Gary Garber
You don't know how much I hate my job on days like this, jeb. If it were my choice... I'd be giving you a promotion but with the economy the way it is--
Season 8 · Episode 17
Empedocles
Character-labelled dialogue prepared from the official DVD subtitle track.
Production code8ABX17Original airdate · April 22, 2001
304 dialogue entries
Scene 01
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
Jeb Dukes
Are you firing me?
Gary Garber
You can hold your head up, jeb. You've done a good job here.
Jeb Dukes
I-I don't believe this. I-- I thought this was just an evaluation.
Gary Garber
I'm sorry. I really am.
[ siren blares ]
Officer
Stay back. Everybody, stay back. Just get back. Everybody, stay back.
Distraught Woman
Oh, my god, there's someone in there!
[ sirens blaring ]
Officer
Stay back! Keep your distance.
[ bell dings ]
Roberta Toews
Jeb. Can I help you? Jeb--
Gary Garber
Hey-- jeb-- what's up?
[ gunshot ]
[ camera shutter clicking ]
[ elevator bell dings ]
Scene 02
8:39 PM
Detective Potter
Agent Reyes?
Monica Reyes
Yeah, hi. Uh-- uh, monica Reyes.
Detective Potter
Frank potter, new orleans p.d.
Monica Reyes
Trying to quit the habit.
Detective Potter
Yeah, I tried to quit smoking myself once. I hated that damn gum. Well, anyway you, uh, want to see the victims?
Monica Reyes
Well, on the phone you said you had reason to believe the killings might be satanic ritual murders.
Detective Potter
Right. Let me show you. This is jeb dukes' work area. I found this among his personal effects.
Monica Reyes
What can you tell me about the killer, detective? Anything?
Detective Potter
Thirty-one years old college grad, lived alone. There's some who felt he had a dark side which could explain that there.
Monica Reyes
Can I look in there?
Detective Potter
Sure. You're the expert. Does it tell you anything about why he might've killed those people?
Monica Reyes
The fact is, a killer like this is usually pushed over the edge by what we call a stressor a catalyzing event-- an emotional breakdown the breakup of a relationship or sometimes when someone's been fired.
Detective Potter
This guy was fired by the two victims.
Monica Reyes
Well, that's most likely what drove him to murder.
Detective Potter
Yeah, but what about all these images these devil pictures?
Monica Reyes
It's marilyn manson.
Detective Potter
Marilyn manson?
Monica Reyes
Your kids listen to him. They probably buy his cds at kmart. I don't think there's anything satanic going on here, detective.
Detective Potter
Agent Reyes. Okay, okay, it's some rock group but you don't think this has anything to do with satan or evil or--
Monica Reyes
Personally? I'd look into his gum.
Detective Potter
Agent Reyes? Did you find something?
[ knocking ]
[ knocking continues ]
Scene 03
Scene 03
Dana Scully
Mulder.
Fox Mulder
What?
Dana Scully
I was just about to jump in the shower but I was waiting for the pizza man.
Fox Mulder
You got something going on with the pizza man I should know about?
Dana Scully
The pizza man?
Fox Mulder
Well, correct me if I'm wrong but you just said you were waiting for the pizza man to jump in the shower.
Dana Scully
No, what I meant was the pizza man's usually late, and so-- you want to come in?
Fox Mulder
Thank you.
Dana Scully
I feel like I'm stuck in an episode of mad about you.
Fox Mulder
Well, uh, yeah, but small technicality. Mad about you was about a married couple and we just work together.
Dana Scully
Yeah, well, you know what I'm talking about.
Fox Mulder
I do, I do. What-what I'm trying to say is that, uh, we have no good reliable information on this man. I mean, what I am saying is the pizza man... Is not above suspicion.
Dana Scully
Ah, I see. Is that for me?
Fox Mulder
Yeah.
Dana Scully
Nice package.
Fox Mulder
Thank you.
Dana Scully
What's the occasion?
Fox Mulder
Oh, uh, I was going through some stuff after my mother died and, um, it's just an old family keepsake and I wanted you to have it.
Dana Scully
Well, I'm touched.
[ knocking ]
Fox Mulder
Little caesar, I presume?
Dana Scully
Hi. Just, uh, give it to the man with the funny look on his face.
Pizza delivery man
Yeah, it's $29.08.
Fox Mulder
$29.08? What'd she get on it, a tank of gas?
[ Scully gasps ]
[ panting ]
Fox Mulder
Scully? Scully! Call 911.
Scene 04
WASHINGTON MEDICAL CENTER
ER nurse
That Scully? Dana? She's got what? Abdominal pains?
Fox Mulder
Her doctor is dr. Speake.
ER nurse
Oh, he's been called.
Fox Mulder
She.
ER nurse
Who are you? The husband?
Fox Mulder
No.
ER nurse
Then you wait outside.
John Doggett
Agent Mulder, what happened?
Fox Mulder
How'd you find out?
John Doggett
I was dropping something off. Her landlord told me.
ER nurse
Are you the husband?
John Doggett
Me? No.
[ cell phone ringing ]
Fox Mulder
Excuse me. Mulder.
Monica Reyes
Special agent Fox Mulder?
Fox Mulder
Speaking.
Monica Reyes
Agent Mulder, my name is monica Reyes. We never met. Not since you've been alive, I should say.
Fox Mulder
Who?
Monica Reyes
Special agent Reyes. I know this is out of the blue but I have a case I need your help on. It involves a certain phenomenon.
Fox Mulder
I can't help you, agent Reyes, for so many reasons. I think you should contact agent Doggett at the X-Files.
Monica Reyes
I can't call agent Doggett because it involves him. I'm in new orleans, but I can be in D.C. In a few hours. It's important, agent Mulder. Very.
Fox Mulder
Call me when you get here.
John Doggett
They're telling us not to worry. They're running some tests.
[ truck horn blaring ]
[ gun cocking ]
[ groans ]
[ groaning in pain ]
Scene 06
FBI HEADQUARTERS
Monica Reyes
Agent Mulder.
Fox Mulder
Agent Reyes?
Monica Reyes
You're taller than I thought.
Fox Mulder
You keep on alluding to a time that we've met and I don't remember.
Monica Reyes
I was there when they found you in the woods. You were... Uh... Yeah. I'm not surprised you don't remember.
Fox Mulder
Yeah. Um, I-I have somewhere I have to be if we could cut to the chase.
Monica Reyes
As I said before, it involves agent Doggett the death of his son. I don't know if you're familiar at all with that case.
Fox Mulder
No, I'm not at all familiar with agent Doggett. I-I wasn't aware of this. You were the lead investigator?
Monica Reyes
Once it fell to the FBI agent Doggett was with the n.y.p.d. At the time. We worked it together. We never caught the killer. It was the hardest case I've ever had. As in stealing-into- the-bathroom-to-cry-my-eyes-out kind of hard. I can't begin to imagine what it was like for john.
[ sighing ]
Monica Reyes
I couldn't bear to put him through this again but if it means we could catch his son's killer-- I just can't go to him until I know if what I saw means anything.
Fox Mulder
You said this case involves some kind of phenomena?
Monica Reyes
I don't know if it was a psychic experience or what but when we found his son, I had a vision. It was as if for just a moment the body was changed.
Fox Mulder
Changed? Into what?
Monica Reyes
Ashes. It looked like ashes. The thing of it is agent Doggett told me he saw it, too although he spent the last few years convincing himself he didn't that even if he did, it didn't mean anything.
Fox Mulder
What do you think it means?
Monica Reyes
I can't shake the feeling that it's a clue that it could somehow point to who's responsible if only I let it. And now I've seen it again. A thousand Miles from here, a seemingly unrelated case and I've had the same vision. There has to be a reason for it a reason it's happening now.
Scene 07
Scene 07
ER nurse
Sir, immediate family only. You fellas just don't listen. You have to go now.
Scene 08
Scene 08
Fox Mulder
Hey! Hey!
John Doggett
You stay out of my life! You stay out of my business!
Fox Mulder
Take it easy, agent Doggett.
John Doggett
You want to get something on me, you ask for it! I don't want to get calls about you going behind my back! You got that straight?
Fox Mulder
I don't want anything on you. I was asked to look into this file.
John Doggett
Who asked you?
Monica Reyes
Agent Doggett. What are you doing?
John Doggett
Is this you? Is this you looking into this?
Monica Reyes
Yes. I asked agent Mulder.
John Doggett
You asked him what? There's nothing in there for him to bother with.
Fox Mulder
Why don't you just calm down, agent Doggett and let her explain the connection to you.
John Doggett
The connection? To what?
Monica Reyes
I was going to tell you, john. I was in new orleans on a case-- a shooting. Something that I saw connected back to luke. A vision.
John Doggett
Not this again. You're not going to make something out of nothing.
Fox Mulder
Bob harvey. Does that name mean something or nothing to you?
John Doggett
Bob harvey was a suspect in the death of my son. We questioned him but then we realized he wasn't our man.
Monica Reyes
Agent Mulder pointed it out. Bob harvey was killed last night in a car crash fleeing the police near a shooting in new orleans. He died in front of the building where the shooting occurred.
John Doggett
What's the connection?
Fox Mulder
That's it.
John Doggett
That's it?
Monica Reyes
And then there was the vision.
John Doggett
No, there's no connection. I don't care what you saw, you leave it alone and you leave it the hell alone.
Monica Reyes
I know there is something here.
Fox Mulder
Good.
[ doorbell chimes ]
Scene 09
KATHA DUKES RESIDENCE
Monica Reyes
Hi.
Mia
Hi.
Monica Reyes
Is your mommy home?
Mia
Mom!
Katha Dukes
Mia?
Monica Reyes
Katha dukes?
Katha Dukes
Yeah.
Monica Reyes
Sorry about the late hour. My name is monica Reyes. I'm with the FBI
Katha Dukes
I believe that we're all born good, uncorrupted and life itself does the corrupting. But, you know, someone like jeb... He just isn't capable of this.
Monica Reyes
Are you close to your brother?
Katha Dukes
Very. Jeb lived here in the house with us till he went down south. He loves his niece.
Monica Reyes
Does the name bob harvey mean anything to you? Did jeb ever have any dealings with him?
Katha Dukes
No. I think I'd know. Why?
Monica Reyes
No reason. It's the answer I was kind of expecting, actually.
[ phone rings ]
Katha Dukes
Hello?
Jeb Dukes
Katha?
Katha Dukes
Yes?
Jeb Dukes
Katha, it's jeb.
Katha Dukes
I really can't talk right now. It's been a very bad day here.
Jeb Dukes
Listen, it wasn't me that killed those people, all right? It was somebody else. I'm telling you, it was somebody else.
Katha Dukes
You're going to have to call back later.
[ dial tone ]
[ knocking ]
Payphone Woman
Hi. I'm sorry to bother you. I got a flat tire back a ways.
Scene 10
Scene 10
Dana Scully
What are you doing, agent Doggett?
John Doggett
I was, um... I just came by to see how you're doing.
Dana Scully
I'm, uh, I feel all druggy. Do you mind? Thank you.
John Doggett
They say you're stabilized but we've been worried about you.
Dana Scully
Who's we?
John Doggett
You know... Me and agent Mulder and...
Dana Scully
What's wrong, agent Doggett? You don't seem too good yourself.
John Doggett
You worked with agent Mulder for how long? A long time.
Dana Scully
Mm-hmm.
John Doggett
You never believed in any of this stuff this paranormal or whatever you call it. So, what changed your mind?
Dana Scully
I realized it was me that I was afraid. Afraid to believe. Why do you ask? Agent Doggett, why do you ask?
John Doggett
Some other time.
[ door closes ]
Scene 11
Scene 11
Monica Reyes
Agent Mulder? I was looking for agent Doggett.
Fox Mulder
Well, that'd make sense. It's not my office anymore but old habits die hard.
Monica Reyes
What are those?
Fox Mulder
Cases involving images like you described. People close to crimes who experience visions of death disassociated from reality.
Monica Reyes
And what did you find?
Fox Mulder
Absolutely nothing. These visions are so random as to have absolutely no significance to the cases they're supposed to pertain to.
Monica Reyes
You're wrong.
Fox Mulder
I think I know these files.
Monica Reyes
And I know what I saw. There's a reason these things are happening. There is something at work here, and it all began with the man killed in the car crash-- bob harvey.
Fox Mulder
I think that's a coincidence. I think that life is full of them.
Monica Reyes
And full of patterns things we see but can't comprehend. You believe that. Why can't you believe this?
Fox Mulder
I think there's an opening coming up in this office soon. You might want to apply.
Monica Reyes
Is that why you won't help him?
Fox Mulder
I have a, uh, sick friend in the hospital and, uh, I think I should go see her.
Monica Reyes
I hope she gets well. This office down here needs at least one person with an open mind.
Fox Mulder
You'll say anything, won't you?
Monica Reyes
Only when I think I'm right.
[ chuckles ]
[ engine starts ]
Scene 13
SPARTANBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA
John Doggett
What am I doing here?
Fox Mulder
Been asking myself that same question, agent Doggett but it seems the tenacious agent Reyes does not want to let go of this one.
John Doggett
Of what?
Fox Mulder
She's got a murder victim out here a woman found shot. She thinks it's by the same man who killed those two people down in new orleans-- this jeb dukes.
John Doggett
What does she want from me?
Fox Mulder
She wants to know if you see it, too what she's been seeing.
John Doggett
I told you, there's no connection.
Monica Reyes
Agent Doggett.
John Doggett
I'm sorry, agent Reyes. I don't see it.
Monica Reyes
I think you do. You're just afraid to go there.
Fox Mulder
Whoo. You just keep shooting till you hit something, don't you?
Monica Reyes
You'd rather blind yourself to the connections, but I can't.
John Doggett
You keep talking about these connections. Connections to what? To who?
Monica Reyes
What if this is a thread of evil connecting through time through men, through opportunity connecting back to you. In india, in africa, in iran in the middle east, in the far east most of the world, they take it as a given. They see evil in death the way other people see god in a rose.
Fox Mulder
I saw elvis in a potato chip once.
Monica Reyes
You know what I'm talking about.
Fox Mulder
Yes, I do. I do but if this man doesn't see it, he doesn't see it, right?
Scene 14
Scene 14
Fox Mulder
You awake?
Dana Scully
Yeah.
Fox Mulder
What did the doctor say?
Dana Scully
That I had a partial abruption. Which means that my placenta started to tear away from the uterine wall. They're going to need to monitor me for awhile.
Fox Mulder
But you're going to be fine?
Dana Scully
Yeah. Where have you been?
Fox Mulder
I've actually been out in the field with agent Doggett and this female agent from new orleans.
Dana Scully
Agent Reyes.
Fox Mulder
Yeah.
Dana Scully
I like her.
Fox Mulder
You're nothing at all alike.
Dana Scully
Well, neither are you and I. So this is a case you're working on?
Fox Mulder
Yeah. Actually, one that involves agent Doggett's son the son who died.
Dana Scully
Yeah, he's never talked to me about him but I know something. Are you able to help him at all?
Fox Mulder
You can't help a man who can't help himself.
Dana Scully
He's worth the effort, Mulder.
Scene 15
Scene 15
Katha Dukes
All right, you got a half an hour to play in your room before mommy has dinner ready. Mia?
Mia
Okay.
[ gasps ]
Katha Dukes
What are you doing here?
Jeb Dukes
I'm coming home.
Katha Dukes
The FBI was here, jeb.
Jeb Dukes
I didn't do what they said, kath. It wasn't me, okay? It wasn't.
Katha Dukes
What is that on your face?
Jeb Dukes
What?
Katha Dukes
Is that blood?
Jeb Dukes
I don't know how that got there.
Katha Dukes
I need the truth, jeb.
Jeb Dukes
Look, please, believe me katha, it's not me, okay? I need help. Please.
Mia
Mom? Is that uncle jeb?
Jeb Dukes
Yeah, sweetheart. Yeah, it is. It's me.
Scene 16
Scene 16
John Doggett
Jeb dukes, middle name larold. No larold? Okay, thanks, anyway.
Monica Reyes
What are you doing, john?
John Doggett
I'm looking into this case.
Monica Reyes
You're looking in the wrong way. There are a hundred agents in this building who can phone canvass.
John Doggett
Ah, but there's only two who can solve crimes with mental telepathy-- you and me. So we'll just read the tea leaves on this one and there it is, right? Case closed?
Monica Reyes
John...
John Doggett
Damn it, monica, you want to find this guy. I'm trying to find him. What do you want from me?
Monica Reyes
I want you to be honest with yourself about what you saw that day. Honest about what your feelings tell you.
John Doggett
Feelings don't solve crimes. What the hell does it matter what my feelings are? How the hell's that going to get the job done?
Monica Reyes
I'm not talking about the job, john. What are you scared of? Why does it scare you?
John Doggett
I got to believe that I did everything I could to find my son.
Monica Reyes
You did do everything to find your son.
John Doggett
I got to believe that I did everything I could to save him to get him back safe to not let him down. I got to believe that I did everything humanly possible 'cause if I can't believe that then these other possibilities that you talk about that Mulder talks about that agent Scully talks about... If they're real-- if they're real, then... That's something else I could have done to save my son.
[ cell phone ringing ]
Monica Reyes
Monica Reyes. Katha? Katha, wait. Jeb dukes' sister. He's there at the house with her.
John Doggett
This guy somehow has some link to my son and I'm damn sure going to find out what it is.
Scene 17
Scene 17
Jeb Dukes
"as it happened, hansel and gretel "had overheard everything that their parents had said. "'shh,' said the boy. "'I'll find a way out I promise you, and when at last...'"
Katha Dukes
Mia, honey? Can you come here a minute, please?
Mia
But uncle jeb's reading to me.
Katha Dukes
That's okay. I just need you a minute. Can you, can you just come here?
Jeb Dukes
Who's here?
Katha Dukes
She just wants to talk, jeb. I just want you to tell her what you told me. She can help you.
Jeb Dukes
Who? I said who, damn it!
Katha Dukes
Come on, baby.
Mia
Uncle jeb!
Jeb Dukes
You lied to me!
Katha Dukes
Come on, jeb.
Jeb Dukes
Just get back.
Mia
Mommy!
Jeb Dukes
Go!
Mia
Mommy! Mommy! Let me go, uncle jeb! Mommy, help! Let me go, let me go, help!
John Doggett
Right there! Right there! Hands in the air! Federal agent. I'm armed! I'll shoot!
Jeb Dukes
You drop the gun, you drop the gun!
John Doggett
Let her go!
Mia
Mommy!
Jeb Dukes
I'll shoot her, I swear!
John Doggett
I just need to talk to you.
Mia
Mommy... Mommy, mommy!
John Doggett
I won't hurt you.
Jeb Dukes
You stay back.
Mia
Mommy! Mommy!
Jeb Dukes
I said stay back!
[ gunshot ]
[ screaming ]
Mia
Mommy! Mommy!
Katha Dukes
Mia! Mia!
[ screaming ]
Katha Dukes
What have you done?
John Doggett
This man needs help!
Scene 18
WASHINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
John Doggett
You're not going to die on me now.
Monica Reyes
Agent Doggett--
John Doggett
You hear me? You're going to make it. You're going to make it. You hear me?
Monica Reyes
John.
ER nurse
No, no, the parade stops here. Now, if you want to save him let the doctors do their work, okay? Who's the immediate family member here?
Katha Dukes
I am.
ER nurse
Okay, come with me. I'm going to need you to fill out some information for me, all right?
Monica Reyes
There is nothing more you can do.
John Doggett
You can't tell me that now.
Monica Reyes
Maybe saving this girl was the reason. Maybe that's what this was all about. Maybe that's what I saw and why I saw it. For that kid. Go home, john. There's nothing here for you to do.
Scene 19
Scene 19
Fox Mulder
Agent Doggett. She just fell back to sleep.
John Doggett
I just wanted to check to see how she's doing. Anyways, I'm here with this other thing. We, uh, we caught this killer, jeb dukes. He's in the I.c.u. He may not make it.
Fox Mulder
And now you're wondering if there really was a connection. You know, when I, uh... I first came to work at the FBI I worked at violent crimes and I saw the worst of humanity. I saw monsters and I wondered how they became that way how these men became so evil. I know there were psychological explanations-- victims of their environment, victims of their parents-- but the scientific explanations were never truly satisfying and I began to think about evil like a disease. You know, that it goes from man to man or age to age. Most of us walk around thinking we're incapable of any acts of evil and we are. You know, we can stifle that momentary urge to kill or to hurt. We have some kind of immunity to it but I think it's possible that there's... An occurrence in somebody's life a tragedy or a loss that leaves them vulnerable hurts their immunity to evil and all of a sudden at that point in their lives when they're weakened, they're open to evil and they can become evil.
John Doggett
If that were true, then what you're saying is... Is that this man we wheeled in here tonight is infected with evil the same evil that killed my son. You really believe that, agent Mulder?
Fox Mulder
Uh, I'm not really a good test for questions like that. I'll believe almost anything you know, but the, uh-- the pisser is you may never know. It may be like agent Reyes says. It could be random and meaningless-- who it affects, who it goes to.
John Doggett
What if it isn't?
Fox Mulder
Well, then you'd be seeing something I don't, agent Doggett.
[ alarm beeping ]
Scene 20
Scene 20
Katha Dukes
Somebody!
Monica Reyes
Doctor!
Dr. Speake
Push one gram of epi.
Nurse
Right here.
Dr. Speake
Call it. I'm sorry.
Nurse
Time of death: 10:57 p.m.
Katha Dukes
No, no, no-- you killed him.
[ yells ]
[ gasps ]
John Doggett
Drop the weapon!
Katha Dukes
No!
John Doggett
Drop it!
[ groans ]
John Doggett
I need a doctor!
Dr. Speake
Oh, my lord.
Nurse
I need a doctor, stat.
John Doggett
It's over. It's over now.
Monica Reyes
It's never over.
Scene 21
Scene 21
Dana Scully
Mulder, you never fail to surprise me. I just wish I felt like eating it right now.
Fox Mulder
That's cool. We can just wait for the cheese to congeal and eat it later. You miss your regular pizza man, don't you?
Dana Scully
Yes. That's okay. He's coming by later.
Fox Mulder
I bet you forgot about that didn't you?
Dana Scully
No, I didn't, actually. I thought about it a lot while I was lying in my hospital bed wondering what on earth you could have given me.
Fox Mulder
And?
Dana Scully
Oh, my god. Oh, Mulder.
Fox Mulder
Is it what you imagined?
Dana Scully
Not even close.
Fox Mulder
Oh, my, that's the wrong doll, actually.
[ laughing ]
Dana Scully
But then that's the other gift that you gave me, Mulder. Courage... To believe. I hope that's a gift I can pass on.
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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.