Season 3, Episode 22: Quagmire

Synopsis

A U.S. Forestry Service scientist is dragged into a lake in Georgia. Mulder hops on the case, thanks in part to the legend of a plesiosaur called Big Blue living in the lake, and Scully has to bring Queequeg along. A biologist named Dr. Farraday isn't too choked up, saying the scientist was flippant toward nature and a dieoff in the frog population. A fisherman manages to come up with the remains of a Boy Scout leader who also went missing. A bait shop proprietor is killed by a creature while stomping some fake monster tracks into the mud, and a snorkeler (another ill-fated friend of the stoners from "War of the Coprophages" on a road trip) is also torn apart. A guy who has been trying to capture a picture of Big Blue goes missing after being attacked.

Mulder wants the lake to be shut down after the three deaths in one day, but the local sheriff and Scully think the deaths can be explained by boating accidents or other incidents. The sheriff changes his tune after getting pulled into the lake and something brushes against his leg. Scully is unpleasantly surprised when something eats Queequeg while she takes him for a walk. Mulder notes how the monster sightings originated in the middle of the lake and have progressed toward the shore. He and Scully take a boat out at night to investigate, but are marooned on a rock when something big on the fish radar rams the boat and sinks it.

Scully's a little pissed about the whole incident, and Mulder tries to explain his stake in the case as an interest in an evolutionary marvel. The two discuss cannibalism and Moby Dick until Dr. Farraday arrives and lets them know they're within wading distance of the shore. Mulder wonders if the decrease in frogs in a specific cove is causing the beast to attack humans as another source of food.

The sheriff has assembled a full team to hunt down the lake monster, and wants to focus on the area of a recent attack while Mulder wants to search the cove where frogs have been dying off. Scully comes to his aid by requesting a few men be diverted from the main effort. Farraday is attacked but survives, and Mulder goes off in search of the creature. He ends up shooting and killing an alligator. Mulder is somewhat disappointed that it wasn't Big Blue after all, but Scully tells him that people want to believe and that's the reason legends endure. As they leave, Big Blue briefly surfaces on the lake.

Episode Body Count

Dr. Bailey: dragged into the lake by some sort of creature.

Scott Woostley: a Boy Scout leader who also went missing; half of him is later found.

Cow: Ted says Ansel Bray's father's cow was eaten by Big Blue.

Ted Bertram: killed by a creature while making some fake monster tracks.

Snorkle Dude: torn apart while diving in the lake.

Ansel Bray: dragged into the lake while trying to capture a photo of Big Blue.

Queequeg: he was abducted! By a crocodile, or something...

Fisherman: the sheriff says there has been another death, and a man's arm has been bitten off.

Alligator: shot and killed by Mulder.

Humans: 6
Creatures: 3
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (71/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 882
Creatures: 57
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 986

Season 3, Episode 21: Avatar

Synopsis

Skinner, nearing the end of divorce proceedings, hooks up with a woman he meets at a hotel; he wakes up the next morning with a bit of a memory lapse and and finds her dead of a broken neck. Mulder finds that the woman was a legal secretary who was moonlighting as a prostitute. Scully finds a phosphorescent material around the woman's mouth.

A D.C. madam confirms that Skinner paid for the woman's services. Skinner is released by the police, and the agents discover that he didn't know the woman was a prostitute even though his credit card was charged. Meanwhile, Skinner keeps seeing a vision of an old woman, including his wife. The Office of Professional Conduct starts looking into the matter. Mulder believes Skinner is innocent, and Scully wonders if Skinner killed the woman in his sleep, since he was being treated for a sleep disorder involving dreams of an old woman. Mulder is reminded of the story of the succubus, which includes luminous phenomena. Scully remembers the phosphorescent material, but finds that it has disappeared.

Skinner's wife is run off the road and injured soon after she visits with him, and Skinner is brought in again. He seems to be evasive because he doesn't know what's happening to him, and tells Mulder that he first saw the old woman when she saved him from death in Vietnam; Mulder wonders if the woman isn't trying to help him. The evidence on Skinner's car again points to him as prime suspect, though Mulder finds a latent impression in the airbag that seems to vindicate Skinner. Unfortunately, it comes too late for a disciplinary hearing where Skinner is dismissed.

The D.C. madam is thrown out of her building, and Mulder and Scully work with another prostitute to figure out who is trying to set up Skinner; the girl and her bosses, from Cancer Man's Syndicate, set up a meeting. Skinner sees the old woman in his hospitalized wife again, but this time listens to her. Skinner saves the prostitute as she is about to be murdered at the hotel and returns to work. Mulder tries to get him to tell him about the paranormal experience, but Skinner declines.

Amanda Tapping, who plays Carina Sayles, also played Major/Colonel Samantha Carter in Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis.

Episode Body Count

Carina Sayles: dies of a broken neck after a night with Skinner.

Lorraine Kelleher: a D.C. madam who is tossed out of her building.

Unidentified man: shot and killed by Skinner.

Humans: 3
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (70/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 876
Creatures: 54
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 977

Season 3, Episode 20: Jose Chung's "From Outer Space"

Synopsis

In Washington State, a young couple drives past a man working on a utility pole problem and soon after are beset by a pair of little gray men. The "aliens" are surprised soon after by a beastly creature coming down from a UFO, at which point one asks the other in English, "Jack, what is that thing?"

Scully is being interviewed by Jose Chung, a novelist seeking to write a "non-fiction science fiction" book on the abduction; Mulder has refused an interview. Scully says the incident was seen as more of a date rape situation, though lost time was involved. Under hypnosis, the girl said she was abducted and Mulder felt that and the boy's corroborating story was evidence that aliens were involved. A detective with a colorful vocabulary (censored in Scully's telling) thought the agents bleeped up the case.

The boy mentioned how one of the gray "aliens" was imprisoned with them and was a bit of a smoker; he also mentioned how he and the girl had sex, which Scully thought might be the only reason for the abduction story. The electrical worker, a guy named Roky, told the agents that he was visited by a Man in Black (who looked like Jesse Ventura) and ordered not to say how he witnessed the abduction. He did anyway, but it included him being mankind's only hope by the real alien and an orgy with reincarnated souls. Under hypnosis, the girl changed her story to say she was abducted by Air Force men.

A dead alien was found by a conspiracy nut named Blaine Faulkner, who mistakes Mulder and Scully for Men in Black (and later had an autopsy tape stolen by the Ventura MiB). An autopsy revealed the alien to be an Air Force major who had gone AWOL, and Mulder found another AWOL pilot, Lt. Jack Schaffer, on the road. In a diner, the pilot told Mulder the abductions were just the military messing around, and that everyone was abducted by real aliens on that night. Chung says that he spoke with the cook in the diner, and that on the evening in question Mulder was actually just eating a lot of pie and asking the cook questions about alien abductions.

Scully also tells Chung that Mulder returned to the motel to find two MiB rifling around: Ventura and Alex Trebek. Scully has no recollection of it, but was surprised to find Mulder sleeping in her room the next day. The wreckage of a top secret plane was found, along with the bodies of Vallee and Schaffer. The foul-mouthed detective recognized Vallee's body from the autopsy and seems a little skeptical.

Mulder asks Chung not to write the book, thinking it cheapens the conspiracy's threat and could be part of the military-industrial-entertainment complex. Chung goes ahead anyway, and gives a bit of an epilogue, which includes the girl getting inspired to work towards saving the planet, Faulkner getting Roky's job, and Roky becoming a preacher.

The two Men in Black here are, of course, the most recognizable guest stars. Jesse Ventura has been a professional wrestler, acted in some films (including Predator), and was elected Governor of Minnesota a few years after this episode. Alex Trebek has hosted the game show Jeopardy! since 1984.

Episode Body Count

Major Robert Vallee: found dead in a field in an alien suit. His body is later planted at a plane crash site.

Lt. Jack Schaffer: killed under uncertain circumstances, and his body is also planted with the plane.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (69/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 873
Creatures: 54
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 974

Season 3, Episode 19: Hell Money

Synopsis

A young Chinese immigrant is burned alive in a crematorium in Chinatown in San Francisco. Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate, and Mulder notes how 10 other deaths have occurred with the same MO in four cities. At the scene, they find the Chinese symbol for "ghost" as well as "hell money" offered during the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts.

Meanwhile, a man named Hsin is trying to get money to help his sick daughter, Kim, through a lottery where tiles are pulled from a vase. The man who draws on the first night is found dead soon after with various organs missing, and Scully posits that there is a black market trade going on to harvest body parts. Hsin is drawn for the lottery and ends up losing an eye. The agents find him after realizing that he installed the carpet in the apartment of one of the previous victims. A detective working the case with Mulder, Glen Chao, is attacked by the same masked men who have been showing up at the murders.

Hsin tries to get out of the organ lottery, but to no avail. Mulder begins to wonder if Chao is involved in the murders, and he also realizes that there is a game afoot after he and Scully interview Kim. After seeing Chao enter a building, the agents follow and find an eye packed in ice in the restaurant on the first floor. Chao orders that the lottery be stopped, and also finds that the game is fixed: all of the tiles are the same. Hsin has pulled a tile callling for his heart to be removed, but the surgery is stopped when the agents intervene. They also apprehend the lotto's main man, who defends his actions as giving hope to the men. Unfortunately, none of the men agree to testify and Chao is murdered; the game will go on.

Lucy Liu, playing Kim Hsin, is better known for her roles as Ling Woo on Ally McBeal, Alex in Charlie's Angels, and O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill: Vol. 1. B.D. Wong, who plays Detective Glen Chao, has had numerous other roles including Dr. George Huang on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Father Ray Mukada on Oz.

Episode Body Count

Johnny Lo: burned alive in a crematorium.

10 other Chinese immigrants: Mulder says there have been cremation deaths in San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Boston.

Li Di-Huan: loses the lottery after he pulls a tile calling for his heart to be removed.

Detective Glen Chao: burned alive in a crematorium so he won't testify about the lottery.

Humans: 13
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (68/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 871
Creatures: 54
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 972

Season 3, Episode 18: Teso Dos Bichos

Synopsis

An archaeological dig in Ecuador unearths the body of a female shaman; over the objections of the locals, the head of the expedition orders the body transported to the United States. He is attacked and killed by some sort of animal that evening and disappears. Three weeks later, a man goes missing and is presumed dead at the Boston museum where the body has ended up. Dr. Lewton, a man who helped organize the dig as a controversial way of retrieving artifacts before an oil pipeline is built thinks it might be a political killing. Mulder notes the legend about a jaguar spirit devouring anyone who disturbs a female shaman's corpse.

Mulder and Scully question Dr. Alonso Bilac, who parted company with the organizer killed in Ecuador over the issue, and Scully considers him the prime suspect. Bilac continues to have contact with a student at the museum named Mona Wustner, and Lewton is killed outside the museum. A couple of dead rats are found in his car engine, and the agents also find his small intestine with rat bites on it. Wustner gets freaked out by Bilac's behavior and reports it to the agents, shortly before seeing swarms of rats exit the bathroom's toilets and going missing/dead.

Scully finds Bilac's journal entries and thinks he was just tripping, though they do mention a jaguar. Mulder finds Bilac in the bathroom, but he denies killing Mona or knowing where her body is. After finding dead rats in a toilet, Mulder wonders if the critters were trying to escape something. Bilac goes missing, apparently dragged into an old steam tunnel. In the tunnel, the agents find the bodies and a lot of angry cats, but manage to escape. The museum is closed, the bones are returned to Ecuador and buried, and Mulder concludes with the moral that there are some powers that should not be disturbed.

Frank Welker, credited here for special vocal effects, has done a ton of voice work including Nibbler on Futurama, animals on The Simpsons, and most recently some of the robots in the Transformers movies.

Episode Body Count

Female shaman: found by the dig crew.

Dr. Carl Roosevelt: mauled to death by a jaguar spirit or some such thing.

Craig Horning: a staffer whose blood is found in the Boston Museum of Natural History.

Dr. Lewton: killed outside the museum, perhaps by pissed off cats.

Two rats: Scully says at least two rat carcasses are found in the engine of Lewton's car.

Mona Wustner: reported dead by Bilac after she sees the toilets overflowing with rats.

At least three dead rats: found floating in a museum toilet.

Sugar (plus a dead cat and rat): Wustner's dog, found dead after eating a piece of cat intestine that had a poisoned rat in it.

Dr. Alonso Bilac: apparently killed after being attacked by the cats.

Humans: 6
Creatures: 8
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (67/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 858
Creatures: 54
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 959

Season 3, Episode 17: Pusher

Synopsis

A man known only as "Pusher" is apprehended while buying a body-building protein in a Virginia supermarket. He causes the police officer transporting him to fail to see an approaching truck, and also manages to get the mortally wounded cop to free him. A surviving officer says Pusher is suspected in a series of contract killings, though the deaths have gone down as suicides. Another attempted capture results in a SWAT man immolating himself, but a seriously fatigued Pusher is found and arrested by Mulder.

Pusher, now identified as Robert Patrick Modell, appears in court, having confessed to 14 murders. Mulder says Modell has a suggestive ability that allows him to maintain his innocence...an ability that helps him get released. It also turns out that Modell applied to the FBI, but was rejected as an extreme egotist. Modell manages to con his way into the FBI offices in search of personnel files, and escapes Skinner's apprehension attempt when he convinces another employee that Skinner mugged her.

Mulder wonders if Modell gained his abilities through a recent brain tumor and has to frequently replenish himself with energy supplements. Modell calls his apartment after a raid and talks an officer into a fatal heart attack. Modell tells Mulder he wants a worthy adversary; Mulder finds out that he'll be at a hospital, and decides to go in alone to avoid collateral damage. He decides to go ahead with the plan, even though Modell is dying and has caused another two deaths. Modell convinces Mulder to play a round of Russian roulette; with a little help from Scully, Mulder breaks the trance, shoots Modell, and leaves him in a coma.

Robert Wisden, who plays Robert Patrick Modell, also played Chief Coroner James Flynn in Da Vinci's Inquest and Richard Nixon in Watchmen. Dina Walters, uncredited as an FBI archivist, had a role as Dottie Sunshine in the Greg the Bunny for its brief run.

Episode Body Count

Deputy Kerber: on the right; fatally injured after a truck collides with the police cruiser he is driving.

14 murders: in court, a judge mentions how Modell is suspected in these murders.

Frank Burst: dies of a heart attack brought on by Modell after refusing to cut off a phone conversation so a trace can be completed.

Hospital guard and technician: Modell convinces the guard to shoot the technician and himself.

Humans: 18
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (66/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 852
Creatures: 46
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 945

Season 3, Episode 16: Apocrypha

Synopsis

The episode opens in 1953, where a survivor of the Zeus Faber tells Bill Mulder, Cancer Man, and other government agents about how the black oil that was infecting the captain ended up oozing out and presumably infecting the other men, leading to the radiation burns. He hopes the government can help get the truth out about the incident.

In the present, Scully stays with Skinner as he recovers from the gunshot wound. Mulder and Krycek return to the States, and are run off the road in Maryland by two men also seeking the tape; Krycek blasts them with radiation soon after. Scully tells Mulder that the man who shot Skinner is the same person as the man who killed Melissa. She pushes for the FBI to capture Krycek, as she believes he's the key to solving both the radiation deaths on the Piper Maru and her sister's death.

Mulder tells Scully that a film of oil, altered by exposure to radiation, was found on the dive suit, Gauthier, and Gauthier's wife when she was found in Hong Kong. He believes it to be an alien medium of body jumping. The Lone Gunmen retrieve a package from a skating rink using a key Krycek gave Mulder, but find that the tape is gone, returned to Cancer Man by Krycek. Cancer Man's crew is again pissed at his inept assassins, since a sketch of Skinner's shooter has been released to the press and he risks exposing the organization if he is caught.

Mulder calls Cancer Man Inc. through a latent print of a phone number left on the envelope, and meets with the Well-Manicured Man. He tells Mulder that the UFO in Newport News is a foo fighter shot down during World War II, and hints that the agents should keep a closer eye on Skinner. Luis Cardinal, who has been identified as Skinner and Melissa's shooter, tries to kill Skinner during an ambulance transport but is caught by Scully and subsequently arrested.

Cardinal tells Scully that Krycek is going to an abandoned missile silo in North Dakota. Mulder believes the UFO has been moved there. They are apprehended by soldiers soon after, and Cancer Man also shows up to tell them that nothing is there. Well, except for Krycek vomiting out the black oil into a UFO secreted in a missile silo. Mulder tells Scully that Cardinal was found dead in his cell. Back in North Dakota, Krycek has been abandoned in the silo and is screaming for help.

Episode Body Count

Two sedan thugs: are hit by the black oil radiation; a doctor says they won't survive, and Cancer Man tells him to make sure of it.

At least 11 Piper Maru deaths: Scully refers to the "radiation deaths" aboard the boat, and there are also references to how difficult it is to survive the irradiation, so I'll assume they didn't make it.

Three soldiers: apparently radio-blasted by Krycek and found dead in the North Dakota silo.

Luis Cardinal: found dead in his cell, framed as a suicide.

Alex Krycek: he's locked underground with no food and water...there's no possible way he's getting out of that one, right? Right?

Humans: 18
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (65/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 834
Creatures: 46
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 927

Season 3, Episode 15: Piper Maru

Synopsis

A French salvage ship, the Piper Maru, puts a diver named Gauthier down in the Pacific to check out a sunken P-51 fighter. After seeing a man in the cockpit with a black oily film in his eyes, Gauthier is returned to the ship, apparently safe but with the same black oil condition. The ship returns to port with the crew suffering severe radiation burns, except for Gauthier; there are also no signs of radiation on the ship. Mulder realizes that the French have been snooping around in the same place where the craft that Mulder saw in Newport News was found (it was previously explained as a piece of a Russian submarine hull).

Gauthier returns home, not really himself, and ends up transferring the black oil to his wife after trying to find something in his house. Mulder finds Gauthier, who is better but evasive on a letter from a salvage brokers company. Scully, who is angered and saddened by the FBI's decision to call off the investigation into her sister's murder, goes to see Commander Johansen, a friend of her father's. Johansen denies knowing about the plane or the phrase "Zeus Faber" written on a map; however, he soon tells her that he was sent to find the plane on a submarine bearing the same name, and that the fighter was an escort for a bomber carrying an atomic bomb that was shot down. In a flashback, Johansen reveals that the ship's captain was possessed by the black oil and most of the men on board died.

At the salvage company, Mulder is told that the owner is out of the country. The place is raided by French agents soon after, and Mulder follows an employee named Geraldine to the airport and thence to Hong Kong; Gauthier's wife tags along. In Hong Kong, Mulder finds Geraldine and accuses her of selling state secrets (ie, the location of the plane). Not long after, they run into Krycek and Geraldine is shot by French agents; Gauthier's wife irradiates the agents soon after. In Washington, D.C., Skinner is shot and wounded by a thug in a restaurant. In Hong Kong, Mulder catches Krycek in the airport and demands the digital tape with the UFO files. Krycek says it's back in Washington, and Mulder allows him a bathroom break. There, he is attacked and black-oiled by Gauthier's wife. To be continued...

Michael Buble, uncredited as a submarine sailor in this and the next episode, is a well-known Canadian jazz musician.

Episode Body Count

Commander Johansen's son: Johansen says he dies in a training accident during the Gulf War.

137 sailors: Johansen says only seven of the Zeus Faber's 144 crewmen survive the attempt to recover the atomic bomb.

Geraldine: shot dead by French agents.

Humans: 139
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Yeah, that's a double deadliest...

Cumulative Body Count (64/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 816
Creatures: 46
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 909

Season 3, Episode 14: Grotesque

Synopsis

A man named John Mostow is arrested for a series of murders in Washington, D.C., and claims he has been possessed by a demon (which he's been drawing quite a bit). However, another man is murdered five days later and shows the same signs of mutilation, despite no details being released. The opinion of a Mulder nemesis and investigator named Bill Patterson is that there's an accomplice, though Mulder says that doesn't fit Patterson's own profile of the killer.

Mulder begins researching gargoyles, and also returns to Mostow's studio to try to sculpt one. There, he gets attacked by something that he says is not human. Scully confronts Patterson, who admits to consulting Mulder as a way of solving the case; he advises her to let Mulder do whatever he wants. Scully finds a knife near the crime scene with Mulder's fingerprints on it, and she and Skinner begin to worry about how stable his mind is.

Mulder tries unsuccessfully to get Mostow's help on how to fight the demon. After finding a dead agent in Mostow's studio, Mulder accuses Patterson of committing the murders after growing possessed himself following his work on the case and method of getting inside a serial killer's head. Patterson flees, but is captured by Mulder and Scully. In prison, Patterson screams that he wasn't the one who killed the men.

Kurtwood Smith, who plays Bill Patterson, is best known for his role as Red Forman on That '70s Show.

Episode Body Count

At least seven men: killed over the course of three years from facial mutilation.

19-year-old man: found dead after Mostow is arrested.

Five gargoyle bodies: found encased in statues in a hidden room in Mostow's apartment.

Agent Craig Nemhauser: found encased in a gargoyle in Mostow's studio.

Humans: 14
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (63/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 677
Creatures: 46
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 770

Season 3, Episode 13: Syzygy

Synopsis

Three high school boys have died in the course of three months in the city of Comity, and a satanic cult is suspected. Two girls who were with the latest victim at the time of his death corroborate this, but also show distinct signs of creepiness. Scully is skeptical, despite a strange incident where a coffin bursts into flames at a funeral. She and Mulder snipe at each other rather uncharacteristically, while Mulder and the local detective flirt it up.

The townspeople are out for blood after finding bones buried in a field, but it turns out they only belong to Terri's deceased dog. Terri and Margi kill the girlfriend of a boy they have a crush on; Terri doesn't seem to care much for the boy after he snubs them, but Margi isn't so sure. They two get into a telekinesis fight over the issue...killing the kid by mistake. Meanwhile, a psychic tells Mulder that the alignment of the planets is what's causing the funkiness in the relationships, and that the cosmos' energy is focused on those born in 1979 on the day of the alignment, such as Terri and Margi.

The two girls each pick an agent and blame the other for the deaths. Despite their newfound disdain for one another, Mulder and Scully agree to bring the girls both in for questioning. After the girls cause more mayhem in the police station, Mulder manages to isolate them both in a storeroom; they are found soon after the clock passes midnight, clinging to each other and terrified. The townsfolk decide it was Satan after all.

Ryan Reynolds, pre-fame in a small role as Jay "Boom" DeBoom, also starred in Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place and a number of movies, including the recent flick The Proposal (he's also married to Scarlett Johansson, the lucky guy). Lisa Robin Kelly, playing Terri Roberts, also played Laurie Forman on That '70s Show.

Episode Body Count

Bruno, Jay DeBoom, and another high school boy: killed over the course of three months.

Basketball player: crushed when Terri and Margi cause the bleachers to retract on him.

Mr. Tippy: a beloved 14-year-old Lhasa Apso that belonged to Terri. The bones are found buried in a doctor's bag in a field and mistaken for a child's remains.

Detective White's cat: White finds a collar on her front step, and the feline is presumed dead.

Brenda Summerfield and Scott Simmons: both get impaled to death, like true high school sweethearts. She gets hit by flying mirror shards, while he is skewered by a garage door spring.

At least 11 birds: found dead on the road by Scully and Detective White.

Humans: 6
Creatures: 13
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (62/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 663
Creatures: 46
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 756

Season 3, Episode 12: War of the Coprophages

Synopsis

An exterminator in Massachusetts dies after getting swarmed with cockroaches that are seemingly immune to his methods. Mulder is up in Massachusetts chasing UFOs when he stumbles on the case; the town has a big science community, and a few other people have fallen to roaches. Scully, working on the case by phone, posits allergic reactions, drug-induced psychosis, and other rationales. Mulder tries to catch a roach, but only gets the exoskeleton and injures his hand doing so.

The local authorities are more receptive to the killer roach theory, and the sheriff lets Mulder know that a Department of Agriculture agent set up shop in town recently. Heading there, Mulder finds Agent Bambi Berenbaum, who says she's studying insects, in part to find ways to eradicate them. Scully gets a little jealous of whatever they have going on, and decides to come up soon after despite findings that her initial suggestions have been correct. She finds the town in a hilarious bug-induced panic.

A roach is captured in a bug trap, and Bambi finds that it seems to be robotic. Mulder visits an artificial intelligence/robotics researcher, who suggests that robotic explorers would come before any biological ones and is shocked to see the metallic bug. Scully discovers that the insects may have been brought in with dung samples for an alternative fuel research facility. A researcher there thinks Mulder is a roach after his cell phone rings, and ends up accidentally blowing up the facility in a methane and dung explosion. The mysterious roaches are also destroyed. Mulder ruminates on whether aliens could reprogram their brains to go beyond basic survival instincts, and if they would consider humans disgusting and primitive; he then reacts in horror upon seeing a roach and crushes it.

A good showing by the druggies this episode. A.J. Buckley, playing the guy who tries to slash a roach out of his skin, now plays Adam Ross on CSI: New York. Tyler Labine, playing a stoner on this and one more episode, now stars as Bert "Sock" Wysocki on Reaper.

Episode Body Count

Doctor Bugger: dies after he is swarmed by cockroaches.

Two other people: Sheriff Frass tells Mulder that a molecular biologist and astrophysicist also died in a similar way. These three deaths are officially attributed to an allergic reaction.

Dude: dies after seeing a bug burrow into his skin and trying to slice it out with a razor while on drugs.

Dr. Newton: a medical examiner, is swarmed by roaches while on the toilet but officially dies of a brain aneurysm.

Motel guest: swarmed by cockroaches, though Mulder thinks he just had a heart attack upon seeing the roaches.

Dr. Eckerle: dies after firing a gun inside a methane gas-filled research facility, causing a massive explosion.

Humans: 7
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (61/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 657
Creatures: 33
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 737

Season 3, Episode 11: Revelations

Synopsis

In Pennsylvania, a reverend's sermon gives something of a parallel to Mulder and Scully's differing viewpoints by saying miracles should be taken for granted rather than proved. He also gives a demonstration of stigmata, and is murdered in his dressing room soon after. Mulder quickly finds that the reverend is a fraud, and that several other fake stigmatics have been murdered in recent years.

Meanwhile, in Ohio, a boy named Kevin Kryder also starts bleeding from his hands. Mulder thinks Kevin is hurting himself and not stigmatic, but worries that claims Kevin's father has made about Kevin's importance may have endangered him. Kevin's father says a powerful and dangerous man is after his son. Kevin is abducted by a man Mulder describes as "Homer Simpson's evil twin;" Kevin's mother recognizes the sketch as Owen Jarvis, who did lawn work for them. Jarvis escapes the agents, and soon after sacrifices himself to save Kevin from an assassin.

Scully considers that Jarvis's body shows similarities to descriptions of saints, and a fingerprint burned into his flesh matches a businessman named Simon Gates, who Mulder worries is suffering from religious delusions. Meanwhile, Kevin is observed in two different places at the same time, and this is also seen when Gates tries to kill Kevin on the roadside. Kevin is kidnapped when the bars on a bathroom window are melted open.

Scully is having more and more faith that religious forces are behind Kevin's abilities. Acting on a clue that Kevin's father gave, she finds Gates and Kevin at a recycling plant Gates owns, shortly after Gates says Kevin has to die to usher in a new age. Gates tries to kill Kevin in a shredding machine, but ends up meeting that fate himself. Scully goes to her first confession in six years, and tells the priest that she is afraid that God is still speaking but no one is listeneing.

R. Lee Ermey is best known for wondering what your major malfunction is as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket; here, he plays Reverend Patrick Finley. Michael Berryman, who plays Owen Jarvis, played Pluto in the horror movie The Hills Have Eyes.

Episode Body Count

Reverend Patrick Findley: strangled to death by Gates.

10 other stigmatic fakes: Mulder says 11 people (including Findley) have been murdered in the past three years.

Owen Lee Jarvis: also strangled by Gates.

Susan Kryder: attacked by Gates, possibly dies in a subsequent car accident.

Simon Gates: shredded by a recycling plant machine after Gates tries to kill Kevin.

Humans: 14
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (60/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 650
Creatures: 33
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 730

Season 3, Episode 10: 731

Synopsis

In West Virginia, soldiers take a apparently diseased humans from an abandoned Hansen's Disease research facility and execute them. Mr. X tells Scully to look more into the implant that was removed from her neck to find more answers. On the train, the conductor says a Japanese doctor named Shiro Zama might have something to do with the quarantined railroad car. A specialist tells Scully that the implant could be replicating brain processes; also that the implant was manufactured in Japan and a shipment was sent to Zama at the West Virginia facility.

Zama is murdered by an assassin, the Red-Haired Man. Scully finds a group of survivors at the West Virginia facility, who tell her that hundreds of people have been murdered after Zama's tests there. She is captured soon after by another squad. Mulder finds that the quarantined car has been opened, and a live test subject is in a room there. The Red-Haired Man tries to kill Mulder, but ends up getting locked in the car by the conductor. Mulder holds him at gunpoint, and the Red-Haired Man tells him he's part of the NSA and a bomb has been armed on the train.

The First Elder (a compatriot of Cancer Man) tells Scully that Ishimaru was given asylum after the war. He takes Scully to another train car; she calls Mulder to tell him that tests on human subjects have been ongoing, and alien abduction is a smokescreen. She also warns that the bomb is on a timer, and thousands will die from the hemorrhagic fever the test subject is exposed to. Mulder finds the bomb, with about an hour and 40 minutes left to go, and orders the conductor to abandon the train car as far from a populated area as possible.

As the timer counts down, Mulder deduces from the Red-Haired Man's hints that the test subject is an alien-human hybrid immune to biological weapons, and that the scientists were murdered because the government doesn't want to share the breakthrough. By reviewing the tape, Scully finds the code to exit the train car and passes it on to Mulder. The Red-Haired Man knocks out Mulder and leaves the car, but is immediately killed by Mr. X. He checks out the test subject, but apparently doesn't have time to rescue it, if that was his plan. He takes Mulder away instead as the car explodes. The conspirators once again get away scot-free, and the journals Mulder took from Zama's compartment have been swapped out. The episode ends with another Japanese man working on the actual journals in the presence of Cancer Man.

The episode is presumably a reference to Unit 731, an infamous Japanese unit that experimented on human subjects to study the effects of biological weapons.

Episode Body Count

At least 25 human test subjects: executed en masse by a group of soldiers. Escalante, a survivor of the raids, says hundreds have been killed, but we don't see them and no specific number is given.

Shiro Zama: killed by the Red-Haired Man on the train.

Escalante: shot and killed by a death squad at the research facility.

The Red-Haired Man: shot by Mr. X; the railroad car explosion finishes the job if that didn't.

Test subject: presumably destroyed in the railroad car explosion. I'll put it down as an alien-human hybrid, despite its unclear status.

Humans: 28
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 1

Cumulative Body Count (59/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 636
Creatures: 33
Aliens: 47

Grand Total: 716

Season 3, Episode 9: Nisei

Synopsis

A group of Japanese scientists are murdered in a railroad car in Knoxville, Tennessee, while performing an alien autopsy; they are all killed by armed men soon after. Mulder receives a video of most of the proceedings, sent to him by a person in Pennsylvania who managed to pull it off the satellite dish. The agents find the man dead, and Mulder arrests a Japanese man fleeing the scene. Skinner says the person they arrested is a high-ranking diplomat, and he has to be released.

However, Mulder has kept a briefcase the diplomat had. It includes satellite photos of a ship that traveled from Panama to Newport News, Virginia. Scully, in tracking down a name highlighted in the briefcase, finds that she is one of an organized group of abductees. As they bond a little over their experiences, the women reveal that the tests have made them more susceptible to cancer. In Newport News, Mulder finds the ship and manages to escape as it is swarmed by another hit squad. He also sees what appears to be a large spacecraft being housed at the harbor.

Skinner tells Mulder about the diplomat's murder, and distances himself from the case. Mulder's friend in the Senate, Richard Matheson,tells Mulder about the railroad car in Knoxville. Mulder thinks the government has been carrying on medical testing to create alien-human hybrids that the Axis was doing in World War II, and that the government has a secret railroad to conduct tests while mobile, though the murders may have been part of a cover-up.

Mulder sees another group of Japanese men escorting a live suited figure onto the railroad car in West Virginia; the car is then buckled to the end of a passenger train. Scully realizes that Dr. Takeo Ishimaru, a member of an Axis group that did medical tests on human subjects and has been thought to be dead since 1965, is alive; he appears on Mulder's videotape, and she remembers him from her own abduction. Mr. X tells Scully that Mulder shouldn't get on the train, as the powers that be know what he's up to. Mulder ignores her, jumping onto the top of the train from an overpass and losing his cell phone in the process. To be continued...

Robert Ito, who plays Dr. Shiro Zama, had a role as Sam Fujiyama on the long-running series Quincy M.E. Stephen McHattie, playing the Red-Haired Man, also played Sgt. Frank Coscarella on Cold Squad and the elder Nite Owl in Watchmen.

Episode Body Count

Four Japanese doctors: shot and killed by soldiers in the railroad car.

Alien body: taken by the soldiers after the doctors are killed.

Stephen Zinzer: head of Rat Tail Productions, found dead in his home after the agents follow up on the videotape.

Kazuo Sakurai: strangled to death outside the Japanese Embassy. His body is dumped in a canal.

Japanese escort: murdered by the Red-Haired Man in the train station bathroom.

Humans: 7
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 1

Cumulative Body Count (58/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 608
Creatures: 33
Aliens: 46

Grand Total: 687

Season 3, Episode 8: Oubliette

Synopsis

A photographer's assistant in Seattle, Washington takes a shine to a teenage girl named Amy Jacobs and shows his love by kidnapping her. At the same time that Amy is kidnapped, a 30-year-old woman named Lucy Householder falls unconscious with a nosebleed at the restaurant where she works, 20 miles away. Mulder finds that Lucy was also kidnapped when she was eight, and was saying the same words as the kidnapper when she passed out.

The FBI regional office considers Lucy the closest thing to a lead, due to a criminal history, but Mulder isn't sure. Scully finds that the blood from Lucy's clothes matches Amy's blood type. Amy is being kept in a rather Silence of the Lambs-like hole, and Mulder continues to pressure a disinterested Lucy for help. Scully comes across the photographer, Carl Wade, as a suspect; he seems to be the same person who kidnapped Lucy.

The DNA of the blood on Lucy's uniform matches Amy, and agents arrive to arrest her; however, she's already headed for the hills. Mulder proposes that Lucy may have bled Amy's blood; he thinks that her abduction led to some kind of "empathic transference." With help from a tow truck driver, the agents realize that Amy might be in the same area where Lucy was found after her escape at a younger age.

The FBI converges on Wade's house. Mulder finds Lucy, but Amy is missing. Lucy says that Wade wants to touch Amy, but can't, which is why he takes pictures of her; also, that he gets dangerous when he can't have someone all to himself. Mulder realizes that Wade is in the river. Sure enough, he's trying to drown Amy; Lucy starts coughing up water at the same time. Mulder kills Wade, and he and Scully rescue Amy. Lucy doesn't recover, and Amy is uninjured despite being dragged through the woods.

Jewel Staite, who plays Amy Jacobs, is probably best known as Kaylee Frye on Firefly and Dr. Jenifer Keller on Stargate: Atlantis. She's also had roles in Da Vinci's Inquest and Flash Forward.

Episode Body Count

Carl Wade: shot and killed by Mulder.

Lucy Householder: dies after suffering the same drowning effects as Amy Jacobs.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (57/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 601
Creatures: 33
Aliens: 45

Grand Total: 670

Season 3, Episode 7: The Walk

Synopsis

Lt. Colonel Stans, an Army veteran in a Maryland hospital, has tried several times to commit suicide, all without success. He tells Mulder and Scully that someone, a soldier, won't let him die and has already killed off his wife and children. Scully chalks it up to a classic case of post-traumatic stress. Stans' commanding officer, General Thomas Callahan, also hears a threat from a phantom soldier, and gets a creepy message on his answering machine.

Someone gives Callahan a scare at his home; he leaves behind clues that lead to a mail boy who's had a lot of contact with a quadruple amputee nicknamed Rappo and has letters to the deceased in his home. The mail boy is killed not long after screaming for help because "he knows this place." Mulder suspects Rappo despite his condition, possibly due to an out-of-body attack. Callahan realizes that Rappo is to blame; however, he refuses to kill him, saying Rappo will suffer like the rest of them. Stans isn't above smothering Rappo, though, and the mayhem ceases. Mulder notes the phenomenon of phantom limbs, and wonders if Rappo had a phantom soul.

Ian Tracey, who plays Leonard "Rappo" Trimble, has credits including Huckleberry Finn on Huckleberry Finn and His Friends, Spider Garvin on Sweating Bullets, and Detective Mick Leary on Da Vinci's Inquest.

Episode Body Count

Stans' wife and children: a total of three people who have died in a house fire; Stans says the phantom soldier killed them.

Kevin Aiklen: a Gulf War vet who Scully says committed suicide by woodchipper (yikes) after his family also died in a house fire; no numbers are given for that.

Capt. Janet Draper: drowned in a pool after a struggle with phantom Rappo.

Trevor Callahan: an eight-year-old boy, dies after being buried by a huge amount of dirt while playing.

Quinton "Roach" Freely: dies of suffocation after a bedsheet is shoved down his throat.

Frances Callahan: murdered by phantom Rappo.

Leonard "Rappo" Trimble: suffocated with a pillow by Stans.

Humans: 9
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (56/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 599
Creatures: 33
Aliens: 45

Grand Total: 677

Season 3, Episode 6: 2Shy

Synopsis

A woman in Cleveland, Ohio is found horribly decomposed after a date with a fellow named Virgil Incanto. She's nothing but blood and bones when Scully gets ready to do an autopsy. Lauren's roommate tells Mulder that the woman met her date online, with the user name 2Shy. Mulder realizes that it's the same person because he opened the account with a credit card from one of four women who went missing in Mississippi under similar circumstances.

Despite the corpse's condition, Scully is able to find a substance similar to stomach acid in the goo; fatty tissue is also missing from the body. After a date stands him up, Incanto offs a hooker. A tissue sample from her fingernails returns no fatty tissues, and Mulder wonders if the killer is a chubby chaser for nourishment. Incanto kills a detective, as well as his landlady when she finds his body; the landlady's daughter calls the police to due Incanto's oozing creepiness and her mother's disappearance, but a raid fails to apprehend Incanto.

As the agents look to crack the case, Incanto visits the former stand-up date shortly before she gets an e-mail warning with a sketch of Incanto. Mulder and Scully manage to rescue her; Scully also shows some nice fighting and stabbing moves, though it's the date that ultimately takes down Incanto with a gunshot. The capture ends a list of at least 47 women who had gone missing, though others may have been killed as well. Incanto defends the killings as feeding a need, but Scully retorts that he's just a lowly predator in the end.

P.J. Prinsloo, uncredited as a tagger, played Chris Laidlaw on Edgemont.

Episode Body Count

Lauren MacKelvey: murdered by Incanto in a rather dissolving manner.

Four other women: Mulder says there have been four disappearances from Aberdeen, Mississippi. Only one body was found, but I say there's others where that came from.

Holly McClane: murdered by Incanto.

Detective Alan Cross: killed by Incanto as he investigates the killings.

Inancto's landlady: murdered after she finds Cross's body.

At least 43 other women: Mulder says 47 women were reported missing in five states, presumably including the four in Mississippi but not the women who are found right away.

Humans: 51
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Big enough to award the Deadliest of Season for now, I say.

Cumulative Body Count (55/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 590
Creatures: 33
Aliens: 45

Grand Total: 668

Season 3, Episode 5: The List

Synopsis

Shortly before his execution, a Florida death row prisoner named Napoleon "Neech" Manley threatens to return and kill five men he feels have wronged him. Not long after, a death row guard is found dead in Neech's former cell. A guard named Parmelly tips off Scully to the existence of a list of those Manley plans to kill, in possession of a man named Roque. A severed head of another guard is also found, and Scully notes maggots and suffocation in both corpses.

Roque wants transfer off the block in exchange for the remaining names, but the warden refuses. The warden roughs him up a little, and Roque tells him that he's number five; Roque is found beaten to death soon after, but Mulder isn't so sure he's the fifth victim. Meanwhile, Neech's wife has been shacking up with Parmelly. The agents investigate the home of Neech's executioner, and once again find maggots, as well as the executioner's body.

In reviewing phone records, Mulder and Scully find that Neech made several calls to the lawyer on his case, who is currently busy trying to stay off the list; no such luck. Neech's wife believes she sees him return, and that Parmelly is Neech reincarnated; she shoots and kills him. Mulder doesn't think everything adds up, but Scully encourages him to just forget it. As he's driving, the warden sees Neech in his rearview window, shortly before Neech or his ghost strangles him and causes the car to run into a tree.

Ken Foree, who plays Vincent Parmelly, is best known for his role as Peter in Dawn of the Dead (and his cameo as a televangelist in the 2004 remake). Bokeem Woodbine, as Sammom Roque, also played Leon Cooley in Saving Grace.

Episode Body Count

Napoleon "Neech" Manley: electrocuted after failing to get a reprieve.

Two liquor store murders: the reason Neech is on death row, although Neech was only a driver.

Holdup gunman: Mulder says he is killed in the pursuit.

Death row guard: found dead in Neech's cell shortly after the execution.

Fornier: another guard, his head is found in a paint can and his body shows up soon after.

Sammom Roque: found beaten to death in the prison's showers.

Perry Simon: Neech's executioner, found dead and maggot-infested in the attic of his home.

Danny Charez: Neech's lawyer, smothered to death.

Vincent Parmelly: shot and killed by Neech's wife.

John Speranza: strongly implied that the warden beats him to death.

Warden Leo Brodeur: strangled by Neech or his spirit, dies of that or the subsequent car accident.

Humans: 12
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (54/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 539
Creatures: 33
Aliens: 45

Grand Total: 617

Season 3, Episode 4: Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose

Synopsis

In St. Paul, Minnesota, several psychics have been murdered, with their eyes and intestines torn out. The cops bring in Mulder, Scully, and a flamboyant psychic and publicity hound known as The Stupendous Yappi. An insurance salesman named Clyde Bruckman finds a body in his Dumpster, and Mulder soon deduces that he has actual psychic abilities. Bruckman describes the killer as a sort of "Puppet" who doesn't believe he's in control of his own actions.

Bruckman seems to have somewhat random powers, being able to tell when and how people will die but not win the lottery. He helps the agents find the body of the owner of an investment firm that makes market forecasts based on astrology. Bruckman also foresees Mulder's death in pursuit of the killer, but doesn't let him know. Puppet sends Bruckman a letter, saying he's going to kill him.

As the agents investigate another murder, Bruckman ends up in the same hotel where Puppet works as a bellhop. Scully realizes that the bellhop is the killer, and manages to rescue Mulder and kill Puppet in pursuit, foiling Bruckman's earlier vision. Bruckman commits suicide, in a way that manages to fulfill at least part of an earlier prophecy.

First appearance of Queequeg, Scully's adopted dog...don't get too attached. Peter Boyle, who plays Clyde Bruckman and died in 2006, is probably best known for his role as The Monster in Young Frankenstein and Frank Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond.

Episode Body Count

Madame Zelma: murdered by Puppet, and her body is found in a Dumpster by Bruckman.

Another woman: found in Glenview Lake on a tip from Bruckman.

Two other murders: Mulder says Puppet has committed four homicides, including Zelma and the woman.

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and their pilot: Bruckman recalls "The Day The Music Died," where three famous musicians were killed in a plane crash, and how many different series of events had to add up to lead to The Big Bopper's fate being determined by the flip of a coin.

Claude Dukenfield: owner of an astrology-based investment firm, is apparently murdered by Puppet.

Tarot card dealer: killed by Puppet.

Havez: killed after trying to pull his gun on Puppet.

Puppet: shot and killed by Scully.

Mrs. Lowe: Bruckman's neighbor, Bruckman says she has passed away.

Clyde Bruckman: commits suicide with pills and a plastic bag.

Humans: 14
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (53/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 527
Creatures: 33
Aliens: 45

Grand Total: 605

Season 3, Episode 3: D.P.O.

Synopsis

After an argument in a near-deserted arcade in Oklahoma, a teen named Darin Peter Oswald somehow manages to manipulate several electronic devices and cook a bully's heart in his chest. Mulder and Scully investigate since a high number of lightning-related deaths seem to be happening in the area, and Mulder isn't so sure the weather is to blame. He also realizes that Oswald, a mechanic, is the only one of five young folks struck by lightning to have survived. Mulder's cell phone also gets fried when he meets with Oswald.

After Oswald summons lightning to zap some cows, the agents find his footprint in the fulgurite left behind. Oswald, meanwhile, is in love with Sharon Kiveat: his former teacher and boss's wife. After messing with a traffic light to cause an accident, Oswald gives his boss a heart attack and then an electric shock to get the ticker going again. Mulder believes that Oswald has the ability to generate extreme levels of electricity.

Mulder and Scully arrest Oswald, and Kiveat agrees to testify about how Oswald has been bragging about having special powers. Oswald kills his friend Zero after thinking he's let the agents in on his secret. Kiveat, not wishing Oswald to harm anyone else, agrees to go away with him but fleees when the sheriff arrives. Enraged, Oswald again summons lightning, blasting himself into unconsciousness and the sheriff into death. The episode ends with Oswald incarcerated in a psychiatric institute and no apparent physical differences from any other person.

Quite a few recognizable people here! Probably the most famous is Jack Black (Zero), who went on to fame with his band Tenacious D and also as an actor in movies such as School of Rock, High Fidelity, and King Kong. Giovanni Ribisi, who plays D.P.O., also did fairly well with a role in My Two Dads before the episode and in films including Saving Private Ryan afterward. Cavan Cunninham, in an uncredited role as a paramedic, played Mayor Fitzy on Corner Gas. Karen Witter, who plays Sharon Kiveat, was a 1982 Playboy Playmate.

Episode Body Count

Jack Hammond: cardio-cooked by D.P.O.

Three other people: Sheriff Teller says there have been four deaths as a result of lightning.

Three dead cows: Oh Darren, not the livestock...

Bart "Zero" Liquori: blasted by D.P.O.

Sheriff Teller: also zapped by D.P.O.

Humans: 6
Creatures: 3
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (52/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 513
Creatures: 33
Aliens: 45

Grand Total: 591