Plot
Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) travel to Gibsonton, Florida, to investigate a 28-year series of attacks by an unknown assailant in a community of former circus sideshow performers. Among the people they meet are "self-made freaks" human blockhead Dr. Blockhead (Jim Rose) and his "geek" sidekick The Conundrum (The Enigma), who will eat anything, but says nothing.
Mulder and Scully stay at the Gulf Breeze trailer court, whose name is a reference to the 1987 Gulf Breeze UFO incident, also mentioned in season 1 episode, "Fallen Angel". Here, they meet the distrustful manager Mr. Nutt (Michael J. Anderson), and Lanny (Vincent Schiavelli), an alcoholic with an underdeveloped conjoined twin named Leonard. The agents hear a story about the legendary Fiji mermaid, a common sideshow act in the 19th century that generally turned out to be a monkey with a fish tail attached—the "humbug" referred to by the episode's title. Despite Scully's skepticism, Mulder is intrigued because of what look like simian tracks left by the mystery attacker.
They eventually discover that the attacker is Lanny's twin, Leonard, who is able to detach himself from Lanny's body. According to Lanny, Leonard attacks people and attempts to burrow into them because he is looking for a new brother to replace Lanny, who is dying from liver failure due to years of alcohol abuse. Lanny voluntarily locks himself in the local jail in an effort to keep Leonard from escaping, but dies during the night, and Leonard is able to slip through the bars on the cell window and flee. Mulder and Scully try to capture Leonard, but he gets away. They find The Conundrum lying on the ground, rubbing his stomach, apparently having been attacked by Leonard. As Dr. Blockhead prepares to leave town with The Conundrum, he comments to Scully that with modern science eradicating genetic anomalies, it will be up to self-made freaks like him to remind people that "nature abhors normality". The Conundrum looks unwell and Mulder asks what the matter is. The Conundrum—in his only line of the episode—replies, "probably something I ate".
Read more about this topic: Humbug (The X-Files)
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