The characters, plotlines, quotes, etc. included here are owned by
Chris Carter and 1013 Productions, all rights reserved. The following
transcript is in no way a substitute for the show "The X-Files" and is
merely meant as a homage. This transcript is not authorized or
endorsed by Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, or Fox Entertainment.
It was painstakingly typed out by CarriKendl <CarriKendl@aol.com>
and made available for your downloading enjoyment by moi,
Tiny Dancer <tinyd@idirect.com> from my website,
Tiny Dancer's X-Files Episode Guide
<http://www.insanity.com.au/td/>.
Enjoy.
-------------------------------------
8x04 Patience (8xAB02)
US Airdate: November 19, 2000
Writer: Chris Carter
Director: Chris Carter
Doggett: So, where do we get started?
Disclaimer: The X-Files and all its characters and episodes are owned
by FOX, Chris Carter, and 10-13 productions. This transcript was made
without their permission and it is absolutely forbidden to use it for
commercial gain. Please let me know if you catch any inaccuracies.
If you would like to use this transcript on your site, please let me know so
I can visit them! I do ask that the transcript and all names and disclaimers
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Special thanks to Tiny Dancer (now at fandom.com) who started the first
transcript page and is the reason I do this. Thanks, CarriKendl@aol.com
CarriK
www.inimation.com/xfilesgame
<TEASER>
BURLEY, IDAHO
3:08 AM
(Dark and stormy night. Creepy music. An older (1950s?) style car,
looks like a hearse, pulls up in front of an even older spooky old rural
house with a weathervane in the shape of a bat, pointed west. An even
older (late 60's) dour-looking gentleman, TALL GEORGE, gets out of the car.
He is dressed in a suit. Sound of thunder. He goes up the porch steps
and enters the house. Sound of creaking steps as he makes his way
through the dark house.)
QUICK CUT TO:
(Upstairs: an ELDERLY WOMAN in bed hears the creaking and wakes up
suddenly. She gasps for breath.)
ELDERLY WOMAN: Land sakes, George, what are you trying to do?
(He opens the bedroom door.)
TALL GEORGE: (very deep voice) I was trying to be quiet.
ELDERLY WOMAN: Quiet? I smelled you on the stairs. 39 years, I'm
still surprised that embalming fluid of yours doesn't wake the dead.
TALL GEORGE: (morbidly) Didn't wake old Zeke McPherson tonight,
God rest his soul.
ELDERLY WOMAN: Well, you go outside and take those clothes of yours
off so I can rest mine.
(He smiles and pauses.)
ELDERLY WOMAN: George!
TALL GEORGE: (resigned) I'm going, Tahoma, I'm going.
(Reluctantly, TALL GEORGE goes back downstairs and out onto the porch.
He begins removing his suit. Just as he drops his trousers, he notices
something above him.)
TALL GEORGE: What the hell? What the hell is that?
(Thunder crashes and a flash of lightening illuminates a figure hanging from
the porch rafters. The eyes of the human-like, bat-like creature open. TALL
GEORGE steps back in horror, but is tripped up by the pants around his
ankles. The BAT THING flies at him and he begins screaming.)
CUT TO:
(TAHOMA, GEORGE's wife in bed. She hears the sounds and gets out of
bed and goes out to the porch to investigate.)
TAHOMA: George?
(Sounds of the BAT THING growling and feeding. She recoils in horror
at the sight of the BAT THING's bloody feast. She screams as it turns
and attacks her. On the roof, the weathervane swings in the wind. One
of the eyes on the weathervane's bat glows red.)
Opening Credits
Mulder ... Oh, what the ... uh ... guess he's not here tonight.
Scully rocks. And gets top billing.
Doggett ... is here too.
ACCCKKKKK!!! Shots of Scully and Doggett investigating something.
[TD: With honkin' big flashlights, can't forget the flashlights!]
Then the fetus and Mulder falling into Scully's eyeball.
[CarriK closes her eyes and keeps repeating, "It will be okay. It will be
okay. Mulder loves Scully and Scully loves Mulder." CarriK's Husband
laughs at her unmercifully.]
<SCENE 1>
(X-Files office. Sad music. SCULLY is alone. She picks up and holds
MULDER's desk nameplate thoughtfully. Just as she is about to put it
away in the middle desk drawer, she hears male voices cheerfully making
their way down the hall.)
MALE AGENT 1: (voice) So, this is where the bad kids are banished to.
MALE AGENT 2: (voice) Put me down here I'd probably cook up a lot of
crazy ideas, too.
(Sound of the men laughing. They come around the corner into the doorway,
DOGGETT leading. They stop when they see SCULLY. Uncomfortable pause.
[CarriK: No nameplate at all on the door.] DOGGETT is holding a cup of
coffee. He wasn't expecting to see her.)
SCULLY: Good morning.
DOGGETT: Morning. (to the men) Um... I'll catch you guys later.
(The other two leave silently. DOGGETT joins SCULLY in the office.)
DOGGETT: Some friends... they're just curious.
SCULLY: I'm not here to be a curiosity, Agent Doggett. I'm here to work.
DOGGETT: I am, too, Agent Scully. I've been here all weekend and
early this morning I went over every X-File in the cabinet there. Just left
to get some coffee.
(He holds up his Styrofoam cup. SCULLY blinks, perhaps a little surprised.)
SCULLY: Well... do you have any questions?
DOGGETT: (understatement) Just a few. (he laughs) Maybe first
you could tell me where your area is here and ... uh .... where mine's
going to be.
SCULLY: This is my partner's office, Agent Doggett. You and I will
just be using it for a while.
(Pause while she sets MULDER's nameplate down firmly on the desk.
DOGGETT gets the message.)
DOGGETT: So, where do we get started?
(SCULLY starts the slide projector. DOGGETT turns out the overhead light.
Blocking-wise, the rest of the scene plays identical to the office scene in
The Pilot 1x79, except this time, SCULLY is running the projector. First
slide is probably of TALL GEORGE. We can't see it.)
SCULLY: Homicides: Two ... in Idaho. White male, 62, undertaker by
profession, he was killed on his front porch about ten feet away from his
wife.
(She advances the projector to the next slide.)
DOGGETT: Holy God.
(It is a close-up of TALL GEORGE's face and neck, torn and bloody.
DOGGETT winces as he examines it.)
SCULLY: Cause of death was blood loss from numerous deep wounds ...
from bites. Any thoughts, any questions?
(DOGGETT walks closer to the image.)
DOGGETT: "Bites"?
SCULLY: On his head, torso and hands. Two of his fingers are missing...
eaten off.
(SCULLY seems to enjoy "testing" DOGGETT.)
DOGGETT: By what, an animal?
SCULLY: These were murders. The, uh, bites on his wife appear to
be human.
(She advances to the slide of the dead woman.)
DOGGETT: (disturbed) I've seen some violent crimes, I mean,
some seriously screwed up stuff, but, uh... this is extreme. Is there
demonstration of motive?
SCULLY: Not according to local P.D.
DOGGETT: Is there any pattern, uh ... ritual or anything?
(SCULLY shakes her head.)
DOGGETT: I have to admit, Agent Scully, I'm at a loss.
SCULLY: Well, that's a good place to start.
<SCENE 2>
BURLEY, IDAHO
11:18 AM
(TALL GEORGE's house. Hearse is still in the driveway. Full crime
investigation underway. SCULLY and DOGGETT [DOGGETT driving]
pull up in their blue Idaho rental car and get out. They are met by the
Detective in charge. DETECTIVE YALE ABBOTT is a large red-haired
man, reminds CarriK of John Goodman.)
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: You the folks from the FBI?
SCULLY: Yeah.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: Yale Abbott, Cassia County Sheriff's.
SCULLY: Hi. Agent Scully. This is Agent Doggett.
(DETECTIVE ABBOTT shakes SCULLY's hand politely, then turns his back
on her, focusing all of his attention on the manly man, DOGGETT. If it were
MULDER with her, this would not seem odd. SCULLY shifts uncomfortably,
and looks around his shoulder.)
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: We like to think we can handle our own problems
around here but a couple hotshots up in the county seat seem to think this
is beyond us. Not that we don't appreciate your coming out all this way to
give us a hand.
DOGGETT: Well, I hope we can. I have to admit I'm a little baffled by
what I've seen.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: Oh, really?
SCULLY: Understand, Detective, that we've seen cases like yours
regularly on our unit. Agent Doggett has only just been assigned to
the X-Files.
(DETECTIVE ABBOTT turns to her, his attitude condescendingly polite.)
SCULLY: I can assure you that there's nothing baffling about human
bite marks.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: Well, that's just what I was getting around to,
ma'am. We're not so sure now that these bites are human.
(He leads them up to the porch.)
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: The bodies were discovered by neighbors,
so there was contamination of the general crime scene. My boys did
a real damn good job of separating the various shoe prints and pulling
these. Come on over.
(He shows them a dusted animal-like footprint with four toes.)
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: Right there, see that?
DOGGETT: What is it?
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: It's not human, I know that.
SCULLY: It's not quite animal, either.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: There's only four toes.
SCULLY: That's not an unheard of birth defect. Uh, no more rare than
polydactylism.
(Both men look at her, then at each other. [CarriK: She's not with Mulder
anymore!] )
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: What did she just say?
DOGGETT: I assume she means it could be human.
(DOGGETT looks to SCULLY.)
DOGGETT: Is that a fair assumption?
(SCULLY stands, as do the men. She is irritated.)
SCULLY: I say that assumption is the problem here. A strange print
is found and immediately the most important piece of evidence is just
thrown out to try and force an explanation. Maybe this print can help
explain those bite marks.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: How?
SCULLY: I'm not quite sure yet.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: (sarcastically to DOGGETT) She's not quite
sure yet.
(DOGGETT doesn't like DETECTIVE ABBOTT's tone, but is reluctant to
defend SCULLY too strongly.)
DOGGETT: Well, I have to say I've worked a lot of homicides but if
the victims laid out here for any time at all in a setting like this, it'd be
pretty remarkable if they didn't attract animals.
(Pause.)
SCULLY: (quietly frustrated) I think that postmortem predation is
definitely a consideration here, but I only see one print and if it were an
animal there would be numerous prints all over here and in the yard.
(They turn to the deputies and technicians standing in the yard. Sheepishly,
the DEPUTIES look down at their feet and begin carefully stepping aside,
searching for any clues they may have inadvertently contaminated.)
SCULLY: You agree, Agent Doggett?
DOGGETT: I'm going to go take a look around.
(DOGGETT goes into the house. While DETECTIVE ABBOTT speaks,
SCULLY looks up at the porch rafters. One of the beams is deeply
scored as if by large claws.)
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: You know I got two old folks in the morgue
mauled beyond recognition. I have no motive to go on, no intent. There's
not one shred of evidence that cries out for a human explanation, yet
you stand there telling me flat out that what we're looking for is a man.
Thanks for everything, Agent Scully. We'll take it from here.
(He starts to leave.)
SCULLY: I'm sure your explanation will mollify all those hotshots down
at the county seat, Detective, and relieve any general anxiety about what
this thing might be ... but only until it strikes again. And one more thing:
I never said that what you're looking for is a man.
(He leaves. DOGGETT calls to SCULLY from inside the house.)
DOGGETT: Agent Scully.
(She joins him at the foot of the stairs.)
DOGGETT: Is that a second print?
(On the bottom step is another footprint like the one on the porch.)
SCULLY: It could be but I'm not sure if it tells us anything.
DOGGETT: Well, maybe there's no prints in the yard because whatever
made these didn't go through the yard. It came through the house.
SCULLY: Well, if anything, I'd say this print leads up the stairs.
(DOGGETT goes upstairs and looks under the bed.)
DOGGETT: Think I've got another partial here.
(Really interesting shot from under the bed of DOGGETT crouching and
SCULLY from the knees down as she steps beside him.)
[TD: In other words, DOGGETT appears to be begging at SCULLY's feet,
or is that just me? Good to see he's adjusting to his new role so quickly ;-)
DOGGETT: You know, there is a more obvious explanation.
SCULLY: Mm-hmm.
DOGGETT: The more basic answer is what we're dealing with here is
simply a man. A psychotic killer with a deformed foot. You're familiar with
the principle of Occam's Razor?
SCULLY: Yeah. You take every possible explanation and you choose
the simplest one. Agent Mulder used to refer to it as "Occam's Principle
of Limited Imagination."
[CarriK: Doggett looks like he has heard enough about "Agent Mulder"
to last him a lifetime.]
SCULLY: Unless you have a simple explanation as to how a killer with
a deformed foot leaves a print only every 25 feet.
DOGGETT: No.
SCULLY: Or to what he'd even be doing up here.
DOGGETT: I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out just like you are.
(DOGGETT tries to open the bedroom window. It is painted shut.
SCULLY goes into the small closet. All dark suits and white shirts.
She looks up.)
SCULLY: (softly) Agent Doggett.
(He joins her in the closet. They both look up at the open hatch to the
attic. Creepy music. DOGGETT gets a chair. SCULLY stands on it,
then he boosts her up into the attic.)
SCULLY: It's dark up here.
DOGGETT: (in a loud whisper) What do you see? Agent Scully?
(DOGGETT stands under the hatch making no move to join her in the
dark attic. He looks a little nervous. Very funny.)
SCULLY: Right now, not a heck of a lot.
(DOGGETT hauls his manly self up into the attic with her. SCULLY is
looking at a partially shaded window. She tries to open the shade, but
it doesn't cooperate.)
SCULLY: If there was anything up here it might have gone out that window.
(DOGGETT pulls a small maglight out of his pocket and turns it on.)
DOGGETT: You ever carry one of these?
SCULLY: (pause, dryly) Never.
(They both begin looking around the attic. DOGGETT spots two mutilated
fingers on an old table. They are slimy, bloody, and in the shape of a vee.)
DOGGETT: "V" for victory.
[TD: Groan! At least that Mulder fella had better jokes.]
SCULLY: What?
DOGGETT: You said the male victim was missing two fingers?
Well, how did the fingers get up here?
(SCULLY looks at the fingers and reacts to the smell.)
SCULLY: Well, from their smell, I'd say they were regurgitated.
Recently.
DOGGETT: By what?
(SCULLY looks up at the attic rafters and sees some deep gouges in
the wood.)
SCULLY: I saw those on the porch, too.
DOGGETT: Looks like, to me... I don't know. Like it was... it was...
SCULLY: Hanging there?
(DOGGETT nods his head.)
<SCENE 3>
MCKESSON RESIDENCE
3:18 PM
(A LITTLE OLD LADY, MRS. MCKESSON opens the attic window of
her house and picks up an old photo album, dusts it off, and sits down
to look through it. The name "Ariel" is on the front of the album.
She sobs sadly as she looks at the baby pictures on the first page.
Unfortunately, also in the attic with her is the BAT THING. It is hanging
from a rafter. Its eyes open. MRS. MCKESSON gasps as she hears
it growl. It flies at her and she screams.)
CUT TO:
<SCENE 4>
CASSIA COUNTY MORGUE
(SCULLY dressed in scrubs pulls a sheet over the body of TALL GEORGE
and takes off her latex gloves. She looks tired.)
DOGGETT: You're still here.
SCULLY: Yeah. Well, I was waiting for some lab results and then I
wanted to take another look at the body.
DOGGETT: Why? What did you find?
SCULLY: Nothing that will allay anyone's fears about what killed this
man or his wife.
DOGGETT: "What"? You mean "who" killed them.
SCULLY: Well, to be honest, what I found here leans more towards an
animal explanation. The, uh, scratches on the body match the four-toed
prints that we found. And the bites have fang-like tears. What I thought
were marks left by human molars are now inconclusive because of
enzymes that were found in the bites which are clearly inhuman--
anticoagulents which ... are found solely in the saliva of bats.
DOGGETT: Bats.
SCULLY: Yeah. I can't exactly explain it but I realize that I owe
the Detective an apology.
(SCULLY looks like she would rather eat her own toenail clippings
before apologizing to DETECTIVE ABBOTT.)
DOGGETT: Well, I'm not so sure about that. Montana headline
circa 1956. The story's the same as what you told me.
(He shows her an old newspaper clipping from The Montana Press
Telegram. Headline reads, "Hunters Kill Human Bat!" Two men are
proudly holding a dead BAT THING creature between them as they
might hold a deer.)
SCULLY: (reading) "The creature was taken to the county coroner
who confirmed it was neither man nor animal."
DOGGETT: Two days later, the county coroner was disemboweled
by something with sharp teeth and four-toed claws. Something that ate
several body parts and regurgitated them elsewhere.
SCULLY: Did they ever find it?
DOGGETT: Five men died or disappeared and then the killing stops.
Doesn't say why. But 44 years later it appears that it's back and killing
again.
CUT TO:
(MCKESSON attic. MRS. MCKESSON lies dead and bloody. With
a growl, the BAT THING hops into view and snarls menacingly, then
hops out of frame again.)
(Commercial 1.)
<SCENE 5>
MCKESSON RESIDENCE
5:51 PM
(Later that day. DETECTIVE ABBOTT's team and DOGGETT and
SCULLY are investigating the attic. Latex gloves on hands, [definitely
not Mulder!] DOGGETT examines deep scratches on the window sill.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT joins him.)
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: You see those marks, right? And the ones over
here on the rafter?
(DOGGETT looks at similar marks on the rafter.)
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: If you ask me, those look like claw marks.
I don't care what kind of a savage he is, what did this isn't human.
DOGGETT: Well, if I may speak for Agent Scully, I think we're both
prepared to concede that point, Detective.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: Then you know what this thing is?
DOGGETT: I've got a newspaper article I want to show you.
(SCULLY is coming up the attic stairs.)
SCULLY: Agent Doggett...
DOGGETT: (pulling out the article) A rather strange account from 1956 ...
SCULLY: I found something. A photo album. I think it's our first break
on this case.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: What is it?
(SCULLY has the photo album that MRS. MCKESSON was looking at.
It is bagged in plastic.)
SCULLY: The victim's daughter-- Ariel-- her dead body was pulled
from the river here last week.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: I got that call. Had to come tell Mrs. McKesson
the bad news. You trying to say there's some kind of connection?
SCULLY: Well, you not only told her mother that her 62-year-old
daughter was dead but that her body had been horribly and inexplicably
burned. A daughter who, by the way, she hadn't even seen in over 40 years.
Since 1956, to be exact-- which is the date your article says those first
killings started.
(DOGGETT glances at his newspaper article.)
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: Do you see the connection?
DOGGETT: I'm not, uh... sure where you're going with this, Agent Scully.
SCULLY: The daughter is the connection.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: How is that?
SCULLY: I don't know exactly but these killings only started up since
her burned body has been found.
(DETECTIVE ABBOTT stares at SCULLY in disbelief.)
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: Honest to God. You just jump at whatever
explanation is the wildest and most far-fetched, don't you?
[TD: Umm, well, yeah, that's pretty much been the plotline for 8 years,
buddy, don't start questioning it all now!]
SCULLY: Well, I suggest that you jump at it, too, because her body
may have been burned for a reason and you're going to want to exhume
it in order to find out why.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: You want me to dig up a dead body when I have
real people out there whose lives are in real danger?
DOGGETT: Hey...
(DOGGETT steps between DETECTIVE ABBOTT and SCULLY, walking
a short distance away from her so we can't hear. DOGGETT jabs him
in the shoulder as he speaks softly to DETECTIVE ABBOTT. DETECTIVE
ABBOTT doesn't looks pleased, but he glances from DOGGETT to SCULLY,
then leaves without a word. SCULLY watches him go, then turns her
attention to DOGGETT. She is not happy. [CarriK's Husband is glad
he is not Doggett at this moment.] )
SCULLY: What did you say to him?
DOGGETT: (uncomfortable, avoiding eye contact) Well, I told him to
dig up the body. Isn't that what you wanted?
SCULLY: What else did you say to him?
DOGGETT: Well, I told him that you were .. um .. a... leading authority
on paranormal phenomena and who are we to argue with an expert.
SCULLY: Look, I am not an expert. I am a scientist who happens to
have seen a lot. I am just making a leap here.
DOGGETT: Well, I am sure you have your reasons.
SCULLY: Look, so, so, what, you told him to exhume the body
when you don't even necessarily believe me yourself?
(DOGGETT sighs.)
DOGGETT: I told you I spent the weekend looking through that
cabinet full of X-Files and I saw how pretty much every X-File broke--
with a leap. Now, maybe I'm just an old-fashioned cop but I don't
take leaps. In my experience leaps only get people killed.
SCULLY: Well, I'd say that you're taking a pretty big leap believing
in that article... about a human bat.
(She looks at him directly. He nods and walks away.)
<SCENE 6>
(Unknown location. Old barn-type of building full of small bats. A man
with a kerchief almost completely covering his face enters. He is carrying
a small wire cage. He walks over to where several small bats are hanging
upside down. They squeal as he grabs two of them and gently places
them in the cage. He leaves the barn and goes to a nearby rustic cabin
and enters. [CarriK: Looks just like the cabin used on disc seven of the
CD ROM game!] He closes the front door on which is nailed the body
of a dead bat.)
<SCENE 7>
CASSIA COUNTY CEMETERY
10:23 PM
(Foggy graveyard. Night. Spooky. DETECTIVE ABBOTT pulls up near
a gravesite where two GRAVEDIGGERS are removing a coffin. He gets
out of his car and goes to them.)
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: I don't know how you do it. Called the judge's
order in a half-hour ago. You guys are fast.
GRAVEDIGGER 1: Yep, we're really fast when someone's done most
of our work.
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: What are you talking about?
GRAVEDIGGER 1: (spits) We got out here, somebody had already
dug up the box. All we had to do was haul it out. I don't know what they
were using but they scratched up the wood on the lid real good. See?
(The lid of the coffin is deeply gouged.)
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: Let's get this down to the morgue. I think the
sooner, the better.
(The GRAVEDIGGERS carry the coffin to their truck, load it in, then
drive away. DETECTIVE ABBOTT continues to look around. He notices
something in a large hole of a tree trunk. It is the BAT THING. The BAT
THING opens its eyes and looks at DETECTIVE ABBOTT.)
DETECTIVE ABBOTT: God!
(DETECTIVE ABBOTT begins running away. The BAT THING launches
itself after him - a single leap carrying it several yards. It lands on
DETECTIVE ABBOTT and begins attacking. DETECTIVE ABBOTT
screams and manages to get away for a moment, but the BAT THING's
next leap catches him again and we hear DETECTIVE ABBOTT screaming
and the BAT THING feeding. That's what happens when you mess with
Scully, bud.)
[TD: He, he. Just had a vision of Scully cackling and rubbing her hands
together like the witch in "The Wizard Of Oz". 'Fly, my little pretties!'.]
(Commercial 2.)
<SCENE 8>
1:07 AM
(Morgue. SCULLY, in scrubs, watches as DETECTIVE ABBOTT's body
is wheeled in. Clock indicates that it is 1:07 AM. She looks up as
DOGGETT enters. The SHERIFF'S DEPUTY sticks his head in and
addresses DOGGETT.)
SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: I want a word with you.
(DOGGETT glances at SCULLY, then follows the SHERIFF'S DEPUTY
into a room with several other deputies. They look rather hostile.)
SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: We listened to you. The Detective listened to
you. We could have been out hunting this thing down, Agent Doggett.
DOGGETT: You should be doing that now.
SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: Now? Now's too late for the Detective, isn't it?
Look, we don't need you telling us what to do or your partner. She's the
one responsible for this.
DOGGETT: Nobody's responsible for this except for whatever did it.
SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: Look, I don't care who she is or what she is,
she's not touching that body. We don't need her far-out theories.
She's not welcome here.
[TD: *sniff* They could be talking about Mulder and his wacky theories.]
(The DEPUTIES leave the room. DOGGETT rejoins SCULLY in the morgue.)
SCULLY: What happened to the lynch mob?
DOGGETT: You hear all that?
SCULLY: I heard enough.
DOGGETT: Things have taken a little turn.
(He pulls the sheet over the body.)
SCULLY: I don't think so, Agent Doggett.
DOGGETT: Well, you can think what you want but I think this looks
bad for the FBI.
SCULLY: It was unavoidable.
DOGGETT: How do you figure that?
(SCULLY uncovers a badly burned female body on another table.)
SCULLY: This is the body pulled from the river. She died of natural
causes-- congestive heart failure-- but her body was only burned
afterwards.
DOGGETT: By who, and why burn it?
SCULLY: Well, obviously to cover something up.
DOGGETT: Yeah, but what?
SCULLY: That's what I still don't know.
DOGGETT: Look, we know what we're looking for. We should be out
there looking for it. We're never gonna catch it standing here speculating.
SCULLY: Look, it kills like an animal, but with purpose. It stalked
the detective for the same reason that it stalked the old woman and
the undertaker. Each of those victims had had contact with this burnt
body. The undertaker prepared it. Her mother ID'd it and the Detective
got the call when she was found.
DOGGETT: Well, who else would have had contact with it?
SCULLY: The, uh, man who found her in the river. (looks at the file)
A, uh, Myron Stefaniuk.
DOGGETT: Stefaniuk?
SCULLY: Yeah.
(DOGGETT pulls the newspaper article out from inside his jacket.)
[TD: Love how it was treated so gently when he first showed it to her,
all nice and neat in its own file folder. Now it's folded over several times
and shoved in his jacket pocket. Hope it's a copy or someone's going
to be ticked! Where did he get this darn thing anyway?]
DOGGETT: One of the hunters in the photo in 1956 was Ernie Stefaniuk.
SCULLY: There's an address in his file. I hope we're not too late.
<SCENE 9>
SLADE RIVER
6:58 AM
(An old man, MYRON STEFANIUK, is kneeling beside the riverbank
hauling in a rope/raft contraption between the main shore and the
shore of an island in the middle of the river. He stops and stands as
DOGGETT and SCULLY pull up beside him and get out of their car.)
DOGGETT: Mr. Stefaniuk?
SCULLY: Myron Stefaniuk?
(MYRON STEFANIUK looks at them warily.)
MYRON STEFANIUK: That's me.
(SCULLY looks relaxed. DOGGETT, being the manly man he is, has
one hand resting casually on his gun. Once a cop, always a cop
according to CarriK's policeman next door neighbor.)
SCULLY: (relieved sigh) Good. Sorry. You gave us a bit of a scare.
We went to your home up the road and we couldn't find you.
MYRON STEFANIUK: Why would that scare you?
DOGGETT: Well, sir, we work with the FBI and we have reason to
believe that your life may be in danger.
MYRON STEFANIUK: I'm in danger?
SCULLY: Well, we're investigating some murders, sir, that we believe
may be connected to the burnt body that you found recently.
MYRON STEFANIUK: I fished it out of the river. What have I got to
do with anything?
DOGGETT: Well, we're not saying for sure that you do.
SCULLY: It may just be your connection to the body.
MYRON STEFANIUK: There is no connection. I just fished it out of
the river.
SCULLY: Well, sorry, sir, but that may be enough.
MYRON STEFANIUK: It's nonsense. Leave me alone.
(He starts to walk away.)
DOGGETT: Ernie Stefaniuk. Lived in Montana in 1956. Do you know him?
(This stops MYRON STEFANIUK. He slowly turns back to them.)
MYRON STEFANIUK: Ernie was my brother.
DOGGETT: He was one of three hunters that killed a man that was
half animal.
MYRON STEFANIUK: Please! That was a long time ago.
DOGGETT: Do you know where we can find him to talk with him, sir?
MYRON STEFANIUK: My brother's dead. That thing killed him.
DOGGETT: Well, I have a newspaper story that says your brother
disappeared.
MYRON STEFANIUK: That was 40 years ago. Leave it alone!
Leave me alone!
(Upset, MYRON STEFANIUK gets into his old pickup and drives away.)
<SCENE 10>
4:28 PM
(Later, SCULLY and DOGGETT are sitting in their car watching MYRON
STEFANIUK through binoculars. He is filling five gallon gas cans from
a tank in his yard with a plastic siphon.)
SCULLY: You know, we've been out here for nine hours. The only
thing this man seems to be in danger of is terminal loneliness.
(DOGGETT chuckles at her joke.)
[TD: All together now, he's definitely not Mulder! Took that guy eons to
laugh at her jokes.]
SCULLY: (depressed) Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is all just a...
a grand coincidence and we're wasting our time out here.
DOGGETT: You were so sure before.
SCULLY: Yeah, I was sure of the facts as I had deduced them
scientifically. Maybe I'm... I'm trying to force them into shape.
Maybe I'm manufacturing a theory.
DOGGETT: Well, what happened to taking a leap?
SCULLY: Maybe I'm just trying too hard.
DOGGETT: To do what? To be Mulder?
(She thinks seriously about that.)
DOGGETT: You know, I'm not Oxford educated. About all I know
about the paranormal is men are from Mars and women are from Venus.
But I don't think you're wrong, Agent Scully.
SCULLY: What makes you say that?
DOGGETT: Well, I'm no Fox Mulder, but I can tell when a man's
hiding something. Myron Stefaniuk fishes a woman out of the river
who's been gone for 40 years. He has a brother he hasn't seen in
over 40 years. A brother who just happened to hunt down some kind
of creature over 40 years ago.
SCULLY: Well, what does he have to hide?
DOGGETT: Well, that's what I'm hoping this good cop work is going
to show us.
(SCULLY raises her binoculars again. Inside the barn, MYRON
STEFANIUK loads the last of the gas cans into the back of his truck
which is full of other supplies also. He closes and locks the tailgate,
then pushes the large sliding doors of the barn open. As he gets into
the truck, starts the engine and drives away, the camera pans up to
show the BAT THING hanging from the rafter. Its eyes open.)
(Short time later, MYRON STEFANIUK places the gas cans on the raft
and begins hauling them across to the island in the middle of the river.)
<SCENE 11>
BIRD ISLAND
9:17 PM
(Night. DOGGETT is rowing a small boat toward the island.
SCULLY is in the stern of the boat, flashlight in hand.)
DOGGETT: You there!
SCULLY: Stop right there!
(The MASKED MAN we saw earlier collecting bats has been getting
supplies from the raft. He runs back into the woods.)
SCULLY: I see him.
(Gun out, SCULLY leaps out of the boat and follows. DOGGETT is a
few steps behind and has to splash through the water.)
SCULLY: Stop where you are! Put your hands up and out!
Now, turn around, slowly.
DOGGETT: Are you Ernie Stefaniuk? Are you Ernie Stefaniuk?
MASKED MAN: (terrified, gasping) Yeah.
(DOGGETT pulls down the mask. The old bearded man turns away
from the light.)
(Later, they are in his cabin. DOGGETT looks at a bat nailed to the wall.)
ERNIE STEFANIUK: How's a man supposed to live when his fear
becomes obsession? You'd do the same thing. Who wouldn't who
wanted to live?
DOGGETT: You never left the island?
ERNIE STEFANIUK: 44 years-- I wouldn't dare knowing it was out there.
That it could come back for me.
DOGGETT: You know something about it? About what this thing is?
ERNIE STEFANIUK: I know on the evolutionary ladder bats are real
close by the apes and just as we came from the apes so might a man,
sprung from a bat. To live and hunt like a bat but with the cold-blooded
vengeance of a man.
SCULLY: Even if that were true, sir, how could it possibly find you
out here on an island?
ERNIE STEFANIUK: I needed to cut off all contact. Communication
could be only one-way. My brother helped me. (holding back tears)
And then there was my wife.
DOGGETT: It was her body your brother pulled in.
(SCULLY looks at DOGGETT with surprise, this hadn't occurred to her.)
ERNIE STEFANIUK: (crying) She gave up everything to be with me.
I forbade her to tell her mother. 44 years on six acres of island, she
made only one demand. To be buried in consecrated earth. She was
a Catholic her whole life. (breaks down crying)
(SCULLY and DOGGETT look at each other.)
SCULLY: Mr. Stefaniuk... it's killed four people. All of whom would
have had traces of your scent through various degrees of contact with
your wife's body.
ERNIE STEFANIUK: My brother?
DOGGETT: Your brother's okay, Ernie.
ERNIE STEFANIUK: But he had contact with Ariel's body. It'll come
after him, too.
SCULLY: He's all right. We spoke with him earlier today.
ERNIE STEFANIUK: Today? Today, he might have been fine but this
thing hunts likes a bat. It only attacks at night!
(DOGGETT and SCULLY look at each other. They both start for the door.)
[TD: D'oh!]
DOGGETT: Stay here. Stay with him.
(SCULLY looks reluctant, but she stays. Manly man leaves.)
(DOGGETT goes back down to the boat and picks up the oar floating
in the water. The BAT THING jumps out of the woods and lands on
DOGGETT. It screams as they wrestle in the water. DOGGETT
manages to fight it off in a frenzy of water and wings, but then he
sinks under the water, unconscious.)
(Commercial 3.)
<SCENE 11, cont.>
(Inside the cabin. SCULLY and ERNIE STEFANIUK wait.
SCULLY is looking out the window.)
ERNIE STEFANIUK: I still don't understand.
SCULLY: What's that?
ERNIE STEFANIUK: How'd you find me out here?
SCULLY: We followed your brother.
ERNIE STEFANIUK: No, I mean who figured it out?
SCULLY: I was sure that what we were looking for was something
other than a man. Uh, the detective who was running the case didn't
believe that, and...uh ... he's dead.
ERNIE STEFANIUK: But your partner, he believed it?
SCULLY: I think he does now.
ERNIE STEFANIUK: So it was you who figured it.
(SCULLY is not comfortable taking the credit for this.)
SCULLY: Well, I ... I made the connections but it was Agent Doggett
that got us out here.
ERNIE STEFANIUK: You ought to be wishing he hadn't.
SCULLY: Excuse me?
ERNIE STEFANIUK: The moment you stepped foot here... You're
marked now, you know that.
SCULLY: Sir, I'm here to protect you.
ERNIE STEFANIUK: (chuckles) And how are you going to do that?
You thought of everything... except that.
SCULLY: Well, this thing, Mr. Stefaniuk is ... uh ... still flesh and blood.
It can be killed.
ERNIE STEFANIUK: What do you think? It's just going to come
walking through the door, there? It's waited 44 years. It'll wait out
there as long as it takes until you can't stand it anymore. How long
can you wait, huh? A lifetime? To live in fear like this, a young woman--
are you prepared to sacrifice family, children and spend your life
terrorized by a monster?
[TD: She's been doing that all these years, why stop now? ;-)
(A loud beeping sounds from a monitor on the table. They move
toward it. It displays a radar sweep.)
SCULLY: What is that?
ERNIE STEFANIUK: (nervous) It's ground radar. The sensor's set
at ten feet high. Anything big enough to set it off is coming in through
the trees.
(They hear a thumping on the roof. SCULLY draws her gun and points
it at the roof. She fires through the roof nine times, then five more times.)
SCULLY: You hear it?
ERNIE STEFANIUK: No.
(SCULLY puts a new clip in her gun.)
SCULLY: Maybe I got it. Maybe I killed it.
(She opens the door and looks out. She sees nothing.)
SCULLY: If you've got a gun, get it.
(She closes the door and goes outside and looks up at the roof.
She sees nothing.)
(Inside the cabin, ERNIE STEFANIUK loads an old shotgun with
shaking hands. He starts as a stick of firewood rolls out of the
fireplace. He looks at the fireplace in terror.)
(Outside, SCULLY continues to look around.)
(Inside, ERNIE STEFANIUK, slowly peers up the chimney. He sees
nothing and steps back. He turns to the BAT THING right behind him.)
(Outside, SCULLY hears him scream and sees a shotgun blast explode
through the roof. She runs back inside and sees the BAT THING attacking
ERNIE SETFANIUK. It looks up at her, its mouth bloody. SCULLY fires
five shots into its back. It flies out of sight. As SCULLY looks for it, she
is startled by DOGGETT's entrance.)
DOGGETT: Agent Scully.
(The BAT THING flies at DOGGETT knocking him to the ground.
DOGGETT fires eleven shots at it as it flies away, screaming.
SCULLY helps him up.)
DOGGETT: You okay?
SCULLY: Yeah. I'm okay. But you're not, Agent Doggett. I got you.
(SCULLY gently helps DOGGETT lie down and begins checking his
injuries. [CarriK: Stop touching him like that, Scully!! He's not Mulder.
Okay, okay he's hurt. You have to help him. Grrr..] DOGGETT loses
consciousness. SCULLY looks up into the trees at the sound of the
BAT THING screeching defiantly at her.)
[TD NOTE: Global TV in Canada cut here for another round of ads.]
<SCENE 12>
TWO WEEKS LATER
(X-Files office. SCULLY is alone. She picks up MULDER's nameplate
again. DOGGETT enters. As a manly man, he has fully recovered
from his wounds.)
DOGGETT: Sorry I'm late. I received a fax up in my old office from
Ernie's brother, Myron Stefaniuk.
SCULLY: He's alive? Where is he?
DOGGETT: He doesn't say. He sent this from a small storefront
business just across the state line in Wyoming. He's gone into hiding.
SCULLY: Do you believe it, Agent Doggett?
DOGGETT: Believe it?
SCULLY: That this thing is still out there and someday it's going to
come after us?
DOGGETT: (not ultra-confident) I'm pretty sure I hit it, Agent Scully.
Pretty sure you hit it, too. The guys upstairs were making some noise
about this case-- about what's in our field report.
SCULLY: Yeah. You'll get used to it.
(She picks up the nameplate again.)
SCULLY: I, uh... I never had a desk in here, Agent Doggett, but I'll
see that you get one.
(DOGGETT is surprised, not sure what she is saying.)
DOGGETT: All right.
SCULLY: And I just want to say, um... thank you for watching my back.
DOGGETT: Well, I never saw it as an option. I'm sure you don't either.
(They look at each other a moment. DOGGETT crosses over to a file
cabinet and begins looking through it. SCULLY looks at the nameplate
again, opens the desk drawer, pauses, then places it inside and closes
the drawer.)
The End
Transcribed by CarriK
Cast:
Gillian Anderson as Agent Dana Scully
Robert Patrick as Agent John Doggett
Guest Cast:
Bradford English as Detective Abbott
Gene Dynarski as Ernie Stefuniak
Dan Leegant as Myron Stefuniak
Jay Caputo as The Bat Thing
Eve Brenner as Little Old Lady (Mrs. McKesson?)
Annis O'Donnell as Elderly Woman (Tahoma, George's wife?)
Brent Sexton as Gravedigger
Bryan Rasmussen as Sheriff's Deputy
Gary Bullock as Tall George
