The X Files - Teso Dos Bichos

*½ / ****

Teso dos Bichos is indeed considered one of The X Files worst episodes. I didn’t personally hate it or consider it a complete waste of time but do understand the reaction towards it just the same. Some “mythological jaguar spirit” unleashed on University archeologists/scientists who dared to drag away from its “resting place” an “urn” featuring the skull of an ancient Amaru shaman in Ecuador during a dig (…because of a pipeline going through the area eventually) could be looked upon as anything but extraordinary or worthwhile. And with the inclusion of rats in the Boston museum, cats in the underground of the museum, and dogs who don’t fare well, either, Teso dos Bichos treats its variety of animals as anything but the petting kind. Cats go right at Scully after ripping apart a door and rats literally spill out of a toilet in the museum. I haven’t seen this many rats since Graveyard Shift (1990). We have a Dr. Bilac (Vic Trevino) who looks increasingly worse for wear after gulping too much yaje with local Ecuadorians and back at home in Boston, resulting in his suspicion in possibly being behind the attacks on his scholarly peers. A museum student, Mona (Janne Mortil), also becomes an inadvertent victim as well, appealing to Bilac to give up what is going wrong so all the bloodshed (the “curse”) will cease. Bilac does cop to the curse when interviewed by Mulder and Scully, and his sweaty, pale, wearying state reveals a deterioration that gives them reason to suspect he’s brought something along with him since returning from Ecuador. Ultimately a feline fervor, a bright lens POV from the perspective of the jaguar spirit, dead rats, a bloody intestine hanging from a tree bleeding on Mulder, a skull in the urn returned to where it belongs after even Bilac is found dead because of what the spirit does to those it curses, and a shadow of the jaguar in its spiritual form pouncing on Dr. Roosevelt (Alan Robertson) “highlight” this episode of The X Files, providing reasoning behind just why Teso dos Bichos isn’t particularly regarded. I think it is just one of those forgettable episodes that most long-living series endures during its tenure. The jaguar spirit isn’t necessarily the most successful “creature” the show produced. And going back to “bad behaving animals” for the threat against the agents didn’t necessarily satisfy me personally as a fan, so Teso dos Bichos is buried away in the cellar  of my brain as a minuscule, minor middle-of-the-season blip, briefly discussed before its dismissal into the ether.