Big ick. The first X-Files episode to feature a real, disturbing and ridiculously gross monster, The Host plays like one of those hokey old B-movies, with some truly vomit-inducing scenes (most of them involving flatworms, flatworms coming out of mouths, slithering out of corpses etc. etc.) but apart from a couple of suitably nasty moments, it's not a hugely successful episode.There's a lot of running around in tunnels and sewer systems, which gets a little tired after a while. Equally frustrating are the various endings piled on top of one another, like a script just doesn't know when to wrap things up. Luckily, the continued banter between Mulder and Scully saves the hour, their forced separation making you wish for the days of fewer complications.
Skinner has suddenly become a rich, intriguing character. Firstly with his antagonism toward the Cigarette Smoking Man in the season premiere, and now with his hesitant admittance that it was a mistake to shut down The X-Files. I liked that part of this episode, with reality-based characters like that realizing that they can't bring monsters into the real world. What? The Flukeman's gonna be tried in a court of law? It was a funny moment...
Not hugely great, but successful in terms of all-out grossness, as well as setting up episodes with real, rubber-suited monsters instead of parasites or special visual effects. Rating C+
Credits
Guest stars Mitch Pileggi (A.D. Walter Skinner); Darin Morgan (The Flukeman)
Writer Chris Carter Director Daniel Sackheim
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