X-Files Episode Guide: Kaddish

Written by Howard Gordon

Directed by Kim Manners

There's a certain fitness that Gordon's last solo script for the series is another in his specialty---- supernatural revenge. But this is one of his very best scripts---- the anger that fueled so many of them seems more finely drawn, more personal. Admittedly, Gordon later said that the inspirations for this script came from his grandmother, Lillian Katz---- to whom this story is dedicated. But mostly it because, for once, the emotions seems to drawn inward rather than reflected outward.

Is Fox Mulder Jewish? This is a question that the series would never answer to anyone's satisfaction. (Hint, hint, Chris Carter.) But this episode puts forth the greatest case that he might be. His familiarly with the setting of New York's relationship with hate crimes, the utter disdain he shows Brunjes, the neo-Nazi who publishes the propaganda that spurs three young men to kill a Hassidic Jew, the coolness with which he takes the slur Brunjes throws at him combined with one of his most angry one-liner about the supposed resurrection of that same victim : "A Jew pulled off the same trick, two thousand years ago: - all of this would seem to point to someone with a Jewish background.  As for the fact that he doesn't speak any Hebrew---- well, given his feelings about religion, the viewer can understand why he might not have studied as closely as he might.

More to the point, the episode takes the measure of the Hassidic community with surprising respect. The X-Files doesn't have the greatest track record when it comes to religious practices--- one needs only look at his send up of the Amish in Genderbender, or their treatment of a vegetarian cult  in Red Museum. But this time, Gordon pays attention and gets the details right, not only of the centuries of prosecution that the Jewish people have taken, but also in the ways that Jacob Weiss, the victim's father-in-law has taken out his anger much the same way the skinheads who killed his son-in-law has.

In later  series, the Golem would become such a staple that it's understandable that it would take on much of the marks of cliché. But because its so personal in this script, it takes on a real vitality. It also takes on the power of words to bring life into the inanimate, not just in the creation of the monster, but in the way it is eventually brought down, by simply erasing one of the letters that is on his wrist. The metaphor is also backed up very well in the pamphlets and the printing press that Brunjes hides behind to assail the Jewish people, and how genuinely appalled he is when he learns that his words have been responsible for the death of one.

All of this would be good enough on its own to make an extremely powerful story--- the writing is good, and the performances of David Groh as Weiss and Justine Miceli as Ariel are extremely balanced and well done. But what makes this story special--- and delivers it from the darkness and cynicism that has pervaded so much of Season 4--- is the way that in the final act, it changes tiers and becomes a surprisingly moving love story. When we learn that Ariel created the Golem not to wreak vengeance on the man who killed her husband, but rather so she could say goodbye to him on their wedding day, its one of the more poignant moments of the series, and a rare powerful one that we don't usually get from the show. It has a warmth that we rarely get on the X-Files, one that contrasted rather nicely with the darkness that has emitted from it much of the episode.

If there is a flaw, it once again lies in the problems with scheduling. Kaddish was written before the cancer arc storyline was supposed to start, and it's lack of references to the life-changing news that we got last week makes it seem a little more out of place. More to the point, compared with the false but moving histrionics of Memento Mori, the gentleness of the love story seems a lot less showy. Had it aired in its proper place---- after El Mundo Gira, an episode that got so much of its love story wrong---- the episode would have a better reputation than it does.

There are some slightly frustrating things with the story----  for about half of the episode, it seems that nothing paranormal is going on at all. Of course, considering that Scully brings to case to Mulder, and that they are called in to examine it under the statutes of a hate crime threads that needle. It's also a little frustrating that once again Scully arrives on scene just after something paranormal has taken place, and once again Mulder witnesses the climax of the episode alone. But these are minor complaints to what is a very dark, angry, and ultimately touching  episode.

My score: 4.25 stars.