The X-Files - 3.

French title: Les Dents Du Lac
translation: The Teeth Of The Lake

Italian title: Il mistero del lago

US Airdate: May 3, 1996

writer: Kim Newton

director: Kim Manners

STARRING:

David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Guest Cast:

TIMOTHY WEBBER as Dr. Farraday

PETER HANLON as Dr. Bailey

MURRAY LOWRY as the fisherman

R. NELSON BROWN as Ansel Bray

MARK ACHESON as Ted

CHRIS ELLIS as the Sheriff

NICOLE PARKER as the chick

TERRANCE LEIGH as the Snorkel Dude

MULDER JUMPS IN WITH BOTH FEET WHEN A MISSING PERSONS CASE IN GEORGIA TIES IN WITH AN OLD AND PERSISTENT LEGEND OF A LAKE-DWELLING MONSTER. SCULLY REMAINS SKEPTICAL UNTIL AN ACCIDENT STRANDS THEM IN THE MONSTER'S TERRITORY IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT.

Scully can hardly believe that even Mulder would be gullible enough to take on a Nessie-type lake monster legend when a Federal Forest Service worker is killed along a lakeshore in Georgia. They find that the area has been experiencing a "frog holocaust", a steady and disastrous decline in the native frog population. The local fishing and boating population begins to decline as well, with parts of bodies turning up in remote areas. Mulder pleads with the local sheriff to close the lake to tourists. Scully is more inclined to believe in a human serial killer, but when her beloved dog gets involved in the hunt and people are attacked before their eyes, she joins Mulder in tracking down the prehistoric creature who is feeding on the locals. They find themselves trapped in the middle of a fog-shrouded lake, with something very, very big closing in on their position.

Heuvelman's Lake in this episode was named after Van Heuvels, a Dutch cryptozoologist who wrote "In the Wake of the Sea Serpents".

The photographer is named Ansel after famous photographer Ansel Adams.

Dr. Faraday is named for chemist and physicist Dr. Michael Faraday, who discovered the principle of electromatic induction, which is the basis for generating electric power.

Personal note: I've included here the full transcript of what's come to be known as "The Conversation On The Rock".

And as a matter of interest, Scully's dog, Queequeg, which she acquired at the end of "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", is named after a character in the book "Moby Dick", a cannibal, which is kinda fun if you remember what he did in the "Clyde Bruckman.." ep!

Farraday: "A frog holocaust is currently being executed, Dr. Bailey, and Man is the executioner."

Bailey: "You're the biologist Farraday, you've never heard of survival of the fittest?"

Farraday: "Well don't forget that rule also applies to Mankind! You can't turn your back on Nature or Nature will turn her back on you!"

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Farraday: "Bailey was the worst kind of hypocrite. The closest he ever came to communing with nature was subscribing to National Geographic."

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Farraday: "Has anyone ever told you two you have a great problem coming to the point?"

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Mulder: "I'll take that rambling diatribe to mean that you don't believe in the existance of such a creature."

Farraday: "I'm not even going to grace that statement with a reply."

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(after shopkeeper tells story of Big Blue grabbing a cow from the riverbank)

Scully: "That's quite a story."

Ted: "That's just one."

Scully: "Those stories must sell a lot of t-shirts."

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(after finding half of scout leader's body in water)

Scully: "We eat fish and the fish eat us."

Mulder: "But are fish also known for eating half and saving half for later?"

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(after scuba diver surfaces right after he's licked the toad, making him drop it)

Snorkel Dude: "Dude what's wrong with you ?! You made me drop my toad!"

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Scully: "Could you repeat the last part again? I kinda faded out."

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Scully: "It's too bad we're not out here fishing."

Mulder: "We ARE fishing."

Scully: "You really expect to find this thing don't you Mulder?"

Mulder: (holds up map and points) "You wanna head right here."

Scully: "I'll take that as a yes."

Mulder: "I know the difference between expectation and hope. Seek and ye shall find Scully."

Scully: "You know, on the old mariners maps, the cartographers would designate uncharted territories by writing "Here Be Monsters"."

Mulder: "Oh, I got a map of New York City just like that."

(big blip appears on radar screen coming towards them)

Scully: "What was that?"

Mulder: "It ain't no bass."

Scully: "What IS that?! What is that Mulder?"

Mulder: "Here be monsters, Scully."

Scully: "It looks like it's coming straight at us."

Mulder: "Yup, that's what it looks like." (something crashes into boat)

Scully: (yelling into ship's radio) "Mayday, Mayday, can anybody read me?!(something about ship's number, hard to hear over music and effects) Mayday!"

Mulder: "Scully, let's get out of here!"

(they put on life jackets as the boat takes on water, we see the boat sink and they are now standing on a rock)

Scully: "There goes our 500 dollar deposit."

Mulder: "I say we swim to shore."

Scully: "Swim?"

Mulder: "Yeah the shore can't be too far from here."

Scully: "In which direction?"

Mulder: "Man when you're living in the city you forget that night is actually so.....dark."

Scully: "Living in the city you forget a lot of things. You know there you're always thinking about being mugged or hit by a car. It's not until you get back to nature until you realize that everything is out to get you. That's why my father always taught me to respect nature, 'cause it has no respect for you." (a disturbance in the water as something swims by)

Mulder: "That was him Scully, that was Big Blue!"

Scully: "So what if it was? Mulder what are we doing here?"

Mulder: "What do you mean what are we doing here?"

Scully: "What are you hoping to accomplish?"

Mulder: "Scully so many of the things that we investigate are so intangible, but this creature it exists within the specific earthly confines of this lake. And I want to find it."

Scully: "What for?"

Mulder: "You're a scientist, why do you ask that question? I mean it would be a miraculous discovery, it could revolutionize evolutionary biological thinking."

Scully: "Is that really the reason why? You know when you showed me those pictures that the photographer took? You want to know what I really saw in them?"

Mulder: "A tooth?"

Scully: "No, you. That man is your future. Listening only to himself, hoping to catch a glimpse of the truth for who knows what reason."

Mulder: "Well I did read in his journals that he was hoping to live off the copy-right fees from a genuine Big Blue photo."

Scully: "Well, as dumb as it sounds at least it's a legitimate reason."

Mulder: "You don't think my reasons are legitimate?"

Scully: "Mulder, sometimes I just can't figure them out. (a sound in the distance, they draw their guns....) Mulder!" (a duck appears through the fog)

Duck: "Quack, quack."

Mulder: "I'm still tempted to fire."

(Mulder is now lying down, Scully is sitting)

Mulder: "Hey Scully do you think you could ever cannabilize somebody? I mean if you really had to."

Scully: "Well, as much as the very idea is abhorrent to me, I suppose under certain conditions the living entity is practically conditioned to perform whatever extreme measures are necessary to ensure it's survival. I suppose I'm no different."

Mulder: "You've lost some weight recently haven't you?"

Scully: "Yeah actually I have, thanks for...." (realizes what he meant)

Mulder: (laughs) "But it is amazing what some animals will do to guarantee the continuation of the species isn't it? I mean a creature, the one of this size, must have adapted its behaviour over the years to minimize its chances of being seen by its own predator, us. It's coming closer to shore for its prey must be an act of desperation on its part."

Scully: "Poor Queequeg."

Mulder: "Why did you name your dog Queequeg?"

Scully: "It was the name of the harpoonist in "Moby Dick". My father used to read to me from "Moby Dick" when I was a little girl and I called him Ahab and he called me Starbuck, so I named my dog Queequeg. It's funny, I just realized something."

Mulder: "It's a bizarre name for a dog huh?"

Scully: "No, how much you're like Ahab. You're so consumed by your personal vengence against life, whether it be it's inherent cruelties or it's mysteries that everything takes on a warped significance to fit your megalomaniacal cosmology."

Mulder: "Scully are you coming on to me?"

Scully: "It's just...the truth or a white whale, what difference does it make? I mean, both obsessions are impossible to capture and trying to do so will only leave you dead along with everyone else you bring with you. You know Mulder, you ARE Ahab."

Mulder: "You know it's interesting you should say that, because I've always wanted a peg leg. It's a boyhood thing I never grew out of. No I'm not being flippant, I mean, I've given this a lot of thought. If you have a peg leg or hooks for hands, you know, maybe it's enough to simply carry on living, you know, bravely facing life with your disability, it's heroic just to survive. But without these things, you're actually expected to make something of your life, achieve something, earn a raise, wear a necktie. So if anything, I'm actually the antithesis of Ahab because if I did have a peg leg I'd quite possibly be more happy, more content and not feel the need to chase after these creatures of the unknown."

Scully: "And that's not flippant?"

Mulder: (laughs) "No, flippant is my favorite line from "Moby Dick"... (she mouths along as he says:) 'Hell is an idea first born on an undigested apple dumpling'." (movement in the water)

Scully: "What was that?"

Mulder: "I don't know but it ain't no duck!"

(they stand with their guns drawn.....lantern goes out.....light shines in their eyes)

Farraday: "I thought I heard voices. What are you two doing out here?"

Scully: "Dr. Farraday?"

Farraday: "Hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Scully: "No, no, we had a little trouble with our boat."

Mulder: "Actually it sank."

Farraday: "How'd that happen?"

Scully: "It was my fault. We'd have been out here all night if you hadn't answered our distress call."

Farraday: "Oh I didn't, I was walking by, I heard you talking."

Scully: "Walking by?"

Farraday: "Yeah, yeah the shore is just a stone's throw from here. (shines flashlight on shoreline) Come on, I'll take you back."

(Mulder and Scully sheepishly step off the rock and walk to shore)

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(after Mulder kills the alligator that tried to attack him)

Scully: "Well, you slew the big white whale Ahab."

Mulder: "Yeah, but I still don't have that peg leg." (laughs)

Scully: "How can you be disappointed? That alligator would have gone through the local population if you hadn't killed it."

Mulder: "I know. I guess I just wanted Big Blue to be real. I guess I see hope in such a possibility."

Scully: "Well there's still hope. That's why these myths and stories have endured. People want to believe."