Avatar

"Avatar" is the twenty-first episode of the third season of the X-files. Despite the fact that the episode belongs to the "monster of the week" type, it features some characters from the main" mythology " of the series, primarily the Smoker.

Mulder and Scully are investigating the case of his boss Walter Skinner. Having a difficult relationship with his wife, Sharon, Skinner goes to the bar of a nearby hotel. There, he meets a girl named sales, with whom he decides to spend the night, renting a room in the same hotel. During a stormy night, Skinner is horrified to see an old woman trying to strangle him instead of a girl. He wakes up, realizing that it was a nightmare, and finds his companion lying next to him with a broken neck, face to back.

Agent Dana Scully examines the body and discovers a phosphorescent glow around the dead girl's nose and lips. It turns out that sales was a prostitute working for an escort Agency.

Skinner spots an old woman looking at him on a city street. He pursues her, but finds Sharon instead of the old woman. The agents talk to the chief's wife, who explains that their marriage failed due to Skinner's emotional detachment. Scully learns that Skinner was being treated for a sleep disorder in which he dreamed of an old woman strangling him in bed. She fears that Skinner may have accidentally killed Sayles in her sleep. However, Mulder believes that Skinner may have been visited by a succubus, an evil spirit that comes to men in dreams and poses a danger to female rivals.

Sharon visits Skinner at his home. When she leaves, he falls asleep and dreams of the old woman again. Police officers appear and tell him that Sharon's car was pushed off the road and that she was seriously injured. Skinner confesses to Mulder that he first saw this old woman while serving in Vietnam, but then he decided that it was a hallucination caused by a state of clinical death. The smoker watches their conversation through the one-way mirror of the interview room.

Mulder investigates the airbag in Skinner's car that was used to push Sharon's car off the road. Scully tries to defend Skinner to investigators, but is unsuccessful and is suspended. Mulder believes that the purpose of all these actions was to weaken their positions with Scully on working on the "X-files".

Mulder, with the help of agent Pendrell, finds a face print on the airbag that doesn't belong to Skinner. He goes to the boss of the dead prostitute, but discovers that she has been killed. Agents are hoping to get information from Judy, a colleague of the deceased sales. She saw a man who actually hired a prostitute. Mulder and Scully ask Judy to arrange a meeting with this man, not knowing that the killer is nearby and is watching them. They set up a meeting at the Ambassador hotel in an hour.

Skinner goes to the hospital to see his comatose wife and explains to her why he can't sign the divorce papers. An alarm starts sounding on Sharon's vital signs monitor. Skinner is about to run for help, but suddenly sees an old woman instead of his wife, who gestures for him to come closer. Skinner bends down and sees his wife again, already out of her coma. She is about to say something to him, and the scene ends.

Mulder waits in the hotel bar while Scully guards Judy in the hotel room. The killer enters the room, intending to attack them, but is killed by Skinner who suddenly appears. The killer cannot be identified. Skinner returns to work, refusing to explain to Mulder how he knew they were at the hotel. After Mulder leaves, Skinner puts on his wedding ring again.

Skinner first sees an old woman during a near-death experience during the Vietnam war. She watched him, then picked him up and carried him "out of the light." Since then, she has been protecting him, warning him of the dangers. The old woman comes in a dream, sometimes throws herself on his chest and strangles him. She speaks to him, but he can't make out the words.

The face of the girl found murdered next to Skinner is found to contain a substance that glows in the dark. After a few hours, the glow disappears. The substance decomposes quickly and analysis of its composition is not possible.

According to Mulder, this description is similar to the visits of a succubus-an evil spirit that comes to men at night in the form of an old woman, usually for sex. Sometimes this spirit could even kill a rival who encroached on his man. Such encounters are associated with stories of residual glow on the victim's body.