THEEF

Dr. Irving Thalbro is staying the night with his daughter and her family in Marin County, California, including her husband Dr. Robert Wieder (James Morrison). In the middle of the night, Irving finds a pile of dirt shaped like a man in his bed. Irving is eventually discovered by Robert hanging from the ceiling with the word "theef" painted in Irving's blood on the wall.

While investigating the next morning, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) notices the graveyard dirt in Irving's bed and believes it may be caused by a hoodoo hex. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), however, believes that the doctor committed suicide by slitting his own throat, writing on the wall, and hanging himself. After the autopsy, it is determined that Irving suffered from a prion disease called kuru, which has not been found in the United States before. Mulder believes that kuru was given to him by a hex that caused him to go mad. The Wieders then find a family photo missing from their bedroom, and a "hoodoo man", later revealed to be named Orell Peattie (Billy Drago), is seen placing the faces cut from the picture into various poppet dolls. Ms. Wieder collapses after another pile of graveyard dirt is found in her bed. Her skin then sprouts lesions as the "hoodoo man" stands by the pool talking to the doll.

Peattie 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. Mulder consults an expert in the occult, who notes that, in order to commit hexes, the man must draw energy from a charm and place blood, hair and a picture of the victim inside a "poppet" in order to follow through with the hexes. Meanwhile, Mrs. Wieder is burned to death during an MRI, and the "hoodoo man" is found taking her doll out of a microwave. The word "theef" is also found branded in Mrs. Wieder's chest. Wieder tells the agents about the man who came to see him and the Jane Doe case. After investigating, it is revealed that the Jane Doe was Lynnette Peattie, who had previously died in a bus crash. The doctor gave her an overdose of morphine, euthanizing her due to her pain. Mulder assumes the man is her father and that he feels the doctor stole his family away from him. Mulder decides to exhume the Lynette's body and take away her father's power, but when they exhume the casket there is no body inside.

Meanwhile, Peattie's landlord sneaks into his apartment for pain medication and finds Lynette's body in his bed. Immediately, she contracts a flesh-eating disease. After hearing about the incident on the news, Mulder goes to Peattie's apartment and finds the body, now headless. Peattie finds the Wieder family, whom Scully is protecting, and makes a poppet with Scully's hair and photo inside. He places nails in the doll's eyes and Scully promptly goes blind. Peattie breaks into the house, takes Scully's gun and stabs a poppet of Wieder, causing the doctor to collapse in pain. Wieder gets Peattie to admit that he's taking out his own guilt about not being able to save Lynette by blaming him instead. Mulder shows up, finds Scully's doll and removes the nails from it, allowing her to regain her vision and shoot Peattie. He is placed in a coma and Lynnette's body is shipped back to her home in West Virginia

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