Theef

"Theef" is the fourteenth episode of the of . Originally airing on the Fox network on March 12, 2000, the episode was written by , and , and was directed by .
Theef is a "" story, independent of the series' arc.
==Synopsis==
An Appalachian man seeks revenge against a doctor whom he believes has wronged him by using horrific, arcane techniques similar to voodoo.
==Summary==
Dr. Irving Thalbro is staying the night with his daughter and her family, including her husband Dr. Robert Wieder. In the middle of the night, Irving finds a pile of dirt shaped like a man in his bed. He is then found by Robert hanging from the ceiling with the word "Theef" painted in Irving's blood on the wall. The next morning Mulder sees the graveyard dirt in his bed and believes it may be caused by a voodoo hex. Scully find, however, that the doctor committed suicide by slitting his own throat, writing on the wall, and hanging himself. He was also found to have an ancient disease Kuru, which has not been found in the US before. Mulder believes that Kuru was given to him by a hex; causing him to go mad. The Wieders then find a family photo missing from their bedroom, and the voodoo man is seen placing the faces cut from the picture into voodoo dolls. Ms. Wieder collapses after another pile of graveyard dirt is found in her bed. Her skin then sprouts lesions as the voodoo man stands by the pool talking to the doll.
The Voodoo man visits Dr. Wieder at work, but refuses to tell him why he is committing these hexes against his family. Wieder does some research of his own and finds a bracelet in a Jane Doe file that he believes may be connected. A woman who specializes in voodoo said that, in order to commit these hexes, the man is drawing on the energy of a charm and places hair and a picture of the victim inside the dolls in order to follow through with the hexes. Mrs. Wieder is then burned to death during an MRI, and the Voodoo man is found taking the voodoo doll out of the microwave. The word "Theef" is also found branded in Mrs. Wieder's chest. Dr. Wieder tells the agents that the man came to see him, and that he found the woman the man was talking about. The Jane Doe was Lynnette Peattie and she died last October during a bus crash. The doctor gave her an overdose of Morphine and she died. Mulder assumes the man is her father and that he feels the doctor stole his family. Mulder decides to exhume the body of Lynette Peattie and move it to Virginia, taking away her father's power, but when they exhume the casket there is no body inside. Peattie's landlord sneaks into his apartment for pain medication and finds the body of Lynnette in his bed and then contracts a flesh-eating disease. Mulder goes to Peattie's apartment and finds Lynnette's body with the head missing, and Peattie has left. Peattie finds the family, whom Scully is protecting, and makes a voodoo doll with Scully's hair and photo inside. He places nails in the doll and Scully goes blind. Peattie breaks into the house, takes Scully's gun and stabs a voodoo doll of Dr. Wieder, causing the doctor to collapse in pain. Mulder shows up, finds Scullly's voodoo doll and removes the nails from it, causing her to regain her vision and shoot Peattie. He's hospitalized, and Lynnette's body is shipped back to her home in West Virginia.
==References==
Lynette Peattie; Hexcraft; Poppet; Baba Yaga
==Background Information==
*The death of Lynette Peattie by overdose in the ER appears heavily based off a similar death of Libby Zion, a patient dead from an overdose during a night of overworked staff that eventually lead to the legislation of the .
*When discussing Peattie in the graveyard with Scully, Moulder refers to him as “charmed.” This is possibly a backhanded reference to Billy Drago, who played Peattie, as well as the character Barbas in the TV show “Charmed.”
===Cast and Characters===
*James Morrison (Dr. Robert Wieder) previously played James Horn in the Millennium episode "Dead Letters".
==Cast==
Starring
* as 
* as 
Guest Starring
* Billy Drago as Orell Peattie
* James Morrison as Dr. Robert Wieder
* Kate McNeil as Nan Wieder
* Cara Jedell as Lucy Wieder
* Tom Dahlgren as Dr. Irving Thalbro
* Sage Allen as Landlady
* Pamela Gordon as Proprietor
Co-Starring
* Michael Sidney as Security Guard
* Matthew Sutherland as Records Clerk
* Dylan Kussman as Med Student
* Aaron Braxton as Radiology Tech
* Leah Sanders as First Reporter
* Mark Thompson as John Gillnitz
== External Links ==
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=Episode Navigation=
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Category:The X-Files Season 7 episodes
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