The X-Files – Home Again

By starrymag | February 12, 2016

By: Kelly Kearney

 

This week’s X-Files was a heartbreaking look at family, loss and regret. It had aspects of the running mythology themes as well as the monster of the week stories the fan’s love. We start off in West Philadelphia where the homeless are being doused with a fire hose to urge them to relocate to a hospital in neighboring Bucks County. The Housing and Urban Development department is attempting to gentrify the neighborhood and Joseph Cutler (Alessandro Juliani) is heading off the movement. After terrorizing the tent city residents, Cutler heads to his office to check in on the rehoming process. There’s a group of homeless people living near the office and Cutler warns them that their street is next and points to a poster that reads, “You are responsible. The area cleaning will commence…” A garbage truck slowly approaches the office and the local homeless are scared and take cover. Cutler, alone and in the dark, hears an intruder outside his office door and quickly loads his hand gun while dialing 911.  In an instant, the intruder comes through the office door, knocks out the security camera and rips Cutler arms right off his body. The murderer leaves the gruesome scene and climbs into the back of the garage truck, leaving Cutler is in pieces on the office floor.

The following day, Mulder and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are on the scene of the Cutler murder. The police think Cutler was chopped to pieces with a sword or machete, but Scully, being the medical doctor rules that out. The evidence suggests he was pulled apart. The officer tells the agents about Cutler moving the homeless out of the neighborhood and because of that, he had many enemies. Mulder (David Duchovny) notices outside the office window a dark painting of a man on the building across the street. Some kind of graffiti or street art. He also makes a crack about the murderer not using the correct recycling bin to put Culver’s head in. On the other side of the room, Scully is getting a better look at the body, when her phone rings. Scully’s brother Bill is calling from Germany to tell her their mother, Maggie, has had a heart attack. Scully, obviously shocked and shaken, tells Mulder and he convinces her to go to DC and be with Maggie. Mulder stays behind to uncover more clues in the case.

After going through security footage of the offices Mulder concludes the cameras were broken by the intruder. After a sarcastic comment ruling out the Philly 76ers as suspects on the account of the fact they can’t even reach the rim more or less the security camera near the ceiling, Mulder notices something on the wall outside the office. The street art on the building, looking out from the office window, was not there the night of the murder. Either the artist or someone else must have put it there that morning in which case they might yet have seen something. Mulder leaves to see if he can find out who the artist is. As he’s heading out, he steps on a slimy bandaid, removes it from the sole of his shoe and keeps it as evidence.

Home Is Here…

In D.C., Scully arrives at the hospital to see her mother. Maggie is on a ventilator and Scully is devastated. The ICU nurse tells her Maggie (Sheila Larken) has been asking for Charlie. Scully seems surprised and says Charlie is her estranged brother and she’s confused why her mother wasn’t asking for her or her brother Bill. Scully talks to her mother and let’s her know she’s her with her. She tells her she has been where she is now and knows Maggie is safe. She’s with her sister and father, but she pleads with her mother to fight because Scully and Bill are here and so is William. When the name William slips out, Scully pauses like she’s not ready to deal with even the idea of her son. She avoids the slip up and keeps trying to convince her mother to not go “home” yet because she needs her.

Back in the city of brotherly love, Mulder is checking out the building with the street art and trying to find out who the artist was when he hears a woman and man arguing. He asks them who they are and what’s going on. It becomes clear they are at odds over the rehoming project. The woman, Nancy Huff, is the President of the Buck’s County School Board and is threatening the man to get an injunction to stop the rehoming process. The man, Daryl Landry, works with Joseph Cutler and explains to Mulder that the neighborhood is dangerous and they are moving the people to a local hospital that’s being turned into a shelter. Huff (Peggy Jo Jacobs) says Landry is gentrifyimg the neighborhood to build a new apartment complex and she doesn’t want the homeless moved to the shelter because its close to the high school in Bucks County.  Landry (Daryl Shuttleworth) and Huff continue to argue and insult each other and Mulder assumes they are married which absolutely grosses the arguing duo out. After hearing them out, Mulder tells them that he hears them talking a lot about themselves and their problems, but who’s speaking for the soon to be forced out homeless population. That’s when a local homeless man standing behind them, speaks up and cryptically says, ”The Band-Aid Nose Man.” Mulder, obviously confused, repeats what the man said and that’s when he notices the street art, on the building has disappeared. How can a painting just walk away?

Scully, still at her mother Maggie’s bedside, flashbacks to when she was in a coma during season two of the series. Mulder sat at her bedside willing her to wake up. Sully looks over at her mother’s bedside table and notices an envelope with her mother’s personal effects. She opens it and finds Maggie’s wedding rings and a quarter that was put on a chain as a necklace. As she’s looking at the necklace, her phone rings and it’s her brother Bill. He’s preparing to fly to DC, but wants to know if their mother will still be alive when he gets there. Scully reminds Bill that while, yes, she is a doctor that this is their mother he’s talking about and she’s not going to answer that question. She tells them their mother will remain on life support, per her orders in her living will. Maggie wanted everything that can be done to be done if it could save her life. She discussed this with Scully after Scully woke up from her coma all those years ago. As she’s giving Bill the details, a patient across the hall passes away and the hospital staff is preparing the body for the morgue. Scully is watching what’s happening with patient across the hall is visibly upset because she knows that could be her mother’s fate. Daughter or not, she is still a doctor and knows her mother’s chances.

In a lab in Philadelphia, Mulder is having the bandaid he collected form the crime scene analyzed. The lab tech tells the FBI agent that there’s nothing on the bandaid. Nothing he can make sense of anyway. There’s nothing organic or inorganic on the bandaid, but there is something because it was slimy and stuck to Mulder shoe. Whatever the substance is, it isn’t live or dead, meaning the wearer of the bandaid was neither alive nor dead.

Back at the hospital in Washington, Scully questions her mother’s nurse about the treatment they’re giving her and she finds out that Maggie’s changed her living will to state she didn’t want any life saving measures or resuscitation. Apparently, her mother changed this two years ago without telling Scully or the family. The document appears to be binding as it was witnessed by two naval officers.

Art With A Side Of Vigilante Justice

At a warehouse in an unknown location, two men are unwrapping a large piece of a wall with the same dark painting that keeps appearing and then disappearing in the area. The men are bragging about making money off the homeless artists and discussion possible buyers for this piece. It appears like they stole the artwork and are now trying to profit off of somebody else’s work. One of the men heads to the back of the warehouse to make some calls in search of a buyer while the other man moves the painting to a safer part of the warehouse to store it. The man rolls the art piece into the storage area and starts to walk away when he hears a noise behind him. He looks and sees a blank piece of wall with no sinister painting on it, confused he goes to investigate it. Across the warehouse, the other man is finished with his phone calls and goes to as his partner a question when he finds him lying on the floor, unresponsive, with a bag taped over his head. He turns to run and the vigilante murderer from the garbage tuck rips the man’s arms off like the previous victim and then drags both bodies out of the warehouse leaving a blood spray on the now blank wall, next to the artists signature that reads ”Trashman.”

At the hospital, Maggie’s doctor is explaining to Scully that the law requires them to remove her mother’s breathing tube. Scully seems dazed and enamored with her mother’s mysterious necklace, pauses their conversation to answer her ringing phone. The screen flashes William and instantly Scully’s breath is taken from her. She looks again and the screen reads Mulder. She answers and he tells her he’s at the hospital. Scully is relieved to have her partner at her side.

While Mulder and Scully are dealing with Maggie’s heart attack, the street art that was missing from the building outside Cutler office is back. The rehoming project is back on and Daryl Landry has blocked Nancy Huff’s injunction and is putting the homeless on busses to move them to the hospital turned shelter. Flipping back and forth between the case in Philly and Scully’s family crisis in D.C, Mulder is trying to distract Scully by telling her the details of the case. He tells her the artwork outside the victims office was done by a homeless man they refer to as “Trashman,”and the local residents believe the recluse artist protects the homeless from being ousted from their streets. Mulder conveys his concern for Scully, but is worried if he quits this case more people will die. Scully silently agrees and tells Mulder about her mother asking for her estranged brother Charlie. She’s trying to make sense of why Charlie is so important and why her mother changed her living will and didn’t tell her. She also mentions the mysterious necklace and how she’s never seen it before and has no idea what it’s significance is. Why would her mother be carrying it? The dates on the coin don’t coincide with anyone’s birthday or anniversary. She’s baffled. The hospital staff approaches Maggie’s bed and they prepare to remove the breathing tube. Scully tries to stop them, but Mulder grabs her and holds her close. She needs him and he realizes that no matter where they are in their romantic relationship, they are both the most important people in each others lives so he allows her to lean on him. Through choked tears, Scully tells Mulder, “I don’t care about the big questions right now Mulder. I just want one more chance to ask my mom a few little ones.” Scully is barely holding it together and Mulder proves to be the strong and stable one for his partner.

Dark Wizards And Heartbreak

While Scully is losing her mom in D.C., Janet Huff is home checking her messages and throwing entire boxes of K-cups into her trash compactor. Outside, the familiar self driving garage truck pulls up and the Petulant Clark song, “Downtown,” is playing throughout the scene. Huff goes through her house locking the doors preparing for bed when she notices a yellow slime dripping up her staircase and maggots crawling around it. It appears to be some kind of garbage juice. That’s wen she sees the Bandaid Nose Man and he chases her through the house. The vigilante killer catches up to her, kills her, stuffs her in the same trash compactor and takes the bag out to the garage truck. He climbs into the back compactor part and the truck drives away on its own.

Scully is still trying to make sense of her mother’s condition and asks Mulder if in all their investigations into the paranormal, did they ever see anyone with the ability to will someone back to life. Mulder quickly responds by saying yes, when Scully was in her coma he willed her back to him. Scully smiles at him and says, “You’re a dark wizard Mulder.” There’s a lightness to their banter and they both chuckle at her comment and Mulder replies with,” What’s new?” Staring at each other, lost in the moment of remembering the past, Scully jumps when her phone rings. This time it’s her brother Charlie and she begs him to talk to their mother and maybe give her a reason to wake up. If Mulder willed Scully back to life maybe Charlie can do that for their mother. Charlie seems indifferent towards his mother’s situation, but relents and gives in. He talks to Maggie Scully through the phone and their mothers pulse quickens. She opens her eyes, reaches for Mulder’s hand and says, “My son…is named William, too,” then she smiles and Mulder looks to Scully for her reaction seeing her face filled with so many emotions. Then Maggie’s pulse races and she flatlines. Scully begs her mother to stay to not leave her. She holds Maggie close, crying and desperate, but Maggie has gone home. The scene is heartbreaking and I dare a single viewer to say that Gillian Anderson didn’t tear their heart out as Scully’s broke. Mulder, who’s been Scully’s strength when she was weak, holds her and let’s her cry and break down in his arms. She was there for him when his mother and father died he will do the same. The hospital staff comes to take Maggie Scully because she is an organ donor and Scully can’t witness what she knows is coming. She repeats what Maggie said about William and asks Mulder why William had to be her last words. As if her mother dying wasn’t bad enough, but in her last breath reminding them of the hardest loss either of them had to go through. Scully is confused, devastated and feels guilty. She’s on the verge of snapping when she grabs Mulder by the chest and begs him to take her back to Philadelphia because she needs to work. She needs to get her mind of another loss in her life that she’s not ready to deal with. At first Mulder says no, but she is begging and her face is visibly pained, he knows he can’t say no to her so he agrees and they leave for Pennsylvania.

Back at the lab in Philadelphia, Mulder had given the technician some paint samples from the artist’s signature and he determined it was made with a rare spray paint that only one store in the city sells. The agents set off to question the store owner. As Mulder is in the store, Scully is dazed, waiting in the car and playing with her mother’s quarter necklace. While Mulder is in the store, a man who appears to be homeless is leaving and heading to the abandoned building next door. Mulder signals to Scully and the two agents follow the man behind the building. They catch up to the man and ask him if he knows the artist Trashman. He says yes and leads them through a dilapidated old apartment building. He tells the agents his upstairs, but there’s no lights and then takes off leaving the agents debating if they should go after him. After a few, ”I’m too old to run up and down stairs jokes,” Scully reminds him that she use to run up and down stairs in high heels. They decide to continue searching for the Trashman. In true “X-Files” style, the agents do a little flash light flirting and then head off through the dark building. While searching they see what appears to be a man? A creature? A wax statue? Walking through the dimly lit building. They man creature to a door and it’s disappeared. Assuming it went through the door, the agents knock on the door to see if anyone is in there. They hear something inside and tell whomever is behind the door that they’re in danger and the agents are there to help. Alice from behind the door says he’s already in danger and tells Mulder and Sully to leave. Mulder kicks the door in and the two immediately see The Bandaid Nose Man and other similar looking creatures tied to the pillars in what appears to be an art studio/squatters apartment. Somewhere in the shadows a man yells for them to put the guns down, he’s already tried that and it doesn’t work. He also tells them to kill their flashlights because they’re safe if the creatures can’t see them and they can’t see the creatures. The artist Trashman (played by Tim Armstrong, lead singer of the punk band Rancid) leads them to a separate section of the occupied space and tells them the story of the Bandaid man. Trashman, angered by how the city and the world ignores the homeless and treats them like their less than human, poured all of his anger and emotions into creating these pieces of art. He said the creature Bandaid man was what the Tibetan Buddhists call a Tulpa meaning “thoughtform.” He desires to protect his homeless friends combined with his anger seeped into his art work willing the inanimate object to life. His mind created it but now he has no control of the monster he made. Mulder tells him that’s impossible because a Tulpa is a manifestation of its creator. It wouldn’t hurt anyone because they’re more of an apparition than a living breathing arm ripping off thing.

As Mulder and Trashman argue the logistics of Tibetan Buddhist mythology, Scully has a flashback of her son’s birth at the abandoned cabin in Georgia. She’s relating the Trashman’s story of wanting something bad enough to will it into existence to her desire for a child and William’s miraculous conception and birth. She remembers what her mother said about how she also has a son named William, meaning Scully’s brother Bill, Jr. Her mother’s last words reminding Scully that she created William and she will always be responsible for him much like the Trashman is responsible for his creation murdering people. Scully remembers William in his crib, moving objects with his mind, the first time Mulder held William and the joy she felt with having a family with Mulder. She wanted a baby more than anything and when William was born she feared what he was and might become. As she’s reflecting and blaming herself for the loss of their son the Trashman is explaining his take on the Band-Aid Nose Man’s creation. He says there’s souls all around us and if you listen hard they’ll come to you and tell you what they need. Bandaid Nose Man (John DeSantis) was created in a moment of anger and so he became a manifestation of that anger.  Scully can only think about William and her responsibility in what happened to him. She’s angry and lashes out at the Trashman blaming him for these murders. The creature is his creation so he is responsible for what comes of that. Scully is trying to live with her decision of giving William up but there’s so many unanswered questions. With Maggie’s last word and the Trashman’s creation, Scully can’t help but notice all the similarities to her own situation. Mulder asks the artist who he thinks The Bandaid Nose Man’s next victim will be and the obvious choice is Daryl Landry, the man in charge of relocating the homeless.

The Bandaid Knows, Man…

Over at the new shelter, Landry is ushering the homeless into their living quarters. It’s chaos as people are asking about their belongings and their pets. Apparently, Landry had all of their pets impounded. He walks down one of the corridors and smells some sort of stench and chokes. The new residents realize what’s coming and immediately go into their rooms, closing and locking the doors. The electricity is out on one part of the shelter, but Landry continues on following the smell. He assumes people have been squatting in the abandoned building prior to it being turned into a shelter and yells into the dark that nobody is allowed in that part of the building. He continues searching with a flashlight to find the source of the smell when he notices a yellowish slime trail on the floor just like his school board nemesis saw before she was killed. He turns around and screams as the Vigilante Bandaid Nose Man starts to chase him. Mulder and Scully are on the scene, they hear the scream only seconds before they turn the corner to find Landry is many pieces and a bandaid under his dismembered foot. There’s no other way out of the room and the killer is gone.

With the threat to the homeless gone, the Trashman goes back to his art studio at the abandoned building and packs his things to leave. As he’s leaving he nods, satisfyingly, towards the Bandaid Nose Man who’s no longer a man but has only a circle for a head with a smile etched into it. His mission is complete and The Trashman’s along with his creation served their purpose.

Conversation On The Log…

At the beach, somewhere near D.C., Mulder and Scully (dressed in presumably funeral attire) are sitting on a log mourning Maggie Scully. With her ashes in an urn, and her children now parentless, Scully reflects on what she learned from all of this. Scully tells Mulder that she knows why her mother’s last words were about William and why she lived long enough to hear from Charlie, the estranged son. Like William, Maggie created Charlie and no matter where he is or what he’s doing, she will always be responsible for him. Mulder seems to understand what Scully is saying. She goes on to say she knows Mulder will one day find all the answers he’s been searching for and she will be by his side the whole way, but her questions about William will remain a mystery just like her mother’s coin necklace. Scully hopes that William doesn’t have these same questions, she hopes they made the right choice and didn’t throw their only son away. Mulder comforts her and she says, ”I want to believe. I NEED to believe.” Mulder hugs her and let’s her lean on him, silently telling her he will always keep searching and stand by her side. As the camera pulls back the, the moment is somber but the scene is familiar. The beach where Scully is saying goodbye to her mother is the same beach she dreamt about when Mulder fought desperately to reach her in the coma. The beach is a reminder that anything is possible if you want it bad enough.