Theef
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THEEF
Episode: 7X14
Airdate: 03/12/00
Written by: Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Kim Manners
Starring: David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully
IMAGES FROM "THEEF"
TEASER
Dr. Robert Wieder and his family come home from an award ceremony with a large glass doctor's award that he won. It's late, and his father-in-law agrees to spend the night. When he goes to get into bed, there is dirt in the shape of a person on the bed. He brushes the dirt away.
The alarm in the house starts to beep. It hasn't been tripped yet, but detects movement. Wieder goes into another room and
finds his father-in-law hanging from the ceiling. He trips on the blood, but he finally manages to get the lights on. Scrawled on
the wall in blood is the word "Theef."
ACT ONE
Mulder and Scully go to the crime scene. Scully thinks that the word on the wall was probably supposed to be "thief" but was spelled wrong.
MULDER: What do you think, Scully? Is this a name, possibly? Or a code or an anagram?
SCULLY: T-H-E-E-F. I assume it's supposed to be T-H-I-E-F. "Thief."
MULDER: Insert your own Dan Quale joke here. Lousy spelling aside, what do you think it refers to? Who's the thief?
SCULLY: Well, that's certainly one question. I've got many.
MULDER: “Mulder, why are we here?”
SCULLY: Mmm, to be fair, I might have used the words, “Mulder, how is this an X-File?”
MULDER (smiling): You see that, Scully, you always keep me guessing. <clicks tongue> This is Dr. Irving Thalbro, age
sixty-six, found hanged with his throat cut. His family tucked away in a bed not forty feet from here, didn’t see or hear anything.
SCULLY: Which would certainly shine the light of suspicion on them.
MULDER: -- Except they’re the ones that called it in. And there's no evidence whatsoever to link them to the crime.
SCULLY: Which is why the police are rightly wondering if Dr. Thalbro killed himself.
MULDER: Except, who then did this?
MULDER indicated the writing of blood on the wall
MULDER: The blood pattern doesn’t indicate that the good doctor did it, who I’m assuming could read and write above a fourth grade level.
SCULLY: I’ll admit, Mulder, this is not an open and shut case, but, uh, (whispering now) it doesn’t make it an X-File.
MULDER (whispering): There is one detail that does.
MULDER and SCULLY are now in Thalbro’s room looking at dirt on his bed
MULDER: This.
SCULLY: Dirt.
MULDER: Dirt. It’s a very powerful component of hex craft. As well as the pattern in which it was originally arranged, check this out.
SCULLY crouches down beside MULDER
MULDER: Looks like a human form.
SCULLY: Uh, hex craft, as in, uh, putting a curse on someone? Murdering them magically?
MULDER (putting some dirt into a Ziploc): Yeah, that’s what it looks like to me. Now, I know that you’re gonna say, Scully.
SCULLY: No, hex craft, I’ll, I’ll buy that as the intent here. Certainly jives with the evidence. I say we talk to the family.
SCULLY stands up and starts to leave but turns back. Off MULDER’S look:
SCULLY: I’ll always keep you guessin’.
Mulder and Scully go to talk to Dr. Wieder. They ask him if he or his father-in-law had any enemies, but he can’t think of any.
FOSTER CITY, CALIFORNIA
The landlord yells at Peattie not to cook in his room, but he tells her he is cooking medicine. He gives her some medicine for
her back problems.
In his room, Peattie is making Voodoo dolls. One that is already made is hanging by it’s neck.
Scully is in the autopsy bay when Mulder comes in. He tells her that he had the dirt analyzed. It showed pronounced spikes of
methane and sulfur compounds, the signature of decay. It’s also known as Conjure Dust, it’s one of the most powerful hexing
elements, whether for good or evil.
Scully is engrossed in what she is looking at in the microscope.
MULDER (smiling): Go ahead, Scully, keep me guessing.
SCULLY: Kuru.
MULDER (laughing): The, the, the, uh, the disease that New Guinea tribesmen get?
SCULLY (nodding): From eating the brains of their relatives.
MULDER: And I thought my Grandpa slurping his soup was bad.
Scully tells him that Kuru doesn’t exist any more, but Thalbro’s cerebellum and striatum clearly show signs of it. She says that it
makes someone stark raving crazy, and that the man slit his own throat and hung himself. Mulder thinks that maybe he was
given the disease minutes before he died. He thinks that someone put a hex on him with the dirt to kill him.
9:17 PM
At Wieder's, his wife finds that a picture from their wall is gone, but he assures her that the FBI probably took it as evidence.
A man, Peattie, is in their house with a voodoo doll of Wieder's wife.
In the bedroom, Wieder finds dirt in the shape of a person on his wife’s side of the bed. She suddenly falls to the ground and
her skin starts to bubble and lump. He tells his daughter to call 911.
Outside, Peattie watches the house, holding the doll in his hand, chanting.
ACT TWO
USF MEDICAL CENTER
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
Mulder and Scully come to the hospital to talk to Dr. Wieder. He tells Scully the diagnosis that he’s given his wife.
Scully explains to Mulder that the disease is unheard of in San Francisco, although, maybe in South Africa it could happen.
Mulder explains to Wieder that he thinks someone directed the disease on his wife. He doesn’t believe him. Scully tells him that
regardless of the particulars, there was an intruder in his home and that he should accept their protection and help them to
identify the killer. He tells them that he needs to continue treatment for his wife.
Wieder looks at some of his wife’s MRIs. "Theef" is carved into her skull.
Peattie comes in and Wieder knows that he did it. Peattie tells him that it is because of Lynette Peattie. Wieder doesn't
remember treating her.
Wieder looks through the computer databases and doesn't find any file on Lynette. Finally he finds a file on a Jane Doe that
died under his care. In her file there is a [I think] bracelet that says [I think], "FLAX-HAIR LAMB * THEEF OF MAN’S
HEART."
Peattie is in his room again making dolls of Wieder and his daughter.
The landlady comes to thank Peattie for the medicine and ask for more. She smells what he’s making and tells him it’s stinky,
but he says that stinky’s good.
VALENCIA & 10TH
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
Mulder and Scully go to an occult store. Mulder shows the woman the dirt, and she tells him that it's "goofer dust.” She says to
use it you would spread it on or near the victim to direct misfortune. Mulder asks if that would make someone be able to make
someone sick. She says that that is trickier, and that they would need a "puppet" (voodoo doll). Inside the person needs to
place three thorns of a blood red rose, a strand of hair, a picture of the victim, and sometimes other things as well.
Mulder wants to know how they can counteract his spells. She tells him that the man must be charmed - drawing the strength
from something very close to him. They need to separate him from the charm, or they can’t stop him.
USF MEDICAL CENTER
9:10 PM
At a vending machine, Peattie gets some popcorn, and when no one is there, he puts a puppet into the microwave.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Wieder is going through another MRI. A doctor notices that she is jerking around from inside. They try to
turn the machine off. By the time Wieder pulls her out, she's completely burnt.
ACT THREE
At his home, Wieder tells Mulder and Scully that he now believes his wife was murdered. Mulder shows him a picture and says
that “Theef” was carved into his wife’s chest. Scully tells him that they can’t help him if he is withholding information from them.
He finally tells him what Peattie said to him.
Wieder also says that the girl had been in agonizing pain and was going to die. She kept getting worse and worse, as did the
pain. Finally he gave her morphine - a lot of it - to stop the pain. She would have only lasted about twenty minutes longer and
would have suffered.
Mulder guesses that Lynette must have been Peattie's daughter. He took away Peattie’s family, so now he was systematically
taking away his. Mulder tells him to let them protect him.
MUNICIPAL CEMETERY
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
Mulder and Scully go to Lynette's grave. Mulder thinks that she is Peattie's charm. The coffin is empty.
The landlord comes to Peattie's door to try to get some more medicine for her back from him. He's not there, so she lets herself
in the room. There she finds a skeleton (of Lynette) in his bed. She screams as Peattie comes in the room.
Mulder sends Wieder and his daughter with Scully up to a cabin to keep them safe. He knows that Peattie is still after Wieder's
daughter. What he doesn't know is that Peattie is watching them leave.
11:23 PM
At Wieder’s house Mulder is sees a news report. On it, Mulder hears of the landlord's murder - by a rare "flesh-eating
disease." (Note: John Gillnitz was on the scene:)
Mulder rushes over to the crime scene, now knowing where Peattie lives. He finds the skeleton in the bed, but the head is gone.
He's taken his part of his charm with him.
SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST
Mulder calls Scully at the cabin. He tells her that he’s taken the skull, and that he may be on to them, and that he’s probably
looking for them. He tells her to keep an eye out, and that he’s on his way.
Peattie has come to the cabin. He looks down at his daughter’s skull and says, “Soon. Very soon."
ACT FOUR
Peattie breaks Scully's car's window to get her badge (with a picture) and a hair, and puts it in a voodoo doll. He puts pins in
its eyes and leaves it on the driveway.
Inside, Scully feels intense pain in her head, and suddenly, she can't see. Her eyes are white.
Peattie comes in to kill the doctor's daughter. Scully is of no help because she can't see, and Peattie has taken her gun.
Wieder tells him that he is sorry for his loss, but that she was dying and was in a lot of pain and he tried to take the pain away.
Peattie just says that he killed her, and that he'll show him what he can do.
Peattie takes a voodoo doll out, and Wieder fears for his daughter's life, however when he sticks a needle in the doll, it's
Wieder who is affected.
Scully yells, wanting to know what's happening.
Outside, Mulder has arrived. He finds the doll on the driveway with the pins in its eyes.
Before Peattie can finish killing the doctor, Mulder comes in and shoots him from behind. Scully witnesses this. Obviously
Mulder fixed the doll and saved her. He shows it to Scully.
In the hospital while looking at Peattie, they talk about his daughter's body being shipped away to West Virginia.
Scully tells Mulder that if she had been Wieder, she would have made the same diagnosis as a doctor and would have done the
same thing he did. Mulder agrees with her and says that it seems pretty clear cut. She tells him that maybe it’s not. Mulder
guesses correctly that she’s wondering if maybe Peattie could have saved his daughter. She doesn't answer him, but looks in his
eyes and then leaves.
MULDER: You do keep me guessing.
IMAGES FROM "THEEF"
Overall Rating : 9
*Shippy Rating: 6
*Based on the Redux II scale (1-10, as Redux II being a 10 [now with Triangle being an 11, and Millennium being a 12, above the scale])*
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