It's Daryl Musashi
A deep cut footnote for fans of The X-Files.
The Season 7, Episode 13 "First Person Shooter" is not wildly heralded as a great episode of the series. But it has a stand out moment as it introduces the short lived character of Daryl Musashi.
In this scene, the team has called in an expert. The OG, boy wonder, a video game programer when he's not being contracted by the CIA. A big name so famous it sends a ripple of awe across those who know. Agent Muller utters his name with a heavy reverence, as if he isn't worthy.
Daryl walks with implied invincibility. A swagger like Patrick Mahomes or Brock Purdy. A professional at the pinnacle of his craft, a rock star of an admittedly smaller stage. Like Ellen Ripstein, Billy Mitchell, Karl Heinz-Hille, or Rosie Hughes. If you know, you know.
To Agent Scully, the solitary on-screen character who isn't savvy to the name, Daryl Musashi is empty and meaningless. A John Doe or Maru Maru. For all we know as the viewer, Daryl Musashi is a writer's room filler name.
Dig deeper. This name isn't meaningless. A well-studied X-Files writer finely wove an incredible erudite easter egg into the script. Daryl shares his surname with Miyamoto Musashi. Miyamoto was an unbeatable Japanese master samurai in the late 1500s. Renowned for his 62 duels with a double sword, he conceived the Traditional Japanese martial art Niten Ichi-ryū, a style of classical swordsmanship. Musashi goes onto to literally write the book on sword fighting.
Late in life, a week before succumbing to thoracic cancer, he bequeaths all his worldly possession and turns his focus to a deeper philosophical writing. In the Dokkōdō (or The Way of Walking Alone), he outlines 21 precepts on how to live a virtuous life. Stoic, centered, zen-like, and motivational in less than 180 words.
"Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world."
Miyamoto Musashi
The literary irony so expertly displayed in The X-Files, is that Daryl violates nearly all the precepts; taking himself far too seriously, underestimating the world around him, being misguided by lust, and straying from his Way. And while someone does indeed wield a sword in his final scene, unlike Miyamoto, Daryl is most certainly defeated in this story.
