Case 05, File 16: Mind's Eye

AKA: Justice Is Blind But Also Has Psychic Powers

What makes an X-Files episode good is a nebulous thing, and honestly, even I can't pin down exactly what connects the episodes I like. Sure there's some common elements (good script, solid concept, entertaining banter, all the usual suspects) but what exactly tips an episode from "Good enough to watch" (which is basically the entire series, outside some outliers) to truly great is something I have trouble nailing down.

Our episode kicks off with our lead, Marty, returning home from...I dunno actually, they never specify. Anyway, she's only been home for like 20 seconds before she gets a vivid vision of a dude getting murdered in a hotel room across town, so she does the natural thing: Heads over to the hotel room to clean up the murder. But when the police arrive, it turns out she's blind. Dun dun dun. So the lead detective, Detective Pennock, assumes she did it. Except they have no murder weapon and, you know, blind, so they call in Mulder and Scully to figure out how they did it.

But Mulder is ever the wild card and after a conversation and a polygraph, he decides Marty didn't do it. Unfortunately Scully finds a glove in the hotel room where the murder was committed with Marty's prints and blood with a type that matches hers. Marty is pretty unconcerned with that though, as she keeps having visions from the point of view of the killer (seeing him trying to sell stolen drugs and just generally being a not-very-nice man), and eventually uses her phone call to call him at a bar and tell him to stop harassing a chick.

Mulder has, of course, by this point completely figured out what Marty is seeing stuff from the killer's perspective but after an eye exam confirms she is completely blind (even when they get a little reaction when the gets a vision of the killer attacking the chick he was harassing the night before) they let her go. She immediately goes to the place where the murder is taking place but she's too late, the girl is dead. So she...goes...and confesses to the murder? I dunno, it was a weird choice.

If I was blind I might be a little nervous about lighting a cigarette with the stove, but you do you.

So Mulder still doesn't think she did it and Scully's DNA tests on the glove confirm it, which is where Mulder finally solidifies his theory: Not only is she seeing what this killer is doing, but she's always seen it because the killer killed her mother when her mother was pregnant with her. Also he's her father. That's weird. And once they've figured out Marty didn't do it, they're ready to let her go to use her ability to help catch the killer.

Okay, here's where things go sideways: Marty agrees to help, but leads Mulder and Scully to the wrong place while going into protective custody with detective Pennock (remember him? He's in the episode a bunch but he doesn't do much). And it turns out she knew her dad was stalking them and lets him come to her so she can shoot him in the head (she doesn't want him to go back to prison cause she didn't like seeing through his eyes in prison, hence cleaning up the murder). And so she goes to jail for killing him, but is at peace with it, and the episode ends on kind of a down note.

I feel like Mind's Eye might be a mediocre episode, but it's one I've always kind of dug. It's got a lot of stuff I usually either like or pine for in other episodes (yes, in case you're wondering, I am very fond of the random cutaways to Marty's dad, since they give us a sense of what he's doing outside of the plot) but it's also kind of wonkily paced, and has some of the big issues I take with some other episodes. So maybe I'm a complicated person whose tastes can't be easily narrowed down, like all people.

"She told me to stay away, said you were a villain in an X-Files episode. And she said you weren't the kind to get a sequel hook."

Or maybe I'm just really fond of the lead performance (that was an excellent segue that I am going to ruin by calling attention to it). I really like the lead character all around; I appreciate that it avoids condescending stereotypes; Marty isn't a hero or designed to be pitied, she's a messed up person who had a messed up life and she's not interested in being inspiration porn for Mulder and Scully. Heck, even Mulder's initial desire to over-admire her (he has a weakness for protecting what he sees as helpless women, it's a Samantha thing) is rebuffed and the episode seems to end on a note of mutual respect.

I also really like Marty as a person, and Lili Taylor does an incredible job selling the character. She's all in on every scene and she takes a character that could have been an edgy attempt at subverting expectations on blind characters (ooooh she took drugs and got into fights) and makes her into a full realized human through some incredibly subtle character work. And Duchovny plays off her well, every scene that consists of them just bouncing off each other is great, and not just because she has absolutely no patience for his nonsense.

The unfortunate side effect of this is that Scully has basically nothing to do. She finds the glove at the midpoint (which is only really useful for getting Marty's dad's blood off it) and then just does nothing. I don't even think she's there for the majority of the plot. This wouldn't be such a problem, but it does highlight that Mulder and Scully don't seem to accomplish much. Marty still winds up in jail, all of her dad's victims still wind up dead, and the only thing that actually does get done (Marty's dad getting shot) is done by her while they're off getting tricked by her.

"I hate the way you see me. Oh shit, I just thought of a better one-liner, can we go back?"

There are other complaints I could make (the fact that the killer is Marty's dad doesn't actually add anything), but the core element, the central mystery, is incredibly solid. We get immediately that Marty is seeing through his eyes, so the actual mystery becomes her motivation, why she's cleaning up the murder and why she refuses to help. It's a novel enough twist on the X-Files' central conceits that helps elevate a small and relatively lightweight episode.

A review I read of this episode years and years ago (I dunno which one) compared it to Oubliette, which is a fair comparison but I think not an entirely accurate one. Yes, it's a weird case of an X-File where the supernatural powers are on the side of good but the focus there was on Mulder and his issues, as part of moving his character forward. Between the grim story and Marty's elaborate (and very dark) backstory Mind's Eye feels a little bit more like the backdoor pilot to a supernatural crime procedural, which just happens to have Mulder and Scully in it. And given how much I like this episode, it's a supernatural crime procedural I would probably watch.

Case Notes:

• Wait, this episode is set in Delaware? Do you just have a checklist of every state to include in an episode?
• If I were blind, I might be a little nervous about lighting my cigarette by sticking my face close to the stove, but you do you blind lady.
• I dunno how much I like the random cuts from the lady returning home to an episode of Breaking Bad happening across town, especially since we haven't gotten a reason to care about her yet, but I guess sticking with her too long would give away the reveal.
• I like the reveal that the lady is blind, since the episode didn't give us a reason to think she was blind yet.
• The Detective thinks he's going to be laughed at for thinking Marty has Daredevil powers. A, what's going on is crazier and B, Mulder comes up with 3 crazier theories than that before he puts his pants on.
• Is "Blind person recognizes someone by their cologne" a cliche? I feel like I see it a lot.
• Marty making jokes about her blindness is fun, she's got a weird energy and I like it.
• I also like that Mulder sees right through her uncaring facade immediately. Mulder is still very intuitive and it's a good character trait to lean on.
• The polygraph scene is some nice little character stuff (of course Mulder figures out what's going on immediately) but it's also a good example of why Polygraphs aren't admissible evidence. Scully even brings it up.
• The detective says that he turned the hotel room inside out but apparently missed a fairly obvious slot in the wall Scully finds immediately.
• I like Marty using her power to ward her dad off from hitting on a chick at a bar. Wait, does that mean she's seen him have sex from his perspective? That must be weird.
• Heh, OJ Simpson joke. And another one a few seconds later. That doesn't date the episode at all.
• I really like the scene where she sees her dad killing the woman in the alley. It lets her know that her actions actually made the situation worse, and I love the bizarre helplessness of the whole scene.
• Marty deciding to confess is a novel twist, and I love the scene between Mulder and Marty in the interrogation room. The actress playing Marty does a lot of good subtle work in the entire episode, but especially in that scene.
• The city backdrop in the scene where Mulder is in the office looks uh...very fake.
• The detective saying that Mulder is "Skeptical" is really funny, as is how offended Mulder is.
• Man, I just realized, Scully doesn't do anything this episode.
• Once you've got the setup that she can see through the killer's eyes, doing a scene where she sees herself is basically required.
• The reveal that the killer is Marty's father is a conceptually good moment and the actress sells it hard, but it doesn't really change that much about the setup.
• Marty's dad has been following them around for a day and the detective never noticed. If trying to pin the crimes on an obviously innocent blind woman didn't clue us in, the detective is pretty bad at his job.
• The last thing Marty says to her dad is "I hate the way you see me," which is uh...it feels like it's out of a very different execution of the concept.
• This ending is pretty much a downer but I like that it leans on the friendship Mulder and Marty built.
• As always these reviews are supported by my Patreon. Tune in to see if we can get some reviews of The Lone Gunmen when we get there.

Future Celebrity Watch:

Lili Taylor, who plays Marty, has been around forever and has seen everything from one episode characters (such as this episode), supporting roles in shows like Hemlock Grove to a main role in Six Feet Under. She was about to hit up a starring role in The Haunting remake which is uh...not great for her career. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for this role.