X-FILES, THE: CHINGA (TV)
Summary
One in this series of science fiction dramas about FBI agents Mulder and Scully and their investigations into "unsolvable" cases involving paranormal phenomena.
In a small town in Maine, a woman and her young daughter are shopping at a grocery store when the girl becomes angered. Her doll’s eyes open and it speaks. The woman sees an image in the reflection of the freezer aisle: the store’s butcher with a knife in his eye, pleading for help. Suddenly everyone in the store starts clawing their own eyes out; the woman flees. The butcher tries to call the police but finds himself compelled to stab himself in the eye with his knife.
Scully is on vacation at Maine and advises Mulder not to call her. She arrives at the grocery store and, concerned about the victims of the strange events, investigates. Scully calls back Mulder to tell him of her findings; he suspects witchcraft is involved. She cooperates with local authorities and watches security footage, noticing the woman and her little girl are unaffected by the chaos. Jack, the local sheriff, tells her the woman is Melissa Turner, a local woman who some residents believe to be a witch. He adds that she was apparently romantically involved with Dave, the now-deceased butcher.
A local police deputy, Buddy, calls up Melissa, concerned about her. He tells her Dave is dead and that he needs to see her. Melissa’s daughter, Polly, is not happy that her mother seems to be ignoring her. Later Scully and Jack arrive at Melissa’s house, only to find it empty and several of the windows nailed shut. Jack explains that Melissa’s husband, Rich, was killed in a boating accident and that Polly never fully recovered. She is possibly autistic, and her history of violent incidents have taken her out of school and caused accusations of witchcraft to be leveled against Melissa. He further clarifies that Dave’s affections for Melissa were not reciprocated.
Buddy takes Melissa and Polly out to a diner. He wants them to leave town and goes on to say that he’s always liked Melissa and has been waiting for his chance with her. She tries to tell Buddy about the startling visions she’s had of people dying just before they do. When the server at the diner won’t give Polly more cherries for her sundae, Polly’s doll awakens, causing the server to get her hair stuck in the soft-serve machine. Buddy gives Melissa the key to his lake house and tells her to stay there.
Jack and Scully visit an old woman named Jane, who runs the local day-care center. She had provoked Polly once when she slapped her across the face. She is convinced Melissa is a witch and recommends that she be hunted down as one. That night, Melissa tries to drive up to Buddy’s lake house with Polly, but Polly does not approve. Melissa sees a vision of Jane in the rear window calling for help and, terrified, turns around and heads back home. Jane awakens in the middle of the night to hear a record playing. She hears Polly’s doll’s voice and prepares to defend herself with a broken record, but instead finds herself compelled to slit her own throat with it.
The next day, Jack and Scully examine Jane’s body. Mulder calls again to offer advice. Melissa walks in on Polly, asleep, and the doll speaks to her. Distraught, she runs downstairs to see a vision of a bloody Buddy in the kitchen window, pleading for help. Jack tells Scully that there are still unanswered questions in the case of Rich Turner’s death. Scully decides to interview his old fishing partner, whom she had previously met in the grocery store. Buddy shows up at Melissa’s house and accuses her of killing Jane; the doll turns on him. The old fisherman recounts the night Rich died, which was shortly after he found what would become Polly’s doll in one of his lobster traps. Hours later, he had apparently impaled himself on a fishing hook.
Mulder calls Scully again; she asks him about the doll and he confirms some basis in witchcraft lore consistent with the events in Maine. Buddy has clubbed himself to death with his own nightstick and Melissa is panicking. While Polly sleeps she nails the doors and windows in the house shut. The pounding awakens Polly and her doll, who is not pleased; Melissa sees an image of herself in the window with the claw of her hammer jammed into her forehead.
Scully and Jack arrive at Melissa’s house just as Melissa locks her hammer in the cabinet and empties a can of kerosene on the kitchen floor. She tries to light a match but Polly awakens and the doll snuffs out Melissa’s matches as they are lit. Scully realizes what’s happening and she and Jack break in. They find Melissa has taken out her hammer and she is compelled by the doll to whack herself in the forehead with it. Scully manages to get the doll away from Polly and cooks it in the microwave where it bursts into flames.
Scully returns from her vacation to find that Mulder has not coped well in her absence. She says she was “getting out of [her] own head” in Maine. The episode ends as another fisherman finds the burned doll in his lobster trap in the bay, and it can still speak. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: FOX
- DATE: February 8, 1998 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:47:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:55211
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SERIES RUN: Fox - TV series, 1993-2002; 2016-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- R. W. Goodwin … Executive Producer
- Chris Carter … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Frank Spotnitz … Co-Executive Producer
- Vince Gilligan … Supervising Producer
- Paul Rabwin … Producer
- Joseph Patrick Finn … Producer
- Kim Manners … Producer, Director
- Lori Jo Nemhauser … Co-Producer
- John Shiban … Co-Producer
- Ken Horton … Consulting Producer
- Stephen King … Writer
- Mark Snow … Music by
- David Duchovny … Cast, Agent Fox Mulder
- Gillian Anderson … Cast, Agent Dana Scully
- Susannah Hoffman … Cast, Melissa Turner
- Larry Musser … Cast, Jack Bonsaint
- William MacDonald … Cast, Deputy Buddy Riggs
- Jenny-Lynn Hutcheson … Cast, Polly Turner
- Henry Beckman … Cast, Old Man
- Carolyn Tweedle … Cast, Jane Froelich
- Dean Wray … Cast, Rich Turner
- Gordon Tipple … Cast, Assistant Manager
- Harrison R. Coe … Cast, Dave the Butcher
- Ian Robison … Cast, Ranger
- Elizabeth McCarthy … Cast, Shopper
- Tracy Lively … Cast, Clerk
- Sean Benbow … Cast, Customer