TVSquad

(S01E12) We're back to the Monster of the Week episodes and this one's a doozy. This time the perp is a pyromaniac who can start fires with his mind or something. That's bad news for Mulder who is deathly afraid, of all things, fire. Oh, and Mulder's investigating the case with his ex-girlfriend (Phoebe) from Oxford.

The episode opens in England with a gardener smiling as his boss suddenly explodes into flames and dies on his front lawn. The next time we see the gardener, he has dropped his accent and is posing as a caretaker for an American home where a British family is moving in. He really hates the British aristocracy.

While Mulder and Phoebe are out investigating the case and throwing around all sorts of sexual innuendo, Scully is sitting at the computer and she cracks the case (only, she doesn't know it). She creates a criminal profile of the guy that is dead-on. She figures the firestarter is attention-starved and prone to wild fantasies about women. And she figures the guy can't just set normal people on fire. He somehow feeds them some sort of accelerant.

While trailing the British family to a ball of some sort in Boston, Mulder and Phoebe are practically making out when Scully sees the arsonist/driver/caretaker hiding behind a bush inside the hotel. Then, he disappears, and suddenly a fire breaks out on the 14th floor where the British family's children are staying. The arsonist saves the boys and is a hero. The only person who suspects him is Scully because everyone else is too busy worrying about their love lives (Phoebe is having an affair with the British father).

Back at the British family's home in Cape Cod, things get frightening. Mulder and Scully discover the driver, burned, bending over the toilet. The arsonist takes the kids and locks them in a building and then starts fires all over the house-- on pictures and beds. Mulder overcomes his fear of fire to save the kids while Scully and Phoebe lead the arsonist (Cecile Lively) into a trap. Phoebe throws accelerant on his face and, when he starts himself on fire, he suffers burns to most of his body. The episode ends with a voiceover from Scully, who can't explain how Cecil can start the fires and says he's recovering quickly from his burns and holding steady at a body temperature of 107 degrees.

There's a great last line as a nurse asks the healing Cecil if she can get him anything. He's burnt and crispy and he says, "I'm just dying for a cigarette."