"Theef" is the fourteenth episode of the seventh season of the science fictiontelevision seriesThe X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on March 12, 2000. It was written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, and Frank Spotnitz and directed by Kim Manners. The episode is a Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Theef" earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.4, being watched by 11.91 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode received mixed to positive reviews from critics.
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully has been assigned to debunk his work. In this episode, Mulder and Scully investigate the murder of a prominent doctor's father-in-law, who was found with the word "theef" written on the wall in blood. After a string of follow-up accidents, Mulder suspects hexcraft may be the source of threats against the doctor's family.
"Theef" was written in a short period during the show's Christmas break after another script was dropped by the series. The main concept of the episode was "modern medicine versus backyards supernatural arts". The episode featured several noted actors, including Billy Drago, who played the role of antagonist Orell Peattie, and James Morrison, who was a former cast member of the science fiction series Space: Above and Beyond, which was created by former X-Files writers Glen Morgan and James Wong. Series creator Chris Carter later called the episode "very well cast".
Plot
Dr. Irving Thalbro is staying the night with his daughter and her family in Marin County, California, including her husband Dr. Robert Wieder (James Morrison). In the middle of the night, Irving finds a pile of dirt shaped like a man in his bed. Irving is eventually discovered by Robert hanging from the ceiling with the word "theef" painted in Irving's blood on the wall.
While investigating the next morning, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) notices the graveyard dirt in Irving's bed and believes it may be caused by a hoodoohex. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), however, believes that the doctor committed suicide by slitting his own throat, writing on the wall, and hanging himself. After the autopsy, it is determined that Irving suffered from a prion disease called kuru, which has not been found in the United States before. Mulder believes that kuru was given to him by a hex that caused him to go mad. The Wieders then find a family photo missing from their bedroom, and a "hoodoo man", later revealed to be named Orell Peattie (Billy Drago), is seen placing the faces cut from the picture into various poppet dolls. Ms. Wieder collapses after another pile of graveyard dirt is found in her bed. Her skin then sprouts lesions as the "hoodoo man" stands by the pool talking to the poppet.
Peattie visits Dr. Wieder at work but refuses to tell him why he is committing these hexes against his family. Wieder does some research of his own and finds a bracelet in a Jane Doe file that he believes may be connected. Mulder consults an expert in the occult, who notes that, in order to commit hexes, the man must draw energy from a charm and place blood, hair, and a picture of the victim inside a poppet in order to follow through with the hexes. Meanwhile, Mrs. Wieder is burned to death during an MRI, and the "hoodoo man" is found taking her poppet out of a microwave. The word "theef" is also found branded in Mrs. Wieder's chest. Wieder tells the agents about the man who came to see him and the Jane Doe case. After investigating, it is revealed that Jane Doe was Lynnette Peattie, who had previously died in a bus crash. The doctor gave her an overdose of morphine, euthanizing her due to her pain. Mulder assumes the man is her father and that he feels the doctor stole his family away from him. Mulder decides to exhume Lynette's body and take away her father's power, but when they exhume the casket there is no body inside.
Meanwhile, Peattie's landlady sneaks into his apartment for pain medication and finds Lynette's body in his bed. Immediately, she contracts a flesh-eating disease. After hearing about the incident on the news, Mulder goes to Peattie's apartment and finds the body, now headless. Peattie finds the Wieder family, whom Scully is protecting, and makes a poppet with Scully's hair and photo inside. He places nails in the doll's eyes and Scully promptly goes blind. Peattie breaks into the house, takes Scully's gun, and stabs a poppet of Wieder, causing the doctor to collapse in pain. Wieder gets Peattie to admit that he's taking out his own guilt about not being able to save Lynette by blaming him instead. Mulder shows up, finds Scully's doll, and removes the nails from it, allowing her to regain her vision and shoot Peattie. He is placed in a coma and Lynnette's body is shipped back to her home in West Virginia.[1]
Production
The episode was inspired by Voodoo and "backyards supernatural arts".
Writing
The script for "Theef" was written by Frank Spotnitz, John Shiban, and Vince Gilligan during the production crew's Christmas break after a previous script was scrapped at the last minute. After mulling over options, the three decided to craft a story about "modern medicine versus backyards supernatural arts".[2] Gilligan later joked that "I think I was enlisted for the fact that I'm Southern, and they thought I was the closest thing they had to a hillbilly on the staff".[3]
Producer David Amann explained that the inspiration for the story was the question, "What if you have a doctor who is prosperous but has a dark page from his past that comes back to haunt him?"[2] Spotnitz later elaborated that the story initially was "going to be how do you get rid of something you can't get rid of".[2] However, the writers soon found this storyline difficult to develop, and, by Spotnitz's own admission, the story "started to evolve into a Cape Fear type of situation".[2] The episode's script was finalized by the writers in December 1999 and Kim Manners was selected as the episode's director.[2]
Casting, directing, and makeup
According to series creator Chris Carter, the episode "was very well cast".[2] Actor Billy Drago was cast as Orell Peattie, a decision that Carter later called "especially lucky".[2] His son, Darren E. Burrows, had previously been cast as Bernard in a sixth-season episode, "Monday."[4] The actor who played Dr. Wieder, James Morrison, was a former cast member of the science fiction series Space: Above and Beyond, and had previously been cast as detective Jim Horn in an episode of Millennium called "Dead Letters".[3][5] Morrison would later get acclaim as Bill Buchanan on the future Fox series 24. Actress Leah Sanders was a childhood friend of John Shiban who had not been in contact for 20 years. When she was coincidentally cast as a background character, Shiban was reportedly delighted.[2]
Kim Manners found "Theef" was difficult to shoot because the cast and crew had inadequate time to prepare. He explained, "It was kind of a rush thing and we got the script very late. We were totally winging it while we were shooting it".[2] In Manners's opinion, the entire episode only "came together" during post-production editing: "When I looked at the footage, it was like I was looking at somebody else's film. But it cut together real nice and the end result was that 'Theef' turned out to be a decent little episode".[2] Manners later admitted that the episode was his only credit for the series during which he experienced illness. With Manners out for a day due to his sickness, Rob Bowman took over directing duties for a day.[2]
Cheri Montesanto-Medcalf, one of the show's makeup creators, was extremely pleased with Drago's makeup in the episode. She later noted, "I remember Billy Drago was awesome–he looked so creepy after makeup. I just wanted this guy to look super-creepy and disturbing to look at, but real enough that you might be scared if you looked out your window at night and saw him standing there".[6]
Broadcast and reception
"Theef" first aired in the United States on March 12, 2000.[7] This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 7.4, with an 11 share, meaning that roughly 7.4 percent of all television-equipped households, and 11 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode.[8] It was viewed by 11.91 million viewers.[8] The episode aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky1 on June 18, 2000 and received 0.71 million viewers, making it the third most watched episode that week.[9] Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "Voodoo curse? Tonight, the dark powers of black magic have chosen their next victim... Agent Scully."[10] The episode was nominated and won a 2000Emmy Award by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for Outstanding Makeup for a Series.[11][12]
Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club awarded the episode a "B+", and called it "the strongest straight-up, non-experimental standalone the season’s had so far," as well as one of "the strongest 'scary' episode since season five."[13] She praised the guest cast—mostly notably Drago and Morrison—and wrote that the writers of the episode were able to successfully make the character deaths in the episode count in a way that moved the audience. VanDerWerff's main criticism of the episode was that it painted Peattie "as a backwoods hick and a rather broad stereotype of one."[13] Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, gave the episode a moderately positive review. Despite slightly criticizing the episode utilizing a voodoo-based plot, which he called "[not] terribly original", he concluded that "there's nothing wrong with a little modern medicine vs. practical magic confrontation. And I definitely enjoyed how Scully had her envelope pushed once again".[14] Rich Rosell from Digitally Obsessed awarded the episode 4 out of 5 stars, noting, "writer Vince Gilligan gets fairly serious in this ep concerning a series of deadly hexes cast upon a doctor and his family, as well as some cryptic scrawlings. There's plenty of bad mojo going around as the X-Files team gets to dig deep into the dark side of the magick arts, with Scully at one point losing her sight, thanks to a vengeful hex doll. Spooky".[15]TV Guide later named the episode's main antagonist, Orell Peattie, as one of "The Scariest X-Files Monsters".[16] Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a moderately mixed review and awarded it two-and-a-half stars out of four.[17] She concluded that "although 'Theef' is burdened with some illogical plot developments and some underdeveloped characterization, overall it is a decent installment of The X-Files".[17]
Several other reviews were more mixed. Kenneth Silber from Space.com was critical of the episode, noting that the main antagonist is "a veritable caricature of backwoods stupidity and thus hard to take seriously".[18] He did, however, compliment the sympathetic qualities of Dr. Wieder and his family.[18]Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode two-and-a-half stars out of five, noting that the episode was "just too unambitious an X-File to be anything more than a collection of moments, only some of which work".[19]
↑ "BARB's multichannel top 10 programmes". barb.co.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2012. Note: Information is in the section titled "w/e June 12–18, 2000", listed under Sky 1
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN978-0-9759446-9-1.
Fox William Mulder is a fictional FBI Special Agent and the secondary protagonist of the Fox science fiction-supernatural television series The X-Files, played by David Duchovny. Mulder's peers dismiss his many theories on extraterrestrial or paranormal activity as those of a conspiracy theorist and supernaturalist; however, his skeptical but supportive partner, Special Agent Dana Scully, often finds them to be unexpectedly correct. He and Scully work in the X-Files office, concerned with unsolved FBI cases that are often revealed to be supernatural or extraterrestrial in nature. Mulder was a main character for the first seven seasons, but was limited to a recurring character for the following two seasons. He returns as a main character for the tenth and eleventh seasons.
Dr. Dana Katherine Scully, MD, is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Fox science-fiction, supernatural television series The X-Files, played by Gillian Anderson. Scully is a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent and a medical doctor (MD), partnered with fellow Special Agent Fox Mulder for seasons one to seven and seasons 10 and 11, and with John Doggett in the eighth and ninth seasons. In the television series, they work out of a cramped basement office at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC to investigate unsolved cases labeled "X-Files." In 2002, Scully left government employment, and in 2008, she began working as a surgeon in Our Lady of Sorrows, a private Catholic hospital – where she stayed for seven years, until rejoining the FBI. In contrast to Mulder's credulous "believer" character, Scully is the skeptic for the first seven seasons, choosing to base her beliefs on what science can prove. She later on becomes a "believer" after Mulder's abduction at the end of season seven.
The third season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing on Fox in the United States on September 22, 1995, concluded on the same channel on May 17, 1996, and contained 24 episodes. The season continues to follow the cases of FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, portrayed by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson respectively, who investigate paranormal or supernatural cases, known as X-Files by the FBI.
The fourth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing on the Fox network in the United States on October 4, 1996, concluding on the same channel on May 18, 1997, and contained 24 episodes. Following the filming and airing of the season, production began on The X-Files feature film, which was released in 1998 following the show's fifth season.
The sixth season of the science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing on the Fox network in the United States on November 8, 1998, concluding on the same channel on May 16, 1999, and consisted of twenty-two episodes. The season continued from the 1998 feature film and focused heavily on FBI federal agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully's separation from the X-Files Division and the demise of the Syndicate—a "shadow government" group attempting to cover up the existence of extraterrestrials—in the two-part episode "Two Fathers" and "One Son".
The seventh season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing on the Fox network in the United States on November 7, 1999, concluded on May 21, 2000, and consists of twenty-two episodes. Taking place after the destruction of the Syndicate, this season marks the end of various other story lines; during this season, Fox Mulder learned the true fate of his sister, Samantha.
The eighth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing in the United States on November 5, 2000, concluded on May 20, 2001, and consisted of twenty-one episodes. Season eight takes place after Fox Mulder's alien abduction in the seventh season. The story arc for the search of Mulder continues until the second half of the season, while a new arc about Dana Scully's pregnancy is formed. This arc would continue, and end, with the next season. The season explores various themes such as life, death, and belief.
The ninth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing in the United States on November 11, 2001, concluded on May 19, 2002, and consists of twenty episodes. The season takes place after Fox Mulder goes into hiding, following the events of the eighth season finale, "Existence". As such, the main story arc for the season follows Dana Scully, John Doggett, and Monica Reyes on their hunt to reveal a government conspiracy involving the elaborate and malevolent creation of "Super Soldiers".
Monica Julieta Reyes is a fictional character in the Fox science fiction-supernatural television series The X-Files. She is portrayed by Annabeth Gish. At first a Field Agent before becoming a Special Agent with the FBI, she works with her longtime friend and partner John Doggett in the X-Files office, which is concerned with the investigation of paranormal cases, dubbed "X-Files". Introduced in the series' eighth season, Reyes would become a main character throughout the entirety of its ninth season, before returning for a single-episode guest appearance in the tenth-season finale, and later in a recurring capacity during season eleven.
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"Field Trip" is the twenty-first episode of the sixth season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on May 9, 1999, in the United States and Canada, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom on Sky1 on July 18. The episode was written by John Shiban and Vince Gilligan, from a story by Frank Spotnitz, and was directed by Kim Manners. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Field Trip" earned a Nielsen household rating of 9.5, being watched by 15.40 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode received largely positive reviews from television critics.
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