"Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say, "Behold!"
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion."
"A Midsummer Night's Dream", Act i. Sc. 1.
Watching "D.P.O" for the second (and third) time was a revelation. To say that I had a newfound appreciation for this episode would be an understatement. What I discovered, much to my delight, was that this was a profoundly under-appreciated episode the first time around. It dealt with power and its abuse, it dealt with revenge, and it dealt with a unique Monster of the Week, one who could alternately elicit sympathy and disdain in a matter of moments.
"D.P.O." is Darren Peter Oswald (Giovanni Ribisi), a young man with no dreams, no future and no hope. His one obsession is his former Remedial Reading teacher, Sharon Kiveat (Karen Witter) who is married to his boss. Darren is an auto mechanic at Kiveat's Auto Body, and he is mired in a dead-end job with no hope of advancement and no hope of attaining a slice of the American Dream. He reads Playboy magazine, even though he has no hope of ever meeting a Playmate, and he hangs out at the video arcade. The hopelessness of his life gives way to the fantasy that Mrs. Kiveat will love him because of his special power. In fact, his entire life is consumed by fantasy. He imagines Mrs. Kiveat returning his love, and he escapes his meaningless existence in the fantasy world of video games. And he convinces himself that he is more than he is because he can harness lightning. Every time he is snapped back to reality, he reacts with more hostility.
It was tempting to view "D.P.O." as a love story. But the more I thought about it, "D.P.O." was a love story in much the same way that "Fatal Attraction" was a love story. Most schoolboy crushes fade with time. But not this one! Darren, for lack of another diversion and for lack of maturity, refuses to let go of the fantasy that Sharon will leave her husband for him. In a fine performance, Ribisi demonstrates a richness of character that is rarely seen on the small screen in a one-shot guest performance. One moral that writer Howard Gordon seems to be trying to emphasize is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and Ribisi is brilliant in conveying that message. Compare the shy, retiring D.P.O. in the marvelously chilling opening sequence with the defiant, egomaniacal D.P.O. who kills his friend Zero (Jack Black) and then Sheriff Teller (Ernie Lively) at the climax. His thirst for power is actually a thirst for the one thing he believes will help him win the heart of his obsession; and the more his powers grow, the more his fantasy grows. It's a vicious circle, and it's a poor, undereducated young man who succumbs to the allure of the self-induced fantasy.
David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson turn in solid performances as our favorite F.B.I. agents. They really work together in this episode, trying to unravel the mysterious deaths of four young men (and, later, three cows) in rural Oklahoma. Each shines in individual moments, but it is when they are together on screen that the air is charged with you-know-what. The playful banter during the plaster of paris scene was as natural as breathing, as was the following scene where Mulder's penchant for pornography is good-naturedly jibbed. "D.P.O." was an episode where the partnership dynamic was displayed in full force with style and humor.
Karen Witter was certainly attractive as Sharon Kiveat, although I found her grieving wife routine ("I can't do this now! I have to be with my husband") to be somewhat tiresome and repetitive. Jack Black played Darren's (only) friend and confidante Zero with an understated verve. Black's emoted sincerity at his denial that he told the FBI anything and his assertion that he would never betray his friend rang true. Ernie Lively as Sheriff Teller played your standard issue, call-central-casting-and-get-me-a-resentful-local-lawman with a nice touch. His scientific knowledge from daily breakfasts with the local government lightning experts helps to, uh, ground his defense of his town in scientific fact. He was also allowed to play the voice of reason when he explained why Darren's arrest would never hold up due to lack of evidence.
But the real star of "D.P.O." was Giovanni Ribisi. His characterization of a loser who inexplicably becomes endowed with unearthly powers and who uses them to try to win his love/obsession was a tour-de-force. The depth of his characterization was never more pronounced as when you look at his demeanor in the opening sequence as the kid who got beat up every day for his lunch money and the omnipotent, unfeeling murderer of his friend, standing high on the roof, looking down.
That scene was also marked by what I thought was some subtle symbolism. As Zero fell to the ground, tokens for the arcade games were spilled all over the sidewalk. I took this to mean that Zero was but a token player in Darren's life in his quest to win the heart of Sharon Kiveat.
It's been a while since I've seen an episode where John S. Bartley was the director of photography and Graeme Murray did the art direction. They combined to provide an interesting contrast using light and darkness to demonstrate the dark recesses of Darren's soul and the light of his life, Sharon Kiveat. Director Kim Manners took a wonderfully subtle script from Howard Gordon and turned it into screen magic. Manners' style is not normally to my liking, but his work in "D.P.O." was thoughtful and provocative. Manners magnificently captured the superlative work of FX director Mat Beck and crew, and he elicited fine performances from the principal actors and an extraordinary effort from Giovanni Ribisi.
I would be remiss if I did not say that it's been some time since I haven't panned a Howard Gordon script. Usually, Gordon's scripts are filled with cardboard characters and derivative plots. "D.P.O." was a very original idea, and Gordon fleshed out his characters with depth and realism. With the possible exceptions of "Fallen Angel" and "Grotesque," "D.P.O." is his finest writing effort to date on The X-Files. "D.P.O." is one of those hidden little gems within a series that was much more appreciated with a second viewing. It wasn't perfect, but it had style and charm and it was entertaining. And isn't that why we watch in the first place?
My Score: 9 out of 10