Transcripts / Season 4 / Memento Mori

Season 4 · Episode 14

Memento Mori

Character-labelled dialogue prepared from the official DVD subtitle track.

Production code4X15Original airdate · February 9, 1997

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280 dialogue entries

Scene 01

Opening scene

Dana Scully

For the first time... I feel time like a heartbeat, the seconds pumping in my breast like a reckoning, the numinous mysteries that once seemed so distant and unreal... Threatening clarity in the presence of a truth... Entertained not in youth, but only in its passage. I feel these words as if their meaning... Were weight being lifted from me, knowing that you will read them and share my burden... As I have come to trust no other. That you should know my heart, look into it, finding there the memory and experience that belong to you, that are you, is a comfort to me now as I feel the tethers loose... And the prospects darken... For the continuance of a journey that began not so long ago, and which began again with a faith shaken and strengthened... By your convictions. If not for which I might never have been so strong now... As I cross to face you and look at you incomplete, hoping that you will forgive me... For not making the rest of the journey with you.

Scene 02

HOLY CROSS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Fox Mulder

Oncology? Thanks. Scully? I, uh-- I stole these from some guy with a broken leg down the hall. He won't be able to catch me. How you doing?

Dana Scully

I guess that's the question. Actually, I feel fine.

Fox Mulder

Good. What, uh, exactly are we lookin' at here?

Dana Scully

It's what's called a naso-pharyngeal mass. It's a small growth on the wall... Between the superior concha and the sphenoidal sinus.

Fox Mulder

A growth?

Dana Scully

A tumor. You're the only one I've called.

Fox Mulder

Okay. Is it operable?

Dana Scully

No.

Fox Mulder

But it's treatable.

Dana Scully

The truth is that the type and placement of the tumor... Make it difficult-- to the extreme.

Fox Mulder

I refuse to believe that. I-I--

Dana Scully

For all the times I have said that to you, I am as certain about this as you have ever been. I have cancer. It is a mass on the wall between my sinus and cerebrum. If it pushes into my brain, statistically there is about zero chance of survival.

Fox Mulder

I don't accept that. Th-there must be some people... Who have received treatment for this who we can--

Dana Scully

Yes, there are.

[ sighs ]

Scene 03

SKINNER'S OFFICE

Walter Skinner

This news comes as the worst kind of surprise, agent Scully. I'm very sorry.

Dana Scully

Thank you, sir. I don't mean for this to be awkward, and I would appreciate it if we could keep this confidential.

Walter Skinner

I understand. I assume you'll be taking a leave of absence.

Dana Scully

No, sir. I've asked my doctors to hold on to my medical records... Until agent Mulder and I can exhaust a possible avenue of investigation.

Walter Skinner

Investigation?

Fox Mulder

Last year agent Scully and I... Pursued a case in which a number of women, purported abductees, experienced similar symptoms after having implants removed from the base of their necks. A woman in allentown, Pennsylvania... Named Betsy Hagopian, was undergoing treatment for naso-pharyngeal tumor. We haven't been able to contact her yet.

Walter Skinner

I'm sure you're aware we have contacts with the best physicians in the country.

Dana Scully

Yes, sir. But for my own reasons, I would like to pursue this through the justice department, rather than as a personal matter.

Scene 04

ALLENTOWN, PA

Realtor

I'm sorry. No early birds.

Dana Scully

We're not here for the garage sale. We're looking for Betsy Hagopian. No one's returning our messages.

Realtor

Sorry. Um, Betsy's passed away. Just two-and-a-half weeks ago. Are you a relation?

Fox Mulder

No. We're with the FBI.

Realtor

Been some kind of trouble?

Fox Mulder

Betsy was part of a MUFON group.

Realtor

I don't know. I'm just the realtor.

Fox Mulder

Do you mind if we come inside and take a look? Hey, Scully. Listen to this. [ static sounds ] there are two lines coming in. I noticed this one was lit.

Dana Scully

Somebody's sending a fax or a computer modem.

Fox Mulder

But who? And to send what? Somebody must have remote access to the system.

Dana Scully

They're downloading data.

Fox Mulder

Copying files. Let's get a trace on them before whoever it is hangs up.

[ dialing tone ]

Scene 05

FRONT OF APARTMENT BUILDING

Dana Scully

Apartment 234 is listed under Kurt Crawford.

Fox Mulder

I'm gonna check around back. See if you can get the manager.

Dana Scully

Stop! Federal agent! Hold it! Put your hands where we can see them! Is your name Kurt Crawford?

Kurt Crawford

Yes.

Fox Mulder

Scully?

Dana Scully

What? I'm fine, Mulder. Quit staring at me. I'm fine.

Scene 06

IN APARTMENT

[ knocking at door ]

Fox Mulder

You okay, Scully?

Dana Scully

Yeah. I'm just washing up. You took his cuffs off.

Fox Mulder

He says he's a member of the same UFO network Betsy Hagopian belonged to. That he was downloading files for safekeeping, as Betsy had instructed him.

Dana Scully

Then why did he run?

Fox Mulder

He thinks his life's in danger. He thinks there's a government conspiracy to suppress the information in those files.

Dana Scully

You think he's credible?

Fox Mulder

He seems to know a lot... About what happened to Betsy and the other women... In the MUFON group that you met at her house.

Dana Scully

That will have to be cross-checked.

Fox Mulder

We can't.

Dana Scully

Why not? How did they die?

Kurt Crawford

Brain cancer. All within the last year.

Dana Scully

All of them?

Kurt Crawford

From the group you met, there's only Penny Northern. She's in the hospital, and it doesn't look good.

Dana Scully

What makes you think this is a conspiracy, that the government's involved?

Kurt Crawford

What makes you think it isn't? Eleven women are abducted, all with similar recollections about the experience. All developing identical brain tumors, and all refused state or federal health care... Because of their insistence of the facts. And all dying within the space of a year.

[ whispering ]

Fox Mulder

I want you to listen to me.

Dana Scully

About what?

Fox Mulder

About what you won't admit to yourself, what you're denying.

Dana Scully

What am I denying?

Fox Mulder

Where your cancer came from.

Dana Scully

It doesn't matter.

Fox Mulder

It does matter. If what you have is a result of your abduction, and that is something the government knows, then those are facts that should be brought to light.

Dana Scully

I don't know what happened. I have no clear recollection, and I don't think these abductions are even abductions.

Fox Mulder

These women are dead.

Dana Scully

No, they are not. One woman isn't-- this Penny Northern.

Fox Mulder

Mm-hmm. If you won't listen to me, then you should go talk to her.

Dana Scully

About what? What it feels like to be dying of cancer? What it's like to know there is absolutely nothing you can do about it?

Fox Mulder

If that's too hard for you, then go as an investigator. You have one remaining witness, agent Scully. I'd think you'd want to know what her story is.

Scene 07

ALLENTOWN BETHLEHEM MEDICAL CENTER

Penny Northern

Dana. Hello.

Dana Scully

I-I'm sorry. Did somebody tell you I was coming to see you?

Penny Northern

No.

Dana Scully

Then how did you know it was me?

Penny Northern

I recognized you. I told you when we met last year. I held you and comforted you in the place... After the tests.

Dana Scully

I'm sorry. I don't mean to be insensitive, but, uh... I don't share those memories.

[ clears throat ]

Penny Northern

It's all right.

Dana Scully

I've come to ask you some questions.

Penny Northern

About dr. Scanlon?

Dana Scully

No. Who's dr. Scanlon?

Penny Northern

He's treating the cancer. He treated Betsy too. He thinks he might have isolated the cause. And that if he'd caught it earlier, he might have been able to do more for her. And for me.

Dana Scully

His name's Scanlon?

Penny Northern

Yes. What did you want to ask me?

[ cell phone ringing ]

Scene 08

Fox Mulder

Mulder.

Dana Scully

Mulder, it's me.

Fox Mulder

Where are you?

Dana Scully

I'm at the hospital with Penny Northern. Where are you?

Fox Mulder

I'm at Betsy Hagopian's... Going through some hard files before stuff starts disappearing. Call me an early bird, but I think I've found something. Some of these women who have died, they're childless. They've been treated for infertility at a clinic 30 Miles from here-- Penny Northern and Betsy Hagopian among them.

Dana Scully

Mulder, that's--

Fox Mulder

I've made phone calls, tried to get some information, but nobody is talking to me.

Dana Scully

Mulder, I need you to come up here.

Fox Mulder

Did you find something there?

Dana Scully

I need you to bring the overnight bag from the trunk of the car. And I need you to call my mother... And ask her to bring some things up to the hospital.

Fox Mulder

Is there anything I should know?

Dana Scully

Mulder, whatever you found, or whatever you might find, I think we both know that... Right now the truth is in me. And that's where I need to pursue it... As soon as possible.

Fox Mulder

I will be right there.

[ door opens, closes ]

Scene 09

Kurt Crawford

Agent Mulder? Agent Mulder?

Scene 10

Dr. Scanlon

Dana? I'm dr. Scanlon. We spoke last night on the phone.

Dana Scully

Yeah. Hi. Sorry. I was sleeping.

Dr. Scanlon

I noticed. How's your energy level, generally?

Dana Scully

Oh, you know, I-- I don't-- I don't feel sick at all.

Dr. Scanlon

Your m.r.I.'s and your charts aren't here yet. But I have an idea what to expect. You probably do too, from your medical training.

Dana Scully

I know that chemotherapy is going to make me sick.

Dr. Scanlon

And the radiation. They're both part of a high-dose approach to knock your system down... So that we can attempt a gene therapy on p-53. You're gonna feel like dying.

Margaret Scully

Dana.

Dana Scully

Hi, mom.

Margaret Scully

Hi.

Dana Scully

This is dr. Scanlon.

Dr. Scanlon

Hi.

Margaret Scully

Hi. I, uh-- I drove. I was gonna take the shuttle, but it's only an hour more by car. Can you imagine?

Dana Scully

Mom? I'm fine. I'm going to be fine. I'm just here for treatment.

Dr. Scanlon

I'm gonna go. I've ordered additional blood work. I'd like to start this afternoon.

Dana Scully

Thank you. Mom, I know what you're going to say, but I don't have any experience being sick. I promise you, I feel fine. I feel-- [ sighs ]

Margaret Scully

I don't know why you didn't tell me. I don't know why you didn't tell me immediately!

Dana Scully

I wanted to get all the answers first.

Margaret Scully

And you found them here?

Dana Scully

I have found some clarity. And maybe a way to fight back.

Margaret Scully

I don't want to be kept in the dark.

Dana Scully

You'll know, mom.

[ crying ]

Margaret Scully

You have always been the strong one.

[ sobbing ]

Margaret Scully

But you're my only daughter now.

Dana Scully

I know.

Margaret Scully

[sobbing] oh, Dana.

Scene 11

Dana Scully

In med school, I learned that cancer arrives in the body unannounced-- a dark stranger who takes up residence, turning its new home against itself. This is the evil of cancer--- that it starts as an invader, but soon becomes one with the invaded, forcing you to destroy it. But only at the risk of destroying yourself.

[ whirring ]

Dana Scully

It is science's demon possession. My treatments-- science's attempt at exorcism. Mulder, I hope that in these terms... You might know it and know me, and accept this stranger so many recognize... But cannot ever completely cast out. And if the darkness should have swallowed me as you read this, you must never think there was the possibility of some secret intervention-- something you might have done. And though we have traveled far together, this last distance must necessarily be traveled alone.

[ door opens, closes ]

Scene 12

CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE

Fox Mulder

I've got a gun pointed at your head. Turn around very slowly. Kurt Crawford. We seem to be traveling in the same circles these days.

Kurt Crawford

Put the gun away.

Fox Mulder

You disappeared with those files from Betsy Hagopian's. I called you half a dozen times. I got to thinking you were a liar. Tell me I'm wrong.

Kurt Crawford

I'm looking for the same thing that you are. I've been trying to hack into that system, but I can't seem to make it past the password.

Fox Mulder

You think you can get access from here?

Kurt Crawford

I need to find that password.

Fox Mulder

"vegreville."

Kurt Crawford

We're in. Huh.

Penny Northern

Dana? Dana, it's okay.

Scene 13

Penny Northern

It's okay, Dana. You'll be okay.

Dana Scully

[ whispering ] where am I?

Penny Northern

You're in your own bed now. You're safe.

Dana Scully

I feel nauseous.

Penny Northern

It's the chemo. The chemo was always the worst.

Dana Scully

I had a bad dream. Some-- someone was doing something bad to me.

[ sighs ]

Dana Scully

Mmm. You were there. I heard your voice.

Penny Northern

They let me come to you during the procedures.

[ moans softly ]

Penny Northern

I don't know why. Human compassion is not something that they have.

Dana Scully

I'm sorry, Penny. I can't-- I can't hear this right now.

Penny Northern

You've got to try and make sense of it, Dana. It'll help you through the pain. To understand why this is-- this is happening to you.

Scene 14

Fox Mulder

I need you to set up a meeting for me.

Walter Skinner

Hold all my calls. Where's agent Scully?

Fox Mulder

She's in a hospital in allentown beginning treatment.

Walter Skinner

What happened to your investigative avenues?

Fox Mulder

They've taken a turn. A pretty big u-turn, by the looks of it. This is a file directory from a federally-operated fertility clinic. Agent Scully's name is on this file. Although I'm pretty damn sure she's never undergone treatment for infertility.

Walter Skinner

What's in the file?

Fox Mulder

I don't know. It's just a directory... For a mainframe housed in the lombard research facility.

Walter Skinner

So you want to set up a meeting. With whom?

Fox Mulder

The cigarette man. I have no doubt in my mind he's behind this.

Walter Skinner

You've come to me before like this, Mulder.

Fox Mulder

Well, this is different. I'm willing to deal now.

Walter Skinner

Find another way.

Fox Mulder

No. No! I need that meeting.

Walter Skinner

You deal with this man, you offer him anything, and he will own you forever.

Fox Mulder

He knows what they did to agent Scully! He may know how to save her!

Walter Skinner

If he knows, you can know too, but you can't ask the truth of a man who trades in lies. I won't let you.

Fox Mulder

We are talking about agent Scully's life.

Walter Skinner

Find another way.

Scene 15

Melvin Frohike

The lombard system is a dedicated mainframe... Impossible to hack, so they say.

Fox Mulder

How'd you guys get in?

John Fitzgerald Byers

A modified clipper chip we cannibalized... From a government surplus army field encoder.

Melvin Frohike

We bought it back from the chinese.

Richard Langly

But for all the work it took to get in, what we got on agent Scully's file, we don't know how much help it's gonna be.

Fox Mulder

What do you mean?

John Fitzgerald Byers

It's a gene code we've seen before. Detected in Scully's blood after her abduction.

Fox Mulder

Does it tell us anything?

John Fitzgerald Byers

Normal DNA is inactive when in its helical form. When it's unwound, or branched like this one, that's when it's active, when it can mutate.

Richard Langly

It's what made her sick.

Fox Mulder

Why store something like this, and why keep it a secret?

John Fitzgerald Byers

Scientists get funky about having their research poached.

Richard Langly

Somebody might be trying to find a cause.

Fox Mulder

Or a cure.

Melvin Frohike

Theoretically.

Fox Mulder

You guys ever been to the lombard research facility? Well, pick out something black and sexy and prepare to do some funky poaching.

[ sighs ]

Scene 16

Cigarette-Smoking Man

It's funny. I always thought of you as Fox Mulder's patron. You'd think under your aegis, he wouldn't be consigned to a corner of the basement.

Walter Skinner

At least he doesn't take an elevator up to get to work.

Cigarette-Smoking Man

You think I'm the devil, mr. Skinner?

Walter Skinner

I'm not here to talk about what I think about you.

Cigarette-Smoking Man

Then why are you here? Is it Mulder's partner and her illness? Is it terminal? Is it cancer?

Walter Skinner

You tell me.

Cigarette-Smoking Man

Modern medicine today-- I hear they can perform miracles.

Walter Skinner

I need a miracle.

Cigarette-Smoking Man

Well, you think a lot more of me than you let on, mr. Skinner.

Walter Skinner

What'll it take?

Cigarette-Smoking Man

For agent Scully's life? What would you offer?

Walter Skinner

What'll it take?

Cigarette-Smoking Man

Well, I'll have to get back to you on that. Oh, mr. Skinner. Which way is the elevator?

Scene 17

John Fitzgerald Byers

He'll double back in 54 seconds. Frohike, where are you guys?

Melvin Frohike

We're in the k-section of the storm drain... Where the communications system links up to public power.

Fox Mulder

Stand by.

Melvin Frohike

Two minutes for a systems check.

Fox Mulder

We got to go.

John Fitzgerald Byers

We're in motion.

Melvin Frohike

They're in.

Richard Langly

Security camera's off-line, patching in now.

Melvin Frohike

Smile, Byers. You're on candid camera.

Richard Langly

Exterior security has been breached.

John Fitzgerald Byers

Langly, are you reading this?

Richard Langly

Redundant systems-- triple-shut bypass. This is a toughie.

Fox Mulder

You guys couldn't spring for two of these? What is going on?

Richard Langly

Mulder, this is gonna take a moment.

Fox Mulder

Boys, we have a problem. The doctor treating Scully's cancer is on staff here.

Richard Langly

More mysteries await. Bypass is complete.

Fox Mulder

I need someone to get to Scully to stop treatment. Right now, you're the only one who can do that.

Scene 18

Dana Scully

I have not written to you in the last 24 hours... Because the treatment has weakened my spirit as well as my body. Mulder, it's difficult to describe to you the fear of facing an enemy... Which I can neither conquer nor escape. Penny Northern has taken a downturn. I now look at her with a respect that can only come from one... Who is about to walk the same dark path. Seeing her, I can't help but see myself in a month or a year. I pray that I have her courage to face this journey. Mulder, I feel you close... Though I know you are now pursuing your own path. For that I am grateful-- more than I could ever express. I need to know you are out there if I am ever to see through this.

Scene 19

Fox Mulder

Langly, where the hell am I going?

Richard Langly

We're losing you on the video feed, Mulder. Mulder? Did you do anything, Frohike?

Melvin Frohike

Nada. I didn't touch a thing.

[ police car radio, indistinct ]

Kurt Crawford (hybrid)

Down here.

Fox Mulder

Langly, can you hear me? [ radio transmission scrambled ] Langly, I can't hear you.

[ knocking ]

Fox Mulder

Open the door. Open the damn door!

Kurt Crawford (hybrid)

Agent Mulder, come in.

Fox Mulder

You're hybrids.

Kurt Crawford (hybrid)

Please come in so that we might explain.

[ water bubbling ]

Fox Mulder

You've been using me.

Kurt Crawford (hybrid)

Not at all. You're arrival was only coincident with the execution of our objective.

Fox Mulder

What objective?

Kurt Crawford (hybrid)

To subvert the project. The project that created us.

Fox Mulder

I've seen this boy before. These boys are you.

Kurt Crawford (hybrid)

We're among the end result.

Fox Mulder

And you want to destroy them?

Kurt Crawford (hybrid)

No! What we want is the same thing that you want.

Fox Mulder

What are these?

Kurt Crawford (hybrid)

Human ova.

Fox Mulder

Taken from whom? What?

Kurt Crawford (hybrid)

Harvested during her abduction through a high-amplification radiation procedure... That caused... Super-ovulation.

Fox Mulder

Why?

Kurt Crawford (hybrid)

For fertilization. They constitute one half of the necessary raw materials.

Fox Mulder

For genetic hybridization. For reproduction. These women-- these women are your birth mothers.

Kurt Crawford (hybrid)

Barren now... From the same procedure that caused their cancer. And now they're left to die, their condition hastened by the man running this project.

Fox Mulder

You're trying to save them.

Kurt Crawford (hybrid)

They're our mothers.

Scene 20

Richard Langly

Mulder, are you there? Do you copy?

Fox Mulder

Langly, I can't hear you.

Richard Langly

You've got a security breach in section j-14.

Fox Mulder

You sure it's not Byers?

Richard Langly

Nope. I've got Byers right here on my screen.

Fox Mulder

Langly, help me out. I don't know where I'm goin'.

Richard Langly

You're in a bio-quarantine wing leading to an exit.

[ Langly ]

Richard Langly

At the end of the hall, you'll access a door to a bio-secure room. I'm working on the locks now.

Fox Mulder

Okay, Langly, Frohike, I'm here. Open the door.

Melvin Frohike

The doors work under redundant systems. We're working fast.

Fox Mulder

Work faster!

[ gunshots ]

Fox Mulder

Langly, open the door now!

[ gunshots ]

Fox Mulder

Get me out! Get me out of here now!

Richard Langly

Almost there. Go!

Scene 21

ALLENTOWN BETHLEHEM MEDICAL CENTER

Fox Mulder

Nurse. Nurse! Dana Scully's supposed to be in her room. Where is she?

Nurse

She's not there?

Fox Mulder

No. What happened to her?

Nurse

I don't know. I--

Fox Mulder

Who the hell does know?

John Fitzgerald Byers

Mulder!

Fox Mulder

What happened to Scully?

John Fitzgerald Byers

I got to her.

Fox Mulder

Where is she now?

Penny Northern

Dr. Scanlon isn't coming back?

Dana Scully

No. I don't think so, Penny.

Penny Northern

Dana, I want you to get well. You've been such a comfort. You've got to be the one. You can't give up hope.

Dana Scully

I haven't. I won't.

Scene 22

5:05AM

Fox Mulder

Is she gone? I know what she meant to you. When I came to find you and you weren't in your room, I got scared that something had happened. And I read some of what you wrote.

[ sighs ]

Dana Scully

I didn't want you to read that. I had decided to throw it out. I decided tonight that, um-- that I'm not gonna let this thing beat me. I came into this hospital able to work. And that's how I'm leaving.

Fox Mulder

Byers tell you about dr. Scanlon?

Dana Scully

Yes.

Fox Mulder

He may very well have killed those women.

Dana Scully

That will have to be proven-- if we find him.

Fox Mulder

When we find him. Something was done to you-- something you're just beginning to remember. You can't quite figure it out, but it can be explained, and it will be explained. And no matter what you think as a scientist or doctor, there is a way and you will find it... To save yourself.

[ sighs ]

Dana Scully

Mulder, I can't kid myself. People live with cancer. They carry on. And so will I. You know, I've got things to finish... To prove to myself, to my family. But for my own reasons.

Fox Mulder

Come on back. The truth will save you, Scully. I think it'll save both of us.

[ ringing ]

Scene 23

Walter Skinner

Skinner.

Fox Mulder

Oh, I-I was leaving you a voice mail. It's 5:30. What are you--

Walter Skinner

I'm working. How can I help you?

Fox Mulder

I want you to know that Scully's doing okay. She says she's coming back to work, actually.

Walter Skinner

Good. That's good to hear.

Fox Mulder

I was calling to thank you for your advice about our chain-smoking friend. I think you were right. We have to know what he knows. We just have to find another way.

Walter Skinner

There's always another way.

Cigarette-Smoking Man

Yes, I believe there is... If you're willing to pay the price.

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.