WRITTEN BY
Frank Spotnitz
DIRECTED BY
Tony Wharmby
AIRED ON
December 17, 2000
RUNTIME
44 minutes
STARRING
VIEWS
430
LAST UPDATE
2024-08-13 08:30:06
PAGE VERSION
Version 3
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0
SUMMARY
The episode delves into the mysterious deaths of members of a religious cult, all found with their brains surgically removed. Agents Doggett and Scully are assigned to the case after their colleague, Agent Monica Reyes, barely escapes a similar fate. The investigation leads them to the cult's enigmatic leader, Anthony Tipet, who has been using an ancient ritual to enter a higher state of consciousness, accessing a deadly realm through his dreams. As Doggett gets closer to the truth, he experiences disturbing visions and encounters the terrifying possibility of being trapped in this alternate reality. The episode explores themes of faith, the power of the subconscious, and the fine line between reality and nightmares, creating an intense and unsettling atmosphere that challenges Doggett's skepticism and resolve.
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BEHIND THE SCENES
- Negative theology - also known as the Via Negativa (Latin for "Negative Way") and Apophatic theology - is a theology that attempts to describe God by negation, to speak of God only in terms of what may not be said about God.
- In brief, the attempt is to gain and express knowledge of God by describing what God is not (apophasis), rather than by describing what God is. The apophatic tradition is often, though not always, allied with the approach of mysticism, which focuses on a spontaneous or cultivated individual experience of the divine reality beyond the realm of ordinary perception, an experience often unmediated by the structures of traditional organized religion or learned thought and behavior.
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REVIEWS
Darkness atmosphere
Written by
Pike on 2015-12-31
★
★
★
★
Once more, a very dark episode of season 8. The episode starts with a very dramatic scene, with members of a cult all lying dead in their bed, their head cut opened by an axe.
The episode then continues on this dark path, culminating with the infamous scene where the head of the cult put his own head on a mechanical saw on wheel. What a dark moment!
The final part of the episode is the best out of it, where John Doggett starts to think he is in a bad dream and goes to Scully's room with some beautiful dark blue images.
Even though I would have preferred to see more Scully instead of The Lone Gunmen and Skinner, and even though the story is not that great, the atmosphere is simply perfect "X-Filesque". I give the episode a 4: Very good.
TRANSCRIPT
SCENE 1
(A man, mid-thirties, AGENT JAMES LEEDS, is asleep in the driver's seat of a parked car on a neighborhood street across from a large older house. Another man, AGENT STEDMAN, taps on the window. AGENT LEEDS wakes with a start, then rolls down the electric window.)
AGENT STEDMAN: (accusing) Damn, Jim, you fell asleep? We're on a stakeout, man.
AGENT LEEDS: I guess... I don't know.
AGENT STEDMAN: What happened over there?
AGENT LEEDS: (still waking up) What are you talking about?
AGENT STEDMAN: The house, man. Front door's wide open. How long you been out?
(AGENT LEEDS has no answer, amazed at his own unprofessional actions.)
AGENT STEDMAN: We'd better check it.
(AGENT LEEDS gets out of the car and together they cross over to the dark house.)
AGENT STEDMAN: The light's out. The door's open. I don't like this.
(They go up the steps to the front door, flashlights in hand.)
AGENT LEEDS: Looks like they all left.
(They look down at the hallway and see what look like bloody footprints leading into the house.)
AGENT STEDMAN: I'm not so sure.
AGENT LEEDS: This can't be.
(The house number looks like 737? 237? There is a large painted image of a blue eye over the door. With guns and flashlights, they cautiously enter the house. AGENT LEEDS enters a large dormitory style room where there are two long rows of twin beds, perhaps 14 in all. On each, a person is lying dead. A huge vertical bloody gash is in each of their foreheads. Blood soaks the sheets.)
AGENT LEEDS: Oh, God. Stedman!
(AGENT STEDMAN joins him in the doorway to the room.)
AGENT STEDMAN: They're all dead.
(They hear something in another part of the house. Silently, AGENT STEDMAN proceeds down the hall while AGENT LEEDS looks further into the room. Alone, AGENT STEDMAN walks toward the stairs. We see a MAN standing a few feet behind him, a large decorative axe hanging at his side. AGENT STEDMAN turns quickly to face him.
CUT TO:
AGENT LEEDS, still in the room with the beds looks up at the sound of two gunshots. He runs out into the hall and looks down. AGENT STEDMAN lies dead, a large bloody gash in his forehead. He kneels down to look at his partner, then looks up at the MAN who is now standing beside him. The MAN has an extra eye in the middle of his forehead. AGENT LEEDS stares at the MAN in horror as the MAN swings the axe at AGENT LEEDS' head.)
[OPENING CREDITS] [OPENING CREDITS] [OPENING CREDITS] [OPENING CREDITS] [OPENING CREDITS]
SCENE 2
FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA 3:26 AM
(Nice little picket fence, two-story bungalow. Lovely place for two FBI agents to finally settle down and raise a fa ? Oh, darn. It's DOGGETT's house. He is asleep in his nice manly bed. He wakes and answers the ringing phone on the bedside table.)
DOGGETT: (on phone, sleepily) Yeah.
(SCULLY is calling him from a pay phone in a hospital corridor. She speaks quietly.)
SCULLY: (on phone) It's, uh, it's Agent Scully. I'm sorry to wake you.
DOGGETT: (on phone) What's up?
SCULLY: (on phone) I got a call about 20 minutes ago from Assistant Director Skinner. He has a situation.
DOGGETT: (on phone) What is it?
SCULLY: (on phone) An Agent is dead. Um, Skinner had him surveilling a religious cult in Pittsburgh. And all the followers are dead, as well.
DOGGETT: (on phone) What happened?
SCULLY: (on phone) He's having difficulty determining that.
(DOGGETT picks up his watch and sighs as he looks at the time.)
DOGGETT: (on phone) I'll pick you up.
SCULLY: (on phone) I'm sorry, Agent Doggett. I can't go.
DOGGETT: (on phone, concerned) Agent Scully?
SCULLY: (on phone) Um, something unexpected has come up.
DOGGETT: (on phone) You all right?
SCULLY: (on phone) Yeah, I'm, I'm fine.
(She doesn't sound fine.)
DOGGETT: (on phone) Will I see you later?
SCULLY: (on phone) Uh, as soon as I can.
(SCULLY hangs up the pay phone. DOGGETT looks at the phone a moment, then hangs up. In the hospital, a NURSE approaches SCULLY.)
NURSE: Miss Scully? The doctor wants to see you right away.
(SCULLY looks nervous and tired as she follows the NURSE.)
SCENE 3
(Later that morning. DOGGETT arrives at the crime scene. A van marked "County of Allegheny" passes him. He shows his badge through the windshield as he drives up close to the front door of the house. Photographers from the press are everywhere. He gets out of the car and is met by SKINNER. SKINNER is wearing latex gloves.)
SKINNER: Where's Agent Scully?
DOGGETT: Running late. What do we have?
SKINNER: One of our men doing routine surveillance on a cult group-- the Ibogan Temple. We had a tip they were trafficking narcotics. Nobody suspected anything like this.
(SKINNER leads DOGGETT over to a parked sedan. DOGGETT looks in the opened door and sees the body of AGENT LEEDS. There is a large bloody gash in his forehead.)
SKINNER: Agent James Leeds. Six-year veteran of the Bureau, father of two. Patrol cop found him. Car was locked from the inside.
(DOGGETT sits on the running board and looks closely at the body.)
DOGGETT: Nobody saw or heard anything?
SKINNER: No.
DOGGETT: This couldn't have happened here.
SKINNER: Blood splatter on the seat says it did.
DOGGETT: It's too narrow. There's no room to swing the weapon. Besides, it doesn't make any sense. The gun's still holstered and the key's in the ignition. Even if he fell asleep...
(DOGGETT sighs and stands up from the car.)
DOGGETT: This is damn weird.
SKINNER: It gets weirder.
(SKINNER leads him into the house and to the dormitory bedroom. The coroners are in the process of removing the bodies.)
SKINNER: These people were all killed the same way as our guy. All 20 cult members dead from a single deep wound to the forehead.
DOGGETT: Is this every member?
SKINNER: Except one. Their leader, Anthony Tipet, is missing.
(In an adjoining room, they look at a desktop shrine. There is a framed photo of the MAN we saw in the teaser, ANTHONY TIPET. No eye in the middle of his forehead.)
SKINNER: Tipet was a convicted murderer who claimed to have found God. We didn't think we were dealing with an apocalyptic cult. We've seen this kind of thing before. Jonestown, Heaven's Gate.
(DOGGETT looks closely at a block of something on the shrine. It is crudely engraved with the image of an eye.)
DOGGETT: I don't care how devoted they were. These people wouldn't just lie here and let their leader bash their brains in. I got to figure at least one of them would have had a problem with that.
SKINNER: It's something I've considered. I'm running tox tests on all the bodies for drugs.
DOGGETT: Does that include our man in the car?
(SKINNER looks at him. Pause. AGENT GENE CRANE, last seen in 8x01 and 2, approaches them.)
AGENT CRANE: A.D. Skinner? We're still unable to locate Agent Stedman.
DOGGETT: Angus Stedman?
SKINNER: Leeds' partner, do you know him?
DOGGETT: Where'd you look?
AGENT CRANE: He wasn't checked into the same motel as Leeds. He's not answering his cell or his pager.
DOGGETT: Did you check his condo?
AGENT CRANE: His condo?
DOGGETT: Yeah, Stedman's from Pittsburgh. He keeps a condo here that belonged to his folks.
SCENE 4
(Later, with SKINNER and a LANDLORD, DOGGETT knocks loudly at a condo door, #5.)
DOGGETT: Angus Stedman, it's John Doggett.
(There is no answer. The men are concerned. Manly concern, that is. DOGGETT backs away for the LANDLORD who unlocks the door. The chain keeps the door from opening more than a few inches. DOGGETT and SKINNER look at each other. They pull their guns and DOGGETT busts open the door and they enter. Pretty good teamwork. LANDLORD hangs back in the doorway.)
SKINNER: Doggett.
(They find the body of AGENT STEDMAN lying in his bed, dead. He has, you guessed it, a large bloody gash in his forehead.)
SCENE 5
OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR 2:18 PM
(KERSH's office. Very nice office. Lots of leather, nice wood, and patterned carpet. Wow. The Deputy Directors have it good. DOGGETT, AGENT CRANE, a SENIOR AGENT, SKINNER, and KERSH are watching a rough video of ANTHONY TIPET preaching to a small group of his followers.)
ANTHONY TIPET: (on videotape) The body is but clay... a shell made by God to hold the twin aspects of the Holy Spirit: Light and dark. If we have the courage to see into darkness we see into God... free of the clay which confines us.
(SKINNER pauses the video.)
SKINNER: Anthony Tipet served 12 years for the bludgeoning death of his wife. After his release, he became a minister preaching a hybrid of evangelical and eastern religions. He claimed a higher plane of being could be reached by the Via Negativa-- the path of darkness-- the plane closer to God. Once reached, it would let the spirit travel unhindered. Tipet believed hallucinogens would lead him to this plane-- specifically compounds of the bark of an African tree... the Iboga.
SENIOR AGENT: You're saying all these people were so stoned on this bark they just let their leader kill them?
SKINNER: We found no trace of the drug in the blood of any of the victims.
KERSH: I don't understand. How in the hell did Tipet manage to slaughter all these people?
DOGGETT: Tipet was paranoid but nothing indicates he was ready to take the lives of his own people or our men.
KERSH: This is our one and only suspect. Are you telling me he didn't do it?
DOGGETT: Whoever did this left not even a trace how: No prints, no forensic evidence whatsoever. Agent Leeds' sedan, the cult house, Agent Stedman's condo? were all locked from the inside.
KERSH: That's impossible.
SKINNER: Unless Tipet took the drug and succeeded. Unless his consciousness was there but his body was somewhere else.
(Pause.)
KERSH: The X-File explanation. I take it this theory comes from Agent Scully?
(His tone of voice when he says the "theory" could also apply to several four-letter words in the English language.)
DOGGETT: Agent Scully has yet to reach any conclusions, sir.
KERSH: That's the problem. I'm not hearing conclusions from either one of you. If this man has reached a higher plane then explain to me why 22 people are dead including two FBI Agents. Now I want to hear what you're going to do about it.
(Meeting is over. SKINNER and DOGGETT leave the office and start walking down the hall. DOGGETT is not happy.)
DOGGETT: If I'm working this case, I'd appreciate a heads up before you tell the Deputy Director any more science fiction stories.
SKINNER: Hey, I don't have another explanation.
(DOGGETT pushes the elevator call button.)
DOGGETT: Those guys in there are right. This whole story doesn't make a damn bit of sense.
SKINNER: I'm supposed to give those guys in there answers, Agent Doggett. You're supposed to help me do that.
(The elevator arrives and DOGGETT gets on.)
DOGGETT: Tipet's on the run. Find him, and we just might.
(Elevator doors close.)
SCENE 6
HILL DISTRICT
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
(ANTHONY TIPET, sans extra eye, walks to a street-side telephone booth. Night. He is approached by an older HOMELESS MAN.)
HOMELESS MAN: Spare change?
ANTHONY TIPET: I don't have anything. Sorry.
HOMELESS MAN: Now, come on, man. I know you got something 'cause I hear it jingling in your pocket.
(ANTHONY TIPET grabs the HOMELESS MAN roughly by the coat and holds him against the booth. He stares deeply into the man's eyes.)
ANTHONY TIPET: You don't want to know me.
(He lets the frightened HOMELESS MAN leave, then drops money into the phone and dials.
CUT TO:
A dimly lit lab. There are rats in cages and a geeky-looking young man, ANDRE BORMANIS, at a desk. The phone rings. ANDRE BORMANIS looks at it nervously, but does not answer it. The answering machine picks up. There is no outgoing message.)
ANTHONY TIPET: (at phone) Pick up the phone, damn you. Pick up the damn phone! You did this. You ... did this. God help you, Andre. I can't.
(ANTHONY TIPET hangs up. ANDRE BORMANIS puts his face in his hands for a moment, in despair. He picks up a petrie dish containing several wrapped razor blades. He takes the paper off of one of them, bends over the table and wincing, begins cutting his forehead.)
ANDRE BORMANIS: (in pain) Ah!
(From the reflection on the table, we see blood begin to drip from his forehead.)
SCENE 7
10:22PM
(FBI Headquarters. DOGGETT is looking through a file. SKINNER enters and hands him another.)
SKINNER: Agent Doggett. Coroner's report.
DOGGETT: (reading) Victims all killed by a single blow from an axe blade, six to eight inches long.
SKINNER: These photos of wound patterns don't match up to any known make or manufacturer.
DOGGETT: This fit the description?
(DOGGETT shows SKINNER a copy of a page from a book. There is a picture of a large decorative axe like the one we saw used in the teaser.)
DOGGETT: It's a ceremonial axe used over a thousand years ago to cleave the skulls of unbelievers. This was required reading for Tipet's followers.
SKINNER: Is this our weapon?
DOGGETT: No, sir. It's on permanent display in a Calcutta museum.
SKINNER: Another dead-end.
DOGGETT: Like everything else in this case.
(DOGGETT sighs and rubs his head. He speaks quietly to SKINNER, a note of frustration in his voice.)
DOGGETT: I'm a good investigator but you know as well as I do I'm not the Agent that should be investigating this case.
SKINNER: Agent Scully can't be here.
DOGGETT: You spoke to her?
SKINNER: Tonight. She told me to tell you she's fine. She's taking some personal time.
DOGGETT: I've got 22 people dead, and she's taking personal time?
(Angry, DOGGETT picks up the phone. SKINNER immediately takes it from him.)
SKINNER: You're not listening to what I'm telling you. Do your best without her.
(SKINNER firmly hangs up the phone and walks away.)
(Back on the Pittsburgh street, the HOMELESS MAN is sleeping next to the phone booth. He wakes up at the sound of footsteps.)
HOMELESS MAN: Spare change? I'll take whatever you got.
(He looks up and sees ANTHONY TIPET. ANTHONY TIPET is pale and has the third eye in his forehead. The HOMELESS MAN is understandably freaked out. He stumbles to his feet. The sidewalk below him turns liquid, like quicksand or wet cement, and he begins sinking into it. He falls and sinks to his neck. Only his head is exposed. ANTHONY TIPET raises the axe.)
HOMELESS MAN: Ah, no! No!!
(ANTHONY TIPET swings the axe down at the HOMELESS MAN's head.)
SCENE 8
4:07 AM
(Back at the Doghouse. DOGGETT, at home, is looking at the police report on ANTHONY TIPET. His mugshot number is CD-8740367. His eyes and hair are brown, complexion light, no physical scars, medium build, height 5'8", no alias, address ? Rt. 4 Drew, WY. He answers a knock at the door. It is SKINNER.)
DOGGETT: Sir?
SKINNER: I think we caught a break. A homeless man was found dead in Pittsburgh two hours ago. I had them e-mail me some digital photos.
DOGGETT: Any witnesses?
(DOGGETT looks at the images of the dead HOMELESS MAN. There is a gash in the forehead. He is not buried in concrete.)
SKINNER: A man fitting Tipet's description was ID'd using the pay phone earlier in the night.
DOGGETT: So we got something?
SKINNER: No. There's no concrete evidence against him. There's no fingerprints, no hair and fiber.
[TD: "Concrete evidence"? A groaner from Skinner, gotta be a first!]
DOGGETT: You got the guy at the scene.
SKINNER: There's nothing to link him to the murder itself, Agent Doggett.
DOGGETT: Well, I'm supposed to believe this guy doped his way into another plane of reality? That his spirit is going around killing people?
SKINNER: All right, just suppose... suppose that this drug finally did what Tipet said it would. That his spirit could be in one place while his body was in another.
DOGGETT: Then tell me why he's doing it. If he's looking for God, why is he killing people? Just 'cause I'm assigned to the X-Files you want me to think like Scully or Mulder would. You got the wrong guy. I need facts, not wild ideas.
SKINNER: All right. Then consider this one. I had Pittsburgh P.D. check the log at that pay phone.
(SKINNER hands him a sheet of paper with phone records on it.)
11. 412 555 4344 MK Stone
12. 06:23pm 412 555 5131 321 Club
13. 07:30pm 412 555-3272 At the Top
14. 08:43pm 421 555-4367 Ridders
15. 09:23pm 412 555-5671 Pitts Taxi
16. 10:12pm 202 555-9212 Andre Bormanis
17. 10:16pm 412 555-5671 Tambers
DOGGETT: 10:12 PM, a call was placed to one Andre Bormanis.
SKINNER: He's a convicted drug dealer that served time with Tipet. That number's a DC area code.
SCENE 9
SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON, DC
4:54 AM
(DOGGETT and SKINNER pull up to a house on a dark and foggy street. They get out and knock at the door. We see a man's eye looking through the peephole, then DOGGETT and SKINNER through the peephole.)
DOGGETT: FBI. Open up.
(ANDRE BORMANIS slowly opens the door for them. He has the same look in his eyes that CarriK would get in college after nine cups of coffee to get through all-night paper writing marathons. He also has a freshly healed "X" carved into his forehead.)
DOGGETT: Mr. Bormanis? Andre Bormanis?
ANDRE BORMANIS: Doctor Bormanis.
DOGGETT: (showing badge) Agent Doggett. Agent Skinner. Can we have a word with you?
(They follow him into the lab. ANDRE BORMANIS goes over to where he is working with some bubbling beakers.)
SKINNER: You always up at this hour, Dr. Bormanis?
ANDRE BORMANIS: It's when I dissect my rats. Neighbors can't hear 'em screaming.
(SKINNER and DOGGETT do not find this amusing.)
ANDRE BORMANIS: That's a joke.
(SKINNER and DOGGETT look at each other.)
SKINNER: You spoke to Anthony Tipet earlier this evening.
ANDRE BORMANIS: My machine picked up. I-I-I missed the call.
SKINNER: What did he want?
(No answer.)
SKINNER: We need to find him, Dr. Bormanis. This man may have murdered 23 people.
(DOGGETT, looking around, spins the blade on a table saw. It seems a little out of place in the lab. ANDRE BORMANIS is nervous.)
ANDRE BORMANIS: Twenty-three? You-you said... twenty-two.
SKINNER: Another man died tonight.
ANDRE BORMANIS: (shaking his head) I'm not doing anything illegal here. I... I just... I just made him stuff.
(He is putting pills into a petrie dish.)
SKINNER: You mean drugs. You supplied Anthony Tipet with drugs, isn't that right?
ANDRE BORMANIS: Hallucinogens were Tipet's way into the depths of the soul, the heights of consciousness, planes of being that our feeble brain chemistry cannot begin to imagine.
(Cool shot of DOGGETT with a backlit, spinning fan behind him. SKINNER looks at the "X" on ANDRE BORMANIS's forehead.)
SKINNER: Is that why you cut yourself? Or is that the, uh... mark of the initiated?
ANDRE BORMANIS: It's a protection. At least I hope it is. Nobody took the trips but Tipet. See, only his mind was strong enough.
DOGGETT: You know, I can't tell, doctor, whether you admire Tipet or you're afraid of him. Those people he killed last night, did they admire him, too?
(No answer. DOGGETT takes a large white pill from ANDRE BORMANIS's hands.)
ANDRE BORMANIS: What are you doing?
DOGGETT: Taking you in for questioning.
ANDRE BORMANIS: On what charges? I just... I just... explained it to you.
(DOGGETT begins handcuffing him. ANDRE BORMANIS struggles, panicking.)
ANDRE BORMANIS: Ah! Don't! Look...
(He picks up and tries to swallow another of the pills, but DOGGETT restrains him.)
ANDRE BORMANIS: I need that!
(Short time later. ANDRE BORMANIS, still struggling, is tossed into a jail cell by an OFFICER.)
ANDRE BORMANIS: (screaming) No, please! Ugh! Don't-don't leave me! Please!! Don't leave me!
(The OFFICER leaves, and ANOTHER OFFICER closes and locks the outer gate to the cells. DOGGETT looks through the gate for a moment, then turns and walks down the hall. Camera quality is odd, almost slow motion. He turns a corner and starts down another hall. He looks down and sees bloody shoe prints leading down the hall, and follows them slowly. He looks up and stares at ANTHONY TIPET hovering about 3 feet off of the ground in a lotus meditation position. All three of ANTHONY TIPET's eyes open and he looks directly at DOGGETT. DOGGETT again looks down at the floor. He lifts his foot and sees that the bloody footprints are his own. Again, he looks at ANTHONY TIPET, then down at his hands. He is now holding SCULLY's bloody, severed head, her blue eyes half open and sightless. He drops the head in horror.)
[TD: And I dropped my jaw! Way cool and very freaky stuff, I vote this one of the Top Ten Best Scenes on the show to date. Spooky!]
SKINNER: Agent Doggett?
(DOGGETT wakes abruptly, very disturbed by his dream. He is sitting on a bench in the police station. SKINNER is holding his own cell phone out to him.)
SKINNER: It's Agent Scully.
(DOGGETT takes a moment to catch his breath, then takes the phone.)
DOGGETT: (on phone) Agent Scully.
SCULLY: (on phone) Skinner told me about the case. I know that you covered for me. You didn't have to do that.
DOGGETT: (on phone) It's all right.
(SCULLY is still in the hospital, and is wearing a hospital gown.)
SCULLY: (on phone) I appreciate your discretion.
DOGGETT: (on phone) Yeah, well, it's easy to be discreet when you don't know what's going on. Are you okay?
SCULLY: (on phone) I'm fine. Skinner says that you're on the clock on this thing. You need to get your rest.
DOGGETT: (on phone) Yeah, I just grabbed a few winks.
SCULLY: (on phone) I asked him to contact some friends of Mulder's. I think they'll be able to help.
DOGGETT: (on phone) I appreciate all the help I can get.
SCULLY: (on phone) Doggett, you're a good agent. Trust your instincts.
(DOGGETT hangs up. SKINNER walks back over to him.)
SKINNER: Lab tests showed that the drug that Bormanis was cooking up was some kind of a super amphetamine. Legal or not, no one's ever seen it before. Do you think it was intended for Tipet?
DOGGETT: He wants it for himself. He doesn't want to go to sleep.
SKINNER: Doggett?
DOGGETT: I want to talk to him... now.
(In the jail cell, ANDRE BORMANIS wakes up to the sound of distant rodent sounds. He looks around nervously. He gets off of the cot and sees ANTHONY TIPET with three eyes standing just outside the bars of the cell.
CUT TO:
DOGGETT and SKINNER at the outer chain-link gate to the cells.)
DOGGETT: Can we get this gate open? Get it open now!
(An OFFICER begins to open the outer gate.
CUT TO:
Inside the cell, ANDRE BORMANIS backs up in fear as dozens of rats begin running through the bars and into his cell.)
ANDRE BORMANIS: Ugh!
(Lots and lots of rats.)
[TD: He, he, indeedy, lots of 'em, yuck!]
ANDRE BORMANIS: Ugh!
(He falls to the floor and the rats cover him, biting and swarming. A couple of them start chewing on his neck. He screams in agony.)
CUT TO:
DOGGETT and SKINNER arrive at the cell. No rats. Just ANDRE BORMANIS lying on his cot, apparently asleep.)
SKINNER: Agent Doggett, what is it?
DOGGETT: Open it up.
(The OFFICER opens the cell and DOGGETT and SKINNER enter. ANDRE BORMANIS is dead, his face and neck bloody, eyes open and staring. Creepy music with whispering voiceover sounds.)
SCENE 10
FBI HEADQUARTERS
5:02 PM
(Basement. As DOGGETT comes down the stairs, he hears voices coming from inside MULDER's office.)
BYERS: ...stories that belong to Mulder and Scully, not us.
LANGLY: Come on, Byers. We have a right to information.
BYERS: It's not our information.
FROHIKE: How many times have we saved Mulder's butt?
LANGLY: How many times have we saved Scully's?
BYERS: I'm telling you, these files are theirs. They're private.
(DOGGETT opens the still nameplateless door and sees FROHIKE looking through the file cabinet. LANGLY is spinning around in MULDER's chair playing with something he has suspended over his head, and BYERS is standing nearby. They do not notice DOGGETT.)
[TD: Took me a minute to figure out what Langly was doing as well. He's lining up a pencil and shoots it at the ceiling when they notice Doggett in the doorway. A nod to "Chinga" *sniff*]
FROHIKE: And I'm telling you Mulder wouldn't mind. We practically solved half these cases for him.
LANGLY: Yeah, Byers, quit your whining-- nobody likes a crybaby.
BYERS: Agent Scully asked us to give our assistance not to go through her f-files.
(BYERS notices DOGGETT in the doorway.)
FROHIKE: Like she's going to care.
LANGLY: Yeah, right.
DOGGETT: Can I help you gentlemen?
(They all notice him now.)
BYERS: You must be Agent Doggett. I'm ... John Byers. (they shake hands) Uh, these are my associates Melvin Frohike and Richard Langly.
(They wave lamely at him from behind the desk.)
[TD; Richard?! Damn, he was supposed to be Ringo. Wait a sec, Ringo Starr's real name was Richard Starkey, neato.]
DOGGETT: You're the guys Scully told me about. Mulder's friends?
BYERS: (smiling proudly) Yes, that's us.
DOGGETT: You publish the "Lone Gunman" newspaper?
FROHIKE: (pleased and proud) Our reputation precedes us.
DOGGETT: Yeah. Read Mulder's files.
FROHIKE: Well, then you know how badly you're going to need our help.
BYERS: We've reviewed your case as Agent Scully asked.
LANGLY: Mondo bizarro. No offense, man, but you're in way over your head.
DOGGETT: What help can you give me?
FROHIKE: Hit the lights.
(The lights are turned off and the slide projector is turned on. An image of a pyramid with an eye is displayed on the screen.)
FROHIKE: Are you familiar with this image?
BYERS: In the renaissance it represented an all-seeing god.
LANGLY: That's why our Founding Fathers put it on the dollar bill.
(Next image is the same that DOGGETT saw engraved in the cult house.)
BYERS: We believe its meaning here relates to eastern religion, uh, belief in the third eye or what the Hindus call the Sahasrara.
DOGGETT: A third eye?
FROHIKE: We all have a third eye. If we could open it, we'd see a new reality, one closer to God. At least that's what Kesey told me on the bus back in '64.
LANGLY: You were not on the bus with Kesey in '64.
FROHIKE: Hey, I got the pictures to prove it, my longhaired friend.
LANGLY: Before or after you partied with the Stones at Altamont?
FROHIKE: Don't be a boob, Altamont was in '70s.
LANGLY: Whatever.
(The next image is of a large blue eye, the same as above the door of the cult house. DOGGETT looks at it closely, ignoring their bantering.)
DOGGETT: I see where you guys are going with this. Tipet believes he opened his third eye.
BYERS: Yes, exactly.
DOGGETT: But the placement of the wounds on his victims could suggest he's trying to destroy theirs.
BYERS: Yeah. That could be.
DOGGETT: But if he's moved closer to God, why kill him? And how?
FROHIKE: We don't know why. But we might tell you how.
(They turn the lights back on.)
FROHIKE: You've heard of MK Ultra?
BYERS: The CIA mind control project started in the '50s.
LANGLY: They gave LSD to a bunch of people to see what would happen. Didn't bother telling them first.
FROHIKE: They understood the power of hallucinogens to harness the mind.
DOGGETT: Tipet was the one on hallucinogens, not his victims.
BYERS: The CIA invested millions trying to create psychic assassins, failing where Tipet has evidently succeeded.
FROHIKE: Reaching a drug-induced higher consciousness using his mind as a weapon against his victims.
LANGLY: The assassin makes his victims think they're being hit by an axe.
BYERS: Or any number of nightmares.
FROHIKE: They believe it... it happens.
DOGGETT: What if Tipet could invade his victims'... consciousness in their sleep? I mean, that's why you'd be afraid to fall asleep, right? If you thought your nightmares might come true?
(The GUNMEN stare at DOGGETT, then glance at each other.)
BYERS: You believe that?
DOGGETT: No... but if Tipet does... he'll need more drugs... to keep killing.
(DOGGETT puts on his suit coat and leaves the room, closing the door behind him.)
FROHIKE: That's not bad for a beginner.
SCENE 11
SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON, DC
5:39 pm
(DOGGETT pulls a Bureau sedan up in front of ANDRE BORMANIS's building. From inside, ANTHONY TIPET watches covertly as DOGGETT and SKINNER get out of the car. DOGGETT and SKINNER enter and look around the lab.)
SKINNER: Doggett, someone's been here.
(Rats, now out of their cages, run past DOGGETT's feet. They both draw their guns at the sound of mechanical whirring. They see ANTHONY TIPET, only two eyes at the moment. He is leaning over the now rapidly spinning table saw we saw DOGGETT notice earlier.)
DOGGETT: Anthony Tipet. Anthony Tipet! Step away from the saw.
ANTHONY TIPET: You don't understand.
SKINNER: Just step away from the saw.
ANTHONY TIPET: I didn't want this to happen... but I can't stop it.
(ANTHONY TIPET looks meaningfully at DOGGETT.)
ANTHONY TIPET: He understands. He saw what can happen-- what will happen... unless I stop it.
(Indecisive, DOGGETT lowers his gun. Suddenly, ANTHONY TIPET slams his forehead down on the saw and screams in agony. DOGGETT's face is spattered with blood as he and SKINNER leap forward to pull ANTHONY TIPET away from the saw.)
SCENE 12
WASHINGTON NATIONAL HOSPITAL
6:07 PM
(ANTHONY TIPET is unconscious on a gurney being wheeled through the hospital emergency ward. A bloody compress is held on his forehead.)
ER DOCTOR: I want a stat trauma panel with full tox, EKG, and metabolic profile. Keep that compress on his head.
(A NURSE approaches DOGGETT with a clipboard. She is the same NURSE who spoke to SCULLY earlier in the episode.)
NURSE: Agent... this man needs to be admitted. You need to sign him in.
(The desk phone rings. She answers it.)
NURSE: This is Nurse McCaslin. Yes, Dr. Johnson's on the third floor. All right.
(Under her conversation, DOGGETT glances through the names on the clipboard. He takes out his pen and is about to fill in ANTHONY TIPET's information. He pauses and looks back at an earlier page on the clipboard. Third down on the list is the entry, "Dana Scully, time admitted - 4:10 AM for Acute Abdominal Pain." She is in room 1102. DOGGETT goes up to another ward and to room 1102 and slowly opens the door. SCULLY is asleep. She is hooked up to a few monitors, but doesn't look too bad. He looks at her silently for a moment.)
SCENE 13
(KERSH's office. DOGGETT enters. KERSH and SKINNER are already there.)
KERSH: Come in, Agent Doggett. A.D. Skinner was telling me you could shed light on the reason for Tipet's suicide attempt.
(DOGGETT enters and speaks cautiously.)
DOGGETT: Yes, sir, um... "Via Negativa"-- the path of darkness. Tipet believed he reached it. Uh, he believed that the drugs took him inside the subconscious minds of anyone he knew... (sighs) ... making the most horrific, irrational dream imagery of their nightmares come true. That's why he tried to kill himself to make it stop.
(KERSH stands up from the table, claps DOGGETT on the shoulder in a friendly manner, then sits at his desk. The meeting is over.)
KERSH: Excellent job, gentlemen. Have your reports on my desk 0900.
DOGGETT: Case isn't over yet, sir.
(He looks at SKINNER for confirmation. SKINNER looks away.)
KERSH: A.D. Skinner tells me our suspect's lying hospitalized in a coma and now, you're saying it's not over?
DOGGETT: We have no murder weapon... no forensic evidence. Unless we accept Tipet's own beliefs which you yourself characterize as preposterous...
KERSH: It's over, Agent Doggett.
DOGGETT: We have no way of explaining how he killed any of these people.
KERSH: (firmly) I said it's over, Agent Doggett. I don't need every "I" dotted or every "T" crossed to know that we've got our man.
SCENE 14
(Night. SCULLY's answering machine in her apartment.)
SCULLY'S ANSWERING MACHINE: This is Dana Scully. Please leave a message. (beep)
(DOGGETT is at home.)
DOGGETT: (on phone) Agent Scully, I think we caught the guy who did it. But it... it still it... it just doesn't add up. (sigh) It's the damnedest thing I ever saw. I know that this sounds strange, but there's a, there's a... part of me says what if... what if this guy was right? What if I shouldn't have let him die? I'm not making a whole lot of sense. Maybe I just need some sleep. If you get this message... and feel up to it... you give me a call.
(He hangs up. In the wall mirror he sees his own reflection and that of ANTHONY TIPET, three eyes, standing behind him. He turns, and no one is there. He turns off the light and walks up the stairs. Standing near the foot of the stairs, we see a man holding the axe.)
SCENE 15
(DOGGETT slowly wakes up in his bed. Early dawn light is on his face. Slightly weird music and camera motion again. As he looks in the mirror to put on his tie, he is startled to see an extra eye in the middle of his forehead. It blinks with his other two eyes. A moment later, the extra eye is gone. He stares at himself again for a moment, very disturbed.)
(Later, that morning, he enters SKINNER's ASSISTANT's office. She looks up as he moves toward her.)
DOGGETT: Is the Assistant Director in?
(Just then, SKINNER and AGENT CRANE come out of SKINNER's office.)
SKINNER: That'll be great. Thanks.
AGENT CRANE: John. Excellent work out there, John. Just excellent.
(AGENT CRANE clasps DOGGETT on the shoulder and leaves.)
SKINNER: Agent Doggett.
(SKINNER looks at DOGGETT who has a confused expression. He leads him into the inner office. DOGGETT stares at SKINNER, then looks away. SKINNER closes the door.)
SKINNER: Is something wrong?
(DOGGETT is breathing heavily, looks back at SKINNER, moisture forming in his eyes. Not good on the Manly Man Meter. Long pause.)
DOGGETT: I'm not sure... I'm awake.
SKINNER: (rationally) You think this is a dream? I mean, you standing here talking to me? All those people out there?
DOGGETT: Last night I dreamt Tipet was inside my house holding an axe. I thought I woke up this morning. I thought I was awake, but-but then...
SKINNER: Uh... What do you want me to do, pinch you? You're already awake.
DOGGETT: Stedman and Leeds must have experienced the same thing... all Tipet's victims. Everything seemed real but it was a dream... a dream that ended in their deaths.
SKINNER: Anthony Tipet is in a coma, never to regain consciousness.
DOGGETT: (afraid) He knows me now. He can enter in my dreams.
SKINNER: Listen to me. You've had a tough couple days. You're tired. Go home, get some rest.
(DOGGETT leaves the office and walks down the hall. He bumps into someone's elbow and keeps walking. He gets on the elevator and goes from the 4th floor to the 2nd. No one else is in this hallway, otherwise it is identical. The same muffled voices are heard in the background. He walks partway down the hall, then turns and looks back to see the elevator disappear into darkness giving the illusion of infinity. When he turns to look back down the hall, the other end of the hall disappears into darkness also. Out of the darkness, he sees ANTHONY TIPET slowly walk toward him. ANTHONY TIPET has three eyes, but he is keeping all of them closed. As the two men speak, their voices are distorted, as if played in reverse, then reversed again.)
ANTHONY TIPET: She's going to die.
DOGGETT: I'm not going to let you do that.
ANTHONY TIPET: I'm sorry. I'm not going to kill her.
(All three of his eyes open.)
ANTHONY TIPET: You are.
(DOGGETT covers his face with his hands. When he lowers them, we see that he is in SCULLY's apartment building hallway. He walks to her door and it opens itself. Inside, a slow blue light fades in and out at the rate of about once every three seconds. He looks down at his hands which are covered in blood. The following scenes are what we see as the light fades in and out. Really spooky.
DOGGETT enters the apartment and walks through SCULLY's living room. The front door closes itself behind him.
He looks at his bloody hands again.
He is now holding the axe.
He looks at her bedroom door.
He enters her bedroom.
He sees her asleep in her bed.
He raises the axe over her.
We see the shadow of the axe on her face.
He struggles with himself.
He swings the axe back down to his side.
He turns the blade of the axe toward himself.
He winces and swings the blade up.)
SCULLY'S VOICE: Agent Doggett?
(DOGGETT wakes abruptly. He is in his bed. SCULLY is standing next to him. It looks like dawn.)
SCULLY: Agent Doggett. Hi.
DOGGETT: How'd you get here?
SCULLY: Your door was unlocked.
DOGGETT: You just saved my life, Agent Scully.
SCULLY: I just woke you up, Agent Doggett.
DOGGETT: Tipet's in my dreams. If you hadn't woken me up just now...
SCULLY: Anthony Tipet is dead. I got the call from Skinner on my way over here. He never regained consciousness.
(Pause.)
DOGGETT: Are you okay?
SCULLY: I seem to be, yes.
DOGGETT: Well, if you need some more time off...
SCULLY: No. I'm, um... I'm back at work now. That must have been some nightmare you just had.
DOGGETT: Tipet thought he'd find God by looking in the darkness inside himself.
SCULLY: You don't think he succeeded?
DOGGETT: In my dreams, I see... I saw terrible... violent images that... scared the living daylights out of me. These things are a part of me. I can't deny that, but... maybe... maybe they didn't come from me.
SCULLY: Then where'd they come from?
(DOGGETT has no answer.)
SCULLY: It was a bad dream, Agent Doggett, but that's all it was.
(DOGGETT does not seem comforted.)
[THE END]
No history.
