X-Files Episode Guide: John Doe

Written by Vince Gilligan

Directed by Michelle MacLaren

In Season 7, when no one connected with the X-Files knew whether or not the series had a future, the only writer capable of turning out any goods at all was Vince Gilligan. Now, in Season 9, with the X-Files, if anything, in even more dire straits, the series once again turns to Gilligan. And not only does he deliver in a critical situation, he actually gives the viewer hope that the series still has the potential for greatness.

John Doe, like so many of Gilligan's creations, is atypical from what we have seen before, and one of the reasons it works as well as it does, is that it gives direction for Doggett. By far the most outstanding creation of Season 8, so far this season, he seems to be stuck being discordant. Now that Reyes and Scully have taken on the task of believing, he now seems like a stick in the mud. Gilligan restores Doggett's power in his typical fashion, by completely stripping of his identity. Doggett has no memory of who he is, and is stuck in a town in Mexico, which seems to be completely owned by one of the major drug cartels. (Another bit of research for Breaking Bad, perhaps?) For the first act of the episode, there's no other regular onscreen but Doggett, and we find ourselves learning about him as well as he does. Since we don't know the real reason he comes down here until the episode is over, the episode finds itself turning on who Doggett is. And what he is, is key to the X-Files: alone in a town filled with criminals and outcasts, he's a man who is looking for a truth.  Of course, in typical series fashion, the truth comes at great cost and is extremely painful. The only memory he has for sure, what he clings to, is the memory of his son; what restores his memory is the ultimate fact that his son is dead. We've seen hints of how much he buried his pain on the occasions it came it up in Season 8; when he finally learns it again, it is one of the most heartbreaking moments the series has done in quite some time.

Robert Patrick gives one of his best performances. As he tries desperately to piece together who he is, we find ourselves realizing just how much of the X-File lexicon has followed this man who doesn't believe in this kind of thing. Slowly putting together the pieces of who he is, he gathers in bits and pieces of who he used to be, perhaps even trying to find a way to give a hint to his partner who he doesn't remember. But when he learns that he might be a killer, just like so much of how the series works, he becomes one. By the time he finally encounters Reyes in the final act, he has learned in true series fashion to trust no one. His first move on the person he trusts most is to attack her. Special note should be given to Annabeth Gish's performance as well. She's been playing so often to her mystical bend on the series that this is the first time this season what a good investigator she is, and how well she can maneuver through the system.

This is one of the more atypical X-File outings. We split away from the action in giant subtitles indicated the passage of time, something that is almost always kept deliberately vague in the series. We find ourselves dealing with a genuine FBI investigation for almost the entire episode. There's more fighting and procedure than were used to, and the climax of  the episode is an actual siege on our heroes. None of this has ever been done, even up to this point, on the series, and yet Gilligan and rookie director MacLaren manage to make it so well, that when the supernatural actually does make an appearance nearly forty minutes in, it almost comes as a shock.

For all its paranormal outings, the series has done very little dealing with the archetypical vampire, and when it deals with it here, with the old man who works with the cartel, its not the kind that drains blood or even life from his victims, but rather their memories. Vito Kazann does such a good job exuding villainy that we don't genuinely suspect his true nature until he finally reveals it.  And Gilligan emphasizes the dirt and grit of this episode that we're almost wrong-footed when it finally comes about. Like so many of Gilligan's villains, he actually thinks that he's doing nothing truly bad, and when Doggett confronts him about what he has done, one can almost wonder, given the amount of pain John has had to go through in this episode when his memory finally returns to him, whether he might have been better off. The final confrontation is right, because in a rarity for these episodes, the police actually manage to do their jobs.

About the only real objection one can raise about John Doe is how little it uses Scully and Skinner. Yet even that seems purposeful rather than a sin of omission: this is an episode about identity that would never worked nearly as well had it featured Mulder or Scully as the protagonists. Gilligan has done more than we could ever have expected of him. Not only has he given us a truly great episode, he's given us a truly different one, something that seems to illustrate the direction the series should be taking rather than having it run in circles most of this season. It's a real triumph, and perhaps all you need to say is that even when the series was at its peak, you would still consider it a standout.

My score: 5 stars.