Review of ALPHA by Sue Brody Well, I can't say I was particularly disappointed by this episode, because I hadn't intended to *not* be disappointed. So in that sense, it wasn't any worse than I had thought, and there were one or two items that kept me watching. It certainly wasn't a great ep, but it also wasn't a lite ep. I guess it gets points for that. On the other hand, I wish they would stop episodes with animals. Just stop using them. THEY ALWAYS MEAN TROUBLE. At least this ep didn't have a Spanish title...it had a Latin one. God knows why... Okay, how stupid was it of the two Asian men to open that cargo box in the teaser? Didn't you scream, NOOOO! You didn't kill it! You're going to die!! For a split second, I thought maybe it had turned into a man, so it wouldn't kill...and maybe it had...but not surprisingly, the men died. Surprise, surprise. "I am home. I am just feathering the nest." That was Quirky!Mulder. "Yo quiero TACO BELL." LOL! More Quirky!Mulder. "Dog Gone. Dog Gone. Doggone..." "Yeah, I got it, Mulder". At least Scully *smiled* during that. I wish the *whole* ep had contained quirky dialogue. Was anyone thinking Moth Dog? :) Okay, so there wasn't much of a plot. Werewolf. Yeeha. Karin knows. Let's move right past that, onto... WHAT UP WITH MULDER AND KARIN? I want to believe...the return of the poster. The email connection. I should have guessed it would return to the basement office (it *is* in the basement, isn't it?), because there was that wall just *crying* out for it. And how/why did she get the poster? Did Mulder send her it, or tell her where to get it? Didn't DD look as if he were smiling through much of the ep? GA was smiling (or semi-smiling) a lot, too. Were they smiling because they thought this was in many ways a very silly ep, involving more animals? Maybe DD just enjoyed being around so many dogs... Interesting when Mulder was asked if he had had a dog and he said yes. I was thinking of DD's Blue. I don't remember Mulder having a dog, or at least it ever being mentioned. Mulder's shoe. Totally unnecessary. 'Nough said. Mulder called himself Fox......Fox Mulder. They met online. For professional purposes, claims Mulder. Me thinks the boy protests too much. Meanwhile, Scully was *most* curious. Yay, Scully. You have awoken from that haze you've been in much of this season. You are thinking about MULDER! (Well, you could say that she was also just not *trusting* Karin, but I would like to think there was more to it than that.) "I don't think Wolfwoman is here to talk to me about this." Reowr! And prior to that, in an earlier scene, the camera showed MULDER looking at Karin, practically gazing, for quite a long time, while Scully disputed Karin's theories...and then focused on Mulder and Karen's hands on the mouse. I was so thinking Bambi in WOTC... And then later, Karin notes Scully's "feminine wiles..." Ahem. Scully says, "Don't underestimate a woman. They can be tricksters, too." Anyone thinking DIANA FOULEY right there?! You go, KickAss!Scully! I just had a feeling Duke was going to morph back into Wolfie. Poor Duke. I guessed that it was Detweiler (the name was *just* too close to Rotweiler) from the first time he appeared. Since this is a first, do I win a prize? :) Did it turn out that someone died on average about every seven minutes in this ep? Well, I didn't guess how Karin would kill Detweiler. What I wonder about is Scully's comment that Karin and Mulder were kindred spirits. What does that say about *Scully*? Also, did *Scully* bring the poster back for Mulder? Discuss. So, while Scully looked most unhappy sitting next to Mulder in the office, she certainly seemed close to him at the end. She tried to soothe AngstRidden!Mulder. I somehow didn't buy the Karin/Mulder chemistry, however, so that unlike in eps like Ouebliette, where I really bought the Lucy/Mulder connection, and could understand Mulder's sadness at the end, in this case, I just wasn't feeling for him the way I wanted to. If he really felt for Karin, *why*? What was it about her he fell for? Was it her passion (which was not particularly obvious)? Her need to lie to try to get to the truth? Her willingness to sacrifice herself for the greater good? That all makes sense to me, but b/c I didn't really *feel* for Karin, and Detweiler was so unsympathetic (dull, really, and not a particularly good actor, either), I couldn't really get into it. So...it rained (in California! Imagine that!). It was dark. There were flashlights. There were umbrellas. It was an X-File. No Skinner, unfortunately, but there *was* an X-File. But it seemed to me to be a rather subpar X-File, an X-File that was not that engrossing and one in which M&S seemed to often be walking through. This I can only attribute to subpar writing. And a predictable plot. I just want to know if Mulder and Scully's relationship will grow as a result of this ep, b/c the ep itself was pretty forgettable. I think in this case, the subtext was what really counted, and I'm still thinking about that. To conclude: "Ironic or perverse?" Scully in ALPHA