X-Files S2E14: The show finds some Manners

Sestra Amateur: 

I know what your first question is so let’s address it immediately: The episode title, Die Hand Die Verletzt, means “The hand that wounds” in German. If you pay close attention and/or watch this episode with subtitles you’ll notice it’s chanted during the Parent Teacher Conference meeting at the beginning of the episode. Not many towns have PTCs with devil worshipping, so clearly this isn’t a typical town in New Hampshire. 

Later that night, some teens are hanging out in the woods and drinking, standard adolescent hijinks. They decide to try and raise some evil spirits and start their own chanting. Haven’t they watched The Evil Dead? Don’t they have cable or a movie theater? One girl wises up and runs away, praying for real. One boy, Jerry Thomas, doesn’t make it and the manner of his death results in the local sheriff calling in the FBI. 

Considering how last week’s murders affected Scully, she’s surprisingly undisturbed when standing over a dead teen whose eyes and heart have been removed. And she also seems to enjoy pointing out clues that Sheriff Oaks’ investigators missed. Mulder insists the area feels weird. When Scully says there’s nothing odd about the woods, they get caught in a frog rainstorm. Good thing they already had their umbrellas opened. Scully easily explains it away by tornadoes in the area.

Sculder go to the Crowley High School Library – maybe that’s where Eric Kripke got his inspiration for Mark Sheppard’s Supernatural character. Mulder is thumbing through the card catalog. Someone should tell the librarian that Stephen King’s name is misspelled. Mulder learns Dave Duran has been reading about the occult and checked out one of the books. Turns out, Dave and Jerry were just trying to get a couple of girls to put out. Jim Ausbury, Deborah Brown, Paul Vitaris and Peter Calcagni -- the devil worshipping teachers from the beginning of the episode -- know something is going on, but aren’t being forthcoming with Sculder. Fox notices the water from the drinking fountain is swirling counter-clockwise, so unless we’re watching X-Files Down Under, something weird really is happening.

Substitute biology teacher Phyllis Paddock talks to the girls, Shannon and Andrea. The excessive reflection from Mrs. Paddock’s glasses reminds me we haven’t seen Skinner for a while. Hope that changes soon. (I looked it up … two more episodes.) Looks like Mrs. Paddock has Jerry’s eyes and heart in her desk. Well, at this point, we hope they’re Jerry’s and not someone else’s. Mulder tries to research past ritual abuse involving the students but comes up empty-handed. Scully learns this case is similar to one listed in a Nazi newspaper 60 years earlier. 

Meanwhile, Shannon is supposed to be dissecting a pig in her biology class, but hallucinates it’s still alive and bolts from the classroom. Shannon, Jim Ausbury’s stepdaughter, tells Sculder an outrageous story involving devil worshipping ceremonies and sexual abuse. She also claims her younger sister was murdered. The agents interview Jim and his wife, Barbara. Jim doesn’t exactly deny the allegations, but claims he would kill anyone who hurt Shannon. Barbara tells Scully her daughter died at eight weeks old, not eight years. 

Shannon goes back to class to finish dissecting the pig. Mrs. Paddock says she heard about her disclosure to Sculder. I wish Shannon called her on it. If I told something like that in confidence to two FBI agents, then I would love to know who blabbed to my teacher and why. Mrs. Paddock graciously offers to hold Shannon’s charm bracelet – then uses the bracelet to cast a spell against Shannon that induces her to slit her wrists.

The PTC meet to try and spin the deaths so it looks like Shannon murdered Jerry before killing herself to close the FBI investigation. Neither Scully nor Mulder trust Mrs. Paddock but for different reasons. Mrs. Paddock takes Dana's pen when she's distracted by a power outage. Fox goes to Jim Ausbury’s home to see what’s in the basement. There Jim tells Mulder the other members of the PTC wanted to frame Shannon for Jerry’s death. Jim denies sexually abusing his stepdaughter, but admits she was used in their rituals and later hypnotized into forgetting about the ceremonies. 

Mrs. Paddock, who is casting a spell with Dana’s pen, calls Fox sounding like Scully. Mulder, who had just asked Jim who his co-conspirators were, thinks Scully needs help so he arrests Jim, handcuffs him to the stairs then leaves him helpless in the basement. You just know that's going to be a bad idea. Really, Mulder, you couldn’t just put him in your car and drive him to the school with you? On the way Jim would have named every member of their devil-worshipping PTC. Yet another example of Glen Morgan and James Wong making our heroes look extremely stupid for plot purposes.

So Mrs. Paddock manages to control the biology class’s pet python, which magically shows up at Jim’s house to strangle him and swallow him whole. Mulder gets to the school and sees nothing is wrong with Scully. He takes her back to the Ausbury’s house and find what’s left of Jim’s skeleton and a big-ass snakeskin. I’d love to know where the python went.

Meanwhile, the surviving members of the PTC are ready to offer up Mulder as a sacrifice. Sculder return to the school and find Mrs. Paddock, who claims the others stole her python and knocked her unconscious. While searching the school, Fox gets clocked with a folding chair and Dana gets crushed by a bookcase. The PTC tie up Sculder and drag them across the gymnasium – no hard-soled shoes allowed on the gym floor! – and into the showers because it’s easier to clean up afterward. Deborah Brown is about to stab them when Mrs. Paddock compels Peter Calcagni to shoot Deborah, Paul Vitaris and then himself with a shotgun. Does that mean Phyllis is actually the hero of this tale? Sculder believe Mrs. Paddock controlled Calcagni, but by the time they get themselves untied and back to the classroom she is long gone. But she’s not rude, she left a very sweet goodbye message on the chalkboard. 

Sestra Professional:

Welcome to the Kim Manners' era. The entrance of the late great director transports The X-Files to a whole new dimension stylistically. Ultimately, he winds up taking the reins for more episodes than any other director, and right out of the box with "Die Hand Die Verletzt," he shows the ability to balance tension and humor with ease.

The teaser -- one of the best of the entire series -- does this to perfection. How many times have we seen parent groups who think they know what's right for their children on TV and in movies? It's an essential part of portraying teen rebellion. But without going overboard, Manners quickly and smartly shifts from the dramatic beginning to a comic reveal and then back to the utter eeriness of a PTC practicing devil worship.

This episode also marks the last one for a while for the writing team who did so much to get to the show to this point as Glen Morgan and James Wong depart to executive produce the ill-fated Space: Above and Beyond. As such, their script winds up being a bit of a free-for-all. But it's mostly in a good way with Mulder quipping at will without detracting from the overall ambience.

Something is here: We find out Mulder's idea of devils' music is "The Night Chicago Died." But for a change, the king of overactive imagination -- doesn't want to incite local law enforcement's penchant for that when viewing the ceremonial presentation of the first victim. And we'd probably agree with Scully that there was nothing odd about a murderer taking advantage of local folklore ... if the toads didn't fall from the sky.

While the boys weren't really under the occult influence that the parents fear reach their children via music, television and books, it's the ol' PTC itself which brought forth the deadly force. The kind of thing that can display a boy according to a satanic ritual and still make water drain backwards.

Love how the episode goes in many directions. Shannon recounts a repressed memory that's tearing her apart, a story of abuse in which she gave birth three times and her sister was murdered. Shannon believes it and tells it so emotionally that, in the moment, we believe it. But it's just part of a greater horror.

Did you really think you could call up the Devil and ask him to behave? And then there's another twist when the stepfather turns on the group when they want to get the FBI off the trail by besmirching Shannon. The hypocrisy of what they've been doing finally comes clear to him. Glossing over rituals they didn't want to do and delivering post-hypnotic suggestions on kids participating in the ceremony don't seem like such good ideas any more.

It's an interesting X-File in that Mulder and Scully are suspicious of Mrs. Paddock and her story. They look into her background, they just don't get the full picture as quickly as  necessary. Of course, it helps when Phyllis can call Fox as Dana and get him off the trail for a while.

It gets a little at flimsy at very end when the remaining committee members get the drop on our heroes. But to be fair, if the PTA is Paddock-possessed, they're probably capable of anything, including outwitting our heroes. And I can appreciate a minute or two of Mulder and Scully tied up against each other.

Some of the interesting images in Manners' first episode included a spinning camera move on Shannon's attempted pig dissection/subsequent death and the end-around view that starts with Mulder and Scully at the blackboard and travels around the outside of the classrooms to ultimately find them again inside.

There was lots of fun to be had on Manners' initial foray. Apparently, the summoned demon took vengeance on David Duchovny at the drinking fountain -- the blooper reel shows water splashing him right in the face. The departing "Wongs" were directly addressed in another outtake at the end of the episode. And note to Sestra Am: Brit Aleister Crowley's occult theories are credited for forming the tenets of the modern Wicca. (Which also kind of backs up the Supernatch theory at the same time.)

Guest star of the week: I'd love to give it to Heather McComb because she breathes genuine life into Shannon. Everything hinges on one very emotional scene and two freakouts that she has to deliver. But I'm worried about something happening to me if I don't give it to Susan Blommaert, who goes all out with Mrs. Paddock. Her performance never feels campy, even when she's completely immersed in devilish behavior.