Born Again (The X-Files)
| "Born Again" | |
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| The X-Files episode | |
A fish-tank ornament visible in the static of a video recording
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 22 |
| Directed by | Jerrold Freedman |
| Written by |
Alex Gansa Howard Gordon |
| Production code | 1X21 |
| Original air date | April 29, 1994 |
| Running time | 44 minutes |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
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"Born Again" is the twenty-second episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on April 22, 1994. "Born Again" was written by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, and directed by Jerrold Freedman. The episode featured guest appearances by Brian Markinson and Maggie Wheeler. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Born Again" earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.2, being watched by 7.7 million households in its initial broadcast, and received mixed reviews from critics.
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. When Mulder and Scully are called to New York to investigate the death of a police officer, they come to believe that a young girl present at the incident may be the reincarnation of another officer murdered years earlier.
Several crew members disliked the episode, most notably writer Howard Gordon and David Duchovny. Gordon felt that the episode was too similar to the other episodes that had been aired, whereas Duchovny bluntly stated that he "detested" the episode.
In Buffalo, New York, police detective Sharon Lazard finds a little girl, Michelle Bishop, alone in an alley. Lazard takes the seemingly lost girl into her precinct, and leaves her alone to be interviewed by another detective, Rudolph Barbala. However, moments later, Barbala is jettisoned through a window, falling to his death.
Lazard turns to Fox Mulder and Dana Scully for help. She tells them of Michelle's claims that a man had attacked Barbala, even though she was the only person in the room when the detective was killed. The agents have Michelle describe the alleged attacker for a computerized facial composite; the computer seemingly glitches, displaying a face that Michelle identifies as the killer. The composite matches that of a Detective Charlie Morris — who died nine years previously in an apparent gangland hit. Mulder speaks to Michelle's psychiatrist, Dr. Braun, who tells him that she habitually mutilated dolls in a uniform manner during their sessions together, removing the same eye and arm each time; Mulder realizes that these mutilations match the circumstances of Morris' death.
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