Fresh Bones
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"Fresh Bones" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of American science fiction television series The X-Files. It features the agents investigating voodoo related activity occuring at a Haitian refugee camp in North Carolina.
Plot
Private Jack McAlpin is killed in a car accident after seeing maggots in his cereal and a corpse in his back seat. The tree which he hit carries a voodoo symbol. Mulder and Scully head to North Carolina to investigate. McAlpin is the second death ruled a suicide within the past two weeks among troops stationed at the Folkstone INS Processing Center, which houses over 10,000 Haitian refugees. McAlpin's wife believes voodoo was involved, having been told so by fellow private Harry Dunham, and having discovered a shell with the same symbol in her backyard. Mulder and Scully head to the Processing Center where they meet a young boy, Chester Bonaparte, who sells Mulder a good luck charm for $5.00. After meeting with Colonel Wharton, head of the base, Mulder meets with Pierre Bauvais, a Haitian who instigated a riot where a boy was killed and Bauvais tells him what the symbol means.
Scully attempts to see McAlpin's corpse, but finds a dog corpse in his place in the morgue. The agents later come across McAlpin, alive, while driving down the road. McAlpin doesn't remember what happened, and tetrodotoxin, a chemical Mulder believes is part of zombification rituals is found in his blood. The agents go to the graveyard to investigate the corpse of the other dead soldier, but find the grave robbed. They find Chester there collecting frogs and bring him to a local restaurant where he tells them he sells the frogs to Bauvais. Scully believes the frogs contain the chemical found in McAlpin. They find Dunham outside, who tells Mulder that Wharton has been beating the refugees after Bauvais threatened to take the souls of his men if the Haitians weren't repatriated. Chester runs off and Mulder is unable to catch up with him, only finding a cat.
Wharton denies the allegations, but sees blood coming out of his ham. He has Bauvais beat to death. Scully cuts herself on the hand. Mulder meets with X, who tells him the base will be sealed off within 24 hours. Based on his meeting with X, Mulder believes Wharton is getting his revenge on Haiti after the suicide of some of his soldiers during a previous trip there. Scully finds Dunham dead in a bathtub, and Mulder catches McAlpin with a knife nearby. McAlpin confesses to the murder, having been pressured by Wharton. Wharton tells the agents that Bauvais committed suicide and that their investigation is over. Mrs. McAlpin provides the agents with a photo of Wharton with Bauvais in Haiti, causing the agents to go through his office, finding that both Dunham and the other dead soldier were going to testify against him.
The agents head to the cemetary, where Wharton is performing a voodoo right over Bauvais's coffin. When Mulder confronts him, Wharton harms him by putting a knife in the ground. Meanwhile, a man comes out of the cut in Scully's hand and strangles her, but by grabbing the charm Mulder had bought from Chester earlier, he dissappears. Bauvais appears and stops Wharton. The next day the agents say goodbye to McAlpin, who tells them that Chester was the boy who had died in the riot weeks before. Meanwhile Wharton is buried alive.[1][2]
Production
Writer Howard Gordon was inspired to write the episode after reading two articles involving suicides of servicemen in Haiti.[3] The refugee plot was used due to the producers being unable to film in Haiti.[4] Colonel Wharton was portrayed by Daniel Benzali, who later went on to star in the ABC series Murder One.[3] While he didn't look like a military man, the producers felt he had the quality they were looking for in the role.[3] The sequence where a man came out of Scully's hand and strangled her came about by using a mechanical hand which the actor stuffed his gelatine covered fingers through.[4]
Reception
This episode earned a Neilsen rating of 11.3, with a 19 share. It was viewed by 10.8 million households. The episode was the highest rated episode of the first two seasons.[5]
Writer Gordon stated that director Bowman did a great job in mining his script for chills.[3] Series creator Chris Carter called the episode one of the ones he was most proud of from the first season, stating that Gordon did a good job with the script and Bowman did a great job with the directing.[4] In their book, X-Treme possibility, authors Keith Topping and Paul Cornell praised the episode, including Benzali's performance and the sequence in the graveyard at the end of the episode.[6]
References
- ^ Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. p. 196-7.
- ^ Lovece, Frank (1996). The x-Files Declassified. Citadel press. p. 146-8.
- ^ a b c d Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. p. 197-8.
- ^ a b c Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. p. 114-5.
- ^ Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. p. 198,249.
- ^ Cornell, Paul, Day, Martin, Topping, Keith (1998). X-Treme Possibilities. Virgin Publications, Ltd. p. 150.
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