Beyond the Sea

I become an X-files fan after the show had been on awhile. So just now, I'm starting over.

The episodes go by: okay, so-so, good, okay, okay, pretty good... and then WHAM! comes this episode, as if from another series.

Knowing what an amazing actress Gillian Anderson is, I'd noted how subdued she's been, not really given the opportunity to do much. But come this episode, amigo, there it is. I don't know whether it was the material, or whether it was partly Brad Dourif's stand-out performance challenging her to come up a notch (as David Duchovny's anemic metro-sexual character couldn't), but wow.

I'll leave it at "wow." That says it. That Gillian Anderson hasn't gone on to take her place by Meryl Streep remains a mystery to me.

Wow! I cant put into words my feelings towards this amazing episode. When i first watched this i had just recently lost a loved one and upon watching this it touched me so deeply. Brad Dourif's performance is at the heart of this episode, it is awe-inspiring. He is such an underrated actor. I don't believe in "channeling" but he certainly made it look real! As a Scully centered episode it serves to showcase Gillian Anderson's talent. She amazed me in this, the emotion she portrays is so real you can almost grasp it. Glenn Morgan and James Wong wrote another masterpiece here.

It is easily the best episode of season one. Heck! One of the best episodes in the entire series run.

Scully: Im afraid to believe...

Beyond the Sea is arguably the best episode of season one. It's a pity that Morgan & Wong didn't stay with the X-Files throughout its duration. They wrote another masterpiece here. This episode is not about a serial killer named Lucas Henry. It's about Scully and her interactions with Luther Boggs, a death row inmate, who is supposedly channeling her deceased father. This is the first X-Files episode where Mulder and Scully switch the roles of believer and skeptic. Scully is not sure whether to believe Boggs or not. The dialogue between Scully and Boggs is very powerful. Of note is their exchange after Mulder is shot by Lucas Henry. There's not a lot of action in this episode. It is secondary to the drama between Scully and Boggs. Morgan and Wong actually gave up their script writing fees for this episode in order for production to be able to afford Brad Dourif to play Luther Boggs. Brad Dourif is incredible and was worth every cent they payed him. People tell me, "I think of Finding Nemo when I hear the song 'Beyond the Sea'". But for any X-phile, you know exactly what you think of when you hear 'Beyond the Sea'.

The pair are called in to help with two missing students, Mulder believes a Serial killer is to blame. Scully had to deal with a personal tragedy.

This is a terrific episode, no wonder it's so highly rated, and such a fan favourite. This first series has given us multiple styles, even genres. This fits into the psychological thriller bracket.

Very much a Scully central episode, she had a big story here, she's forced to admit to things against the backdrop of her father's death. Anderson is terrific.

Brad Dourif is sensational as Luther Lee Boggs, he is truly brilliant here.

It's great, 9/10.

This may prove to be a turning point in the show.

So far X-Files has been a mixed bag, but scrap the often silly 'monster' aspect and at root what is worth investigating in the show is the noir notion of an extralogical reality that comes alive according to the narrator's desire. So far Scully's raison d'etre had been to provide the logical counterpoint to spooky Mulder, inserting again and again the possibility of logical explanation to phenomena.

Here she has her own breakthrough, tied to loss and bereavement of her dead father. Usually in the context of the show we have 'hard' presentation of extralogical forces as 'real' outside of mind, but for the first time we have some 'soft' ambiguity; the thing may be only as real as the story we choose to remember, and yet no less ontologically real for that.

Anchored on one end in a powerhouse performance by Brad Dourif as spiritual conduit (or charlatan), on another we have what another reviewer astutely noted as the Twin Peaks connection. I did make a note of resemblance in my post for the Pilot, so it's nice to see it confirmed here.