Rewatch: 9x12 Underneath
Production number: 9x09
Logline: Doggett becomes obsessed with proving the guilt of an exonerated man he arrested for murder 13 years earlier.
The Good (or at least The Okay): Scully has pretty hair. I haven’t said that in awhile.
Reyes falls through a grate into some sewer water. I’m not hating her as much as I used to, but I got a good chuckle out of this.
The Bad, The Terribly Bad, and The Worse: Why doesn’t Reyes immediately go to New York, too? It doesn’t make sense.
Doggett finds out that his old partner, Duke, planted hair from a previous crime scene. I’m not sure how this furthers the story other than getting Doggett all self-righteous and riled up.
Somehow, Reyes’ nutty theories always sound dumb, whereas Mulder’s, however off the wall, generally seemed feasible. I don’t know if it’s in the way he was written or if it’s in Duchovny’s delivery, but I always felt like there was something behind his theories. And if he was leaping, he was offering the theory as a new way to start looking at the evidence, rather than saying it was the final answer, period. The way Reyes gives her theories, they sound plucked from thin air, without thought behind them.
Because Mr. Fassl can’t admit his own sin, he somehow manifests a second personality, physically becoming the bearded man. Apparently he can do this because...he’s Catholic and…transubstantiation or something? I’m not sure how Moronica makes that particular leap. It’s pretty terrible as an analogy, and even more so because she seems to take it as literal proof that a devout Catholic could somehow do the same thing with his body. But the second personality is the one doing the sinning, so I guess it’s more his sinful thoughts, his desire to become a serial killer, that causes the bearded man to come into existence. Although several times, we see the other personality encouraging him, ordering him to kill. Which makes it seem more like he’s been possessed or haunted by another person/spirit, rather than creating him. I’m more interested in the psychology of him not wanting to see himself as sinful, as opposed to this second personality business. It really doesn’t seem that different than any other “multiple personality” story, except for the fact that he can physically morph into the bearded man when he kills.
What’s Scully Up To?: Oh, not much. Just leaving her kid to go to New York for a couple of days on a case that absolutely doesn’t require her. All she does is perform a few DNA tests, flip idly through folders, and have a Catholic rap session with Mr. Fassl about the Rosary.
Mulder Mentions: I wish.
Random: Mr. Fassl’s stressed out weirdness reminds me a lot of Harold in “Elegy,” also written by John Shiban.
Logline: Doggett becomes obsessed with proving the guilt of an exonerated man he arrested for murder 13 years earlier.
The Good (or at least The Okay): Scully has pretty hair. I haven’t said that in awhile.
Reyes falls through a grate into some sewer water. I’m not hating her as much as I used to, but I got a good chuckle out of this.
The Bad, The Terribly Bad, and The Worse: Why doesn’t Reyes immediately go to New York, too? It doesn’t make sense.
Doggett finds out that his old partner, Duke, planted hair from a previous crime scene. I’m not sure how this furthers the story other than getting Doggett all self-righteous and riled up.
Somehow, Reyes’ nutty theories always sound dumb, whereas Mulder’s, however off the wall, generally seemed feasible. I don’t know if it’s in the way he was written or if it’s in Duchovny’s delivery, but I always felt like there was something behind his theories. And if he was leaping, he was offering the theory as a new way to start looking at the evidence, rather than saying it was the final answer, period. The way Reyes gives her theories, they sound plucked from thin air, without thought behind them.
Because Mr. Fassl can’t admit his own sin, he somehow manifests a second personality, physically becoming the bearded man. Apparently he can do this because...he’s Catholic and…transubstantiation or something? I’m not sure how Moronica makes that particular leap. It’s pretty terrible as an analogy, and even more so because she seems to take it as literal proof that a devout Catholic could somehow do the same thing with his body. But the second personality is the one doing the sinning, so I guess it’s more his sinful thoughts, his desire to become a serial killer, that causes the bearded man to come into existence. Although several times, we see the other personality encouraging him, ordering him to kill. Which makes it seem more like he’s been possessed or haunted by another person/spirit, rather than creating him. I’m more interested in the psychology of him not wanting to see himself as sinful, as opposed to this second personality business. It really doesn’t seem that different than any other “multiple personality” story, except for the fact that he can physically morph into the bearded man when he kills.
What’s Scully Up To?: Oh, not much. Just leaving her kid to go to New York for a couple of days on a case that absolutely doesn’t require her. All she does is perform a few DNA tests, flip idly through folders, and have a Catholic rap session with Mr. Fassl about the Rosary.
Mulder Mentions: I wish.
Random: Mr. Fassl’s stressed out weirdness reminds me a lot of Harold in “Elegy,” also written by John Shiban.