Born Again (The X-Files) - Plot

Plot

In Buffalo, New York, police detective Sharon Lazard finds a little girl, Michelle Bishop, alone in an alley. Lazard takes the seemingly lost girl into her precinct, and leaves her alone to be interviewed by another detective, Rudolph Barbala. However, moments later, Barbala is jettisoned through a window, falling to his death.

Lazard turns to Fox Mulder and Dana Scully for help. She tells them of Michelle's claims that a man had attacked Barbala, even though she was the only person in the room when the detective was killed. The agents have Michelle describe the alleged attacker for a computerized facial composite; the computer seemingly glitches, displaying a face that Michelle identifies as the killer. The composite matches that of a Detective Charlie Morris — who died nine years previously in an apparent gangland hit. The agents speak to Michelle's psychiatrist, Dr. Braun, who tells them that she habitually mutilated dolls in a uniform manner during their sessions together, removing the same eye and arm each time; Mulder realizes that these mutilations match the circumstances of Morris' death.

The agents interview Barbala's partner, Tony Fiore, who attributes Morris' death to a triad gang they had been investigating together. Later that day, Fiore meets with a Leon Felder, and the two discuss claiming a large sum of money from a safety deposit box, but agree that they haven't waited the ten years they had intended to, ominously discussing that they are the last two claimants left. That night, Felder gets off a bus, but his scarf catches in the door as it drives off. The driver tries to brake, but the bus inexplicably continues to accelerate, strangling Felder as Michelle watches from inside the bus.

Investigating further, Mulder and Scully learn that Fiore, Barbala, Felder and Morris had all worked closely together in the past. They also find that Fiore's wife Anita keeps a collection of origami animals made by her first husband—Charlie Morris. Anita tells the agents that Fiore hasn't returned home from the previous night; meanwhile, the agents find that pages are missing from the file on Morris' murder, and Fiore was the last one to have checked the file out.

Michelle undergoes a session of regression hypnosis, where she claims to be twenty-four years old. She suddenly starts screaming in panic about someone trying to kill her, and the session is ended. Mulder reviews the video of the session, and is convinced that the girl is the reincarnation of Morris, having been conceived right around the time the detective was murdered. The tape contains a brief section of static noise just before Michelle begins screaming, which Mulder has an expert clean up. The noise is found to contain a grainy image of what appears to be a fish-tank ornament of a man in an atmospheric diving suit. Meanwhile, Scully has tracked down the missing information on Morris' murder—the autopsy findings, which show the presence of salt water in his respiratory tract, indicating he died of drowning. The agents realise from these findings that Morris was drowned in an exotic fish-tank, just like the one in Fiore's home.

Rushing to Fiore's house, Mulder and Scully find Michelle using telekinetic powers to try to kill Fiore. They prevent her from doing so, and Fiore confesses that he, Felder and Barbala had stolen a large sum of money, intending to keep it safe for ten years before claiming it. Morris learned of their plan and threatened to report them for it, and was killed to silence him. However, Fiore maintains that he never wanted to see Morris dead. Michelle uses her telekinetic powers to destroy the fish-tank but ends her attack upon Fiore when she realizes that he is ashamed of his inaction in Morris' death and after Anita begs the spirit of Morris to not hurt Fiore. Later, Fiore pleads guilty to charges of murder and grand larceny, whilst Michelle seemingly recovers and goes on to become a normal little girl.