Season 4 Ep 13 Never Again
| "Never Again" | |
|---|---|
| The 10-Files episode | |
 Ed Jerse's tattoo, Betty, possessing its own heed. Inspired by the tattoos of "Brooklyn Joe" Lieber, Bettie was voiced past Jodie Foster. | |
| Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 13 |
| Directed by | Rob Bowman |
| Written by | Glen Morgan James Wong |
| Production code | 4X13 |
| Original air engagement | February 2, 1997 (1997-02-02) |
| Running time | 44 minutes |
| Invitee appearances | |
| |
"Never Again" is the thirteenth episode of the quaternary season of the American science fiction boob tube serial The X-Files. Information technology was written by producers Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed past Rob Bowman. The episode aired in the United States on Feb 2, 1997, on the Fox network and in the United Kingdom on BBC One on Dec three, 1997. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, a stand-solitary plot which is unconnected to the series' wider mythology. The episode received a Nielsen rating of xiii and was viewed by 21.36 meg viewers. Information technology received generally positive reviews from television critics.
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who piece of work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully has been assigned to deflate his work. In this episode, Scully leaves boondocks—and Mulder—for a solo assignment. She presently meets Ed Jerse, a human being who is being mentally controlled by a drug-related side consequence of his tattoo. His tattoo, affectionately named Betty, does non want to share him, particularly not with Scully.
Although "Never Once again" was directed by Bowman, it was originally scheduled to be directed past film director Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino was unable to direct the entry due to a dispute with the Directors Guild of America. Gillian Anderson was specially pleased with the episode showing a different side of Scully; she had specifically asked Morgan and Wong to write an episode that explored Scully'south dark side. Several bandage members from Morgan and Wong'south series Infinite: To a higher place and Across were cast in the episode.
Plot [edit]
In Philadelphia, Ed Jerse loses a divorce settlement to his ex-wife, who has sole custody of his children. Subsequently getting boozer at a bar, Ed wanders into a tattoo parlor and impulsively receives a tattoo depicting a Sailor Jerry-like pin-upwards girl with the words "Never Again" under her image. At work the next solar day, Ed hears a woman calling him a "loser"; he has a fierce confrontation with a female co-worker—who denies saying anything—and is later on subdued.
In Washington, Agents Play tricks Mulder and Dana Scully conduct a discreet meeting with a Russian informant, Vsevlod Pudovkin, who claims to accept seen a UFO at a secret research middle. Upon returning to FBI headquarters, Mulder heads out on vacation to visit Graceland, leaving Scully to follow up on the Pudovkin case for him. Scully is uninterested in the example and expresses serious doubts about Pudovkin'due south credibility, leading to an argument with Mulder. Scully becomes upset over the direction her life and career are going.
Meanwhile, Ed is fired via telephone. He hears the same voice as before and yells at the woman living below him, thinking information technology was her. Upon hearing the voice after a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses stop past, Ed goes downstairs and murders his neighbor, throwing her body in the furnace. When the vocalisation talks to him again, Jerse realizes it is coming from his new tattoo. Scully heads to Philadelphia and watches Pudovkin enter a tattoo parlor. Inside, she sees Ed arguing with the possessor, wanting the tattoo removed. Ed strikes up a conversation with Scully and invites her out to dinner, which she initially declines.
That dark, Scully talks to Mulder over the telephone and informs him that Pudovkin is a con man and part of the Russian mafia. Frustrated by the conversation, Scully calls Jerse and tells him that she changed her listen. At a nearby lounge, Scully is concerned nigh Ed's arm, where he has burned the tattoo with a cigarette butt. Ed convinces Scully to get a tattoo, and she has one of an Ouroboros applied to her back. Scully stays at Ed's apartment. The tattoo is angry at him, saying she will be dead if he kisses her, which he does anyway.
The next morning, two detectives arrive at the flat after Ed goes out, telling Scully that Ed'southward neighbor is missing and blood was found in her apartment with an unusual chemical substance in it. Scully researches the textile on Ed'due south laptop and tries to call Mulder, but hangs up earlier Mulder has a take a chance to reply. When Ed arrives, Scully tells him that they found blood in his neighbor's apartment and that information technology was likely his. She thinks that the chemical came from the tattoo ink and wants them both to head to the hospital to be tested. Ed tells Scully nearly the vocalization he has been hearing from his tattoo.
As Scully heads to the other room to get ready, her FBI bluecoat falls out of her coat pocket. Scully discreetly picks it back up without Ed noticing. The tattoo begins to talk again, convincing Ed to redial Scully's last call to come across who she was speaking to. An FBI operator answers and, upon learning that Scully is an FBI agent, the tattoo forces Ed to attack her. Scully tries to escape but is overpowered by Ed, who wraps her in a bedsheet and carries her down to the basement to throw her in the furnace. At the last moment, Ed is able to overpower the impulses of the tattoo and instead thrusts his own arm into the furnace.
Scully returns to Washington and is congratulated by Mulder for existence the commencement person to make a 2d X-File appearance. Ed was brought to a burn center in Philadelphia where the ergot chemicals were found in his blood; it was as well in Scully'due south blood, but non enough to cause hallucinations. Mulder wonders if this all happened because of their earlier statement, to which Scully replies that not everything is about him.[1]
Production [edit]
Writing and directing [edit]
Quentin Tarantino was originally slated to direct the episode.
"Never Once more" was written by writing partners Glen Morgan and James Wong, making it their last episode of The X-Files until they returned to the bear witness during its 10th flavor; following this episode, the two took over as executive producers of the Fox programme Millennium (adult, like The X-Files, by Chris Carter).[2] The initial story the two developed was a "sort of Abraham Lincoln's ghost in the White Firm type of affair",[3] which would take involved Mulder and Scully investigating the haunting. Morgan explained that he had "done a lot of research and [he] had always wanted to write a feature nigh Lincoln's ghost".[iv] Nevertheless, due to the massive amounts of rewrites the ii were forced to do for "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", both Morgan and Wong lost involvement in their original story. Morgan explained, "I felt they didn't desire my heart and soul anymore, so I wouldn't give [the ghost story] to them".[iv] The two later crafted "Never Again" in its identify.[4] Years later, Frank Spotnitz said that he "ever wondered about" their original story and what the finished product would accept been like.[5]
Gillian Anderson was particularly pleased with the episode, as it shows a different side of Scully. She said:
I thought [the plot of "Never Once again"] was a great idea. I personally was going through a dark period at the time, and I wanted to explore Scully's dark side. For some reason, Glen and Jim were on the aforementioned wavelength that week. After, a lot of people told me that on that episode I was then 'unlike' Scully or that 'information technology showed my range'. I told them I thought they were incorrect. I don't recall that what I did here was out of character for Scully. The simply thing dissimilar is that the audition hadn't seen it before.[six]
Initially, Anderson called up Morgan and asked him to write a story in which Scully "fall[s] hard" for another man, leading to an "intense kind of romantic or passionate relationship".[ii] Morgan obliged and wrote a scene featuring Scully enjoying a passionate night with Jerse. This was afterward removed from the script past series creator Chris Carter—making it the just time that Carter had removed one of Morgan's scenes.[2] Morgan later noted, "I call up Chris thought that I was monkeying around with him, only I really wasn't."[2]
While "Never Once more" was directed by Rob Bowman, the job was originally supposed to get to Quentin Tarantino, but he was prevented by the Directors Guild of America; the guild noted that Tarantino, who is not a member, failed to bring together the union after working on ER, violating an agreement the two parties had made.[7] A spokeswoman from 20th Century Play tricks afterward noted, "Quentin approached us, we were very excited at the opportunity. We made some special arrangements, and we're disappointed that it's not happening. Only we bow to Quentin's philosophical stance [and] we hope something can be worked out for the time to come."[7]
The episode'due south air date was flipped with the episode "Leonard Betts" in order to ensure that the latter episode, which featured the show's two stars in their traditional roles, aired afterward the Super Bowl. Anderson has said that she "would take played the office [in 'Never Again'] differently" had she been aware of this at the time, as Scully discovers that she has cancer at the finish of "Leonard Betts".[6]
Casting and effects [edit]
The actor who portrays Ed Jerse, Rodney Rowland, was a one-time cast member of Glen Morgan and James Wong'south brusque-lived Fox series Space: Higher up and Beyond. He and Anderson dated for a period of time after this episode.[8] [9] Jodie Foster—a friend of series' casting agent Randy Stone—provided the voice for Ed's tattoo, Betty.[viii] Anderson initially volunteered to get a real Ouroboros tattoo for the episode, but she was later on told by the production crew that it would "have taken too long [and] it wouldn't have been practical."[9] Kristina Lyne from the show'southward art department thus designed several stick-on decals that emulated the look of real tattoos. These false tattoos were printed off by a production company chosen Real Creations and later augmented with makeup courtesy of serial makeup artist Laverne Basham. The Bettie tattoo itself was inspired by the unique designs of the San Francisco tattoo artist "Brooklyn Joe" Lieber.[9]
Reception [edit]
"Never Once more" was originally broadcast in the United States on the Play a trick on network on February 2, 1997, and was commencement broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC I on December three, 1997.[10] This episode earned a Nielsen rating of xiii, with a nineteen share, meaning that roughly thirteen pct of all boob tube-equipped households, and xix percent of households watching telly, were tuned in to the episode.[11] It was viewed past 21.36 million viewers.[xi]
The episode received mostly positive reviews from television critics. Zack Handlen from The A.5. Lodge was positive towards the episode and gave it an A. He applauded the fact that it "lets Scully be flawed" and allowed her to be "far more man" than usual on the bear witness.[12] Handlen concluded that the episode was a success considering it illustrated "the way our demand to connect with others makes us vulnerable".[12] He was, however, critical of Mulder's actions in the episode, calling him a "spoiled ass" and noted that at that place was a "niggling boy ignored feel to his dialogue at the stop".[12] Meghan Deans from Tor.com wrote positively of the episode and noted that "[i]t is fortunate, I think, that the Super Bowl forced the change in sequence."[13] She argued that, had "Leonard Betts" not aired before "Never Again", the audience would have been forced to "read her actions every bit reactions to Mulder and Mulder alone" rather than against the fact that she has cancer.[13]
Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a positive review and awarded information technology iii stars out of 4.[fourteen] She called Scully'south unhappiness with her situation "understandable" and positively critiqued Gillian Anderson, calling her performance "wonderful".[14] Vitaris, however, was critical of the "Leonard Betts"/"Never Over again" switch, writing that "nix in this episode points to fright of cancer as Scully'south motivation". She ended, however, that "['Never Once more'] is a fascinating look at a whole new side of [Scully]."[14] Non all reviews were glowing. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, on the other hand, gave the episode a mixed review and rated it two-and-a-half stars out of v. The 2 were critical of Scully'due south beliefs, noting that "seeing Scully every bit angry and bored and believing her life is pointless isn't really Scully".[fifteen] They argued that Scully'south conventionalities that her life is irksome is easily countered past the fact that "she hunts fluke monsters, catches serial killers, and gets abducted past aliens".[xv] Despite this, Shearman and Pearson wrote that "Gillian Anderson makes it work."[15]
Encounter also [edit]
- List of unmade episodes of The Ten-Files
Footnotes [edit]
- ^ a b Meisler, pp. 135–142
- ^ a b c d Hurwitz and Knowles, p. 105
- ^ Hughes, David (31 March 1997). "Never Say Never Again". Dreamwatch.
- ^ a b c Vitaris, Paula (October 1997). "Returning from Space, Glen Morgan and James Wong re-bring together the X-Files". Cinefantastique. 29 (four/5): 32–123.
- ^ Spotnitz, Frank (28 June 2012). "Mailbag - Abandoned Scripts". Big Light. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved ten July 2012.
- ^ a b Meisler, p. 142
- ^ a b "Tarantino-Guild Differences Nix '10-Files' Super-Slot Gig". Daily News. New York. 22 November 1996. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
- ^ a b Hurwitz and Knowles, p. 109
- ^ a b c Meisler, p. 143
- ^ The Ten-Files: The Complete Fourth Season (booklet). R. W. Goodwin, et al. Fox.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ a b Meisler, p. 298
- ^ a b c Handlen, Zack (18 December 2010). "'Never Once again'/'Force Majeure'". The A.V. Club . Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ^ a b Deans, Meghan (14 June 2012). "Reopening The X-Files: "Never Again"". Tor.com. Retrieved vii July 2012.
- ^ a b c Vitaris, Paula (October 1997). "Episode Guide". Cinefantastique. 29 (4/5): 35–62.
- ^ a b c Shearman and Pearson, pp. 93–94
Bibliography [edit]
- Hurwitz, Matt, Chris Knowles (2008). The Complete Ten-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN978-one-933784-72-iv.
{{cite volume}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors listing (link) - Meisler, Andy (1998). I Want to Believe: The Official Guide to the 10-Files Volume 3 . Harper Prism. ISBN0061053864.
- Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Printing. ISBN978-0975944691.
External links [edit]
- "Never Once again" at TheXFiles.com
- "Never Again" at IMDb
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Again_(The_X-Files)