X-FILES, THE: REDUX II (TV)

Summary

One in this series of science fiction dramas about FBI agents Mulder and Scully and their investigations into "unsolvable" cases involving paranormal phenomena. Continued from B:55208. Scully is in the ICU, dying of her cancer. When Mulder tries to visit her, he gets into an angry confrontation with Skinner and is dragged away from seeing Scully. At FBI headquarters, Mulder is brought before Blevins to explain himself. They want to find out why Scully lied but Mulder refuses to answer and leaves. Outside, Skinner offers his alliance to Mulder, saying he withheld the forensics evidence on Ostelhoff to avoid implicating Mulder. Mulder reveals to Skinner that someone at the FBI is responsible for Scully having cancer. The Cigarette Smoking Man meets with the Elder about Mulder. He says he allowed Mulder to escape the Department of Defense because he believes Mulder can still serve a purpose for them. Mulder visits Scully in the hospital, now out of the ICU. He claims he’ll reveal the entire conspiracy in front of the FBI committee. Scully warns him about Skinner but Mulder says he’s going through with his plan anyway. She asks him to lay the blame for Ostelhoff’s death on her; Mulder is reluctant to do so. Scully’s mother and her brother Bill arrive; Bill has a visible distaste for Mulder. Meanwhile, a man working for the Elder ascends a tower, carrying a sniper rifle. At the hospital, Mulder encounters the Cigarette Smoking Man, who claims that what Mulder found at the Department of Defense could save Scully’s life. Mulder calls in the Lone Gunmen to help him inspect it: a microchip similar to the one removed from Scully after her abduction. Mulder notes that its removal roughly coincided with her cancer diagnosis. Kritshgau is called before Skinner and Blevins as part of the hearings. He testifies that Mulder and Scully have no connection to Ostelhoff’s murder and adds that his son passed away earlier that morning. He admits to receiving funding from a lobbying group called “Roush,” which Skinner seems interested in. Mulder brings the microchip to Scully, whose brother is opposed to using it. However, Scully wants to try to implant the chip. Bill Scully has a confrontation with Mulder. He believes that Mulder’s lifelong search for the truth is largely to blame for Scully’s current predicament. Mulder sympathizes, having lost his own sister when he was younger. Mulder receives a call from the Cigarette Smoking Man asking to meet with him. Mulder meets the Cigarette Smoking Man at a diner, accompanied, much to his shock, by a woman who appears to be his long-lost sister Samantha. However, Samantha refers to the Cigarette Smoking Man as her father, confusing Mulder. Samantha explains that when she was a child, her foster parents introduced the Cigarette Smoking Man as her real father and he raised her ever since. Her memories are fragmented and she barely remembers the night of her abduction. Mulder offers to take her to see her mother, whom she believed had died. However, Samantha is frightened, saying she has her own life and family, and she leaves with the Cigarette Smoking Man. The next day, Mulder meets again with the Cigarette Smoking Man. Both men are watched by the Elders’ sniper. The Cigarette Smoking Man wants to reveal the entire truth to Mulder, saying that Mulder has only a fragment of it. In exchange, he wants Mulder to quit the FBI and work for him. Mulder refuses and walks away; the sniper does not take any shots. Meanwhile, Scully’s mother comes to visit her in the hospital. Scully believes she is losing her faith and that she cannot beat her cancer; her mother tries to comfort her. The Elder sees Skinner in the background of a senate subcommittee meeting on television and makes a call to eliminate the “FBI problem.” At night, Mulder visits Scully, asleep. He cries at her bedside. Blevins calls Mulder into his office the next day; he has the forensic information Skinner was withholding. He tries to make a deal with Mulder to exonerate him if he testifies against Skinner at his hearing. Mulder visits Scully again, saying he’s not taking Blevins’s deal. He is unwilling to place the blame for Ostelhoff’s death on Scully, because he doesn’t want to cause more problems for her family and because he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he did. The hearing commences and Mulder offers his testimony: he tells them that he believes Scully was originally partnered with him in order to spy on him, but chose not to. He says that he asked Scully to lie to them because of the implications of the government conspiracy. Mulder offers the name of the person he believes was responsible for both Scully’s cancer and the surveillance of Mulder’s apartment: Blevins himself. Elsewhere, the Elder’s sniper shoots the Cigarette Smoking Man through his window. Panicked Blevins runs into his office, where he is promptly assassinated by another member of the committee; the scene is altered to appear as if it were a suicide. That night, Mulder is at the hospital and is approached by Skinner, who reports that the Cigarette Smoking Man is dead. He gives him an object found at the scene: a photograph, apparently of Mulder and Samantha as children. He also says that they found a great deal of blood at the scene, but no body. Skinner asks Mulder how he knew Blevins was the culprit and Mulder replies that he “just guessed.” Skinner finds out that Blevins had also received money from Roush, something he wants to investigate further. Mulder tells him that Scully’s cancer has gone into remission. The episode ends as Mulder inspects the photograph and cries. Commercials deleted.

Details

• NETWORK: FOX
• DATE: November 9, 1997 9:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 0:46:36
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: B:55208
• GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
• SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
• SERIES RUN: Fox - TV series, 1993-2002; 2016-
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• R. W. Goodwin … Executive Producer
• Chris Carter … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
• Frank Spotnitz … Co-Executive Producer
• Vince Gilligan … Supervising Producer
• Paul Rabwin … Producer
• Joseph Patrick Finn … Producer
• Kim Manners … Producer, Director
• Lori Jo Nemhauser … Co-Producer
• John Shiban … Co-Producer
• Ken Horton … Consulting Producer
• Mark Snow … Music by
• David Duchovny … Cast, Agent Fox Mulder
• Gillian Anderson … Cast, Agent Dana Scully
• Mitch Pileggi … Cast, Walter Skinner
• William B. Davis … Cast, Cigarette Smoking Man
• Charles Cioffi … Cast, Scott Blevins
• Sheila Larken … Cast, Margaret Scully
• Pat Skipper … Cast, Bill Scully, Jr.
• Megan Leitch … Cast, Samantha Mulder
• Tom Braidwood … Cast, Melvin Frohike
• Dean Haglund … Cast, Richard Langly
• Bruce Harwood … Cast, John Fitzgerald Byers
• John Finn … Cast, Michael Kritschgau
• Robert Wright … Cast, Dr. Zuckerman
• Ken Camroux … Cast, Senior Agent
• Don S. Williams … Cast, Elder
• Arnie Walters … Cast, Father McCue
• Brent Sheppard … Cast, Doctor