The Great 'X-Files' Rewatch: season, 1, episode 20, 'Tooms'

I realized a couple of things while rewatching episode 20 of the first season of The X-Files:
  a) There are a whole lot of episodes in a full broadcast television season. Think about it: You have to be pretty interested in the plot arc of, say, a one-hour drama or sci-fi series to be a rapt audience to it for 22 hours (usually, a full-season run is 22 episodes, if you're keeping count). That's nearly an entire day of your life gone in a full TV season. That's a serious time commitment. Even with the ads stripped out later, it's an investment.
  b) And that gets you realizing why so many shows get canceled. (Shows bite the dust a lot faster these days than they used to—think about how fast Lonestar was pulled.) It's almost an impossible equation—like trying to make it in the music business. A good show that sticks around for several seasons is a total shot in the dark.
  Now, to "Tooms." This episode is greatly important to the series in one distinct way: It reprises the role of a great character who got a turn on the show in just its second episode (Eugene Victor Tooms starred in the freaky-as-shit "Squeeze"), foreshadowing similar "reappearances" of popular characters throughout the series (like a comic book's format, say). This would become one of The X-Files's franchises, so to speak.

  As you may remember, at the end of "Squeeze," we saw Tooms locked up in the loony bin (think: Joker, at the end of every Batman), and as his little beady yellow eyes peek through the slot where the attendant puts the day's food, we know exactly what he's thinking: "I can squeeze through that someday." It's one of the better endings to any show I've ever seen. 
  Which makes his reappearance here so titillating. In this follow-up, Tooms is up for release on "good behavior." He's been meeting with a shrink. He hasn't been "nesting." And after wrapping up an easy day in court (co-starring Mulder—watch to see what I mean), Tooms is released into the custody of an adoptive couple who have no idea that they've just decided to put up a contortionist and part-time liver-eater in their house. There's a great exchange going into the commercial break, where the father figure is talking to Tooms. Not to be missed.
  As we also know, Tooms assaulted Scully at the end of episode 2, so of course she and Mulder take up the case of keeping him from murdering again off the books. They stake Tooms out in his new home, and Mulder even steps between him and a possible liver-lunch candidate.
  I'm not going to give away anymore of this episode. Fire up Netflix right now … this is must-rewatch material at its finest. If you haven't seen "Squeeze," do a two-fer, so that you're up to date on the freaky fucker. Then go to town.
  Semi-spoiler alert: The ending involves an escalator and lots of juicy, pea-soup-colored bile. Amazing. Now watch, dammit!

See all X-Files recaps here.