X-Files Episode Guide: Scary Monsters

Written by Thomas Schnauz

Directed by Dwight Little

You would think, given the limited time the X-Files has to wrap things up, that to do another episode featuring a guest character from last season is a waste of time. Leyla Harrison was a really charming character when she appeared in Alone, but at the time, it was an episode that seemed to be focused on nostalgia, and the last moments of our two leads. Indeed, considering how much of Season 9 has suffered with the disappearance of Mulder and the wasting of Scully, to do an episode that focuses on a character dwelling in the past would seem commentary that the series really doesn't need.

But, in another surprise, Thomas Schnauz proves us wrong. Indeed, part of the charm that comes out of Scary Monsters is the fact that it actually works better than the original. Alone was a charming episode, but didn't have much in the way of a plot. This episode, in contrast, is all about imagination, who has it, and who doesn't. The series focuses on Tommy Conlon, an eight-year old boy whose imagination is so powerful, it has forced his father to hide in the foothills of Pennsylvania in an effort to try and keep people from being harmed. When Agent Harrison, perhaps seeing an X-File where there isn't one, causes Doggett and Reyes to drive up there and sees that something is horribly amiss, they abruptly become stranded with no ability to drive out and no phone service. And very soon they realize that they are at the mercy of these bizarre creatures that don't seem to die.

Now you don't have to be Agent Harrison to see the echoes of previous episodes in this case. A child with the possibility to cause carnage around itself has gone back as far as Born Again, and our heroes being stranded with no possibility of escape stretches all the way back to Ice. Even the central idea of a child basically holding everybody hostage isn't even an original idea to the X-Files - 'It's A Good Life' the classic Twilight Zone episode is key here. But what ultimately gives Scary Monsters a solidity and a character all its own is that it balances the comedy and the scares incredibly well, and ultimately proves that this is the kind of episode that Doggett and Reyes would be better suited for than Mulder and Scully ever would.

Indeed, the self-referential nature of the episode comes to a key moment more than halfway in when Tommy shows a picture he's drawn, and says "I made this." The childish declaration has been said over the Ten-Thirteen  screen for every dark, terrifying episode of serial killers, alien abductions and monsters of the week for nearly a decade. By now, the viewer has taken it almost as an article of faith along with all of the gruesome murders and mayhem that an episode where a child's imagination is ultimately responsible for the death of his mother is considered almost charming by this point.

The episode comes down to a certain level of imagination and what it means. Reyes and Harrison have open minds, so it actually makes sense that they would fall victim to Tommy's carnage. Doggett can't bring himself to believe in it, and that saves him, as well as everybody else. When Harrison tries to clumsily say that Doggett's lack of imagination was all that saved them, its played for laugh, but there's a certain truth to it. Doggett's determination to stick to the facts has become a critical part of the X-Files now, and its hard to imagine that Mulder could've managed to get away unscathed.

This episode also has more than its share of laughs. Jolie Jenkins once again gives a charming performance as Leyla Harrison, the X-Files groupie so in awe of her idols, she can't help but ruin Scully's lunch or harass Doggett into driving up to Philadelphia. Anderson also gives a charming performance, as  a put-upon Scully, forced to do an autopsy on a cat wearing an apron, and trying very gently not to be annoyed by the friend of Harrison who delivers a dead animal to Scully in the hope of getting into Leyla's pants. And despite all the gore, there's something very delightful about Doggett's determination to stay solid despite the fact that he's punched a man in the stomach and nothing but goo comes out - and then trying to put everything on the line by scaring Tommy to death.

It's not altogether perfect. Jenkins is more restrained in her effusive praise of Mulder and Scully, but just as in Alone, there's a little too much of Schnauz trying to evoke our two favorite agents over and over. It's funny most of the time, but its also quite a bit distracting from  a story that is far stronger than Alone. And the final moments when its revealed that the stopgap measure to kill Tommy's imagination is forcing him to do nothing but watch TV for hours seems a little extreme. Now, I know that the leading problem today is that most kids do spend far too much time watching TV, which may be at the cause at a lot of youth problems. But maybe it's my experience as a fanfiction writer, but I know that constantly watching TV can bring about moments of great imagination. (The actual Leyla Harrison would certainly second that emotion.) But these are really minor nitpicks in an episode that for the first time in a very long time manages to merge gore and laughs in a way that very few TV shows could. It seems now that The X-Files is about to say goodbye, they seem determined to leave us on a high note. For now, anyway.

My score: 4 stars.