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---------------------------------------------
Teso dos Bichos 3x18
Go with it, Scully.
Disclaimer: The X-files and all its characters and episodes are owned
by Chris Carter and 10-13 productions. This transcript was made
without their permission and it is absolutely forbidden to use it for
commercial gain.
Thanks, CarriKendl@aol.com
SCENE 1
TESO DOS BICHOS EXCAVATION
ECUADOR HIGHLANDS
SOUTH AMERICA
(South American natives working at archeological dig site.
One of them finds something and gets very excited.)
MAN: Ven aqui! Ven aqui! Ven! Aver.
OTHER MEN: (running to him) Nos debemos irnos y dejarlo en paz.
Debemos decirle al anciano. El sabra que hacer. Esto es malo,
muy malo. Nos va a traer problemas para todos nosotros.
(LONNIE BILAC, a dig supervisor, looks at the find in awe.)
BILAC: Le tenemos que decir al Doctor Roosevelt. Inmediatamente.
(BILAC runs to the tent of DR. ROOSEVELT, an American,
in charge of the dig.)
BILAC: Dr. Roosevelt.
DR. ROOSEVELT: What is it?
BILAC: We found something I think you should see.
(DR. ROOSEVELT follows BILAC back to where the MEN are all
standing around upset, shaking their heads. DR. ROOSEVELT
kneels down reverently beside a large broken urn with a small
skeleton inside it.)
DR. ROOSEVELT: It's an Amaru.
BILAC: I know.
DR. ROOSEVELT: It's fantastic. It's nearly intact.
BILAC: We can't take it.
DR. ROOSEVELT: What do you mean?
BILAC: They're saying the body of a female shaman is sacred to
the tribe. They won't allow us to disturb her.
DR. ROOSEVELT: (insistent) We're not disturbing her. We're
saving her. You know the situation here. I thought you could handle
these people. (starts back to his tent)
BILAC: (pause) Dr. Roosevelt, I think this is dangerous. I don't think
this is right.
DR. ROOSEVELT: Have the piece cleared and packed. It's going
with us.
(MEN chanting and singing "Guybidae" BILAC looks up to see a
SHAMAN looking down at the dig disapprovingly.)
(Later that night, DR. ROSENFELD is listening to classical music
in his tent. He turns down the music for a moment to listen to what
sounds like very loud crickets, then shrugs and turns the music back
up.)
(CUT TO: MEN are circled around a fire playing drums and
maraca-like things that make the weird cricket sound. Elders
of the tribe performing a ritual around a cauldron with a yellow
liquid which they ceremonially drink as they chant. BILAC sits
with them and also drinks the yellow liquid. He winces, then we
see his perspective is now blurred and yellowish.)
(CUT TO: Blurred, yellowish, animalistic perspective fast approaching
DR. ROOSEVELT's tent. We see the shadow cat-like figure as it
attacks DR. ROOSEVELT. He screams. For a long time.)
Opening credits
Mulder
Whooo.
Scully rocks.
SCENE 2
HALL OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
BOSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
THREE WEEKS LATER
(SECURITY GUARD walks through the exhibits.
Passes a stuffed jaguar.)
GUARD: Mr. Horning, you still here? Mr. Horning? (steps in a
puddle of red liquid) What the hell ...?
(Shines flashlight over worktable and sees more blood. Terrified,
he runs out of the room. Camera closes in on the urn that was
taken from the dig site.)
SCENE 3
(Museum. Next morning. Crime scene. MULDER is looking around.
SCULLY interviews DR. LEWTON, a member of the museum staff.)
SCULLY: How did you learn about what happened here last night?
DR.LEWTON: Tim Decker, one of our security guards, called me
when he first discovered the blood.
SCULLY: According to the police, you felt this murder may have
been an act of political terrorism.
DR.LEWTON: I think Craig Horning was killed because of the project
he was working on.
SCULLY: Is that the survey and excavation of the uh
(reads)
"highland burial grounds of the Secona Indians?" (he seems surprised,
doesn't answer) This is from a letter that was sent to the State
Department on behalf of the Secona demanding the return of a certain
artifact.
DR.LEWTON: The Amaru Urn. It was among the antiquities we
rescued last month.
SCULLY: Rescued?
DR.LEWTON: When Petroecuadot announced plans to build a gas
pipeline through the burial grounds Carl Roosevelt and I organized the
dig.
SCULLY: As I understand it, Roosevelt disappeared under
circumstances not dissimilar to the ones here.
DR.LEWTON: The Ecuadorean government claimed he was carried
off in some kind of wild animal attack.
(MULDER is listening.)
SCULLY: But that's not what you believe.
DR.LEWTON: Not after last night.
SCULLY: Have there ever been any death threats?
DR.LEWTON: No.
MULDER: Well, what about the curse? The Secona believe great
evil would befall anyone that disturbed the remains of an Amaru,
a woman shaman - that they would be devoured by the Jaguar Spirit.
DR.LEWTON: A myth that gained some currency among the Secona
when Dr. Roosevelt disappeared.
MULDER: (very dry) I'm sure.
DR.LEWTON: The unfortunate thing is somebody exploiting it to
promote fear, to pressure us into returning the bones which I have
absolutely no intention of doing.
MULDER: Can we see it?
DR.LEWTON: Yes, of course. (calls to young woman across the
room, MONA WUSTNER) Uh, Mona.
(CarriK: It is at this point we see the immortal words appear on
screen --- Written by John Shiban. TD NOTE: Oooo, she's so cruel!
Spot on for this one, though.)
(MONA, MULDER, and SCULLY wheel the Urn into a back room.)
MULDER: (to SCULLY) Personally, if someone digs me up in
1,000 years I hope there's a curse on them too.
MONA: They should have left it buried. None of this would have
happened.
MULDER: Do you believe the bones are cursed?
MONA: Might as well be.
SCULLY: Did you know Craig Horning?
MONA: Yeah, I've been helping Craig sort and catalog the
Ecuadorean artifacts. I'm a PHd. candidate at BU.
SCULLY: Did he have any warning that this could happen?
MONA: Craig? No. He was so dedicated. He was just doing
the work that Dr. Lewton asked him to.
MULDER: He had no political feelings about the piece being brought
here?
MONA: No, not Craig.
SCULLY: Are you aware that a letter of protest was sent to the
State Department concerning this urn?
MONA: I'm aware of several letters of protest.
SCULLY: This one was written by a man named Alonzo Bilac.
MONA: Dr. Bilac. He was the liaison with the Secona Indians.
SCULLY: Is he still with the project?
MONA: No, he either resigned or was forced out by Dr. Lewton
depending on who you talk to.
SCULLY: Why is that?
MONA: Dr. Bilac feels the Secona have the right to determine the
fate of their ancestral remains.
MULDER: Do you know where we might find him?
(MONA looks reluctant.)
SCENE 4
(MULDER and SCULLY knock at BILAC's front door.
BILAC slowly opens it.)
SCULLY: Dr. Bilac?
BILAC: (he is speaking very slowly, dreamlike) Yes.
SCULLY: (showing badge) We're with the FBI. We're investigating
the disappearance of an associate of yours --- Craig Horning.
BILAC: Yes.
SCULLY: May we ask you some questions?
BILAC: Come in then.
(MULDER and SCULLY follow him inside. SCULLY interviews BILAC
while MULDER looks at the many pictures and artifacts on the walls.
He still listens very closely to everything BILAC says.)
SCULLY: Dr. Bilac, you were part of the expedition that brought back
the Amaru urn.
BILAC: Who told you that?
SCULLY: Mona Wustner.
BILAC: I objected from the beginning.
SCULLY: But you were Dr. Roosevelt's liaison in Ecuador. At what
point did you part company with him on the taking of artifacts?
BILAC: When I felt like he had gone too far. Against the wishes
of the Secona.
SCULLY: Did you express that to him?
BILAC: Yes. He wouldn't listen.
SCULLY: Were you speaking for yourself or for the Indians?
BILAC: I spent the last six months living with the Secona, learning
from them, coming to understand the nature and the depth of their
culture.
SCULLY: Well, apparently, they've learned something from you too.
BILAC: Yes, I've been teaching them the joys of American
bureaucracy.
(MULDER and SCULLY look at each other.)
SCULLY: Dr. Lewton believes that the protest over the Amaru urn
has something to do with Craig Horning's disappearance.
BILAC: You say disappearance as if you expect to see him alive
again.
SCULLY: What do you think happened to him?
BILAC: You don't want to know what I think.
MULDER: Yes, we would like to know. We'd be very interested
in what you think. (sits beside him)
BILAC: I think whatever happened to Craig Horning will continue to
happen until the bones are returned to their rightful place.
SCULLY: Let me ask you, Dr. Bilac. How far would you go to defend
the rights of the Seconas? Farther than writing a letter to the state
department?
BILAC: If you think I did this, then you're a fool.
SCULLY: Can you account for your whereabouts last night?
BILAC: I was here.
MULDER: Alone?
BILAC: Yes. Your investigation is a waste of time and that's
something I can assure you of.
(MULDER and SCULLY share a look. SCULLY raises eyebrows.)
SCENE 5
(MULDER and SCULLY exiting the house, alone.)
MULDER: It's nice to meet people who really believe in something,
isn't it?
SCULLY: You mean the kind who would kill for their cause?
MULDER: Do you think Bilac's a suspect?
SCULLY: No. I think he's *the* suspect.
MULDER: Based on what?
SCULLY: Based on the arrogance of his politics, on his rift with
Dr. Lewton, on his sympathies towards the Indians. And the lack
of any other suspect.
MULDER: He did look a little squirrely back there.
SCULLY: Maybe because he was up late murdering Craig Horning.
MULDER: Well, let me remind you we don't have a body and not
much more forensic detail than a lot of spilled blood.
SCULLY: Craig Horning's blood. What do you think he did with him?
MULDER: I'm not sure he did anything.
SCULLY: You think Bilac's innocent? That the victim wasn't even
murdered at all? That he was devoured by a mythological jaguar spirit?
MULDER: Go with it, Scully.
(MULDER gets in car.
After, pausing to roll her eyes, SCULLY joins him.)
SCENE 6
(MONA on phone alone at night in the museum.)
MONA: (on phone) Why did you lie to them?
You're only
drawing suspicion to yourself by lying, Lonnie.
You should
have told them the truth.
.I'm worried about you.
.
Let me come over. Why? Why not?
(She is startled by the sound of the door creaking.
DR. LEWTON enters.)
MONA: (on phone) Dr. Lewton's here. I got to go. I'll call you later.
(hangs up)
DR. LEWTON: Thought you'd already left.
MONA: (nervous) I have, uh...I really need to keep working right
now.
DR. LEWTON: I'd feel better if you weren't alone here.
MONA: The guard knows I'm here.
DR. LEWTON: Was that Dr. Bilac on the phone?
MONA: Yes.
DR. LEWTON: We have a responsibility, Mona, to history and
posterity. Dr. Roosevelt was only doing what any good
conservationist would have done in bringing the Amaru urn back.
Otherwise, it would certainly have been destroyed.
MONA: I know.
LEWTON: You know, if we get caught up in the politics we lose
sight of that. (starts to leave) Mona, let me give you a little free
advice. You have a bright future here. Be careful where you plant
your flag.
(He exits. MONA starts as she hears a door creak, then relaxes as
she sees her Golden Retriever, SUGAR, Vancouver's Worst Canine
Actor, come into the room. TD NOTE: Man, even the poor dog
doesn't escape Carri's wrath in this one!)
MONA: Oh, Sugar.
SCENE 6
(DR. LUTEN goes out to his car and tries to start it. It sounds like
there's a problem with the battery. We hear heavy breathing, and
see distorted view of DR. LUTEN as if through something else's eyes.
He opens the hood and leans over to look in the engine. He reaches
in and touches something small and furry covered in blood. Looks
at blood now on his fingers. Heavy breathing intensifies, then
suddenly DR. LUTEN is attacked and screams for a long time as his
body is mauled and dragged away. Lots of chewing and slurping
sounds.)
(Commercial 1.)
SCENE 7
(Next morning. SCULLY is leaning over the engine of the car from
last night. She is assisted by an OFFICER holding an evidence bag.
From the engine, she pulls out half a dead rat and holds it out to the
OFFICER who is clearly not pleased to have to take it.)
SCULLY: Label that.
OFFICER: As what?
SCULLY: (as if the answer is obvious) Partial rat body part.
(SCULLY crosses to MONA who is standing with a POLICEMAN.)
SCULLY: Excuse me Can I have a word with you? You were
working here last night when Dr. Lewton was killed.
MONA: (not willing to give any information) He stopped by my office
on his way out.
SCULLY: Did you notice anything out of the ordinary? Was he
behaving strange or did he seem nervous about anything?
MONA: No, not at all.
SCULLY: Did he say anything to you about Dr. Bilac?
MONA: No, he didn't.
SCULLY: Do you have any idea when the two of them last spoke
to each other?
MONA: I really don't know.
SCULLY: (giving up) I'm going to give you my card. Call me if
anything comes to mind.
(SCULLY joins MULDER who is searching in the woods. There is
an aerial shot of MULDER through the blurred yellow perspective.)
SCULLY: Mulder
MULDER: They turn up a body?
SCULLY: No. They've been over the entire museum grounds.
Have you found anything at all out here?
MULDER: If Dr. Lewton was brought through here, it's going to be
hard to determine. It looks like it rained pretty hard last night.
SCULLY: Well, they determined that the hood release had been
pulled. They found a small flashlight near the car. Looks to me like
he was checking the engine when attacked.
MULDER: Maybe somebody didn't want that car started.
SCULLY: I don't think so, Mulder.
MULDER: Why not?
SCULLY: We found evidence of at least two mutilated rat bodies
down in the engine compartment.
MULDER: Rats?
SCULLY: Apparently, the museum has always had a rat problem.
They must have crawled into the engine to keep warm.
(They walk farther into the woods.)
SCULLY: You know, Mulder, there's hardly a thing about these
deaths that adds up.
MULDER: What's he estimate on the time of death?
SCULLY: Somewhere between 9:30 and midnight when the guard
discovered the blood.
MULDER: That's about the same time as Craig Horning.
SCULLY: What's the connection?
MULDER: I don't know.
SCULLY: I think Mona Wustner might know something.
MULDER: Why?
SCULLY: Well, she seemed to get nervous when I asked her about
Bilac. Maybe she's trying to protect him.
(Red liquid drips down onto MULDER's face.)
MULDER: I think it's starting to rain again.
SCULLY: I don't think so, Mulder.
(SCULLY wipes a drop of blood off MULDER's temple. They look up
and see, 20 feet off the ground, about four feet of something that
looks like bloody small intestine hanging from a tree.)
MULDER: What the hell is that? (wipes at his temple in disgust)
SCENE 8
(MONA knocks at BILAC's door. No answer. She opens the door
and enters.)
MONA: Lonnie?
(No one answers.)
MONA: Lonnie? (she reaches for the light)
BILAC: Don't.
MONA: Lonnie? I came to tell you... Dr. Lewton is dead. Did you
hear what I said? Say something, Lonnie, please. You're scaring me.
BILAC: I told you not to come here.
MONA: Why not? What's happened to you? Ever since you came
back you're acting like some stranger. Like someone else.
BILAC: The blood has to stop.
MONA: You know something, don't you?
BILAC: You wouldn't understand.
MONA: Then help me to understand! (sees bowl of yellow liquid
in front of BILAC) You can tell me. You know that, don't you?
What is that?
BILAC: Vine of the soul.
MONA: (shocked and angry) Yahe?! You're drinking Yahe?!!!
(pushes bowl off table, he grabs it) You're sick, Lonnie! You need help.
Don't you see what's happening here? Can't you see what you're doing
to yourself?
BILAC: Go.
MONA: Let me help you.
BILAC: I said GET OUT!!!!!
(Crying, MONA leaves.)
SCENE 9
(Autopsy bay. SCULLY performing autopsy with MULDER observing.)
SCULLY: Well, it's human. Small intestine. There's about four
feet of jejunum and another foot of ileum.
MULDER: Do we know for sure it's Lewton?
SCULLY: Yeah, by what he had for lunch. Corn chowder. It looks
like he'd been snacking on sunflower seeds all afternoon.
MULDER: A man of taste.
SCULLY: What I can't determine how the body was eviscerated.
There are no knife marks on the epithelium. I imagine they could
have been torn or pulled from the body cavity.
MULDER: Torn or pulled?
SCULLY: But I can't determine that, either, because there was
considerable postmortem predation.
MULDER: By what?
SCULLY: Well, by the size of the bite marks, a small animal,
most probably a rat.
MULDER: More rats.
SCULLY: Yep.
(SCULLY's cell phone rings.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Scully?
. Slow down, Mona.
MONA: (on phone in museum with SUGAR the dog) I
I was
with Dr. Bilac. He frightened me. I
I thought he was going to
hurt me.
SCULLY: (on phone) What happened, Mona?
MONA: (on phone) He's sick. He doesn't know what he's doing.
SCULLY: (on phone, voice) Where is he now?
MONA: (on phone) At his house. I left him there and I came back
to the museum. But
I feel like someone's here. Like someone's
watching me.
(Beside her, the dog SUGAR barks.)
SCULLY: (on phone) I want you to stay exactly where you are.
I'm going to send Agent Mulder over to get you, right away, okay?
He's on his way.
MONA: Okay.
(MONA hangs up and begin working again on the urn.
SUGAR keeps barking at the door and cameraman.)
MONA: What is it Sugar?
(Slowly, MONA walks toward the bathroom. She hears a faint
clattering sound.. MONA goes into the bathroom. SUGAR stays
outside the bathroom. Loud banging sound. She opens one of the
stalls and sees the closed toilet lid bouncing and clattering as if it
is being pushed from beneath. The sound is coming from all the stalls.
She reaches out and lifts the lid. Rats begin swarming out of the toilet.
MONA screams.)
(Commercial 2.)
SCENE 10
(SCULLY arrives at BILAC's house.)
SCULLY: Dr. Bilac?
(No one is home. Door is open. She enters uses flashlight, no
light switch to find the Yahe, and his journals and a stuffed jaguar.)
SCENE 11
(MULDER walking through museum. Runs into the GUARD.)
GUARD: Oh! What are you doing here?
MULDER: Looking for Mona Wustner. I got a panicked call from her.
GUARD: From Mona?
MULDER: Yeah, where is she?
GUARD: I'll show you.
(They go to the room with the Urn. No MONA. MULDER's cell
phone rings.)
MULDER: (on phone) Mulder.
SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, it's me. Did you find Mona?
MULDER: (on phone) No, but her car is parked outside.
She's not here. Did you find Bilac?
SCULLY: (on phone) No. He's not here either. But I found his
journals. "I've seen the Amaru coming out of the jungle with the
eyes of a scorpion, the claws of a jaguar. She leaps down from the
trees. She tears at my flesh, then holds my head in her hands,
and eats out my eyes."
MULDER: (on phone) Is there a date of entry on that?
SCULLY: (on phone) These are all recent.
MULDER: (on phone) Read about the jaguar coming down from
the trees again.
SCULLY: (on phone) Why?
MULDER: (on phone) Maybe that's how the intestines got up there.
SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, I think Bilac's been tripping. I
found something strange in a ceremonial bowl and - and from his
writings it says that it's .. it's a hallucinogen called "Yaje."
"The Vine of the Soul."
MULDER: (on phone) What the hell's that supposed to mean?
SCULLY: (on phone) I think he's been praying to the Amaru
through some kind of a ceremony.
MULDER: (on phone) What's he want from her?
SCULLY: (on phone) It looks like he's invoking the curse, Mulder.
(MULDER sees bloody water coming from under the closed bathroom
door.)
MULDER: (on phone) Scully, I'm going to have to call you back.
SCULLY: (on phone) Did you find Mona?
MULDER: (on phone) I hope not. (hangs up)
(MULDER draws his gun and walks cautiously into bathroom which
is covered with water. The walls are covered with blood. MULDER
finds BILAC huddled in a stall, shaking.)
MULDER: What are you doing here? (no answer) I said, what
are you doing here?
BILAC: She's dead.
SCENE 12
(Interrogation of BILAC. SCULLY questions. MULDER listens.)
SCULLY: Where is she?
BILAC: I don't know.
SCULLY: You told Agent Mulder that she was dead. You must
know where she is.
BILAC: I didn't kill her.
SCULLY: Then why do you have blood on your clothes?
BILAC: I told you. I came here because the Amaru would not be
appeased. I was afraid for Mona. I tried to keep her away from all
this... She was an innocent.
SCULLY: She said she was scared. She said that you became
violent.
BILAC: She wouldn't listen.
SCULLY: Maybe you were too high to know the difference.
There is no curse, is there, Dr. Bilac? You are the curse.
BILAC: No. This is more powerful than any man. This is a spirit
you're dealing with-- the spirit of the Amaru. This is not something
you can put in handcuffs.
(MULDER quickly exits the room. SCULLY watches him go,
then turns back to BILAC.)
SCULLY: I'm going to ask you one more time, Dr, Bilac, where
is Mona's body?
BILAC: I don't know.
(SCULLY stares at him, then goes out of the room.)
SCULLY: (to OFFICER and GUARD at door) That man stays in
that room until there's a full search of the museum, okay?
OFFICER: Yes, ma'am.
MULDER: (from the bathroom) Hey, Scully! Come here for a
second. (she joins him) Just dawned on me. Why do you think
there's so much water in here?
SCULLY: I just assumed that one of the toilets had overflowed.
MULDER: There's water on every seat. It's more like every toilet
overflowed. Now, why would that happen?
SCULLY: There's only one way to find out.
MULDER: (not thrilled) I hate this.
(Looks in toilet. Dead rats floating.)
MULDER: Rats.
(Looks in the other toilets. More rats.)
MULDER: In every toilet.
SCULLY: How did they get in there.
GUARD: (entering) Agent Mulder.
MULDER: Yeah.
GUARD: The police found something outside.
SCULLY: Mona Wustner?
GUARD: No. Sugar - her dog. He's dead.
MULDER: (to SCULLY) Finally a body.
(They exit.)
SCENE 13
(MULDER and SCULLY enter examination room where
VETERINARIAN is finishing autopsy on SUGAR.)
SCULLY: What did you find?
VETERINARIAN: I have to run a full toxicological to be sure but it
looks like warfarin poisoning.
SCULLY: Warfarin?
VETERINARIAN: Rat poison.
MULDER: Someone fed this dog rat poison?
VETERINARIAN: No. When I dissected the dog's stomach I found
an undigested fragment of intestine which appears to be feline.
SCULLY: The dog ate a cat.
VETERINARIAN: I also found what appears to be bits of rat fur.
I think the rat ate the poison.
SCULLY: The cat ate a rat.
MULDER: And the dog ate the cat. (SCULLY gives him a small smile.)
More rats, Scully.
SCULLY: Yeah.
(MULDER puts his hand on her shoulder and pulls her to the side.)
MULDER: Don't you think that's significant?
SCULLY: Significant of what?
MULDER: There were rats in Dr. Lewton's car engine. There were
rats in the bathroom where it looks like Mona might have been killed
and now here.
SCULLY: It's an old building, Mulder. They have a rat problem.
A lot of old buildings have rats.
MULDER: No, no. I think it's more than that. What is it that the
Secona believe? That the jaguar spirit will devour anybody that
desecrates the burial place of a holy woman. Essentially, they're
talking about transmigration of the soul into animal form achieved
through a ceremony where they drink, the uh...
SCULLY: Yaje.
MULDER: Yeah. To summon the spirits.
SCULLY: So, what are we talking here, Mulder, a possessed rat?
The return of Ben?
MULDER: No, I think those rats were killed trying to escape from
something.
SCULLY: From something that sent them diving into the toilet.
MULDER: No, the lids were down. They weren't trying to get into
the toilets, they were trying to get out. They were coming from within
the sewer lines trying to get away from something.
SCULLY: Have *you* been drinking Yaje, Mulder?
MULDER: Go with it, Scully.
(SCULLY, looks skeptical, but follows MULDER out.)
SCENE 14
(MULDER and SCULLY get back to the room where they left BILAC.)
OFFICER: Agent Scully? Bilac's gone.
SCULLY: What? How's that possible?
OFFICER: I don't know. I went to check on him and he just
wasn't there.
(They enter room. It is empty.)
SCULLY: Did you step away from this door at any time?
OFFICER: No.
SCULLY: And no one entered this room?
OFFICER: Absolutely not.
MULDER: What about a rat?
OFFICER: Sir?
MULDER: You ever see any rats in this room?
GUARD: All the time. Why?
MULDER: How do you think they get in here?
GUARD: Through the old heating system. There are vents all over
this place.
(MULDER looks around the room.)
SCULLY: Are there any other doors or windows in this room?
OFFICER: I checked. [CarriK: Obviously not very well!]
There's only one way out.
SCULLY: You didn't hear anything?
OFFICER: Nothing. I heard nothing.
SCULLY: I want you to search the entire building beginning with
every room on this floor.
OFFICER: Yes, Ma'am.
(MULDER finds a HUGE heating vent in a wall near a corner of the
room and scrape marks in front of it.)
MULDER: Hey, Scully, take a look at this.
(MULDER pulls desk out of the way.)
SCULLY: Where does it lead to?
GUARD: The old steam tunnels.
MULDER: (feeling the floor just inside the vent) How do you get
down there?
GUARD: They're pretty much sealed up. Haven't been used for
50 years.
SCULLY: You think Bilac crawled down there?
MULDER: (holds up his hand with blood on it) Unless he was
dragged.
(MULDER exits, SCULLY follows. OFFICER who is SUPPOSED
to be searching every room stands there with the GUARD looking
at the vent.)
(Commercial 3.)
SCENE 15
(Later, still night. MULDER lift the lid off of a manhole outside the
museum. The hole is filled with cobwebs.)
SCULLY: (looking at blueprints) The system looks like it branches
off into three directions. There must be miles of tunneling down there.
MULDER: And only one way in.
SCULLY: And one way out.
MULDER: (looking hopefully at SCULLY) Ladies first?
(SCULLY smiles and shakes her head. MULDER sighs and climbs
down into the hole. SCULLY follows. They walk into the blue lit
tunnels.)
MULDER: Which way?
SCULLY: (looking at blueprints) To the left, it looks like.
(They walk further. Shot of blurred yellow perspective of MULDER
and SCULLY, then shot of cat eye watching them. There is a
clanking sound, then they see a rat run across the tunnel.)
MULDER: Follow that rat.
(They do.)
SCULLY: We should be directly under the museum here.
(MULDER shines light on a door. He goes one direction. SCULLY
looks in a little room. MULDER finds the rat which has stopped.
He shines his light up near the ceiling.)
MULDER: (urgent) Scully? Scully?!
SCULLY: (in another tunnel) What is it?
(SCULLY joins MULDER and looks at the body he has found,
now on the floor.)
SCULLY: Oh, my God. It's Dr. Lewton. It looks like his eyes
were eaten right out of his sockets.
MULDER: We still don't know by what.
(Blurred Yellow Perspective of MULDER and SCULLY. They hear
a sound and turn the flash light on the cat, who promptly runs away.
[CarriK: Cat. 10 lb., well fed orange tabby cat. Just making that
clear.])
SCULLY: What is it?
MULDER: I think it's a cat. {CarriK: Well, nice to know the FBI
is so observant.]
(As they walk through the tunnel, we see the cat watching them
and it makes a growl that a lion would be proud to make. Blurred
yellow perspective again.))
SCULLY: You think that cat killed those people?
(They walk over a large grate under which swarm a group of cats
meowing. Anyone who has opened a can of catfood for more than
3 cats knows the swirling furry image presented here.)
MULDER: No, *these* cats. [CarriK: acting note - DD actually
manages to sound worried about the situation. Bravo!]
Which way is out?
(SCULLY gasps as a cat leaps from the wall at her face. GA is
allergic to cats, so they used a stuffed one. Did they film it in
shadow? NOOOO!!!! We get full face shot of the Stuffed Killer
Pussy Cat on SCULLY's shoulder scratching her face, then lots
of nice close ups as MULDER battles the SKPC and flings it off
SCULLY.)
MULDER: Come on, Scully!
(They run down a tunnel pursued by a horde of meowing kitties.
MULDER starts down one tunnel, but SCULLY urges him into another.)
SCULLY: No, Mulder, this way. There's a room here with a vent.
Up there.
(MULDER closes the door and watches the meowing army out in the
tunnel. SCULLY opens the vent and gasps as she sees a body in the
vent.)
SCULLY: It's Bilac.
(They turn to see the cats scratching through the door.)
MULDER: Can you reach up in there?
SCULLY: Yeah.
MULDER: Let's pull him down.
(They pull BILAC's body onto the floor, then MULDER boosts
SCULLY into the vent, turns to see cats gnawing on BILAC,
then crawls in himself. They emerge into the room where they
had originally left BILAC, slam and lock the vent, then run out of
the room. Meowing continues behind the metal door.)
SCENE 16
(Next morning. Big Crime scene.)
MULDER: (on phone) Okay, I will call you back later.
SCULLY: Well, the search team's on their way back up.
They've recovered all the bodies including Mona's and Bilac's.
MULDER: What about the cats?
SCULLY: Animal control is still looking. So far, they haven't found
any sign of them.
MULDER: Well, we both saw them down there, Scully. We know
they're down there.
SCULLY: No one's denying that, Mulder, it's just that there are miles
of tunnels down there. And they're saying it's gonna take weeks to
search them all.
MULDER: Well, by then it won't even matter.
SCULLY: What are you talking about?
MULDER: I just got off the phone with the Assistant Secretary of
State's office. They've called in the Ecuadorean Ambassador.
SCULLY: What for?
MULDER: Five people had to die but they're finally taking it seriously.
SCULLY: The curse?
MULDER: (short laugh) No. Bilac's letter of protest. The State
Department has asked that the museum remain closed until they
can act officially on it.
SCULLY: Are they going to send back the bones?
MULDER: The urn will be back in Ecuador by the end of the week.
SCENE 17
MULDER: (voiceover as camera pans over artifacts in the museum)
The Suffolk county coroner ruled the deaths at the museum were the
result of animal attacks. What motivated these attacks and why no
more have occurred since has not been explained. To the museum,
the urn was an artifact from a dying culture-- its curse merely a
primitive superstition. Dr. Bilac learned there is a world beyond our
own, unseen but powerful, and as real as the urn itself.
(CUT TO: South America, MEN reburying the urn.)
MULDER: (voiceover) The icons from that world represent forces that
cannot be tamed or collected in a museum. The true curse that struck
the museum was the failure to understand that there are powers that
should not be disturbed... That some things are better left buried.
(SHAMAN watches as the urn is covered. [CarriK: Same dirt over the
lens shot as in the movie. Very cool. Monologue ties in, too. Okay,
TDB not ALL bad! Thank you Shibes.)
The End.
US Airdate: March 8, 1996
writer: John Shiban
director: Kim Manners
STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully
Guest Cast:
Dr. Winters ..... Garrison Chrisjohn
Dr. Lewton .... Tom McBeath
Mona Wustner ... Janne Mortil
Roosevelt ..... Alan Robertson
Mr. Decker .... Ron Sauve
Shaman ..... Gordon Tootoosis
Bilac ..... Vic Trevino