The X-Files - 4.

French title: La Meute
translation: Pack of Animals

US Airdate: October 11, 1996

writers: Glen Morgan and Jim Wong

director: Kim Manners

STARRING:

David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:

Catcher .... Neil Denis

Batter .... Cory Fry

Right Fielder .... Lachlan Murdoch

Pitcher .... Douglas Smith

George Raymond Peacock ... Chris Nelson Norris

Sherman Nathaniel Peacock ... Adrian Hughes

Edmund Creighton Peacock ... John Trottier

Mrs. Peacock ..... Karin Konoval

Barbara Taylor ..... Judith Maxie

Sheriff Andy Taylor .... Tucker Smallwood

Deputy Barney Paster .... Sebastian Spence

Radio Singer ..... Kenny James

AN INVESTIGATION INTO INFANTICIDE IN AN IDYLLIC SMALL TOWN LEADS MULDER AND SCULLY TO AN EVEN MORE APALLING DISCOVERY: A FAMILY DEFORMED BY INBREEDING INTO A FERAL, MURDEROUS CLAN.

Home, Pennsylvania.

An idyllic small town is the last place anyone would expect to find a hideously malformed newborn buried in a shallow grave. This gruesome discovery is enough for the local sheriff, Andy Taylor, to call in the FBI. Although the child's deformations indicate multiple genetic abnormalities, neither Mulder nor Scully believe this local tragedy is a matter for the X-Files: until they learn more about Home's reclusive Peacock clan. For over a century, this farm family has lived on the outskirts of town...and the outskirts of civilization. Generations of inbreeding have deformed their bodies and their souls into something less than human, and more than animal. Now that the family has dwindled down to three brothers, Mulder and Scully suspect that the Peacocks have devised a grotesque plan to propagate their species...by forcing a kidnapped woman into involuntary pregnancy.

While someone (or something) watches unseen, Mulder and Scully explore the Peacock farm and find the bloody evidence of a recent birth. Before they can arrest the Peacocks, the family strikes back. Later that night, the Peacock boys massacre the sheriff and his wife. As Mulder says, "They went caveman."

Fearing for the life of the Peacocks' prisoner, Scully and Mulder courageously invade the farmhouse with only the local deputy as back-up. When they discover the hiding place of the clan matriarch, they finally comprehend the appalling truth. Mrs. Peacock, a multiple amputee, is the mother of the murdered infant. And also the proud mother of three sons who'll do anything for mom.

With guile, luck, and firepower, Mulder and Scully manage to kill two of the rampaging Peacocks. In the confusion, the oldest boy and Mrs. Peacock escape in their long white Cadillac. Mother and son drive off in search of a new place to call Home.

At the beginning, after the credits and the home birth, when the kids are playing baseball, the screen says "Home" and then pauses before saying "Pennsylvania". This is the closest I've seen to an actual onscreen title.

Johnny Mathis' "Wonderful, Wonderful" possible homage to his "Chances Are" from "Close Encounters" which was playing when the little boy was taken. Of course, I'll never be able to hear it the same way again!

First time Scully and Mulder visit the house we see a pig's head and hear flies buzzing around it (as we also hear a fly buzzing before we see Mom Peacock), is this a referral to "Lord Of The Flies" by William Golding? Boys alone on an island (or house) with no interaction with others, making their own rules and living outside of society.

Apparently on a personal appearance on Letterman, David Duchovny told a story about playing pick-up baseball as a kid, in an old Dutch immigrant cemetery in his neighborhood in New York and using the gravestones as bases. The scene where Mulder and Scully find the dead baby under home plate and Mulder drifts off remembering childhood pick-up baseball games is a possible reference to that.

Due to it being another fine Morgan-Wong episode, the first one since "Die Hand Die Verletzt," shown January 1995, we must have a "Space:Above and Beyond" reference, due to Glen Morgan and James Wong being co-creators. Tucker Smallwood (Andy Taylor) played Commodore Ross in "SAAB". If you're interested, here's a terrific site for this great actor:

The Commodore's Cabin

The effect of Mrs. Taylor, under the bed, as her husband's blood seeps towards her, inching her fingertips out of the way....eww! And the murder of poor Sheriff Taylor was one of the most gruesome ones I've seen on this show. Overall one of the nastiest eps so far. It's not that you actually *see* a lot, but so much is implied. Don't watch if you're squeamish.

Word has it that this will NOT be repeated, if you don't have a video copy of it, you may never get the chance to see what all the fuss is about. If this info changes, I will make the correction here.

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Scully: "Meanwhile I've quit the FBI and become the national spokesperson for the Ab-Roller."

(Mulder's not listening, he's lost in his childhood baseball memories)

Mulder: (putting ball under Scully's nose) "Smell that. (she does and wrinkles her nose) That's perfume. Eau De Ball. You know, this brings back a lot of memories of my sister... all day pickup games out in the Vineyard... ride your bikes down to the beach... eat baloney sandwiches... The only place you had to be on time was home for dinner. Never had to lock your door... no modems, no faxes, no cell phones --"

Scully: "Mulder, if you had to do without a cell-phone for two minutes you'd lapse into catatonic schizophrenia."

Mulder: "You know, Scully, you don't know me as well as you think you do. My work demands that I live in a big city, but if I had to settle down, build a home, it'd be a place like this."

Scully: "It'd be like living in Mayberry." (truck pulls up and black sherriff gets out)

Taylor: "Hi, I'm sheriff Andy Taylor."

Mulder: "For real?!?" (refers to "The Andy Griffith Show", as Andy's character's name was Sheriff Andy Taylor)

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Scully: "Well, were there any local women who were pregnant and now suddenly aren't?"

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Mulder: "Sheriff, who lives in that house there? (the sheriff hesitates) Did you question them? 'Cause they've been watching us the entire time."

Taylor: "That farm belongs to the Peacock family. Three boys... well, they'd be men...I guess you could call them human... Their folks were in a bad car wreck and we suppose they died."

Scully: "You suppose?"

Taylor: "Well, we tried to administer medical attention, but the boys hauled the bodies away -- took them home. They haven't been seen in ten years, so we *suppose* they died."

Scully: "Have you questioned the men?"

Taylor: "The Peacocks built that farm during the Civil War. It still has no electricity... no running water. No heat. They grow their own food, raise their own pigs, breed their own cows. *Raise* and *breed* their own stock, if you get my meaning." (Mulder grimaces)

Scully: "It is, however, the closest residence to the crime scene."

Taylor: "Those boys are feeble, Agent Scully. It's sad... they wouldn't have any idea what you were talking about."

Scully: "Well, they could have witnessed --"

Taylor: "Look. This town is my home. I love it. It's quiet, peaceful. I don't even wear a gun. Now I've heard some of the sick and horrible things that go on outside my home. At the same time, I knew we couldn't stay hidden forever; that one day the modern world would find us and my hometown would change forever. And when I saw... it... in the ground, I knew that day had come. And I want to find whoever did this. But in doing so, I'd like it if the way things are around here didn't have to change. Now I know this is iffy Bureau jurisdiction, but I didn't know who else to turn to. So I called the Bureau in Pittsburgh, and when I described the victim, they said I should see you."

Mulder: "Then maybe we should take a look at the victim."

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Sheriff: "This is my deputy, Barney."

Mulder: "Fife?" (refers to "The Andy Griffith Show" again, as Andy's deputy was named Barney Fife)

Barney: "Pastor!"

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Mulder: "There's something rotten in Mayberry."

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Scully: "Imagine all a woman's hopes and dreams for her child, and then nature turns so cruel. What must a mother go through?"

Mulder: "Apparently not much in this case, if she'd just throw it out with the trash."

Scully: "I...I guess I was just projecting on myself."

Mulder: "Why? Is there a history of genetic abnormalities in your family?"

Scully: "No."

Mulder: "Well, just find yourself a man with a spotless genetic makeup and a really high tolerance for being second guessed and start pumping out the little Uberscullies." (he rubs her shoulder, and she grins)

Scully: "What about your family?"

Mulder: "Hmm? (Scully nods) Well, (he smiles) aside for the need for corrective lenses and the tendency to be abducted by extraterrestrials involved in an international governmental conspiracy, the Mulder family passes genetic muster. (he turns serious) Scully, that child inside is a tragedy. Some scared parents, probably young kids, disposed of an unwanted birth. In a very certain sense infanticide is involved, but this is not an FBI matter."

Scully: "But from what I know about genetic defects, Mulder, it is unlikely that child resulted from a single polygenic mating."

Mulder: "We should let local authorities investigate."

Scully: "Those defects, Mulder, are autosomal dominant disorders. And from the degree, I'd say, mutations that go back many generations."

Mulder: "Scully, Sheriff Taylor implied that the boys in that family were not really the type that could easily get dates."

Scully: "But he also implied that they practice inbreeding. Now we all have a natural instinct to propagate..."

Mulder: "Do we?" (he's smiling at her)

Scully: "There are theories that propose that our bodies are simply vehicles for genes needing to replicate."

Mulder: "There's no sister...The mother has been dead for ten years..."

Scully: "But if the instinct and the need is strong enough, they will answer it any way that they can. Now a woman gave birth to that child, and my guess is, against her will."

Mulder: "Kidnapping *is* a Bureau matter. (Scully gets up and heads to the car) Scully.... (she stops and looks back at Mulder) I never saw you as a mother before."

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Scully: (as Mulder is pointing the TV bunny-ears at her forehead) "You still planning on making a home here?"

Mulder: "Nah. Not if I can't get the Knicks game."

Scully: "Well, as long as the brutal infanticide doesn't weigh into your decision...G'night Mulder."

Mulder: "G'night MOM..."

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Mulder: "They really went caveman on them."

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Scully: "This child's cells would have had to divide triple-fold in cell metaphase."

Mulder: "Triple? Hey, Scully, what if each of the Peacock brothers was the father of that child?"

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Mulder: (after deputy pulls gun out and leaves) "Uh, that was a little bit too Chuck Bronson for me, Scully."

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Mulder: (trying to push the pigs) "Scully, would you think less of me as a man if I told you I was kind of excited right now? (pigs won't move) There some secret farmer trick to get these things moving?"

Scully: "I don't know. Baa-ram-ewe! BAA-RAAM-EEEWE!!!!"

Mulder: "Yeah, that'll work."

Scully: "I babysat my nephew this weekend. He watches "Babe" 15 times a day!"

Mulder: "And people call ME spooky."

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Mulder: "Oh no!" (holds up newspaper with the headline ELVIS PRESLEY DEAD AT 42)

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Mulder: (to woman under the bed, thinking she's a hostage) "Take it easy, ma'am, take it easy. It's all right, it's all over. We're from the F.B.I., we're here to help. We're gonna make sure that you're safe. We're gonna make sure that you get home."

Scully: (shining her flashlight on a framed picture of two people sitting in front of the house) "Mulder, she already *is* home. It's Mrs. Peacock. She's their mother."

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Scully: "How I think it goes here is that Edmund is the brother and father of the other two."

Mulder: "Which means that when Edmund was a kid he could ground the other two for playing with his things?"

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Mrs. Peacock: "This is our home. Why leave it?"

Scully: "Whatever pain you may be feeling -- "

Mrs. Peacock: "Don't feel pain. Runs in the family. Hafta check the boys, see if they hurt themselves."

Scully: "But what about you? Even after the accident -- "

Mrs. Peacock: "Right arm was torn off. Saw it sittin there, 'cross my dead husband's lap. Boys took me home, sewed me up just like the family learnt in the war of northern aggression. Whole time, felt the same as if I's makin breakfast. They're such good boys..."

Scully: "Mrs. Peacock, they murdered Sheriff Taylor and his wife. And Deputy Pastor."

Mrs. Peacock: "I can tell you don't have no children. Maybe one day you'll learn the pride... the love... when you know your boy would do *anything* for his mother."