Story Code '#4X22'
by John Shiban
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'Elegy' Story Code '#4X22' by John Shiban |
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SCENE 1 - ANGIE'S MIDNIGHT BOWL,WASHINGTON DC
(It is after hours, and Angie Pintero is cleaning up. He walks by a counter where Harold Spuller is very slowly putting bowling shoes back into bins on the wall)
ANGIE:
Oh gosh, go home Harold.
HAROLD:
I'm not done yet.
ANGIE:
Harold, you hear me? You should have gone home already.
HAROLD:
I'm not done yet.
ANGIE:
For praying out loud Harold, this ain't so difficult.
(Angie starts quickly shoving shoes onto the shelves. Harold becomes increasingly agitated)
HAROLD:
(Shouts) I'M NOT DONE YET!
ANGIE:
(Gently putting his hands on Harold's shoulders) Harold, it's past your bedtime. It's ok. And the doctors will be worried about you. You did a good job today now you go home c'mon.
(Harold walks away, mumbling)
HAROLD:
Sixteen, twenty-one, thirty-seven, forty-five, sixty, seventy0one, eighty-six...
(Angie sees the pin setter cycling on one lane. He walks over and presses the reset button on the lane, and a bowling ball returns. He picks it up and sees blood on it)
ANGIE:
What the hell?
(He walks down the lane and sees a pool of blood next to one of the pins)
ANGIE:
Jeez.
(He crouches down and looks up into the pin setter and sees a pale image of a young girl, caught in the mechanism. Her eyes are open and her mouth is moving slowly but there is no sound)
ANGIE:
Oh God, oh my God! No! I'll get help! Oh!
(He runs to the phone and dials 911 but just then hears a siren outside and runs out toward a police officer standing just across the street)
ANGIE:
Officer, officer!
OFFICER:
Sir, this don't involve you.
ANGIE:
There's a woman inside, she's bleeding, she's ...
(Angie looks beyond the officer and sees the body of a young woman lying on the pavement with her throat cut. It is the same girl that he saw in the pin setter mechanism)
ANGIE:
God. That's her! That's the girl I saw!
OPENING TITLES
SCENE 2 - ANGIE'S MIDNIGHT BOWL
(It is during normal business hours. Scully is putting on bowling shoes. While bowlers are celebrating in the background, Scully walks down the lane toward Mulder and Angie, who are lying in the lane, looking up at the pin setter)
MULDER:
Hey, Scully, take a look at this.
(Scully joins them underneath the pin setter)
SCULLY:
What am I looking at?
MULDER:
The pin setter. You see the way it's wedged and broken?
SCULLY:
Yep.
MULDER:
Mr. Pintero said the only way that would happen would be if considerable weight or pressure was placed on it from above.
SCULLY:
(To Angie) This is where you saw the body?
ANGIE:
Yes ma'am, she was caught up in the machinery. Her neck was cut.
SCULLY:
And the blood from the victim was pooling where?
ANGIE:
(Pointing to a spot beneath the pin setter) Right here.
SCULLY:
But both the body and the blood were gone when you returned?
ANGIE:
Yeah, but like, like I said, the woman in the parking lot ...
SCULLY:
Was the same woman that you saw caught up here in the machinery?
ANGIE:
That's right.
(Scully gives Mulder a brief glance, then backs out from beneath the pin setter. Angie follows. Mulder lays his head down on the lane, studying the area carefully. He then backs out and stands. Scully is writing notes on a pad)
ANGIE:
Look, I'm not making this up!
MULDER:
No one's suggesting that you are, Mr. Pintero.
ANGIE:
I saw the look on her face.
MULDER:
Can I ask you a favour? Can I get a soda, a cola, something like that?
ANGIE:
Sure.
MULDER:
Thanks.
ANGIE:
Yeah.
(Angie walks back to get Mulder's drink. Mulder and Scully start walking back to the head of the lane)
MULDER:
What is that look, Scully?
SCULLY:
I would have thought that after three years you'd know exactly what that look was.
MULDER:
What, you don't believe in ghosts?
SCULLY:
You're saying that what this man saw was the victim's ghost?
MULDER:
Sounds more like a disembodied soul.
SCULLY:
Which is just another name for a ghost.
MULDER:
Except according to Mr. Pintero, this one was trying to communicate. It was speaking to him as if she was trying to tell him something. It sounds more like a death omen.
SCULLY:
A death omen?
MULDER:
Yeah. It's a spirit being that arrives as a harbinger of death.
(Mulder grabs a bowling ball and bowls a strike. Scully shows mild surprise)
MULDER:
This is the third reported sighting in as many weeks ... and as many murders. Each time the victim appearing near the crime scene trying to communicate, trying to say something.
SCULLY:
Communicate what?
MULDER:
I don't know yet but, uh, ... (To Pintero, who has returned with a drink) ... thank you. (To Scully) If you hold on a second I may have an answer for you.
(Mulder walks back toward the pin setter, with Scully and Angie following. Mulder lies down beneath the pin setter and pours the cola onto the area that Angie had pointed out)
ANGIE:
Hey! What are you doing?
MULDER:
She is me.
SCULLY:
What?
MULDER:
Written onto the wax - she is me - look at this!
(Scully moves closer and also sees the words ‘she is me’ showing up darkly in the pool of cola)
SCENE 3. POLICE MEETING ROOM
(Detective Hudak is showing slides and briefing a group of about a dozen policemen)
DET. HUDAK:
Three victims ... all women ... all approximately the same age, height, weight, hair and eye colour ... all attacked within the same six block area of each other. Our FBI profiling model suggests a white male, late twenties / early thirties. His victims were probably strangers to him... symbols representing other women in his life ... perhaps all women. (He notices Mulder whispering something to Scully) Hey you in the back! Are we boring you?
MULDER:
No, not at all.
DET. HUDAK:
Because if you have nothing to contribute to this profile ...
MULDER:
No, actually I do have something to add. I think that following the FBI model in this case will not only fail to turn up the killer but will undoubtedly lead to more victims and more deaths.
DET. HUDAK:
You want to tell us who you are and what you base that on?
MULDER:
I'm Special Agent Mulder. This is Agent Scully. We're from the FBI. We're here following up a lead that seems to have been dropped - a statement made by the proprietor of the bowling alley that ...
DET. HUDAK:
... the guy that claims that he saw the victim ...
MULDER:
No, no, not the victim. Her apparition, what the Irish call a fetch, what is more commonly known as a wraith.
DET. HUDAK:
Oh, ok.
MULDER:
Were there any written messages in any of these other cases?
DET. HUDAK:
Written messages?
MULDER:
Do the words ‘she is me’ have any meaning to you?
DET. HUDAK:
You mean Penny Timmons last words?
MULDER:
Those were her dying words?
DET. HUDAK:
According to a Nine-One-One call we received ...
MULDER:
Well who made that call?
DET. HUDAK:
A nut.
MULDER:
What do you mean?
DET. HUDAK:
There were no dying words. Penny Timmons larynx was severed. She couldn't cry for help even if there was help to cry for.
MULDER:
And no one followed up on this lead?
DET. HUDAK:
No but, uh, I'll have someone get you the number and you can follow up on it.
MULDER:
I'd appreciate that.
SCENE 4 - NEW HORIZON PSYCHIATRIC CENTER
(A gathering room, where patients are engaging in various activities. Among the patients is Howard Spuller. Mr. Alpert, the facility head, enters with Mulder, Scully, and Nurse Innes)
ALPERT:
People! People! Listen up now. I've brought some folks who want to talk with you. Nurse Innes, could you gather the group?
INNES:
All right everyone! Let's go, you know the drill. Get your seats. Group seating. Go on in. (To Harold, who is slow to get up) Harold, come on. Harold.
(All the patients get settled into chairs)
ALPERT:
Good morning, everybody.
PATIENTS:
(Together) Good morning, Mr. Alpert.
ALPERT:
I've brought visitors today. They're investigating a crime.
(Several patients look alarmed) It's OK. They just want to ask you a few questions.
MULDER:
Hi. I wanted to ask if anybody used the pay phone out in the hallway there on Friday night - because somebody called the police and reported a murder.
(There is no reaction from any of the patients)
ALPERT:
(Whispers to Mulder) Sloppy Joe night.
MULDER:
That was Sloppy Joe night.
CHUCK:
(A patient) Oh, that was me. I did it. I admit it, I did it. I'm just a human being, after all.
ALPERT:
Chuck! Tell the truth.
CHUCK:
No. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. I ... I lied. I lied but I'm just a human being.
ALPERT:
Has anyone used the pay phone to call the police?
(Again no response from the patients. Howard Spuller is in the back, rocking quickly back and forth and looking agitated)
MULDER:
(Holding up a picture of the latest victim) Anybody recognise this woman?
(Several patients slowly raise their hands)
CHUCK:
That's the lady that got murdered.
VARIOUS PATIENTS:
Yeah she's the one ...I recognise her ... I know her ... She was murdered ...
(Mulder notices that Harold Spuller is not responding and has a pained look on his face)
SCULLY:
(Holding up a copy of a ‘TV Guide’ with Jay Leno's picture on the cover) And, does anybody recognise this man?
VARIOUS PATIENTS:
Oh, yes, yes, he did it ... He did it ... He's the murderer ... He's a very funny man ... He smiles a lot.
(Scully glances at Mulder and walks out)
MULDER:
(To Alpert) The quiet man in the back.
ALPERT:
Harold Spuller.
MULDER:
The only one who didn't raise his hand, yeah. Has he ever been a problem?
ALPERT:
Harold? No. He has a tendency to get a little worked up.
MULDER:
Do you think I could talk to him.
ALPERT:
Yeah, sure.
SCENE 5 - THE HALLWAY IN THE PSYCHIATRIC CENTER
(Scully is examining crime scene photos. Harold, Nurse Innes and Mulder are walking toward her. Harold and Innes continue toward a meeting room while Mulder stops to talk to Scully)
SCULLY:
Yeah, I found something here Mulder ... in these photos taken by the forensics team. The third victim, her left hand, that band of pale skin. It looks like she wore a ring on that hand.
MULDER:
(Looking at the photo) A wedding ring, yeah.
SCULLY:
Yeah. But she wasn't married.
MULDER:
So what, he stole her ring?
SCULLY:
No, not at all.
(Scully shows him another photo of the same victim, showing a ring on her right hand)
MULDER:
Oh, he switched it.
SCULLY:
(Shuffling through some other photos) And in all the other murders he repeated the same ritual, changing the ring on each of the victims.
MULDER:
Nice catch, Scully. Any idea about the psychology at work?
SCULLY:
Well, there's something called ego dystonia. It's a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder where a person has the persistent and inescapable impulses to change things, to organise, to reorganise. But it's not ordinarily something that escalates to a murderous impulse.
MULDER:
Not ordinarily unless there was a more complex psychology at work, like pronounced mental illness.
SCULLY:
You really think that the killer is a patient here?
MULDER:
I'm not sure if the killer is here, but certainly the person that made that phone call is, and I think his name is Harold Spuller.
SCULLY:
Did he cop to making the call?
MULDER:
No but he's about to.
SCENE 6 - A MEETING ROOM AT THE CENTER
(Mulder and Scully are questioning Harold, who appears upset. Nurse Innes is also in the room)
HAROLD:
I don't know anything. I didn't do anything. Leave me alone.
MULDER:
You made that phone call, didn't you Harold?
HAROLD:
No!
MULDER:
Did you say the words ‘she is me’?
HAROLD:
No!
MULDER:
Have you ever heard those words?
HAROLD:
No!
MULDER:
Have you ever seen a ghost, Harold?
HAROLD:
No! No! (He starts rocking back and forth and repeating ‘No’ more loudly and rapidly) Please leave me alone.
(Mulder and Scully step back, and Nurse Innes moves in to try to calm Harold, but he continues to shout ‘No’)
SCULLY:
Well ... when you're right, you're right.
HAROLD:
(Now crying) Seventeen... thirty... thirty-seven... forty-five... fifty-three...
SCENE 7 - AN OFFICE IN THE PSYCHIATRIC CENTER
(Scully is seated reviewing medical records as Mulder walks in)
SCULLY:
Harold Spuller suffers from pervasive developmental disorder, which is sometimes called atypical autism. He's spent his entire life in and out of facilities just like this one. He has been medicated, he has received shock therapy and, aside from his other disabilities, he has been diagnosed with severe ego dystonic obsessive-compulsive disorder ... which would explain the switching of the victims rings.
MULDER:
So why all of a sudden?
SCULLY:
You mean what made him snap? Why, I think his outburst clearly showed a frustrated impulse towards violence when he was put in a challenging situation.
MULDER:
That outburst didn't come until after I'd asked him if he'd ever seen a ghost.
SCULLY:
Mulder, the man is disturbed. You could see the pressure building in him from the moment the interview began.
MULDER:
Yeah.
SCULLY:
Why are you now so unconvinced that Harold Spuller is the man we came here looking for?
MULDER:
I'm sure Harold Spuller is the man that made that phone call. But what led us to him still remains unexplained.
SCULLY:
‘She is me’.
MULDER:
Uh huh, and the other apparitions, like the one Mr. Pintero saw at the bowling alley.
SCULLY:
Well, I think I have an idea about that if not an explanation. Howard Spuller is at this facility voluntarily, which means he can come and go as he pleases, to kill those women or to hold down a job or both.
(Scully points to a page from Harold's records, which shows Angie's Midnight Bowl as his place of employment. A droplet of blood falls onto the paper next to her finger. Scully's nose is bleeding. She wipes at her nose with her hand)
MULDER:
Oh Scully ...
SCULLY:
Yeah. It's ok.
MULDER:
You sure?
SCULLY:
Yeah, it's just, um, I'm fine. I just need to find a washroom.
(She walks out leaving Mulder with a pained look on his face)
SCENE 8 - A WASHROOM AT THE CENTER
(Scully enters and gets a paper towel from the dispenser and holds it to her nose. She walks over to the sink, looks in the mirror, and leans over to run some water on the towel. She holds it to her nose and looks back up at the mirror. The words ‘She is me’ are written on the mirror in blood. As she stares at the mirror, a low moaning sound is heard. She walks around a partition in the washroom and sees a ghost-like figure of a young woman next to the window. The woman is wearing a college sweatshirt and her mouth is open, although no words can be heard. As Scully watches, a line across the young woman's throat opens up and blood flows down her neck)
MULDER:
(Knocking on the door of the washroom) Scully?
(Scully glances at the door, then looks back toward the window and the ghost-like figure is gone)
MULDER:
Scully, you in there?
(Scully walks back around to the sink and the words are no longer on the mirror)
SCULLY:
(In a shaky voice) Yeah.
MULDER:
(Opening the washroom door) They found another victim. A college student with her throat cut. Just about a half block from here.
(He closes the door, leaving a stunned Scully in the washroom)
SCENE 9 - CITY STREET
(A city street near the centre, the scene of the latest murder. Scully looks at the body. The young woman is the same one she saw in the washroom, wearing the same sweatshirt)
MULDER:
Her name was Loren Heller, age twenty-one. She's single, apparently she was on her way home from a bar that she part-timed at after school. She had a ring on her left hand, switched to her right hand, pinky finger. She was dead less than an hour when she was found.
SCULLY:
That would rule out Harold Spuller as the killer, huh?
MULDER:
No, actually it doesn't. Harold's not at the home. He's nowhere to be found. His nurse locked him in his room after we left, but he managed to escape unnoticed.
SCULLY:
I don't imagine he'd be too hard to find.
MULDER:
Yeah, but I think we should be the ones to find him, if only to find out what ‘she is me’ means.
(Scully seems distant and distracted)
SCULLY:
Mulder ... I ...
MULDER:
What?
SCULLY:
I think I'm going to let you take care of that. I, uh, I think I'm gonna get this checked out just, you know, just to be safe.
MULDER:
You want me to drive you?
SCULLY:
No, no, I'm fine really. I've had the doctors keep a close watch and it's just, just precaution.
MULDER:
You're sure?
SCULLY:
I'm fine.
(She walks away, watched by a concerned Mulder)
SCENE 10 - A DARK AREA
(Harold is applying paste to the back of a piece of paper and mumbling numbers under his breath. He attaches the paper, a bowling scorecard, to a wall. He looks just to the left and sees the words ‘She is me’ written in blood across some scorecards. He slowly turns around and sees the ghostly images of four young women)
HAROLD:
No ... no ... I just want to be left alone!
SCENE 11 - HOSPITAL LABORATORY
(A nurse is taking a blood sample from Scully's arm. Scully stares ahead sombrely. The nurse finishes and leaves the room. Scully stands and fetches her coat. She walks slowly across the room, looking up at her reflection in a mirror)
SCENE 12 - COUNSELLOR KAREN KOSSEFF'S OFFICE
KOSSEFF:
We've spoken about your fear. You've been afraid to express it to others, to Agent Mulder.
SCULLY:
This is different.
KOSSEFF:
How?
SCULLY:
Several months ago, I was diagnosed with a cancerous mass - a nasal pharyngeal tumour that can not be operated on and, uh, cannot be treated by conventional medicine.
KOSSEFF:
I'm sorry.
SCULLY:
I don't mean for this to sound too dire. My health has been good. I have been checked up on a weekly basis.
KOSSEFF:
You've kept working?
SCULLY:
Yes. It's been important to me.
KOSSEFF:
Why?
(Scully seems surprised by the question and is slow to answer)
SCULLY:
Why? Um ...Agent Mulder has been concerned. He's been supportive through this time.
KOSSEFF:
Do you feel that you owe it to him to continue working?
SCULLY:
(Quickly) No. (Pauses) I guess I never realised how much I rely on him before this ... his passion ... he's been a great source of strength that I've drawn on.
KOSSEFF:
What happened last night, Dana?
SCULLY:
I saw something. I, I don't know what to trust. If I saw it because of the stress, because the image had been suggested to me or if it was a suggestion of my own fears.
KOSSEFF:
Your fear of failing him?
SCULLY:
(Exhales emotionally) Maybe.
KOSSEFF:
What did you see?
SCULLY:
I saw a woman who had recently been murdered. I saw her. It appeared as if she was trying to tell me something.
KOSSEFF:
Do you know what?
SCULLY:
No.
KOSSEFF:
Are you sure?
(Scully pauses, then looks up at Kosseff, her eyes moist)
SCENE 13 - ANGIE'S MIDNIGHT BOWL
(Mulder enters and looks around. Angie sees him from behind a counter)
ANGIE:
Hey, you're back.
MULDER:
Yeah, I'm looking for Harold Spuller.
ANGIE:
Harold? What for?
MULDER:
Suspicion of murder.
ANGIE:
You think Harold killed those women?
MULDER:
You obviously don't think so, huh?
ANGIE:
Harold's worked for me for ten years. He might be crazy but he couldn't kill anyone. He's a sweet kid.
MULDER:
You know where he is now?
ANGIE:
He was here this morning when I arrived, arranging the shoes.
MULDER:
He has a key?
ANGIE:
No, he's got some damn way of getting in here through an abandoned building next door.
(Mulder looks around again. We see Harold crouched below the pin setter in the service area)
MULDER:
Did you ever get Lane Six working?
ANGIE:
No, not since I saw the girl.
(Mulder looks back toward Lane Six just as a couple of pins falls from the pin setter onto the lane. He starts toward the pin setter and spots Harold)
MULDER:
Harold?
(Harold ducks back into the service area and climbs a ladder. Mulder slides under the pin setter into the service area and pursues)
MULDER:
Harold?
(He follows Harold up the ladder)
MULDER:
Harold, I just want to talk to you. Harold?
(Mulder finds Harold sitting on the floor against the wall)
HAROLD:
(Softly) She is me ... she is me ... she is me ... she is me ... she is me ... she is me ...
MULDER:
Harold?
HAROLD:
(Softly) She is me ... she is me ... she is me ... she is me ... she is me ... she is me ...
SCENE 14 - AN INTERROGATION ROOM
(Harold, an attorney and Detective Hudak are seated at the table, while Mulder stands. Harold is rocking and mumbling)
ATTORNEY:
I want to make this clear from the start. My client is suffering from a mental disorder which impairs his judgement. He will not answer any questions regarding his guilt or innocence.
DET. HUDAK:
I'd be real happy if you'd quit talking right now.
ATTORNEY:
(Pointing a pen at Hudak) Any time Harold becomes upset or unwilling to cooperate, this interrogation will end. Detective Hudak?
DET. HUDAK:
(In an aggressive tone) Tell me why you did it, Harold, huh? Come on, tell me why you killed those women.
ATTORNEY:
What did I just say? This is totally unacceptable. I am prepared to tell my client not to cooperate.
MULDER:
(Gently) Harold? Harold, you knew those women who were murdered, didn't you? That's why you're scared. You're afraid they've come back to visit you. Penny Timmons.
HAROLD:
Eight, seventeen, thirty, thirty-seven, forty-five, fifty-three, seventy-one, eighty, ninety-two, ninety-nine, one-oh-eight.
MULDER:
Missy Shapiro.
HAROLD:
Fourteen, twenty-nine, thirty-eight, fifty-seven, seventy-one, seventy-nine, eighty-eight, one-oh-one, one-oh-seven.
MULDER:
Michelle Chamberlain.
HAROLD:
Seventeen, thirty-two, forty-nine, sixty-nine, seventy-eight, eighty-eight, ninety-nine.
MULDER:
What was her shoe size?
HAROLD:
Six and a half.
DET. HUDAK:
There you have it.
ATTORNEY:
This is not a confession.
DET. HUDAK:
He killed them. He stalked them, he fixated on them, and he slit their pretty little throats. Isn't that right, Harold, huh?
ATTORNEY:
Harold, as your paid attorney, I'm advising you not to respond to any more questions nor to cooperate with this investigation any further.
MULDER:
Harold, there are people who think that you murdered these women. I'm not one of them. But I need your help for me to prove that. You think you can do that? I think you can.
SCENE 15 - ANGIE'S MIDNIGHT BOWL
(Mulder enters followed by Harold, the attorney, Hudak and two uniformed officers)
MULDER:
Mr. Pintero? I'd like to search the building for any ways in or out that Harold might have of the bowling alley.
ANGIE:
Oh sure.
MULDER:
Thanks.
ANGIE:
You OK, Harold?
HAROLD:
The shoes are out of order, Mr. Pintero. I'm sorry.
ANGIE:
Hey. It's OK, buddy, don't you worry about it. You get this straightened out with these folks, then you'll come back and keep me in line.
HAROLD:
OK, Mr. Pintero.
(Mulder, Hudak and the attorney are being led by Harold through a dark area in the adjacent building)
DET. HUDAK:
I want to know why the hell we're being led around like this.
MULDER:
I'm hoping it will become clear to us when we find it.
DET. HUDAK:
Is that right? He's going to show us something that's going to exonerate him?
MULDER:
I think so.
HAROLD:
Here.
(Harold points to a scorecard pasted to the wall that has ‘Michelle C’ as one of the bowlers)
DET. HUDAK:
Here what?
DET. HUDAK:
My God! They're all here, every victim.
(They see another scorecard with ‘Penny T’. The whole wall is covered with scorecards)
ATTORNEY:
This proves nothing.
DET. HUDAK:
He fixated on them.
ATTORNEY:
I see hundreds of scorecards up here, thousands of names.
MULDER:
Choose a name. Pick a name, pick any name up there.
DET. HUDAK:
(Looking at a scorecard) Fred Graham.
HAROLD:
Seventeen, forty-two, sixty-seven, eighty-eight, one-oh-seven, one-twenty-two, one-thirty-one, one-sixty-six, one-seventy-eight, two-oh-one.
(The numbers match the frame-by-frame score for Fred Graham's scorecard)
MULDER:
Two-hundred game. that's not bad.
DET. HUDAK:
You're saying he has all these scores in his head?
MULDER:
Including the victims.
ATTORNEY:
You said this proves his innocence. How?
(Harold looks down the wall and sees a pale image of Angie in the corridor)
MULDER:
I'm not sure exactly, but I think that ...
HAROLD:
No! No!
(Mulder looks toward the same area and sees nothing. Harold still sees the image, and Angie's mouth is moving)
HAROLD:
No! No! No!
(Harold dashes off back in the direction that they came. The other three start after him)
(Back at the front of the alley, Harold is on his knees, crying loudly, as Mulder catches up. One of the officers is performing CPR on Angie, who is lying on the floor)
OFFICER:
He just keeled ... fell right over. I've done what I can. Must have been a heart attack.
(Harold continues to cry loudly as Mulder places a hand on his shoulder)
SCENE 16 - SCULLY'S APARTMENT
(Scully, with hands clasped in front of her chin, is sombrely staring into space. The doorbell rings. She goes to the door, looks through the peephole, unchains and opens the door and lets Mulder in)
MULDER:
Hey Scully. Is it too late?
SCULLY:
No. What are you doing Mulder?
MULDER:
I needed your help on something. I needed your medical expertise.
SCULLY:
On what?
MULDER:
Harold Spuller. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't even ask you. What did your doctor say?
SCULLY:
I'm fine.
MULDER:
Good.
SCULLY:
What's up, Mulder?
MULDER:
Angie Pintero, the bowling alley guy? He's dead.
SCULLY:
How?
MULDER:
Natural causes. Congestive heart failure. Just keeled over right in the bowling alley.
SCULLY:
That's what you need my medical opinion on?
MULDER:
No. Howard Spuller had a preminatory vision of his boss's death.
SCULLY:
I don't understand.
MULDER:
Harold saw an apparition - what may have been Angie Pintero's disembodied soul at the moment of or just prior to his death.
SCULLY:
How do you know?
MULDER:
Because I was standing right there when he saw it.
SCULLY:
But you didn't see it yourself?
MULDER:
No.
SCULLY:
Why?
MULDER:
I don't have that facility, that kind of connection to the victims that would have made such a vision possible.
SCULLY:
What's Harold Spuller's connection?
MULDER:
I don't know its exact nature but I think it has something to do with his autism ... that Harold experienced a profound attachment to these victims but because of his disability was unable to express the depth and power of those relationships, so somehow a psychic or preconscious bond was formed that went beyond the temporal.
SCULLY:
Oh, wait a minute, so Harold knew the people that were killed?
MULDER:
Yeah, from the bowling alley, going back seven years.
SCULLY:
Even if what you're saying is true, Harold wasn't the only one who claims to have seen these apparitions.
MULDER:
No, but he does have something in common with those who've had the visions that is quite powerful in its own right.
SCULLY:
Which is what?
MULDER:
Well, they were all dying ... one of emphysema, one of cancer and now Angie Pintero.
SCULLY:
Harold Spuller is dying too?
MULDER:
Well that's what I need your medical opinion on.
SCULLY:
Well, what if he isn't?
MULDER:
I would be very surprised. What is a death omen if not a vision of our own mortality? And who among us would most likely be able to see the dead? Harold's at the resident home right now.
SCULLY:
I'll meet you there.
(Mulder leaves)
SCENE 17 - NEW HORIZON PSYCHIATRIC CENTER - 11:42 PM
(Chuck Forsch is lying in bed and hears Harold's name called and voices in hall. He goes to the door and looks out into the hall as two police officers are bringing Harold to Alpert)
ALPERT:
Well, you're back. Everything's going to be all right now, Harold. They just want us to keep you here for a little check-up. Nothing to worry about. (To the officers) Thanks, officers.
(The officers leave and Alpert and Harold start down the hall. Chuck opens the door wider and Harold stops to look at him. Harold appears agitated)
ALPERT:
All right, Chuck. Go to bed. You can see Harold in the morning.
(Chuck closes the door and Harold and Alpert continue down the hall)
ALPERT:
See. Everyone's so glad to see you back, Harold. You'll be able to talk to Chuck in the morning.
(In the exam room, Alpert hands Harold a cup with a half dozen tablets. Harold is still agitated and is mumbling numbers and rocking)
ALPERT:
You still have to take your meds, Harold. Keeps you flying straight and level. Come on. It's the way we always do it.
(Harold nervously takes the cup as Nurse Innes enters)
ALPERT:
Atta boy. Good stuff. (To Nurse Innes) Hi. We just brought him back.
INNES:
Is he acting up?
ALPERT:
No, I think he's just a little scared. I've been trying to get him to take his meds.
(Harold continues to mumble and rock. He is holding the cup but hasn't taken the pills)
INNES:
Why don't you let me sit with him for a bit.
ALPERT:
OK, sure.
(Alpert leaves. Innes waits until he has closed the door on his way out)
INNES:
Take your poison, Harold. Go on. What you got to live for now, huh? What did you tell them, Harold? Did you tell them about your little girlfriends? Huh? Did you tell them how you were in love?
(Harold becomes increasingly agitated)
HAROLD:
No!
INNES:
Did you show them your pictures?
HAROLD:
No!
INNES:
What do you think those girls thought of you, Harold? Do you think they loved you back? No one could love you, Harold. (Points at a mirror) Look at yourself. They looked at you and saw an ugly toad. A retard.
SCENE 18 - THE FRONT DESK AT THE CENTER
(Mulder enters and sees Alpert)
ALPERT:
Agent Mulder.
MULDER:
Thanks for accommodating us again.
ALPERT:
Not a problem. We're all concerned for Harold.
MULDER:
I understand.
ALPERT:
You're bringing a doctor?
MULDER:
Agent Scully's a doctor. If you can arrange to have Harold's medical records made available, that would expedite the ...
(A scream is heard from down the hall. Mulder and Alpert hurry toward it. Several patients come out into the hallway as well)
SCENE 19 - THE EXAM ROOM
(Nurse Innes is alone, lying on the floor. She is bleeding from a head wound)
ALPERT:
Oh God. What's happened to you? Don't touch that. Don't touch that. It's just a cut.
(Scully walks down the hallway. There is a crowd of patients outside the exam room. Scully slips between them and into the room. Nurse Innes is sitting on the exam table)
MULDER:
Tell me exactly what happened.
INNES:
Like he just went wacko. I was trying to get him to take his meds and he went berserk. He jumps me, he starts pounding me like he wants to kill me.
MULDER:
Did he say anything?
INNES:
No, he just started screaming like a lunatic. Something's gone wrong with him. I think he's lost it for good. (To Alpert) I'll be damned if I'm gonna to take care of him any more.
ALPERT:
Look, I think you should get this cut on your head looked at.
INNES:
Maybe, just give me a few minutes to get my nerves back.
(Alpert, Mulder and Scully walk out of the room, leaving Innes alone)
ALPERT:
(To several patients who are in the hallway) OK everybody, everything's fine now. Come on, back to bed. That's right. Go on now. We'll see you in the morning. Night-night everybody. (To Mulder) What can I do to help?
MULDER:
I want you to call the police. Ask for Detective Hudak. Tell them what happened, tell them to look for Harold down at the bowling alley.
ALPERT:
Are they going to arrest him?
MULDER:
I don't see that there's any way around that. Sorry.
(Alpert leaves)
SCULLY:
Maybe you were wrong.
MULDER:
Well, that's a superficial head wound, Scully. He didn't mean to kill her or maim her. That's not the work of a murderer if you ask me.
SCULLY:
Then why would he do it?
MULDER:
Maybe Harold is sicker than we thought he was.
SCULLY:
Maybe. We won't know until we can examine him.
(Mulder notices Chuck Forsch looking at them from up the hall)
MULDER:
I think there's someone you can talk to about it. Why don't you talk to his roommate and I'll see what I can do about finding Harold.
SCENE 20 - THE EXAM ROOM
(Alone, Nurse Innes slips a scalpel into her pocket)
SCENE 21 - CHUCK FORSCH'S ROOM
(Scully enters)
CHUCK:
Oh hi.
SCULLY:
Is your name Chuck?
CHUCK:
Yes. Yes it is. Uh, Chuck Forsch. F-O-R-S-C-H. Chuck Forsch.
SCULLY:
Do you, uh, do you share this room with Harold?
CHUCK:
Yes, he's my friend.
SCULLY:
Do you know where he is?
CHUCK:
He's dying, isn't he? Harold is dying.
SCULLY:
Why do you say that?
CHUCK:
Nurse Innes, she's, she's trying to poison him.
SCULLY:
Who told you that?
CHUCK:
Harold. He said she told him she was putting poison in his meds.
SCULLY:
Harold hasn't been taking his medication?
CHUCK:
I don't know. I don't know everything, I'm only a human being. But I do know that Harold's my friend. He wouldn't hurt anybody. You know, he really loved them.
SCULLY:
Who?
(Chuck crosses the room and removes a book from a drawer)
CHUCK:
Harold. He gave them to me. He was afraid.
(Chuck takes several photographs from the book and hands them to Scully. The pictures are of the murdered women)
SCULLY:
Does anybody else know about these pictures, Chuck?
CHUCK:
Nurse Innes.
SCENE 22 - THE LADIES' RESTROOM AT THE CENTER
(Nurse Innes is alone at the sink. She has Harold's medications and nervously takes a drink of water, swallowing some of them. She is startled as Scully enters)
SCULLY:
How are you feeling?
INNES:
I'm, you know, shaky.
SCULLY:
Understandable.
INNES:
Working with these people starts driving you crazy too. I'm just looking forward to going home.
SCULLY:
Will your family be a comfort?
(Scully notices that Nurse Innes is holding something in her left hand)
INNES:
I live alone.
SCULLY:
No children?
INNES:
Just the one my husband ran off with.
(Innes drops the pills onto the floor)
SCULLY:
Nurse Innes, I'm afraid I'm gonna to have to ask you to step out into the hallway.
(Innes takes the scalpel from her pocket and slashes at Scully, driving her to the wall. Scully catches Innes's arm and they struggle. Scully forces Innes to drop the scalpel by slamming her hand against the wall. They continue to struggle, and Innes grabs Scully's coat and uses it to sling her across the room and to the floor. As Innes retrieves the scalpel, Scully draws her gun and aims it at her.
SCULLY:
Stay where you are! Drop it! Let it go!
(Innes pauses for a moment, then raises the scalpel and lunges forward. Still lying on the floor, Scully fires)
(From a ramp in the centre, Mulder hears the shot and runs back to the restroom. He is joined by Alpert. Scully is standing over Innes, who is bleeding from a gunshot wound in the shoulder)
SCULLY:
She's alive. Let's get a paramedic in here.
ALPERT:
Yeah.
(Alpert runs back to summon help)
MULDER:
(Looking at Scully's hand) You're cut.
SCULLY:
Yeah, she attacked me.
(Mulder starts to pick up the scalpel)
SCULLY:
You might want to bag that. I'm pretty sure it's the murder weapon.
SCENE 23 - HALLWAY
(Later, Mulder and Scully are walking down the hall as Nurse Innes is carried out on a stretcher. As they talk, Mulder and Scully walk down the ramp in the front part of the centre)
SCULLY:
She had been taking Harold's meds ... clonazepam and clozapine ... the unregulated effects of which are violence and unpredictable behaviour.
MULDER:
Yeah, but why did you even suspect her?
SCULLY:
Well, I went in to talk to Harold's roommate and he said that Harold thought that she'd been poisoning him. So I went in to confront her and she just went off.
MULDER:
Why do you think she killed those women?
SCULLY:
I don't know. I mean, maybe in some drug-addled way, she was trying to kill happiness, Harold's happiness, his love for those women, maybe trying to destroy something she thought she'd never have again.
MULDER:
She is me.
SCULLY:
I don't know. Have they found Harold?
MULDER:
Yeah. They found in an alley a few blocks from here, face down on the pavement. They worked on him for twenty minutes but he couldn't be revived.
SCULLY:
What happened?
MULDER:
Well, preliminary diagnosis is apnia - respiratory failure.
SCULLY:
As a result of what?
MULDER:
Well, the paramedics are at a loss to explain that, but if what you're saying is true, that Harold stopped taking his medications, then that could have been a factor in his death - at least in the visions that he was seeing.
SCULLY:
Well, Harold Spuller wasn't dying, Mulder. He, he was killed as a result of what that woman took away from him.
MULDER:
Is that your medical opinion?
(Scully pauses. They have stopped walking and are standing on the ramp)
SCULLY:
I saw something Mulder.
MULDER:
What?
SCULLY:
The fourth victim. I saw her in the bathroom before you came to tell me.
MULDER:
(In a slightly annoyed tone) Why didn't you tell me?
SCULLY:
Because I didn't want to believe it. Because I don't want to believe it.
MULDER:
Is that why you came down here, to prove that it wasn't true?
SCULLY:
No, I came down here because you asked me to.
MULDER:
Why can't you be honest with me?
SCULLY:
(Defensively) What do you want me to say? That you're right, that, that I believe it even if I don't. I mean, is that what you want?
MULDER:
Is that what you think I want to hear?
SCULLY:
(Softly) No.
MULDER:
You can believe what you want to believe, Scully, but you can't hide the truth from me because if you do, then you're working against me ... and yourself. (His voice softens) I know what you're afraid of. I'm afraid of the same thing.
SCULLY:
The doctor said I was fine.
MULDER:
I hope that's the truth.
SCULLY:
(Whispers) I'm going home.
(Scully walks down the ramp, leaving Mulder leaning against the wall. Outside, she walks to her car. There are flashing lights from police cars and an ambulance a couple of blocks down the street. Scully gets in the car and slowly breaks into tears. She sees the ambulance driving away, and as she follows it with her eyes, in her rear-view mirror she sees a pale image of Harold in the back seat. Wide-eyed, she turns around to look but there is nothing there. She turns back, shocked)
[THE END]
David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder), Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully),
Alex Bruhanski (Angelo Pintero), Nancy Fish (Nurse Innes), Lorena Gale (Attorney), Daniel Kamin (Detective Hudak), Sydney Lassick (Chuck Forsch), Gerry Naim (Sergeant Conneff), Steven M Porter (Harold Spuller), Michael Puttonen (Martin Alpert), Ken Tremblett (Uniformed Officer), Christine Wiles (Karen Kosseff)
Directed by James Charleston
TX:
US TX - 4th May 1997
Notes:
*Featuring Special Agent Fox 'Spooky' Mulder and Special Agent Dana Scully
*Original titles were 'Tulpa' and 'Revenant'
*In Tibetan mystic practice, a ‘Tulpa’ is a ghostly manifestation of a ‘thought-form’ produced by the mind; a 'revenant' is someone who returns after an absence, or after death; an ‘elegy’ is a poem expressing grief for someone who is dead
*The scenes in the mental home are reminiscent of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, especially as the actor who plays Chuck Forsch also played Charlie Cheswick in the film version
*One of the victims is named ‘Risa Shapiro’ - the name of David Duchovny's agent
*Harold's roommate, Chuck Forsch - named after Chris Carter's L.A.-based assistant
*Doctor Martin Alpert - named after writer John Shiban's physician