The X Files: The Host

 "Mulder, nature didn't make this thing. We did."

Chernobyl possibly was responsible for the Flukeman, this flukeworm like genderless monster with certain human-like features that suction-bites humans and leaves them with a parasitic worm that attaches to the liver and feeds on bile. It is discovered on a Russian cargo ship at the beginning of this second episode of the second season of The X Files, "The Host". This is the stuff of nightmares, man. Wonderfully grotesque, with a circular mouth, beedy-pupil eyes, with this flukeworm form at a human size. Mulder, during this part of the show, is still reeling from the dissolution of the X files, contemplating leaving the FBI, much to Scully's disappointment. Still stuck in white collar surveillance hell, Mulder is finally granted a reprieve from Skinner, assigned to the case of a rotting corpse sound in a sewer in New Jersey. Mulder feels as if he's just being jerked around, so frustrated he demands to see Skinner, interrupting a meeting with a number of suits sitting around a table. Skinner, obviously, dresses him down and sends him on his way. Mulder is encouraged by Scully to have the body sent to her lab for an autopsy. Her findings then inspires Mulder to investigate the sewer system of Newark, with help from the head of sanitation (who knows all the innerworkings and has a map of the entire network), and they eventually locate the Flukeman, held captive in a tank. This is the episode that introduces a new DeepThroat, named X (Stephen Williams), who calls up Mulder and tells him he "has a friend at the FBI". Later, X tells him it is "imperative" he is successful in his case--the Flukeman escapes a US Marshall van, killing the driver--so that the X Files can be restarted by the FBI. Even Skinner later admits (the sanitation worker attacked by the Flukeman dies after spitting up a worm left in his body from a four-tooth bite) that Mulder and Scully should have worked this case as an X File. So the second episode was already building towards the inevitable X Files reactivation. X leaving behind a gossip rag with the cargo ship monster article was another step towards helping resolve the case. Mulder's troubles with the FBI are always a dramatic angle that Carter never allowed to go away...he's such a rogue and just working typical FBI cases never seemed to be in his DNA. Credit to Scully for not letting Mulder just disregard this case...it's resolution was greatly benefited by her pushing him to not treat it as any ordinary homicide. 4/5

***This kind of creature is truly an X Files fan's ideal nightmare fuel. Particularly, the scene where the monster hides away in the toilet of a porta-potty at a campground...imagine what kind of shock that would have been for some innocent bystander!***

***The nasty bite it leaves behind and the icky worm that emerges from the body are the very epitome of grossout***