The X-Files: Lazarus Rewatch

March 11, 2020 9:00 PM - Season 1, Episode 15

When a bank robber named Warren James Dupre and an FBI agent named Jack Willis are both shot during Willis's and Scully's attempt to stop a bank robbery, only Willis survives, but he seems to be taking a less than professional approach towards finding Dupre's wife and partner in crime, Lula Philips.
posted by orange swan (1 comment total)

This is one the few episodes that I can think of in the show's run that explore the "extreme possibilities" of a law enforcement officer becoming obsessed with a particular case/criminal, to the point that he becomes the criminal in a sense.

Eye-rolling as Warren and Lula's "operatic love" was, it rang true for me in the sense that so many of the dysfunctional couples I have known -- or, as in this case, one half of the dysfunctional couple -- become convinced that their love is epic and vast and monumental and irreplaceable. It's really not. It never is. But such people convince themselves that their love is so incredible that they're justified in staying when they ought to leave and in doing anything they have to do to make it last, and it can be an incredibly destructive and unhealthy mindset.

Scully got involved *with her instructor* at the FBI academy. I should think there would be policies in place forbidding that sort of thing now, though there wouldn't have been in the late eighties/early nineties.

We see another example of the disrespect people have for Mulder at the FBI in this episode, though we do see the guy who was actually working with him stand up for him.
posted by orange swan at 7:33 PM on March 12, 2020 [1 favorite]