Forgotten X-Files Episode Reveals Exactly Where The Show Went Wrong

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 29 seconds ago

The X-Files is one of the most fascinating shows in genre history for the worst possible reason. The show dominated much of the ‘90s because it capitalized on the advent of the World Wide Web and America’s growing fascination with conspiracy theories. The fan-favorite monster of the week episodes could make even the most mundane things (including air-conditioning vents and flukeworms) into the scariest things imaginable. Beyond that, the show teased audiences with a growing mythology that involved government collaboration with nefarious aliens who wanted to dominate the world. Unfortunately, The X-Files dropped the ball when the show had to stop teasing and actually provide answers to its many mysteries.

The longer you watch the series, the clearer it becomes that showrunner Chris Carter was making most of this stuff up as he went along. He didn’t have much of a plan, really, beyond getting fans to tune back in each week. Arguably, though, he was always doomed to failure, as getting answers to huge mysteries is never as exciting as just speculating (just ask Lost fans). While Carter couldn’t see that, one of his best writers could. When writing the largely forgotten episode “Blood,” Glen Morgan deliberately never revealed who or what was sending out subliminal messages, reasoning that audiences would be much happier coming to their own conclusions.

The Power Of Subliminal Messages

“Blood” was a Season 2 X-Files episode that dealt with one of the hottest topics of the ‘90s: crazy postal workers! The plot involves a postman who, right before he gets laid off, starts seeing subliminal messages like “Kill’em All” pop up on various electronics readouts. This happens to other people in the town, too, who try to kill people (including Mulder and Scully) after receiving similar instructions. Eventually, Mulder realizes that people are being sprayed with pesticides by a crop duster that makes them susceptible to these subliminal messages. Fortunately, he and Scully are ultimately able to stop the postal worker from committing a mass shooting from the top of a clock tower.

When you watch the episode, the first question you’re likely to ask is who is sending these subliminal messages and why. Mulder speculates that the government is deliberately doing this, much like they previously did with “D.D.T. in the 50’s, Agent Orange,” and “germ warfare on unsuspecting neighborhoods.” After Scully asks why the government would intentionally create a self-destructive population, Mulder replies, “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.” Notably, his theory is never proven, and a creepy message sent to his phone (“ALL DONE. BYE-BYE”) implies the experiment is over.

Not Sweating The Small Stuff

So, who actually sent the subliminal messages? Nobody knows, and that’s the point! As published in The Truth Is Out There: The Official Guide to The X-Files, “Blood” writer Glen Morgan had absolutely no idea when writing this episode who or what was sending these subliminal messages. He also didn’t care, believing it would be better for the audience to try to figure everything out on their own. In this way, everyone watching the episode is a bit like Mulder: we can speculate as to the evil forces behind this widespread human experimentation, but we’ll never know for sure.

In retrospect, this is the approach Chris Carter should have taken with the mythology of The X-Files. Because the show’s slogan was “The Truth Is Out There” and Mulder was a crusader for revealing government secrets, Carter felt compelled to eventually give us very granular information about the aliens and their planned invasion of Earth. But everything got confusing as we got info about creepy black oil, infected bees, alien bounty hunters, mysterious vaccines, and government super-soldiers. Later, the awful X-Files revival retconned almost everything, revealing that aliens were actually peaceful, and evil government forces were staging fake abductions while trying to exploit advanced technology.

That final revelation effectively ruined the entire series for fans who had been enjoying The X-Files for decades. Looking back, it’s clear that Carter should never have revealed anything and left these mysteries for fans to argue about. Would audiences have been pissed about being led on and never getting a real payoff? Probably. But at the end of the day, those angry fans would have come up with a headcanon that was infinitely better than the answers we got and eventually gotten over their annoyance. Now, though, the fandom will never get over how badly the coolest mythology in television history was ultimately handled.