SEASON 1

SEASON 2

SEASON 3

SEASON 4

SEASON 5

FIGHT THE FUTURE

SEASON 6

SEASON 7

SEASON 8

SEASON 9

< PREVIOUS

Multiple carloads of Fibbies and cops come squealing into the New Friends daycare center parking lot in Swampscott, Massachusetts, where little Caitlin's teacher is having a meltdown: "Agent Mulder" came in claiming that Caitlin's mother had been in an accident and took the girl away. "Oh my God, what have I done?....It's all my fault," she sobs. Mulder leans in. "It's not your fault. It's my fault," he assures her grimly. What a sad, sad, pretty, pretty tormented man, staring so intently at me! she thinks. There will be plenty of time for guilt and self-loathing later, Mulder—let's find the bastard. Mulder and Scully ping-pong ideas back and forth; Roche can't have gone far, and he lived in Boston in the early 70s. Scully pulls up the address, 9809 Alice Road, apt. 6. Ding ding ding! Alice Road, Alice in Wonderland…Mulder babbles, flinging himself into the car as Skinner tries to keep up with whatever the hell he's on about.

Cut to a whole squadron of The Law, kicking in the door to Roche's nasty, vacant apartment in that same dark, creepy-ass building where every bad guy, monster and mutant in Vancouver ever lived. Everyone storms around pointing their weapons and scuffling through debris on the floor; nobody's home. "I don't think he brought her here," Scully says, as Mulder goes to the window and stares out across a ratty field to the fenced salvage yard, bristling with trolley-bus antennae, in the distance. "He never brought anyone here," Mulder realizes, and sprints out.

Trolley-bus graveyard, where dozens of rusting, decrepit hulks of buses are parked claustrophobically close together. Mulder clambers over some barrels and other piled garbage and drops down on the other side of the fence. The sun is setting; the lot is shadowy and desolate and still scares the hell out of me somehow. Mulder draws the gun at his ankle, again—Roche missed that one. Thank God that Mulder's butter-fingered tendencies have led him to carry two pieces. He slinks between the grimy, gloomy dead buses, breaking into a run when he hears Caitlin scream. Where is she, where? Mulder stops, turning around in a gap between the endless rows. It looks cold, to me, in this scene; Duchovny's nose is red. Compounds the creepy misery. Looking around, Mulder finally notices the trolley antennae on one nearby bus, swaying slightly against the blue sky.

Oh, God—after all these viewings, I just caught the potentially even more horrific implication they're giving us, here. The bus? With the child molester and victim on it? Is rocking. Ew. Christ on a bike, ew. Mercifully, Mulder does not bother knocking; he shoves the accordion door open and creeps up the steps. More mercifully, Roche and Caitlin are just sitting, way in the back: Caitlin in the last forward-facing seat, Roche behind her on the bench along the side. "I'm beginning to believe we do share that nexus you spoke of," Roche says genially. "You always seem to find me." Mulder ignores him, asking Caitlin if she's all right. His name is Fox and he's here to take her home. Can I get that as a ring tone? Caitlin looks a little teary but overall way, way calmer than I would be in this situation ; I'd totally be crying and wetting my pants. I'm 37. Roche announces that he has Mulder's gun…well, one of 'em.

Mulder distracts Caitlin, asking her to close her eyes and count slowly, aloud, to twenty. When she begins, he strides past her and levels his weapon in Roche's face. "I will shoot," Roche warns him; he's got his gun trained on Caitlin, directly against the seat back. "Don't make this end badly," Mulder whispers. Caitlin counts. Seven. Eight. Scully and Skinner creep into the stairwell up front. Roche bargains. He really doesn't want to go back to prison. He withdraws the last heart from inside his jacket. "You've got one left. How are you gonna find her without me? How sure are you it's not Samantha?" Fifteen. Sixteen. Standoff. Staring. "How do you know?" Roche asks. Eighteen. Nineteen. Roche's finger tightens on the trigger. Mulder fires. Caitlin flies screaming up the aisle, and we hear Scully mother-hen-ing her off the bus, aww, and Skinner yelling for an ambulance, as Roche sl umps over…leaving most of his brains on the bus window. Blech. Mulder stands over him, stunned.

LBO. The camera pans slowly over all Mulder's crazy tabloid crop-circle crap tacked to the walls, lingering on The Poster before finding Mulder at his desk, still looking wrecked. Scully knocks (why so formal? Doesn't she feel at home there? I'm sure the purchase order for her desk is due any…wait. Um.) and then enters, approaching Mulder all sad-eyed. She has lab results from the final heart; a dye analysis puts the fabric's date sometime between the late 60s and early 70s, but that's all they've got. Still, she's sure it's not Samantha, and she's sure they'll find this little girl. "How?" Mulder whispers. "I don't know. But I do know you," she tells him. He glances up at her for a second, but he's not really comforted. "Why don't you go on home and get some sleep," Scully suggests. Mulder gapes at her for a moment before breaking into a mirthless giggle—is she serious? Scully clos es her eyes over her own poor choice of words, and steps close; Mulder hugs her one-armed around her waist and leans his head against her, somewhere between her shoulder and her hip. It's remotely plausible that he squeezes her ass. Not that it's appropriate to the immediate situation—it's just a strangely placed hug, is all I'm saying. Scully, for her part, strokes his hair gently before slipping away. Hey Scully: I know a damn near guaranteed method for making a man roll over and fall into a blissful slumber. You could take him home, tire him out a little…no? Too soon? All right, all right. Just trying to help.

Scully closes the door behind her, and Mulder's smile drops off his face like a stone. He holds the unidentified heart in his fingertips for a moment before slipping it into a drawer and out of sight; then he just sits, staring exhausted at nothing. And that is all the resolution we get.

Maybe they'll find that last little girl in the new movie.

But I don't think so.