[[WMG:[[center:[-'''RECAP:'''\\
[[Recap/TheXFiles Index]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E01NothingImportantHappenedToday 1]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E02NothingImportantHappenedTodayII 2]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E03Daemonicus 3]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E044D 4]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E05LordOfTheFlies 5]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E06TrustNo1 6]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E07JohnDoe 7]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E08Hellbound 8]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E09Provenance 9]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E10Providence 10]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E11AudreyPauley 11]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E12Underneath 12]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E13Improbable 13]] | '''14''' | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E15JumpTheShark 15]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E16William 16]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E17Release 17]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E18SunshineDays 18]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E19TheTruth 19]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E20TheTruthII 20]]]]-]]]
'''Season 9, Episode 14:'''
!Scary Monsters
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thexfilesscarymonsters.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:YourMindMakesItReal taken to it's horrifying extent.]]
->Written by Thomas Schnauz\\
Directed by Dwight Little

->'''Doggett:''' What are they? Some kind of animal? What?\\
'''Mr. Conlon:''' All I know is that they won't leave us alone and I'm dealing with this the best way I can. Now it's too late.

FBI Agent Leyla Harrison contacts Scully with what she thinks is an X-File: a woman had (apparently) stabbed herself to death, but Harrison thinks she was killed by monsters her son saw. Scully is unconvinced, but Harrison ropes Doggett and Reyes in and the three of them go up to see the son, who is with his father in a remote cabin. When they get there they find themselves unable to leave, and the monsters may or may ''not'' be more real than anyone thought.
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!!Tropes:
* BigCreepyCrawlies: The bugs look to be about the size of a grown man's forearm.
* TheCavalryArrivesLate: Scully and Agent Harrison's boyfriend spend the episode trying to reach the heroes to help them, and only succeed moments after Doggett has solved the case.
* CharacterShilling: Agent Harrison says at the end that Doggett was better equipped to handle the situation than even Mulder would have been, since Mulder would have believed in the monsters and thus made himself vulnerable to them. (It's not too obnoxious, though, given that this was well into Doggett's run on the show and the audience generally liked him.)
* ChestBurster: Tommy can make people ''think'' this is what's happening to the point that they cut themselves open to get at what's inside them. But it's all in their heads.
* CreepyChild: Tommy Conlon. He is the one behind the mysterious bugs that killed Spanky and Ms. Conlon.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Doggett uses the fact that Tommy believes in the things he's creating against him by dousing the house with water but pretending it's gasoline and "lighting it on fire." Tommy sees real flames, and shuts down his power to save himself.
* HydraProblem: Doggett shoots one of the bugs in two with his gun, but both halves grow their missing parts back, so now there are two bugs to deal with.
* NightmareFuelColoringBook: Tommy draws things and they become real.
* PowerPincers: Some of the bugs have these.
* RealityWarper[=/=]MasterOfIllusion: Tommy's powers are somewhere between the two.
* TearsOfBlood: Agent Harrison sheds these when Tommy targets her.
* ThatCameOutWrong:
-->'''Agent Harrison:''' I have to say, it's clear to me now that you were better-equipped for this challenge than even Agent Mulder would have been. I mean your lack of imagination saved our lives.\\
'''Doggett:''' [[DamnedByFaintPraise Gee]], [[SarcasmMode thanks]].\\
'''Agent Harrison:''' That... didn't come out right, did it?
* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: Tommy is afraid of these.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Tommy claims to just be scared, but he later proves himself to be actively malicious when he begins targeting the FBI agents.
* WhamLine: As seen in the WhamShot entry, Monica looks at the second drawing, showing the bugs inside a woman who appears to be Ms. Conlon. That woman stabbed herself repeatedly in the stomach, trying to get rid of the bugs she believed were inside her and failing. But Tommy clarifies who that person actually is, revealing his villainy.
-->''"This one's you."''
* WhamShot: Reyes is happily sifting through Tommy's drawings... and then sees the mysterious bugs on his next entry, meaning he knew about them. If that wasn't enough, the one after that depicts a woman having those same bugs inside her stomach, revealing that Tommy is a CreepyChild who actually creates the monsters.
* YourMindMakesItReal: Doggett's inability to believe in the monsters ultimately protects him from them.
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->'''Scully:''' What's that?\\
'''Doggett:''' A way to stifle his imagination.