The X Files - Fresh Bones / Notes

 

Haitian voodoo used by a disgruntled Colonel Wharton (Daniel Benzali), in charge of processing Haitian refugees at a camp in North Carolina; Mulder and Scully are brought into the situation with the FBI is contacted by the wife of a private (Matt Hill) who had been suffering nightmares, headaches, and hallucinations, eventually driving into a tree with a particular Haitian voodoo symbol. Wharton, it seems, gained understanding of this voodoo from a practitioner in Haiti, Pierre Beauvais (Bruce A Young). Beauvais is currently locked up after a riot broke out causing a refugee to hang himself, a little boy. Mulder and Scully obviously get too close to Wharton's "misbehavior" (refugees were being treated horribly and the privates under his command were planning to inform on him, so he used voodoo to undermine them), so he also uses voodoo against them; Scully cuts her hand on a special thorn wrapped around the steering wheel while Mulder is brought down in a collapse when Wharton stabs a shirt of his earlier confiscated. Introduced in the episode is a child named Chester (Jamil Walker Smith), providing a particular "charm" that Mulder kindly buys for five bucks that later definitely helps Scully ward off a major voodoo attack. That twist regarding Chester is quite a knockout as is the terrible (but much deserved) fate of Wharton. There is a lot of potent shocks in this episode, including what a private sees of his face in the rear view mirror (his face undergoing rot), another private found dead in the bloody bathtub of Mulder's hotel room (his wife died shortly after marriage, with worms found inside her; he was a private who wanted to inform on Wharton), the use of a toxin from toads that seem to cause a temporary catalepsy, a victim buried alive as dirt is shoveled by bulldozer on the coffin in a newly dug grave, fingers bursting from an oozing wound in Scully's hand (and reaching for her throat), and Wharton not anticipating Beauvais brief return from beyond the grave. I'm not sure X was necessarily needed, but he visits Mulder, telling him that their investigation would be coming to an end and what Wharton was doing to the refugees would be kept concealed with no punishment if nothing was done soon...I guess it was a reminder that X keeps tabs on the agents no matter the case and that we shouldn't forget how clued-in he is. 4/5. 

I liked the attention called to refugee centers and even though the story is only partially about that in the episode, it raised some awareness about how any military involvement needs to be monitored with more scrutiny.