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Jay Gilmore is annoyed. His employee, Anson Stokes, won't respond to calls on the walkie-talkie and is nowhere to be found on the self-storage lot in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Anson is hiding out, idly reading a yachting magazine. Jay spots the slacker and orders him to clean out the unit numbered 407. Muttering under his breath when the boss leaves, Anson opens up the unit to find it filled with dusty furniture and molding cardboard boxes. Groaning at the task ahead of him, he grabs a rolled-up Persian rug but it moves by itself. Anson unravels it and a dark-haired woman flops out. Underneath her right eye is embedded an emerald teardrop. When Jay pulls up to the opened door of unit 407, no one is in sight. He shouts for Anson, but his voice suddenly strangles off and goes silent. His mouth has disappeared.

Scully enters the office, and Mulder is interviewing Jay. A monstrosity of stitches has created the man's mouth. He has difficulty talking, but tells them that Anson Stokes is somehow responsible because he told his boss to "shut up." The agents pay a visit to Anson in Missouri. His small trailer is overshadowed by the huge yacht parked in its driveway. When they approach the front door, Anson hides from what he believes to be tax collectors. He sends his paraplegic brother, Leslie, to answer the door. Mulder and Scully identify themselves to Leslie, noting his motorized Rascal scooter. He tells them his brother is not home. In the back room of the trailer, they notice that a dark-haired woman. The agents go to the storage lot and find a photograph of a large man. In the background is the dark-haired woman from Anson's trailer. Although the picture is more than twenty years old, the woman looks the same as she did earlier that day.

Anson tries to come up with a third wish. He is clearly not happy with his first two -- Gilmore's mouth and the boat. He argues with the genie about not putting the yacht in the water. She replies that he didn't "specify" water. As the two brothers make suggestions for the third wish, the genie gestures to Leslie's wheelchair. The boys don't understand her subtlety, and Anson finally chooses to be made invisible. She acknowledges his command and he disappears. In his transparent state, Anson runs out of the trailer, is hit by a truck and dies. A bicyclist runs into the invisible obstacle and Anson is brought to the morgue. Scully is amazed at what has been found, and dusts Anson's body with yellow fingerprint powder in order to make the body discernible. Mulder arrives with news of the man in the photograph. Henry Flanken died in 1978 of chronic tumescence after mysteriously coming into a wealth of money. Mulder believes that the dark-haired woman is the link to their case and he leaves to see Anson's brother. Leslie tells him that the dark-haired woman is gone, but he gives Mulder a brass knickknack, saying that it is the genie's home.

Leslie retrieves the rug from the storage unit. Meanwhile, Mulder drags Scully from the morgue to show her the dark-haired woman's appearance in historical videos. She stands next to Mussolini and Nixon, two men who received extreme power only to have it stripped away. The next morning, Scully gets ready to present the invisible body to experts from around the country but Anson's body has disappeared. Alive and still covered with the fingerprint powder, Anson sits silently in his trailer. Leslie wished for his brother to come back, but instead received a zombie-like Anson whose body is still suffering from the road accident. Leslie asks the genie to give Anson a voice. When the wish is granted, Anson only complains of being deathly cold. Leslie is miffed at his selection of wishes and searches for a third one. He doesn't notice Anson looking for warmth by turning on the gas stove. Leslie announces that his final wish is for legs at the same time Anson strikes a match. The trailer explodes in a big fireball. Mulder and Scully, who had been approaching outside, are thrown to the ground by the blast. They rise to look at the destruction, and the rolled-up Persian rug lands near them. From inside the rug, a faint, muffled voice says "Ow."

Mulder and Scully interrogate the genie in the trailer park's office, as the fire trucks corral outside for the explosion. Mulder calls her Jenn, which is short for "jinniyah" -- the term for a spirit or demon of Middle Eastern folklore. In her five hundred years of practice, Jenn has found that people use greed to make their wishes. She asks the agents if she is under arrest and Scully says that, with no evidence, she is free to go. Unfortunately, she can't. She is beholden to Mulder because he released her from the rug. He now has three wishes. Taking her back to his apartment in Washington, Mulder asks Jenn what she would wish for if she were in his shoes. She dreams of being released from her genie binds to be a normal person again. "I'd sit down somewhere with a great cup of coffee and I'd watch the world go by," she sighs. Hoping he has the solution, Mulder thinks of something more universal and asks Jenn for peace on earth. He is alarmed when his wish truly comes true. The deserted city outside is eerily quiet, with no signs of life. Remembering his partner, Mulder rushes to the FBI. It, too, is completely empty. He calls out for Jenn, who rescinds his initial wish. The office returns to normal. With one wish left, Mulder decides to cover all his bases. He types up a document that clearly and specifically states his third wish for a safer and happier world. Yet, when Scully doubts the wish, he reconsiders.

Later that night, Mulder invites Scully over to watch a video. Since he never asked for world peace, Scully asks about his final request of the genie. At a diner somewhere, Jenn sits at a lunch counter, sipping coffee. The emerald teardrop has disappeared from her face. Mulder wished for her freedom.


................... CREDITS .....................

"JE SOUHAITE"
#7ABX21
Original Air Date: 05/14/00

Written and Directed by Vince Gilligan

Starring:
DAVID DUCHOVNY as Special Agent Fox Mulder
GILLIAN ANDERSON as Special Agent Dana Scully

Also Starring:
Mitch Pileggi as AD Walter Skinner
Paula Sorge as Jenn
Will Sasso as Leslie Stokes
Kevin Weisman as Anson Stokes
Paul Hayes as Jay Gilmore
Brett Bell as Morgue Attendant