The X-Files “Alpha”

I didn’t recognize actor Andrew J Robinson here as a cryptozoologist.  That was mostly because he wasn’t wearing the “Garek” make-up from Deep Space Nine.

The Case:  Evil Dog!

The Rest:  This looks like the sort of episode designed to make me want a dog.  All kinds of dogs on display here.  St Bernards.  Golden Retrievers.  Great Danes.  Big dogs.  Little dogs.  Well-trained dogs.  And one wolf-ish evil dog.  Who is also a simple little tailor.

See, the Wanshang Dhole is this supposedly extinct dog that Robinson’s Dr. Detweiler claims he caught and brought back to the United States.  But there were two dead guys in a box.  A box locked from the outside.  And they died from dog bites.  Something Scully says shouldn’t happen.  The dog bites part, but I suspect she isn’t much for believing the first part either.  Mulder thinks the Wanshang Dhole did it since according to legend, that’s a trickster dog of some kind.  This is a dog with a man’s intelligence.

Besides, he got a tip from Karen Berquist, a reclusive woman he met online that runs a dog shelter.

See?  Lots of dogs.

She also likes dogs better than people.  And Mulder.  She really likes Mulder.  She even has a copy of that “I Want to Believe” poster that Mulder lost in that season-ending fire.  Scully picks up on Berquist’s Mulder thing pretty quick while Mulder never believes it.

OK, speaking as a guy who sometimes doubts that women are into him because of how I sometimes see myself…I can buy that Mulder isn’t picking up on that whole thing.  Scully, on the other hand, I never quite figured out what her motivation was.  Like, was she jealous?  Protecting Mulder?  Just annoyed by the whole “find a supernatural killer dog” thing?  I don’t know.  She does eventually figure out Berquist has lupus (yes, the dog-lover Berquist notes the irony), and then she keeps telling Mulder Berquist has an ulterior motive.

That’s about when Mulder confronts Detweiler because there’s not a dog on the loose.  Detweiler turns into the dog at night and goes on a killing spree like a werewolf or something, hence the reason the Wanshang Dhole’s tracks show an extra, fifth toe or thumb, and why most of the victims seem to be connected to Detweiler.  I mean, why kill that friendly vet?  The guy who stitched up what he thought was a friendly St. Bernard the cops shot only for it to be the Wanshang Dhole in disguise because it’s a shapeshifting trickster?

By the by, given the age of this episode, I’m trying not to think about how all the dogs in this episode are long dead.

While we’re on the subject of dead dogs, shouldn’t Scully get along with Berquist?  Unlike Mulder, Scully actually was a dog owner.

Anyway, Berquist knows Detweiler is the evil dog and tricks him into attacking her when she’s standing next to a second story window, killing both of them.

But she left Mulder her poster!

Huh.

I really want a dog right now.

Up next, I don’t get a dog, but some guy is walking through walls.