Thad wrote:There's a sort of current of melancholy and hopelessness that runs under most of Darin Morgan's episodes (and this one is no exception, really; just look how that poor creature's life was ruined when it was cursed with human consciousness), but there's also a sort of giddy celebration of all things weird that goes all the way back to his first episode, Humbug, and it's fitting that this episode ends on the latter note.
I think his episodes present a melancholy and hopeless look at the human condition, but I think that in his eyes this is a realist perception and not a pessimistic one. But the thing is, he always weaves in this concurrent thread of the fact that we are ALL facing this, together; no one is immune to it and you are not alone in this. I think that's where the heart warm comes from in his episodes. The monster's life may have been ruined by being cursed to become human against his will, but he was dealing with it. He didn't want to, and you can say he wanted to kill himself, but did he? He wanted Mulder to cure him, because he thought it was the only way he could go back, the only way to reject modern human life and return to the wild.
In the end he and Mulder came to an understanding: Mulder would get over his midlife crisis and go on living his life, and "this monster" that hated being in Mulder's position and wanted to run off into the woods, he would disappear for 20,000 years. He was literally put to bed.
Scully in the background, had no such crisis. She just comes in, does her job, and appropriately, finds a run of the mill normal killer who she arrests. Where Mulder doesn't want to still be doing this silly activity of chasing monsters, Scully remarks "I forgot how fun these cases were".
I see the whole episode as Darin basically talking about himself as an X-files writer through Mulder and Scully as X-files investigators. Mulder is his apprehensiveness and Scully his eagerness and exuberance.
I also loved the very direct and funny jabs at Dexter and Hannibal. "Yeah yeah, you've seen one serial killer you seen them all."