D.P.O.

"D.P.O."
The X-Files episode
A drunken Darin attracts lightning.
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 3
Directed by	Kim Manners
Written by	Howard Gordon
Production code	3X03
Original air date	October 7, 1995
Guest stars
Giovanni Ribisi as Darin Peter Oswald Jack Black as Bart "Zero" Liquori Ernie Lively as Sheriff Teller Karen Witter as Sharon Kiveat Steve Makaj as Frank Kiveat Peter Anderson as Stan Buxton Kate Robbins as Darin's Mom Mar Andersons as Jack Hammond Brent Chapman as Traffic Cop Jason Anthony Griffith as First Paramedic Bonnie Hay as Night Nurse
Episode chronology
← Previous "Paper Clip" Next → "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose"
List of season 3 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

"D.P.O." is the third episode of the third season of television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States on October 7, 1995, on Fox, being written by Howard Gordon and directed by Kim Manners. The episode is a stand alone episode, like most episodes of The X-Files, and follows the normal Monster-of-the-Week pattern of the show. "D.P.O." earned a Nielsen household rating of 10.9, being watched by 15.57 million people in its initial broadcast, and received positive reviews.

"D.P.O." features FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigating a series of lightning-related deaths in Oklahoma, which are eventually connected to the only person to have survived a lightning strike, an emotionally-charged youth.

Plot

In a Connerville, Oklahoma video arcade, two adolescents, Jack Hammond and Darin Peter Oswald, enter an argument over a game of Virtua Fighter. Hammond pushes Oswald to the ground, after which the power in the arcade mysteriously shuts down -- except to a jukebox, which plays "Ring the Bells" by James. When Hammond goes outside to start his car, he finds the same song playing on the radio. He is then fatally electrocuted through the ignition. Oswald, who caused Hammond's death, returns to the game.

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully arrive in Connerville, where Hammond is the latest of five young men who have died due to lightning-related causes. Upon visiting the arcade, Mulder finds Oswald's high scores as "D.P.O." on Virtua Fighter, realizing that he was playing the game when Hammond died; Oswald was the first of the victims, and the only one to have survived. When the agents visit a local garage to question Oswald, he claims to have not witnessed anything. However, Mulder's cell phone mysteriously overheats in Oswald's presence.

Alarmed by the FBI's presence, Bart "Zero" Liquori, the arcade owner, visits Oswald at his home; a drunk Oswald dismisses him and summons lightning to strike down nearby cattle. The lightning strikes him instead, but he appears unharmed. The next day, the agents visit the scene and find a melted shoe print in the ground, linking it to Oswald. Darin uses his abilities to manipulate the local traffic lights, causing a car accident. The agents visit Darin's home and find a picture of his boss's wife, Sharon Kiveat in his high school yearbook. Shortly afterwards, Darin causes his boss to suffer a heart attack. The agents question Sharon at the hospital, who was one of his teachers in high school. She is aware of his crush on her and claims that he told her that he has unusual powers. The agents also go through the medical records of Darin which show that he exhibited acute hypokalemia i.e. electrolytic imbalance in his blood.

The agents apprehend Darin but he claims innocence. The local sheriff releases Darin, who causes his friend Zero to be struck by lightning, thinking that he betrayed him. The agents return to the hospital to protect the Kiveats, but the power goes out when they arrive there. Darin confronts Scully and Sharon, who agrees to leave with him. The sheriff tries to stop him, but Darin kills him, allowing Sharon an opportunity to escape. While screaming out for her, Darin summons lightning but ends up getting struck himself again. Darin is held restrained in a psychiatric hospital, although the local District Attorney has no idea how they will be able to prosecute him. As the agents look at him he changes the channels of the TV in his room with his mind, while the Vandals album, Live Fast, Diarrhea, plays in his head.

Production

The original concept for the episode was a one line concept card stating "Lightning Boy" that had been tacked to a board in series creator Chris Carter's office since the first season. Carter's idea was solely about a boy who could control lightning, and the concept wasn't fleshed out into an episode until the third season. Writer Howard Gordon stated that the key moment in the episode's conception came when he decided to use the boy's power as a metaphor for disenfranchised adolescence. Gordon described the episode's concept as "Beavis and Butt-head electrified". Gordon claimed that the episode suffered conceptually having come directly after a trilogy of mythology episodes. Story editor Frank Spotnitz claims that there were originally ideas on incorporating some of the events from that trilogy into this episode, but those ideas were eventually scrapped due to the producer's desire for each episode to be able to have its own integrity and stand alone. Spotnitz said the episode was a risky one to do for a show with an adult audience due to the high school setting and the fact that the episode was about adolescence and violent impulses when one is a kid.

The sheriff, Teller, was named after Teller from the illusion and comedy duo Penn and Teller. The pair had wanted to appear on an episode of the show, but when Chris Carter could find no way to work them into the show this reference was added instead. The Astadourian Lightning Observatory was named after Mary Astadourian, Chris Carter's executive assistant. Darin Oswald was named after writer Darin Morgan.

Giovanni Ribisi won the part as Darin after some coaching from casting director Rick Millikan after Ribisi's initial audition failed to provide what Chris Carter was looking for. Spotnitz described Ribisi's performance as "really, really good". Director Kim Manners' best friend was killed during the third day of shooting. There was consideration on replacing him with another director for the episode but at his insistence he completed the episode.

A "lightning machine" used for the sequence where Darrin is struck by lightning was created by Special Effects David Gauthier and buried under the ground. Giovanni Ribisi stood on a stand with the device rigged underneath him. Mirrors were used to establish the effect of the lightning flaring up and outward, and were augmented by sparks and smoke. Art Director Graeme Murray states that the biggest construction event in the episode was the scene where Darrin manipulated the traffic lights. The producers had to plant telephone poles and build a billboard for the scene. The farmhouse used for Darin's home, situated in Albion, British Columbia, was owned by a 94-year-old man and also used for the movies Jumanji and Jennifer Eight. The producers had difficulty obtaining permission to use a dead cow in the episode due to concerns over animal rights groups. When the fake cow created failed to look realistic enough, the producers were able to use a dead cow obtained from a slaughterhouse for the episode.

Reception

"D.P.O." was first broadcast in the US on October 7, 1996, on Fox. The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 10.9, with a 20 share, meaning that roughly 10.9 percent of all television-equipped households, and 20 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. The episode was watched by 15.57 million viewers.

Entertainment Weekly gave "D.P.O." a B+, considering that despite the lack of action, it managed to "keep you glued" for the photography and "truly hilarious sociopathic high jinks". Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club gave the same grade, praising Ribisi and Black's performances and "sequences that confidently walk the tricky line between horror and broad comedy", and marking it as the point where "the show's direction, always good, made the leap from consistently interesting to look at to consistently cinematic." Jane Goldman, in The X-Files Book of the Unexplained felt like the combination of Howard Gordon's "acutely observed dialogue" and Ribisi's "compelling performance" made Darin Oswald "one of season three's most memorable characters". Writing for Den of Geek, Nina Sordi put "D.P.O." only behind "Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose" as the best standalone season 3 episode, praising Ribisi's "all quiet, creepy power that eventually explodes into homicidal rage" and Jack Black's "weary and ultimately doomed sidekick".

Footnotes

References

• Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0316218081. 
• Goldman, Jane (1997). The X-Files Book of the Unexplained. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684819627. 
• Gradnitzer, Louisa; Pittson, Todd (1999). X Marks the Spot: On Location with The X-Files. Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 1551520664. 
• Hurwitz, Matt, Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1933784806. 
• Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel press. ISBN 080651745X. 
• Lowry, Brian (1996). Trust No One: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. ISBN 0061053538. 

External links

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