The Pine Bluff Variant - Plot

Plot

Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), and several other FBI agents take part in an undercover operation in a Washington park to catch Jacob Haley (Daniel von Bargen), the member of an anti-government militia called the New Spartans. As Skinner and Scully monitor the operation from a van, Mulder and the other agents slowly close in on Haley. Haley hands an envelope to the Goatee Man (Armin Moattar), before escaping. The agents discover that Goatee Man's flesh has been eaten away by an unknown toxin.

Scully becomes concerned that Mulder let Haley get away, but he dodges her queries. Later, Scully informs a counter-terrorism task force headed by Skinner and U.S. Attorney Leamus (Sam Anderson) that the Goatee Man was killed by a biological agent. Skinner gives a history of the New Spartans and their leader, August Bremer (Michael MacRae), who is involved in an internal power struggle with Haley. Scully follows Mulder and sees him meeting with Haley. When she tries to pursue Mulder and the New Spartans, Scully is surrounded by government agents and brought before Skinner and Leamus, who inform her that Mulder is infiltrating the group as an undercover agent.

Mulder is taken to a New Spartans' secluded hideout, where Haley accuses him of spying for the government. Mulder is tortured by the Skin-Head Man (Douglas Arthurs) — one of his fingers broken in the process — until he claims that the spy must be somewhere within the New Spartans. Meanwhile, Bremer tests the biological weapon in an Ohio movie theatre, killing fourteen people inside. Investigating the scene, Scully becomes confused as to how the contagion was spread, as it is not airborne. Mulder and Scully meet at his apartment, where she tends to his finger and discusses the operation. Bremer, however, is secretly recording their conversation.

Mulder meets with Skinner and Leamus, telling them at the New Spartans are planning to rob a bank and that Haley wants copies of surveillance files on the group, in an attempt to discover the spy's identity. Leamus, expecting the request, hands over a redacted microfilm for Haley to see. Scully discovers that the biological weapon was engineered by the U.S. government, and concludes that someone purposely sent Mulder on a suicide mission. She realizes that the pathogen is spread through touch, and that New Spartans plan to spread it via the money in the bank. Meanwhile, Mulder joins the New Spartans as they infiltrate the bank and spray the money with the pathogen.

After the fake robbery, Bremer accuses Mulder of being the mole; Haley, however, intercedes, and claims that Bremer is the real mole. To further his argument, Bremer plays back the tape of Mulder and Scully. The militia group turns against Haley. Bremer offers Haley a set of car keys and tells him he can leave the group unharmed. Haley agrees and drives off. Bremer, along with the Skin-Head Man, marches Mulder into a desolate area and prepares to execute him. However, Bremer instead kills the Skin-Headed Man and tells Mulder to run, lest they both be discovered.

Mulder rushes back to the bank to warn people about the contaminated money and finds that Scully has already had the bank quarantined and the money taken away. Scully confronts Leamus about this being a covert government weapons test. Leamus responds that it is their job to protect the public from the truth. Later, we see Haley slumped over in his getaway car, his face eaten away by the pathogen that was sprayed on the car keys.