The X-Files - S3:E6 "2Shy"

[ S3:E5 "The List" <<< Season 3 >>> S3:E7 "The Walk" ]

If you read the synopsis for this episode - "the agents hunt for a killer who uses the internet to attract his victims" - it sounds like it's going to be a pretty straightforward episode, that may or may not be horribly dated (in truth, these headlines still make the news, but the internet landscape has changed a lot in the past twenty years). But, of course, this is The X-Files, and, lest you forget that, the killer - as seen in the "teaser" that opens the episode, and precedes the credits - kills his victims with such disgusting, over-exaggeratedly mucus-y kisses, and then leaves their bodies an utterly unrecognizable goop, that you know it's some kind of weird freak or mutant or parasite that we're dealing with here. And indeed, this is another mutant episode, of which this series is so fond.

Timothy Carhart makes for a creepy killer - calculatingly sweet to his victims, awkwardly distant to everyone else, including his clingy landlady, and her blind daughter (an adorable Aloka McLean). The latter of which, during Scully's sensitive interrogation, offers some rare insight (for this show) into the tragic consequences of all these largely impersonal murders we witness, episode after episode. You can see in her face a young girl trying futilely to cope with (spoiler, albeit a predictable one) the senseless slaughter of her own mother. I don't mention this often enough, but as much as the writing contributes to this show, the different actors' abilities to nail their parts - not just in the delivery, but even down to their facial expressions - goes a long way in making for such captivating television. This is mainly true of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, but also frequently filters down to the guest actors on this show. For an episode I didn't have very high expectations for, it was pretty entertaining.

Memorable quotes:

Detective Cross (in reaction to Scully performing the autopsy herself): Look, I'm not being sexist here, I'm just being honest.

(And sexist. Though I appreciate his candor - it certainly beats being all sneaky and passive-aggressive about it. Scully handled this uncomfortable situation well).

Ellen: Do you think this is easy for me? I finally connect with someone I like, who seems to like me. I'm scared enough to meet him for the first time without you telling me he's Charles Manson.

Scully: Where are you going with this?
Mulder: Okay, it's not yet the finely detailed insanity that you've come to expect from me - it's just a theory. But what if he's not doing this out of a psychotic impulse but rather out of some physical hunger?

(Your typical X-Files monster-of-the-week episode in a nutshell! Lol).

Scully: I don't know too many scorpions who surf the internet.

(The great thing about this sentence is that it makes perfect sense in the context of the conversation, but it just sounds so ridiculous when you take it out of context).

Incanto: When you look at me, you see a monster. But I was just feeding a hunger.

Incanto: The dead are no longer lonely.