S9E17 · Release

In Mendota, Minnesota, John Doggett (Robert Patrick) arrives at an abandoned apartment building after getting a tip, and sees a figure bolt out of one of the rooms during the night. He hears a scratching sound and claws away at the fresh plaster wall until blood begins streaming downward. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) performs an autopsy on the body Doggett found and one of her FBI cadets, Rudolph Hayes, accurately guesses that the victim “hooked up” with a psychotic killer at a bar. Hayes's suggestions lead Scully to connect this murder to another killing two weeks earlier. In the meantime, Doggett wonders why anyone tipped him off about the murder, since it is not an X-File.

Doggett and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) try to get more help from Hayes. He tells them that the killer they are looking for is a criminal linked to organized crime. The two agents later meet up with Nicholas Regali, a former mobster who claims he is looking for a job in the area. They later find out that Hayes's intuition about Regali was correct. Meanwhile, Hayes returns to his apartment complex where walls are covered with crime scene photos related to the death of Luke Doggett. Eventually, Doggett asks Hayes for help solving the case about his son's death. Hayes tells Doggett that he believes that Robert Harvey was behind the kidnapping of Luke, but that Regali killed him.

Doggett approaches FBI Assistant Director Brad Follmer (Cary Elwes) for help on the case. Doggett's ex-wife, Barbara Doggett, meets up for a lineup at a police station. Barbara does not recognize Regali or anyone else on the lineup. Scully finds some similarities between Luke and the two dead bodies, but no forensic proof. Doggett comes to realize that Regali has had help from someone within the FBI all along and Reyes suspects Follmer, whom she saw taking bribes in New York. Follmer claims that he was giving money to an informer.

He also reveals that Cadet Hayes is really a former mental patient called Stuart Mimms and that Mimms lived in New York City during the year of Luke's murder, hinting that Mimms is the murderer and not Regali. Doggett and Reyes assemble a SWAT team to raid Mimms apartment. Mimms is taken into police custody and at a new lineup, Barbara recognizes Mimms.

A secret meeting confirms Reyes's suspicion: Regali actually bribed Follmer. Regali denies any involvement with Luke Doggett's death. When Follmer wants to end their cooperation, Regali threatens to blackmail him. In the meantime, Mimms tells Scully that he first noticed the case of Luke Doggett when he read it in a newspaper. He further states that he lied about his name so that he could help solve the case. At the end, he still claims that Regali is the real murderer of Doggett's son, and not him.

Later on, Doggett approaches Regali, who tells him a hypothetical story about how a pedophile took a young boy to his home. A businessman then walked in on the incident, realized that the boy has seen his face, and feared that the boy might associate him with the crime. The businessman then murdered the boy. As Regali walks away, an enraged Doggett draws his gun and follows. But a gunshot rings out and when Doggett gets outside, he sees Regali has been killed by Follmer. Later, Doggett and Barbara scatter Luke's ashes into the ocean, finally achieving the release he has sought.