The X-Files 20th Anniversary Blogging: "Never Again" (February 2, 1997)

“Never Again,” a fourth season episode of The X-Files (1993 – 2002) penned by Glen Morgan and James Wong, provides some new and remarkable insights into the pressures and conflicts swirling inside of Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). In particular, the episode finds her chafing under Mulder’s capricious authority, and longing for a life that she dictates; that she chooses.  She wants something different, at least for the moment.

In charting this courageous character arc, “Never Again” also examines the changing parameters of male/female relationships in the 1990s.  In the process, it creates an unforgettable monster: a woman-hating Bettie Page-styled tattoo with the voice of Jodie Foster.

Ultimately, the episode succeeds because of the sexual politics at work in both aspects of the storyline, and because the writing possesses the courage to suggest that Scully -- like any human being -- is fully capable of acting on sexual urges and desires.  This knowledge doesn’t make her any less laudable or likable, only more realistic and human.

After his divorce is finalized, down-on-his-luck Ed Jerse (Rodney Rowland) gets drunk and goes to a Russian tattoo parlor on a whim.  Unfortunately, the tattoo he acquires there starts to starts to speak to him in hostile tones, compelling Ed to commit violent acts against women.

While Mulder (David Duchovny) is on vacation at Graceland undergoing a “spiritual journey” Scully encounters Ed in Philadelphia while reluctantly on assignment for her absent partner.  Feeling rebellious, Scully gets a tattoo at the same parlor while Ed watches. 

What neither Dana nor Ed realize, however, is that the tattoo ink contains ergot, a substance with hallucinogenic properties that can cause psychotic behavior…

In “Never Again,” Scully rebels against Mulder and behaves in a fashion that viewers had not often seen.  This description doesn’t mean that she acts out-of-character.

On the contrary, Scully in “Never Again” is very much in line with the character we know and love, and we still see her cool, analytical decision-making and rational approach to problem solving.  The only difference is that we also see that Scully is questioning the “way of things” in this episode. 

Why doesn’t she have a desk in the basement office at the F.B.I.?

Why doesn’t Scully get a voice in determining which cases the X-Files investigate? 

Why does Mulder frequently second-guess her judgment? 

These are legitimate questions about her life, and though Scully clearly loves Mulder, his manner can also be grating and even childish.  We already know that Scully also rebelled against her authoritative father -- a Naval officer whom we met briefly in “Beyond the Sea” -- and therefore boasts an attraction/repulsion to domineering figures. Scully is drawn to them for their strength, but also repelled by their overbearing, controlling natures.  That’s the crux of her problem with Mulder at this particular juncture.  He holds the power in their relationship -- professional and personal -- and he isn’t always wise in his choices.

Although this episode aired after “Leonard Betts” -- in which Scully learned she had cancer -- it was actually designed to enter the continuity before that revelation, and this is a crucial distinction.  Scully rebels specifically against Mulder and his way of operating in “Never Again” not because she is sick, not because of any external “cause,” but merely because she is generally dissatisfied with the relationship and its apparent limits and dimensions. That doesn’t mean she dislikes Mulder.  It means that for Scully, always being second-guessed, always being ordered around…can get tiresome.  She feels constrained, trapped, and like she’s walking in place.

In some ways, “Never Again” is very much an episode about the way that men and women relate to one another.  Mulder is genuinely hurt and upset that Scully seems to be unhappy in their professional relationship, but importantly, he doesn’t really offer to change it or to alter the balance of power. And at episode’s end, he is very judgmental and disapproving towards Scully, instead of acting in a supportive fashion. Similarly, while Mulder is happy with the status quo, Scully seems to wonder where this is all going, and what the future holds.

If the episode shows off Scully as somehow less than admirable in pursuing a romantic and/or sexual conquest, as some insist (but which I don’t believe…)  it does the same thing for Mulder, certainly, who is frozen in place, a kind of arrested man-child. Personally, I enjoy protagonists with feet of clay, and it’s nice to see a genre series move to such shaded portrayals of beloved characters. One perpetual joy of The X-Files is the way that it parses, re-parses and then re-interprets again and again the essence and character of the Mulder/Scully relationship.

Some people may also wonder what Scully sees in Ed besides his obvious good looks.  One answer may be that he doesn’t seek to control Scully, and that -- as a kind of blue collar guy – he simply does not pose a challenge or source of friction regarding couple dynamics.

Also, where Mulder never truly engages Scully romantically or sexually at this juncture in their relationship, Ed makes it plain that he is interested in Scully on these very grounds. 

Ed is a complete –and in this moment, perfect alternative to Mulder. He acts instead of thinks, he lets go instead of holding back, and he acknowledges his desire instead of dancing around it, or sublimating it.  One of the most authentically erotic scenes in all of The X-Files occurs in this episode as Ed watches Scully lean over, quite willingly, to be tattooed on her back with the Ouroboros.  The scene is a strong counter-point to the scene featured in the pilot wherein a worried Scully runs to Mulder’s motel room and disrobes so he can check for physical marks following a spell of missing time.  There, Mulder was a figure of trust and authority, and he had the control, but he didn’t direct that control towards sexual desire or romance.  In this situation, Scully is the one with the power, and she uses to tantalize Jerse.

Similarly, the men vs. women dynamic plays out in “Never Again’s” monster story, wherein likable Ed Jbecomes henpecked and managed by his “evil” tattoo.  The tattoo boasts a rabid hatred of women, and speaks vile things about them to Ed, who tries hard not to listen, but ultimately has no choice.  So either the tattoo is a figment of Ed’s own suppressed uneasiness and unhappiness with women, or as the end of the episode suggests, the tattoo really was possessed of some kind of evil sentience all along. 

Either way, Ed proves he can’t ultimately be the partner Scully wants. Even if physically desirable and willing to act on his passions, Ed is the polar opposite of Mulder. He is mentally unstable, and an unsafe physical presence.

Ed’s tortured, schizophrenic and psychotic nature in “Never Again” is actually highly-reminiscent of the oeuvre of Alfred Hitchcock and the film Frenzy (1972).  There, a murderer called Rusk acts out his sexual desire for women with brutal murder.  He kills a woman named Babs, and the camera almost literally backs away in horror at the tail end of one scene, leaving the building that is the site of a crime. 

Similarly, Ed kills his downstairs neighbor in “Never Again” and director Rob Bowman’s camera likewise retracts, pulling back further and further from this hatred made manifest.  In both cases, there is a distancing effect generated, and I would submit this is so because in the case of both Rusk and Jerse, they are not entirely responsible for what they have done.  They’re mad, but not inhuman.  Instead, they’re driven to act in a way they don’t quite understand.

Ironically, that’s also, in very general terms, what happens to Scully in this episode.  Her attraction/repulsion regarding authority figures drives Scully to seek a romantic alternative to Mulder, one who won’t control her or interact with her in such a capricious way.  In this relationship (and as the scene with Scully getting a tattoo illustrates…), she believes she has all the power.  But both Scully and Ed, learn, in the episode, however, that this is not the case…that desire and passion are forces that can take on a mind of their own, and drive their “masters” to destinations unknown and dangerous.

I’ve always admired that “Never Again” possesses the courage to have Scully undergo a personal crisis, and rebel against Mulder, and then, after that rebellion remind us that she is the same wonderful, brilliant character we have always loved. There was nothing “wrong” with Scully in this episode.  She’s just a human being like the rest of us.  If Mulder can go off and have an assignation from time to time and we still like and admire him afterwards, why can’t Scully be afforded the same leeway?

Next week: “Synchrony.”