episode by Marilyn Osborn
summary by Pellinor
Internal dating: No date given, but if the air-date order tracks internal order, this episode happened in March 1994, after "Miracle Man" (around March 7th 1994) and before "Born Again" (starts March 27th). This is all rather odd, considering that Mulder and Scully were rather badly damaged by the events of "Darkness Falls," which should also fall into this three week period.
Browning, Montana. In a storm, a father and son (Jim and Lyle Parker) get their guns and search for creature that's killing their livestock. Lyle is attacked by something that looks very beast-like, and his father shoots the creature, staring in amazement as a naked young Native American man falls dead to the ground instead.
Mulder and Scully question the Parkers about the incident. Jim Parker, who's free on bail, admits that he is engaged in a land dispute with the Trego Indians, but hotly denies that he killed the young man, Joseph Goodensnake, deliberately. He swears that it was a beast he shot - one with red eyes and fangs.
Outside, Lyle Parker says that for months there's been unnatural silence in the night, with none of the normal animals. "I got a feeling there was something not human out there, watching," he tells them. "It gave me the creeps." "The creeps?" Scully questions. "Yeah, the creeps," he replies. "Don't you ever get the creeps?" Scully gives Mulder what looks like a defensive glance, in return for his enquiring stare.
Examining the crime scene, Scully asks Mulder why he's interested in the case, but Mulder doesn't answer, kneeling down and staring at animals footprints that suddenly seem to turn into human prints. "Well, there seems to be nothing unexplainable about this case," Scully says, a little later. "No. Not a thing," Mulder says, holding up a piece of skin, which she describes as "so odd.... almost like a snake skin." She suggests the Parkers began to strip their victim, although Mulder says there was no record of this.
Visiting the reservation, Mulder and Scully get a hostile reception as they look for Sheriff Tskany. "Go home, FBI," a man (Ish) says from the shadows, saying he could smell they were FBI a mile away. Mulder cracks a joke about wearing woman's deodorant, but the man doesn't look impressed. "You don't believe in us, and we don't believe in you," he says, talking of the FBI. "I want to believe," Mulder says, walking towards him. Ish asks them what they're looking for. Scully begins to explain, using official words like "homicide," but Mulder cuts in, saying they're looking for a creature that can make animals tracks one minute and human the next. "Parker killed what you're looking for," Ish says, but the dead youth's sister cuts in angrily, complaining that everyone's too scared about some "stupid Indian legend" to do anything about her brother's murder.
The sheriff takes them to see the dead man's body, which is in his office, guarded by two traditionally dressed Indians - the guardians of the dead. The sheriff explains that they're only allowed as far as the door. "I keep the ancient beliefs out there and the police work in here," he says. Mulder asks about the legend that the woman, Gwen Goodensnake, talked about, but he refuses, saying he gets no federal help when he wants it, so why should he do any more than he has to when they want his help?
Scully and Mulder examine Joe Goodensnake's body, finding old scars of an animal attack on his shoulder, and two teeth elongated into fangs. When they check his dental records, they find his teeth used to be normal, although Scully hazards some half way plausible medical reason for this. The sheriff says Jim Parker was looking for an animal and, seeing the unusual teeth, "saw what he wanted to see." Mulder asks if they can do an autopsy to see if the abnormality extends beyond the teeth, but the sheriff refuses outright as it's contrary to Indian beliefs. "You're a law enforcement officer," Scully protests. "You can't destroy evidence." "Don't tell me what I can't do," he says, angrily, saying the Native Americans believe there are laws above that of the US government. In a few days, he says, Mulder and Scully will be gone, but he's got to stay and answer to the people, so can't go against their beliefs.
In their car, waiting for Joe Goodensnake's cremation, Scully questions Mulder, saying he seems to have been expecting all the evidence before they even found it. "What aren't you telling me?" she asks. "Why are we here?" He shows her the very first X-File, opened by J Edgar Hoover in 1946, in which the police cornered and shot an animal, after a series of odd deaths, but found only a man's body. Because of the unexplained nature of the case, Hoover locked it away, hoping people would forget it, but similar cases recurred in 1954, 59, 64, 78 and now 94. He relates it to the old Indian legend of the Manitou, but Scully says it's lycanthropy - a form on insanity when people believe they can turn into a wolf. "No-one can physically change into an animal," she says, firmly. Mulder accuses her of dismissing the evidence, but she says that, whatever the explanation, Joe Goodensnake's dead and will soon be cremated, taking all the evidence with him. "End of mystery," she says. "Let's hope so," he mutters.
At the ceremony, Gwen Goodensnake is hostile, telling them they don't belong, but Scully offers her condolences, saying she understands the grief of losing a family member. She says he was her whole family, and gives Scully a charm, saying it's ritual to give away a dead person's possessions, and her brother had "more possessions than friends."
Mulder asks the sheriff off the record what he really thinks happens, but the sheriff refuses to answer. "Go home," he says, then "this is a funeral," when Mulder asks him if he believes in shape shifters.
The cremation begins, but is disturbed when Lyle Parker rides up, taking his hat off in respect. Gwen spits at him, saying she wants him to feel what she's feeling. He rides away, saying he regrets this death more than anything.
That night, Jim Parker is attacked and killed by a certainly inhuman beast while sitting on the porch. Looking at the body the next morning, Scully wonders if it's retaliation for Joe's death. The sheriff tells her that Gwen has been missing since the funeral, and Lyle is missing also, presumed dead. Exploring the woods, Mulder finds a clump of hair and a patch of shed skin, while Scully gets a shock from a caged mountain lion, then finds Lyle Parker, naked and suffering from exposure, unconscious in a field. She takes him to the hospital.
Mulder asks the sheriff what he's hiding. "I thought it was over," the sheriff replies, looking shocked. He says he can't tell him any more, but will take him to a man who can.
At the clinic, Lyle tells Scully he had a drink, but can't remember anything else after the funeral. Scully asks him if he talked to his father at all that night, but he says he's have been mad at him for going to the funeral. he says he has an image of him sitting on the porch, but can't remember if he talked to him. Scully then breaks the news that his father's dead, attacked by an animal or murdered. "I lost my father recently and I know how overwhelming...." she begins, but he breaks in. "Was it my fault?" he asks, wondering if his going to the funeral angered the Indians into killing his father. "If I caused it.... If I brought it on... I couldn't...." He breaks down in tears and Scully touches his arm, comfortingly.
Mulder and the sheriff visit Ish, who talks about seeing the Manitou with his own eyes a long time ago. "I sense you are different, FBI," he tells Mulder, saying he seems open to Native American beliefs than some Native Americans (this with a glance at the sheriff). "You even have an Indian name - Fox," he says. "You should be Running Fox, or Sleeping Fox." Mulder smiles. "Just as long as it's not Spooky Fox," he says. Ish then tells him more about the Manitou, saying that someone who's attacked by the Manitou in turn becomes one themselves, though the man form has no memory of the wolf form. He explains the recurring attacks over the years by saying the thing can be passed through blood-lines, from which the sheriff concludes that Gwen could be affected too. Hearing a noise outside, they rush out apprehend Gwen, trying to drive away in the Ish's car. She seems terrified, saying she saw "it" kill Parker and has been hiding in the woods ever since.
Mulder calls Scully at the clinic, but is told that she's taken Lyle Parker back to the ranch. The doctor also tells him he's found traces of his father's blood type in Lyle's blood, which could only be there by ingestion.
As Scully drives back to the ranch, Lyle starts looking menacing, as the camera lingers on the full moon. As he gets into the house, his suddenly bends over clutching his stomach, and Scully helps him to the bathroom.
Mulder tries desperately to call Scully, but the mountains block the signal.
Inside the bathroom, as Scully shouts anxiously outside, Lyle changes into a beast, with much roaring and grimacing. Scully tries to unpick the lock, but the creature bursts out of the door and she gasps.
Mulder and the sheriff arrive to find everything silent. Mulder creeps around in the dark, his torch beam falling on deep scratches in the wall and the smashed door. He catches sight of a beast and shoots it, but it turns out to be only a stuffed bear (no, a big one, not a teddy bear). Upstairs, something attacks him in a dark room, but it's only Scully, hiding from the thing that tried to attack her outside the bathroom. Together they go a-huntin' and something leaps out at them, but the sheriff shoots it. Lyle Parker falls dead. Scully is immediately ready with her explanation, saying it was an escaped mountain lion that attacked Lyle and tried to attack her, but Mulder tells her the mountain lion was safely in its cage the whole time.
Later, the sheriff tells them Gwen had moved away. "Maybe she saw something she wasn't ready to understand," he says, looking at Scully. "Maybe," Scully says, thoughtfully. As they leave, Ish calls out to them. "See you in about eight years," he says. "I hope not," Mulder replies.