Dara walks toward a figure shrouded in darkness. Dropping to her knees in front of the figure, arms raised as if in supplication, Dara is bathed in a sudden bright light that seems to pour from the figure. The father, reaching Dara too late, finds her dead in this frozen position with her eyes burned out. The case takes on a certain personal slant for Scully and forces her to deal with the loss of Emily that she has thrust to the back of her mind in her continued work on the X-Files. The coroner's only conclusion for the death is lightning, due to the burning of her eyes, but he says, "It's as if God Himself struck her down." Dana studies Dara's medical records, occasionally slipping into her own thoughts as she gazes at a picture of Emily she's kept. Father Gregory talks of an ongoing battle for souls between good and evil and Scully feels that he is speaking directly to her. During the autopsy, she glances at the body and, instead of Paula, she sees Emily lying on the exam table. Extremely shaken, Scully turns away and tries to calm herself. On the verge of tears, she turns back to the table when she hears a small voice say, "Mommy." Emily is lying there and says beseechingly, "Mommy, please." Gregory says that he risked his life to protect their souls from the devil who sought to claim them for his own. Gregory says to Scully, "You know. You've already guessed what they are. The last one is still out there. The Devil is here and if he finds her, his victory will be complete." "Scully, I think you're the one who is being misled. Not just willingly, but willfully. I've never seen you more vulnerable or susceptible or more easily manipulated and it scares me because I don't know why." She confides in him about her visions of Emily. Starkey wants to know where the fourth girl, Roberta, is. "I will not be denied this time, Father. The others were taken from me. I will not allow that to happen again." When Father Gregory fails to provide the information, he suddenly begins to smoke and burn as Starkey looks on. Scully slowly looks up at a man whose head is surrounded by a fiercely bright light. Scully sees the head turn to reveal faces of various animals. As Mulder tries to get her attention, Scully silently stares at the presence in front of her as the light blazes even brighter. The legend describes the seraph as an angel who descended from heaven and fathered four children with a mortal woman. The offspring, known as the nephilim or fallen ones, have the souls of angels and are deformed and tormented entities. The seraph is sent to earth by God to bring back the souls and prevent the Devil from claiming them as his own. Emily, her small hand in Scully's, pleads with her, "Mommy, let me go. Mommy, please let me go." A torn and confused Scully is being drawn from all sides. Starkey is yelling at her from the one side, rationally she knows Roberta is who she is protecting, but the vision of Emily is beseeching her to release her into the light. As Scully makes her painful decision, she releases Emily's hand and watches her disappear into the dazzling light. The priest asks Scully, "You believed you were releasing her soul to Heaven." "I felt sure of it," Scully replies. "Has it occurred to you that this, too, is part of what you were meant to understand," the priest asks. "You mean, accepting my loss?" Scully asks. "Can you accept it?" the priest continues. Scully finally answers, "Maybe that's what faith is."

All Souls "All Souls" opens with the Scully family priest, Father McCue, arriving at the home of one of his other parishioners (obviously a priest who doesn't mind making house calls). The mother and father are the adoptive parents of a girl, Dara, who is mentally and physically handicapped. Father McCue has arrived on a terribly stormy night to baptize the girl into the church. Later that night, as the storm rages on, Dara's father wakes to find the girl missing. As he peers out the window through the pouring rain, he sees her walking down the street, her wheelchair abandoned and seemingly unnecessary. As her father rushes out to get her, Dara walks toward a figure shrouded in darkness. Dropping to her knees in front of the figure, arms raised as if in supplication, Dara is bathed in a sudden bright light that seems to pour from the figure. The father, reaching Dara too late, finds her dead in this frozen position with her eyes burned out. From this strange beginning, the episode segues into a narrative with Scully in a confessional relating the story of her involvement in the case to a priest. She tells him of being approached by Father McCue following Easter services and how her own experience with losing Emily was his motivation for approaching her. Possibly helping this other family in dealing with their loss will be an elixir to her own grief. And this is the only relation that this episode really has to the mytharc. Not even to the mytharc itself, but more in line with Scully's "Christmas Carol / Emily" arc. The case takes on a certain personal slant for Scully and forces her to deal with the loss of Emily that she has thrust to the back of her mind in her continued work on the X-Files. As Scully begins her narrative to the priest, her confessor, she says that she is responsible for the death of a young girl; a death she could have prevented. This seems to echo her grief over the loss of Emily for which she continues to harbor pain and guilt due to her inability to save the child. Possibly some anger toward a god who would let this child die, which is something she has in common with Dara's father who can't understand why his god would take this innocent girl. Scully discusses Dara with the coroner. She mentions the kneeling position that Dara was found in and the coroner uses the term "genuflecting", forcing the religious suggestion despite Scully's possible avoidance. There is a scar on the outside of Dara's hand which the coroner says was from the removal of an extra finger. Dara had polydactyly on both her hands and feet. The coroner's only conclusion for the death is lightning, due to the burning of her eyes, but he says, "It's as if God Himself struck her down." Scully contacts Mulder and asks him to find the adoptive records on Dara. In the meantime, she studies Dara's medical records, occasionally slipping into her own thoughts as she gazes at a picture of Emily she's kept. Meanwhile, we see a priest, Father Gregory, arriving at a psychiatric hospital to pick up Paula Koklos. Inside her room, the girl can be recognized as an identical version of Dara, although the sixth finger on each of her hands has not been removed. Anxious to finalize his adoption of the girl, Father Gregory is thwarted by her newly assigned social worker, Aaron Starkey, who wants a chance to review the case before allowing the Father to assume custody. We later see a dark figure approaching Paula's room. A radiant burst of light fills the hospital corridor then subsides. Inside her room, Paula is dead; frozen in the supplicating attitude of prayer identical to Dara. Mulder comes through with the birth records of Dara, but her adoption records are sealed. Dara and Paula are more than twins...they're quadruplets. They notice an upside-down cross in Paula's room and Mulder speculates that the deaths might be religiously motivated killings by someone who believes they're doing god's work. Father Gregory seems a likely suspect. In his church, Mulder and Scully find prayer books with the image of the upside down cross on their covers and Gnostic texts contained within. Father Gregory is surprised by the death and claims he was only trying to protect Paula. He tells them that he knew Paula's birthmother; was her confessor. She died in childbirth and to reveal who she was would be a breach of the sanctity of confession. Gregory talks of an ongoing battle for souls between good and evil and Scully feels that he is speaking directly to her. During Paula's autopsy, Scully finds two bony protrusions on the girl's shoulders possibly suggesting vestigial wings (!). During the autopsy, she glances at the body and, instead of Paula, she sees Emily lying on the exam table. Closing her eyes, she reopens them to see only Paula. Extremely shaken, Scully turns away and tries to calm herself. On the verge of tears, she turns back to the table when she hears a small voice say, "Mommy." Emily is lying there and says beseechingly, "Mommy, please." As Scully recounts this to the priest, she says she feels she was meant to see Emily as a sign and that it wasn't simply a stress-induced hallucination. Scully thinks Father Gregory's words and this sign had a purpose; to instruct her to save the girls. Mulder calls Scully to tell her that he and Starkey have a lead on the third sister. She turned up at a homeless center in DC and he and Starkey are about to canvas the area. As he talks to Scully he sees a car with an upside down cross hanging from the rearview mirror. Scully tells Mulder that the girl most likely has the same progressive, degenerative bone disease that her sisters had so can't get too far. She also tells Mulder about the wing-like processes she found on Paula. As Mulder searches the area, we see the third girl identical to Dara and Paula in an old, abandoned building that looks like a church. She is approached by the same dark figure and, as she falls to her knees and raises her arms in a vision of prayer, we see a brilliant flash of light flow from him. As Mulder arrives at the scene, he finds Father Gregory who he orders to stop at gunpoint. Gregory tells Mulder that they're both too late; the girl is already dead. Mulder finds her in the familiar position of prayer and supplication with her eyes burned out. In an interrogation room, Mulder questions Father Gregory while Scully silently watches. Mulder is convinced that Gregory is sick and is responsible for the girls' deaths. Gregory isn't interested in Mulder's mockery saying that he risked his life to protect their souls from the devil who sought to claim them for his own. Gregory says to Scully, "You know. You've already guessed what they are. The last one is still out there. The Devil is here and if he finds her, his victory will be complete." As she recounts the story, Scully says she believed Father Gregory's words. "But I already knew I was meant to save her." Scully and Mulder review the information on the fourth girl, Roberta Dyer. Scully stares at the picture and tells Mulder that Father Gregory calls the girls "Messengers". Mulder thinks Scully is letting the Father's mania get to her but Scully thinks Mulder is being misled. Mulder thinks just the opposite and says, "Scully, I think you're the one who is being misled. Not just willingly, but willfully. I've never seen you more vulnerable or susceptible or more easily manipulated and it scares me because I don't know why." She confides in him about her visions of Emily. He wants her to step away in a belief that her personal issues are clouding her judgment. Scully tells him to go find the girl and she'll finish up with Father Gregory. She is going to let him believe that he can find and save the girl though it's clear she feels it's her mission to complete. While the agents are out of the room, Starkey enters to question Gregory alone. He wants to know where the fourth girl, Roberta, is. "I will not be denied this time, Father." The priest wants to know how he got in there and what he's talking about since he's sure Starkey already took the other three girls. Starkey tells him, "The others were taken from me. I will not allow that to happen again." When Father Gregory fails to provide the information, he suddenly begins to smoke and burn as Starkey looks on. Outside the interrogation room, Scully tries to get in but the door has somehow locked. Inside, Father Gregory is already dead; his body burned and blistered. Mulder heads to the Dyer residence with the police to locate the fourth girl. Flashing a warrant to search the house, Mulder questions the adoptive father about her whereabouts. In an obvious lie, he tells them that she's out...she's at school. Mulder tells him they know she hasn't been at school for over a week and that they believe her life is in danger. As the police search, they find a door under the stairs leading to a dark, dirty basement room. It's clear that Mr. Dyer has forced the girl to live in these terrible conditions, but she is nowhere to be found. Mulder angrily shouts at Mr. Dyer, asking where Roberta is and in response, Mr. Dyer says, "They're going to cut off the checks, aren't they? He said he'd take her off my hands, but I could keep the disability." When asked who told him this, Dyer admits it was Father Gregory. Meanwhile, outside the police station, Scully makes her way to her car as she answers her ringing cell phone. It's Mulder and she tells him that Father Gregory is dead. As she tries to unlock the car door, she drops her keys and, bending to pick them up, sees someone's legs standing just in front of her. As Mulder continues to apprise her of the latest on the fourth girl, Scully slowly looks up at a man whose head is surrounded by a fiercely bright light. Trying to see clearly who this person is, Scully sees the head turn to reveal faces of various animals. As Mulder tries to get her attention, Scully silently stares at the presence in front of her as the light blazes even brighter. Scully turns to Father McCue to find answers about the image she witnessed. Pulling an old Gnostic text from his shelf, he tells her what she's describing is known as a seraph. A drawing in the book shows a man with four faces and four figures below. The legend describes the seraph as an angel who descended from heaven and fathered four children with a mortal woman. The offspring, known as the nephilim or fallen ones, have the souls of angels and are deformed and tormented entities. The seraph is sent to earth by God to bring back the souls and prevent the Devil from claiming them as his own. Scully asks how he brought back their souls and is told that "they were smote with the brightness of his countenance". Apparently, to look upon the seraph in all his glory is to give up one's soul to heaven. Which begs the question regarding Scully's encounter. Though Scully clearly is convinced this is what she saw, Father McCue is hesitant to put his faith in it. Upon leaving the church, Scully runs into Starkey who tells her that he and Mulder have found the fourth girl and that they are supposed to meet Mulder at Father Gregory's church. When they arrive, Scully enters the church but, curiously, Starkey stops and stands just on the threshold. As Scully calls out for Roberta, she sees Starkey's shadow cast on a wall and it's a horned visage (a bit cheesy in driving home this point). Despite seeing this, Scully continues to search for the girl and finds her hiding under the stairs. Talking soothingly to the girl, Scully reaches a hand out to her and coaxes her from beneath the stairs. Scully leads the girl further into the church as Starkey calls out to them from the doorway. As Scully holds the girl's hand, the church is suddenly flooded with a brilliant light. Roberta looks at the light and tries to move toward it as Scully attempts to hold her back. Meanwhile, Starkey continues to demand that the girl be brought to him but he is helpless to enter the church and remains fixed in the doorway. Scully, maintaining her hold on Roberta, looks back toward Starkey and, when she returns her gaze to Roberta, is startled to see her own Emily looking back at her. Emily, her small hand in Scully's, pleads with her, "Mommy, let me go. Mommy, please let me go." A torn and confused Scully is being drawn from all sides. Starkey is yelling at her from the one side, rationally she knows Roberta is who she is protecting, but the vision of Emily is beseeching her to release her into the light. As Scully makes her painful decision, she releases Emily's hand and watches her disappear into the dazzling light, calling after her, "Emily? Emily? Oh, God." As the light fades and dissipates, Scully finds herself alone in the church with the body of Roberta. The girl is dead in the frozen image of kneeling supplication and Starkey is nowhere to be seen. We return to the present and the confessional where the priest asks Scully, "You believed you were releasing her soul to Heaven." "I felt sure of it," Scully replies. But now Scully is finding it hard to reconcile her momentary conviction with the death of Roberta. The priest asks her if she believes in a life after this one and Scully answers yes. The priest asks her if she's sure of her answer and she cannot reply. "Has it occurred to you that this, too, is part of what you were meant to understand," the priest asks. "You mean, accepting my loss?" Scully asks. "Can you accept it?" the priest continues. Scully finally answers, "Maybe that's what faith is."