X-FILES, THE: CLYDE BRUCKMAN'S FINAL REPOSE (TV)
Summary
One in this series of science fiction dramas about FBI agents Mulder and Scully and their investigations into "unsolvable" cases involving paranormal phenomena.
In St. Paul, Minneapolis, a man goes to see a palm reader and murders her. Three days later, a similar killing of a tea leaf reader is being investigated in northern Minneapolis and Mulder and Scully arrive to assist. The victim’s entrails were cut out and splayed out; Mulder believes this was in accordance with a form of augury, as per the killer’s modus operandi; the killer is specifically targeting fortune-tellers. The police call in The Stupendous Yappi, a popular television psychic, to aid in the case. He gives a vague description of the killer based on “psychic impressions” before asking Mulder to leave because of his “negative energy.” Mulder intuits that Yappi’s leads were so vague as to be useless, but the police aren’t listening.
Meanwhile, an old insurance salesman named Clyde Bruckman keeps having visions of people he knows dying. He locates the body of the dead palm reader in a dumpster and alerts the police. Mulder and Scully interrogate him; he seems to know things about the murders that others don’t. They take him to the scene of the tea reader’s death; Mulder believes Bruckman is psychic but Scully doubts it. Bruckman’s psychic abilities lead him to believe that the killer believes himself to be a “puppet” unable to control his own life. He announces that they will find the body of the tea reader in a nearby lake.
The next day, the tea reader’s body is found where Bruckman said it would be. Mulder believes this proves Bruckman’s psychic powers and visits Bruckman to ask for help with the case. He doesn’t want to help and is not fond of his “gift,” but nonetheless agrees to assist Mulder. As Bruckman and Mulder review evidence together, it becomes clear that Bruckman can only use his powers to see how people are going to die. Scully brings up a keychain found on one of the victims for an insurance company and Bruckman announces that the CEO of that company was murdered and he knows the location of the body.
Mulder, Scully, and Bruckman drive out to where Bruckman says the CEO’s body is located. He talks about how he first became fascinated with predicting death when the Big Bopper, his favorite musician, died in 1959 in a famous plane crash; the Big Bopper had earlier flipped a coin to decide whether he would go on the flight or not. They cannot find the body and start to leave, only to find that they parked their car directly on top of the body.
A fiber from the CEO’s body is recovered as evidence. Bruckman determines that the killer believes he is psychic and has a vision of the killer sneaking up behind Mulder in a kitchen and slitting his throat. Bruckman gives them a letter, supposedly from the killer, which indicates the killer believes Bruckman is psychic; Mulder and Scully move Bruckman to a hotel. Meanwhile, the killer receives a tarot reading just before killing the tarot dealer. Bruckman has a vision of Scully holding his hand as he cries in his bed. Mulder returns, saying the lab analyzed the fiber from the CEO’s body and concluded it was Chantilly Lace (the name of a song by the Big Bopper). That night, Mulder and Bruckman lie awake as Bruckman describes a recurring dream of his where he envisions his own dead body’s decomposition.
Scully awakens Mulder the next day and they go to investigate the death of the tarot dealer, leaving a detective to look after Bruckman. The killer, a bellhop at the hotel, enters Bruckman’s room and they stand off. The killer asks why he is committing his murders; Bruckman merely states that he is a “homicidal maniac.” Instead of killing Bruckman, the killer stabs the detective as he comes out of the bathroom. At the crime scene, Scully discovers more Chantilly Lace and a “page of cups” tarot card, which leads her to believe that the bellhop is the killer.
She and Mulder race back to the hotel. Mulder chases the killer into the kitchen and, remembering Bruckman’s vision, fights off the killer. As the killer is about to stab Mulder, Scully arrives and shoots him. She reports that Bruckman has disappeared and they go to his apartment. They find a note left for Scully and enter to find Bruckman has killed himself with a combination of a pill overdose and asphyxiation. Scully holds his hand as tears stream down his face, just as he predicted. The episode ends as Scully sees an advertisement for The Stupendous Yappi on the television and angrily shuts it off. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: FOX
- DATE: October 13, 1995 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:47:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:55185
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SERIES RUN: Fox - TV series, 1993-2002; 2016-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Chris Carter … Executive Producer, Created by
- Howard Gorgon … Co-Executive Producer
- R. W. Goodwin … Co-Executive Producer
- Charles Grant Craig … Supervising Producer
- Joseph Patrick Finn … Producer
- Kim Manners … Producer
- Rob Bowman … Producer
- Paul Rabwin … Co-Producer
- David Nutter … Director
- Darin Morgan … Writer
- Mark Snow … Music by
- David Duchovny … Cast, Agent Fox Mulder
- Gillian Anderson … Cast, Agent Dana Scully
- Peter Boyle … Cast, Clyde Bruckman
- Stu Charno … Cast, Puppet
- Frank Cassini … Cast, Detective Cline
- Dwight McFee … Cast, Detective Havez
- Alex Diakun … Cast, Tarot Dealer
- Karin Konoval … Cast, Madame Zelma
- Ken Roberts … Cast, Clerk
- Jaap Broeker … Cast, The Stupendous Yappi
- David Mackay … Cast, Young Husband
- Greg Anderson … Cast, Photographer