X-Files S2E24: Guess who's coming to be dinner?

Sestra Amateur: 

I wonder whether tourism for Dudley Lake, Arkansas took a beating because of this episode. Chicken sales probably dropped too. As "Our Town" begins, George Kearns and Paula Gray are on a late-night date. Paula runs into the woods. George is about to go after her, but doubles over in pain. He pops a pill then takes off after her. Paula leads him deeper into the brush. He loses her, but finds people wearing tribal masks who then kill him. It was clearly a trap, George, you idiot. She was too young and pretty for you. 

Sculder get the case as a missing persons report. Scully thinks the brass are messing with them. Mulder thinks the disappearance is related to foxfire. Since I don’t know what makes foxfire different from regular fire I’m not sure why that would make it an X-File. My knowledge is limited to Mozilla Firefox, which I prefer over Internet Explorer. 

The agents learn Kearns was a poultry inspector for Chaco Chicken. Fox tells Dana about Creighton Jones, a man who lost his mind in Dudley back in 1961. An old video shows Creighton rambling about fire demons. So instead of Mad Cow Disease we’re looking at Mad Chicken Disease?

Sculder meet with Sheriff Tom Arens, played by character actor Gary Grubbs. I think he’s appeared in every show made since the 1970s. Mulder notices witches’ pegs near the burn site, but the sheriff claims they are all over the town because hill people are suspicious. He also pooh-poohs the idea of foxfire. Sculder visit George’s wife, Doris, who is well aware of her husband’s cheating ways. Fox reads George’s last report, which indicates he was going to notify the Department of Agriculture about numerous violations at the chicken processing plant. 

The agents and the sheriff proceed to the Chaco plant. Turns out Paula works there and she’s exhibiting the same symptoms as poor George. Supervisor Jess Harold clearly despised Kearns. He shows them positive reports that indicate the plant is in compliance. Sculder also learn George sued for Worker’s Compensation but lost his court case. While touring the plant, they come across a feed grinder that pulverizes remaining chicken parts. Paula hallucinates while she’s working, flips out and takes Jess hostage. Arens shoots her and Paula lands in the feed grinder’s remains. That batch is still edible though, right?

While treating Jess, staff physician Vance Randolph admits Paula came to him complaining of headaches. Both she and George took codeine for pain. Sculder meet with Paula’s grandfather, Walter, the head of Chaco Chicken. They learn Chaco also disliked Kearns, but he authorizes the autopsy to find out what happened to Paula. 

Dana discerns that Paula suffered from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, so my original crack about Mad Chicken Disease was fairly accurate (from the human perspective; obviously Mad Cow happens to cattle). Creutzfeldt-Jakob causes dementia and seizures in its human victims. Mulder also learns young Paula is actually 47 years old. 

Sculder’s car gets run off the road by a Chaco Chicken driver who crashes into a canal. It doesn’t appear to be intentional as he too is afflicted with the disease. Eww, now there’s chickens, blood and who knows what else contaminating the water. Scully thinks someone disposed of Kearns' body in the feed grinder, causing others to become infected because they … ate George. This is more disturbing than what happened with the cattle in "Red Museum" earlier this season. 

The runoff in the water disturbs Fox, so he convinces the reluctant sheriff to dredge the canal for George’s body. They find his bones all right, along with the bones of at least eight other people. Some of the bones are 20 to 30 years old and all of the skeletons are missing their heads. Scully wonders why some of the bones appear polished. 

Arens breaks the bad news of George’s death to Doris. Back at the plant, Dr. Randolph and Jess Harold conspiratorially discuss the sick employees. During his research, Mulder casts a 200-mile net around Dudley and learns 87 people have disappeared over the past 50 years. He also has a theory about the polished bones and it’s not a tasteful one. Jess and Doris show up at the Chaco residence. Jeez, everyone is in on this one. Even Chaco’s maid is part of the conspiracy. 

Sculder visit the Hall of Records after hours to research Paula, but someone has torched the place so the information is irretrievable. Doris calls Fox and says she’s scared Mr. Chaco will kill her. She’s not wrong; someone with an ax shows up at her house. Dana arrives too late; Doris is gone. Mulder goes to Chaco’s house and sees mementos from New Guinea circa 1944. He breaks into a cabinet – without a warrant, I might add – and finds the missing heads. He warns Scully, who gets clocked upside the head by Chaco anyway. (I guess it’s her turn this episode.) 

Chaco drags Dana to the Doris BBQ and lectures his followers about making wrong decisions. Well if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle chicken. The executioner – must be the sheriff since everyone else is accounted for -- beheads Chaco and is about to relieve Scully of hers as well. Luckily, Fox arrives in the nick of time and shoots him. I’m sure Sestra Pro has something to say about the tender moment when Mulder gently removes the duct tape from Scully’s mouth. So now the sheriff and Jess Harold are dead and everyone else runs away. 

The Chaco Chicken processing plant is closed. Sculder learn the New Guinea tribe with whom Chaco stayed during World War II was a cannibalistic one. Maybe that’s why they can’t find his remains, he taught his followers too well. I guess KFC for dinner is a bad idea…


Sestra Professional:

This one is so delightfully twisted, it's another example of how The X-Files could deliver a nice juicy stand-alone ep. In his second credited script, Frank Spotnitz delivers a good story build, revealing pieces of the puzzle along the way -- and not many of them that we might have guessed beforehand -- a la Bad Day at Black Rock, which he later said served as part of his inspiration for the premise.

Chaco's diatribe on chickens being more useful than most people because their meat and eggs can be eaten and pillows can be stuffed with their feathers has a familiar X-Files ring of slight pretension to it. But that's offset by a cool fun fact (if I can call it that) -- almost all the guest characters are named after known cannibals. And here's a real on-the-nose moment, the nametag of the worker feeding chickens at the end reads C. Little.

He had a bone to pick with everyone: It all hinges on the guy who was not "one of them," an outsider in the town from the get-go, and not just because he was chasing after young girls. But then the granddaughter is added to the recipe with the glorious set piece of her sinking into the feed. And so a chasm opens between Chaco and the rest of his flock. He actually wants to know what happened to Paula. That would have been one of his smarter moves if the rest of the town hadn't decided to impeach him and serve him up as smorgasbord.

Scully does a lot of the heavy lifting earlier on in the ep -- using science to figure out about the disease and how it could be affecting numerous people in the small town, when odds of that happening would be practically non-existent. She's grossed out just theorizing Kearns was fed to the chickens and the disease was passed on that way.

But Mulder is no dim bulb, because he counters that there would be an epidemic instead of a few local cases if it was all happening because of Chaco Chicken. Of course, he was much more interested in figuring out how a woman who looked so young could actually be 47. 

Good people, good food: That leads Fox to the cannibalism theory, and a strange foreshadowing of the next episode. He mentions how the Anasazi partook of human flesh, and the reward for doing so was longevity. OK, maybe Spotnitz's research for the season finale uncovered that bones consumed by that tribe were found in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. But they couldn't have name-checked any other cannibal clan in this one? 

After being thwarted at the records office ... the internet will do wonders for future agents, I'm sure ... Sculder splits up. Why does Dana get to go to the widow's house when Fox is the one who got her frightened phone call? Maybe like Sestra Am said, it's just her turn. 

Then the great flip in which the town turns on Chaco. "How long before it's any one of us -- any one of you?" he asks the apparently hungry throng. In true Generation X fashion, the Dudley Do-Wrongs shrug their shoulders and go rogue. 

Despite the fact that Mark Snow's score is really quickening the pulse, we probably should think Scully's in pretty grave danger here. But after all she's survived this year, including her abduction and a rather terrifying fetishist, it's difficult to believe that she's gonna be Seven-ed. Even though Mulder parks a considerable distance from the chow line, he still manages to get there in time. So they should probably have heeded Chaco's warning of like a minute earlier. Kearns actually got the job done after all. 

Sestra Am mentioned the moment Fox removes the duct tape from Dana's mouth, but it was the touch he gives her afterward that really got to me. And I'm not even a shipper (someone who absolutely must see Mulder and Sculder personally involved)! Since the original run, I've been a no-romo, although not particularly against them ending up together -- because seriously, who else would be right for either one of them -- but much more interested in the adventure than the romance.  

Guest star of the week: I was quite impressed by John Milford, a veteran of many westerns of the '60s as old man Chaco. But in playing the role of the shoot-first sheriff who dragged his heels when it came to assisting the FBI, Gary Grubbs really dug in to his role. (Xtra props to director Rob Bowman catching Mulder and Scully's reflection in Arens' glasses.)