At a casino,
a dealer shuffles a deck for a group of hard-core gamblers. One
of the gamblers with a prison-style tattoo on his hand, Mad Wayne,
reaches for his hand and folds angrily. He gets up from the table
and walks through the casino, approaching a woman at a slot machine.
Mad Wayne only stares at her and moves off. Watching from across
the room is Mr. Burt, playing solitaire at the bar. Mr. Burt nonchalantly
says to the bartender, "Seven seven, pack of Morleys." Mad Wayne
sits next to him at the bar and orders exactly what Mr. Burt predicted.
Mr. Burt strikes up a conversation parceled with gambling odds and
motions to the woman at the slot machine. When she heads for the
ladies room, Wayne gets off the barstool to follow her. Mr. Burt
stops him, indirectly cautioning him to not do what he's intending
to do, but Wayne ignores this and goes to her. A casino patron screams
that a woman has been murdered in the bathroom. Mr. Burt doesn't
even flinch at the turn of events. He flips another card in his
solitaire game to reveal the Ace of spades -- the death card.
Agent Reyes reads a newspaper article about the casino murder
in the X-files office. She is staring at some case files and rambling
numbers when Scully enters. Reyes shows Scully a photo of a murdered
woman and lists the woman's birthdate. Then she does the same
for two other similar cases, informing Scully that the victims
all had significant karmic numbers. Scully dismisses numerology
as child's play, but she sees a connection in the photos -- all
the women had the same mark on their bodies. It could be from
the killer's ring.
Mad Wayne gets dressed in his dark apartment, putting on a large
ring with a devil's face. He sees out of his window that Mr. Burt
is on the street working a three-card Monte scam. Mr. Burt smiles
and nods at Wayne, lip-synching to music. The other people on
the street are clustered in threes, moving to the beat of the
music in an accidental symphony. Wayne threatens Mr. Burt to stop
following him, but Mr. Burt is confident that it doesn't fit Wayne's
"pattern." When Mr. Burt implores Wayne to "choose better," Wayne
becomes agitated and turns over the card table.
Reyes visits with a numerologist named Vicki Burdick who resides
in a hotel suite numbered 33. Although reluctant to get involved,
Burdick agrees to help when Reyes shows her photos of the murdered
women. Reyes gets a call from Doggett with news that two more
victims surfaced with the distinctive ring marks. She meets him
and Scully at the FBI's behavioral science office, where Special
Agent Fordyce briefs his task force. After three murders in 1999
and the three current ones, they have determined that the killer
is working in patterns. Yet they don't know how he chooses his
victims, why he kills and if he'll kill again or disappear like
he did previously. They call him the Triple Zero killer because
of the three circular marks on the victims. When Fordyce asks
for Reyes' insight, she begins to list the numerological characteristics
of the suspect. The room of agents stares at her dumbfounded.
The silent room is awakened Reyes' cell phone rings, and Burdick
tells her that she has uncovered something strange in the numerology
charts. Suddenly, Burdick's front door opens. It's Mad Wayne.
Later, Fordyce questions Reyes at the crime scene of Burdick's
hotel room. Although Reyes told no one else about consulting Burdick,
how did the killer find her and kill her? Fordyce chides Reyes
for consulting with a numerologist because a killer acts on incomprehensible
impulses. Yet Reyes questions whether these impulses may be the
result of otherworldly things that no one understands. Outside
the hotel, Mr. Burt is holding a domino tile with six dots when
Mad Wayne approaches. As Doggett passes the table, Mr. Burt sets
the chain reaction of dominos to fall. Mad Wayne asks Mr. Burt
why he is trying to get him caught. Annoyed with Mr. Burt's insouciance,
Wayne walks off to avoid the police surrounding the hotel.
Scully begins her autopsy of Burdick's body at 6:06 pm. The tools
of her trade have been laid out for her in groups of six. She
notices that Burdick's bangs are in the shape of three "6"s on
her forehead. Six freckles on Burdick's chest are in the formation
of dots on a domino. Scully grabs her microcassette recorder and
is spooked that the counter reads "666." Scully rushes to the
hotel to inform Reyes that the markings on the victims are not
three zeros, but the numbers "666," which is the sign of the devil.
Reyes has discovered that the victims' numerology charts actually
matched Burdick's chart. However, none of this information gets
them any closer to find the killer. Fordyce's profile is no help
either, matching every serial killer the FBI has hunted. Doggett
starts to believe Reyes' numerology claims when he notices on
a map that the path of the murders forms the number 6.
As Scully and Reyes leave the hotel, they share an elevator car
with Mad Wayne. As they step out, Scully notices the large devil
ring on his finger and pulls her gun. Wayne darts back into the
elevator, and the agents follow him on the stairs to the underground
parking garage. A car exits as they are left trapped in the locked
garage. They try to use their cell phones, but can't get reception
in the garage. Scully and Reyes come upon Mr. Burt, who has no
identification on him. However, his car trunk is filled with thousands
of compact disks and a checkerboard. After failed attempts to
shoot the lock off the garage door, they agree to his invitation
to play checkers and listen to music. While the agents play each
other, they realize that the red and black checkers match their
hair colors. It then occurs to them that the suspect has been
killing in a succession of three hair colors: blond, redhead,
then brunette. Reyes wonders if they will be his next victims,
and Scully instinctively pulls her gun on Mr. Burt. While Scully
and Reyes debate about numerology's role in these murders and
the theory that higher forces move the universe, Mr. Burt only
eggs on their discourse. When Reyes suggests that perhaps the
killer is still in the garage, the lights suddenly go out. They
separate, and Scully does not hear Reyes struggle with Mad Wayne.
Three shots ring out, and the lights go back on to reveal that
Doggett has fired at Mad Wayne and saved Reyes. He figured out
from Wayne's pattern that Scully and Reyes would be the next victims.
Scully tries to ask Wayne about his motive, but the man dies.
Mr. Burt, however, has vanished.
Later, at 9:09 pm, Scully calls Reyes to ask what her karmic
number is. Reyes tells her that she's a 9, meaning she is a spiritually
evolved person. Yet Scully has one other burning question: who
was Mr. Burt? "God knows," Reyes answers.
Outside the hotel, an Italian feast is being celebrated as the
people happily dance in the streets. From above, the lights of
the world have formed the shape of a familiar face: the smiling
Mr. Burt.
................... CREDITS .....................
"IMPROBABLE"
#9ABX14
Original Air Date: 04/07/02
Written and Directed by Chris Carter
Starring:
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully
ROBERT PATRICK as Special Agent John Doggett
ANNABETH GISH as Special Agent Monica Reyes
Also Starring:
Burt Reynolds as Mr. Burt
Ray McKinnon as Mad Wayne
John Kapelos as Special Agent Fordyce
Ellen Greene as Vicki Louise Burdick
Angelo Vacco as Bartender/Guido
Larry Udy as Middle-Aged Man
Beth Watson as Woman
Ernesto Gasco as Heavy Italian Man
Benito Prezia as Old Italian Man
Nick De Marinis as Pizza Man
Amy D'Allessandro as Amy
Travis Riker as William
