Fic Rec: 3x05 "The List"

[wendelah1]

MULDER: Listen to this. “I come in return to the beginning of the end to begin again the journey of souls … the godhead universal for whom there is no death only life eternal.”

SCULLY: What’s that from?

MULDER: Neech Manley, 1994. This stuff goes on for hundreds of pages. There’s references to the Hindu Atman, Prarabdha, the Rosicrucians, Zoroastrianism. The man was obsessed with reincarnation.

SCULLY: Being obsessed with it doesn’t mean you can do it.

Reincarnation, or as Neech Manley would refer to it, the transmigration of souls, is a recurring motif for The X-Files, used with varying degrees of success. It appears in season one’s “Lazarus” and “Born Again,” in season two in “Red Museum, and now in "The List.” Reincarnation will play a major role in season four’s “The Field Where I Died,” loathed by Mulder/Scully shippers everywhere. Someone on the staff of this series (or maybe several someones) is obsessed with reincarnation. But to paraphrase Agent Scully, being obsessed with it doesn’t mean you can write it.

In “The List,” the characters keep talking about reincarnation, but in the end, it’s something else altogether, isn’t it? Their investigation concluded, Mulder and Scully are driving away, when suddenly Mulder pulls over to the side of the road and stops the car. He gets out, frustrated and dissatisfied. He expresses his doubts to his partner.

MULDER: I just don’t see the motives. Do you? I don’t think Parmelly killed anybody.

SCULLY: Well then, who did? Neech Manley?

MULDER: Speranza and Neech’s wife both said they saw him.

SCULLY: It’s over, Mulder. Let’s just go home. (Scully walks back toward the car. Mulder pauses for a few moments, then follows.)

If the final scene is to be believed, Neech Manley doesn’t need to have transmigrated to another body to kill the people on his list. We watch as the warden drives past Mulder and Scully on the other side of the highway. Unlike Mulder, he’s satisfied that the case is closed, and with the suspect already dead, his life is no longer at risk. What’s more, this awful man has gotten away with beating a couple of prisoners to death. He’s the worst villain of the piece.

But the warden is not safe. Though Neech Manley is not reincarnated, far from it, he’s come back from the dead, like Jesus of Nazareth (or Fox Mulder). Neech appears out of thin air in the backseat of the warden’s car, and smothers his victime to death.

Even if Mulder had been able to convince Scully or the warden or anyone else involved with the case that Neech Manley was responsible for the first death, that of the prison guard, what difference could it have made? How do you stop a supernatural killer who can materialize and dematerialize at will? Neech is still out there, too. The warden is the final man on his list, but why would he stop at five?

FANFICTION RECS: I have one.

“The Best Lies” isn’t a post-ep for “The List,” but the episode’s claustrophobic atmosphere is echoed nicely in Julie Fortune’s fic, set in a Texas prison. Mulder and Scully get caught in the web of a serial killer from Mulder’s past, who’s currently sitting on death row.

“He was part of a two-man killing team that traveled through the South about eight years ago. His partner was Jesus Morales Perez. They were good.” That was shorthand for a lot that Mulder didn’t want to discuss; she accepted it with a nod of her head. “Perez died in prison about two years ago. Piper’s in Huntsville. He’s awaiting execution.”

“And you’re going to see him?”

“Not if I can help it.” Mulder looked down at his clasped hands. “The warden down there’s a friend of mine, and he says there’s a painting of Piper’s that I’ve got to see.”

“Painting?” she repeated.

“Of me.”

The Best Lies by Julie Fortune

There’s no rating, no summary, no keywords provided by the author. It’s not casefic, because there’s no case. I’d call it a thriller and I’d rate it Teen for violence. The link is to her old site, waybacked, but if you prefer plain text, The Other Side has a copy.

Fortune is a great storyteller, whose characterizations are so perfect that you’d think she was in the XF writing room. If she had been, the mytharc would have made a lot more sense.

Comments

[bmerb]

Oh man I forgot just how wracking and good “The Best Lies” is!

[wendelah1]

Yes. She's a pro, literally.