The X-files
Dod Kalm
Episode: 2X19
First aired:03/10/95
Written by: Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa
Directed by: Rob Bowman
Very cool episode!
Soldies abandon a U.S.
Navy destroyer afraid of something that was happening to other men on board. 18 hours later they are found in a lifeboat apparently aged.
Mulder explains to
Scully that the destroyer had been missing for 42 hours and the survivors have been the only ones found. However, only one
survivor is still alive, Lt. Richard Harper. Scully sees that the Lt. is supposed to be 28 but looks 90.
Mulder tells her that many ships have disappeared in 1949 and 1963 in the same area along the 65th
parallel. He desbribes his idea as a wrinkle in time. He cites the
Philidelphia Project, a secret project trying to manipulate
wormholes on
Earth and that the military probally never stopped working on it.
Mulder and Scully leave for
Norway. They talk to a
captain, Trondheim, who takes them to the destroyer. They find the
vessel in a state of
corrosion as if 20 or 30 years had passed but they see a sign that labels the boat new as of 1991.
They find bodies that look like they had been
mumified. Trondheim's mate takes the boat and leaves him, his
right hand mate, Mulder, and Scully on the boat.
The
engine and
radio both have been corroded. Mulder believes that they are seeing the speeding up of time resulting from the
military experiments. They hear a yell and find the other soldier dead with a
fractured skull. Mulder finds a very old man hiding. It is the captain of the ship, Barclay. However, Barclay, although only 35 years old, is so feeble that they believe that he could not have killed the soldier. They capture a man who is about to kill Trondheim. They see that he hasn't aged a bit. Trondheim recognizes the man as Olaffson, a
whaling pirate. Later they learn from Scully that Barclay is dead.
Mulder, Scully, and Trondheim tie Olaffson so they can take a rest. They awaken 30 years older.
Scully believes that the process may be related to
free radicals --
reactive chemicals containing extra
electrons that attack
DNA and
protiens, causing the body to age. She thinks the ship may be drifting toward a
meteor at the ocean's floor that is acting like a giant
battery that is causing them to age rapidly.
They soon find out that the problem is a
contamination of the water and that the only safe water is in the
sewage system, and is what is keeping Olaffson alive. Scully realizes that they all have high concentrations of
salt in their systems and Mulder is the worst off as he had been seasick and thus
dehydrated.
Trondheim does not want to help Mulder and locks himself in with the remaining good water. However, his drowns when the ship's hull collapses slightly.
Scully races around the ship trying to find any source of
liquid and combines it all in a jar (it includes water from a
snow globe and
anchovie juice). She implores Mulder to drink it but he insists she does as she is a woman and retains water more therfore is more likely to
survive. However, with the same collapse of the hull, the jar crashes on the floor.
Mulder loses
consciousness and Scully writes everything down in her notebook. She awakens in a hospital,
Navey SEALs having found them. The doctor tells her that they were able to save them thanks to her notes.
Important Quotes:
Scully -- "Feeling any better?"
Mulder -- "Uhhh ... You're lucky you inherited your father's legs."
Scully -- "What?"
Mulder -- "His
sea legs."
Scully -- "Oh."
Trondheim -- "The water isn't helping him."
Scully -- "Then maybe we should double his
rations."
Trondheim -- "What for? A lake full of water isn't going to bring him back."
Scully -- "We don't know that for sure. Not yet."
Trondheim -- "Look at him! We've
wasted too much water on him as it is."
Scully -- "Who are you to decide?"
Trondheim -- "You don't have to be a doctor to see that he isn't gonna make it. But you and me, Scully ... you and me ...
we better start looking out for ourselves."
Scully -- "Trondheim's locked himself in the sewage hold. He's
backflushed all the water and he's keeping it for himself. I
looked everywhere and this is all I could find. (she places a capped
jar half full of
yellowish liquid on the table) It's
sardine juice, half a dozen
lemons and uh, the water from a snow globe. (Mulder licks his lips) It's not Evian, but ..."
Mulder -- "You go ahead and drink it."
Scully -- "No, Mulder!"
Mulder -- "It's the only logical choice, Scully. You're a woman. Your
life expectancy is greater, and your body retains more
water in
fatty tissues."
Scully -- "That's more reason for you to drink it."
Mulder -- "You have a much greater chance of surviving until help comes."
Scully -- "Don't do this, Mulder."
Mulder -- "Don't be so
stubborn, Scully. You know I'm right."
Scully -- "Well, there isn't much liquid to make a difference anyway."
Mulder -- "There might be."
Mulder -- "I always thought when I got older I'd maybe take a
cruise somewhere. This isn't exactly what I had in mind. The
service on this ship is terrible, Scully. It's not fair. It's not our time. We still have work to do."
Scully -- "Mulder ... When they found me, after the doctors and even my family had given up, I experienced something that I
never told you about. Even now it's hard to find the words. But there's one thing I'm certain of. As certain as I am of this life,
we have nothing to fear when it's over."
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