“Surekill” is episode eight of season eight of The X-Files.
In Worcester, Massachusetts, a man runs to a payphone at night. Then it’s shown to be on the televisions in a shop, but the televisions are showing the street. The man calls someone and has to leave a message, saying that whatever a woman said, it’s a lie and the proof is in her desk drawer. Call him off.
The man runs off as he sees a shadow, which precedes another man. The first runs into a police station, panicking, and is put in a cell after he tries to grab a gun to defend himself. Though the cell is sturdy, he says it isn’t enough. He can still get the man. Then blood spatters over the door.
Scully has an X-ray of the man’s skull. He was definitely shot, and with an armour-piercing 9mm round. Doggett assumes the question is how. He has the details on the man, a realtor named Chase, but Doggett can’t see any bullet holes. One of the cops comes into the cell with a stepladder and starts unscrewing the air vent. The bullet came through it and he assumes the killer hid there. But no-one heard a shot.
Scully asks what’s above and there’s a loft area, with a hole in the floor. And one in the roof. The killer shot through the roof. Doggett says that’s a lucky shot. Very, given that chase said he was going to be killed moments before. Or not lucky at all. Doggett finds a scrap of fabric, a towel wrapped around the pistol to muffle the shot. The killer was there, but how did he make the shot? Scully mentions thermal imaging tech. Doggett field tested it in the Marines; it weighs 90 lbs and is nitrogen cooled. Not practical.
A woman arrives at AAA-1 Surekill Exterminators and heads into the office. She sees the article about Chase being killed in the paper, and hears the message he left. And checks her drawer for a book; the message was about her. Her boss, Dwight, comes in and asks if there are any messages. No. Well, the light is blinking. The message is not the one Chase left, but a customer with rats. The woman, Tammi, asks if Dwight has heard about Chase. He just asks about Randall. Randall, who is the man who followed Chase, comes in. Tammi tells him his brother is after him.
Dwight finds Randall outside and asks what happened; Randall needs to tell him before he does anything. Randall says Chase was stealing. Did he get the money back? No. Dwight says they need to get the money before killing people.
Doggett and Scully head to Chase Real Estate. Scully finds a lot of business from Surekill and Doggett finds a gun on the floor in an inside room. A .45, not the one used to kill Chase. And the room is riddled with bullets. Doggett wonders who Chase was shooting at. Someone inside would be dead. Scully suggests they were outside.
That night, Dwight finds three drug dealers in a building. He wants their drugs and money. They refuse. Randall shoots them through the wall.
Doggett and Scully investigate the scene with the police. Scully says the shooter killed the dealers through the wall. Where he couldn’t see them. Scully suggests maybe he could. She theoretically postulates a change to the structure of the human eye that would allow someone to see things that eyes normally can’t. Like X-rays. Doggett is going to stay with what he knows. This is a drug rip-off, and not the first. Someone is making a living killing drug dealers. He also found a chemical on the fabric from the police station roof.
At Surekill, Dwight takes Tammi into his office. She thinks Randall is watching them. She’s right. Randall looks to the door and leaves before Scully and Doggett arrive. They question Dwight about the invoices; Dwight refers them to Tammi. He can’t make out stuff like that; legally blind since birth. It’s explained that the chemical is one used by exterminators, they did a lot of business with Chase and he called the office before he was killed.
So, Dwight has poor vision and his brother, his twin, has truly exceptional vision. Tammi seems to be ripping Dwight off and it seems that Randall has feelings for her.