S8E6 · Redrum

Martin Wells, a renowned Baltimore prosecutor, wakes up in a prison cell and notices a stitched-up wound on his right cheek. A guard enters and takes him for his transfer. Wells' long-time friend, John Doggett (Robert Patrick), and Doggett's partner, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), await him and warn of reporters outside. As he exits the building, a man Wells recognizes draws a pistol and shoots him. Wells stares at Scully's watch as he dies. The hands stop and then begin to turn backwards.

Upon waking up again, Wells is surprised to find no bullet wounds on his body. Scully and Doggett arrive to interrogate Wells, but he is confused about what is going on. A furious Doggett claims that he has been accused of murdering his wife, Vicky, and initially believes that Wells is faking his confusion in order to build an insanity defense. However, Doggett shows signs of doubt when he notices Wells' genuine anguish over Vicky's death. Wells is brought into court and he recognizes his father-in-law, Al Cawdry, as the man who shot him. When Wells' next court date is announced to be Thursday, he realizes that he has somehow travelled back to the day before his shooting. When the judge decides to transfer Wells to a different cell, he makes a scene in the court and accuses Cawdry of planning to kill him during the transfer.

In his second meeting of the day with Scully and Doggett, Wells explains that he cannot remember the last few days. Scully suggests that maybe he did do it. Wells begins having flashes of the murder but they are unclear. Waiting in his cell, he kills a spider. Later, a nanny cam from his house reveals that the only person to arrive between the police's arrival and the last time his wife is on camera is Martin Wells. Eventually, Wells meets his lawyers and tells them about the nanny cam. However, it turns out that it is Wednesday: Wells is somehow “living the week backwards”.

While going to meet Doggett and Scully, Wells gets shoved into a dominos game and while picking them up gets slashed on his right cheek from a man with the spider web tattoo on his hand. Wells tells Doggett and Scully that he is moving backwards in time and cannot recall the past few days. Doggett is skeptical, but Scully hears him out. Wells says there must be a reason for it and Scully suggests that the answer may already be within him. Studying the evidence of the case, Wells has a flash of the murder that reveals the knife in a hand with a spider web tattoo.

Martin next awakes in Doggett's home. Wells describes the killer to Doggett but the man isn't in lock-up yet because that won't happen until Wednesday. Doggett and Wells arrive at the apartment and retrieve the nanny cam, but discover that someone disabled the cam and used its remote control, a device no one knew about except Mr. and Mrs. Wells and their nanny, Trina Galvez. At Trina Galvez's home, Wells and Doggett discover the killer, a man named Cesar Ocampo, who threatened to kill Galvez's family if she refused him entrance.

At the station house, Doggett informs Wells that Ocampo only wants to talk to him. Ocampo reveals that his brother, Hector, was sentenced to time in prison for a false conviction. Wells bargains with Cesar Ocampo, saying that if Cesar confesses to Vicky's murder, he will take a look at his brother's case. Cesar tells him that Hector hanged himself in a jail cell a few weeks before. Doggett calls Martin Wells out into the hall and the police arrest Martin because they have a case against him. Evidence against Ocampo isn't strong enough yet.

Martin wakes up in a hotel room, having moved back to the night of the day before, a little over two hours before the murder of his wife is supposed to take place. Desperate to save her, but unable to contact her over the phone, Martin instead visits Doggett, and admits to evidence suppression, explaining that Hector Ocampo's brother is out for revenge. Doggett contacts the local police, while Wells rushes home and finds his wife, still alive. Suddenly, they hear someone else at the door. Ocampo appears and accosts Wells.

Vicky Wells comes out of hiding but is thrown through the coffee table. As Ocampo prepares to slit her throat, he is shot dead by the timely arriving Doggett and Scully. Wells notices Scully's watch once more, seeing that its hands start moving forwards again, indicating that whatever phenomenon that sent him backwards in time has reached its conclusion. Wells eventually goes to prison for his evidence suppression, a punishment he feels he deserves.