Case 07, File 07: Orison

AKA: If I Could Slow Down Time

As a series enters its twilight years and original ideas begin to get thin on the ground, the temptation to revisit old ideas becomes greater and greater. The Office's final season devolved into a series of love triangles ala its early seasons, Seinfeld brought back the Mandelbaums in its final season, Buffy handed Spike a soul so they could do another variant on that storyline, it's hard to resist. But reusing old characters comes with the risk that you'll fall short of the original, and make an episode that cheapens them. Especially when the original is one of the best episodes of the series.

Our episode opens with Donnie Pfaster (remember him?) in prison, pretty much ignoring the prison chaplain. But when one of the prisoners cuts his fingers off in the workshop, and then time slows down for everyone but him, he decides that's a good time to leave prison. At the same time Scully is awakening to find that her clock reads 6:66, which seems a little odd.

Anyway, since they put him away, Mulder and Scully are called in to find Pfaster. Scully is a little distracted (hearing a song in the hallways and also having trouble thinking about the time Pfaster kidnapped her), while Mulder is instantly suspicious of the other prisoners' turning religious, especially the one who it turns out didn't cut his fingers off, but everyone thought he did. Mulder is suspicious of their religious conversion because it turns out 3 other prisoners have just disappeared from nearby prisons in the last few months and the only common person between them is the prison chaplain. Also the prisoner they talk to has a post-hypnotic reaction, which is a little odd.

Back in town, Pfaster is continuing his escape by uh...hanging around a diner and creeping on lady's fingers. Look, he's a serial killer, not a genius. The chaplain shows up at the same time as the cops and offers Pfaster his car and also does the time slow thing again. Pfaster, overcome with gratitude, runs the chaplain over in the parking lot. Look, again, serial killer, not really known for their gratitude. Back in the diner, the cops can't figure out how that whole slowing down time thing worked and Scully hears the song again. The song is important, I wouldn't mention it otherwise.

"Wait, everything's moving slower...oh my god do I have super speed!?"
"No, that was two episodes ago."

Hokay so, Chaplain dude is in the hospital for that car running over thing, and Donnie Pfaster kills the girl he picked up at the diner. Also it turns out the chaplain did some time in prison and Mulder thinks that's why he's letting out these prisoners, to kill them. Scully hears the song again and confides it in Mulder and also that she heard it when she was a kid and she heard that her Sunday school teacher was murdered. Mulder then shows Scully that he has an injury in his brain that might give him those hypnotic powers? I dunno, I didn't follow that scene super great and it doesn't matter much cause the Chaplain immediately uses them to escape.

Back with Pfaster, he's hiding out at the Chaplain's place and has a sex worker over, but he freaks the fuck out when it turns out she's not a natural red head and when the Chaplain stops by, he gets the drop on Pfaster and drags him out into the woods to shoot him. But it turns out Pfaster is a demon (sigh) and he kills the Chaplain, leading Mulder to decide this case is closed for...some reason? Cause they figured out the Chaplain let him out?

Anyway, turns out it's not, because Pfaster tracks Scully to her apartment, ties her up and prepares to murder her because uh...still a serial killer. Oh and he puts on the radio and it's playing the song she's kept hearing, which is a little odd. Anyway, Mulder puzzles out that Pfaster is there and comes to Scully's rescue, but Scully has freed herself and decides, fuck it, I'm gonna shoot Pfaster. And thus the episode ends with Mulder assuring Scully she did the right thing...by shooting an unarmed man. You know, out of context, that's not great.

There's no two ways about it, Orison is not a good episode, which should be fine. As a standalone episode it's just kind of underwritten and poorly paced. But as the sequel to Irresistible, one of the all time best episodes of the series, Orison is pretty bad and introduces some weird new elements that lessen the original episode it's based off of. It's a pretty big argument in favor of The X-Files not revisiting old concepts and just pushing forward with new ones, no matter how weird.

"See Scully, he has a hole in his head that gives him psychic powers!"
"Okay, so what does that mean?"
"Nothing, it's not important. Neat though."

Let's start with the big one: It's dumb that Donny Pfaster is a demon. I'm sorry to my readers if that was a twist you really liked but for me it's incredibly dumb. Pfaster was a normal guy who was evil and in a show where Mulder and Scully have run into more than one demon, that made him unique. But it also made him more frightening, since he felt more like something that could actually exist. Making him a demon lessens that, and all we really get out of it is an explanation for how he knew where to find Scully.

It also undercuts Orison, the Chaplain, who given that he's the title character should feel like he's a bigger part of the plot but he never really took off for me as a character. His screen time is too thin (and, to be frank, too utilitarian) and his motivation too broad for me to feel like he lands as a real antagonist or protagonist. A little more time spent on him, giving him a motivation beyond "God told me to," might make him feel more real and give his actions (and eventual death) more weight.

Part of that might be the effect of the episode splitting its time between hypnosis Priest and Donny Pfaster, weakening both of them. The last act is where this comes home to roost the most, wrapping up Orison's storyline suddenly so it can spend the last 8 minutes of the episode doing a weak retread of the finale from Irresistible. The episode should have picked one plotline or the other to follow, instead of trying to cram both in here.

And the thing is, there are really good ideas in the episode that I would love to see explored more. Scully having to grapple with her trauma is the actual thing I want to see in this episode, but it gets kind of sidelined (she only really reacts at the very beginning, the very end when she shoots him and during the one monologue she has about the song) which seems like a missed opportunity. I'd actually like to see Pfaster come back with that kind of storyline, but one where he's freed by a hypnotizing priest and it turns out he's a demon is just kind of uninteresting to me. They fought a demon in the episode right after Irresistible and it made much better use of the demon conceit. No dead baby pigs coming back to life in this episode.

In an interview about Irresistible, they talk about how him turning into a demon was just a projection of Scully's psyche but apparently fucking not, huh!?

And this is the thing, there are still some really good moments and elements in this episode. The slow mo scenes are great visually, especially the first one. Nick Chinlund is still excellent as Pfaster, and he even manages to sell his demon reveal pretty well. Gillian Anderson does great work here and I even really like the presence Scott Wilson brings to Reverend Orison. I even dig the song they chose as kind of an offbeat creepy sounding tune. There's a lot of solid elements here, but they just don't gel to a coherent whole.

I've mentioned before that I try to avoid supplemental materials when writing these reviews but I remember reading when I was younger that this episode originally began as a completely unrelated script and honestly, it feels like it, like several different idea for episodes got mashed together, into a whole that's less than a sum of it's part. There's a good idea, hell probably a great idea, in each of these separate ideas, but together? They don't add up to much.

Case Notes:

• Look, I get this is generic Priest talk, but dude, don't talk about getting down on your knees and letting God enter you.
• I like the reveal shot of Donny Pfaster, just sitting there glaring at the Priest.
• Wait, if Pfaster doesn't want to be there, why is he there? I feel like there are laws against forcing people to religious meetings in prison.
• The slowmo shots of everyone running to help the injured prisoner are nice, this episode is well shot.
• Scully's clock reading 6:66 is both the episode tipping its hand too early and just a little bit too silly.
• Mulder's speech about what Donny likes is a little on the lurid side, especially when the previous episode about this was more serious. Also, Scully is standing right there dude.
• Cop: So you and Scully are like, fucking weirdos, right?
• I much prefer Scully and Mulder talking in the church room, it takes the situation more seriously and builds more heavily on both the previous episode and Mulder and Scully's relationship.
• Wait, Donny Pfaster escaped (and thus was working in the factory) at 6:06? Or rather, since it was 6:06 in Scully's house, 5:06 Illinois time? I'm surprised they don't have more accidents that it was too early to be working with machinery like that.
• Mulder figures out that the prisoner has been hypnotized more or less instantly, because he'd already identified that the chaplain was the connective link between the prisons. I like it when we can see Mulder put the pieces together, even in retrospect.
• Do prostitutes usually walk up to you at diners? And then call you a freak when the person says that their nails are bad?
• Donnie just running over the Priest is funny to me, but also very in character. Donnie just generally does not give a shit in this episode.
• I wonder how they chose Don't Look Any Further as the song for this episode.
• Priest, to Scully: You stand neither here nor there, you're waiting for a sign. Scully: You know I've like, actually met angels and the Devil, right? You can't scare me with religious stuff.
• Scully has to be pretty credulous in this episode, but I like that once she has her (pretty solid) monologue about god speaking to her that Mulder decides to take her seriously.
• I like that there's a physical explanation for Orison to have his hypnotic abilities, even if it is "He drilled a hole in his skull." Didn't Mulder do that once though?
• If you're worried about your dude with hypnotic powers escaping, maybe like, handcuff him to the bed.
• Donnie Pfaster in his underwear, putting fingers in his freezer is not anything I want to see episode.
• I know that the lady has to freak out for the scene to progress, but I refuse to believe that "I'd like to wash your hair" is the weirdest request a sex worker has gotten.
• The scene where the sex worker attacks Donnie is a great scene, and I like that she gets the better of him.
• The scene with Orison and Pfaster in the woods is where the episode goes all the way off the rails, although I like that the next scene with Mulder and Scully feels like a wrap up scene.
• I know that the episode needs an excuse for Mulder to go check on Scully, but the part where the cop calls Mulder and asks "Hey, he got mad about his victim not actually having red hair" is really blunt.
• The fight between Donnie and Scully is pretty brutal, even by X-Files standards and the first time I watched it, I half expected Scully to just beat Pfaster to death right there. I dunno why she runs, she was winning the fight.
• Part of me wants Scully to just rescue herself, but I like that Mulder figured out he should go check on her and Scully just straight murdering Pfaster is really good, the final slow-mo scene is really solid.
• Mulder just straight tells Scully that he's cool with her shooting Pfaster, but since Pfaster attacked her and intended to kill her, I'll overlook it.
• As always, these reviews are supported by my Patreon. Don't look any further than it, oh god that was terrible.

Current Celebrity Watch:

Scott Wilson, who plays Reverend Orison was a well traveled actor, receiving a Golden Globe nomination all the way back in 1980 for a movie called The Ninth Configuration. These days he's probably best known for a multi-season run on The Walking Dead as Hershel Greene. He passed away in 2018 after a 50 year career.

Future Celebrity Watch:

Lisa Arch, who plays the sex worker Pfaster assaults, would soon go on to have major roles in a bunch of variety and kids TV that I have literally never heard of before in my life. So if there are fans of Dinner and a Movie or Cory in the House who want to tell me about her roles, go ahead, but I know her best as the lady who has Kramer thrown in the river in that one episode of Seinfeld.

Audio Observations:

The song that Scully keeps hearing is Don't Look Any Further by Dennis Edwards, who used to be a member of The Temptations. I have never heard this song outside this episode and honestly, I'm pretty impressed Scully was listening to it when she was a kid, given that it only hit #72 on the Billboard Hot 100 (although it hit #2 on the Black Singles Chart which, yes, was a category Billboard had in 1984).