| "War of the Coprophages" | |||
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| The X-Files episode | |||
A roach being inspected |
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| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 12 |
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| Directed by | Kim Manners | ||
| Written by | Darin Morgan | ||
| Production code | 3X12 | ||
| Original air date | January 5, 1996 | ||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of season 3 episodes List of The X-Files episodes |
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"War of the Coprophages" is the twelfth episode of the third season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on January 5, 1996. It was written by Darin Morgan, and directed by Kim Manners. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Teso Dos Bichos" earned a Nielsen household rating of 10.1, being watched by 16.32 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics. The title is a reference to the Orson Welles radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds.
In this episode, FBI special agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) investigates a small town plagued by deaths in which the bodies are found covered in cockroaches. Working from home, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) has scientific explanations for all of them but Mulder — at the crime scene with an attractive bug expert — suspects the insects may not be organic, or earthly.
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An exterminator comes to a Dr. Eckerle's house to kill cockroaches, but clutches his heart and collapses. Later Eckerle finds the exterminator's body, with cockroaches crawling over him. Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is coincidentally nearby, investigating a series of colored lights that have appeared in the sky. Mulder talks to partner Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who is at her home with her dog Queequeg. Two other deaths have been reported, causing people to believe cockroaches are behind them. Nearby a trio of teenagers drink beer and huff methane generated by filtering fumes from burnt manure. One of them sees a roach crawl underneath his skin. Trying to get rid of it, he slices himself to death with a razor. Scully provides Mulder with a logical explanation (that this is a case of Ekbom syndrome or delusional parasitosis) but he finds a cockroach on the ground. Later, another death occurs when the medical examiner is found dead, also covered with cockroaches. Scully attributes his death to cerebral aneurysm.
Mulder goes to a local government facility when the town sheriff theorizes about whether the government has been breeding killer cockroaches. Inside he sees the walls rippling and is surprised by Dr. Bambi Berenbaum, a USDA researcher who is studying cockroaches. Berenbaum has great interest in insects and believes that UFOs are actually nocturnal insect swarms. Yet another death occurs in Mulder's hotel. By this point Mulder believes Scully's theories about the people dying more logical deaths, although now it is Scully who is wondering what is going on and decides to head up there herself.
Mulder brings a cockroach he finds to Berenbaum, who thinks it may be mechanical. Mulder visits the nearby Dr. Ivanov, a wheelchair-using scientist who works on insect-like robots, and renders the man speechless- informing Mulder that the specimen is, technology-wise, vastly superior to anything he's ever seen before. Scully soon arrives in the town, finding it overrun with panic over the roaches. Scully's attempts to get people to calm down fail. Mulder catches another roach to bring to Berenbaum, but this time it is a seemingly normal cockroach. Scully finds out that Eckerle was researching methane and importing animal dung, which may have brought the roaches over.
Mulder goes with Berenbaum to see Eckerle at a facility, who is overrun with fear, pulling a gun on him. Scully arrives on the scene and meets Berenbaum. When Mulder's phone rings Eckerle shoots at Mulder, releasing methane gas. The agents flee as the facility explodes, covering them in the animal dung. Dr. Ivanov arrives and meets Berenbaum, and the two leave with each other discussing their interests in insects and robots. That night Mulder writes his report on the case, wondering how humanity would react if insect-like robots visited Earth. Mulder finds a bizarre looking bug by his food, which he crushes with an X-File.[1]
Writer Darin Morgan was inspired to write the episode when he saw a cover of a magazine featuring insect like robots created by robotist Rodney Brooks. He also wanted to do an episode featuring mass hysteria, like War of the Worlds.[2] A famous case of hysteria from the 1930s was planned to be discussed by the sheriff during the episode, but was cut due to time.[3] The show's animal trainer, Debbie Cove, used around four hundred cockroaches for this episode.[2]
At approximately 32:20 a cockroach crawls across the screen, independent of the happenings of the greater scene at hand.[4]
The town this episode takes place in, Miller's Grove, is a reference to Grover's Mill from Orson Welles's broadcast of The War of the Worlds.[5] In this episode Dana Scully reads the book Breakfast at Tiffany's, a reference to David Duchovny's Final Jeopardy! question when he appeared on Jeopardy![6]
"War of the Coprophages" premiered on the Fox network on January 5, 1996.[7] This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 10.1, with a 16 share, meaning that roughly 10.1 percent of all television-equipped households, and 16 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 16.32 million households.[8]
The episode received positive reviews from critics. Entertainment Weekly gave "War of the Coprophages" an A-, and wrote, "Irreverent camp that's infested with laughs (and creepy-crawlies) but throws credibility out the window."[9] Reviewer Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A and compared it to the previously Morgan-penned "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", writing, "So! This is the second Darin Morgan episode I've had to write about, and once again, I'm not sure I've done it justice. [...] The comedy here can be broad, but there's always enough self-aware commentary buried in it that it never becomes simplistic. While "Bruckman" dealt with the misery of knowing all the answers, "Coprophages" looks at how easy it is to convince yourself you know what's going on, even when you don't. It'd be better to believe in a bunch of bugs from outer space coming down to earth to mess with our minds, than it would be to accept the more likely truth that bugs like shit--and around here, there's always plenty to go around. "[10] Critical Myth's John Keegan gave the episode an 8/10 and praised the episode's self-parodying style, saying, "Overall, this episode was a rare self-contained parody, well written by Darin Morgan. By standing on its own outside of continuity, the episode gives itself plenty of room to send-up the series premise and its early internet fandom. There’s no real sense of resolution, but that’s really incidental to the point of the parody."[11] Author Phil Farrand rated the episode as his second favorite episode of the first four seasons in his book 'The Nitpickers Guide to the X-Files.'[12]
The cast and the crew of the show enjoyed the episode, for the most part. Co-producer Paul Rabwin said that the episode had some of the funniest material in The X-Files as well as some of the most horrific, such as the scene where a cockroach crawled into someone's arm.[13] Gillian Anderson rated the episode one of her favorite episodes of the third season.[3] On a more negative note, writer Darin Morgan ended up being unhappy with the final product, saying "The other day my girlfriend was saying, 'I never understood that episode,' and I guess I don't either. It was an episode that had a lot of what I thought were really good ideas and never quite got it to work. I was really disappointed with that episode. Some people love it.[14]