GRENADA

The X Files - 

Mulder Asks Clyde Bruckman for Help (3x04)

CLYDE BRUCKMAN'S APARTMENT

(The numbers on Bruckman's lotto ticket are "9, 13, 37, 39, 41, 45." 

He is listening to the radio.

WOMAN ON RADIO: 

Thirty-eight, forty and forty-four. 

Once again, the winning lotto numbers are...

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: 

Why?

WOMAN ON RADIO: 

...eight, twelve...

(Bruckman turns it off.)

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: 

Why do I do this to myself?

(He covers his eyes with his hands. There is a knock at the door.)

Come in.

(Mulder slowly walks in.)

I knew it was you. I know why you're here. You're here because you found that woman's body where I told you it would be. And now you're convinced I have some kind of psychic power. So while your skeptical lady partner is off performing an autopsy, you came here to ask my help catching this serial murderer.

MULDER: Everything you said is correct.

(Bruckman looks up at him.)

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: Oh, it's you.

(Mulder looks perplexed.)

I won't help you. Please leave.

(He stands.)

MULDER: But you do admit to having this gift.

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: Oh, I got it, all right. The only problem is, it's non-returnable.

MULDER: Mister Bruckman, you possess an ability that not only has staggering implications upon physics and human consciousness, but it's one which most people, myself included, would be envious of. Yet you seem to treat it with disdain.

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: Do you want to know how you're going to die?

(Mulder stares at him.)

MULDER: Y, yes, I would.

(Bruckman laughs a little and smirks.)

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: No, you don't. Of course, not knowing has its own drawbacks which is why a good insurance policy is so important. I, I don't know what kind of coverage the F.B.I. has, but, uh, General Mutual has...

MULDER: Mister Bruckman, this murderer has already committed four homicides.

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: And he'll commit more whether I help you or not.

MULDER: How can you be so sure?

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: How can I see the future if it didn't already exist?

MULDER: Then if the future is written, then why bother to do anything?

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: Now you're catching on.

(He sits down.)

MULDER: 

Mister Bruckman, I believe in your ability but not your attitude -- I can't stand by and watch people die without doing everything in my, albeit unsupernatural, power to interfere with that fate.

CLYDE BRUCKMAN: 

Well, you see, that's another reason I can't help you catch this guy. 

I might adversely affect the fate of The Future. 

I mean, his next victim might be the mother of the daughter whose son invents the time machine. 

Then the son goes back in time and changes World History, and then 

Columbus never discovers America, 

Man never lands on The Moon, 

The U.S. never invades Grenada...

(Mulder is staring down at the floor.)

Or something less significant... 

Resulting in the fact that 

My Father never meets My Mother 

and consequently, 

I'm never born.

(Mulder looks up at him.)

So when do we start?