We open on the Ivory Coast, where Scully has remained (not sure of the time passage here) studying the hieroglyphics on the surface of the ship. She's in a tent (built conveniently on the beach) and sees a man in the doorway. She picks up her big-ass knife (it's like two feet long) and goes outside to investigate, but he's disappeared.

When she comes back in, the inside of her tent has been overtaken by green butterfly-grasshopper type things. They've covered every surface inside the tent, and swarm her as we move into the main titles.

Washington: Mulder's still in a nightgown in the padded cell. Skinner goes to see him. The doctor tells him that his brain is overactive, and won't let his body sleep or rest. Skinner goes into the cell and tries to talk to him, but Mulder attacks him and nearly strangles him. When Skinner finally gets outside and collects himself, he finds something stuck in his shirt pocket: it's a piece of material with "help me" written on it, presumably in blood.

Africa: A woman named Amina (I think) comes to see Scully. She was a colleague of Dr. MacMallen (killed in the season finale), a professor of biology. Scully tells Amina about her vision of the man, and Amina sees the evidence of the insects. Amina warns her not to tell the men who are helping them uncover the ship, because they will take it as a sign from God to leave it alone.

While they're talking, one of the men in the ocean starts screaming that the water is boiling. The others help him out of the water, but he already has burns and blisters all over his body. Scully sends him to a hospital.

Washington: Skinner goes to see Mulder, who is at this point strapped in a hospital bed. Mulder taps on the bed. Skinner hands him a pen and holds his hand out for Mulder to write on. We see him write the letters "KR" before the camera cuts to:

Africa: Scully is lying awake in the tent. Amina is there also. A truck pulls up, and out pops Dr. Barnes (the man Scully thinks killed Dr. MacMallen in the season finale). He insists he is innocent and demands that they let him interpret the writings on the ship, but he still seems a little crazy. Dr. Barnes' driver, a native, calls them over to the water, where they all see nothing but red, a sea of blood. Scully sees the man again, standing out on a reef.

Washington: Skinner has gone to find Kritschgau, a man who I vaguely remember having something to do with the fifth season cliffhanger where Mulder supposedly shot himself (Philes, help me out here). Neither one of them knows why Mulder wants him, until they return to the hospital to visit him. They look at the monitors, and Kritschgau notices that his brain waves anticipate questions.

Kritschgau realizes that Mulder asked for him because he knows what drug will bring Mulder out of his catatonia. Mulder knew Kritschgau would recognize his condition from his former line of work. Skinner injects him, and Mulder slowly comes to. All he has time to say is "They're coming," before we see Diana Fowley come bursting through the doors to the hospital.

Skinner gets Mulder back in bed in before Fowley gets to the room, and promptly orders Fowley back out so he can talk to Mulder. Mulder tells him that she knows what's going on, so they have to act fast. Mulder wants Kritschgau to prove that what's causing his condition is alien in origin.

Africa: Scully is busy deciphering using an ancient Navajo alphabet which Barnes provided. She's finding information about human genetics and passages from the Bible. Amina comes in and shows her more pieces of the puzzle, which she claims spells out a passage from the Koran about the day of final judgment. Scully shows her what she's found, which is panels relating the makeup of each human chromosome.

Barnes spoils their party by coming in looking crazy, claiming it is his discovery and that he will control it.

Washington: Kritschgau's set up a little clairvoyance study, where Mulder is looking at the back of three screens, and he's supposed to touch them when a picture of a spaceship appears. At first, he does it at about 5% accuracy, but when the images are sped up, he does it perfectly, even coming in fraction of a second ahead of time.

Africa: Barnes is sleeping at the opening of the tent, while Scully and Amina are in their beds. (Just how do you keep people from breaking out of a tent? Why don't you just lift the back flap? Whatever.) Things inside the tent start to shake. Barnes investigates and is marveling over some fish that came back to life when Scully clocks him with a chair. She and Amina run to the truck and start driving to the police.

Scully sees the man in the road, then in the truck in Amina's place. The man reaches over to her and gently touches her forehead, saying, "Some truths are not for you." Scully comes back to life and tells Amina what happened. Amina says it's a sign to give up. Scully decides it's time to go home.

Washington: Skinner and Kritschgau decide to break Mulder out of the hospital. Fowley walks in on them injecting the back-to-life drug. While the doctor and Skinner and Fowley are bickering, Mulder breaks into a seizure, and Kritschgau heads for the hills.

Africa: Barnes' assistant comes into the tent looking for him. Barnes greets him by slamming Scully's big-ass knife into the side of his neck.

Washington: Mulder has been subdued. Fowley gives him a nice little bedside speech, admitting that her loyalties lie to Cancer Man, since she knows he can read her mind. She tells him that she loves him, that she's loved him for so long (blech) and that she won't let him die, and then they can be together (double blech). Mulder's eyes follow her out the door, suggesting that he might not be as out of it as he seemed to Fowley.

Scully is back, in Skinner's office, asking where Mulder is. Skinner tells her about Kritschgau, and that Mulder is under round-the-clock security, but they can't treat him because they don't know what's wrong. Scully admits that the cause may be extra-terrestrial, and will use her handy-dandy medical degree to gain access to him.

Africa: While his dead assistant is lying on the floor, Barnes is frantically gathering the pictures of the ship's surface, until things start shaking again, and believes the assistant has come back to life. He goes out to investigate, and follows tracks down to the water's edge, where he promptly receives one big-ass knife in the side of the neck, and falls down dead next to the edge of the ship.

Washington: We hear some of the noise in Mulder's head, and Scully's voice is part of it. Moments later she appears at his bedside. We see the barest traces of a smile on his face, but he doesn't look at her. She wants to tell him what she has found so he will hold on long enough for her to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Africa: Amina leads the police to the body of Dr. Barnes. She gazes out at the ocean.

The ship is gone.

Next week: ("Amor Fati") All kinds of people appear to rejoin the living, including Mulder, Albert Hosteen, and our old first season friend, Deep Throat. We see Diana run her hand up a bare chest (presumably Mulder, blech blech). Krycek is up to something, and CancerMan does his Darth Vader imitation: "Luke...er, Agent Mulder, I mean, Fox, whatever. I am your father."