- Mulder questions his faith in the unexplained. He attempts to gather proof of the existence of the new creature he and Scully investigate before jumping to conclusions.
- When a dead body is found in the woods, Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate whether it was an animal attack, a serial killer or just maybe a strange creature as described by eyewitnesses. Meanwhile, Mulder is able to confront some of his own demons about feeling disillusioned with his life's work.—vhavnal
- When a country sheriff seeks FBI help for what may be a serial killer victim or just an animal attack, neo-believer Scully stumbles onto evidence to suspect and trap the first. Now skeptic Mulder is stunned to find weird, equally confused senior Guy Mann turns out to be an actual shape-shifting reptilian species, sort of a were-lizard.—KGF Vissers
- The full moon is out, and in Shawan, Oregon, two stoners are out in the woods huffing spray paint. They look at the full moon, and the female stoner wonders if they should consider how they're wasting their lives as tones. The male stoner says that he wishes he was a werewolf. They hear a man screaming, and go to find a horned lizard humanoid creature attacking a man. The creature turns toward the stoners, which scream. The creature runs past them, further into the woods, and the stoners go the victim, animal control officer, who thinks that he's okay. There's a corpse nearby, his throat torn out
Muller is in his office, throwing pencils at his "I want to believe" poster and going through files. Scully comes in and he complains that since they've been away, much of the "unexplained" has been explained. He laments how all of the x-files have normal explanations, and wonders if it's time to put away "childish things". Scully tells Mulder that they have a case and has a monster in it.
The partners go to Shawan, and go over the different explanations the stoner gave. The officer didn't see anything, and Mulder figures the stoners saw a mountain lion. Scully says that the local authorities found three more victims nearby, and they were all mutilated in the same fashion. The third victim wasn't wearing any clothes, but Mulder still isn't convinced. She says that they should try to stop the killings, and Mulder insists the killer is human.
That night at a nearby truck stop a prostitute, Annabelle, is unsuccessfully trying to pick up truck drivers. The monster lurks in the shadows nearby and comes at the prostitute, who hits it with her purse.
Later, the partners investigate and Annabelle says that she hit the creature in its horn, and it was wearing nothing but underwear. An animal control officer, Pasha, in in the field nearby. When the partners question him, he says that he hasn't seen anything. Scully recognizes Pasha as the officer who was attacked the other night, and he says that he can handle cats and dogs, but not whatever attacked him. Something growls nearby and Pasha runs off. As the partners go to investigate, Mulder starts napping photos on his camera so he can get a good picture of the creature. They find a man, freshly killed, and a creature runs off behind them. Mulder chases it between two trucks, still snapping pictures, and Pasha runs up and startles Mulder. The creature lunges at them and they both scream.
Scully comes over and finds Mulder lying stunned on the tarmac. Pasha is there, his net torn up, and quit. The creature runs off, and Mulder and Scully see it run into a Porta Potty. They yank open the door and find a man, Guy Mann, using it. The partners close the door and run off after the creature, and Guy comes out... with a horn sticking out the back of his head which retracts into his skin.
Later, the partners are the morgue. Scully autopsies the victim while Mulder examines his photo which doesn't show much. There is blood on his face, which he thinks the creature shot out its eyeballs just like a horned lizard. Scully says that the bite marks on the victim were made by a human being, She tells Mulder to go back to the motel and get some sleep.
At the motel, Mulder is sleeping when he hears a man yelling about a monster. Mulder goes to the manager's office, and the manager says he was arguing with an unruly guest. The agent point out that he heard someone say "monster", and the manager says the guest called him a monster when the manger asked the guest to pay his overdue bill. Mulder goes to the guest's room, and finds a bottle of anti-psychotic pills and a bag from a cell phone store. He finds a mask knocked off of the wall, and when he puts it back he finds a hidden tunnel in the wall. The tunnel leads to various rooms with holes looking into the guest rooms.
Mulder goes back to the manager's office through the tunnels and flashes his badge, and the manager claims he put in the tunnels in as a security feature. The agent tells the man that he isn't going to report him, but asks what he saw in the trashed room. The manager says that he saw the guest, Guy, yelling at his reflection in the mirror and then at his alarm clock in the mirror. When Guy started to transform into the lizard creature, the manager screamed and Guy, hearing him, ripped the concealing mask off of the wall and roared at the manger, who yelled "Monster!" When the manager finishes his story, Mulder shows him the sketch from the stoners. The manager confirms that was the creature that came at him and Guy was the mam.
Mulder goes to Scully's room and tells her that Guy is the monster. He figures they're dealing with transformation, and admits that he doesn't know how the creature came to be, but it's a monster. Scully admits that she likes Mulder when he's spouting wild theories, and points out that there are no facts. She figures they need to talk to Guy once they check out of the motels.
The next day, Mulder talks to a psychiatrist, Rumanovitch, who talks about the legends of the creature and how it must be killed with a spike of green glass. Rumanovitch figures that it's easier to deal with monsters in the real world, that within themselves. Rumanovitch says that Guy was a patient of his, and he prescribed an anti-psychotic. Mulder wonders how he can find Guy, and Rumanovitch says that he recommended Guy take a stroll in the local cemetery the next time he felt an episode coming on, as a reminder of how their anxieties will soon be resolved, and buried for all eternity. Rumanovitch writes a prescription for Muldcr before he goes, figuring the agent needs antipsychotic.
Scully goes to the nearby phone store and calls Mulder, saying that Guy works there. She says that there are some discrepancies with the blood tests from the autopsy. Mulder hangs up on her before she continues, and Scully goes into the store and asks Guy if she can asks him some questions.
Mulder drives to the store and goes in, and finds the place torn up. Scully says that when she started to ask Guy questions, he yelled "I quit", went on a rampage, and went out the back. Mulder goes after Guy before Scully can tell him about the lab results.
Guy goes to the local cemetery, drinking, and Mulder finds him there. Mulder claims that he's there visiting a tombstone, and Guy says that he recently lost himself, He didn't know until recently that they all end up there. Mulder suggests that Guy, and Guy confesses that he's going to kill himself and then attacks Mulder with his green glass bottle. He soon "drops" it, takes pains to point out that he dropped it to Mulder, and tries to get Mulder to stab him with the bottle. Mulder refuses, and says that he knows Guy is trying to get him to kill him. He says that he wants to help Guy, and Guy asks Mulder to put him out of his misery. Mulder finally agrees if Guy tells him his whole story.
Guy offers Mulder another bottle, warning that his story is a shocker, and says that when he was once a monster sitting out in the woods enjoying himself. a man came by killing another man, and then the killer came at the monster and he ran off in a panic past the stoners. He tells Mulder that the killer bit him, and says that Mulder's sketch is quite close to what he looks like. Guy transformed physically and mentally the next morning in the woods, and he heard his voice in his head telling him to cover up and hunt down a job. He found something right away at the phone, even though he had no idea what he was saying
After his first day at work, Guy "killed" a cow at the local drive-in, then checked into a motel and spent the rest of the day watching porn. Sometime during the night he transformed into his natural self, much to his relief. He bounced on the bed in happiness, but the next morning the alarm woke him up and he transformed back to human. Guy went back to work, but all he could think of was how much he hated his job. He worried that he wouldn't save enough money for a "mortgage", whatever that is, but didn't know what else to do. Guy visited a psychiatrist but the medicine didn't help so he bought a dog and that made him happy. They played through the night, but when Guy came home the next day, he discovered that the maid had let the dog out and it ran away. Guy search the entire night but couldn't find the dog, and realized that life was hopeless, and there was no point in bothering.
Just when Guy had given up the search, he saw the man who had bitten him and turned Guy into a human. Furious, Guy went after the man in revenge, but then he saw the man kill someone else. Shocked at the brutality, Guy transformed back into his natural form and ran off, and ran into Annabelle who attacked him. Her doesn't remember the rest of the night, went back to the motel, and the jackalope on the wall started "screaming" at him. Guy fled the hotel, turned into a human the next morning, and went back to work. Scully came in and Guy hallucinated Scully having sex with him. Mulder tells Guy that didn't happen, and Guy finally admits that he lied about it but it's the only false part of his story.
Mulder doesn't believe Guy's story because it's the too silly, and figures they both want to believe in things that aren't real. Guy begs Mulder to put him out of his misery, then finds Mulder's badge and realizes he's an agent. Mulder explains that he's in town investigating the murders, and Guy figures Mulder wants to arrest him for something he didn't do, and says only humans take advantage of someone like that. He insists that he's not delusional, and Mulder is the monster. With that, Guy walks off.
Drinking, Mulder passes out in the cemetery and wakes up when Scully calls him. He tells her that he might be just a fool, like he always has been, and deletes the photos off of his phone. Scully tells her partner that she's at the animal shelter, waiting to see Pasha. A puppy bites her finger, and Pasha comes in and starts choking Scully with an animal control lasso. Mulder hears the commotion and calls the police, asking them to send backup to the animal control shelter as he drives there himself.
Mulder and the police get to the shelter, and find Scully has already captured Pasha. She says that the autopsies showed the actual cause of death was strangulation, and she analyzed the blood left behind on the pole Pasha left behind, and there was blood on it from previous victims. Pasha says that he had an uncontrollable urge to kill small animals as a child, and it grew as he became older. Scully doesn't want to hear it, and has the police take Pasha away. Mulder realizes that the bite marks on Guy's photos matched the ones on the victims, and that Guy's story was true.
That night, Mulder finds Guy in the woods. Mulder says that they caught the killer, and he knows that Guy was telling the truth about himself. The agent admits that it still sounds a little absurd, and Guy points out that it's a lot absurd, and takes off his clothes. Guy explains that it's the time when his kind go into hibernation, and he hopes that when he wakes up again he'll be "cured" in 10,000 years. Mulder says that he wants to believe, and Guy tells him that he's been through a lot but he's glad to have met Mulder and offer his hand. As they shake, Guy transforms into his lizard form and runs off. Mulder smiles and says "likewise".
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content