“Shapes” is the 19th episode of the first season, and one of my favorites because it accepts the legends that undergird it at face value, as opposed to finding another (generally lesser) reason for whatever weirdness Mulder and Scully happened to be investigating.

Of the top of my head, I recall this happening with with episode five, “The Jersey Devil” where the exotic creature that exists in local legend was turned to little more than a primal human.

I say “little more” because the creature that people reported seeing is so bizarre that using a human anything in its place doesn’t do it justice.

This tendency of the series strikes me as odd also because the show that had a big influence on it, “Kolchak, The Night Stalker,” never let anything, including a limited budget (judging how the monsters sometimes looked) stop them from portraying something otherworldly if the story warranted it.

The bogeyman of “Shapes” is a werewolf, which is introduced attacking cattle owned by Jim Parker (Donnelly Rhodes).  The animal attacks his son, Jim (Ty Miller) before Jim Parker kills it.

Though after it’s killed, it turns back human.  Parker has had prior problems with the Trico Indian Reservation (which his land neighbors) so it’s assumed that Parker killed because of those problems.

Of course, things end up more complex, and weirder, than they first appear.

I should also mention that it’s nice to see American Indians on television (no matter what Johnny Depp says, he’s barely Indian, if at all) despite that they are more like supporting players than main characters.