Back to the X-Files and how it used to be with another episode dealing in superstition and mass hysteria in a small town and Mulder (David Duchovny) says it best at the end "there's no getting out of this town Scully, not these days..." A jibe at today's political mentality no doubt and how people react toward one another still. So when Mulder and Scully (Gillian Anderson) arrive, they find Andrew (Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez) was the son of a policeman too.
This one had shades of the old X-Files of course and did anyone get pangs of deja vu going back to The Great Mutato in Postmodern Prometheus. Was just talking about that ep the other day with that nonsense published by The Sun about Frankenstein and how "snowflakes" treat him as a victim. What seriously didn't read the book, didn't know what the story was about? Okay that was digression, but relevant too since Mulder and Scully's quick fire rounds at each other were again derived from their past opposite reasons for the crime and its explanations. In Postmodern, Scully said that he was going to call these townspeople as mass hysterical fame seekers, whilst she remained the voice of ration and reason. (See quote below.) But here once again they take the same stance when Mulder refers to witchcraft and the town burning a witch, without proof she was a witch during the witch trials and also speaking of McCarthyism. As well as hell hounds (yay Supernatural territory!) and the wolf coming for the people. With explanations of what a hell hound is, guarding the gates of hell.
Still Scully you're sceptical after all these years! A boy, Andrew, walks into the woods after seeing a TV character, Mr Chuckle Teeth (I know others have said it but clearly that could only have come from the mind of Stephen King himself) but WTH was that character anyway. With the children singing about going to hell in that song. A cross between a clown and a spooky doll? He follows Chuckles into the woods and is attacked. The police are called and when Mulder and Scully arrive they believe that the officers are protecting Rick Eggers: the boy's father. As she says that he was probably attacked by someone aged 19-42 and that he's probably aroused by the crime, as well as being local. So they can't not suspect Rick (Jason Gray-Stanford). She doesn't believe it was an animal attack.
Examining the DB, she says there were marks that could have been caused post mortum by an animal, but she still thinks it was murder. Scully can't believe how a child's death is still painful since Mulder adds it's the loss of innocence. He finds a substance on the Andrew's leg which appears to be salt. Lucky he didn't eat it then, not there anyway. Scully refers to Mulder's time in violent crime and how she profiled the killer. As Scully talks with the chief (Alex Carter) in the hopes to question Rick, the chief says that it wasn't Rick. Of course Wentworth (Roger Cross) tells Rick of Scully's profile and he immediately looks up the sex offernder's database. Coming up with a Melvin Peter (Ken Godmere) who hasn't registered but lives here. Rick sets off to his house followed by Chief Strong and Scully. The house is empty.
Mulderis still at the CS and sees a wolf in the woods as she calls him down. A warrant for the house leads to a monkey in a cage and also some outfits and that of Chuckles too. Scully puts it down to John Wayne Gacy (the clown killer) and Mulder still goes with witchcraft, it can't be ruled out. He speaks with the witness everyone is keeping from them, the little girl, Emily (Emma Oliver) also in the park and she's watching an equally perverse variation of the Tellytubbies called Bibble Tickles and they looked right scary and alien-like. What were they doing subliminally hypnotizing the towns children whilst spaced out. She only saw Andrew go into the forest and her mother, Anna (Erin Chambers) asks if Mulder has children. mentioning William, not by name, but that he's grown up. He also looks at the witchcraft books on the shelf and a witch's Grimoire. She says they belong to her husband, the chief. Yeah small town.
Later Emily too disappears after seeing a Tubby at the window and ends up dead in the woods too. The chief blames himself for unleashing the demonic curse cos he's a lustful man and having an affair with Diane (Sharon Taylor) Rick's wife. Rick knowing about the affair. He finds Peter as he drives into town and proceeds to beat him up. Mulder finds more salt and he discovers the magic circle where witchcraft was being performed in the woods. There's a call on the radio about Rick and Wentworth tries to stop him beating up Peter. As they arrive, they still can't stop Rick as he shoots him in the head.
At Rick's bail hearing, Mulder says the suspect is around here and they talk of hell hounds again and he says that cos he's a policeman he'll be let off. He's released and he goes after the chief, confronting Diane about knowing of the affair and she says she's leaving him. She sees Andrew in the road and her car turns over. As the chief returns home he finds Rick there who's been seeing Chuckles in the house. He shoots Rick dead. As Mulder and Scully arrive she notices salt outside and they head back to the the CS. The chief looks for Diane and sees her car, then sees her in the woods. Obviously it was his wife since Mulder finds the Grimoire is missing. Of course she was the only suspect and in the circle she tries to stop what she started. The wolf attacks the chief and as Mulder and Scully arrive, she goes up in flames.
Mulder still says it was witchcraft and Scully tells him to stop taking the stance of the tourist poster, asking about the hell hounds as well. She can't wait to leave. I actually thought Mr Chuckle Teeth sounded much better as Mr Chuckle Cheese. Such mayhem and loss over a curse that Anna placed on Diane, man she could've just left that creepy town anyway, cos none of them were worth the trouble of all this spell fiasco. Cos no, it doesn't all come back to backfire does it. Especially when she didn't know what she was dealing with. There's always a price to pay when magic is involved and I didn't need to get that from Once Upon A Time either! Ha.
Notice the chief's daughter was named Emily, not really alluding to an earlier season 5 ep title Emily who was a girl with Scully's genes. Again Scully was listening to Mulder's witchcraft explanation, when they had already come across all this in Chinga. Perhaps new writers should have done their homework (even if there might be a few new viewers to the show who required an explanation. Mulder could've said she knows all this as they've encountered it before and that's all that would've been needed.
Scully thanking Mulder earlier for having his back when he tells them she's a god medical examiner. With Mulder's reply: "you're my homie." Propelling the show well into the twenty-first century in terms of today's lingo! Ha.
I mentioned Postmodern Prometheus for the quotes:
Scully: "Isn’t it obvious? I think that what we’re seeing here is an example of the culture for whom daytime talk shows and tabloid headlines have - have become a reality against which they measure their lives – a culture so obsessed with the media and a chance for self-dramatization that they’ll do anything in order to gain a spotlight."
Mulder: "I am alarmed that you would reduce these people to a cultural stereotype. Not everybody’s dream is to get on Jerry Springer."
Scully: "Psychologists often speak of the denial of an unthinkable evil or a misplacement of shared fears. Anxieties taking the form of a hideous monster for whom the most horrific human attributes can be ascribed. What we can’t possibly imagine ourselves capable of we can blame on the ogre, on the hunchback, on the lowly half-breed." As the conversation they had outside Melvin Peter's house reminded me of this with Scully's explanation of having Gacy on their hands and all that witchcraft exposition.
Also if it hadn't been for Scully's premature profile, Peter would still be alive.
However I also mentioned this as the Postmodern quote was one I used in one of my very first articles to be published on the correlation between the proliferation of chat shows and also the X-Files. Guess I'll have to get that out and post it.
Guest stars; Alex Carter played Det Vartann in CSI and Jason Gray-Stanford played Lt Disher in Monk, so clearly they were in familiar territory. No pun! This was Roger Cross's fifth appearance in the series and he's played numerous police roles over the years.
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