Eve (The X-Files)

"Eve"
The X-Files episode
Eve 7 fleeing with one of the younger Eve clones.
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 11
Directed by	Fred Gerber
Written by	Kenneth Biller Chris Brancato
Production code	1X10
Original air date	December 10, 1993
Guest stars
Harriet Sansom Harris as Dr. Sally Kendrick/Eve 7, Eve 6, Eve 8 Jerry Hardin as Deep Throat Erika Krievins as Cindy Reardon/Eve 10 Sabrina Krievins as Teena Simmons/Eve 9 George Touliatos as Dr. Katz Tasha Simms as Ellen Reardon Janet Hodgkinson as Waitress David Kirby as Ted Watkins Tina Gilbertson as Donna Watkins Christine Upright-Letain as Miss Wells Gordon Tipple as Detective Garry Davey as Mr. Hunter Joe Maffei as Guard # 1 Maria Herrera as Guard # 2 Robert Lewis as Officer
Episode chronology
← Previous "Fallen Angel" Next → "Fire"
List of season 1 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

"Eve" is the eleventh episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on December 10, 1993. It was written by Kenneth Biller and Chris Brancato, directed by Fred Gerber, and featured guest appearances by Harriet Sansom Harris and Jerry Hardin in his role as Deep Throat. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Eve" earned a Nielsen household rating of 6.8, being watched by 6.4 million households in its initial broadcast; and received positive reviews from critics.

When FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigate two seemingly identical murders that occurred simultaneously thousands of miles apart, they find that both victim's daughters may be the product of a secret human cloning project created by the government.

Plot

In Greenwich, Connecticut, a couple find a girl, Teena Simmons, standing alone. Nearby, they find her father sitting dead on a swing set with two incisions in his neck. Agent Mulder takes the case and reviews it with Scully, who notes that over four liters of blood were drained from Joel's body, and a herbal sedative was found in his tissue. Mulder believes the death is an example of cattle mutilation on a human being.

When Mulder and Scully interview Teena, she claims to have seen "red lightning" when her father died and that "men from the clouds" had wanted to drain her father's blood. Afterwards, the agents travel to Marin County, California and visit the Reardon residence, the scene of a similar murder. They realize that despite the distance between the killings, they were committed on the same day and the same moment. Meanwhile, back in Connecticut, Teena is kidnapped.

When the agents meet the Reardons, they discover that their daughter, Cindy, is identical to Teena. Cindy's mother tells them that she was conceived via in vitro fertilization at a fertility clinic in San Francisco. Scully goes to the clinic and discovers that both the Simmons and the Reardons were treated by a woman named Dr. Sally Kendrick., who had been fired for conducting eugenics experiments with ova from the clinic's lab. The U.S. Health Department refused to investigate, and Dr. Kendrick later disappeared.

Mulder is contacted by Deep Throat, who details the government's Cold War efforts to create genetically enhanced children for use as supersoldiers, in a project called the Litchfield Experiment. The children created by the project were raised in a compound near Litchfield, Connecticut, and were identified as "Adam" or "Eve" in accordance with their genders. Deep Throat tells Mulder of a woman connected with the Litchfield Experiment, currently kept in a mental hospital.

Mulder and Scully travel to the hospital and meet "Eve 6", who tells them that the clones created in the Litchfield Experiment had extra chromosomes which led them to display superhuman intelligence and strength as well as homicidal psychoses. The last three clones, Eves 6, 7 and 8, were institutionalized after the project was cancelled. However, Eve 7 escaped, joined the fertility clinic as "Sally Kendrick", and modified the ova of the clinic's patients to create new Eve clones. Eve 8, who also escaped, is still at large.

Anticipating the kidnapping of Cindy, Mulder and Scully stake out her house, but a woman wearing a hooded coat to hide her appearance manages to knock out Scully, elude Mulder, and kidnap Cindy. She then takes Cindy to a motel where Teena is already being held captive and introduces the two girls to each other. It is revealed that this woman is Eve 7, AKA Sally Kendrick, and she tells the girls about the other Eves in the project: how psychosis set in at age 16 and murderous impulses at age 20, how she thought she had fixed these problems with the new clones, and how disappointed she was to learn of the new girls' "accelerated development." She asks them why they killed their fathers and the girls explain that they knew those men weren't their fathers; she asks how they knew of each other's existence and the girls reply that they "just knew."

At this point, Eve 7 tells the girls that she was raised by a man who knew what she was and that with the right mixture of a supportive environment, therapy, and antipsychotic drugs, they can grow up to be like her instead of like the other Eves—but it is too late. The girls, uninterested in growing up to be like Eve 7, have laced her drink with poisonous foxglove.

Mulder and Scully arrive to find Eve 7 dead; the girls, knowing that two Eves are essential for the agents to believe that it was Eve 7 and an accomplice who murdered their fathers, claim that they were kidnapped by Eve 7 and Eve 8 and explain Eve 7's death by saying that the older women were trying to goad them into a mass suicide. The agents decide to take the girls with them as they leave the scene.

That night, when the group arrives at a roadside truck stop, one of the girls sneaks out and poisons the sodas the agents ordered. Mulder realizes the girls' plan and manages to keep Scully from drinking her soda. The agents then pursue the girls through the truck stop, with Mulder eventually capturing them.

The episode concludes with Teena Simmons and Cindy Reardon, now kept in separate cells and sharing the ward with Eve 6 in the mental hospital. They have been given the monikers "Eve 9" and "Eve 10". Eventually, a woman wearing a lab coat—identified as Eve 8—comes to the ward. When Eve 8 asks the girls how they knew she would come for them, the girls each respond, "We just knew."

Production

Freelance writers Kenneth Biller and Chris Brancato pitched the idea for this episode to series creator Chris Carter under the title of "The Girls from Greenwich", with the focus being on genetic experiments conducted on sets of twins. The characters of Teena and Cindy were named after the wives of Glen Morgan and James Wong, who rewrote the original script prior to filming. "Eve" was the first and only episode of The X-Files to be directed by Fred Gerber, who Carter felt "brought some interesting stuff to it".

The producers initially looked for twins to play the roles of Teena and Cindy in Los Angeles, but child labor laws made using children from there so difficult that they instead searched locally in Vancouver, finding Erika and Sabrina Krievins. The difficulty in finding suitable actors for the roles had led producer R. W. Goodwin to consider casting one actor in both roles and using special effects and body doubles to create the impression of twins; however, this idea was rejected as it would have proved too impractical and expensive. The scenes in the episode set in the roadside diner were filmed in a café in White Rock, British Columbia, whose large gravel car park helped it appear "very rural in its setting". A large awning was used to complement the exterior shots of the building.

Reception

"Eve" premiered on the Fox network on December 10, 1993, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on December 1, 1994. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 6.8, with a 12 share, meaning that roughly 6.8 percent of all television-equipped households, and 12 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 6.4 million households.

Series creator Chris Carter states he liked the casting of the episode, calling Harriet Harris' performance excellent. He also praised the performance of Erika and Sabrina Krievins, stating "those two little girls were so wonderfully understated and creepy". In a retrospective of the first season in Entertainment Weekly, "Eve" was rated a B+, with the episode being called "tidy, satisfying, and suspenseful". The episode's premise and the casting of Harris were both cited as highlights. Keith Phipps, writing for The A.V. Club, also rated the episode a B+, calling it "a nicely realized episode" that "does a nice job building slowly and offering some shocks along the way". The acting and tone were also praised, especially the "dead-eyed performances" of the Krievins twins. Matt Haigh, writing for Den of Geek, felt that the episode had a "a good, original story" that proved "you can't go wrong when it comes to twins and horror"; with the girls' acting being called "suitably menacing". The band Eve 6 took its name from this episode, as the band's member Tony Fagenson was a fan. The plot for "Eve" was also adapted as a novel for young adults in 1997 by Ellen Steiber.

Footnotes

References

• Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0316218081. 
• Gradnitzer, Louisa; Pittson, Todd (1999). X Marks the Spot: On Location with The X-Files. Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 1551520664. 
• Hurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1933784806. 
• Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel Press. ISBN 080651745X. 
• Lowry, Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. ISBN 0061053309. 

External links

• "Eve" on The X-Files Wiki, an external wiki
• "Eve" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Eve" at TV.com