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.

Meanwhile, in the pharmacy, the elderly clerk peels open the Polaroid photo, which shows her screaming amidst a distorted background.

By closely examining the photos, he finds the face of an old man as well as the shadow of the kidnapper, who appears to be extremely tall or have abnormally long legs.

Scully investigates a possible lead and meets Gerry Schnauz (Pruitt Taylor Vince), a sheetrock installer who worked near both crime scenes.

She fields a call from Mulder and, after hearing what he found in the photos, realizes Schnauz, who is wearing plasterer's stilts that make him tall, is the suspect.

When questioned about Brandt's location, Schnauz claims she is safe from the "howlers", supposedly malicious spirits inhabiting the frontal lobe of people and force them to lie or otherwise deny their existence.

Schnauz escapes police custody by killing an officer and then robs the pharmacy from the opening, taking the passport photo camera, film and an assortment of drug-related materials.

A diary is then discovered among Schnauz's things, and it includes a list of the women he intended to save: Mary Lefante, Alice Brandt, and Agent Scully.

Gilligan had written the role of Schnauz with Taylor Vince in mind when he saw him in the Adrian Lyne film Jacob's Ladder (1990).

[1] The idea to have Schnauz sit his victims in a dentist chair was added to the script due to widespread dental fear among the general American population.

In the scene where Scully meets Schnauz, a cable was attached to Vince to keep him upright on the stilts; this cord was then edited out in post-production.

[1] Entertainment Weekly gave the episode a "C", feeling that the "interesting concept" of the psychic photographs was ruined by "boilerplate Scully-in-distress shtick".

[4] The fact that the episode's "absurd concept" was simply a "side-story" also drew positive attention, summarizing her review with, "otherwise a creepy and engaging detective story".

[9] John Kenneth Muir in his book Horror Films of the 1990s wrote that Taylor Vince portrayed one of the "memorable and frightening serial killers" of the series.