Home (11 Oct. 1996)

After the exciting, season-opening Herrenvolk, the MOTW episodes open with a bang with Home. Home is a dark, gritty, violent, disturbing episode that was banned from network TV reruns for a while because of its content. It's a very good episode that shows some excellent directing by Kim Manners. The set design of the Peacock's house couldn't have been better. You felt that someone was going to jump out and grab Mulder and Scully whenever they entered that creepy house. Although there is no paranormal aspect to this episode, the story and characters still grip your attention. The dark story is even interlaced with some light moments between Mulder and Scully to help alleviate the mood a little. Besides the excessive violence which turned me off a little, the only other complaint of this episode is right after Deputy Pastor gets killed by the Peacocks. Scully observes it through binoculars and then, Mulder starts soliloquizing about how the Peacocks have reverted back to animal instincts. His lines are quite out of place for that scene. Spoken later, it would have been all right. If you want a good scare, watch Home alone, at night, around Halloween time. It will deliver.