With all our favorite shows taking their usual break in the summer months, this opens up an opportunity to watch some of our old favorites. That’s where the Multiversity Summer Binge comes in. Last year, I took a look at the entire first season of my favorite show ever, The X-Files and this summer, I’m back with a vengeance covering season two. The first season of this show was more of a prelude. It teased all the things that were to come and spent a lot of time doing the ground work. In the second season, the show really kicks into gear. Truth be told, of the 11 seasons, this is easily top three for me. I’m really excited to be writing about these episodes, particularly the middle of the season. This week I’m looking at “Blood,” another case of the week type episode that stands just fine on its own even if it is a little forgettable.
1. The Premise
“Blood” takes place in a small Pennsylvania town. We’re introduced to Edward Funsch, a postal worker. He starts to see troubling messages on the machines he interacts with and this gets worse when he gets fired. Mulder is called to the town after a massacre in the town’s civic center and things escalate from there. Mulder begins to think that something bigger than murder is happening here. He soon discovers that this town gets exposed to an insecticide that is causing LSD-esque reactions in humans. Mulder gets exposed to it and begins to see things in electronic screens himself and those in power in this town, are okay with it and refuse to believe what Mulder and Scully discover.
2. Mulder’s Crusade
The thing about “Blood” is that it quickly turns into a classic Mulder case. He starts off taking this as a by the book case and it ends up turning into a case that becomes pure Mulder paranoia. “Blood” ends up having government conspiracies, government testing, lies and more lies piled on top of those. It gets to the point where The Lone Gunmen get to show up and that’s when you know that Mulder is in deep. He doesn’t go off the deep end but we get to see his paranoia, his ranting and he even gets to play with night vision goggles. It’s a good time for him. This is why we love him.
3. Building Tension
Despite “Blood” being a kind of crazy mess, the way this episode is crafted is really good. There’s a ton of tension here and it really makes the episode work compared to some other case of the week episodes this season. The biggest stand out scene involves Bonnie McRoberts, one of the victims of this reaction, while she waits for her car to be repaired. The actual fear in that scene is palpable and that’s something a show like this needs to succeed at more often. It’s a great scene that’s lighted so darkly that it really, really works for me. The scenes with Edward and how he slowly unravels also works extremely well and it’s this tension that makes “Blood” stand out more. It keeps it from being a disaster.
4. Not Enough Scully
As I mentioned last week, at the time this show was filming, Gillian Anderson was expecting her first child so combine that with the fact that in the story, they X-Files division was closed, it doesn’t give Scully too much screen time. She’s a part of this episode but not in the way that she was in last week’s episode. She aids in this but doesn’t really push Mulder or guide him. It’s all very simple for Scully here but in 2 weeks, we’ll reach a huge Scully two parter that changes everything.
5. Strong Concept, Weak Execution
One of the things you’ll notice about The X-Files and its episode like this one is that they tend to end in a somber, open ended way. That usually works just fine but the problem with “Blood” is that it seems like such a bigger idea than what could be contained in just this episode. On the one hand, things being unexplained and still out there is ominous and scary. On the other hand, you have to give your story an ending that feels earned or deserved and this just doesn’t feel that way. There’s so much to go into in this idea but ultimately the episode just ends because it has to and it think it’s clever. It’s far from the worst case of the week episode but soon, you’ll forget all about it.
