In last Mondays latest, we find Mulder and Scully looking for clues in none other than the trash?
Let me back up and mention that there is also a murderous monster man that lives (?) in the trash truck that goes around the city of Philadelphia and violently rips people apart. Yeah, probably should have started with that.
Last week we had one of the fun monster cases and this week is one of the creepy ones. I like getting to revisit all the old X-Files tropes; it’s like telling old stories with your friends. Everyone knows how the story goes, but you enjoy it nonetheless.
On to the case though, we start with finding out that a bunch of rich people are pushing the poor, homeless people out of the streets they’re staying in to make way for their projects to ‘revitalize’ the city. The homeless people of course object to this, but as in real life, there are not that many to actually stand up for them and so they are getting pushed out and put into temporary shelters.
Mulder and Scully are called in when we see one man in charge of this clean up go into his office. As soon as he does, we see all the homeless outside of it suddenly vanish. Not into thin air, but into their tents and such. They’re hiding. Why? We soon find out when a tall, dark figure appears in the street. Not a sound is heard as he enters the building and the only warning the man gets is a terrible smell. Then he sees the man/monster and the glass shatters between his office and the hall. Then he gets ripped to pieces and the dark figure leaves. All stays quiet outside.
Mulder and Scully are brought in to figure this out, but while they are another person, this time a woman claiming to want to help the homeless (but really she just doesn’t want them around her businesses/etc) is killed in her home. We see this murder too. The trash man, as he is soon dubbed, jumps out of a passing trash truck and enters her home. All the lights go out and she smells that terrible odor of him. She tries to run, but he is able to appear right in front of her no matter where she runs! He tears her to pieces as well, but this time he cleans up by stuffing her in her own trash compactor. Thanks?
Mulder is having a band-aid he finds at the last crime scene studied, but the results are unsurprisingly weird. While the scientist can see the band-aid and knows there must be something on it as you can tell it is filthy looking; his microscope shows nothing. It’s as if it’s not there, or not real even though they can see it with their own eyes. Mulder loves this answer more than I think is necessary.
We next see trash man appearing as graffiti outside of buildings. One installation of this is taken and meant to be sold as ‘art’ to the highest bidder. I really don’t need to tell you that of course the actual artist will receive none of this, just more rich people profiting off of the poor. The two guys moving the art piece get it in their warehouse and separate for only a moment. The one notices that the art piece is gone. Not that physical part, just the image of trash man. He only has to wonder for a few moments more before trash man takes care of him too. Then the second man calls for his buddy and then finds him dead. Freaked out he starts to run away, but lands right in front of our recycling fiend trash man instead. His death might be the most gruesome as usually we just hear them screaming and then see the aftermath. This time we see trash man go full on Predator on the guy and tear his skull (with bonus spine still attached!) from his body. Gross.
Our duo soon finds some clues that lead them to a homeless artist. After going through his creepy studio they start questioning him. Seems he is the actual creator of trash man and while he was creating him he was manifesting his feelings about his and the other homeless people’s unfair removal into his creation. That somehow this manifestation became real and while he doesn’t want to take responsibility for it, he still follows Mulder and Scully when they realize the last potential victim is in its sites.
Again we are treated to seeing a selfish, callous man towards the homeless as he goes through the temporary shelter. Then suddenly they all go in their rooms and shut the door. It’s silent and eerie and one of the best parts of this particular episode. The lights go out and the man smells that smell. He is chased down the hallway and into a sort of bathroom/locker room. Meanwhile Mulder, Scully and the artist have made it to the shelter and find it still eerily quiet, as one of the homeless had said before, ‘if he can’t see you, he can’t find you.’ They hear the man scream just as they get into the hallway and rush in to see him torn to bits.
Scully is confused by the fact they never see the killer escaping as there is no escape other than the door they just came through. Sadly we get no answers for this one, only seeing the artist redo the trash man’s face into a smiley before leaving. We also don’t get any poignant muses on the trash man or his manifestation, (which is disappointing) it is instead dropped for the other half of this episode.
I felt it was a bit pushed in, but it was emotional nonetheless. Near the beginning of the episode we find out that Scully’s mother is very ill and Mulder encourages her to go to her. He ends up there himself some time later to find that she isn’t getting better and that she had an order to pull the plug. Scully is understandably very upset about all of this and luckily Mulder is there to help shoulder some of that grief.
Scully is also confused because in her mother’s few mutterings we know that she only wants to speak to Charlie, one of Scully’s brothers who is estranged. I don’t remember Charlie on the show, but it was nine seasons a long time ago, forgive me if he was in a couple and I’ve forgotten. She asks her other brother to get a hold of him (as none but her seems to be able to get there) and he is successful in not only finding him, but getting him to call Scully’s phone. He tells his mother hello and then she up and dies.
It’s an upsetting scene with him shouting about what’s going on over the phone, while Scully is freaking out and Mulder is trying to hold her together and there’s nothing anyone can do. As in life, this TV death leaves more questions than answers. It’s perhaps this and the following scenes that save the episode. Now grieving, Scully has to find a way to process everything and move on somehow.
This is where this season’s main theme comes into play, as it has every episode; Scully and Mulder’s son William and his absence from their lives. Scully has been questioning her choices this entire season (as well as Mulder although he has kept his internal), and she finally pours out many of those feelings while sitting on a beach with Mulder and her mother’s ashes. It reminded me far too much of when her father died and that made me even sadder for Scully and her disappearing family members.
Gillian Anderson does an amazing job of showing Scully’s break down/through. She knows now that her mom asking for Charlie was what any mother would do-wanting to make sure all her children was alright. She already knew how Scully and her brother were, but not Charlie. Even through estrangement, she still needed to know. She also questions if she and Mulder were just like the selfish people the trash man killed.
“I want to believe-I need to believe-that we didn’t treat him like trash.”
It breaks my heart to hear her think that way and from Mulder’s face, he too felt it. He reassures her that they did the right thing, the only thing to protect him from those people in the government that would take him from them to do who knows what. It’s the same song and dance they’ve done every episode, but each time both seem less convinced of it. Will the next episode be time for them to finally start the search for their son? Or will he be an unsolved mystery of the X-Files?
What did you think of this week’s episode? I give it a 3 out 5. 👓👓👓
Sound off in the comments below or find us on twitter at @thenerdygirlexp or my personal one @quietlikeastorm. Finally here is a sneak peek at next week’s episode. See you next Monday at 9:00PM/ET for a live tweet of this show. Make sure to use the hashtag #TheXFiles!
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