Plot
Two men are surveying an area of the forest in Leon County, Florida when they are attacked and killed by unseen assailants with glowing red eyes. Later that day, Michael Asekoff and his son, Louis, are hunting for possums with their dog, Bo, in the same stretch of woods. Upon discovering a surveyor's bloody jacket, the father orders his son to take the dog and run home. As the son and dog take off, two shots go off.
Meanwhile, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are carpooling with FBI agents Michael Kinsley and Carla Stonecypher, en route to a leadership and "team building" seminar. When they are stopped at a roadblock by local police, Mulder decides to investigate. As Mulder and Scully venture into the woods, they are informed by Officer Michele Fazekas that no conclusive evidence has been found to support Louis Asekoff's report of a shooting. Mulder sees this as a perfect opportunity to ditch the seminar. That night, Scully visits Mulder in his hotel room after the reception. Mulder informs her that no native species to North America will attack a stronger member of its prey when there is a weaker target available.
At the Asekoff residence, Bo becomes upset and begins barking. Mrs. Asekoff lets him outside but when she attempts to retrieve him, the dog refuses to budge. She turns to go back inside but discovers that it has been bolted from the inside. Louis hears his mother's screams and climbs out of bed, but a dark, shadowy figure with red eyes corners him. Louis barely escapes through the dog door where he runs into Mulder, informing him of the creature's whereabouts in the house.
The next morning, Mulder shows Scully some tracks by the front door of the house that appear to be human. Based on the weight distribution, however, the assailant evidently travels on the balls of its feet rather than from heel to toe. Additionally, that the creature lured the mother out of the house in order to get to Louis suggests to Mulder that the creatures are paranormal in nature.
Jeff Glaser, a local technician armed with a forward looking infrared (FLIR) device, joins Fazekas, Mulder, and Scully on a search for the creature. They soon spot two creatures on the FLIR, though they are unable otherwise. The two creatures travel in separate directions, causing the four to split up. Officer Fazekas is attacked and disappears. Mulder deduces from this that the creatures may be related to the Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. After a brief encounter with the creatures, Jeff takes off running and is swiftly killed by a creature. Mulder is grabbed by the other creature, though it releases him after Scully manages to wound it with her firearm.
The next morning, Scully falls through a hole into an underground chamber where the bodies of their missing companions are stored. Spotting a pair of red eyes, Scully realizes she does not have her firearm on her. Mulder drops his down to her as the bushes behind him begin to rustle. He jumps in the hole as Scully shoots the creature and kills it. As they examine the dead creature, they notice its almost human-like features and wood-like skin. Nearby, the words "Ad Noctum", Latin for "into darkness", are found carved into a tree trunk.
Mulder and Scully eventually are rescued and Michael Asekoff and Officer Fazekas are found alive, but there is no sign of Jeff or the other creature. Upon leaving the forest Mulder states that the creature may, in fact, be an evolved version of the first Spanish conquistadors which had first settled in the forest 450 years ago. Although Agent Kinsley finds it ridiculous Mulder believes that the 400 plus years of seclusion could be adequate for such drastic adaptations to happen. Afterwards, Mulder realizes that the creatures presume others' presence in their territory as threatening and rushes to the hotel room where Scully is packing her things. After ascertaining that she is finished packing, he firmly urges her to vacate the room, which she does. The camera then pans under the bed where a pair of red eyes open.
Read more about this topic: Detour (The X-Files)
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“There comes a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)