Squeeze (24 Sep. 1993)
"The X Files" Squeeze (original title)

Scully and Mulder are called in when a businessman is found dead in his office. The doors and windows were locked from the inside and the only other possible opening is an extraordinarily ... See full summary »

Director:

Harry Longstreet

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator), Glen Morgan,

Stars:

David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Doug Hutchison

Cast

Episode cast overview:
David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
Doug Hutchison	...	Eugene Victor Tooms
Donal Logue	...	Agent Tom Colton
Henry Beckman	...	Detective Frank Briggs
Kevin McNulty	...	Agent Fuller
Terence Kelly	...	George Usher
Colleen Winton	...	Lie Detector Technician
James Bell	...	Johnson
Gary Hetherington	...	Kennedy
Rob Morton	...	Kramer
Paul Joyce	...	Thomas Werner

Storyline

Scully and Mulder are called in when a businessman is found dead in his office. The doors and windows were locked from the inside and the only other possible opening is an extraordinarily small air vent, which no person could possibly go through. The dead man also had his liver torn out. There is also a strange elongated fingerprint on the vent which leads Mulder to find two sets of old cases the first dating to 30 years ago and the other 30 years before that. All of the victims had their livers torn out of their bodies. More importantly, the elongated fingerprint is an exact match, despite the long interval in between events. Mulder is convinced that the killer is the same man who comes out of hibernation every 30 years to feed his appetites.

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Plot Keywords:

liver | fingerprint | air vent | baltimore maryland | year 1963 | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 September 1993 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Stage 2, North Shore Studios, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

20th Century Fox Television, Ten Thirteen Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

40 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Doug Hutchison is one of the two actors that played the character of Tooms, a liver eating mutant, in the episodes "Squeeze" and "Tooms". Hutchinson is actually a vegetarian, or was at the time. After filming "Tooms" he sent the liver of an animal to Chris Carter as a thank you for the opportunity to play a character on "The X-Files".

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Goofs

The murders being investigated are in Baltimore, yet the episode opens with a victim walking past the sign for Oceanic Plaza in Vancouver.

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Quotes

[first lines]
George Usher: [speaking on the phone] Hi honey, it's about 8.30 and, I'm gonna be here for a while, the presentation didn't go so well, call me, I love you, bye.

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Connections

References The Waltons (1971)

User Reviews

The best episode yet by quite a stretch.

I guess that there have always been two very distinct kinds of episodes delivered by The X Files. The first is the simple "monster of the week" tale (or substitute monster for alien) while the second deals with the big conspiracy theories and the shady authority figures who keep everything covered up.

Personally, I've always preferred the former type although I'm not saying that the episodes dealing with the conspiracy theories didn't include some absolute beauties. "Squeeze" is the first "monster of the week" episode, considering that the Pilot episode blended some elements from both before everything was properly set in place for viewers, and it remains one of the best.

Scully is asked by a colleague (Donal Logue) to have a look at some mysterious murders he's currently investigating. Each victim was found in a room with no discernible point of entry and each had the liver removed. Scully is intrigued and, much to the chagrin of her colleague, also gets Mulder to look over the details. Mulder, typically, comes up with a slightly more outlandish theory and nobody wants to listen to him. But what if he's right? What if there is a killer somehow able to hibernate for 30 years at a time, only ever coming out to harvest the five livers that he needs to consume for their regenerative qualities? It may seem far fetched, and that still doesn't explain just how the killer gained access to the rooms, but things start coming together when they encounter baby-faced Eugene Tooms (Doug Hutchison).

I see this episode as a very important one. "Squeeze" was something that I know was spoken about fervently the next day amongst my friends and it was used as an easy introduction to the show by anyone trying to convert others. It was also the first episode to benefit from the writing of James Wong and Glen Morgan, two men responsible for many of my favourite episodes. And, apparently, it scared the crap out of my wife when she first saw it.

The acting is as good as ever. Aside from the leads, we get great turns from Hutchison oozing menace and Logue being a bit of an ass.

"Squeeze" is just an all round great episode and it works even better when paired up with "Tooms", the other episode to make use of the character (the two episodes were first packaged together years ago when certain episodes were cherry picked for VHS releases).