Unrequited (The X-Files)
Encyclopedia
"Unrequited" is the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of television series The X-Files
. The mysterious murder of a U.S. Army Lieutenant General
has Mulder
and Scully
racing against the clock to stop a seemingly unstoppable—and invisible—assassin.
. Bloch, a U.S. Marine Corps General, is giving a speech to a crowd of military veterans about the Vietnam War. Behind him is Assistant Director Skinner, who is talking to Agent Mulder, Agent Scully and Agent Hill via earpiece as they search for someone in the crowd. Scully sees the man and identifies him from a photograph, and moves slowly towards him so that she can arrest him as he makes his way through the crowd. Suddenly the man turns around and sees Scully, and she says that he is heading for the sound booth. Scully and Hill desperately look for the man as Mulder stands in front of Bloch and looks through the crowd, eventually seeing the man. However as soon as Mulder sees the man, he mysteriously disappears and Skinner sees the man walking towards Mulder, warning him. Mulder sees the man again and sees that he has a gun, drawing his own and aiming at the crowd. As people in the crowd duck and scream, Skinner gets the General and tells him to take cover. Mulder then loses sight of the man and shouts that he can't see him, with Mulder's weapon still aimed towards the crowd.
We then go back twelve hours earlier to Fort Evanston, Maryland
. MacDougal, a U.S. Army Lieutenant General, is getting into his limousine after being brought in by a UH-1 helicopter
. As the limo begins to drive onto the main road, the doors are locked and the divider is shut. MacDougal then finds a King of Hearts
playing card with two bloody sabres on the back. When he looks up, he sees the same man from the beginning of the episode. As he asks the man who he is and how he got into the car, the man draws a gun and aims it at the General. In the front, the driver hears a single gunshot and pulls the car to the side of a road, going to the back doors and opening them. He finds MacDougal with a bloody bullet wound in his forehead, but can't see the man that shot him. The King of Hearts playing card is lying on the General's chest.
Later, in the FBI headquarters, Skinner tells the agents that the General's driver Private Gus Burkholder has been arrested and an accomplice's involvement is suspected. He further speculates that the 'Death Card' left behind by the murderer was used by the soldiers in Vietnam to mark their kills and that Burkholder had ties with a radical paramilitary group 'The Right Hand'. The leader of the group ex-marine Denny Markham is zeroed on as a primary suspect to stop an expected shooting during the upcoming re-dedication of Vietnam war memorial in Washington. The polygraph test on Burkholder leads to a false positive result meaning the result can be interpreted in either way.
Mulder and Scully head to Demeter, Virgina to meet Markham in his highly secured and fortified home. They are let-in but are then chased out by his dogs. Markham is reluctant to cooperate with the investigation until Scully shows him his arrest warrant and an armed squad appear on the scene. Markham declines to take the polygraph test and tells Mulder that the Death Card implies that "more men are going to die". The squad searches Markham's house and finds ammunition and a photograph by a spy camera which shows him in the company of Sergeant Nathaniel Teager. Markham is arrested and reveals that Teager, belonging to B11 attachment better known as Bloody Sabers, killed 26 solo enemy soldiers during the war and was left for dead as a Prisoner of War
(PoW) by the government. The Right Hand liberated him in December 1995 and the government tried to kidnap him thereafter.
Later at the Vietnam war memorial, Renee Davenport, wife of Corporal Gary Davenport, is laying flowers at the memorial which shows the names of Gary Davenport and Nathaniel Teager engraved on itself. She is approached by Teager who tells her Gary is not dead and was instead taken as a PoW. He gives her Gary's dog tags and then disappears. Skinner informs Mulder and Scully that Teager is officially dead and his remains are with the Army's Forensics Lab. Mulder suggests that Renee be taken for an eye-exam. Scully thinks that Renee is undergoing an emotional turmoil causing visual illusions. Mulder later learns at the Army Central Identification Lab that only dental remains of Teager are with the Army Forensics Lab. The cause of his death was recorded "inconclusive".
Mulder then calls General John Steffan, who signed the death certificate of Teager, and tells him that he is sending FBI agents for General's security. Steffan visits his office in the Pentagon building where Teager is shown to follow him unnoticed by the guard on duty. However, the guard hears a beep as Teager crosses the metal detector and the camera records Teager's image as well. Arriving in his office, Steffan notices the Death Card on his table. In the meantime, Scully calls Mulder to tell him that opthamologists found transient scotoma
or a blind spot in Renee's eyes. Mulder then receives Steffan's call about the "Death Card". However, Teager who is inside Steffan's office by now is shown directly looking at Steffan. Teager murders Steffan and is not discovered by the FBI agents who storm inside immediately. While visiting Steffan's office, Mulder is stared upon by Teager who is standing next to him. Mulder feels someone looking at him but can't see Teager around. Skinner, Mulder and Scully notice Teager's entry in the building on the security camera. While Scully conjectures that scotoma could explain why Teager remains unnoticed to the human eye, Mulder connects this to the frequent unexplained appearances and disappearances of humans recorded in the dispatches of long-isolated US PoWs in Vietnam.
At the Army Detention Center in Fort Evanston, Maryland
, Major General Benjamin Bloch visits Markham. Bloch offers to drop charges against Markham in exchange of information about Teager but Markham rejects the deal. Mulder later learns from Morita Covarrubius that Steffan, McDougal and Bloch have a connection: they were conducting negotiations regarding reparations, POWs and South Vietnamese soldiers. Meanwhile, at the National Mall, Skinner and Scully approach Bloch apprising him of threat to his life. Scully spots Teager on her way and aims at him in the crowd only to find him vanished next moment. Mulder tells Skinner and Scully that their group was deliberately set up to investigate and subsequently fail in this case by the government which is apparently already aware about Teager. This would help the government to cover up the truth about Vietnamese war PoW/MIA issue
. Mulder and Skinner try to stop Bloch to deliver keynote address but he refuses. Later, Teager is shown penetrating deep into the crowd gathered at the memorial. He is identified and followed by one of his ex-colleagues Leo Dansing. Teager tells Leo that there are more PoWs in the Vietnam and gives their names to him before disappearing. Bloch arrives to deliver his speech and finds the Death Card on his lectern.
The scene then shifts to the opening sequence. Teager arrives in front of Mulder and disappears. Immediately, Bloch is escorted to his car by the Skinner. Mulder speculates that people can't see Teager if they are in his line of sight. Scully and Mulder follow them and hear gunshots from the inside of the car. Teager is shot by one of the agents as he tries to run over the car. He reveals his identity to the agents before succumbing to his wounds. However, later Mulder tells Skinner that the Pentagon is still trying to cover up the incident by releasing the identity of the killed Teager as a mentally unstable person named Thomas Lynch. He tells Skinner that "It could have been you" and leaves as Skinner silently ponders his own service in the Vietnam War, while the episode ends.
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
. The mysterious murder of a U.S. Army Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
has Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
and Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...
racing against the clock to stop a seemingly unstoppable—and invisible—assassin.
Plot summary
The episode begins at the National MallNational Mall
The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit...
. Bloch, a U.S. Marine Corps General, is giving a speech to a crowd of military veterans about the Vietnam War. Behind him is Assistant Director Skinner, who is talking to Agent Mulder, Agent Scully and Agent Hill via earpiece as they search for someone in the crowd. Scully sees the man and identifies him from a photograph, and moves slowly towards him so that she can arrest him as he makes his way through the crowd. Suddenly the man turns around and sees Scully, and she says that he is heading for the sound booth. Scully and Hill desperately look for the man as Mulder stands in front of Bloch and looks through the crowd, eventually seeing the man. However as soon as Mulder sees the man, he mysteriously disappears and Skinner sees the man walking towards Mulder, warning him. Mulder sees the man again and sees that he has a gun, drawing his own and aiming at the crowd. As people in the crowd duck and scream, Skinner gets the General and tells him to take cover. Mulder then loses sight of the man and shouts that he can't see him, with Mulder's weapon still aimed towards the crowd.
We then go back twelve hours earlier to Fort Evanston, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. MacDougal, a U.S. Army Lieutenant General, is getting into his limousine after being brought in by a UH-1 helicopter
UH-1 Iroquois
The Bell UH-1 Iroquois is a military helicopter powered by a single, turboshaft engine, with a two-bladed main rotor and tail rotor. The helicopter was developed by Bell Helicopter to meet the United States Army's requirement for a medical evacuation and utility helicopter in 1952, and first flew...
. As the limo begins to drive onto the main road, the doors are locked and the divider is shut. MacDougal then finds a King of Hearts
King (playing card)
The king is a playing card with a picture of a king on it. The usual rank of a king is as if it were a 13; that is, above the queen. In some games, the king is the highest-ranked card; in others, the ace is higher...
playing card with two bloody sabres on the back. When he looks up, he sees the same man from the beginning of the episode. As he asks the man who he is and how he got into the car, the man draws a gun and aims it at the General. In the front, the driver hears a single gunshot and pulls the car to the side of a road, going to the back doors and opening them. He finds MacDougal with a bloody bullet wound in his forehead, but can't see the man that shot him. The King of Hearts playing card is lying on the General's chest.
Later, in the FBI headquarters, Skinner tells the agents that the General's driver Private Gus Burkholder has been arrested and an accomplice's involvement is suspected. He further speculates that the 'Death Card' left behind by the murderer was used by the soldiers in Vietnam to mark their kills and that Burkholder had ties with a radical paramilitary group 'The Right Hand'. The leader of the group ex-marine Denny Markham is zeroed on as a primary suspect to stop an expected shooting during the upcoming re-dedication of Vietnam war memorial in Washington. The polygraph test on Burkholder leads to a false positive result meaning the result can be interpreted in either way.
Mulder and Scully head to Demeter, Virgina to meet Markham in his highly secured and fortified home. They are let-in but are then chased out by his dogs. Markham is reluctant to cooperate with the investigation until Scully shows him his arrest warrant and an armed squad appear on the scene. Markham declines to take the polygraph test and tells Mulder that the Death Card implies that "more men are going to die". The squad searches Markham's house and finds ammunition and a photograph by a spy camera which shows him in the company of Sergeant Nathaniel Teager. Markham is arrested and reveals that Teager, belonging to B11 attachment better known as Bloody Sabers, killed 26 solo enemy soldiers during the war and was left for dead as a Prisoner of War
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
(PoW) by the government. The Right Hand liberated him in December 1995 and the government tried to kidnap him thereafter.
Later at the Vietnam war memorial, Renee Davenport, wife of Corporal Gary Davenport, is laying flowers at the memorial which shows the names of Gary Davenport and Nathaniel Teager engraved on itself. She is approached by Teager who tells her Gary is not dead and was instead taken as a PoW. He gives her Gary's dog tags and then disappears. Skinner informs Mulder and Scully that Teager is officially dead and his remains are with the Army's Forensics Lab. Mulder suggests that Renee be taken for an eye-exam. Scully thinks that Renee is undergoing an emotional turmoil causing visual illusions. Mulder later learns at the Army Central Identification Lab that only dental remains of Teager are with the Army Forensics Lab. The cause of his death was recorded "inconclusive".
Mulder then calls General John Steffan, who signed the death certificate of Teager, and tells him that he is sending FBI agents for General's security. Steffan visits his office in the Pentagon building where Teager is shown to follow him unnoticed by the guard on duty. However, the guard hears a beep as Teager crosses the metal detector and the camera records Teager's image as well. Arriving in his office, Steffan notices the Death Card on his table. In the meantime, Scully calls Mulder to tell him that opthamologists found transient scotoma
Scotoma
A scotoma is an area of partial alteration in one's field of vision consisting of a partially diminished or entirely degenerated visual acuity which is surrounded by a field of normal - or relatively well-preserved - vision.Every normal mammalian eye has a scotoma in its field of vision, usually...
or a blind spot in Renee's eyes. Mulder then receives Steffan's call about the "Death Card". However, Teager who is inside Steffan's office by now is shown directly looking at Steffan. Teager murders Steffan and is not discovered by the FBI agents who storm inside immediately. While visiting Steffan's office, Mulder is stared upon by Teager who is standing next to him. Mulder feels someone looking at him but can't see Teager around. Skinner, Mulder and Scully notice Teager's entry in the building on the security camera. While Scully conjectures that scotoma could explain why Teager remains unnoticed to the human eye, Mulder connects this to the frequent unexplained appearances and disappearances of humans recorded in the dispatches of long-isolated US PoWs in Vietnam.
At the Army Detention Center in Fort Evanston, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, Major General Benjamin Bloch visits Markham. Bloch offers to drop charges against Markham in exchange of information about Teager but Markham rejects the deal. Mulder later learns from Morita Covarrubius that Steffan, McDougal and Bloch have a connection: they were conducting negotiations regarding reparations, POWs and South Vietnamese soldiers. Meanwhile, at the National Mall, Skinner and Scully approach Bloch apprising him of threat to his life. Scully spots Teager on her way and aims at him in the crowd only to find him vanished next moment. Mulder tells Skinner and Scully that their group was deliberately set up to investigate and subsequently fail in this case by the government which is apparently already aware about Teager. This would help the government to cover up the truth about Vietnamese war PoW/MIA issue
Vietnam War POW/MIA issue
The Vietnam War POW/MIA issue concerns the fate of United States servicemen who were reported as missing in action during the Vietnam War and associated theaters of operation in Southeast Asia...
. Mulder and Skinner try to stop Bloch to deliver keynote address but he refuses. Later, Teager is shown penetrating deep into the crowd gathered at the memorial. He is identified and followed by one of his ex-colleagues Leo Dansing. Teager tells Leo that there are more PoWs in the Vietnam and gives their names to him before disappearing. Bloch arrives to deliver his speech and finds the Death Card on his lectern.
The scene then shifts to the opening sequence. Teager arrives in front of Mulder and disappears. Immediately, Bloch is escorted to his car by the Skinner. Mulder speculates that people can't see Teager if they are in his line of sight. Scully and Mulder follow them and hear gunshots from the inside of the car. Teager is shot by one of the agents as he tries to run over the car. He reveals his identity to the agents before succumbing to his wounds. However, later Mulder tells Skinner that the Pentagon is still trying to cover up the incident by releasing the identity of the killed Teager as a mentally unstable person named Thomas Lynch. He tells Skinner that "It could have been you" and leaves as Skinner silently ponders his own service in the Vietnam War, while the episode ends.
External links
- Unrequited at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...