I just erased my fill-in, since this is in my 1897 tape gap and I really don't know what's going on...
No one really needs to know what's actually happening in the captures. In fact, it's much better if one ignores what's actually happening and goes with something completely out of their own imagination. Well, so long as it doesn't jump the gun with something that hasn't happened on the show at the point the ep the capture was taken from takes place. But if one is ignoring the actual storylines, then chances are very good that something like that isn't going to happen.
Quentin could have briefly turned into a magical aardvark capable of assuming human form, or a living shape-shifting toilet plunger from Hell
So in other words, either or both of your ideas could have worked as to why B & Q were horrified because both completely sprang from your own imagination - and neither conflicts with actual story.