[[WMG:[[center:[-'''RECAP:'''\\
[[Recap/TheXFiles Index]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E01TheSixthExtinction 1]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E02TheSixthExtinctionIIAmorFati 2]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E03Hungry 3]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E04Millennium 4]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E05Rush 5]] | '''6''' | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E07Orison 7]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E08TheAmazingMaleeni 8]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E09SignsAndWonders 9]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E10SeinUndZeit 10]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E11Closure 11]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E12XCops 12]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E13FirstPersonShooter 13]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E14Theef 14]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E15EnAmi 15]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E16Chimera 16]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E17AllThings 17]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E18BrandX 18]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E19HollywoodAD 19]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E20FightClub 20]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E21JeSouhaite 21]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E22Requiem 22]]]]-]]]
'''Season 7, Episode 06:'''
!The Goldberg Variation
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thexfilesthegoldbergvariation.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I think it's a balance thing. Something good happens to me and everybody else has to take it in the keister."'']]
->Written by Jeffrey Bell\\
Directed by Thomas J. Wright

->''"Cause and effect: seemingly unrelated and unconnected events and occurrences that appear unrelated and random beforehand but which seem to chain-react in Henry Weems' favor."''
-->-- '''Fox Mulder'''

Mulder and Scully investigate a man who survived being thrown off the 29th story of a building.
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!! Tropes:
* ABNegative: Richie has a rare blood type, B-negative. And he's CMV negative. Cytomegalovirus, as Scully says.
* BillyNeedsAnOrgan: Richie has hepatitis and he needs liver transplant. (Scully diagnosed him just by looking at him.) Alternatively, he could get in a special experimental treatment program in England. He's got a rare blood type and further complications.
* BullyingTheDragon: What Weems thinks he's able to do against an angry mob boss, since Weems knows he's protected by dumb good luck. It works. When the mob boss scoffs at Weems and tries to kill him, things are set in motion that save Weems, but kill the mob boss and his henchman.
* CallBack / ContinuityNod: Scully sits with Richie and discusses sports. Richie tells her his favorite sport is baseball. Scully replies that she [[HandsOnApproach likes]] [[Recap/TheXFilesS06E19TheUnnatural baseball]], too.
* CoincidenceMagnet: One too many things have to fall into place for all these weird accidents to occur. Which is what Weems' good luck is all about. Even when it looks like Scully accidentally breaks Weems' good luck streak, it turns out that was all part of the setup to get the mob boss killed... the one mob boss who's an organ donor and an exact match for Richie's transplant.
* HumbleHero: Mulder's a nice enough guy to try and fix a stranger's busted water pipe, although [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished he'd have been better off not bothering]].
* LittlestCancerPatient: The ill kid, Richie. He likes baseball and is kinda cute.
* NecroNonSequitur: The episode had several mobsters trying to kill the luckiest man on Earth; all of them perished themselves in increasingly complicated ways because his luck comes at the cost of anyone who intends him any form of harm. Mulder's summation of how a dead hitman ended up hanging from a ceiling fan by his shoelace is a triumphant example of fatal {{Contrived Coincidence}}s. As a bonus, they kept trying to kill him because he was using his luck to collect enough money to pay for a new liver for his dying neighbor's kid, and the last mobster to die was an organ donor who just happened to be a tissue match.
* PungeonMaster: Scully can't resist an eye pun, to Mulder's delight.
* RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts: Henry Weems was an extremely lucky man. However, super extreme streaks of luck he experienced manipulated other people's luck, resulting in rather bizarre ends for them.
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->'''Mulder:''' Maybe your luck is changing.\\
'''Henry:''' Maybe.