“Teso dos Bichos” is episode eighteen of season three of The X-Files.
The episode begins at the Teso dos Bichos excavation in the Ecuadorian Highlands in South America. Many people are working and one uncovers a pot and calls out. Everyone comes to see what he has found and one, who appears to be in charge to a degree, heads to a hut and tells the man inside, Dr Roosevelt, that something has been found. The pot, which is a large one, has a skull inside it. It’s apparently an Amaru, and nearly intact. The first man says they can’t take it; the workers are saying that the body of a female shaman is sacred to the tribe and they won’t let it be disturbed. According to Roosevelt, they aren’t disturbing the body, they are saving it. The body is going with them. A man is watching from above.
That night, Roosevelt is in his cabin and turns up the music to drown out the sound of a ceremony outside. The man who was watching has prepared some sort of fluid, one with a vile taste given everyone’s reaction. As well as the locals, Roosevelt’s colleague tries some. It looks like it’s a hallucinogen of some sort. Then something approaches Roosevelt’s tent and the shadow of a large cat is seen attacking him. The attack goes on for an oddly long time.
Three weeks later at the Boston Museum of Natural History, a security guard with a torch is asking if someone, Dr Horning, is still there. Then he slips in something. Blood. There appears to be signs of a struggle, and the Amaru urn is also there.
Mulder and Scully are at the crime scene the next day. Dr Lewton (Tom McBeath) tells them that the guard, Decker, called after he discovered the blood. Lewton thinks it’s an act of political terrorism; the Secona, the tribe from the beginning, have contacted the State Department, demanding the return of the urn. Lewton says they rescued it; an oil company was going to build a gas pipeline though the burial grounds, so he and Roosevelt organised the dig. Roosevelt disappeared; the official story is his body was carried off in a wild animal attack. Lewton doesn’t believe this, not after last night. Mulder asks about the curse, where those who disturb an Amaru will be devoured by the jaguar spirit. Lewton will have someone, Mona, show them the bones.
Mulder hopes that, if anyone digs his bones up after a thousand years, they would be cursed too. Mona is a PhD candidate who is helping catalogue the items. She mentions Dr Alonso Bilac, who was the liaison with the Secona; he either resigned or was forced out, depending on who you ask, after his protests that the tribe had a right to their ancestral remains.
Mulder and Scully head to see Bilac, and explain why. Bilac doesn’t look that great. He spent 6 months amongst the Secona, learning from them. And yes, he taught them something in exchange; the joys of American bureaucracy. Bilac believes whatever happened will continue until the bones are returned. Afterwards, Scully thinks he’s the prime suspect. For a bunch of reasons, including there are no others. Mulder agrees that Bilac looked a little squirrely. They don’t have a body, though; maybe it was devoured by the jaguar spirit.
Later, Mona is on the phone, to Bilac it sounds like; he apparently lied about something. Dr Lewton overheard part of the conversation, but he tells Mona she’d better not be alone. Decker knows she’s there. Once Lewton leaves, Mona gets started; by a dog. Lewton himself heads to his car – a Jaguar – and it doesn’t start. He opens the bonnet and finds what appears to be blood on the engine. Then gets attacked.
The next morning, Scully fishes something out of the engine and bags it, telling a uniformed officer to label it. When he asks as what, she tells him as a partial rat body part. Scully then speaks to Mona, who is clearly not telling the whole truth. Mulder is in the woods with more police and something seems to be watching him from above when Scully arrives. They haven’t found a body. Scully mentions the Jaguar’s engine and that Lewton appeared to be checking it; Mulder suggests someone didn’t want the car to start. Scully doesn’t think so; the museum has always had a rat problem and they probably climbed inside to keep warm. Hardly anything adds up. Something lands on Mulder’s cheek and he thinks it’s beginning to rain. Scully, who can see that the liquid is red, does not. They look up and see something wrapped around a branch. It looks like something that should be inside a body, not out of it.
Bilac, when Mona heads to see him, is looking distinctly unwell. He’s been using the stuff he tried at the Secona ritual. Vine of the soul. Jaje, Mona calls it, and she’s horrified. The impression given from Bilac’s use is that the jaje has had an effect on him. He may be the one doing the killing is the impression given. The truth is more surprising.