TV's 25 Scariest Episodes - #6 - The X-Files: 'Home'

October 27, 6:32 PMClassic TV ExaminerDoug Krentzlin

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The opening scene of "Home"
(Fox)

The X-Files produced some scary as hell episodes, but it’s safe to say the single most terrifying episode was Home (originally broadcast on Oct. 11, 1996). It was considered so shocking that Fox Broadcasting banned it from re-runs until April 9, 2000 when it won an on-line poll as the episode the fans wanted to see the most. (When the re-run got better ratings than George Clooney’s live TV remake of Fail Safe, Washington Post television critic Lisa DeMoraes actually whined: “They weren’t supposed to show that episode any more!”)

Directed by Kim Manners and written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, Home is one of the few X-Files episodes that doesn’t involve science fiction or the supernatural. The “monsters” in Home are The Peacock Family, a group of genetically deformed inbreds that make the hillbillies from Deliverance look like The Partridge Family in comparison. They live in a farm house on the outskirts of a small Southern town that hasn’t been renovated since The Civil War.

In a particularly disturbing pre-credits “cold opening,” we see the male members of the Peacock Family howling in despair as they bury the most recent addition to the family in a muddy field during a raging thunderstorm. A few days later, a group of young boys playing baseball in that same field literally stumble across the bloody corpse of a newborn infant.

Of course, F.B.I. agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are called in. They first meet the local Sheriff whose name is, believe it or not, Andy Taylor (Tucker Smallwood). When they learn his deputy’s first name is Barney (Sebastian Spense), Mulder can’t resist.

Mulder: “Fife?”

Barney: “Paster!”

Scully performs an autopsy on the baby’s corpse and is astounded to find that, due to inbreeding, it has just about every birth defect imaginable. They investigate and find out enough to give them reason to believe that a woman is being held prisoner in the Peacock farm house.

Mulder and Scully inform Sheriff Taylor who, later that night, is brutally beaten to death by the Peacock Boys. (The Peacocks’ favorite singer Johnny Mathis is crooning “Wonderful, Wonderful” on their car’s tape player as they commit the crime.)

Realizing their hand has been forced, Mulder and Scully head for the Peacock house. One of the most oft-repeated images in The X-Files is that of Mulder and Scully entering a dark room with their flashlights providing the only illumination. This time, they find… Sorry. Here There Be Spoilers that I shan’t reveal now. Suffice it to say that the songs of Johnny Mathis will never sound the same to you after seeing Home.

The X-Files: Home is available from Netflix (Season Four, Disc One) and Amazon.