User Reviews

Agua Mala is an episode that had a lot of potential but fails in some aspects.

It starts out with a super scary teaser with the mom and the son frantically trying to protect themselves from a yet unknown assailant. They are then attacked by some tentacled monster. It had the perfect setup to be a truly terrifying classic X-Files episode. However, it gets laced with too much humor.

The X-Files excels when it has a scary premise interspersed with some subtle humor, usually consisting of witty one-liners by Mulder or some funny dialogue between Mulder and Scully. But, in Agua Mala, writer David Amann wanted to make every guest character funny, from the bumbling deputy to the gun-toting patriot. This episode could've been so much better had it just concentrated on the already frightful premise of the sea monster and left the humor behind.

Besides the great teaser and the frightening premise I also liked how the episode sprinkled clues to the solution of the sea monster throughout the episode, beginning in the teaser. It kind of makes the viewer the detective. I also thought the crew did a good job at recreating a Floridian hurricane.

Darren McGavin does a fine job returning to his role as Arthur Dales.

The ending was very abrupt to me. Mulder is struggling in the hallway, the sea monster bursts out of the ceiling light, George shoots at it, and then....storm over, different scene. Everything is okay. The conclusion is resolved through exposition instead of action. It's almost as if they ran out of time for the episode and had to wrap it up quickly. I don't like how they did that.

Agua Mala is still an entertaining episode and I enjoy it a lot. However, the too frequent humorous lines dampens what could've a truly horrifying classic x-files.

Translated literally, 'Aqua Mala' means 'Bad Water', and there might have been something in the water that makes this a less than satisfactory episode of the X-Files. As a stand alone, not so bad I guess, but compared to the usual high standards of the series, I think this one falls a little short.

Two immediate thoughts come to mind where the writing missed the boat (sorry, bad pun) right from the very start. Considering that Arthur Dales (Darren McGavin) left a message on Mulder's phone with Hurricane Leroy in progress, and the fact that Scully and Mulder SOMEHOW found a way to get to Goodland, Florida with the hurricane still at full tilt, it begs the question - how long did that hurricane last and how the heck did they get there? The agents had to book the flight, get down there, rent a car, make it through all the turmoil, and still arrived getting trashed by the wind and rain. It didn't make too much sense to me.

But the other 'error' is a little more obvious. When Scully and Mulder enter the Shipley home, Mulder comments on how it was boarded up against the storm, and wondered how the Shipley's got out from the inside. As he says this, the door they used to enter is wide open behind him! Sort of makes him look foolish, maybe the situation wasn't paranormal enough.

As far as the 'sea monster' idea goes, I don't know, the premise that it could have back-washed into the Shipley home via a system of storm drains is plausible enough, but the execution seemed kind of weak. The creature's attack on Mulder wasn't handled very well; he manages to escape the tentacle but we're given no idea how. Then that scene with the cat, with Mulder giving it a knowing type of look had resonance only for that moment. It didn't amount to anything at all, so one has to wonder what that was all about.

But I will say this. As usual, the episode threw in some cultural references that I always get a kick out of. The paramilitary guy George Vincent (Jeremy Roberts) had a movie poster of "The Great Escape" in his apartment, a subtle reference for everyone caught in the hurricane to get the heck out of Dodge. And goofy Deputy Greer (Joel McKinnon Miller) was driving patrol car number fifty four. I don't know about you, but it would have been cool if a dispatcher at some point posed the question "Car 54, Where are you?"

In "Aqua Mala" Mulder and Scully end up a monster that can get you anywhere even while your sitting on the head. Really. It's a very good monster-on-the-loose episode of "The X-Files". Arthur Dales (the late great Darren McGavin) returns in this episode. He expresses concern for his daughter and son-in-law who have disappeared during a hurricane in Florida. He's been monitoring the police bands and he believes that some sort of creature is at work taking inhabitants during the storm. He calls Mulder for his help when the police treat him like a crackpot. Mulder suspects that it's something that was driven into the sewer system by the storm but he and Scully find something much more dangerous and sinister than they could possibly have imagined...

Well directed "Aqua Mala" is a suspenseful episode with a lot of good humor in it as well. Although the conclusion seems a bit rushed the episode works still works due to sharp direction, witty writing and strong performances from the regular and guest cast. My only complaint is that Dales doesn't seem very upset at the conclusion of the episode (you'll know why when you see the episode)and clearly some scenes were left on the cutting room floor explaining the outcome of this episode.

This was McGavin's last appearance on "The X-Files" as Dales. When McGavin's wife passed away he wasn't able to make his third appearance in the episode "The Unnatural" and so veteran character actor M. Emmett Walsh stepped in to play the role in a very "X-Files" twist. Although writer/actor Duchovny's "The Unnatural" is a bit heavy handed at times with its message, it's still a delightful episode as well.

Agua Mala is a pretty good episode if you can look past the fact that almost every single element has been done before. While I like Arthur Dales, it seemed like they were trying a little too hard to integrate him into the show. First with Travelers in the Season 5 and then not one but TWO episodes in season 6. Now Travelers was cool to see him because we got a lot of history about the x-files pre-mulder. And in The Unnatural we do get a different actor playing a different Arthur Dales although this was only because the actor that played him previously passed away. But Agua Mala seemed kind of pointless to have him in it. Anyway enough about that. You also have the isolated Mulder gets exiled from group and Scully has to save the day scenario like we got in Ice, Firewalker, I think there are others but those are the only ones that immediately come to mind. It was just the same story over again with a different monster. The idea of the monster was interesting but not overly creepy or hard to figure out. Also, even though I was able to figure out pretty quick that the creature lived in salt water and died in fresh water, how did that family figure it out so quick? I figured it out because of on screen hints like focusing on the Epson Salt. But how is it that the first victim's in all of these shows always seem to know EVERYTHING about the monster but still get killed and the main characters who know NOTHING about the monster get lucky and figure it out at just the right moment and are able to save the day in three seconds? I guess the episode really isn't all that bad. I love the character of the pregnant woman. She is so hilarious. "Oh, well its great to be surrounded by so many wonderful men!" I give the episode a 5 out of 10.