Piper Maru (episode)

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When a diver from a French salvage ship called the Piper Maru discovers a World War II fighter plane and is the only member of his crew not exposed to harmfully extreme levels of radiation, Mulder and Scully investigate. (Part 1 of 2)

[edit] Summary

[edit] Teaser

A french diving expedition is underway. A diver in a hyperbaric suit discovers people pounding on the inside of a sunken plane. He witnesses someone alive, in an air pocket pounding the glass canopy and then his eyes go black. The diver is retrieved but is disoriented. He blinks his eye and they go black. He has encountered the alien substance.

[edit] Act One

AD Skinner informs Scully that her sister's murder case has been declared inactive. She is furious, but Skinner promises to appeal the decision. When she meets with Mulder, he tells her about a case he came across last night: the French salvage ship Piper Maru, which limped into port in San Diego after returning from the same location where the Talapus possibly discovered a UFO. Scully complains about Mulder's complete willingness to make crazy connections in search of the truth, but Mulder, smiling, just hands her her plane ticket.

The diver Gauthier is the only member of the Piper Maru's crew to be unaffected by radiation poisoning. He pilots the ship into port, and releases himself from the hospital's care after one day. When Mulder and Scully arrive at the naval hospital, they have no one to question since all the other sailors are comatose. Scully gets no response when she tries to call his home phone.

The two agents, aided by an investigator from the Naval Investigative Service, search the Piper Maru. They find a dive chart on the wasll with the name Zeus Faber scrawled on it, the recorded video feed from Gauthier's dive, including shots of a P51 Mustang.

[edit] Act Two

Gauthier is frantically searching through papers in his office when his wife shows up. She is disturbed that he is unrepsonsive and tries to flee. Instead he catches her and soon she is seen to have oily eyes.

Mulder arrives at Gauthier's and finds him collapsed on the floor and oily. Gauthier is now disturbed and seems to be back to normal.

Scully visits Commander Johansen, an old neighbor from her childhood, to utilize his military acumen. He plays dumb about the P51 Mustang aircraft. Mulder shows up at the shipping concern and queries "Jeraldine." She yields no information, but mysteriously cocks a shotgun under her desk as Mulder talks to her. Mulder leaves but hides in his car, and witnesses a team of French men arrive with nefarious intent. Jeraldine is already fleeing the office in her car.

Scully is detained at the checkpoint as she leaves at the local military base. Mr. Johansen joins her in her car. He proceeds to tell her everything she wants to know. He was the on the team tasked with finding the plane. The plane had been the escort of an unused third plane that carried an atomic bomb. Meanwhile Mulder is off to Hong Kong in pursuit of Jeraldine. Mrs. Gauthier follows them.

[edit] Act Three

While Skinner has coffee he is pestered by three suits, identifying themselves as members of "the intelligence community," who ominously suggest that he drop his appeal of the decision to make inactive the case involving the murder of Melissa Scully.

Johansen shows a picture of the flight crew and a flashback begins. When a Japanese destroyer seemed likely to find the sub, the captain went rogue and wouldn't return to base. The crew gradually received radiation burns in the Pacific in the final days of World War II. Johansen sealed the crew and the captain in the sick bay and piloted the sub back to Pearl Harbor. At that point all the men in the sickbay were dead or dying. Only seven men, including Johansen, survived.

Mulder corners Jeraldine in Hong Kong. She acknowledges that she sells government secrets. Mulder tells her that what she's selling is killing people, but she doesn't seem to care -- she says she's just a middleman, and, as long as she gets her cut, she's happy. Mulder handcuffs her and leads her to the company office. Inside, Alex Krycek is waiting for them, and brandishes a gun at them. The door is closed with Jeraldine in the hallway and Mulder inside with the armed and clearly agitated Krycek. From within the office, Geraldine can be heard struggling, then multiple gunshots as she is gunned down. Krycek uses the distraction to flee. A team of suits with guns busts into the office but Mulder has gotten away, chasing after Krycek. Mrs Gauthier arrives and exposes the men-in-suits to radiation, disabling them.

[edit] Act Four

At Skinner's coffee house, a Hispanic man is whining to the cashier about the broken phone. The man shoots Skinner as he tries to diffuse the situation, then flees. Scully gets a call from Skinner's secretary, Kim, who tells her about the incident. Scully leaves to visit Skinner in the hospital.

Krycek gets a beating and death threats from Mulder at the airport. Krycek promises to lead Mulder to the digital tape with the government UFO files in exchange for his life. Mulder reccomends a trip to the bathroom. Mrs. Gauthier follows Krycek inside, and infects him with the "black oil". He comes out moments later with Mulder none the wiser.

[edit] Background Information

The episode's title and the French salvage ship are named after Gillian Anderson's daughter, Piper Maru Anderson, who was born during Season 2. The name Maru is particularly apt, as it means "ship" in Japanese. It also means "flower" in Polynesian.

The Atmospheric Diving Suit used for the underwater sequences at the beginning of this episode was a Newtsuit. The 900 pound apparatus was used primarily in a 12 ft. by 12 ft. by 24 ft. water tank during filming.

Special Effects Coordinator David Gauthier, who worked on this episode, is a certified diver. His name was used for the French diver character.

Nicholas Lea's name was intentionally placed in the closing (rather than the opening) credits to preserve a sense of surprise at the return of Alex Krycek.

Michael Buble, long before fame as a singer, is an extra in this episode (and Apocrypha), playing one of the ship mates in the flashback sequence.

This episode of The X-Files is the second of three in which a person can be seen walking towards camera before the screen cuts to black, as happens with Krycek at the end of this episode. The other two examples of this both occur at the end of the teaser sections of the Season 2 episode "Irresistible" as well as the Season 7 episode "Orison", both featuring Donald Pfaster approaching camera.

[edit] Links and References

[edit] References

Black oil; Pacific Ocean; Washington D.C.; Chadwick's; JTT0 111470; Drop Dead Red; Leucocytes; Erythrocytes; Talapus; radiation burn; San Diego Naval Hospital; San Diego; California; San Francisco; Pacific Heights; submarine; Röntgen; Flight 621; U.S. Naval Station; Zeus Faber; P51 Mustang; Miramar Naval Air Station; Hong Kong; 3702 Medlock Street; American Essentials; Hong Kong Airport; pay phone

Previous episode:
Grotesque

The X-Files
Season 3

Next episode:
Apocrypha


Series:	The X-Files
Original Airdate:	02-09-96
Production Number:	3x15
Date(s):	October 1995
Written by:	Frank Spotnitz, Chris Carter
Directed by:	Rob Bowman