UNCUT - The X-Files S2E14 - Die Hand Die Verletzt

Seems like most people are giving Alex a hard time but I think he's totally right to look for logic. I think the demon actually has pretty clear logic. 1. Dudebro summons demon, demon kills him. A person doing a demon summoning for the lolz is gonna piss off the demon. 2. Death of dudebro, and dissecting pig (which could remind one of a sacrifice) and overall evil vibes around (likely because demon nearby) prompts girl to recall confused version of the demon worship rituals she was put through under hypnosis as a young child. It is somewhat unclear why the memories are more sexual and messed up than truth, but she actually went through messed up things with like blood rituals and her 8 week old sister dying and it was all hypnotically suppressed. So her remembering it in this more graphic sexual way is plausible even if you don't factor in reality tv (which was never a serious suggestion, just people in denial deflecting). Heck the rituals themselves could implant twisted sexual memories via their demonic nature. So forest demon death of classmate trauma + bad timing of biology pig dissection + FBI snooping = Girl remembers trauma and shares her memories of it. 3. The girl telling her memories to the FBI risks exposing the demon worshiping cult in town, the demon kills her to cover that up. (demon still trying to protect cult from being exposed at this time) 4. The girl dying makes the father call it quits with demon worship, reaches out to Mulder. 5. Demon can't have that so she gets Mulder to leave so she can snake eat him. 6. Cult is down to 3, and Jim (the most devout one who actually cared about getting in his demon prayer before football) is already out. The cult tries to do a half assed sacrifice to protect themselves but you can tell they are phoning it in, doing it in the shower so it'll be easy to clean up blood, they got like 1 knife, no candles, not dressed up, not doing any good ritual dances or anything, they just aren't taking their demon worship sacrifice seriously at all. 7. Demon says, yeah nope, too little too late, there's no saving this demon cult, I'm outta here. She kills them and leaves a note of like "hey, pretty crazy times eh Mulder/Scully? You were just kinda bystanders of this whole clusterfuck, but it was nice vibin with y'all byyyyye!" So yeah, seems to make good sense to me why the demon killed each person she did. Alex is right, everybody jumping to "demon writing don't need to make sense" is wrong. Sorry not sorry. Fight me. :P

I know you mentioned Weapons in the reaction, but I'm fairly positive this exact episode is the basis for that film. The director has talked about how much of a X-Files nerd he was growing up and how a lot of the ideas have stayed with him. Mike Flanagan too.

Very disturbing episode touching on a lot of dark subject matter, but also very well made. I also love the hilarious subversion of expectations at the beginning thinking this town is a bit too puritanical Christian for Jesus Christ Superstar, and then they just casually start this whole Satanic ritual. As to why kill the girl, aside from just being evil or punishing the father, it could also be that her testimony would have seen this whole thing dragged into court and the demon didn't want that kind of a spotlight being shined on the rituals going on there. As to whether her memories were real, first instinct is to believe her, but as you mentioned, there's a lot of things that don't add up. If her sister died at 8 weeks instead of 8 years, surely there would be records to back up one story. And while it's plausible she could have gotten pregnant and had abortions 3 times, it sounded like she was saying she actually HAD 3 children who were sacrificed. There's no way in hell(pardon the pun) a 12(?) year old girl is going through a full pregnancy at school, let alone 3, and nobody notices. Also don't know if it was intentional, but a detail I noticed is that as the snake is killing the guy, he appears to be wearing a snake skin belt.

This episode pulls from the False Memory Syndrome phenomenon during the Satanic Panic. Psychiatrists thought they were surfacing buried memories in young girls, who told stories of being abused and involved in Satanic rituals, when in reality, the psychiatrists were unknowingly implanting false memories into their patients.

Since this episode is about the occult, not sure is anyone noticed that the fictional High School was named "Crowley High School" which is a reference to occultist Aleister Crowly. Great episode, very well done.

What a great episode, the guys were glued to the screen for this one. When Mulder got hit with the chair I cheered too.

I think even if the don’t watch the series they should watch the pilot first episode of Millennium around season 5

Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock oppera written by Andrew Loyd Webber and Tim Rice. It debuted in 1970 I remember a lot of religious groups hated it. Mainly because it depicted the last 2 weeks of Christ's trial and crucifixion. It totally ignored his resurrection.

also regarding the lego set, it DOES include a number of obscure easter eggs including some future spoilers I won't detail, and my sister has already preordered it :)

personally not top of my list even "thus far", but definitely one of the memorable ones, and very "eclectic / out there" by even this show's standards, and I still consistenly ALWAYS find myself fascinated by your insights into it, SO glad you're enjoying the series, and SO glad to get some new perspective! (and you're just bringing the first-time JOY back to it all)

Not to lean into watching tv caused false memories angle too much, but that sort of “false memory” was very common during the satanic panic of the 80’s which is what I think the show was trying to portray. Take a look at the McMartin preschool trial or books like Michelle Remembers or Jay’s Journal. It was rampant and people just ran with it. Honestly one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read was the true story of the woman who wrote Jay’s Journal - basically a Mormon Housewife and Grifter who just poured gas on this whole phenomenon. (She also wrote Go Ask Alice which is its own kettle of fish)

Lol, I f*$kn hate Grease! Sorry to all who love it

This is one of my favorite X files episode. It’s scary, the flow of the episode is great, and the substitute teacher made me scared of all substitute teachers in high school! lol I honestly love the ending also just a perfect ending. The font also is very creepy

This episode is what got me into human sacrifice. Excellent horror story.

Gillian Anderson looked genuinely terrified when the frogs were landing on them lol!

"Die Hand Die Verletzt" is german and translates into "the hand that injures". I have no idea why it's in german, but it confused me a bit today. I've seen the email that this episode is available on patreon now and it called the episode "Die Hand Die Verletzt" and I was instantly pissed that now patreon too is auto-translating english to german for me... which is an annoying problem for me for months now with all the titles and some content on YT. But no. The original title is in german. But fun fact, I looked it up, it's not the german speaking version of the title. They choose a different one, "Satan" which is the same word in german and at least english at well...

This episode was very Millennium

Oh, Alex Alex Alex; bad things up to and including death happen to purely innocent people ALL the time in horror. You of all people should know that. :P

Never a favorite of mine, but obviously very well done.

Remember when the dad confesses in the cellar, he admits they performed hypnotic memory repression on the child. I always took the child’s trauma comes from the memory hypnosis is wearing off, combined with the meta cult narrative of the town, and maybe some prompting from the demon, leads to her “false” memories.

I can still remember the smell of dissecting a starfish-- barf. Horrifying enough on it's own even without a demon.

Hmm I totally missed the fact the heart and eyes in Mrs Paddock desk came from the kid murdered in the begining.

I agree, introducing a demon is usually Hollywood shorthand for “now we don’t have to follow the story logic you were expecting.” That’s why those tropes don’t wear out over time, because they keep changing. Mulder said it: “Did you really think you could summon the Devil and expect him to behave?” Fun fact: The line was originally “Did you really think you could send your most annoying kids to a planet of boring sterile people and expect the episode to be good?” They tightened the wording a lot.

It also took me years after the episode to realize Shannon's mom was in "Genderbender".

Donahue was one of the early tv talk show people

Demons are evil

Wow, I don't remember this episode at all, and it was riveting and grotesque in the best of ways. Also, that actress who played the young girl, she was incredible in her monologue. I had to pause the reaction for a bit after that, Jesus Christ. I think Alex, you're not connecting with how malevolent a demon is supposed to be. Adding a few days of mythic horror to this young girl's days before forcing her to kill herself? That's orgasmic to it. What's less believable is the demon didn't torture and slaughter the entire damn town. Evil for the love of the game.

Thoroughly enjoyed both the reaction and the episode once again, and thanks for reading my long-ass take! For anyone who wants to know, the episode's title is in German, is (roughly) pronounced "dee hont dee furletst" and translates to "The Hand That Wounds."

If you need a reason why the girl was killed - could be as a punishment to her father for abandoning his faith.

The evil character doing the worst stuff to the most innocent person tracks to me. Especially when it's supposed to be Satan or a demon. They're not here to moralize for you or someone else.

Going to show just how small the world can be, I own a dagger just like the one the teacher tried to sacrifice Mulder and Scully with. Bought it back when I was a teenager with no connection to the show. It's a nice display piece.

Great reactions to this episode and great to see you enjoyed it a lot.

Frogs never bothered me, but senior year of high school in AP Biology we had to dissect full-grown cats. That was a deal breaker for me. I asked to be transferred into an online Ecology class to fulfill my science requirements to graduate.

One of my favorites! As for why the demon made the girl slit her wrists, she was the daughter of one of the cult members, the one that got eaten by the snake. It was more of a way of punishing him, not necessarily punishing the girl. Demons like to make you suffer a bit before killing you. It's what they do. Also, the girl recounting those false memories resulted in the dad being handcuffed, allowing the snake to eat him. The demon used Mulder, hence "It's been nice working with you."

Trying to rationalize demonic behavior? Well, about that.............

Since you like episodes like "S2E13 - Irresistible" and this one, I would imagine that sometime, well down the road and when you are needing new content, you will want to take a look at "Supernatural" (2005–2020).

Your reactions were a lot stronger than I expected. Cool.

Pure horror, glad you liked it.

As far as Kim Manners, even a good director and great actors cannot save a bad script. TNG season 1 had a fair amount of that.

https://youtu.be/jzHBkXohEBM?is=e0STb8lRZpBBph0J