Bad Blood

"Bad Blood" is the twelfth episode of the fifth season of the TV series "The X-Files". The episode belongs to the "monster of the week" type and is not related to the main "mythology" of the series.

The plot structure of the series was inspired by an episode of the Dick Van Dyke show, the main characters of which told different versions of the fight in which they participated.

Mulder and Scully investigate an alleged case of vampirism in a small town in Texas. The agents must submit a report to Skinner, but they cannot do this because they explain differently how events approached how Mulder drove an aspen stake into the heart of a 16-year-old teenager. The vampire fangs of a teenager, which Mulder cites as proof of the vampire essence of a teenager, turn out to be fake.

The episode mentions the chupacabra as one of the possible causes of the death of cows (cattle mutilation). Mulder rejects this idea, because in his opinion, the chupacabra leaves a trace of four fangs, not two, and also attacks only goats.

Vampires live in a whole community in a trailer park. They have been assimilated for a long time, they do not attack people, they pay taxes. What they eat is unclear, as well as whether they drink blood.

Vampires look like ordinary people and are not afraid of crosses and daylight. They have no fangs, and only sometimes their eyes glow in the dark.

Attacks on cows and people are committed by a member of the community who could not come to terms with the modern way of life and decided to behave like a "real" vampire. Instead of biting people, he puts on false fangs. He cannot hypnotize people and therefore is forced to intoxicate them before attacking. He sleeps in a coffin and is probably immortal: he is not taken by bullets; Mulder pierces his heart with the leg of a wooden chair, but after removing the improvised stake, the vampire quickly comes to life. He suffers from OCD: he unties the laces on the shoes of his victims, and also collects scattered seeds.

During the episode, Mulder gives a whole lecture on the topic of vampirism:

Vampires have always been with us: in ancient myths and stories passed down to people by their ancestors, from the Babylonian ekimmo to the Chinese kuanshi, to mormo from ancient Greece and Rome, up to the well-knownNosferatu from Transylvania.

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There are many different vampires, as well as cultures in which they are feared. Some don't even feed on blood. For example, the Bulgarian headdress eats only manure. For Serbs, the first sign of a vampire is red hair. Some vampires are considered immortal, others live only 40 days. Some vampires are killed by sunlight, while others can appear both day and night.

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Historically, cemeteries are considered a refuge for vampires, as well as castles, catacombs and swamps. Signs of the presence of a vampire in the cemetery can be considered broken or shifted tombstones, the absence of birdsong, a faint moan from the ground, the gnashing of jaws tearing the funeral shroud.

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Historically, it is believed that certain types of seeds attract vampires. Mostly oats and millet, but seeds will also do. There is a strange fact that is common to stories about vampires from different cultures: they are very susceptible to obsessions. You throw a handful of seeds, and no matter what the vampire does – he will stop and collect them. If he sees a rope in knots – he must untie it. It's in his nature.