[[WMG:[[center:[-'''RECAP:'''\\
[[Recap/TheXFiles Index]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E01Redux 1]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E02ReduxII 2]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E03UnusualSuspects 3]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E04Detour 4]] | '''5''' | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E06ChristmasCarol 6]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E07Emily 7]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E08Kitsunegari 8]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E09Schizogeny 9]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E10Chinga 10]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E11KillSwitch 11]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E12BadBlood 12]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E13PatientX 13]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E14TheRedAndTheBlack 14]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E15Travelers 15]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E16MindsEye 16]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E17AllSouls 17]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E18ThePineBluffVariant 18]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E19FolieADeux 19]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E20TheEnd 20]]]]-]]]
'''Season 5, Episode 05:'''
!The Post-Modern Prometheus
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thexfilesthepostmodernprometheus.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[BrickJoke Oh, so this is the one]] [[Recap/TheXFilesS04E15Kaddish that can be better compared to]] ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}''...]]
->Written and directed by Creator/ChrisCarter

->''"When Victor Frankenstein asks himself 'Whence did the principle of life proceed?' and then as a gratifying summit to his toils creates a hideous phantasm of a man he prefigures [[TitleDrop the Post-Modern Prometheus]]. The genetic engineer whose power to reanimate matter – genes into life – us – is only as limited as his imagination is."''
-->-- '''Fox Mulder'''

An episode with a not-so-serious take on Franchise/{{Frankenstein}}. Mulder and Scully are sent to rural Indiana after he receives a letter from a single mother who claims to have been mysteriously impregnated, while unconscious, by an unknown presence 18 years ago.
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!!Tropes:
* AllJustADream: It's been debated by several reviewers whether the episode's happy ending, or even the entire episode itself, ever actually happened.
* AnimalMotif: People from the town look and act like certain animals. The reporter acts like a chicken, young Berkowitz looks like a pig and his room corresponds to that, his friends look like a goat, and so on and so forth.
* AsHimself: [[Series/TheJerrySpringerShow Jerry Springer]].
* ChildByRape: Played with. Mutato and his "grandfather" have been impregnating women by using his "father's" research and, implicitly, farm animal genetics after they're knocked senseless by gas. This is because he wanted a mate, but couldn't find one. While viewed sympathetically by Mulder and Scully, it was not only a crime they never arrest him for, but drastically undercuts his status as a "good" monster.
* ConvenientSlowDance: The final scene.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: As an homage to the ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}'' movies.
* DramaticThunder: PlayedForLaughs.
* {{Fanboy}}: Mutato is one of ''Film/{{Mask|1985}}'', to the point he even plays Music/{{Cher}} during his romantic escapades.
* FramingDevice / BookEnds: A comic book.
* FrankensteinsMonster: The Great Mutato.
* TheGrotesque: Mutato.
* {{Homage}}:
** To Franchise/UniversalHorror, ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}'' in particular. It is filmed in black and white and comes complete with a [[LargeHam hammy]] MadScientist, a gentle monster, and [[DramaticThunder thunder and lightning whenever somebody says something dramatic]].
** ''Film/{{Mask|1985}}'' also plays a major part.
** A lot of the episode's design work seems to be inspired by Creator/DavidLynch: the prosthetics for Mutato look quite like the prosthetics for ''Film/TheElephantMan'''s John Merrick (particularly given that ''The Elephant Man'' was also shot in black-and-white), while the diner set mimics the diner from ''Series/TwinPeaks'' pretty closely.
** A monster who gives a dignified, even cultured, speech explaining himself to a crowd who came there to kill him? Is this ''The X-Files'' or ''Film/YoungFrankenstein''?
* MadScientist: Dr. Pollidori.
* {{Postmodernism}}
* RealAfterAll: The comic book character turns out to be a real mutant.
* ScoobyStack: Mulder and Scully sheepishly look into Izzy's room and the audience see only their heads.
* ShoutOut: Several to ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', Mary Shelley's book as well as the film -- the Pollidori family are named after a friend of Shelley's whom she was on holiday with when she had the idea for the book, and the book's subtitle is "The Modern Prometheus".
* SlowMotion: During Mulder & Scully's dance at the end.
* TorchesAndPitchforks: Deconstructed. An angry mob, many of whom are carrying torches, runs amok in a barn. It takes a generous five minutes for the place to catch fire.
* WhoWritesThisCrap: Mulder demands that the authors write a better ending.
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->''[[Music/{{Cher}} ♫ Walking in Memphis (Walking in Memphis)\\
I was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale\\
Walking in Memphis (Walking in Memphis)\\
But do I really feel the way I feel? ♫]]''