History Recap / TheXFilesS08E06Redrum

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->'''Wells:''' What day is this? What... day of the week... is this?\\
'''Tufeld:''' Wednesday. Wednesday the sixth.\\
'''Wells:''' Yesterday you told me it was Thursday. The day before that it was Friday. It's backwards. Everything's going backwards.

* BigDamnHeroes: Doggett swoops in just in time to save Wells' wife, gunning down her temporal murderer, thanks to Wells tipping him off.
* BittersweetEnding: More sweet than bitter. Wells successfully exits his reverse time situation and prevents the murder of his wife, but he has to admit to illegal conduct in the process and is thus sent to prison anyway.

Prosecutor Martin Wells (Creator/JoeMorton) wakes up in prison with no idea why he is there and is shot dead by his father-in-law at the beginning of the episode. As the week progresses, he realizes he is being sent through the week backwards, but does not know why until he meets with his wife's killer (Creator/DannyTrejo), the brother of a man who died in prison after Wells mishandled his case. He is able to save his wife, and confesses to his professional misconduct; the episode ends with him back in prison, this time for a reason he understands and awaiting a punishment he feels he deserves.

* BittersweetEnding: Wells successfully exits his reverse time situation and prevents the murder of his wife, but he has to admit to illegal conduct in the process and is thus sent to prison anyway.

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!!Tropes

Prosecutor Martin Wells wakes up in prison with no idea why he is there and is shot dead by his father-in-law at the beginning of the episode. As the week progresses, he realizes he is being sent through the week backwards, but does not know why until he meets with his wife's killer, the brother of a man who died in prison after Wells mishandled his case. He is able to save his wife, and confesses to his professional misconduct; the episode ends with him back in prison, this time for a reason he understands and awaiting a punishment he feels he deserves.

* BackToFront: Episode made use of this, but the central character was aware of it. He woke up in prison, not understanding how he got there. He goes to sleep that night, and wakes up the next morning to discover that he is going to trial, for the crime he was incarcerated for "yesterday".

'''Dogget:''' The first thing you're supposed to say is "What Nanny cam?"

-->'''Wells''': Trina, you knew about the nanny cam, didn't you? You told the killer about it, you must have given him my key card, too.\\
'''Trina''': Mr. Wells, I-I wasn't even there that night.\\
'''Dogget''': The first thing you're supposed to say is "What Nanny cam?"

* RevengeByProxy
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: A variation in the episode "Redrum". Prosecutor Martin Wells wakes up in prison with no idea why he is there and is shot dead by [[spoiler:his father-in-law]] at the beginning of the episode. As the week progresses, he realizes he is being sent through the week backwards, but does not know why until he meets with [[spoiler:his wife's killer. He is able to save his wife, but he goes to prison at the end of the episode for evidence suppression, a punishment he feels he deserves]].

* RevengeByProxy

* MerlinSickness: Wells briefly experiences time backward, starting with the day of his death, every day he goes to sleep, he wakes up the day prior, with only memory of what's happened afterward and not what's happened before. He has no idea what's going on the day he dies, but by the day of his wife's murder he's figured out enough of what's happened to be able to prevent it.

'''Dogget''': The first thing you're supposed to say is "What Nanny cam?"

-->'''Wells''': Trina, you knew about the nanny cam, didn't you? You told the killer about it, you must have given him my key card, too.
'''Trina''': Mr. Wells, I-I wasn't even there that night.

!!Tropes