The X is Not for Nudity

[setsuled]

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Mulder and Scully chase naked cannibals in the 1993 X-Files episode, "The Jersey Devil". This is one of the silliest episodes of the series.

A man is found with his leg chewed off and the autopsy reports that the bite marks are human. Mulder therefore assumes it's a missing link in the human evolutionary chain. I dimly remember finding this hilarious when I first watched the episode, too. Evidence says it's human, therefore Mulder says it's not. What?

The episode, written by series creator Chris Carter, is so invested in the idea of a missing link, it forgets to provide a shred of evidence of it. Mulder appears to be excited about naked people living in the forest. His inferences get more ridiculous when, after the man is killed, he immediately presumes, for no reason whatsoever, that he had a mate and this naked woman is now running around an abandoned industrial district in the city. SWAT teams and scores of officers converge onto the scene. I bet she would've felt really special had she known. You know how many naked homeless people there are in my hometown who don't rate attention from even one cop?

I imagined some alternate dialogue for the episode.

MULDER: We could've done it, Scully. We could've caught a naked woman.

SCULLY: *sigh* Mulder . . . You only had to ask.

The naked woman was played by Claire Stansfield. Wikipedia notes she was the first of many guest stars to have also appeared on Twin Peaks, not counting David Duchovny himself.