The X-Files Virgin’s Diary – Four very bad men in a row

by Jason Hughes

(Season 3, Episodes 5-8)

Well, this week we look at how The X-Files deals with bad men. Some of them have supernatural abilities. Some of them don’t. But they all have one thing in common: They’re men who are bastards.

And they’re men who do terrible things to other people. It got to where I was looking for a woman to do something bad, just so I wouldn’t start hating my gender. Scully, double park! Hey lady, shoplift that package. But alas, the women wouldn’t have it. They were too busy being victims. Which really isn’t much better, is it?

3.5 – “The List”
(Original Air Date: October 20, 1995) That was odd. Mulder and Scully not only failed to solve the case, they kind of just abandoned it. What a weird episode. Mulder didn’t even get to take down the warden, who legally will get away with multiple murders. And the guards get away with covering it up?

Of course, the warden paid with his life ultimately, but that was more because of the supernatural elements. It’s kind of a dark episode, because the murder list was the five people who wronged a death row inmate. But as he was a cold-blooded psychopath, are those five people really deserving of death?

Then you’ve got his wife going crazy and killing her boyfriend, the warden beating inmates to death, and nobody living happily ever after. Man, I don’t know how to feel about all of that.

3.6 – “2Shy”
(Original Air Date: November 3, 1995) Considering when this episode aired, I’ll bet it was one of the earliest dramatic warnings about online predators, as it was a fairly new problem at the time. The episode was extremely well put together in every way, and left me far more satisfied than the previous one.

The use of the landlady’s blind daughter toward the end was also brilliantly handled, as was Timothy Carhart’s performance as the killer (by the way, was it just me or did Carhart slightly resemble a young Timothy Hutton?). Here we have yet another anomalous human who must kill for some genetic problem he has. A bit of a theme, yes?

I found myself wanting to know what will happen to him the longer he is able to go without feeding on the fatty tissue he needs to survive. He certainly looked like hell going out of this one.

3.7 – “The Walk”
(Original Air Date: November 10, 1995) Since, from what I can tell, Ian Tracey does in fact have arms and legs, I’ll give credit where it’s due to the makeup department for this episode. There were some moments when he was in the bed with his arm stumps visible, that I suspected they were fake, but all in all it was a good fake-out.

I’m beginning to sense a theme. Episode after episode we have Mulder and Scully coming in to save people from a man with some sort of supernatural ability. This one’s psychic projection, and this guy is about as cold-blooded as they come.

It was interesting that Scully said the military was denying the existence of Gulf War Syndrome, so I suspect this episode was in response to that. We’re supposed to think this solder’s a victim of the war he was in, and the mental condition he developed while there. But he came across like a remorseless murderer of the worst kind, killing the loved ones of people he felt had wronged him.

I felt particularly bad for the man who scalded his entire body in an attempt to die, after his family had been killed. I applauded his ultimate murder of the quadruple amputee killer, but it was still tragic seeing him in the final moment working the mail circuit.

3.4 – “Oubliette”
(Original Air Date: November 17, 1995) I feel kind of dirty now. In Firefly, I thought Jewel Staite was pretty cute. Now here she is a twelve year old and she’s just a child. Okay, this was long before Firefly, but it was certainly jarring seeing that familiar face on a young child (and yes, I picked that picture so you could all feel as weird about it as I did).

That said, for a child she did a bang-up job as a kidnap victim. I always wonder how difficult a role like that is for a kid to play. I wish I could also praise the acting performance of the former abductee in this saga, Lucy Householder (Tracey Ellis). Unfortunately, I thought she was stiff in her delivery, and despite a few moments deeper into the episode, she pulled me out of the drama with every utterance.

I did like the bizarre connection the abducted girls shared, and that Lucy was able to choose to sacrifice her life to save Amy (Staite). It does leave Lucy’s entire life a bit of a tragedy. She didn’t look as if she’d recovered from her ordeal as a child, and ultimately she died reliving the experience. Still, maybe she got some peace in knowing that another child would not have to suffer as she had.