The Jersey Devil (The X-Files)

"The Jersey Devil"
The X-Files episode
A woman lying dead
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 5
Directed by	Joe Napolitano
Written by	Chris Carter
Production code	1X04
Original air date	October 8, 1993
Running time	43 minutes
Guest stars
Wayne Tippit as Detective Thompson Michael MacRae as Ranger Peter Boulle Gregory Sierra as Dr. Diamond Claire Stansfield as the Jersey Devil Jill Teed as Glenna Tamsin Kelsey as Ellen Andrew Airlie as Rob Bill Dow as Dad Hrothgar Mathews as Jack Jayme Knox as Mom Scott Swanson as First Officer Sean O'Byrne as Second Officer David Lewis as Young Officer D. Neil Monk as SWAT Team Officer
Episode chronology
← Previous "Conduit" Next → "Shadows"
List of season 1 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

"The Jersey Devil" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on October 8, 1993. It was written by series creator Chris Carter, directed by Joe Napolitano, and featured guest appearances by Gregory Sierra, Wayne Tippit and Claire Stansfield. Although the episode is the series' second "Monster-of-the-Week" story—after the earlier "Squeeze"—it was the first to have been written by Carter.

When investigating seemingly cannibalistic murders in New Jersey, FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) come across what seems to be an evolutionary relict which may have inspired tales of the Jersey Devil.

Plot

In New Jersey in 1947, a man is attacked while fixing a flat tire on the road near the woods. His corpse is later found with his leg chewed off, and a hairy humanoid is killed nearby.

Back in present-day Washington D.C., Scully brings to Mulder's attention news about a body found in New Jersey with hand and arm missing. Upon arriving at the Atlantic City morgue, however, the local Detective Thompson denies the agents access to the investigation. Scully returns to Washington to attend her godson's birthday party, while Mulder stays in New Jersey. At the party, Scully meets Rob, the divorced father of one of the guests. Meanwhile, Mulder questions homeless people about the case, and gives his hotel room key to a homeless man who tells him what he saw the night of the killing. Mulder sleeps in an alley and sees a shadowy creature, but is arrested.

The next morning, Detective Thompson meets with Mulder and Scully when she comes down to pick up her partner. Before going on a date with Rob, Scully brings Mulder to meet with Dr. Diamond, a professor of anthropology at the University of Maryland. The local park ranger contacts Mulder after finding the corpse of a wild man in the woods. Mulder believes that the creature's mate has headed into Atlantic City in search of food after its death. The agents, along with the ranger and Dr. Diamond search for the creature in an abandoned building. Thompson meanwhile is also searching the same building with a SWAT team.

Mulder is attacked by the creature, which escapes soon after. The beast is chased through the woods, and still manages to escape after being shot with a tranquilizer dart. The SWAT team soon finds her and kills her. The autopsy reveals no prehistoric bone structure, although human bones are located within her digestive tract. Mulder leaves to talk to an ethnobiologist at the Smithsonian; Scully turns down a second date with Rob to join him. Meanwhile in the woods the child of the creature appears, watching a father and son hike along with curiosity.

Production

Writer and series creator Chris Carter decided that rather than trying to present a typical Bigfoot-like creature, he would present the Jersey Devil as a missing link. Carter was inspired to write the episode by an essay by E.O. Wilson regarding ants and a story he wrote that posed whether mankind was hellbent on its own extinction. The concept of mankind being carnivores and eating its own tail evolved into the idea of using an evolutionary mutation that was a throwback to the Neanderthal. A Greg Cannom werewolf outfit from a previous project was used for the costume of the creature.

The purpose of the scenes with Scully going on a date were to show the life she was passing on to work on the X-Files and to open up Scully to the audience. Carter explained that he "tried to develop a love interest for Scully only to heighten the sexual tension between her and Mulder". The scenes with Mulder in Atlantic City were shot against a blue screen in Vancouver, with stock casino footage added in in post-production.

During filming, Claire Stansfield, who played the titular creature, was intended to appear nude, necessitating several solutions to be found for different scenes—some were shot with the actress wearing a nude-colored outfit, whilst others were shot with her hair tied in such a manner as to keep her breasts covered. Several scenes for the episode were filmed in a Vancouver mansion, which served as an office, town-house and restaurant. This same mansion was used for exterior shots in the later first season episode "Fire". The forest scenes were filmed in a remote area accessible only by large trucks, whilst all of the exterior city scenes were filmed in and around a sheet metal store.

Broadcast and reception

"The Jersey Devil" premiered on the Fox network on October 8, 1993, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on October 17, 1994. The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 6.6 with a 12 share—meaning that in the US, 6.6 percent of television-equipped households, and 12 percent of all households actively watching television, were watching the program. It was viewed by 6.2 million households.

In a retrospective of the first season in Entertainment Weekly, "The Jersey Devil" was rated a C, with the episode being called "corny", and full of "needless philosophizing"; it was noted however that the sub-plot concerning Scully's private life set the stage for the series' future. Keith Phipps, writing for The A.V. Club, had mixed feeling about the episode, rating it a C. He felt that the scenes featuring Scully's private life and Mulder speaking to a group of homeless people were effectively done, although the episode overall was "pretty silly" and took "a decent idea to a dead end". Producer James Wong was critical of the episode, feeling that it "ran out of steam in the middle. It didn't go anywhere; there weren't enough complications to it", though he added that it had been "beautifully shot".

Footnotes

References

• Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0316218081. 
• 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 (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. ISBN 0061053309. 

External links

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