X-Files Review: 10×02 “Founder’s Mutation”

The X-Files have been re-opened, but how serious are Mulder and Scully about uncovering the conspiracy?

Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) re-opened the X-Files at the end of the first episode, which means Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are once more special agents for the FBI. (Great! Let’s jump on proving that conspiracy…or not.) Their first assignment is a case of what witnesses likely described as one Dr. Sanjay (Christoper Logan) going nuts and stabbing himself in the brain with a letter opener. Luckily, witnesses also mentioned that he was hearing things right before he died—high pitched shrieking sounds. (I have to admit, though, this doesn’t sound like a standard X-File, and at first no one seems to know why Scully and Mulder are even there, other than they have clearance for the lab.)

Because he worked for a lab funded by the Department of Defense, the FBI was brought in to investigate. Of course, with pretty much everything being classified, they have to skirt around proper procedure. Lucky for them, Sanjay wrote a message on his hand that leads Mulder and Scully to dig deeper into the lab and the research founded by Augustus Goldman (Doug Savant). At Sanjay’s apartment, Mulder has a reaction like the one Sanjay had right before killing himself—and they are busted by the Department of Defense and forced to turn over all evidence they discovered.

Even without Department of Defense approval, Skinner encourages them to continue the investigation. At the hospital, Scully manages to secure them a meeting with the elusive Augustus Goldman. He willingly shows them children with what is called “Founder’s Mutation”—in short, these kids display all sorts of physical deformities from cancerous growths to partial gigantism. There are also a bunch of pregnant young women being kept there, whose fetuses are supposedly carrying genetic abnormalities. One such young woman, Agnes (Kacey Rohl), clearly wants out and begs Scully and Mulder to help her.

Goldman is doing genetic experiments; he claims to try to save the children. But when the pregnant girl winds up dead (and her baby gone), Mulder and Scully dig deeper—locating Goldman’s institutionalized wife, Jackie (Rebecca Wisocky), only to discover that Goldman’s experiments didn’t start at the hospital.

There’s a Murder of Crows, Obviously Someone’s Going to Die

When Dr. Sanjay first starts having his auditory issues while in a meeting, the audience is privy both to what he hears, how he hears it, and what’s going on outside. It was as if for Sanjay, the high-pitched ringing in his ears also caused the speech of everyone around him to essentially slow down until he only heard select words. And hundreds of crows gathered on the ground outside.

I will admit, I first saw the murder of crows as heavy-handed symbolism, but Mulder explained it as vibrations drawing worms to the surface of the earth.

“Look at those birds.” -Mulder

“Maybe they seeded the lawn that morning.” -Scully

“Infrasound, Scully. Vibrations inaudible to the human ear but known to draw the worms up through the soil to the surface in response to them.” -Mulder

One of the coolest and also most frustrating things about Mulder as a character are his random bits of knowledge—and how they seem to come out as plot convenience rather than through a truly logical thought progression. It would have taken a couple more lines of dialogue for him to say that maybe it was a bunch of worms at the surface and then Scully (the scientist) to suggest vibrations. But they don’t do that.

Anyway, I digress. One of the big themes of this episode was secrets. First there were the secret messages through the auditory vibrations. Secret hard drive. Then Sanjay’s most called contact, “Gupta” (Vik Sahay), which literally means secret, who actually ended up being his gay lover. The secret message Sanjay wrote on his hand. Then there was the secret apartment. Secret files. Secret experiments. Goldman’s wife secreted away. The secret baby.

Again, it seemed heavy-handed, but considering that secrets are kind of a staple of conspiracies theories and the X-Files in general, I was willing to let it go. I only hope that some secrets will stay a little bit…secret through the season.

THE X-FILES: L-R: Gillian Anderson and guest star Jonathan Whitesell in the “Founder’s Mutation season premiere, part two, episode of THE X-FILES airing Monday, Jan. 25 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2016 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Ed Araquel/FOX

The Kids Aren’t All Right, and I’m Okay with That

The most interesting part of this episode was the children. They were first mentioned by Gupta during his interview with Mulder.

“The last couple of weeks, he was distant. He was troubled. I thought it was me. You know, we hadn’t gotten together for a while. He’d call me every night, but nothing…physical.” -Gupta

“Did he talk to you about his problems? About work?” –Mulder

“Yeah. Yeah, he said he was upset about his kids. He said they were dying.” -Gupta

“His kids? He was single.” -Mulder

“I didn’t push it. I just tried to make him feel better.” -Gupta

At Sanjay’s secret apartment, we get our first look at the Founder’s Mutation kids…and Mulder has auditory issues similar to what Sanjay suffered right before killing himself. The message that came through? “Find her.”

Any marginally attentive viewers will have noticed that a young janitor who had been at the lab around the time Sanjay died was also outside his apartment when Mulder was affected. I don’t remember Chris Carter being quite so obvious with things like this previously, and in this age of DVRs, rewatching, and internet theorizing, it’s not really necessary.

The fact that young pregnant women are being held captive in a ward paid for by Goldman is creepy as hell, honestly more creepy than the mutated kids. And the fact that Sister Mary refers to them as “damaged” is sickening. Even before Agnes died, I was on Mulder’s side with this one—Goldman’s reach is insidious. (I will admit, part of me wanted this to be a bigger focus. It was the first part that really tingled the “creep factor” I remember from watching the X-Files years ago.)

The Founder’s Mutation kids were a revelation. I started the episode very concerned it wasn’t going to link back to the alien conspiracy, so the genetic modifications on the kids directing back to the alien DNA made me feel a lot better about how the episode was progressing. And they also tied it back to Mulder and Scully’s baby, linking all of it to the history of the show.

But the highlights for me started with Molly (Megan Peta Hill), the telekinetic girl, and hit fever pitch with the revelation that her brother, Kyle (Jonathan Whitesell)-the janitor we discussed earlier-was the source of the sounds…and had crawled out of his mother, Jackie Goldman’s abdomen as a newborn. This moves the show away from theoretical alien children with theoretical alien abilities straight into “they are among us” territory. I’m glad the Goldman kids escaped the lab, and I’m kind of hoping they show up again and play into the season’s end game.

Flashbacks, Daydreams, Thievery, and Sassiness

In my previous review, I voiced concerns over the glossing over of Mulder and Scully’s backstory. This episode did help with that a bit—especially concerning “the child.” It was confirmed to be William, the baby they gave up for adoption fourteen years ago. But then things got weird.

Both Scully and Mulder had dream sequences involving William—but not as a baby, as if he’d grown up with them. And they were daydream sequences that initially looked far too much like flashbacks. While the purpose was clear—to show that they both simultaneously regretted giving him up while still fearing for his fate (Scully saw him as an alien, while Mulder saw him abducted)—the entire scenario was odd, even with them working on a case involving children.

On the upside, characterizations felt more on point with previous seasons of the show. Mulder went about skirting the edge of legality (stealing Sanjay’s phone after being denied access to the hard drive he’d been working on, as well as taking pictures of the files that were confiscated by the Department of Defense). He seemed much more the “kid in the candy store” that I remember. Clearly, he was meant for life in the FBI and somewhere along the way, he’d forgotten.

Scully, on the other hand, seems to have discovered her inner snark-master.

“What do you think of this, Scully?” -Mulder

“Well it seems that Dr. Sanjay had a psychotic break and committed suicide. Note the letter opener sticking out of his head.” -Scully

I don’t remember her being like that before, but I like it. It’s a solid and simple display of how easily exasperated she gets with Mulder. But most of all, I was happy to see her seriously having his back again. That was hugely absent from the first episode, but clearly partnership and the X-files become the two of them—even without the romance. But I also liked that they don’t shy away from talking about their relationship—or their kid.

Final Verdict: It’s the X-men via the X-Files—of course I’m still watching

This was another episode that I felt started really slow. I’m not sure if it’s faulty recollection of previous seasons on my part or just a change in expectations based on current shows, but for the first half I kept wondering when they were going to get to the good stuff.

The writing was solid. The acting was solid. The characters have started coming together more than in the last episode. There is a lot of good here. And, ultimately, the episode itself didn’t disappoint. Children born with alien DNA and the equivalent of super-powers hits my sweet spot.

But I’m frustrated with how slowly the episodes seem to be circling toward the big reveal. I think what is bugging me is the lack of danger surrounding Mulder and Scully. As I mentioned previously, I don’t understand why they’ve been allowed to live this long—and I definitely don’t understand why no one seems to be actively trying to hinder them now. While I understand the threat for the season is directed at the world at large, I want something more targeted and personal. I’m sure it’ll come eventually, but right now, I need more.

I want more of Kyle and Molly and kids like them. I want more integration to the over-arching conspiracy plot. I want to feel the danger. What I need from the X-Files is that edge-of-my-seat need to know what comes next, the nail-biting, the paranoia, the thoughts that keep me up at night. I want to believe it can happen.

Questions, Comments, Concerns, and My Reaction on Twitter…

• There’s a big ass murder of crows on the ground.
• Yay, Mulder & Scully are agents again
• Snarky Scully is snarky.
• Apparently that drive is super-duper secret. But Mulder got Sanjay’s phone.
• Creepy cleaning guy is creepy
• CHUCK! Well, not Chuck, but Lester—apparently he’s a secret too (totally writing fan fic in my head right now). LOL he’s Sanjay’s gay lover.
• Kind of wondering how all this meshes with the alien conspiracy. Or are we ignoring that until the finale?
• Autopsy: He has black stuff in the palm of his hands. Ooze? Not ooze.
• He fished around in his brain before the opener killed him? Charming.
• Secret apartment is secret. Lots of secrets in this episode.
• DoD isn’t working with the FBI. I get that FBI is Dept. of Justice, but this is annoying.
• Infrasounds drove worms to the surface…hence the murder of crows.
• Apparently “the child” is William. Nice to have confirmation there wasn’t another baby we were oblivious over.
• That daydream sequence was weird AF.
• Okay, small hypothetical link, but at least it’s a link. Gotta love telekinetics.
• That’s different. X-Files X-men?
• “Bad things happen when the birds gather.”-Kyle’s “mom”
• And that’s what helicopter parenting gets you
• Kids are gone but Mulder swiped Kyle’s blood