"The Truth Is Out There" Re-Watch: "Leonard Betts" & "Never Again"

 The X-Files

It's Scullypalooza with these two episodes as we get two episodes focused on the best character on the show: Dana Scully. Let's get to it.

"Leonard Betts"

[last lines]

Fox Mulder: "You did a good job, Scully. You should be proud."

Dana Scully: "I want to go home."

Notable Guest Star: Paul McCrane as Leonard Betts

Mythology of Monster of the Week: MotW

X-File of the Week: A Pittsburgh, PA EMT, Leonard Betts, is decapitated when the ambulance he's working is T-boned at an intersection. His headless corpse is seemingly abducted and the morgue attendant is knocked out and his clothes are stolen. This draws the attention of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. It soon becomes clear to Mulder that Betts's corpse wasn't stolen but Betts himself is alive and is somehow regenerating his body.

Who doesn't love a good head?

This is a pretty pivotal episode of "The X-Files." It sets the tone for the remainder of the fourth season and the start of season five. It is also the most watched episode of the series ever. It aired immediately after Super Bowl XXXI. The time slot after the Super Bowl is usually used to launch a new show or give an existing show more eyeballs. And that is what happened here. In fact, "Never Again," the episode that aired after "Leonard Betts" was supposed to air right before. But they decided to flip flop the two because this felt like it was more of a post-Super Bowl episode. And it definitely is. This episode gives new viewers exactly what they can expect from an episode and it also has a revelation at the end that would entice new viewers who were on the fence to keep watching and launch the back half of season four.

The revelation at the end of the episode that Scully has cancer is so well done. The entire episode it just feels like your normal monster-of-the-week. Scully and Mulder are going after Leonard and we get more layers as the episode goes on. Leonard is made of cancer. Leonard eats cancer. Leonard is not really his true identity and then he eats cancerous cells. It's such a great build up, so when the moment happens where Leonard tells Scully, "You've got something that I need" it is truly chilling. It's such a great way to do it. You didn't need to have this dramatic hospital moment or anything like that, but just this kind of subtle moment. You may not get it at first, but when I heard it for the first time, I was shook. Like, my stomach dropped. And ending the episode with the bloody nose and coughing fit is a pretty somber note and leaves you extremely worried for our favorite red headed skeptic.

The practical effects on "The X-Files" can be extremely hit or miss. For every Flukeman there are the El Chupacabra effects in "El Mundo Gira." Or that old age make up in "Død Kalm." We can never forget that and don't worry, I won't let you. But the practical effects in "Leonard Betts" are top tier. The make up effects on Betts when he is regrowing his head are so good and should have netted the series a visual effects Emmy. Even the computer generated effect of Betts basically shedding his entire skin to form a new version of himself holds up well and older CGI doesn't always do that. There is also the moment when Scully is trying to autopsy Betts's head and the eyes and mouth open. So creepy and so well done.

The character of Leonard Betts would definitely make it on a list of the most memorable one off characters in the show's history and that has a lot to do with the actor who played Betts: Paul McCrane. Most people probably remember McCrane from "ER" where he played the cranky and off putting Dr. Robert Romano. Romano famously had his arm chopped off by a falling helicopter. Betts is a completely different character. Even though he is fully killing people, McCrane is able to imbue Betts with enough pathos to make the audience empathize with him, which is really important when you're crafting these MotW antagonists.

There are these moments in the show where Scully gets cornered by this crazy person and she ends up getting kidnapped or needing rescued. But in this episode she really is a bad ass. She whoops Betts and it's great to see Scully being a regular Linda Hamilton in "Terminator 2: Judgement Day." She even takes him out by using a defibrillator on him. This is a move that Sidney Prescott employs in "Scream 4," which I just watched the other night. I thought it was quite serendipitous to see this used as a murder weapon in two things so close together and completely unrelated.

Grade: A

"Never Again"

Dana Scully: "I feel like I've lost sight of myself, Mulder. It's hard to see, let alone find, in the darkness of covert locations. I mean, I wish I could say we were going in circles, but we're not. We're going in an endless line, two steps forwards and three steps back. While my own life is standing still."

Notable Guest Star: Jodie Foster as "Bettie"

Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW

X-File of the Week: After a meeting with a Russian informant about potential UFO things, Fox Mulder is tasked to take a mandated vacation. He asks his partner, Dana Scully, to follow up and she does under duress. Scully ends up in Philadelphia, PA, where she determines this lead is a dead end. While visiting a tattoo parlor, Scully meets and becomes close with Ed Jerse, who has received a tattoo that is telling him to murder women.

Scully unbound.

The history of "The X-Files" is littered with what ifs. With castings that have fallen through or had to be changed. Even this episode has something like that. Initially Quentin Tarantino had been tapped to direct this episode but that ended up falling through due to a dispute with the Director's Guild of America. So, when things actually go right, it's something to be celebrated. It is kind of wild that the show got Oscar winner, Jodie Foster, to voice this hallucinogenic tattoo.

Foster does a great job with this role. Voice acting is not easy. And you can be a really great actor and be a complete shit voice actor. If you want to hear proof of this, you should just watch some episodes of "What If...?" on Disney+. Voice acting employs a completely different set of acting skills and they aren't always super easy to access. But Foster is great. She's flirty and malevolent all at the same time. And one of the things that I enjoy the most about her performance is that Foster's voice is virtually unrecognizable. To me anyways. If you had told me that was Jodie Foster without me knowing it, I would not have believed you, which is really cool.

One of the things that I love the most about this episode is that it asks a lot of questions that I think a lot of viewers have had since the series began. What does Scully get out of working on "The X-Files?" Is it fulfilling for her like it is for Mulder? Did Scully just take over Mulder's mission without thinking about it? Why doesn't she have a desk in the basement office that she shares with Mulder?

The scenes with Duchovny and Anderson in this episode are some of my favorite scenes between them. There are a lot of times that Mulder's douchiness is played as charming, but in this episode, Scully kind of turns the tables on him. She lets him know that him taking this Russian informant seriously is ridiculous. I love how she tells Mulder that what this guy is describing is the plot of a "Rocky & Bullwinkle" episode. Mulder is a real asshole here. He has no real answer for any of her questions. He is treating her like she is his subordinate when he tells her that he's made all these arrangements for her to go to Philadelphia while he's at Graceland. Mulder consistently tries to make Scully's existential crisis about him and even when she calls him out about it directly, he can't help himself but try to continue to do that.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Gillian Anderson is the reason that you watch "The X-Files." She's got the acting chops and really her character has the most growth throughout the life of the series. Anderson has said that she would have played Scully differently in this episode had she known it was going to air after "Leonard Betts," but I'm kind of glad she didn't. I don't know if this is an unpopular "X-Files" opinion, but I do really enjoy this episode. I think that this episode really allows Scully to be a fully realized, human person. I think sometimes she can seem so rigid and focused that you can forget that she does have foibles and her own issues. And we really get to see them. It's kind of refreshing to hear Scully talk about how starting with the relationship with her father she has had this drive and desire to follow and please men she deemed strong. And how she worries she's doing this again with Mulder. 

We don't usually see Scully being impetuous or spontaneous so it's kind of cool to watch her go to this seedy tattoo parlor and get this ouroboros tattoo. It's very out of character for her but that's the point. She's trying to shake up her life and that's how people do it. They get a tramp stamp. They sleep with a scruffy, generic but handsome dude. It's kind of refreshing to see Scully make these bad decisions. It makes her easy to relate to. She's doing all this stuff that us lowly, imperfect humans do.

Rodney Rowland, who plays Ed Jerse, is another cast off from episode writers, Glen Morgan and James Wong's "Space: Above and Beyond." He's fine, but he's kind of a non entity. Really any other dark haired, handsome actor from the '90's could have played him. He and Gillian Anderson did date briefly so I think that helps account for the chemistry they have. That is definitely something that makes Scully's decisions hit and feel like they make sense. 

We also get a second episode in a row where Scully fights. I mean, sure, she does end up knocked out and wrapped up in a sheet, but she gives as good as she gets before she gets slammed in to that door frame.

Grade: A-

Next up, Scully's diagnosis leads Mulder to delve deeper into her abduction, the agents investigate deaths in a Jewish community and the agents track down an invisible assassin.

What did you all think of these episodes? Is "Leonard Betts" a favorite? How'd you feel about Jodie Foster as a murderous tattoo? Did Scully's actions in "Never Again" make her more relatable? Let me know in the comments.