08x17 - Empedocles

[bunniefuu]

I hate my job on days like this, Jeb.

If it were my choice... I'd be giving you a promotion.

But with the economy the way it is...

Are you f*ring me? You can hold your head up, Jeb.

You've done a good job here. I... don't believe this.

I thought this was just an evaluation.

I'm sorry.

I really am.

Be calm. Stay back.

Everybody, stay back. Just get back.

Oh, my God, there's someone in there!

Stay back!

Keep your distance!

Jeb. Can I help you?

Jeb!

Hey. Jeb.

What's up?

Agent Reyes? Hi.

Monica Reyes. Frank Potter, New Orleans PD.

Trying to quit the habit.

Yeah, I tried to quit smoking myself once. I hated that damn gum.

Anyway, you wanna see the victims?

You said you believed the killings might be satanic ritual murders.

Right. Let me show you.

This is Jeb Dukes' work area.

I found this among his personal effects.

What can you tell me about the k*ller. Detective?

31 years old, college grad, lived alone.

There's some who felt he had a dark side, which could explain that there.

Can I look in there?

Sure. You're the expert.

Does it tell you anything about why he k*lled them?

A k*ller like this is usually pushed over the edge by a 'stressor': a catalyzing event, an emotional breakdown, the break-up of a relationship, or sometimes when someone's been fired.

This guy was fired - by the two victims.

Well, that's most likely what drove him to m*rder.

Yeah, but what about all these images, these devil pictures?

It's Marilyn Manson.

Marilyn Manson? Your kids listen to him.

They probably buy his CDs at Kmart.

I don't think there's anything satanic going on here, Detective.

Agent Reyes.

OK. OK, it’s some rock group.

You don't think this has anything to do with Satan?

Personally? I'd look into his gum.

Agent Reyes?

Did you find something?

Mulder! What?

I was about to jump in the shower, but I was waiting for the pizza man.

You got something going on with the pizza man?

The pizza man?

You said you were waiting for the pizza man to jump in the shower.

No, what I mean was, the pizza man's usually late, and so...

You wanna come in? Thank you.

I feel like I'm in an episode of Mad About You.

Well, yeah, but small technicality:

Mad About You was about a married couple, and we just work together.

You know what I'm talking about.

I do. I do. What I'm trying to say is that... we have no reliable information on this man.

I am saying the pizza man... is not above suspicion.

Ah, I see.

Is that for me? Yeah.

Nice package. What's the occasion?

Oh, I was going through some stuff after my mother d*ed.

It's just an old family keepsake, and I wanted you to have it.

Well, I'm touched.

Little Caesars, I presume?

Hi.

Just give it to the man with the funny look on his face.

Yeah, it's $29.08. $29.08?

What'd she get on it, a t*nk of gas?

Scully?

Scully!

Call 911.

That Scully? Dana?

She's got abdominal pains? Her doctor is Dr Speake.

He's been called. She.

Who are you? The husband? No.

Then you wait outside.

Agent Mulder, what happened? How'd you find out?

I was dropping something off. Her landlord told me.

Are you the husband? Me? No.

Excuse me.

Mulder. Special Agent Fox Mulder?

Speaking.

My name is Monica Reyes. We've never met.

Who? Special Agent Reyes.

I know this is out of the blue, but I have a case I need your help on.

It involves a certain phenomenon.

I can't help you for so many reasons.

You should contact Agent Doggett at the X-Files.

I can't call Agent Doggett because it involves him.

I'm in New Orleans, but I can be in DC in a few hours.

It's important, Agent Mulder. Very.

Call me when you get here.

They're telling us not to worry. They're running some tests.

Agent Mulder. Agent Reyes?

You're taller than I thought.

You keep alluding to a time that we've met. I don't remember.

I was there when they found you in the woods. You were...

Yeah, I'm not surprised you don't remember.

I have somewhere I have to be, if we could cut to the chase.

As I said before, it involves Agent Doggett.

The death of his son. I don't know if you're familiar with that case.

No, I'm not at all familiar with Agent Doggett.

I wasn't aware of this. You were the lead investigator?

Once it fell to the FBI. Agent Doggett was with the NYPD at the time.

We worked it together. We never caught the k*ller.

It was the hardest case I've ever had.

As in stealing-into-the-bathroom- to-cry-my-eyes-out kind of hard.

I can't begin to imagine what it was like for John.

I couldn't bear to put him through this again.

But if it means we can catch his son's k*ller...

I just can't go to him until I know if what I saw means anything.

You said this case involves some kind of phenomenon?

I don't know if it was a psychic experience or what, but when we found his son... I had a vision.

It was as if, for just a moment, the body was... changed.

Changed? Into what?

Ashes. It looked like ashes.

The thing of it is, Agent Doggett told me he saw it too.

He's spent the last few years convincing himself he didn't.

That even if he did, it didn't mean anything.

What do you think it means? I can't shake the feeling that it's a clue.

That it could somehow point to who's responsible, if only I let it.

And now I've seen it again.

A thousand miles from here, a seemingly unrelated case, and I've had the same vision.

There has to be a reason for it, a reason it's happening now.

Sir, immediate family only. You fellas just don't listen.

You have to go now.

Hey! Hey! You stay out of my life!

Stay out of my business! Take it easy!

You want something on me, ask! I don't want to get calls about you! You got that?

I don't want anything. I was asked to look into this file.

Who asked you? Agent Doggett.

What are you doing? Is this you?

Is this you looking into this?

Yes. I asked Agent Mulder.

You asked him what? It's nothing for him to bother with.

Why don't you calm down and let her explain the connection to you?

The connection? To what? I was gonna tell you, John.

I was in New Orleans on a case - a sh**ting.

Something that I saw connected back to Luke.

A vision.

Not this again! You're not gonna make something out of nothing.

Bob Harvey. Does that name mean something or nothing to you?

Bob Harvey was a suspect in the death of my son.

We questioned him, but then we realized he wasn't our man.

Agent Mulder pointed it out. Bob Harvey was k*lled last night in a car crash, fleeing the police near a sh**ting in New Orleans.

He d*ed in front of the building where the sh**ting occurred.

What's the connection? That's it.

That's it? And then there was the vision.

No, I don't care what you saw leave it alone.

And you leave it the hell alone.

I know there is something here.

Good.

Is your mommy home? Mom!

Mia?

Katha Dukes? Yeah.

Sorry about the late hour. My name is Monica Reyes. I'm with the FBI.

I believe that we're all born good, uncorrupted, and life itself does the corrupting.

But, you know, someone like Jeb, he just isn't capable of this.

Are you close to your brother? Very.

Jeb lived here in the house with us till he went down south.

He loves his niece.

Does the name Bob Harvey mean anything to you? Did Jeb ever deal with him?

No. I think I'd know. Why?

No reason. It's the answer I was kind of expecting, actually.

Hello?

Katha? Yes?

Katha, it's Jeb.

I can't talk now. It's been a very bad day here.

It wasn't me that k*lled those people. It was somebody else, I'm telling you.

You're gonna have to call back later.

Hi. I'm sorry to bother you.

I got a flat tyre back a ways.

What are you doing here, Doggett?

I was, um...

I just came by to see how you're doing.

I'm, uh... I feel all druggy.

Do you mind?

Thank you.

They say you're stabilized, but we've been worried.

Who's "we"?

You know...

Me and Agent Mulder and...

What's wrong, Agent Doggett? You don't seem too good yourself.

You worked with Agent Mulder for... How long? Along time.

You never believed in any of this stuff, this... paranormal, or whatever you call it.

So, what changed your mind?

I realized it was me.

That I was afraid.

Afraid to believe.

Why do you ask?

Agent Doggett, why do you ask?

Some other time.

Agent Mulder?

I was looking for Agent Doggett.

Well, that'd make sense. It's not my office any more.

But old habits die hard.

What are those? Cases involving images like you described.

People near crimes who experience visions of death, disassociated from reality.

And what did you find? Nothing.

These visions are so random as to have absolutely no significance to the cases they're supposed to pertain to.

You're wrong. I think I know these files.

And I know what I saw. There's a reason these things are happening.

There is something at work here, and it all began with the man k*lled in the car crash, Bob Harvey.

I think that's a coincidence.

I think that life is full of them.

And full of patterns, things we see but can't comprehend.

You believe that. Why can't you believe this?

There's an opening coming up in this office soon. You might wanna apply.

Is that why you won't help him?

I have a sick friend in the hospital and I think I should go see her.

I hope she gets well.

This office needs at least one person with an open mind.

You'll say anything, won't you? Only when I think I'm right.

What am I doing here?

Been asking myself that same question, Agent Doggett.

But the tenacious Agent Reyes won't let go of this one.

Of what?

She's got a m*rder victim, a woman found sh*t.

She thinks it's by the same man who k*lled those people in New Orleans, Jeb Dukes.

What does she want from me?

She wants to know if you see it too - what she's been seeing.

I told you, there's no connection.

Agent Doggett?

I'm sorry, Agent Reyes.

I don't see it.

I think you do.

You're just afraid to go there.

You just keep sh**ting till you hit something, don't you?

You'd rather blind yourself to the connections, but I can't.

You keep talking about these connections. Connections to what? To who?

What if this is a thread of evil connecting through time, through men, through opportunity, connecting back to you?

In India, in Africa, in Iran, in the Middle East, in the Far East, most of the world, they take it as a given.

They see evil in death the way other people see God in a rose.

I saw Elvis in a potato chip once.

You know what I'm talking about. Yes, I do.

I do, but if this man doesn't see it, he doesn't see it, right?

You awake?

Yeah.

What did the doctor say?

That I had a partial abruption.

Which means that my placenta started to tear away from the uterine wall.

They're going to need to monitor me for a while.

But you're gonna be fine?

Yeah.

Where have you been?

I've been out in the field with Agent Doggett and this female agent from New Orleans.

Agent Reyes. Yeah, I like her.

You're nothing at all alike.

Well then, neither are you and I.

So this is a case you're working on? Yeah.

Actually, one that involves Agent Doggett's son - the son who d*ed.

He's never talked to me about him, but I know something.

Are you able to help him at all?

You can't help a man who can't help himself.

He's worth the effort, Mulder.

You got a half an hour to play in your room before Mommy has dinner ready.

Mia? OK.

What are you doing here? I'm coming home.

The FBI was here, Jeb. I didn't do what they said.

It wasn't me, OK? It wasn't.

What is that on your face?

What?

Is that blood?

I don't know how that got there.

I need the truth, Jeb. Please believe me, Katha.

It's not me, OK?

I need help.

Please.

Mom? Is that Uncle Jeb?

Yeah, sweetheart.

Yeah, it is. It's me.

Jeb Dukes, middle name, Larold.

OK. Thanks, anyway.

What are you doing, John?

I'm looking into this case.

You're looking in the wrong way.

There are a hundred agents in this building who can phone canvass.

But there's only two who can solve crimes with telepathy - you and me.

So we'll just read the tea leaves on this one, and there it is - case closed?

John... Dammit, you wanna find this guy.

I'm trying to find him. What do you want from me?

I want you to be honest... with yourself... about what you saw that day, honest about what your feelings tell you.

Feelings don't solve crimes. What does it matter what my feelings are?

How the hell's that gonna get the job done?

I'm not talking about the job, John.

What are you scared of?

Why does it scare you?

I gotta believe that I did everything I could to find my son.

You did do everything to find your son.

I gotta believe that I did everything I could to save him, to get him back safe, to not let him down.

I gotta believe that I did everything humanly possible.

Cos if I can't believe that, then these other possibilities that you talk about, that Mulder talks about, that Agent Scully talks about, if they're real... if they're real, then...

that's something else I could have done to save my son.

Monica Reyes.

Katha? Katha, wait.

Jeb Dukes' sister. He's there at the house with her.

This guy somehow has some link to my son, and I'm damn sure gonna find out what it is.

"Hansel and Gretel had overheard everything their parents had said."

"'Shh' said the boy."

"I'll find a way out, I promise you, and when..."

Mia, honey?

Can you come here, please? Uncle Jeb's reading to me.

That's OK. I just need you a minute. Can you just come here?

Who's here?

She just wants to talk, Jeb.

I just want you to tell her what you told me. She can help you.

Who?

I said who, dammit! Come on, baby.

Uncle Jeb! You lied to me! Just get back!

Go!

Mommy!

Let me go, Uncle Jeb! Mommy, help!

Let me go! Let me go! Help!

Hands in the air! Federal agent. I'm armed. I'll sh**t.

You drop the g*n! Let her go!

Mommy! I'll sh**t her, I swear!

I just need to talk to you.

Mommy. Mommy. Mommy!

I won't hurt you.

Stay back. Mommy! Mommy!

I said stay back!

Mommy! Mommy!

Mia! Mia!

What have you done?

This man needs help!

You're not gonna die on me now.

You hear me? You're gonna make it.

John. The parade stops here.

If you want to save him, let the doctors do their work. Who's immediate family here?

I am. Come with me.

I'm gonna need you to fill out some information for me. All right?

There is nothing more you can do. You can't tell me that now.

Maybe saving this girl was the reason. Maybe that's what this was all about.

Maybe that's what I saw and why I saw it. For that kid.

Go home, John. There's nothing here for you to do.

Agent Doggett.

She just fell back to sleep.

I just wanted to check to see how she's doing.

I'm here with this other thing. We caught this k*ller, Jeb Dukes.

He's in the ICU. He may not make it.

And now you're wondering if there really was a connection?

When I first came to work at the FBI, I worked at Violent Crimes.

I saw the worst of humanity. I saw monsters.

And I'd wonder how they became that way, how these men became so evil.

I know there were psychological explanations victims of their environment, or parents - but the scientific explanations were never satisfying.

I began to think about evil like a disease.

You know, that it goes from man to man or age to age.

Most of us think we're incapable of any acts of evil.

And we are. We can stifle that momentary urge to k*ll or to hurt.

We have some kind of immunity to it.

But I think it's possible that there's... an occurrence in somebody's life, a tragedy or a loss, that leaves them vulnerable, hurts their immunity to evil.

And all of a sudden, at that point in their lives when they're weakened, they're open to evil.

And they can become evil.

If that were true, then what you're saying is... this man we wheeled in here tonight is infected with evil.

The same evil that k*lled my son.

You really believe that, Agent Mulder?

I'm not really a good test for questions like that. I'll believe almost anything.

But the pisser is, you may never know. It may be like Agent Reyes says.

It could be random and meaningless, who it affects, who it goes to.

What if it isn't?

Then you'd be seeing something that I don't, Agent Doggett.

Somebody!

Doctor!

Push one gram of epi. Right here.

Call it.

I'm sorry.

Time of death: 10.57 p.m.

You k*lled him.

Drop the w*apon! No!

Drop it!

I need a doctor!

Oh, my Lord.

I need a doctor, stat. It's over. It's over now.

It's never over.

Mulder, you never fail to surprise me.

I just wish I felt like eating it right now.

That's cool. We can just wait for the cheese to congeal and eat it later.

You miss your regular pizza man, don't you?

Yes.

That's OK. He's coming by later.

I bet you forgot about that, didn't you? No, I didn't, actually.

I thought about it a lot while I was lying in my hospital bed, wondering what on earth you could have given me.

And?

Oh, my God!

Oh, Mulder.

Is it what you imagined?

Not even close.

Oh, my. That's the wrong doll, actually.

But then that's the other gift that you gave me, Mulder.

Courage... to believe.

And I hope that's a gift I can pass on.

I made this!