TOOMS

                         He is capable of contorting and elongating his body in order to gain access to the victims so                            that he may extract their livers - sustenance for a hibernation period of thirty years.

We begin at the Druid Hill sanitarium in Baltimore, Maryland....the home of Eugene Victor Tooms. We see him sat in his cell and attempting to stretch his arm through the spy hole - however there is no need for him to attempt an escape as the visiting Dr Marney informs him that there is a hearing tomorrow to determine whether or not he will be re-released back into the community. For Dr Marney Tooms is ready to be released, and it would appear that most reports available would concur with his opinion.

Back at FBI HQ Assistant Director Walter Skinner, the mysterious cigarette smoking man and Scully are meeting, and Skinner expresses his displeasure at the X Files - inconclusive files, untenable evidence and anonymous witnesses - he suggest that Scully's mind it 'too open' and that the only saving grace for the X Files is the 75% conviction rate. Skinner explains to Scully that he requires an increased frequency of reports from Scully and conventional investigation techniques - cases that need to be by the book.

At the Court house the Court announces that it is its intention to review the psychological status of Tooms by using a number of expert witnesses - which in turn will allow them to assess his suitability for release. The Doctor states that Tooms has responded well to treatment/therapy, and reminding the Court that Tooms has never actually been charged with any murders. Mulder then steps forward as a witness - suggesting that he has a profile of Tooms - a man who has murdered as far back as 1903, and that in each case the liver of the victim is extracted. Mulder informs the Court that each case has a common characteristic, an undetermined point of entry, and that this is accounted for by his ability to contort and elongate his body. He concludes by stating that Tooms needs one more victim and that should they release him he will kill again. The Court fail to take his concerns on board and release Tooms with the conditions that he continue with his counseling, maintain his employment as a pest control worker and that he reside at the home of Mr and Mrs Green, elderly carers who will assist his transition back into society.

Mulder is more than displeased with the decision and vows to follow Tooms, instructing Scully to look back over the previous murders and see if they can dig up any more evidence. Scully returns to Lyme Acres retirement home to see Detective Briggs (as in Squeeze). He tells her that in 1963 all five victims were found at the crime scene - yet in 1933 only four of the five victims were discovered, and that the fifth victim was missing. He believes that this fifth victim is buried within the foundations of a chemical plant that was being  built at the time, and that Tooms hid the body as there was something about the body that linked him to it. They visit the chemical plant and through ground penetrating radar and Briggs' hunch they discover the remains of a person in the cement. Later, at the Smithsonian Institute for Forensic Anthropology they discover that the victim died in the 1930s and that the skeleton is that of the missing person. There would also appear to be gnaw marks near the rib cage, which the investigator suggests is probably the work of rodents.

Meanwhile Mulder is in close proximity to Tooms, and after observing Toom's van parked on a side street Mulder suspects he has entered a nearby home and investigates. His suspicions are proved correct after he finds fingerprints on the glass - but Tooms fails to claim a victim. Tooms becomes increasingly annoyed by Mulders attentions, and later sneaks into Mulders flat through an air vent, and rather than killing him he reports to a Police Station later claiming that Mulder has assaulted him. Investigating Police find incriminating evidence in Mulder's flat, planted by Tooms, and Mulder is ordered to take vacation by Skinner.

Of course Mulder doesn't listen, and later he and Scully use a dental programme to match Toom's teeth marks to the gnaw marks on the skeleton - they have a match. They immediately goes to the residence of Tooms, only to find that the visiting Doctor had become Tooms final victim of this period. They realise that Tooms would head back to 66 Exeter Street, although this is now a shopping mall. Mulder suspects that Tooms lair would be underground and he begins to crawl through a  vent - eventually coming across the nest built by Tooms in readiness for his hibernation. Tooms is less than happy and he attempts to get hold of Mulder - however Tooms meets a grizzly end, getting trapped in the workings of an escalator.

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