10 TV Episodes Where People Didn’t Get What They Wished For
1. The X-Files – ‘Je Souhaite’ (S7 E21)
Written by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, Je Souhaite (which means ‘I wish’) tells the story of Anson Stokes who finds a woman wrapped in a rug in a storage locker that turns out to be a ‘Jinniyah’ (a female Djinn). After forcing his boss to have surgery to re-open his mouth after he wishes he would shut up, he selfishly asks to become invisible, instead of helping his handicapped brother, and ends up being run over and killed by a car that didn’t see him. Scully does his autopsy (by covering him with powder) and Mulder investigates.
The episode explores several examples of being careful what you wish for, such as Anson’s brother wishing to bring him back to life, resulting in him returning decaying and injured in pain.
Mulder believes he can outsmart the Jinniyah by phrasing his wish in a way that can’t result in adverse consequences. However, he only succeeds in getting world peace by wiping out all humans. Eventually he and Scully realise that you can’t force people to be good and for good things to happen so Mulder uses his last wish to set the Jinniyah free.