Gender Bender (The X-Files)

Infobox Television episode | Title = Gender Bender


Caption = "Gender Bender"
Series = The X-Files
Season = 1
Episode = 1X13
Airdate = January 21 1994 (Fox)
Production = 14-114
Writer = Larry Barber
Paul Barber
Director = Rob Bowman
Guests =Brent Hinkley,
Michele Goodger,
Peter Stebbings,
Kate Twa,
Nicholas Lea
-
Prev = Beyond the Sea
Next = Lazarus

"Gender Bender" was the fourteenth episode of the first season of "The X-Files" science-fiction television series created by Chris Carter.

ynopsis

A series of identical sexually-oriented murders, where the killer appears to be both male and female, draw Scully and Mulder to an Amish-type community of people in Massachusetts who may be alien in origin.

Plot

The episode opens in a dance club with a young man being taken by a young woman for an anonymous sexual encounter. The young man retches and dies in a post-coital fit. Mulder and Scully are called to the scene and Mulder later explains that it is related to a dose of pheromones so strong that it kills the person involved. There is also ambiguity in similar murders as to the sex of the actual attacker. Evidence from the crime scene leads the duo to an Amish-type community in Massachusetts which Mulder calls The Kindred.

Mulder approaches some of The Kindred as they shop near a local store only to be shunned. Dana has better luck befriending a shy member who is left tending to the family horse, Alice. He tells her they are not meant to talk outside. Whilst shaking hands she experiences an intense feeling of what looks like pleasure.

The pair head up to the remote community and, whilst lost in the woods are surrounded by a group who demand they give up their weapons before they will be allowed to enter the village. Mulder and Scully are invited to a family dinner. Scully is distracted during dinner by the man from the food store who is sat beside her. A sick participant in the dinner is denied medical attention from Scully as it is suggested that they "take care of our own".

In another club a man convinces a reluctant young girl to dance with her by touching her hand in a similar experience to that of Scully earlier, and again a young woman does the same thing.

Mulder notices the lack of children in the community and states that he recognizes some of the same faces from photographs taken in the 1930s and, curious, returns to the village under the cover of night. An chanting drone can be heard across the village as the a lamp lit procession of The Kindred moves to a barn. They seem to be in a trance like state. The sick man from earlier is being carried, naked with a mark on his forehead. Afterward Mulder sneaks into the barn to see what is in the cellar whilst Scully is taken by the man she met earlier who claims to be able to give her information about the murderer, whom he calls "Brother Martin". Scully finds out that Martin found some magazines and was entranced by the trappings of the outside world. In the cellar the group can be seen bathing the body in a fat like jelly substance which also coats the wall of the tunnels. Mulder becomes trapped and hides in a crevice in the labyrinth where he discovers that these people are buried alive. The man then uses his power to seduce Scully who doesn't resist and is eventually rescued by Mulder and the try to leave the township just after Scully is ill.

The seduced man at the club is having relations with the girl in a parked car before a patrol officer breaks them up. The young man wretches and the officer is disabled by the woman who is then reveal to look like a man.

The woman is in an apartment talking to a dead body claiming that "...the day is coming and they won't leave without me".

In a dark alley the man Scully befriended from the village accosts the man the FBI are chasing who take him away but not before knocking her out.

A return to the village to find the people involved leads to finding the underground tunnels blocked entirely. The show ends with Mulder and Scully walking around a large crop circle.

Production details

pecial guests

*Brent Hinkley as Brother Andrew
*Michele Goodger as Sister Abigail
*Peter Stebbings as Marty (male)
*Kate Twa as Marty (female)
*Nicholas Lea as "Michael"
*Mitchell Kosterman as Detective Horton
*Paul Batten as Brother Wilson
*Doug Abrahams as Agent # 1
*Aundrea MacDonald as Pretty Woman
*John R. Taylor as Husband
*Grai Carrington as Tall Man
*Tony Morelli as Cop
*Lesley Ewen as Agent # 2
*David Thomson as Brother Oakley

Continuity

*Nicholas Lea would later return in the series in a recurring role as Alex Krycek.

References and external links

*imdb title|0751129|Gender Bender
* [http://www.tv.com/the-x-files/genderbender/episode/504/summary.html Genderbender] at TV.com