Having been warned before reading that this was not a normal X-File, I was not sure what to expect when I starting reading this episode. Though I'm very fond of the 'traditional X-File' including a bizarre monster, evildoer, or unusual government conspiracy, I enjoyed the unexpected as well. Lori, a socially unaccepted teenager attending a school in a town run by the parents of the students who make her life hell, is a truly believable villain, but also the victim. In the story we can easily justify her reasons for turning criminal, which normally doesn't happen (for example why did Donnie Pfaster turn into a murdering fetishist?).
The way Mulder and Scully were brought into the life of Lori Verbato's life was understandable. Scully's character would be likely to do a favor for an old friend, and Mulder can always find a place with UFO sightings. Lori's character was nicely described as a distressed teenager who had taken enough cruelty from everyone and was ready to take punishment into her own hands. Though it's nice to know Scully has friends and a life other than the one with Mulder, I felt the girl-talk between Jen Sandival and our FBI agent about how dreamy her partner is was unneeded.
The writer definitely added the special ingredient to the ending of the story to give it a creepy feeling. By the end we began to feel for Lori (as well as Scully) and hope she gets out safely. With the year anniversary of the Columbine massacre only a few months back, we are well aware that young adults hurting each other is not just a story, it is reality. Maybe it's this tangibility that makes "Bitter Revenge" more disturbing than episodes such as "Dreamscape," which is not as unquestionable. With such characters as the ones who hurt Lori to the point where she felt bitter revenge was in order, the unconventional X-File leaves me to ponder what evil lives in our society (without the power to spread diseases by contact with saliva).
Like usual, I feel I have to advise the author to find someone to proofread her work before posting it to the site. It's the little things that bug me, such as the mysterious disappearance of apostrophes in "can't" (Can't = contraction of 'can not'; Cant = insincere talk, hypocrisy). I also believe that there are other words than said. I remember being yelled at in eighth grade English class because I wrote 3 pages of dialogue only using the word 'said.' (Try questioned, told, uttered, expressed, stated, announced, mentioned, disclosed, remarked, declared, reasoned, and let a thesaurus become your best friend)
I think "Bitter Revenge" deserves a 9 out of 10 for great character descriptions, an original, creepy X-File and minor spelling and grammar errors.