“Lazarus” is the kind of status quo episode which does little to advance the series or its characters and, in fact, manages to be far too derivative to be enjoyable, even as a mindless distraction. To be fair, it does present an interesting paranormal concept – that of changing personalities during a near-death experience. But everything around the idea is carelessly woven into place, leaving too many loose threads and holes to make the entire canvas worth viewing.

The episode opens with Scully inexplicably on an assignment with her former boyfriend – and academy instructor – Jack Willis (Christopher Allport). Their mission is to stop the Bonnie & Clyde couple of Warren James Dupre (Jason Schombing) and Lula Phillips (Cec Verrell). The heist scene is chaotic and hectic and just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Scully and Willis allow Dupre to stroll into the bank, assault a security officer, point his shotgun at several innocent people, and threaten the bank teller before they even act. And when they do, they simply step right into Dupre’s line of fire which, unfortunately, gets Willis shot. Scully then shoots and kills Dupre, setting the stage for the episode’s paranormal event. But this contrived setup is so awkward that it really saps the energy from the story.

In fact, by the time they zap Willis’ body to resuscitate him, it’s hardly any surprise that Dupre’s body is the one that moves. Even more obvious is the notion that once Willis survives, his body will be consumed by the evil personality of Dupre – who just wants to return to his love, Lula. Likewise, the banter between Scully and Mulder about whether or not Dupre’s personality could be inhabiting Willis’ body is a missed opportunity. Instead of intelligent debate and playful banter, Scully outright rejects some compelling evidence, demonstrating willful ignorance more than her typical strict rationality.

And when Willis finally wakes up from his coma, he seems almost perfectly healthy – at least, healthy enough to be back on the job. I’m not sure how he could have passed a physical exam, so soon after spending almost thirteen minutes as dead as a result of a gunshot wound. But there he was, back in action, with no one but Mulder detecting anything amiss in the guy. It’s just preposterous. And the rest of the episode continues an uneven “rescue” situation in which Scully allows herself to be duped by Willis and taken hostage. Of course, Mulder comes through and saves the day, but there’s little here except for seeing Mulder being just as adept in solving real-world mysteries as he is in investigating paranormal ones.

“Lazarus” just doesn’t work particularly well. There are some interesting enough elements tucked into the episode but, on the balance, it’s just too rough around the edges. Though, be on the lookout for a brief cameo from actor Callum Keith Rennie – BSG fans will recognize him as the Cylon, Leoben.

Characters: Mystery, Sci-Fi, TV Reviews
Filed under: Season 1, X-files

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