“Fight Club” is episode twenty of season seven of The X-Files.
In Kansas City, two Jehovah’s Witnesses stop at a house with a car in the drive with a vanity plate reading ‘BETTY’. They knock on the door and the woman who answers says she’s just moving in and is waiting for the cable TV people. They head off to another house. This has a similar car with the vanity plate ‘LULU’ and exactly the same bumper stickers. The woman who answers the door looks the same from behind. And the front, going by the men’s reactions. They tell Lulu about Betty and she tells them to get away. They start fighting and the cops arrive and attempt to break it up.
One day later and Mulder and Scully arrive at Bett’s with the two Jehovah’s Witnesses, now rather worse for wear, in the back. They explain what happened and about Lulu, who lives a few blocks over. Betty says that everyone has a twin out there somewhere. And it turns out the FBI agents aren’t Mulder and Scully, just very similar from the back and to listen to. Betty suggests they talk to the other woman. Her house is empty and they aren’t even sure she exists. Then Lulu drives past with a moving van and the two agents start fighting, Not-Scully drives off with Not-Mulder clinging to the car and there’s a crash.
Actual Mulder is showing slides of this to Scully. Both agents were critically injured when Not-Scully drove into a tree at 43 mph in an attempt to kill Not-Mulder and had similar stories about being unable to control their behaviour. They’d worked together for seven years without incident. Scully thinks Mulder is withholding information and guesses what he’s thinking; of some sort of doppelganger.
In Kansas City, Lulu turns up at a Kuko’s copy ship for a job interview. The manager is a bit concerned because her work history shows 17 jobs in 17 states over 3 years, and some weird jobs at that. However, when the copy machines start malfunctioning, he hires her, starting immediately. Betty was outside and heads to another Kuko’s where her work history is identical to Lulu’s.
At the Porcherie Hotel a man, Bert Zupanic, is packing stacks of money into a case when Mulder knocks on the door. They’re looking for a Betty Templeton. He says he doesn’t know her. Though there’s a photo of him in the paper with Betty. Afterwards, Mulder asks Scully what he thinks. Scully guesses. Mulder thinks Bert truly doesn’t know Betty Templeton. Mulder waits for Bert to leave.
At Froggy’s Bar, Bert sits next to Betty. Or perhaps Lulu. And guesses her drink. They talk and it turns out she is Betty. Though it sounds like Bert thinks she’s Lulu. When Lulu walks in the place starts shaking and glasses explode as Betty and Bert leave by the back door.
Mulder introduces Scully to an Argyle Saperstein. Bert is a wrestler, semi-pro, and their mystery woman always watches him. However, Scully has found out about Lulu Fife. Not a manifestation but real. As is the path of destruction they cause. One has alternatively been following the other for the past 12 years and in their wake there have been house fires, explosions, riots. After they leave, Argyle calls Bert. He wants his money for the fight. Bring it to Froggy’s.
Bert is with Betty; she gets out of bed to get ready for work. Lulu turns up at the door and accuses him of two-timing her, and finds a hairpin. Hers. Well, she thinks it is. Above them, an argument is getting louder, then gunshots are fired through the floor.
Bert sees Betty – or possibly Lulu – at Froggy’s. It is Betty because Lulu soon arrives and the place starts shaking again. Betty and Lulu look identical, and like the same things, same places and same man. Which means wherever they go, no matter how hard they try to get away from each other, they keep bumping into each other. And when that happens, there’s a whole lot of trouble.