The X-Files (TV Series) 2Shy (1995) User Reviews

An enjoyably gross episode.

[Hey_Sweden · 8/10 · 22 March 2014]

I've always been a fan of the character actors Timothy Carhart ("Thelma & Louise") and James Handy ("Arachnophobia"), so seeing them in this particular show was a treat. The premise is of the "monster of the week" variety, but I always preferred those episodes to the recurring plot lines, to be honest. Aside from some good acting, '2Shy' has typically solid 'X Files' atmosphere and a delicious amount of icky makeup effects. Plus, it's easy to feel a great deal of sympathy for the victims in this story.

Mulder and Scully are called in to help with a local Cleveland case wherein various ladies are found in a curiously disgusting state; it's not decomposition, but something else. They find out that these ladies have all done the "online dating" thing and been to a chat room, and are able to track down our villain. (By the way, the mystery is in why this killer does what he does, not who he is, because we see him in the act right from the beginning.) He's Virgil Incanto (Carhart), a freelance translator with an interest in Italian poetry.

Carhart is quite suitably creepy in the guest villain role; the character was originally intended to be more along the lines of a "Phantom of the Opera" type but eventually became a more normal looking human. Handy is good as the local detective on the case with reservations about Scully's presence; he simply doesn't believe that women law officers can do well at maintaining their objectivity when it comes to crimes against females. There's a good "Silence of the Lambs" type hook in that Incanto requires women who are overweight, and as one of the timid, lonely souls whom he seduces, Catherine Paolone is appealing.

Overall, this is an episode that is both visceral and poignant.

Eight out of 10.

An icky fine little episode

[SleepTight666 · 7/10 · 26 August 2008]

An episode that I certainly did not remember being this good. It wasn't perfect, and it didn't have a storyline that would normally interest me (a fat-sucking vampire?) and I also just strongly disliked the bad-guy. He rubbed me in the wrong direction.

But what makes this episode good is the great atmosphere. it's really creepy, and it works very well for the episode. The victims, overweight women are easily to feel sad for. I was glad that his about-to-be victim was the one who killed him and not Mulder.

One of my favorite parts of the episode was the little blind girl. Her part was great and I was glad that she made it out alive. My favorite scene of the episode was when 2Shy attacked Scully in the bathroom. It reminded me of the bathroom scene in 'Squeeze', only it was scarier and far more effective to me.

THREE stars, an icky fine little episode.

You've Got Mail

[Muldernscully · 7/10 · 27 May 2006]

2Shy is one of only two episodes written by Jeff Vlaming. This episode was written back in 1995 when the internet was still in its beginning stages. I like how he attempted to tackle the issue of people meeting romantically online. For its time, this episode was probably quite unique. Virgil Incanto is a nasty bad guy who preys on lonely overweight women to get what he needs. If they were to make an episode like this now , Virgil would probably be a pedophile trying to get an underage girl. As Scully was wearing shades a few episodes earlier in D.P.O., it's Mulder's turn to wear them. For some reason they can't wear them simultaneously. The skeleton in the autopsy room looked like it was in a pan of tomato sauce. That effect left something to be desired. You need your medical dictionary to understand this episode, as lots of "big" words are used. I like the scene where Virgil is in his apartment, he hears a knock, answers the door, and it's Scully. But the scene has actually jumped and Scully is really at a different apartment. Cool transition. During the climax, there's some funky synthesizer music playing. It seems a little out of place and odd. Check out 2Shy, it's a good episode that deals with the current issue of online predators.

A terrifying episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 24 October 2020]

1995, a time where the internet was still only in use by the minority, a time where it was dangerous to meet eloquent, charming with a knowledge of Italian literature. Twenty five years on, and nothing has really changed.

I thought this was a great episode, I started off with a very dramatic, nasty opening, and continued in the same manner, lots of dark, creepy moments throughout, one of those episodes not to watch whilst you're having your evening meal.

Incanto is a fine character, I thought Timothy Carhart did a great job of making him quietly sinister.

I like how Incanto was left as something as an enigma, they didn't try and explain him away, he was just that, an enigma.

Very good, 9/10.

Sanpaco13 seeks lonely chubby woman...

[Sanpaco13 · 9/10 · 19 July 2007]

2Shy the Limerick:

This online dater does prey

On women a bit overweight

Why? We find out

He eats their fat out

And their corpse then quickly decay.

The first thing I remember about this episode is Scully kicking the crap out of the bad guy in the bathroom. Man she can kick!

I think for the most part I can say this episode was quite enjoyable. You have a very creepy bad guy who was very well played. I really enjoyed the character being a poet who on the outside seems like Mr Romance with all his Italian poetry and smooth talking. I love the scene where the landlady comes to his door and tells him "I know what you do" all suspicious and he's somewhat taken aback and says "you do?" and she's like "yeah you're a writer. I have to admit I did feel quite bad for the blind girl having to lose her mom that way though.

Then you have really cool effects with the bodies turning in to jelly because of the digestive fluid all over them. I really can't of anything wrong with this episode it is one of those that I think of when I think of what are the best episodes of the series. I have to give this a 9/10.

"Okay, it's not yet the finely detailed insanity you've come to expect from me."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 7 June 2017]

The writers for the X-Files could sure come up with some creepy, nasty story lines couldn't they? It's not enough to run across werewolves and people-eating shadow monsters, but this time around they came up with a fat-sucking vampire wannabe. Probably more than any prior episode, and because there were so many scenes with people using computers, but didn't the technology look ancient going back some twenty odd years ago? The screens were those clunky, boxy looking things, and 'You've got mail' looked archaic by comparison with today. Just goes to show how rapidly technology advances in the twenty first century.

And how about chat rooms? Do they still have those? I never participated myself, but it seems with the advent of Facebook and Twitter, why trouble one's self in a one-on-one when you can spill your guts to thousands at a time?

The guy Virgil Incanto (Timothy Carhart) reminded me a lot of Eugene Victor Tooms. Not the squeeze through a ventilator shaft Tooms, but the everyday, creepy looking guy who looked like he had a terrible secret but couldn't wait to let you in on it. You know, you have to give the actresses credit who appeared in the story for accepting a role in which their physical features weren't runway model thin or fashion mag-cover glamorous. I mean really, how far would 2Shy get with somebody like Paris Hilton?

Scary in the 90s, scary now.

[Umarfilmgeek · 9/10 · 19 May 2021]

I remember watching this as a kid (I know, I secretly watched it without my parents knowledge) and I don't really remember it properly but I remember being thoroughly entertained as well scared lol.

20+ years later and I like this episode even more. I don't scare easy and this isn't the type of scare that is in most horror movies, rather it is a psychological scare that keeps you on the edge of the seat throughout the episode.

A brilliant monster of the week episode that shows that humans can be even scarier than paranormal monsters. It fits in well in today's society, nevermind the 90s there Internet chatting and dating was basically described as very dangerous. Way ahead of its time.

As if it weren't hard enough for a chubby girl to get a date already...

[cleanfun-1 · 6 December 2010]

Now they have to be worried that their date is going to feast on their fat.

This is a great example of how man will say just about anything to get what they want. Show it to your daughters.

In this episode, only heavy girls need to be afraid, in the real world though, all girls need to be afraid.

Anyway, this is another non conspiracy episode. It doesn't add anything to the ongoing X-Files theme but can be viewed independently. Wouldn't want to watch this episode right before going to sleep.

So next time you're on a date and he's telling you everything you want to hear, be suspicious!

Alien Insectoid Monster Easily Seduces Women, Human Men Blamed

[frankelee · 7/10 · 16 July 2023]

This was a pretty fun monster of the week episode. A strange man who loves very old Italian poetry, who knows it may have been pretty new when he first heard it, seduces lonely, overweight women, except to eat them. He knows just what to say, because he isn't human and he just wants to eat them.

This episodes features a weird killer, a sexist Cleveland cop, some nice ladies you hope don't get eaten, and a gripping yarn. It is a somewhat mean spirited episode, not thematically, just literally in terms of what happens. It falls down a little in quality from not really fleshing out the villain, he seems like he's some kind of insectoid space monster wearing fake skin, but they also want to play it ambiguously, like maybe he is human or something? Emphasis on the ?

I think that wastes the actor, he does a great job rotating between being alien, charming, and menacing. Perhaps it is strange that a man who seduces women so readily comes across like an annoyed Conehead when his smitten neighbor lady comes knocking on his door, you'd think he'd just operate with general social skills. Then again, maybe he just knows what he needs to know for dates with desperate women trying online dating so he can eat, and the rest is pretty obscure to him.

Also funny is that it features "online dating" and "weirdos who use the internet" (they don't actually say that). It's so Boomer. Watching something removed from its time lets you in on its strange elements, in past episodes they've acted like it's weird to go home with somebody after meeting them in a club, among other things, and you remember this was the AIDS scare and probably no shortage of serial murderer hysteria too. John Walsh was convincing a generation of parents to keep their children out of the yard for fear they may be the 1/100,000 who get abducted, though I think he painted the number more like 1/2. That was the 90s.

Anyway, my point is, it would have been better if they did more with the "monster" aspect for this monster of the week, though I suspect they just couldn't come up with anything, so didn't bother.

Dark, funny, and very ahead of it's time

[Sean_Biggins · 9/10 · 10 May 2021]

I'm binge-watching this in 2021 since I missed some of the originals back in the 90's but man, if you knew what the internet was like back in 1995 then you know that the writer(s) really had the jump on the future in this one because the internet was really in it's infancy but they went right to the core of the fear of meeting people online and who would be vulnerable, and it's sinister yet darkly humorous that they make the victims chubby, single women.

Outstanding

[frank-98194 · 9/10 · 30 December 2020]

This is one of those X-Files episodes that has feature-film quality and would have been a perfect movie. Script, directing, cinematography, casting are all superb here. It offers flawless acting, even from minor figures (the blind girl for example) and some nice character moments for Gillian Anderson's Scully.

Don't be shy, be fly! (cos ya know, a fly vomits on it food)

[bombersflyup · 10/10 · 8 December 2017]

2Shy is about a man who chats up lonely hearts online. Gaining their trust, then projects some sort of stomach acid on them in order to eat them. Beautiful :).

One of the best opening teasers of the series. Our villain Virgil talks a load of bull to an overweight women on a date and then eats her alive, wince. The effects of the woman being killed in that scene and the bodies later on are superb. An arrangement I like, where you hear the knock of the door in the killer's apartment, then it cuts to Scully knocking on a door elsewhere, then back to the detective, and you know right then that he's doomed. A very nice touch. In terms of guest appearances, Timothy Carhart as the killer does a great job. Glynis Davies appears again, was last in "Irresistible", she's great in the small role of the caretaker, the very forward and inviting character to put along side a Donnie Pfaster or Virgil Incanto. Virgil's interactions with Ellen for the last portion of the episode didn't work, lacked believability.

Psychological and well acted

[peter_nilsson88 · 10/10 · 12 April 2020]

"2Shy" is a strong stand alone episode with great acting and a very intense thriller story that had me on the edge of my seat until the very end.

It doesn't really has to be about the paranormal. The reason why "the monster" acts the way he does, really isn't necessary and could just have been the motive of the sexual predator.

Especially "the monster" is extremely well played. A very good episode!

Manipulation & Murder

[Aegelis · 9/10 · 1 July 2023]

Surely X-Files takes scenarios a step further with supernatural occurrence, but beneath the shocking oddity, there is a very important message for the viewer. Although the days of the internet have gotten slightly better, the cautionary tale still rings true about trusting strangers and blindness to danger in falling too quickly into a relationship.

Dialogue has an 'all too real' feel as victims fall into the killer's trap. Timothy Carhart had a warm confidence that had his character's charisma charm and disarm each target. There are subtleties about the minds of an abuser worth paying attention to as well. Excellent work of fiction that is a mere single step away from fact.

Monster of the week

[devonbrown-90649 · 8/10 · 28 April 2023]

Very dark and thrilling episode with a great monster of the week. Mr Incanto reminds me of Eugene Tooms a monster that kills to survive and preys on mostly women. Albeit Incanto gave mulder and scully more of a challenge.

There was some visibly discomfort from scully this whole episode. I've seen it in multiple episodes where women are the main victims. She has to put aside her personal discomforts and focus on the investigation often.

Would have loved to see more details of the origins of Mr Incanto perhaps we'll get a part two just like Mr Tooms.

Overall it was a good gripping episode. Hope to see more of him soon.

Great episode, a very mid-90s depiction of weight and Internet dating

[Valinypse · 8/10 · 28 February 2024]

This episode should be criticize for what it was, not for what it is. It's curious to see how this episode tries to make you think these ladies are fat and rejected, but they're actually pretty fine. That and the depiction of the Internet is very mid-90s, especially when it comes to Internet dating.

Great antagonist. This episode makes you feel bad for these ladies. Great atmosphere, and an interesting music selection compared to other episodes.

The officer doubting of Scully for just being a woman is something that could've been developed further, but was not.

Great episode overall, Season 3 is doing great!