“Chaco Chicken. Good People. Good Food.” – Chaco Motto.
OUR TOWN [Standalone] Aired May 12, 1995
Episode: 2×24 / 48 Overall
Director: Rob Bowman • Writer: Frank Spotnitz
Reports of foxfire on a field in Dudley, Arkansas lead Mulder and Scully to a bizarre situation regarding the townsfolk. Employees of the Chaco Chicken Corporation are displaying bizarre behavior, and the death rate is slowly increasing.
There’s something creepy about small towns. The idea of wandering in to some backwoods part of the country where everyone except you is in on the secret. There’s an incestuous vibe to it, a sense of anonymity and isolation which suggests that what happens in this town, stays in this town. Many horror stories take place in a small towns, often somewhere in the Southern United States, where folks are a bit ‘set in their ways’ and wary of outsiders. The unassuming traveller unintentionally brings with them the threat of change or perhaps the locals fear their unconventional ways will be exposed by this interloper. Either way there’s always something sinister lurking just underneath the friendly visage. Spotnitz’s first standalone episode, his second overall, employs this familiar trope with a story about human cannibalism. The script isn’t populated by the type of inbred caricatures we often see in these stories, rather the townsfolk all appear quite normal when we meet them. It’s their actions that are disturbing.
Spotnitz doesn’t give anything away too quickly, and the plot is slowly fleshed out over the course of the episode so that we’re never guessing too far ahead of what’s happening on screen. The inclusion of the rare disease works almost like a misdirection to the cannibalism. This, along with the discovery of Paula’s age discrepancy and the mysterious tribal masked murderer at the beginning of the episode mean that early on in the proceedings it feels like the story could go in many different directions. There’s a good sense of mystery about the events that have occurred and Mulder and Scully get down to some solid detective work to uncover the truth. The tone is sometimes comedic, especially early on, and gradually descends in to a much darker, more sinister feel as we discover the horrors that are occurring in Dudley. The scene in which Paula slowly submerges in a vat of blood and ground chicken waste is both suitably disgusting and also a clever foreshadowing of what will be revealed later on.
The writing does waver towards the end when they once again resort to placing Scully in danger in order for Mulder to save her. It’s a little hard to swallow this type of plot device when we consider that our female lead is a highly trained F.B.I. field agent who you would expect to be able to handle herself without the need to rely on her male counterpart. It’s also not so much the sexism of the situation as it is a tired cliché of creating a climactic moment by placing one of the leads in danger. I find this rarely works to their advantage as there is never any doubt that either will be harmed. After all, we need them to come back for the next episode. Placing a more minor character in danger has a greater effect as it’s very plausible that they will get killed. Of course the audience needs to care about this person for the effect to pay off so there’s a delicate balance between using the invincible main characters and an insignificant bit player whom we couldn’t care less about. The revelation that Chaco, a man with the appearance of a 60 year old, is actually 93 gives credence to the idea of cannibalism prolonging life. The inclusion of this plot point has been criticized as going too far but I thought it added to the slightly supernatural feel of the episode and gave the story more weight. It worked particularly well because it wasn’t laboured as an integral component of the show, but worked simply as an arousing addition to cap off the story. An enjoyably creepy, perhaps even underrated, small town horror story to conclude this season’s standalone tales.
★★★☆☆
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