It was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, directed by Kim Manners, and featured guest appearances by Susan Blommaert, Dan Butler, and Heather McComb.

In this episode Mulder and Scully are called to Milford Haven, New Hampshire to investigate the death of a teenager who seems to have died during an occult ritual of some sort.

As a result of their arrival in town a few of the local high school's faculty, who were raised as members of a secretive Satanic cult but whose zeal has waned, decide they should take steps to conceal their past activities.

When confronted with proof of their religion's claims the school faculty members are mostly worried about how their obligations could impact their secular lives, several being either scared or annoyed by the prospect of having to become devout.

In the fictional town of Milford Haven, New Hampshire, a group of high school faculty members meet to discuss various social events.

The remaining teen's mutilated body is discovered the next day, leading Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) to investigate.

Locals—including the Satanists—claim that the teens have unleashed a demonic force with their rituals; a theory which is given validity by strange occurrences, such as frogs falling from the sky and water in the drinking fountain draining counter-clockwise, contrary to the Coriolis effect.

Unknown to the agents, substitute teacher Mrs. Phyllis Paddock (Susan Blommaert) is behind the murder, keeping the eyes and heart of the victim in her desk.

While dissecting a pig fetus in science class, Ausbury's stepdaughter, Shannon (Heather McComb), suffers a breakdown when she hallucinates the cadaver as alive.

He confirms that rituals did happen while Shannon was present, but insists that exposure to sensational media coverage led her to "remember" the sexual abuse.

[6] In an interview, he also praised the purposefully clashing tones of the entry, noting that it begins almost comical, with the PTC saying Satanic prayers and toads raining from the skies.

[6] As such, real frogs were brought in and dropped on the actors from a short distance, with camera angles being employed to make it look like they were falling from much higher.

Shearman argues that the principal joke in the episode is "to look at the way religious faith has been so watered down and paid nothing but lip service, its rituals and doctrines reinterpreted so that only what's comfortable is adhered to.

[13] Shearman compares Mrs. Paddock—which the episode insinuates to be the devil incarnate—coming to Milford Haven, New Hampshire to judge his followers to St. Paul "coming back and taking a pop at all fair weather Christians who only affirm their faith at their own convenience.

[20] Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping, in their book X-Treme Possibilities, gave the episode mostly positive reviews, although they criticized the ending.

Day applauded the episode's themes of "loss of faith … ritual abuse [and] repressed memories", along with the "great set pieces", and the plot twists.

VanDerWerff also praised the final scene, noting that "rare that Mulder and Scully completely get played, but they do here, and it makes the episode an even better sick joke."

[15] Shearman awarded the episode five stars out of five, citing the "very good" conceit about organized religion, the humor, and the "great set pieces" as positive factors.

[22] Katie Anderson of Cinefantastique named the scene in which Shannon begins hallucinating that the pig fetus that she is dissecting is alive and screaming the fifth "Scariest Moment" in The X-Files.

[23] Connie Ogle from PopMatters ranked the members of the Satanic PTA as some of the "greatest" monsters-of-the-week, writing, "You don’t want to cross the Satan-worshiping teachers at this high school, but there are more vengeful evil forces to displease.

"[24] C. Eugene Emery, Jr. wrote in Skeptical Inquirer that: "In one scene, Mulder expressed amazement on the counterclockwise motion of the water draining from a fountain.