“Three Words” is episode sixteen of season eight of The X-Files.
A man climbs over the White House fence at night and starts running across the lawn. He’s quickly surrounded and is saying he need to tell the president something; aliens are taking over the United States. He starts drawing a gun, which goes off, hitting him. The man hands a CD-ROM over which has ‘Fight the Future’, the tagline of the film, written on it.
In the previous episode, “Deadalive”, Mulder came back from the dead. He’s in hospital, remembering experiments carried out on him, when Scully enters with a doctor. She asks if he’s okay. For someone who was in a coffin, he feels surprisingly good. She suggests he sit down. It’s not bad news; it’s miraculous news. Whatever neurological disorder he was suffering is no longer detectable. The alien virus is gone and his scars are repairing themselves. He’s in perfect health.
Scully takes Mulder back to his apartment. He thinks something looks different. Yes; it’s clean. Mulder is missing a molly. The fish wasn’t as lucky as him. Mulder is struggling to cope with what’s happened and apologises to Scully if he’s being a bit cold.
At a correctional facility in Perkey, West Virginia, the librarian trustee brings Absalom a book. Absalom doesn’t need one and knows all he needs to know. The other prisoner suggests otherwise. The book is The Coming Apocalypse. Tucked inside it is a newspaper clipping about a census worker shot on the White House lawn.
Kersh is watching an article about the man, Howard Salt, when Doggett and Skinner enter. Kersh has received an application from Scully for Mulder’s reinstatement on the X-files. Kersh wanted to see them both before he denied the application. He’s reviewed the success rate since Doggett joined; it’s far higher than Mulder and Scully’s. Not surprising, when many cases involve things that can’t be arrested or can’t technically be solved. Skinner tries to point out aliens, but Kersh doesn’t want personal crusades in the FBI. He wants them to tell Mulder. He’s not asking. Or the X-files can be shut down.
Skinner and Scully head to tell Mulder. They agree Kersh wants him to quit. And to punish and hurt him. Mulder says Kersh wants to do the same to them as well. And Scully can’t do much; soon she will have more important matters. Skinner says the X-files will remain open; Agent Doggett will be running them. Doggett is explained to Mulder. No, he doesn’t really know what he’s doing when it comes to the paranormal, but Scully defends him. Mulder has decided he wants to go back to work.
Absalom is working on a road crew when he finds a piece of wood with a nail in it. He uses this to attack a guard when vehicles come to take them back to prison, then runs, getting in front of a train that cuts a pursuing vehicle off.
Doggett returns home to hear someone behind him cock a gun. It’s Absalom. Absalom wants to check the back of Doggett’s neck, to make sure he was still Doggett. Evidently, he is. Absalom has the clipping about Salt and says Salt was killed for what he knew. They will kill Absalom too; Doggett is his only chance. Absalom will show him and Doggett will spread it to the world. The invasion has begun. They’re already here.
Doggett’s phone is ringing, as Scully is trying to contact him from a briefing that Skinner is giving to other agents about Absalom. ‘Fight the Future’ was written on the wall of Absalom’s cell. Afterwards, Scully says she can’t reach Doggett. Skinner thinks this is an obvious X-files case. Then Scully gets a message. Mulder is in his old office and they head to see him. He says he’s just visiting buds. Regarding the manhunt for Absalom, it seems Mulder has noticed Howard Salt in a group photo of Absalom and abductees.
Mulder does not trust Doggett, thinking he’s a plant, and their first meeting does not go well. Doggett may not be a believer, but he’s not the plant Mulder thinks he is. And Scully is worried that Mulder will do something that will get him kicked out.