"The Walk" is the seventh episode of the third season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It was written by John Shiban and directed by Rob Bowman. The episode aired in the United States on November 10, 1995, on the Fox network. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "The Walk" earned a Nielsen household rating of 10.4, being watched by 15.91 million people in its initial broadcast. Critical reception was mixed. The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully has been assigned to debunk his work. In this episode, a suicide attempt by a patient in a U.S. Army hospital interests Mulder with the talk of a "phantom soldier" who has prevented the man's death. The U.S. Army general in charge of the hospital is initially opposed to the FBI's involvement until the invisible killer begins stalking him. Everyone involved in the case is shocked to learn that the primary suspect could in fact, be a quadruple amputee. "The Walk" is the first X-Files script by John Shiban, who commented that it was a challenge for him. He was inspired by the film The Men, which features a character who has lost his legs in war and wishes to be able to walk again. The episode required several visual effects which were almost not completed in time. Plot At a VA hospital in Fort Evanston, Maryland, Lieutenant Colonel Victor Stans makes his third suicide attempt; he claims that a mysterious figure will not let him die. Stans attempts to drown in a tub of scalding water, but is rescued by the hospital staff and subsequently is disfigured. Stans again claims that the mysterious figure will not let him die. When Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) question Stans, they learn that his wife and children died in a house fire he claims was started by the mysterious soldier he says will not allow him to die himself. Captain Janet Draper stops the questioning, as Mulder and Scully were not granted permission to see Stans by his superior officer, General Thomas Callahan. After meeting with the agents, Callahan glimpses the phantom soldier Stans described. He