The Obscure Song That Helped Create The Best X-Files Villain

Strictly speaking, Dourif’s ink in the X-Files episode “Beyond the Sea” is something of a double homage. Morgan was originally inspired by Harry Powell’s character in The Night of the Hunter, a man who famously had “love” and “hate” written across the knuckles of his respective hands. Wanting to do something a bit different, Morgan drew upon the “We’re Desperate” lyric “It’s kiss or kill” as a way of differentiating Dourif’s onscreen killer Luther Lee Boggs from Powell.

To hear the X-Files writer talk about this creative decision for “Beyond the Sea,” it sounds like he wasn’t exactly a superfan of the band in question. Instead, he “was trying to think of something other than love or hate and I thought that was kind of neat.” It’s hard to disagree with this assessment: while the tattoos are arguably the least memorable part of Dourif’s creepy performance, they help contribute to his overall image as an intimidating killer who has a fairly intimate connection to Scully. 

In order to understand the X-Files connection, it’s important to know what “Beyond the Sea” is all about. Scully’s dad dies shortly before she and Mulder have to visit a serial killer that Mulder busted years ago, a man who now claims to have psychic visions about a recent kidnapping that he will share in exchange for getting his death sentence lifted.

This leads to an interesting bit of role reversal where Mulder is highly skeptical about these so-called psychic visions while Scully considers taking them more seriously, especially after she starts seeing visions of her dead father, and this depraved killer may let the man speak to his daughter one final time.

As Glen Morgan most likely intended, The X-Files writer’s choice of tattoos for Dourif helps illuminate the duality of his character in “Beyond the Sea.”

Our erstwhile FBI agents arrive at a crossroads where they must decide whether this killer has genuine psychic abilities or simply orchestrated the kidnapping with his partner as a last-ditch effort to avoid getting executed by the state. He could potentially desire to finally save a life or simply save himself…a person who chooses love (symbolized by the “kiss”) or hate (symbolized by “kill”), a plot point that adds even more depth to an amazing performance.

Many X-Files fans never recognized the musical inspiration for this tattoo because it is hiding in plain sight: “Beyond the Sea” is named for a famous Bobby Darin song that plays in the episode itself. Because of this, the last thing anyone would expect is that the episode’s big guest star would have a tattoo named after yet another song. Incidentally, X is still around, and this punk band released their latest album earlier this month and is currently on tour.

The X-Files may be done for now. But the tunes–like the truth–are still out there for fans who want to relive the surprise inspiration behind one of the show’s greatest episodes.