8. Unruhe (Season 4, Episode 4)
"You look troubled." - Gerry Schnauz
In "Unruhe," Mulder and Scully come to Michigan to investigate the kidnapping of a young woman. The only clue is a passport photograph of the woman, smiling brightly when the photo was taken but screaming in horror on the developed film. When the woman is finally returned, drugged and sloppily lobotomized, the implications of another woman's recent kidnapping become all the more unsettling. The agents must hurry to catch this kidnapper before he finds more women to cure of their "unrest"--with an awl to the eye socket. "Unruhe" presents a nice blend of the realistic and the paranormal, allowing both Mulder and Scully their triumphs and demonstrating how strong a team they are when working together. The episode features one of Mulder's kookier theories--"thoughtographs"--but Scully is there to call him on it for us...and solve the case. Parts of the plot are dated now (film cameras, passport photos in drugstores) although not nearly such an obvious disparity as in "2Shy." The episode is so good, however, that it is not difficult to ignore the 1996 technology. The bad guy is convincingly crazy, and in his rants he very subtly foreshadows a major plot line for later in Season 4. Watch out for those Howlers, Agent Scully.