Syzygy

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Mulder and Scully investigate strange murders in New Hampshire that may be due to a rare planetary alignment.

[edit] Summary

A high-school jock at a nightime vigil for a dead friend offers his remembrances, and is manipulated into driving two girls home. He is found dead the next morning, hanging from a cliff. Above, the two girls play "he loves me, he loves me not" as they sit on a blanket next to the rope their classmate is hanging from.

At the funeral for the second victim, the coffin begins to steam during the outburst of a local citizen, who claims that a Satanic cult is responsible for the deaths.

The two girls go to a basketball game, and in envy, cause a basketball player's girlfriend to fall down, and a gangly nerd to be crushed under the stands in the high school gym.

A bag of dog bones previously owned by the obstetrician is found and the zealot from the funeral takes a crowd to the obstetricians home to exact mob vengeance. He is brought in on a warrant and cleared.

Meanwhile Mulder and a local investigator revert back to awkward high-school level flirtations. Scully is very resentful in a similarly adolescent fashion.

Mulder is told by an astrologist that once every 84 years, three planets align and cause behavioral and supernatural oddities. A particularly bad year for this phenomenon was 1979 when 4 planets aligned. That date is the girls' birthday.

Scully and Mulder separate and each ends up with one of the girls; each believing that the other girl is now the prime suspect. All 4 descend on the local police headquarters where the proximity of the now combative girls causes havoc (tremors, gunfire). The events cease at midnight.

[edit] Background Information

The name of the town, Comity, literally means "social harmony".

The writers of this episode named the high school that Margi Kleinjan and Terri Roberts attended, Grover Cleveland Alexander High School to poke fun at actor David Duchovny. Duchovny appeared on Celebrity Jeopardy in 1995 along with Lynn Redgrave and Stephen King. When asked a question about a U.S. president, Duchovny answered, "Grover Cleveland Alexander" instead of "Grover Cleveland." The Children's Defense Fund received $10,000 thanks to Duchovny's participation in Celebrity Jeopardy.

[edit] Links and References

[edit] References

Comity; Caryl County; New Hampshire; virgin; satanic cult; planetary alignment; horned beast; astrology; Mars; Uranus; Mercury; Jupiter; basketball; Mr. Tippy; cross dressing; pediatrician; screwdriver; keystone kops; Aquarius; geological vortex; grand square;

Previous episode:
War of the Coprophages

The X-Files
Season 3

Next episode:
Grotesque


Series:	The X-Files
Original Airdate:	1-26-1996
Production Number:	3x13
Date(s):	1-12-1996
Written by:	Chris Carter
Directed by:	Rob Bowman