The X-Files' Dana Scully is distraught on a very 'Rancid' episode

SPOILER ALERT: 'I will never have the answer': Special Agent Scully is distraught on a very 'Rancid' episode of The X-Files Dana Scully was forced to delve deep into her painful past on Monday's episode of The X-Files. The Special Agent (Gillian Anderson) was left in turmoil after her mother suddenly died. Her bereavement unearthed traumatic questions about her son, whom she'd given up for adoption some years ago.

Before the death FBI's spooky specialists had been called to task on a terrifying series of murders in Philadelphia – where victims were shredded by an 'inhuman force'. The suspect was connected to a Banksy-esque street artist named Trashman, played by Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong. But nothing was more rancid than the perpetrator – a huge rotting creature with a Band-Aid on his nose, who left a trail of maggots and stank 'like nothing on this earth'. The episode, titled Home Again, opened with a sinister presence around a tent city on the fictional South Walnut Street of Philly.

A public official had been ripped limb from limb by a huge 'man' in a trench coat, who made his lumbering escape in the back of a dumpster truck. Agent Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully examined the bloody remains of the corpse. 'It wouldn't be Philadelphia without a certain degree of confrontation,' remarked Mulder, as they noticed the killer had no fingerprints or footprints.

The corpse was spread around the room. 'His head is in a trash can here,' pointed out the detective. 'Not even in the proper recycling bin,' joked Mulder. As they scrutinised the mess Scully received a call from her brother. 'My mom's just had a heart attack, she's in the ICU in DC,' she breathed, before making a hasty exit.

Mulder is left to check the CCTV tapes, noticing that the sinister street art outside the building was done 'right after the murder'. On his way out he found a Band- Aid on the sole of his shoe; on the street a homeless man gave Mulder a tip to search for 'the Band-Aid man'. Mysteriously the forensic team found absolutely nothing on the medical plaster – apparently indicating that the killer was neither dead nor alive.

Next to be slain were two men in the art studio – one was suffocated with tarpaulin and the other was dismembered. They were followed by a female from the local school board, who was torn to pieces in her home. In the hospital Scully learned that her ailing mother had been asking for Charlie – her younger brother, with whom the family are estranged. 'Please mom, don't go home yet, I need you,' cried Scully, who later learned that her mother had requested not to be kept on life support.

'Why would she change her living will without talking to me?' Scully confided to Mulder. She was also bewildered by her mother's necklace, a 25 cent coin, strung onto a chain, that she'd 'never seen her wear'. 'I don't care about the big questions right now Mulder, I just want the chance to ask my mom a few little ones,' she sobbed. Renegade Charlie eventually called, and was put on speakerphone, rousing Scully's mother momentarily.

The old woman asked for her son again, before she flatlined. After briefly weeping in Mulder's arms Scully was keen to get back on the job: 'Let's drive to Philadelphia, I need to work. Right now, right away,' she declared. They perused an abandoned warehouse in search of the mysterious street artist nicknamed 'Trashman'. After encountering some hideous creatures in the dank corridors they found a man huddled in a corner. 'Turn out the light,' demanded the disheveled wastrel.

'If I don't see them and they don't see me, then they can't hurt me,' added the stranger, who turned out to be Trashman. 'People treat people like trash,' explained the artist, who had decided the monster was an incarnation one of his artistic creations. Meanwhile grieving Scully had slipped into a daydream about her son. 'You're responsible…you're just as bad as the people you hate,' she told the artist.

In a rush to prevent another murder they followed the artist to the final victim, but it was too late, as they found him in pieces. Trashman decided that his work was done, meaning there would be no more grisly homicides. That left Scully and Mulder to collect her mother's ashes and discuss their absent child. 'As parents we made a difficult sacrifice to keep him safe,' whispered a distraught Scully. 'I believe that you will find all of your answers, you will find the answers to the biggest mysteries and I will be there when you do,' she told him sadly.

'But my mysteries, I will never have the answer,' she continued. 'I won't know if he thinks of me too, or if he's ever been afraid and wished that I was there. Does he doubt himself because we left him?' She asked. Adding: 'I want to believe, I need to believe that we didn't treat him like trash'. The X-Files continues next Monday on Fox in the USA. Next week will be the fifth hour of The X-Files' six-episode event series – a reboot of the original series which aired from 1993-2003.