Home

Sorry for the delay, Dark Dilettantes. I’ve been on vacation and immersed myself in watching The Wire, one of the greatest TV shows of all time.  An analysis of said show may come sometime in the future. But anyway, back to the current topic.

Anyone who ever watched The X-Files knows about this controversial episode (S4E2). It was the first X-Files ep to receive a TV-MA rating due to the content and only aired once on the network. It was a definite first for the series. Mulder & Scully are dispatched to a small town after the deformed body of a dead baby is found.  The baby is found on the property of the Peacock family. The sheriff, Andy Taylor, tells them all about the family and how/why they’re isolated from the rest of the town.

While investigating the death of the child, Scully determines that the massive amount of defects could come from inbreeding, but Mulder comes to the conclusion that the Peacocks have kidnapped and raped a woman, as there have been no visual of any females on the Peacock property. They go to investigate the house while the Peacocks are away. While there, they find evidence that the dead baby was born inside the house. The Peacocks retaliate by breaking into the sheriff’s house and violently murdering him and his wife.

When the lab tests confirm that the baby was indeed the product of inbreeding, the deputy sheriff and the agents go to the Peacock house to rescue the woman they believe to be there. The house is booby-trapped and the deputy meets his untimely end shortly after entering. Mulder and Scully free some pigs from their pigpen, which gets the Peacock brothers out of the house so that they can sneak in. Once inside, the agents discover a quadruple amputee woman attached to a sled under the bed. The woman is the mother of the Peacock boys and is the mother of the dead baby that was found. The agents realize that she has been breeding with her sons for years.

The Peacock boys realize the agents are in their house and go on the warpath. Two of them die; one brother on one of the very deadly booby traps they set. Scully and Mulder realize that Mrs. Peacock and the remaining son have escaped.

I don’t need to elaborate why this episode is one of my faves. The violence, both shown and implied, was on a completely different level than previous episodes. “Home” definitely isn’t for everyone. And the last scene always stuck with me. We see an old fashioned Caddy playing an old song, and we hear Mrs. Peacock talking about the importance of starting a new family. Then the damn trunk opens up and the son gets out and shuts the trunk. Then he hops into the Caddy and drives off.  It took me about ten seconds to make the connection; they’d been fucking in the trunk of the car. Utterly gross but fascinating. So of course, I couldn’t wait to watch “Home” again.  Fantastic episode.