Season 10, Episode 3: ‘Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster’

“Yeah, this is how I like my Mulder!” Scully, you took the words right out of my mouth.

After the heaviness of the last two episodes, “The X-Files” took a welcome comedic and existentialist turn this week. Even with a were-lizard that can shoot blood from its eyeballs, this was a feel-good hour that gave Mulder some of his mojo back.

At first, we find our hero doubting himself and asking some of the same questions reviewers and critics have been: “I am a middle-aged man, Scully, no, I am, I am. I’m thinking maybe it’s time to put away childish things, the Sasquatches, and mothmen and jackalopes. I thought it’d be great to get back to work, but is this really how I want to spend the rest of my days, chasing after monsters?” We’ve all been there, right?

As Mulder has said time and time again, he wants to believe. Skimming old case files, though, he finds that since he and Scully have been away, “much of the unexplained has been explained.” What is our agent to do? He’s not sure, but he’s pretty convincingly down.

But what he finds when he and Scully go in search of a predatory beast is validation and a sort of benediction. Also, a serial killer.