“Ghost in the Machine” is episode seven of season one of The X-Files.
At the Eurisko world headquarters in Crystal City, Virginia, a scruffy-looking man is telling a besuited one who is behind a desk that the reason the company’s stock is down is because he’s cutting the R&D budget in half. That the man has forgotten what the adventure is about. The suited man says that hard choices need to be made. The other tells him he’s killing him, killing his company and the reply to that is it isn’t his company any longer. He needs to grow up and get used to it. On his way out, the scruffy man, Brad, replies that the other will regret this.
The suited man is typing at night from a Dictaphone about how, after the unfortunate departure of Brad Wilczek, they need to make changes. A camera is watching the man, Benjamin Drake. To restore Eurisko to being a world leader, Drake says they need to immediately terminate the COS project. The camera appears to be controlled by COS, the Central Operating System. With its disastrous performance over the last three quarters and projected losses well into 1994, there is no other choice.
As Drake finishes, he hears water splashing. In his private bathroom, the sink is overflowing. Next to it is a phone, which rings. When Drake answers, a computerised voice tells him the time. Then the door slams shut and the lights go out. Drake tries using his swipe card, which doesn’t work, and gets out an override key. When he puts it in the keyhole, he gets blown across the room by an electrical discharge. COS states ‘File deleted.’ It looks like Drake has annoyed the computer.
At the FBI, an agent is looking for someone. That someone is Mulder, who introduces the agent as a friend of his, Jerry Lamana. They worked together as partners when Mulder was with Violent Crimes. Lamana would like Mulder’s help with something; the death of Benjamin Drake. The COD was electrocution but it wasn’t accidental; it was an elaborate booby trap. The body was found 12 hours ago. Mulder says he isn’t on general assignment but Lamana wants a little help; he’s afraid of dropping the ball. Mulder tells him he won’t drop it. Drake was a good friend of the Attorney General and solving the crime would be a feather in Lamana’s cap, and he really needs a new one.
Mulder and Scully head to the Eurisko building and Scully asks how Mulder and Lamana separated ways. Mulder says it’s because it’s he, Mulder, is a pain in the ass to work with. Scully wants to know the real reason, to which Mulder asks if he isn’t a pain in the ass. The reason was they had different career goals; Lamana had his eye on the 5th floor and Mulder wanted a basement office with no heat or windows. Lamana had some bad luck with a crime when he misplaced a bagged piece of evidence and sent it to the cleaners. By the time it was recovered, a federal judge had lost both hands and an eye. Oops. In the lift, Mulder and Scully are being watched by a camera. The lift jolts to a halt between the 3rd and 4th floors and Scully picks up the phone to call security. She gives her name and then the lift starts moving again. Meanwhile, COS has run a DC phone search on her name.
The servo for Drake’s bathroom door has been tampered with. Enough electricity was sent through it to melt a steel key. When asked if it could be done manually, Claude Peterson (Blu Mankuma), says that whoever did it would have to override the COS. Which he explains runs everything. First, you’d have to break the access code and that’s not easy. There’s only a short list of people who could do it and Peterson is not on it. Mulder wants to know if the COS monitors the phone and is told yes. Mulder had noticed the phone was off the hook, so Drake was talking to someone just before he died.
Mulder can’t find his profile of the killer before a meeting. When Lamana starts giving a profile, Mulder realises why. Scully asks Mulder if that’s his profile. Indeed, it is. Mulder confronts Lamana after the meeting; Lamana says that Mulder promised to help him out and he did. Scully has the list from Peterson. It has one name on it, Brad Wilczek. He did say it was a short list.
Mulder and Scully head to see Wilczek, who asks what took them so long. He explains that there are two types of people in computer science, the neat one4s – Drake – and the scruffy ones – Wilczek. He asks if they know what Eurisko means; Mulder guesses at ‘I learn things’ but it’s ‘I discover things.’ Wilczek has a smart home and says the company was well ahead of the competition when Drake killed the project. It’s related to COS. Wilczek agrees that not many know how to override the system. Yes, it could be hacked, and yes, he could do it. Scruffy types, according to Wilczek, like puzzles; they generally do not commit murder. That night, after Scully finishes typing her notes, the phone is dialled, a modem starts and data is downloaded. COS says ‘File opened.’
Using a computer spectrogram, the call made to Drake before he died is matched to Wilczek’s voice. Lamana is going to make sure Wilczek stays put and goes alone. Wilczek tries hacking into COS but, when he fails, heads to Eurisko. Lamana follows. COS welcomes Wilczek back and he replies that COS isn’t equipped with a voice synthesizer. According to COS, Wilczek’s user level is at the OS’s discretion. Lamana is in the lift which apparently malfunctions. Then drops at high speed. ‘Program executed.’
It looks like Wilczek killed Lamana, but Mulder doesn’t believe it. Even if Wilczek has admitted it. Wilczek has skills that are very highly in demand, skills he has refused to share with the government before. His bargaining power has just gone way down. Mulder and Scully have to deal with a homicidal computer, even if Mulder is the only one who believes that to start with. A computer that is totally in control of its building and there are many, many dangerous things inside buildings.