The 9 Greatest X-Files

Squeeze/Tooms

It initially presents as a brutal, locked-room murder. A man is killed inside his office, late at night – his liver ripped from his torso with what appears to be the assailant’s bare hands. So far, so creepy. But then, Mulder spots an elongated fingerprint on an air vent at the crime scene, and we’re off and running.

First appearing in the third episode of the first season (Squeeze), that assailant is Eugene Tooms (Doug Hutchison) – a bizarre and terrifying mutant who goes on a killing spree every thirty years. He harvests fresh human livers from his victims to facilitate a period of hibernation, which he spends in a hidden nest made of newspaper and bile. As a result of this lifestyle, Tooms is actually over 100 years old. In their initial investigation, the incredible nature of Mulder’s hypothesis serves to highlight the ridicule his open-minded approach attracts, and the agents meet high levels of resistance when trying to argue their case.

Mulder and Scully locate Tooms’ nest, which cements their belief in the extraordinary physiology of the suspect – but in doing so, Scully becomes a target. Tooms then attacks her in her apartment, and is about to extract her liver when Mulder arrives to apprehend him. The case is seemingly concluded with Tooms incarcerated in a small cell – but the delivery hatch in the heavy metal door suggests an opportunity for escape.

Later that same season – in episode 21, titled “Tooms” – it transpires that a release is possible for Tooms. Mulder and Scully were unable to prosecute him for the liver-extraction murders, and he was instead locked up for his attack on Agent Scully. Despite the protestations of Agent Mulder, Tooms is declared sufficiently rehabilitated and released into the community – with a foster placement and a job with animal control. We are reminded that he needs just one more liver to complete his cycle of rejuvenation, at which point he will disappear into secret hibernation for another thirty years. Mulder relentlessly surveils him and prevents a number of attacks, while Scully returns to a police officer who investigated the previous batch of murders, in a desperate attempt to find more evidence.

Tooms displays his high level of intelligence by entering Mulder’s apartment, undetected, and framing him for assault. Meanwhile, Scully uncovers the missing body of a past victim, and links Tooms to the crime by matching his dental records to gnaw marks on the ribcage, near the liver. Tooms is banged to rights, and the agents go to search for him at the location of his previous nest – now a shopping mall. As Mulder descends into a narrow maintenance space under an escalator and finds the nest, he is attacked by Tooms – who is only stopped, in gruesome fashion, by the mechanism of the moving staircase.

This early, creepy case is designed to strike fear into the deepest, darkest recesses of our imaginations – suggesting that, even behind our locked doors and windows, we are never safe from predators.