“Schizogeny” is episode nine of season five of The X-Files.
A teenage boy is playing a video game in Coats Grove, Michigan, at night. A man arrives in a truck and gets out. He sees a spade and looks unhappy. He heads into the house and calls for the boy, Bobby. He tells his wife, Patti, that he’s had it with that boy. The man, Phil, heads upstairs and gets Bobby to come outside and put the spade away. Don’t leave tools out in the rain; they cost money. But finish the job first. Bobby suddenly yells at Phil, then jabs at him with the spade. Then drops it and runs into an orchard. He sees another person there, then Phil trips and falls. When Patti arrives, Bobby is trying to pull Phil out of the mud into which he’s being dragged.
At the Department of the Coroner, Scully has removed a lot of soil from Phil’s stomach, though it’s the small amount in his lungs that killed him. She thinks he was murdered, held down forcibly in the mud for too long, most likely by his 16-year-old stepson, Bobby. Mulder points out they needed a backhoe to dig Phil out and he was standing in a vertical position. Scully suggests Bobby dug a hole and the rainstorm turned it into a muddy trap. Mulder doesn’t think the kid is a suspect. Scully suggests an accomplice. Mulder notices marks on Phil’s ankles.
They head to speak to Bobby and his mother separately and Mulder tells him he isn’t there to accuse him. He wants to hear Bobby’s story. The police aren’t convinced that Bobby told them the truth about trying to help Phil. Bobby says the police want him to confess, so they have someone to blame.
Patti is telling Scully that Bobby and Phil were really close when Bobby was young. Then Bobby entered the teenage stage. Phil was stressed out because the trees have blight. He could be stern, but she never saw him raise a hand to Bobby.
Bobby is telling Mulder he half expected Phil to pull him into the mud, as if he had planned it. Phil liked to shove him around; no, Bobby didn’t ever shove back. When he was watching Phil, it was like Bobby felt he had it coming. Patti is telling Scully that it looked like Bobby was trying to help Phil. Scully asks about abuse, but Patti doesn’t mention any.
Outside, Mulder finds what looks like blood on a tree. Scully tells him they are dying. Patti won’t admit any abuse. Mulder thinks Bobby is a hard kid to love. They head to look at the, very big, hole. Mulder climbs in and asks Scully if she has an explanation. She does. Mulder finds it funny and even Scully knows it sounds ridiculous. Mulder mentions Bobby is undergoing therapy for his anger and Scully sees the man Bobby saw, then he disappears.
At school, Bobby is trying to talk to a girl, Lisa, when some people hassle him. He tells them to get off. When asked why, he says maybe he’ll kill them too. Which is an effective comeback, even if he didn’t kill Phil.
Mulder and Scully head to see Bobby’s therapist, Karin Matthews. She tells them that Bobby once spilled a glass of milk at dinner and Phil made him eat in the cellar for two weeks. Mulder thinks she’s being evasive. And doesn’t think Bobby is guilty.
Lisa is walking home that night when Bobby pulls up next to her. He tells her she doesn’t have to put up with her dad. She enters the house and her father doesn’t like her speaking to Bobby. They’re in Lisa’s room when she yells at him and storms out. He looks out the window, then something pulls him through it.
The next day, Scully tells Mulder that the man was most likely pushed out of the window. Lisa made the 911 call and said they had a fight about Bobby. Matthews is Lisa’s therapist as well; her father was very disapproving of her. She tries to empower victims to break the cycle of abuse.
Mulder is in Lisa’s bedroom when Scully joins him after speaking to Lisa. Lisa thinks Bobby is capable of murder. Mulder says they are all capable. But, if Lisa’s father was pushed through the window, all the glass would be outside. Some isn’t, and the window bears signs showing something pushed in from outside. Scully doesn’t see how Bobby would be capable of dragging the dead man through the window. That’s Mulder’s point.
What looks like a pretty straightforward case of abused children fighting back is anything but.