The Jersey Devil

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.

A body is discovered in New Jersey and a missing limb is apparent.Upon hearing this Mulder digs deep into the x-files archive and discovers a case similar to this and decides to investigate. The local police department display a distinct lack of interest in Mulder's investigation and at one point actually ends up a police cell. Many locals merely dismiss the recent death according to Mulder attributable to the mythical Jersey Devil as rubbish. Mulder is at one part of the investigation forced to go it alone as Scully has a date.A rare glimpse into her private life for the viewer. The Jersey Devil character in this episode resembles a primitive female though many other descriptions of the Jersy Devil in literature differ from this.

A decent episode with the additional bonus of seeing more of Scully in her private life

The Jersey Devil the Limerick:

She'll tear out your lung if you p*ss her.

She's a cannibalistic sister.

One homeless man dead

Another in a hotel bed.

Mulder is sure gonna miss her.

This is the first episode I ever saw of the X-Files when it was first run. I was so terrified that I didn't watch again until much much later. Looking back on this one and Shadows and other season 1 episodes that scared me so much I have to laugh because they aren't quite as scary to me anymore but they are still great. I love season 1 so much because it is so classic. We return to the low budget horror feeling of the show where the entire show relies on story and atmosphere to keep the viewer intrigued and terrified. Good episode. Not to mention young Scully. And the first reference to Mulder's porn addiction. And the original score. I'm feeling nostalgic can you tell? 10 out of 10.

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.

"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