The X-Files: Familiar

Case: A vicious animal attack on a young boy.

Destination: Eastwood, Connecticut

Mulder: “I did not see that coming.”

Take a parent's worst nightmare, add a creepy clown and you have your standard X-Files episode.

The X-Files has never shied away from having children as victims and since this reflects reality I'm in favour. And the ultimate horror for most parents is to have a child die. Add to that, it's your fault and it isn't a pretty death. This case would certainly affect Scully and Mulder as parents. I'm using this as the excuse for them falling back into their old roles – Scully the sceptic and Mulder the champion of alternate realities. We have seen this play out over and over again although one would hope that Scully would be a bit more open minded by now. However, as I said before I could see the trauma of a child's death forcing her back into her comfortable scientist place. On the other hand, I may just be thinking up excuses for lazy writing.

It was inevitable that we would have an episode that reflected the tried and true monster of the week formula but I was a bit disappointed by this one. I did not like the cliche of the jealous wife who tries to get back at her husband and his 'chippy'. The whole woman scorned is a bit outdated. It would have been much more interesting to have her be – 1. less inept, 2. more creative, 3. ready to move on. Instead, the poor woman killed everyone including her own child. Witches were/are much cooler than that. I'm not sure what we were supposed to learn from this – don't mess with magic (check – won't do that), don't let jealousy get the better of you (okay I will be the bigger person), make sure your kids have salt in their pocket and know how to use it (wasn't in my parenting manual, thank goodness they're grown).

One of the other interesting messages in this episode was about not jumping to conclusions. The registered sex offender Peters is only saved from being beaten to death because Officer Wentworth goes down to shield him with his body. It doesn't stop the bullet from Eggers though. We are given some pretty heavy clues that it must have been Peters but we find out he was working at a kids party at the time of Andrew's death. I agree that everyone deserves a fair trial and to move beyond their past. What I didn't agree with was the assertion that because it was statutory i.e. the person he had sex with was not of an age to freely consent, that he didn't hurt anyone. There's a reason that he was tried and convicted and put on the registry.

There were some suitably creepy bits. I'm not sure why any parent would let their kids watch Mr. Chuckleteeth, let alone buy a doll. I really don't like clowns and he was a particularly awful one. And let's hear it for those demonic looking teletubbies, the Bibbletiggles. Yikes. The Hellhound was a bit tame looking in comparison. And the witches of Eastwood made me immediately think of the 'The Witches of Eastwick' who were much closer to the kick-ass witches I enjoy. I guess every episode can't be fabulous but I think this one was too much of a throwback to the nineties.

Other Thoughts

The Coywolf is definitely a thing. Apparently we have them here in Canada.

I didn't know that the FBI had jurisdiction over the death of law enforcement officer's family members.

I'm not sure why Melvin Peter's lights weren't working in his house. He was only away for the weekend.

Quotes

Scully: “Thanks for backing me up back there.”
Mulder: “Yeah, you’re my homie.”

Scully: "He’s potentially John Wayne Gacy with a monkey."
Mulder: "That’s it. It’s too perfect. I don’t like – I don’t like perfect like that, it makes me uncomfortable.”

Scully: “That woman went up in flames.”
Mulder: “Maybe it was the candles.”
Scully: “Maybe it was the gates of hell.”

Mulder: “There is no getting out this town Scully, not these days.”

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