“Redrum” is episode six of season eight of The X-Files.
A man with a cut on his face wakes up in a prison cell. A guard arrives and tells him it’s time. Doggett and Scully are there and the man calls out to Doggett by name. Doggett and Scully say there’s a crowd outside and suggest waiting until it disperses before the transfer. The man is demanding to know what’s going on. He’s lead outside anyway in front of a crowd of reporters. And a man who shoots him several times. The prisoner is dying, watching Scully’s watch. Which stops, then goes backwards.
Thursday, December 7th, and the man wakes in the cell again. He checks for bullet wounds but has none. Doggett and Scully arrive at the cell and Scully asks him if he’s seen something before. The man, Martin Wells, asks Doggett what he’s doing here and who Scully is. Doggett doesn’t think much of the insanity defence. Scully holds up the item again, a key card, and Wells does recognise it. It’s like those used for his apartment building; it might even be his. He’s told it is his. It was found in the dumpster outside his hotel. Wells had just enough time to drive to Baltimore to commit murder and pretend his key card was stolen. Wells asks what murder. His wife’s.
Wells is driven to court where he sees the man who shot him, his father-in-law. Wells thinks it’s Saturday; he’s told it’s Thursday by his lawyer. There’s no court on Saturday; as a prosecutor, Wells should know that. The judge denies bail, but agrees to transfer Wells. Wells says he, meaning his father-in-law, will kill him if that’s done.
Wells asks to speak to Scully and Doggett. He says he doesn’t remember meeting Scully. The last thing he remembers is being shot on Saturday by his father-in-law. Perhaps a premonition. Scully agrees you do hear of those kinds of things. The last thing he remembers before that is being in Washington. Which was three days ago. Wells doesn’t remember anything between then and now, but says he didn’t kill his wife. Scully says is he sure, given he doesn’t remember anything.
After seeing his children, Wells asks for something to be brought from his children’s room. His lawyer brings a stuffed toy. It has a nanny cam inside. The tape shows Wells at the house.
Wells wakes in his cell, without a wound on his face. His lawyer and someone else have come to see him. Wells assumes this is about the nanny cam footage. They have no idea what he’s talking about. This is just to introduce Wells to his new attorney. Wells says they met yesterday at the bail hearing. The hearing is tomorrow. Wells is reassured by the attorney that the prosecution have a week case; they don’t have the key card. Later, in the prison yard, Wells gets the cut on his face.
Wells is living his life sort of backward; each day is lived forward but the days are in reverse order. His wife’s murder is getting closer and closer. And he’s having flashes of the attack. Each day, Wells speaks to Scully and Doggett – the episode is from his point of view, so they only appear when they meet Wells – but, of course, each day they don’t remember speaking, as it’s in their future. On the plus side for him, to external eyes he looks less and less guilty. The question is, is he truly innocent?