Badlaa

"Badlaa" is the tenth episode of the eighth season of the American science fiction television series ''The X-Files''. It premiered on the Fox network on . The episode was written by John Shiban and directed by Tony Wharmby. "Badlaa" is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. The episode received a Nielsen rating of 7.3 and was viewed by 11.8 million viewers. Overall, the episode received mostly negative reviews from critics.

The series centers on FBI special agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and her new partner John Doggett (Robert Patrick)—following the alien abduction of her former partner, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny)—who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. When a mystic smuggles himself out of India, Scully and Doggett give chase as his murderous spree starts terrorising two families in suburban Washington, D.C. But Scully soon comes upon a crisis of faith when she realises how dissimilar her techniques are from those of Mulder, even as she tries to be the believer.

"Badlaa" was inspired by stories of Indian fakirs as well as the idea of someone asking for money actually being "a bad guy." Gurdeep Roy, a noted stuntman better known as Deep Roy, was chosen to play the part of the antagonistic beggar. The episode's title means "vengeance" or "revenge" in Hindi.

Plot

At the Sahar International Airport in Mumbai, India, an obese American businessman dismissively makes his way past a paraplegic beggar missing his legs from the knee down. While using the airport's toilet, the businessman is pulled out of the stall violently by the beggar he passed earlier. Later, the businessman checks into a Washington, D.C., hotel and sits down on his bed. Soon, blood streams out of his bodily orifices.

Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) arrives late to the crime scene and John Doggett (Robert Patrick) tells her that the man's blood all drained abruptly in the hotel. A child's bloody print is found, but Scully doesn't believe that a child did this. Meanwhile, the beggar, somehow disguised as an ordinary-looking white man, applies for a janitorial job at a Cheverly, Maryland, elementary school. In the morgue, Scully describes the massive stomach damage done to the body which leads Doggett to the idea of drugs being forcibly cut out of him. However, the man showed no sign of drugs in the blood tests and Scully tells Doggett that his time of death was 24 to 36 hours prior, long before he left India. Due to a discrepancy in weight, she begins to believe that there was a passenger in the corpse.

Quinton, a student at the elementary school in Cheverly, calls his father up to his room after he sees the legless beggar man at night. His father tells him that he imagined it. The father goes back downstairs, but then screams. Quinton rushes down and finds his dad dead, his eyes dripping blood. Doggett and Scully investigate this latest death after the police tell them about the strange man the boy saw. While discussing the lack of any damage to the body except the broken blood vessels in the eyes, Scully comes to the conclusion that the man is still inside the latest victim. She rushes to the morgue and finds the boy's father with a distended belly. She cuts into him and then sees a hand emerge from the scalpel incision. After being knocked over, she follows a bloody trail to a storage closet, but finds no one inside. Having turned invisible to Scully, the beggar watches her.

At the school, the principal tells the janitor that she was very worried when he did not show up that morning. Trevor, a bully who had previously tormented Quinton, sees flickers of the beggar through his janitor's guise. Trevor later goes to Quinton's home to apologize and express sympathy over Quinton's father's death. He also tells Quinton who he thinks killed his father.

Scully and Doggett consult Chuck Burks, an old friend of Fox Mulder's, who tells them about the fakir, ascetic masters who kind themselves to torture in order to attain enlightenment. He also tells the agents that Siddhi mystics could do the things Scully described; the mystics have powers of the mind and can alter people's perceptions of reality and their secret practices are passed on from father to son. When Doggett remains skeptical of both Chuck's insights and the Siddhi, Chuck remarks to Scully that he isn't surprised because "it's hard to believe in something you can't understand." Struggling to see the case as Mulder might, Scully consults with Chuck again and the two discuss how that if a Siddhi mystic were to use their powers for murder would violate the very foundation of their lives and endanger their souls. Scully then shares a theory that revenge might drive a Siddhi to act in such a way and that one such Siddhi is seeking retribution against persons who worked for an American chemical plant in Vishi, outside of Mumbai, that inadvertently released a gas cloud that killed 118 people. One victim was the 11-year-old son of a holy man of the beggar caste.

After hearing a strange squeaking sound--which are the wheels of the unseen fakir's dolly--he runs home, brushing past his mother in the foyer. Trevor's mother follows him outside to find him face-down in their pool. She dives in to get him, but his form turns into the beggar. At the scene of the crime, the real Trevor returns home and tells Scully that the "little man" followed him and killed his mother. Acting on Trevor's tip about the janitor, Doggett and the police arrest him. After Scully calls Chuck Burks, he turns up with his video camera hoping to capture footage of a fakir. To Doggett's bewilderment, the video camera shows no one sitting in the chair the janitor appears to be seated in and Doggett and Chuck realize they do not, in fact, have a suspect in custody. Doggett calls Scully, who has gone to Trevor's house to speak with him only to find that Trevor is not at home and snuck out past his father.

Quinton and Trevor hunt the fakir at school where the principal and her assistant call Scully to make her aware they've seen the janitor back at work. The fakir turns the hunt around and begin stalking the boys, eventually taking Trevor's form just as Scully arrives. Scully hesitantly fires at the boy, wounding the fakir who reverts back to his true form. Following the shooting, Scully weeps as she realizes she was "just not capable of" viewing this particular case without prejudice, without judgment, or with having an open mind as Mulder would have done.

Two weeks later at the Sahar International Airport, the fakir, unharmed, watches another American businessman with a large frame pass by.

Production

The title of "Badlaa"—which was written by John Shiban and inspired by stories of Indian fakirs—means "to retort" or "to revenge" in Urdu

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