Non Human Biologics: An X-Files Podcast · Jeremy Greer, Chris Mosher

Green Goblin vs Swamp Thing

·1 hr 5 min·4 clips

A fully nude man in an all-male art class gets attacked after drawing Green Goblin in blood.

1. Non Human Biologics covers X-Files season three, episode 14, "Grotesque," which aired on February 2nd, 1996. 2. Jeremy Greer and Chris Mosier host the episode, and Chris names it "the creepy but necessary podcast" because they cover every single X-Files episode. 3. The episode asks whether John Mostow's murders come from a demon, a spirit, or something inside the people investigating him. 4. The cold open shows an all-male art class, a nude model, and one man drawing Green Goblin in blood after cutting his hand. 5. The model leaves the studio, discovers his car tampered with, and is attacked with a utility knife in an alley. 6. Mulder presents Mostow as a Russian immigrant who killed seven or eight people and has spent years under investigation. 7. Mostow says the killings were not his own acts and tells Mulder that the spirit has "found someone new." 8. Bill Patterson enters as the FBI profiler who spent the last three years pursuing the case and resents Mulder's involvement. 9. Patterson describes his method as "if you want to catch a monster, you have to become one yourself," and Mulder rejects his authority. 10. Mulder and Scully search Mostow's room, discover a hidden door, and find a body concealed under clay in a sculpted gargoyle figure. 11. The body turns up alongside a glass-blowing sequence that Jeremy and Chris compare to a "glory hole" scene, and the victim survives with severe facial burns. 12. Patterson's partner is bitten on the hand, which briefly makes the hosts suspect him, though the episode never confirms that reading. 13. Mulder gives a long speech in the library about gargoyles as devils, demons, or the "personification of the dam turned to stoned." 14. The episode keeps returning to the question of whether the gargoyles are protection, symbolism, or evidence of madness. 15. Scully finds Mulder's fingerprints on the murder weapon after using special light with a fingerprint specialist. 16. The knife disappears from the evidence box, and Skinner tells Scully he is also worried about Mulder. 17. The hosts keep emphasizing the episode's cinematography, especially the dark rooms, spinning camera moves, and quick glimpses of a figure in a clay gargoyle mask. 18. Jeremy and Chris's conversation stays loose and jokey, mixing X-Files analysis with Spider-Man villains, Hannibal comparisons, and side jokes about the Righteous Gemstones. 19. Listeners who like eerie FBI profiling, body-horror visuals, and 1990s monster-of-the-week plotting will likely enjoy this episode. 20. Listeners who want a neat explanation or a tightly linear mystery may skip it.

As heard by us

A funny, sharp recap that finds real menace in one of X Files' oddest season three detours.

Non-Human Biologics gives this season three X Files episode a funny, watchful read that keeps the odd details in focus. The hosts stay with the story as it keeps shifting under them: a confession that does not close the case, a second victim that raises the stakes, and a mystery…

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a season-three X-Files recap that treats swampy chaos like serious business.

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