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"Bad Blood" is the twelfth episode of the fifth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. Written by Vince Gilligan and directed by Cliff Bole, it aired in the United States on February 22, 1998 on the Fox network. The show centers on FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this "monster of the week" episode, Mulder and Scully must report to their supervisor, Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) after Mulder kills a young man he believes to be a vampire. They realize that they have very different memories of the investigation.
"Bad Blood" was inspired by an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show and featured guest appearances from Luke Wilson and Patrick Renna. The episode was first broadcast in the United States on February 22, 1998 and received a Nielsen rating of 12.0, being watched by 19.25 million viewers. It received positive critical reviews.
Scully tells her version of the story via a flashback to the previous day. She arrives at work and Mulder tells her about a murder in Texas, which he believes to be the work of vampires. The agents travel to the small town of Cheney, Texas where they meet Sheriff Hartwell (Luke Wilson). In Scully's story, Sheriff Hartwell is charming, while Mulder is insensitive and irritating. Mulder and Hartwell leave to investigate further while Scully autopsies the body. She discovers that the victim, whose last meal had been pizza, was incapacitated with chloral hydrate. She returns to the motel room and orders a pizza, but Mulder soon appears and sends her back to autopsy another body. She leaves him just as her food is delivered. When she finds that the second victim had also ingested chloral hydrate in a pizza, she realizes Mulder is in danger and returns to the motel room. She finds him about to be attacked by the pizza delivery boy, Ronnie. She shoots at Ronnie, who runs off into the woods. When she catches up to him, Mulder has gotten there first and hammered a stake into Ronnie's heart.
Mulder tells Scully his version. In his recollection, he is sensitive and polite to Scully, while she is dismissive and irritable, and clearly enamored with Sheriff Hartwell (who, in Mulder's version, is far less refined and has obvious buck teeth). While Scully is performing the autopsy, Mulder and Hartwell get a call to go to the local RV park, where there is "a situation". They find another dead body, apparently a victim of the same attacker. Mulder returns to the motel room; after Scully has left, he eats her pizza and realizes that he has been drugged. Ronnie enters, with glowing green eyes, and prepares to attack Mulder. Scully enters and shoots Ronnie, but the bullets have no effect. He runs out with Scully in pursuit. Mulder recovers from being drugged and chases after Ronnie. Back in the office, Scully says that no one will believe his story.
Meanwhile, a Texas coroner prepares to perform an autopsy on Ronnie's body. When he removes the stake, Ronnie wakes up and escapes. Skinner sends Mulder and Scully back to Texas to investigate. Scully stakes out the cemetery with Sheriff Hartwell, while Mulder goes to the RV park. As they wait, Sheriff Hartwell gives Scully a hot drink. He apologizes to her on behalf of Ronnie, and says that he makes them all look bad. He makes it clear that he too is a vampire and Scully realizes she has been drugged. Sheriff Hartwell's eyes turn green.At the RV park, Mulder finds Ronnie. As he tries to arrest him, Mulder is surrounded by a group of people with glowing green eyes. He wakes up the next morning in the RV park, in his car. Scully tells him that she awoke in the cemetery. They are both unharmed and the vampires have disappeared. Back in Washington, they give Skinner their unified report.