Beyond the Sea Episode 13 Season 1 of The X-Files

Beyond the Sea Episode 13 Season 1 of The X-Files

Ground breaking 10/10

Synopsis: The agents are hunting down a kidnapper; Scully’s scepticism is put to the test when their only help comes in the guise of a death row inmate claiming psychic abilities who is looking for a pardon.

Beyond the sea raised the bar. The template set the standard that took The X-Files from an unassuming paranormal cop show to a celebrated worldwide phenomenon. An episode so rich in thought and feeling that can extend to nearly all that watch. Most of us have lost somebody. I myself have recently lost a friend and found comfort in what Scully learns.

This episode focuses squarely on Dana Scully, so much so that the writers had to hospitalise Mulder. This allowed Scully to open her mind to the possibilities of paranormal phenomenon, for the first time on an X-File she had no one off which to bounce her conflicting ideas. She alone must walk the line between the realms of distinct possibility and unconceivable probability. It is a lesson in growth for our sceptic agent. Can she let her guard down and allow herself to believe?

I like to think Scully’s mind has already been open to the possibilities of the paranormal. I don’t think her father’s silent spirit would have been able to reach out to her if she hadn’t, in a scene that I find as chilling as any other. We see what we allow ourselves to see and perhaps she is too stubborn to admit that she believes, why? Does it conflict with her work as a doctor, would it jeopardise her career within the bureau or more to the point would it bring further unrest to her father who has already casts doubts over her choice of career path?

Scully returns to work on the day of her father’s funeral. Mulder asks Scully how she is, calling her Dana for the first time which is something that resonates with her. After all she has not come to work looking for sympathy. She politely answers him then immediately turns the conversation towards the case the pair will be working on.

A teenage couple have been abducted by a killer believed to be replicating a crime he committed exactly a year previous, if the killer stays true to form the agent have exactly five days to find the teenagers before they are killed. The only lead they have is Luther Lee Bogs, a death row inmate with only one week before he is put to death. Bogs believes he has a psychic ability which will allow him to help the agents find the couple and the killer, in exchange for his life of course. Mulder is perceptibly sceptical about Bogs claim.

After Mulder has filled in Scully on Bogs and the case he leaves the room. I noticed Mulder owns a NICAP hat identical to the one worn by Max Fenig in the episode Fallen Angel. It is sitting on the coat stand and you can clearly see it when Mulder retrieves his jacket. I love the fact I can re-watch the series over and over and still find new bits to fascinate me.

With Mulder gone Scully hastily moves over to the X-Files cabinets and removes a document entitled VISIONARY ENCOUNTERS W/ THE DEAD. She instantly puts it back and slams the cabinet closed. Scully’s emotions are labouring here yet she remains stubborn. In the Next act a priest scatters Scully’s father’s ashes out at sea whilst Bobby Darlin’s Beyond the Sea plays out. Scully turns to her mother to asks her if her father was proud of her knowing that he had wanted her to go into medicine and not the FBI, and I presume for chasing monsters. Her mother replies simply ‘He was your father’.  This is a telling scene as we further explore the toil Scully is going through.

The agents interview Luther Lee Bogs. Bogs is clearly a scared man and desperate to prove his abilities to Mulder, it is the only way of saving his own life. I feel bogs could channel the emotions of the kidnapped couple without the need to touch an item of their clothing. Touching the clothing was for show and had more to do with humouring Mulder into believing his powers as he didn’t want to reveal his true connection to the kidnapper. A plan which backfired, well in the case of Mulder at least. Maybe Mulder was trying too hard to dispel Bogs claims and so found them too easy to dismiss.  Scully, having recently lost someone was easier for Bogs to reach. As she left the room he began to sing Beyond the Sea. She turns back to be confronted with another vision of her father. Bogs then says did you get my message Starbuck. These are all signs towards the paranormal ability of Bogs that Scully can surly not refute.

Scully happens across the area of which Bogs describes in his channelling. Scully finds the bracelet belonging to one of the kidnap victims and the coat hanger the killer used to whip them with. Do not be fooled into believing that finding this crime scene was a coincidence simply applied to allow the story to continue. Bogs can see the past the present and the future in his channelling and he asserted it in such a way that it could lead Scully. She saw what she allowed herself to see.

Mulder is upset by Scully’s gung-ho attitude in the acceptance of Bog authentication, which can only be viewed as hypocritical on the part of the FBI’s principal advocate for paranormal phenomenon. He is also upset that Scully lied in her report that it was paranormal phenomenon that lead her to the crime scene which it more understandable, but just goes to show Scully is not yet ready to commit herself to any other realms of possibility then that of science.

Mulders scepticism almost gets him killed. Following Bogs direct instructions to a boat house the agents Mulder and Scully and fellow FBI agents find the one of the kidnap victims gagged and bound. Whilst Scully tends to the victim, Mulder and other FBI sweep the surrounding area. Mulder in pursuit of the perpetrator is shot by a white cross. He was warned by Bogs to stay away from the white cross, a warning he disregarded. Was he shot because he didn’t see the cross or he didn’t want to see it? Maybe he never saw because he wouldn’t allow himself to see.

The killer is positively ID as Lucas Jackson Henry. It transpires that Henry was thought to have been partner to Bogs in a list of crimes although it was never proven. Scully’s internal conflicting beliefs rage on. Confronting Bogs Scully screams raw emotion at him angry that he had set her and her partner up or maybe more angry at herself for lowering her guard. She shuts her eyes and covers her ears shouting ‘no I don’t believe you!’. Bogs soon brings Scully back round to believing when he tells her of a story from her past that only she could have possibly known. At first she dismisses this as a story from any kid’s life but she is lying to herself still and she knows it. Teary she then requests to speak with her father; she wants to know what it was her father was trying to tell her after he had died. Bogs appears to hold back from channelling him and requests a deal.

Unable to broker a deal for Bogs life Scully lies to him to get the information. Bogs reveals that Henry and the last victim can be found at a condemned brewery. This, Scully believes compounds Bogs lies and concedes him to being a fraud. She questions Bogs on it and confronts him about being a liar in what is my favourite moment from the episode;

SCULLY: Luther, if you really were psychic...

BOGGS: I would have known you lied. That there never was a deal. I know you tried.

Wow just as Scully and us as viewers thought we had him! Just before Scully leaves the room Bogs warns her to stay away from the devil.

Scully and fellow FBI agents reach Henry as he was about to smash a hatchet into the skull of the remaining kidnap victim. Scully fires one shot to the torso of the axe wilding Henry who then runs. Scully gives chase. Henry sprints across a wooden platform next to which is a painting on the wall of a devil. Scully, heeding the advice of Bogs stops in her tracks. The platform is rotten and Henry falls through to his death.

Scully believes. She admits it to a man facing death yet cannot face it herself. Bogs offers her father’s message but she declines.

She knows what in death her father’s words would be. They are simply ‘I am proud of you’ I found this thought so moving, so true and so comforting.

I have other thoughts on this episode away from what we learn about Scully. I believe that Bogs was given his gift in order to redeem himself from the devil. He was given a second chance; the week prior to his death he prevented three deaths. The scene when he was walking to the gas chamber is remarkably brilliant and spooky.

Blogs ability to channel Henry and his victims came from his contact with Henry in previous crimes that the two were paired up on. A fact he had no intention of letting Mulder know, hence the Nicks jersey fiasco.

I cannot rate this episode any lower than a 10/10. The depth it added to Scullys character allowed her to become a main stay in show and in turn help cement The X-Files in television history for ever.