The X-Files s11e03 Episode Script

1 - (INDISTINCT SHOUTING, CHEERS) - Powerlessness My only power Hopelessness, my only hope I see the girl Up in the tower But my hands can't grasp the rope No, my hands can't grasp the rope Unsaid, unsung Unsaid, undone You can call me names But I won't come Unsaid, undone Unsaid, unsung I'll just eat my words and move on On a map of the world Yeah! He stands alone (FADING): With his dreams and his demons (CHEERING FADES) I'll just eat my words and move on Yeah, I'll just eat my words And move on.
Good morning, captain Good morning to you Ah-ha, ah-ha Do you need another mule skinner Down on your new mud run? Ah-ha, ah-ha, ah-ha Yodel-a-ee-he-he (SIREN WAILS) Ah-ha, ah-ha, ah Oh, son of a bitch.
- Ah-ha, ah-ha, ah - (SIREN WAILING) - Yeah, I'm an old mule skinner - (SIGHS) - Down from old Kentucky - Whew.
Oh.
Huh?! What-what the hell do you want? No! No! Stop! Let go! Get out.
Let go, let go! (TIRES SQUEAL) Stop! Let go, let go! Stop, stop! (SCREAMS) (HORN BLARING) Ah-ha, ah-ha, ha Cha-cha-cha! Arkie Seavers, age 20.
Currently a resident of the county jail.
- What does the other guy look like? - Funny you should ask.
Arkie there wasn't in a fight.
Car crash, head-on collision into a tree.
- Drunk as a skunk.
- He's lucky to be alive.
You have no idea.
Not wearing a seat belt, I suspect.
To hear Arkie tell it, he didn't have time to fasten his seat belt, 'cause he was too busy beating a hasty retreat from the boy he says caused the accident.
- And who was that? - You're looking at him.
No, not me.
What, he blames himself? In a manner of speaking.
I don't get it, Mulder.
Arkie, our hapless road warrior, is driving by his lonesome, down the highway to hell, when he sees another Arkie, across from him, who grabs the wheel and crashes the vehicle.
Well, you did say he was drunk.
Yes, and I know what you're gonna say about seeing double and all those hackneyed bromides about not giving the kids the car keys.
20 is hardly a kid.
But circumstances bear a curious similarity to the stories told by other good folk who didn't share Arkie Seavers' luck of the Irish, and who also reported seeing their doubles right before dying.
And how did these people die? Each by their own hand.
After seeing their doubles? According to all reports issuing out of Henrico County, Virginia.
Reports issued by whom? Friends, relatives.
A doctor.
And the medical diagnosis is? - A rare form of schizophrenia.
- (CHUCKLING): Right.
So rare I've never heard of it.
Well, correct me if I'm wrong, Scully, and I know that you will, but schizophrenics have been known to hear voices and have reported hallucinations similar - to the ones Arkie reports.
- Hallucinations, yes, but not necessarily grabbing the wheel of a car and ramming it into a tree.
Well, they didn't all die from car crashes into trees.
Seven died from hanging, four jumped off a tall bridge, - um, three - This is a mass phenomenon.
Precisely my thinking, Scully, which is why you and I are gonna jump on I-95 South this morning and get back to our bread and butter.
These the FBI agents? Agents Scully and Mulder.
- And you filled them in? - Mm-hmm.
We know the facts, Arkie.
We'd like to hear the details.
Okay, I-I looked over and he grabbed the wheel and he floored the gas.
- And by "he," you mean? - I mean, the dude looked just like me.
And you'd seen him before.
Yes.
Like-like four times.
He's been following me for, like, a week.
Had he ever said anything? No, I-I-I'd see him in a crowd or-or a window.
You know, I thought I was tripping or something.
And do you take drugs, Arkie? No, I'm, uh Yeah, maybe once or twice, I mean.
And you're in jail because? Arkie admittedly has a problem.
A few previous DUI offenses.
Exactly how many is a few? I don't know, like (SIGHS) six? So, the judge is gonna throw the book at you.
But that's not what we're interested in.
We want to know how you came to be the lone survivor.
Why I'm not dead like all the other people they're talking about, right? What do you chalk that up to? I can tell you, and it's the same reason I can prove I'm not lying.
You can prove it? You got to admit, Scully, the kid's story makes a lot of sense.
Arkie's double takes control of the wheel.
Yeah, then Arkie pumps the brakes with his left foot, producing the skid marks that start up yonder.
Or there's another explanation, of course, which is that Arkie, in his perpetual state of inebriation, falls asleep at the wheel, waking up to find that he's going off the highway, and applying the brakes there.
Yeah, but if he was asleep, he wouldn't have been traveling at such a dangerous rate of speed.
You're saying you believe him.
No.
I'm just saying that I think the kid's too stupid to make it up.
Yes, I treated several of the victims manifesting the symptoms.
Their episodes suggested a pattern of shared hallucination.
A distinct narrative.
They all saw their doubles, doppelgangers.
None of these people had had psychiatric problems before? - They never received treatment.
- So there were issues? No, but they were arguably not upstanding citizens.
Oh, they had trouble with the law.
Not necessarily connoting that they were mentally ill.
But, Dr.
Russell, your diagnosis is of a non-conforming type of schizophrenia.
That was my clinical opinion.
So, they were mentally ill? They became mentally ill.
It was almost like a kind of outbreak.
So would you say like a mass hysteria? I've never heard of a suicidal mass hysteria.
SCULLY: Well, a phenomenon known as suicide clusters, or suicide contagion, have been known to affect whole communities or social groups.
Are you currently treating any patients with those symptoms? Nothing matching that particular pattern.
Why do you ask? This patient here, what's her specific psychiatric diagnosis? Hmm.
More a normative schizophrenic.
MULDER: Can we possibly talk to her? Well, I'd strongly advise against that.
Why would you say that? Because she exhibits split personality with wild swings in affect from benign to violent.
Unless you've got some good reason, I'd steer clear.
I'd like to take a look at her drawings.
(KEYS JANGLE, LOCK CLICKS) (KNOCKING AT DOOR) Judy, you have visitors.
Oh, you should've warned me.
I look awful.
I look a fright.
No one's judging you, Judy.
Ah, not without my coiffure.
You look fine to me.
No, I don't.
I don't.
Not for such a handsome man as yourself.
My name is Fox, and this is Dana.
You can call me Little Judy.
That's what my fans call me.
Are you an actress, Judy? I'm a very famous actress.
They want to see your drawing.
Would you like to show it to them? Oh, it's nothing.
That's just Hangman.
You play a lot of Hangman.
- I-I play with my brother.
- SCULLY: Does he visit you here? My brother's an insufferable jerk.
We play telepathically.
MULDER: "Arkie.
" You know a an Arkie Seavers? You know, he just, he had an accident recently.
I don't know an Arkie Seavers.
This is just a coincidence? I don't know an Arkie Seavers.
But she might.
ARKIE: Hey, listen, man, wh-where-where are they taking me? Don't know.
Transfer.
Okay, I-I gotta talk to my lawyer first or something.
I-I Sorry.
Can't help you.
Please, I mean (GROANS) O-Okay.
Transfer where? Like I said, can't help you.
(SIGHS) (PANTS) Hey, help, help! He's here! Please, somebody help me! Please, please, help me! (DOORBELL RINGING) RECEPTIONIST: Coming.
Hi, we'd like a couple rooms.
- Do you have reservations? - No.
Uh, do you have any rooms? I've had a cancellation.
It's just a suite.
We'll take it.
There's a pullout sofa.
Okay.
Just trying to get some shut-eye.
I'm glad to hear it.
(SIGHS) (SLOW FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING) Mulder, what are you doing? That bed nice and comfy? - Mulder, go back to sleep.
- I wish that I could, Scully.
They just found Arkie Seavers dead in his jail cell.
Somebody want to explain this to me? - Who found him there? - One of the trustees.
That guy.
MAN: This happens all the time.
I don't know what to tell you Looks like a suicide.
CAVALIER: He was strangled to death.
Not necessarily, Mr.
Cavalier.
- He's wearing handcuffs.
- It looks impossible and I admit, it's highly improbable, but there is ample case history - that it can be done.
- (SIGHS) The victim simply spins the belt around, unbuckles it, fastens it to the bars, loops it around his neck, - and uses his body as leverage.
- No, no, no, no.
- Arkie didn't want to die.
- I agree with you.
This is an outrage.
Now, who is gonna stop this carnage? We're working on it.
Well, someone's got to pay.
Arkie did not want to die.
(LOCK BUZZES, LATCH CLICKS) I know what you're thinking, Mulder.
Anyone up for a gang of Hangman? It's just a coincidence.
Judy said that she didn't even know Arkie Seavers.
Not necessarily, Scully.
- Well, she said she didn't know him.
- She said - that she might.
- She also said she was playing telepathically with her brother.
Our suspect number two.
CHUCKY: Oh, for God's sakes.
(GRUNTS) My one damn day off.
Chucky Poundstone? Speaking to whom? Fox Mulder.
I'm with the FBI.
Oh, yeah.
With that tasty little redhead.
You tapping that, Special Agent, or can Chucky bust a move? - (SNAPS) - You're that trustee.
You found the kid hanged in his jail cell.
Yeah, I discovered the moron.
Kid had loser written all over him.
Can I ask you a few questions? Why? Am I under suspicion? It's just a few moments of your time.
Yeah, well, lucky I just tidied up.
I'm just saying, but you better hope the fire marshal never comes a-callin'.
He'd red-tag you You calling the marshal?! No.
I'm just saying.
Ah.
Talk about my house.
It's this town needs cleaning up.
Seen what you need? Get a sense of what lurks beneath? I'm an FBI agent, Mr.
Poundstone, not an archaeologist.
Yeah, well, I got body parts in the fridge.
You play with your sister? My sister's a miserable slut and a damn cheater on top of it.
How does she do that? She cheats.
Breaks the rules.
What are the rules? (SIGHS) What are we, amigos now? Bros? Is this you deftly profiling the mind of Charles H.
Poundstone? - It's a simple line of inquiry.
- Yeah, well, it takes a dipwad to know one.
I take it you're twins.
Ooh! Powers of deduction.
And she's the good twin.
(CHUCKY CHUCKLES) You don't know Little Judy.
Well, begs the question how you both could play a game with the name of the deceased Arkie Seavers in it.
I like the name Arkie.
Funny name for a no-account douche bag.
All right, well, you mind if I take a picture of your wall for my records? Is this guy a numbnuts or what? You talking to me? No.
I'm talking to him.
Is she expecting me here today? (SIGHS) We told her you were coming.
Then she flung Dookie at us.
So this is the other Judy.
We call her Demon Judy.
SCULLY: Why is the light off? Makes you a harder target.
Well, sometimes a split personality responds to a strong persona who challenges the childish psychotic.
Both parents hanged themselves.
And you'll come in with me? - No way.
- (CHUCKLES) Not a chance.
Judy, it's Agent Scully.
- (WET SPLAT) - (JUDY SNICKERS) I want you to behave yourself.
- I know what you want, bitch.
- I want to know about Arkie.
Reached the end of his rope.
(JUDY LAUGHS) I'm not afraid of you, Judy.
Oh, yes, you are.
Everybody's afraid of sweet Little Judy.
Is Little Judy a killer? Little Judy's an angel.
And what about your brother? Is he involved? Could be.
Chucky Poundstone is the Devil's dim-witted disciple.
Did he kill Arkie Seavers? Arkie Seavers killed himself.
Now, how did you know that, Judy, if you weren't involved yourself? Are you trying to trick me, Agent Scully? I want the killing to stop.
Oh.
Well, don't you have a heart of gold? What's he see in you, your handsome partner? One taste of Little Judy and he'd forget you even exist.
Maybe I can make you go away, too.
Are you threatening me? (JUDY LAUGHS) Afraid I'm gonna dirty your cheap little ensemble? You're nothing but a hosebag.
How old are you? 40s? Past your child-bearing years.
You're all dried up, not even half a woman.
You can't hurt me, Judy.
Nothing hurts like the truth.
(KNOCKING AT DOOR) Just a minute! (SIGHS) Hey.
What'd you find out, Scully? That Dookie winging past your head sends a sharp message to your brain.
What message is that? (CHUCKLES) To gather the other apes and make war on your dread enemy.
I believe I'm in touch with that feeling, Scully.
Really? Did you have Dookie flung at you, too? Uh, figuratively.
By the queerest little man in the queerest little house.
I don't know, Mulder.
This Judy, she has some malign influence over these victims, and I'm at a loss to figure out what it is.
Yeah, I agree.
There is some evil in the air, Scully.
No, it's not evil it's mental illness.
There's some kind of psychic transference.
- I wouldn't rule out ghosts.
- Well (SCOFFS) except for the fact that they don't exist? Of course there are ghosts.
I mean, science has proven that the stimulation of the brain's left anterior insula is linked to the feeling of a sensed presence and that repeated stimulation to an area of the left temporoparietal junction is what promotes the sense of a shadowy figure, collectively known as the Gastaut-Geschwind syndrome.
Talk about flinging dookie.
(SIGHS) Mulder, do you think of me as old? What? Where is that coming from? - Well - I mean, maybe in dog years.
No.
What are you what are you talking about? Well, a woman thinks about these things.
No, Scully, you're You still got it going on, you (CHUCKLES) You still got some scoot in your boot.
I'm gonna boot you out of here.
MULDER: Knock three times.
(SIGHS) (GRUNTS) Bloodsucking scumbag.
You think you're gonna point the finger at me? (CHUCKLING) Four letters, little sister.
Is there an "E"? I thought so.
(KNOCKING ON DOOR) Top of the morning, Agent Muldoon.
- What's on your mind? - I want to know how you do it.
I haven't a clue what you mean.
Is the other Chucky here, the one I talked to yesterday? Search me, Agent Muldoon.
I am not my brother's keeper.
It's Mulder.
And I think this is an act.
You choose 'em at the jail, don't you? The losers like Arkie Seavers, who you hanged, if not literally, then psychically.
Does that FBI health plan of yours cover anger management, Agent Mulder? Who's next, Mr.
Poundstone? You're asking the wrong guy.
I can have you and your alter ego arrested.
I can have you committed.
- On what legal pretense? - Intent to commit a crime.
(CHUCKLES) I've seen many a bad jailhouse lawyer spring far less innocent men than I, Agent Mulder.
I'd even venture I'd have grounds to have you censured for abuse of power.
You're going down, Poundstone.
Tell it to the hand, G-man.
Oh, that's original.
I haven't heard that one before.
Before I punch you in the face and snatch Little Red Riding Hood! - Now, there's the Chucky I came for.
- (GROWLS) And that's the Chucky who's eventually gonna hang himself.
Judy, excuse me, hon.
Agent Scully's here to see you.
What brings you here today, Agent Scully? Do you have any recollection of our exchange that we had yesterday? (DOOR CLOSES) No memory whatsoever? - You look mad at me.
- I am mad, Judy.
I am angry because I need to stop the killings and I don't know how.
And you blame me, don't you? Are you to blame? I'm an actress, Agent Scully.
I've never even played a killer.
Where is the person that I talked to here yesterday? Where is that Judy? She's right over there.
- No, she's not.
- Sure she is.
Just look.
No, she isn't, Judy, and I think that you're pretending that she is.
You mean I'm pretending so I can sit here in this bed all day? I think you have some kind of power to influence people's lives.
I think you mean their deaths.
Yes.
That's exactly what I mean.
(WHISPERS): People can protect themselves.
(WHISPERS): How? Protect themselves how? By taking these pills.
I take them every day to protect me from her, and so far they've worked.
Did the nurses give you these? Every morning with breakfast.
Would you consider not playing that game with your brother? (PANTING): Well well, what would I do in here all day, Agent Scully? I'd go mad.
(SCOFFS) I have a question for you.
Uh, she said that you give these to her at breakfast every morning and that they have secret powers.
That's really only half true.
That you give them to her at breakfast or that they have secret power? We bring her bread every morning, and she rolls it into those pills.
So these are just bread pills.
They have no medicinal qualities.
No.
Not that we know of, anyway.
Uh, but we both take them.
In case they have secret power.
You might want to take them, too.
- What'll you have, Dean? - I'll, uh, take the lunch special.
No mayo.
Salad on the side, lightly dressed.
And if you bat those baby blues at me, I'll give you a little something on the side, too.
Well, promises are like bananas they're only good when they're appealing.
You know, one day I've got to have you over to my place to see my sword collection.
You say that to all the girls.
Hey, did you see that guy? Did I see what guy? (BELL TINKLING) Cancel the blue plate! Agent Scully, I saw him.
Hold your horses, Mr.
Cavalier.
He looked just like me.
Just calm down and you can tell us both - what it is that happened.
- All right.
I saw him through a window, the same way that Arkie said he saw his double.
- Was it the first time? - No, no.
I I think I saw him the other day staring at me from a bus stop.
- You're only making it worse.
- What do you mean I'm making it worse? This guy is stalking me.
Your paranoia is only gonna feed on itself.
Y-You know that mass hysteria is just a symptom of fears run wild.
- Well, those people all died.
- While I agree with Agent Scully's theory, I do think there's a danger and you should take every precaution against it.
All right.
So what should I do? Stay off the interstate? - (SIGHS) - Do you have a family, Mr.
Cavalier? No, I don't.
I live by myself.
Okay, well, maybe stay home, uh, take some time off work, - lock your doors, and-and call the police - Yeah.
If you have another panic attack.
Yeah.
Well, that's easy for you to say.
- Take my card.
- And just know that it can't haunt you if you don't let it.
(SIGHS): Yeah.
Like I said before, clearly there's a dark influence set loose in this town, Scully.
Well, by "dark influence," again, I presume you mean evil, Mulder.
But there is no such thing as evil.
I mean, evil is a concept, like the Devil.
Oh, the Devil is a concept? Certainly, that's not what they taught young Dana Katherine Scully in Sunday school, is it? Well, I certainly believed in the literal Devil - when I was a child.
- So you don't believe that we, as humans, have dark sides that we sublimate or repress? Well, while anyone with an imagination can entertain acting out violence or antisocial behavior, that doesn't mean that there's an evil twin lurking inside of us.
Speak for yourself, Scully.
And tell that to Chuck and Judy.
Chuck and Judy are mentally ill, Mulder.
- Explain how they're doing it.
- I can't explain it.
But if you eliminate the impossible, whatever is remaining, even if improbable, must be the truth.
No sugar, Sherlock.
- (ALARM CHIRPS) - But I have to admit, I, uh, still sleep with my back to the door just in case the Devil - comes in the night.
- (ALARM CHIRPS) Can never be too careful.
(TIRES SCREECH) (BEEPING) (DOG BARKS) (PANTING) (EXHALES) Is there an "S"? One pair of matching bookends Damn you, Chucky Poundstone.
- Different as night and day - (SIGHS) (GROANS) (GROANS) (HISSING) (BLADE UNSHEATHES) (GASPS) Please, Mulder, you've got to quit scaring me like that.
Oh, I'd like to quit.
(PANTING SOFTLY) (INDISTINCT RADIO TRANSMISSION) Thank you.
So, neighbors called police when they saw him acting suspiciously.
He was dumping firearms in the driveway.
I take it the doors were locked from the inside - when they arrived? - Yeah, he wasn't responding.
They looked through the window and broke in the door.
Has anybody offered up any evidence for how this could happen? Well, it seems everyone's under the agreement that a man can't cut off his own head.
Oh.
Good to see there's still a shred of sanity left - in this town.
- But, for the record, I have to say, it's not outside the realm of extreme possibility.
Oh, so he just tripped and fell and splattered the walls with blood? Well, if he were a determined man with a razor-sharp sword set on creating his own self-fulfilling prophecy He was scared out of his mind, Scully.
Well, if he was in his right mind, - he might've called you.
- Oh.
Maybe he tried.
Only he lost his head.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER) MULDER: You coming, Scully? (GASPS) (PANTS) (SOFT FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING) Oh.
Speak of the devil.
I can't sleep, Mulder.
What's the problem? (SIGHS) Something about this case is getting under my skin.
Well, we've had stranger cases, Scully.
Can you hold me? Yeah.
I can do that.
What's gonna happen? What's gonna happen when? When we're old.
What do you mean "when"? I mean sooner or later we're gonna retire and Hmm.
Are we gonna spend time together? I'll come push your wheelchair with my wheelchair.
(CHUCKLES) That's not what I mean.
Oh, I'll always be around, Scully.
Offering bulletproof theories of genius that you fail to assail with your inadequate rationality.
And I'll always be around to prove you wrong.
Hmm.
Promise.
No, but that's not what I mean.
What do you mean? (SIGHS) What if you meet someone? - What if you meet someone - (SIGHS) younger who wants to have kids? Oh, that's what you mean.
Well you could do the same.
You could meet someone and have kids.
(LAUGHS) Mulder, that's not gonna happen.
That's nonsense.
No, it's not.
I'm I'm at the end of that journey.
Do you want to have more kids? Well I would have liked to have had another one.
Mm.
At the risk of sounding insensitive, what's stopping you? Mmm besides the fact that the first time was a miracle? And besides the fact that I don't have anyone to have one with even if I could? - You're a woman of science.
- (LAUGHS) Mulder, sometimes I think the world is going to hell and that we're the only two people who can save it.
The world is going to hell, Scully.
The president working to bring down the FBI along with it.
What if we lose our jobs? Yeah.
Then what would we do? We'll think of something.
JUDY: All right.
Is there an "L"? I said, is there an "L"? Are we playing or not, Chuck-face? Earth to Judith.
Yes, Your Royal Highness, there is an "L.
" (SIGHS) - Scully, get up.
Get dressed.
- Mmm, come back to bed.
They're coming after me.
What are you talking about? I was looking in the mirror, and there he was.
There I was.
It wasn't my reflection.
- It was my double.
- I know.
- I-I-I saw my double, too.
- They're targeting us both.
That's how they operate, Mulder.
I know how they operate.
You're just playing into it.
Spare me the pop psychology, okay? - Mulder, you have to calm down.
- Scully.
Scully, put a dimmer on that afterglow and get yourself to the hospital before they hang us both.
Mulder, they can't hang us.
We-we can only hang ourselves if we panic.
How many letters in Scully, Scully? JUDY: Is there another "L"? What do you mean, no? So throw a hissy.
One "L".
You know you're in love with him.
Double "L," Chuck-face.
Who's the one in love? (GROANS) (CAR ALARM CHIRPS) Chucky Poundstone! No letter "C," super freak.
- MULDER: I know you're in here.
- I said, no letter "C.
" You're under arrest, Chucky! - Put the pencil down.
- (CREAKING NEARBY) Who's the cheater now? My rational mind knows that you are only a a manifest psychic ideation borne of latent hostility.
Maybe Mulder was right, you're evil incarnate.
It's all you are.
(EXHALES) Step aside.
I'm coming through.
(GRUNTING) (GRUNTS) Is there a "J"? Oh, look, and a "D," and an I-T-H.
JUDY: Is there a C-H-U-C-K-Y? - (HISSES) - (SCREAMS AND GASPS) - I don't want to go in there.
- Not going in there.
Judy, open the door.
Judy! (METAL SCRAPING) (PANTING) Judy? Nurses, get in here! Get Dr.
Russell.
So I was thinking maybe we could get a couple hours in before checkout time? I'm just talking about getting some shut-eye.
I'm glad to hear that, Mulder.
Yeah.
Uh, I guess I should hit the hay.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
But if you need anything, you just, uh, call me.
I can't imagine that I will.
(MAN ON TV SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) But then again, it's not out of the realm of extreme possibility.