“The Field Where I Died” is episode five of season four of The X-Files.
Mulder is standing in a field, staring at something in his hands whilst in a voiceover he reads ‘Paracelsus’ by Robert Browning. What’s in Mulder’s hands are two old sepia photographs of a man and a woman. The photo of a woman has been torn in half.
The ATF conduct a raid at the Temple of the Seven Stars in Apison, Tennessee. They are looking for illegal firearms. Mulder and Scully are accompanying them. The firearms aren’t found and they think the leader of the cult, Vernon Ephesian, has been tipped off. Mulder sees a door and heads through it, outside the building, into what looks like the field from the start. Scully follows and says there are no hiding places beyond the yard. However, voices can be heard and there’s a hatch in the soil. When opened, there’s a man and several women about to drink from cups. Mulder knocks one out of a woman’s hand before she can drink.
At the federal command centre in Chattanooga, Skinner is playing a tape from someone called Sydney claiming children were being hurt to the various agents. The call capped off an ATF investigation. However, the cult was alerted in time to hide the evidence. At the moment, they are holding Ephesian and his wives on the possession of dangerous chemicals. They’ll be out in 24 hours. Sydney needs to be found; if the cult were tipped off, this could be a murder case. Skinner speaks to Mulder and Scully personally; they were called in because of Ephesian’s alleged paranormal abilities. There’s a concern that if they can’t stop the cult this time, next time it will be Jonestown not Waco.
Ephesian claims he knew they were coming to Mulder and Scully, and had for centuries. His church is supposedly all seven churches that received the revelation combined. There are no members of his temple named or nicknamed Sydney.
The ordinary members are released though the temple is still under federal control. Mulder wants to start with one of Ephesian’s wives, Melissa, the one that he knocked the drink from. She’s questioned about the cult and Ephesian, and when the matter of the children is raised, her personality and voice changes. She doesn’t know Melissa; she’s Sydney. Scully notes down multiple personalities. Mulder asks who the president of the U.S. is. Sydney states Harry Truman. Mulder has written down past life. Somehow, he just knew.
Ephesian and his wives are going to be released, though voice spectrogram confirms that Melissa is Sydney. Mulder wants to head back to the compound with Melissa, as he believes one of her personalities wants to cooperate. Scully says that multiple personalities are extremely rare. Mulder says Melissa matches all the criteria. Her testimony would be admissible. Afterwards, Scully says Mulder didn’t say what he truly believed.
They head back to the temple with Melissa. She enters a bedroom, then leaves. She’s sitting drawing in a children’s room; now, she says her name is Lily. Trying to get Lily to talk brings Sydney back. When he’s asked where the guns were hidden, Melissa changes again and walks into the field outside. When she starts talking, it’s with a Southern accent and she’s speaking about how the weapons were placed in the bunker the night before. General Clybourne had ordered a retreat from the Union army. She was a nurse and came looking for a man, who she found on 26th November, 1863, with all the others. She was there, as was Mulder. This was the field where she watched Mulder die.
Mulder is becoming convinced by this whole past lives thing. Scully, not so much. She comments that Ephesian is considered to be a paranoid because of his belief in a past life, but Mulder is believing the same thing. Especially when Mulder seems to be suggesting that they have all been together previously in different lives.