Check out Violet’s recap of Season 10 Episode 4 of The X-Files, titled Home Again, where a mysterious figure protects the homeless, and Scully has a family crisis. Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of The X-Files, Season 10 Episode 4: Home Again
The episode begins in West Philadelphia with homeless people being sprayed with a water hose as part of a relocation plan. The guy in charge, Joseph Cutler, warns the next street over that their street is scheduled for “cleaning” the next day. Cutler goes into his office, and suddenly the power goes out. He sees a man approaching outside his office door and calls 911 to report that there’s an intruder. He gets a gun out and points it, but the intruder bursts through the door and dismembers Cutler with his bare hands before he can do anything. Then the intruder goes outside and climbs into the back of a garbage truck, which then drives off.
The next day, Mulder and Scully investigate the scene. The forensics guy reports that although there is a footprint, there are no prints to lift, as there are no ridges. Mulder says that it looks like this person was born without footprints — which is impossible. As Scully takes a look at the various bits of Cutler’s body, Mulder looks out the window and notices some street art on a billboard — of a man that looks like the intruder. Just then, Scully gets a phone call from her brother that their mother has had a heart attack. Mulder tells her to go.
Mulder takes a look at the security footage and sees that there was no artwork on the billboard outside at the time of the murder, so it must have been put up there this morning. Mulder goes to investigate whether anyone around saw something or knows who made it. On the way out, Mulder steps on a band-aid, and has a little trouble pulling it off, as it’s coated with a sticky substance.
When Scully arrives at the hospital in DC, the nurse tells her that her mother regained consciousness for a few moments and asked for Charlie. Scully says that Charlie and her mother are estranged. Scully tearfully begs her unconscious mother not to go.
While Mulder awaits roof access to the billboard, he overhears a man and woman arguing. The man introduces himself as Daryl Landry, and says he’s been working with Cutler to redevelop the area. The woman, Nancy Huff, is the President of the county school board, and doesn’t like the fact that these homeless people are being relocated to a hospital near a school if one of them killed Cutler. A homeless man overhears them talking, and says that the “Band-Aid Nose Man” speaks for the homeless. Mulder tries to inquire further, then looks up and sees that the street art from the billboard is now gone.
We see a flashback to when Mulder sat by Scully’s bedside when she was in a coma.
Scully opens the envelope containing her mother’s personal effects. One of the items she finds is a quarter that has been made into a necklace. Scully’s brother, Bill, calls, and she tells him to get there as soon as he can. Scully tells him that they’ll keep her on life support, because that’s what she wanted, after talking to Scully about her coma.
Mulder gets the band-aid analyzed. However, the lab tech is unable to find either organic or inorganic material, despite the fact there is some sort of material there.
The nurse brings a copy of Scully’s mother’s Advance Directive, and it turns out that it was amended last year to include “Do not resuscitate” instructions. It was witnessed by two retired naval officers — one of which was Scully’s brother.
Two guys have retrieved the street art from the billboard, intending to make some money from it. The intruder that killed Cutler also dismembers these two men. We see that the artwork is signed “Trash Man.”
Scully’s mother’s doctor tells Scully that they must obey the law and honor her mother’s wishes. Scully gets a phone call — it’s Mulder. He’s there, just outside the doors.
Back in Philadelphia, Landry starts to load up the homeless people into a bus to transport them to Franklin Hospital. However, Nancy Huff shows up with an injunction.
At the hospital, Mulder updates Scully about the Trash Man, and that the Trash Man may believe he’s helping the homeless by killing off people involved in the relocation project. Scully updates Mulder about her mother, and wonders what the significance of the quarter necklace is. Mulder and Scully then witness hospital staff removing her mother’s tube.
Meanwhile, the Trash Man attacks his next victim, Nancy Huff, at her house.
Mulder and Scully sit at Mrs. Scully’s bedside. Scully gets a call from Charlie and pleads with him to say something to their mother. He agrees, and she puts him on speaker phone. Scully’s mother opens her eyes. She sees Mulder and holds her hand out to him. Mulder takes her hand, as she tells him, “My son is named William, too.” Then Scully’s mother closes her eyes and passes away.
Scully freaks out when hospital orderlies come to collect her mother’s body, but Mulder reminds her that her mother is an organ donor and they need her right away. Scully breaks down crying as Mulder hugs her, and Scully wonders why her mother’s last words had to be about their child that they gave away. Scully insists on going to Philadelphia, saying that she needs to work right now.
Mulder and Scully have the spray paint analyzed and find out there’s only one store in Philadelphia that carries that brand, so they go there, then follow a guy who purchases spray paint back to an abandoned building. They easily catch him, and say they’re looking for the Trash Man. The kid starts to lead them downstairs, warning them that there’s no power below that level, but he then slips away.
Mulder and Scully get their flashlights out and go downstairs. A figure passes by and they follow it. They bang on a door and bust it open. A man warns them that “guns don’t work on them, I’ve tried.” There’s a clay figure resembling the Trash Man. The man tells them to turn off the lights, because “if they can’t see me, and I can’t see them, they can’t hurt me.” The man talks about the homeless being treated like trash, and explains that he is just an artist, and that it wasn’t him that put up the art after the murders. He says didn’t mean to make those clay figures outside, and that they’ll fade away eventually — but the Band-Aid Nose Man is different. This man says that he put a lot of energy into his art, and that this is a Tibetan Tulku, that he willed the Band-Aid Nose Man into being, but in the end, the Band-Aid Nose Man told the artist what he wanted to be. Scully tells the artist that since this was his idea, then he’s responsible. Mulder realizes that the last person in the relocation project left alive is Landry. The artist reports that Landry got the injunction lifted and that they’re moving people to Franklin Hospital tonight.
Mulder and Scully leave the building and try to track down Landry’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, Landry is already overseeing the relocation, and has arrived with the homeless at Franklin Hospital. Suddenly, all of the homeless people disappear into various rooms, leaving the hallway empty, except for Landry. The Band-Aid Nose Man appears and Landry panics, trying to get away. However, the Band-Aid Nose Man soon catches up to him. Mulder and Scully arrive on the scene just in time to hear Landry scream. Seconds later, they enter the room and see Landry’s dismembered body, but see no sign of the Band-Aid Nose Man, except for a band-aid.
The artist gathers up his things and we see that the Band-Aid Nose Man’s face has been reshaped into a smiley face. As the artist leaves the building, we see the Trash Man art up on the side of the building.
Mulder and Scully sit next to a river with the urn containing the ashes of Scully’s mother. Scully says that she knows why her mother asked for Charlie — even though he was out of her life, she wanted to know that he’d be okay, because she gave birth to him, so she was still responsible for him. Scully concludes that that’s why she said what she said about William, she wanted to make sure that Scully and Mulder would be responsible to know that William is okay, even though they can’t see him. She laments missing out on her son’s life, and wants to believe — needs to believe — that they didn’t treat him like trash.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 10 Episode 4 of The X-Files: Home Again
This is another one of those episodes that were out of order. This was originally supposed to be the second episode. As I mentioned in the recap of the second episode, Founder’s Mutation, that episode was originally the fifth episode. One of my complaints about that episode was that it seemed like such an abrupt and poor transition from the first episode, and that learning that it was originally intended as the fifth episode made sense as to why it felt that way. However, after watching this episode knowing that it was supposed to be the second episode, I don’t feel like there was a much better transition, though there were more connections. But I suppose I can see why they’d want to delay this episode until later in the season, as this was kind of a “heavier” episode, with the death of Dana’s mother, and the social commentary about treating homeless people like trash. As for the connections, we saw a good bit about Scully and Mulder’s son, William, and their fantasies about what their life could have been like with him, so that is one thread tying the first episode to this episode.
In any case, this was a heavy-hitting emotional episode that Gillian Anderson really delivered on. It’s incredibly sad that Scully would think that they had treated their son like trash, because that definitely was not their intention — they were trying to protect him, and do what was best for him. I feel bad that Scully would think their actions could be interpreted otherwise, and I’m sure no one from the audience blames Scully for her decision to have William adopted. Apparently she is feeling very guilty about it as of late, as she kept thinking she saw William’s name come up on her caller ID.
Apart from Scully’s storyline with her mother, the Trash Man/Band-Aid Nose Man part of this episode was nice and creepy, a good throwback to the spooky types of stories from old school X-Files. I think the scariest part was when Nancy Huff was trying to run away from the Band-Aid Nose Man, but the doors were locked, and he suddenly appeared on the other side of those doors.
Anyway, I can’t believe there are only two episodes left. This is going by far too quickly.
Josh’s Thoughts: The X-Files, Season 10 Episode 4: Home Again
This was a pretty creepy episode of The X-Files this week. The “band-aid-nosed-man” is not someone I ever want to deal with, given his ability to tear limbs from people with no effort, and him having the ability to seemingly teleport around. I would have liked to have a little bit more back-story to this thing though. Where did he come from? It seems he cam from the imagination of this one homeless guy, but I would like to have a little more explanation. I guess that is what X-Files was all about though—the unexplained. I was just confused—was he a ghost? An alien?
Interestingly, this episode seemed to be social commentary on the homeless plight in the world, or at the very least, urban U.S. cities. The scuffle between the different parties dealing with the homeless issue all seemed to revolve around people trying to figure out where to put the homeless so that that aren’t in their way. Not one of the parties involved seemed to particularly care about these actual people.
This is a pretty sad, but true fact, and the situation of the homeless is a tough one to figure out. Do people step in and try to figure out where to put these people? It sounds pretty harsh when you say it like that. Do we just let them be, and they can wander where they may? Again, this sounds cold hearted, as it sounds more like they are animals than people. Its something I have often wondered about, and I don’t really know a good answer, as to the best way to go with it.
The other aspect of the story was Scully’s mother, which was sad to see. That storyline seemed to be a way for Scully to reflect on their own child. I wonder if that means we will be seeing this kid in the final episodes of the mini-series.
Scenes from The X-Files, Season 10 Episode 5: Babylon
Here are scenes from the next episode of The X-Files, titled Babylon:
Yeah, I wasnt a fan of the trash monster episode, I dont know if it was just the monster or distraction with the hospital events, but I am interested to see where or if the william storyline progresses.