Season 8, Episode 10: Badlaa

Synopsis

A legless beggar who pulls himself along on a cart attacks a rude American businessman in Mumbai, India; the businessman apparently survives, but quickly bleeds to death without trying to save himself in a DC hotel room. Doggett wonders if drug smuggling was involved after they find a great deal of damage to the businessman's intestines; Scully is more intrigued by the fact that the decay suggests the businessman died in India. Meanwhile, the beggar lands a janitorial job at a school after projecting a different image of himself.

Doggett finds that another businessman died under similar circumstances in India three weeks before. When Scully sees that there was a weight discrepancy soon after the body was weighed, she wonders if a living stowaway is the cause. The beggar kills the father of a boy named Quinton, after the boy sees the beggar in his room. Since it's unlike the other two deaths, Scully wonders if there are stages involved in whatever's going on. The corpse has a distended belly, and the beggar burrows his way out after Scully makes an incision. At the school, a bully sees the beggar's janitor image waver a little. A professor who has helped the X-Files on several occasions says there is a group of Indian mystics believed to have the ability to disguise themselves.

Scully wonders if someone is out for revenge in relation to an American chemical plant disaster that killed dozens of people outside Mumbai. The bully tells Scully that he was followed by the beggar after his mother shows up dead. The beggar's janitor form is detained, and doesn't show up on a video camera...meaning the beggar is still at large. Quinton and the bully unsuccessfully try to take down the beggar at the school. The beggar disguises himself as the bully as Scully arrives, but at Quinton's urging, Scully shoots and kills him...though she's a little freaked out about opening fire on someone who looked like a kid. Two weeks later, however, the beggar is somehow still seeking out new victims in India.

Michael Welch, who plays Trevor, also played Luke Girardi in Joan of Arcadia and now plays Mike Newton in the Twilight movies.

Episode Body Count

Hugh Potoki: a Minneapolis businessman, killed in Mumbai by the beggar.

Albert Brecht: a Spokane businessman who died a similar death in New Delhi three weeks before Potoki.


Quinton's father: killed in his home by the beggar.

Doggett's first corpse: Doggett says he first saw a dead body when he was 19 and a Marine.


One hundred and eighteen Indian villagers: Scully says most of the native population of the village of Vishi was killed when an American plant accidentally released methyl isocyanate gas.


Beggar's son: another newspaper article says the disaster has claimed another victim, the 11-year-old son of a beggar.


Trevor's mother: drowns after the beggar disguises himself to make it seem like her son is drowning in their pool.


Beggar: belatedly added. Even though he shows up in India, it might be the original beggar or some such thing...Scully shot something, after all.

Humans: 125
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (171/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,907

Creatures: 124
Aliens: 63

Grand Total: 2,094

The Vishi disaster bumps the count past 2,000, with 31 episodes still to go.