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==Plot== |
==Plot== |
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=="The Field Where I died" plot summary== |
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When authorities receive a telephone tip from someone named Sidney, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives|BATF]] stage a raid at Temple of the Seven Stars, a religious cult the anonymous caller says is abusing children and has a cache of illegal firearms. When they arrive they find no sign of the cult leader Vernon Ephesian, and believe he was tipped off that they would arrive. Agent [[Fox Mulder]] experiences déjà vu and proceeds out of the temple to a neighboring field, followed by his partner [[Dana Scully]]. Mulder leads her to a trapdoor in the field and opens it, finding Ephesian inside with his six wives, who are all about to drink a red liquid. Mulder prevents them from drinking the liquid and handcuffs Ephesian, but he feels a strange connection to one of the women, Melissa Riedal-Ephesian, as if he has seen her before. |
When authorities receive a telephone tip from someone named Sidney, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] and [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives|BATF]] stage a raid at Temple of the Seven Stars, a religious cult the anonymous caller says is abusing children and has a cache of illegal firearms. When they arrive they find no sign of the cult leader Vernon Ephesian, and believe he was tipped off that they would arrive. Agent [[Fox Mulder]] experiences déjà vu and proceeds out of the temple to a neighboring field, followed by his partner [[Dana Scully]]. Mulder leads her to a trapdoor in the field and opens it, finding Ephesian inside with his six wives, who are all about to drink a red liquid. Mulder prevents them from drinking the liquid and handcuffs Ephesian, but he feels a strange connection to one of the women, Melissa Riedal-Ephesian, as if he has seen her before. |
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Revision as of 16:36, 17 June 2012
"The Field Where I Died" |
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"The Field Where I Died" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Rob Bowman. The episode aired in the United States on November 3, 1996 on the Fox network. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the series' wider mythology.
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Mulder's search for an informant inside a cult compound leads him and Scully to one of the cult leader's wives. What they soon discover is an unexpectedly close connection with the woman involving reincarnation. Scully discovers that spirits inhabit living beings in order to tell their stories. After Mulder's regression scene, he clearly details all of his past lives.
Trivia
- The Flukeman is mentioned in this episode when Mulder asks Scully if knowing about their past lives "Would have changed some of the ways we looked at one another?" she answers, "Even if I knew for certain, I wouldn't change a day...Well except for that Flukeman thing, I could have lived without that just fine."
- The lines of poetry read by Mulder at the beginning and end are from Paracelsus by Robert Browning.
- The penultimate scene features a team of ATF agents raiding the religious compound, only to find that everyone inside has committed suicide. This is a rather transparent reference to the Waco Siege. The real name of the church leader, Vernon Warren, also resembles the name of the compound leader in the Waco Siege - Vernon Wayne. [1]
Plot
When authorities receive a telephone tip from someone named Sidney, the FBI and BATF stage a raid at Temple of the Seven Stars, a religious cult the anonymous caller says is abusing children and has a cache of illegal firearms. When they arrive they find no sign of the cult leader Vernon Ephesian, and believe he was tipped off that they would arrive. Agent Fox Mulder experiences déjà vu and proceeds out of the temple to a neighboring field, followed by his partner Dana Scully. Mulder leads her to a trapdoor in the field and opens it, finding Ephesian inside with his six wives, who are all about to drink a red liquid. Mulder prevents them from drinking the liquid and handcuffs Ephesian, but he feels a strange connection to one of the women, Melissa Riedal-Ephesian, as if he has seen her before.
Assistant Director Walter Skinner warns the FBI and BATF that Ephesian and his wives will be released in a day unless they can find hard evidence of the weapons or Sidney. Mulder and Scully question Ephesian, who is obsessed with the Book of Revelation and states that there was no member of the temple named Sidney. They then question Melissa, who suddenly begins to talk like Sidney and states that the President of the United States is Harry Truman. Scully believes she is exhibiting multiple personality disorder, but Mulder thinks she is recalling a past life. Mulder and Scully take her back to the temple, where she takes on the personality of a Civil War woman in the field, saying that the weapons were hidden in a bunker that had been built the night before. She also states that Mulder was in the field with her, and she watched him die.
Mulder takes Melissa to regression hypnosis for her to recount her past lives. She implies that she and Mulder have met over their past lives, only in passing. To confirm her events and perhaps find out where the weapons are, Mulder has himself hypnotized. He recalls a time when he was a Jewish Polish woman with a son, who has the same soul as his sister Samantha. His father, who is Scully, is dead, and he is prevented from seeing him by an officer who is the Smoking Man. His husband is being taken away from him to a Nazi concentration camp; it appears that Melissa is his soulmate who is always separated from him. Mulder also recalls the time he died in the field with his sergeant, who is Scully. In their Civil War lives, he is a man named Sullivan Biddle, while Melissa is Sarah Kavanaugh. Scully finds pictures of the two of them in the county's hall of records and gives them to Mulder.
The FBI and BATF plan to make another search of the compound. Scully informs Skinner that Ephesian believes the FBI and BATF to be the Devil's army and will wage a war on them, as prophesized in Revelations 12:17. However, Mulder points out that Ephesian hid the weapons, knowing that he would no be able to defeat them. It appears that Ephesian and his followers will commit suicide instead, based on a verse from the Gospel of John. He passes out poison to the cult members and all but he and Melissa die, Melissa having feigned drinking it. As Mulder rushes into the temple Ephesian forces Melissa to drink the poison, and when Mulder arrives he finds both of them dead. Mulder caresses Melissa, looking out into the field.