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SEASON 5

FIGHT THE FUTURE

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Skinner asks Mulder why Pusher is so interested in him, but we all know the answer to that question: It's always about Mulder. Duh. Skinner makes a point to say that Mulder's file is the only one accessed (take a note for later), and Scully's all worried because now Pusher knows where he lives. "You can stay at my place, Mulder," she offers suggestively as Skinner rolls his eyes, "I just changed the sheets," she continues, but then tries to cover when she realizes that Skinner's still with them, "… on the sofa bed, I mean." She blushes.

Skinner orders them to put a warrant out on Pusher for criminal trespass, and the very next scene is SWAT busting down Pusher's apartment door. I guess this level of efficiency makes up for dropping the ball back at the golf course, although it's dark now, so maybe they're just as bad as before. SWAT swarm through the empty apartment before Mulder and Scully enter. Svengali is appropriately playing on the television (he could hypnotize people, right?) as Mulder sticks the aforementioned warrant to Sven's face. A gun-toting badass informs them that, indeed, the apartment is empty, and he's told to search neighboring buildings because "Modell likes to watch from a distance." Burst makes himself known now, and tells them that he'll talk to all the other tenants. Who, I'm sure, will invite him in and show him to the smooth-talkin' killer in the kitchen. As Burst heads out the door, Mulder snaps on the latex (which he knows Scully loves), and decides to help himself to a midnight snack. He pulls open the fridge door to find a massive amount of Carbo-Boost drinks. If these are the same ones from the teaser, he must have escaped from the cop car and gone back to the store. Guy really likes his Carbo-Boost. Mulder informs us, helpfully, that the flavor that Pusher prefers is "Mango Kiwi Tropical Swirl". Yum. < /SPAN>Now we know we're dealing with a madman. Oh, wait. I didn't think that last line. It came out of Mulder's mouth. Oops.

Morning. Or a few minutes later, depending on how important lighting really is to you. Mulder's looking at Modell's astonishingly bad book collection (which includes titles such as The Modular Brain and Living By Zen) as Scully's on the phone doing… something medical. She hangs up and holds up a bottle of Tegratol (forgive me if I spelled that wrong, because it's so not worth looking up), explaining that Modell has "temporal lobe epilepsy" and has had it for about a year. They guess that it was caused by a tumor and Mulder launches into his "theory" (air quotes necessary) that "Modell's suggestive ability is a form of psychokinesis brought on by the brain tumor". Scully kinda buys it, but argues that Modell must have one helluva headache, or as she puts it, "he simply wouldn't be well enough to play these cat-and-mouse games." There's a joke here about Mulder playfully chasing Scully around the couch a la cat and mouse, but I can't quite get the bat off my shoulder on that one. Anyway, this sets Mulder theorizing that Modell didn't want to be captured at the driving range, but that he was too sick to escape. Doesn't it suck that his random theories which he seems to pull out of his ass always end up being right? I mean, like, 98.9% of the time? And, on that note, do you know why I'm referencing other episodes like every other sentence? Becau se it's driving me nuts. Even if it's kinda fun. Well, we all know where this is going. Something about bangs and whimpers as the phone rings.

Burst, back now, picks up the phone while cops scramble to get the tracer. Mulder picks up the bedroom line as Scully sits down on the bed beside him (They're close together? In the bedroom? Is that some kind of message, Chris Carter? If so, IT'S TOO VAGUE!). Modell asks for the duo, and Mulder answers that they're there. Hey, it's Curtis working the trace! Cool! Anyway, Curtis motions to Burst that the trace is up and running and Burst tries to keep Modell on the phone long enough to get a signal. Modell starts talking about Burst's siz e and weight and how he's "built like a Mack truck", which doesn't sound as good as my "the guy's a tree" from before, but whatever. The point is, Mulder and Scully listen helplessly as Pusher basically wills Burst into a heart attack. Mulder wants Burst to hang up but he's determined to get a trace. Ooh, there he goes. Down like a… tree. Beeeeeeeeep. Scully is held back by the SWAT guys, who apparently like to watch people have heart attacks in front of them, as Mulder picks up the phone. Modell wants a worthy adversary, and has picked Mulder based on his FBI file. And because, as I may have mentioned before, it's ALL about Mul der.

Mulder calls Modell on his illness and he shrugs it off with "everybody dies" before they hurl clichés at each other in a way that is both less clever and less cutesy than in The Unnatural three years later. Mulder implores Modell to tell them where he is, and he willingly gives them the phone number that Burst just died for. It's just a pay phone, he tells them, and he'll be gone in a minute. Curtis is shocked – shocked! – that Modell just killed Burst for nothing. Have you not been paying attention, Curtis? Modell just killed his adversary because he wasn't worthy! Hello? It's kind a what he's been going on and on about all episode. Anyway, Mulder tells Modell that he's a "sick bastard' for killing Burst just as Modell hangs up. Mulder tosses the phone on the ground with a loud thunk as Curtis shows him where the pay phone is on a nifty computerized map (this must be before Mapquest, right?). Right by the hospital where that Tegratol was prescribed. Finally, Scully has some lines. She tells him that must be where Pusher gets his regular treatments.

More SWAT, this time surrounding Fairfax County Hospital. Wow, those SWAT extras are really getting a lot of face time today. Ooh, one of them points out a warm car, which turns out to be Modell's. Mulder and Scully are hanging out in a van with Curtis as Scully finds out that Modell has a 2:30 MRI. Right now. So it really is daytime. My bad. Mulder wants to go in to the hospital on his own. Scully's all worried, but Mulder's explanation that one SWAT member can be turned against the others makes sense. Plus, it's all about Mulder. Scully's really not happy about this whole situation, but says nothing as Mulder gets loaded up with his little side-of-face camera and microphone, complete with tiny backpack! He jokes about getting the Playboy Channel before panning over to Scully, whose face says two things. 1. Really? Here? You're talking about porn here? And 2. I don't like this one bit. He tells her to smile, but knows how worried she is. He hands her his firearm, insisting that he doesn't want to end up firing it at anyone except Modell. They hold hands for a moment and do that eye-talking thing before Mulder heads inside the hospital.