3x23 Wetwired



BRADDOCK HEIGHTS, MARYLAND
APRIL 27
10:16 PM

Patnik: All right, you bastard. Evil... rotten... son of a... there you go! Your killing days are over! No. No! No!
Officer: All right, sir, put your hands in the air. Keep them where I can see them. We got a call. You want to tell us what you're doing out here? Sir? Turn over! Damn amp-head.
Officer: Oh, lord. Jimmy, check this out.
Patnik: Sarah? Sarah!

[opening credits]

WASHINGTON, D.C.
APRIL 29
2:12 AM

Mulder: Our blind date's not off to a great start. I've been waiting here nearly two hours.
CFM: I was asked to make sure you weren't followed.
Mulder: It's just you, me and the drug dealers.
CFM: This area's always been known for its criminal element.
Mulder: Especially when Congress is in session. What's this?
[Newspaper: BRADDOCK HEIGHTS MAN KILLS WIFE, FOUR OTHERS]
CFM: Something you'll want to follow.
Mulder: Follow where?
CFM: That's all I have for you.
Mulder: What do you mean, that's all you have for me? I get an anonymous e-mail to come meet you here in the middle of the night. I don't know who you are or what you want.
CFM: I don't have any obligation or desire to give you any answers. I'm not one of your sources.
Mulder: Then you're just a messenger boy?
CFM: It's late, agent Mulder. Go home. Get some sleep.
Mulder: Who told you to contact me? How do I know I'm not being played?
CFM: I guess you don't.
Mulder: Well, you can go ahead and recycle that, then.
CFM: I've been asked to tell you, you walk away from this, and more people will die.

FREDERICK COUNTY PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
BRADDOCK HEIGHTS, MARYLAND

Scully: Sorry. I would have gotten here sooner, but the Beltway was a parking lot. What's going on?
Mulder: Multiple homicide, a bizarre one. That's Joseph Patnik. He murdered five people, all of whom, he insists, was the same man.
Scully: What do you mean?
Mulder: He claims to have been killing the same man over and over again, but he wouldn't die.
Scully: Does he have a history of mental illness?
Mulder: Not that I know, but I just got this case yesterday.
Scully: So what's the X file?
Mulder: In Patnik's neighborhood, two weeks ago, a baby-sitter attacked the two children she was [?]. She told police she thought they were wolves.
Scully: And police found no other motive for either of these attacks?
Mulder: Not so far. No.
Stroman: Agent Mulder. Hi. I'm Dr. Stroman.
Mulder: Dr. Stroman, this is my partner, special agent Scully.
Scully: Hi. You're the physician in charge?
Stroman: Yeah, they called me down from D.C. to try and develop a clear diagnosis for the court.
Mulder: Have you?
Stroman: I wish I could say yes.
Scully: Has he been sedated?
Stroman: I've got him on heavy Thorazine, but it only seems to knock him back a notch or two.
Mulder: He seems pretty manageable to me.
Stroman: It may be some form of organic delusional syndrome, possibly due to chronic methamphetamine abuse, I don't know. But he is prone to outbursts.
Mulder: Who called you down on this case?
Stroman: A Dr. Kahn from the Department of Social Health Services.
Mulder: Could we speak to him?
Stroman: I don't think he's in today, but I can certainly check for you.
[Patnik screams]
Stroman: Orderly!
TV Reporter: Miriskovic insists he is guilty of no wrongdoing, despite the fact that he has been charged with crimes against humanity by the war crimes tribunal meeting in the Hague. Among the accusations are that Miriskovic personally ordered the rape and murder of thousands of innocent civilians in the former Yugoslavia. Reporting for V...

Scully: You said you got this case last night. Where did it come from?
Mulder: Came from an outside source.
Scully: Who? This outside source, Mulder, what's his interest in this case? What does he want us to uncover?
Mulder: I don't know.
Scully: And you're not suspicious that we're being used?
Mulder: We've got dead bodies and confessed murderers. If we're being used, it's to find out the connection. That's what I'm interested in.
[woman screams]
Mulder: Isn't this a school day?
Kid: We didn't cut.
Kid: We got a pass.
Mulder: You got a pass to come in here and eat these people's food and watch their TV?
Kid: No.
Kid: Are we in trouble now?
Scully: How did you get in here?
Kid: Through the window. They leave it open for the cat.
Mulder: Maybe you should head back to school. No, no, no. Use the front door.
Scully: Mulder. Look at this. There must be hundreds of videos here.
Mulder: Anything good?
Scully: All I see are recordings of cable news shows. They're all dated, and in chronological order. You know, that's what Patnik was watching at the hospital, when he went all wiggy. What if there's some connection?
Mulder: Between what he saw and what he recorded and what he did?
Scully: You're the one who's interested.

Mulder: Just watched 36 hours of Bernard Shaw and Bobbie Batista. I'm about ready to kill somebody, too.
Scully: I'm gonna show you something. These tapes are dated April 19, April 21, and April 23. Each corresponds to a night that Patnik committed a murder.
Mulder: What's on the tapes?
Scully: Among other things, a one-hour special report on the atrocities in Bosnia, a report that prominently features Lladoslav Miriskovic.
Mulder: The same guy that started Patnik screaming in the psych ward?
Scully: And my guess is that, once I review the tapes for the night that Patnik killed his wife, that I'll find that report there, as well.
Mulder: So you think that, because Patnik saw this war criminal on television, he was somehow inspired to go out and murder these people?
Scully: Recent studies have linked violence on television to violent behavior.
Mulder: Yeah, but those studies are based on the assumption that Americans are empty vessels, ready to be filled with any idea or image that's fed to them, like a bunch of Pavlov's dogs, and go out and act on it.
Scully: But they believe that the causal connections are there, Mulder.
Mulder: Studies have also shown causal connections between cow flatulence and the depletion of the ozone. What you're talking about is pseudo-science used to make political book.
Scully: All I'm saying is, I think it's clear that--that the programs that Patnik watched somehow triggered his violent behavior.
Mulder: How?
Scully: The doctor suggested amphetamine abuse. Maybe that, coupled with the disturbing images that he was watching, pushed him over the edge.
Mulder: All I know is, television does not make a previously sane man go out and kill five people thinking they're all the same guy. Not even "Must See TV" could do that to you.
Scully: OK, then how do you explain it?
Mulder: I can't. Not yet.
Scully: Where are you going?
Mulder: I'm gonna get some sleep. Looks like you could use some, too.
Scully: No, I'm going to... watch the rest of these tapes. Just out of curiosity.
Mulder: You have fun.

[Scully listening through the walls]

Mulder: Yes. OK, I understand. All right. I've just been watching the tapes. I'll come outside. Right. OK. No, she doesn't. No. Good-bye.

[Scully goes out to get ice, and sees Mulder giving a tape to Cancer Man]

[commercial break]

APRIL 30
9:48 AM

Mulder: Scully?
Scully: Yeah.
Mulder: I just got a call. There's been another murder.
Scully: Yeah, I'll be right there.
Mulder: It happened just less than an hour ago. It seems to match our pattern--a housewife gone berserk.
Scully: The car's been moved. Did you take it out last night?
Mulder: No. Uh, I went out, and I got a paper this morning. Why?
Scully: Nothing. Nothing. Let's go see the crime scene.
Mulder: I just talked to the detective in charge. The shooter's name is Helene Riddock, age 42. They took her to the county lockup.
Scully: What happened?
Mulder: She claims she looked out the window and saw her husband in the hammock... with a blonde.
[dog barking]
Scully: That blonde?
Mulder: Yeah, apparently, he was only taking a nap with his dog, but Mrs. Riddock swears she looked out the window, and saw her husband in the hammock with a blonde woman.
Scully: So this woman killed her husband because she thought he was cheating on her?
Mulder: This is not even her husband. Her husband is a long haul trucker. He's been out of town for ten days. This is, uh... Mr. John Gillnitz. It's her next-door neighbor. She didn't even have the right backyard. Helene Riddock lives over here. Scully?
Scully: Yeah, let's check it out.

TV: One of my favorites. He is so cute. The "little traveler" is normally 129.98, and that's what you're gonna pay at the department store, but here at Home...
Mulder: "A thing of beauty is a joy forever..." What do you think, Scully?
Scully: I think television plays a large part in both of these murderers' lives.
Mulder: As it does in almost every American home. Television does not equal violence. I don't care what everybody says. Unless you consider bad taste an act of violence.
Scully: More tapes.
Mulder: Hang on a second. I'll be right back. [chases cable guy] Hey! Hey! Hey!
Scully: Mulder, what are you doing?
Mulder: I'm coming down.
Scully: What is it?
Mulder: A cable trapper scrambler from the pole into the house.
Scully: Maybe it's a job for special agent Pendrell and the sci-crime lab.
Mulder: Yeah.
Scully: You want it analyzed?
Mulder: Yeah. I'll do it. It makes more sense for you to go down and interview Helene Riddock. Get her version of the story. Maybe she knows what this thing is. Is there a problem with that?
Scully: No. That's-that's fine.
Mulder: Stay in touch.

Byers: It looks a lot like a standard video trap for blocking premium cable channels.
Mulder: What does this one block?
Langly: Amazingly, it doesn't seem to block anything.
Mulder: Then what does it do?
Frohike: Glad you asked.
Mulder: I bet all you guys we officers in the audio/visual club in High School, huh?
Byers: This is the straight feed off our bars and tone generator, and here are the bars and tone as attenuated through the device.
Mulder: Looks the same.
Frohike: Or that's what you'd think.
Langly: We couldn't discern any difference between the feeds. Not until we compared them on the oscilloscope.
Mulder: Still looks the same.
Frohike: Hold on to your hat, dude. We have touch down.
Mulder: So they're different. So... they're different.
Byers: You know the way television works?
Mulder: Yeah. You click it on, you have a picture.
Langly: It's a rapid series of still pictures fired against the tube.
Byers: There's something non-standard here, in the vertical blanking interval. Information that's being added into the spaces between the still pictures.
Mulder: What kind of information?
Byers: We don't know.
Langly: This is as far as we could get with this equipment.
Mulder: Well, can you take it apart?
Langly: Not without destroying it completely. That's by design.
Byers: An amazingly sophisticated design, but all we can say for sure is...
Mulder: This device is emitting a signal.

[phone]
Mulder: Mulder.
Scully: Where are you?
Mulder: I was just about to call you. Look, I'm on my way back. You may have been right, Scully, at least partly. I think there is a foreign signal being introduced into these people's homes through the television set. Scully, are you there?
Scully: I'm here.
Mulder: I think they may be running some kind of test. Scully, did you hear what I just said?
Scully: So you had it analyzed?
Mulder: Yeah.
Scully: I just talked to agent Pendrell. He said that you never showed up.
Mulder: I didn't take it over to Pendrell.
Scully: Then where were you?
Mulder: Look, I'd rather talk about it when we get on the land line, OK? We've dealt with these kind of people before. We know what they're capable of.
Scully: What was that?
Mulder: What was what?
Scully: There. That noise.
Mulder: Scully, is there something wrong?
Scully: Mulder... Mulder, who's listening to...?
Mulder: Scully, look, I'm going to be right there, OK? Don't go anywhere. Scully?

Man 1: Here. She's in here. Watch that window.
Man 2: OK, ready? Ready. On the count... wait.
[knocks on the door]
[Scully fires 6 shots]
Mulder: Get back! Call the police. Scully! Scully!

[commercial break]

MAY 1
6:04 AM

Mrs. Scully: Hello?
Mulder: Mrs. Scully, hi. It's Fox Mulder.
Mrs. Scully: What is it? What's the matter?
Mulder: I was hoping that you'd heard from Dana.
Mrs. Scully: No. Has something happened?
Mulder: I'm not exactly sure. There's... there's some confusion here. She's missing.
Mrs. Scully: What do you mean, "missing"?
Mulder: Well, she ran off last night. Um... we're looking for her as best we can, but we are a little concerned.
Mrs. Scully: Oh, my God.
Mulder: Look, Mrs. Scully, I hate to do this to you, but I got to hang up on you right now.
Mrs. Scully: Fox, would you please just tell me what's wrong.
Mulder: Hang by the phone. I will call when I know something. [to Skinner] Sir, can I have a word with you? This manhunt is being conducted as if we're searching for an escaped convict.
Skinner: Mulder, I share your concern for agent Scully, but the fact remains, she fired four rounds at you and an unarmed civilian last night.
Mulder: I appreciate that, but these officers should be instructed not to confront her once they find her.
Skinner: What would you have them do?
Mulder: Just to keep an eye on her until I can get there. I think I can get her to listen to me.
Skinner: She didn't listen to you last night.
Mulder: That's because she's not responsible for her own actions. She's suffering from some kind of paranoid psychosis.
Skinner: Brought on by what?
Mulder: I can't explain the exact mechanism, but it has something to do with certain videotapes we watched that we recovered from a crime scene.
Skinner: Videotapes?
Mulder: Videotapes that contain an electronic signal that somehow induces violent behavior.
Skinner: Do you have any proof of this?
Mulder: I'm working on that.
Skinner: Whatever prompted her behavior, the fact remains that Scully is armed and obviously dangerous, so I suggest you marshal whatever resources you have to make sure that you find her first.

[phone]
Mulder: Mulder.
Frohike: Mulder, we pulled something off that videotape you found in Scully's room.
Mulder: What is it?
Frohike: Something interesting, but we don't wanna talk about it over the phone. Big Brother may be listening.

Frohike: Here is the tape Scully was reviewing last night. We scanned samples of the tape onto disk.
Langly: Digitized it.
Byers: Using some interpolating freeware we pulled down off the net, we were able to blank out visible frames.
Mulder: What am I looking at?
Langly: Well, this is the actual signal your cable trap device was emitting.
Byers: Of course, we've slowed it down significantly. It's designed to cycle at 15 flashes per second to induce what's known as the "photic driving response."
Mulder: Bring it home, boys.
Langly: This device is stimulating electrical activity in the brain.
Byers: Studies into subliminal influence have shown a correlation between heightened suggestibility and the manipulation of this response.
Mulder: Mind control?
Langly: 57 Channels of it.
Byers: Tachistoscopic images, like they used to sell popcorn at the movies. Both Russian and American scientists have been working with them for decades.
Frohike: Not to mention Madison Avenue.
Mulder: The naked lady in the ice cube.
Frohike: Ah, one of my personal favorites.
Mulder: Why wasn't I affected?
Frohike: That's the one thing we haven't figured out yet.
Mulder: This, uh... subliminal signal, could color be a factor in it?
Byers: Maybe.
Mulder: I'm red-green color blind.
Byers: His inability to perceive red could render him immune to the psychotropic effects.
Langly: Why design a color-dependent signal?
Frohike: Why not? Red-green color blindness affects only a small percentage of the male population.
Byers: Which still leaves the vast majority of the American public vulnerable to its effects.
[phone]
Mulder: Mulder. I'll be right there.
Frohike: What happened?
Mulder: Maryland State Police. They think they've found Scully.
Frohike: Is she OK?
Mulder: No. Um... they think maybe I should come down and ID the body.

CFM: Get in.
Mulder: I can't talk to you right now.
CFM: They're watching you. Now get in before we're both killed.
Mulder: That's an interesting choice of words. My partner may be dead.
CFM: That's not my concern.
Mulder: The hell it isn't! We're here because of you!
CFM: Keep your voice down.
Mulder: Who are you?! Who do you work for?
CFM: You're wasting time. While you're chasing your partner, they're destroying the evidence.
Mulder: Who?
CFM: Just follow the evidence. If you don't, by tomorrow, the responsible parties will be out of your reach.

Dr: State highway patrolman found the body off a rural highway at approximately 2:00 P.M. nude, shot in the forehead. Are you ready?
Mulder: Let me do that. It's not her. Somebody has to call her mother.
Dr: We already tried. We weren't able to reach her.
Mulder: She's not answering her phone?

Mulder: Mrs. Scully, is she here?
Mrs. Scully: Uh, no.
Mulder: You haven't been answering your phone.
Mrs. Scully: Well, when I hear from her, I'll call you, OK?
Mulder: I need to see her.
Mrs. Scully: Fox, please go away. Go away!
Mulder: I'm sorry. Where is she?
Mrs. Scully: Dana, put down the gun!
Mulder: I'm here to help you, Scully.
Scully: I told you, mom. He's here to kill me.
Mulder: I'm on your side, you know that.
Mrs. Scully: Put it down, Dana.
Mulder: Scully, listen to me carefully. You don't know it, but you're sick, with the same thing that drove those other people to murder, and whatever you think may be happening...
Scully: Just step back.
Mrs. Scully: Dana, you're not yourself. He's telling you the truth.
Scully: It's not the truth, mom. He's lied to me from the beginning. He never trusted me.
Mulder: Scully, you are the only one I trust.
Scully: You're in on it. You're one of them. You're one of the people who abducted me. You put that thing in my neck. You killed my sister!
Mrs. Scully: That's not true, Dana.
Scully: It is.
Mrs. Scully: I want you to listen to me.
Scully: Mom, just get out of the way!
Mrs. Scully: You trust me, don't you? You know that I would never hurt you. That I would never let anybody hurt you. That's why you came here, isn't it? You're safe here. Put the gun down, Dana. Put it down, Dana. Put it down.

[commercial break]

NORTHEAST GEORGETOWN MEDICAL CENTER
MAY 2
1:43 PM

Mulder: How you feeling?
Scully: Ashamed. I was so sure, Mulder. I saw things, and I heard things, and... it was just like the world was turned upside down. Everybody was out to get me.
Mulder: Now you know how I feel most of the time.
Scully: I thought you were gonna kill me.
Mulder: I'm not surprised. I did some checking. Joseph Patnik thought he was murdering a Bosnian war criminal--a man the media described as a modern-day Hitler. It turns out, both Patnik's parents were Holocaust survivors.
Scully: I'm not following.
Mulder: Helene Riddock was scared that her husband was going to be unfaithful to her. You see a pattern developing here? What if this video signal somehow turned these people's anxieties into some kind of dementia--a virtual reality of their own worst nightmares?
Scully: Like me thinking that you'd betray me. I was so far gone, Mulder. I thought that you had gone to the other side.
Mulder: What do you mean?
Scully: That Cancer Man, the man who smokes all those cigarettes. I was sure that I saw the two of you sitting in your car in the motel parking lot. You were reporting to him. You handed him a videotape. It was crazy.
Mulder: Maybe not.
Scully: What do you mean?
Mulder: You know, somebody's behind this. We just don't know who.
Scully: You think it could be him?
Mulder: I don't know. Why don't you try and get some rest?

Mulder: Dr. Lorenz.
Lorenz: Agent Mulder. I was just about to check in on your partner.
Mulder: What course of treatment have you outlined for agent Scully?
Lorenz: At this point, nothing more than bed rest. We still haven't been able to determine what brought this on. As far as I can tell, there's nothing medically wrong with her.
Mulder: That didn't seem to be the case last night.
Lorenz: No, it wasn't. It's got me puzzled. Her MRI was negative, but the spinal tap revealed high levels of serotonin in her brain.
Mulder: You think that would account for her strange behavior?
Lorenz: High serotonin levels have been associated with mania. But the good news is, as of this afternoon, her levels are pretty much back to normal.
Mulder: Dr. Lorenz, uh, would you have made a diagnosis of amphetamine abuse for someone in agent Scully's condition?
Lorenz: Not given her serotonin levels, no. That wouldn't make any sense.
Mulder: Thank you. [phone] Braddock Heights. Yeah, I need the number for the Frederick County Psychiatric Hospital, please.

Nurse: Ward three.
Mulder: Yeah, this is Fox Mulder with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I need to talk to Dr. Stroman, please.
Nurse: I'm sorry, Dr. Stroman's no longer here. I believe he's returned to Washington.
Mulder: You know where I can reach him?
Nurse: I'm not sure...he left us a local number. It's around here, somewhere.
Mulder: Is it 555-0135?
Nurse: That's it.
Mulder: Thank you.

Mulder: You want me to go first this time?
Manager: You're damn straight. I haven't had a chance to clean the room yet. He just checked out. What with all the excitement, I don't blame him.
Mulder: You charge for local calls?
Manager: Of course.
Mulder: You'd have a record of all calls...
Manager: I'll get it. [...] Here you go.
Mulder: Thanks. Thank you. [phone] Hey, Danny, it's Mulder. I need you to check a number for me.

Cable guy: That's what he told me, Stroman.
Stroman: Then where is he? He said he'd be here by now.
Cable guy: He'll be here.
Stroman: It's almost 7:00. I can't wait much longer. There's no sign of him.
[two shots fired]
X: You're too late, agent Mulder.
Mulder: Now that you've destroyed all the evidence.
X: You were told this would happen. You made your choice.
Mulder: I just didn't know I was working for you.
X: I had no alternative. I was being watched too closely. I couldn't risk compromising myself.
Mulder: Why kill them, if you wanted me to expose them?
X: Those were always my orders, agent Mulder. I was just hoping you'd get to them first.
Mulder: And uncover what? What were they trying to do--manipulate people's behavior? Alter their decision-making process? What to buy, who to vote for?
X: You think they'll stop at commerce and politics?
Mulder: Where will they stop?
X: That's where you failed, agent Mulder.
Mulder: Don't lay this off on me, you sneaky son of a bitch. You pulled me into this situation because you didn't have the courage to reveal the truth yourself.
X: Feel better now?
Mulder: You're a coward! You work in the shadows. You feed me scraps of information, hoping that I can piece it together. You've made me risk my life, you risk my partner's life and you never risk your own. You're not walking away from this.
X: You're risking your life right now. You failed. This is your success? Killing me? The truth is... you need me, agent Mulder.

FBI HEADQUARTERS
MAY 10

Skinner: This is your final report, agent Mulder?
Mulder: Yes, sir.
Skinner: I see more questions here than I do answers. You don't know who manufactured the device you found, or what its purpose was.
Mulder: No, sir.
Skinner: Agent Scully, welcome back.
Scully: I'm sorry I'm late. I just got back from the documents section.
Skinner: What did you find out about the two men Mulder found executed?
Scully: The cable company employee had no criminal record. In fact, there was nothing remarkable about him whatsoever. We found a medical license under the name Dr. Henry Stroman in Falls Church, Virginia. He died in 1978.
Skinner: What about their killer?
Mulder: He remains an unknown subject.

Cancer Man: Have you completed your work?
X: All the personnel and hardware have been removed, but Mulder still has one of the devices.
Cancer Man: It proves nothing. What about, uh, Mulder's source?
X: He's been eliminated.
Cancer Man: And his source? Who's he working with?
X: That person remains unknown.