The X-files
Kaddish
Episode: 4X12
First aired:2/17/97
Written by:Howard Gordon
Directed by:Kim Manners
Very interesting episode.
Mourners gather at a cemetery in Brooklyn to pay their last respects to
Isaac Luria, a
Hasidic man
brutally murdered by three teenaged hate-mongers. Among the group is
Ariel Luria, and her father, Jacob Weiss. When night falls, a shadowy
figure enters the
cemetery and shapes a man-sized sculpture out of mud.
Mulder and
Scully investigate Isaac Luria's death. Isaac, who lived in a
neighborhood
with a history of racial tension, was severely beaten inside his market.
Police ruled out
robbery as a motive as nothing was stolen. They later retrieved a store
surveillance tape
from the VCR of a
sixteen year-old named Tony Oliver, one of the teenagers who
participated in the killing. Oliver was strangled by an unknown
assailant. Most intriguing
to Mulder is the discovery of Isaac Luria's finger prints on Oliver's body.
Weiss shows them an
anti-Semitic pamphlet left at his door that very morning. Mulder
tells his partner that whoever printed the
pamphlets probably knows who killed Isaac.
The agents interview Curt Brunjes, who owns a copy shop across the street from Isaac's
market. When the agents show Brunjes photos of Banks and Macguire, (the
teenagers
suspected of beating Isaac), he claims their faces are
unfamiliar. Unbeknownst to the
agents, Banks listens in on the conversation via a
security surveillance camera. Scully
tells Brunjes there are rumors that Isaac has risen from the grave to
avenge his murder.
Spooked, Banks and Macguire dig up Isaac's
coffin. As Macguire walks to the car to
retrieve some tools, Banks pries open the coffin lid and discovers Isaac's body inside.
Later, Banks finds Macguire's body protruding from
a mound of mud.
The agents are called to the crime scene. Mulder locates a
leather book tucked
beneath Isaac's burial shroud. But when he touches the old book, it suddenly bursts into
flames. The agents turn to Kenneth Ungar, a scholar from the judaica Arcl-iives. Ungar
explains that what Mulder found was a book on
Jewish mysticism. He insists it would
never have been buried with the dead. Ungar notes a name engraved into the leather:
Jacob Weiss.
Ariel tells the agents that although she and her husband received their
wedding license
weeks before the murder, the
marriage ceremony never transpired.
The agents locate Weiss in the attic of a
synagogue. They also discover Banks' dead
body hanging from a
wooden beam. Weiss is arrested and charged with murder. He
admits to both of the murders, but Mulder believes someone--or something--was in the
attic with him.
Unger tells Mulder about the
Golem, a creature from
mystical text. He explains how
early Kabbalists believed a righteous man could create a living being from the earth
itself. A single Hebrew word, "
emet," is inscribed on the back of the Golem's hand. To
destroy the Golem, Unger explains, the first letter, "e," must be erased.
Brunjes is found
murdered. When the agents examine the
surveillance camera tape.
They discover that the Golem whose
physical features match those of Isaac Luria is
responsible for the murder. Weiss returns to the
synagogue after he is released from jail.
There he discovers Ariel preparing for her
wedding ceremony. When Weiss attempts to
stop his
daughter, the Golem attacks him. The agents rescue Weiss and, as Scully
attends to his injuries, Mulder searches for Ariel. The Golem attacks Mulder, knocking
him aside as he attempts to fend off the being. But Ariel intercedes. When the wedding
continues, the Golem places a ring on Ariel's finger. Ariel expresses her love for Isaac,
then wipes the letter "e" off the Golems' hand. The creature
crumbles into dust.
Important Quotes:
Mulder -- "Yeah,
spectral figures are not often known to leave
fingerprints.
Casper never did."
Brunjes -- "What kind of
Jew trick is this?"
Mulder -- "A Jew pulled it off
2000 years ago."
Mulder -- "It seems pretty
redundant, doesn't it? Messing up somebody you've already killed? I think they were afraid."
Scully -- "Afraid?"
Mulder -- "Afraid that the man they
hated enough to kill wasn't really dead."
Mulder -- "I don't speak
Hebrew . . . I don't know what that means."
Scholar -- "
Truth."
Back to The X-files: Season 4