S7E6 · The Goldberg Variation

In Chicago, a man by the name of Henry Weems wins $100,000 playing poker against a mobster named Jimmy Cutrona, though Weems appears ignorant of the basic rules of poker. Suspecting that Weems cheated, Cutrona attempts to kill him by throwing him off the 29th story of the building. After Weems lands in a laundry cart in the basement, he stands up and walks away. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) initially believes the man has the ability to cure himself, but Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) thinks he may just be very lucky.

The agents track down Weems, a handyman at an apartment building. He refuses to testify against Cutrona. Weems has a fascination with Rube Goldberg machines and his apartment is filled with them. As the agents leave, one of Cutrona's enforcers arrives to kill Weems, but dies in an improbable cascade of events. The two agents rush back up stairs and find Weems unscathed. Mulder notes that Weems was the sole survivor of a commuter jet crash that killed 20 people in December 1989.

Weems buys a lottery ticket and wins $100,000, but throws the ticket away when he learns that it would take 12 months to get the money. A man retrieves the ticket and after ignoring Weems's warning that "something bad will happen," is hit by a truck. Later, as Mulder questions Weems again, another one of Cutrona's enforcers tries to kill him, only for his bullet to ricochet off Weems's pocket knife, barely graze Mulder's arm, and hit and wound the enforcer. Weems confesses that he has been trying to find a way to get $100,000 to pay for an expensive medical treatment for a boy in his apartment building named Richie (Shia LaBeouf).

Later, after Weems is hit by a car, it appears that his lucky streak has reached its end. Cutrona kidnaps Richie's mom, Maggie (Alyson Reed), to stop Weems from testifying against him. Weems turns himself in to Cutrona so he would let Maggie go; instead, they plan to kill him. As they are about to execute Weems in the basement, Cutrona and his mobster partner, Dominic, are killed in a bizarre turn of events, whereas Weems and Maggie are unharmed as Mulder arrives with backup. In the end, it turns out that Cutrona is an organ donor and a perfect match for Richie, who gets his medical treatment and lives.