“Chinga” is episode ten of season five of The X-Files.
A mother tells her daughter, Polly, that she needs to go and get some groceries. The mother seems nervous, but takes the girl and her doll inside a market; an older woman stares at the daughter as they enter. Inside, people are looking at them and Polly says she doesn’t like the store and wants to go home. The doll opens its eyes and says ‘Let’s have some fun.’ The woman sees the butcher they just passed in the glass of a cabinet. He has a knife in his eye and is pleading for help. The mother asks Polly not to do it and says they are going home. Then everyone starts clawing at their faces. The bitcher starts doing the same, and heads to call for help. He then sees what looks like a reflection of the doll and hears it say ‘I want to play.’ He pulls out a knife, but ends up stabbing himself in the eye with it.
Scully pulls up at a petrol station and starts filling up when her phone rings. She digs it out of her suitcase and answers. Scully tells Mulder that they had an agreement to both take the weekend off. Mulder has some information on a case. Scully is not interested. She says she is going to hang up and then turn her phone off.
Afterwards, Scully is pulling into a car park as the Polly’s mother is pulling out rapidly. Scully sees a man come out of the market with a bloody face. She asks what happened. He says he thinks they need a doctor. Not kidding. Inside, everyone has bloody faces and the manager says he doesn’t know what happened. But he thinks Dave the butcher is dead. He’s lying on the floor with a knife sticking out of his eye. Indeed, he looks pretty dead.
Mulder is, by the sounds of it, watching one of his videos when Scully rings. He makes the point that she didn’t want to be disturbed – and on being asked says he’s watching World’s Deadliest Swarms, then changes the channel. Scully explains what happened in the market and that one man is dead. The wounds are self-inflicted. Scully is watching the CCTV tape of what happened. Mulder suggests witchcraft or sorcery. Scully has seen no evidence to warrant that. Mulder suggests she might not know what she’s looking for. Scully reels off a long list. Mulder asks her to marry him. Scully was hoping for something a little more helpful.
After the call, Scully notices Polly and her mother leaving. The chief, Bonsaint, says it’s Melissa Turner. Scully says she’s the only one unaffected. The point? Bonsaint might want to talk to her. According to the chief, people say she’s a witch. Bonsaint thinks that it’s more to do that Melissa is pretty and single. There is, however, one thing. Melissa was carrying on with Dave, the butcher.
The other officer, Buddy, calls Melissa. He wants to talk about what happened. Polly wants Melissa to hang up. Buddy says he needs to see Melissa and is going to come. Melissa doesn’t want him to. The doll opens its eyes and says ‘Let’s have some fun.’ Outside, there’s a shadow of the doll on the washing near Melissa.
Bonsaint and Scully arrive at Melissa’s. There’s no-one there and the rear door is open. Inside, Scully finds a window nailed shut in Polly’s bedroom. She wonders if Melissa was afraid of something getting in. Bonsaint explains Melissa is a local, widowed last year when her husband died in a boating accident. The daughter is autistic and the proprietor of the local day care slapped her, claiming a tantrum so fierce it was the only way. Then that Polly knocked her silly. The day care was shut down. Regarding Dave, Melissa wasn’t having an affair, but made a fool of himself and his wife. Bonsaint also suggests that maybe Melissa was afraid of something getting out, not in.
Buddy is with Melissa and Polly and has bought Polly a sundae. He suggests to Melissa that she leave town; it seems he has feelings for her. Melissa says she saw what happened to Dave at the market before it happened. The same with her husband. Polly is asking for cherries from the counter girl, who isn’t giving her any. Buddy gives some keys to a cabin to Melissa as she goes. Then the counter girl’s hair gets pulled into the ice cream machine.
Bonsaint and Scully have headed to see the proprietor of the day care, the older woman who stared at Melissa and Polly earlier. She doesn’t seem like a very nice person. Melissa is descended from witches. In the old days they would have driven the demon out of the little girl and given the slattern of a mother what she’s got coming.
Scully suggests Bonsaint bring Melissa in to straighten things out. Melissa keeps seeing people dead before they do die. Mulder is constantly ringing Scully with plausible scientific explanations for what is actually going on. Rather like a reverse of their roles in “War of the Coprophages”; in this case, Mulder is offering the reasonable explanations, when it seems likely this is down to an evil doll. Mulder also seems bored out of his mind.