#mulders apartment

[mulder4scully]

mulder apartment tour scans (excluding his bedroom unfortunately bc he didn’t have one yet.)

#the x files #fox mulder #mulder #txf #x files #x files set design #mulders apartment

[bonafidehero]

Okay does Mulder not have a bed/bedroom or is he just a perpetual fall-asleep-on-the-couch guy??

#the x files #txf #fox mulder #I can't recall if I've even seen him in a bedroom yet #hes always sleeping on the couch #even Scully slept on his couch I think when she'd stay at his house at times #anyways its for science #(the science of recreating his apartment in the sims that is)

[benoitblanc]

making an emily-arc gifset and screaming internally. why the fuck did they do that to scully

#also kind of why the fuck did they do that to mulder. like obviously it is WAY worse for scully but imagine: #your best friend slash love of your life calls you. she's just found out that a. she can't have kids #(which you have known for several months but didn't tell her because she was DYING OF TERMINAL BRAIN CANCER) #and b. when she was kidnapped and medically raped by the government a child resulted from this and she's only now found her #and you fly out to them and the little girl is darling and precocious and terrified and your partner ADORES her #and seeing them together hits you over the head with how badly you want this for her. how badly you want this for YOU #how any children you were ever going to have would have always been hers #and you make the girl laugh and you threaten the men who did this to her. you want everything to help her. and she dies anyway #your pseudo-mother-in-law calls from the hospital. your partner's brother just had a baby #you watch your partner fall apart and you grieve for her loss but also for yours. that was your daughter too. or she would have been #arwen.text #the x files

[morleycigarettes]

#X files #txf #the x files #ambiance #fox mulder #mulder’s apartment

[carefulfears]

thinking about maggie looking up at mulder from her deathbed, grabbing his hand, directing her final words to him, rather than her daughter. 20 years after she stepped in between him and a gun, wanting to leave him with something. her grandbaby’s father. how mulder brings up scully’s coma, but for those 3 months “back in the day,” it was him and maggie. it was him and maggie at the crime scene and on the bench outside the fbi and choosing gravestones. how he was always invited by her. “this is a moment for the family, but you can join us.” so many decades of phone calls, check-ins, the way that in wetwired when he calls and she doesn’t answer, he knows. the inherent connection that comes with knowing your closest person’s closest person: two emergency contacts, two people who always have to be notified, two people who are always at the side of a hospital bed or funeral or event. two people who know what “i’m fine” means, what an eye roll means, what a nosebleed means. closeness in the periphery.

#y’all get mad at me all the time but everything i say is actually just because of something kelly said/wrote #soooo it’s actually her fault #mulder is so important to this family and he was not important at all to his own and i’m not immune to that!!! #thinking about missy coming and banging on his apartment door to tell him that he is more lost that her dying sister #and going deeper into it doesn’t help anyone #it’s so special how like. out of their way both maggie and missy went to support him #thinking about how scully has this kind of connection too (this ‘two closest people’ connection) it’s just to a ghost #txf.txt #home again

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder Didn't Use Scully's Apartment Key Until He “Belonged”

We all know Scully had Mulder's apartment key, confirmed in S2's "Little Green Men" when she snooped around his living room for clues-- but Mulder having a key to Scully's place isn't confirmed so clearly; though, of course, it would make sense that he did. (Of course, canon did make a point to show he had a key to Diana's place-- but thankfully David Duchovny portrayed Mulder as cluelessly stumbling around her room, showing he'd never been there, post here for a "blink and you'll miss it" screenshot of Mulder taking a key from his key ring-- but that's neither here nor there and better left undwelt on for blood pressure reasons.)

Onto proof hunting!

Squeeze

The first time Mulder enters Scully's apartment is in Squeeze where he breaks down the door (something he will repeat a few times):

Nothing to be learned here.

Another door breakdown occurs in--

Small Potatoes

But what preceded that incident is crucial: when NotMulder drops in, Scully is shocked he showed up, afraid something bad had happened or she was needed for a work emergency.

Mulder, it seems, makes precious few visits in general; and that would explain her surprise that he was here at all, before Eddie even introduced the idea of a little taste-testing get-together.

Gethsemane

A notch in Mulder's favor; but can easily be explained away:

Scully enters her dark apartment, not noticing anything amiss with her lock. When she finds Mulder in her room, she doesn't argue how he got in, frustrated instead that he'd almost watched her undress.

We can glean two facts from this moment:

#1. Scully didn't know the lock was damaged because Mulder used a key; or Scully didn't notice a pick-pocketed lock because she was too exhausted anyway (which might work, because she didn't notice that Pfaster broke into her apartment in S7.)

#2. Regardless of the key business, Mulder is not a usual visitor at Scully's apartment period, since she reacts more with shock that he's here rather than annoyance that he'd dropped in again.

FTF

It appears Scully is more used to Mulder dropping in for work now; but she still seems on-edge and surprised that he is at the door.

SKIPPING AHEAD--

Orison

This episode provides no answer either way; but it includes another Mulder break-in, so it counts slightly.

Mulder would have had to kick the door down to open the door and break the chain lock before Pfaster could intercept him or set a trap; and we see the door bang open and Mulder's slightly hunched posture dodge in as he swivels his gun from his side to his front

As the door swings back into frame, his boot print is visible next to the lower doorknob:

Again, this incident is inconclusive.

En Ami

This episode is either the clincher against Mulder having a key to Scully's apartment or a fluke the writers accidentally wrote in.

Mulder famously recruits Scully's landlord to unlock her apartment

(before ditching that idea and running off to investigate other leads); and this is puzzling and raises some questions:

#1. Mulder doesn't have a key of his own-- recently, or at all. OR this is part of the distance game he plays: he won't allow himself to enter her apartment at all (that theory will be expounded on later.)

#2. CSM orchestrated for the locks to be changed after Scully left. ...Why? I'm sure for very nefarious and unexplained reasons; but all showing to his certainty that Scully wouldn't return from her trip (in all probability hoping he'd sweep her off her feet.)

Per Manum

This episode proves Mulder has a key-- at least during the IVF arc (which I place early s6 while others place sometime S7.)

The bolt is unlocked;

and Scully walks in, too worn (but trying to be strong) to be surprised that he has crashed on her couch.

Mulder apologizes for doing so,

demonstrating that, regardless if he owns a key or not, this is abnormal behavior for him. Which proves that, if anything, he and Scully socialized all those years at his apartment (confirmed in Milagro) rather than hers, an added bonus to her confusion when NotMulder dropped by in Small Potatoes and her consternation when he sneaked in later in Redux.

That means there is proof that Mulder stayed out of Scully's hair all those years-- perhaps not wanting to wear out his welcome-- and that his visits to her place were only under extreme circumstances (Elegy, Redux, FTF, En Ami, Per Manum, Existence, etc.) As much as my headcanon-loving heart would prefer it otherwise, Mulder seems to have one boundary he doesn't cross: willy-nilly, familiar apartment visiting. Is this because of Scully's need for distance? Or is this a Mulder thing (spoiler: it's a Mulder thing)?

What I don't like (or do?) is that Mulder was never confirmed to have had a key until the series had no choice but to admit he and Scully were together romantically (because of the pregnancy plotline.) I like it a little more or a little less depending on the day.

Essence/Existence

Mulder has already moved in by this point, so of course he has a key (there's a longer post but I couldn't find it-- thank you @baronessblixen for finding this one!)

Mulder is finally shown to unlock Scully's door and pocket the key-- a first in the entire series.

Conclusion

There seems to be a pattern that emerges:

Mulder, whether he had a key or not, was never at Scully's apartment for longer than a late night door-kicking sesh or a rare work emergency. He had the key all these years (confirmed in Per Manum); but he never felt like he truly belonged, waiting for Scully or her landlord to open the door hospitably for him.

Mulder is shown to open the door for the first time in Existence, having used it naturally only once during the IVF attempt and never presuming again after its failure. Now, he enters a bit hesitantly; but warms up as he meanders over to his family. He's home.

SO! Mulder had a key, like he had Scully by his side all those years; but, while she used his apartment key religiously, he never returned the favor until he felt that he could build a home with her. And that's very Mulder, in his own way.

#txf #meta #Mulder #xf meta #key #Scully #x-files #the x files #xfiles #Mulder Didn't Use Scully's Apartment Key Until He “Belonged” #Per Manum #IVF #S7 #S8 #Essence #Existence #thoughts

[actual-changeling]

sleeping on the highway tonight, i will never emotionally recover from this scene

#alex watches x files #x files #dana scully #fox mulder #scully x mulder #msr #it feels like MY heart got ripped out of my chest #this show is pure cocaine #her nails scratching the fabric because she is trying to crawl inside of him??? her SOBS???? #mulder looking like he's falling apart on the inside #god this episode was the most emotionally taxing so far #somehow nothing is worse than creepy #abusive men

[baronessblixen]

Saw your tags-- I always thought Mulder was fishing for info from the landlord, too! XDDD He's a good investigator, after all. ;))) (I had to stick to two basic conjectures so the post wouldn't get long; but your thoughts were spot-on I believe!)

I just can't imagine he wouldn't have a key in season 7! (I also just don't want to believe, you know)

Also, he could have picked that lock himself 😂

#lovely asks #mulder and that apartment key #i wanna believe he had one #knowing mulder i could also see him like not have the key ON HIM always #like keep that shit safe somewhere #cause that's scully's apartment we're talking about

[silo1013]

i ascribe to the headcanon of scully being mildly psychic/precognitive but i like that there is also arguably an equal amount of evidence that mulder is one of the few people that can see ghosts. like it’s just an established character trait that he has periodical visions of dead people

#‘fellas is it gay to hallucinate your dead nemesis’ well yeah #but i feel like if said dead nemesis is handing you things and closing doors and shit at that point you’re not hallucinating #tbh i personally think a lot of people in the world have psychic powers they’re just extremely niche or vague or weak #so the addition of stuff like this. where it’s implied that maybe someone has something going on! but it’s not super important #is really cool to me. margaret scully has a dream about dana being kidnapped and then it comes true #scully sees her father in her living room fifteen minutes before he dies. scully’s ‘gut instinct’ is almost always right about future events #mulder always knows when scully’s in danger even if they’re miles apart. mulder can see and speak to dead people #it fascinates me a little. they’re both x files in themselves but they don’t even realize it

[mulder4scully]

planet lamp that i just noticed yesterday MY BELOVED

#i love his weird little apartment so much. #the x files #fox mulder #mulder #vincent’s place in cyberspace

[figureofdismay]

not enough people hate me in this fandom yet so to be explicitly clear I do ship Mulder and Scully in the brother-sister incest way! And also in the oedipal subby-mommy-caretaker way, and in the sexually-assigned-father-figure way! And I also believe they should never be forced to take a single break from each other, because all of that is actually fine and works for them!

(instead of hanging around quietly for 2 years and becoming friends with a lot of people who will later call me names and cut me off for being 'gross' i'm taking a proactive, 'advertise early' strategy this time about my icky gothic subtext-and-text loving ways 💀)

#if you think i'm joking i am not #i also think teena and mulder's relationship was probably Inappropriate at times after samantha's disappearance #too close and too far apart. but I don't have a clear idea of which lines were crossed or not crossed as the case may be #but that kind of semi exploded bomb in his past makes sense with phoebe and diana #but that's a whole other post with its own content warnings #character theory: mulder #character theory: scully #character theory: johns #character theory: wendy darlings #txf

[romansmartini]

scully get up dot jpeg

#the x files #girl you do not need to sleep at his apartment go home. #girl you do not need to stroke his hair on the operating table he is unconscious #etc etc #but also rip fox 'mommys boy' mulder you would have loved to know scully was stroking your hair in a moment of distress

[carefulfears]

thoughts on revival mulder pretending his name is bob at starbucks because he’s tired of explaining he is named after an animal ?

i just think he is a cute old man.

i actually wrote a whole thing based on this once skjdfh but he is CUTE!!! my favorite thing about it is the way scully teases him ("fox doesn't exist in coffee shops") but she genuinely looks like she's gonna melt looking at him. she just adores him so bad, 25 years in even the silly little things still get to her.

and i've always really loved these small eccentricities that mulder's characterization was so rich with, i love how those types of things matured and developed as the series continued

#when the coffee shop guy is like 'hey bob' and hes just like 'hi :)' #he is CUTE. #asks #ghouli #ALSO #scully LEARNING things about him #things she didn't know after a couple of years apart #he was relearning how to be...a person...and exist...after years trapped in that house and in grief and depression #and she was relearning who he is and the new little eccentricities of the person he's becoming #and i think that's really nice too #he's in his 50s but he's also 12 and 33 and 40 and holding his baby for the first time and he's trying #i love that about mulder in the revival too. he's just trying. #and it's special as well to have gotten to see him as older #i don't know that anyone expected him to be in his 50s and hoarding VHS tapes and telling scully she looks sooo adorbs #but he is and it's nice

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder’s Alien Baby Baby Trauma In-Depth (Part III): "Processing" in Mulder's Apartment

(To quote Mulder in Lazarus: “For those of you who don’t know already, this one’s important to me.” So, I hope I do this one right~.)

The apartment scene in Three Words is incredibly important and incredibly misunderstood. Mulder already knew the baby was his (which I tackled in this other important post); but, regardless, that isn't the cause of his distance. Knowing that you have a partner to come back to and that she is carrying your child doesn't stop the freight train of traumatic memories and blooming PTSD. And as much as he tries to hide from it-- burrowing away in his hospital room and his apartment before possessiveness drives him back to the office-- Mulder is suffering intensely: not because he feels displaced by Scully's actions or her new priorities, but because-- he thinks-- this dark fate was brought upon them by his own actions. Further, the trauma he and Scully endured because of his abduction has been worked through by his partner. Scully was already healing and moving forward (see post here, thank you @akiplo for your observation~); and Mulder fears that his presence-- a man lost in darkness-- can only drag her and their child back into chaos and ruin... and he won't do that to them.

Mulder's Apartment, the First Scene

Mulder and Scully arrive at his apartment fresh from the hospital; and their entrance-- she unlocking his apartment with her key-- marks the beginning of Mulder’s alienation from his own life. 

Walking in hesitantly-- creaky inch by creaky inch-- Mulder closes the door, angling himself away from Scully’s observation as much as possible. 

Once he collects himself, Mulder pulls an exaggerated face, trying to mask his discomfort with old coping skills.

Scully tries to break the ice: “Must feel good to be home"-- and is awarded by a stiff (though genuine) smirk from Mulder, taking her sentiment and turning it into a tongue-in-cheek joke. 

When he won’t respond more than a soft “...Yeah,” (or even meet her eyes), Scully leads the way further into the apartment. His faux appeased expression drops when she is no longer observing him: Mulder closes his eyes, pulls in a sharp breath--

and steps stressfully forward out of the shadows… swiftly then right back into them. 

Plodding along behind Scully-- who gives him a wide berth to reacclimate-- Mulder observes every inch of his apartment, insecurely putting his hands on his hips and pulling in his lips when he notices how changed his space is: cleaned, organized, and more comfortably "homey" (marked by the addition of two fluffy pillows, one still very rumpled-- which shows Scully's care to recapture a bit of Mulder's old, habitable "mess" for his return-- on the couch.) 

Not only has Mulder been significantly changed in his absence-- abducted and tortured for three months then returned dead another three before being resurrected for mere days with an added bonus of severe PTSD-- but even his apartment, the solitary space that was only his own, shows signs of the effects.

And Mulder knows it’s Scully who’s changed it-- “Something looks different,” he comments sadly, meaning more than the tidy apartment.

Mulder now knows Scully needs more from him-- a clean bill of health, a clean apartment, and a happy father-to-be for their child-- but he also knows her scars have had the time to be worked through and healed (or mostly so.) He feels locked out and left behind because Mulder has just started on the path Scully already traveled-- and now he thinks he must travel on alone, unable to ever catch up as his devouring trauma eats away at him with every progressive step he takes. To quote Fight the Future: "I don't know if I wanna do this alone... I don't even know if I can...."

“Yeah,” Scully acknowledges before lightening the emotional burden with an “It’s clean” quip. 

Mulder’s huff turns into his first chuckle, which turns into his first attempt at eye contact on their formerly personal ground. He realizes, however, how false his smile is and how much pain is bleeding from his eyes; and falters, looking away again. 

First important note: it’s easy to misconstrue his gun-shy eye contact as avoiding Scully’s pregnancy; but this moment illustrates how her baby (while a concern) wasn’t what drove him away from his partner. Mulder can’t look Scully in the eyes period, wounds too raw and exposed to not be easily diagnosed by his clever doctor partner. Mulder’s modus operandi has always been to hoard and wallow in his grief and pain alone (i.e. moodily staring at Modell in Pusher, angsting in the basement in Paper Hearts, etc.), only allowing himself to break down emotionally in Scully's presence in the most extreme of circumstances (ex. his mom’s health crises in Herrenvolk and Sein und Zeit, etc.) This is no different; and Mulder is more than willing to retreat and shut down internally than painfully deal with letting Scully (and their baby) down even more (ex. past self-sacrificial actions in Little Green Men, One Son, Amor Fati, etc.) 

“That’s it,” he plays along.  

Second important note: Scully keeps repeatedly trying to work herself up to talk to her partner; and her attempts are either intercepted, diverted, or stalled because Mulder is not prepared for any conversation deeper than surface-level. 

Before Scully can begin a new (potentially dangerous) topic, Mulder dips down to his fish; and, though using them as a brief ploy, he is truly overjoyed to see his little buddies again. They’re his and unattached to any extra weight that might add to the burdens on his back and cause him to drown… or at least, he thinks so. 

“Missing a molly,” he says, in what seems to be a casual remark and a question and a statement all at once. 

“Yeah,” Scully replies woefully, her own Starbuck guilt complex kicking in.

Mulder looks up, the loss hitting him in that uncomplicated, childish loss of a first pet; or, more accurately, of a first pet lost unexpectedly but markedly in his absence. His problems weren’t supposed to affect or hurt anyone, not even his fish; and that old guilt-- my partner was abducted, my partner’s sister was killed, my partner has cancer, my partner, my partner-- is yet another reminder that nothing is safe or sacred. He rises slowly, backing into his desk almost without realizing, needing something to lean on as yet another tragedy-- huge in the face of everything else-- hits him. 

“She wasn’t as lucky as you,” Scully explains, her voice creaking with conflicting emotions. 

Her remark hurts more than helps: Mulder sighs, spins, looks out the window, then sinks onto his desk: this room, this apartment, this homecoming, this life is too much. 

At Scully’s “Mulder…” he spins his head back, forcefully snapping himself out of whatever dark place he had sunk into. At her “I don’t know if you’ll ever understand what it was like…”, his mouth drops open, the classic tell of a Mulder on the brink of hyperventilation. He is able to recover from and channel away from those feelings by forcibly focusing solely on Scully’s, nodding along with her honest narration of her own experiences. 

But when Scully turns the conversation back on him (“And now to have you back…”), Mulder pops up with faux animation to deflect her focus from deeper inspection: “You act like you’re surprised”, followed by a grand gesture followed by a cheesy grin followed by a hand wave. The animation, however, wilts rather quickly. 

A beautiful little touch: When Scully confesses, “I prayed a lot,” she is neither awkward nor ashamed to talk about her faith with Mulder, a point of contention the two had always struggled with in their relationship. It’s a sign of the trust she places in him. Mulder sees this, and it calls out a part of him that was "them" before he was abducted-- his expression softens for the first time, his mouth relaxes, even his posture is less despondent. If only for a moment, her trust in his respect helps him feel a little more human. 

“And my prayers have been answered” refers once more to him; and Mulder must, again, deflect, deflect, deflect. 

“In more ways than one,” is a clever way to monkey branch back to Scully (and to something else-- someone else-- he knows occupies a great deal of her mind), but it’s delivered with false glibness and pain and regret. And there is so much regret: it’s practically pouring out of his eyes. 

Mulder follows up his remark with a tighter smile, a head nod, and an eyebrow twitch: a (botched) attempt at a “hey there” acknowledgment. Scully reads the spirit of his intent, however, and is touched (if a bit delightedly off-kilter by his sudden reference), looking down to confirm with a third “Yeah.” 

“I’m happy for you,” Mulder rushes out, genuine; but Mulder also chews the inside of his cheek in distress, biting back glistening tears.  

Two important things are happening in this scene: 

1. Mulder is being eaten alive with guilt and trauma and self-imposed distance; and is afraid Scully will see through it-- will see his weakness and fear-- and try to cross that divide. And he can’t open himself up because (Mulder thinks) she doesn't deserve that. But the toll this is taking on Mulder is worsening his suffering; so--  

2. Mulder's level of detachment is not as complete as it seems. In fact, Scully's reactions break through before this scene is over, causing him to meet her halfway as he hints at his struggle on reentry. Mulder then spends the rest of Three Words angling his movements to either attach Scully to his side or draw her back to it (with both pretending not to notice the conspicuous orbital paths drawing them back into the other's personal space.)

Mulder straightens again (clinging onto any sense of strength he can muster), and reiterates with another nod, “I think I know--” a long pause “--how much that means to you.” The underlying meaning: how much that would mean (means) to me. But he's still distant.

Scully is crushed; and Mulder purposefully avoids her face by looking at their baby. 

Third important note: Mulder’s expression here tells it all-- he knows that child is his, and it means the world to him, too. His faux side smirk has melted into real affection, even pride, that they’d (he’d) managed the impossible.

But it doesn’t take away his conviction that their miracle kid (and Scully) is better off without his issues; and he looks down and away from the baby, too. 

A heavy moment of silence is broken by Scully’s plaintive “Mulder…”, which he immediately cuts off with a sincere “I’m sorry.” Her pain breaks through the wall he’d erected: Mulder is never able to push Scully away completely, even for her own sake. “I don’t mean to be cold or ungrateful, I just….” Another heavy pause as he measures how truthful he plans to be. “I have no idea where I fit in….” 

Scully knows what he’s saying: a plea to drop it, a plea to have her back off, a plea to recover and not confront his problems now in order to patch himself back together. A plea for space. She doesn’t know why he wants space from her, too-- can only guess-- but she backs off, for his sake.    

Mulder backpedals from the strength of his previous statement, following up “no idea where I fit in” with a rushed “Right now.” In spite of Mulder’s distance, he can’t let Scully go completely, couldn’t handle it if she let him go at all.  

“I just, uh…” he says, pursing his lips as he carefully chooses his next words-- Scully’s heartbroken reaction making him doubly cautious--  

“I’m having a little trouble--” a quick, fortifying inhale (the first time Mulder’s shown Scully how out of sorts he truly is)-- “...processing.” A slight pause, then a weighted, “Everything,” before Mulder darts his head away, withdrawing from his confession as quickly as possible to take another steadying breath (his mouth now fully open-- the aforementioned hyperventilating tell-- for a longer period of time.)    

The scene ends on Scully’s worried, hurt, and floundering mood. Mulder is returned but strangely absent; and how is she going to figure out why and return them to the way they were… if that’s even possible? 

Mulder, meanwhile, takes a few things from this scene forward with him: his brief emotional disclosure deeply affected Scully, affirming to himself that his problems and pain need to be kept far, far away from her and their child. He will spend the rest of Three Words trying to do just that while sticking as close to her as nonchalantly possible, scheduling her to meet him or him to meet her or wheedling her along with him on various misadventures. A conversation is desperately needed; but it's not until sometime pre-Empedocles that Mulder allows himself the time to pause, regroup, and begin to heal.

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

#txf #Mulder #Mulder's Alien Baby Baby Trauma #In-Depth #Part III #S8 #Three Words #“Processing” in Mulder's Apartment #Scully #x-files #xfiles #the x files #meta #xf meta #mine #analysis

[benoitblanc]

just finished never again. genuinely what the fuck did i just watch

#EXCELLENT but so uncomfortable and so so sad #i know it was meant to air before leonard betts and that most of the fandom thinks it should've but it's just SO much more upsetting #and understandable for me if scully knows that she's dying (and mulder doesn't) #speaking of. mulder was such an asshole but my heart just bled for him. his only person is sending up signs of total system failure #and he loves her SO much that he is incapable of throwing her a life preserver #and in the next episode their worlds are going to be torn apart. it's SO tragic #arwen.text #txf liveblog

[wickedhawtwexler]

the whole point of songwriting is to write songs about your favorite fictional characters

#i have 2 finished songs and 2 almost finished songs for february album writing month #and only one is actually about like. me and my life and my own personal feelings lmao #to be fair the song about a woman murdering her partner isn't ABOUT misty quigley but i'm channeling her energy #one song is about mulder & scully and the other is about kim & jimmy :) #i will MAYBE share if i can record decent vocals lmao. i'm a decent singer but i get so shy singing loud in my apartment 😭 #m.txt