01 x 11: Eve

*All prices mentioned are in 2021 values

We begin the episode in a quant neighborhood in Greenwich Connecticut on 11/7/1993. A little girl stops a couple and shows them that her father is dead. He’s found in their backyard on their swing set completely drained of blood. 

This episode later reveals that his own young daughter him, but doesn’t sufficiently explain how his body was exsanguinated in such a short amount of time.

Queue the opening credits.

In Mulder’s office he explains to Scully the details of this case. We see that he uses 3 slides, which currently would cost ~$25 to have developed and processed. We know that in the past Mulder has processed film on his own, but I doubt that he is capable of producing slides used here.

Mulder and Scully then travel to Fairfield Connecticut to investigate the exsanguination. The flight would cost $1134.69, plus the cost of a taxi from FBI headquarters to the DCA airport $32. 

Mulder interviews the girl named Tina about the exsanguination of her father when Scully receives a cell phone call that there’s another exsanguination in California. 

In 1993, again, one could not just make and receive cell phone calls. Scully would have been considered a “visitor” in Connecticut and been charged roaminxg fees in order to receive calls. According to the reference book I used, running her cell phone would cost $3/day in 1993 plus an additional $0.99/min. This simple phone call would have cost the government $11.77 in today’s money, assuming this phone call took less than 1 minute.

Mulder and Scully immediately fly to California. This made calculations a little challenging as they did not stay a night in a hotel in Connecticut, but they did rent a car ($60). The flight to Connecticut from San Francisco according to the Bureau of Transportation cost $1330.98 (for both of them) presently. We can assume they stayed in a hotel in San Francisco that evening since the scene of Mulder and Scully visiting the crime scene is the next day. The present rate for the Warwick in San Francisco is $115/night per guest. This location would be central to the crime scene as well as the marina where Mulder later meets Deep throat. 

In California they meet a girl named Cindy who looks identical to Tina whose father has also been exsanguinated.

Skipping details of the case, Scully visits the Luther Stapes Center for Reproductive Medicine in San Francisco while Mulder stays behind to watch Cindy and make sure she isn’t kidnapped. He believes someone is targeting both families and that the little girls are now in danger. This decision means that our investigative duo must’ve rented two vehicles, again costing about $60 each.

Mulder and Scully meet again that evening at their hotel room for a second night ($115 / person / night). Mulder receives a phone call that’s static. Somehow, he assumes this to be Deep Throat, his shadowy government contact from DC who happens to be in San Francisco. Mulder meets Deep Throat at the Marina downtown where we see him eating a package of David Sunflower Seeds ($1.99).

He convinces the pair to fly all the way back to Connecticut to investigate the Litchfield Experiments at the Whiting Institute for the Criminally Insane. That means Mulder and Scully fly from San Francisco to JFK ($1263.92) and rent another car ($60).

After investigating the Whiting Institute, they fly back to San Francisco ($1330.98), rent another car ($60) and stake out the Reardon Crime Scene again in California. During their surveillance, Sally Kendrick from Connecticut tries to kidnap Cindy. Sally had kidnapped Tina in Connecticut and somehow managed to bring Tina to California and wants Tina and Cindy to meet. When breaking into the home, Sally breaks the front door ($499.00) which I’m sure is the FBI’s responsibility to replace.

Another night in San Francisco sets our duo back another $115 a piece. They then attempt to find Cindy, Tina and Sally who are now in a motel at Port Reyes National Seashore, 40 miles north of San Francisco. There’s a bit of a standoff and the cops and FBI break down the motel front door ($499) in order to reach the kidnapped girls.

For whatever reason, Mulder and Scully take responsibility of the girls and decide to drive them to… well it’s not clear where they are taking the girls. I guess it’s implied they’re going to social services?

On the way, Mulder and Scully take the girls to the Highway 49 cafe, which is a fictional place that I attempted to locate. I did my best. If you’re interested, see my map. It is here that Mulder buys 2 diet and 2 regular sodas which the lady conveniently says cost $5, which in today’s money is a whopping $9.06 based on inflation.

The girls try to poison Mulder and Scully but Mulder uses his spidey senses and avoids tragedy.

The following day ($115/person for the hotel stay) Mulder and Scully visit Mrs. Reardon who has very quickly gotten over the fact that her daughter is a murderer. She dramatically tears a photo apart and burns her daughter’s photo. Understandable, I guess, but it’s only been like 24 hours since her family was living normal lives.

Anyway, at this point Mulder and Scully fly back to Washington ($1263.92 + $32 taxi back to Headquarters). Meanwhile, Tina and Cindy were flown back to… Connecticut? To the Whiting Institute for the Criminally Insane? Who paid for this? The FBI? If so this sets the government back another $1263.

You could say this was a successful case on the part of Mulder and Scully. They did find the culprits… or did they? There’s not a sufficient explanation about how the girls drained their adopted fathers of blood. 

I also can’t justify the flights that Mulder and Scully took cross country in this investigation. They only needed to visit Connecticut once, not twice, which resulted in 2 extra cross country flights.

At the end of the day, this case set us back $9,766.33 in today’s money. I’m sure when we look at later cases we’ll go back to this one and think that the money was well spent…