Die Hand Die Verletzt

"Die Hand Die Verletzt"
The X-Files episode
Susan Blommaert as Phyllis H. Paddock
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 14
Directed by	Kim Manners
Written by	Glen Morgan James Wong
Production code	2X14
Original air date	January 27, 1995
Guest stars
Susan Blommaert as Mrs. Phyllis H. Paddock Dan Butler as Jim Ausbury Heather McComb as Shannon Ausbury P. Lynn Johnson as Deborah Brown Shawn Johnston as Pete Calcagni Travis MacDonald as Dave Duran Michelle Goodger as Barbara Ausbury Larry Musser as Sheriff John Oakes Franky Czinege as Jerry Thomas Laura Harris as Andrea Doug Abrahams as Paul Vitaris
Episode chronology
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List of season 2 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

"Die Hand Die Verletzt" was the fourteenth episode of the second season of The X-Files science-fiction television series created by Chris Carter, and deals with the occult. The title roughly translates from German as "the hand that injures."

Plot

A group of high school students go out into the forest at night to play around with black magic. The experiment causes unexplainable things to happen, such as fire erupting from the ground, and rats swarming to the location. The next day one of the kids is found dead and mutilated, and agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are called in to investigate. Locals claim that the children have unleashed a demonic force in 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 the wrong way.

Unknown to the agents, substitute teacher Mrs. Paddock is revealed to have the eyes and heart of the victim in her desk. One of the Parent-Teacher Council members, Jim Ausbury suspects one of his colleagues killed the boy, but the others believe it is an outside force. Jim's stepdaughter Shannon suffers a breakdown during science class while dissecting a hog fetus. Meeting with Mulder and Scully, she tells them that her stepfather held occult rituals at her house while her mother was away, which included raping her and her little sister and sacrificing the babies. She claims that her sister eventually became one of the sacrifices. Shannon's mother denies Shannon's claims of ever being pregnant and says her sister actually died at 8 weeks old.

When Shannon stays after school to make up her assignment of dissecting the pig, Mrs. Paddock takes her bracelet then uses it as part of a spell that causes Shannon to slit her wrists. When Ausbury hears of the others planning to blame everything on his stepdaughter, he admits all to Mulder. Scully meanwhile researches Mrs. Paddock and finds that no one knows anything about her or who hired her. Mrs. Paddock steals Scully's pen when a power outage occurs. Mulder handcuffs Ausbury in the basement when Paddock fakes a call to him by Scully, and when he leaves a giant snake comes in and eats Ausbury.

Mulder arrives at the school, where Scully claims she never called him. The three still living members of the PTC are convinced that they need to perform a sacrifice and capture the two agents. As they are about to kill them Mrs. Paddock causes them to instead kill themselves. Mulder and Scully escape their bonds and find Mrs. Paddock missing, with only the message "Goodbye. It's been nice working with you." on the chalkboard.^[1][2]

Production

The episode originally came out of an idea from Glen Morgan's idea to have a scene where a snake eats a man.^[3] Chris Carter described the episode as "a cautionary tale about playing with fire, playing with things bigger and badder than you might imagine".^[4] Morgan and co-writer James Wong left the series after this episode to produce the series Space: Above and Beyond.^[3] The line written by Mrs. Paddock on a chalkboard at the end of the episode, "It's been nice working with you," also acted as a goodbye to the crew of the show.^[3] The two later returned to the show in season four.

Crowley High School refers to British ceremonialist Aleister Crowley.^[3] The character names Deborah Brown and Paul Vitaris were based on internet X-Files fans.^[5] The episodes title means "The hand that wounds" in German.^[5]

While fake frogs were considered for the scene where they fall from the sky, the producers decided to change to real ones, dropped from a short distance, as, according to Carter, the "fake ones looked too bad and didn't hop away after command". The snake going doing the stairs proved difficult to film as the animal kept on falling onto the floor after slithering down the steps.^[4]

Reception

This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 10.7, with an 18 share, and was viewed by 10.2 million households.^[6] Series creator Chris Carter said of the episode "It was a fun script that turned this big corner when the girl had the emotional breakdown. It suddenly became a very creepy, dark, disturbing episode. It was vintage Glen and Jim, and we had a great, great performance by the guest stars. A really good, solid episode that actually veered a little more toward the horror genre. But it worked because of Mulder and Scully." ^[7]

Footnotes

1. ^ Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. pp. 193–194. 
2. ^ Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel press. pp. 143–145. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. p. 195. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Chris Carter (featurette). Chris Carter Talks About Season 2: "Die Hand Die Verletzt". The X-Files: The Complete Second Season: Fox. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel press. p. 146. 
6. ^ Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. p. 249. 
7. ^ Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. p. 113. 

External links

• Die Hand Die Verletzt on The X-Files Wiki, an external wiki
• Die Hand Die Verletzt at the Internet Movie Database
• Die Hand Die Verletzt at TV.com