Mulder goes AWOL to investigate the case of a woman who says her baby was taken from her womb during the night by a demon.
This is one of the more off-kilter X-Files episodes, dealing with a couple trying to have a child who find their potential kid seems to have horns and a tail, or at least the beginnings of them. Mulder is unusually solo for most of the story, and is at his oddest, trying to race a suspect and generally harassing Wayne Weinsider, a man he believes to be a demon.
The marvellous Bruce Campbell plays it straight for once in his career as Wayne, showing a man trying to escape what he is and only getting problems thrown at him from all sides. Campbell nicely shows Wayne's progress through concern, necessary evil, duplicity and actual feelings whilst remaining suave and likeable throughout, as he never comes across as completely evil.
David Duchovny, as usual, is on top form as Mulder with some great one-liners, but if there's one problem with the episode it's that there's not a lot of plotting, and events are fairly predictable. What it does have though is a clever twist ending that isn't expected, and some convincing and quite creepy effects of a demon in front of a raging hellfire. Okay, it may not really get far, but it certainly holds the attention, and it's certainly an unusual idea, for which it should be commended.
***
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