The X Files - The Calusari

I went from one of my favorite X Files episodes to one of my least favorite: The Calusari. Basically an Exorcist clone, I guess a possession-by-evil-twin episode needed to be filmed and in the can during that “dog days” of a season when some lesser stories find their way into the show before the cliffhanger finale sets up Season 3. Essentially, a descendent of Romanian folklore is possessed by the evil, murderous spirit of his stillborn twin. This twin, Michael, revealed at the very end (he can move about seemingly as a being all his own, kind of paranormal yet physical enough to throttle and stab) is making life miserable for the family of Charlie (Joel Palmer). 

First, the barely-walking brother is let loose from his restraint while mommy was urinating, following a “moving balloon” (going against the wind, moving horizontally) to a train track with a “kiddie train” inadvertently running him over! Second, Charlie’s father is strangled by the garage door which turns on “all by itself” strangling him! Third, the old world mother (Lilyan Chauvin, of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)) tries, with help from the Calusari (these Romanian priests from the old country who use blood, water, and ingredients from their spiritual roots), to rid Charlie of the evil that seems to follow him, only to suffer a heart attack when alone in the room with Michael. Fourth, a nurse, tending to a sickly Charlie, gets beaned on the head by Michael. 

Michael decides to “encourage” his mother that he’s well enough to leave the hospital, and when they get home a great ritual will be needed to order to save Scully who is sent to their house by Mulder as he goes off to fetch the Calusari. Mommy’s ritual fails, Michael temporarily subdues her, Michael makes his way towards Scully with that chicken knife in hand, Mulder assists the Calusari in tending to Charlie using their own ceremonial exorcism ritual, and the end result is a warning to Mulder by the Calusari that evil might seem to be abated but he should watch out. Mulder narratively admits that warning concerns him. Palmer and Chauvin are both equally creepy, so at least the episode gets mileage out of them. And that sequence opening the episode involving the baby and the balloon that floats away after he’s run over is chilling. 

This does feel more like something Kolchak might contend with as opposed to Mulder and Scully. It ends up being Scully once again in peril and Mulder participating in the “real action”, experiencing an exorcism right before his eyes. Complete with blood from a clucker, Mulder gets to see old country cleansing of evil as Palmer does his best Linda Blair. I think this is one of the less significant episodes of a really good second season, and while I think the story is a bit inferior to what the X Files was producing during this point it isn’t without a few memorable moments (as previously mentioned). Not particularly memorable to me, though. I think this is the kind of episode that would fade from memory, actually, as future episodes of better quality emerged. And the next season certainly has its share of magnificence.

Don't want to fail to mention that despite all that happens, Scully continues to cling to her science, even as Michael presents himself and vanishes before her. She prescribes the Munchausen by Proxy theory of Charlie and his little brother, Teddy, suffering due to the grandmother.