4X23 – DEMONS
by foxestacado
Recap by kschica
We see a flash, and the obligatory beating heart sounds in the background with a strobe light and other effects that shows this is a freaky dream. We then see Samantha in her nightgown telling a full-grown “Fox” that she’s afraid of what is going on downstairs. A sweaty Mulder wakes up, and seems confused by the blood he sees staining his shirt. Luckily, Mulder did a bang up job of following Scully’s habit of always remembering to wear white when he gets good and bloody. It’s so much more dramatic. He naturally calls Scully. The camera flashes to Scully’s bedside clock, which reads 4:50 am. She also looks ridiculously perfect, and in full makeup. This is especially impressive considering she’s dying and all. Scully gets to then say the words we all miss so much, “Mulder, where are you?” Mulder doesn’t know, and looks down at a key in his hand that says he is at a hotel in Providence, Rhode Island. Scully asks him why he is there, and he says he doesn’t know. And that there’s blood all over him. Scully asks if he’s hurt, and he says he doesn’t think so. He thinks it’s someone else’s blood.
Credits. Oh, Young Scully, there’s so much I need to warn you about. And yet, tragically, I cannot.
Providence, Rhode Island . Scully comes barreling in, screeching tires and all. She knocks and calls out Mulder’s name once. She quickly decides to enter, and calls out his name a few more times. Without hesitating very much, she enters into the bathroom, where the water is running. There, she finds Mulder completely naked, quaking in a bathtub. Sadly, she gets little to no thrill out of this, and is firmly in Scully doctor mode. And Mulder makes no quip either, just saying he can’t get warm. Scully says he’s in shock, and much to the collective disappointment of many does not offer warm him up. Apparently they wait three more years for that to come into play. Sigh. She tells him to dry off, and she leaves the room to get him a blanket. She goes into a bunch of doctor like questions, and asks him to track her finger. Mulder apparently woke up with a pounding headache, and doesn’t remember anything. She asks him what day it is, and he ponders this before having to ask. Apparently, it’s Sunday. She asks what he last remembers. He last remembers talking to her on the phone from his apartment. This turns out to have been Friday. Scully has apparently already spotted that he packed an overnight bag, so he must have intended to at least spend the night when he left D.C. After hearing that Mulder isn’t feeling pain nor taken any medication, Scully checks out the bloody clothes. She asks Mulder if he could possibly have cut himself, and he says no. She is clearly already grasping at straws, since she already got a full body view with no signs of lacerations. She asks him where his weapon is, and she quickly finds it. She discharges the cartridge, and the camera zooms in on it. For a second, I was afraid that I was supposed to be smart enough to know what I was looking at. Luckily, Scully explains it to me, “Two rounds have been fired.” Mulder doesn’t remember firing the weapon. Scully tells him he needs to go the hospital. Mulder, of course disagrees, and says he needs to know what happened and that a crime was committed. Scully seems to think it could be an aneurysm, which apparently could drop him in a second. Mulder doesn’t look too concerned, but just hunts around the room a bit and finds some keys. He asks if they are Scully’s, and she says no. He looks closer and sees that they have a keychain that says, “Amy.” How handy those personalized engraved keychains are!
Scully walks out of the hotel office. Apparently Mulder checked in at noon the day before, and made no phone calls and had no visitors. He also apparently drove there, because he registered a car. Scully looks closer at the car in question, and Mulder says it’s not his. This is a good thing, because there is blood on the steering wheel. Mulder goes to get the keys he found earlier, which apparently work because next thing we know Scully is busting open the glovebox. The car is registered to a “David Cassandra,” and the address is there on the registration. Mulder then asks, “Who’s Amy?” It seems this information is not on the car title, so Scully tells him that they will find out, but first Mulder needs to go to a hospital. As one might expect, Mulder disagrees and needs to find out what the hell is going on. Scully says she feels strongly about this, and that he is taking a big risk. Mulder tells her he knows, but that it’s his risk.
We cut to a table with bunches of photos, all of which have a face cut out of them. A man is seen cutting them out, bleeding as though he has a hole in his head. Interesting.
Mulder and Scully knock on a door, and talk with a woman who turns out to be “Amy and David’s” housekeeper. Mulder immediately gravitates to a painting of a house. Mulder has seen the house before, and finds out Amy’s painted it. The housekeeper says that’s all Amy paints, and shows Mulder many, many paintings of the same house. It’s all very Thomas Kincaid. Mulder asks what the housekeeper knows of the house, and she says that it is in…well, it’s an unintelligible sounding town. Luckily, Mulder knows this place because his family had a vacation home in that town, which is in Rhode Island as well. So he could probably spell it and everything. Again, what a coincidence! Or is it?
Mulder and Scully pull up to the house. It looks to be deserted, and not even remotely like Thomas Kincaid now. This prompts Mulder to clutch his head. The weird heartbeat sounds and strobe lights kick in again. Grown Mulder morphs into Young Fox, who is suddenly much smaller than previous incarnations of Young Fox. Young Fox is standing outside the door, listening to his parents argue. His dad finally looks at him for a moment, then shuts the door. Then another man comes from behind the entryway, smoking a cigarette and says, “You’re a little spy.” As there is only one man in the world who smokes cigarettes, we all know this person must be. I’m pretty sure what was Chris Owens’ voice there, but I’m not 100% sure. Mulder comes to, with Scully calling his name out. She explains what happened, and he says he doesn’t remember the pain or blacking out, but that he does remember vivid flashbacks from his childhood. Scully says it was a seizure, or an “electrical storm in the brain.” Mulder says it felt really good. Scully argues that he’s not really good. Scully’s really such a buzzkill. She’s probably just jealous that she doesn’t get groovy flashbacks from her major neurological condition anymore. Mulder ignores her and enters the house, saying he thinks he’s been there before. Mulder goes to check out the upstairs.
The house has long since been abandoned, and is covered in gigantic cobwebs. I’m not even sure I knew such big cobwebs really occurred outside of Halloween, but I try and avoid entering rooms that have been uninhabited for years. Scully walks around, and then spots a body on the floor, covered in blood. Because the woman is wearing a white sweater, Scully can easily tell that there’s been a gunshot wound to her heart. Scully says, “This must be Amy Cassandra,” as Mulder walks up behind her and looks at the body. Scully sees another body, and adds “And her husband.” Mulder walks across the room and looks closely at the male body, and shoots Scully an “Oh, shit,” look.
The police have come to investigate. Scully tells Mulder that the police want to speak with him, and that she has explained his condition. I personally wish we could have seen that scene. “Officer, my partner has no idea what happened, though he was covered in blood and pretty much led me right to the bodies. But he did clutch his head in pain at one point, saying he got vivid, nice feeling flashbacks. No, really, he’s not on drugs. Oh by the way, we are FBI agents who investigate the supernatural.” Mulder, half tongue in cheek, says he should get a lawyer before talking to the police. Scully says she refuses to believe Mulder had any part in this. Mulder decides to be the one to point out the obvious, pretty much summarizing the episode up to this point in ten seconds. Mulder asks if the words “Orenthal James Simpson” mean anything to her. Scully sighs, and a police officer comes sauntering over to question Mulder, asking him how he’s feeling. Mulder says he’s feeling confused. The police officer skeptically says that his partner said that he has had seizures, and just had one right there. This is all in a “how convenient” sort of voice. The officer asks what brought Mulder there. Mulder says he doesn’t know, and thinks he came there as a kid. The officer says, “You think?” Clearly, the officer does not buy it. He questions him some more, and basically Mulder says that he had never met the victims before in his recollection, and that the first time he ever saw them was when he walked into that house, using their keys, finding them on the floor. The officer seems to have a few issues with this story, saying that there are prints in the house, many with blood. He asks Mulder if he really wants to stick with that story. He asks if Mulder wants to come to the station to elaborate. Scully says firmly that the only place Mulder is going is to a hospital. The officer agrees, but wants them all to go together. He wants Mulder to ride with him. Scully decides that she can be a lawyer as well as a doctor, and advises Mulder not to say any more until Scully gets a closer look at the evidence.
The coroner reads out preliminary results, and Scully listens, all ready to slice and dice. I love Autopsy Scully! Now that’s the action figure that would have made me happy, at least as a wardrobe choice for the action figure. Though I might have wanted to go ahead and give her heels anyhow, even if it would be wildly impractical. Anyhow, Scully immediately sees something on the victim’s head, and the coroner asks her what she is looking for. “I’m not sure,” she Mulders. She picks at what looks like a scab on Amy’s head, and then gets out a magnifying glass to look at the wound closer. Scully tells the coroner she wants to do more than an autopsy. She wants a craniotomy and some other exam that I am going to assume has to do with the head. The coroner points out that the cause of death seems pretty clear, with those bullet holes and all. Scully tells him she agrees, but that she is interested more in why they died as opposed to how. They pan away then, but somehow I feel like the coroner might have been wondering why he’s left doing all this on her whim. It really was a nice Mulder sort of move on her part. I love how she’s totally willing to be Mulder when his ass is on the line.
We go to Mulder laying his head on the table at the police station, looking glum. The officer walks in, carrying a bag. For a second, I thought he was giving Mulder lunch. But, it apparently is evidence. And not the good kind. He asks Mulder if he wants to change his story. Mulder says no. In typical, police show banter, the officer eventually makes his point. The murder weapon is Mulder’s gun, and that it had been fired at point blank range, execution style. To me the scene didn’t look terribly like execution style, but whatever. The officer says he would like to believe Mulder when he says he had this memory lapse, and killed them in a blind rage. Finally he lets Mulder look in the bag. Inside is Mulder’s shirt, which apparently has the blood of the two victims on it. Mulder says he can’t explain it. He then asks about the prints, and whether they were his. The officer merely sits in silence. Mulder tells him that he can’t give a confession because he can’t remember. The officer decides to read him his rights. Mulder closes his eyes, and opens them slowly with the officer’s voice fading out.
We fade to Mulder coming in with the orange jumpsuit. I’m trying to recall how many times we’ve seen Mulder in prison. I wonder if Scully’s been abducted more times than Mulder’s been thrown in prison. Of course, Scully has also been in prison once and Mulder has been abducted a few times. There really are no winners in these contests. Anyhow, Scully says she’ll get Mulder out. Mulder points out that she’s a doctor and not a lawyer. Though given the gravity of what’s going on, I’m not sure I get why a real live attorney hasn’t been called. Scully decides to continue to play lawyer and asks Mulder if he confessed, and he assures her he didn’t. Scully turns to the officer and advises him that he might not want to rush into booking Mulder so soon. She explains that new medical information should be considered, as Amy Cassandra had a substance called ketamine in her system. Mulder says that this is a veterinary drug, because between them Mulder and Scully pretty much know everything. Scully says yes, but that when ingested by humans it can cause hallucinations. The officer thus far is unimpressed. Scully goes on to explain that Mulder also has this in his system. Mulder asks how it would have gotten there. Scully says likely through injection. She says another exam of Mulder would probably show such an injection. And that she and Mulder need some time alone for her to look everywhere. Well, that last part went unsaid. Scully says that the presence of the drug could explain the memory loss and blackouts, thus clearing Mulder. Scully really does seem to like the “I was drugged!” defense. The officer doesn’t buy it, and decides to keep Mulder anyhow.
Scully tells Mulder that she doesn’t feel there is enough proof here, especially with the drugs involved. She feels the narrative is too convenient, what with Mulder voluntarily leading the investigation to find victims of a double murder after he woke up covered in blood. I’m honestly not sure what an outsider is supposed to make of this. Luckily Scully is not an outsider, and feels confident that Mulder didn’t do it. Mulder doesn’t seem quite as convinced, but makes a joke that maybe the other explanation is that he is suddenly partying with senior citizens. Then the officer walks up to take Mulder away, and Scully tells him that he’s jailing an innocent man. She says this in a tone like the officer is being a real hardass, which he is to some extent, but I’m not sure what person with half a brain wouldn’t hold Mulder at this point. But God bless Scully’s loyalty and conviction. The officer says that at least he knows Mulder won’t disappear for two days and do something else he won’t remember.
Scully walks away determinedly, and a uniformed officer walks by her toward the cells with equal determination. He moves into an empty cell, and takes out a photo with a picture cut off. It’s the head bleeding guy from earlier with all the cut up pictures. He looks at the picture and starts to get weepy. He then pulls out his gun, and we pan to Scully turning back around on a dime when she hears the gun shot. You know a part of her feels like Mulder must be involved somehow. Scully goes into the cell, reassuring everyone that she is a doctor. As always, no one protests this at all and allows her to go in alone. She looks closely, and uses her medical expertise to say, “He’s dead.” She takes a closer look and sees the same scabbed over hole that she had seen before. She says she needs to talk to Detective Curtis, the officer who had been pressing Mulder so much, immediately.
Scully asks the detective if the officer had a history of depression. Apparently his former partner had come with complaints of odd behavior. Detective Curtis explains that the dead officer had become something of a joke on the force, believing in extraterrestrials. Scully takes this in stride, and starts concentrating on the cut up pictures. She asks if he’s looked at the pictures. He says not really, and doesn’t get where she’s going. Scully explains that cutting oneself out of picture upon picture is not what you’d call healthy, and that it is a sign that the dead officer probably was disturbed and even believed his own stories. Detective Curtis says he thought this would explain Mulder’s case. Scully decides not to go into this, and looks around the room more. And sitting right there is a copy of Abductee Magazine, with Amy Cassandra as the cover girl. I love the whole conceit of a magazine called Abductee. It sounds oddly mainstream, like something all the cool abductees must read to know how best to use their implants as accessories. Scully explains in highly technical terms that all three of the dead people had holes in their head. She thinks it might not have been murder, but more of a suicide pact.
We’re back to Jumpsuit! Mulder laying his head back. We’re in flashback mode, with a young Bill Mulder and CSM talking. Both appear to have had growth spurts at some point in their adulthood, as these two men are much, much shorter than their older counterparts. We see Young Fox running away from where the door closed to the upstairs to spy some more. He comes in and looks at Samantha, then back to the goings on downstairs. His mom is crying and pounding CSM’s chest, yelling, “Not Samantha! Not Samantha!” followed by, “I hate you!” Bill Mulder looks upwards toward Young Fox, and then the flashback ends and we pan back to Mulder. Mulder looks around his cell, getting his bearings. He calls for the guard, saying he needs to talk to someone.
The next morning. Scully comes in, and the Detective tells Scully that Mulder kept everyone up all night wanting to talk to someone. Apparently his memories are coming back. Mulder asks to talk to Scully alone. Mulder tells Scully he didn’t kill those people. She tells him she knows, but that she actually has gone beyond this and found evidence to clear him as well. I think this might be one instance that Scully should point to when Mulder whines about her need for proof. I think every once and awhile Mulder might need a good, “It saved your ass from jail!” The forensics reports showed that the splatter pattern did not match the point of entry. Apparently it was murder suicide, and that Mulder was there. Scully explains that Amy Cassandra claimed to be an abductee, and Mulder naturally surmises that he contacted her. Scully explains that Amy had gotten psychiatric treatment to recover memories, and that the repetitive paintings were a sign of mental trauma. Scully then brings it together with the dead officer, saying they were both suffering from Waxman Geshwin’s Syndrome, which put people in a trancelike state with vivid memories coming in flashback form. She says it is also called Dostoevsky syndrome, as he had been suffering from it as well. Mulder looks at, clearly sensing that this is leading to him soon. He asks what he was doing there, and Scully says she still can’t explain it. But she has pushed up his arraignment to an hour from then, and that they should have enough forensics evidence to clear him by then. Mulder says he still needs to know why. Scully nods, probably knowing that he would say that.
Warwick, Rhode Island. Mulder and Scully get out of Scully’s car. Scully explains that they are at Amy Cassandra’s psychologists’s office. Mulder notices that his car his there. It appears to have been there for several days. Mulder asks what the name of the psychologist was again.
We pan to Dr. Charles Goldsten, Ph.D, PsyD. Given what we find out he does, I’m thinking I might have preferred a psychiatrist to a psychologist here. Not that any of this is rational, but hallucinogenic drugs combined with holes in the head really should only be dealt by those with medical training, or not at all. Of course, not at all would likely always be the best choice. Mulder and Scully enter. Mulder introduces himself, and asks if they’ve met. Dr. Goldstein says that they haven’t. Scully explains that they are there to investigate Amy and David Cassandra’s deaths, and asks whether Amy was a patient. Dr. Goldstein confirms that she was. Dr. Goldstein says he was upset to learn about Amy. He was also the dead officer’s doctor. Scully informs him he is also dead. Scully quizzes the doctor about Waxman Geschwind’s Syndrome. Without Scully really saying much about her opinions, beyond the hint of disdain in her voice, he goes on a diatribe of how many people don’t really suffer when they have it and says that Amy Cassandra was really quite happy a lot of the time. I realized somewhere in here that maybe I should know something about this disorder. So I looked it up on Wikipedia, and apparently it is a disorder associated with epileptics where they experience other differences in the brain. Significantly, two items listed that some believe occur are guilt and paranoia. Also, it is apparently not widely accepted. And I also really wanted to add this episode somewhere to the Wikipedia entry. But I have never actually added my vast amount of knowledge to the world of Wikipedia, and this seemed like an odd place to start. Though I might think of this as a fun side project for later, cross-referencing X-Files episodes to all kinds of Scully’s odd disorders that she busts out as rational explanations. Anyway, Mulder starts looking like he is recalling things, and says some parting words and steps into the hall. Scully’s not buying any of what Dr. Goldstein is selling and tells him icily, “I know what you do,” and gives him a long, punishing look and walks out. I love when Scully dresses people down.
Mulder and Scully talk in the hall, and Mulder says he remembers being there with Amy Cassandra. Scully says she is pretty sure that this is not all Dr. Goldstein is lying about. Scully says she thinks he administered the ketamine to all the dead folks, as well as to Mulder and that Mulder was “treated” by him. Mulder agrees. Scully asks Mulder why he would do something as crazy and dangerous as this, which seems to be something of an understatement. Mulder has done plenty of crazy and dangerous, but this might really be at least in the top ten. Mulder asked a quack psychologist to put holes in his head while he was high on a veterinary drug, all on the referral of a woman featured in Abductee Magazine. This is some pretty messed up shit, even for Mulder. Scully doesn’t really get the full opportunity to point this all out because Mulder takes this opportunity to start clutching his head in pain again. If the TV didn’t show me this flashback, I would be convinced he was faking it to avoid Scully’s wrath on this. Not that she should show him much sympathy, as the dude voluntarily put holes in his head.
But, here we go on another flashback. We just see Young CSM and Ma Mulder sharing a significant, intense look with CSM clutching her strangely behind the neck. Scully pulls Mulder out of it pretty quickly by loudly calling out his name. Mulder starts to stand up, telling Scully he’s fine. “I’m not taking that for an answer,” Scully yells him. Mulder gives her a brief, significant look that pretty much says, “Sure, whatever, Ms. I’m Fine Except For This Huge Brain Tumor.” Scully tells him he needs to go to the hospital and shouldn’t be working. Which really, again, is pretty rich coming from her, at this stage. Though I think she is also legitimately concerned that Mulder has really and truly gone over the deep end at this point. You know, having holes put in his head and all. Mulder continues to brush her off, glaring at her when she says that he is a danger to both himself and to her. She says he needs treatment, and he says that he doesn’t want to be treated as whatever he has undergone is tapping into his unconscious memories. “The truth is in there, and I’ve gotten access to it,” he tells her. Oh, so that’s where the truth is! It’s in there, not out there. Mulder says he thinks he is remembering details that will lead him to what happened to his sister. Then he asks for the keys. She asks him where he needs to go, willing to hear him out since he used the Samantha card. He tells her he needs to go to his mother’s house in Greenwich. Scully ponders, and agrees, but says she’s driving.
Greenwich, Connecticut. Mulder and Scully show up at Ma Mulder’s house, with Ma Mulder looking out the window at them approaching. As soon as his mother opens the door, without ceremony Mulder busts out with, “I need to speak to you.” His mother asks what’s happened. Mulder tells her that he knows she has been keeping secrets from him, unwilling to meet her line of sight. Ma Mulder turns to Scully, asking her, “What’s the matter with him?” as though Mulder’s not in the room. Scully tells her that Mulder has undergone a “treatment” (I added the airquotes that I think Scully really needed to have used) that has helped him remember things. “Remember what?” she asks Mulder. Mulder tells her indignantly, still looking at the ground, “You told me when they took Samantha that it was because you had to make a choice. But that’s not how it happened, because it wasn’t your choice to make.” Ma Mulder asks what he wants her to say. Mulder still won’t look up at her, and tells her he needs to know what happened at the vacation house in the indecipherable town name I refuse to look up. (I will for some reason look up Waxman Geschwind, but not indecipherable city names. My laziness runs hot and cold, largely depending on my level of interest. Where the Mulder family vacationed isn’t really that high up. And isn’t it funny that someone who grew up on Martha’s Vineyard has a vacation house? Did their money come from renting out their normal home during the peak season?) Anyhow, Mulder says he needs to speak with his mother alone. If this is to spare Scully of the awkwardness, it seems a bit too little too late.
Mulder and his mother go into a closed room, and Mulder strides towards his mom, now looking her straight in the eye. “You had some sort of relationship with him,” Mulder accuses her. Ma Mulder has no idea who he’s talking about. Mulder says she knows who, saying it was the man who used to work with his father. He tells her it was the man who was there at the house when Mulder was 12 and she was forced to choose Samantha. Mulder then jumps to, “You betrayed my father, your husband.” She denies it, saying “Never.” Mulder then, full of disdain, presses on and asks, “How far back did it go?” This gets Ma Mulder really mad, and she rears back and slaps Mulder across the face. Mulder doesn’t seem terribly chagrined, and presses on, asking, “Who is my father?” This gets Ma Mulder even hotter, and she asks Mulder, “What do you want, to kill him again?” Now sort of welling up, Mulder asks her to just answer the question, not being distracted by her attempts to guilt him off this course. She still won’t actually answer the question, and tells him, “I am your mother and I will not tolerate anymore of your questions.” She pauses, and then adds, “You’re bleeding, Fox.”
Sure enough, Mulder is bleeding from those pesky holes he had drilled in his head. Mulder reaches to wipe at the blood, looking a bit confused by it. His mother takes this opportunity to storm out of the room. She rushes right past Scully without looking at her and runs upstairs. Scully enters the room his Ma Mulder left from to check on Mulder, and Mulder isn’t there. She hears a car door slam, and goes to the window to presumably be driving off. This gets my vote as the Worst Mulder Ditch Ever. There are a lot to choose from, but I think the blatant intent to strand her, combined with leaving her in about the most awkward situation ever just really takes the cake. Not to mention that it is presumably Scully’s car. And that he is leaving because he is such a hurry to have a deranged psychologist drill even more holes in his head. I think my first words to Mulder when I next saw him would be, “You asshole. You had to know I wanted to be stuck there with your mom like I wanted a hole in the head. Oh, wait, bad example.”
It is now 9:25 pm, and Dr Goldstein is loading a box in his car. Mulder pulls up behind him, and asks him what he did to him. Dr. Goldstein first tries for denial. Mulder tells him he knows he treated him, so Dr. Goldstein shifts gears. “I did nothing wrong.” “You drilled a hole in my head,” Mulder grits out. Dr. Goldstein’s response: “A slight electrical stimulation.” That cracked me up for some reason. Mulder tells him he triggered his memory, and Dr. Goldstein reminds him that his is what Mulder wanted. Mulder tells him that now he wants him to finish the job. Oh, Mulder.
Dr. Goldstein loads up a syringe with a green liquid, which I am assuming is ketamine, though on this show Lord only knows nothing good comes in the form of green liquid. Dr. Goldstein shoots Mulder up with this which apparently fast acting as he has to help Mulder across the room to lie down. Mulder says, “I want to remember.” Dr. Goldstein then puts on some sort of sensory deprivation goggles onto Mulder’s eyes, which have red lights in them. Mulder starts to have flashbacks in rapid succession, which are basically repeats of the earlier flashbacks. Now Dr. Goldstein decides he should put Mulder in restraints. Mulder starts to relive Samantha’s abduction yet again as Dr. Goldstein loads up his drill and starts sloooowly moving it toward Mulder’s forehead with dramatic music cuing. Outside, we see a police car come screaming around the corner with lights flashing and tires squealing, followed by several more police cars. The detective from earlier busts in and arrests Dr. Goldstein, as the detective notices Mulder is gone. As Dr. Goldstein is being taken to a police car, Scully drives up. I have no idea in what car, though I assume she was responsible for all the police being there. Nice work on Scully’s part, but I’m not even entirely sure what she told them beyond that her nutjob partner was about to get holes drilled in his head. Voluntarily.
Scully asks where Mulder is. The detective tells her Dr. Goldstein wouldn’t tell him. At that moment, the police car containing Dr. Goldstein is driving off, and Scully shouts out to stop that car. Scully gets all super intense, and starts drilling Dr. Goldstein about Mulder’s treatment and whereabouts. Nobody mentions to Scully that he has this pesky right to remain silent, and that if he hasn’t waived the right anything he says at this point would be inadmissible (Ed Note: I thought if he wasn’t read his rights, what he says would be inadmissible. Once they’re read, “anything [he says] can be used against [him]“. Isn’t that right? Wow, I’ve watched too much Law & Order. – Starbucket). Which would really suck for the case and all. But Mulder’s ass is on the line, so Scully really doesn’t care very much about the Constitution. She grabs Dr. Goldstein by the shirt, and yells at him, “Damn it! Answer me!” Her eyes are absolutely blazing, and Dr. Goldstein cowers like the cowardly bastard he is. He admits to treating Mulder, but says he doesn’t know where he went. Scully then lets go of him, tossing him back in disgust. She asks what the last thing Mulder said to him was. Apparently, he said he was going to exorcise his demons. Scully looks troubled, as well she should be.
Quonochontaug, Rhode Island. Of course, now they finally decide to give me a screen cap. I already have forgotten how it’s pronounced. There are many police officers around, and Scully pulls up and begins speaking with one of the officers observing the house. Apparently Scully called them over there to keep an eye out until she could get there. The officer tells her someone is there, and that a light just went on. She explains that Mulder is armed and dangerous, but in dire need of medical attention and not himself. She says she is going in, and to tell the officers that if Mulder flees that they shouldn’t shoot. I’m not entirely sure what their purpose is here. Tackling? Mulder, doped up on animal drugs with several different holes in his head, might be hard to bring down.
Scully warily enters the darkened house. Some sweet Mark Snow score sets the tense mood. Scully calls out for Mulder, who tells her to leave him alone. She, of course, ignores him and enters the room. “Mulder, it’s me,” she tells him. He again tells her to leave him alone. The flashbacks hit Mulder fast and furious yet again, and then we see Mulder lean back in agony, with his gun in hand pointed in the direction of his head. Mulder seems to be fighting off something, but it’s hard to tell whether it’s the memories or the suicidal impulses. “It’s all falling into place,” Mulder says. Scully yells him to put down the gun. “No, don’t try to stop me,” Mulder tells her. Scully steps closer, and levelly but compassionately says, “Please, Mulder.” Mulder sees flashes of Samantha being floating away, followed by his mom’s screams and a smash of glass which then reveals the Young CSM. He takes a long drag, as Samantha drifts away. Mulder yells at Scully to get away, and points the gun at her. Scully asks if he is going to shoot her, if it means that much to him. There are quite a few of these scenes throughout the show, with them pointing their guns at each other, and I just eat it up every single time. Like, I could have a really fun marathon consisting only of episodes where they pull their guns on each other. Throw Skinner into the mix, and then you’ve really got a marathon on your hands. Mulder continues to point the gun at Scully, looking intense.
Scully looks more sad than panicked or worried. She reminds him that he is on a powerful hallucinogen, and that he can’t trust his memories as really being his. “This is not the way to the truth, Mulder. You’ve got to trust me,” she pleads. Mulder looks really agitated, and yells at her to shut up. Scully tells him to put down the gun. “Let it go,” she soothingly whispers in a deep voice. This does not soothe him, and we pan to the police officers outside as we hear shots fired. Oh, my God, Mulder killed Scully! You bastard!
The gunshots continue as the cops charge in. We get an extreme close up of Mulder’s detached, cold face. The camera moves up, and we see Scully. Whoa, he totally just shot the wall! Phew.
Scully is now decked all out in her suit, typing a report as she voiceovers. Apparently, Mulder still doesn’t remember the murder-suicide he witnessed. He’s had no further symptoms, but Scully is concerned that having holes drilled in his head might cause some complications down the road. Like a fatal mysterious brain disease that can only be cured by aliens, perhaps? Scully psychoanalyzes to finish her report, in the typical voiceover fashion. What it amounts to is that she is concerned that Mulder will forever keep chasing these demons from his past, which is something of an impossible pursuit. Luckily, by the next episode, he will be distracted for a bit with Scully’s eminent death.
Recap by kschica