The X-Files’ Most Disturbing Episode Was Too Extreme for Fox to Rerun for 3 Years & It’s Based on a True Story

The X-Files has two kinds of episodes that aired during the show’s run, with the first being the alien mythology episodes and the second being the monster-of-the-week episodes. While the show was built around the sci-fi alien storyline, with Fox Mulder’s entire reason for being in the FBI tied to alien abductions and his sister, to be precise, the best episodes were almost always the horror-based monster-of-the-week episodes. The first season alone had Mulder and his partner Dana Scully investigating cases with the Jersey Devil, the mutant Eugene Tooms, and parasitic ice worms. However, none of these brought a level of terror like The X-Files Season 4 episode “Home.”

Originally released in October 1996, “Home” had Mulder and Scully investigating the death of an infant with severe genetic abnormalities. What they found pushed things to a dark and demented place, and it was so bad that Fox wouldn’t even allow the episode to air in reruns for three years. The episode was also given a TV-MA rating, the only episode of the entire series to receive this rating.

The X-Files‘ Most Disturbing Episode Was Banned for Years

“Home” had Mulder and Scully heading to the small town of Home, Pennsylvania, where some children discovered the corpse of a deformed baby buried in the town. The episode actually opens with the moment when three similarly deformed men bury the baby after a woman gives birth to it. When the two arrive, they learn about the Peacock brothers, whose family the local sheriff said has lived in the house since the Civil War without electricity, running water, or heat. He also hints that the family has been inbreeding since the war, and that plays a great in the overall mystery.

When Mulder and Scully learn the baby was alive when it was buried, they set off for the Peacocks’ home, believing that the family had abducted a woman and raped her since only males were known to live there. When authorities head to the house to investigate, more bodies start to pile up, first with the sheriff and his wife, and then with booby traps set for anyone who enters their home. The scene where the Peacock brothers slaughter the deputy ensured the episode would get a harsh rating. However, the true reason for the TV-MA rating, and the fact that this X-Files episode wasn’t allowed to rerun on Fox, was what happened in the end.

When Mulder and Scully finally get into the house, they find a quadruple amputee hidden under a bed, and this was the Peacock brothers’ mother. She admits that they have been inbreeding for years, and none of them can feel any pain thanks to their physical deformities. The ending sees the brothers attack, and while two of them are killed, the other escapes with his mother as they disappear to start a family somewhere else. The TV-MA rating warned viewers of its “graphic content,” and due to its gruesome nature and horror film conventions, Fox banned it from reruns. It wasn’t until three years later, on Halloween 1999, that it was finally aired again. Despite this, “Home” remains on many lists of the best X-Files episodes in history.

The True Story Behind The X-Files‘ “Home”

What is most shocking about “Home” isn’t the fact that it was terrifying, gruesome, and disturbing. What is most surprising is that this X-Files episode is based on a true story. Not only that, but it is based on a story told by Golden Age silent film star Charlie Chaplin. The original story came from a story written in Chaplin’s autobiography. In the book, Chaplin wrote that he was staying at a miner’s house in a town called Ebbw Vale in Wales. While he was there, the miner wanted to show Chaplin something.

Chaplin said the miner took him into the kitchen and then opened the cupboard, where a man who was hiding there crawled out. Chaplin wrote that this was a man with no legs and an oversized, flat-shaped head, a sickening white face, a sunken nose, a large mouth, and muscular shoulders. The miner then told the man to jump, which the man supposedly did. The miner also asked Chaplin if he thought the man would fit in a circus performance. Chaplin said he was horrified, but said he offered the man the names of some circuses.

Whether this story is true or whether Chaplin was just making it up for his autobiography, this ended up influencing The X-Files episode. In a documentary about Season 4, writer Glen Morgan said that he remembered reading the story, although his memory had the family singing and dancing while the man flopped around with no legs. He said the image stuck with him, and he modeled the mother of the Peacock brothers on the man from Chaplin’s story.

Do you remember The X-Files Season 4 episode “Home?” Let us know your thoughts on this episode and what you consider the show’s scariest moments in the comments below.