episode written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, based on a story by Darin Morgan
directed by David Nutter
summary by [email protected]
Internal dating: About half way through, Scully sends Mulder an autopsy report. This is dated (I think. It's very small writing) August 2nd 1994.
A postal worker sits at a sorting machine, watching the electronic readout as he taps zipcodes into a keypad. The job is mindnumbing. In trying to clear a jam, he cuts his finger and it begins to bleed. He seems oddly shaken by this. His supervisor interrupts and takes him aside. He tells Ed, the postal worker, that unfortunately the staff is being cut and he will be let go at the end of the week. Ed accepts it as just one more in a series of blows life has handed him, and goes back to his machine. Suddenly, he sees the word "KILL" in the digital readout. He blinks, thinking his eyes are deceiving him, but he sees it again - "KILL. KILL 'EM ALL."
The elevator of a large office building is carrying a carload of passengers. Slowly, the digital readout is counting down the floors. A middle aged man in the back of the elevator seems tense and is perspiring. He looks over to the readout to check the floor. "NO AIR", it reads. "CAN'T BREATHE. KILL 'EM. KILL 'EM ALL."
Mulder and a sheriff cross the yellow crime scene tape and enter the lobby of the same office building. It is hours later. Bodies are all over the lobby, covered with plastic. Sheriff Spencer explains that the suspect, who killed the four victims with his bare hands, lies dead himself out on the sidewalk, killed by a security guard. Mulder inspects the elevator, noting the blood splashed on the walls and the smashed digital readout. The sheriff explains that since colonial times there have been only three murders in the quiet little agricultural town. But in the past six months, seven people have killed twenty two others, the murderers all themselves dead, killed by law enforcement officers using deadly force to stop them. In examining the suspect's body, Mulder notices a greenish substance under the man's fingernails. He bags the man's hands so it can be analysed.
Ed, the former postal worker, is at an ATM. Nearby a little girl is having her nosebleed attended to by her mother. Seeing the bloodstained tissue, he turns hurriedly around to the ATM. The readout instructs him to take the bank security guard's gun and kill everyone. Crazed, Ed smashes the readout and runs away.
Scully is reading the report Mulder has sent concerning the Franklin, Pennsylvania killings. The incidents there have been unusual in that the killers were the people most unlikely to commit such an act - middle-income, respected people. He is convinced that an outside force is responsible, but doesn't know what it might be. The greenish substance was analyzed as being a non-toxic chemical used on plants. The only link to all the incidents, other than the unlikely murderer, is that an electronic device has been found smashed at every murder site - a pager, a fax machine, a cellular phone, a gas pump readout, and now the elevator's digital readout.
Late in the evening, a woman walks into a garage where a mechanic is working on her car. She's obviously nervous. He says he's fixed the problem she brought her car in for, but that it has other serious problems. The car is connected to a computer diagnostic device. As he lists all the things wrong with her car, she glances at the readout. "LIAR", it says. "HE'LL RAPE YOU. HE'LL KILL YOU. KILL HIM FIRST." The mechanic shakes her to get her attention, and she goes crazy, stabbing him with an oil can spigot.
Mulder and Sheriff Spencer are on the scene of this latest murder early the next morning. Sheriff Spencer introduces Mulder to Larry Winter, the County Supervisor. They discuss the latest murder. Spencer doesn't think that there's a connection. But Mulder finds a work order for a car fixed the previous evening in which a smashed digital dashboard readout had to be replaced, and says that it is connected.
Together he and Spencer go to Mrs. McRobert's house to question her. She makes breakfast as she talks to them, popping something into the microwave. As Mulder's questions become more pointed, she stands transfixed, looking at the microwave readout. "HE KNOWS. KILL THEM BOTH." She admits to intentionally smashing the digital readout on her dashboard. Mulder asks if she saw something in the readout. She seems upset. Laying a hand on her shoulder, he tells her he can help. Suddenly she turns, and slashes his arm with a huge carving knife. He goes down and she is about to stab him when, over Mulder's screamed "No!", Sheriff Spencer shoots and kills her.
McRobert's body is taken to Quantico for Scully to perform the autopsy. She discovers the woman's adrenaline levels were two hundred times normal, as well as the presence of a chemical compound similar to the greenish substance on the elevator murderer's hands. Her conclusion is that somehow the chemical reacts with the increased adrenaline secreted during some sort of phobic episodes to create an LSD kind of reaction. Meanwhile, Mulder has found out that the elevator murderer has exhibited a claustrophobic reaction, and Mrs. McRoberts had a paralysing fear of being raped.
Ed goes to a department store to apply for a job, only to be told that they were not accepting applications. In the Electronics Department, he sees a wall full of TV's showing a collage of violent images and bloodied bodies. Finally, the TV's flash words on the screen - telling him to go to the Sporting Goods Department and get a gun.
Mulder is out for a run when he notices a truck go by, sprinkling something into the gutter of the road. When he gets closer, he discovers that they are flies which appear stunned. He takes one of the flies and brings it to the Lone Gunmen.
Byers identifies the fly as a Eurasian cluster fly, a pest which infests orchards. Mulder asks what they know about LSDM, the compound Scully has isolated from McRobert's body. It turns out that LSDM - Lysergic Dimethrin - is a pesticide that acts like a pheromone, triggering a fear response in the fly which drives it away. Mulder asks if this chemical could be harmful to humans. Byers and Langley chuckle bitterly, and show him a video of how humans were exposed intentionally to DDT in the 50's to prove its "safety". It was banned thirty years later because of its toxicity.
Mulder travels back to Franklin, sitting in a field late at night. In the distance, using Frohike's night-vision binoculars, he sees a helicopter. He drives to an orchard where the helicopter is spraying, and is overcome by the fumes of the chemical.
Scully finishes examining Mulder in a hospital ER. Winter is there with Sheriff Spencer. Mulder accuses the County Supervisor of complicity in the illegal spraying of chemicals. All the murderers have lived in areas that were heavily sprayed, and Mulder believes the chemicals had something to do with the recent crime spree. Winter admits that the spraying is being done in secret to avoid the bureaucratic hassles and delays that would result in the crops being infested. As he stalks off, he insists the spray is safe.
Scully says she can't find any evidence that LSDM has affected Mulder. He explains his idea that the insecticide heightened phobias in each killer, and electronic devices relayed messages telling them to act on their fears. He believes the messages were relayed purposely, but doesn't know by whom. Scully demands to know why anyone would do that. "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," he replies.
Spencer gets Winter to agree to testing of the population, but the real reason for the testing must be kept secret. They launch a campaign for free "cholesterol testing" as part of a supposed research project - a campaign which is heavily advertised on local TV. Volunteers begin going house to house to collect the blood samples.
Ed watches his TV in horror as the campaign is advertised. His doorbell rings - it is one of the volunteers there to take his blood sample. His TV flashes the word "BLOOD", enraging him. He smashes his TV and the remote control. Glancing at his digital watch, he sees the readout - "KILL". Taking the rifle that he bought at the department store and a box of ammunition, he flees his house.
Back at the Sheriff's office, Mulder and Scully find that only 25 people have not been checked out for toxicity to the chemical. They begin a house to house search for these people. When they arrive at Ed Funsch's house, they see the smashed TV, remote control and watch. They find the volunteer was there at around the same time the watch stopped. They also discover that Ed hasn't been to a doctor in decades. Mulder spots the empty guncase and deduces Ed's phobia about blood. They all leave for the local hospital.
Ed is on his way by bus to the hospital, the source of the testing and thus the source of his phobia involving the sight of blood. But in the fare box's digital readout, he sees a message - "GET OFF. THEY'RE WAITING." He demands to be let off the bus. He goes instead to the Franklin Community College, which is holding a big blood drive. He climbs a tower there and assembles his rifle.
Mulder and Scully are waiting at the hospital, but Ed doesn't show up. Mulder interviews the bus driver, who says he let a guy off at the college who was acting strangely. Mulder sees a sign advertising the blood drive, and rushes with the sheriff over to the college.
As he arrives, a shot rings out, hitting the driver of the bloodmobile. Mulder makes his way to the tower and climbs it, as Ed continues to fire from the top. On his way up the stairs, Mulder trips and falls on his sutured arm. Finally arriving at the top, he draws his weapon and tells Ed to put his down - that if he doesn't either Mulder will shoot him or he'll have to shoot Mulder, and there'll be blood everywhere. Ed lowers his rifle, the reason of the agent's words getting through to him. But then he spots the blood streaming down Mulder's arm from where the stitches have torn, and he goes crazy. Mulder tackles and cuffs him.
As Ed is taken away in an ambulance, Mulder uses his cellular to call Scully. Instead of the normal ring, he gets a bizarre tone. When he looks down at the phone, the electronic screen reads "ALL DONE. BYE BYE!" Suddenly the phone rings normally and Scully's voice comes over the line. But Mulder sits stunned, staring at his phone.