Chimera (The X-Files)
episode of The X-Files (S7 E16)
"Chimera" is the sixteenth episode of the seventh season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States, on April 2, 2000, was written by David Amann, and directed by Cliff Bole. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Chimera" earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.5, being watched by 12.89 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics.
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully has been assigned to debunk his work. In this episode, Mulder investigates what appears to be the case of a missing woman from a small town, but soon turns out to be a murder by a spirit summoned from the underworld. Scully, meanwhile, must endure an uncomfortable stakeout.
Similar to the sixth season episode, "Arcadia", "Chimera" was written as "a suburban parable about perfection" that examined "the evil that lies beneath a prototypical white-bread suburban existence." The episode was produced at a time when both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were directing their own episodes, and in order to compensate, Anderson's role was drastically reduced in the episode.
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