Television 

Five Thoughts On The X-Files‘s “Humbug”

By | October 2nd, 2018
Posted in Television | % Comments

With all our favorite shows taking their usual break in the summer months, this opens up an opportunity to watch some of our old favorites. That’s where the Multiversity Summer Binge comes in. Last year, I took a look at the entire first season of my favorite show ever, The X-Files and this summer, I’m back with a vengeance covering season two. The first season of this show was more of a prelude. It teased all the things that were to come and spent a lot of time doing the ground work. In the second season, the show really kicks into gear. Truth be told, of the 11 seasons, this is easily top three for me. I’m really excited to be writing about these episodes, particularly the middle of the season. This week I’m looking at “Humbug,” a very popular and much loved “monster of the week” episode and probably the first comedic episode of the series so far. Let’s jump into this.

1. The Premise

The episode opens up with two kids having a good time in their pool at home. Suddenly the boys are attacked by a scaly skinned man. Turns out that this is actually the boys’s father. He tells them it’s late and their mom would kill him if she knew they were still outside swimming so they go inside. The dad is ready to go in too when he’s suddenly attacked and murdered by an unseen force. Mulder and Scully are called in and they arrive to a Florida town that’s inhabited by workers of an old school “freakshow” (a term I don’t like). Mulder decides that he and Scully should take the case because Mulder has a list 28 years worth of attacks against circus performers that were never solved. He thinks there might be something here so he wants to go down there. “Humbug” is a pretty popular episode that shows up on a lot of “best of” lists and with good reason. It’s a pretty dark episode because of all the death but it’s the characters and the setting that really sell it.

2. A Cavalcade of Personality

The highlight of this episode is the amount of personality that exists in these characters. A lot of the people that show up in the episode are actually circus performers and because they’re so comfortable on stage, that shows in the episode. Of course, as a Twin Peaks fan, I have to make mention that Mr. Nutt, the owner of the hotel that Mulder and Scully stay at, is played by Michael J. Anderson who played The Man From Another Place. His character is really fun because he’s very much not part of the circus life and he resents Mulder for basically existing and assuming so much about him. Jim Rose and The Enigma both appear as Dr. Blockhead and The Conundrum. Blockhead is a person who can perform lots of different things like straitjacket escapes, sword swallowing and hammering stakes into his chest. The Conundrum is what they call a “geek” and can and will eat anything and everything. The town is led by the Sheriff, who used to be known as Jim Jim, the dog boy, until all his hair fell out.  Then we have Lanny. He’s an alcoholic with underformed congenital twin.  We’ll talk about Lanny more but the biggest reason this episode works so well is because this cast of supporting characters is so strong. It’s all so well formed which isn’t usually the case with one off episodes like this. There is a lot of death so there’s a little bit of a disposable feeling with these characters but it’s not completely bad.

3. What’s Inside That Counts

One of the things that you’ll notice about this episode is that Mulder and Scully are a bit shocked by all that they see, which might read a little strangely to some people. You have to remember that Mulder and Scully work for the government. They live in the center of all that. They are used to the most conventional, straight laced people imaginable. There’s no imagination in the world they live in. Having a non conventional hair color would probably get an eye brow raise. They are clearly a little culture shocked by being in this town and one of the things that I think is important to take away from all this is that they aren’t really judgy about things. They’re taken aback but they are there to do a job and they do their very best to accomplish that job. They’re good at reading bullshit which is why they clash with Dr. Blockhead so much but my biggest takeaway is that they do care about finding out who’s doing all this killing. I think it’s important to see these two as imperfect humans with good intentions and by the end, I do think they become more comfortable with things.

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4. Lanny And Leonard

Lanny is the friend and assistant of Mr. Nutt at the hotel but he’s also an alcoholic who’s struggling big time with it. He used to be a performer himself. His act involved his undeveloped congenital twin Leonard but the drinking kind of ended all that. At least, that’s what we are led to assume. Lanny is clearly struggling with more than just alcoholism and it turns out that his brother Leonard, is the one that’s doing all this killing. It’s a really wild twist that’s not rooted in any science but that’s okay cause this is The X-Files. Lanny’s liver is failing from years of drinking and Leonard has developed a hatred for his brother over this and other unknown reasons. He’s been detaching to find someone else but it hasn’t worked so far. All this is found out at the end of the episode when Lanny is in the drunk tank and Scully starts putting things together and actually sees that Leonard is gone. This is such a weird twist that literally only works in the context of this episode because it’s so actually insane. Lanny dies and now Leonard is on his own in the climax of the episode.

5. “Probably Something I Ate”

Leonard is on the loose and he goes to the fun house, so of course, Mulder and Scully are in pursuit. He may be what he is but he still murdered a whole bunch of people over the years. They’ve got to chase him and that chase is so creepy and unsettling. First off the design of Leonard is horrifying. It reminds me a little bit of Jeff Goldblum in The Fly and it creeps me out to this day. The fun house setting isn’t very fun but it’s used to great effect, especially the shot of Scully with the mirrors. Everything works so well to try and scare viewers a little bit and it’s one of my favorite sequences in the show’s run. Leonard gets away and ends up coming up across The Conundrum who subsequently eats him. Mulder and Scully don’t know this. No one knows this and when he and Dr. Blockhead are on their way out of town, he says his only line when Mulder and Scully question how he doesn’t look well. He says “probably something I ate” as a joke but we know what’s going on. That’s how it all ends and it’s the perfect ending for this story.


//TAGS | 2018 Summer TV Binge | the x-files

Jess Camacho

Jess is from New Jersey. She loves comic books, pizza, wrestling and the Mets. She can be seen talking comics here and at Geeked Out Nation. Follow her on Twitter @JessCamNJ for the hottest pro wrestling takes.

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