The X-files
Leonard Betts
Episode: 4X14
First aired:1/26/97
Written by:Frank Spotniz, John Shiban, and Vince Gilligan
Directed by:Kim Manners
Michele Wilkes, an
Emergency Medical Technician, races an ambulance through the
streets of
Philadelphia as her highly-regarded partner, Leonard Betts, attends to a
dying
man. As the ambulance speeds through an
intersection, it is broadsided by a truck.
Wilkes survives, but she is
horrified to discover Betts' decapitated body nearby.
Mulder and
Scully are brought into the case when Betts' headless corpse
disappears
from a
hospital morgue. Scully theorizes that someone attempted to steal the body and
sell it to an unscrupulous
medical supplier. But when security camera footage shows an
unidentified person with a strange
distortion around the head area leaving the hospital.
Mulder suspects something strange is going on.
With Mulder's
reluctant help, Scully fishes through the hospital's bio-disposal unit for the
missing corpse. The agents recover the missing head, but the whereabouts of the body
remains a
mystery. As Scully prepares to perform an
autopsy on the head, its eyes and
mouth suddenly snap open.
A tissue sample taken from Betts' head is
analyzed by a
pathologist who determines that
Betts was riddled with
cancer, so much that a normal human could have never lived
that way. Mulder
hypothesizes that Betts had somehow
incorporated cancer into his
body, and possessed
unimaginable regenerative powers--perhaps the next step in Man's
evolution. A
fingerprint search reveals that Betts' real name is Albert Tanner. The agents
interview his
mother, Elaine, who claims that Albert died in an
automobile accident six
years earlier.
As Wilkes is transporting another patient, she recognizes Betts' voice
transmitting over
the
ambulance radio. She locates Betts working as an EMT at another hospital. As the
two embrace, Betts pulls out a
syringe and injects Michele with a
lethal substance.
A security guard
witnesses the murder and handcuffs Betts to his car. Betts slips out of
the cuffs by tearing off his own
thumb. When the thumb is found, Mulder guesses he tore
it off because he knew he could grow another.
When the agents search the trunk of Betts' car, they discover
plastic bags filled with
human tumors. Mulder postulates that Betts is ingesting the
cancerous tissue in order to
survive. They learn that the car is registered to Albert Tanner's mother.
Weak and needing
sustenance, Betts attacks and kills a
heavy-smoking bearded man
after he leaves a bar. Strengthened, Betts is then able to "gives birth" to a duplicate of
himself.
The agents discover a
storage locker key at Mrs. Tanner's home. When they open the
door to the locker, they find the smoking man's body, its
left lung missing. Suddenly
from within the locker, a car roars to life, and Betts attempts to run down Mulder and
Scully. The agents
dive for cover and open fire. The car bursts into
flames, incinerating
Betts.
Though Mulder is convinced that something else is going on, Scully reminds her partner
that Betts is quite
dead and his not coming back to life, and the case is over.
Nonetheless, Mulder exhumes the body of the man Mrs. Tanner claimed was killed in
the automobile accident. Inside the casket is a
corpse identical to Betts. Mulder
concludes that the
fiery crash was a ruse-and the real Leonard Betts is still alive.
The agents stakeout Mrs. Tanner's home waiting for Betts to return. When an
ambulance
arrives at the scene, Mulder and Scully race inside. They find Mrs. Tanner, still clinging
to life, with a fresh
surgical incision on her chest. Mulder searches the
neighborhood
while Scully accompanies Tanner to the hospital, but when the ambulance pulls into the
hospital parking lot, she realizes Betts hitched a ride by hiding on the
vehicle's roof.
Betts jumps inside the ambulance and slams the rear doors behind him. Wielding a
scalpel, he tells Scully she possesses "something I need." A scuffle ensues, and Scully
kills Betts using
defibrillation pads. Later that night, as Scully lies in bed, she wakes up
coughing and finds a few
drops of blood on her
pillow. As her nose continues to bleed,
she recalls Betts' haunting words.
Important Quotes:
Scully -- "
What are we doing here?"
Mulder -- "Did I mention that Mr. Betts had no head?"
Scully -- "Yes, so? I mean, you're not suggesting that a
headless body kicked his way out of a locked
morgue freezer, are you?"
Mulder -- "I wanna see how he lives."
Scully -- "
Lived."
Mulder -- "Lived."
Mulder -- "Chuck, would you believe that this man's head had been
decapitated?"
Chuck -- "Aw, man!
No way!"
Mulder -- "
Way!"
Mulder -- "Will the real Leonard Betts
please stand up!"
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