"Be it ever so humble,
there's no place like home."
-- American folk song
"Home" marks the long-awaited return of Glen Morgan & James Wong to The X-Files after their exodus to produce their own series. One would expect their first effort to either be a monumental effort along the lines of "Squeeze"/"Tooms" or a hurriedly-thrown together effort that has little redeeming value. "Home" actually lands somewhere in between.
The opening sequence gives us an unsettling portend of the story line, with the birth of a child and its immediate burial while still alive. In one of the most wrenching scenes ever filmed on this series, we see one man digging a grave, while another man comforts a third man who is in obvious anguish over the events.
The scene changes to that most innocent of all pastoral worlds, a bunch of kids playing sandlot baseball on a sunny August day. The stark contrast between the almost non-existent light on the opening scene and the bright sunshine serve to relax the viewer. The subsequent discovery of the dead baby's hand coupled with the oozing of its blood as the batter digs in at the plate underscores the horribleness of what has happened.
Mulder and Scully are called in because the little town of Home, Pennsylvania, has one sheriff, one deputy and no forensic facilities. As they survey the scene, Mulder lapses into memories of his own childhood and how great it was to play baseball and be a kid. He proffers the ball to Scully and says, "Smell that? Perfume." Mulder seems to be acknowledging his own loss of innocence after all he has seen and done, and his lament rings true.
M&W bring a distended sense of deja vu to the episode by the multiple references to the old TV classic, The Andy Griffith Show, with Sheriff Andy Taylor and deputy Barney. One can truly feel Sheriff Taylor's loss. In Home, people don't lock their doors, everybody knows everybody and life is tranquil. His concern that this idyllic existence is about to end is emphasized when he expresses his desire to have things go back to the way they were when this is over.
This episode has many poignant moments worth praising. Gillian Anderson's Scully is genuinely taken aback by the sight of the horribly deformed infant victim. In the next breath, she displays her empathy for parents who must endure the birth of a less-than-perfect child without being maudlin or sentimental. The conversation on the bench in front of the sheriff's office seems destined to tale its rightful place beside "the conversation on the rock" in "Quagmire." Ms. Anderson exposes the long-dormant feminine side of Dana Scully, revealing her own desire for immortality through procreation. Mulder expresses that he is not averse to having a family, either, and offers his self-deprecating family history, almost as a feeler to see if Scully might be the least bit interested. Scully, to her credit, does not take the bait.
The bizarre background of the brothers Peacock lives then leads our intrepid heroes to start questioning their genetic background. From inferences given by sheriff Taylor, the Peacock family tree doesn't have any branches. ;-) When a search of their residence leads to a reasonable suspicion of their guilt, arrest warrants are issued for them. This leads to the brutal murder of Sheriff Taylor and his wife in a scene which is both graphic and shocking. An assault on the residence by Deputy Barney and M & S results in the decapitation of the deputy and an enlightening encounter with Mother Peacock (Peahen? ;-). In the final confrontation scene, two of the brothers lie dead while the third and the mother escape capture.
Morgan and Wong seem to be enamored of genetic mutations. In "Home," they put forth the hypothesis that the forces of nature are so powerful that no amount of social stigma can't be overcome. Even in a gene pool that sorely ne eds some chlorine, this drive is as omnipresent now as it was before man began to walk erect. The natural drive to procreate, they seem to say, is so great, that even two such detached and career-driven people as Mulder and Scully have to admit that they, too, are susceptible to its allure. On this level, "Home" succeeds.
But "Home" has many flaws which detracted from its theme. The lighting, or rather the lack of it, by Directors of Photography John Joffin and Ron Stannett, made this a difficult episode to watch. The phrase, "Lighten up, guys," should take on additional significance. :-) I had a hard time imagining anywhere in Pennsylvania being more than a day away from a State Police barracks. I also had problems with the overall plan to capture the Peacock brothers. Once they were out in the open, in the sunlight, all together, why didn't M & S arrest them then? Come out on the porch and arrest them at gunpoint. Cuff 'em, call the State Police and go search the house for the "kidnapped" woman who gave birth to the child. Instead, they wait to confront the brothers on their own turf, in their booby-trapped house which has almost no light. For smart people, M & S sure do some dumb things when it comes to getting the bad guys.
Where in the world did those SWAT team headsets come from? Did M & S bring them? If so, how were they so perceptive as to bring three sets? The makeup for the brothers looked like leftovers from The Incredible Hulk. Certainly, the blonde brother who was shoving at the door in the fight scene reminded me of this. The eldest brother (who escaped with Ma Peacock) looked like one of the geeks from "Humbug." The third brother looked like a love child of rocker Meatloaf.
To be sure, the acting performances were excellent. Gillian Anderson shines as she reveals a hither-to unseen motherly side to the character of Dana Scully. Even David Duchovny excelled as he reminisced about the days of his youthful innocence when a new baseball, a bunch of kids and a vacant lot made the world an okay place in which to live. DD displayed the typical American male with a good-natured lightheartedness when he was trying so desperately to get decent reception on the motel's TV, which came complete with rabbit ears. Things were tough before cable, children. :-)
Mark Snow's peerless background score lent just the right amount of subtle eeriness. It never overpowered the scenery, but blended in with a wonderful homogeneity. His work almost never disappoints.
But for all its posturing, its proposed insights into the dominant force in human genetic construction, "Home" left me a little flat. The ease with which one brother took 7 or 8 shots from a .45 and still kept coming after Mulder was quite a stretch. The ease with which the eldest son and mother escaped detection bothered me. The obvious reference to aviarian feeding rituals, with the son chewing the food and barfing into the mother's mouth was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. I mean, yes, their name is Peacock, and they feed the mother the same way as birds feed their young. I got it. Some will argue that the violence was central to the story. Well, okay. Violence is central to pretty much every episode of The X-Files. But the graphic violence seemed to me to be excessive. The parental warning at the beginning of the show was both unprecedented and warranted. "Home" may have taken on an additional irony; Morgan and Wong left to do their own series. Now, they're back "Home" on The X-Files. But just the act of coming home doesn't make you at home. I think they'll get better as the season continues. For now, "Home" is better than average, but with a lot of room for improvement.
My Score: 7 out of 10