Founder's Mutation
"How those children relate to Dr. Sanjay's suicide is the object of our investigation."
Written and directed by James Wong
"Every new species begins with a Founder's Mutation. One child with the correct combination of DNA could be a start."
— Fox Mulder
Mulder and Scully investigate the death of a biomedical engineer, and find that his employers may be conducting secret genetic experiments on children for the Defense Department.
Tropes:
- Brown Note: The high-pitched tone that Kyle and Molly use for self-defense.
- Bury Your Gays: No sooner is Sanjay introduced than he is killed off, followed shortly by a brief subplot about his boyfriend.
- Call-Back: Kyle is looking for his sister, who's been taken by the government and experimented on. Further alluded to at the end of the episode, when Mulder dreams about his son William being abducted like Samantha.
- Ear Ache: The high-pitched noise only he can hear causes Sanjay to ram a letter opener into his ear.
- Eye Scream: As Mulder so succinctly puts it, Goldman's eyes "explode out of his skull" (which he also says can't be unseen).
- Jurisdiction Friction: The Department Of Defense unsurps Skinner and the FBI completely.
- Mistaken for Gay: Gupta thinks that Mulder contacted him for a bathroom rendezvous.
- Non-Answer: Goldman, when Scully asks if the children he "treats" have alien DNA.Goldman: I thought you were the rational one?
- Punny Name: Dr. Sanjay, and his boyfriend Gupta.
- Title Drop:
- Sanjay writes it on his hand before he kills himself.
- Mulder also uses it to describe to Scully what Goldman was trying to do to the children.
- Shout-Out:
- The entire plot revolves around human/alien hybrid children who possess psychic powers.
- A reclusive billionaire scientist in charge of a massive company gives treatments to infants and children that give them psychic powers. On a dark sci-fi show that airs on Fox, no less.
- Telekinesis: Molly has this.
- Telepathy: Both Molly and Kyle seem to have a form, though hers is the more traditional sort.
- Traumatic C-Section: Kyle's mother cut him out of her womb with a kitchen knife on his psychic goading after she got into a car accident.
- Vast Bureaucracy: Used by Skinner to buy Mulder and Scully time to complete their investigation.
"All great and honorable actions are undertaken with great difficulty..."
