X-Files--"Sanguinarium"

It is inevitable with a show like The X-Files we are going to get into the debate of whether the occult and neopaganism are Satanic. Believe me, I have experienced it in my days in Christian apologetics. There is an uneasy alliance between atheists/agnostics and pagans because of their mutual distaste for Christianity, but the former will not rush to the aide of the latter in any notion there is a legitimacy in their beliefs. So accussations that paganism is synonymous go unchallenged by all but the pagans themselves. Sorry, folks, but I do not draw a line, either. Hence, the idea of good magic v. black magic is not something I can really get into.

So “Sanguinarium” is not my cop of tea. Not just for the black magic elements, but for some major leaps in logic, gratuitous blood letting, and mischaracterization, as well. In short, it is just not that good an episode, and the shock value moments attempting to cover up that fact do not cut the mustard.

Mulder and Scully investigate a botched, not to mention disgusting, lyposuction procedure which kills the patient. The plastic claims to have no memory of his actions, suspecting he was possessed. Yes, a trained surgeon actually says this. The AMA would have a field day. Mulder, of course, takes him at his word, and connects some scuff matrks on the floor of the operating room into a pentagram. Why he connecting the points that way instead of a circle or any old pattern is a leap in logic beyond me. As an added bonus, he explains to scully pentagrams are actually symbols of good to ward off black magic. My fundamentalist Christian Spidey sense is tingling at this point.

Another surgeon gruesomely kills a patient in surgery while the agents are there. Again, he cannot remember his actions, either. Here is where scully and Mulder split up in the investigation. Scully examines the only connection between the two doctors--prescription sleeping pills. Mulder looks up clues in a book on the occult. It is the stereotypical divide between the two. Scully the skeptic is doing right by crime solving procedure while mulder is off pursuing a course of action no reasonable FBI agent would dream of doing. Yet he is right, and not only is scully wrong, but is made to look foolish in the end for it. Why has she not done autopsies on the two dead patients? Why has she not questioned why needles and scalpels have ‘magically’ appeared in the intestinal tracks of two snooping nurses? Her character looks so clueless here, it is demeaning.

The deaths are caused by a Dr. Franklyn, a warlock who has been using magic to improve his own looks, but requires blood sacrifices. Each patient who died was conveniently born on a witches holiday. A nurse has been attempting to stop him through good magic and once in a physical attack involving her jumping out of a literal poll of blood with a knife before those needles I mentioned sliced up her intestines. I could not get into either Franklyn’s blood sacrifices, the patients’ birthdays coinciding with witch holidays, or the battle of good v. bad magic. Factor in that Franklyn gets away by cutting his on face off on camera so that Mulder and Scully never catch him, and you have an hour wasted on a lot of pointless happenings that are too implausible to be entertaining.

I will give “Sanguinarium” some judos for exciting visuals. Some of the gross outs are pretty awesome to see. Some of the jokes are good, too. Mulder spots a broom outside the good witch’s house and quips to scully, “Probable cause?” there is also a running gag that Mulder seems to be quietly contemplating rinoplasty because he is constantly examining himself in mirrors. But those elements are not enough to save the episode. I am amused to learn many Wicans were and still are upset about how their beliefs were presented as evil magic. As I admitted above, I have no sympathy.

Rating; ** (out of 5)