The X-Files: Familiar – there is no getting out of this town
Mob Mentality
The X-Files – Familiar – Mob Mentality – Mulder and Scully – Courtesy of Fox
Eggers has found out that Melvin Peter has returned home. He is waiting for him. Wentworth who is with Eggers is trying to get him to calm down. However, Rick is too incensed. He loses all sense of reason and control and starts wailing on Peter.
A crowd has gathered cheering on Eggers as he destroys the defenseless man. Strong, Mulder and Scully arrive on the scene and Strong pulls Eggers off of Peter. Then the mob starts kicking the crap out of Peter who is being protected by Wentworth.
Mulder fires his gun to get them to disperse. They do but Rick is looking like he is going to attack Melvin again as Mulder and Chief Strong try to talk him out of it, he grabs his gun and shoots Peter dead.
After that action, Eggers is arraigned. As Mulder predicts, he is set free on bail because of his exemplary service and his reputation in the community. Disgusted Mulder and Scully leave the courthouse, they are stopped by Officer Wentworth.
He hands them a file and shows them that Melvin Peter (Ken Godmere) was innocent because he was at a birthday party when Andrew’s murder occurred.
Hell Breaks Loose
Rick returns home and confronts his wife Diana. He knows that she was having an affair with Strong. She doesn’t apologize and Eggers informs her that he will be leaving but she tells him she is already doing it and walks out.
Emotional and driving erratically, Diana is speeding to get out of town. She turns a corner and in the middle of the road is Andrew. Swerving to avoid him, she careens upside down into a ditch. The hell hound is present.
While this is going on, Eggers who is pissed as hell, is armed and goes to his boss Strong’s house to kill him. Something is lurking in the shadows. He shoots at it and keeps missing. Finally, we see it is Mr. Chuckleteeth who kills him.
I Put a Spell on You
At this crime scene, Mulder notices a book of spells is missing from the Strong’s collection of witchcraft tomes. Still on the job, Strong is looking for Diane and is ringing her in his car. He turns the corner and sees her accident. Bereft, Strong rushes toward the overturned vehicle to find that Diana isn’t there.
When he sees she isn’t inside, he looks up and notices her in the woods. He immediately runs after her only to be led to his wife Anna who is inside a circle of candles getting ready to practice a ritual. Strong obviously startled asks his wife what she is doing.
Anna confesses that all she wanted to do was hurt Diana and this spun out of control. She was going to fix it by casting another spell. While Strong is trying to persuade her not too, he gets attacked and killed while Anna is screaming.
Mulder and Scully are there to witness her spontaneously combust just like Goodie Bishop. This leads Scully to admit that maybe something supernatural was taking place.
The Verdict
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After last week’s disappointing effort, Familiar turned out to be one of the best X-Files episodes this season! The script was exceptionally well written and it felt like a throwback to Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
It was a fresh take on a tired subject which is witchcraft. If I have one criticism it would be that I felt as if I was getting hit over the head at times with the fact that we try people in the court of public opinion and judge them when we don’t have all the evidence at hand.
Another refreshing thing was seeing Mulder and Scully actually have a case to solve. It is good to see them as FBI agents and not former lovers or current lovers or whatever the fluctuating status of their relationship is. Duchovny and Anderson hit all the right notes.
I felt like we were seeing Mulder and Scully from their salad days. The acting was really top notch with Alex Carter who I remember from Burn Notice and Jason Gray-Stanford formerly of Monk. You had the sense that Eastwood was an actual town and not some construct.
There are only two more episodes left. I cannot wait to see what Chris Carter and his writers have planned. Catch the X-Files every Wednesday on Fox at 8 p.m.
Next: The X-Files: Ghouli or in dreams I walk beside you