“Within” is episode one of season eight of The X-Files.
Scully jolts awake in her hospital bed after a dream that Mulder was being experimented on after he was abducted in the season seven finale, “Requiem”.
She heads into the FBI to find Mulder’s office being packed up. The agents doing so are looking for anything that might be pertinent to the manhunt. Scully wonders whose stupid idea that was. She heads to see Skinner, who has only just heard. It wasn’t his idea and they won’t find Mulder this way. Scully says Skinner is an Assistant Director; who went over his head? The brand-new Deputy Director, Skinner replies, as the phone rings with a call from Kersh.
They arrive at Kersh’s office where he’s still unpacking things. He says the only acceptable outcome is to find Mulder alive and he’s thankful for their cooperation in the hunt. They feel they’d be better directing it, but Kersh says they are the two primary witnesses. He wants their statements taken ASAP by the task force leader, John Doggett. And don’t talk about aliens, or they’ll need to find new jobs.
Outside the office, Skinner thinks Kersh is just covering the FBI and Scully that they’d be perfectly happy if Mulder was never found. Skinner is going to tell the truth in his statement about what he saw. Scully says they could hang him with that; they don’t want the truth. Skinner says they could hang him with a lie, too, and isn’t going to sell Mulder out. However, Scully asks what good he will be for Mulder if he gives them the power to ruin his career.
In the task force, Skinner is interviewed first. Scully sits down – next to Doggett, as can be told from the credits – but his badge is turned to hide his name. Doggett says a number of things that make it clear to anyone who knows who he is – not Scully – that he’s pumping her for information. Scully eventually realises something is up, turns his badge around and throws a cup of water over him before leaving. Their first meeting could have gone better.
Scully researches Doggett’s career at home then calls her mother, leaving a message on the answerphone. It sounds like there’s someone on the line and Scully then sees someone watching her window from the street. She calls Doggett to give him a piece of her mind, tapping her phone and surveilling her; it actually sounds like he doesn’t have a clue what she’s on about. Scully sees a shadow underneath her apartment door. It leaves, she follows and ends up holding a gun on her landlord on the fire escape. He says he did see someone. Mulder. When Scully returns to her apartment, her computer is gone. When she heads to Mulder’s, his is too.
Skinner meets up with the Lone Gunmen who have been researching UFO activity in the region where Mulder was abducted just prior to it. Quite a few others have gone missing. If they can figure out where is the next place, they have a chance to find Mulder.
Doggett checks with Kersh – probably because of the call from Scully – that no-one else at the FBI is running an operation looking into Mulder’s disappearance. Scully keeps clashing with Doggett, but his attempts to find Mulder seem genuine, even if he clearly doesn’t think there’s anything involving aliens. There are more than a few clips of Mulder being operated on. Whilst conscious. The story continues in the next episode, “Without”.