One of Scully’s Best ‘The X-Files’ Episodes Features Jodie Foster’s Weirdest Performance Ever
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Across The X-Files’ 11-season run, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) has had many iconic episodes, but one of her personal favorites — and one of the series’ more unconventional hours — came in Season 4. “Never Again” reveals a darker, more impulsive side of Scully, while also carrying a fascinating behind-the-scenes history. Written by iconic X-Files duo Glen Morgan and James Wong in their final episode before leaving to run Millennium, the story finds Scully at a personal crossroads, taking a rare solo case while questioning her place in the FBI and her partnership with Mulder (David Duchovny). What begins as an uninterested Scully on an investigation quickly spirals into a tense, bizarre and unexpectedly intimate character study, while also featuring a rare TV appearance from Oscar-winner Jodie Foster in a surprising role that perfectly matches the episode’s uneasy tone.
“Never Again” Was One of Scully’s Best Episodes in all of ‘The X-Files’
“Never Again” opens with tension between Scully and Mulder after a disagreement about her role in the X-Files. Feeling overlooked and frustrated with the direction of her life and career, Scully takes a solo case in Philadelphia and is convinced it’s a straightforward criminal matter. While investigating, she crosses paths with Ed Jerse (Rodney Rowland), a man desperate to remove his Bettie Page–style tattoo, which he claims is causing him trouble. Glen Morgan and James Wong, who had recently wrapped their short-lived sci-fi drama Space: Above and Beyond, often brought actors from that series into The X-Files. However, beyond that consistency, Rowland makes Ed Jerse memorable in his own right, balancing paranoia and charm in a way that immediately sparks with Scully.
After a tense phone call with Mulder, Scully accepts Ed’s dinner invitation, stepping into a risky connection she wouldn’t normally entertain, including getting a tattoo of her own. That tattoo becomes central to the case, as it’s revealed that the ink contains a rare toxin capable of causing hallucinations. For Ed, those hallucinations take the form of a voice pushing him toward violence, a role voiced with scene-stealing menace by Jodie Foster. The danger escalates quickly, culminating in Scully narrowly escaping becoming Ed’s next victim. It’s classic X-Files creepiness, but the real hook isn’t the paranormal element. It’s watching Scully let her guard down and showing some of the personal struggles she was going through.
What makes the episode so compelling isn’t just the creepiness of its premise or its clever stunt casting. It’s also one of Scully’s most revealing episodes, and one that Anderson has said was “a great idea”, according to Andy Meisler‘s book I Want to Believe. In an unusual scheduling twist, the episode that aired just before it, in which Scully learns she may have cancer, was originally intended to air afterward. This meant that, for audiences, “Never Again” felt like a raw reaction to devastating news, even though Anderson wasn’t playing it that way at the time. That accident of scheduling adds another layer of resonance to her performance, which is magnetic in its balance of impulsivity, vulnerability, and quiet defiance. As Anderson has said, she never saw Scully’s behavior here as out of character: “The only thing different is that the audience hadn’t seen it before.”
“Never Again” Is Also Remembered For the Iconic Casting of Jodie Foster
For all its focus on Scully, “Never Again” is also remembered for one of the most unexpected guest appearances in X-Files history. Jodie Foster, being the voice of Ed’s tattoo who goads him into hurting the women around him, is a fun addition to an already layered episode. The choice of Foster is especially intriguing, given that creator Chris Carter has cited The Silence of the Lambs’ Clarice Starling (the role that won Foster her second Oscar) as a major influence on the creation of Scully. Foster’s presence, even in purely vocal form, adds a fascinating meta-layer to the episode — one that sharp-eyed fans of both projects couldn’t help but appreciate.
At the time, Foster had largely stepped away from television apart from a brief Frasier voice role. Her involvement here reportedly came through her close friendship with casting director Randy Stone, and while the part is entirely vocal, it’s one of her strangest and most distinctive performances. She gives Betty a sultry, mocking, and manipulative edge, and, even though she’s not a typical monster or alien portrayed on a television show, she’s still an incredibly dangerous and deadly villain. In true X-Files fashion, her performance blurs the line between the psychological and the supernatural, leaving viewers to wonder how much of Betty’s influence is chemical and how much stems from Ed’s own instability. In a sly production nod, the episode even features an extra, Rita Bozzi, styled to resemble Foster’s Contact character, a knowing wink so uncanny that, even today, some fans still wonder if it was actually Foster making a cameo.
Behind the scenes, the episode almost had another high-profile collaborator: Quentin Tarantino was slated to direct but was sidelined due to a DGA dispute. While fans may always wonder how his style might have reshaped the story, the version we got, with Morgan and Wong’s sharp, character-driven script, Anderson’s layered performance, Rowland’s volatility, and Foster’s eerie voice work, became something wholly unique in the X-Files canon. Decades later, it remains one of the show’s boldest episodes, proving the series could be just as gripping when turning its gaze inward as when chasing the supernatural.
All seasons of The X-Files are available to stream on Hulu.
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