Case 08, File 07: Via Negativa

AKA: One, Two, Tipet's Coming For You 

The X-Files is not a show that repeats elements, beyond broad plot outlines, very often. Between a wide variety of weird monsters, odd writing and increasingly convoluted continuity to keep track of, it generally has enough variety in its story and setups that it doesn't need to dip into the same wells more than once. We are at this point however, 8 seasons and well over 150 episodes deep, it is inevitable that some episodes start looking like specific older ones, at least if you squint.

Our episode kicks off with two FBI Agents (but not the two you're thinking of) staking out a cult in Pittsburgh, only for one of them to fall asleep and when he wakes up, all the cult members have been murdered, and also he and his partner get murdered with an axe. Skinner thinks that's weird, so he calls Scully but she's indisposed at the hospital, so she calls Doggett. Doggett arrives at the crime scene to find the entire cult (and one agent) have had their heads caved in with an axe, even though the doors on the Agent's cars were locked and there isn't room to swing an axe.

So they go and check out his partner's house who has also been killed by an axe, leaving everyone very confused. They assign Doggett the case but he gets thrown for a loop when Skinner suggests that the cult leader, Tipet, used psychic powers to kill them, since that would fit in with his weird mix of Christian and eastern religious beliefs. Anyway, Kersh thinks it's nuts, but he sends Doggett back out to figure out what the hell is happening anyway.

Later Tipet is wandering the streets of Pittsburgh, where he has a brief run in with a homeless guy, he calls a guy named Andre working in a drug lab who he says is responsible for all this. Andre decides that the most sensible way to react is to carve an X in his forehead, which is how I respond to bad phone calls too. Later that night Tipet returns to the homeless dude, with a third eye this time, and traps the homeless man in concrete before killing him with the axe.

The next day Doggett and Skinner find the body and get a tip off that Tipet was in the area before the murder, but can't link it to him. But that doesn't matter cause they know the number he called, so they immediately head to Andre's house (Andre being a doctor who spent time in prison with Tipet) and he decides to act like a lunatic and demanding he get his drug that'll keep him awake, so they send him to jail, where he is immediately attacked by rats in his dream and dies. Also Doggett has a dream where Tipet has three eyes and he (Doggett) is holding Scully's head, but not in like, a romantic way.

"No, no, no, the Reverse Vampires aren't in charge of the Flat Earth...look, maybe I should just make a chart."

Scully is still indisposed, but she calls in the Lone Gunmen, who give Doggett a quick lecture about the significance of the 3rd Eye in some eastern religions, Doggett decides it might be worth thinking about and starts thinking that maybe Tipet is projecting himself into people's dreams and killing them there. So they go back to Andre's lab and find Tipet there who says that he can't stop it and makes his head meet the table saw.

But he lives through it and is in a coma in the hospital, where Doggett catches a glimpse of Scully. The next morning, he wakes up and believes he's still asleep and Tipet is controlling his dreams, and immediately has a dream about himself killing Scully with an axe. But he stops himself and is about to off himself (in the dream) to protect Scully, but Scully walks into his house to wake him up and tell him Tipet died in his coma. And uh...that's it. Oh and Mulder is still on the spaceship.

Via Negativa resembles nothing so much as a late series redo of the Season 2 episode Sleepless, reflecting the various strengths and weaknesses of the show at those two stages of its existence. Namely, while Sleepless made up for cheap production with good writing and a mammoth performance by Tony Todd, this episode leans more heavily on the production and directing. It's not a bad episode, but it does feel emblematic of the issues the series is slamming into at this point in its run.

The biggest weakness of the script is Tipet, because he's not really a presence. Andre says that he gave Tipet some drugs that gave him his powers and Tipet suggests that he's not in control of what's happening when he whacks himself on the saw, but we never learn what that means, who is in control of those powers or what their end goal was. Why did he kill his entire cult, or kill Andre or even try to kill Doggett? Who knows, and the episode doesn't care, which makes Tipet feel like a non-character.

"Noooooo! Why am I the only one who gets an ironic deaaaaath!?"

Scully's absence is annoying, but not terrible as it gives us more of a read on Doggett, especially how he fits into the larger cast. Watching Doggett, normally such a straight edge, interact with the Lone Gunmen is enough of a treat to make me wish they weren't about to wander away to their spinoff soon but the more important dynamic is his dynamic with Skinner. Skinner has been shifting to a more prominent role for a while and seeing him working with Doggett against Kersh is a fun new dynamic, as is how clearly uncomfortable Skinner is working with him.

The main draw of an episode like this would be the weirdness of the dreams, and this was one aspect where Sleepless dropped the ball (most of its dream sequences were pretty grounded). Via Negativa does a little better; Doggett has a couple pretty freaky dreams and both the concrete and the rat kills are pretty good (even if they feel like moments out of a middling Nightmare on Elm Street sequel). None of these are particularly epic, nor are they top tier X-Files kills, but there's enough imagination that I like what's going on and the episode as a whole is really well directed, with a lot of good use of negative space.

The story is a mild disappointment, partially because of the aforementioned undercooking of the main villain, but also because the structure is wobbly. The lack of any real motivation for Tipet means that Doggett doesn't really have a motivation besides stopping him, so once he takes a power saw to the forehead, the episode just kinda coasts to a stop. A greater emphasis on Doggett's dreams might have given the finale a bit more weight, but overall it feels very weirdly lifeless.

"Hey! No, no, don't worry, I just wanted to do a bit from those Conjuring movies, love them."

Maybe there would be more life to the episode if Tipet's cult felt at all like a real presence, but that would mean hammering out his beliefs beyond the vaguest possible stuff, and the episode isn't willing to do that (rightly so, it would probably wind it up in some awkward territory vis a vis American understanding of Asian religions).

Maybe the other reason this episode feels like Sleepless is because they both arrived at a flux point for The X-Files; Renewed beyond what they expected, with Scully partially absent and trying out new character combinations to see what sticks (admit it, you kinda forgot Krycek was Mulder's sidekick in Sleepless until now, didn't you). Maybe this is one of those moments where the limitations really helped; With not enough money for special effects in Season 2, the series had to lean more heavily on good scripts and performances, while Season 8 keeps getting distracted behind more heavy effects and greater gore. 

Case Notes:

• I dunno if you want both cops on a stakeout to go investigate an open door, it kinda blows your cover.
• On that note, why was the cop who was asleep alone in his car, don't stakeouts usually involve two people?
• The cold open is on the gruesome side, and I like that we get a half-second look at the killer's 3rd eye.
• I can't believe it took this far into the season for Scully to not be able to go someplace due to being pregnant.
• The reveal that the dead agent was still in his car asleep is a nice indication of what's going on.
• I was gonna whinge about Doggett knowing the other dead FBI agent had a condo in Pittsburgh, but whatever, it gets us where we need to go.
• Skinner is now the one dropping the "Maybe psychic powers" explanation, because Scully isn't there and Skinner believes in Weird Shit after the end of last season too.
• I genuinely forgot that Kersh is back in the show, he's mostly been away since the season started.
• The scene with Tipet calling Andre and Andre cutting his forehead is mostly just mysterious for the sake of being mysterious, but I actually don't mind that.
• Wait, does Doggett not know that Scully's pregnant?
• Not sure why Tipet kills the homeless guy.
• Doggett is still being a little overly credulous about psychic powers, given that on his first case for the X-Files, got attacked by a Manbat.
• Why didn't Skinner lead with the "We have the number Tipet called?"
• The bit with Skinner and Doggett in Andre's lab moves very fast and is again mysterious for the sake of being mysterious.
• It took to like 25 minutes in for Tipet to kill someone in a way that doesn't involve the axe (and rats are kinda symbolic for Andre, so that's something).
• For the record, Frohike would have been 16 in 1964, so I doubt he was on the bus with Kesey.
• MKUltra is almost entirely nonsense and it's weird that it's so prevalent in conspiracy circles, but The X-Files already does that a lot, so it makes sense they'd name drop it here.
• The actor playing Tipet does a good job with his "I can't stop it" monologue.
• Tipet taking a buzz saw to the head is pretty gruesome, even if I didn't totally expect the saw Doggett was playing with to be a Chekov's Gun.
• Doggett seeing Scully in the hospital is a weird beat, but I guess he didn't know she's pregnant.
• Kersh being cool with not knowing how Tipet killed everyone and Doggett not being cool with that is good characterization.
• The shot of Doggett in the mirror looks off even before the third eye shows up, not sure why.
• Doggett looks genuinely freaked out when he goes to the FBI unsure of whether he's asleep.
• I have never felt more of The X-Files' Twin Peaks DNA then when Doggett is standing in a mostly black void having distorted dialogue with Tipet.
• Doggett just deciding not to kill Scully in his dreams feels like it needs an extra beat, but I guess it's okay.
• As always these reviews are supported by my Patreon. Check it out so I won't have to use my psychic powers to start a cul-I may have said too much.

Future Celebrity Watch:

Keith Szarabajka, who plays Tipet, is primarily known as a voice actor these days and a fairly prolific one at that. My favorite role on his IMDB is as Harbinger in Mass Effect 2 and 3, but you should give it a look, he's been in a metric ton of stuff.

And on the note of being mostly out of the spotlight, Grant Heslov (who plays Andre) has a handful of acting roles under his belt, but is way more prolific as a writer, director and producer, mostly in tow with George Clooney. Among his writing and producing credits are Good Night and Good Luck and The Ides of March, and he directed The Men Who Stare at Goats.