has "something I need". After a struggle, Scully kills Betts by pressing charged defibrillator paddles against his head. Scully remains silently stunned by Betts's suggestion that she has cancer. Later, in her apartment, she wakes up with a cough and nosebleed, confirming her illness. Production Writing "Leonard Betts" was written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, and Frank Spotnitz and directed by Kim Manners. Scripts written by Gilligan, Shiban, and Spotnitz were humorously credited by the production crew to one "John Gillnitz"—a portmanteau of the three writers' names. According to Spotnitz, the script for "Leonard Betts" was "not particularly well-loved at the time", but it became "one of [his] favorite monster shows". Originally, the episode "Never Again" was supposed to air before this episode, but, as Vince Gilligan explained, "[Series creator Chris Carter] really wanted to grab viewers who had never seen us before [the Super Bowl], and we knew the best way to do that would be with a really creepy stand-alone monster story." Thus, the air date of "Leonard Betts" was flipped with "Never Again" in order to ensure that the former episode, which featured the show's two stars in their traditional roles, aired after the Super Bowl. The episode is the first to confirm Agent Scully's cancer. The idea of giving the character cancer had been floated by Spotnitz during the show's third season, but for whatever reason, the concept remained on the back-burner until storylines for the fourth season were being developed. Reportedly, when Chris Carter informed Gillian Anderson that her character would be diagnosed with cancer, she was "delighted" as it presented her with an artistic challenge and enabled her to portray her character in a new manner. However, Anderson was only informed of this plotpoint after she filmed "Never Again", which was produced before "Leonard Betts" but aired after. Consequently, Anderson has said that had she known the twist ending of this episode while filming "Never Again", she "would have played the part [in 'Never Again'] differently". Regardless, John Shiban considers "Leonard Betts" to be "a great X-Files story" and very important because it established the story-arc featuring Scully's cancer. Casting and filming Actor Paul McCrane, who later went on to play Dr. Robert Romano on ER, was cast to play Leonard Betts. Betts's character was supposed to be a "sympathetic" creature who "killed not out of vengeance or anger but for survival", and director