“Pilot” is episode one of season one of The X-Files.
The unimaginatively named pilot episode opens with the statement ‘The following story is inspired by actual documented accounts.’ Then a young woman is seen running through a forest at night, dressed only in a nightgown. The falls to the ground and a light is seen over a rise. The trees and leaves blow as if in a strong wind and a figure approaches, one that is never properly seen.
The next day and the woman is lying face down, dead, in Collumn National Forest in northwest Oregon. The man examining her says that there is no visible cause of death. There are also two marks on the woman’s back. When turned over, blood has come from the woman’s nostril. A detective ID’s the woman as Karen Swenson, as she went to school with his son. The examiner asks if that was the class of ’89, and if it’s happening again.
A woman enters the J. Edgar Hoover building in Washington, D.C. She identifies herself as Agent Dana Scully. She enters the office of Section Chief Scott Blevins, who is sitting behind a desk. A second man is in a corner, smoking, and a third is sitting next to the desk. The other two are not identified. Blevins recaps Scully’s career and asks if she’s familiar with Fox Mulder. Yes, by reputation. An Oxford educated psychologist who wrote a monologue on serial killers and the occult. Considered to be the best analyst in the violent crime section. With the nickname of ‘Spooky’ Mulder. According to Blevins, Mulder has become rather interested in an unassigned project outside the Bureau mainstream. The X-Files. Blevins wants Scully to assist Mulder, write field reports and observations on the validity of his work. Not outright debunk; simply make a proper scientific analysis.
Mulder is in an office deep in the bowels of the building, one filled with posters and matter about UFOs. Scully tells Mulder she has been assigned to work with him, and is looking forward to doing so. Mulder states she was sent to spy on him. He does ask for her medical opinion on something, starting a slideshow. A 21-year-old Oregon female with no explainable cause of death, with two marks on her back. An organic compound found in the tissue surrounding the marks. Something similar has been seen in a couple of other states.
Mulder has plenty of theories, asking Scully if she believes in the existence of extra-terrestrials. Logically, no, given the distances and energy requirements. Which is actually answering the question, ‘Does she believe in the existence of extra-terrestrials on this planet?’ Swenson is the fourth member of her graduation class to die under mysterious circumstances. Scully says that they obviously died of something, that the answers are there if they know where to look. Where they are starting is Oregon, flying out tomorrow morning.
On the way to Bellefleur, Mulder states that the first three deaths were investigated by the FBI, but the agents stayed a week, then were called back and the case reclassified as an X-File. Scully has noticed that the first three victims showed no marks or compounds, but the reports were signed by a different ME to the last. Mulder has arranged to exhume one of the other victims. Then their car starts acting up, with the electronics going haywire. So, Mulder stops and paints an ‘X’ on the road.
At the graveyard, a man with his daughter pulls up as the exhumation is about to go ahead. He is the county medical examiner, and the person who signed the first three reports. He was away and wasn’t notified. He also stated one of the victims as having died of exposure. After 7 hours in the warm woods in July. The third victim had confessed to the other two. During the exhumation, the body is dropped and what is inside is clearly not human.
On examining it, Scully thinks the body is not human. Not an ET. Perhaps a chimpanzee. Something from the ape family, perhaps an orangutan. Mulder wants a full work up done on the body, including X-rays. The last revealing a small metallic implant in the body’s nose.
The doctor at Rayman County State Psychiatric Hospital stated that the third victim had clinical schizophrenia. He also has treated some of that victim’s classmates. In fact, two of them, Peggy O’Dell and Billy Miles, have been long-term residents, for four years.
Billy is in a waking coma and Peggy is in a wheelchair next to him, reading. Both were involved in a car crash. When Mulder mentions a medical examination of Peggy, she freaks out and starts bleeding from the nose. She also has two marks on her back. Mulder believes they were both abducted by aliens. Does Scully have a better explanation? No, but there has to be one. All four were found in the woods, so how did they get there?
In the forest, Mulder’s compass is spinning wildly and Scully finds an ash-like substance on the road. She hears a noise and lights over a rise. However, it’s a man with a shotgun who says he is with the county sheriff’s office, and that they are trespassing. The lights and noise are from his vehicle. Then, after leaving, Mulder and Scully’s car conks out. During which they apparently lost 9 minutes, and it happened where Mulder painted the ‘X’.
During the episode, Mulder explains how his 8-year-old sister disappeared when he was 6. How he found the X-Files, but has been denied access to some information. More strange stuff happens, and more deaths. Evidence is stolen, or destroyed in a fire. There appears to be evidence of coverups and conspiracies and there are no clear answers as to what happened.