The X-Files Season 2, Episode 21: The Calusari

Sometimes this show is very predictable. Other times it's not. Sometimes they lead you well down a certain path only to completely destroy your expectations.

'The Calusari' fits kind of into that last category. (While the episode is titled without any diacritical marks, I believe the correct way to write the Romanian word is Căluşari, which I had to cut and paste from Wikipedia, as I'm not entirely sure how to make the letters on my keyboard.)

As with the theory we developed in 'Conduit' and 'Eve' and 'Born Again', we see further confirmation that children on this show are evil.

Obviously that's not really the case in 'The Calusari', because Charlie isn't evil, but from the beginning scene where he demands his balloon five minutes before his younger brother is killed by a train while chasing the balloon, we're certainly made to think he's the one causing all the death and mayhem.

Even with the grandmother on the scene, and the tired trope of "Your old world ways are not our ways!" I never really suspected her. I mean, yeah, she's doing rituals with big knives and dead chickens, but as we find out later, her rituals and her association with the Calusari were purely for protective purposes and ultimately were able to save Charlie (and Scully), though at a tremendous cost in the mean time.

I think the biggest problem I have with this trope is that it makes the rather horrible assumption that people who speak other languages and come from other countries (especially separated by an ocean and more) are simply unable to communicate with the people in their new homes. The grandmother apparently spent the last two years living at the Holvey's house, and could only shout at them and denigrate their child as demon spawn? Really? I get that she couldn't explain what she knew, which was that Michael (or Michael's spirit) was causing all the trouble, but I think she may have been able to get away with, "The rituals are for protection. No harm will come to you or Charlie from them."

But instead, we get the implication that she either didn't know better - because she assumed everyone would just understand - or that she simply didn't care that other people thought she was doing something malicious, which just strikes me as lazy writing.

Also, pretty much all the deaths in this episode are extremely horrific. A train, strangulation by necktie in the garage door apparatus, and pecking to death by previously dead chickens. I swear, half the time the writers on this show seem to just be trying to come up with inventive new ways to depict tragic death. And in this case, that's especially true, because Chris Carter specifically wanted to depict a garage door hanging. The more you know.

But then the episode really kicks into high gear with the revelation of Michael's existence and Charlie's knowledge of that, despite never having been explicitly told he had a twin brother. (Also, another twin mystery, right after 'Humbug'. Huh.) But I don't think we're ever really shown why Michael was so malevolent, except for the grandmother's warning that unless the separation ritual was performed, he would drag the world of the dead with him to Charlie's spirit. Or something.

Fortunately, Mulder's willingness to accept ideas dismissed by many others as superstitious nonsense allows him to call the Calusari to the hospital (I'm assuming that's how they ended up there?) to complete the ritual on Charlie, and thankfully there's no pea soup involved. But the warning to Mulder about how the devil 'knows' him now is definitely ominous.

While unconnected to the larger serial mythology, I feel like that warning could be interpreted as legitimate, especially coming from someone who has just been shown to have knowledge of that sort of thing.

We'll have to see how much death and mayhem surrounds Mulder for the next 7 seasons (I'm guessing a lot).