Season 4, Episode 2: Home

Synopsis

In the small town of Home, Pennsylvania, a deformed woman's baby is buried by her three sons soon after she delivers it; the corpse is later found by some kids playing baseball. The local law enforcement consists of a sheriff and deputy, so the sheriff calls in Mulder and Scully. The sheriff tells the agents that the run-down old house near the field is the home of three reclusive boys of the Peacock family, whose parents were killed in a car wreck. The family clearly creeps out him and the rest of the town, but the sheriff is interested in keeping the bucolic nature of the town intact.

Scully finds that the baby is suffering from just about every birth defect it could have; she thinks it indicates inbreeding, perhaps with a woman being held against her will. The agents enter the Peacock house after seeing blood and a footprint matching the one found in the field. The sheriff and his wife are brutally murdered in their house by the Peacock boys, who look to have countless birth defects as well. When some weird DNA results on the infant turn up, Mulder wonders if the mutations could have allowed each of the three boys to father the child. At the Peacock house, an unseen woman tells the boys that the police will try to change things, but that they they're going to keep things the same.

The agents and deputy head to the house, and the deputy is killed by a booby trap when he tries to enter the house. Mulder and Scully manage to get into the house after freeing some pigs to draw out the boys. Inside, they find family photos of deformed people going back to the Civil War and a screaming woman, who Scully realizes is not a kidnap victim but the boys' mother. The boys return, and two of them are killed in the ensuing fight. Mrs. Peacock and her eldest son escape, however, and she assures him that they'll start a new family elsewhere.

The X-Files episode which has been consistently ranked "creepiest as all hell." Sebastian Spence, who plays Deputy Barney Paster, has showed up in a few different TV shows, notably as Cade Foster in First Wave and Lt. Noel "Narcho" Allison in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica.

Episode Body Count

Peacock baby: buried alive in a field after being delivered.

Peacock father: the sheriff says the Peacock boys' parents were killed in a car wreck, though their mother is later revealed to have lived.

Pig: the Peacocks keep a severed pig's head on their steps.

Dead gazelle or something: in trying to find the Knicks game, Mulder comes across a nature program where an animal is getting torn apart.

Sheriff Andy Taylor: bludgeoned to death by the Peacock boys.

Barbara Taylor: killed after the Peacock boys find her hiding under the bed.

Deputy Barney Paster: killed by an ax-rigged booby trap at the Peacock house's front door.

George Peacock: dies after being shot multiple times.

Sherman Peacock: killed after tripping another ax booby trap.

And then there's this:

But considering how it's a running joke that Mulder thinks Elvis is still alive, I'll keep him off the count.

Humans: 7
Creatures: 2
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (75/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 901
Creatures: 59
Aliens: 48

Grand Total: 1,008

And we're into four digits, which is good enough for Deadliest of Season for now.