Squeeze

Internal dating: Tooms is arrested by the FBI about half way through the episode. When Skinner reads Tooms' file in the episode Tooms, the date for this arrest is given as July 23rd 1993. (Blink and you'll miss it, but it is there.)

A man in an office building at night is attacked by a killer who comes in through an air vent.

Scully has lunch with Tom Colton, an Academy friend. They discuss a mutual friend, Marty Neill, who's already a Supervisory Special Agent two years after leaving the Academy. Colton has ambitions to go the same way. He asks Scully if she's had any close encounters of the third kind lately. "Is that what everyone thinks I do?" she asks, not looking very pleased. "Mulder's ideas may be a bit out there but he's a great agent," she says, when Colton mentions "Spooky Mulder."

Colton goes on to tell her about the case he's on - three murders without visible means of entry, in which the liver was ripped out with the perpetrator's bare hands. "This looks like an X-File," says Scully. Colton urges her not to get carried away, and asks for her help with going over the case histories and doing a profile.

At the crime scene, Mulder wonders why they didn't ask him. Scully says it's because of his reputation. "Reputation? I have a reputation?" he asks, all innocence. "Mulder, look. Colton plays by the book and you don't. They feel your methods, your theories, are...." "Spooky?" says Mulder, spookily. "Do you think I'm spooky?"

Scully is saved from answered by the arrival of Colton who teases Mulder about "little green men", to which Mulder replies, dead-pan, about them really being grey, and talking about the price of liver and onions on Reticula. Scully looks as if she wants to disapprove of Mulder, but is trying not to laugh.

Mulder finds a fingerprint on an air vent, despite Colton's patronising sneering at him for even looking there. Back at the office, Mulder shows Scully similar prints from 1963 and 1933, and tells her of a similar murder back in 1903. Scully warns him that it's Colton's case, and "they don't want to hear your theories."

Scully works on a profile, which she presents to the other agents. They say she's welcome to work overtime on this case, "if you don't mind working on a area that's a bit more.... down to earth." Everyone laughs, but Scully looks uncomfortable.

Scully, acting on the profile she wrote, joins a stake-out of the last murder site, despite Mulder's insistence that the killer won't return. But then he sees movement in the air vent, and actually calls to Scully to "call for back-up." (Is this a first?) Vast numbers of back-up arrive and apprehend Eugene Tooms.

Tooms is given a lie detector test, which he passes. The agent in charge releases him, despite Mulder's insistence that he's guilty, due to his failing the question "are you over 100 years old?" The other agents won't even listen to Mulder. "You coming?" Colton asks Scully as they all leave. Scully looks annoyed. "Tom, I want to thank you for letting me put in some time with the VCS, but I am officially assigned to another area." "I'll see what I can do about that," replies Colton. "Tom, I can look after myself," she says. "You said Mulder was out there," he whispers. "That guy's insane."

Later, Scully confronts Mulder with his behaviour, asking him why he pushed the issue. He replies that he thought she had caught the right guy, and adds "I run into so many people that are hostile, just because they can't open their mind to the possibilities that sometimes the need to mess with their heads outweighs the millstone of humiliation." She accuses him of acting territorial, and he says, "Of course I was. In our investigations you don't always agree with me but at least you respect the journey." If she wants to work with the others, he won't hold it against her, but she smiles and says she wants to see what evidence he's found.

Mulder shows Scully how Tooms' fingerprints can be stretched by computer, exactly matching the stretched prints taken from the crime scene and from the killings in 1963 and 1933. Meanwhile Tooms is shown squeezing down a chimney to kill someone.

Next morning, Colton is at the crime scene, and desperate. "I'm willing to give any theory a shot!" he shouts. "Any sane theory" he adds, as Mulder and Scully walk in. Colton tries to prevent Mulder entering, but Scully threatens to report him if he obstructs their investigation. "Look, Dana, whose side are you on?" he asks. "The victim's," she replies, firmly.

Mulder finds the same stretched prints at this crime scene, and also evidence that a small object had been removed from the mantelpiece. Later, they search all the records and find no mention of any Eugene Tooms apart from one at the turn of the century, living at 66 Exeter Street, where the first murder took place. They also find the address of Frank Briggs, the detective in charge of the 1933 investigation, whom they visit. He says he was sure it was Tooms back then, but never had any proof.

Mulder and Scully go to 66 Exeter Street, which is deserted and decaying. Under his apartment they find a nest of old newspaper and bile. Mulder reckons this is where Tooms hibernates, sustained by the five livers he takes every thirty years. Scully doesn't reply to this theory, but points out that, whoever he is, he's coming back sooner or later. They decide to stake out the building. As they're leaving, Tooms grabs Scully's pendant.

The next morning, two agents arrive to relieve Mulder outside 66 Exeter Street. They call him "Spooky" and laugh. Colton is furious that his men have been used that way, and he calls of the stakeout. When Scully opposes he says "You were a good agent," but now she's been corrupted by Mulder. Scully says she'll report Colton for his behaviour, and says she can't wait until he falls off the promotion ladder in disgrace.

That evening, Scully is watched by Tooms as she returns home and runs a bath. Meanwhile, Mulder returns to 66 Exeter Street and finds her pendant. He tries to call her, but Tooms has disconnected her phone. Scully is attacked as Tooms squeezes through an air vent, but puts up quite a fight. Mulder bursts in and between them they overpower him.

Tooms ends up in prison, calmly working in a new nest, while Scully tells Mulder that his tests showed abnormal muscle development and a very low metabolic rate. Mulder reflects on how high-tech security systems are useless against someone like Tooms, while Tooms looks intently at the small hatch in his prison door.

The story is continued in Tooms

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