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Episode: 4X04
First aired:10/18/96
Written by: Howard Gordon
Directed by: Jim Gross
A very interesting episode.
A black man on an
airplane enters the bathroom. He screams as a very pale man attacks him, and the door switches to occupied from free (in
French). The plane is about to land and the
stewardess goes to find the missing man, who needs to be in his seat. Inside, the pale man is now dark. He goes to sit down. The stewardess asks the man inside the bathroom to take his seat and when she opens the door she sees the man on the floor
very pale and dead.
Scully meets with
Skinner and Doctor Bruin from the
Centers for Disease Control. They discuss a series of kidnappings of
African American men in Philidelphia. They have found one body, but no clear cause of death, which is why they want to talk to Scully. Bruin shows Scully a photo of the man, who appears white. Scully says that she thought Bruin said the man was black and Bruin says he is. Bruin believes that the man was affected with some sort of
disease.
Scully examines the man. Mulder finds Scully and she updates him on the situation. Scully tells Mulder that she has been asked to help determine what kind of disease would have done something like this. Mulder believes that it was a crime.
The young
black man, Mr. Aboah from the airplane is in his apartment. We see white
splotches on his back. His
immigration counselor arrives to meet with him. Aboah looks wierd and the counselor asks if he is sick but they continue with the papers.
Mulder asks
Agent Pendrell for help in analyzing the evidence. Pendrell has found a
seed. The plant has been determined as Adenia Volkensii, a rare species of passionflower that bloos only in certain parts of West Africa. Later, Mulder tells Scully what they found. The seed contains a
cerebropathic glycoside, a cortical depressant that works on the higher centers of the brain. But this was only found in the seed, not in the man's
blood stream. Scully has found why the man lost his color, his
pituitary gland, controls the production of
melanin in the skin cells, was
necrotized.
Mulder goes to see
Marita Covarrubias. She says she does not know anything and doesn't want to get involved, but Mulder is persistant.
A young black man is waiting for the
bus. He is hit in the neck by a dart and his vision starts to blur. The bus stops and the bus driver opens the door. The man can only sit on the bench and can not speak. After a moment, the driver leaves and the man sees Aboah, with white splotches on his face, approach him.
Mulder and Scully talk to the driver who says he didn't notice anything except the man looked sick. Mulder believes the cases are connected.
Inside Aboah's apartment, the young man is on a chair, still frozen. The police come to the door to ask him if he has seen the man but Aboah says no. After closing the door, Aboah
approaches the man and pulls a long object out of his mouth and throat.
Mulder and Scully go to talk to the immigration counselor and tell him they are
investigation a health crisis. Later, Mulder and Scully look at Aboah's
apartment. They see Aboah approaching his apartment and run after him. Aboah runs down an alley and Mulder and Scully loose him. Mulder walks over to a small drain opening in the wall near the floor. Inside he sees Aboah's head, upside down. Aboah is
breathing heavily.
Aboah is entering a MRI scan. Scully and other doctors are unsure of what to do. The immigration
counselor comes and demands Aboah's release. Mulder and Scully want him to help the talk to Aboah. However, the man is angry at Aboah's detainment. Mulder leaves.
Mulder meets with a
minister from the part of
Africa where the seed was found. Mulder says that the minister knew about the seed but is concealing evidence. The minister says Mulder wouldn't believe him if he told him. The minister starts to tell Mulder about Teliko, air spirits, that are part of children's stories from his home in Africa. While he tells the story, we see an orderly at the hospital look for Aboah, who is not in his room. The minister says that the spirits can hide in very small places and he once saw them and they killed his
cousin. We see the orderly wheel out a cart and, in the bottom drawer, we see Aboah's eyes peak out.
Scully looks at some
x-rays, which show Aboah to have some sort of long object in his throat. Also, that Aboah has no pituary gland. Mulder enters and says that Aboah is gone.
Aboah, outside, approaches the counselor, who is concerned. The man offers Aboah a ride home and we see Aboah holding the thing in his throat behind his back.
In an alley, Aboah inserts the long object into the man's nose, but is interupted by
the police, who find the man. Aboah has run into the building. Mulder and Scully arrive at the scene. The man is still alive. Mulder believes that Aboah, since he doesn't have a pituary gland, is taking the hormones from his
victims.
The enter the building and split up. Mulder climbs up a
ladder and is hit by a thorn. He calls out to Scully as his vision gets blury and then is knocked out. Scully comes running unsure of where he is. She sees his dropped
flashlight in the air duct and climbs around. She sees a dead body and then sees Mulder, who is still alive but really out of it. Scully shoots at Aboah's shadow and starts to drag Mulder. She finds an exit and gets Mulder down. There are two other bodies in the courtyard. Scully calls the police, requesting
back up. Mulder sees Aboah in the duct behind them but is unable to speak. He looks at Scully then behind her, back and forth. Finally, Scully notices and turns around just as Aboah has jumped down and shoots him.
Important Quotes:
Mulder -- "Hey, Scully. I heard you were down here
slicing and dicing, who's the lucky stiff?"
Mulder -- "There is a
Micheal Jackson joke in here somewhere, but I can't quite find it."
Scully -- "Mulder, not everything is
a laberinth of dark conspiracy, and not everybody is planning to
decieve, inviegle, and obfuscate."
Mulder -- "
Agent Pendrell, thanks for returning this material analysis in such short notice."
Pendrell -- "Shouldn't we wait for agent Scully, just so I won't have to repeat myself?"
Mulder -- "She's not coming."
Pendrell -- "Why not?"
Mulder -- "She had a
date ... Breath Agent Pendrell, with a dead man. She's doing an
autopsy."
Scully -- " Well even if you're right, I mean, especially if you're right. Why would he leave his own country to come here?"
Mulder -- "
Free cable."
Scully -- " ...But what
science may never be able to explain is our ineffable fear of the alien among us. A fear which often drives us not to search for
understanding - but to decieve, inviegle, and obfuscate. To
obscure the truth not only from others, but from ourselves."
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