“The Jersey Devil” is episode five of season one of The X-Files.
The episode opens in New Jersey, 1947. A car is driving through the woods at night, 3 miles outside Atlantic City. There’s a family inside, singing, when the car gets a flat. The man gets out to change the tyre and drops his torch down the embankment. He retrieves it, returns to the car and starts asking his wife if she will hold the light for him when he is suddenly dragged away. The wife gets out and looks for her husband; his legs are seen as something drags him off. Later, men, dogs and police are searching the woods. The find the missing man, with his leg eaten off, then another calls. Something was seen going into a cave. When it starts approaching, the men blaze away at it with their guns.
At the FBI, Scully tells Mulder about a story she has heard. They found a body in the New Jersey woods, missing its right arm and shoulder. They look to have been eaten off – by a human. Scully tells Mulder it was outside Atlantic City, which he says isn’t an uncommon place to lose a body part. The mob are not suspected; the man was homeless. Mulder digs out an X-File, even though Scully tells him it isn’t their case. He asks if she’s heard of the Jersey Devil. She has; a beast that is supposed to attack cars. Mulder recounts the case from 1947; the thing shot was a large naked man with human flesh and bones in his large intestine. The original autopsy disappeared. Scully says it’s a folk tale, a myth, she heard the same story as a kid. So did Mulder. Only he believed it.
At the Atlantic City morgue, the ME says that there was no animal involved, as there are human toothmarks. Appropriate to a large adult male. Detective Thompson is handling it. Detective Thompson is not happy to see them and makes no bones about doing so. Thompson also claims he was exceedingly polite about telling them this – which, in a way, he was, but in a way that comes across as being rude. Mulder suggests they stay in town and poke around. Scully has to be back in DC; not for a date but for her godson’s birthday. Mulder hands her the keys. Scully is less than enthused about a 3-hour drive back on her own in Friday night traffic.
Mulder speaks to the Park Ranger who found the body, who takes him into the woods. The ranger, Brullet, has been a ranger for 32 years and has seen a lot of weird stuff, but never anything like this. The homeless usually steer clear of the woods, because they are scared of them. Mulder mentions the Jersey Devil, and it being just a myth. Brullet replies that it depends on who you talk to. Mulder asks what Brullet thinks. Brullet has his pension to think about but, again, says he been a ranger for 32 years and seen a lot of weird stuff. He thought he saw a large naked man who sniffed the air and seemingly smelled Brullet. Scat, buried like an animal only more human. A rabbit carcass with a human tooth in it. Deer bones sharpened into tools. Brullet never comes into the woods without his weapon now. The outskirts of Atlantic City are nearby, so Mulder walks back into town.
On the outskirts, Mulder comes across a number of homeless. He asks if they knew the dead man. One approaches Mulder and asks what he wants to know. The man also has a crude sketch of a human-like creature. He, and others, have seen the creature right in town, and they’re scared of it. When Mulder asks if the cops have been told, the man says they already know. Mulder offers to exchange sleeping places for the night, giving the man his hotel; room key. Yes, they have HBO. That night, Mulder sees a humani-ish shadow rummaging through a dumpster. It also seems animal-like in behaviour. It darts off and gets on a roof; Mulder himself gets stopped by a roving cop car.
Thompson is once again unhappy to see Mulder. He suggests they go to the DA; Mulder accuses Thompson of withholding evidence, the statements of the homeless people. That Thompson knows what’s out there, otherwise why sweep the streets? Thompson states it is his job to protect people; Mulder thinks Thompson is protecting the lifeblood of Atlantic City, the tourism. Overall, the meeting does not go well.
Mulder calls Scully at the FBI from the drunk tank. She comes to Atlantic City again, and tells Mulder it isn’t hard to see why he was mistaken for a vagrant. Mulder asks why, if the creature is a maneater, it didn’t come after him. Scully thinks he is already coming up with an alibi. Once again, she has to head back to DC. This time she has a date, with one of the parents from her godson’s party (the date does not go that well, even though the man doesn’t notice; she also thinks a cannibalism case does not make appropriate dinner conversation).
A professor from the University of Maryland says that the wild man myth is prevalent across different cultures, and it would be an amazing discovery. However, their ability to investigate is hindered by Thompson not wanting any help and the local police giving the distinct impression that they may know what they are dealing with and want to sweep it under the rug. With violence.