Grotesque
"To know an artist, you have to look at his art."
This is an…interesting episode. It definitely feels like an improvement over last week at the very least, and I will praise the episode’s acting and directing. Although, I know the content of the episode is dark, but they still could’ve used a tiny bit more lighting so we’re not squinting trying to see what the hell is going on here.
But, I do feel like the plot of this episode is a bit too meandering with a less than satisfying conclusion. It’s one of those where they are clearly trying to explore some of the psychology of “evil”, or what exactly it is that makes people commit horrible serial murders. These episodes can be hit-or-miss. The strongest we’ve had so far was “Irresistible”, with Donnie Pfaster being the seemingly completely normal, kind, guy next door who is actually a necrophiliac and serial killer. What’s so terrifying about him is that he is a normal guy by all appearances, and “evil” can lurk anywhere, with no deeper supernatural cause. However, often the show misses pretty hard when trying to explore psychology and genetics and what makes people violent. Also in season 2, “Aubrey” was very much trying to write about early criminal behavioral profiling and psychology, but then failed (in my opinion) by trying to connect violent behavior to genetics.
This episode is another one that falls into my rating of “eh, I guess that happened, sure”, but it’s not the masterpiece in my eyes that some reviewers felt it was. Again, David Duchovny was brilliant in the role he played as Mulder. But, that role felt out of place honestly given what the conclusion of the episode ended up being, and with the question of whether or not some “demonic spirit” was behind the events of the episode.
It’s a fine enough episode, and I guess actually it might be good that they didn’t dig too much into the psychology (since they often mess that up), and the true cause being left open to interpretation works well enough. Mostly, I wish we’d had time to get to know the ultimate killer more…instead of spending so much time watching Mulder act all weird for seemingly no reason.
Well. Let’s get into it.
The Case: Copycat Serial Murders?
The official FBI case here is actually pretty straightforward.
The episode opens on an art class at George Washington University. Not particularly important, but I get the sense this art class is kind of one of those “extension” courses that is open to the public, so you don’t need to be enrolled in the actual university. Which, actually, might be important considering our original serial killer is enrolled in this course and, uh, if he was an official GWU student I think he would’ve been easier to track down, perhaps.
We see students in a figure drawing class, with an art model posing for students of varying artistic stages, learning the techniques. All of them but one are drawing the man who is posing…except a frantic, disheveled man toward the back of the room. This man is indeed using the art model as a guide of sorts, but rather than drawing the man himself, he is sketching a demon-like figure. Complete with blood smeared on the face of the demon after our artist peels off the skin of his finger (🤮) as he’s sharpening his pencil with an exacto knife. No one seems to notice our slightly crazed man’s actions which…also seems fairly interesting that the “instructor” of this class isn’t doing any instructing, or critique of the students’ work?
This allows our crazed, frantic artist to walk off into the night…to unfortunately murder the poor art model. After the model has been purposely trapped, unable to get into his car because a pencil was inserted where they key would go. Very calculated murder we’ve got here.
I do imagine this last murder really tied our crazed artist to the series of mutilations, since this time he killed someone directly connected to a part of his life. And maybe someone in the class did notice their weird classmate. Whatever the exact connection was, our serial murderer (John Mostow) is arrested by a team of FBI agents in the second scene and brought into custody.
We learn from Mulder that Mostow has been arrested under suspicion of committing at least seven very violent murders, with the victims’ eyes punctured and faces mutilated, and the ultimate cause of death being massive blood loss. So, a very slow and agonizing death, and likely the work of a very angry or mentally ill individual intent on destroying…something very specific.
The murderer, Mostow, claims that he didn’t commit the murders himself. Rather, he has been taken over and possessed by some demonic spirit that drove him to commit these terrible acts. As Scully points out, claims of possession or demonic influence or simply being “controlled by another entity” aren’t terribly uncommon defenses brought up by criminals, particularly those with dissociative identities. I’m not a psychologist, but someone with a severe dissociative disorder very certainly could be seeing or feeling as if someone else is committing actions from their body, and feel out of control or unable to stop the acts from happening. Usually, the plea submitted will be “not guilty by reason of insanity”, although there has been one case where a lawyer did indeed try to argue for his client’s innocence, claiming he was possessed by demons.
The general consensus among the FBI agents was that Mostow was yet another mentally ill, possibly criminally insane, serial murderer just using “demonic possession” as an excuse or way of separating himself from the crimes he committed. Indeed, back in the Soviet Union, Mostow had spent years in a mental institution being treated for an unnamed disorder. And, again, while most mentally ill people in fact are not violent (people with schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder are in fact more likely to harm themselves or be the victim of violence than to harm others), the demonic possession as a “reasoning” for mental illness/criminal insanity would…make sense. Wouldn’t get Mostow off the hook for the murders, but would likely result at least in him being ruled unfit to stand trial and sent to a mental institution.
So, right now seems pretty straightforward: Likely mentally ill man committed very violent murders due to something in his mind telling him he needed to destroy and disfigure certain people. That’s not the end of the case, though. That would make for a very short episode. 😉
There has been another nearly identical murder of a young man, right down to the facial mutilations and eye gouging. Another murder, while Mostow has been in FBI custody for 5 days (and remains in custody). So, we have 3 options here:
A copycat. Immediately discarded as an explanation, as all details of the facial mutilations were held back in news reports. So, there’s no way a copycat murderer could’ve replicated those mutilations so exactly.
Mostow has/had a (human) accomplice. Someone who is still out there continuing to commit the terrible acts of violence.
There is some possible “truth” to the demonic possession, and now that demon is acting through someone else, continuing the murders…
Important to note that Mostow was captured thanks to the behavioral profile written up by the head of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit, Agent Bill Patterson. Agent Patterson’s own profile insisted that whoever the murderer was, he was acting alone. Patterson sticks to that conclusion when he first talks to Mulder, insisting there must be another independently acting murderer out there who committed the most recent murder while Mostow was in custody. Although, confusingly, Patterson will walk this back a bit later in the episode, insisting Mostow must have an accomplice he needs to name.
Regardless, at this point one thing is very clear. Despite all the hard work done in the last three years by Agent Patterson and his team, there needs to be a new set of eyes on this case. Either Mostow does have an accomplice, who was missed during the investigation, or there is some truth to this demonic possession, with the demon now passing on to the mind of someone else. Or…perhaps not a demon, exactly, but the demons in Mostow’s mind: Someone else driven mad by what they saw, what they investigated, now killing out of control just as Mostow did.
Gargoyle Folklore: Warding off Demons?
The unique thing about Mostow, which seems to do a pretty good job of demonstrating his mental illness, is that he has spent years frantically drawing sketches of demonic figures, which were found covering his bedroom when he was arrested, and which also cover his studio.
I’ll admit here that my first instinct was that Mostow was drawing over and over again the demonic figure he imagined was possessing him, and these drawings were some way of him trying to prove that the figure was real.
However, Mostow himself says that he draws the sketches not as a depiction of the demon he feels he is possessed by, but as a way of warding off evil. He is drawing not a demon or the devil, but gargoyles.
It is a popular belief that in the Middle Ages, gargoyles and grotesques on churches and other buildings warded off evil spirits. I can’t actually find any evidence that people in the Middle Ages or at other times truly held this belief. It seems to be a popular historical myth placed on these evil looking creatures to explain why a place of faith would adorn their building with what appear to be demons. The idea seems to be that demons or evil spirits would be frightened off by figures of other demons. Perhaps not wanting to fight a demon that already owns or guards a place? The most popular myth where a lot of these ideas came from is that of the French monster, a dragon called “La Gargouille”, who terrorized a town until the creature was killed by Saint Romanus. The creature was burned except for the head and neck, which were mounted on the wall of a church in town to ward off other demons. If this story were true (and not just legend), I suppose this example would make some sort of sense to warn other evil creatures. Something along the lines of “warning, this town is capable of protecting itself, we have killed creatures like you before, so don’t come here lest you meet the same fate”.
However. Again, a lot of these ideas that people used gargoyles in architecture to ward off evil spirits seem to be just theories by modern historians, who don’t actually have records that these beliefs were widely held. It’s just a common misconception that is still fairly widely accepted as historical fact.
I do want to note that gargoyles were originally installed on buildings for a very simple and practical reason: to divert rainwater away from buildings. Gargoyles were usually elongated to aid with the diversion of rainwater far away from the stone walls of the buildings to prevent damage to the intricate stonework. And, well, the fantastical designs very well may have just been artwork, so there weren’t just long stone tubes emerging all over the buildings. The term “gargoyle” derives from the French “gargouille”, meaning throat or spout, which also may have been imitative of the “gargling” sound water makes passing through a spout. Note, this word also shares a root with the English “gargle”. So, originally, even the term gargoyle just referred to the actual practical waterspouts constructed on buildings, and while I am not a historian, the French legend for “La Gargouille” very well may have come after the word was already being used. As a possible explanation someone wrote for why these waterspouts often took the form of demonic or grotesque figures.
Another note here: A gargoyle does specifically refer to architectural sculptures that have an opening and serve the purpose of diverting rainwater. In popular use, I think most people tend to use “gargoyle” for any demonic looking figure sculpted onto a building, but if the figure is merely a sculpture adorning a building, with no practical purpose for its placement or design, then that is architecturally referred to as a grotesque, not a gargoyle.
Hence, the title of this episode. 🙂
Gargoyles and grotesques are nonetheless widely theorized to have been used in architecture to ward off evil. Whether this belief was actually widely held in history remains, as stated above, unclear. I’m not going to dig deeply into religious history here, but again, from basic research, it appears to me that there isn’t all that much evidence for such wide beliefs in Medieval or Renaissance Times. It is quite likely that gargoyles came first for a practical use, designs were modified for artistic purposes, and other artists copied demonic or seemingly blasphemous designs even when just carving figures.
Regardless of whether people historically actually believed gargoyles and grotesque figures warded off evil, it does nevertheless remain a possible misconception today that such figures have that purpose. Soooo all that was basically a roundabout way of me saying this very much appears to be a modern theory/belief, but it is a popular one, and thus it does indeed make sense that a man such as Mostow, believing he is possessed by a demon, draws and surrounds himself with grotesque figures as a way to try to ward off or expel the demon inhabiting him.
The initial investigation seemed to only find all of Mostow’s drawings, which I have to say here is pretty poor work by Agent Patterson and his team. They didn’t seem to try to do any further investigation of the place Mostow lived.
Granted, Mulder and Scully do get “lucky”, as a cat jumps on Scully while they are in Mostow’s apartment (frightening Scully into thinking one of the drawings came to life), which leads them to find the small hole the cat entered through and then finding the door hidden behind some of Mostow’s drawings. But still. It’s been five days, and the original FBI team didn’t think it would be worthwhile to take down some of those drawings to see what other evidence they could find in Mostow’s home? It seems like Patterson found the knife that was the murder weapon, which is nice strong evidence, but then gave up on doing any further investigation of Mostow’s home.
Which is unfortunate, because what Mulder finds is that Mostow was not only drawing grotesque figures to ward off the demon he believed possessed him. And, further, Mostow had more than just the seven victims who were found mutilated. In the studio room behind Mostow’s bedroom, Mulder finds what first appear to be just actual grotesque figures sculpted in clay. Underneath that clay, however, are actual people: More victims of Mostow, fated not just for death but to act as gruesome protectors from evil. At least in Mostow’s mind.
Mulder Examines Mostow’s Art
It’s at this point that the episode starts to lose me. At first, the episode is going along fairly strong, and Mostow feels like the perfect sort of “X-files” monster, whether he is man or man possessed by demon. The killings are gruesome, the question of evil is brought up in an interesting way, and it feels like we might get a nice exploration of whether this evil is real, and can be spread to others, as Mostow believes has happened.
But then we get Mulder seeming to dive too deep into Mostow’s mind in order to understand the crimes and the criminal. He is following (his original and former mentor at the FBI) Patterson’s adage: “If you want to know the artist, look at the art.” Mulder is, we are told many times, an Oxford trained psychologist and was originally revered at the FBI as a criminal profiler. He does indeed seem like the perfect agent for this job.
Though, it remains unclear even until the end of the episode whether Mulder believes Mostow. Is he criminally insane, or is there such a thing as evil spirits that can possess people?
And I’ll just say it: Mulder’s actions themselves are insane, and incomprehensible to me. They don’t make any sense! Here, let’s just have a list of the wild things Mulder does:
Apparently, he takes home many of Mostow’s drawings and covers his apartment with them. I am at least making this assumption rather than believing Mulder somehow drew all of those in the two days (apparently) since Scully last saw him, though this isn’t actually explained. Of all his actions, this one is actually probably the most possibly sensible, if we are to believe Mulder really is just using them to explore Mostow’s mind and delusions. But even if that’s the case, why take them home, Mulder? Why not your office, you weirdo?!
(credit) Mulder then goes to Mostow’s secret gallery alone, at night. This by itself is very much “what the fuck”, but also not out of character for Mulder (or Scully, let’s be honest) exploring potentially dangerous places without backup. Though, what really gets me here is that there we are given absolutely no reason for him to go to the secret gallery. I think the idea is that Mulder believes either the second killer or the demonic spirit will come back there, which “explains” why he:
At the gallery, suddenly becomes a master artist and sculpts his own grotesque figure based on one of Mostow’s drawings before falling asleep in the gallery. No explanation for this bizarre action, but I do theorize that Mulder thought the killer (demonically possessed or not) would return to the gallery, and thus sculpted his own grotesque to ward off evil?
What is the most confusing part of all of this to me is why Mulder thought the killer, whoever or whatever they were, would return to the gallery. He does turn out to be correct, as he is attacked by a strange man…or creature. But what in his research led Mulder to believe Mostow’s studio—still an active crime scene—would be somewhere the (new) killer would return to?
Mulder will return to Mostow’s gallery, also alone, also at night, for a second time, after having a dream that he himself was the killer. This second time he explores alone is possibly even less sensible, though not entirely out of character, as Mulder knows at this point that his actions have concerned Scully (and Skinner) sooooooo why would you go again to an active crime scene, where you (based on a dream) believe another murder might have taken place? Learn how to call and ask for back-up, Mulder! Jesus Christ…
Personally, this whole middle part of the episode just felt like a meandering and bizarre twenty five minutes of watching Mulder himself seemingly go insane, before he suddenly realizes who the real killer is (more on that shortly). I will give credit to David Duchovny’s acting, as he does a really good job of portraying what appears to be Mulder’s own descent into madness but…I don’t really get it?
Mulder isn’t the real killer. There is a lot of suspicion thrown his way due to his odd behavior, as well as the murder weapon being found with Mulder’s fingerprints on it, at the scene of Mostow’s studio shortly after Mulder’s own attack (by an assailant no one else saw). And I will indeed grant that Mulder is acting mentally unwell and suspicious, but the very idea that he could be the second killer copying Mostow’s crimes also makes absolutely no sense. The first killing after Mostow was arrested and held in custody occurred before Mulder knew anything about the case. So, I don’t really understand why Mulder is put forward as a possible suspect? Perhaps the second mutilation post Mostow’s arrest could have been Mulder, I guess, but that first killing (post Mostow’s arrest) had to be someone else. Either someone else on Patterson’s team, who knew all the details of the mutilations and could replicate them, or I guess we believe the “demonic spirit” theory, and the spirit first possessed one person and then possessed Mulder.
I really do think the last twenty-five minutes of the episode could’ve been better spent elsewhere. The only explanation for the meandering view we get of Mulder seemingly descending into madness is to show how easy it apparently is to get sucked in by violent cases like this when one is desperate to solve the crime. And that’s fine, I guess, but it would’ve been more interesting I think to watch the actual murderer be affected and descend into madness. Instead of the conclusion coming in the final 4 minutes of the episode, tossed out there by Mulder having an apparent revelation as he faces his mentor at the scene of yet another murder.
Driven to Madness: Special Agent Bill Patterson
I really don’t have too much for the conclusion here, because it does come out of nowhere.
After Mulder has the dream where he himself is mutilating faces as Mostow does, he returns to Mostow’s studio again. There, he discovers a new grotesque statue…along with the same cat who led them to the secret room, leading Mulder this time to a dismembered arm. Very helpful spooky kitty.
A random cell phone then rings in the studio, likely that of whoever was murdered and dismembered. It turns out to be the phone of Agent Nemhauser, one of the agents on Patterson’s team, who had called Scully with apparent important information. So we have Scully and Mulder talking to each other, with Scully still very suspicious of and frightened by Mulder’s actions, and Mulder himself seeming very unsure of who could’ve killed Nemhauser, though remaining insistent that it wasn’t him. Even as he removes the clay from the new grotesque statue and discovers Nemhauser, killed, mutilated, and dismembered.
Mostly, I bring all of this up to emphasize that even up until the point when Mulder was uncovering the deceased Nemhauser, there is absolutely no indication that he has any idea of who the killer might be. It’s unclear if Mulder is also scared of his own actions and dreams, but he very certainly does not know who might have killed Nemhauser, or attacked the young man earlier, or who (or what) might have attacked Mulder himself.
But then, suddenly, we see Patterson also in Mostow’s studio. With his own hands covered in clay…as if he was also either sculpting or removing clay from someone.
And thus, the revelation! Patterson, the special agent in charge of the Behavioral Sciences Unit, is our second murderer. Driven mad by three years of investigation, spending hours and days staring at the mutilated victims of Mostow and trying to get in the mind of a killer. After spending so much time inside a world of evil, I guess the evil just couldn’t leave Patterson even once he caught his killer.
Look, on the surface, it makes perfect sense that it was Patterson or someone on his team that was the second killer, since they were the only ones who knew the details of the mutilations before the first (in the second string of) killing took place. It also isn’t entirely unreasonable to believe that a man as dedicated and intense as Patterson could be driven mad with stress during three years of unsuccessful investigation. Patterson is based off of one of the original FBI criminal profilers, John Douglas, whose own investigations caused extreme stress and took a psychological toll on him. That also isn’t unheard of and would be reasonable. PTSD is fairly common in homicide detectives, though this phenomenon has only recently been researched and treated.
But. Uh. Even if driven “insane” by such intense investigations of violent crimes, it feels like a stretch to come to the conclusion that such psychological trauma would cause an investigator to replicate the very crimes he was investigating.
This is actually one of the episodes where the more “fantastical” explanation would have been preferable to me. Especially as earlier in the episode, Mulder still seemed to hold so deeply to the possibility of possession by an evil spirit. Rather than saying Patterson just “went mad” and started committing murders he didn’t want to commit, stick to a more classic “X-file” explanation: The actual evil Patterson was investigating possessed him after the killer was caught. The evil spirit transferred from Mostow to Patterson, and the crimes continued for that reason. Sure, it’s not actually sensical or realistic, but honestly, that would be more satisfying to me than the vague, meandering explanation of Patterson being driven to madness.
Especially because that explanation gives us basically a second depiction of the (false) idea that mentally ill individuals are more likely to cause crime to others, rather than harm themselves.
I do suppose that in yet another roundabout way, the episode is trying to tell us that Patterson was possessed by evil. But to me, at least, it felt like the emphasis remained on “madness”, when evil would’ve been the more interesting conclusion here. An evil spirit transferring makes “sense”, in a way…while the transferring of Mostow’s “madness” does…not.
Notably, we also don’t see any evidence that Patterson has been so affected by his investigation. We spend twenty-five minutes watching Mulder apparently descend into his own madness, which I guess was supposed to depict how easy it can be to become consumed by a case such as this one. But to me, at least, it would’ve been much more interesting to learn more about Patterson. We hear that he is a tough mentor, we know he believes it is important to explore the mind of the killer to catch the monster, but we don’t see him at work. He is supposedly this huge legend in the FBI, who has investigated many violent cases and wrote the book on criminal profiling, but for some reason this particular crime led him astray and drove him to madness. Which we don’t actually see. What was he doing to investigate the crime? How did Patterson explore Mostow’s mind? What exactly was so different about this investigation, other than its length (although…3 years isn’t all that long as far as police investigations with little evidence go), that drove him to madness when so many others didn’t?
Really, the only possible explanation that makes “sense”, such as it is, is that there was some evil spirit inherent to these crimes that possessed Mostow, and passed on to Patterson, who also was powerless to stop his own crimes. Which, apparently, is why he requested Mulder (his star pupil, though they hate each other) to solve the crime and stop his uncontrollable actions.
The question of what really caused the crimes (both Mostow’s and Patterson’s) is left open to interpretation, particularly as we do see Patterson in his cell at the end of the episode insisting “it wasn’t me”. But is it mental illness, a brilliant investigator driven to madness? Is there evil in the universe, capable of pushing any man to violence? How can this evil truly be stopped, and investigated without succumbing to it oneself?
Our “Completely Platonic Coworkers”
Not too much here, except a couple of very sweet moments of Scully being scared for Mulder, and grudgingly (and silently) admitting that to Skinner.
Stop running off and ditching me, Mulder! You’re scaring me! (Of course…immediately after this, he ditches her again. So the message didn’t sink in.)
First, standing up for Mulder to their boss. Protecting him even though the evidence you found is suspicious.
But then finally remembering Skinner is (seemingly…) their friend, too. And yes, Mulder is scaring everyone.
Especially his girlfriend.
Finally, we have a sweet moment as Mulder helps Scully off the floor even after she was just pointing her gun at Mulder.
The X-Files is a Comedy
There isn’t too much here. We had one kind of awkward throw-away quip from Mulder regarding the mentally ill Uzbeki immigrant murderer:
“You thought all they produced were great hockey players.”
And then we have kind of a mix between haha and “OMG these two are totally married, Scully is fed up with him” as she exasperatedly berates Mulder about turning his cell phone off.
I dunno, maybe perhaps not really “funny, haha”, but also doesn’t really fit anywhere else and I need to include it because their close relationship and Scully constantly being exasperated with Mulder ditching her and running off (especially after “I didn’t ditch you!” last episode) did make me chuckle:
The 90s™
Nothing glaring here, either. Although it would be even more unheard of today for anyone to turn off their cell phone, rather than merely putting it on silent. Does anyone turn off their phone anymore? 😅
Goofs/Bloopers/Fun Facts
I actually don’t really have a ton here. The one production fun fact I found about the episode was that city workers began tearing up a sidewalk with no notice at the site where the opening scene was filmed, and the construction at that site was completed with only two hours to spare before filming began.
Not too many “goofs” either, no glaring geography or timing or incorrect fact errors. As probably came through, I do think the episode overall is a bit messy and too meandering with the story, with the “conclusion” wrapped up in the last like…3 minutes of the episode and yet…not really coming to a conclusion. It’s not the messiest of plots, and it does kind of work overall. No big errors I can comment on, just a bit frustrating.
I do have two comments though of things that seemed out of place:
What exactly was the point of Mostow having bitten Agent Nemhauser during the arrest? Very possibly it was added in there by the writers to throw off the viewers, but I definitely thought at that point that the episode was going to go in a different direction. With Mostow’s bite transferring the “demonic spirit” to Nemhauser or something? I mean, look, granted, that’s an insane story, but honestly would’ve made more sense to me than how the story ended. It’s an “X-file”, after all, transferring of a demonic spirit would be expected. But instead, we get a vague explanation of Agent Patterson being overcome due to three years of the investigation and losing his sanity. Orrrr the demonic spirit possessed him. One or the other, and they are fine enough explanations, although we don’t see any indications of Patterson losing his mind during the episode. Mulder just. Figures it out somehow?
I’ll grant that Mostow is fairly clearly criminally insane, and so the fact that he bit one of the people arresting him is also sensible and could just be an indication of how crazy Mostow is. It was mostly the fact that they had Scully notice the bite and comment on it again that made me think the episode was going in a different direction but. Nope.
OK, what the fuck happened to their giant flashlights? Why is Mulder only carrying around this teeny tiny flashlight? Especially because later in the episode both Mulder and Scully are back to having their giant illuminating flashlights.
Overall Thoughts/Summary
Episode rating: 6/10. This is a very middle-of-the-road episode. Even after watching it and digging in during this review, I’m honestly not quite sure how I feel about it. The story had a lot of potential, and I did appreciate the directing and David Duchovny’s portrayal of Mulder’s own semi-descent into madness as he was pulled into the case. But, while that was the highlight of the episode, I really do still feel like all that time we spent with Mulder would’ve been much better spent learning more about Agent Patterson and watching him descend into madness. What if he wakes up with hands covered in clay, frightened by his own actions? Why couldn’t we watch Patterson as he conducted his investigation, either before or after the arrest of Mostow? Overall, the revelation that Paterson was the killer felt much too sudden, with the only explanation being that he was stressed and dug too deep into the mind of the monster, becoming one himself.
As I said, this is one of the few episodes where I would’ve preferred a supernatural answer. While realistically such things don’t happen, the idea that the evil spirit possessing Mostow passed on to Patterson makes more sense than the vague psychology of evil/murder explanation we end up being given.
The episode gains another little bit in my ranking with Scully’s protectiveness of Mulder, even as she herself is scared of and for him. I loved her standing up to Patterson and basically telling him to fuck off and stop trying to mess with Mulder or make him prove something. Just look at her strut off to yell at a man:
I’ll also state here that at the very least, this episode was stronger than “Aubrey”, a similar story, though that one explored the “genetics” of evil and violence. This one is still messy and meanders around way too much, but we did come to a nice conclusion at least. So, I do have to rate this episode higher than the 5/10 I gave “Aubrey”.
X-files cases “solved” to date: At the very least, Mulder did solve this crime. Mostly by luck, finding Patterson with his hands covered in clay, and then suddenly realizing I guess that his former mentor was driven to madness.
8.5/11 cases for the season, 44/60 overall
We’ve had a couple of “what the fuck was that” (not in a good way) episodes, but next week we get to dive back into the mythology starting with “Piper Maru”. I remember really enjoying this next set of mythology episodes, so hopefully they hold up! We can look forward to the return of rat boy Krycek, and for those of you in the know, the first appearance of the black oil.