X FILES LYCEUM - 410 TERMA

X FILES LYCEUM

410 TERMA

E PUR SI MUOVE

"...no evidence...of any conspiracy."
Warren Report 1964

SYNOPSIS

HARROW CONVALESCENT HOME, BOCA RATON, FL
PESKOW'S APARTMENT
RUSSIAN GULAG
NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER GREENBELT, MD
RICHMOND, VA
RUSSIAN FARM
RUSSIAN WOODS
SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE AND TERRORISM WASHINGTON DC
RUSSIAN TRUCK DRIVER'S HOME
RUSSIAN CAMP
SCULLY'S CELL
CONTAINMENT LAB - NASA
FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, NEW YORK CITY
BORDER CROSSING, ALBERTA, CANADA
ABANDONED OIL REFINERY
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
SORENSON'S OFFICE

A Russian assassin is on the loose while Scully is before the Subcommittee, then jailed for contempt, Krycek is abused, and Mulder gets back to the good old US of A.

SCULLYVISION

Scully is unfazed by the badgering of the congressional committee. She calmly keeps trying to make her point until she finally does. Of course, she goes to jail for contempt because of it. As her cell door slams shut, we can see DefiantScully through the little window, arms crossed. Sure she's standing up for a greater cause, but we suspect she's really standing up for her partner. She has become so loyal to Mulder that she even utters the words "wide-ranging conspiracy" and "extraterrestrial." In public no less. My how three years of working with Mulder has done wonders for her. Speaking of in public, how about that big warm and very public hug our heroes give each other when Mulder returned?

Doctor Scully took charge in the nursing home to do what needed to be done to collect evidence, and, fruitlessly, find out the cause of the patients' deaths. Scully has seen a lot, done a lot, been through a lot, has cause to know that the dark, mysterious powers that be would probably make this disappear, but she's still working on her basic scientific instincts. Unfortunately, Scully lets Mulder boss her around when they helicopter out to that refinery.

OH, COME ON!

There is no Terma, ND.

Krycek didn't fight harder when they started sawing on him with a kitchen knife? We've seen him fall ass backwards into manure and come out smelly but alive and intact. He's escaped from an abandoned missile silo, for God's sake. Give the character of the ultimate survivor some credit.

Peskov casually strolls in to a NASA facility without being stopped? Not to mention that he also penetrated WMM's farm without a problem.

THINGS LEARNED

The tagline, E PUR SI MUOVE, is Italian for "and still it moves," or "and, nonetheless, it does move."

Terma is Russian for prison and/or Latin for death and/or a Buddhist term for hidden or buried truth.

Variola is another name for smallpox.

The Well Manicured Man's mention of 'honorable men' was a reference to Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar'.

Lawyers ask the wrong questions when they don't want the right answers.

SFX

Totally silly and cheap looking fake hand for our Krycek. Probably the worse special effects job yet, or ever, on the series. Unless, of course, the prosthesis was actually bought in Tunguska where they're undoubtedly mass produced. Tunguska's prosthetic technology may be years behind the US where, forty years ago, artificial hands really looked artificial and were useful for dipping tea bags, and that's about it.

WRITER
Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter

They will never be forgiven for slicing poor Alex's arm off. 'nough said.

DIRECTOR
Rob Bowman

Mulder and Krycek's escape from the Gulag was pretty darn weak. It looked so easy, as a matter of fact, that one finds it hard to believe the test subjects are willing to leave, maybe they think the place is Club Med? Mulder escapes a Gulag chain gang, hijacks a truck, and gets far away before the guards start shooting at him. Oh, he also has time to punch out Krycek in the interim. The guards decided that shouting would make Mulder turn around and surrender?

RUNNING TALLIES
Mulder attacks a prisoner.
Mulder punches Krycek.
Skinner is pissed.
Flashlights
Mulder and Scully hug
Guns - but too late to be realistic during the gulag escape
Raining - or had recently, it's pretty soggy in that forest

RECURRING CHARACTERS
Assistant Director Skinner
The Cigarette-Smoking Man
Krycek
Agent Pendrell
Well Manicured Man

NOTES

Arntzen, Krycek's pseudonym, was probably named such for Val Arntzen, set decorator.

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

MULDER: So Krycek, you now know the answer to that question about the sound of one hand clapping, eh Comrade?
KRYCEK: Laugh it up, Spooky Boy. At least I don't have your curse.
MULDER: What's that? Losing my gun all the time? Losing my sister, thinking it was all my fault, not being able to even get to first base with my lovely partner, sleeping on my couch more than anywhere else, being this close to evidence and having it pulled out from under me, not being able to find my favorite sunflower seeds in Russia, always being second guessed by my superior and my partner, having a lot of reasons to hate my mother who is the only family I have left?
KRYCEK: Um, no. I was going to say your driving skills. Watch out!
Mulder's eyes went back on the road. He turned the steering wheel sharply to the right in order to avoid a semi, and they landed in the ditch. Krycek came back to consciousness after hitting his head on the dashboard because of an unlatched seat belt to see Mulder still passed out hunched over the steering wheel, looking, oddly enough, like a crash test dummy.
KRYCEK: Well, I'll be seeing you, buddy.

ATHENAEUM

Mulder went to the old library because he had been embarrassed when Scully used a word that he'd never heard of: variola. Mulder hated when Scully knew more than he did. When he descended in to the Athenaeum he was in for more embarrassment.

"Welcome to the Athenaeum, Agent Mulder."

"Scully! You're the Curator today?"

"Who better to teach you a thing or two about a thing or two. Let me guess. Variola?"

Mulder humbly nodded.

"As I said, the Variola Virus is better know as Smallpox. It was eradicated in 1976, and vaccinations were discontinued in 1980. The virus, which can be spread by either respiratory exposure or direct contact, is an excellent candidate for use as a biological weapon."

"Has it just been a problem in the past in other countries?"

"No. In fact, Mulder, I suggest you check out the book "Pox Americana, the Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-1782" by Elizabeth Penn."

"I didn't realize it has been around so long. I guess it's use as a weapon is a modern phenomenon."

"Wrong again, Agent Mulder."

Mulder got the distinct impression that Scully, or this Scully, anyway, took great pleasure in saying that.

"In fact," She/he/it continued. "The best documented case is that the British, in 1763, at Fort Pitt, now the site of Pittsburgh, deliberately gave smallpox-contaminated blankets to the Native Americans."

"That's a very disturbing thing to consider. What are the symptoms of Smallpox?"

"Fever, rigors, severe headaches, backaches, vomiting, sore throat, diarrhea, abdominal pain, confusion, convulsions, lesions on and under the skin."

"Differential diagnosis?" Mulder asked.

"Differential diagnosis?" Scully smiled. "Mulder, are you coming on to me?"

"Very funny."

"Well you have to rule out chickenpox and monkeypox."

"Monkeypox? I won't even ask. Scully, I thought they were about to eradicate the world's final caches of the Smallpox virus."

"Unfortunately, they now believe that at least five countries have stores of the virus: the United States, Iraq, Russia, North Korea and France."

"France! Now there's a scary thought. Well Scully, just how worried should we be about this variola virus?"

"Smallpox is universally feared as the most devastating of all the infectious diseases because it is so fatal, so infectious, and because there is no treatment, not to mention that no one in the civilian population of the US has been vaccinated in 25 years."

"Well, I think I have received an education today. Thank you, Scully, er Dr. Scully."

"You're welcome." She said, seemingly pleased at Mulder's display of manners.

QUOTES

PRISONER: I thought maybe you were dead.
MULDER: How long have I been lying here?
PRISONER: Hours...I don't know. The first time is bad.
MULDER: They've done this to you?
PRISONER: Yes. It becomes easier each time....until it kills you.
MULDER: What did they do to me?
PRISONER: You have been exposed to the Black Cancer.
MULDER: Black Cancer?
PRISONER: The cancer that lives in the rock.

MULDER: What happened to the man who was in the cell with me, Krycek?
PRISONER: He is most likely dining with the men responsible for our torture. I heard laughter when they left your cell.
MULDER: I'm not going to die.
PRISONER: Why not?
MULDER: I have to live long enough to kill that man, Krycek.

SKINNER: You owe me some answers, Agent Scully. Answers I don't have to the questions I'm being asked about this missing diplomatic pouch. The pouch presumably being carried by the man who was allegedly pushed off my balcony, and whose connection to a known felon I harbored in my house against all good sense, I'm going to have to explain to avoid perjuring myself before a Senate sub-committee tomorrow. Which, I might remind you, is a very serious crime in itself. Is it not, Agent Scully?
SCULLY: Yes, sir. Sir, if I might explain. The contents of that pouch, it contained some sort of a biohazardous organism that is, luckily, being contained in a contamination laboratory at NASA Goddard, where I've been all day trying to determine its exact nature.
SKINNER: That pouch you intercepted. Do you know what its intended destination was?
SCULLY: No sir, I don't.
SKINNER: Well, I do, Agent Scully, because I bent some rules this morning when I couldn't find you. To find out who was to receive it.
SCULLY: Who was it?
SKINNER: Dr. Bonita Charne-Sayre. Are you familiar with that name?
SCULLY: Yes sir, I am. She's a well-know physician and a virologist who's looked in on presidents. She's also an authority on variola viruses.
SKINNER: Variola?
SCULLY: Smallpox. She's been a vocal proponent of eliminating the last remaining stores of the Smallpox virus, destroying the only remaining vials in facilities here in Atlanta and the former Soviet Union.
SKINNER: Well, she was killed tonight.
SCULLY: Killed?
SKINNER: A horse stepped on her throat in a riding accident in Virginia.

CSM: According to reports, your personal physician suffered a serious riding accident here on your property.
WMM: Dr. Charne-Sayre was murdered.
CSM: By whom?
WMM: If I knew, do you think I'd be standing here talking to you?

WMM: This was a professional hit.
CSM: And you out here all alone, so vulnerable. Were you sleeping with her? Surely you wouldn't be so foolish as to put the project at risk for the sake of your personal pleasures.
WMM: Find her killer!
CSM: Call off this Congressional investigation.
WMM: I can't. But, Senator Sorenson is an honorable man. They are all honorable, these Honorable men.

CSM: Wake the Russian Bear, and it may find we've stolen its honey.
KRYCEK: No... I'm sorry..Nyet. {I am American, and I've been falsely accused of spying.}
MAN: Then your enemy is mine. We can protect you.

WIFE: They kill everybody for the test.
MULDER: Why don't they kill you?
WIFE: My husband makes deliveries. They spare our lives. But now... no truck... he is afraid.
MULDER: Well, I have to go now.
WIFE: No.
MULDER: They'll come looking for me. They'll come looking for you.
WIFE: No. There are other ways.
MULDER: I don't know what you're talking about. What other ways?
WIFE: Grisha!
A young boy with a missing left arm enters
WIFE: No arm. No test.

SKINNER: You holding up?
SCULLY: I've got plenty to read.
SKINNER: I can understand you protecting Agent Mulder but-
SCULLY: It's not just Agent Mulder that I am protecting, sir.
SKINNER: Then what are you doing?
SCULLY: We were called before this committee to answer questions about a murder, about an intercepted diplomatic pouch, a pouch that was to be delivered to a prominent doctor, a woman who is now dead, as is the man who was delivering said pouch, the contents of which have infected an exobiologist with a paralyzing toxin. Yet, what are we stuck on here? The whereabouts of Agent Mulder.
SKINNER: You mean it's the wrong question.
SCULLY: Several of the men on this committee are lawyers. It is my experience that lawyers ask the wrong question only when they don't want the right answer.
SKINNER: Unless Agent Mulder has already found the answers they're looking for.
SCULLY: Or someone wants to make sure that he doesn't find out.
SKINNER: These are congressmen we're talking about, Agent Scully.
SCULLY: I know that, sir, and it is my natural inclination to believe that they are acting in the best interest of the truth, but I am not inclined to follow my own judgement in this case.
SKINNER: You're going to follow Agent Mulder's? Is that it?

WMM: How could the Russians know we were working on our own inoculation? Six of us knew!
CSM: Dr. Charne-Sayre?
WMM: She was trusted, absolutely!
CSM: Then I don't know.
WMM: Find this man! Find him!
CSM: If my intelligence sources are right, I think there's someone who might save us the trouble.

SORENSON: Agent Scully...you've had a good long time to think about the question that was asked in our last session. I want to give you the opportunity to answer that question here, today. So I can help our good chairman here to get on with this proceeding.
SCULLY: I can't answer that question, sir.
SORENSON: I'm going to ask you again. Where is Special Agent Mulder? Why is he not here?
SCULLY: I'd be happy to answer you questions about the man carrying the diplomatic pouch.
SORENSON: Agent Scully.
SCULLY: About his murder and my opinion about its connection to the death of Dr. Bonita Charne-Sayre of the World Health Organization.
SORENSON: Miss Scully, you'll get your chance with all of that.
SCULLY: Or about the biotoxin being transported within that pouch.
SORENSON: Answer the question, Miss Scully.
MULDER: What is the question?

SCULLY: If I may, I'd like to finish making my point.
ROMAINE: What is your point, Miss Scully?
SCULLY: That the death of Doctor Charne-Sayre, given her field of expertise, not only suggests that she knew something about the toxin, but also its origins, and that knowledge may be directly linked to the man in Assistant Director Skinner's apartment building

SCULLY: Assistant Director Skinner has just informed me that there has been an accident directly related-
SORENSON: An accident?
SCULLY: A doctor infected with the toxin has died under suspicious circumstances involving a theft of evidence, of the contents of the diplomatic pouch.
ROMAINE: Well, we've gotten off to a real fine start here. I'm going to recess now until this new matter can be explained. So that we might then begin to move in a forward direction.

MULDER: It's good to put my arms around you. Both of them.
SCULLY: When did you get back here?
MULDER: It's been a long, strange trip.
SKINNER: Some other time. I think there's been enough strangeness here to sort through.
SCULLY: Mulder, I've made several connections about this toxin, about what it might be.
MULDER: So have I.
SCULLY: Sir? I need your permission to book two airfares to Boca Raton, Florida. It shouldn't take more than twelve, fifteen hours, but in the event that it does, I need you to stall the committee tomorrow, for the purpose of-
SKINNER: If you explain it to me, Agent Scully, I'm going to have to explain it to them. I suggest you do everything in your power to make it back for tomorrow's session or I can't help you.
MULDER: Boca Raton?
SCULLY: Dr. Bonita Charne-Sayre is a board member and a chief physician for a chain of elder-care convalescent hospitals across the country. Guess what one of her patients died of in Boca Raton?

SCULLY: When was the last time these patients were checked.
NURSE: An hour ago, at bed check.
SCULLY: This man is dead.
NURSE: What?
MULDER: These people are test subjects. They've all been poisoned.
SCULLY: Who gave these patients their meds tonight?
NURSE: I did.
SCULLY: Okay, I need you to call 911. Tell them you have an emergency quarantine of a biohazardous material. I need you to show us all of the entrances of the hospital. We've got to seal this building immediately.

SCULLY: I do not understand what it is you hope to learn here.
MULDER: Everything that's happened, every death we've seen can be traced back to one man.
SCULLY: But according to you that man is in Russia, possibly even dead.
MULDER: Well, he isn't working alone.

MULDER: Terry Edward Mayhew. Can we talk with you? Have a little off the record chat?
MAYHEW: About?
MULDER: Alex Krycek.
MAYHEW: Who?
MULDER: The man who set you up, you and the members of your militia.
MAYHEW: Name wasn't Krycek. It was Arntzen, or something like that.
MULDER: You came into contact with him in North Dakota salvaging materials from a missile silo.
MAYHEW: I ain't never been in no missile silo. I don't know nothing about that.
SCULLY: This man Krycek, or Arntzen as you call him. How did he come into contact with you? Off the record.
MAYHEW: He came to us with some building materials and big ideas.
MULDER: What was he looking to build?
MAYHEW: Two devices.
MULDER: Did he ever mention Black Cancer?
MAYHEW: Oh yeah!
SCULLY: What did he say?
MAYHEW: Developed by the Soviets. Saddam used it in the Gulf.
SCULLY: You mean used as biowarfare?
MAYHEW: Why do you think they made them servicemen take all them pills? US Government knew about the Black Cancer. They lied. Didn't have no cure, no inoculation. I think we'll quit right there. I got nothing more to say.
SCULLY: Let's go, Mulder.
MULDER: Wait a second. You said there were two devices. What happened to the other bomb?
MAYHEW: I ate it.

SCULLY: Mulder!
MULDER: You want to know about anarchy? You don't tell me where that other bomb is and I'll make sure you spend your prison time on your bigoted hands and knees putting a big smile on some convict's face.
MAYHEW: Son of a bitch stole it, truck and all. Some storage garage.
MULDER: Where?
MAYHEW: Terma, ND.

SCULLY: What are you doing, Mulder?
MULDER: This has been a big setup from the beginning almost perfectly executed. Someone used Krycek, then Krycek used us, someone who didn't want that rock in American hands.
SCULLY: But what's in Canada?
MULDER: Where would you put this rock if you didn't want it to be found?
SCULLY: Back in the ground.

ROMAINE: You have evidence to present? At least, that's what I've been told.
SCULLY: Yes, Senator, evidence linking a number of deaths, a great number, to a biotoxin that was transported to US soil by a courier who was also killed.
SORENSON: Is this the same man who was pushed from the Assistant Director's apartment?
SCULLY: Yes. He has not been ID'ed.
SORENSON: Do we have the name of the individual who pushed him?
SCULLY: Yes, sir. Alex Krycek, who is missing and, possibly, deceased.

SORENSON: What evidence are you then presenting us with today?
SCULLY: Documents and interviews in support of a wide-ranging conspiracy to control a lethal biotoxin that is, in fact, extraterrestrial in origin.
SORENSON: What are we talking about? Little green men, here?
SCULLY: No, sir. Not at all.
MULDER: Why is this so hard to believe? When the accepted discovery of life off this planet is on the front page of every newspaper around the world? When the most conservative scientists and science journals are calling for the exploration of Mars and Jupiter? With every reason to believe that life and the persistence of it is thriving outside our own terrestrial sphere? If you cannot get past this, then I suggest this whole committee be held in contempt, for ignoring evidence that cannot be refuted.
SORENSON: This is not why we are here today.
MULDER: Then why are we here today?!?
ROMAINE: I will suggest that we recess here until such a time that all the evidence can be properly evaluated.

KRYCEK: I am only here, Comrade, to congratulate you on a fine job.
PESKOW: Harasho.

THE END (Thank Goodness!)