Original Air Date: 02/06/00
Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz Directed by Michael Watkins
THE STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF A LITTLE GIRL LEAD MULDER TO MAKE CONNECTIONS WITH PREVIOUS UNEXPLAINED KIDNAPPINGS. YET SCULLY BELIEVES HE IS ASSOCIATING THE CASE WITH THE ABDUCTION OF HIS SISTER.
Five year−old Amber Lynn LaPierre says her prayers before her parents tuck her into bed. Bud LaPierre sets in for the evening to watch television, but he hears a noise in the house. He checks Amber Lynn’s room and is horrified to see the little girl’s face has turned blue from strangulation. He recoils at the sight. Yet at second glance, she appears to perfectly fine and still asleep. Meanwhile, his wife Billie is in their bedroom. She is oddly concentrating on writing an abduction note. Bud moves down the hallway to tell his wife of the strange hallucination when Amber Lynn’s bedroom door slams shut. He struggles to open it. Blood oozes out from under the door. Bud breaks in to find Amber Lynn has vanished.
That same evening, Skinner assembles a team of agents to find the girl. Mulder insists that he be put on the case. Although Skinner does not consider this to be an X−File, he gives Mulder until noon to file a report. The next morning, Mulder arrives at the media circus surrounding the LaPierre home in Sacramento, California. He inquires about the ransom note. Bud tells him that the note was in Amber Lynn’s room. Billie lies and says she was already in bed. Mulder is unsure what to believe. Later, Scully arrives at the motel to find Mulder deep in thought. Skinner sent her to retrieve Mulder’s report. Mulder’s cell phone interrupts their conversation. It is Mrs. Mulder, who asks her son if he is investigating the abduction case. She seems troubled, and wants him to call when he gets back.
Mulder and Scully return to Washington, where Skinner is analyzing the letter with his team. Handwriting analysis seems to shows that Billie LaPierre did write the note, but there is no demand for money or ransom. Although the other agents believe that the parents are involved, Mulder knows that none of their theories explain what happened to the little girl. Scully follows him back to his office and attempts to convince him that he is identifying the case with the disappearance of his sister. Mulder rummages through old files and he finds a document from a 1987 case in Idaho. The last line of the ransom note matches the one found in the LaPierre home: “Nobody shoots at Santa Claus!” The agents visit the woman whose handwriting is on the note, Kathy Lee Tencate, who is imprisoned for kidnapping her six year−old son. Although the boy was never found, she confessed to the murder. Mulder notes that her case resembles the LaPierre situation and believes she is innocent. Kathy Lee refuses to help, so they leave. Alone in her cell, Kathy Lee has a ghostly vision of her son and summons the agents.
Mrs. Mulder calls her son again, but leaves an answering machine message, saying there has been much unsaid that she hopes he will understand. She proceeds to burn photographs of Mulder and his sister. Mulder returns to Sacramento to show the LaPierres a videotaped confession by Kathy Lee. She assures them on the tape that their daughter is protected. The couple react emotionally. The LaPierres change their statements about the event on the night of the abduction, and they are released from police custody.
Back in the office, Skinner scolds Mulder for bringing his paranormal ideas into the case. Scully interrupts. She informs Mulder that his mother is dead. They investigate Mrs. Mulder’s house, finding an open gas oven and a bottle of sleeping pills. Mulder believes that his mother was trying to contact him about the LaPierre case and that whoever took his sister has now killed his mother, staging a suicide. He notices the missing family photos, and pleads with Scully to do the autopsy.
Looking for answers, Mulder goes to the Idaho prison to see Kathy Lee Tencate again. She tells him that his mother was trying to tell him that his sister Samantha is with the “walk−ins” – old souls lurking in starlight who protect other souls from harm that they would have suffered in real life.
A paunchy man watches some children play in the Santa’s North Pole Village theme park. He changes into a Santa suit next to a group of television monitors taping the village. Nearby are stacks of videotapes. Mulder, meanwhile, replays his mother’s message for Scully, trying to discern what she was trying to warn him about. Scully found that Mrs. Mulder suffered from an incurable cancer and did commit suicide. She tells Mulder that his mother would want him to stop looking for Samantha. She had probably hoped to take away his pain. Mulder breaks down in Scully’s arms.
Billie LaPierre sees a vision of Amber Lynn next to her bed. The little girl is mouthing something. Skinner and Scully take Mulder to Sacramento because Billie wants to see him. Billie tells Mulder that the apparition of Amber Lynn said the number seventy−four. No one understands the significance of the word. As the agents drive from the LaPierre home, a beaten and exhausted Mulder asks to be removed from the case. Scully notices a highway sign for Route 74 and she looks on the map. They head down the route toward Santa’s North Pole Village. Skinner checks the grounds while Mulder and Scully enter the building. They come upon a bank of video monitors and stacks of videotapes dating back to the 1960s. One tape has footage of Amber Lynn LaPierre. Suddenly, the paunchy man appears and locks Mulder and Scully in the office. Skinner chases the man around the property and arrests him. Mulder and Scully catch up and find themselves standing on freshly turned earth. They realize that there are dozens of unmarked plots – each the size of a child’s grave.
Closure
(2 of 2)Production Code: #7ABX11 Original Air Date: 02/13/00
Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz Directed by Kim Manners
MULDER CONTINUES TO SEARCH FOR CLUES ABOUT SAMANTHA’S ABDUCTION AND ULTIMATELY FINDS THE LONG−SOUGHT−AFTER ANSWERS TO HER FATE.
Small bodies are excavated from graves outside the Santa’s North Pole Workshop in Sacramento (discovered in #7ABX10). The ghosts of the children rise up out of the earth, look up to the heavens and fade into starlight.
Mulder pores over the tapes found at the crime scene. Scully reports that Ed Truelove confessed to all the children’s murders, but did not take
responsibility for the disappearance of Amber Lynn LaPierre. Mulder admits to Scully that he had hoped his sister Samantha was among the dead. “I just wanted it to be over,” he says. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of police psychic Harold Piller who offers to help find Amber Lynn. Piller has previously explained cases where children were transported through spiritual intervention. Although Scully readily dismisses Piller and his theories, Mulder is interested, and notes that Piller’s claims match what Kathy Lee Tencate had told him in the prison.
Disapproving of Mulder’s blind belief, Scully returns to Washington and shows Special Agent Lewis Schoniger a video of Mulder’s 1989 regression hypnotherapy session. As Mulder recalls Samantha’s abduction on the tape, the FBI expert points out that Mulder’s delusion played into his unconscious hope that his sister was still alive. This caused him to pursue her. The case file reveals that an unsuccessful search for Samantha occurred at the highest levels of government in 1973. Schoniger surmises that Samantha is probably dead, and advises Scully not to dig any deeper. Scully disagrees, saying that someone owes Mulder an explanation because “he deserves closure, like anyone.”
Back in Sacramento, Mulder brings Piller to the graves. The psychic senses that Ed Truelove’s victims all died while suffering. Walk−ins, however, intervene before anything violent happens to the children. Piller believes that while Amber Lynn was not among the dead children in the graves, she has a connection to Mulder and his missing sister. That night, Piller comes to Mulder’s motel room because a “visitor” wants to speak to him. A ghostly vision of the late Mrs. Mulder appears, trying to tell Mulder something. When she quickly disappears, Mulder discredits Piller’s abilities, but then realizes that he has unknowingly written the words “April Base” on a piece of paper.
Scully proceeds with her own investigation of Mrs. Mulder’s house and finds remnants of burned photos and documents. She calls Mulder to tell him that one of the documents has the Cigarette− Smoking Man’s (CSM) signature calling off the search for Samantha. Mulder discounts the importance of this lead. When Scully gets home later that night, CSM is waiting for her. He warns her to stop the search for Samantha because he believes she is dead. Although Scully pleads for the truth, CSM contends that Mulder must remain ignorant. It is the only thing that gives him hope. Meanwhile, Mulder and Piller sneak onto the decommissioned April Air Force Base. Piller has a vision of Samantha and other children given tests in train cars. Mulder is at first skeptical, but then finds a child’s handprint in the cement outside one of the base houses. Samantha’s name is etched underneath.
Next to the small hand is another print with the name Jeffrey.
Mulder refutes what CSM said to Scully, believing that Samantha was returned after her abduction to be raised by CSM and his son, Jeffrey Spender. Scully thinks that Piller is leading Mulder on. The agents confront Piller with the knowledge that he has been institutionalized for schizophrenia and is currently being investigated for the murder of his own son. Piller argues that he only wants to find his son. He tries to prove that he knows Samantha is still out there by taking them back to the base. In CSM’s abandoned house, the three hold hands for a séance to summon the spirits. Ghosts appear around them. A small boy ghost takes Mulder’s hand and leads him into an adjoining room. Inside a wall cavity, Mulder finds a diary belonging to Samantha. Later in a diner, he reads the passages to Scully. A fourteen year−old Samantha remembers another family and an older brother, but she seems to think that the doctors performing tests on her have stolen her memories. Her final entry is about running away. Outside, Mulder looks up at the night sky and ponders whether the stars are really comprised of lost souls. He tells Scully that he wonders what his mother was trying to tell him before she died. Late at night, as Mulder sleeps, the ghost of Mrs. Mulder whispers into her son’s ear.
The next morning, Scully uncovers a 1979 police report on a runaway who matches Samantha’s description. The agents scour old hospital records, finding a “Jane Doe” patient with signs of paranoia. The girl also exhibited strange cuts on her limbs. They go with Piller to the house of Arbutus Ray, the emergency room nurse who signed the patient in. Mulder is hesitant to approach the woman’s front door because he somehow senses that he has reached the end of the road. Scully and Piller knock on the door as Mulder waits at the car. Ray does recall the patient and remembers that she had a vision of the girl murdered. A frightened Ray blinked, but realized the girl was sleeping safely. This story matches Bud LaPierre’s hallucination. Ray also recounts how a group of men came with the father – a smoking man – to take the girl away. When the men opened her locked room, the girl had vanished. Scully turns to Mulder, but he has disappeared. She doesn’t see him being led by the same boy from the house at the Air Force base. Mulder walks through a clearing in the woods and sees a group of ghostly children happily playing. Amber Lynn LaPierre is there. Mulder senses that his guide is Harold Piller’s son. Suddenly, Samantha runs to Mulder and jumps into her brother’s arms. The joyous reunion brings him to tears.
A peaceful Mulder appears out of the darkness, walking towards Scully and Piller. Piller is in denial when Mulder assures him that his son is protected among the Walk−ins. But Scully is concerned about her partner. “I’m fine,” he calmly says. “I’m free.”
X-Cops
Production Code: #7ABX12 Original Air Date: 02/20/00 Written by Vince Gilligan Directed by Michael Watkins
MULDER AND SCULLY ARE FOLLOWED
DOCUMENTARY−STYLE BY A “COPS” CAMERA CREW AS THEY INVESTIGATE A MONSTER ON THE STREETS OF LOS ANGELES.
Willow Park, California. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. 6:48 pm. Deputy Keith Wetzel cruises the streets, but he’s not alone in his patrol car – a camera crew from the television show “Cops” follows his every move. He responds to a call about a possible “monster” prowler. Wetzel finds huge scrapes on the front door of the house, and a quick search corners the suspect in the backyard. As Wetzel advances toward the perpetrator, something startles him. He bolts back toward the squad car, shrieking in terror. The frightened camera crew follows. As Wetzel frantically radios for assistance, an unseen force attacks the police car and flips it completely over. The terrified occupants scream.
Backup arrives in the form of Sergeant Paula Duthie. She is astounded by the upside−down vehicle and questions Wetzel about the incident. Although the camera crew is no help in confirming his story, Wetzel lies to his superior, telling her that a street gang was responsible for the wreck. They are interrupted by the radio squawking with a report of two armed suspects fleeing on foot. The officers on the scene rush to apprehend a very surprised pair of FBI agents investigating the same “monster”: Mulder and Scully.
Mulder asks Wetzel to describe what it was that attacked him. Although Wetzel attempts to downplay the incident, Mulder believes that they are really chasing a werewolf. He speculates that the bite marks on Wetzel’s wrists may indicate that he will soon become a werewolf himself. When Mulder suggests that the deputy be quarantined, Sgt. Duthie skeptically asks, “Could I see your badge again?”
Scully tries to avoid the camera crew when discussing the case, but Mulder is giddy with the prospect of solving an X−File under the watchful eyes of a worldwide audience. She is merely trying to keep herself and her partner from looking ridiculous in a werewolf hunt. Police sketch artist Ricky draws the attacker described by a resident. The perpetrator seems to closely resemble horror movie character Freddy Krueger. Although Ricky begins to fear the “claw monster” that the woman described, Mulder is no longer certain that the werewolf theory still stands. Scully confirms this by reporting that the marks on Wetzel’s wrists are merely insect bites.
The police radio reports another attack nearby, and the team runs to the scene. Ricky’s body lies dead, savagely clawed through his protective Kevlar vest with five parallel slashes. Scully combs the crime area and uncovers a long, fake fingernail, painted bubblegum pink and covered in blood. The agents interview Steve and Edy, a colorful couple who heard Ricky’s cries and called 911. They recognize the nail polish on the fake fingernail as the signature hair and nail color of local prostitute Chantara Gomez.
9:26 pm. The agents search for Chantara. Mulder drives and addresses the camera, cheerfully updating the audience on the case. Scully, still ignoring the camera crew, easily spots the prostitute’s pink hair. Chantara confesses that it was not Freddy Krueger but her boyfriend, Chuco, who killed Ricky. She is afraid that Chuco will twist her neck when he learns that she ratted on him. The police raid Chuco’s house and find that he has overdosed. Dead for several days, Chuco is ruled out as a suspect. Suddenly, gunshots blast outside. Dep. Wetzel is blindly firing at an invisible assailant. Although he was assigned to protect Chantara, she was somehow killed in the locked squad car. Her neck was snapped. Wetzel describes to Mulder a childhood story about a monster with a head like a wasp. He says that what he shot at was the same Wasp Man.
1:32 am. Mulder switches theories about the nature of the case. He now believes that the suspect is really a single entity that, when it attacks, appears as the victim’s worst nightmare. It appears at a full moon and feeds on fear, jumping to various sources like a chain reaction. Scully still does not buy his claims, but returns with him to the home of Steve and Edy. They are the only people to not fall prey to this killer. But after talking with Steve and Edy, it becomes clear that the couple does not fear their neighborhood or any killer on the loose. Mulder decides that they are not in any danger. He heads off with Wetzel to scour the streets, and Scully goes to the morgue to examine Chantara’s body.
2:47 am. Much to Scully’s chagrin, half the camera crew has followed her, but she works earnestly to find any clues before sunrise. The nervous medical examiner assisting her has heard that some kind of contagion killed the prostitute. Scully assures her that the victim was murdered and not exposed to the Hantavirus. As the assistant asks more questions about the Hantavirus, she sneezes blood and faints. She convulses on the floor, exhibiting symptoms of Hantavirus. Scully yells at the camera crew to call 911.
4:41 am. At the morgue, Mulder assimilates this latest incident into his theory, realizing that the Hantavirus only affected the examiner after she began fearing it. Mulder suddenly realizes that Deputy Wetzel, who was not afraid while Mulder
was with him, is now on his own again and at risk of another attack. Wetzel, meanwhile, has returned to the previously raided house with the camera crew. He is determined to search it one more time. Unfortunately for Wetzel, his fears begin to overwhelm him and he is locked inside the house with the cameras. Mulder and Scully arrive quickly and break down the door. Behind a locked closet, Wetzel screams in pain. Mulder yells at him to “cowboy up” and not show any fear. Suddenly, the screaming stops, and Mulder breaks in to find an injured Wetzel sitting dazed on the floor, cradling his bloody arm. Mulder realizes that the sun has