The X-Files/Recap/S02/E14 Die Hand Die Verletzt

In the fictional town of Milford Haven, New Hampshire, a group of high school faculty members meet to discuss various social events. The adults initially appear to be socially conservative, debating the suitability of letting students perform Jesus Christ Superstar. However, when the group ends the meeting in a prayer, they recite a Satanic chant.

Later, a group of students go out into the woods at night to play with black magic, an attempt to "score" on the part of the boys in the group. The experiment causes unexplainable things to happen, causing all but one of the teenagers to flee. The remaining teen's mutilated body is discovered the next day, leading Fox Mulder and Dana Scully to investigate. Locals—including the faculty members—claim that the children have unleashed a demonic force with their rituals; a theory which is given validity by strange occurrences, such as frogs falling from the sky and water in the drinking fountain draining counter-clockwise, contrary to the Coriolis effect. Unknown to the agents, substitute teacher Mrs. Phyllis Paddock is behind the murder, keeping the eyes and heart of the victim in her desk. One of the faculty members, Jim Ausbury suspects one of his colleagues killed the boy, but the others believe it was an outside force.

While dissecting a pig fetus in science class, Ausbury's stepdaughter, Shannon, suffers a breakdown when she hallucinates the cadaver's heart beating and its head moving. Meeting with Mulder and Scully, Shannon tearfully tells them that Ausbury and the other Satanists repeatedly raped and impregnated her as part of their rituals, sacrificing her babies. When the agents confront Ausbury with the accusations, he is shocked, and denies them. Shannon stays after school to make up her assignment of dissecting the pig. Mrs. Paddock takes her bracelet and uses it as part of a spell that causes Shannon to slit her wrists. When Ausbury learns that the other faculty members plan to use Shannon as a scapegoat, he admits the sect's existence to Mulder. He confirms that rituals did happen while Shannon was present, but said that exposure to sensational media coverage led her to "remember" the sexual abuse. Meanwhile, Scully researches Mrs. Paddock and finds that no one knows anything about her or her background. During a sudden power outage, Mrs. Paddock steals Scully's pen and uses it to impersonate her in a call to Mulder, pretending to be in trouble. Mulder handcuffs Ausbury in the basement to prevent his possible escape, then leaves to help Scully. Soon after, a giant snake appears, controlled by Mrs. Paddock, and devours Ausbury.

Mulder arrives at the school, where Scully claims that she never called him. They find Mrs. Paddock seemingly attacked by the remaining faculty members, and go to search for them. The faculty members capture the two agents, convinced that they need to perform a sacrifice to regain favor with the Devil and make up for their diluted faith before it is too late. As they are about to kill Mulder and Scully, Mrs. Paddock causes them to instead kill themselves, confirming that their attempt was indeed too late. The agents escape their bonds and find Mrs. Paddock missing, with only a parting message on the chalkboard stating, "Goodbye. It's been nice working with you."


 * Animal Assassin: The school Python.
 * Evil Teacher: Mrs. Paddock.
 * Foreign Language Title
 * Gratuitous German: The title means "The hand that hurts".
 * Hellish Pupils: Paddock again.
 * Hollywood Satanism
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent
 * Satan: Mrs. Paddock is an incarnation of Azazel.
 * Wounded Gazelle Gambit


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