The X Files - Red Museum

Going into Red Museum, I didn't realize I'd have to additionally include The Erlenmeyer Flask into my evening as well. Admittedly, I couldn't remember much about this Red Museum, expecting a standalone instead of an episode tied to the first season. I have been all over the place with this show but at least want to keep my ducks somewhat in a row. In this episode Mulder and Scully travel to a small town where teenagers are found wandering incoherently with magic marker writing of "He (or She) Is One", seemingly lost in a fog of confusion, drugged and only wearing underwear.

Chris Carter compiles quite a lot of plot within his script and it is a lot to absorb. Alien DNA being injected by a paid country doctor into the kids (Scully theorizing their being the guinea pigs of a controlled experiment) with their parents led to believe it's just vitamins. The doc dies in a plane crash while seemingly trying to get away with a case of cash and evidence linking his activities to the kids being kidnapped and drugged. I wish the creep peeping behind the mirror of a teenager's home and the stored videotapes in the room, later revealing him as the kidnapper and involved in cattle being injected by growth hormone, was resolved with greater clarity and comprehension. He offers up the doc as responsible for turning kids into monsters while a retired farmer shows Mulder and Scully the peeper and his cohort injecting the cows, explaining to them that he believes the rise in violence and inhospitable behavior is because of the *tainted* meat.

You have Deep Throat's assassin (Lindsey Ginter) showing up in the hopes of killing the kids and torching the meat factory so the whole Alien DNA conspiracy could be covered up. He is able to kill the Wisconsin town's sheriff's (Steve Easton) son, but is on the receiving end of an unloaded gun by the grieving father before he could truly carry out his schemes.

Introduced to the plot as a red herring (get it, “red” herring? Yeah, I know…lame) is this cult that is vegetarian, wears red turbans, and believe the “New Age” is coming soon. The “church of the red museum” is led by Odin (Mark Rolston, who has been in EVERYTHING) and their message of advocating against “meat eating” gets them much rejection from the town, known for its meat factory which employs a large percentage of the community. More or less Carter seems to include them as a “look over there while the true culprits of it all are over here” technique. Creepy development with Paul Sand as the peeper and Mulder’s interrogation of him that further emphasizes how skin-crawling and weird he is, but he’s also a device created by Carter to shuffle us around until re-introducing Crew Cut Man again from The Erlenmeyer Flask. I agree with those critical of Carter for returning him to this episode as he seems more fitting to be executed in a meaningful season finale or new season opener. Nonetheless he does shoot Sand’s associate after injecting some cattle with growth hormone and kills the sheriff’s kid so Crew Cut Man is once again stone cold assassin. I just wish Mulder or Scully could have given him the sendoff he justly deserved. Still his being dead left one less assassin for CSM to murder folks with.