Elderly Woman
Land's sakes, george, what are you trying to do?
Season 8 · Episode 3
Patience
Character-labelled dialogue prepared from the official DVD subtitle track.
Production code8ABX04Original airdate · November 19, 2000
236 dialogue entries
Scene 01
Opening scene
[ thunder crashes ]
[ creaking ]
Tall George
I was trying to be quiet.
Elderly Woman
Quiet? I smelled you on the stairs. 39 years, I'm still surprised that embalming fluid of yours... Doesn't wake the dead.
Tall George
Didn't wake old zeke mcpherson tonight, god rest his soul.
Elderly Woman
Well, you go outside... And take those clothes of yours off... So I can rest mine. George!
Tall George
I'm going, tahoma, I'm going. What the hell? What the hell is that?
[ thunder crashes ]
[ hissing, gurgling scream, george screaming ]
Tahoma
George?
[ loud grunting ]
[ screams ]
[ screaming continues, stops suddenly ]
Scene 02
Scene 02
Male Agent 1
So, this is where the bad kids are banished to.
Male Agent 2
Put me down here, I'd probably cook up a lot of crazy ideas, too.
[ men laughing ]
Dana Scully
Good morning.
John Doggett
Morning. Um... I'll catch you guys later. Some friends. They're just curious.
Dana Scully
I'm not here to be a curiosity, agent Doggett. I'm here to work.
John Doggett
I am, too, agent Scully. I've been here all weekend... And early this morning I went over every X-File... In the cabinet there. Just left to get some coffee.
Dana Scully
Well... Do you have any questions?
John Doggett
Just a few. Maybe first you could tell me where your area is here... And where mine's going to be.
Dana Scully
This is my partner's office, agent Doggett. You and I will just be using it for a while.
John Doggett
So, where do we get started?
Dana Scully
Homicides: two in Idaho. White male, 62, undertaker by profession. He was killed on his front porch... About ten feet away from his wife.
[ slide projector cycles ]
John Doggett
Holy god.
Dana Scully
Cause of death was blood loss... From numerous deep wounds, from bites. Any thoughts, any questions?
John Doggett
"bites"?
Dana Scully
On his head, torso and hands. Two of his fingers were missing, eaten off.
John Doggett
By what, an animal?
Dana Scully
These were murders. The bites on his wife appear to be human.
John Doggett
I've seen some violent crimes. I mean, some seriously screwed up stuff, but, uh... This is extreme. Is there demonstration of motive?
Dana Scully
Not according to local p.d.
John Doggett
Is there any pattern, ritual or anything? I have to admit, agent Scully, I'm at a loss.
Dana Scully
Well, that's a good place to start.
Scene 03
BURLEY, IDAHO
Detective Abbott
You the folks from the FBI?
Dana Scully
Yeah.
Detective Abbott
Yale abbott, cassia county sheriffs.
Dana Scully
Hi. Agent Scully. This is agent Doggett.
Detective Abbott
We like to think we can handle our own problems around here, but a couple hotshots up in the county seat... Seem to think this is beyond us. Not that we don't appreciate your coming out all this way to give us a hand.
John Doggett
Well, I hope we can. I have to admit I'm a little baffled by what I've seen.
Detective Abbott
Oh, really?
Dana Scully
Understand, detective, that we've seen... Cases like yours regularly on our unit. Agent Doggett has only just been assigned to the X-Files. I can assure you that there's nothing baffling about human bite marks.
Detective Abbott
Well, that's just what I was getting around to, ma'am. We're not so sure now that these bites are human. The bodies were discovered by neighbors, so there was contamination of the general crime scene. My boys did a real damn good job... Of separating the various shoe prints and pulling these. Come on over. Right there, see that?
John Doggett
What is it?
Detective Abbott
It's not human, I know that.
Dana Scully
It's not quite animal, either.
Detective Abbott
There's only four toes.
Dana Scully
That's not an unheard of birth defect. No more rare than polydactyly.
Detective Abbott
What did she just say?
John Doggett
I assume she means it could be human. Is that a fair assumption?
Dana Scully
I say that assumption is the problem here. A strange print is found and immediately... The most important piece of evidence is just thrown out... To try and force an explanation. Maybe this print can help explain those bite marks.
Detective Abbott
How?
Dana Scully
I'm not quite sure yet.
Detective Abbott
She's not quite sure yet.
John Doggett
Well, I have to say I've worked a lot of homicides, but if the victims laid out here... For any time at all in a setting like this, it'd be pretty remarkable if they didn't attract animals.
Dana Scully
I think that postmortem predation is definitely... A consideration here, but I only see one print. And if it were an animal, there would be numerous prints... All over here and in the yard. You agree, agent Doggett?
John Doggett
I'm going to go take a look around.
Detective Abbott
You know, I got two old folks in the morgue... Mauled beyond recognition. I have no motive to go on, no intent. There's not one shred of evidence... That cries out for a human explanation, yet you stand there telling me flat out... That what we're looking for is a man. Thanks for everything, agent Scully. We'll take it from here.
Dana Scully
I'm sure your explanation will mollify all those hotshots... Down at the county seat, detective, and relieve any general anxiety... About what this thing might be, but only until it strikes again. And one more thing: I never said that what you're looking for is a man.
John Doggett
Agent Scully. Is that a second print?
Dana Scully
It could be, but I'm not sure if it tells us anything.
John Doggett
Maybe there's no prints in the yard... Because whatever made these didn't go through the yard. It came through the house.
Dana Scully
If anything, I'd say this print leads up the stairs.
John Doggett
Think I've got another partial here. You know, there is a more obvious explanation.
Dana Scully
Mm-hmm.
John Doggett
The more basic answer is... What we're dealing with here is simply a man. A psychotic killer with a deformed foot. You're familiar with the principle of occam's razor?
Dana Scully
Yeah. You take every possible explanation... And you choose the simplest one. Agent Mulder used to refer to it... As "occam's principle of limited imagination." unless you have a simple explanation... As to how a killer with a deformed foot... Leaves a print only every 25 feet. Or to what he'd even be doing up here.
John Doggett
I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out just like you are.
Dana Scully
Agent Doggett. It's dark up here.
John Doggett
What do you see? Agent Scully?
Dana Scully
Right now, not a heck of a lot. If there was anything up here, it might have gone out that window.
John Doggett
You ever carry one of these?
Dana Scully
Never.
John Doggett
"v" for victory.
Dana Scully
What?
John Doggett
You said the male victim was missing two fingers? Well, how did the fingers get up here?
Dana Scully
Well, from their smell, I'd say they were regurgitated. Recently.
John Doggett
By what?
Dana Scully
I saw those on the porch, too.
John Doggett
Looks like, to me... I don't know. Like it was... It was...
Dana Scully
Hanging there?
[ guttural growling, screeching ]
Scene 05
CASSIA COUNTY MORGUE
John Doggett
You still here?
Dana Scully
Yeah. Well, I was waiting for some lab results... And then I wanted to take another look at the body.
John Doggett
Why? What did you find?
Dana Scully
Nothing that will allay anyone's fears... About what killed this man or his wife.
John Doggett
"what"? You mean "who" killed them.
Dana Scully
Well, to be honest, what I found here... Leans more towards an animal explanation. The scratches on the body... Match the four-toed prints that we found. And the bites have fang-like tears. What I thought were marks left by human molars... Are now inconclusive because of enzymes that were found in the bites... Which are clearly inhuman-- anticoagulents which... Are found solely in the saliva of bats.
John Doggett
Bats.
Dana Scully
I can't exactly explain it, but I realize that I owe the detective an apology.
John Doggett
I'm not so sure about that. Montana headline, circa 1956. The story's the same as what you told me.
Dana Scully
"the creature was taken to the county coroner... Who confirmed it was neither man nor animal."
John Doggett
Two days later, the county coroner... Was disemboweled by something with sharp teeth and four-toed claws. Something that ate several body parts and regurgitated them elsewhere.
Dana Scully
Did they ever find it?
John Doggett
Five men died or disappeared, and then the killing stops. Doesn't say why. But 44 years later, it appears that it's back and killing again.
[ growling ]
Scene 06
MCKESSON RESIDENCE
Detective Abbott
You see those marks, right? And the ones over here on the rafter? If you ask me, those look like claw marks. I don't care what kind of a savage he is, what did this isn't human.
John Doggett
Well, if I may speak for agent Scully, I think we're both prepared to concede that point, detective.
Detective Abbott
Then you know what this thing is?
John Doggett
I've got a newspaper article I want to show you.
Dana Scully
Agent Doggett...
John Doggett
A rather strange account from 1956.
Dana Scully
I found something. A photo album. I think it's our first break on this case.
Detective Abbott
What is it?
Dana Scully
The victim's daughter-- ariel-- her dead body was pulled... From the river here last week.
Detective Abbott
I got that call. Had to tell mrs. Mckesson the bad news. You trying to say there's some kind of connection?
Dana Scully
Well, you not only told her mother... That her 62-year-old daughter was dead, but that her body had been horribly... And inexplicably burned. A daughter who, by the way, she hadn't even seen in over 40 years. Since 1956, to be exact-- which is the date your article says... Those first killings started.
Detective Abbott
Do you see the connection?
John Doggett
I'm not, uh... Sure where you're going with this, agent Scully.
Dana Scully
The daughter is the connection.
Detective Abbott
How is that?
Dana Scully
I don't know exactly, but these killings only started up... Since her burned body has been found.
Detective Abbott
Honest to god! You just jump at whatever explanation... Is the wildest and most far-fetched, don't you?
Dana Scully
Well, I suggest that you jump at it, too, because her body may have been burned for a reason... And you're going to want to exhume it in order to find out why.
Detective Abbott
You want me to dig up a dead body... When I have real people out there... Whose lives are in real danger?
John Doggett
Hey.
[ whispering ]
Dana Scully
What did you say to him?
John Doggett
Well, I told him to dig up the body. Isn't that what you wanted?
Dana Scully
What else did you say to him?
John Doggett
Well, I told him that you were a... Leading authority on paranormal phenomena... And who are we to argue with an expert.
Dana Scully
Look, I am not an expert. I am a scientist who happens to have seen a lot. I am just making a leap here.
John Doggett
Well, I am sure you have your reasons.
Dana Scully
Look, so, so, what, you told him to exhume the body... When you don't even necessarily believe me yourself?
[ sighs ]
John Doggett
I told you I spent the weekend... Looking through that cabinet full of X-Files... And I saw how pretty much every X-File broke-- with a leap. Maybe I'm just an old-fashioned cop, but I don't take leaps. In my experience, leaps only get people killed.
Dana Scully
Well, I'd say that you're taking a pretty big leap... Believing in that article... About a human bat.
[ bats squealing ]
[ squealing continues ]
[ engine idles, stops ]
Scene 08
CASSIA COUNTY CEMETERY
Detective Abbott
I don't know how you do it. I called the judge's order in a half ago. You guys are fast.
Gravedigger 1
Yep, we're really fast... When someone's done most of our work.
Detective Abbott
What are you talking about?
[ spits ]
Gravedigger 1
We got out here, somebody had already dug up the box. All we had to do was haul it out. I don't know what they were using, but they scratched up the wood on the lid real good, see?
Detective Abbott
Let's get this down to the morgue. I think the sooner, the better.
[ faint screeching ]
[ doors slam ]
[ low growl ]
Detective Abbott
God!
[ loud squealing ]
[ detective shouts ]
[ creature growling ]
[ creature squealing ]
[ detective screams ]
[ detective groans ]
[ creature growling ]
[ detective screams ]
Scene 09
1:07 AM
Sheriff’s Deputy
I want a word with you. Look, we listened to you. The detective listened to you. We could have been out hunting this thing down, agent Doggett.
John Doggett
You should be doing that now.
Sheriff’s Deputy
Now? Now's too late for the detective, isn't it? Look, we don't need you telling us what to do... Or your partner. She's the one responsible for this.
John Doggett
Nobody's responsible for this except for whatever did it.
Sheriff’s Deputy
I don't care who she is or what she is, she's not touching that body. We don't need her far-out theories. She's not welcome here.
Dana Scully
What happened to the lynch mob?
John Doggett
You hear all that?
Dana Scully
I heard enough.
John Doggett
Things have taken a little turn.
Dana Scully
I don't think so, agent Doggett.
John Doggett
Well, you can think what you want, but I think this looks bad for the FBI.
Dana Scully
It was unavoidable.
John Doggett
How do you figure that?
Dana Scully
This is the body pulled from the river. She died of natural causes-- congestive heart failure-- but her body was only burned afterwards.
John Doggett
By who, and why burn it?
Dana Scully
Well, obviously to cover something up.
John Doggett
Yeah, but what?
Dana Scully
That's what I still don't know.
John Doggett
Look, we know what we're looking for. We should be out there looking for it. We're never going to catch it standing here speculating.
Dana Scully
It kills like an animal, but with purpose. It stalked the detective for the same reason... That it stalked the old woman and the undertaker. Each of those victims had had contact with this burnt body. The undertaker prepared it. Her mother ID'd it... And the detective who the call when she was found.
John Doggett
Well, who else would have had contact with it?
Dana Scully
The man who found her in the river. A myron stefaniuk.
John Doggett
Stefaniuk?
Dana Scully
Yeah.
John Doggett
One of the hunters in the photo in 1956... Was ernie stefaniuk.
Dana Scully
There's an address in this file. I hope we're not too late.
[ car approaching ]
Scene 10
SLADE RIVER
John Doggett
Mr. Stefaniuk?
Dana Scully
Myron stefaniuk?
Myron Stefaniuk
That's me.
Dana Scully
Good. Sorry. You gave us a bit of a scare. We went to your home up the road and we couldn't find you.
Myron Stefaniuk
Why would that scare you?
John Doggett
Well, sir, we work with the FBI... And we have reason to believe that your life may be in danger.
Myron Stefaniuk
I'm in danger?
Dana Scully
We're investigating some murders, sir, that we believe may be connected to the burnt body that you found recently.
Myron Stefaniuk
I fished it out of the river. What have I got to do with anything?
John Doggett
We're not saying for sure that you do.
Dana Scully
It may just be your connection to the body.
Myron Stefaniuk
There is no connection. I just fished it out of the river.
Dana Scully
Well, sorry, sir, but that may be enough.
Myron Stefaniuk
It's nonsense. Leave me alone.
John Doggett
Ernie stefaniuk. Lived in montana in 1956. Do you know him?
Myron Stefaniuk
Ernie was my brother.
John Doggett
He was one of three hunters... That killed a man that was half animal.
Myron Stefaniuk
Please! That was a long time ago.
John Doggett
Do you know where we can find him to talk with him, sir?
Myron Stefaniuk
My brother's dead. That thing killed him.
John Doggett
Well, I have a newspaper story that says your brother disappeared.
Myron Stefaniuk
That was 40 years ago. Leave it alone! Leave me alone!
[ truck engine starts ]
Scene 11
4:28 PM
Dana Scully
You know, we've been out here for nine hours. The only thing this man seems to be in danger of is terminal loneliness. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is all just a... A grand coincidence, and we're wasting our time out here.
John Doggett
You were so sure before.
Dana Scully
Yeah, I was sure of the facts... As I had deduced them scientifically. Maybe I'm... I'm trying to force them into shape. Maybe I'm manufacturing a theory.
John Doggett
What happened to taking a leap?
Dana Scully
Maybe I'm just trying too hard.
John Doggett
To do what? To be Mulder? You know, I'm not Oxford educated. About all I know about the paranormal... Is men are from mars and women are from venus. But I don't think you're wrong, agent Scully.
Dana Scully
What makes you say that?
John Doggett
Well, I'm no Fox Mulder, but I can tell when a man's hiding something. Myron stefaniuk fishes a woman out of the river... Who's been gone for 40 years. He has a brother he hasn't seen in over 40 years. A brother who just happened to hunt down some kind of creature over 40 years ago.
Dana Scully
Well, what does he have to hide?
John Doggett
Well, that's what I'm hoping this good cop work is going to show us.
[ truck engine starts ]
Scene 12
BIRD ISLAND
John Doggett
You there!
Dana Scully
Stop right there! I see him. Stop where you are! Put your hands up and out! Now, turn around, slowly.
John Doggett
Are you ernie stefaniuk? [ gasping ] are you ernie stefaniuk?
Unidentified speaker
Yes.
[ gasps ]
Ernie Stefaniuk
How's a man supposed to live... When his fear becomes obsession? You'd do the same thing. Who wouldn't who wanted to live?
John Doggett
You never left the island?
Ernie Stefaniuk
44 years-- I wouldn't dare... Knowing it was out there. That it could come back for me.
John Doggett
You know something about it? About what this thing is?
Ernie Stefaniuk
I know on the evolutionary ladder... Bats are real close by the apes, and just as we came from the apes, so might a man sprung from a bat. To live and hunt like a bat, but with the cold-blooded vengeance of a man.
Dana Scully
Even if that were true, sir, how could it possibly find you out here... On an island?
Ernie Stefaniuk
I needed to cut off all contact. Communication could be only one-way. My brother helped me. And then there was my wife.
John Doggett
It was her body your brother pulled in.
Ernie Stefaniuk
She gave up everything to be with me. I forbid her to tell her mother. 44 years on six acres of island, she made only one demand. To be buried in consecrated earth. She was a catholic her whole life.
Dana Scully
Mr. Stefaniuk... It's killed four people. All of whom would have had... Traces of your scent through various degrees of contact... With your wife's body.
Ernie Stefaniuk
My brother?
John Doggett
Your brother's okay, ernie.
Ernie Stefaniuk
But he had contact with ariel's body. It'll come after him, too.
Dana Scully
He's all right. We spoke with him earlier today.
Ernie Stefaniuk
Today? Today, he might have been fine, but this thing hunts likes a bat. It only attacks at night.
John Doggett
Stay here. Stay with him.
[ muffled screaming and groaning ]
[ creature screeching ]
Ernie Stefaniuk
I still don't understand.
Dana Scully
What's that?
Ernie Stefaniuk
How'd you find me out here?
Dana Scully
We followed your brother.
Ernie Stefaniuk
No, I mean who figured it out?
Dana Scully
I was sure that what we were looking for... Was something other than a man. The detective who was running the case... Didn't believe that, and, uh, he's dead.
Ernie Stefaniuk
But your partner, he believed it?
Dana Scully
I think he does now.
Ernie Stefaniuk
So it was you who figured it.
Dana Scully
Well, I made the connections, but it was agent Doggett that got us out here.
Ernie Stefaniuk
You ought to be wishing he hadn't.
Dana Scully
Excuse me?
Ernie Stefaniuk
The moment you stepped foot here... You're marked now, you know that.
Dana Scully
Sir, I'm here to protect you.
Ernie Stefaniuk
And how are you going to do that? You thought of everything... Except that.
Dana Scully
Well, this thing, mr. Stefaniuk, is still flesh and blood. It can be killed.
Ernie Stefaniuk
What do you think? It's just going to come walking through the door, there? It's waited 44 years. It'll wait out there as long as it takes, until you can't stand it anymore. How long can you wait, huh? A lifetime? To live in fear like this, a young woman-- are you prepared to sacrifice family, children... And spend your life terrorized by a monster?
[ alarms beeping ]
Dana Scully
What is that?
Ernie Stefaniuk
It's ground radar. The sensor's set at ten feet high. Anything big enough to set it off... Is coming in through the trees.
[ thumping ]
[ thumping ]
[ thumping ]
Dana Scully
You hear it?
Ernie Stefaniuk
No.
Dana Scully
Maybe I got him. Maybe I killed it. If you've got a gun, get it.
[ nervous panting ]
[ ernie hyperventilating ]
[ hyperventilating ]
[ shotgun blast ]
[ gurgling and snarling ]
[ four gunshots ]
[ creature screeching ]
John Doggett
Agent Scully. You okay?
Dana Scully
Yeah. I'm okay. But you're not, agent Doggett. I got you.
[ shrieking ]
Scene 13
TWO WEEKS LATER
John Doggett
Sorry I'm late. I received a fax up in my old office... From ernie's brother, myron stefaniuk.
Dana Scully
He's alive? Where is he?
John Doggett
He doesn't say. He sent this from a small storefront business... Just across the state line in wyoming. He's gone into hiding.
Dana Scully
Do you believe it, agent Doggett?
John Doggett
Believe it?
Dana Scully
That this thing is still out there... And someday it's going to come after us?
John Doggett
I'm pretty sure I hit it, agent Scully. Pretty sure you hit it, too. The guys upstairs were making some noise about this case-- about what's in our field report.
Dana Scully
Yeah. You'll get used to it. I, uh... I never had a desk in here, agent Doggett, but I'll see that you get one.
John Doggett
All right.
Dana Scully
And I just want to say, um... Thank you for watching my back.
John Doggett
Well, I never saw it as an option. I'm sure you don't either.
No matching dialogue
Try another character, phrase, or keyword.
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.