In January 1800, a naked, heavily scarred boy emerged from the forests of southern France, seemingly oblivious to the freezing cold. He became known as Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron.

This episode follows how an Enlightenment thought experiment about human nature became the accidental foundation of modern special education, and how Victor's silence is reinterpreted by science today.

• 23 scars, including a throat wound, suggesting human violence
• Dr. Pinel's dismissal versus the philosophers' noble savage hopes
• Jean Itard's sensory training and the tiny vocabulary Victor learned
• Consoling Madame Guerin as evidence of genuine empathy
• Modern retrospective diagnoses of autism and childhood abuse