D.P.O.

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Mulder and Scully investigate the deaths of several people who were struck by lightning.

[edit] Summary

Connerville, OK, Sept. 12. Night: At a strip-mall video arcade, off-duty pizza deliverer Jack Hammond declines to let Darren Oswald have back the "Virtua Fighter 2" game which Darren had left for a minute. A fight brews, as Darren's arcade-clerk friend Zero watches. But then Jack, seemingly not in control of his body, leaves and gets into his car - where he's killed by a strange electrical surge.

Lloyd P. Wharton County Building, next morning: Scully examines Hammond's body as Stan, the county coroner, and Johnston County Sheriff Teller watch. This latest in a pattern of odd electrocution deaths shows, curiously, no contact point; the coroner doesn't remember if the previous bodies had them, and defensively insists it's just lightning - though admitting the five recent Connerville strikes (four fatal) are statistically "improbable". Teller asserts there's nothing unusual: The nearby Astadourian Lightning Observatory on Route 4 has 100 ionized rods designed specifically to stimulate lightning. Later, Mulder wonders why the lightning only strikes 17-to-21-year-old males.

Checking the only shop open after Jack quit work, they question Zero; he noticed nothing, he says, what with all the noise and flashing lights here. An onscreen display alerts Mulder that the 10-game record-holder on "Virtua Fighter 2" is initialed D.P.O. - as in Darren Peter Oswald, the only survivor of the lightning strikes. The notations place D.P.O. here at the time of the incident.

Kiveat Auto Body: Darren, working there, nervously greets Sharon Kiveat, the beautiful wife of garage owner Frank. He has a crush on her, which makes her uneasy. Frank returns from a towing job, soon followed by Mulder and Scully. As the agents fruitlessly question Darren, Mulder's cell-phone mysteriously heats and starts melting.

Night: At the dilapidated Oswald house, Darren's couch-potato mother belittles him, and doesn't bat an eye when he changes channels from across the room without the remote. When Zero comes by, Darren goes to a pasture next door to "barbecue" some cows. Zero begs him not to - but Darren calls lightning down to hit him, and the next morning Teller is there as three dead cows are towed away. He shows the agents a fulgarite - a place where lightning strikes sandy soil to form glass - and declares their investigation over. Yet after he leaves, Mulder finds a partial footprint incongruously in the fulgarite.

Johnston County Sheriff's Office: Scully finds it is from a size 8 1/2 standard military boo; she also finds traces of antifreeze. They go to find auto mechanic Darren.

County Road A-7: Darren manipulates traffic lights, hoping to cause an accident. Zero suggests he stop all this, and use his power to make a killing in Vegas. But Darrwen won't go anywhere without Mrs. Kiveat.

Oswald house: the agents find an 8 1/2 shoe and a clipped picture that fits the cut-out yearbook space for Mrs. Kiveat.

Accident scene: Darren causes tow-trucker Frank to have an apparent heart attack; when the two EMS workers find their portable defibrillator unaccountably chargeless, Darren "heroically" rescues Frank by defibrillating him by hand while EMS is preoccupied with the spare unit.

Community Hospital, Felton, OK, 10:25 a.m.: As Frank recuperates, the agents learn Darren was admitted here five months ago in cardiac arrest after his lightning-strike - and that he has acute hypokalemia, an electolyte imbalance of high sodium and low potassium, which, Mulder theorizes, somehow explains his ability to generate electricity. They question Darren at the Johnston County Jail, but he admits nothing and thinks Zero squealed on him. With 72 hours to hold him, they try to get Mrs. Kiveat to press harassment charges. She had been afraid to, but the agents say they can hold him 72 hours on suspicion of murder, so she and Frank will be safe.

At the jail, Teller has decided the feds have a weak case, and lets Darren go. The agents rush to the hospital, but Darren has stopped at the arcade first to kill Zero. Darren eludes Mulder to get to Frank's room, where Scully draws her gun - but Sharon, wanting no danger near Frank, agrees to walk out with Darren. Outside, she runs away when Teller pulls up. Darren, over the edge, kills Teller before Mulder can firel then Darren falls in a lightning-crumpled heap himself.

Oklahoma State Psychiatic Hospital: Scully tells Mulder ther coroner has ruled Teller's death accidental, by lightning, and the D.A. can't fathom how to prosecute for murder. And Darren, inside his cell, stares blankly at a TV screen that may or may not be channel-changing according to his whim.

[edit] Background Information

The scene where Mulder and Scully find a picture of Sharon Kiveat stuck into a skin magazine is an inside joke. The actress who played Kiveat, Karen Witter, is a former Playboy model.

D.P.O. is Darren Peter Oswald's initials, a reference to the arcade custom of inputting all three initials when achieving a high score.

This episode featured the song "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by the band Filter, which was fronted by the brother of Robert Patrick, who would play Special Agent John Doggett.

The song featured prominently in the teaser segment is titled Ring the Bells, by the band James.

The videogame Darren often played was Virtua Fighter, and early 3D fighting game by Sega.
Giovanni Ribisi plays a character who is in love with his teacher and calls her Mrs. Kiveat. Ribisi also plays a character, Frank Bufay, Jr. on "Friends" who is also in love with his teacher and calls her Mrs. Knight.

[edit] Links and References

[edit] References

video game; arcade; electricity; lightning; Astadourian Lightning Observatory; mechanic; teacher; tow truck; cows; cellular phone; antifreeze; Fulgurite; traffic signal; ABS brakes; defibrilator; electrolyte; remote control; shoe

Previous episode:
Paper Clip

The X-Files
Season 3

Next episode:
Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose


Series:	The X-Files
Original Airdate:	10-6-1995
Production Number:	3x03
Date(s):	1995
Written by:	Howard Gordon
Directed by:	Kim Manners