Talitha Cumi (The X-Files)

Talitha Cumi (The X-Files)

List of season 3 episodes
List of The X-Files episodes

"Talitha Cumi" is the twenty-fourth episode and third season finale of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on May 17, 1996 in the United States. The teleplay was written by Chris Carter, and directed by R. W. Goodwin. The episode is one of several that explored the series' overarching mythology. "Talitha Cumi" achieved a Nielsen household rating of 11.2, being watched by 17.86 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics.

The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Mulder and Scully search for a man who seems to possess strange powers, who may have information about Mulder's family and the Syndicate.

The basic premise of "Talitha Cumi", most notably the scene featuring Jeremiah Smith's interrogation by The Smoking Man (William B. Davis), was heavily influenced by "The Grand Inquisitor"—a chapter in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov—on the suggestion of Duchovny. The title of the episode is Aramaic for "arise maiden," a reference to the healing power of Jeremiah Smith.