What I like about this episode is the idea of the Devil policing his own. A satanist school faculty has kind of let their practice slide. Devil's none too pleased, so he sends Mrs. Paddock to punish them, giving one teacher flesh-eating disease so she can replace him as a substitute teacher. Creepy Mrs. Paddock who acts so caring of her pupils!
To begin with even Mulder is giving the local police a hard time about thinking witchcraft is at work, although he admits the place has a 'weird feel'. Scully believes there is nothing odd about the case, certainly nothing an ordinary person might not be capable of. Her train of thought is derailed, however, when they are suddenly bombarded with a deluge of... toads.
M: So... lunch?
S: Mulder, toads just fell from the sky!
M: I guess their parachutes didn't open. You were saying something about this place not feeling "odd"?
That's not the only strange thing going on around here; the water drains in the wrong direction. The kids are having disturbing visions, particularly the one with the squealing pig fetus in biology class. I'll opt out of illustrating this one, the same way I opted out of performing those horrible dissections in high school.
M & S discuss the possibility of witchcraft. Scully finds an old article to help Mulder understand her point of view.
S: "Volkischer Beobacter", a Nazi newspaper in 1934. The rumours are the same, but the blanks have been filled in with whoever must be feared or persecuted at the time. In this case, it's occultists.
M: Modern witches, known as Wicca, are a religion. They have a great reverence for all life in Nature, they do not cast harmful spells, they don't worship Satan. Even the Church of Satan has renounced murder and torture. Their influence here wouldn't account for the frogs, or the water draining backwards, or most importantly, the murder.
S: Well, if not witches, then what?
The Devil, of course. They talk to a student who is the stepdaughter of a faculty member, Mr. Ausbury. She tells them some truly disturbing personal history involving the satanic rituals her stepfather made her participate in, claiming to have been made pregnant three times so that her baby can be sacrificed.
Her stories are too horrible to be true. The idea is that Mrs Paddock used legitimate memories of rituals and built horror stories on them. Doesn't make them any less disturbing.
M & S confront the parents, but it only ends in a furious outburst from Ausbury. Meanwhile Paddock uses the girl's bracelet to channel her, forcing her to slit her wrists.
Ausbury finally sees how evil the rest of the faculty is when they decide to use his daughter's death for their own gains.
CALCAGNI: She was sacrificed for us. It's a portent. Shannon's death allows us to get rid of the police, the FBI. (pause) it can all be blamed on her.
DEBORAH: Jim. You tell them she had a thing for Jerry Stevens. She killed him out of jealousy.
VITARIS: (inventing some kind of romantic story) She cut out his eyes, because she couldn't stand to have him look at another girl. And his heart, because she was heartbroken.
CALCAGNI: When they leave, and they're gone, we must rekindle our faith rather than lose it.
Can you believe these people? Ausbury can't. He decides it's time to come clean to the FBI.
M & S become suspicious of Mrs. Paddock, discovering the sudden illness of the previous teacher, as well as the fact that no one remembers hiring her. Scully admits to getting all caught up in the spookiness of the case, though decides it's more likely all coincidence and oversight.
M: No, I've got a feeling this is something we both should get caught up in.
Well I can't help but agree with this line... ;) Paddock steals Scully's pen. That will come in handy later.
Mulder decides to check Ausbury's basement to see if he can turn up any evidence of satanic ritual. He does; but he also finds Ausbury there, equipped with a pretty good explanation as to why a grown-up would be interested in worshiping Satan.
AUSBURY: My religion, my family, Agent Mulder, goes back in this town seven generations. They fled persecution from people being persecuted, all in the name of religion. I was raised to believe Christianity was synonymous with hypocrisy. Man's natural tendency was to do as thou wilst, not do unto others. We believe Man is nothing but an animal, no better, no worse, than those who walk on four legs.
Well, I have to say, I don't think you need to start worshiping Satan in order to believe all of that, but it is a very interesting argument! Mulder is much less impressed than I am:
M: Did you really think you could call up the Devil and ask him to behave?
Suddenly the phone rings; it's Scully, calling for help. Paddock uses Scully's pen to enter this controlling trance of hers and tricks Mulder into leaving Ausbury alone. Mulder handcuffs his to the stairs while Mulder runs to the car and drives off as fast as he can; perhaps he can't believe he is off to rescue Scully again.
Of course, he arrives and Scully is perfectly fine. It was a trick so that Mrs Paddock could send her snake after Ausbury. It chokes him out then swallows him whole!
When M & S return, they find nothing but bones. Scully suggests some sort of acid, but can't find any evidence of it.
M:There are tracks in the dirt... they're from a snake.
S:That's impossible! It would take a large python hours to consume and weeks to digest a human being.
M: You really do watch the Learning Channel.
Mulder finds the snake's skin, and Scully recalls the one in Mrs Paddock's room. Back to the school they go, where they find Mrs Paddock on the ground with a bleeding nose. She's breathless.
PADDOCK: I... I... I came back... they were taking the snake... Miss Brown, Mr Vitaris... there are things about them I learned, I must tell you... I think they killed that boy!
Sneaky! M & S search the offices for evidence, which they find, however the faculty finds them too! They are beaten and tied up and dragged across the gym floor to the locker room showers where they are going to be sacrificed!
Scully turns away and can't watch... Mulder rolls over to try and shield her from the blow.
Mrs. Paddock is who saves them though, quite unexpectedly! Her assignment was to punish the faculty, not innocent bystanders. She has control of the man with the shotgun and forces him to shoot himself and the faculty members in the room.
The USTiest part of this episode is M & S panting and struggling to untie each other with the shower running;
S: (breathless) Oh God... Mulder, (can I stop the quote there? :P) did you see his face? It was as if something else had control of him.
Once untied, they race to the room where they left Mrs. Paddock. All they find is a somewhat bewildering note:
"Goodbye. It's been nice working with you".
Love it.
Apparently this is a nod from the writing team Glen Morgan /James Wong (probably the best writers, with episodes like Ice to their credit). This was their last episode before pursuing their own TV show; Space: Above and Beyond.
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