TV.com

The X-Files Season 7 Episode 3

Hungry

Favorite

Watched It I've Watched This 0

Next
Episode Previous
Episode

8.3

User Rating

252 votes

Your Rating: 10
Your Rating: 9.5
Your Rating: 9
Your Rating: 8.5
Your Rating: 8
Your Rating: 7.5
Your Rating: 7
Your Rating: 6.5
Your Rating: 6
Your Rating: 5.5
Your Rating: 5
Your Rating: 4.5
Your Rating: 4
Your Rating: 3.5
Your Rating: 3
Your Rating: 2.5
Your Rating: 2
Your Rating: 1.5
Your Rating: 1

Rate Now

EPISODE REVIEWS
By TV.com Users

Write A Review

Episode Summary

EDIT

Free Trial / Subscription

AIRED: 11/21/99

A fast-food restaurant is linked to the discovery of a submerged car with a body in the trunk, but no brain in the body. Mulder and Scully investigate further and find that a monster is trying to live a normal life but sometimes has to kill people because of the hunger.moreless

Fan Episode Reviews (15)

Hungry

10

By TrueTvWatcher, Aug 25, 2012

Hungry was a perfect and very entertaining episode of The X-Files. I really enjoyed watching because the story was awesome and well written, the characters were perfect and engaging, and the ending was spectacular. I liked the idea of a kid who has a genetic abnormality forcing him to feed on human brains etc... under a biological imperative to eat. There were many emotions and it was touching to see him want to do the right thing. I liked the ending and look forward to watching more episodes!!!!!!!!!moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 0

Flag
Share Hide
A unique episode with a unique theme

8.5

By UdithaDevapri, Feb 25, 2012

Not only was this one of the most innovative episodes in the entire X-Files franchise (by "innovative" of course I mean episodes such as "Bad Blood"). The moster-of-the-week it dealt with was done so, not in a monstrous and hideous manner, but rather in a more subtle and sympathetic way. And the best way this was achieved was in telling the story through its eyes. It is thus one of the most unusual and best episodes I've ever seen, and needless to say, it blends in horror and empathy in a most searing manner. In a way it's heart-warming too, but that, after all, is the imperative of this episode.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 0

Flag
Share Hide
Mulder and Scully look into a man who compulsively eats.... brains.

8.1

By JaCkKbAuEr2424, May 04, 2011

It feels good to get back to the good ol' monster of the week episodes. I used to complain about these things, but to be honest, I've actually grown to enjoy what they have to offer. This time around, we get Vince Gilligan, a superb writer, offering us an interesting new look at the MotW format: an episode seen mainly from the villain's eyes. And I wouldn't even go as far as to call this guy a villain.. call him a victim of "biological imperative."

The episode certainly has its eerie moments. The man, Robert Roberts, is a fast food worker who has the compulsion to kill and eat humans, particularly their brains. It's due to a genetic anomaly.. he's some sort of animal/human hybrid that has compulsions he can't control. The fact that Gilligan follows the episode mainly through his eyes is intriguing, as it proves to us that he's just a fidgety, nervous man who's trying to figure out how to work past his problem.

I thought it was interesting how Mulder and Scully would only turn up intermittently, with Mulder sort of toying with Rob Roberts. Overall though, I thought the concept worked, especially since Gilligan helped us focus more on the pain Rob was feeling than anything else. Definitely a good start for Season 7.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 0

Flag
Share Hide
When there is a mysterious death at a fast food restaurant, it is up to Mulder and Scully to find the brutal killer, who may be a little more supernatural than either had prepared for...moreless

8.5

By gambyx716, Jan 14, 2010

Hungry is a stand alone episode that can hold its own even while surrounded by the mythology for which The XFiles is well known. This episode provides something different for the viewer because it is from the perspective of the killer himself, and his interaction with Mulder and Scully which is the opposite normal protocol. The main character in this episode, Rob, has a tremendous biological normality, which quite literally renders him a monster that feeds exclusively on human brains. Rob tries to fight his biological imperatives, and hides his appearance quite successfully throughout the episode. This style of episode, being from the killer and not Mulder and Scully gives the viewer an insight into this severe internal struggle and greatly enhances the episode. It's one of the better stand alone episodes of the season.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 0

Flag
Share Hide
A surprisingly good episode, the killer is a monster but one that tries to fight it's own biological imperative.

9.0

By whiteraven2005, Sep 10, 2009

Liked the intro – it's hard to feel sympathetic for the so-call victim. Derwood falls in the same category. The exception is the landlady but that was a case of wrong place, wrong time.

Rob is certainly an odd kid but doesn't act particularly guilty – washing a bloody shirt in the bathtub then leaving the garbage bag on the floor in plain sight while he answers the door? Really disgusting when he licked the blood off his fingers. Nice little paranoid moment when Rob thinks it's Mulder sitting in the car.

This is one of those cases where you feel for the killer. Rob can't help what he is and he really is trying to control it. The diet pills, hunger suppression tablets, the overeaters meeting. He ate the meat that was going bad, it's probably the reason he works at a fast food place to begin with. It could be one of the ways he controls the hunger, at least until now. When Rob falls off the wagon, he does it spectacularly – kills a customer at work, his landlady, the P.I. outside his apartment building. In the end, he couldn't surrender, he wanted someone to stop him. Poor kid.

Pretty good idea for Rob to fake Derwood trashing his place, Derwood's DNA and fingerprints would be on the bat. The only problem would be Rob's boot print on the door.

Liked how the doctor tried to help him, even appealing to Mulder and Scully. She really did care.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this episode. Rob is very sympathetic – a monster who has spent his life fighting what he is and I have always liked the kid who played him.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 0

Flag
Share Hide

See All Fan Reviews

Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

David Duchovny	Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	Special Agent Dana Scully

See All Cast & Crew

Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

EDIT

Chad Donella	Rob Roberts	Guest Star
Judith Hoag	Dr Mindy Rinehart	Guest Star
Lois Foraker	Sylvia Jassy	Guest Star

See All Cast & Crew

Watch Online

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

FILTER BY TYPE

TRIVIA (1)
ADD TRIVIA
- The air date of this episode was November twenty-first, Chris Carter's wife's birthday.
  EDIT SHARE
QUOTES (6)
ADD QUOTES
- Mulder: You know how they always say you should never see the kitchen of your favorite restaurant?
  Scully: I don't think Lucky Boy would fall under that catagory.
  EDIT SHARE
- Rob: I can't be something I'm not.
  EDIT SHARE
- Dr. Rhinebart: I don't believe in monsters. But I do believe in people.
  EDIT SHARE
- Mulder: I wouldn't exactly call it surgery. What if this man's brain was eaten? It's not sociologically unheard of. There are certain tribes in New Guinea that consider human brains a delicacy.
  Scully: Yeah, but Mulder, we're in Orange County.
  EDIT SHARE
- Mulder: Hello, look at this. Does that look like blood to you?
  Scully: Yes - looks like it.
  Mulder: What is that - next to it? Oh my God - is that brain - is that brain matter?
  Scully: No, I'd say that was ground beef.
  EDIT SHARE
- Rob: I'm sorry, but this is like (points to Scully) good cop, (points to Mulder) insane cop.
  EDIT SHARE
NOTES (3)
ADD NOTES
- The private detective who looks remarkably like Mulder is Steve Kiziak, playing himself, and is also David Duchovny's stand-in. He will appear again in 'Fight Club' as the man who looks like Mulder alongside Arlene Pileggi, who is Gillian Anderson's stand in and also AD Skinner's secretary.
  EDIT SHARE
- In keeping with writer Vince Gilligan's habit of putting his girlfriend's name (Holly Rice) in each episode he writes, the manager of the fast-food store is named Mr. Rice. Another employee is named Lucy, which is Holly's real first name.
  EDIT SHARE
- The original aspect of this episode is that it is told from Rob's point of view. Mulder and Scully's investigation is not the main focus and they only appear for brief periods throughout.
  EDIT SHARE
ALLUSIONS (0)
ADD ALLUSIONS
- ADD ALLUSIONS from this episode.