Spoilers

“Home”

One of the greatest X-Files episodes of all time, plus one of the most disturbing hours of television you are ever going to see is up next in the X-Files rewatch. This episode was not repeated after its initial broadcast because of the content. This is “Home.”

Mayberry it is not, even with a sheriff named Andy Taylor and a deputy named Barney.

The Peacock family has to be one of the most horrific TV show characters/antagonists in television history. Yet they held some tightly believed ideals about family that, while perverted and creepy, actually present the concept of family in the highest regards. Mrs. Peacock loved her boys and was proud as their mother, despite the horrors they engaged in.

The use of the song “Wonderful, Wonderful” during the murder scene of Sheriff Taylor and his wife by the Peacock boys is forever etched into my brain and I cannot hear that song even today without picturing the episode. Johnny Mathias, the song’s singer, did not want his version of the song on the episode because of the violence involved, so a cover version was recorded.

There was such an isolation to this setting that one could understand Mulder and Scully’s decision to not wait for backup when they believed that there was a kidnap victim inside the Peacock house.

That house, by the way, is just as unsettling as everything else on the show. The mood of the episode was just tremendously disturbing and the entire episode had plenty of moments that led to a moment of disgust. For example, when Mrs. Peacock said that she was hungry and one of her boys put some bread into his mouth and fed it to her like a bird… seriously, my own stomach turned a bit.

The episode stirred up controversy, but it remains one of the best X-Files monster-of-the-week episodes of the series’ run.