User:Admiral Norton/sandbox/Tithonus (The X-Files)

"Tithonus" was the tenth episode of the sixth season of the American 20th Century Fox television series The X-Files. It orignially aired on January 24, 1999. The episode was directed by Michael W. Watkins and written by Chris Carter and Vince Gilligan. Its plot's main focus of the is Alfred Fellig (Geoffrey Lewis), a police photographer taking pictures of recently deceased people, sometimes even before the police is called. Along the outer story arc, Assistant Director Kersh (James Pickens, Jr.) separates Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) from Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), assigning her Agent Peyton Ritter (Richard Ruccolo).

Alfred Fellig was modeled as a homage to Usher "Arthur" Fellig (nicknamed "Weegee", a name descending from "ouija"), a 1930s and 40s New York City police photographer known for taking gruesome crime scene photos. Just as the actual photographer, the episode's Fellig carried a police scanner, which enabled him to get faster to the crime scenes.

Plot
The episode's cold open starts in New York City. A man in his mid-sixties (Geoffrey Lewis) in a skyscraper helps a woman push a mail cart out of an elevator. However, he insists on following her around the building, ultimately meeting her again in the same elevator. As the camera switches to the man's viewpoint, the man comes to see other elevator passengers in black and white. After he gets out and the elevator continues downward, it malfunctions and crashes in the basement. However, the man is already there, photographing the dying passengers.

The next scene is placed in the FBI headquarters with Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Mulder (David Duchovny) doing routine office work. Scully is summoned by Assistand Director Alvin Kersh (James Pickens, Jr.) to investigate Alfred Fellig (the same man who appeared in the cold open), a photographer who appears on crime scenes before the police. However, instead of to Mulder, she is now assigned to Agent Peyton Ritter (Richard Ruccolo) to work on the case. Ritter suspects that Fellig kills his victims and takes pleasure in photographing them. In a later conversation, Mulder tries to convince Scully that Fellig's case is an "X-file" (i.e. a supernatural phenomenon), but Scully doesn't agree.

Upon arriving in New York and looking at photos of Fellig from old photographer license renewal applications, Scully is puzzled by Fellig apparently having the same age on photos spanning over 30 years. That night in Bronx, Fellig witnesses a street mugging which ends in a murder by knife. While he is photographing the body, the mugger (Matt Gallini) returns and stabs him in the back. The following day, Fellig is brought into the police precinct because his prints were found on the murder weapon. During the interrogation, Fellig tries to distance himself from the event, but in the end is forced to display his now almost-healed wounds.

During the night, Ritter and Scully conduct a stakeout in front of Fellig's apartment. However, Scully decides to blow her cover and goes to talk to Fellig. Fellig and her take a drive around the city so Fellig can show her how he finds the dying people. He stops his car near a prostitute and prognoses its death. Scully tries to save her, but the prostitute is ran over by a truck while running away from Scully. Fellig takes a photo and drives away.

The day after, while Ritter is criticizing Scully for blowing her cover, Mulder calls to tell her that Fellig is using aliases and that he is in fact L. H. Rice, born in 1849 and thus 149 years old. Scully goes to confront Fellig and question him about his reasons. He replies that he is seeking the Death, whom he has once succesfully avoided. Since all his attempts at suicide were unsuccessful, he believes he can die if he sees the Death's face. During the conversation, Scully becomes black and white in his vision as he senses her imminent death. Indeed, Ritter, warned by Mulder, arrives to apprehend Fellig but accidentally also shoots Scully. As she is dying, Fellig tells her to close her eyes and the Death takes him instead of her. In a dénouement a week after, Scully recovers in a hospital from a gunshot wound while Mulder and the doctors are surprised at the rate of her recovery.