#Mulder's significant other

[starbuck09256]

I have a partner..

Tagging @today-in-fic and @xffictober2023

Sorry xf fam, been a bit busy.

Fictober Day 9!

Set during Chimera Season 7

What if Mulder answered Ellen's question about his significant other in a different more truthful way? 

Ellen’s POV

I look at Agent Mulder, and he seems surprised that I ironed his shirt, and made a big breakfast for Phil. I feel Agent Mulder doesn’t have someone who takes care of him like I do with Phil. Once when I was younger I thought about being a therapist I had always been fascinated by people's relationships. Agent Mulder is handsome and good at his job. It makes me curious as he doesn’t wear a wedding band. I sit down across from him. 

I look over at him in curiosity “I get the feeling you are not used to having anyone take care of you?” I say trying to open the door without appearing too eager to know why he doesn’t wear a wedding ring. 

He gives a rough chuckle and states “Well that has a vaguely pathetic ring to it.” 

Not my intention of course. I clarify “No, I just mean I didn’t notice a wedding band.” I state. 

He replies “Oh,”

I get the feeling I can roll straight ahead. “Do you have a significant other?” I ask. 

He stops and takes a second, which is quite unusual. He smiles and bites his lip. “Um,” he takes a second and I see him trying to formulate the words as I tilt my head in interest.

 “I uh..” he chuckles. “I have a partner,” he says. 

I’m a bit taken aback as he didn’t strike me as gay, which is fine of course but now he is looking at me and his eyebrows crink. 

“Not umm.” he pauses again and sighs. “Her name is Dana.” he smiles at the end of his statement. 

I see him take a moment as if he is thinking of her. I lean in a bit, I want to know more about why she is a partner and not more. Given his smile and the way he said her name, it seems like she matters a great deal to him. “Can you tell me about her?” I ask. 

When Phil and I were younger I heard through a friend that he thought I was pretty, and that was the moment I decided to pursue him. How someone talks about their spouse has always taught me more about the person and less about the person they are speaking about. 

Mulder chuckles his eyes shining at me. “She’s umm.. Brillant, truly the smart person I’ve ever met,” and he takes a second. “She’s umm loyal, courageous, kind, she has a sort of deadpan dry sense of humor, a little sarcastic too.” he smiles again. “She’s a medical doctor but uh is pretty upset with me since I left her working in not the greatest conditions.” he chuckles again.

 He didn’t mention pretty which is odd. 

“Do you have a picture of her?” I make Phil carry a picture of us in his wallet. To show people that he has a family that loves him at home. 

Mulder reaches into his back pocket fiddling with his wallet. He hands me a photo of the two of them looking at some crime scene it looks like, she must also be in the FBI given that they are both wearing FBI jackets.

 “She’s pretty” I state. Wondering why he overlooked it.

 He looks at the picture and smiles. 

“She’s breathtaking,” he mutters. 

The way he says almost takes my breath away, he is looking at the picture as if just seeing it again for the first time, and his smile is stretched across his face. 

“She also looks very short,” I say moving the picture back to him. 

He laughs still looking at the photo of this Dana.

 “It’s weird because she seems to take up so much space in my mind sometimes, that I forget how tiny she is. She’s incredibly headstrong and stubborn it’s hard to remember she is only like 5’2.”

 “5 '2” I say, because she looks taller than that. 

He laughs again. “She wears the most ridiculous heels, they are like 3 inches, and she can run in them, which is nuts I know. I’m always amazed that she doesn’t break her neck sometimes.” his light chuckle is full of a deep fondness.

 I wonder if Phil has anywhere near the same level of fondness when talking about me. “

I bet you would catch her if she ever happened to trip though,” I smile at him. 

He looks up at me. 

“I would do anything for her, she is .. umm my partner. Certainly the better half of our partnership, that is. To some, she might not seem like she is the “significant other” in normal terms, but she is the most significant relationship I’ve ever had in my life.” His voice tapers off a bit at the end. 

I have the feeling the relationship he just described is much deeper than anything I’ve ever seen or experienced. Agent Mulder might not wear a ring or have someone who makes him breakfast, but he might have something much much better. He might have someone who has captured his soul. 

“Well,” I say standing up, if I didn’t feel like I was in control before I certainly don’t feel in control now. Something about knowing that there are relationships that don’t rely on what you are doing for the other person, cooking, cleaning, and showing you care by taking care of them in various ways. 

I wonder what a relationship would look like if it was just based on how you felt about the person. If you just appreciated them for existing. I think that Agent Mulder is much luckier than I have been, and it makes me question again why I forced Phil to stay married to me. I wonder if maybe I should let him go and try to find my own Agent Mulder. Maybe there is more than just pretending that everything is fine. Maybe I could have a life that didn’t make me feel the need to try and fit this perfect model that I always seem to fail at…

[cecilysass]

Mulder’s Depressed Vampire Sex: Me on 3

You know, I like the episode 3. I mean, not the casefile part of 3, which is whatever whatever, but the important part: the blood fetishist lady has her way with Mulder and then he cries.

I definitely loathed the episode back when the show was airing. Back then it seemed like it was intentionally hostile to the ship—like going out of its way to be hostile, having Kristen tell Mulder shit like “I can tell you’re missing someone, but attention please: just a friend. Definitely not more!!!” I honestly kind of felt like she was looking out of the screen directly at me when she said it.

But looking back, knowing that MSR was endgame (and that fans kinda took over the narrative anyway), I definitely see the episode totally differently.

From a Mulder character arc point of view, this episode is all about him being a sad, sad boy. It is all about his depression, his hopelessness, his grief for Scully. It’s also about his drive to try to save women and girls in order to save himself. And he so often seems to fail at this when it is someone he cares about (or even when it is someone he has a fleeting connection with, like Kristen). And that’s so, so devastating for him. In that sense, this episode is a really desperate expression of his grief and frustration.

The HIV/AIDS angle to this ep is super important, too, so we have to make sure we’re getting into the full 1994 mindset on this. Mulder says in alarm to Kristen back in the club, when she’s playing fast and loose with blood: “AIDS. Aren’t you afraid?” (To which she responds that she wants to die.) Mulder knows that HIV transmission through sharing fluids is no joke in 1994 (it probably really shouldn’t be now either, but that’s not today’s lecture). Yet later, when Kristen is shaving him and he’s nicked, he allows this to be the catalyst for sex, even as he makes attempts to stop her from tasting his blood.

So his choice to have sex with Kristen is depicted as reckless, with someone who has been shown being careless about HIV. And he is doing it not just because he is turned on, but because he is being intentionally reckless with himself, clearly knowing the consequences. He shows concern for her, yes, but he’s also self destructive. He wants to fuck the hot vampire, but he also wants to fuck with death.

In other words, there’s a difference between what the episode tells us about Mulder’s relationship to Scully and what it shows us. And what the episode shows us about their relationship is that Scully is central enough in his life that everything is fundamentally affected by her abduction. He’s broken. He’s visibly depressed. He makes decisions that risk his job and his life. All the while he is actually choosing to wear her cross: a symbol that traditionally wards off vampires, as Kristen observes, but also keeps Scully’s presence in his mind constantly and in every frame of the episode he's in. And the episode ends with him looking like a hero in a romance novel mournfully casting his eyes to the hills clutching her cross in his hand.

None of this obviously communicates “I miss my work friend,” right? No objective observer would see this and say, “ah, he clearly is missing someone—most likely a friend, I would say.” But probably that’s exactly why they included Kristen’s “just a friend” line. They knew his grief in this episode was reading very powerfully, and they didn’t want it to seem overtly romantic.

I also feel like it’s kind of significant that the only time we actually see Mulder have confirmed sex with someone (besides Scully later) is when he’s depressed and Scully is gone. Linking his grief for Scully to his very-rarely-seen acting out on sexual desire like this also seems kind of psychologically sus to me, but I don’t know, I read a lot of fanfic.

Speaking of which, I did a little fanfic search for 3. And unless I am missing obvious fics (always a possibility), it was kind of difficult. Partly because this is a stupidly hard episode to look in search engines for. (No one should ever name episodes after numbers, although this one I will forgive because it’s from 1994 and they couldn’t have fully understood about Google and AO3.)

But also I just think there hasn’t been a ton of 3 fanfic, probably because this episode isn’t very well-liked. And listen, I get that Scully isn’t in it, which is often unappealing for writers, and there is Mulder/other, which people don’t like. But I feel like there are a lot of possibilities for story ideas here that don’t necessarily take place during the events of the episode. Like: how does it affect them later? Personally I like fics where Mulder and Scully discuss the events of the episode long after (actually I wrote one, which I included in my recs because I’m not that cool). I also think Mulder’s angst and depression has a lot of ways it could go—not to mention it’s the last canonically confirmed time he has sex before like 2000 or something. And it seems like AU takes on what happened to Kristen could be interesting. So what I'm saying is: maybe try writing 3 fics.

3 Fanfic Recs

Three is a Crowd - wendelah1 Mulder has sex with Kristen but can’t stop thinking of Scully.

Analgesic- settledownfrohike Mulder has sex with Kristen but can’t stop being a self-loathing, self-destructive mess. And thinking of Scully.

The Woman In His Heart - Spangle This shorter piece frames Mulder’s time with Kristen as a revelation about his feelings. Angsty and nicely observed. A 2005 Spooky winner, evidently.

False Dawn - emmbright A sharply etched portrait of how Mulder moves through his life between 3 and One Breath. For me this fills in the blanks perfectly.

Dreams - Characteristically_Exuberant This is actually a (great) post-ep for Field Trip, and the events of 3 aren’t the main focus of the fic. But I like how this author discusses what happened with Mulder in that episode and contextualizes it for both agents.

We’re Not Here To Get Involved In Personal Problems - cecily_sass This is mine, also not really a 3 post-ep; it’s an X-Cops post-ep. I feel a little silly including it. But I had them discuss the events of 3 in this fic in a way that sort of lays out my own thesis of the episode, and I thought, hey, it’s my list. Mulder and Scully walk to a gas station in Willow Park in Los Angeles the morning after X-Cops; they discuss plenty.

Any others? I feel like I probably missed some.

[straightbaittournament]

(shaking, through tears) may the best bait win! propaganda under the cut:

mulder and scully:

Infamously treated and teased by showrunners + writers like how a gay couple would be baited and like a gay couple in general, although eventually they do kiss and have a son (although that falls through and they become kind of divorced)

during the entire original run of the show i'm pretty sure chris carter would have said they never had a romantic relationship (they had a baby without ever having had sex!) however in the revival their sort of ambiguous What Are We deal was made a lot more explicit so feel free to veto based on these grounds LITERALLY INVENTED 'SHIPPING'. YOU'RE WELCOME

while i'm... pretty sure they get together eventually (i've only watched a bit of the x-files), from what i've heard they invented the term "shipping" because of people arguing over whether they would/should be romantically involved, so i think they should be included, for fandom history reasons if nothing else

they are a man and a woman who don't get together until ridiculously late but are hilariously devoted to one another, clingy, self-sacrifice-y, and also Forehead Kisses

They’re together but they’re not they love each other but barely know each other

clara and twelve:

their relationship is heavily romantic coded, but is never explicitly confirmed as romantic or not. the queerbait thing of teasing them on socials but never paying them off in canon applies here! also secret love confessions by way of double entendre or omission

they "arent romantic" but obviously they are

They are a man (I guess?) and a woman never get together but physical contact is filmed with such tension, there's jealousy with one member's significant other, "do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference," "I'm changing history to save Clara," "run you clever boy and be a Doctor," "people like you and me, we should say things to one another," "I'll be the judge of time," "If you love me in any way..." okay these all have context but trust me it's Insane

They never get to be together and in their last episode together, Clara presumably confesses her love to him and WE DONT EVEN SEE IT. like immediately after he gets his memory wiped.

[leiascully]

Visitor & The All The Choices We've Made-verse

I don't think I've actually ever made a post of all of the Visitor-related fics, so here it is, inspired by the anon from the other day. All links are AO3 links, although all fics can also be found on my blog with a little digging.

Visitor At least he's guaranteed to see her once a year. (30K, written pre-revival, angst & PTSD to happily reunited)

Resident They have missed every other date they might have held significant - birthdays, anniversaries, days of mourning, days of celebration - but they will keep this appointment. (34K, the Scully-POV companion to Visitor)

Between A Rock And A Hard Place Tad O'Malley makes Mulder and Scully an offer they can't refuse. (12K, Visitor-compliant rewrite of My Struggle I)

Home Again Mulder and Scully investigate a mysterious murder in Philadelphia as Scully deals with her mother's failing health. (18K, Visitor-compliant rewrite of Home Again)

A Mann's World "When was the last time we had a lizard monster, anyway?" (17K, Visitor-compliant rewrite of Mulder & Scully Meet The Were-Monster)

Bonus materials (revival era):

Taurus Season Surely she could find some worthier trigger for her nostalgia than a mid-size American sedan with roughly the same design scheme as a dentist’s waiting room. (700 words, sometime during S11, a meditation on the road)

Mrs. & Mr. Spooky Spurred by an encounter with Tom Colton, Scully buys a birthday gift for Mulder. (1.5K, unrelenting fluff)

Bonus materials (pre-revival):

A Cabin In The Woods Mulder and Scully, on the run, stay for a while in a cabin in the mountains in Montana. A series of interlacing vignettes. (14K, a few months of respite and the Montana Mountain Woman)

Housewarming A walk in the woods near the unremarkable house; a fall night; a fire in the fireplace. (1.4K, what if the unremarkable house felt like the cabin?)

[numinousmysteries]

24 - He/she called for him/her in his/her sleep.

super quick and dirty. no edits, just need to grease the old writing gears. s8 for some reason even though i hate it.

She’s not afraid of flying. Being afraid would be irrational and she’s not an irrational person. Commercial air travel is orders of magnitude safer than driving, she knows. Especially safer than driving in the middle of the night on unlit backroads with a Mulder who hasn’t slept in 36 hours behind the wheel, which she’s done on multiple occasions. Experience does nothing to allay her fears. Even before arriving at Quantico, she’d racked up thousands of international air miles as a Navy brat. Seven years as Mulder’s partner tacked on thousands more. 

And yet. And yet, she can’t rationalize away the surge of adrenaline she feels every time the engines start to fire up for takeoff. Recalling statistics doesn’t calm the drop in her stomach whenever the wheels rise off the tarmac and she feels the ground recede beneath her feet. 

Early in their partnership, she cursed Mulder for being able to drift off to sleep in a cramped coach seat while she was left alone to white knuckle the armrest and monitor every rise and fall in altitude as if she knew enough to assign any significance to them. Of course, as the years went by, their hands would find each others and she’d be able to rest with her head on his shoulder.

Don’t fall asleep, she wills herself now. She doesn’t want to show any weakness in front of her new partner. She doesn’t trust Doggett yet. But somehow the first trimester fatigue catches up. Where is this deep exhaustion when she’s lying awake in bed in the middle of the night, her mind racing with fears for her child and guilt that she hasn’t found Mulder yet? 

She twists the air vent all the way open hoping the cold air will keep her awake. The flight attendant offers coffee but she’s already had the single cup she’s allotting herself these days at home this morning so she asks for water instead which does nothing to allay her exhaustion. 

As much as she despises turbulence she wishes this particular flight hit a few more bumps but instead it’s a smooth ride over a cloudless Midwestern sky that only makes her eyelids feel heavier and heavier.

Now she’s lying on Mulder’s couch, leaning her back against his chest. His arms wrap around her and he’s resting his hands on her belly, now heavy and round. His long fingers dance across the taut skin chasing a protruding foot or elbow. “Incredible,” Mulder says quietly, not so much to her or their baby but to himself. Slatted sunlight filters in through the window shades and she feels warm all over. Warm from the sun, Warm from her partner’s body wrapped around her own, warm from the life growing within her. She brings her palms to cover his, holding him in between herself and their baby.

Suddenly, the ground starts trembling beneath them. The window is wide open now and the soft sunlight has been replaced with an unnaturally bright glaring white glow. She feels Mulder’s body rising from behind her and watches helplessly as he drifts toward the window. She’s paralyzed on the couch, the weight of her belly pinning her down. “Mulder!” She tries to scream, but no sound escapes her throat and he keeps being pulled away from her. “Mulder!” 

“Mulder!” She calls again. This time she hears her voice as her hand involuntarily reaches out for him. 

But it isn’t Mulder next to her. His living room has dissolved into the cabin of a plane quaking with turbulence and she’s immediately mortified to find her fingers gripping John Doggett’s dry-skinned hand. She gasps and pulls her hand away but his eyes are already locked on hers. 

“I’m sorry,” she mutters under her breath. 

He gives her the grace of a silent nod and then turns back to the newspaper in his lap. 

She’s too keyed up to sleep for the rest of the flight so she just stares at the casefile she brought to read. She can’t absorb a single word, though. Her mind is running in a loop berating herself for being stupid enough to let her guard down. 

She avoids looking at Doggett the rest of the flight. When they land, he retrieves both of their bags from the overhead compartment and she whispers a quiet thank you.��

“We’ll find him,” Doggett says stoically before turning his back to her and walking up the aisle as she follows behind. 

She still doesn’t trust him, but she wants to believe him.

[thursdayinspace]

Chimera though. "Do you have a significant other?" Mulder's answer: "Um, not in the widely understood definition of that term."

Dude. What?? Seriously, that is such a reply. Most importantly, it's very much not a no. That hesitation before he answers, that smile on his face that looks almost shy. Nope, he doesn't have a significant other in the widely understood definition of the term, but yes, there kiiiiind of is someone?!

Who even knows what those two disaster clowns are doing in their free time at this point. If they haven't had sex yet, they have six episodes left to Do It before Mulder disappears. They've had their Millennium Kiss which was definitely a Thing™. Basically he's working with the love of his life and he has an inkling that all that gazing he's been doing has been reciprocated and that maybe he is (or could potentially be) off the market? He wants to be.

Just imagining them still completely clueless about what it means doing the "no you hang up first" routine in person in the parking garage every night. "Good night." "Good night." "Good night." "You didn't get in your car." "Neither did you." "You go first." "No you go first." Until Skinner walks past rolling his eyes so hard he gives himself a migraine, muttering something about "those crazy kids figuring it out one day."

Whatever they're doing, whatever is going on between them, it is more than nothing. "Not in the widely understood definition of that term." It's such an evasive answer, but it's definitely not a no.

[omjitskailay]

I have bounced around a lot of theories as to when Mulder and Scully started sleeping together, and my latest is that they have been casually sleeping together from very early on. Maybe casually isn't quite the right word, but I think some desperate fucking occurred during the cancer arc which was of course never mentioned again, and at various other emotionally stressful times they ended up in bed together but then act like it never happened because they can just do that.

Despite the multiple times they have slept together, the IVF thing is still awkward and adorable becuase it still truly has the energy of Scully asking a coworker to be the father of her child even though they have been unofficially married for years.

And that's why their kiss in millenium is so so significant. The half kiss in Triangle and the almost kiss in FtF both happened during high stakes, emotionally wrought moments. The new years eve kiss was not that. There was nothing urgent happening and their stress levels were fairly normal for once so that kiss is them finally accepting that they are in fact deeply in love and any and all sex that happened after that was what caused all of the silly flirty happy-go-lucky moments in S7.

Anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk i have so many thoughts about this

[darkenedreaper]

Pairing: Dana Scully x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Slight angst, light fluff, light smut

Summary: You and Dana have a history and are forced to work with one another, but feelings come flooding back when you see her partner in crime, Mulder

A/N: Been in the drafts for a while and I’m thirsty

Jealousy Does All Sorts (1)

You and Dana had gone through college and university with each other before she joined the FBI. You had wild night outs in university, in the prescience of simply each other and friends. Wild nights for you and Dana consisted of a few different meanings. It could’ve simply been a night out with all your friends drinking, a night out getting drunk with the pure intention to have crazy sex somewhere, a crazy sex night itself, studying and testing each other, or ordering takeaway and watching a movie. Although you were close and intimate with each other neither of you confirmed what you really were. Perhaps that’s why it was so easy for her to go her own way, at least you thought it was easy for her. You knew she wanted to join the FBI, you did yourself but things changed for you within a short time. Rather than continuing on down your career path alongside Scully you decided to join the military on short notice. You said to yourself you’d do it for a few months for the experience but little did you know a few months would turn into a few years. When you both graduated you drifted apart suddenly, your deployment was a few days after the graduation and Dana had her own plans starting the FBI as soon as she could. You never said goodbye to each other but you knew where the other was going. Neither you nor Dana kept in touch with anyone from University, everyone moved on.

A few years down the line you were a Captain for a few squads, you’d seen the enemy die, comrades die, you’d had your fair share of new recruits come and go. You were still young and you wanted to chase the FBI role before you were dedicated to the army for life, so you left. Your team threw a ‘party’ for you and sent you off with a stern salute. Dana had also seen her fair share of things over the years in her job. She’d seen things you couldn’t make up or draw on paper, but she was happy to say the least. She was partnered with Mulder and had been with him since she started, so the two of them were relatively close; him more so open about it than her. She was snapped out of her daydreaming and thinking by Mulder, he was joking about the new intake that was about to arrive. This intake didn’t need any training or a shadow phase of any sort, this intake would’ve been interviewed on skills, qualifications and background. Mulder liked to make fun of them and pick them apart, say that joining the job that way was the easy way in, or calling them a bunch of frauds. Scully didn’t like to take much notice of Mulder picking because she knew how extensive and experienced the background of the individuals had to be. She would question Mulder on it because after all they were the same rank.

You waited in the canteen fiddling with your new badge ‘Agent L/N’, it could grant you access to places and rooms you couldn’t access as a civilian let alone a Captain in the army. You’d be lying to yourself if you said Dana hadn’t been on your mind since your application got accepted. You never forgot what she looked like, you were sure she’d work here but you doubted yourself. There was every chance she could’ve walked past you and you hadn’t recognised her. But no that wouldn’t have happened. The mental and physical training you received from the army, your brain wouldn’t let you forget such a significant face. You looked a little different to what you did in University. You looked a little more stoic, your eyes had seen more than the normal citizen. You had a small but aging battle scar on the top of your eyelid cutting up to your eyebrow. Your hair was different, you were lean, but other than that nothing else had changed, at least you thought.

Your intake hadn’t been given offices just yet. It was still being worked out if anyone was going to be sharing an office or having their own. You wished for your own, you were a little bit more reserved now after being betrayed by who you thought were teammates but really were working for the enemy. But still you tried to keep a positive outlook for life. After examining the canteen and the agents in it, you thought it was chilled and relaxed. Your thought were interrupted when the boss came to speak to your intake, announcing those that got their own offices, and those that would share. You were pleased to see the sight you saw when you left the elevator and walked down a corridor. ‘Y/n L/, Special Agent was written on a piece of paper blu-tacked to the door whilst your plaque was on its way. You scanned around seeing some storage rooms, Skinners office, a break room, a meeting room, some other agents rooms, and a Fox Mulder Special Agent, was 4 doors down from you. You made a mental note of the names that were in your corridor. Unlocking your door with your new key you had a look around in your new office, it was cold looking, neat but cold. There was chalkboards and cork boards, a computer, a chair, another desk and a spare chair that was facing your desk. And there were some spare supplies for you to decorate your office with. There was a metal locker and a projector. Stuff that would come into use. You were happy to see that the clock was working because it read that it was lunchtime. Heading down to the canteen you slung your lanyard that carried your badge and key on it around your neck and shut your door to lock it.

Just as you were turning round a red haired woman flashed passed your eyes at the bottom of the corridor. You didn’t see her face but you couldn’t shake the colour of her hair. She was only short and petite, she was dressed and seemed to move elegantly. It was a flash, a blur even, but she was making her way into Fox Mulders room. You tried to shake it off, tried to shake Scully off of your mind. It was your first day and you didn’t want to piss anyone off. Off to the canteen you went, with a redhead on your mind. You didn’t really eat dinner. It was a little much and after being out the military for 2 or 3 months it was too much compared to what you ate there, so you pushed it around. Thinking about Dana you felt happy, sad, and angry. She left you, she dropped you like it was nothing and never made any effort to contact you. You thought you would’ve received a letter, but nothing. She knew you joined the army and nothing. You felt betrayed but you promised yourself that even if you did work 4 doors down from her you wouldn’t let it affect you work. You were here for change, here for a new start. Just as you stood up with a full plate of food if it wasn’t for your reflexes you would’ve spilt the food all over yourself and the man standing in front of you. “Good reflexes, let me guess, ex-professional circus actor?” He chuckled but your face didn’t change. He held his badge up to you showing you his name ‘Fox Mulder’, you tilted your head and he clocked on that you knew his name. “Ahh I see you know me, have you seen my name in the papers, on awards, at the bottom of case files?” “No”, you stated. He awkwardly nodded his head but explained that he saw a new name on the door that he been empty and had been on the hunt for you. “How’d you know what I look like from my name?” You asked, “I didn’t know whatcha looked like, but I’ve asked a hundred other girls if they’re Agent L/n but it seems like I’ve hit the jackpot. Leave that there and I’ll come up and show you where I am”. “That’s not necessary Agent Mulder I already know”. You were putting your plate back down when he shouted back already walking off, “Just Mulder is fine, come on”.

You rolled your eyes, following a trail of sun seeds Mulder had dropped on the floor. Walking slightly behind him you pulled out a gold lighter and sparked up a cigarette to calm your nerves, remembering this was the same room the red haired woman walked into.

🤭

Part 2 coming soon

[randomfoggytiger]

Collector's Fic: Mulder, Scully, and Courthouse Weddings

Mulder and Scully and weddings-- do they or don't they? In this case they do and they don't.

Tagging @pookie-mulder, who inspired this idea!

Loose chronological order below~

@ghostbustermelanieking/skuls’s

in another world - Chapter 22

it happens in vegas, of course, and it happens because of langly and melissa.... it’s directly following mulder’s breakup with diana, and he’s been moping around the hotel room the entire time; dana is in the midst of stressing over a big test for medical school, and has refused to leave the hotel room so that she can study to the point of driving melissa crazy. 

AU-- Pre-S1 Mulder and Scully meet and marry in Las Vegas.

I wish you would write a fic where Mulder and Scully are married and domestic af. AU, obviously.

...Mulder and Scully are married on August 16, at a courthouse in Virginia. The date has no significance, no probable reason to get married then—and that, Mulder says, is why it's perfect.

AU S7 Scully is appalled at her and Mulder's shamelessly gooey "married" behavior.

#32: It looks good on you.

He says, “Wanna get married today?”

She lifts her head to look at him, her eyes wide with surprise and maybe an ounce of caution. She says, “You're kidding.”

“Dead serious, Scully.”

AU S7 Mulder and Scully get hitched on a spur-of-the-moment October day.

Five Moments Mulder and Scully Shared (And One They Didn't) (Tumblr)

The new weight is unfamiliar on her hand, but not in a bad way. She grabs his hand and presses a kiss half against his finger and half against his own ring as they huddle together on the steps of the courthouse. 

AU Post S11 Mulder and Scully get a second chance at their entire lives; and determine to make better choices with each other.

@silhouetteofacedar/SilhouetteOfACedar's Pearl, Ch. 1 (Ao3)

Scully shakes her head. “Sorry, no. I’m just nervous.”

“We can keep holding hands, if you want,” he says quietly. “Play the part of a happy couple for a few minutes.”

She glances at him to see if he’s joking. He’s not; his face is strangely serious.

He should be joking, she thinks.

AU-- Mulder and Scully wed after her cancer diagnosis.

@mchalowitz's (Ao3) chain reaction, part 5

Mulder doesn’t bring up the proposal for three days. He figures he should mention it before the weekend because after two days apart, the seriousness of it will wear off. It’ll just be an awkward occurrence, not a real offer. 

“Should we get you a ring?” 

Scully coughs out a laugh and glances at him briefly from the filing cabinet.

AU-- Between Scully's cancer and Teena Mulder's drama, Mulder and his partner are able to find a brief, bright spot: their marriage.

@leiascully's (Ao3) Mulder told Scully he would do whatever he could

They get married.  It’s a quickie courthouse wedding with Maggie and Tara as their witnesses.  Bill refuses to be any part of it.  

AU-- Mulder and Scully get married and leave the FBI to adopt and raise Emily.

@myownsuperintendent/MyOwnSuperintendent’s

All a Family

They get married at the courthouse. They bring her mom.... But she smiles during the ceremony, at least, and Scully does too, a little shyly, and Mulder knows he does, in a way he can’t contain.

AU-- Mulder tells Scully about her ova after her remission; and the two have successfully begun an IVF pregnancy and started the adoption process for Emily when they decide to wed for better chances.

Ficlet: “Marry Me” (Ao3)

She stops where she is.  “Are you serious?”

He pauses a moment to consider, and then he says, “I’m serious.” 

...She’s next to the bed now.  “Yes, then.”

AU-- Post Requiem Mulder asks Scully to marry him.

Readjustment

She feels a little bit guilty that she can’t give her mom what she wants, when there’s so much she’s missed out on. Maybe she would have wanted it herself once, but not anymore, now. “We just…we don’t want to wait, Mom,” she says, and maybe that’s silly, since they’ve already waited quite a while. Since they already have a child together, a life, love. But that is how they feel.

AU-- Mulder, Scully, and William are readjusting to life as free citizens no longer on the run... well, Mulder and Scully are, anyway.

@scully-loves-ruthie's Better Call Scully

“Mulder, look at me.  He faces downward eyes locked on hers.  “Do you really believe that you’ll never stake someone thinking they’re a vampire only to find out too late you were wrong... again?”

He stares at her weighing his response before offering a playful smile as he pulls her toward the courthouse

“That’s what I thought.”  She mutters quickening her pace to remain in step with him.

AU-- Post Bad Blood Mulder and Scully get married for "practical" reasons (of course.)

@cauldronoflove/thegoodthebadandthenerdy's All I Need's a Fraction of Your Happy Heart

(Mulder had meant his proposal, sure, but in the end it was Scully who proposed. Neatly and to the point, but so full of an unrestrained want and sincerity that Mulder had covered her hand across the crayon-scribbled tabletop without even checking left or right.)

AU-- S7 Scully reflects on the journey from her recent marriage to Mulder while she and her partner are on a case.

AU/Married/ISTJ reflects how banter had turned to serious convo/duo both proposed/courthouse/giddy together on case-- All I Need's a Fraction of Your Happy Heart - [Archive]

@msrafterdark's (Ao3) MSR // Ficmas Day 30 - Fireworks

Their belongings are all in storage save for a few toiletries and some clothes for their honeymoon next week. They're signing for a house next month. A simple but beautifully elegant wedding dress hangs on the back of the door of Scully's childhood bedroom. A bundle of wedding presents from relatives and friends--including a rather suspiciously-wrapped gift with the initials "TLG" scrawled on it--sit on Maggie's kitchen table. Even AD Skinner is stopping by for the courthouse appointment tomorrow.

AU-- S7 Mulder and Scully enjoy the night before their wedding together.

beduini/Beduini's Legitimate

The baby moves again and he smiles, a wide, cheek-splitting smile. After a few more minutes, he raises up on his forearm once more and looks down at her with eyes shining, as if he'd just solved a case. "Hey Scully, we got married today."

Her lips turn up in a slight, amused smile. "Yes, Mulder, we did."

AU-- Post Vienen Mulder and Scully hit up the courthouse.

Vickie Moseley’s (Ao3, Gossamer)

Mother of the Bride

"Dana," I whispered, holding my breath and hoping my suspicions about this 'appointment' were correct. "Can you tell me what this is all about?"

Suddenly, Fox was on the phone. "Call it an early birthday present, Mrs. Scully. And maybe a late Mother's Day Present, as well."

Post Existence Mulder and Scully wed at the courthouse.

@aloysiavirgata’s (Ao3, WBM, Gossamer, LJ, Alt. LJ) A Tent of Shelter (Ao3)

She smiles at him, her lopsided grin. “Mulder, what can change, really? The taxes. The health insurance. But I think we’ve reached some point of terminal commitment, don’t you think? And you can hardly imagine I’ll be Doctor Mulder. So do I like the idea? I do, very much. But it’s hardly shocking.”

“Scully my love, you need to read more romance novels.”

Post IWTB Mulder wants to get married for his birthday.

@agentscully/agent_scully2084's Important Traditions

With minimal protest, Scully allowed Mulder to carry her over the threshold, laughing as Mulder explained the symbolism of the ancient tradition and appeared to take seriously his duty to protect his new bride from evil spirits.

Post IWTB Mulder and Scully get married in khakis and blue.

@scully/humancredentials's "Did you just call me 'baby' in front of my mother?"

She looks like she’s about to say that yes, something is wrong and that he shouldn’t antagonize her brother that way and even though they’re living together now, even though they’re ink on the paper official, sworn to each other in a courthouse in rural Virginia in front of her mother, her God, and all of their ghosts, it still makes her anxious when it’s on display.

But she doesn’t, doesn’t say any of those things, realizes she doesn’t even really want to.

Post IWTB Mulder is prone to slipping up with pet names after he and Scully tied the knot.

amorfati3215/Amorfati32’s (FFN) AU head canon - Mulder and Scully never separated...

Mulder and Scully marry two months later in a small service at the county courthouse. Scully’s mother gives the bride away while Skinner agrees to be Mulder’s best man. It’s a quiet affair, formal too but it’s exactly what they wanted. 

AU-- Post IWTB Mulder and Scully vacay, wed, and stay together during the hard times.

@broadcastnews1987/audries/@kennedyandheidi/inkspl0tchess's (WBM 1/ 2/ 3) Unnamed

“you’re my wife,” he says, over and over. her fingers are tugging at the tie she’d made him wear to the courthouse. he hadn’t really minded. “you’re my wife, scully.”

Post IWTB-- Three moments are Mulder and Scully tied the knot.

@m0lderitsme's Just a post MSIV fluff piece.

A big wedding was most definitely not for either of them. Plus, they didn’t really have anyone to invited anymore. Sure, Scully could have asked her brother Bill and his wife and son, but she didn’t really want them there. They decided that they’d get married in a very, very quick ceremony with a Justice of the Peace.

Post Revival Mulder and Scully marry with Skinner as their witness.

@flukemen/@pinebluffvariants/pinebluffvariant's Barrows

On a Friday afternoon, Mulder and Scully get out of a cab just a few blocks from the basement where they used to eat hotdogs at midnight and argue over evidence, when they were young. The streets are cleaner than they used to be, back then. The air is too. At least it feels that way today.

Post Revival Mulder and Scully wait in line outside the courthouse... and watch Skinner skip right on through.

@kateyes224's (Ao3)

Unchained Melody

Scully wiggled her small toes on the hard-wood floor, glad to be barefoot.  Her pale ecru dress shimmered in the darkened kitchen, her face half shadowed. She looked up at Mulder, and something in the way she was sitting, staring up at him, her cerulean eyes luminous in the dark, niggled at his brain like deja vu.

After the courthouse ceremony, Mulder remembers one moment when his parents looked really, truly happy with each other.

Honorable mentions:

amorfati3215/Amorfati32’s The Proposal (Parts 1/, 2/, 3/, 4/)

jeri’s (Gossamer) Vulpecula (Gossamer 1/ 2/) (post here)

@rationalcashew/RationalCashew's Dark is the Way; Light is the Place (Tumblr)

Vickie Moseley’s "My Dearest Son"

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

[azure-firecracker]

My One Big Problem with Season 2

I touched on this in my Season 2 Review, but I wanted to take the opportunity to go more in-depth with it. As I said, I absolutely adored Season 2, but I took issue with the way it handled Scully and Mulder saving each other. As I’ve always said, mutual rescuing is my absolute favorite trope so long as it’s balanced. For all the things Season 2 did well, it absolutely fell short in terms of feeling balanced in that regard, and I (along with seemingly many others) ended the season frustrated, feeling as though Scully was always being snatched up and Mulder was always rushing to save her. I wanted to explore the ways in which Season 2 creates that impression (it’s not as simple as you might think!) and talk about what I think they could have done differently to avoid leaving this damsel-in-distress impression on so many viewers.

By the Numbers

For the purposes of this analysis, here are the times in Season 2 where Scully rescues Mulder (some of these are a bit ambiguous, so if you don’t count them, that’s totally valid):

Little Green Men

Red Museum

Excelsis Dei (this barely counts)

Aubrey

End Game

Anasazi

And here are the times where Mulder rescues Scully:

Duane Barry/Ascension/One Breath (technically he fails, but this arc is so instrumental to Scully’s damsel-in-distress vibe throughout the season that I had to include it).

Irresistible

End Game

Our Town

Now, if your viewing experience was anything like mine, these numbers will surprise you. I would have 100% guessed that Mulder’s numbers (as in, the number of times he saved Scully) would be higher. So clearly something is at play here besides just “number of times saved.” Let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?

Here is Mulder’s total time spent in peril throughout the season. This was a bit hard to quantify, as most of his times in danger are slow descents into trouble rather than abrupt transitions, so the moments when he goes from “not in danger” to “in danger” are a bit ambiguous. Take these numbers with a grain of salt.

Little Green Men (From the time he finds the body until Scully wakes him up): 08:40

Red Museum: 00:15 (!!!)

Excelsis Dei: 03:14

Aubrey (Including the time after Scully arrives before BJ drops the razor): 01:13

End Game (From the time the Alien Bounty Hunter starts beating him up until Scully begins her voiceover): 04:00

Anasazi (From the moment his dad is shot until he wakes up in New Mexico): 08:39

Total: 26:01

Average time per episode (out of all episodes in peril): 04:20

Here is Scully’s total time in peril. This was much easier to quanitfy. Since Duane Barry’s scene was more or less repeated in Ascension, I didn’t count it. I didn’t include One Breath in this calculation, but I wouldn’t fault you if you did.

Ascension: 45:10 (The whole episode!)

Irresistible: 06:37

End Game: 08:41

Our Town: 04:21

Total: 1:04:49 - A 149% increase from Mulder’s time!

Average time per episode in peril: 16:12 - A 274% increase from Mulder’s time!

I am aware that Ascension skews this last statistic, so if we exclude that entirely, Scully’s average time in peril per episode is 06:33 - still a 51% increase from Mulder’s time.

If we assume that every episode is 45 minutes long, this means that:

For every episode featuring Mulder in peril, he spends on average 9.6% of that episode actively in danger.

For every episode featuring Scully in peril, she spends on average 36% of that episode actively in danger (14.5% if you exclude Ascension entirely).

So despite technically being saved fewer times, Scully spends a lot more time actively in peril than Mulder does throughout the season, both in total and per episode featuring her needing rescuing, by a pretty significant margin. This is one of the major factors in my next point.

Central to the Episode

Let’s explore how relevant Scully and Mulder’s damsel-in-distress moments are to the episodes they feature in, as well as how that might impact our viewer perception of these moments, and the impressions they leave in our memory.

For Mulder:

Little Green Men: This is an episode about Mulder’s desperate search for the truth against all obstacles, and how Scully will continue to follow him even after they’ve been separated. While the Puerto Rican government is a looming threat, I wouldn’t consider this a “Mulder in danger” episode.

Red Museum: This episode features a VERY brief moment of Mulder in danger. You could remove the moment and the episode would change very little.

Excelsis Dei: Same as Red Museum.

Aubrey: Same as Red Museum and Excelsis Dei.

End Game: Given that Scully has to go searching for Mulder, this is probably the closest thing we get to a direct role reversal for them. I would call this a “Mulder in danger” episode, but I do have other issues with it which I’ll get into later.

Anasazi: Also a “Mulder in danger” episode, but I would argue that it’s just as much about the alien lore, the plot, and the mystery as it is about Mulder being in peril/needing saving.

Now for Scully:

Duane Barry/Ascension/One Breath: This is an entire arc about her being in danger. Her being in danger is the story.

Irresistible: This is an episode about Scully’s trauma and the emotional walls she builds up as a result. Her being taken is instrumental to the episode’s arc as well as her character development. It is the center of the episode.

End Game: You could rewrite this episode without her being kidnapped, but her kidnapping propels much of the episode’s plot. Many of the episode’s emotional threads are tied to her kidnapping and the resulting hostage exchange. It would be difficult to rewrite this episode without her kidnapping.

Our Town: You could rewrite this episode without Scully being taken, but her kidnapping is absolutely central to the episode’s climax rather than tangential.

So, in general, when Mulder is in peril, it is tangential to the episode’s plot (there are two exceptions: we’ll get there). When Scully is in peril, it is the episode’s plot. This creates a much stronger impression in the viewer’s mind, and makes us much more likely to remember these episodes and these damsel-in-distress moments for Scully rather than Mulder.

But this isn’t the only reason why these moments resonate so much more when they happen to our favorite medical doctor/FBI agent/badass. Which leads me to my next point…

Agency and Bodily Autonomy

Both Mulder and Scully’s moments in peril tend to follow trends, but these trends are often opposites of each other. You’ll see what I mean.

Here is what (generally) happens when Mulder is in danger:

He makes the choice to seek out the episode’s villain wherever they’re currently hiding out (Red Museum, Aubrey, End Game)

He either tells someone where he’s going (Red Museum, Aubrey) or he doesn’t (Little Green Men, End Game) Either way, it’s his choice.

He willingly enters a fight with the episode’s villain and is overpowered either very briefly (Red Museum, Aubrey) or maybe for a bit longer (End Game).

Even when overpowered, he usually maintains some level of bodily autonomy. The only exceptions are Little Green Men and End Game while he’s unconscious, but he maintains bodily autonomy up until that point.

The only significant exception to this formula is Anasazi.

Here is what (generally) happens when Scully is in danger:

She begins somewhere completely ordinary (her apartment, her car, a motel room, a civilian’s house).

She is forcibly taken from this ordinary place by the episode’s villain and moved somewhere else against her will. She doesn’t know where she is, and couldn’t tell someone where she’s going even if she wanted to.

Here are some images of Scully throughout season 2:

Wow, you think, she must be having a rough day. Wrong! These are from 4 separate episodes. Notice how her bodily autonomy is taken away in all 4 of these photos. Her hands are also bound in 3 of these, you just can’t see it.

So, to recap, Mulder usually has free choice when he seeks out danger, while Scully rarely does. Of course her work is dangerous, but the moments when she is in the most danger are never due to her own choices. And Mulder always maintains his bodily autonomy even when in peril, while Scully doesn’t. This creates the impression that she is in more danger, more in need of rescuing, more powerless, and less able to handle herself.

Not to be the loud feminist in the room (just kidding-always be the loud feminist in the room!), but when your female character is always the one having her choice and bodily autonomy taken away, you have a problem. And I didn’t even touch on what it’s implied she went through while she was abducted.

On the topic of trends…

Variety vs. Repetition

So despite the trends in Mulder’s damsel-in-distress moments that I just listed, there are also several differences. Let’s explore what technically happens to him in each instance.

Little Green Men: Encounters aliens in Puerto Rico and passes out while the military is coming to kill him.

Red Museum: Locked in the meat processing plant as it’s about to be set on fire.

Excelsis Dei: Locked in the bathroom filling with water.

Aubrey: BJ knocks him over and holds a razor to his throat.

End Game: Gets beaten up by the Alien Bounty Hunter, encounters an alien retrovirus, is left on the ice to freeze, and nearly dies from exposure to said retrovirus.

Anasazi: Starts acting irrationally due to drugged water and becomes a murder suspect. Is very nearly implicated in said murder, and it’s strongly implied that he would have died had he been convicted.

Now, there are patterns in here (as discussed above), but for the most part, these are different enough that they didn’t feel repetitive while I was watching. In fact, Red Museum, Excelsis Dei, and Aubrey are consecutive episodes, and I didn’t realize Mulder had been in danger 3 times in a row until I went back and reviewed the episode list.

Scully, on the other hand:

Duane Barry/Ascension/One Breath: Kidnapped by Duane Barry/aliens or maybe the government.

Irresistible: Kidnapped by Donnie Pfaster.

End Game: Kidnapped by the Alien Bounty Hunter.

Our Town: Kidnapped by Chaco and the cannibalistic cult.

*sigh* This would be laughable if it didn’t play so hard into the female character damsel-in-distress trope. Part of the reason it feels like Scully is in danger so much is because every time she is in danger it’s exactly the same (refer to the photos above again for more proof if you need it).

Another irritating thing about this is that Scully’s kidnappings get less necessary as they go along. So not only do viewers become sick of seeing the same thing over and over again, they also get annoyed because it didn’t need to happen and yet they’re seeing it again. At least, I did. To be clear on this:

Duane Barry/Ascension/One Breath: Necessary for offscreen reasons which trumps all else. We support maternity leave on this blog! I also read that Gillian Anderson went back to work very quickly, so even though I missed Scully during this arc, I wouldn’t have minded if had been longer solely for that reason.

Irresistible: A very important follow-up to Scully’s abduction. Was (in my opinion) crucial to Scully’s character arc. Maybe she didn’t need to get kidnapped, but the episode is much stronger because of it.

End Game: The point where I started to get annoyed. Central to the episode? Yes. Necessary from a writing standpoint? No.

Our Town: Now, they could have done another Irresistible-esque parallel here, but they didn’t. So I was left feeling like you could exchange Scully and Mulder’s roles and very little would change.

Suffice to say, I was very annoyed by the end of Our Town.

So, to recap what we have thus far:

Scully spends more time, overall and per episode, in danger than Mulder does.

When Scully is in danger, it is more central to the episode’s plot than when Mulder is in danger, making her moments in peril more memorable to the audience.

When Scully is in danger, she loses her agency and bodily autonomy, making her seem weaker in comparison to Mulder than she actually is.

Scully’s damsel-in-distress moments all follow the same pattern, making their repetition more noticeable than when Mulder is in danger multiple times.

There are, however, two exceptions to these rules. Let’s get into them.

End Game and Anasazi

As I said a while back, these are the season’s only two “Mulder in danger” episodes (in my opinion. You could make a case for Little Green Men, too).

To recap:

The Colony/End Game two-parter begins with Mulder dying in the hospital, and we spend the rest of the story figuring out how he got there. Scully has to use every resource in her arsenal to track him down (despite him actively trying to ditch her). She then rushes to Alaska, realizes he’s been exposed to the retrovirus, and basically brings him back from the dead all on her own.

Anasazi features an obviously unwell Mulder descending into madness, and we as viewers are right there with Scully as she tries to figure out what’s happening to him. She figures out that his water is being poisoned, shoots him to stop him from killing Krycek (which would have led to a murder conviction and probably death), and drives him to New Mexico, risking her career and probably her life.

Now, I don’t want to downplay the awesomeness of these moments, because they’re undoubtedly badass and fantastic! But there is a through line between them that gave me pause.

I’m sure many of us remember what Mulder says to Scully in Anasazi. But in case we’ve forgotten, here it is:

Thank you for taking care of me.

And that’s the commonality. In both of her biggest instances of saving Mulder, Scully fills the role of the caretaker in at least some capacity. When Mulder saves her, he usually has to chase after some bad guys with a gun in a more traditionally heroic style.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Doctor Scully just as much as the next person, and I’m not even saying that one form of rescuing is inherently better than the other.

But when your male character is always being the traditionally heroic one and your female character is always caretaking in their most significant instances of saving one another…

Again, not to be the loud feminist in the room *waves in proud loud feminist*, but there’s some gender stereotypes at play there that I’m not the biggest fan of.

Don’t misunderstand me. I think that Scully, both as a character and as a female character specifically, is much stronger than these flaws. But that doesn’t mean I won’t point them out.

But Phoebe, What Should They Have Done Differently?

So glad you asked! Now, I’m not going to pretend I’m aware of all the network restrictions, budget stuff, external factors etc. that they were dealing with, but here’s a few ideas off the top of my head.

Now, I’m going to start this section by saying this: I am aware that Scully being repeatedly taken away was a major theme of this season. I don’t think that theme needs to disappear, but I think there are better ways of incorporating it than having her get kidnapped the same way four times.

I read this excellent post by @bakedbakermom about how every episode of S2 after Scully’s abduction is about her abduction in some way. I agree, and I think the show could have developed those parallels more overtly if they wanted to keep the theme of “there is this constant threat of Scully being taken away and what does it mean for our pair?” Here are some ways they could have done that:

More conversations like the one in Firewalker: Mulder wanting to protect Scully from everything, Scully insisting on going back anyway. There’s lots of good conflict there that could have led to some very tense episodes while still keeping the theme alive without Scully actually getting kidnapped.

Any one of the episodes could have been interspersed with abduction flashbacks or something of the like, further highlighting the parallels.

I am of the belief that Mulder needs to heal from the abduction trauma just as much as Scully, but in a very different way. You could have an episode where he sees another person he has to protect, there’s some sort of parallel and Scully knows why he cares so much. She tries to pull him back but all he remembers is her crying for help over the answering machine and he gets in too deep. That would have been such a good episode😫

And if you’re hell bent on putting Scully in danger, here are some new ways to do that:

Maybe she gets infected with a parasite thingy and she has to figure out how to cure herself and it brings up both her worst fears of being powerless and needing help and Mulder’s fears of not being able to help her.

Let her step into Mulder’s shoes! Maybe she meets someone whose trauma parallels her own and she gets too invested in helping them and she knows the risks but runs into danger anyway. Our girl can still have agency, even if she needs saving!

Maybe she chases some bad guys into the woods and gets knocked out or something and Mulder just kind of has to watch over her until help comes and it’s a good way to have her in danger plus Mulder angst without kidnapping her again.

And this doesn’t fit into the theme but for fuck’s sake, you can have the theme of Scully being taken and still let Mulder get kidnapped or be a traditional damsel-in-distress! It won’t ruin the theming! In fact, I think it would strengthen it. It would be an awesome Scully moment, and I think it would be an interesting character study, because Mulder is always so worried about Scully that he never stops to think about himself. Who knows how a brush with death like that would affect him? Or how having to rush after him while the clock is ticking would affect Scully? All would provide interesting perspectives on the season’s theme! (Plus, Anasazi confirmed to me that Mulder is such a good damsel-in-distress. It’s the puppy energy).

(Shameless self-promo time. I did write a fic switching Scully and Mulder’s roles in Our Town for this exact purpose. You can read it here on Ao3).

Like I said, I’m not saying the season needed to do all of these things, or even any of them. These are just some ideas, off the top of my head, of how they could have mixed it up a little. If you have more ideas, please share them with me! I’d love to hear!

Conclusion

So, I don’t hate the number of times Scully needs saving this season, but I do take issue with how it’s done. A little more variety, some more switching up Mulder and Scully’s roles, and closer attention to the gender stereotypes they were touching on, all would have made all the difference.

Like I said, I loved Season 2. So many things about it were wonderful, and like Scully, I think the season is stronger than its flaws. This was an in-depth analysis on where the season faltered (in my opinion) and what I might have done differently. It is not hate towards any of the X-Files writers, actors, crew, etc.

Now that I’ve gotten my thoughts out there, I would love to continue discussing this with all of you, so if you disagree with me and want to talk it out (respectfully!), or if you just have something to add, or if you just think I’m really smart and want to tell me (lol), feel free to leave a comment or reblog with your own addictions! I love nothing more than talking with y’all.

This is probably the longest meta I’ll do for a while, but I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on the show once I enter Season 3. I’ll see you then:)

[television-overload]

of our own making

(an X-Files fanfic)

Chapter 21/34 - eggs benedict

[Read on AO3]

It’s strange, staying with Sheriff Adderly and his wife Ellen during this case in Vermont. If he had his way, he’d be checked into a motel instead of infringing on their hospitality, but he’d been given no choice. They even refused reimbursement for their troubles, which did nothing to lessen the feeling—however true or untrue it was—of him being a burden to them.

Ellen Adderly had pulled out all the stops for their guest, preparing decadent meals on fine china for every meal, claiming she’d have done it whether he was there or not. He has a hard time believing that. He can’t imagine living in such a way every day of his life. He and Scully barely manage to set out real plates to eat on when they order takeout at home, and he certainly doesn’t expect her to have a three course meal set out when he gets back from work. Besides the fact that she’s always at work with him, it’s just not something he thinks is necessary. Is that something she’d want to do? He doesn’t think so. 

The routine they have works for them, that’s all that matters.

But after getting a taste of his own personal brand of domesticity, it’s… odd… to see how others do it. He’d never have thought there were so many different ways to balance home life, much less enough that he’d start to form an opinion on them. His parents had been one way—not a particularly healthy relationship—and he and Scully are… well, they’re not really anything besides roommates, but that still counts, in his book.

Whatever they are, he likes it. Far better than this constant fussing, at least.

Mrs. Adderly must notice his discomfort, because at breakfast as she masterfully puts the finishing touches on his eggs benedict, she says “I get the feeling you're not used to anyone taking care of you,” and for some reason, that assumption grates on his nerves.

He takes a measured draw from his cup of steaming coffee, swallowing back his immediate retort.

“What makes you say that?” he asks instead. She probably hadn’t meant anything by it, but it still comes off as rude. He has someone to take care of him, thanks very much. Just not exactly in the same way as Mrs. Adderly insists on taking care of her husband… and apparently Mulder too.

“I’m sorry,” Ellen says, realizing her statement had come out somewhat offensive. “I just mean… I didn’t see a wedding band.”

She nods at his left hand sitting atop the table, and he follows her gaze to the bare ring finger.

“Do you have a significant other, Agent Mulder?” she asks.

Significant? Yes. Very. Other? That’s a good descriptor. Single, married, other. Yeah, he’d select other, if this were a multiple choice question. Although he’s pretty sure that’s not what she meant.

“I’ve– um…” he starts, wondering how best to describe his situation to this woman. “I’ve got a wife, actually.” He pulls out the ring on its chain to show her. “It can be dangerous in my line of work to have it on display,” he explains lamely before tucking it back into his shirt.

Ellen smiles. “Ah, well that’s good. Don't miss out on home and family, Mr. Mulder. I imagine with all the things you see, you need that refuge more than most.”

Her words hang in the air, a bit of sage advice from a woman he otherwise has very little in common with. But before he really has a chance to think about what she’s said, Sheriff Adderly makes an appearance, and it’s back to business. Ellen excuses herself to go check on their daughter, leaving the two of them alone to discuss the case.

Mulder remains seated at the table, staring down the sheriff with a knowing look. He’d begun to suspect—and now his suspicions are all but confirmed—that the man had been unfaithful to his wife, and it makes him feel sick. Here this man has it all; a loving wife, a sweet baby that they didn’t have to jump through a million hoops to get, and yet he’s willing to throw it all away for some cheap thrills.

He’ll never understand it.

The man is no more forthcoming about his knowledge of the case than he had been before, so Mulder lets it slide for now. The last thing he wants to do is show all his cards too early and spook him. He gives him just enough to leave him rattled. To let him know that he knows . 

He lets the unspoken threat hang between them until the sheriff folds, squirming away to take a shower, or so he says. 

He’s still seething in bitter disgust when Ellen returns, carrying her sleepy baby in her arms. It’s a well-practiced juggling act, Mulder can tell, as she goes about fixing herself a plate of her now lukewarm breakfast. With only one arm, she clearly struggles to transfer strips of bacon out of the pan, and Mulder gets to his feet.

“Here, let me help,” he says, joining her in the kitchen. What he’d meant was that he could help assemble her plate, but as he goes to reach for the spatula, he instead finds himself being handed a baby, and his eyes widen comically. “Oh, right,” he says, then plasters a forced smile on his face. Sure, this was what he’d meant to do all along. 

The little girl is heavier than he’d expected. Like a sack of flour, though with limbs jutting out everywhere. It takes him a moment to adjust, his hands holding her awkwardly beneath the armpits. 

“Hi,” he says conversationally, looking down at her like she’s a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment. The baby just blinks at him, a blank stare on her face. “Okay,” he mutters to himself, lifting her to his hip and returning to the table. He makes every effort to not look like this isn’t the first time he’s held a baby in—well, basically forever, but he’s not sure he succeeds.

Ellen smiles across the table at him and digs into her meal.

“Do you have children, Agent Mulder?” she asks, “You and your wife?”

It still makes his heart flutter to hear someone refer to Scully as such, but he supposes that to Ellen, it really is that simple. Scully is his wife, that’s all she knows.

He’d always thought conversations like this to be so dull. ‘So, Dave, how’s the ol’ ball and chain? Kids staying out of trouble?’  But, now… 

Well, it’s different now that he actually has something to contribute to the discussion.

“Yeah, actually, one on the way,” he says, giving a self-conscious little smile. 

He’s never told anybody about this other than Skinner, but he supposes there’s no harm in telling this random woman in Vermont. It almost makes him feel… normal. Like he can relate to other people over the simple fact of his impending fatherhood. A shared human experience. A milestone in his life that doesn’t involve aliens, ghosts, ghouls, or any manner of cryptozoological entity.

“We’re adopting,” he further explains. “Only a couple months left till the birth mother’s due date.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” Ellen exclaims, smiling up at him over her bowl of fresh fruit. “You must be so excited!”

“Very,” he says, looking down at the drooling baby on his lap. “We never really thought it was possible. That we’d ever—” 

He pauses, the shrill tone of his cell phone breaking into their conversation.

“Speaking of my wife,” he says, flipping open the device. “Hey, Scully. How’s the stakeout going?”

Her voice crackles over the other side of the line, drawing a genuine smile out of him. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t ask that, Mulder, so that I can give you the good news I just received.”

His stomach does a flip. “Good news?”

He pictures her nodding, sitting in that grimy, cold room surrounded by surveillance equipment, somehow brightening it with her smile. “Krista called and we had a little chat.”

Mulder looks up at Ellen from across the table, where she’s watching him with a knowing smile. “Oh?” he says.

“Mm-hmm. And you know what she told me?”

Scully is extra cheeky this morning, huh? He misses her horribly. This is the last time he’s letting Skinner split them up for a case. After this, no more. He’s putting his foot down. What are they going to do, fire him?

“What did she tell you?” he asks, turning to instead stare at the floorboards, giving himself the illusion of privacy despite the constant watch of Mrs. Adderly.

“She told me the sex of the baby. Would you like to know?”

His heart thumps in his chest suddenly, its rhythm erratic. This, he hadn’t expected first thing in the morning. He hasn’t even finished his first cup of coffee yet.

“She finally found out?”

“Yeah, Krista said she was a lot more cooperative at this appointment than the last one,” Scully explains.

Mulder freezes.

“She?” he says, his voice raspy with awe. “It’s a girl?”

He hears Scully release a shuddering breath before her voice comes back, with all the telltale signs of happy tears that he’s come to recognize in the last few months.

“It’s a girl,” she confirms.

It’s a girl. He’s gonna have a baby girl.

“That’s– that’s amazing, Scully! That’s… wow!”

“I know,” she says. “I’m– You’re not disappointed, are you?”

“Disappointed?” he asks, furrowing his brow. “Why would I be disappointed?” 

Disappointed is the absolute last thing he’d be feeling right now. Elated is a better word. Maybe a little scared, but he’ll get over it.

“I don’t know, I just thought… You know, you talked about coaching little league, and I’m sure you want someone to watch basketball with you…”

He laughs. He can’t help but laugh. “Just because you don’t like basketball doesn’t mean other girls don’t,” he says matter-of-factly. “And have you seen girls softball teams, Scully? They’re brutal. You try getting hit by one of those giant neon yellow ostrich eggs at 50 miles an hour. I volunteered to practice with the girls once in high school. Almost lost an eye.”

“But what if she doesn’t like sports at all?” Scully asks, and he’d bet good money that she’s chewing on her lip right now, the way she does when she’s worried. “What if she’s on the chess team or plays the violin or the piano?”

Oh, Scully.

“Then I’ll learn all the names of her concertos and cheer her on at every chess tournament,” he answers simply. “Look, Scully, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you and I are both gigantic nerds. I think we’ll be prepared for whatever she’s interested in when she gets older.”

She . They can finally stop talking about her in abstract terms. A girl. A daughter.

“Your mom’s gonna flip,” he says when she doesn’t respond. Margaret Scully has a grandson, but no granddaughter. He can just see the little plaid dresses, frilly socks, Mary Jane shoes, and giant velvet bows in their future. She’ll be spoiled rotten.

“I can’t wait to meet her,” Scully says, sounding wistful. 

“Me too,” he agrees. “When I get back, we’re going out shopping again. I think maybe this time I’ll be able to hold it together in the clothes section.”

That earns him a laugh.

“I’m willing to bet it will go the same way as last time,” she teases back, and she’s probably not wrong. Just picturing this baby, a little girl like the one he’s holding now, has him emotionally on edge.

“I– I’ll talk to you later, okay?” he says, glancing up at the clock. “Let the thought of warm baby snuggles keep you from freezing your butt off.”

She sighs, the annoyance of her less than ideal assignment returning. “Thanks for reminding me, ” she intones.

They stay on the line a moment more, waiting to see who will be the one to hang up. Eventually he hears a soft click, and he smiles down at the phone in his hand. Goodbyes have never been necessary between them. Maybe that’s just another way they’re weird, but he likes it.

The baby in his lap gurgles, and he sets his phone on the table to turn his attention back to her. He sees her differently now, with the knowledge that he has a little girl on the way too.

“You’re going to be an amazing father,” Ellen says, eyes shining as she watches him.

Mulder feels his cheeks beginning to burn. “Oh. Thanks.”

“No, really,” she says more insistently. “You seem to care a lot already. And wanting to be involved… Well, that’s everything. Your wife is a very lucky woman.”

“I’m the one who’s lucky,” he says, and he truly believes it.

He’s the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.

~~~

wife guy / girl dad mulder says you get another chapter :)

Chapter 22/34 - pizza boxes

The sound of keyboards clacking fills the dimly-lit room. A greasy bag that once held at least a dozen cheap tacos from the place across town sits atop a stack of empty pizza boxes, not that the inhabitants of this particular abode pay much attention to that kind of thing. 

“Hey, here's something weird,” Langly says, looking up from the computer monitor, the unnatural light of it reflecting off his glasses.

“What? Is it Krycek again?” Frohike asks, crossing the short distance to lean over the other man’s shoulder. “What’s that little rat up to now?”

Langly adjusts the bright, warm-toned desk lamp to minimize the glare on the screen.

“No, just something strange in my sweep of government records,” he says.

“Mention of a virus? Shadow government stuff?”

Langly shakes his head. “It flagged a document mentioning Mulder and Scully's names.”

This bit of information piques Byers’ interest from across the room. “What agency? Homeland? DoD?” he asks, joining the other two at Langly’s computer.

“County court in Annapolis, Maryland,” Langly reads off the screen. “Dated December 24, 1999.”

“Open it!” Frohike demands impatiently.

It takes only a few seconds to hack the database, which is a little alarming. What would the public think if they knew how insecure county records are? But that’s a concern for another day. 

The document slowly appears on screen, and three pairs of eyes take in the information all at once.

“That's… unexpected,” Byers says.

“Married? Since when?” Frohike exclaims.

Langly looks up at him with a condescending glare and smacks the older man in the stomach. “Since Christmas, idiot, haven't you been paying attention?”

“Not that, stupid,” Frohike says, quick to respond with a slap to the back of the blond man’s shaggy head. “Since when are they an item? Did I miss something?”

“You seen a rock on her finger lately? I haven't,” Langly comments.

“Get Mulder on the phone, that little sneak owes us an explanation!” Frohike snaps, pointing a finger at Byers.

The phone rings a few times before it connects, the voice of their friend coming through on speakerphone.

“Now's not a good time, boys,” he says. There's some kind of noise in the background, someone speaking, but they can’t make out who it is. It doesn’t sound like anyone they know. 

“Mulder!” Frohike yells into the phone. “What gives, man?!”

“Yeah, bro, we'd have thrown you a bachelor party if we'd known,” Langly adds.

A sigh crackles through on the other end of the line, and Mulder murmurs something indistinguishable to someone before finding somewhere quieter to talk.

“How'd you find out?” he asks, sounding annoyed.

“Your marriage license record came up in one of our regular sweeps. No other threats, by the way,” Byers answers.

“Except maybe Frohike,” Langly jokes. “He might want to challenge you for her hand.”

Byers snickers.

“Shut up! I'm happy for them,” Frohike says, glaring at his friends.

Langly rolls his eyes. “You never stood a chance.”

“There's an explanation for this, I swear, now's just really not a good time,” Mulder says, insistent.

“What's there to explain?” Frohike asks. “You guys fell in love and got married without telling your best friends. No big deal.”

He’s not genuinely trying to guilt trip Mulder, but it does sting a little that they hadn’t said anything to them. Maybe just a little tiny guilt trip. A guilt excursion, if you will.

“It's not… really that simple,” Mulder says, his words hesitant.

“What do you mean?” Byers asks.

“I know you didn't knock her up, obviously, so what more is there?” Langly says, as delicate as a brick to the face.

“Well,” Mulder says, “I kind of did, in a manner of speaking.”

“Scully's pregnant?” Byers asks. This is shocking news. It should be impossible! “But—”

“No, Scully's not pregnant,” Mulder quickly corrects before the conversation can spiral out of control more than it already has. “But… we are expecting, actually. Hopefully.”

“IVF?” Byers asks.

“Not IVF. We tried that last year though, you're a little late to the party.”

Jeez, what haven’t they missed? Maybe the real conspiracy is whatever the heck is going on with Mulder and Scully.

“Then, what—?”

“We're adopting,” he says, interrupting them. They can almost hear his smile over the phone, all goofy and care-free. “There's a woman that selected us to adopt her baby when she’s born, so… I'm actually at this class for new parents with Scully right now. I should probably be getting back. Don't want the teacher to flunk me.”

“Wait wait wait,” Frohike says. “Adopting? How long have you guys been… you know?”

“Well we only started talking about it back in November. It's honestly moving pretty fast, but we're excited.”

“Not that,” Frohike says, waving his hands in the air. “You and Scully!”

“Oh,” Mulder says awkwardly. “Um, we actually aren't. A couple, I mean. If that's what you're asking.”

Frohike’s jaw drops. “You're kidding.”

“No, I'm not.”

“But you're married!” Langly insists.

“A formality.”

“The IVF!”

“Favor for a friend.”

“Yeah, right!” Frohike says with a laugh, sharing a disbelieving look with the other Gunmen.

“You love her, don't you?” Byers asks, sincerity breaking through his friends’ incredulity.

“If you're just gonna harass me, I'm going to hang up.”

Okay, so he’s done sharing for now. They’ll just have to try to get more out of him later.

“Mulder… what are we going to do with you?” Frohike asks, shaking his head.

“Listen, guys, I've got to go. We're learning how to change a diaper and I'd really like to not make a fool of myself, if at all possible.”

“Wait,” Frohike says. “Tell Scully congrats for us. We're happy for you, Mulder.”

“Yeah, we just think you're a complete idiot too,” Langly adds bluntly.

“Thanks, guys. We're really happy. Sorry I haven't been around, it's been crazy.”

Well, now at least they know why Mulder has been missing their poker nights and D&D lately.

“Don't worry about it, Mulder. Just—maybe tell us what's going on next time?” Byers suggests.

Mulder puffs out a laugh. “Sure, next time I marry my partner with the purpose of adopting a child, I'll let you know.”

Frohike points seriously at the phone, despite the fact that Mulder can’t see it. “Watch it, buddy, you're already on thin ice.”

“I'll talk to you guys soon,” Mulder says. “Oh, and if you're ever looking for me, I'm staying at Scully’s apartment now, by the way. I gave up my apartment.”

“Dude…” Langly says. There's something seriously wrong with those two.

“Alright, I gotta go. I'll tell Scully you say hi.” And with that, he hangs up, leaving the three amigos to take in everything they’d just learned.

“Aren't a couple…” Frohike grumbles, repeating his words. “They're a couple of idiots, I'll tell you that.”

Byers nods his agreement, and Langly shrugs. 

“Lucky kid, though.”

~~~

Lovely tag list ♡: [if you would like to be added or removed, let me know!]

@today-in-fic @ao3feed-msr @agent-troi @angegova @baronessblixen @calimanc @captainsolocide @clo-thespin @cutemothman @danasculls @deathsbestgirl @edierone @enigmaticxbee @figureofdismay @frogsmulder @gillian-anderson-in-the-tardis @hippocampouts @invidiosa @monaiargancoconutsoy @msrafterdark @numinousmysteries @primrose19 @randomfoggytiger @skelavender @skylarksong @stephy-gold @teenie-xf @the-redhead-in-a-dress @vincentsleftear

[are-they-queerplatonic]

Do you see them as a QPR?

QPR Definition:

"Queerplatonic relationships (QPR), also known as queerplatonic partnerships (QPP), are committed intimate relationships between significant others whose relationship is not romantic in nature."

Reasoning to see them as a QPR:

"The debates on wether their relationship was platonic or romantic are literally the source of the term "shipping". So why not a qpr ?

At the time I was watching, I was in the shipping category, but the more I think about it, the more they fit in a qpr. They are the most important person in each other's lives, and they may have had a kid together but their relationship was never really explicitly romantic (I haven't watched the last season of the revival so that may have changed there)"

[cecilysass]

Why I Think The X-Files Isn’t Really As Much About Watergate and Governmental Conspiracy As Everyone Claims, Maybe Including CC

This one’s really nerdy, get ready.

Media covering the X-Files has always emphasized how much the show capitalizes on a post-Watergate worldview, a paranoia about government and belief in high-level conspiracy. I think CC signed on to this interpretation entirely. So much so that he sure kept on feeding those conspiracy plot lines in the mytharc—even when every other plot line was going hungry. 

So much so that in the revival, he really created a problem for himself, which the media picked up on. Government conspiracy nuts in 2016 no longer were hot sensitive 90s guy outcasts like Mulder or quirky cuddly little nerds like the Gunmen. Government conspiracy nuts in 2016 were media savvy right wing commentators manipulating the masses, getting presidents elected through willful misinformation.  The revival series tried to address this head on with Tad O’Malley, a character who represented this new development. But it was definitely a sticky issue: the sociopolitical context of the original show was gone. Was the show relevant any more?

I would argue yes, or at least it could have been. I would argue that the interpretation of the XF as a show primarily about conspiracy at high levels of power and governmental manipulation is a flawed one to begin with. I think this take makes the show way too thematically narrow, limits it, and obscures the show’s more important appeals.

In the 1990s, media coverage of the show almost always mentioned Watergate the historical event. Sometimes coverage discussed how Watergate was directly referenced on the show (Deep Throat, meetings in parking deck, CSM and Diana both living in the actual Watergate), but also Watergate’s specific effect on creator Chris Carter, who specifically cited it as a formative event. Often it was claimed that the show’s popularity with audiences was rooted in post-Watergate suspicion of government.

I think this could have been true generally speaking, although I always thought it somewhat overestimated the impact of Watergate on the XF’s target audience. Consider that in 1997 many in the key 18-49 demographic would not even remember Watergate especially well, or at all. If you were 30 in 1997, you were 6 when the story broke in 1973. I’m sure that could have left a mark on you, but I also think it might have been something that simply left a much bigger impression on Boomers the age of Chris Carter himself.

Me? I was in college in 1997, and I was nonexistent / unborn during Watergate. So I didn’t remember it, and it held no personal significance in my worldview regarding the United States. I don’t think it ever would have occurred to me to trust that the government was telling me the truth all the time, and I wouldn’t ever be shocked to learn I was being intentionally misled. As a late Gen Xer growing up in the Reagan administration with post-Watergate ideas floating in the air, I just assumed the worst from the get-go.

So I admit: sometimes the earnest speeches from Mulder and Scully about the Truth and being lied to from men in power and a government we purport to trust seemed a little repetitive and obvious to me. It’s taken me a while to realize that these speeches are voicing something very specific and historically real, the furious indignation of Boomers that we can’t trust our institutions. I think I felt like, yeah, okay, okay, I get it. I never had the same kind of trust in institutions to lose in this respect, but this was a major betrayal for people my parents’ age.

All of this to say, I don’t think that the conspiracy worldview and the appeal of the paranoia about government was a big part of the draw for me. I’m not saying it wasn’t for many or even most others. But my instinct about storytelling is that that is a little too abstract or bloodless of an appeal to really hook most viewers anyway. Like, you might be interested in conspiracy to get you to watch initially, sure, but that’s probably not going to keep you watching for years. And it’s really not going to be enough to motivate you to tune in to a revival series in the 2010s.

So what was the big hook for viewers? You’re probably expecting me to say MSR, and if so, I’m going to surprise you a little. I do think that was part of it for some percentage of viewers, but I think it is more complex than that.

I think the show tapped into a late 20th century urge for individuals to become part of something greater than ourselves. Something we might think of as numinous or transcendent. Maybe something meaningful and good (like a quest for truth) — or maybe something that will look down and judge us, for good or ill. Something that means that we are not lonely in the universe. This puts X-Files squarely in an overall 1990s angels and aliens otherworldly trend. 

(Personally, and this could be an only me thing, but I can never quite separate out Tony Kushner’s Angels in America and The X-Files in my mind; Angels debuted on Broadway the same year X-Files first aired, and I was exposed to both at about the same time. They’re both about apocalypse and personal crisis and the end of the millennium and the transformative power of authentic relationships with others. I could do a whole thing on this.)

The desire for transcendence is the part of the show that is summed up by Mulder and Scully watching lights together in the sky, by Mulder’s wonder at seeing ships or aliens, by the entire notion of “I Want To Believe,” by the idea expressed in the last episode of the original series that both Mulder and Scully share—that the dead aren’t lost to us, that “they speak to us as part of something greater than us - greater than any alien force.” Mulder says to Scully that if “you and I are powerless now, I want to believe that if we listen to what’s speaking, it can give us the power to save ourselves.” There’s definitely a part of the show that is about little lonely human beings finding how they fit in a big, unfeeling universe.

The show's interest in conspiracy figures into this. Because after all, what are conspiracy theories but reassurance that there is some meaning behind everything after all? That there is some powerful system running the show, even if that system might be kind of evil. A grand organized secret an individual can actually uncover, rather than a bunch of random haphazard incompetence and chaos. I think this is part of the show's interest in transcendence, but only one part.

And there’s also part of the show that’s about a hero who is wracked with loneliness and alienation — and then two heroes who are wracked with loneliness and alienation—finding a kind of salvation in Truth, in Justice, in Trust, in Partnership, and, ambiguously, Love. (Sometimes Mulder sounds more like a 19th century Romantic hero than anything else.) This makes it a little allegory about late 20th century individualism and alienation and desire for meaning and authenticity and connection with others. 

I think what appeals to people emotionally in the show is that part of us that wonders: is there a universe that pays attention to me? Is there anyone who listens to me and who really, really knows me? Does anyone besides me care what is true and what is a lie? Will I find those who are lost to me and repair the parts of me that are broken? Is there anyone who would give up their life for mine?

I think that the desire to connect with others is a really basic human drive, and it’s most obviously foregrounded in the show the Mulder-Scully partnership. Even romance aside, we see from the first episode that these are two people with distinct worldviews who want to communicate, who see something in one another, who are hungry to be understood by one another. They ultimately see the other person as someone who reflects and affirms who they are. The partnership is definitely the emotional hook of the show, whether you see that as a romantic ship or not, and it thematically echoes the show’s overall themes of wanting there to be more in the universe. 

When the show was at its most emotionally devastating, it was one or both of its protagonists losing a relationship or connection that was important to them, or it was their frustration that their efforts were not meaningful on a larger scale: grief over a loss, a coverup that meant Justice wasn’t served or Truth was concealed.

When the show’s moments were most emotionally triumphant, they were always moments of overt connection, usually between Mulder and Scully, both more dramatic (“you’re my touchstone”) and subtle (reaching out to take a partner’s hand in Pusher or Field Trip). When there were moments of triumph concerning the government conspiracy, it felt more allegorical, like information (Truth) getting free, not progress made in specific governmental reform or anything. 

(And honestly, the moments of triumph against the conspiracy were pretty few and far between. We left the original run of show with the protagonists on the run, pretty sure there was going to be an alien invasion in coming years that had been facilitated by complicit human conspirators, so this conspiracy thread of the plot apparently didn’t even seem like the most important and emotionally satisfying story to resolve.)     

CC wrote a NY Times piece addressing the changing landscape on conspiracies in 2021, discussing why he was skeptical of a new UFO report. He was perceived as having the authority to write this because he created a show that quintessentially addressed government conspiracies about visitors from space.

But for me, the question of whether the government was hiding evidence of extraterrestrial life was really not the main takeaway from TXF. At least no more than the question of whether there needed to be an investigation into the undue influence of witchcraft in Scotland was my main takeaway of Macbeth.

I do acknowledge that I may have been in the minority. Maybe this is not how most people felt. But I also wonder if sometimes the urge to make the show primarily about political paranoia became a distraction from what it did best—these larger, more universal themes. I wonder if that is partly what was so frustrating about the storytelling of the revival.

[actual-changeling]

Post-Chimera fic with a moment similar to Ellen asking Mulder about having a significant other but it's Scully having to grapple with that question.

Maybe she picks him up at the airport (she misses him & also he almost got drowned so she's even more concerned—what if he didn't get himself checked out, what if EMTs missed something, what if there's still water in his lungs and he develops pneumonia, what if...) and gets roped into a conversation by someone waiting to pick up their partner.

"Are you waiting for your husband, too?"

"He's my—"

Husband. Well. No but not no. Technically no, but Mulder is still Someone and the most important person in her life, so—yes?

Scully doesn't want to lie but she can't decide if it's really a lie when the sentiment behind the word is true, when the weight of what Mulder is to her is not just equal to a spouse but even more than that. She panics a little a lot, and the words get away from her.

"He's mine."

It should sound odd or overly possessive but, somehow, it doesn't. It sounds right. Whatever it is they are, they both know—without having to say it out loud—that they belong to each other in a fundamental, can't-imagine-myself-without-you way.

[katesfatcat]

~incorrect x-files quotes~

Scully : Valentine’s day is just a consumerist holiday that holds no real value other than drive people insane buying heart shaped chocolates for their significant others and pos-

Mulder: I wrote you a poem.

Scully , already crying: You did?

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s4 episode 9 thoughts

this day had aspects which i did not care for, which is why i am hoping that the thrilling tale of mulder escaping a gulag will bring light and warmth to my heart.

author’s note, post episode: i need answers i need answers i need those slugs destroyed. this episode vastly improved my day and i remembered the simple joys of being alive, such as watching silly TV shows where the characters have an indescribable bond. truly a pleasure to be alive despite it all. scully and mulder, you have shown me such wisdom.

excellent moments for both scully and mulder in this one, which i treasure deeply, and also their together moments made my heart soar. genuinely a good ep!

let us gather to watch this tale!

we begin with a “previously on the x files”. i really hate that shot of mulder squished under that wire cage; it’s deeply unpleasant and i imagine so was the filming experience.

after that, we journey to a convalescent home in florida. now. the last time we went to a convalescent home, i have tried very purposefully for forget what went down. so my expectations here are low.

someone just waltzed in at night and is looking at the old people sleeping with a flashlight.... is this allowed? it probably shouldn't be. is she looking for someone in particular? 

she finds auntie janet and says it is time, he is waiting. now what does that mean?!?!

so she takes auntie janet out and there is some man that she’s in the car with?? he’s hooking auntie janet up to various chemicals. she says she’s tired of the pain and the doctor-y figure puts the green stuff into her. ah, i see what is going on here, as auntie janet hugs this woman and says she is her angel of mercy. 

so it looks like she died, but instead of just dying and that being it, there are oily slugs coming from her nose and mouth. which…. i mean, it’s better for them to come out in a controlled environment and after her passing, right? that seems ideal, all things considered. except for the fact that the oily slugs will now crawl into these people, so that’s a bummer.

HEY! the changed the text after the intro. “E PUR SI MUOVE” <- is that latin? hold on

i didn’t want to figure out what the whole phrase meant because that was part of the fun!! but in trying to figure out if “muove” was latin or italian or portuguese or something, i learned what the whole phrase meant and that it is significant for being uttered by galileo. darn! well, if i had to learn it before i wanted to, you shall too, i suppose. although i imagine if you read this blog, you’ve seen all this before. hmm.

we are in st. petersburg. FORMERLY LENINGRAD! but no longer at this point. someone is knocking at an old russian guy’s door. a young gentleman tells this old guy that “the cold war isn’t over” 

damn. still rings true in 2024. 

and also he gives the old guy an envelope. 

mulder is sleeping in a jail cell. he’s very tucked into that corner. it's adorable, in a certain way. someone is whispering to him. mystery other prisoner guy who can speak english said that he has been lying there for hours, and that the first time (referring to his alien injection) is “bad, very bad”

he calls this alien injection the “black cancer” that lives in the rock. this mystery man used to be a geologist! he was there when they found the fragments! woah... a rock guy... and look what they have done to him :(

okay, so this black cancer comes from the tunguska rock. got it. i am tracking the lore.

so at least hundreds of people have died here, and they seem to be searching for a cure to the black cancer after they inject it into their test subjects.

well! it is almost comforting that maybe both scully and mulder will die horrific early deaths, but at least together, right? because. the actual cancer that she probably has. and the weird creature in his veins now. they’ll have each other, i guess?

sighs. this is not providing me much comfort.

“i’m not gonna die. i have to live long enough to kill that man krycek” <- YAAAAAS i cheered!!!! his dogged determination has now been set to bloodlust mode!! hey, whatever keeps you alive!!!

mystery man sneaks mulder a shank he made over two weeks. that is a very dedicated thing to do, and even more profound to spend all that time and then give it to someone else. “it is wonderful- the persistence of life” damn…. bro has me thinking…. life really IS a gift, huh

back to the USA, where scully is tending to the mysteriously ill dr. sachs, who if you need a refresher, was the guy who was cutting into the mystery rock before he was mysteriously paralyzed. his blood looks a bit thickened (gag) and also there is something in there. EW!!! EW 

EW NASTY WORMS ATTACHED TO A GLAND IN HIM?!?!?!?!

no no no don’t care for that thank you!!!

in virginia, some people get on a bus, including an old man who is eating an apple. they are going to charlottesville. 

also there are some horses. the apple man snuck onto a farm with horses. IS IT GONNA BE THE WELL-GROOMED MAN’S FARM???

is it the russian guy??? well, he introduces himself as “vassily peskow” which seems to answer that question. 

(in googling this to make sure i spelled his name right, i saw that he has something to do with "the syndicate"- is that the official name of the group i have been referring to as the UN alien people for 3 seasons now?!)

he is speaking to the woman who we earlier saw give that stuff to auntie janet, but he has come to see her! her name is dr. charne-sayre, and while i know nothing about her besides her willingness to euthanize her aunt, she seems to have handled a strange old man showing up and touching her horses quite well, because personally i would be throwing hands.

OH!!! HE STARTS CHOKING HER?? the horses are neighing with fury. 

what… did i just see…

scully! at home!!! so pretty….

skinner is behind her!!! he is MAD! he has been trying to get ahold of her all day! well, she was busy??? cut a girl some slack???

he says she owes him some answers about this mystery pouch. he is maaaad! he has to testify tomorrow!! he harbored a known felon!!! ooo he’s gonna get in troubleeeee

she very calmly explains that the pouch has a rock with some sort of creature in it that she has been trying to figure out all day. she handled his anger quite, well all things considered. never forgetting to say “sir”.

but she doesn’t know where it was supposed to be going. HOWEVER…. skinner does! it was going to dr. charne-sayre!!! 

scully knows who this is!! because she is a nerd. said with heart eyes. dr. charne-sayre is a virologist, who has looked in on presidents and also is an authority on “variola viruses” which means something i’m sure, but it’s a mystery to me

OH! it means smallpox! she has been trying to get people to destroy the last remaining smallpox vials. 

(WAIT IS THAT A THING?? is humanity really keeping some smallpox in some bottles somewhere???? i need to look something up after this and the adjust my levels of panic for biowarfare accordingly.

GOOD NEWS! wikipedia says the last vials were finally destroyed in 2015! that feels like it took too long...

wait. just kidding. it highlighted an irrelevant part of the article. another page says they are still out there, the ones in atlanta and russia that scully refers to in the episode. i feel no relief after all.

the ones that WERE destroyed were 350+ vials of smallpox that had just been lost????? HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN???

damn. i need to go down a rabbit hole later that is going to teach me some unsettling things)

anyway, skinner breaks the news that dr. charne-sayre was killed, but blames it on a horse. and i saw what went down and it did not look like any hooves were involved, so idk how tf they came to that conclusion. a choking and hoof marks are not at all comparable??

back to da gulag. a guy kicks mulder and leads him out with a bunch of other men. i find myself wondering about all of the extras there that day, how the filming went. 

UH OH! krycek is up smoking with one of the bigwigs of the gulag!!!! what is he DOING??? the geologist prisoner who gave him the shank says mulder has one chance to kill him, and he pulls out his weapon. OMG HE’S RUNNING FOR IT!!! does he stand a chance?!?

that dude is absurdly fast bro. he gets two solid punches into krycek and steals a truck!!! where is he going!!!

horse vs truck race!!!! who will win??? i hope it’s the truck!!!

so he knocked krycek tf out and took him on the bed of the truck... that is hilarious

i hope all the other prisoners break out too :)

okay, the men on horses are shooting at mulder. krycek wakes up and is slamming the back of the truck. what i want to know is where mulder, who has a famously terrible sense of direction, is driving!!!

he’s trying to hit the brakes but it’s not really working!!! and krycek jumped off!!!! where does he think he’s gonna go 😭😭

no!!! mulder crashes the truck!!! ouch ouch ouch!!

well, instead of resolving that plot line, we jump to the well-groomed man (am i using his name right?) chatting with cancer man in the dark. cancer man bullies him for smoking, as if we don’t only know him as cigarette smoking man or cancer man, but well-groomed man is pissed at cancer man’s various failures!! and wouldn’t you be??

oh!! that person riding the horses- dr. charne-sayre- was well-groomed man’s personal physician! there’s some weird tension between these old men now that he needs the help of cancer man to figure out what went down

“were you sleeping with her?” csm asks, making us all uncomfortable. and well-groomed man doesn’t answer!!!!!!!! EW!!! nasty!!!! he put the mission at risk for his personal pleasure!

damn. hate when cancer man is right about things.

well, i guess they’re both flops at their job. that should unite them rather than pull them apart. 

cancer man asks well-groomed man (and that is definitely going to get confusing quick) to call off "the investigation", which he says he cannot do. but senator sorenson is an honorable man. do we believe him?

i do not. 

somehow, cancer man knows mulder was captured in tunguska and has escaped. i don’t know how this plays into their plan, but cancer man is smirking. suspicious... i hate his creepy smirk.

okay, back to russia. we see the truck that mulder crashed and a bunch of blood on the window, which are not auspicious signs. but no one is in there!!!! the men on horses are baffled!!!

krycek is in the woods, being surrounded by a bunch of people and speaking in russian, claiming to have escaped from the prison camp. they realize from his clothes he is lying about being a prisoner, but they believe that he was accused of spying and take him in?? i guess??

OMG!!! mulder was hiding under a ton of leaves while the men on horses looked for him!!! it was giving a real peeta in the 74th hunger games moment.

so, now we are where we started last episode, with scully swearing to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help her god. and she is reading her prepared statement. people are passing notes as she does so. and then they are rude as hell and cut her off. 

skinner is watching all of this go down, and as she tears into the culture of lawlessness, he does look like he kinda wants to die. but i think she’s serving. 

OMG!!!! they’re taking her to jail!!!! she said idgaf i am NOT giving up mulder’s secrets and that is a REAL ASF FRIEND!!! she’s in jail in her kickass outfit and omggggg what a queen… crossing her arms as she stares out the window…. i love her so deeply 

back to russia, where some guy finds mulder under a ton of leaves, and yells at him for breaking his truck. sorry!! it was an accident. he didn’t mean it :(

the woman he is with is gonna tend to him though, because mulder has that sad puppy dog thing going on. 

she knows some english!!! woah!!! this is convenient for plot reasons and also fuels my determination to keep learning another language so i can be the cool side character that saves the day at least once.

she says that they kill everybody for “the test”, and that her husband makes deliveries, so they spare their lives. but now, no truck…

mulder says we need to get tf out of here, the smallpox scar is tracking you. she says there is an alternative, and gestures to her son with no arms. i do not think this is a good alternative. and the husband comes back in with a knife!!! are we gonna have some hand to hand combat…….

krycek is sleeping by a fire, but then a bunch of people come and get him. one of them has a heated knife!!! are we in amputation mode…

oh. he sure is screaming as that knife is going in… yes, it appears we are in amputation mode

scully is in jail, reading the works of dr. charne-sayre, because she is studious even behind bars!!!! i love that about her. highlighter in hand as she ponders. 

skinner comes to see her! “you holding up?” “i’ve got plenty to read” awwww :( skinner cares about her :( big old softie :( and she is gonna read her way through jail :( she’s just so :(

she clarifies that this is NOT just about mulder!!!! this idiotic commission is wasting time asking about mulder and not about the pouch, the murder, the rock, or anything ACTUALLY RELEVANT at all!!! 

“it is my experience that lawyers ask the wrong questions only when they don’t want the right answer” DAMN what kind of lawyers has she dealt with…? probably plenty in her FBI time. but still. she has seen things.

“it is my natural inclination to believe they are acting in the best interest of the truth” aww… she wants to assume the best of these obviously very shady men

“but i am not inclined to follow my own judgement in this case” <- she said y’all are so god awful not even my natural optimism can salvage this (and i love her for knowing her limits)

skinner makes a remark about following mulder’s judgement instead and i can’t tell if he was trying to be hurtful or not…

back to dr. sachs, dealing with his rock induced injury. NO! the russian guy vassily is here! with a needle!!! what does he need that for??? go away!! i like that rock scientist!!

he’s getting this orange fluid in a syringe and he sticks it into dr. sachs and BLEH i cannot look…………. but the slugs!!! the oil slugs!!!!! 

NO!!! he takes the rock and unplugs the machines dr. sachs was on!!! HE CAN’T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS 💔

cancer man is explaining that vassily was in the KGB… “how could this be? how could the russians know we were working on our own inoculation?” asks well-groomed man, “six of us knew!” 

an anti-alien vaccine! this could be useful,,, maybe? idk.

cancer man is tasked with finding vassily… but he says someone might save him the trouble

cut to scully back in front of the fancy congress slash senator slash corrupt government people…. she has had time to think about the question she was asked.

and she says she cannot answer! she keeps listing off things she can answer instead, but not about this!

OH! MULDER APPEARS!!! “answer the question miss scully!” (mulder voice) “what is the question?”

YEAHHHHH THAT’S MY GUY!!!

HER REACTION TO HIS VOICE… the little orchestral flourish… his beat up face… his stupid smirk. wait i have to rewatch this. LOOK AT HER FACE WHEN SHE SEES HIM!!!

she says that the death of the doctor was connected to the death of the man in skinner’s apartment, and dr. charne-sayre FOR SURE knew information about the virus. and while i am happy for her triumphant moment, skinner walks in and whispers something to her….

dr. sachs has died under suspicious circumstances!!

this is obviously very important, but in the background you can see mulder say something to skinner, and he reacts as if deeply annoyed. lmaoooo we are soooooo back!!

the bigwigs on the council go to recess, and the absolute MILLISECOND that gavel is slammed, these two nerds JUMP UP to see each other, it’s so cute oh my goshhhh it is for sure making my list of favorite moments this season

AWWW AND THEY HUG AND HE SAYS “good to put my arms around you” OHHHHH MY GODDDD OH MY GOOOOD THE WAY HE’S LOOKING AT HER (and the remark about still having both arms she obviously doesn’t understand yet!!!!)

(screaming into my pillow for a solid 30 seconds before composing myself)

skinner jumps in and says “some other time” when she asks how he got back LMAOOO he has had ENOUGH

scully says please skinner let us go to florida for 15 hours please 🙏 it should be quick but if it isn’t please stall for us please sir…. and he’s all “girl just go and be fast about it” (sternly)

okay! so why florida? because that is where one of dr. charne-sayre’s patients at a convalescent home died of a mysterious virus! yes, as we saw in the very beginning!!!!

NO!! vassily is here!!! can he just wander in?? is that allowed? why are people coming and going from this convalescent home…? is there not a sign in process…?

he’s going for the meds. he pockets some meds and replaces them with a decoy. 

“may we come in ma’am?” mulder asks, shoving his way in <- LMAOOOO god that gag gets me every single time 

so they need to look at the elderly, and scully reports that this dude she just walked up to is dead. and he sees another one with the slugs!!!

these people are test subjects, he says!!! and they have to deal this building right now!!

no!!! vassily was laying in a bed and heard all of this!!! what is this mischievous fellow up to???

mulder says all of this can be traced to one man. and scully…. oh my gosh, the side profile, my heart…… 

IS KRYCEK WORKING WITH VASSILY?

scully and mulder go to visit the leader of the militia they busted krycek with at the beginning of last episode. scully looks so good i’m actually going to gnaw my own arm off holy fuck. that blue trench coat and grey suit combo is lethal.

so this criminal is denying finding krycek in a missile silo, and said krycek came to him. looking for help to make “devices”, and talking about this black cancer developed by the soviets, and used in the gulf war. so how did he get out of the silo....

OH! mulder asks where the other “device” (bomb) ended up, and when the militia leader says “i ate it”, he punches this guy in the stomach and puts him in a headlock. and then he says some very out of pocket things i am not going to repeat, but the point is: krycek took the bomb and put it in a storage garage somewhere in terma, north dakota. ah! the name of this episode is finally understandable!

“scully, get on the phone and get the license numbers for any two-ton trucks stolen in north dakota in the last six months, then call canadian border authorities and have them stop any vehicle fitting that description” (said while gazing into her eyes)

(this line killed me for some reason and i can’t even explain it… just such an odd series of commands out of context!)

“someone used krycek, then krycek used us; someone who didn’t want that rock in american hands” ah. so this whole thing has been a set up. you see, i was too busy thinking thoughts like “i hope he gets out of the gulag” and also “man, i hope scully doesn’t go to jail” and “look at how they hugged!” to put that together. sometimes i am a simple viewer making no conclusions about the grander plot at hand! sometimes i am surface level! i am multi-faceted!

vassily is gonna put the rock back in the ground under the guise of fertilizer for his tomatoes 

WOAH!!! agents in a helicopter :0 they look so good….

mulder is trying to scream over the loud noise of the helicopter doing its thing, which i imagine had to be an awful time to film. scully wisely just nods her head instead of attempting to communicate with words.

haha his hair is all messed up from the helicopter… hehehehe…

so he’s looking in the truck for any sort of rocks or bombs or whatnot. he sees some pipes… he is forming conclusions…

scully disembarks from the helicopter, and her hair is all messed up too (my heart!) as she climbs over a fence to get into this refinery. one thing about these two is they are gonna climb some fences!

vassily sees this going down and hides…… mulder is reaching into the pipe…. trying to grab the hidden rock… he is covered in oil!!!!

and it blowed up!!!!!!! 

no!!!! scully sees the explosion,,, and vassily sneaks up behind her and puts her in a chokehold!!! he grabs her gun!!! he says he will kill her but he doesn’t want to? and that his work is done. 

damn, now she’s gotta get a new gun……

she’s RUNNING to mulder who is soaked in oil and has barely escaped the explosion. she is picking him up and then… cutscene to more testimony stuff.

GIRL IS HE OKAY???

i love when they save each other <3 i love when they have to pick each other up and drag each other to safety <3 i love the panicked screaming of the other’s name <3 i love the fast and furious assessment to see if the other is okay <3 i just love these things <3

scully has evidence to present: linking a number of deaths to a biotoxin brought onto US soil! and the man who delivered it also died! and that guy was the man who krycek pushed off skinner’s balcony!

“alex krycek, who is missing and possibly deceased” oh i know better than to believe his ass is dead

the council is whispering… 

they laugh at the idea of extraterrestrials, and mulder also comes to the stand… what is he gonna do…

“why is this so hard to believe?” he asks. hey i know you’ve had a rough go of it man, and there is literally an alien slug in your body, but she was doing so well…

oh! he’s going on and on about how obvious it is that extraterrestrial life forms exist!! and you need to understand this or else you are denying crucial evidence!!!

ah, i see now why the opening text. just as galileo spoke of the earth rotating around the sun but was scorned, so mulder speaks of aliens and is met with disdain. and yet, the earth continues to spin, and the aliens continue to be in his bloodstream.

“this is not why we are here today” “then why ARE we here today?” okay parallels i see you!!!

they recess… and cancer man stands up in the back……..

back to russia, where vassily is returning home, insisting he is retired to someone in his room.

OH! IT’S KRYCEK! WHO IS ADDRESSED AS “COMRAD KRYCEK” bro… he is congratulating vassily on a great job 

and omg… he’s got a prosthetic arm… they really sawed his arm off…

back at DC (home) the senator is reading files and passing them to cancer man, who is tossing them in a bin??? presumably to burn??

HUH! so much for an honorable man.

okay, so much happened here. let me go in order of which thoughts are loudest.

first of all… did they know this was gonna be what they did with krycek from the start? just asking because i want to know if “needs to be fluent in russian” was on the casting call for that role or if they sprung it on him later. because that would be wild.

krycek, working with the soviets… huh. interesting implications.

second. the alien!! there is alien oil slug in krycek AND mulder now!!!! what is that going to do to them? are they gonna turn into living flash bangs like that one lady did in that one episode?? is it gonna slowly kill him? will be and scully slowly die together? i can’t imagine such a horrible thing….

third. their reunion…. damn it, it was so sweet. the way they INSTANTLY got to their feet when the recess was declared… the way he wrapped his arms around her…. oh man. oh man. and the smiles… the smiles……..

so far, s4 has not really been my jam. but this episode was really good and has given me hope that soon we shall be cooking with gas, in terms of both very juicy plot advancement and special agent bonding moments. i mean, come on, lifting him out of that explosion while he was covered in oil??! i cannot get enough of that!!!

is he going to hide that he has an alien slug in him?? is he going to be that guy in the zombie movie who acts like he didn’t get bit?? or is he going to be honest and tell her?? will she try to find a cure? wait, does he even know what happened?? because he was knocked out when all of that went down…

and what about scully’s mystery illness!!!! is she going to be okay?? are they going to be terrified for each other??

okay, okay, one thing at a time.

so, there’s an alien virus in a rock that landed on earth during the tunguska event, and the americans were working on a vaccine to protect against it. but somehow the russians knew about it, and that is likely due to krycek, who was a double agent on like three counts. they killed the leading expert on the virus in order to prevent a vaccine from being developed, and have previously used the virus in biowarfare (so i guess gulf war syndrome is alien slugs in this universe?). the guy that krycek threw off of skinner’s apartment was the one who was meant to receive the rock containing aliens, but was killed, and said virus rock was intercepted by the russians, who are having a sort of cold war 2.0 moment. over alien slug virus. which, if exposed to, will eventually kill you; why it killed dr. sachs and not all of the other men who were at the gulag is a mystery. and to try and protect the americans against this virus, the leading expert, dr. charne-sayre was testing on the elderly. and cancer man wants to cover up all of the evidence which scully and mulder have presented linking all of the deaths to the rock. 

okay. i think i got most of the lore down.

i want to know what happens next!!! but i am no fool!! i know we will be given random monster of the week episodes which are also excellent but tell me nothing about the plot!!! and now that we’re dealing with alien slugs, i’m wondering, what about the actual little green men? where do they come in? is this a third type of alien? because we have the little green men we’ve seen glimpses of, sometimes mixed with human DNA; we’ve got the aliens that were clones from that species with the poison blood and can only be killed with the needle to the neck; and then these alien slugs. and also a few other random non-central to the plot alien life forms, like the ones in firewalker and ice.

where is the common thread?? how can they tie all of these up?? would tying all of these mysteries up even be satisfying?? or is it better to let some things be a mystery?? did chris carter have plans for all of this overarching stuff, or was he making it up as he went?

so many questions! but for me, basking in the warmth of their hug is my highlight