Agent Reyes reads a newspaper article about the casino murder in the X-files office. She is staring at some case files and rambling numbers when Scully enters. Reyes shows Scully a photo of a murdered woman and lists the woman’s birthdate. Then she does the same for two other similar cases, informing Scully that the victims all had significant karmic numbers. Scully dismisses numerology as child’s play, but she sees a connection in the photos — all the women had the same mark on their bodies. It could be from the killer’s ring.
Mad Wayne gets dressed in his dark apartment, putting on a large ring with a devil’s face. He sees out of his window that Mr. Burt is on the street working a three-card Monte scam. Mr. Burt smiles and nods at Wayne, lip-synching to music. The other people on the street are clustered in threes, moving to the beat of the music in an accidental symphony. Wayne threatens Mr. Burt to stop following him, but Mr. Burt is confident that it doesn’t fit Wayne’s “pattern.” When Mr. Burt implores Wayne to “choose better,” Wayne becomes agitated and turns over the card table.
Reyes visits with a numerologist named Vicki Burdick who resides in a hotel suite numbered 33. Although reluctant to get involved, Burdick agrees to help when Reyes shows her photos of the murdered women. Reyes gets a call from Doggett with news that two more victims surfaced with the distinctive ring marks. She meets him and Scully at the FBI’s behavioral science office, where Special Agent Fordyce briefs his task force. After three murders in 1999 and the three current ones, they have determined that the killer is working in patterns. Yet they don’t know how he chooses his victims, why he kills and if he’ll kill again or disappear like he did previously. They call him the Triple Zero killer because of the three circular marks on the victims. When Fordyce asks for Reyes’ insight, she begins to list the numerological characteristics of the suspect. The room of agents stares at her dumbfounded. The silent room is awakened Reyes’ cell phone rings, and Burdick tells her that she has uncovered something strange in the numerology charts. Suddenly, Burdick’s front door opens. It’s Mad Wayne.
Later, Fordyce questions Reyes at the crime scene of Burdick’s hotel room. Although Reyes told no one else about consulting Burdick, how did the killer find her and kill her? Fordyce chides Reyes for consulting with a numerologist because a killer acts on incomprehensible impulses. Yet Reyes questions whether these impulses may be the result of otherworldly things that no one understands. Outside the hotel, Mr. Burt is holding a domino tile with six dots when Mad Wayne approaches. As Doggett passes the table, Mr. Burt sets the chain reaction of dominos to fall. Mad Wayne asks Mr. Burt why he is trying to get him caught. Annoyed with Mr. Burt’s insouciance, Wayne walks off to avoid the police surrounding the hotel.
Scully begins her autopsy of Burdick’s body at 6:06 pm. The tools of her trade have been laid out for her in groups of six. She notices that Burdick’s bangs are in the shape of three “6”s on her forehead. Six freckles on Burdick’s chest are in the formation of dots on a domino. Scully grabs her microcassette recorder and is spooked that the counter reads “666.” Scully rushes to the hotel to inform Reyes that the markings on the victims are not three zeros, but the numbers “666,” which is the sign of the devil. Reyes has discovered that the victims’ numerology charts actually matched Burdick’s chart. However, none of this information gets them any closer to find the killer. Fordyce’s profile is no help either, matching every serial killer the FBI has hunted. Doggett starts to believe Reyes’ numerology claims when he notices on a map that the path of the murders forms the number 6.
As Scully and Reyes leave the hotel, they share an elevator car with Mad Wayne. As they step out, Scully notices the large devil ring on his finger and pulls her gun. Wayne darts back into the elevator, and the agents follow him on the stairs to the underground parking garage. A car exits as they are left trapped in the locked garage. They try to use their cell phones, but can’t get reception in the garage. Scully and Reyes come upon Mr. Burt, who has no identification on him. However, his car trunk is filled with thousands of compact disks and a checkerboard. After failed attempts to shoot the lock off the garage door, they agree to his invitation to play checkers and listen to music. While the agents play each other, they realize that the red and black checkers match their hair colors. It then occurs to them that the suspect has been killing in a succession of three hair colors: blond, redhead, then brunette. Reyes wonders if they will be his next victims, and Scully instinctively pulls her gun on Mr. Burt. While Scully and Reyes debate about numerology’s role in these murders and the theory that higher forces move the universe, Mr. Burt only eggs on their discourse. When Reyes suggests that perhaps the killer is still in the garage, the lights suddenly go out. They separate, and Scully does not hear Reyes struggle with Mad Wayne. Three shots ring out, and the lights go back on to reveal that Doggett has fired at Mad Wayne and saved Reyes. He figured out from Wayne’s pattern that Scully and Reyes would be the next victims. Scully tries to ask Wayne about his motive, but the man dies. Mr. Burt, however, has vanished.
Later, at 9:09 pm, Scully calls Reyes to ask what her karmic number is. Reyes tells her that she’s a 9, meaning she is a spiritually evolved person. Yet Scully has one other burning question: who was Mr. Burt? “God knows,” Reyes answers.
Outside the hotel, an Italian feast is being celebrated as the people happily dance in the streets. From above, the lights of the world have formed the shape of a familiar face: the smiling Mr. Burt.
“IMPROBABLE”
#9ABX13
Original Air Date: 04/07/02
Written and Directed by Chris Carter
Starring:
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully
ROBERT PATRICK as Special Agent John Doggett
ANNABETH GISH as Special Agent Monica Reyes
Also Starring:
Burt Reynolds as Mr. Burt
Ray McKinnon as Mad Wayne
John Kapelos as Special Agent Fordyce
Ellen Greene as Vicki Louise Burdick
Angelo Vacco as Bartender/Guido
Larry Udy as Middle-Aged Man
Beth Watson as Woman
Ernesto Gasco as Heavy Italian Man
Benito Prezia as Old Italian Man
Nick De Marinis as Pizza Man
Amy D’Allessandro as Amy
Travis Riker as William