TEASER
The episode starts out with a voiceover from Scully about the history and existence of life. Various scenes are showed, one from "The X-Files: Fight the Future" of the cavemen running through the snow.
SCULLY VOICE OVER: From space it seems an obstraction, a magician’s trick on a darkened stage. And from this distance one might never imagine that it is alive. It first appeared in the sea, almost four billion years ago, in the form of single-celled life. In an explosion of life spanning millions of years, nature’s first multi-cellular organisms began to multiply. And then it stopped. Four hundred and forty million years ago, a great mass extinction would kill off nearly every species on the planet, leaving the vast oceans decimated and empty. Slowly plants began to evolve, then insects. Only to be wiped out in the second great mass extinction upon the earth. The cycle repeated again and again, reptiles emerging independent of the sea, only to be killed off. Then dinosaurs struggling to life, along with the first birds, fish, and flowering plants, their decimation earth’s fourth and fifth great extinctions. Only a hundred thousand years ago, homosapiens appear. Man. From cave paintings to The Bible, to Columbus and Apollo 11, we have been a tireless force, upon the earth and off. Cataloging the natural world as it unfolds to us. Rising to a world population of over five billion people, all descended from that original single cell, that first spark of life. But for all our knowledge, what no one can say for certain, is what, or who, ignited that original spark. Is there a plan, a purpose, or a reason to our existence? While we pass as those before us into oblivion. Into the sixth extinction that scientists warn is already in progress…Or will the mystery be revealed through a sign, a symbol, or a revelation?
On a beach in West Africa, some men talking in a native tongue find something in the sand. The camera pans to show the object. It is an artifact with symbols on it.
ACT ONE
IVORY COAST
WEST AFRICA
A man, Solomon Merkmallen comes over to the artifact and takes it.
UNIVERSITÉ CÔTE D'IVOIRE
WEST AFRICA
Solomon takes the artifact inside and we see that it is in two pieces. He puts them near each other and there is a strong force between them. Trying again, he gets the two pieces together, only to have them fly across the room and be embedded in a Bible.
He walks over to the bookshelf and takes the book down. He pulls the artifact out and sets the now fused pieces on the table. It starts to spin and keeps getting faster and faster until he covers it with his hand.
DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
THREE DAYS LATER
A plane lands in America.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
WASHINGTON, DC
Solomon goes to D.C. to see Professor Steven Sandoz for the first time. After getting directions, the man goes up to the room where a man in a lab coat greets him. Solomon says that he brought something of great power to him. As he starts to unwrap the artifact, the monkeys around (like in "The Erlenmeyer Flask") start screeching. They get louder when he takes the artifact out.
It seems that the professor already has a piece to match. However, he starts asking him if he was able to translate any of it. Solomon realizes that the professor is not the man that he went to see. The man kills Solomon.
The real Professor Sandoz goes to his room. He finds Solomon dead on the floor.
FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON, DC
In D.C., Mulder and Scully have been called into Skinner to work on the case. As it turns out, Solomon’s body was not found, but there was enough blood to indicate that he was murdered. He was a professor of biology in Africa where he had sought out the help of Sandoz. Merkmallen and Sandoz both were believers in what Mulder calls "pan spermia, (spelling?)" meaning that they believe that life originated not from earth, but from elsewhere in the universe. Scully talks about a theory that Mars and other planets were habitable long before the earth. That cosmic collisions on these planets blasted microbes into our solar system, some of which landed and flourished on earth. She tells Skinner that almost any scientist would accept it as plausible, theoretically.
Skinner tells the agents about the artifact Merkmallen supposedly found, and hands Scully a rubbing of it. He says that Merkmallen claimed it contained a message, not only of his Mars theories, but of the meaning of human existence.
Mulder tells them that Sandoz had made a claim in a science journal of finding an almost identical artifact with similar writings on it. Scully asks what it was supposed to say, and Mulder says that they would have to ask Dr. Sandoz that. She suggests that they should do that now, but Mulder says that they can’t. Sandoz is missing.
Mulder and Scully walk into the elevator. People start to crowd in and they end up pushed kind of close together.
As he looks at the rubbing of the artifact, Mulder starts to hear high-pitched sounds and muffled voices. Scully is talking to him, probably still about that it is a police matter and not worth them checking out. When the elevator comes to a stop and the people leave, the sounds go away and Mulder focuses on Scully. She asks him if he even heard a word she just said. He simply says no. She tells him that maybe he didn’t want to hear it, and he says no, that he couldn’t hear it.
When Mulder walks out of the elevator Scully tells him that he found out the truth about men doing inhuman experiments, and that he exposed the men behind it who were now dead.
SCULLY: …I mean, you’ve won…What more could you possibly hope to do or to find?
MULDER: My sister.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
11:42 AM
Mulder and Scully go to the university. They meet up with the detective. Mulder talks to a professor there, the man who killed Solomon. He introduces himself to Mulder as Dr. Barnes.
Scully engages in the conversation as Barnes is telling Mulder about the artifact that Solomon had claimed to have found. Scully shows him the rubbing of it and Mulder grabs his head in pain as the sounds start again. He leaves the room.
Scully continues to talk to Barnes, who tells her that Solomon believed the writings were extraterrestrial.
Scully meets up with Mulder and asks him what happened. He tells her that he doesn’t know. He explains that he hears a hollow noise. He tells her that he knows it sounds weird, but that he thinks it’s "the thing." She tells him that it’s just a piece of paper, but she knows he’s serious.
ACT TWO
Scully is looking at the paper with someone as Mulder comes in. Their two opening lines are said in a "flirty" manner.
SCULLY: You’re late.
MULDER: I’m sorry, I thought this was my office.
The man turns around and Mulder smiles. It’s Chuck. (You should remember Chuck from different episodes. This reoccurring character was seen in "Leonard Betts" where he examined the slice of Betts’s head, for one example.) Scully had called him to authenticate the [image of] artifact, because she knew he would.
Chuck asks about what Mulder’s been hearing. It’s only affected Mulder. He tells him that he finds that fascinating, and Scully cuts in with "because the rubbing is a fake." She goes onto say that she’s not the only one to believe that.
Chuck tells him that the writing is Navajo, but that the literal meaning doesn’t make any sense. Scully adds in that it was also found in Africa, which makes it even more suspicious.
Scully and Chuck tell Mulder how Barnes had documented Sandoz’s "fakery" once before. That’s what he does, he exposes science and religious fraud. Mulder says then, that it would be in his best interest to hide something that he couldn’t disprove. Scully asks him then, why Indian writing was found in Africa.
MULDER: In 1996, a rock from Mars was found in Antarctica. How did it get there?
SCULLY (explaining): It was from outerspace.
MULDER raises his arms in the air with a smile on his face, indicating that that is what he meant.
Suddenly Mulder clutches his head as he starts hearing the sounds again. Scully takes him out of the office.
Scully tells him that he should go to the hospital, or at least go to bed. Of course Mulder says no. He tells her that he knows what happened. He had a "sense" of it when he talked to Barnes. He says that Barnes killed Merkmallen. Scully asks him if he’s suggesting that they should arrest him. He tells her, not until he shows her the body.
SANDOZ RESIDENCE
SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND
Mulder and Scully go to Sandoz’s. While Mulder is looking around, Scully stops to look at some pictures on the wall. Mulder comes out with Sandoz’s luggage, and shows Scully the travel tags, saying that he’s been south a lot. Specifically to New Mexico – Navajo country. Scully tells him that she bets she knows who he went to see.
The camera pans to show a close-up of a picture on the wall with Sandoz. He’s standing next to Albert Hosteen, a World War II code talker. (You should remember Hosteen from "Anasazi"/"The Blessing Way"/"Paper Clip.") Mulder says that he was using him to translate the symbols on the artifact. Scully adds, "or write them."
Mulder find’s Merkmallen’s body in the garbage disposal.
Mulder and Scully are talking to Skinner in his office again. Skinner believes that Sandoz is who killed Merkmallen. Mulder thinks it was Barnes, because Sandoz had the artifact. He disposed of the body to make Sandoz look like the killer, and to hide something that no one would think to look for.
Mulder asks Scully to tell Skinner what her medical exam revealed. She tells him that parts of Solomon’s body were missing – his arms, hands, parts of his vital organs, and his thyroid. Mulder tells Skinner it is because they all would show traces of radiation from being exposed to the artifact. Scully says that she ran tests on Solomon and found traces of the radiation CGR – Cosmic Galactic Radiation. Mulder explains that it’s a type of radiation that is found only outside of our solar system. Scully says that she can’t explain it, but that she thinks they have enough proof to make an arrest. Mulder tells her to forget about the arrest, that they need to find the artifacts.
Mulder clutches his head in pain again. He tells Skinner that he knows someone else is on the case besides he and Scully. Skinner says that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He tells Skinner that he knows because he hears it "in his head." Scully takes Mulder out of the room.
Outside the office, Mulder tells Scully that Skinner’s lying, and that he hears people spying on them. Scully tells him that he needs to see a doctor. He tells her that he needs to find the artifacts, but she tells him that she will, and for him to go home. He finally agrees.
Skinner has been watching from around his office door. When the agents are gone, he opens a cabinet to reveal a VCR. He pops out the tape as someone walks in, whom he hands it to. It’s Alex Krycek.
Krycek leaves. Skinner is not happy about what he just had to do. It’s obvious that he had no choice.
ACT THREE
SOUTHWESTERN GENERAL HOSPITAL
GALLUP, NEW MEXICO
Scully goes to New Mexico to see Albert Hosteen. She sees him being wheeled out. In his room she finds another rubbing of the artifact, and on the back is seems to be the portion that Albert translated. It’s from Genesis in The Bible.
Scully talks to the nurse, who tells her that Hosteen is dying of cancer.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
4:58 PM
Mulder is walking through the halls of the university. He sneaks into Barnes’s office, but Barnes is coming in. He hides behind a monkey’s cage when he has another episode from the artifact. Barnes leaves and Mulder comes out to follow him. He can’t walk straight, and he finally stumbles to a landing on a flight of stairs. He lays his head on the ground in extreme pain.
At the hospital, Hosteen is brought back into his room. Scully looks out the door and sees Sandoz who runs. She chases him and finally catches up with him, telling him that she needs some information from him.
A figure walks up to him and looks at him, finally passing him. It’s Krycek.
Krycek finds Barnes outside, and he asks Krycek if he’s the one who called. He tells Barnes that they are destined to become great friends. With that, he hands him Barnes the videotape.
At the hospital, Scully is talking to Sandoz at Hosteen’s bedside. He tells her how about how Albert had been translating the writings. He tells her that the artifact’s extraterrestrial. Scully asks how the aliens got it, but he says that the *aliens* gave it to *them.* He tells her that he can prove it. He pulls out the artifact and lays it on the table. He tells her that Albert had been working on translating another section until he became sick. All he knows it that Albert said that it appeared to be random letters.
The artifact starts to spin until Scully stops it with her hand.
The phone rings at Mulder’s house as Mulder is lying in bed, but someone else picks it up. It’s obvious from the voice who it is. (Note: As I had thought last week, Mulder’s bed *is* different. He must have gotten a new one after the last sprung a leak.) Scully bemused, asks for Mulder. The woman hands Mulder the phone. Scully asks him who is there, but he doesn’t tell her. (This could be considered shippy jealousy:) He just says that he is all right. He asks about the artifact, and she tells him that if she’s to believe what she’s been told about the artifact, it has a passage from Genesis. Mulder tells her that the artifact is extraterrestrial, but she tells him that it can’t be. He tells her that that would be that their progenitors were alien, that their Genesis was alien. She tells him that it’s science fiction, but he tells her that it holds everything - all the mysteries of science that they can’t understand or [won’t] explain. Every human behaviorism – cosmology, psychology, even the X-Files – it all leads back to it. She tells him that that’s impossible. Mulder just tells her to go ahead and prove him wrong.
The camera pans back as Mulder hands the phone to the woman. It’s Fowley.
Fowley walks out into Mulder’s living room and calls someone on her cell phone. She tells them that something happened to Mulder, and that she is going to stay until she finds out what. I assume it is CSM on the other line. (When she hangs up she heads back into Mulder’s room, pulling off her shirt. She better not be trying anything or us ‘Shippers will get even!)
Cancerman is sitting at a meeting smoking. In the background you can hear people talking, saying that there is nothing they can do to prevent "it," and that they need to manage it.
ACT FOUR
In New Mexico, Indians are carrying Albert Hosteen’s on a stretcher into the "healing place." Scully and Sandoz follow behind them. Sandoz follows them in, but Scully stays behind, looking up at the night sky. During these scenes, Scully is giving a voice over:
SCULLY VOICE OVER: It began with an act of supreme violence, a big bang expanding ever outward, cosmos born of matter and gas. Matter and gas. Ten billion years ago. Whose idea was this? Who had the audacity for such invention? And the reason? Were we part of that plan ten billion years ago? Are we born only to die? To be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth before giving way to our generation? If there is a beginning, must there be an end? We burn like fires in our time, only to be extinguished, to surrender to the element’s eternal reclaim – matter and gas. Will this all end one day? Life no longer passing to life, the earth left barren like the stars above, like the cosmos? Will the hand that lit the flame let it burn down? Let it burn out? Could we too become extinct? Or if this fire of life living inside us is meant to go on, who decides? Who tends the flames? Can he reignite the spark even as it grows cold and weak?
Sandoz comes out and tells Scully that she can go inside, but she declines saying that she doesn’t hold their faith. Sandoz tells her that the doctors did everything they could. She agrees.
Scully’s cell phone rings. It’s Skinner. She tells him that she is with Sandoz in Gallup, New Mexico. He says that he’s at Georgetown hospital. He tells her that Mulder’s in serious condition and that she needs to get there right away. She asks him what happened, but he says that no one knows, and just to get out there.
Scully tells Sandoz that she has to leave. He asks her not to tell anyone where he is until they know for sure about the artifact. She agrees.
Scully leaves.
GEORGETOWN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
WASHINGTON, DC
Skinner is sitting in the hall waiting for Scully. He looks upset.
Scully arrives at the hospital and finds out that Mulder’s in the special psychiatric unit, which she tells Skinner. He starts to say that he told her, but she says that he didn’t, just that he was in serious condition. She’s shaken. Skinner calls her ‘Dana’ and tells her that he didn’t know what to do, and no one else does either. He says that he knew she would want to see Mulder and talk to the doctors. Then he takes her hand. She asks him "What?"
The scene changes to monitors of Mulder, where Fowley is standing watching him. He’s in an empty room yelling. Fowley thanks Scully for coming and tells her that he was asking for her "last night." (Yeah right. I think Fowley’s asking to get her butt kicked with that implication.)
The doctor comes in and Scully asks what is wrong with Mulder. He tells Scully that he doesn’t know. He has extremely abnormal brain functioning, but there are no signs of stroke. He’s waiting to run more tests. He tells her that Mulder was being really violent. With the medicine they gave him, he should be in a barbituate coma, but that he has brain activities in areas he’s never seen before. (This sounds like what was going on with Gibson.) Scully tells him that she wants to talk to him.
DOCTOR: No. He’s a danger to anyone.
SCULLY: Not to me.
Fowley asks to speak with Scully in the hall. Mulder suddenly screams to Scully, looking up at the camera like he can see her. Scully looks like she’s about to cry. Skinner gets her to go out with Fowley.
Fowley starts asking questions about the case that Scully doesn’t want to really give. Skinner tells Diana that the case has nothing to do with what’s happening to Mulder. Fowley just says, "Agent Scully says it does." (Yeah, like she really believes her) Fowley tells Scully that she knows that she knows she worked on the X-Files. She tells her that she wants to help. Skinner says that there is nothing about the case to make it an X-File, that Scully found the proof of that. Scully says in confusion, "I never sent you that report." Skinner ignores it and starts out saying that anyway, the case has been resolved. Fowley tells him that it hasn’t where it concerns Mulder. Fowley asks that if she knows what’s happening, why she won’t tell her. Scully asks her why she was with Mulder last night. She tells her that he called her, and she found him on a stairwell. She says that he told her that she was the only one that would believe him about an artifact. (Yeah right) Scully gets mad and tells her she’s a liar. Skinner says her name and holds her arm before she leaves. Scully says, "You’re both liars."
In the "healing place," Sandoz is watching the healing ritual when he gets up.
In their office, Scully is looking around for something. She thinks she’s found it in the smoke detector. The scene shows her though a camera lens, so it’s obvious that she is right. Before she can find out, the phone rings. It’s Sandoz. She tells him that it may not be a secure line. He tells her that he still has to talk to her anyway. He realized what the letters Albert translated are. They’re coordinates for genes, symbols for gene clusters – the human genome. Scully grows silent. He tells her that he thinks it’s all there. A map to their human genetic makeup – every gene on every chromosome. Proof of what he had been saying. He says they only need to find more pieces.
Horses are heard approaching behind Sandoz.
Scully starts calling his name because he is silent. A gunshot is heard. Scully looks up to the smoke detector in the corner.
In New Mexico, the camera pans to show the shooter’s face. It’s Krycek.
IVORY COAST
36 HOURS LATER
Scully arrives in Africa where someone called her from – the men there are afraid of what they’ve found. Scully goes with them to the beach, where an African shows her what they found. He tells her that it matches the rubbing of the artifact that she has.
They walk over to the edge of the beach and leave. Scully crouches down to the ground and moves the sand away to see a large artifact. She realizes that it’s not just a little piece. She steps backwards and looks down as the screen pans away from her to show that the artifact is in fact part of a bigger piece. The camera keeps panning. It's an alien craft! (it is a triangle one like Krycek was on in "Apocrypha.") The screen fades to say, "To Be Continued."
Overall Rating : 9
*Shippy Rating: 6.5
*Based on the Redux II scale (1-10, as Redux II being a 10 [now with Triangle being an 11, above the scale])*
(be sure to check out the images, quotes, reviews, ect. of older episodes, through the main pages.)
