The X-Files Body Count: Season 7, Episode 3: Hungry

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Season 7, Episode 3: Hungry

Synopsis

A late-night customer at a fast food restaurant in California is killed at the drive-through, and his brain is removed. Mulder and Scully investigate the restaurant when a button from the place is found with the discarded body. A mild-mannered employee named Rob Roberts seems to be the culprit, though suspicion focuses on a rude worker named Derwood Spinks. Mulder thinks the man's brain may have been eaten.

Spinks, who has a conviction for attempted murder, is fired from his job but blackmails Roberts after seeing a bloodstain on his bottle of diet pills and realizing he's the killer. Of course, Spinks doesn't really last that long; Roberts kills him after reavealing that he has quite a few facial prosthetics covering up a monstrous appearance. Roberts is trying to control his brain addiction with the pills, and tells a therapist that he has an eating disorder. Mulder's theory about a genetic mutant with a compulsion to eat is pretty spot on.

Roberts attends an Overeaters Anonymous meeting, where he finds that his landlord is a member; however, he regretfully kills her after his hunger returns. He quits his job, complains to the therapist that he has a biological imperative to eat, and says he's tired of pretending he's someone he's not. The therapist has figured out that Roberts has committed murder, and she asks him to turn himself in. Roberts reveals his true appearance to her, and she surprises him by showing pity instead of fear. Roberts tries to attack the agents as they arrive and is shot, saying as he dies that he can't be something he's not.

Mark Pellegrino, who plays Derwood Spinks, also played Paul Bennett on Dexter and Jacob on the fifth season finale of Lost.

Episode Body Count