The X-files
Talitha Cumi
Episode: 3X24
First aired:5/17/96
Written by: Chis Carter
Directed by: R. W. Goodman
The season 3 finale!
A man, Galen, rants in a
fast-food restaurant before rising and pulling a gun. He shouts at the
crowd and an older man steps foward to try and
calm him. Galen shoots a man who tried to leave and is shot himself by the
police. The older man leans over him telling him that he won't die. He touches his wound and it closes.
The
mysterious man has
dissapeared by time
Mulder and
Scully arrive at the scene. Elsewhere, Mulder's mother goes to the family's old summer house in
Rhode Island, where she meets the
Cigarette-Smoking Man who reminices about the good times. He notes that he was a better water skier than
Mr. Mulder, her husband, and says that that is true about a lot of things. Mrs. Mulder says she has repressed it all but
CSM says he needs her to remember something. They argue as a mysterious man takes their pictures from afar.
Skinner calls to inform Mulder that his mother has been taken to the hospital in Rhode Island. She's had a stroke and can't speak but seeing her son, she scribles the word PALM on a note pad.
Mulder and Scully watch the
video tape from the
restaurant which shows the mystery man, who seems to vanish from the picture. The man, who calls himself
Jeremiah Smith, is captured by CSM's henchmen in his office at the Social Security building and put into a cell.
Mulder goes to the summer house, where he is suprised by
X, who says he put in the emergency call that saved his mother's life. He shows Mulder the pictures of her and CSM arguing. X suggests CSM wanted something from her, something very old and
very important.
Jeremiah Smith turns himseld in at the
FBI building, saying he has no memory of healing anyone or leaving the crime scene. Skinner and Scully release him. Mulder searches the beach house and finally sees that PALM spells out LAMP. He finds, after breaking several lamps, a strange stiletto-like
weapon hidden.
CSM questions Smith asking if he realizes the
consequences of his actions. People, he says, believe in authority and science, not miracles. Smith morphs into the likeness of
Deep Throat, wondering how many must die to perserve CSM's stake in the project.
Mulder goes to Skinner demanding to know CSM's name. Skinner insists that those men don't have names and says he can't help him. Mulder and Scully go to see Smith, who bolts and dissapears into the crowd,
morphing into a bearded man.
CSM talks to Smith again, in the cell. Smith now morphs into Mr. Mulder. He tells CSM that he is dying of
lung cancer.
The bearded man morphs into, and turns out to be the
alien bounty hunter that Mulder had met in
Colony/
Endgame. He finds the prison where Smith is being kept and taks his own
stiletto weapon. However, the cell is empty.
Mulder learns his mother may not recover, crying at her bedside. In the hall outside, he sees CSM. Mulder grabs him and pushes a
gun in his face. CSM says that he has known his mother long since Mulder was born and that she sought his out because he may have information regarding the
whereabouts of
Samantha, Mulder's sister. Scully meanwhile checks computer databases and finds multiple Jeremiah Smiths, all whom look exactly alike.
X intercepts Mulder in the parking lot asking him to hand over the weapon. Mulder learns that it is the only way to kill the alien bounty hunter, that a simple gunshot won't do. The
alien needs to be pierced at the base of the neck. X says that people may try to kill Mulder for the weapon. Mulder suggests
colonization.
X strikes Mulder and they
grapple bruatally before going for their guns. Mulder backs away slowly saying X won't find the weapon if he shoots him.
Scully gets home, and Smith comes to her
apartment saying the man she met before was an
imposter sent to kill him and that he has information for Mulder about an elaborate plan, a project, and his sister. Mulder calls Scully saying she's in
danger and to meet him off the interstate. Smith accompanies Scully and tells Mulder that he is at great risk and Mulder wants him to come to see his mother. However, the alien bounty hunter arrives with his own weapon drawn. Smith says that he is here to kill him. Mulder grasps his
stiletto...
Important Quotes:
X -- "You're a
dead man,
Agent Mulder. One way or another."
Mulder -- "I want
The Smoking Man smoked out. I want him exposed for the murderous sonuvabitch that he is."
Smith (to CSM) -- "...And if you can't appease their
conscience you kill them. But you can't kill them all. You can't kill their love.Which is what makes them who they are. Makes them better than us. Better than you."
CSM -- "Anyone who can
appease a man's conscience can take his
freedom from him."
Back to The X-files: Season 3