PLOT: An FBI cadet's unusual insight in profiling serial killers has
Doggett asking for his help regarding Luke's murder.
Finally, an episode that actually has closure for a character's heartbreaking past yet blunders
exceedingly with continuity.
"Release" shows us more about John Doggett and the past that has haunted him all these
years than all the episodes that featured him. It is also one of the most straight-forward
episodes even though it does not have an X-File as a focus. In fact, this is the type
of story that has been very successful with this new generation. Doggett or Reyes are
the focus of the plot with the other as strong support and Scully in the background but
helping the plot along. In that vein, "Release" joins "4-D," "Daemonicus," "John Doe,"
"Hellbound" and "Underneath."
There were two important on-going plot lines that were resolved: the resolution of Luke
Doggett's murder for John Doggett and the fate of Assistant Director Brad Follmer's future
as well as Monica's true feelings for him. Why is all this important? Doggett has never
moved on with his life after Luke's murder. He always felt as that he failed his wife and
son on that fateful day. As "John Doe" hinted, he was much more open and happier when
he had a family. Since Luke's death, he shut everyone out, including his ex-wife and Monica.
That could be the main reason that he never allowed himself to "cross the line" with Monica
during the events of "Audrey Pauley."
As for Follmer, he always appeared to be hiding something from Monica. We finally understand
why. In his quest to go up the promotion ladder, it appears that he had no scruples when it
came to accepting bribes for money. He had been on the take in his time as a head of the Organized
Crime Unit in New York. From what we saw in the episode, he still is on the take. At first, we
had to accept his explanation that he was paying for information from a snitch. Of course, that
was just a lie to cover up that he was *still* on the take. And how does that make Monica in
Doggett's eyes knowing that Monica saw Follmer receiving money but never reporting it? To add
insult to injury, her sudden recollection seems to be the main reason that she fled NYC and
reassigned to New Orleans. In the end, Follmer actually developed a conscience and decided to
take his career and life into his own hands.
You have to wonder what kind of security measures the FBI has if a schizophrenic can get past
their screening procedures and enter the FBI Academy with no raised eyebrows or warning signals.
cadet Hayes seemed annoying to me as though he was trying to emulate Lance Henrikson and Haley
Joel Osment. I'm not sure what compelled the crew to want to cast this particular actor, but he
did not impress me in any of his scenes. It's so easy to watch a more convincing actor as Robert
Patrick literally shine when he was with Hayes. When Monica mentions that Hayes is "Kind of annoying,
isn't he?" I totally agreed with her in more ways than one.
As brilliant a series as the X-Files has been, their abhorrent lack of continuity has always
been a sore point with me. Don't the writers ever WATCH the series? At the very least, they
should double check the facts before throwing in plot points for their convenience. In Season 8's
"Empedocles," we see that Mulder is checking out Doggett's son's file and we *clearly* see that his
birth date is in 1990. Yet, the box that contained Luke's ashes as shown in this episode has a birth
date of 1986! That's a four year difference and HUGE mistake on the writers' part. To make it even
more ludicrous, Luke is around seven-years-old when he is killed according to "Empedocles." Thus, that
means Reyes met Doggett around 1997, which sounds right. In this episode, it is stated on the box that
he died in 1993, which still makes him seven, but makes Monica MUCH younger (roughly about 21 or 22) to
be believeable as an investigator. Considering that Doggett didn't join the FBI until 1995, and he was
still a NYC cop at the time just makes this part of the plot very annoying and make no sense whatsoever.
However, that detail has to be somewhat overlooked as we finally begin seeing through Doggett's armor
that he has put up for all this time (whether it has been 5 years or 9 years depending on which history
you want to believe). We get to see a bit of what John's life used to be before he joined the FBI as
we finally meet Barbara Doggett, his ex-wife. Not surprisingly, she is not that happy to see him. It
seems pretty obvious that John's obsession with Luke's murder broke up their marriage. Barbara was just as
sad and upset, but she wanted to move on. John never did. That was the difference. It's also interesting
to note that Barbara sees something between John and Monica. She even states to Scully that "John and Monica
could have something, but he isn't willing to let her in." Yet, another clue to his inactions in "Audrey
Pauley." John doesn't believe that he deserves Monica as long as he is still searching for Luke's killer.
Besides the inaccuracies regarding Luke's birth and the annoyance of cadet Hayes, why did Doggett feel compelled
to trust a total stranger over Monica? You can take your pick regarding which stranger Doggett sought help.
There was cadet Hayes, who admitted getting into the Academy to help John with Luke's murder. There was (wannabe
Soprano) Nicholas Rigalli, who tries to play it cool with Doggett since he had a G-man safely in his back pocket.
Then, there was that same G-man himself, Brad Follmer, who should be the *last* person that Doggett should ask
direct help from. Why didn't he just go to Skinner or Monica if he really wanted Follmer's help? Doggett is not
thinking with a clear head. He's emotional even after all these years.
The resolution and explanation of what happened to Luke is not as satisfying as it should have been. As already
stated in "Empedocles," Bob Harvey abducted Luke and supposedly killed him. In this episode, Harvey is still
involved with the abduction, but it is now being explained that Luke died due to being in the wrong place at the
wrong time. That is sadly tragic as Luke's death seems even more empty than what was surmised in "Empedocles" as
being something "evil" involved rather than some lame mobsters' need for self preservation. It only serves to give
a resolution for John and his ex-wife, but it makes Luke's death sound trivial.
Once Doggett realizes that Rigalli did kill his son, he is again reacting with his emotions by wanting to gain
vengeance. However, someone else does the killing for him as we see Follmer at the other end of the smoking gun.
I'm not exactly sure what that was to prove plot-wise other than having a permanent way of removing Follmer from
the X-Files picture and only having to worry about Kersh. Besides murdering Rigalli, Follmer will most certainly
have to confess to bribery charges. It doesn't look like he will be going up any promotion ladder anytime soon.
The last scene where John and Barbara finally "release" Luke's ashes to the sea was very poignant. It finally closes
the chapter of that part of their lives. Maybe John will finally seek some peace and happiness in his life as the
final images suggest with his very heartwarming embrace of Monica who gladly returned the favor. Unfortunately, this
could be the last time we get to see that kind of emotion come from Doggett.
Two more to go...
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