...and hid behind the bar. He leaps out from behind the counter, and starts to beat the hell out of Martin. They fight (tm Ace). While Edward James NotOlmos is on top of Martin, smacking him, Martin reaches for the big fat butcher knife murder weapon, but it is, as usual, just out of reach. His poor almost-dead wife pops out of the bedroom right at this moment and screams his name like a banshee. She races over to Martin, is promptly intercepted by Edward James NotOlmos and we all get to see The Flashback -- this time in proper, forward playing order. Her necklace breaks. Bead fall on the floor. She's pushed into the glass coffee table. Glass breaks. Martin, on the floor, grimaces. Edward James NotOlmos grabs Martin's poor almost-dead wife by the hair and makes like he's going to slash her throat. I admit I am a little freaked out. Just as he's about the draw blood, however, he's shot, in the nick of time, through the chest. And we can all thank that Agents Scully and Doggett for the supremely well-timed save. Martin and his poor live wife sob in one another's arms. Doggett looks confused. Scully looks monstrously bored. "You said something about a second chance," Doggett says. "Was this it?" Martin doesn't respond, but looks at Scully's watch. Which begins to tick forward, in the proper way.

Three months later, in the Maryland State Penitentiary, the clock is still ticking forward, as we're treated to that old staple of The X-Files: the voice-over. Martin, in gray prison garb, sits listlessly in his cell, and tells us stuff. I transcribe: "The passage of time imprisons us not in a cell of brick and mortar but in one of hopes dashed and tragedies unaverted. How precious then, a chance to go back, only to discover that in facing the past, you must face up to yourself, that exiting the prison of time doesn't free you from the prison of your own character, one from which there is no escape." In the Twilight Zone. Or whatever.