"The X Files" Dæmonicus (2001)

Director:

Frank Spotnitz

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator)
Frank Spotnitz (written by)

TV Series:

"The X Files" (1993)

Original Air Date:

2 December 2001 (Season 9, Episode 3)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

A professor/inmate in a psychiatric ward may be influencing other men to kill ritualistically. Though Doggett sees it as pure manipulation, Reyes can't help but suspect none else but the devil himself possessing the professor's body. |

Plot Keywords:

Title Spoken By Character | FBI | FBI Agent | Alien | X Files

Cast

Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
Robert Patrick	...	John Doggett
Annabeth Gish	...	Monica Reyes
James Remar	...	Josef Kobold
Andi Chapman	...	Dr. Monique Sampson
Sarah Benoit	...	Evelyn Mountjoy
Tim Halligan	...	Darren Mountjoy
James Rekart	...	Paul Gerlach
Troy Mittleider	...	Dr. Kenneth Richman
Lou Richards	...	Officer Custer
Robert Beckwith	...	FBI Cadet
Rueben Grundy	...	Forensic Tech
Elijah Mahar	...	Guard
Shane Nickerson	...	Police Photographer

Runtime:

Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

Argentina:13

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Trivia:

Doggett suggests to Reyes the killer might use human flesh to fertilise his garden - an in-joke referencing the movie The Last Supper (1995), which starred Annabeth Gish.

Quotes:

Scully: Dr Dana Scully. I have just been assigned to the Academy as a forensic investigator. For the past eight years I was part of a unit known as the X-Files. Some of you may have heard of it.
FBI Cadet: You ever slay a vampire?
Scully: Sorry to disappoint you, but this is a course in forensic pathology. Hard science. An X-File is a case that has been deemed unsolvable by the Bureau, because such a case cannot be solved it may beg other explanations... a vampire, perhaps. Science, however, tells us that evil comes not from monsters, but from men. It offers us the methodology to catch these men, and only after we have exhausted these methods should we leave science behind to consider more... extreme possibilities.

Movie Connections:

References The Last Supper (1995)

Anyone for Scrabble?

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I don't recall Dæmonicus every being a favorite episode of mine. But I really liked it this time around.

Dæmonicus was written and directed by Frank Spotnitz. I think he does an excellent job of writing a great mystery that isn't revealed until the very end. I also liked the way he directed it, especially with the scene transitions. The sped up cloud scenes are very interesting and different looking. The demonic faces fading into Josef Kobold's face is nothing new but I really liked the chessboard scene transition, hinting that the agents were involved in a chess match.

Dæmonicus has hints of 'Pusher' and 'Beyond the Sea' in it. Pusher, for Kobold controlling other people with his mind, and Beyond the Sea for an inmate trying to help the agents catch an at-large criminal. Though they're not close enough to say he ripped off his idea from those two episodes. It just has those small elements in it.

It was odd to see Reyes getting advice from Scully to go with her instincts. It seems Reyes does that anyway. I like that Doggett was right all along about Kobold manipulating them all, but Reyes and Scully refused to believe him. It's a small consolation to him in the end when he is proved right, because the villain gets away.

The one qualm I have with this episode is at the end when the agents are explaining the case with the chalkboard and the word 'Dæmonicus'. Apparently, Kobold used the word to choose his victims because parts of their names were in that word. But that only explains four of the six victims. I think that Spotnitz wanted to tie in the whole episode into that word to make it look really cool, but it doesn't quite work, since it doesn't account for all the victims' names.

Other than that, I was intrigued with Dæmonicus from beginning to end. The vomit scene is probably the grossest scene I've seen in the X-Files. Kudos to Frank Spotnitz for this well-conceived episode.