X-Files S9E3: It's your move, Satan

Sestra Amateur: 

Is it just me or is it a little jarring to return to monster-of-the-week episodes after a mythology arc? In Weston, West Virginia, Darren and Evelyn Mountjoy are playing Scrabble when their dog interrupts. Hubby uses the distraction to look at his wife’s letters. Two demonic-looking peeps kill their dog and trick the man into shooting his own wife. Who “triumphs” now, Scrabble cheater? 

Agent Monica Reyes arrives the following morning to a staged scene -- the dead Mountjoys are seated at the Scrabble table, but Evelyn has the gun and all evidence of Darren’s cheating has been removed. Now the only word on the board is “Daemonicus,” which is an implausible start because players only get seven letters at a time. Monica senses evil in the house. Agent John Doggett is on the scene and waiting to hear Reyes’ expert opinion. Satanic ritual? The Devil himself? Sure, there’s evidence of human beings outside the home, but snakes expelled from Evelyn’s chest tell a more complicated story.

Professor Dana Scully is instructing her first class in forensic pathology at the FBI Training Academy when Doggett requests assistance with the Mountjoys’ autopsies. Scully is able to determine how Evelyn really died while Reyes fills in the blanks based on the physical evidence. The snakes were added by a killer with mad surgical skills. Monica tries to explain to John and Dana the presence of evil she felt at the crime scene. Meanwhile, the real suspects are in a pickup truck with West Virginia plates. They arrive at a wooded area, grab their demon masks and meander away.

Team Johnica arrives at the Chessman State Mental Hospital in Kitsonville, West Virginia. Their contact, Dr. Monique Sampson, thinks Reyes is investigating demonic possession. The suspects in question are patient Kenneth Richman (a doctor) and guard Paul Gerlach. They were last seen in the presence of professor Josef Kobold, played by James Remar, who is known for playing either really good guys (Black Lightning series, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie) or really bad guys (48 Hours, The Dream Team). No, I haven’t watched The Warriors yet. Yes, I’ll get around to it eventually.

Back in the wooded area (and just a small editing note, in the time it took for them to stop walking in the woods, Doggett and Reyes drove 100 miles to the hospital) one of the men shoots the other. Team Johnica tries to interview Josef, who speaks in riddles. It’s a good thing Doggett doesn’t know about Scully’s tattoo (Season 4, Episode 13: "Never Again"), or he would have assumed the “snake eating its own tail” line was about her. Josef Kobold believes in the Devil, he doesn’t think the feds can help him.

Meanwhile, the surviving killer is back in his pickup and telepathically communicating with Josef. Kobold appears to change his mind about getting help because he calls the agents back to the hospital. This time, Josef is agitated and strapped to a gurney. He talks them into letting him go into the wooded area to find one of the killer’s dead bodies. Monica thinks he’s sincere, especially when she finds Paul Gerlach hanging upside down from a tree. Scully handles the autopsy. When Reyes mentions Kobold’s “Prince of the Apostles” comment, Dana says St. Peter was crucified upside down, just like Gerlach.

Doggett thinks Josef Kobold has knowledge of the crime scene because he planned everything. He was committed after gruesomely killing six college students. Reyes thinks he’s channeling the Devil and is willing to make him more comfortable to help their case. Meanwhile, Richman is stalking Dr. Sampson. Once Kobold is ensconced in his new digs, he starts messing with John’s head by knowing too much about the past. Doggett is about to leave when the demon’s voices seem to take hold of Josef. He tries to warn them about Dr. Sampson, but Team Johnica and the local cops arrive too late to save her. Scully joins them at the crime scene. (Are they all flying back and forth or just driving like maniacs?)

Kobold goes back to messing with John’s head on personal and professional levels. Doggett grabs Josef, who starts vomiting uncontrollably. I may never be able to eat baked beans again. Reyes thinks he spewed ectoplasm. Doggett stands alone while Team Danica thinks the evidence will remove doubt about whether or not Josef has been faking everything. Of course, John doesn’t reveal Kobold’s head games, so that’s on him. Later that night, it’s dark and stormy when security officer Custer gets sucked into the drama. Our intrepid heroes now need to go to Happy Landing, a marina on Scully’s route home (yep, driving, not flying). She goes there – without local law enforcement backup! – and gets accosted by Richman. Team Johnica, Josef, Custer and local popo finally arrive at the marina. They find Richman’s body, dead by suicide. It was just the distraction Kobold needed to escape. Doggett shoots Josef and he sinks into the water.

Team Johnica later meet with Scully at the FBI Academy. Doggett thinks Josef Kobold pulled off the perfect escape. He also demonstrates how Josef’s use of the word "Daemonicus" showed how deep his plan went. (Not-so-fun fact: If Richman was unable to kill Monique Sampson, he could have used Monica Reyes instead.) Whether or not Kobold was a genius or a man possessed, The X-Files had the perfect opportunity to make him a recurring character but they didn’t. He’s your Monster of the Week and the week is over.

Sestra Professional: 

I would have referred to "Daemonicus" as "Sanguinarium 2" had not the world as we knew it changed the week the episode was filmed. For some reason, this episode reminded me of much of the tone of that S4E6 gorefest, but that obviously pales in comparison to the events of 9/11. Even this many years later, it's hard to separate fact from fiction. Because as mentioned last time, that destruction changed more than our day-to-day reality. And as such, this isn't an ep I return to with much frequency.

Looks like we can rule out the Exorcist after all: While not as obviously prescient as The Lone Gunmen pilot featuring our nebbish heroes trying to prevent a plane from flying into the World Trade Center, "Sanguinarium" has a lot to say about the more abstract nature of evil -- a subject seared into all our brains around that time. 

 

There's something about the hospital's black-and-white checkerboard floors that semi-consciously tip us off to the fact that a game has been initiated. In this case, it's a tilt between Kobold (and/or his possessor) and John Doggett. That's what writer/director/executive producer Frank Spotnitz sets up perfectly. I'm less enamored of the dramatic clouds rolling in at high-speed rates with accompanying thunder and lightning effects. They're meant to heighten the terror, but they actually lessen it.

While it might seem jarring to shift from super-soldiers to a monster-of-the-week episode (and that always feels more pronounced at the beginning of a season), we do set up an interesting dynamic for Season 9. The "master manipulator" effectively nails the first part about Doggett, there's an unsolved tragedy for which John feels responsible. That will drive a lot of the story this year. I think he goes a little bit overboard regarding the feelings John has for Scully (and Reyes), but it's a smart ploy for a demon moving pieces around the board.

Monica's stance is similar to her Season 8 posture, only more so. She knows when something set up to look like demonic ritual isn't by trusting her gut. And Dana's kind of on the sidelines. She's doing her autopsies and teaching young brats at the FBI Training Academy. Those kids don't seem to possess the same gravitas as Jodie Foster and her compatriots did in Silence of the Lambs. But Scully will admit, to her charges and our co-leads, that sometimes science can't tell the entire story.

I kind of wish that story didn't shift back to the ol' ouroboros once again. Sestra Am mentioned Scully's tattoo from "Never Again," and it also became the defining image of the defunct Millennium. So while the technical name isn't actually uttered, the concept of the snake eating its own tail kind of feels like the show is doing the same thing. Sestra Am hypothesizes Kobold would have made a strong recurring character for this season, and I might buy that as an alternative to bland Knowle Rohrer. But "Daemonicus" also could have been configured as a better finale for Frank Black's series than the trite "Millennium" (S7E4).

So what are we talking now, the Ghostbusters? Worked into this mix are some pop culture references. The Exorcist was already mentioned. Then there's one that might be very slight if you're not familiar with Annabeth Gish's filmography. Doggett mentions flesh being used as fertilizer in a garden, that's a major plot point in her 1995 film, The Last Supper. The second is much more palpable -- ectoplasm, the familiar slimy residue from the Ghostbusters franchise. I guess that makes Kobold "father pus bucket."

All of that was in front of the cameras while the cast and crew were striving to get the show ready for air. In The Complete X-Files, Robert Patrick recalled how difficult it was to work that week. "It was the first time that I couldn't do my lines," he said. "Usually I would show up and they'd always put the camera on me first because I'd nail my dialogue, and then they'd shoot the other people. I really took a lot of pride in showing up prepared. And I couldn't do it."  

James Remar told me outright at a 2016 pop-culture convention that The X-Files saved his life. The veteran actor had spent the summer of 2001 in New York City, riding Ladder Company 3's fire truck with friend Patrick Brown. A couple of days before 9/11, the show implored him to do the role of Kobold. Then the towers fell and Ladder Company 3 lost most of its men, including Brown, in the attack.

Guest star of the week: As Sestra Am mentioned, Remar has made a career of portraying both good and bad guys. That plays into his (and the show's) favor in this episode. Is Kobold a victim, the Devil incarnate or just possessed? Remar embodies the swings with seemingly effortless ease until the ultimate reveal.