It instantly gives off a "Slender Man" vibe, somewhat mirroring that tragic incident where a girl was "sacrificed" to the internet phenomenon. The episode's opening scenes further reinforce this, having "Ghouli" be an internet monster meme with plenty of fanfiction behind it. There was an interesting twist in that the girls weren't so much attempting a sacrifice as trying to defend themselves.
While a part of me would have liked to see the investigation into this monster play out, the episode decides to do something different. It could, arguably, be for the better as I could have sworn that this show already did its spin on Slendy. I know that "Supernatural" did, and like that show, this one makes a point to say that, even in worlds inhabited by all sorts of monsters and bizarre occurrences, this thing isn't real.
Instead, the episode decides to build more on emotional connections. It's even somewhat foreshadowed by Mulder's lament that modern monsters don't have any pathos to them.
It turns out that the "monster" in this case has a rather personal connection to our agents, as it is none other than William.
It was a bit strange seeing Scully immediately jump to the conclusion that "Jackson" was William, but she turned out to be right, so good on her. This assumption also gives us one of the episode's highlights, as Dana has a confession of sorts with Jackson's corpse. She apologizes and lets him know that she gave him up, not due to lack of love, but a desire to see him safe. Anderson does a stellar job with the scene.
It's a good thing that the scene is there, because we don't really have a connection to William. He's mentioned occasionally as an afterthought, but while Dana says that she never forgot about him, I have a feeling that viewers certainly have on occasion.
This is William's first real debut into the story proper and it has its problems. In addition to being a somewhat new character, the direction the episode goes with him doesn't exactly elicit sympathy. He has one or two nice scenes, but his "game" is a tough pill to swallow.
The grisly opening scene is explained as a prank gone wrong. William admits that it was an elaborate "Boo!" deal, but even that makes little sense. Why bring his two girlfriends to the same place? If he can make people see or hear what they want, why not just have them think they see the monster with no person in its stead. That way, even if they do grab a knife and start swinging, they only hit thin air. The episode brushes it aside, with even the two girls who were nearly killed as a result not really giving him much grief over it.
Like "This", the episode starts off as a one-off but eventually becomes more connected to the ongoing story. This one is more blatant about it, but it does allow us to touch on the looming apocalypse that both William and Dana had seen. It also follows up on the human/alien hybrid stuff that had been brought up prior but seems largely forgotten about.
Wait a minute, why did Mulder need to be told that by Skinner? Hasn't he known about that for years now? Even the connection to William seems like something he had already figured out back when the kid was first born. Huh...very peculiar.
The episode is light on humor, acting as a counter-balance to its predecessor. There was one bit where Mulder used "Bob" as an alias. That in and of itself wasn't that funny, but Mulder's explanation and Scully's later declaration that this was an alternate reality and that "Fox" doesn't exist in this one were both fairly amusing. The latter also made for a nice callback to the preceding episode.
All in all, this episode was a mixed bag. There was potential for more creepiness in regards to the monster, but the emotional moments hit their mark and we got some progression in regards to the overarching story.
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