In
New York City, Dr. Saul Grissom finds a fire outside his apartment. Firefighters arrive and evacuate the building. One man who is being evacuated has a distinctive horizontal mark on the back of his neck; as he is being evacuated, he looks up at Grissom's apartment and smiles knowingly. The firefighters find no fire or any related damage, but discover Grissom's lifeless body in his apartment.
Fox Mulder anonymously receives a tape cassette of Grissom's
9-1-1 call. He tries to take the case, only to learn that another
FBI agent,
Alex Krycek, has opened it first. Deciding to leave Krycek out of the loop, Mulder calls
Dana Scully (
Gillian Anderson) and asks her to conduct Grissom's autopsy. He then heads to Grissom's clinic in
Stamford, Connecticut, where he is confronted by an angered Krycek. The two travel back to
Quantico to see Scully, who says that Grissom's body showed no signs of a fire, but yet seems to have biologically believed it was burning. Meanwhile, in a
Brooklyn apartment,
Vietnam veteran Henry Willig is approached by a fellow ex-
Marine, Augustus Cole. Suddenly a group of wounded Vietnamese appear and gun Willig down. Examining Willig's corpse, Mulder and Krycek find a scar on his neck and realize he was in a Marine reconnaissance unit stationed in Vietnam in 1970; he was one of only two survivors, the other being Cole. They head to the
VHA hospital in
New Jersey where they discover that Cole was discharged, despite the fact that his doctor does not remember doing so. Mulder meets a mysterious informant named "
X", who gives him information on a secret military project that Grissom performed where he eradicated the need for sleep through
lobotomy. X provides him with the name of Salvatore Matola, a squad member who was mistakenly reported as killed in action. A man matching Cole's description robs a drug store. Mulder and Krycek arrive, but not before two gunshots are heard from the room where Cole is believed to be. It appears that the two officers in the room with him shot each other; Cole escapes. Mulder believes that Cole's years of sleeplessness have provided him with illusionary abilities. Mulder and Krycek meet with Matola soon afterwards, who says that he has not slept in twenty-four years due to the experiment. He reveals that another researcher with the squad, Dr. Girardi, was the one who actually performed the lobotomies. Mulder and Krycek head to a subway station, where Dr. Girardi is expected to arrive for Grissom's funeral. Mulder sees Cole there, and Cole seems to shoot Girardi, but this is shown to be in Mulder's head. In reality, Cole has captured Girardi and holds him hostage, about to show him a similar fate as his other victims. By searching surveillance footage, the agents track his location and find Girardi wounded. Mulder finds Cole, who is ready to kill himself. Krycek, believing Cole is holding a gun instead of the Bible he is actually holding, shoots him, and Cole dies of his wounds. Mulder and Scully find both of their files on the case missing. Krycek reports to the
Smoking Man and
others, telling them that the dissolution of the X-Files and the separation of Mulder and Scully has only made their determination stronger. He also notes that Scully is a bigger problem than they anticipated. == Production ==