Other cops arrive at the overturned car. The deputy is alive, but shaken. Apparently reluctant to say what he really saw, he blames the incident on "gangbangers."
Someone sees something, and the cops give chase, camera in tow. It's Mulder and Scully. The agents have their hands up, until they manage to show the cops their badges.
"Who are you looking for?" asks a cop.
"Not who -- what," Mulder ominously intones.
Is Keith a werewolf?
Claw marks are found. Mulder asks the deputy what he saw, but Keith is not forthcoming. There have been many monster sightings under the full moon, Mulder points out. He thinks a werewolf is loose, and that the deputy was bitten by it and will turn into one. Sgt. Paula Duthie is skeptical.
The cops and agents go to the house of the woman who initially called 911. She is hysterical, shouts in Spanish about a "claw monster."
Based on her description, Ricky the freelance police sketch artist draws Freddy Krueger. Mulder is puzzled that it's not a werewolf. Scully's upset that all this is being taped for Cops.
Ricky is scared and asks for a cop to walk him to his car. Scully tells Mulder that Keith's wound is from the bites of insects, not a werewolf. She calls Skinner to express concern that all this is going on Cops, but he says "the FBI has nothing to hide."
Six blocks away, a person is down. Everyone runs there. It's Ricky, the sketch artist. He's dead.
Even artists bleed
Keith the deputy talks to the camera, awkwardly explaining how the fall of a comrade, even one serving in an "artistic capacity," means it's time for the cops to "cowboy up."
The investigation continues. The law enforcement personnel visit Sam and Edy, a gay couple. David Duchovny (Mulder) breaks into laughter as the actors who play this couple ham it up.
More investigation. They try to coax information from a prostitute named Chantara Gomez. She's afraid of her boyfriend.
Arrests are made. Someone spits at the camera. The boyfriend is subdued, but shots ring out in the street. Keith the deputy has been shooting because "it came back." Chantara is dead in the car.
Mulder and Keith talk. Although wary of seeming insane before a nationwide TV audience, Keith acknowledges that the attacker was the "wasp man," something his older brother used to tell him about to scare him.
Mulder explains to Scully that the entity appears to people as their worst nightmares, and feeds on the resulting fear. The fear spreads from person to person. But why weren't Steve and Edy attacked?
Fear and hugging
Back to the couple. There are screams but it’s only a domestic dispute. Duchovny laughs again.
The couple hug, and decline an offer of being put up in a hotel. They're scared -- but no one will drive them from their homes. There are now several camera crews, able to follow the different law people around.
There are four or five more hours until the moon sets. Scully grabs the car keys and goes off to autopsy Ricky. Mulder and Keith talk in another car. The deputy is worried that appearing crazy will interfere with his law enforcement career; Mulder sympathizes.
Autopsy room. Scully is there with a pathology assistant, who is frightened. Fear.
Smiling grimly at the camera, Scully explains to the assistant that the FBI has "nothing to hide," and furthermore there's no reason to think this corpse is carrying hantavirus. Suddenly, the assistant sneezes blood and collapses -- symptoms of hantavirus.
4:41 a.m. The full moon is still out. The assistant is dead. Scully tells Mulder it can’t be hantavirus, since no virus works so fast. Mulder says the "power of suggestion" did this. "She was afraid," he intones. "She was afraid -- and her fear killed her, by the worst possible way she could imagine."
Not frightened enough
This would explain why Steve and Edy didn't die. They weren't frightened enough.
There is a raid on a crack house. Mulder was supposed to be backing up Keith, but he forgot.
A frightened camera crew tries to get out of the crack house. Mulder and Scully drive up with another camera crew.
Inside the house, the agents find terrified camera people hiding. Scully says she "hates" them. She has never really reconciled herself to being on Cops.
Upstairs, there is screaming. It's Keith, the deputy. Mulder speaks to him through a closed door, encourages him not to be afraid. "Cowboy up," says Mulder.
When Mulder gets the door open, he finds Keith injured but not dead. The entity may have escaped through the window.
Morning. Daylight. Mulder speculates to Scully that this monster may not wait for the next full moon. After all, there's plenty of fear in the world for it to feed on.
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