1.15 - Lazarus
This episode relies on the acting of Christopher Allport as Agent Jack Willis. You’re barely shown anything by Allport before he wakes up as someone else, and yet it’s enough to establish who he is and showcase the differences in the rest of the episode. The dialog isn’t worthy of Allport’s performance though. His character is constantly dropping stinky turds into scenes, one of the worst being “Even ugliness is beautiful, because of her.”
I like some of what they do with Scully though.
“I’m a doctor!” she bellows, telling the ER crew how to do their job. It’s a great showing of who she is, her power and knowledge, plus that she cares about Agent Willis enough to shout directions, or just shout in general. She’s more of a quippy person than a shouty one. Mulder, on the other hand – dude is prone to lots of crackly-voiced exclamations.
The line delivered by Dupre that defines him, and gives Agent Willis the blueprint for how he’ll have to play it all: “Ya’ make every day like New Year’s Eve.” Dupre says this straight into his lover’s eyes. It’s cheesy but worse, it’s sad – he’s being totally sincere.
Most of the character work is thin here, except for Mulder and Scully. Not too strange for Monster of the Week episodes, or I guess not for the entire series either, really.
When Mulder shows Scully the EKG and asks what it looks like, she begrudingly says “Two heartbeats” and we’re at peak “Spooky versus Science.”
Scully used to date Agent Willis which doesn’t really track. Might be my own jealousy speaking there, or just that it seems too convenient for the plot, especially for a character we’ve never seen or heard of until this episode. They seem like they’re from different worlds, which can work, but it’s not even required to work a little. It’s basically only there as a throwaway line so Scully can say they have the same birthday, which sets up Mulder’s little handwriting /signature trick.
The most interesting part is when Scully says “What am I supposed to tell myself?” when talking about how this case unfolded and what was happening with Willis/Dupre. One of the more direct confrontations to her skepticism we’ve seen so far. Mulder, surprisingly, does not celebrate her arriving there. Dead bodies tend to have that effect on him, which is nice, only ‘cause it proves he’s not a total asshole.