#Tempus Fugit

[lost-carcosa]

[teiasviago]

Mulder & Scully + dates (original)

Bonus:

[twogravesinsomecemetery]

Thinking about the beginning of Tempus Fugit when Mulder and Scully are at the bar having a drink but she only thinks something's weird when he gives her a birthday present ??? Was everything up until that point just a Normal Thursday ??? Were these two routinely hanging out and going out to bars together after work ??? I need ANSWERS

[amplifyme]

Okay, fellow Philes, I need you to weigh in on this bit of MSR lore. Because while some folks see this as a lusty look aimed Mulder's way, others see it as a WTF look. Let's vote and discuss.

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder Is Not Allowed to Mourn

While working my way through Tempus Fugit and Max, this scene struck me.

Mulder walks over to Max's corpse, somber and mournful; carefully unzips the plastic coverlet from his friend's face; and stares at it deeply before automatically reaching down to explore the body as evidence. A cry catches his attention, and he looks up to a family of mourners a few feet away. Mulder watches them, then stares back down with a strange expression-- as if he is moved by their grief but denied that same open display of emotion.

**Note**: While I don't inherently disagree with these takes, the hypothesis below is, overall, ill-formed. But it shall be left up for posterity's sake~.

We know the extensive history of The X-Files's traumas on one Dana Scully. It's rather self-evident, for one; but it's also obvious, played up for plot points to grow her character or progress the plot forward. And that principle extends to Mulder, too, right? Yes... but it differs in one key area.

Mulder and Scully suffer gendered violence repeatedly on the show. The Syndicate often reduces Scully down to her body and reproductive system (reluctantly coming to see her as Mulder's equal, if not their own, because of her intelligence and professionalism.) Mulder, however, is beaten over the head with trauma, and isn't allowed to mourn-- is supposed to, as the saying goes, "take it like a man."

And this wasn't an accidental flaw of (chiefly) Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz's writing: it was intentional. Nor was its bent misogynistic. Mulder suffered trauma; and the exploration and revelation and closure of that trauma served as the series' backbone. Specifically, Mulder suffered trauma through a gendered lens, propagated by his closest mentors (e.g. his parents and Bill Patterson), his label-and-dismiss peers (e.g. "Spooky Mulder"), his higher ups, and his society at large. Men are supposed to suffer in silence, if they must; but most importantly, they're not supposed to suffer at all.

We see this belief stem back to Mulder's parents, to the Consortium generation, to A.D. Skinner, to the 90s vulnerable males who feel a sense of shame or discomfort at being "failures" or "victims". Each crumbles or bears their cross on their shoulders as a form of duty. They feel, as Mulder demonstrates in Tempus Fugit, that they aren't allowed to mourn, minimizing and backing away from their pain for a later (inconvenient) date. They can feel loss, and sorrow; but aren't supposed to feel it for long.

Mulder's and Scully's characters served to break traditional barriers: he the believer, she the skeptic. He opened himself back up to painful memories to recover what he lost while she repressed and avoided them. He more openly expresses pain, she does not. However, the narrative-- or David Duchovny, or both-- shows time and again that Mulder also serves as a magnifying glass of mens' issues and expectations. In the early seasons, Mulder's trauma is exploited by shadowy informants, ex-girlfriends, malicious higher-ups, and his own mother. Whenever Scully is in peril, Mulder is expected to leave her in the dust and run after the truth; and is yelled or sneered at when he deviates from that expectation. In Fight the Future, it's revealed his father spared him so Mulder could grow up and stop the Conspiracy: yes because Bill loved him, but also because he expected his son to "save the world." These Mulder moments aren't written as a glorification of the strong and silent suffering male, either: in fact, Carter and Spotnitz often slow the script down just enough to touch on the toll it takes on Mulder-- and the toll it took on Bill Mulder, CSM, Bill Patterson, and countless others.

While Scully's traumas are explored and the men who do it to her are demonized, Mulder's are largely shoved aside-- despite them serving as the central mission of The X-Files-- because Mulder himself shoves them aside. Even though Mulder is the "believer", he is still a man; and despite breaking many of society's rules and expectations regularly (and with delight), Mulder is still twisted up in self-loathing and shame, seeing his needs-- and an expression of those needs-- as secondary to everyone else's. He is desperate to save his sister and his partner; he is devastated he can't save his father, his mother, and (again) his sister. But he constantly redirects that devastation away from himself, not facing it as Scully allows herself to do in therapy or after her remission (or after Milagro.)

There is an inherent message left unaddressed in the middle of each script, scene, and episode: Mulder is repressed, Scully is seeking repression. Mulder and Scully both judge themselves on societies' expectations for men, and both feel shame when indulging in painful emotions. But while Scully will seek space for herself-- will grieve or cry in the shelter of isolation-- Mulder refuses to allow himself that relief. And despite not being "that type of show", the writers (usually) slow down the scene to allow brief glimpses into the wrongness of that expectation and its damage for both.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[splendidgeryon]

"TEMPUS FUGIT"

By Javier Trelis Sempere

Soft pastel, sanguine and acrylic on wooden board.

Golden paint.

60x42 cms (16,5 "x23,65")

[jackiebranc]

TEMPUS FUGIT

[moradadabeleza]

Tempus Fugit 

Jenny

[palatinewolfsblog]

The Adventurer (for my dear Friend @buckhead1111 ) “Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.”

David Bowie.

[the1013file]

[carefulfears]

so i really love whenever you call mulder & scully best friends. wanna talk about your top 5 favorite moments of their friendship?

DO I EVER

1/ little green men

they have a secret code. they have their own language.

when mulder gets to his desk that morning, the photo of samantha is tipped over, and he knows that this means to meet scully at the watergate. which, first of all, is unbelievably dorky. these two work in the same building. these two have cell phones.

but they have been split up and reassigned and it is not a phase you guys it is the end of the world!!!!

when he arrives in the parking garage, he asks what she wants, and she responds, "to know that you're alright."

they have a secret code and their own language and for nothing more than to check in.

(shoutout to the depression hair era, they are so funny for both getting bangs the moment they were separated. that's how you know things are really bad for the girlies.)

when he sinks down to the floor and tells her the george hale story, she crouches down next to him, listens, tells him not to give up.

you can tell that it makes her uneasy to see him defeated, to see him doubting himself and what he believes in. she's almost trying to convince him of aliens in that moment, telling him that he's seen so much and reminding him of samantha. trying to spark something in him.

they have a secret code, they have their own language, and when he leaves town, he buys the plane ticket under a name that only she will recognize. she cracks his computer password in three tries.

earlier, after skinner questions scully, he tells CSM that she's telling the truth, she really doesn't know where mulder is. "because if she knew, she wouldn't be so worried about him."

they aren't as hard to decipher as they want to believe.

PAUSE!!!!! this is the cuntiest thing he's ever done. the sunglasses, the denim, the boots, the dangerous lack of exit strategy...anyway

she interprets his clues, she follows without obligation, they go back together. hand in his hair, not giving up, just like she started the episode.

in the end, they have nothing. the hail mary trip resulted in empty tables and silent tape recordings.

one thing i didn't notice until i rewatched this one the other day is that it's not when he says "i still have you" that she takes his hand.

it's when he switches the tape from the record of his failed excursion to his actual assignment, hours of listening to slimy men talk about strippers.

she listens with him for a moment before shaking her head, and squeezing his hand. she does understand that this isn't what he wants to be doing, and that it's disheartening.

2/ tooms

i could list every season one episode here. i could do a whole other post just about season one. i could do a whole other post just about season one, and include every episode. but i guess i will settle for this one.

this is my favorite season, and this is my favorite MSR.

him waving the pine tree air freshener in her face when she said he smells 😭😭😭

squeeze was all about the choice between climbing the ladder and the "out there" but "good" work of the basement, with all of the ridicule and consequence that come with it.

its sequel episode is about the aftermath of that decision, what it means to choose the side of the victim, to stop reaching for personal success.

(this shot is so beautiful, her face through CSM's smoke)

tooms opens with scully in a negative performance review, skinner (in his very first scene!! we love you skinman) going over her reports, CSM lurking in the corner.

the two share a look, then warn scully against having too much of an open mind, telling her that it is her "responsibility to see that these cases are by the book"

"by the book" becomes the theme of the episode, with the phrase repeating multiple times throughout.

this isn't the first time that the show has explored this topic, with young at heart also centering a debate of “by the book” protocol, what it really means, and who it really serves. ending with this final dialogue:

SCULLY: Mulder, I know what you did wasn't by the book.

MULDER: Tells you a lot about the book, doesn't it?

“by the book” isn’t an easy order to follow when you have a partner who doesn’t believe in it, and you aren’t sure you do either.

it’s not an easy order to follow, for the navy captain’s daughter who worships authority.

she does try though, and she's initially frustrated with mulder's behavior in the case. she tells him that he "sounded so....." at the trial, and she's reluctant to pursue his methods without approval from the bureau.

ultimately, when she comes to bring mulder something to eat on his unauthorized stakeout, she tells him that what he's doing is not proper surveillance protocol, and he good-naturedly accuses her of peddling "the book."

she responds, "this is not about doing it by the book, this is about you not having slept for three days." and tells him that he is inevitably going to get hurt.

to her, it's not about following the rules or pressure from the bureau or respecting authority, it's about making sure he's okay.

when she tells him to go home, that she'll take over the stakeout, he smiles and shakes his head (it's almost the same look that he gives her years later in redux ii, when she tells him to lay it all on her. just less tears.)

and i know that we tend to focus on the next part of this scene, but this line stands out to me too, as he declines because he doesn't want her to get "in trouble."

he doesn't want her to break the rules or disobey authority, and he still believes she'll be head of the bureau someday.

it kinda makes me teary, this stupefied look on his face at her response. when she looks at him unflinching and says, "mulder, i wouldn't put myself on the line for anybody but you."

they are so kind to each other. they really don't care about official reprimands in files or welfare protocols; they each just want the other to get some rest, to have a bright future.

he relents, allows her to take over, on the condition that she calls "if anything happens. immediately. i'll be here." and suggests she catch the sports talk radio show

she bends down to give him one last smile and eye roll as she exits the car

and makes a joke to herself while walking back to her own. best best best friends.

3/ tempus fugit

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR SPECIALAGENTDANAKATHERINESCULLYYYYY

what better way to celebrate life than annoying the hell out of your best friend on her birthday?

the way he clearly gave the waiters her name and this snowball and sparkler and sang "special agent dana katherine scully" while they all sang "happy birthday dana" is one of his most embarrassingly extra moments and it never fails to make me laugh

she rolls her eyes at him, but the way she stares when he's not looking says so much. they both know why this year gets sparklers and song when last year didn't. they both know there might not be a next year.

he's literally never been more irritatingly overjoyed lmao. and he brought presents! ("oh, you've got to be kidding me" "just something that reminded me of you")

he said "i didn't know it was your birthday, scully!" with a wrapped gift in his pocket, always prepared with a smile and a cover story

he does this same thing in memento mori, after getting the call to come to the hospital, when his first words of the episode are "i stole these from some guy with a broken leg down the hall. he won't be able to catch me." about the flowers we watched him come through the front doors holding

he clearly puts thought into these gestures, but everything is so fragile. neither of them are comfortable with what too much sincerity would mean, how limited it all is.

but they find little ways to give to each other anyway, they hang out in bars and roll their eyes and discuss the meaning behind a keychain.

if this is the last birthday, maybe it's worth a little vulnerability (and annoying song and dance), that he did it up right.

4/ one breath

another Mulder Gift™️ entry. god, the sweetness here is just overwhelming. he is so strange and tries so hard.

this whole scene is one of my favorites of the series, but i love this little moment so much.

it's so inadequate, in the end. to see someone that you thought you'd lost, your most important person, who was gone for so long, and have nothing more to give them than a shitty VHS sports tape.

but what else can you do? he's so quiet and self-conscious in this moment. he raced to the top of mountains and stood on broken cable cars and choked a man and wore her necklace around his neck for months and wept on the floor. he had the strength of her beliefs, and he prayed. he held her hand by her bedside after they pulled the plug.

so much goes unsaid between them, because how can you say it in words? how can you do anything but smile and buy something stupid at the gift shop?

she makes a joke while he smiles at the floor, but it's not a joke, not really. he's there and he's giving her whatever he can and he's cracking jokes, and she knew there was a reason to live. that's it right there.

5/ detour

GO, GIRL!

this is a best friends episode. this is a "we survived that hospital and we refuse to spend our one wild and precious life at the annual FBI teamwork seminar, if you need us, we'll be lost in the forest" episode.

look at her trying not to laugh while he's making sarcastic comments at her in the backseat. can you imagine carpooling with these two? they are forever passing notes and whispering behind backs.

she is not making it to the teamwork seminar. she is not getting her wine and cheese, either. she is looking for mothmen in western florida.

they think they're so much better than that communication exercise, just to make vague innuendo in a motel room.

they tell each other all about native species and how ticks can halt their metabolism and the livestock that was killed in a town 30 years ago. she teases him about his filing system.

neither of them tire of bashing the hell out of that teamwork seminar.

they talk about death. about searching for meaning in life. about which flintstones character they relate to the most. they swap dirty jokes.

she fusses over his grave injury (a dislocated shoulder) and holds him. sings to him so that he'll know she's still there.

a few years down the road, she'll sing that same song to their baby, on one of her last days with him. she'll sing to him about this night, about his dad, about her favorite memories.

sitting there together in that forest in florida, they have already started to carry the weight of near-misses. of lost time, of almosts, of purposeful disease.

they have come a long way and taken on a lot, in the years since the parked car outside tooms' house and the garage at the watergate.

but they have yet to be separated longer than 90 days. they have yet to lose a child. they have yet to plan funerals and prison breaks.

there's something about that time, that ability to just sit in the woods and talk about everything, looking for mothmen, that is so precious and so special.

and when she tells him that night that she had struggled to find meaning, that's where it is.

[icedteainthatbag]

do you guys remember when mulder tried to outrun a truck in a scuba suit

cause what the hell was that

[recursive360]

Are you there?...

[twogravesinsomecemetery]

Also it's absolutely unhinged that scully uses "What? An alien implant?" as a JOKE to mulder AFTER the events of momento mori like ?? Girl ??? That alien implant caused the inoperable brain cancer that you're currently Dying Of and you're just chilling in a bar cracking jokes about it ??? I swear to God-

[mylifeiscomics]

(via "Tempus Fugit" Clock for Sale by mylifeiscomics)

So a friend suggested I get back into Redbubble and I fiddled around with some of my art... My “Tempus Fugit” piece on a friggen clock face is kind of perfect??? I was not expecting my illustrations to translate well to these materials, but some of this stuff is really cool as a pillow or pin, etc.  Anyway, please check it out. :) 

[randomfoggytiger]

The Parallels Nestled in Season 4's Tempus Fugit and Max

Dedicated to @deathsbestgirl! Happy belated birthday~! :DDD

Season 4’s Tempus Fugit and Max present an interesting dichotomy for Mulder and Scully. On the one hand, Mulder gifts Scully a keychain that, to her, represents “hard work, and teamwork.” But on the other hand, that keychain also acts as a birthday surprise-- an explicitly celebratory gesture, and implicitly “just in case” measure.

The nuances of the "when"s and "why"s color Mulder’s action and Scully’s acceptance; and those interactions and interpretations are subsequently reinforced by the two-parter's mirror couple, Max Fenig and Sharon Graffia. 

MAX AND MULDER, PARALLELS

Max Fenig is the first to be introduced in the mytharc two-parter. A returning character, he unfortunately perishes at the hands of alien and (mostly) government interference while trying to prove the existence of extraterrestrial life. Not only is he taken, then returned, then killed in a coverup, but his journey is also replicated-- without its tragic conclusion-- by Mulder later on in the episodes. 

Max dedicated his life to proving the existence of extraterrestrials-- a crazy man to the rest of the world with his spartan quarters, his paranoid memories, and his easily dismissed yet thoroughly inexplicable experiences. Season 1’s Fallen Angel underlines, highlights, then outright states the similarities between Max and Mulder. At first, Mulder thinks the NICAP nomad is a conspiracy kook; then comes to understand and empathize with his perspective, railing on his behalf: "You can deny all the things I’ve seen, all the things that I’ve discovered. But not for much longer. ‘Cause too many others know what’s happening out there. And no one—no government agency—has jurisdiction over the truth." The likeness doesn’t fade in Season 4-- Scully herself concludes the obvious, stating, “Only Max Fenig and you would appreciate living like this.”

Strangely, both men serve as a reflection of each other’s growth and lingering weaknesses. In Tempus Fugit, we learn that Max is no longer operating solo; and in Max, it’s revealed his “sister” was actually his girlfriend, a woman who believed in him and put her career and life in danger to work alongside him. (Sound familiar?) Before his death, Max and Sharon were dating, a fact Sharon hides after fearing for her life. Mulder, meanwhile, hasn’t changed his own relationship status with Scully, having only recently understood the breadth of his feelings for his partner (post here.) It’s a purposeful parallel, of course: two men driven to extremes to prove the truth of their experiences, who differ most noticeably in their romantic partnerships. When Mulder lets Sharon keep her lover’s tapes, he tells her, “Maybe they’ll be worth something someday”-- directly tying his hopeful aspirations into Max’s legacy. Mulder's original death even plays out similarly to Max's: dying after a return “flight” with the grays. (That death had to be rewritten in Requiem, then re-written again post This Is Not Happening, because of David Duchovny’s repeated returns.) 

Both men also have strikingly similar but opposite struggles. In dangerous circumstances, Max is easily taken advantage of: Fenig can sense-- and see-- the danger he’s in, but is helpless to protect himself. Mulder, meanwhile, acts rather than reacts, setting a trap for his enemy when replicating Fenig’s journey home. In romantic relationships, however, Mulder stagnates where Max flourished, fearful of his partner’s impending death but “unable” to reveal the depth of his feelings. 

Another difference then manifests: Max expresses his emotions more freely and openly, stuttering with his heart on his sleeve to Sharon, to the camcorder, to the world. While more open with his emotional expression-- with his doubts, his anger, his fears, his failings-- than, say, Scully, Mulder does not freely choose to express his deepest, most vulnerable ones (breaking down only when forced by circumstance or situation.) When confronted with Fenig’s dead body, he pauses beside it long enough to suppress his brewing pain; and when confronted, again and again, with the potential loss of his own partner, he hides his love and devotion in unspoken gestures (a birthday keychain in Tempus Fugit, a hand hold and cheek kiss and suppressed scream of agony in Redux II.) That suppression comes to the fore again when he prods Scully about Pendrell’s death, and when he deflects the serious nature of her final monologue. Mulder is too frozen in the past to reconcile “the quest” with his desire to have a simple living (like Home), or to look for life on this planet, or to walk away from “another life, another world” and still feel whole. Not yet, at least. 

In conclusion, Max succumbs to the horrors of his existence; but he dies knowing and sharing an acknowledged love between himself and his partner. Mulder survives against the odds; but continues in the erroneous belief that his survival depends on an avoidance of “a normal life”-- afraid to confess to his own partner, but afraid, too, that she will die without knowing. 

SCULLY AND SHARON, PARALLELS

The parallels begin-- most obviously-- with the twin 'S's in Scully and Sharon’s name (a twin parallel to Max’s and Mulder’s ‘M���s.) While Scully is a medical-doctor-turned-FBI-agent, Sharon is an aeronautical-engineer-turned-mental-asylum patient, where her “breakdown” and escape from “normal life” dovetails to Scully’s escape from medical school via recruitment. Both women have broken laws, trespassed, and flouted authority to aid and protect their partners, with Graffia stealing alien technology and Scully staring down Skinner and other government figure heads unflinchingly (Tooms, Terma, etc.) Both women were abducted once, both women fell in love with their partners, both deny that romantic connection for self-preservation… and both eventually lose their partners to alien and government interference. 

Scully is also the person who most often talks with Sharon Graffia, prying her open one by one to get closer to the truth. This approach allows the audience to more naturally trace the similarities and compare the differences between the two women: Scully’s fierce determination and Sharon’s reticent revelations. 

The differences are as carefully written as Mulder’s and Max’s. Again, Sharon is Scully’s close-but-opposite mirror. Both are secretive about their love and relationships, afraid it will be used against them; but, again, Sharon has already avowed her heart to Max and is able to make peace with his death. Scully, meanwhile, has yet to face her own approaching death, avoiding or deflecting the topic (e.g. Mulder celebrating her birthday in dog years or Skinner strongly advising her to report to the hospital) whenever possible. Sharon is a victim who feels powerless to save herself, scared into resignation. Scully is a victim who fights for the truth, determined to save others and herself. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE PARALLELS

Mulder and Scully are often compared to other couples in The X-Files series: Daniel and Jessie in Firewalker, Isaac and Ariel (indirectly) in Kaddish, Kinsley and Stonecypher in Detour, David and Esther in Kill Switch, Maurice and Lyda in How the Ghosts Stole Christmas, Holman and Shelia in Rain King, Win and Cami in Arcadia, Wallace and Angela in Field Trip, CSM and Diana in Amor Fati, Max and Chastity in Rush, Phil and Ellen in Chimera, alternate versions of themselves in Hollywood A.D., lookalikes in Fight Club, and Miller and Einstein in Babylon. Max and Sharon are no exception, but they are particularly tailored to the two leads’ personalities and experiences. 

The four are alien abductees, to differing degrees. While Sharon is the only experiencer with a singular experience, Max and Mulder and Scully are victims of repeat alien interference: either abducted and returned, largely untouched (Scully), abducted and experimented on and returned (Max and Mulder), or controlled against their will (all three.) Yet, these parallels can be branched off, again: only Max and Mulder become alien guinea pigs; and only Sharon and Scully escape their abductions largely unharmed, with missing memories. 

(Scully does, however, stand apart from the other three. Her cancer and fertility struggles are a result of the Consortium’s experimentation and sterilization program, not alien activity. And, while she and Sharon escape the aliens’ wrath the first go-around, she is called back to Skyland Mountain in The Red and the Black once the grey overlords deem her-- and other abductees-- worthy of death. Further, she becomes the only person to benefit from alien interference, twice: her life is saved by the Rebels, and her fertility is restored by the same technology used to steal it in the first place, post here.) 

The coupling in Tempus Fugit and Max also provides different angles through which to view victimization and coping mechanisms. Mulder and Max soldier on, embracing their repeated traumas as part of the sum of their experiences. Sharon and Scully deflect and avoid these memories, choosing to advocate others’ causes instead of (momentarily) quailing before their own. Mulder recognizes that kinship between himself and Max; and feels that desperation and loss keenly when Max is killed. Scully and Sharon don’t need to share a kinship to feel personally responsible for the consequences of their choices: Sharon briefly gives up, shamed over her dishonesty with Mulder and Scully; and Scully feels burdened by inadequacy, unable to fully protect Sergeant Frisch or save Sean Pendrell’s life (“I realized I didn’t even know his first name.”) Further, Tempus Fugit draws diagonal lines from Max Fenig to Scully-- both abductees-- and from Mulder to Sharon-- both “partners” of alien abductees. These parallels are more blatant than plotlines written later into the show (ex. Requiem, This Is Not Happening): Sharon loses her love to the evils of the Consortium’s coverup; and Mulder witnesses her grief, knowing he, too, might suffer this same fate. When he lets her keep the tapes-- a memento of that love-- there is, perhaps, a part of him that knows he may one day have only an Apollo keychain to hold onto. 

CONCLUSION

Max and Sharon, Mulder and Scully. Reaction and action, conclusions and beginnings. 

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!