“One Breath” is episode eight of season two of The X-Files.
A woman is talking, about how when Dana was a little girl, she was a tomboy, unlike her sister, Melissa. Her brothers gave her a BB gun and their father told them only to shoot cans. The boys found a garter snake and started shooting it. Dana joined in but, when the snake began to bleed, she became guilty. She had taken something it was not hers to take and tried to will the snake alive. But it died.
It’s Scully’s mother talking to Mulder, and he says it’s too soon, they can’t give up. Mrs Scully says she knows how her daughter felt back then. A man comes into where they are sat with a box. Inside is a marker for Scully. Later, Mulder is at home, watching and rewatching something on a video when the phone rings. He turns up at the Northeast Georgetown Medical Centre. Scully is there in a bed, plugged in to lots of equipment. Mulder starts demanding to know how Scully go there, confronting the doctor, Daly. Mulder is a bit angry and gets restrained by the guards.
Dr Daly explains to Mulder and Mrs Scully that Dana is in critical condition. She’s comatose and unresponsive. No-one knows how she got to the hospital, how she was administered, or anything really. Daly doesn’t know Scully’s recent medical history and can’t make a prognosis. He doesn’t even know what’s wrong with her. The FBI has also notified them of the terms of Scully’s living will. There are specific criteria for terminating life support. Mulder knows what they are; he witnessed the will.
A woman is dangling a crystal over Scully when Mulder returns. She calls him Fox, then corrects herself; she was told not to call him that. By Dana. Just now. Her soul is here, choosing whether to remain or move on. There’s a vision of Scully in a boat tied to the shore, with Melissa, Mulder and another woman looking on. Mulder can’t hang around and do nothing, so he tapes an ‘X’ to his window and shines a light on it. In the morning, he collects his paper. There is nothing in it, so he removed the X.
Frohike arrives at the hospital, groomed, wearing a suit and a bow tie and carrying a bunch of flowers. Mulder sees stunned by his appearance. Frohike looks at Scully’s chart and mentions that it’s weird. They smuggle the charts out so that Byers and Langly can look at them too. Byers sends the information to the newest Lone Gunman, who they call The Thinker. He’s a hacking genius.
In Scully’s blood are protein chains that are the by-products of branched DNA. The cutting edge of genetic engineering. Well, 50 years beyond the cutting edge. They are speculating as to what the branch DNA is for, when the Thinker responds. It’s inactive, a waste product. Whatever whoever had Scully was doing, they have finished experimenting. It’s now a biological poison. Scully’s immune system has been decimated; Byers doubts a healthy human body would have the ability to fight it off.
Scully is still in the boat and the woman who was behind Mulder and Melissa is talking to her. She’s a nurse, Owens, in the hospital. She tells Scully she is there to take care of her, and leaves as Mulder arrives. Nurse Owens’ behaviour seemed a bit odd.
Another nurse starts to take blood and Mulder notices a man by the neighbouring bed. Another person crashes and the nurse attending Scully puts down the blood to leave. It looks like Mulder is thinking of taking the blood, but when he looks again, it’s gone. As is the man he just saw.
Mulder chases after him into the garage, only to be confronted by Mr X who sticks a gun in Mulder’s face. He wants Mulder to desist. It got him killed – Deep Throat – and got her killed – Scully – and that isn’t going to happen to him. Mulder is his tool and the direction he is going in will lead right back to Mr X. There is nothing Mulder can do to bring Scully back. He needs to walk away and grieve Scully and never look back. Mulder does not agree with this sentiment and heads after the man. He eventually comes up behind him and takes the blood. The man is not talkative, and manages to break free. Mr X grabs him as he does, shoots him, then kills him.
Scully is below the criteria for remaining on the respirator. She might live off it, but Dr Daly isn’t hopeful. Mrs Scully and Melissa are there as well. Melissa squabbles with Mulder; she thinks it’s the right thing to do. Mrs Scully states her daughter made the decision for them. Scully is in the boat and Nurse Owens is talking to her. The rope tying it to the shore snaps.
Mulder doesn’t seem to have entirely given up on Scully, although he isn’t hopeful. The only other person who doesn’t appear to have written her off already is Nurse Owens. She seems more hopeful than Mulder; also, slightly odd.
Skinner has a new sign on his desk. ‘Thank You For Not Smoking.’ Guess who that is aimed at. The Cigarette Smoking Man, who Mulder gives a nickname for the first time – Cancer Man. He’s not been called by any name until now.