Case 04, File 04: Unruhe

AKA: Mister Police, You Could Have Saved Her, I Thoughtographed All The Clues

It's something that doesn't come up much, but I've always felt that one of the things that helped The X-Files get greenlit is the massive smash success of Silence of the Lambs just two years before the Pilot aired. There's probably an interesting article to write about the debt The X-Files owes Silence, but honestly, it can be best seen in episodes like this one or Irresistible which feel like they could almost be lost Thomas Harris books.

Our episode kicks off this time with a lady heading into a drug store for a passport photo, which given that it ends with her boyfriend murdered and her kidnapped, goes about as badly as it can. That isn't enough to get our heroes called in, but given that her passport photo comes out with her looking like she's already being attacked in a distorted vortex gets Mulder and Scully called in. They spend some time wandering around, checking up on the store and finally discovering that Mary, our victim, was stealing credit cards in the mail.

Mulder doesn't think it's relevant, because he finds more similar photos at Mary's house, and starts to believe that the perp is capable of projecting his thoughts onto photographs or thoughtographs. That's not a joke, that's what they're called. Anyway, Mulder decides that our villain must have been stalking her at her house, and they get a chance to find out when Mary reappears. She's not super talkative though, since it turns out she got an ice pick lobotomy. A bad one, even by ice pick lobotomy standards. All she keeps saying is "Unruhe" which is German for unrest.

Meanwhile, another woman named Alice has disappeared under identical circumstances, and Scully realizes that the same construction company worked at both places. So Scully starts doing actual police work, looking into the construction company, while Mulder...goes to have the thoughtograph analyzed. They're different people. Anyhoo, Scully eventually runs into the construction company's foreman, Gerry Schnauz, on stilts while Mulder discovers a shadow of a very tall man in the thoughtograph. These pieces of info lines up at the exact same time and Scully brings Gerry in.

"Wait. How...did he...stab him...through the window?"

After some interrogation, where it's revealed that Gerry's sister killed herself in 1980 and later that year, Gerry attacked his dad with an axe handle and finally gets him to reveal that he's made the women he attacked safe from "Howlers" and also where they can find Alice. By the time they get there, Alice is already dead, and Mulder is troubled by how Gerry seemed to think he was helping the women, but Scully's not interested. She probably should have been though, because Gerry immediately escapes.

They go back to the drug store because Gerry robbed it and Scully is captured by Gerry, with the only piece of evidence they have being another thoughtograph Gerry left behind. They use the information to get to Gerry's father's dental office and then to where Gerry's father is buried, while Scully is held by Gerry and tries to talk him out of killing her. Finally, Mulder finds the camper where she's being held and immediately shoots Gerry and our episode ends with Scully musing about facing the mind of a killer.

Honestly, so much of this episode is given over to the psychology and backstory of our villain that the Thoughtography feels like an afterthought...ograph. I don't know if that was the result of the episode naturally leaning on its villain, or if they realized they're wasn't as much potential in the Thoughtography as they originally thought, but the episode is overall a very strong showing, and a great acting showcase.

"Alright Scully, you go do real police work, I have to have a Thoughtograph analyzed."

On that note, our big setpiece scene, the climax of the episode, isn't an action beat, but a scene where Scully winds up trapped with our killer. And yeah, there's probably a complaint about Scully being captured and needing to be rescued there (although she rescued Mulder last episode so...?) but it's still a good scene. Both Gillian Anderson and Pruitt Taylor Vince sell the hell out of it, it has real tension and engagement, and it ties together a lot of otherwise hanging threads throughout the episode.

That is one of the things about this episode that is pretty interesting, the number of hanging threads. Gerry's ability to project his thoughts onto film is never really expanded on, and it exists primarily to give Mulder and Scully something to puzzle out, fulfilling the role of a killer leaving clues behind (I told you, this episode makes me think of horror/thriller stories). Most of them get tied back into Gerry's descent into madness at the end (such as his sister's suicide and him attacking his father) but some of them (like the fact that Mary was stealing credit cards in the mail) just sort of trail off as obvious red herrings.

Since the episode downplays its supernatural elements in favor of devoting more energy to giving it a serial killer vibe, its impressive how creepy it manages to make the vibe of the episode, and how disconcerting the photos are. A lot of the credit has to go to Pruitt Taylor Vince, who is an incredibly unnerving presence throughout, but the pictures are pretty creepy, especially when they amount to just a picture of a woman screaming and some photoshop.

The biggest issue with the script, and thus with the episode overall (as this is a script heavy episode) is that it doesn't seem to have much in the way of a theme. The episode ends with Scully talking about entering the mind of a killer, but that's not much a theme and it fits more neatly with Mulder's dives into the Thoughtographs than Scully's final confrontation with Gerry. The episode is well directed and mostly well written, but I just wish it was trying to say more than it is.

"And anyway, I'm just really mad Mulder got to shoot him instead of me."

So if there's not a lot that elevates this episode above the average season 4 episode, there's also nothing that makes it bad either. The fact that Scully gets kidnapped at the end is a little season 1, but it works, especially since it gives us some genuine stakes in the 3rd act. I guess the majority of the episodes in a series will be middling and this one is pretty good. This season will wander back in Silence of the Lambs-esque territory again later this season, in a fantastic episode (also written by Vince Gilligan) but this one does enough right that I dig it.

Case Notes:

• The cold open is one of those excessively normal ones that leaves you just waiting for the twist.
• The shot of our cold open victim with the killer's shadow visible on her umbrella is neat, even if it's clearly excessively backlit to get the effect.
• Did the killer stab Billy though the window with his ice pick? If not, what was his plan if Billy didn't roll down the window?
• I love Scully grasping at straws for why the photo looks like the victim posed screaming. Mulder doesn't even have an idea, he's just amused.
• I like Mulder's little lecture on thought photography, but it reads a little like some writer spent too much time researching it and wanted to put it in.
• The pictures are on the cheesy side but they're pretty effective.
• Scully knowing German is a little out of nowhere but it makes sense for her.
• Hey, Scully is the one making deductions and figuring stuff out in this episode, even if it is only early on. Although it is really amusing to me that Scully is off investigating an actual police lead while Mulder is looking into spirit photography.
• The fact that Mulder figures out that our killer wants to be tall while Scully is talking to him on stilts is so coincidental it hurts, but whatever.
• Dear Gerry: Don't try to run from Scully while on stilts. 
• I like Mulder and Scully's interrogation, they're good at bouncing off each other.
• Scully basically dismissing wanting to find out why Gerry is doing what he's doing is good characterization, since she clearly holds him in such contempt.
• Putting Scully in peril in the finale is actually pretty solid because it gives us some real emotional investment in the climax.
• There's not a lot of commentary I can make in the finale, since it's pretty efficient and well put together and I'm mostly just devoted to watching it. It does a lot of solid work paying off stuff that had been set up before. Gerry's sister's suicide, him attacking his father and why, his hatred of psychologists, most of the climax has been set up in the first two acts.
• I like how when Scully sees the ice pick, she's less terrified and more like "Oh goddammit."
• Gillian Anderson kills it in the confrontation with Gerry.
• I love how when Mulder gets into the camper, he doesn't Gerry even the ghost of a chance. No "Stop" no "Hands in the air" just in the door and BAM shoots him.
• The final monologue inserts some themes that don't actually apply to Scully's story, but Gillian Anderson sells it hard and it's well written, so I'll forgive it.
• As always, these reviews are supported by my Patreon so please give it a look, as we hit the end of the first year where I used Patreon.

Current Celebrity Watch:

Pruitt Taylor Vince, who plays Gerry, is a well traveled TV and film actor. He was briefly in both JFK and Mississippi Burning which isn't enough to qualify him for this section, but at this point he was, in just under a year, about to win an Emmy for Best Guest Actor for his role in Murder One, a show with a ton of accolades and awards that until now I have never heard of.