Tooms
Encyclopedia
"Tooms" is the twenty-first episode of the first season
of the American science fiction
television series The X-Files
. It premiered on the Fox network
on April 22, 1994. "Tooms" was written by Glen Morgan
and James Wong
, and directed by David Nutter
. The episode featured Mitch Pileggi
's first appearance as Assistant Director Walter Skinner
, and saw Doug Hutchison
and William B. Davis
reprise their roles as Eugene Victor Tooms and The Smoking Man, respectively. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the series' wider mythology
. "Tooms" earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.6, being watched by 8.1 million people in its initial broadcast; and received positive reviews from critics.
When mutant serial killer Eugene Tooms, last seen in "Squeeze", is released from prison, FBI special agents Dana Scully
(Gillian Anderson
) and Fox Mulder
(David Duchovny
) try to stop him from resuming his killing spree. Tooms, however, sets out to frame Mulder for assault before the agent can apprehend him.
in Baltimore
. He attempts to escape by squeezing his arm through the food slot of his cell door, but decides not to, and is soon visited by his psychologist
, Dr. Aaron Monte.
Agent Dana Scully
is called before FBI
assistant director Walter Skinner
, who is accompanied by the Smoking Man. Despite the success of the X-Files investigations, Skinner criticizes their unconventionalism and wants both Scully and Fox Mulder
to do by-the-book work. The agents attend a release hearing for Tooms, where Dr. Monte claims that Tooms' attack on Scully was due to being falsely accused of murder. Mulder tries to point out the physical evidence of Tooms' physiology
and crimes, but is ignored by the hearing's panel. Tooms is released into the care of an elderly couple, and is to continue his treatment with Dr. Monte.
Scully meets again with Frank Briggs, the detective who investigated Tooms' 1933 murders. Briggs claims that the body of one of the victims from that spree was never discovered. Scully and Briggs visit a chemical plant where a piece of the victim's liver was found, ultimately discovering a skeleton in concrete. Meanwhile, Mulder bothers Tooms at work, and follows him when he tries to break into a man's house. Tooms flees without attacking anyone.
A researcher examining the skeleton from the chemical plant identifies it as the missing person from 1933. However, there was initially no substantial evidence to prove that Tooms was the murderer. Scully relieves Mulder, who is watching Tooms' new residence at the old couple's house; they are unaware of Tooms hiding in Mulder's car trunk. He manages to break into Mulder's apartment and fakes being beat up by him, including imprinting Mulder's shoe print on his face. Mulder is questioned by the police, and tells Skinner he was framed
by Tooms; Skinner forbids Mulder from contacting Tooms.
Further research on the skeleton reveals bite marks from Tooms. When the old couple watching Tooms depart and Tooms is visited by Dr. Monte, he kills him and consumes the final liver he needs before his thirty-year hibernation
. After discovering Dr. Monte's body, Mulder and Scully head to Tooms' former residence at 66 Exeter Street, which has been demolished and replaced with a shopping mall. Inside, Mulder crawls below the escalator, finding Tooms' nest. Tooms bursts out, covered in bile, and pursues Mulder, who makes it to the surface and activates the escalator, trapping and killing Tooms.
Skinner reads Scully's final report on the Tooms case and asks the Smoking Man if he believes it, to which he replies, "Of course I do." Outside, Scully finds Mulder, who is observing a caterpillar's cocoon. Mulder predicts that change is coming to the X-Files.
felt "caused a little discomfort", but that "actually added to the scene". The bile-like substance coating Tooms and his nest was actually a yellow piping gel, which the cast found would stick to their skin and pull out hair upon removal. Tooms framing Mulder for assault seems to have been inspired by a similar plot point in the film Dirty Harry
.
"Tooms" introduced the character of Walter Skinner
, although this would be his only appearance in the first season. The character had been conceived as playing against the stereotypical bureaucratic "paper-pusher", being instead someone more "quietly dynamic". Actor Mitch Pileggi
had auditioned unsuccessfully for several other parts on the series before being cast as Skinner. At first, the fact that he was asked back to audition for the role had puzzled him, until he discovered the reason he had not cast for the previous parts—Chris Carter had been unable to imagine Pileggi as any of those characters, due to the fact that the actor had been shaving his head. When Pileggi attended the audition for Walter Skinner, he had been in a grumpy mood and had allowed his small amount of hair to grow back. Pileggi's attitude fit well with the character of Skinner, causing Carter to assume that the actor was only pretending to be grumpy. After successfully auditioning for the role, Pileggi thought he had been lucky that he had not been cast in one of the earlier roles, as he believed he would have appeared in only a single episode and would have missed the opportunity to play the recurring role of Walter Skinner.
The episode's climactic scene in the shopping mall where Tooms had made his nest was filmed in City Square Mall
, Vancouver
. Shooting at the location required the permission of every store owner on the premises, and care was taken to ensure that the stage blood used for the escalator scene did not seep into the escalator's motor to avoid possible damage. "Tooms" includes The Smoking Man's first line of dialogue in the series, and his only lines of the first season. Carter was initially unsure that the character would ever receive any dialogue, feeling that he would seem "more forbidding" if he remained silent. However, he described actor William B. Davis
as "an extremely competent actor", noting the character's increasing popularity.
on April 22, 1994, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom
on BBC Two
on February 16, 1995. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 8.6, with a 15 share, meaning that roughly 8.6 percent of all television-equipped households, and 15 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 8.1 million households.
In a retrospective of the first season in Entertainment Weekly
, "Tooms" was rated an A, with the Hutchison's appearance being noted as "another sublimely slimy performance", whilst Pileggi's performance was said to have an "engagingly steely presence". Zack Handlen, writing for The A.V. Club
, called the episode "a richly rewarding one", finding the interaction between the characters of Mulder and Scully to have been a highlight of the episode. Matt Haigh, writing for Den of Geek, felt that the plot thread of Tooms framing Mulder for assault "never really amounts to much", though he felt that the episode showed Tooms to be a creepier villain than his previous appearance in "Squeeze".
The character of Eugene Tooms has also attracted positive criticism. Author Neil Gaiman
listed the character of Eugene Tooms as one of his favourite monsters in a guest column for Entertainment Weeklys 1000th issue; whilst UGO Networks listed the character as one of their "Best TV Serial Killers", describing Hutchison's acting as "uber-creepy". Writing for Den of Geek, John Moore listed Eugene Tooms as his "Top 10 X-Files Baddies", noting that the popularity of both "Squeeze" and "Tooms" proved to be "largely responsible for shifting the emphasis of the show" away from dwelling solely on alien conspiracy-based mythology episodes.
The X-Files (season 1)
The first season of the science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing on the Fox network in the United States on September 10, 1993 and concluded on the same channel on May 13, 1994 after airing all 24 episodes....
of the American science fiction
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
television series The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
. It premiered on the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
on April 22, 1994. "Tooms" was written by Glen Morgan
Glen Morgan
Glen Morgan is an American television producer, writer, and director.-Biography:Morgan is best known for his screen work with long-time writing partner James Wong, including The X-Files, Millennium, Space: Above and Beyond, the Final Destination series, The One, Willard, and the 2006 remake of...
and James Wong
James Wong (producer)
James 'Jim' Wong is a Cantonese-American television producer, writer, and film director notable for his screen works of The X-Files, Space: Above and Beyond, Millennium, Final Destination 1 & 3, The One, and the remakes of Willard and Black Christmas along with writing partner Glen...
, and directed by David Nutter
David Nutter
David Nutter is an American television and film director and television producer. He is best known for directing pilot episodes for television series, being known as "the pilot whisperer."-Career:...
. The episode featured Mitch Pileggi
Mitch Pileggi
Mitchell Craig "Mitch" Pileggi is an American actor. Pileggi is known for playing FBI assistant director Walter Skinner on the long-running popular series The X-Files. He also had a recurring role on Stargate Atlantis as Col. Steven Caldwell...
's first appearance as Assistant Director Walter Skinner
Walter Skinner
FBI Assistant Director Walter Sergei Skinner is a fictional character in the American FOX television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence...
, and saw Doug Hutchison
Doug Hutchison
Doug Anthony Hutchison is an American actor, known for his roles in The Green Mile, as corrections officer Percy Wetmore, Eugene Victor Tooms in The X-Files, as Horace Goodspeed in Lost and as Davros in 24. He owns the production company Dark Water Inc.-Personal life:Hutchison was born in Dover,...
and William B. Davis
William B. Davis
William Bruce Davis is a Canadian actor, known for his role as The Smoking Man on The X-Files. He has also appeared in Stargate SG-1 as Damaris, a Prior of the Ori and as Mayor Tate on Smallville...
reprise their roles as Eugene Victor Tooms and The Smoking Man, respectively. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the series' wider mythology
Mythology of The X-Files
The mythology of The X-Files, sometimes referred to as its mytharc by the show's staff and fans, follows the quest of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder , a believer in supernatural phenomena, and Dana Scully , his skeptical partner. Their boss, FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner was also often...
. "Tooms" earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.6, being watched by 8.1 million people in its initial broadcast; and received positive reviews from critics.
When mutant serial killer Eugene Tooms, last seen in "Squeeze", is released from prison, FBI special agents Dana Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...
(Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...
) and Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
(David Duchovny
David Duchovny
David William Duchovny is an American actor, writer and director. He has won Golden Globe awards for his work as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files and as Hank Moody on Californication.-Early life:...
) try to stop him from resuming his killing spree. Tooms, however, sets out to frame Mulder for assault before the agent can apprehend him.
Plot
After the events of "Squeeze", Eugene Victor Tooms has been placed in a sanatoriumSanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
. He attempts to escape by squeezing his arm through the food slot of his cell door, but decides not to, and is soon visited by his psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
, Dr. Aaron Monte.
Agent Dana Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...
is called before FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
assistant director Walter Skinner
Walter Skinner
FBI Assistant Director Walter Sergei Skinner is a fictional character in the American FOX television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence...
, who is accompanied by the Smoking Man. Despite the success of the X-Files investigations, Skinner criticizes their unconventionalism and wants both Scully and Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
to do by-the-book work. The agents attend a release hearing for Tooms, where Dr. Monte claims that Tooms' attack on Scully was due to being falsely accused of murder. Mulder tries to point out the physical evidence of Tooms' physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
and crimes, but is ignored by the hearing's panel. Tooms is released into the care of an elderly couple, and is to continue his treatment with Dr. Monte.
Scully meets again with Frank Briggs, the detective who investigated Tooms' 1933 murders. Briggs claims that the body of one of the victims from that spree was never discovered. Scully and Briggs visit a chemical plant where a piece of the victim's liver was found, ultimately discovering a skeleton in concrete. Meanwhile, Mulder bothers Tooms at work, and follows him when he tries to break into a man's house. Tooms flees without attacking anyone.
A researcher examining the skeleton from the chemical plant identifies it as the missing person from 1933. However, there was initially no substantial evidence to prove that Tooms was the murderer. Scully relieves Mulder, who is watching Tooms' new residence at the old couple's house; they are unaware of Tooms hiding in Mulder's car trunk. He manages to break into Mulder's apartment and fakes being beat up by him, including imprinting Mulder's shoe print on his face. Mulder is questioned by the police, and tells Skinner he was framed
Frameup
A frame-up or setup is an American term referring to the act of framing someone, that is, providing false evidence or false testimony in order to falsely prove someone guilty of a crime....
by Tooms; Skinner forbids Mulder from contacting Tooms.
Further research on the skeleton reveals bite marks from Tooms. When the old couple watching Tooms depart and Tooms is visited by Dr. Monte, he kills him and consumes the final liver he needs before his thirty-year hibernation
Hibernation
Hibernation is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals, characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and lower metabolic rate. Hibernating animals conserve food, especially during winter when food supplies are limited, tapping energy reserves, body fat, at a slow rate...
. After discovering Dr. Monte's body, Mulder and Scully head to Tooms' former residence at 66 Exeter Street, which has been demolished and replaced with a shopping mall. Inside, Mulder crawls below the escalator, finding Tooms' nest. Tooms bursts out, covered in bile, and pursues Mulder, who makes it to the surface and activates the escalator, trapping and killing Tooms.
Skinner reads Scully's final report on the Tooms case and asks the Smoking Man if he believes it, to which he replies, "Of course I do." Outside, Scully finds Mulder, who is observing a caterpillar's cocoon. Mulder predicts that change is coming to the X-Files.
Production
Writer Glen Morgan was inspired to write this episode after seeing men working on an open escalator in a mall around Christmas time. He thought of the scare factor from a creature living underneath the escalator, and decided to use Tooms, from the first episode he and co-writer James Wong wrote for the series, "Squeeze". Tooms was the first villain in the show's history to make an appearance in a second episode. It was actor Doug Hutchinson's idea to play Tooms nude during the escalator sequence, a decision which Series creator Chris CarterChris Carter (screenwriter)
Christopher Carl Carter is an American screenwriter, film director and producer. He is the creator of The X-Files and Millennium.- Ten Thirteen Productions :...
felt "caused a little discomfort", but that "actually added to the scene". The bile-like substance coating Tooms and his nest was actually a yellow piping gel, which the cast found would stick to their skin and pull out hair upon removal. Tooms framing Mulder for assault seems to have been inspired by a similar plot point in the film Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry is a 1971 American crime thriller produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan....
.
"Tooms" introduced the character of Walter Skinner
Walter Skinner
FBI Assistant Director Walter Sergei Skinner is a fictional character in the American FOX television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence...
, although this would be his only appearance in the first season. The character had been conceived as playing against the stereotypical bureaucratic "paper-pusher", being instead someone more "quietly dynamic". Actor Mitch Pileggi
Mitch Pileggi
Mitchell Craig "Mitch" Pileggi is an American actor. Pileggi is known for playing FBI assistant director Walter Skinner on the long-running popular series The X-Files. He also had a recurring role on Stargate Atlantis as Col. Steven Caldwell...
had auditioned unsuccessfully for several other parts on the series before being cast as Skinner. At first, the fact that he was asked back to audition for the role had puzzled him, until he discovered the reason he had not cast for the previous parts—Chris Carter had been unable to imagine Pileggi as any of those characters, due to the fact that the actor had been shaving his head. When Pileggi attended the audition for Walter Skinner, he had been in a grumpy mood and had allowed his small amount of hair to grow back. Pileggi's attitude fit well with the character of Skinner, causing Carter to assume that the actor was only pretending to be grumpy. After successfully auditioning for the role, Pileggi thought he had been lucky that he had not been cast in one of the earlier roles, as he believed he would have appeared in only a single episode and would have missed the opportunity to play the recurring role of Walter Skinner.
The episode's climactic scene in the shopping mall where Tooms had made his nest was filmed in City Square Mall
City Square Mall
City Square Shopping Centre is a mall across the street from City Hall in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is located in the heart of the heritage district of central Vancouver, on the northwest corner of 12th Avenue and Cambie Street....
, Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
. Shooting at the location required the permission of every store owner on the premises, and care was taken to ensure that the stage blood used for the escalator scene did not seep into the escalator's motor to avoid possible damage. "Tooms" includes The Smoking Man's first line of dialogue in the series, and his only lines of the first season. Carter was initially unsure that the character would ever receive any dialogue, feeling that he would seem "more forbidding" if he remained silent. However, he described actor William B. Davis
William B. Davis
William Bruce Davis is a Canadian actor, known for his role as The Smoking Man on The X-Files. He has also appeared in Stargate SG-1 as Damaris, a Prior of the Ori and as Mayor Tate on Smallville...
as "an extremely competent actor", noting the character's increasing popularity.
Reception
"Tooms" premiered on the Fox networkFox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
on April 22, 1994, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
on February 16, 1995. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 8.6, with a 15 share, meaning that roughly 8.6 percent of all television-equipped households, and 15 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 8.1 million households.
In a retrospective of the first season in Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, "Tooms" was rated an A, with the Hutchison's appearance being noted as "another sublimely slimy performance", whilst Pileggi's performance was said to have an "engagingly steely presence". Zack Handlen, writing for The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
, called the episode "a richly rewarding one", finding the interaction between the characters of Mulder and Scully to have been a highlight of the episode. Matt Haigh, writing for Den of Geek, felt that the plot thread of Tooms framing Mulder for assault "never really amounts to much", though he felt that the episode showed Tooms to be a creepier villain than his previous appearance in "Squeeze".
The character of Eugene Tooms has also attracted positive criticism. Author Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
listed the character of Eugene Tooms as one of his favourite monsters in a guest column for Entertainment Weeklys 1000th issue; whilst UGO Networks listed the character as one of their "Best TV Serial Killers", describing Hutchison's acting as "uber-creepy". Writing for Den of Geek, John Moore listed Eugene Tooms as his "Top 10 X-Files Baddies", noting that the popularity of both "Squeeze" and "Tooms" proved to be "largely responsible for shifting the emphasis of the show" away from dwelling solely on alien conspiracy-based mythology episodes.