Craig in his bathroom mirror.
Craig was a sanitation worker living in Newark, New Jersey. He and a friend went into the sewer one day to repair a protective grating that had been damaged by a large tree branch. Craig ventured into the water to retrieve the branch and pull it free while his companion made to return topside to get a new grate, only for Craig to be seized by something beneath the surface of the water and get dragged under.
Resurfacing, Craig shrieked for help, and his co-worker, halfway up the ladder, stopped and clambered back down, rushing to his friend's assistance. He pulled Craig from the water safely, but not before Craig had sustained a vicious bite wound on his upper back.
Later, at the hospital, Craig was being treated by physician Dr. Zenzola and interviewed about the incident by Fox Mulder. He complained about a foul taste in his mouth that wouldn't go away, and Zenzola gave him some chewing hum and assured him the bad taste would eventually go away. In addition, she also gave Craig an injection of antibiotics for anything he may have picked up while immersed in the fetid sewer water.
Questioned by Mulder as to what he thought attacked him, Craig said it could've been a python or a boa constrictor. Mulder and Zenzola were somewhat incredulous, but Craig insisted that people often flushed pet snakes down their toilets when they were babies and they could grow to massive size in the sewer, citing, as an example, an enormous alligator he and his friends had once encountered.
After being given a clean bill of health by Dr. Zenzola, Craig returned home. As he got ready for bed that night, he found the taste in his mouth not only hadn't gone away as the doctor had said, but was actually worse. Desperate to alleviate the bad taste, Craig used an entire tube of toothpaste while brushing his teeth, but found no relief, and to his dismay when he spat the toothpaste out into the sink it was all bloodied.
As he took a shower a few minutes later, Craig suddenly began choking and dribbling blood, and vomited up a fluke worm which had been implanted into his body when the Flukeman bit him in the sewer. The worm escaped down the drain. Although Craig's fate wasn't immediately apparent, Walter Skinner later revealed to Mulder that he'd been found dead in his home.
Background Information[]
- Craig is credited simply as "First Workman," however his name is given in the episode when his co-worker in the sewer yells it while trying to pull him to safety.
- How Craig died isn't revealed. He's alive when he throws up the worm and isn't shown dying, but nonetheless is said to have died later on. It's possible he suffered internal injuries from the parasite (judging from the amount of blood he also spits up), or possibly shock, or possibly a combination of the two.
Appearances[]
- "The Host"