"Because its mine."
Originally Aired 1/13/02
Before I sat down to view this episode, I was told by a new friend that
The X-Files is a very serious show. Ten years of being a fan may have caused me to forget just how much the show asks of its viewers during the Pilot and the initial episodes- Mulder is a kooky FBI agent who works out of the basement and investigates freaky occurrences; Scully has been assigned to work with him, and her beliefs clash with her new partner; there are aliens hovering overhead and possibly abducting kids from the woods in the Pacific Northwest; shadowy government agents are lurking around every corner to steal evidence; and Mulder has been searching for answers about the disappearance of his younger sister, and hoping his work on The X-Files will give him answers. That's "heavy", in the words of Doc Brown from
Back To The Future. The series eventually embraced it's comedic side, which was always bubbling beneath the surface, thanks to many one-liners from David Duchovny. Perhaps I also stayed closer to the comedic and light-hearted episodes, with many of my favorites coming from the minds of Vince Gilligan, Darin Morgan, and even David himself.
"John Doe" is a dark and deeply personal episode for Agent John Doggett, as he finds himself stranded in Mexico, unaware of how he arrived there and even who he is. The episode itself is also dark because of how it's filmed, with some tinkering done to the exposure so it appears its filmed in a sweltering desert. Many scenes are either super dark when indoors, or appear washed-out with white light when outside. The close-ups are also a bit jarring, since I can see every pore on the face of Robert Patrick.
Although Doggett seems to be suffering from amnesia, he does have brief flashes to memories of his young son. Doggett keeps fighting to find out who he is, while his partners back home are doing the same. Reyes is a lot less annoying this time around than previous episodes, especially when she stands her ground with a shady business man and his lawyer, reminding me of one of her better scenes in "4-D." Maybe this is a sign on things to come for the Reyes character.
When Reyes finally connects the dots and traces a phone that may have been made by her partner, it leads to an action sequence and shoot-out down in Mexico, which is straight out of a Clint Eastwood movie. There's even a bus that gets used as a battering ram when Doggett and Reyes bust out of some building after coming under fire from the Cartel. Perhaps I'm making a leap here like Mulder would do, but I feel like the setting and filming of this episode could have played a hand in the creation of Vince Gilligan's series
Breaking Bad, since he admittied he used the portrayal of Bryan Cranston in Season 6 to influence his casting of Walter White. Connection to that series or not, I enjoyed "John Doe" and it features some of the best work that Robert Patrick did during his run on
The X-Files.
