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kjaneway115 · 5 years

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The X-Files: Tempus Fugit

4X17 Tempus Fugit

February 23, 1997

On a plane over upstate New York, Max Fenig is flying nervously. A man puts together a gun in the bathroom, he is going to kill Max. A bright light suddenly shines into the plane.

Mulder takes Scully out for her birthday. She quips that in 4 years he has never before remembered her birthday. He hands her a small box, and she jokes that it’s an alien implant. It’s an Apollo 11 keychain. Max Fenig’s sister, Sharon, approaches them and tells them Max was bringing something important to them and that his plane crashed. When Mulder goes to the NTSB investigation of the crash, he is ridiculed by the head of the investigation, Millar, for his questions about alien abductions and Max Fenig. He’s told that there’s no one on the manifest named Max Fenig. Scully quips, “You sure know how to make a girl feel special on her birthday.”

Mulder and Scully go to the crash site. Scott Garrett finds the body of the man with the gun who was going to kill Max and takes his gun away, then burns away his fingerprints. M&S find watches stopped at 8:01, but the crash reportedly happened at 7:52. Mulder remarks on the missing 9 minutes and reminds Scully of the last time they experienced that (Pilot). They find the man who sat next to Max, alive, with radiation burns. Scully calls Sharon and asks her to disclose anything she might be withholding. Scully has tracked down some of Max’s aliases and thinks that Max was carrying plutonium, and that’s what made the flight crash. Mulder thinks that Max was abducted, but Scully tells Mulder that Max’s body was found.

Sharon is in her hotel room when she sees a bright light and everything starts shaking.

Mulder walks through a sea of bodies and finds Max’s. Mulder’s business card was in his pocket when he died. Mulder tells Scully that all the wrist watches from the passengers have been stolen. Mulder insists that they have to reconstruct the missing 9 minutes. They go to a local air force base where they are told by Sergeant Louis Frish that the flight was spotted on radar, confirmation the crash at 7:52. In the initial briefing, M&S had been told there was no radar confirmation. After Mulder and Scully leave, Frisch tells another officer that he told them what he was supposed to say; the other officer says he wants to tell the truth. This makes Frisch angry.

Mulder and Scully find Max’s sister’s hotel room destroyed, and his sister missing. Millar comes to M&S and says he’s found some evidence, telling Mulder he wouldn’t have known where to look if not for him. The plane had signs of wear and tear that should be impossible. The door was blown outward, which also should be impossible.

At the air force base, Frish comes back to his friend who wanted to tell the truth to apologize for his behavior, but the young man is dead. Frish hides from Garrett.

Mulder is listening to the recording of the crash and calls Scully to tell her he recognizes the voice of the air traffic controller; it’s Frish. She tells him they’ve been up for 36 hours, but he insists that she comes to his room. She walks over in her bathrobe. As Scully is walking to Mulder’s room, she’s grabbed by a man who tells her he’s the one responsible for the plane crash; it’s Frish. M&S take Frish to Millar. Millar had been under the impression that the air traffic controller had been a civilian. Frish tells them he was ordered to lie. He says he saw another aircraft in the flight’s airspace. Millar doesn’t believe it and says the story makes no sense. Millar says they need evidence. Mulder suggests that there was a third aircraft that didn’t appear on radar, a stealth craft, and that there’s a second crash site. Mulder says if this is true then Frish is in danger. Millar agrees to look for the second crash site. They go to look for the second crash site, but their car is chased. Mulder evades capture by driving under a landing plane; they just barely make it.

Millar arrives at the crash site and sees a UFO searching it. Then he hears a woman crying for help; it is Sharon.

Mulder suggests that the second aircraft never fell to the ground but came down in the water. Frish says it’s possible. Scully takes Frish back to DC in a small plane while Mulder stays in New York to look for the second aircraft. He arrives at a nearby lake where a man tells him there have been hovering lights. The man takes Mulder to dive in the lake; he has never dived before.

Scully takes Frish back to her apartment so she can grab some things - pajamas and such. Frish asks Scully if he’s going to be prosecuted; he feels guilty for the deaths of the passengers. Frish asks permission to call his girlfriend, and Scully says to just tell her he’s okay.

Scully takes Frish to a bar where they are supposed to meet a federal marshall. She runs into a very drunk Agent Pendrell who insists on buying her and her companion a birthday drink. Garrett enters the bar; Scully recognizes him as a threat and yells at Frish to get down. Garrett tries to shoot Frish but shoots Pendrell instead. Scully wounds Garrett (whose name we still don’t know).

Mulder finds wreckage under the water, including an alien corpse. He sees a bright light from above.

Original Airdate: March 16, 1997

Episode Tags: Mythology

Notable Character Deaths: Max Fenig

#x files #the x files #mulder #fox mulder #scully #dana scully #mythology #episode #episode guide #summary #episode summary #4x17 #max fenig #spoilers #kj115's episode guides

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