I can appreciate that this is well-acted and directed but I don't really like the subject matter that features teachers who haven't been diligently practicing their satan worship.
Secondary characters in this episode: None
Such an early classic. The ending, with the words "Goodbye. It's been fun working with you" is such a chilling note to end on. This had significance beyond Ms. Paddock (the Devil) escaping victorious as "Die Hand Die Verletzt" was the final episode written by the brilliant James Wong & Glen Morgan who left here...only to return in Season 4 with the famous episode, "Home".
For me, a first time viewer of the show, the re-experience of watching this episode in preparation for my first viewing of "Home" added much to the overall experience. "Die Hand..." is effectively chilling, darkly comedic, thrilling and captivating. Morgan & Wong turn in their best screenplay for the second season and one of their best of the first two seasons (can't comment on the rest yet) and the episode marks Kim Manners, the show's most prolific director, taking up the mantle for the first time. A visually gorgeous episode with a great many emphatic uses of crane shots and extreme close-ups.
"Die Hand Die Verletzt" is one of the finest early episodes.
"Remember when the girl broke down about being abused, raped and impregnated during occult rituals? Well nvm she was only abused kinda and i guess she got mixed up with what's on tv"
Ugh. They destroy an earlier emotional and heavy and important scene, make it less important, and never follow up on it.
Once again, The X-Files throws even more stuff into the show with religious mythology. Wrapped up in an increasingly uninteresting plot centered around satanist teachers, who become less interesting and threatening as the episode goes on.
And then Scully gets abducted again. Well, both her and Mulder do get captured this time at the very end, defeated by these school teachers, and are about to die, when they are saved by the demon.
It's so, so stupid.
Once again it's another well directed episode with good music, but it's the writing that fails. Throwing even more stuff into the show's mythology with half-baked religion/demon-esque stuff. The reasoning for the demon killing the teachers is... Why? There is no reason. They are literally supporting your religion. I guess demons like to be independent. Stupid.
It just doesn't work. None of it really works from a writing perspective.
This episode made me remember many years ago when first watching, and i remember thinking at the time how i didn't like how they were doing this. I have been retracing my thoughts as i watch the show, and find i am coming to similar conclusions. It's like how when i rewatched Battlestar Galactica and it was so much worse than what i remembered.
The X-Files hasn't gotten that bad yet, but i'm starting to worry. The writing in these early seasons is very uneven, and the mythology, main plot, and character development is a mixed bag. And now even in these standalone episode i'm finding a lot more sloppy writing and characterization.
Was the x files really not as good as i remembered? And i'm only on season 2.
I remember liking it so much and rating it so highly when i first watched it, because i hadn't watched much else and hadn't experienced as much of life at that time. But now i have, many years later, and i'm finding a lot more flaws. For the time this would have been great, but these days, i don't give anything a higher score because it was good in the past. It has to hold up, and it has to be good. The X-Files has been good overall so far but it's been a real mixed bag as well, and i hope it improves.
Overall, this is a nice standalone episode. Susan Blommaert's nuanced performance as Phyllis Paddock elevates this otherwise fair episode leagues above what it otherwise would've been. Her portrayal is one of the most memorable of the entire series. The episode begins weakly, but gets better as it plays out. This episode also features an amazing and chilling ending. "Goodbye. It's been nice working with you." It doesn't get much better than that. Even though it would most likely have spoiled the mystique, oh, how I wish this character would've been featured again later in the series or elsewhere. The writing for this episode gets the balance right. It hits near the Goldilocks mark of how much to reveal and how much to withhold.
Shout by gemmaVIP 3BlockedParent2023-03-02T10:23:11Z
My mum and I were laughing so hard at Scully’s face when she was working in the dark in the school as she looked like she had crazy eyebags and eyebrows.