Tooms
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"Tooms" is a 1994 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the twenty-first episode broadcast in the show's first season. "Tooms" features the return of the character Eugene Victor Tooms and features the first appearance of Walter Skinner.
Plot
After the events of "Squeeze", Eugene Victor Tooms has been placed in a sanitarium in Baltimore. He is attempts to escape from squeezing his arm through the food slot of his cell door, but aborts when he is visited by his psychologist, Dr. Aaron Monte.
Later, at FBI headquarters, Agent Dana Scully is called before the Smoking Man and Assistant Director Walter Skinner, who criticizes the unconventionalism of the X-Files investigations despite their successful conclusions. Skinner wants Scully and her partner, Agent Fox Mulder, to do more 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 presence of Tooms' fingerprints at multiple crime scenes and the missing evidence of his physiological abnormalities, but his claims are 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' earlier murders. Briggs claims that the body of one of Tooms' victims from his 1933 spree was not 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 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 goes out and Tooms is visited by Dr. Monte, he kills him and presumably consumes the final liver he needs before his thirty-year hibernation. After discovering Dr. Monte's body, Mulder and Scully head to 66 Exeter Street (the place of Tooms' original residence), only to find that the apartment building has been torn down and replaced with a shopping mall. Inside, Mulder crawls below the escalator, finding Tooms' nest. Tooms bursts out and pursues Mulder, who makes it to the surface and activates the escalator, trapping and killing Tooms.
Skinner reads Scully's report on the matter and asks the Cigarette 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 tells Scully that change is coming to the X-Files.[1][2]
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.[3] Tooms framing Mulder for assault appears inspired by the movie Dirty Harry.[4]
Walter Skinner made his first appearance here, the only episode of the first season which he appears in.[1] This episode includes the Cigarette Smoking Man's first line of dialogue in the series, and his only lines of the first season. [5]
Sometimes the episode is retitled "Squeeze II".[citation needed]
Reception
This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 8.6, with a 15 share. A total of 8.1 million households watched this episode during its original airing.[6]
Footnotes
- ^ a b Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. pp. 147–148.
- ^ Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel Press. pp. 96–97.
- ^ Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. pp. 148–149.
- ^ Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel Press. p. 98.
- ^ Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. p. 148.
- ^ Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. p. 248.
