By Owen Quinn author
Home is by far the most controversial and terrifying episodes of the show. It was the only one that ever needed a viewer discretion alert due to its nature.
it deals with the Peacock family, a family of inbred people living in the community of Home, a quiet town safely off the map and living in its own kind of bubble undisturbed until a body is found by a group of kids playing baseball on the edge of the Peacock property.
That body belongs to a newborn baby that was buried alive in the pouring rain at the episode’s opening scene. The Peacocks are in silhouette yet you know something is not right. It was a brave decision to show a baby being buried alive but it is crucial to the story and understanding the Peacocks. There is no doubt viewers’ collective jaws hit the ground at this scene which immediately lets you know the tone for the rest of the episode.
It is an idylic location, quiet, peaceful and Mulder admits that if he had to settle down somewhere then this would be it. One of the themes of the episode is a staple of horror.
A small town which harbours a dark secret. This is very much the case. There is an unspoken truce between the Peacockd and everyone else. They haven’t left their house in a decade and no one bothers them. According to the sheriff, the Peacocks built their home during the civil war. It has no modern luxuries like water and electricity. They grow their own food, raise their own livestock and own stock. The imp;lication is that they inbreed. The sheriff calls them feeble, unable to understand what the discovery of this baby actually means. Their parents were killed in a car crash and they keep themselves to themselves. He knew that oen day their peaceful world would burst and the day the baby was found, the sheriff knew that day had come.
Such is the peaceful balance in Home, the Ssheriff never locks his office door, they have no lab or morgue, just a fridge to keep the baby’s body in. It’s all very Pleasantville.
Scully and Mulder discover the child has more than one father which is impossible. They believe that the peacock boys have kidnapped a woman and have been breeding with her against her will. That is a terrifying implication that a town so set in its equilibrium would not boither to investigate that possibility. Better to sacrifice one person than riun the town of Home. Home it is and Home it will always be.
This is very Wrong Turn and Hills have Eyes in nature. The difference is that the Peacocks are not mad killers hunting humans to eat. They are an isolationist family that really demonstrate the true value of family in the most shocking, horrific way. They are so different to the outside world yet to the residents of Home, they are part of the community they have come to accept.
the ironic thing about the Peacocks is that they are the perfect neighbours. They keep to themselves, they never borrow anything , fight with anyone or owe anyone a single thing. They have deep family values, love each other and look out for one another. They see 6hings very simply and when Mulder and Scully enter their home to see if there really is a girl being held captive, the Peacocks feel their trust has been broken. In their heads, there is only one comeback and that is to break into Sheriff Taylor’s home and beat him and his wife to death. Taylor brought the agents here so he has broken the unspoken treaty between the Peacocks and the townspeople. Their inbreeding has messed with their minds so things are very black and whiote. Outsiders have come to stick their noses in their business and for the Peacocks they look out for one another and they always do what mother says.
The discovery of their mother on a board under the bed is the most shocking site of the entire show’s history. She did not die in the car crash, only her husband did. She lost all her limbs and her boys have taken care of her since. It is the most grotesque sight and when Mulder and |Scully realise the truth, theyare almost killed for the discovery.
The mother lets her sons have sex with her and the baby scene suddenly takes a more tragic slant. The Peaccock man crying was in fact the father being comforted by his brother while the third brother did what they needed to do. They knew the baby was sp deformed that it was better for it to die. This is demonstrated when |Scully first sees the body. Sheriff Taylor has kept it away from prying eyes ebcause the child is so badly deformed.
In their heads, the Peaccocks have a sense of right and wrong. They are good boys for their mother and she gives them what they need. There’s nothing supernatural here or a genetic monster of the week. It is simply that old saying that you don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. You cannot write anything about this episode without paying tribute to actress Karin Konoval who portrays Mrs peacock who is only looking out for her boys. Her performance is so disturbing along with the makeup, her character is immediatel;y burned into the memory. She would return in a later season ina different role but Mrs Peacock is one to be immensely proud of.
The other policeman, Barney, is killed by a booby trap while entering the Peacock home to take them in for murder. Again, the Peacocks know the consequences of ehat they have done and they will kill anyone that trespasses on their world. The outside world broke the rules; it is threatening them.
In the battle, the two youngest Peacock boys are killed before they can kill Mulder and Scully. But Mrs Peacock and her eldest son escape in their car to the Johnny Mathis song, Wonderful! Wonderful! This is the same song that they play on the way to murder Taylor and his wife. Behind the scenes, the singer refused to allow it to be used due to the grpahic nature of the episode so a cover was used featuring someone who sounded like Mathis.
Indeed, actor Tucker Smallwood, fresh off |Space |Above And Beyond, was shocked by the violence and when he asked were the X Files always so graphic, he was tols, this episode was worse than normal. He found it an unpleasant experience.
However, no one can deny the burning impact this episode has. It elevaterd the show into |Silence of the lambs territory, not that they hadn’t done it before but not to this level of horror. As I said, Mrs peacock and her son escaped to begin a new family somewhere else but we never got to meet them again.
However, they would return in the X Files comic season 11 in Home Again. In part two of this article, we discover what happened to the Peacocks.
But do we really want to given how terrifying they are?
The Time Warriors and Beyond 