“Familiar” is episode eight of season eleven of The X-Files.
In Eastwood, Connecticut, a little boy is singing on a roundabout to his very creepy looking smiling doll, Mr. Chuckle Teeth. His mother gets a call, that sounds like it might be from the father (but it might not). Whilst she is turned away, the boy, Andrew, sees a person in the woods who looks just like Mr. Chuckle Teeth, only human-sized.
After the mother gets off the phone she turns around to find that Andrew has gone. He is in the woods looking for Mr. Chuckleteeth. Then, something rushes at him.
That night, the police, one of whom is the father, are looking for Andrew. One, Officer Wentworth (Roger Cross, who played Travis Verta in Continuum and has had a number of minor roles in The X-Files over the years) finds the boy’s toy ripped to pieces, with blood spattering the stuffing. Andrew also look to be blood spattered and the doll’s head is by the body.
Mulder and Scully are at the scene with the local police. The police think it was a predator attack, by a new type of predator, a coywolf, a hybrid of wolves and coyotes. Mulder has heard of these hybrids. Scully’s description of the cause of death didn’t sound very wolf-ish though. The police want to know why the FBI are on the scene. According to Mulder, the FBI has jurisdiction over the killing of the immediate family of a law enforcement officer.
The police aren’t too happy about the idea of murder being suggested, as they have already ruled this out. Scully thinks that the bite marks on the body may be post-mortem predation. Scully also says that, if it was murder, it is likely that the killer will strike again. Mulder also doesn’t think a wolf killed the boy, even a coywolf. He’s thinking hellhound. Which leads to a discussion of witchcraft, as there were witch trials in the area, between Scully and Mulder.
Whilst examining the body, Scully also raises the matter that, if the boy was murdered, it may have been done by a parent. The mother was clear but the father was not. If it was him – which is too obvious – the other police could be covering it up. Scully didn’t want to speak about this in front of the police. There was also another child and her mother at the playground, the daughter of the chief of police. So Mulder wants to talk to her. The daughter says she saw Mr. Chuckle Teeth in the forest.
The father hears the profile that Scully provided of a potential killer, he finds someone he thinks could have killed his son and goes looking for him. The man is missing, but definitely looks very suspect. Mulder, however, sees a giant black wolf in the forest, and doesn’t like the perfect suspect. Mulder thinks the suspect is too perfect. Mulder is concerned by how everyone is convicting the man in his absence.
Then the chief of police’s daughter, Emily, sees a character from her favourite television show outside her house and follows it. This does not end well.
At the second site, Mulder finds a circle of salt. Which he says is a magic circle. Andrew had salt on his feet as well.
With children as victims, matters in town are getting out of control. Which leads Mulder to refer to the witch trials again. It doesn’t help that there are personal entanglements as well. Someone may be doing things that are related to these, but perhaps not with normal methods.