The X-Files - 4.

French title: La prière des morts
translation: The Pray of the Dead

US Airdate: February 16, 1997

writer: Howard Gordon

director: Kim Manners

STARRING:

David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:

JUSTINE MICELI as Ariel Luria

DAVID GROH as Jacob Weiss

HARRISON COE as Issac Luria

CHANNON ROE as Derek Banks

JABIN LITWINIEC as Clinton Bascombe

TIMUR KARABILGIN as Tony

JONATHAN WHITTAKER as Curt Brunjes

DAVID WOHL as Kenneth Ungar

GEORGE GORDON as the Detective

MURREY RABINOVITCH as 1st Hasidic man

MULDER SUSPECTS THAT A GOLEM, A MAN-MADE MONSTER DESCRIBED IN JEWISH FOLKLORE, MAY BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATHS OF SEVERAL HATE-MONGERS WHO MURDERED A JEWISH MAN.

Mourners gather at a cemetery in Brooklyn to pay their last respects to Isaac Luria, a Hasidic man brutally murdered by three teenage hate-mongers. Among the group is Ariel Luria, and her father, Jacob Weiss. When night falls, a shadowy figure enters the cemetery and shapes a man-sized sculpture out of mud. Mulder and Scully investigate Isaac Luria's death. Isaac, who lived in a neighborhood with a history of racial tension, was severely beaten inside his market. Police ruled out robbery as a motive as nothing was stolen. They later retrieved a store surveillance tape from the VCR of a sixteen year-old named Tony Oliver, one of the teenagers who participated in the killing. Oliver was strangled by an unknown assailant. Most intriguing to Mulder is the discovery of Isaac Luria's finger prints on Oliver's body.

Weiss shows them an anti-Semitic pamphlet left at his door that very morning. Mulder tells his partner that whoever printed the pamphlets probably knows who killed Isaac. The agents interview Curt Brunjes, who owns a copy shop across the street from Isaac's market. When the agents show Brunjes photos of Banks and Macguire, (the teenagers suspected of beating Isaac), he claims their faces are unfamiliar. Unbeknownst to the agents, Banks listens in on the conversation via a security surveillance camera. Scully tells Brunjes there are rumors that Isaac has risen from the grave to avenge his murder.

Spooked, Banks and Macguire dig up Isaac's coffin. As Macguire walks to the car to retrieve some tools, Banks pries open the coffin lid and discovers Isaac's body inside. Later, Banks finds Macguire's body protruding from a mound of mud.

The agents are called to the crime scene. Mulder locates a slender leather book tucked beneath Isaac's burial shroud. But when he touches the old book, it suddenly bursts into flames. The agents turn to Kenneth Ungar, a scholar from the judaica Arcl-iives. Ungar explains that what Mulder found was a book on Jewish mysticism. He insists it would never have been buried with the dead. Ungar notes a name engraved into the leather: Jacob Weiss.

Ariel tells the agents that although she and her husband received their wedding license weeks before the murder, the marriage ceremony never transpired.

The agents locate Weiss in the attic of a synagogue. They also discover Banks' dead body hanging from a wooden beam. Weiss is arrested and charged with murder. He admits to both of the murders, but Mulder believes someone--or something--was in the attic with him.

Unger tells Mulder about the Golem, a creature from mystical text. He explains how early Kabbalists believed a righteous man could create a living being from the earth itself. A single Hebrew word, "emet," is inscribed on the back of the Golem's hand. To destroy the Golem, Unger explains, the first letter, "e," must be erased.

Brunjes is found murdered. When the agents examine the surveillance camera tape. they discover that the Golem whose physical features match those of Isaac Luria is responsible for the murder. Weiss returns to the synagogue after he is released from jail. There he discovers Ariel preparing for her wedding ceremony. When Weiss attempts to stop his daughter, the Golem attacks him. The agents rescue Weiss and, as Scully attends to his injuries, Mulder searches for Ariel. The Golem attacks Mulder, knocking him aside as he attempts to fend off the being. But Ariel intercedes. When the wedding continues, the Golem places a ring on Ariel's finger. Ariel expresses her love for Isaac, then wipes the letter "e" off the Golems' hand. The creature crumbles into dust.

This ep was dedicated to Lillian Katz, Howard Gordon's grandmother.

If you're wondering where you've seen the actress that played Ariel, Justine Miceli, you may be a "NYPD Blue" fan like me, she played Det. Adrienne Lesniak last season, who dated James Martinez (Nicolas Turturro). And, if you're old enough, you may remember David Groh (Jacob) as Rhoda's husband, Joe, on "Rhoda".

Unfortunately, this was a rather dull ep for me, it had its moments, but overall left me cold. I did appreciate the love story aspect, and the ending was powerful, but I just didn't give a darn about the characters.

The newsgroup discussions quickly deteriorated to whether or not Mulder is Jewish. The main fact against; if he WAS Jewish, he wouldn't have entered the synagogue with Scully, asking questions during the prayer service.

Also, many people complained about the awful Yiddish, which I'll just have to take their word for. Apparently, the word for "Father", is "Tanta", not "Tanti" as it's pronounced here.

A clever tie-in with the show, I thought, that if you take something away from the word for "truth", you have "dead". Without truth, would not Mulder and life as he knows it be dead?

Scully: "You think it's some kind of a ghost?"

Mulder: "No...a ghost is spirit without form...what we're seeing here is form without spirit. Something called a golem."

Scully: "A golem?"

Mulder: "Yeah, it's a...a kind of man-made monster described in Jewish folklore...it's fashioned from mud and then animated through mystical incantation."

Scully: "Mud?"

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Mulder: "Spectral figures are not often known to leave fingerprints. Casper never did."

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Scully: "Haven't you heard the news? That Luria is back from the dead. That he's risen from his grave."

Brunjes: "What kind of Jew trick is this?"

Mulder: "A Jew pulled it off two thousand years ago."

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