Blood (The X-Files)
Encyclopedia
"Blood" is the third episode of the second season
of the science fiction
television series The X-Files
. It first aired on September 30, 1994. It follows F.B.I. Agents Scully and Mulder's investigation into a series of killings in Franklin, Pennsylvania. All the suspects appear compelled to murder after seeing violent messages on electronic devices.
) sits entering zip codes into a mail sorting machine. The machine jams and he nicks his finger on an envelope. He seems mesmerized by the small drop of blood. He sees the words "Kill 'Em All" on the machine's digital display.
At the Franklin Civic Center, a middle-aged man in a crowded elevator sees "No Air" displayed on the elevator's LCD. He is the only one who can see the message. Sweating and obviously claustrophobic, he again glances at the LCD. This time it flashes the words "Can't Breathe" and then "Kill 'Em All."
Agent Fox Mulder
arrives at the civic center after what looks like a massacre. Bodies lie on the sidewalk and in the foyer. The local sheriff explains that the suspect murdered four people from the elevator with his bare hands. His rampage ended when he was shot by a security guard. Sheriff Spencer is mystified. Franklin is a quiet farming town. But in the last six months seven individuals have murdered twenty-two people. Mulder inspects the elevator and notices that its electronic display has been damaged. He examines the dead suspect, noting a green residue on the man's fingertips.
Agent Dana Scully
reads Mulder's initial report back at Quantico. Mulder believes the Franklin incidents are spree killings but the suspects all seem to be normal people, unlikely to fit a criminal profile. The only connection he can see is that the suspects all destroyed an electronic device at the time of the murders.
Meanwhile, Bonnie McRoberts drops by a repair shop to pick up her car. A message on an engine diagnostic display warns her the mechanic is going to rape her. She becomes violent and kills him with a knife. When Mulder and sheriff Spencer question Mrs. McRoberts' the next morning, her kitchen microwave instructs her to kill them. She grabs a knife and attacks Mulder. Sheriff Spencer stops her with a bullet.
At Quantico, Scully performs an autopsy on Mrs. McRoberts' body. She discovers high levels of adrenaline, physiologically signs of phobia, and the same substance found on the elevator killer. She hypothesizes that the substance, when combined with other neurochemicals, produces a LSD-like reaction.
While Mulder and Scully build a case, Ed Funsch becomes more psychotic. He continues to see violent messages on electronic gadgets. Blood is associated in some way with each incident: An ATM displays "Kill 'Em All" after Ed notices a boy with a bloody nose. A volunteer asks Ed to donate blood at a department store. Seconds later, he sees violent images flash across a sales display of TV sets, followed by a message to get a gun from the sporting goods department.
While jogging, Mulder sees a city worker dump dead flies along the roadside. He takes a sample to the Lone Gunmen, who suggest that the flies have been sprayed with LSDM, a pesticide that invokes a fear response in insects. Mulder returns to Franklin that night and investigate an orchard. He's sprayed by a crop-dusting helicopter and has to go to the hospital. There, Mulder sees the message "Do It Now" on a TV. He realizes that when people exposed to the pesticide see these subliminal
messages their phobias are exacerbated enough to cause them to kill. For Mulder, it's evidence that a controlled experiment is happening in Franklin.
A city councilman agrees to stop the spraying and blood test the community—under the guise of a cholesterol study. Neighborhoods are canvassed. A few names pop up on a list of people who have not been tested. Ed Funsch's is one of them. Mulder and Scully arrive at Ed's house to find it strewn with smashed electronic devices. A nurse collecting blood samples visited Ed's house earlier in the day. Mulder deduces that blood is Ed's phobia and that he's seen the subliminal messages. An empty rifle case signals that Ed is going to act on his paranoia if they can't get to him first. The hunt is on to find Ed before he becomes the next unwitting killer. Ed takes to a clock tower overlooking a blood drive and starts shooting at random people. Mulder overpowers Ed and Ed is seen being taken away on a stretcher. Mulder receives a phone call from Scully, while seeing a message that says, "All done. Bye-bye!" Scully calls out to Mulder but he is speechless.
was the inspiration for the story's climax.
The episode marks the second appearance of the Lone Gunmen in the series, as well as a guest appearance by porn actress Ashlyn Gere
. Gere plays Bonnie McRoberts, the woman driven to attack Mulder after seeing a subliminal message on her microwave. Glen Morgan joked that The X-Files was so cutting edge that they used an adult film star who was still working in the industry—an allusion to an NYPD Blue
episode that guest starred retired adult film actress Ginger Lynn.
of 9.1, with a 16 share. Entertainment Weekly
gave the episode a B+, considering that despite the "convoluted plot" the episode "pays off in white-knuckle tension." Reviewer Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club
described the episode as "a memorable episode, due in no small part to its humor", praising the "simultaneously absurd and frightening" story and William Sanderson's performance, and noting the ending was "the punchline at the end of Mulder's deepest fears, a group so secret that you never be sure they exist at all".
The X-Files (season 2)
The second season of the science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing on Fox in the United States on September 16, 1994, concluded on the same channel on May 19, 1995, and contained 25 episodes.- Production :...
of the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
. It first aired on September 30, 1994. It follows F.B.I. Agents Scully and Mulder's investigation into a series of killings in Franklin, Pennsylvania. All the suspects appear compelled to murder after seeing violent messages on electronic devices.
Plot
The episode opens at a postal center in Franklin, Pennsylvania. Edward Funsch (William SandersonWilliam Sanderson
William Sanderson is an American character actor.-Early life:Sanderson was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to an elementary school teacher mother and a landscape designer father...
) sits entering zip codes into a mail sorting machine. The machine jams and he nicks his finger on an envelope. He seems mesmerized by the small drop of blood. He sees the words "Kill 'Em All" on the machine's digital display.
At the Franklin Civic Center, a middle-aged man in a crowded elevator sees "No Air" displayed on the elevator's LCD. He is the only one who can see the message. Sweating and obviously claustrophobic, he again glances at the LCD. This time it flashes the words "Can't Breathe" and then "Kill 'Em All."
Agent Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
arrives at the civic center after what looks like a massacre. Bodies lie on the sidewalk and in the foyer. The local sheriff explains that the suspect murdered four people from the elevator with his bare hands. His rampage ended when he was shot by a security guard. Sheriff Spencer is mystified. Franklin is a quiet farming town. But in the last six months seven individuals have murdered twenty-two people. Mulder inspects the elevator and notices that its electronic display has been damaged. He examines the dead suspect, noting a green residue on the man's fingertips.
Agent Dana Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...
reads Mulder's initial report back at Quantico. Mulder believes the Franklin incidents are spree killings but the suspects all seem to be normal people, unlikely to fit a criminal profile. The only connection he can see is that the suspects all destroyed an electronic device at the time of the murders.
Meanwhile, Bonnie McRoberts drops by a repair shop to pick up her car. A message on an engine diagnostic display warns her the mechanic is going to rape her. She becomes violent and kills him with a knife. When Mulder and sheriff Spencer question Mrs. McRoberts' the next morning, her kitchen microwave instructs her to kill them. She grabs a knife and attacks Mulder. Sheriff Spencer stops her with a bullet.
At Quantico, Scully performs an autopsy on Mrs. McRoberts' body. She discovers high levels of adrenaline, physiologically signs of phobia, and the same substance found on the elevator killer. She hypothesizes that the substance, when combined with other neurochemicals, produces a LSD-like reaction.
While Mulder and Scully build a case, Ed Funsch becomes more psychotic. He continues to see violent messages on electronic gadgets. Blood is associated in some way with each incident: An ATM displays "Kill 'Em All" after Ed notices a boy with a bloody nose. A volunteer asks Ed to donate blood at a department store. Seconds later, he sees violent images flash across a sales display of TV sets, followed by a message to get a gun from the sporting goods department.
While jogging, Mulder sees a city worker dump dead flies along the roadside. He takes a sample to the Lone Gunmen, who suggest that the flies have been sprayed with LSDM, a pesticide that invokes a fear response in insects. Mulder returns to Franklin that night and investigate an orchard. He's sprayed by a crop-dusting helicopter and has to go to the hospital. There, Mulder sees the message "Do It Now" on a TV. He realizes that when people exposed to the pesticide see these subliminal
Subliminal stimuli
Subliminal stimuli , contrary to supraliminal stimuli or "above threshold", are any sensory stimuli below an individual's threshold for conscious perception. The large majority of research has found that subliminal messages do not produce strong or lasting changes in behavior...
messages their phobias are exacerbated enough to cause them to kill. For Mulder, it's evidence that a controlled experiment is happening in Franklin.
A city councilman agrees to stop the spraying and blood test the community—under the guise of a cholesterol study. Neighborhoods are canvassed. A few names pop up on a list of people who have not been tested. Ed Funsch's is one of them. Mulder and Scully arrive at Ed's house to find it strewn with smashed electronic devices. A nurse collecting blood samples visited Ed's house earlier in the day. Mulder deduces that blood is Ed's phobia and that he's seen the subliminal messages. An empty rifle case signals that Ed is going to act on his paranoia if they can't get to him first. The hunt is on to find Ed before he becomes the next unwitting killer. Ed takes to a clock tower overlooking a blood drive and starts shooting at random people. Mulder overpowers Ed and Ed is seen being taken away on a stretcher. Mulder receives a phone call from Scully, while seeing a message that says, "All done. Bye-bye!" Scully calls out to Mulder but he is speechless.
Production
The genesis of "Blood" was Glen Morgan's own hematophobia, combined with the controversy over malathion spraying in Southern California and a note between writers Morgan and Wong that simply read "Postal Workers". The 1966 shooting massacre at the University of TexasCharles Whitman
Charles Joseph Whitman was a student at the University of Texas at Austin and a former Marine who killed 16 people and wounded 32 others during a shooting rampage on and around the university's campus on August 1, 1966....
was the inspiration for the story's climax.
The episode marks the second appearance of the Lone Gunmen in the series, as well as a guest appearance by porn actress Ashlyn Gere
Ashlyn Gere
Ashlyn Gere is the stage name of an American former pornographic actress who performed in both heterosexual and lesbian films...
. Gere plays Bonnie McRoberts, the woman driven to attack Mulder after seeing a subliminal message on her microwave. Glen Morgan joked that The X-Files was so cutting edge that they used an adult film star who was still working in the industry—an allusion to an NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
episode that guest starred retired adult film actress Ginger Lynn.
Reception
"Blood" earned a Nielsen household ratingNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 9.1, with a 16 share. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the episode a B+, considering that despite the "convoluted plot" the episode "pays off in white-knuckle tension." Reviewer Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
described the episode as "a memorable episode, due in no small part to its humor", praising the "simultaneously absurd and frightening" story and William Sanderson's performance, and noting the ending was "the punchline at the end of Mulder's deepest fears, a group so secret that you never be sure they exist at all".