Written & Directed by John Shiban
John Shiban is by this point in the
X-Files run, the third longest tenured staff writer. And let's be honest, he
has a pretty crappy reputation. The majority of the episodes he has written
have been laggard monster stories with no real energy or collaborations with
his fellow writers Spotnitz and Gilligan, both of whose talent exceeded his,
and could probably be credited with making the stories work. So really, the
fact that he has chosen to turn director in his final (to date) X-Files story
seems more of a vanity trip than any real chance to show off his gifts, like
Gilligan did in Je Souhaite or Spotnitz did in Alone, and more as something to
get crossed off his professional bucket list before the series closes up shop
in a few months.
And yet despite that, Underneath
manages to demonstrate a surprisingly suitable sendoff for an X-Files writer
whose best work came in what was more traditional procedural stories than the
paranormal ones. Indeed, the episode doesn't exactly sing with originality. We
have an old case that dates back to one of the characters past work, an
interaction with a former colleague that basically ends with the friendship
being scuttled (though at least his partner manages to avoid the fate so often
given to characters in the first seasons of the X-Files), a supernatural
occurrence that seems to turn the story on its head, and yet even that isn't
much more original, with a character have a hidden side to himself that
manifest in a different personality -
the series last dealt with it in Chimera, and even that barely passed muster.
But the story works and works well,
because, almost for the first time in Shiban's career of writing for the show,
he manages to tap into the characters in a way to make them seem fully
dimensional. Bob Fassl is a man who seems, from the teaser, to have been framed
for a series of murders in 1989. Released because of what seems to be an error
in DNA evidence, he finds himself in the
halfway house of his attorney when it seems the killings are starting again.
The terror that he genuinely seems to feel with each successive crime - and his
genuine desire to return to prison where he thinks he'd be safer - is almost
enough to make you believe he's just a patsy even as the body count becomes
higher. W. Earl Brown, about to begin a career where he would play a series of
morally corrupt characters, is very good as Fassl. Equal credit should also go
to Lisa Darr as the Innocence Project type attorney who exonerates him, only to
learn that he is morally lacking in ways that she doesn't expect of her
clients. The genuine shock at the end when she learns how guilty her client
truly seems to appall her even more than the murder of her housekeeper.
And the episode also manages, for
the first time all year, a perfect level of balance between all three leads.
Patrick, as you'd expect, gives another one of his superb performances, at
first guided by the moral rage that a man he's sure is guilty has been found
innocent. There's a certain desperation as the episode progresses, as Doggett needs to prove that Fassl is guilty and
the arrest was righteous. This makes the heartbreak even bigger when he learns
that his former partner planted evidence to solidify the case, and that his
promotion to detective was based on a lie. Even as the proof seems to mount up
that this actually is an X-File, we
can see he doesn't want to believe it, and for the first time in awhile, we can
see how much it has cost him to work in the field that defies easy answers.
When Doggett finally learns his instincts were right, there's no triumph in his
voice
But both lead actresses also do a
particularly good job. For the first time all season, Gillian Anderson is given
a chance to play the Scully that we all remember, the one who believes in the
surety of science, and who yet is willing to lean on the level of her faith.
She manages to use her Catholicism in a way that is almost unheard of in the
entire series - to try and relate to a suspect, and yet also discuss rather openly
with Reyes the possibility that her faith might have the explanation to these
crimes. Gish is very good, too, playing Monica as someone who still wants to
support her partner, while not approaching the crime with the quirks that we
have come to associate with her. She manages to stop Fassl by dealing with him
on his level, a move that almost surely saves Doggett's life as much as the
shooting of the suspect. It's a job so
well done, you wonder why it took the straw man of the writing staff to finally
come up with a way to get all its characters to work together - it could've
been an approach for the future of the X-Files.
Underneath is a well-done episode.
Its harder to measure Shiban's direction as well as his colleagues, though
there are some segments that are particularly good. The scene where Fassl at
one point seems to be talking to the DA, and the next the DA is falling over
dead is a good one, as is the final chase scene in the sewer. Perhaps the best thing about it is, like
Audrey Pauley last week, it makes you frustrated the series is coming to an
end, now that the writers finally seem to be getting a template for how to do
the show now.
My score: 4 stars.
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