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Home (episode)
- For the town of the same name, see Home.
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| Series: | The X-Files |
| Original Airdate: | 10-01-1996 |
| Production Number: | 4x03 |
| Date(s): | 1996 |
| Written by: | Glen Morgan & James Wong |
| Directed by: | Kim Manners |
After a deformed baby's body is found buried in a baseball field, Mulder and Scully investigate a family suspected of inbreeding.
Contents |
Summary
Edit
Mulder and Scully are sent to investigate the finding of a deformed baby's corpse, unearthed from under a home plate located in a children's make-shift baseball diamond.
The episode starts out with a woman, whom is later identified as Mrs. Peacock, giving birth, followed by her three sons disposing of the body and burying it in a nearby field during a storm. When they arrive at the scene, Scully is already taking notes and Mulder is sniffing a baseball that the children left at the scene. He mentions to Scully a time with Samantha, when he and his sister would bike down to the beach and eat bologna sandwiches. After Scully comments, he then tells her how he would go into, "catatonic schizophrenia" without his cell phone. He informs her that it is a town like this he would like to settle down in, if not for his job.
While talking to the town Sheriff, Mulder asks whether or not the house nearest to the scene had been questioned about the baby. The Sheriff, Andy Taylor, tells them that "the house had been built in the civil war and still does not have electricity, running water or heating". He also insinuates that the family members have been inbreeding since the war, stating they, "Raise and breed their own stock... if you get what I mean." All the while, the Peacock family watches them from their porch.
During the inspection of the corpse, Scully comments to Mulder that "it looks as if this child has been affected by every rare birth defect known to science." They soon discover that their baby suffocated by inhaling dirt. Following the brief autopsy, Mulder and Scully talk outside the Police Station. Scully seems distressed by the abandonment of this child and over the defects presented. They sit down on a bench and Mulder flirts with her suggesting that she find a man with a spotless genetic make-up and a high tolerance for being second guessed to pump out, "über-Scullys". She inquires about about his family, and Mulder claims that other than the need for corrective lenses and alien abductions, the Mulder family passes "genetic muster". Mulder soon deduces that their case is nothing more than kids disposing of an unwanted birth. However. Scully declares the child is not a result of a freak accident in mating and must have been inbred just like the Sheriff suggested.
The duo proceed to the Peacock residence where they knock on the door. About to open the porches screen door, Mulder is stopped by Scully when she exclaims that they have no probable cause. After looking inside with a flash light, they proceed within, weapons drawn. They discover bloody boot prints, which match the ones found at the crime scene, and a mud-encrusted shovel. They leave after gathering some evidence, but their presence does not go unknown to the Peacock family.
Later that night, Sheriff Taylor tells Scully on the phone that he has put out warrants for the arrest of the Peacock brothers. Sheriff Taylor then pulls out his revolver from a locked box, which seems to have not been used in a while. Scully gathers her things and walks to Mulder, who is fiddling around with the T.V. antenna. He tells her to stop, joking as if the reception would get better. Scully asks, "Still planning on making a home here?" He replies, "Nah, don't think I can get the Knick's game." She then comments on the infanticide hoping that does not play into his decision, and says good night. Mulder replies, "Good night, Mom," and as she reaches for the door knob she discovers the lock is broken. Mulder comments that, "Maybe you don't have to lock your doors around here." He then puts a chair against the knob.
Back at the Peacock residence, the Peacocks are setting out in their car, and the Sheriff seems apprehensive on his porch back at his home. His wife consoles him and they go to bed leaving their front door unlocked. The Peacocks arrive with their music blasting, waking the already spooked Sheriff, who tells his wife to hide under the bed. Unable to reach his revolver in time, he arms himself with a baseball bat and hides in his room for the Peacock brothers. They brutally bludgeon the Sheriff and his wife to death before leaving with the Johnny Mathis song, "Wonderful, wonderful" singing from their car stereo.
The next morning Mulder and Scully arrive at the Sheriff's house to find the Deputy smoking a cigarette and in shock. He hands them their lab report and tells them the car the Peacocks were driving originally belonged to a woman from Baltimore. Upon investigating the corpses, Mulder comments that the Sheriff's chest is, "one big hematoma" and [the Peacocks] "really went 'caveman' on them." Reading the lab results Scully claims that the Federal Crime Lab made a mistake and that they "screwed up." The results show many gene imbalances she had suspected, but never imagined, to the extent the report claims. Eager for vengeance, the Deputy tells Mulder and Scully he will provide them back-up to save the supposed missing woman, whom they believe could have given birth to the baby.
They soon stage an assault on the booby-trapped Peacock residence. Upon arriving, Deputy Paster puts on a bullet-proof vest. He claims he has seen them fire muskets before, and that he will not be taken out by, "some antique". They begin to flank the property and the deputy approaches the front door, where upon opening and entering the house, he gets decapitated by a trap axe-- too late to heed Scully's warning. Mulder repeats a quote from a show he watched on the fuzzy television the previous night about animals and how they hunt. He states that that, "The eldest will move in to ensure the prey has been killed. Encircling the prey signals that it's safe to approach." Mulder tells Scully they are witnessing undiluted animal instincts. He proposes that they divert the brothers out of the house by releasing their livestock. Upon entering the house and avoiding a trap, Mulder and Scully encounter the Peacocks' mother.
She is in terrible shape, with missing teeth, amputated limbs, and living under the bed on a sled. She screams in terror, and Scully tries to comfort her. The two ladies discuss the accident that killed the Peacock mother's husband and left her without her limbs. The Peacock mother does not hold any resentment towards her children, even when Scully mentions that they have killed two people. She also tells Scully that she can tell that Scully does not have children, and if Scully did, she would understand.
One of the boys is killed, but the other escapes with his mother in the car. The Peacock mother has a voice-over at the end, where she explains that she and her son have to move away, to find another place they can call home. The Peacock car drives away as 'Wonderful, Wonderful' is heard over the radio.
Background InformationEdit
- In one scene, Scully mentions the film Babe and imitates a line from the movie.
- This episode was banned by FOX due to its graphic nature (the baby murder, the references to incest, and the brutal murders). It has aired in syndication and is on the X-Files season 4 DVD set.
- Glen Morgan named the Peacock family after some former neighbors of his parents.
- This episode features the song "Wonderful Wonderful" by Johnny Mathis.
- Having spent a year away from The X-Files to create their own show Space: Above and Beyond, writers Morgan and Wong return here for the first time since season 2's "Die Hand Die Verletzt." The title of their first episode back may also have a double meaning; aside from being the name of the town featured, it could be their way of saying that they are back "home".
NotesEdit
This episode marks the first time Samantha Mulder was mentioned in a context other than abduction - at one point, Fox talks about the games he and his sister used to play.
Mulder and Scully would have simply called in the State Police and officers from neighboring jurisdictions to assist them in arresting the Peacock boys.
The science advisor to the series, Anne Simon Ph.D., points out in her book The Real Science Behind The X-Files that the genetic deformities Scully observes in the dead infant (Neu-Laxova syndrome, Meckel-Gruber syndrome and extrophy of the cloaca) are quite rare, and that she would have had to have been well-versed in genetic abnormalities to have recognized all of these conditions without consulting outside experts. Dr. Simon mentions a standard reference book, Smith's Recognizable Patterns of Human Malformation, as something Scully may have had the opportunity to consult before this case, thus familiarizing herself with the information.
Scully makes a minor mistake when describing the abnormalities of the Peacock baby. She describes the deformities as dominant, when in reality, they are recessive. If they were dominant disorders, the Peacock parents would have been dead at birth instead of unaffected carriers. This is mentioned briefly in The Real Science Behind the X-Files.
A scene was cut in which Mulder and Scully jostle each other suggestively in the tight confines of Sheriff Taylor's supply closet/morgue.
GoofsEdit
The playing of Wonderful Wonderful during the scenes where the sheriff is battered to death is not in any kind of musical timeline. The first line plays as the brothers are leaving the house, then there is a scene with the sheriff looking at his gun and being comforted by his wife, then a shot back to the brothers' car and the second line of the song. Then when the brothers arrive at the sheriff's house, both the sheriff and his wife have got ready for and are in bed, but the song is still only about half way through, and when the brothers get back in their car having killed them, it's still playing.
The actual quote in Babe is "Baaah-ram-ewe", not Naah-ram-ewe. All three elements of the magic word are related to sheep.
During Mulder and Scully's first conversation with Sheriff Taylor at the infant-burial site, the exact same reaction shot of Scully is used twice: she makes a facial expression, looks down and to her right, and some strands of her hair blow across the top of her head.
In the teaser the Peacock mother is giving birth and is screaming in obvious pain, but we are later told that the family shares a genetic disorder caused by their inbreeding (among others) which prevents them from feeling pain.
AllusionEdit
Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Paster are clear references to The Andy Griffith Show, where Sheriff Andy Taylor and his Deputy Barney Fife watch over a small North Carolina mountain town. Though Deputy Paster wouldn't admit it, they also both resemble their namesakes: both Andies are calm, laid-back and content with their small-town ways, and both Barneys are more nervous and fond of weapons.
Links and ReferencesEdit
Guest StarsEdit
- Neil Denis as the Catcher
- Cory Frye as the Batter
- Adrian Hughes as Sherman Peacock
- Karin Konoval as Peacock Mother
- Judith Maxie as Barbara Taylor
- Lachlan Murdoch as the Right Fielder
- Chris Norris as Edmund Peacock
- Tucker Smallwood as Sheriff Andy Taylor
- Douglas Smith as the Pitcher
- Sebastian Spence as Deputy Barney Paster
- John Trottier as George Peacock
- Kenny James as the Announcer
ReferencesEdit
American Civil War; Babe; Baltimore; Cadillac; Cell phone; Home; Inbreeding; Mayberry; Meckel-Gruber Syndrome; Morgue; Nev-Laxova Syndrome; Peacock family; Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh; Sheriff; Sweetgum Lane; Wonderful, Wonderful
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