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.

Season 8, Episode 9: Salvage

Synopsis

In Indiana, a woman mourns the death of her husband, Ray Pearce, due to Gulf War Syndrome. However, Pearce shows up soon after when a friend comforting her wraps his car around him. Pearce isn't injured, and kills the friend. A guy who looks exactly like Pearce clips some metallic whiskers at a halfway house, but Pearce's wife insists that he's dead. When Pearce shows up at the salvage yard where he used to work, the man who runs it blasts him with a shotgun but Pearce survives and kills him.

Doggett notices that the operator was shredding documents related to Chamber Technologies. Pearce has become increasingly metallic (with a couple of nods to the Terminator series, natch). Doggett visits Chamber Technologies and finds that they're working on molecular memory alloys that can repair themselves from damage, but that the researchers consider it a pipe dream. Scully determines that the blood from the salvage yard matches Pearce, but has enough metal to be considered lethal. Pearce sneaks into Chamber Technologies and is trapped, but smashes his way out. Pearce's wife tracks him down at the halfway house, and he says that some people have to pay for what they've done.

At the salvage yard, Doggett finds a Chamber Technologies drum containing the body of a metallic man and former doctor at the company. Another researcher says that the man was trying to protect the company after some fatal work with the metal alloys, and Scully surmises that he infected Pearce when the drum was transferred to the salvage yard. The agents realize that Pearce's wife knows who he's after, and eventually find out who it is. Pearce attacks the man, who authorized the shipment of hazardous materials to the salvage yard, but stops himself after seeing that the man has a young son. Scully figures that Pearce may have become more machine than man, but retained a flicker of humanity. The episode ends with Pearce crushing himself in a car compactor.

Wade Williams, who plays Ray Pearce, also played Brad Bellick on Prison Break. Arye Gross, who plays Dr. Tom Puvogel, formerly played Adam Green on Ellen. Tamara Clatterbuck, who plays Larina Jackson, also had roles on The Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless. Randy Walker, a Hollywood police adviser, plays a SWAT cop here; he formerly faced off against Robert Patrick in the same role in Terminator 2.

Episode Body Count

Curtis Delario: dies after crashing into Pearce and getting finger stabbed through the forehead.


Harry Odell: has his head crushed by Pearce.


Dr. David Clifton: found in a Chamber Technologies drum at Southside Salvage by Doggett.


Larina Jackson: killed by Pearce.


Ray Pearce: commits suicide in a compactor at the salvage yard.

Humans: 5
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (170/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,782

Creatures: 124
Aliens: 63

Grand Total: 1,969

Season 8, Episode 8: Surekill

Synopsis

Afraid that someone is trying to kill him, a real estate agent in Massachusetts flees to a police station and is thrown in the drunk tank...where he is gunned down anyway. The police find a bullet hole in the air vent, but Doggett and Scully discover that the shot was fired all the way from the station roof. Randall Cooper, a seemingly slow man who works at his brother Dwight's extermination business, turns out to be the assassin and tells Dwight that he committed the murder after seeing the realtor stealing from him. Dwight confronts a group of drug dealers in a warehouse and steals their cash after Randall shoots them all from behind a wall.

Scully posits that since visible light is only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum, the shooter might be able to see other wavelengths (ie, have X-ray vision). Meanwhile, Randall seems to have a thing for Dwight's girlfriend, Tammi Peyton. Doggett and Scully question Dwight after finding that the realtor was in contact with the extermination business and that there were traces of insecticide on a towel used as a silencer. The agents find that the brothers are twins, and Dwight is legally blind.

Searching the business, the agents find that the Coopers and the realtor were in some sort of profitable venture. Scully figures they've been exploiting Randall's vision to kill drug dealers and steal their money. Doggett is confused as to why the realtor was killed, since he helped sell the stolen drugs for additional cash, and they figure it has something to do with jealousy over Peyton. Meanwhile, Peyton plans to escape the whole business and get Randall out as well. Dwight finds her and realizes that she's been skimming money for months, and she says that the realtor was blackmailing her after also finding out. Dwight tries to get Randall to kill her, saying she was just using him, but Randall ends up shooting Dwight instead. Tammi escapes but remains wanted for questioning, as Randall is imprisoned.

Michael Bowen, who plays Dwight Cooper, also played Buck in Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Danny Pickett on Lost. The episode is dedicated to the memory of Gregory Nathan Boniface, who played one of the drug dealers and died in 2000.

Episode Body Count

Carlton Chase: shot in a police drunk tank by Randall Cooper.


About eight rats: seen in the dumpster outside AAA-1 Surekill Exterminators.


Three gangbangers: shot in a warehouse by Randall Cooper.


Dwight Cooper: shot outside his extermination business by Randall Cooper.

Humans: 5
Creatures: 8
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (169/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,777

Creatures: 124
Aliens: 63

Grand Total: 1,964

Season 8, Episode 7: Via Negativa

Synopsis

Two FBI agents staking out a religious cult in Pittsburgh find the cult members dead of axe blows to the head. The cult leader, Anthony Tipet, kills both agents as well and escapes. Doggett and Skinner work the case as Scully deals with her pregnancy. Skinner says Tipet believed that he could reach a higher spiritual plane using hallucinogens from the bark of an African tree; when the victims are all found in places with the doors locked from the inside, Skinner wonders if he succeeded in separating his body from his consciousness. A homeless man who previously saw Tipet is axed after imagining himself being encased in the sidewalk and seeing Tipet with a third eye.

Skinner and Doggett track down a former drug dealer, who admits to having made hallucinogens for Tipet, and take him in for questioning. Doggett has a trippy dream involving Tipet meditating in mid-air and a decapitated Scully. That and Skinner's discovery that the dealer was making a strong amphetamine for himself makes Doggett realize that he's trying to avoid sleeping. The dealer is mauled by rats apparently summoned by Tipet. Doggett meets the Lone Gunmen, who have shown up in the X-Files office; noting the third eye imagery of Tipet's cult, Doggett wonders if he is trying to destroy the third eye of others after discovering his own. The Gunmen also make note of a rumored CIA mind control experiment involving LSD.

Skinner and Doggett find Tipet in the dealer' lab, where he gashes his forehead with a saw blade while rambling that he has to stop it. Tipet goes into a coma, and Doggett discovers that Scully has recently checked in at the same hospital with acute abdominal pain. Kersh accepts Doggett's conclusion that Tipet mutilated himself out of the belief that he was invading the subconscious of the victims and making them live their nightmares, but Doggett doesn't consider the case closed. After seeing some strange things himself, Doggett wonders if he's having a waking nightmare. He has another vision of Tipet, who assigns him the task of killing Scully. He is woken by Scully before he can do so and informed that Tipet has died. Doggett is willing to believe that some outside influence was at work; Scully tells him it was just a bad dream.

Episode Body Count

Twenty cult members: all killed with a single blow from an axe while sleeping.

Agent James Leed: also axed by Tipet while asleep on a stakeout.


Agent Angus Stedman: gets the axe from Tipet while sleeping in his Pittsburgh condo.

Tipet's wife: Skinner says Tipet served 12 years in prison for bludgeoning his wife to death.


Homeless man: axed by Tipet after imagining himself trapped in the sidewalk.


Andre Bormanis: killed after he is swarmed by rats in a dream.


Anthony Tipet: dies while in a coma following a self-inflicted wound to the head with a table saw.

Humans: 26
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (168/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,772

Creatures: 116
Aliens: 63

Grand Total: 1,951

Season 8, Episode 6: Redrum

Synopsis

A prosecutor named Martin Wells, who is familiar with Doggett, is confused when he wakes up in a Baltimore jail cell with a gash on his face. As he is transported out with Doggett and Scully assisting, Wells' father-in-law shoots him. Time begins to run in reverse as he dies. On Thursday, one day before, Wells wakes up alive and discovers that he has been charged with his wife's murder, which occurred on Monday. He is denied bail but the judge allows him to be transferred, much to Wells' horror since he thinks he may have had a premonition of his own death. He also firmly denies having committed the murder, but is dismayed to see himself show up on a "nanny cam" that he asks to be retrieved from his home.

Wells finds himself another day back in time, minus the gash, and realizes that he's going backwards. He gets harassed in prison and a man with a spider's web tattoo slashes his face. Doggett and Scully meet with Wells, but Doggett isn't buying his theory and Scully is skeptical that they'll be able to help at all. Wells keeps having flashbacks of the murder and finally realizes who committed it when he glimpses the spider's web tattoo. Wells wakes up Tuesday at Doggett's place and gives him a description of the perp, but no one matching it is in prison. Wells figures he shows up there later, and shows Doggett the nanny cam.

Doggett realizes that the timing is off and the tape of the murder must have been stolen. He and Wells visit the nanny's house and arrest the killer, Cesar Ocampo, after finding him there. Ocampo accuses Wells of illegally suppressing evidence in convicting his brother in a third-strike drug case, and refuses to make a deal because his brother has committed suicide in prison. Wells is arrested, but wakes up in a DC hotel on Monday before the murder is set to occur. He goes to Doggett for help, and finds the police at his apartment and his wife missing after the time the murder was supposed to happen. His wife returns and is attacked by Ocampo, but the would-be killer is shot dead when Doggett and Scully arrive. Wells is overjoyed as his wife is saved and time resumes its normal course, but three months later is serving a sentence for his other crime.

Joe Morton, who plays Martin Wells, also played Miles Dyson in Terminator 2 and plays Henry Deacon on Eureka. Anne-Marie Johnson, who is uncredited as Vicky Wells, played Althea Tibbs on the late 1980s show In the Heat of the Night.

Episode Body Count

Hector Ocampo: his brother, Cesar Ocampo, says he hung himself in a jail cell a couple of weeks before the episode's events.


Cesar Ocampo: shot by Doggett as he tries to kill Wells' wife.

Another alternate universe scenario, so Wells' own death, as well as that of his wife and a traffic fatality mentioned on the alternate Friday, won't be counted.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (167/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,746

Creatures: 116
Aliens: 63

Grand Total: 1,925

Season 8, Episode 5: Invocation

Synopsis

A young boy in Oklahoma named Billy Underwood goes missing from a school fair in 1990; as his pregnant mother desperately searches for him, a suspicious-looking teen drops Billy's backpack and walks away. Ten years later, the mother has raised another son named Josh when Billy suddenly reappears, the same age and mute. Billy is taken home, where the dog acts uncharacteristically vicious toward him and Josh also seems a little creeped out by him. Scully finds that Billy's medical stats are identical to ones that were taken shortly before he disappeared, an apparent medical impossibility she's only seen in alien abduction cases.

Doggett finds Ronald Purnell, the teen from 1990 who was questioned and dismissed as a suspect in Billy's disappearance, but Purnell refuses to visit Billy. Doggett looks wistfully at a photo of a young boy in his wallet after this meeting, but nothing more comes of that this episode. Meanwhile, Billy has snuck into Josh's room and jammed a knife into his bed, leaving a bloodstain but no injury on Josh. The blood matches Billy, and a symbol on the knife matches one that Billy had been drawing after his reappearance. A redneck named Cal Jeppy comes to see Purnell's mother and gives Purnell a hard time; Purnell wanders out into the woods and uncovers a child's skull, apparently knowing exactly where to dig to find it.

After further unsettling his family, the Underwoods bring in a shrink, who says a force is drawing Billy to Josh and that Doggett is playing a part in the whole thing as well; the shrink then has a seizure and the symbol appears on her forehead. Purnell shows up at the Underwoods, and is surprised when Billy appears in his passenger seat; after a brief chase, the agents find that Billy is gone. Elsewhere, Josh checks out a pony in a horse cart and is abducted...apparently by Jeppy, who runs a ride-along attraction with a symbol matching the one that's been showing up.

Under interrogation, Purnell says that he knew about Billy's kidnapping but was trying to make it so he wasn't scared. Purnell gives up Jeppy's name and the feds storm his place, rescuing Josh; Jeppy denies having any other child there. Doggett sees Billy again, but he disappears. When Doggett runs over to check it out, he finds the skull that was previously uncovered. The rest of the body is also there and is a complete match for Billy. Doggett is baffled and unwilling to accept a "justice from beyond the grave" explanation, but Scully says that he succeeded no matter what since Josh is still alive.

Episode Body Count

Billy Underwood: found buried near Cal Jeppy's residence.

Humans: 1
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (166/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,744

Creatures: 116
Aliens: 63

Grand Total: 1,923

Season 8, Episode 4: Roadrunners

Synopsis

A hitchhiker in Utah desert is picked up by a bus full of people, then watches in horror as the bus stops and a disabled man is stoned to death by the other riders. Scully heads to to investigate, as his spine was found in an advanced state of deterioration. She is curious when the same bus passes her on the road, but ends up stranded in a remote community when a gas station attendant gives her watery fuel. When the phones don't work either, she suspects that the residents are trying to keep her from leaving.

Scully stays overnight, and is called to help the hitchhiker, who is also in the community and suffering a seizure. She finds a bloody hole in his back and wants to get him to a hospital, but finds that no one has a car. Doggett gets concerned when he finds that Scully hasn't checked in with the sheriff's office and begins to track her down. Worried that she's in a cult compound, Scully tries to help the hitchhiker as best she can; she also retrieves a tail-like thing from his back after seeing something moving under the skin. Figuring that a parasitic organism has taken up residence on the hitchhiker's spine, she plots to get him out of the community. She also gives him her gun, which is unfortunate since he's apparently joined the cult's side.

As Scully discovers the bus, the cult members converge on her; the hitchhiker, now disabled, allows himself to be murdered as the cult removes a giant worm-like creature and plants it in Scully. Doggett finds Scully imprisoned and begins to hotwire the bus to get her out. As the parasite worms its way toward her brain, Scully begs Doggett to cut it out of her neck. He does so and shoots it dead, much to the dismay of the cult members. A week later, Scully has recovered and the cult members are being brought up on charges and claiming religious persecution based on their desire to worship a horrible parasite as the Second Coming. Scully apologizes for leaving Doggett off the case and promises not to do it again.

Lawrence Pressman, who plays Mr. Milsap, also played Dr. Benjamin Canfield on Doogie Howser, M.D.

Episode Body Count

Disabled man: beaten to death by cult members, Scully says he is also found to have "the spine of a 90-year-old woman."

John Doe: Scully asks Doggett to look into a case where a strange mucus was found on a body in 1991.

Three other cases: Doggett finds that there were three other unsolved cases in recent years where victims were found in the desert with their brains missing.


Hank Gulatarski: stoned by a cult member after deciding to transfer the parasite to Scully.


The Holy Parasite: shot by Doggett after he pulls it away from Scully's spine.

Humans: 6
Creatures: 1
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (165/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,743

Creatures: 116
Aliens: 63

Grand Total: 1,922

Season 8, Episode 3: Patience

Synopsis

An undertaker and his wife in Idaho are killed by a bat-like creature. Scully and Doggett head out to investigate, and Scully notes some strange four-toed prints at the house laid every 25 feet. Doggett thinks a deformed killer may just be on the loose. They find a pair of fingers that were bitten off the undertaker in the attic, along with some claw marks on a rafter. Scully finds that the undertaker has anticoagulants in his system that are only found in bats. Doggett finds a newspaper article from 1956 about a Bat Thing that was presumed killed by hunters but disappeared after killing several people. The Bat Thing kills an old woman, and Scully learns that the new slayings started after the burned body of the woman's daughter was found in a river a week before.

The agents find that something has already tried to dig up the daughter's coffin, and the Bat Thing kills the local detective. Scully finds that Myron Stefaniuk, the brother of one of the hunters who brought in the Bat Thing in 1956, found the daughter's body. Scully and Doggett soon discover that the hunter, Ernie Stefaniuk, has been living on a remote island to hide from the creature, which is presumably seeking revenge on the hunters. Scully says the Bat Thing is attacking anything with the daughter's scent on it, as she turned out to be Ernie's wife.

Doggett is attacked by the Bat Thing as he goes to warn Myron that he might be in danger. The Bat Thing shows up on the roof of Ernie's house, and Scully opens fire from inside. As Scully checks outside, the creature attacks Ernie. Scully manages to hit it with a few shots, and is assisted by a seriously wounded Doggett before the Bat Thing flies away. Later, the agents get a fax from Myron, who is going into hiding. Scully, having accepted Doggett as a fellow X-Filer, promises him a desk and keeps Mulder's nameplate in a drawer.

Brent Sexton, who plays a gravedigger here, currently plays Robert Stark in Life.

Episode Body Count

Tall George: torn apart by the Bat Thing.


Tall George's wife: also killed by the Bat Thing.

Zeke MacPherson: a stretch, I'll admit, but a body nonetheless; Tall George is an undertaker and declares that the smell of embalming fluid didn't wake MacPherson, "God rest his soul."


Mrs. McKesson: killed by the Bat Thing.

County coroner and three other men: Doggett says five men were killed by the Bat Thing or disappeared. One man, Ernie Stefaniuk, turns out to be in hiding.


Ariel McKesson: dies of congestive heart failure, her body is found burned in a river a week before the new Bat Thing killings begin.

Bat: tacked to the door of Ernie Stefaniuk.


Detective Abbott: torn up by the Bat Thing.

It's unclear whether the Bat Thing kills Ernie Stefaniuk or not. The Bat Thing is also declared killed in the 1956 article, but apparently it's the same thing that attacks again 44 years later.

Humans: 10
Creatures: 1
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (164/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,737

Creatures: 115
Aliens: 63

Grand Total: 1,915

Season 8, Episode 2: Without

Synopsis

Held at gunpoint by Doggett, Mulder lets Praise go; without saying a word, Mulder then walks over the edge of a cliff. However, he survives and disappears. Scully is convinced it was actually the Alien Bounty Hunter out for Praise. She's right! Scully and Skinner notice one of the students leave as Doggett's FBI team searches Praise's school for him, and Scully follows the girl to a hidden bunker in the desert where Praise is hiding, the girl being the only person he's told about his history. Scully finds that Praise has broken his leg and promises to get him to safety.

Skinner is suspicious about how Doggett found out about Praise, and thinks that Kersh is trying to ruin him. Doggett is perplexed when Scully is reported to be in the school at the same time she is returning from the desert. The faux Scully manages to escape and disguise himself as another FBI agent, though Skinner and Scully don't realize it and that leads to a bit of paranoia. Scully and Skinner drive out to Praise's hideout and find him outside, saying Mulder is somewhere out in the desert. Skinner takes him to a hospital, where they're visited by Praise's friend; she certainly doesn't look like herself.

Scully walks into the desert looking for Mulder, and though she sees a bright light descending from the sky it turns out to just be Doggett, arriving in a helicopter. They face off over the situation, and Doggett reveals to Scully's horror that his men followed Skinner to the hospital. As they leave, we see that Scully was a stone's throw away from the cloaked spacecraft carrying Mulder.

Scully and Doggett arrive to find Praise's hospital room empty, Skinner and Praise having apparently escaped through a dropped ceiling. Doggett finds Skinner unconscious above the ceiling just as Scully also finds Skinner, realizing he's an Alien Bounty Hunter after seeing Praise shaking his head. Scully manages to kill the Alien Bounty Hunter, and Doggett arrives in time to see the green goo that remains of him. Kersh isn't pleased with the report, but Doggett sticks with it. He also updates Scully on the case while she's in the hospital, including how Praise has become a ward of state. Doggett tells her he's been assigned to the X-Files, and vows to find Mulder. In the ship, Mulder is surrounded by several Alien Bounty Hunters as he lies on an examination table.

Episode Body Count

Alien Bounty Hunter: shot through the neck by Scully while he's in Skinner form.

Humans: 0
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 1

Cumulative Body Count (163/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,727

Creatures: 114
Aliens: 63

Grand Total: 1,904

Season 8, Episode 1: Within

Synopsis

Scully dreams that Mulder is trapped in an unpleasant alien vessel, and annoyed to find Mulder's office being broken down to help in a search for him. Kersh, now a deputy director, has appointed a special agent named John Doggett to head the search but threatens to fire Scully and Skinner if anything gets out about alien abductions. Scully's first encounter with Doggett is unpleasant, as he suggests that Mulder never truly trusted her and she suspects him of tapping her phone. Scully's landlord tells her Mulder was in the building, and both Mulder and Scully's computers go missing.

The Lone Gunmen have been tracking UFO appearances in the Pacific Northwest, and Skinner thinks they can use the data to find the ship that took Mulder. Doggett confronts Scully with the question of whether aliens took Mulder, and she retorts that she's seen plenty of unexplainable things during her work on the X-Files. Some files at the FBI go missing after someone using Mulder's pass card accesses the building. Doggett also finds that Mulder's credit card was used to take a trip to where his mother is buried and buy a family tombstone that includes his year of death as 2000.

Doggett digs up Mulder's medical records, and Scully sees that they show that he was apparently dying of his brain condition. Doggett thinks that Mulder might be trying one last dying push to prove his theories or cover them up, but Skinner stands by his UFO sighting. The Lone Gunmen have determined that Mulder's ship is in Arizona, and Scully posits that proof of alien existence is being taken before it becomes proof, and that the aliens are in Arizona seeking out the only good hard proof of alien existence there is: Gibson Praise. Someone slips Praise's file to Doggett, and he sends his task force searching for them as well.

The vicious tests on Mulder continue. Skinner and Scully travel to Arizona to find Praise, as do Doggett and the task force. They both discover that he's at a school for the deaf. Doggett arrives just before Skinner and Scully, and Praise escapes through the principal's office window. Praise is taken by someone and led off into the desert, against his will. Doggett pursues and tells the man to let him go. Turns out it's Mulder. To be continued...

First appearance of Robert Patrick as Special Agent John Doggett; Patrick is best-known for playing the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day as well as Colonel Tom Ryan on The Unit. The episode is dedicated to the memory of Jim Engh, a production crew member electrocuted while working on the episode.

Episode Body Count

Big deal. Scully had a tombstone, too.

Humans: 0
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (162/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,727

Creatures: 114
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,903

Season 7, Episode 22: Requiem

Synopsis

In Oregon, specifically the same place as the first episode, a couple of police officers have a run-in with malfunctioning electronics and a fire in the woods. Mulder and Scully are getting chewed out for the expenses they've incurred during their work, and Marita has Krycek released from a Tunisian prison. Billy Miles calls the agents, saying things are happening again, and they head out to Oregon. Krycek and Marita visit Cancer Man at the Watergate apartments and find him deathly ill; Cancer Man tells them they have a unique opportunity to rebuild the project because a UFO has crashed in Oregon after colliding with a Navy jet. A teen investigating the crash site with a friend is abducted.

Miles, now a deputy, tells the agents about the crash, and his father says the Navy jet has been recovered but not any other craft. Mulder and Scully visit the wife of a deputy missing after the initial encounter, and she gives them medical records that he kept secret. Scully little depressed and chilly after briefly babysitting the woman's baby, and she and Mulder cuddle a bit. Krycek shadows the agents, and the deputy's wife is abducted. The teen's friend tells the agents about his encounter, and Scully has a similar experience but is not abducted. Mulder realizes that the former abductees are being taken again, and they need to warn Billy. They arrive too late, finding him missing following a confrontation with his father (who reveals himself as the Alien Bounty Hunter).

Two days later, Skinner brings Krycek and Marita to see Mulder. They warn him about Cancer Man's plans. The Lone Gunmen tell the agents that the craft appears only as a variety of transmission errors and such. Scully realizes that the abductees suffered from the same brain trauma Mulder previously experienced, and that the aliens are after him and not her. Using lasers to find the ship's location, Mulder walks into a strange force field and is spirited away with the other abductees as Skinner looks on. Krycek throws Cancer Man down a flight of stairs, presumably killing him. Skinner tells Scully about how he saw the UFO, and Scully tells him that even though it shouldn't be possible, she's pregnant.

Eddie Kay Thomas, who has the unassuming role of 1st Young Man, now voices Barry on American Dad!

Episode Body Count

Detective Miles: seen stuffed in the trunk of his own car, presumably dead, after a run-in with the Alien Bounty Hunter.

Cancer Man: presumed dead after being hurled down a flight of stairs by Krycek.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Season Body Count

Humans: 173
Creatures: 10
Aliens: 0

Humans go back up from last season, creatures decrease, and aliens get off easy.

Cumulative Body Count (161/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,727

Creatures: 114
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,903

Season 7, Episode 21: Je Souhaite

Synopsis

A lazy and insubordinate employee at a Missouri self-storage business named Anson Stokes is ordered to clean out one of the units that hasn't been paid for. Anson discovers a mysterious woman rolled up in a carpet. When his boss finds that he's disappeared, he starts calling after him, only to have his mouth disappear. The boss goes to Mulder and Scully, having gotten a ragged new mouth carved into his face, and blames Anson for his condition because he told him to shut up right before it happened.

The agents visit Anson's residence at a trailer park, where he lives with his paraplegic brother Leslie; they notice a huge luxury yacht there, as well as the woman. They also check out the storage unit, where the unaged woman appears in a 1970s picture of an overweight man with a couple of babes at his side. Back at the trailer park, it turns out that woman is a genie, and that the the boss's mouth and boat are a result of Anson's first two wishes. The genie, who is very big on specifics, grants his last wish to turn invisible at will and disappears. Anson is run down by a truck soon after while trying to cross a road.

The body is eventually found, and Scully is fascinated by his invisibility (using a dusting powder to bring Anson to sight). Mulder discovers that the man in the photo became an overnight millionaire but died a rather unusual and unpleasant death. He also finds that the woman appears in videos with Benito Mussolini and Richard Nixon. Leslie unrolls the genie and wishes for Anson to return from the dead (embarrassing Scully, who has told some a Harvard medical team about the Amazing Invisible Man who is no longer there).

Leslie then specifies that the zombie-like Anson should be able to talk; Anson gives off a long scream, then relates the unpleasantness of his deathlike characteristics. Leslie wishes for legs, right before a chilly Anson blows up the trailer while trying to light the stove. Mulder unrolls the genie and finds that she's been around for 500 years, becoming a genie herself after wishing for great power and long life. Going off her complaint that everyone is always selfish with their wishes, Mulder asks for peace on Earth. She responds by removing the entire planet's population, and Mulder's second wish undoes it. Scully convinces Mulder that trying again for worldwide peace is too risky and could take away the entire human experience, so for his third wish, Mulder grants the genie's own desire to live a normal life.

Will Sasso, who plays Leslie Stokes, is a regular on MADtv. Kevin Weisman, who plays Anson Stokes, also played Marshall Flinkman on Alias.

Episode Body Count


Anson Stokes: hit by a truck while invisible; later brought back to life on a wish from his brother, but killed when his trailer blows up due to a gas leak.

Henry Flanken: a former genie recipient who died of chronic morbid tumescence and extreme priapic condition, ie an overly massive erection.


Leslie Stokes: killed in the trailer explosion.

Humans: 3
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (160/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,725

Creatures: 114
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,901

Season 7, Episode 20: Fight Club

Synopsis

A pair of missionaries in Kansas get into a brutal fight after visiting two women who look identical and live fairly close to each other: Betty Templeton and Lulu Pfeiffer. An FBI duo and Mulder and Scully lookalike also get into a brawl while investigating after one of the women drives past the other's home. Both women apply to work at different locations of the same copy chain, and both also turn out to have traveled frequently taking up the same professions in the same states over the past 17 years.

Mulder suspects some sort of paranormal activity involving doubles at play, and he and Scully find that a local wrestler named Bert Zupanic is acquainted with at least one of the women. A bookie tells Zupanic that he needs to make good on a debt or an upcoming fight won't happen. Zupanic is in a relationship with Pfeiffer, who he considers a good luck charm, but mistakenly gets involved with Templeton as well.

Templeton tells Mulder that Pfeiffer has been following her around trying to ruin her life, and that she's going to make her stand in Kansas; Pfeiffer makes the same claim to Scully, except she says Templeton is to blame. Both Mulder and Scully think there's some sort of psychic connection between the two that is aggravated when they get too close to each other. Zupanic ends up appealing to both women for help in getting the money for his fight, and they both run off copies of bills to help him out.

Scully discovers that the women are non-fraternal sister of a very irate sperm donor, and Mulder notes how they're both staying in Kansas because they're both in love with Zupanic. Templeton delivers the money to the bookie first, and Zupanic's wrestling match begins. Mulder tries to get her out of the arena before any harm happens, but a riot starts to break out when Pfeiffer arrives. Scully brings in an inmate identical to Zupanic, thinking it might solve the issue, but instead Zupanic and his doppleganger start fighting as well and the riot continues. Scully concludes that Zupanic also had a non-fraternal sibling, and while the cause of the violence is unknown it's probably just best to avoid such chance encounters at all costs.

Kathy Griffin, who plays both Betty Templeton and Lulu Pfeiffer, also played Vicki Groener on Suddenly Susan and herself on Life on the D List. Jack McGee, who plays Bob Damfuse, formerly played Chief Jerry Reilly on Rescue Me. Christopher Michael, who plays Trusty, also played Captain Michaels on 7th Heaven.

Episode Body Count

A lot of violence occurs and some shots are fired at one point, but it doesn't seem like anyone is killed.

Humans: 0
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (159/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,722

Creatures: 114
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,898

Season 7, Episode 19: Hollywood A.D.

Synopsis

Garry Shandling and Tea Leoni star in a terrible movie based on Mulder and Scully's work, in which they try to protect a "Lazarus Bowl" from sniper zombies and a cigarette-puffing pontiff before making out in a coffin. Attending the film's opening, Mulder and Scully are mortified. Eighteen months earlier, Skinner allows a Hollywood writer and old college buddy named Wayne Federman to accompany Mulder on an investigation of a pipe bomb explosion at a DC church crypt. Mulder finds the body of a former Weatherman in the rubble, and also discover that he was forging religious documents.

Federman sees several human bones do a dance trying to reconstruct a bowl in the crypt, then leaves to start writing his movie. Scully says it reminds her of the story of the Lazarus Bowl, which has Christ's words inscribed in clay like a record with the ability to raise the dead. The cardinal admits that he bought the forged heretical documents from the Weatherman, thinking they were real, and wanted to hide them. Mulder wonders if the cardinal may have retaliated for the blackmail.

The agents arrest the cardinal for the Weatherman's murder, but the Weatherman shows up alive. Skinner is furious and puts Mulder and Scully on a four-week leave. A lab tech lets them know that the bowl grooves contain Aramaic language containing both Beatles lyrics and a command to raise someone from the dead. The agents visit the Weatherman, who says he had a religious conversion (going from impersonating Jesus Christ to becoming him) and planted the bomb to destroy the blasphemous documents.

With four weeks to kill, Mulder and Scully decide to go to Hollywood to take in Federman's work on the movie. They each enjoy bubble baths and chat by phone about zombies; Skinner also calls from a bubble bath in the same hotel, having gotten an associate producer's credit on the movie, to apologize for chewing them out. Sixteen months later at the premiere, Mulder storms out of the theater after Leoni's Scully delivers a line about being in love with Skinner. Scully tells Mulder that she's gotten word that the cardinal has murdered the Weatherman and hanged himself. They go out to hit the town, and the episode closes with the prop Lazarus bowl appearing to raise some zombies for a dance session.

Written and directed by David Duchovny. Several people appear as themselves, including Garry Shandling, Tea Leoni (Duchovny's wife), Minnie Driver, Chris Carter, David Alan Grier, and Wayne Federman. Bill Millar, who plays the director, usually does visual effects work on TV shows, including several episodes of The X-Files.

Episode Body Count

Not Micah Hoffman: dies of poisoning, found in the rubble of Christ's Church after a pipe bombing. Though Hoffman later shows up alive, it's mentioned that the body is still around somewhere.

At least two crypt bodies: one is curiously animated, but it's still a skeleton.

Micah Hoffman: Scully says she's gotten a page from DC saying that he was murdered in his home by Cardinal O'Fallon.

Cardinal O'Fallon: hangs himself after killing Hoffman.

Humans: 5
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (158/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,722

Creatures: 114
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,898

Season 7, Episode 18: Brand X

Synopsis

A biochemist at a North Carolina tobacco company dies the night before he is scheduled to testify against his employer at a grand jury, despite FBI protection that includes Skinner. The flesh on the man's face has been stripped away; Mulder notes a tobacco beetle in a water glass that the biochemist was using. After a follow-up visit from the FBI, a man named Dr. Weaver hits up a colleague of the biochemist's named Dr. Peter Voss and intimidates him a little bit in the process. Scully finds that the biochemist died of hypoxemia, the inability of the body to transfer oxygen to the blood, and also finds no sign of beetles of explanation for the facial trauma.

Weaver's neighbor yells at Weaver about his smoking in the building, and soon after dies of the same cause, his body swarmed by beetles. Mulder is pleased to see that there are plenty of beetles left at the scene, and thinks they're involved somehow. Mulder talks with Weaver, who denies knowing anything about the death; he also visits Voss, who refuses to talk as well. Voss is contacted soon after by the company's security chief, who wants to take care of the Weaver problem.

An entomologist tells the agents that the beetles are different from normal ones, possibly as a result of feeding on genetically altered tobacco plants. Examining the latest body, Scully finds beetle larvae and determines that the bugs pupate in the lungs and exit through en masse, explaining the damage to the face. Mulder coughs up some blood and winds up having several larvae sucked out of his lungs. Scully warns Skinner that more eggs have yet to hatch, and thinks they may have gotten there as a result of the superbug eggs getting processed into cigarettes, with Mulder inhaling smoke from one of them. Voss confesses that the company made the superbugs, and that Weaver was the survivor of a test group using them (the biochemist being a chance death due to his monitoring the group).

Mulder's condition worsens, and Skinner looks to track down Weaver. He finds Voss at his workplace, with Weaver having taken the test cigarettes by force. Weaver also says Skinner won't shoot him because they need him to save Mulder. Skinner compromises and shoots Weaver in the shoulder. At the hospital, Scully notices Weaver's nicotine-stained hands and thinks a nicotine injection will save Mulder. Turns out she's right, having deduced that Weaver was the heaviest smoker of the test group and that nicotine is a good insecticide. Though it may have had the effect of turning Mulder on to cancer sticks...

Tobin Bell, who plays Darryl Weaver, also plays Jigsaw in the Saw movies.

Episode Body Count


Dr. Jim Scobie: dies of a super tobacco beetle infestation of his lungs after monitoring a test cigarette group.

Thomas Gastall: also dies of lung beetle infestation after Weaver puffs away next door to him.

Three test smokers: Dr. Voss says Weaver is the sole survivor of a group of test smokers that used the superbug tobacco.


David Brimley: the Morley Tobacco security chief, dies after being infected by superbug smoke.

Humans: 6
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (157/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,717

Creatures: 114
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,893

Season 7, Episode 17: all things

Synopsis

The episode opens with Scully pondering choices and how they affect one's life, as she gets dressed and Mulder slumbers in bed. Hmm. Sometime before this, Mulder hops a flight to England, anticipating that a geometric crop circle will appear there within two days; Scully refuses to join him and stays behind to work on an autopsy. She ends up getting an X-ray in the autopsy folder by mistake that leads her to discover that Dr. Daniel Waterston, her former medical instructor, is hospitalized with a heart condition. Waterston's daughter isn't too pleased when Waterston asks her to visit him.

Scully is nearly T-boned by an 18-wheeler at an intersection after a blonde woman crosses her path. She visits a crop circle researcher who she's previously had a chance encounter with at the hospital; the researcher tells Scully how everyone needs to keep their mind open to the accidents or near accidents in life and the lessons they give, right before Scully spies a "heart chakra" pattern in a crop circle photo. Waterston and Scully apparently had a thing going some time ago, and Waterston was saddened to see her leave. Scully also wonders if she chose the wrong path, right before Waterston flatlines.

Scully and the doctors manage to revive Waterston. Scully revisits the researcher and tells her that she has the feeling that Waterston is suffering from a more serious condition. The researcher shares that she used to be a physicist, suffered from cancer, and only got better when she stopped following a self-destructive path. Scully goes to visit Waterston and finds that he's in a coma and his daughter is blaming her for it. Scully again sees the blond woman and pursues her, ending up in a Buddhist temple where she sees a vision of Waterston and his heart.

Scully brings in a religious healer, but he says that Waterston is ready to move on save for something that's holding him back. The next day, however, Waterston awakens; Scully tells him he needs to take responsibility for the hurt he's caused his family. Waterston says he's been living to be with Scully, but she says the reason he's alive might be to make things up to his daughter. Scully again sees the blonde woman, but when she chases her down she finds Mulder, back from England. Scully lets him in on her transcendental experience over tea at Mulder's place, and they mull over the concept of fate together. Scully passes out on the couch...and I guess Mulder takes the bed.

Gillian Anderson wrote and directed this episode. Stacy Haiduk, who plays Maggie Waterston, has also starred in the shows Superboy, SeaQuest DSV, All My Children, and The Young and the Restless. Nicholas Surovy, playing Dr. Daniel Waterston, was also on All My Children as well as Ryan's Hope. Carol Banker, who plays Carol in her only acting role, was a script supervisor for about a quarter of the X-Files episodes.

Episode Body Count

J. Szczesny: Scully mentions how her autopsy reveals that she did not drown in ectoplasm (Mulder's theory) but in margarita vomit as she and her friends try to reenact The Blair Witch Project.

Humans: 1
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (156/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,711

Creatures: 114
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,887

Season 7, Episode 16: Chimera

Synopsis

A girl at a pleasant Easter Sunday party in Vermont is attacked by a raven and hears one inside the house the same night her mother, Martha Crittenden, disappears. A woman named Jenny Uphouse is on poor terms with Crittenden and the other well-to-do WASPs in town. Skinner pulls Mulder off a DC stakeout to investigate due to the potential supernatural connection with the raven. Mulder is intrigued by a broken mirror in the house, though Crittenden's husband thinks she was having an affair and ran off. It isn't long before Crittenden is discovered buried in the garden, however.

The mother's best friend, Ellen Adderly, tells Mulder that she saw a strange creature in the window of a car that shattered immediately afterward. Mulder tells her how some consider mirrors gateway to the spirit world, and that an creature may have been summoned by an enemy. Mulder and the local sheriff (Adderly's husband) question Uphouse, but she denies being involved. The creature attacks Adderly in her home, right after finding a key that matches one the Crittenden's husband found in his house after that disappearance.

The sheriff turns out to be having an affair with Uphouse in a motel accessed by the keys. Mulder deduces what's going on after mentioning to the sheriff that Crittenden was pregnant despite being on birth control. Uphouse is killed by the creature but manages to stab it with a shard of broken mirror. The sheriff admits to Mulder that he was sleeping with both the mother and Uphouse, and is suspected of the murders. Adderly realizes she's involved after finding a gash on her shoulder, though she's horrified by the fact. Mulder also figures it out, and though Adderly tries to drown him she gives up after seeing her reflection in the water. Adderly is sent to the psych ward, where she notices a raven outside the window.

Wendy Schaal, who plays Martha Crittenden, voices Francine Smith on American Dad!

Episode Body Count

Martha Crittenden: killed by Adderly in creature form.

Crittenden fetus: Mulder says Martha was four months pregnant when she was murdered. This might be the first human fetus I've had to deal with, but considering I counted an alien one way back when, I'll obviously count this one.


Jenny Uphouse: killed by Adderly in creature form.

Humans: 3
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (155/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,710

Creatures: 114
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,886

Season 7, Episode 15: En Ami

Synopsis

A Virginia family is making the controversial decision to let God treat their 11-year-old son for his cancer, but the uproar ends when the boy is miraculously cured following a visit by a bright light and some Men in Black. Scully sees that he has apparently been given a neck implant. Cancer Man visits her and says that he's responsible for curing McPeck and was the one who tipped off the agents. He also says that he wants to give the cure to mankind, since he's now suffering from a terminal illness and wants to do something good for the world; he says the deal's off if Sully tells Mulder about the offer.

Scully hides a recording device on her bra and accompanies Cancer Man on a trip to obtain the cure, making an excuse to Mulder that there's a family emergency; they're tailed by a Syndicate assassin. Mulder checks with Scully's landlord and finds that she left with Cancer Man. Scully and Cancer Man make a brief stop at a 118-year-old woman who he's apparently been helping to survive. Scully mails a recording to Mulder, but it is intercepted by the assassin. The Lone Gunmen fail to find where Scully is, but they do discover that she's had e-mail conversations with someone code-named "Cobra," a defense employee working on a shadow project. They also find that someone hacked into the computer to pose as Scully in the conversations to win Cobra's trust.

Cancer Man takes Scully to Pennsylvania and sets up a meeting between her and Cobra. He also lets Scully know that the cure isn't just for cancer, but all human disease...and also that it's "largely extraterrestrial." Cancer Man meets briefly with the assassin, and Cobra sends a note directing Scully to go to a cove the next morning. He delivers a diskette to her, but is confused when he realizes that Scully is not the person he's been conversing with by e-mail. The assassin kills Cobra, but is stopped from killing Scully by Cancer Man. The diskette turns out to be empty, switched out by Cancer Man. Mulder thinks Scully's been conned, and she's shocked, telling Mulder that she saw some sincerity in him for once; back in Pennsylvania, Cancer Man tosses the actual diskette into a lake.

Episode Body Count

Cobra: shot by the Black-Haired Man.

The Black-Haired Man: shot by Cancer Man. A little confusing in that a "Black Haired Man" was also apparently killed in "The Beginning," but this one is played by a different actor and so is presumably a different person.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (154/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,707

Creatures: 114
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,883

Season 7, Episode 14: Theef

Synopsis

The father-in-law of a successful California doctor named Robert Wieder finds a figure of man drawn in dirt on a guest bed; soon after, he writes "Theef" on a wall with his own blood and hangs himself. Mulder recognizes the remains of the dirt symbol as an indication of hexcraft (ie, a curse). The culprit seems to be Orel Peattie, a creepy man who also appeared behind the father-in-law right before his death. Scully determines that the father-in-law had a strange brain disease and that his wounds were self-inflicted, but Mulder feels he may have been compelled to kill himself.

After Peattie creates a "poppet" doll and leaves another dirt figure in Wieder's bed, Wieder's wife is stricken with another rare disease. Mulder feels that Wieder can't win a battle against hexcraft, but Wieder is confident that his wife can be cured. After Wieder finds that his wife's brain scans all include the word "theef," Peattie confronts him and mentions the name Lynette Peattie. Wieder doesn't recognize the name, but then discovers that she was a Jane Doe he treated who didn't make it.

After realizing the wonders of the microwave and "poppin' corn," Peattie nukes a poppet representing Wieder's wife to kill her. When "theef" shows up branded on her body, Wieder tells the agents that Lynette Peattie was the victim of a bus accident and that he took about 20 minutes off her life by giving her an overdose of morphine to end her pain. Mulder thinks the girl's father is killing off Wieder's family as revenge. Scully takes Wieder and his daughter into protective custody.

Peattie's landlady discovers the Lynette's body in his room, and contracts a rare disease after Peattie finds her. Seeing a newscast on it, Mulder warns Scully that Peattie is after them. Peattie breaks into Scully's car and uses one of her hairs to make a poppet doll and blind her. Peattie confronts Wieder, saying he would have been able to save his daughter. He starts to torture Wieder using another poppet doll, but Scully manages to shoot him, possibly after Mulder arrives and removes her impediment. As Peattie recovers in the hospital, Scully tells Mulder she would have done what Wieder did if someone was beyond saving and in terrible pain, but also seems to be considering whether Peattie's magic may have worked on his daughter.

James Morrison, who plays Dr. Robert Wieder, also plays Bill Buchanan on 24.

Episode Body Count

Dr. Irving Thalbro: hangs himself after seeing a hexcraft symbol in a guest bed.

Lynette Peattie: died of a morphine overdose that Wieder gives her after she suffers extreme injuries in a bus accident.

Nan Wieder: exposed to extreme radiation after Orel Peattie puts a poppet doll in a microwave.

Humans: 3
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (153/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,705

Creatures: 114
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,881