The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

The Puebla tunnels:

Citizens of Puebla City, located in the southeast of Mexico, told folktales about a mysterious network of tunnels hidden beneath the city. For hundreds of years, no such tunnels were ever found, so people assumed that they were nothing more than the stuff of legends. But then in 2015, a construction crew discovered a very real tunnel beneath the city. Crews began excavating the site and eventually discovered around six miles of tunnels snaking under Puebla’s streets. The tunnels, which are believed to have been constructed from the 16th century all the way through the 19th century, have been opened as a tourist attraction today. On the other hand, here are some forbidden places no one will ever be allowed to visit.


The Alice Killings:
The story of the Alice Killings is one of Japan’s most famous urban legends, as well as one of its newest. The legend revolves around a series of killings that supposedly occurred between 1999 and 2005. The victims had no relationship to one another, and the killings seemed unrelated in every way, but they shared a haunting similarity. A single playing card was found by each body with the word “Alice” written in the victim’s blood. For an unsubstantiated urban legend, the specifics of these murders are very consistent, right down to the names (and grisly details) of the murder victims. The uniformity of this legend, as well as its popularity, is most likely thanks to the Internet. There is no evidence, however, that these killings took place at all, and whether or not they did is hotly debated. The truth is, though, that there was a serial killer who identified his murders with playing cards. But he operated in Spain, not Japan. Luckily, this Playing Card Killer was caught in 2003 and sentenced to 142 years in prison. If you’re a fan of real-life horror, send shivers down your spine at the spookiest hotels in the world.


The Polybius video game:
According to this legend, a video game called “Polybius” was released for about a month in 1981 Portland, Oregon. The game was designed by the government to be a psychological experiment. It functioned like a drug, and it gave its players seizures and nightmares. Government officials would come in and extract information about the players through the arcade machine. Though the game was almost certainly not real, there were a few video-game-related happenings that probably spurned the legend. One was the game Tempest, which did cause epileptic reactions and motion sickness among some players when it was released in 1981. Another was that FBI agents did inspect an arcade around the same time, investigating reports of gambling. Here are some more conspiracy theories that turned out to be true.


Le Loyon
Recently, the people of Switzerland began telling stories about a mysterious figure who walked through the Maules Forest wearing camouflage and a gas mask. For ten years, there was no evidence that this figure existed; just a few eyewitness accounts in the newspapers. According to those accounts, he didn’t show any signs of being dangerous or malicious, but he sure was creepy. With no concrete evidence of his existence, the figure remained in the realm of folklore. People began calling him “the ghost of Maules” or “Le Loyon.” In 2013, though, his existence was proven when a pedestrian snapped this photograph of Le Loyon. A few months later, his gas mask and camouflage coat appeared in the woods, along with a mysterious note hinting that he was harmless and could no longer stand being viewed as some kind of monster. Whether Le Loyon actually committed suicide or simply abandoned his persona and wandering habits remains unknown. These are some of the most bizarre unsolved mysteries of all time.


Murderous medicine cabinets
In 1992, the film Candyman earned its place as one of the scariest movies of all time. One of its most famous scenes involves a murderous spirit with a hook for a hand bursting through the heroine’s medicine cabinet. As if that weren’t scary enough, the idea that an apartment can be breached through its medicine cabinet isn’t just silver-screen fiction—and, in fact, it did happen. In 1987 Chicago, a woman named Ruthie McCoy was killed by a group of intruders who entered her apartment through the gap in the wall made for the medicine cabinet. The shabby Grace Abbott housing projects, where McCoy lived, were built with holes in the walls for the medicine cabinets, which provided the only (flimsy) barrier between adjacent apartments. While Candyman was mostly based off of the short story “The Forbidden,” the filmmakers also drew inspiration form “They Came in Through the Bathroom Mirror,” a detailed journalistic account of the murder and the horror of the housing projects. Want some more chilling true stories? These horror movies were inspired by reality.



The Legend of the Rhode Island Vampire
One of the most famous “real-life” vampires was Mercy Brown, a young woman from 1800s Rhode Island who had died of tuberculosis and was believed to be preying on other members of her family as a vampire. Her body was found still containing some decayed blood, so the townspeople burned her heart and liver. They fed the ashes, in water, to her surviving brother, hoping it would protect him from the “consumption.”

"Firewalker" is the ninth episode of the second season of The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on November 18, 1994 .

This episode was inspired after the success of "Ice" from the previous season.
A real-life fungus, Cordyceps , influences its hosts into promoting dispersal of its spores. However, the sporangiophore that Scully examines under the microscope is that of a Zygomycete, not an Ascomycete like the genus Cordyceps.
The Mount Avalon in the episode is a fictional, and supposedly located near Bend, Oregon. The real-life Mount Avalon is in New Hampshire.

Synopsis
When a moving shadow appears on a video transmission from a volcano, a volcanologist asks Mulder and Scully to investigate the incident.

Summary
Agents Mulder and Scully are recruited by Dr. Adam Pierce to accompany him into Mount Avalon, to investigate the death of a colleague of his – a seismologist named Phil Erickson. Pierce left the project a number of weeks ago, after arguing with project leader Daniel Trepkos. Mulder is concerned about Scully, considering her recent return from her abduction, but she is insistent that she is ready to return to work. The three of them travel to the remote Mt. Avalon research base by helicopter. While Pierce investigates the condition of the project's sabotaged equipment on the surface, the agents descend to the subterranean facility where the lights are out and all three members are hiding. In the dark, Mulder is attacked by engineer Jason Ludwig. After a brief, unbelievable claim that he mistook Mulder for Trepkos. Ludwing tells the other project members, systems analyst Peter Tanaka and graduate student Jessie O'Neil, that it's safe to emerge. The three of them tell the agents that Trepkos has gone mad and disappeared. Soon afterwards, Pierce is murdered by Trepkos outside.

Mulder looks at Trepkos' work, finding references to a new silicon-based lifeform existing inside the volcano. Tanaka shows signs of being seriously ill but refuses any help from Scully. When he starts convulsing, the agents try to take him out on a stretcher but he runs off into the woods, dying when a tentacle bursts out of his upper chest. Performing an autopsy, Scully believes that spores grew inside Tanaka's body but eventually outgrew his body, resulting in his death. Mulder contacts the CDC, to have them evacuate and quarantine the site. Mulder and Ludwig head into the volcano in search of Trepkos, who kills Ludwig with a flare gun and then burns his corpse.

Based on her research, Scully believes that the spore dies soon after exposure to the air and that one would have to be right next to it when it leaves its host for someone to be infected. Trepkos tells Mulder that Erickson pulverized a rock found in the volcano, resulting in them all being infected with the spore. Realizing that Scully (who is alone with O'Neil) may be at risk, Mulder convinces Trepkos to let him go and help her. O'Neil, with the spore about to burst from her throat, handcuffs herself to Scully. Scully manages to save herself by pushing O'Neil into another room and closing a door between them, just before the spores explode from her body in a dusty cloud. Mulder and Trepkos arrive soon thereafter. Mulder and Scully enter a month-long quarantine. Mulder tells the CDC that he and Scully were the only survivors while Trepkos heads into the volcano with O'Neil's body.

The Litchfield Experiment included the Eve and Adam series and the associated research. This was a top secret eugenics experiment devised during the Cold War to respond to Military Intelligence reports that the Russians had already developed a similar program to breed better scientists/warriors. (TXF: "Eve")

What is a field experiment?
Field experiments are studies using experimental design that occur in a natural setting. Researchers examine how the manipulation of at least one independent variable leads to a change in a dependent variable in the context of the natural environment.

Who was John Lynch and what did he do?
Lynch was a British slave owner in the West Indies. He was invited to the colony of Virginia in 1712 to teach his methods to slave owners there. Gentlemen. I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twelve.

Jeannette DePalma:
In 1972, a dog brought something very strange to the back door of his owner’s home. He had sniffed out an almost completely decomposed human forearm on a cliff top in Springfield, New Jersey and dragged it back to its master who realized with a great shock what it was. The man informed the police and, after a short search, they found the remains of the body to which the arm belonged. The remains were that of Jeannette DePalma, a teenager who had been missing for six weeks. Not only did they find her decomposed body, but there were strange objects on the ground where it lay. Rumors began to fly that the girl had been sacrificed by a local coven of witches. Others believed that Satanists murdered her for occult ritual purposes. The strangest thing about the murder, however, was the fact that no one wanted to speak about it when an article about the incident was in its planning stages. Even after 30 years, people who lived in the area refused to comment or give their opinions on what they believe happened. Not one person who was interviewed wanted their real name used, and this even included the local police department. Leads in the case did not come in the traditional manner. People sent in anonymous letters omitting their addresses and names. One of the letters stated that logs had been placed around Jeannette’s body and that the writer of it couldn’t reveal his name for many reasons which he couldn’t reveal either. Another anonymous writer wrote that he or she knew about a coven of witches in the area who were planning to murder a kid over Halloween. The writer was a child at the time and remembered being terrified of going out trick-or-treating for the holiday. Yet another letter stated that the writer’s mom knew DePalma and that they were about the same age in 1972. This letter also mentioned animals being murdered and strung up in the trees after the murder took place. In all of the letters, witches or Satanism was mentioned. One of them reiterated that DePalma was a very religious girl who wouldn’t get mixed up with satanic practices. However, the writer also mentions that Jeannette DePalma started becoming a little “wild” as she got older. The murder of Jeannette DePalma was big news for around two weeks after her body was found, and then the absolute silence around it started and remained. Her murderer has never been found.


Le Loyon

Something creepy is taking place in the woods in western Switzerland. A man dressed in a military uniform with a gas mask over his face seems to be “haunting” the place. For more than 10 years now, locals who live near these woods have reported seeing the man walk the same path every day. They have given him the name Le Loyon, and they are terrified of him. He doesn’t speak and, when he encounters someone, he simply stares at them, and then walks away in silence. A photographer who tried to take a picture of the mysterious man reported him to be almost 2 meters (6’6″) in height. Children are too scared to play in these woods anymore, even though the man doesn’t seem to be threatening in any way. At one point, people saw him carrying what looked like flowers while slowly walking down a pathway in the woods. According to the authorities in charge of the area, there is nothing that can be done to get the man to leave the woods since he is not trespassing and has done nothing wrong. At one point, his clothes were found abandoned in the woods with a note saying he was leaving because “The risk of a hunt for the Beast” was too great. It is unknown where the man lives, why he wears a gas mask, and why he doesn’t speak. Several theories speculate that he might be mentally disturbed or have a skin disease which would cause him to not want to be seen by others. But, until someone gets him to take off the mask, or at least speak out, the mystery man will remain a mystery.

1. Jeffrey Dahmer:
Undoubtedly the most notorious cannibalistic serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 young men between 1978 and 1991. Murder, though, was just the beginning of Dahmer’s sick and twisted M.O. He dismembered, cannibalized, and retained human remains, earning the nickname, “the Milwaukee Cannibal.” Sentenced to 16 life terms in prison, Dahmer was beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver in 1994.

2. Armin Meiwes:
Known as “The Master Butcher,” German Armin Meiwes is famous for the murder and cannibalism of a voluntary victim. Meiwes posted on a website called The Cannibal Cafe (for people with cannibalistic fetishes) that he was “looking for a well-built 18-to-30-year-old-male to be slaughtered and then consumed.” Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes answered the ad. The two men made a videotape of Meiwes severing and then eating Brandes’ penis, which both men ate; Meiwes then killed and ate Brandes. When a college student noticed the online ad, Meiwes was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison. At a subsequent retrial, in which he stated that he still had a taste for flesh, he was sentenced to life in prison.

3. Luka Magnotta:

In 2012, a gruesome video of a young man being repeatedly stabbed with an ice pick, dismembered, then cannibalized was uploaded to a website called Best Gore. The man in the video was subsequently identified as Lin Jun, a missing international student at Concordia University in Montreal. Days later, packages containing body parts (which, after investigation, turned out to be Lin’s) were delivered to the offices of the Conservative Party of Canada. Evidence led police to the apartment of Luke Magnotta, who by that time had fled to Paris, then Berlin. Magnotta was apprehended and sentenced to life in prison.

"Mind's Eye" is the sixteenth episode of the of The X-Files. The episode premiered on the Fox network on April 19, 1998.
For her performance as Marty Glenn, Lili Taylor was nominated for an Emmy award in 1998 in the category of Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
Lili Taylor, who plays Marty Glenn, was a drama school classmate of Gillian Anderson.

The prime suspect in a murder case is a woman who has been blind since birth, leading Mulder and Scully to conclude she may possess the ability to see through a killer's eyes.
Synopsis
Mulder and Scully investigate a murder for whom the primary suspect is woman who has been blind from birth, and who may have a strange connection to the real killer.

Summary
As Marty Glenn, a twenty-something woman, moves about her apartment, she suddenly experiences an internal vision. As she watches, horrorstruck, a murderer, switchblade in hand, advances on an another man standing before a bathroom sink. A short time later, police are summoned to a motel, where the body of the murderer's victim lies on the bathroom floor. Marty, a bloody sponge clutched in her hand, is discovered hiding in the shower. As the officers place Marty into handcuffs, they realize she is blind.

Scully and Mulder meet with Wilmington Homicide Detective Lloyd Pennock, who has been assigned the murder case. Pennock explains that, under normal circumstances, Marty would have been charged with the murder. But since Marty has been blind since birth, he is at a loss as to how—or why—she managed to kill the heroin dealer, Paco Ordonez. Pennock states that he has 48 hours to prove to the District Attorney that his suspect possesses a kind of "sixth sense"... or wait until she kills someone else.

The detectives meet with Marty inside her jail cell. During questioning, it becomes obvious that Marty—who has adopted an uncooperative attitude—possesses knowledge that only the murderer should know. As Mulder stays behind to supervise Marty's polygraph test, Scully visits the scene of the crime. There she discovers a bloody leather glove hidden behind the bathroom mirror. Meanwhile, by phrasing a question in a certain manner, Mulder determines that Marty did somehow manage to witness the murder.

Marty experiences another internal vision. This time, the killer makes advances on a sexy woman, Susan Forester, who sits at a bar. Marty notices the name of the bar reflected in a mirror. She requests that she be allowed to make a phone call from jail. By using an information operator, Marty phones the bar and makes contact with the murderer, a man named Gotts. She warns him to leave the woman alone.

Scully brings the bloody glove to the jail. She informs Marty that her fingerprints were located on the glove, and perhaps even more importantly, the glove fits Marty perfectly. Pennock concludes that Marty is the murderer. Mulder, however, is plagued with doubt. Scully offers a possible explanation: Marty may not be blind. Scully expands upon this theory, noting disorders that would permit sight on a subconscious level. As Marty undergoes an eye exam, she is suddenly struck by another internal vision. Mulder notes a reaction on a measurement mode screen used by the ophthalmologist. But Marty refuses to explain what she saw. Though the examiner concludes that Marty is completely blind, Mulder tells Pennock and the Daniel Costa from the District Attorney's office that there is evidence of neurological activity which caused her pupils to dilate—perhaps a physical response to images in the mind's eye. Costa concludes that it is unlikely his office could convict a blind woman based on fingerprints alone. As a result, Marty is released from custody.

As Marty makes her way through the city, she is struck by another vision. This time, she witnesses Gotts attack the sexy woman from the bar. With some help from a passerby, Marty makes her way to the alley where the attack occurred. She discovers the woman's body inside a dumpster. Marty then returns to the police station and confesses to both murders.

Marty supplies Pennock with the location of a locker that contains a briefcase filled with Gotts' heroin. Meanwhile, a lab test reveals that neither of the stains found on the leather glove match Marty's blood type, bolstering Mulder's suspicion that Marty is innocent. So confident is Mulder that he approaches Marty directly. He tells her he discovered the original police report detailing her mother's murder—a single stab wound to the right kidney—which is identical to the manner in which Ordonez and Forester were killed. Mulder concludes that Marty gained her unique sense when her then-pregnant mother died at the murderer's hands.

Marty is released from custody after police match fingerprints on the briefcase taken from the locker to Gotts... who turns out to be Marty's own father. Marty tells police that Gotts, who was recently paroled from prison, can be located at the Blarney Stone tavern. Mulder and Scully stake out the bar, waiting for Gotts' appearance. Meanwhile, Pennock provides Marty with protection from harm by guarding her at her apartment. Marty experiences another vision, this time seeing Gotts reading names on mailboxes in the lobby. Using a coffee pot, Marty knocks Pennock unconscious. She pulls his gun from his holster and takes position, waiting for Gotts. Meanwhile, Mulder realizes that the blind Marty has been experiencing visions of the inside of Gotts's prison cell for almost thirty years. He tells Scully that Marty misdirected them on purpose... to keep Gotts from going back to prison. They race to Marty's apartment, where they find Gotts dead on the floor. Later, Marty asks for no special treatment in her defense and is sent to prison—where she is finally free of Gotts.

"Alien Bounty Hunter"

A bounty hunter in 1995, in the appearance most commonly assumed by members of his race.

Bounty hunters are shape-shifting aliens who have the ability to disguise themselves as anyone, although they commonly assume a specific appearance that they can maintain at the same time as each other. (TXF: "Colony", "Within") Regardless of how they are disguised, bounty hunters are immediately recognizable to clones. (TXF: "Colony") Due to the toxic nature of their blood (which, like that of the clones, is green), human exposure to it is fatal. Bounty hunters can only be killed by precisely piercing the base of their skulls. (TXF: "End Game") They all seem to use the same human form as their default form. Some of the faceless alien rebels use this form as well. They may be of the same extraterrestrial race as the faceless rebel aliens and/or the Grey aliens. (TXF: "The Unnatural")



Bounty Hunter's true face

The bounty hunters are infected with the black oil virus, while each of the rebel aliens seal up their eyes, nose and mouth to prevent infection with the same virus. (citation)

The bounty hunters act as police for the alien colonists. Their job is to keep Earth free from any aliens or clones that don't have permission by the colonists to be there like the Gregor Series and the Samantha Series (from Colony and End Game) and any aliens or clones that may expose colonization like the faceless aliens, Jeremiah Smith or Josh Exley (who posed a threat to the colonists by becoming a baseball player).

Bounty Hunters and Clones
Bounty hunters lived in harmony with clones for many years. The peaceful relationship between the two races could have led them to share the planet Earth. Unfortunately for the clones, however, the bounty hunters were employed by the Grey aliens. Acting on orders given to them by the Grey aliens, the bounty hunters were tasked with eliminating all proof of an alien presence already on Earth before colonization of that planet was due to begin, including ridding Earth of the clones. (TXF: "Colony", "The Truth")

An early mission for one of the bounty hunters was the elimination of Josh Exley, an alien that had become disillusioned with his race and adopted human culture - particularly baseball - as his own. In 1947, a bounty hunter tracked Exley to Roswell, New Mexico and killed him. (TXF: "The Unnatural")

Eliminating Gregor Series Clones
When it was learned that the clones were attempting to establish a colony on Earth without permission from the colonists and had been conducting hybridization experiments that would erase their identical natures, a bounty hunter was dispatched to destroy the clones and terminate their colony because the experiments were not sanctioned and were considered a dilution of their race. (TXF: "End Game")

In January 1995, a bounty hunter's UFO crashed in the icy arctic waters of the Beaufort Sea. The crew of the nearby research vessel Alta recovered the pilot of the craft from the freezing water, believing he was a Russian fighter pilot who had miraculously survived the extreme arctic temperatures. The extraterrestrial was airlifted to a military hospital in Alaska, where he was listed in stable condition. While authorities attempted to determine the pilot's exact identity, however, the bounty hunter escaped from the hospital.

In Teaneck, New Jersey, the bounty hunter killed Doctor Harvey William Buchanon, a Gregor Series clone, on January 10, 1995. Heading north, the bounty hunter then killed another Gregor Series clone, Doctor Dale Gayhart, in New York City.

Two days after the bounty hunter had escaped from hospital, another Gregor Series clone, Dr. Landon Prince, watched televised news reporting the discovery of the bounty hunter, while at an abortion clinic in Scranton, Pennsylvania where he worked. The clone became increasingly worried as he watched the news report and immediately recognized the bounty hunter's face. He desperately tried to flee from the clinic, but was stopped by the alien bounty hunter. The alien strangled him and demanded to know where a particular, unnamed man was located. When the clone replied that he did not know where the man was, the bounty hunter used a gimlet weapon to stab him in the back of the neck. His green, bubbling blood oozed out of his body. The bounty hunter caused an electrical fire that activated an alarm and he left the clinic as the burning building began to fill with smoke.

Oddly, Landon Prince's obituary states that he died on December 28th, 1994, just less than two weeks before the date that another obituary gives for the death of Harvey Buchanon. This is odd because Landon Prince is stated to be the latest of the three victims in dialog.
The bounty hunter continued north to Syracuse, New York, where he encountered another Gregor Series clone, Doctor Aaron Baker. After the bounty hunter entered Dr. Baker's home at 737 26th Street, the clone attempted to reason with the bounty hunter, reminding him that, for years, the relationship between their two races had not been hostile. However, the bounty hunter refused to listen to Dr. Baker and pushed the clone against a wall, holding him by his throat. The alien threatened Dr. Baker that plans devised by the clones would not be successful, before slamming the doctor's face into the wall and subsequently killing the clone with his gimlet weapon.

Moments after the clone's dead body fell to the floor, FBI Special Agent Barrett Weiss entered, aiming his gun at the bounty hunter. Although Agent Weiss ordered the assassin to drop his gimlet weapon, Weiss became startled when he saw Dr. Baker's body turn into a green liquid, bubbling and oozing. The bounty hunter was about to attack Agent Weiss when the agent shot him three times in the chest. Unmoving, the assassin looked down at his chest to see that he was leaking the same green liquid that Doctors Baker and Prince had. As the bounty hunter glared back up at the agent, Weiss began to be affected by the intoxicating reaction the green liquid had on humans.

The bounty hunter killed Agent Weiss, dressed himself in the agent's clothes and stored Weiss in the luggage compartment of his own car. Weiss had been sent to Dr. Baker's home by Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who had already learned that someone had killed the other identical doctors. After assuming Agent Weiss' appearance, the bounty hunter met with Mulder and Scully. When Mulder asked if he had found Dr. Baker, the disguised assassin claimed negatively and lied that he had only discovered two weeks' worth of mail in the mailbox of the doctor's house.

Nevertheless, Mulder insisted on inspecting the house with Scully. As they did so, the camouflaged bounty hunter walked to Agent Weiss' car and opened the car's trunk - where the real Weiss lay naked except for his underwear - before the assassin returned to his original human appearance and closed the trunk. The bounty hunter looked at Dr. Baker's home for a few moments before he walked away from the area.

The bounty hunter then headed to Agent Scully's home in Washington, D.C. and had assumed the appearance of a CIA Agent before he met Mulder there. The alien introduced himself as Agent Ambrose Chapel and showed Mulder a CIA identification badge with that name on it.

The existence of the ID badge and the bounty hunter's use of the item, as well as evidence later seen in the episode, seems to indicate that the alien killed the real Ambrose Chapel before meeting Mulder. This possibility is not certain, however.
In Scully's apartment, the bounty hunter, continuing to act as if he were a CIA Agent, told Mulder and Scully about the identical murder victims, explaining that they were Gregor Series clones and claiming that they had been murdered by a Russian spy killer because, though they had been created by Soviet scientists during the Cold War in a plan to sabotage various US medical facilities in the event of war, they were no longer required. The bounty hunter, disguised as Agent Chapel, claimed that someone in the US government was allowing the clones to be systemically eliminated and made it clear to Agents Mulder and Scully that he intended on finding the clones to expose the truth about their state-sanctioned murders.

Consequently, Mulder and Scully effectively led the alien to his next victim, Dr. James Dickens, without knowning they were doing so. Upon meeting the clone with the FBI agents, the bounty hunter, even though still disguised as Agent Chapel, was immediately recognised by Dr. Dickens, who desperately fled from the assassin through a window in his apartment. In pursuit of the clone, the bounty hunter became separated from the FBI agents and killed Dr. Dickens after cornering him in an alley and reassuming his own most common appearance. By the time Agent Scully arrived, the bounty hunter had again disguised himself as Agent Ambrose Chapel. He claimed that Dr. Dickens had managed to escape before he walked away, leaving a pool of the clone's green "blood" to be found by Scully. (TXF: "Colony")

The bounty hunter later went to a laboratory that Dr. Dickens and the last remaining Gregor Series clones had been using to conduct the hybridization experiments. (TXF: "Colony", "End Game") There, the alien executed another clone, leaving more green blood near the door to the facility. While the assassin, disguised as Agent Chapel, was destroying scientific equipment, Scully quietly entered the room but soon left when she saw the disguised bounty hunter, who noticed her leave.

He continued to track her; using his most common appearance, the bounty hunter caught a bus that Scully took to the laboratory, the next day. On the bus, he overheard her make a phone call to Mulder and leave a message in which she revealed that she would be staying at the Vacation Village Motor Lodge in Germantown, Maryland.

Later, the alien watched from a rooftop as Scully helped the remaining Gregor Series clones desert their facility for the safety of a maximum-security Federal Stockade in Tileston, Virginia. That night, the alien assumed the disguise of a Federal Marshal who had access to the stockade and, after infiltrating the prison, he secretly eliminated each of the remaining Gregor Series clones with his gimlet weapon. (TXF: "Colony")

Pursuing a Samantha Series Clone
After the complete eradication of the Gregor Series clones, the bounty hunter's main targets became Agent Mulder and a clone of his sister, Samantha Mulder, who was traveling with him.


The Bounty Hunter confronting Mulder after being stung by bees.

The alien journeyed to the Vacation Village Motorlodge and disguised himself as Mulder. Scully let him into her room as he fooled her into believing he was her FBI partner by claiming he had received her phone message. (TXF: "Colony") After she received a call from the real Mulder, however, Scully realized her mistake and attempted to arrest the alien. (TXF: "Colony", "End Game") Ignorant of who had called her, the bounty hunter initially continued his attempts to persuade Scully that he was Mulder, but he soon gave up hope of convincing her and instead assaulted her, knocking her against a wall.

Correctly guessing that she had just been called by the real Mulder, the bounty hunter demanded to know the location of her FBI partner. When she refused to answer him and began reaching for her gun, the alien grabbed her by the throat and lifted her above his head, against the wall, with one hand. When she claimed ignorance as to his questions, he threw her up so that, upon landing, she broke through a glass table. The bounty hunter returned to his most common appearance before exiting the room with an unconscious Scully. (TXF: "End Game")

Pursuing Jeremiah Smith

The Bounty hunter after being stabbed with his weapon by Mulder.

When Jeremiah Smith appeared and healed people who were shot during a violent incident, including the shooter, he later appeared on the news. It was not long before the Cigarette Smoking Man captured Jeremiah Smith, but was forced to let him go in exchange for use of Smith's healing abilities, since Smith informed the Smoking Man he had fatal lung cancer. The bounty hunter was dispatched to kill Jeremiah Smith, who was knowledgeable about the conspiracy and could potentially expose them. But when the bounty hunter arrived at the jail cell, Jeremiah was gone, and had gone to find Agent Mulder to inform him of what he knew.

The bounty hunter pursued Agent Mulder and Jeremiah to a bee husbandry facility in Canada, recovering easily from a failed attempt by Mulder to kill him. It is likely the reason the bounty hunter did not die from the wound was because Mulder didn't remove the gimlet weapon from the body. This stopped the wound from bleeding out, and prevented the bounty hunter from dissolving; or because the stilleto didn't go all the way through the bounty hunter's neck because it went through the back of his suit into his neck.


The bounty hunter healing Teena Mulder.

The facility was part of the "project" which Jeremiah was attempting to show to Mulder. After several attempts to evade him on their part, including toppling a large hive of bees onto him, the bounty hunter finally caught up to Mulder and Smith, the bounty hunters face and hands where covered with bee stings. He grabbed Mulder and told him that Jeremiah only told Mulder parts and not the whole. Mulder told the bounty hunter that he can't kill Smith, that he can't die. The bounty hunter's reply was that Smith must die. Mulder said take him instead of Jeremiah. The bounty hunter said you'd trade your life for his? Mulder said for his mother's. The bounty hunter said everything dies; he then most likely eliminated Jeremiah after incapacitating Mulder. Presumably he eliminated the child Samantha clone Mulder had attempted to liberate as well. Later the bounty hunter was called to the hospital by the Cigarette Smoking Man to heal Mulder's mother. When the bounty hunter asked "why this should be," CSM said if that Mulder was to lose his mother then he would have nothing left to lose, making him a threat. The bounty hunter then placed his hand on Mrs. Mulder's forehead she then began to open her eyes. (TXF: "Herrenvolk")

The rebel threat
The Bounty Hunter infiltrated Wiekamp Air Force Base and took the rebel prisoner under the guise of Quiet Willy in a truck. Unbeknownst to him, Mulder had jumped on the back of the truck and inside the cargo tent. The Bounty Hunter stopped the truck and came to kill the rebel, however, he and Mulder were attacked by other rebel aliens. (TXF: "The Red and the Black")

Mulder's Abduction

Bounty hunters surrounding Fox Mulder in 2000.

The bounty hunters reappeared during the time when Mulder was abducted. A series of incidents resembling alien activity in Arizona led Scully and Skinner to search for Gibson Praise. John Doggett went as well, having been provided information on Praise from an unknown source. Doggett encountered what he thought was Mulder, but was actually a bounty hunter attempting to capture Praise. The bounty hunter walked backwards over a cliff and disappeared. However, he returned to where the FBI task force was based and caused havoc while still seeking Praise. He took on the guise of Scully and nearly killed Agent Landau.

Ultimately, the bounty hunter took on the appearance of Thea Sprecher and successfully captured Praise. In the hospital where Praise was kept, the bounty hunter knocked out Skinner and later tried to kill Scully. However, Scully shot him through the back of the neck - its only vulnerable spot - and watched as it dissolved into a green puddle. ("Without")

Abilities and characteristics
The bounty hunters have exhibited a number of distinctive traits in their many appearances, many of which make them particularly dangerous.

Shapeshifting.
This is the most notable ability possessed by the bounty hunters. They are, at will, able to assume the shape of an person they wish. The transformation process takes only a few seconds and does not appear to put them under any visible strain. In addition to altering things such as facial features and hair color, the shifting can also include a significant alteration of mass. The bounty hunter involved in Mulder's abduction, and the hunt for Gibson Praise, assumed the form of not only Dana Scully, but also a young girl.

While they can imitate the voice of the person whose appearance they assume, they are not able to imitate personality traits, and remain just as unemotional and cold as they are in their default form.

Strength.
The bounty hunters seem to have above average strength, and are capable of lifting and throwing adult humans with only minimal effort, as well as being able to cause serious injury and damage with only their bare hands.

Invulnerability.
With the exception of their one weakness (a piercing at the base of the neck) the bounty hunters appear to be, for all practical purposes, invincible. Gunshots seem to have no effect whatsoever. Falls from extreme heights are brushed off within a matter of moments. The bounty hunter who pursued Jeremiah Smith was temporarily infected with smallpox due to stings from the modified honeybees, but aside from the presence of boils, it did not seem to cause any ill effects on him whatsoever. His other abilities seemed to be fully intact during the infection.

Toxic Blood.
The green blood of the alien bounty hunters is extremely dangerous to humans. Josh Exley claimed that the alien blood is "like acid", and it has shown the ability to eat though various solid objects. When the skin is pierced, a hissing sound can be heard, suggesting that it is not only the blood, but some manner of airborne compound that exits the body that is also dangerous. When a bounty hunter is killed in the proper manner, such as a gunshot to the neck or being stabbed in the same area with a gimlet weapon, the blood does not seem to cause any ill effects. Alex Krycek and Jeffrey Spender were shown sitting next to the dissolving body of an alien rebel with no apparent ill effects. When Scully shot the bounty hunter pursuing Gibson praise, there seemed to be no indication that the same airborne irritant affected her or Gibson.

Healing.
The alien bounty hunter heals Teena Mulder after her stroke, at the request of the Cigarette Smoking Man. This suggests that Jeremiah Smith is only one of many members that possess this ability.

Mulder and Scully search for answers when separate groups of alien abductees are burned alive. They meet a woman with an implant in her neck and symptoms similar to Scully.

Cassandra Spender (played by Veronica Cartwright) was a repeater, or a multiple abductee, critical to the plans of the Syndicate. She was the ex-wife of the Cigarette Smoking Man and mother of Special Agent , as well as "Patient X," the primary test subject in the project to develop an alien/human hybrid.

Profile
Multiple Abductions
Spender was first abducted on November 27, 1973 along with many other of the Syndicate's family members at El Rico Air Force Base. — ()

Spender was returned and abducted multiple times, but found no one believed her account of her abductions. This became very disparaging and she almost considered taking her own life. In 1995, however, she learned of Agent Fox Mulder, someone who investigated similar cases, and believed he must believe her. However, she would not get the chance to talk to him for a while. — ([[ATIENT X]|]])


Fox Mulder and Dana Scully meeting Cassandra Spender.

In 1998, Spender would gain some attention while proclaiming her belief that the aliens were coming to promote peace. A video of her doing so was part of a visiting lecturer panel at MIT. Agent Mulder was part of this panel, however, at the time, he was disillusioned by the revelations of Michael Kritschgau. He did not believe Spender's insistence that the aliens were calling her and other abductees to "lighthouses," where colonization would begin, despite a mass incineration of abductees at Skyland Mountain, where Scully had been abducted three years earlier.


Cassandra's final abduction.

A rebel group of aliens who mutilated themselves to avoid infection by the black oil were attempting to destroy the work the Syndicate had done, finally summoning both Scully and Cassandra Spender to the same site in Pennsylvania. Before the rebels could manage to destroy the group, however, an alien craft appeared overhead and abducted Cassandra. — (THE RED AND THE BLACK)

Alien-Human Hybrid

Cassandra returns after her abduction

Cassandra had come to believe that, while the aliens had cured her of her former disabilities, they had far more sinister motives than she had originally thought, having learned of their plans for colonization. Cassandra was brought later to a train car in the Potomac Yard, Virginia. There, Syndicate doctors examined her and determined she had successfully become a hybrid. However, during the examination the doctors were burned alive by the faceless rebel aliens. She had been spared in order to expose the alien conspiracy, knowing that she would be examined by more doctors not in the Syndicate.


Cassandra Spender ordering Fox Mulder to kill her to have Colonization either be stopped or delayed.

Jeffrey soon came to her and made sure she was OK, but Cassandra insisted to see Agent Mulder in order to explain her newfound concerns. Cassandra was kept in the hospital and was visited by Scully again, which she very much enjoyed, though also asked her where Mulder was. She later decided to escape the hospital and made it to Mulder's apartment, where Scully and Mulder were. Cassandra quickly tried to explain and plead with Mulder to kill her in order to stop colonization. Mulder finally believed and drew his gun just as someone was pounding on the door. — (). It was a decontamination team from the CDC led by Diana Fowley sent to capture her for her presentation to the alien colonists. She was brought to Fort Marlene Decontamination Center and separated from Mulder and Scully. There, her son came to her and explained he was trying to keep her safe, but Cassandra was just disappointed he did not believe or understand. The CSM came to her to escort her with the doctors to El Rico Air Force Base. She pleaded with him to kill her as well, but he could not. When she arrived at the base's hangar, the rest of the Syndicate was present. However, the meeting started early, having been orchestrated by the alien rebels. They killed the Syndicate members and Cassandra. — ([[|]])

After utilizing Nazi technology in transgenic implantation and UFO technology salvaged from the 1947 Roswell crash, humans in the Syndicate contacted the aliens to offer assistance in plans for colonization, what the Cigarette-Smoking Man called the "perfect conspiracy." They offered to develop a race of alien/human hybrids to assist in the colonization through their genetic work, which they soon realized would be a slave race. Members of the conspirators' families were given to the aliens in exchange for access to an alien fetus, which was kept in cryogenic storage. — (). The original exchange took place at El Rico AFB in November of 1973. Many of the abductees were returned for subsequent testing, including Cassandra and Jeffrey Spender, and the reluctantly-included Samantha Mulder. With the genetic information obtained through these experiments, the Syndicate hoped to forestall the invasion while they worked slowly on the project, and, in secret, possibly develop a vaccine which would prevent the possession—or incubation—of victims infected by the alien virus.

Final Moment
Beginning with the 1973 abductions, Cassandra was taken many more times, each time being subjected to further and further tests, originally disabling and finally curing her. It was revealed that she was the primary test subject, and became, shortly before seeing her doctors attacked, the first successful living human to be hybridized with alien genetics. Upon learning of a successful hybrid, the colonists would have taken steps to eliminate the evidence of the project, but the gathering to present her to the colonists — a show of support that might buy slightly more time — was infiltrated by the faceless rebels, who destroyed Cassandra and the elders but failed to eliminate the Cigarette-Smoking Man or other factions of the Syndicate.

Marita Covarrubias, a mysterious government worker who becomes an informant to Special Agent Fox Mulder, from seasons four through nine (1996–2002).

Marita was an informant mole for Agent Mulder, an operative for the Smoking Man and the Syndicate, as well as a red-hot lover for Krycek. Busy girl! She eventually turns on the Smoking Man and is called to testify at Mulder’s series-end murder trial. Aware that the things she knows could get her killed, she never divulges any key information and is dismissed from the stand.

Helping Mulder
In 1996, X - another of Mulder's informers - was killed in a corridor outside Mulder's apartment. Before he died, X left a message written in blood - "SRSG".

These letters led Mulder to the United Nations Building in New York, where the Special Representative to the Secretary General worked. Marita Covarrubias was also employed there, as the Special Representative's assistant.

Mulder sent a file to the Special Representative about a farmland in Canada where he had found several identical girls that looked like his sister, Samantha, who had disappeared in 1973. The file also described the presence of bees and unidentified crops on the farm.

Mulder visited the United Nations Building and met Marita Covarrubias, who told him that the Special Representative had reviewed the file but was busy. She asked Mulder who had sent him and he replied "a friend". Covarrubias told him that the Canadian farm had been deserted and that the crops had been left to die. She had also learned that the crops had been identified as ginseng but that no evidence of bees or bee husbandry had been found. She seemed concerned and apologized to Mulder that the investigation had not uncovered the answers he had hoped for. When she asked why the matter was so important to him, Mulder awkwardly replied that he had "recently" suffered some very personal losses and had come to the Special Representative's office in hope. She handed Mulder the file that he had sent to the Special Representative and stated, "not everything dies". Mulder, who had recently been told that "everything dies" by one of the dangerous Alien Bounty Hunters, stared at her and wondered about her allegiances. — (HERRENVOLK)


Marita Covarrubias with Mulder, slightly reluctant to speak with him.

The next time that she met Mulder was in August 1996. Marita was leaving the UN Building one night when she became aware that someone was following her. When the person called her name, she stopped and turned to look at her pursuer. Mulder's face was hidden in darkness, however, and she could not see him. He eventually made his identity known to her and apologized for scaring her. He then told her about a case he was working on involving the disappearance of four men in Philadelphia. One of the men had been found dead the night before, with an unidentified seed discovered in his body. The seed was from a rare plant found exclusively in West Africa. Marita Covarrubias claimed to have no knowledge of the case and told Mulder that borders had been blurred by people emptying bilge water into harbors, sending produce through the mail and frequently importing exotic species into America undetected. Marita declared that she was unable to help Mulder, but he accused her of being unwilling to assist him. He suspected that both she and the authorities knew more about the case than what they were actually telling him. — (TELIKO)

Although he had some suspicions, Mulder was unaware that a secretive group who called themselves the Syndicate were paying Marita for the use of her diplomatic power in furthering their goal to develop an alien virus vaccine before the Russians could. Marita did not believe in the Syndicate and eventually came to hate them. She consequently chose to co-operate with Mulder, knowing that he was on the verge of uncovering their project. — (THE TRUTH)

On November 25, 1996, Mulder consulted the FBI database to learn the location of Marita's apartment on the upper West Side of New York City. He went there at 12:36 p.m. and knocked on her door, Apartment 22. From inside, Marita asked her visitor to identify themself. When Mulder replied, Marita opened her door slightly but a chain still barred the entrance. When she asked him why he had come to her home, Mulder made it clear that he needed her help. He apologized for bothering her but claimed that it was a matter of extreme urgency. He further explained that two men had died in relation to a diplomatic pouch which had left Russia and arrived in the United States. Mulder was determined to learn the reason for their deaths. Marita finally unchained her door and allowed Mulder into her apartment.

Nearly four hours later, Mulder was sleeping on a chair in her living room. Marita, meanwhile, was dressed in her nightgown in another room while she made a phone call. She learned that the diplomatic pouch had traveled an apex route to the Russian city of Norilsk, in the province of Krasnoyarsk. After ending the call, she walked into her living room and knelt down beside Mulder. She awakened him and passed on the information she had learned. Mulder was aware that Norilsk was just north of Tunguska and started to look for his cell phone to book himself a flight to Krasnoyarsk. Marita offered to assist him but Mulder initially thought she intended to help him find his phone. She clarified that she could provide him with cover details, such as a visa and a diplomatic passport. She told Mulder that the reasons she was helping him were because she could and because she believed in him and in his search for the truth. When Mulder asked how long it would take her to acquire cover details, she answered by wondering how much time he could spare. Mulder checked his watch and waited as Marita slowly walked back into the room where she had made the phone call. Three minutes later, Mulder had left her apartment. — (TUNGUSKA)

Defending Mulder
When Marita was next contacted by Mulder, he told her that he needed information on American prisoners of war and claimed to be in a hurry. They met in the Lincoln Memorial, where Mulder explained that the streets were crowded with traffic due to an Army parade and that he needed to know about a POW called Nathaniel Teager. Marita stated that she had no information on Teager but was curious as to what Mulder already knew. He told her that Teager may have returned to America and might be killing the men who had left him in Vietnam. Mulder already knew the names of two of those men, Generals Steffan and MacDougal, and Marita revealed that they were related to a recent news story about the disposing of South Vietnamese soldiers. The story was extremely embarrassing to the American government as it concerned their recruitment of men as spies and commandos, who were sent behind enemy lines and then abandoned to face inevitable capture and death. A three-man commission had disavowed the operation and erased the lives of the recruits from military records. Marita claimed that the three men could now be facing charges and that the government wanted them dead. When Mulder asked her why the FBI had been asked to protect the three men, Marita answered that the government was aware the men could not be adequately protected. As she walked away, Mulder asked her the identity of the third man but she would not reply. — (UNREQUITED)

In May 2002, Mulder was placed on trial to defend the X-Files after allegedly killing an apparently indestructible super-soldier. Skinner represented him at the trial and chose Marita Covarrubias as his central witness. However, Skinner initially had trouble locating Marita and the US government would not help him to do so. He consequently made an appeal for the trial to be delayed but his request was not accepted. Skinner was instead told to call another witness and he ultimately complied.

In his cell, Mulder was visited by a vision of his dead informer, X, who handed him a note of Marita's address.


Marita being questioned at Mulder's trial in 2002.

By the time she was found, Marita was the third witness to present a testimony at the trial. She admitted that she had used her diplomatic power in the United Nations to basically further the interests of the Syndicate and assist them in their efforts to develop an alien virus vaccine before the Russians could develop one. Marita was aware that innocent civilians all over the planet had been used by the Syndicate as test subjects and tracked using a DNA identifiers in their smallpox vaccination scars. Although most of the subjects had no knowledge of the tests, Marita recalled seeing Russians who had actually amputated their arms to prevent being tracked. They had conducted a similar procedure on Krycek, who, according to Skinner, she "worked quite intimately with".

Marita explained that she had never believed in the Syndicate, or in their international conspiracy, but had been paid for her access. In fact, her eventual hatred of the organization was the reason she had originally helped Mulder. Marita also recalled that the Syndicate had experimented on her as punishment when they discovered that she hated them. The Syndicate had believed that all life in the universe had been infected with the alien virus, including a race of shape-shifting Alien Bounty hunters who policed the conspiracy for the aliens. However, the Syndicate had been mistaken in their belief and it had led to their destruction by the rebel aliens.

Marita had resisted testifying before the tribunal because the conspiracy continued, only conducted by others. The super-soldiers, one of whom Mulder had apparently killed, were actually alien replacements. A vision of Krycek, who had been killed by Skinner, appeared to Mulder but no-one else in the room could see him. Krycek told Mulder that the conspirators would kill Marita if she admitted that they existed. Skinner began to press her for details on the identities of the supersoldiers and was surprised when Mulder insisted that he dismiss her. He commented that Marita was their "last best witness", but eventually acted upon his client's advice. Marita looked to Mulder and slightly nodded her head in thanks. Mulder returned the gesture before she left the court room. As she walked out of the room, she saw Special Agent John Doggett as he entered.

Addresses

The note of Marita Covarrubias' address that Mulder acquired in 2002.

In November 1996, Marita Covarrubias lived in an apartment numbered 22 on the upper West Side of New York City. Her address was stored in an FBI database. — (TUNGUSKA)

In early 1998, the Syndicate took Marita to a medical facility where they continued to keep her — (THE RED AND THE BLACK). By early the next year, they had confined her to Fort Marlene Decontamination Center. — (ONE SON)

She was eventually released and, in May 2002, was living at 756 N. Maple in Annapolis, Maryland

He serves as a figure of authority within the series, first introduced as an Assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and is later promoted to the post of Deputy Director. Kersh acts as an antagonist who bureaucratically prevents Special Agents Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, John Doggett and Monica Reyes from investigating cases dealing with the paranormal, dubbed X-Files. Kersh first appeared as a guest role in several episodes of the series' sixth season, returning as a recurring character in the eighth and ninth seasons. Kersh's creation was driven by a need to place pressure on the character of Walter Skinner. The character has been met with mixed to negative critical responses, although he was initially positively received before coming to be considered a "one-note" role as the series progressed. Pickens, as part of the series' ensemble cast, earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for his work.

Follmer was an Assistant Director at the FBI. He had a romantic history with Monica Reyes that he briefly brought up while trying to keep her away from the X-files. His true motives were more political in nature and part of his sycophancy to Alvin Kersh. He did not believe in the X-files and deliberately showed disrespect to John Doggett by calling him "Mr. Doggett" instead of "Agent".

In 2002, new evidence concerning the murder of Luke Doggett came to light. Doggett sought Follmer's assistance because he had worked against organized crime in New York City before coming to Washington. Reyes, however, recalled seeing Follmer accept a bribe from a mobster. Although he tried to play the event off as him paying an informant (at which he nearly succeeded), the truth was as Reyes suspected: Follmer was crooked. Once the truth of Luke's fate was revealed, Follmer killed the mobster who had nevertheless threatened blackmail concerning Follmer's bribe acceptance. Follmer's future at the FBI was left unresolved, although he most likely faced criminal charges for his actions.

Felicity Huffman (born on December 9, 1962 in Bedford, New York, USA) is an actor who portrayed Dr. Nancy Da Silva in the The X-Files.

Jeff Kober is an American actor, known for his television roles as Dodger in China Beach, Jacob Hale Jr. in Sons of Anarchy, and Joe in the fourth season of The Walking Dead And The Vampire Season 1 In Kindred The Embraced As Daedalus a vampire and the Primogen for the Nosferatu Clan.

"Ice" is the eighth episode of the first season of The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on November 5, 1993.

Synopsis
Icepromoad.jpg
In an Arctic research station, Mulder and Scully are threatened by primordial ice worms that cause their hosts to become dangerously paranoid and violent to each other.

Summary
Teaser
ARCTIC ICE CORE PROJECT
ICY CAPE, ALASKA
250 MILES NORTH OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE


A conflict ends with both of two men aiming a gun at the other.

An isolated research station, with a dimly lit window, endures a harsh snowstorm. The compound's interior is in a state of mess, with tell-tale signs that some form of mayhem has taken place here. A thermometer shows the temperature to be below -30°C and a digital clock reads 8:29 a.m. A dog searches through a plastic bucket and then, whimpering, walks past a dead body. There is another body, although only an arm hanging off a desk can be seen. A man who is wearing only pants and whose his torso is bloody looks around, while carrying a gun. He turns to a communications device and camera, in front of which he takes a seat. Continuing to look into the camera, he twice repeats the words, "We're not who we are," and then says, "It goes no further than this. It stops right here, right now...." He is suddenly attacked from behind by another man, Campbell, and a struggle commences, ending with both men pointing a gun at each other. Instead of the men shooting one another, however, each man turns his own gun on himself. From outside the facility, two gunshots can be heard.

Act One
Mulder and Scully are watching older footage of the Arctic Ice Core Project crew celebrating recent success with drilling down into an ice sheet. The team's leader, John Richter, is the bloodied man who ended up shooting himself. Mulder explains the research team was basically studying "the structure of the Earth's climate back to the dawn of man." According to Mulder, no problems of any kind were reported... until a week after the previous transmission, when the next one was received: the transmission recorded by Richter, earlier. The footage remains unexplained. Mulder jokes their FBI superiors think they are "either brilliant or expendable," because he and Scully are the ones who drew the assignment. Scully asks about the possibility of events being a result of cabin fever but Mulder dismisses this, stating the scientists "were top geophysicists," thoroughly trained and examined. The agents are scheduled to leave for Nome, Alaska today, where they will meet with three scientists familiar with the Ice Core program, and then head north to the Icy Cape. Mulder says the National Weather Service predicts a three-day window before the next Arctic storm.

DOOLITTLE AIRFIELD,
NOME, ALASKA

In a small hangar at the airport, a man is listening to a football game on headphones. Apparently, his team just scored. Scully and Mulder arrive, puzzled by the football game; the man explains it's just one of his all-time favorite games he has taped. The man introduces himself as Denny Murphy, professor of geology, UC San Diego, one of the crew. Soon, they are joined by the rest of the team, Doctors DaSilva and Hodge. The latter asks all the crew to show some sort of identification because he wants "to make sure we are who we say we are." After each member shows his or her own ID, Hodge challenges any of them to guess why are heading to the base. Murphy speculates that their job descriptions should give some explanation, whilst Dr. DaSilva makes a remark about Mulder and Scully, being FBI, probably knowing more than the rest of the group. A jeep drives into the hangar and the driver steps out, introducing himself. He is the last member of the team: the pilot, Bear. He refuses to give Hodge his credentials.

Later, a light airplane flies over snow-covered hills.

The team arrives at the compound. The electricity is off and the place appears deserted. The newcomers see dead bodies lying on the floor. Mulder asks Bear if he can get the power on and says that, before they remove the bodies, the crime scene must be documented. Scully proceeds with photographing. Mulder opens a refrigerator containing drilling samples which Murphy immediately retrieves to preserve. The team continues to investigate the compound, and the generator is restarted.

While with Dr. DaSilva, Mulder is suddenly attacked by the same dog which was in the base when two men shot themselves. The rest of the team hurry toward the animal and Bear rescues an unbitten Mulder from the dog but, during the struggle, is bitten, himself. The group finally manages to sedate the dog, which the team then studies. Dr. Hodge immediately dismisses the possibility of rabies, since none of the classic symptoms are present. Yet, black nodules — swollen lymph nodes — are found, which Dr. DaSilva identifies as possible symptoms of bubonic plague. Scully observes the dog also has a skin irritation around its neck, as if the animal was scratching off its own hair. While looking at the trauma, there's a sudden movement of what is apparently a foreign object under the dog's skin, startling the group.

In the bathroom, Bear is bandaging his wound when suddenly he is struck by a sharp pain under his right armpit. Looking at a mirror inside the room, he discovers he now has the same black nodules as the dog had; ergo, he is infected.

Act Two
Having finished the autopsies, Scully tells Mulder and Bear that it's obvious members of the science crew killed each other. Bear inquiries whether black nodules were found on the autopsied bodies, to which Scully responds in the negative. Bear, knowing he has the nodules, queries further whether this means that nodules had nothing to do with the condition which caused the crew to kill each other. Dr. Hodge enters the room, saying he wouldn't rule it out; he says he re-examined the dog and found the nodules have disappeared, which could mean the spots are symptoms of some disease at an early stage. Bear appears more and more anxious after hearing this.

Mulder finds a piece of paper repeatedly scribbled with the sentence, "We are not who we are." He consults Denny, the geologist, regarding some satellite remote sensing photographs. Denny identifies one of the photographs as showing the depth of the Icy Cape area's ice sheet to be about 3,000 meters in thickness. Mulder shows him another piece of data he has found, which demonstrates the research team discovered the depth of the ice sheet was twice that. Denny adds that the numbers appear to indicate the team was digging inside a meteor crater.

In the other lab, Dr. Hodge and Scully are arguing about something when Mulder and Dr. DaSilva enter. Scully has apparently discovered ammonium dioxide in Richter's blood. Hodge claims this impossible, since ammonia would vaporize at human body temperatures. Although no evidence of any such toxins has been found in the ventilation machinery, Murphy has discovered it in the ice samples, and even more evidence therein. He explains he has found a remarkably high ratio of ammonia to water in the ice core. Meanwhile, Bear quietly enters the room, still becoming increasingly agitated. Mulder postulates a foreign object introduced into Earth's environment might be responsible for the otherwise impossible amount of ammonia on the planet. Advised by Murphy to do so, the agents take turns to look in a microscope which magnifies a micro-organism of some sort. Scully concludes the same thing is present in Richter's diseased blood. She hypothesises that it's a larval stage of a larger organism but Hodge criticizes this theory. DaSilva likewise doubts the notion that the organism could have survived in the ice for a quarter of a million years, though Mulder posits the creature might live like that.

Bear confronts the others, criticizing their discussion over "some bug" as futile, because Scully's autopsy clearly showed the men killed themselves, and seems desperate to leave. Though Hodge agrees with this plan, Mulder refuses, insisting proper quarantine procedures should be followed in case the organism is infectious. Bear points out that, even if the deceased crew succumbed to some kind of infection, they themselves haven't and he refuses to wait around until they do. He proceeds to pick up his gear. After Dr. Hodge further approves of the observation that the team seem safe to leave, Dr. DaSilva notes the dog did bite Bear. Appealing against this, Bear shouts about Mulder having also been attacked. Scully suggests the only resolution is to conduct a medical test to determine whether anyone in the crew is infected, and then proceed. Bear strongly refuses the test and proceeds to pack his belongings in order to fly back to Nome. In his absence, the team takes a vote: Bear must be forced to take his test. After his return, Mulder, now holding a gun, explains to him the crew's decision. He appears to comply, but instead uses his stool sample flask to hit Mulder and attempts to escape. He is subdued and restrained by the others.

As Bear starts having convulsions while the others grapple with him, the team sees the same movement under the skin previously seen in the dog. Dr. Hodge decides to cut the parasite out, because now, it, being exposed, is attempting to kill the host. The parasite is removed, a worm which simultaneously squirts a black substance out of its body, and put into storage. Mulder contacts the airport and requests evacuation due to the serious biological hazard. Yet, the station is currently impossible to reach because of an unexpected snowstorm. He returns and asks if Bear is in any condition to fly, because they have a very short time frame to evacuate the base, but Scully informs him that Bear is dead, a situation Mulder sees for himself, though the worm is still alive.

Act Three
Dr. Hodge remarks the organism is similar to a tapeworm but otherwise extremely unlike any organism he knows. He is also unsure of the precise means of infection. Scully returns after re-examining the bodies, reporting she found the worm in every single one of them but that only one of these worms is still alive. The difference is that the worms were not attached to the spinal column, as seen previously, but were in the hypothalamus, deep in the human brain. Hodge speculates that, since the hypothalamus produces the neurotransmitter acetylcholine – which can produce violent, irrational behavior – there might be a connection with the aggression exhibited by the worm's hosts. Hodge suggests the parasite doesn't kill its hosts until it's removed, at which point it secretes a toxin. Mulder postulates the parasite may have caused the members of the previous team to kill one another and that, by killing themselves, Richter and Campbell could have been trying to save other humans from the infective organism.


Scully urges Mulder to agree on killing the parasitic ice worms.

Scully is re-examining the bodies, in case she missed anything. Mulder enters the morgue and suggests they and the other team members get some sleep, since they are "all wired and hypersensitive." Scully, on the other hand, says she doesn't want to waste a minute until she finds out how to kill the parasite. To her surprise, Mulder disagrees with killing it, since it could be living proof of a theory that alternative life can evolve in an ammonia environment at extremely low temperatures, for instance on other planets. Conversely, Scully is concerned with the possibility of the parasite reaching densely settled areas or that it might cause herself and Mulder to end up with the same fate as Richter and Campbell, "with guns to our heads." The agents loudly continue to debate whether to destroy the organism.

Back in the lab, Murphy puts on his headphones again whereas DaSilva and Hodge wonder what the argument is about. Hodge is sure that Mulder and Scully, being government agents, knew more about the situation than they revealed to the rest of the team. He also mentions that Bear's infected blood did get on Scully, yet, as Dr. DaSilva notes, it also got on him. They, accompanied by Murphy, leave the lab with the intent of confronting the agents.

The group meets in a storage room. Hodge notes that Scully seems a bit on edge, implying that she might be another host. She irritatedly reacts but Mulder prevents the argument from going further. Fear and tension is already running high in the group, and Mulder recommends they all get some sleep. Hodge is skeptical that any of the group could manage that and persuades the team that each member be checked for spots.

All appear okay and proceed to their quarters, yet tension is still present. As Mulder says good night to Scully, he reminds her the spots on the dog disappeared. Scully enters her room and blocks the door with a heavy desk, Murphy attempts to calm himself with one of his taped football games, Hodge is making a list routes of exposure for each of the team, finding that all had some exposure. DaSilva is lying in bed yet also showing signs of anxiety and Mulder is sitting on his bed, putting his gun on a desk.

Mulder suddenly awakens, apparently after having a nightmare. He hears a door open and footsteps that follow. He dresses and picks up his gun in order to investigate. All of the doors are closed except for Murphy's, whose room is empty, only his Walkman laying on the bed. Mulder continues investigating, is startled by the infected dog (which is now in a cage) and notices blood dripping from a closed freezing unit in the main science room. When Mulder opens the compartment, Murphy's body falls out of the unit, his throat having been cut. The rest of the team appear and Hodge immediately assumes Mulder killed him. Mulder concludes one of the other members killed Murphy and that at least one of them is infected with the parasite. The conflict of suspicion escalates until he and Scully are pointing guns at one another. Mulder backs down and allows the team to contain him in a locked room. Before Scully locks him in, he warns her he'll be safer in here than she will be outside.

Act Four
Scully enters the main lab, finding both DaSilva and Hodge asleep at their desks. She attempts to check DaSilva's neck but Hodge stops her, waking DaSilva. Hodge points out to Scully that, since she's the only one with a gun, the rest of them don't stand a chance if she does become infected. She removes the clips from both her gun and Mulder's, then throws them outside. Hodge and the women argue about what should happen with Mulder. Hodge is trying to exclude him from the team out of fear that he is infected, but Scully argues for them to help Mulder if he is, with which DaSilva concurs. Scully attempts to contact the airfield, but is unsuccessful due to the storm outside.

DaSilva and Hodge continue to work on the parasites. By accident, DaSilva puts an infected blood sample on another infected sample, instead of on an uninfected sample as Hodge requested. They furiously yell at each other, but Scully takes a look at the combined samples and watches each parasitic larva kill each other. She places two living, mature worms, held in jars filled with ammoniac solution, next to one another. The three survivors then observe aggressive behavior between these two worms. Hence, Scully comes to the conclusion that none of the parasites will tolerate another of its kind occupying the same host. She and Hodge agree that, by introducing a parasite in an already infected host, they can kill both worms and thereby cure the infected. Conducting the test on the infected dog proves them right, after which they release the dog from its cage.

Scully, Hodge and DaSilva take their last remaining worm to Mulder, intending to cure him with it. When Scully privately examines him, though, she finds no sign of parasite on his neck. Mulder examines Scully and also finds her uninfected, so now it's either Hodge or DaSilva who murdered Murphy. They both disbelieve the agents stating they have found one another to be uninfected and, after a brief struggle, Scully is locked inside the holding area whilst Hodge and DaSilva continue with the procedure on Mulder. It is at the last instant, just before DaSilva introduces the worm, that Hodge sees movement on her neck, thus exposing her as Murphy's murderer and the person who was infected all along. She flees, screaming and pushing Mulder out of her way. He then rushes to free Scully and they hurry after DaSilva. Frantic, she grabs one of the guns of the previous team from an evidence bag, but is overpowered by Mulder. He and Scully wrestle with DaSilva on the ground, while Hodge introduces the parasite into her body. After experiencing convulsions, her muscles finally relax, Scully assuring her the infection is ended.

DOOLITTLE AIRFIELD
NOME, ALASKA

On the strip of Doolittle Airfield, DaSilva is taken into an ambulance in a biohazard suit, watched by Mulder, Scully and Hodge, who stand nearby. After the vehicle drives away, Hodge announces DaSilva and the dog will be quarantined. He also explains that himself, Mulder and Scully have been determined as clear of infection. Mulder plans to return to the Icy Cape area, now fully prepared and with proper equipment, so the parasites can be further studied. Hodge notifies them that, the moment everyone was evacuated from the Ice Cape station, the entire place was torched, either by military or the CDC, so there's nothing left for Mulder to find there. After Hodge departs, Mulder comments the worms are still buried deep in the ice, which is where Scully believes he should leave them.

"Empedocles" is the seventeenth episode of the eighth season of The X-Files.

Synopsis
While Scully recovers from complications related to her pregnancy, Reyes contacts Mulder about a man seemingly connected to the unsolved murder of Doggett's son.

Summary
In New Orleans, Louisiana, Jeb Larold Dukes is told that he is fired. His boss keeps telling him how sorry he is and then Jeb walks out of the office.

On the street he sees a car speed by pursued by the police. It collides with a jeep when it tries to plow through the intersection. Both vehicles are badly damaged and catch fire. While a crowd of onlookers watch the fires, only Jeb sees the burning man come out of the fleeing car and walk into him, merging with him. His eyes burn with a new intensity as he returns to the office. His first victim is his boss.


Jeb Larold Dukes watches the fiery man leave the burning car and merge with him.

Agent Monica Reyes arrives at the crime scene, encountering Detective Franklin Potter while getting some nicotine gum out. Potter believes the murders are satanic cult related so he called Reyes in. Reyes points out the “devil pictures” are Marilyn Manson and the killer probably just snapped from a trigger event, like being fired. But as she is leaving, she sees one of the bodies carbonize into a charred corpse before her eyes. After Potter distracts her, she turns back to see the victim's body back to normal.

Fox Mulder is visiting Dana Scully when she doubles over in pain, clutching her pregnant belly. John Doggett meets Mulder at the hospital but since neither man is the husband, only co-workers, they can't go in and see Scully. The staff says she should be okay but they are going to run some tests. Mulder receives a phone call from Monica Reyes about a strange case that she wants to discuss with him. He reminds her that Doggett is in charge of the X-Files but she tells him that the case involves Doggett and she can't talk to him about it.

Jeb Dukes is in a hotel room in Georgia trying to shoot himself through the head. Staring at himself in the mirror as he holds the gun to his head, the gun becomes extremely hot. Dropping it, he sees burns all over his hand. He notices something wrong with his face; he claws at his face peeling away the skin to reveal a lake of burning of embers beneath.

Mulder and Reyes meet in a FBI records room, after she finds the case file on the death of Agent John Doggett's son, Luke Doggett.

Years ago, when Doggett's son disappeared, the FBI were called in to investigate. Monica Reyes was one of the agents on the case and Doggett himself was involved in the investigation, working at the NYPD at the time. They never found the killer and when they discovered Luke's body, Reyes and Doggett saw the body transform into ashes momentarily. Reyes says that Doggett has spent the last few years convincing himself he didn't see it. Reyes believes it was a psychic message, some sort of clue that could help them, and now with the other crime scene, she has seen it again.

As Doggett checks in on Scully and sees her sleeping, he slips back into the memory of finding his son for just a moment before the hospital staff asks him to leave.


Doggett remembers finding his son's body. The police watching him.

Doggett attacks Mulder over looking into his son's case until Reyes shows up and explains why they are looking into the case. Bob Harvey, a suspect in his son's murder, died in the burning car outside the office building where the shooting happened. Reyes stresses the vision's importance but Doggett dismisses it.

Reyes goes to visit Jeb Dukes’ sister, Katha, and learns he did not know Bob Harvey. She does not believe her brother is capable of these murders. While Reyes is there, Katha receives a call from Jeb but tells him to call later. As Jeb leaves the phone booth, a woman with car trouble appears asking for help. All she finds is a murderer.

Doggett visits Scully again and asks her what made her start to believe in the paranormal. She says she realized she was “afraid to believe.” Doggett seems to be on the edge of remembering the vision he saw of his son.

Jeb Dukes takes the car of the woman who had the flat tire. He sees himself surrounded by fire in the reflection on the windshield.

As Doggett approaches the body of this latest victim, he finds himself seeing Reyes surrounded by law enforcement officers at the body, just like when he found his son. Though the déjà vu is unsettling he sees no vision but merely the woman from the payphone face down on the ground with a gunshot through the back.

Doggett storms off but Reyes refuses to let it go, finally revealing her theory. That this is a “thread of evil,” a belief common everywhere but the West. Much as one would see God in a rose, one would see evil in death, in a murder. This thread connects through time and opportunity back to the first crime but Mulder points out that if Doggett doesn't see it, then he won't see it.

Scully relates to Mulder that she had a partial abruption (that the placenta tore away from the wall of the uterus) and tells Mulder he should keep trying to help Doggett.

Katha Dukes returns home with her daughter and finds Jeb Dukes there. He insists it wasn't him and that he needs help. He hugs his niece Mia when she comes in; there is nothing evil about him then, as if he didn't kill anyone even with blood still on his face.

Doggett and Reyes talk about his son and how Doggett has to believe that he did everything he could to save Luke but the supernatural implies there was more he could have done and he can't accept that. They receive a phone call from Katha about Jeb Dukes being there.


Jeb Larold Dukes takes his niece Mia hostage.

Katha tries to get her daughter Mia to leave the room but Jeb catches on that the FBI are there so he uses his niece as a hostage. Doggett drops his weapon and tries to talk to the man but he is too craven. Before he can shoot Doggett, Reyes takes him out with a round to the throat.

At the hospital, Doggett hopes to speak with the wounded Jeb Dukes about a connection to his son. Reyes suggests that maybe all of it was just to lead them to save that little girl.

Doggett finally embraces the memory of finding his son and seeing him as charred. Mulder calls him out of Scully's room and talks to him about his time in Violent Crimes. Mulder couldn't understand the monsters they saw there and began to think of evil like a disease that infected people. Some lacked immunity to this disease of evil because of some tragedy in their lives. Perhaps the man is infected with evil and that it passes on from person to person.

Jeb Dukes dies while Agent Reyes and his sister Katha are in the room. After the doctors leave, Katha's eyes


Katha Dukes catatonic in restraints.

glow that fiery way. She hits Reyes over the head with an oxygen tank and takes her gun. Before she can execute Reyes for killing her brother, Doggett appears and wrestles her to the ground.

In the end, Doggett watches a bedridden catatonic Katha Dukes in her restraints.

"Terms of Endearment" is the seventh episode of the sixth season of The X-Files. It first aired in the United States on January 3, 1999.

Synopsis
Mulder believes that a bigamist, suspected of prenatal infanticide, is actually a demon.

Summary

Demon in the dream takes the child.

Jeffrey Spender receives and discards an X-File from a sheriff from Virginia. The x-file involves a woman who, after finding out her unborn child had demon-like abnormalities, dreamt her baby was taken from her. When the woman woke up she had miscarried. Mulder picks up the x-file and, after visiting the couple, suspects the husband of committing a 'demon fetus harvest'.



Wayne Weinsider & Betsy Monroe (the other wife).

While the police are investigating the case, in particular the possibility of illegal abortion, they find the remains of the baby in the garden furnace. The husband quickly confesses to destroying the evidence after he found his wife had aborted in a trance like state the night they lost their baby. The wife takes the blame for the abortion and goes to jail. Meanwhile the husband maintains an affair with another pregnant 'wife'. Mulder puts the pieces together and reaches the conclusion that the husband is a demon trying to have a normal baby and terminating pregnancies when the fetus exhibits demon-like abnormalities.


Wayne takes his wife's soul.

The 'other wife' experiences a similar dream except she recognizes the dream demon as her husband. Nevertheless, she loses her baby and tracks down Mulder and Scully. Mulder and Scully seek out the demon and caught him digging something. They have a short conversation before he is shot by the original sheriff.

At the end of the episode, Mulder and Scully discover the remains of normal babies in this 'other wife's' yard. Upon seeing the evidence, Mulder figured out that this wife is, in fact, another demon who is unable to have a baby demon spawn unless another male demon impregnates her. And all she ever wanted was a baby demon spawn. That she is a demon herself is the reason why she could recognize her husband as a demon, and was able to stop him from extracting her baby. It becomes apparent that 'losing her baby' didn't really happen and was, in fact, just a trick to frame her demon husband.


Betsy Monroe leaves with her new demon child.

The episode ends showing her driving away with a baby demon, whose seed came from her demon husband. Her eyes flashed with red gleam and vertical pupils before returning back to normal. Then screen turns black.

Background Information
The scene where Wayne Weinsider walks upstairs with a glowing glass of milk is a nod to the Alfred Hitchcock film Suspicion where husband Johnnie (Cary Grant) is taking a glass of milk upstairs to his wife Lina (Joan Fontaine) that may or may not be poisoned.
The episode shares similarities with Roman Polansky's cult film "Rosemary's Baby" in which woman is poisoned by her husband and her baby is taken by the Devil. Scully also mentions to Mulder when he informs her about the case that she saw the same film last night.
The baby that had to play the demon child of Wayne and Laura Weinsider was replaced at the very last moment (when all cameras and lights were already set-up). The mother of the child was a devout Catholic and just couldn't let her baby get involved into anything that had to do with the devil. After 45 minutes, and several frantic calls, another baby arrived on set.

"Sunshine Days" is the eighteenth and penultimate episode of the ninth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, and the series' 200th episode overall. It Aired On May 12, 2002.

Plot
In Van Nuys, California, two men in their early twenties named Blake and Mike (Tyson Turrou and David Faustino) sneak into a house that Blake claims was where the comedy television series The Brady Bunch was filmed. Inside, they find a perfect recreation of the house from the series; Mike, unsettled, gets worried and leaves, but Blake plods on. Blake is subsequently sent hurtling through the air and smashes into Mike's car and dies.

John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) are called in to investigate. They interview Mike, who claims that Blake died after visiting "the Brady Bunch House". The three speak to the owner, Oliver Martin (Michael Emerson), but upon entering discover that the house looks nothing like the one featured in the teaser. Doggett, feeling something is not right, checks Martin's trashcan and finds asphalt shingles; earlier, on top of Mike's car, Doggett had found a piece of a shingle. He deduces that Blake was thrown through Martin's roof. Later that night, Mike looks into Martin's house and sees the whole Brady family eating dinner. He storms into the house, only to find that the family has disappeared. Suddenly, he is confronted by Martin, who tells him to leave. Mike refuses, and is thrown through the roof, only to be embedded in the yard.

Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) looks through various X-Files and discovers one about a young boy named Anthony Fogelman who possessed psychokinesis. She learns that Fogelman later changed his name to Oliver Martin. She meets with Dr. John Rietz (John Aylward), a parapsychologist who worked with the young Fogelman. Rietz claims that, despite being extremely lonely, Martin was not dangerous and that his power faded as he grew up. Reyes makes the connection that Fogelman changed his name to Oliver based on Cousin Oliver from The Brady Bunch. Scully notes that, in the show, Oliver was portrayed as a "jinx", and the three agents deduce that Fogelman must see himself as one, too.

Doggett and Rietz decide to talk to Fogelman. Initially, he is apprehensive and nearly sends Doggett hurtling through the roof. It is revealed that Fogelman's powers are temperamental and sometimes he cannot control them, as was the case with the deaths of Mike and Blake. Reyes and Scully show up and convince him that his powers could positively impact the world. The agents take him to Washington, D.C., and demonstrate his powers to Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) by making him float in midair. Suddenly, however, Fogelman collapses. Scully later reports that his body is destroying itself because of his extreme power. Doggett realizes that Fogelman must stop using his powers; he notes that his power had faded earlier when Dr. Rietz was studying him as a boy. Doggett tells Rietz that his power faded because, with Rietz around, Fogelman did not feel lonely. Rietz visits Fogelman in the hospital, and the two rekindle their friendship, saving Fogelman's life. Scully laments the fact that there may not be any vindication for the X-Files, but that cases like Fogelman's might show that there is proof of "more important things.

Jodie Foster is the voice of the tattoo as well as the frightened co-worker in the cubicle with Ed's boss.
The selection of Jodie Foster as the voice of the tattoo that talks to Ed Jerse is perhaps a reference to John Hinckley Jr., who claimed he was motivated by Jodie Foster to assassinate President Ronald Reagan.

Gillian Anderson volunteered to have the ouroboros tattooed onto her back for real during filming. This could not be done due to the fact that it would take too long and would have been impractical.

"Never Again" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth season of The X-Files. The episode premiered on the Fox network on February 2, 1997.

Synopsis
Scully takes some time off from Mulder and discovers a man with a jealous tattoo.

Summary

Ed Jerse burns his own face out of a photo with a cigarette.

In Philadelphia, Ed Jerse loses a divorce settlement to his ex-wife, who has sole custody of his children. After getting drunk at a local bar, Ed wanders into a tattoo parlor and impulsively receives a tattoo depicting a woman reminiscent of Bettie Page. He is then shown returning to his home, collapsing after viewing the new tattoo. At work the next day, Ed hears a woman calling him a "loser"; he has a violent confrontation with a female co-worker—who denies saying anything—and is subsequently subdued.

In Washington, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully conduct a discreet meeting with a Russian informant, Vsevlod Pudovkin, who claims to have seen a UFO at a secret research center. Upon returning to FBI headquarters, Mulder heads out on vacation, leaving Scully to follow up on the Pudovkin case for him. Scully is uninterested in the case and expresses serious doubts about Pudovkin's credibility, leading to an argument with an inconsiderate Mulder. Scully becomes upset over the direction her life and career are going.


Scully at the Tattoo Parlor.

At his home Ed is called by his boss and is fired. He hears the same voice as before, and yells at the woman living below him, thinking it was her. Upon hearing the voice after a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses stops by, Ed goes downstairs and murders his neighbor, throwing her body in the furnace. The voice talks to him again and he realizes it's coming from his new tattoo. Scully heads to Philadelphia where she watched Pudovkin enter a tattoo parlor. Scully heads inside where she sees Ed arguing with the owner, wanting the tattoo removed.


Mulder contacting Scully at Graceland.

Ed strikes up a conversation with Scully and invites her out to dinner, to which she replies she has other business to take care of. That night Scully talks to Mulder, who is in Graceland, telling him that Pudovkin is a con man and part of the Russian mafia. Scully calls Ed and tells him that she changed her mind. The two head to a nearby lounge but she is concerned about Ed's arm, where he has burned the tattoo with a cigarette butt. Ed convinces Scully to get a tattoo, and she has one of an Ouroboros applied to her back.

That night Scully stays at Ed's apartment. The tattoo is angry at him, saying she'll be dead if he kisses her, which he does anyway. The next morning two detectives arrive at the apartment after Ed has gone out, who tell Scully that Ed's neighbor is missing and blood was found in her apartment with an unusual chemical substance in it.

Scully researches the substance on Ed's laptop and tries to call Mulder at the FBI headquarters but hangs up before Mulder has a chance to answer. When Ed arrives, Scully tells him that detectives found blood in his neighbor's apartment and that it was likely his. Ed quickly says that he helped his downstairs neighbor move in and cut himself. Scully thinks that the chemical came from the tattoo ink and wants them both to head to the hospital to be tested. Ed tells Scully about the voice he's been hearing from his tattoo. As Scully heads to the other room to get ready, her FBI badge falls out of her coat pocket. Scully discreetly picks it back up without Ed noticing.


Ed Jerse burns tattoo Betty off his arm.

Then the tattoo begins to talk again, convincing Ed to redial Scully's last call to see who she was speaking to. An FBI operator answers and, upon learning that Scully is a FBI agent, the tattoo forces Ed to attack Scully. Scully tries to escape but is overpowered by Ed, who binds her in a bedsheet and carries her down to the basement to throw her in the furnace. At the last moment, Scully awakens and escapes from the bedsheet. Ed is able to overpower the impulses of the tattoo and thrusts his own arm into the furnace.


Scully and Mulder at desk. "Not everything is about you."

Scully returns to Washington and is congratulated by Mulder for being the first person to make a second X-File appearance. Ed was taken to a burn center in Philadelphia where the chemicals (ergot) were found in his blood -- also found in Scully's blood but not enough to cause hallucinations. Mulder wonders if this all happened because of their earlier argument concerning her own desk, to which Scully replies that not everything is about him.