Home (The X-Files)
Encyclopedia
"Home" is the 75th episode and the second episode of the fourth season
of the science fiction
television series The X-Files
. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on October 11, 1996 on the FOX Network
, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom. It was written by executive producers Glen Morgan
and James Wong
, and directed by Kim Manners
.
Notable for its graphic content, "Home" was generally well received by critics and is considered to be one of the most popular stand alone episodes of the show. The episode follows Fox Mulder
and Dana Scully
in a small, otherwise peaceful town. The agents investigate the death of an infant with disturbing birth defects, and the trail leads to a clan of inbred, genetic mutants.
(David Duchovny
) and Dana Scully
(Gillian Anderson
) are sent to investigate the discovery of the deformed baby's corpse, which was found by children during an informal baseball game. While talking to the town sheriff, Andy Taylor, Mulder asks whether the Peacocks, the inhabitants of the house nearest to the crime scene, have been questioned about the baby. Taylor tells them that the house dates back to the American Civil War and is still without electricity, running water, or heat. He also insinuates that the family has been inbreeding since the war: "[They] raise and breed their own stock... if you get my meaning." All the while, the Peacock family sullenly watches from their front porch.
During an autopsy, the agents discover that the baby suffocated by inhaling dirt. Mulder and Scully later talk outside the town's police station; Mulder suggests that their case is nothing more than kids disposing of an unwanted birth. Scully, however, declares the child is not a result of a freak accident in mating and may have been inbred just like the Sheriff suggested, which is curious given the all-male household. Suspecting a kidnapped female, Mulder and Scully investigate the seemingly abandoned Peacock residence and discover blood on a table, scissors, and a shovel. A pair of shadowy eyes indicate there is someone still in the house. Arrest warrants are issued for all three Peacock boys. That night, the boys brutally murder Sheriff Taylor and his wife.
The agents find a shaken Deputy Paster smoking a cigarette on the porch of the Taylor house the next morning. Laboratory results of the deformed baby lead the agents to suppose both parents of the deformed baby are members of the Peacock family, but Scully posits that there may be an innocent woman being held against her will who bore the child. Forensic proof of the Peacock's involvement in the Taylor murders leads the agents and Deputy Paster to visit the Peacock residence to arrest the boys. Before they leave, the agents wonder why the Taylors were killed as the Peacocks couldn't have known about the arrest warrants unless someone overheard the agents talking in the Peacock house the day before. The shadowy pair of eyes orders the boys to maintain the Peacock way of life. The agents and Paster arrive at the house but when Paster breaks down the front door, he is decapitated by a boobytrap; the Peacocks tear him apart in animalistic fashion. Scully and Mulder sneak around the house and decide to lure the Peacocks out by releasing their pigs.
Inside, the agents find a woman who turns out to be Mrs. Peacock, a multiple amputee, who has been guiding the actions of her sons. She is also the mother of the deformed baby and it is implied that she has been breeding with her sons for years. The agents suspect the oldest boy is the father of the younger boys. The Peacock boys soon realize Mulder and Scully are inside their house and attack. The two youngest sons survive several gunshots before they are killed, one of them impaled on yet another boobytrap. Afterwards, the agents discover that Mrs. Peacock and her oldest son have escaped during the attack. The two remaining Peacocks flee in their car, planning to start a new family and find a new home.
's autobiography, about the time he stayed at a tenement home while touring in a British musical theatre
. After dinner, the family took him upstairs to meet their son - and pulled him out from under a bed. The son had no arms and legs and flopped around while they sang and danced. Glen Morgan
read the story and decided to use the incident. James Wong
came up with the idea to change the son to a mother. The name Peacock came from former neighbors of Morgan's parents.
Tucker Smallwood, who portrayed Sheriff Andy Taylor, was the first of many actors who had participated in Morgan and Wong's series Space: Above and Beyond
that appeared in season 4. The name Andy Taylor was a reference to the character of the same name from The Andy Griffith Show
. The Peacock house had earlier been used as the house of Harry Cokely in the season 2 episode "Aubrey
". The song "Wonderful! Wonderful!
" by Johnny Mathis
is included, but Mathis refused to provide permission to employ his voice due to the content of the episode. Director/Producer David Nutter originally intended to sing the song, but at the last minute another singer who sounded more like Johnny Mathis was used instead. The car that was used as the Peacock's car was a near wreck 1958 Cadillac which was found on a farm outside of Vancouver. The car was rented and restored, including being painted pink in preparation for use in the episode. Cadillac later sent the producers a letter thanking them for including one of their cars in the episode.
When Kim Manners
read the script "Home", he said to himself "this is as classic a horror script I'm ever going to see as a director." When the script for "Home" was sent up to Vancouver, Canada, the producers felt the show had "gone too far," calling it tasteless. The episode was first submitted to the censors with the teaser
featuring audio of the baby being buried alive. Ten Thirteen Productions
was asked to alter the audio so that the baby would be dead during the burial. Re-recording Mixer David West was told by Standards and Practices that the kid couldn't make a sound, because of the horrifying adult imagery. Manners referred to the shot of the baby's point of view while being buried alive "The most awful shot of my career."
Manners said he approached filming of the episode as a "classic horror piece."" Being mostly positive of the outcome, he said "I loved 'Home.' 'Home' I think is my favorite episode of [The X-Files]." David Duchovny
agreed with Manners's response to the episode, saying, "I really like that one. [Although] it didn't scare me." He said it "touched [him] because of its theme to live and to propagate.
. An unknown writer from the Vancouver Sun listed "Home" at their list of best stand alone episodes of the show, saying that story was "truly horrific". In 2009, TV.com
s Richard Lawson ranked "Home" as number one on The Five Scariest Episodes in TV History. "Home" also became the first of two episodes to get a viewer discretion warning for graphic content, the second being the season eight episode
, "Via Negativa
." The episode was the only episode of the show that was banned from being repeated by the network due to its content. In 1997 when the channel FX ran an all day marathon of the most popular X-Files episodes, the episode was the number one choice, although that may have been due to the rarity of re-airings of the episode.
The episode has also been criticized. Keith Topping, in his book X-Treme Possibilities was critical of the episode, calling it "dreadful, sick" and saying that there was nothing redeeming in it. Fellow author Paul Cornell criticized Mulder and Scully's wisecracking, saying that it failed to lighten the episode and made them come off as cruel. Author Phil Farrand called the episode his least favorite of the first four seasons of the show in his book The Nitpickers Guide to the X-Files. He stated that Mulder and Scully seemed reckless and that the Peacock family was better suited for comic books.
The X-Files (season 4)
-Episodes:Episodes marked with an asterisk are broadly part of the series' mytharc. Episodes with a double asterisk are primary episodes in the series' Alien Mythology arc....
of the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on October 11, 1996 on the FOX Network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom. It was written by executive producers Glen Morgan
Glen Morgan
Glen Morgan is an American television producer, writer, and director.-Biography:Morgan is best known for his screen work with long-time writing partner James Wong, including The X-Files, Millennium, Space: Above and Beyond, the Final Destination series, The One, Willard, and the 2006 remake of...
and James Wong
James Wong (producer)
James 'Jim' Wong is a Cantonese-American television producer, writer, and film director notable for his screen works of The X-Files, Space: Above and Beyond, Millennium, Final Destination 1 & 3, The One, and the remakes of Willard and Black Christmas along with writing partner Glen...
, and directed by Kim Manners
Kim Manners
Kim Manners was an American television producer, director and child actor best known for his work on The X-Files and Supernatural.-Early life:...
.
Notable for its graphic content, "Home" was generally well received by critics and is considered to be one of the most popular stand alone episodes of the show. The episode follows Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
and Dana Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...
in a small, otherwise peaceful town. The agents investigate the death of an infant with disturbing birth defects, and the trail leads to a clan of inbred, genetic mutants.
Plot
A woman gives birth to a deformed baby, and three men bury the baby alive during a rain storm. Agents Fox MulderFox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
(David Duchovny
David Duchovny
David William Duchovny is an American actor, writer and director. He has won Golden Globe awards for his work as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files and as Hank Moody on Californication.-Early life:...
) and Dana Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...
(Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...
) are sent to investigate the discovery of the deformed baby's corpse, which was found by children during an informal baseball game. While talking to the town sheriff, Andy Taylor, Mulder asks whether the Peacocks, the inhabitants of the house nearest to the crime scene, have been questioned about the baby. Taylor tells them that the house dates back to the American Civil War and is still without electricity, running water, or heat. He also insinuates that the family has been inbreeding since the war: "[They] raise and breed their own stock... if you get my meaning." All the while, the Peacock family sullenly watches from their front porch.
During an autopsy, the agents discover that the baby suffocated by inhaling dirt. Mulder and Scully later talk outside the town's police station; Mulder suggests that their case is nothing more than kids disposing of an unwanted birth. Scully, however, declares the child is not a result of a freak accident in mating and may have been inbred just like the Sheriff suggested, which is curious given the all-male household. Suspecting a kidnapped female, Mulder and Scully investigate the seemingly abandoned Peacock residence and discover blood on a table, scissors, and a shovel. A pair of shadowy eyes indicate there is someone still in the house. Arrest warrants are issued for all three Peacock boys. That night, the boys brutally murder Sheriff Taylor and his wife.
The agents find a shaken Deputy Paster smoking a cigarette on the porch of the Taylor house the next morning. Laboratory results of the deformed baby lead the agents to suppose both parents of the deformed baby are members of the Peacock family, but Scully posits that there may be an innocent woman being held against her will who bore the child. Forensic proof of the Peacock's involvement in the Taylor murders leads the agents and Deputy Paster to visit the Peacock residence to arrest the boys. Before they leave, the agents wonder why the Taylors were killed as the Peacocks couldn't have known about the arrest warrants unless someone overheard the agents talking in the Peacock house the day before. The shadowy pair of eyes orders the boys to maintain the Peacock way of life. The agents and Paster arrive at the house but when Paster breaks down the front door, he is decapitated by a boobytrap; the Peacocks tear him apart in animalistic fashion. Scully and Mulder sneak around the house and decide to lure the Peacocks out by releasing their pigs.
Inside, the agents find a woman who turns out to be Mrs. Peacock, a multiple amputee, who has been guiding the actions of her sons. She is also the mother of the deformed baby and it is implied that she has been breeding with her sons for years. The agents suspect the oldest boy is the father of the younger boys. The Peacock boys soon realize Mulder and Scully are inside their house and attack. The two youngest sons survive several gunshots before they are killed, one of them impaled on yet another boobytrap. Afterwards, the agents discover that Mrs. Peacock and her oldest son have escaped during the attack. The two remaining Peacocks flee in their car, planning to start a new family and find a new home.
Production
"Home" was inspired by a tale in Charlie ChaplinCharlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
's autobiography, about the time he stayed at a tenement home while touring in a British musical theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
. After dinner, the family took him upstairs to meet their son - and pulled him out from under a bed. The son had no arms and legs and flopped around while they sang and danced. Glen Morgan
Glen Morgan
Glen Morgan is an American television producer, writer, and director.-Biography:Morgan is best known for his screen work with long-time writing partner James Wong, including The X-Files, Millennium, Space: Above and Beyond, the Final Destination series, The One, Willard, and the 2006 remake of...
read the story and decided to use the incident. James Wong
James Wong (producer)
James 'Jim' Wong is a Cantonese-American television producer, writer, and film director notable for his screen works of The X-Files, Space: Above and Beyond, Millennium, Final Destination 1 & 3, The One, and the remakes of Willard and Black Christmas along with writing partner Glen...
came up with the idea to change the son to a mother. The name Peacock came from former neighbors of Morgan's parents.
Tucker Smallwood, who portrayed Sheriff Andy Taylor, was the first of many actors who had participated in Morgan and Wong's series Space: Above and Beyond
Space: Above and Beyond
Space: Above and Beyond was a short-lived mid-90s American science fiction television show on the FOX Network, created and written by Glen Morgan and James Wong. Originally planned for five seasons, it ran only for the single 1995–1996 season. It was nominated for two Emmy Awards and one Saturn...
that appeared in season 4. The name Andy Taylor was a reference to the character of the same name from The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
. The Peacock house had earlier been used as the house of Harry Cokely in the season 2 episode "Aubrey
Aubrey (The X-Files)
"Aubrey" is the twelfth episode of the second season of The X-Files television series. "Aubrey" features a detective discovering the body of an FBI agent who disappeared investigating a series of murders 50 years ago; murders that start occurring again soon afterward.- Plot :In Aubrey, Missouri...
". The song "Wonderful! Wonderful!
Wonderful! Wonderful!
"Wonderful! Wonderful!" is a popular music song written by Sherman Edwards, with lyrics by Ben Raleigh. The song was first published in 1957....
" by Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...
is included, but Mathis refused to provide permission to employ his voice due to the content of the episode. Director/Producer David Nutter originally intended to sing the song, but at the last minute another singer who sounded more like Johnny Mathis was used instead. The car that was used as the Peacock's car was a near wreck 1958 Cadillac which was found on a farm outside of Vancouver. The car was rented and restored, including being painted pink in preparation for use in the episode. Cadillac later sent the producers a letter thanking them for including one of their cars in the episode.
When Kim Manners
Kim Manners
Kim Manners was an American television producer, director and child actor best known for his work on The X-Files and Supernatural.-Early life:...
read the script "Home", he said to himself "this is as classic a horror script I'm ever going to see as a director." When the script for "Home" was sent up to Vancouver, Canada, the producers felt the show had "gone too far," calling it tasteless. The episode was first submitted to the censors with the teaser
Teaser
A teaser is a type of gambling bet that allows the bettor to combine his bets on two different games. The bettor can adjust the point spreads for the two games, but realizes a lower return on the bets in the event of a win....
featuring audio of the baby being buried alive. Ten Thirteen Productions
Ten Thirteen Productions
Ten Thirteen Productions is a production company founded by Chris Carter in 1993, which produced four television series and two films . The company was named after Carter's birthday, October 13...
was asked to alter the audio so that the baby would be dead during the burial. Re-recording Mixer David West was told by Standards and Practices that the kid couldn't make a sound, because of the horrifying adult imagery. Manners referred to the shot of the baby's point of view while being buried alive "The most awful shot of my career."
Manners said he approached filming of the episode as a "classic horror piece."" Being mostly positive of the outcome, he said "I loved 'Home.' 'Home' I think is my favorite episode of [The X-Files]." David Duchovny
David Duchovny
David William Duchovny is an American actor, writer and director. He has won Golden Globe awards for his work as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files and as Hank Moody on Californication.-Early life:...
agreed with Manners's response to the episode, saying, "I really like that one. [Although] it didn't scare me." He said it "touched [him] because of its theme to live and to propagate.
Reception
"Home" earned a Nielsen rating of 11.9, with a 21 share. It was viewed by 18.85 million people. According to Carter, "Home" is one of the most popular episodes ever created for The X-FilesThe X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
. An unknown writer from the Vancouver Sun listed "Home" at their list of best stand alone episodes of the show, saying that story was "truly horrific". In 2009, TV.com
TV.com
TV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
s Richard Lawson ranked "Home" as number one on The Five Scariest Episodes in TV History. "Home" also became the first of two episodes to get a viewer discretion warning for graphic content, the second being the season eight episode
The X-Files (season 8)
The eighth season of The X-Files commenced airing in the United States on November 5, 2000, concluded on May 20, 2001, and consisted of twenty-one episodes. The X-Files is an American serial science fiction-horror-thriller television series. Season eight took place after Fox Mulder's alien...
, "Via Negativa
Via Negativa (The X-Files)
"Via Negativa" is the 168th episode of the science fiction television series The X-Files and the seventh episode of the eighth season. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on December 17, 2000 on Fox and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom. It was written by executive...
." The episode was the only episode of the show that was banned from being repeated by the network due to its content. In 1997 when the channel FX ran an all day marathon of the most popular X-Files episodes, the episode was the number one choice, although that may have been due to the rarity of re-airings of the episode.
The episode has also been criticized. Keith Topping, in his book X-Treme Possibilities was critical of the episode, calling it "dreadful, sick" and saying that there was nothing redeeming in it. Fellow author Paul Cornell criticized Mulder and Scully's wisecracking, saying that it failed to lighten the episode and made them come off as cruel. Author Phil Farrand called the episode his least favorite of the first four seasons of the show in his book The Nitpickers Guide to the X-Files. He stated that Mulder and Scully seemed reckless and that the Peacock family was better suited for comic books.