The X-files
Wetwired
Episode: 3X23
First aired:5/10/96
Written by: Max Beck
Directed by: Rob Bowman
This is a very good episode. One of my favorites.
A man buries a body in a
hole he dug, later killing what appears to be the same man in his
kitchen. The
police arrive and find him putting the body in the trunk. The man sees the police men as the man he just killed and beccome violent. One cop struggles to control him and the other looks in the trunk, where we see his
wife, dead. The man now sees this and starts to scream.
Mulder meets the Plain-Clothed Man in his car, who contacted him annoymously. The man hands him a
newspaper article about the murders saying that more people will die if Mulder doesn't pursue the case. Mulder and
Scully go to a
psychiatric hospital, where the suspect is being held. They learn that he has
murderd five people, thinking he was killing the same man over and over. The also learn that the
baby sitter had engaged in an
unexplained murder in the same
neighborhood, killing the kids she was watching but believing them to be
wolfs.
They check the man's house. Mulder notices a man working on a cable line, and finds hundreds of dated
videotapes of cable news. Separatly, the watch the videos, looking for clues to the man's actions. The videos all contain a lot of
violence and Scully feels that this is what caused his behavior. But Mulder doesn't believe the violence/TV link and not even
Must-See TV could make the man kill five peple, thinking they are the same person.
At night, they are still watching the videos in their own hotel rooms. Scully goes to get ice outside and sees Mulder in a car talking to the
Cigarette-Smoking Man, handing him a tape before driving off. Later, Mulder denies taking the car out except for getting the newspaper.
The next day a woman is doing the
dishes as she watches
TV. She grabs a
riffle after she looks up to see her husband making out with another woman on the
hamock. Investigators find the neighbor dead on his hamock, in the yard next to the woman's house. Mulder and Scully find more tapes in her house. Mulder also sees the same
cable guy, who drives off before he can catch him.
Mulder climbs the
telephone poll and finds an odd looking device. Scully says she can have it analyzed but Mulder keeps it and says he'll do it. This disturbs Scully.
Mulder takes the object to the
Lone Gunmen, who say it's amzingly sophisticated and emitting some sort of signal. Mulder calls Scully, suggesting that someone is running a test of some kind. Scully responds with
paranoia, hanging up after hearing clicks in the phone and searches the room aggresively for listening devices. When she hears a knock on the door, she fires at it, barely missing Mulder who knocks the door down but finds that she has gone out the window.
There is a search going on for Scully. Mulder calls her mother asking her if she has heared from Scully and that she is missing. He tells
Skinner that he believes she is suffering from some sort of
paraniod psychosis. Skinner notes that she is armed and dangerous and that Mulder better find her before the
authorities do.
The Lone Gunmen have analyzed the device, which they deem to have
mind control abilities. Mulder, they ascertain, was probaly
immune because color is a factor and Mulder is
red-green color-blind.
Mulder gets a call from the police saying they have found a body that may be Scully. He goes to the
morgue to
identify the body, but it isn't her and Mulder is very relieved. The inability to reach Scully's mom prompts him to visit her house.
Mrs. Scully is reluctant to let him in but he gets in and Scully, hiding, comes out pointing a
gun at him. She shouts that he never trusted him that he was going to kill her. Mulder replies that she is the only one he trusts. Mrs. Scully calms Scully and Scully is hospitalized, saying she felt the world was out to get her. Mulder replies "now you know how I feel most of the time."
Mulder suggests the
video signal takes people's fears and turns them into dementia, with Scully fearing that Mulder doesn't trust her. They believe that
CSM may be involved. They contact the doctor who had treated the man before. They can not contact him and go to his motel room. They find
cigarette butts in the ash tray, indicating CSM.
Mulder tracks the doctor to a house. Mulder sees the
cable repairman enter, and hearing gunshots, rushes in finding both men dead.
X comes up behind him saying he is too late. Mulder and X argue. Mluder calls him a
coward for working in the shadows, but X tells him that Mulder needs him.
Skinner and Mulder talk and Mulder says that the killer (X) remains unknown. Skinner remains
skeptical. Later, X meets with CSM who asks him if his work is completed. X says that all the personal and
hardware have been removed and Mulder's source eliminated. When CSM asks about the source, X replies that the person remains unknown.
Important Quotes:
Mulder -- "Our
blind date's not off to a great start. I've been waiting here nearly 2 hours."
Scully -- "Mulder, look at this. There must be thousands of videos here."
Mulder -- "Anything good?"
Mulder -- "I just watched 36 hours of
Bernard Shaw and
Bobbi Batista. I'm about ready to kill somebody too."
Mulder -- "Studies have also shown a causal connection between cow flatulence and the
depletion of the ozone layer."
Mulder -- "All I know is
television does not make a previously
sane man go out and kill five people thinking they're all the same guy. Not even
Must-See TV can do that to you."
Scully -- "It's not the truth, Mom. He's lied to me from the
beginning. He's never trusted me."
Mulder -- "Scully, you are the only one I
trust."
Scully -- "You're in on it. You're one of them. You're one of the people who
abducted me. You put that thing in my neck. You killed my sister!"
Scully -- "...Everybody was out to get me."
Mulder -- "Now you know how I feel most of the time."
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