The K Files agents continue our pursuit of serial killers of The X Files in Grotesque! Mulder goes hunting gargoyles, but sees only a familiar face in the mirror in this third season horror show.

Filed under M for Mulder Goes A Little Crazy (see also Demons, Folie a Deux, Biogenesis), this episode serves up some layered horror from writer, Howard Gordon, and director, Kim Manners.

The agents assist Mulder's former mentor with a case involving a serial killer who claims a gargoyle spirit committed the crimes. When Mulder joins the case, his obsession with solving it causes Scully to question his sanity.

Grotesque premiered on the Fox network in the United States on February 2, 1996. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, which means its plot stands alone from the series' wider mythology. "Grotesque" earned a Nielsen household rating of 11.6, being watched by a whopping 18.32 million people in its initial broadcast. That was a solid audience in 1996 an is massive by today's standards. The episode received mostly positive reviews from television critics.

Gordon was inspired to write the episode after walking on the streets of New York and seeing several stone gargoyles staring down at him from buildings there. Gordon developed the concept with series creator Chris Carter, who suggested adding more mystical/emotional aspects to the episode (as he is always wont to do).

Kim Manners called Grotesque his favorite third-season episode and praised David Duchovny's performance especially: "Duchovny drove himself, and he was brilliant in that show." Manners also said of the episode: "I think 'Grotesque' is a frightening show. I think it is a disturbing show, and I think that's why—for me—it's such a good show. We pulled it off making the viewer feel uneasy. I even found it a difficult show to watch. Yeah, it was a pretty dark hour of television and I would like to do more of those."

In order to get a proper feel for the episode, Manners listened to the music from the 1990 film Jacob's Ladder until his wife "finally asked, 'Do we have to listen to that (bleeping) CD again?" Manners also theorized that the episode may have been the template for the show Millennium, which premiered on Fox the following television season.

It's certainly dark enough to be part of the Millennium oeuvre. Check out our investigation into the Millennium crossover episode of The X Files

Plot Summary:

A group of artists sketch a nude male model in a drawing class. One of the artists, John Mostow (Levani Outchaneichvili), looks disturbed and draws a demonic creature in the model's place. Even more disturbing, while using a utility knife to sharpen his pencil he cuts his hand then smears the blood on the drawing. After the session, model walks to his car and is attacked and killed by an obscured assailant.

The following morning, Mostow is arrested in his apartment by an FBI task force led by Agent Bill Patterson (Kurtwood Smith aka Red Forman), who finds the utility knife from the murder covered in blood.

Mostow, an immigrant from Uzbekistan with a history of involuntary commitment, is charged with killing seven men by mutilating their faces. Mulder and Scully become involved when Mostow insists that he was possessed during the killings and his claims are given credence when another murder occurs after his arrest.

Mostow draws a gargoyle and claims it made him kill. Mulder meets with Patterson, his former mentor, who has spent three years on the case. The relationship between the two is tense, and Patterson is skeptical of Mulder's theories. Mulder and Scully go to Mostow's studio and discover a hidden room full of gargoyle sculptures, plus bonus corpses within them.

A glassblower is attacked and hospitalized. Patterson finds Mulder in the library studying gargoyles; he te...