The X-files
Die Hand Die Verletzt
Episode: 2X14
First aired: 01/27/95
Written by: Glen Morgan and James Wong
Directed by: Kim Manners
Die Hand Die Verletzt means The hand that wounds. This is a pretty freaky episode.
In a small town in New Hampshire, the parent-teacher committee of a high school meets about typical school topics. At the end of the meeting they pray in unison to the 'Lord of Darkness.'
Later, four teenagers, two guys and two girls, walk into the woods at night. The guys tell the girls that they are looking for an alter and it is obvious that they plan to scare the girls so they will be able to protect them. They reach the altar and one of the boys starts to read a passage from a torn library book. The passage sounds like the prayer spoken at the committee meeting. Suddenly, rats appear at their feet. They run but one boy is grabbed by the throat by a bony hand. His body is later found with the eyes and heart cut out.
Mulder and Scully are called into the forest where they take a look at the body. The local sheriff tells them that the place is rumored to be used for witches' ceremonies and that there are rumors of Satan worship and dark rites in the town.
Scully believes that the rumors are just rumors but Mulder feels that there is something else there. They find the piece of paper that the boy was reading from. But suddenly frogs start to fall from the sky hitting Mulder and Scully's umbrellas.
They find the book that the paper was from and locate the boy who last took it out, the same boy who survived the woods. They find the boy, Dave, in a class which is being substituted by Mrs. Paddock. He runs for it but Mulder catches him before he can get out a window.
They talk to Dave, who tells them that he is scared the he called up some sort of devil but he did not kill Jerry, the other boy. The two girls also confirm his story. We see members of the committee looking in.
Ausbury, the leader of the committee, is mad and accuses the other members of killing the boy. Calcagni, another member, says that something is there, a presence, that is responsible for the death. The members talk to Mulder and Scully. They say that the kids were involved in occult rituals and are responsible for the death. Also that there is a huge occult conspiracy involved that is influencing the kids.
As Scully and Mulder talk about the case (Scully is frustrated that the case is turning into mass hysteria), Mulder takes a drink from a water fountain. He notices that the water is draining counterclockwise which should be impossible because of the coriolis force. Mudler says that there must be some presence that caused this.
Mrs. Paddock talks to the two girls, Kate and Andrea, saying that she is there to talk to if they need to talk. When the girls leave, she pulls open a drawer revealing a dissecting tray with two human eyeballs and a heart.
While dissecting a pig embryo, Shannon, the daughter of one of the committee members, sees the pig's heart beating and sees visions of satanic rituals. She screams and runs out of the classroom. Mulder and Scully talk to Shannon, who tells them that she was made pregnant three times from the committee while they were preforming satanic rituals. Her parents deny these claims adamantly but they are hiding something in the cellar.
Shannon goes back to the lab to make up the dissecting lab. Mrs. Paddock, using some kind of ritual, makes the girl slash her own wrists. Investigating the suicide (which Paddock claims it was) Mulder detects incense in Paddock's office, which is used in black mass rituals.
Calcagni and the other members meet. He says that Shannon's death was a sign from the evil presence that they need to make a sacrifice to appease the presence. Ausbury talks to Mulder and tells him that they have been worshiping dark forces and that they have become lax about some of the necessary rites. Mulder handcuffs Ausbury in the cellar and goes to meet Scully. Ausbury is eaten by a huge snake and we see Paddock licking her lips and her eyes serpentine.
Calcagni tells the others that they have to kill the agents or they'll die like Ausbury. At the school, they surprise Mulder and Scully and prepare to sacrifice them before it is too late to appease the evil force. Paddock stops Calcagni and makes him shoot the others and then himself, saying that it is too late. Mulder and Scully find a note on the chalkboard saying 'Goodbye. It's been nice working with you.'
Important Quotes:
Mulder -- "So... lunch?"
Sculy -- "Mulder, toads just fell from the sky!"
Mulder -- "I guess their parachutes didn't open. You were saying something about this place not feeling "odd"?"
Scully -- "Look, if the number of murders attributed to occult conspiracies were true, it would mean thousands of people killing tens of thousands of people a year, without evidence, without being exposed... it would be the greatest criminal conspiracy in the history of civilisation."
Scully -- "That's impossible! It would take a large python hours to consume and weeks to digest a human being."
Mulder -- "You really do watch the Learning Channel."
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