The X-files

731 (Part 2 of 2)
Episode: 3X10
First aired:12/1/95
Written by: Fank Spotnitz
Directed by: Rob Bowman

From the previous epiosde, Nisei:
Mulder has boarded a train he believes to be carrying an alien life form. He has lost contact with Scully who is investigating an alien autopsy and her finding out more about her own abduction.


Troops push many stange looking humanoid creatures to a site labled Hansen's Disease Research Facility. One of the creatures watches as others are gunned down in front of a mass grave.

While Mulder clings to the top of the train, Scully questions X angrily asking how she can help Mulder. X tells her that if she wants to find out more about the train and who killed her sister to find out what they put in the back of her neck.

Mulder makes it into the train. He tells the conductor that he is looking for access to the compartment of the Japanese scientist he's pursuing, Dr. Zama. He finds the compartment empty except for some meticulous journals written in Japanese.

Scully talks to Agent Pendrall, who has helped her last episode. He says the chip that was found inside her seems to replicate the brain's memory function and duplicate mental processes and that one could know a person's every thought. Scully thinks that the chip is Japanese and Pendrall has traced a shipment from the maker to Dr. Zama at a disease research facitliy in West Virginia.

The Red-Haired Man kills Dr. Zama in the lavatory and Mulder later finds the body. Mulder warns and arms the conductor as he leaves to look for the killer. Scully goes to the facility and finds the deformed creatures in the darkness. They ask her not to hurt them and saying that death squads have been coming since the medical staff left, killing hundreds of them. They're lepers. One man brings Scully to the mass grave. Helicopters come and soldiers arrive, capturing Scully.

Mulder goes to the end of the train to find the quarantine car. He peers through the pinhole and sees an alien-looking form in the darkness. He is attacked by the Red-Haired Man. The conductor arrives and locks them in. Mulder pulls his own gun. The attacker says he is with the National Security Agency and there's a bomb on the train.

At the facility, Scully is met by the First Elder, a member of the Syndicate, who says the creatures were victims of an inhuman project. On the train, the Red-Haird Man's cellphone rings and it's for Mulder. It's Scully calling him with the First Elder. She tells him that whatever is on the train is not alien. She tells him about Zama and his experiments and that the abduction is just a smokescrean.

Mulder finds the bomb, which has just over 100 minutes till it explodes. Scully tells him that thousands will die if it does. Mulder tells the conductor to reroute the train to a place far away from a populated area where they unhook the car.

The Red-Haired Man says that the creature is a weapon. Mulder surmises that Zama came up with an immunity to biological weapons, the government didn't want to share the science and thre creature is an alien-human hybrid.

Scully tries to contact Senetor Matheson but contacts X. She calls Mulder with just over 6 mins left. From watching a video, she has figured out the code to the door, which Mulder punches in. As the door opens, The Red-Haired Man attacks Mulder who is knocked unconscious. He exits but is shot by X. X carries a bloodied Mulder over his shoulder to saftey as the car and its contents explode.

A week later, Mulder is trying to get information about the car and Senator Matheson wont return his calls. Fustrated, he tells Scully that they are getting away with it. Scully says that they have gotten away with it and that apolgy has become policy. Elsewhere, we see the Cigarette-Smoking Man watching over the translation of Zama's journals.


Important Quotes:
X -- "You want to know what's on that train? Who killed your sister? You find out what they put in your neck."
Scully -- "The implant."
X -- "It holds more than I could ever tell you. Maybe everything you need to know."

Mulder -- "Why did I study French in high school?"

Scully --"Well done, Agent Pendrell. Keep up the good work."
Pendrell -- "Hey, thanks. Keep it up yourself." Scully leaves. ""Keep it up yourself." What a doof."

1st Elder -- "The ruler of the world is no longer the country with the bravest soldiers, but the greatest scientists."

Scully -- "Mulder, I'm standing in a train car just like the one in your alien autopsy video... only I realize that I've been here before."
Mulder -- "What are you talking about, Scully?"
Scully -- "This is where they brought me, Mulder. This is where they put the implant in my neck, in one of these cars."
Mulder -- "Scully..."
Scully -- "It all makes sense, Mulder. Ishimaru Zama, he was using the secret railroad...to conduct his tests across the country. The women in Allentown, they all remember these cars."

Red-Haired Man -- "You're going to die, you know that?"
Mulder -- "What do you care? You were trying to kill me anyway."

Mulder -- "Scully, let me tell you, you haven't seen America till you've seen it from a train."
Scully -- "Damn it, Mulder, what happened?"

Mulder -- "They're getting away with it, Scully."
Scully -- "They've gotten away with it, Mulder."




Back to The X-files: Season 3

731 is also the unit number of a bio-chemical research station stationed in Harbin, China.

This Unit 731 was established by the Japanese forces that occupied Chinese Manchuria during World War II. It was the site of many atrocities as the Japanese conducted numerous "experiments" on the hapless prisoners of war shipped from all over their Pacific Emipre.

The Japanese experimented on the airborne release of smallpox over the neighboring towns, studied the spread of deadly diseases by spreading germ-infected candies and treats to the children of Harbin. When Unit 731 was being built, it was to be planned the most technologically advanced medical research center and therefore sported pressure chambersto experiment on biological responces to pressure change, gigantic freezers in which humans could be frozen to study effects of frostbite, and large "bomb chambers" where live humans could be literally blown apart to study the effects of shapenel on a human body. These Japanese experiments can pale those of the infamous Nazi Doctors that have been so widely publicized.

Yet, most citizens of America dont know about the atrocities of Harbin, probably because the U.S. government signed a clandestine pact with the Japanese and traded the study documents in return for the doctors' exemption from war crimes. Even now, the Japanese government in an attempt to save face, does not acknowledge that the atrocities at Harbin ever took place. Although Unit 731 is forever stained into the Asian mind, it has yet to recieve worldwide recognition.

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