Arcadia

Both were Tulpas, but created for totally different purposes.

In "Arcadia", it was created by a selfish person for selfish reasons in order to elicit some amount of authoritative control over his environment. But, as Tulpas do, it developed a mind of its own and started to do what it wanted. As we see in this episode, once this Tulpa is set into motion, it is probably not going to stop until it accomplishes its prime directive, which is to kill any person who broke the rules- which is what makes this particular use of the Tulpa much more insidious than The Band-Aid nose man.

A Tulpa having a mind of its own is exactly the same as the Band-Aid nose man from season 10's "Home Again".

But where the Band-Aid nose man was providing a measure of justice for homeless people that were being abused by rich people acting "for the homeless but really acting for themselves", The Tulpa in this episode is following a strict set of rules that was created by the person who set it into motion.

We can also compare the Ubermenscher to the golem in Kaddish, but that was created under a completely different mythology. But where the golem was created from love, that is far from the case with this Tulpa.

It is also interesting that the Tulpa we meet here is almost totally composed of garbage. Whereas a golem is formed from dirt, and the Band-Aid nose man out of clay, this Tulpa was composed of a disgusting array of garbage, filth, coffee grinds, motor oil, and whatever else you might think occupies a landfill.

It was interesting to revisit the concept of the Tulpa in season 10, being used for a different reason than this one was created... but in the long run, they both just did whatever they wanted.

The solution for this Tulpa problem in "Arcadia" was drastic... in "home again", it is much simpler and less drastic... all that was required was a simple redesign and the person that created the Tulpa taking responsibility for it.

Because in the long run whether in Arcadia or home again, "we are responsible for what we make", whether that is a child, garbage, a piece of art, a piece of music. Sometimes just taking responsibility for the things that we are responsible for solves the problem of "runaway Tulpas"...

Everybody's dream community :-). Who wouldn't want to live there?

Hilarious. This episode is brilliantly hilarious! There are so many classic moments that i wont even try to mention them. Mulder and Scully go undercover as a married couple(genius) to investigate the disappearance of several members of a planned community called The Falls Of Arcadia. Mulder is enjoying pretending to be Scully's husband while Scully doesn't like it one bit. Great acting from both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson! This is one of the best monster episodes, even though the monster is only on screen for a couple of minutes. I thought the episode was one of the most fun to watch ever. And very re-watchable.

Mulder: Woman get back in here and make me a sandwich! (Scully throws her rubber gloves at his face) Mulder: DID I NOT MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!

Angry about poorly run Homeowner Associations (HOAs) whose management of funds are careless & wasteful. Their administration slowly eating away your freedoms as citizens — too much of Big Brother watching over us. Ever get notice, after notice about grass in the cracks of your driveway & wanted to scream, well in Arcadia you'll be dying.

In this Monster-of-the-Week episode you will instantly feel acquainted with The Association-esque tone --if a Bentley Little fan. Mulder & Scully move-in to the little 'burb undercover to investigate several disappearances at the idyllic planned community. To Mulder's amusement the tenants follow every extraneous order strictly, so he begins to defiantly protest as they scatter to correct it for him. Their fear is what one may call a tulpa; the concept of a being or object which is created through sheer discipline alone, come to enact some neighborly love one might expect from a starving cannibalistic tribe. Like most HOAs (or Frankensteinian Monsters for that matter) which fail as a result of the people involved, the tulpa eventually turns on it's creator.

My favorite episode of the X-files, ARCADIA deserves special mention. I love how it begins, with only subtle hints of why our well known pair of FBI agents suddenly have changed their names, married and moved into an expensive closed community which turns out to hide a dark secret.

Acting is great in this one, far better than average in this series. I especially liked the one who played "Big Mike". The episode is very funny, with quite a few bizarre scenes; also, Mulder and Scully pull jokes on each other a lot of the time.

If you don't have a lot of time and only want to watch a few episodes in the series, in my opinion this should definitely be on your watchlist.