S3E4 · Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose

In Saint Paul, Minnesota, Clyde Bruckman (Peter Boyle), an insurance salesman, buys scotch, a tabloid and a lottery ticket from a liquor store. Outside, he narrowly avoids colliding with an inconspicuous man (Stuart Charno), who heads to palm reader Madame Zelma (Karin Konoval). After seeking his fortune, the man then kills Zelma. Days later, the eyes and entrails of a tea leaf reader are discovered in her apartment. FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are called in to assist the local police, who are also aided by an eccentric psychic: the Stupendous Yappi (Jaap Broeker). While the police are impressed by the psychic's supposed abilities, Mulder and Scully remain skeptical.

Meanwhile, Bruckman finds Zelma's body in his neighbor's 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 a psychic ability. Mulder insists that Bruckman help them find the tea leaf reader's body, whereupon her corpse is found in a nearby lake. After a series of psychic tests, Mulder concludes that Bruckman's only power is to see the details of people's deaths.

After examining the tea reader's body, Scully discovers a keychain that she links to an investment company owned by Claude Dukenfield; Bruckman sold Dukenfield an insurance policy and tells the agents that he was murdered. Bruckman guides Mulder and Scully to a nearby forest where he says Dukenfield's corpse is buried; as they tromp through the woods, Bruckman explains that following the deaths of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper in a plane crash, he began obsessively thinking of the chain of events that led to the crash, which resulted in his developing psychic abilities. The trio soon find Dukenfield's body, upon which they discover traces of silk fiber, linking the murder to the previous victims.

At Bruckman's residence, he receives a note from the killer, predicting their first meeting. Intriguingly, the postmark predates Bruckman's involvement in the investigation, hinting at the killer's psychic capabilities. Bruckman describes Mulder's death as the killer sees it: getting his throat slit by the killer after stepping in a pie in a kitchen. Since the killer knows Bruckman's home address, Mulder and Scully bring him to a hotel where they take turns guarding him. While Scully does not believe in Bruckman's power, the two develop a fast friendship. Scully asks Bruckman if he can see his own end. He replies that he can see their end—that they will end up in bed together. This reinforces her skepticism. Bruckman then asks Scully why she is not interested in knowing how she will die. Scully finally asks him to tell her, to which Bruckman replies, "You don't."

Mulder and Scully are soon called to investigate the murder of another tarot card reader (Alex Diakun), and so a detective named Havez (Dwight McFee) takes over as Bruckman's guard. As the agents leave the hotel, they bump into a bellhop who is delivering food to Bruckman's room. The bellhop is actually the killer, and when he enters the room (while Havez is in the bathroom), he is delighted to discover that Bruckman has been brought to the place where he works. As he is about to kill Bruckman, Havez exits the bathroom, only to be killed by the bellhop.

Meanwhile, Scully finds the same silk fiber at the new crime scene and, realizing that the bellhop had it on his tray, deduces that he is the murderer. The agents rush back to the hotel, with Mulder chasing the killer into a basement kitchen. After stepping in a pie, Mulder remembers Bruckman's premonition and narrowly dodges the bellhop. Scully arrives in the nick of time and shoots the bellhop; it turns out that what Bruckman had seen was the dying killer's last thoughts, not Mulder's.

Mulder and Scully return to Bruckman's apartment to find that Bruckman has died by suicide; Scully sits on Bruckman's bed holding his hand, deeply moved, just as he had predicted. Nights later, Scully sees a TV commercial from the Stupendous Yappi offering his services and throws her telephone at the screen in disgust.