Season 8, Episode 6: Redrum

Synopsis

A prosecutor named Martin Wells, who is familiar with Doggett, is confused when he wakes up in a Baltimore jail cell with a gash on his face. As he is transported out with Doggett and Scully assisting, Wells' father-in-law shoots him. Time begins to run in reverse as he dies. On Thursday, one day before, Wells wakes up alive and discovers that he has been charged with his wife's murder, which occurred on Monday. He is denied bail but the judge allows him to be transferred, much to Wells' horror since he thinks he may have had a premonition of his own death. He also firmly denies having committed the murder, but is dismayed to see himself show up on a "nanny cam" that he asks to be retrieved from his home.

Wells finds himself another day back in time, minus the gash, and realizes that he's going backwards. He gets harassed in prison and a man with a spider's web tattoo slashes his face. Doggett and Scully meet with Wells, but Doggett isn't buying his theory and Scully is skeptical that they'll be able to help at all. Wells keeps having flashbacks of the murder and finally realizes who committed it when he glimpses the spider's web tattoo. Wells wakes up Tuesday at Doggett's place and gives him a description of the perp, but no one matching it is in prison. Wells figures he shows up there later, and shows Doggett the nanny cam.

Doggett realizes that the timing is off and the tape of the murder must have been stolen. He and Wells visit the nanny's house and arrest the killer, Cesar Ocampo, after finding him there. Ocampo accuses Wells of illegally suppressing evidence in convicting his brother in a third-strike drug case, and refuses to make a deal because his brother has committed suicide in prison. Wells is arrested, but wakes up in a DC hotel on Monday before the murder is set to occur. He goes to Doggett for help, and finds the police at his apartment and his wife missing after the time the murder was supposed to happen. His wife returns and is attacked by Ocampo, but the would-be killer is shot dead when Doggett and Scully arrive. Wells is overjoyed as his wife is saved and time resumes its normal course, but three months later is serving a sentence for his other crime.

Joe Morton, who plays Martin Wells, also played Miles Dyson in Terminator 2 and plays Henry Deacon on Eureka. Anne-Marie Johnson, who is uncredited as Vicky Wells, played Althea Tibbs on the late 1980s show In the Heat of the Night.

Episode Body Count

Hector Ocampo: his brother, Cesar Ocampo, says he hung himself in a jail cell a couple of weeks before the episode's events.


Cesar Ocampo: shot by Doggett as he tries to kill Wells' wife.

Another alternate universe scenario, so Wells' own death, as well as that of his wife and a traffic fatality mentioned on the alternate Friday, won't be counted.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (167/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,746

Creatures: 116
Aliens: 63

Grand Total: 1,925