The X-Files: The Host Rewatch
March 22, 2020 9:05 PM - Season 2, Episode 2 - Subscribe
Skinner relieves Mulder of his surveillance duty and sends him to Newark, New Jersey, to look into the matter of a Russian's body found dead in a sewer.
Who doesn't love the fluke man? The MOTW episodes were always so much more creative than the mytharc ones.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:19 AM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 11:19 AM on March 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
This is another episode that succeeds wildly with deeply unsettling body horror. Guy gets bitten and then later in the shower starts coughing up flatworms and blood, then dies? Nightmare. Looking down into a portable toilet and seeing eyes staring back up at you? Stop, just stop X-Files. I love it.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 1:03 PM on March 23, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by lefty lucky cat at 1:03 PM on March 23, 2020 [5 favorites]
Mulder was being a dick to act like his assignment was a waste of his time or an insult to his intelligence. Hello, someone was murdered!
The Flukeman suit was seriously fucked up -- a gold star to whomever designed it. I still remember the horror of the moment in the show that we're given our first good look at it.
In the cold open, the combined efforts of *three men* can't save their co-worker, but Mulder manages to save the sanitation manager guy by himself.
Why the hell was Flukeman shipped off "for psychiatric evaluation" in the care of only *one* freaking U.S. marshal, who was driving? That seems a little contrived to me. Surely they would have taken more precautions than that. They must have realized how incredibly strong Flukeman was.
The Live Bait sign was a nice bit of black irony.
Mulder and Scully make a lot of declarations to each other about the risks they'll take or what they'll sacrifice for each other, about how much they trust each other. This episode Mulder tells Scully that working with her is the only reason he can think of to stay at the FBI, and she tells him that if he left she'd "consider it more than a professional loss". This show existed before calling someone your "work spouse" became a thing, or they'd totally have been riffing on that.
posted by orange swan at 4:53 PM on March 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
The Flukeman suit was seriously fucked up -- a gold star to whomever designed it. I still remember the horror of the moment in the show that we're given our first good look at it.
In the cold open, the combined efforts of *three men* can't save their co-worker, but Mulder manages to save the sanitation manager guy by himself.
Why the hell was Flukeman shipped off "for psychiatric evaluation" in the care of only *one* freaking U.S. marshal, who was driving? That seems a little contrived to me. Surely they would have taken more precautions than that. They must have realized how incredibly strong Flukeman was.
The Live Bait sign was a nice bit of black irony.
Mulder and Scully make a lot of declarations to each other about the risks they'll take or what they'll sacrifice for each other, about how much they trust each other. This episode Mulder tells Scully that working with her is the only reason he can think of to stay at the FBI, and she tells him that if he left she'd "consider it more than a professional loss". This show existed before calling someone your "work spouse" became a thing, or they'd totally have been riffing on that.
posted by orange swan at 4:53 PM on March 23, 2020 [4 favorites]
Flukeman is wonderful, great MOTW episode.
Why does Scully's (?) office have a lighted cabinet full of chemistry glassware? The random glassware and half a styrofoam carton of 50mL Falcons I understand (and that is definitely a metal martini shaker), but a lighted presentation cabinet?
Is she concerned that the interns/ grad students are going to steal those flasks (and graduated cylinders - foiled, so presumably autoclaved otherwise there is no need inside of a cabinet) to make bongs with?
Those random bottles of old reagents sitting on the shelf (no MSDS in sight) is a big no-no in an office area.
Did like that Skinner is trying to let Mulder know that he isn't really a bad guy, but he has to keep up appearances in order to protect Mulder.
posted by porpoise at 3:25 PM on March 29, 2020
Why does Scully's (?) office have a lighted cabinet full of chemistry glassware? The random glassware and half a styrofoam carton of 50mL Falcons I understand (and that is definitely a metal martini shaker), but a lighted presentation cabinet?
Is she concerned that the interns/ grad students are going to steal those flasks (and graduated cylinders - foiled, so presumably autoclaved otherwise there is no need inside of a cabinet) to make bongs with?
Those random bottles of old reagents sitting on the shelf (no MSDS in sight) is a big no-no in an office area.
Did like that Skinner is trying to let Mulder know that he isn't really a bad guy, but he has to keep up appearances in order to protect Mulder.
posted by porpoise at 3:25 PM on March 29, 2020
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Darin, as you may know, went on to write some of the best damn episodes of the whole series, including the episode which won the show's only Emmy for writing.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:28 AM on March 23, 2020 [6 favorites]