I remember Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose fondly from when it first aired on Friday the 13th, 1995 for its humor and its shocking, sad ending. It takes place in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a state I would move to in 1998 for college. Watching it now, I have new fondness for it mainly because I live near where it takes place (even if it was filmed in Vancouver) three decades later.
Guest starring Peter Boyle as Clyde Bruckman, the episode revolves around the agents helping local law enforcement investigate a string of murders involving psychics and palm readers. When interviewing Bruckman, Mulder believes he has some psychic ability after interviewing him about a murder for which Buckman knows information he shouldn’t. After some psychic tests, Mulder realizes he can only see details about how people die.
Scully examines a victim’s body and finds a keyring that links to an insurance company that Bruckman had bought a policy from. Bruckman leads them to the broker’s body in a forest whilst he explains he developed his abilities by obsessing about the death of Buddy Holly in a plane crash. On the body are silk fibers which link to the other victims.
Bruckman receives a letter from the killer that is postmarked before he started helping with the investigation leading to suspicions that the killer may be psychic as well. Mulder is informed that he will die by getting his throat slit after stepping in pie in a kitchen. Scully, while skeptical of his abilities, becomes friends with Bruckman even after he informs her that he knows she and Mulder will end up in bed together. Not an untrue statement, since later in the series the two do develop love for each other despite creator Chris Carter saying early on that they would not do so.
When Scully asks how she dies, he responds with, “You don’t.” Another premonition that may or may not be related to later in the series when Scully struggles with cancer.
The agents hide Bruckman at a hotel for his own safety, but it turns out that the killer is a bellhop in the very hotel they hold Bruckman in. Mulder gives chase through the hotel and ends up stepping in pie in the hotel’s kitchen. Since Bruckman already warned him, Mulder is able to keep his throat from being slit long enough for Scully to shoot the bellhop before he can kill Mulder.
Bruckman is later found dead in his own home having died by suicide. Scully’s friendship with him is evident as she holds his hand after his death. She even adopts his dog, a Pomeranian named Queequeg which reappears a couple other times during season 3.
Writer Darin Morgan, who wrote four episodes during the series’ original run including season two episode Humbug, wrote Mulder in such a way where he didn’t think the way he normally would, only seeing Bruckman as a phenomenon and not as a person. Scully, on the other hand, did view him as a person. Though the ending is dark, the episode is filled with humor as it explores themes of death and free will in a humorous way. Morgan’s writing often incorporates dark themes with humor in such a seamless way that his episodes seem effortless.
Peter Boyle’s performance is one of the most memorable and endearing in the series, and that isn’t surprising. He had a decades long career in film and television. Most people think of Everybody Loves Raymond when they see his face, but I think of 1974’s Young Frankenstein in which he played The Monster. It is one of my favorite films. Boyle also starred in While You Were Sleeping and The Shadow, just to name a couple of other films.
Remember when I mentioned this episode originally aired on Friday the 13th? This episode has more than one connection to the film series. I’m a huge Friday the 13th fan. It was the first film series I owned on VHS in its entirety, even if just I recorded it off the USA network when I was thirteen when they did a marathon. Fifteen-year-old me pointed at the television during the beginning of this episode during its original airing and yelled, “It’s Ted!” Actor Stuart Charno played lovable red-headed Ted in Friday the 13th Part 2, which I had literally just watched before the episode aired, and he was the bellhop in this episode. Yep, Stuart Charno played a serial killer on The X-Files. The actor also starred in Stephen King’s Christine and a few other films throughout the 1980s.
Canadian actor Alex Diakun had a part as an extra in this episode, and various others throughout the series and in the first film, I Want to Believe. He also has connections to Jason Voorhees as he starred in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. In Millennium, he acted in two episodes which I’ll talk about when I watch the show along with The X-Files when I get to season five when the two aired simultaneously. Several episodes of The Outer Limits feature him as well, and most recently he appears in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. This actor shows how much The X-Files is connected to other sci-fi and horror shows both before and after it aired.
If you haven’t rewatched this episode in a while, I suggest you check it out. It holds up well, even if the practical effects they used for a rotting body during a dream sequence look a bit dated. Peter Boyle is so memorable in this, and if you’re a fan of Friday the 13th, you’ll get a kick out of seeing TED too.
Until next week, the truth is out there.
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Becky Tyler Art and Photography 
I remember Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose fondly from when it first aired on Friday the 13th, 1995 for its humor and its shocking, sad ending. It takes place in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a state I would move to in 1998 for college. Watching it now, I have new fondness for it mainly because I live near where it takes place (even if it was filmed in Vancouver) three decades later.
Guest starring Peter Boyle as Clyde Bruckman, the episode revolves around the agents helping local law enforcement investigate a string of murders involving psychics and palm readers. When interviewing Bruckman, Mulder believes he has some psychic ability after interviewing him about a murder for which Buckman knows information he shouldn’t. After some psychic tests, Mulder realizes he can only see details about how people die.
Scully examines a victim’s body and finds a keyring that links to an insurance company that Bruckman had bought a policy from. Bruckman leads them to the broker’s body in a forest whilst he explains he developed his abilities by obsessing about the death of Buddy Holly in a plane crash. On the body are silk fibers which link to the other victims.
Bruckman receives a letter from the killer that is postmarked before he started helping with the investigation leading to suspicions that the killer may be psychic as well. Mulder is informed that he will die by getting his throat slit after stepping in pie in a kitchen. Scully, while skeptical of his abilities, becomes friends with Bruckman even after he informs her that he knows she and Mulder will end up in bed together. Not an untrue statement, since later in the series the two do develop love for each other despite creator Chris Carter saying early on that they would not do so.
When Scully asks how she dies, he responds with, “You don’t.” Another premonition that may or may not be related to later in the series when Scully struggles with cancer.
The agents hide Bruckman at a hotel for his own safety, but it turns out that the killer is a bellhop in the very hotel they hold Bruckman in. Mulder gives chase through the hotel and ends up stepping in pie in the hotel’s kitchen. Since Bruckman already warned him, Mulder is able to keep his throat from being slit long enough for Scully to shoot the bellhop before he can kill Mulder.
Bruckman is later found dead in his own home having died by suicide. Scully’s friendship with him is evident as she holds his hand after his death. She even adopts his dog, a Pomeranian named Queequeg which reappears a couple other times during season 3.
Writer Darin Morgan, who wrote four episodes during the series’ original run including season two episode Humbug, wrote Mulder in such a way where he didn’t think the way he normally would, only seeing Bruckman as a phenomenon and not as a person. Scully, on the other hand, did view him as a person. Though the ending is dark, the episode is filled with humor as it explores themes of death and free will in a humorous way. Morgan’s writing often incorporates dark themes with humor in such a seamless way that his episodes seem effortless.
Peter Boyle’s performance is one of the most memorable and endearing in the series, and that isn’t surprising. He had a decades long career in film and television. Most people think of Everybody Loves Raymond when they see his face, but I think of 1974’s Young Frankenstein in which he played The Monster. It is one of my favorite films. Boyle also starred in While You Were Sleeping and The Shadow, just to name a couple of other films.
Remember when I mentioned this episode originally aired on Friday the 13th? This episode has more than one connection to the film series. I’m a huge Friday the 13th fan. It was the first film series I owned on VHS in its entirety, even if just I recorded it off the USA network when I was thirteen when they did a marathon. Fifteen-year-old me pointed at the television during the beginning of this episode during its original airing and yelled, “It’s Ted!” Actor Stuart Charno played lovable red-headed Ted in Friday the 13th Part 2, which I had literally just watched before the episode aired, and he was the bellhop in this episode. Yep, Stuart Charno played a serial killer on The X-Files. The actor also starred in Stephen King’s Christine and a few other films throughout the 1980s.
Canadian actor Alex Diakun had a part as an extra in this episode, and various others throughout the series and in the first film, I Want to Believe. He also has connections to Jason Voorhees as he starred in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. In Millennium, he acted in two episodes which I’ll talk about when I watch the show along with The X-Files when I get to season five when the two aired simultaneously. Several episodes of The Outer Limits feature him as well, and most recently he appears in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. This actor shows how much The X-Files is connected to other sci-fi and horror shows both before and after it aired.
If you haven’t rewatched this episode in a while, I suggest you check it out. It holds up well, even if the practical effects they used for a rotting body during a dream sequence look a bit dated. Peter Boyle is so memorable in this, and if you’re a fan of Friday the 13th, you’ll get a kick out of seeing TED too.
Until next week, the truth is out there.
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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