The X-Files (1993–…): Season 5, Episode 12 - Bad Blood - full transcript

Help!

Help!

Somebody help me!

Help!

Oh, he's gonna kill me!

Help!
God, somebody help me!

Go away!

Help!

Please help me!

help!

Mulder?



Look at that.

Huh? Huh?

Oh, shi--

Mulder--
Don't.

Don't even start with me.

I know what I saw.

Skinner wants a report
in one hour.

What are you going
to tell him?

I'm gonna tell him
exactly what I saw.

What are you gonna tell him?

I'll tell him
exactly what I saw.

Now, how is that different?

I'm the one who may wind up
going to prison here.

I gotta know
if you're gonna back me up.



First of all,

If the family of Ronnie Strickland
does, indeed, decide to sue the F.B.I...

For-- I think the figure
is $446 million--

Then you and I both will most
certainly be codefendants.

And second of all-- I don't even
have a second of all, Mulder.

Four hundred and forty-Six
million dollars.

I'm in this as deep as you are, and
I'm not even the one that overreacted.

I didn't do the-- With the
thing. I did not overreact.

Ronnie Strickland was a
vampire. Where's your proof?

You're my proof.
You were there.

Now you're scaring me. I want to
hear what you're gonna tell Skinner.

You want our stories
straight. I didn't say that.

I just want to hear it
the way you saw it.

I don't feel comfortable
with that.

Prison, Scully. Your cell mate's
nickname is gonna be "large Marge."

She's gonna read
a lot of Gertrude Stein.

- All right.
- All right, start at the beginning.

The very beginning?

Fine.

Yesterday morning...

When I arrived at work,

You were, uh...
characteristically exuberant.

Hope you brought your cowboy
boots! You want us to go to Dallas?

Yee-Haw! Actually a town called
Cheney about 50 miles south of there.

Population: 361. By all accounts,
very rustic and charming.

But as of late,
ground zero, the locus...

For a series of mysterious
nocturnal exsanguinations.

Exsanguinations.
Of whom?

how does that grab ya?

- It's a--
- Dead cow! Exactly.

Or more specifically,
a dead 900-Pound Holstein.

Its body completely drained
of blood, as was this one,

This one, this one,
this one, and so on--

Six, all in all-- Approximately
one a week over the past six weeks.

- Any sign of-- - Two small
puncture wounds on the neck?

- Not what I was gonna ask.
- Too bad. We got 'em. Check it out.

These may be syringe marks, their
placement meant to emulate fangs.

Such ritualistic bloodletting
points towards cultists of some sort,

In which case--
What?

Yeah, that's probably it.
Satanic cultists. Come on, Scully.

You're not gonna tell me this
is that Mexican goat sucker.

El chupacabra?
They got four fangs, not two.

- And they suck goats, hence the name.
- So instead this would be?

- Classic vampirism.
- Of a bunch of cows?

And one dead human. Last night
a vacationer from new jersey.

Come on.
We gotta go.

Why didn't you tell me
that from the beginning?

Lock the door on your way
out.

the town of Cheney is
too small to maintain a morgue facility.

As such, we made our way to the
peaceful slumbers funeral home...

In order to examine the body
of one Mr. Dwight Funt,

Recently deceased.

it was there that we
were met by a representative...

Of local law enforcement,

Sheriff--
Lucius Hartwell.

- You the F.B.I. Agents?
- Yes. I'm--

Agents Mulder and, uh--

Scully. What do you say we take a look
at your victim? Yeah, by all means.

After you.

Come on, Scully. Get those
little legs movin'. Come on.

Boy.

Here we go.

Nice threads.

No exam has been done?

No, ma'am. He's just like we
found him in the motel room.

Once I heard you folks were interested, I
figured we'd best leave it up to the experts.

Your satanic cultists have
some sharp little teeth.

What satanic cultists?

Go ahead, tell him
your, uh, "theory."

Well, my theory has evolved.

Basically, I think we're looking for someone
who has seen one too many Bela Lugosi movies.

He believes he is a vampire,
therefore he--

They act like one.
Yeah. Yeah.

That makes a whole
lot of sense.

- I think she's right.
- What about the fang marks?

Well, someone so obsessed might
well file down their incisors.

I think that a moulage casting
should help us make an identification.

Moulage casting.
That's a good idea.

Now--

Now, isn't there some kind of disease that
makes a person think that they're a vampire?

Well, there is a psychological
fixation called hematodipsia,

Which causes the sufferer
to gain erotic satisfaction...

From consuming
human blood.

Erotic. Yeah.

There are also genetic
afflictions...

Which cause a heightened
sensitivity to light,

Uh, to garlic.

Porphyria.

Xeroderma pigmentosum.

You really know
your stuff, Dana.

"Dana"?

He never even knew
your first name.

- You gonna interrupt me, or what?
- No, go ahead.

Dana.

Anyway,

That's when you had your
big breakthrough-- Whatever.

Agent Scully, you really
know your stuff.

Sheriff, you say this man
is exactly as you found him?

Yes, sir,
to the letter.

Have you noticed that this
man's shoes are untied?

- Yeah, they sure are.
- Mulder, what's your point?

This means something.

Do you have an old cemetery in town, off
the beaten path, the creepier the better?

Uh, yeah.

- Take me there now.
- Mulder.

We're gonna need a complete autopsy
on this man, the sooner the better.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What am I
even looking for?

I don't know.

- He does that.
- Come on, sheriff Hartwell.

Ma'am.

4:54 p.m.

Begin autopsy
on white male, age 60,

Who is arguably having a
worse time in Texas than I am,

Although not by much.

I'll begin
with the "y" incision.

Yee-Haw.

Heart weighs 370 grams.

Tissue appears healthy.

Left lung weighs 345 grams.
Tissue appears healthy.

Large intestine,

890 grams.

Yada, yada, yada.

Stomach contents show last meal
close to the time of death...

Consisting of...

Pizza,

Topped with pepperoni,

Green peppers,

Mushrooms.

Mushrooms.

that sounds really good.

having completed the autopsy,

I checked into the Davey
Crockett motor court.

the name of it was
actually the Sam Houston Motor Lodge.

oh, my God.

Chloral hydrate.

What?

- What the hell happened to you?
- Nothin'.

Chloral hydrate?

Yeah, that thing that you didn't
know that you were looking for.

Chloral hydrate, more colorfully
known as "knockout drops."

I found it in abundance when I sent
the tox screen in on our murder victim.

- No, seriously, Mulder. What happened to you?
- Nothing.

- Who slipped him the Mickey?
- My "theory"?

Your vampire.

He found it necessary to dope
poor Mr. Funt to the gills...

Before he was able
to extract his blood.

Probably did it
to the cows too.

What kind of vampire
would do that?

Exactly.

We got another dead tourist.
You gotta do another autopsy.

Tonight?

I just put money
in the magic fingers.

I won't let it go to waste.

This one's my room, Mulder.
Don't get mud everywhere.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Excuse me, ma'am.
Did you order a pizza?

Yeah. The guy in there
will pay for it.

forgoing
both dinner and sleep,

I was soon back
at the funeral home...

Examining one
Mr. Paul Lombardo...

From Naples, Florida.

Heart. Lung.

Large intestine.

As with the previous victim,
it appears that the subject...

Was most likely incapacitated
with chloral hydrate...

And then exsanguinated.

The drug was either injected
or ingested,

I'm not sure which.

Scully.

hello?

hello?

where was I?

Stomach contents.

Stomach contents include...

Pizza--

chloral
hydrate's in the pizza.

The pizza guy. Mulder.

Mulder?

That's it?

Well, luckily,
I'd gotten there in time.

I mean,
though you were drugged,

You were, more or less,
unharmed.

Mulder?

Are you okay?

Who's the black private dick who's
the sex machine with all the chicks?

?? Shaft????
Can you dig it?

They say this cat shaft is a
bad mother-- Shut your mouth.

Talkin' 'bout shaft.

I did not.

Long story short,

Though my first four shots obviously
missed Ronnie Strickland entirely,

With my fifth, I was able to
shoot out a tire on his car,

Forcing him
to escape on foot.

I left you behind, and I
entered the woods in pursuit.

I assumed that you
were incapacitated.

Then I heard screaming.

When I arrived in the clearing, I found
that you had caught up with him first...

And had... overreacted,

And that his vampire teeth
were fake.

That's what you're
gonna tell Skinner.

Well, I'm gonna argue
that we caught a killer.

An utterly non
- Supernatural killer, but a killer nonetheless.

And that your zeal to catch
up with him was augmented...

By the chloral hydrate
you were given.

- You are afraid to tell the truth.
- Excuse me?

That's not the way it happened.
Are you afraid if you tell it...

The way it really happened,
you'll look like an idiot, like me?

Mulder, why don't you tell me
the way you think it happened?

Starting
at the beginning.

You're damn right.

Yesterday morning began
like any other morning.

You arrived at the office
characteristically less than exuberant.

I hope you
brought your cowboy boots.

Why are we going
to Dallas?

Actually it's a little town just
south of there called Cheney, Texas.

They've had incidents down there recently
which I think you'll agree are pretty unusual.

- Like what?
- I brought some slides with which to better illustrate.

Here we go.

It's a dead cow.

It's actually six dead cows, and
here's the really interesting thing.

Why am I looking
at six dead cows?

Because of the manner in which they died.
All six were mysteriously exsanguinated.

- And?
- And two little puncture marks right here on the neck.

Look, I got a slide
of that.

And, um, one dead human victim. Last
night a vacationer from new jersey.

His body completely drained of blood, and
two little puncture wounds on his neck.

Okay, look, Scully, I don't want
to jump to any hasty conclusions,

But on the strength of the
evidence that we have here,

I think what we may be looking at is
what appears to be a series of vampire...

Or vampire-Like attacks.

On what do you base that?

Uh, well, on the corpses
drained of blood...

And the fang marks
on the neck.

But as always, I-I'm very
eager to hear your opinion.

- Well, it's obviously not a vampire.
- Why not?

Because they don't exist?

Well, that's one opinion,
and I respect that.

Nonetheless, I'm thinking a
murder has been committed here,

And we can go down there and
help bring a killer to justice...

In whatever form-- Mortal
or immortal-- He may take.

It's not that Mexican
goat sucker either.

upon arriving at the funeral
home, I made an interesting observation,

One which you
apparently didn't hear.

- That's a whole lot of caskets. -
Largest in-Stock selection in the state.

Well, why would a town with a
population of only 361 need that?

Repeat business.

Mortician humor.
Excuse me.

apparently, your
mind was somewhere else.

Whoo, boy.

y'all
must be the government people.

I'm Lucius Hartwell.

He had big buckteeth?

- He had a slight overbite.
- No, he didn't.

And that's significant?
How?

I'm just trying
to be thorough.

Anyway, then we went
to take a look at the body.

Here we go.

No exam has been done?

No, sir. This is just like we
found him in the motel room, as is.

No exam has been done?

Uh, no, ma'am.

Once I heard y'all was interested, I
figured we'd best leave it to the experts.

Now, uh, that can't be
what it looks like, right?

It depends on what you think
it looks like, sheriff Hartwell.

Vampires have always
been with us,

In ancient myths and stories
passed down from early man.

From the Babylonian ekimmu
to the Chinese kuangshi,

Themotetz dam of the Hebrews,
the mormo of ancient Greece and Rome,

Right down to the more familiar
Nosferatu of Transylvania.

Mormo. Yeah.

In short, sheriff, no, this
can't be what it looks like.

I think what we're dealing with here
is simply a case of some lunatic...

who, uh, has watched
too many Bela Lugosi movies.

He wishes that he could transfigure
himself into a creature of the night.

Yeah, okay.

What she said,
that's what I'm thinkin'.

And, uh, yeah.

Still, that leaves us
in something of a quandary...

Because there are as many different vampires
as there are cultures that fear them.

Some don't even
subsist on blood.

The Bulgarian ubour,
for example,

Eats only manure.
Thank you.

To the Serbs, a prime indicator
of vampirism was red hair.

uh, some vampires
are thought to be eternal.

Others are thought to have
a life span of only 40 days.

Sunlight kills certain vampires, while others
come and go as they please, day or night.

If there's a point, Mulder,
please feel free to come to it.

My point is we don't know
exactly what we're looking for,

What kind of vampire--
Or, if you prefer,

What kind of vampire this killer
wishes himself to be.

Now, why is it so important
that his shoes were untied?

I'm gettin' to it. So while you
stayed behind to do the autopsy,

The sheriff drove me
to the town cemetery.

Agent Mulder, you mind me
askin' you why we're out here?

Historically, cemeteries are
thought to be a haven for vampires,

As are castles,
catacombs and swamps.

But, unfortunately,
you don't have any of those.

We used to have swamps, only the E.P.A.
Made us take to callin' 'em wetlands.

Yeah, so we're out here looking
for any signs of vampiric activity.

- Which would be like, uh--
- Broken or shifted tombstones.

The absence of birds
singing. There you go.

'Cause I ain't-- I ain't
hearin' any birds singin'.

Right?

'Course, it's winter,
and we ain't got no birds, but--

Is there anything else?

A faint groaning coming from under
the earth, the sound of mandication,

Of the creature eating
its own death shroud.

No. No mani--
Man-- Man--

Mandication.
Mandication, no.

Sheriff, I-I know my methods may
seem a little odd to you, but--

Look, y'all work for the federal
government. That's all I need to know.

I mean, C.I.A., secret service.
Y'all run the show, so--

It's just that my gut instinct tells me
that the killer will visit this place,

That it may well hold some fascination,
some kind of siren call for him.

You know?

Howdy, sheriff!

- Oh, hey, Ronnie. How's it goin'?
- Can't complain.

Well, all right, then.

Maybe after nightfall,
sheriff, but he'll come.

Oh, he'll come.

so we staked out the cemetery.

Mulder. Shoelaces?

Hmm?
On the corpse.

You were gonna tell me what was so
meaningful about finding untied shoelaces.

I'm gettin' to it.

Sunflower seed? Sorry. No, thanks.

Do you mind-- Do you mind
me askin' you what you were--

Historically, certain types of seeds
are thought to fascinate vampires.

Chiefly oats and millet, but, you know,
you gotta make do with what you have.

Remember when I said before that we didn't
know what type of vampire we were looking for?

Yeah. Oddly enough, there
seems to be one obscure fact...

Which, in all the stories told by the
different cultures, is exactly the same,

And that's that vampires are
really, really obsessive/compulsive.

Huh. You toss a handful of
seeds, no matter what he's doing,

He's gotta stop
and pick it up.

If he sees a knotted rope, he's
gotta untie it. It's in his nature.

That's why I'm guessing our
victim's shoelaces were untied.

Yeah. Obsessive.

Like rain man.

When that old boy dropped
matchsticks, he had to pick 'em all up.

Same thing, right? Well, he
didn't actually pick 'em up.

He counted them.
Oh, yeah!

He didn't have to pick them up.
247. Off the top of his head.

If he picked them up,
he would have been a vampire.

Yeah.
I tell you what.

I know I'm in law enforcement, but
I'd like to take him to Vegas myself.

Am I right? Well, that
would be illegal, right?

- He was like a little calculator.
- Yeah.

you got
your radio on? Excuse me.

Hey, Charlene.
What's up?

I just got a call
from the R.V. Park.

They got something
of a situation there.

Sounds like you might want to
have a look.

Hey again, sheriff.

Hey again, Ronnie.

I guess you got
yourself a runaway, huh?

yeah,
Ronnie. I guess we do.

What do you think? We ought
to shoot the tires out?

anyway, skipping ahead--

Why skip ahead?

What happened then?

Mulder?

You shot out the tires.
And what then?

okay, here's
something you may not know.

Shooting out the tires on a runaway
R.V. Is a lot harder than it looks.

I then tried
a different approach.

Whoa! Hey!

Hey, hey! Whoa!

- Help! Whoa! - Come on,
bird- Dog it! That away!

- Oh!

Shee, ow.

How you doin' there?
All right there?

finally, we prevailed.

That's the same
as the others.

Right down to the shoes.

we interviewed everyone present.

No one had seen anything.

Tired, frustrated
and lacking a solid lead,

I just
wanted to get cleaned up.

I had the sheriff drop me at the
motel, which is where I ran into you.

what do you mean
you want me to do another autopsy?

Why do I have to do it now? I spent hours
on my feet doing an autopsy, all for you!

I do it all for you,
Mulder!

I haven't eaten since 6:00 this morning,
and that was was half a cream cheese bagel.

It wasn't even real cream
cheese, it was light cream cheese!

Now you want me to run off
and do another autopsy?

What the hell
happened to you?

finally, you left.

don't you touch
that bed!

hello?

Hello!

Oh, hey again.
The lady outside--

She said that, uh,
you'd pay for this.

She ordered a pizza
from you?

Excellent. How much?

12.98.
I'll get my wallet.

- How much?
- It's 12.98.

- Okay, here's 13.
- Okay, then.

Enjoy.

Ah, Scully.

so I ate your dinner.

And that's when I saw it.

But by then,
it was too late.

Uh--

This is Scully.
Hello? Uh-- De--

- Hello?

Uh-- Uh-- Th--

Creep.
Uhh-- Uhh--

You--

Oh, man!

What'd you have to
go and do that for?

You are in big trouble.

then I was out cold.

I don't know for how long,
but when I finally came to--

Mulder?

You're saying that I
actually hit him two times?

Square in the chest.
No effect.

And then he sort of flew at
me like a flying squirrel.

Well, I don't think
I'll use the phrase...

"Flying squirrel"
when I talk to Skinner,

But, yeah,
that's what happened.

you checked on me, then left
to pursue Ronnie Strickland into the woods.

Once I recovered,
I knew what I had to do.

Help me! Help!

I caught sight of him,
chased him over hill and dale.

And in the end--

Mulder, it's not just me.

Nobody in their right mind
will ever believe that story.

They'll have to, once they
examine Ronnie Strickland's body.

"Case 0026198.

Ronald Lavelle Strickland."

Probable cause of death--

Gee, that's a tough one.

assistant director Skinner's office.

Oh, I'm sorry. He's about
to go into a meeting.

Yes, it may last
several hours.

You're welcome.

Mulder. Please just keep
reminding him you were drugged.

would you
stop that? It couldn't hurt.

Just stop it.

Scully? Mulder?

I was drugged!

I want you back in Texas.

Ronnie Strickland's body has
disappeared from the morgue.

Apparently in conjunction with
this, a coroner's been attacked.

His throat was bitten.
The coroner's dead?

No, his throat was bitten.

He was sort of... gnawed on.

Daylight's burning, agents.

Well-- He was dead.

I noticed that.

With a stake through his
heart. I noticed that too.

So we should find Ronnie
out here because?

Because tradition states that a vampire
needs to sleep in his native soil.

Oh.
Yeah.

But, Mulder,
he had fake fangs.

Why would a real vampire
need fake fangs?

I mean, for the sake
of argument.

No, fangs are very rarely
mentioned in the folklore.

Real vampires aren't thought to have them.
It's more an invention of Bram Stoker's.

You were right before when you said that this
is a guy who's watched too many Dracula movies.

He just happens
to be a real vampire.

Well, so where
the hell is he?

What about his family, the ones who
were gonna sue us for 446 million?

Well, an aunt
and an uncle.

Their mail comes general
delivery to a local post office.

No home address?

that's the sheriff.

- Sheriff Hartwell.
- Evening, agents.

I heard y'all were back in town.
Thought I might be of some assistance.

Yeah, a-Actually
you can.

You can stay behind here with agent
Scully while I check something out.

Don't say I never did
nothin' for ya.

Where are you going?

Where might you be living if your
mail came general delivery around here?

The R.V. Park?

You're good.

Thanks.
You're very welcome.

So what do you think
about vampires?

You mean, aside from the fact
that I don't believe in them?

Yeah, aside from that.

Well, they're supposed
to be extremely charming,

Seductive.

No, I mean, even if
they did really exist,

Who's to say they'd
actually be like that?

As agent Mulder says, there are
many different kinds of vampires.

Yeah, there sure are.

I really need to apologize
to you about Ronnie.

He makes us all look bad.

Uh--

He's just not
who we are anymore.

I mean, we pay taxes,
we're good neighbors.

Old Ronnie, he just-- He can't
quite seem to grasp the concept...

Of...

Low profile.

But though he
may be a moron,

He is one of our own.

Hello.

20th-Century
man that's what he is??

- Sleeping late.

Ronnie Strickland!

You have the right
to remain silent.

Anything you say can and will be
used against you in a court of law.

Come on.
Cut it out, Ronnie.

oh, damn.

Back!

Ah, no!

Mulder?

Scully, what happened?

I came to
in the cemetery.

That's all I know.

They pulled up stakes.

So that's it?

They simply disappeared
without a trace?

And that's exactly the way it
happened, from start to finish?

Well, I can neither confirm nor deny
agent Mulder's version of events...

Which occurred
outside my presence.

And I can neither confirm nor deny agent
Scully's version of events, but, um--

Anyway... I was drugged.

That is,

Essentially, exactly
the way it happened.

Essentially.

except for the
part about the buckteeth.

I made this!