The X-Files

When I began my field research here these frogs were thriving.

Since then the adult population has dropped to fewer than 200.

If you don't take protective measures, in a few years...

...Rana sphenocephala will be extinct here.

Frog populations are declining all over the globe, Dr Faraday. No one knows why.

We can't place them all on the endangered species list.

You'd find a way if it were cute, furry mammals we were talking about.

Regardless, your study remains inconclusive. Speculative, at best.

You have no evidence the frog depopulation is the sole result of human encroachment.

A frog holocaust is currently being executed, Dr Bailey.

And man is the executioner.

You're a biologist, Faraday.

You've never heard of survival of the fittest?

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!

Ah, dammit!

Freakin' beeper.

Argh!

No!No!No!

Argh!

- Nature's calling. We should pull over soon. - Did you really have to bring that thing?

You wake me up on a Saturday morning, tell me to be ready in five minutes...

...my mom's away, all dog-sitters are booked,

and you know how I feel about kennels.

So, unless you wanna lose your deposit on the car, I suggest we pull over.

All right. I'm lost anyway. I gotta stop and ask for directions.

I know I'm lost as to why you're so interested in this missing-persons case.

Dr Bailey works for the US Forestry Service. It makes his disappearance a federal case.

It's notjurisdiction I'm questioning.

Dr Bailey's not the first person to go missing from the lake.

Two weeks ago a Boy Scout troop was out here fossil-hunting.

Their troop leader went to relieve himself, and hasn't been heard from since.

So you think there's a serial killer at large?

The operative word being large.

- What are you leaving out? - Why d'you think I'm leaving anything out?

Multiple missing-persons cases are not that uncommon.

Why this one warrants a flight halfway across the country

and a two-hour drive's a mystery!

Oh, tell me you're not serious!

According to the sheriff's report, you were the last person to see Dr Bailey alive.

That's what they tell me.

You argued over an endangered species petition.

Bailey was the worst kind of hypocrite.

Closest he came to communing with nature was subscribing to National Geographic.

- You sound bitter, Dr Faraday. - Of course I'm bitter.

The man wrote off three years of carefully collected data in a two-hour inspection.

Which doesn't mean I plotted his demise.

That is what you were suggesting.

Aside from having a motive, you don't seem too upset.

You expect me to cry for one man

when entire species are on the brink of extinction?

You know the wildlife in and around this lake as well as anybody, don't you?

I'd say that's accurate.

Are you aware of any indigenous species that's capable of attacking a human being?

Yes.

- Another human being. - Aside from that. ls there a creature that...

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

OK. In your work, have you come across any evidence...

...that lends support to the existence of this creature they call Big Blue?

See, this is what always happens. This is how it starts.

- What? - The deflection, sleight of hand.

Whenever an issue requires any real thought or mental effort...

...people turn to UFOs and sea serpents and sasquatch.

Afternoon talk shows and tabloid TV -

they've reduced our attention span so much...

...that soon our ability to think will be as extinct as the Rana sphenocephala frog.

I'll take that diatribe to mean you don't believe in the existence of such a creature.

I won't even grace that with a reply.

A prehistoric animal in a lake is not without precedent.

Last August they pulled a bull shark from Lake Onota in Massachusetts.

An anomaly, which proves nothing.

It only serves as fodder for pseudoscientists...

...with nothing better to do than chase fairy tales.

Excuse me.

Lake creatures have been reported for centuries in many countries.

From the monsters in Loch Ness and Shiel, to the Ogopogo in Lake Okanagan.

And Lake Champlain, Lagarfljét, Iceland...

- Sounds like you know about the subject. - I did as a kid...

...but then I grew up and became a scientist.

Some grown-up cryptozoologists think it's an evolutionary throwback,

possibly prehistoric.

- An aquatic dinosaur. - A plesiosaur, actually.

Though, admittedly, there's not a lot of hard evidence to back that up.

You know why? Because those creatures don't exist.

They are folk tales born out of some collective fear of the unknown.

How many folk tales do you know

that could eat a Boy Scout leader and a biologist?

Check this out, Scully.

It looks an insect casing or carapace. Something from a beetle.

- (man) How can I help you folks? - We're looking for the Lakeview Cabins.

Oh, you passed the turn-off a few miles back.

It's pretty tough to find.

A map might help. Oh, they're $2.50 each, plus Uncle Sam.

Fine.

If you don't mind my sayin', don't look like you're here for the trout.

No. We're with the FBI. We're investigating two missing-persons reports.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's big news round here. Everybody's been talkin' about it.

- What are they saying? - Same thing they've been saying for years.

I'm not one for spreading rumours.

The truth is, I've heard the stories since I was a kid.

- About Big Blue? What kind of stories? - Well...

...I was ten years old, fishin' with my daddy...

...and I heard a big commotion clear across the lake.

A wailing sound, the likes of which I had never heard before - haven't heard since.

My daddy told me later it was a cow who'd escaped and was drinking by the lake...

...when Old Blue came up and snatched her right off the bank.

- That's quite a story. - Well, that's just one.

Those stories must sell a lot of T-shirts.

Well, a man's gotta survive.

Do you believe those stories?

Every man's gotta look at the evidence, decide for himself.

- (door opens) - But if you wanna ask a real expert...

...you should probably talk to Ansel here. He's out there practically every day.

It was his daddy's cow that got eaten.

Can you get these developed by tomorrow?

Give me another five rolls. Put 'em on my tab.

These folks are with the FBI, Ansel.

They're looking into that unsolved mystery of how those people disappeared.

Unsolved mystery?

- Since when's it a mystery? - So you think Big Blue's responsible?

Don't you?

Have you ever actually seen it?

Not directly, no.

But I aim to.

One day I'll be in the right place at the right time, and I will snap a shot of that monster.

There we go.

If you hit Striker's Cove, you've gone too far.

- (door opens) - Call the sheriff! We got a floater!

It's Scott Moosley, the Boy Scout troop leader.

- Well, his fly's undone. - Are you insinuating something?

No. Most drowning victims have high levels of alcohol in them and their flies unzipped.

While urinating over the sides of boats, they lose their balance, fall in and drown.

It still doesn't explain why half of him is still missing.

- Looks like something took a big bite. - Maybe not so big.

- What do you mean? - Fish eat decomposing matter.

Any body suspended in this environment for a period of time will become a food source.

We eat fish and fish eat us.

Are fish also known for eating half and saving half for later?

Argh!

Oh, God, no! No! Argh! No!

Help me! Help me! Argh!

- (Ansel) Like I said, I recognised his hat. - How could you not?

There's Ted Bertram's four-by parked a mile up that way, here's his hat...

...and here's these tracks.

Know what I'm sayin'?

I mean, look at the size of these tracks.

Mulder, this is Sheriff Lance Head.

Wait. Watch out... watch out for the tracks.

Careful. Watch out where you're walking.

Queequeg.

Pleasure. Ansel, why don't you go check the woods?

Today's the day, Sheriff.

- I'm gonna get him. - (sighs) Yeah.

- Any sign of Ted Bertram? - No.

I'm notjumping to conclusions. Speakin' of which, I hear you want to close the lake.

Just until we figure out what's going on.

Well, I can tell you what's goin' on. Same thing that goes on every year.

Fishermen get drunk, they drown. Folks get run over by a powerboat.

Hell, on a lake this size you'll have eight, nine deaths a season. It's a statistical fact.

But you got two or three in as many weeks.

I'd say you're outside your bell curve, Sheriff.

Agent... Mulder? Mulder?

This lake has 48 miles of shoreline.

I got four deputies full time.

Now, to close down a lake this size...

...hell, you'd have to call out the National Guard for that to happen.

- You'd need irrefutable proof. - And these tracks?

A creature as large as the one you're looking for

would have left much deeper impressions.

Queequeg!

Queequeg, come back here! Queequeg!

- Mulder! Sheriff, come take a look at this. - (Sheriff I What you got?

- There's your lake monster, Mulder. - That's what it looks like.

- It's all a hoax. - I'll be damned! Sure seems like it.

Yeah, but what happened to the hoaxer?

I saw it on the Discovery Channel.

They got, like, this whole, you know, cult built up around these tree toads.

The skin's got these hallucinogenic properties - let's you see all these visions.

It's really spiritual.

Yeah?

I don't know.

It's supposed to take the doors of perception

and swing them so wide open, you know.

Plus you get to see all these really cool streaks and trails and crap.

Well?

- Are you sure that's even a toad? - Argh!

Dude, what's wrong with you?! You made me drop my toad!

Chill out, man. I'll get you another one.

How long till we get down to Lauderdale?

Dude!

Oh... No!

Dude?

Oh...

(Sheriff I How about you?

Neither of you can remember anything?

- Great(!) - If this is a hoax, it's an elaborate one.

I got zip out of them - no tellin' what they've been smokin'! What's it look like?

It's hard to tell without an autopsy, but it looks like propeller damage from a boat.

- Well, this is a designated boating area. - 20 feet from shore and twice in one day?