TV Guide, June 28-July 4, 1998 Issue
"100 Greatest Episodes of All Time"
#10 The X-Files
October 13, 1995
Though alien abductions, freaks of nature, and sinister conspiracies among governments-
within-governments are its stock-in-trade, "The X-Files" is never more profound and moving
than when it explores the heart in darkness: "Cylde Bruckman's Final Repose" is the finest
achievement in a series that continues to break, then rewrite, the rules. It's a scary,
sad, often marvelously goofy tale of a life-insurance salesman whose ability to predict
people's deaths puts him in a serial killer's path; the premise serves as a jumping-off
point for heavy-duty subjects like life after death, predestination, and the possibility of
grace in a world of insane violence and despair. Peter Boyle . . . gives an astounding
performance in this quirky death of a salesman--his transitions in and out of trances are
simply breathtaking. The episode marches to an unavoidable, but nonetheless amazing,
conclusion. And when Scully (Gillian Anderson), who will soon be diagnosed with an
inoperable brain tumor, asks Bruckman how and when she will die, he looks at her and
mysteriously replies, "You don't." How can that be? How can she avoid the inevitable?
What's in store for her...and us? For hard-core fans, it's "The X-Files'" supreme moment.
[Sidebar]
REWIND
Playing Bruckman was "a deep experience, not without struggle," says Boyle. "I'm in
Vancouver, it's a cold August day, and I'm not smiling. When I play a character who has to
die, it gets me a little depressed."