Aubrey (The X-Files)

"Aubrey" is the twelfth episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, and the thirty-sixth episode overall. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on January 6, 1995. It was written by Sara B. Charno and directed by Rob Bowman. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Aubrey" received a Nielsen rating of 10.2 and was watched by 9.7 million households. The episode received mixed to positive reviews from television critics.

The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully has been assigned to debunk his work. In the episode, Mulder and Scully believe that a serial killer from the 1940s passed his genetic trait of violence to his grandchild after a detective, BJ Morrow (Deborah Strang) mysteriously uncovers the remains of an FBI agent who disappeared almost fifty years before while investigating a modern-day murder case similar to the older cold case.

Although "Aubrey" was written by Charno, Glen Morgan and James Wong, who had written for The X-Files before, provided additional contributions to the story. The story for the episode developed around the concept of 50-year-old murders and the transfer of genetic memory. This was later combined with a separate concept about a female serial killer. Terry O'Quinn, who guest stars in the episode, would later play roles in the 1998 feature film, the ninth season episode "Trust No 1", become a recurring character as Peter Watts on Millennium, and appear on the short-lived series Harsh Realm. Strang's work on the episode was submitted for Emmy consideration.