X-Files S7E14: Do you believe in folk magic?

Sestra Amateur: 

X-file-worthy cases in 2000 remain confined to the state of California. In Marin County, the family of Dr. Robert Wieder are celebrating his Physician of the Year award. Unfortunately, his good fortune takes a nasty turn. Father-in-law Irving Thalbro finds what looks like a gingerbread man made of dirt in his bed while a creepy guy sneaks up behind him. Robert later finds Irving hanged to death, the word “theef” written in blood on the wall. Hope the killer didn’t mean “thief.” It’s always awkward when you spell a word wrong and can’t undo it.

Sculder arrive to the crime scene where Fox shows Dana the “hexcraft” dirt in Irving’s bed. Seventy miles away in a Foster City boarding house, the landlord speaks with resident Orel Peattie, who is making medicine inside his apartment. He's also making voodoo dolls. (Peattie's played by Billy Drago, I know him best as troublemaker Barbas on Charmed). Post-autopsy, Scully finds evidence of kuru – a neurodegenerative disease -- in Thalbro’s system and concludes he killed himself. (Fun fact: To prevent kuru, Wikipedia suggests avoiding cannibalism.) Mulder sticks with his murder theory, believing the illness was inflicted upon Irving.

Back inside the Wieder house, Orel steals a family photograph. Not surprisingly, Nan Wieder doesn’t want to stay in a house where her father died horribly, but Robert vetoes her. They’re about to go to bed when Robert finds a hexcraft in their bed and Nan gets felled by a disease more commonly found in Africa than California. In a San Francisco hospital, Fox has trouble convincing Robert voodoo is real. Wieder reviews his wife’s X-rays and finds the word “theef.” Peattie confronts Wieder, who doesn’t know his tormenter. Robert conducts his own investigation to locate a woman named Lynette Peattie. Inside a Jane Doe patient file he finds an embroidered bracelet that reads “flax-hair lamb theef of mans heart.”

Orel is making another hexbag at home when his landlord asks for more medicine. Seems like she’s becoming a believer. Mulder remains one as he and Scully visit an alternative medicine proprietor. She claims the dirt is “goofer dust” and is spread near victims to “direct misfortune.” Several items, including a photo of the victim, are placed inside a “poppet” which Scully succinctly calls a voodoo doll. Their source also reveals the user may be “charmed” by drawing his power from a literal charm. So, take the charm and Peattie loses power.

In the hospital, Orel's first use of a microwave to make popcorn mirrors Nan’s use of radiation to treat her disease, mainly because her poppet is in the microwave. Now poor Nan is toast. Robert has become a believer, especially since “theef” was branded into his wife’s chest. The next day, Wieder tells Sculder about an emergency-room Jane Doe, who was a victim of a bus rollover accident the previous year. Because she was dying and in pain, Robert put her out of her misery with morphine. Fox deduces Lynette Peattie was Orel’s daughter because Peattie’s revenge is to take away Wieder’s family. 

Scully’s research shows Lynette came from West Virginia, supporting Mulder’s original theory about their suspect. Fox wants to exhume Jane Doe’s body and move it to Quantico, but Peattie beat them to it. So that’s what the landlord smelled inside Orel’s apartment. Too bad Peattie catches her inside and infects her with the flesh-eating virus. Mulder sees the related news report and now knows where Orel Peattie has been hiding. He finds most of Lynette’s body and calls Dana to warn her.

Scully is protecting Robert and Lucy Wieder in a remote cabin. Orel, whose charm is his daughter’s head, is watching from outside. Peattie burglarizes their car and gets what he needs for the next poppet -- a strand of Dana's hair. He blinds her by putting nails in the poppet’s eyes. (Why don’t our heroes ever call local FBI agents for assistance? A couple of patrol deputies would have been very useful.) Orel breaks into the cabin, disarms Scully and taunts Robert. Peattie believes he could have saved Lynette if he got to her before Wieder “eased her suffering.” But Orel's poppet has Robert’s name on it, not Lucy’s. He stabs it and Wieder feels the pain. Fox arrives and finds Scully’s blinded poppet. He removes the nails, which allows Dana to shoot Peattie before he kills Wieder. Later at the hospital, Dana reveals how cases like this one question her medical judgment calls and show how she’s changed over the years. Maybe she is starting to believe.

Sestra Professional: 

The idea of voodoo hasn't been one of The X-Files bigger strengths over the course of the series, witness "Fresh Bones" (Season 2, Episode 15), for example. So it might not be the biggest of compliments to say "Theef" is the best of those offerings to date. But it is.

Insert your own Dan Quayle joke here: It's good to get back to a creepy episode, we haven't had a lot of them since leaving Vancouver at the end of Season 5. It used to be a hallmark of the show before conspiracy theories and alien ships took over the horizon. The drawback is that because we've spend so much time with the mythology and The X-Files lite humor episodes, it's difficult to feel truly bugged out. I kind of wish we happened upon this one in the latter stages of Season 2. 

"Theef" was scripted by our favorite three-headed writing team -- Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz. And that's why we get a quick look at a newsman named John Gillnitz, reporting on the "outbreak" of flesh-eating disease. Because we have our show veterans in the fold, time is made for debates about science vs. the supernatural. (I kind of wish Gregory House could have a shot at this case, though.) 

But we also get a couple things that we don't see in bottle episodes not penned by the unusual suspects, including some definite opinions about class systems -- the haves against the have-nots. And more importantly, there's a chance for one of our leads to grow. 

"Theef" gives us some reverse Norman Bates action. Peattie took his daughter's body and he's using it as the source of his power. That's kind of how it worked in Psycho, if not to such a mythical degree. I appreciate the homage.

The ep falls apart a bit in the final act with those kind of circumstances we just have to grin and bear as viewers of a regular TV series. Our leads are separated and the bad guy has no trouble tracking the team to a remote cabin. For someone who couldn't figure out how to get microwave popcorn out of a vending machine and heat it up, Orel certainly accomplishes a lot in a short span of time. 

You do keep me guessing: But I'm not willing to give up on "Theef" entirely. It's striking to watch Gillian Anderson rock the scene in which Dana is blinded, and the final moment's even cooler. Scully's wondering what could have happened if Peattie was able to get to his daughter before she died, even before Mulder can voice his usual sentiment in that regard. It's probably a litmus test for us as viewers to hypothesize whether Orel could have saved her or not.

Metaphysical meta: If Orel looks familiar to viewers, it's because Billy Drago followed his son, Darren Burrows, onto the show. Burrows was the troubled bank robber Bernard in "Monday" (S6), coincidentally penned by Gilligan and Shiban. ... This is the second straight episode honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences as The X-Files took home an Emmy for makeup. The production team also won awards for visual effects and sound mixing for "First Person Shooter."

Guest star of the week: Drago's Peattie comes off as rather corn-pone, so it's not difficult to side with the doc. Still, all due credit to 24 veteran James Morrison, a mainstay on Space: Above and Beyond, the short-lived series by X-Files writing team extraordinaire Glen Morgan and James Wong.