'The X-Files' Recap: 'Familiar'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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​If there’s one thing that can be said about The X-Files, it’s that when the show decides to go dark, it really goes dark, and it always seems to bring us the bleakest of episodes when it indulges itself in the horror genre. If anything, it seems that this particular genre inspires the Writer’s Room to simply let loose and see just how far a story can go and that kind of carefree and terrifying style of storytelling was on display in last night’s episode, ‘Familiar’.
 
This particular tale brought Mulder and Scully to the town of Eastwood, Connecticut to investigate the death of a child who just so happened to the son of a law enforcement officer in this tiny little berg and well, what these two uncovered was the stuff of nightmares and while the plot was fascinating and intriguing in its own right, what made this episode so incredibly memorable is the sheer fact that it held little back in its exploration of how far people are willing to go to find a sense of justice.
 
Because once it was discovered by the father of the slain child that a convicted sex offender lived in his town and fit the profile put forth by Agent Scully, all bets were off in this story and it while it was chilling enough to watch a peace officer bust down the door of this man’s home in the hopes of putting of a bullet in his head, nothing compared to the mob mentality that came about when the offender in question returned home and well, seeing this man take a beating from both police and citizen alike served as a fine reminder that man is often times the most frightening monster of all and this entire sequence of events, and how the officer in question became judge, jury and executioner, was supremely uncomfortable to watch.
 
Yet, the show had a few other surprises waiting for us up its sleeve. Because the real culprit behind this whole mess was in fact, Witchcraft, as Mulder posed early on in the tale and well, the creatures that were conjured up by an ancient spell definitely sent chills down my spine since they only had one thing on their minds, blood, and the horror elements present here served as a wonderful throwback to all the other horror themed episodes this wonderful series has featured throughout the years and the outlandish beliefs of the town and the need for its people to remain ‘pure’ served as a wonderful homage to the many small town horror movies of the 1970’s. 
 
When all is said and done however, this really was a damn good episode. I have to admit that I squirmed in my seat more times than I care to count and I really appreciate the fact that this story wasted no time in scaring the living daylights out of us, and that it didn’t let up for the rest of the hour. It simply made for an incredible experience and it really was nice to see the series continue to snap free of the mythology this season and pay tribute to its horror roots. But with only two episodes left before this magnificent season comes to an end, I’m left to wonder after this one, does the series have another stand-alone story waiting in the wings for us? Or is the grand conspiracy about to return? Looks like we will find out next week, until then.

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