“F. Emasculata” is episode twenty-two of season two of The X-Files.
The episode opens in a rainforest in Costa Rica and a man is collecting insects. He sees vultures circling and heads to find a carcass that they were feeding on. Shooing the birds away, he sees more insects on the body and a boil that is palpating. Putting on some gloves, he squeezes the boil and his face gets sprayed in gunge. He then rummages around in the opening. That night the man, Dr Robert Torrence, is trying and failing to contact his field base on the radio. Torrence wants immediate evac, because he’s covered in boils like the dead animal. He probably should have worn a mask.
Seven hours later and some soldiers are in the jungle when they hear a crackling radio. The follow the sound and shoo away some vultures. Dr Torrence is dead. Looks like he didn’t get his evac.
At the Cumberland State Correctional Facility in Virginia, a guard takes a mail package to an inmate, who he calls Bobby. Bobby says he hasn’t got anyone that would send him anything. He opens a package and finds a pig’s leg inside. That night, a boil on the pig’s leg starts palpating. Bobby is next in the infirmary, where he is being checked over by men in hazmat suits.
The guard gets two inmates to clean out Bobby’s cell of bedding. The guard bolts and one inmate says the whole block is empty; he hears the infirmary is full. The bedding is going to the incinerator. However, the laundry pickup is still happening.
Mulder and Scully arrive because the inmates escaped in a laundry cart. Both were serving life terms for murder. There are men in hazmat suits in another part of the prison. Marshal Tapia, who is leading the search for the inmates, isn’t happy to see them. They aren’t sure why they’ve been assigned to help; the order originated from Skinner’s office. The National Guard has also taken over the facility. Both feel they aren’t being told the whole story. Mulder wants Scully to try and find out what’s going on whilst he accompanies Tapia.
An RV pulls up at a rest stop and a family gets out. In the men’s room, someone is hiding in the toilet. When the wife returns with the daughters, the RV is being driven off by the escapees.
Scully is told by a Dr Osbourne that she is trying to enter a restricted area. No, he isn’t the prison doctor; he works for the CDC. A flulike illness is spreading. 14 infected; 10 are now dead. Scully wants to know if the escapees could be infected. Osbourne doesn’t answer immediately. Looks like the answer is yes.
Mulder and the marshals arrive at the rest stop. Scully calls him and tells him about the contagion which is killing people in 36 hours. The husband of the RV family is dead. Scully is trying to get more information, but Osbourne’s boss is not being helpful. She decides to take a look for herself.
The RV is being filled up at a petrol station. One of the escapees is calling his girlfriend telling her he’s coming home. The RV has been left so the cashier goes to check. He finds the second escapee in the toilet, covered in boils. Yes, he’s infected. The other hits the cashier over the head.
Scully finds the incinerator and a pile of bodies. 001 is Torrence; the prisoner, Bobby, shared the doctor’s name. Scully, wearing a face mask, is opening one of the body bags when Osbourne arrives and tells her she can’t be down here. Scully doesn’t believe this is flu. During the discussion, a boil bursts and Osbourne gets spattered.
When the marshals arrive at the petrol station, the convicts are gone but the cashier is still alive. He confirms that the convicts are infected. Mulder wants to know if either of the men have a girlfriend. Those records are locked up in the prison. Mulder says they will have used the phone, and checks. He’s talking to the operator when a helicopter lands and men in biohazard suits take the cashier away in a plastic box. Tapia is not happy, as they aren’t answering questions. Mulder does have an address, and the convicts are arriving there.
Scully found the empty package and managed to trace it to a pharmaceutical company. It looks like the package was deliberately sent to the prison to see what would happen. Unfortunately, there are now two people, at least one of them infected with an extremely deadly disease, on the run. Mulder wants to warn the public, to stop deaths. The Smoking Man tells him that warning the public would cause a panic, and therefore deaths. A difficult situation.