AVATAR

   

 

                I appreciate he is a colleague of yours but I want you to understand                                              something...he is also a suspect

 

Assistant Director Walter Skinner is presented with divorce papers from his attorney that will officially end his marriage of 17 years but decides to hold off on signing them for another day. He heads to a hotel bar where he meets an attractive woman. The two sleep together, but Skinner has visions of an old woman in bed with him. He awakens with the woman dead, her head twisted around.

Skinner tells agent Mulder not to get involved. Skinner refused to take a polygraph test and is viewed as a suspect. Agent Scully examines the corpse, finding a phosphorous glow around her lips. Mulder finds out that the woman was a prostitute and meets with her boss, who tells him that Skinner's credit card number was collected the previous night. This is news Skinner is shocked to hear. Despite all the evidence against him, Mulder thinks he and Scully owe it to Skinner to find out what really happened. Skinner finds the old woman in a red coat looking at him, but when he chases her he finds the woman is his wife Sharon.

Sharon talks with Mulder and Scully after Skinner leaves, telling them they've been separated for 8 months and that Skinner builds a wall around him, keeping everyone out. At the FBI a hearing is arranged to be held to determine Skinner's fate. Scully finds out that Skinner has been receiving treatment for a sleep disorder where he finds himself suffocated in bed by an old woman. She believes he may have killed the prostitute in bed while asleep without knowing it. Mulder believes Skinner may be having visions of a succubus. Sharon visits Skinner at his home. After she leaves he falls asleep, seeing the old woman again. He awakens as detectives enter the house, telling him Sharon has been run off the road and severely injured. Skinner admits to Mulder that he saw the woman during his experience in Vietnam, but passed it off as being due to drugs.

Mulder investigates the airbag on Skinner's car, which was the one used to hit Sharon. Scully defends Skinner to the Office of Professional Responsibility, but it does not good and he is fired. Mulder believes this was done to weaken the X-Files. Mulder, with the help of Agent Pendrell finds a face imprint in he airbag which isn't Skinner's. He goes to see the prostitute's boss again but finds that she has been murdered. The agents hope to use Judy, an employee who saw the man who actually hired the prostitute and use her to set up another meeting with him. They agree to meet at the Ambassador Hotel in an hour. Skinner goes to see his wife, telling her why he couldn't sign the divorce papers, and witnesses the old woman again as she awakens from the coma.

Mulder waits in the hotel bar while Scully guards Judy in a hotel room. The assassin enters the room to attack them but is quickly killed by Skinner, who was also there. The dead man's identity is unknown. Skinner returns to work, declining to say to Mulder how he knew to be at the hotel. After Mulder leaves he reaches into his drawer and puts his wedding ring back on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Episode no. Season 3
Episode 21
Directed by James Charleston
Written by Howard Gordon
Guest Stars
Original Airdate April 26, 1996
Theme(s) Sleep Disorders, Hallucinations