On the road again
Meanwhile, Johnson is driving around in a van with Crouch's body in the back. The body starts to move.
Unfortunately, by the time this odd couple reach rural Maryland, the van blows a tire. Johnson is fixing the flat when a sheriff's deputy drives up and asks if he needs help.
Then, made suspicious by the awful stench and by Johnson spreading salt on the floor, the deputy pulls his gun -- only to be attacked from behind by the resurrected Crouch. The deputy gurgles.
Portents and field goals
December 31. Daylight. Mulder, Scully and the police find the deputy dead by the side of the highway, near a circle of salt.
A note in the head's mouth quotes Revelation 1:18: "I am the resurrection..." Mulder and Scully realize Black had earlier attempted in his cryptic fashion to direct them to this passage through football scores.
Mulder revisits Black. The profiler, now possibly mad, worries that helping the agents could impede his ongoing efforts to regain custody of his daughter Jordan. However, when Mulder assures him his assistance will be kept confidential, Black begins providing info.
Black explains that four ex-FBI agents, a splinter faction of the Millennium Group, have recently committed suicide in order to be revived by the necromancer, who mistakenly thinks he's doing God's work. By doing this, all parties concerned hope to bring on the Apocalypse -- of which the resurrected agents will serve as the Four Horsemen.
Black gives Mulder a general description of the necromancer, who he says lives in a secluded house behind fences.
Since the year 2000 is now 14 hours away, Mulder worries that the Apocalypse may be at hand. Scully tells Mulder the real millennium doesn't start until 2001 but he replies that "nobody likes a math geek."
Even death may die
Mulder asks Scully to prevent any autopsy of the deputy, but her call doesn't get through, and a walking corpse attacks the pathologist at the county morgue. Scully enters and is attacked as well.
Later, Skinner finds a shaken Scully at the morgue.
She says the deputy's corpse attacked her -- noting that she can't even begin to explain how that's possible -- but that for unknown reasons the necromancer saved her by shooting it in the head.
Understandably perplexed, they try to call Mulder, but can't get through...
...because Mulder is driving in rural Rice County, Maryland, outside cell-phone range. Mulder drives up to a secluded house and finds a big empty salt bag in the garbage. He enters the house, even as a van drives up nearby.
Mulder goes into the basement and is besieged by walking corpses. Johnson locks the door behind the agent, who makes little attempt to reason with the zombies and starts shooting instead.
All the agents
At the mental hospital, Scully asks Black whether he believes the Millennium Group faction can actually bring on the End Time and, if so, which side -- Good or Evil -- would prevail. Black is noncommittal but...
...after Scully leaves, he tells a nurse he's checking himself out of the institution.
Soon, Black is on the loose and working his unique magic again, this time at the house in rural Maryland.
Far from being hostile, Johnson is delighted to see him because "now we'll have four." Unfortunately, he points out, there's someone in the basement shooting at the walking corpses.
Scully gets a phone call from Skinner, who tells her Black has checked out and gives her directions to Mulder's whereabouts.
After Johnson begins reciting the Book of Revelation again, Black tapes him to a chair and ignores his pleas that "this world is only suffering and pain" and should be brought to a swift denouement.
Horror and ... romance?
Black enters the basement and finds Mulder still fending off the walking corpses. Mulder suggests shooting them in the head. This works and the corpses drop dead again. Scully bursts in, reuniting the band of protagonists.
Back at the hospital, where Johnson's been taken for a much-needed evaluation and suicide watch.
It's nearly midnight, bringing the year 1999 to an end. Black says goodbye to Scully and Mulder, but they have a surprise for him -- his daughter Jordan comes in and gives him a hug.
Midnight. Mulder and Scully, alone, watch the ball drop on a hospital TV. They see people celebrating in Times Square and then...
...the two agents kiss soulfully on the lips.
And gazing at each other, smiling, they note that the world didn't end.
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