Never Again

I fondly recall this episode being advertised as, “Tonight, we see a different side of Scully.”

The episode (S4E13) opens with a newly-divorced man, Ed Jerse, getting a tattoo of a pinup girl with the phrase “Never Again” underneath. The pinup girl’s lips are painted a vivacious red. The next day, Ed hears a woman’s voice (Jodie Foster’s) call him “loser” and he has a violent confrontation with a female colleague, who claims not to have said anything to him. Ed is eventually fired, and while on the phone with his superior, he hears the voice again. He thinks–for some unexplained reason–that the voice is coming from his downstairs neighbor and he goes downstairs, murders her, and throws her body into the furnace. 

Leonard Betts

Leonard Betts (S4E12) is a paramedic with an awesome secret. While out on a call, Leonard’s ambulance gets hit by a truck and he is decapitated. Scully & Mulder visit the morgue and see Betts’ head. Scully tries to do an autopsy while Mulder goes to visit Betts’ apartment, but there is nothing there and no one at home–at least as far as Mulder is able to see. The bathtub is full of Betadine solution and after Mulder leaves, Leonard emerges from the solution, having re-grown his head.

Sanguinarium

This episode (S4E6) opens in a hospital operating room where a patient is undergoing liposuction. Suddenly, the doctor begins stabbing the patient with the suction tube, removing so much fat that the patient died on the table. The doctor, Dr. Lloyd, claimed to be possessed during the surgery.  Scully, of course, isn’t buying his defense. Shortly after this, another doctor at the same clinic kills a patient by severing her spine with a laser. He claims to have no memory of doing this. 

Home

Sorry for the delay, Dark Dilettantes. I’ve been on vacation and immersed myself in watching The Wire, one of the greatest TV shows of all time.  An analysis of said show may come sometime in the future. But anyway, back to the current topic.

Anyone who ever watched The X-Files knows about this controversial episode (S4E2). It was the first X-Files ep to receive a TV-MA rating due to the content and only aired once on the network. It was a definite first for the series. Mulder & Scully are dispatched to a small town after the deformed body of a dead baby is found.  The baby is found on the property of the Peacock family. The sheriff, Andy Taylor, tells them all about the family and how/why they’re isolated from the rest of the town.

Die Hand Die Verletzt

This episode (S2E14) has Mulder & Scully go to Milford Haven, New Hampshire to investigate the mutilated body of a teenager found in the forest. Locals told the agents that there were kids in the forest attempting to summon demonic forces. At the same time the agents arrived, a substitute teacher by the name of Mrs. Paddock appears on the scene. Strange things begin to happen; the coolest of which are frogs falling from the sky and water swirling opposite the Coriolis force.  

A small group of faculty members at the local high school turn out to be devil worshippers. It appears that they’ve gotten distracted and lazy in their worship, and they believe that the murder and strange happenings in their town are due to their lapsed faith. They realize that to appease Satan, they have to make some sort of sacrifice.

The Host

This episode (S2E2) introduces us to the “Flukeman.” Mulder is assigned to investigate a case where a half-eaten body was found in the sewers. Mulder is annoyed that the X-Files have been shut down, and brings that attitude to the current case. He convinces Scully–now working at Quantico–to perform an autopsy on the body. Scully discovers a fluke worm in the man’s liver.  

Darkness Falls

This episode (S1E20) finds Scully & Mulder in a forest in Washington. A group of loggers have disappeared, reminiscent of a previous disappearance in that same spot in 1934. This makes it an X-File, and of course Mulder’s all over it. While investigating in the forest, the agents, a U.S. Forest Service agent, and the logging company security chief, come across a felled old growth tree–a tree that should not have been cut down. Embedded in the tree’s growth rings is a dark green substance. It turns out that the green substance is a swarm of insects that attack at night and encase their victims in spider-like webs. 

"Ice"

“Ice”(S1E8) gives off definite The Thing vibes. Mulder & Scully are sent to a research center in a remote part of Alaska, along with some scientists. They are there to investigate the deaths of the research facility staff. The staff, a team of geophysicists, were drilling ice cores and researching the samples. The team soon learns that there is some sort of violent parasite that infected the staff and likely led to the mass murder & suicides. Mulder thinks that the parasite is alien and wants it kept alive to study it, but Scully ain’t hearing any of that shit. While investigating, Scully learns that two worms in the same host will kill each other.

"Squeeze/Tooms"

“Squeeze” (S1E3) introduces us to Eugene Victor Tooms, a strange little creepazoid played to the hilt by Doug Hutchinson. Tooms is a mutant who has the ability to stretch and elongate his body.  He uses this ability to break into victims’ homes in order to consume their livers. The episode begins with Tooms stalking a businessman, eventually entering his office via the ventilation system and murdering him. The case baffles the FBI Agent assigned to the case. Fox Mulder recognizes similarities between the instant case and X-File cases from 1963 and 1933, and warns the agent in charge that there will be two more murders. But no one takes Mulder seriously and another person dies.

My X-Files Tribute

Hey Dilettantes!  Welcome to my second annual science fiction celebration!  This year, I will pay homage to one of my favorite shows of all time, Chris Carter’s magnum opus, The X-Files.  I got hip to it in college and it got my full attention. Back then, the show aired on Friday nights at 9:00 p.m., on Fox. The X-Files was such a cool show and it appealed to me in ways most shows didn’t. You might say that it helped shape the way I think about certain things. Either way, I was a die-hard X-Phile. The episodes were just so…weird.

The first ep I recall watching was S1E14’s “GenderBender,” which was about a series of homicides committed by a being who could switch between female and male forms. I was hanging out in a friend’s room and asked her roommate what she was watching and she told me. I recall Mulder’s last words to Scully for that episode: “…they have no earthly means of transportation!”

I started watching the following Friday and it did not take long for me to get hooked. I was all in with Mulder & Scully, and eventually I got my hands on the episodes I missed and watched them as soon as I could. And eventually, I bought the entire series (well, the first 9 seasons) on DVD.  I still have my collector cards that came with the purchase. This show (the first run, at least) was legendary.

So I’m going to spend the month of March 2022 celebrating my most favorite episodes of The X-Files.  Join me, if you will…

Also, spoiler alert!