“You know, sometimes, it just gets really hard to smile through it when they ask you to bend down and grab your ankles.” – Fox Mulder.
THE HOST [Standalone] September 23, 1994
Episode: 2×02 / 26 Overall
Director: Daniel Sackheim • Writer: Chris Carter
Mulder pursues a humanoid, parasitic organism that uses sewage systems as its home.
The Host was the second episode, aside from the pilot, that featured on The X-Files: Essentials DVD collection. Following on from Beyond the Sea, which was more of a dramatic entry, The Host is a straight up horror affair featuring one of the most gruesome and disgusting monsters conceived for the show. Unsurprisingly, the episode is often cited as a favourite among both fans and critics of the show and it’s not difficult to see why. Carter’s writing seems to be improving with each stroke of the pen, delivering his best standalone episode so far, and Sackheim’s direction has shown a marked improvement since his early season 1 episodes. Overall we can see a step up in the visual flair of the show when compared to season one, while it’s not as dramatic a shift as will come in later seasons, it’s clear that the X-Files team have really begun to find their feet and sharpen the edges to work towards more polished production values. An interesting side note to this episode is that the monster is played by Darin Morgan, co-executive producer/writer Glen Morgan’s brother, who will migrate to a series writer later in the season and pen some of the series most popular comedic episodes.
This episode features a turning point in the character of Skinner. Though we have seen very little of him so far, he was thought to be working against the agents. As we can see from this episode however, when he reprimands Mulder it is in front of a group of F.B.I higher ups, as was the case in previous episodes like, Tooms. In all the situations where Skinner has appeared to be in opposition to Mulder, there has always been someone else in the room, watching over his shoulder. Last season we saw the Smoking Man lurking behind his desk and we can surmise from Skinner’s comment in this episode that someone like CSM is pulling the strings in this relationship. Skinner in fact appears to value Mulder’s unique perspective and although it appeared at first to be a punishment, assigning him to this case Skinner was actually hoping to circumvent the system and allow Mulder the chance to work on an X-File. As mentioned before, the writer’s had originally planned for Skinner to be an antagonist, though it was for the great benefit of the show that they decided to go the other way and develop a far more interesting and complex character in Assistant Director Skinner. Arguably the most popular recurring character after Mulder and Scully.
Carter’s script of course features some touching moments between the two agents and he develops their kindling romance well, through subtle nuance. The relationship between Mulder and Scully has never been stronger, they obviously care for each other now beyond the realms of a professional relationship as Scully remarks that she would consider it a personal loss were he to resign. And of course it wouldn’t be a Carter script without some form of broader moralising about the effects of radiation on living creatures and humans carelessness at allowing these aberrations of nature to exist. This is presented more as an afterthought towards the episode’s conclusion and it neither adds nor detracts from the episodes enjoyability to be honest. As a horror episode it triumphs, as mentioned Sackheim’s direction is leagues beyond what he delivered in Conduit, opting to take the Jaws approach with the fluke-man and choosing to show less early on in order to create a sense of mystery. Certainly when watching it for the first time this aids in the scare factor, playing on many people’s natural fear of the water and the unseen creatures that dwell within. The visual effects are a step up from the previous season, while the fluke-man is slightly less agile than he could have been, the monster make-up is top notch, delivering a very iconic and recognisable monster of the week creature that is still etched in to the minds of many fans, years after viewing it for the first time.
★★★★☆
The X-Files Retrospective Project 