#CSM episode 3

[emmyrosee]

To watch blue lock…. Or write… or finish Chainsaw Man without my girlies knowing….

[beesarthur]

Where in the world were Mulder and Scully?

I'm sure someone else has already made this list, but I've decided to keep track of how many U.S. states (and DC) (and Puerto Rico) Mulder and Scully investigate an incident in. Not counting other locations where part of the incident happens but Mulder and Scully never go to (like England in 1:12). (edited 3/27/24 after watching 2:19) This started as a list of US states and I continue to be interested in counting US states and territories, but the time has come to set up the list for other locations as well. This list includes places that Mulder and/or Scully go to during the episode to investigate a case. Action in DC that is not related to a case in DC does not count. If the action is in DC and spills over to Maryland and/or Virginia, I just count DC, but if the thing starts in VA and then things also happen in DC, I count both. I don't know, it's not an exact science, and the DC area is fluid to me. So far we have...

US States & Territories:

Oregon (1:1, 7:22)

Idaho (1:2, 2:18, 7:10)

Maryland (1:3, 1:15, 1:21, 1:24, 2:16, 2:17, 3:7, 3:16, 3:23, 4:8, 4:9, 4:16, 4:21, 5:3, FtF, 6:6, 6:12, 7:4)

Iowa (1:4)

New Jersey (1:5, 2:2)

Pennsylvania (1:6, 2:3, 2:16, 3:9, 4:2, 4:3, 4:12, 4:13, 4:14, 5:13, 5:14, 5:18, 7:15)

Virginia (1:7, 2:5, 2:6, 2:21, 2:22, 2:23, 3:7, 3:17, 3:24, 4:8, 4:10, 4:16, 4:21, 4:24, 5:1, 5:11, 5:13, 5:17, FtF, 6:7, 6:11, 6:18, 7:4, 7:5, 7:15)

Alaska (1:8, 2:17)

Texas (1:9, 5:12, FtF)

Wisconsin (1:10, 2:10)

Connecticut (1:11, 2:4)

California (1:11, 2:7, 3:15, 3:19, 4:11, 5:6, 5:7, 6:2, 6:15, 6:16, 7:3, 7:8, 7:10, 7:11, 7:12, 7:13, 7:14, 7:19)

Massachusetts (1:12, 1:14, 2:11, 2:16, 3:12, 3:18, 4:10, 4:19)

North Carolina (1:13, 2:15, 6:21, 7:18)

Washington, DC (1:16, 2:8, 2:21, 3:14, 3:16, 3:21, 4:16, 4:22, 4:24, 5:1, 5:2, 5:11, 5:18, 6:9, 6:14, 6:22, 7:1, 7:2, 7:7, 7:17, 7:19)

Tennessee (1:17, 1:18, 4:5, 7:9)

Washington State (1:17, 1:20, 1:23, 2:9, 3:8, 3:20)

Montana (1:19)

New York (1:22, 2:4, 2:16, 3:16, 4:3, 4:8, 4:9, 4:15, 4:17, 4:18, 6:10)

Puerto Rico (2:1)

Missouri (2:12, 7:21)

Nebraska (2:12)

Minnesota (2:13, 3:4)

New Hampshire (2:14, 3:13)

Florida (2:20, 3:5, 4:9, 5:4, 6:13, 7:4)

Arkansas (2:24)

New Mexico (2:25, 3:1, 6:22)

West Virginia (3:2, 3:9, 3:10, 4:20)

Oklahoma (3:3)

Ohio (3:6, 3:11, 5:18)

North Dakota (3:16)

Georgia (3:22)

Rhode Island (3:24, 4:1, 4:23)

Michigan (4:4, 5:9)

Illinois (4:6, 4:19, 7:6, 7:7)

South Carolina (only Skinner 4:21)

Indiana (5:5)

Maine (5:10)

Delaware (5:16, 5:18)

Arizona (6:1)

Nevada (6:2, 6:4, 6:5, 6:20)

Kansas (6:8, 7:20)

Mississippi (6:17)

Vermont (7:16)

Places Outside the US:

Norway (2:19)

Hong Kong (3:15)

Canada (Alberta - 4:1, 4:9; Yukon - 4:24)

Russia (4:8; 4:9)

Antarctica (FtF)

Sargasso Sea (6:3)

Côte d'Ivoire (6:22, 7:1)

[cecilysass]

When I Think About You, I Touchstone Myself: Fic Recs for the Biogenesis/ Sixth Extinction/ Amor Fati trilogy

I thought it was time to do some fic fixes for these important episodes for a few reasons.

First, Amor Fati is an episode I can’t ever stay away from; I both love it and have big issues with it. I love the tribute to Last Temptation of Christ, a film I admire, but I also find the identification of Mulder as a Christ figure to be problematic, or at least to raise questions the show doesn’t really address. I love the touchstone speech and the boy on the beach sequence; I find a lot of the real-life dialogue (e.g. between CSM and Diana) to be clunky.

And honestly, I find it kind of irritating that Diana's death happened off screen, too. Deep Throat, Spender, X, CSM, Well-Manicured Man, Blevins — their deaths were all dramatized onscreen, so it seems weird that Diana’s was not, doesn’t it? Anticlimactic and odd. To me, it's the straw that broke the camel's back for the Diana arc, really raising the question of whether she was ever really written intending to be an important character to the mytharc plot at all ... or whether she just really was a cardboard cutout character there to generate jealousy.

But I digress. What I mean to to say is: I always want to talk more about Amor Fati.

Second, I particularly enjoy me some psychic Mulder fic, and there are some great examples below. How well does he read minds? Does he read Scully’s? Her every thought? How long does it last? Readers want to know.

Finally, if you believe season 7 was the season of secret sex, or even if you just hold to season 7 as the “sometime consummated” season, these 3 eps have to be a crucial turning point. Some people maintain that Mulder got the affirmation to move ahead with MSR when he heard Scully's thoughts. Possibly. Either way, though, by the end, through the events of Amor Fati, they both validate the other’s point of view in a way we don't really see before. Plus, you know, maybe you heard? They’re one another’s touchstones. So this is a crucial MSR trilogy, too.

So I have a (NO DOUBT INCOMPETE) selection of fic recs below. I’m mixing up the fic recs for all three episodes, but I try to note if a fic is really more about one ep than another.

Fic Recs:

Before the White Noise - Nimz12peekaboo Scully goes to see Mulder inside his padded cell in Biogenesis. This is sweet and canon-attentive, if not quite compliant.

A Less Certain World - Sarah Segretti This is really only post-Biogenesis and goes AU after that; it’s the author’s AU Sixth Extinction, I suppose. Mulder is much more affected by the trauma to his brain and body than in the show, and Scully is scared for him. Amazing fic.

Temporary Shelter - Gwendolyn Also a Biogenesis post-ep, this fic imagines that Scully springs psychic Mulder from the hospital and then takes him back with her to the Ivory Coast. They stay in a cabin (with only one bed!) that was once occupied by another couple affected by the artifact. This is rich in plot (and in MSR.)

Stunned - Vickie Moseley This is, by description, what happens in the commercial breaks in Biogenesis. And let's just say that it’s kind of a lot. This fic focuses on Scully coming to calm Mulder down at the hospital, on their trust between one another. There is a little Diana wrap up, too.

All the Places - Ambress A lovely, lovely take on Mulder’s ability to read minds. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Out of Our Minds - Sarah Segretti and haphazard method This is specifically post-Biogenesis, written before season 7 began. It focuses on the rather realistic idea that Scully would be freaked the fuck out by Mulder being able to read her mind—like, existentially freaked out. Both characters’ POV here; both characters have your sympathy; angsty and extremely true to character.

Disonance - suilven This piece is kind of a classic in my own little personal world. It just such a satisfying concept. It delightfully doesn’t take the canon implications of Mulder’s telepathy seriously, like, at all, which is why we love fanfic. Mulder, Scully, and Diana get stuck on an elevator just as Mulder’s starting to realize he can read minds. Delicious set-up.

the things they say in the dark - MonikaFileFan Missing scenes for Amor Fati, this piece helps us see the two moving closer and closer together while still having the invisible line between them. There is hurt/comfort here with Scully caring for Mulder, and a little light mind reading. So sweet and well done.

how to tell your lover you’ve seen all their secret gardens - 0666666 While Scully is taking care of Mulder after the events of Amor Fati, he tries to think of how to tell her he heard her thoughts. Very good.

Woven Deep by Maureen B. Ocks This is a really smart little Amor Fati post-ep with sharp dialogue / banter throughout. Mulder is in recovery, and they have a chance to talk about his experiences. It’s Mulder POV, but Scully is written very well here.

up and down the east coast by skuls When he’s still supposed to be recovering from Amor Fati events, Mulder asks Scully to go on a road trip to look for Sasquatch. She agrees. This one isn’t about psychic Mulder so much as the little guarded steps the two take towards acknowledging their feelings. Extremely sweet.

Synesthesia by haphazard method On a case shortly after the events of Amor Fati, Scully is still coming to terms with the role she plays in their partnership. An excellent conversation.

Petrichor by Aloysia Virgata. A lovely gem, a fandom classic. A one-chapter case file set directly after Amor Fati. Mulder and Scully’s relationship is offkilter and unsettled; Mulder is troubled by dreams with messages from a familiar ghost; the plot riffs on Anglo-Irish folklore. The spot-on banter and exquisite writing one expects from this author.

Eli Eli by Marguerite Mulder is recovering physically post-Amor Fati while Scully tries to cope with the crisis of faith her experiences in the Ivory Coast provoked in her. Skinner sends them to a beach house in Galveston to rest and heal.

Silence Waiting by JET Scully is struggling to cope with the implications of what she saw in Africa as Mulder heals and worries about her. This is intercut with the story of another telepath, Gretta, who grows up only reading the thoughts of one boy in her town, Frederick. This fic is lovely in every way and makes me weep.

The Boy on the Beach - me me (cecilysass) Yeah, I include my own fic. I just know it best, you know, lol? I include this one specifically for this theme because it was really written in part to engage with Amor Fati, specifically with the implications of Mulder’s Last Temptation of Christ-inspired dream sequence. But I'm the author, so you know, grain of salt.

Let me know what I missed!

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

my favorite scully and mulder moments from s5

in episode 1, mulder sneakily enters scully's apartment. he sits in the dark in silence; as she gets undressed for bed, he says “keep going, FBI woman”, which only slightly surprises her (her face is shocked, but she doesn't yell; just asks "mulder? what are you doing? why are you sitting in my bedroom in the dark?" which is an incredibly reasonable question! he tells her that he killed a man, and she thinks he is joking, so he clarifies that he isn't)

scully waking up in the hospital bed in episode 2 to mulder by her side- she’s worried someone will see him as they just spent a good amount of time faking his death, but he smiles, grabs her hand, sits on the bed, and kisses her cheek, saying “i’m officially among the undead” (WAHHHH)

(and when she is so worried about how he will have to confess everything, including killing that guy, he does his best to prevent her from dwelling on it- “hey scully, how about those yankees?”)

how she very seriously warns him that skinner is the guy on the inside, and he’s touching her face, saying no, he’s not; mulder knows that skinner made the deal with CSM, but she doesn't know he risked his career and life to save her

and then she offers to take the fall for shooting that guy, saying “mulder, if i can’t save you, let me at least give some meaning to what’s happened to me” (tears. TEARS)

(and when her family arrives to visit her in the hospital, he says he was just leaving, giving her one last kiss on the hand before heading out)

mulder coming by her bedside again after considering taking CSM’s deal to join the dark side, but ultimately refusing: “then why’d you come here if you’d already made up your mind?” she asks, and he laughs: “because i knew you’d talk me out of it if i was making a mistake” (the total trust they have in each other......)

when mulder leaves for his big hearing, she tells him that he’ll be in her prayers (and he kisses her cheek once more, telling her to ask the “father to say a few hail mulders for me, okay?”)

(she is literally laying in bed dying, and despite him never understanding her beliefs and her having, you know, imminent death on her own doorstep, she talks to god about him. intervening with the creator on his behalf. and he, instead of being dismissive of religion like he usually is, accepts the help with a joke and a kiss on the cheek... i feel like i could write a poem on the subject and my emotions still wouldn't be fully expressed)

they’re in the car on the way to a team building seminar in episode 4, and mulder leans over to scully, asking her to please kill him now

however, she immediately realizes he's come up with a new plan to get out of the whole thing by investigating a case: “you want me to tell them that you’re not going to make it to this year’s teamwork seminar?” (he grabs her shoulders, bending over a little to meet her eye level) “yeah. you see that? we don’t need that conference. we have communication like that, unspoken. you know what i’m thinking”

scully trying to start a fire to keep him warm after his body goes into shock- she asks if he has ever thought about dying, saying she was angry while she was sick, and talking about the struggle to give suffering meaning. and then after he makes some joke to get her laughing, she picks up him, placing his head in her lap (“i don’t wanna wrestle”, he mumbles, to which she replies “get over here. i’m trying to keep you warm”)

he asks her to sing as they cuddle, so he can know that she is awake and keeping watch. and then when she indulges him, his whiny ass requests the chorus, too <3

when he wakes up he is so scared to see that she isn’t there, but she was just getting some berries LMAO

mutual roasting in episode 5; she says she thinks the townspeople are so bored and obsessed with what they see on TV that they’re imagining a monster, to which he responds “i am alarmed that you would reduce these people to a cultural stereotype”; when he is spouting frankenstein comparisons to the case, she hits him with the “mulder, i’m alarmed you would reduce this man to a literary stereotype” <- they were having a nerd off!!!

“given the power, who could resist to create life in his own image?” “we already have that ability, mulder; it’s called procreation”

and the famous black and white dancing scene to cher music <3

in episode 7, mulder offers to stay with her while emily is dying, rubbing her back as he says so. but she says she wants to do this alone, so he walks away, and she climbs into emily’s bed

and at the funeral, when scully’s mother asks her if she is ready to go, she says she will stay a little while longer and get a ride back with mulder. soon after, she asks “who are the men who would create a life whose only hope is to die?”, and he answers “i don’t know. but that you found her… and you had a chance to love her… maybe she was meant for that, too” (doing his best to find the meaning in the suffering like they talked about in episode 4, because he knows she finds it incredibly difficult... yeah. and her choosing to spend more time with him than to go home and be with her family... whew)

scully refusing to let mulder fall for pusher’s tricks in episode 8, telling him to hang up the phone before he gets sucked into his games

linda bowman uses the same ability to push her will onto others to convince mulder that scully shot herself. he sees scully, begging him to make her stop, before she shoots herself and collapses. he screams, and imagines himself cradling her head. and when the real scully is in front of him, the mind tricks make mulder think that she is linda, so scully has to try and prove it is really her (“you killed her!” “your mother is tina. your sister is samantha. modell warned you- don’t play her game”). scully has enough time to save the day by shooting linda, and by the time he realizes it really is scully standing in front of him, she gently grabs his arm, calling for an ambulance. the terror of it all. and the loyalty that can inspire such terror...

in episode 9, she tries to explain how it would be physically possible for someone to swallow pounds of dirt, and he just smiles at her; “well… you asked me for answers. those are the best ones i’ve got” <-and listen, after his endless ghost and ghoul explanations, i think your lungs to dirt ratio sounds perfectly reasonable, scully

mulder also decides to dig up a grave in that episode, while scully warns him anything he finds will not be admissible in court. isn’t that just so Them? she’s not gonna stop him, but she will make sure he knows what they can and cannot use as evidence.

“i don’t think this was an act of grave robbing, scully” “no, that’s what we were doing” <- LMAO COME ON….

(there’s also a scene at the very end where mulder is stuck in endless mud and you can see scully helping him up, which greatly warmed my heart)

episode 10’s whole dynamic while scully is on vacation and he is back at the office, but especially this exchange over the phone:

“no, i don’t think it's witchcraft, mulder, or sorcery”

“yeah, well, maybe you don’t know what you’re looking for”

“like evidence of conjury or the black arts, or shamanism, divination, wicca, or any kind of pagan or neo-pagan practice? charms, cards, familiars, bloodstones or hex sins, or any of the ritual tableaux associated with the occult, santeria, vodoun, macumba, or any high or low magic?”

“scully?” “yes?” “marry me” “i was hoping for something a little more helpful” (i watched this scene 3 times because there was SO much to adore, including how serious his face was)

she finds him trapped inside an AI torture chamber in episode 11, and pulls him out, mumbling “you’re going to be okay, i’m going to get you out of here”, dragging his limp body to safety

scully walks into their office, where mulder is sitting, at the start of episode 12: “mulder…” “DON’T. don’t even start with me”

scully describing him as “characteristically exuberant” (“hope you brought your cowboy boots! yeehaw!") as she recounts what happened, and him describing her as “less than exuberant” (“well, obviously it’s not a vampire” “why not?” “because they don’t exist?”)

when scully tells mulder not to rule out what cassandra spender has to say in episode 13, she says the words slowly and carefully, and they lock eyes as he nods, recognizing the significance of the moment in terms of her own beliefs

when scully is in the hospital after the explosion in episode 14, mulder wakes her up by running his fingers through her hair, then giving her the gentlest smile; she asks what time it is, and he laughs- but this makes her self-conscious, so he explains “i’m not laughing at you. i’m just very happy to be standing here talking to you, that’s all” (screaming. btw)

(he then raises her bed a little so they can look at each other while he explains what happened, but a nurse shoos him away, saying she needs rest; he leaves with a thumbs up despite her yelling after him)

“the truth i’ve been searching for? the truth is in you” <- man hold on. hold on, man. MAN-

scully undergoing regression hypnotherapy to remember what happened to her during the explosion. mulder is sitting on the couch next to her, looking terrified as she screams. and despite not being fully present as she recalls the horrors, she taps at his hand next to hers on the couch, wordlessly asking him to hold it. when she comes to, she’s panting, and asks if he was there the whole time. he nods

and later they hold hands in the back of a cop car as they get taken to jail <3

scully breaking into mulder’s motel room while he is undercover in episode 18; he screams at her to get out, and denies being undercover, even though skinner told her everything. she stops his yelling with a breathy “oh, mulder, what did they do to you?”, and sets his poor broken fingers as he winces

(and then she is able to recognize him on the tape of the bank heist despite being masked because of his fingers <3)

then they jointly scream in the CIA guy’s face because they realize he was testing bioweapons and killing civilians… synchronized rage looks good on them

mulder decides to go by himself to investigate the mysterious manifesto in episode 19. not even a minute after he walks out of the door from where he was questioning a witness, he calls her to ask her to look through all of the x files, searching for a specific phrase, which she finds. and then we get to hear him say “scully, at the risk of you telling me i told you so, i think it’s time for you to get down here and help me” “i told you so”, she says with a smile

later, he’s rambling about his bug conspiracy, still wearing the clothes that got all bloody from being taken hostage, and she asks if he has gotten any sleep

scully visiting mulder in the hospital after he goes off the deep end, seeing bug people everywhere, breaking into someone’s house, and attacking skinner; she slips her hand into his as he is restrained, telling him she hopes he can see through this delusion: “you have to be willing to see” “i wish it were that simple” “scully, you have to believe me. nobody else on this whole damn planet does or ever will. you’re my… one in five billion”

the hug at the end of episode 20 as they find the x files in ashes </3

[fmluder24]

The X Files Loves Dead Jews (Part 3/?): Globalist Cabals: The Syndicate and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

This is part 3 of my TXF meta series about the treatment of Jews and Jewishness in the show. You can read Part 1 here, which lays out a lot of the concepts I’m working with, and Part 2 here. This meta will make more sense if you’ve already read those. I’m moving on from the appropriation of the Holocaust to a discussion of our elite globalist cabal, The Syndicate.

The Syndicate is based heavily in pop culture tropes that have historically applied to Jewish people that were codified in documents such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. You, dear reader, may not have equated The Syndicate with Jewish people, but I can assure you that people familiar with those tropes (antisemites and Jews alike, along with educated allies) caught the subtext, intentional or not. You don’t get a cookie for not catching the racism. Your purity of mind and heart reading this is immaterial to a discussion of what was written and the context behind it. 

This is a hard piece of The X Files to talk about because it is at once really obvious and really subtle. Basically, I’m going to do a run-down of the key tropes of the totally fake and regularly debunked “international Jewish conspiracy” as codified in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and how those tropes do and do not show up in the lore around The Syndicate. I don’t know if I would say it’s something that CC and the other writers did intentionally, but the tropes are certainly there and need to be discussed regardless of intention.

I am consciously calling the Syndicate a “cabal” here, as it is a term used in antisemitic conspiracy theories that derives from a Hebrew term meaning “received tradition.” My invocation is meant to highlight that dimension of what is going on in TXF.  I mean, they’re also known as The Elders for fuck’s sake.

What antisemitic tropes about Jews are true about the Syndicate?

International group

“Anasazi” implies that The Syndicate as we see it in canon is part of a larger international network. Just as The Syndicate is not accountable to the American government, nor the American people, the Syndicate’s foreign representatives are presumably not accountable to their governments nor the people those governments represent. As such, the Syndicate operates as a distinct political entity whose members owe it allegiance above all. Furthermore, one can presumably be born into the organization. Mulder is the inheritor of the legacy of the Syndicate twice-over through his being raised by Bill Mulder and being the literal offspring of the CSM. He however seems to eschew his birthright in favor of taking on the possible work of resistance that Bill Mulder is later hinted to have begun. As such, this political entity is a “family business.” This has an unfortunate implication given the association of Mulder with Jewish identity and historical Jewish suffering. Yep, the ambiguously Jewish guy was born into The Cabal. Good work, team.

2. World domination/New World Order

The Syndicate’s goals and motivations seem to vary episode by episode, but it more or less boils down to a eugenicist project meant to help humanity survive impending alien occupation. The Syndicate is working for the Greys (themselves stand-ins for The Jews in the early myth arc), but is also ultimately on the side of something like “good” in that they are only pretending  to collaborate. Or, at least, certain forces within the Syndicate are collaborating with the alien overlords and carry out the alien overlords’ eugenicist project, and others are merely pretending to collaborate with the overlords while doing their own eugenicist project to save humanity from alien domination. In either case, the Syndicate represent an impending new global hierarchy, one in which they will at last be on top, either as collaborators in the ultimate occupation, or else as humanity’s last hope. Alien bullshit aside, this taps into historical understandings of how global elites (which are sooner or later almost universally understood to be The Jews in the world of conspiracy theories) will come to dominate humanity. 

3. Control of the media

The general through line of the myth arc episodes as well as a number of Monster of the Week episodes like “Wetwired” and “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” is that the Syndicate possesses a power over mainstream media that is meant to alternatively debunk the existence of aliens to keep the public from understanding the threat humanity is facing, and seed dubious proof of alien life or other shady government secrets to make people trying to uncover the conspiracy (chiefly Mulder and Scully) look like idiots. This improbable level of media manipulation is a trope that exists in antisemitic conspiracy communities. Frequently this involves some invocation of the quotation, "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” This is frequently attributed to Voltaire, but was actually penned by the white nationalist Kevin Alfred Storm. You may have seen this sentiment frequently weaponized in antizionist pro-Palestinian discourse that slides into antisemitism by attributing the admittedly powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States absolutely inhuman levels of power over the media. These particularly tip into antisemitism by attributing this power to Jews overall as opposed to, say, AIPAC or Greenblatt or other specific powerful people. From there it’s a hop, skip and a jump to straight-up Holocaust denial. 

4. Perpetuating white genocide

The Conspirituality podcast has many good episodes on how conspiratorial thinking and conspiracy theories appropriate real world trauma and suffering of marginalized people and invert this to make powerful groups such as white people the “real victims.” This is where in the real world we get into stuff like the Great Replacement Theory— an idea that the Jews are arranging for people of color to move to Europe and the U.S. and have so many kids they replace white people. This appropriates histories of genocide, most especially the genocides from the colonization of the Americas. We also see here reflections of modern U.S. discourse the idea that vaccines are going to sterilize people, that gender affirming care and marriage equality are threats to the conception and birth of children, etc. 

How does this connect to the lore of TXF? Well, the Syndicate is in the business of eugenic engineering of hybrids that are ultimately meant to replace humanity, whether as a vestige of humanity that survives colonization, or as the creation of alien overlords that exterminates humanity. The Syndicate is puppeting the ultimate Great Replacement. They are sterilizing women against their will to ultimately replace humanity. The replacements, while referred to as a sort of “master race” as indicated by the episode title “Herrenvolk,” are in fact inferior in crucial ways, soulless approximations of humans, if the perspective that hybrids like Emily were not made to be loved is any indication. 

 Furthermore, while in “Nisei”/“731” we see that a Black woman was also a victim of the Syndicate, the general whiteness of The X Files means that the lion’s share of Syndicate victims are white. Our main bridge into the horror of forced sterilization is through the grief of our white heroine, Scully. That’s not to say diversifying their victims would solve anything with how shitty the myth arc is— if anything that make it more disgusting, given how poorly they handle themes of autonomy and trauma— but yes, the forced sterilization of humanity, as represented through white women, echoes fears of the Great Replacement and white genocide. In real life and in TXF, these fears appropriate real histories of genocide.

5. Involvement in the Holocaust/ the aftermath of the Holocaust 

As I addressed in Part 1 of this meta, the Syndicate was involved in Operation Paperclip. But, fmluder24, you say, doesn’t this mean the Syndicate are Nazis, or perhaps Nazi sympathizers? What does that have to do with them being associated with Jewishness? If anything, it equates to them being the opposite, right? 

Wrong. 

If you google the name George Soros, you will be hit with a barrage of conspiracy theories about a very wealthy, influential Holocaust survivor that accuse him of being a Nazi collaborator. There is actually a whole sub-genre of Holocaust denial that specifically casts Jews as to blame for the Holocaust, responsible for orchestrating the evils of the Holocaust even as they were victims of it, and so on. While the Syndicate’s apparent involvement in the Holocaust does create a clear association with Nazism, it also creates an association with conspiracy theories about powerful Jews, paradoxically enough. 

6. Spreading disease

Historically, there were rumors of Jews punishing the wells of non-Jews to spread disease, most specifically the Black Death. It is a relatively minor component of the original run’s myth arc, but in “Pine Bluff Variant,” there is the notion of using biological weapons to control people, and there is the leak of a virus in “F. Emasculata.” Overall, this is not as large a component of what we know about the Syndicate, but it is an element of storytelling The X Files uses to characterize its villains that does overlap with historical antisemitic tropes. 

What tropes are not present? 

Blood libel

Blood libel refers to the conspiracy theory that Jews kill Christian children and cook their blood into matzah for Passover specifically. This is reflected in modern Q Anon conspiracies about “elites” harvesting adrenochrome by torturing children. There’s no real predation on children on the part of the Syndicate, aside from their own children that they did experiments on and turned over to the Greys. There is the creation of apparently soulless children through Emily’s ilk and clones, which does have this element of corrupting innocents, but there’s not the type of blood harvesting that’s a feature of antisemitic conspiracy theories. I think they probably knew to avoid this one. 

2. Economic control

This is the twin belief that The Jews are Capitalists and The Jews are Communists. Basically, wherever you fall along the political spectrum in terms of economic policy, you or someone in your ambit has thought at some point that The Jews control the money. There’s no real specific trope of economic control laid out in the show, although I’m sure the Syndicate has the power to do such a thing. Again, I think avoiding this was the writers’ way of covering their asses. It didn’t really work.

What does this amount to?

As we can see, there are a variety of historical antisemitic tropes around power and control that are uncomfortably present in the writing of the Syndicate. This is because the cultural database TXF is drawing from already equates all these tropes with powerful people and with Jews simultaneously. Because the writers were at best not being careful, and at worst outright had antisemitic beliefs potentially, these tropes around Jews showed up in how they wrote the show’s villains. Admittedly, I think it would be hard to create a show about conspiracy theories that didn’t fall back on these tropes, but that’s no excuse for what the show ultimately perpetuates.

As we’ve seen the exploitation of Jewish suffering and trauma in the myth arc and the monster of the week episodes, we can also see the exploitation of Jews as a type of powerful villain, and not real human beings with real experiences. In this way, The X Files loves dead Jews once again. 

Next, we will be turning our eyes to the Jewist, deadest episode— “Kaddish.”

I’ll be back; you can see more meta around similar themes at the bottom of part 1 of this meta!

[scullysbagelmuldersicedtea]

My thoughts on En ami S7E15 , also Mulder is royally pissed- love it.

My analysis- i spent too much time thinking about it due to the controversy. Please note revival spoilers***, do bookmark and revisit this when you're up to date. I spilled my gut..

3-5 min read :)

CSM- A father figure

He mentioned his affection for Mulder and Scully. He essentially created them. Mulder's obsessive quest for the truth, especially surrounding his sister's abduction was orchestrated by him.

He loved Mulder. He was seen to be mourning (privately) when Mulder was "dead" S4E24 S05E01. He protected him, not selflessly of course. Likewise, he protected Scully. CSM had no qualms about assassinating powerful figures throughout his life—it would’ve been easy for him to eliminate Mulder and Scully if he had truly wanted to. But he didn’t.

Father (metaphorically) of the miracle 

"How else do you explain that fearless devotion to a man obsessed, and, yet, a life alone? You'd die for Mulder but you won't allow yourself to love him."

Beautifully said by CSM. He observed, knew and understood Scully and Mulder as though as they were his own children.

Let's ponder what happened in the revival (spoilers ***), stay with me before you roll your eyes, gag or BOTH. The notion of CSM being the father of William can be seen metaphorically. Please hear me out ..

Sometimes it takes an outsider to point out the obvious- to enlighten Scully. The invisible wall came down and she finally gave herself a chance to love Mulder — ultimately led to William's conception. In that sense, CSM is, indirectly, the “creator” of William. Okay maybe too much credit to CSM... read on

Yes, CSM spun the narrative to suit his agendas—he always does. The “William parentage” twist, written by Chris Carter, was deeply disturbing for many. But it got people talking. The show never fully explored this claim, and considering CSM’s long history of lies, I believe it was another one. After all, the producers and Carter himself have repeatedly confirmed that William is the biological child of M&S.

En Ami (french) —as a friend He wanted to be an ally. He chose to keep Mulder in the dark for obvious reason. He chose Scully because she was a scientist (discussed later) and also because she was altruistic(not to say Mulder wasn't). She was a scientist and a medical doctor and hence possessed the skillset which ultimately made her the "ideal" person to contact for this mission- using Scully to destroy disc.

In the car, he picked up a cigarette, then proceeded to discard it —said "maybe it is time to stop", hinting that it was time to be an ally. His smoking was a reflection of anxieties and guilt due to his past and position within the Syndicate (as revealed in the Musing of the CSM episode). So that scene (to stop smoking) showed that he thought about being good, to be an ally to Scully - ultimately Mulder and humanity.

Why Scully? No, I do not believe Scully acted out of character. A good scientist is inherently inquisitive. She was compassionate. It is my opinion that no man in this universe deserves such great power to heal, let alone holds the secrets to curing all diseases. We are not meant to be immortals. Natural selection must runs its course! The knowledge the disc contained could very well doom humanity. Let’s be honest—humans are selfish by nature. Neither Scully nor Mulder could protect that information from the world forever.

En Ami or Enemy? (pardon the tongue twist, also not a native speaker) A true villain always believes in the righteousness of their cause.

Two ways to view the action of CSM:

He was trying to be an ally to humanity by destroying the disc.

(More plausible reason) He extracted what he needed from the disc to heal himself, then destroyed it to ensure he remained at the top of the food chain. In doing so, he once again became a villain to Mulder and Scully, having used Scully in a selfish mission under the pretense of goodwill. Therefore proceeded to smoke again as he deals with the weight of the world's darkest secrets.

The concept of “scientific impregnation” could also be spun into this narrative. Alien technology might have been used to repair Scully’s DNA, enabling her to conceive again. No (sexual) violation involved—just a cutaneous prick/jab of alien tech. Like your parents vaccinated you as a kid- you weren't given a choice were you? A “gift” (in CSM's opinion) to Scully, offered under the guise of friendship or guilt- WHO KNOWS....

Alternatively—or additionally—CSM may be seen as a metaphorical father to William. He thought his manipulation and carefully chosen words could have opened Scully’s heart to Mulder, ultimately leading to the child’s miraculous conception, possibly aided by alien tech.

Last but not least, it was a beautiful performance piece by Gillian Anderson, William B. Davis, and David Duchovny. The episode was more layered and nuanced than I remembered. Mulder was royally pissed and I love it!

[hinabiird]

YUME COMMUNITY, HELP! (◞‸◟;)

how do you deal with an f/o’s death that’s gonna be animated? (in depth explanation of my situation below) CSM SPOILERS AHEAD YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

so for context i’ve been an aki hayakawa yume for 3 years and i’m very worried for when chainsaw man season 2 releases because that’s when his death will be animated. Now- going by how slow mappa has been animating CSM (the reze movie hasn’t even been released yet) season 2 won’t be here for at least a couple years, but i’m still panicking because i don’t know what to really do and i want to prepare as much as i can. when i got the courage to read volume 9 i literally threw up and went on a extreme depression slump for weeks. and this was even with me having spoilers of aki’s death, so i knew it was coming but i still physically and mentally couldn’t take it at all. i sobbed for fucking hours (while my dad looked at me like i was crazy lol) and now i’m just imagining the grief i’m gonna feel seeing it animated and voice acted. i know i can just not watch it but chainsaw man is my special interest so i can’t imagine missing an episode (or possibly even like a lot of the arc bc of all the intense foreshadowing that is shown.) and a part of me still wants to see it animated because despite me being very sensitive towards the topic of aki’s death i LOVE the gun fiend that he gets turned into. but i don’t know how i could handle it. i’m quite literally watching my fiancé die. i feel like a important thing to know is that it’s also very hard for me to watch scenes with aki just being injured in general (which is really bad bc it happens a lot) like i don’t even know how i’m gonna be able to watch the dark devil scene where he gets his arms cut off. and every time i rewatch chainsaw man i cry at the scene where kobeni stabs him, and when he gets severely injured by katana man. so just thinking about that, and how i reacted to the manga WITH spoilers. i don’t know how safe it would be for me to watch chainsaw man season 2.

I would LOVE for any sorts of advice or anything because i desperately need it. 😭💕💕 if any other yume’s have dead f/o’s (IF UR COMFY SHARING OFC) i would love to hear your tips and experiences of how you coped with it

[foxwmulder]

I just found my list of when I categorized every xf episode (mostly through s7) during quarantine lmao

MONSTER OF THE WEEK CATEGORIES

Cultural

Shapes

Fresh Bones

The Calusari

Teso Dos Bichos

Hell Money

Teliko

El Munda Gira

Theef

Prison or Military

Deep Throat

Space

Sleepless

The List

The Walk

Unrequited

Trevor

Religious

Miracle Man

Revelations

Grotesque

Kaddish

All Souls

Signs and Wonders

Millennium

Cult or Satanists

Gender Bender

Red Museum

Our Town

3

Syzygy

Die Hand Die Verletzt

Sanguinarium

Terms of Endearment

Nothing Lasts Forever

Lone Gunmen- or CSM-Centric

Musings of a CSM

Unusual Suspects

Three of a Kind

First Person Shooter

This

Skinner-Centric

Avatar

Zero Sum

SR 819

Brand X

Hollywood AD

Kitten

Arthur Dales’s Tales

Travelers

The Unnatural

Agua Mala

Scully Side Quest

Irresistible / Orison

Chinga

Never Again

Milagro

En Ami

all things

Home Again

Ghouli

Mulder, They Already Destroyed the Evidence!

Ice

Firewalker

Dod Kalm

F. Emasculata

Wetwired

The Pine Bluff Variant

Drive

Wait, It’s Actually Aliens?

Pilot

Jose Chung

Control the Elements

Fire

DPO

Soft Light

Schizogeny

Rush

The Rain King

Medical Anomalies

Young at Heart

Eve

Home

Small Potatoes

Postmodern Prometheus

Founder’s Mutation

Guys Who Need to Eat Weird Stuff

Squeeze / Tooms

2Shy

Pusher / Kitsunegari

Leonard Betts

Hungry

Switch Lives or Linked Brains

Lazarus

Roland

Oubliette

Paper Hearts

Mind’s Eye

Dreamland I and II

Fight Club

Plus One

Time Travel or Warp

Synchrony

Monday

Lost Art of the Forehead Sweat

Ghosts or Past Lives

Shadows

Born Again

Excelsis Dei

Elegy

Aubrey

The Field Where I Died

Triangle

How the Ghosts Stole Christmas

AI Is Out To Get Us

Blood

Ghost in the Machine

Kill Switch

Rm9sbG93ZXJs

Half Man, Half Monster

The Host

Jersey Devil

Humbug

Detour

Bad Blood

Folie a Duex

Chimera

Mulder and Scully Meet the Weremonster

All Monster, No Man

Darkness Falls

Fearful Symmetry

Quagmire

War of the Coprophages

Alpha

Arcadia

Field Trip

X-Cops

Magic, Psychic, or Lucky

Beyond the Sea

Clyde Bruckman

Unruhe

Tithonus

The Amazing Maleeni

Je Souaite

The Goldberg Variation

MYTHOLOGY CATEGORIES

They’re Closing The X-Files!

The Erlenmeyer Flask / Little Green Men

The End / The Beginning

Fight the Future

Uh…Samantha?

Colony / End Game

Talitha Cumi / Herrenvolk

Sein Und Zeit / Closure

I’m Literally On Board Already, Scully

Fallen Angel

EBE

Nisei / 731

Piper Maru / Apocrypha

Tempus Fugit / Max

Tunguska / Terma

Agent Mulder Is Dead! Or Is He?

Anasazi / The Blessing Way / Paper Clip

Redux I and II

This Is Not Happening / Dead Alive

Mulder…You Good?

Demons / Gethsemane

Biogenesis / The Sixth Extinction

The Syndicate Hates Scully

Duane Barry / Ascension / One Breath

Memento Mori

Christmas Carol / Emily

Patient X / The Red and the Black

Why Was This Made

I Want to Believe

Discarded Categories

Creepy White Guy Predator

This Is a Small Town, We Don’t Lock Our Doors

A Nice Trip to the Forest

[sophia-helix]

Since last fall I’ve been doing a very low-key X-Files comfort rewatch; I started with the pilot and then went “every time in the last 20 years I say I’m doing a rewatch of the series I get bogged down in S1 or 2” so I just started skipping through to my favorites and then slowed down in S3. I watched all the good ones in the middle, and then after “Pusher” realized I probably have not actually seen the legendarily bad twofer of “Hell Money” and “Teso Dos Bichos” since I first mainlined S1-4 on FX in 1998, the summer the show went into syndication.

So I watched them! They are objectively terrible! But it had been so long, it was almost like getting a new classic era X-Files episode to watch, plus there were a couple of flirtatious MSR moments that followed on from the hand grab at the end of “Pusher.” My first season was S5 so it was like new fandom juice to suddenly be teasing out the UST back in the early seasons, which is just what I need since I’ve been been fandoms so long now. (Highly recommend returning to whatever fandom you were fired up about as a teen/young adult if you’re also in this place.)

I just finished S3 and started 4, and though I know the show is about to hit its stride in terms of production values, MSR, and the MOTW episodes improving…it’s also pretty clearly when they started losing control of the mytharc. In the early seasons I was struck by how often a standalone episode would still have a conspiracy tie-in, with a CSM or informant appearance, which you basically never see later on. I think this is the point when they fully realized that the show would be going for the indefinite long haul, so they were going to have to keep playing sleight of hand, which did admittedly work better in the days before DVR or boxsets when they didn’t expect audiences to see an episode multiple times.

But like…it doesn’t even get mentioned when the bounty hunter shows up in “Talitha Cumi” that Scully already got kidnapped by him last season, and both watched him shapeshift from Mulder to himself but also supposedly drown in a river? And then there’s a bad continuity error where Mulder is shown picking up the plam after he stabs him, but then the damn thing is still sticking out of his neck the rest of the episode. And finally when Mulder is relating his experiences in “Herrenvolk” to Scully, you really see how they’re going to play it—he mumbles some stuff about green fields and seeing his sister to Scully, rather than saying “I definitely saw a bunch of clones of my sister as a little girl, which makes sense given all the other clone stuff we’ve seen so far.”

And I get it. Different era, no real precedent for telling a story like this over multiple open-ended seasons, and they also liked doing the Twin Peaks mystery stuff (having now watched that it is kind of painful how hard the early XF seasons crib the TP aesthetic). This all just reminds me of how despite getting pulled in by the conspiracy stuff at the start (watching the movie 3 times in the theater was an Event) I eventually gave up on it ever making sense and just enjoyed the lighter shippy vibe they steered into with S6/7. It was such a fun show to watch at the time, but also the fandom just got so frustrated with all the inconsistencies and cop outs, and it’s kind of wild to watch and basically see the exact moment they decided to give up on ever making it make realistic sense, and just go with Vibes from then on.

(The vibes are great! I’m looking very much forward to rewatching S4-6 for the first time since the mid 2000s! The actors never looked better and the writing was so good. Again, highly recommend returning to something you really loved that’s been on the shelf for a while right now.)

[baronessblixen]

In my struggle 3 why did Monica said to csm « I think you’re in love with her » while talking about Scully ?? Was that CC’s grand plan all along ?? This episode is not for real

Because CC likes to mess with us. After rewatching all the Struggles recently, I more than ever don't believe a single thing that happens in My Struggle III.

It's from CSM's point of view, right? And the tagline says "I want to lie". Now we know he's gonna lie. He's CSM and the tagline says so. I was also thinking about Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man and how he wanted to be an author. Look at the episode. Mulder's voice overs are so flowery - as if someone was writing a novel.

As for what he says here: It's how he wants Monica to see the relationship. In his story, he's the hero. He's *it*. So of course he gets the woman. In his story.

In short: the episode is not for real, anon. I agree with you. It's a story CSM made up in his head. I mean obviously some things happened - but not in the exact way we saw them.

[zeninsama-moved-again]

okay now that i've finished blue lock here are my thoughts, under a read more bc this might get long and i am not expecting anyone to read this.

I WAS NOT EXPECTING TO LOVE IT SO MUCH? something about me is i have guy brain and typically only stick to shonen, i need action or horror or overall soul-crushing elements to stay engaged and sports anime overall has never really cut it for me. that and i don't know jack shit about sports, but OH MY GOD did i have fun watching blue lock!

AS FOR THE CHARACTERS... all of the blue lock team was generally likable to me. i was really surprised by who my favorites ended up being, though. several of you predicted oliver and sae, they were the ones i liked most going into the series because i love how my mutuals write them, HOWEVER... i did not like sae as much as i thought i would? i think it's because sports anime tends to be kinda shallow (in my opinion), everything is about the sport. idk if i spent enough time with his character to form a significant attachment, and i would need to see him exist outside of soccer in actual canon. he also wasn't as big brother as i would've liked </3 i still like him overall and will 100% read what my mutuals put out for him.

i think going into it i projected the todoroki brothers onto them too hard and rin felt shouto-coded to me (TO ME!) and sae did not give off touya... i also was not expecting the itoshi brothers beef to be so... simple? sae literally changed ambitions and rin crashed tf out. i was expecting it to be more complex but maybe that's on me for expecting jjk/csm levels of betrayal and emotional damage out of a sports anime.

OKAY my favorites... bachira absolutely. he might even be number one. i knew within seconds he'd be a favorite, i just didn't think he'd be THE favorite, if that makes sense. idk how many of you expected that either. i have such a crush on nagi too </3 and rin cinched a top three spot within the last few episodes. he's just a cutie and i might be completely misinterpreting his character but he reminds me of shouto if he never chilled the fuck out, so i am extra fond of him. i like that he's a horror enthusiast too.

honorable mentions... i did really love oliver. i need more time with him to feel any stronger, but the "flowers" ep really changed my perspective of him, like he's so... nice? encouraging? like when he said "if a true striker appears struggling to bloom in this country i swear i'll never allow that bud to be plucked" HELLO? and after they lost the game, he was so civil and charismatic with isagi and shook his hand... i think from everything i've heard about him being such a bastard, i was genuinely not expecting that for him but i love it. i really liked him.

karasu ended up growing on me (his naoya mannerisms and kansai accent ugh) and i really liked otoya too. barou was one of the funniest characters ever to me, he's just not my type as far as f/os go. loved isagi as a protagonist, i just have never historically liked protagonists like that </3 but i can 100% see what all my isagi mutuals like about him, he's admirable and cute.

i am afraid to meet kaiser. genuinely. i want to say you could never catch me falling for a dude named "michael" but if he's voiced by mamoru miyano, i just might...

okay that's all i can think of rn. hopefully any of this made sense.

[azure-firecracker]

the x files of course!! AND a fandom you want to do and/or think I would enjoy 🫶🏽

Aah thank you💚💚💚

TXF

Favorite female character: Scully the absolute love of my life! An icon. She will murder you with wit and science and a glare. She’s also the most protective person you’ll ever meet. She’s loyal to a fault and rational to an even greater fault, but also both of these save her (and Mulder) over and over. She’s nuanced. She’s sassy. She’s hilarious. She’s a badass. She breaks my heart. Character of all time.

Favorite male character: Mulder the absolute puppy of a man that he is. He has trauma. His self preservation skills are nonexistent. He would die for the truth but he will live for Scully. No one carries more love in their heart than this man. He almost dies every episode. He’s a genius. And an idiot. And a lover. And a fighter. But really mostly a lover if he didn’t have *trauma* I adore him!

Favorite Season: Season 5 could theoretically take this but for now still Season 2! In all its raw soap opera love story type glory. This is the season of desperate hand holding, of racing through the dark after one another and screaming into the night, of pulling each other back from Hell and undying loyalty in the face of unspeakable horrors. It’s desperate embraces and collapsing into each others arms and gloom and new love and every emotion is at level 100. Season 2 you will always be special to me.

Favorite Episode: I have two! One is Irresistible (which I have talked about extensively on here), and the other is Demons (which I will talk about extensively on here). You can see my love for angst and hurt/comfort and rescues lol (and you can find my thoughts on both episodes in my masterpost!) In many ways I think these episodes mirror each other, and they sort of form an episode quartet along with Unruhe and Anasazi. But that’s a topic for another post.

Favorite Cast Member: Gillian Anderson!

My favorite ship: “Mulder, I wouldn’t put myself on the line for anybody but you” “Scully, you are the only one I trust” MSR my beloved.

A Character I’d Die Defending: Fun fact Dana Scully has done nothing wrong ever actually all of her skepticism is valid and she’s a perfect human being.

A Character I Just Can’t Sympathize With: I don’t care if he’s a failed writer or whatever CSM is just an asshole and (hot take) not that entertaining to watch.

A Character I Grew to Love: Skinner! He started out lowkey boring, but I quickly was like “ooh he’s cool I like him” and then he got really interesting and nuanced (much more so than I anticipated).

My Anti OTP: I once saw a Scully/Krycek fic. That man had a hand in her abduction. No.

I think you’d probably like Buffy the Vampire Slayer if you haven’t seen it already (I’ve only seen 4 seasons but it’s always a fun rewatch for me)

Favorite female character: I have two! First is Faith who follows my trend of evil girls who are really just misunderstood and have never been loved. She was also my first real character crush! Second is Willow, who I just relate to a lot as a witchy lesbian nerd, and I want to give her a hug whenever she’s on screen and she’s so lovable and so layered and I love her very much.

Favorite male character: Probably Giles. I have a soft spot for parental figures and his relationship with Buffy is so sweet and layered and complex. Also he’s just an awkward British librarian who’s way too attached to a group of teenagers and I love that about him.

Favorite Season: Season 3! As dark as Season 2 but less melodramatic, plus Faith is there being hot and gay and evil! It’s not a perfect season but over half of these episodes are excellent.

Favorite Episode: Oh I’m not sure since it’s been a hot sec since I watched the show. I LOVED This Year’s Girl/Who Are You from Season 4, even though the season isn’t that great. I also love Five by Five from the spin-off Angel, if only for the ending scene.

Favorite Cast Member: Charisma Carpenter! I won’t get too into it here and I don’t know everything but she did some very brave things by speaking out against the show’s creators and I admire that.

Favorite Ship: Willow and Tara have my heart, but Faith and Buffy are SO fun! It’s a tie.

A Character I’d Die Defending: I won’t say Faith since I’ve already talked about her a lot. Instead I’ll go with Cordelia, who went through a lot of growth (especially if you watch her on Angel), and her growth was often unacknowledged by the show itself. Justice for my girl!

A Character I Just Can’t Sympathize With: This is ONLY about Buffy and not Angel, but I got SO sick of Angel by the time season 3 ended. He just sat there and was emo. I ran out of patience for him. He was great on Angel though (they let him do things besides mope and brood).

A Character I Grew to Love: Buffy! At first I thought she was sort of just a generic protagonist with some teen girl fun sprinkled in, but she’s got so many layers to her character and her fun is sprinkled with a real gravity that’s sort of a heartbreaking back and forth when you realize how young she is. I’ve also come to relate to her a lot more as I’ve gotten older, and the more I do, the more I like her.

My Anti OTP: Remember that time they tried to make Xander and Willow a thing? No? Me neither.

Ty for the ask:)

[xf-cases-solved]

S2E8: One Breath

Case: In part three of our three part + one fever dream episode arc, we begin with Maggie Scully (!!!) telling a morose tale about her daughter murdering a snake—complete with a depressing flashback to baby Scully and everything—and then it cuts back to her and Mulder where, for some reason, Mulder is accompanying her to get a gravestone made for Scully? Why was he a part of that errand?? He and Scully (probably) aren't even fucking yet, that seems like a really personal and intimate thing to invite your daughter's coworker to come do with you.

Whatever. Credits!

Long story sort of short, turns out Scully is NOT dead, but Maggie can't get rid of the gravestone just yet, because while she has been returned from -vague shrugging-, she IS extremely ill and is being kept alive on life support, whomp whomp. No one knows how she got to the hospital, and no one seems very optimistic that she'll be walking out of it either. While Scully's hippie sister (we <3 you Melissa) and Maggie fulfill the wishes of Scully's living will (which Mulder witnessed??? I cannot emphasize enough that they are (probably) not even fucking at this point, but they're witnesses for each others' WILLS?? jfc), Mulder is off doing what he does best in a crisis, which is losing his goddamn mind and making poor choices. He's out to get answers and revenge, and will fight people in parking garages and hold people at gunpoint to get them, but maybe where he's really meant to be... dun dun dun... is at his partner's side. 

X and Mulder have their first parking garage lover's spat; an extremely inconspicuous clue is left for Mulder inside a cigarette machine; I am viscerally reminded this is taking place in the 90s due to the inclusion of a cigarette machine; Scully is stuck in a liminal state between life and death and is vividly hallucinating; Mulder holds Cigarette Smoking Man at gunpoint (I think for the first time, but he does that a lot so I might be wrong); Skinner tells us his tragic backstory that explains why he is a fun mom instead of a hardass like those other assistant directors; through the strengths of Mulder's beliefs, and also like, an angel or something in the form of a nurse hallucination, Scully does not die (hooray!); and I have the same problem I have had every single time I've watched this episode since I was a little kid, and that's that I can't NOT notice how huge Gillian Anderson's boobs are when she's lying on that hospital bed, and I feel like such a creep every time, but she just had a baby and they're RIGHT THERE, okay??

Congratulations, you have survived the abduction arc! I'm sure there will be no lasting consequences from this series of events. 👀 

Does someone die in the cold open: Baby Scully and her brothers kill a snake in cold blood as a metaphor.

Does Mulder present a slideshow: I don't think Mulder is in any state of mind to be putting together PowerPoint presentations right now. Although that did make me imagine him showing up at CSM's house and putting on a slideshow about why CSM is such a little punkass bitch while holding him at gunpoint so he has to listen to the whole thing. That'd be really funny. I wish I could draw, I would totally make that into fanart. Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh, did he present a slideshow? No.

Does the evidence survive the investigation: Uhhhhhhh. I will say that the most damning evidence is Scully herself, and she survived, so... yes? I guess?

Whodunit: That's for THEM to know and for you to maybe but probably not find out.

Convictions: Yeah right.

Did they solve it: Oh god no. But! Scully survived, so I will count it as a leveling up in their search for The Truth. 

[how do i determine if a case is solved? check the scale here: x]

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***

General Total Stats:

(green means stat has changed since last ep; red means new stat added to list)

Total Cases *Definitively* Solved So Far: 15 (they're back together now, tho, so i'm sure they'll solve a case eventually. probably)

Total Number of "Mulder/Scully, It's Me": 9 (no, but mulder does go to her bedside and tells her he's there for her, and it's very sweet and sad)

Total Number of Times Scully Has Conveniently Not Seen Something Crucial: 6 (i mean, she conveniently FORGOT a lot of crucial information, but that's not really her fault. the memories will come back eventually. maybe. we'll see)

Total Number of Times Mulder Has Been in Mortal Danger: 12 (technically he was in a gunfight, but X has too big of a boner for him to actually kill him, but he could have been in significant danger if he had stuck around his apartment instead of going to the hospital, so i'll up it another half a point, if only to get back to a round number) 

Total Number of Times Scully Has Been in Mortal Danger: 12 (i mean, they literally pulled the plug on her)

Total Number of Sexually Charged, Uncomfortably Intimate, and/or Flirty Moments Between Friendly Coworkers: 17 (mulder's beside vigil is a love confession, fight me)

Total Number of Autopsies Scully Has Performed On Screen: 5 

Total Number of Times Scully Plays Doctor: 2

Total Number of Times Mulder Talks to an Informant: 21 (two scenes of my bff X, AND a parking garage fight?? it's christmas :') )

Total Number of Times People Making Out in a Car Are Hurt or Killed: 2

Total Number of Times Someone Correctly Guesses a Password: 3 

Total Number of (Plot Relevant) Nosebleeds: 5

Total Number of Times Mulder Has Tasted/Sniffed/Touched Something Questionable Without Following Proper Safety Procedures: 3 

Total Number of Times People Fight in a Parking Garage: 1 (new stat! i feel like i must have missed one before now, bc it seems wrong that it's taken this long, but i thought i was specifically looking out for those, so??? if you know of one i forgot lmk and i will retcon. i don't count them finding tooms in the parking garage. that was apprehending a suspect, not having a (usually homoerotic) fist/gun fight in a dark, otherwise abandoned parking garage. there's a Specific Vibe)

Total Number of Times Someone Says "Trust No One": 3 

Total Number of Times Someone Says "I Want to Believe": 4 

Total Number of Times Someone Says "The Truth is Out There": 2 

Total Number of Cigarettes Cigarette Smoking Man Has Smoked: 16 (i can't tell if my notes say that he smoked two and a half cigarettes, or three and a half cigarettes, and i don't feel like checking, so i'm just gonna round it out and say he smoked three cigarettes) 

Total Number of Maggie Scully Sightings: 3! (no offense to maggie, but personally, i feel she was real quick to get that tombstone engraved. maybe they were having a sale)

Total Number of Lone Gunmen Sightings: 3! (they taught us about branched dna! remember that, bc it'll come up again, and no, it won't make sense then either)

Total Number of Alex Krycek Sightings: 3 (no more krycek for right now 😔. but like mulder's projector, i want to believe he will return)

Total Number of Times I Had to Look Up What State the Episode Takes Place in Even Though I Literally Just Watched It: 11½ (it feels like cheating when they don't actually go anywhere)

Total Number of Times I Had to Look at an Episode's Wikipedia Page to Fill This Out Because It Was Fucking Confusing and/or Too Boring for Me to Pay Attention: 6 (nah bruh, this is one of those ones i've watched a hundred million times)

[exltwounds]

get to know me !

tagged by @chiarrara <3 open tag! whoever wants to do this u can mention me so i can see it

favorite color: grey

last song: sit & mourn by knocked loose

currently reading: i started re reading csm part two cause i need to catch up on so much stuff that i am afraid i already forgot what happens before that lmao. Also Asa Mitaka <3333

currently watching: Frieren, Nier Automata Ver1.1a, The Ancient Magus Bride but i am being sooo slow lately. Like i watch 1 episode and then leave it for weeks. I'm too overstimulated to just relax and watch something lately :/

craving: ice cream, ibuprofen, a concert

coffee or tea: coffee! Some days i do enjoy a little english breakfast date though, as a treat. I also love spearmint tea cause it's good for my skin

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

my favorite mulder moments from s5

breaking into the labyrinth of the department of defense in episode 1 to find the cure for scully, finding only a vial of water, and the ensuing devastation that crosses his face

in the beginning of episode 2, scully is in the hospital, and he reveals that he faked his death to come visit her (“you move pretty good for a dead man”, skinner says, to which he replies “i’m only half dead”). he's going utterly ballistic, screaming “i’ll calm down when i have a reason to calm down!”, and then nearly collapses as he sees her sick in bed. only skinner's threat of arrest after they come to blows can make him see straight

he sees CSM in the hall of the hospital where scully is recovering, and spits at him “please tell me you’re here with severe chest pains” <-LMAOOOO

and when CSM tries to win him over to the dark side through scully’s cure and showing him his “sister”, he absolutely refuses, saying “you murdered my father. you killed scully’s sister, and if scully dies, i will kill you. i don’t care whose father you are, i will put you down” (LOUD CHEERING!!!!!!!)

enduring bill scully's horrible attacks on his character, trying to sympathize with his pain despite how awful he is being because he knows what it feels like to lose loved ones for the Truth. he tells this man that is being so awful to him that he lost his father and sister in his quest for answers, so he can relate to the pain he feels- only to be met with more scorn

he comes into scully’s hospital room again later on, where she is sound asleep, and he lays his head next to her and sobs

defending scully in her absence at his big important hearing; explaining how she was sent to spy on him, but “that agent scully did not follow these orders is a testament to her integrity as an investigator, a scientist, and a human being” <3

and then he SOMEHOW guesses correctly that the mole is section chief blevins, who had been on the payroll of the biotech company for years... i want to unpack if he figured it out subconsciously or was just equal parts lucky and confident, but i feel that we will never truly know

he tells skinner that scully’s cancer is in remission, saying it is the best news he has ever heard, then cries in the hallway of the hospital, holding the bloody photo of him and samantha as kids

he meets frohike for the very first time in 1989 in episode 3 and declines his offer of bootleg cable by saying “no thanks, handsome”, which prompts frohike to call him "a man of taste". thus began his long tradition of flirting with the boys

he was RACING back to the motel room at the end of episode 4, banging on the door, telling scully to get in the car NOW, and narrowly saving her from the florida mothman who was hiding under the bed!!!! i <3 protective mulder!!!

in episode 7, he flies down as soon as he can to vouch for scully's capability to adopt emily. scully introduces him to her as “a friend”, and he starts making funny faces to get her to laugh right away. he points out that the girl’s adoptive parents were both murdered, and when scully says that she can protect her, he asks “yeah, but who’s gonna protect you?”; he testifies on her behalf, even though he says he shouldn’t, because he knows it’ll put her in danger

later, he confronts the doctor who refuses to transfer over emily’s medical files. he pulls out his gun, points it at the doctor’s head, and asks “why don’t you tell me whose life is worth saving, yours or hers?” - he's so quick to adjust to scully's news of having a child and so quick to draw blood on her behalf

they’re bickering about the case in episode 8, so mulder, in a rare moment of clarity, steps back to ask what they both agree on and says they can work from there. i was shocked! in a good way! after 5 years, he finally learned to manage their opposing viewpoints in a way that can get things done! (i am sure this will never happen again)

his tree climbing detour in episode 9, plus the legendary line “hey scully, is this demonstration of boyish agility turning you on at all?” (and then bonus points for his sad descent as he is needed back on the ground right after he got up there)

his complete inability to function without scully while she is on vacation in episode 10- he actually TWIRLS the phone line while calling her!!!

and when he calls her for the 800th time, he greets her saying “morning, sunshine!” while loudly thumping his basketball up and down until she has to ask him wtf that noise is... so he lies, saying there is construction outside his window, and yells, telling the nonexistent construction worker to quiet down <- LMAOOO it killed me!!! (his basketball thumping has always been used to indicate his inability to relax... truly there is no peace for him without the bestie in town)

he’s SOOOO jealous when scully thinks the cowboy sheriff in episode 12 is cute (he recalls him having a thick southern drawl with huge teeth, so when they have to fly back down, she points out that they are totally normal-sized, and he still disputes this fact until the very end of the episode)

in episode 14, he sprints to find scully after she was present for the mass burning; he runs his fingers through her hair when she is in the hospital for vasogenic shock

post-krycek breaking into his house and beating him up, warning him that the end of the world is coming, scully finds him in his apartment sitting in the dark. “what are you doing sitting here in the dark?”, she asks. “thinking” “about what?” “oh, the usual- destiny, fate, how to throw a curveball… the inextricable relationships in our lives that are neither accidental nor somehow entirely in our control, either”

calling scully back from a payphone in the pouring rain in episode 17 to help get her some information on her personal case <3

(he also really nerds out in that episode about eye imagery in the bible, apocrypha, and references jesus christ superstar... a man of culture)

((and he was SO protective of scully- he stepped in when the priest was being all shady, tried to advise her not to let him get into her head, and we got to see some incredibly rare emotional communication when he said “i’ve never seen you more vulnerable or susceptible or more easily manipulated, and it scares me because i don’t know why”. he was grabbing her shoulders and pulling her in close, telling her she should step away when she mentions the visions of emily… god. he was SO worried!!))

when he’s being tortured in episode 18, he tells the man hurting him over and over again that he will kill him, which i thought was really fascinating

being willing to risk all of the x files in episode 20 because he fully believes that scully is correct about gibson being the key to explaining them, even though skinner warns against it... that is complete trust <3

[spooky-jordan]

i heard you're bored at work.

what's your favorite txf episode and why?

I love this question, but damn it’s a hard one to answer 🥲 I have so many favourites that I really struggle to pick JUST ONE, so I’m gonna bend the rules and give you my favs in each “category”, the categories being MOTW, Mytharc and comedy 🫡

My favourite MOTW, right now, is Pusher. I think Modell is one of the show’s best villains, the episode is really well written and performed, plus it’s a turning point in Mulder and Scully’s relationship. And that final scene! Chills every damn time. This may but the single episode I’ve watched the most.

In terms of the Mytharc eps, I’m gonna bend the rules even more and offer a 3-parter 🥲😅 the season 2 finale/season 3 opener trilogy of Anasazi/The Blessing Way/Paper Clip. This run of eps, for me, is one of the most exciting runs in the show’s history, and was the point during my first watch when I was all in on the mythology stuff. Obviously it falls apart in later seasons, but at this point it was just so damn exciting. These three eps back to back play like a movie and I love them - we get all the hits, Mulder getting his ass handed to him, CSM, Skinner getting involved, Scully being a badass, etc etc. Just so good!

And finally, my favourite comedic episode, and the episode I’ve shown to my non X-Phile friends to get them involved - Bad Blood. Not much to say, it’s just great, so funny, a great little insight into Mulder and Scully’s relationship and how they see each other, and you can tell David and Gillian were having a blast. Love it!