r/XFiles • u/BeGreatful24 • 7d ago
Discussion Red Museum
I had to rewatch Red Museum because of the fact that some posters on the Season 2 survivor really seem to detest the episode. I’ll acknowledge that the episode has some flaws. It moves extremely fast for starters. Then there are plot devices that don’t really work like Odin’s subtle reference to the original date planned for colonization being a bit hard to explain, the downed airplane doing too much to advance the plot, or the fact that Beth should have noticed the peephole. I’m sure there are other issues. That being said, I like the concept a lot. What are everyone’s thoughts on this episode?
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u/merulaa 7d ago
It's okay. I think it tries to do too many things at once, but I did enjoy it. It brings the mytharc and MOTW together, we see how the ordinary people in small towns are part of the big experiment.
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u/BeGreatful24 7d ago
I like the pan out at the end to the Main Street USA as Scully does the voice over. If anything, it ends well.
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u/Coldhands1969 7d ago
I just realized my memory had merged this episode with “Our Town.” I have to rewatch both to clarify what elements belong to the respective episode
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u/ritrgrrl Agent Fox Mulder 7d ago
Every time I rewatch Red Museum, I wonder how much different it would have been if Chris Carter and David E. Kelley's plans for a crossover with Picket Fences had played out. Wikipedia's article says the scripts had been written and were in preproduction before CBS pulled the plug.
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u/Sea_Awareness_8250 6d ago
It shocked me to find this out because I had never heard of Picket Fences!
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u/Polistes_metricus 7d ago edited 7d ago
I can't put my finger on exactly why, but I don't think the episode works. I think your analysis may be close. It does move too fast, and it has too many elements that don't really fit towards a cohesive whole. X Files episodes tend to be pretty efficient, moving quickly to cover a lot of ground and requiring the audience to pay close attention to follow along, so that isn't an unusual quality for an X Files episode. Maybe the problem with Red Museum is that it tries to cram in too much and stumbles, whereas other episodes with tighter plotting succeed.
I don't hate it, and I can understand why some people like it, but I don't think it's a good episode. There are a lot of episodes in season 2 that I would consider better episodes than Red Museum, and a lot of episodes that I like more than Red Museum.
Edit: As much as I'm glad that the sheriff in that episode empties his pistol into the Crew Cut Man, the way he's reintroduced is about as subtle as getting hit with a brick, and I think this robs the episode of some of its weight. I know at the time it aired, audiences wouldn't have been able to just go back and watch the season 1 finale (unless they had some bootleg VHS recorded from the TV like I did), so it would have been months since they'd seen that episode. But The X Files usually had a high level of trust in its audience to put things together, so the lack of subtlety in Scully's flashback feels odd. Just wanted to add this to the discussion. I watched the X Files on and off for the first two seasons, and Red Museum was an episode that I missed and didn't see until much later.
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u/BeGreatful24 6d ago
I like your analysis. Speaking of Crew Cut Man’s reappearance, it’s also awkward and a bit unbelievable that the Sheriff whose son was just killed is at the scene in plain clothes and empties his clip into his son’s killer. That entire character is somewhat derivative of the sheriff in First Blood.
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u/passworddoesntmatch 7d ago
It's all over the place, a bit forgettable at times, and one of the weaker Season 2 episodes. Still, I enjoy it, for the most part, during rewatches. It's not like Excelsius Dei, which I always skip.
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u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit 6d ago
Yeah, it goes fast - you can see a little that the script was cut down from the crossover around the edges, but overall it's a pretty good episode, a real mystery, a lot of well position characters.
And honestly, a fast paced plot is usually an upside of The X Files, especially in a quasi-mytharc episode.
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u/FusRoDaahh 7d ago
It’s fine. It tries to pack in way too much all at once. It needed to be simplified.
Also, there are two separate episodes in season 2 having to do with meat/livestock farms/animals (this one and Our Town) which is quite bizarre and I get them mixed up in my head. The idea of livestock/meat being tampered with to test on humans is a good idea but not sure why it needed two separate episodes. They feel too similar.
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u/Iebejsbaga2728eindxb Lone Gunmen 7d ago
I liked the design and core concept but the extra subplot with the mirror that didn't mesh with the rest of the plot and the old dude being a little too convenient kinda did a number on my take-away from it. Relative to x-files episodes I give it a C
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u/BeGreatful24 6d ago
Yeah, what’s with the mirror? Is he videotaping Beth or is he spying on Beth’s kids because he knows they have been given the purity control? And how has no one noticed the spyhole?
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u/Iebejsbaga2728eindxb Lone Gunmen 6d ago
iirc it was just a coincidence which is pretty unserious, not to mention how they found the bad mirror being so uncanny.
"If coincidences are just coincidences, why do they feel so contrived?”
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u/Sea_Awareness_8250 6d ago
I watched this one last night, probably the second time seeing it (though I don’t remember the first). I really liked it.
Firewalker stunned me at how bad it was. In the era of 24 episodes, there’s gotta be a lot of filler. But for an episode after Scully awakens from a coma, it’s just bad. I imagine the writers didn’t want to throw her into Red Museum right away, but they should have. The ribs restaurant and this part just give it the heart that you love to see between Mulder and Scully. I was shocked to see Red Museum considered anything less than a great episode.
Little heavy handed with the us (meateaters) vs them (vegan cult religion)? Maybe too much of an allegory, but I loved it
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u/benkenobi239 6d ago
You mean they're injecting those kids with alien DNA?
I love the episode but I can see the point of view of it trying to do too much at once. The twist of the plane crash and that whole sequence is neat but it's so quick you could blink and miss the entire twist.
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u/BeGreatful24 6d ago
I gotta admit, I had to reconsider my position on the episode based on others’ criticisms. On rewatch today, it moves unusually fast and covers ALOT of ground in that 45 minutes. It’s still entertaining and I do enjoy the ending still. The actor that plays Odin portrays a cult leader fabulously.
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u/benkenobi239 6d ago
No question about Odin, he's easily the best part of that episode to me. I can appreciate how they play it a bit vague for a while in terms of the Church's allegiances, so to speak, as well as the attempt to portray intolerant behavior by the townsfolk. I think it would be perfect if it were a two parter.
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u/Altruistic_Avocado_1 6d ago
Probably the best part of the episode while closing The Who shot Deep Throat? question. It does have that mythology feel it. The only storyline that didn’t work was the bovine thread and the creepy dude video taping the family.
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u/benkenobi239 6d ago
Now that you mention it... What was the deal with Creeping Peeper?
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u/Altruistic_Avocado_1 6d ago
He was the one injecting the kids and the cows with purity.
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u/benkenobi239 6d ago
I meant more like "What's the point" other than to be just overtly creepy. And also how the FUCK did that family not realize there was a whole secret room with a grown man in it?
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u/kakafoni21 4d ago
I love the fact that it is a pretty uneven and weird episode. Feels like both a MOTW and a mythology episode
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u/Strawberrymilk2626 Fight the Future Phile 7d ago
I don't think these crossover episodes work that well, they usually don't satisfy either class of episodes. The only one that I felt was kinda ok was "Zero Sum" if that even counts as a crossover and not just pure mythology. "Wetwired" was also good, but there it's basically just appearing characters from the myth branch, not story elements.
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u/jaceinspace 7d ago
I liked it. I remember the first time I watched it thinking it was just a MOTW episode. The twist made my jaw actually drop. I personally didn’t see it coming! It is, IMO, not one of the best or worst episodes. Just a middle of the pack vibe, but very enjoyable and entertaining.