Plot
After the events of "Squeeze", Eugene Victor Tooms has been placed in a sanatorium in Baltimore. He attempts to escape by squeezing his arm through the food slot of his cell door, but is forced to abort when he is visited by his psychologist, Dr. Aaron Monte.
Dana Scully is called before FBI assistant director Walter Skinner, who is accompanied by the Smoking Man. Despite the success of the X-Files investigations, Skinner criticizes their unconventionalism and wants both Scully and Fox Mulder to do by-the-book work. The agents attend a release hearing for Tooms, where Dr. Monte claims that Tooms' attack on Scully was due to being falsely accused of murder. Mulder tries to point out the physical evidence of Tooms' physiology and crimes, but is ignored by the hearing's panel. Tooms is released into the care of an elderly couple, and is ordered to continue his treatment with Dr. Monte.
Scully meets with Frank Briggs, the detective who investigated Tooms' 1933 murders. Briggs claims that the body of one of the victims from that spree was never discovered. Scully and Briggs visit a chemical plant where a piece of the victim's liver was found, ultimately discovering a skeleton in concrete. Meanwhile, Mulder bothers Tooms at work, and follows him when he tries to break into a man's house. Tooms flees without attacking anyone.
A researcher examining the skeleton identifies it as the missing victim from 1933. However, there seems to be no substantial evidence proving that Tooms was the murderer. Scully relieves Mulder, who is watching Tooms' new residence; they are unaware that Tooms is hiding in the trunk of Mulder's car. He manages to break into Mulder's apartment, where he injures himself and imprints Mulder's shoe print on his face. Tooms' frameup leads to Mulder being questioned by the police. Skinner forbids Mulder from contacting Tooms.
Further research on the skeleton reveals bite marks from Tooms. When the old couple watching Tooms depart and Tooms is visited by Dr. Monte, he kills him and consumes the final liver he needs before his thirty-year hibernation. After discovering Dr. Monte's body, Mulder and Scully head to Tooms' former residence at 66 Exeter Street, which has been demolished and replaced with a shopping mall. Inside, Mulder crawls below the escalator, finding Tooms' nest. Tooms bursts out, covered in bile, and pursues Mulder, who makes it to the surface and activates the escalator, trapping and killing Tooms.
Skinner reads Scully's final report on the Tooms case and asks the Smoking Man if he believes it, to which he replies, "Of course I do." Outside, Scully finds Mulder, who is observing a caterpillar's cocoon. Mulder predicts that change is coming to the X-Files.
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