The X-Files “Arcadia”

Oh hey, it’s Abraham Benrubi!  That large character actor that appeared in a whole lotta stuff in the 90s!  That apparently includes an episode of The X-Files!

Yeah, that was nice.

The Case:  Swamp Thing?

The Rest:  OK, this one was a bit of a treat.  After a cold open when this giant monster that appears to be made of grass and mud kills a couple in a planned community, Mulder and Scully move in, posing as a married couple named Rob and Laura Petrie (pronouned “Pee-tree” like the dish), and apparently, no one noticed Mulder chose the names of the lead characters from The Dick Van Dyke Show.  Scully seems her usual low-key annoyed, and there’s actually a good bit of humor involving Mulder playing house.

Scully just has to warn Mulder about putting the toilet seat down and something involving toothpaste tubes.  Mulder, meanwhile, is a bit shocked at Scully’s facial mask.  His whole look–Lacoste polo shirt and the like–suggests Mulder’s ideas of what a married man looks like is base entirely on…something else.

As it is, the two are there to look into the murder from the cold open as these are not the only people to disappear from this planned community.  Something about a lot of rules that the local Homeowners Association was the reason they died, and when Big Mike (Benrubi) suggests maybe warning the Petries, he’s set up as the next target.  That he somehow gets away only to die fighting the creature off-screen later is somehow unexplained, but it may not matter much.

See, the agents keep finding what looks like blood, but when Scully finally takes the stuff to San Diego for testing, it comes back not as blood, but random garbage.

The community was built on a landfill.  How symbolic.

Regardless, the mastermind is HOA president Gene Gogolak, an importer that those in the know fear.  Mulder finally decides to do something really radical by putting a reflecting pool into his front yard–something there’s no rule about–and that means the monster is coming his way.  Time to arrest Gogolak since Mulder figured out the monster was a tulpa, something from Tibetan belief, thought made fleshy life, there to enforce all of Gogolak’s rules, even if it means sabotaging the houses of residents that don’t play along.

Why?  He asks Mulder who doesn’t want to fit in.

How fascist of him.

Anyway, Mulder handcuffed the jerk to a mailbox where he was killed by his own monster, a creature that turned into a pile of mud the second the guy died.  And Scully never saw a thing since Big Mike shoved her into a closet while he fought the thing.  How typical.

Up next, a big ol’ dog.