The X Files: Squeeze

The first episode that lands Scully in grave danger. This time it is Mulder's turn to save his partner.

But back to the beginning. Scully is contacted by a friend from the bureau, Agent Colton, who asks her for help in a case of serial killings he is working on. What has him stumped is that the victims have nothing in common and are often found in rooms without any sign or, indeed, option of any point of entry. Colton does sort of want Mulder on the case but fears for his reputation if he requests Mulder's assistance, directly. Also, he is very territorial and doesn't want any interference that what make it look like he did not solve the case himself.

This leads to Scully's loyalties being tested. Turns out her attachment to and trust in Mulder is very strong after only a short period of time of working with him. His theory is, as expected, out there. He retrieves a fingerprint from the latest crime scene that is to long and narrow to belong to a human. But when he alters the prints they take from a suspect they catch at a site of interest, one Eugene Victor Tooms, by elongating and narrowing it through the help of a computer program, it is a 100% match. Obviously, nobody believes him until the two locate a former agent that worked on a series of murders with the same MO 30 years previously. His suspect then was Eugene Tooms and he has the stake out photo to even make Scully believe that there may be something to Mulder's theory of a genetic mutant that is more than 100 years old, although she thinks more along the lines of a generation of mutants.

To complete the cycle pattern of 30 and even 60 years ago, Tooms has one more kill to go before going into hiding - or rather, hibernation - for another 30 years. Mulder's theory is that he spends that time in a nest they discover make from scrap paper and bile, while the livers he takes from his victims sustains him for his hibernation. Unbeknownst to them at the time, Tooms steals Scully's necklace, hence staking her out as his next victim. Small items have gone missing from the all the crime scenes and the agents have discovered the loot in a building that Tooms already lived in in 1903.

After a blowout with Agent Colton, who called off a surveillance team that Mulder and Scully requested, Scully is furious. Mulder returns to the collection of tidbits to find Scully's necklace and realizes the danger she is in. Meanwhile, Scully is drawing a bath when suddenly a drop of bile falls on her hands form an air duct above her. She arms herself and fights Tooms after he dashes at her from another air vent in the wall. Mulder comes in the nick of time and together the cuff Tooms to the tub.

The final shot shows Eugene Tooms smiling as he realizes that there is a slit in the door to his cell where the food gets pushed through. This is not the last we have seen of him.

8/10

Hey, isn't that...?
Eugene Victor Tooms is played by Doug Hutchison, who is now known as the creepy old guy that made the tabloid headlines for marrying then 16 year old Courntey Stodden. You know who I'm talking about.