Case 08, File 17: Empedocles

AKA: Empedocles Sucks, In This House We Love Diogenes

I've made it clear in the past that I think the Monster-of-the-Week episodes are the core appeal of the series, but I don't always think the series agrees with me. Season 8 has more Myth Arc episodes than any season since 4, and even a lot of the Monster-of-the-Week episodes have the Myth Arc woven into them. I think having that many Myth Arc episodes is a function of having a lot of ground to cover. Season 4 had the complex cancer storyline for Scully, while Season 8 is tasked with introducing two new agents and having to hit the ground running with their characterization and backstory.

Our episode kicks off with a guy named Jeb getting fired down in New Orleans (the location is important). He steps outside, depressed and immediately sees a guy get into a fiery car crash. Before this can become a life affirming romcom about him learning to live every moment however, a...person made of fire steps out of the car and walks...into Jeb? Anyway, it had some effect, because Jeb's response is to go shoot up his old work place.

That seems weird, and also the cops find what they think is satanic imagery so they call in an expert on the subject: Monica Reyes. She tells him the satanic imagery is a Marilyn Manson CD and not to worry about it, but then she sees a vision of the body of one of the victims burned. Meanwhile, back with the current leads, Mulder and Scully are hanging around Scully's apartment, when Scully has a brief medical emergency related to her pregnancy and heads off to the hospital, where Mulder and Doggett have a brief, tense confrontation.

But before their brief, tense, conversation can get homoerotic, Reyes calls Mulder, asking for his help on tracking down Jeb. Mulder suggests she talk to Doggett, but she can't cause it's about Doggett. While all this is happening, Jeb is alone in a hotel room pulling at his skin and finding fire underneath. Later, Reyes meets up with Mulder and tells him that she had a similar vision while working on Doggett's son's case and that also the dude who died in the car crash was a person of interest in Doggett's son's death. So she and Mulder go digging, while Doggett has visions/flashbacks at Scully's bedside.

But his time reenacting One Breath is not to last as he finds out Mulder is digging into his past and FLIPS the fuck out on him, until Reyes says that she called Mulder in. Back on the case, Reyes goes and see's Jeb's sister (which I feel should have happened earlier) while Jeb murders another random woman in the middle of nowhere and takes her car. At this point Doggett is having frequent visions and Mulder is fully in on the case, while Reyes is convinced that there is some psychic connection to Doggett's son, and Jeb has finally arrived at his sister's house. Also I guess it turns out the dude who died in the car crash was a person of interest in Doggett's son's case. That never matters, but they make a big deal out of it.

You know what's always a cool effect? Fire suits. Fire suits are always awesome.

Jeb's sister calls Reyes and tells her Jeb is there, and after a chat with Doggett about his belief, they go to arrest him. Jeb tries to take his niece hostage but Reyes shoots him. At the hospital, Mulder and Doggett have a heart-to-heart about how evil can travel around when people are in pain (I guess that's what the fire was a metaphor for). As if to drive the point home, Jeb dies and his sister attacks Reyes, but Doggett stops her. And thus, the episode ends with Scully and Mulder having another cute scene at Scully's apartment.

Empedocles is an episode not aimed towards having a solid monster or an engaging story, it's an episode aimed at two things. The first is to revel in having David Duchovny back in the cast for a few episodes and let him just bounce off the cast (a tiny bit Reyes, a little more Doggett and a LOT Scully) and the second is to act as a test bed for Reyes, who they were no doubt already considering being a main cast member come Season 9 (which we, with our enlightened future knowledge, know they ended up doing).

On those terms, if nothing else, the episode is reasonably successful. This is our first opportunity to really get to see Annabeth Gish try to get a handle on Reyes outside of just hanging around Doggett and she's got a fun energy, unique from all the other main cast. I like her interactions with Mulder in particular, this kinda dorky, overly honest type and she bounces pretty well off Mulder and Doggett, and one of my few memories of Season 9 is that she bounced pretty well off Scully too (even if she spends most of this episode in a hospital bed).

"Help! I'm being consumed by a blunt metaphor for the cycle of violence, help!"

The rest of the episode is pretty character focused too, mostly on trying to flesh out Doggett and Reyes relationship and backfill some of his tragic backstory, and it's a big of a mixed bag. Doggett's backstory feels too much like a retread of Samantha at this point, and our characterization on Doggett is still a little thin, but we are getting there, with this episode filling out a bit more on how it affected Doggett, which is good, it helps differentiate it from Mulder's motivation. Robert Patrick in particular does a lot of work in this episode, from his freakout at Mulder to his genuinely pretty heartfelt speech about how he doesn't want to believe in supernatural because then he didn't do everything he could. Robert Patrick may not be able to knock comedy beats out of the park, but sincerity and anger are cards in his deck, and he does very well here.

The only problem is, the main plot is completely underwhelming. There's the seed of a good idea, a literalizing of how pain and anger can just lead to more pain and anger, but Mulder needing to spell it out towards the end sort of shows how the screenplay needed another pass to flesh it out. The concept also doesn't get a lot of space, between needing time for Reyes to establish herself as character and needing time for Reyes and Doggett's visions which are...I dunno, I don't get what those were driving at, and they eat up a lot of time. Couple of nice edits though.

The main villain is also an incredibly weak one. They're going for a tragic villain, a victim caught up in supernatural circumstances, but the actor is very bad at exuding either menace or sorrow; His version of "Tormented by what I've done" looks more like a pout. Maybe it would work better if we knew more about him, but between the visions, the character work and having time for Mulder and Scully to bounce off each other, I'd be surprised if his scenes add up to five minutes and he says maybe 30 words, there's just not enough there to make him work as an actual character.

"Look, can I have a do-over where I don't take my niece hostage? I didn't think this through!"

That said, the simple fact of getting to see Mulder and Scully bounce off each other, when we've been deprived of that for so long, does go a long way to making the episode go down easier (and those scenes are very cute and endearing), and while the story is weak, the dialogue is solid and we do get a lot of work expanding Doggett and Reyes, and their relationships (both to each other and to Mulder and Scully). The series is in a big state of flux, unsure of which characters will be where come Season 9, so they're basically engaged in trying to hedge their bets, build up our new leads without looking that way. Not that Mulder basically turning to Reyes and saying "Hey, we might need a new lead next season, you in?" really disguises their intent.

Season 8 is in the home stretch, and has been for a while (a fact that my alternating with The Lone Gunmen has disguised a little bit, at least in my mind). This is essentially the last Monster of the Week for Season 8 (Yes, I know there's one more technically, but Alone is such a shameless exercise in fan service that I don't count it) and with so many plates spinning, I would be willing to forgive a couple of clunkers here and there. If that's all it was.

Case Notes:

• The boss in the cold open is real shit at firing people.
• That city looks nothing like New Orleans, come on X-Files, just set it someplace more anonymous.
• Man, the car chase happening outside really escalates in a hurry. Like, they were just driving and then the next second BOOM car exploding.
• You can tell this was still early in our modern hellscape because people respond to a fire employee returning with confusion rather than mounting horror. Or maybe it's just contrivance for the episode, the gang on Seinfeld was freaking out about a fired employee returning 10 years before this episode, so what do I know?
• Annabeth Gish is in this episode but doesn't merit opening credits yet.
• Not sure why the FBI would be called in on this, but whatever gets Reyes, and thus the rest of the cast, involved.
• Reyes pointing out that the "Satanic imagery" Jeb has is a Marilyn Manson CD and that it can be bought at K-Mart, is a fun beat. Hey, remember K-Mart?
• The scene with Mulder and Scully in Scully's apartment is pretty drawn out until the important part (Scully having abdominal pains) but it's very clearly just the episode reveling in having Mulder and Scully back together and bouncing off each other and it's very cute and very funny.
• Reyes has the kind of energy that makes her feel like she would be both completely comfortable calling Mulder out of the blue and casually dropping that she saw him when he was dead.
• The Doggett v Mulder rivalry is not a great plot thread, and trying to make Scully part of the rope they're both tugging on is ill advised.
• The burned hand and fire-under-the-skin effects are both decent.
• Reyes just wanders into an office and starts digging through files, and then instantly starts oversharing. As I said, fun energy.
• The dissolve from Doggett at Scully's bedside to Doggett in the field is a really nice one.
• Doggett goes from 0 to 100 on Mulder in like a single scene. I'm not complaining, unhinged fury is a look Robert Patrick can pull off.
• Doggett doesn't know Mulder, so he doesn't know that telling him to leave it alone is a pretty solid indication that he's never gonna leave it alone.
• It took Reyes an inordinate amount of time to contact the sister of the killer.
• Katha recognizes that the police are looking for her brother and instantly starts trying to protect him. Ride or die, respect.
• Reyes implying to Mulder that he doesn't have an open mind is a low low blow, and she clearly knows it.
• Jeb seeing himself surrounded by fire in the window is on the wrong side of cheesy.
• Mulder just decides to jump into the investigation and calls Doggett in on it. I like it, it's some solid Mulder (especially without Scully, who is like 85 percent of his impulse control).
• Robert Patrick sells that he's trying and failing to lie to Reyes pretty well.
• The actor playing Jeb is giving it his all and the direction is doing its level best to help him, especially with the lighting and shot composition, but the dude is just not scary.
• Doggett laying out that the concept of paranormal being real because it means he didn't do everything to save his son is solid character work, but its way late in the episode and doesn't get enough time to land before he and Reyes need to head off to confront Jeb.
• The confrontation with Jeb is weird and doesn't land. The episode is not doing the most it could with "Conflicted Jeb" and the actual shootout happens super fast and could use more moments where Jeb talks. If he can't be scary, he can be sympathetic.
• The running gag with the nurse trying to keep non-immediate family out of the ICU is funny but odd.
• I actually really like the shot of Doggett and Mulder on opposite sides of the hallway, showing the gulf between them.
• Mulder referring to evil as a disease kind of exposes what the episode is about and what the fire is a metaphor for, but I kind of don't think it works. Or it could work if they'd left it more oblique rather than spelling it out. It's an okay metaphor, in concept, but the script needed another pass.
• The scene where the sister attacks Reyes is such a bizarre way to end the plotline. Again, it might work better if they hadn't decided to explain the metaphor.
• A cute scene between Scully and Mulder is a decent button to end the episode on.
• As always, these reviews are supported by my Patreon. Check it out so that I can afford to keep stanning Diogenes.

Current Celebrity Watch:

The doctor in the hospital is played by Denise Crosby, who is best known for her lengthy run as Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation. She's been in some other stuff (notably a fair amount of Ray Donavan, which is not a show anyone I know watches) but TNG casts a long shadow.

Also, and I am stretching the definition of celebrity WELL past the breaking point, but Jeb is played by Jay Underwood, who played the Human Torch...in the unreleased 1994 Fantastic Four movie. He's been in some other stuff (most notably Bug in Uncle Buck) but that's the one I want to remember.