Humbug (The X-Files)
Morgan had previously appeared in a guest role as the Flukeman in an earlier episode of that season called "The Host".
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files.
The figure emerges from the water; it's revealed to be the boys' father, a freak show act named the "Alligator Man", who scares his sons for fun.
Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) travel to Gibsonton to investigate a 28-year series of attacks by an unknown assailant in a community of former freak show performers.
Among the people they meet afterwards are "self-made freaks" Dr. Blockhead (Jim Rose) and his "geek" sidekick, The Conundrum (The Enigma), who will eat anything but says nothing.
[1] 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.
Upon leaving the funhouse, the agents 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 the following morning, 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."
[4] Series creator Chris Carter offered Darin Morgan a permanent place on The X-Files writing team, which he reluctantly accepted.
[6] Other guest stars were Twin Peaks regular Michael J. Anderson as Mr. Nutt and Vincent Schiavelli as Lanny.
The departure from The X-Files' usual style made some of the crew, including director Kim Manners, uncomfortable, and some of the more explicitly comic scenes were cut.
[4][6] After "Humbug", Morgan went on to write three more comedy-infused stories for the show: "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", "War of the Coprophages" and "Jose Chung's From Outer Space".
[7] In his 2002 book Strange TV, M. Keith Booker describes "Humbug" as an important episode in the show's "ironization" of its exploration of "Otherness"; from the start it challenges the characters'—and viewers'—assumptions about difference.
This need for something beyond everyday existence is mirrored by the main characters in Mulder's "wanting to believe" in the paranormal and Scully's Catholic faith.
She noted the difference between the style of the episode and previous stories of the series, saying that at first, it "feel[s] like it might be a very special Murder, She Wrote or something," and that later, "we're clearly in some other show entirely, the only links in the continuity chain being Mulder and Scully themselves."
She particularly praised the ending of the episode, saying "there are few other TV writers that would come up with something as haunting and as perfectly understanding of the human condition as the final reveal of who the killer is.
