The X-Files: Mind's Eye   Rewatch 
June 18, 2020 7:57 PM - Season 5, Episode 16 - Subscribe

After a blind woman named Marty Glenn is found in the apartment of a murdered drug dealer in Delaware, the Wilmington police appeal to Mulder and Scully, whom they hope can explain how Marty could have murdered anyone with a single surgical cut to the right kidney.
posted by orange swan (4 comments total)
 
I find it strange that Marty's mother's killer was never identified, and that Marty didn't know who her father was. Usually a murder victim's partner is the first person the police look at. If Marty's mother and Gotts were known to be involved, he would have been investigated as a possible suspect. Of course, they may not have been a couple and the conception may have been the result of some one-time fling, and Gotts is exactly the kind of monster who would kill a pregnant woman who was expecting his child because he didn't want to be a father, but even then you'd think Marty's mother would have told at least one person who the father of her baby was during her pregnancy. Then again... Marty may have been conceived by sexual assault and Marty's mother may not have known Gotts' name.

The idea of Marty having to live with having to see whatever Gotts sees/does for her entire life is horrifying. No wonder she's lived such a rough and troubled life. And I'd have killed him too, to make those images stop. I wonder how much time she would have gotten, under the circumstances -- he would have killed her, after all. It doesn't make sense though that she'd confess to those two murders. I get that she despaired of being able to stop Gotts, but how could she have thought being in prison herself for something she didn't do would help?

Ah, Mulder and his soft spot for young women in peril.

I don't at all buy that Detective Pennock and his team wouldn't have found that glove.

During the eye examination, Marty has a moment of envisioning something Gotts is seeing, and her pupils constrict. Mulder subsequently says that there is some evidence of neurological activity that caused her pupils to "dilate". It's an odd mistake for David Duchovny to make given that he is himself blind in one eye (basketball injury) and has to use drops to constrict the pupil in his blind eye so it doesn't look odd on camera. I know he didn't write the script but he should have caught the error.

There wasn't much Scully in this episode, probably because she was wrapping up her work on the first movie, but she's in every episode going forward.

Fun fact: Lili Taylor and Gillian Anderson were drama school classmates.
posted by orange swan at 11:33 AM on June 19, 2020 [1 favorite]


Lili Taylor - another absolutely incredible guest star The X Files managed to cast.

Yeah, I wondered how they managed the effect. Even without dilatory drops, getting a flashlight right in the eyes is unpleasant (I was a guinea pig for a retinoscope demo).

Thing with vision - there is a critical period very early in life after which the neurological structures that interpret vision fails to develop even if stimuli is re-introduced. Being blind from birth - depending on the causes - would preclude being able to interpret vision, even if signals are telepathically transmitted.

Reaching into a (albeit historical) sharps repository wearing only latex gloves made my fingertips squirm.

I guess her getting convicted at all in capital P prison is commentary on how the US justice system is messed up? But she did assault her protective officer, muddying up a no-brainer "self defence" claim. Is assaulting an officer enough for a felony? Maybe she's serving time for that and not for Gotts.
posted by porpoise at 1:56 PM on June 19, 2020


It's also occurred to me that Marty, a smoker, is an exception to the X-Files "smokers are terrible people" trope. She's not a terrible person, merely an afflicted and troubled one. Perhaps the idea is that she's defiantly posing as a terrible person rather than acknowledging what's really going on, which would require asking for help and risking looking like a crazy person, something she's too proud to do.

By the way, how does Marty pay her bills? Mulder says she's not on disability and we don't hear or see anything about her working. She has a record for theft, but I doubt she could make crime pay enough to make rent and buy groceries.
posted by orange swan at 5:23 PM on July 1, 2020


Marty smoking could be the transference of evil that she experiences.

There are a few jobs that the seeing impaired can do, most tend to be low paying though. Anything involving a telephone call center (there are braille keyboards and braille readouts) although her KPIs would be pretty bad. Sit down talking jobs, like counselors or interviewers or social services. Audio transcriptionists. There have been a bunch of theoretical mathematicians/ scientists.

The lower end of these kinds of jobs could be pretty transient/ precarious and/ or have unsteady hours.

I kind of liked the old joke Marty makes to the check-out cop about not switching her 20 dollar bills with 1's. Canadian currency has tactile features starting in the 2000's, similarly with Euro banknotes.
posted by porpoise at 7:31 PM on July 1, 2020


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