SEASON 1

SEASON 2

SEASON 3

SEASON 4

SEASON 5

FIGHT THE FUTURE

SEASON 6

SEASON 7

SEASON 8

SEASON 9

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Mulder goes to Bill Richardson and asks him to pull up documents, diagrams, schematics, or anything that would show that Belt knew about the sabotage. Scully and Mulder are sitting on a carpeted floor, flipping through and endless amount of black binders. How would they even know what they’re looking for? Mulder opens a binder with a preliminary report about the Challenger disaster.

Up in space, the shuttle delivers its payload. It’s a big cylindrical thing that goes spinning away. And the earth looks really pretty below. Belt tells them to do something or other to prepare for re-entry, when one of the astronauts says that there’s someone outside the ship. It’s our misty white ghost friend from before. Obviously. Belt’s face starts scrunching up and sweating, and he shouts “No! No! No!”

Back wherever Mulder and Scully are, Scully says she found a copy of the same diagram that Michelle had received. It was ordered by Belt. Therefore, Scully concludes, he knew about the damaged APU valve. Mulder shows her an X-ray of the O-ring that was responsible for the Challenger explosion, ordered one week before the accident. So he may have known about that as well. Mulder says that something weird is going on. Duh. Michelle rushes in and informs them that Belt has collapsed. Mulder kinda but not really helps Scully up off the floor, putting his hand on her back. He does that a lot, with the hand on the back. It’s cute. It’s subtle but it says so much. Sorry. My inner shipper is leaking out again.

They enter Belt’s office, where he’s supposed to be. But he’s not there. Then they hear a whimpering. Scrawled on his desk with a Sharpie are the words “Help me.” Belt is curled up underneath, shaking, sweating, and twitching. Mulder says to call a doctor. But Mulder, there’s a doctor right there! A medical doctor! Dr. Scully says that he’s having a seizure. Belt cries, “It hurts! It’s tearing me apart!” The medics arrive and carry him towards the stretcher. Michelle says that she’s bringing the shuttle down. Belt screams, “No!!! It’s out there!!!” The actor playing him, by the way, is doing a fabulous job here. He seems really crazy and possessed and stuff. Scully wants him to be injected with Diazepam, but Mulder holds her off, convinced that he’s trying to tell them something. Mulder gets him to calm down by holding up his index finger and telling him to focus his breathing and pain on it. “Now you’re focused,” he says. Wow. I’m impressed. I woulda stuck the guy with a needle of the anti-crazy juice. Anyway, Belt informs them that the shuttle won’t survive re-entry because the silicone tiles on the fuselage are destroyed. Cue bad memories of Columbia from a few years ago. Mulder asks how they were damaged, and Belt says he was responsible. He says he didn’t sabotage the shuttle, but that he couldn’t stop them either. Wait a minute, “them”? There’s more than one? Damn. Meanwhile, his pulse is climbing to a dangerously high level. He says, “It came to me…it lives in me!” Flashback to Belt on his spacewalk. Except this time we actually see the ghost floating towards him. Back to present-day Belt, and his face is morphing into The Face. Everyone sees it, and Michelle says that it’s the same face she saw before she crashed. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought, while watching old episodes, “If only they had cell phone cameras!” Belt loses consciousness and the medics have to shock him. Scientist Guy comes in and informs them that the astronauts have run out of oxygen. They have exactly 30 minutes left in the emergency supply. The medics manage to revive Belt.

Down in Mission Control, Michelle orders the astronauts to begin deceleration.

As Belt is being wheeled away, Mulder says to him that the shuttle won’t survive re-entry. He asks if anything can be done. Belt tells him to change the re-entry trajectory to 35 degrees. Dude, why didn’t you say that before? And if the tiles are damaged, would changing the angle really make a difference? Whatever. Mulder and Scully rush to tell Michelle to adjust the trajectory. There are only 30 seconds left, and Michelle says she can’t do it because they’d have to change the landing site, inform them beforehand, etc. But Mulder says it’s their only chance. So within the span of about 15 seconds, they check the weather in Albuquerque, confirm that landing there is okay, and tell the astronauts. Except we don’t know if the astronauts received the information before the communication blackout. Well, we do, but let’s pretend we haven’t seen this one before. Michelle tries to reach them but doesn’t get a response. That’s because there’s a blackout in effect. Really, she should know that. Other Scientist Guy says Hawaii has picked up the shuttle on radar. But that doesn’t mean they made it. Albuquerque doesn’t have radar confirmation. Michelle repeats, “O.T.C., this is Houston. Come in, O.T.C.” Nothing. Then we hear it: “Houston, this is O.T.C. You know a good place to eat in Albuquerque?” You astronauts with the jokes. Scully laughs, the scientists applaud, and Mulder and Michelle do something that’s not quite an embrace but more than a hug. They put their arms around each other and spin around. Whatever one of those things is called. And you know Scully is thinking, “Step off, biyotch,” even though it’s several more years before they do or don’t do what they may or may not have done. For the record, it makes me cringe when Mulder gets all touchy-feely-gropey with women who aren’t Scully. Even though I may have previously stated that Mulder and Michelle are perfect for each other, that doesn’t make it right.

Stock footage of a shuttle landing.

Michelle is giving a statement on TV about the shuttle landing, saying the shuttle returned to Earth “without incident.” Belt is watching this on TV from his hospital bed when The Face returns. Dammit, you can’t even leave the guy alone in the hospital? He starts pulling out all the tubes that are hooked up to him and appears to be trying to shake off the ghost. “No more!” he cries, before throwing himself out the window and on to the street below. Shots from the perspective of Belt falling are interchanged with shots from his spacewalk. Poor bastard.

At work the next day, Mulder is reading a newspaper article about Belt’s death. Scully walks in and puts on her concerned face. Her hair looks better today. Mulder says that something must have possessed him while he was out in space. But Scully says it was severe dementia, according to the doctors who examined him. Mulder thinks Belt was trying to warn Michelle by sending her the X-ray, “as if his own instinctual impulse was to save those men.” Scully: “While simultaneously trying to kill them?” Scully says an investigation is underway, and that foul play has not been ruled out. The scene ends with Mulder saying that Belt gave his life as an astronaut, something he was prepared to do.

Belt’s burial, with full (I think) military honours. Mulder and Scully are there, which seems strange to me because it’s not like they were close or anything. It’s a pretty small crowd to begin with. Can you just walk into these things? Whatever. The episode’s almost over. Five jets fly overhead in tribute. The camera zooms in on the flag on his casket. The end. Finally.