“He’s a jerk. He’s not a jerk. He’s, um… he’s obsessed with his work.” – Dana Scully.
THE JERSEY DEVIL [Standalone] Aired October 8, 1993
Episode: 1×04 / 6 Overall
Director: Joe Napolitano • Writer: Chris Carter
Mulder and Scully track a legendary creature that has roamed the New Jersey countryside for over 40 years.
Chris Carter’s third episode as a series writer is the second standalone MOTW show for season one and it’s a successful entry that manages to tell a coherent and self contained horror themed story while further developing the two lead characters. We open with a flash back to New Jersey in 1947. While changing a flat tire on his car out in the woods, a family man is attacked by an unseen assailant and is discovered the following morning with his legs bitten off. The man is played by Bill Dow, is his first of three separate characters best known for his role as Dr. Charles ‘Chuck’ Burke. The local police track a figure to a nearby cave and they open fire on the predator. At this point the audience has seen nothing of the man’s attacker though the assumption is likely to made that we are looking for some type of wild beast.
Scully is starting to enjoy herself a little more at the FBI as she appears to take pleasure in presenting Mulder with the details of a case involving a a homeless man having been attacked in New Jersey, eager to hear his undoubtedly unique opinion. She interrupts Mulder as he is seen checking out the centrefold of a Playboy magazine, a fact he does not try to hide. This is the first time we see Mulder’s interest in pornography which he holds primarily due to his complete lack of socialisation with women. There is also something slightly immature about a grown man so openly enjoying pornographic images. This suits what we know so far of Mulder as he has in some sense a child like personality, very willing to let his imagination run wild. Regarding the case, Mulder has seen this type of attack before. He refers to the opening scene in 1947 of a man being attacked in the Jersey woods by a creature now referred to as the Jersey Devil and the pair travel to investigate the homeless man’s death. This is the first of many cases in which Mulder will pursue purely out of personal interest as he has no official justification to investigate here or any FBI jurisdiction in the matter. This does not stop him however and we can see that the X-Files cases are more than just a job for Mulder. We learn that there is in fact some type of primitive human with Neanderthal like qualities roaming the woods in search of food, in the form of New Jersey’s local citizens.
The supporting cast do a fine job, particularly the park ranger Peter Brullet, played by an understated Michael MacRae who conveys a believable sense of both fear and intrigue when speaking to Mulder about the creature has has witnessed. Detective Johnson, played by the late Wayne Tippit, is a character archetype we will see often in the series, that of the belligerent local law enforcement who disrupt and impede Mulder and Scully’s investigations at every turn.
Throughout this episode Carter explores Mulder and Scully’s personal lives, or in the case of the former, his lack thereof. Mulder’s obsession with the X-Files leads him to have a non-existent social life. While Scully is still trying to maintain a more positive work life balance. We see her attend her godson’s birthday and is encouraged to date one of the parents. Ultimately she is called away from her date early due to Mulder’s insistence that she assist him in his investigation. Meanwhile Mulder has given up his hotel bed to a homeless man and is camping out in the alleys of New Jersey in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the creature. He acts selflessly in the pursuit of the truth. Scully can’t quite understand Mulder’s point of view, she remarks about wanting a life outside of work yet Mulder’s response says it all, “I have a life.” The X-Files is not simply his work, it is his whole world. While Scully is attending birthdays and going on dates Mulder has nothing to draw him away from his pursuits. His reaction to Scully’s mention of a date hints at a subtle sense of jealousy or perhaps he simply struggles to understand why she would rather engage in such trivialities instead of working with him. She suggests that Mulder “take some time off” yet he is dismissive of her proposal as he leaves her to further explore the mystery of the Jersey Devil. Scully ultimately turns down her date’s advances only to follow Mulder at the conclusion of the episode. This is a pivotal scene in her character’s development as she realises that perhaps she is seeking more than the prosaic life of a simple wife and mother. She is drawn in by Mulder’s enthusiasm, at this stage of the series still pulled along by his tenacity and conviction in though appearing now more than ever to be forging some personal investment in the X-Files unit.
★★★☆☆
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