#the fact alone that war of the coprophages and syzygy are back to back episodes; ok go off x files!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

agent-troi · 2 months

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scully and mulder's dynamic visibly changes after the onset of the season of secret sex

i've been thinking about how dd and ga deliberately played season 7 like mulder and scully were sleeping together, and i think there's solid evidence of that in the differences in how scully reacts to mulder appearing to show interest in another woman before and after the season of secret sex begins (i'm using millennium as the before/after divider bc i think that's what dd and ga decided, but this is based on my vague memory of a reddit comment about it which is how i first learned that the season of secret sex was a thing)

so overall there's an undercurrent of insecurity, borne of scully's uncertainty regarding precisely how mulder feels about her and what her place is in the hierarchy of things that are important to him in his life, that exists in the pre-millennium incidents and is glaringly absent post-millennium:

before millennium:

(i'm not gonna include phoebe/fire here bc i don't think scully's awareness of her feelings had yet risen to the point where she'd be truly jealous, i'd characterize her in that ep as largely protective of mulder and unwilling to let him deal with phoebe's games alone. it also helps that he's clearly not happy phoebe is back in his life again, unlike his much more positive reaction to diana)

war of the coprophages- the second scully finds out about bambi, she immediately hops in her car and drives up to miller's grove to join mulder, bc letting him investigate cockroaches alone was fine but god forbid he spend quality time investigating an x-file with an attractive female scientist who isn't herself- that's their thing!!

syzygy- to be fair the planetary alignment situation was exacerbating her- and mulder's- behavior here, but her jealousy of and hostility to detective white were still real, even if she would've been able to rein in her emotions better under normal circumstances.

diana fowley arc- i think this speaks for itself, lol

alpha- this is an interesting period in their relationship: after most of the diana shit is over, but before the tension between them is fully resolved (a process which to me begins with milagro/the unnatural and ends with amor fati, but that would be its own post lol).

other than introducing himself to karin as "fox" (maybe as a way to appeal to her preference for canids lol) and thus implicitly giving her permission to call him by his first name (which she proceeds to do throughout the episode), mulder doesn't seem to show much in the way of attraction to her.

even when he touches her hand to move the mouse, he's more interested in what's on the screen than in paying attention to her:

karin, however, is visibly affected by the contact, a fact which scully immediately notices:

later in the car, they have this convo, the last line of which is so heavily laden with diana subtext it's not even funny:

scully's reaction to karin is similar to her reaction to phoebe in that she's motivated mainly by wanting to protect mulder from his own naive, trusting nature, and from someone she believes is seeking to take advantage of it, rather than being motivated primarily by jealousy and defensiveness. she doesn't really believe that karin is a genuine threat to her relationship with mulder, but with diana still fresh in her memory she can't afford to not be vigilant. hence why she confronts karin alone later:

here scully demonstrates that she somewhat empathizes with karin (mulder is also someone who challenges her, makes her feel fulfilled and happy and alive). karin's response indicates that she has correctly deduced the basis of scully's dislike/distrust of her, and also acknowledges scully is the dominant one as it relates to the territory (mulder) that they are sparring over.

scully looks away at karin's "feminine wiles" comment, revealing the nagging insecurity about her place in mulder's life that diana's arrival exacerbated and that will continue to plague her until amor fati.

after millennium:

rush- when mulder looks back at chastity in the hallway, scully's reaction is to possessively grab mulder's sleeve and pull him away into the interrogation room:

and his response is to laugh and say "what?" like he doesn't know he belongs to her and only her.

keep in mind this happens just before they interrogate tony reed, and right after they finish interrogating him this shit happens:

i already made a post last week about how insanely flirty they are in this episode, but this scene!!

she's pouting and giving him big doe eyes and playing with his tie!! at work!! in public!! she feels comfortable staking her territory in such an obvious way (also playful rather than hostile) bc she's not longer insecure about her place in his life!! i can never be normal about this i'm sorry ssdfgksdgsjdkfhkjsdf

first person shooter- when mulder checks out jade blue afterglow as she's leaving, he leans so far over in such an obvious, exaggerated way, almost as if he's deliberately trying to get a rise out of scully, but all she does is raise her eyebrows at him and lean over to block his view (while smirking):

and then he says he's "feeling the great need to blast the crap out of something", an almost direct quote of scully's line from their convo in the autopsy room right before they went down to the station:

and her response is to SMILE at him!!

pre-millennium scully would absolutely not have reacted this way in this situation. just like in rush, the insecurity that previously haunted scully whenever mulder seemed to be close to or interested in another woman is utterly absent here. they're joking and teasing and enjoying each other's company like they've always done, but there's a different dimension to it now. pre-millennium mulder would never have made a show of checking out another woman like that right in front of scully (unless a planetary alignment is affecting his behavior ofc lol), and pre-millennium scully would never have found it amusing.

(side note: people were debating on twitter a while back about whether this scene was ooc for mulder, and tbh i'm not sure what my own opinion is bc to me the whole episode has an air of... unreality? idk but it gives me similar vibes to post-modern prometheus, like maybe it's real or maybe it's just someone telling a story or it's somewhere in between, and it's also got that same unserious feel idk how else to describe it)

anyway, back to my main point, which is: dd and ga are damn good actors in the way they were able to subtly telegraph this shift in mulder and scully's dynamic. one might be able to argue that the insane flirting throughout season 7 isn't by itself evidence of the season of secret sex bc on some level they've always been like that, but to me these specific interactions provide important clues that the nature of their relationship has changed.

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harmonicabisexuals · 1 year

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gonna start doing my season eval posts separately cause my url change fucked up the read more links lol. Season 3 overall was good, and feels like the show is becoming more consistent in finding its footing. Rob Bowman and Kim Manners are both incredible and complementary directors. I mentioned this before but weirdly there is a lot less sexual tension in this season than 1 and 2, and it makes me wonder if CC was pushing back on the fan reaction to it lol. There’s also a lot of episodes where M/S (as main characters) take a backseat to the plot, which is okay when the plot is good, but makes boring episodes even worse to sit through when it’s not. BUT this season has some of my all time favorite episodes in it- Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, Pusher, Quagmire, and Wetwired, so I gotta give it high marks for that alone. Also scores higher than season 1 and season 2, with 75% of episode worth rewatching imo

The Blessing Way- a little corny, a little racist, but necessary continuation of Anasazi

Paper Clip- REALLY good, satisfying conclusion to three part arc while still leaving lots of questions to solve later

D.P.O- okay, has young Jack Black and Phoebe’s brother from Friends in it!

Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose- AMAZING, so funny but also dark and sad, a fan fav for a good reason

The List- interesting mystery, but probably would get boring on rewatch

2Shy- kinda sexist? and no good conclusion. Pass.

The Walk- boring! pass.

Oubliette- dark and sad, but pretty good. true crime vibes

Nisei- good, find about more about Scully’s abduction

731- also good, kind of a thriller, but ending feels a bit rushed

Revelations- interesting M/S role reversal, very Catholic

War of the Coprophages- so silly but really fun

Syzygy- baby Ryan Reynolds! M/S very OOC, a bit funny but Darin Morgan is funnier

Grotesque- a lil weird but stick with it! creepy, good cinematography

Piper Maru-decent, but not as good as other mythology episodes

Apocrypha- same as prev, good scully stuff tho

Pusher- AMAZINGGGG ONE OF THE BEST EPISODES OF THE SERIES, VINCE GILLIGAN IS THAT BITCH

Teso Dos Bichos- murderous house cats?? the fact that this episode is right after pusher…JAIL. Pass.

Hell Money- baby Lucy Liu!! okay, but no supernatural element lol

Jose Chung’s from Outer Space- really good! very meta and kind of a parody episode

Avatar- pretty good! Skinner backstory

Quagmire- ahhh love this one so much, one of my favorites!! character focused, funny, and amazing vibes

Wetwired- really really good! suspenseful with good acting from M/S

Talitha Cumi- really good mythology episode!

#txf rewatch #this is a bit late cause i'm already 6 episodes into season 4 but oh well #CC gotta stop writing cliffhangers on season finales lol

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