The X-Files Mini-series Episode 3 Recap

The premise of the third episode and the fact it's written by the acclaimed Darin Morgan indicates we're going to get some of the humor from the original run. This looks to be more parody and less clever, but Morgan only wrote four episodes from the original run and each one by all accounts is considered a classic.

The original description for this episode listed it as a loose Scooby Doo parody taking place in a mansion. At some point between the original press release and the premiere of this episode that description has been changed.

Check out my X-files mini-series recaps.

Mulder and Scully are chasing a monster!

Recap: Episode 3 Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-monster
This one is more humorous but feels a lot like classic X-files. This episode asks us to reflect on the definition of a monster. Is it a lizard looking man? Is it the man who desires to have a job, but wants to quit said job once it's obtained?

The episode opens with two people huffing paint in the woods. They hear a commotion and see a monster attacking someone.

It's the were-monster!

When the episode resumes Mulder is in his office lamenting that the X-files have been explained. He wonders if it's time to put away childish ideas like Sasquatch and other theories. Scully reveals they have a case concerning a monster.

Mulder and Scully travel to the scene of the crime and talk to the animal control officer who was attacked, though he can't provide a description. The paint huffers described it as a lizard man. Kumail Nanjiani plays the animal control officer. Nanjiani started a podcast The X-files Files where he reviews episodes. He has interviewed crew from the show as well, and he managed to get a part in this episode.

Animal Control is on the job.

 Mulder pulls up a photo app on his phone to capture a photo of the monster, but has a bit of trouble.

Mulder is having trouble with his smart phone.

The monster attacks Mulder and the animal control officer, but the flash of the phone sends it running.

Mulder is down but not out.

Scully runs to Mulder after hearing the commotion, and they track the monster to a porta-potty or so they think, but there they find a man in the middle of business.

It's monstrous, but not the monster they seek.

During the autopsy of a victim, Mulder posits theories, one involving a horned toad that shoots blood from its eyes. As Scully tells him, "The internet is not good for you."

Mulder and Scully return to the motel for the night. Mulder hears the crazy motel manager scream "monster" and stumbles upon a hidden room that the manager uses to peep on guests. The manager saw the man from the porta-potty transform into the lizard monster.


Mulder recovers pills from the man's room and talks to his psychologist. The alias on the pills was Guy Mann.

Scully finds Guy Mann working at a cell phone store, but he's gone by the time Mulder arrives.

Based on a suggestion from the psychologist Mulder goes to the cemetery where he has a strange exchange with Guy Mann. Guy Mann tempts Mulder to kill him, but Mulder refuses, asking him how he got like this.

Guy states that the animal control officer bit him and that turned him into a human. He was normally a lizard and first transformed just three days ago.

Notice the Kim Manners headstone.

He has an insatiable desire to put on clothes and get a job. It's a were-man, not a were-monster. His curse is having all of the worries about a job, retirement, and money that a typical person does. It's a funny commentary on humanity and The X-files.

Guy Mann is dressed exactly like Carl Kolchak from Kolchak: The Night Stalker in a seersucker jacket and straw hat. That show served as inspiration for The X-Files.
The headstone that reads Kim Manners is a reference to long time director for The X-Files original run. He passed away in 2009.

Scully is flirting with Guy Mann... wait, what?

Guy lies about a run in with Scully, of which Mulder calls him on and Guy admits he has a compulsion to lie about his sex life.

Mulder has a difficult time believing Guy's story.

Scully is going to talk to the animal control officer again due to a discrepancy from a lab report. On the phone with Mulder, waiting for the officer, she mentions wanting a dog again like her dog in the original run, Queequeg. Queequeg has only been mentioned in the episodes Darin Morgan wrote.

Scully is attacked by the animal control officer while still on the phone. Mulder races to the office to find that Scully subdued the culprit. Mulder expresses concern about her safety, to which she replies she's immortal.
This is a callback to the episode Darin Morgan wrote, largely considered the best episode of X-Files history, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose. Bruckman could predict how people would die. When Scully asked him how she would die, he replied that she doesn't, she's immortal. Fans have wondered if she is truly immortal or if Bruckman just telling her what she needed to hear, believing that no one should know how they die.
It turns out the animal control officer is the serial killer.

Mulder runs to the woods to find Guy Mann, wondering if just maybe his story is true. Mulder finds Mann in the woods, who informs Mulder he must hibernate for ten thousand years. Mulder finds such a concept incredulous, but Mann transforms before Mulder's very eyes and walks into the woods.

Mulder begins this episode wondering if he should stop believing in silly myths only to come full circle, presented with a real monster that he can't explain.
It's silly to think Mulder wouldn't believe in such things or should discard such ideas. He's seen enough in the original series to know there are things that can't be explain. In some ways this season feels like a soft reboot. There are too many things to list that Mulder can't explain. What about Scully's abduction? How can he discard that as silly myth? This new seasons has Mulder questioning what he believes and the ideas in this episode fit into that. This is a good episode, but I don't count it as a classic. It's trying to be a little too glib. Turning the premise on it's ear and having Mulder play disbeliever just doesn't work. Wouldn't he have stopped believing years ago? Why stop now that he has access to the X-files? Just look at the crazy conspiracies he and Tad O'Malley mentioned in the first episode.