#txf grotesque

[samanthamulder]

THE X-FILES (1993-2018)

SEASON THREE — Don’t you see, Mulder? You’re doing their work for them. You’re chasing aliens that aren’t there, helping them to create a story to cover the shameful truth. And what they can’t cover, they apologize for. Apology has become policy.

#my favourite season <333 #(ask me again after I watch s4 jsfkbfjs it's always between those 2 for me :')) #txf #the x files #tv #txf3 #txfedit #tvedit #scifiedit #horroredit #90sedit #thexfilesnet #.gif #*txfrewatch #this was soooo difficult I had like 40 gifs made and couldn't decide omg #because this season (even more than most others) has a very interesting mix of serious and comedic episodes #the myth arc is less trauma heavy than other seasons but still carries a lot of drama and darkness with melissa's death for example #and then the introduction of the black oil and scully meeting the other abductees and all that #but opposite this we have THE funniest and most brilliantly silly episodes (clyde bruckman. war of the c. jose chung's. quagmire etc.) #while there are ALSO some darker motw like grotesque and oubliette and pusher (to only name a few) #so idk. this set is a bit all over the place and doesn't totally do the season justice but it is what is is :') #*saul queued

[agent-troi]

confession: as a mulder girlie i feel terrible about this but grotesque never fully resonated with me for the longest time, idk maybe it’s because there’s no samantha angle in this story unlike oubliette or paper hearts, or else it’s just because i never really understood what the hell the gargoyle demon spirit thing was supposed to be, but seeing scully with her claws out for mulder in this scene was so ❤️❤️❤️ she does not play about her man, anyone so much as thinks of putting him in danger and she’s right there in their face like 😠

#x files #txf s3 #grotesque #fox mulder #dana scully #mulder x scully #msr

[scullysflannel]

love it when i’m eight minutes into the x-files season 3 episode 14 “grotesque” and the murder suspect says “fools who would pretend evil can be brought to heel like a brindle bitch or be held by your pathetic gulags, while with a snap of its finger it makes men lick the greasy floor of hell just to see its reflection”

#txf #xf thoughts #grotesque #i love '90s network television!!!!

[carefulfears]

top five season 2 episodes. or top five season 3 episodes. both iconic seasons for the myth arc but also full of really good motw eps

you're so right, they're both some of the best!! let's chat season 3

(some of this is derived from my newsletter)

1/ oubliette

#MYepisode. aside from paper hearts, this is my favorite episode of the series. it means so much to me. i love it so much. i love that they accidentally wrote a very poignant story of abuse and trauma reactions, from so many different sides.

oubliette opens on the abduction of 15-year-old amy jacobs from her bedroom, her nose beginning to bleed as her kidnapper whispers the words "nobody's gonna spoil us."

twenty miles across town, lucy householder is working her shift at a fast food chain when her nose begins to bleed, and she collapses, repeating the phrase "nobody's gonna spoil us" over and over again.

when mulder begins investigating, it is revealed that lucy had been kidnapped from her home 22 years ago at age eight, her abductor never found.

he becomes convinced that lucy is the connection to finding amy, as lucy continues to experience everything that amy experiences. every scratch on amy's face appears on lucy's. when amy is kept in the dark, lucy can't see.

"i feel like it's happening all over again," lucy whispers to mulder in her room at the halfway house where she lives, and this is a feeling that all trauma survivors are familiar with.

the supernatural element of this episode is a heightened version of the re-traumatization that lucy would be experiencing regardless, upon learning that her kidnapper had taken someone else.

the psychic connection between these two survivors, simply intensifies the implicit connection between them. they've never met, but they're tethered to each other. in experience, in understanding, in reaction and physical response.

lucy isn't the only one reliving the worst nights of their life, as mulder is once again walking into the childhood bedroom of a lost little girl.

years earlier, in conduit, he confessed to scully that he spent his childhood walking into his room with his eyes shut, feeling that maybe one day when he opened them, his sister would be there. "just lying in bed, like nothing ever happened."

in oubliette, he arrives at the jacobs' house alone, with scully's flight delayed in D.C. (later, when she says that she tried to call him, he tells her that he left "in a hurry," and forgot his cell phone).

it's hard not to feel a little pang in this scene, when he pauses to speak to amy's mother. tells her that he's sorry, that they're going to do everything they can to find her daughter, and she says "how could you really know how i feel?"

(i'll do another post sometime on mulder in this episode, there are a lot of angles to it that i'm not going to address here)

amy isn't the only person that lucy feels a connection to though, and i love the script page of this moment between her and mulder.

contrasted to mrs. jacobs’ reaction, lucy understands how sincere he truly is, even without knowing him. i love how purposeful the use of light and dark is in this story.

this is a really important episode for mulder's characterization, as the conflict builds to scully and the other investigators suspecting lucy as an accomplice in amy's kidnapping, due to her criminal history and traces of physical evidence.

mulder defends her from law enforcement fervently, leading to a confrontation with scully where she accuses him of "protecting her beyond the point of reason" and rationalizing a personal identification with her, because of her correspondence to his sister.

he responds that he's thought of that, and "not everything i do, say, think, and feel goes back to my sister," telling her that motivations are more complex than one singular childhood event.

this is something that elizabeth kubek touches on in the book deny all knowledge. kubek writes that the key women in oubliette, along with samantha mulder, are viewed as "simple equivalents."

and that the kidnapper of the first two girls, carl wade, "represents a symbolic logic of duplication," in the ways that he subjects both girls to the exact same experience and treatment, years apart.

this is amplified by the psychic connection between them, which furthers the degree to which they are, in many ways, the same person, having the same experience.

kubek goes on to note that mulder "resists" reading the girls as simple equivalents, instead viewing all three of them as individual people, leading individual lives.

in the end, when lucy gives her life for amy, the "logic of duplication" model would suggest that it's an even trade- that the girls are identical in their defining life event, and therefore exchangeable.

mulder relentlessly fights to save amy, then openly grieves lucy, weeping over her body outside of the home where she was held years ago.

in the final scene, it's mulder that suggests that maybe lucy's death was about more than saving amy. maybe it was about escape, and being her own person.

2/ pusher

along with beyond the sea, this might objectively be the best episode of this series, and i definitely view modell as the scariest villain.

even more than the gruesome monsters or the brutal serial killers, modell is impenetrable. he can pass through any security with one word written on a napkin. you can track him, you can seek him, but no one can stop you from lighting yourself on fire or pulling your car out into traffic when you find him.

he is the kind of killer who calls the police and confesses, because even if you get him to court, 5 bucks says he gets off.

this episode smoothly combines a truly well-executed MOTW with subtle character dynamics and standards.

mulder is any serial killer’s ideal adversary. scully is the disbeliever who trusts her partner more than she dismisses any phenomena.

these are themes that we’ve seen before, but they’re rarely as prevalent as in this episode.

the episode reaches its climax in one of the most intense sequences of the series, the russian roulette scene, which perfectly encapsulates so much of both what is scary about modell and what is steady about our agents.

mulder will put a gun to his head and pull the trigger with no hesitation, but he’ll shake and sweat and scream when it’s aimed at scully.

scully will cry with fear, but she won’t run, she won’t move, until she finds a solution that doesn’t involve leaving him there.

in the end, it’s not worth another minute of their time.

3/ grotesque

i love a good "maybe mulder's been possessed/bitten/infected, or maybe he's just like that" episode!

the moment that really sticks with me from grotesque is this one here; when scully, unable to find mulder, goes to his apartment, and discovers that it is completely wallpapered in the killer's drawings.

season 3 is heavy in characterization, more so than any other season, and grotesque is one of the more visual explorations of psyche and obsession, the effects of sanctity, of following someone who is constantly chasing something else.

grotesque follows a chain reaction of fixation and consumption, in line with its central statement, the advice that mulder's former mentor bill patterson lived by: "to know an artist, you have to look at his art...if you want to catch a monster, you have to become one yourself."

a mulder-centric story told largely through scully's eyes, the audience follows as patterson pursues the killer, mulder pursues patterson, and scully pursues mulder, each of them compulsively striving to understand the other.

undercutting the tension of this procession, is the entity that mostow claims possessed him to kill. with mostow in custody, the murders continue, and no one is sure who or what is carrying on the objective.

in the end, it's patterson himself who is responsible for the copycat killings, though it’s never clear if “possession” was literal or figurative.

mulder theorizes that after years of obsessing over mostow's murders, of studying his work, patterson sunk “deeper and deeper into that ugliness, as you taught us to do” until the violence he bore witness to, stayed alive inside of him.

this is something that mulder is quick to understand, and after all, he was once one of patterson’s students.

“you said it yourself, if you want to know the artist, look at the art. i’m finally agreeing with you.”

in a show, and character, that finds comfort in evil being found "out there": in space, in starlight, in underground creatures, grotesque posits evil as "something born in each of us."

something lying dormant, that can be seen or activated in examination and association.

4/ quagmire

like so many season 3 episodes before it, quagmire is a love letter to the core of who the characters are, except this episode ruminates on new revelations and quiet conversations rather than exemplifying the traits that we already see in them.

sitting on the rock discussing literature and family origins and earnest theses disguised in flippant remarks, the audience is let in on the same realization that scully has when she tilts her head.

that they are ahab and starbuck, and have been since childhood nicknames and “boyhood” fantasies. that they know exactly who they are, and what they’re doing, and where they’re headed, and they are never more than 3 feet from the shore.

they can get up and leave, but they don’t realize it, they’re sitting in the dark with each other.

this is a unique episode in that mulder is both right and wrong.

it might not have been the true culprit; but the creature is real, the hope is there, the belief is worthwhile. he’ll never know it.

scully knows it though, she knows it without ever seeing it, because she understands what belief truly represents. that people want to believe, that these stories will always endure.

ahab slew the white whale, and it wasn’t enough, but there’s still hope.

5/ jose chung's "from outer space"

i have a hard time writing about this episode because i literally have no reason for liking it this much except that it's funny. i don't even like the plot. it just made me laugh so hard that i had to keep rewinding it and laughing again, so it always makes my lists.

but we're just chatting so let's giggle over the top 5 jose chung's moments that make me laugh.

1/ blaine describing the ""men in black""

i swear to god this is what the transcript says:

"one of them was disguised as a woman, but wasn't pulling it off. like, her hair was red but it was a little too red, you know? and the other one…the tall, lanky one…his face was so blank and expressionless. he didn't even seem human. i think he was a mandroid...the only time he reacted was when he saw the dead body.

(mulder lets out a very girlie, high-pitched shriek)"

2/ the alien smoking a cigarette

not a day goes by that i don't think about this.

3/ roky's interaction with the men in black

MAN IN BLACK 1: no other planet has been misidentified as a flying saucer more than the planet venus...even the former leader of your united states of america, james earl carter jr., thought he saw a UFO once…but it's been proven he only saw the planet venus.

ROKY: i'm a republican.

4/ alex trebek

"mulder didn't say it WAS alex trebek. it was just someone that looked incredibly like him."

5/ agent diana lesky and "her partner, reynard muldrake, that ticking time bomb of insanity"

darin morgan, thank you for the implication that mulder gets off to the bigfoot tape. i treasure it.

#thank you for the ask! #sorry this is all over the place #love to everyone #txf #oubliette #pusher #grotesque #quagmire #jose chung's from outer space #asks #kae meta

[randomfoggytiger]

Wading through fandom lore at the delicate moment between PM and AM because you have a thought that you cannot put to rest:

#txf #meta #mine #wouldn't have it any other way #PM/AM research #meme #Mulder #Grotesque #S3 #xfiles #the x files #x-files

[freckleslikestars]

The X Files: Grotesque

Living Polaroid Project: 63/219

#the x files #living polaroid project #living polaroid project season three #txf #my gifs #xf gifs #msr #grotesque #this fucking episode is so badly lit #so hard to fucking gif #hes so lost puppy in this episode

[x-files-scripts]

The X-Files - “Grotesque”

Written by Howard Gordon

December 7, 1995 (BLUE)

Almost a trial-run for Millennium right down to this wink to Pixies singer Frank Black...

Alternate dialogue as Patterson confronts Mulder...

Cut dialogue as Mulder figures out the truth...

In this draft, Patterson doesn’t survive and Mulder tells Scully he saw the gargoyle too...

#the x files #x files #scripts #txf #season 3 #txf s3 #txf bts #grotesque #script #howard gordon #chris carter #david duchovny #gillian anderson #screenwriting #tvwriting

[mulderscully]

To cleanse the palette of that dumb anon, i wanted to know how you rank the seasons of X-files and a brief (or not so brief) reasoning of why :)

i know “ranking” can be quite subjective and superficial but it can be fun too so I hope you have fun with it :)) !

I’m a lifelong txf fan too btw, I have fond memories of sneaking behind the couch in the dark to secretly watch the show while my dad watched and it definitely helped shape my interests in life (from sci-fi and horror to mysteries and the paranormal in general). Have a great night/weekend and I look forward to your reply :)

aw thank you!

tbh this is hard for me because i am a very indecisive person and i all of the seasons have a place in my heart.

well, except s9. s9 isn't real. i don't hate it or anything i just forget it exists unless it's the original series finale lol

i think in terms of writing, s4 and s5 are objectively the best and have the best writing, especially in terms of the show's mythology. the cancer arc is one of my favorite parts of the show and i think the search for samantha was still intriguing.

that said, i think s1 is the most comforting and the easiest to watch. there is something so earnest about it and the way it's not "good" yet: david and gillian are both pretty green, the show is campy and some of the episodes are not the best but those things are what make it endearing to me.

s2 isn't real bc of mulder's porcupine hair.

s3 has some of THE BEST intense episodes like wet wired, grotesque and paper clip which are great if your want your brain ripped clean out. i think s3 gave me the most sleep paralysis in 2013 (this is a compliment)

i think s6 has some of the best motw episodes and i am a motw girl. i also love how it leans into the romance more. i loved watching the rain king and arcadia for the first time.

s7 is great but tbh i think it's a lil low on my list just because i love the others more. of course i love that it's the season that msr get together but tbh.....

i actually enjoy s8 more (crowd boos and throws tomatoes at me) i just LOVE arcs about people dying temporarily and i think gillian acted the hell out of it. mulder isn't in half of the season but his absense is felt the whole time he's gone and i always kinda liked how the only way scully was ever gonna truly believe was by mulder actually being abducted by aliens. ofc there are things i would change abt it but overall i am s8 apologist 😔

i also really do enjoy the revival for what it is. i don't like what cc did to them or to the audience but i feel like it was a sort of privilege to see them 23 years later. i just love the passage of time and their enduring love despite everything, you know? and i think s11 specifically has some genuinely good motw episodes that i enjoyed watching.

this wasn't a list more of a ramble but i had fun 😃 thanks for asking

#captainquixotic #reply #txf

[leonardbetts]

Mulder and Scully’s Married™ Moments for @impulsive-astrophile 

#hbd chase ♡ ily #txf #dana scully #fox mulder #the x files #txf 3 #grotesque #quagmire #txf 5 #bad blood #txf 6 #dreamland #txf 7 #millennium #txf 8 #essence #xfilesedit #xfedit #xfilesnet #gifset #madebyme

[cristinaricci]

THE X-FILES | Grotesque (3.14)

Yeah, Patterson had this thing about wanting to track a killer, to know an artist, you have to look at his art. It really meant, if you want to catch a monster, you have to become one yourself.

#txf #the x files #txfedit #xfilesedit #dailytxf #xfilesnet #tvedit #scifigifs #scifiedit #fox mulder #dana scully #grotesque #txf grotesque #txfs3 #gifs*mine #in my grotesque era #why do I love my mulder dark and suffering? I just love seeing this side of his profiling gift #the dark cinematography works so good in this episode too...I won't take any complaints #a top 10 episodes for me

[scullysexual]

Febwhump 2022: 28 Days of Fic

febwhump 22 | day 17 | hurt/comfort | grotesque | wc; 168 | ao3 | @today-in-fic |

A sequel to Look To The Light.

Today's prompt: #4: Hurt/comfort: "You're not alone. I promise."

Today's episode: #62: Grotesque 03x14.

Light Approaching.

With your free hand you pull the blanket tightly around you, encasing yourself in the scent of Scully. Your other hand holds onto hers.

“Thank you,” you say. There’s an apology in there too. Even as the gargoyles gripped you, you never stopped appreciating her, seeing how she did everything to set you free from them.

She smiles at you, everything being forgiven. As she turns to leave your overcome with a sudden wave of loneliness; fear and coldness merging together. You don’t want to be alone here.

“I don’t want to be alone,” you tell her, a whisper, tears forming in your eyes. Your hand grips hers, forcing her to stay with you.

She embraces you, your head falling onto her chest and your eyes closing. You ground and heal yourself in everything Scully.

“You’re not alone,” Scully whispers back. “I promise.”

The loneliness, fear, and coldness backs away. Scully is here and you are holding her. That is enough to know that the light is approaching.

#the x-files #the x files #txf fic #xfiles fanfiction #febwhump 22 #day 17 #hurt/comfort #grotesque #2ndpmulderpov #28 days of fic #scullysexualwrites

[agent-troi]

mulder helping scully up❤️

#x files #txf s3 #grotesque #fox mulder #dana scully #mulder x scully #msr

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

Hmmm, how about wrist? Or hungry? (For word game)

wrist: from a post-"Grotesque" fic I've been thinking about for A While

He's shaking after he shoots Patterson, trembling violently. He doesn't know if it's from shock, anger, or simply exhaustion, but Scully takes one look at him and says she's not letting him drive. She sticks close to his side when they give their statements to the police, which he's grateful for. She reaches out every once in a while, when no one is looking their way, and briefly touches his wrist, like she's trying to ground him. He thinks she's been trying to do that this entire case; he thinks he should have let her.

hungry: so I searched this up in my notes app (I write mostly on my phone) and it pulled up the beginnings of a very old, rather ill-advised modern!AU Newsies fic ahsjdhsksj

Smalls declares herself as chief navigator, which was never actually in question to begin with, and within a few hours, they're ridiculously lost and the sun is rising.

Also, they're really hungry.

They stop at a bench in a random park and try and figure out where they are in relation to where they're going, and while they're there they both pull out their backpacks and count up their money. Between the two of them, there's nineteen dollars and thirty-two cents, which is honestly a goldmine to two eleven year olds who've spent most of their lives punted from foster home to foster home.

send me a word and I'll search my WIP docs for it!

#oh goodness now i miss writing race and smalls as pals #they have one(1) brief scene in the proshot (the spoon fight during KONY) and that's not even girslie smalls ahdjdhsk #liana hunt was smalls in a different run but i always write girlsie smalls bc i think she's cool #(insert *i just think she's neat* meme here) #anyway yeeeeahhhh #the grotesque fic is actually very Soft btw #scully takes mulder home and gives him hugs #very important things happening in that one #Lu rambles #asks #Lu writes #txf #msr #newsies #ask games

[trusttnno1]

Grotesque

#The X-Files #txf #txfedit #Dana Scully #Fox Mulder #Season 3 #grotesque #mine

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder Did Not “Lose Himself” in His Early VCU Days

I recently watched Grotesque, and it helped to clarify a common misconception I see in meta/fics covering Mulder’s VCU days:

Mulder did not lose himself in his cases at all before Grotesque.

Bill Patterson invented his “method acting” technique, was lauded for it, and taught it religiously as an instructor. In fact, the primary antagonism in the episode was because Golden Boy Mulder was so gifted that he “got into” and out of a criminal’s head effortlessly, earning him the nickname of “Spooky” (before it was turned into a derogatory term when he re-opened the X-Files.)

The episode spent so much time tailing Mulder and his process because it was a first for him, a trial-by-fire, if you will. He dug deep into the mire-- literally-- of psychosis to “show” Patterson that he wasn’t a wash out, almost losing his sanity in another bid to win someone’s approval. (Thankfully, Mulder found he was able to retain his sanity *spoiler* unlike his former mentor.)

Of course, haunted VCU Mulder discussions are enjoyable; but not in character, since Mulder always warned and guided Scully with his senior experience and never lost his grip on himself even when he empathized too closely with cases (excepting Paper Hearts, which was a failure and a reckoning for his own faulty actions.)

#txf #Mulder Did Not Lose Himself in His Early VCU Days #analysis #VCU #Grotesque #Pre-S1 #Bill Patterson #Mulder #thoughts #mine #meta #xf meta #x-files #xfiles #the x files

[movietonight]

The X-files - Grotesque // Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves

#house of leaves #x files #Txf #Macks Musings #Mulder #Grotesque #The X-files #X-files