#THERE WAS AN EPISODE THAT I WATCHED RELIGIOUSLY

[chipthekeeper]

Today I had the displeasure of reading the words “we get it vel is sad and gay can we move on” and several other similarly ridiculous things on twitter a website not to be named, so I spent my whole 45 minute drive home just absolutely fuming with the need to defend my girl. Most of you know I've already done this in a broad sense before (defending her as a character and as half of a complicated relationship on her appreciation Friday), but let me focus in on what we’ve gotten from Vel so far in season two for now. Because yeah, it might not have been exactly what I was hoping to see, but it’s meaningful as hell and Faye is doing a fucking incredible job and deserves to be applauded for it.

Look. Even if all she was doing was being sad and gay, I would be here for that. You know this. Those are two of my most favorite qualities of her. But let’s not pretend that all she’s doing is “mourning her gay situationship” and forget why we’re seeing her in this arc in the first place. She’s Mon’s cousin and closest confidant, and she’s Chandrilan. Stuck between these two facts is a conflict for Vel. She HAS to be at this three-day-long heteronormative child wedding from hell because someone she loves needs her support, but she hates every second of it. She hates this place, these people, this culture, probably even the clothes on her back. She looks uncomfortable just about every second she’s on screen in this arc, ESPECIALLY in the third episode.

See?

Something you may or may not have noticed – even I didn’t really register it until I started thinking about all of this because watching three fucking episodes all in one night made them all blur together – but Vel DOESN’T ACTUALLY SAY A WORD IN THE THIRD EPISODE. She has no lines. Vel’s extreme stress and discomfort are conveyed only through Faye’s body language and facial expressions. To complain about this and cry about her only being “sad and gay” is a huge discredit to the performance and I simply won’t stand for it.

Like yes, she’s sad and gay but why can’t we take a second to think about what that means? Look at her circumstances, even leaving out the Cinta of it all for a second. This is a person who must have realized at a very young age that she was not only different but very likely going to either live a completely miserable life or be a disappointment to her very wealthy family and her society at large, and being back here in the middle of it all for an occasion like this hurts fucking deeply even if it’s a weird tradition and she wants no part in it. I can tell you this for a fact because I have fucking lived it. As a gay person, I have no desire whatsoever to take part in a traditional religious marriage or wedding ceremony like the one my sister had a couple years ago, but being at her wedding and the party that followed was overwhelming and painful because I spent so much time thinking something along the lines of “even if I had someone in my life to do this with, these same people – my family – would never celebrate my love this way.”

Now, is that what Vel’s thinking about as she stands next to the other unmarried women (i.e. teenage children) watching her niece’s first dance with her new husband? Perhaps not. But the way she breaks down after seeing Cinta sure looked an awful lot like how I looked sitting outside in the dark and the rain, drunk as I’ve ever been, while my sister’s reception carried on behind me.

And this, to me in particular, is what’s so great about Vel as a character – as a STAR WARS character – and why I will never ever complain about seeing her be “sad and gay.” For the first time ever in my favorite franchise, I get to see myself so clearly. She’s sad and gay, yes, but she’s also fiercely supportive of her family (the part she likes, anyway) – she takes Mon’s hand in support when she needs it, and she seems ready to snap at Kleya for even being around and creating the possibility of trouble at this function. She’s sad and gay, yes, but she’s on the front line of a fucking rebellion. Just because you don’t see it in this arc because that’s not where the story is focused doesn’t mean that’s not still true, and we’ll see that again come next week I’m sure.

I don’t really know how to wrap this up, but the point is if you’re tired of what’s happening with Vel in this show, you’re probably not paying enough attention. I want more of her and more for her to do as much as anybody (that’s a lie, I want it SO MUCH FUCKING MORE THAN ANYBODY, fucking try me), but there’s already a whole ocean of her character to explore with just what we have, if you only bother to stop and consider it.

[befuddledcinnamonroll]

Top Form catch up time! My mental health can be...tricky, so sometimes when I know an angsty episode is on deck, I wait until the next week so I can head right into the following, hopefully less angsty episode. So I'm starting with 6 today.

This also means that with more to watch, I don't remotely have the kind of time where I can jot down a ton of thoughts, so I will probably just stick to the most highlight-worthy moments with my babies.

Ok, episode 6.

I love when Akin just can't contain himself anymore.

Also love that Jin is 100% aware he's in love with a black cat, and knows Akin's pseudo-grumpiness is a love language.

Excellent to see a little of Jin's dangerous side.

So far his obsession has been so polite, but I like a little edge in there. It's bad to underestimate how dangerous a dog can be just because it's cute and fluffy.

Hmm, y'know - I expected that final scene to be a lot harder to watch based on people's reactions last week.

It also makes me a little sad I saw so many people criticizing both Akin and Jin in this episode, because I feel like the writing did an incredible job of making both of them so relatable in this moment.

Akin is clearly still having trouble accepting he was assaulted. Which is not surprising, because we live in a world where there is so little support and so much judgement and shame thrown at men who are victims. He's still trying to process what happened to him, blaming himself, while also dealing being in love for the first time (which he's also still a bit in denial about), with someone who has him on a pedestal, with a big part of himself expecting it will inevitably end anyway, because everything good in his life always does.

And then Jin, who is still very young, and has been deeply in love and obsessed with Akin for years, and had this moment of feeling like all his work would finally get him on the same level and worthy of Akin, is operating on pure emotion, and the sudden horrible fear that he will never be enough for Akin.

I thought it was beautifully written and incredibly acted.

Ok, let's move on, episode 7!

Again with the visuals!

I'm really enjoying the "thou" language too, which I assume means they're using an older style of Thai in the play?

Ok, so what Johnny did is assault and utterly inexcusable. But I do find it interesting how clear they are making it that he is someone who sees his own body as a commodity, for transactional purposes. It does give some insight into his character. You don't grow up with healthy examples of intimate relationships and then treat yourself, or other people like that. Again - not an excuse for what he did! But he's not some mustache-twirling villain, he's a fucked up human being.

My babies, *sob*

Also how much Smart has to stoop here, lol.

THEIR ACTING IS SO GOOD

My heart might literally explode

I know that technically the shower sex is to show the cleansing off of what happened to Akin with Johnny

but I like to think it's also a result of them having to spend so long cleaning the honey off last time.

Goddamn, you two.

Also there is no way Akin will ever be able to sleep with anyone else, he gets utterly body-worshipped every time by Jin. This man is once again having a religious experience.

Domestic era!

Also Akin in glasses.

I know episode 8 can be fast tracked, but I'm not a fan of that business model, so I'm gonna wait. But glad we got so much JinAkin cuteness/hotness this episode!

[grimark]

severance is quickly approaching locked tomb levels of “it doesn’t even matter if you see a spoiler because half of the spoilers make no fucking sense until you see them in context”

[artfulacrostic]

okay, do you want to know too much about st. yves, aka the guy in the litany that appears via matt's narration twice in ddba ep 6? well me and my childhood catholic education are here for you, but let me just say they hit the nail on the head with that one.

first of all: st. yves is the catholic patron saint of lawyers and the law in general (barristers, solicitors, jurists, etc). he was basically well known for fairly upholding the standards of the law, including refusing to accept bribes after he eventually became the middle ages version of a judge, and his big thing was all about helping and protecting the poor and the oppressed, especially widows and children. he was so into charity that he is usually shown with a bag of money to give away in one hand and the symbol of the law/judges in the other (some kind of scroll), or shown as mediating between a rich man and a poor man.

it's super clear to me and probably also you by this point why st. yves is a saint that matt would feel a particular connection with. it's a no brainer. the actual prayer he is praying is a snippet from the end of the litany of st. yves. a litany, in case you're wondering, is a kind of prayer usually formatted as a petition, and there are (i think, don't fail me now brain) five that are actually approved as public litanies that can be prayed at mass, while there are a bunch of other private litanies that you might do on your own or at home, with a bit less emphasis on the call and response format that is so big on the public ones like the litany of the saints.

a litany like the litany of st. yves is usually designed to call for that particular saint's intercession, aka to get them to put in a good word for you to god, since they are basically in the top tier of souls who are in good standing up in heaven. so while the saint themself can't do much, they can be like "yo i think my man matt could use some mojo would you mind giving that a look please?" and god is more likely to bestow some grace upon the person and their prayer intentions.

what's fascinating about the litany of st. yves is that in using it to pray for st. yves' intercession and help with the things that are being listed in the petition, matt isn't just asking for justice (although he is). the section he prays onscreen: "O God, from whom cometh all that is right and just, Thou didst establish Saint Yves as a judge in the midst of his brethren, making him the friend and advocate of the poor. Do Thou make us, by his intercession, steadfast in the pursuit of justice and confident in Thy merciful goodness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen."

great, easy to see why matt relates to the desire to be a friend and advocate to the poor, why he wants to be made steadfast in the pursuit of justice, and why he wants to renew his confidence in god's mercy and goodness. great. nice and clear.

but.

if you're a big daredevil person, you know matt's faith and his willingness to go beat the shit out of evil people in the dead of night are deeply intertwined.

included in the actual petition portion of the litany of st. yves:

"Saint-Yves, devoted to penitence, pray for us."

gee, i wonder what matt feels guilty about that he feels the need to repent for.

"Saint Yves, friend of young people, pray for us. Saint Yves, companion of adolescents, pray for us."

gee, i wonder who the main focus of the episode is on matt saving. (angela.) gee, i wonder which demographic he caves for every time, and does what maybe he shouldn't, from the child he saved from the abusive father because he couldn't bear to listen anymore, to the boy who was kidnapped by the russians, who matt went after even though he knew it was a trap that they were using to try and kill him. (kids.)

"Saint Yves, helper of all who invoke thee, pray for us."

gee, i wonder who came to matt to ask for help, help that he was struggling to give via the system.

"Saint Yves, bright light among men of law, pray for us."

gee, i wonder why matt is struggling to find guidance on what he should do, when doing what he knows foggy would have wanted has been his guiding light—except it's been getting harder and harder to see that the system works at all.

"Saint Yves, terror of demons, pray for us."

gee. i wonder who might be feeling the urge to put some righteous terror back into the hearts of evil-doers.

and those are just the most immediately relevant lines. so maybe they just googled the patron saint of lawyers and jumped on that bandwagon. but maybe matt's looking for intercession for all those things and more. because of course we know that he prays more and more when he starts to let the devil out.

[justaz]

merlin slipping up early on around arthur and trying to assuage his fears by assuring that the gods would look out for them and arthur pauses before asking “the gods?” and they have a awkward lil conversation where merlin is like “yeah i worship the gods of the old religion” and arthurs like “why?” and merlin goes “well why do you worship the god of the new religion? we just believe in them” and arthur takes in this new information and is eventually like “yeah. sure. i guess its not illegal in essetir is it?” anyways thats it. it doesnt get brought up again until later on

when arthur + the knights and merlin and in that shrine and the knights aren’t taking it seriously and merlin goes “in the time of the old religion, they built shrines like this to appease restless spirits. we shouldn’t be here” and the knights brush it off but arthur knows merlin truly believes in it all so he redirects the knights away and later on its him and merlin at the well and arthur is there to calm merlin after he sees the visions from the raid. merlin’s crying and pleading with arthur to leave, that they shouldn’t be here. arthur agrees and goes to leave when merlin calls out to him. arthur stops but doesn’t turn. merlin wraps his arms around his middle.

“you were here”

arthur doesn’t say anything more and walks away

[fictionadventurer]

I guess it took seeing an entire season for me to really get The Chosen, because now that I've seen all of season 1, I'm impressed. I've got issues with the (slow) pacing of individual episodes or about certain character or plot choices, but on a structural level, it's so well-done.

The season starts and ends with episodes focused on a woman who has suffered for years in a life of sin, is rejected by all good society, and is saved when Jesus sees her and calls her to a new life. With Mary Magdalene, He keeps his work secret, and doesn't even tell her His name. With the woman at the well, He tells her straight-out that He's the Messiah, and He wants her to spread the message.

The main season-long character arcs center on two people who are living comfortable lives in authority positions, who are baffled when they see Jesus' miracles, obsessively search for the truth, and are eventually called by Jesus to follow Him. Matthew's story shows how Jesus conflicts with Roman authority, while Nicodemus' shows how He conflicts with Jewish authority. In the end, Matthew instantly leaves His life and follows Jesus without hesitation, while Nicodemus is the one who rejects the call and stays in his comfortable life.

It's there, it's good storytelling, I love it.

[riveluart]

RIP Akira Toriyama

My cousin, younger brother, and I grew up watching dbz, and I'm sure my relationship with my art wouldn't be the same without having experienced his work back then

[thenervousest]

the vulcans and romulans of ni’var talking about spock like a new version of surak (“the teachings of spock”) implies that kirk/spock could be the 32nd century equivalent of jesus/judas

[particularisticparcheesi]

This episode could have been an email

[feelingtheaster99]

I have had Bobby Dawn for approximately two minutes and I would already like to return him, please and thank you

[a-casual-egg]

Howdy there! Are you intrigued by Mike/Silas' hinting of Silas' past with Rackstraw, possibly as a mentor from his past? Well, then I have the fic for you! Silas and The Sheriff is an 11 chapter backstory fic about our beloved Silas Flint! Including wonderfully written original characters! *whispers* and the impetus for why Silas is so terrified of horses!

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s7 episode 7 "orison" thoughts

i’m baaaaack!

it feels like it’s been so long, but i think it’s only been 5 days since i’ve seen an episode. regardless! last one was cute and light, which is good, because i imagine that this one is going to be heavy.

we don’t often get to see a return of a baddie of the week. last time we saw this happen, it was a return of the pusher, and i didn’t find the second episode as good as the original, which i consider to have an important role in the x files canon. as does irresistible. so i’m really hoping for a suitable sequel, but i don’t want to be overly optimistic. 

(post-episode thoughts: sometimes, i read my little pre-episode predictions and marvel at how very off i was. other times, my ability to see what is coming is a curse. this is one of those times. SIGH.

what is frustrating me the most, beyond the demonic retcon, is that i cannot figure out what mulder was going for during this episode. he starts out so concerned for her- rightfully so- and from there, it blurs to me. is he teasing her playfully to try and keep her from spiraling? is he genuinely listening to her theories? is he pushing them down because he sees them as potentially dangerous in that they can be used to manipulate her, or is he pushing them down because he thinks they're foolish? is it a mix of all of these? i just cannot get a read on him here, and it is driving me up a wall.

after a very lengthy pondering, i think i've decided that he was trying to be protective and genuine- and this interpretation is especially influenced by one of his final comments i'll analyze later- but it came off awkward

while i am curious as to how others interpreted this episode- so please do tell me your thoughts- overall i didn't like it very much and i think i will mostly pretend it didn't happen.

but we got to see more of scully's apartment. is it still the same one? the bedroom angle looked different from the anasazi arc. it almost looked like a house, tbh. need to make a mental layout of both their living spaces for fic purposes)

back to past me: let’s begin.

we open with a man preaching the gospel to some men who seem to be in prison. huh! i accidentally typed “orison” first, which is the name of the episode, and one letter away from prison. interested to see why this was chosen as the title.

he asks who believes. and he kinda looks like joe biden. he gets right in someone i assume to be donnie’s face and ask if he believes. and donnie says nothing. “well, believe, because god’s love is not just some slogan”

why is donnie smirking…. what has he planned…. 

now the preacher guy is tossing holy water, shouting glory, amen. but donnie does not partake in the hollering. 

the prisoners are at work making shoes, it seems? one of the guards asks donnie if he really believes god loves him- he kills women and cuts their pinkies off- god has a place for him in hell.

augh! someone cut their fingers off with the saw?? did donnie do this somehow?? he is watching everything in slow motion…. the screen is very dark. in the chaos of someone cutting their own fingers off, he tosses his jacket and walks away.

now, i haven’t gotten very much information here, so i shall keep an open mind. anyway, it’s intro time! and we get the full one!!

woooow. always a treat to watch such visuals.

scully is sleeping!! do not wake her up!!!

alas. there is wind. ah. it seems to just be from her open window. we can allow this to disturb her slumber, for it is a mostly peaceful way to wake up.

wait. it can’t really be 6:66. that isn’t how digital clocks work!!

the electricity is flickering. and now it says 6:06. oh… poor girl. she is being tormented by signs.

now she’s at the prison. they’re handing her donnie’s file!!! mulder is watching her like a hawk… somehow donnie escaped and they need to get him back behind bars.

scully stares at the photo….. and nearly gags as mulder describes to the prison guards what donnie does

mulder does a little smile when the guard asks about them working with the supernatural LMAO- it almost seems embarrassed or like he just does not want to have that conversation right now.

then he’s back to watching scully. she had to step out of his line of vision to see donnie's photo again. very interesting. 

she promises that there is nothing supernatural about this man- he is just plain evil. and she walks away. into the room where the men were shouting glory. she hears some sort of song.

oh…. he’s telling her to go home. “mulder, this case doesn’t bother me” “the man abducted you. donnie pfaster did a number on your head like i’ve never seen, and it’s okay to walk away” i appreciate his moment of tenderness so much....

but her body language is so defiant. “mulder, that man does things to people that no one should ever have to think about. it’s not a question of if i should stay. i don’t have a choice” <- THERE!!! RIGHT THERE!!! HER BEING MORALLY FORCED TO DO WHAT SHE CONSIDERS THE RIGHT THING!! ALL OTHER CONSEQUENCES BE DAMNED!!! GOD!!! it’s such a fascinating character trait of hers.

she says they have to get to work. 

ohhh, donnie left the prison at 6:06 in the morning…. when she saw the alarm clock….

huh. is this going to retcon the whole thing about donnie being pure evil without the aid of any sort of devils or witchcraft? i liked that a lot about the original- that the evil was entirely human, like scully said. 

okay. no more predictions from me.

mulder describes how donnie was the third person to walk out of maximum security prisons in recent years. no one who was at the scene remembers anything. and the other 2 that walked away were never seen again. 

they’re asking a prisoner about donnie’s disappearance from the garment shop. oh no! it’s finger guy! but he still has them all?

so other people saw his fingers come off too, and he felt them cut off, but they’re still here. “god works in mysterious ways, brother”

when mulder lifts his hand, he says glory and raises his foot. hmm…… very weird. 

mulder thinks this reaction is from hypnosis. and he makes a joke about it not working on her- trying hard to keep the mood from becoming a void of darkness- but she adamantly does not think it’s possible. her words are harsh. i understand.

ooo! mulder has figured out the one person all the escaped prisoners had contact with!! the chaplain. he is good at finding out this sort of thing.

and scully hears music once again coming from the vents. mulder can barely hear it.

“well i think if it was a make out song, it’d be ruined forever, huh?”

ohhhhh, his jokes seem nervous today…. or maybe i’m over-analyzing. both have been known to happen.

donnie is at a diner!!! he almost gets distracted by a woman he sees, but then goes to sit down. oh. and he’s watching the waitress’s fingers…. gross.

a woman sits next to him. asking if he’s hungry for today’s special. he stares at her fingers, and he declares she needs a buff and polish. and he says he just got out of prison- he’ll do it for free. 

who is this missy figure and why does the waitress know her by name…?

OH! the reverend is here in the diner!!! saying it was the grace of god that got him out.

the marshals arrive. reverend dangles his car keys in front of donnie. and when he says “glory, amen”, the waitress tosses a pot of hot coffee at the cops, allowing donnie, missy, and the reverend to escape.

(author's note: now, having seen the whole episode, this too seems like a plot hole. because how did his mind tricks work on the waitress he had never met before to hypnotize? unless i missed something and one of the cops started to attack her and her coffee pot launch was an act of self-defense? that seems like the most logical conclusion, but i didn't see it happen and also there isn't a whole lot of logic in these sort of things)

BAHAHAAAAA but as the escapes the diner, the reverend gets hit by a car!!!!!!!! DAMN!!! that caught me off guard, LMAOOOO

i thought it was mulder and scully in the car, but it’s donnie and missy!!! and they drive away, leaving him on the ground. 

NOW scully and mulder are here, and the cops can’t answer if they saw donnie or not. it is like their minds were wiped. but they do know that reverend orison was hit by a car. and scully hears that song again!!!! she asks the waitress to turn it up. she is so confused.

they go to talk to orison. he says some vaguely religious stuff and she replies “that’s nice”. a measured scully response.

he says that god has those who have left the prisons. “you’re a believer, aren’t you?” “this has nothing to do with me, sir” <- GET HIM!!! 

but he says it does. she still isn’t taking it- she grabs her cross necklace, shows him- “it’s not exactly a long shot, sir” and he says she is longing, afraid, waiting for a sign. now. what is that supposed to mean.

he’s quoting something to her…. "the devil’s instant is our eternity". 

OH MY GOD! mulder comes in with a photo of missy slaughtered in a bathtub. “missy”. they sure do love giving people in this show that name.

mulder asks the reverend where donnie is- orison says she wasn’t supposed to die. mulder thinks that orison was supposed to kill donnie!

“the reverend orison is really robert gailen orison- convinced in 1959 of first-degree murder. served 22 years in soledad” oooo.... the plot thickens.

he says god spoke to him, told him to look after donnie. “when god spoke to you, reverend, did he happen to mention where donnie was headed?” mulder is NOT happy!!!

scully is trying to process this. they walk into the hall.

this is deeply fascinating. she wants to know how to prove somebody isn’t being directed by god. “god is a spectator, scully. he just reads the box scores” “i don’t believe that” “you think god directs that man? you think he directs him to kill?”

oh my god. this is so tense. she says she knows the reverend believes it is god speaking through him. mulder replies that a lot of nutcases think the same thing.

“has he ever spoken to you?” (brief stunned scully silence) she looks him in the eyes and says “i’m trying not to take offense”. which is a nicer reply than he deserved- if he meant that as a dig instead of a rare moment of vulnerability. but he keeps going: “what did he say?”

(is he bullying her? or is he able to see what she is hiding from him? is it both? why can he be so hard to read? what is going through his mind? does he actually care about scully communicating with god? or does he think she is also a nutcase? the different ways you can interpret this are killing me. i want to analyze the script for any sort of clues)

she sighs and admits to hearing that song three times now. it may not mean anything to him, but it does to her. and he asks what it means.

she was in san diego at age 13, listening to that song, when her mother came in and said her sunday school teacher was killed. mulder softly says “oh”. “he had been murdered in his front yard. and that was the first time that i ever felt that there was real evil in the world”

and orison called her “scout”, which is what the sunday school teacher called her. see, i just thought he was quoting something, but that instead explains why she was so taken aback. and she tells him that she woke up exactly at 6:06, when her power went out and donnie escaped.

“so what do you think god is telling you?” 

is he going to approach this with sensitivity? god, i hope so.

she’s at a loss for words.

“well, come with me, scout. i’ll show you how the reverend talks to god” and they’re on their way

this is so juicy…. i will be analyzing this for centuries to come.

(but him calling her scout made me uncomfy. again. was he trying to be reassuring? is he mocking her? i cannot tell. i feel like i'm trying to decode something here with slim to nothing to go off of. i want to read the script. i want to compare this with other episodes. i can't get a read on anything.

does he pity her? is he unintentionally condescending towards her? is he fundamentally incapable of understanding her worldview to the point where it comes off as disrespectful and malicious? is he trying, and he's just not very good at it?)

donnie is listening to the radio, which is describing his escape. the trunk of orison’s car is filled with bloody clothes, and donnie finds his license plate and his keys. 

mulder is showing scully some brain swelling. she thinks it came from the car accident, but orison told mulder that he had a hole put in his head, so more blood pumps in through his brain.

listen. i recall someone else once getting a hole cut in his skull to get information from mystic sources. so i'm not trying to hear any judgement.

mulder thinks that mental powers might be limited by blood supply, and holy men in the andes used to remove parts of their skull to do just this. they could perform tricks like “stopping the world” <- aha! the slowing down thing! 'twas not a mere trick of the camera for us, the viewers, to enjoy!

so mulder thinks maybe orison was going to kill donnie, but he unleashed something he couldn’t control. hmm...

back in his hospital bed, orison says "glory, amen" and his heart rate slows. or not! the guard’s perception of the world slows! he gets up and takes his keys!! and leaves the hospital!!!

donnie is in a kitchen, cooking fingers naked. which is a crazy sentence.

well, technically he isn’t fully naked- he has a towel on. and he’s not cooking the fingers- he’s freezing them. but. you know. the initial image was visually striking. 

a knock at the door… a woman arrives from a gentlemen’s service. he lets her in. 

she knows it’s not his place- a reverend orison lives here. he stares at her fingers. her face. 

“something you want to say?” “love your hair” ooooo…. it's spooky.

very interesting that they so blatantly queercoded the death fetishist. that's a topic of a different essay.

she is in the tub, soaking. he’s in the bathroom, asking if her hair is chemically treated. he doesn’t know which product to use. she does NOT like this. “you’re not using no product- i’m clean, my hair’s clean. if you’re gonna be that weird about it, i ought to just leave” and she gets up to go. asks for a towel. he wraps it around her. he's staring at her hair. it’s a wig. 

“they lied to me” (he rips it off) “YOU lied to me!”  he throws it away…

she tosses the candle wax in his face and makes an escape!!!! 

when mulder and scully come back for orison, he’s gone!!! the guard has no idea where he went and his gun is gone. 

scully finds a message…. “don’t look any further” ITS THE SONG TITLE?? mulder thinks maybe he overhead them talking in the hall, but she’s positive she didn’t mention the name of the song. 

orison finds donnie…. cocks his gun. says he’s taking him home. the wicked will be punished.

orison digs a grave, with donnie's hands tied behind his back nearby. he asks him to repent. and donnie whimpers. cries. says he can’t. he cries for the reverend. “because you cannot kill me”

HUH??? donnie morphs into the devil. or a devil. WHAT.

LMAO WHAT. I’M SO CAUGHT OFF GUARD. BAHAHAHA, HOLD ON. 

okay. i need a minute for this!

well! way to ruin the thing i liked the best about the first episode. 

maybe i’m being harsh. we can…. see where this takes us. i guess. 

mulder and scully are here. donnie's body is in the grave. she apologies to mulder. “there’s not much mystery in murder” “and for that, i owe you an apology, mulder” “what do you mean?” “well, you were right. i was looking too hard for connections that weren’t there. orison was a murder, plain and simple. he liberated those prisoners so he could bring them out here and pass judgement on them”

does she really believe that?? is that easier to believe than what she thinks she felt before?? and that she apologizes to him... was she aware of how worried he was for her? but did his worry come off as genuine concern or something closer to derision? is she used to that?

donnie placed the call that led them out there… scully seems to think he’s still around. but mulder says the x file is over, let’s go home, let the marshals deal with it. “don’t look any further, scully” <- wild to quote that song that is traumatizing her again

AUGH! but of course, donnie is still about, as he is a devil and i'm not sure how you go about killing those. and he’s in scully’s place, it seems. walking through her apartment. peeking into her bedroom. picking up her bible. putting it away. 

and she comes home. oh my god. i’m so tense. she sets down her keys, takes off her coat. he’s watching her get changed. putting on pajamas. she’s standing outside the closet…. and her clock says 6:66 again. and the lights flicker out. she sees the closet open.

he opens the door and grabs her….

mulder’s phone rings, he isn’t home, but the marshal says a call girl identified her attacker as donnie- he was upset she wasn’t a real redhead. he gets home. 

donnie’s choking her. she scratches his eyes. but he slams her into the mirror. she stabs him with broken glass. throws a bookshelf on him. runs and dials 911. but he grabs her. wraps up her wrists. “who did your nails, girly girl?”, he says as he slams her to the ground.

“the only reason you’re alive is because i asked the judge for life. the only reason you’re alive is because we didn’t kill you when we could”

MULDER IS STILL AT HOME??? he hears the song. 

donnie is dragging scully into the bath. he tells her to be good- don’t cause any problems. she’s gagged and bound. the phone is ringing. and the song is playing. 

she’s trying to get free…. looking under the door. she sees her gun. donnie looks through her products. 

she got under the bed!!!! she’s rolling around.

he takes scissors from her kitchen. i can't help but think of how, once she gets through this, she will never want to use those scissors again. she inches towards the shattered glass from the mirror to cut the ties and grab her gun.

donnie is lighting the candles. he sees her on the ground. time slows down. mulder comes in. tells him something. we can't hear what he's saying, but his lips seem to read "put your hands in the air"

he turns to her. she’s free. she has her gun. she's bleeding from the nose. mulder’s screaming. the lights pop as she fires the gun. she looks at him. tears in her eyes. 

woah.

later, they’re still in her place, and the cops are here. she’s wrapped in a blanket, and goes to her bedroom. mulder excuses himself from talking to a policeman to go see her. 

“if you want to pack some things, we can get out of here”. are they going to spend some time at his apartment while the cops investigate? is she going to move out?

she finds the bible hidden in the drawer. “you can’t judge yourself”, he says

she sits on the bed. “maybe i don’t have to” “the bible allows for vengeance” “but the law doesn’t”

he leans in close. “the way i see it, he didn’t give you a choice. and my report will reflect that… in case you’re worried”

there's something she doesn't understand: “what made me pull the trigger” “you mean, if it was god?” “i mean… what if it wasn’t?”

(thus concludes the episode)

hmm….

i’m not sure how i feel. the best thing, in my opinion, about irresistible was the fact that donnie was entirely ordinary. so the demon reveal made me face palm. actually, i laughed out loud. i was thinking “please don’t go there” and boy, they sure did.

still, i could see some merit in the episode concept. he takes her again. okay. we’ve done this before- it's getting old. but this time she saves herself. a nice reversal. puts a bullet in his chest.

but she feels guilty at the end?? like the devil made her do it??

girl, you kill people all the time. is he different and special because you feel like your reasons for killing him were personal? and normally you feel disconnected from the action, so it’s fine?

hmm. hmm.

it’s always interesting when we see scully’s faith weaponized against her. i loved seeing her be like “yeah, fuck you” to the reverend who was trying to manipulate her. and very interesting to get that lore reveal about her childhood and the discovery of evil. orison somehow knew exactly which words to say. how? 

i guess this episode feels like it wasn’t fully formulated to me. wasn’t thought all the way through. orison aimed to extract divine justice but didn’t for once, and then because of him more blood was shed. why did he change his mind that one time and spare donnie instead of killing him right away? why did he know what nickname and note to leave scully? was that sent by god? that makes no sense in a narrative role of god from a writer’s perspective. obviously, god is fully unknowable, but the writers of a tv show are, and i’m not sure wtf they were going for here.

idk, i think the original irresistible has so much to say about gendered violence, about things mulder could never understand, about scully’s worldview where real evil is out there, and it is impossible to comprehend. and at that point they hadn’t dived into her catholic lore, but it still feels like a major retcon to go over that initial terror of what humanity is capable of and blame it on the supernatural. even if she didn’t fully see his demonic transformation, she thought she felt it in herself with the lights flickering as she pulled the trigger. scully believes in the holy and the demonic, but most of the time, good and evil are just done by the human. and i love that about her. 

i feel that the most interesting moments here were mulder’s. him telling her that she can go home (and her steadfast refusal out of her strict moral compass). him saying god is just here for the box scores- has he ever made any comment on what he really believes in terms of religion, ever? that view sounds like deism. is that really what he thinks or just another of his one liners?

and when scully opens up to him- even though he basically calls her a nutcase, and she specifies that she is trying not to be hurt by such a statement- he seems to listen. but is he? is he really trying? i cannot tell. is he concerned and trying to keep her from being manipulated but in doing so coming off as disrespectful? is he genuinely trying? i cannot fucking tell.

then, it is god (or fate or coincidence) that ends up talking to him when he hears the song and goes to help her. how interesting that choice is. for god to talk to someone who isn’t interested in listening. 

would he be interested in listening after experiencing something like that?

i made that post the other day about how i would have loved to see them talk religion completely openly and without his trademark scorn. just to pick scully’s brain and learn what is important to her. but he seems almost unable to comprehend (or respect?) where she’s coming from. he inches close to it when he asks what god is saying to her. but then he dismisses orison as having extra brain blood. is that also dismissal of her theory that god can speak to people?

it’s frustrating, the give and take of it. she doesn’t believe in his theories, but she goes along with them. okay, sure, she says, let’s imagine that drilling holes in orison’s brain would make him connect with the divine or perform parlor tricks- why would he use that power to free donnie? she can put herself in the “what if” shoes and work around his theories even if she doesn’t adhere to them. but he seems unable to reciprocate. and it’s frustrating!

and i know this is a point of contention because i have had angry mulder fans leave comments (which is a funny statement to make, because it makes me sound like i am NOT a mulder fan, and obviously i am, look at my URL, look at my whole blog)- those fans have said: "well, she never believes him about his ghouls"- but there is something a lot more intimate and disrespectful about scoffing at another’s god, don’t you think? idk. i understand that he is a fictional character and fictional characters have flaws, but for someone who spends so much time researching other people’s belief systems out of what seems like genuine curiosity, his disregard for what scully thinks irks me.

i’m not expecting them to agree on everything, i’m just expecting him to listen. in my experience, as someone who studies religion, it’s really great to talk to someone who has different beliefs than you!! you get an inside scoop! learn about how the people you love see the world! is there any greater way to know someone? but he’s so cynical about the whole thing, it comes off as him dismissing her faith as childish, when he himself knows that wanting to believe in anything is an act of hope. which pisses me off. 

but his comment at the end about the bible allowing for vengeance makes me think he really was trying. he really was making an effort to understand where she was coming from and reassure her of her validity in her own belief system. was this whole episode an awkward tango of him trying to protect her but not being sure how to do it? because that line recontextualizes everything for me!

hmm. i’m not sure what to think. i guess it would have been a fine episode on its own, but in the context of rewriting the narrative around an older iconic episode, it displeases me. i was engaged because i love to learn more about what they think on the world, but there are so many other plots that don’t involve the brutalization of women by men. 

even if i think the choice of the queercoding for the villain- "who did your nails, girly girl?"- is incredibly interesting, and you could really mine that for social commentary. is that choice a 90's legacy of homophobia, or an acknowledgement of the fact that misogyny, femicide, and other violence against women can also be perpetrated by any man? and is that is part of what makes the randomness of the evil so impossible to comprehend? that who does it is entirely without pattern? well. that is a subject for another day.

on a base human level, how did the episode make me feel? i was invested. i like the religion stuff. i like protective mulder and scully who could be considered walking a line between listening to the divine and being a participant in her own demise. it’s interesting. but then we got to donnie in her place, and i was scared. again. really the only time i’ve felt fear during this show is with the femicide or stalking cases. i don’t think i’ll ever watch milagro again. maybe not this one, either. 

i guess that is reasoning enough. i don’t like the cases where we see scully brutalized and tortured and hurt on the basis of her gender. and i don’t like that the original episode was shifted into the domain of the demonic. so those are two solid reasons to not like the episode. add in mulder’s inability to understand her and you can get some bonus points there- and him calling her scout also made me uncomfy. was he trying to joke with her? about her murdered sunday school teacher? was he trying and failing at being genuine? AND the sudden guilt when it came to scully defending herself made me mad too. girl, where did that come from? i’m looking all around for clues and i cannot find them.

there are definitely worse episodes, and definitely ones i’ve hated more. i don’t hate this one with a super intense and firey passion. just the sort of tired “ugh, why’d they do that?” you experience every so often when things should have been left well enough alone.

same with revisiting pusher. they should know when they’ve nailed something once that coming back to it is setting everyone up for failure. except for that one actor that gets to return and a sweet paycheck. for that guy, it rocks. although personally, if i played donnie i’d be mad they made him a demon LMAO but hey. you have to make a living. 

[rekhyt-of-arcadia]

I had stopped watching Torchwood after s2 and recently I've been rewatching some episodes, and then on youtube I saw a clip that looked good so I ended up watching a singular episode from the middle of Miracle Day (which I know they general plot of but that's not usually how I watch shows, though I did also know it would be 80% flashbacks) and I love Angelo/Jack so much why have I never heard of them before. What an engaging episode. I'm not really a shipper but I became immediately invested in them.

[topless-oncology]

btw i grew up gay in poland so whenever chase gets bitchy around religion I look like this

[buddiesmutslut]

I’m being so ffr rn, if the show runners definitively show that Buddie is not going to happen?

I’m probably not going to be watching anymore.

I mean it when I say that they’re literally the sole reason I watched this show in the first place. I saw a billion TikTok edits of them & was like “Idek these characters I need to watch this show and see what’s going on over there.”

And like, it’s a fun show, I’m not saying it isn’t, but first responder shows are a dime a dozen. There are other shows that have queer characters and found family and wild adventures. Granted, they don’t have Buck & his bi arc, but I’d still read fanfics to get my Evan Buckley fix lol.

I don’t need them right now, I’m so down for the slow burn, will-they-won’t-they & the pining & the yearning & the build up and the GOOD foundation. I want to see Eddie figuring himself out and dealing with his repression and figuring out he’s queer (& Demi, pls God. I hope if I just say it enough, I can will it into existence somehow) before anything happens with the two of them, but if they take definitive steps to have one of them like, marry someone else or something, I think I’m gonna head out. Find me on ao3 for the rest of my days lol.

[uncreative-cryptid]

the tension between you, and i, in this empty church building, and the flesh angel in the corner of the room, at midnight, on an island you cant run from and a location where no one will hear you scream.

so anyways i may have met god and