"The X Files" The Host (1994)

Director:

Daniel Sackheim

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator)
Chris Carter (written by)

TV Series:

"The X Files" (1993)

Original Air Date:

23 September 1994 (Season 2, Episode 2)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

A body is found in the sewers of New Jersey, and Agent Mulder is strangely assigned to the case. Soon...

Plot Keywords:

Title Spoken By Character | FBI | FBI Agent | Alien | X Files

Cast

David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
Mitch Pileggi	...	Walter Skinner
Darin Morgan	...	Flukeman
Matthew Bennett	...	Workman #1
Freddy Andreiuci	...	Inspector Norman
Don MacKay	...	Charlie
Marc Baur	...	Agent Brisentine (as Marc Bauer)
Gabrielle Rose	...	Dr. Zenzola
Ron Sauvé	...	Ray (as Ron Sauve)
Dmitri S. Boudrine	...	Russian Engineer
Raoul Ganeev	...	Dmitri (as Raoul Ganee)
William MacDonald	...	Federal Marshall

Runtime:

Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Argentina:13

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Trivia:

Scully states that the autopsy number is "101356." October 13, 1956 is Chris Carter's birth date.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: In one of the final scenes, there is a shot of a city at night captioned "Newark, New Jersey". It is actually a shot of downtown Baltimore, Maryland, filmed from Federal Hill.

Quotes:

Fox Mulder: You know, sometimes, it just gets really hard to smile through it when they ask you to bend down and grab your ankles. You know?
Dana Scully: It's not exactly as if you've ever tried to fit into the program.

One of the best

"The Host" is an amazing episode, and it comes as sort of a mild surprise that it is so great every time one watches it simply because it doesn't have the popularity and status of something like "Home" or "Bad Blood". It not only features one of the best, weirdest, most memorable and most gruesome monsters on the show (played by Darin Morgan, who would go on to write some of the show's best episodes), but is very interesting in terms of the continuing storyline of the X-Files being closed and the politics behind all that, Mulder & Scully's relationship, and in terms of character writing (which is related to the plot, of course). It's not just a great episode because it's got a great monster, it's a phenomenal script which accomplishes something in all different aspects of "The X-Files" as a series.

This script by Chris Carter was quite possibly his best up to this point. The idea itself is intriguing and well-executed, and this has to be just one of the most disgusting monsters on the show but also one of the most interesting and one of the best-developed. In addition to the quality of the monster and case, the episode is packed with witty banter, quirky guest characters, exceptionally well-done gross-out moments, stunning makeup work, a nasty end for the monster, and there's even interesting conversations between Skinner and Mulder and the introduction of Mr. X.

When it comes down to deciding which my favorite standalone episodes are I tend to go for the ones which are most inventive and different, as well as ones with exceptional writing for the characters and particularly notable dialogue. "The Host" actually manages to be all of those things with writing that extends beyond the case and characters into the overall mythology as well. Creepy, funny, intelligent, entertaining, and lots of fun, "The Host" is a real classic and one of the best episodes of not only season two but the whole series.

10/10