Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The X-Files: Red Museum (2.10)

Okay, so there's the beef. And there are some growth hormones. Along with the creepy religious cult. Oh, and the dazed teenagers with "He/She Is One" written on their backs. And the peeping tom living in the mirror, too! Forgot that one. As you may have guessed, this episode is a whole lot of ideas thrown in the pot with little resolution and, unfortunately, little point. It doesn't help that the conspiracy hoodoo feels tacked on right at the end there.

For the first twenty minutes or so, Red Museum isn't half bad. Chris Carter creates some wonderfully disturbing atmospherics, all of which you expect to lead somewhere really bad. Who didn't think the meat slicing machines would come back into play at episode's end? That the cow beef may be... human beef? Unfortunately, nothing much really happens as a result of the beef, or the antagonism between the town residents and the Red Museum cult, either. It all seems a little meaningless.

I did get chills when Scully glimpsed the Crew Cut Man, only because it was at that very moment I remembered who he was. But the lack of resolution is getting a little frustrating, and not in a cool E.B.E. way either, especially when so much of the episode promised things we didn't get in the end. It reminded me a little of Gender Bender in that regard, which isn't good at all. Rating C

Credits
Guest stars Paul Sand (Gird Thomas); Steve Eastin (Sheriff Mazeroski); Mark Rolston (Richard Odin); Lindsey Ginter (Crew-Cut Man)
Writer Chris Carter Director Win Phelps

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