The Jersey Devil

The Jersey Devil inaugurates another X-Files tradition, namely lighter, more entertaining standalone episodes following the more emotionally relevant mythology stories (Squeeze, which aired right after Deep Throat, doesn't count, on the grounds of it being, well, too creepy). This trend was exploited at best in Seasons 5-7, but this episode shows that the writers already had a clear sense of how to do comedy in the series.

As suggested by the title, Mulder and Scully travel to New Jersey, where corpses are found with limbs missing. Remembering an old X-file, Mulder says it might be the legendary "Jersey Devil" who's behind the attacks, meeting inevitable derision on the part of local authorities and, to a lesser degree, Scully. As they get closer to the truth (some evolutionary misstep might be involved), the tension increases and the search for the "Devil" gets more and more serious.

Mulder's beliefs, contrasted with Scully's skepticism, have been there since the pilot episode, but this is the first time their work relationship is played for laughs, with their respective theories clashing in a humorous debate about mankind and evolution (another important theme in the longer run of the show). Naturally, there is also suspense (though not as consistently as in Squeeze) and a traditionally open ending which suggests the story may not be over (which wasn't the case, but still...). Revealingly, though, the epilogue induces a smile rather than a shiver. That's The X-Files in a nutshell: weird, thrilling and funny - often at the same time.

I should point out that the Jersey Devil has nothing to do with Big Foot. It is NOT an Eastern version of the Yeti. It is, if the stories are to be believed, a creature with the head of a horse, bat-like wings, and talons as would be found on a dragon. There are numerous illustrations on the internet. It supposedly inhabits the New Jersey Pine Barrens, where it has existed in folklore since before the American Revolution. That it would invade Atlantic City is just silly. It was supposedly born of a woman that committed some kind of sin against God. How the writers of the X-Files came to think that pretending it is some kind of hairy human throwback to prehistoric times is beyond me. I can certainly sympathize with the notion that the city fathers of Atlantic City would want to suppress such sightings, but that is no excuse for completely distorting the narrative. Sometimes the research put into these episodes is severely lacking. I am reminded of the episode where they reference the "Catonsville PD," which, of course, does not exist, since there are no incorporated cities in Baltimore County.

It's a given that X-Files shows tend to be all over the place. But in most of them there's at least one thread that tends to hold everything together. In this episode, however, the threads are all over the place and the jumps don't fit/connect at all; nothing really comes together. At least not for me. It's just not believable that for decades the Jersey Devil can't be found then as soon as Mulder appears they manage to locate it in a matter of days. It's just a bad episode.

First time Mulder and Scully go their separate ways. Seeing Scully being a real person and doing real person stuff was really important to develop the world of the first season. I know it's not much, since we know both her and Mulder have lives besides the investigations. However actually seeing it happen is very important, imo.

Mulder improvising his way to the mystery was absolutely crucial to paint his personality better. Same idea from the last point, we know he is a wildcard with an unconventional approach, but seeing it happen is what solidifies it.

If the MOTW wasn't just ok, the rating would be higher.

"The Jersey Devil" is so typical of why the first season of "The X-Files" is the weakest of the Vancouver seasons and why one could be forgiven for being frustrated with the quality of several of the monster of the week episodes in this season.

The episode lacks any sort of worthwhile characterization aside from the first Mulder porn joke (forgive me if I'm mistaken regarding that) and the dialogue is wildly inconsistent although occasionally fun. The episode's real flaw however is the utterly lazy plotting; beyond just not being a particularly interesting take on the Jersey devil mythology, the plot inexplicably changes course far too many times for a 45 minute episode, and the transitions are not handled well by writer Chris Carter.

This was, of course, the first standalone script by Chris Carter, so I'm not going to be too harsh on him as he certainly did improve later on. Some other stuff worth mentioning: Scully's personal life is explored more here as well and it makes me glad that this didn't become the norm later on in the series and is mostly confined to early episodes, and the direction by Joe Napolitano is actually pretty solid and wasted on a mediocre script by Carter.

4/10