episode by Chris Carter
summary by Pellinor
Internal dating: No date given. By air-date, ought to be November or December 1994, but the month-long quarantine at the end of "Firewalker" messes this up. "Irresistible" suggests that the dating in this section of the second season should be taken with a pinch of salt. "Red Museum" is a sort-of semi crossover with "Picket Fences," whose timeline places it as sometime in early December.
A worker, Beth Kane, at the JASD Beef Plant in Delta Glen, Wisconsin, returns home to her two sons. As she undresses, someone watches through a peep-hole in the wall behind a (one-way) mirror. The older son, Gary, gets a phone call and says he's going out for 5 minutes. The next day he's found, nearly naked and confused, with "He is one" written on his back.
Mulder tells Scully about the case, adding that there have been 2 other identical cases in the area. The sheriff thinks they've been possessed.
The sheriff takes Mulder and Scully to see the Church of the Red Museum, a vegetarian cult led by Richard Odin who're based at a local ranch. All the church members wear white robes and red turbans. They watch as Odin preaches, via a computer, telling his flock that it's 18 years to the beginning of the new kingdom and they, the enlightened, must teach the rest of mankind. He singles out Mulder, Scully and the sheriff as examples of wrong-doers who need to be converted. Mulder tells Scully that they clearly believe in soul transference.
Gary Kane says he can't remember much, but can remember a "spirit" entering him, like an animal spirit. "Something just came over me," he says. As Mulder interviews him, Scully wanders around the house. She talks to the younger brother, as an eye watches through the peep-hole.
The sheriff says Gary Kane has never been in any trouble, though it was strange that he suddenly lost his interest in football recently. He also says that no-one cares for the Red Museum, but there haven't been any real confrontations. Mulder says he wants to stay a few days.
Mulder and Scully eat a very large meal in a steak house (and Mulder wipes some sauce off her mouth). Mulder talks about "walk-ins" - the belief that when you despair and want to leave this life your body becomes vulnerable to being possessed by an enlightened spirit. He's intrigued by the possession theory. Scully says she got the creeps in the Kane's apartment, but they are interrupted by a disturbance outside as some local youths assault a Red Museum member. The gang leader is the sheriff's son.
Later the sheriff's son drives his girlfriend home. After he drives off she's attacked by something that looks human. Later she's nearly naked, in the woods, and hallucinating about birds and insects attacking her. "She is one" is written on her back.
Scully says the medical exam showed an unspecified alkaloid, probably an opiate derivative, and also a dangerous level of scopolamine, an anaesthetic which, in large quantities, is a hallucinogenic and has been used by kidnappers to subdue their victims. It's a controlled substance, only obtainable by doctors. Richard Odin, they discover, was a doctor.
They go to the Church of the Red Museum but Odin won't let them in as they eat meat, so they arrest him.
At the Sheriff's station they interrogate him. He says he's never used scopolamine, but talks about bovine growth hormone instead. The sheriff grows angry, but the interview is halted by a disturbance. All the church members have peacefully assembles outside, but the sheriff's son drives up and throws blood over them, before being dragged off by an angry sheriff. A man watches from a car and introduces himself to Scully.
The man drives Mulder and Scully to a field and shows them some cows being injected with BST, Bovine Somatotropine, which makes milk cows produce more milk and beef cows more meat. "People around here have changed," he says, since this BST business. They've got mean and spiteful, and the crime rate's risen. There were 7 rapes the previous year, by high school boys. He thinks the current case is related. Scully says the growth hormone has been proven safe. "Says who?" the man asks. "The government?" As they leave, the man seen earlier watching through the peep-hole watches them.
A small plane, with a doctor, Dr Gerald Larsen, as a passenger, crashes. Mulder and Scully find his medical bag at the crash scene. The sheriff says he's the family doctor, a pillar of the community. Inside the bag is a large amount of money and a vial with an unidentified substance in it.
Scully finds all the missing kids had been treated by Dr Larsen and his doctor's bag contained a list of credit card numbers from the kids' families, as if they were being used to track them. Mulder thinks the stuff in the vial isn't bovine growth hormone, but doesn't' know what it is.
In the cattle field, Crewcut Man (last seen in Erlenmeyer Flask) executes the man in charge of the injections.
Mulder and Scully talk to Beth Kane, who says Gary was never sick. Dr Larsen gave him, and other kids, vitamin shots. His father was concerned that Gary wasn't growing enough, but then he died in an accident at the beef packing plant. Mulder then finds a secret room behind the mirror. It has videos and a camera aimed through the one-way mirror.
At night, the sheriff's son is attacked by the same man seen earlier watching through the peep-hole. He is found dead, shot through the forehead, with "He is one" on his back. Crewcut man is seen putting his gun into the trunk of his car.
The landlord, Gerd Thomas, is arrested doing the surveillance through the mirror. As Mulder and Scully drive to see him, Scully sees Crewcut Man and recognises him, though she can't remember from where.
They interview Thomas. He says he's sick, and didn't mean any harm. He was the one who kidnapped the kids, but didn't murder the sheriff's son. He wrote "He is one" on people because they'd become monsters because of Dr Larsen's tests. As this is going on, Scully remembers how she recognises Crewcut Man, from the assassination of Deep Throat and she leaves the room. Thomas explains that Dr Larsen paying them to inject the cattle with some substance, which wasn't growth hormone, and was giving the same to the kids.
Outside the room, Scully tells Mulder about Crewcut man, and that the mystery substance contained synthetic cortico-steroids with unidentified amino acids. "That's purity control, Mulder," she says, referring to the substance found in the Erlenmeyer Flask. "He's been injecting those kids with alien DNA?" Mulder asks. "No, Mulder, that was never proven conclusively," she says. Mulder thinks Thomas is just the poor soul who blew their cover, but his boss, just found dead, probably knew more. He thinks Crewcut man will be covering his tracks and will go after the kids soon.
Mulder and the sheriff collect up the kids and their families and everyone assembles at the Church of the Red Museum, as Odin agrees to help as lives may be at stake. Mulder himself doesn't stay, having told the sheriff he has something else to do.
Mulder goes to the beef packing plant and finds gasoline all over the floor. He creeps round amid the carcasses for a while, before being knocked over by Crewcut Man, who then locks him in and prepares to set the gas alight. Scully and the sheriff arrive just in time and the sheriff kills Crewcut man, although Mulder had wanted him taken alive.
Scully writes her report. Crewcut Man's identity is still unknown. The unknown substance was an unstable antibody of no known origin, probably synthetic, but broke up after a few weeks and can no longer be studied. Everyone injected had a flu-like illness after this time. The Red Museum people were presumably a control group. The government health bodies have promised an investigation into the tainted beef, but the case remains open and unsolved.