Check out Violet’s recap of Season 10 Episode 2 of The X-Files, titled Founder’s Mutation, where Mulder and Scully investigate a mysterious suicide, and deal with the Department of Defense trying to get in their way of looking into genetic experimentation on children! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of The X-Files, Season 10 Episode 2: Founder’s Mutation
The episode begins with a man named Dr. Sanjay scanning his eye to gain entrance into Nugenics Technology. While walking to the elevator, he hears a high pitched sound, which it seems like no one else hears. When he goes into a meeting, he hears the sound again, but it’s worse, and again, no one else hears it. He runs out of the room and locks himself in another room, trying to access and transfer files. As the security guard struggles to get into the room, Dr. Sanjay writes something in the palm of his hand, then shoves a letter opener into his ear canal, killing himself.
Mulder and Scully investigate the scene. Mulder tries to take the hard drive as evidence, but a Department of Defense agent confiscates it. While Scully talks to the agent, Mulder takes Dr. Sanjay’s smartphone, and they leave. Mulder looks through his call history and sees that Sanjay talked to someone named “Gupta” every night. Scully informs him that “Gupta” means “secret.”
Mulder meets up with Gupta at a bar, and they go to a more private room to talk. However, when they get to the back room, Gupta thinks Mulder meant something else by “talk.” Mulder clarifies that he actually did just want to talk, and informs Gupta that Sanjay is dead.
Meanwhile, Scully performs the autopsy on Sanjay’s body.
Gupta tells Mulder that Sanjay had seemed down lately, and that Sanjay had said he was worried about his kids. He also tells him that Sanjay lived two lives, in two separate places. Scully calls Mulder to come look at something she found during her autopsy.
When Mulder arrives, she shows him what Sanjay wrote on his palm: Founder’s Mutation. They look at the X-rays and see that the letter opener was aimed at the auditory cortex. Mulder informs Scully about the other place that Sanjay leased, so they head there.
When Mulder and Scully search Sanjay’s secret place, they find pictures of kids on the wall that have genetic mutations. As they look around, Mulder is attacked by the same high pitched noise that Sanjay had heard. Scully goes and talks to the police officer that has shown up in response to an apparent silent alarm they must have tripped. Mulder keeps hearing the words “Find her.”
The next day, Scully and Mulder meet with Skinner at his office, while a Department of Defense agent sits in. The agent reminds him that the Department of Defense has confiscated the files found at Sanjay’s place, and warns them against dissemination of information in the files. Mulder says he thinks the kids were being experimented on. Although the case is closed, Skinner subtly informs them that it could take days to get through the official channels to be properly closed – thereby giving them more time to complete their investigations.
Scully syncs all the camera footage from Nugenics Technology to the time of Sanjay’s suicide. Mulder tells her about what happened to him at Sanjay’s apartment. They see the camera footage of the birds congregating outside. Scully informs Mulder that Sanjay heard sounds before his suicide, and that could be him. Scully says she thinks she might know a way to get to Dr. Goldman, the founder of Nugenics Technology.
Scully and Mulder go to Our Lady of Sorrows Hospital, where Scully has worked for 7 years, and asks a colleague, Sr. Mary, for a favor to meet with Dr. Goldman. Mulder tells Sr. Mary to ask Dr. Goldman about Founders Mutation. While Sr. Mary makes the phone call, a pregnant young woman named Agnes approaches them, asking them for help to get out of there. She says that the ultrasound has shown that there’s something wrong with the baby, and she had signed something to give the baby away, but she changed her mind and wants to keep the baby. She sees Sr. Mary in the hallway and gets spooked, and asks them not to say anything. Mulder gives her his card. Sr. Mary says she spoke with Dr. Goldman, who will be happy to meet.
As they leave, Mulder theorizes that these women are just incubators so that Goldman can conduct genetic experiments on their babies. Mulder and Scully discuss their own son, William, who they have adopted out in an effort to keep him safe.
In a fantasy, Scully imagines walking young William to school. Then after school, he has broken his arm, and is about to be taken in an ambulance. She hears him calling for her, and she goes to his bedroom. There, his face is turning into that of an alien’s, and he asks his mother what’s happening to him. Scully snaps back to the present, and looks at a picture of baby William.
Mulder and Scully meet with Dr. Goldman at Goldman Technology. He claims that “Founder’s Mutation” is meaningless, and claims that they’re just trying to save children. He then takes them around, showing them the various children with rare syndromes, for which there’s no cost to them to be treated. He introduces them to a boy named Adam, and Scully talks to him. Goldman says that Adam was sent to them as a baby. He is trying to search for the key to all of these genetic abnormalities. When Scully suggests alien DNA, Dr. Goldman is taken aback. Just then, a patient named Molly starts causing some trouble and needs to be restrained, so Goldman excuses himself to help the orderlies.
Mulder gets a text that something happened to Agnes. When they reach the scene, they discover that she was killed in a hit and run accident, and the baby is gone. Later, Scully reports that the baby was surgically removed. She doesn’t think the baby is still alive, but Mulder suggests otherwise. Mulder also says he has located Goldman’s wife, who was adjudicated criminally insane. She was convicted of murdering her baby, whose body also was never found.
Mulder and Scully go to St. Elizabeth Hospital to talk to Mrs. Goldman. She talks about her daughter, Molly, and said she knew there was something wrong with her. One day, when she was 2, Molly was underwater for 10 minutes and was breathing. Mrs. Goldman never told anyone. When she was 9 months pregnant with her son, Dr. Goldman hid Molly from her. Mrs. Goldman drove off to get away from him, but she was in a car crash, at which time she heard the high pitched noise. She knew the baby was talking to her, and she had to get it out. So she grabbed a knife and sliced open her belly. She passed out from loss of blood, and woke up in the hospital, never seeing her son again.
Mulder figures out that Mrs. Goldman’s son now works as a janitor, and was on the scene at Nugenics Technology when Dr. Sanjay killed himself. His name is Kyle Gilligan. They stop by his home address, where his mother comes out to speak to them, saying she doesn’t like to expose her son to stressful situations. Mulder states that she didn’t give birth to Kyle, and brings up his unique abilities, which upsets her, and she yells at them to get out. The birds gather nearby, and Mulder hears the high pitched sound, which causes him to collapse to the ground.
Scully runs off to look for Kyle, and finds him in the barn. They handcuff him and take him with them, while his mother says he was just trying to protect her. Kyle says that he didn’t mean to kill Dr. Sanjay, that Dr. Sanjay was helping him. Mulder guesses that Kyle can’t control it. Kyle says he just wants to find his sister. Scully says she knows who knows where she is.
They bring Kyle to Dr. Goldman to examine. Kyle asks where Molly is, and says Molly told him to find her. Meanwhile, Goldman draws blood from Kyle. Then he brings Kyle to meet Molly. However, Kyle quickly figures out this girl is not his sister. He runs down the hall and finds his sister, who talks to him in his mind. They put their hands together against the glass pane of her door, breaking the glass on the door and all glass in the area. Kyle and Molly link their fingers together. Goldman, Scully, and Mulder catch up, and as Goldman runs toward them, he is attacked by the high pitched noise. Molly uses her telekinetic powers to knock Scully out and keep Mulder at bay. Meanwhile, Goldman bleeds out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
Later, Skinner reports to Mulder and Scully from behind red tape that the Department of Defense now has control of the facility, and that the scene is now classified as top secret. Skinner says that Mulder and Scully were the last ones to see Kyle and Molly, and that there’s no trace of him. Mulder secretly reveals to Scully that he has the vial of Kyle’s blood.
Mulder then has his own daydream of life with young William. They watch 2001: A Space Odyssey together, and also build a model rocket ship, which they launch. But then like Scully’s daydream, things turn dark. He enters William’s bedroom to find him floating above his bed, and then abducted. Returning to the present, Mulder stares at the picture of baby William.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 10 Episode 2 of The X-Files: Founder’s Mutation
Considering the huge conspiracy theory that was set up in the first episode, My Struggle, the night before, this episode felt a little out of place. I soon discovered why: this episode was actually supposed to be the fifth episode, not the second episode. The initial second episode is now the fourth episode, while the initial fourth episode is now the fifth episode. Episode 1, 3, and 6 remain unchanged, though. For some reason, this seems to happen a lot with Fox shows (like Firefly). Anyway, so yeah, that’s why this episode felt oddly placed. I thought it was a bit of a jump to see Mulder and Scully already all settled back into the X-Files, working on cases already, like there wasn’t a whole lot of stuff that just went down.
Putting all of that aside, this felt like a good old-fashioned case-of-the-week, which I actually really enjoy when it comes to The X-Files. If you’re a regular reader of the site, you’ll know that I’ve often mentioned that I prefer when a show has a continuing story arc, because it keeps me interested, rather than a “baddy of the week” type show. The X-Files is an exception to that. I actually love when they do their case of the week, that’s what makes it feel like The X-Files to me. Yes, I do like how they have a loosely continuing story arc that comes up from time to time, but that’s not what my main interest was. I remember back when David Duchovny left the show, and Doggett came in to replace Mulder, a bulk of the show was dedicated to looking for Mulder, which frankly started to bore me pretty quickly. I remember them finally having a case-of-the-week type episode, and I breathed a sigh of relief, because that was what I had really been waiting for and had missed, an episode that felt like the old X-Files, before Mulder went away.
Anyway, so this harkened back to that old feeling within me, that The X-Files had returned to its roots, while still continuing the underlying story arc. It was pretty awesome to see Mulder and Scully back on a case together again. It’s sad to think that there are already only four episodes left, because I am really enjoying the show so far.
Josh’s Thoughts: The X-Files, Season 10 Episode 2: Founder’s Mutation
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Scenes from The X-Files, Season 10 Episode 3: Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster
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