F. Emasculata ('MOW'): Um. . .ew.

So much stuff packed into this episode and it explodes out like a nasty, bulbous, blood-rich sore on an infected face! And that's exactly what this episode was about: gross skin conditions and exploding bulges. I hadn't updated this site in awhile mainly because I really didn't want to sit through this episode again. The plot details escaped me a bit since it's been so long but one thing was very vivid in my head. . .a dude with long hair who had a large bulging, pulsing, infected sore on his face about to explode all over a kid.



This episode is many, many things but it most excels at being just gross to look at. Sticky gross liquids constantly shoot out of infected people and there are lots and lots of dead things filled with bugs and decomposing scars and such. Ew. This episode makes me feel gross. . .I HAD to shower afterwards. But with this icky feel is a solid little episode. Nothing amazing but it had some things to say and it, I imagine, was setting up things for the season finale (only three eps away). (On a side note: it figures that Scully would look so blazing hot in the episode that makes you avert your eyes the most often. Something about Gillian Anderson in this episode. Wowser).

One of the many topics, besides DEATH BY GROSS THINGS, is the idea of the public's knowledge of major events in human history that stand to change the future of said humans. For a simple 'MOW' (that borders on the edge of 'Unofficial Mythology' but just misses out), this one is packed with X-Files-like intrigue such as the still ambiguous Skinner and Mr. Cancer Man himself. And this is an episode where, for the most part, the evil bad guy is kind of right. CSM's point that panic causes more death then a problem that is loose but unhindered by outside factors kind of makes sense. And Scully agrees with him. The more passionate and, perhaps, naive Mulder, so eager to reveal the truth on anything, is tempered from doing something rash by Scully and one of his nemesis.



Besides these moral/ethical/grey issues, the episode excels at just being kinda gross but pretty scientific. Scully gets to blabber on about sciency stuff while WORMY SCIENTIST VICTIM sweats a lot and earns our sympathy. Good ep but close your eyes often (probably the worse thing to say about a show made famous on a visual medium).