I'm so sorry, Becky.
If there's anything we can do for you--
anything at all, just let us know.
Thank you so much.
It would have meant a lot to him.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you for coming.
Mrs. Crouch...
...I'm sorry for your loss.
Thank you, Mister...
Johnson.
I worked briefly
with your husband.
I was impressed by him.
Very much so.
Thank you.
I'm sorry.
Hell of a Christmas, Raymond.
He's at peace now.
That's one small comfort to be drawn.
Didn't even leave a note.
I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live,
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die.
I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me...
...though he were dead,
yet shall he live...
...and whosoever liveth and believeth in me...
shall never die.
I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me...
...though he were dead,
yet shall he live,
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die.
He that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live.
Thank you, ma'am.
Are you with the FBI, too?
Yes, sir.
Look, I know my job. The man was deceased.
I'm sorry?
I understand that he was one of your own,
but these rumors I'm hearing
that I put a living human being into the ground--
you people better get your facts straight real fast.
Mulder, you been spreading rumors?
Why? You hear any good ones lately?
Not particularly.
So what do you have here?
Merry Christmas, by the way, Scully.
Thank you.
Merry Christmas to you, too.
Grave robbery with a twist.
Check out the headliner, Scully.
Well, it looks like someone
on the inside was trying to get out.
Indeed it does. And to answer your question,
no, I haven't been spreading any rumors.
The local PD's been doing a pretty good job of that,
ever since they matched the fingerprints
of the dead man to these.
And to those up there on that headstone.
There's a big juicy handprint on the back.
What about the person or persons
who did the digging?
Well... got one pile of dirt.
I'm guessing one man with a shovel.
Other than that,
last night's rain hasn't left us much to go on.
Well, go ahead, Scully, naysay me.
The body of an FBI agent gets disinterred,
only to climb out on its own
and disappear into the yuletide night.
See, you had me up until there.
Did I? I think it's what you said before.
I think it's a grave robbery with a twist.
You've got the fingerprints and the torn casket liner.
Most likely, it's rigged evidence that's been faked
by whoever exhumed the body.
Faked for what effect?
Publicity. Fear. Rumors.
I mean, I don't know what specific effect,
but nonetheless it's...
What?
Looks like blood.
...and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live,
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live,
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
I am the resurrection and the life.
Special Agent Raymond Crouch--
age 56.
Married, no children.
After a sterling 21-year career with the Bureau,
he retired in 1993.
And then earlier this month,
he was found in the garage of his Tallahassee home,
service weapon in hand.
Definitely self-inflicted?
I read over the report, and there's no indication otherwise.
How about a motive for the grave robberies?
We've gone through all the cases Crouch had a hand in.
He doesn't seem to have made any enemies.
Same thing with his personal life.
No large debts, no feuds with neighbors,
never a bad word against him.
Nothing stands out?
Should something stand out?
Agent Mulder, what's your take on this?
Well, only that I don't think it was grave robbery, per se.
It was necromancy.
The summoning of the dead.
It's a form of magic
dating back to primitive shamanism
with a long tradition in the Christian Church.
Through it, the dead are brought back to life
for the purposes of divulging arcane knowledge
or performing ritual tasks.
So that's what this wacko
thought he was doing, raising the dead?
That's what he was doing.
This is a, uh...
That's a magic circle drawn in goat's blood.
The rain washed most of it away.
The blood attracts the spirits of the undead,
while the circle focuses the necromancer's power
while protecting him from the spirits that he's conjuring.
Okay.
He may also desire
to wear the clothes of the dead man
to create a bond between them.
You would not want to be
this man's dry cleaner.
Obviously, there are
clear ritualistic elements
to this crime.
But the question is:
why were they directed at Raymond Crouch?
That is the question.
Well, let's come up with an answer.
Mulder, Scully,
a word, please.
Necromancy aside,
this magic circle you mentioned--
what if it looked something like this?
It's an Ouroboros.
Possibly.
Definitely a mystical symbol.
The alchemists favored it.
They believed that it represented all of existence.
I'm thinking more the Millennium Group.
It was their symbol as well.
Are you familiar with them?
Yes, somewhat.
They were former FBI agents
who offered consulting services to law enforcement.
Somehow, they fell into disrepute.
They operated in extreme secrecy.
Rumors abounded that they had their own agenda,
which was less than altruistic, if not improper or illegal.
And that it was, in fact, a cult
based upon Judeo-Christian end-time prophesies
concerning the coming millennium.
Was Raymond Crouch a member?
I can't seem to find out.
Apparently, the group dissolved several months ago.
They left no paper trail-- nothing.
However...
I do have three other grave desecrations,
all within the last six months.
Long Island,
Northern California, Arizona.
All three graves contained the bodies
of former FBI agents.
All three
were recent suicides.
How long were you going to sit on this?
Owing to the Millennium Group's former ties with the Bureau,
this matter is sensitive, to say the least.
Investigate them.
Keep a low profile.
I think I know where to start.
How well do you know this man?
Only by reputation.
He left ViCAP before I got there.
But he's been called
the greatest criminal profiler
that Quantico ever produced.
What's he doing here?
Morning.
Apparently, he checked himself in
for a 30 day observation.
I gather the last few years
haven't been very kind to him.
If there's anybody that can tell us about
the Millennium Group, it's him.
He used to consult for them.
Later, he fought to bring them down
at the expense of his own career and reputation.
Single-minded. Yeah.
Sounds like someone I know.
...12 yard line and they are threatening...
Frank Black?
...pounding on the door of Boston College.
Hi, my name is Fox Mulder.
This is my partner Dana Scully.
It's a pleasure to meet you.
You mind if we sit down?
Higgins tries the middle and he gets... nowhere.
Who's playing?
Uh, it's Notre Dame and Boston College.
Ah, the Fighting Irish and the Golden Eagles, huh?
What can I do for you, Agents?
Well, we're working on a case
that, uh, we feel
you might have some particular insight into--
the deaths of four FBI agents.
Do you recognize these men?
I do.
All four committed suicide in the last six months.
All were exhumed from their graves
in a ritual desecration.
They were members of the Millennium Group.
Is that correct?
Sir, we've been having a really difficult time
gleaning any information whatsoever about the group...
about its membership, its practices.
I believe you can help us.
No, thank you. I'm retired.
I think you can tell by the circumstances
that I'm trying to put my life back together.
I can't get involved in this.
We're not asking you to get involved.
I'm just asking you to take a look at the case file.
No, thank you.
Mr. Black, the day after tomorrow
is January 1, 2000.
That's the significant date for these people.
That doesn't leave us much time.
Don't you want to see them stopped?
Well, Mr. Black, you are not what I was expecting.
Agent Mulder.
Yes.
It's first and 18.
Just let me watch this game in peace.
It's third and ten, and Notre Dame...
It's third and ten, Notre Dame.
Happy New Year. Same to you.
Evening.
Hi.
Could I, uh, give you a hand?
Oh, no, I'm about done, but thanks.
Guess I ran over a nail or something.
Well, I can help you see, at least.
Yeah, I've been driving all night.
Be good to get home.
I hear you.
Man... whew.
What is that?
Oh, yeah.
I think a deer maybe must've died out there in the woods.
Sir?
What's in the truck?
Nothing.
Mind if I take a look?
There's nothing in there, so...
Drop that, take two steps back.
Drop it.
He who believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live,
and shall never die.
I am the resurrection and the life.
Stand up there!
Stand up!
Let me see your hands!
I am the resurrection... What?!
He who believeth in me... Speak up!
Hey.
I've got the men concentrating on the woods.
Our necromancer was definitely here.
Salt. Heavy magic.
Well, if you're going to tell me that he, uh,
stopped by the side of the road
to raise the dead, which I hope you're not,
I've got two things to say to you.
One is that his previous circles
were made of blood, not salt, and two...
And they were large enough to contain a body.
This is just a protective circle.
It's just big enough for one man to stand inside.
Protecting himself against what?
Whatever it was that did that.
Agents!
Over here!
I saw a lump in the ground.
My God.
Bite marks.
They look human.
More salt.
"I am he that liveth and was dead;
"and, behold, I am alive for evermore, amen;
and have the keys of hell and of death."
Book of Revelation,
chapter one, verse 18.
Go, Fighting Irish.
First and 18.
It's not football, it's Revelations.
You wanted to tell us something, Frank.
Why don't you just come out and say it?
I don't know what you're talking about.
I told you, I cannot get involved in this.
Right, so you'll occasionally drop
a little arcane hint?
A police officer was murdered, Frank.
Why do you want to play around?
Your denial's a sign that you obviously
know something about that.
You knew that we'd find this.
What are you afraid of?
Losing your daughter.
You're in a custody battle
with the parents of your late wife.
I just spoke with your doctor.
That's why you're here.
They claimed I was an unfit father,
that I was obsessed with conspiracy,
the end of the world,
that my work meant more to me
than my daughter Jordan.
The thing is...
they were right.
And so you retired.
I will sell insurance.
I'll do whatever it takes.
I'll get well and I'll jump through
whatever hoops they want,
but I will not mention the Millennium Group again.
But you obviously want to help.
You... dropped that clue on us.
Look, Frank,
nobody needs to know about this.
We're just three people sitting around talking.
The Book of Revelation describes
the end of the physical world
in a battle between heaven and hell,
good against evil.
The Millennium Group believed
that that time was upon us.
These four represent a schism in the group.
They believe that for the end time to come, as it must,
that man must take an active hand in bringing that about.
And to that end, they committed suicide.
Yeah.
With the express purpose of being brought back to life.
The Four Horsemen
of the apocalypse.
These four men bring with them
war, pestilence, famine and death.
So that all the dead of the earth will arise--
Armageddon.
It must begin
with the dawn of the millennium,
or not at all.
That's what they believe.
The man you're looking for-- your necromancer--
he exhumed these men
in accordance with their wishes.
So is he a member of the Millennium Group as well?
No, they sought him out.
He believes he's doing God's work,
but he's mistaken.
Could you tell us a little bit more about this man?
Well, he's a white male,
45 to 50.
He's a religious man, no police record,
no fulfilling relationship.
You would pass him without giving him a glance.
So this is the one event that'll give his life meaning.
Yeah.
He needs privacy for this.
He'll live alone...
possibly in the house he grew up in.
Most likely it's a large rural property,
away from prying eyes.
He'll own a truck or a van.
He needs it to transport the bodies.
There'll be high fences, "no trespassing" signs.
It's a solitary existence.
He's worked around death all his life in some capacity--
a funeral parlor or a cemetery.
Death comforts him.
A Rice County sheriff's deputy missing...
He took great care
in burying the deputy and preparing the body,
despite the fact that he feared being caught.
He stapled the lips, sealed the mouth shut.
It was to prevent the man from coming back to life.
He believes, that if disturbed,
the deputy will rise from the dead.
It's too soon for that, which is why when he realizes
the deputy has been discovered,
he'll feel a need to take action.
He'll return to the body the first chance he gets.
Rice County morgue.
I think you'll catch him there.
These four members of the Millennium Group,
the ones that "truly liveth who were dead"--
these are the ones we have to catch.
Mr. Black? Yeah?
You've got a phone call.
I think it might be your daughter.
Thank you.
My daughter.
Excuse me.
Mulder, you're telling me it's more important
to track down four dead bodies than one live murderer.
He's not our murderer, and those four dead bodies aren't dead.
And the millennium is 14 hours away.
Mulder, these people, even when they were alive,
mangled biblical prophecy to the extent
that it's unrecognizable.
The year 2000 is just their artificial deadline.
And besides, 2001 is actually the start of the new millennium.
Nobody likes a math geek, Scully.
Anyway, I think that Frank's profile is sound.
I do, too.
I think with it,
we have our best chance
of finding this necromancer, as you call him.
So I am going down to the county morgue.
I absolutely think you should.
And what are you going to do?
Follow the profile.
The deputy was killed on a road that connects
from the north with no major highway.
I'm thinking our necromancer lives nearby.
I'm going to do a rundown
on all single landowners in the area,
see where the bodies are buried, so to speak.
Oh, Scully, will you do me a favor?
Don't let anybody remove
the staples from the deputy's mouth, okay?
Please?
Just humor me. Thanks.
Proceeding with the visual examination of the mouth.
Geez.
You've reached the Rice County morgue...
What appears to be salt is packed into the victim's mouth.
This is Agent Dana Scully...
God only knows why.
I'm removing it.
You've reached the Rice County morgue.
No one can come to the phone.
This is Agent Dana Scully with the FBI.
Please do not autopsy the murder victim
that was brought in earlier-- the sheriff's deputy.
If you've already started, stop now.
I'll be there shortly and I'll explain when I arrive.
Hello?
Where is she?
Sir?
How you feeling?
All things considered?
What the hell happened here?
Who is that man?
The sheriff's deputy.
The man we found this morning.
He was dead, and then somehow he wasn't.
He attacked me.
You shot him?
Three rounds center-of-mass into his chest.
No effect.
There's a gunshot wound to his head as well.
Yeah, this man, uh,
Mulder calls the necromancer, our suspect-- he was here, too.
He fired that shot with my gun.
He saved me. I have no idea why.
He got away,
but I was in no shape to follow.
Look, sir,
I can't even begin to offer an explanation
for what happened,
but I have to say it is exactly what Mulder feared.
Yeah, which is why I would like to talk to him.
Why isn't he answering his phone?
Welcome to the boondocks.
♪ Sweet by and by ♪
♪ We will meet on that beautiful shore... ♪
Hey! Open the door!
Open the door!
Let me out! Let me out!
Hey!
I haven't heard from him.
He didn't go to the morgue with you?
No, he went looking for our suspect's home.
No one's been able to contact him since.
I've got task force agents canvassing
the northwestern Maryland area,
but it's a large territory to cover,
and we're running out of time.
Sir, I'm just afraid
that Mulder may have found what he's looking for.
I need your help in finding him.
Now, you respected my reasons in the past, Agent Scully.
Please respect them now.
I'm not sure that I really understand your reasons, sir.
And I'm starting to wonder what this is about
and how much you know about it.
Mulder mentioned
the four Millennium members who "liveth and were dead."
Now, this morning in the morgue, I saw what he was talking about.
You did?
One of them attacked me.
I'm sorry.
Now, as crazy as this sounds, I have to ask.
Do you believe that the Millennium Group
is actually capable of bringing about the end-time?
Armageddon?
I understand their beliefs.
I've spent years trying to unravel them,
make sense of them.
Doesn't mean I believe them myself.
But what if it were true?
Good and evil...
which would prevail?
I'm sorry.
Octavia...
...I'm going to check myself out.
You'd like a day pass?
I won't be coming back.
Who's there?
It's me.
You came.
I almost didn't.
We'd given up on you.
Thank God.
There's someone in the basement.
Policeman.
He killed one of the members.
Shot him in the head.
But you're here.
Now we'll have four.
I'm here.
I can't tell you how happy I am.
You were meant to be the fourth.
I always knew that.
I'd so hoped you'd come around.
I didn't want to.
The man in the basement--
I told him how to find this place.
You...
Why?
I was trying to walk the straight and narrow.
Leave the Millennium Group behind.
But I know I can't do that anymore,
now that I know you've succeeded.
You didn't believe the dead would arise?
No.
You see what the future holds, Frank.
You know you can't run from it.
No, I can't run.
You've paid so dearly.
They've taken your daughter from you.
Murdered your wife.
There's no justice in this world.
But there will be in the next.
The hour's near.
Are you ready, Frank?
I'm ready.
I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead...
Yet shall he live.
Whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die.
Scully.
This is Skinner.
We back-checked Frank Black as you asked.
And?
He took no calls at Hartwell Psychiatric
other than from his daughter, but the staff took messages,
including one from a Rice County number.
Rice County-- that's where I am right now.
We ran the phone records for Agent Crouch
and the other desecration victims.
All four received calls from this same number
in weeks before their deaths.
I'm going to need an address.
Don't do this.
I'm begging you, please.
You know what the world is.
Evil goes unpunished.
The good suffer.
There's no future here but uncertainty and pain.
Let the judgment come!
You're damning yourself, Frank!
Agent Mulder?
Can you hear me?
Agent Mulder?
Yeah.
I'm down here.
They're all around.
You armed?
Oh, yeah. Shoot for the head.
That seems to stop them.
There's three more of them.
Where? I don't know.
They're hiding.
Mulder, can you get up?
Uh, I think so.
Look out!
There's another shot of that
beautiful millennium crystal ball all lit up.
And they're getting ready to bring in the New Year.
Boy, are they packed in tonight.
The body heat alone is keeping them warm.
And look at them-- all the way up past 52nd Street.
That is that X-shaped thing I was talking about before.
This is Times Square-- the crossroads of the world...
Mr. Black.
Hi.
Mark Johnson's been taken
for psychiatric evaluation.
He'll be put under suicide watch just as you asked.
Good.
And, um...
What?
There's someone here to see you.
Hi, Daddy!
Hi, little one.
Wow.
Oh, I missed you, sweetheart.
I missed you, too, Daddy.
Let's get out of here.
Frank, good luck with everything.
Agent Mulder, Agent Scully.
I guess this is it, huh?
The ball is on its way, all 1,070 pounds...
You're not going to stay and watch?
No, we just want to go home.
Take care of yourselves.
30 seconds now, 30. Get ready for
the loudest cheering you'll ever hear in your whole life.
Hug your friends and loved ones tight.
What the heck, whoever that person is next to you.
No time like the present.
Are you ready? Here we go.
Ten, nine,
eight, seven, six,
five, four, three, two...
Happy New Year, 2000!
♪ Should auld acquaintance be forgot ♪
♪ And days of auld lang syne? ♪
The world didn't end.
No, it didn't.
Happy New Year, Scully.
Happy New Year, Mulder.
♪ Should auld acquaintance be forgot... ♪