Eugene Victor Tooms was a villain from the long-running horror/science-fiction television show, The X-Files. Envisioned as a humanoid mutant and serial-killer, he quickly became one of the show's most iconic "monster of the week" antagonists.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Tooms was born in Baltimore, Maryland around about 1873 and would enroll into college at later life. He would become a serial-killer in order to extend his own life, stealing livers from others and entering a state of hibernation after a set number of livers were consumed, building a nest from paper and his own bile by which to hibernate for thirty years at a time.
In 1903 he was said to be living at 66 Exeter Street and this location would be where he would find himself a coal cellar that was used to build his nest and store several personal belongings taken from his victims.
In 1933, Tooms would be involved in five murders, accidentally leaving fingerprints at three of the five murder locations. In addition, his sloppy "work" was further shown when he buried a victim in cement at the Ruxton Chemical Planet, which was still under construction, but failed to hide a piece of liver he had extracted, leading to said liver piece being found and investigated.
At the time, suspicion was falling on Tooms but the Sheriff involved in the case lacked enough evidence to secure a conviction. The same Sheriff would pursue Tooms in 1963 despite officially being denied the chance, opting to investigate the murders on his own via collecting as much evidence as he could, including several surveillance pictures. During this time, Tooms killed another five victims.
Involvement in X-Files[]
Eventually Tooms would come to the attention of the X-Files when he surfaced in 1993 and killed a college girl and another victim. He would also murder a security guard via crawling through an air duct, yet as before he was sloppy in his murder and left fingerprints at the scene of his crime.
He would finally be captured when he was caught climbing up an air duct by Agent Scully and was promptly arrested and taken to the FBI Bureau in Baltimore where he was given a polygraph test. Unfortunately the psychopathic mutant was able to trick the polygraph and was set free, however he would lose his job as a dog catcher as a result.
Not longer after being freed, Tooms returned to his murderous ways and climbed down a chimney to kill a man in his suburban home, once again leaving fingerprints before he fled the scene.
With aid from the retired Sheriff who had made it his life's work to pursue Tooms, Agents Mulder and Scully would locate Tooms' residence and explored the cellar, finding his nest and collection of items stolen from victims. Unknowing to them was that Tooms was home, hiding via clinging to the ceiling and he would go unseen, following Scully to her apartment.
Tooms would engage in a bold and brutal attack at Scully's home, once again climbing through air ducts to try and capture his victim. While Scully tried to defend herself, the monster managed to surprise her via bursting through a small vent near the floor. He would have killed her but was stopped when Mulder arrived (having become aware of Tooms' attempt at attacking Scully). The unexpected arrival of Mulder scared Tooms, who tried to flee the scene but flew into a feral rage and resumed his attack when Scully prevented him from escaping.
Mulder managed to cuff Tooms in the struggle, which caused the monster to change his target and try to attack Mulder, yet the two agents worked together and finally subdued the intruder, resulting in his first true defeat. He was sent to a psychiatric ward soon after this event, yet he was only charged for his attack on Scully as their was still insufficient evidence to link him to the other murders.
Containment and Release[]
While in psychiatric care, Tooms began to build a new nest and was visited by Agents Mulder and Scully (from a distance). The serial-killer stared angrily at the agents as they observed him from outside his cell door.
Tooms seemed to co-operate with the psychiatric team and told them his desire upon being set free would simply be to return to his former job as a dog-catcher, though this was all a lie as he despised any form of containment and was a manipulator by trade. When he started to doubt that he would be released, he decided to stage his own escape.
The night before his review, Tooms would begin his escape but was stalled when a doctor came and spoke with him, stating that he had peeked at reports who would testify at the review and that they deemed Tooms suitable for release. This calmed the mutant sufficiently he called off his attempt at escape and waited for his review.
During his review, Tooms was indeed defended by several doctors who deemed him safe to be set free, yet Agent Mulder was not so easily fooled and tried to counter this, even accusing Tooms of nineteen murders. This prompted Tooms' defense to protest and the court itself to reject Mulder's claims. Mulder continued to claim (correctly) that Tooms was dangerous and should not be released, but was removed from court regardless.
Ultimately Tooms earned his freedom under three rules: he must remain in counseling, he must retain his former job as a dog-catcher and he must take residence in the house of a married couple who were trained to assist in the social readjustment of patients released from the sanitarium. Tooms happily agreed to all conditions and left the court with his new carers.
Tooms would not, however, find his freedom as easy as he originally planned as Mulder refused to give up. Whenever Tooms began to move towards finding a new victim, Mulder would inevitably cross his path, preventing him from acting and this in turn began to worsen his feral rage and hunger.
After Mulder successfully prevented a few attempted murders, Tooms decided to act, smuggling himself in the trunk of Mulder's automobile and would stage an elaborate set-up, framing Mulder and claiming he had been physically assaulted. As a result Mulder was given a restraining order forbidding him from going near Tooms.
Final Murders, Confrontation and Death[]
With Mulder out of the picture Tooms began to build a nest at his new home. This prompted concern when his doctor visited and despite Tooms trying to claim the nest was for art the doctor began to worry further. This prompted Tooms to murder him.
Despite this new nest, Tooms was instinctively driven to head to his original residence of 66 Exeter Street to hibernate, the place having recently been replaced by a shopping mall. Now a wanted murderer once more, Agents Scully and Mulder were free to pursue him but had to brave the darkened mall in pursuit of the killer.
Mulder would discover Tooms inside his nest and the mutant attacked his nemesis on sight. This would prove to be Tooms' final battle as he was pulled into a moving staircase and (somewhat ironically) crushed to death by the escalator.
Abilities[]
- Unique Physiology - Tooms most notable ability was his mutant trait of impossibly bending and twisting his body so as to slip through incredibly tight spaces. He could easily fit inside small air-vents and other tight spaces, but despite his great skill his body still had limits, as was shown in his ultimate death by a moving escalator.
- Semi-Immortality - Tooms can effectively live forever providing he consumes enough livers and enters a state of hibernation.
- Hibernation - As part of his semi-immortality, Tooms can enter a state of hibernation lasting thirty years at a time, during which he is preserved in a nest made of paper and his own bile.