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Destined to become the most collectible video among fans of
The X-Files, this two-episode cassette is from the show's excellent fourth season--the first episode presenting a pivotal chapter of the series' conspiratorial "mythology" and the second offering a stand-alone plot so twisted and bizarre that it was banned from Fox TV after its original broadcast.
Scripted by series creator Chris Carter (who is interviewed on this video), "Herrenvolk" is packed with crucial events that link it to previous and subsequent episodes concerning the conspiracy of alien colonization that runs throughout the series. (Because of this, the following synopsis will only make sense to the show's loyal fans.) While Mulder attempts to protect the mysterious Jeremiah Smith (Roy Thinnes) from an alien bounty hunter, he witnesses a secret farm community where clones--including a replica of Mulder's missing sister--carry out some unknown task. Meanwhile, Scully learns the astonishing truth about Smith, and Agent X is gunned down as a traitor, staying alive just long enough to leave Mulder a vital clue to the ongoing investigation. Dealing another trump card in the unfolding conspiracy, Cigarette Smoking Man orders the miraculous healing of Mulder's dying mother, on the logic that "the fiercest enemy is the man who has nothing left to lose."
While "Herrenvolk" is a first-rate chapter with intricate connections to The X-Files mythology, "Home" is a stand-alone episode that surely qualifies as one of the most outrageously bizarre hours of drama in the history of prime-time television. It begins when Mulder and Scully investigate a horrible case of infanticide in the seemingly peaceful town of Home, Pennsylvania. The tiny, malformed corpse leads the agents to investigate the mysterious Peacock family, a trio of hideously deformed brothers who maintain a legacy of inbreeding with their equally disfigured mother, a quadruple amputee who is kept hidden on a rolling platform in the Peacock home. Brilliantly scripted by Glen Morgan and James Wong, "Home" posed a horrifically clever challenge to network censors, and managed to get away with murder in terms of what is implied and actually revealed. The Peacocks are both repugnant and oddly compelling (the writers may have been inspired by the documentary Brother's Keeper), and their loving mother (arguably the most freakish human ever depicted on mainstream TV) will go to any length to continue her family's mutated bloodline. What's most amazing is that "Home" covers this terrible territory with outrageous humor and the appropriate touch of tragedy--not only can Scully ponder the horrors of the Peacock legacy, she can crack wise by quoting the movie Babe while maneuvering through the Peacock's pigpen! And if you think the surviving Peacock brother is just keeping mommy comfortable in the trunk of his Cadillac, well... you haven't been paying attention. --Jeff Shannon
