AIR DATE:  February 22, 1998
Written by Vince Gilligan
Directed by Cliff Bole

	Where's Buffy when you need her?  "Bad Blood" is one of the
biggest missed opportunities the X-Files has ever done.  This is an
episode that shouldn't have been played for comedy instead it could have
been a good tense drama character study of Mulder and his tendency to go
off and do something rash and how much Scully is willing to help him at
any cost. They truly do need to leave the comedy episodes in Darin
Morgan's hands since he is the only one who knows how to work the
character traits of Scully and Mulder to his own advantage.  Vince
Gilligan did a great job last year with "Small Potatoes", but comedy has
to be one the hardest things to do and if it isn't done right it can be
painful to watch which is what "Bad Blood" was.  The writers of X-Files
could do a little bit of watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer to see how one
can work comedy and drama together successfully.  The last new Buffy
episode, "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", dealt with Xander and
Cordelia's relationship and how they had to make a decision to finally go
further in it.  The writer, Marti Nixon, deals with it funny by having all
the woman of Sunnydale other than Cordelia having the hots for Xander.  It
deals with it seriously by having Cordelia decide if she wanted to give up
the life she had built up for herself over the years (i.e. being popular)
by becoming Xander's girlfriend. 

	"Bad Blood" had none of this.  Just like last week's episode
seemed like a remake of "Ghost in the Machine", "Bad Blood" almost seemed
liked a remake of "Syzygy" where Scully and Mulder were acting totally out
of character.  I hate to think this is how Scully and Mulder view each
other. It is hard to believe this is the same Scully who said in "Tooms" 
that she would only put it on the line for Mulder or the same Mulder who
broke down when he thought he was going to lose Scully and couldn't
prevent it in "One Breath".  This is the first time this season I have
felt that Scully and Mulder are not acting like themselves even though
others have been saying this all season.  Why, oh why, can't they let
Scully enjoy her job anymore?  In both viewpoints it appears she
absolutely hates being there and has contempt for Mulder.  This is her job
to investigate weird events throughout the country and this case could be
looked upon as one of those.  I guess there can be no doubt that we are
leading up to Scully leaving the X-Files in the season finale as a way to
leading into the movie.  I have nothing against this idea as long as it is
done right, but it isn't being done right.  The unintentional rift
throughout most of season 3 worked better than the artificial rift they
are trying to create this season.  I've always wondered why Scully never
questioned why she is still working on the X-Files and expressed an
interest to leave earlier.  From this episode if Scully told Mulder she
wanted to quit the X-Files it would be hard to believe he would even
bother to stop her.  There is one thing Mulder has never done and that is
make fun of Scully's scientific theories to her or in front of anyone else
as he did in this episode.  Also, the lame attempts of having Mulder make
fun of Scully's attraction to the Sheriff weren't funny because we know
Mulder would never treat Scully with such disrespect.  Just as it wasn't
funny in "Syzygy", it wasn't funny in "Bad Blood". 

	I'm not going to compare "Bad Blood" to Darin Morgan's "Jose
Chung's from Outer Space" because it would be an insult to compare it to
that episode.  Instead I'm going to compare it to a repeat of an old "The
Odd Couple" episode I saw on Nick at Nite.  In the episode we get Oscar,
Blanche and Felix's version on how Oscar and Blanche broke up.  It was
quite a hilarious take on how each perceived themselves and others, but it
had one common thread that one picks up from each story, that Felix played
a major role in them breaking up.  There wasn't this common thread in "Bad
Blood" in Scully and Mulder's stories other than having them making light
of a very serious situation:  Mulder facing a murder charge since it
appears he killed Ronnie Strickland without just cause.  Which shouldn't
come as a surprise since he had no problem blowing off the DOD person's
head in "Redux".  I knew there was something wrong from the beginning of
the episode when Mulder wasn't identifying himself as he was chasing
Strickland.  This was only done to manipulate the audience and have us
wondering who was chasing Strickland and sticking a stake through him then
finding out in the end it was Mulder and having it appear he murdered this
man in cold blood.  So much more could have been done with this premise by
having Mulder questioning where he is going in his life that he could do
such a thing.  Of course, in last season's episode "Demons" he was somehow
involved in the murder/suicide of two people in his quest to find out more
about his sister's disappearance.  They could have picked up where
"Demons" ended to have Mulder examine some of the things he has done in
his life that would make him do such a thing.  Alas, once again it was
another missed opportunity. 

	Now some miscellaneous comments on "BAd Blood":

- The music in the episode was just downright awful.  It was trying too
hard to be lighthearted in an attempt to match the bad comedy of the
episode.

- Another problem with the episode is I find it hard to believe Mulder and
Scully would be allowed to leave Texas so fast after what Mulder did.  Are
they trying to tell me the Texas Authorities (i.e. the state police) would
have allowed them to leave so soon and not make them stay there for a few
days while they investigate the incident.  Somehow I think they would be
doing more than just giving a report to Skinner.  You would also think
with a Vampire community of only 361 that the Sheriff would know who it
was and get him to stop, and would be able to cover up how the New Jersey
tourist died.  Also, I found the funeral home having one of the largest
selections of coffins because of repeat business unbelievable because the
Sheriff indicates they aren't like that anymore.  The simple fact that
Mulder never mentioned that the area has an unusual high death rate
(something we know Mulder would look into)  would support the Sheriff's
contention they don't kill people anymore.  The joke would have worked
better if this was the case. 

- It was nice to see the old slide projector brought out even if it was
used for bad comedic effect. 

- Another example of how Scully was out of character was her outright
dismissal of there being such things as vampires.  First and even second
season Scully would say this, but not fifth season Scully.  I still expect
her to give scientific explanations on things, but to have her treat
Mulder's theories with such contempt was uncharacteristic of her.

- The box marked "Head Human Remains - Handle with Care".  What the hell
were they doing in the funeral home since that is where the New Jersey
tourist's body was being stored?  I have to admit I did find it funny. 

- Where did Scully send that toxic screen of the New Jersey tourist's
blood and get the results so fast since the town didn't have the
facilities for these type of things.

- I did like how the second victims intestines started to fall out of the
weight bowl.  Now that was funny in an unexpected way. 

- One of the funniest comments came out the Sheriff's mouth when he said
the EPA now makes them call swamps wetlands.

- Would the RV keep going in the same circle over and over again?  How
would shooting out the tires have stopped the RV from continuing going
around in a circle?  It seems to me that would be the worse thing to do
since it appears if the RV was going in the same circle it wasn't going to
hit anything so they should have waited until it ran out of gas.  I'm
still waiting for an explanation on how it started going out of control in
the first place since the dead driver wasn't anywhere near the steering
wheel.

- I think Ronnie Strickland really got back at Mulder for being such a
cheap tipper. 

- Why would Mulder have stayed in Scully's room if he was going to clean
himself up?  Wouldn't one go to their own room where their stuff is
located?

- I was glad in Mulder's version of the story he had Scully hitting
Strickland twice.  I was a little worried she was starting to lose her
touch.  Another thing is you would figure the Texas Authorities would have
checked up to see if there were any bullet holes in the wall.  Of course,
there would have been two bullets in Strickland.  And shouldn't the local
F.B.I. office be there too since it seemed one of their agents killed
someone in cold blood which means they should have been with Scully and
Mulder at near the end of the episode.  Of course, they shouldn't have
been sent back down in the first place. 

- Mulder throwing the sunflower seeds at Ronnie and having him being
obsessive compulsive about it was funny.  Also, we were given a bit of
foreshadowing that the Sheriff was a vampire too by having him pick up the
seeds Mulder spills on the car seat. 

- The whole business of making the Sheriff and the whole town vampires
didn't work for me.  The scenes with the Sheriff drugging Scully and the
vampires attacking Mulder weren't too suspenseful or scary.  It was fake
suspense especially when they had the Sheriff's eyes turn green.  I didn't
really see the point of having him do that if he wasn't going to do
anything to Scully.

	"Bad Blood" was a big disappointment because we've expected so
much more from writer Vince Gilligan.  I can understand how William Gibson
and Tom Maddox and Stephen King might not be able to write a great X-Files
episode, but after some of Gilligan's excellent episodes from "Small
Potatoes" to "Paper Hearts" it was hard to see him write an episode at the
level of "Syzygy".  "Bad Blood" was another one of those episodes that
could have been great. 

Claudia
E-Mail:  Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

2/23/98

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