14. Gender Bender

When this episode first began - with the gaudy setting of a club complete with appallingly bad 90s house music - I was certain I was in for some sort of transsexual killer, Silence of the Lambs-style episode. For once, I was glad to be wrong, as what transpires is a nicely refreshing and original idea.

A woman picks up a man in a bar, simply by caressing the area between his thumb and index finger (it does feel quite nice and relaxing) and gazing seductively into his eyes. Moments later, they’re having apparently “amazing” sex. Except, within minutes of it being over, the man begins to strain and gasp, before puking up a thick gooey liquid and falling flat on his back, very dead. Even stranger, the woman now morphs into a man and flees the crime scene.

Mulder and Scully’s investigation takes them to the home of a weird religious cult who do not like mixing with the world beyond their borders, and prefer to keep themselves to themselves and, as Scully points out, have probably been inter-marrying for decades. Their reception at the isolated farm house where the cult dwell is less than warm. Over dinner and prayers there is an outburst from one of the cult members, who demands that Mulder and Scully leave. Seconds later, an elderly man at the table begins coughing and choking. Scully offers to help, but her medical interference is rebuked, and the man is carried away into the massive spooky barn outside.

M & S pretend to leave, only to sneak back to the farm house to find out what’s going on. Mulder delves into the weird catacomb-like bowels of the barn, where he finds the old man tucked away in a wall cavity, where he appears to be growing long, flowing hair and, well, turning into a woman, like a caterpillar inside a cocoon. Meanwhile, Scully is caught by one of the cult members, who takes her inside the house and offers to tell her the identity of the killer. What he actually does is start stroking her special place and try to get her into bed. Mulder breaks in, rescues her from this fate, and they return to civilisation.

Later, when the killer strikes again, they return to the farm house, only to find that the whole place is deserted. “They had no means of escape,” Scully insists. To which Mulder replies, “No earthly means of escape,” and the camera pans out to show a giant crop circle sitting slap-bang in the middle of the field.

Personally, I thought this was a really fun episode. The gender bender of the title was a great idea, the cult were impressively spooky, and the set-design on the barn was strikingly atmospheric. The IMDB rates this episode as a seven out of ten, but I’d be inclined to give it closer to an eight.

Check out Matt's review of the preceding episode here.