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More Season 9 Spoilers

Improbable

Episode: 9X14
Airdate: 04/07/02
Written by: Chris Carter
Directed by: Chris Carter
Starring: Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully, Robert Patrick as John Doggett, and Annabeth Gish as Monica Reyes
Special Guest Star: Burt Reynolds

IMAGES FROM "IMPROBABLE" COMING SOON!

TEASER
At a casino, a woman deals out cards to three men playing poker. The one man, Wayne, gets a really bad hand and folds.

He walks over to a slot machine and watches the woman play. He doesn't say anything.

Meanwhile a man (played by Burt Reynolds-they don't mention his name, but the OS lists him as Mr. Burt) sits at the bar, playing solitaire, and orders "Seven and seven and a pack of Morleys."

Wayne walks over to the bar and orders the same thing. Burt tells him that they have a winner. Wayne asks him if he knows him. He tells him that he's part of the regular game.

BURT: You know your problem, my friend? It's not the cards. It's playing the hand you were dealt. Plenty of guys get a bad deal; it's all in what you do with it. You know what I'm saying, partner?

Wayne doesn't answer him. He watches him playing solitaire. Every card he pulls comes off in the order that they should be played.

He tells Wayne that he can think, cards can't. He just has to make them work for him. He then announces a jack of hearts, which is what he next turns over.

BURT: 2,598,960 possible five card hands. 1,277 flushes in any given suit. 1,098,240 ways to make two pairs. And yet…Game can't beat a man. Man only beats himself. And so on and so forth.

Wayne looks past him at the woman. Burt tells him that the woman comes there every Friday, loses her paycheck, and then cries her eyes out. She a nice girl, and he keeps hoping that one night her luck is going to change.

The woman walks into the restroom.

Burt asks Wayne if they are going to leave. Wayne stands up and Burt questions if he's correct that he's bluffing him-that he's going to walk right out of there and surprise him for a change.

Wayne ignores him and leaves. He walks into the women's restroom.

Burt continues to play cards. Behind him a man at the machine that the woman was just at wins.

A woman runs out of the restroom, yelling for help-a woman's been murdered.

Burt just sits there and turns over the next card-an ace of spades.

TAGLINE CHANGE: DIO TI AMA

ACT ONE
FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Reyes is walking down the hall, reading the newspaper about the woman's murder. She gets into the elevator and continues to read.

In the basement, she is looking at some files. She sits down at the desk and is counting something on her fingers.

Scully walks in. Reyes adds together numbers out loud. Scully asks her what she is doing. She points to each of the files and says, "10, 13, 14, 16." She tells Scully that she is going to ask her to open her mind to something and not think that she is crazy.

Reyes asks her if she thinks that the universe is knowable as a mathematical calculation of the whole, reducible to a single equation. She flatly tells Reyes that she does not. Scully guesses that she is talking about the so-called "Unified Theory," which physicists sometimes refer to as the theory of everything-an equation so simple that they say it might be printed on a t-shirt. It's a holy grail in the world of science. It's a subject of enormous controversy.

Reyes shows Scully photographs of female victims. The first, born 02-02-77, was killed outside a nightclub two years ago. The next, born 03-21-69, was killed at a mall, also two years ago. Another was born 01-22-80, and was killed in her parked car last month. The latest victim, born 04-04-77, was killed two weeks ago in a casino. None of the murders were solved.

Scully asks if she's to assume that Reyes has solved the unsolved murders, using some kind of numerical calculation. She tells Scully that letters of names, assigned values, added to birth dates, reduced to the lowest common denominator. Reyes starts telling her how she calculated the numbers, but Scully stops her, questioning that she is using numerology.

She tells Scully that she calculated the latest victim as being a 14-a karmic number, a extremely significant numerological number. The other victims also work out to have karmic numbers-"10, 13, 16." Scully guesses then that she hasn't actually solved the cases. Reyes says that "cracked" is a better word. Scully questions that she didn't use any other evidence to connect them.

Scully suddenly notices something and asks Reyes to enlarge the picture on the overhead. She looks at the rest of the photos. There's a pattern of bruising that they all have it-three small circles-maybe from a ring that the killer has.

Knowing they are connected, Reyes tells her that it could be numerology could be driving the killer, and she isn't crazy. Scully just tells her that it could be that they're both crazy.

Wayne puts his skull ring on. He hears music and looks out his window. Burt is outside playing a game of chance, with two jokers and a king, with two men.

Burt sees Wayne and smiles. He starts mouthing the words to the Italian? song in the background. He watches those around him, moving to the music.

A bus stops that has the number "3" on it. Three girls stand waving their fans. After some fly away, three pigeons sit on the ground. Then triplets are pushed by in a buggy.

Burt flips over the king and the man laugh, thank him, and then leave.

Wayne walks over and tells Burt to quit following him or he might find himself dead. Burt tells him that that's not his style-it doesn't fit his pattern, but far be it for him to write him out.

He plays the game with Wayne, and Wayne loses. He tells him that there's a secret to the game-choose better. He tells Burt that if he has something to say, to say it. He tells him that he just did. Wayne knocks over the card table and storms off.

Reyes walks right passed him. She goes into a hotel, to room 333, to see a numerologist. She tells the woman about the deaths and that she thinks that they have a numerological value. The woman tells her that she can't help her. She makes people feel better, but she doesn't believe it what she does-numerology is a best an art. Reyes gives her the files and tells her that if she can help her, she may be able to stop the murders from happening. The woman tells her that she will see what she can do.

Reyes cell phone rings. It's Doggett. He tells her that they have found two more victims with the same marks. He tells her that he knew that she was good, but this is career launching. He tells her to come back to the bureau.

Reyes walks into the office and there is a large group of agents there that clap for her. The one man tells her that by brilliantly tying the murder cases together, VICAP is working hard to build a profile on the man that they are now officially calling "the triple zero killer. Through the identification of the pattern that he leaves on the victims, they have been able to connect the six unsolved cases to one murderer. There were the three recent victims, and the three from 1999. He seems to be killing in a pattern of threes, on a serpentine trail. He points to the map that shows the trail of where the killer has been.

The man says that the killer might disappear as he did two years ago. Doggett tells him that he may have been in jail during that time.

The man asks for Reyes's special insight into the case. Reyes tells him what she thinks about the numbers-she will know for sure once she gets the charts from the numerologist, but the killer is almost certainly working off of numerical, vibrational disharmonies. He looks at her like she is crazy.

Reyes cell phone rings. The numerologist is ready to tell her something strange that she found out. Before she can, Wayne is in the room. He stares at her.

ACT TWO
The man from VICAP looks at the body of the numerologist while Doggett stands over him. He tells Doggett that he wants the body sent to Quantico and for Scully to go over it with a fine toothcomb.

The man wants to know what Reyes knows about what happened, since she went to see the woman in the first place. She tells him that she didn't tell anyone that she went. The man asks her then how he found the woman-by chance? He starts questioning her why the killer came there. She tells him that she was trying to find out that and other information about the killer from the numerologist. He tells her that they have a reputation to uphold-the FBI doesn't go to numerologists, for the same reason that they don't go to palm readers or anyone like that. He lives in a world of cause and effect like they all do. He gets an impulse and acts on it, even if he doesn't know it. Reyes asks him that if the killer acts on impulses he can't understand, then isn't it possible that they can't understand it either, and that not every killer is driven by impulses. He disagrees with her, telling her that it's unacceptable. Doggett tells the man that if Reyes didn't tell anyone she was going then only someone in the FBI would have known. The man doesn't believe that it is an inside job. Doggett questions that they have to at least accept that as a possibility. He tells Doggett that they don't. Reyes asks him why they don't.

AGENT: Because it's highly improbable.
DOGGETT: But not impossible.

The man tells him that he wants results. He doesn't care how they go about it, but he wants the killer caught.

Reyes talks to Doggett, telling him that the woman was about to tell her something about their numerology that rules their lives.

DOGGETT: Because my name is John J. Doggett, and I was born April 4th, 1960, I got some kind of magic number?
REYES: Six. Which makes you an active, adaptive, curious person, who is insists on their independence, loves a bargain, and above all else, wants to be successful.
DOGGETT: Well, that describes pretty much anyone.
REYES: People are people.
DOGGETT: Right, they're not numbers.
REYES: Then what was she calling me for?

Doggett tells her that he is going to leave her there to figure it out, and he's going back to the bureau.

Doggett leaves.

Outside, Burt is setting up dominoes. Wayne comes over and asks Burt who he thinks he is. He asks Wayne who *he* thinks that he is.

Wayne sees the FBI and sits down, telling Burt to be quiet. Burt knocks down the dominoes as Doggett walks over and watches.

After Wayne leaves, Burt holds up a domino with a "3" on it and looks at it.

The scene changes to Scully conducting an autopsy of the numerologist. She is looking through a magnifying glass at the marks on the woman's face. There is cut in front of them and it resembles the domino.

She uses her recorder to tape the autopsy. She begins the internal exam at 6:06 p.m. Beside Scully lay her instruments. All are in sets of sixes.

She notices more marks. There are six of them. She then looks at her recorder time: "666."

Scully comes to talk to Reyes. She tells her that she figured out what the triple zero pattern is. They aren't zeros, but the number 666, worn away.

Reyes asks her how she figured that out. She tells her that she didn't. She found it completely by accident.

Reyes tells Scully that when the numerologist did the victim's charts, she found that they were a match to her own numbers, and that it wasn't an accident that the killer found her. Scully asks her how it helps them find the killer. Reyes tells her that it doesn't.

Doggett traces the pattern of the victims on the map. It forms a "6."

The agent tells Doggett that they've developed a profile on the killer. He tells him, and Doggett says that it is the same profile of any other serial killer. He tells him that he doesn't think that Reyes should be so easily dismissed.

Doggett shows him the killer's path. Doggett thinks that the number six may have some significance. He tells him that it may to him and Reyes, but not to victim number seven.

Scully and Reyes get into an elevator with Wayne. When they exit, Scully notices Wayne's ring and points her gun at him, and tells him to get out of the elevator. He just tells her to "be cool."

He steps back and the elevator doors shut before she can stop him.

Scully and Reyes take the stairs down to the parking garage.

When they get down there, a car pulls out, the gate closes, and they are locked in.

ACT THREE
Scully and Reyes try to find a way out. Everything is locked and the cell phones won't work.

Scully tells Reyes that it's only midnight and someone will be coming in or going out soon. Reyes asks her how they even know that that was his car-he could still be hiding inside the garage.

They look around and hear someone. It's Burt.

Scully makes him get out of the car and put his hands up. He doesn't have any identification. He tells them that he was waiting for a friend. Scully questions that they meet at midnight. He tells her that they have this regular game they play-checkers.

BURT: The checkers are in the trunk, if either of you play.
SCULLY: Sir, does it look like we're here to play checkers?
BURT: No.

He asks them what they are there for. He puts his hands down and Reyes yells at him to get them back up.

She then searches him, but finds no gun. They look in the trunk. There is checkers and hundreds of CDs.

Scully asks him what time his friend is coming. He looks at his bare arm like he's looking at his watch, and says simple, "Soon."

Scully and Reyes don't know what to do. Burt tells them that he has some nice dance music. Scully tells him that they are there because there is a serial killer on the loose.

Burt asks them how many people he has killed. Reyes tells him seven, and he asks how they are going to catch him. Scully tells him that they aren't if they are stuck down there. Burt asks if they're sure that there isn't something that he can do. Scully asks him if he has a combination to the door, but he doesn't. He then tells them that there's always checkers.

He plays checkers with Scully and beats her within a few moves. She stares at him.

BURT: Next victim?

Scully disgustedly stands up and asks Reyes how they got their selves into this.

He then plays checkers with Reyes and beats her too.

Reyes stares at him until they hear a gun shot. Scully has lost her temper and is shooting at the lock on the door. It does no good. She shakes her fist in the air.

Scully and Reyes play checkers while Burt dances the "Cha cha cha."

Reyes suddenly notices something and turns the board so the red checkers are on Scully's side. She mentions Scully's hair color. Scully touches her hair, and then in realization says that she doesn't believe it.

Reyes tells her that they are his next victims. The seventh victim was a blonde. He kills in threes. Blonde, redhead, brunette.

BURT: Amazing-from a game of checkers!

Scully just stares at him, and then points her gun at him, asking who he is. He just tells her that he is obviously someone that they were lucky to have run into. Scully thinks that he is part of it. Reyes tells her that she is wrong. It's all in the numbers. The numbers led them to the killer, and the killer led them to the garage, and now all they have done is recognized his real serial pattern. Burt asks if she's saying then that she knows he has nothing to do with it. He puts his hands down and Scully yells at him again, still pointing her gun at him.

SCULLY: Hey! Keep your hands up!
BURT: Why?
SCULLY: I don't know.

She then puts the gun down. Burt asks what numbers have to do with it. Scully gets mad that he asked. He just tells her that he's good with numbers. Reyes starts to explain what she thinks is going on, and Scully finishes Reyes's theory, rolling her eyes.

Burt asks them if the numbers are helping them catch him or helping him not get caught. Reyes tells him that that's a good question. Burt says then that it's a kind of a game. Scully yells at him that it's not, but Reyes says that maybe it is. Maybe it's about who wins the game. Scully disagrees with her. Reyes tells Scully that her world (of science) is ruled by numbers. The universe is. Scully thinks it's nonsense-that would mean that all they are, are checkers on a checkerboard being moved around by some forces completely outside and unbeknownst to them.

REYES: What did Einstein say?
BURT: Einstein, now there's a winner.
REYES: God does not play dice with the universe.
SCULLY: Nor does he play checkers.

Scully tells her that she can't reduce everything into a game of win or lose. Reyes asks her why not. Maybe the winners are those who play the game better-the ones who see the patterns and connections like they are doing now.

Reyes comes to another realization. She tells Scully that maybe they aren't the next victims. They saw the numbers and read the patterns and are there to catch the killer. Scully protests that the killer is outside killing, and they are stuck in a parking garage. Reyes says that it's possible that they didn't look hard enough, and that the killer is still down there.

Meanwhile, Wayne is watching them from behind a car.

Burt smiles.

SCULLY: What are you looking at?!
The lights suddenly go out
BURT: Same thing you are.

ACT FOUR
Burt asks them what they are going to do now? Scully tells Reyes that she will go left and for her to go right. She tells Burt to stay right where he is. He tells her that there's no getting rid of him.

Scully and Reyes look around again.

Wayne suddenly comes up behind Reyes and grabs her, covering her mouth.

The door behind them opens and he and Reyes are knocked to the ground. The gun falls to the floor and Wayne grabs it. However, just as he is about to shoot Reyes, he is shot from behind by Doggett, who just came in.

Someone turns the lights back on. Scully rushes over to the man and tells them that he is going fast.

Doggett puts his arm around Reyes's waist and helps her up.

Scully asks him if he can hear her. He just stares at her.

Reyes walks over and asks him why he killed the women. He tries to say something but falls back and dies.

Scully asks Doggett how he ever found them. He tells them that he saw something in his pattern. It made him realize that there was going to be nine victims and maybe they were going to be eight and nine.

Scully and Reyes look at eat other and then run to find Burt. He is gone.

The music starts playing again in the background.

The scene changes to the agents at the bureau. They are staring at the "six" on the map. They turn their heads so it appears upside-down, revealing that the pattern was actually a "nine."

As the music still plays in the background, Scully tucks William in.

She walks out and looks back at him and smiles.

Scully goes into her bedroom, gets in bed, lays down, and turns off the light. She closes her eyes.

After a few seconds she opens her eyes and turns the light back on. She picks up the phone and calls Reyes at 9:09 p.m.

Scully tells her that she needs to know what her numerology is-her number. Reyes tells her that she is a nine, which is completion. She's evolved through the experience of all the other numbers to a spiritual realization that this life is only part of a larger whole.

Scully is silent and Reyes asks if she's there. She tells her that there is something else that's bugging her-who that man was. Reyes just says, "God knows."

Meanwhile, outside, the police bring out Wayne in a body bag.

The camera pans to show the two men who were playing cards with Burt earlier. They mouth the words to a song that is playing.

They walk along singing.

The camera pans away to show an aerial view of the town. It forms a 3-D picture of Burt's face.

The screen fades out.

IMAGES FROM "IMPROBABLE" COMING SOON!


Overall Rating : 8.8
*Shippy Rating: 0
*Note: OK a new note. Ratings will be completely different now because of the absence of Mulder, and therefore most likely of most of the shippiness. The ratings for this season are not equally comparable to that of previous seasons, so they will more or less be rated on their own scale, with me (trying to) disregard the fact that DD is not in it as a component in the rating. Shippiness still (if any) will ALWAYS be based on MULDER and SCULLY (unless I decide to do MR/JD or something later). The shippy scale is still based on the Redux II scale (1-10, as Redux II being a 10 [now with Triangle being an 11, All Things being an 11.5, and Millennium being a 12, and Requiem a 12.5 all above the scale])*


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