Avatar (The X-Files)

"Avatar"
The X-Files episode
The Avatar which can only be seen by Walter Skinner
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 21
Directed by	James Charleston
Teleplay by	Howard Gordon
Story by	David Duchovny Howard Gordon
Production code	3X21
Original air date	April 26, 1996
Guest stars
Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner Tom Mason as Detective Waltos Jennifer Hetrick as Sharon Skinner William B. Davis as Cigarette Smoking Man Amanda Tapping as Carina Sayles Malcolm Stewart as Agent Bonnecaze Morris Panych as Gray-Haired Man Michael David Simms as Senior Agent Tacha Simms as Jay "Jane" Cassal Stacy Grant as Judy Fairly Janie Woods-Morris as Lorraine Kelleher Brendan Beiser as Pendrell
Episode chronology
← Previous "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" Next → "Quagmire"
List of season 3 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

"Avatar" is the twenty-first episode of the third season of The X-Files television series. "Avatar" is the series' first episode centered on Walter Skinner. When Skinner is accused of murdering a prostitute, Mulder and Scully investigate to determine the truth behind what happened.

Plot

FBI assistant director Walter Skinner is given divorce papers from his wife, Sharon, after seventeen years of marriage. At a bar, he meets an attractive woman named Carina Sayles; the two engage in a one night stand. However, after the tryst, Skinner has a nightmare of an old woman in bed with him. He awakens to find Sayles dead, her head twisted completely around.

As the murder investigation unfolds, Skinner tells agent Fox Mulder not to get involved. He refuses to take a polygraph test and is viewed as a suspect. Agent Dana Scully examines Sayles' corpse, finding a phosphorescent glow around her lips. Mulder finds out that Sayles was a prostitute and interviews her madam, who claims that Skinner's credit card number was collected the previous night. Mulder is shocked by this news. Despite all the evidence against Skinner, Mulder thinks he and Scully owe it to him to find out what really happened.

Skinner sees the old woman looking at him on a city street. However, when he pursues the old woman, he instead finds the woman to be Sharon. The agents talk to Sharon, who says that the marriage failed because of Skinner's emotional distance. Scully learns that Skinner has been receiving treatment for a sleep disorder, in which he apparently has dreams about suffocated in bed by an old woman. She fears that Skinner may have unwittingly killed Sayles in his sleep. However, Mulder believes that Skinner may be having visions of a succubus, a female demon.

Sharon visits Skinner at his home. After she leaves he falls asleep, seeing the old woman again. He awakens as detectives enter the house, telling him Sharon has been run off the road and severely injured. Skinner admits to Mulder that he saw the woman during his experience in Vietnam, but passed it off as being due to drugs. It is revealed that the Cigarette Smoking Man is observing their conversation through the one-way mirror of the interrogation room.

Mulder investigates the airbag on Skinner's car, which was the one used to hit Sharon. Scully defends Skinner to the Office of Professional Responsibility, but it does no good and he is fired. Mulder believes this was done to weaken the X-Files. Mulder, with the help of Agent Pendrell finds a face imprint in the airbag which isn't Skinner's. He goes to see the prostitute's boss again but finds that she has been murdered. The agents hope to use Judy, an employee who saw the man who actually hired the prostitute and use her to set up another meeting with him. They agree to meet at the Ambassador Hotel in an hour. Skinner goes to see his wife, telling her why he couldn't sign the divorce papers, and witnesses the old woman again as she awakens from the coma.

Mulder waits in the hotel bar while Scully guards Judy in a hotel room. The assassin enters the room to attack them but is quickly killed by Skinner, who was also there. The dead man's identity is unknown. Skinner returns to work, declining to say to Mulder how he knew to be at the hotel. After Mulder leaves he reaches into his drawer and puts his wedding ring back on.

Production

David Duchovny initially suggested having a Walter Skinner-centric episode as a way to give himself a break, although ultimately he still ended up having a big part in the episode. Duchovny also thought that Skinner was a good character who wasn't used enough. The idea, which he collaborated with writer Howard Gordon on, also surrounded the concept that doing what people like Fox Mulder and Skinner do comes with a tremendous price. Skinner's popularity amongst fans had risen with his increased role in the episodes "The Blessing Way" and "Paper Clip" and these episodes helped re-establish the ground rules regarding where Skinner stood in regards to the X-Files. Writer Vince Gilligan noted that Skinner was originally intended to be a bad guy, but because Mitch Pileggi was such a good actor the writers decided to not take his character in that direction.

A scene between Skinner and the Cigarette Smoking Man was removed from the final cut due to time considerations, reducing his role in the episode to a very short dialogue-less appearance. Another scene where Mulder questions Skinner's allegiance was also removed when it was viewed as too combative. The episode title means the human incarnation of a deity in Sanskrit.

Reception

David Duchovny said of Mitch Pileggi, "It was nice for Mitch, and I think he deserved an episode after two years. He did a great job".

This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 9.3, with an 16 share. It was viewed by 14.62 million people.

External links

• "Avatar" on The X-Files Wiki, an external wiki
• "Avatar" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Avatar" at TV.com