Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose ('MOW'): I See A Masterpiece!

The streak continues! The X-Files, on top of some of the most powerful myth-arc episodes and a MOW classic (‘D.P.O.’) goes on to even bigger and better things. Something magical happens when a concept, no matter how far fetched, works. ‘Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose’ manages to sum up the X-Files perfectly in almost every category: it has mystery and the supernatural (a common staple), humor (a theme that started to grow as the show did), gore and creepiness, and character defining moments. This episode was recently featured on Chris Carter’s X-Files Revelations DVD as one of the eight most important episode. . .and along with ‘Humbug’, I’d tend to agree. Clyde Bruckman is basically perfect.



There are lots of things to talk about in this episode, the first being the masterful writing which, combined with the acting of the late Peter Boyle, combines to provide some amazing sleight of hand. Darin Morgan, the man in Fluke Man and frequent contributor to both The X-Files and Millennium, manages to turn the preconceptions of physics on its head. The episode brilliantly MOCKS the stereotypes by presenting us The Stupendous Yappi (what a great one or two time character) but then redefines them with Clyde Bruckman (who remains so memorable that he even gets a shout out 13 years later in the second X-Files movie). Just when you think Bruckman has done something truly psychic, it is simple mundane logic, and when he does do something physic, you’re not even thinking about it. Brilliant.

What I do like is the idea of fate in the episode. Bruckman’s main power is seeing the deaths of people. He does see Mulder and Scully’s death (or rather, Scully’s lack of death) and it is great to see these characters deal with the concept of whether they’ll live or die now or later and if they really want to know. Mulder, in particular, seems interested but can’t bring himself to know while Scully, while feigning a lack of interest, is really concerned with how she’ll make it in this world. When Bruckman tells her ‘you don’t’ when she asks how she dies, you can only imagine the possibilities of what that means. Luckily, Morgan doesn’t tell us.



Psychics are kind of a hit and miss theme to play with but the X-Files, for better or worse, seem to attempt at least one psychic ep (and one movie) based around it. But, and this could be good or bad, Morgan wrote an episode that made any other episodes impossible to follow. Morgan and the producers (actors, crew, etc) managed to re-invent the psychic and those that follow can only be held in comparison and can’t, in my opinion, best it. Bruckman goes beyond being just a well written and produced episode. . .like any good TV it managed to change the perceptions of storytelling we had long understood.