Our Town (The X-Files)

"Our Town"
The X-Files episode
A native warrior as seen in the teaser
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 24
Directed by	Rob Bowman
Written by	Frank Spotnitz
Production code	2X24
Original air date	May 12, 1995 (Fox)
Guest stars
John Milford as Walter Chaco Carolina Kava as Doris Kearns Gary Grubbs as Sheriff Arens Timothy Webber as Jess Harold Gabrielle Miller as Paula Gray Robin Mossley as Dr. Vance Randolph John MacLaren as George Kearns Hrothgar Mathews as Mental Patient Robert Moloney as Worker Carrie Cain Sparks as Maid
Episode chronology
← Previous "Soft Light" Next → "Anasazi"

"Our Town" is a 1995 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the twenty-fourth episode broadcast in the show's second season. It features Mulder and Scully investigating a disappearance, leading to them discovering a small town's dark secret.

Plot

In Dudley, Arkansas, government health inspector George Kearns follows his lover, Paula Gray, into the woods. However, Kearns soon finds himself surrounded by lights in the woods. He is killed by an axe-wielding assailant wearing a tribal mask.

When Kearns is reported missing and a witness claims to have seen foxfire near Dudley, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigate. At the site of the alleged foxfire, the agents find the ground burnt, though Arens, the local sheriff, disclaims anything unusual occurring. After visiting Doris, Kearns' wife, the agents discover that he was about to recommend a local chicken plant, Chaco Chicken, be closed down for health violations. While giving the agents a tour of the plant, floor manager Jess Harold claims that Kearns held a vendetta against Chaco Chicken. However, a hallucinatory Paula Gray attacks Harold and is shot by Sheriff Arens. The plant's physician, Dr. Vance Randolph, later claims that Paula was suffering from headaches, which Kearns had also reported.

Paula's grandfather is plant owner Walter Chaco, who gives the agents permission perform an autopsy. The agents find that Paula, who appeared to be in her early 20's at the time of her death, was actually forty-seven years old. She had also suffered from Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, a very rare and fatal illness that causes dementia. When the agents nearly collide with a Chaco Chicken truck, they find that the driver also suffered from the disease. Noticing the blood-red color of a nearby lake, Mulder orders a reluctant Sheriff Arens to drag it. They quickly find the bones of nine people, including Kearns. The agents notice that the skeletons are all missing their skulls, and that the bones appear to have been boiled. Meanwhile, Randolph and Harold discuss the increase of Creutzfeldt-Jakob cases, and complain about Chaco's inaction over the situation.

Using FBI records, Mulder and Scully find that eighty-seven people have vanished within a two-hundred mile radius of Dudley over the past half-century. Mulder suspects that the town's residents are practicing cannibalism in order to prolong life, possibly explaining Paula's youthful appearance. Mulder also realizes that Kearns originally had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and that the other residents caught the illness after consuming his body. The agents try to search the town's birth records for confirmation of Paula's age, but find that they have been destroyed. At Chaco's mansion, Chaco and Harold meet with Doris, who tearfully implies that she "helped" Chaco kill her husband; Chaco instructs her to obstruct the FBI's investigation.

Doris calls Mulder, believing that Chaco wants to kill her; after she hangs up, she is attacked by the masked figure. Scully goes to help Doris while Mulder searches for Chaco at his mansion. There, finds the shrunken heads of Kearns and other victims in a cabinet. He receives a phone call from Scully, and overhears her being knocked out and kidnapped by Chaco. Scully to a secluded field, where Harold has started a bonfire and led to townsfolk in consuming Doris. Chaco berates them for killing one of their own, but Harold chastises him for allowing the Creutzfeldt-Jakob epidemic to occur. He has Chaco executed by the masked figure. Scully herself is about to be killed when Mulder arrives and shoots the figure; he is revealed to be Sheriff Arens. The townsfolk flee, trampling Harold to death.

In narration, Scully reveals that Chaco's plant has been closed down by the Department of Agriculture, and that twenty-seven Dudley residents have died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. She reveals that Chaco was ninety-three years old at the time of his death, and had spent time with the allegedly cannibalistic "Jale tribe" after his fighter plane was shot down over New Guinea during World War II. She also states that his remains have never been found. The final scene suggests that Chaco's remains are being fed to chickens at his plant.^[1][2]

Production

The episode was Frank Spotnitz's first stand alone episode for the show.^[3] Spotnitz had wanted to do an episode about cannibalism occurring at a chicken processing plant, thinking it was one of the most despicable and vile things he could imagine.^[4] Spotnitz was inspired by the Spencer Tracy movie Bad Day at Black Rock, which is about a town holding a terrible secret.^[5] He was also inspired by an article he read at UCLA about salamanders getting sick from eating other salamanders; Spotnitz's brother suggested including that theme in the episode.^[5] The concept of discovering human bones that had been boiled in pots was inspired by research done for the episode "Anasazi".^[5] Chaco Chicken was based on Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, which is where bones consumed by the Anasazi were found.^[5] Howard Gordon came up with the idea to start the episode with a love affair between George Kearns and Paula Gray.^[3]

Of the end result, Spotnitz said "I was very pleased with the way it was executed, and I think it was a good mystery.^[4] Director Rob Bowman admitted to being tired and not inspired by the time this episode, the second to last of the season, was produced, which resulted in the episode taking extra time to finish.^[4]

Reception

This episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 9.4, with a 17 share and was viewed by 9.0 million households.^[6]

Footnotes

1. ^ Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. pp. 222–223. 
2. ^ Lovece, Frank (1996). The x-Files Declassified. Citadel press. pp. 174–175. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Hurwitz, Matt, Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. p. 66. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. pp. 125–126. 
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. pp. 223–224. 
6. ^ Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. p. 249. 

External links

• "Our Town" on The X-Files Wiki, an external wiki