Detour (The X-Files)

"Detour"
The X-Files episode
The episode's monster, hiding by blending into a tree. The effects were made by using a specialized "barks suit" as well as computer technology.
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 4
Directed by	Brett Dowler
Written by	Frank Spotnitz
Production code	5X04
Original air date	November 23, 1997
Running time	44 minutes
Guest appearance(s)
Scott Burkholder as Agent Michael Kinsley Colleen Flynn as Officer Michele Fazekas Merrilyn Gann as Mrs. Asekoff Alf Humphreys as Michael Asekoff Simon Longmore as Marty Fox Anthony Rapp as Jeff Glaser Tom Scholte as Michael Sloan Tyler Thompson as Louis Asekoff JC Wendel as Agent Carla Stonecypher
Episode chronology
← Previous "Unusual Suspects" Next → "The Post-Modern Prometheus"
List of season 5 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

"Detour" is the fourth episode of the fifth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It was written by executive producer Frank Spotnitz and directed by Brett Dowler. The episode aired in the United States on November 23, 1997, on the Fox network. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Detour" received a Nielsen rating of 13.2, being watched by 22.8 million viewers, and received mixed reviews from television 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 and Scully, while traveling to a conference with two other FBI agents, stop at a roadblock and join a nearby investigation of attacks by an unidentified predator.

Executive producer Frank Spotnitz was inspired to write the episode after watching the 1972 American thriller film Deliverance. "Detour" took nineteen days to film, over eleven more than the norm for The X-Files. Shooting was hampered by incessant rain. The episode's villains were created through a mixture of elaborate "bark suits" and digital technology. In addition, the episode contained several cultural references.

Two men are surveying an area of the Apalachicola National Forest in Leon County, Florida when they are attacked and killed by unseen assailants with glowing red eyes. Later that day, Michael Asekoff and his son, Louis, are hunting for possums with their dog, Bo, in the same stretch of woods. Upon discovering a surveyor's bloody jacket, the father orders his son to take the dog and run home. As the son and dog take off, two shots are heard.