The X-Files returns to its best when it's doing one off 'monster of the week' stories instead of the arcs. Here people kill themselves after their doubles/doppelgangers appear to them, reinforcing the theory or belief that if someone sees their doppelganger they are going to die. The case begins with Arkie (Jared Ager-Foster) who says his double saved him from driving into a tree. However Scully (Gillian Anderson) remains sceptical, as always, good to see nothing's changed there then and puts it down to some form of medical illness. Bounding about medical jargon which Mulder (David Duchovny) doesn't get and isn't really interested in hearing. Well okay I said that since 11 seasons later, we see Scully return to her scepticism after going through so much and yet for her it all boils down to science once again; having all the answers.
Including her explanation on ghosts and why people see shadows from the corner of their eyes, I'd repeat it here but.. long exposition like that is more entertaining when viewed. Mulder thinks it's more of an evil presence and she again says she doesn't believe in evil or the devil. Mulder's added quip of Scully's Catholic schooling not helping her much in the way of believing. Though she does answer she did think of the devil and believe in him once. Oh no, so what were all those past eps about and oh I can't fathom how they could have written this ep and have her return to being 'early' Scully when the show started. Well I can, as I know they have to have someone to challenge Mulder in his beliefs and theories; but this just reverted back to the beginning as if there were no other seasons in between to make her think differently at least for the moment.
As Arkie is moved to his cell to be transferred, he is killed and authorities believe it's suicide, which Scully explains is possible even if he was handcuffed. His lawyer Dean (Ben Wilkinson) explains Arkie didn't want to die and he's going to make someone pay. As Mulder notices the trustee who found Arkie, someone by the name of Chucky: a bigtime hoarder. Mulder and Scully question Judy and her game of hangman, where Mulder finds a hanged man with Arkie's name written under it. Her psych room wall is littered with such hanged men pictures with names under them. She says there's another one of her on the chair, an evil version of her, also saying she's an actress. Well being an actress she could easily feign another darker version of herself, any mental illness aside. As Scully also experiences her darker version, later the good Judy tells her the nurses give her pills and they tell her they're just bread pills, but they take them too just incase. Which stops Scully from throwing them away.
As Mulder speaks with Chucky he finds he also has hanged men pictures and Judy is his sister. Apparently their parents hanged themselves, that was no coincidence; also showing they were behind the killings. Dean sees himself too and rushes over to see Mulder and Scully who tells him not to panic and to go home, Mulder agreeing with her. Scully notices her double too after they find Dean has 'lost' his head and was also killed. But she doesn't tell Mulder. Instead she goes to his room when she sees her double again; wanting him to hold her and they have a conversation about her getting old, wanting another child and who she would have this with. What if Mulder met a younger model and left her, and he asks the same, before they finally 'get it on.' Really you'd think that's all this ep was leading too and formed the basis of it, instead of the case, especially those times she turned around to see Mulder lurking there by her bed. Ha. Scully saying she sleeps with her back to the door to keep the devil away. SO Mulder was her devil. The crafty devil! Ha.
As their game hots up, Judy and Chucky that is, not Mulder and Scully, they each try to guess the other's hanged man, with Judy going for Scully and Chucky going for Mulder, accusing the other of cheating. As Mulder's also seen his double in the bathroom mirror, where most ghosts usually show themselves, they head to their respective suspects. With Mulder having to fight off his double, and Scully telling her double in the car that she doesn't believe she's real and is just "a manifestation of latent hostility." Yes but whose hostility? Chucky and Judy both end up dead by their doubles, of course and Mulder finds two hanged man pictures with 'MOM and 'DAD' written under them. Thus they killed their parents.
Back at the motel Mulder tells Scully if she needs anything to just call and he's getting some shut eye, that being the furthest thing from her mind and as she opens the adjoining door, she finds Mulder waiting behind it! Yeah we know where that title was heading in more ways than one! As for Mulder's 'shut eye' comment, it just opens up the conclusion that they have indeed been at this more than once and his comment about her having "more scoot in your boot" is not just a throwaway comment or an attempt at reassuring her she's not over the hill, in more ways than one!
Also Mulder is the one who hones in on Judy in the psych ward as being behind it, what led him to her. Surely something must've pointed him in this direction. As for Scully taking the pills to avoid the violence her double would ensue on her - what she didn't give any to Mulder and he told her about seeing his own double! This reinforces that everything she just spoke about to him is not really what she believes and perhaps she is just being cautious in this uncertainty and improbability, but it was funny to see her going back on what she just told him to save herself, mostly.
But there's more on the FBI being disbanded and what they'll do if they lose their jobs and the world is going to hell" as Scully says and they're the only ones who can save it. But what will the world do without them? Sans wheelchair or not?!
Karin Konoval plays both Judy and Chucky which gives this ep a bit of a twist, reinforcing her line of being just an actress in real life too! However season 7.20 Fight Club also involved twins so a bit of a harkback there in many ways particularly with the violence aspect.
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