The X-Files

Previously on The X-Files:

You sent for me. I'm here.

We're witnessing what may be the advent of a global contagion.

Kill everyone but the chosen. Alien DNA mixed with our DNA.

Science given to them by an alien race.

Neither you nor I could save mankind from self-extermination.

I just changed the timetable.

Get to the hospital. Help is on its way, I promise.

That their fates were sealed since birth.

They were simply puppets.

The world will go on.

Just in my image instead of God's.

Who sent you?

You see a seemingly weak man...

...but I'm the most powerful man in the world.

My name is Carl Gerhard Busch...

...but I've been known by many aliases...

...during my long career with the U.S. government.

It's been a humbling job, though I'm hardly known as a humble man.

I've been a witness to history, much of it violent.

Much of it an abomination of the values Americans hold dear.

I've had a privileged seat at the centers of power...

...held the reins of that power, making sacrifices few are capable of.

Of which even fewer still are willing.

If people knew the truth, they'd riot in the streets.

Too much is made of the will to power, as if our will is free, our choices our own.

Our destinies are forged in our bones, made real by a raging impulse to self-destruct.

I'm not a bad man.

More a practical man.

I have taken certain gifts I was given and made good men great.

It is my greatness.

I'm a father to two men who have figured more in the future than they might ever know.

Both would end up working for the FBI...

...both complex but dedicated men who sacrificed dearly.

And in their dogged pursuits would end up paying a terrible price...

...searching for truths as I parceled them out.

Truths held only by the few who know the levers of power...

...and the invisible hand controlling them.

Is there life out there?

Good heavens, to doubt it is a failure of more than the imagination.

It's a failure to recognize the limits of our own stupidity.

The nascency of our science, the rudiment of our tools.

We listen, we search, we hope for a sign, as if our eyes and ears are good enough...

...our brains large enough...

...our egos small enough.

I'm an old man now.

I will leave my own mark upon history.

More than presidents or tyrants.

I don't ask for loyalty and trust...

...the fleeting bonds of men.

I ask only for the years to show my sons and their sons I was right.

What their father did had to be done.

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

Cut!

Reset. Back to one, everybody.

What's her heart rate? Heart rate elevated to 186 BPM.

Ma'am, can you hear me? Can you hear me, ma'am?

I need her blood pressure. No dilation, unresponsive.

No indication of trauma. You found her where she is?

She must have fallen. It's me, Scully.

Can you hear me? Bit her tongue. No head trauma.

Does she take meds? No.

She's healthy, a doctor. She would've told me.

Hey, hey, hey. We've got a gurney coming in.

What happened? They said she had a seizure.

One, two, three, lift.

Gentle. Gentle. Call the hospital with our ETA.

Let's clear out.

Coming through. I'm going with you.

I just want someone to tell me what the hell is going on here.

No news, good news, Mulder. That's BS and you know it.

Why don' t you go get some air? I'll text you when there's word.

I don' t wanna hear it from you.

I wanna talk to Scully.

Excuse me. Is one of you Fox Mulder?

Is she gonna be okay? I'm Dr. Jo yet, her neurologist.

We've done a series of tests-- Answer my question.

The answer is we don't know.

What do you mean? What have you been doing?

Mulder, why don' t you let her talk?

I wanna talk to Scully. She's still unconscious.

What I know right now is that she has extremely abnormal brain activity.

Abnormal how?

I need to show you something.

We ran her through everything we have here. CTs, fMRl.

The entire protocol.

When I say abnormal...

...I don't see any damage, just gross abnormality.

The brain is a very complex organ.

A cascading series of subsets that begin and end with the prefrontal cortex...

...the part that makes us human. What you're seeing now is the PFC in real time.

The reason I don' t have any answers for you is I've never seen anything like this before.

What's this here? The hypothalamus.

The area we associate with fight or flight.

I don' t know what I'm looking at, but I'm reading this part as signal.

I'm reading this flashing as code.

You must be mistaken. What do you mean "code"?

Six dots, two dashes: "Him."

"Find him."

This is insanity.

I wanna see her.

Can she hear us?

What she needs right now is quiet, rest.

Neurologically speaking, her brain's on fire.

I'm sure that's what she needs, but I'm gonna stay here.

Mulder, a moment outside?

You're not helping your cause. Are you helping my cause?

What if it was a message?

Find who? It's absurd.

Who would you be asking for?

Your son.

Why ask for him now?

She's not dying.

Maybe she's not...

...but I've seen you believe far more absurd things, Agent Mulder.

Far less personal.

Hey.

I care about her too.

I'm just looking for answers here.

Then you go look for them, Skinner.

Where I'm needed is in there.

The thought is imperishable.

A fear that takes hold in the gut.

That the person you care for most in the world could be hurt by you...

...by your actions...

...the simple fact of knowing you.

As she lies here, so helpless...

...those same thoughts and fears flood my mind with questions.

If I caused this, how then can I make it stop?

You think you know who I am. I thought you were dead.

Massive contagion, alien DNA. .Spartan Virus...

You'll be dead yourself, within a week.

Mulder.

Scully.

Mulder, you have to go.

I'm not going anywhere.

To find the Smoking Man.

Scully, I'm gonna get your doctor. No, listen to me.

I've seen it.

You've seen what, Scully?

I know how it begins.

There's a virus.

The Spartan Virus.

It shuts down our immune systems...

...and it starts a pandemic. Scully.

You had a seizure. You have extremely abnormal brain activity.

No. A plague is released.

But there's a cure. Mulder, I'm absolutely certain about this.

Okay. Tell me what you saw.

You're dying, Mulder...

...and I can' t save you.

Not without stem cells from our son.

Scully, I'm fine.

I'm here. There's no plague. You don' t need to save me.

The Smoking Man is behind it.

The Smoking Man is dead. No. No, he's not.

He's alive.

And he's in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Mulder...

...from where he unleashes hell on earth.

Scully, I don't doubt you, that you believe what you're saying...

...but the doctor said that your brain is on fire.

It's me, Mulder.

I'm not an irrational person.

You have to find him and you have to stop him...

...before he kills you.

I'm gonna talk to your doctor first. Okay?

Where's the boy?

All we want is the boy.

I don' t doubt the visions.

It's their specific etiology.

I call them visions, but my experience of them was very real.

Real is a subjective judgment.

If you believe them to be real, they are to you.

The question is where these visions came from.

If the seizure caused them. Or the exact opposite.

If the seizure was caused by the visions. I don' t understand the difference.

Let's just say we are verging on the fringes of accepted neurology.

You mean you think her visions have a source.

This is rather sensitive territory.

I don' t have to tell you that we live at the nexus of certain government agencies.

CIA, DIA, NSA, DARPA...

...doing experiments on the mind even before the Cold War.

We have files on all that.

I've had certain patients, products of these experiments, casualties.

I've also seen things that can only be described as superhuman.

I'm not a part of any experiments.

But you may have been.

You said there's a man behind this.

I need to get out of here. Scully.

I have to get to the bottom of this, Mulder. Scully, I'm on this.

I'm on it.

Why is this happening? Mulder's coming.

This is going to go down badly. We are not to be found.

It's Jeffrey Spender. Someone's looking for your son. For William.

They came after me in my home. You may all be in danger.

They will be coming for me.

Mulder will be coming for me.

If he finds me, he'll kill me.

But we are not to be found.

If Scully was a conduit...