Syzygy/Transcript

===SCENE 1===
(A nighttime vigil. A gentle rain falls on a framed portrait of a boy in a letterman jacket, set between a lantern and his football helmet. His classmates stand by holding candles as Jay DeBoom, a young Ryan Reynolds in a matching jacket, speaks.)
BOOM: I remember me and him all the way back to kindergarten. He was, uh, I dunno. He was like a brother or something. And we had some good times. Good times that I’ll never forget. Junk like that. (louder) Right now we all gotta stick together and protect each other—that’s what Bruno would’ve wanted. ‘Cause they say the cult is gonna come and try and get more of us and we can’t let that happen. So we gotta kick some butt. We gotta kick some butt... like I’m sure Bruno’s doing in heaven right now. 
(Boom, now crying, walks away, handing another boy Bruno's letterman jacket as he passes. Another student begins a eulogy.)
BOY (O.S.): I really don't know what to say, but me and Bruno...
MARGI (O.S.): Here he is. 
(Terri and Margi, two blond girls, emerge from around the side of a truck.)
TERRI: Boom, are you okay?
BOOM (through tears): Yeah.
MARGI: That was beautiful.
BOOM: Yep.
TERRI: So did you hear who the cult is supposed to be coming after next?
MARGI: A blonde virgin.
BOOM (looking up at Terri and Margi): C’mon, I’ll give you guys a ride home.
(The truck drives down a dark, foggy road.)
TERRI (To Margi): Your mom is always saying "Wait until you’re married, don’t just give it away."
MARGI: Yeah, and then some cult member wants to kidnap you and sacrifice you because you are a virgin. Oh, God. I mean, how do they even know if you really are a virgin?
TERRI: I don’t know. I don’t even want to think about it.
MARGI: You’re not a virgin, are you, Boom?
BOOM: Uh, no.
TERRI: You know, maybe if we weren’t virgins, we wouldn’t be so scared.
(The truck pulls off the road.)
===SCENE 2===
(The next morning, two Caryl County police cars arrive and policemen start searching the rocks. There already is a blue car standing with its doors open.)
POLICEMAN: Over here!
POLICEWOMAN (O.S.): Hey, found something!
(The cops scramble over the rocks to find Boom's body hanging from a red rope. They stand staring at his boots.)
POLICEWOMAN: Oh, God. Is he dead?
POLICEMAN: Yeah, it looks like he hung himself.
(The camera follows the rope from the body up a cliff. Where the hill levels out, the rope runs past Margi and Terry, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on a picnic blanket and picking petals off a daisy.)
MARGI: He loves me.
TERRY: He loves me not.
MARGI: He loves me.
TERRY: He loves me not.
MARGI: He loves me.
TERRY: He loves me not.
MARGI: He loves me.
TERRY: He loves me not.
MARGI: He loves me.
TERRY: Not.
(Margi sticks out her tongue and the girls dissolve into laughter. Terri flings the now-bare stem away.)
===SCENE 3===
(A car approaches a quiet intersection. Facing the other way, a sign reads: "Leaving COMITY — 'The Perfect Harmony City.'")
SCULLY: The map says to turn right at the intersection.
MULDER: The detective who contacted me told me to turn left.
SCULLY: At the intersection?
MULDER: At the stoplight.
(Mulder, driving, stops the car as they argue.)
SCULLY: This isn’t a stoplight, it’s a stop sign.
MULDER: Well, I’m sure she meant stop sign.
SCULLY: I'd turn right.
(He turns right. But after several seconds, he comes racing back to the left.)
 
===SCENE 4===
(Boom's funeral, in a small church. A photo of him sits atop a closed casket. One side of the aisle is lined with his teammates, wearing their letterman jackets—the school mascot, emblazoned on the back, is a goat with vicious horns.)
MINISTER: What more can I say about the loss of a young man like Jay DeBoom that the sadness in each of our own hearts does not express more poignantly. A few people have asked if they might come up and share some of their own personal remembrances of Jay. And I’d like to invite them to come forward at this time and share some of those thoughts.
(Detective White approaches Mulder and Scully where they stand in the back of the room.)
WHITE (softly): His friends called him "Boom." Quarterback of the football team, he was well-liked, a leader. He was looking forward to college until he was found hanged in the woods two days ago. It's the third death of a high school boy in as many months.
MULDER: In your fax you said that there were strong suspicions of a satanic cult at work?
WHITE: That’s the popular opinion around here. Wildly popular, actually.
SCULLY: Based on what evidence?
WHITE: Various eyewitness accounts of satanic rituals being conducted.
(A boy at the lectern begins speaking. The three turn towards him for a moment before continuing to whisper over his eulogy.)
BOY: I remember me and Boom back at kindergarten. He was—I dunno—like a brother, or something.
SCULLY: And you have physical evidence of these rituals being conducted?
WHITE: No. No, just the murder victims.
SCULLY: So you have nothing concrete to connect these things to Satanists.
(White shakes her head.)
MULDER (leaning close): If, uh, you detect a hint of skepticism or incredulity in Agent Scully’s voice, that’s because of the overwhelming evidence gathered by the FBI debunking virtually all claims of ritual abuse by satanic cults.
WHITE (to Scully): Is that true?
(Scully opens her mouth to answer.)
MULDER: Don’t ask me.
SCULLY: (irritated) Our research has proven that most of these accounts are false or imagined. That, uh, the trauma or mental illness that is often linked to satanic cults is a result of denial, hysteria and misplaced blame.
WHITE: Well, you’re gonna have a hard time convincing the locals of that, especially after hearing the stories of the two girls that were there the night Boom died.
(She gestures towards Margi and Terri, seated near the back.)
SCULLY: Who interviewed them?
WHITE: I did.
SCULLY: Together or separate?
WHITE: Together. Why?
SCULLY: Well, then you have no way of determining whether or not their stories are fabricated.
WHITE: No, no. These are good kids we’re talking about. Outstanding students—and the details they gave, I doubt they could have made them up.
SCULLY: Let me guess, they told you about a wild beast entering in on a black mass, the drinking of blood, the sacrifice of an infant... or a blonde virgin.
WHITE (tightly): Yeah, that’s right. Excuse me.
(White walks away down the aisle.)
SCULLY: Where is she going?
MULDER: You don’t suppose she’s a virgin, do you?
SCULLY: I doubt she’s even a blonde.
(From outside a side door comes the sound of men yelling.)
MAN (O.S.): Sir!
BOB (O.S.) Would you let me by?!
(White opens the door.)
MAN: No! No, sir, you can't go in there! You cannot go in!
(Bob storms in, undeterred by White and the man as they try to slow his roll. He stands in the center aisle, addressing the funeral-goers.)
BOB: How long are we going to stand by and watch our children die, while Satan’s soldiers run free in this city?
WHITE: Bob, this is no time to—
(She puts a hand on his arm. He throws it off and runs up onstage behind the coffin.)
BOB: No time? No time?!
WHITE: Hey—Hey! Hey, Bob, this is not the place for this.
BOB: My wife can’t sleep at night. My kids say they can feel Satan’s presence!
(Gasps and murmurs from the crowd. As he rants, Terri and Margi hold hands.)
BOB: We got to... we got to wake up and take action, people! We gotta cast the Devil out of our community.
(He pauses. Boom's coffin is smoking. The portrait cracks. The coffin explodes into flame, and people cry out. Mulder and Scully stare open-mouthed from the back of the sanctuary as panic takes hold.)
WHITE: Alright, everybody! Stay calm!
CROWD (overlapping): Satan... The Rapture! 
(Mulder and Scully look at the burning coffin.)
MULDER (to Scully): Maybe we’re just imagining that.
(Scully is unamused. He jogs down the aisle and she follows. Terri and Margi, the only two still in their seats, are staring stonily at the coffin.)
 
===SCENE 5===
Caryl County Sheriff’s station
(In an interrogation room, Scully sits across from Terri, who speaks into a microphone.)
TERRI: My name is Terri Roberts. I go to Grover Cleveland Alexander High School. I’m a senior with a 3.98 grade point average.
(In another room, Mulder is interrogating Margi.)
MARGI: My name is Margi Kleinjan. I go to Grover Cleveland Alexander High School. I’m a senior with a 3.75 grade point average. I’m on the cheerleading yell squad with my best friend Terri.
TERRI: I’m on the cheerleading yell squad with my best friend Margi and we plan to go to college together in the fall.
SCULLY: Yeah. Could you tell me again exactly what happened the night of Jay DeBoom's death?
TERRI: Uh, Boom—Jay—was giving us a ride home in his truck... when all of a sudden he swerved off the road.
MARGI: Like, he had been possessed or something. And he made us get out of the car, and walk to a clearing where people were wearing black robes and holding black candles. I couldn’t see their faces underneath their hoods, but I knew they up to no good.
SCULLY: How did you know they were up to no good?
TERRI: Well, they were all standing around this altar, and one of them had a long knife, with a snake’s head on the handle, ruby eyes. And I thought for sure we were dead, because we’d heard that they were gonna sacrifice a blonde virgin.
MARGI (through tears): But instead they just pulled out this little crying baby, and put it on the altar, and the man with the knife started saying some kind of prayer. 
TERRI: He was chanting... (starts crying) ...and he was saying stuff about how they were gonna sacrifice the baby, because it hadn’t been christened yet. And how they were gonna bury it in a mass grave on the outskirts of town, with all the other babies that they’d killed. And, and...
 
===SCENE 6===
MARGI (on tape): And, the whole group was chanting and saying things. The man with the knife raised the knife up over the baby, and that’s when Terri and I just ran for our lives.
(White stops the tape. She, Scully and Mulder stand in a bullpen—White and Scully facing each other from opposite sides of a desk.)
WHITE: The two stories are virtually identical. The one corroborates the other.
SCULLY: I don’t suppose there have been any actual reports of stolen infants, or mass graves being uncovered anywhere in town, or that you found an altar, or any other evidence of a black mass?
WHITE: No. No, in fact, we haven’t.
SCULLY: The problem is, that the details of these accounts could have been taken from any newspaper or magazine. As horrific as they sound, the stories that these girls told are common, even cliché.
(Mulder crosses from where he's been standing behind Scully to White's side of the desk.)
MULDER: If you detect a hint of impatience in Agent Scully’s voice, that’s because the FBI’s study also found that in most cases, like the McMartin preschool trial, witnesses were often prompted in their statements by rumors of stories that were being circulated and that there was in fact nothing to support them.
WHITE: How do you explain the burning coffin at the funeral?
MULDER: Don’t ask me.
(White sighs.)
===SCENE 7===
(At the morgue, Scully removes a plastic cover and opens the half-burned coffin.)
SCULLY: There have been incidents where the embalming fluid used to preserve the body have caused chemical reactions and produced heat and burning. (Mulder and White peer over her shoulder.) I see nothing here that would suggest otherwise.
WHITE (pointing at a V-shaped burn on the body’s chest): What is that?
SCULLY: What’s what?
WHITE: That pattern, there, on his chest.
MULDER: Yeah, I see it. It looks like a... goat. Some kind of horned beast.
SCULLY: A horned beast?
MULDER (pointing at burn mark that indeed looks kinda like a horned beast): Yeah, right here... in a circle.
SCULLY: I think you guys are seeing something that isn’t there.
WHITE: No, no, right here. Look. You see that the horns are right there.
SCULLY: No, I don’t see the horns right there. 
(With some attitude, Scully puts on a surgical glove. Stung, White glances at Mulder.)
WHITE (to Mulder): I assume you’ll call me if you need anything further. 
(White leaves.)
MULDER (To Scully): If it’s no bother—if it’s not too big a deal—maybe you can get me a few photographs of that thing which bears absolutely no resemblance to a horned beast.
SCULLY: Sure. Fine. (snaps on second glove) Whatever.
 
===SCENE 8===
(A cat’s head fills the screen, its face oddly taut and its eyes slitted. Mulder's holding this cat, stretching its face. Note from Chris Carter: "Cats love this!" Mulder is sitting on someone’s front stoop. Detective White opens the door.)
MULDER: Oh, hey.
WHITE: Uh, hi. What are you doing with my cat?
MULDER: He was scratching to get in and I thought, with the threat of satanic animal sacrifices looming, maybe you should keep him inside. 
(He hands her the cat, and she sets it down inside.)
WHITE: I thought the FBI’s research would’ve debunked that theory.
MULDER: Ah. First off, I’d like to apologize for my partner’s rude behavior. She tends to be rather rigid... (White scoffs as if to say "You don't say!") ...but, but rigid in a wonderful way, not like she was today. Personally, I like to try to keep a more open mind.
(White nods.)
WHITE: So, what are you doing at my house?
MULDER: I was hoping you could help me solve the mystery of the horny beast.
 
===SCENE 9===
(An image of a horned goat (the star sign Capricorn) is ringed in red neon. It and the eleven other symbols form a ring illuminating the words "ZIRINKA — ASTROLOGY, READINGS, NUMEROLOGY, RUNES.")
(Inside, Zirinka sits at a desk holding a photo of the burn mark—Scully followed through on her promise to take pictures. Mulder and White stand by.)
ZIRINKA: Let me make sure I heard you right. You say you see horns.
MULDER: You don't see a, uh, goat here? Some kind of beast?
ZIRINKA: This is a trick, right? To try and entrap me?
WHITE: Nobody is trying to entrap you.
ZIRINKA: Yeah, right. (she stands) There are a lot of loonies running around this town that like to think that I’m a Satanist. But the truth is, I’m just a number cruncher, trying to make an honest living.
MULDER: Well, what do you think is going on, if I may ask?
ZIRINKA: Well, I think the whole town’s lost its marbles. I should’ve been the first to see it coming, but it’s hard being a small business owner. I mean, you should see the paperwork.
MULDER: What do you mean "seen it coming"?
ZIRINKA: Well, we’re heading into a rare planetary alignment, where Mercury, Mars and Uranus are extreme influences.
MULDER: On what?
(She hands him her business card.)
ZIRINKA: Office hours are nine to five, all major credit cards accepted.
===SCENE 10===
(High school basketball practice. The team run atop an image of the school mascot painted in the center of the court—the same image of a horned goat that's on their letterman jackets.)
COACH (O.S.): All right. Move back. To your zones. Clear!
CHEERLEADERS: Shoot that ball, let's shoot, shoot! Shoot that ball, let's, shoot, shoot!
(A whistle blows. Near where the cheerleaders are sitting on the floor, Terri and Margi sit behind a card table with paper cups of lemonade. They are commentating to one another.)
TERRI: Craig Wilmore.
MARGI (thumbs down): Hate him, Roger.
TERRI (thumbs up): Points, though, for improved dermatology, Gene.
BOYS (overlapping): Hey! Man! Come on! Hey, come on! Come on!
(Two players start fighting. A whistle blows and the coach rushes to break it up.)
MARGI: Can it be true that these people will soon be adults bringing new life into this world?
TERRI: I’m so depressed.
(One of the players jogs over to pick up a cup of lemonade.)
TERRI (grinning): Hi, Scott. 
(He frowns, doesn't respond. Finishes his lemonade and jogs off.)
TERRI (to Margi) Scott Simmons. 
(thumbs up) 
Babe-a-licious in overtime, Gene. 
(Scott runs over to a cheerleader on his way back into the scrimmage. She gives him a kiss on the cheek.)
MARGI: Minus the Brenda appendage.
TERRI: Hate her.
MARGI: Hate her, wouldn’t wanna date her.
(Brenda, cheering from the sidelines, takes a hard fall backwards. Margi and Terri do a faux-concerned take to one another and continue watching the scrimmage.)
(A player, Eric Bauer, chases a rogue ball off the court and falls right into cups of lemonade, spilling them all. Margi and Terri screech and a whistle blows.)
ERIC: Oh, hey, sorry. 
(The boy returns to the court. Margi and Terri are soaked and irate.)
TERRI: Hate him!
MARGI: Hate him, wouldn’t wanna date him. 
(He gets clonked in the back of the head with the basketball, which then rolls under the bleachers.)
ERIC: I'll get it!
BOY (O.S.): Get the ball! Come on!
COACH (O.S.): What's wrong with you guys?
BOY (O.S.): We don't know!
(Margi and Terri stare intently as the boy climbs under the bleachers and finds the ball.)
BOY (O.S.): Come on, hurry up!
(The team stands waiting for him. Suddenly, the lights in the gym bump off.)
COACH (O.S.): Hey! Turn the lights on, will ya?
(Gears turn. A handful of students who'd been sitting on the bleachers gasp and jump down as they rapidly start retracting.)
ERIC: What's going on? I can't get get out! I can't get out! Somebody help me, quick! I can't get out of here!
(The team rushes to the bleachers.)
BOY: Stop it!
ERIC: Someone help me!
BOY: Grab on to it!
(The team is powerless to stop the bleachers as they crunch forward. Eric screams. The players and cheerleaders cry. Margi and Terri, backlit by the moon, stare silently.) 
===SCENE 11===
January 12, 5:10 AM
(Mulder and White are peering into the bleachers when Scully approaches from behind.)
SCULLY: What happened?
WHITE: Another young man has died.
MULDER: An electrical surge caused a power failure, but somehow activated the motor that retracts the bleachers and he got caught inside. 
OFFICER (B.G.): Detective White, can I see you?
WHITE (to Mulder and Scully): Excuse me.
(Scully looks around and sees Terri and Margi giving local police their statements. They're both crying.)
MARGI: I could hear him screaming, but...
(Scully turns back to Mulder.)
SCULLY: You weren’t in your motel room.
MULDER: I went to follow up a lead with Detective White.
SCULLY: I see.
MULDER: You see what?
SCULLY: Look, we’ve been working together for, what, two years now? We have differing opinions, but I didn’t expect you to ditch me.
MULDER: I didn’t ditch you.
SCULLY: Fine. Whatever.
(Behind her back, Mulder rolls his eyes. They both turn as the bleachers are pulled out with a thud, revealing Eric's broken body. White returns.)
WHITE We got more trouble. A mob has gathered on the south side of town.
 
===SCENE 12===
(Locals, led by Bob, are digging in a field with all manner of tools.)
BOB (gesturing to excavator operator): Okay. 
MAN (O.S.): Hey, Bob, we got company.
(Bob goes to meet White, Mulder and Scully as they exit their cars. Behind him, dozens of people continue to dig.)
WHITE: What’s going on here, Bob?
BOB: George Hunsaker’s little boy got a phone call from someone who said they knew the location of the mass grave.
WHITE: You’re destroying private property, Bob. You’re gonna have to stop digging.
BOB: Our children are dying!
WHITE: Well, that does not give you the right to come out here and tear up Harvey Molitch’s back yard.
BOB: Maybe Harvey’s got something to hide. We’ve got two kids who’re prepared to say he took them on a camping trip and made them play naked movie star games! 
(Nearly clocking Mulder in the face with his shovel as he throws it from hand to hand, Bob storms back to the dig site.)
MULDER: That man, is he always that hysterical?
WHITE: No, Bob’s our high school principal. I’ve never heard him say a bad word about anyone.
(The three investigators walk deeper into the dig site.)
SCULLY: This is called rumor panic. It’s when an antecedent event links up with a popular satanic cult myth, and it increases the tension in a community. A villain or villains are singled out as the focus of the community’s confusion and angst about unexplained events, like the death of the high school boys. There have been at least twenty incidents since 1983 from upstate New York to Reno, Nevada. And not one of them has turned up a single shred of evidence to support the wild allegations.
WOMAN (screaming): I found bones!
BOB: She found bones!
LOCALS (overlapping): Bones, right here! She found bones over there!
(With much commotion, the locals rush over to her. Mulder, Scully and White exchange a brief look before following. Other officers form a wall, trying to hold the crowd back.)
OFFICERS (overlapping): Alright, everybody stay back! Stay back, folks. Take it easy.
(White sidesteps the crowd and crouches in front of the hole. There's a purse at the bottom.)
WOMAN: They’re in the bag.
(Mulder and Scully each pull a pair of surgical gloves out of a pocket as they crouch down. They look at each other and pause. Mulder returns his gloves to his pocket.)
MULDER: Go ahead. 
SCULLY: No, you go ahead.
MULDER: No, no, no. Be my guest. I know how much you like snapping on the latex.
(Petulantly, Scully snaps on a glove. The crowd leans closer to see what's in the bag as she opens it—small bones.)
BOB: They’re child’s bones!
(If looks could kill, Scully would be in jail and this town would be out a high school principal.)
MULDER: What is that? What is that, right there? That some kind of lettering there?
SCULLY (reading): "R. W. G."
BOB: Dick Godfrey. That bag belongs to Dr. Godfrey. He’s the baby killer!
(Gasps and chatter from the crowd as they all follow Bob away.)
MULDER: Who’s Dr. Godfrey?
WHITE: He’s the town pediatrician.
(Scully sighs with deep exasperation.)
 
===SCENE 13===
(The crowd, now a mob, rushes past a mailbox marked "DR. RICHARD W. GODFREY" and up a sidewalk to his house.)
WOMAN: He's the killer!
(Bob, in the lead, raps on the door.)
BOB: Come on out, Godfrey!
MOB (overlapping): Get out! Godfrey, open this door! Come on out, Godfrey, we know you're in there! Godfrey!
(Inside, Dr. Godfrey rushes down the stairs, wearing a lacy peignoir, high heels and smudged lipstick. He pulls back a curtain, and seeing the mob gathered outside, gasps and runs from the door.)
BOB: He’s home, he’s in there!
WOMAN: Come on out, you baby killer!
WOMAN: Psycho!
(The mob continues to call out and pound on the door and windows.)
 
===SCENE 14===
(At the precinct, Godfrey is now fresh-faced and wearing a dress shirt. White stands in front of him and Mulder paces behind.)
WHITE: Let me get this straight, for the record. You haven’t seen the bag in a year, and you sold it at a garage sale?
GODFREY: To a young girl, one of the Roberts family. They live a few doors down.
WHITE: Why was it filled with bones and buried in the middle of a field?
GODFREY: I have no idea.
WHITE: Well, the people of this town seem to think you do. Would you be willing to take a lie detector test?
(As he hesitates, Scully enters.)
SCULLY: You can go now, Dr. Godfrey. I don’t think we’ll be needing you any further. Your story checked out.
GODFREY: Thank God. 
(Godfrey rises to stand behind Mulder. Scully sets the exhumed bag on the table.)
SCULLY: The bones turned out to be the skeletal remains not of an infant, but of a beloved fourteen-year-old Lhasa Apso formerly known as Mr. Tippy.
(From within the bag, she produces a collar with that name on it. Behind her, an officer lets Terri into the room.) 
TERRI: Mr. Tippy…
(Terri comes forward despondently to take her dog's collar.)
MULDER: This may not be any time to mention it, but someone is wearing my favorite perfume.
(Everyone looks at him, Godfrey particularly attentively.)
SCULLY: Can I have a word with you?
(As they exit, Terri lifts Mr. Tippy's skull from the bag with a whimper. Scully and Mulder convene in the hall, near enough to the others that they are whispering.)
SCULLY: This has gone on far enough.
MULDER: What?
SCULLY: I am not going to be humiliated by you, in front of you, or by having to bring a teenage girl in, on her birthday of all days, to identify the bones of her dead dog, Mr. Tippy!
(As she speaks, Mulder leans close to smell her.)
SCULLY: I see no reason to pursue this case any further, and not only that, I find your conduct and comportment in this investigation not just alarming, but highly objectionable. What are you doing?!
MULDER: Must be Detective White.
SCULLY: If that’s the reason we’re sticking around, that’s your business. 
(She walks away. He follows, incredulous.)
MULDER: What? What are you talking about?
SCULLY: Detective White.
MULDER: We came down here because of three unexplained deaths. Detective White is just trying to solve them. She could use our help.
SCULLY: Well, you two seem to have a certain... simpatico. I’m going back to Washington in the morning.
(He sinks against the wall like a felled tree as he watches her go.)
 
===SCENE 15===
(Thunder rumbles. The Moon is full, and Uranus and Mars align with it in a dark sky. A house party rages on a quiet suburban street. Outside on the curb, the bag that'd held Mr. Tippy's bones sits awaiting trash pickup. Inside, LIVE's All Over You is playing very loudly. A table laden with presents, a sheet cake, a balloon reading "Happy birthday, Terri & Margi." In the dining room, black-clad Terri and Margi dance boisterously as other girls sit by watching. In the living room, in silence, another group of girls is gathered around a Ouija board.)
GIRL: What are you gonna ask, Brenda?
BRENDA: Who am I gonna marry?
(The girls giggle. Brenda guides the planchette to the letter "S.")
GIRLS (overlapping): "S"! Come on. What's next?
(As Brenda guides it to "C," it jerks away to "A.")
ALL: "A"...
(As it hits the next letters, the board is no longer in Brenda's control.) 
ALL: "T"?
GIRL: What?
ALL: "A"? "N"?
(Gasps and murmurs.)
ALL: Satan?!
GIRLS (overlapping): Brenda! No. Oh my God.
(Brenda runs to the bathroom, where she finds Terri and Margi, eyes closed and hands interlocked, chanting by candlelight in front of the mirror.)
TERRI/MARGI: One Bloody Mary, two Bloody Mary, three Bloody Mary, four Bloody Mary…
BRENDA: What are you guys doing?
(They turn, smiling.)
MARGI: You just close your eyes and count to thirteen and Bloody Mary appears in the mirror.
TERRI: Come on in, Brenda.
BRENDA: No, thank you.
(As Brenda turns to leave, the door slams shut as if by a nonexistent wind. She gasps and tries the door as Terri and Margi resume their position at the mirror.)
TERRI/MARGI: Five Bloody Mary, six Bloody Mary, seven Bloody Mary…
(Downstairs, the rest of the girls hear a scream pierce through the loud music.)
GIRL: Turn it off, turn it off. 
GIRL: What is that?
(With the music off, the scream continues.)
 
===SCENE 16===
8:25 PM
COMITY MOTEL
(A neon sign: "COMITY MOTEL - NO VACANCY - CABLE TV - PHONES")
(In his hotel room, Mulder sits on his bed making the world's saddest screwdriver, spooning frozen orange juice into an already half-empty vodka bottle. It's flanked on his nightstand by his gun and a pile of tissues. His shirt is unbuttoned and his tie hangs around his shoulders. He shakes the bottle before taking a swig and turns on the TV to a Keystone Kops movie. Sabre Dance blares. He changes the channel. The same movie is on channel 5. And channel 7. And channel 10.)
(Scully, in her room, is watching the same movie. A cigarette hangs from her lips. On her nightstand, an ashtray sits atop a red-paged hotel bible. Peevishly, she turns the TV off and stands to pace, muttering under her breath.)
SCULLY: Detective White could use our help. 
(She wanders to glance out the blinds, takes a drag of the cigarette.)
SCULLY: She's just trying to solve this case... She's just trying to... Detective White. 
(In his room, Mulder is now drunkenly holding his TV remote up at different angles to change the channel, as if by doing so he mind find any other movie. He's interrupted by a knock at the door. Setting the vodka down, he looks through the peephole before opening it.)
WHITE: Can I come in? 
(She comes in and takes her jacket off. Mulder closes the door behind her, but then opens it a crack. The Keystone Kops music continues.)
MULDER: What happened?
WHITE: I found that on my front doorstep.
(Mulder opens the shoebox she indicates. Inside, her cat's collar, the tag reading: "DET. ANGELA WHITE - 555-0114.")
WHITE (through tears): If they’re not Satanists, who are they?
(Mulder stands and embraces her as she cries. Then he smells her neck.)
WHITE (pulling away): What are you doing?
MULDER: Nothing.
WHITE: You’ve been drinking.
MULDER: Yes, I have, which is funny, because I usually—I normally never— I don’t drink.
WHITE: Oh. 
(White walks to the bottle of vodka, picks it up and looks at Mulder, who shrugs apologetically. She looks down at the bottle before taking a long swig herself.)
WHITE: You know, I don’t feel like going home. Do you mind if I slept here? 
(She kicks off her shoes and unbuttons her jacket, staring intently at Mulder.)
MULDER (suddenly alert): Actually, I’m sure I could, uh, get you another room.
(Mulder goes to the phone. She's untucking her blouse—he desperately pounds the operator key. But she throws him onto the bed and climbs on top of him.)
WHITE: Maybe we can solve the mystery of the horny beast.
MULDER: Maybe we should just watch some television. Uh. There’s a movie on TV. Actually, it’s the same movie on every channel.
WHITE: Weird. I like weird. I feel weird. 
(She starts kissing him. He protests. Scully enters.)
SCULLY: Mul—
(Detective White looks up.)
There’s been another death.
(Scully rushes out.)
===SCENE 17===
(Scully exits the motel, hastily followed by Mulder and White, shrugging their jackets on.)
MULDER: Was it a murder?
SCULLY: A high school girl was impaled by flying glass from a bathroom mirror. 
(Scully unlocks the driver's side door of hers and Mulder's car.)
MULDER: Let me drive.
SCULLY: I’m driving.
MULDER: Scully, it’s not what you think.
SCULLY: I didn’t see anything anyway. 
(She sits in the driver's seat.)
MULDER: Will you let me drive?
SCULLY: I’m driv—Why do you always have to drive? Because you’re the guy? Because you’re the big, macho man?
MULDER: No. I was just never sure your little feet could reach the pedals. 
(He closes Scully's door and walks to the other car, where White stands by.)
MULDER (to White): Will you go with her, please? 
(White is upset by this.)
Thank you. 
(Scully, staring daggers at him, starts her car. He gets in his.)
MULDER (to himself): “Big, macho man.”
===SCENE 18===
10:01 PM
(A diner parking lot. Inside, Scott sits alone, miserably staring off into space as rock music plays. There's an uneaten burger sitting in front of him. Margi and Terri approach, with ratted hair and wearing all black.)
MARGI: Hey.
TERRI: Loss of appetite. That’s not a good sign.
SCOTT: I’d like to be alone.
(Terri eats one of his fries.)
TERRI: Well, you got your wish.
SCOTT: What happened to you guys? You used to be—
TERRI: Look, Scott, we’re not dressed like this for the funeral. We’re here to make you feel better tonight. Carpe P.M.
(Scott, shocked and hurt, scoffs and leaves.)
TERRI: Hate him.
(Margi doesn't respond.)
TERRI (forcefully): Hate him. 
(Margi turns to look at Terri, then leaves.)
 
===SCENE 19===
(Mulder is back at Zirinka’s. She's holding his credit card.)
MULDER: When we were here before, you s—
ZIRINKA: I’m just waiting for authorization.
MULDER: I’m a federal agent.
ZIRINKA: Last I heard, the federal government couldn’t pay its bills. 
(BEEP)
Okay, you’re good for up to 300 bucks. 
MULDER: Alright—
ZIRINKA: How can I help you?
MULDER: You said that you knew why people are behaving so strangely around here.
ZIRINKA: Well, the same reason that my dog’s been trying to mate with the gas barbecue for the last two months.
MULDER: You said it was planetary?
ZIRINKA: Once every eighty-four years Mercury, Mars and Uranus come into conjunction. Only this year, Uranus is in the house of Aquarius.
MULDER: That’s a bad thing?
ZIRINKA: Bad like an Irwin Allen movie. I mean, things are gonna fall outta the sky. Disaster lies in wait, especially around here.
MULDER: Why here?
ZIRINKA: Well, we’re in a geological vortex, a high-intensity meridian.
MULDER: (question-mark face)
ZIRINKA: A cosmic "G" spot? All culminating on January 12th when they come into perfect alignment. Which would be… 
(checks watch)
Today. Hey.
MULDER: But why is this affecting everyone?
ZIRINKA: Well, some people more than others. Relationships are gonna suck. Significant dates can exaggerate the effects.
MULDER: What if today was my birthday?
ZIRINKA: Then I’d say happy birthday. Unless, of course, you were born in 1979, and then I’d call the police. You’d have a Jupiter-Uranus opposition, forming what’s called a grand square, where all the planets align into a cross. All the energy of the cosmos would be focused on you.
===SCENE 20===
(Scott pulls into his garage. As he gets out of the truck, Margi rises from the truck bed.)
MARGI: You don’t have to be alone tonight.
SCOTT: What are you doing?
(He reaches for the garage door button. She creeps closer.)
MARGI: The insensitivity to your pain was too much for me to bear. So I—
(Terri marches in under the closing garage door.)
TERRI: What? So you what? So you blew me off so you could snatch some shoulder time with rude-boy.
(Margi glances at a spring on the garage door. A deep rumbling begins.)
MARGI: Back off, Terri.
TERRI: Happy birthday, bitch. 
(The spring flies loose. Scott ducks. It shatters the truck's rear windshield.)
MARGI: Right back at you.
(Another spring zips through the garage—both Margi and Terri duck and it flies above their heads. They stand. Margi lifts a blood-spattered hand.)
TERRI: You’re bleeding.
MARGI: So are you.
(Terri raises a hand to her temple. Both girls look to the back of the garage, where a dull-eyed Scott collapses to the floor. The spring is still embedded in the wall behind him, having pierced through his stomach. They go to the body.)
MARGI: You killed him.
TERRI: What do you mean, I killed him? You killed him.
MARGI: I didn’t kill him.
(A door slams.)
MARGI: Terri?
(Terri is gone. Margi turns back to the body.)
 
===SCENE 21===
(Scully and White drive silently down a dark road. Suddenly, a dead bird strikes the windshield with a wet thud. Both women gasp. Scully stops the car, headlights illuminating more fallen birds scattered on the road ahead. As they get out of the car, White steps on one.)
WHITE: Oh!
SCULLY (whispered): Oh my God. 
MAN (O.S.): Come on! Over here!
(From far down the foggy road, a torch-carrying mob is approaching.)
===SCENE 22===
ZIRINKA: I’ll let you fill in the amount.
(Mulder is kneeling to fill in the check when his phone rings. He answers.)
MULDER: Mulder. 
MARGI: I know who the killer is. I know who did it all.
MULDER: Who is this?
MARGI: Margi Kleinjan.
MULDER: Where are you, Margi? 
(She sobs.)
MULDER: Just tell me where you are.
 
SCENE 21B
(Scully and White stand watching as the mob approaches, carrying flashlights and chattering amongst themselves. Bob is front and center, carrying a shotgun. Scully steps forward to meet him.)
SCULLY: I don't know what you think you’re doing, but I suggest you put that gun down, sir, or I’m going to have to arrest you.
BOB: We’re not standing around anymore, waiting for answers. We’re taking this situation into our own hands.
SCULLY: You can’t go walking down the middle of a street carrying a loaded weapon. It's against the law.
BOB: Not if I’m hunting, it’s not. Hunting Satanists.
SCULLY: There are no Satanists here.
BOB: Then who killed those kids? And who killed all these birds?
TERRI: Somebody, help me! 
(Terri, disheveled and distraught, comes running from around Scully's car.)
TERRI: I know who the killer is. I know who did it all. All the murders.
 
===SCENE 23===
(Mulder enters Scott's garage. His flashlight beam catches Margi, leaning against the truck and crying. He sweeps it over Scott's body and the bloody spring on the wall before crouching in front of her.)
MULDER: Come on, Margi, let’s get you out of here.
MARGI: She killed him.
MULDER: Who?
MARGI: Terri, she killed all of them.
MULDER: She killed all the high school boys?
MARGI: And Brenda Summerfield.
MULDER: How did she do it?
 
SCENE 21C
(On the bird-laden street, a crying Terri is having a parallel conversation with Scully.)
TERRI: I think she’s possessed or something. She killed Scott Simmons tonight with a garage door spring. I don't know how she does it. I think—I think she's...
MARGI: I think she’s evil. She tricked Boom into going up on that cliff, and then she pushed him off. And laughed about it, just like she did Eric Bauer the other night in the gym...
TERRI: When all the lights went out, and she knew that he was trapped underneath the bleachers—she could hear him screaming, and she wouldn’t make it stop.
SCULLY: Why didn’t you stop her, Terri? Why didn’t you tell anybody?
TERRI: Because—because I was afraid of her. Because she was my best friend. Best friends are supposed to stick together, right?
(Scully gets a phone call from her best friend.)
SCULLY (over the wind): Scully!
(She leaves the mob, taking the call in her car.)
MULDER: Scully, it’s me. 
SCULLY: Where are you?
MULDER: I’m at a crime scene, a new one. I think I have a solid lead on these deaths.
SCULLY: I’m way ahead of you, Mulder. I’ve got a suspect I want to bring in.
MULDER: Who’s that?
SCULLY: Margi Kleinjan.
(Mulder looks at Margi, standing in front of him.)
MULDER (to Margi): Hold on a second.
(He walks a few steps away.)
MULDER (to Scully, whispered): Margi Kleinjan?
SCULLY: That’s right. Her friend just gave us a statement.
MULDER: Actually, I’m way ahead of you, Scully, because I’m standing here with Margi Kleinjan and she just gave me a statement implicating her friend.
SCULLY: Who?
MULDER: Terri.
SCULLY: Well, actually I’m way ahead of you, Mulder, because I’m with Terri right now.
MULDER: You're what?
SCULLY: I’ve got your suspect, and you’ve got mine. Why does that make sense to me at this point?
MULDER: Look, Scully, I don’t think this has anything to do with any cult. I want to get them both in and get a formal statement and clear this thing up, okay?
(She doesn't answer.)
MULDER: Scully?
SCULLY: Sure. Fine. Whatever.
===SCENE 24===
11:48 PM
(Mulder brings Margi into the precinct. In the bullpen, he pulls out a chair.)
MULDER: Wait right here. 
(He turns to go, then pauses.)
Detective White’s cat?
(She nods. As Mulder walks by a TV, it kicks on. It's playing the same Keystone Kops movie from the motel, the theme music clamoring. Suddenly, a loud rumbling.)
MAN: Steve, what was that?
(Earthquake-like, everything on the desks shakes—jars of pencils, an American flag. Then the desks and chairs slide apart, sending the cops scrambling.)
MAN: It's moving!
(Terri walks in, Scully behind her.)
TERRI: Hey, girlfriend.
MARGI: Hey.
(The rumbling begins again.)
MULDER (pointing at Margi): Get her outta here.
(With a BANG, Mulder's gun goes off from inside its holster. Then every gun in the room. Scully pulls hers out, removing the clip. He pulls his out to look at it, and it goes off again, the bullet nearly striking a nearby officer. Everyone ducks beneath the desks—everyone but Margi and Terri, who are still locked in a death stare. Keystone Kops still plays on the TV, the frenetic music very loud now. The slapstick law enforcement officers are having just as chaotic an evening. The lights go out as a whole rack of shotguns go off. Ducking through the firestorm, Mulder reaches Margi and restrains her in a headlock. He drags her towards the door.)
MARGI: Stop it!
(As Mulder drags Margi down the hall and away from the bullpen, both the guns and the Keystone Kops music are quieted. Scully and White jump up.)
(Mulder throws Margi into a room at the end of the hall. He unlocks the door as a murderous Terri approaches.)
TERRI: Out of my way.
(He opens the door. Scully, catching up, pushes her in. As the door slams shut and Terri and Margi stand eye-to-eye, the hallway rattles.)
SCULLY: What the hell is going on here?
MULDER: Something cosmic.
(The rattling intensifies. A long panel is knocked loose from the ceiling and falls between the two of them.)
SCULLY: Oh!
(Mulder looks up at the clock. Just as the hand strikes midnight, the shaking ceases. The mob approaches from the end of the hall.)
MULDER & SCULLY (in perfect unison): Put that gun down!
BOB: Where is she?
MULDER: Who?
BOB: The girl, the guilty one.
(Mulder gestures behind him.)
MULDER: They’re both in there.
BOB: Well, I think we’d like to see for ourselves. 
(As he steps toward the door, Mulder yanks him back. Bob cocks his gun.) 
BOB: I think we’re all tired of waiting for law enforcement to bring about justice in our city.
(Cries of assent from the mob. Detective White works her way up to the front.)
WHITE: No! 
WHITE (to Mulder): Open the door.
MULDER: You don’t want to go in there.
(She scoffs and steps forward, coming to face Scully.)
WHITE (snidely): Excuse me.
SCULLY: Gladly.
(Holding out a sardonic hand, Scully steps aside. White unlocks the door. Terri and Margi are huddled together in a corner, heads ducked low and close, holding hands as they cry.)
MULDER (V.O.): We are but visitors on this rock, hurtling through time and space at 66 thousand miles an hour. Tethered to a burning sphere by an invisible force and an unfathomable universe. This, most of us take for granted, while refusing to believe these forces have any more effect on us than a butterfly beating its wings halfway around the world. Or that two girls, born on the same date, the at same time in the same place, might not find themselves the unfortunate focus of similar unseen forces—converging like the planets themselves into burning pinpoints of cosmic energy, whose absolute gravity would threaten to swallow and consume everything in its path. Or maybe the answer lies even further from our grasp.
BOB: I think it was Satan.
(Mulder and Scully share a weary look.)
BOB: Yes, sir. Satan it was.
(The mob gasps as though this is a fascinating and believable revelation.)
===SCENE 25===
(Mulder exits the motel and sets two bags in the trunk of his and Scully's car. With some effort, she moves the driver's seat closer to the wheel. He sits shotgun.)
SCULLY: You ready?
MULDER: You’re the driver.
(The car approaches the same four-way stop they'd argued at on the way in. A sign reads: "Entering COMITY — 'The Perfect Harmony City.'")
MULDER: Uh, Scully, if I’m not mistaken, we’re gonna be taking a left up here.
(She doesn't respond.)
MULDER: Uh, there’s an intersection up here, you’re gonna want to—
(She doesn't respond. They're getting close.)
MULDER (urgently): Scully, you’re gonna want to—
(She speeds straight through the intersection.)
MULDER: You just…. ran a stop sign back there, Scully.
SCULLY: Shut up, Mulder.
MULDER: Sure. Fine. Whatever. 
(They drive on. Up in the night sky, the Moon and the planets hang in their usual places.)
[THE END]
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