“Paper Hearts” is episode ten of season four of The X-Files.
Mulder is asleep and wakes to see the light from a laser pen on the wall. The point changes to the word ‘FOLLOW’ which he does. Outside, he sees a car at Bosher’s Run Park and the light goes to it, changing to ‘MAD HAT’. The light leads him into the woods to the base of a tree where he sees a young girl’s body. The light goes to her and changes into the shape of a heart. Then she sinks into the ground and Mulder wakes up properly. He looks in the phone book for the park’s address and heads there to the tree he saw.
In the morning, Mulder is having people dig by the tree when Scully arrives. She asks what’s going on. He’s not sure he can explain. Scully says he called for a forensic excavation team at 5AM on a Sunday; what is he looking for? Mulder explains that he has been having a dream about a little blonde girl. Scully asks if they are here because of something Mulder saw in a dream. Then one of the excavators calls them. They’ve found a skull.
Mulder tells Scully he’s been having flashes of the dream for three nights in a row. Last night it lasted long enough to lead him here. He wants the chest exposed and digs himself. Scully tells him that if he destroys evidence, they may never know what happened. Mulder knows what happened. The girl was strangled with 8-gauge electrical core. The killer took something from the body post-mortem. A trophy. Apiece of fabric in the shape of a heart. Mulder knows the MO; it is of John Lee Roche who killed 13 8-10 year old girls. Revealing a trophy has been taken, Mulder changes the number to 14.
Mulder explains that by 1990 Roche had killed 10 victims. Mulder’s former boss in the Violent Crimes Section, Reggie Purdie, seen in “Young at Heart”, brought Mulder in. Mulder concluded that the killer was a travelling salesman, very ordinary. Roche was a vacuum cleaner salesman, selling vacuums in victims’ houses, sizing up targets at the same time. They never found the trophies but Riche confessed to 13 murders. The polygraph confirmed this but Mulder was always bugged and wanted to find the trophies. Scully thinks Mulder solved the case in his sleep, referencing what he said in “Aubrey”, ‘You said yourself once that a dream is an answer to a question we haven’t yet learned how to ask.’
The bones are from an Addie Sparks, missing in June 1975, prior to when Roche was known to be active. They head to Addie’s parents to verify this. The father, Robert Sparks, answers the door and, when they introduce themselves, knows why they’re there. He identifies part of the clothing and is told the killer is already in prison. He wonders how many others they are seeing, how many other victims there were they didn’t know about. That’s a good question.
On the way back to their car, Mulder says Roche travelled and would have wanted to keep the trophies close. Which meant his car. The car was sold at auction and was searched, but not by Mulder. They go to meet the new owner – the car is the one from Mulder’s dream – and starts searching it. Then Mulder remembers that ‘MAD HAT’ was on the camper shell, which has been removed. Searching the shell reveals a book, Alice in Wonderland, and 16 hearts. Two more victims.
Mulder and Scully head to see Roche, who congratulates them on finding Addie He’s also found they found 16 hearts. He felt 13 sounded more magical as a number. Roche sees no benefit in telling them. But if they bring him the hearts, he will tell them everything they want to know.
This time, Mulder is asleep in his office. The laser pointer takes him to the night Samantha disappeared. And Mulder sees Roche at the scene. Heading to see Roche again, Roche claims he sold a vacuum to Mulder’s father. If Mulder brings Roche the hearts, maybe he will tell Mulder more. Mulder punches Roche. The guard says he didn’t see anything. Scully saw. She thinks Roche learned facts about Mulder on the internet, as he has access to it. The dream was nothing but a dream. Mulder reminds her the last one came true. A point. Besides, she never believed Samantha was abducted by aliens, so what else could have happened to her?
Mulder finds a vacuum cleaner at his mother’s house that matches the one Roche claimed to have sold her. Skinner is not happy about Mulder punching Roche; it was recorded on camera. Roche is definitely playing games, but is he also telling the truth? Mulder decides to find out whether Roche did abduct his sister.