Friday, August 28, 2015

The X-Files - S3:E5 "The List"

[ S3:E4 "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" <<< Season 3 >>> S3:E6 "2Shy" ]

Mulder and Scully visit a Florida state penitentiary to investigate a series of murders after a death row inmate who believes in reincarnation makes a frightening prophecy just before he fries in the electric chair, avowing that five men will be killed in retribution for the suffering he's experienced. It's a dramatic scene, but the pathos isn't quite as sweet as it was in a similar scene in Beyond The Sea, after we'd had time to get to know the unlucky prisoner. The premise also vaguely recalls another episode from season 1 - Young At Heart - which also featured an allegedly dead man getting revenge from beyond the grave. Genre loyal Ken Foree (who starred in George Romero's original Dawn of the Dead) costars in this episode written and directed by Chris Carter. The episode is shot stylistically in sickly shades of green, giving the prison a really creepy atmosphere. I recommend it.

Memorable quotes:

Neech: Gotta go now.

Warden: Neech Manly. Smart man. Very smart man. Fact if he'd stayed outside I would've figured him for a Nobel prize. But, he made a mistake. Paid for it with his life. Now, you take a man of that intelligence, you put him inside for ten or eleven years, you're gonna have to pay for it.
Scully: What do you mean?
Warden: Well, there's nothing but bitterness and resentment in here. Seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. It gets honed to a real fine point.
Mulder: So you're saying that Manly planned this, and is carrying it out with the help of someone else?
Warden: Elaborate as Shakespeare.

Mulder: Imagine if it were true, Scully. Imagine if you could come back and take out five people who had caused you to suffer. Who would they be?
Scully: I only get five?
Mulder: I remembered your birthday this year, didn't I, Scully?

Scully: A woman gets lonely. Sometimes she can't wait around for her man to be reincarnated.

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