202 THE HOST

"Eww! He's really moist!"
Tom Servo
MST3K
Teenage Crimewave

SYNOPSIS

ATLANTIC OCEAN - TWO MILES OFF THE COAST OF NEW JERSEY
WASHINGTON, DC
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY
LAKE BETTY PARK
Mulder and Scully are still separated, but they work as closely as they can to solve the mystery of something in the sewer system in New Jersey... which is pretty scary to imagine. A ship from Russia brought a little something over after being in Chernobyl, an astoundingly large Flukeworm who is looking for hosts for its eggs.

SCULLYVISION

Scully meets Mulder at nighttime across from the Washington Monument, once again harkening to All the President's Men, the primer for artistic paranoia. She's light and humorous while Mulder's about had it. He's got more years and personal goals invested in the X Files, so it's demise has him prickly. One thing Scully is in this ep is young again. Maybe it's her hair or maybe it's that pregnancy glow but she looks almost as young as she did in the Pilot. Young or not, Scully does not pull punches. When Mulder whines that he is struggling and thinking of leaving the bureau she says, "it's not as if you ever tried to fit in to the program."

Later, BestFriendScully does admit to Mulder that it would be more than a professional loss to her if he did leave. At one point she laughs out loud at Mulder's giant fluke theory, and then fondly points out they were going on just like old times. She misses what they had, but maybe didn't really realize it. She was being used to her full potential by the bureau, as opposed to Mulder, who they have working on wire tapping detail mostly.

Scully teaches Mulder a thing or two about flukes. Some nitpickers point out that Scully is not completely accurate but hey, it's close enough. She's a medical doctor not a flukeologist or even a parasitologist.

It's a little sad that LoyalFriendScully is paired with UngratefulPartnerMulder who actually accuses her of breaching confidentiality. Talk about paranoid! She reminds him it is the one thing she will never do.

SkepticalScully shows signs of evolving into LessSkepticalScully as she not only picks up and reads the tabloid that mysteriously appears beneath her door, but she believes the story of the Russian ship and it helps her to solve the case. And solve the case she does. No, she doesn't jump in the sewer to fight Flukie as Mulder does but come on, she's pregnant. Well, not Scully of course, Gillian Anderson. Anyway, without her, Mulder would have been up the sewer without a paddle. His theory: blood sucking worm. Hers: Chernobyl. And she was right!!

OH COME ON!

Considering Mulder is supposed to be a top notch investigator, why couldn't he see that Skinner's office was filled with bureaucrats before barging in inappropriately?

Scully requests to do the autopsy because she wants so much to help her ungrateful partner. However, Doctor Scully glosses over her own advice in Autopsy 101 of the previous episode (Little Green Men) and does not begin the autopsy with removing the cranium.

Hard to believe that a nurse would let an emergency patient go when he has an open worm-suck hole on his back, and that he took off his shirt at home and hadn't felt it.

The US Marshals only send a driver to transport an alleged double murderer, even if he is just a worm? And if he called for backup, why did he climb into the back to investigate the missing worm-man alone?

Flukie escapes when they have to move him out of Middlesex County Psychiatric Hospital to get a Psychiatric evaluation. What kind of Psychiatric hospital doesn't do Psychiatric evaluations? Perhaps the eval was one of those special Psych evals designed specifically for patients who are half flukes. You know, the ones where the ink blot really does look like your mother.

The ambulance driver called for backup in the early evening, and the backup or investigators don't get there until after 5 am? When the sewer drainer (would that be the poor man's title?) came to hose out the Porta-Potty, he didn't see an ambulance sitting on the side of the road with all the doors open and a shot gun bullet hole on it?

THINGS LEARNED
or All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From the X Files

Never flush a baby alligator in the toilet.

If you ever need to eat an entire tube of toothpaste, run, don't walk, to the nearest hospital. You've got a Flukie inside you!

U.S. Marshals have their own ambulance.

MULDERVISION

Still stuck on wire tapping duties and having to investigate a little matter in a sewer system, Mulder's really irritable. Mulder trudges down into the sewer convinced that they are intentionally sending him on one crappy job after another. It's a bad omen when as soon as he arrives to the crime scene, he's given a set of rubber boots. He doesn't even want the local cops to turn the corpse over so he can get a better look.

He goes to the man who assigned this latest "stinky" case, Skinner, to give him a piece of his insulted mind. Showing that at times his anger can get the better of him, Mulder demands Skinner's attention bad-mouthing the assignment, when Skinner's office is in fact, filled with suits.

He's at his wit's end with the bureau for tossing him bones, not using him for what they should be, and is snippy to Scully.

We can see that he's still deeply affected by the loss of Deep Throat, and is extremely skeptical (Yes, Mulder skeptical!) of a new informant who refuses to name himself and states that "reinstatement of the X Files is undeniable." (If it is, then what will be will be, solving one case won't do it) He will only identify himself as "a friend at the FBI." He even suggests that Scully, the partner who he should be trusting, set it up to make him feel better.

It was pretty courageous of Mulder to jump into the sewer channel after the worker who fell in and was being sucked or eaten when the water was in fact sewage(!) and couldn't see what was under there. Also, great fast thinking to drop the cut off on Flukie as he was climbing up to get out to sea, splitting him in half. But, wouldn't Mulder know enough that if this Flukeworm was capable of regeneration, that both parts would still be alive?

JACK'S MONSTERVISION

Ah yes, the Flukeman, mastermind extraordanaire, able to subtlety crush the mind of his victims with only a few choice words and impeccable timing. No wait, the Flukeman is a giant mutated fluke worm created on a Russian ship that lurks in the sewers and attacks people to host his eggs. Now being a giant mutated fluke worm, he still retains the characteristics of his smaller compadres all wrapped up in a nice, imposing and all around spooky humanoid form. For example he sports a large red sucker, scolex. He has the knack for getting into tabloids which you will see in season three. Most importantly, he has the ability to regenerate his body so dropping a grate on him won't work, Mulder!! He shall live forever!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... oh man I shouldn't write these late at night. Anyway for his regenerative abilities and the great episodes Flukie's portrayer, Darin Morgan, will write in the future, I give the Flukeman 5 out of 5 halves of itself.

SFX

The flukeworms in the episode are appropriately gross. Including Flukie himself, played by that excellently funny writer, Darin Morgan.

RECURRING CHARACTERS

Skinner, Kimberly

WRITER
Chris Carter

The man who's vision gave us the show, as well as some remarkable good, and extremely bad episodes from season one, Carter again wrote this exercise of man's abuse of nature. It is filled with little character quirks that are either reinforced or are first brought to light, as well as the deepening of the trust between Scully and Mulder. He also ably inserted as many toilet and sewer jokes than anyone needed to hear.

DIRECTOR
Daniel Sackheim

The director who gave us two favorites, Deep Throat and Conduit, from Season One is back. Didn't really have to do much work to make this Monster of the Week, and all the suspense surrounding it, icky. Worms, sewage, you're half way there. Add in mood lighting and quick cuts while people are screaming as they try to claw their way out of muck makes the audience suitably squeamish. Funny pan back after the ambulance driver was eaten to see the sign that read "Live Bait".And cool pan along the ground, as if you were Flukie looking for sewage to live... but then, pan up to the toilet to see Flukie already inside... and how did he get into the hole of a Porta-Potty? He looked too large to go in from the seat.

RUNNING TALLIES
Flashlights
Guns - Marshal ambulance driver's shotgun and Mulder's
Sunflower Seeds - plays shoot the field goal with them, and offers them to others
Scully wears glasses - Scully's splash goggles while autopsying, and reading glasses
Scully does an autopsy
Cell Phones
Necklace
Bathroom Hoo boy! Yes again, gross things happen in the bathroom in the X Files
Research on the Internet by Scully
Tabloid
"Mulder, its me."
"Scully, its me."

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

Mulder walked to Scully sitting in the park reading the tabloid that was shoved under her door. "Find anything interesting?"

"Not especially," she said folding it up and hiding it in her purse. "I just wonder who gave it to me."

"Come on Scully, fess up. I know you have a subscription. Was it the stories about women pregnant with aliens that first hooked you or the stories about Michael Jackson?"

ATHENAEUM

MIDDLESEX COUNTY PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
Dr. Vitellaria thought he had seen it all. But when his current patient was admitted, he admittedly was shocked. The patient, half man and half fluke now lay quietly on the couch in Dr. Vitellaria's office.

"Any dreams last night, Mr. F." Dr. Vitellaria called him Mr. Fluke or Mr. F. because the poor thing admitted that he didn't have a name or ever had a need for one.

"Yeth." Flukeman replied. Dr. Vitellaria marveled at how well he spoke with just a few days of speech therapy. A little more orthodontic reconstruction, and he would be as good as new.

"Tell me about your dream."

"I was working in this big library. No, I was the curator in this massive Athenaeum."

Dr. Vitellaria noted that the fluke had been studying his thesaurus.

Flukeman continued. "Agent Scully came down to visit, looking for information on Chernobyl. I told her that this terrible nuclear accident in the Ukraine resulted in many short- and long-range health problems from blood disorders to gastrointestinal problems to respiratory problems to neurological problems and more. There were also deaths from cancers and genetic defects. In fact, the impact is still being felt. It is impossible to give an exact count of attributable deaths, but some estimates are as high as 100,000.

"The accident at Chernobyl Unit 4, on 26 April 1986, did not occur during normal operation of the reactor. It happened during a test designed to assess the reactor's safety margin. Needless to say, they failed the test and released 100 times more radiation than the bomb dropped over Hiroshima in World War II. Radiation materials were found as far as 1,300 miles away. The survivors of the two million people in the immediate fallout zone continue to live on that poisoned land today.

"Since the disaster at Chernobyl in 1986, the causes of the accident have been examined in great detail, the consequences have been studied by many organizations and projects, and action has been taken to ensure that such an event would never happen again. Mankind has learned a lot about radiation, nuclear accidents and illness since the disaster. And they are still learning. There is a great deal of information on Chernobyl on the Internet. Lots of information at chernobyl.com."

"Do you have a computer in your cell?"

"No. I used to crawl out of peoples toilets late at night and go on their computers to access the Internet."

"I see." Dr Vitellaria said shifting uncomfortably in his chair. "Go on with your dream."

"That was about it. Agent Scully thanked me and said I had been a wonderful host. To which I replied that no, in fact, she was the host. And with that I lunged at her and sucked on to her back. Then I woke up."

"Mr. F, your dream suggests that your human qualities are dominant. You want to assimilate into our world by finding a job. It also suggests that you are well informed of the cause of your condition and would like to inform the world so that disasters like Chernobyl can be avoided in the future. Even your attack on the Agent sounds like a need for human contact and intimacy. Very human qualities."

"Well, Dr. Vitellaria I agree with all but the last part. I think that was just a primitive, violent impulse and a need to suck on to--and use--others for my own satisfaction."

"Just, as I said, Mr. F, very human. Very human indeed."

QUOTES

NORMAN They say it cuts the smell if you don't breathe through your mouth.
MULDER They lied.

NORMAN Front side of the body is pretty much eaten away. Would you like us to turn him over for you?
MULDER No, I'll take your word on that.

NORMAN Hey, Agent Mulder. What would you like us to do with the body?
MULDER Wrap it up and send it to the F.B.I., care of Assistant Director Skinner.

MULDER It's kind of hard to make an appointment when you're up to your ass in raw sewage, being jerked around from one meaningless assignment to another. What's my next punishment, scrubbing the bathroom floors with a toothbrush?

MULDER It seemed to me like a simple drugland body dump, not the type of case the F.B.I. normally wastes it's time and manpower on.
SKINNER Certainly, Agent Mulder, given your recent history here, you're not one to judge what is or is not a waste of the bureau's time or manpower.

SCULLY Is this seat taken?
MULDER No. But I should warn you, I'm experiencing violent impulses.
SCULLY Well, I'm armed, so I'll take my chances.

MULDER You know, sometimes, it just gets really hard to smile through it when they ask you to bend down and grab your ankles. You know?

SCULLY Mulder, it's me.

X I think you should know... you have a friend at the F.B.I.

MULDER This isn't where you tell me some terrible story about sushi, is it?
SCULLY Well, maybe you'd rather hear what you can catch from a nice, rare steak.

SCULLY Mulder... the scolex is a tiny little organ. This is a huge bite mark.

SCULLY I'm sorry. It felt like old times there for a second.

MULDER I didn't want to have to tell Skinner that his murder suspect was a giant, blood sucking worm.

MULDER And all the sewage comes through this plant?
FOREMAN 560,000 people a day call my office on the porcelain telephone.

MULDER Scully, it's me. You know that fluke you caught?
SCULLY Yeah.
MULDER It must have been the runt of the litter.

SCULLY Where the hell did it come from?
MULDER I don't know, but it looks like I'm going to have to tell Skinner that his suspect is a giant, blood-sucking worm after all.

SCULLY Somebody shoved this under my door. I guess you really do have a friend in the F.B.I. And, Mulder... when you see Skinner to hand in your field report, I know that it's your decision, but I hope that you know that I'd consider it more than a professional loss if you decided to leave.

MULDER This is not a man. It's a monster. You can't put it in an institution.
SKINNER Then what do you do with it, Agent Mulder, put it in a zoo? It killed two people.
MULDER You know, you had a pair of agents that could have handled a case like this. Agent Scully and I might have been able to save that man's life, but you shut us down.
SKINNER I know. This should have been an X-File. We all take our orders from someone, Agent Mulder. That'll be all.

X Success in your current assignment is imperative.

X Reinstatement of the X-Files must be undeniable.

SCULLY Is this seat taken?
MULDER No. But I should warn you, I may reek a bit out of the sewer.
SCULLY I'll take my chances.

MULDER Success in our work is imperative, Scully. Reinstatement of the X-Files must be undeniable.
SCULLY That came from Skinner?
MULDER No. We have a friend in the F.B.I.

SCULLY Mulder, nature didn't make this thing. We did. That creature came off of a decommissioned Russian freighter that was used in the disposal of salvage material from the meltdown. It was born in a... in a primordial soup of radioactive sewage.