The X-Files Mini-series Episode 2 Recap

The second episode of The X-Files overcomes the issues of the first. We get a complete story, something episode one lacked amid all the setup and introductions. Mulder's quest for alien proof has been rebooted to expose the corruption of the government. Episode 2 looks to be the first proper episode. Check out my X-files mini-series recaps.

Could we have simplified the first episode and had Skinner call Mulder, asking him if he would accept a position with the FBI? We got an elaborate charade to bring Mulder back, but did we need the theatrics? I didn't need Joel McHale.

What has Mulder been doing in the last decade? He hasn't given up the search, but apparently he hasn't found anything notable either. I assume he isn't a alien chaser, listening to the scanner, typing on internet conspiracy chat rooms, and hoping to find that one piece of evidence

What is Mulder's motivation? Skinner just asking him to come back isn't enough. I don't buy a television host telling him to believe does the trick. Mulder needs a catalyst. Maybe Skinner opens the door with a baffling case that needs Mulder's investigative eye. Mulder was a superior profiler, he likes to solve puzzles. That's a hook I could buy.

Recap: Episode 2 Founder's Mutation
This episode felt like The X-files, it isn't a great episode but it's better than the first episode which is pretty much skippable.
 This episode kicks off with Dr. Sanjay doing a retinal scan to get into a Department of Defense facility. His eye is bruised, shining bright red.

He hears a piercing tone that halts him in mid stride. This tone cuts through his thoughts, driving him mad. No one else hears the sound and it causes him to access a secure terminal in a secure room as colleagues attempt access. Sanjay succumbs to his madness, ending the tone and his life in a graphic scene.

This introduction felt like X-files, and the theme song only accentuated that. I love hearing the theme song.

Mulder steals Sanjay's phone as he investigates the crime scene. Mulder brags that he's old school and Scully retorts she's old school, pre-google. The mini-series loves it's technology jokes. Mulder wants access to Dr. Goldman, but is rebuked.

Scully plays medical examiner again, and discovers the words 'founder's mutation' scrawled on Sanjay's hand. Censors definitely allow more gore these days. We get to see Sanjay's cranium removed.

Sanjay had said his kids were dying. Are they test subjects? Mulder and Scully go to Sanjay's apartment to find clues.

A janitor we saw in the DoD building is seen again on the street outside of Sanjay's apartment. On Sanjay's wall are images of kids with various deformities. Is it genetic testing?

While searching the house, Mulder hears the same tone as Sanjay and is crippled with pain.

Skinner is hard nose, ordering the case to be closed and ruled as a suicde. Mulder makes a Snowden reference, which illustrates the difference with the original. What was avante gard twenty years ago is less so now.

Mulder's office is back with lots of banker boxes and files. Now he uses a television instead of a slide projector. Mulder theorizes that the birds Sanjay saw outside were driven to the surface by sounds inaudible to humans.
Scully takes a moment to remind Mulder that, "This is dangerous." The dialog isn't as sharp as it should be.

The agents meet Agnes, a young pregnant woman in the hospital with a sick baby. I bet it's just like the kids Sanjay was researching. Agnes is later found dead with her baby surgically removed.

We get another episode with a reference to baby William. It's crazy to think Scully has a fifteen year old kid. She has a vision of William growing up. It's a bit much, but the thoughts are a part of her and affect her.

Mulder and Scully gain access to the reclusive Dr. Goldman who is into genetics and strange children diseases. All of the kids are in sealed rooms and the DoD is funding his research. The agents see a woman with telekinetic powers before they are ushered out.
The right child with the right DNA could create a new species. Is this what Goldman is after? Is this what the DoD is after?

The agents interview Goldman's wife who killed her unborn child. Jackie Goldman doesn't speak for ten minutes before throwing an apple at a cat. She and Mulder bond over not liking cats and she reveals her daughter could breathe underwater due to her husband's experiments on the embryo. Are his patients mutated by his own hand?

Jackie had run away from her husband with her unborn son. She manages to hit a deer and flip her car which is a feat unto itself.

Jackie hears a piercing tone, knowing it's her son. She has to stop the sound and stabs her belly, but that doesn't stop her son. Jackie is institutionalized. Is this son the janitor we've been seeing? Yes it is.

The janitor was fifteen feet away when Sanjay killed himself. We also saw the janitor near Sanjay's apartment. Someone was inside. It must be him. The janitor's name is Kyle.

Mulder and Scully drive to Kyle's mother's house. When the birds gather, Mulder goes down.

I'm unclear why Kyle targeted Sanjay. The show tells us he can't control his power, but he seemed in control every time I saw him. He targeted specific people.

Kyle is looking for his sister Molly, who happens to be the telekinetic girl we saw earlier. Kyle breaks a window and causes Dr. Goldman to bleed from his orifices. Molly subdues Mulder and Scully with her powers. This kids escape and that's it. It felt a little anti-climactic. A scene with the kids in a diner or something would have had more closure and hearkened to the episodes of years past.

The episode concludes with Mulder's visions of his son. Mulder's old fears invade the vision, his son abducted by aliens.

This episode wasn't bad. It definitely felt like X-files, though an average to below-average episode. I hope the mini-series builds from here. We had flashback or visions from Mulder, Scully, and Jackie Goldman. It felt a bit intrusive, but for Mulder and Scully the child they gave up is something that haunts them.