X FILES LYCEUM
408 PAPER HEARTS

by Jo and John, the LoneGunWriters

"On a lonely battlefield you meet your opponent."
Stratego Instructions Milton Bradley

"You just can't predict behavior like that. Society wants to believe it can identify evil people ... it's not practical ... If someone does something antisocial and deviant, that is a manifestation of something that is going on inside."
Ted Bundy

SYNOPSIS

MULDER'S APARTMENT; WASHINGTON, D.C.
BOSHER'S RUN PARK
FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON, D.C.
AUTOPSY LAB
NORRISTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA
HOLLYVILLE, DELAWARE
LORTON REFORMATORY; LORTON, VIRGINIA
GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT
FORKS OF CACAPON, WEST VIRGINIA
SEABOARD AIR FLIGHT #1650; WASHINGTON TO BOSTON
MARTHA'S VINEYARD, MASSACHUSETTS
NEW FRIENDS DAY CARE; SWAMPSCOTT, MASSACHUSETTS
9809 ALICE ROAD
A dream leads Mulder to another victim of serial killer John Lee Roche. He comes to realize that Roche had killed more than the thirteen children he was convicted of killing. Mulder reopens the case and must face the awful possibility that his sister, Samantha, was abducted, not by aliens, but by a child serial killer.

SCULLYVISION

Whenever Mulder is extremely emotionally involved in a case, Scully is at her best. She knows when to comfort him, when to cover for him, and when to be tough on him. This case has it all. It begins with Skeptical Scully finding her partner, having already called a forensics team, digging around in the woods because of a dream. The dream does lead to the uncovering of a body, and Scully accompanies Mulder as he plunges into the grief over his sister's loss down, and when he sinks into the mind of a sociopath, serial killer John Lee Roche.

When Mulder slugs Roche in the prison cell, the guard says he didn't see anything. Scully, however, says, "I did." This reflects not only her ethical standards but also her realization that her partner is getting out of control and needs to be confronted. Later when Roche tells Mulder he can't wait to see his face when he takes him to Samantha's grave, Scully utters "Oh God," revealing just how emotionally invested she is also. Then she launches into a threat against the killer to cleanse her grief.

Since the partners have really become one during their time of working together, and one partner must cover the others' ass, Skinner is justifiably angry at Mulder's actions and Scully's inability to control him. When he tells Scully that she let him down, there's reason to think that Scully had felt the same way as we look at her face.

When Scully finds proof that the girl's corpse who Mulder thought might be Samantha wasn't, as she didn't have a broken left collarbone, she's relieved as much as he is, and also sad that some family just like the Mulders had missed that dead girl. It was up to them to find out who she was so the family could get closure.

In the wonderful ending scene, Scully tells Mulder that she knows what he can and can't do, as well as comforts him. Most partners might be feeling the sting from having been berated by their superior because the other let a serial killer get loose, thus putting another child at risk. Scully knows that Mulder is tortured enough by it.

Perhaps the most telling moment of all is when Mulder is digging with his hands at what just may be his sister's grave, and he asks Scully to help. She does without hesitation. It was almost symbolic of their whole partnership. The quest is personal for Mulder - hands on - and he is going to dig as deep as he needs to. He realizes he needs Scully's help and asks for it, she's there for him. After Scully's own sister's death steeped in mystery the previous year, Scully knows what Mulder has been going through all those years, and by God, she's going to help him find the answers, no matter what they are.

MULDERVISION
"It was my fault."
Fox Mulder

Mulder has good reason to feel guilty about the latest Roche abduction, but does he also have good reason to feel guilty about what happened to his sister? His obvious guilt about Samantha's abduction has been visiting his dreams, and there are a number of possible reasons for this. To begin with, guilt is a normal reaction to loss. This can be compounded when the loss is someone close. "Survivor guilt" is a natural reaction. Survivors often wonder if they could have done something to prevent the loss and wonder why the loved one was taken and not them. In Paper Clip Mulder asks, "Why her, why not me?" For Mulder, all of this is even further compounded because the loss was his sister, and maybe because it was he who was supposed to be taken, not her. It is common among siblings, even those who are very close, to once in a while wish their brother or sister would just go away. In Little Green Men Mulder says to Samantha, "Get out of my life!" Imagine the guilt when a wish like that comes true. To make matters worse, Mulder had been left "in charge" of Samantha, placing even more responsibility on his shoulders. Tragically as Samantha was being taken, she called out to him to help her and he did not or could not move.

For Mulder there are even more complications to his guilt. At the time of his sister's abduction, Mulder was thirteen years old. Not a very good time to try to figure anything out, much less a tragedy like this. Then there's the matter of William and Teena Mulder. In a crisis like this, even warm and caring parents are hardly able to nurture their other children since they're experiencing their own shock and grief. "Warm and caring" is probably not a term one would associate with William and Teena, so young Mulder was at high risk for emotional deprivation in a time of great need. In The Pilot Mulder tells Scully that after the abduction "no one would talk about it." In fact, regardless of what actually happened to Samantha, we can easily envision "helpless" Teena turning to her son to seek her own emotional support. We saw William in End Game telling his son, "You let this man take your sister?" More than likely this echoed what he told his young son years earlier.

Sometimes guilt serves as a defense, a protection from having to face the existential question of why bad things happen to good people. It may have been easier for Mulder to feel that he had some part in this - even a bad part - than to face the possibility that he had no influence at all.

Mulder may have also believed that if he did this bad thing than he can undo it. So he will spend his life trying. Meanwhile his grief, anger, sadness, guilt, and so forth goes unresolved. It is an old wound, but it is still festering.

MONSTERVISION

This is one of the X-Files greatest monsters: the guy next door; the guy who doesn't seem like he'd hurt a fly; a guy that people describe as a nice guy, charming even; Ted Bundy; a killer without remorse; a chilling manipulator. While Bundy was in prison he, like Roche, used and manipulated law enforcement, taunting them by promising to reveal the whereabouts of more bodies and additional murders. When Roche wanted to take those cloth hearts out of their little plastic bags and touch them we were so repulsed that we knew instantly that we had to give a perfect rating of 5 electric chairs for John Lee Roche. (We were treated with a five star chillingly creepy performance by actor Tom Noonan, a relation to the actress who plays Teena?)

SAMANTHAVISION

This is the most logical, plausible explanation of Samantha's abduction to date. All of the theories, sightings, and clones have muddled the picture indeed. Mulder isn't sure what to believe anymore, certainly not Scully. What is it, however, that Mulder wants to believe? Regarding Samantha, it may be that Mulder wants more than anything to believe that she is still alive even if it isn't the truth. Addie Sparks' father said that he always thought that having some closure would be better than not knowing. Now that Mr. Sparks knows his daughter is dead, he realizes that this is worse than not knowing.

Mulder tricked Roche by bringing him to the wrong house. By this time, however, was Mulder trying to "win" one of the mind games with Roche rather than trying to find the truth? Or was Mulder trying to prove that Roche didn't do it rather than finding the truth? One thing is certain, it is doubtful that Roche could know the details that he did know just by surfing the Internet, and it's even more doubtful that he knew these details because of some kind of nexus mind meld with Mulder. The most likely explanation was that he knew these things because he was there. Mulder does not want to believe this scenario, and who could blame him? He loves his sister, and missing her is better than knowing she's dead. Better to be abducted by aliens than by John Lee Roche.

OH COME ON

Just like in Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, a person is able to see things just by thinking about it hard enough? Get real.

Mrs. Mulder's memory isn't what it used to be. When was it any good? Seems like she has always had a selective memory.

Mulder and Scully can do a little deduction about a camper shell that's stowed somewhere off the vehicle and find the evidence, but cops with the camper shell on the vehicle right after impounding with forensics implements, an attention to detail, and more than likely a lab, didn't?

Whenever Mulder visits a prisoner, Skinner watches the videotapes? Well, maybe he does ever since Mulder attacked Mostow in his cell.

THINGS LEARNED

An FBI agent, with a judge's order, can take a prisoner out on a field trip.

Mulder can shoot a basketball.

Don't let salesmen into your house. Ever. Even you don't have children.

A dream is an answer to a question we haven't learned how to ask.

Prison inmates have access to computers and the Internet; on the Internet, you can find out anything... but careful because a lot of it isn't true.

WRITER
Vince Gilligan

Vince Gilligan gives us one scary episode. Scary, in part, because the monster is so real. Scary, also, because Gilligan knows Mulder and Scully so well, and this makes them vulnerable to the real horrors of life and death. He makes their partnership real even while having Mulder running off alone to do his "thing." Gilligan introduces the most realistic Samantha scenario so far. This assures that Mulder is very passionate about the case, which in turn assures that Scully will also be passionate, if not about the case, then about saving Mulder. After creating a monster of the week in the form of Robert Patrick Modell, who makes Mulder investigate the powerlessness of being under mind control, Gilligan now makes Mulder investigate the one crisis of his life, up close and more personally than ever before. As in Pusher as well, Scully is a strong advocate for him. Those two episodes features sociopaths who only wanted to inflict harm to innocent people. Chilling.

DIRECTOR
Rob Bowman

With the aforementioned Pusher, Wetwired, and now Paper Hearts, Rob Bowman shows us that he can present Scully and Mulder in intense, personal grief, wring them out, and then make them come to terms with what the voyage had been. The first by having them hold hands, the second by having them both appear business as usual, and here by having Scully comfort Mulder by pulling him to her. Meanwhile, there's scary, serious, tragic stuff happening where there's no compensation of suspense. As a favorite director, one relishes the chance to watch more of his handling of cases.

THE USUAL THINGS
Flashlights
Guns
Scully does an autopsy, kind of, twice
Bathroom, Roche pretended to need to on the plane
Mulder sleeps on the couch
Mulder drops his gun
Mulder loses his gun to Roche
Mulder attacks a prisoner
Mulder breaks rules, Skinner is pissed, Scully is mum
Mulder plays mind games with a psycho
Mulder wears an ankle gun
Mulder cries
Mulder ditches Scully
Mulder's badge number - JTTO4710111
Holly Alert - Hollyville, Delaware
Samantha and Teena calls Mulder "Fox"
Mulder tells Scully she's right (ok, that's an Unusual Thing)
Mulder and Scully hug
Mulder shoots someone

RECURRING CHARACTERS
Skinner
Mulder's mentor Reggie Purdue is mentioned
Samantha
Mrs. Mulder

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

PUSHER: Mulder is a push-over.
ROCHE: Yeah we both had him, didn't we?
PUSHER: Well, if it wasn't for that Scully always butting in, we'd still have Mulder going in circles.
ROCHE: Of course, he did get you on that "your shoe is untied" bit. I would never have fallen for that old trick.
PUSHER: Maybe so. But he got you on the old classic house-switcheroo trick.
ROCHE: No he didn't. I knew all along that it was the wrong house.
PUSHER: Then why did you go along with it?
ROCHE: What did you expect? That I would give irrefutable proof that I murdered the sister of an FBI agent? I may be a nut case, but even I don't want to fry in the electric chair.
PUSHER: Where are you now?
ROCHE: In a cheap motel room with Mulder waiting to go back to prison. Mulder is starting to fall asleep on the job. What a slacker. I plan to slip out of here as soon as he does. I wish I could stick around and see the look on Skinner's face when he finds me gone and his star agent handcuffed to a table.
PUSHER: Woo Hoo! Mel Cooley kicks butt!

ATHENAEUM

Mulder arrived at the Athenaeum only to find it dark and locked. Undeterred he circled the outside of the building. He found a small window with a rusted lock. After breaking the lock (score another Mulder breaks a law), he hoisted himself through it. Once inside, he was about to turn on his small flashlight when he heard voices. He headed quietly toward the sound with only a few slats of moonlight to guide him. Up ahead he spotted a small red dot moving about slightly. He thought at first he was dreaming again, then he realized that the dot was the glow from the end of a burning cigarette. Mulder knew only one person dumb enough to smoke in this tinderbox of old books. He drew his gun and crept closer.

He stopped when he heard a conversation. "Amazing that it was Mulder, of all people, that finally solved one of our big problems."

"It wasn't amazing, it was damned dangerous," he heard the voice of the man who had smoked too many cigarettes in his life. "He came too close this time to finding out the truth."

"Well, Roche is dead so he'll never tell. Our one loose cannon."

The cigarette glowed brighter. "One? Our group is made up of nothing but loose cannons."

Mulder knew the smoker's voice and the other voice was also familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. He inched closer in the dark.

"Well, Roche was one of the loosest. Why do you think he got confused about which house he abducted the Mulder kid from?"

"He visited thousands of homes selling vacuum cleaners and committed abductions in at least fourteen homes, all of this happening over twenty years ago. It would be hard to keep it all straight."

"But he remembered lots of details."

"He remembered the sicko details, the little things that made his crimes so personal. He didn't remember the mundane stuff like addresses or what the sofa looked like. Besides, maybe he was like Ted Bundy who absolutely went berserk when he killed, like a rabid dog. That kind of stuff might make you mix up a few details, don't you think?"

"How would I know? I don't think like a crazed killer. Do you?"

"All I know is that it was a close call. Too damn close. I don't like close calls." Red ash glowed brightly. "But I do applaud you for bribing that judge so Mulder could get Roche out of prison."

"Good. Easy. Piece of cake," the voice said as the red glow dimmed.

As Mulder woke up on his couch, he once again felt the gnawing loss of his sister.

QUOTES

SCULLY: Mulder, what are you doing out here?
MULDER: I keep having this dream. It's about a little blond girl.
SCULLY: You're saying that you're out here because of something you saw in a dream?

SCULLY: Mulder, if you destroy evidence, we may never find out what happened here.
MULDER: I know what happened here. She was strangled. He used an eight-gauge electrical cord. He took something from the body post-mortem... a trophy. A piece of fabric cut from her clothes... in the shape of a heart.
SCULLY: You're saying you got all these details from your dream?
MULDER: No. I know this MO. I know it from memory.
SCULLY: Whose MO?
MULDER: John Lee Roche. He killed thirteen eight-to-ten year-old girls. This makes fourteen.

MULDER: By 1990, ten victims had been found scattered across the eastern seaboard. The earliest dated back to 1979. VICAP named the case "paper hearts" because of the trophies the killer took. All the victims were abducted from their homes. Reggie Purdue brought me onto the case because he thought I could get inside the killer's head.
SCULLY: Did you?
MULDER: I concluded that, that we were probably looking for a salesman. Someone who traveled around a lot, someone who could gain people's confidence, someone ordinary. Turns out Roche was a vacuum cleaner salesman. His job took him all over the northeast. He'd be in someone's home, demonstrating his vacuum cleaner. All the while, he'd be checking out their kids. He'd choose a victim then come back for her months later.
SCULLY: But it was your profile that caught him.

SCULLY: I don't think you ever stopped thinking about this case. I believe that you may have solved it in your sleep.
MULDER: So you think that I've somehow had this information about a fourteenth victim all the time and I've been processing it unconsciously?
SCULLY: You said it yourself once. You said that a dream is an answer to a question we haven't learned how to ask. You did good work, Mulder. Let's identify this girl so we can put her to rest.

SCULLY: I believe her name is Addie Sparks. She went missing from her home in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, in June of 1975. I contacted the Center For Missing and Exploited Children, ran a search through the database.
MULDER: 1975 is too early.
SCULLY: The match is right, Mulder. The height is right, the description of the sleeper is right.
MULDER: That would mean Roche started way before we thought he did.
SCULLY: Mulder, we're going to have to verify this. Are you up for that?

SPARKS: You do this full-time, telling people... this kind of news?
SCULLY: No, sir, not full-time.
MULDER: It's not a good job.
SPARKS: No. I used to think... that missing was worse than dead because... you never knew what happened. Now that I know... I'm glad my wife's not here. She got luckier.

SCULLY: You're saying the hearts might still be in his car?
MULDER: Well, he doesn't have them in prison, the cell is searched regularly, his mail is examined. His car was sold at auction in 1992, put beyond his reach. It's worth a look, Scully. We've got to find those hearts in order to count them.
SCULLY: Don't you think the car might have been searched at least once already?
MULDER: Not by me.

MAN: An honest to God serial killer owned my car? For real?

MULDER: He had two more victims.

ROCHE: Mulder. Long time, no see. You got a new partner.
MULDER: Agent Scully.
ROCHE: So what's up?
MULDER: We found Addie Sparks, John.
ROCHE: Congratulations, I guess.
SCULLY: We also found your cloth hearts. All sixteen of them.
MULDER: Sixteen victims, John. How come you only said there were only thirteen?
ROCHE: I don't know. Thirteen sounds more magical, you know?
MULDER: Why don't you tell us about your last two victims, then?
SCULLY: You're in here for life, you've got nothing to lose.
ROCHE: I got nothing to gain.
MULDER: You can gain one moment of decency in your life. You can finally let those families put their daughters to rest.
ROCHE: I understand you take this very personally, Mulder.

ROCHE: Sink one from there and I'll tell you. (Mulder makes the basketball shot) You'd trust a child molester?

MULDER: "The Magician" comes on at nine.
SAMANTHA: Mom and Dad said I could watch the movie, butt munch.
MULDER: They're next door at the Galbrands'. They left me in charge.

ROCHE: This man... this man hit me.
GUARD: I didn't see it.
SCULLY: I did.

MULDER: He was there, Scully. He was in the house. He took Samantha.
SCULLY: In your dream, Mulder. It was a dream. Your mind made it up.
MULDER: A dream is an answer to a question we haven't yet figured out how to ask, right? Something buried in your subconsciousness. You heard him in there, he knew something. He mentioned being on Martha's Vineyard.
SCULLY: Is it a state secret you lived in Martha's Vineyard?
MULDER: Well, how would he find out about that?
SCULLY: Through the prison library. The inmates have access to computers and the Internet. I checked. Roche logged on just yesterday.
MULDER: Looking for what?
SCULLY: The server records don't show, but on the net, Mulder, he can find out practically anything about you. Look, he is playing with you, Mulder. He is committing emotional blackmail and you are letting him. You walked into that room with your heart on your sleeve. He saw vulnerability, and he took advantage of it. You had a dream... a nightmare... and you, and you had it because of all the emotions that this case is stirring up for you. But... it was nothing but a dream.
MULDER: My last dream came true. Scully, do you believe that my sister Samantha was abducted by aliens? Have you ever believed that? No. So what do you think happened to her?
SCULLY: What are you saying you believe now?
MULDER: I don't know. I don't know what happened. I don't know what to believe. I just know that I have to find out now.

MULDER: Do you recognize... these fabrics? Either one of them?
MRS. MULDER: What am I looking at?
MULDER: Just look closely. Do... do they seem familiar to you?
MRS. MULDER: Familiar how?
MULDER: Just familiar. Have you seen them before?
MRS. MULDER: Fox, I don't know what you want me to say. You know my memory isn't as good as it used to be, ever since I had the stroke, I just don't know...
MULDER: It's all right.
MRS. MULDER: Oh, Fox.
MULDER: Dad never bought you a vacuum cleaner, did he?
MRS. MULDER: Yeah. A long time ago. I don't use it anymore.
MULDER: Where is it?
MRS. MULDER: Well, it's here, under the stairs in the storage.

MULDER: Sir? I've been denied further access to John Lee Roche. I've been told that order comes down from you.
SKINNER: Could you tell me why you saw fit to strike a prisoner in federal custody? Agent Scully didn't report that to me, Mulder, though she should have. The whole thing was videotaped as per prison policy. I saw it. You're lucky I don't have your ass in a sling!
MULDER: Sir.
SKINNER: You've gotten too close to this, Mulder. You've let this man get to you.
MULDER: I have reason to believe he can tell us what happened to my sister, Samantha.
SCULLY: It is looking possible, sir. John Lee Roche apparently spent most of 1973 in Boston. He did take one sales trip up to Martha's Vineyard in October of that year. The timing is right.
MULDER: I need to know. I just need to speak with him one more time, sir.
SKINNER: It just makes it even less of a good idea, Mulder.
SCULLY: Sir, the fact remains that we still have two more victims that we need to find and identify, and no one has more insight into Roche than Agent Mulder and this is still Agent Mulder's case.
SKINNER: (to Mulder) You tread very lightly. (to Scully) You see that he does.

ROCHE: I'm not talking to you if you're going to hit me again.

ROCHE: Watergate was on TV. You and your sister... were sitting in front of it... playing a board game with, uh, little red and, uh... blue plastic pieces. And you wanted to watch a TV show... the one, the one with Bill Bixby? What the heck was the name of that thing?
MULDER: How could you know what I said?
ROCHE: I was watching... from the window. I was, I was very careful.
MULDER: If that's true, tell me where my sister is.
ROCHE: You choose the one that was your sister, and I'll tell you where she is. Hey, come on, it's a fifty-fifty chance. Either way, I'm giving you a victim.

MULDER: It's not her, Scully. Am I right? Samantha broke her collarbone when she was six. It was her left collarbone. We had, we had a rope swing out in the backyard. It's not broken, is it?
SCULLY: You're right, Mulder, it's not a match. It's not her.
MULDER: It's somebody, though.

SCULLY: Tell us the name of that girl.
ROCHE: It was Karen Ann Philiponte. She lived in a green rancher in... East Amherst, New York. Mint grew outside her window. I stood outside her window atop sprigs of mint. It smelled wonderful.
SCULLY: What year?
ROCHE: July... 1974. I had her mother on the hook for an Electrovac Argosy, but at the last minute, she said "thanks but no thanks." Oh, well.

ROCHE: You want to know a lot more than that, don't you? You want to know everything, right? The big mystery revealed.
SCULLY: Drop the mind games.
ROCHE: I can't just tell you. I know you don't believe me. You need me to show you, you need me to lead you through because... after all these years, anything less than that's not going to satisfy you, right?
MULDER: You just want to get out of here.
ROCHE: You're damn right I do... if only for a day or two. I'm realistic. And more than that, I... I can't wait to see your face.
SCULLY: Oh, God... You're going to see the inside of your cell instead! You're going to rot there!

SCULLY: Are you okay? Mulder, the last thing you should do is give this man his way on this. If you do, he could string us along forever. I know you appreciate that. There has to be another way to come to the truth.

SKINNER: He checked out Roche?
SCULLY: Agent Mulder convinced the judge that it was an emergency situation.
SKINNER: And where were you while this was happening?
SCULLY: I had left Agent Mulder for the day. I suggested that he get some sleep. Sir, I have a clear idea of where he might have gone and I am sure that I can catch up with him.
SKINNER: I'll be the one to catch up with him. Where's he headed?
SCULLY: Martha's Vineyard. And I would hope that you'd appreciate the uniqueness of this situation and its effect on Agent Mulder.
SKINNER: No, I fully understand the effect it has on him, Agent Scully. As I recall, that was the sum and total of my last words to you on the subject. You let me down. Let's clean up this mess before it gets completely out of hand.

ROCHE: I sat on this couch... when your dad bought the vacuum. You're ready?
MULDER: Go.
ROCHE: November twenty-seventh, 1973. I watched the house for hours. I parked across the way, out over there. I was just casing, I wasn't planning for this to be the night. But then, all of a sudden, your parents leave and I figure...
MULDER: Where'd they go?
ROCHE: House next door. To play pinochle, I don't know... whatever it was people did back then.
MULDER: Go on.
ROCHE: So after they're gone, I get out of my car and I move closer. I watched you and your sister playing that board game. A little bit after eight, I'm about ready so I move to the junction box. I cut the power, and the lights go off, and then I moved around the front door. And I was ready to kick the door in... it was unlocked. It was 1973. It was... a different world back then.
MULDER: And then what did you do?
ROCHE: Well, you remember that. I... came in the front door. And you tried to get to your father's gun, I g, I give you credit for that. But then you sort of froze, and then... I took your sister away from all this. To a happier place.
MULDER: That's exactly how it happened? Right here in this room?
ROCHE: Yeah.
MULDER: Wrong house. My father bought this house after he and my mother divorced. This house is in West Tisbury. The house that Samantha was abducted from is in Chilmark. That's six miles from here! You screwed up. You were never here. You didn't take Samantha.
ROCHE: Wishful thinking.
MULDER: No. No, but I think I know what happened. Somehow you got inside my dreams.
ROCHE: Come again?
MULDER: I profiled you. I got inside your head, maybe you got inside mine. Maybe some nexus or connection was formed between us and through that, you got access to my memories of my sister Samantha and you used them against me for this.
ROCHE: You're just resisting me.
MULDER: And you're in the wrong house, you stupid son of a bitch! You were never here, you liar!
ROCHE: It's geography, man. It's just geography. It was twenty-three years ago, that was geography we're talking about.
MULDER: Yeah, but you remember all the other details so vividly. That's because you watched it through my eyes... through my dreams.
ROCHE: I hear things about you, Mulder. You know what I heard? I heard you go after aliens... from space. It's like your world will be okay as long as you can believe in, like, flying saucers. I'm telling you the God's honest truth. I can see you're not as open-minded as you think you are.
MULDER: You must have been one hell of a salesman, Roche. First flight's at six am. Why don't you enjoy your last few hours of freedom? Come on.

MULDER: He took the last cloth heart.
SCULLY: He also took your badge and your phone.
SKINNER: Where's your gun? How do you explain yourself, Agent Mulder?
MULDER: I don't.
SKINNER: You don't. A predator is loose because of you. God only knows how many hours lead he's got.

COP: We sent a unit over to pick up the girl's mother. She's on her way down.
SKINNER: Okay.
WOMAN: What am I going to tell her? It's all my fault.
MULDER: It's not your fault. It's my fault.

MULDER: Sorry, Scully, you were right. He was playing me the whole time.
SCULLY: You don't think he took Samantha?
MULDER: None of that really matters now, does it?
SCULLY: Well, where do you think he'd take this girl? Would he follow his MO and drive her out of state?
MULDER: There's no reason for that, he knows we're going to catch him. He just needs it be sooner than later. He's going to stay in the Boston area. It'll be somewhere nearby.
SCULLY: Well, how much of a creature of habit is he? Do you think he'd want to take her someplace familiar?
MULDER: Try to relive some past glory? Is that what you're thinking? I don't know, what?
SCULLY: Well, he lived in Boston in the early '70s, right?
SKINNER: What do you got?
SCULLY: Roche's old address in the area. Revere. Nine-eight-o-nine Alice Road, apartment number six...
MULDER: He's there.
SKINNER: How do you know?
MULDER: Alice, "Alice in Wonderland," he's the Mad Hatter.
SKINNER: Mulder, that's, that's...
MULDER: That's where he got the idea in the first place.
SKINNER: All right, let's go!

ROCHE: I'm beginning to believe we do share that... nexus you spoke of. You always seem to find me.
MULDER: Are you okay, Caitlin? My name is Fox, I'm going to take you home.
ROCHE: I have your gun, Fox.
MULDER: Caitlin, can you do me a favor? Can you count to twenty? Can you do that? Will you close your eyes and count to twenty out loud, quietly and slowly?
ROCHE: I will shoot.
MULDER: Don't make this end badly.
ROCHE: You're not giving me very much choice. I really don't want to go back to prison.
SKINNER: Put the gun down, Roche!
ROCHE: You have one heart left. How are you going to find her without me? How sure are you it's not Samantha?
Mulder shoots Roche in the head just as Caitlin reaches 20 in her counting.

SCULLY: I got back some lab results. The dye analysis determined that the fabric of the last heart was manufactured between 1969 and 1974, but beyond that, there's nothing more they can tell us. Mulder, it's not Samantha, and whoever that little girl really is, we'll find her.
MULDER: How?
SCULLY: I don't know... but I do know you.

THE END