"Alpha" by Caroline O’Connell

Spoilers 

"I am home."  Mulder - The Basement.

So, Mulder and Scully are back in the basement and all is well with the
world!  Eh, not quite.  A curious episode.  Straightforward in
plotting, similar to previous outings like "Shapes" and "The Host" with
a predictable outcome, but I was drawn more to the behaviour of the
human characters than the dog.  We get yet another author’s take on the
Mulder/Scully relationship offering up more contradictions for us to
throw up our hands in despair!

Last week we had Arcadia with Scully looking like she’d rather go 10
rounds with the Trash Monster than enjoy any physical contact with
Mulder, and this week she’s all territorial because there’s another
woman on her patch.  She shows little interest in Mulder for 6 years,
but the minute there’s an attractive woman around (Phoebe Greene,
Detective White from Sysgy, Kersh’s secretary), she goes from
NotWithABargepole!Scully, to Jealous!Scully in one fell swoop.  Put
them together, don’t put them together, but at least be consistent!

The cause of Scully’s behaviour is one of Mulder’s internet buddies. 
So, now we know that when he’s not out looking for his sister, watching
porn or hanging out with the Lone Gunmen he’s surfing over at
BigMadDogs@onelist.com chatting with Karen Berquist who just happens to
know all about this Chinese dog who’s supposed to be extinct, but is
now in California and developed a taste for local law enforcement.

Mulder and Scully swap professional expertise in this episode.  He
comes over all Forensic Scientist Guy having the blood analysed and
finding the tranquillisers, and she becomes Behavioural Science Girl
(because we all know Mulder is not a psychologist!).  Scully deduces
that Karen fancies Mulder and uses the Dog as an excuse to get to meet
him  (the several dead bodies and the "unexplained" nature of the case
apparently having nothing to do with it.).    And there’s this guy
named Rottweiler - sorry - Detweiler who is actually the dog - like in
Shapes.  But unlike Shapes, Detweiler  knows what he’s doing.

Like Arcadia, Alpha lacks the threat to the safety of Mulder and
Scully.  Scully spends a day tailing Detweiler and Mulder confronts him
with his secret and neither is pursued or attacked by the dog,
preferring to go after Karen instead.  That gives us a lot of gore and
dead bodies, the obligatory funny oneliners - this time from Scully, no
less,  a little Mulder!Angst at the end, but no real tension - aside
from the tension in my shoulders at having sat through another
disappointment.

5/10

Stuff

Thing I learned from The X-Files:  Bad things lurk on ships (Flukemen,
Aliens, possessed dogs, Krycek...)

Mulder must have been next door in Crypto Zoology 101 when everyone
else was studying Psychology in Oxford.

Much like the Spanish titled episodes being not very good, has anyone
else noticed that all the episodes that begin and end in "A" are pretty
below average too!  Agua malA, ArcadiA, AlphA?  (Note, I'm trying to
avoid using contentious words like Suckfest and Crap when describing
them!)

Isn’t it ironic, dontcha think?:  They move from Vancouver to film in
LA.  They set a case in California, and it rains!

"Wolf woman"?  Scully must be a cat person.  Ladies, ladies!  Down!

Definite lack of knowledge of the characters!  A pile of goo on the
floor and Mulder doesn’t stick his fingers in it?

Cal
"He doesn’t listen and he chews on the furniture."