The X Files 103 Squeeze Facts, Trivia, Goofs & Description

 Mulder and Scully investigate a serial killer who has been active for nearly a century and is capable of squeezing his body through narrow gaps.

Trivia

• This episode was a deliberate attempt by producer Chris Carter to prove that the show could be about more than just aliens.
• In "Squeeze" and Tooms (1994) two actors played the character of Eugene Victor Tooms: one who appeared as the main character, the other a contortionist who was responsible for squeezing into the tight areas that Tooms was able to do.
• This episode contains the very famous shot of Mulder and Scully in the credits that we would see along the years. We can see it when they enter in Tooms lair.
• Doug Hutchison is one of two actors who played the character of Tooms, a liver-eating mutant, in "Squeeze" and Tooms (1994). Hutchinson is actually a vegetarian, or was at the time. After filming "Tooms" he sent the liver of an animal to Chris Carter as a thank you for the opportunity to play a character on "The X-Files".
• Previously, the story was related to the aliens or the conspiracy. This is the first typical Monster of the Week that would be the other classic kind of story in The X-Files. Besides, it has one of the most legendary Monster of the Week that would be remembered along the entire series.

spoilers

 

• Chris Carter had been vacationing in France with his wife when his series got greenlighted and he had to suddenly return to the States. While in France he had been eating a lot of foie gras, which informed one of the key plot elements of this episode - Victor Eugene Tooms's love of eating (human) liver.
• The early X files themes were meant to have been influenced by The Silence of the Lambs (1991), such as Scully's character is meant to be similar to Clarice Starling. The idea of Tooms taking & consuming his victims liver is another nod to the film, when Dr. Hannibal Lecter famously tells Clarice, "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti".
• The makers of the show included both the story by the retired cop, of his feeling when he entered Tooms apartment & the detail of Tooms taking a "trophy" from his victims, as a way of making Tooms seem more evil, and like a serial killer, as they were reportedly concerned that some viewers may have otherwised felt some sympathy for Tooms, in the fact that he otherwise only killed to ensure his own survival.

Goofs

• The tin of matches by the fireplace of Tooms' second victim changes position between shots.
• There is a close up shot of Scully's cut phone lines, showing her in apartment #405. When Mulder kicks open the door to her apartment, the number on the door is 35.
•  When Tooms' grabs Scully's leg, his arm is completely out, yet in the next shot of him it's further inside again
• When Scully is having lunch with her friend just after the intro, we see at one shot from behind her she is holding a knife, then when the shot changes she is no longer holding it
• When Tooms is in the cell right at the end, we see when his food is being brought over to him on the tray that there is a drink and a bun, when the shot changes to the other side of the door the drink and bun have swapped sides. When the shot changes back to the other side of the door, the tray is now the other way around and then when the shot goes back to the other side the whole tray has now disappeared.
• When Mulder is comparing Tooms' fingerprint to the one found in Usher's office and stretches the current one like the older one, they are exactly the same. This would be extremely unlikely since the angle and amount of pressure would have to be identical.
• Detective Frank Briggs tells Mulder and Skully that he had been waiting 25 years for someone to question him about the case. If the killer strikes every 30 years, why would the detective have been waiting for only 25 years?
• The reason that he states that he has been waiting 25 years for them to come speak with him is because he was a police officer for 5 years after the last murders. Once he retired he knew that in 25 years (because the last murder was 5 years before he retired) the murderer would strike again and then the investigating officers would be coming to speak to him because of the matching MO's in both the cases.
•  After Tooms is handcuffed to Scully's bathtub, you can see the edges of his colored contacts in a closeup.
• There are no mountains with 150 miles of Baltimore Maryland.
• The murders being investigated are in Baltimore, yet the episode opens with a victim walking past the sign for Oceanic Plaza in Vancouver.