A Fantastic X-Files Episode Rewinds Murder While Doggett and Scully Step Back

(L to R): Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, and Joe Morton in Redrum. Image captured for editorial use. Image captured from The X-Files for editorial use. Courtesy of 20th Television.

Ever wonder how you stop a murder that’s already happened? That’s the cool hook behind Redrum, a classic standalone X-Files episode that first aired back in December 2000.

Joe Morton from Terminator 2 plays Martin Wells, a Baltimore prosecutor who wakes up behind bars with memory loss, accused of killing his wife. The catch? He’s living the previous five days completely in reverse. Every morning takes him one step closer to the crime, giving him a shot at figuring out what went wrong and stopping it before it starts.

The truly unsettling part of this episode isn’t the idea of going back in time. That’s scary enough, but the deeper fear is being jailed for murdering his wife, a crime he didn’t commit. Wells is trapped by his own actions and forced to choose between owning up to suppressing evidence, the offense that set everything in motion, or remaining silent and risking his wife’s life.

Aside from the thrilling story, what also makes it an impressive episode is how rarely John Doggett and Dana Scully appear. While Doggett and Scully pop in to help out, Morton completely carries the episode. His panicked, all-in performance turns what could have been a cheesy gimmick into a genuinely tense, relentless race-against-time mystery about second chances.

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Joe Morton as prosecutor Martin Wells in Redrum. Image captured from The X-Files for editorial use. Courtesy of 20th Television.

Yes, Redrum is murder spelled backward, a word made famous by Stephen King’s The Shining, but Season 8’s real cleverness is not in the title. It is in telling the story backward and letting someone other than the series regulars solve the mystery.

In what felt like a Twilight Zone ending, Martin Wells’ only solution was to confess that he had suppressed evidence and helped send an innocent man to prison, where the man later died. Wells saved his wife, but the confession cost him his career and freedom.

“The passage of time in prison is not in a cell of brick and mortar, but in one of hopes dashed and tragedies unaverted. How precious, then, the chance to go back, only to discover that in facing the past, you must face up to yourself—that exiting the prison of time doesn’t free you from the prison of your own character, one from which there is no escape.” — Martin Wells

Having his actions uncovered through a formal investigation would have been one thing. But while sitting alone in a cell, how does someone come to grips with the paranormal events that led him there?

First airing on December 10, 2000, Redrum felt like a welcome late-series surprise, delivering a quality episode when long-running shows often begin losing the spark that made them work.

Thanks for reading!

Keep it interesting, stay channel surfing

— Damian Ali

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