Case 04, File 10: Paper Hearts

AKA: The Hearts Are Made Of Cloth Dude

I think it's a bit of a false dichotomy to assume that, in an episodic series like The X-Files we have to keep our plot and character furthering stuff separate from the Monster of the Week episodes. Some of Buffy's best character work was done in what amounted to Monster of the Week episodes, so we know it's possible. Still, the series usually keeps the overarching stuff from touching the Monster of the Week stuff.  Usually


Our episode kicks off with Mulder having a dream where he is led into the woods by a glowing light and comes across a young girl. When he awakes he heads out into the woods from his dream and finds the girls corpse, which he knows from his dream (and from digging up the body) was killed by a serial killer he caught when he was still doing actual FBI work, a serial killer who kidnapped and murdered young girls and kept a heart-shaped piece of their dress.

We learn from Mulder and Scully's discussions that the serial killer, one John Lee Roche, was someone Mulder caught with his profile but always suspected that he'd killed more people than he'd admitted. After telling the victim's parents, Mulder realizes, via another detail from his dream, that Roche hid the hearts in his car and after digging up his car and searching it, they discover the hearts in a copy of Alice in Wonderland, and find there are two unidentified victims. They visit Roche in prison but despite basketball related interrogation, he remains silent.

Mulder gets more involved though when he has a dream about Samantha's abduction, but with Roche taking her instead of the aliens. He goes back to talk to Roche who says that he was in Martha's Vineyard and sold his mom a vacuum cleaner (the implication being that he took Samantha) and Mulder decides that the calm and level headed way to handle it, is to sock him in the face. But despite that being straight from Skinner's playbook, Skinner is pissed and tells Mulder he's on thin ice.

"He hid the hearts in this? That is so lame."
"Well Mulder, it was the 70s, maybe Alice in Wonderland references weren't so played out then."

Mulder brings the hearts back to Roche and Roche continues his diabolical mind games, telling Mulder to...choose one of the hearts and he'll send them to that body. It's worse than it sounds. Anyhoo, Mulder and Scully find the body, but it's not Samantha and Roche demands that they let him out for a day to bring them to the body. Mulder and Scully initially refuse but because Mulder can't make good decisions when he's emotionally compromised (or when he's curious or frankly on days ending in Y) he decides to go along with it.

Mulder takes Roche to his dad's former house and Roche describes the kidnapping, but PSYCH, Mulder took him to the wrong house, and suggests that Roche got the information from a psychic connection they have. Yeah they skip over that a bit. Anyway, during another dream Mulder has, he releases Roche, who bolts with his badge, gun and car and uses them to kidnap a girl he saw on the plane ride. But Mulder, using his psychic connection, catches Roche and shoots him before he hurts the girl, and the episode ends with Mulder wondering if the unknown victim is indeed Samantha.

Paper Hearts is a deceptively simple episode, since there's no crimes being committed in the present day of the episode, no monster to catch, no mystery to solve. The central element tension is an emotional one, the question that needs answering is what happened to Mulder's sister. And while I've made it clear in the past that I don't have a lot of patience for The X-Files jerking me around about Samantha, this is definitely one of the best episodes about her.

I don't have anything to add here, I just think this is a cool shot.

One of the things that sticks out to me is that there's actually some pretty solid theme work going on in the details of this episode. Scully and Mulder's supposed motivation in finding out the names of the murdered girls isn't something like catching the killer or saving the girls, they're much too late for that. No, they're out to bring their families closure, something the early scene with the father whose daughter they found drives home. But really, that's what Mulder is looking for too. Despite being regularly yanked around by the Conspiracy on this, I don't think Mulder ever really held out hope that he would find Samantha again. He wants closure, to know what happened to her, and even if its that she was killed by Roche, that would be some closure.

Of course it helps that Roche is such a memorable character. Tom Noonan is a pretty restrained actor overall and his flat, sadistically friendly affect in this episode is offputting from the moment he shows up. He reminds me a bit of Donny Pfaster, in that they both have the element of a monster in human skin. Roche is more human (which makes sense since he had to work his way into a house to get his victims) but he still gives off that vibe.

Outside of Noonan's performance, the heavy lifting is being done by Duchovny. He has to sell Mulder's spiraling mental state and he does a really excellent job. I've mentioned in the past that Mulder's usually restrained manner makes the small emotions feel bigger, and that's true here, but he does have a couple of big moments too. I remain very fond of the scene where he tricks Roche, he seems so triumphant.

"Oh man, I shot someone. That's usually Scully's job."

It's also a very well written and directed episode. This is a Vince Gilligan script, so you know it's good and he was really hitting his stride at this point, as a lot of the best episodes of Seasons 4 and 5 were written by him. But there are also a lot of just really well done shots in the episode as a whole and some great editing. The shot where Mulder is framed by the ribcage of the body they found like bars is a little Visual Symbolism 101 (he's imprisoned by the case, get it?) but it's nice to see some visual symbolism in the series.

Overall, while the series may have devoted more time to Samantha in the early seasons, this doesn't feel like an episode that could exist in an earlier season. The series is getting to the point where it trusts its audience to stick around for the characters and the story rather than the concepts (our main Paranormal Concept, that Mulder and Roche have a psychic connection, isn't even floated until the 3rd act) and it's nice to see that trust paying off with a really excellent episode.

Case Notes:

• The opening dream sequence is pretty solid, nice mix of whimsy and darkness.
• I like the recurring detail that Mulder sleeps on his couch. It fits him.
• I also like Scully's incredulity that Mulder called for a forensic excavation based on a dream. You've known him four years Scully, you should count yourself lucky he didn't dig it up with his bare hands.
• Oh my god he totally digs it up with his hands right after the cold open, I had forgotten that.
• I like that Scully comes up with an explanation that actually sounds reasonable. And hey, call back to season 3's Aubrey, that's pretty cool.
• The actor playing the girl's father is pretty excellent in a very small part.
• "Honest to god, serial killer owned my car" still gets a laugh from me.
• Mulder just cuts open the car seat without hesitation. I love you Mulder.
• Alice in Wonderland symbolism is pretty played out at this point, and it does amuse me that the episode's plot hinges on Mulder being a better searcher than an entire forensic team, but whatever.
• The episode very quickly and very smartly re-established Mulder's ankle gun by him putting it in the prison weapons holding. Good stuff there.
• Roche is giving a great performance here, just unbearably creepy across the board.
• Every even casual X-Files fan knows the story of how Duchovny landed the basket Roche asks him to take on the first take, but if you don't, now you do.
• Duchovny haltingly going through the motions of his younger conversation is good and I love how panicked he looks when the lights start.
• Duchovny is usually a pretty restrained actor which works for him, but I do like the scene in prison with Roche and with his mom in the basement. He can play quietly falling apart pretty well and he does a good job here.
• Who keeps the same vacuum cleaner for 25 years? Would it even still run after 25 years?
• Mulder gets away with everything. Fucking socks Roche and 20 seconds later, he's still on the case.
• I don't have a lot of notes for latter half of this episode (I'm too busy watching) but goddamn are all the actors doing great jobs. Duchovny looks so intense and angry when he's digging up the body, it's great.
• Scully just radiates disgust in every scene with Roche. God Gillian Anderson is great.
• Even here, in an emotionally intense, dark episode, we still get our usual X-Files dynamic: Scully wants to make a logical, intelligent choice and Mulder wants to do crazy Mulder shit.
• Mulder seems so triumphant when he reveals that he tricked Roche, it reminds me of him tricking Boggs with the piece of cloth from his jersey way back in Season 1.
• Mulder drops the concept that he and Roche have a psychic connection and the episode just sort of moves along. The episode isn't really about that, it's about Mulder and his psyche and his issues over Samantha.
• It took me several watches of this episode to realize that Mulder was unlocking Roche's handcuffs when he was unlocking the car in the dream.
• I am very amused by Mulder walking up to a stranger freaking out about Roche taking the girl and saying that it's his fault.
• The bus graveyard is a great location for the finale. Doesn't look anything like Boston, but it's a great visual location, very quietly creepy.
• The climax is very tense and very exciting for what amounts to a conversation on a bus and single pull of the trigger. Its a sign of how good this series can be when it's on point.
• If this was anything other than a TV show, Mulder would be 100 different kinds of fired at the end of this case.
• As always, these reviews are supported by my Patreon. My live stream of The X-Files: Resist or Serve should be hitting soon, so if you want to see more content like that, feel free to support it.

Current Celebrity Watch

Tom Noonan blurs the line between future and current celebrity at the time this episode was released, as he had already played Francis Dolarhyde in Michael Mann's adaptation of Red Dragon, entitled Manhunter. He's got a good career, having recently played the voice of all but 2 characters in Charlie Kauffman's animated masterpiece Anomalisa. He's also currently on 12 Monkeys as the Pallid Man, but I don't watch that.

Future Celebrity Watch:

This is stretching it pretty far, but the actress who plays the little girl who is kidnapped in the finale is Carly McKillip. She voiced the main character on the Nelvana Dub of Cardcaptors.