Series:	The X-Files
Original Airdate:	04-18-1999
Production Number:	6ABX18
Date(s):
Story by:	John Shiban & Frank Spotnitz
Teleplay by:	Chris Carter
Directed by:	Kim Manners

A writer who lives next door to Mulder becomes the prime suspect in a series of killings.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Background Information 3 Notes 4 Goofs 5 Allusions 6 Links and References 6.1 Guest Stars 6.2 References

SummaryEdit

The episode opens to the slightly audible sound of a beating heart. A man -later revealed as an author- is initially shown sitting at a desk, staring at a typewriter and storyboard. Seemingly deep in the process of writing, the unidentified individual succeeds only in smoking and pacing his sparsely furnished room. He eventually retires to the bathroom to discard a spent cigarette. Without warning or concern, the stranger suddenly reaches into his chest and removes a bloody heart. The title sequence rolls.

Post title - we see the man walking down metal stairs into a cluttered basement, and opens the door of an incinerator. Noticing a beating heart amidst the flames, the mysterious individual appears unphased by the vision and nonchalantly tosses in a paper bag.

Scully encounters the stranger as she walks into an elevator. Both ride in silence up to the fourth floor, and we see Scully somewhat unsettled by the experience. The stranger and she exchange a final glance in the hallway before reaching their respective destinations. Scully knocks on Mulder's apartment door.

Mulder and Scully briefly discuss the man; he is a new arrival to the apartment building, and a writer of undisclosed material. The conversation quickly shifts to a case the pair are working on, wherein the heart of a second victim had been removed with the absence of any significant physical evidence. Mulder believes the heart was removed with a 'misunderstood' technique known as psychic surgery. The stranger stands on a chair with his ear to an air vent, listening to the conversation.

The night follows. Shirtless unnamed writer reclines on a bed, smoking and thinking. He mysteriously steals away in compelled haste.

A Jeep is parked in the woods, with two teenagers (Maggie and Kevin) in the middle of a lover's quarrel. A hooded figure can be seen through the rear window of the vehicle. Frustrated at Kevin and unknowing of the third party, Maggie takes off into the woods to be alone. The boyfriend gives chase, meeting an unfortunate and rather surprising end at the hands of our sinister assailant. Unnamed writer intensely transcribes the event on his typewriter.

Mulder and Scully discuss the latest incident via phone, speculating on motive and reasoning. An unmarked envelope is discovered by Scully in the office; contained inside is a pendant or charm. Voice-over exposition from the writer describes Scully's most intimate feelings and directives as she examines the unsolicited gift, and we see the stranger at his typewriter imprinting these thoughts into words on paper.

These events are followed by a man who is stalking the agents and recording the case from their point of view in a fiction authors prose.

Scully runs into the author at a church who admits sending Scully the pendant and gives her a detailed account of her actions and predicted behavior based on things he has noticed. She is visibly shaken by his confessions.

Mulder and Scully meet in Autopsy to continue their discussion of the case. Scully relays her most recent encounter with the writer to Mulder, and the two now take additional interest in the author. "What kills you is his audacity...".

Mulder meets the author (Padgett) in the elevator of his apartment building who shows interest in the case and a hint of jealousy. Meanwhile Padgett continues his story with an erotic chapter detailing a sexual encounter between himself and Scully.

Padgett woos Scully into his apartment with more character revelations. Mulder bursts in and arrests him based on accurate descriptions of the case murders in his novel.

While Padgett is in custody, Maggie is murdered in the same fashion as Kevin. This establishes a de facto alibi for the author. Lacking concrete and connective evidence to the murders (and hoping Padgett might lead them to his partner in crime), Mulder releases Padgett from custody.

Back at his apartment, Padgett converses with the killer from his book. The two discuss motivations for the

killings. Realizing that it prognosticates Scully's murder, Padgett heads to the incinerator to destroy his novel. Mulder intercepts him, thinking Padgett is instead simply destroying incriminatory evidence. The imaginary killer accosts Scully.

Gunshots are heard. Mulder runs toward his apartment and shockingly finds Scully on the ground, unmoving. She suddenly revives, extremely frightened.

One last exposition from the author is given, explaining his final actions. The stranger lies stricken on the basement floor in front of the incinerator, his heart in hand, having "... given what he could not receive".

Background InformationEdit

John Hawkes worked with David Duchovny in the 1997 movie Playing God.

The scene where Mulder runs after the hooded man in the cemetery had to be filmed on a motorcycle because David Duchovny runs so fast. According to Kim Manners, in a previous episode (Tunguska) David ran so fast that he outran two horses.

NotesEdit

When Mulder looks at a bill addressed to Phillip Padgett, the street address is shown onscreen as 2630 Hegal Place Apt. No. 44, Alexandria, VA 23242. The zip code "23242" is actually located in Henrico, VA, approximately 100 miles south of Alexandria. (At the time this episode aired, the official "preferred" Postal Service address for the zip code was Richmond, VA.) This may be a reference to the hometown of co-executive producer Vince Gilligan, who was born and raised in the Richmond area.

Angele Vacco, who played the murdered teenager Kevin, is a former X-Files production assistant. He also appeared in the season 2 episode "F. Emasculata".

'Phillip Padgett' is also the name of the character played by Nicholas Lea in an episode of The Burning Zone titled "The Hall of the Serpent".

In the cemetery, the camera seems to linger on a tombstone engraved with the names "Diana and Nicholas Salinger", which are the names of the late parents of the kids on Party of Five.

A Milagro is the talisman that Padgett gives to Scully. 'Milagro' is Spanish for "Miracle".

GoofsEdit

AllusionsEdit

The index cards that Phillip Padgett pins to his wall are covered with plot points from the T.S. Elliot poem "The Wasteland".

Links and ReferencesEdit

Guest StarsEdit

• Jillian Bach as Maggie
• John Hawkes as Phillip Padgett
• D. Bennett Nelson as Maggie's Father
• Casey C. O'Neill as Cemetery Grounds Keeper
• Nestor Serrano as Ken Naciamento
• Michael Bailey Smith as Guard
• Angelo Vacco as Kevin

ReferencesEdit

This is the text from the page of the book Scully is reading at 32:45 in:

"Grief squeezed at her eggshell heart like it might break into a thousand pieces.

Its contents running like broken promises into the hollow places his love used

to fill. How could she know this pain would end? That love, unlike matter or

energy, was in endless supply in the universe. A germ which grows from nothingness,

which cannot be eradicated even from the darkest of hearts. If she had know this,

and who could say she would believe it, she would not have chanced to remain at his

sad grave until such an hour. So that she might not have to learn the second

truth before the first: That to have love was to carry a vessel that could be

lost or stolen. Or worse, spilled blood red on the ground. And that love was

not immutable. It could become hate as day becomes night, as life becomes death.

And that for some this hatred grew so naturally, and in equal amount, that it, too,

needed its own form of expression. "How will it end?"

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The X-Files Season 6

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