TEASER

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA
DECEMBER 21, 1999
A man, Mark Johnson, goes to a funeral. He is chanting over and over - that he will resurrect the body. He puts on the corpse's clothes - to bond with it. The body is of an FBI agent. He turns a cell phone on and places it in the corpse's hand.

DECEMBER 29, 1999
Later, in a graveyard, Johnson sits when his cell phone rings. He proceeds out into the graveyard with a shovel.

ACT ONE

DECEMBER 30, 1999
Scully enters the crime scene at the graveyard. She is met by the mortician who tells her that he knows that the men buried was one of their own, but that he doesn't like the rumors going around that he buried someone alive. He knows that the man was dead. He tells her that they better get their facts straight really fast.

Scully walks over to the cemetery plot and looks down at Mulder.

SCULLY: Mulder, you been spreading rumors?
MULDER: Why? You hear any good ones lately?
SCULLY: Not particularly. So what do you have here?
MULDER: Merry Christmas by the way, Scully.
SCULLY: Thank you. Merry Christmas to you too.

Mulder tells Scully that he thinks it's 'grave robbery with a twist.' He proceeds to show her that the lining of the coffin was ripped from the inside, as if someone was trying to get out. He tells her that he hasn't been spreading any rumors, that the local PD has done a pretty good job of that, ever since they matched the fingerprints on the coffin and headstone with that of the dead man.

Scully wants to know about the person or persons who did the digging. Mulder thinks it was one man with a shovel. He tells her that the rain from the night before hasn't left them much to go on.

MULDER: Go ahead Scully, nay-say-me. The body of an FBI agent gets disinterred, only to climb out on its own and disappear into the Yuletide night.
SCULLY: See you had me up until there.
MULDER: Did I?

Scully thinks that it is what he said before, a grave robbery with a twist. She thinks that most likely it's rigged evidence that has been faked by whoever exhumed the body.

Suddenly Mulder sees a trail of blood on the ground.

Johnson is driving, reciting the passage again. He looks into his rearview mirror and sees a hand reaching up.

Scully, Mulder, Skinner, and some other agents look over the victim, Raymond Crouch's, profile. He had committed suicide. They say that he didn't seem to have any enemies. Skinner wants to know what Mulder thinks. He tells Skinner that he doesn't think it was grave robbery, but rather necromancy - the summoning of the dead, using them to perform tasks. Mulder shows in a picture of the crime scene, the circle of goats blood, but that it was partially washed away by the rain. He tells them that the blood attracts the spirits of the dead, while the magic circle focuses the necromancer's powers, and at the same time protects him from the spirits that he's conjuring. The necromancer may also desire to wear the clothes of the body to create a bond with it.

MULDER: You would not want to be this man's dry cleaner.

Skinner takes Mulder and Scully aside to talk to them. He asks them what if the blood isn't in a circle, but rather in the shape of an ouroboros (the shape of Scully's tattoo - a snake eating its tail - it represents never-ending or infinity - pronounced by Mulder "or-o-bor-os"). He gives them a picture with the Millennium symbol on it. Mulder says that it's possible. It's a mystical symbol, and the Alchemists favored it. They believed that it represented all of existence.

SKINNER: I'm thinking more the Millennium group. It was their symbol as well.

He asks Scully if she is familiar with them, and she is. They talk a bit about the Millennium group, explaining who they are - former FBI agents who offer consulting services for law enforcement, that somehow fell into disrepute. Skinner tells them that the group operates in extreme secrecy and that there were rumors that they had there own agenda. Mulder interrupts that it is in fact a cult based on millennial prophecies. Mulder asks if Crouch was a member, but Skinner says that they couldn't find out. The group apparently dissolved months ago without leaving a trail. He does however have information on three other grave desecrations over the last six months. All three were of dead FBI agents, and all had committed suicide. In all three pictures, there is blood on the ground in the shape of the ouroboros. Skinner wants them to investigate them, but keep a low profile. Mulder says that he thinks he knows where to start.

HARTWELL, PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
WOODBRIDGE, VIRGINIA
Scully asks how Mulder knows who they are about to see. He tells her that he knew him by reputation as a criminal profiler. He checked himself into the hospital for an evaluation. His life hasn't been treating him very well. When Mulder implies that the man is single minded, Scully says that it sounds like someone she knows.

Mulder and Scully enter a room to meet Frank Black, former member of the Millennium group. He is watching a football game.

Mulder tells Frank that they are working on a case that he might have some insight into, and he shows him pictures and asks Frank if he knew the four dead FBI agents. He did. Frank keeps turning his attention back to the game on the television.

Scully tells Frank a little about the case, and asks if the four men were members of the Millennium group. He tells her that they were. Scully tells him that they need information on the Millennium group, but Frank is unwilling to help them. He is retired and is trying to put his life back together after all that has happened. Mulder tells him that they are only two days away from the millennium and that they don't have much time. Frank keeps looking at the game and ignores him.

Mulder gets up to leave and tells him that he is not what he expected him to be. He then gives Mulder one piece of information and then tells him to let him watch the game in piece. After Mulder comments about what [quarter?] of the game they are in, he says that it's the first in eighteen.

RURAL MARYLAND
11:21 PM
Johnson stops his car to fix a tire. A cop stops and is talking to him when he smells something from Johnson's car. He goes to take a look. Meanwhile, Johnson takes some salt out of his pocket and sprinkles it around him in a circle, chanting. The cop opens the trunk and the corpse, now a zombie, kills the cop.

ACT TWO

DECEMBER 31, 1999
7:32 AM
Mulder and Scully are at the crime scene where the body of the cop was found. Mulder stoops where there is a ring of salt on the ground. Scully walks over.

SCULLY: Mulder, if you're gonna tell me that he, uh, stopped by the side of the road to raise the dead, which I hope you're not, I've got two things to say to you. One is that his previous circles were made of blood, not salt. And two --
MULDER (interrupting): -- And they were large enough to contain a body, this is just a protective circle. It's just big enough for one man to stand inside.
SCULLY: To protect himself against what?
MULDER (indicating blood on the ground): Whatever it was that did that.

Someone calls Mulder and Scully over to see the body. He was found with his mouth stapled shut, with a piece of paper in his sticking out. Mulder takes out the paper and reads it. It is a passage of the Bible, from the book Revelation, chapter one, verse eighteen.

Mulder goes to see Frank again. He puts an evidence bag with the piece of paper in it on the table in front of Frank. He tells him that it's verse eighteen, not football. Frank tell him that he can't help them, but Mulder says that he still left him a clue. As Scully comes in, Mulder tells him that no on has to know. He asks what Frank is afraid of. Scully answers for him: "losing your daughter." Scully says that Frank's doctor said that he is in a custody battle with his late wife, Catherine's, parents, and that that's why he is there. He tells her that they claimed he was an unfit father, obsessed with conspiracies and the end of the world, and that his work meant more to him than his daughter, Jordan. He says that the thing is, they were right. Scully asks if that's why he retired. He tells her that he will sell insurance, that he will do whatever it takes, that he'll get well and jump through whatever hoops that they want him to, but that he will not mention the Millennium group again. Mulder tells him that it's obvious that he wants to help, and that no one needs to know.

Frank is sitting looking over the men's profiles. Frank tells him that the group believes that the time of the battle between good and evil described in Revelation is upon them. The four men represent a schism, and believe that for the end come, and it must, that man must an active hand to bring it about. Scully adds that to that end they committed suicide. Frank agrees. Mulder says that it was all for the express purpose of being brought back to life. The four horsemen of the apocalypse - the four men that bring with them war, pestilence, famine, and death. Frank says it is so all the dead or the earth will arise - Armageddon. They believe that it must begin with the dawn of the Millennium, or not at all. The man that they are looking for, the necromancer, exhumed all of the men according to their wishes. However, the necromancer is not a member of the Millennium group. They sought him out. He believes that he is doing God's work, but he is mistaken. When Scully asks more about the man, Frank tells them that he will be normal; they would pass him without even a second glance. Mulder says that to him, this one event would give his life meaning. He then tells them of the kind of place he would live. He keeps profiling, saying that he somehow works with death.

As the scene changes, Johnson is shown putting a fake eye in a stuffed animal. He is a taxidermist.

Frank says that the necromancer stapled the cop's lips together, even with the fear of being caught, because it would prevent him from coming back to life. It is too soon for that, so when he realizes that they found the deputy's body, he'll feel a need to take action, and return to the body the first chance he gets. Frank thinks that they will catch him at the morgue. Mulder says that the four members of the Millennium group, the ones who live that were dead, are who they need to be looking for.

On the way out Scully wonders why she thinks it's more important to track down four dead bodies instead of the murderer. Mulder tells her that he isn't the murderer, and that they aren't dead. He tells her that it's only fourteen hours until the millennium, but she tells him that the true millennium isn't until 2001.

MULDER: Nobody likes a math geek, Scully.

Mulder and Scully decide to use Frank's profile to find the necromancer. Scully will go out to the morgue, and Mulder will go where he thinks he might live. Mulder tells Scully just to humor him, and not to let anyone remove the staples from the deputy's mouth.

RICE COUNTY MORGUE
10:32 AM
At the morgue, a doctor is starting the autopsy on the body. She proceeds to take the staples out of his mouth. After she does that, she sees that his mouth is filled with salt.

The phone rings, but she ignores it as she removes some of the salt. The phone rings again so she stops and goes over to the phone. There is a message from Scully telling her not to do an autopsy, and that if she's already started, to stop right away. The message is too late. The deputy comes up behind her to kill her.

Scully enters the autopsy room where she sees three bodies. The doctor isn't there, so she pulls out her gun. She walks into the other room and finds the doctor, who is bleeding really bad. Suddenly, Johnson is there. Then, she turns and the zombie comes after her. Scully shoots three bullets into the zombie's chest, but it doesn't affect him at all. He keeps going, reaching Scully as her gun is knocked to the floor.

The camera pans from her gun to Johnson as the screen fades.

ACT THREE

At the hospital, the doctor is being wheeled away. Skinner enters the room and asks where Scully is. He is directed into the other room. Skinner kneels down and picks a sheet up off of a body. It's not Scully.

Scully comes up from behind him to talk to him. It's obvious that the zombie did attack her. Her throat has big slashes down the front. She explains to Skinner that the body on the floor is the sheriff's deputy. He was dead and then suddenly wasn't. She tells him that a man was there, who Mulder calls the necromancer, was there and used her gun to shoot the zombie in the head. Scully, though, had been too weak to go after him. She says that she doesn't know what exactly happened, but that it fits what Mulder was saying. Skinner says that he wants to talk to Mulder, but that he hasn't been answering his phone.

At the necromancer's house (as of yet unknown to Mulder), Mulder tries to use his cell phone, but it is out of the calling area. He gets out of his car. On a garbage can lid he sees the name 'Johnson.' Inside the can he finds a large, almost empty fifty pound bag of salt. He grabs some salt and sticks it in his pocket.

As Mulder goes inside, Johnson comes home.

Looking around, Mulder ends up in the basement surrounded by three zombies who attack him. He sees Johnson at the top of the stairs and tries to get out, but he shuts the door on Mulder and locks him in. From outside the door, Johnson hears gunshots.

9:17 PM
Scully goes to see Frank. He tells her that he hasn't heard from Mulder. She tells him that Mulder went looking for the necromancer, and that she is afraid that he might find what he is looking for. Frank tells her he won't help. She tells him what happened at the morgue. She asks him if he really thinks that the Millennium Group is capable of bringing about the end time. He tells her that he understands their beliefs and that he has spent years trying to unravel and make sense of them, but that that doesn't mean that he believes them.

SCULLY: But what if it were true? Good and evil. Which would prevail?
FRANK: I'm sorry.

Scully walks out.

Frank tells the nurse that he wants to sign himself out, and that he won't be back.

In Johnson's basement, Mulder is standing still. There is a ring of salt at his feet, however, he is already hurt.

Frank goes to Johnson's, and Johnson thinks Frank has come to be the fourth resurrected, which he says he has.

ACT FOUR

Johnson tells Frank that they've taken his daughter from him, and murdered his wife, and that there is no justice in this world, but that there will be in the next one.

Johnson gives him a gun to kill himself, and starts to chant, but Frank turns it on him.

Scully is driving when her phone rings. It's Skinner. He tells her that they checked out Frank, and that he received calls other than from his daughter, except the others were left as messages. One was from Rice County, where Scully is. Skinner tells her that all of the men had received calls from the same number a week before their deaths. She tells him that she needs an address.

Frank ties Johnson up, ignoring his plees. He then goes to find Mulder.

Frank calls for Mulder in the basement. He tells him that the zombies are all around. Frank lights some flares and throws them into the room so he can see better. Mulder asks if Frank is armed, which he is. He tells him to shoot for the head, that that seems to stop them. When Frank asks where they are, he tells them that he doesn't know - they are hiding. One jumps out and Frank is successful in killing it. Another one watches them

Scully is driving in her car, looking at her map.

Frank asks Mulder if he can get up. He's hurt, but he starts to stand up anyway, when a zombie attacks Frank.

Scully gets out of her car and heads over to the house, trying to get through the fence.

Mulder comes up behind the zombie and shoots it in the head.

Scully finally succeeds in getting through the gate.

Mulder tries to help Frank up, when suddenly a third zombie comes towards them, but Mulder aims to shoot at it, except, he's out of bullets. Scully comes in at the last second and shoots the last zombie from behind

At the hospital, Frank sits watching Dick Clark. He has stitches on his forehead. Scully comes in telling him that she had Johnson committed, and that he will be under suicide watch as he had requested. Then, Scully tells him that someone is there to see him. It's Jordan. She comes rushing over to give him a hug. Frank hugs her happily and smiles.

Mulder comes in the room. He has a sling on his arm. Frank and Jordan start to leave. The countdown is less than a minute away until the new millennium. Scully asks if he's going to watch, but he says no, that they are going home. Frank tells them to take care of themselves, and then he and Jordan leave.

Mulder and Scully stand together, alone, to watch the ball drop. At midnight, a couple kisses on the screen. Mulder looks down to Scully, then at her lips, and then leans into her and they kiss. It is soft, but meaningful, and not just a peck, but a true kiss. And it is pretty long! There are screams in the background from the television for New Years, and it is almost like they are screaming for them.

When they pull away, Mulder smiles; Scully has kind of a far-off look. Then Mulder smiles, but is nervous.

MULDER: The world didn't end.
SCULLY: No, it didn't.
MULDER: Happy New Years, Scully.
SCULLY: Happy New Years, Mulder.

Mulder looks a little nervous, but they both look very happy. He puts his arm around her as they contentedly walk away.

Overall Rating : 9.5
*Shippy Rating: 12:)
*Based on the Redux II scale (1-10, as Redux II being a 10 [now with Triangle being an 11, above the scale])*
It was hard to give this episode a shippy rating, because in "Triangle," Mulder did say "I love you," but Scully didn't say anything back. But, here, you can still tell they are thinking it!


If you have any more information, spoilers, or questions for me, feel free to email me. If you give me a tip, I don't have to reveal my source, unless you want me too.