(MELISSA backs away in horror. Record player starts over on its own. MELISSA goes back down stairs to kitchen and begins crying. She looks up and sees reflection of OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS in her kitchen window holding his bloody nightstick.)
BUDDY’S IMAGE: Melissa … help me.
MELISSA: No!
SCENE 13 (Restaurant. SCULLY and BONSAINT at a table. Waitress places a very large lobster in front of them. BONSAINT sighs with pleasure.)
SCULLY: Oh, my god! That looks like something out of Jules Verne. We’re supposed to eat that?
BONSAINT: (ripping off a piece) A little late for anything else. You said you had some other directions you were looking at?
SCULLY: I’ve been thinking about Melissa Turner. Now, you said that her husband died in a boating accident?
BONSAINT: (eating lobster with much cracking) Ayuh.
SCULLY: Well, was there anything strange about that? About the way that it happened?
BONSAINT: Well… it was never quite explained to anyone’s satisfaction, actually.
SCULLY: How’s that?
BONSAINT: (rips off more lobster) How the man got a grappling hook poked clean through his skull.
SCULLY: Was Melissa ever questioned about that?
BONSAINT: Melissa? No. I don’t see how she’d be involved. The boat he died on is right over there if you’re at all wondering.
(They look out window and see the OLD MAN on a small fishing boat, named "Working Girl".)
SCULLY: I saw that man at the market.
(Outside, OLD MAN throws a bucket or water over the side of the boat.)
SCENE 14 (Turner house. POLLY, holding her doll, puts a record on her record player.)
POLLY: I want popcorn, Mommy.
(MELISSA looks in the room as POLLY starts her record player. Hokey Pokey.)
MELISSA: Okay.
(MELISSA turns and is started to see OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS.)
BUDDY: What are you doing here?
MELISSA: Buddy!
BUDDY: How come you’re back in town?
MELISSA: You’ve got to get out of here, Buddy.
BUDDY: You know, I called the rangers. They said you tried to kill a man. You almost ran him over. You came back to kill her, too, didn’t you?
MELISSA: I didn’t try to kill anybody.
BUDDY: Jane Froelich.
MELISSA: It isn’t me, Buddy.
BUDDY: Well, we’re going to see about that. You’re coming in with me. You and your little brat.
(POLLY turns the doll to face BUDDY. Doll’s eyes open.)
DOLL: I want to play.
SCENE 15 (Night. On the boat, SCULLY and BONSAINT interviewing the OLD MAN. OLD MAN still has scratches around his eyes.)
OLD MAN: What happened? You ask that question around here, you get as many stories as … as fishermen.
SCULLY: You were on board the night that he died. What do you think?
OLD MAN: I told my story to the Chief.
SCULLY: People’s stories change.
OLD MAN: Folks blame the widow.
SCULLY: Who do you blame?
OLD MAN: He was wild for her.
CUT TO: (Flashback, before the father died. As OLD MAN tells the story, FATHER pulls up a trap and finds the doll.)
OLD MAN: (voiceover) He worked very hard to build that little house for her and when that daughter came, you’d need a mop to wipe that smile off his face. We’d set out to sea on the girl’s last birthday. He was counting the hours before he’d be home again.
FATHER: Hey, look what Davy Jones sent my little Polly. Catch of the day.
OLD MAN: Ayuh.
CUT TO: (Present.)
OLD MAN: Three days later, he was dead.
SCULLY: And you know what killed him.
OLD MAN: The eyes play tricks at night, water up against the hull making noises.
CUT TO: (Night FATHER died. FATHER is alone on deck.)
OLD MAN: (voiceover) Sometimes you hear things.
DOLL’S VOICE: Let’s have fun.
FATHER: What the hell was that?
(FATHER picks up a long curved grappling hook. He opens cabin door, waking the OLD MAN.)
OLD MAN: What is it?
(FATHER doesn’t answer, just goes back outside. OLD MAN hears the voice.)
DOLL’S VOICE: I want to play.
(OLD MAN gets up and goes outside. He sees the FATHER with the hook through his head.)
OLD MAN: Oh, my God.
CUT TO: (Present.)
OLD MAN: Like I said, the eyes play tricks.
SCULLY: But you saw something in that grocery store. That little girl and her dolly.
OLD MAN: Moment I saw them, I knew.
SCENE 16 (SCULLY and BONSAINT are getting back in the car. SCULLY’S phone rings.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Scully.
MULDER: (on phone) Hey. I thought you weren’t answering your cell phone.
(MULDER, tie undone, is sitting at a desk <SCULLY’S?!> which has an upside down map of Kentucky behind it. He is playing with the phone cord. Still bored.)
SCULLY: (on phone) Then why’d you call?
MULDER: (on phone) I, uh, I had a new thought about this case you’re on. There’s a viral infection that’s spread by simple touch …
SCULLY: (on phone) Mulder, are there any references in occult literature to objects that have the power to direct human behavior?
(BONSAINT gives SCULLY an odd look.)
MULDER: (on phone) What types of objects?
SCULLY: (on phone) Um, like a doll, for instance.
MULDER: (on phone) You mean like Chuckie?
SCULLY: (on phone) Yeah, kind of like that. (MULDER gets up and crosses to his desk)
MULDER: (on phone) Yeah, the talking doll myth is well established in literature, especially in New England. The-the fetish or Juju is believed to pass on magical powers onto its possessor. Some of the early witches were condemned for little more than proclaiming that these objects existed. The supposed witch having premonitory visions and things …. Why do you ask?
SCULLY: (on phone) I was just curious.
MULDER: (on phone) You didn’t find a talking doll, did you, Scully?
SCULLY: (on phone) No, no. Of course not.
MULDER: (on phone) I would suggest that you check the back of the doll for a - a plastic ring with a string on it.
(SCULLY shakes her head and hangs up.)
MULDER: (on phone) That would be my first …. Hello?
SCULLY: Let’s go talk to Melissa Turner.
SCENE 17 (Turner house. Sound of metal scraping.)
POLLY: (in her room, yelling) Where’s my popcorn?!
(MELISSA is in the kitchen making popcorn on the stove. She is very upset.)
MELISSA: It’s coming, Polly.
(Camera shows that OFFICER BUDDY RIGGS is dead. In his hand is his bloody nightstick.)
POLLY: Where’s my popcorn?!
MELISSA: (crying) It’s coming.
(Commercial 3.)
SCENE 18 (POLLY is in bed sleeping with the doll. MELISSA looks in the room, then goes to a cabinet and gets a hammer and a handful of nails. Later, MELISSA is frantically hammering nails into all the door frames and windows.)
POLLY: (calling from upstairs) Mommy … I can’t sleep.
MELISSA: You go back to bed, Polly. It’s way past your bedtime.
POLLY: No more pounding.
MELISSA: Go back to bed, sweetheart.
(Doll’s eyes pop open.)
DOLL: Let’s have fun.
(MELISSA sees her own image in the window, a hammer stuck in her bloody forehead.)
MELISSA’S IMAGE: Help me …
MELISSA: Everything’s going to be all right, Sweetie. Just go back to bed.
(Outside, BONSAINT and SCULLY drive up. They see a car parked close by.)
BONSAINT: That’s Buddy’s car.
(Inside, MELISSA closes the door to POLLY’S bedroom. She puts the hammer back in the cabinet and padlocks it. Then she goes to the kitchen and tips a portable heater over, spilling kerosene on the floor next to the dead body of BUDDY RIGGS. She gets a box of matches then hears BONSAINT and SCULLY outside knocking.)
BONSAINT: Melissa!
(SCULLY looks in a window.)
BONSAINT: You see anything?
SCULLY: Unh-uh.
BONSAINT: (knocking) Melissa.
(Inside, Melissa tries to strike a match. She is shaking. Finally, the third match lights)
BONSAINT: (outside) Melissa!
POLLY: (watching MELISSA, frightened) Mommy?!