“Its weapon is sex… Its desire is deadly.”

Thus read the tagline for Gender Bender, where a bizarre string of sexually related murders lead Mulder and Scully to an Amish-like group known as The Kindred. Mulder believes a member of this group is responsible for the murders, but The Kindred are hesitant to cooperate with the investigation. Because of this, the agents return in secret but end up separated in the process. Mulder witnesses the group performing a strange ritual where a sick man is buried alive while seemingly changing into a more feminine appearance, and Scully, goes with a group member named Andrew, who claims to have information about the killer. Unfortunately, after Andrew divulges this information, he attempts to seduce and have his way with Scully, which Mulder thankfully stops.

Meanwhile, Martin, the killer is seeking out new victims, sometimes as a woman and other times as a man, but before Mulder and Scully can catch him, the Kindred arrive and take him. Throughout the episode, it is heavily hinted that the Kindred are not of this Earth, and the ending shows that is most likely the case.

The X Files has had some weird episodes over the years, and I’ve always thought this was one of the weirdest. With gender being an ongoing topic these days, I’m sure this episode can be seen in many different ways. The takeaway for me is seeing just how different things can be in thirty years.

Nicholas Lea who would later play Alex Krycek in the series makes an appearance here as Martin's victim that got away.

Disturbing Moment: Depends on how you look at it.