A doctor's life is plagued by the deaths of those around him, and the word 'theef' is left each time in the vicinity. Can Mulder and Scully stop a killer who is using hexing?

This kind of thing has been tackled before on The X-Files, and far better at that. The main protagonist is known almost from the beginning, so all mystery is killed. The word 'theef', rather than having a vital significance that Mulder and Scully must figure out, is actually just a misspelling and a link to something the doctor did in the past.

Not only is there no atmosphere at all, an unusual problem to afflict this series, but there's little plot to speak of, and the episode drags horrendously as a result. It's almost an amalgamation of Fresh Bones and Kaddish, but it has none of the shock or surprise of either. It's just plain dull. The hexer responsible for everything isn't very malevolent until the end when he suddenly decides to attack the doctor, his daughter and Scully directly, by which point the audience has lost interest.

These last few minutes are the best part of the episode as Scully is blinded and the doctor is tortured using a voodoo-style doll, but it stills relys on Mulder rushing to the rescue rather than Scully triumphing despite her loss of vision. If given the option, just watch the start and finish of this episode, as they're the only creepy and unsettling bits, and as such, the only bits worth bothering with.

**

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