X-Files--"Schizogeny"

“Schizogeny” is The X-Files effort in a long while to do a scary kid story. I am pleased there was a twist to make it so things are not what they seem. While the series has done the theme well in the past, they seriously got off on the wrong foot here.

I chalk the problem up to the presentation of the kids as typically sullen, sand for brains teenagers, which is a habit The X-Files has also done to poor effect. Whether it is early in the episode where I am supposed to believe the kids are psycho killers, or the latter half where I am supposed to fear for their lives, I cannot get passed the Beavis and Butthead characterizations to feel the emotions I am supposed to feel.

Mulder and Scully head to Michigan to investigate a murder in which a teenage boy named Bobby apparently buried his stepfather alive within a few seconds. There is no logical explanation how the scrawny moron could have pulled it off, but it is general town knowledge he was an abused kid who hated his stepfather. Mulder does not believe the kid did it, but no exculpatory evidence is forthcoming.

While in town, Bobby’s girlfriend’s abusive father is thrown out of a window after an argument with her. It looks as though Bobby may have been a part of the incident, as he was just talking with the girl as she was walking home.

The common thread between the two kids is a therapist named Karen Matthews. Her method of treatment is to urge kids to stand up to their abusers even if they have no power to stop further abuse. Matthews was abused by her own father as a child. She obviously never dealt with the emotional scars from her past. Somehow, she has the ability to control the local trees, so she has been using the power to drag her clients’ abusive parents by smothering Bobby’s stepfather and yanking his girlfriend’s father out the window with tree roots.

She begins suffering from the psychotic habit of acting out past abuse by pretending to be her father trying to kill the two kids. The relatively minor character of a woodchopper in an apple orchard beheads her with his axe before she can smother mulder and Bobby.

“Schizogeny” is nothing special, but there is nothing terribly wrong with it. The big problem is the tough time I have feeling anything for the characters. I am not alone there, either. Mulder comments early on when Bobby is a murder suspect that he is a hard kid to love. Indeed, and also to sympathize with. The agents are clearly investigating the case out of duty with no sympathy for Bobby, even after they learn he has been duped by Matthews and is now being hunted by her. If they do not care, why should we?

Rating: ** (out of 5)