01 x 06: Shadows

One To-day is worth two to-morrows. This is something the writers of “shadows” want us to know, but it’s also something that has nothing to do with this episode. It also relates to the fact that this episode has plot holes and a timeline that doesn’t make sense. Why do I bring this up? Well, since I don’t have an exact timeline of events it’s difficult to pinpoint some expenses, such as how long do Mulder and Scully spend in a hotel in Philadelphia?

I’m getting ahead of myself, so I’ll start at the beginning.

A lady named Lauren is upset her boss, Howard Graves, killed himself. While she is in his old office, a paperweight moves by itself. Spooky. The paperweight has a Ben Franklin quote “one to-day is worth two to-morrows”. Already I’m rolling my eyes, it’s not enough the paperweight has a Ben Franklin quote on it, we’re in Philadelphia, but now we learn Lauren’s last name is Kyte.

Anyway that night she goes to an ATM and is jumped by two men, then suddenly there’s a bright light and some paranormal forces at work. The two assailants get their throats crushed by… seemingly nothing and obviously killed. We get the hint that maybe the ghost of her old boss is the killer of her two assailants.

Soon after she’s attacked two teenagers are playing at a fire escape and discover the two bodies.

Opening credits; our heroes Mulder and Scully are called in the middle of the night by the NSA to go to Bethesda Naval Hospital to examine the bodies of Lauren Kyte’s assailants (one government car, 12 mile drive, $6.09).

Two people from the NSA explain the bodies haven’t been dead for more than 6 hours. They called Mulder and Scully in the middle of the night to get their expertise on the condition of these bodies. They have residual electrostatic charge and other weirdness. They won’t provide Mulder or Scully with any more info than that, oh and also they were in the air for 60 minutes.

Mulder for whatever reason during the examination of the bodies is wearing glasses that he never wears. Later we see he was “clever” and managed to get the fingerprint off the man and learn that this man probably came from Philadelphia. We also get another prime example of his constant sexual harassment of Dana Scully.

So Mulder and Scully fly to Philadelphia ($248 each plus a $164.61/day rental car). They head to the ATM where Lauren Kyte was assaulted. We have a problem as to when this scene is supposed to occur. It appears Mulder and Scully went straight to Philadelphia from Bethesda as they are wearing the same clothes when they were in Bethesda, however, the cop they speak to states he found the two bodies from the beginning of the episode “last Wednesday night”.

Whatever, I did my best. It’s not my fault the writers weren’t diligent. Anyway, they pull footage from the ATM and review Lauren’s attack, discover her identity. We’re told her address is 858 Franklin Ave in Bensalem.

Mulder and Scully track down Lauren at her house and they question her about the deaths of her assailants. Mulder suspects already that a ghost or psychokinesis is responsible for the deaths.

Anyway they leave her house and upon their departure we have the most expensive incident to date in their adventures. Somehow their car “gets stuck in reverse” and runs through a stop sign and collides with another vehicle.

First and foremost, thank God no one was hurt! Secondly, how much damage are we talking about here? Well, The other car appears to be perhaps an early 90’s Crown Victoria while Mulder and Scully’s rental is a 1986 Ford Taurus, interesting because Mulder claims it was brand new and only had 100 miles on it. With this in mind, it’s safe to assume that these are mid sized sedans with some options on them, so each car in today’s money would be worth ~$24,500. I’m pretty sure both cars are totaled as we can see the frame and axles are bent.

Mulder and Scully transfer their belongings to a new rental car ($164.61/day). I will say it’s good they shared a rental rather than each of them having their own. However, shame on them for flying to Philadelphia rather than driving, especially since they drove to Atlantic City, a city much further from DC than Philadelphia, a couple weeks prior.

Mulder and Scully surveil Lauren Kyte and take photographs of her while she visits Howard Graves’… grave. And here’s another error. His gravestone shows he died on 10/5/93, which is 2 weeks after Lauren Kyte was assaulted; the culprits of which were “murdered” by Howard’s ghost.

Anyway, while on surveillance of Lauren Mulder takes photos on film ($9.98 / roll) and develops the pictures… manually in his dark room… in DC. So I have to bill them for 1 flight back to DC ($248 each) and dark room supplies ($142.99) which for future episodes I won’t charge for because he should have them now.

So when Mulder does find that a “ghost” is present in one of the pictures he took I would question if this could be an artifact of his questionable development process.

Anyway, Mulder and Scully fly back to Philly ($248 each) and drive to ($164.61 again for rental car) the National Bureau of Medical Examiners. They are here because they want to find out if Howard Graves is in fact dead. Apparently his death certificate is not good enough. They want more proof. They discover that he was an organ donor so they need to get a hold of some of his organs and DNA test him.

So they travel to University of Pennsylvania and find some dura matter than can be DNA tested to ensure Howard Graves is dead.

I had to research this a bit; the cost of a DNA test and what the FBI would pay for it in 1993 isn’t exactly straightforward.

But I did find something. According to “U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Genetic Witness: Forensic Uses of DNA Tests, OTA-BA-438 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, July 1990).“ the FBI would pay about $490 for a DNA test performed outside its own laboratories in 1990 which translates to $887.64 in today’s money.

You can access the document here.

So they find out Howard is in fact dead.

While they are here Lauren Kyte calls Mulder’s cell phone from a land line at her office. Turns out, in 1993 making and receiving phone calls from a cell phone was… complicated. I know because I have the book on it.

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A roaming call for 1 minutes would cost $3.99 in 1993 money. Anyway after she calls them they go to her house and some more men are murdered by ghosts in her house. So they have to take Lauren in for questioning. I gloss over one of the climaxes of the episode because… it’s just confusing why these people would want to kill Lauren in the first place.

Because two more people are murdered in the vicinity of Lauren Kyte they have to bring her in for some questioning. During their questioning of Lauren Kyte they tape record the interview ($2.99 for a tape)

We learn through this questioning that her workplace does some shady business dealings with terrorist groups and sells them weapons parts. I guess treason isn’t enough for the NSA to hold Lauren Kyte for more information? They do decide to check out her workplace.

The next morning ($319 / guest / night at the Sheraton in Philadelphia) they decide to raid Lauren’s workplace to see if there’s treasonous happenings at the place. The FBI and NSA don’t seem to find anything… BUT THEN Mulder and Lauren get trapped in the new boss’s office with a GHOST. Which totally destroys the room. Now this is a nice office with nice furniture, probably $10,000 worth of damage here. We’re talking broken light fixtures and outlets, torn wallpaper, broken desks. Everything!

In the wall, in the wallpaper of the wall, Mulder finds proof that the new boss was committing treason. And because of this proof, we learn that Lauren’s old boss, Howard Graves, didn’t kill himself but he was in fact murdered by terrorists. Because see, Howard didn’t want his company to sell weapons to terrorists. It still doesn’t explain why he’s a ghost, and I really don’t have any sympathy for him. But apparently this concludes the episode. Even though clearly the terrorists are still going to be out to get Lauren Kyte, we don’t know everything about this terrorist group that’s working out of Philadelphia…

That night Mulder decide to help Lauren Kyte pack up and move (so they spend an extra night at the Sheraton, $319 / guest / night) and then fly back to DC the next day ($248 / person).

So… with all that being said… we have a whopping total of $65,739.09 spent for this case. Now while I want my money back, I will say that this case was not some personal endeavor pursued by Mulder, but rather a case that was presented to Mulder and Scully by the NSA. They did perhaps prevent a terrorist group from continuing a contract with a shady weapons company; HOWEVER, the pair did nearly compromise the work of the NSA on the matter.