Season 9 kicks off with a brand spanking new title scene. They’ve done away with the old style X-Files introduction, though some of the images\tag lines are still there, and the good old ‘truth’ line remains. But the most important note is the exclusion of Mulder’s name from the credits. AD Skinner and Agent Reyes have both earned places in the opening credits though.

We start with something seemingly unrelated (though nothing in the X-Files is ever unrelated). A guy picks up a chick in a bar, drives home only for her to crash the car and force him to drown.

In true word to the title of this episode, we see a relatively normal day start. Scully attends to her baby, Doggett makes some coffee and Agent Reyes gets a call from what looks like an old boyfriend - Assistant Director Brad Follmer (dude from Robin Hood: Men in tights!). They meet and the usual frolicking takes place, but he also gives her a heads up regarding CCTV footage from 48 hours earlier - the time when the end of Season 8 took place. It shows the parking lot where Skinner and Doggett were attacked… only there’s nothing on it. No guns, no car chases… not even Knowle’s spectacular crash.

Meanwhile, Doggett heads to Scully’s house fearing the worst – as he cannot reach Mulder at all. On finding Scully OK, she simply states that Mulder has… gone. Doggett still being left in the dark also gets told by Scully to just drop his investigation into Kersh, she then tells him to leave and not come back for fear of her babies safety. Basically, after Scully’s treated him like a turd, he heads into work to find Monica reviewing the CCTV tapes. Doggett gets a little annoyed that there isn’t anything on them, but gets even more annoyed when Skinner tells him to cease his investigation also. Feeling everyone is against him, Monica and Doggett continue their work despite everyone’s actions.

We also see Brad meeting with Kersh, Brad states that Doggett is disobeying authority and needs to be punished. Scully however comes around when after putting William to bed, she notices the kid can spin his little star thing above his cot simply with his mind. When attempting to stop the thing – it continues spinning of it’s own accord. She immediately calls Doggett stating she was wrong, and there is something going on with William. Meanwhile, Monica is slipped a clue! It’s a clipping from the newspaper about the dead guy from the beginning who drowned. On investigating it, he seeks the help of the lone Gunmen to find out more, they notice he’s been speaking to someone from a water treatment plant nearby, sending encrypted files.

Skinner and Doggett head out to investigate but only find AD Brad Follmer waiting for them…. Doggett attempts to hide in a water tank, only to be dragged down and under by the same woman from the very beginning! End of part 1.