A man arrives in America from India only to be found dead of massive blood loss when it appears something has been living inside him. Scully and Doggett must work out what a stop it killing.

I thought John Shiban was only allowed to write scripts with other people these days ever since he was denounced as awful by X-Files fans. Tragically, he's managed to escape back into the community and some idiot has let one of his scripts reach the screen. For those who remember his dreadful fumblings with cat-monsters and El Chupacabra, you won't be surprised to learn that if anything the poor guy has got worse.

There is nothing about this story that makes any sense. Scully seems to be far more readily making Mulder-esque leaps than she has to date while at the same time Doggett has become an even more blinkered sceptic than Scully ever was, extremely odd considering his pragmatic approach to the unexplained to date. The pair don't seem to gel at all here, with the only concession being a scene near the end in which Scully realizes she's just not the person Mulder is.

Then there's the Indian mystic who's arrived in the US. Why is he there? Why is he using this unusual method of stowing away when he demonstrates the power to disguise who he is? He gets hired as a janitor despite the fact that he doesn't speak and there is no point where his motivations or abilities are explained. What's most irritating about this is that the script admits its own shortcomings, with Scully saying there must be a motive for this man's murders, yet utterly fails to provide one. The ending is pointless and muddies the issue even further, making any viewers wonder why on Earth they bothered with this nonsense. And although I appreciate that Chris Carter has provided numerous episode titles with no apparent meaning, what the hell is a 'badlaa'? The word isn't even mentioned anywhere in the episode.

The whole thing seems designed to be visceral and unpleasant rather than retain any level of coherency and it's a mess from start to finish. Please can someone chain Mr Shiban up again before this kind of nightmare re-occurs? The thought that he might one day be let loose on The Lone Gunmen fills me with dread.

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