X-Files S9E14: They did the monster mash

Sestra Amateur: 

In Fairhope, Pennsylvania, a young boy named Tommy Conlon is scared of something in his bedroom. His father, Jeffrey, played by Scott Paulin, just wants Tommy to go to sleep. Tommy can still hear the creature and tries to escape the room but dear old dad is holding the door closed. That’s called tough love, right? Fun fact: When you type “Fairhope Penn” into Google, the second suggested result is "Hillbilly Haven Fairhope Pennsylvania."

Dr. Dana Scully is trying to eat her lunch in between classes at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, when she gets a surprise visit from accountant Leyla Harrison, whom we first met in "Alone" (Season 8, Episode 19). Harrison manages to ruin Scully’s appetite with photographs from a graphic X-files case involving Tommy’s now-dead mother. Even though Tommy insisted a monster killed his mommy, the coroner’s autopsy determined the victim stabbed herself. Sixteen times. Harrison also claims the monster killed Tommy’s cat, Spanky. 

Dana dismisses Leyla and goes about her day until she gets a call from Special Agent Monica Reyes, who is heading to Pennsylvania with Special Agent John Doggett … and Harrison. She manages to convince Team Johnica to continue with the investigation. I wonder whether Leyla is as fascinated with Reyes and Doggett's expenses as she was with Sculder’s.

The trio meets with Jeffrey Conlon, but he sends the feds away. Luckily, John notices some physical evidence that convinces him to get a warrant to search the place. Too bad their car gets disabled in a very disgusting manner. Meanwhile, Dana gets woken up in the middle of the night by Harrison's friend Gabe Rotter, who hand-delivers Tommy’s dead cat. (Wow, the things a guy will do for a date.) 

Back in Fairhope, no one has a working car or phone, so it’s sleepover time. They hear Tommy scream for help upstairs and observe Jeffrey preventing his son – and the monsters – from leaving the bedroom. Doggett shoots the creature but that splits it into two monsters. Jeffrey tries to defend his actions but Leyla doesn’t buy it.

During the necropsy, Scully determines the cat did not commit suicide like Mrs. Conlon. She then speaks with Sheriff Jack Coogan (Jackie Coogan? Sounds like some kind of in-joke), who is familiar with the Conlon family. Too bad the worsening weather may make it difficult for him to get to the agents. Outside the Conlon home, the feds unearth a broken piece of mirror, not a monster. They’re preparing to leave the house with Tommy and Jeffrey when the sheriff arrives. Too bad it’s not actually him, just a meaty shell John is able to impale with his fist.

Gabe complains to Dana about Leyla’s fascination with Mulder and Scully. She decides to head to Pennsylvania with Mr. Rotter. After Team Johnica examines the “sheriff” and realizes he’s not a typical human being, Doggett proposes an interesting theory: Maybe they’re experiencing something similar to what happened to Team Sculder during an exposure to mushroom spores in "Field Trip" (S6E21). Tommy and Reyes head upstairs to his bedroom while Team Harriett tries to get more information from Jeffrey. Dear daddy claims he locked Tommy in the room with the monsters because he knew the creatures would not hurt his boy like they hurt everyone else. While they’re upstairs, Tommy shows Monica his latest drawing -- it depicts a creature inside her stomach.

Scully and Rotter (Scotter? Rully?) arrive at the Sheriff’s office but the big man doesn’t think they can get to the house safely. And Reyes, who now has a creature inside of her, realizes Tommy is the scary monster! (Of course, most parents of 8-year-old boys probably figured this out much earlier.) Too bad John chases the kid into the bedroom and falls into an abyss, where he gets attacked by hundreds of these things. Tommy then makes Leyla bleed from her eyes by drawing that very scene. 

Doggett, who managed to convince himself the creatures aren’t real, escapes from the room and confronts Jeffrey with the truth. And Mrs. Conlon truly did stab herself but only because of what Tommy caused her to believe. John and Jeffrey get the women out of the house while Doggett prepares to burn it to the ground with Tommy inside. The little boy thinks he’s bluffing until everything starts to burn. Somehow, his fear enables Leyla and Monica to heal. Team Scotter swoops in to save the day. Inside the house, Dana and Gabe find an alert John and an unconscious Tommy. Luckily, Doggett was bluffing and never set the fire. He didn’t even use actual gasoline. What a letdown.

Leyla and Gabe later visit Scully, Doggett and Reyes in the X-files office. Harrison’s backhanded compliment to Doggett shows she’s still a little in awe of the X-files agents. And Tommy’s treatment to stifle his imagination and prevent the return of the monsters? Television, lots of television. Interesting message from a TV show that aired for nine years and needed viewers to continue. I wonder whether they already knew The X-Files was being canceled by this point.

Sestra Professional: 

I'm sure it's been fairly evident that, on the whole, I'm a fan of Season 9. There are a couple main reasons for that. First and foremost, I've always thought the Doggett and Reyes characters show how malleable The X-Files formula could have been. I know legions of shippers will disagree with me on that front. But I think I could have the Star Trek universe in my corner in that regard. Second, it's because of the breadth of stories coming from a lot of different directions. I've mentioned The Twilight Zone cross-pollination on a number of occasions. Last week, Chris Carter gave us arguably his best stand-alone ep, and this week, well, lookie lookie, it's a throwback to the early X-Files (aka The Vancouver Years) complete with a textbook "creepy kid." 

That juxtaposition between the show creator's flight of fancy last time out and the return of Leyla Harrison makes the season's pendulum swings all the more apparent. So after jumping off the high board, we revisit the character who winds up speaking for the fandom simply because she herself is a fan of the Mulder and Scully dynamic and their work on X-files cases. Looks like a little temporary blindness in "Alone" did not permanently close her eyes to the cause.

How could someone stab themselves 16 times? This particular episode also reminds me of an episode of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff Angel -- "I've Got You Under My Skin" -- that had originally aired a couple of years earlier. The scenario feels sort of Millennium-istic to me as well with some misdirect over the behavior of a dad who seems to be extraordinarily tough on his young son.

Scully's still working hard at Quantico, so hard that she apparently doesn't have time to eat. She's gotta be used to that, right? It's not like we saw her and Mulder chowing down very often when they were working in the FBI basement. Gillian Anderson gets the bulk of this ep's light-hearted moments, if having to do a late-night autopsy on a dead cat can be categorized as light-hearted. It is fun to watch her unencumbered by the overbaked mythology for a while.

Mulder and Scully, Scully and Mulder, blah blah blah: So the actual monsters come off as cartoony, but I appreciate that since they're supposed to have been thought up by a young boy. It fits the profile. So does Gabe Rotter, when he voices sentiments he's had to have heard from Leyla a lot more than we have in the two episodes she's been a part of. I mean, we have gotten Sculder discussion to the point of distraction, right? It would have been worse on a guy trying to get with Harrison. And Rotter, named after the show's writers' assistant, must have heard such talk even more than the viewers. Symmetry!

Leyla's apparently having as much of an effect on John as the FBI investigators have on her. For Pete's sake, the man cited a previous X-file as a possible explanation for what's going on with the monsters. His guess of "Field Trip" was about as unsubstantiated as Harrison's reference to the boy fueled by lightning in "D.P.O." (S3E3). But at long last, Doggett's disbelief that things are really happening as they appear to be finally comes in handy for the ultimate resolution.

I made this: Once I stopped being tickled by the fact that eerie Tommy voices the words we hear every week for the show's production company Ten Thirteen, I focused on how great Annabeth Gish vocalized Monica's screaming. For some reason, I didn't doubt for a second that Reyes was in major pain from having a monster with pincers trying to claw its way out of her stomach. And poor Leyla. Two cases, twice victimized in the eyes.

As Sestra Am pointed out, that was a dispiriting way to end the episode, though, with the idea that inundating a young boy with even more television would be the only way to squelch his overactive imagination. But The Complete X-Files backs up Sestra's assertion, it was during production of this episode that the cast and crew found out the show was going to end its regular run.

It wasn't a complete bummer behind the scenes, though. I got some extra insight into Jolie Jenkins' return as Leyla via Cameo last year. "I wished for it so hard. I feel like I manifested it ... the opportunity to go back," Jolie told me. "Particularly working with Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish ... I had such a great time with the two of them. I just remember having so much fun. Everyone was so warm and friendly, and it was such a wonderful work environment in that way. And at the same time, everyone had such respect for the show and what Chris Carter was doing."

Guest star of the week: Apologies to Scott Paulin, but I'm giving it to Jenkins again. How thankless a task is representing The X-Files base at large? You got your shippers, your no-romos, your Vancouverians -- and a large chunk of that base was pretty disillusioned with the show by now. But for the second time in as many chances, Jenkins provided a breath of fresh air as the FBI's resident fan girl and she lived up to some lofty standards once again.