The Rain King

"The Rain King"
The X-Files episode
Daryl Mootz, the self-proclaimed "Rain King", attaches a prosthetic leg. The harness, which pulled Clayton Rohner's actual leg out of the camera's sight, was later described as "painful".
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 8
Directed by	Kim Manners
Written by	Jeffrey Bell
Production code	6ABX07
Original air date	January 10, 1999
Running time	45 minutes
Guest appearance(s)
Clayton Rohner as Daryl Mootz David Manis as Holman Hardt Victoria Jackson as Sheila Fontaine Dirk Blocker as Mayor Gilmore Francesca Ingrassia as Cindy Culpepper Sharon Madden as Motel Manager Tom McFadden as Doctor Dan Gifford as Local News Anchor Brian D. Johnson as Chainsaw Man
Episode chronology
← Previous "Terms of Endearment" Next → "S.R. 819"
List of The X-Files episodes

"The Rain King" is the eighth episode of the sixth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on January 10, 1999. "The Rain King" was written by Jeffrey Bell and directed by Kim Manners. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "The Rain King" earned a Nielsen household rating of 12.5, being watched by 21.2 million people in its initial broadcast. Critical reception to the episode was mostly mixed, with results ranging from negative to positive.

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 the episode, Mulder and Scully are asked to investigate the strange weather phenomena occurring in a small town. They find a man, Daryl Mootz, who claims to produce the rain.

"The Rain King" was written by Jeffrey Bell, his first script for the show. The episode was originally purchased as a freelance script, but Bell was later hired on as a full-time writer. Grapevine, Piru, and Culver City, California stood in for the fictional town of Kroner, Kansas during filming. The episode required several elaborate special effect sequences to create heart-shaped hail as well as to simulate a flying cow.