Review: Revisiting The X-Files Season 3, Episode 4: “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”

Written by Darin Morgan Directed by David Nutter

One of the best episodes of the second season was “Humbug”, also penned by Darin Morgan. Morgan had a penchant for both providing a love letter to the series while also satirizing it. This episode is no exception. It’s one of the best “monster of the week” episodes, while also being deeply funny.

In short, there is a serial killer on the loose, murdering so-called psychics and fortune tellers. In the course of trying to help local authorities catch the killer, Mulder and Scully encounter Clyde Bruckman, a world-weary man with the dubious “gift” of seeing how people will die. A lifetime of this has rendered Bruckman a surly individual, to say the least.

At this point in the series, the notion of psychic ability has been more or less established, at least on some level. After all, regardless of Scully’s skepticism, the vast majority of the episodes themselves have framed the activity as being real. (Enough so that Scully’s inability to believe often feels more like her innate stubborn streak than a logical deduction from the evidence.)

That said, even those who believe in psychic ability in the “real world” would grant that many of those who claim such ability are con artists and frauds. And so it is in the world of The X-Files. Our killer, apparently psychic himself, foresees killing those who cannot tell him why he is compelled to kill. Or at least, that is the excuse he tells himself. Meanwhile, we are subjected to the presence that is The Stupendous Yappi.

(An aside: at an earlier time in my life, I spent several years as a paranormal investigator. This was during the time when there was a revival in the public interest in all things paranormal, particularly “ghost hunting”. It was practically in the job description to go to paranormal conventions, where we ran into a number of “celebrity” psychics, who were paid to appear and do their thing. I can safely say that many of them made The Stupendous Yappi look credible by comparison.)

Much like “Humbug” before it, this episode wastes no time poking fun at Mulder and Scully and the world they operate within. Coming so quickly on the heels of a ponderous, super-serious trilogy of conspiracy episodes, it’s the perfect time to remind the audience that everyone is, indeed, aware of how ridiculous it can all be. For all that the episode sends up psychics and fortune tellers, the story revolves around a man with actual psychic ability.

Mulder speaks for a number of people who think that having psychic ability would be a terrific gift, but Clyde is a cautionary tale. Seeing the future isn’t a ticket to success and fortune. It’s quite possibly a recipe for severe depression, because it can’t be easy to feel like everything, especially death, is already pre-determined. And this episode asks that question: is there such a thing as free will, if psychic ability is real?

Of course, as adherents of quantum theory would attest, reality works more in probabilities than pure determinism. Granted, when probabilities are high enough, there may appear to be no difference. But we also see examples in this episode where the psychic prediction proves false. Probabilities remain only that, and even Clyde doesn’t get it right every time.

For all the other strengths of the episode, many fans hone in on the hints about the future for Mulder and Scully. In Mulder’s case, many take Clyde’s comments about “autoerotic asphyxiation” to be a clue about Mulder’s eventual end. However, in this viewing, I took it much more as Clyde messing with Mulder and his clear belief in Clyde’s abilities. It’s also a great in-joke regarding Mulder’s infamous penchant for adult entertainment.

Clyde’s answer to Scully’s question about her own fate is perhaps more complicated. Given his other scenes with Scully and their general earnestness, I actually think he’s being honest. Plus, at this time, Carter and Spotnitz had supposedly mapped out the broad strokes of the mythology that would culminate in the film “Fight the Future”. So they would have known that Scully was going to have another major brush with death, yet survive. (There are other hints within later episodes that Scully is functionally immortal, but I don’t think that entirely work or was the original intent.)

This episode is such a high mark for the season that subsequent episodes suffer somewhat by comparison. But it was a solid statement for the producers to make. Going into the third season of a show still on the rise, they would continue to take big chances and big swings.