“Release” finally settles a major plot mystery: John Doggett’s
son’s death. Doggett, always tormented and unable to forgive himself for not
solving the case after nine years, keeps the ashes of his son in his closet,
the date of birth and death a reminder that he was taken far too soon. A cadet
at the Academy, named Rudolph Hayes (Jared Poe), sullen, matter-of-fact, his
face often tilted downward, offers direct observations regarding a victim on
Scully’s slab during a live body examination (one of those students training
sessions where the professor asks them for their opinions on the victim, how he
or she died, and any other evidence they might see available to them), sure and
confidant. Scully is impressed, eventually connecting the case of a female
victim found in a ditch and another victim found by Doggett through a tip
inside a tenement wall (the rats gnawing on her legs how he knew where to
look). This leads them to profiling a suspect, although Hayes assures Doggett
and Reyes that who they have on their radar is not the killer. Instead Hayes’
specific description and profile of the man he thinks is the killer (someone
who has killed many times) leads Doggett and Reyes to a mob thug tied to
organized crime in New York, never indicted for anything heavy, seemingly
always kept out of prison although he is the right candidate for hard time.
Doggett returns to his long-suffering wife, Barbara (Barbara Patrick, Robert’s
real-life wife), wanting her to take a look at a lineup, with the suspect,
Rigali (Sal Landi, the kind of creep that will make your skin crawl, the kind
of mob enforcer that keeps folks awake at night), not familiar to her. Later,
when Brad Follmer (Elwes, returning after some absence in the season) is
revealed to have taken money from Rigali (Reyes remembers the bribe, reminding
him in his office with Patrick standing off to the side), he informs Doggett
that Hayes isn’t who he says he is.
Patrick’s best episode alongside “John Doe” (in my opinion,
anyway) gives his Doggett finally a reprieve. He can now move on thanks to Brad’s
putting to rest a far-too-long alliance with such a vile cretin as Rigali who
tells him their association will only end when he decides so. While Hayes, with
photos of unsolved crimes (including chilling ones with Doggett’s son), tacked
to his wall, is proven to be a schizophrenic under a false identity who was
able to get into the FBI Academy, his work to help Doggett (mental patients
obsess, Stuart Mimms, his real name, tells Scully) find closure proves to be
not in vain. In the episode’s most chilling scene, Rigali pretty much tells
Doggett he killed his son because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time…the
kidnapping pedophile had taken the kid off his bike to a location Rigali eventually
arrives to, unable to let anyone who can identify him some place he shouldn’t
be live. As Doggett looks to execute him in revenge, Brad serves as a
surrogate, shaking with gun in hand as Rigali lies on the sidewalk with an eye
pulverized by the bullet.
Brad, to me, is such a disappointing character in the ninth
season. It just felt like he was meant to serve a much grander purpose on the
show but by the end of the ninth season he seemed to just emerge as a mild
antagonist, a bit of a compromised jerk who made it to Assistant Director
through the right connections. He sits in his car with Rigali in the passenger’s
seat, knowing that this monster possibly murdered Doggett’s son, clearly
rattled by such knowledge. Rigali, emboldened by years of evading prison and
how corrupted Brad is, can carry himself so braggadociosly. And until Brad actually took it upon himself
to put an end to it, Rigali could walk around without a care in the world.
I don’t want to fail to mention a great dialogue scene
between Reyes and Doggett about Hayes. Gish’s eyes well up as her Reyes tries
to ground an optimistic and driven Doggett into not getting his hopes up too
high because Hayes sends him on a chase of Rigali. Murders of these women, the
tip eventually tied to Mimms, and Doggett never even considering Rigali a
candidate for his son’s death; Reyes tries to distinguish the facts from
speculation, that details that might be similar nonetheless aren’t concretely
exact. I just loved how Reyes admits she can’t possibly understand what Doggett
has endured but recognizes why he won’t stop. But she doesn’t want him to put
so much stock in what Hayes tells him without approaching what they know for
sure with careful investigation. Ultimately, though, Hayes’ “received messages”
seem to lead to the truth! Maybe that part of the overall story remains a bit
enigmatic (is he really hearing the dead talk or as Doggett implies that he
might be just a little nuts?) but the acting by all involved is so good I could
live with that without too much problem. Patrick’s roller coaster performance,
the highs of maybe finally getting justice for his son to the lows of Hayes
perhaps just being a loon with no real merit to anything he says, is laudable
and phenomenal…you get hope and disappointment, desperation and concern, misery
and horror, and eventually relief and the ability to finally grieve. Robert’s
wife, Barbara, offers a performance that communicates a sense of acceptance in
the years of no arrests and a lot of dead ends, as the cold case just distanced
and eventually fractured the marriage, her Barbara just wanting an end to the
case if for Doggett’s well being and emotional health. The recall to the
possibility of romance between Reyes and Doggett is implemented in the episode
when Barbara comments to Scully that they could become an item if her
ex-husband would just let it happen. Scully returns to her role of helpful
ally, with Doggett once again the central focus. The episode features chapter markers like "The Tip" to separate the different parts of the ongoing story development. 4/5
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