Season 7, Episode 6: The Goldberg Variation

Synopsis

In Chicago, a building superintendent named Henry Weems wins over $100,000 in a poker game with some mobster types and tries to leave. The mobsters respond by throwing him off the roof of the building, but he survives the 30-story drop unharmed after landing in a laundry bin. Mulder and Scully track down Weems after finding his glass eye nearby. The agents try to persuade Weems to testify against the mob kingpin, Joe Cutrona, who the FBI has been investigating, but Weems refuses. Scully thinks Weems was just lucky, and Mulder agrees that he might be supernaturally fortunate after a henchman winds up dead after trying to kill Weems.

The agents find that a boy in Weems' building named Richie Lupone is suffering from hepatitis, and that Weems has been off the radar since 1989, when he was the sole survivor of a plane crash in 1989. Weems wins $100,000 on a lottery ticket, but throws it away after saying that the payout will take too long. A customer who retrieves it ignores Weems' warning that something bad will happen related to the ticket, and the customers is hit by a truck soon after digging it out of the trash. Another henchman shoots Weems, but is nearly killed himself when the bullet richochets off a tool in Weems' pocket.

Weems admits to being very lucky, but thinks bad things happen to other people as a sort of balance, which is why he keeps a low profile. He also says that he's trying to get the money to put Lupone into a treatment program, since Lupone has a rare blood type and is unlikely to find a donor. Scully wants Weems in protective custody, saying all lucky streaks end. Sure enough, Weems is hit by the same truck that hit the store customer after trying to escape a mobster.

Weems is hospitalized and says he'll testify against Cutrona; Lupone's condition worsens and he is also hospitalized. Weems worries that Lupone's mother has been kidnapped so he won't testify, and Mulder wonders if his luck hasn't changed but everything is happening for a reason. Mulder decides to try his own luck out in tracking down Lupone's mother, and randomly chooses a linen service to look for her. Weems goes to see Cutrona, who has taken Lupone's mother to the linen place, but Cutrona's attempt to kill Weems ends up killing both him and a thug. Mulder and the police enter the place and find that Cutrona has the exact same blood type as Lupone, making a transfer possible.

Shia LaBeouf, who has since appeared in several movies including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and the new Transformers franchise, plays Richie Lupone. Tony Longo, who plays Dominic, also played Private Investigator Ray in The Young and the Restless.

Episode Body Count

At least one murder: Scully says the FBI is investigating Cutrona on a number of charges, including murder.

Angelo Bellini: dies of a heart attack after trying to shoot Weems and getting hung up by a ceiling fan.

Twenty Flight 7 crash victims: killed when the plane crashes into Lake Michigan in 1989; Weems is the only survivor.

Dominic: on the left; apparently electrocuted to death during a series of events at the linen service.

Joe Cutrona: killed when a large hook breaks loose and hits him in the face.

Humans: 24
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (145/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,598

Creatures: 113
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,773