"Orison"

"Love your hair."
Originally Aired 1/9/99

This episode of The X-Files features a song, "Don't Look Any Further", that appears as an omen to Agent Scully throughout the hour. On Friday afternoon, hours before I was to watch this episode, I hopped into a rental car and started the engine, with the radio instantly powering into a song midway through. It happened to be this song, and I enjoyed it, not yet clued into the fact that this song played a role in "Orison." I realized after I cleaned the rental car that I had slipped my phone in my back pocket and sat on it, cracking the screen, although the phone was on it's last legs anyway. I took a lunch hour and drove to purchase a new cellphone, when it dawned on me. "It's that F'N song!! It jinxed me!" is what I shouted when I realized "Don't Look Any Further" was going to be in the same X-Files episode I was to watch later that night. Another odd coincidence I realized later while driving back from the cellphone store is that this is the third X-Files sequel to a monster-of-the-week episode (following Tooms' return in Season One and Pusher returning in Season Five), and all three of the original episodes are in my Top 10. So revisiting "Orison" has a lot to live up to.

"Orison" features the return series villain, Donnie Pfaster, who was a 'death fetishist' since they couldn't say 'necrophiliac' on the FOX Network. He stalked and abducted Scully in his first appearance in "Irresistible" in Season Two, following her previous abduction at the hands on Duane Barry. Scully was really put through the ringer in Season Two, so Mulder attempted unsuccessfully to persuade Scully from leaving this case when they realized Pfaster has escaped from prison at the beginning of "Orison"; kind of seems like they traveled a long way just for Mulder to talk her out of the investigation when they're already on the scene. Maybe he should have attempted that before they boarded a plane for Illinois.

Donnie's first appearance was scripted by Chris Carter and directed by David Nutter, who would later direct the pilot for Carter's other series Millennium, which they say this episode led to the creation of that series. Chip Johannessen, who wrote and produced many episodes of Millennium, is credited for the script for "Orison", and I feel this episode is in the same vein as many that aired on that series. While in "Irresistible", Donnie was merely a man with a twisted obsession and only appeared as a demon in Scully's imagination, this episode plays that up as fact- that Donnie is evil incarnate. I actually like that they went all the way with that aspect of Donnie, even though it may betray part of the original episode. What happens here is that the "Orison" in the title of the episode is Reverend Orison, a prison chaplain, who has made final judgment and killed several prisoners, feeling that he was doing the Lord's work. But he ultimately ended up with more than he bargained for when he picked Donnie as his chosen one, since he's more than just a man. This is exactly what I meant when I said it felt like a Millennium episode, since that series featured demons, and many even tempted the series' main character Frank Black (who actually appeared earlier this season.) One such episode, "Goodbye Charlie", focused on man who was euthanizing elderly folk, and Frank Black questioned whether he was doing the work of the Lord or the Devil.

Mulder and Scully again seem like passengers in this episode, with Mulder popping in to explain his theory on Rev. Orison to Scully and the moments when she hears that song, "Don't Look Any Further." The case is wrapped up within the first three acts, earlier than usual, so it should clue in the viewers that there's going to be an epic conclusion. I felt it was a little too convenient, like it may have been lacking more dialogue between Mulder and Scully since they casually exit the investigation and leave it in the hands of the Marshalls. Donnie is seen even throwing a fit when he can't have a girl with red hair...

The ending even reminds me of another moment on Millennium, when Frank Black is pushed to his limits and beyond, much like Scully when she's again abducted by Donnie Pfaster. However once she's abducted, I felt the song changed its meaning from being just an omen with it's title of "Don't Look Any Further", to something far more sinister. As Donnie is drawing a bath and laying out an assortment of shampoos while Scully is crawling for her life towards her gun, this song plays over that entire scene. The sequence is chilling, maybe one of the best directed moments I've seen on the series since the intense finale moments of the Syndicate in "Two Fathers."

Scully questions what force was at work in her during those finale moments, God or the Devil, and that cements the Millennium connection even further within "Orison", and strengthens the overall bond between Carter's two series. The Rev. Orison believed he was working on behalf of the Lord, and his line to Donnie of "whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed" is actually taken from the book of Genesis. The song even says "you need a man to take over", and I felt during that sequence that maybe it was implying Scully needed Donnie to "take over" in a twisted way as lit candles, though maybe the song really was an omen for her and she just need to led a higher power take over and pass judgment on Pfaster. Either way, this is the strongest episode yet of these early Season Seven installments.