Revisiting The X-Files: season 1 episode 15

15. Lazarus

Scully and a colleague are positioned in a bank, and she's telling the man not to lose his nerve. Outside, a man and a woman pledge their love to each other in a car; the pair are obviously criminals about to perform a bank heist. The man pulls on a mask tumbles out of the car and heads into the bank brandishing a great big shotgun. Inside, he proceeds with the usual 'hands in the air' routine, until Scully and her colleague, Jack, corner him. The bank robber empties both barrels through Jack's chest, before Scully shoots him.

In the hospital, paramedics are trying frantically to resuscitate Frank. Just as they're about to pronounce him dead, Scully intervenes and orders them to continue trying to bring him around. After a few more blasts with the defibrillator, Jack finally 'resurrects', except that he's soon exhibiting a violent temper and doesn't seem to be quite the same. Mulder begins to suspect that something suspicious, or indeed paranormal, may have occurred on the operating table, but Scully, as usual, is not prepared to accept the possibility that her friend (and, we find out, ex-lover) is being possessed by the spirit of the dead bank robber.

Things go slightly wrong when Scully accompanies Jack, alone, to a derelict house where police believe the bank robber's wife and partner in crime is holed up. It's no real surprise that once they get there, Jack turns on Scully, handcuffing her to the radiator and begins trying to convince the woman that he is the ghost of her dead husband in an FBI agent's body. In a slight twist, we learn that Jack has diabetes and needs insulin to survive, which is promptly denied him by the bank robber's widow, who doesn't much care for the ghost of her lover anyway and simply wants the ransom money the police are going to cough up in return for Scully. Luckily, Mulder and co raid the house and rescue Scully, just as Jack shoots the woman dead before taking his final breath.

Compared to some of the others, this honestly wasn't up to much, and certainly wasn't one of my favourite episodes. Very little spectacular or paranormal or even strange even happened, and so the whole thing ends up being your average cops and robbers story and plays more like an episode of Diagnosis Murder than anything else. There is some confusion as to whether Jack really is possessed by a spirit, anyway, as he begins to remember things Scully tells him about their relationship and past together. And so the whole thing could just as easily be about a heavily concussed and confused man as it could be a spooky possession tale.

Scully's character is given a little more padding and more of a back story, which helps add a new dimension to her usual ice queen veneer, but otherwise this is probably one to skip. This show is capable of much better.

Check out Matt's review of the preceding episode here.