Typically talking, there are two completely different sorts of episodes of The X-Recordsdata. There are the serialized “Mythology” episodes, which cope with the present’s central, ongoing story about aliens and the federal government conspiracy surrounding them. These sorts of tales often get prime billing every season because the premiere and finale with a couple of extra sprinkled in all through the season. Then there are the procedural “Monster of the Week” episodes, throughout which Brokers Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) examine some standalone circumstances fully unrelated to aliens. And whereas mythology episodes would generally tackle an outsized significance within the eyes of followers, the overwhelming majority of The X-Recordsdata — like, in all probability, 75 p.c of the present, if no more — had been Monster of the Week tales.
The time period “monster” is used liberally, thoughts you, as a result of right here it might confer with any bizarre new creature, case, and even superpowered individual. Regardless, there have been loads of completely different monsters on the present, however all of them fall in need of one the present launched throughout a season 2 episode known as “The Host.”
The Host
“The Host” was the second episode of season 2. It takes place throughout a interval when the X-Recordsdata division of the FBI has been shut down. Mulder is distributed on a case involving a waterlogged physique discovered within the Newark, NJ sewer system, and he’s satisfied it is a punishment from his bosses on the FBI. Over the course of the investigation, nevertheless, he finds out that that is, certainly, an X-File.
When Agent Scully performs an post-mortem on the physique, she finds a flukeworm in its liver. Quickly after, a metropolis sanitation employee is attacked within the sewer system by what he believes to be a python, however the large chew mark on his again matches the mouth of a flukeworm, though a lot, a lot bigger. After the sanitation employee dies, Mulder visits the sewage remedy plant, which has by chance captured a creature that has the dimensions and form of a person, however with the face and mouth of a flukeworm. Quickly after, the Flukeman, because the creature involves be identified, begins attacking staff on the sanitation plant in an effort to flee.
There are a variety of the reason why the Flukeman is so extremely regarded by followers. For one factor, his look is simply extremely unique. Whereas there are man-like/sea creature parts that harken again to the traditional Creature from the Black Lagoon, the intense white monster and his large, oval flukeworm mouth made him immediately memorable. The episode was additionally executed with cinema-level sensible creature results, which had been uncommon on TV at the moment. “The Host” was additionally a tightly-written sci-fi thriller story by X-Recordsdata creator Chris Carter. It additionally contained a then-timely real-world aspect, because the Flukeman is recommended to be a product of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe in Ukraine, which occurred lower than a decade earlier than this episode ran. The episode additionally ran throughout a time when the present was exploding in reputation, and because it was not a part of the present’s mythology, it was a simple episode to revisit with out having to observe a bunch of different episodes to get caught up first.
Since then, the Flukeman has turn into one thing of an unofficial X-Recordsdata mascot for Monster of the Week episodes general. Exterior of aliens, the monster you are most certainly to seek out on X-Recordsdata merchandise is the Flukeman, which is a bit shocking since he’s solely in a single episode of the present. For instance, when Lego launched their official X-Recordsdata set earlier this 12 months, it included a bunch of human characters, an alien, and only one different creature: the Flukeman.
Plenty of fascinating monsters would come and go all through the sequence, from the liver-eating Eugene Victor Tooms to the terrifying inbred Peacock household, however none would stick within the minds of followers fairly just like the Flukeman.
