The X-Files Episode That Would Get The Show Canceled Today

A tongue-in-cheek metafictional X-Files episode treated like a parody of Frankenstein, “The Post-Modern Prometheus” finds Mulder and Scully investigating a sexual assault and an unexplained pregnancy in a woman whose tubes have been tied.

Everything ultimately points to Mutato, a local legend who one local man has based his own indie comic book character off of.

When the townsfolk corner Mutato toward the end of the episode, he explains he is the creation of the mad scientist Dr. Pollidori, played by John O’Hurley—known best for his hilarious portrayal of catalog retail mogul J. Peterman on Seinfeld.

The X-Files episode reveals Mutato was a failed experiment by Dr. Pollidori, but when he was discarded by the scientist, the doctor’s father rescued him. Old Man Pollidori tries to learn his son’s science but, as a farmer, doesn’t have the head for it. Instead, he goes down a darker path to find Mutato “companionship.”

Mutato’s “grandfather” finds women alone in their homes, knocks them out with gas, and then drapes the house in the same tents exterminators use when they’re gassing for termites. Old Man Pollidori and Mutato stay in the houses for a few days at a time, and this is when Mutato assaults the unconscious women.

The X-Files episode also reveals that this is how Izzy—the indie comic book writer—was conceived, which makes the whole thing even more disturbing.

Played by Stewart Gale, Izzy is meant to be at least 15 or 16 years old (though the actor looks to be in his early twenties) and we’re told Mutato is 25, meaning he assaulted Izzy’s mom when he was around 9 or 10.

When The X-Files‘ Mutato isn’t assaulting the women, he’s going through their records, books, and movies. This is how he discovers the 1985 drama Mask, in which Eric Stoltz plays Rocky Dennis—a teenager born with craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, a rare bone disorder that leaves him with a facial deformity.

Identifying strongly with Rocky, Mutato winds up also becoming a big fan of Cher because the singer plays Rocky’s mother in the film.

Of the assaults, Mutato says only, “what we did was wrong, but in our trespasses we gave you a loving son.” And… yeah, that’s pretty much it.

Regardless, the entire cast of the X-Files episode (save Dr. Pollidori, who is arrested for murdering his father) happily forgives Mutato.

The X-Files episode ends in an equal parts funny, sweet, and bizarre manner—with the entire town driving to a Cher concert where the singer (not actually her) pulls Mutato on stage while she belts out a cover of Marc Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis.”

In the middle of the concert we cutaway to see two of Mutato’s victims lovingly cradling their (literally) two-faced newborns on The Jerry Springer Show.

So here is Mutato, a confessed perpetrator of multiple assaults against multiple women (at least two, but it’s impossible to imagine there weren’t more). His crimes are treated as a joke, his victims are shown to not go through any kind of trauma, and his punishment is being the guest of honor at a concert.

Sure, this is an X-Files episode that really isn’t supposed to make a lot of logical sense, and you could very well argue that it doesn’t “really” happen in the canonical sense.

Regardless, there’s still no way this episode could get made today. That’s arguably a shame because there are genuinely brilliant things about “The Post-Modern Prometheus,” but in retrospect it’s kind of shocking it ever made it to air.