The X-Files - 3.

French title: Voyance Par Procuration Clyde Bruckman
translation: (possibly) Clairvoyance by proxy of Clyde Bruckman

Italian title: Previsioni

US Airdate: October 13, 1995

writer: Darin Morgan

director: David Nutter

STARRING:

David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:

Clyde Bruckman ........................ Peter Boyle

Clerk ................................. Ken Roberts

Puppet ................................ Stu Charno

Zelma ................................. Karin Konoval

Cline ................................. Frank Cassini

Havez ................................. Dwight McFee

Yappi ................................. Jaap Broeker

Young Husband ......................... David McKay

Mrs Lowe .............................. Doris Rands

Tarot Dealer .......................... Alex Diakun

Photographer .......................... Greg Anderson

FORTUNE TELLERS WHO CANNOT PREDICT THEIR OWN MURDERS FALL VICTIM TO A SERIAL KILLER WHO MAY BE PSYCHIC, AS MULDER AND SCULLY TRY TO ENLIST THE AID OF A RELUCTANT CLAIRVOYANT IN THEIR SEARCH.

Mild-mannered Clyde Bruckman, insurance salesman, has one unique and useless gift: he can foresee the deaths of others. Unable to affect the outcome, he hides his ability until he stumbles across the latest in a string of murders that has drawn Mulder and Scully into the hunt for a killer who targets fortune tellers. Bruckman is unable to identify the killer, but he tells Mulder and Scully where to find the bodies of two victims. Scully thinks Bruckman may have more to do with the killings than he's telling, but Mulder is delighted to have a real psychic to analyze. The killer, however, now targets Bruckman, Mulder and Scully, forcing them to hole up in a hotel while more gruesomely mutilated corpses pile up. Bruckman foresees not only his own death, but Mulder's murder at the hands of a homicidal maniac. It's up to Scully to see if her partner's fate can be changed...

The character of Clyde Bruckman is named for the real-life director of the same name who worked with Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton and W.C. Fields. He also committed suicide. Two other names in this episode are based on people that worked with the real Bruckman; Detective Cline, named for director Eddie Cline and Detective Havez, named for Jean C. Havez, who worked with Bruckman on numerous Buster Keaton film screenplays. The hotel that the killer works for is named 'El Damfino,' the same as Buster Keaton's boat 'Damfino' in his movie 'The Boat'. And the man under the wheels of the car is named Claude Dukenfield, W.C.Fields' real name.

Also, in an episode of "Space: Above and Beyond" titled "R&R" ( guest appearance by David Duchovny ) Col. McQueen is watching a Clyde Bruckman movie. Writer Darin Morgan's brother, Glen co-created "Space..." so this must have been a nod to him.

If you remember the episode "Beyond The Sea", you'll recall the long drawn out story Boggs' tells while holding what he thinks is the victim's shirt. The shirt is actually Mulder's New York Knicks shirt. The scene is parodied here when Mulder is testing Clyde's psychic gift.

When Clyde plays poker with Scully, he has a 'dead man's hand' (aces and eights).

The Stupendous Yappi is portrayed by Jaap (pronounced Yapp) Broeker, who is not an actor, but really David Duchovny's stand-in. Writer Darin Morgan saw him on the set one day waggling his eyebrows and wrote a scene for him.

The delightful Peter Boyle won an Emmy for this role. He'll never be the monster in the movie "Young Frankenstein" to me anymore, he'll forever be known as Clyde Bruckman.

The actor who plays the last tarot card reader, Alex Diakun, also appears in "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space' (as the hypnotist, Dr. Fingers, during all the flashbacks) and "Humbug" (as the strange-faced curator of the museum Scully goes to). All of the episodes were written by Darin Morgan.

We meet poor little soon-to-be-gator-meat Queequeg, the dog, in this ep. He is named after a character in the book "Moby Dick", a cannibal, ewww!

After Clyde returns from his meeting with the Young Couple, he settles in for a drink of scotch, have a look at the label on the bottle. For ages now it looked to me like J&B Scotch, a very famous name, but on closer inspection it's actually been changed to J&P Scotch, with the same famous logo. This means nothing to me, but I thought you might appreciate the detail :-)

On June 22, 1997, TV Guide here in North America rated the top 100 television episodes of all-time, beginning with "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (1975), "Chuckles Bites the Dust" and ending with "Friends" (1996), "The One With the Prom Video". This classic X-Files episode rated as number 10, and I agree whole-heartedly.

Personal notes: Hang on to your modems people, it's another Darin Morgan classic and I'm busting with quotes! The humor in this one was much more sutle than other Morgan eps, but with Peter Boyle's delivery, it still had me laughing.

The scene with Scully on Clyde's deathbed sends chills down your spine and has to effect your heart, if you have one. Lovely.

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Clyde: (reading from tabloid magazine, Midnight Inquisitor, with Buddy Holly's pic in left hand corner and The Stupendous Yappi's pic center) " 'I foresee a rocky romance between superstar Madonna and super-witness Kato Kaelin' ...well that's a gimmee, that's not really going out on a limb is it?.... ' I foresee author J.D. Salinger finally publishing a new novel and hitting the talk show circuit to promote it' ... hmph, that's just playing the odds... ' I forsee the revelation that not Elvis but rather Buddy Holly is still alive, having faked his own death so many years ago. Holly will not only reemerge but also regroup with the Crickets and they will headline next year's Lalla...palala...Lalapazoola..' what the hell is Lollapallazo?"

Clerk: "Who's Buddy Holly?"

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(Clyde and Puppet side step each other in the street)

Puppet: "Don't apologize, you're a better dancer than my last date."

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Zelma: "Mr., please, you're hurting me."

Puppet: "I know, I know, but I'm sorry. But you're a fortune teller. You should have seen this coming."

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(a flash picture is taken of the eyeballs)

Photographer: "They say the eyes capture the last image a murder victim sees before they get killed."

Cline: "So what do they say about the entrails?"

Photographer: "Yuck."

Havez: "Is it true you asked for some help on this case?"

Cline: "This guy's supposed to be an expert at this sort of thing."

Havez: "I heard he was a bit....unorthadox."

Cline: "He comes highly recommended."

Havez: "Yeah I saw him on TV."

Cline: "Hey, so he's a publicity hound, so long as he gets results."

Photographer: "I once worked on a case he did...very spooky."

Cline: "As long as he gives us leads, I don't care how big a kook... (Mulder enters room and the cops stop and look at him)... who the hell are you?"

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Mulder: "The leaves were telling her she was about to be murdered."

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Mulder: "I can assure you Mr. Yappi, I'm a believer in psychic ability."

Yappi: "So you say with your mouth, but your thoughts tell me the truth!" (eyebrows arched)

Cline: "Agent Mulder, please."

Scully:(to Mulder) "I can't take you anywhere."

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Yappi: "Sceptics like you make me sick."

Mulder: "Mr. Yappi, read this thought."

Yappi:(reacts as if hit) "So's your old man!"

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Cline: "Look, all I know is, so far, Yappi has provided us with more solid concrete leads on this case than you have. Now if you don't mind, I have to get an APB (all points bulletin) out on (reads his notes) a white male, 17 to 34, with or without a beard, maybe a tattoo, who's impotent. Let's go." (leaves on his quest)

Scully: "Might as well go home Mulder, this case is as good as solved."

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Clyde: (selling insurance to young couple) "You don't get it, do you kid? Two years from now, while driving down route 91 coming home to your wife and baby daughter, you're gonnna be hit head on by a drunk, driving a blue '87 Mustang. You'll end up looking worse than 60 feet of bad road your body slides across after flying out your front windshield."

Young Husband: "Mister, you really need to work on your closing technique."

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Clyde: (looks down at Mrs. Lowe's dog, sees a vision of it eating some kind of meat) "Get out of here you monster! (Lowe arrives back at door) Is everything alright Mrs. Lowe? You have enough supplies? You have enough dog food?"

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Cline: "It's kinda creepy isn't it? The Stupendous Yappi says the first body has been dumped somewhere, then we find it in a dumpster."

Mulder: (sarcastically) "Ooo, I just got a chill down my spine!"

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Mulder: "A murder occured here earlier this evening and we have reason to believe that it was committed by the same person who murdered the woman you found. Now, is there anything you can tell us about it?"

Clyde: "I didn't do it."

Mulder: "You're not under suspicion. But I do harbour a suspicion that you can *see* things about this crime... (Scully gives him a look) things that we can't see."

Clyde: "I'm not sure I understand what you mean."

Mulder: "I think you *do*.

Clyde: "Yeah...yeah...right...I'd like to see both your badges again right now."

Scully: (showing her badge) "I don't blame you Mr. Bruckman."

Clyde: (looking at Mulder's badge) "I'm supposed to believe that's a real name?"

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Scully: (to Mulder) "Oh, so now *you're* psychic?"

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Mulder: "Can you describe him? Can you get any visual impression of him?"

Clyde: (shakes his head)

Scully: "So you can see *into* him, but not *at* him...(both men turn to look at her)...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to give off any negative energy."

Clyde: "Negative energy, what is this?..." (stops, looks at rug, walks towards it)

Mulder: "What is it? What do you see?"

Clyde: "He's having sex with her...there."

Scully: "Is he raping her?"

Clyde: "Oh no, no, no, no, not at all, in fact, she's instigating the whole thing."

Mulder: "Then what's wrong?"

Clyde: "Oh, sometimes it... it just seems that everyone's having sex except for me."

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Clyde: "You'll find a woman tomorrow morning... by the fat little white Nazi stormtrooper at Glenview Lake."

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Mulder: "Be honest, Scully. Doesn't that propane tank bear more than just a slight resemblance to a fat little white Nazi stormtrooper?"

Scully: "Mulder, the human mind naturally seeks meaningful patterns and configurations in things that don't inherently have any. Given the suggestion of a particular image, you couldn't help but see that shape somewhere. If that tank weren't there you'd see it in a, in a rock or in a tree..."

Mulder: "Did you answer my question?" (long pause)

Scully: "Yes, it looks like a fat little white Nazi stormtrooper, but that only proves my point!"

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( Clyde is holding his lottery ticket, his numbers are 9, 13, 37, 39, 41 and 45 )

Radio announcer: "38, 40 and 44. Once again the winning Lotto numbers are 8, 12..."

Clyde: (clicks off radio) "Why? Why do I do this to myself? (puts his head in his hands, eyes covered, there's a knock on the door) Come in. (we see Mulder enter, but Clyde can't see him) I knew it was you. I know why you're here. You're here because you found that woman's body where I told you it would be. And now you're convinced I have some sort of psychic power. So while your sceptical lady partner is off performing an autopsy, you came here to ask my help to catch this serial murderer."

Mulder: (amazed at this speech) "Everything you said is correct."

Clyde: (on hearing his voice, opens his eyes) "Oh, it's you."

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Clyde: "Do you want to know how you're going to die?"

Mulder:(pause) "Yes, yes I would."

Clyde: "No you don't. Of course, not knowing has it's own drawbacks, which is why a good insurance policy is important. I don't know what kind of coverage the FBI has, but the General Mutual has..."

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Clyde: "How could I see the future if it didn't already exist?"

Mulder: "But if the future is written then why bother to do anything?"

Clyde: "Now you're catching on."

Mulder: "Mr. Bruckman I believe in your ability, but not your attitude. I can't stand by and watch people die without doing everything in my, albeit unsupernatural, power to interfere with that fate."

Clyde: "Well, you see that's another reason I can't help you catch this guy, I might adversely affect the fate of the future. I mean, his next victim might be the mother of the daughter whose son invents the time machine. And the son goes back in time and changes world history. And then Columbus never discovers America, man never lands on the moon, the US never invades Grenada, or something less significant, resulting in the fact that my father never meets my mother and consequently, I'm never born....so when do we start?"

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(Mulder is showing Clyde objects from the murder scene, hands him a brass statue of three frogs joined in a circle)

Clyde: "The guy who cast the mold for this will die of prostate cancer at the age of 82, hit or miss?"

Mulder: "I have no way of verifying that information."

Clyde: "Then why'd you ask me?"

Mulder: "Do you receive any other impressions from it?"

Clyde: (after good close inspection) "It's ugly. (drops it hard) Next."

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Clyde: "I got it. This is yours. This is from your New York Knicks T- shirt!"

Mulder: "Miss."

Clyde: "This is worse than playing the Lotto."

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Clyde: "You know, there are worse ways to go, but I can't think of a more undignified one than auto-erotic asphyxiation."

Mulder: "Why are you telling ME that?"

Clyde: "Look forget I mentioned it, it's none of my business."

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(they are looking for a dead body and Clyde is discussing the coin flip that put the Big Bopper on that fatal plane ride with Buddy Holly)

Clyde: "Imagine all the things that had to occur, not only in his life, but in everyone else's, to arrange it so that on that particular night, the Big Bopper would be in a position to live or die depending on a flipping coin. I became so obsessed with that idea, that I gradually became capable of seeing the specifics of everybody's deaths."

Scully: "You know Mr. Bruckman, I'm not one who readily believes in that kind of thing, and if I was I wouldn't believe *that* story."

Clyde: "I know it sounds crazy, but I swear it's true, I was a bigger fan of the Big Bopper than

Buddy Holly."

Scully: (exasperated) "Where's the body?"

Mulder: "Yeah Mr Bruckman, I don't understand how you can know that this is the exact area, but you can't pinpoint the exact spot?"

Clyde: (looks around at the trees) "I guess I can't see the forest for the trees."

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(they're pushing the car out of the mud, Mulder gets splashed)

Mulder: "I'm glad I could bring a little smile into your life, Mr. Bruckman."

Clyde: "I'm not smiling. I'm wincing." (we see a hand sticking out of the mud under the wheel)

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Clyde: "Don't you have crime labs that analyze these things for you?"

Scully: "Yes, yes we do." (raising eyebrows and looking at Mulder)

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Scully: "Can you see him physically yet?"

Clyde: "No, no...I...just more insight into his character which I know you hate. He thinks he's psychic."

Mulder: "Is he?"

Clyde: "I hope not. I've seen some of the things he's seen."

Mulder: "Like what? What does he see?"

Clyde: (we see a flash of Mulder busting into a room, gun drawn) "You...he sees you...trying to catch him."

Mulder: "Where does this take place?"

Clyde: "In a kitchen...(we see as Clyde says this)...you're looking around for someone...he's behind you now but you don't know it...and he's stalking toward you and....and...oh God!"

Scully: "What? What do you see?"

Clyde: "He's got a knife...it's got blood on it!"

Mulder: "Well why don't I see him? What am I doing?"

Clyde: "You're looking down....you've stepped in a pie that's fallen to the floor....the killer comes up to you and....coconut creme!"

Mulder: "What?"

Clyde: "The pie...coconut creme...or is it lemon meringe? I don't know, I'm not sure, it's hazy."

Mulder: "Whatever, continue."

Clyde: "As you're looking down, he comes up with the knife and....banana creme, definately banana creme." (both Scully and Mulder are getting frustrated now)

Mulder: "Alright, I'm looking down at this banana creme pie, and then what?"

Clyde: "He sees himself coming up to you from behind and...." (we see Mulder getting his neck cut in Clyde's mind)

Mulder:"And? And what does he see?"

Clyde: "Nothing...nothing...the visions of a mad man."

Mulder: "You got all that from this?" (holding up fiber sample)

Clyde: "How am I supposed to get anything from this tiny little thing? This came in the mail today."

(hands Mulder an envelope)

Scully: "Who's it from?"

Clyde: (does Carnac impression, holds envelope to head) "The Killer!"

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Scully: "We can't come up with suspects by having visions."

Clyde: "Jealous?"

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(Scully's on one bed in the hotel room, Clyde's on the other)

Scully: "That's something you haven't explained yet. Can you see your own end?"

Clyde: "I see *our* end. We end up in bed together. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that, I don't mean to offend you or scare you, but not here, not this bed. I just meant I see us quite clearly...in bed together...you're holding my hand...very tenderly...and then you're looking at me with such compassion...and I feel...tears are streaming down my face...I feel so grateful. It's just a very special moment neither of us will ever forget."

Scully: "Mr. Bruckman, there are hits and there are misses. And then there are MISSES."

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Scully: "Alright...so how do I die?"

Clyde: "You don't."

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Scully: "Chantilly Lace?"

Mulder: "You *know* what I *like*.

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Mulder: "If coincidences are just coincidences, why do they feel so contrived?"

Scully: "That's one to pose for the psychic philosopher."

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(after Clyde tells Mulder his dream about wasting away to nothing but worm food, Scully knocks on the door later)

Scully: "Mulder are you okay?"

Mulder: "Oh yeah, I just didn't sleep well, what's up?"

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Clyde: "Don't you understand yet son? Don't you get it? You do the things you do because you're a homicidal maniac."

Puppet: "That...that does explain a lot doesn't it?"

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Mulder: "If my Miss Manners serves me right, that protrusion from his left cornea is a salad fork."

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(Scully is holding a tarot card that reads "Page Of Cups" with a picture of a bellhop)

Scully: "It's the bellhop! He's the killer, the bellhop!" (she runs out of room)

Cline: "How the hell does she know that?"

Mulder: "Women's intuition."

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(after Scully shoots him)

Puppet: "Hey, it's not the way it's supposed to happen."

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(the note on Clyde's room, the dog's leash is tied to the door handle)