3×06 – 2SHY
by foxestacado
By jennisaurusrex
Cleveland, Ohio. A seedy looking chap is sweet talkin’ some honey (Get it? Huh? Sweet? Honey? Anyone? Oh brother, this is gonna be a long one…) while they sit in a car. At night. In the middle of nowhere. This is always a bad omen, especially when accompanied by Mark Snow’s High Synth Notes of Misfortune, but forget what ya heard and keep on. Honey is expressing that she was afraid of being rejected, and Seedy’s all, “No, I love your beliefs and how you see the world! We have a real connection!”. He’s spreading it on real thick (not unlike honey…which is a sick pun that will work on all sorts of levels as the episode goes on, trust me), saying how most men don’t know what they’re missing and all that jazz. Honey’s all “I can’t believe after three months we’ve finally met! I’m really enjoying myself!” Because this is 1995, and because I have half a brain, I’m gonna guess that they were internet sweethearts. Oh, the beginning of digital courtship! My heart thrums to the beat of a dial-up modem just thinking about these two little rascals meeting up in some beta-based chatroom, hoping to find love. Sure, I was 11 in 1995, but I had a dream! I had a dream that one day, when I was old enough, love would be as close as my iBook G4! That I would turn it on and find the man of my dreams, all Arial size 12 font with a little icon of Salvador Dali and… wait, you know what? Nevermind.
Honey’s broke her necklace. Ripped it straight off her neck, I suppose from being so damn nervous. Seedy comes to the rescue, and then we notice he has some nasty skin thing on his neck, which makes me want to start calling him Skinny instead of Seedy. “Skinny” works on a whole lot of levels too, but I’ll spare you. Honey doesn’t notice Seedy’s skin(ny) problem though, and starts telling him how her sister gave her that necklace for good luck–it’s a silver four leaf clover– and Seedy’s all, “It’s beautiful” like he’s one of those weirdos in the black and white Calvin Klein commercials that whisper about CK1 with some bizarrely thoughtful look in their eyes. Then he leans in for the kiss and it doesn’t take long before Honey realises that something’s not quite right. She starts making all of these groany sounds and when Seedy backs away, her mouth is full of this phlegmy bubbly goo and she’s trying to scream through it but her scream is all muffled. Seedy seems pleased with his work and goes in for the kill. The camera pans to the car rocking back and forth, but I can tell you with some amount of certainty that it’s not from any boot knockin’, that’s for sure.
Morning. A police vehicle pulls out to the back of an abandoned warehouse where Honey’s little brown car is sitting. The police officer gets out of his vehicle and knocks on the window of Honey’s car. “Cockadoodle doo!” he says. “Rise and shine in there!” The windows of the car are foggy, and the officer wipes them off to look inside. “Mother of God!” he exclaims. We don’t really get to see what he does, which I’m kind of grateful for, but we do get to see Honey’s good luck charm amidst what’s left of her body.
Oooh, it’s opening credits. Do you realise how much I get made fun of at work for humming the theme song from the X-Files? I don’t mean to or anything, it just kinda happens. My co-workers are like, “Freak! The X-Files has been off the air for years now!” and I’m like “It’s just a hobby!”. Then again, they don’t know I’m recapping an episode of a television series that aired twelve years ago. And they’re never gonna, either. ‘Cos if they find out, one of you is getting CUT!
Uh, yeah, anyway. The seagulls are squawking and the detectives are..detectin’? A man walks over to where Mulder and Scully are standing and introduces himself as Allen Cross of the Cleveland P.D. Mulder’s wearing sunglasses that make him look like a Blues Brothers escapee and Scully’s wearing a suit that’s blue in all the wrong ways. It reminds me of those patches of carpet that they spill wine on in those infomercials for stain removal where the host screams a lot for no real reason. “LOOK AT THESE STAINS DISAPPEAR!”, he yells. “LOOK AT AGENT SCULLY’S SUIT DISAPPEAR ON AGENT MULDER’S BEDROOM FLOOR!” Oh wait, it’s only Season 3. The removal of business suits for sweet love makin’ doesn’t happen until Season…what was it? Whatever. Cross says he’s found Honey’s license in the car and that Honey’s name isn’t actually Honey, it’s Lauren Mackelby. Are you as surprised as I am? She looked like a Honey, anyway. Cross says he thinks that the body they’ve found is Honey–er, Lauren Mackelby– but he can’t be sure with what’s left it, and we soon find out what he means by that. Most of the skin from the body has dissolved, leaving just a thin coating of muscle and blood over a skeleton, along with some pretty nasty clear goo. Scully wants to know if there’s a cause of death, but Cross says it was impossible to tell and that they were just lucky to be able to get her body without it falling apart. Mulder wastes no time in collecting some of the goo and asks if it was found anywhere else in the car. Cross states that no, it was only on the body, but he’s curious why Mulder asks, and wonders if he has any idea on what happened. Mulder just says, “No, not yet” and walks away, leaving Scully with the niceties of saying she’ll let Cross know when they find anything concrete.
After they’ve walked away, Scully asks Mulder what he thinks happened. He starts running off at the mouth about four women who disappeared in Aberdeen a few months ago and how only one of the bodies was found, but it was too decomposed to perform an autopsy. Scully’s all, “But this isn’t decomposition!” and Mulder’s like, “I know that, bitch! Now go do me an autopsy!” and smacks her ass. Something along those lines, anyhow. He hands Scully the vile of goo and sends her off to the Coroner’s office while he goes to find out if Honey was a “Lonely Heart”. Apparently all the missing Aberdeen women had answered personal ads online, and Mulder’s afraid that if it’s the same killer, he’ll strike again. See where the internet gets you, guys? Your Arial-font using, Salvador Dali lovin’ sweetie from the information superhighway will lead you to meet your maker!
Uh oh, someone hasn’t learned her lesson! Someone with the handle “Huggs” is typing “I’m not sure it’s such a good idea for us to meet” in some pre-historic text box that’s supposed to be an instant message. I guess it actually was what an instant message looked like in 1995, but I wasn’t looking for love when I was 11, so I wouldn’t know. I’m not looking for love now or anything, but you know what I mean, right? I don’t have to clarify this again? Listen, I don’t even like Salvador Dali, okay? Anyhow, guess who Huggs is talking to? That’s right, it’s Seedy! Only Seedy has an awesome online handle, “Timid”. Isn’t that kinda cool that there was a time you could get a one word screenname like that? If Seedy lived today, he would be “Timid38304″, but in 1995, he was a visionary, being the first of many to use a single adjective as an internet chatting handle!
“Timid” asks “Huggs” what she’s afraid of and she lists disappointment and rejection, among others. Timid/Seedy’s all understanding like “I’ve been down that road once or twice, but don’t hide behind your computer!” We catch a glimpse of Huggs, who is an average looking woman in her late 30’s or so with glasses and a mouth frozen in a perpetual worried grimace. She seems to be reading his words aloud to herself and getting her think on.
Before she can answer him, someone knocks at Timid/Seedy’s door. He gets up to answer it and finds his Landlady there. She’s all desperately flirty and makes the excuse of giving him the keys to his storage closets (uh, what?) and he tries to close the door quickly on her but she intercepts him. She says she knows what he does, and also mentions that his name is “Mr. Encanto”. Uh, no. His name is Seedy, lady. LandLady goes on a schpiel about how Seedy must be a writer cos he receives so many packages from publishers in NY and cos he types a lot. Wrong again, muchacha. He’s actually a weird, goo-emitting internet killer. However, Seedy goes along with this and when LandLady mentions she’s also a writer, he tries to get rid of her by asking, “Shouldn’t you be off somewhere, writing?” LandLady isn’t a bit put off by this, and instead asks Seedy to read some of her poetry (which is no doubt as pathetic as she is), he agrees and shuts the door.
Down at the Coyahoga County Morgue, Cross is staring at his watch impatiently, seemingly waiting for someone. Scully walks in and he’s all, “Oh, it’s you”. Scully says, “That’s not a problem, is it?”, which is a lot more graceful than what my response would have been, which is along the lines of “Get stuffed, wanker”, but that’s why Scully’s got a boyfriend and I have to meet them in Surrealist Art chatrooms. I mean, Scully doesn’t have a boyfriend. And I don’t meet them in chatrooms. Shut up. Anyhow, Cross says he didn’t know Scully was observing the autopsy and she kinda smirks as she tells him that she’s not observing, she’s doing it herself. Cross can’t believe that Scully is a medical doctor because he’s “old fashioned in certain regards”, whatever that means. Scully doesn’t seem to know what it means either, and she’s only half paying attention to his misogynist explanation of questioning assignment of female officers to certain cases. He tries to act all noble, like he’s doing Scully a favour by not wanting her involved. He explains that the killer has an attitude towards women so it must be affecting her judgement, but she just looks at him with her startlingly blue eyes and pretty much tells him to get over it, she just wants to solve the case like he does. Cross feels the need to clarify that he’s not being sexist, though clearly he is, and Scully just asks where to send the autopsy report. Cross leaves all disgruntled and Scully gets to work.
From Scully’s record, we find out it’s August 29th, 4:15pm. That doesn’t really matter, but I’m telling you anyway, so deal with it. She states Honey’s name and race, and then says that the time and cause of death are uncertain. As she’s talking, she walks over to the drawer where the body is being kept and sees a bloody liquid dripping down the steel surface. Clicking off the tape recorder, she opens the door and slides the tray out, splashing something that looks like regurgitated Hamburger Helper off the tray and onto the floor. The camera shoots from above and while Scully stares at the tray with her arms out, we see that all that’s left of Honey is a skeleton. And the afore mentioned regurgitated Hamburger Helper. Mm, who’s hungry? Pause for dinner break!!
Mulder’s speaking with a woman who knew Lauren Mackelby, talking about how Seedy seemed so nice “on the computer”, only Seedy was going by “2Shy” then, not “Timid”…notice a theme, here? No, not the corny screennames, but the fact that this guy is apparently a bit reserved with the ladies? Mulder is interested to know that they met online, and asks what chatroom they were in. Honey’s friend tells Mulder it was the Big & Beautiful chat, and that Honey had a bit of a weight problem but that 2Shy didn’t seem to care because he wasn’t all about sex. Apparently Seedy was a Romeo in written form as well, as Honey’s friend tells Mulder that he wrote amazing letters, and that she just happened to keep copies of them, which I find almost as creepy as Timid himself. As she goes to find them, he calls Scully, who is standing in front of dinner–er, what’s left of Honey’s body– in the Coroner’s office. Mulder tells Scully he’s putting out a local internet warning about the guy, and he knows it’s the same guy as the Aberdeen victims he was talking about earlier cos he opened the account with one of their credit cards. Scully asks Mulder to come down to the Coroner’s office as soon as possible. Mulder wants to know if she found something in the autopsy, but she tells him there isn’t going to be one.
At the Coroner, Scully is holding what looks like an old chicken bone in a pair of tweezers. Wait, am I just hungry? The “chicken bone” is actually a metacarpal from Honey’s hand. Scully explains that bone, in life or death, is as strong as forged iron, but this one is all squishy and she squeezes it like a sponge. She tells him that the goo is organic, probably hydrochloric acid, similar to something secreted by the gastric mucousa, and that it also contained pepsin, which is a digestive enzyme. Hold up, time out. Can I just say that Gillian Anderson is awesome? I had to pause and rewind the scene about twelve times just to get those terms down. Sure she fills up the blooper reels, but I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if it doesn’t come out soundin’ real impressive in the finals. Okay, back to business.
Mulder starts asking how this could have happened and if anything is missing, and Scully says the only thing missing was fatty tissue, which “could explain the weight discrepancy”. Apparently the M.E. had Honey listed at 122lbs, while her driver’s license listed her as 165lbs. Wait a second, was 165lbs classified as “Big & Beautiful” in 1995? ‘Cos I’m actually kind of horrified right now. Uh, I’m just gonna go on, here…Scully says Honey must’ve lost weight since the license was issued, but Mulder says the letter-saving roommate he talked to earlier said that Honey had actually put on some weight, and that’s why she was nervous about meeting 2Shy/Timid/Seedy/Skinny. Scully gets all offended and is like, “Who would remove someone’s fatty tissue?! Who do you think we’re dealing with here?!” with this look of disgust on her face that kind of freaks me out, it’s so earnest. By the way, Mulder doesn’t know who they’re dealing with, here. Some help he is. Boy, for such a good looking guy, you’d think…well I don’t know what you’d think, other than that he’s good looking. Oh well, I tried.
Oooh, guess who’s gettin’ ready to go out? It’s “Huggs”, whose name is Ellen, if we’re to go by her friend calling her that. I assume we should, since usually your friend would know your name. Most of my friends know mine, except for the few I make call me “Bearclaw”. Don’t ask. Huggs’s friend warns her that the F.B.I. put out a warning about an internet killer, and Huggs is all pissed off that her friend would question her ability to judge character. Huggs is annoyingly monotone and her facial reactions don’t change much from one line to the next. Her friend assures her that she’s not trying to freak her out or anything, but Huggs is having none of it because her friend is making her even more nervous. Poor Huggs! Maybe she just needs some “huggs”. Okay, that was bad, I know. But her storyline is so boring that my jokes have to match. Huggs’ friend tells her not to worry, that “Timid” is probably just as great as he sounds, but poses the question to end all questions: “What if he isn’t?”
Cue Mark Snow with the High Synth Notes of Misfortune! Only it’s a false alarm, because while the HSNoM blare in the background, 2Shy/Timid/Seedy/Skinny paces in front of a restaurant with a bouquet of flowers, waiting for Huggs. She doesn’t show, and eventually he throws the flowers down with disgust and does what any man in this situation would do: look for hookers. He picks one of the “chubbier” ones (though seriously, this show’s perception of weight is whack, even by 1995 standards). 2Shy and ChubbyHooker go off into an alley somewhere and he goes in for the kiss, which she denies him. Wait a second, am I watching Pretty Woman? Julia Roberts, is that you? Is there something we don’t know about Richard Gere? I don’t know much about hookers, but I thought if you were getting paid you were pretty much up for anything. I mean, not ANYTHING anything like say…eating regurgitated Hamburger Helper, but yknow, within reason. Anyhow, she starts unbuttoning his pants and he’s all, “Screw this noise!” and decides to force her into kissing him. She scratches his hand, ripping the skin right off with her fingernails while she screams. Next thing you know, a couple is walking home when they discover Timid “chewin’ the fat”, so to speak. Sucking it is more likely, but whatever. Timid takes off, and so does the passerby guy, leaving his date there to check out the dead hooker’s body, face covered in goo.
The next day, Scully looks under the blanket at the body and Cross starts giving the hooker’s stats, like anyone cares. I’m not saying no one cares about hookers, I’m saying no one cares about this scene, or anything that comes out of that sexist pig’s mouth. Anyhoo, Scully tells Mulder that her airways were all blocked with the same viscous hydrochloric acid as Honey’s, and Cross is shocked to find out they even know what it is. Dude, you have no clue. Scully is so smart, she could probably even figure out what’s wrong with you, though to be honest I doubt that would take a medical doctor. And Mulder may look slightly vapid (yet alluringly handsome), but he’s a bit of a brainiac himself. Cross gets all territorial and wants to protect his own case. He thinks the clues they’ve gathered so far don’t line up. Mulder states that Timid/2Shy likes to quote Italian literature that you can only get from academic libraries so Mulder thinks he has something to do with academia. Then Scully finds the skin under the hooker’s nails and Mulder quips that she “took her pound of flesh”. Yawn. But see how smart?
Speaking of flesh, at home, Timid’s trimming his up with scissors, and little pieces of skin that look like old pencil shavings fall onto his coffee table. His door buzzes and though he tries to get out of it, he has to go down and sign for a package. When in the hallway, he runs into Landlady’s daughter, who is blind and looks like a young brunette version of Sarah Polley. She senses him and says hello, and then LandLady comes out and starts yapping about her shitty poetry and wants to know if she can take Timid to dinner when he’s had time to read it. He says he’s busy and signs for his package, and MIniature Sarah Polley gives him a look– er, you know what I mean– that says she knows something’s rotten in the state of Denmark. Landlady lectures her about being nicer to him cos she’s in lurveeee but Sarah Polley just says she doesn’t care cos he smells gross and is creepy.
Down at the station, Scully’s doing some computer research when Mulder shows up in the doorway. “Oh, excuse me,” Scully says. “I gotta go out in the hallway to make sweet love to my partner, or we’ll at least kiss each other’s foreheads and whisper sweet nothings into one another’s ears.” Actually, Mulder’s there to tell her what’s happened with the skin sample from the hooker’s fingernails, which is that there are no fatty acids in it. Scully thinks there are a number of reasons this could happen, and Mulder quips that even though it’s not the “finely detailed insanity [she's] come to expect from [him]“, he thinks maybe the killer is doing this out of a physical hunger because he’s got a chemical deficiency. Scully’s like, “Huh? A fat sucking vampire?” and starts talking about scorpions surfing the internet (which is kind of cool, if you think about it) and blah blah blah. I’m tired and it doesn’t matter. Cross has a list of names– thirty-eight of them to be exact– to be canvassed in the area and he wants to split them up and get a bunch of men on it. Scully wants to brief everyone first, and Cross kinda looks annoyed but keeps his cool and just says “Sure” before walking away.
Back at the ranch, Timid opens his package, which contains a book of Italian poetry, and then his computer dings and tells him all grammatically correct, “You have mail.” I’m glad AOL adopted colloquial speech and said “You’ve GOT mail”, which sounds a little less awkward, but still sucks. Maybe they had to change it on the show for copyright reasons? Maybe it doesn’t matter. When Timid opens his e-mail, we see it’s from Huggs, who feels really bad about setting him up the other day and wants to try again. Bad choice, but whatever. Who am I to stand in the way of true love? Timid kind of smirks to himself, and then we hear a knock at the door.
It’s not Timid’s door, though, it’s some other random dude’s. Scully’s there and wants to ask some questions. Oh, I get it. They’re canvassing. We were supposed to believe for a second that maybe Scully happened to be assigned to canvas Timid and that he was going to suck what fat Gillian Anderson had left from having her daughter ( i.e. none) and leave Scully to turn into Hamburger Helper just like the others. Listen, though. I don’t even like Hamburger Helper, okay. I’m not ruining my favourite foods for the sake of these recaps, so you’ll never hear me say someone looked like a donut, or a bowl of ice cream. Let’s just make that clear. Anyhow, as it turns out, it’s Cross that gets Timid’s apartment, and when he notices Timid’s bandaged hand, well…nothing actually happens then. Mark Snow hits the Note of Foreboding on his synthesizer and then we fade out.
At the police station, Scully’s trying to do some work when guess who interrupts her again? It’s Mulder. He can’t go another second without one of Scully’s forehead kisses. That and he wants an update, which is that Cross hasn’t checked in yet. Another Note of Foreboding before the scene changes yet again. This time, Timid is fighting over who will pay the check at his dinner with Huggs, who managed not to forget her lipstick and her unbearably monotone voice and lack of discernible reaction! Finally, Timid insists and Huggs gets all weirded out by Timid’s messed up hand. He says it’s just eczema and Huggs feels like she needs to apologise again for setting him up the other night, but he won’t hear of it because he’s a perfect gentleman, understanding and sweet. That and all’s well that end’s well cos she’s with him now and he still gets to kill her! He says he’s going to take the bus home, knowing that Ms. “I Experience No Emotion of Any Kind” will insist upon driving him, and that’s exactly what happens.
Once in front of Timid’s building, we see that LandLady has brought her shitty poetry to Timid’s door. Apparently LandLady’s a regular Sylvia Plath– her envelope is so thick it won’t slide under the door. She uses her LandLady perk of having keys to everyone’s apartment and lets herself in. Out in the car, Timid and Huggs have their small talk, and Timid tries to assure her that he likes her and that she doesn’t have to be nervous. He strokes her face and decides to invite her up, but then he sees the light on in his apartment and rushes out of the car without further explanation. Of course, while inside TImid’s apartment, LandLady discovers some flies and a rotten smell and decides it’s the perfect time to go snooping around! In the bathroom, she finds Cross’s dead body in the tub, covered in the goo. Then Timid finds LandLady and the rest, as they say, is history.
Later on, LandLady’s daughter feels her way to Timid’s door, which pushes open easily. She’s looking for her mother, who had a poetry class that she never returned home from. He pops out of the bathroom finally and keeps telling her (in the creepiest voice, might I add), that LandLady would be home soon, that she hadn’t stopped by or any of that. Of course, if LandLady’s daughter could see, she would notice her mother’s dead body just behind him. But she can’t, so there’s no use crying over spilled milk. Or fatty acids. On her way out, LandLady’s daughter bumps into a suitcase, which she reaches down to touch. Timid grabs her by the arm and says he’s going away to New York, and not to worry about LandLady, cos he’s sure she’s fine. The daughter knows something’s up, though.
At the police station, Scully and Mulder and everyone else are making calls, trying to figure out where Cross could be, since he still hasn’t reported back. Then Mulder gets a 911 report for a possible homicide from a young girl (LandLady’s daughter, if you’re that thick-skulled), and the address the call came from just happens to be one that was on Cross’s list.
At Timid’s place, they bust down the door and find the LandLady’s body, as well as Cross’s. Scully goes out into the hallway and has a talk with LandLady’s daughter. Seeing Scully with kids always kinda breaks my heart, cos Gillian Anderson always plays it so earnestly, and it’s really sad and emotional even before all that uterine drama happens in her life. Mariska Hargitay does that on SVU, too, and it’s always kinda touching. Scully’s all calm with the little girl, and tells her that she knows it’s hard, but she needs the girl to tell her what happened. LandLady’s daughter (Ah, forget it, her name is Jesse) says that she smelled her mother’s perfume in Timid’s apartment, and that’s how she knew he was lying. She was scared that he was going to hurt her, she knew that she wanted to and could tell because he grabbed her. Scully’s all, “He grabbed you?” with this look on her face that says something along the lines of “I want to gut this asshole like a fish”, but she listens to Jesse’s story and asks about the suitcase and where Timid said he was going. Jesse’s crying by this point and Scully looks like she’s about to squirt some as well, but she says she’ll be right back and goes to leave. “Agent Scully”, Jesse says. Scully turns around. “Why would someone do this?” Scully doesn’t have an answer for that and says as much. “I don’t know, Jesse.” Don’t ever have kids, Scully. And if you do, give them away. Oh wait, check. Moving on.
Inside the apartment, Mulder’s worked with one of Timid’s neighbours and a composite artist to come up with a sketch of Timid, whose actual name is Virgil Encanto, or at least that’s what it says on the rental lease. Turns out, he doesn’t have any birth certificate, social security number, bank account, or anything else that could possibly track him as a living human being. Also turns out, Virgil is a weird name. He apparently translates Italian literature but gets paid in cashiers checks, and Scully mentions the fact that he told Jesse that he was going to New York. Here’s where Mulder gets to be the brainiac– he knows Timid’s not that stupid. He suggests making contact with all of Timid’s victims– “past, present, and future”– and takes all his files to a computer crimes specialist to be recovered and unlocked. Finally, they retrieve the data.
Cut to Huggs’ house, where the doorbell’s a-ringin’. Something tells me it’s not someone selling Girl Scout cookies, though it’d be nice if it was. Thin Mints are really good, and the shortbread are delicious as well. Oh hell, they’re all good, except those weird lemon ones which I never really understood. I remember being in Girl Scouts when I was in third grade and standing waist high in boxes and boxes of cookies when we picked up our orders. Yum. Okay, I really need to have dinner. But first, Huggs has to open the door cos I really want Timid to kill her so maybe then she’ll show some emotion on her never-changing face. Huggs thinks it might be Joann, but when she realises it’s Timid and that he’s come to apologise for having skidaddled so quickly earlier in the evening, she lets him in.
Back at the station, Scully says she’s going to release Timid’s sketch to the news stations so that it can be put on the morning news, but Mulder says it’s not necessary because he’s found the right people. Scully tries to call Huggs to warn her, but Huggs is too busy trying to tame the quivering in her loins for this stud to even answer, so she doesn’t get the message. She just pours him coffee and says that the answering machine will pick up. Then she tells Virgil (haha, Virgil!) that she needs to go and put on some clothes, when what she’s really doing is going to e-mail her friend with that whole “You won’t believe who’s here!” teaser, and she says she’ll call her in the morning. Or…will she? DUN DUN DUN.
Back at the station, S&M (ahem) are still making calls to people that Segnor Encanto has had contact with, telling them to keep their doors locked and stay on alert until they’re called and told otherwise. When they realise that they couldn’t get a hold of two people on the list– one of them being Huggs– they decide to go check on them just in case. While Huggs is e-mailing Joanne, she gets a new e-mail from the F.B.I. which includes the sketch of Timid, who now happens to be walking into her bedroom, inching closer and closer. He’s all, “I hope you’re not talking to some other guy!” and she starts babbling that she’s just e-mailing her girlfriend to tell her how happy she is that Timid gave her another chance and hasn’t rejected her. That’d play nice if a) she was capable of changing her face / tone of voice whatsoever and b) Timid hadn’t caught a reflection of his own sketch in the mirror. He goes along with what Huggs says though, saying he’s glad she feels that way ‘cos he does too. Huggs gets up and realises she still hasn’t changed her clothes, but Timid wants her to know she’s beautiful as she is and doesn’t need to change a thing. She starts freaking out and is like, “Leave me alone! What do you want?” and he just lunges at her, at her knees or something, I can’t really tell.
Outside, Mulder and Scully pull up to Huggs’s building while Mark Snow’s “Song of the Scattering of Insects” –a million tiny guitar strings all being plucked at once– scores the scene. They rush into the building and knock on her door, only to be told by Joanne that she’s in the condo and just sent an e-mail a few minutes ago. Mulder knocks down the door with his strong, manly feet and when they enter the condo, everything is dark and quiet. The computer screen with Timid’s sketch on it has been knocked over, and Mulder sees a man running down the street who he thinks must be Timid. Scully finds Huggs, who is still breathing (barely), and peels the goo out of her mouth while she sucks in air. Scully says she’ll stay with Huggs while Mulder goes after Timid.
Scully calls an ambulance with “special chemical burn unit” for Huggs and Mulder tracks Timid to an alley, but it turns out it’s not Timid, it’s just some kid with a can of spraypaint. Foiled, you silly federal agent! He drops his gun, disappointed. Back at the apartment, Scully’s pulling medicines and scissors from beneath the bathroom sink when she sees Timid popping out of the shower. The look of terror on her face is pretty palpable, and Timid wastes no time coming up to her and bashing her head through the bathroom mirror and slamming her into walls. A fight ensues in which Scully gets some pretty mean kung fu kicks into Timid’s stomach and knees. Scully may be a tough broad, but she’s also a tiny one, and Timid knocks her to the ground and pins her there, about to share the goo. Scully reaches for the scissors, which are just a few inches from her hands, but she just can’t make it cos her arms are so little. Finally she does though, and she stabs them in his chest but he comes right back at her. That is, until someone shoots him in the chest…and it’s Huggs! And guess what, her face finally registers an emotion! It’s pure….anger? Terror? It’s…something, anyway. And that’s what counts.
A week later, down at the police station (why is it so dark in there?), Mulder shows Timid a list of a ton of women who have disappeared and wants him to tell them which ones he was responsible for. He says all of them. Mulder grabs the paper and starts to walk out, beckoning Scully to come with him. Scully doesn’t move, though, she just stares at Timid, whose face has begun to decompose from the lack of fatty acids, I would imagine. She almost looks close to tears, but those tears you get from being so pissed off you can’t see straight anymore. “Why?” she asks him, and he explains that although Scully may see a monster when she looks at him, he was just feeding the hunger. Scully then stands up for women everywhere– she tells him he’s more than a monster, that he fed on those women’s insecurities. Timid says he just gave them what they wanted and they gave him what he needed. Scully’s like “Not anymore, scumbag”, and he starts saying some Italian poetry that sounds pretty demonic, considering. Scully looks back. “The dead are no longer lonely,” he translates. Scully turns and tells the guard to let her out, and Timid’s left sans fat for all eternity. Hamburger Helper, anyone?
Recap by jennisaurusrex