Season 8, Episode 21: Existence

Synopsis

The remains of Billy Miles are brought to a morgue; not long after, Miles walks out again after a single metallic vertebra begins replicating to reconstruct him. Reyes takes Scully to Democrat Hot Springs, an abandoned resort in Georgia where Doggett was born, and the two make preparations to have her baby. Rohrer, who works in the intelligence community, tells Doggett that Miles is the result of a military experiment to create a super-soldier, and Scully's abduction and subsequent pregnancy are a result of an effort to create an organic version of one. Rohrer also says the military/intelligence/whatever conspirators intend to put Miles down. Skinner is nearly killed when Miles returns to the FBI building, allowing Krycek to escape his custody.

Mulder and Doggett watch Krycek arrive at the FBI parking garage, a passenger in a car driven by Rohrer. Miles shows up at Democrat Hot Springs and attacks Reyes, then is shot and apparently killed by a game warden who has agreed to help the agents. Doggett follows Rohrer into the building and sees him meet up with Crane. Mulder realizes that they've discovered where Scully is and gets Doggett to tell him her location. Krycek confronts Mulder and says he's been trying to stop the colonization and Mulder's just been getting in the way. He seems about ready to kill Mulder when he is shot by Skinner. Krycek tries to get Skinner to kill Mulder, but Skinner executes him instead.

Scully starts to go into labor, and Reyes sees that the game warden is a super-soldier. Reyes attacks the warden with boiling water, but can only watch as Miles revives and other super-soldiers arrive. Crane and Rohrer go after Skinner and Doggett, but both are apparently killed in an ensuing car chase in the parking garage. The super-soldiers don't interfere as Scully gives birth to a healthy baby boy, and Mulder arrives in a helicopter as they leave. Kersh is angry with Doggett and Reyes for the whole incident, but neither one backs down; they also note how the bodies of Crane and Rohrer were never found. Mulder and Scully wonder why the super-soldiers didn't take the child (whom Scully has named William, after Mulder's father). Mulder suggests that he didn't turn out to be what they expected, but that he's still a miracle. And then Mulder and Scully kiss.

Dale Dickey, who plays a game warden, also played Patty the Daytime Hooker on My Name is Earl.

Episode Body Count

Alex Krycek: shot by Skinner in the parking garage of the FBI building.

Reyes says that Agent Gene Crane and Knowle Rohrer were both presumed dead but went missing, so you can add vehicular trauma to the list of things that doesn't kill a super-soldier.

Humans: 1
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

UNDEAD'D


Billy Miles: reconstructed from a metallic vertebra found in the remains of his body. Sort-of killed again when a game warden shoots him with a shotgun, but he recovers from that as well.

Humans: 1
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Season Body Count

Humans: 376
Creatures: 15
Aliens: 2

Everything increases, especially humans.

Cumulative Body Count (182/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 2,103

Creatures: 129
Aliens: 64

Grand Total: 2,296

Season 8, Episode 20: Essence

Synopsis

Mulder's opening soliloquy ponders whether the miracle of life has been cheapened by scientific advances like cloning. At Scully's baby shower, a baby nurse named Lizzy Gill secretly replaces one of Scully's medications with different pills. Billy Miles, confirming that the work at Zeus Genetics has been "fruitful" by observing an alien baby, kills a doctor with a mighty punch and burns the place down. Mulder discovers that Scully's former obstetrician, Dr. James Parenti, was the co-founder of the company. He and Doggett find a fetus display at Parenti's office similar to the one at Zeus Genetics.

Gill turns out to be in league with Duffy Haskell, the Zeus Genetics wag. Miles kills Parenti in his office. Investigating the location again, Miles easily beats up Mulder and takes a few bullets from Doggett without any ill effect. He bleeds red blood and also shows the neck ridges that were seen on Knowle Rohrer. Gill worries that the agents are sniffing her out, and Haskell reassures her via phone...right before Miles decapitates him with a backhand. The FBI finds the body in an illegal human cloning facility and determines that Haskell was working with the two murdered doctors. Skinner, worrying that someone is tampering with Scully's baby, has Mulder contact Scully; she catches Gill tampering with her pills.

At the hospital, it is found that the replacement pills were harmless vitamin supplements. Gill confesses that the government has been experimenting with alien babies born to human mothers, trying to get stem cells for other experiments she knows nothing about. She also says Scully is carrying "the perfect human child with no human frailties," and that the doctors were trying to protect her. Mulder gets Scully out of her apartment just before Miles arrives there; after their blocked in car fails to facilitate a speedy escape, Krycek unexpectedly shows up to save them.

At the FBI building, Krycek tells the agents that Miles and others like him are super-strong modified human replacements designed to knock out resistance to the alien colonization. He also says they're afraid that Scully's baby could be greater than they are. Reyes arrives to take Scully to safety, but Miles is right on her heels. Krycek helps get Scully to Reyes' car and they take off. Miles ends up pursuing Skinner to the top of the building. With the help of Mulder and an FBI agent named Gene Crane, Miles is shoved into a garbage truck and compacted. Crane, however, shows a rather suspicious neck bump. To be continued...

Episode Body Count

Dr. Lev: killed by an exceptionally strong punch by Billy Miles.


Alien baby: presumably killed when Miles torches Zeus Genetics.


At least 48 fetuses: found in a display at Dr. Parenti's office which is identical to one at Zeus Genetics. Parenti says they're children with non-survivable birth defects, while Mulder suspects they're used for alien hybrid experiments.


Dr. James Parenti: killed by Billy Miles; Doggett finds his head in a jar at his office.


Duffy Haskell: decapitated by a Billy Miles backhand in his illegal cloning facility.


Billy Miles: ground up in a garbage truck after he is pushed from the top of the FBI building.

Humans: 52
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 1

Cumulative Body Count (181/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 2,103

Creatures: 129
Aliens: 64

Grand Total: 2,296

Season 8, Episode 19: Alone

Synopsis

In upstate New York, a man has apparently botched a lock-checking duty given to him by his elderly father, the caretaker of an estate; a salamander-like creature attacks both of them. Scully goes on maternity leave, giving Doggett her Apollo 11 medallion gift and thanking him for all his help. Doggett gets a greenhorn new partner named Leyla Harrison, who claims to know all about the X-Files after her work processing Mulder and Scully's travel expenses, and they go to work on the New York case. Though the missing son is suspected in the caretaker's death, Doggett and Harrison soon find traces of some sort of slime at the house. After Doggett realizes something is in the house and tries to capture it with Harrison's help, but she is dragged off instead.

Doggett falls through a trap door in the nearby woods while looking for Harrison, and Skinner and an FBI team begin looking for the missing agents. Scully comes into work despite her pregnancy to try to help locate them, and tells Mulder how the old man died of heart failure but was also blinded by a sort of venom. In a series of subterranean tunnels beneath the estate, the creature partially blinds Doggett and Harrison; Doggett figures the trap that got him was set up to provide meals for the creature. Mulder goes to New York and becomes suspicious of Herman Stites, a biologist and the estate's owner, after finding the medallion in the woods.

A lab assistant tells Scully that the venom breaks down organic material so the creature can easily digest other animals. Mulder spots the creature and tracks it to the house, where we see it transform into Stites. After this trick, Mulder finds the agents, who have discovered the tunnel leading to the house. Harrison realizes that Stites is the creature, and with a little help from Mulder the now fully blinded Doggett shoots him. After the agents are treated at the hospital, Mulder returns the medallion to Doggett, but he says that Harrison deserves it more...even if she's had her fill of the X-Files for now.

Episode Body Count

Arlen Sacks: killed by the salamander creature and found in the woods at the estate.


Dog: or wolf, or other doglike animal. Doggett finds a heavily degraded skull in the estate's tunnels.


Gary Sacks: partially devoured by the creature after it sprays him with venom.


Herman Stites (aka the Salamander Creature): shot by Doggett.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 2
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (180/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 2,051

Creatures: 129
Aliens: 64

Grand Total: 2,244

Season 8, Episode 18: Vienen

Synopsis

On an oil rig off the coast of Texas, a worker named Simon de la Cruz kills a communications officer (who bleeds black oil) and smashes up some equipment. Another worker, Bo Taylor, blasts this upstart with a lethal dose of radiation, something we've seen before. The company that owns the rig is concerned that the death could be used by the Mexican government to force the United States to abandon its claim to a recently discovered oil deposit. Mulder and Doggett spar a little over ownership of the X-Files, but Kersh ultimately sends Doggett out to the rig; Mulder makes his way out there anyway.

Scully finds that the burn victim is infected by the black oil, also also that it's inexplicably dead; still, she worries that Doggett and the others on the rig are in danger if the black oil is loose, while Skinner wonders why there's only been one infection. Taylor infects the new communications specialist as he tries to restore the gear. Scully lets Mulder know about the dead virus, and the rig is quarantined. Mulder and Doggett look to track down a man named Diego Garza, who is missing. Mulder suspects that the black oil is hiding out in the petroleum deposit, ready to cause a worldwide infection, and Garza might be the only person on the rig not infected.

Kersh says he's lifting Skinner's quarantine order, but luckily that order can't go through because Garza has torched the rig's radio room. Garza tells Doggett that de la Cruz was killed for what he knew and is worried that UFOs are coming for him. Scully determines that de la Cruz had an immunity to the virus, but was killed anyway by radiation. Taylor confronts Doggett, but Mulder saves him from infection. The other workers try to attack them, then decide to destroy the rig instead. Garza is killed by a radiation blast, but Doggett and Mulder manage to escape as the whole structure explodes. The oil company loses the drilling rights, so the black oil remains safely sealed under the Gulf of Mexico. Mulder takes the blame for the whole thing and is canned, confident that Doggett will faithfully run the X-Files now that he's seen the black oil.

Miguel Sandoval, perhaps best known as D.A. Manuel Devalos on Medium, plays Martin Ortega here. M.C. Gainey, the not-so-lovable Tom Friendly of Lost, is also not so lovable here as Bo Taylor. Casey Biggs, who plays Saksa, also played Damar on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Gregory Cruz, who plays Diego Garza, also plays Detective Bobby Stillwater on Saving Grace.

Episode Body Count

Communications engineer: stabbed by Simon de la Cruz.


Simon de la Cruz: blasted by radioactivity from Bo Taylor; his body is later found on the shore of Texas.


Diego Varza: killed by a radiation blast from the infected oil workers.


Seventeen infected oil workers: presumably killed when the rig explodes.

Humans: 20
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (179/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 2,049

Creatures: 127
Aliens: 64

Grand Total: 2,240

Season 8, Episode 17: Empedocles

Synopsis

A fired corporate worker in New Orleans named Jeb Dukes witnesses the fiery end to a police chase shortly after he's laid off. After appearing to be possessed by a burning man, Dukes returns to the office and murders his boss and boss's secretary. Reyes is called to the scene on the mistaken presumption that Dukes was involved in satanic activities and sees a brief vision of one of the corpses completely burnt. Reyes tells Mulder that she last had such a vision after seeing the body of Doggett's murdered son. The person killed in the crash turns out to be a former suspect in that case, and Reyes thinks there may be a chance to put case to rest.

Doggett is angered by their investigation, but later asks Scully how she became more accepting of paranormal explanations after she's hospitalized with abdominal pains. Dukes has visions of himself surrounded by flames or other red-hot phenomena, and ends up killing another woman in South Carolina. Reyes suggests that a thread of evil is at work, and passed on to Dukes from the suspect. Dukes ends up at his sister's house in Maryland, appearing normal as he says he didn't commit the murders.

Dukes' sister lets Reyes know that he's come back, and Doggett warms up to the idea that he may know something about his son's murder. Reyes shoots Dukes after he takes his niece hostage. Doggett flashes back to a vision he had of his son's body charred to ashes after the body was found. Mulder tells Doggett that when he was working on violent crimes, he came to think of evil as a sort of disease, with vulnerable people open to infection. Dukes dies, and the evil passes on to his sister. She attacks Reyes, but Doggett saves her and tells her its over; Reyes replies that it's never over.

Denise Crosby, who plays Dr. Mary Speake in this and one other episode, also played Lt. Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Cheryl Francis Harrington, who plays an ER nurse, also voiced Ms. Mambo Garcelle on The PJs.

Episode Body Count

Bob Harvey and station wagon driver: Harvey, a suspect in Luke Doggett's murder, is killed in a car accident while fleeing from police. Considering the entire station wagon explodes after Harvey crashes into it, I'm not holding out much hope for the driver visible inside.


Gary Garber: shot by Jeb Dukes in his New Orleans office.


Roberta Toews: also shot by Jeb Dukes in New Orleans.


Luke John Doggett: murdered while Doggett was working with the NYPD.


Flat tire woman: shot by Jeb Dukes in South Carolina.


Jeb Dukes: dies in the hospital after he is shot by Reyes in his sister's Maryland home.

Humans: 7
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (178/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 2,029

Creatures: 127
Aliens: 64

Grand Total: 2,220

Season 8, Episode 16: Three Words

Synopsis
A census worker runs onto the White House grounds in an attempt to warn the President that aliens are taking over the United States. He ends up getting shot, and passes on a disk labeled "Fight the Future" to one of the guards. Mulder has gotten better, the virus gone and his abduction-related injuries healing. In prison, an inmate smuggles an article about the census man's death to Absalom inside a book entitled "The Coming Apocalypse." Mulder applies for reinstatement to the X-Files, but Kersh says he intends to keep them open with Doggett at the helm.

Absalom escapes from a work site and goes to see Doggett, with a gun. After checking the back of Doggett's neck "to make sure you're still you," Absalom tells him that the invasion has already begun and Doggett is going to help expose it. Mulder tells Scully and Skinner that he believes the census worker was killed for something he knew; he also notes how the man knew Absalom and was a multiple abductee. Mulder also finds that the census worker's laptop is full of numerical data and takes its hard drive. Secretly holding Doggett at gunpoint, Absalom tries to access census data at the Federal Statistics Center that he believes will prove the conspiracy but is shot before he can do so.

Mulder and Doggett's first meeting isn't very amicable, as Mulder accuses Doggett of involvement in Absalom's death and attempting to bury the truth. The Lone Gunmen find that the census worker downloaded a number of file directories from the FSC on the day he was shot, but that short of breaking into the facility there's no way to access them. Rohrer leaks the password ("Fight the Future") that was on the census worker's diskette to Doggett, and he in turn leaks it to Scully. After Doggett finds out that Scully's worried about how Mulder will use it, Doggett takes off for the FSC.

There, the Gunmen are helping Mulder sneak into the facility. He manages to get to a work station and access the data. Doggett also makes it inside and warns Mulder that his life is in danger if he doesn't knock it off. Mulder says people have been targeted because of their "genetic profiles for abduction and replacement by alien facsimiles." As heavily armed men arrive, Scully tells the Gunmen that the group appears to have been set up. Doggett convinces Mulder to trust him, and they escape through the dropped ceiling without the data. Doggett confronts Rohrer, who says the truth is all in the X-Files. As Doggett heads off, we see that Rohrer has a couple of strange protrusions under the skin of his neck.

Episode Body Count

Howard Salt: a census employee, shot on the lawn of the White House with his own weapon.


Fish: Mulder notes how one of his fish is missing, and Scully says it wasn't as lucky as he was.


Absalom: shot and killed by security guards at the Federal Statistics Center in Virginia.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 1
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (177/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 2,022

Creatures: 127
Aliens: 64

Grand Total: 2,213

Season 8, Episode 15: Deadalive

Synopsis

Mulder's funeral is held at the family grave in North Carolina. Three months later, Kersh tells Doggett that he's recommending him for advancement due to his efforts in finding Mulder. Doggett suspects that Kersh wants to shut down the X-Files once he's transferred and Scully goes on maternity leave, but Scully urges him to take the promotion anyway. The bloated body of Billy Miles is found off the coast of North Carolina, and it turns out that he's alive. Thinking the same might be true for Mulder, Skinner has his coffin exhumed. It turns out that Mulder is clinically alive, despite the fact that some of his systems are decomposing; Kersh warns Doggett to leave the matter alone so the FBI doesn't look bad.

Miles sheds his dying skin, regaining his normal appearance, and says the aliens are actually there to save mankind. Scully suspects that he may have transformed into something else. Doggett visits Abasalom in a West Virginia prison to try to get some insight on the healing process, but that remains unexplored for the rest of the episode. Krycek, who has returned with his nanobot blackmail device, makes Skinner an offer: he'll give up the anti-alien vaccine needed to keep Mulder alive, providing Scully's baby doesn't live. Skinner refuses the deal, though Scully tells Doggett that she had asked Skinner to get the vaccine; she thinks Miles was infected with a virus that started the transformation, and believes the vaccine can stop the same thing from happening to Mulder.

Doggett finds Skinner trying to pull the plug on Mulder; he tells Doggett he can't trust Krycek and certainly can't betray Scully. Doggett chases Kryeck, but he escapes and taunts Doggett by destroying the vaccine. Meanwhile, Skinner's action has shown that the virus is being incubated by life support, and Scully says Mulder might be able to recover on antivirals alone. Kersh lets Doggett know that his promotion is no longer on the table. Much to Scully's joy, Mulder wakes up unaffected by the virus.

Episode Body Count

No new deaths. However...

UNDEAD'D


Agent Fox Mulder: of course they're not going to kill Mulder! He is found to be not quite dead yet three months after his funeral.

Humans: 1
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

And so this episode ties for Least Deadliest of Show with Dreamland II.

Cumulative Body Count (176/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 2,020

Creatures: 126
Aliens: 64

Grand Total: 2,210

Season 8, Episode 14: This is Not Happening

Synopsis

Richie Szalay, a UFO chaser who previously met Mulder and Scully in Oregon sees a flying object that appears to make a stop in Montana; Szalay witnesses a man running from a scene and finds a woman who was abducted just before Mulder. She is found clinging to life, having been subjected to harsh experiments. Doggett suspects Szalay, who is trying to track down his abducted friend, but that fizzles out pretty quickly. Scully dreams of Mulder looking pretty bad, and she worries that he'll turn up dead. Jeremiah Smith shows up at the hospital and takes the appearance of a doctor so he can take her away for treatment at a remote cabin; also there is a man named Absalom. Doggett pairs Scully up with Monica Reyes, an agent who specializes in ritualistic crime; not surprisingly, she thinks Mulder has joined some sort of Heaven's Gate-like group.

Reyes spots another UFO pit stop, and interrupts Smith and Absalom as they retrieve another abductee. They leave behind another body: Szalay's friend, deceased. The FBI tracks down Absalom, believed to be a religious zealot, and raid his camp. They find the abducted woman looking perfectly fine. Scully asks Absalom if he recognizes a photo of Mulder, and he says he doesn't. Scully recognizes Smith from surveillance footage at the camp, which also reveals Smith taking Doggett's appearance. The agents return to the camp, where Smith warns Scully in a one-on-one meeting that he's the only one who can help the returning abductees. Mulder is returned, dead, and Scully watches helplessly as the UFO takes off with Smith. To be continued...

First appearance of Annabeth Gish as Agent Monica Reyes; she has also showed up in roles in The West Wing and Brotherhood. Judson Earney Scott, who plays Absalom in this and three other episodes, also played Joachim Weiss in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan and Lt. James on the original V miniseries.

Episode Body Count

Thirty-nine Heaven's Gate cult members: Reyes makes reference to the suicide of the people in Heaven's Gate, who thought the action would allow them to board a spacecraft trailing Comet Hale-Bopp.


Gary Edward Cory: found dead after he is dropped in a Montana field by a UFO.


Agent Fox Mulder: again? Returned, deceased, after his unpleasant tour aboard the UFO.

Humans: 41
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (175/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 2,021

Creatures: 126
Aliens: 64

Grand Total: 2,211

Poor humans...their tally surpasses 2,000.

Season 8, Episode 13: Per Manum

Synopsis

A former alien abductee, Kath McCready, winds up dead after giving birth to an alien baby, which the doctors don't seem too surprised about. Her husband, Duffy Haskell, takes the case to the X-Files; Scully is skeptical, but Doggett says it sounds like her own story, except for the pregnancy (considering he doesn't know about Scully's passenger). Scully flashes back to Mulder telling her how she was rendered barren after her ova were stolen during abduction, and that that a specialist determined that the eggs he recovered from a government lab were also not viable. Following up on an ultrasound of the dead woman, Scully goes to Zeus Genetics and discovers a room full of mutant fetuses in jars. It is also revealed that Scully's doctor is involved with this company.

Haskell is confronted by the FBI as leading the Ohio Mutual UFO Network and making threats to the Zeus Genetics doctors, but he turns out to be a mole on behalf of the company. Further flashbacks show that Scully was trying to get pregnant through artificial insemination, and that Mulder had agreed to be a donor. Another pregnant woman from Zeus Genetics, a Mrs. Hendershot, goes to Scully for help since she thinks both of their babies are in danger. Another agent tells Doggett that Haskell has apparently been dead since 1970, though the person claiming to be him has the same prints; Doggett goes to an old buddy, Knowle Rohrer, to try to unravel that mystery.

Scully takes Hendershot to an Army medical research facility to get help for both of their babies. Scully's ultrasound turns out fine, until she realizes that it's just a videotape and tries to escape with Hendershot. Doggett, realizing Scully is in danger, asks that she be rescued. Rohrer picks up the two women, but restrains and drugs Scully as Hendershot gives birth to an alien baby. Scully wakes up in a hospital, and Doggett tells her that Hendershot has had a baby boy. Scully figures that it's yet another cover-up, and unfortunately there's no way to prove anything. In another flashback, Scully tells Mulder that the procedure didn't work; he tells her to never give up on a miracle.

First appearance of Adam Baldwin as Knowle Rohrer; Baldwin's other roles include Animal Mother in Full Metal Jacket, Jayne Cobb on Firefly, and John Casey on Chuck.

Episode Body Count

Kath McCready: her husband, Duffy Haskell, says the doctors who delivered her baby killed her.


At least 65 mutant fetuses: it's tough to get an exact count, but Scully finds quite a few babies preserved in jars at Zeus Genetics; some have multiple heads, so I guess I'll do a torso count. They look more human than alien.


Alien baby: McCready's alien infant is under examination by Dr. Parenti in the room of mutant corpses.


David Haskell: another FBI agent tells Doggett that the man claiming to be Duffy Haskell has the same prints as a David Haskell who was buried in 1970.

Humans: 67
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 1

Cumulative Body Count (174/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,980

Creatures: 126
Aliens: 64

Grand Total: 2,170

Season 8, Episode 12: Medusa

Synopsis

An undercover police officer is killed on a Boston subway, seemingly by a thug, though a good portion of his body has been eaten away by something. The transit cops are anxious to get the closed tunnel re-opened by day's end, though Scully wants it to remain shut down until they can find what killed him. Doggett and a police/CDC team head into the tunnel, and one is burned by some sort of toxic substance. Scully does a remote analysis of a nearby puddle sample and finds that it's only contains seawater.

The thug runs into Doggett as the team enters a decommissioned tunnel, and dies soon after. He and three other bodies in the tunnel all show the same signs of disintegrated flesh. Scully worries that some sort of contagion is at play, but revises her theory to a biochemical weapon when the burned cop is suddenly hit with a more electrical sort of attack on his arm. Doggett and a jumpy cop continue to pursue a shadowy person who has made a few appearances, and Doggett notices a luminescent material on the other man's face.

A marine biologist is called in and tells Scully that the sample contained a creature similar to one called a medusa. Doggett finds that he has also been infected with the luminescence, and Scully warns him that something unknown triggers it to the more unknown reaction. Meanwhile, both agents are annoyed that the transit chief is keeping with a deadline and allowing the evening trains to run. Doggett discovers that the mysterious person is a young, uninfected boy.

Scully thinks that the reaction might be triggered by sweat, and the boy is unaffected because his sweat glands aren't fully developed. He leads them through a leak which has brought the organism in and flooded the main lines. The trains start up again, and Doggett apparently manages to destroy the organism with an electrical charge transmitted from the third rail through a gun. Unfortunately, that leaves no evidence for Doggett's hope to punish the transit chief for recklessly endangering people.

Ken Jenkins, who is best known for his role as Dr. Bob Kelso on Scrubs, plays Deputy Chief Karras here. Penny Johnson, who plays Dr. Hellura Lyle, also played Sherry Palmer on 24 and Beverly Barnes on The Larry Sanders Show.

Episode Body Count

Officer Philbrick: killed by a reaction to the contaminated seawater.


Thug: also killed by the infected seawater.


Three squatters: found hidden in a decommissioned tunnel with the same lack of flesh.

Humans: 5
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (173/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,913

Creatures: 126
Aliens: 63

Grand Total: 2,102

Season 8, Episode 11: The Gift

Synopsis

In Pennsylvania, a man enters a home with a strange symbol on it and shoots some sort of creature dead over the protests of the two inhabitants. He drives off, and we see that it's...Mulder? Doggett goes to the same town to look into a missing person case that Mulder investigated a week before his disappearance. The two inhabitants, Paul and Marie Hangemuhl, maintain the story that Marie only went to her sister's after they got into a fight, but Mulder thought she was afraid of something coming to the house. Paul says that Mulder twisted Marie's fear of a Native American legend of a forest creature into a theory that someone was coming to get her.

Doggett finds evidence that Mulder shot someone or something and falsified his report, and that Scully assisted in the falsification; he takes the matter to Skinner so Scully won't get in trouble. The sheriff and a mob capture another creature being kept at a forest cabin; later, he tells Doggett and Skinner that a transient was found dead in the town soon after Mulder's visit. The body is missing, having apparently tunneled out of its grave. The creature is brought to see Marie, who is seriously ill with a kidney disease, and apparently devours her; soon after, however, it is seen vomiting up a substance into a human-shaped depression in the ground.

Doggett considers whether Mulder may have shot someone/something to protect Marie. Skinner finds the symbol on the door, and The Lone Gunmen inform them that it can be used to summon a "soul eater" shaman that devours sickness. Doggett visits the cabin and finds Marie alive, if a little sticky, and it is determined that her illness is gone. Doggett is still mystified about the shooting and who Mulder was attacking. Visiting the rustic woman who has overseen the creature, Doggett realizes that Mulder was trying to heal his own brain disease but saw that the creature suffered immensely to help people and shot it out of mercy.

The woman says the creature can't be killed and will keep suffering as long as the townspeople know it's alive. Doggett tries to take the creature away, but is blocked by the sheriff and his gang, who want to use it to heal the town's sick people. When Doggett refuses to relinquish the creature, they kill and bury him. The creature escapes, and ends up resurrecting Doggett, taking his death for himself and freeing himself from his suffering in the process. Doggett wonders how the hell he's going to write a report on the case, and Skinner suggests that he just give it a pass.

Caroline Lagerfelt, who plays the Rustic Woman, also played Inger Dominguez on Nash Bridges.

Episode Body Count

Creature: not exactly killed after being shot by Mulder. Later takes Doggett's death away from him, thus dying himself.


Chicken: the blood of the bird is used to paint a symbol on the Hangemuhls' door.


Agent John Doggett: killed when the sheriff hits him with a shotgun blast, but brought back to life by the creature.

Humans: 1
Creatures: 2
Aliens: 0

UNDEAD'D

Humans: 1
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (172/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,908

Creatures: 126
Aliens: 63

Grand Total: 2,097

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