When most teens get angry with their parents, they lash out at them by yelling, or leaving with the car. But if you're the parent of one of Karin Matthews patients, I'd be very careful... Look out for tree roots, or something may lash out at you.

This episode was the first X-Filean attempt for Jessica Scott and Mike Wollaeger. Basically, I thought it was a good first effort, but it still had a few problems. It almost seemed as if the writers were trying to get away with too much, simply shoving it all under the guise of being "paranormal." The plot was very disjointed and hard to follow, and by the end of the episode I was still scratching my head as to what had just happened. Who was controlling the root systems? Had Bobby really been abused or not? And how could the scary axe man kill Karin without suffering any legal repercussions? The people present may have known that she was possessed by the devil incarnate at the time, but a judge or prosecutor would not. However, I can almost forgive all of these faults just for the fact that the episode was scary. The X-Files has been lacking in good, solid, creepy episodes for awhile, and I'm glad to see the writers haven't forgotten how to make one.

For those of you still confused by the story, I'll do my best to reconstruct it for you. Both Bobby and Lisa were patients of Karin Matthews, a therapist whose psychological approach to dealing with child abuse situations was to have the children stand up against their abuser. Strangely, most of her patients were not truly the victims of abuse, yet she still forced them to stand up to people they did not have to, or did not want to confront. This was her attempt to instill a strength in the children around her that she had never had, for sadly, she had been a victim of abuse. The rage she felt towards her dead father was forcing her to stand up to him. Being unable to do this, the rage consumed her, causing her to become obsessed with, and possessed by, her father.

Who exactly was controlling the root systems and killing all these people still remains fuzzy, though. Perhaps Karin had the power of the trees, used it to kill her father, and then all the men who reminded her of him. Or maybe it was her father could control nature. Or maybe both. This part of the plot was not very well explained, making the episode a bit confusing. I would guess that Karin's unconfronted rage gave her a psychokinetic connection with the trees, allowing her to control their root systems and slay her victims. However, as this was never actually laid out for us in anything other than obfuscated terms, it's just a guess.

The heart of this episode was the issue of child abuse. The question "Schizogeny" asked was whether or not abuse is a justification for murder. Can a victim be excused from killing their abuser just because they were hurt by them? Or is murder always wrong, no matter what the circumstances? Karin Matthews obviously thought her actions were perfectly justified, but Mulder clearly felt the opposite. This is a very difficult issue because there are good reasons to support both sides. A victim may attack their abuser because they are tired of being hurt, and wish them dead before they can have another chance to hurt them. However, as most murder cases involving abused children are not clear-cut self defense, and no person has the right to take another person's life, no matter how evil they may be, it is still illegal to take such actions. There are other ways to get around these things. And they do not include sucking your abusers into the mud of a walnut orchard. The cycle of abuse Karin had tried so hard to stop was once more being repeated.

The performances by the talented young guest actors chosen to play Bobby and Lisa proved to be a high point of this episode. They were able to make you think they were real people, thus making the plot a bit more believable. Being a student myself, I can vouch for the fact that I would not want a kid like Bobby in my chemistry class. He came across as a very creepy guy, the typical skater type that you definitely wouldn't want to get stuck with as your partner for a French project. However, I must say he had great taste in music. Both of the songs he we heard him listening to in this episode, "Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn)" and "Deep," came from "Songs in the Key of X." I thought the latter song was especially fitting since some of its lyrics are "I'm down deep! Six feet low..." Appropriate, no?

After watching this episode, I still found myself asking the question, "What the heck is wrong with Scully these days?" From the onset, she looked bored and uninterested with the case. It didn't even seem as if she was trying this week. Sure, she went through the motions of the investigation like any good FBI agent, but I didn't get the impression that she had any real passion for the case. Unlike Mulder, that is. He was having a great old time putting together smiley faces, climbing trees, and making wry, if somewhat morbid, jokes. Unfortunately, nothing he did could garner even the slightest hint of a smile from Scully.

"Is it possible that this man took the term 'mud pie' literally?"
"Well I'm sure if Mr. Rich were alive he would find some humour in that."

Scully obviously didn't. She appeared more exasperated by Mulder's actions than amused, like a babysitter having to keep track of a rambunctious little boy. Mulder must have sensed this as well. The exasperation in Scully's face as she tried half-heartedly to come up with an explanation for Mr. Rich's death is obvious even to the most absentminded observer. Mulder's smile in response to her explanation seemed to say, "Sure. Fine. Whatever. Can't you do a bit better than that?" If only Scully had been under the influence of a cosmic anomaly, though! At least then there'd be some sort of explanation for her curious behaviour.

As monster of the week episodes go, "Schizogeny" wasn't half bad. But it wasn't spectacular either. It was creepy, it was a wonderful scare, but its plot was a rehashing of a lot of horror movies cliches. How many of us have never seen a girl trapped in a dark damp basement, or a women suddenly possessed, the pitch of her voice plummeting an octave because of the evil within her? I admire its underlying social message, and for the creep factor it treated us to, but as X-Files go, it was pedestrian. A good first effort by Scott and Wollaeger, but average none the less, destined to be sucked into the Michigan mud in the collective minds of X-Philes.

"It's done now. No more."