When I began my field research here,
these frogs were thriving.
Since then, the adult population's 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. Farraday.
No one knows why.
We can't possibly place them all on the endangered species list.
You'd find a way if it were cute,
furry little mammals we were talking about.
Regardless, your study remains inconclusive.
Speculative at best.
You've provided no concrete evidence that frog depopulation
is the exclusive result of human encroachment.
A frog holocaust
is currently being executed, Dr. Bailey,
and man is the executioner.
You're a biologist, Farraday.
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, damn it.
Freakin' beeper.
No! No!
No!
Nature's calling.
I think 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 mother is out of town, all of the dog-sitters are booked,
and you know how I feel about kennels.
So unless you want to lose your security deposit on the car,
- I suggest you pull over. - All right, well, I think
I'm lost anyway; I got to 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 U.S. Forestry Service.
That makes his disappearance a federal case.
It's not jurisdiction that I'm questioning, Mulder.
Dr. Bailey's not the first person
to go missing from Heuvelmans Lake recently.
Two weeks ago, a Boy Scout troop was out here fossil hunting.
Their troop leader wandered off to relieve himself,
and he hasn't been seen or heard from since.
So you think that there's a serial killer at large?
The operative word being "large."
What are you leaving out?
What makes you think I'm leaving anything out?
Multiple missing persons' cases
are not that uncommon, Mulder.
Why this particular one warrants us
flying halfway across the country
and driving for two hours is a total 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.
I understand you argued over an endangered species petition.
Bailey was the worst kind of hypocrite.
Closest he ever came to communing with nature
was subscribing to National Geographic.
You sound bitter, Dr. Farraday.
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.
Well, that is what you were suggesting, isn't it?
Well, aside from having a motive,
you don't seem too upset by any of this.
You expect me to cry for one man
when entire species are perched on the brink of extinction?
Dr. Farraday, you know the wildlife in and around this lake
just about 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,
is there a creature that comes to mind...
Has anyone ever told you two you have
a great problem coming to the point?
Okay, then.
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.
See, whenever an issue requires any real thought,
any serious mental effort, people turn to UFOs
and sea serpents and Sasquatch.
Afternoon talk shows and tabloid TV...
they've reduced our attention span
to the length of a sound bite
so that soon our ability to think
will be as extinct as the Rana sphenocephala frog.
I'll take that rambling diatribe to mean
that you don't believe in the existence of such a creature.
I'm not even going to grace that statement with a reply.
A prehistoric animal living 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 pseudo-scientists
with nothing better to do than chase fairy tales.
Excuse me.
Lake creatures have been reported for centuries
in dozens of countries,
from the monsters in Loch Ness and Shiel
to the Ogopogo in Lake Okanagan.
And Lake Champlain; Lagerflot, Iceland.
Sounds like you know a little something about the subject.
I did as a kid,
but then I grew up and became a scientist.
Well, some very grown-up crypto-zoologists
believe that it could be 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, Mulder.
They're folktales born out of some
collective fear of the unknown.
How many folktales do you know that could eat
a Boy Scout leader and a biologist?
Check this out, Scully.
Looks like an insect casing
or a carapace... something from a beetle.
How can I help you folks?
We're looking for the lake view cabins...
Flicker Road.
Oh, you passed the turnoff few miles back.
It's, uh, pretty tough to find.
A map might help.
Oh, they're $2.50 each, plus Uncle Sam.
Fine.
If you don't mind my saying,
you folks don't look like you're here for the trout.
No, we're with the FBI.
We're investigating a pair of missing persons' reports.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that's big news around here.
Everybody's been talking about it.
What are they saying?
Oh, same thing they've been saying for years.
Now, I'm not one for spreading rumors.
The truth is, I've heard the story since I was kid.
About Big Blue?
What kind of stories?
Well, I was ten years old, fishing with my daddy,
and I heard a big commotion clear across the lake.
A wailing sound,
likes of which I had never heard before.
Haven't heard since.
My daddy told me later
it was a cow who'd escaped from the Rockdale ranch
and was drinking by the lake
when old Blue came up
and snatched her right off the bank.
That's quite a story.
That's just one.
Those stories must sell a lot of T-shirts.
Well, man's got to survive.
What about you? You believe those stories?
I believe every man's got to look at the evidence,
decide for himself.
But if you want to 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, Ted?
Give me another five rolls, put them 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 is it a mystery?
So you think Big Blue is responsible
for what's been happening?
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.
Son of a gun.
Now, if you hit Striker's Cove, you've gone too far.
Call the sheriff!
We got a floater.
It's Scott Woosley.
The Boy Scout troop leader.
Well, his fly's undone.
Are you insinuating something?
No, most drowning victims are found with
high levels of alcohol in their blood
and their flies unzipped.
While urinating over the sides of boats,
docks or whatever,
they lose their balance, fall in and drown.
Still doesn't explain why
half of him is still missing.
Looks to me like
something took a big bite.
- Maybe not so big. - What do you mean?
Well, fish eat decomposing matter.
Any body that's been suspended in this environment
for a period of time is going to become a food source.
We eat fish and fish eat us.
Are fish also known for
eating half and saving half for later?
Damn it.
Oh, God, no!
No! No! No!
Help me! Help me!
God, help me!
Like I said, I recognized his hat.
How could you not?
So there's Ted Bertram's four-by
parked about a mile up that way.
Here's his hat, and here's these tracks.
Know what I'm saying?
I mean, look at the size of these tracks.
Mulder, this is Sheriff Lance Hindt.
Wait, watch out... watch out for the tracks.
Careful.
Watch out where you're walking.
Queequeg.
How you doing?
Ansel, why don't you go check the woods.
Today's the day, Sheriff.
I'm going to get him.
Any sign of Ted Bertram?
No, and I'm not jumping to any conclusions either.
Speaking of which, what's this I hear
about you wanting to close the lake?
Just until we figure out what's going on here.
Well, sir, I think I can tell you what's going on.
Same thing goes on every year...
fisherman get drunk, they drown,
folks get run over by a powerboat.
On a lake this size, you're going to have eight, nine deaths
in a season... that's just a statistical fact.
Yeah, but you got two or three in as many weeks.
I'd say you're a little outside of 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,
and for something like that to happen, I mean...
You'd need irrefutable proof.
What about these tracks?
Well, Mulder, a creature as large as the one
that you're looking for would have left
considerably deeper impressions.
Queequeg!
Queequeg, come back here!
Queequeg!
Mulder...
Sheriff, come take a look at this.
What you got?
There's your lake monster, Mulder.
That's what it looks like.
It's all a hoax.
Well, I'll be damned. Sure seems like it.
Yeah, but what happened to the hoaxster?
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.
Lets 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?
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!
Did you see anything move when you were walking?
I don't know.
Well, how about you? Did you see anything?
Neither one of you remember anything?
If this is a hoax, it's quite an elaborate one.
I got zip out of Free Bird and Moon Unit over there.
No telling what they've been smoking.
What's it looking like?
Well, it's hard to tell without an autopsy,
but it looks like propeller damage from a motorboat.
This is a designated boating area.
Yeah, but 20 feet from shore and twice in one day?
Mulder, look at it out there. It's like rush hour.
I think you're ignoring the obvious.
What about Ted Bertram?
For all we know, he stepped in something
and bled into those funny shoes of his.
He's probably so embarrassed right now
that he doesn't even want to show his face.
Oh, is that the psychological approach to crime solving?
He's too embarrassed?
Regardless of what I believe,
there's-there's no hard evidence that it's what you believe.
Okay, Big Blue, you're mine.
Today's the day.
Oh, crap!
Geez!
This roll's been exposed.
Can you get that developed?
- Yes, sir. - Thanks.
That's three in one day, Sheriff.
All this driving from crime scene to crime scene
is giving me highway hypnosis.
Close down the lake.
I done told you once, it ain't that simple.
I just ain't got the manpower.
Furthermore... I'm not at all
convinced we're dealing with an aquatic menace.
He's right, Mulder.
Those two sets of remains we've found so far are inconclusive.
We really need to find this body.
My thoughts exactly, ma'am.
If you'll just give us a couple more minutes...
Sheriff!
You all right, Sheriff?
Are you okay, Sheriff?
Something...
something brushed up against me out there, something big.
- Close the lake. - Right, Sheriff.
Close it down.
I want you to call the state police
and the Wildlife Fish and Game!
You tell them we got an emergency situation!
Looks like Ansel took these during the attack.
I-I agree with you.
I just wish that he gave us something more. I...
Oh... look at this.
Could this be a tooth?
Yeah. It could be a lot of things, Mulder. I...
15 years of fruitless hunting,
and the only thing the guy comes up with
is a blurry picture of the monster's tooth?
Well, there are thousands of pictures here, Scully.
There's got to be some visual evidence somewhere.
Here, go through these.
Mulder, these are just a bunch
of poorly composed tourist shots. There's...
That could be something.
A tooth?
I'm taking Queequeg for a walk.
Want me to come with you?
I'll be fine.
Good night, Mulder.
All right, I'll see you in the morning.
Come on, Queequeg.
Queequeg, we're not going to go into the woods.
Come on, do your business.
I thought you had to go.
Queequeg...
What is it?
Queequeg!
Where are you going?
Queequeg!
Queequeg, come back here!
Queequeg!
Quee... Quee...
Queequ...
I'm sorry about Queequeg.
You know, I think I've learned something
from these photos.
- Mulder... - They're not pictures
of the lake monster, they're pictures of the lake...
locations where the creature's been sighted
over the past several years.
Look at this.
Five years ago, all the sightings occurred
in the center of the lake, but progressively
the sightings have moved closer and closer to shore,
until this year; they're practically on the shore.
Could you repeat the last part again?
I kind of faded out.
Which... which part?
After you said, "I'm sorry."
Can you drive a boat?
It's too bad we're not out here fishing.
We are fishing.
You really expect to find this thing,
don't you, Mulder?
You want to head right... here.
I'll take that as a "yes."
I know the difference between expectation and hope.
Seek and ye shall find, Scully.
You know, on the old mariner's maps,
the cartographers would designate uncharted territories
by writing "here be monsters."
I got a map of New York City just like that.
What was that?
It ain't no bass.
What is that?
What is that, Mulder?
Here be monsters, Scully.
It looks like it's coming straight at us.
Yup, that's what it looks like.
Mayday! Mayday!
Does anybody read me?!
This is a distress call from the Patricia Rae!
G-A-seven-eight- three-eight-two-seven!
Our boat is taking on...
Mayday! Mayday!
Scully, let's get out of here.
There goes our $500 deposit.
I say we swim to shore.
Swim?
Yeah, the shore can't be too far from here.
In which direction?
Yeah, you know, living in the city,
you forget that night is actually so, uh... dark.
Living in the city, you forget a lot of things.
You know, there, you're always thinking about being mugged
or hit by a car.
It's not until you get back to nature until you realize
that everything is out to get you.
That's why my father always taught me to respect nature,
'cause it has no respect for you.
That was him, Scully.
That was Big Blue.
So what if it was?
Mulder, what are we doing here?
What do you mean, "What are we doing here?"
What are you hoping to accomplish?
Scully, so many of the things that we investigate
are so intangible, but this creature...
it exists within the specific earthly confines
of this lake, and I want to find it.
What for?
You're a scientist.
Why do you ask that question?
I mean, it would be a miraculous discovery.
It could revolutionize
evolutionary biological thinking.
Is that really the reason why?
You know when you showed me
those-those pictures that the photographer took?
You want to know what I really saw in them?
A tooth?
No. You.
That man is your future.
Listening only to himself.
Hoping to catch a glimpse of the truth
for who knows what reason.
I did read in his journals that he was hoping
to live off the copyright fees from a genuine Big Blue photo.
Well, as dumb as it sounds,
at least it's a legitimate reason.
You don't think my reasons are legitimate?
Mulder, sometimes I just can't figure them out.
Mulder!
I'm still tempted to fire.
Hey, Scully, do you think
you could ever cannibalize someone?
I mean, if you really had to.
Well, as much as the very idea is abhorrent to me,
I suppose under certain conditions,
a living entity is practically conditioned
to perform whatever extreme measures
are necessary to insure its survival.
I suppose I'm no different.
You've lost some weight recently, haven't you?
Yeah, actually, I have.
Thanks for...
But it is amazing what some animals will do
to guarantee the continuation of the species, isn't it?
I mean, a creature, one of this size,
must have adapted its behavior over the years
to minimize its chances
of being seen by its only predator, us.
Its coming closer to shore for its prey
must be an act of desperation on its part.
Poor Queequeg.
Why did you name the dog Queequeg?
It was the name of the harpoonist in Moby Dick.
My father used to read to me from Moby Dick
when I was a little girl.
I called him Ahab,
and he called me Starbuck.
So I named my dog Queequeg.
It's funny, I just realized something.
It's a bizarre name for a dog, huh?
No.
How much you're like Ahab.
You're so consumed
by your personal vengeance against life,
whether it be its inherent cruelties
or its mysteries,
that everything takes on a warped significance
to fit your megalomaniacal cosmology.
Scully, are you coming on to me?
It's just... the truth or a white whale...
what difference does it make?
Both... both obsessions are impossible to capture,
and trying to do so will only leave you dead,
along with everyone else you bring with you.
You know, Mulder, you are Ahab.
You know, it's interesting you should say that,
because I've always wanted a peg leg.
It's a boyhood thing I never grew out of.
No, I'm not being flippant.
I mean, I've given this a lot of thought.
If you have a peg leg or hooks for hands,
you know, maybe it's enough to simply carry on living,
you know, bravely facing life with your disability.
It's heroic just to survive.
But without these things,
you're actually expected to make something of your life...
achieve something, earn a raise, wear a necktie.
S-So, if anything, I'm actually the antithesis of Ahab,
because if I did have a peg leg,
I'd quite possibly be more happy and more content
and not feel the need
to chase after these creatures of the unknown.
And that's not flippant?
N... No.
Flippant is my favorite line from Moby Dick.
"Hell is an idea first born
on an undigested apple dumpling."
- What was that? - I don't know,
but it ain't no duck.
I thought I heard voices.
What are you two doing out here?
Dr. Farraday?
Hope I'm not interrupting anything.
No, no.
We, uh, we had a little trouble with our boat.
Actually, it sank.
How'd that happen?
It was my fault.
We would have been out here all night
if you hadn't answered our distress call.
Oh, I didn't.
I was walking by; I heard you talking.
"Walking by"?
Yeah. Yeah, the shore is just a stone's throw from here.
Come on.
I'll take you back.
Uh, it was just out of fuel.
The sheriff will be along in a couple minutes.
I'd drive you myself, but I got work to do.
What exactly is it that you're doing out here, Dr. Farraday?
It's well after midnight.
Night is Rana sphenocephala's most active period,
and this is its primary breeding ground.
Or at least it used to be.
Thousands of eggs used to cling to these reeds.
Beautiful jelly clusters.
Now, one must turn over many a leaf
in order to find potential offspring.
What's in the sack?
Adult frogs.
I've been breeding them in captivity
and releasing them into the wild.
This is Striker's Cove?
Mm-hmm.
The frogs.
I beg your pardon?
The unexplained depletion of frogs
originates from this cove.
It's the food chain.
What about it?
The food chain.
If you alter one life-form
in an ecosystem, the rest is necessarily affected
either by an increase or decrease.
So if an aquatic dinosaur's diet consisted primarily of frogs,
then if those frogs suddenly became scarce,
it would have to turn to an alternative food source.
Humans.
Agent Mulder,
you are taking my legitimate research
and basic biological principle
and stretching them both way out of proportion in an effort
to give some kind of validity to an entirely ludicrous theory.
There is no prehistoric lake monster.
This creature lives here
in this cove; that explains the disappearance of these frogs,
for which you have no explanation, Doctor,
ludicrous or not, as well as the recent human attacks.
That's crazy.
If something was living in these waters,
you don't think I would have seen it?
I've been conducting research here for three years.
I'm talking about
a prehistoric animal that's gone unnoticed
for virtually thousands of years.
If it knows how to do anything, it knows how to hide.
They say the Loch Ness monster doesn't even live in the water,
that it lives in the surrounding cliffs.
Maybe Big Blue has an inland habitat
somewhere in the rocks or in this dense forest here.
I have no time for these absurdities.
If you'll excuse me,
I have some amphibians to release.
Well, Captain, what now?
Agent Scully!
Agent Mulder!
There's been another death,
and this time, it does appear to be
some kind of animal attack.
Bit a fisherman's arm clean off.
Where'd this happen?
Other side of the lake, couple of hours ago.
My department has the cooperation of the state police,
plus the full use of all the Wildlife Fish and Game
department vessels.
I got a full-scale water search
already underway.
No, no, we need those men here
searching this cove and these woods.
But I got 30 boats on the water already.
Now, if we're going to kill this thing...
We've got to sweep this cove.
It's here at Striker's Cove.
The boats are searching the area of the latest attack,
and I'm not going to move them.
Now, if you want to waste your time
conducting a search of these woods,
you go right ahead.
I got me a lake monster to catch.
Sheriff...
Agent Mulder and I would appreciate it
if you could spare us two or three of your men
to assist us here.
All right, I'll send them on back.
Thanks.
What was that?
Dr. Farraday.
What happened?
My leg. Something grabbed my leg.
Did you see it?
No.
It came from behind me.
Before I knew it, it had me.
It was shaking me back and forth, then it just let go.
Give me your belt.
I didn't want to believe you.
I think you nicked an artery.
We got to get him to a hospital.
He's losing blood.
Where did it go?
I didn't see it. I didn't see it.
I think I heard...
he went through those reeds there.
Mulder, help is coming.
You take care of him, Scully.
Mulder!
Alligator.
All right, Darren, go ahead.
How's Dr. Farraday?
He'll be fine.
How are you?
I'm fine.
Well, you slew the big white whale, Ahab.
Yeah, but I still don't have that peg leg.
How can you be disappointed?
That alligator would have
gone through the local population
- if you hadn't killed it. - I know.
I guess I just wanted Big Blue to be real.
I guess I see hope in such a possibility.
Well, there's still hope.
That's why these myths and stories have endured.
People want to believe.
I made this!