1.21 - Tooms
He’s back! Driven by the pure psychosis of Doug Hutchison, Eugene Victor Tooms is here, he’s sweaty, he’s got that serene murderer’s stare on. This cold open is over three minutes, so pushes at the border of even being considered a cold open. It’s successful, but basically only because the entire previous episode Squeeze exists. The imagery isn’t too noteworthy, other than Hutchison channeling his craziness for our amusement.
We also get the first appearance of FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner, played by Mitch Pileggi. He’s the most believable asshole, sassy and tip-toeing on the line of passive aggressive, leaning over that line and doing a whole “I’m not touching you I’m not touching you” kind of deal. I forgot Skinner was the Assistant Director. I’m interested if the real-world reveal of who the actual Deep Throat was (Mark Felt, the really real FBI Assistant Director) has any effect on stories and what Skinner does in the future.
Scully is on the business end of Skinner’s head-bobbing and finger wagging, he’s a real Ice Man that way.
Mulder, on the other hand, stands up in a court room and tells the board responsible for Eugene Tooms’s possible discharge from prison that he is in fact a murderer who eats livers and that is why he’s managed to look young and stay alive for, oh, over 100 years. Plus the contorting part and hibernating for 30 years. Scully arrives just in time to regret that she’s there and watching her partner and friend make an ass of himself and, worse, all but guarantee Tooms is released because everyone will assume this FBI “expert” is cuh-ray-zee.
And yep, that’s what happens.
Stoic doesn’t come close to what Tooms’s face does, it’s got the emotional depth of drywall until he sees a potential victim. He has a violent pleasure then. We see him smiling in this episode, right as he walks past Mulder and Scully after he’s paroled. The family he’ll be staying with march onward unaware and one of them makes a joke about how Tooms should be able to “squeeze” in to a spare room.
Yeah, kill him first Eugene. (He doesn’t)
This episode is very good, but since the mystery has already been established it’s reliant on the chase. We already know what Tooms is, now it’s about if Mulder and Scully can catch him where they failed the first go round. Since Tooms is still a creepy piece of shit, literally trying to cram himself up someone’s toilet, it all works.
“Mulder I wouldn’t put myself on the line for anybody but you,” Scully says.
“If there’s an iced tea in that bag, could be love.” Mulder says.
“Must be fate,” Scully responds. “Root beer.”
These small moments manage to generate massive amounts of energy, enough to tide you over for years, in fact.
A big aspect of the story that goes unmentioned, mostly, is that Scully is 100% all in. She doesn’t push back on Mulder talking about 30-year hibernation, on Tooms stealing livers and eating them, or that these things are all connected to how he can snake through tiny HVAC ducts.
Where Squeeze gave us a small glimpse of the bile cocoon, this episode takes us right into it, face first. Tooms grabs Mulder and then explodes out of the slimy newspaper tent, naked — actually naked, which Doug Hutchison insisted on. Art doesn’t just happen, it has to be made.
Tooms doesn’t get to hibernate though, he gets his dick caught in the worst kind of zipper: the massive gears and mechanism of an escalator. It ends very abruptly, but we do get to see the Smoking Man respond when AD Skinner asks if he believes Mulder and Scully’s report about what happened to Tooms.
“Of course I do.”