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randomfoggytiger · 20 hours ago

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(Credit to: @mappingthexfiles)

Heavily disagree with this take, but I've been weighing how to respond because I don't want to seem like a jerk or a contrarian. That's not my intention, at all.

Mulder didn't choose Diana over Scully in The End-- and Scully knows this.

In The End, she sees her partner and Diana holding hands and immediately feels inadequate, caught in her ever-spiraling inability to snap Mulder from his depressive Season 5 state; and interprets this moment as Mulder blooming into his full potential, once again. She's the scientist, Diana's the para scientist. She's the new recruit, Diana discovered the files. She's Mulder's partner, but Diana was more than his partner. Both histories lasted five years; and now Diana's back.

Further, Mulder chooses Scully before their office burns; and Scully knows this. They are huddled in his apartment when Scully receives the call about Diana's health. She relays this to Mulder, who is subdued and discouraged-- his friend was almost killed following his crazy quest-- but Mulder doesn't run to the hospital, doesn't wait outside of surgery, doesn't sit at Diana's bedside after Diana (I.e. One Breath and Wetwired and Redux II.)

Again, I stress: Scully knows this. How do we know? Fight the Future: Mulder stays by her (and she by his) after they're put on regular FBI duties. He works cases with her, two rebels breaking off to find a bomb together. They find one, definitely; but again, the Bureau blames Mulder. And this is how we know Scully knows Mulder picked her: she feels she-- not his loyalty, not his friendship with Diana-- failed him. She takes the blame in OPR, she prepares to walk away from him, she's seduced to follow him to Texas (all for naught), and she must break away, once and for all, for his own good.

Mulder tells her blatantly in his apartment, "I need you on this, Scully." She knows he does-- but it's not enough to overcome her depressive self-doubt. She thinks she slowly ruined his work, his answers, his ability to thrive and move towards the truth faster. The tragedy of Fight the Future is that she believes her efforts to heal Mulder have effectively poisoned him, not that he no longer trusts or wants her.

"You never needed me, Mulder. I just held you back." That is what Scully thinks of herself. Those are her doubts-- her Starbuckian complex that questions and second-guesses all of her life choices separate from Mulder. The voice she misinterprets constantly until all things, and the one she attributes to "other fathers" and lashes out against or crumbles under. She knows Mulder chose her; but she feels inadequate-- the blind leading the blind. He trusts her, but she's failed them, failed him.

And that's why his confession is so potent: "But you saved me!" Not Diana, not her strict rationalism, not her methods and successes and failures; SHE saved him. He didn't choose her and lose-- he chose her and she SAVED him.

This leads to her determination at the close of the movie: holding onto his arm and insisting they move forward, together. Mulder is afraid to lose her, but he also doesn't want her to die; and she assures him now she understands his withdrawal-- the fear that he's corrupting her, a mirror of her fear (that she's stymying him.) If they both quit now, They win.

Well then... what happened in The Beginning?

In The Beginning, Mulder outright rejects Scully's scientific approach, leading her to believe he rates Diana's answers above her own. ...But that's not wholly true: Scully rejected Mulder's version of events first-- in front of OPR when he was trying to win the files back-- and her own muddled memories, because the science didn't add up. At the end of the episode, her science was right and wrong; and she tests Mulder, asking him to trust her. He knows what he saw, and rejects her answers if they don't align with his. The truth is, her answers did and didn't match his-- and both leave the matter unanswered between them. Both were wrong-- Scully for falling back onto "easy" science instead of standing by his and her testimony and he for assuming she was willing to sweep their experiences completely aside if it didn't fit her narrow world view. And both realized they were wrong and left the matter at a stalemate: neither was in the right, but neither wanted to communicate and work the issue out further; so, they wordlessly moved forward.

And that brings me to my other important point: Season 6 was not melancholic; it was not angsty; it was not burdened or weighed down or even depressed. Not only did the writers decide to lean into lighter, funner, more interesting storylines after the move to California, but Season 6, even separate from that context, was a breather for both agents. Yes, they were not on the files; yes, they yearned for better, more fulfilling work; yes, the aftermath of Fight the Future haunted their steps. Yet, both took these factors in stride. Yes, Mulder kept running off to dangerous deeds; yes, Scully kept running after him to clean up his messes; but both were glad-- glad to still be working together, glad to share a mutual frustration over their circumstances, glad Kersh hadn't split them apart. Each episode features moments where they are cheerful, vulnerable, humorous, openly yearning, and more emotionally in-tune with each other. And both know the state of their relationship: where it is, and where it is (or isn't) going. The frustration both feel in their current circumstances are dwarfed by the new footing both are navigating separately and together-- they both want this new space, this new flirtation with more (with danger).

In Drive, Scully puts up a front but is easily wheedled into going off-road for a case. She trusts Mulder implicitly, and knows Mulder trusts her to rescue him and get to the truth. No words are exchanged about that trust, but it's there. In Triangle, Mulder ran ahead because the case was time-sensitive, but he still trusted (and tried to protect) alternate universe Scully. Scully , meanwhile, knew he needed her help; and shook the FBI apart until she got her necessary details. In closing, she bantered and soothed and ordered and "oh, brother"ed because Mulder was stoned out of his head (or so she assumed.) She didn't brush aside his "I love you" because she didn't believe it, she brushed it aside because he wasn't in a proper frame of mind to discuss it with her-- in short, she knew Mulder loved her since his hallway; and she knows Mulder doesn't shake feelings away or off lightly. In Dreamland I and II, she hops in the car to Area 51 all while probing him about what he wants out of a normal life-- a house? kids? a dog?-- and rolls her eyes, amused and resigned, at his single-minded "this is a life." She is shaken when 'Mulder' (read: Morris) doesn't respect her or her opinions: and that is huge, because it shows she still believes (and trusts) that Mulder holds her thoughts in high regard-- that he respects (and loves) her. Her instincts about her partner lead her to discover Morris's ruse and attempt to save Mulder: she has to take his stance, for once-- the believer-- and use her science-- the skeptic-- to save him. And both knew Mulder trusted her with (his new body-swapped) life. In How the Ghosts Stole Christmas, Scully came over anyway, let herself be led deeper and deeper into the house, knew Mulder was listening to and taking in her skeptical perspectives, and that he was lonely (and she was lonely) and wanted the company. She was the one who realized her natural "shoot first to protect myself" instincts didn't apply to Mulder because she trusted he would never harm her-- he respected, valued, and loved her too much. That trust paid off, and they both escaped. Terms of Endearment was another example of his trust for and respect in Scully, and her belief in that fact: Mulder breaks all conceivable excuses when he takes up a discarded x-files, and calls Scully away from her mandated work to investigate a demon baby case. He trusts her findings completely. In The Rain King, Scully doesn't bristle or withdraw when she finds Sheila making out with Mulder-- she's even amused that Mulder was asked by Holman to give dating advice. She is so secure in her feelings for Mulder that she smiles and twinkles over her "falling in love with your best friend" speech-- there isn't a drop or hint of bitterness, hurt, or distance. And she doesn't attempt to deny or withdraw from Holman's pointed, "You should try it some time." In S.R. 819, she comes to the office, late, at Mulder's call; trusts his instincts, knows Mulder trusts hers; and works in tandem with him to save Skinner's life. In Tithonus, she confides in Mulder about the whippersnapper agent's disrespect, confesses Fellig is an x-file, and calls her partner whenever she needs information (or is afraid.) Mulder is her lifeline; and their reciprocity goes both ways.

Two Fathers and One Son is where things got sticky-- but not too sticky, in hindsight, because of their restored closeness, banter, and symbiotic partnership in Agua Mala. Diana Fowley pops back up, and Mulder trusts her without question, and Scully calls him to the carpet, using his friends against him in order to get her point across. Again, both are right and wrong; and both are in the wrong-- Mulder for his dismissal, Scully for her methods. Still, Mulder chose Scully over Diana-- going to Diana's apartment to check if she was compromised (with a lock pick) and only allowing her to kiss him after he fell into despair and just wanted to save Scully alive.-- and Scully trusted that he would, from the start, because she called him to go with her to retrieve Cassandra Spender. The close of One Son is so, so crucial: Mulder's speech-- "They burned themselves. With a choice made long ago by a conspiracy of men who thought they could sleep with the enemy"-- alerts Scully to his shame. Though her eyebrow goes up and her eyes harden, her mouth and jaw softens: Mulder is owning, in his own way, his complete and utter failure-- that he needed her to save him, again.

So, what does she do? Withdraw, distance, discard? No-- she answers his Floridian sea monster call, travels down in an impending hurricane, clutches onto Mulder's arm, stands with her partner against the loonies, has the confidence that she can poke at his methods and theories without him turning hostile (even on the phone with other police), and bickers with him like half of a married couple. That follows through in Monday, where they are back in business and have nothing between them; in Arcadia, where he continually pushes back against her comfortability with this "normal" life without utterly offending her; in Alpha, even though she is jealous over Mulder's pen pal-- notice she's never this way with his other male friends, acquaintances, and associates? it's a pattern that traces back to TLG's introduction in E.B.E. and Bambi's brief appearance in War of the Coprophages-- and frustrated he didn't clearly communicate ahead of time; and in Trevor where she takes up the (brief) "spontaneous human combustion" theory despite potential or possible prickles from the canid case the week before.

Milagro weaves in the threads Fight the Future left. Scully is lonely and trying to get Mulder's attention; Mulder is concerned about her compromised ability to see Padgett clearly; both are in the wrong, and right, about the case. Both trust each other with their lives; and both cling to each other at the end of the episode. Both hear Padgett's "Agent Scully is already in love." Then The Unnatural unfolds: Scully wants to take life by the testes: she brings ice cream into the basement one Saturday afternoon, hoping to distract Mulder's attention from a case. It turns out, his attention was already distracted. Thus, we have the true cause for the will-they-won't-they, the same one that plagued them all the way back in Detour, and forwards and backwards (since): Mulder doesn't look for life on this planet, hence he misses (and sometimes purposefully overlooks) the signs and signals Scully puts out. He has a big revelation, runs to a baseball field to share it with Scully, and an important thing happens: David Duchovny wrote the script so that Scully already knew Mulder's moral and where he was going-- she already knew Mulder's heart and intentions, hence why she is still here.

In short: if Scully doubts, she withdraws and distances. We see this in Syzygy, we see this in Never Again, we see this in The End, we see this in Fight the Future, we see this in all things. All of these incidences are so much more than Mulder not giving her respect or choosing other people-- all of these are tied to Scully's estimation of herself. Gillian explored this in all things: Mulder didn't change, hadn't changed, hadn't needed to change; it was Scully's doubts and insecurities that were tripping her up, not him. (As Scully says in Never Again, "Not everything is about you, Mulder.") Further, all things concludes with Mulder's return from his trip to England; and Scully plans to tell him about her weekend and listen to him talk about his without expecting him to change or be different-- because she realizes not everything is about her, either: it isn't about the truth or Samantha or Diana Fowley or anyone else, either. Mulder's actions are because of his own reasons, and her actions are because of her reasons-- and she understood the first part as early as Detour (with him running off into the woods and not holding it against him) but hadn't mastered the latter until her talk with 'god'.

So, in conclusion: we all have our thoughts, readings, and opinions. I think attributing Scully's actions in The End and Season 6 to angst over disrespect or thoughtlessness by Mulder-- when there is no carry-through of that angst or disrespect-- is only one dimension to a complicated issue; and does disservice to her flaws, decisions, and resolutions. If Scully had doubted, she'd walk away-- in Fight the Future and One Son-- but the nature of those doubts are better explained in Field Trip (where she and Mulder argue about both their voices not being heard) than in a one-off mytharc episode with a wedged in, fairly one-dimensional character.

i think the hallway scene like half-way through s5e20 is a really great representation of the entirety of season 6 yes i'm still here.

mulder and diana separated from her by a glass door. she can see them and if they cared to look they'd see her too. she waits. diana takes his hand. mulder looks at her and he keeps looking at her and scully's hand is frozen in the air as she reaches for the handle, waiting.

and she attempts to open that damn door so many times but she gets absolutely nothing in return. mulder doesn't listen to her, doesn't trust her, doesn't treat her like an equal—let alone a friend.

because they WERE friends before all of this.

now? after choosing diana over her every single time? after breaking all the promises he made? after going back on all his love confessions? after being his one in five billion right up until someone better came along?

they were friends and now she is "making it personal".

she walks away from him—from THEM, from the x files, from the remnants of the life they've built—and he doesn't try to stop her. the door stays shut with her fingerprints still visible on the glass.

#txf #xf meta #x-files #the x files #x files #xfiles #Mulder #Scully #MSR #S6 #FTF #S5 #The End #mine #thoughts #poangpals #agree to disagree #this go long sorry!

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