The latest installment of The X-Files begins with a group of homeless people scrambling to hide from a loud rumble of a garbage truck. The truck stops and as it drives away we see a tall, shadowy figure begin walking toward a building. We cut into an office in the building, where a man is frantically talking on a phone. He becomes increasingly frazzled before opening a drawer to retrieve a revolver. As he grabs the weapon the shadowy figure appears outside his door. The door breaks apart, and the looming figure apears to be a tall man who quickly overpowers the man on the phone and promptly rips off both of his arms. After finishing his gruesome task the tall man walk back to the garbage truck, which has parked outside the office. He climbs into the back with both dismembered arms then the truck compacts the garbage before driving off.

Mulder and Scully are investigating the aftermath and discussing the matter with local police. They learn that in addition to the victim’s arms, his head is in a trash can and the forensics can not get a footprint from what looks to be a trail of bloody steps. Scully gets a phone call that informs her that her mother has had a heart attack, and Mulder implores her to go, while he sticks around. Mulder checks security tapes, which have been destroyed, but they are mounted on the high ceilings. The video also reveals that a building across from the office has a large graffiti drawing near the top that appeared after the murder. As Mulder leaves the office, a bandaid amongst other garbage sticks to his shoe, he collects it for evidence.

Scully arrives to find her mother unconscious on a respirator, and the nurse reveals that she only asked to speak with her brother Charlie, which Scully finds odd because they are estranged.

Meanwhile Mulder stumbles upon two city officials arguing over how to get rid of homeless people in an alley next to the crime scene. He surmises that their care for the homeless is merely lip service, asking who actually speaks for these people. A homeless man who has been lingering listening in and reveals that a “band aid nose” man does and the camera pans up to the grafitti drawing that appeared after the murder.

Scully still at the hospital gets a hold of her brother William, and they rehash what is in her mother’s will. Mulder has gone to the lab, where a technician informs him that the band aid he had tested revealed no organic material. There is something there, but it is just not organic. Scully is told by the nurse that her mother had altered her will, which made it so that if she was unconcious for a certain amount of time, then she was to be taken off life support. Scully is confused, sad, and all out of sorts.

We cut to a warehouse where two men have stolen the wall grafitti, they discuss how they should sell it. One goes to a computer to put it up for bid, and the other man hears a noise behind what is now a blank space that used to hold the drawing. The man at the computer comes over, questioning his friend as to why he turned the painting away. He then sees his friends lifeless body with a garbage bag over his head, he turns around and is promptly dismembered in the same fashion as our intial victim. Before going to comercial, the camera zooms in on the canvas of the painting to reveal a signature, Trashman.

While Scully continues to deal with her mother’s deteriorating situation, we cut to the male politician from earlier rounding up the homeless on buses. We also see that recurring art back up on a wall near the area.

Mulder comes to the hospital to catch Scully up on what has been going on with the case, she confides in him and breaks down as she struggles with her mother’s declining condition.

We then follow the female politician to her home, where she is unwinding with a glass of wine. Her phone vibrates, but reveals no new messages. Outside the garbage truck returns with our dismembering painting man, who begins his slow walk towards the unsuspecting woman. Her lights turn off, and she sees garbage on her steps then sees the “band aid nose man”, but unlike our other victims she gives him a swift punch to the face. She attempts to flee, attempting to open her locked door, the hulking figure is outside. As the song Downtown plays, it stuffs her dismembered remains into a trash compactor before boarding his garbage truck and driving away.

At the hospital, Scully’s brother Charlie calls and she puts the phone up to her mother’s ear.  Her mother briefly wakes up, looks at Mulder and mentions their son William, before collapsing as the heart monitor flatlines. Scully goes to Mulder, and implores him that she must work.

They are back in the lab, which has revealed some very specific paint has been used on the murals. Since it is only sold at one store in town, the pair depart to investigate. They stake the ramshackle paint store, spot a man coming out, then proceed to follow him. They catch up to him, press him to lead them to where he is going, before he gives them the slip he informs both that the basement has no lights.

Mulder and Scully break out the flashlights, paying homage to the old days as their beams form the iconic X. They see a figure walking at the end of the hallway, give chase, and end up at a closed door. They crash in, and a balk tattooed man informs them he is alone.

The man is the trashman, and he waxes poetically about how there is no true justice for the homeless. Mulder and Scully accuse him of the murders, but he states that the drawing of the band aid nose man is a Toelkin, which is a protector in Budhist mythology. The band aid man is also in sculpture form attached to a column, wrapped in a garbage bag with just his face showing. The trashman informs them that he was born from a violent idea and wouldn’t stop until all those involved with relocating the homeless were disposed of.

With the revelation Mulder and Scully start attempting to reach the politician who has been rounding up the homeless on buses. He says snarky things to the homeless in the building he has relocated them to, but as he walks down toward a hallway he smells something terrible. He investigates only to be followed by the band aid nose man, juat as Mulder and Scully arrive at the same floor they are on. They hear the politician’s screams, only to find him in pieces and wonder how the assailint was able to evade them when there was only one exit.

We cut back to the trashman leaving his studio, the band aid nose man is back on a wall in graffitti form.

We end on a beach as Scully and Mulder rehash the end of her mother’s life, and why she mentioned their child they gave up for adoption.

What did you think of this week’s episode of The X-Files? Are you looking forward to next week’s adventures?