"The Truth Is Out There" Re-Watch: "The List" & "2Shy"

 The X-Files

Season Three is great, but not every episode is a winner. But even the episodes that aren't great still have some interesting ideas and moments that make them at the least compelling to watch. With that being said, let's get to it.

"The List"

Fox Mulder: "Every major world religion encompasses the idea of life after death. That means millions, even billions, of people believe in some kind of transmigration or rebirth of the soul."

Dana Scully: "I'm sorry, Mulder. That's not what I learned in catechism."

Fox Mulder: "Well, even Christianity teaches about the resurrection and ascendancy of the heavenly body."

Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW

X-File of the Week: Napoleon "Neech" Manley, a Florida death row inmate, vows that he will return and seek revenge on five people, even after he is dead. Manley dies in the electric chair, but soon after, the people that Manley vowed revenge on begin to die. FBI special agents, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, come to investigate. Mulder is convinced that Manley is orchestrating the murders from beyond the grave, while Scully believes the more plausible explanation is that Manley has a still living accomplice within the prison that is carrying out his final wishes.

Scully hates prison.

Sometimes it is best to start at the beginning and I think that's the correct way to go when talking about "The List." If someone quizzed me on the details of this episode, I probably wouldn't get a lot of them right, but there is one thing that has stuck with me after my many viewings of this episode and that is the final scenes. Since his execution, Manley had been rarely seen and the last person on his list, Warren Brodeur, thinks that he has finally escaped his fate. But as he's driving home, Manley appears in his rearview mirror. He lunges at Brodeur from the backseat and chokes him. Brodeur ends up crashing his car into a tree. The camera pulls back and you see crashed windshield covered in blood and the horn going off. It would have been a great way to end the episode. But Chris Carter, who wrote and directed this episode, doesn't understand how subtlety works, he had to show the inside of the car. It doesn't take away from the other scene, but it would have been so much better if it had ended like a minute earlier.

The rest of this episode is just OK. I think that the concept of reincarnation and someone getting revenge from beyond the grave is ripe for exploration with "The X-Files," but this doesn't do enough with it. I think if the concept or the setting was a little different than maybe it would have worked better? Manley being executed in the cold open hurts the episode. The focus is always on what is happening instead of the why of what is happening. I totally get them wanting to keep Manley's postmortem appearances limited, but they could still have at least tried to make him a character that we as an audience cared about. The most they do is when Mulder explains to Scully why he is on death row. Apparently, Manley was the getaway driver for a robbery where his accomplice killed someone. His accomplice was killed by police so Manley basically took the fall for his crime. Hence, why his execution was stayed twice before. I would have liked to have found out a little bit more about it.

The plot is pretty paint by numbers. The men on Manley's list are mainly guards and the warden and it becomes pretty apparent that the prison is corrupt. The warden is orchestrating brutal beatings in the showers. It's pretty much everything you expect. It's well executed, but with the quality we've seen so far this season, I am definitely wanting and expecting more.

The episode has some tropes that are super tired now, but were tired back in 1995. "The X-Files" has been a pretty white series up to this point and to have the people of color be primarily death row inmates who are being victimized by a white warden is... problematic. Then there is Scully in the prison. No one wants to be in a prison, but Scully being so shook up by the men leering at her etc, just feels over-the-top. And it doesn't feel in character for Scully. Like, I don't think she would have been so shook and freaked out by it. 

Grade: B-

"2Shy"

[last lines]

Virgil Incanto: [to Scully as she is about to leave the holding cell] "I morti non sono piú soli. The dead are no longer lonely.

Dana Scully: [to the guard] "Let me out."

Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW

X-File of the Week: In Cleveland, OH, Virgil Incanto, a lonely hearts killer, is seducing women he meets on the internet and extracting all the fat from their body in order to live. Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully get involved when Mulder sees similarities to another string of murders.

This girl is going places.

The '90's were a strange time. It feels like a lot of shows had the same plot. As online dating became more prevalent we started to see it work its way into plots of television shows. It seems like these male television writers assumed that the only women who were participating in chat rooms or online dating were women who were dumpy, frumpy and usually overweight. It wasn't just this episode of "The X-Files." Camryn Mannheim's personal story arcs in "The Practice" usually revolved around her weight and how that would impact her dating life. She had a long term arc where she met a man online and was nervous about meeting him because of her size. Now, I'm not saying this is a valid concern but when its all there is, then it becomes a little tedious.

It's no wonder that people get complexes from media. The women that are supposed to be so heavy on this episode, are not. They are averaged sized women. It's great that the show has that cop working with Mulder and Scully who is obviously misogynistic. Because this episode is also pretty misogynistic. I really didn't understand the point of that scene between the cop and Scully. Again, there could be an interesting convo to have about older male law enforcement officers having issues with women in the ranks. But this ain't it. It's completely possible that writer Jeff Vlaming is trying to point out this guy is a clown, because he is. Whenever someone prefaces a comment with I'm not or this may sound, they definitely are those things. Scully's stone faced reactions are the only valid way to respond to this. So, yeah, maybe Vlaming is pointing out the ridiculousness but it's hard to believe that when he writes all the other women in this episode so terribly.

Let's start with Incanto's landlord, Monica Landis. She for some reason seems smitten with Incanto. Who knows why? He is dismissive and openly hostile to her. She seems to take that as a sign that he's interested and is flirting with her. What? Even her blind daughter can see that this dude isn't interested. Some subtle writing choices there. And then Monica's obliviousness and seeming desperation gets her killed. Of course, we get some violence against sex workers, because why wouldn't we? Then there's Ellen, Incanto's main target throughout the episode. Her main character trait is being a sad sack. And her shooting Incanto at the end of the episode doesn't make it any better. That isn't how you give a character agency.

The only part of this episode that I really enjoyed was Scully smacking Incanto around. Luckily, we have better episodes to come.

Grade: D

Next up, the agents investigate a soldier's suicide attempt and try to save a kidnapped teenager.

What do you all think? Does anyone really love these episodes? Let me know in the comments.