The X-Files “Quagmire”

Tyler Labine’s nameless stoner came back for this episode.  He and a girlfriend were last seen in a Boston-based episode.  This one is set in Georgia.  That’s a long way to go to lick some toads.

Also, this episode features the last appearance of Scully’s Pomeranian Queequeg.  Poor pooch…

The Case:  Lake Monster!

The Rest:  After a park ranger who seemed to not give a hoot about climate change and mass extinction does as a concerned environmental scientist said not to do and turned his back on nature, allowing something to sneak up behind him and drag off as a meal, Mulder, Scully, and Queequeg show up to investigate because the lake in question has a legendary lake monster called “Big Blue,” one of those big ol’ tourist attraction sort of monsters that the Mulders of the world believe in but the Scullys of the world think is a lot of hooey.

Oh, why is Queequeg coming along?  Scully couldn’t find a dog sitter on short notice, and can I take a moment to say that this episode probably did more with Queequeg than any of his previous appearances.  That’s not really hard.  He was an old lady’s dog that Clyde Bruckman recommended Scully adopt after his first owner died, and during the same episode to feature those two stoners, Scully was briefly seen giving him a bath as she tried to relax at home on a night off.  So, this may be a chance to see, well, how Mulder and Scully deal with a small dog hanging around.

Short answer:  not in any way that went well for the dog.  Boo!

Actually, in retrospect, the fact Queequeg was actually a large part of this episode should have been enough for me to see the writing on the wall.  I’m not even sure he had a name before.  And at least he wasn’t killed by a member of the Syndicate.

But this is actually a good episode for Scully and Mulder to just talk to each other.  They don’t do that very often when they aren’t on a case.  Most of what does happen here is a result of the two not really having much to do while they wait for Big Blue (if he exists) to do something.  There are locals taking advantage of the legend, a decent body count, and Queequeg even finds a clue before he runs off into the woods one night and gets eaten.

Boo!

But then, after something sinks their boat, Scully and Mulder find themselves sitting on a rock in the middle of the lake.  It’s nighttime, so they can’t even see which direction the shore is to try swimming it.  So, they talk.  Why name the dog Queequeg?  It connects Scully to her father and how he also nicknamed her after a character from Moby-Dick.  Scully thinks Mulder is a lot like Captain Ahab in his obsessions.  Not only is Mulder not offended, he says he wants a peg leg.

Oh, and then the environmental scientist shows up and reveals the water was only about ankle deep because there were about two feet from the shore.

By the by, that guy thought Mulder was nuts when he theorized that the animal attacks were because the local frog population was dying out, and that must have been the primary part of Big Blue’s diet.  Big Blue is supposed to be a large prehistoric animal, and I am supposed to believe it lived off small frogs?

Eh, never mind.  Mulder ends up shooting the thing when it comes for him anyway, and it was a rather run-of-the-mill alligator.  That must have been disappointing.

I mean, if Mulder had just turned around a couple minutes later, he might have spotted the real Big Blue out in the lake.

Up next, mind controlled paranoia.