After a dozen episodes where Scully is mainly used as the skeptic window dressing to Mulder's passionate search for implausible truth she finds reason to believe. Immediately upon her father's sudden death Scully senses he is reaching out to her, perhaps to say goodbye - or that he is fine with her decision not to follow medicine in order to pursue a career that makes her happy.
Luther Lee Boggs has a approaching second date with the gas chamber. Since the terror he felt, where he saw his victims, including his family, as he faced death he is terrified and begins to have visions of another serial killer and his latest young couple. He requests an audience with Mulder to attempt to bargain for life if he helps save the couple. Scully attends her own father's funeral only to jump right back to work and goes with Mulder to interview Bogs. Mulder,uncharacteristically, thinks Bogs is either manipulating the other killer or is a fake psychic. Scully believes otherwise as Bogs seems to know of her father and creepily sings lyrics to "Somewhere Beyond The Sea", a song with profound meaning to Dana's parents. This is a great switch, whereby Scully is the believer and Mulder the skeptic, and it pushes Gillian Anderson's character, finally, front and center. Anderson plays it excellently as the needy soul who is driven to believe, against her usual "right brain" logic. Scully is conflicted in a very realistic and palpable way. When she visually see clues offered by Boggs, and saves the female kidnapped victim, she has to push forward in spite of Mulder, and does so even denying his suspicion. The killer/kidnapper gets away and still has the male victim who, by habit, he will execute within the next three days. She returns to Bogs, after a failed attempt to have the governor commute his sentence to life, lying to Bogs about his fate so he will give in. Boggs goes into his psychic trance and tells her this time exactly where to look. Then, in an excellent writer's twist, tells Scully he knows she has lied to him and that he will die...But, if she attends his execution he will deliver a message from her father anyway.
Speaking of the writing, this is the best episode of season one hands down, in fact it is, perhaps, the best of the series. That says a lot since it isn't about alien/government conspiracy so-called "myth-arc". This all works well because of Anderson's excellent turn, Duchovy's muted performance, and the truly excellent script. The script on it's own is much more earthy, gritty, and believable. But, the real glue that it all hangs on is the "out-of-the-park" performance delivered by Brad Dourif's portrayal of Luther Boggs. Dourif is so uncannily the crazed killer that it stays in the viewer's mind long after the end credits roll. You'd think Dourif is going to collapse from hyper-ventilation as his channeling seems so intense. He should have got an Emmy for the dark presence he delivered.
See this one if you watch any episode of The X-Files. If more of the series could have reached the heights of "Somewhere Beyond The Sea" it would have equaled Star Trek in the pantheon of Sci-Fi TV history.
Luther Lee Boggs has a approaching second date with the gas chamber. Since the terror he felt, where he saw his victims, including his family, as he faced death he is terrified and begins to have visions of another serial killer and his latest young couple. He requests an audience with Mulder to attempt to bargain for life if he helps save the couple. Scully attends her own father's funeral only to jump right back to work and goes with Mulder to interview Bogs. Mulder,uncharacteristically, thinks Bogs is either manipulating the other killer or is a fake psychic. Scully believes otherwise as Bogs seems to know of her father and creepily sings lyrics to "Somewhere Beyond The Sea", a song with profound meaning to Dana's parents. This is a great switch, whereby Scully is the believer and Mulder the skeptic, and it pushes Gillian Anderson's character, finally, front and center. Anderson plays it excellently as the needy soul who is driven to believe, against her usual "right brain" logic. Scully is conflicted in a very realistic and palpable way. When she visually see clues offered by Boggs, and saves the female kidnapped victim, she has to push forward in spite of Mulder, and does so even denying his suspicion. The killer/kidnapper gets away and still has the male victim who, by habit, he will execute within the next three days. She returns to Bogs, after a failed attempt to have the governor commute his sentence to life, lying to Bogs about his fate so he will give in. Boggs goes into his psychic trance and tells her this time exactly where to look. Then, in an excellent writer's twist, tells Scully he knows she has lied to him and that he will die...But, if she attends his execution he will deliver a message from her father anyway.
Speaking of the writing, this is the best episode of season one hands down, in fact it is, perhaps, the best of the series. That says a lot since it isn't about alien/government conspiracy so-called "myth-arc". This all works well because of Anderson's excellent turn, Duchovy's muted performance, and the truly excellent script. The script on it's own is much more earthy, gritty, and believable. But, the real glue that it all hangs on is the "out-of-the-park" performance delivered by Brad Dourif's portrayal of Luther Boggs. Dourif is so uncannily the crazed killer that it stays in the viewer's mind long after the end credits roll. You'd think Dourif is going to collapse from hyper-ventilation as his channeling seems so intense. He should have got an Emmy for the dark presence he delivered.
See this one if you watch any episode of The X-Files. If more of the series could have reached the heights of "Somewhere Beyond The Sea" it would have equaled Star Trek in the pantheon of Sci-Fi TV history.