42) The timing of transitions between Taylor’s house, the motel, and the Peacock home might not have been clear until now, but as the three brothers, back at the house, pile awkwardly together into the Cadillac’s front seat, it now seems pretty apparent that we have a Meanwhile on our hands. As the car radio lights up, Johnny Mathis’ song “Wonderful Wonderful” makes its first appearance on the soundtrack. From this downward Procedural beat onward, Mathis’ unearthly tenor and the song’s syrupy lyrics induce mental dissonance with the horror depicted on screen. In 1996, this device had yet to reach the levels of overuse it would later attain, making it particularly hair-raising.
43) The next Meanwhile transition returns us to Taylor’s house. In his sleepwear, he comes out onto his porch to brood over the town’s impending loss of innocence. Genre awareness, and the positioning of the previous scene, prompts us to worry that the brothers are headed his way: Procedural beat, down arrow.
44) Taylor’s wife, Barbara, emerges to comfort him. He grants her petition by heading back into the house. This episode’s secondary identification figure has come to a Dramatic accord with a loved one, which reads as an up arrow.
45) Meanwhile transition: the brothers, accompanied by Johnny Mathis, are now on the road. Procedural down arrow.
46) Meanwhile, Scully sleeps in her motel room. Is it her they’re coming for? That Procedural thought prompts another down arrow.
47) Meanwhile, we rejoin the brothers, in a quick beat differentiated by a change of angle. Now we see the road from behind the brothers, from a camera mounted on the back of a car. There’s something just a little jaunty about their postures, which ramps up the creep factor another notch. Another Procedural down arrow.
48) Meanwhile, Mulder watches television despite a terrible signal. A static-obscured hyena prowls across the screen, then joins another in tearing apart the carcass of its prey, as a high-pitched narrator describes pack predation. We register yet another suspenseful Procedural arrow as we realize the pack of brothers could be headed toward Mulder.
49) Meanwhile, Taylor tosses and turns in bed next to his wife. Our fear shifts back to him, for another Procedural down arrow.
50) Taylor comes alert as he hears an engine sound, and the headlights of a rumbling vehicle play across his bedroom curtain. The threat of the brothers seems to have been realized—we’re still in Procedural territory, and headed deeper into fear.
51) Taylor hears Johnny Mathis playing—he doesn’t know that’s bad, but we do. Looking out the window, he sees the brothers’ vehicle and warns his wife to hide under the bed. In this Procedural beat, the danger continues to escalate, for yet another down arrow.
52) Taylor announces that he’s going for the gun. Events have now forced him to reverse his previous internal Dramatic beat, setting aside innocence for the awareness of arming himself. Though we might hope he can use the gun against the brothers, the prior emotional beat gives us no reason to celebrate, so this also resolves on a downward note.
53) Leaving the bedroom, Taylor sees one of the brothers entering the house. The innocence of a town where no one locks their doors has met the awareness of the longstanding evil everyone has ignored. A Procedural down beat.
54) Unable to get to his gun, Taylor picks up a baseball bat. This seems less formidable than the gun would have been, so this Procedural beat pushes the needle down. Though we as viewers probably aren’t thinking about theme and subtext now, the bat recalls the game played by the boys when the disorder was first discovered, and pivots a symbol of a pastime celebrated for its all-American innocence into an implement of violence.
55) The Procedural down beats on keep coming. Cutting between Taylor and his wife, we see both of their expressions grow increasingly fearful as the sound of heavy shoes on wooden floorboards reverberates through the house.
56) Taylor gets the first bat hit in, a Procedural beat that breaks a streak of eleven down beats.
57) But right away the Procedural down beats resume as the brother is not much fazed and begins to beat Taylor.
58) He grabs the bat and beats Taylor to death as the sheriff’s horrified wife watches from under the bed. Our fears are realized in this Procedural beat.
59) Another brother appears, and starts sniffing the air. In this downward Procedural beat, our fear shifts to Mrs. Taylor.
60) The pool of blood from the sheriff’s murder spreads to touch his wife’s fingers. Unable to suppress a sob, she gives herself away. The camera cranes away from the house as we hear her being murdered as well: another Procedural down beat, of course.
61) Johnny Mathis comes up in the sound mix as the brothers hustle out of the Taylor house and into their car. This Procedural beat tells us that they will remain at large. Though this comes as little surprise and is nowhere near as shocking as the previous beats, it’s still not good, and registers another down arrow.
62) We shift in time but not in place, remaining at the Taylor house, commencing a murder investigation sequence that comes as an Outgrowth of the previous beats. Deputy Pastor stands anxiously at watch. We are back in the light of day as Scully and Mulder drive up, their arrival promising a return to order. Mulder spots a clue—the tire marks in the lawn match a big American car. This Procedural beat shifts the mood upward.
63) Pastor supplies them with information, including the fact that the Cadillac was abandoned by a motorist and is unrelated to any kidnapping. The actor plays his distress at the death of his boss as the subtext of his otherwise dry dialogue, giving this Reveal a downward emotional trajectory.
64) They enter the house; Mulder examines Taylor’s body and identifies the murder weapon as a wooden object. This demonstration of Procedural competence moves us toward hope.
65) Scully reads the lab report Pastor has handed her. It must be wrong, she says: for it to be correct, the child’s cells would have had to “divide triple-fold in cell metaphase.” Mulder floats the theory that we viewers have already leapt to, that all three brothers fathered the child. Scully lists the many scientific reasons ruling that out, adding that it is only remotely possible if a female Peacock still lives, which they know not to be the case. In a case of narrative irony, having seen the birth sequence at the top of the episode, we know more than the identification characters. When Scully is wrong, trouble follows, making this investigative misstep a Procedural down beat.
66) Mulder and Scully discuss whether they should head to the Peacock house now, or wait for backup. Scully argues that it will take a day, with a kidnap victim still in the house. Deputy Pastor agrees to take them out there, evening the odds. This beat exists to counter the stock question of why the protagonists go into a dangerous situation themselves instead of letting a tactical team do it, and carries scant emotional weight: a Reveal with a lateral arrow.
67) Scully raises another question: how could the Peacocks know that Taylor issued a warrant for them? They weren’t in the house when Mulder and Scully searched it. Narrative irony rears its head again: our heroes know less than we do. This failure to comprehend the Procedural obstacles before them strikes a down note.
68) In what we can assume to be a Meanwhile transition, we cut to the Peacock family, who have yet to be rousted by our heroes. We get the best-lit view so far of their monstrous faces. We discover that the previously seen peering eyes did not belong to one of them, as we likely assumed. This Reveal carries an ominous charge: Mulder, Scully, and Pastor will be outnumbered, and continue to know less than we do.
69) One of the brothers speaks to the others, attempting to pep talk them into assurance. His words ironically echo the sheriff’s: they knew the day would come when outside forces would try to change them, and they must now fight to protect their home. Although the other brothers grant his Dramatic petition by springing into action to prepare for action, we’re not rooting for the murderers to achieve family harmony: this lands as a down beat.
/> 70) Mulder, Scully, and Pastor arrive at the house. Pastor takes the lead, proposing to go in from the front while our heroes come from the back. We also learn that the Peacocks have been known to fire muskets. This Procedural exchange, about external planning rather than emotional needs, provokes fear, particularly for the gung-ho figure who is not a series regular.
71) In a Procedural sequence shot, scored, and cut to emphasize danger, the law enforcement officers advance on the house as planned. When she gets closer, Scully’s binoculars reveal that the brothers aren’t inside the house. That throws a wrench into their plan, and a down arrow onto the beat map.
72) The deputy continues up onto the porch and moves through the doorway. Scully sees a booby trap atop the doorframe and cries out to him through their radio link. Another down Procedural beat.
73) The booby trap turns out to be an axe, and Scully’s warning comes too late. It strikes Deputy Pastor, taking him out. We see a few seconds of movement as one of the brothers moves into the frame created by her binoculars. Beat type: Procedural; direction: down.
74) Scully reveals to Mulder that Pastor is dead, and reports that the brothers advanced on him like a pack of animals. This calls back to the hyena documentary Mulder was watching in beat 48, and prompts a Mulder monologue describing them as having reverted to the “most savage laws of nature.” This puts a new spin on the throughline, suggesting an awareness that the oldest ways of doing things aren’t innocent at all. Binocular shots of the brothers still beating on the slain deputy underscore the point. This moment of Commentary, a staple of the show, emphasizes the menace of the Peacocks and keeps the trajectory heading down.
75) This leads to tactical discussion: with the house likely full of similar traps, they decide against invading and in favor of a diversion that lures the brothers out of the house. The emergence of a promising plan—one hatched by them and not a disposable secondary character—gives this Procedural beat our first moment of hope since their arrival at the Taylor house.
76) Our heroes are then seen inside the Peacocks’ pigpen, in an attempt to scatter their livestock. Mulder cuts the tension with a wisecrack: “Would you think less of me as a man if I told you I was excited by this?” Scully supplies one of her own, pushing a reluctant pig and calling out “Baa Ram Ewe.” This reference to the delightful kid’s movie Babe, juxtaposed with this horrific situation, supplies a shock laugh. Jokes = Gratification beats, which always lead up.
77) One of the brothers comes out of the house. Procedural down beat.
78) Mulder and Scully duck down. But the brother seems less interested in them, or even the pigs, than in washing blood off his hands at an outdoor water pump. This moment of Procedural relief registers as an up note.
79) But then he does notice the escaping pigs, and runs back into the house. This Procedural beat plays ambiguously, notated by crossed arrows: we fear for Mulder and Scully if all the brothers come out, but then again, this is the way they wanted their plan to work.
80) All three brothers come out to chase the pigs: the Procedural plan is working, earning our heroes an unambiguous up arrow.
81) Mulder and Scully successfully sneak up to the house. A second Procedural up arrow.
82) Mulder uses a board to poke open the door, triggering a spear trap. A third Procedural up arrow.
83) They perform a tense search inside the darkened house. Cued by the score and performances, we’re waiting for something to jump out at them and so feel fear on their behalf, for a Procedural down arrow.
84) They find family photos suggesting that the Peacocks have been mutants for generations. This Reveal confirms Mulder’s earlier theory, allowing us to take pleasure in his competence, scoring an up arrow.
85) They discover a woman under a bed. Assuming her to be a kidnap victim, they try to calm her, but she screams out in panic, demanding that they go away. Although they’re interacting with her through dialogue, this remains more Procedural than Dramatic; they don’t need something emotional from her, but something practical—her silence. Which they aren’t getting, so it’s a down arrow.
86) Mulder pulls her out from the bed, discovering that she is strapped to a homemade version of one of those wheeled platforms mechanics use to work on their backs under cars. (Fun fact: in the trade, they are known as creepers.) The woman looks old, facially disfigured, and has had her limbs amputated. That’s a horrifying Reveal, and thus a down arrow, if ever there was one.
87) Scully spots a family photo and explains that they can’t take her home—this is her home. She’s the mother. This Reveal not only confronts us with the distress we feel around the incest taboo, but also disproves the kidnap theory that brought them here without backup. Another down note. (It also plays as a dark realization of Scully’s previously expressed fears surrounding her desire to eventually become a mother herself, a motif that continues to play out over the course of the series.)
88) In a moment of chilling implication, Mrs. Peacock rolls herself back under the bed. This creepy grace note doesn’t move the story in any particular direction but does upset us even further, and so can be counted as a Bringdown.
89) While checking to see that the brothers remain occupied with the pigs, Mulder and Scully confer on what to do. They decide that Scully should try to persuade the mother to convince her sons to give themselves up. This may not be the most likely Procedural plan ever, but the relative quiet of the scene does provide a moment of surcease from the horror, for an up arrow.
90) As Scully heads off, Mulder warns her to look out for traps, reminding us that the two of them aren’t safe yet. This quick Procedural beat points the arrow down again.
91) And indeed, the camera then pans down to, and brings into focus, a tripwire. Scully turns down the hall before reaching it, leaving open a Question: how will this get tripped? Like most questions, even those not involving booby traps, this registers as a down arrow.
92) Mulder watches as the brothers conclude their pig-wrangling. A confrontation is coming. This Procedural beat ramps up the tension and pushes down the arrow.
93) In a Dramatic exchange, Scully petitions Mrs. Peacock to accept her aid and is rebuffed, for a down arrow. (Why is this a Dramatic exchange when we called the last persuasion attempt Procedural? Because here Scully isn’t trying to gain anything that will solve the Dilemma. Instead she’s performing her duties as a caregiver for emotional reasons—it’s about who she is, not what practical benefit she’s trying to get. Not that this distinction matters greatly either way.)
94) Switching tactics after Mrs. Peacock refers to her sons as “good boys,” Scully tells her that they murdered three people. The mutant matriarch hisses at her that she must not be a mother, because she doesn’t understand what motherhood is all about. Another Dramatic beat ends on a down note.
95) Mulder watches as one of the brothers smells the ground and realizes there are other intruders left to deal with, adding a Procedural beat and down arrow to the map.
96) Mulder blocks the doorway with a table and draws his gun. In this Procedural beat he improves his position against the opposition, moving the arrow up.
97) Despite a warning shot, the brother at the door won’t stop trying to bust in. Procedural down beat.
98) Another brother looms up behind Mulder with a club. Scully calls out to warn him. Procedural down beat.
99) Scully shoots the club-wielding brother, who goes down. Procedural up beat.
100) A third brother grabs Mulder. Procedural down arrow.
101) The brother at the door gets through it and comes at Scully. Procedural down arrow.
102) The two remaining brothers struggle with Mulder, leaving Scully unable to get a clear shot. Procedural down arrow.
103) One of the brothers grabs his gun (or maybe has the deputy’s weapon), for another Procedural down arrow.
104) Scully shoots the gun
-wielding mutant, turning the Procedural arrow up.
105) She empties her clip but both brothers remain up, turning the Procedural arrow back down.
Beating the Story Page 22
