X-Files S2E21: Possession is nine-tenths of the episode

Sestra Amateur: 

This episode borrows heavily from The Omen and The Exorcist. Considering the writer, Sara Charno, also wrote the "Aubrey" episode, I guess that’s not too surprising. People say you should write what you know. 

The opening segment shows a family at a theme park in Lincoln Park, Virginia (not to be confused with a family attending a Linkin Park show). Dad – Steven Holvey -- tries to placate his crying toddler with his older brother's balloon. The older child – Charlie – takes umbrage to this and lets Dad know it. In return, Dad throws away everyone’s delicious ice cream cones. Not sure what the lesson was supposed to be with that one. 

Mom – Maggie Holvey -- takes Teddy the toddler to the bathroom. She harnesses Teddy to the sink so she can use the bathroom stall in private. That’s a more acceptable way of saying Mom ties up her kid. Of course, he gets out and wanders off. His panicked mother leaves the bathroom without washing her hands. This may be the only time lack of hygiene can be considered acceptable behavior. Teddy is following a wayward balloon and ends up on the theme park’s railroad track. The conductor is unable to stop and Teddy dies a pretty grisly death. On the upside, Damien – I mean Charlie -- gets his balloon back.

Three months later, Mulder explains the case to Scully, showing her pictures of the balloon defying logic and gravity. The picture is enhanced by expert Chuck Burks and it appears as though a poltergeist is pulling the balloon. Sculder go to the Holvey residence to speak with the parents. Charlie’s presence seems to fan the flames of the fire in the home’s fireplace. Scully watches his grandmother, Golda, draw a backward swastika on Charlie’s hand. The fire alarm blares and the power goes out. I’m sure it’s all just coincidence. 

When the power returns, Grandma is yelling at Maggie in Romanian. Captions probably would have come in handy with this episode, but you get the gist of what she’s saying. Maggie says her mother accuses her of mating with a devil (Steven) and having a devil child (presumably Charlie). It turns out the swastika is intended for protection, but is the protection for or from Charlie? 

Dana later checks Teddy’s medical history and thinks it’s a case of Munchausen by proxy. They return to Steven, who gives some timely exposition regarding Golda’s attitude toward himself and the children. Sculder ask to interview Charlie through a social worker. Maggie is against it, but Steven agrees. Of course, when Dad tries to leave with Charlie, Steven gets hanged by the garage door opener. But maybe it’s not Charlie’s fault, he seemed genuinely upset at his father's demise. The police show Scully evidence of a satanic ritual in Grandma’s bedroom. Dana also sees a stained glass window with the same mark Golda drew on Charlie’s hand. Fox finds ash on the garage door opener and the car. Then Grandma’s religious gang of Men in Black arrive and ban Sculder from the house. 

Mulder analyzes the ash and learns it doesn’t contain metal, carbon or oxygen. Sculder bring it to Chuck, who recognizes it as holy ash that materializes out of thin air. Think dry, non-slimy ectoplasm. Fox seems to appreciate Dana’s skepticism, I don’t think he’s ever smiled that genuinely before. Meanwhile, Charlie eavesdrops as Golda and her minions perform a ritual with chickens and blood. Charlie appears in the smoke, yelling in Romanian. 

The social worker finally arrives at the Holvey house. Charlie calls to his mother and they find the child collapsed and feverish outside Golda’s bedroom. Maggie interrupts the ceremony and kicks out Grandma’s gang. Grandma grabs Charlie and locks him in the room with her. The social worker realizes she’s in over her head and calls 911. She flags down Sculder and updates them. Charlie attacks Golda with the chickens (yes, really) and Grandma is dead by the time Mulder opens the door. For those keeping score, Maggie has now lost her youngest son, husband and mother. 

Fox finds more ash during analysis of the crime scene. The religious Men in Black – known as the Calusari (not calamari, but now I want some calamari) – return and Mulder tries to get some answers, but Big Cheese Calusari just issues a cryptic warning. This is clearly one of those episodes where communication would have not only resolved everything faster, but probably prevented all of these deaths in the first place. Maggie clues the agents in on some Romanian history to explain Golda’s behavior.

Charlie finally gets interviewed at a hospital in Arlington, Virginia. He loses his temper and claims he wasn’t there when Grandma died. Charlie blames Michael. “Who’s Michael,” you ask? Turns out that’s Charlie’s still-born twin brother. His parents did not tell Charlie about Michael nor did Maggie let Golda perform a Romanian separation ritual that would prevent Michael’s spirit from staying bound to Charlie. Michael emerges when a nurse tries to give his living twin a shot and clocks her upside the head. (I’m starting to think I use the phrase "clocked upside the head" in every episode.) 

“Charlie” convinces his mother to take him home. Maggie knows something is not right, but does it anyway. Of course, Charlie is still in the hospital bed, so Mom has Michael with her. Back at home, Maggie starts the separation ritual, but Michael is none too happy about that. Mulder sends Scully to the Holvey house while he assists the Calusari, who are performing the ritual on Charlie. This is where it really feels like we’re watching The Exorcist … more like Exorcist II – less quality and emotional impact. 

Dana sees Maggie being held by an unseen force against the ceiling, but Mom keeps on chanting. Charlie continues his Linda Blair impersonation while Michael threatens to stab Scully with a knife. The Calusari finish the ritual and Michael dissolves into a pile of ash. After seeing how quickly the men completed the ritual, it makes you wonder why Golda waited three months before trying it, especially since she had been fighting to perform the ritual for eight years. Guess we’ll chalk it up to yet another plot contrivance for dramatic effect.

Sestra Professional:

We're back in creepy kid land. And this one looks familiar, 'cause Charlie/Michael was also Kevin Morris in "Conduit" way back at the beginning of the first season. Little Teddy was not so creepy, except for the part about not looking like either of his parents, so I guess he had to go. See what happens when the youngest child gets all the attention?

As evident by Sestra Am's recap, we have an awful lot of Romanians and other assorted characters running around in the ep. As a result, there's less Sculder. Fox gets to dust many crime scenes and Dana says "Munchausen by proxy" a lot -- which, of course, is what a doctor should say when she sees the medical records of these kids. But ultimately, that's kind of why this episode feels like it's been possessed by a lesser heretic.

So Mulder is thinking poltergeist, which is backed up by the neither organic nor inorganic ash and the photographic evidence of electromagnetic energy. Scully thinks he's seeing Jesus in an elm tree. She's quick to explain away the wiring problems in the house and death by garage-door opener as well. At some point, one will think she'll hit the coincidence limit. Maybe when it hits her first.

During production, the powers-that-be agonized over the death of the toddler and the garage-door hanging was subjected to a standards and practices compromise. But I think the real bold/bizarre choice was the use of reverse swastikas for protective purposes. That image automatically unsettles viewers, so when they're used to safeguard a child here, it both raises our hackles and ensures we're paying close attention to the details.

If you try to stop us, the blood will be on your hands: Then Golda's cronies show up and Charlie is no longer the only creepy character in the episode. But we do get a sense that, for all Grandma's rantings and ravings and dead roosters, she may be on to something. She's certainly more effective than the case worker, who can't stop Golda from locking herself in a room with a child but seems more adept at running to tell Sculder everything she's witnessed.

It takes a reallllly long time for Maggie to come around. Why did she let her mother move in with her family in the first place if she didn't believe a word that Golda said? And why does she choose the time when she would need her mother the most to throw her out? After the grandma's demise, Maggie's still not swayed by the Calusari. It takes Michael in Charlie guise asking her for a train ride and a balloon to wake her up. It's a rather weak representation of a woman, worsened by the fact that she was spawned by a female writer.

You marry a devil ... you have devil child: We don't really get any answers to why all of this went down. How did the pissed-off kid who wanted his balloon back fit into this? If that was Michael, how was he watching himself dispatch of his baby brother? And if he was Charlie watching Michael, was he just being a spoiled brat? Furthermore, was Grandma right? Did the combination of Maggie and Steve really conjure up an evil that the Calusari chief compares to Lucifer and Hitler? Or did something that heinous come about because the child was still-born and tied to his twin? At least we've learned another parenting lesson -- don't keep such tragedy from another sibling.

We do get a good explanation for why Golda seemed to be doting on her grandson sometimes and fearful of him at others. Even better, the hospital set piece of Michael in the corner with Charlie in the bed and the nurse between them proved to be one of the creepier images of this season. Not sure how the nurse survived that blow, she must have a pretty strong cranium. And our returning kid star, Joel Palmer, gets to chew the scenery when he turns from merely mopey to full-on evil.

Evil follows evil: I guess The X-Files was striving here to allow Mulder to look malevolence in the face and try to avoid being touched by that while Scully got tossed around like a rag doll once again. That enabled the Calusari elder to say things like "You must be careful. It knows you" to creep Fox (and us) out while getting Dana to keep what probably are regularly scheduled chiropractic appointments for all her beatdowns.

Guest star of the week: Kay E. Kuter has made a career out of taking small but critical roles in television and film for more than five decades. Sestra Am and I know him well as the deliverer of exposition Enduran in The Last Starfighter and he kind of fulfills a similar role here as the face of the Calusari. One thing's for sure, he manages to provide gravitas by coming off as more than a one-dimensional character (which can't be said of many others in the same ep).