REPOST -- CTP Episode of the Day - 05.05.06 - Release

Today's Cherished Episode: Release (9x16)
Original Air Date: May 5, 2002
Written By: David Amann
Story By: John Shiban and David Amann
Directed By: Kim Manners

One of Scully's students displays an inordinate ability to profile serial killers. And his insights re-open the murder case of Doggett's son.

"I want to know what happened to my son."

Some "Release" Tidbits & Musings:

-- Title: If there hadn't already been an episode titled "Closure," that probably would have been the title of this episode. The title refers to Agent Doggett finally being able to "release" or let go of his feelings regarding his son's murder. The last act of the episode is subtitled "Release" as Doggett and his ex-wife scatter their son's ashes in the ocean.

-- "Release" was the 16th episode filmed, but aired after the 17th episode filmed, which was "William."

-- In "Release," Scully taught a class, which was what she was *supposed* to be doing all along during Season 9.

-- "Release" contained references back to incidents that occurred in Season 8's "Empedocles" and flashbacks that occurred in Season 9's "John Doe."

-- Oopsie! "Empedocles" established that Luke Doggett was killed in 1997; in "Release," the box containing Luke's ashes indicated that Luke was born on January 9, 1986, and died on August 13, 1993.

-- The symbol from "The Gift" was tacked on the bulletin board behind Doggett when he was sitting at his desk.

-- The song "Hit Girl" by Deborah Poppink is featured in the episode.

-- After graduating from UCLA, Jared Poe had a Writers' Guild of America minority program internship with the writing staff of The X-Files. While there, he asked executive producer Frank Spotnitz if he could audition for a guest acting role on the show, as he wanted to experience the audition process. Spotnitz "honestly didn't expect for a second that Jared was going to get the part," because the role Jared auditioned for was a very large part and Poe had no acting experience. But Poe beat out 30 other actors for the part of the brilliant but schizophrenic FBI cadet Rudolph Hayes in "Release," surprising the rest of the crew as well as himself.

-- Poe has had a few more acting roles since his X-Files experience. He has appeared in small roles on Firefly, Angel, CSI: New York, and Alias.

-- Once & Future Retreads: Barbara Patrick (Barbara Doggett) played the same role in "John Doe." Victoria Gallegos played a Receptionist in "Per Manum" and Follmer's Secretary in this episode and "Nothing Important Happened Today II." Sal Landi (Nicholas Regali) was Detective Kadri in "Closure" and Agent Landau in "Without." Mandy Levin (Ellen Persich) was Angie in "Alpha."

-- Robert Patrick has the distinction of being the only actor killed on screen by all three of the Planet Hollywood founders: Bruce Willis in Die Hard 2 (1990); Sylvester Stallone in Cop Land (1997); and most famously, by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).

-- The appearance of the character Dale Gribble on the animated series King of the Hill is based on Robert Patrick.

-- When the announcement was made in January 2002 that The X-Files would come to an end in May of that year, Robert Patrick was asked if there was anything in particular that he would like to see resolved in terms of his character or the show before the series came to an end. Said Patrick, "Well, some of the stuff that I wanted to have resolved involved the death of Doggett's son. That's been the big driving focus -- what actually happened to his son -- and that is going to air ["Release"]. I think Doggett would like to see those that are involved in the conspiracies within the FBI exposed and he'd probably like to confront them. I think he'd be happy about that. And I, like the fans, would like to see Mulder and Scully get together, be together."

-- Robert Patrick had made more than 50 films when he decided to seek steady work in television. "I had never done much television," Patrick said. "But after my experience as a guest star on The Sopranos, I thought it would be kind of nice to have something on a steady basis, instead of going from gig to gig, unemployed, employed, back and forth. And then I got X-Files. I had no idea when I told my agents that I wanted to do television -- that I wanted to find a nice role to do on television -- that it was going to be such a wonderful experience and opportunity. And I was really grateful for the role of John Doggett."

-- "The role was something I don't think I could have written better for myself," Patrick said. "They wrote a great character and it was fun playing a guy that loved America, loved his job, and believed in doing the right thing. Doggett had a lot of codes that he lived by, and I think it was a throwback character. I played a lot of villains in my career, so it was exciting for me to be a good guy for a change. When I put on my John Doggett suit and went to work, it felt so right. When I was doing the show, I don't think I had been that happy in a long time. I woke up every morning very excited about going to work. It was very rewarding."

-- "Chris Carter was just a fantastic guy," continued Patrick. "I enjoyed working for him immensely. He created a fantastic thing, and I was thrilled to have been a part of it."

-- "The best part about The X-Files was the crew," Patrick said. "The crew was an exceptional family and to go to work with a bunch of people that you really like was great. They were the best of the best and tried to do the best job they could. I miss that."

-- Of his X-Files co-stars, Patrick said, "Gillian Anderson is a great gal -- a total professional. That she was able to be very focused and dedicated to the work after so long in the role was incredible. She was a hard worker and was amazing to watch. She was also a lot of fun. Annabeth Gish had a great laugh. It was always fun to get her laughing on the set. I would absolutely love to work with her again. And Mitch -- Mitch Pileggi killed me. He was hilarious. He was also very supportive. If I was in trouble on the set or if I felt like I was looking for something and couldn't find it, he was a guy I could go to and talk it out with. It was great to feel that way. I felt a great chemistry with him."

-- Patrick also felt a great chemistry with David Duchovny. "I think we showed that we were two guys that understood each other, even though I was the knee-jerk skeptic, more or less, and he was the believer," Patrick said of Duchovny's return for a few Season 8 episodes and the series finale. "I think we had a respect for each other that permeated some of the shows that we had while we were on there together. And we seemed to work well together. I actually thought we had really great chemistry and I know for a fact that David thought we did as well. During one episode we did, he said, 'S---, this is kinda cool. It's kind of like Butch and Sundance.' And I couldn't have agreed more."

-- "I didn't know David before I came on the show," Patrick said. "I knew his wife Tea -- we met back in 1991 or 1992. Tea and my wife got along well, so it was only a matter of time before I met David, but it just happened that it was on the show. We had a ball doing the episodes we did together, and we got along great. I knew we'd get along great when he knocked on my trailer door one day and said, 'Let's go play stickball.'"

-- "When I came on the show, I never felt that I was replacing David and I never approached the role that way," Patrick recalled. "And I know David didn't feel that way either. But a lot of the fans did and they weren't too excited about me being there, which was hard. It's a tough enough profession to deal with the rejection from people you're trying to get jobs from, but to have the fans reject you too ... well, it was tough. But I looked at it that mine was a new role that was being brought on the show and I did the job that was asked of me, which was to be John Doggett. And David was very supportive. He said to me, 'Hey man, you've got a great job. You're doing a great job. Just have fun with it.' And that's what I tried to do."

-- "It was great writing, a great crew, and a great cast," said Patrick. "It was a wonderful experience. I was so lucky to be able to say that I wanted to do television and to have had this show be my first opportunity as one of the leads in a one-hour drama. The X-Files was a very rare show. I don't think there will be another show like it around for a while."

-- Robert Patrick has been quite busy since The X-Files ended. He has done guest appearances on television in Stargate: Atlantis, Lost, and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. He's played the father of two music legends -- Vernon Presley in the acclaimed television miniseries Elvis and Ray Cash in the Oscar-winning biopic on the life of Johnny Cash, Walk the Line. And he's appeared in several motion pictures including Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Ladder 49, Firewall, Flags of Our Fathers, and We Are Marshall. Patrick can currently be seen as Colonel Tom Ryan in the CBS series The Unit.

-- Annabeth Gish has also been keeping busy since the series ended. She appeared in a recurring role on The West Wing, in the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie Candles on Bay Street, and is a regular on the acclaimed Showtime series Brotherhood in which she plays Eileen Caffee. Annabeth's most important production since The X-Files shut down was the birth of son Cash Alexander Allen, born to Annabeth and her husband Wade Allen on January 12, 2007.

(Thanks to chrisnu for today's pics.)

Please share your first impressions, favorite (or cringe-worthy) moments, classic lines, favorite fanfic, nagging questions, repeated viewing observations, etc., as today we celebrate "Release"!

Polly