Spoilers

“Tooms”

Eugene Tooms returns to the forefront of The X-Files to continue his horror-filled lifestyle. Tooms, who originally debuted in “Squeeze” earlier in season one, was one of the first really popular of the ‘Monsters-of-the-week’ format that the X-Files used.

However, it also blended the whole conspiracy storyline into this episode as well as we meet Walter Skinner, FBI Assistant Director. Skinner would become a recurring characters and an ally for Mulder and Scully, though here he seemed to be in direct subjugation to the Cigarette Smoking Man, played by William B. Davis. This episode was the first time that we heard CSM speak.

Tooms remained as creepy as he was in “Squeeze” and continued to be a significant threat to Mulder and Scully. He did frame Mulder for attacking him, but that storyline bit did not go anywhere, which seemed a waste of time.

Otherwise, this episode was very good with Tooms getting his fifth murder and almost getting to his hibernation. Thankfully, Mulder and Scully found him and he wound up killed an escalator.

This episode also showed the growing connection between Mulder and Scully, as Scully put herself on the line a couple of times in order to help Mulder out.

Tooms was a fantastically creepy villain and helped give the X-Files credibility in episodes that are not just about UFO cover ups.