The episode begins in the streets of Philadelphia, the homeless are being insensitively hosed down in the streets as means to make them vacate. The man who is in charge of this deed seems to gain some kind of sick pleasure from the act. He is quickly faced with his karma when a shadowy figure comes to his office, ripping off his arms before disappearing into a garbage truck. Gross.
Keeping with the comedic nature of the last episode, Mulder makes his first appearance in the episode with a witty comment about Philadelphia, leaving us to forget about the violent acts that had occurred just minutes prior. As they are getting the facts on the case Scully receives a serious phone call, her mother has had a heart attack, so Mulder is going to have to solve this case solo! Upon Scully’s arrival to her mother’s bedside, we find out some information about Scully’s family life. Her mother has been estranged from her brother, Charlie, but during her brief bout of consciousness she called out for him. A fact that doesn’t seem to sit well with Scully.
Meanwhile in Philadelphia Mulder has his hands full dealing with rich councilmen types when he finally gets a lead, a mysterious comment from one of the homeless men, and a disappearing man on a billboard. As with most cases that fall under the X-Files, they don’t have much physical evidence to go by. The only materialistic lead led to a dead end, and the crimes keep piling up!
How is Mulder going to figure this out without the brilliant scientific mind of Ms. Dana Scully?! We wouldn’t have to wonder long, as it seems Mulder was thinking the same thing. He soon joined Scully at her mother’s side, to comfort her? Nah, his mind is all about the case. As for Scully, she is somewhere else, a common theme with revival episodes which seem to be diving deep into the issues Scully has with William, the child she and Mulder had given up for adoption. So it comes as no shock when Scully’s mom makes a dramatic exit, but not before mentioning the taboo, William. This seems to send a shock to Scully’s core, instantly making her want to dive back into work. Yessss, our girl is back, and we have 20 minutes left for her to save the day!
We follow Mulder and Scully on their mission to track down the monster they dubbed, “The Trashman”. This leads them to a hippie artist street guy? As said street guy is preaching about society’s lack of respect, and the toxins leaking into the earth, we begin to loose Scully again. She is lost in thoughts of William again. Mulder is trying to listen to the street guy ranting about Tulpas, manifestations created by the mind, and the Tulpa he created “The Band-aid man” but he is noticing Scully is somewhere else again.
At this point in the episode it is as though they kind of rush to end it in the allotted time. The case itself seems as though it takes a backseat to the things happening with Scully. I can’t help but feel this is all leading up to some big reveal about William, Mulder and Scully’s child.
Scully snaps the street man into reality by calling him out on being just as bad as the people he claims to hate. This triggers him to want to help stop the next potential attack. Mulder and Scully, with the street artist in tow, show up seconds too late; another victim was claimed. In an attempt to right his wrongs, the street artist tries to transform the Tulpa of “The Band-aid man” to a happy face, but as we see him leave the building he called home, we see “the Band-aid man” is still very much alive. The episode ends on a cliff hanger for the case, and with more sentimental talk between Mulder and Scully.
As much as I love the show, I find myself a little disappointed with last night’s episode. As important as the information may be about William, we can’t forget about the part of the show that made us fans to begin with, the monsters! This episode tried too hard to do two storylines that it left the case as an afterthought. I’m just hoping come next week we have a more cohesive episode to watch and all the William stuff can take more of a backseat to the case.
Written by A Play On Nerds Contributor, Kaylynn Kasandra.