UNRUHU

          For truly to pursue monsters, we must understand them. We must venture

                  into their minds

In Traverse City, Michigan, a young woman, Mary Lefante, goes to a local pharmacy to get her passport photo taken. While waiting for it to develop, she returns to her car and finds her boyfriend dead. A hooded man then pricks Lefante with a hypodermic needle, causing her to pass out. The hooded man grabs her and carries her off. In the pharmacy, Lefante's photo develops, showing her screaming amidst a distorted background.

Agents Mulder and Scully join the case. No demand has been made from her kidnapper, and Scully initially theorizes that the pharmacy photographer is involved; comes under doubt when they meet him, an elderly clerk. The boyfriend was found to have died by having something long and sharp pushed into his ear. When discussing the photograph, tells Scully about Ted Serios, who was famous for taking "thoughtographs", photos which showed what was in his mind. Mulder takes pictures using a camera found in Lefante's apartment, and they all appear the same as the one from the pharmacy. Mulder thinks whoever kidnapped Lefante has been stalking her nearby.

Lefante turns up alive, but appears to have been given a lobotomy through the eyes. Another woman, Alice Brandt, is kidnapped. She wakes up bound in a dentist's chair with her kidnapper brandishing an ice pick and speaking in German. Mulder returns to Washington, D.C. to examine the photos and finds no evidence that they were doctored. By closely examining the photos, he finds the face of an old man as well as the shadow of the kidnapper.

Scully, finding a construction company referenced at both crime scenes, investigates the possible lead. She meets a man named Gerry Schnauz, who worked near both scenes of the kidnapping. When Mulder calls Scully, telling her that the kidnapper's legs were out of proportion in the photo, Schnauz, who is on stilts, runs. Scully pursues Schauz and captures him. The agents interrogate Schnauz, who was once institutionalized for beating his father -- the old man in the photo -- with an axe handle. Schnauz initially denies committing any crimes. However, when questioned on the location of Brandt, Schnauz claims she is safe from the "howlers". Brandt is soon found in the woods, lobotomized. Mulder believes that Schnauz thinks he is rescuing his victims from howlers and that the photos show his nightmares.

A police officer takes Schnauz's mugshot. However, when it develops, and it shows the officer shot through the head. Schnauz manages to kill the officer seconds later and escapes, although the death is completely different than that shown in the photo. Schnauz robs a nearby drug store, taking cameras, film, and an assortment of drug-related materials. When Scully leaves, she passes out after being pricked by a needle by Schnauz, who is hiding beneath her car. Examining a photo of Scully taken in the drug store, Mulder finds it distorted like the other photos.

Mulder heads to the office where Schnauz's father used to work as a dentist, and finds the chair missing. Scully awakens bound to the chair with Schnauz claiming he's going to kill the howlers in her head, despite her claims that they don't exist. Schnauz is convinced that the photos show the howlers, and takes a photo of Scully. Mulder, having found a clue in the photos of where Schnauz is holding her captive, finds Schnauz's trailer in a cemetery. He manages to get in and shoots Schnauz before he tries to lobotomize Scully. Mulder looks at the photos Schnauz took, in which he is dead

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