THE HOST Episode 2 Season 2

I wouldn’t like to meet the Russian that had to pass this tapeworm!

Synopsis: After being given a disgusting assignment, Mulder begins to believe that his position at the Bureau is becoming untenable yet there is a lot more to the case than first meets the eye.

Time to turn the repulse-meter to maximum and I mean maximum. This mutated tape worm is without doubt the most disgusting creature ever conceived by Chris Carter and The X-Files team and this memorable creature holds a special place in many X-Philes hearts, she has even been affectionately named Flukey among The X-Philes faithful. It has been said that Gillian Anderson herself named The Host as the most disgusting X-Files episode she ever had the privilege to work on.

Flukey, happy to lie in wait in human excrement, has a face only a mother could love which is most probably why she is the proud owner of an asexual reproductive system and her method of incubating her parasitic offspring is tantamount to rape. I label Flukey as being feminine and reframe from using the name flukeman because she has to be one or the other and she reminds me of my mother-in-law. I will never forget the first sight of Flukey trapped in the transparent pipe at the sewage plant; excuse me if you think I am being too sympathetic here but she looked scared and confused as if she was trying to figure out who these people were and who she was.  We can assume that as a genetic mutation by radiation that Flukey is the only one of her kind and that her own existence is just as baffling to her as it is to anyone else, just like my mother-in-law.

This episode could have easily relied upon Flukey to make it a big hit and that would have been fine by me yet Chris Carter’s spices things up with some added ingredients. Mulder is back from his close encounter, back to his surveillance detail and thus back to his morbid disposition, threatening to leave The F.B.I in hope that he can pursue his investigations into the paranormal along a different path. He draws this conclusion after being what he considers to be ‘jerked around’ by Skinner and the F.B.I by his sewage based assignment. So it is funny that it is this assignment that gives Mulder hope of a continuation of The X-Files or at least investigating the paranormal, a notion vindicated both by Skinners admittance that The X-Files was shut down somewhat prematurely and also by the emergence of a mysterious ‘friend’ at the F.B.I. The ‘friend’ we later find out to be informant Mr X or simply just X. I can only draw the conclusion that Mr X had a hand in Skinner presenting Mulder with the case in an effort to re-establish the importance of The X-Files.

What gives this episode its piece of individuality is that Flukey is caught very early on, not only that, she represents hard evidence of the paranormal and proves Mulders doubters that he isn’t away with the fairies, in-fact this giant mutated Fluke worm is worthy of a Noble prize! So it seems strange that the reaction it receives seem so downplayed and I can’t help but smile at the idea that Flukey is to be treated at a psychiatric hospital, no wonder she looks so confused.

This popular MoW is utterly disgusting and brilliant in equal measures and made famous by the evasive Fluke worm.

Musings:

• Mulder and Scully appear more relaxed with one another after their exploits in Little Green Men, as if the relationship is settling from the adjustments of being partners to being friends.
• The heavy Fluke suite took so long to put on and remove that future X-Files writer Darin Morgan apparently wore it for 20hrs straight. Chris Carter joked that the wearing of the suite should be a rite of passage for any budding X-Files writer.
• Flukey got cut in half and she survived, sure she is a worm after all but don’t forget about its offspring from the sewage worker that escaped down the shower waste. New Jersey certainly did have a problem on its hands. I wonder if the sewage workers felt comfortable with re-entering the sewers.
• Who would I least like to find coming out my toilet, Tooms or Flukey? Errr……Flukey! 

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