jpg from X Files 101 1x79 Pilot
Original US Trans: 10 Sep 93

W: Chris Carter
D: Robert Mandel
MOTW / Mytharc		 Synopsis & Credits ***** Trailer

Sites Cited: 
Autumn Tysko (AT) Review
Claudia Cauchon (CC) Review
Maggie Helwig Essay

So, who did you tick off to get stuck with this detail...Scully? - F. W. Mulder

I'm not part of anyone's agenda. You've got to trust me. - D.K. Scully

TO BEGIN:

Gillian Anderson's talent is evident from the start, making Chris Carter's efforts to cast her against Fox Studio's wishes rather visionary, as she more than surpassed all expectation with the years. The famous chemistry was already apparent at Anderson's callback audition, where she first read with David Duchovny, who had already been cast as Mulder. At this point it's impossible to imagine another Scully, but you can see why the studio bosses originally objected. For one thing, Anderson was only 24 and looked it (Scully was 29, and it was already a stretch to believe the career profile given for her), for another this was only her third time in front of a camera and her first ever starring role. Anderson credits both Carter and Duchovny for giving the help and support she needed to get her feet under her. Once she had, however, there was no comparison to the depth and subtlety of her work. (See GAWS for everything you could want to know about Anderson and ... for Duchovny.)

Within the XF universe, it's now actually somewhat heartbreaking to see this innocent, rosy-cheeked Scully. In this first season, her professional wardrobe is smart enough but not expensive (someone once called it Garanimal mix-and-match office wear) and her shoes are far more practical overall - no 3 inch heels here. Her casual clothes tend to leggings & t-shirts or jeans and flannel buttondowns. She looks down-to-earth, tidy but functional, and doesn't try to make fashion statements (I guess somewhere along the line Scully got one hell of a pay rise). She's pretty, but 1013 haven't yet exploited that; she's shot in normal light, not the deliberately angelic lighting that characterises her from the end of Season 2 on. Without the clever keylights, Anderson's eyes appear to be hazel, not that trademark stunning blue, and her long hair is a light reddish brown, quickly shoved into a high ponytail or scraped back with a barrette when she needs to be moving. All of this contributes to the image of Scully as highly intelligent but rather unsophisticated; concerned with appearing professional, but not particularly interested in her looks.

Mulder's pay rise must have been even bigger than Scully's since he eventually winds up destroying Armani suits on a regular basis. Here too he wears mix-and-match jackets and trousers and looks very much the dorky underpaid government employee, though there is that carefully sprayed-to-dangle forelock, which is apparently meant to show his maverick tendencies. Mulder's reading glasses will be abandoned more quickly than Scully's but neither seem to actually need them as both are seen reading fine print with no difficulty without them. But they both look awfully cute and intellectual in glasses, don't they, so let's have them.

NG remarks on several other things seen here that will not appear again, largely the can of spray paint and 'Mulder as photographer'. Mulder is also far more 'goofy' (NG) and animated than he will be in the actual series. In the XF universe, let's put it down to Mulder's social ineptitude in front of his pretty new partner and begin.

Fialka
Nov 1998
 

All citations used by permission except Nitpicker's Guide and X-treme Possibilities (see Index to Indices, Further Reading). See top of this page for original Internet sites. Thanks to TD & VV for use of their transcript. Screencap from XF101.

Fialka's comments are in violet, Nitpicker's Guide (NG) in brown, X-treme Possibilities in aqua. For other colour coding see original sites above.

Warning: This analysis is 'personal and subjective' . Rebuttals and comments gratefully accepted at: [email protected]

This site is unauthorised. No connection with Fox Studios or 1013 Productions implied. No profit was made and no animals (not even Queequeg) were mistreated in its creation.

Mulder and Scully meet on March 6, 1992. (the day before they reach Bellefleur, Oregon) The datestamp appears in the first cemetery scene, when Ray Soames's body is exhumed.
 
To nitpick the NG, Scully DOES wear the cross in this episode, often displaying it quite prominently outside her clothing. If you're in any doubt, look closely at the bathrobe scenes - you can see it clearly..
 
Compare the teaser here to the beginning of Twin Peaks.

The characters, plotlines, quotes, etc. included here are owned by Chris Carter and 1013 Productions, all rights reserved. The following transcript is in no way a substitute for the show "The X-Files" and is merely meant as a homage. This transcript is not authorized or endorsed by Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, or Fox Entertainment. It was painstakingly typed out by Vic <[email protected]> and made available for your downloading enjoyment by Tiny Dancer <[email protected]> from Tiny Dancer's X-Files Episode Guide <http://users.hunterlink.net.au/~ddpcw/td/xfindex.html>.

PILOT 

"THE FOLLOWING STORY IS INSPIRED BY ACTUAL DOCUMENTED ACCOUNTS."

<-COLLUM NATIONAL FOREST, NORTHWEST OREGON->

(A woman runs through the forest, grunting as she trips and stumbles over logs and rocks. She is wearing a nightgown and runs through the foliage. She falls over a tree root and stumbles into a small clearing. A loud roaring starts and the wind grows stronger. She looks up to see a light growing, shining through the trees. A silhouette steps out of the light, walking towards her. The leaves around her begin swirling up in a circle, like they are in the center of a tornado. The figure stands over her as the light engulfs them both. Morning. The girl is face-down on the ground, dead. Officials walk around, murmuring to each other. The assistant coroners lean over the body as coroner John Truitt and Detective Miles walk over to the body.)

JOHN TRUITT: I put the time of death between eight and twelve hours ago. No visible cause, no sign of battery or sexual assault. All we have is this.

(He pulls up the back of her nightgown to reveal two small bumps on her lower back. Miles looks at them.)

MILES: Can we turn her over?

(They do so. Miles stands.)

Karen Swenson.

ASSISTANT CORONER: Is that a positive ID?

DETECTIVE MILES: She went to school with my son.

(He walks away as Truitt stands.)

JOHN TRUITT: Would that be the class of '89, detective? It's happening again, isn't it?

(Miles keeps walking.)

[1] Producer Chris Carter has said the series is about Mulder, as seen through Scully's eyes. Nowhere is that more apparent than here. We enter the XF universe with Scully, watch her nervously give her name at the front desk(?), and walk stiffly through the bullpen. She is not at home in the Hoover Building, though she seems to know where to go to find Blevin's office.

[2] Right from the start Scully appears very self-contained. Her posture through the interview is that of someone who is nervous and trying not to show it. 

[3] As it's often said she's a doctor, she must have completed her residency. Whether she actually has a licence to practice is debatable. Scully gives away quite a lot about herself here, including the fact that she's not a good dissembler. The little facial twitch shows it's a question she dislikes answering. 

[4] At this point in Scully's life, mention- ing this in such an interview (and stuttering) indicates that over two years later her action has still not been accepted by her family.

[5] Scully doesn't know that she's been reassigned, so this must be common Bureau knowledge. She obviously hasn't actually followed his career, as she seems to think he's still in Violent Crimes. 

[6] Scully tries to make a joke twice, once about her 'rebellion', and again with 'Spooky'. CSM's reaction jerks her back to stiffness. He looks at her as if she isn't quite what he expected - and he's not too pleased with the surprise. [6b] Scully often seems to be channelling her father in her posture, sitting very straight, standing absolutely still with her hands at her sides and walking without swinging her arms. She rarely fidgets or touches her hair, all of which give her the appearance of extreme self-restraint (and continual self-awareness).

[7] There's a slight derisive smile when she's asked about the X files. [8] She obviously doesn't think much of it & she sure doesn't look happy about her reassignment.

<-FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON, D.C.->

[1] (Agent Dana Scully walks up the stairs and around to a desk where a woman sits.)

SCULLY: Agent Dana Scully.

(She continues through a group of offices and down a hallway. Reaching the door to Section Chief Blevins' office, she knocks.)

SCOTT BLEVINS: Come in.

(Scully walks in and sees Blevins sitting at his desk.)

Agent Scully, thank you for coming on such short notice. Please...

([2] He motions for her to sit down, which she does. A man smoking a cigarette leans against a file cabinet. He walks around to behind Blevins and leans against the wall. Another man sits next to Blevins.)

We see you've been with us just over two years.

SCULLY: Yes, sir.

SCOTT BLEVINS: You went to medical school but you chose not to practice. How'd you come to work for the F.B.I.?

SCULLY: [3]Well, sir, I was recruited out of medical school. [4] Um, my parents still think it was an act of rebellion, but, uh... I saw the F.B.I. as a place where I could distinguish myself. 

THIRD MAN: Are you familiar with an agent named Fox Mulder?

SCULLY: Yes, I am.

(Blevins and the man look at each other.)

THIRD MAN: How so?

SCULLY: By reputation.[5] He's an Oxford educated Psychologist, who wrote a monograph on serial killers and the occult, that helped to catch Monty Props in 1988. Generally thought of as the best analyst in the violent crimes section. He had a nickname at the academy ... [6] Spooky Mulder.

(She smiles at the Cigarette-Smoking Man, who gives no response.) [6b]

SCOTT BLEVINS: What I'll also tell you is that Agent Mulder has developed a consuming devotion to an unassigned project outside the bureau mainstream.[7] Are you familiar with the so-called "X-Files?"

SCULLY: I believe they have to do with unexplained phenomena.

SCOTT BLEVINS: More or less. The reason you're here, Agent Scully, is we want you to assist Mulder on these X-Files. You will write field reports on your activites, along with your observations on the validity of the work.

(The Cigarette-Smoking Man stubs out his cigarette.)

SCULLY: [8] Am I to understand that you want me to debunk the X-Files project, sir?

SCOTT BLEVINS: Agent Scully, we trust you'll make the proper scientific analysis. You'll want to contact Agent Mulder shortly. We look forward to seeing your reports.



[9] Watch the files below the poster suddenly appear between shots. (NG)

[10] Scully enters the office so quietly that Mulder seems surprised at first to see her standing there. Or is his surprise that she is not at all what he'd expected? Perhaps he was expecting someone harsher? Older? TALLER? 
 
[11] Why would the FBI send someone to Quantico then have them teach there directly after graduation? Why recruit her to teach anyway, when the Bureau maintains its own team of highly qualified (and far more seasoned) pathologists, who would certainly make better teachers than an inexperienced rookie?




 [12] Einstein's twin paradox is a simple example of how time dilation affects objects travelling near the speed of light...any 'new' interpretation would have to present a challenge to the laws of relativity! (XP)


 [13] He must have known beforehand that she was being assigned to him, otherwise why would he have read her thesis? And how like Mulder to background check his new partner.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
[14] These other victims are never mentioned again and seem to have no bearing whatsoever on the eventual resolution of the story.
 
 
 
 
 

[15] Mulder is being rather obnoxious through this whole first interview. He is testing her reactions, but Scully doesn't really take the bait. She doesn't get upset and she doesn't play the game. She answers his rudely put questions as honestly as she can, not being afraid to admit she has no idea what the protein is. She is faintly excited by this and by the unexplained deaths, but when Mulder starts asking her about extraterrestrials she retreats into familiar rhetorical territory. 
 

[16] The lines Scully draws are quite apparent here, as evidenced by her heated defence of science. Yet there is a rare wide smile at end of interview. She knows she's been tested, and that she's passed.

(The elevator rings and the door slides open. Scully steps out into the basement and comes to an office secluded in the back. She knocks on the door.)

MULDER: Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted.

(She opens the door to see Agent Fox Mulder sitting at his desk, going over some slides. Walking slowly to him, she sees various pictures of UFO's and [9] a poster that reads "I Want to Believe" with a UFO on it. [10] He looks at her.)

SCULLY: Agent Mulder. I'm Dana Scully, I've been assigned to work with you.

(He shakes her hand.)

MULDER: Oh, isn't it nice to be suddenly so highly regarded? So, who did you tick off to get stuck with this detail, Scully?

SCULLY: Actually, I'm looking forward to working with you. I've heard a lot about you.

MULDER: Oh, really? I was under the impression... that you were sent to spy on me.

(He smiles.)

SCULLY: If you have any doubt about my qualifications or credentials, th...

(He stands and takes out a paper from a pile with his telephone as a paperweight.)

MULDER: You're a medical doctor, [11] you teach at the academy. You did your undergraduate degree in physics.

(He takes off his glasses and looks at the paper.)

[12] "Einstein's Twin Paradox: A New Interpretation. Dana Scully Senior Thesis." Now that's a credential, rewriting Einstein.

SCULLY: Did you bother to read it?

MULDER: [13] I did. I liked it.

(He takes a slide canister and puts it into the slide projector.)

It's just that in most of my work, the laws of physics rarely seems to apply.

(He walks past her and turns off the lights. She glares at him slightly.)

Maybe I can get your medical opinion on this, though.

(He presses a button on the control and a slide comes up on the viewscreen of Karen Swenson, face-up.)

Oregon female, age twenty-one, no explainable cause of death. Autopsy shows nothing. Zip.

(He changes the slide to that of the two bumps on her back.)

There are, however, these two distinct marks on her lower back. Doctor Scully, can you ID these marks?

SCULLY: Needle punctures, maybe. An animal bite. Electrocution of some kind.

(She walks up to the viewscreen. He changes the slide to that of a molecular diagram.)

MULDER: How's your chemistry? This is the substance found in the surrounding tissue.

SCULLY: It's organic. I don't know, is it some kind of synthetic protein?

MULDER: Beats me, I've never seen it before either.

[14] (The next slide is of a boy face-down on railroad tracks, his shirt lifted in the back.)

But here it is again in Sturgis, South Dakota.

(The final slide is of a close-up of another set of bumps.)

And again in Shamrock, Texas.

SCULLY: Do you have a theory?

MULDER: I have plenty of theories.

(He walks over to her.)

[15] Maybe what you can explain to me is why it's bureau policy to label these cases as "unexplained phenomenon" and ignore them. Do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrials?

(He whispers the last few words eerily and she smiles.)

SCULLY: Logically, I would have to say "no."

(He nods, having expected that answer.)

Given the distances needed to travel from the far reaches of space, the energy requirements would exceed a spacecraft's capabilties th...

MULDER: Coventional wisdom. You know this Oregon female? She's the fourth person in her graduating class to die under mysterious circumstances. Now, when convention and science offer us no answers, might we not finally turn to the fantastic as a plausibility?

SCULLY: [16] The girl obviously died of something. If it was natural causes, it's plausible that there was something missed in the post-mortem. If she was murdered, it's plausible there was a sloppy investigation. What I find fantastic is any notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there. You just have to know where to look.

MULDER: That's why they put the "I" in "F.B.I." See you tomorrow morning, Scully, bright and early.

(He walks back over to his desk and sits down.)

We leave for the very plausible state of Oregon at eight A.M.

(She smiles and walks out.)

[17] Mulder shuts Scully out on the plane, lounging in his own row of seats with his walkman on.

[18] Though she has by now 'drifted from the church' (Gethsemane) Scully sure seems to be praying when plane shudders massively.

[19] Mulder has an interesting expression here. As if he wanted to tease her, but seeing her so silently terrified, he relents a little and doesn't say quite what he'd intially planned to say.

<-AIRPLANE TO OREGON->

(The drink cart passes [17] Mulder, who is lying down across a row of seats, sleeping, headphones in his ears. Scully is sitting nearby, wearing glasses and flipping through newspaper clippings of the dead teenagers. People are murmuring in the back, but the sounds of their voices are covered by the jet engines. Scully focuses on the name "Dr. Nemman." The overhead loudspeakers rings.)

PILOT: I would like to ask all passengers to fasten their seatbelts, as we're about to make our descent...

(Scully starts putting her things away when the plane starts shaking violently. People scream and things are tossed about as [18] Scully grabs on to her seat. She looks at Mulder, who is awake now but still lying down in the seats passively. The plane finally is brought under control and she sighs in relief. [19] He turns over and looks at her.)

MULDER: This must be the place.

[20] You'd think after that air turbulence adventure that Scully would be a little more fond of seat belts, yet when we first see Our Heroes traveling by car they don't have them on. And no Lariat sticker either. Bummer. Though it is their first Taurus. (AT)
 
 

[21] Scully is clearly uncomfortable in the car, sitting with her hands folded over the file. Very prim. She is prim throughout a lot of this, perhaps her reaction to being unsettled, uncomfortable with Mulder. It looks as if she likes him despite herself, especially when he manages to get one of those little, head-down smiles out of her. She is at least beginning to get her feet under her, giving as good as she gets.

[21b] At this point, one has to wonder why the other ME - who presumably, unlike Dr Nemman, had nothing to hide - hadn't turned up an implant in the post-mortem x-rays. All the other kids have one!
 
 
 

[21] As airlines do not let you pack spray paint, I'm wondering if Mulder had to stop to buy the can of orange when they got to Oregon. I love the scene where he paints the X on the road while Scully looks at him wide eyed as if she's partnered with a freaking lunatic, even swearing for the first time on the show...(AT)

<-BELLEFLEUR, OREGON->

([20] Driving down a long road, they pass a sign that reads "Welcome to Bellefleur, Oregon." Scully is reading the files and Mulder is eating sunflower seeds while driving.)

SCULLY: You didn't mention yesterday, this case has already been investigated.

MULDER: Yeah, the FBI got involved after the first three deaths when local authorities failed to turn up any evidence. Our boys came out here, spent a week, enjoyed the local salmon which, with a little lemon twist, is just to die for, if you'll pardon the expression. Without explanation, they were called back in. The case was reclassified and buried in the X-Files, till I dug it up last week.

SCULLY: [21] And you found something they didn't.

MULDER: Mmm. (as if to say "yes.")

SCULLY: The autopsy reports of the first three victims, show no unidentified marks or tissue samples. But those reports were signed by a different medical examiner than the latest victim.

MULDER: That's pretty good, Scully.

SCULLY: Better than you expected or better that you hoped?

MULDER: Well... I'll let you know when we get past the easy part.

(She laughs.)

SCULLY: Is the medical examiner a suspect?

MULDER: We won't know that until we do a little gravedigging. I've arranged to exhume one of the other victims' bodies to see if we can get a tissue sample to[21b] match the girl's. You're not squeamish about that kind of thing, are ya?

SCULLY: I don't know. I've never had the pleasure.

(The radio starts flipping through channels rapidly, various sounds blaring. As Mulder tries to adjust it, the clock starts changing as well. The radio becomes a high-pitched screeching and Scully covers her ears. Mulder looks up to the sky.)

What's going on?

(Mulder pulls the car over to the side of the road and turns it off. He and Scully both get out. Mulder goes to the trunk, moves a briefcase, [21] pulls out a can of pink spray paint, and walks over to where the occurance began. As Scully watches in wonder, he marks a giant "X" on the ground, then tosses the spray paint can back into his trunk. He moves the briefcase back on top of the can and closes the trunk.

What the hell was that about?

MULDER: Oh, you know... probably nothing.

(He gets back in the car.) 















[22]Mulder at least is polite enough to remember to introduce Scully. At this point it seems as if he's trying not to be too awful - or perhaps just adhering to the old adage of 'keep your friends close, but your enemies closer'. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[22b] Mulder must have learned the coldly polite trick at Oxford.
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[23] I suppose it's good to see that Mulder's rudeness extends to everyone, even to tossing sunflower shells in the opened grave. Perhaps Duchovny, who we are told does not like sunflower seeds, got a little tired of chewing on them take after take. (AT)
 
 

[24] He calls her Dr Scully with no little derision, as if she - a pathologist - is somehow to blame for the ME's lies.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[25] Mulder's snort tells us all we need to know about his attitude toward official procedure.
 
 
 
 
 

[26] The first major 'look' passes between them here.

<-COASTAL NORTHWEST OREGON; MARCH 7, 1992->

(After driving through town, the agents arrive at the cemetery. Getting out, they see a number of men standing around, along with a crane. John Truitt and his assistant walk over to Mulder and Scully.)

JOHN TRUITT: Mister Mulder, John Truitt, County Coroner's Office.

MULDER: Yeah, hi.

(They shake hands.)

[22] This is Agent Scully.

SCULLY: Hi.

(She and Truitt shake hands.)

MULDER: How soon can we get started?

(Scully and the assistant shake hands as well.)

SCULLY: Hello.

JOHN TRUITT: We're ready to go.

MULDER: Oh great.

JOHN TRUITT: Okay, Vinnie!

(The crane starts up as the four walk up the hill.)

MULDER: Were you able to arrange for a, uh... an examination facility?

JOHN TRUITT: I think we got something for you...

(A man and his teenage daughter pull up to the site.)

JAY NEMMAN: Excuse me!

MULDER: Ah...

(They turn around and look at the man.)

JAY NEMMAN: Excuse me!

(He starts towards them angrily but turns around and moves his daughter back to the passenger's side.)

No. Please stay in the car... let me handle this. I just want to talk to them.

(The girl gets into the car. The man walks over to the four officials.)

I just don't know who you people think you are. You just think you can come up here, and do whatever you damn well please, don't you?

MULDER: [22b] I'm sorry, you are...

JAY NEMMAN: I'm Doctor Jay Nemman. I'm county medical examiner.

MULDER: Surely, you must have been informed of our intentions to come up here.

JAY NEMMAN: No, uh, no. We've been away.

MULDER: Oh, oh. Well, that answers the question that we had. Why you hadn't done the recent autopsy on Karen Swenson. You're aware of the tissue sample that was taken from the girl's body.

JAY NEMMAN: Wha... wha... what is the insinuation here? Are you saying that I missed something in those other kids' exams?

SCULLY: We're not insinuating anything, sir.

JAY NEMMAN: Wait a minute.

(The group turns back, but Nemman grabs Mulder's arm and spins him around.)

Wait a minute, see, well I think you are. And if you're making an accusation, then you'd better have something to back it up.

(His daughter gets out of the car.)

THERESA NEMMAN: Daddy, please, let's just go home.

(Jay motions for Theresa to wait.)

Let's go home, please.

(Nemman glares at Mulder, then gets back in the car and drives off.)

MULDER: Guy obviously needed a longer vacation.

[23] (They start back up the hill. They reach the gravesite and the crane starts scooping out the dirt above the coffin. Scully is reading from the file loudly because the crane's whirring is very loud.)

SCULLY: Ray Soames was the third victim. After graduating high school, he spent time in a state mental hospital treated for post-adolescent schizophrenia.

MULDER: Soames actually confessed to the first two murders. He pleaded to be locked up but he couldn't produce any evidence that he committed the crimes. Did you happen to read the cause of death?

SCULLY: Exposure. His body was found in the woods after escaping the hospital.

MULDER: Missing for only seven hours in July. How does a twenty-year-old boy die of exposure on a warm summer's night in Oregon, [24] Doctor Scully?

WORKER: I got it.

(Two men help pull out the coffin as it is being lifted out by a harness. Suddenly, one of the straps breaks and the coffin starts rolling down the hill.)

Look out!

(As it hits the ground, the people jump, startled. They run down to the coffin as it crashes up against a tombstone, stopping it. The coffin has been broken open. Mulder goes to open it but Truitt grabs his arm.)

JOHN TRUITT: This isn't official procedure.

MULDER: [25] Really?

(Mulder opens it anyway and sees a desecated, mummified grayish body lying in the coffin. While it is unclear exactly what this was, it is definitely not human. The arms are very long and the body is thin as well. The agents and workers gasp and cover their mouths, nauseous. Mulder stands and looks at Scully, who is kneeling.)

It's probably a safe bet Ray Soames never made the varsity basketball team.

(He turns to Truitt.)

Seal this up, right now! Nobody sees or touches this. Nobody!

(Truitt slams the lid shut.)[26] 





[27] This is what Scully knows how to do, she has more confidence here then we've yet seen, even faced with the strange creature she's autopsying. She's able to argue back.
  
[28] [Mulder] was all excited on finding this body and wanted to do tests to prove what he thought it was. In "Gethsemane", 4 or so years of being tricked and used by the conspiracy has tapered his excitement...[he] won't believe it is what it appears to be until the critical carbon testing has been done on it. (CC) 
 
 [29] For the first time, he gets real with her, his tone very gentle, a quiet plea to believe him enough to find out. Her looks holds some small surprise that he is actually aware of how insane he sounds. And Scully's curious mind - the one thing that saves her from rigidity - can't resist the challenge.

<-10:56 P.M.->

[27] (Scully is dressed in her doctor's garb as Soames is laid out on the table. Mulder is taking pictures with a flashbulb.)

MULDER: This is amazing, Scully. You know what this could mean? It's almost too big to even comprehend.

SCULLY: Subject is a hundred and fifty-six centimeters in length, weighing fifty-two pounds in extremis. Corpse is in advance stages of decay and desiccation. Distinguishing features include large ocular cavities, oblate cranium... indicates subject is not human. Could you point that flash away from me, please?

(Mulder puts the camera away.)

MULDER: If it's not human, what is it?

SCULLY: It's mammalian. My guess is it's a chimpanzee or something from the ape family, possibly an orangutan.

MULDER: Buried in the city cemetery in Ray Soames' grave? Try telling that to the good townsfolk or to Ray Soames' family. [28] I want tissue samples and x-rays. I'd like blood type and toxicology and a full genetic work-up.

SCULLY: You're serious?

MULDER: What we can't do here, we'll order to go.

SCULLY: You don't honestly believe this is some kind of an extraterrestrial? This is somebody's sick joke.

MULDER: We can do those x-rays here, can't we? Is there any reason we can't do them right now?[29] I'm not crazy, Scully. I have the same doubts you do. 


[30] Scully is wearing a big t-shirt and leggings, with her hair pulled back from her face, all curly from the rain. She looks more comfortable with herself than we've yet seen. Sadly, the ultra-comfy casual wear will soon be lost along with the budget mix and match suits that gave this character such a versimilitude in the first season. She really looks like she's living on a junior agent's paycheck here.
 

 
 

[30b] Since it's dark when Scully opens the door, it must be 4.37 in the morning, in which case this is an interesting remark to make. Even her yawn seems somewhat faked. Guess she doesn't want Mulder to know he's got her. As I doubt either of them gets up at this hour, they must have been in the lab most of the night..
 
[31] Nothing like a scientific conundrum to get Scully going.

<-SCULLY'S HOTEL ROOM->

(The time is 4:37. [30] Scully is typing on her laptop while listening to a recording she made earlier. There is an x-ray of Soames' head with the nasal cavity circled taped to the lamp.)

SCULLY ON TAPE RECORDER: Official laboratory inspection of the body and x-ray analysis confirms homologous but possibly mutated mammalian physiology. However, does not account for small unidentified object found in subject's nasal cavity. A grey metallic implant form...

(She stops the tape and picks up a small tube containing a gray metallic object. There is a knock on the door.)

SCULLY: Who is it?

MULDER: Steven Spielberg.

(She smiles and opens the door. Mulder leans up against the doorway in jogging clothes and wearing a baseball cap backwards.)

I'm way too wired. I'm going for a run, you want to come?

SCULLY: Pass.

MULDER: You figure out what that little thing up Ray Soames' nose is yet?

SCULLY: No...[30b]

(She yawns.)

And I'm not losing any sleep over it. Good night.

(She closes the door and looks at the x-ray.)[31] 


 [32] They seem to like each other a little better the next day. Mulder gives Scully room to walk between himself and the doctor at the psych hospital, rather than leaving her trailing along on the outside. The physical distance between them has closed since the day before and they stand quite closely together through the whole conversation.

<RAYMON COUNTY; STATE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL>

[32] (Mulder, Scully and Doctor Glass are walking outside the building.)

GLASS: Ray Soames was a patient of mine, yes. I oversaw his treatment for just over a year for clinical schizophrenia. Ray had an inability to grasp reality. He seemed to suffer from some kind of post-traumatic stress.

MULDER: Is that something you've seen before?

GLASS: I've treated similar cases.

SCULLY: Were any of those Ray Soames' classmates?

GLASS: Yes.

MULDER: We're trying to find a connection in these deaths. Did you treat any of these kids with hypnosis?

GLASS: No, I did not.

SCULLY: Are you treating any of these kids now?

GLASS: Currently? Yes, I'm treating Billy Miles and Peggy O'Dell. Both have been long term live-in patients.

(They stop walking.)

SCULLY: They're here at this hospital?

GLASS: That's right, going on four years now.

SCULLY: Would it be possible for us to talk to them?

GLASS: Well, you might find it difficult. Certainly, in Billy Miles' case. 


 





[33] In the hospital a non-plussed Scully stands by uselessly while Peggy freaks out. Later, when we find out she even did her residency in forensic pathology ( ) her usual reluctance to use her medical training in emergency situations may be a little more understandable. However, as the patient's doctor is standing right there it may not have occured to her that her help was needed.  

[34] The looks they exchange when the marks are found on Peggy's back are the second of the classic eye exchanges. Volumes are spoken here. Mulder is triumphant. He knew they would be there.  
[35] One really has to wonder about these huge implants and how no one seems to notice them. Not only does Billy insist later that he had one too, but certainly he and probably Peggy must have been x-rayed for head injuries at the time of the accident so why was it never found? And what about poor Karen Swenson? Didn't the ME do x-rays? Why don't M & S ever look at her body, since she's the latest victim - especially when the ME who filed the reports on the first three victims (Nemmans) may be dirty?

[36] Scully can't begin to deal with what she's just seen - she's freaked beyond anything she'll allow herself to show later.. Mulder's rudeness reaches new heights here but her 'cut the crap' is far more frightened than angry. 
   
[37] NOW she's angry. It's partly denial anger, as she doesn't look convinced by her own explanation and partly anger at being placed in an untenable position - her partner isn't giving her the information she needs because he doesn't trust the reason she's there in the first place. She IS meant to be a spy - always was and always will be. It's just that Scully's agenda is to find the truth, not to make Mulder look stupid - or herself right. Also, she needs Mulder on her side - she's not experienced enough and if he's withholding information he's actively hindering her work. Scully takes the idea of partnership quite seriously - she's never had a partner before, but there are rules about it and she'd know them. She may not have had a secret yearning to get into the field, but now that she's here, she likes it. She's finally a real agent. Going back to Quantico would seem rather dull. Would seem like she's failed, and Scully hates failure.

[38] Scully uses the word 'crazy' several times in this ep to describe anything or anyone she doesn't understand. After this is over, she'll rarely use the word again.





[38b] Scully is not going to accept the flying saucers theory, not while she still has rational, quantifiable, SCIENTIFIC questions that Mulder hasn't asked. There is a lot about trust going on in this scene, esp balanced with the autopsy scene - asking each other to take a giant leap of faith in accepting not only the other person, but their way of working.

(Billy Miles lays on his hospital bed very still. His eyes are open but there is no sign of life except for the pulse read-out on the monitor. The three walk in. Peggy O'Dell sits in her wheelchair next to Billy. A nurse is changing the sheets on the adjacent bed.)

GLASS: Billy's experiencing what we call a waking coma. Functionally, his brainwaves are flat and he's persistent vegetative.

SCULLY: How did it happen?

GLASS: Both he and Peggy were involved in an automobile accident out on State road.

(He looks over to Peggy.)

Peggy?

PEGGY O'DELL: "...aerial..."

(She stops reading.)

GLASS: Peggy, we have some visitors, would you like to talk with them for a moment?

PEGGY O'DELL: Billy wants me to read now. "It's not sand, it's dark..."

(Mulder kneels down in front of her.)

MULDER: Does he like it when you read to him?

PEGGY O'DELL: Yes. Billy needs me close.

(Mulder walks back over to the doctor.)

MULDER: Doctor. I'm wondering if we can do a cursory medical exam on Peggy.

(She throws the book down, tips over the food tray, and starts wheeling around.)

NURSE: Peggy? Oh, Peggy, what are you doing?

GLASS: Get an orderly.

(Nurses and Doctor Glass go to her. [33] She grabs her nose and starts screaming.)

MULDER: No one is going to hurt you!

(She moves her hand away from her nose and it is covered with blood, as well as her face. She falls forward off the chair and onto the floor.)

GLASS: This is an emergency. Get an orderly, get an orderly. Nobody is going to hurt you. The nurse is here.

(Mulder takes the opportunity to lift up the back of Peggy's shirt. She has the bumps. [34] Mulder looks at Scully, who looks back in shock.)

NURSE: I'm ringing for the orderlies now.

PEGGY O'DELL: Stop it! Stop!

DR. GLASS: All right, Peggy. All right. It's all right.

NURSE: Peggy, honey, you're going to be fine. [35] You've had these nose bleedings before, now calm down. Don't worry...

[36] (Scully walks out. Mulder walks down the stairs quickly after her.)

MULDER: What's his name, er... Billy said he was sorry he didn't get to say goodbye.

SCULLY: How did you know that girl was going to have the marks?

MULDER: I don't know, lucky guess?

SCULLY: Damn it, Mulder, cut the crap. What is going on here? What do you know about those marks? What are they?

MULDER: Why? So you can put it down in your little report? I don't think you're ready for what I think.

(They stop walking.)

SCULLY: [37] I'm here to solve this case, Mulder, I want the truth.

MULDER: The truth? I think those kids have been abducted.

SCULLY: By who?

MULDER: By what.

SCULLY: You don't really believe that?

MULDER: Do you have a better explanation?

SCULLY: I'll buy that girl is suffering some kind of pronounced psychosis. Whether it's organic or the result of those marks, I can't say. But to say that they've been riding around in flying saucers, it's [38] crazy, Mulder, there is nothing to support that.

MULDER: Nothing scientific, you mean.

SCULLY: [38b] There has got to be an explanation. You've got four victims. All of them died in or near the woods. They found Karen Swenson's body in the forest in her pajamas, ten miles from her house. How did she get there? What were those kids doing out there in the forest? 

[39] They go to the forest at night, though it was day when they discussed it. Did it take them that long to get changed? 
 
 

[40] Scully hasn't brought evidence bags or gloves, another proof that this is probably her first field assignment. Her face as she hears the noise in the night forest is a study in fear, and then she immediately goes for her gun. She sounds scared half to death when she identifies herself, though she looks far more fierce than Mulder. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[41] Mulder backs Scully up, but he's watching her the whole time, almost as if making sure she DOESN't shoot the sherrif. They leave like two chastised schoolkids. It's probably Scully's first experience with how completely local law enforcement can sometimes diss the FBI. 

[42] Scully's intrigued by the dirt - and proud of herself for finding something real she can get her hands (literally) on, something that can be tested and analyzed, though in reality she's probably compromised the sample by handling it.

[43] This is the same person who will vigorously debunk any notion of occult sacrifices in 'Die hand die Verletz' and 'Syzygy' - citing exhaustive FBI research. (Maybe she hadn't read the reports yet?) (NG)
 
 
 
 
 
 

[44] Things are getting further and further out there. Mulder is dancing like a lunatic in the pouring rain while poor Scully, grasping for logic, stumbles over her words. Mulder's excitement will never again be quite this intense or childlike. One could put it down to the fun of finally having someone to play with, though any assumptions about early Mulder have now been discoloured by revelations that he did indeed have a female partner before Scully - in fact he not only discovered the X Files with her, but they also had a romantic relationship. (The End, on through Season 6).
 
 
 

[45] From Scully's mixed fear and excitement throughout this ep, it seems that this may be her first field assignment. She has an interesting mix of confidence and uncertainty, the character being informed by the reality of the actress also doing her first 'big' job. Of course it might just be the slow realisation that she's partnered with a crazy man.

[46] Having done her undergraduate thesis in physics, Scully should be more familiar with relativity theory in which time not only speeds up and slows down, but can disappear altogether.

<-COLLUM NATIONAL FOREST, NORTHWEST OREGON->

([39] Scully and Mulder walk through the forest, carrying flashlights. They both are no longer in suits, now wearing jackets and pants. Mulder signals to Scully and they split up. Mulder looks at his compass, which is spinning wildly. Scully, in the clearing, bends down and [40] picks up some strange dirt on the ground. A large rumbling begins.)

SCULLY: Mulder?

(The rumbling grows louder. She stands and takes out her gun. Walking back, she sees a light shining through the trees.)

Mulder, is that you? Mulder?

(A silhouette from out of the light comes towards her. The man lifts up his shotgun and Scully points her weapon at the man.)

Special Agent Dana Scully, FBI, drop your weapon.

(Detective Miles steps into the light.)

MILES: I'm with the County Sheriff's Department. You're trespassing on private property here.

SCULLY: We are conducting an investigation.

[41] (Mulder walks up and points his gun as well.)

MILES: Get in your car and leave, both of you, or I'll have to arrest you. I don't care who you are.

MULDER: Hold on! This is a crime scene.

MILES: Did you hear what I said? You are on private property without legal permission. Now, I'm only going to say it one more time, get in your car and leave.

(Mulder and Scully lower their flashlights and weapons. They walk out past the yellow tape and pass a truck with huge searchlights on them that created the light. They get into their car and drive off.)

MULDER: What's he doing out here all by himself?

SCULLY: Maybe it has something to do with this.

([42] She holds out a handful of dirt. He turns on the carlight.)

What do you think it is?

MULDER: I don't know. Is it a campfire?

SCULLY: It was all over the ground. I think something is going on out here, some kind of a sacrifice, maybe. [43] What if these kids are involved in some kind of a cult and that man knows something about it?

(Mulder takes out his compass and looks at it. It is acting very strangely.)

I wanna come back here.

(Mulder looks at his watch, which reads 9:03. He looks down at the compass again.)

You okay, Mulder?

MULDER: Yeah, I'm just, er...

(He starts looking up through the windshield.)

SCULLY: What are you looking for?

(There is a loud roar and a light engulfs them. Time seems to stop just for a second. When the light fades, the car slowly comes to a stop, having no power. Mulder tries to restart the car, but it will not go.)

What happened?

MULDER: We lost power, brakes, steering, everything.

(He looks at his watch.)

We lost nine minutes. [44]

(He gets out of the car and screams into the sky. Scully gets out. They scream over the rain to each other as they talk.)

SCULLY: We lost what? [45]

MULDER: Nine minutes. I looked at my watch just before the flash and it was nine-o-three. It just turned nine-thirteen.

(He starts running down the road.)

Look! Look!

(They stop at the pink "X" that Mulder marked in the road, only a few feet from the car.)

Oh-ho, yes! Abductees... people who have made UFO sightings, they've reported unexplained time loss.

SCULLY: Come on.

MULDER: Gone! Just like that.

SCULLY: No, wait a minute. You're saying that, that time disappeared. [46] Time can't just disappear, it's, it's, it's a universal invariant!

(The car starts up and the headlights shine on them. Mulder smiles.)

MULDER: Not in this zipcode.

(He runs back over to the car. Scully looks down at the "X" and follows.) 

[47] Very Scully language, which we'll hear quite often - she doesn't affirm Mulder's claim, but neither does she deny it.

[48] Scully's cure for psychic disturbance due to unexplained phenomena seems to be a hot bath (see also Squeeze). And where'd she get that big ole candle? The same place Mulder got the spray paint?

<-SCULLY'S HOTEL ROOM->

(Scully is typing on her laptop. We hear her voice over the scene. As she types, it reads:

[47] "Agent Mulder's insistence of time loss due to unknown forces cannot be validated or substantiated by this witness"

She continues typing. A thunderclap rings out and the power goes out.)

SCULLY: Great.

[48] (She goes into her bathroom, carrying a candle and wearing a bathrobe. She starts running a bath and takes off her robe, revealing only a bra and underwear. She goes to slip off her underwear when she feels something. Two bumps on her lower back.)

[49] Mulder is so surprised he can't even shut the door right. There's nothing prurient in his look when she takes her robe off, indicating he hasn't at this time thought of her 'that way'. Mostly, he's confused, even somewhat amused by her. [50] Now watch the way his face changes after she throws herself against him. He takes one step back, unprepared, but he takes that step forward again, almost by instinct. Then, he seems to realise what's happening, and his head jerks back a little in surprise. Then he melts. Physical contact doesn't seem to be something Mulder is used to. It completely disarms him. He doesn't quite know what to do with Scully, awkwardly patting her shoulder. But his face moves closer to her hair, as if he is finally taking her in. Scully becomes real for him in this moment, a real person. She's touched something in him. [51] He keeps trying to see her face when she moves away. Scully, embarrassed by what we will find out is an unparalleled display of weakness, keeps her head down. She has to reel her emotions back in. His hand goes out to help her sit - again instinctive. Mulder has opened to her, but she has no idea of the effect she's just had on him.

While the infamous ScullySkin scene has been labeled as gratuitous by some (and a godsend by others) it serves a very important purpose - besides being amusing to watch Mulder's reaction as his pretty partner comes into his room and begins undressing. I think that it is Scully's willingness to trust Mulder and bare herself to him here that prompts him to bare his soul and his story to her shortly thereafter - intimacy for intimacy - this is when the partnership begins to be truly forged. (AT)

<-MULDER'S HOTEL ROOM->

(Mulder, carrying a candle, opens the door to see Scully standing in her bathrobe, shaken.)

MULDER: Hi.

SCULLY: I want you to look at something.

MULDER: Come on in. [49]

(Scully walks in, turns around and slips off her robe. She is still wearing only a bra and underwear. She looks back at him, then down to her lower back. Mulder sees a few bumps.)

SCULLY: What are they?

(Mulder kneels to look at them, then starts to smile.)

Mulder, what are they?

MULDER: Mosquito bites.

SCULLY: Are you sure?

MULDER: Yeah. I got eaten up a lot myself out there.

[50] (She gasps in relief, slips her robe on and hugs Mulder for a long time.)

You okay?

SCULLY: Yes.

[51] (She pulls away from the hug.)

MULDER: You're shaking.

SCULLY: I need to sit down.

(She sits down. He sits down in a seat across from her.)

MULDER: Take your time. 

[52] It's awfully cosy with Scully curled up on Mulder's bed - but how did she get there? It's a level of intimacy they won't achieve again. 

[53] Mulder talks about Samantha disappearing from her bed while Scully is lying on his, which invites us to read her as a sister surrogate (she is the same age as Sam, though we don't know that here). In one of the most glaring continuity errors of the series, however, this story contradicts the one told later in Little Green Men, which will become the 'accepted' version. 

[54] And is never heard from again.

[55] Distance is important here: Mulder begins sitting on the floor at her feet with his head on the bed, then sits up. When he moves away, she reaches for him, touching his forearm. Then sits up herself. 

[56] Mulder takes a big chance here, deliberately opening himself to ridicule. But maybe she is the first person who has shown any desire to understand him. Scully is very warm here, asking questions that are not threatening, but will keep him talking until they come full circle, from the deeply personal talk of Samantha's abduction, back to Mulder's accusation that she is part of the agenda to stop him. 

[57] His voice changes from confidential to hostile, though he softens it deliberately as he says this. It's as if he's regretting their moment of closeness, but he desperately wants not to discount it, wants to give her a chance. He needs a partner, needs someone to believe him. [57b] Her voice is as intense as his, trying to draw him back.
 

[58] Amazing eye contact here - it never breaks from his accusation until the phone rings and Scully jumps. The camera, beautifully edited, continues to move closer as the shots switch back and forth. Mulder's intensity is frightening - from her 'you've got to trust me' he gets closer and closer until he is right in her face. By the end it looks as if he's half lying on her, holding her by the arms as he tells her that nothing else matters to him. And she stays with him, she doesn't pull away from his proximity, his intensity, or the content of his words. 

[59] Mulder keeps looking at her, still trying to read her face. Even when he answers the phone (very irritated), he brings it back to his former position, unwilling to lose that closeness.

[52] (Later, Scully is laying on the bed and Mulder sits in front of it on the floor.)

MULDER: I was twelve when it happened. My sister was eight. [53] She just disappeared out of her bed one night. Just gone, vanished. No note, no phone calls, no evidence of anything.

SCULLY: You never found her.

MULDER: Tore the family apart. No one would talk about it. There were no facts to confirm, nothing to offer any hope.

SCULLY: What did you do?

MULDER: Eventually, I went off to school in England, I came back, got recruited by the bureau. Seems I had a natural aptitude for applying behavioural models to criminal cases.

(Outside, a man in a raincoat shuffles through the bushes [54].)

My success allowed me a certain freedom to pursue my own interests. And that's when I came across the X-Files.

(He turns to face her.)

SCULLY: By accident?

MULDER: At first, it looked like a garbage dump for UFO sightings, alien abduction reports, the kind of stuff that most people laugh at as being ridiculous. But I was fascinated. I read all the cases I could get my hands on, hundreds of them. I read everything I could about paranormal phenomenon, about the occult and...

(He sighs and drifts off into thought.) [55]

SCULLY: What?

MULDER: There's classified government information I've being trying to access, but someone has been blocking my attempts to get at it.

SCULLY: Who? I don't understand.

(She sits up a little.)

MULDER: Someone at a higher level of power. The only reason I've been allowed to continue with my work is because I've made connections in congress.

SCULLY: And they're afraid of what? That, that you'll leak this information?

MULDER: [57] You're a part of that agenda, you know that.

SCULLY: I'm not a part of any agenda. [57b] You've got to trust me. I'm here just like you, to solve this.

(He moves closer, kneeling.)

MULDER: [58] I'm telling you this, Scully, because you need to know, because of what you've seen. In my research, I've worked very closely with a man named Dr. Heitz Werber and he's taken me through deep regression hypnosis. I've been able to go into my own repressed memories to the night my sister disappeared. I can recall a bright light outside and a presence in the room. I was paralyzed, unable to respond to my sister's calls for help.

(He moves even closer, talking louder.)

Listen to me, Scully, this thing exists.

SCULLY: But how do you know...

MULDER: The government knows about it, and I got to know what they're protecting. Nothing else matters to me, and this is as close as I've ever gotten to it.

[59] (The phone rings, startling Scully. Mulder picks up.)

Hello? What? Who is this? Who is thi...

(He hangs up.)

That was some woman... she just said Peggy O'Dell was dead.

SCULLY: The girl in the wheelchair? 

[60] This is the first time he's put his hand on Scully's back, but it will become his trademark touch, something he does most often in the presence of others, as if to claim Scully as his - not romantically, but to show that she is on his side. Likewise the fact that whenever they are in the prescence of other agents Mulder usually stands right next to, or directly behind Scully (whispering his own theories in her ear). Mulder often seems as if he is reaching for Scully to reassure himself that she's still there (and as the series goes on and he's almost lost her several times the habit becomes more persistent). On Scully's side, there is perhaps also a sense of reassurance, of safety, in Mulder's almost unconscious gesture - what she sought in that initial, uncharacteristic embrace. From the beginning Scully seems to accept it as a given. Interesting as she's not a particularly demonstrative person, and rarely touches Mulder unless he is ill or in pain. 

The immediate physicalisation of their relationship is what is so remarkable in this series - Mulder's proximity to Scully is usually that of a lover, not a work partner, and the intensity of their silent exchanges, their seeming ability to have whole conversations with only their eyes, creates a sense of psychic, inviolate and pre-destined connection between them.

<-RURAL HWY. 133; BELLEFLEUR, OREGON->

(A mack truck sits in the road, ambulances and police cars surrounding it. People stand outside talking.)

MAN #1: Yeah, I'll bring it over in a minute.

(A sheriff lights a flare and puts it down in the road to ward off traffic. Mulder and Scully pull up.)

MAN #2: We're going to need a couple of more hours, Bob.

(Mulder walks over to a deputy and the driver.)

MULDER: What happened?

TRUCK DRIVER: She ran right out in front of me.

DEPUTY: Who are you?

MULDER: She was running? On foot?

(The county coroner pulls up and Scully uncovers Peggy's face. Her neck is in a brace, and she is very bloody. There are tubes in her nose. Scully looks at Peggy's watch, which has stopped and reads 9:03. Scully walks over to Mulder and the deputy. Mulder is very ornery.)

Well, that's just...

SCULLY: We need to ask you a few quest...

MULDER: Let's go, let's go.

(She looks at him and [60] he leads her to the car.)

Someone trashed the autopsy bay in the lab and they stole the body, we're going back to the motel.

SCULLY: What? They stole the corpse? 


 
 
 

[61] Scully's resigned reaction makes an interesting contrast to Mulder's quite understandable tantrum.
 
 
 

[62] Theresa's appearance shows us the compassion - and dedication - of these two. Despite just having lost all their evidence and everything else they had with them (including personal effects) Scully reaches immediately for Theresa's hand and Mulder's temper disappears.

<-HOTEL->

(Scully and Mulder pull up and run out of the car. Police and firemen are all around. Mulder runs over to a deputy and shows him his badge.)

MULDER: F.B.I.

(They stop and look at the hotel, which is ablaze.) [61]

SCULLY: There goes my computer.

MULDER: Damn it! The x-rays and pictures!

(Firemen run around, one climbing a ladder.)

FIREMAN: We need a couple of men out here!

(Mulder closes his eyes, frustrated and angry. Theresa Nemman steps out of the crowd and over to the agents.) [62]

THERESA NEMMAN: My name is Theresa Nemman. You've got to protect me.

MULDER: Come with us. 


 
 
 
 
 
 

[63] Mulder and Scully are beginning to seem like a unit now, handling the questioning of Teresa with great gentleness and balance.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[64] Perhaps our first intimation of the role that nosebleeds are going to play in this series - from Theresa's gusher to Scully's cancer. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[65] What we never do find out is why Nemman would be so eager to help Miles cover up his son's murders when his own daughter is surely on the hit list.

<-DINER->

(Scully sits next to Theresa in a booth. Mulder sits across from them.)

THERESA NEMMAN: This is the way it happens, I don't know how I get out there. I'll just find myself out in the woods.

MULDER: How long has it been happening?

THERESA NEMMAN: Ever since the summer we graduated. It's happened to my friends too. That's why I need you to protect me. I'm scared I might... die like the others, like... Peggy did tonight.

MULDER: Your father's the medical examiner. You were the one on the phone, you told me Peggy O'Dell had been killed.

(Theresa nods.)

SCULLY: [63] Theresa, your father knows about this, doesn't he? About what happened.

THERESA NEMMAN: Yes. But he said never to tell anyone about any of it.

MULDER: Why?

THERESA NEMMAN: He wants to protect me. He thinks he can protect me, but I don't think he can.

MULDER: Do you have the marks, Theresa?

THERESA NEMMAN: Yes. I'm going to die, aren't I? I'm gonna be next?

SCULLY: No, you're not going to die.

(Blood pours out of Theresa's left nostril.) [64]

Oh, God!

(Scully runs over to the adjacent table and gets some napkins. Before she can give them to Theresa, she notices Nemman and Miles walk in.)

JAY NEMMAN: Let's go home, Theresa. Theresa, come on.

(He pushes Mulder out of the way and sits down next to Theresa. He puts a handkerchief to her nose.)

Come on, honey.

MULDER: I don't think she wants to leave.

JAY NEMMAN: Come on...

(Nemman looks at Mulder.)

I don't care what you think! She's a sick girl.

MILES: Your father wants to take you home. He'll get you all cleaned up.

JAY NEMMAN: I'm going to take you where you'll be safe, Theresa. Detective Miles and I won't let anything happen to you, I promise.

(Mulder looks at Miles in shock.)

MULDER: You're Billy Miles' father?

DETECTIVE MILES: That's right. And you stay away from that boy.

(Outside, Theresa looks at Mulder and Scully from the back seat of Nemman's van. The windows roll up and they drive away. Mulder and Scully watch them go.)

MULDER: Eh, you gotta love this place. Everyday's like Halloween.

SCULLY: They know Mulder. They know who's responsible for the murders. [65]

MULDER: They know something.

(They start walking to the car.)

SCULLY: Dr. Nemman's been hiding medical evidence from the beginning. He lied on the autopsy reports and now we find out about the detective. Who else would have reason to trash the lab and our rooms?

(They stop.)

MULDER: Why would they destroy evidence? What would they want with that corpse?

SCULLY: I don't know, I...

MULDER: Makes you wonder what's in those other two graves. 

[66] Kind of surprised our conspiracy fellows would leave behind those bodies for anyone to dig up, but I guess if you are busy working on a cloning project, doing something with those oily aliens, experimenting with crash
alien ships and developing a new way to spread smallpox via bees you just don't have the time to deal with the little things. At least it didn't take them long to clean up the mess they left behind. (CC)
 
 
 
 

[67] Mulder is able at last to articulate his wild theory, his excitement mounting.  Unfortunately, Scully isn't quite able to go with it.
 
 
 

[68] With this, he walks away from her, hurt. Perhaps it's the hurt on his face that makes Scully rethink her initial rather sarcastic rejection, makes her remember Peggy's watch. Amazingly, Mulder is willing to try again. This time she goes with him. 
 
 

[69] ... of all the emotional outbursts [in the Pilot] there is nothing quite like seeing a sopping wet Scully laugh in Mulder's face. (AT) When they are laughing in the rain, Mulder takes one step closer to Scully, so that her head is almost against his chest. It looks like he wants to hug her. When she steps back, he steps forward. Attracted like a magnet. 
 
 

[70] He says this and she answers as if he's just asked her out to dinner. They actually bump companionably against each other as they're leaving.

<-CEMETERY; 5:07->

(As the rain pours down, Mulder and Scully, carrying flashlights, walk into the cemetary to find that the other two graves have been unearthed and are empty.)[66]

MULDER: They're both empty.

SCULLY: What is going on here?

MULDER: I think I know who did it. I think I know who killed Karen Swenson. [67]

SCULLY: Who? The detective?

MULDER: The detective's son. Billy Miles.

SCULLY: The boy in the hospital? The vegetable?! Billy Miles, a boy who's been in a coma for the last four years, got out here and dug up these graves?

MULDER: Peggy O'Dell was bound to a wheelchair but she ran in front of that truck. Look, I'm not making this up, it all fits the profile of alien abduction.

SCULLY: This fits a profile?

MULDER: Yes. Peggy O'Dell was killed at around nine-o-clock, that's right around the time we lost nine minutes on the highway, I think that something happened in that nine minutes. I think that time, as we know it, stopped. And something took control over it.

(She smiles, almost laughing.)

[68] You think I'm crazy.

(She nods and he walks away a little. Her face becomes grimmer. He looks back at her and notices that something is bothering her.)

What?

SCULLY: Peggy O'Dell's watch stopped a couple of minutes after nine. I made a note of it when I saw the body.

MULDER: That's the reason the kids come to the forest, because the forest controls them and summons them there. And, and, and the marks are from, from some kind of test that's being done on them. And, and that may be causing some kind of genetic mutation which would explain the body that we dug up.

SCULLY: And the force summoned Theresa Nemman's body into the woods tonight.

MULDER: Yes, but it was Billy Miles who took her there, summoned by some alien impulse. That's it!

[69] (Scully laughs, finding everything ludicrous but believing it. Mulder smiles.)

[70] Come on, let's get out of here.

SCULLY: Where are we going?

MULDER: We're going to pay a visit to Billy Miles.

(They start walking back.) 

[71] Scully is willing to go along with Mulder's crazy theory enough to try to prove it. In a brilliant piece of teamwork, Mulder distracts the nurse with questions while Scully examines Billy. And it turns out he's right. 
 
  
 
 
 
 

[72] No gloves or evidence bags again - Scully hasn't yet perfected the trick of carrying everything in her pockets. She has to resort to putting the scraped dirt from Billy's feet into a crumpled Kleenex. Hardly scientific.
   
 
 

[73] Another hand on her back exiting Billy's hospital room. Scully's excitement as she admits that the comatose boy was in the woods mirrors Mulder's previously and is something we won't see much of. She's practically shouting. For a moment she's out-Muldering Mulder. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[74] Mulder turns the tables on her (one could say he's seen how to use Scully to his advantage) by reminding her she's the one who has to put it in her report.

<-RAYMON COUNTY; STATE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL->

[71] (Mulder talks to the nurse while Scully looks at Billy's fingers.)

NURSE: Now, we could stand here until the Second Coming, waiting for Billy to get out of this bed. It ain't going to happen. He blinks and I know about it.

(She starts changing his IV.)

MULDER: I guess you changed his bedpan last night.

NURSE: Hmm, nobody else here's gonna do it.

MULDER: You noticed nothing unusual? Do you remember what you were doing last night around nine-o-clock?

NURSE: Mmm, probably watching TV, yeah.

MULDER: Do you rememeber what you were watching?

NURSE: Um, let's see... you know I don't really remember what I watched.

(Scully goes over to Billy's feet and lifts the covers up.)

Miss?

(Scully starts inspecting Miles' feet.)

What is she looking for?

SCULLY: Mulder, take a look at this.

(Mulder looks at it. [72] Scully starts scraping off some of the strange dirt. Mulder looks back at the nurse.)

MULDER: Do you know who was taking care of Peggy O'Dell last night?

NURSE: Not me, it's not my ward. Not my aisle of the produce section.

(She laughs. Mulder humors her by laughing slightly.)

I do have a job of my own to do... what is she doing now?

(Scully closes up the vial.)

MULDER: Thank you for your time, ma'am.

NURSE: Okay.

MULDER: Good day.

(Mulder leads Scully out. [73] Once outside the room, Scully walks rapidly, excited.)

SCULLY: That kid may have killed Peggy O'Dell, I don't believe this.

MULDER: Scully...

SCULLY: It's crazy! He was in the woods.

MULDER: You're sure?

(She holds up the vial in a baggie.)

SCULLY: This is the same stuff that I took a handful of in the forest.

MULDER: Okay, then maybe we should take it and run a lab test...

SCULLY: We lost the original sample in the fire. What else could it be?

(They stop.)

MULDER: All right, but I just want you to understand what it is you're saying.

SCULLY: You said it yourself.

MULDER: [74] Yeah, but you have to write it down in your report.

(Scully calms down.)

SCULLY: You're right. We'll take another sample from the forest... and run a comparison before we do anything. 


 
 

[75] Scully gets her first whack on the head here and of course manages to miss what happens in the bright light. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[76] Why the 'aliens' don't take Theresa is left unexplained. Perhaps the fact that there are witnesses makes them release their hold on Billy.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[77] Scully, breathless, asks what happened. The look they give each other and the tone they use sounds as if they are talking about something far more intimate. Mulder looks as if his next unspoken words would be 'You believed me. I love you'. In his way, Mulder probably does love her at this moment. No one's ever believed him, helped him, before. (In terms of writing and direction however, this must be the most awkward exchange in the worst written scene of the whole episode.)

<-COLLUM NATIONAL FOREST, NORTHWEST OREGON->

(They pull up to the forest and see Miles' van. Mulder shines his flashlight in the front seat. It is empty.)

SCULLY: The detective's here. What do you think?

(A woman's scream rings out. Mulder and Scully start running through the forest. They split up, running through foliage, searching for the girl. Out of nowhere, [75] Miles hits Scully on the head with the butt of his gun. She falls and looks up at Miles.)

MILES: You wouldn't listen to me. I told you to stay out of this.

(He runs off as she struggles to get up. Mulder stops and hears another scream, then starts running to his left. He nearly trips over a root and sees Miles standing in front of him, cocking his shotgun.)

Hold it, hold it right there! You got no business out here.

MULDER: There were screams...

MILES: Down on the ground. Now!

MULDER: You know it's Billy. You've known it all along.

MILES: I said down on the ground.

(Mulder kneels.)

MULDER: How long are you gonna let it happen?

(The woman screams again.)

He's gonna kill her!

(Miles looks towards the screams, then runs off. He sees Billy lifting up Theresa's shoulders. The wind is growing and the leaves are swirling around them.)

MILES: Billy, no! Let her go! Leave her alone!

(Billy looks at him, then goes back to lifting her up. Miles points his shotgun and Mulder tackles him. A shot rings out. Scully, holding her head, hears the shot and runs in the direction of it. Mulder and Miles watch on the ground as Billy takes Theresa in his arms and looks up. Mulder notices the two welts on Billy's back. The wind grows stronger and a light encompasses them. Mulder and Miles stand, looking at the light. Scully looks from a distance as the light grows. The light and wind die down and there is a thunderclap. [76] Billy stands there, Theresa on the ground. She looks at him and he looks at his father.)

BILLY MILES: Dad?

MILES: Billy. Oh, god.

(They hug. Mulder sees that the bumps are gone. Mulder realizes that his partner is missing.)

MULDER: Scully.

(He picks up his flashlight and starts running. They meet halfway.)

Scully!

SCULLY: [77] Mulder, what happened? There was a light.

MULDER: It was incredible.

(They both gasp for air, Mulder smiling slightly.) 

 
 
 
 
 

[78] Perhaps they meant to test Scully with this case, then recruit her into their plan, using her to control Mulder, or as a willing spy. 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[79] When Mulder turns and looks through the window he makes immediate eye contact with Scully. The others have left and he seems to be saying, You know what happened. Are you on my side, or are you with them? Scully is a bit unnerved by this - she seems to accept that he can see her, though she knows this is impossible.

<-MARCH 22, 1992; FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON, D.C.->

(Doctor Heitz Werber sits across from Billy.)

HEITZ WERBER: If you can hear me, raise your right hand.

(Billy does so slowly.)

Tell me about the light, Billy. When did you first see the light?

BILLY MILES: In the forest. We were all in the forest having a party. All my friends. We were celebrating.

HEITZ WERBER: What were you celebrating?

BILLY MILES: Graduation. And then the light came. It took me away to the testing place.

(Mulder is off to the side, watching. His reflection can be seen in the mirror.)

They would tell me to gather the others so that they could do tests. They put something in my head... here.

(He puts his hand on his head where his nasal cavity is. [78] On the other side of the mirror, Scott Blevins, the Cigarette-Smoking Man, the third man from before, and Scully are watching.)

I would wait for their orders.

HEITZ WERBER: Billy, who gave the orders?

BILLY MILES: The light. They said it would be okay. No one would know. But the test didn't work. They wanted everything destroyed. They said they were leaving. I'm afraid. I'm afraid they're coming back.

(Billy starts crying. The Cigarette-Smoking Man whispers in Blevins' ear.)

HEITZ WERBER: Don't be afraid Billy, we're gonna help.

SCOTT BLEVINS: All right, let's go.

(As they all start to file out, [79] Mulder looks at the mirror directly at Scully. Scully looks at him, knowing that he cannot see her, then leaves.) 

[80] As they will remain. Both their field reports read more like personal journals, detailing not only the facts, but their emotional responses to the case (Irresistible, Unruhe, etc). This seems quite unusual, but perhaps subjectively is the only way to report on their cases, as objective evidence is usually lacking.

[81] Scully has an unusual amount of confidence in the face of Blevins final interview. She knows what she has seen and won't be intimidated, even though she cannot prove any of it. She's had a taste, perhaps, of what it is to be Mulder, and when she's questioned on his thoughts she answers in a very Mulderish way. Already she is somewhat stronger than she was at the beginning. 

[82] Does anyone want to guess how mad Mulder is going to be when he finds out that Scully gave away the only piece of hard evidence they had concerning the case? (NG)

[83] Scully can't help a little smirk here - possibly at her own cleverness in answering the question truthfully while not answering it at all. She's learning to beat them at their own game. Otherwise, she's being unusually derisive of Mulder and his beliefs, which seems rather strange after what she's just seen and her smug attitude of a minute ago when she told Blevins the material of the implant couldn't be identified.

<-SECTION CHIEF BLEVINS' OFFICE; FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON, D.C.->

(Blevins is seated at his desk and the third man is seated next to the right of him. Scully is sitting across from Blevins.)

SCOTT BLEVINS: What we've just witnessed, what we've read in your field reports... the scientific basis and credibility just seem wholly unsupportable, you're aware of that?

SCULLY: Yes, sir. My reports are personal and subjective[80]. I don't think I've gone so far as to draw any conclusion about what I've seen.

THIRD MAN: Or haven't seen, as seems to be the case. This, uh... time loss... you did or did not experience it?

SCULLY: I can't substantiate it, no.

SCOTT BLEVINS: What exactly can you substantiate, Agent Scully? I see no evidence that justifies the legitimacy of these investigations.

SCULLY: [81] There were, of course, crimes committed.

SCOTT BLEVINS: Yes, but how do you prosecute a case like this? With testimony given under hypnosis from a boy who claims that he was given orders from some alien force through an implant in his nose? You have no physical evidence.

[82] (Scully stands and puts down the vial with the nasal cavity implant on Blevins' desk.)

SCULLY: This is the object described by Billy Miles as a communication device. I removed it from the exumed body.

(Blevins looks at it.)

I kept it in my pocket, it was the only piece of evidence not destroyed in the fire. I ran a lab test on it, the material could not be identified.

SCOTT BLEVINS: Agent Mulder, what are his thoughts?

SCULLY: [83] Agent Mulder believes we are not alone.

SCOTT BLEVINS: Thank you, Agent Scully, that will be all.

(Scully leaves the office as she walks down the hallway, she passes the Cigarette-Smoking Man. She watches him go into Blevins' office, then starts walking.) 

[84] Scully's first sleepless night of many. At last the very weirdness of the case seems to be sinking in. Her rational mind is having a hard time accepting where logic and evidence have led her. It's the first 11.21 phone call of the series. Mulder hangs up first, without saying goodbye - a habit she'll pick up from him with time. The tone of this conversation and the late hour of the call leads one to believe this meeting of theirs is secret, that at this point they are not certain if her assignment to him will continue (interesting that they have already exchanged home numbers however). No silk pyjamas - in fact it looks as if she's not wearing pyjamas of any kind.

<-SCULLY'S APARTMENT->

(Scully lays in bed, eyes wide open, [84] unable to sleep. The time is 11:21. It changes to 11:22. The phone rings and Scully picks up.)

SCULLY: Hello?

MULDER: Scully? It's me, I haven't been able to sleep. I talked to the D.A.'s office in Raymon County, Oregon. There's no case file on Billy Miles. The paperwork we filed is gone. We need to talk, Scully.

SCULLY: Y, yes. Tomorrow.

(She hangs up slowly, then grows a little tenser as she lays down.)

[85] And of course here is the inevitable tag ending, leading us to believe that there are underground tunnels between the Hoover Building and the Pentagon - and apparently the DoD (Gethsemane). From the information given in this episode it is a wonder that it took until Geth/ReduxI/II to expose Blevins as the mole.

<-HIDDEN ROOM->

(The Cigarette-Smoking Man walks down a long hallway. On either side of him are rows upon rows of shelves containing brown boxes. He comes up to one and pulls out a casing holding many of the same kind of vials that were in the abductees.[85] He takes out the one from Ray Soames' body and puts it in the casing with the rest of them. Putting the casing back, he walks down the rest of the hallway, comes to the door and walks out. Closing the door, he then runs his keycard through its sensor. The sign on the door reads:

"In Case Of Fire Or Emergency Know Your Exits PENTAGON Evacuation Procedure"

There is a map of the Pentagon next to it. The Cigarette-Smoking Man walks away.)

IN SUM:

Seeing the Pilot with 6 years of backstory only makes it seem more brilliant. All the bricks are here and in some ways, though there have been frustrating continuity gaffs, the house that's been built with them is exactly what was expected. Most telling is the immediate intimacy of the relationship between Scully and Mulder. Though Scully is far more open in this time than she will be later, they are still not the sort of people that immediately give their trust and confidence. Yet we see them do that here, reaching across a vast ideological divide to communicate with one another.

A lot of subtle gender stuff is happening here in a very unusual way. We will later learn that Scully has a deep need for male approval in a non-sexualised way (Never Again). Her mother refers to her as a tomboy whose brothers bought her a BB gun and taught her to shoot it (One Breath) and her relationship with her military father was very close, though her joining the FBI was an unresolved issue of disappointment between them (Beyond the Sea). Though we never meet youngest sibling Charles, (as of 6x14) the interaction she has with her older brother Bill (esp. Gethsemane & Christmas Carol) suggests a former closeness that they've lost as adults, partly because of Scully's insistence on going her own way. It makes an interesting juxtaposition to her relationship with her mother and sister - though she has a very different personality from either, her bonds with both seem to have strengthened as she grew older. Indeed Melissa was able to talk to Scully in a way she would not brook from any other (Anasazi).

Having tried (and necessarily failed) to be one of the boys in childhood, the adult Dana Scully demands the right to earn her place AS A WOMAN in a man's world - relying on the 'male' characteristics of honesty, intelligence, courage and moral strength - without either denying or playing up her femininity. In the Pilot, the young Scully is still trying to be a good girl to her 'fathers' - Blevins, CSM and the third, unnamed interviewer. Thus she gives them the one piece of hard evidence she and Mulder have managed to retain, but her integrity prevents her from becoming a weapon in the battle between Mulder and his superiors. However desperately she may want the approval of these men, she will neither lie nor cheat to get it. Though she is extremely ambitious (and one can assume she is at this point still unaware of the 'male authority figure issues' she speaks of in Never Again) she does not trade on her small size, her youth, or her looks to smooth her way and she does not take advantage of what could be a very useful (in terms of climbing the heirarchical ladder) situation. She won't sell Mulder out to further her career - indeed she will put her career on the line over and over (Anasazi, Gethsemane, Dreamland) out of loyalty to him and to the experiences they've shared.

Mulder's initial reaction to Scully has to do with his being assigned ANY partner, not with that partner being female. He has a refreshingly distinctive lack of awareness of Scully as a woman, i.e. as a sexualised being available to him as a man, immediately communicated by his pointed use of her surname. This is not merely a distancing technique, but is presented overall as the way FBI agents normally address each other. Mulder does not intend to be soft with Scully, or to allow her any unusual intimacy simply because she is female. Later, as he begins to trust her, it is Mulder that exhibits the 'female' desire for connection and understanding. He seeks proximity, moving into her space, touching her in what he must know is an inappropriate way (he wouldn't continuously put his hand in the small of a male partner's back, or stand close enough to breathe down his neck). However, because of the basic gender reversal between them - Scully is the distant scientist, Mulder the over-emotional believer in the irrational - his touch does not have the usual sexist/ual connotation. It is about connection to, not power over Scully. When she finds his touch or language sexually threatening, she does react quite strongly, using humour to direct him back to his proper place or actually moving out of his reach. Scully's need for Mulder's approval, though very much a motivating force in her life, does not grant him easy access to either her body or her soul.

While Mulder is well played by Duchovny, it is the character of Scully - as incarnated by the tiny, fiery Anderson - that is truly exceptional in the history of series television. In other hands this controlled, rational, intellectual woman may have been too tough or too cold to sympathise with (major criticisms directed at Sharon Gless in Cagney and Lacey) but in Anderson's hands all of Scully's warmth - and pain - is there, boiling beneath the cool surface. The marriage of role and actress has produced a difficult, admirable, isolated woman whose contradictions render her endlessly fascinating. For all the times Scully has been abducted or thrown around, we do not perceive her as helpless or weak; neither does her considerable inner strength deny her vulnerability. We know that Scully can take care of herself, but still there are times that we (and Mulder) desperately want to take care of her. And then there is the tangible physical attraction between the characters (the famous UST), which plays itself out as a singular kind of love that goes far beyond sexual desire into a depth of passionate commitment rarely seen in life, let alone TV. In yet another gender reversal, it is Mulder that keeps reaching for Scully, seeking to know her more intimately.

Mulder's rather olde worlde manners (opening doors, etc) are in direct contrast to his outward unquestioning acceptance of her as a worthy and equal partner and Scully puts up with them - indeed seems not to even notice - as long as the gestures are an unconscious reflection of the way he must have been raised. She refuses, however, to accept undue consideration from him where their work is concerned. Any attempt to protect her is met with outright hostility on her part, so much that her need to hide her fear, grief and/or illness from him will sometimes border on pathological (Irresistible, Elegy, Emily) and actually hinder her work.

There is a line drawn in the FBI as to what behaviour is acceptable between partners of different sexes, and the X Files uses this well to show us desire without involving the characters romantically. The real barrier, however, is Scully herself. It is she - not the FBI rulebook - that draws and continues to redraw the line as her relationship to Mulder deepens and changes. As the show is conceived, written and directed almost entirely by men, this is a rather startling (and welcome) innovation.
 

Fialka
Feb 1999

See also: Written on the Body: The Juxtaposition of Script and Characterisation in The X Files's Dana Scully - Fialka
On the Mulder/Scully Relationship - Maggie Helwig