The X-files
Piper Maru (Part 1 of 2)
Episode: 3X15
First aired:2/9/96
Written by: Frank Spotnitz and
Chris Carter
Directed by: Rob Bowman
A great episode!!!!!
Gauthier, a diver on a
French vessel in the
Pacific Ocean, is lowered into the water while his mates talk excitedly about finding the needle in the
haystack. They lose contact with Gauthier, who to his horror sees what looks like a man alive inside a
sunken ship whose
eyes become a murky black. They retrieve Gauthier who says he's fine but away from his mates, we see his eye cloud over with the same silky black
liquid.
Scully and
Skinner talk about her sister, Melissa's death. Skinner says that there have been no leads in the murder that, after five months, the case has been made inactive. Skinner says he will make an appeal on Scully's behalf. Scully is upset pointing out that her sister's muder can't seem to keep anybody interested.
Mulder tells Scully about the French ship, the
Piper Maru, which limped into port in
San Diego. Mulder believes that the ship may have hauled up a
UFO since the entire crew has been treaeted for
radiation burns. He believes that there is something still down there.
Mulder and Scully travel to San Diego, checking the irradiated men, all horribly burned, with the doctor noting that such levels of radiation don't exist in
nature. They are told that one man, Gauthier, was unaffected. The visit the ship, which is now free of radiation. mulder does detect the black oily substance on the dive suit. The ship's video reveals a submerged plane which Scully recognizes as a
WWII fighter.
Joan Gautheir comes home to their apartment to find her
husband acting strangely. She tries to leave but he grabs her. When she does leave, we see the silky
substance in her eyes.
Scully goes to the
Miramar Navy Air Base to see an old family friend, Major Johansen. Seeing children at play reminds her of days with her
sister when their father was in the service. She asks the
Major about the missing plane but he can't remeber anything.
Mulder visits the Gautheir apartment to see paper strewn everywhere and a dazed Gautheir on the floor. He also finds the address for a
salvage broker. Gautheir has the oily substance all over him and no
memory from after the dive.
Mulder visits the broker but the
secretary is uncooperative. He waits outside and sees armed men raid the office once she leaves.
Scully is stopped from leaving the base and Johansen gets in her car confessing that he was ent to find a sunken plane after WWII as a
submarine officer abourd the Zeus Faber. He says the men on the sub died of
radiation sickness until he led a mutiny afainst the captain, who is seen in a flashback to have the same black substance. Only 7 out of 144
crew members survived. He also says that the plane was carrying an
atomic bomb for
Japan. Scully tells the skeptical Mulder this story.
Mulder tracks the woman from the salvage office, who turns to be the salvage broker Kallenchuck, to the airport, and boards a flight for
Hong Kong, as does Joan Gauthier. In Hong Kong, Mulder handcuffs himseld to Kallenchuk, accusing her of selling clasified government secrets. Mulder drags Kallenchuk to her office where an armed
Alex Krycek waits inside.
Krycek, who is supplying the secrets from the
digital tape he acquired at the start of the season, pushes the woman outside while she is still cuffed to Mulder, as gunshots ring out and the cuff goes limp. Krycek escapes through the window, and Mulder grabs the key and gets out just before armed men break into the room. The men
encounter Joan Gauthier who leaves them in a blinding flash of light, horribly
burned.
Skinner is shot at point blank range at a
coffee shop. Scully gets a call that he has been rushed to the
hospital.
Krycek prepares to board a plane for
Washington but Mulder suprises him and shoves him around a litte. Aside from revenge for his father, Mulder wants the digital
tape, which has all the
government information on
UFOs. Krycek says that the tape is in a locker in DC. Mulder allows Krycek to use the bathroom to clean his bloodied face. As Mulder waits outside, Guntheir enters the bathroom and lifts him off the ground. Krycek comes out and Mulder asks if he feels better. Like a new man, he replies, as we see the black substance cover his eyes.
Important Quotes:
Scully -- "You know, it's strange. Men can
blow up buildings, and they can be nowhere near the crime scene but we can piece together the evidence and
convict them beyond a doubt. Our labs here can recreate out of the most
microscopic detail the motivation and circumstance to almost any murder, right down to a killer's attitude towards his mother and that he was a bed wetter. But in a case of a woman, my sister, who was gunned down in
cold blood in a
well-lit apartment building by a shooter who left the weapon at the crime scene, we can't even put together enough to keep anybody interested."
Scully -- "I'm just constantly amazed by you.. you're working down here in the
basement, sifting through files and
transmissions that any other agent would just throw away in the garbage."
Mulder -- "Well that's why I'm in the basement Scully."
Scully -- "You're in the basement because they're afraid of you, of your
relentlessness and because they know that they could drop you in the middle of the
desert, and tell you
the truth is out there, and you would ask them for a
shovel!"
Mulder -- "Is that what you think of me?"
Scully -- "Well, maybe not a shovel. Maybe a
backhoe."
Back to The X-files: Season 3