Man #1 (recorded)
Dave says he can set it up, but the cost sounds a bit rich.
Season 2 · Episode 2
The Host
Character-labelled dialogue prepared from the official DVD subtitle track.
Production code2X02Original airdate · September 23, 1994
193 dialogue entries
ATLANTIC OCEAN · TWO MILES OFF THE COAST OF NEW JERSEY
[ men conversing in russian ]
[ muttering in russian ]
[ engines rumbling ]
[ men giving orders, indistinct ]
[ speaking russian ]
[ man replying in russian ]
[ drill whirring ]
[ laughing ]
[ wincing ]
[ step rattles ]
[ yelling ]
[ shouting ]
[ shouting continues ]
Man #2 (recorded)
Well, dave's a stand-up guy. You'd be a fool to pass it up.
LONGSTREET MOTEL · WASHINGTON, D.C. · FEDERAL WIRETAP #5A21147
Man #1 (recorded)
I hear you. I just--
Man #2 (recorded)
Just what ? I mean, you want to take a dip, you gotta test the water.
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY
Man #1 (recorded)
You just don't wanna get wet.
Man #2 (recorded)
No, man. "dippage" is sacred.
Man #2 (Recorded)
Dippage is sacred.
Secretary
Agent Mulder?
Fox Mulder
Yeah?
Secretary
You're being relieved from your current assignment.
Brisentine
Agent bozoff will take over. You've got a flight to catch in 45 minutes. Where am I goin' ? Murder case. Newark, new jersey.
Fox Mulder
Treat yourself.
Brisentine
You're flying out of national. Your contact in newark is a detective norman. How'd I draw the assignment ? Assistant director skinner made the request.
Fox Mulder
Skinner requested me ?
[ dispatcher on radio, indistinct ]
[ officers chattering, indistinct ]
Fox Mulder
Mulder, FBI
Norman
My forensics team's just wrapping up. We left the body where we found it. Kenny ! This is one case I'm gonna be happy to turn over to you guys. [ groaning ] watch yourself.
Fox Mulder
Yeah. Wouldn't want to step in anything.
Norman
They say it cuts the smell if you don't breathe through your mouth.
Fox Mulder
They lied. Who found the body ? Sanitation worker.
Norman
Looks like it's been here a while.
Fox Mulder
Any ID ?
Norman
No. Not much to go on, either. Front side of the body is pretty much eaten away. You like us to turn him over for you ?
Fox Mulder
No, I'll take your word on that.
Norman
Hey, agent Mulder. What would you like us to do with the body ?
Fox Mulder
Wrap it up and send it to the FBI, care of assistant director skinner.
FBI NATIONAL ACADEMY · QUANTICO, VIRGINIA
Dana Scully
Yes, sir. Thank you.
Fox Mulder
I need to speak to him. I'm sorry. Mr. Skinner is unavailable.
Dana Scully
If you'd like to take a seat. Will you tell him that I'm here and I need to speak to him now ?
Secretary
Certainly. Excuse me, mr. Skinner. I'm very sorry to interrupt, but agent Mulder is demanding to see you.
Skinner
Is there a problem, agent Mulder ?
Fox Mulder
Yeah, there is.
Skinner
Then make an appointment.
Fox Mulder
It's kind of hard to make an appointment when you're up to your ass in raw sewage, being jerked from one meaningless assignment to another. Excuse me ? What's my next punishment ? Scrubbing the bathroom floors with a toothbrush ?
Skinner
You're way out of line, agent Mulder.
Fox Mulder
So I gathered.
Skinner
Fine. Come into my office, agent Mulder. Please. Agent Mulder, will you please inform the room as to why you regard... Your homicide case in new jersey as meaningless ?
Fox Mulder
It seemed to me like a simple drug land body dump. Not the type of case the FBI.. Normally wastes its time or manpower on.
Skinner
Certainly, agent Mulder, given your recent history here, you're not one to judge what is or is not a waste of the bureau's time or manpower.
Fox Mulder
Sir, my work on the x files--
Skinner
The x files have been closed, agent Mulder. You will carry out your new assignments and investigate them to the best of your ability. Is that not clear ?
Fox Mulder
Yeah.
Skinner
I'll be anticipating your field reports on your current homicide case. Thank you.
Dana Scully
Is this seat taken ?
Fox Mulder
No. But I should warn you I'm experiencing violent impulses.
Dana Scully
Well, I'm armed, so I'll take my chances. I hear you really endeared yourself to assistant director skinner today.
Fox Mulder
You know, sometimes it just gets hard to smile through it... When they ask you to bend down and grab your ankles, you know ?
Dana Scully
It's not exactly as if you've ever tried to fit into the program.
Fox Mulder
No. No, I've been thinking a lot about that lately. I've been thinking about leaving.
Dana Scully
The bureau ? [ sighs ] what would you do ?
Fox Mulder
Pursue my work in the paranormal somehow.
Dana Scully
You-- you could request a transfer to quantico. Come back to the behavioral science unit.
Fox Mulder
They don't want us working together, Scully. And right now that's the only reason I can think of to stay.
Dana Scully
Well, what about this case you're working on ?
Fox Mulder
It's a zero.
Dana Scully
Where's the body ?
Fox Mulder
[ sighs ] they transferred it to our forensics lab. Look, Scully, I know what you're trying to do.
Dana Scully
Maybe I can request to do the autopsy.
Fox Mulder
It's an exercise. Skinner is just rubbing my nose in this one. There's nothing to it.
Dana Scully
There's a dead body, isn't there ? Ugh. Examination and autopsy... Of john doe number 1-0-1-3-5-6. Case number d-p-1-1-2-1-4-8. Special agent Fox Mulder, field investigator. Body is an adult male... With advanced tissue decomposition, weighing 165 pounds in extremis, 69 inches in length. Intact skin is mottled and discolored... Due to submergence in and exposure to a highly bacterial environment. Cause and time of death unknown. Possible identifying mark on right forearm. Body cavities appear normal. Interior organs intact. Consistent in rate of decomposition. Removing the rib cage. Condition of heart and lungs are good. No sign of thrombi, natural or degenerative diseases. Indicate victim was probably a young adult. The liver shows some nodular hardening... Consistent with incipient alcoholism. Oh, god !
Man
It's on the way ! Got it. Gonna need a big piece of 30-gauge and some bailing wire.
Zenzola
I gotta go back up top for the screen.
[ yells ]
Dana Scully
Hey ! Help ! Frank ! Frank !
Zenzola
Frank ! Frank ! Frank !
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Fox Mulder
Hold on !
Zenzola
Frank ! Frank !
[ screaming ]
Dana Scully
Hold on to it ! Hold on ! Come on ! Hold on to it ! [ screaming ]
Fox Mulder
Hold on !
Dana Scully
Oh, my god.
Zenzola
I'm gonna get help ! I'm gonna give you a tetanus booster just as a precaution. I'd be happy if you'd just give me something to get this taste out of my mouth. Oh, yeah ? Let me take a look. Ah. Any trouble swallowing ? Uh-uh. It'll go away. Agent Mulder ? Yeah. Newark p.d. Referred me to you. I was surprised to hear the FBI was involved. Is there something here I should know ?
Fox Mulder
I don't know. Maybe you can tell me.
Zenzola
The patient is a sanitation worker. He claims he was attacked by something down in the sewer this morning. Attacked ? By what ? We've been unable to determine. Initially I thought it was a bogus disability claim. But he appears to be telling the truth. What's his condition ? He's in satisfactory health. I've given him a heavy course of antibiotics, and we're checking for hepatitis. He does have a strange wound on his back. What kind of wound ? It could be some kind of bacterial infection. Frankly, I can't say I've ever seen anything like it. This is agent Mulder of the FBI any idea what attacked you ?
Fox Mulder
Yeah. I've been thinking it might have been a python. A python ? Yeah. Or a boa constrictor. Somebody probably flushed their pet snake down the toilet. We found an alligator in the sewer a couple of years ago. Stronger than hell, I'll tell you that. Clamped onto me like a vice.
Zenzola
It almost looks like a bite.
Fox Mulder
[ phone ringing ] oh, excuse me. Mulder.
Dana Scully
Mulder, it's me. I need to see you. I've got something here I think you should know about.
Fox Mulder
What is it ?
Dana Scully
Some kind of parasite in your john doe. I'm having it looked at, but I should know more by the time you get down here.
Fox Mulder
Well, I'm up in jersey. I should be taking the shuttle down in about an hour. When can I get out of here ? I'd just like to go home. [ phone ringing ] oh, excuse me a second. Scully, this is a bad time for me to talk. Mr. Mulder. Yeah ? I think you should know... You have a friend at the FBI who is this ?
Zenzola
Agent Mulder. Yeah. If you don't have any more questions, I'm gonna release this man.
Fox Mulder
Okay. Go ahead.
Dana Scully
Close the door. It's called turbellaria. Or it's commonly known as a fluke or flatworm.
Fox Mulder
This was living inside the body ?
Dana Scully
Apparently it had attached itself to the bile duct and was feeding off the liver.
Fox Mulder
Lovely.
Dana Scully
Believe it or not, something like 40 million people are infected worldwide.
Fox Mulder
This isn't where you tell me some terrible story about sushi, is it ?
Dana Scully
Well, maybe you'd rather hear what you can catch from a nice rare steak.
Fox Mulder
So, what ? The murder weapon was a top sirloin ?
Dana Scully
Flukes are endemic in unsanitary conditions. It's more likely that the victim contracted it down inside the sewer.
Fox Mulder
Before or after he died ?
Dana Scully
I don't know. According to my sources, it's unlikely that a single parasite could have killed him. He was a young man. But the weird thing is, there's no other discernible cause of death.
Fox Mulder
How do these parasites attach themselves ?
Dana Scully
They have what's called a scolex. It's a suckerlike mouth with four hooking spikes.
Fox Mulder
Anything like this ?
Dana Scully
Where'd you get that ?
Fox Mulder
Something attacked a workman in a new jersey sewer this morning.
Dana Scully
And you're asking me if this is from a fluke ? Could it be ? Mulder, the scolex is a tiny little organ. This is a huge bite mark.
Fox Mulder
How big can these things get ?
Dana Scully
[ scoffing ] Mulder, I-- I'm sorry. Felt like old times here for a second. Flatworms are what are known as obligate endoparasites. They live inside of the host, entering the body through the ingestion of larvae or eggs. They are not creatures that go around attacking people.
Fox Mulder
Well, that's good. I didn't want to have to tell skinner... That his murder suspect was a giant bloodsucking worm.
Dana Scully
No.
Fox Mulder
At the very least, this will be interesting to the newark department of sanitation. Look, Scully, I don't know who you shared our conversation with the other night, but I'd prefer it if you didn't try to launch a campaign for me.
Dana Scully
Excuse me ?
Fox Mulder
I don't know who you talked to.
Dana Scully
I didn't talk to anybody.
Fox Mulder
Well, somebody called me and told me I had a friend at the FBI
Dana Scully
Look, Mulder... I-- I don't know what to say. But I wouldn't betray a confidence.
Foreman
The city runs on several different systems, some new, some built around the turn of the century. Almost as old as charlie, here. Isn't that right, charlie ? Oh, yes, sir.
Fox Mulder
What part of the sewer was I in ?
Foreman
That'd be one of the older sections. Big, eight-foot tunnels.
Fox Mulder
It looked more like a catacomb than a sewer line. Yep.
Foreman
All the new sections are concrete pipe, not much of it bigger than 24 inches.
Fox Mulder
And all the sewage comes through this plant ?
Foreman
560,000 people a day call my office on the porcelain telephone.
Fox Mulder
Have you ever seen one of these ?
Foreman
Looks like a big old worm.
Fox Mulder
It's called a fluke. It came from the body they pulled out of the sewer.
Foreman
Wouldn't surprise me. No telling what's been breeding down there in the last hundred years.
[ gasps ]
[ beeping ]
Foreman
Ray here. Yeah. Charlie, slow down. Get down here right away !
Charlie
I'm back flushing the system. It's in there. What is it ? I don't know. Just swam right past me. There it is !
Dana Scully (voice-over)
The turbellarian flatworms are free living...
Dana Scully
Carnivorous scavengers, usually less than three centimeters in length, found in fresh and seawater. They are hermaphroditic, with complex reproductive systems... Capable of internal fertilization. Many species require more than one host to complete a life cycle. Although the shape of the wound on the sanitation worker suggests scolex attachment, the sheer size of the wound precludes involvement of the common fluke worm.
[ phone ringing ]
Dana Scully
Scully.
Fox Mulder
Scully, it's me. You know that fluke you caught ? Yeah. It must have been the runt of the litter.
Dana Scully
I don't see it.
Fox Mulder
There it is. Tucked way in the far corner behind the pipes. Oh, my god. I don't know if you can see it from here, but it has no sex organs-- it's genderless.
Dana Scully
Platyhelminthes are often hermaphroditic. Mulder, this is amazing. Its vestigial features appear to be parasitic, but it has primate physiology. Where the hell did it come from ? I don't know.
Fox Mulder
But it looks like I'm gonna have to tell skinner that his suspect... Is a giant, bloodsucking worm after all. The only thing we're missing is the identity of the body in the sewer.
Dana Scully
He was a russian. An engineer on a cargo freighter. He had a tattoo on his forearm. I didn't make the connection until I detected... That was the name dmitri spelled in cyrillic lettering.
Fox Mulder
How'd you make the connection at all ?
Dana Scully
Somebody shoved this under my door. I guess you really do have a friend in the FBI and, Mulder, when you see skinner to hand in your field report, I know that it's your decision, but I hope that you know that I'd consider it more than a professional loss... If you decided to leave.
Skinner
Everything looks in order.
[ chuckles ]
Skinner
Is something wrong, agent Mulder ?
Fox Mulder
And of the suspect.
Skinner
The strangeness of the criminal and the crime are not lost on me. I had my reaction to them in my conversation with the federal prosecutor's office... About how to process the suspect. This meeting is to evaluate your work.
Fox Mulder
There's no way you'll prosecute this.
Skinner
The justice department has asked the suspect be transferred to an institution... For a full psychiatric evaluation.
Fox Mulder
This is not a man. It's a monster. You can't put it in an institution.
Skinner
What do you do with it, agent Mulder ? Put it in a zoo ? It killed two people.
Fox Mulder
Two ?
Skinner
The sanitation worker who was attacked... Was found dead in his home as a result of his injuries.
Fox Mulder
You know, you had a pair of agents that could have handled a case like this. Agent Scully and I might have been able to save that man's life, but you shut us down.
Skinner
I know. This should have been an x file. We all take our orders from someone, agent Mulder. That'll be all.
[ dispatcher on radio, indistinct ]
Man
Secure.
[ dispatcher continues ]
Federal Marshall
This is vehicle 49-40 requesting immediate backup and assistance.
Dispatcher
Roger, 49-40.
[ creature breathing ]
[ guard yells, weapon fires ]
[ radio, indistinct ] [ reverse gear signal beeping ]
[ machinery grinding, vacuum clogging ]
[ hose vibrating, vacuum pump whining ]
Norman
What have you got ? We got a dead marshal and an escaped prisoner. Other than that, we got bubkes. We got a police line in a two-mile radius.
Fox Mulder
Watch all the storm drains, any access to the sewer system. It's gonna try to get back underground. [ phone ringing ] Mulder. Mr. Mulder, I'll make this brief. Success in your current assignment is imperative. Who am I speaking to ? Are you hearing me, mr. Mulder ? Yes. Why is it imperative ? Reinstatement of the X-Files must be undeniable.
Man On Radio
Canine unit 6-4. Copy.
Man
Six-four, copy. We're at a campsite a quarter-mile from your position. Dogs tracked a scent to a chemical toilet here. Thought he might be hiding inside, but it's empty. Tanker.
Norman
Hold on, 6-4. What ?
Fox Mulder
What if he's on the tanker truck ?
Foreman
The company that owns the truck you're looking for doesn't keep detailed service records. They had about five trucks out in that area this morning. Three of them have already deposited their loads. He could have already been here. If he hasn't, he will be.
Fox Mulder
Is plant ? Yep. Then what happens to it ? It empties through an outlet pipe...
Foreman
About five Miles out to sea.
Fox Mulder
Could this thing have escaped through that outlet pipe ?
Foreman
Doubtful. The system's full of enough filters and screens... That nothing much bigger than your little finger's gonna get through. If it's here, it's going to be trapped here.
Fox Mulder
I guess all we can do is wait.
[ phone ringing ]
Fox Mulder
Mulder.
Dana Scully
It's me. Where are you ?
Fox Mulder
I'm at the treatment plant. I was playing a hunch it might have gotten into the system. How ? Forget it. It's stupid.
Dana Scully
Well, you're not gonna like what I have to tell you. Why not ? It hadn't occurred to me, but I think that the fluke in the corpse... Might have been an incubating larva. This creature, or whatever it is, is transmitting its eggs or larvae through its bite.
Fox Mulder
You mean it's trying to reproduce ?
Dana Scully
It's looking for hosts. It attacks because the victims' bodies provide generative nourishment. Mulder-- yeah ? If it finds a new host--
Fox Mulder
I know. It could multiply.
Foreman
Agent Mulder ! Linesman's spotting something down in a section of pipe ! Where ?
Fox Mulder
Here. That's near where we found the first body.
Foreman
Right. Except this is an old overflow system... That dumps into the harbor during heavy rainfall.
Fox Mulder
That must be where it got into the system. It's working its way back out to sea.
[ winces ]
Foreman
That's the overflow pipe. It leads to another vault like this one, then about three- quarters of a mile to the sea.
Fox Mulder
Let's see if we can get that gate closed.
Foreman
It's rusted in position. I'll see if I can get some leverage here.
Fox Mulder
Hey !
Foreman
[ groans ] goddamn it.
Fox Mulder
You all right ?
Foreman
Yeah, I lost my glasses-- [ yells ]
[ yelling ]
Fox Mulder
Give me your hand !
Foreman
Get me outta here !
Dana Scully
Damn it !
Fox Mulder
We need some help down here ! Hey ! [ yelps ] hey ! I'll get you outta here. Hang on. [ screaming ] hold on. Hold on. Are you all right ? Are you all right ?
Dana Scully
Is this seat taken ?
Fox Mulder
No. But I should warn you, I may reek a bit of the sewer.
Dana Scully
I'll take my chances.
[ sighs ]
Dana Scully
You talked to skinner yesterday ?
Fox Mulder
Success in our work is imperative, Scully. Reinstatement of the X-Files must be undeniable.
Dana Scully
That came from skinner ?
Fox Mulder
No. We have a friend in the FBI
Dana Scully
I thought you might be interested in the lab results on the biology of the fluke larva. Dissection and analysis... Indicates reproductive and physiological cross traiting, resulting in a sort of quasi-vertebrate human. Human ? Yes. But still capable of spontaneous regeneration... Like any fluke or flatworm.
Fox Mulder
How does that happen ?
Dana Scully
Radiation. Abnormal cell fusion. The suppression of natural genetic processes. Mulder, nature didn't make this thing. We did.
[ sighs ]
Fox Mulder
I know these. These are from chernobyl.
Dana Scully
That creature came off of a decommissioned russian freighter... That was used in the disposal of salvaged material from the meltdown. It was born in a primordial soup of radioactive sewage.
Fox Mulder
You know they say three species disappear off the planet every day. You wonder how many new ones are being created.
[ sighs ]
[ creature groaning ]
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About this transcript
The dialogue comes from the official DVD subtitle track supplied by Boggsfiles. Speaker and scene attribution was cross-checked against character-labelled reference material. Subtitle wording is preserved while capitalization and spacing are standardized for easier reading.