Home (The X-Files)

"Home"
The X-Files episode
The Peacock family burying their child alive. Due to its graphic nature, as illustrated by this scene, "Home" became the first episode of The X-Files to receive a viewer discretion warning.
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 2
Directed by	Kim Manners
Written by	Glen Morgan James Wong
Production code	4X03
Original air date	October 11, 1996
Running time	44 minutes
Guest appearance(s)
Tucker Smallwood as Sheriff Andy Taylor Sebastian Spence as Deputy Barney Paster Judith Maxie as Barbara Taylor Chris Nelson Norris as Edmund Peacock John Trottier as George Peacock Adrian Hughes as Sherman Peacock Karin Konoval as Mrs. Peacock
Episode chronology
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List of The X-Files episodes

"Home" is the second episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, which originally aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company network on October 11, 1996. Directed by Kim Manners, it was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong. "Home" is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story—a stand-alone plot unconnected to the overarching mythology of The X-Files. Watched by 18.85 million viewers, the initial broadcast had a Nielsen rating of 11.9. "Home" was the first episode of The X-Files to receive a viewer discretion warning for graphic content and the only to have carried a TV-MA rating upon broadcast. Critics were generally complimentary, and praised the disturbing nature of the plot; several made comparisons to the work of director David Lynch. Some reviewers nevertheless felt that the violent subject matter was excessive.

The series centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called "X-Files". Mulder is a believer in the paranormal; the skeptical Scully was initially assigned to debunk his work, but the two have developed a deep friendship. In this episode, Mulder and Scully investigate the death of an infant with severe birth defects. Traveling to the small isolated town of Home, Pennsylvania, the pair meet the Peacocks, a family of deformed farmers who have not left their house in a decade. Initially, Mulder suspects that the brothers kidnapped and raped a woman to father the child, but the investigation uncovers a long history of incest involving the Peacocks' own mother.