Sunday Mornings with Mulder and Scully – The Cult, The Herbal Drugs, and the Serial Killer

Now that Mulder and Scully have been reunited after her abduction and the X-Files have been reopened, our favorite agents had a series of cases during which they had to deal with a cult, a paranormal rapist, and a town named Aubrey. The tree episodes I’m discussing on today’s blog were more monster of the week than they were part of the greater mythology of the series, but since the first third of season two was all mythology, this isn’t surprising even if the mythology aspect of the show did sneak its way in occasionally. 

Red Museum

Mulder and Scully are sent to Wisconsin to investigate a series of disappearances of teenagers after which the victims reappear naked with ‘she is one’ or ‘he is one’ written on their skin. While a local cult, The Church of the Red Museum, is initially thought to be at fault for this, Mulder and Scully soon discover that the most recent victim had scopolamine and an unknown alkaloid in her system. The victim’s parent admits that their daughter had “vitamin shots” growing up. She believes that a local man thought this made the victims monsters and was trying to correct it with psychedelics.

As they investigate, the agents are led to two men injecting growth hormones into cows and later one of these men ends up dead. Scully sees a man leaving the scene that she recognizes, but can’t remember where until later when she realizes this was the man who shot Deep Throat in the season one finale. After a toxicology report turned up “purity control”, Mulder believes that the children were really being shot up with alien DNA. While the members of the cult never became ill because they were vegetarians, and whatever they were putting in the cows is what caused the odd tox reports. Scully thinks the cult was used as the control group and the case remained unsolved and open.

At best, the episode was a creative yet convoluted mess wanting to say too much in too short an amount of time. Deep Throat’s killer making an appearance and Scully finding more “purity control” points to the greater mythology but the side plot with the cult was a bit of a distraction. Perhaps this was because it was originally meant to be a crossover event with the show Picket Fences, but the idea was dropped before filming.

Excelsis Dei

Mulder and Scully investigate a nurse’s claim of rape by a patient at an old folks home facility, but also claims that he did it without physically being in the room with her. As the episode progresses, it is discovered that the patients have been taking an herbal drug made from mushroom cultivated in the buildings basement that allows them to astral project themselves outside of their bodies which was how the rape happened. 

What really bothers me in this episode is that Mulder acts completely out of character in dismissing that the rape happened because there aren’t any other X-files that have ghost rape origins. It came across as apathetic and misogynistic and is some seriously lazy writing. The rape storyline also felt out of place within the context of the show largely because of how Mulder handled it. Even fourteen year old me thought it was weird that he was so unwilling to believe it at first. As an adult, however, it just seems like the writers had something against rape victims. But, who knows was really was going on in their heads at the time. 

The episode stars Teryl Rothery who would go on to star in Stargate SG-1 and Caprica. More recently, she had a recurring role on Virgin River, but her acting roots are soundly in sci-fi. It is her performance that makes this episode convincing.

Also in this episode is Frances Bay who is yet another link between David Lynch and The X-Files. Bay starred in Blue Velvet long before she guest starred on The X-Files.

Aubrey

The agents are sent to Aubrey, Missouri where Mulder and Scully believe that a serial killer has passed on genetic violence to a grandchild after the remains of an FBI agent were found almost 50 years after their death by a local inspector. Deborah Strong plays the inspector which is really the shining point of the episode. She would go on to have guest starring roles on multiple television series including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, ER and The Ghost Whisperer.

Another bright spot is Terry O’Quinn who would star in the first movie, Fight the Future, and a season nine episode of the show as different characters. He also would have a recurring role on Millenium and Lost as well as Falling Skies, Castle Rock, and The Blacklist. His performances are always memorable and he is a mainstay in sci-fi and horror throughout his career.

These three episodes, while not always the best, do offer up the struggles Mulder and Scully faced as they find their way ahead with the X-files after they were shut down. They also give us some of Mulder’s frustration at getting lackluster cases which boils over in the finale of this season.

Chris Carter had a way of casting great actors for the guest starring roles who would go on to other things. After all this time, it’s great to see the profound impact that the show had on giving actors a larger audience and jumping off point for their careers. Even established actors like Terry O’Quinn ended up having prolific careers after starring on the show.

Until next week, the truth is out there.