The X-Files “Orison”

Every so often, The X-Files will bring back a foe from an earlier episode.  More often than not, I have no recollection of who these guys are.  And this one?  Donnie Pfaster?  Yeah, even when I reread the write-up I did for his season two episode, I still barely remembered him.

So, his first appearance on screen where I’m supposed to be all like “Oh no!  That guy!” was more like, “Who’s that?”

The Case:  Donnie Pfaster’s Pastor Busted Him Out Of Prison!

The Rest:  Here’s the thing about Donnie Pfaster:  he should be more memorable.  146 episodes into the series, and Donnie is, to date, the only antagonist for Mulder and Scully with absolutely zero supernatural or otherworldly things about him.  He was just a psycho who had a thing for death, and Scully was, for some reason, afraid of him.  That’s it.  He didn’t have superpowers of any kind.  He didn’t summon the dead or control animals.  He wasn’t an alien.  He was completely human and just had a thing for cutting off women’s fingers.  He should be more memorable. But he’s not the Flukeman or any of the other much more memorable Monsters-of-the-Week.  He’s just this kinda bland guy.

Naturally, this episode had to add in a weird element in the form of the prison pastor who could hypnotize people, to say nothing about Scully and Mulder’s respective beliefs in God possibly influencing the outcome of the episode, with Pfaster and the pastor (oooh, I rhymed!) both dead.  The pastor was helping people escape maximum security prisons in order to kill them in God’s name, and it turned out he was a convicted murderer himself, at least until Pfaster killed him.  Pfaster managed to grab Scully, but she shot him when Mulder showed up to save her even though Pfaster was unarmed and in the middle of being arrested by Mulder.

At least they hadn’t put the cuffs on him yet.

Now, Mulder thinks Scully shouldn’t be punished for this given the circumstances, and Pfaster was dangerous anyway.  I mean, he killed a woman here!  Another managed to escape without trying nearly as hard as Scully does when Pfaster attacks her in her home.  If anything, Scully is mostly concerned that she had no free will to decide whether or not her killing of Pfaster was her will or God’s.

I can see where that might bother someone.

Too bad they won’t be doing anything more with that.

Up next, a magician!