Sometime during 1997, Kathy Lee Tencate changes her story about the disappearance of her son, Dean. She claims to have killed him and tells authorities where she left the body, but the body is found. She believes that a confession claiming temporary insanity might lead the parole board to release her sooner. In fact, she believes that Dean was taken to protect his soul from the harm it would suffer in life. (Sein Und Zeit)

In a deserted part of New Mexico, a human body is found with its skull smashed in and with a strange wound on its back. The murder remains unsolved for some years. The body has formerly been occupied by a parasite that is capable of taking complete control of the human body, but which finds many humans unsuitable. (RoadRunners)

Molly Goldman is born to August and Jackie Goldman in Washington DC. August is a genetic researcher and has modified Molly's DNA, possible with alien DNA, possible as part of Department of Defense research. Her mother detects something strange about Molly (My Struggle). Molly's brother Kyle is two years younger, and his birth is set 17 years before My Struggle, in 2016.

Max Fenig's letters to his sister take on a different tone, implying he has stolen or acquired evidence that puts his life in danger.(Tempus Fugit)

El Mundo Gira. In a San Joaquin Valley migrant worker's camp, near Fresno, a bright flash in the sky followed by a fall of a hot, yellow-colored rain kills Mexican woman Maria Dorantes, eating away her eyes and lips. A companion, Eladio, is infected with an enzyme that causes common fungi to grow wildly. Migrant workers believe a mythical monster called the Chupacabra is responsible.

Three days later, Mulder and Scully arrive to investigate. Mulder believes space debris may have fallen in a nearby lake, superheating the water and resulting in the yellow rain. Eladio and his brother Soledad escape to Mexico but greatly deformed by the enzyme, so that they almost look like aliens.

Kaddish. An Hasidic Jewish man, Isaac Luria, is murdered by three teenagers. He returns as a Golem, a being from Jewish tradition that is made in Isaac's image from the earth itself. The Golem eventually crumbles to dust after Isaac's fiancee, Ariel, expresses her love for Isaac.

Leonard Betts. In Pittsburgh, Mulder and Scully encounter Leonard Maurice Betts, who must consume cancer in order to survive. He can detect cancer inside a person, and can regenerate body parts, even to the extent of growing a complete replacement body. He is decapitated in an ambulance accident, but grows his head back. He generates another body which dies in a car explosion. The body of Albert Tanner is exhumed, and both bodies are inspected, side by side.

Betts attacks Scully in an ambulance and tells her that she has what he needs, i.e. cancer inside her. She kills him with ambulance defibulators. Scully does not immediately tell Mulder that Betts claimed she has cancer.

Never Again. In Pennsylvania Ed Jerse has himself tattooed following his divorce. The tattoo, listed in the credits as "Betty," is a woman's face with the words "Never Again." Betty seems to begin talking to Jerse, inciting him to kill a woman neighbor.

Mulder is forced by Bureau policy to take a week's vacation -- his first in four years, visiting Graceland. Scully, meanwhile, feels she has lost sight of her life. Mulder comments to her that he "busted his ass" to get the X-Files opened, whereas she was simply assigned to them. He says they are his life, and Scully is unhappy that they have become her life as well.

Scully leaves Mulder during an interview on the National Mall, to look at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial -- possibly thinking about the events near the wall on November 12, 1996, seen in Unrequited.

She travels to Philadelphia to follow a lead for Mulder, and meets Ed Jerse. In a vulnerable mood, she goes on a date with him, drinks, and gets her own tattoo. She later learns that the inks used by the tattoo artist are psychoactive.

Scully spends the night in Jerse's apartment, although he sleeps on the sofa. Jerse attacks her when he learns she is a cop, incited by Betty. He finally holds his arm in open flame to burn off the tattoo. The qualities of psychoactive drug are insufficient to explain Betty as an hallucination. Scully is hospitalized for treatment of injuries.

Scully becomes the only person to appear twice in separate X-Files. Scully mentions that her last date was to see Glengarry Glen Ross, released October 2, 1992, and that the characters in the movie had a better time than she did. She apparently forgot about her date seen in Jersey Devil, in August 1993.(Never Again)

(This episode, produced before Leonard Betts, was broadcast later. Was Scully's fling the result of her suspicion that she has cancer? A customer Ed talks to, trying to sell her a stock offering, comments "it is so hard after the holidays," providing the January date.)

Beginning this month, five children are born with vestigial tails in Martinsburg, WV, each fathered by Eddie Van Blundht. (Small Potatoes)

Memento Mori. Tests at Holy Cross Memorial Medical Center confirm that Dana Scully has a tumor on the wall of her nasal cavity, near the brain. The condition is hard to treat and if it should grow into the brain it would be fatal. It is the same as that faced by eleven women Scully met in 731. Scully and Mulder visit Betsy Hagopian's home and learn she died 2 1/2 weeks earlier. They discover someone downloading her computer files, and track it to Kurt Crawford. They intercept him, trying to sneak out of his apartment building. He says he is also a MUFON member and is concerned that a governmental conspiracy wants to cover up the information in the files in Penny's home.

Scully visits Penny Northern in Allentown-Bethlehem Medical Center. Dr. Kevin Scanlon treats Penny and says she might have had a better chance if the cancer had been caught earlier. Scully decides to begin treatment to try to find "the truth" inside her, with chemotherapy treatments to weaken her immune system so a gene therapy can be tried. Meanwhile Mulder and Crawford search Betsy's files and find references to several dead women being treated at the federally operated Center for Reproductive Medicine in Lehigh Furnace, Pennsylvania. When Mulder leaves to take Scully her things at the hospital, Crawford is killed by a man wielding an "alien killer" ice pick. Crawford's blood fizzes green, revealing him to have alien DNA.

Mulder sneaks into the Center for Reproductive Medicine and finds another Crawford clone (although Mulder doesn't realize this). Crawford has been trying to get into the center's computer system, but can't figure out the password. Mulder suggests "vegreville," a name on a deck ornament, and they succeed in getting into the computer system, where reference is found to Scully in a directory about the Lumbard Research Facility, although she has not been a patient. Mulder asks Skinner to set up a meeting with Cancer Man, but Skinner warns him against giving in. Mulder agrees, and turns to the Lone Gunmen, who hack into the Lumbard computer and data on the branched DNA found in Scully's system in One Breath. Because the DNA is branches, it is active, and may even have caused Scully's cancer. The Gunmen help Mulder break into Lumbard. Langly and Frohike enter what they call a storm sewer and locate communications circuitry that allows them to gain access to security systems. This allows Mulder and Byers to enter through the front door locks. As, they wait for one door to open, Mulder sees that Dr. Scanlon is on the center staff. He sends Byers to find SCully and tell her to discontinue treatment under Scanlon's care. As Byers tries to leave, security police arrive and he has to hide from them, possibly experiencing a bit of a panic attack. Mulder gets so fr into the building that he loses radio contact with Langly. He finds several Crawford clones in a room with vats of green liquid containing bodies. One contains a clone of the blond boy seen with the child Samantha clone in Herrenvolk. The boy is also a Kurt Crawford clone.

Mulder is told that the clones are working to subvert The Project that produced them. He is shown stored ova removed from abduction victims, including Scully, Penny Northern and Betsy Hagopian. He keeps one of the vials of Scully's ova. The clones tell him that the abducted women who are dying are their mothers, providing half the raw material for the hybrids. The operative who killed the first Crawford enters the facility and almost kills Mulder, who is saved by some bullet-proof glass and who escapes through a metal door just as the glass begins to shatter. Penny dies, after telling Scully that she must not give up hope. Scully decides to return to work in hopes that finding "the truth" will help her find a cure for her cancer.

While the above is going on, Skinner finds the Cigarette Smoking Man in Mulder's office. Although Skinner warned Mulder not to approach Cancer Man about Scully, Skinner himself asks what it will take to save Scully. At the end of the episode, Mulder phones Skinner to report that Scully is OK. He thanks Skinner for cinvincing him to not aontact the Smoking Man. The Smiking Man, however, is in Skinner's office as they speak and tells him that there is always another way, "if you are willing to pay the price."

(It has been reported in the media that Chris Carter has a contact at the FBI with whom he checks various details to improve accuracy. This contact's name is reported to be Kurt Crawford -- apparently where the name for the character in this episode originated.)

Mulder later says that as soon as he acquired the vial containing Scully's ova, he took it to an expert who determined that the ova were not viable. (Of course the vial rode around in Mulder's pocket for some time, so presumably thawed out, possibly resulting in the loss of viability.) (Per Manum)

Tempus Fugit. Mulder takes Scully out to celebrate her 33rd birthday. Meanwhile, at about 8pm, Flight 549, carrying Max Fenig, crashes near Northville, New York, after an apparent encounter with a UFO. Conspiracy forces mobilize to keep the truth secret. Max's sister, Sharon Graffia, a private pilot, approaches Mulder and Scully during their birthday party and informs them of the crash. Mulder suspects that Max was kidnapped directly from the jetliner, although NTSB investigators appear to find Max's body. Later evidence suggests that two UFOs were near Flight 549. Sharon is abducted, and returned to the crash site by a triangular UFO. Mulder and Scully make contact with Sergeant Louis Frish, the air traffic controller in contact with Flight 549. Frish asks for protection, and Scully takes him to Washington, then, oddly, takes him to a public bar, where a Conspiracy operative attempts to kill one or both of them. Scully kills the operative, but Pendrell is shot, taking a bullet for Scully. Meanwhile, Mulder locates a crashed UFO in a lake. Scuba diving to it, he finds an apparent grey alien at the controls, but is approached by two lights underwater. (Note: This episode covers four days, beginning on the evening of February 23 and concluding somewhat after midnight on the morning of February 26.)

MAX. Two divers assault Mulder underwater, he escapes, but is arrested on land by a military unit. The operative who shot Pendrell escapes but Pendrell dies from his punctured lung. Scully bails Mulder out, revealing that Sharon is not Max's sister, but was once a co-worker at a defense industry company. The Air Force claims Frish erred, and caused an F-15 to hit Flight 549. Mulder and Scully visit Max's Airstream trailer, and find a video tape he made. (Max also had the Sounds From the Key of X CD in his stereo.) The military unit recovers hardware and bodies from the sunken saucer, and the operative (now back in the Albany area after having escaped from Scully in Washington and not limping from his leg wound) states that they have found what they were looking for. Sharon tells Scully that she stole a piece of alien hardware from her employer. Max had one part, which is why the UFO followed Flight 549. She had another piece, which is why she was abducted. Mulder finds the third in an airport baggage claim office, and takes it on a commercial flight to Washington, much like the events that happened to Max a few days earlier. The operative is also on board the flight. A UFO intercepts the flight and recovers the final piece of alien hardware. It is unclear whether this UFO is human-operated or alien-operated, but the implication is that it is alien-operated, since the Air Force tried to shoot down the UFO that tried to abduct Max. Mulder is left with no evidence.

Synchrony. Jason Nichols travels back from the future, from the year 2037, to try to prevent the discovery of a compound that will someday allow freezing of living cells without major cellular damage. He kills graduate student Lucas Menand, visiting oriental professor Dr. Yonechi, a security guard. He attempts to kill his younger self's girl friend, Lisa Ianelli, saying that in 2007, she would make the discovery that would lead to "a world without history and without hope." This discovery of ways of using tachyons to travel in time was combined with Jason's research to make time travel practical. Tachyon wormholes produced extreme heat, but Jason's freezing compound allowed travel, the older Nichols says.

Nichols erases his own 1997 computer files, then kills his younger self, apparently eliminating the time line that produced time travel. The body of the older Nichols disappears, apparently completing the paradox. Lisa, however, survives, and goes to work to recreate Jason's research.

Small Potatoes. The fifth child is born, fathered by Eddie Van Blundht and born with vestigial tails. Eddie Van Blundht is arrested for rape after impersonating Mulder and attempting to seduce Scully.

Scully writes a monograph for a penology publication.

Mulder's drivers license gives his home address as 42-2630 Hegal Place, Alexandria, VA 23242

Researchers publish the results of research in which a frog is levitated by a strong magnetic field. The electrons in the frog's body respond to the magnetic field uniformly, as if the frog is weightless. Researchers say the frog suffered no harmful effects from the experience, and that it would be equally possible to levitate a human. (From scientific journals -- is this the technique used to levitate people, as we have seen from time to time in the X-Files?)

Eddie Van Blundht is incarcerated, and kept on muscle relaxants to prevent him from shape changing. He accuses Mulder of choosing to be a loser for not courting Scully. (Small Potatoes)

Operatives for the Conspiracy ship seven packages of the Conspiracy to South Carolina for a test. One package is damaged and sent to a shipping house in Virginia for inspection. Some of the bees, carrying smallpox, escape and build a colony in a wall. (Zero Sum)

Demons. Mulder receives treatment with a psychoactive drug as part of his efforts to remember the circumstances involving his sister's disappearance. He experiences a series of flashbacks to events in his family's summer cottage in Rhode Island during which his parents argue and Cancer Man is present -- at one point calling young Fox a spy. Closed captioning reveals Mrs. Mulder repeatedly says "not Samantha," and Bill Mulder says that the orders came down from on high. Bill Mulder and Cancer Man also argue during the flashbacks, which may or may not be true, due to the drugs Mulder has received. Mulder awakes in a motel, unable to explain how he got there, and with the blood of two murdered people on his shirt. Murder charges against Mulder are eventually dismissed when it is discovered that the victims were abductees, also receiving the psychoactive drug, who participated in a murder-suicide.

Mulder confronts his mother about the events in the summer house he has seen in flashbacks. He accuses her of betraying his father, but then accuses her of having an affair with Cancer Man, and asks who his father really is. She rebukes him, and says she will not stand for such questions, asking Fox if he wants to kill his father all over again. (This episode contains a significant inconsistency in dates. Act one is clearly labeled as happening on April 12. April 12, 1997, was a Saturday, however Scully tells Mulder that April 12 is a Sunday. Other episodes this season have clearly included the 1997 date, leaving the inconsistency impossible to resolve.)

Zero Sum. Jane Brody, a worker at a parcel shipping company, is killed by bee stings. Based on the agreement worked out in Momento Mori, Cancer Man directs Skinner to clean up the scene of Brody's death and remove all evidence. Skinner is forced to impersonate Mulder, and a Conspiracy operative kills a police officer who could identify Skinner, using Skinner's gun.

Scully enters the hospital for tests on her cancer.

The Conspiracy begins a test of the smallpox-carrying bees, in a school yard in South Carolina, leading to further deaths.

Skinner learns about Mulder's contact in the United Nations, Marita Covarrubius, and contacts her, explaining that he has located some of the bees. She encourages him to inform authorities of what he knows -- something he cannot do without implicating himself in obstruction of justice.

Mulder discovers from photo evidence that Skinner posed as Mulder, and confronts him. He eventually comes to believe Skinner's story, and covers up for him when it is confirmed that Skinner's gun killed the police detective.

Marita is revealed to be an associate of Cancer Man, although their relationship is unclear, as are her motivations for feeding information to Mulder. (Date taken from evidence log.)

After trying "for years," Bill and Tara Scully conceive a child. (Christmas Carol)

Elegy. Scully and Mulder investigate a case in which murder victims "appear" to people nearby, apparently trying to say something. Mulder discovers that each of the people to whom the murder victims "appear" has a terminal illness. Twice, people who have died appear to Scully during this episode, causing her distress. She visits FBI psychologist Karen Kossoff, who helps her understand that Scully has great fear of disappointing Mulder.

(While it was not mentioned in this episode, this was not the first time Scully has seen a vision of a dead person. Bill Scully appeared to his daughter shortly after he died, trying to say something to her, in Beyond the Sea. This was before her first abduction, as seen during the series. Does this mean she already had cancer during the first season, as the result of even earlier abductions?)

The sister of Robert Patrick Modell, Linda, learns that she has a fraternal twin brother, from whom she has been separated since infancy. She locates him in a hospital, where he is in a coma as the result of being shot by Fox Mulder. She visits him, using her "Pusher" powers to masquerade as a nun. At about this same time, Modell awakens from his coma. The implication is that she uses her power to awaken him. Upon learning about his life, Linda is consumed with the desire for revenge against the law enforcement officers who apprehended Modell. Following Modell's awakening, the state tries him for murder, and he is convicted. The prosecutor is Nathan Bowman. (Kitsunegari -- It was said that Modell's awakening and Linda's learning of him happened about six months before the episode. The dates for the trial are unclear, but Modell could not have been tried while in a coma, so the assumption is made that it is after his regaining consciousness.)

Gethsemane. Dana Scully reports to a committee comprised of Section Chief Blevins (who first assigned her to the X-Files) and several other men and women who are not identified in the episode. She says she is there to report on the illegitimacy of Mulder's work over the years, and that Mulder has been the subject of a complex hoax dealing with alleged alien life and the abduction of his sister. She reports that Mulder claimed to have located the frozen body of an extra-terrestrial, but that two scientists studying the body in a warehouse/lab in southeast Washington DC were killed and the body stolen. One is named Arlinsky, the forensic anthropologist who Mulder has been in contact with over the last four years.

Scully reports that she was also told that several members of a Canadian geodetic survey team were killed in the cave in the St. Elias Mountains in the Yukon Territory, where the alleged alien body was located, in an apparent earlier attempt to take the body. She claims to have learned about a complex "mechanism of deception" that was designed to mislead Mulder, resulting in what she calls the "illegitimacy" of Mulder's work. In fact, at least one of the people in the Yukon, an associate of Arlinsky's, is shown to be an operative of the Conspiracy.

Scully also describes locating Michael Kritschgau, assigned to the Pentagon Research Division in Virginia, who she says she found stealing an ice core sample. She further relates how Kritschgau describes the complicated conspiracy to mislead Mulder to deflect scrutiny from the continued misdeeds of the military-industrial complex by convincing Mulder to go public with claims of alien life, and that Kritschgau further claims the same people engineered Scully's cancer.

Kritschgau claims that his son is very ill as the result of Conspiracy chemical warfare experiments during the Gulf War.

Scully also tells the committee that her cancer has moved into her blood stream, which she had said in Momento Mori would almost certainly be fatal to her. She reports that Mulder was found dead in his apartment of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

(As always when The X-Files uses flashbacks, it is difficult to determine what actually happened, and what is based on imperfect memories and/or Scully's fabrication as part of her lie.)

Redux. Mulder is not dead. In fact, Scully is cooperating with him to entrap the Conspiracy source in the FBI. The dead man is Scott Ostelhoff, Conspiracy operative who has been videotaping in Mulder's apartment through a tiny hole in the ceiling. 24 hours before the FBI joint committee seen in Gethsemane, Mulder kills Ostelhoff in self defense, then uses his DOD security clearance card to infiltrate the Pentagon. Mulder finds dozens of apparent alien bodies (or are they hoaxes?), sees several apparent abductees undergoing medical tests and irradiation, and finds the secret basement storage room where Conspiracy evidence is kept. He finds a storage box containing materials relating to Scully, and takes a vial of fluid, in hopes it contains a cure for her cancer. He also finds a file card with Scully's name on it, plus many serial or code numbers. He finds a card for Michael Kritschgau, Jr., but there are no serial numbers on the card. Mulder escapes the Pentagon at the last second, through the intervention of Cancer Man.

Cancer Man has earlier in the day visited Mulder's empty apartment, with a look of remorse on his face. He discovers that the apartment has been subject to video observation, without his knowledge. He complains to the Elder (also known as the Fat Man) Conspiracy that the information should not have been kept from him, because he has been keeping Mulder in check, and in fact "created" Mulder. The Elder denies knowledge of such observation.

Scully, meanwhile, spends the day at the Paleoarcheology lab at American University, where cells found in the Yukon ice have begun growing into an organism. She discovers that DNA fragments in a virus in the organism are also in her body. This proves conclusively to her that whoever gave her cancer is also responsible for what she sees as the body hoax.

After providing false information to the FBI joint committee, she reveals the DNA evidence, and makes the accusation that someone in the committee room is responsible for both the hoax and her cancer. Her suspicion centers on Skinner. Her nose begins bleeding, and she collapses. Skinner leaps across the room to catch her, and calls for a doctor.

Mulder takes the vial of fluid to the Lone Gunmen, who extract some of the contents to analyze the fluid inside. Spectography reveals it is "de-ionized water," meaning it is not a cure. Tune in next week for the conclusion of this three-part story in Redux II.

Redux II. Mulder rushes to Trinity Hospital Medical Center, where Scully is a patient, and meets Skinner in the hallway. Skinner says he has been withholding forensic evidence and Mulder believes he is not responsible for Scully's cancer.

The Cancer Man tells Mulder that the deionized water contains a computer chip designed to inhibit the cancer, and the Lone Gunmen find it in the vial. Dana decides to have the chip implanted, but also finally returns to her faith. The family priest comes to her hospital room and they pray.

The Elder watches a Congressional hearing on TV, about human cloning. He orders an assassination.

Cancer Man brings Samantha (or at least a women pretending to be Samantha, played by the same actress seen in Colony and End Game) to meet Mulder, at night in a diner. She says she remembers little about her abduction, and has been told that her family was dead. She considers Cancer Man to be her father and has been told that he and Mrs. Mulder had an affair but kept it secret. She is confused and afraid, and leaves without giving Mulder a means of contact, but promises to consider whether to have further contact.

Cancer Man tells Mulder that Kritschgau did not tell him the entire truth. He offers Mulder the complete truth, if Mulder leaves the FBI and goes to work for Cancer Man. Mulder is greatly tempted, but ends up declining.

Mulder testifies to the FBI committee and names Blevins as the FBI mole responsible for Scully's cancer. Later, in private, another member of the FBI committee kills Blevins and makes it look like suicide.

Cancer Man is shot through a window, but Skinner tells Mulder that no body was found and they assume he is dead because so much blood was lost.

Dana's cancer goes into remission, but it is unknown whether this is the result of the chip or prayer or what.

A Biotechnology firm called Roush is implicated with both Kritschgau and Blevins. Skinner is seen in the Congressional committee room, listening to the testimony about human cloning and investigating Roush.

Mulder ends the episode crying in the hallway outside Scully's hospital room, happy that she is in remission, but frustrated that he is still without answers.

(Note: The federal personnel computer screen seen in Gethsemane contains an apparent April date for these events. In Redux, the phone records show October dates. This Timeline assumes that the April date was something other than a current date.)

Detour. En route to a teamwork seminar, Mulder, Scully and two other agents are stopped at a law enforcement roadblock in western Florida. Two members of a surveying team are missing, as well as Michael Asekoff, who had been hunting with his son, Louis. Tracks indicate they were attacked by a predator. A local law officer named Michele Fazekas says she cannot tell if the tracks are human or animal. After his mother is lured out of the house by another predator, Louis is chased out of his home by a creature he says is invisible, and has red eyes.

Mulder, Scully, Michele and Jeff Glaser, who operates infrared tracking equipment, enter the woods to find the predators. Mulder points out that the predators attack the strongest, not the weakest. Michele and Jeff disappear. Two predators try to separate Mulder and Scully. Mulder is injured by a predator. Scully shoots at it, driving it away. The FBI agents spend the night in the woods together. They discuss death and Scully cradles Mulder in her lap to keep him warm and prevent shock from his injuries. At Mulder's insistence Scully sings to him, so he will know she is still awake and on guard. "Jeremiah was a bullfrog...." is the first song she thinks of.

In the morning, Scully falls into a network of underground caves. She finds Michele, who is barely alive, and several dead people. Mulder joins her in the cave, a predator attacks, and Scully kills it. It is humanoid but not human. A search team appears and rescues Mulder and Scully.

Michele and Michael Asekoff are still alive and are transported by ambulance. Mulder notes they are in the area where the Fountain of Youth was claimed to be 450 years ago. Whatever these creatures are, they are highly adapted to their environment, and resent the encroachment of the surveyors plotting a 100,000 acre development. Mulder believes they may be humans who drank from the Fountain of Youth and have become adapted to the environment.

It seems that the Predators are not invisible, but have a chameleon-like ability to hide in their surroundings. Mulder says he has X-Files dealing with similar primitive men dating back to 1952. They terrorized Point Pleasant, West Virginia, for a year 30 years ago, he says, and were known as the Moth Men.

This episode is set in the Appalachicola National Forest in Leon County, Florida. The forest stretches across several counties in "western Florida," in the Florida Panhandle. (No date is given in the episode. It is clear that it follows the remission of Scully's cancer. October is a guess, based on Redux also being in October.)

Writer Jose Chung is killed by a pickaxe through his skull after he is targeted by a militant religious sect known as the Church of Selfosophy. The killer is known as the "Nostradamus Nutball," a name coined by Chung himself. Chung is killed as former FBI agent Frank Black is chasing another Selfosophist, who had just grazed Chung with a bullet. (The Millennium episode Jose Chung's "Doomsday Defense," broadcast on this date.)

Scully tells Mulder that doctors have determined that she cannot have children. He tells her about finding her ova (Momento Mori) and says that he immediately took them to a specialist, who concluded that they were not viable. (Per Manum)

The sister of Robert Patrick Modell, Linda, locates the prosecutor who got her brother convicted, Nathan Bowman. Using her "Pusher" powers, she causes him to fall in love with her, and they are married two days later. (Kitsunegari -- Linda said they had been married for two months.)

Drug Lord Pico Salazar escapes from Federal custody. He is the drug cartel's finance boss.(Kill Switch said this happened three months before the episode.)

FBI Agent John Doggett and his friend, prosecuting attorney Martin Wells see each other for the last time until the incidents of December, 2000. (Redrum)

The Post-Modern Prometheus. Mulder and Scully investigate reports of a woman, Shaineh Berkowitz, who claims to have seen a monster in her home and become pregnant, in spite of a tubal ligation. She also reports having heard Cher singing. The monster is very similar to a comic book character created by her son, Izzy. Izzy explains that a real monster has been reported around town. He puts out a peanut butter sandwich as bait, the "monster" appears, and they give chase. In the woods, they are stopped by an old farmer who says there is no monster, except for his son, who is a local research scientist. The scientist, Dr. Pollidori, tells Mulder and Scully of his ability to manipulate the genes of fruit flies, but denies that he would ever do such experiments on humans.

Mulder and Scully discover a house covered, as if for fumigation. Cher is playing on the stereo. It is Dr. Pollidori's house. His wife is in the bedroom, unconscious. Is she pregnant, like Mrs. Berkewitz? Mulder and Scully also pass out from fumes, but the elder Mr. Pollidori, wearing a gas mask, finds them.

They wake up as much as three days later, with several officials and Dr. Pollidori present. Later, in private, Dr. Pollidori confronts his father, and kills him. The "monster" is seen to be a deformed person, with a large head that has two faces on the skull. In a tender scene, he finds Mr. Pollidori's body and buries it.

Mulder and Scully trace the chemical that caused the anesthetic fumes to Mr. Pollidori's farm. While they are there, a mob arrives, lead by Dr. Pollidori, seeking to find and kill the "Monster." Mulder and Scully find the young man first, and he addresses the crowd. He was created in an experiment by Dr. Pollidori and the elder Pollidori rescued him and acted as his father.

Because the boy could not be seen in public, Mr. Pollidori began learning his scientist-son's art, and caused several pregnancies in the community in an effort to create a mate for the deformed boy. None was suitable, and we see that several people in the crowd display characteristics similar to farm yard animals -- a woman whose head jerks around like a chicken, a boy who is chunky like a pig, a man with a goatee like a goat, etc. The "monster" is a great fan of Cher because of the movie "Mask" in which she played the loving mother of a deformed son.

The crowd concludes "he's not a monster." Dr. Pollidori is arrested for murder. Mulder and Scully take the son to a Cher concert, and end up slow dancing with each other to "Walkin' in Memphis."

In time, Mrs. Berkewitz and Mrs. Pollidori each have a child with two faces -- meaning Mr. Pollidori's experiments were eventually successful. They appear on the Jerry Springer Show with the children and proclaim "what's not to love?"

At one point in the episode, Mulder is asked by Mrs. Berkewitz if he is an expert in alien abductions. He responds that he is not sure if he believes in that any more.

(The local newspaper read by the agents in several scenes is "Bloomington Today" and another publication seen is published by the University of Indiana Press indicating this episode is set in Bloomington, Indiana. No date is given, but Christmas decorations are seen, suggesting that it may be around the time of the actual broadcast date -- Thanksgiving 1997. No name is given for the deformed "monster," who is said to have been born 25 years earlier. The beginning and final scenes appear on-screen as comic book panels. The appearance of the children on the Jerry Springer show must be 9+ months in the future. The real question is, did this episode really happen, or is it all just a comic book story?)

(Note: Dr. Pollidori's name is taken from the real story of the creation of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. Dr. John Polidori, spelled differently, was Lord Byron's personal physician who was part of the group that also included Byron Percy Shelly. Each member of the group agreed to write a ghost story and Frankenstein became by far the most popular. Polidori, wrote _The Vampyre_. "A Polidori" is also the term given to a story-telling evening.)

Christmas Carol. Dana Scully and her mother travel to the San Diego US Naval Air Station to visit Bill Scully Jr., and his wife, Tara, who is pregnant. Dana answers a phone call and believes she hears her dead sister's voice saying "she needs your help." The call is traced to the Sims residence, where Roberta Sims has committed suicide. The Sims have a 4 year old daughter, Emily, who Dana learns was adopted. Emily looks almost exactly like Melissa Scully at age 4. Dana reveals to her mother that because of her abduction some years earlier, Dana cannot have children -- something that is bothering her more and more.

Dana suspects murder in the Sims case, and an autopsy shows high levels of a pain-killing drug in Roberta's system, injected via hypodermic. In a search of the Sims residence, a needle is found. Dana sees two mysterious men outside, watching. Tests show a 60% chance that Emily is Melissa's daughter. Dana orders more extensive tests. She learns that the Sims have been getting large cash payments from Transgen Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Calderon there tells her that Emily has a rare medical condition they have been treating experimentally. That doctor prescribed the drug found in Mrs. Sims blood to Mr. Sims, who claimed to have severe headaches. Mr. Sims is arrested for murder, and Emily is taken into custody by Social Services.

In the San Diego County Jail, Mr. Sims is found dead of an apparent suicide just after the same two mysterious men, who claimed to be his lawyers, leave his cell. Dana petitions for custody of Emily, but Social Services discourages her because of her job and lifestyle. On Christmas morning, a courier arrives with the results of the more sophisticated DNA tests on Emily. She is not Melissa's daughter, but is the daughter of Dana Scully.

Emily. Mulder arrives in San Diego to help Scully. Emily's birth mother is given in secret records as "Anna Fugazzi," but there is no trace of a real person by that name. Mulder testifies for Scully before an adoption judge. Emily is found in the children's home to have a very high fever and a green cyst on her neck. When a biopsy is done, green ooze and gas comes out.

Dr. Calderon declines to deliver her medical records. Mulder visits him, roughs him up, then follows him to a large house. Two Dark Suited Men there kill Calderon, whose wound bleeds green ooze. They then morph into Calderon's appearance and leave. One goes to the hospital and injects Emily with something green. Mulder eventually returns to the house, and finds it is a nursing home and finds 71 year old Anna Fugazzi, and several other elderly women, who has each had a baby in recent years. Dr. Calderon has been treating them with a "Beauty Sleep." Mulder finds a human fetus in green liquid, with Dana Scully's name on the documentation. Kresge meets Mulder at the house, and they are both attacked by a Dark Suited Man, who escapes after injuring Kresge. Mulder leaves with a vial of the green fluid.

Emily is very ill, with a growth in her body. She dies. The Scully family attends a funeral service a few days later. After the service, Dana opens the casket to recover her necklace, that she had given Emily to wear. The body is gone, and filled with sand to give it the appropriate weight. The necklace is in the sand. The nursing home has been emptied with the women placed in other homes around the state. Kresge recovers. Nobody at Transgen knows anything about Dr. Calderon's work. (Several days apparently pass during this episode. It has been suggested that for Tara to be walking after the birth of her son, that a week or two must have passed between the final scene of Emily in the hospital and her funeral.)