Schedule-wise, this would have been The X-Files' Christmas episode, but I don’t think the Season 8 timeline was running concurrent with reality, so put away your jingle bells and your first noels because this episode is going in a ... (ahem) negative direction. It’s been a silent night for an FBI agent on stakeout in Los Angeles’ version of Pittsburgh. He fell asleep on the job and now the door to the cult house he was surveilling is wide open. His partner arrives to search the place, which has jolly red footprints leading to children all nestled and snug in their beds. Actually, they’re adults and they’re all dead with bloody head wounds. The agents quickly suffer the same fate. This is feeling more like Silent Night, Deadly Night.
Assistant Director Skinner calls Scully who calls Doggett to run point while she deals with a personal issue. The next morning John meets with Walter at the scene. Agent James Leeds, the one who fell asleep, is back in his unmarked vehicle right outside the target house. (That’s not very tactical, Jimmy.) Inside the house, John and Walter find 20 dead cult members. Their leader, Anthony Tipet, played by Angel villain (the TV series, not the Christmas one) Keith Szarabajka, is missing. So is Agent Stedman, so Team Skinett (Dogner?) check his nearby apartment and they find him dead in his bed with no visions of sugar plums dancing in his head.
AD Skinner updates Director Alvin Kersh and some well-suited extras. Anthony Tipet, a man who served time for murdering his own wife, is the only reasonable suspect, but the physical evidence doesn’t support the theory yet. Kersh blames Scully for the “impossible” conclusion of Tipet reaching a higher plane of existence through drugs, but he doesn’t know she’s not on the case. Skinner’s science-fiction updates leave Doggett hanging out to dry and John is not happy about it. He just wants to catch Tipet, who’s wandering around Pittsburgh and leaving threatening phone calls. Dr. Andre Bormanis seems too afraid to pick up the phone, but not too afraid to cut himself with a razor blade.
Back at FBI headquarters, Doggett determines the murder weapon is a 1,000-year-old ceremonial axe, but he wants Dana on this case because it's her area of expertise. Walter says she’s taking personal time, which is true; Scully's been admitted to a local hospital. And Tipet, who was accosted by a homeless man, now sports a third eye and takes his revenge with some questionable cement and that axe.
Skinner forwards the murdered man’s info to John, who still wants facts. Luckily, Walter obtained the pay-phone records and learns Andre served time with Anthony. They interview Bormanis in his drug lab and he admits to supplying Tipet with hallucinogens. He also carved an X into his forehead for protection. While at the jail, Doggett dreams of a levitating three-eyed Tipet. John also leaves bloody footprints and somehow ends up with Dana's severed head in his hands. Luckily, Skinner wakes him from that nightmare to take a phone call from Scully, who is sending the Lone Gunmen to assist Doggett. Walter learns Andre was creating a super amphetamine and John deduces Bormanis is afraid to fall asleep because of Tipet. (When did we change horror movie franchises? Somehow this became A Nightmare on Elm Street.) But Andre does fall asleep and Freddy – I mean Anthony – kills him with rats.
Downstairs in the X-files office, the Three Wise Men have arrived and they’ve prepared a slide show about the All-Seeing Eye and the CIA’s history of LSD experiments on an unsuspecting public. Doggett thinks Tipet believes he opened his third eye and is trying to destroy it in others while invading their consciousness in their sleep. Team Skinett return to Andre’s lab, where they find a two-eyed Anthony taking out his third eye with a circular saw. Tipet gets rushed to the same hospital where Dana was admitted for acute abdominal pain.
Skinner forwards the murdered man’s info to John, who still wants facts. Luckily, Walter obtained the pay-phone records and learns Andre served time with Anthony. They interview Bormanis in his drug lab and he admits to supplying Tipet with hallucinogens. He also carved an X into his forehead for protection. While at the jail, Doggett dreams of a levitating three-eyed Tipet. John also leaves bloody footprints and somehow ends up with Dana's severed head in his hands. Luckily, Skinner wakes him from that nightmare to take a phone call from Scully, who is sending the Lone Gunmen to assist Doggett. Walter learns Andre was creating a super amphetamine and John deduces Bormanis is afraid to fall asleep because of Tipet. (When did we change horror movie franchises? Somehow this became A Nightmare on Elm Street.) But Andre does fall asleep and Freddy – I mean Anthony – kills him with rats.
Downstairs in the X-files office, the Three Wise Men have arrived and they’ve prepared a slide show about the All-Seeing Eye and the CIA’s history of LSD experiments on an unsuspecting public. Doggett thinks Tipet believes he opened his third eye and is trying to destroy it in others while invading their consciousness in their sleep. Team Skinett return to Andre’s lab, where they find a two-eyed Anthony taking out his third eye with a circular saw. Tipet gets rushed to the same hospital where Dana was admitted for acute abdominal pain.
John checks on a sleeping Scully before returning to FBI headquarters. He tells Kersh a more believable version of Tipet’s murder spree and suicide attempt. (By the way, the only correlation between "Via Negativa" and the “Path of Darkness” on the Internet relates to this particular episode, so let’s assume Doggett’s translation is inspired by Tipet’s beliefs.) Kersh -- “Alvin!!” (sorry, the Chipmunks' Christmas song popped up in my brain) -- is satisfied with the end result, but John still has questions, especially when he sees a three-eyed Tipet reflected in his mirror. Doggett shrugs it off and heads to bed, but Anthony and his spirit Halloween-quality axe are waiting.
The next morning, John – and his own third eye – head to work. While in a dreamlike state, Doggett seems terrified because he can’t tell the difference between his dream and reality. Poor John is going to end up at Westin Hills (another Elm Street reference for the uninitiated) and Skinner doesn’t exactly dispel his concerns. Neither does his trippy confrontation with Tipet’s all-seeing eye or his vision of nearly murdering Scully with that awful axe. Luckily, it is a dream and the “angel” who wakes him is Dana, who entered Doggett’s house through an unlocked front door. She brings three “gifts” -- she saved John’s life without even realizing it, news of Tipet’s death and her return to work. Maybe next week they’ll end up at Crystal Lake because some irresponsible camp counselors went missing.
Sestra Professional:
The next logical step in Doggett's X-files indoctrination, becoming what he's investigating. And since John doesn't do anything halfway, he really goes the whole nine yards in "Via Negativa." This is something of a fan favorite among those who stuck out the Mulderless episodes, well, actually it's more of a love-it-or-hate-it-type show. There's not much of a grey area with this one. Put me firmly in the former category.
The next morning, John – and his own third eye – head to work. While in a dreamlike state, Doggett seems terrified because he can’t tell the difference between his dream and reality. Poor John is going to end up at Westin Hills (another Elm Street reference for the uninitiated) and Skinner doesn’t exactly dispel his concerns. Neither does his trippy confrontation with Tipet’s all-seeing eye or his vision of nearly murdering Scully with that awful axe. Luckily, it is a dream and the “angel” who wakes him is Dana, who entered Doggett’s house through an unlocked front door. She brings three “gifts” -- she saved John’s life without even realizing it, news of Tipet’s death and her return to work. Maybe next week they’ll end up at Crystal Lake because some irresponsible camp counselors went missing.
Sestra Professional:
The next logical step in Doggett's X-files indoctrination, becoming what he's investigating. And since John doesn't do anything halfway, he really goes the whole nine yards in "Via Negativa." This is something of a fan favorite among those who stuck out the Mulderless episodes, well, actually it's more of a love-it-or-hate-it-type show. There's not much of a grey area with this one. Put me firmly in the former category.
This feels much more like a Halloween episode than a Christmas one, so it's an appropriate time for it to come up in our rewatch rotation. Speaking of such things, I'm on a personal Angel rewatch, so I've recently seen both the episode in which Cordelia gets impregnated in the skull with a third eye and the introduction of our guest star Keith Szarabajka's vampire hunter Daniel Holtz.
This is damn weird: At least we get some Skinner time, and he's not just second-guessing Mulder's abduction or babysitting Scully. It's a nice beat for John to say he won't fill the roles of Fox and Dana for Walter. I kind of wish there was enough time for Skinner to suffer some of the delusions Skinner had, but only so much can be done within the confines of a 45-minute show. I imagine his nightmares would be fierce.
I just grabbed a few winks: That's not to take anything away from what executive producer Frank Spotnitz dreamed up and director Tony Wharmy brought into action. "Via Negativa" contains some amazing set pieces that are really brought home with Robert Patrick's strongest performance yet. He hasn't exactly been a slouch since joining the ranks, imbuing the show with much-needed fresh air. And Spotnitz's script seems like it contains hallucinogenic properties. I always feel lulled into it, the same way John gets dragged -- or vicariously drugged -- into the proceedings.
Despite the fact that Scully is on the sidelines for much of this one, more of connection grows between our Season 8 early leads. John dreaming about Dana is certainly a telltale clue. And while it might seem like an odd time for Scully to tell Doggett to trust his instincts, it helps keep us on John's side throughout all the ensuing madness. I find myself starting to draw a parallel between Doggett wondering whether he should have let Tipet die and Dana's ambiguity regarding expelling her greatest fear, fetishist Donnie Pfaster, at the end of "Orison" (Season 7, Episode 7).
That's not bad for a beginner: The Lone Gunmen's inclusion here feels a bit jarring. Their detailed exposition to the contrary, this doesn't seem to be their area of expertise. (Although wouldn't Dr. Bormanis have fit the bill as a medical Lone Gunman ... had he lived?) Langly claims John is in way over his head, but I kind of think Gunmen are. They're not who I'd turn to for advice in this particular circumstance. I think they would have been more apt to provide Sestra Am's Nightmare on Elm Street reasoning then come up with hallucinogenic astral projection.
By the way, we obviously need "Via Negativa" at this point in our ongoing story, but this offering might have provided a far better basis for a "Millennium" crossover episode than the substandard effort we were given in the seventh season's denouement of the sister show.
It all wraps up with an amazing final dream sequence bathed in blue light that fades in and out and puts Doggett in different places with the telltale ax reminiscent of when we played "Red Light, Green Light, 1-2-3" as kids. Not only gorgeous, but it evens up the score in the partners' life-saving department. You can mark down on your cards, it's 1-1 after Doggett did likewise in S8E4's "Roadrunners."
Guest star of the week: Of course, it's Keith Szarabajka, who found a niche in these type of shows -- eventually Supernatural was added into his supernatural mix -- by virtue of his ability to portray symbolic characters with gravity and believability. That's no small feat, witness me questioning our tried-and-true buds, the Gunmen, earlier for further proof of that.
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