X-Files S9E8: Repeatedly getting under their skin

Sestra Amateur: 

In Novi, Virginia, it’s Terry Pruit’s turn to share in group. Which group, you ask? AA? NA? Based on stereotypes, I’m leaning toward court-ordered anger management. Except for Terry, these men are a pessimistic bunch. Victor Dale Potts suffers from nightmares and sees visions, like the one of buddy Ed Kelso standing in front of him, skinned alive.

Five days later, FBI Agent Monica Reyes has the case file for poor dead Victor, who was the one actually skinned alive. She calls Agent Dana Scully and Agent John Doggett to the morgue to help her with this particular investigation. Monica knows more but she’s not being very forthcoming with her partners. They head to Novi and meet with local police detective Van Allen. Reyes wants to hear from Dr. Lisa Holland, who led the group session. She doesn’t have nice things to say about Ed, Victor’s buddy from group. Van Allen thinks he’s seen Monica before but she denies it.

Terry works with Ed at the meat packing plant. Clearly they don’t get along, but Ed actually seems to scare Terry. Scully’s doing her own research and finds a similar murder that occurred in 1960. She interviews the now-84-year-old coroner named Bertram Mueller and learns the then-sheriff committed suicide after the skinned body was found. Dana also learns there was a series of murders committed back then, not just the one John Doe.

Terry thinks Ed is stalking him at work and is ready to defend himself. Too bad Pruit gets knocked unconscious, stripped and strung up by his feet. Of course things get much, much worse for poor Terry, who at least tried to change for the better. Meanwhile, Reyes goes to the church to see Dr. Holland, but runs into a skinless man instead. Turns out, she’s just having a nightmare. John wakes her up (he was in the next room, don’t get any ideas) to tell her about Pruit's murder. Seeing his skinned body freaks out Monica and she bolts from the crime scene. Scully arrives and shows Reyes the 1960 case file. And John almost pees his pants when he realizes skinless Terry is still alive! 

Doggett arrests Ed, who is actually running from something else. During his interview, Monica sees something redeemable in Kelso when he cries over his friend’s death. John doesn’t like Reyes connecting with their suspect. Detective Van Allen cuts Ed loose because he has an alibi. While leaving the police station, Kelso has a vision of a skinned Holland. Meanwhile, Dana’s been very busy. She had two bodies from the 1960 case exhumed and learned Victor Potts and Terry Pruit were born on the same dates that someone was skinned alive in 1960. That’s some speedy super-sleuthing, Agent Scully. Reyes thinks Ed will be Victim No. 3 and she’s right. Doggett finds what’s left of Kelso on the table.

John has a bone to pick with Van Allen, but Monica refocuses Doggett's attention. Reyes thinks the souls of the men are the same. She describes Kelso’s remains even though she hadn’t seen his body at the scene. Monica is also sure there will be a fourth victim. Team Johnica head to a nearby coal mine where they find newspaper articles from 1868 and 1909 along with a sheriff’s skeleton. Looks like that one committed suicide too. Turns out, this all started over a mining claim dispute from 100-plus years ago. Four men scammed and killed a fifth man over it. Monica finds the skins -- some old, some fresh -- and then the culprit: Detective Van Allen. He points out how she always fails when she tries to stop him. Van Allen was the man skinned alive during the original land dispute and he’s destined to keep repeating history.

Reyes thinks Dr. Holland is Victim No. 4 and warns her away from the murderous detective just in time. Lisa makes a run for it and is saved by Monica, who shoots a very surprised Van Allen. Guess she didn’t fail this time. Dana and John still aren’t completely on board with Reyes' reincarnated connection to the case, but she believes in it completely. Too bad Van Allen dies … and the cycle appears to begin again.

Sestra Professional: 

This X-file should be sub-categorized "Not-for-the-Squeamish-file." Every once in a while we run across one of these, although this particular script by supervising producer David Amann could be cross-classified in the Twilight Zone file as well as the "Sanguinarium" file. That's the tag I give to competition for yuckiest X-file. Although there are other candidates over almost 8 1/2 seasons, Season 4's sixth episode always stands out to me for most memorable blood and tissue loss.

 

Season 9 may not be doing much for Dana, but we're getting a lot more insight into Monica Reyes and John Doggett -- and they're pretty interesting people. Fortunately they're quite different from our original leads, Mulder and Scully, even though they have similar drive and intelligence. It makes them easy to root for and side with, even when they don't agree with their co-workers.

 

Might want to watch your step, we got some blood on the floor: That doesn't mean we wouldn't like Monica to let John and Dana in on what's going on earlier than she does. They've certainly earned our respect, so perhaps she should have the same confidence in them as well. Maybe she's just flustered by not knowing as much about the case as she usually does at the start -- that gut feeling she's always following. Reyes was either not initially getting that vibe in Novi or was trying her level best to ignore it. I tend to think it was the latter. 

 

Although not scripted as well as last week's "John Doe," it's nice to follow up an episode focused on Doggett that showed those in his orbit trying to help him with one exhibiting a similar pattern for Monica. That, of course, doesn't thrill the legion of viewers still tuning in at this point to see Scully. But if their minds were as open as Reyes', maybe they would come around by this time. Ah, who am I kidding? Oh well, there's enough of Dana pinpointing exactly what's going on scientifically to keep Gillian Anderson's fan base engaged as well.

You can't stop it, you never do: At some point, we were hellbound to get to the point at which Reyes and Doggett's differing viewpoints came to a head. Even finding out all the victims were born on the dates of the previous victims' deaths didn't sway John beyond pointing out they're hunting for a crafty killer. We do kind of expect the concept of karmic revenge to be Monica's terrain, but maybe I've got that backwards. Maybe this is Reyes' origin story. Her facility for such reasoning could come from the fact that she's been through the pattern over and over again.

The makeup team led by Cheri Montesanto did an excellent job on "Hellbound." I don't get bugged out by a lot of television episodes, but those were the most advanced skin peels I've ever seen and they were horrifying. By the way, the bodies reportedly were made by spraying a mannequin with a layer of latex, then peeling that off and applying the layers to mannequins that resembled the actors. Fake veins were applied over the moist-looking fake skin. In The Complete X-Files, Robert Patrick gave full credit to Montesanto and the special-effects makeup team: "They literally did a 36-hour day to pull some of that off," he said.

Guest star of the week: The only non-recurring character able to keep pace with the makeup and effects squad this week was James McDonnell as Detective Van Allen. A veteran of episodic television for over two decades, he found a truly meaty role on The X-Files.