The episode focuses in an effort to relocate the homeless in downtown Philadelphia to an abandoned hospital in Bucks County. Mulder accuses the two conflicting sides, saying they really speak for themselves. He asks who speaks for the homeless.
While investigating, Dana gets a call that her mother is in ICU. Dana goes to the hospital and talks to her, asks her not to go home yet, recalling her own experience when she was in a coma. Later she mentions not caring about the “big questions” right now, but just wanting to be able to talk to her mom one more time.
They find the artist who was trying to give voice to the people who are treated like trash, through art. But one of his sculptures, he said, became alive because he invested so much of his own energy in it. There is an appeal to a mistranslated Buddhist term and concept, a “tulpa,” something akin to a golem. And so there is an interesting exploration on a symbolic level of the power of art. If we think about the prophets in the Bible, they were essentially poets and performance artists, who used words and symbolic actions to challenge people and in an effort to transform their society.
The overall theme of the episode is thus one that many religions also explore. Who speaks for the people who have been so marginalized that we don’t even see them, and when we do, we avoid them? Who speaks for the people who are treated like trash?
When no human will do it, is it any wonder that they hope for a supernatural savior?
What did you think of “Home Again”?
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