Release

Back at the morgue, Scully stares at the corpse. She makes her thoughtful face.

Doggett and Moronica enter Scully's office at the Academy. She's IDed the Jane Doe, she tells them. "So fast?" Moronica asks. Scully thinks that this woman was murdered by the same man who was behind the murder of a woman who was found in the alley behind a local bar a few weeks ago. Or something. She hands over those files. Doggett flaps through them and comments that Found in the Alley was killed with a single knife wound and dumped in a ditch, whereas Plastered Behind the Wall had three knife wounds and was...well, plastered behind a wall. Scully explains that she didn't connect the two for those very reasons. But the lab confirmed that the women were killed by the same weapon. Moronica wonders how Scully made the connection. Scully shakes her head and tells them she had nothing to do with it: it was one of her students. "That's an awfully astute observation," Moronica sputters. Doggett would like to know whether PPP had "any other insights." Because he's still wondering who tipped him off to the case in the first place. "This isn't an X-File. Not by a long shot," Doggett says. Scully shrugs. She thinks he still ought to "run with it."

Cut to Quantico's Forensic Training Facility in Virginia. Bodies and body parts are strewn over the grass like Easter eggs. Doggett and Moronica climb out of their car and approach PPP, who's examining an arm covered in maggots. Doggett calls his name. PPP just takes a big whiff of the arm and says nothing. Moronica's eyes get real big at this. Doggett glances over at her, raising his brows. "Is that part of the training here, cadet? Smelling body parts?" Doggett asks. PPP doesn't really answer the question, but instead rattles off a long description of the guy who used to be connected to the arm -- his job, how he died, blah blah blah. "Interesting," Doggett drawls. PPP sucks on his teeth for twenty minutes. Please tell me that mannerism is an acting choice, because if that guy's doing it all over the 1013 production offices, I fail to see how he could have been cast in the role. I can see the conversation now:

Chris Carter: Hey! That kid who works here is going to be that crazy guy in that one about Mulder's son.
Kim Manners: What?
Frank Spotnitz: Doggett's son.
Chris Carter: Who's Doggett?
Frank Spotnitz: The NEW GUY!
Kim Manners: [expletives deleted]
Frank Spotnitz: Kim, what Chris means is that our writing intern is playing the role of Cadet Hayes in the episode about Doggett's son.
Kim Manners: The kid with the weird fucking lips?! I'd like to kick him in the ass!
Frank Spotnitz: Couldn't the lip thing be part of his character?
Kim Manners: [grumbles]
Chris Carter: Look! Shiny!

PPP looks up at Doggett. "I see things," he says, pursing his lips again. Dead people? Moronica stutters and thanks the kid, telling him that, thanks to his analysis the other day, they worked up a profile of the guy who killed the poor dead ladies. "What's the profile?" he purses. Doggett rattles it off, and PPP starts shaking his head. "Why are you shaking your head?" Doggett asks. PPP informs them that the profile is wrong. He has one of his own, which he shares with them in a distant tone. "His parole office thinks he's looking for a job. He already has one. Working for organized crime," PPP purses. Moronica and Doggett are at a loss. "He's killed many people. He's going to keep on killing," PPP says, and just walks away from them. "Kind of annoying, isn't he?" Moronica asks. Oh, fine: Heh. Doggett looks after PPP sadly. Moronica rolls her eyes and walks away.

Piano of Pain. PPP walks sadly to his room, which is in the basement of what looks like some kind of bunker. Maybe it's the FBI Academy's dorms. I don't know. Wherever it is, his room is De-Pressing. Especially since it's all covered with pictures of dead bodies. No, covered. No. COVERED. PPP stares at the photographs as he takes off his shoes. Well, we all have different routines: I read my mail and take off my bra when I get home. And maybe eat a cookie. PPP takes off his shoes and stares at pictures of dead ladies. I'm not here to judge. Oh, except for how I totally am: that's completely fucking weird.

Moronica and Doggett enter a dive bar. Moronica looks divine in a cream leather blazer. She points to an older man sitting at the bar. Doggett compares the man to a series of mug shots; it's their man. They go on over. The man looks like the sixty-year-old love child of Donnie Pfaster and Krycek. "Nicholas Regali?" Moronica asks as she and Doggett whip out their badges. Regali puffs on a cigar, and examines them. "John. Jay. Dog. It," he reads. Clever! For a third-grader. Doggett snaps his badge closed with little reaction. Because he's heard that one before. "You're in town in violation of terms of your parole back in New York," Moronica tells Regali. Regali shrugs and advises her to call his parole officer. "She'll tell you I'm in town looking for work," he says. Doggett and Moronica exchange glances. Moronica wonders what he was doing the other night, when Plastered Behind the Wall got...um, plastered behind the wall. Regali can't remember. She asks about two weeks ago, when Killed in the Alley bought the farm. Because the bartender at the bar connected to the alley of Killed in the Alley IDed him. "What do you have to say about that, Mr. Regali?" Moronica asks. Regali takes a puff of his stogie. Doggett snatches it from his hand and extinguishes it in Regali's drink. "You don't want to play this game, flatfoot," Regali says. "Not with me." Doggett doesn't flinch. "You like to kill women, Mr. Regali. You may think you're going to get away with it, but that's not going to happen," he says. Regali sniffs that they have no idea what they're dealing with. "Maybe we do," Doggett tells him. He and Moronica stomp off.

Dormitory of Despair. PPP stares out of his window. He kills the lights, then goes over and stares at the Wall of Death. One of the pictures, prominently displayed, is Doggett kneeling to Poor Dead Luke's poor dead body. Why, how peculiar!

Title card #2: "Ashes." Doggett lies in bed. He turns over and stares at the ceiling. After a moment, he gets out of bed and goes to the closet. He takes out a box containing Poor Dead Luke's ashes. He looks at them sadly and goes and sits on the bed. All alone. Aw, man.

LBO. Doggett looks over a file, a grim expression on his face. He glances up to see PPP staring at him from the doorway. PPP has horrible posture. "How long you been standing there?" Doggett wonders. "Not long," PPP purses. Doggett says that they hit "pay dirt" with PPP's profile of the perp. "There's something else," PPP announces. Doggett looks so very sad. "There's another case I'd like you to take a look at," he says. "A seven-year-old boy, riding his bike around the block. His mom is on the porch, counting his laps. He waves to her every time he goes by, and after six laps, he doesn't come back around. She goes looking for him." Doggett gulps and looks away. "She finds his bike laying out on the sidewalk. There's, um, no witness. No ransom demands. No clue as to who took him or why. The cops search door to door, block to block for two days. Nothing. No news at all. And after three days, they find him in a field." Doggett swallows. PPP stares at him from beneath his brow bone. Doggett glances over at his desk, and retrieves a file. He hands it to PPP. "It's all in here, particulars about my son. I've been over this I don't know how many times. But after nine years, there's not that much to go on. You were such a big help yesterday. If there's anything you see here...." Doggett looks so sad. I just want to give him a big hug. And then pinch his ass. "Agent Doggett, that case I helped with yesterday? That is your son's." Doggett stares at him.

PPP takes Doggett to the Dorm of Doom. The Piano of Maybe Luke is Starlight! twinkles in the background. Doggett takes in the Wall of Dead People. "What is this?" he asks. "Unsolved murders. I started collecting them before I came to the FBI. I couldn't tell you why. Maybe it's because I'm obsessed with Robert Stack." PPP tells him. Doggett looks at him. "What do you do with these?" he asks. "If I sit with them for a long time, very quietly, they tell me things," PPP explains. Purse. Doggett softly runs his fingers over a photo of Poor Dead Luke. "It's how I see what I see," PPP says. "You've been following my son's case?" Doggett asks. "For a long time. He calls to me." Doggett turns and looks at him. "Cadet? You should know there's a real good chance you're nuts." PPP doesn't confirm or deny this. Doggett comes across a photo of Bob Harvey, who he reminds us was the "closest [they] ever had to a suspect." He was killed in car crash last year in New York, Doggett says. PPP tells Doggett that Harvey was the kidnapper, not the killer. And that the same guy who killed Plastered Behind the Wall and Killed in the Alley offed Poor Dead Luke. "The guy Regali?" Doggett asks. PPP's only response is a very, very violent purse of his lips.

Doggett pays Dread Pirate Brad a visit. "It's not a good time," DPB tells him. "I'm off to a meeting with the Directeeeeer." Doggett says that this "can't wait." DPB gives his tie one last tug. "And the Director can?" he asks. Doggett looks wan and depressed and tired and just stares at DPB. DPB sighs and tells Doggett that he has "one minute." Doggett runs and shuts the door. "When you were in New York, you worked the organized crime task force, right? You ever hear of a guy named Nicholas Regali?" DPB has only the most minute of reactions, and calls Regali "a collector, a low-level thug." Doggett wonders whether Regali's name ever came up in connection with Poor Dead Luke's Poor Dead Death. "You have reason to believe he was involved?" DPB eyebrows. Doggett explains that he's been told Regali was involved with Bob Harvey, the guy who kidnapped Poor Dead Luke. DPB never heard anything about that, and he's pretty sure he'd remember. Doggett just looks hangdog. "You want me to ask around, pull some files?" DPB finally asks. "I'll see what I can find." Doggett appreciates it. He leaves. DPB looks thoughtful and heads off to storm the castle.

Moronica stops Doggett in the hallway outside of DPB's office. They were supposed to meet in the LBO that morning to go over leads, and he never showed. Doggett looks around nervously and pulls her into a corner. He's been chasing leads on his own, he tells her. "I think this guy Regali may have been involved in Luke's death," he says. "What?" Moronica asks. "Since when?" Since Doggett had a little sit-down with PPP: "He says Regali know Bob Harvey, that they were in on it together." Moronica furrows her brow. "How could he possibly know that?" she asks. Doggett shrugs. "How does he know half the stuff he knows?" he asks. He tells her that he did some digging, and that both Harvey and Regali did time at some prison together somewhere at some point. Also, Regali bought gas two miles from Doggett's house the day Poor Dead Luke was kidnapped. "Regali is a New Yorker," Moronica explains. "A lot of New Yorkers visit Long Island." Doggett gazes at her sadly. "This is not evidence -- not even close," Moronica continues. "I will never know how badly it hurt you to lose your son or how much pain you still carry. I understand how badly you want to find his killer. But I don't want to see you disappointed. Not again." Tears well in her eyes. "It's not going to happen. Not this time," Doggett announces. He walks away. Okay, I'll say it: nice job in that scene by Annabeth Gish. She's really improved over the course of the last two episodes. Too bad she's only got two more left.

Woodbury, Long Island; Barbara Doggett's house. The former Mrs. Doggett is played by the current Mrs. Patrick, whose name is also, by the way, Barbara. Barbara -- an attractive but not phony-looking blonde -- is futzing around in the garden. Doggett stands looking down at her. "How you doing?" he asks. But not like Joey Tribbiani. She looks up at him, sadly.

Doggett and Barbara go inside the house. Doggett looks around and makes pathetic small talk about the furniture. He's just breaking my heart. He looks so lost and depleted and sad. The awkward chit-chat continues until they drift into an uncomfortable silence. "You need to call first, John," Barbara finally says. "It kind of throws me when you just show up." Doggett apologizes, and promises "it won't happen again." I don't think this is the first time they've had this conversation. "I need to talk to you, Barb," he says. "It's about Luke. We've got a suspect." Barbara looks tired and pained. "Oh, God, John," she sighs. He knows, he says, but this time "it's a good one. It's different." Barbara finds this hard to believe. She wants to find the killer, too, she says, but she can't have him constantly stirring her life up like this: "Unless you know. Unless you absolutely know." He says nothing. "That's what I thought," Barbara says sadly. Doggett insists that she might have seen this guy -- that he might have been cruising the neighborhood. "Did you hear anything I said?" Barbara asks. Poor Doggett. Poor Barbara. Poor Dead Luke.

Apparently, Doggett talks Barbara into seeing a line-up, because here she is, looking at a line-up. Regali stands between two nondescript guys and looks bored. Barbara scans the row of men. Nothing.

Scully appears at the police station. She meets Barbara in the anteroom, and the women exchange pleasantries, Scully keeping a watchful eye on Doggett in the other room. He and Moronica are talking to a policeman. Moronica looks tired. Doggett is gesturing angrily. Scully sighs that Barbara must not have been able to make an ID. Barbara shakes her head and watches Doggett, who's yelling now. "You know he doesn't think clearly about this," Barbara says. "He can't." Blah blah blah he blames himself, blah. "I think if you could help him find the man who did this, he could move on," Barbara tells Scully. Scully says nothing, but thinks that she's really not that good at finding people, since her boyfriend was lost for over a year and all she did was wait around for him to fall out of the sky. Scully and Barbara watch Doggett and Moronica. "He and [Moronica] could have something together," Barbara offers. Like what? A Polish sausage sandwich? "He just won't let her in," adds Barbara. Scully literally rolls her eyes at this, but refrains from telling Barbara that Doggett's been traded to the other team.

Doggett and Moronica come out of the policeman's office, Doggett grousing that they're letting Regali go. Barbara's all, "Whatever." She leaves to go to her mother's house for the couple of days and search Match.com for a more suitable mate -- someone less obsessive about dead kids. "Tell me you got something," Doggett pleads to Scully. She looks sad, and tells him that she compared Luke's wounds with Killed in the Alley's and Plastered Behind the Wall's. "There are some similarities," she says hesitantly. "Meaning Regali's the guy," Doggett says. "Meaning that it was a brilliant forensic deduction on [PPP's] part, but that's all it is," Scully tells him carefully. Doggett looks pained as she explains that the murders were committed with different weapons, and there's no consistent MO. "None of it will hold up in court," Moronica spits. "Well, something out there will," says Doggett. Moronica looks at him sadly. Scully is lost in her own problems, which include:

1. Missing boyfriend
2. MiracleNoLongerAlienBaby given up for adoption
3. Cursed apartment
4. Well-meaning but stupid mother
5. Dead sister
6. No friends outside of work

But her hair looks fantastic.

Title Card Three: "A Message." Mark Snow cheerfully cues up the Piano of Dead, Dead, Dead, Dead Family Members. Man, I've only got three more hours of Mark Snow material left. Ever. And I have to confess something. Something that most of you probably already know: I'm in love with him. Seriously. I mean it. I know I make cracks about him all the time, but he's been on The X-Files since day one, and like most of the production crew, he's done really good work for nine straight years. And I saw a picture of him in The Hollywood Reporter and he totally looks like the kind of man who'd drive you from Santa Monica to the Valley to get Krispy Kreme and wouldn't even get mad when you wiped sugar on the leather seats of his BMW. The camera pans across PPP's Wall of the Dead. PPP stands in the middle of the room. Staring. Eyes darting. Lips pursing. Shoulders hunching. PPP looks out of his window sadly. The sun shines on him, but it doesn't penetrate the depths of his sad, sad heart. One tiny tear slides down his cheek.

Doggett's examining Regali's rap sheet down in the LBO. He muses that something isn't right. Moronica looks up from her copy of Women Who Love Women and the Women Who Love Them and asks him to clarify. Doggett explains that Regali's name has been mentioned in connection with all kinds of crazy bad shit (racketeering, money laundering, murder), but all he's gotten are these "nickel-and-dime convictions." It doesn't make sense, Doggett says, that Regali's never been nailed for anything stronger. Moronica murmurs that Mob cases are hard to build. Doggett doesn't think that anyone is trying. "I think this guy Regali is greasing somebody," he says. This gets her attention. "As in bribery?" she asks. No, Moronica, as in really good anal sex. Doggett wonders what else could possibly be going on. Moronica looks thoughtful. "What? What is it?" he asks.

Cut to DPB's office. Moronica and Doggett come storming in. Moronica looks quite irritable. DPB smarms that he was just coming to see them. Moronica tells him that they need to talk to him "about New York." She sits down and glares at him. "You got the files, didn't you?" DPB asks. Moronica clarifies that she's talking about when they were working together in New York. DPB isn't following. "I used to get take-out from a place on 11th Street. A little hole in the wall. Maybe you remember it? Carlo's," Moronica begins. DPB shoots a confused look at Doggett, and takes a seat. "Is it me, or is this becoming an odd conversation?" DPB asks. Doggett says nothing. Moronica continues, saying that, one night, she was waiting for her order and wandered over to the kitchen. Where she saw DPB talking to a Mob guy. "I saw you take money from him, Brad -- a stack of it," she says. DPB keeps his cool. "So, instead of asking me to explain it, or even reporting me to the Bureau, you broke off our relationship and moved away?" DPB asks. Moronica says she's not "defending her actions." Because she "cared for him." DPB nods defensively. "And now you're coming here, because you think I'm on the take," he spits. "Maybe I was on the take when Agent Doggett's son was murdered." Doggett points out that someone had to help Regali out. DPB spits that he was paying off an informant. "It's all documented. The entire operation," he tells them. "Now, I can prove what I'm saying. Can you?" Oh, DPB. You are a man of action. Lying does not become you. Everyone stares. I have to say, Cary Elwes has really improved his American accent. "You should have come to me, [Moronica]," he continues. "Especially given what I know now." What's that, you ask? That PPP died in a car accident in 1978. Well, the guy whose name PPP is using died in a car accident in 1978. This guy? A mental patient. Paranoid schizophrenic. Nice background checks you got there, FBI. "There's another thing," DPB tells a stricken-looking Doggett and Moronica. "We can also place him in New York City in 1993. The year your son was murdered." Doggett looks pale and horrified.

So everyone puts on their Kevlar vests and skips over to PPP's Palace of Pain, where he waits for them with pursed lips. I like his khakis. Mental illness is not an excuse not to be turned out nicely, people. Okay, maybe it is. Moving on. The SWAT team swarms to handcuff PPP and haul him off. Doggett looks at the Wall of Death, which has been denuded of every photograph. He looks stricken. Moronica looks sad. And sort of cute in Kevlar. Who knew?

Regali meets DPB in DPB's car, parked outside The Bar Where Women Go To Die. He is, of course, the informant of whom DPB spoke. "You got lucky," DPB says. "He has another suspect." Regali sneers that DPB surely didn't come all the way out to TBWWGTD to tell him that. "There's something I need to know," DPB says, looking straight ahead. "Were you in any way involved in the death of John Doggett's son?" "Since when do you ask me questions?" Regali sneers. "Were you involved?" DPB yells. Regali stares at the windshield. "Of course not," Regali lies. "What kind of guy do you think I am?" DPB looks troubled. He sighs. "That's it," he says. "It's done, Regali. With you, with this whole thing." Regali thinks about this, and comments carefully that he can see where DPB might think that he could get away with shooting Regali dead and calling it self-defense. "Let me remind you," he says, "if anything happens to me, a videotape will find its way into the hands of the Washington Post showing a young Brad Follmer taking cash from yours truly to make an indictment go away. You're done when I say you're done." Regali gets out of the car. DPB closes his eyes

Cut to a whole new line-up, this time complete with PPP. Barbara looks at each of the men, coming to a stop at PPP. She turns and stares at Doggett.

Interrogation room. Scully slides a file across the table to PPP, telling him that she knows who he is and how he got into the Academy. She knows about his illness. She knows that he "orchestrated this entire thing to get close to Agent Doggett." PPP points out that Barbara recognized him, but not Regali. "That's because Regali didn't kill Agent Doggett's son -- you did," Scully says. "That's one explanation," PPP says. Purse. But he doesn't think it happened that way. Scully raises a brow. From across the room, Doggett leans against the wall and looks totally drained. PPP explains that his pictures of dead people call to him. "I don't know why. It was a message, and I listened," he says. He explains that he studied Poor Dead Luke's case obsessively. "I'm a schizophrenic. That's what schizophrenics do: obsess," he tells them. Scully just looks at him. "I watched Agent Doggett. I watched his ex-wife," he continues. Which is how she recognized him in the line-up. This is the straw that breaks Doggett's back. "You're a liar!" he yells, slamming his hand on the table. "You lied to the FBI! You're lying to me now!" PPP purses his lips. "Would you have listened to me otherwise?" he asks. "A mental patient with insight into your son's death? I wanted to get close to you, Agent Doggett, to help you." PPP explains that Regali associated with the guy who kidnapped Poor Dead Luke. "I called you so you could catch him." Piano. Piano. Piano. PPP announces that he's gotten another message. "I'd like to go back home now. To the institution," he tells them. Right about now, the institution sounds pretty good to me, too. It would be quiet there. I could lie down and sleep for a nice long time.

Doggett bursts out of the interrogation room and into the hallway, where Moronica and DPB are waiting. He stalks past them and out of the building. DPB turns to Scully. "Well, he told us a story," Scully tells them. "Whether it's true...." She shrugs. "In other words, we're nowhere. Again," Moronica snarls, frustrated.

Doggett parks his car in front of the bar, and stalks inside. Regali sits alone with another glass of Jim Beam. Doggett pulls up a seat to him and glares. "I'm not here as an FBI agent. I'm here as a father," he spits. "I want to know who killed my son." Regali says that he simply doesn't know. Doggett closes his eyes. "I like you, FBI. I really do. I'll tell you how it could have happened, hypothetically," Regali drawls. Doggett opens his eyes. He's clearly furious. "Say there was a guy, a businessman," Regali begins. "And say this businessman, in the course of doing business, has to associate with any number of thugs, sickos, and perverts. Bob Harvey, for example." Doggett's blue eyes must be burning a hole in the side of Regali's head. "Say this Bob Harvey likes little boys. Yeah, disgusting. Say one day, Bob Harvey sees a little boy riding a bike and he can't stand it. He grabs the boy." Doggett looks like he's about to pass out. "So Harvey takes the boy back to his place, only he doesn't tell the businessman what he's doing. The businessman walks in on him. You see what I'm saying, FBI? The boy sees the businessman's face, the businessman who never did nothing to this little boy." Doggett's face is white. "That's a problem." Regali sips his drink. Doggett is utterly stricken. "Well, every problem has a solution, right?" Regali continues. He takes a final swig of his drink, slides off his bar stool, and leaves the bar. Doggett is stunned, horrified and furious, all at once. Suddenly, he stands, draws his gun, and heads for the door.

Doggett's almost there when a shot ricochets through the air. Doggett races outside to find Regali dead on the ground, shot straight through the eyeball. A woman is screaming. Doggett turns. Behind him is DPB, still holding his gun. DPB's face is splattered with blood. He's twitching. It's a good look on him.

The final title card: "Release." Doggett and Barbara stand on a clearly Californian beach, the surf lapping over their feet. Doggett holds up the box of Luke's ashes, and lets the wind carry them into the ocean. Barbara wraps her arms around Doggett, her face puffy with unshed tears. Doggett's face is incredibly sad. They watch as the final remains of their child disappear. Barbara untangles herself and walks away, head down. Doggett stares into the horizon, tears teetering on the edge of his lashes. Finally, he turns and walks up a small hill to the car, where Moronica is waiting. He looks at her for a long moment and then pulls her into his arms for a long, tight hug. Behind his shoulder, she closes her eyes. Sniffle.