(siren wailing)
Monongahela. We're en route with a male cardiac, age 62. ETA in 12.
(dispatcher) Copy. ETA in 12. Crash unit standing by.
How's he looking, Leonard?
Up to his ass in alligators.
(monitor beeping)
(patient gasping)
- Is he going into arrest? - No, he's not.
- What did you do? - Aspirated his chest.
He has a tension pneumothorax pressing on his heart. ltjust looked like a cardiac.
- Nice catch. How did you know? - Because he's dying of cancer.
It's already eaten through one lung.
That's amazing. How did you know, Leonard?
Leonard?
(gasps)
Oh, God!
Leonard!
(thump)
Hello?
(thump)
Pretty cosy. Who'd ever wanna leave?
Whoever got locked in here last night, I guess.
That would be one Leonard Morris Betts, age 34.
But it should be noted that when Mr Betts arrived here last night he was sans head.
He was decapitated.
He was an emergency medical technician for this hospital.
- A very good one, apparently. - What about the morgue attendant?
Somebody cold-cocked him and stole his clothes.
He didn't see who. No alarms tripped, no sign of a break-in.
- It's weird, huh? - What are we doing here?
Did I mention Mr Betts had no head?
Yes. So? You're not suggesting that a headless body...
...kicked its way out of a latched morgue freezer, are you?
Are you? Because I think it's obvious this is a bizarre attempt at a cover-up.
- Meant to conceal what? - Body snatching for profit?
There's a shortage of cadavers at medical schools.
An unscrupulous medical supplier might pay top dollar.
But why take a headless one and leave top-dollar bodies behind?
Sir? Those video grabs you asked for. We found something.
These are from the emergency-room camera, taken at 4.13 this morning.
There's your perpetrator, in the stolen uniform.
You can't see very much on these. What's all this stuff here?
Bad video. The security system isn't exactly state-of-the-art.
What did he do with the corpse he stole?
Maybe he was forced to abandon it.
We combed the facility. Where could he hide a body where it couldn't be found?
I'll show you.
All hospitals operate some form of medical-waste processing.
This unit disposes of surgical remains.
Amputations, excised tumours... They're ground up and heated with microwaves...
...and the result is a sterile soot that's used as road fill.
Then there's nothing for us to find.
That depends how often they dispose of their waste.
Hopefully, only once every few days.
We're in luck.
Are you sure about this? If you're not sure,
I don't see any reason to disturb all this stuff...
- (squishing sound) - Mulder, I need help. Your arms are longer.
Oh. I think I got the toy surprise.
Leonard Betts.
That's his head...
...but where's his body?
Maybe he didn't dispose of the body. Maybe he got it out of here somehow.
Why take time to dispose of the head?
Maybe there's an answer here. Something you should check out.
We know he died in an automobile accident. What more is there to know?
Maybe nothing, but it's all we got.
You should find a place to examine Bette's head.
- While you do what? - Check his house. I wanna see how he lives.
- Lived. - Lived.
Case number 226-897. Leonard Betts.
As remains are incomplete, all observations refer to a decapitated head.
Weight: 10.9 pounds.
Remains show no signs of rigor mortis or fixed lividity.
Nor do the corneas appear clouded...
...which would seem inconsistent with the witnessed time of death, 19 hours ago.
I'll begin with the intermastoid incision and frontal craniotomy...
...then make my examination of the brain.
Oh! God!
- (man) Which one? - (Mulder) This one here.
- Thanks. I'll lock up. - OK.
(phone ringing)
- Mulder. - (Scully) It's me.
I've run into kind of a unique situation here.
- What did you find? - So far, not much.
I did a PET scan on Leonard Bette's remains.
Actually, four times now. And each time the images come out degraded...
...like it's fogged somehow.
- Like the security footage. - This is cutting-edge technology here.
The technicians say the machine is working perfectly.
The only thing that could account for the image distortion is some form of radiation.
But I don't see how or where it could be emanating from.
- What did your examination uncover? - I haven't performed an examination yet.
Why not?
Well, because I, uh...
...I experienced an unusual degree of postmortem galvanic response.
- The head moved? - It blinked at me.
I know exactly what it is.
It's residual electrical activity stored chemically in... in the dead cells.
Blinked or winked?
You're afraid to cut into it.
Scully, you're not saying that it's alive, are you?
No. I am certainly not saying that at all.
But has it crossed your mind that it's not quite dead, either?
- What do you mean? - I'm standing here in Bette's apartment.
Whoever we saw in those video grabs, his clothes are strewn all over the floor.
Made himself at home. Maybe he was home.
- Leonard Betts. - Yeah.
- Without his head. - Yeah.
Mulder, I don't even know how to respond to that.
I'm gonna put the building under surveillance...
...just in case whoever it is comes back.
I'll be in touch.
Michele?
Michele Wilkes?
- Yes. - I'm Fox Mulder. I'm with the FBI.
You're responsible for the disposition of Leonard Bette's remains.
He didn't have any family. No friends either, as far as I could tell.
- Except you. - I liked him.
But I wasn't really his friend. He didn't let people get that close.
I'm not sure I could call myself his partner. Mostly I stayed out of his way.
- What do you mean? - He was an amazing medical technician.
He could diagnose illness better than any doctor I've ever seen.
You know how they say some people can just look at you and tell you what's wrong?
Leonard could do that. Especially with cancer. He should have been an oncologist.
He used to volunteer weekends at the cancer ward.
Read to patients, stuff like that.
Did you ever notice anything about him? Anything odd?
No. Well, he never got sick.
That was pretty amazing, doing what we do.
- He was the picture of health. - Was he ever injured on the job?
No. Never.
I mean, until...
Oh, yeah.
I'm sorry.
I don't know what all this has to do with someone stealing Leonard's body.
It almost sounds like you're investigating Leonard.
No, no... Thanks for bearing with my questions. I appreciate your time.
This is biopolymerisation, a high-tech mummification process.
The remains are dipped in the epoxy.
Once it's cured, the specimen can be sliced for examination.
Or you got yourself a nice paperweight.
At any rate, we should have some autopsy answers for you soon.
I'm starting with an anterior slice from your Mr Betts...
...one favouring the frontal lobe.
- Well, this is certainly strange. - What?
- There's something wrong with the image? - In a manner of speaking.
Here, see for yourself.
Oh, my God. His entire brain looks like one giant glioma.
- He had cancer? - He was riddled with it.
Every cell in the sample. Every cell in his entire head and in his brain...
...was all cancerous. It's completely pervasive.
- Could you live in this condition? - Live?
This man would have been long dead before reaching such an extreme metastatic stage.
How do you explain it?
Maybe the polymerisation process distorted the sample somehow.
Maybe we're not really seeing what we think we're seeing.
Maybe we're just seeing it clearly for the first time.
- What are you suggesting? - Let's get a slice to go.
(woman on radio) Monongahela, 136, en route with a male not responding to CPR.
Please advise.
Dispatch, somebody pick up, please.
(Bette's voice) Allegheny Catholic, 208. I know you're up to your ass in alligators...
Michele?
Leonard?
Let's go here.
Michele! Come on!
(woman) It seems to be working. Good call, 208.
- Thanks for the tip. - (Bette's voice) Glad I could help.
Oh, wow. I've never worked with a sample of human tissue before.
What exactly were you looking to find?
- I'll tell you if we find it. - Excellent.
Are you ever asked to defend this as a legitimate scientific process?
Only if you're not happy with the results.
Chuck did pioneering work in Kirlian photography in the US.
Although I prefer the umbrella term "aura photography".
By applying high-frequency electricity...
...I am able to photograph an organism's coronal discharge.
- Coronal discharge? - Coronal discharge. Life force.
"Chi" is an accepted fact in most Eastern cultures.
And the theoretical basis of holistic medicine, of acupuncture.
What is its application here?
It may account for the fogging of your PET scan of Leonard Bette's head.
You know, with this equipment, I have been able to capture phantom images...
...of whole leaves that were cut in half...
...or the vestigial image of a lizard's tail long after it's been cut off.
Which, you have to admit, is pretty cool.
It looks like we got somethin' here.
Oh, yeah.
Now, I don't know exactly what you're looking for, but...
Oh, yeah. There's definitely some kind of energy happenin' here.
Chuck, would you believe that this man's head had been decapitated?
- Oh, come on. No way. - Way.
Are we happy with the results?
Those sure as hell looked like shoulders to me.
I don't even know how to explain that photo, or even what it proves.
What if it proves that Betts is alive?
- Mulder! - You said he was riddled with cancer.
What is cancer but normal cells growing rapidly out of control...
...usually caused by damage to their DNA.
- Where is this going? - Let me tell you.
What if the cancer was not caused by damaged DNA?
If the cancer was not a destructive factor, but was rather the normal state of being?
Even if that were possible, he's been decapitated.
What if this man's life force, his chi, whatever you want to call it...
...somehow retained a blueprint of the man himself...
...guiding rapid growth not as cancer but as regeneration?
You think Leonard Betts regrew his head?
The fluid that I found in Bette's bathtub was povidone-iodine.
It's often used by lab researchers on reptiles to aid regeneration.
We both know that salamanders have grown entirely new limbs.
Salamanders are one thing, but no mammal possesses that kind of regenerative power.
There is no creature that can regrow its head.
Worms. You cut a worm in half, you get two.
Mulder, they're worms.
I'm just saying it's not unheard of.
Well, someone is going to great lengths to dispose of the evidence.
Maybe Betts is trying to protect his secret.
(phone rings)
Scully.
Yeah.
OK.
Great. Thanks.
Leonard Betts did have secrets.
One of them being that he had an alter ego named Albert Tanner.
Who?
I had Danny run the fingerprints. Two names came up: the second was Albert Tanner.
Albert Tanner has a relative, Elaine Tanner, his mother...
...who just happens to live here in Pittsburgh.
(doorbell)
- Elaine Tanner? - Yes.
I'm Agent Scully. This is Agent Mulder. We're with the FBI.
- Oh. What can I do for you? - Is your son Albert Tanner?
We'd like to ask you some questions.
Please excuse me for one second. I've got something on the stove.
Scully.
- Mrs Tanner, is this your son? - Yes. That's Albert.
We know this man as Leonard Morris Betts.
- Are you familiar with that name? - No.
Do you know if your son used any other names?
Why are you asking me about him?
Mrs Tanner, are you aware that your son has recently died?
What do you mean, "recently"?
When did your son die?
Six years ago. He was killed in an automobile accident.
Why?
Would it be possible to get a copy of the death certificate?
Of course.
Confused yet?
Excuse me. I'm... I'm looking for an EMT...
...the man driving unit 208.
The new guy. 208's over there. He just went off shift, but you might catch him.
Thanks.
Leonard?
Oh, my God. It can't be. How can it be?
- Leonard, is it you? - Hey, Michele.
It's OK.
I just wish you hadn't found me, that's all.
What are you talking about?
Leonard?
I'm sorry.
(guard) Hey! You there!
Hold it!
Come back here!
Stop where you are!
Stay there, you son of a bitch.
Ronnie?
- Oh, pick up, man. - Go ahead.
We got a situation in the parking lot. This guy just attacked some woman.
She's up at the ambulance parking area.
(bone cracks)
I'm gonna check on that guy.
Siskel or Ebert?
- What's the story? - Michele Wilkes was murdered.
We wouldn't know that if the security guard hadn't witnessed it.
I found an autoinjector in the grass. She was given a lethal dose of potassium chloride.
It's an electrolyte found naturally in the body. A coroner doesn't check for it.
Betts was here. She discovered that, then he killed her to protect his secret.
The security guard did ID him as her attacker.
He worked as an EMT, but his co-workers said his name was Truelove.
Do you know how this man escaped? He tore off his thumb...
...because he knew he could regrow another one.
It just doesn't work that way.
But is Bette's ability to regenerate any greater a leap forward...
...than our ancestors' ability to communicate with language?
But language, evolution... It's a process of steps, not leaps.
Recent evolutionary theory would disagree. What scientists call punctual equilibrium...
...theorises that evolutionary advances are cataclysmic, not gradual.
That evolution occurs not along a straight graphable line but in huge fits and starts...
...and the unimaginable happens in the gaps.
The gap between what we are and what Bette has become.
What you're describing is someone so evolved...
...that you wouldn't even call him human.
On the other hand, how evolved can a man be who drives a Dodge Dart?
Oh, my God. "Myeloid sarcoma - epithelial carcinoma."
These are all cancerous tumours. This is surgical waste, tagged for disposal.
- What do you think he wanted with them? - You may not want to know.
There's a possibility that Leonard Betts not only is cancer...
But that he needs it for survival?
- So this is... - Snack food.
Wouldn't it make sense that natural selection...
...would incorporate cancer, the greatest health threat,
as part of our genetic make-up?
Why do I think Darwin is rolling in his grave?
Ask yourself: why is Leonard Betts an EMT? Why does he regularly visit cancer wards?
Access.
The car's registered to one Elaine Tanner, 3108 Old Bank Road.
Bette's mom.
Do you think Mom knows her dead son is tooling around in her car?
Elaine Tanner? We have a warrant to search the premises.
Mrs Tanner, we know your son is alive and that you're in contact with him.
You need to tell us where we can find him.
Last night he murdered a woman in cold blood.
By lying to protect him, you are considered an accessory to murder.
Can you tell me what you use this for? It's a pretty big bottle.
You get a lot of cuts?
When my son was eight years old...
...there were two boys who picked on him because he was different.
He just ignored them. He knew he was better than they were.
One day they cornered him walking home. Beat him up.
He didn't even try to fight back. Just lay there, taking the blows.
So I don't believe you when you tell me he killed anyone.
But, if he did, he had his reasons.
- What reasons, Mrs Tanner? - God put him here for a purpose.
God means for him to stay, even if people don't understand.
And that's all I've got to say.
(sports commentary on TV)
(coughing)
(Betts) Excuse me.
I'm sorry, but you've got something I need.
Scully?
- Find something? - No sign. Not even a stray sock. Just this.
- A receipt for a storage locker. - A key on his key ring has "112" on it.
Let's check it out.
(screaming)
(screams)
Scully.
(car engine starts)
Mr John Gillnitz. Death from massive blood loss...
...due to what I can only describe as a skilful removal of his left lung.
- It's Betts. - Doing what?
This man's medical records will show he had lung cancer.
- And Betts was in need of what he had. - How would he have known that?
He had an ability to diagnose cancer.
Maybe his need provided a heightened sense.
Well, whatever he was doing, he's taking the secret to his grave.
Yeah, for the second time.
Mulder, Leonard Betts is dead.
Of that I am absolutely certain. And he is not coming back.
You would've said that about Albert Tanner.
I don't understand.
Six years ago Tanner dies in an accident. His mother buries him.
Several days ago he shows up as Leonard Betts. Explain that.
- Maybe the first death was staged. - You wanna bet on that?
Will the real Leonard Betts please stand up?
These men may be no more than monozygotic twins.
I think that what we're standing witness to here...
...goes way beyond the regeneration of a thumb or a limb or a head.
Mulder, I don't know what you're getting at. Regeneration of an entire body?
I don't know why I'm listening.
Because I think that the fiery crash that killed this man was a ruse...
...and that this man lying here is still at large.
I'm scared, honey. The FBI...
...they seem to know all about you. They dug up the coffin.
They found your friend.
I don't think they're ever going to leave you alone.
And you're weak.
You have to restore your strength.
You know what you have to do.
I'm your mother.
And it's a mother's duty to provide.
If this man really exists, what makes you think he'd come here?
The only person who knows his secret is his mom. If we get him, it'll be through her.
(siren wailing)
- Get out of the truck! - Federal agents!
Whoa! Whoa! What the hell...?
- What are you doing here? - We got a call.
Elderly woman with massive chest trauma and blood loss. 3108 Old Bank.
- (man) Believe me, that's all we know. - Stay here.
Mulder, get the EMTs up here!
(Mulder) Guys, get in here!
She has an open wound. A surgical cut.
Three guesses what was removed.
He did this to her, and then he called an ambulance.
Judging by the response time, he might still be here.
Betts is gone. He must have taken off on foot.
Well, she's gonna be OK, Mulder. We might be able to get where he went out of her.
You stay with her. I'll call the local PD and have them cordon off the area.
This is Special Agent Mulder. I've got an emergency situation.
I need all available units to 3108 Old Bank Road. I'm searching for a murder suspect.
Mulder, Mrs Tanner's going into the ER, but she took a downturn en route.
They defibrillated her, but there's no chance of getting anything cogent from her.
What about on your end?
We're going house to house here.
We've got a chopper coming,
but I'd say Betts has a pretty good chance of getting away.
If he steals a car or gets a ride, he could get away for good.
He worked this thing out pretty well.
So if there's anything you can get out of Mrs Tanner tonight...
At this point we don't have much else to go on.
Get over here right now.
- What? - Get over here right now.
Oh!
I'm sorry.
But you've got something I need.
Oh, my God. Let's get a crash cart.
They pronounced Betts ten minutes ago.
- He's dead? - As near as anyone can tell.
His mom's alive, due to the fact that Betts dressed her wounds so carefully.
She'll pull through, for now.
- Cancer. - Yeah.
Uh...
"Metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma", to be precise.
She was treated for it previously.
Got a clean bill of health about three months ago.
You did a good job, Scully.
You should be proud.
I want to go home.
(coughing)
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(Child) I made this!