The X-FILES: HUMBUG Explained – A Hymn to Otherness

When I was asked to write this text, I agreed without hesitation, but doubts struck me shortly after. How do you choose one episode from nearly 220 episodes across 11 seasons that make up such a diverse series as The X-Files? What criteria should I follow? After all, the series is essentially a procedural, meaning it tells a different story in each episode. Someone among the fans might chime in: wait, what about the mythology? Yes, The X-Files mythology has some narrative continuity, but are there episodes that are truly exceptional or groundbreaking? I don’t know. Despite my genuine love for the show, I’ve never been particularly fond of the entire mythological deterioration. Nevertheless, I chose the one that has always made an incredible impression on me, and alongside giants like Post Modern Prometheus, Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, and Bad Blood, it stands among the greatest achievements of The X-Files: Humbug, the 20th episode of season 2.

In mysterious circumstances, Gerald Glazbrook, the Alligator Man, dies. A man affected by ichthyosis, the father of two sons, whose genetic disease (known as fish scale disease) made him resemble a lizard-like human, which led him to one of the last freak shows in the U.S., where he found himself in great company: a bearded lady, Siamese twins, an omnivorous human riddle, an escape artist, a man-dog, and many others, straight out of a Victorian show reminiscent of Lynch’s The Elephant Man. The unusual nature of both the death and the victim attracts Mulder and Scully, who seek to solve the mystery of his death. More victims are soon to follow…

You might think that the essence of the mystery is who killed him. To some extent, you are right, because it is, after all, a story about an investigation. But here, that takes a backseat because the writers are far more interested in the environment: the unusual, fascinating, alien, and mysterious world in which the investigation takes place. But more on that later, because it’s worth taking a moment to talk about the writer, Darin Morgan, who, along with Chris Carter and Vince Gilligan (yes, the Breaking Bad showrunner, who met Bryan Cranston for the first time on the set of The X-Files, during the Drive episode), is responsible for the greatest episodes of The X-Files, such as Jose Chung’s ’From Outer Space and Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose.

There are episodes of The X-Files that are horror, science fiction, thrillers, or crime dramas, but there are also those that, with their richness of references, go far beyond the usual genre templates. Humbug is one of those. Already the unusual nature of the community in which the story takes place is startling, because the freak show belongs more to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries than to times 100 years later. But this is no accident. Humbug directly refers to Tod Browning’s Freaks. Yes, that Browning, who, one year before Freaks directed the first American version of Dracula, starring the famous Bela Lugosi. Freaks was condemned immediately after its premiere, famous for its story about people rejected by society, deformed, mutated, ugly: dwarfs, half-men, Siamese twins, a tale no one in Hollywood (and Europe was no better) wanted to see.

The spice, but also a bit of horror, was added by the fact that Browning hired real people who were truly harmed by nature, and perhaps that’s why it was so hard for contemporary viewers to accept this film: the awareness that these were not actors in makeup playing a screen drama, but real, physically harmed people. By the way, even today, the film is considered offensively exploitative of physical deformities and is no easier to watch than it was almost 100 years ago. Nevertheless, it became an authentically cult film, and today it is no surprise that it inspired the creators of The X-Files, a series known for its exploration of both classic horror and science fiction, cyberpunk, and ethnic inspirations.

Chris Carter and Kim Manners employed a similar method to Browning’s and cast real-life individuals in the show. Probably everyone remembers the short-statured Michael J. Anderson, who you can’t forget after watching Twin Peaks and the famous scene in the Red Room, or the now-deceased Vincent Schiavelli, whose name you might not know, but there’s no way you wouldn’t recognize his face. And that’s not all. The Enigma – the human riddle, who earned a living swallowing swords on stage from the age of 15, tattooed with blue puzzle pieces all over his body, a man who ate everything from jars of live crickets to inanimate objects of almost any size. Jim Rose, a circus “magician” and shock performer, etc. Even Gillian Anderson, who played Scully, ate a real cricket in one scene. Yes, The X-Files took the best lesson, following in the footsteps of creators almost 100 years ago.

On this vibrant backdrop, it probably isn’t that strange that the mystery itself is essentially secondary, and Mulder and Scully move through these strange characters like shadows, playing in fact supporting roles. But if we were to focus on the plot itself, Humbug is nothing more than a crime story in which the brave detective, among the menagerie of colorful characters, tries to reach the ultimate truth: who killed and why. And here, we do get the truth, although it is suitably twisted in the X-Files style, and the real satisfaction for the viewer comes from watching the process itself and reveling in the richly served black humor by Morgan, rather than the finale and the “final” explanation. However, we must not forget that this was the first episode in the series to turn towards comedy, something that would later be nurtured cyclically, not only by Morgan himself. Even if it can’t be called a comedy per se, the viewer will undoubtedly smile several times during the viewing.

The freak show, although now respectfully referred to as a side show by Americans, is both the backdrop and, I think, without exaggeration, the main character of Humbug. Moreover, Freaks is not the only inspiration for Darin Morgan. Not long ago, the world screens saw the triumph of The Greatest Showman, a film created based on elements of P.T. Barnum’s life, starring Hugh Jackman, which is nothing more than a fairy tale. Who was Barnum? The man credited with creating the entertainment industry in the U.S. and the concept of show business. It’s probably not a coincidence that he also created the prototype of the “human oddities” circus, which is nothing but a freak show. Humbug not only quotes Barnum on various levels, referring directly to his famous words (There’s a sucker born every minute), but also references his creation of the Fiji Mermaid (Fiji or Feejee Mermaid), which was nothing but the upper half of a young monkey sewn to a fish’s tail. These were the kinds of tricks Barnum used to draw suckers to his circus.

The character played by Michael J. Anderson, named Mr. Nutt, is also a direct reference to Barnum’s human oddities circus – the nickname Commodore Nutt was used by one of the dwarfs, whom The Greatest Showman even took to the White House for an audience with Abraham Lincoln. In Morgan’s version, the Commodore name was given to Mr. Nutt’s dog. There are many more such details in Humbug, including a clear reference to B-movie horror films about murderous newborns (It’s Alive) and even a distorted perspective from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Morgan’s inspirations go that far, and credit to him for that, because thanks to this, the episode can be watched with true enjoyment.

To not limit ourselves to just the narrowly understood freak show as the main source of inspiration, the writers go even further, all the way to Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. In the characters of Mr. Nutt and Lanny (played by Vincent Schiavelli, the slightly intellectually challenged character who literally carries his underdeveloped Siamese twin brother), we hear echoes of the intellect of George Milton and the strength of Lenny (sic!) Smalls from Of Mice and Men. It’s amazing that Morgan and Carter managed to pack such a wealth of references into 43 minutes.

Finally, I’d like to make one thing clear. The freak show is not just the backdrop of this brilliant episode of The X-Files, it is not just the main character, the carrier of the narrative and the screenwriter’s erudition. I don’t think I’ll be wrong if I write that it is a hymn in praise of diversity, originality, and otherness. So, here’s to the outsiders, because if there’s anything we should fear in the coming future, it’s not the otherness of our neighbor across the fence, but the fact that we will all become the same.