AIR DATE:  May 3, 1996
Written by Kim Newton 
Directed by  Kim Manners

	"Quagmire" is a good old fashioned X-Files episode where Scully
and Mulder go investigate something and practically everyone dies, even a
dog. This episode was a bit of a black comedy in how it approached things
from Scully's dog being Big Blue's midnight snack to Scully and Mulder
being only yards away from the shore.  I guess this is our break until we
get what I believe is going to be two powerful upcoming episodes.

	Did anyone else see the similarities to "Jaws" throughout this
episode?  Here are some of things I saw though I could be stretching it a
bit:

- Everytime they showed Big Blue's point of view I kept expecting to hear
the theme music from "Jaws". 

- Dog dies in "Jaws", Scully's dog dies.

- Drugged out couple friend gets killed and water squirts up with blood -
in "Jaws" kid on raft gets killed and water squirts up with blood.  Also,
the first victim in "Jaws" is a drugged out woman who goes swimming after
her drugged out friend passes out.

- Mulder and Scully boat gets hit around by Big Blue like the boat in
"Jaws" does by the shark.

- When Scully goes up to the head covered by a blanket and explains it
could have been done by a motor propeller I kept seeing Richard Dreyfuss
pulling up the sheet to see the remains of a body and saying this was no
boat accident. 

- Mulder keeps insisting the lake should be closed down while the Sheriff
says he can't, in "Jaws" the Chief of Police keeps insisting the beach
should be closed while the Mayor says no way.

	Can you tell "Jaws" is one of my favorite movies?  The X-Files
people did a better take off of "Jaws" than Peter Benchley did with "The
Beast".  X-Files took bits and pieces of the movie and put it into the
X-Files universe in an original way.

	Kim Newton who wrote "Revelations" takes the Scully and Mulder
relationship into another dimension.  Whereas in "Revelations" there
seemed to be tension in their conversations, in "Quagmire" there was a
good kidding aspect to their conversations.  What we got here were
conversations between two people who really know each other, and these are
the kind of conversations we like to see between them.  Not the contrieved
disagreements we have had in past episodes.  Scully was really being hard
on Mulder for dragging her out on a Saturday morning to chase a Loch Ness
type monster though not in a nasty way.  When Mulder asks her how she
knows so much about these types of creatures living in lakes throughout
the world and she tells him she was really into that stuff when she was a
kid, but she grew up and found science.  A polite way of telling Mulder
maybe it's time for him to grow up too.  I think Mulder's punishment was
Scully bringing her dog to show him that he can't keep expecting her to
drop everything to go off on one of his wild goose chases.

	One wonders if Scully includes herself in Mulder's quest for the
truth when she says he'll bring everyone down with him in his search for
the truth.  I always wonder if Scully is as committed as Mulder in finding
out the truth even after all she has been through with him.  Maybe it's
not that, but maybe she gets a little tired of going on what she considers
another wild goose chase.  It was great how she wouldn't let up on him for
one second for dragging them out there.  His explanation for wanting to go
out there was a good insight into Mulder's desire to finally find some
concrete evidence on a weird phenomenon instead of haphazard evidence they
usually end up gathering.  The whole conversation on the rock was
excellent dialogue from Scully comparing Mulder to Ahab to Mulder
defending himself from the comparison.

	In the first paragraph I wrote how this had quite a black comedy
feel to it.  It was a different kind of funny than say a Darin Morgan
script.  Just look at how things were set up with how the victims ended up
dying.  It was always a joke with me and my friends on how in the early
days of the X-Files Scully and Mulder would go in and people would start
dying like flies, well, that is what we get with "Quagmire" and this is
why I found it amusing everytime somebody died.  The forest service guy
dies when he goes back for his beeper, the store owner when he's planting
fake footprints, the drugged out person dies while looking for toads, the
guy obsessed with getting a picture of Big Blue gets killed by Big Blue
while he takes very bad pictures of it, and Scully's dog gets killed while
chasing Big Blue.  It was funny since all who died were doing something
involved with Big Blue:  forest sevice guy wouldn't take the depletion of
his food source seriously, store owner and photography guy exploiting Big
Blue, and drugged out guy abusing Big Blue's food source.  These were just
some of the things that made "Quagmire" a weirdly funny episode. 

	A few general comments on "Quagmire":

- who didn't guess 15 minutes into the episode that Scully's dog was dead
meat.  I still can't believe they had the nerve to kill off the dog which
only proves how sick these X-Files people can be sometimes.  Also, did
anyone think "Manos:  The Hands of Fate" from MST3K when all we see that
remains of the dog is its collar with its name tag? 

- Mulder and Scully should have to pay a $200 dollar fine for littering. 
First Mulder throws his rubber glove down on the ground at the edge of the
lake then both he and Scully leave their life jackets behind on the rock.
Hey, didn't they ever hear you carry in, you carry out.

- Everytime they flash to a frog I kept hearing the words "Bud-weis-er". 

- Weren't those the same two doped out kids from "War of the Copraphages"? 
Guess they wanted to try a new way of getting high.

- We get one of those tv/movie things when the boat appears to sink right
next to Mulder and Scully, but yet they were able to walk to shore with no
problem from the rock.  I guess it must have been a quite deep drop off. 

- Mulder once again ruins his cellular phone.  I would like to see how he
explains this and the boat sinking on his expense account to Skinner.

- Just when they really need those expensive flashlights they don't bring
them with them making them stay stuck on a rock when they can't see two
feet in front of them.  When will they learn that they need to bring those
flashlights.

- I am of the firm opinion that only Kim Manners and Rob Bowman should
direct all X-Files episodes.  Nothing against the other directors, but
these two really know how to get the best out of a X-Files episode.  Even
though Manners couldn't save "Teso Dos Bichos" these two directors between
them have directed the best episodes this year.  Let's hope they don't
move on to do other things after this season.

- According to a friend of mine the type of creature they were describing
as being Big Blue wouldn't be the type to eat meat so hence it shouldn't
have been attacking humans.

	"Quagmire" was a dark sick enjoyable episode.  This is the type of
X-Files episode where there is dark humor mixed with drama.  Take an
episode like "Squeeze" where there were bits of humor intermixed with
grizzly killings.  A good solid episode where there was an unexplained
mystery along with good interaction between Scully and Mulder which is
what we look for in the episodes that take place in between the conspiracy
episodes.


Claudia
E-Mail:  Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

5/5/96

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