“Eve” is episode eleven of season one of The X-Files.
The episode opens in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a young girl is standing in the driveway of a house. Two joggers, a man and a woman, stop and go over to the girl, who is clutching a teddy. The girl, Teena, says that her daddy is in the yard; he said he needed some time to himself. The male jogger says that time is up and goes around the back. A man is sitting on a swing with his back to them. The jogger calls him Joel, and grabs him. Joel is extremely dead with two puncture wounds in his neck.
At the FBI, Scully is reading the coroner’s report on the dead man, Joel Simmons. He died from 75% blood loss, losing over 4 litres of blood. His 8-year-old daughter wasn’t away from him for more than 10 minutes but doesn’t remember anything and there was no trace at the crime scene. Mulder pulls out a file on cattle mutilations; over 34 states have unsolved cases since 1967. The crimes are similar, with blood loss but no blood at the crime scene. The puncture marks were in the jugular; sticking a needle in there would cause the heart to pump the blood out. The cattle were punctured in the same way. The report on Simmons also shows traces of digitalis, a paralytic drug. The cattle mutilations show UFO related phenomena. Scully asks why aliens would travel light years to Earth to play doctor on cattle. The same reason as humans do similar things to frogs and monkeys according to Mulder.
Teena has no other family and is being kept by social services until a foster home can be found. She has had no apparent nightmares. Mulder and Scully chat to Teena; she mentions seeing red lightning. And that the men in the clouds were after her had. Because they wanted to exsanguinate him. Yes, the 8-year-old used the word ‘exsanguinate.’ During this, Scully gets a call. There’s been another one.
In Marin County, California, Doug Reardon was found exsanguinated in a swing. He was married, with one daughter. Digitalis was also present in his system and there were puncture wounds in his jugular. The time of death was 2:30 PM, the same day as Joel Simmons but three hours earlier. Except Mulder points out that the time is Pacific Standard Time, which is three hours earlier than the East Coast. Same time, same method. The daughter remembers nothing and she and her mother will be back the next day. That night, someone breaks into the hostel where Teena is and abducts her. Scully tells Mulder this as they arrive at the Reardon home and the door is apparently answered by Teena.
Except her name is Cindy. She is also 8. Scully asks Mrs Reardon if her daughter was adopted. No, she wasn’t. She has all the documentation of the birth and Cindy was the only child delivered. Mrs Reardon clearly thinks these are odd questions, and is shown a photograph of Joel and Teena, and asked if she has ever seen the man before. No, he isn’t a suspect – and that’s not Cindy. Her father was killed in the same manner. The Reardons had tried for six years to have a baby, resorting to IVF. Scully heads to the clinic where the IVF was done and Mulder reminds behind in case someone attempts to abduct – kidnap – Cindy as well.
Dr Katz at the clinic is reluctant to share information until Scully tells him that both parents are dead and the daughter has been kidnapped. Both the Simmons and the Reardons saw a Dr Sally Kendrick. Who was apparently nothing but trouble. Brilliant, first in her Yale medical class, a doctor of biogenetics as well. However, the clinic believed that Kendrick was implanting material in the lab prior to fertilisation, experimenting with eugenics. She was reported to the AMA and fired and Katz requested that the government investigate her. Kendrick was censured but the request for an investigation was declined and she disappeared.
Scully tells Mulder this back at his motel room. It seems he may have abandoned his UFO theory. The phone rings and Scully answers; she says there were only two clicks. Mulder promptly hustles her out, even though he denies her accusation of this.
The phone call was a request from Deep Throat to meet – in the previous episode, “Fallen Angel”, evidence suggested that Deep Throat may not be as much of a friend as Mulder thinks. The man claims he was in the neighbourhood and asks if he has ever told Mulder about the Lichfield experiments. An interesting project at the highest level of classification. All the records have been destroyed and those involved will deny any knowledge. In the 50s, the Russians were doing eugenics experiments, trying to breed supersoldiers. So, the U.S. did the same. Genetically controlled children were raised in a compound in Lichfield.
The boys were called Adam and the girls Eve. Mulder and Scully are heading to see someone. Given that this person is at the Whiting Institute for the Criminally Insane, it can be inferred that the Lichfield experiment was not a rousing success. They are shown in to see a woman, Eve 6. Who appears to be Sally Kendrick. Only she isn’t. She is, however, identical. It seems Kendrick was running her own experiment. The Lichfield children had serious problems, and those problems may not have been solved.