15 March 2007

Season 2: Blood (2X03)

Story by: Darin Morgan
Teleplay by: Glen Morgan and James Wong
Director: David Nutter

When the small town of Franklin, Pennsylvania is rocked by a series of 'spree killings' the local Police requests the FBI's help. Agent Mulder is assigned the case and meets Sherrif Spencer at the latest crime scene, where a real estate agent went beserk in a lift, killing people with his bare hands until police arrived at the scene and shot him dead. It matches the pattern of a number of recent incidents involving individuals with no previous history of violence or anti-social behaviour suddenly going on a killing frenzy in a public area until the police use deadly force to stop them.

In each case an electronic device was damaged at the scene. When a car mechanic is found murdered in his garage, Mulder notices that he was repairing a damaged electronic clock display in a car. Mulder questions the car's owner Bonnie McRoberts, but she attacked him with a knife and is shot dead by Sheriff Spencer. Scully autopsies Bonnie's body and finds high levels of adrenalin and a substance called LSDM.

The Lone Gunman explain that LSDM is an experimental synthetic insecticide that releases pheromones that induce a fear response in cluster flies. It seems that local officials sanctioned the spraying of LSDM on crops, that the local local economy depends on to save them from cluster flies. Mulder believes that LSDM is causing the same fear response in a minority of local people, those who suffer from cronic phobias. But evidence merges that someone may be using the town as a controlled experiment.

Notes:
Mrs. McRoberts, the woman who kills the mechanic, was played by porn star Kimberly Ashlyn Gere. She is credited under the name Kimberly Patton. She also guest starred in several episodes of Glen Morgan and James Wong's ''Space: Above and Beyond'', and in Chris Carter's ''Millennium''.

If the buzzing of the doorbell at Ed's house sounded strange, its because the nurse was buzzing 'Kill' in Morse code.

Quotes:
Mulder: They've done it before. D.D.T. in the 50's, Agent Orange, germ warfare on unsuspecting neighborhoods.
Scully: Yes, but why, Mulder? Why would they intentionally create a populace that destroys itself?
Mulder: Fear. It's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above.

Mulder: I'm convinced an outside factor is responsible, but I must concede frustration as to a determination of the cause. A residue discovered on the fingers of the most recent perpetrator was analyzed and reported to be an undefined but non-toxic organic chemical found on plants...perhaps remaining from gardening. There have been reported abductee paranoia in UFO mass abduction cases...
Scully: I was wondering when you'd get to that.
Mulder: I find no evidence of this to be the case.

Episode Number: 27
Season Number: 2
First Aired: Friday September 30, 1994
Production Code: 2X03

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