The X-Files
Australian Conne-X-ion
Episode Guide:
"Squeeze"


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Episode 1X02

First screened in Australia: 24 February, 1994
Released on Video in Australia: File 2 Tooms
First screened in the USA: 24 September, 1993

Title: Squeeze

Credits: Director: Harry Longstreet (with additional coverage by Michael Katelman)
Writer: Glen Morgan & James Wong Starring: Guest Stars:
Plot:
Mulder and Scully search for a serial killer who removes the livers of his victims. The only clues are an inhuman fingerprint and the murderer's talent for entering and leaving locked rooms without a trace. Mulder finds strange similarities between the latest murders and others going back to the 1900's, but the FBI agents assigned to the case ridicule the idea. The killer turns out to be a mutant, Eugene Victor Tooms, who emerges from hibernation every 30 years to eat the livers of five victims. His next intended victim is Scully ...
My Rating: 9/10

An interesting "baddie" who returns later in season 1 in Tooms. The closing scene where he's building a nest (licking the paper) is downright spooky. We learn some more of Mulder's past and his "Spooky" reputation through Agent Tom Colton and see Scully's loyalty to Mulder, despite her having to report on him.

There are some brilliant scenes such as Mulder's Reticulan spiel, the lie-detector test and the underground garage stakeout. It's an episode that really stands up to repeated viewings.

Notable Quotable:
Agent Tom Colton: "So how are you doing? Have you had any close encounters of the third kind?"
Scully: "Is that what everyone thinks I do?"
Colton: "No, of course not. But you do work with Spooky Mulder."
Scully: "Mulder's ideas maybe a bit out there but he is a great agent."



Mulder: "Why would I make them so uncomfortable?"
Scully: "It probably has to do with your reputation."
Mulder: "Reputation? I have a reputation?"
Scully: "Mulder, look. Colton plays by the book and you don't. They feel your methods, your theories are..."
Mulder: "Spooky? Do you think I'm spooky?"



Colton: "So Mulder, what do you think? Does this look like the work of little green men?"
Mulder: "Grey."
Colton: "Excuse me?"
Mulder: "Grey. You said green men. The Reticulan skin tone is actually grey. They're notorious for their extraction of terrestrial human livers. Due to iron depletion in the Reticulan galaxy."
Colton: "You can't be serious."
Mulder: "Do you have any idea what liver and onions go for on Reticula?"



Mulder: (To Scully) "You wouldn't shoot an unarmed man, would 'ya copper?"



Mulder: "So what's this, the anti-Waltons?"



Scully: "Oh, God, Mulder. It smells like... I think it's bile."
Mulder: "Is there any way I can get it off my fingers quickly without betraying my cool exterior?"



Scully: "Is this what it takes to climb the ladder, Colton?"
Colton: "All the way to the top."
Scully: "Then I can't wait until you fall off and land on your ass."

Where Have I Seen That Face Before?

Doug Hutchison (Tooms), who repirsed the character in the Tooms episode has appeared in "The Lawnmower Man", "Fresh Horses", "A Time To Kill", "Con Air", "Batman and Robin" and "The Green Mile". On TV he starred in Morgan/Wong's "Space: Above and Beyond" and also featured in an episode of "Millennium". He has a website: Doug Hutchinson Online

Donal Logue (Colton) has appeared in "Sneakers", "Gettysburg", "Little Women", "Disclosure", "Diabolique", "Another Woman", "Jerry Maguire", "Metro", "The Thin Red Line" and "The Patriot". On TV he's had guest roles on "Northern Exposure" and "The Practice".

Henry Beckman (Briggs) has had a long career since the 1950's, as a star on TV series including "Flash Gordon", "I'm Dickens - He's Fenster", "Funny Face", "Peyton Place", "McHales Navy" and "Bronk" plus movies such as "The Silver Streak" and "Death Hunt". He's appeared as guest-star on dozens of TV shows such as "Gunsmoke", "Combat", "The Munsters", "Bewitched", "The Monkees", "Bonanza", "I Dream of Jeannie", "Barney Miller", "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and "Happy Days". He played the same character in the sequel, Tooms.

Trivia

According to James Wong, director Harry Longstreet "had no respect for the script" and didn't shoot coverage for the episode (multiple angles for a scene to give the editor more choice) and Wong and Michael Katelman "had to go back up and reshoot some coverage, shoot a scene they didn't shoot and add a lot of inserts to try and make it work."

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