Blood (The X-Files) - Plot

Plot

In Franklin, Pennsylvania, postal worker Edward Funsch (William Sanderson) is informed that he will be fired at the end of the week due to budget cuts. Afterwards, Funsch sees the words "Kill 'Em All" on his machine's digital display. At Franklin's civic center, a middle-aged man in a crowded elevator sees "No Air" displayed on the elevator's LCD, and 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. Sheriff Spencer (John Cygan) 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. Spencer notes that seven other individuals have murdered twenty-two people in Franklin in the past six months. Mulder discovers that the LCD in the elevator has been damaged, and that the dead suspect has a green residue on his fingertips.

At the FBI Academy, Dana Scully reads Mulder's initial report. The only connection between the murders that he can see is that the suspects all destroyed an electronic device during the killings. Meanwhile, Bonnie McRoberts, another Franklin resident, drops by a repair shop to pick up her car, where a message on an engine diagnostic display warns her that the mechanic is going to rape her. She impulsively kills him with an oil can spout. When Mulder and Spencer question her the next morning, her kitchen microwave instructs her to kill them. When she grabs a knife and attacks Mulder, she is shot and killed by Spencer.

Scully performs an autopsy on McRoberts' body and discovers signs of phobia including high levels of adrenaline and the same substance found on the elevator killer. She hypothesizes that the substance, when combined with other neurochemicals, produces an LSD-like reaction. While Mulder and Scully build a case, Funsch becomes more psychotic, continuing to see violent messages on electronic gadgets. Blood is associated in some way with each incident; a volunteer asks Ed to donate blood at a department store and seconds later he sees violent images flash across a sales display of TV sets, followed by a message to buy a gun from the sporting goods department.

Late at night, while investigating an orchard, Mulder is sprayed by a crop-dusting helicopter and ends up in the hospital. There, Mulder sees the message "Do It Now" on a TV and realizes that when people exposed to the pesticide, which contains a chemical called LSDM designed to provoke fear in insects, see these subliminal messages, their phobias are exacerbated enough to cause them to kill. Eventually, after being confronted, the city councilman agrees to stop the spraying and blood test the community under the guise of a cholesterol study. Mulder and Scully, reading that Funsch has not been tested yet, arrive at his house to find it strewn with smashed electronic devices. Mulder deduces that blood is Ed's phobia and that he has seen the subliminal messages, and an empty rifle case signals that Funsch is going to act on his paranoia. Funsch positions himself at the top of a clock tower overlooking a blood drive and begins shooting randomly. Mulder climbs up to Funsch and overpowers him; Funsch is taken away on a stretcher. Mulder makes a call to Scully and sees the message "All done. Bye Bye!" on his cell phone display. Scully calls out to Mulder but he is speechless.