THEEF

        I was ready to like "Theef". I don’t know why, but I had a good feeling about "Theef" especially since any episode after "First Person Shooter" would look good in comparison. Well, I should have known better because "Theef" highlighted some of the aspects that makes a bad X-Files episode:

• Very little Scully and Mulder and we get so little of them in this episode that it doesn’t matter if Scully and Mulder or any other cops are investigating the case because they didn’t have a major effect on the outcome of the case.

• Characters who are based more on stereotypes than real people as shown by how Mr. Peattie was written. In Mr.        Peattie we get the dumb white mountain man trash stereotype. Let’s not forget the nosy landlord/next door neighbor who can’t seem to mind her own business and you know is going to get killed or hurt halfway through the episode.

• Characters doing illogical things for the sake of the plot, such as taking Dr. Wieder and his daughter to an isolated cabin with only Scully as protection. Not that Scully couldn’t protect them, but it’s just too much of a set up.

        Was the point of this episode that doctors sometimes have to make tough decisions in emergencies and sometimes have to pay for their decision? Were we supposed to find it ironic that the day Dr. Wieder gets an award for being an outstanding doctor for his compassion in the Bay area Mr. Peattie comes along to start killing Wieder’s loved ones because he euthanatized Peattie’s daughter? This would have worked if we got to know the full extent of Wieder’s agonizing over killing her. Instead it felt like this was something he did all the time. We knew that no matter how much power Peattie does have there was no way he could save his daughter because he wasn’t there in the emergency room when his daughter was brought in and it wouldn’t hurt if we knew the reason why Peattie’s daughter left so we could understand Peattie’s guilt over his daughter’s death. So when Peattie said he could have saved her Wieder was right when he said he couldn’t because he wasn’t there. Peattie was stretching it when he blamed Weider for things outside Weider’s control. Maybe if they made Peattie more of a 3 dimensional character instead of your typical backwoods man we would have cared more. Also, I found Scully’s comment at the end that she would have done the same thing as Dr. Wieder if she was in the same situation an unbelievable comment because this is definitely one of those cases where you have to be there to know how you would react and Scully is someone who would do everything she could to keep someone alive whereas Dr. Wieder doesn’t seem that way, though we’ll never know because we never saw him at work.

        Now the good old miscellaneous comments on "Theef":

-  By having "Theef" written on the wall in blood shouldn’t it have really meant something more than a misspelled word on a piece of cloth? Yes, we can gather it is something Peattie gave his daughter, but it should mean something to the overall plot and have been a clue in solving the case. Also, it annoyingly touches upon the fact that Peattie isn’t too smart that he can’t even spell thief. Yup, them hicks in the mountains don’t have much education.

-  Another California episode. Did Scully and Mulder move out to California? Can something weird happen somewhere else in the country? Is this a reflection of the X-Files people having a hard time carrying off an episode taking place in another part of the country such as the snake episode that took place in Tennessee.

-  The way Wieder’s father-in-law was acting you would think Wieder won a Nobel prize instead of the Bay Area Physician of the year.

-  Shouldn’t Scully and Mulder have discussed half the stuff they discuss at the house on the plane. Do these two not even discuss which case they are going to investigate since I’m sure they must get plenty to pick through. Isn’t this kind of old hat where we see them both at the scene talking about the case with Scully questioning why they came out there and Mulder saying because of such and such reason.

-  Did Scully and Mulder forget about the brain eating citizens of "Our Town" when they discussed what disease Wieder’s father-in-law suddenly got that would make him commit suicide?

-  What a waste of actor Billy Drago who can come off as being a real menacing person. I still haven’t forgotten him as John Bly on the tv show "Brisco County, Jr." where he always gave me the creeps and you knew was evil. In "Theef" he comes off as a deranged mountain man with a bad accent.

-  The coolest effect was when Lucy Wieder got nuked in whatever that thing was her husband convinced her could make her feel better. Oh yeah, let’s drive it home one more time that Peattle is such a hick he doesn’t know how to use a vending machine and he’s only heard about microwave ovens. Boy, isn’t it amazing how popcorn can pop in 2 minutes. Ye haw, what will they think of next?

-  About half way through this episode I kept wondering if we’d see Scully and Mulder again since they were MIA through most of the first part of the episode. Then when we do see them they are going to a magic shop owner who conveniently has all the answers for Scully and Mulder on how Peattie gets his power. I kept expecting Giles from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to walk in to explain everything to them. It sure would have been nice if Scully and Mulder figured out who was behind everything instead of Dr. Wieder.

-  I would like to know how Peattie was able dig up his daughter’s grave without anyone noticing, especially since digging up a grave isn’t something one person can do in a few hours, then rebury the casket. How did he know which grave was hers and that she was dead? I guess with that voodoo power he must have some kind of psychic link to her.

-  I did love the pained looked on Scully’s face as Dr. Weider is explaining Peattie’s daughter’s death. Was it me or did it sound like Weider giving Peattie’s daughter more morphine was more painful then the pain she was having from the bus crash.

-  As I wrote earlier it didn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that the landlady was going to die since on the X-Files being the next door neighbor to a psycho killer means death, but this was a paint by numbers action. Landlady enters Peattie’s apartment because she thinks he’s "out", then thinks he is sleeping in bed so instead of leaving, which most normal people would do, she goes to the bed and finds Peattie’s dead daughter’s body. Luckily Mulder had the news on to see the story of the landlady coming down with a rare disease.

-  For someone who was portrayed as a dumb hick Peattie sure knew his rare diseases. I guess up there in the back country he only had time to study rare diseases so he could give them to everyone he disliked.

-  How convenient that Scully brought along for the trip her ID badge that she wears around the F.B.I. building and leaves it in her rental car though it looked as if she and Mulder have been using that car for quite a while. What would Peattie have done if he didn’t find that badge and a piece of her hair so he could make her blind. These are the kind of things that drive me nuts sometimes because it is so obvious it was done for plot convenience than for any logical reason. Why would she have taken it with her in the first place since she knew they weren’t going to be in the F.B.I. building? The other question is why Peattie even bothered taking the time to make Scully blind since he could have done what he planned with Wieder from the outside since it was proven he doesn’t have to be in the same building when we see him make Scully blind. Boy, would I have liked to see the discussion between Scully and Mulder about her being blinded.

-  Of course, if Peattie did use his power without going inside we wouldn’t have gotten the "classic" the villain spends time explaining why he is doing what he is doing and how he is going to do it giving the hero time to kill or stop the villain.