The X-files

War of the Corophages
Episode: 3X12
First aired:1/5/96
Written by: Darin Morgan
Directed by: Kim Manners

This episode includes a guest appearence by Queequeg!

Dr. Bugger talks about cockroaches before killing one. Suddenly, Bugger grabs his chest and colapses. Later, Dr. Jeff Eckerle, who had summoned the exterminator, finds Bugger dead with roaches crawling all over him.

Mulder is in the vicinity, investigating accounts of unidentified colored lights in the sky. He calls Scully, who provides him with a long disseration about the unlikelihood of alien life. The local sheriff stops Mulder but is quickly called away with news of another roach attack. Mulder calls Scully to tell her that it appears that cockroaches are mortally attacking people. He tells her that there have been 3 deaths so far.

Elsewhere, a trio of teenagers do drugs with one seeing roaches burrowing under his skin. Attempting to get rid of the roach, he hacks himself to death with a razor blade. Scully says there's a possible explanation telling Mulder about Ekborn's syndrome, a similar delusion associated with drug abuse.

Mulder catches a roach and is cut on his fingers while handling it. He now believes that the exoskeleton is made of metal. The sheriff wonders if the government has been conducting experiments, perhaps creating a new breed of killer cockroaches.

Mulder and Scully find a medical examiner dead. An orderly says that there had been cockroaches all over him. Scully says that he could have died easily of a brain aneurysm, since there was no evidence of cockroaches.

Mulder goes to the government facility while Scully calls back, saying she's discovered research about a breed of cockroach attracted to light that may account for the sightings. Mulder, meanwhile sees the walls in the facility ripple, as roaches burst out of them. The light comes on and he is joined by the stunning Dr. Bambi Berenbaum, a USDA researcher studying roaches. She's even got a theory that UFOs are nocturnal insect swarms.

At Mulder's hotel, one of the residents watches a local news report about the roaches urging people not to worry. Mulder calls Scully, telling her about Dr. Berenbaum and her theories. Hearing a scream, Mulder finds the man in the hotel dead. The other residents saw roaches all over him but there are none when Mulder arrives. Becoming skeptical, Mulder thinks that man scared himself to death. But now, Scully is unsure and decides to come to town.

Bambi looks at one of the cockroaches saying it looks like a micro-processor, that it might be mechanical. Mulder goes to Dr. Ivanov, who creates insect-like robots. Ivanov says that most space travelers would likely be robots and not the little green men. Scully arrives finding a panicked mob ransaking a convenience store. Mulder finds another roach and says to it, "greetings from planet Earth."

Scully calls saying that Dr. Eckerle was researching methane and has been importing animal dung, which may explain the infestation of new cockroaches since roaches are dung eaters. Mulder goes to see Eckerle who, crazed with fear, pulls a gun. Scully arrives and enters the facitliy. Mulder's phone rings and Eckerle fires at him, releasing the methane. The agents race outside as the facility explodes, they rise slowly covered with dung.

The sheriff later tells them about fires, looting and insecticide poising the night before. Ivanov meets with Bambi and they wander off together. Later, Mulder types on his computer, wondering what we'd do if such creachers visited Earth. Mulder reahes for a snack but sees an alien-looking roach on the plate. Mulder grasps an X-file and squashes it.


Important Quotes:
Scully -- "Mulder, I think the only thing more fortuitous than the emergence of life on this planet is that, through purely random laws of biological evolution, an intelligence as complex as ours ever emanated from it. Uh, the, the very idea of intelligent alien life is not only astronomically improbable but at it's most basic level, downright anti-Darwinian."
Mulder -- "Scully... what are you wearing?"

Mulder -- "It appears that cockroaches are mortally attacking people.
Scully -- "I'm not going to ask you if you just said what I think you just said because I know it's what you just said."

Mulder -- "Scully, can I confess something to you?"
Scully -- "Yeah, sure, okay."
Mulder -- "I hate insects."

Mulder -- "...It took forever for me to realize that it was no leaf."
Scully -- "A praying matins?"
Mulder -- "Yeah, I had a praying mantis epiphany and, as a result, I screamed. Not...not a girly scream but the scream of someone being confronted by some before unknown monster that had no right existing on the same planet I inhabited. Did you ever notice how a praying mantis' head resembles an alien's head? The mysteries of the natural world were revealed to me that day but instead of being astounded I was repulsed."
Scully -- "Mulder, are you sure it wasn't a girly scream?"

Scully -- "Her name is Bambi?"

Mulder -- "Yeah, did you know that the ancient Egyptians worshipped the scarub beetle and possibly errected the pyramids to honor them? Which may be giant symbolic dung heaps?"
Scully -- "Did you know the inventor of the flush toilet was named Thomas Crapper?"

Mulder -- "Scully, I never thought I'd say this to you but... you smell bad."

Scully -- "Mulder, you're not thinking about tresspassing on government property again, are you?I know you've done it in the past but I don't think this case war..."
Mulder -- "Too late. I'm already inside."
Scully -- "...heavy sigh..."


Back to The X-files: Season 3