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More Season 9 Spoilers

William

Episode: 9X17
Airdate: 04/28/02
Teleplay by: Chris Carter
Story by: David Duchovny, Frank Spotnitz, and Chris Carter
Directed by: David Duchovny
Starring: Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully, Robert Patrick as John Doggett, Annabeth Gish as Monica Reyes, and Mitch Pileggi as A.D. Skinner
Guest Starring: Chris Owens

IMAGES FROM "WILLIAM" COMING SOON!

TEASER
A man sits on his couch painting small wooden buffalos. His dog is lying next to him.

His wife is concerned. She tells him that she can't understand why. He tells her that God has his reasons and ways.

A van pulls up outside. The wife asks the woman if she is sure that the baby is all right. She can't understand why someone would give it up if nothing was wrong with it. The woman assures her that the baby is fine. It was a life choice of a single mother, and was a terribly difficult decision, but was only for the good of the child.

Another lady gets out of the van and brings over the baby. She hands the baby to the wife. The woman tells the new parents:

WOMAN: I want you to meet William.

ACT ONE
GEORGETOWN
10:55 PM
ONE WEEK EARLIER
Scully pulls up to her apartment, singing "Joy to the World" ("Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog") to William.

Meanwhile someone breathing heavy (the Breather) is watching nearby.

Scully takes William out of the car, and we can see that he is wearing the same outfit as in the teaser, so it is the same "William."

She takes him into her apartment.

FBI HEADQUARTERS
11:21 PM
Doggett does pushups on the office floor. An X-File lies beneath him. He counts out loud, up to 1493, but the last (and real) number he says is 20.

He stands up.

DOGGETT: They don't pay me enough.

Doggett leaves the office, forgetting the file on the floor.

The Breather gets off of the elevator and sneaks into the X-Files office. He walks over to the file cabinet, and starts looking through the files.

Meanwhile, Doggett remembers that he forgot the file, and heads back to the office.

Doggett walks in and picks up the file. The Breather suddenly hits him from behind. Doggett falls and the man kicks him multiple times in the head. Leaving Doggett there, he runs out the door.

Before he can get very far, Doggett is on his feet, going after him. He stops him in the hall by threatening him with his gun. He gets the Breather to come back. Doggett takes a closer look at the man and appears somewhat frightened.

2:02 AM
Scully arrives at the bureau. She is walking down the hallway when she stops to fix her shoe.

She meets up with Doggett and Reyes. Scully asks them if they know who the man is. Reyes tells her that he said that his name is Daniel Miller, but he doesn't have any identification on him.

Scully asks them why the lights in the interrogation room are off. Reyes tell her that he wouldn't speak with them on. She would understand if she saw him in the
light--there's something wrong with his face. It could be from fire or acid.

Scully questions that he says that he knows her. Reyes tells her that he does and is afraid. He says he's a victim of an alien conspiracy.

Scully enters the room and Doggett asks him if he will talk to her. The Breather tells him that he will if she can help and protect him.

Doggett tells Scully that the man is under arrest for assaulting an officer, yet he still refuses a lawyer. Scully asks him how he got into the building. Doggett tells her that he had a card key that he said that he got from Mulder. They are working to confirm his home address.

The Breather tells Scully that he came to find answers to what they did to him. He gestures to his face and body. He is severely scarred everywhere.

Scully tells him that from his scars it appears that he has been burned. She asks him if he is claiming that someone burned him and there is evidence there to incriminate them.

He tells her that according to Mulder the men who did it are part of a government conspiracy. He says that she knows who they are. She questions when Mulder told him that. He tells her that he can't tell her, because she might use it to find Mulder, and he doesn't want to be found.

Doggett tells Scully that when he searched him he found X-Files in his clothes.

Scully looks at them and pulls out a picture of Samantha. The man tells them about Samantha's abduction.

Scully tells him that he seems to know a lot, which gives the impression that he is either telling the truth, or wants them to believe that he is. He tells her that if he thought that they would have believed him, he wouldn't have snuck into the FBI.

Scully tells Doggett that she wants him transferred to Quantico so that she can personally examine his injuries.

The Breather lies almost completely naked on a gurney. His whole body is scarred very badly.

Scully carefully takes off pieces of his prosthetic skin from his nose and ears, and lays them on the tray beside her.

Scully says that his scarring looks fairly recent. It is severe, but not from burning or chemicals. He tells her that he was injected with something.

The scene changes to show the Breather's memory of being held down in a chair and injected with something.

Back in the present, he tells Scully that it burned throughout his whole body--inside and out.

Doggett arrives and talks to Scully in private, telling her that there are seven Daniel Millers in Fredericksburg, but he isn't one of them.

He tells Scully and Reyes that he has an idea, but they won't believe it. He tells Scully that she asked him how the man got in the FBI, and how he knows what he knows. Scully tells him that the man said that Mulder told him. Doggett doesn't think that that is true. He doesn't think that Mulder told him anything. Doggett's theory is that he got in there and knows what he knows because he *is* Mulder.

Scully laughs in disbelief. She tells Doggett that that is ridiculous and absurd. Doggett asks her if it is.

DOGGETT: What is true and what we want to be true aren't always the same.

Scully tells Doggett that it is not Mulder. He tells her that he hopes that she proves him wrong.

The breather sits up from the gurney in the other room. The camera zooms in and focuses on him.

ACT TWO
The Breather has another flashback of what happened to him.

Scully takes a blood sample from the Breather. She then tells him to open his mouth so she can look at his dental work.

BREATHER: You're not gonna tell me I need braces, are you?

Scully ignores his joke.

He asks her if she is going to help him. She tells him that she doesn't know how she can. He tells her that he wants her to help him make them pay for what they did. She questions that he refers to "them" as if she knows them or knows where they are. He just tells her that they did terrible things to her too, when she was abducted.

Scully tells him that he's given them a false name-they know that he's not Daniel Miller. He admits that's he's not. She asks him what his real name is, and he tells her that he can't say. She asks him why he is lying if he wants them to help him. He tells her that it is because there are people there are the FBI who would kill him if they knew he was being held there-the same people who would kill Mulder.

Scully is getting more and more upset. She backs away and tells him to put his clothes back on.

BREATHER: I'm asking for your help. But I might be able to help you.
SCULLY: How can you help me?
BREATHER: You're looking for answers too.
Suddenly the camera pans to show Scully's eyes and the reflection of Mulder in them as he (Mulder) says:
MULDER: We're both looking for answers.

Scully is startled and covers her eye, confused at what she saw or thought that she saw.

Scully goes out of the room and tells Reyes and Doggett that she is sure that it is not him, and they will be as well once Doggett brings her back his DNA tests. She then hands the blood sample to Doggett.

Reyes asks what they do now. Scully tells her that the man is lying about who he is, but the danger may be real. They need to figure out what he wants and see if he lies about that too. However, first they need to quietly get him back to DC to FBI Headquarters.

The Breather sits in the other room, putting his prosthetic skin back on his face.

Scully, Doggett, and Reyes take the Breather into the X-Files office. The Breather looks up at the pencils lodged in the ceiling.

Scully says that he came looking for something, and asks him what he hopes to find. He tells her that he didn't find it.

Reyes tells him that he stole files from 1973 pertaining to Samantha's abduction. She questions that his life is in danger now.

The Breather tells them that a conspiracy to keep the truth about aliens from the American public that was all but destroyed a few years ago, has given rise to a new conspiracy in the government now. These men are alien themselves. Scully asks him what that has to do with him. He tells her that what they did to him was a failed attempt to turn him into one of them. He was a test subject, and now he wants to expose their evil plans, which are to do the same thing to everyone.

He tells Scully that Mulder told him about cases there--cases like his--and gave him the names and case numbers, but they aren't there--they've been removed. Scully knows that they have. Reyes questions who moved them.

At her apartment, Scully pulls a file box down from her closet. The Breather thanks her for trusting him.

Reyes asks Scully what she is doing, and she tells her that she is proving Doggett wrong. The man is not Mulder. She and Mulder agreed to take the files out of the X-Files office and leave them there for safekeeping. Mulder would have known where they were.

Suddenly they hear William crying. They go into the nursery and find that the Breather is standing over the crib.

Scully grabs William. The Breather tells her that the baby was crying, but she tells him that it is none of his business.

He apologizes, telling her that he heard so much about William.

BREATHER: Mulder told me how he missed him.

Scully tells him that if that is true to tell her where he is.

SCULLY: Just tell me where he is!
BREATHER: You don't want to know.
SCULLY (getting more and more upset): I have to know.
BREATHER: He's in pain.
SCULLY: Then let me go to him.
BREATHER: There's nothing you can do.
SCULLY: That's not for you to decide!
BREATHER: You know as well as I it's Mulder's decision. I…he begged me to honor it. For your safety…and Williams.

Reyes goes to take William from Scully but the Breather tells her not to. He asks Scully if he can hold her-he wants to. It's important that he does--he wants to hold him for Mulder.

Scully carefully gives William to the Breather for him to hold. William doesn't squirm or cry.

A tear from the Breather falls onto William's cheek.

BREATHER: He's so beautiful.

Meanwhile, Skinner sits in his office when Doggett comes in. Skinner tells him that he spoke to the lab and they had advance information on the exam that Scully performed on the man. The blood type matches Mulder's, but there are aspects of his physiology that aren't a match. His is shorter and weighs considerably less then Mulder.

Doggett tells him that he hasn't seen what they have done to him. The way he's twisted, he's like an old man. Skinner tells him that he is just relaying the facts. He's not one hundred or he couldn't have attacked him.

Skinner tells him that he wants something. Doggett tells him that the man wants revenge, and says that Mulder directed him to the place where he could find the files and the people who did it.

Skinner tells him that that makes no sense. Mulder knows the files inside out. Why would he direct him instead of just telling him?

Suddenly the phone rings. Skinner talks for a minute and then hangs up.

He tells Doggett that it was the lab. They were able to rush the PCR test and came up with a definitive DNA result. He asks Doggett where the man is now.

At Scully's house, the Breather is looking through the files. Scully surprises him by telling him that it has all been a good act. He tells her that he doesn't know what she is talking about, but she tells him that she thinks that he does. He knew the files were there and pretended not to so she would bring him there to see William. She tells him that she wants the truth that he won't speak. He just tells her that he wants the same truth as she does. Getting upset, she tells him not to do this to her.

He tells her that he didn't come there to upset her, and he didn't plan on being caught. He tells her that he knows that she must have a hard life living alone and raising her son, not knowing whether she will ever see Mulder again.

Scully asks him how he knows her life. He tells her that he knows what Mulder knows. He knows that they used her to create a child, and that they continue to use her to take care of it and raise it.

SCULLY: What are you saying?
BREATHER: You know what I'm saying. Your son--your child is part alien.

Scully yells at the man to tell her who he is, but he won't tell her.

Suddenly Reyes opens the door. Scully asks her to leave, but Reyes ignores her and tells the man to step out of the room, which he does. Scully gets angry and tells her that they were having a private conversation.

Doggett joins them. He tells Scully that the DNA results make a positive ID. She still refuses to believe it and tells Doggett that it isn't him.

Meanwhile, the Breather is listening through the door.

ACT THREE
Scully is unsure of what to think. She tells Doggett and Reyes that she needs a minute.

Doggett and Reyes walk into the other room and realize that the man is gone. Reyes tells him that she will check the nursery.

Doggett sees that the front door is open. He yells to Reyes to stay with Scully. He then chases after the man and knocks him down.

DOGGETT: No more running, Mulder. We're going to protect you now.

Reyes tells Scully to give him some time. She tells the Breather that they will talk to him but he needs to sleep first. She then gives him some pills.

The Breather lies down on the bed.

In the other room, Scully asks them what they want to do now. Doggett tells her that they need to keep it a secret. Scully tells him that that won't be hard, because no one will believe it is him. Reyes tells her that whoever hurt him will know that it is him--that's what he's afraid of. Scully asks her if he was afraid of that why he would run.

DOGGETT: You still don't believe it's him.
SCULLY: You know a person in so many ways. Ways that a test can't even begin to know.

Doggett tells her that he will run the DNA test again, but it is a perfect match.

Reyes tells Scully that she might know why he ran.

REYES: Stop and think how hard this is for him. The way he looks.
SCULLY: If that was Mulder, I wouldn't care.

Reyes tells her though that he cares, he has to. Doggett tells them that maybe he's ashamed--not just of the way he looks, but because she let him go to protect him, only he couldn't protect himself. Scully questions that he believes that, and he tells her that he doesn't know. They will have a better sense when he wakes up.

Meanwhile, the Breather coughs and pulls something from his mouth-the pills. He then gets up and walks out into the hall. He walks past Mulder's fish tank and into the nursery.

The Breather pulls something out and unwraps it. It's a needle and bottle. He fills the syringe with the liquid in the bottle.

The Breather leans over and takes William's pacifier from him. He puts his finger in a small jar and takes out some clear jellylike stuff and puts it near William's mouth, but William pushes his hand away.

The Breather skips it and finishes fixing the needle. He looks over his shoulder once more and then leans over the crib to inject William.

Out in the living room, they hear William crying.

They rush into the nursery and Scully picks up William and rubs his head.

Doggett goes into the bedroom. The Breather is lying there like nothing happened.

Meanwhile, Scully sees that there is blood on William, and on his sheets. She starts screaming, wanting to know what he did.

Scully and Reyes rush William to the hospital to a Dr. Edwards. Scully is really panicked. When the doctors take William away, Scully yells to her that she is a medical doctor. Edwards tells her then that she knows what they are doing and to sit tight and let them do their jobs.

Scully stands clutching a piece of William's clothing.

Meanwhile, Doggett is screaming at the Breather. He wants to know what he did to William and where he put the needle. He doesn't answer him so he starts searching. He lifts up the mattress and finds the needle and bottle.

Doggett holds the Breather against the wall, screaming at him, asking if it is what he used. The Breather tells him that it is. Doggett screams at him that if anything happens to William he will take him out personally--he doesn't care who he is.

ACT FOUR
Scully and Reyes sit in the waiting room. Time passes and they are the only ones left in the room.

Finally Dr. Edwards comes in. She tells Scully that he's doing fine. She tells him that he's in Step Down as a precaution, but he should be going home in no time.

Scully asks her what she found. She tells her that she didn't find anything. He had slight bruising on his head, where something clearly broke the skin, but other than that he's fine.

Reyes asks her about a tox screen. The doctor tells her that William had an elevated amount of iron in his blood, but other than that he is a completely normal baby.

Reyes says that it doesn't make any sense, but Scully tells her that she thinks that it does. It makes perfect sense now.

Scully enters the interrogation room and yells at the Breather. She tells him that she has seen her share of the hideous, disgusting, repellent, but he is the most perfect expression she will ever see of all that is vile and hateful in life.

He tells her that that may well be, but for a moment she believed that he was Mulder.

SCULLY: I never believed it.
BREATHER: You wanted to believe.

Now letting on the she knows the truth, Scully tells him that he is as false as his face, and that she bet that he wished every night and day that the bullet meant to kill him had succeeded.

Meanwhile, behind the glass, Skinner tells Doggett and Reyes that he can't believe it is who it is.

The Breather tells Scully that she is wrong about that. When he looks in the mirror he sees something much different than the world sees.

BREATHER: He could destroy my face and my dignity when he shot me in the office…
There is a flashback of Jeffrey Spender being shot by Cigarette-Smoking Man
BREATHER: But he couldn't destroy the one thing I love most-my hatred of him.

Scully tells him that she knows he means his cigarette-smoking son of a bitch of a father. He adds that he is also Mulder's father. She tells him that she knows that he counted on the DNA. He thought that they would buy it without question, or without looking further. She tells him that DNA is what Mulder shared with Jeffrey Spender.

Spender tells her that they are half brothers, raised apart. That is about all that he and Mulder ever shared.

Scully guesses correctly that he hasn't seen or talked to Mulder. She guesses that him getting caught at the FBI and gaining their trust was all towards one thing--to get at William.

He tells her that sitting there, she'd wish him dead. Shortly, he will do her the favor.

Scully pulls out the bottle of liquid that Spender injected into William. She tells him that she had it checked, and it is an unknown metal. He tells her that it is a form of magnetite--a gift. Scully questions this. He tells her that having failed as a conspirator to control alien colonization, his father wanted nothing more than to see the world fail too.

Scully asks him if he means that he's prevented colonization now. He tells her that her son is the one thing that the aliens need. He took revenge on his father by taking William away from them. Scully questions that he's all right now, just like that. Spender nods.

SCULLY: So, it's over. They'll let him be.
SPENDER: It'll never be over. They'll always know what he was. They'll never accept what he is.
SCULLY: Well, I can protect him.
SPENDER: And what if you can't? Look at me…what they did. Is this what you want for your son?

William lies in his crib as Scully watches him.

Reyes comes in and tells her that she fixed her room. She bought all new stuff for her bed. Scully thanks her.

Reyes tells her that she knows that it is impossible to stop thinking about what he said, about William, but they were all lies-she is the one who proved it. Scully asks her how she is supposed to prove it now--by insisting that she can protect him, only to learn too late that she can't? Reyes tells her that she says that as if she has a choice.

SCULLY (starting to cry): He (William) didn't have a choice to come into this life. I don't have a choice about what he is or was…But I do have a choice about the life my soon will have…(breaking)…And shouldn't I choose that he never have to be afraid of anyone or anything? And can I ever really even promise him that?

Reyes asks her who can. Scully just touches his mobile and then breaks down into tears. Crying, she covers her face.

At the farmhouse from the teaser, the woman is holding William while music is playing. Her husband comes in with the buffalo mobile that he finished.

They put him to bed. The man tells him, "Sweet dreams, baby boy."

The two leave the room and the camera pans down to William, who is smiling.

IMAGES FROM "WILLIAM" COMING SOON!


Overall Rating : 10
*Shippy Rating: 8.5
*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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