User Reviews

First of all, I loved the end with Mrs. Paddick Morgan and Wong saying goodbye. Two of the series most brilliant writer (Squeeze and its sequel Tooms, Beyond the Sea, Little Green Men) leaving the show for their own show, which gets canceled and makes them come back in the series' fourth installment. And they're leaving with yet another stylish episode.

The first episode to touch dark things like witches, Satan, cult, sacrifices. It gave me the creeps. Mrs. Paddick is an amazing villain, one of the series' scariest so far and can compete with Pfaster of the previous episode and Eugene Tooms.

It was what a monster-of-the-week should be, clever, intense and engrossing and season 2 mostly managed to accomplished that, while season 1 had several cracks in the genre.

Overall, a very strong episode of a very strong season. A wild ride. 9.4/10.

I'll be honest, I have as absolutely blown away by this one, one minute in, you just knew this was going to be something special, and it was.

Gothic horror, witchcraft, cults, snakes, this ticks almost every single horror vibe, several of the scenes were chilling, and almost disturbing. Mrs Paddock was the most terrifying character, wow she was good. The ending is gripping.

Superbly acted, I thought the young Heather McComb was excellent, what a sincere, heartbreaking performance from her.

Even the music had an epic feel to it, credit where it's due it works very effectively with the story.

Absolutely brilliant. 10/10.

"Did you really think you could call up the devil and ask him to behave?" – Fox Mulder.

Episode 14, 'Die Hand Die Verletzt', original air date January 27th, 1995. Written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, directed by Kim Manners. Monster of the week episode count, 26. Kim Manners joins the X-Files team as director, and later producer, while Morgan and Wong bid farewell with their final episode. The writing duo left The X-Files at this time to pursue their own project, the short lived 'Space: Above and Beyond' in which they're credited as co-creators, producers and writers. They will return however in the X-Files fourth season and pen arguably their most well known and controversial episode. Manners will go on to direct an impressive 52 X-Files episodes, including the two part finale and he starts his X-Files career with a bang. Looking back on the series I would place Manners alongside David Nutter and Rob Bowman as the most influential X-Files directors. Their combined efforts comprise many of my personal favourites as well as numerous critically acclaimed entries that span the entirety of the series. 'Die Hand Die Verletzt' is a visual powerhouse of an episode from the opening shot to the thrilling climax.

The episode is about a group of devil worshippers who have let their faith go over the years, failing to offer sacrifices and perform the religions rituals. Because of this an evil presence is felt in the town as strange occurrences and unexplained deaths happen. The local police department is convinced it's the work of the devil but both Mulder and Scully are sceptical. The devil worshippers, who funnily enough also happen to be staff members at a strict catholic school, know exactly what's happening. As they discuss, they're being punished for not keeping up their faith and must rectify this immediately before they incur dire consequences. A young teen is murdered, as a sacrifice for their transgressions, and another young girl who previous to her demise, admitted to Mulder and Scully that she had been abused by her father in bizarre rituals involving sexual abuse. A newly arrived teacher, Mrs. Paddock, has an eerie quality about her and it soon becomes apparent that she is not what she seems. She is, in no uncertain terms, the devil incarnate. Who has risen from the depths of hell to punish the wicked for their sins. It's a heavily religious themed episode that many have argued is a parody of organised religion, particularly religious people who only pay lip service to their faith without actually following through on their beliefs.

In keeping with the established tone of the series Manners works with an appropriately grim colour pallet. As the actors and crew have commented many times, the Vancouver climate was an integral component in developing the shows dark imagery. When production moved to L.A in season 6, many feared that it would be difficult to replicate the naturally gloomy atmosphere imbued in Vancouver's weather within L.A's clear, sunny climate. Although I disagree with the criticism that the series lost some of it's charm as a result of this move, there is still an obvious shift in tonality between seasons 5 and 6, especially with the lack of outdoor settings like the British Columbia forest. When the teens conduct their night ritual in the forest, the cinematography is gorgeous. The white light of the moon streams through the darkened trees, casting shadows contrasting light and shade to create a wonderfully ominous atmosphere. A shot like this would have been far more difficult to replicate in the concrete jungle of LA. The opening scene mixes the genres of horror and comedy well, as what appear to be devout Christians suddenly start chanting devil worship as the camera pans back from the door as red light shines through the door frame. This is something the episode does well, mixing genres.

The episode begins in a rather comical way. A high school staff meeting sees a group of people concerned over the inclusion of the 'F' word in the musical 'Grease', and citing Jesus Christ Superstar as an inappropriate production for the school. This assumed sensibility is then turn on it's head as they begin devil worshipping prayer to the light of a burning red candle. You wouldn't be wrong to laugh at this point, as well as feel slightly uncomfortable at the subject matter. Morgan and Wong have intentionally brought comedy in to the episode's first act, possibly as a way to catch the audience off guard for the dramatic shift that comes later. Frogs raining from the sky, Mulder remarks, "Guess their parachutes didn't open," a clearly intentional comedic moment. Compare this with the young Shannon Ausbury tearfully recounting the horrific physical and sexual abuse she and her sister were subject to at the hands of their own father while Mulder and Scully listen helplessly. It's a striking contrast to say the least but it works as the underlying subject matter was always dark from the beginning.

This is a rare episode in that the writers make no pretence to obscure the true nature of Paddock. It's insinuated very heavily, beyond a doubt that Paddock is the devil in disguise and is murdering these staff members because they have lost their faith and are only paying lip service to the religion. One of the groups members expresses the need to act now, "If it's not already too late." As Paddock takes control of his body in order to murder his colleagues and force himself to commit suicide, with a shotgun to the face no less, she remarks, "You're right, it is too late." This is uncharacteristically explicit for the X-Files to be so clear, we're usually used to some degree of mystery but Morgan and Wong have laid it out clear as day, don't mess with the devil.

Holy hell that monologue from the highschool girl halfway through is just... jeeeeezus.

James Wong and Glen Morgan's last episode (before returning two years later), "Die Hand Die Verletzt," stands as one of their best efforts and is easily the scariest episode of the second season. The premise deals with the occult and although later episodes would tackle similar themes, I think this one did a much better job. The scariest parts of the story don't even take place on-screen, but are told through Shannon's expository catharsis, in which issues of child abuse and Satanic rituals are brought into the forefront. At the center of all the commotion is the substitute teacher Mrs. Paddock, played to the hilt by Susan Blommaert, who manages to compact innocent naivety and chilling malevolence into one role. The episode, serving as a farewell for Morgan and Wong, has bits of dark humor (with an especially funny scene involving aerial amphibians), but you'd be remiss for labeling this a comedy. Although the mix of horror and comic relief doesn't always mesh well, and Mulder and Scully never actually solve the case, "Die Hand Die Verletzt" is one of the more memorable monster-of-the-week excursions from the early seasons, serving as a brave foray into darker territories and a fitting farewell for two of the show's greatest writers. I give it a 9 out of 10.

PS - Mulder is blatantly incorrect in his attributing the flow of water to the Coriolis effect. Not a big deal, but a marginal annoyance nonetheless.

Yes all good but the end was totally forced and too quick. Mistake is that this story would need two parts and so they probably did not had that chance and just made quick weird end.

This is a really neat episode, but it has an annoying lack of answers atypical of the X-Files. For example, what about all the things Shannon says have happened to her? Is it all completely made up? And if so, why? If it is true, why don't they show an investigation into it or something? Finding THAT evidence would have made for a pretty powerful sequence. And the agents clearly couldn't just ignore it all, they would have to look into it at some point, and the episode ends so early that we don't get to see what they find out. I get the sense that they might have run out of time while making this episode and had to cut things out, since a lot of plot threads are abandoned. And aside from this episode, the X-Files normally seems to cater to the curious type of audience that wants to actually find out what's going on. It is an investigation show after all. I wish this was a "to be continued" episode, because as much as I hate those, this is an interesting story and they could have gone a lot deeper into it.

I used to eat while watching this show. No more. This episode and the previous one have become too bloody to be able to enjoy food while watching. The girl's description of things that were done to her were too horrible to bear. This show started out by having interesting ideas explored in depth, but it has changed and is now violent, bloody, and graphic for no good reason other than sensationalism. This would have been a good story if they had not taken it over the top. And also, there is one glaring scientific error. The coriolis effect does not determine which way water drains. That's an old wives tale with no basis in truth. The coriolis effect is relevant only to macro weather systems like hurricanes, not something as insignificant as the way a sink drains. Sources = MIT & Scientific American.

I'm late watching this series - 25 years after it aired. and I have enjoyed it. I grew up reading Stephen King and like the episodes that make me think about things. It is a different focus than I expected. The alien aspect is very low key most of the time. But overall, I really do like the series.

As a whole, the stories are written well, especially since it is an older show. But there are a couple of things that irritate. Every time they have to go into a building, it's pitch black. (And a lot of other shows do the same thing.) It's just not realistic that every building is going to be without lights or that every one of those scenes is at night. which brings me to the other irritant. How the show goes from day to night within a few minutes.

Like I said, overall, it's a fun series and has stood up over a couple of decades pretty well.

Learned azazel, wiccan and more things.

I think one of the rare episodes they could not solve the case.

Other than those, i did not like episode so much. I miss alien episodes.

This episode was absolutely ridiculous. It was so slow I genuinely felt like I'd aged while watching it. The acting, direction, story..... Everything was so awful its difficult to come up with a positive to say about this particular episode.

Oh it's a secret cult..... Again. Like how many times can the same story be done? And every time they try it gets weaker and weaker. This particular episode just showed hiw totally incompetent all the so called law enforcement are.

I recently decided to watch all the x files from beginning to end and this is the first episode that's made me question that decision. It's absolutely terrible.