In the fourteenth episode of the second season of Star Trek, Scotty is suspected of murder over and over again, and then we get ONE OF THE MOST RIDICULOUS PLOT TWISTS I’VE EVER SEEN. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
Trigger Warning: For discussion of sexism, murder, racism/orientalism, and consent.
Sweet mother of gods, what the hell. There are three distinct parts to “Wolf in the Fold,” a wildly entertaining hour of Star Trek, and the show manages to move between them with ease. It’s the kind of episode that is just so strange that it works? I don’t know how else to describe it! BUT WE SHALL DISCUSS IT BECAUSE I HAVE THINGS TO SAY.
Murder Mystery
The first third of “Wolf in the Fold” focuses entirely on the bizarre coincidence that follows Scotty around. That coincidence happens to be HIM STANDING OVER A RECENTLY MURDERED WOMAN. Understandably so, it’s upsetting and frightening. I enjoyed that there was so much emphasis placed on the difficulty that Captain Kirk was in because it gave us the context to understand why he was so insistent on working with the Argelians. I think that this is the first time we’ve heard the characters vocalize the fact that they have to abide by the laws of the place they’re in, and that’s why Kirk doesn’t just whisk Scotty away on the Enterprise. Of course, there’s also the dawning horror that Scotty might actually have killed all the women, too. IT’S VERY UPSETTING.
I’m thankful that this aspect of the story was front-and-center, including a fantastic performance from James Doohan, because there were some egregiously uncomfortable aspects to “Wolf in the Fold” that were impossible to ignore. I am certain at this point that I am not saying a single thing that hasn’t already been stated before, so I’m not going to pretend like this is revolutionary or anything. But holy sexism and Orientalism. Every single character who is a recurring woman is gone from this episode, highlighting how often women are either sexually objectified or fridged for the plot. It’s a bad slasher combined with this whole boys’ club mentality, and it’s absurd. It’s not even something you have to look terribly hard to see! It’s right there! On top of it, you’ve got this vaguely Middle Eastern society who are “hedonistic” and massively sexualized, and it’s super uncomfortable to watch.
Obviously, one of the worst aspects of “Wolf in the Fold” is Spock’s explanation for the Redjac entity. I mean, you can’t possibly read that statement any other way. Women are more susceptible to terror? Oh my god, y’all, cut the power during the Super Bowl and watch the terror spread across the faces of men. (I’ve seen it happen. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW CLOSE TO PURE HORROR I’VE BEEN.) It’s a ludicrous statement, made all the worse by how callous women are treated by the rest of the story.
Court Proceedings
It’s not that what happens in the rest of the episode excuses these missteps. Everyone has a different tolerance level for this shit, and I imagine that some of you might not have even been able to make it through this. But I did, and I think that for all the shit that’s very easy to criticize, there’s also some neat shit going on here. Like I mentioned before, the story moves effortlessly between three different genres, and as Kirk has to accept that Scotty may actually have killed both Kara, Lt. Tracy, and Sybo, we go from a murder mystery to a court drama.
Now, the show has historically given us quite a few of these court martial scenes, but this one felt unlike the others. Part of that comes from one ludicrous invention: the computer’s ability to read memories and recount them. OKAY, THEY’VE HAD THIS FOR YEARS AND ONLY JUST USED IT NOW??? It’s not like the computer was introduced in this episode, and it’s not like the computer was totally useless before. I like what comes from this scene, but that is one of the most convenient inventions by the writers that this show has ever given us. Still, I liked that I got to try and figure out what was going on while watching that long sequence. It’s not that I suspected that Scotty was guilty. Given the nature of storytelling on this show, I figured that this would be resolved positively by the end of the episode. But after Sybo’s death, I just had to know how the hell it was possible that someone killed her so quickly and could implicated Scotty in the process.
So! That’s one of the reasons the interrogation scene is so fun. As Scotty and Morla both take the stand and we find out that neither one has been lying about their involvement, I WAS VERY CONFUSED. I mean, I had pegged Morla as the killer! He had all the motivation, given that jealousy was considered socially repugnant to Argelians. And his face looked guilty. IT TOTALLY DID.
But I was so wrong and THERE IS NO WAY I COULD HAVE GUESSED THIS.
Monster Hunting
Y’all, when Sybo spoke about a creature that hated women, I thought she was speaking literally. You know, about a misogynist. But nope, she meant a living creature who fed off fear. I admit that the details of the Redjac entity confuse me, and I really could have used some confirmation here that it possessed people. I suppose we do see it possess Jarvis, and we know Jarvis survives the process, but what happened to Hengist? Did Captain Kirk sacrifice him? I recall that Bones said he died (from a kick????), but why did the Redjac entity have Hengist’s voice? How could the creature then possess a dead body if Hengist had died earlier in the episode?
It’s very strange, and I think I would have felt better about the third part of “Wolf in the Fold” had I known exactly what went on here. Still, there are a number of neat things that the writers do here, namely creating a bizarrely humorous scenario where the entire crew is given a sedative that makes them all the giddiest people in all of history. It’s a brilliant juxtaposition with the darker aspects of Redjac’s history, given that Captain Kirk and Spock are dealing with an entity responsible for countless murders of women across space and time. Plus, it’s one of the few times that Kirk decides not to keep his crew fully informed on what’s going on. Now that is fascinating to me because he’s generally a fairly transparent captain, but he chooses to keep his crew in the dark specifically so that they don’t provide Redjac with any terror to feed off of. It’s a rare moment!
I think there are a number of good ideas here, though they’re not all fleshed out as much as they should be. It makes it easier to see the many flaws of “Wolf in the Fold.” And lord, there’s a lot. But I did have a good time watching this and I won’t apologize for saying that the actor who played Hengist looked like Joss Whedon because HE TOTALLY DID, OKAY.
The video for “Wolf in the Fold” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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