The X-Files/Recap/S03/E04 Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose

In a store, Clyde Bruckman (Peter Boyle) purchases a paper and a lottery ticket and leaves. In the street, he almost bumps into an inconspicuous man (Stuart Charno), who heads to a fortune teller named Madame Zelma (Karin Konoval). After seeking his fortune, the inconspicuous man attacks and kills her. A few days later, a different fortune teller has been found with her eyes and entrails removed. FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) arrive at the scene of that murder to help the local cops, who have recruited the help of a psychic, the eccentric Stupendous Yappi (Jaap Broeker). Although the psychic delivers extremely vague clues, the cops are thoroughly impressed; both Scully and Mulder, however, are skeptical, especially after Yappi diagnoses that it is Mulder—not Scully—who is a skeptic.

Meanwhile, after Bruckman takes the trash out for his neighbor, he discovers the body of the fortune teller outside in his dumpster. When interviewed by Mulder and Scully, he reveals details about the crime that he could not have known from the media accounts, which causes Mulder to believe that Bruckman has the psychic ability to predict death. Mulder insists that Bruckman join them in a visit to the other crime scene. Thanks to information from Bruckman, another body is soon found in a nearby lake. While investigating another suspect, Bruckman guides Mulder and Scully through the woods, where Bruckman explains how he gained his ability following the death of Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper in a plane crash. Returning to the car, Bruckman and the agents discover another corpse, as Bruckman predicted. The agents find traces of silk fibers on the previous victims, which are later analyzed and found to be from lace.

While at his home, Bruckman foresees Mulder's death, getting his throat slit by the killer after stepping in a pie in a kitchen. However he tells Mulder he's not able to see what happens afterwards. While Scully does not believe in Bruckman's power, the two develop a fast friendship. Bruckman asks Scully why she is not interested in knowing how she will die. Scully finally breaks down and lets him tell her, to which Bruckman, joyfully, but cryptically, replies, "You don't." Bruckman later tells Scully that they will end up in bed together, in a very special moment neither of them will forget. This reinforces her skepticism.

Bruckman gets a note from the killer saying he is going to die. In response, the agents bring Bruckman to a hotel where a detective named Havez (Dwight McFee) guards him. As the agents leave, they bump into a bellhop who is delivering food to Bruckman's room. It turns out that the bellhop is actually the murderer. He kills Havez and prepares to do the same to Bruckman. Meanwhile, Scully finds the same silk fiber on herself where she bumped into the bellhop's doily-covered tray, realizing that the bellhop is the murderer. They rush back to the hotel. Mulder chases the killer to the basement and the scene plays out as described in Bruckman's earlier premonition, but when the killer attacks him, Mulder is able to fend off the attack until Scully arrives and shoots him—what Bruckman had seen was the dying killer's last thoughts, not Mulder's death.

Unable to find Bruckman in the hotel, Mulder and Scully return to Bruckman's apartment to find that Bruckman has committed suicide; Scully sees a plastic bag has been tied around his head, and that he is clutching a bottle of pills in his hand. Scully sits on Bruckman's bed holding his hand, deeply moved, just as he had predicted. That night Scully sees a commercial for the Stupendous Yappi on TV, causing her to throw her phone at it.