Chinga

The X-files

Chinga
Episode: 5X10
First aired:2/8/98
Written by: Stephen King and Chris Carter
Directed by: Kim Manners

This is a really freaky story written by Stephen King.

A mother and her daughter, Polly, go to the grocery store. While the mother, Melissa, shops, Polly hold her doll and sits in the child seat on the cart. Melissa goes to the fish man and talks with him. Polly tells her mother she doesn't like the store and Melissa responds quickly by running to another area with the cart. Melissa looks into a glass cabinet and sees the image of the fish man with a knife coming out from one eye. Horrified, she tells Polly that they are going home. She makes her way to the entrance of the store but the customers start to claw at their own eyes. The fish man sees a large reflection of the doll. He grabs his knife but suddenly turns on himself.

Scully is vacationing in Maine and turns into the grocery parking lot. A man exits the store and tells her that a doctor is needed. Scully rushes inside and sees the fish man with a knife coming from his eye. She calls Mulder telling him the situation. He says that it might be because of witchcraft or sorcery but Scully says she can't find any evidence and tells Mulder not to worry.

Scully reviews camera footage, assisted by the police chief, Bonsaint, and his deputy, Riggs. She sees Melissa rushing towards the exit, apparently the only customer unaffected. Bonsaint says that people think Melissa is a witch.

Riggs calls Melissa to tell her that she will be questioned but Melissa tells them to stay away. We see the shadow of the doll behind her. Bonsaint and Scully go to Melissa's home but find no one. Scully learns that Melissa had been married to a fisherman and was widowed when the husband was killed in a boating accident. Also, there had been an incident between Polly and a person in the daycare center, that Polly was somehow able to throw the person down.

Riggs finds Melissa and Polly at an ice cream store. Melissa tells him how she saw images of violent deaths such as the fish man's, before they occur. Riggs tells Melissa to leave town, giving her a key to a cabin. In the meantime, Polly is upset because the worker isn't giving her more ice cream. In a few moments, the worker's hair is caught in the machine, trapping her. Riggs jumps the table to rescue the worker.

Scully and Bonsaint talk to the daycare person who tells them that Melissa has witches as ancestors and is passing her lineage to Polly. Later, Melissa sees another vision seeing the daycare worker's bloody image in a rear window. Melissa drives back home. Meanwhile, the daycare worker hears the song "Hokey Pokey" in the center and looks to see what's happening. She finds herself facing the shadow of the Chinga Doll. She picks up pieces of a broken record but turns on herself.

Melissa later sees an image of Rigg's corpse and Riggs soon finds his way to her house insisting she come with him to the police station. Later, we see Rigg's body in the kitchen with his nightstick covered with blood.

Scully sees the man from the supermarket on the boat where Melissa's husband was killed. The man tells her how the husband came upon the doll while checking lobster traps and that he wanted to give it to his daughter, but the man found Rich's body later with a hook through his skull.

Melissa begins nailing and shutting each door and window in her home. Polly yells to her mom that she can't sleep and Melissa promises her the noise will stop. Later, Melissa sees her own bloody reflection in the window, seeing a hammer in her skull.

Scully and Bonsaint arrive at Melissa's house and look through the window, and see Melissa attempting to burn Rigg's body. Bonsaint breaks through into the house and Melissa runs to a closet and grabs a hammer, which she turns on herself. She starts hitting herself in the head. Scully runs and grabs the doll from Polly and zaps it in the microwave. The doll melts and Melissa drops the hammer.

We see later another fisherman pulls up the burned doll inside a trap and it's eyes open.


Important Quotes:
Mulder (on the phone with Scully): "Hey, Scully, it’s me."
Scully (on phone) -- "Mulder, I thought we had an agreement. We were both going to take the weekend off."
Mulder -- "Right, right. I know. But I - I just received some information about - about a case. A classic X-files --- classic. I wanted to share it with you."
Scully -- "Mulder, I’m on vacation. The weather is clear. I’m looking forward to hitting the road and breathing in some of this fine New England air."
Mulder -- "You didn’t rent a convertible, did you?"
Scully -- "Why?"
Mulder -- "Are you aware of the statistics of decapitation?"
Scully -- "Mulder, I’m hanging up. I’m turning off my cell phone. I’m back in the office on Monday."
Mulder -- "You shouldn’t ... ahh ... talk and drive at the same time, either. Are you aware of the statistics ….? Hello?"

Mulder (another phone conversation) -- "Huh … it sounds to me like that’s witchcraft or maybe some sorcery that you’re looking for there."
Scully -- "No, I don’t think it’s witchcraft, Mulder, or sorcery. I’ve had a look around and I don’t see any evidence that warrants that kind of suspicion."
Mulder -- "Maybe you don’t know what you’re looking for."
Scully -- "Like evidence of conjury or the black arts or shamanism, divination, Wicca or any kind of pagan or neo-Pagan practice. Charms, cards, familiars, bloodstones, or hex signs or any of the ritual tableaux associated with the occult, Santeria, Voudoun, Macumba, or any high or low magic?"
Mulder -- "Scully - "
Scully -- "Yes?"
Mulder -- "Marry me."
Scully -- "I was hoping for something a little more helpful."
Mulder -- "Well, you know, short of looking for a lady wearing a pointy hat riding a broomstick, I think you pretty much got it covered there. "
Scully -- "Thanks anyway."




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