Season 9, Episode 17: Release

Synopsis

Doggett finds a young woman plastered behind the wall of an abandoned tenement on an anonymous tip. A cadet in Scully's class named Rudolph Hayes makes a surprisingly astute analysis of her death and says the woman is not the killer's first victim. After Hayes gives Doggett and Reyes a profile of the murderer, they identify a possible suspect named Nicholas Regali. Hayes' apartment has hundreds of photos of the victims of violent crime on his wall, including Doggett's son Luke. Doggett asks Hayes to look into Luke's murder, and Hayes lets him in on his wall of photos, saying they're unsolved murders that sometimes tell him things.

Hayes tells Doggett that while Bob Harvey took Luke, he did not murder him; he suggests that Regali was the killer. Doggett has his ex-wife take a look at Regali on the off-chance that she may have seen him hanging around the neighborhood, but Regali is released after she doesn't recognize him. Noticing that Regali has escaped serious charges despite his suspicion in several cases, Doggett figures he's bribing someone. Reyes confronts Follmer, saying she saw him take a bribe from a mobster in New York. He says he was actually paying a confidential informant, and further reveals that he's discovered Hayes' true identity: a former psychiatric patient named Stuart Mimms who was in New York at the time of Luke's death. A SWAT team storms Mimms' apartment, now devoid of the photos, and arrests him.

It turns out that Follmer actually was taking bribes from Regali, and he meets up with him to ask about Luke. Regali denies any involvement in the murder, and threatens to give a videotape of the bribe exchange to the Washington Post if Follmer tries to break off their relationship prematurely. Mimms admits to lying to get into FBI training and making the anonymous tip to Doggett, but only to help Doggett find Regali. Doggett confronts Regali in a bar, who says he "hypothetically" may have known Harvey in the course of his mob business, Harvey may have kidnapped Luke and sexually abused him, and Regali may have killed Luke after he accidentally walked in on them and Luke saw his face. Doggett seems like he's going to kill Regali, but Follmer does the job for him as Regali exits the bar. With closure finally at hand, Doggett and his ex-wife spread Luke's ashes into the ocean.

Barbara Patrick, who plays Doggett's ex-wife (also Barbara), is Robert Patrick's wife.

Episode Body Count

Ellen Persich: stabbed to death, Doggett finds her body in the wall of an abandoned tenement.

Rita Shaw: also stabbed to death about two weeks before Persich's body is found.


At least four cadavers: laid out in a field at the FBI's forensic training facility.


Approximately 77 bodies: seen in photos on the walls of Mimms' apartment. There are something like 400 photos on the wall, but it seems like there are about five photos for each victim. Some, namely Luke and the two recent murders, have already been counted.

Rudolph Hayes: Follmer mentions how he died in 1978 in a car accident, with Mimms apparently taking his name.


Nicholas Regali: shot by Follmer as he leaves a bar.

Humans: 85
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (199/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 2,294

Creatures: 131
Aliens: 64

Grand Total: 2,489