Tooms

"Tooms"
The X-Files episode
Covered in sludge, Eugene Victor Tooms breaks into a suburban home
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 21
Directed by	David Nutter
Written by	Glen Morgan James Wong
Production code	1X20
Original air date	April 22, 1994
Guest stars
Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner William B. Davis as The Smoking Man Doug Hutchison as Eugene Victor Tooms Paul Ben-Victor as Dr. Aaron Monte Henry Beckman as Frank Briggs Timothy Webber as Detective Talbot Frank C. Turner as Dr. Collins Gillian Carfra as Christine Ranford Pat Bermel as Frank Ranford Jan D'Arcy as Judge Kann Jerry Wasserman as Dr. Plith Mikal Dughi as Dr. Karetzky Glynis Davies as Nelson Steve Adams as Myers Andre Daniels as Arlan Green Catherine Lough as Dr. Richmond
Episode chronology
← Previous "Darkness Falls" Next → "Born Again"
List of season 1 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

"Tooms" is the twenty-first episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on April 22, 1994. "Tooms" was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by David Nutter. The episode featured Mitch Pileggi's first appearance as Assistant Director Walter Skinner, and saw Doug Hutchison and William B. Davis reprise their roles as Eugene Victor Tooms and The Smoking Man, respectively. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Tooms" earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.6, being watched by 8.1 million households in its initial broadcast; and received positive reviews from critics.

When mutant serial killer Eugene Tooms, last seen in "Squeeze", is released from prison, FBI special agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) try to stop him from resuming his killing spree. Tooms, however, sets out to frame Mulder for assault before the agent can apprehend him.

Plot

After the events of "Squeeze", Eugene Victor Tooms has been placed in a sanatorium in Baltimore. He attempts to escape by squeezing his arm through the food slot of his cell door, but decides not to, and is soon visited by his psychologist, Dr. Aaron Monte.

Agent Dana Scully is called before FBI assistant director Walter Skinner, who is accompanied by the Smoking Man. Despite the success of the X-Files investigations, Skinner criticizes their unconventionalism and wants both Scully and Fox Mulder to do by-the-book work. The agents attend a release hearing for Tooms, where Dr. Monte claims that Tooms' attack on Scully was due to being falsely accused of murder. Mulder tries to point out the physical evidence of Tooms' physiology and crimes, but is ignored by the hearing's panel. Tooms is released into the care of an elderly couple, and is to continue his treatment with Dr. Monte.

Scully meets again with Frank Briggs, the detective who investigated Tooms' 1933 murders. Briggs claims that the body of one of the victims from that spree was never discovered. Scully and Briggs visit a chemical plant where a piece of the victim's liver was found, ultimately discovering a skeleton in concrete. Meanwhile, Mulder bothers Tooms at work, and follows him when he tries to break into a man's house. Tooms flees without attacking anyone.

A researcher examining the skeleton from the chemical plant identifies it as the missing person from 1933. However, there was initially no substantial evidence to prove that Tooms was the murderer. Scully relieves Mulder, who is watching Tooms' new residence at the old couple's house; they are unaware of Tooms hiding in Mulder's car trunk. He manages to break into Mulder's apartment and fakes being beat up by him, including imprinting Mulder's shoe print on his face. Mulder is questioned by the police, and tells Skinner he was framed by Tooms; Skinner forbids Mulder from contacting Tooms.

Further research on the skeleton reveals bite marks from Tooms. When the old couple watching Tooms depart and Tooms is visited by Dr. Monte, he kills him and consumes the final liver he needs before his thirty-year hibernation. After discovering Dr. Monte's body, Mulder and Scully head to Tooms' former residence at 66 Exeter Street, which has been demolished and replaced with a shopping mall. Inside, Mulder crawls below the escalator, finding Tooms' nest. Tooms bursts out, covered in bile, and pursues Mulder, who makes it to the surface and activates the escalator, trapping and killing Tooms.

Skinner reads Scully's final report on the Tooms case and asks the Smoking Man if he believes it, to which he replies, "Of course I do." Outside, Scully finds Mulder, who is observing a caterpillar's cocoon. Mulder predicts that change is coming to the X-Files.

Production

Writer Glen Morgan was inspired to write this episode after seeing men working on an open escalator in a mall around Christmas time. He thought of the scare factor from a creature living underneath the escalator, and decided to use Tooms, from the first episode he and co-writer James Wong wrote for the series, "Squeeze". Tooms was the first villain in the show's history to make an appearance in a second episode. It was actor Doug Hutchinson's idea to play Tooms nude during the escalator sequence, a decision which Series creator Chris Carter felt "caused a little discomfort", but that "actually added to the scene". The bile-like substance coating Tooms and his nest was actually a yellow piping gel, which the cast found would stick to their skin and pull out hair upon removal. Tooms framing Mulder for assault seems to have been inspired by a similar plot point in the film Dirty Harry.

"Tooms" introduced the character of Walter Skinner, although this would be his only appearance in the first season. The character had been conceived as playing against the stereotypical bureaucratic "paper-pusher", being instead someone more "quietly dynamic". Actor Mitch Pileggi had auditioned unsuccessfully for several other parts on the series before being cast as Skinner. At first, the fact that he was asked back to audition for the role had puzzled him, until he discovered the reason he had not cast for the previous parts—Chris Carter had been unable to imagine Pileggi as any of those characters, due to the fact that the actor had been shaving his head. When Pileggi attended the audition for Walter Skinner, he had been in a grumpy mood and had allowed his small amount of hair to grow back. Pileggi's attitude fit well with the character of Skinner, causing Carter to assume that the actor was only pretending to be grumpy. After successfully auditioning for the role, Pileggi thought he had been lucky that he had not been cast in one of the earlier roles, as he believed he would have appeared in only a single episode and would have missed the opportunity to play the recurring role of Walter Skinner.

The episode's climactic scene in the shopping mall where Tooms had made his nest was filmed in City Square Mall, Vancouver. Shooting at the location required the permission of every store owner on the premises, and care was taken to ensure that the stage blood used for the escalator scene did not seep into the escalator's motor to avoid possible damage. "Tooms" includes The Smoking Man's first line of dialogue in the series, and his only lines of the first season. Carter was initially unsure that the character would ever receive any dialogue, feeling that he would seem "more forbidding" if he remained silent. However, he described actor William B. Davis as "an extremely competent actor", noting the character's increasing popularity.

Reception

"Tooms" premiered on the Fox network on April 22, 1994, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on February 16, 1995. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 8.6, with a 15 share, meaning that roughly 8.6 percent of all television-equipped households, and 15 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 8.1 million households.

In a retrospective of the first season in Entertainment Weekly, "Tooms" was rated an A, with the Hutchison's appearance being noted as "another sublimely slimy performance", whilst Pileggi's performance was said to have an "engagingly steely presence". Zack Handlen, writing for The A.V. Club, called the episode "a richly rewarding one", finding the interaction between the characters of Mulder and Scully to have been a highlight of the episode. Matt Haigh, writing for Den of Geek, felt that the plot thread of Tooms framing Mulder for assault "never really amounts to much", though he felt that the episode showed Tooms to be a creepier villain than his previous appearance in "Squeeze".

The character of Eugene Tooms has also attracted positive criticism. Author Neil Gaiman listed the character of Eugene Tooms as one of his favourite monsters in a guest column for Entertainment Weekly's 1000th issue; whilst UGO Networks listed the character as one of their "Best TV Serial Killers", describing Hutchison's acting as "uber-creepy". Writing for Den of Geek, John Moore listed Eugene Tooms as his "Top 10 X-Files Baddies", noting that the popularity of both "Squeeze" and "Tooms" proved to be "largely responsible for shifting the emphasis of the show" away from dwelling solely on alien conspiracy-based mythology episodes.

During her meeting with Skinner, Scully notes that she and Mulder have a conviction/case-solution rate of 75%. This implies that, of the cases seen in the previous twenty episodes, five (25%) were not considered satisfactorily resolved by the FBI. Which five episodes might qualify for this status is open to debate.

Footnotes

References

• Gradnitzer, Louisa; Pittson, Todd (1999). X Marks the Spot: On Location with The X-Files. Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 1551520664. 
• Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel Press. ISBN 080651745X. 
• Lowry, Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. ISBN 0061053309. 

External links

• "Tooms" on The X-Files Wiki, an external wiki
• "Tooms" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Tooms" at TV.com