X-Files S1E15: The ups-and-downs of Lazarus

Editors' Note: On the rewatch of The X-Files, Lorrie plays the part of Sestra Amateur and Paige serves as the resident "expert," aka Sestra Professional.
 
Sestra Amateur: 

If you know the meaning of "Lazarus," then you have a general idea of this episode's direction. It’s another example of the extremes a man will go to just to have sex with the woman he loves. Think Terminator or Somewhere in Time without time travel. 

Scully and Special Agent Jack Willis are trying to prevent a bank robbery. Willis has been tracking the suspects, a married couple named Warren Dupre and Lula Phillips, for a year. Turns out his tip is pretty reliable and Dupre shows up with a shotgun. Dupre shoots Jack and Scully shoots Dupre. Both Jack and Dupre are taken to the same hospital and brought into the same crash room. Dupre dies, but Scully insists the doctors continue working on Jack, who is her ex-boyfriend. Dupre’s body jerks every time they shock Jack. Doctors seemingly save Jack, but since it’s an X-Files episode, is it him or Dupre?

Two days later, we have a winner -- Jack realizes he is Dupre and remembers shooting Jack. Dupre finds his corpse in the morgue – first place I would look – and cuts off the fingers on the corpse’s left hand to get to the wedding ring. Dupre then disappears from the hospital. 

Sculder learn Jack left behind his fingerprints on the victim in the morgue. Scully thinks it’s post-trauma psychosis and tells Mulder about Jack’s obsession with catching Dupre and Lula, who killed seven people during their robbery sprees. In the meantime, Dupre, in Jack’s body, is trying to find Lula. The tattoo from Dupre’s arm starts forming on Jack’s arm as well. Scully, I don’t think psychosis would cause that to happen. Mulder being Mulder thinks Dupre came back to life in Jack’s body. The EKG results for the body switchers seem to support his theory. 

Sculder meet with Dr. Varnes at the University of Maryland. He tells them about a similar story which had deadly results. Dupre finds Lula’s brother, Tommy Phillips, and tries to convince Tommy he is Dupre. Dupre says he came back for Lula, then shoots Tommy in the face for setting them up. Sculder investigate the next day and Dupre, as Jack, joins the investigation hoping the FBI connection will help him locate Lula. 

Scully tells Jack to get physical and psychological evaluations, which Dupre ends up passing. Must have been pretty weakass exams since Jack looks like hell and Dupre can’t know everything in Jack’s head. Mulder has a better approach; he asks Jack to sign Scully’s birthday card. This shows Mulder that left-handed Dupre is signing the card, not right-handed Jack. It also shows that Dupre does not know Scully’s birthdate even though Jack does; he and Scully have the same birthday. And Dupre doesn’t sign it in Jack’s handwriting.

Scully is in full denial mode when Mulder tries to convince her. I found Mulder’s argument very persuasive. Get with the program, Scully, especially since you killed Dupre. If there’s even a slight chance Dupre’s mind is alive in Jack’s body, then clearly Dupre would want revenge for that whole killing-him thing. Scully also confronts Jack about losing important evidence that was in his possession, but Jack denies it. He and Scully follow up a lead on Lulu alone; Jack claims he called for backup, but Scully doesn’t confirm it. Scully, if you can’t trust him to remember your birthdate or even his own handwriting, then you probably shouldn’t trust him with your life. 

They chase Lulu to the basement of an apartment building. Scully catches her, but Dupre shows his true colors and takes Scully hostage. Dupre tries to convince Lulu he is Dupre in Jack’s body and she seems to believe him. Guess it’s Be-Bop-A-Lula time.

Meanwhile, Mulder is working on the Case of the Missing X-Files Partner. Dupre calls Mulder and lets Scully talk to him. It’s one of those rare moments when Mulder calls Scully "Dana." It still sounds weird when he uses her first name, but he's clearly affected by the emotion of the situation. 

After the call, Scully tries to reach Jack’s mind with memories of their time together. It starts to work because Dupre flashes on one of Jack’s memories. Jack’s body starts shutting down because, apparently, Jack is a diabetic in need of insulin and he is experiencing hyperglycemia. This could have been an interesting twist because it helps generate a lead to find Scully, but wouldn’t the fact that Jack hasn’t had insulin in several days come up during his physical exams? And how could he pass the physical when his blood sugar readings must have been dangerously high? At any rate, Lula breaks into a nearby drug store to steal insulin and needles. 

Mulder receives a report of the theft and gets an idea where Scully is being held, pretty much before Lula even returns with the insulin. That’s a pretty efficient notification system the FBI has in place. Scully, who is no longer handcuffed to a radiator, is about to give Jack/Dupre a shot of insulin, but Lula stops her and destroys the insulin. Turns out, Lula is the one who betrayed Dupre so she could be rid of him and keep the money. Probably would have been better for Lula if she made that reveal before breaking into the drug store and leading the FBI to their location, but the writers probably couldn’t come up with a better way for Mulder to find Scully. 

Mulder gets a little verklempt during the briefing for Scully’s search. Between that and the earlier phone call with "Dana," you can see Mulder is starting to care for Scully, probably more than he wants to. Jack talks to Scully, and in his weakened state, he starts to remember Jack’s memories. Dupre tricks Lula into thinking he’s dead, then grabs her gun when she betrays him one last time. Dupre shoots Lula just as the FBI storm the place, then dies and Dupre’s tattoo disappears. But does Dupre die because he killed Lula and can’t live without her? Or does Jack die because of the hyperglycemia? Sestra Pro, what do the writers say about it?

In the aftermath, Mulder gives Scully Jack’s watch, which is the one she gave Jack for his 35th birthday. The watch stopped working at 6:47 p.m., the time when Jack went into cardiac arrest. So the doctors saved the life of “Jack," but broke his watch? Scully should sue. 

Sestra Professional:

This episode kinda makes me want to pull my hair out. Cause on the one hand, as Sestra Am said, it's got some interesting notions. But on the other hand, as Sestra Am also pointed out, it's got some clunky ways of resolving plot issues.

There are definitely more questions raised than answered in "Lazarus." Let me address the question of the final Dupre/Jack showdown first. I haven't seen that previously addressed, Sestra, but it is very interesting to note that the writing team of Alex Ganza and Howard Gordon originally wanted Dupre to jump into Mulder's body, according to the official episode guide. That would have been even more difficult to resolve, I fear. Probably a wise move to switch it to a former beau, even that was kind of heavy-handed.

Also overly convenient are the writing devices of Jack being both a southpaw and a diabetic as well as the fact he and Scully have the same birthday. Whenever this episode threatens to get on track, G&G hit us with another clunker.

I thought Sestra Am would be all over the foiling of the bank robbery that opens this saga. Their big plan was to stand inside the bank with guns drawn? And as they wait, Bonnie and Clyde are outside, practically singing "Somewhere Out There" from An American Tail in the car ahead of their next crime. Everything seems to be its own spoiler in this episode.

It's true that so far in the run, Scully's angle has seemed to be very reasonable while Mulder has been out on a limb with wild imagination. Even though his guesstimates sometimes pan out, you'd think a more common-sense approach would be considered first. But now it's Scully who seems to be completely and totally wrong ... and she pays for that.

You know how people always talk about a tattoo being permanent? They probably weren't even speculating about it jumping bodies. Now you don't have to worry about fading colors, now you gotta be concerned with taking it to your next state of consciousness.  

In providing us with some metaphysical background, Sculder's expert tells a rather long and involved story about a pilot in a commuter crash who technically died, but then was resuscitated and started having strange visions of sex acts with his wife that weren't in his own memory banks. Turned out one of the dead passengers on the plane had been having an affair with the guy's wife and that's how he found out. Maybe that should have been the basis for this episode.

But then we have some more interesting twists courtesy of G&G. Dupre shoots his girlfriend's brother, thinking he was the informant, only to find out ... doh ... that it was the love of his life. Being a criminal can lead to such deceit. 

And Lula doesn't believe him at first. So why doesn't Dupre just show her his supernatural tat? Of course, when he follows up with his memorable wedding-day words, "This is so we can be married in all the oceans of the world," she's got to know it's him. This is the sappiest killer in the history of the world. An American Tail is too hard-edged for him.

"This one's important to me, so let's do it right." Showing that Mulder is letting the job get personal for him is another of the pluses in this one. It's great foreshadowing for the future, particularly on the case that he will cling to for dear life for many years.

So did Scully play Lula to get her to move closer to the still-alive Jack with the old "he's dead" gag? Cause that would be a swift move if she did, but she seems to not be on the same page with Jack after that. So the medical doctor thought her ex was dead? I realize she was chained to a radiator, but in no way, shape or form could this be considered Scully's episode. Everyone's character is developed more than hers, even that of the bad guys.
 

We've been given so much information on near-death experiences in this episode, the most persuasive of which came from Scully's expert. So when she wants to know what it means when Jack's watch stopped at the moment he went into cardiac arrest, we really already know. What's impressive is Mulder's response: "It means whatever you want it to mean." Did he let her off the hook without forcing her to see his point of view? That is different.

So maybe G&G didn't do so poorly by us after all.