Scully heads out into the desert to investigate a body dumped there after being beaten to death and finds herself stuck in a town where the locals are anything but helpful.

The most visceral episode of The X-Files there’s been for a long time, Roadrunners does retread, to an extent, old territory for the show, but this examination of cults is taken to a new and surprising level with an especially creepy ending. It also expertly plays on the evolving partnership between Scully and Doggett, who she’s left back in Washington in order to investigate alone. While we’re still unsure what this new agent will do, we are given the chance to wonder if he’ll notice Scully’s predicament and help her escape, rushing to the rescue as Mulder has so many times before.

Setting up a wonderful mystery in the beginning as we start to wonder what the creepy locals are actually hiding, when we discover what it is, it seems like the kind of thing we’ve seen before. However, what the viewer doesn’t expect is for Scully to learn a harsh lesson about leaving your back-up behind as she experiences one of the most unpleasant experiences of her life, that’s done with such wonderful make-up it had me covering my eyes. Think Ice from season one and you won’t be far off. The reason for what the townsfolk are doing is also quite creepy, making this the most unsettling episode in a long while, from writhing creatures to people being beaten violently to death. This is the kind of horror that the show does well, and it hasn’t tried it often enough lately.

****

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