Make your own free website on Tripod.com

Blood
Season 2, Ep. 3—Short Review


Quick Take
 Subliminal messages wreak havoc for one man with a fear of blood.

Rating
Snark's Cerulean Blue rating scale gives Blood
• • • • • • • • • •
5 dots out of ten. Click here for scale explanation.

Transcript
 For a complete transcript for Blood, please visit CarriK's site.

Pictures
 For a few pictures from this episode, click here.

Snark's Thoughts
 If you want to skip the plot synopsis and head right to my thoughts
on this episode, click here.

__________________________________________________________________



Synopsis


Blood opens at a postal center in the small town of Franklin, PA. A man named Ed Funsch is working one of the mail lines, typing in zip codes as the letters scroll past him. His machine jams and he cuts himself trying to clear it. We learn he's somewhat freaked by blood. His supervisor comes over, calls him into his office and lets him know the company is letting him go at the end of the week. Ed goes back to his line to continue working. He starts typing in the zips again, but at one point, he glances at his screen and sees the word 'KILL.' He does a double-take, but now it is back to normal. A few letters later, same thing happens. A bit later, it says "KILL 'EM," and then "KILL 'EM ALL." Ed glances around nervously at his coworkers...

{Cut to X-Files opening sequence.}

Elsewhere in a business plaza. A man on an elevator freaks out, after seeing the digital 'what floor are you on' display telling him "NO AIR," "CAN'T BREATHE," and "KILL 'EM ALL." Cut to outside a bit later, as we now see a crime scene. Mulder arrives on the scene, and we learn the guy just went berserk, murdering four strangers on the car with him. The police guy, Spencer, admits this is way out of their league, hence their call in to the FBI. We learn that there's only been three murders in the area since colonial times, but in the last 6 months, there have 22 murders. No chemicals or drugs were found in any of the perpetrators' systems. Mulder notices a greeish substance on the fingers of the killer's hand, and asks to have it analyzed.

Ed is at a cash machine later. He glances away at a mother and kid, the kid having a bloody nose, and when he turns back, the machine tells him "SECURITY GUARD," [there's a guard nearby] "TAKE HIS GUN," and "KILL 'EM ALL." Ed freaks out, screaming and beating at the machine, then runs off, leaving his card behind. The guard looks at it, and at the machine, which is displaying a normal ATM message now.

Scene of Mulder transcribing his report, then sending it over to Scully, who's looking it over and whatnot, as we hear Mulder's voice read the report over the scenes. We learn all the muderers were normal, average folks, no history of crime or violence, who just went berserk. Mulder theorizes it is an outside agent at work. We learn the substance on the hand was analyzed, but was a nontoxic organic chemical found on plants. We also learn that the only linking piece of evidence between all the murders is the destruction of an electronic device at the scene.

Another scene of destruction, this time a woman going to pick up her car late at night from an auto-repair shop. A diagnostic machine displays "LIAR," "HE'S A LIAR," "HE'LL RAPE YOU," "HE'LL KILL YOU," and "KILL HIM FIRST." She wastes him with something and then walks off, calm and collected. Mulder comes to the scene the next day, looks through some stuff, figures out that the car was brought in for several repairs, including that the dashboard displays were all smashed out. He knows this killing is connected to the others.

He and Spencer go to visit the woman's house. As they talk to her about the car and such, she is working the microwave. Again, it displays "HE KNOWS" and "KILL THEM BOTH." She ends up attacking Mulder with a butcher knife, and Spencer has to shoot her dead.

Big autopsy scene, with Scully doing the autopsy and making notes. We learn that the woman had a combination of things in her system, the unidentified agent and high levels of adrenaline, that Scully thinks creates an effect similar to LSD.

Scene of Ed in a department store, wanting to apply for a job. They tell him that they aren't taking applications now. He goes to the electronics department, stands in front of a big row/rack of TV monitors. After a while, they display "BEHIND YOU" and "DO IT." He turns to see the gun section of the store behind him. He slowly makes his way over there, almost in a trance.

Mulder is out jogging that morning, and notices a truck stop nearby at a house. A guy throws a spade-full of flies onto the lawn and then the truck drives off. Mulder goes over and picks up one of the flies. Cut to the Gunmen, checking out the fly. Mulder gives them his report on the murders, and they recognize the unknown agent. It's something used in pest control, a substance sprayed on the plant to invoke a fear response in the pests. We get a clip of very frightening newsreel footage of experiments in the 50's, of DDT being sprayed on people in pools and parks and such. "They convinced local officials it was even safe to spray on children. It took a decade of bureaucratic and industry heel-dragging before it was banned," Byers says. He is claiming this might be the same sort of testing going on. [Also note that this scene contains many excellent Mulder and Frohike quotes. Refer to the transcript for full listing.]

Later at night, Mulder has borrowed the boys' night vision goggles and is staking out a crop somewhere in Franklin. He sees nothing at first, then notices a helicopter zoom in and spray the field with something. Mulder drops to the ground, coughing and hacking. Later, we see him being checked out at the hospital by Scully and whatnot. He is talking to Larry Winter, county supervisor. Mulder is claiming that illegal testing is going on and is being approved by the county. Larry admits to the spraying, but says it was proven safe to him. Scully concurs that the chemical agent isn't adversely affecting Mulder, even after inhaling large quantities of it. Mulder puts forth the theory of subliminal messages being used in the electronic devices, to heighten fears or paranoias that were already in the person. Specific testing, he's saying. Winter agrees eventually to stop the spraying, but says that the explanation for it cannot be specified as possible bad side effects. They have to come up with something else.

Scene of Ed Funsch in his house, watching a TV commercial saying that people will be coming to everyone's home to have them participate in a cholesteral test, drawing blood. [This is the cover story to get everyone tested.] He has purchased the large gun, and it sits beside him throughout. A collector comes to the door, and as she buzzes the door, Ed starts to freak out. Everything he looks at has got a message about "BLOOD" or "KILL" or whatever. He reaches for the gun a bit, finally closing the case on it as everything continues to shoot the messages at him.

Scene to establish that the've got 25 names of people who weren't tested for some reason. Cut to Mulder and Scully following the list of names, arriving at "Funsch, Edward." They get to his house, find that he's gone and many things have been smashed up—the TV, the doorbell, etc. They find the gun case, but the gun is missing. A bit later, there's more officers at the scene, and the get out the file on Ed. They determine the blood tester was there at the time he was smashing everything up. Mulder makes a logic leap and states he knows where Ed is going and what he's going to do.

Cut to the Franklin community hospital, sort of. We see Ed get on a bus headed for the hospital, and we see Mulder and the other officers staked out for his arrival, but the readout on the bus warns Ed that they are waiting for him. He freaks out until the bus driver pulls over and lets him off, several blocks away. The bus arrives at the hospital, and they ask the driver about him. He says he let that guy off up aways, near the college.

Cut to the community college, where we see the Blood Drive van there and so on, lots of people milling about. Ed climbs a clock tower, pulling his gun out as he's up there. Mulder and the others arrive on the scene as Ed begins firing at people and such. Long scenes involving Mulder making his way up the clock tower to reach Ed. He tries to talk him down, almost succeeds, but Ed attacks him. Mulder disarms him and handcuffs him without having to shoot him.

Down on the ground, the ambulance takes Ed away. Mulder goes to dial Scully's number on the cell phone, but the call doesn't seem to go through. He looks at the display, which reads out "ALL DONE," then "BYE-BYE." The call then goes through as normal and Scully answers.


__________________________________________________________________

Snark's Thoughts


Blood is your very standard X-Files episode. Pretty good storyline, pretty good acting, no major plot holes, some fun government conspiracy action, and so on. I certainly enjoyed watching it, never feeling bored or lost or anything. But this one just never really reached out and grabbed me very much. Perhaps if I'd had a higher fear of blood, or any major fear or anything that I could relate to the storyline, it would have held more meaning for me. But I just never quite got into it all that much.

I did really enjoy the performance given by the actor playing Ed Funsch, though I can't remember his name. He did a fine job escalating his fear, especially the fear of not knowing what was going on and yet knowing something was really, really wrong. The rest of the guest cast really didn't seem too memorable for me, though none were bad or anything.

The item I found most interesting was the newsreel footage of the DDT spraying and so on. I shudder to think how many times that exact scenario has played out, and *is* playing out right this minute, and we the public is never any the wiser about it. How many times are we subjected to something without having any knowledge about its true nature and so on? It just really scares the crap out of you to really think about it too much, which is why I normally try not to.

One further scene that requires specific mention is the one between Mulder and the Gunmen. In that scene, we get the classic "Celebrity Skin" quote, the "She's tasty" quote, all of it. I didn't want to transcribe the whole thing, but you really should check out CarriK's transcript site [link given up top] and read through that scene if you've never seen it. It's pretty damn funny.

In Summary, I thought Blood to be worth the original view, entertaining and pretty well done, but it isn't one that graces my VCR very often.

_____________________________________________________________

• Click here to return to the Episode Guide main page.•

• Click here to go back to Snark's main page. •
_____________________________________________________________


Please mail any comments or questions to Snark

_____________________________________________________________




Pictures


_______________________________


Mulder and dead guys and latex... Oh My!


_______________________________


"I *said*... no pickles on my cheeseburger!"



_____________________________________________________________

• Click here to return to the Episode Guide main page.•

• Click here to go back to Snark's main page. •
_____________________________________________________________