In a way, I kind of wanted this episode to suck, so I could say, "Bah, Humbug!" but it did the exact opposite. It was entertaining and funny and intriguing and ... did I say funny already?
The X-Files decides to do comedy to change things up a bit from the fairly gloomy and uneven season 2, and it does not disappoint in the slightest.
I saw the description of this episode of Netflix and immediately thought, "Oh, this could be ... amusing."
And it was, but not in quite the way I expected. Sure, there were people behaving in odd ways, and The Enigma (known as The Conundrum in this episode), whose full body jigsaw tattoos are a thing to behold, but there was also a story that was essentially about people commonly thought of as 'freaks' and how utterly normal they can be.
While the mystery was the primary focus of Scully and Mulder's investigation, the best part of the story was seeing them interact with all the various residents of Gibsonton, Florida.
Not only is this episode a tremendous subversion of a lot of tropes in fiction (and sadly, real life, too) but it's also a subversion of almost everything we've seen on The X-Files so far. On this show, people or creatures who have an unusual appearance or ability are almost always the villains, using their quirks or powers to (sometimes unintentionally) perpetrate their crimes.
There was the very elastic Eugene Tooms, the feral 'Jersey Devil', the people changing sex through rebirth in 'Gender Bender', the shapeshifters in 'Shapes' and 'Colony' and 'End Game', and the vampires in '3', and others I'm sure, but those I could just think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there will be more in the future.
The difference in 'Humbug', then, is that in a town of people who, because of physical differences, often have trouble fitting in in mainstream society, these people are not the villains, but the outsiders, Mulder and Scully, are the ones who are seen as abnormal, and Mulder's behaviour really doesn't help. I mean, he even gets a side-eye from Scully the second time he asks someone if he's done circus work.
I think this is interesting because Mulder, as psychologist and profiler, is primarily making assumptions about people based on their behaviour and the nature of the town. He's not assuming that Nutt was in the circus because he's a little person, but because many of the town's residents have been. Of course, he gets that thrown right back in his face when Nutt correctly assumes that Mulder, on account of his exceedingly boring sartorial choices, is a government employee, most likely an FBI agent. Hah!
And I think Nutt is right to be offended, and makes an excellent point that just because Mulder intended no offence means basically nothing to him, as he was still offended. This is why it's always so insincere and ridiculous when people who make offensive or prejudicial comments 'apologise' saying things like, "If you took it the wrong way, I'm sorry." Um, no, that isn't how it works, try again.
Seriously, that whole scene where they check in to the ... motel? Trailer motel? I've never actually seen such a thing, so I'm not sure what to call it. Anyway, that scene is one of the best and funniest scenes in the series so far.
I also really enjoy Scully in this episode. Not only does she seem more open-minded here than Mulder (or at least less outwardly judgemental), but she completely startles me when she takes a live cricket from a jar and EATS IT. WTF, Scully. Of course, we're shown in the next scene that she palmed the cricket and only pretended to eat it, later 'retrieving' it from behind Mulder's ear. Still, the look on his face and her smug satisfaction at surprising him is yet another of the hilarious moments in this episode.
Of course, she references P.T. Barnum's famous line about a sucker being born every minute, but then falls for the museum operator's scam and donates $5 to find ... absolutely nothing. Though I admit, I'm glad that's all that happened - I'm so conditioned to horrible things happening to the characters on this show that I figured she'd be trapped in that room.
Anyway. There's some more subversion of assumptions about the Sheriff, who really is perfectly normal, if a bit superstitious (really, has he not heard of liquid nitrogen?). I mean, sure, it's part of the investigation, and while Mulder and Scully try to ignore their prejudices and investigate from a standpoint of suspicious behaviour, they eventually revert to those prejudices and are embarrassed when he turns out not to at all be associated with the murders. (Well, not necessarily, but all he was doing was burying a potato, which is weird, but not suspicious.)
And eventually, we're led to the reveal that Lanny's parasitic twin can detach itself from his body and is trying to embed himself in another host. Except that he tries to attack The Conundrum, which turns out to be his undoing, because The Conundrum EATS HIM. Holy shit. In any other episode, that would be kind of gross and appalling, but here it's just kind of funny.
I'm also a big fan of the scene in the Not Really A Funhouse, and while I was hoping for at least maybe a scene where Scully sees how ridiculous her clothes look in a convex mirror, it was still extremely satisfyingly filmed, beginning with a reflection without the mirror borders, only to focus on Scully herself later. Really, the whole scene in there, despite being a bit tense and scary (I guess every X-Files episodes needs one of those), was another of the numerous amusing scenes here.
There's so much awesome here, and the episode manages to be funny and poignant while still being an X-Files episode, which is an incredible feat. High marks to the writers on this one, let's hope they can keep it up.
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