I'm pretty sure Joss Whedon watched this show. I'm pretty sure he saw this episode. Actually, I guess I should assume Jane Espenson saw it, decided she would copy it, but change it up to be fucking atrocious, and call it 'Doublemeat Palace'.
'Hungry' was actually reasonably OK, but for one unfortunate implication.
I mean, it was also gross - to the point where we decided to watch another episode after it in the hopes we'd have something less gross on our minds before say, going to sleep. Or eating ever again. But it was an interesting story, even if it was somewhat of a retread of '2Shy' and 'Tooms'.
I like that the show is continuing to allow Scully to witness paranormal activity - speaking of which, something very odd happened in this episode, which is that one (or more?) of the sequences in the intro was cut, at least on the Netflix version. I have a hard time believing they would recut the intro and only remove one sequence six seasons and two episodes into the show, during which the intro hadn't previously changed at all. The one I'm sure they cut out was the fast-growing plants with the words 'paranormal activity', which is why talking about that reminded me. But I didn't notice that the music was cut at all, though it's hard to tell since it just repeats a lot.
Anyway. Probably not important. Maybe the episode just ran long.
Scully witnessed actual paranormal activity, after having seen an actual alien spacecraft in 'Biogenesis' and 'The Sixth Extinction'. It only took them this long, right?
Throughout the episode, I was convinced that Mulder knew Rob Roberts was the murderer all along, especially given that he kept going back to his apartment and tracking him. Or it. I guess he was really just a monster disguising himself as a person the entire time, rather than a greatly mutated human, right?
It was neat to see Rob's progress and his desire to overcome his cravings for human brains, but while it was an interesting metaphor, it became rather problematic right at the end of the episode. The argument of "I can't be something I'm not," works well when people are talking about hiding something that deserves acceptance and compassion like a real eating disorder. But Rob was a murderer, so the metaphor breaks down entirely. What he did can't be justified at all. There is no fitting in for him, no acceptance. Not unless he stops entirely.
I'm sure that ending struck way too close to home for people who say, have attempted suicide over hiding things like their sexual orientation or an eating disorder. Because that's actually a thing that happens. I would imagine some people were incredibly bothered by the closeness of their story to that of someone who didn't deserve compassion or acceptance. What's the show saying here?
Otherwise, though, I think the episode worked reasonably well. Yes, we knew immediately who the killer was, unlike in many episodes where there's a an element of mystery as well as horror, but I think that's mostly OK. The story was inverted in that it wasn't really Mulder and Scully's story, but Rob's. And again, the metaphor would work and we'd be able to care about his outcome if he weren't a murderer.
But again, unlike '2Shy' and 'Tooms', we never got the scenes where Mulder and Scully discovered the victims, in part because their bodies were so conveniently disposed of. But there was no real chase, no real tension for either of the agents, and really no trouble for them tracking down the killer. In fact, now that I think about it, they seemed to have very little screen time in the episode at all, since most of it focused on Rob.
And Rob's tension with Spinks was well constructed, though I don't think Spinks really knew Rob was the killer, but just liked threatening him. Yes, he believed he had evidence that implicated him, but he didn't know the whole truth. I suppose if he had, he might have exercised a little more caution in confronting Rob.
Also, was it just me, or did Rob in his natural state look an awful lot like Voldemort?
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