLLEEN AZAR: Witness this energy field and truths come out that have little to do with scientific proof and much to do with faith.
SCULLY: What are you saying that I saw?
COLLEEN AZAR: Pain. And where there's pain there's a need for healing-- physically, mentally or spiritually.
SCULLY: But he has a heart condition.
COLLEEN AZAR: When we hold onto shame and guilt and fear it creates imbalance, makes us forget who we are.
(SCULLY sighs.)
COLLEEN AZAR: This is difficult for you to accept.
(COLLEEN AZAR gently places her hand on SCULLY's leg. In the background, we hear a tea kettle whistling.)
COLLEEN AZAR: (brightly) Would you like to have some tea?
(Later, COLLEEN AZAR is pouring tea for them. SCULLY is contemplating a piece of hanging sculpture.)
COLLEEN AZAR: Have you ever had moments when everything gets incredibly clear? When time seems to expand?
SCULLY: Yes. It's so strange.
COLLEEN AZAR: You may be more open to things than you think. It's just a matter of what you do with it.
(She hands SCULLY her cup of tea as SCULLY reflects on her words. COLLEEN takes her cup and leans against the kitchen sink.)
COLLEEN AZAR: I used to be a physicist. I was successful in my field working 80-odd hours a week. I thought I was happy. Truth is, I was cut off from the world and from myself. I was literally dying inside. I was in a relationship with Carol, who you met but I was so afraid of what the world and my family and my fellow scientists would think that I told no one. Then, two years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
(SCULLY is very sympathetic.)
SCULLY: I'm sorry.
COLLEEN AZAR: (she takes a sip of tea) Mmm... Don't be. It's the cancer that got my attention. It stopped me from being on the self-destructive path I was on. It made me realize I was in a field that had little meaning for me and it's what's allowed me to be happy for what feels like the first time in my life.
SCULLY: But how?
COLLEEN AZAR: I was introduced to a healer who helped me see the disease for what it was. It wasn't until I began releasing shame and telling the truth that my cancer went into remission.
(SCULLY looks down.)
COLLEEN AZAR: You still aren't sure. You came here looking for answers and you want something to take back with you. Everything happens for a reason.
(SCULLY looks at her.)
SCENE 9
(Hospital. SCULLY enters carrying a bouquet of red flowers. She sees MAGGIE WATERSTON.)
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (angrily) Are you happy?
SCULLY: I'm sorry? I was just going up to see your father.
MAGGIE WATERSTON: You can't. He's in a coma.
SCULLY: Since when?
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (angry) Since about two minutes after you supposedly saved his life.
(SCULLY starts to continue down the hall. MAGGIE WATERSTON steps in front of her.)
MAGGIE WATERSTON: Do you have any idea the hell you created in our lives?
SCULLY: Maggie, to be honest, I left so that there wouldn't be hell in your lives.
MAGGIE WATERSTON: Don't try to be reasonable with me. I am so sick of being reasonable. You moved on but we've had to live with what you left behind.
CUT TO:
(Out on the street. The rain has stopped. The same rhythmic song that MULDER was playing in the office earlier plays under the scene. SCULLY, flowers hanging limply from her hand is walking slow motion down the sidewalk through a Chinatown. Her black coat billows in the wind. Very surreal. Two men slowly turn and watch her as she passes. She turns and looks up at a slow-motion swinging sign above her. Apothecary, in English and Chinese characters. The music stops and the sign creaking rhythmically is the only sound. She sees the blonde woman in the baseball hat walking across the block. SCULLY runs after her. She is almost hit by a bicyclist, breaking the slow motion. She pauses and continues after the woman. She loses her, but stops at a plain wooden door. She enters. It is a peaceful Oriental garden with a pair of ornate red doors at one end. SCULLY enters the doors. Inside is a beautifully lit temple with a golden statue of Buddha. Votive candles surround it. SCULLY kneels in the rays of light streaming from above and sways as she closes her eyes, trancelike. Bright light, she has a vision. Images from her life rush past her. Still images of her family at her father's funeral, her father in dress whites, her mother, Mulder, Cigarette-Smoking Man, her sister, herself looking at Mulder for the first time in the pilot, the "I Want To Believe" poster, Colleen Azar, herself holding Emily, she and Mulder looking at her first UFO in Deep Throat, season 1, Mulder holding her in the hallway in Memento Mori, her frightened self just before she was abducted, and finally DANIEL WATERSTON lying transparent, floating in white light, his black heart thumping loudly, hypnotically. His lips move as if he is speaking silently. His eyes fly open suddenly. At the same time, SCULLY gasps and her eyes fly open. She is still in the temple. She catches her breath, very disturbed by what just happened. She looks up at the Buddha.)
SCENE 10
(DANIEL WATERSTON's hospital room. He is in a coma. SCULLY and MAGGIE WATERSTON watch as a man, the HEALER, holds his hands above DANIEL WATERSTON's chest. Another nurse, NURSE 3, is wheeling a medical cart down the hall. She sees what is going on through the window in the room. She walks away quickly.)
HEALER: What I try to do is clear the body's energy channels-- what we call Chakras-- which can become barriers to a doctor's ability to effectively heal the patient. When these channels are working improperly-- whether from poor physical or emotional health-- the block serves to create conditions for disease. If I can unblock the energy early on then I can prevent the onset or escalation of an illness or provide a place...
(He is interrupted by the arrival of DR. KOPEIKAN who was likely summoned by NURSE 3. He is not pleased.)
DR. KOPEIKAN: What's going on here? Dr. Scully, who do you think you are?
SCULLY: We have nothing but Dr. Waterston's welfare in mind here.
DR. KOPEIKAN: You're not his doctor.
SCULLY: I understand that. What's taking place here is an alternative approach.
DR. KOPEIKAN: What's taking place here is a waste of time, Dr. Scully, and I think that Dr. Waterston would be the first to agree with me. Have you considered that?
SCULLY: I just wanted to help him. It seemed like nothing else was working.
DR. KOPEIKAN: With all due respect that is not for you to assess. That is for me or Dr. Waterston's family to decide.
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (quietly) Then let him continue. If it isn't hurting him we should at least be open to it.
(MAGGIE WATERSTON and SCULLY look at each other.)
HEALER: I'm afraid there's really nothing more I can do at this time. This man, quite frankly, is ready to move on. But something seems to be holding him back. Unfinished business is binding him to the physical plane-- something he needs to release before he can let go.
SCENE 11
(SCULLY's apartment. Same rhythmic music from before playing under the scene. SCULLY moves in dreamlike slow motion.)
MUSIC: Broken heart pushing us hear the rain fall See the wind come to my eyes See the storm broken now I'm nothing Speak to me, baby in the middle of the night ...
(SCULLY is wearing a large white terry bathrobe and fuzzy slippers. She has made a cup of tea in her kitchen. As she passes through a door, the scene shifts and she is wearing a dark suit walking into a hospital room. SCULLY looks down at the bed and sees herself two and one half years ago dying of cancer. Her cancer self looks up and mouths the words along with the song.)
MUSIC: Speak to me...
(SCULLY's eyes fly open and she gasps as she sits up in bed, staring up. It was a dream. The phone is ringing. SCULLY, white satin pajamas, catches her breath and picks up the phone)
SCULLY: (on phone) Hello?
MAGGIE WATERSTON: (on phone, voice) It's Maggie. I need you to come to the hospital right away.
SCULLY: (on phone) Maggie, what's...?
(MAGGIE WATERSTON hangs up.)
SCENE 12
(DANIEL WATERSTON's hospital room. SCULLY enters. DANIEL WATERSTON is awake.)
SCULLY: Daniel?
DANIEL WATERSTON: You think I'd give up so easily?
(SCULLY exhales and walks close to him.)
SCULLY: You were slipping away. No one thought you'd come out of this. I'm still in shock.
DANIEL WATERSTON: Imagine my shock when my doctor told me the voodoo ritual you'd arranged for last night.
SCULLY: I was afraid it didn't work.
DANIEL WATERSTON: (chuckling) Of course it didn't work. Don't be absurd. Where do you get this crap?
SCULLY: Daniel, that "crap" may have just saved your life whether you're open to it or not.
DANIEL WATERSTON: It doesn't matter. I don't want to talk about that. Look at me. I'm going to get well... and we need to talk about... what happens next for us.
(He looks up at her confidently and warmly.)
SCULLY: I spoke at length to Maggie. It's time... that you took responsibility for the hurt you caused in your family. It's no accident that you got sick, Daniel. You've been running from the truth for ten years.
(DANIEL WATERSTON doesn't want to hear this.)
DANIEL WATERSTON: (a whisper) Dana... It was only to be with you. You were all I lived for.
SCULLY: Maybe the reason you're alive now is to make up for that. To make it up to Maggie.
DANIEL WATERSTON: That's Maggie talking, not you.
SCULLY: (voice breaking slightly) No. I'm not the same person, Daniel. I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't seen you again.
(SCULLY turns to see MAGGIE WATERSTON in the doorway. The three of them look at each other for a moment, then SCULLY leaves. MAGGIE WATERSTON hesitantly approaches her father.)
(Later, outside the hospital. SCULLY stands watching people pass. All is in slow motion. Two nuns walk past her. Camera circles around her. She sees the woman with the blonde ponytail. Slow motion stops. SCULLY runs past the nuns and stops the woman. Same clothes, but it is no longer the blonde woman. It is MULDER. He is wearing a cap that says "Stonehenge Rocks." He is happy to see her. She is surprised to see him.)
SCULLY: Excuse me!
MULDER: Hey.
SCULLY: Mulder?
MULDER: I was just looking for you.
SCULLY: But you're supposed to be in England.
MULDER: I'm back.
SCULLY: What happened?
MULDER: (bummed) Nothing. There was no event. No crop circles. Big waste of time.
(SCULLY sighs.)
SCULLY: Maybe sometimes nothing happens for a reason, Mulder.
MULDER: What is that supposed to mean?
SCULLY: Nothing. (she smiles) Come on, I'm make you some tea.
(SCULLY puts her arm around MULDER's and leads him away companionably.)
SCENE 13
(MULDER's apartment. MULDER and SCULLY are sitting close together on the sofa. Two half-drunk mugs of tea are on the coffee table. SCULLY, drowsy, has her shoeless, stockinged feet propped up on the table. They have been talking a while.)
MULDER: I just find it hard to believe.
SCULLY: What part?
MULDER: The part where I go away for two days and your whole life changes.
SCULLY: Mmm, I didn't say my whole life changed.
MULDER: You speaking to God in a Buddhist temple. God speaking back.
SCULLY: Mmm, and I didn't say that God spoke back. I said that I had some kind of a vision.
MULDER: Well, for you, that's like saying you're having David Crosby's baby.
(SCULLY smiles and looks thoughtful.)
MULDER: What is it?
SCULLY: I once considered spending my whole life with this man. What I would have missed.
MULDER: I don't think you can know. I mean, how many different lives would we be leading if we made different choices. We... We don't know.
SCULLY: What if there was only one choice and all the other ones were wrong? And there were signs along the way to pay attention to.
MULDER: Mmm. And all the... choices would then lead to this very moment. One wrong turn, and... we wouldn't be sitting here together. Well, that says a lot. That says a lot, a lot, a lot. That's probably more than we should be getting into at this late hour.
(MULDER looks down at SCULLY. She has fallen asleep against his shoulder. Music begins again. In slow motion, he tenderly brushes a strand of hair out of her face, then gazes at her a moment. He pulls his Indian blanket over her and carefully tucks it around her. Camera pans around to the fish tank with it's bouncing UFO decoration as MULDER gets up off the couch. The rhythmic song "The Sky is Broken" continues playing. The camera pans down under the fish tank to a small figurine of Buddha on the shelf below.)
[THE END]
2024-09-30 18:24:31 -
Pike:
Added some actors.
