"Beyond the Sea"
Written by Glen Morgan and James Wong
Directed by David Nutter


In which Mulder and Scully become embroiled in a race against time to save two teens from a serial killer, with the dubious aid of a convicted killer who claims to channel the dead...including Scully’s recently deceased father...

Synopsis - Analysis - Memorable Quotes - Observations


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"Praise the Lord!"


Synopsis

The episode begins shortly after Christmas at Scully’s apartment. Her mother Maggie and father William have come over for dinner. William refers to Scully as “Starbuck”; she calls him “Ahab”. It’s obvious that there is something strained between father and daughter, something that her mother attempts to press William into addressing. But besides a vague inquiry about work, little more is said.

Later that night, Scully has fallen asleep on her couch. As the sound of an infomercial resounds through the room, Scully suddenly opens her eyes. She focuses on a chair across from the couch, in which her father sits, bathed in a blue light from above. His lips are moving, but even when Scully sits up to talk to him, he makes no sound. The phone rings, and startled, she turns in the direction of the kitchen. When she looks back, the chair is empty. Confused, she answers the phone. Her mother gives her the terrible news: her father has died of a massive coronary.

Meanwhile, two teenagers are making out on the side of the road near Jackson University in North Carolina. When someone knocks on the window, they think the cops have caught them. The man orders the boy out of the car, keeping the beam of the flashlight in the boy’s eyes. When the boy notices that the supposed officer is wearing jeans and dirty boots, he demands to see an ID. The man smacks up the boy with the flashlight, as the girl screams.

Two days later, Scully returns to work in the basement office. She notices Mulder studying a case file. He tries to delicately ask after her condition, but she shrugs off his concern, asking about the case. Mulder explains that Elizabeth Hawley and James Summers, both 19, were kidnapped a year to the day after a similar kidnapping at Duke University. In the previous case, the teens were found dead a week later. Police now believe that this latest case is a repeat performance.

Mulder was brought onto the case because of a man named Luther Lee Boggs. Boggs claims to be obtaining personal information about the missing teens via “psychic transmission”. Boggs is scheduled for execution in seven days, and Mulder’s profile helped send him there. He had been in the execution chair before, but a last minute stay was granted. Ever since then, Boggs claims to channel spirits. Mulder, despite his belief in psychic phenomena, doesn’t buy it.

Mulder goes on to explain that Boggs was a lifelong killer. He killed his own family on Thanksgiving, then sat down to watch the rest of the holiday football game. Mulder was called in after Boggs requested his involvement, based on the profile. Mulder’s scheduled to go out to Raleigh in the afternoon. Even though the funeral is at noon, Scully expresses her desire to go with him. Mulder tries to talk her out of it, but she insists. Mulder leaves, and Scully is tempted to read the X-Files on “Visionary Encounters w/ the Dead”. Still, she resists the urge to read the contents.

At her father’s funeral, assorted family members have come together at a small, nondescript dock. A man is releasing the ashes into the waters as “Beyond the Sea” plays loudly in the background. Scully mentions that he was entitled to a full ceremonial burial at Arlington, but her mother reminds her that this is what he wanted. Her mother also remembers how the song was playing when William returned from the Cuban blockade, when he proposed to her. Scully, holding back tears, asks if he was proud of her. Her mother simply answers, “He was your father.”

That afternoon, Mulder and Scully meet with Boggs at the Central Prison in Raleigh. Boggs is speaking as though spirits are using him to communicate, explaining that where they reside, one can see the past, present, and future. They claim that they want a deal: the lives of the teens in exchange for Boggs’ receipt of a life sentence. Mulder makes it clear that first, Boggs must prove himself.

Mulder takes out an evidence bag containing a swath of blue cloth. When Boggs touches the cloth, he begins to react, apparently channeling the information requested. He tells them that Jim is being bound with packing twine, and that the killer is whipping the teens with a wire hanger. They are in a dark and cold place, a condemned warehouse. He mentions an angel of stone, and a waterfall that’s not a waterfall. His vision ends, and then Mulder calmly informs Boggs that the cloth came from his Knicks T-shirt. It had nothing to do with the crime.

As Mulder and Scully prepare to leave, Boggs begins singing “Beyond the Sea”. Scully stops and turns, but when she looks at Boggs, she sees her father. She looks away, only to see Boggs again when she looks back. Boggs, assuming her father’s tone of voice, asks “Starbuck” if she received his message. Scully rushes out of the room, and Mulder notices that she’s upset. He suggests she return to the hotel, since they’ve proven Boggs to be a fraud. As Boggs is led past them, he continues to sing the song, and Scully runs out.

On the way to the hotel, Scully stops at a red light, Boggs’ words echoing in her mind. She notices a sign for the Hotel Niagara, which looks like a waterfall in neon lights. She turns to one side, and sees a stone sculpture of an angel. Pulling into an alley, she stops when she sees a sign on a warehouse door: “Condemned”. She walks into the warehouse, and finds a small bracelet on the ground, surrounded by candles in beer bottles. Nearby, several wire hangers are strewn on the floor.

Sometime later at the hotel, Scully sits staring at an apparently empty chair. She sees her father once again in a chair set across from her. His lips move, but again there is no sound. Mulder arrives, and the vision is gone. The bracelet belonged to Liz Hawley, but nothing else was recovered at the scene. Mulder’s attempts to get more information from Boggs resulted in what Mulder believes is only a pretense of channeling.

Scully, however, admits to him that she lied in her report. Instead of noticing “suspicious activities”, she followed the signs that Boggs had laid out. Mulder is angry that Scully would believe Boggs that much, especially since it looks as though Scully lied to prevent her true belief from being out to record. More to the point, he believes that Scully is being affected by her father’s death, leading her to jump to conclusions, placing her in danger. Mulder points out that if Boggs was working with someone on the outside to commit the murders, then he could have faked the vision to lead them astray.

The next day, Mulder meets Scully at the prison. He shows her a false report in the local newspaper that claims that the teens were found safe. Mulder intends to supply Boggs with the information, and then see if Boggs tries to contact his supposed accomplice when he gets phone privileges a couple hours later. When the time comes, Boggs makes his call…but it’s to Mulder’s cell phone. He admonishes Mulder for not believing. Though Mulder is loathe to consider it, they know they have to deal. After all, as Scully points out, even if it’s a setup, they only have three days left.

Once again in the interrogation room, Boggs begins to have another vision. He describes the killer as a male in his late twenties, wearing a silver human skull earring, with cold eyes…aroused by the prospect of becoming a killer. As he speaks, we see the man whipping Elizabeth with a wire hanger. Finally Boggs tells them that they are in a small boathouse on Lake Jordan. As the agents rush to leave, Boggs warns Mulder to avoid the white cross. He sees Mulder falling, his blood spilling on the white cross.

Mulder, Scully, and several other agents arrive at the boathouse. Scully finds Elizabeth gagged and bound, and Mulder runs down a passageway. Standing next to a “cross” of white boards, Mulder hears movement behind a suspended sheet on a small motorboat. There’s a gunshot, and Mulder screams, falling to the ground. Scully runs to his side, calling for help, and she notices the “cross”…and Mulder’s blood coursing down its length.

Scully watches as Mulder is taken into surgery. He has been shot badly in the leg, and he is in critical condition. He’s losing a great deal of blood. Scully is stricken by the situation, but she forces herself to help Elizabeth identify the killer. She reacts to a mugshot of Lucas Jackson Henry, who had been linked to minor crimes until he saw his high school sweatheart killed and his mother decapitated in an auto accident. The seven-year anniversary of that incident comes in three days. Scully also learns that Lucas Henry was the suspected partner of Luther Boggs during the man’s final five murders.

Scully returns to the prison the next day and confronts Boggs, certain that he set Mulder up because Mulder’s profile helped put him away. She turns to walk away, but he calls her name. When she looks back, she sees Mulder, taunting her with her earlier belief. When Scully, visibly shaken, denies her belief, Boggs further taunts her with a supposed memory from her own childhood. She still refuses to believe…unless Boggs lets her speak to her father. Boggs begins to concede, but he forces the spirit away, demanding a deal.

Boggs tells Scully not to dismiss his fear of the execution chair. During his first visit, his last meal was attended by the spirits of his family, and his walk to the chamber was observed by the spirits of his other victims. As he waited, strapped in the chair, he came out of his body, and saw the spirits of thousands of souls slip into him. He remembers how cold and dark that place was, and he never wants to go back there again.

When he’s finished, he reiterates that Scully won’t get her message until he gets a deal. He also reminds her that if he doesn’t get the deal, Jim will be killed. Scully goes to see Mulder in the hospital, and Mulder is positive that Boggs is trying to get his final revenge. Scully expresses her doubts, but Mulder tells her to resist the urge to deal. Still, Scully tries, with no success.

Scully goes back to the prison on the last day, and tells Boggs that she managed to make a deal. Boggs promptly relates a vision of a large space filled with vats…the Blue Devil Brewery near Morrisville. Lucas Henry is preparing to kill his victim. When he’s finished, he makes it clear to Scully that he knows she lied to him…but he’s also aware she tried. As she gets up to leave, he gives her one last warning to “avoid the devil…don’t follow Henry to the devil”.

At the brewery, Lucas Henry prepares to kill Jim with a hatchet, but Scully and the other agents arrive first. When Henry moves to throw the hatchet, Scully shoots him in the shoulder. Henry drops the hatchet and runs. Scully and three other agents follow, but the other agents are incapacitated along the way. Scully chases down Henry, but hesitates when the man crosses over a wooden bridge suspended over one of the vats. On the wall behind him, there is a mural of a blue devil. The bridge gives way, and Henry falls to his death, leaving Scully staring at the devil on the wall.

Hours before the execution, Scully visits Boggs. She tells him that she knows he couldn’t have orchestrated the kidnapping, because if he had, Henry would have known about the danger, and would never have crossed the bridge. Boggs understands, and tells Scully that if she wants her father’s message, she has to be his witness at the execution.

We see Boggs at his final meal. His family stands in watch. We see Boggs on his final walk to the chamber. We see him faced with the silent stares of his victims. We see him strapped in the chair, in obvious fear. The observation window opens, and Boggs looks for Scully…but she hasn’t come. He refuses a final statement, and as the gas begins to fill the room, his face fills with terror.

Back at Mulder’s hospital room, Scully tells Mulder that she realizes now that Boggs could have known she was Mulder’s partner, and could have found out everything about her life to prepare for his final game. But even Mulder is convinced now, and wonders why she couldn’t keep believing, even if it was just long enough to get that final message from her father. But Scully says she already knows.

After all, he was her father.


Analysis

This episode is widely regarded as the first true exploration of Dana Scully’s character, and the results stand as one of the best episodes of the series. Much of the depth in the episode comes from the powerful performance of Brad Dourif in the key role of Luther Boggs. Making that character so frighteningly believable allowed the other players to shine.

This is the first instance where Mulder and Scully appear to switch roles, with Mulder denying any paranormal aspects of the case and Scully being unable to disbelieve. This could have easily been overdone and untrue to the nature of the characters, in the hands of weaker writers, but Morgan and Wong make this twist sensible. Mulder’s connection to the case, and his previous experience with Boggs, leads him to momentarily suspend his belief.

The death of her father, and the psychic vision that accompanies it, drives Scully in the exact opposite direction. Boggs immediately uses the raw nature of the loss to his advantage, twisting Scully from the inside out in his attempt to spare himself the terror of returning to the execution chair. As each vision recounted by Boggs comes true, you can see the tension and conflict mount in Scully’s expression.

We learn important, defining aspects of Scully’s character here: her conflict with her parents over her career choice, her secret desire to rebel against authority, her strength of will, and her latent psychic abilities. The strain between Scully and her father drives her need to hear that final message, in the hopes that he might finally be saying what she always wanted to hear: that he was proud of her, regardless of whether her choice fit his expectation. Whatever tension might have existed between Scully and her mother seemed to only surface in the later seasons when it was convenient for a given episode…much like Ma Scully’s appearances themselves.

Scully’s “typical teenage” story has become the platform for all manners of speculation regarding her childhood and early career, and the desires to break from the rigid rules of her world are later twisted into an odd fascination with older men of authority in her world. Linking those desires with her strained relationship with her father, it becomes a search for a father figure that often leads to self-destructive behavior. It’s an unfortunate direction for her character to take, because the implications shown here could have been used to further explore Scully’s character outside of the work environment.

Perhaps what sells the conflict within the episode so well is the strength of will that Scully exhibits. This is clearly a situation that would break the best of us, yet Scully is able to maintain a level of control throughout. When she does break into tears, it’s as much a sign of defiance as sadness or loss. At this point, she is still completely her own person…loyal to Mulder, certainly, but willing to stand to her own beliefs.

As much as her rebellious nature has inspired fans, her apparent psychic ability is just as popular a topic of exploration. That ability deepens the connection between Scully and Boggs, and takes the interplay between them to a terrifying level. Within, Scully must also be struggling with the fact that such “impossible” things are happening, and once she can take a moment to reflect on it, she tries to rationalize it. Like the other aspects of her character introduced here, these abilities are never adequately explored, and when they do reappear, it’s largely out of convenience.

As much as Scully gets the best treatment here, Mulder is not left out of the mix. This is easily one of the best portrayals of Mulder in the first season, and it informs much of what would come in the seasons ahead. There is a confidence in Mulder that stands as his fatal flaw. He’s convinced that he knows what the truth of a thing must be, and when a greater truth takes hold, it can leave him vulnerable.

Morgan and Wong tend to be more willing to explore the more spiritual side of the paranormal, as opposed to the later writers and Chris Carter, and they introduce a concept here that could have been used to much better effect over the course of the mythology. Boggs tells Mulder and Scully that all souls, living and dead, are connected. He even shows Scully that he can channel the memories or souls of the living, proving that out.

Considering that 1013 expressed a desire to explore the spiritual in later seasons, looking back to this excellent and decidedly nasty exploration of an “all things” concept ought to have been the first step. What was eventually written for the later seasons still works within such a framework, but the writing failed to embrace those concepts fully. Instead of something wonderfully disturbing as what we have here, the later seasons were filled with vague and contradictory visions and encounters. Given that the more “material” alien invasion/government conspiracy side of the mythology was more clearly resolved, leaving the spiritual side of the mythology so open and murky was a massive deficiency.

Still, that takes nothing away from this excellent episode. If anything, this episode stands up better for it. Only a handful of the remaining episodes of the first season would come close to the same quality, and few episodes beyond it showcase an antagonist like Boggs in so complex a manner. Even though some of the dialogue was a little clunky, and some of the usual locations appeared to have changed, none of that retracts from one of the classic episodes of the series.


Memorable Quotes

SCULLY: “Last time you were that engrossed, it turned out you were reading the Adult Video News…”

MULDER: “Some killers are products of society. Some act out past abuses. Boggs kills because he likes it.”

SCULLY: “I know that you and Dad were…disappointed that I chose the path I’m on, instead of medicine, but I need to know…was he at all proud of me?”
MA SCULLY: (pause) “He was your father.”

BOGGS: “The soul of Luther Boggs drowns in a hell’s sea of fire. We have him now.”
MULDER: “We? You mean the souls of your victims?”
BOGGS: “The dead. The living. All souls are connected.”

MULDER: “No, no, just five hours of Boggs’ channeling. After three hours, I asked him to summon up the soul of Jimi Hendrix and requested “All Along the Watchtower”. You know, the guy’s been dead for twenty years, and he still hasn’t lost his edge…”

MULDER: “Dana…open yourself up to extreme possibilities…only when they’re the truth.” (Gee, Mulder, ever take your own advice?)

BOGGS: “Mulder…don’t go near the white cross. We see you down…and your blood spills on the white cross.”

SCULLY: “You set us up. You’re in on this with Lucas Henry. This was a trap for Mulder because he helped put you away. Well, I came here to tell you that if he dies because of what you’ve done, four days from now, no one will be able to stop me from being the one that will throw the switch and gas you out of this life for good, you son of a bitch!”

BOGGS: “Don’t underestimate my fear of dying and don’t downplay my terror of going back to that chair!”

BOGGS: “My family, who I killed after their last meal, was right there to watch me over mine…and their fear and their horror that I made them feel when I killed them was injected into me…and their collective fear alone was just one taste of hell. And then I felt myself leave my body. I thought they had already killed me…and then I saw thousands of souls rushing into my body. (pause) It is a cold, dark place, Scully. Mulder’s looking in on it right now…”

BOGGS: “Scully…avoid the devil. Don’t follow Henry to the devil. Leave that to me.”

MULDER: “Dana…after all you’ve seen, after all the evidence…why can’t you believe?”
SCULLY: “I’m afraid. I’m afraid to believe.”
MULDER: “You couldn’t face that fear? Even if it meant never knowing what your father wanted to tell you?”
SCULLY: “But I do know.”
MULDER: “How?”
SCULLY: (pause) “He was my father.”


Observations

- There are some locations in this episode that don’t look right to me. For instance, Scully’s apartment looks very wrong, as compared to later episodes. Also, the basement office differs greatly from what we’ve seen up to this point. It actually looks more like what we recognize from later seasons.

- I love Scully’s response to Mulder’s “Dana”…she knows how weird it is for him to use her first name!

- I have yet to understand how Boggs could have gotten Mulder’s profile on him. I was under the impression that things like that were confidential.

- Anyone else notice the NICAP hat from “Fallen Angel” on the coatrack?

- The funeral scene is another one of those iconic moments for the series…seemingly normal, but just a hair off-kilter.

- I always enjoy Mulder’s trick with the swath of clothing!

- I have to say it. Scully’s gorgeous even when she’s ready to break into hysterical sobbing!

- I’m also struck by how different the 3rd vision from Boggs feels from the very unsettling previous two. The third one gives the impression that we’re supposed to react with skepticism…when this is actually the moment that Boggs proves himself.

- There are some wonderful locations used in this episode…perfectly suited for the darkness of the episodes itself.

- How cool was that dissolve from the “blue devil” to Boggs?

Overall, this is one of those early episodes that has seldom been equaled in the season that followed. Gillian Anderson and Brad Dourif give perfect performances that take the series to a completely different level. This is one of the best hours of television of the series, if not the decade itself.

I give it a 10/10.


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