All Hail Darin Morgan! He's done it again. "War of the Coprophages" is my new favorite. He should win an Emmy. And next week (Jan. 19, 1997) he appears (again) as The Flukeman in "The Host." What a guy. Here are 50 Things I loved about this one:

1. Mulder was just hanging around, waiting for aliens to drop in. He was so casual, so cool, so *squidgy*.
2. Scully was cleaning her gun.
3. The way Mulder was turned on by her scientific patter.
4. "What are you wearing?"
5. The way he kept calling back and she would explain away the unexplainable circumstances.
6. Scully kept the dog.
7. Scully was flea dipping  the dog.
8. She was flea-dipping the dog in a bug ep.
9. The freak-outs in the store were fighting over the last can of bug stuff, "Die, Bug, Die," and it looked an awful lot like that stuff Scully was using on the dog.
10. The squidgy scenes between Mulder and "Bambi."
11. "Bambi? Her name is Bambi?"
12. The way everybody talked to Mulder as if he didn't know anything about UFOs and he just let it pass.
13. The news report that "an FBI agent is investigating ..."
14. David in bed, mostly naked. 8-P*
15. The deadpan way he said, "crap," when the alt.fuel factory blew up.
16. The idea that the whole town might be hallucinating due to the methane fumes being released into the air (remember how the kids were saying it "expands your mind" -- might not the whole thing have been a mass hallucinatory experience?)
17. The one shot where Mulder was reaching into the drain to catch that roach and the camera shot up at their faces. Sweet.
18. Scene when Scully yelled at everyone in the store and told them to calm down and everybody scrambled anyway. She was so terrific in that scene.
19. When she casually picked up the "cockroach" bridge mix off the floor and ate one.
20. Nobody got their ass kicked (though I really  squirmed when that kid cut himself with the razor. Razors bother me much more than cockroaches).
21. The bookend comments from Mulder and the robotics doctor: "Isn't that what Zaius said ... in 'The Planet of the Apes'? "
22. "Who was that?" "My drug dealer."
23. "Mulder, you've got to get out of there right now. " "Nooooohhh!!" "Are you all right, what happened?" "Flashlight went out." "Mulder, what's going on?" ... "Gotta Go." "Mulder. Mulder!" (snip) RRRRrrriing. "Not now."
24. The possibility that the roaches were another alien/terrian experiment.
25. The perfectly plausible explanations for all of the deaths, leaving just a doubt of whether it was a secret government project, virus or perhaps a private-interest coverup.
26. "After talking with Agent Mulder here, I feel a little constipated."
27. Scully by the fire, reading a book.
28. Scully reading "Breakfast at Tiffany's." (More irony. It was the Truman Capote question that tripped DD up on the final Jeopardy question. The answer was "Tiffany's." The store which held a memorial do for Capote.)
29. Lots of squidgy David.
30. Dana's jealous look at "Bambi."
31. "*Fox* told me to wait out here while he checked inside first." [emphasis added]
32. "Did you know the inventor of the Flush toilet was Thomas Crapper?"
33. Mulder's "epiphany."
34. "Did you ever notice how a praying mantis's head resembles an alien's head?"
35. "Mulder, are you sure  it wasn't a girlie scream?"
36. Mulder drinking with the robotics doctor.
37. The scene where they showed the closeup of the cockroach between Mulder's fingers, then close on Mulder's face with the split-lens effect on the roach's POV; "Greetings from Planet Earth."
38. Band-aids on Mulder's fingers.
39. Robotic creatures like the ones they used in "Runaway" with Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons. (killer Michael Crichton Sci-Fi movie, BTW). Ok, so the legs aren't quite touching the ground. It's Homage, right?
40. Speaking of homage, what about that cockroach running across the screen? Shades of "The Tingler"! (or maybe "Home Improvement"???)
41. "Hung" cockroaches.
42. "Where are you?" "I'm at a convenience store at the outskirst of uh ... civilization."
43. More references than I could count.
44. Drug abuse connected to smoking s__t.
45. And it's hallucinagenic  s__t!! ( ... whoah ... that's some ... s__t, ... man... !!)
46. A gratuitious explosion.
47. "36 injuries all total, half of them due to insecticide poisoning." (local cop)
48. "Smart is sexy." (Scully)
49. "You know, I never thought I'd say this to you Scully, but you smell bad."
50. Mulder sees the bug on the plate. He reaches for something to smash it. He pauses. The bug is large and actually quite beautiful. Then, it's creeping toward him. DOWN goes the bound volume, "Federal Bureau of Investigation file No. 667386."

    -- Nicole M. Robertson, 1996

    
    

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