It must be a leap year during this episode since we see Scully go on vacation to New England for a few days. This episode was also written by Stephen King – so naturally is has a possessed doll in it.

The doll belongs to some brat American child who doesn’t seem to have any control over it, but when it wants to have fun, people start stabbing themselves and basically dying in horrific ways. We also see what Mulder gets up to in his spare time in a complete roll reversal episode. Scully is trying to enjoy a vacation yet still gets involved in the cases of people dying, and helps the sheriff put the pieces together, occasionally phoning Mulder for some supernatural advice… only to be given medical and scientific explanations. Scully naturally getting pissed off with Mulder’s ‘mocking’ keeps hanging up on him, though it’s not as if he’s busy.

We see him dribble a basketball, swing a phone cord round, sharpen pencils in his office, and throw them at the ceiling. His fridge contents also is on display – a single carton of orange juice a good year out of date.

The Stephen King aspect gives you a predictable yet enjoyable simple and gruesome plot line, but what I found even more enjoyable was the banter between Scully and Mulder, and we can see that despite Mulder’s hectic lifestyle – without Scully he’d just be sitting in his office sharpening pencils.