The X-Files: Alpha Rewatch

July 9, 2020 8:14 PM - Season 6, Episode 16

After a Wanshang Dhole, a species of dog long believed to have been extinct, kills two merchant seamen and escapes from its freight crate en route from China to the U.S., Mulder and Scully try to track it down with the help of an introverted canine expert, and the enigmatic cryptozoologist who claims he initially found and captured the dog.
posted by orange swan (2 comments total)

Don't care much for this one. The script had potential but needed more work. For one thing, the plot doesn't hold water. If the dog is really Dr. Ian Detweiler, did he ship himself across the ocean in a animal crate and just not transform back until those two seamen started poking around? (Not a smart move on their part by the way.) Wouldn't it have been easier for him to take a damn plane? And it made no sense for Detweiler the Dog to be attacking the people he was. Why attack the vet who gave him tranquilizers?

While I really liked Karen Berquist's interesting and complex character and even wish she had been allowed to live to make recurring appearances in the series, I also don't know why Karen would have been at all interested in protecting Detweiler, or why she would go about it in the way that she did. And why didn't she shoot the dog at the end instead of letting it kill them both?

I hated Scully's behaviour in this episode. She got her hackles up and acted very territorial towards Karen over her interest in Mulder, and while that's consistent with her character to a point, it was taken to a ridiculous extreme. She was so hostile towards Karen in a way that never made any real sense given that Karen didn't at all deserve it. Her "Don't underestimate a woman. They can be tricksters, too," line was appalling.

Oh, and Scully honey, in general, jealousy is fruitless. If the man you want wants someone else, you need to accept that that is his choice and leave him to it. Trying to drive other women away from him, or getting upset when he forms any kind of friendship with another woman, is just going to make you look like an asshole.
posted by orange swan at 10:18 AM on July 10, 2020

Two episodes in a row with "orientalism."

Agreed, shipping by sea freight is idiotic. Who had been feeding, watering, and mucking it such that the seamen didn't know what it was? Yet had a key to the padlock.

And it took both of them to lift the lid, when the Captain raised it casually with his off hand.

What a shitty cage to ship a live animal in.

"I don't know how this happened. It makes no sense."

--

I thought that Mulder's "I am home. I'm just feathering the nest." return to normalcy after a period of doubt was interesting. But not entirely-entirely believable.

It was weird of Scully being jealous/ suspicious, especially so with the subtext that Mulder and Karen having been acquainted online/ over the internet, that there was some strange sex stuff/ stalker stuff involved?

Then again, the internet has changed a lot since then, and even online dating has been normalized.

I don't know if this is an accurate characterization but I'm reading it as Mulder's empathy shining through once again, and he does understand that Karen's got a crush on him after meeting in person, and he's (initially) giving her a little human contact that she yearns for. Mulder is not so shallow that he couldn't also be attracted to Karen on the strength of her convictions, intelligence, and cuteness.

Karen was cool, but she is a canid-supremacist. With progressive lupus.

Interesting characterization by Melinda Culea (a former model). Too bad this was one of her last roles. She once got to snog with Jonathan Frakes while dressed up as an asexual extraterrestrial.

Why/ how was dead Deitweiler wearing pants?

Unless Duchovny has massive hands, that's probably the smaller Kershaw 2410.
posted by porpoise at 5:11 PM on July 10, 2020