X-Files S9E12: Be wary of what lurks 'Underneath'

Sestra Amateur: 

On a rain-soaked street in Brooklyn, New York in 1989, a gravel-voiced man orders a cable repairman to “do your damn job.” The timid man complies, clutches his rosary and heads toward the house. A teenager inside is on the phone talking about Milli Vanilli (because it’s 1989). She lets the cable guy into the house but Dad claims their cable is working just fine. Our friendly neighborhood repairman goes into a fugue state, during which someone butchers Mom, Dad and the teens. The cops arrive and take him into custody. One of the responding patrolmen is future Special Agent John Doggett.

Back in the present (at least as far as this episode is concerned), Doggett learns DNA has exonerated Screwdriver Killer Robert Fassl. (Why would anyone want to harm a screwdriver?) John describes the scene to his current partner, Special Agent Monica Reyes. She plays devil’s advocate and points out John didn’t catch Robert in the act of committing murder. Special Agent Dana Scully uses her medical training to confirm it was not Fassl’s DNA found at the crime scene. Doggett asks for their help to prove Robert is a murderer.

Fassl gets released from the Ossining Correctional Facility. He seems happy to be holding his rosary again. During a press conference with his attorney, Jana Fain, Robert sees a creepy bearded man across the street. Team Sculett talk with Assistant D.A. Damon Kaylor, who stands by the decision to release Fassl. Jana Fain arranges for Robert to stay in her mansion. He kisses his rosary and begins to pray. Too bad that evil presence wants Fassl to kill Fain. Doggett tracks down his former beat partner, the now-retired Duke Tomasick, who seems OK with the knowledge they arrested the wrong man. But all the praying in the world isn’t helping Robert. The bearded man punches him and presumably goes after Jana.

The next morning, John is still relentlessly poring through the case file when Dana again confirms it wasn’t Fassl’s hair at the scene. She does have some good news; the DNA sample from the hair is genetically linked to Robert. Jana confronts Fassl because she thinks he went through her drawers while she was working all night. Things don’t work out as well for Fain’s housekeeper. Robert finds her body and cleans up the crime scene. (The use of the word “clean” is truly inaccurate.) Reyes helps Doggett by conducting follow-up at Sing Sing. The warden tells Monica about a murder committed in the prison which was attributed to Fassl. Turns out, they have a shot of Robert’s blood-spattered bearded tormenter on camera but guards never found the flesh-and-blood version.

A.D.A. Kaylor confronts John about the DNA retests and tries to put an end to Doggett's dogged pursuit. Reyes arrives with the bearded man theory. Scully learns the original DNA evidence that convicted Fassl was planted after the murders. (Based on the characters we’ve seen, we really only have one suspect for that.) Kaylor goes to Fain’s house to talk about the case. Robert begs to go back to prison but the bearded man murders the A.D.A. too. 

Doggett confronts Duke about the frame job and he freely admits what he did. Dana tells John about the missing Kaylor. Robert hides this body as well, in an area that already has a weathered skeleton or two. Then he gets cleaned up and meets with his attorney and Team Reyly (Scules?) Monica wants more information on the bearded man. Fassl is stunned to see photographic evidence of his evil entity’s existence. Dana tries to bond with him, Catholic to Catholic. He’s about to talk but Jana ends the interview. Reyes thinks the bearded man manifested into a second personality for Robert because he could not face his own sins. Back at the Fain residence, Robert’s evil side again tries to push him into committing murder. While helping an injured Fassl, Jana sees the evil one with her own eyes.

Team Johnica are on a stakeout when Doggett sees the bearded man run out Jana’s front door. Reyes checks on Fain, who is uninjured. John and Monica chase their suspect underground by the cable access trap door. The bearded man startles Reyes, hits her and gets away. While searching for him, she falls down a grate and lands in the sewer water. She discovers lots of skeletons and calls out for Doggett. He’s about to head her way when the bearded man stabs John with a screwdriver. Monica finds them and tries to get Robert’s personality to emerge. She’s able to anger him enough to shoot the bearded man without hurting Doggett. The evil entity lands in the water, but when John pulls him out, it’s a dead Robert Fassl. So Officer Doggett was right all along. Fain isn’t able to admit it to herself yet. Actually, neither is Special Agent Doggett.

Sestra Professional: 

(Hey, Sestra Am, I could murder a screwdriver right now! Oh, you're talking about the tool not the drink. My bad. )

You know how there are episodes you once loved that you don't appreciate as much now as you did in years past? My best example of that, far and away, is "Arcadia" (Season 6, Episode 15). But "Underneath" is like that to a lesser degree. It used to pack a bigger punch for me, but my ability to buy into it seems to have ebbed away. Oh well, people change (although generally not as much as Fassl).

Having written for the show since the third season -- often as part of a three-headed team with Vince Gilligan and Frank Spotnitz -- and producing since year five John Shiban finally got his chance to take the reins behind the camera. He both penned and directed this one.

Materialized how, like Casper the Friendly Ghost? You can almost see the wheels turning in Shiban's head from the original germ of an idea to completion. Let's put a Charles Manson-esque killer into The X-Files grind. He will supernaturally get frumpy Robert Fassl to do his bidding. The killings started years ago, providing a chance for a look back at Doggett's pre-FBI days. (Don'tcha just love how Shiban signals it's 1989? By talking about then-heartthrobs Milli Vanilli. Yeah, it definitely couldn't be any other time period.)

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly where the show was heading at this point in time. Over the past few episodes, stories seem to have been written to advance our two newer leads. On the other hand, the stage might have been being set for the grand finale of the regular run. Maybe it was up in the air at this point with the show just covering its bets.

In a way, it's comforting to see some of Doggett's old habits coming back to the surface. He used to go about completing his cases in a certain way -- with structure built on the facts in front of him. That's what he does again here, or at least, that's what he wants to do again. The fact that his partner planted evidence hits him as deeply as anything he's run across during his time with the X-files.

 

Comfort in times of tribulation: Reyes does her level best to help out, seeing things the way she often does through an open prism. But it's Scully who gets the proceedings pointed in the right direction. She's the one who realizes the 1989 evidence is unusable. Dana can tell Fassl's religious by the way he fidgets with his rosary. She's been there and she's done that. So it's that rare case in which each of our Season 9 trio really contributes, but one in which a lot of effort is somewhat clunkily expended putting these pieces together.

 

The next episode of the show is "Improbable," but that could have been the title for this one too. I don't think Doggett's the only one who can't really buy into this sentiment at the end of the day. We've had shapeshifters turn into other people, and yeah, well, I believed that. But ultimate evil with a side course of religion? Not so easy for me to buy that anymore. 

Guest star of the week: I'm tempted to give the kudos to Alan Davidson, truly creepy as our bearded killer variant, but W. Earl Brown does his pay his dues as Fassl. There aren't a lot of subtleties involved in the performance, but we genuinely feel for the character for living with his burden since Milli Vanilli blamed it on the rain.