“Chinga” – Season 5 Ep. 10

Mulder: Huh … it sounds to me like that’s witchcraft or maybe some sorcery that you’re looking for there.

Scully: No, I don’t think it’s witchcraft, Mulder, or sorcery. I’ve had a look around and I don’t see any evidence that warrants that kind of suspicion.

Mulder: Maybe you don’t know what you’re looking for.

Scully: Like evidence of conjury or the black arts or shamanism, divination, Wicca or any kind of pagan or neo-Pagan practice. Charms, cards… familiars, bloodstones, or hex signs or any of the ritual tableaux associated with the occult, Santeria, Voudoun, Macumba, or any high or low magic?

Mulder: Scully…

Scully: Yes?

Mulder: Marry me.

Scully: I was hoping for something a little more helpful.

Written by: Stephen King & Chris Carter

Directed by: Kim Manners

Original Air Date: February 8th, 1998

Principal Setting: Somewhere in Maine

Episode Summary:

While on a weekend off in the small New England town of Ammab Beach, Scully comes across a grocery store full of people who tried to gouge out their own eyes. The people have no idea why they did this to themselves. On the telephone, Mulder tells her it all sounds like witchcraft but she isn’t so sure. One woman in the store, Melissa Turner, seemed unaffected by it all but her reputation of being a witch works against her. She was widowed the year before and her boyfriend Dave stabbed himself in the eye and died in the grocery store incident. Scully focuses on Melissa’s daughter and in particular, the young girl’s doll.

Personal Commentary:

I liked this episode mostly due to the phone calls between Mulder and Scully. We haven’t really seen an episode where Mulder has been hands off and bored while Scully is doing all the grunt work in fighting off a crazy doll. I liked how Mulder was still giving her advice and theories on what he thought was going on (which was correct once again) and he wasn’t even there to investigate. Scully really puts it in her own hands to end the dolls manipulating ways and I really liked her assertiveness in this episode.

It was cool to see an episode written by my favorite author, Stephen King, but it just felt like a rehashed story that’s been done numerous times. That doll still gave me the creeps though.

Oh and side note, if you’ve seen the new trailer for the revival season, now you know why there are pencils in Mulder’s office ceiling. 🙂

Episode Grade: C

Favorite Scene:

Fun Facts:

• When Scully mentions the possibility of a possessed doll being involved in the killings, Mulder jokingly mentions the famous horror character Chucky. Brad Dourif, who provides Chucky’s voice in the films, appeared in the twelfth episode of Season One as the psychic convict Luther Lee Boggs.
• Original name of this episode was Chinga – but it was rejected by Fox as it may have been an objectionable word in some Spanish speaking areas. The name ‘Bunghoney’ was substituted – a rude sounding but nonsensical term. Chinga was later brought back, it means sh*t (or a similar, general expression of disappointment).
• What Scully is listening to when she is having a bath is Hummel: piano concerto no. 3 in B minor
• The ship in which Melissa’s husband died is called Working Girl. This could be a reference to the situation of Scully but it’s too the name of David Duchovny’s film debut.

Faces You May Recognize:

Nobody worth mentioning in this episode.