Kaddish

"Kaddish" is the fifteenth episode of the fourth season of the television series The X-Files. A murder in a Jewish community leads to the deaths of the killers, forcing Mulder and Scully to determine whether vengeance or larger forces are at work. The title refers to Kaddish as the part of the Jewish mourning ritual. Howard Gordon, who wrote this episode, originally scripted the anti-Semitic murderers who are later tracked down and killed by the ... more

"Kaddish" is the fifteenth episode of the fourth season of the television series The X-Files. A murder in a Jewish community leads to the deaths of the killers, forcing Mulder and Scully to determine whether vengeance or larger forces are at work. The title refers to Kaddish as the part of the Jewish mourning ritual. Howard Gordon, who wrote this episode, originally scripted the anti-Semitic murderers who are later tracked down and killed by the golem to be African-Americans. Fox was uncomfortable with this story element, and Gordon re-wrote the script to turn the murderers into cartoonish Caucasian neo-Nazis. The Hebrew prayer at the end of the episode is the Mourner's Kaddish, after which the episode is named. Jews who lose someone close to them traditionally recite this prayer every day for one year after the death of their loved one. However, it is a responsive prayer and is not said alone. Mulder says that Ariel is "saying goodbye" to her deceased husband when she says the prayer... less