Squeeze (The X-Files)

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“Squeeze”
The X-Files episode

Tooms on the hunt
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 1X03
Written by Glen Morgan
James Wong
Directed by Harry Longstreet
Guest stars Doug Hutchison,
Donal Logue,
Henry Beckman,
Kevin McNulty,
Terence Kelly
Production no. 03-103
Original airdate –
Episode chronology
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"Deep Throat" "Conduit"

"Squeeze" is a 1993 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the third episode broadcast in the show's first season. "Squeeze" was the first "monster-of-the-week" episode of the series, as the two previous episodes had dealt with alien abduction and UFOs.

"Squeeze" concerns a series of serial murders in the Baltimore area, and a human mutant with the ability to squeeze into small spaces. The episode features the first of two appearances by one of The X-Files' most popular "monsters" (and one of only three to appear twice), Eugene Victor Tooms, who reprises the role later in the season in "Tooms". "Squeeze" was also the first of dozens of episodes of the series to be written by Glen Morgan and James Wong.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Mulder and Scully investigate a series of murders where there appears to be no tangible method for the murderer's entrance and escape. Eugene Victor Tooms, a seemingly normal animal welfare official, is suspected by Mulder to be a mutant who kills his victims and extracts their livers in order to prolong his existence. Tooms decides to target Scully for the fifth liver and, after taking her necklace as a trophy, attacks her in her apartment.But finally Mulder and Scully entrap Tooms.

[edit] Production details

  • Origin of Idea: "What if we were working here late at night and some guy came through that thing?!" - Glen Morgan to James Wong upon looking at a large ventilator shaft outside their office.

[edit] Guests

  • Doug Hutchison as Eugene Victor Tooms
  • Donal Logue as Agent Tom Colton
  • Henry Beckman as Detective Frank Briggs
  • Kevin McNulty as Agent Fuller
  • Terence Kelly as George Usher
  • Colleen Winton as Lie Detector Technician
  • James Bell as Mr. Johnson
  • Gary Hetherington as Mr. Kennedy
  • Rob Morton as Mr. Kramer
  • Paul Joyce as Mr. Werner

[edit] Trivia

  • Doug Hutchison who played Eugene Tooms is, in real life, a vegetarian.
  • Doug Hutchison, who looks "like he's 12 years old" won the part after the director was annoying him by asking him to "look like you're stalking your victims.. I want to see your potential for evil... Do you understand what I'm saying?" - Doug's reply, "Yeah, I got it, you want me to stalk you, you motherfucker?". Wong and Morgan immediately proclaimed, "That's the guy!" He has since appeared in every show that M&W have worked on.
  • Agent Fuller (Kevin McNulty) returns as the same character in season 3's "Apocrypha", and look for McNulty in numerous other episodes playing someone else, notably, in "Soft Light", the guy who locks Dr. Banton in the particle accelerator...
  • The episode bears some resemblance to Stephen King's novel "IT." Both are about an entity that kills people and then sleeps for thirty years. However, the novel was about a paranormal creature, while "Squeeze" is about a mutant.
  • The scene of Mulder and Scully first entering through Tooms' apartment door is the same shot seen in the opening credits of the show.

[edit] References and external links

v • d • e
The X-Files Season 1
Episode List | Official Website
v • d • e
Works by James Wong and Glen Morgan
Television
Films