The X-files
Apocrypha (Part 2 of 2)
Episode: 3X16
First aired:2/16/96
Written by: Frank Spotnitz and
Chris Carter
Directed by: Kim Manners
The great conclusion to
Piper Maru!
From the previous episode: Mulder and Scully have discovered a ship that may have been transporting a UFO. An alien substance has been transfered through various people and is now in Agent Alex Krycek. Skinner has been shot by men who don't want the case of Scully's sister, Melissa opened.
It's August 19, 1953, and a sick, burned crewman in
Pearl Harbor Navy Hospital tells three young government men about his ordeal, how he and others were locked up with the captain of their submarine on a salvage mission and how the men were dying. The captain had the black substance in his eyes and after being knocked unconscious, a black oil oozed out of him, down a grate and into the lower depths. The sailor recalls that for the first time they saw what was killing them and that the thing is still down there. He says to one man "make sure the truth gets out. I can trust you to do that, can't I,
Mr. Mulder?" 'Mr.Mulder' replies after lighting a cigarette (showing that it is actually a young
CSM) "You can trust all of us"
Now in the present, Scully rushes to the hospital to see the wounded Skinner. Mulder and Krycek arrive in
Washington. They rent a car but it is run off the road. Mulder is knocked unconscious but not before seeing Krycek yanked from the car and asked about the digital tape. In a blinding light, the two men who ran them off the road are fried. The
Cigarette Smoking Man looks over the two men, who are in critical condition but alive, and tells the doctor to have the bodies
destroyed.
Mulder awakens in the hospital with Scully at his side telling him that Skinner was shot and that the man who shot him also shot her sister.
The Syndicate meets to discuss disturbing reports about the salvage ship. One elder says that they have an information leak. CSM has been asked to account for this.
Skinner tells Scully that he recognized the man who shot him as being with Krycek when the third attacker took the UFO
digital tape from him in the
hospital stairwell. Mulder has collected a sample of the oil found on the diving suit and from Gautheir and his wife. He thinks that it is a medium employed by some kind of alien creature that uses it to body jump, that it has waited on the
ocean bottom and has been brought up with Gauthier and is now in Krycek.
Mulder has the key that Krycek gave him. He gets the
Lone Gunmen to look, but the envelope in the locker is empty. Elsewhere, Krycek gives CSM the tape and asks him "Where is it?" CSM understands this and says he has what he wants.
CSM meets with the Syndicate who are not pleased that he is having the UFO moved to another location. The
Well-Manicured Man is also upset about Skinner being shot, saying it is serious exposure.
Mulder finds a phone number on the envelope, calling the syndicate office and speaking to the Well-Manicured Man, who asks him to meet him in
Central Park. Scully learns that the shooter is a mercenary named Luis Cardinal who may have already fled the country. She still insists the
FBI keep looking.
The WWM tells Mulder the object in the ocean was a UFO downed during
WWII. Complications arose during
salvage operation, and a cover story about a third A-bomb bound for Japan was concocted. Mulder says Krycek has the tape and realizes that WWM doesn't know where his is either.
Mulder is suddenly concerned about Skinner, and with WWM agreeing that anyone can be gotten to, he calls Scully to check on Skinner. Scully does so and finds him being transferred to another hospital. In the
ambulance she encounters Luis Cardinal, whom she corners in the street. She yells that he shot her sister and points her gun at him.
Frightened, Cardinal offers her Krycek in exchange for his life. Scully doesn't fire and the police arrest him. He tells her that Krycek is heading to an abandoned missile site in
North Dakota where Mulder thinks they'll find the salvaged UFO.
At the site, Mulder and Scully descend into a silo, finding burned men. They run around underground looking for Krycek or other signs. Armed men arrive, capturing them just outside the silo door
1013. CSM is waiting outside. Mulder yells at him, saying that he lead Krycek here and that he can't bury the truth. Mulder and Scully are dragged away into a car. Inside the silo, CSM looks at the door 1013. Inside the silo, we see Krycek convulsively coughing up the
black oil, which seeps into a strange-looking grid on what appears to be an
alien craft.
Using a cane, Skinner returns to work. Mulder finds Scully at Melissa's
grave saying that Cardinal was found dead in his cell. Meanwhile, we see Krycek futilely pounding the
silo door, hopelessly entombed deep
underground.
Important Quotes:
Skinner -- "Listen to me,
anger is a
luxury that you cannot afford right now. If you're angry you're gonna make a mistake, and these people will take advantage of that, you've seen how they operate."
Scully -- "I'll be ok"
Skinner -- "Scully.. if you can't keep your head.. it's all right to step away."
Scully -- "It's exactly what they want"
Mulder -- "This just wasn't ordinary
diesel oil, I think it's huh.. I think it's a
medium, a medium being used by some kind of
alien creature that uses it to ..
body jump."
Scully -- "So you're saying that this stuff has
intelligence."
Mulder -- "I think that it came off of whatever they pulled from the bottom of the
Pacific ocean, it's been waiting 50 years down there for another host, another body to bring it up to the surface."
Scully -- "Waiting to jump into the diver and then into the diver's wife."
Mulder -- "And then into Krycek."
Byers -- "You should call upon our service more often."
Langly -- "We show a talent for these
G-man activities."
Mulder -- "You mean if I want somebody
whacked on the neighbor with a
lead pipe?"
Forhike -- "Only if you want the job done right."
Mulder -- "Hand me a
pencil."
Langly -- "Your sci-crime guys at the
Bureau have a laser there that can measure any change in a surface down to a few
nanometers (Mulder is going over the impression with the pencil)"
Byers -- "Actually they can lift perfect impression using magnetic toner and a sheet of mylar an
electrostatic device is applied to the
specimen, and renders the information, by drawing the toner from the indentation to the mylar surface."
Frohike -- "Actually.."
Mulder -- "Actually, it's a phone number,
New York City area code (212), 555 1012. Now don't drop that (giving the pencil to Frohike) that's a finely calibrated piece of
investigative equipment. I gotta make a
phone call."
Frohike -- "
I'll be damned."
WMM -- "Who gave you this number?"
Mulder -- "You probably know. A man named Krycek."
WMM -- "Alex Krycek?"
Mulder -- "Yeah nice guy, killed my father, you wouldn't happen to know where he is, do you?"
Scully -- "Keep looking for him (Cardinal)."
Agent #1-- "We.. pretty much exhausted our avenues."
Scully -- "What's it gonna take?"
Agent #2 -- "At this point? Other than a sign from God?"
Scully -- "I've seen stranger things, believe me."
Man -- "I believe she has."
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