In flashback, twenty-four hours before Agent Scully told an FBI assembly that her partner
was dead (see previous season’s cliffhanger)… Mulder receives a tip from Kritschgau that
their conversations have been monitored. Mulder looks upward–and notices a small pinhole
in the ceiling of his apartment. He races upstairs, where he encounters Scott Ostelhoff, in
the apartment directly above his own, igniting flash paper. A struggle ensues, during which
a shot rings out.
Mulder tells Scully he killed Ostelhoff. He also informs her that the flash paper Ostelhoff
attempted to destroy contained a record of seventeen phone calls placed to the PBX
operator at the Bureau. The agents conclude their own agency is behind the cover-up… and
that they have been pawns in a conspiratorial game since the very beginning. Mulder
suggests they create their own lie in hopes of uncovering the truth.
Shortly thereafter, Scully travels to Mulder’s apartment and identifies Ostelhoff’s faceless
body (the result of the shotgun blast) as that of her partner. Later, during a meeting with
Blevins and Skinner, she is instructed to appear before a joint FBI panel. Afterward, Scully
traces the phone number listed on Ostelhoff’s flash paper to an FBI branch extension that
includes Skinner. This leads Scully to conclude that Skinner may be a mole. Meanwhile, the
Cigarette-Smoking Man tells the Syndicate he questions reports of Mulder’s demise.
Mulder uses Ostelhoff’s identification card to infiltrate DARPA, a secret research facility.
There he encounters Kritschgau, who explains that the card will give him access to the
entire building. Kritschgau then claims the hoax Mulder has been drawn into dates back to
the days just after World War II, a time when generals were desperate to continue fueling the
nation’s economy via a military build-up. In 1947, Kritschgau states, the government began
using the Roswell incident as a cover story to distract the American public from the
truth-and a top secret program involving DNA. He laments he went along with the lie… until
his own son was exposed to bioweapons during the Gulf War. Shortly thereafter, Kritschgau
is led away by sentries. Mulder manages to escape detection and make his way deeper into
the research complex. He discovers a room containing dozens of alien bodies, identical to
the one he discovered at the ice cave-giving credence to Kritschgau’s story.
Dr. Vitagliano finishes his examination of the ice core samples given to him by Scully.
The cells contained within, he concludes, are the beginnings of a new life form. Scully
decides to perform a test that will compare the strange organism to her own DNA. Before she
does so, she encounters Skinner, who reveals how a pathology report concluded the body
found in Mulder’s apartment is not her partner. Later, the DNA test between the samples
proves a match. Scully concludes her cancer resulted from being deliberately exposed to
the organism.
As Mulder continues his journey through the facility, he discovers a warehouse–a
“repository for all the alien-related odds and ends that the Cigarette-Smoking Man has taken
from Mulder over the years.” There he discovers a gigantic index system, which contains
cards for Scully, Kritschgau, and a blank card for Kritschgau, Jr. He also discovers a
metallic vial–which could contain a cure for Scully’s illness.
Scully appears before the FBI panel and announces she will expose the “mechanism of
deception” that drew her partner, and herself, into the government’s lies. She then informs
the panel that her partner died the previous night of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the
head. As she begins to present scientific evidence that will support her claim, she is
suddenly taken ill. Meanwhile, the Cigarette-Smoking Man, working in the shadows,
arranges Mulder’s escape from the research complex. The Lone Gunmen analyze the
contents of the vial… and conclude it contains only deionized water.
To Be Continued…
THE X-FILES “REDUX” #5X02
Original Air Date: 11/02/97
CAST:
DAVID DUCHOVNY as Special Agent Fox Mulder
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully
GUEST CAST:
WILLIAM B. DAVIS as The Cigarette-Smoking Man
JOHN FINN as Scott Kritschgau
STEVE MAKAJ as Ostelhoff
KEN CAMROUX as Senior Agent
CHARLES CIOFFI as Blevins
BARRY W. LEVY as Dr. Vitagliano
BRUCE HARWOOD as Byers
DON S. WILLIAMS as Elder
DEAN HAGLUND as Langly
TOM BRIADWOOD as Frohike
JULIE ARKOS as Holly
WRITTEN BY:
CHRIS CARTER
DIRECTED BY:
KIM MANNERS
DIRECTED BY:
KIM MANNERS
