#agent tom colton

[nerds-yearbook]

In 1933, the mutant Eugene Victor Tooms killed a set of five people, eating their livers, and then went into hibernation for the next thirty years. ("Squeeze", X-Files, TV)

[the1013file]

[deathsbestgirl]

something that just occurred to me: in squeeze, scully's having lunch with colton and they're gossiping about old classmates.

tom was expecting her to make some kind of cutting comment about marty, but she doesn't hold any resentment like colton does. she just says "well good for marty." he got "lucky" but clearly he did something right if he was promoted that quickly.

but this is definitely something scully does with friends — complaining about people, making jokes about them. and immediately after his last comment here, she turns it to colton and his career. and he in turn brings up hers. only he's mocking it, where she was being kind & encouraging to him.

he starts talking about "encounters of the third kind" and "spooky mulder" and at this point, her perspective on mulder has shifted. and this is the episode scully finally understands how different mulder really is — the respect he gives her, the way he listens, and he prioritizes victims, not his career.

first, she's a little embarrassed? she defends mulder, kind of neutrally. to colton, it seems like this lunch is about using scully to get mulder's help, and to "help" scully off of the x files. but she's an adult, she got an assignment. then he calls her "mrs. spooky" and i think that's what really sets off her journey in this episode.

she's embarrassed when colton & mulder first meet. she's flustered before anything happens — the first two cases, it was really just them. they didn't deal much with people within the fbi, mostly the local pd & other locals.

later confronts mulder after he defends her, insisting she found the right guy. she calls him territorial and tries to backpedal. because is it her or the work? but they're already entwined, because like he gives scully something rare, she does the same for mulder. she might have laughed at "spooky mulder" in the pilot, but scully is kind and she cares about her job & the truth.

so mulder tells her of course he was being territorial then grabs her necklace and "gives" her a choice. he leaves to let her make it and it only takes her a few moments to decide. she was being honest when she told colton mulder is a good agent, and although she doesn't yet understand how his mind works, she knows he has a reason — and she needs to know.

now to what i was really thinking about:

later, colton gets the other agents called off mulder & scully's stakeout. colton insists on being the one to call mulder — a call he doesn't seem to have received. scully is pissed off, she calls mulder to rant about colton. says they should file a complaint about his interference.

in the pilot, when mulder calls her at the end, late at night...she tells him they'll talk at work. but now she gets it. and she erases a boundary she placed. one that eventually, in season three, has her calling mulder over & over again. one that (later this season?) has him at her apartment so he can show her the best photos of a ufo he's ever seen. and episode where she tells him a hard truth because he has to consider it.

scully loves being mean. she loves talking shit about people. but she only does it with people who have earned it. colton lost that privilege because he showed his true colors, and mulder gained it in spades.

this entire episode is colton (and the other men) disrespecting both scully & mulder professionally, and making comments like school bullies. these people fundamentally misunderstand scully — she is kind, she has a work ethic they can't fathom, and she cares. all of these things, mulder appreciates. he understands. scully firmly makes her choice in this episode. she's on the victims' side, and beyond that, she's on mulder's. climbing the ladder means nothing if it isn't about helping people.

anyway. scully loves to talk shit with her friends and she slowly eliminates every friend she has except mulder <3

[monikafilefan]

Jingle Bells and Jealousy 2

Through the years, we all will be together

If the fates allow

Scully is trying incredibly hard to enjoy herself tonight, humming along to Sinatra, doing her best to refrain from scanning the masses in hopes of seeing Mulder’s distinguished profile amongst the crowd. He’d said he wasn’t coming and she unfortunately believes him. Forced merriment hides her disappointment well. Smiling politely behind her wine glass at coworkers she barely knows, going out of her way to wish A.D. Kersh and his wife a Merry Christmas. She prays her cheery disposition shines a positive light upon, not only herself, but her partner as well. Wherever the hell he is, she thinks, frustrated with herself as much as she is with him.

Hang a shining star upon the highest bough

And have yourself a merry little Christmas now

She tunes out the music to contemplate whether her unintentional evasiveness with Mulder regarding her “date” is the catalyst they need after his concussed “I love you” line in Bermuda she can’t stop thinking about, or just intentionally deceptive on her part. The flame of possessiveness that flared within his eyes when he’d assumed she was dating had sparked intrigue in her own. The fact that she was initially referring to him as her date to Skinner had flown right over her brilliant partner’s head. Throwing accusations her way should have just pissed her off, but it’s been his heated reaction in the aftermath that’s left her oddly reassured in his jealousy. She’d left the bullpen feeling wanted in ways she only fantasizes about alone in bed at night as her fingers slip between her thighs.

Her heart races at that thought.

Not since her rebellious run-in with Jerse has she seen her partner similarly flustered, and she’d be lying if she said it doesn’t thrill her. With Diana Fowley’s unwelcome presence continuously prodding at Scully’s penchant for jealousy, she’d selfishly allowed Mulder’s imaginative mind to run wild with the ridiculous idea that she has somehow found the will to date someone who isn’t him.

Scully bites her lip as guilt churns up waves of nausea in her gut.

“Merry Christmas, Agent Scully,” Agent Fields, whom she recognizes from the bullpen, interrupts her thoughts. The strong scent of bourbon on his breath makes her rock back on her heels. She supposes he’s been drinking from the punch bowl she’d spotted Tom Colton spiking earlier. “Where’s Spooky?”

“Merry Christmas,” she sighs wearily into her wine glass and walks away.

She’s leaving, she decides, as she squeezes her way through the throng of swaying bodies and twinkling decor. She doesn’t really want to be here without Mulder by her side anyway. She’s turned down three drunken dance offers already and Kersh could care less if she’s here to play nice in hopes of getting off desk duty. The more time she spends at this party, the more she wishes she was lounging on Mulder’s couch, sharing cartons of bad Chinese, and watching A Christmas Story.

“Oh!” she squeaks in surprise, bumping into the stalwart chest of the man moving toward her. Her wine spills over the rim of her glass as they nearly knock one another from their feet. “I’m so sorry!”

“No, no!” he laments, holding her close as she finds her footing. “Agent Scully, it’s me who’s sorry. I saw you coming, but I couldn’t move. It’s like a mosh pit in here,” he laughs.

She chuckles in return. “Well, it seems we both got caught in the crowd.”

Holiday music continues to play far too loudly for those who aren’t three sheets to the wind as the man she now realizes is Special Agent Derek Jenkins from the fingerprint lab leans close to hear. He’s a new hire in the lab. A sweet, handsome man who has flirted shamelessly with her three times in the last week… and still, she remains unequivocally uninterested.

“Agent Jenkins, hello.”

“Call me Derek, please.” He steers her towards an empty corner, cupping her dripping wine glass with his palm. “Let me help you.”

“Oh, that’s not necess-” Before Scully protests further, the agent spins around and snags a Santa-shaped napkin from one of the mini round tables sprinkled about the reception hall, thrusting it her way. “I appreciate it.”

He waves a finger by her head. “You have a splash of wine in your hair there. By your eye.” Flustered, Scully swipes the napkin through her hair. “Missed it. I’ll get it.”

He reaches up to pinch the stray strand soaked with wine between his fingertips and tucks it behind her ear.

“Thanks, Agent Jen- Derek.” Hiding her embarrassment, she takes a step back, her shoulder knocking a bundle of mistletoe to the floor that was taped on the wall. She sighs, “I’m not usually this uncoordinated.”

“I don’t doubt that.” Derek grins brightly and picks up the plastic flower, twirling it around his finger. If she’d met him sooner, say six years and one Fox Mulder ago, she could have easily been swept off her feet by his charm. “Where’s Agent Mulder? I mean, uh, not to be abrupt, but you’re not with someone, are you?”

The hopeful gleam in his brown eyes makes her blush. The earnest, puppy dog look of them mimics Mulder when he awaits her opinion on whether or not a case is an X-File.

“I…” Scully finds she has no idea how to answer that layered question without a hint of honesty, and Christmas seems like a terrible time to lie.

Is she with someone? Her mind rewinds to moments of commitment she’d made in the past: shaking her new partner’s hand, risking her life multiple times to keep him that way, then telling him she wouldn’t change a day.

“I suppose I am,” she finally says.

Scully expects her face to flush at the admission. Expects the entirety of the FBI to turn and point at Mrs. Spooky as they collect their bets. Instead, she’s oddly at peace with her confession to someone she hardly knows.

Derek nods in understanding, as if he’d already known the answer, giving her arms a gentle squeeze. “So for clarity’s sake, you’re not interested in pursuing a relationship with… let’s say, someone like me. Not when you’re already in one.”

Scully licks her lips, her breath catching.

She could deny the unyielding hold Mulder has held on her heart since March of ‘93. They’ve never even kissed, for God’s sake. But after years of living and breathing for only each other, she can’t. She won’t.

So she smiles instead, “I suppose not.”

“Your partner, then?” Derek mumbles to himself when instant awareness pulls his pout into a smirk.

Her silence is all the confirmation they need as she and Derek share a good-natured chuckle. This unexpected run-in has somehow left her more content in her feelings than she has in a while. Despite Scully’s unease of Diana’s position in Mulder’s past, personally and professionally, she can no longer repress the way her best friend completes her.

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock

Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time

Another song reverberates through the loudspeaker nearby. The upbeat tempo matches the buoyant shift in Scully’s mood. She barely registers that Derek’s arms are still bracketing hers, or the swift way he leans down to speak closer.

“I suppose I already knew that, but thank you for being honest with me. And with yourself too, it seems,” Derek says knowingly in her ear before pressing the mistletoe into her hand. “Merry Christmas, Agent Scully.”

At that moment, someone in the crowd loses their balance and bumps into Scully from behind, jolting her forward. Derek’s lips accidently graze the corner of her mouth, and remarkably, they both ignore the mishap as if it never happened. Being bounced around like holiday pin balls seems like a regular occurrence tonight.

“Merry Christmas to you, too,” Scully replies and turns around just in time to see a flash of familiar green eyes narrowing in on hers.

What a bright time, it's the right time

To rock the night away

“Mulder?” Scully blinks and he’s gone, vanishing within the horde of ugly Christmas sweaters.

Scully’s heart hammers harder with every step she takes toward the opposite side of the room.

Mix and a-mingle in the jingling feet

That's the jingle bell

“Mulder!” she hollers, stretching on tip-toe to see where he’s gone. But it’s worthless. The music is too damn loud and the people too damn tall to make a difference.

That's the jingle bell

As she weaves her way through the maze of tinsel and blow-up reindeer decor, she spots Skinner wiping frosting from his candy cane tie at the dessert table. No wonder she’d never seen Mulder all the way back here. She’s trembling, rubbing her arms with worry by the time she reaches the A.D.. Panic at the realization of what Mulder must have seen and misinterpreted practically radiates through the fuzz of her green sweater.

That's the jingle bell

“Agent Scully, glad to see you’re enjoying yourself.”

“Sir, have you seen Mulder?” she blurts.

Skinner frowns down at an ink-stained paper plate he’s holding with black horns drawn atop Santa’s head. “He left already?”

Her eyes slip shut.

That's the jingle bell rooock

***

Scully shivers as she walks down the snow-dusted sidewalk. Her heels clack purposefully along the pavement, her heart beating in time with her vapored puffs of breath. She’s winded by the time she spots Mulder’s car idling at the curbside. The buttery light from the streetlamp above slices through the thick snowflakes pouring from the sky and illuminating his downcasted profile.

Scully knocks on the window.

Mulder startles, turning his forlorn stare onto hers peering in from the passenger side. He mouths her name in confusion and leans across the car to push open the door for her.

“Hey,” he says, surprised, as she climbs in and shuts the door. “Scully, you’re freezing. Where’s your coat?”

She shrugs and flexes her cold fingers in front of the blast of heat coming through the vents. “Inside where I left it.”

He’s silent for a moment. They both are, as a somber tone falls around them like the snow outside. Mulder frowns and reaches over to gently cradle her icy hands between his. They’re big and warm, and God, she practically melts the moment his plush lips drag across her fingertips.

“You came,” she whispers.

Her voice catches the moment she notices through the dimness how impressively handsome he is tonight. His black tux is taut in all the right places, hugging his strong shoulders and toned thighs perfectly.

He rubs the hot huffs of his breath into her knuckles as his honey-green eyes silently study her. “Where you go, I go, right?”

Her stomach twists tourniquet tight.

This guilt and aggravation is making her nauseous. After Antarctica, Scully knows exactly how true his statement is. She also knows she has every right to date whoever she wants and kiss whomever she pleases. But that’s not what she’s been doing, and as much as she has considered that option previously out of self-preservation, she’s never actually done either of those things for a reason. Even during the darkest days of their partnership, she has never yearned for anyone but him.

Scully laces her fingers through his. “I know.”

“Scully…”

“Shh.” She cuts him off with a bold nuzzle of her chin against their tangled hands, her free one reaching up to straighten his crooked bowtie. “You’re so handsome.”

He chuckles darkly. “Seems as though the Christmas casual memo never made it to my inbox.”

“You wouldn’t have read it anyway,” she teases.

“Ah, you know me well.”

They both smirk, their faces only inches apart, their thumbs gliding easily across one another’s. It seems two glasses of wine have softened her edges and weakened her resolve to keep her hands to herself. Wind whistling as it blows over the hood of the car breaks their locked gaze. The snow is falling faster now, layering the Taurus’s windshield in a pillowy white blanket.

Mulder squeezes her hand.

“I’m sorry, Scully.” His voice breaks. She closes her eyes and squeezes right back. “I’m sorry about a lot of things. But about what I said earlier, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to point fingers — pencils, actually,” he chuffs.

“Mulder.” Her tone conveys how much she finds his apology unnecessary in light of her own envious reactions in recent months. “I know that, too.”

“Being honest, all I want is for you to be happy. No matter who you’re with. But I thought after what happened my hallway it would’ve… Well, I was caught off guard by the thought of you dating,” he mutters with a shrug. “That’s my problem, though. Not yours, Scully.”

“I think I know what you saw in there that upset you, Mulder, but I can assure you it’s not what you’ve assumed.” Her tongue sweeps across her lip. “There was no date. There was no kiss.”

“You- there wasn’t?”

She looks him square in the eyes, because there is no one else.

“No, Mulder. I ran into Agent Jenkins — literally, and we talked. And I have to confess that I realized when you questioned me in the bullpen, I liked that you were territorial of me. It made me feel… vindicated.”

“Because of Diana.” It’s not a question but a statement born of recognition.

Scully nods, her face flushing. “But I only ever wanted to spend tonight with you.”

“Maybe Skinner was right. I do need to pull my head outta my ass,” he mumbles. Her brow arches at that. “I just thought I saw you and Jenkins…”

“But you didn’t.”

“Not really my business, though.” His curious eyes search hers. “Is it?”

She leans forward to rest her cheek against the edge of his headrest. He senses her tactile need and palms her jaw with the hand not clutched within her own. She turns into him as she contemplates her response, cascading her mouth across his thumb. It feels so good, but it’s not only his touch that has her pulse fluttering like a hummingbird, it’s all of him. It’s always been him.

“What if I want it to be?”

“That depends… is that you or the wine talking?”

She scoffs, “ Mulder -”

“How do you feel about me, Scully?” His pout twitches as he stares at her. Into her, with such unfiltered affection Scully’s heart can barely endure it all. “Because I know exactly how I feel about you. You’re my favorite person. My best friend, my one and five billion. And, I love you.”

Tears sting her eyes and her stomach swoops to her knees. She’s warm, flushed, as if her partner is the sun and he has finally shone his rays upon her upturned face.

“God, Mulder.”

“ Head injury aside, I meant what I said in Bermuda.” His forehead touches hers. “I fell in love with you, Scully.”

“W-when?” Her chest is suddenly so tight she can barely breathe. “When did you…”

“Uh, I don’t… I’m not really sure. I just know I did.”

She nods against him, because nodding is all she can do as her heart races and eyes blur. Because she’d wanted to believe his endearing words in Bermuda badly, but she was too afraid to risk it all on her misguided hope. Because as intense and frustrating as their inseparability is sometimes, their connection defies the laws of nature: the sky is blue, the sun is bright, and Scully endlessly loves Mulder.

“Scully?”

“I-” Her lashes flutter away tears. God, she’s dizzy, knowing what she’s about to do next. “I think I’ve always been in love with you, Mulder.”

He inhales sharply, maybe a little surprised by her candor. But then his hand is cradling the back of her arched neck and pulling her into a tight hug, his other arm wrapping around to caress the small of her back. “Scully.”

“You’re the only one, Mulder,” she whispers fiercely as she hugs him back, her cold nose pressed into the warmth of his neck. “You’re my one and five billion, too.”

“Never thought I’d hear you say that outside of my dreams,” he whispers into her hair and rocks her back and forth along the seats, quivering in her grip as they cling to each other.

Scully presses a lingering kiss to the humming pulse point in his neck. She can feel his rushing adrenaline thundering under her lips. She smiles, her own heart racing, a little lightheaded after uttering secrets of her heart aloud. But relief of her confession rises like bubbles beneath her skin because she has said it to Mulder: the man she trusts and loves more than anyone.

Mulder pulls back and looks at her. She knows her eyes are wide and wet, her cheeks pink as she tips her chin upward, aching for him to kiss her. “I have mistletoe,” he says wryly.

Scully laughs and reaches into her pocket, pulling out the one she’d knocked from the Bureau’s wall. “Me too.”

He grins, nodding to his own red and green flower shoved in the car’s ashtray. “You think we need them?”

The husk in his voice vibrating against her jaw pulls a deep moan from her mouth. “Mulder, please. ”

He moans back while peppering soft, tender kisses across her jawline, up her cheek, and to the corner of her parted lips. She clutches his tux in her fists and gives it an impatient tug as his mouth finally melds with hers. Their kissing is gentle, insistent, and the way their tongues glide against one another sends tingles straight down her spine.

“Come with me tomorrow,” she mumbles in his mouth. Her eagerness may surprise him, but she wholeheartedly means it. She can’t and won’t hide the thinly veiled tone of desperation. She is desperate for him, after all. “Come to my mother’s.”

“Tomorrow’s Christmas, Scully.”

“I know.” Her hand dips beneath the jacket of his tux to splay her hand over his racing heart. “Christmas won’t mean anything without you, Mulder.”

His chin trembles. “Where you go, I go.”

Scully nearly sobs in relief. She dips her chin to hide her swollen-lipped smirk within the lapel of his tux.

“What're you thinking?” She feels the heat of his breath tickling her skin, his rumbling voice seeping deep into her bones.

Scully thinks that their partnership is not a mundane pairing. That it’s an intricately weaved relationship, a mass of fine-tuned threads tying them together. But she knows she cannot imagine a life without him in it.

“I think…” she lingers with her words, staring at their discarded mistletoe meant for only each other. “I think you should kiss me again, Mulder.”

“Again and again,” he promises before his mouth passionately possesses hers, their bodies tangling like twine.

“More,” she husks, and Mulder’s long leg bumps the radio’s dial, blasting “Jingle Bell Rock” through the speakers.

“And to think I thought I hated this song,” he quips with a nip to her bottom lip, kissing her again and again, just like he’d promised, until the fog on the windows is as thick as the love between them.

That’s the jingle bell rooock

[carefulfears]

oooooh please expand on this !!! i always wanna hear more about scully https://www.tumblr.com/waiting-for-the-day/720301741123551232/ykno-what-we-dont-talk-about-about-how-hard-txf

yesss

(the referenced post)

1/

the third hour of the series, squeeze is both the first monster-of-the-week and the first episode to establish the impact of the x-files on scully's life, offering her choice and the audience perspective.

opening on lunch with an old classmate, scully catches up with her peers and how they are progressing after the academy (marty is supervisory agent of foreign counter intelligence, tom is on the fast track in violent crimes...dana is "mrs. spooky" in the basement, having "close encounters of the third kind")

this first scene equates scully with mulder in more ways than a derogatory nickname; colton tells her about his tough case in violent crimes because he wants her to ask mulder.

this is a line that is walked throughout season one, as mulder is still thought of as "the best analyst in the violent crimes division," despite having left the VCU two years earlier. often, the FBI will need his input on a case, while still disregarding and disrespecting him, and we can see this extended to scully here.

"if you don't mind some overtime, you're welcome to come aboard with us, on this. that is if you don't mind working in an area that's a bit more down-to-earth."

having been invited onto colton's case, scully writes up a profile (that ends up being exactly correct, and ultimately catching the killer, even though mulder doesn't agree with her position) and presents her findings.

when a stake-out is planned based on her work, colton's superior in the VCU tells her that she is "welcome to come," reluctantly inviting her to her own plan.

throughout the episode, scully does her best to present herself as capable and professional, but mulder doesn't make things easy for her; he constantly leans into every joke made about him, negating his own authority and playing into the degrading public opinion, something that scully has never seen.

she knows that there is more to the x-files, and more to mulder, than little green men- but that's a kind of vulnerability that's been exposed to her, and her only.

and the more that she aligns herself with mulder, the more the wavering stand she has in the FBI's "boy's club" falters.

2/

contrasted with the begrudging inclusion of the men climbing the ladder, squeeze showcases mulder in the supportive role, instantly adjusting his theories and profile to incorporate scully's input. which he does without taking the lead.

and he takes the time to tell her that if she wants to work with colton, he understands and respects that; directly contrasting the VCU's constant disdain for scully's work on the x-files.

this is something that he stops her to say immediately after hearing colton's line, "you said mulder was out there, that guy's insane." (which was not only demeaning, but implied that scully had been belittling mulder behind his back, which isn't true)

later, he casually says that they need to catch tooms quickly, because in 30 years when he comes out again, scully will be "head of the bureau."

he not only assumes that she won't be working with him for long, but that she'll be successful in her own career, climbing the ladder to the very top; a foregone conclusion.

(this is something that he laments 25 years later, in season 11's nothing lasts forever, when he admits that he imagines a world where she had walked out of that office, and been "kersh's boss at the FBI")

squeeze also brings back the height difference reversal that is so meaningful in the pilot, and throughout the series.

mulder is 10 inches taller than scully, and often will intentionally lower himself beneath her. especially in vulnerable or emotional situations.

i love love love these tags from iconicscullyoutfits on this scene:

"feels like other men would stand up instinctively to be on the same level as her. especially in squeeze which was all about her being belittled by other men and struggling for equal footing in the boys club of the fbi. she comes down to mulder and she's big like him."

3/

when i talk about squeeze as being the most important episode to understanding scully's motivation, i mean this moment here.

at the scene of the fourth murder, colton won't let mulder enter, and when scully threatens to report him, he asks: whose side are you on?

her answer, that she is on the side of the victim, encapsulates everything that drives her dedication and devotion from the beginning.

this show, and this partnership, is based in shared values rather than shared belief; that's what makes it work.

scully wants to be on the side of the victim, to be helping those that need it, and she's quickly realizing that this isn't how you thrive in the federal government. that despite how much she "believed in her country" when she left medicine for the FBI, this isn't what the federal government does, or prioritizes.

however, it is what mulder does, and she's learning that too.

the side of the victim and the side of law enforcement are not the same, and mulder knows that already, has already given up the respect and acclaim of climbing the ladder. he's on the side of the victim to the "point of insanity," to the point of abandoning reputation.

this is what scully gives her life over to, this is where she finds the work that she left medicine to pursue.

and ultimately, she severs her ties with the outside world.

the next time that colton makes a mean comment about mulder, she tells him that he can keep climbing the ladder, but she hopes he falls.

the thing is, scully doesn't need to be associated with mulder to be looked down upon by her peers. she would be regardless, by nature of being a woman in a male-dominated profession.

but she could cleave to authority, continue trying to fit in and climb the ladder. she chooses not to, to go where aligned with her convictions, and where she's respected; even when it means sacrificing a seat at the table.

and in the end, they walk off side-by-side (he follows her).

[twogravesinsomecemetery]

Thinking about Scully in Tooms saying: "Mulder I wouldn't put myself on the line for anybody but you", and obviously it's IMPORTANT, it's their cute little rootbeer stakeout moment, but it's made even MORE important by the fact that it happens in the specific sequel episode to Squeeze ??? Bc in ep 3 Scully had been putting in overtime with the Violent Crime Section and going out to lunch with Tom Colton and working with agents who asked her to do things that were 'a little more down to earth' so she 'won't have to be Mrs Spooky anymore', and they chose to humiliate and villify Mulder and obviously she defended him the first time around BUT when they run back into Tooms for the second time in in ep 21 Mulder's probably a bit on edge and he's wondering whether they're going to have to work with more of the same people who'll try to drag Scully away from him and I think she KNOWS that ??? She knows how wary is and how desperate he is not to have that happen so she takes it upon herself to be Territorial™️ this time (by using his first name even though it doesn't work), and she comes out and says that he has nothing to worry about. She knows where her loyalties lie and to hell with everybody else. She'd quite like to be Mrs Spooky forever actually.

[aloysiavirgata]

I would love more of early years Mulder trying and failing at not being completely enamoured with his brilliant partner 🥺

She looked completely different with her hair pinned up in the chignon. Her resolute little chin on display, her stern mouth.

Her lovely neck.

Mulder shakes his head at that, focuses on on her scowls and her eye rolls and the obnoxious scoffing noise from the back of her throat. Her doe eyes the color of a perfect June sky are the result of a genotypic crap shoot. Her officious skepticism is a choice. And Mulder is not a gambler.

Tom Colton wants to fuck her in an abstract sort of way that Mulder finds amusing. Scully, for all her faults, is light years out of his league. Kiloparsecs. She’s the Other Kind of redhead.

He thinks she believes him, Special Agent Fox William Mulder, in one of her deeper, more obscure organs. Her pancreas trusts him. Her spleen. Her heart is still both too proud and tender, her mind too finely trained.

Dana Scully is a dainty bit of work, he concedes. Her delicate Victorian beauty and her gorgeous little brain. He tends towards slouchy brunettes with mile-long legs, towards nibbled lips and tossed hair. But here’s Scully like some sassy Irish lass from A Movie That Isn’t His and he can suddenly see the appeal.

He’ll make her look at the fingerprints again, make her own her skepticism in front of god’s own data. He’ll breathe in her huffy little outputs of carbon dioxide; he’ll watch her prim, Catholic, Sunday-school mouth.

He’ll call Désirée later on the 900 line because even if Scully is bitchy and rigid and contrary for no reason at all, he can’t see any reason for Colton to use her up.

[randomfoggytiger]

X-Files Collector's Edition: The X-File That Started It All

In the wake of the 30th Anniversary, I combed through my fic pile and pulled up some fics dealing with the Pilot. (Don't worry about the AUs-- I'll stick them in another list later for the fun of it.)

Loose chronological order below~

Melymbrosia's Untold

""Double-blinds, triple-blinds, codes instead of names, codes instead of the details of procedures or drugs. Dr. Charne-Sayre has assured her bosses that the lab assistants will have no idea what projects and experiments produced the blood tests and organic compounds they're analyzing, and that this will not, in fact, even seem strange to them. The old men ask if it can't all be done by computer instead; they have what Bonita Charne-Sayre privately considers a charmingly naive faith in computer security, possibly because they think of it as half magic and half obfuscation. No, she says, and again no, and finally they give in. Medical research, it seems, requires a larger budget and a more select staff than mere conspiracy.""

The horrendous experiences of the Pilot abductees.

@discordantwords‘s (Ao3) Cataplexy

""It took him a moment to realize that he was awake, that he could move, and he did so in a rush, sitting up and shucking off of the blankets. His heart thudded in his chest. He lifted one hand and then the other, clenched his fist, looked at his fingers.

Across the room, in the second bed, his father mumbled something in his sleep, turned over, began to snore.""

Billy Miles's dad hopes his son will snap out of it, willingly covering up all evidence to protect his son.

zulu's First Sight

""She remembered that there was at least one agent who pursued unusual cases. She'd heard about him from...whom? Tom Colton, in their last year at the Academy. He'd told her about the agent who chased unexplained phenomena the way the rest of them tracked drug shipments and illegal weapons.

"He's a real ghostbuster, apparently," Tom had said, laughing. A group had gathered around him, ready to hear the sort of case study their instructors didn't see fit to assign to them officially. "They say he's rather--spooky. Spooky Mulder, chasing after aliens with a badge and a gun. You know you've gone bonkers when, you know what I mean?"

Dana smiled with the others, but the idea intrigued her. "And they let him?" she asked.

"The way I hear it, it's the only way they can keep him happy enough to do their V.C.U. profiling for them." Tom snorted. "They say his profile caught Monty Props almost single-handedly.""

Scully's boredom is eased with her thrilling new assignment to the notorious Fox Mulder. Although Melissa is her only familial support, she tries not to let it dampen her spirits-- as yet unaware that Mulder is on a campaign to figure out who she is and why they were partnered.

Maidenjedi’s Ab Initio

""Stuck. He was stuck in an elevator at the Hoover Building after 6pm on a Friday night....

On a Friday night.

Mulder sat down and started fishing in his pocket for sunflower seeds. Of course there weren't any, he never had them in his pants pockets. It was a crazy habit anyway.

Somewhere right now, guys his age were picking up chicks at bars. Or maybe they were married and having kids.

Mulder? He was chasing demons and ghosts from a basement. They called him Spooky for a reason.

The elevator starting moving an hour later and Mulder went home.

To nobody.""

Mulder is a lonely, paranoid man: friendly only to Reggie Perdue, and suspicious of anyone else at the FBI. TLG slip him information about Bellefleur; but he is a little more intrigued at his first glimpse of Dana Scully.

Surajtare’s Fragments in Time

Chapter 1

""Over the next few days, Mulder set his investigative skills to find out whatever he could about this Dana Scully. Her credentials made him uneasy: undergraduate degree in physics, M.D., "Einstein's Twin Paradox: A New Interpretation."

In Mulder's head the people of the world were divided in two: word people and number people. Word people saw stories everywhere. Number people saw equations. Mulder was a word person through and through. He never trusted number people; they usually had an obsessive need to quantify everything. Scully was definitely that kind, a person who could never understand the X files. The mere thought of a partner like that was exasperating.

Then, on March, he got a call from Reggie, his former ASAC at Violent Crimes.""

Mulder finds out about his assigned partner through the grapevine, immediately assuming she's been hand-picked to be "his type." He's mildly surprised at Blevins's pick.

Chapter 2

""So, how do you like the X Files so far?" he asked her, a little teasingly.

"They're interesting. They are!" she added when he saw his skeptical look.

"Well, this is an interesting first case," Mulder said, sitting back in the chair and stretching his legs. He couldn't fight the smile anymore and she reciprocated, briefly.

"Do you really think aliens have something to do with all this?" she demanded, growing serious.

"I don't know," he admitted, "but I can't find any better explanation."

"We haven't found any explanation, so far," she said.

Mulder soothes Scully after her embarrassment over the mosquito bites, admitting he'd had first-case paranoia, too. Scully admits she's fascinated by the case overall; and their conversation slowly turns to why he's so devoted to the X-Files.

Lara Means’s (Ao3) The View From the Outer Office (Ao3)

""Today it's just one agent -- Agent Mulder. He doesn't come up here much, and his name doesn't come up very often in Mr. Skinner's day-to-day work -- mostly Section Chief Blevins supervises him. But today he's waiting for the Assistant Director. And he looks nervous.

His knee is bouncing pretty steadily, and he's chewing on a fingernail. He keeps glancing over at me like I'd disappear if he didn't. When he catches my eye he smiles a nervous little half-smile, which I return before I go back to my work.

He clears his throat and I look up. "Um... I'm sorry, I've forgotten your name."

You didn't forget it, Agent, you never asked. "Kimberly.""

Mulder tries to get information out of secretary Kim, too impatient to wait for A.D. Skinner any longer.

Athene's Dana Scully's Senior Thesis

""She was accepted at Johns Hopkins University College of Medicine up in Baltimore, and graduated with the President's Medal in 1988," Frohike continued. He stared at a photo in his hand, one Mulder couldn't quite see. There was a little smile on his face, and a hint of admiration in his voice as he continued. "After being recruited by the FBI under a grant-with-stipend issued by the Critical Position Acquisition program at Quantico, she did a two year residency in clinical pathology at Hopkins. When she finished-"

"Let me guess," Mulder interrupted, a sneer in his voice, "she was at the top of her class."

Byers took up the narrative, his voice calm, ignoring Mulder's interruption with the ease of long practice.""

Mulder, enraged about being partnered, gets TLG to dig up information on one Dana Scully (who he believes is a plant set up to get him into an HR harassment claim.) His thoughts turn soft when he sees her honest eyes.  

@spookytheory's Fire, But Better

""First ring of fire: cleared. Blevins seemed content. The strange man in the corner seemed non-plussed. Both fit her preconceived notions of what FBI higher-ups were like. Old, stand-offish, starchy, and, dare she say, predictable? Dana is used to bland men: soulless nurses and aides who seemed to give life and hope to patients from their own personal stores. Some salt-and-pepper doctors were exceptions. Her heart clenches as her mind whispers the name Daniel.

She shakes it off with a roll of her shoulders. I chose this.

She lets this assurance distill into confidence and begins walking down the hall, smiling and nodding at her new co-workers. They blatantly ignore her.""

Scully is trying to shake off her past-- and its mistakes-- by seeking a new change in this assignment. Still, it echoes her heel taps all the way down to the basement.

Madeline Partous's (Annex) Pilot, The 01

""His castle. His domain. He knew that many people saw his exile to the basement as a demotion, a source of shame, but he'd considered it a new lease on life, the compensation for the dues he'd paid.

He'd been the golden boy, and it had earned him a measure of freedom. Now he planned to exploit it for all it was worth, despite the fact that he knew it would condemn him to ridicule and obscurity in the end.""

Mulder covers his extreme surprise and intrigue with sarcasm, finding himself immediately drawn to Dana Scully: New Recruit.

@i-gaze-at-scully’s (Ao3) She's a medical doctor

""Einstein.

His new partner literally took on Einstein. 

“A New Interpretation.” Polite way to say actually, you’re wrong. Here’s why.""

AUish-- Mulder is mad that he is forced to have a new partner; and decides that he hates doe-eyed, green Dana Scully.  

Beshter/Publius's Seasons: First

Chapter 3

""Dana Scully," she passed over her badge to the pleasant woman behind the ticket counter, stifling her own yawn, yearning for the coffee she could smell coming from some mysterious corner of the airport. Why 8 AM, she silently complained? She hadn't seen Fox Mulder. She half expected he would come last minute, tumbling to the gate, tie rumpled and dark hair scattered, as he'd grant her an unapologetic smile. She doubted he was really used to having to do anything on time for anyone, or at least not for a partner. From what she had gathered from his personnel file it had been a few years since he had one of those.

"Here you go, Ms. Scully, if you could sign here," the ticket agent pointed towards a line on the receipt she passed over, and slid Scully's open badge over the counter. Scully's own serious face stared up at her as she signed quickly.

"Who did you con to get that good of a picture, Scully?" Mulder's lazy, monotone drawl was somewhere just above Scully's ear, and she snapped her head up, nearly knocking the top of it into Fox Mulder's chin.""

Scully is floundering in the paranoid waters of Fox Mulder way too early in the morning, and without her coffee. She feels a little guilty that Mulder nails her on her eagerness to debunk his crazy theories.

astronaught's Equilibrium - Chapter 1

""He has had friends. He has had lovers. He has certainly been played with, though not in the fun way. Fox Mulder doesn’t have fun. Fox Mulder sits in his basement office for fourteen hours a day reading rotting casefiles from 1953. He enjoys the work, but his single-minded focus has nothing to do with enjoyment, and everything to do with a desperate and somewhat self-abnegative feeling of necessity. He has a sense of irony so well-cultivated that an outside observer might mistake it for a zest for life. In reality, it is the final recourse of the smart and painfully sincere. He thinks he jokes at the world because he’s given up on it joking back, but Fox Mulder is nothing if not a compulsive seeker of wonder, and deep down his ill-guarded, latchkey heart murmurs Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.""

Mulder's humor garnered him respect from Scully; and both mutually want to hope in each other.  

@wexleresque/hllsteeth’s

Table for Two - Chapter 1

""Mulder bounces his leg and taps his fingers on the sticky table, the pent-up energy from hours of sitting in a car being released from his body like pressurized steam. Through the stubborn pieces of hair that hang over his forehead, he observes the agent sitting across from him as she examines her nails and sighs tiredly.

He can sympathize with her on that front, at least. Though he’d strategically found the least uncomfortable way to fold his tall body into the plane, sleep had been far down on his mental to-do list. Instead, he’d let the case details swirl around the ether of his consciousness, looking for patterns and anachronisms that he may have missed, all the while stealing glances at Scully while she’d white-knuckled her way through turbulence and read over the case notes.""

Mulder observes Scully's post-plane meal.

@scapegrace74-blog​​‘s (Ao3) Fictober, Day 11. Theme: UFO

""They are two hours into their flight to the very plausible state of Oregon when he asks her to switch seats.   She’s momentarily confused.  With his coltish legs, there’s no way he should prefer the window, and she tells him as much.   Challenging Agent Mulder’s assertions is already beginning to feel less like a job description, and more like a secret vice.

“We’re almost over Utah.” As though that explains anything.

“What’s so special about Utah?   Is it a hotbed for UFO activity or something?”

He smiles and makes the obligatory harhar gesture, but his eyes shift to the hublot behind her, so she obliges by sliding out into the aisle.""

Mulder and Scully have a mini conversation about their respective faiths and beliefs before the Oregon plane experiences turbulence.

@scullysexual/PostApocolypticAlien

(Un)Buried.

 ""An unmarked grave. No mortsafe protected this body. There was nobody left to care about what happened to it.

Just the three of you stand in the graveyard in the black of night. The coffin is brought up, the lid removed.""

Mulder is intrigued by the body, mulling this new development over while Scully instructs the cemetery men to take it to the morgue.

10.02 (Ao3)

""It suddenly dawns on you how fun having a partner again could be so fun. You missed it, you realise.

Standing in the rain, in a graveyard, next to two unusually empty graves, discussing how a coma patient is sneaking out and taking people to the forest, it should be as absurd as everyone says it is but it is, instead, a reality and the person who is supposed to argue is absurdity is standing in front of you, laughing, believing it all.""

AU-- Mulder realizes how alone he was while watching Scully laugh in the graveyard. He makes moves that are very not canonical.

@kateyes224‘s (Ao3) Unnamed

""She was nervous as she packed her bags for “Ore-gone”, as her spooky, shockingly attractive new partner called it.... Dana spent almost an hour dutifully stuffing clothes and toiletries into every nook and cranny of her rolling carry-on, fretting over how many layers to bring, erring on the side of caution and, she decided as she was barely able to zip it closed, definitely overpacking.

It wasn’t until she opened her bag in her motel room in Bellefleur that her stomach plummeted as she pawed frantically through her bag, realizing with no little amount of horror that she’d forgotten to pack her pajamas."" 

Scully forgot her jammies, and Mulder lends her his shirt. Both of them appreciate the high art of Steven Spielberg references.

@scullywolf's (Ao3)

Pilot - Chapter 1

""Sighing, she picked up the tape recorder and turned back to her computer, grabbing her glasses from the bed and sliding them on. With a click to restart the tape, she resumed her transcription.

“...four millimeters in diameter and twenty-seven millimeters in length. Object is cylindrical in design with small spheres on either end. No identifying marks, stamps or branding were found. The potential purpose of this implant is unknown.”

The recorder clicked as the tape came to its end. Scully read back over her notes with a small shake of her head, then saved her data and shut down the computer. She had started this case with such confidence, certain that with proper investigative work and attention to detail, they would be able to figure out what was happening to these kids. Now, though… now she was not so sure.""

Scully is intrigued by this strange, new case; and, while not quite sold on the ape theory, she isn't about to subscribe to the alien one.

Fictober Drabbles - Day 3: Basement

""Diana once remarked how appropriate it was that his office was in the basement. “The Fox’s den” she called it, and he blushed and thought her so clever. Infatuation will do that; if anyone else had said it, he’d have rolled his eyes.

She wasn’t wrong, though....""

Mulder's infatuation with Diana turns into desolation when she leaves. He didn't realize how much isolation had affected him until Scully knocks, helping him to stop clinging to loneliness.

Tammy D. Aiken-Phillips/ThamasD's Nine Minutes

""It took only a moment for It to look them over, catalog them, and then telepathically inform It's comrades of It's findings. And intentions.

*The Female - She will have what We need in approximately eighteen Earth months. The Male - His body will be able to provide Us with information in approximately eight Earth years. We will have them then.* *What shall we do with them for now?* A comrade questioned. *Wipe their memories of this visit and return them. Inform our connections on their planet of their importance and the timetable I have set. The arrangements will be made.* *Affirmative.*""

In the 9 minutes that Scully and Mulder are abducted, the aliens have assessed them and marked them for future abductions.

@frostbitepandaaaaa's (Ao3) Nine Minutes and Then Some

Chapter 1

""As much as she was dizzy with relief, she was now weak with abrupt, crushing mortification.

“I need to sit down,” she told him, herself, cinching up the belt of her robe tighter for good measure.

“Yeah, of course.” His voice wavered with a note of insecurity. His motions were suddenly hasty, rushing to put the barrier of the cheap, motel table between them. And just like that, they were drawn apart like hydrophobic molecules.""

Scully is shocked at how much Mulder truly understands and cares her embarrassment post mosquito bite scare.

Chapter 4 (Ao3)

""I believe that hypnotherapy can have… therapeutic uses,” Missy begins, slowly, still recovering from her shock, “though I am not so sure of the… veracity of the memories it is said to tap into.”

Dana smiles, that little half-smirk that her sister dons whenever she was amused against her better judgement.

“What?” Missy asks her.

Dana shakes her head, looks down at her plate. “Nothing… that just sounded like an answer I would give.”

Missy grins. “I’m not as hippy-dippy as you think I am, Dana.""

Melissa sides with Mulder, admonishing her scientific younger sister to keep an open mind.

@neednottoneed/neednot’s (Ao3) Unnamed

""Maybe, she thinks, she’ll lose another nine minutes if it means he’ll look at her like that again.""

Scully realizes she can only talk about and understand her experience with Mulder, the man who lights up like a boy at Christmas when it comes to these uncharted, paranormal waters.  

Erin M. Blair’s (Ao3) His New Partner

""He wasn't quite certain what to make of her. He read her personnel file, along with a photocopy of her thesis. Her intelligence in the scientific would help him brainstorm and come up with plausible theories, along with keeping him sane. He had a gnawing feeling that Scully would gradually change his life, forever.""

Mulder is struck with how quickly his bad luck with partners has so suddenly turned around.

Macspooky's New Partners

""Come on," he slipped an arm around her waist and led her in the direction of the ambulance. "I think I might have another patient for you ladies and gentlemen. Possible concussion."

"Mulder...it wasn't..." She wanted to say that it wasn't that bad, that she had only been dizzy for a moment.

"Go on...." he said. "That's an order. I'll meet you at the hospital. You should be checked out.""

Scully berates her behavior in the wake of the case, scoffing that she'd been swept off her feet and gotten a concussion for her troubles. Mulder kept her company and thought she'd "done good."

@allyinthekeyofx's (Ao3) Playing the Game

""By the time morning comes her pile of sunflower seeds far outstrips his and he knows he will have to stop on the way to the airport to buy more.

He also knows that Dana Scully is not to be underestimated.""

Scully and Mulder have to spend a night at their burnt down motel before flying out. He does them both a favor by buying them new clothes and passing the time with easy bonding games.

@cactustree's (Ao3) Babyface Blues

""The residual embarrassment from the mosquito bite incident has only just begun to wear off when a flight attendant leans down to place a paper cup of coffee on Agent Mulder’s tray table and then asks him softly, “And would your daughter like anything?”

Dana is leaning back against the headrest with her eyes closed, but she is not asleep. ....

The motel fire left her with nothing but what she’d had on her person when she and Mulder rushed out in response to the news of Peggy’s death, and so she is still dressed in the same oversized raincoat and jeans that were soaked through in the cemetery, face bare of makeup, hair loose about her shoulders. She is twenty-nine years old, a medical doctor and a federal agent, and she has just been mistaken for the daughter of her partner, who, as far as she is aware, is in his mid-thirties.

Mulder lets out a quiet chuckle. “No, thanks,” he says to the flight attendant. He does not correct her.""

Scully tries to correct her babyface with a new haircut.

@freckleslikestars/Living_Underground’s perfect lullaby (Ao3)

""They were over Idaho when he carefully removed her reading glasses and tucked them into his breast pocket for safe keeping, lest her head loll to the side and crush them.

The lights of Montana cities sparkled bellow as her soft, nasal snores competed with the whir of the air circulation in the cabin.

Around the time they flew across the Missouri River, her head dropped to his shoulder and she slouched into him."" 

Mulder is surprised that Scully can sleep through their return trip from Oregon. He ponders on his impressions years later; and is shocked when she admits it's "his presence."

David Hearne's Thoughts at 11:21 P.M.

""Then the woods came. They brought twisted black corpses, metal hidden inside flesh, marks branded onto skin, and the light. Your new partner picked a spot and declared it unnatural. He spoke of time being snatched like quarters from the pavement. He pointed the finger of blame at a comatose teenager. None of it was false. None of it was true. It was all merely unsubstantial. You might as well try to bottle the wind as prove what happened in those woods.

You became angry at the mystery. Then you became scared....""

Scully had noticed how defensively Mulder believed before they even left for their case; and is surprised that he calls after to keep her in the loop. She listens.

@invidiosa/Circe Invidiosa's (Gossamer, Alt., Live Journal, Website)

silent fury

""Scully hurled the report into the trash can and dropped down onto the chair in front of Mulder’s desk. “They ask me to debunk your work, and then when I can’t do that, they just redact everything? And you want me to just sit here in silent fury and just take it?""

Scully is furious over her redacted report; and channels her frustration into Mulder's next case, ready to get back out and expose more truths.

@the-spooky-alien's Day 2 of Fictober!

""Oh, c'mon Scully, don't play innocent,'' he snorted, stomach clenching as annoyance flared high in his mind. She couldn't seriously ignore what everyone was calling him behind his back. ''Never heard of Spooky Mulder?''

The look of warning she gave him was enough to dampen his irritation. He mouthed an inaudible 'sorry' at her, wincing when she crossed her arms.

''I have, yes,'' she said, coldly. ''But it can hardly be considered a warning. It's merely a stupid nickname because of what you do with the X-Files.''

Stupid. That was one word for it.""

Mulder is relieved that Scully didn't (doesn't) chase the rumor mills; and is touched that she considers him intelligent.

Diadem’s Scene 02 - Thank You

""At first I guess it was simply morbid curiosity - would I find the body of my sister? Anything was better than the "unsolved" stamp the police had given the case file detailing Samantha's abduction.

After a couple of years, though, I realised that finding her would not be so simple. She would not just be dropped in the middle of a field and left there to be found by some farm hand. I knew by then that everything was much more complicated.""

Mulder had lived a lonely, obsessive life since childhood; and is grateful to be saved and given dignity by Scully's presence.  

amalnahurriyeh/Amal Nahurriyeh's (DW) Triptych With Luggage

""We got you something," her father had said quietly, when they'd all been having lunch back at her apartment after the ceremony.

"You didn't have to," she'd said, and blushed. She still found it hard to talk about the FBI with him; she'd pretty much stuck to telling her mother about it on the phone since she left her internship, and conversations with her father had devolved into safe topics: football, politics, Billy's disciplinary record.

"Sure we did," he said, and swallowed. "Come on down, they're in the car." She'd gone out to the parking lot behind her building with him. "Your mother thought we should wrap them, but I figured that was just a waste of time." He unlocked the trunk of the car and lifted it. She paused for a second, confused. "It's a whole set of 'em," he said, gesturing to the suitcase sitting next to the windshield wiper fluid. "I figured, you'll probably have to do more traveling now. And you can't put your FBI suits in Billy's old duffel, huh?""

Scully pours her excitement for her first field agent case into packing her new, expensive suitcase (gifted by her father in his hesitant support.) It serves her well all of Season 1; and it becomes her conduit during the rough, grounded months in Season 2.

Foxhunt2blue's Pleasures of Simplicity

""It's always strange how children can't wait to grow to adulthood---constantly in a hurry to be something they believe will be so much better. When they finally get there they wish they were children again.

Somewhere along the way they lose what can only be called magic, but maybe it's something else.""

Scully reflects on the innocence that can only be lost in adulthood; and her ensuing transformations over the years in many hallways.  

Enjoy!

[acvillagerdeathmatch]

This is gonna be the pinned post where I list all the polls as they go up! So it's gonna change! Give me a minute if im slow to update this post because I'm BUSY. I have THINGS TO DO.

Shitty tournament diagram pls enjoy my terrible handwriting.

Active polls:

Round 2:

Shino v Bruce

Chief v Audie

Amelia v Sunny

Meow v Apollo

Pierre v Walt

Vesta v Bob

Butch v Coco

Bam v Beau

Kabuki v Lolly

Kitty v Ankha

Tangy v Purrl

Willow v Bow

Petri v Molly

Sasha v Shep

Fauna v Lopez

Sherb v Chevre

Skye v Kyle

Marshal v Cheri

Etoile v Pietro

Olivia v Marina

Agnus v Pekoe

Gayle v Roald

Goldie v Whitney

Merengue v Margie

Dotty v Judy

Muffy v Cherry

Sprinkle v Chai

Stitches v Rosie

Punchy v Diana

Cephalobot v Lily

Ketchup v Lucky

Gladys v Maple

Completed polls:

Round 1:

Nindori, Wolfgang, Marshal, Hans, Epona, Frita, Ed, Eugene, Ace

Croque, Drift, Bertha, Ankha, Eunice, Bonbon, Hopkins, Diva, Leopold

Ozzie, Analog, Anicotti, Roscoe, Stitches, Cranston, Kiki, Megan, Boris

Megumi, Pancetti, Drake, Zucker, Etoile, Ione, Gen, W. Link, Deena

Rizzo, Pecan, Leonardo, Hugh, Alice, Henry, Chai, Cyrano, Curlos

Flurry, Vivian, Genji, Fang, Kit, Wendy, Azalea, Tammy, Beau

Tasha, Pango, Sprinkle, Kidd, Egbert, Barold, Lobo, Del, Pate

Mott, Peck, Robin, Margie, Chops, Hippeux, Big Top, Flip, Annalisa

Woolio, Rodeo, Rodney, Lulu, Nate, Eloise, Bam, Beardo, Cleo

Inkwell, Paula, Sheldon, Shep, Lucha, Sandy, Jeremiah, Bill, Benedict

Mint, Elmer, Tia, Dobie, Lucy, Betty, Goose, Sasha, Muffy

Sue E, Stu, Petunia, Lyman, Bella, Gloria, Doc, Bruce, Jane

Rolf, Sylvana, Melba, Tammi, Lionel, Murphy, Frett, Samson, Coco

Cupcake, Limberg, Fruity, Dotty, Iggly, Bluebear, Louie, Annalise, Olivia

Vladimir, Rudy, Sven, Shoukichi, Liz, Purrl, Holden, Moe, Dozer

Angus, Broccolo, Blaire, Dizzy, Jay, Frobert, Norma, Lucky, Renee

Tex, Violet, Skye, Sly, Medli, Otis, Kody, Reneigh, Graham

Nosegay, Maddie, Quillson, Shari, Teddy, Sunny, Sally/Hazel, Walker, Snake

Nan, Peaches, Madam Rosa, Lily, Dora, Freya, Cole, Iggy, Bettina

Shino, Spork/Crackle, Scoot, Pompom, Flossie, Knox, Dom, Frank, Anabelle

Pashmina, Piper, Octavian, Lolly, Drago, Bree, Bessie, Alli, Benjamin

Sherb, Tutu, Rooney, Rocket, Diana, Pinky, Curly, Mitzi, Admiral

Tucker, Velma, Sterling, Nibbles, Baabara, Flash, Champ, Joey, Chief

Stella, Wade, Punchy, Poko, Ike, Pierce, Aurora, Boyd, Canberra

Puck, T-bone, Opal, Mallary, Bob, Hank, Blanche, Cyd, Axel

Ketchup, Kevin, Monique, Francine, Astrid, Bitty, Antonio, Hamphrey, Becky

Klaus, Meow, Hector, Hamlet, Belle, Filly, Clay, Emerald, Cobb

Plucky, Valise, Mathilda, Mac, Cephalobot, Ken, Carrot, Filbert, Claude

Victoria, Willow, Zoe, Ursala, Moose, Olaf, Grizzly, Gwen, Chico

Marty, Phoebe, Maelle, Keaton, Freckles, Katt, Carmen, Judy, Cece

Savannah, Poncho, Stinky, Gayle, Billy, Elise, Bangle, Bud, Avery

Truffles, Zell, Tabby, Shinabiru, Petri, Ricky, Maggie, Raddle, Flora

Prince, Tybalt, Vesta, Patricia, Chow, Nana, Chevre, Gonzo, Chadder

Oxford, Jitters, Peanut, Jacques, Felyne, Aziz, Claudia, Apple, Apollo

Miranda, Molly, Tom, Marcel, Clara, Harry, Bones, Maple, Cesar

Quetzal, Whitney, Winnie, Joe, Ganon, Patty, Bea, Mira, Groucho

Ribbot, Sparro, Ruby, Midge, Biff, Marina, Anchovy, Papi, Camofrog

Quinn, Pierre, Spike, Merry, Gladys, June, Gruff, Olive, Carmen

Paolo, Lulu, Vic, Juubei, Lopez, Gala, Deidre, Elvis, Gabi

Sprocket, Static, Marcie, Marlo, Goldie, Julian, Felicity, Huggy, Ellie

Rowan, Viche, Twiggy, Greta, Puddles, Penny, Cally/Sally, Bow, Chuck

Penelope, Slyvia, Pekoe, Peewee, Fuschia, Leigh, Jambette, Masa, Boots

Simon, Weldon, Queenie, Kitty, Curt, Amelia, Agent S, Pigleg, Alfonso

Rocco, Toby, Tiansheng, Rhoda, Hambo, Naomi, Bunnie, Hazel, Audie

Rollo, Yodel, Kyle, Tipper, Flo, Kabuki, Candi, Colton, Broffina

Tiffany, Weber, Gaston, Chelsea, Elina, Bubbles, Boone, Buzz, Agnes

Peggy, O'Hare, Yuka, Monty, Chester, Cookie, Celia, Koharu, Butch

Sydney, Rory, Wart Jr., Pudge, Kid Cat, Merengue, Fauna, Pippy, Cube

Rex, Timbra, Tank, Rasher, Cheri, Faith, Ava, Huck, Chabwick

Poppy, Roswell, Pietro, Phil, Hopper, Kitt, Clyde, Erik, Boomer

Twirp, Rod, Rosie, Rhonda, Rio, Portia, Julia, Coach, Cousteau

Tangy, Tarou, Tad, Hornsby, Daisy, Deli, Buck, Chrissy, Al

Rilla, Snooty, Marcy, Cherry, Biskit, Carrie, Bianca, Caroline/Bliss, Aisle

Soleil, Tiara, Roald, Jakey/Jacob, Friga, Gigi, Charlise, Derwin, Cashmere

Raymond, Walt

[nerds-yearbook]

In 1993, the mutant Eugene Victor Tooms kills four people, eating their livers, but is prevented from eating the fifth, which he needed to return to his 30 year hibernation, by the intervention of F.B.I. special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. (Squeeze “X-Files” TV)

[the1013file]

[evelynhk]

Analytical Application 4

The uncanny refers to something that is familiar but strange to the point where it evokes a sense of unease or discomfort. Freud describes the uncanny as "that class of the terrifying which leads back to something long known to us, once very familiar". (1) He explains that the uncanny arises when "repressed infantile complexes have been revived by some impression, or when the primitive beliefs we have surmounted seem once more to be confirmed". The uncanny is associated with the return of something that was once known but has since been repressed or forgotten, creating a sense of unsettling familiarity.

At the conclusion of the episode, we encounter Eugene Victor Tooms, the serial killer, confined within a cell. Inside, he initiates the construction of a new hibernation nest using newspapers, intending to slumber for another three decades. The agents discuss the genetic tests that they had done on Tooms, and reveal that he indeed has a genetic mutation that makes him inhuman and metabolism extremely slow, hence the decades of murder. The final shot captures Tooms' ominous smile directed at the camera, his golden eyes seemingly penetrating the audience. Despite recognizing Tooms as a human, we see that his expression exudes a reptilian quality, heightened by the unnatural hue of his eyes and the composed demeanor pervading the scene. (X-Files, 2003, 00:42:05) This unsettling convergence of familiar human form and the seemingly animalistic traits, particularly the reptilian aspect, resonates with Freud's concept of the uncanny. Freud describes the uncanny as the unsettling sensation evoked by encountering something that is simultaneously familiar and strange, blurring the boundaries between the ordinary and the eerie. We are originally introduced to Tooms as normal human, with normal eyes but also an eerily calm demeanor. However, when captured, we finally see Tooms true self. Tooms' eerie smile and reptilian gaze in the last scene serve as prime examples of this phenomenon, eliciting a sense of discomfort and unease in the viewer. The juxtaposition of his human form with distinctly animalistic features leaves an indelible impression, underscoring the uncanny nature of the scene.

The unconscious is the part of the mind that is not directly accessible to conscious awareness, but still influences thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Fanon describes the unconscious as containing "archetypes" and "prejudices, myths, collective attitudes" (2) that shape one's worldview, even if they are not consciously recognized. As Fanon states, "the collective unconscious is purely and simply the sum of prejudices, myths, collective attitudes of a given group". Fanon centers his argument around the identity of blackness, arguing that the "Negro is the symbol of Evil" in the "collective unconscious of homo occidentalis", representing "the bad instincts, the darkness inherent in every ego, of the uncivilized savage". (3) This unconscious association of blackness with immorality and savagery is a key part of the cultural imposition that shapes the Antillean's worldview.

When FBI Agent Tom Colton confronts Fox Mulder at the crime scene, his disdain for Mulder's unconventional beliefs is palpable. With a hint of sarcasm, Colton delivers a cutting remark, questioning Mulder's inclination towards extraterrestrial explanations: "So, Mulder, what do you think, does this look like the work of little green men?" Colton ridicules Mulder's theories and conveys his contempt for Mulder's willingness to entertain ideas outside the norm. In response, Mulder maintains his composure, brushing off Colton's skepticism with a lighthearted retort about the color of the aliens. Essentially, Colton represents the entrenched skepticism of mainstream society, grounded in rationality and empirical evidence, while Mulder embodies a willingness to explore the realms of the unknown, guided by intuition and belief in the extraordinary. (X-Files, 2003, 00:07:20) Fanon's concept of the unconscious offers insight into this dynamic. Fanon posits that individuals are shaped by unconscious forces, including societal norms and cultural biases, which influence their perceptions and attitudes towards others. In this context, Colton's dismissal of Mulder's beliefs reflects an unconscious adherence to societal norms, reinforcing the prevailing skepticism towards unconventional ideas. Meanwhile, Mulder's willingness to entertain the possibility of extraterrestrial involvement highlights the influence of his own unconscious beliefs and desires. Despite facing ridicule and skepticism, Mulder remains steadfast in his convictions, driven by a deep-seated belief in the existence of the unknown and the unexplored. In essence, Colton and Mulder's interaction serves as a microcosm of the broader societal tensions surrounding belief systems and the unconscious biases that shape individual perspectives. While Colton represents the status quo, Mulder embodies the relentless pursuit of truth, challenging the boundaries of conventional wisdom and delving into the depths of the unconscious in search of answers.

Misrecognition is a fundamental concept in psychoanalysis that refers to the distortion of perception or failure to recognize one's true identity and relationships. Lacan emphasizes that misrecognition is central to the formation of the ego and its defensive structures, stating that "the I formation is symbolized in dreams by a fortified camp, or even a stadium-distributing, between the arena within its walls and its outer border of gravel-pits and marshes, two opposed fields of battle where the subject bogs down in his quest for the proud, remote inner castle whose form (sometimes juxtaposed in the same scenario) strikingly symbolizes the id." (4) This concept underscores the idea that the ego is not centered on accurate perception but rather on a complex interplay of defenses and misperceptions.

When Mulder and Scully stumble upon Eugene Tooms' hideout in a building complex, they uncover a disturbing sight: his hibernation nest constructed from newspapers and held together by a sticky substance. As Mulder cautiously investigates the nest, his casual touch reveals the viscous texture of the adhesive, which Scully identifies as bile. In a seemingly nonchalant manner, Mulder remarks, “is there any way I can get it off my fingers quickly without betraying my cool exterior?” However, this seemingly innocuous comment belies a deeper truth about Mulder's character. Behind his usual facade of cool confidence and detachment, Mulder's response hints at an underlying vulnerability and discomfort. (X-Files, 2003, 00:31:30) By acknowledging the need to maintain his "cool exterior," Mulder unwittingly exposes the facade he presents to the world, revealing a glimpse of the inner turmoil and unease beneath the surface. This moment of revelation underscores Jacques Lacan's concept of misrecognition. Throughout the series, Mulder has projected an image of unshakeable confidence and unwavering determination. However, his offhand remark reveals the discrepancy between his outward presentation and internal reality. Just as a distorted mirror distorts one's reflection, Mulder's calm exterior masks the complexity of his inner thoughts and emotions, leading to a misrecognition of his true self. In this moment, Mulder's quip serves as a poignant reminder that appearances can be deceiving, and true understanding requires peering beyond the surface to uncover the hidden truths within.

The concepts of "Heimlich" and "Unheimlich" are central to Freud's exploration of the uncanny. Heimlich refers to that which is familiar, native, and belonging to the home. It evokes a sense of comfort, intimacy, and security. In contrast, Unheimlich is the opposite of heimlich, describing something that is uncanny, gloomy, and dismal. Freud explains that the uncanny arises when "repressed infantile complexes have been revived", (5) causing a sense of unsettling familiarity. The uncanny, therefore, represents a return of the repressed, blurring the line between the familiar and the unfamiliar.

The first significant encounter with Eugene Tooms occurs during his interrogation by the FBI, where he undergoes a polygraph test regarding the series of serial murders. Initially appearing human and unremarkable, Tooms' demeanor soon unsettles both the agents and the audience. Despite the gravity of the situation, Tooms remains eerily emotionless and detached, responding to inquiries with minimalistic yes or no answers and devoid of any visible expressions. (X-Files, 2003, 00:15:25) His uncanny composure during the interrogation contrasts sharply with the gravity of the accusations against him, leaving both the agents and viewers feeling uneasy. Although Tooms successfully passes the polygraph test, the ease with which he navigates the questioning only heightens the sense of disquiet among those present. It's as though he effortlessly conceals his true nature beneath a veneer of normalcy, blurring the line between the familiar and the unsettling. This encounter with Tooms exemplifies Freud's concepts of heimlich and unheimlich. Initially appearing heimlich, or familiar, Tooms quickly becomes unheimlich as his unnerving behavior disrupts expectations and instills a sense of unease. His ability to mask his true intentions and emotions underscores the eerie nature of the uncanny, leaving both the characters within the narrative and the audience grappling with the unsettling realization that appearances can be deceiving.

Disalienation refers to the process of overcoming the internalized beliefs and structures that perpetuate feelings of inferiority and alienation in individuals, particularly in colonized contexts. Fanon emphasizes the need for disalienation by stating, "The Negro makes himself inferior. But the truth is that he is made inferior." (6) This highlights the societal imposition of inferiority on individuals of color, leading to a distorted self-perception. Disalienation involves recognizing and challenging these imposed beliefs to reclaim one's identity and agency, as Fanon suggests when discussing the Antillean's journey to reconcile his family heritage with the expectations of European society

As Eugene Tooms undergoes interrogation by FBI agents, the power dynamics at play contribute to a profound sense of disalienation. The agents wield authority and control, leveraging interrogation techniques, including the polygraph machine, to compel Tooms into submission. Throughout the interrogation, there's a palpable imbalance of power, with the FBI agents exerting pressure on Tooms in their relentless pursuit of a confession. Their tactics aim to undermine Tooms' sense of autonomy and agency, creating an environment where he feels increasingly alienated and vulnerable. The use of the polygraph machine underscores this disalienation, as Tooms is subjected to a series of probing questions aimed at eliciting incriminating responses. The machine, designed to detect deception, serves as a tangible symbol of authority and surveillance, trying to heighten Tooms' feelings of unease and powerlessness. The agents' relentless questioning and scrutiny further compound Tooms' sense of disalienation, as he grapples with the oppressive weight of their interrogation tactics. (X-Files, 2003, 00:15:25) In this context, disalienation refers to the estrangement and loss of agency experienced by Tooms as he confronts the overwhelming power of the FBI agents. Their efforts to extract a confession through coercion and manipulation serve to reinforce his status as a marginalized and disempowered individual. As the interrogation unfolds, Tooms finds himself increasingly trying to navigate the FBI trapping and isolating him within a web of institutional authority and control.

Citations (1) Sigmund Freud, "The Uncanny," in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, trans. and ed. James Strachey et al., vol. 17 (London: Hogarth Press, 1955), 369. (2) Fanon, Frantz. "The Negro and Psychopathology." Black Skin, White Masks, trans. Richard Philcox. New York: Grove Press, 2008. p. 145. (3) Fanon, Frantz. "The Negro and Psychopathology." in Black Skin, White Masks, 147. (4) Lacan, Jacques. "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I." Écrits: A Selection, trans. Bruce Fink. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002. p. 78. (5) Freud, Sigmund. "The Uncanny." in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 403. (6) Fanon, Frantz. "The Negro and Psychopathology." in Black Skin, White Masks, 115.

[lstine919]

Analytical Application 4

Heimlich:

The Heimlich is that which is familiar to us, a quality of something that we feel keeps us safe. Freud defines it as “‘belonging to the house, not strange, familiar, tame, intimate, comfortable, homely,”(1) Since the heimlich is thought to be familiar, we feel comfortable with it, as we feel we understand it to a certain extent. Freud establishes another definition of the word: “that which is concealed and kept out of sight,”(2) which, when seen, can cause the heimlich to morph into the uncanny.

The familiarity aspect of the Heimlich is exemplified in The X Files by both the setting of the episode and The character of Tom Colton. The TV show takes place primarily on Earth, which causes the setting to often adhere to Freud’s first definition of the heimlich, stated above. The FBI office in which Mulder and Scully work is thought of as a place of familiarity, a place that is safe from the dangers of paranormal activity due to its large police presence. In this episode, the precinct remains safe. In contrast, the sites of the murders that occur, while in fact heimlich, don’t maintain the same safety. The victims being pursued in their office or at their home presents the viewer with the heimlich’s true vulnerability. Freud claims “what is novel can easily become frightening and uncanny.”(3) This episode adheres to this rule, as viewers of the show have likely seen the precinct before, and are also likely familiar with what an urban office building and suburban home look like as well. 

Tom Colton and Scully know each other from their days at the academy, as established in the beginning of the episode (Longstreet, 1993, 00:04:12). Their partnership is heimlich, in contrast with Mulder’s novelty and his outlandish methods. Colton refuses to believe in or support the extraterrestrial task force that Mulder and Scully are a part of, and instead aims to work through the ranks of the FBI that he knows well, that he finds familiar. His inability to accept the methods of Mulder and Scully is an example of how by engrossing oneself in the heimlich, one limits their capability to validate anything outside of the inner circle of familiarity they’ve created.

Unheimlich:

In contrast, the Unheimlich serves as the antithesis to the Heimlich, marking something with unfamiliarity, a distance from the known reality of the viewer. In contrasting the heimlich and unheimlich, Freud writes that “The German word unheimlich is obviously the opposite of heimlich,”(4) but takes this notion one step further by noting that the heimlich and unheimlich contain similar features, deducing that “What is heimlich thus comes to be unheimlich.” Therefore, the unheimlich, or unfamiliar, is parallel to its counterpart, and there is only a fine line between the two concepts.

Applying the concept of the unheimlich to this episode of The X Files, one can understand that the showrunners take advantage of unfamiliarity in order to create a sense of curiosity and unease within the viewer. The use of ambient music throughout the episode contributes to an atmosphere of unfamiliarity, as ambient synth music is not a sound regularly heard in nature, but rather one made by electronic instruments. The novelty of this music to the viewer’s ears, especially in the 1990s, opens up the mind of the viewer, encouraging them to stay invested in the story in order to find out what other new discoveries are in store for Mulder and Scully. Similarly, creators use darkness in familiar spaces, such as a garage (Longstreet, 1993, 00:13:39)  or Scully’s own home (Longstreet, 1993, 00:37:54), to create a sense of the unknown in a familiar world. Since the dark prevents the ability for something to be seen, one has no concept of what is around them, rendering their surroundings unheimlich. 

The unheimlich is further exemplified when Agent Colton’s familiarity contrasts with the unconventional practices of Mulder. Specifically, the scene in which Mulder and Colton disagree over the results of the polygraph test (Longstreet, 1993, 00:17:23) shows how Mulder’s strange/unheimlich questions about the suspect’s age and whereabouts in the past actually help to solve the case. A moral of this episode is that while the unheimlich can prove frightening (such as in unknown spaces), using unusual methods can sometimes lead to the best outcomes. This can create a subconscious appreciation for the unheimlich within the viewer, which makes them more likely to watch future episodes of the show.

Uncanny:

The “uncanny” is thought of as a strange juxtaposition of the familiar and unfamiliar, which creates a primal disturbance in the viewer. The origin of the word, as Freud writes, comes from the word “heimlich”, which “on the one hand, it means that which is familiar and congenial, and on the other, that which is concealed and kept out of sight.”(6) Freud affirms Schelling’s innovative definition of the uncanny that combines these two concepts, claiming that “everything is uncanny that ought to have remained hidden and secret, and yet comes to light.”(7)

In this episode of The X Files, Freud’s concept of the uncanny is best characterized by the killer, Eugene Toomes, especially in the ways in which he moves around when stalking his victims. Toomes is a humanoid figure, presenting as a human on the outside - an appearance which is familiar to viewers. In a show about paranormal/extraterrestrial activity, his familiarity gives him the illusion of innocence— which is why when he is first captured, he is unsuspected as the killer. By analyzing the opera Tales of Hoffmann, Freud identifies an example of the uncanny in the doll.(8) Dolls, like Toomes, are uncanny because they are “to all appearances a living being,”(9) yet they are not constructed in the same way as humans; they are made of inhuman materials and operate differently (not at all). Toomes can be thought of in the same way, as his need for human bile for hibernation alienates him from the rest of the world, separating him from the normal functions of human behavior. Before killing each victim, he enters through seemingly safe openings, such as sewers, elevators, vents (Longstreet, 1993, 00:03:11), and fireplaces (Longstreet, 1993, 00:22:02). Audiences see these openings in everyday life, but obviously don’t expect someone to be lurking in them, waiting to commit a dangerous act. The way Toomes moves through these spaces is also uncanny, as he contorts his human-like body to complete inhuman feats. This contributes to the emotional and psychological effect of this show on viewers, as it utilizes the uncanny through the character of Toomes to portray seemingly harmless spaces as facilitators of violence.

The Mirror Stage:

The Mirror Stage is the period in a child’s growth where they come to recognize themselves in the mirror, becoming aware of their own visual existence and their existence relative to the space around them. Lacan writes that this stage “immediately gives rise in a child to a series of gestures in which he playfully experiences the relationship between the movements made in the image and the reflected environment.”(10) This quote describes the child’s reaction to this realization, and details the way in which he is able to understand this awareness - by moving and seeing himself reflected within the space. Lacan also claims that this stage creates an “ontological structure of the human world,”(11) suggesting that this is one of the core experiences of a child that creates a path for the rest of their growth. 

While nobody in this episode of The X Files is literally becoming aware of their surroundings, the mirror stage is present through Agent Scully’s formation of herself within the context of her work, and whether she belongs on Mulder’s team or not. In the beginning of the episode, when meeting with Agent Colton (Longstreet, 1993, 00:04:12), Scully is unsure of her place. She wants to work on the case with Colton, but she’s worried that she might have picked up a reputation by being assigned to work with Mulder. While meeting with Colton and Mulder in the next scene (Longstreet, 1993, 00:07:08), she feels awkwardly placed between the two men, representative of the two belief systems she is torn between. When Mulder jokes about the color of “little green/gray men”, Scully looks at Colton in embarrassment. Since she knew Colton from the academy, he serves as a representation of Scully’s past, a context in which she knows her place and feels safe. Since she’s newly assigned with Mulder, she has not yet undergone her metaphorical “mirror stage”, an understanding and assimilation to the environment of her new position. As the episode progresses, there are several moments in which she begins to understand her own position. The polygraph scene in which Mulder agrees with her (Longstreet, 1993, 00:17:23) for example, helps her form an understanding of where she should be. This realization comes full circle when Scully scolds and dismisses Colton for interfering with Mulder’s stakeout (Longstreet, 1993, 00:34:51). She finally understands that Mulder’s theories are correct, and that she is meant to be by his side in the investigation— satisfying the final aspect of the mirror stage in which one becomes fully aware of themselves.

Collective Catharsis:

Collective catharsis is a concept introduced by Fritz Fanon that prescribes the need for an outlet where one can release the anger and hostility they have pent up inside. Fanon claims that “In every society, in every collectivity, exists—must exist—a channel, an outlet through which the forces accumulated in the form of aggression can be released.”(12) With this quote, Fanon emphasizes both the abundance of the concept and its mode of expression - through aggression. Fanon also presents several examples of collective catharsis, such as “games in children’s institutions, of psychodramas in group therapy, and, in a more general way, of illustrated magazines for children.”(13)

Collective catharsis is personified in this episode by Eugene Toomes’ killing of his victims. As previously established, collective catharsis manifests itself in the form of aggression. Toomes’ aggressive action that he uses for catharsis is murder. The show takes it a step further: while catharsis isn’t directly necessary for human survival, killing others is necessary for him. This comparison may possibly serve as the allegorical identification of an instinctive human need to harm others for our own survival. Perhaps the showrunners are suggesting that our longing for collective catharsis is just as dangerous to society as a mutant murderer when it manifests itself in sinister ways, and that we must think of healthier outlets for such aggression. A specific scene in which human collective catharsis is identified is when Mulder and Scully visit the man who investigated the previous murder at Powhatan Mill (Longstreet, 1993, 00:26:59). He felt a need to do extra research of his own in order to stop this killer. His need to hunt down the killer might have been motivated by collective catharsis. When Toomes is finally captured, the man reads it in the newspaper, and achieves his own catharsis from the success of Scully and Mulder (Longstreet, 1993, 00:39:25). His catharsis, as well as the catharsis of those who caught him, were finally realized. 

From a more observational perspective, one can look at this episode as an instrument for collective catharsis in and of itself. We as the viewers have aggression that needs to be released, visual media has become an increasingly prominent mode in which to do so. While the characters within the episode achieve catharsis by capturing the killer, we as the audience receive catharsis through the intense emotional situations displayed on screen.

Bibliography:

The X Files, 3, "Squeeze," directed by Harry Longstreet, aired Sep 24, 1993 on Fox.

1 Sigmund Freud, “The Uncanny” in Collected Papers Volume IV, trans. Joan Riviere (London: The Hogarth Press, 1948), 371

2 Freud, The Uncanny, 375

3 Freud, The Uncanny, 370

4 Freud, The Uncanny, 370

5 Freud, The Uncanny, 375

 6 Freud, The Uncanny, 375

 7 Freud, The Uncanny, 376

8 Freud, The Uncanny, 379

9 Freud, The Uncanny, 379

10 Jacques Lacan, “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function” in Écrits, trans. Bruce Fink (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006), 75

 11 Lacan, The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function, 76

12 Fritz Fanon, “The Negro And Psychopathology” in Black Skin White Masks, trans. Charles Lam Markmann (United Kingdom: Pluto Press, 1986), 112

13 Fanon, The Negro And Psychopathology, 112

@theuncannyprofessoro

[enigmaticxbee]

A few more season 8 fics:

Remnants by 6hoursgirl - post Per Manum vignettes. Everything that’s left of her broken dreams is standing at the counter, returning her smile.

Untitled by @ghostbustermelanieking - post Three Words Scully takes some space.

Raspberry and Lace Part 1 and Part 2 by Virtues & Vices - casefile set over the course of late season 8 with flashbacks to season 7. Two different women. Two different lives. Both learn to survive with the help of one man. NSFW.

Not Again by @mldrgrl - an AU version of season 8 where Scully was abducted instead of Mulder.

An Acceptable Level of Happiness by Jenna Tooms - canon divergent after Requiem, post season 8 babyfic. Christmas is the most stressful time of the year. Fortunately Scully has Mulder, and Mulder has solutions. NSFW.

Not the Same by MissAnnThropic - canon divergent after Existence. At a bureau party, Tom Colton comes face to face with Agents Mulder and Scully, and finds that a lot has changed for the two agents.

S8 Rewatch - Fic Recs

Need something really angsty and engrossing to read while you wait for your partner and alien baby baby daddy to wake up from the undead? Here are a few of the fics that got me through the season - exploring aspects of the pregnancy and abduction arcs that went unexplored or remained off screen on the show, or just fixing them.

Canon-compliant or adjacent fics:

Hour of Lead by spookydarlablack @sigritandtheelves - Scully’s perspective on Deadalive through Existence and it’s really, really rough but really good.

Gerber Daisies by DiscordantWords - casefile involving Charlie Scully set during the back half of season 8, with a focus on the canon-adjacent off-screen evolution of their relationship. There’s moment where Mulder has a flashback to Scully saying goodbye to his (un)dead body that just -

all the old familiar places by @seek-its-opposite - exquisite fill in for the missing months between This Is Not Happening and Deadalive, just the right amount of pain.

Slow Returns by @o6666666 - helps make sense of Scully’s behavior in Empedocles, especially that awkward scene in Mulder’s apt (because she is not fine) and then fixes it. The post TINH part though, oof, rip out my heart why don’t you.

Canon-divergent fics:

Terra Firma series by @malibusunset-xf-blog - canon-divergent after Existence. Lovely domestic drama, a classic comfort read for me.

Hurricane Season by rah and beduini - canon-divergent after Existence, a week at the beach with the Scully family and baby Wim. Fantastic Scully family dynamics.

By Falling In and In by @aloysia-vergata - canon-divergent after Deadalive, vignettes from a mostly normal life, for a time. Great Scully family dynamics.

Deadalive AU by @markwatneyandensemble - What if when Mulder woke up from his undead coma it was only a couple months later and Scully wasn’t visibly pregnant? What if he had amnesia and couldn’t remember anything past 1996? A fun read.

Home Ec by ArtemisX5 - canon-divergent after Existence, although not much. Very sweet, I particularly enjoyed the Millennium first time reminisces. (On Gossamer so if the link doesn’t work you can search for it there.)

Promises to Keep by Prufrock’s Love - canon divergent after Requiem, Mulder is returned 4 years later to find Scully married to Skinner. I almost noped out on the first Scully/Skinner sex scene (which are explicit) and I can’t exactly recommend it (a lot of it felt ooc to me) but it was interesting and I did get drawn in.

The Unfinished Universe by Revely - canon divergent after Badlaa, Mulder is returned a year after Requiem. It has a lovely sense of history, weaving in reminiscences of their earliest cases and shifting perceptions of each other as they slowly find their way back together. Absolutely fantastic.

[katy-kt-katie]

Mastermind Chapter 2/9. Chapter Rating M (Entire work E) Co-written with @toffutiM on Twitter. Read here on AO3

And the touch of a hand lit the fuse

Of a chain reaction of countermoves

To assess the equation of you

Checkmate, I couldn't lose

-Lyrics by Taylor Swift

The lecture hall was a buzz with instructors talking and mingling. Their jobs were intense and they enjoyed the opportunity to connect and socialize after lectures.

Dana remained in her seat, still in a daze from the quasi, albeit one-sided, conversation she had with this lecturer, Special Agent Fox Mulder, his name rolling off her tongue. She almost felt like she was post orgasmic; her body felt flushed, her heart racing.

“Dana,” a voice broke her out of her trance. Before she managed to reply she felt a hand on her shoulder, “Dana, are you awake in there?” he teased.

“Hi, Tom,” Tom Colton was a friend from The Academy. He was on the fast track, Finishing up his last week as an instructor before moving on to headquarters. He wasn’t necessarily handsome, and behaved as though he was more good-looking than he really was. He seemed to always have an eye on Dana, but she was only interested in him as a colleague.

“This guy,” he motioned down at Agent Mulder, “What a whack job, am I right?” he laughed elbowing Dana in the shoulder.

Dana suppressed the emotions she’d been feeling and responded coolly, “I actually thought he was very interesting, although I don’t generally agree with his point of view.”

“Dana, you can’t be serious. Cryptids? Magic? The guy is nuts!” Tom exclaimed. “He’s riding on the wave of a couple of lucky solves when he was in Violent Crimes. I know I’m a better agent than him already.” Tell me how you really feel Tom , she thought to herself, ready to end the conversation before it began.

The last few times Dana had talked to Tom, she’d noticed his arrogance and she quickly dismissed his presence and opinion.

She sighed and nodded, standing up and moving past him, “Excuse me, Tom.”

Dana’s eyes locked on her target; Special Agent Fox Mulder, standing at the bottom of the lecture hall encircled by a dozen or so attendees actively chatting with him. She felt drawn to him like a tractor beam was pulling her in. So drawn, she didn’t remember descending the stairs.

As she got within a few feet of him, his back to her, she abruptly stopped. What am I doing? What do I plan to say to him?

The voices of insecurity, in her head, started yelling at her. You can’t just go and start a debate with him in front of everyone , but she wanted to. You can’t just go ask him to consider you as a partner, he doesn’t want a partner and you have skills he doesn’t value.

“Fuck,” she said under her breath, she’d never been affected by a person like this, let alone someone she hadn’t formally met. Debating with herself internally now, I can’t talk to him, but I feel like I won’t be able to continue breathing if I just walk away.

The pile of instructors around him had doubled and she resigned herself to leaving, but not before she got his business card.

She walked up to the table where he’d laid them out and grabbed a card, putting it in her pocket. She saw his hand resting behind him, as he leaned against the table. She couldn’t resist touching him; gently, running her fingers over his.

//

His heart jumped and his breath caught.

Despite his nickname of Spooky Mulder, Special Agent Fox Mulder didn’t get spooked often. But something, someone , just touched him and it sent his body plunging into a sea of sensual overload. His eyes shut as his brain mapped an image of what he felt; a hand, tiny, soft, feminine. Seconds passed before he regained his senses and looked for the woman who had affected him so profoundly.

“Excuse me,” he said, breaking through the group of agents in front of him, scanning the room, clearly none of them the mystery woman based on the guests proximity to where they stood.

He looked up into the lecture hall and saw a mix of instructors and a sea of darkness as the stairs climbed towards the exit.

“Fuck,” he whispered to himself, resigned to not realizing who she was. He returned to the conversation with the Instructors.

Hours later, finally home, he couldn’t get the moment out of his head. He closed his eyes and envisioned that hand in a thousand images, more importantly he wondered who was connected to the touch. That hand reaching for his hand, grasping onto his hand, wrapped in his hand. Some of the images felt like they were a message coded for him; but what did it mean ? What was he supposed to do with the message if he didn’t even know who the mystery woman was.

Some of the images felt erotic, like that hand was meant to be wrapped around his cock, and he couldn’t help the bulge growing in his pajama pants as he laid in bed. He reached into his pants and stroked himself, no need for a video or magazine tonight after the way this bizarre event had him feeling. When he was done, Fox Mulder drifted to sleep dreaming about the mysterious woman he didn’t meet.

//

Dana found her sister Melissa waiting up for her as she entered her apartment.

“Hey sis, how was work?” Melissa said. Melissa had been staying with Dana while she bounced between jobs. She was the polar opposite of studious, career focused Dana. Melissa was a free spirit, who focused on love and happiness.

“Good,” Dana’s typical response, “Fascinating actually. I attended this lecture tonight and the man speaking,” she paused and laughed at her, still, overwhelming reaction to this Agent Mulder, “he affected me Melissa.”

She saw Melissa pop up out of the sofa, “Affected you Danes? How? You never talk like that?”

“I know,” she giggled. “I don’t know; it was like I was drawn to him. Like we were the only people in this packed lecture hall.”

“You wanna bang him! Good for you, I don’t like this Ethan guy you’ve been seeing, anyway!!” Melissa teased, wiggling her eyebrows.

“No. I mean…he is handsome, but no. I felt like it was destiny, like I’m supposed to be connected with him; in work, maybe intimately too.”

“What did he say to you to have this effect?” Melissa asked curiously.

“I didn’t even actually talk to him,” Dana cringed, trailing her voice off into a hush.

“I don’t understand,” Melissa replied.

“That’s just it. He was lecturing and I felt like I had every perfect reply to all of his questions, all of his concerns. It's like it was meant for me to hear. And then I touched him…”

“You touched him, but didn’t talk to him?” Melissa was confused.

“Yes. I touched his hand and I felt,” she shook her head searching for words, “I felt everything all at once. My heart skipped, my breath caught, I felt like I could laugh and cry. I saw images in my head of our hands working together, touching each other.”

Dana paused and laughed, “You didn’t put any of your ‘supplements’ in my coffee this morning, did you?” Melissa's supplements were some weak hallucinogens she carried around with her.

“No Dana, I would never do that,” she pulled her sister to the couch with her. “Dana this man, the way you were drawn to him, it has to mean something.”

“I know. I can’t believe I’m agreeing with you, but it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt.” Dana closed her eyes and pictured Agent Mulder talking again and sighed happily. “He might be taking on a partner, Melissa, and I think I would love working with him. I think I’m meant to.”

“Well, reach out to him. Manifest what you want and deserve, Dana!” Melissa said.

“It’s not that simple, he’s personally resistant to taking on a partner. But he might be forced to take one,” Dana said.

“It’s worth a shot, Dana.”

Dana smiled and realized her sister was right. She had to make a move. “Okay. I’ll email him, thanks Melissa.”

She walked into her room, sat at her desk and opened her laptop, her hands shaking nervously. She took a deep breath and decided the more simple, the better.

From: dscully@fbi.gov

To: fmulder@fbi.gov

Thursday 8/5/93 11:05 PM

Subject: Partner

Agent Mulder,

I’m interested in applying for a position on the X-Files. Please advise next steps.

v/r,

Dr. Scully

The next morning she already received a reply, her heart skipped a beat as she clicked to open it.

From: fmulder@fbi.gov

To: dscully@fbi.gov

Friday 8/6/93 1:21 AM

Subject: RE: Partner

Dr. Scully,

I am not actively involved in any recruiting or filling any openings on the X-Files. Please contact Assistant Director Skinner with further inquiries.

v/r,

Fox Mulder

She laughed as she read his response; no interest in who she was, no inquiry into her skills. Agent Mulder didn’t want to play chess with her; yet. Maybe his response should have offended her, but honestly it just awoke the competitor inside of her.

Okay, AD Skinner, it is, she thought. Watch out Agent Mulder, I don’t lose much.

She began typing, asking AD Skinner directly for a role on the X-Files and then stopped to think. What if he just said no? He doesn’t know her; doesn’t appreciate her skills and how perfectly matched she is for Agent Mulder. She hit the backspace button about a hundred times and started over, deciding she needed to be a little more strategic. Afterall, men often like to think an idea was theirs to really accept it, even if it wasn’t. She learned that from watching her mother work ideas over with Ahab.

From: dscully@fbi.gov

To: wskinner@fbi.gov

Friday 8/6/93 8:03 AM

Subject: Mentorship

Assistant Director Skinner,

I am currently an instructor at Quantico, interested in transitioning to field work. I am writing to ask for your mentorship, to guide me through the transition process. Would you be willing to meet with me to discuss, at your convenience?

v/r,

Dr. Dana Scully

The following evening, Melissa asked her if she made contact with her “mystery man,” Agent Mulder.

“No, I was right. Reaching out to him got me nowhere,” Dana paused and looked at her sister, “But you know I don’t give up easily, I’ve found another route,” she winked.

Melissa smiled. “Manifest it, Dana!”

@today-in-fic

[lilydalexf]

👽 Random X-Files Fic Rec

This fic not only features an FBI party set shortly after the end of season 8, it involves Tom Colton (the Quantico classmate of Scully's who she did not enjoy seeing again in "Squeeze") and his observations of Mulder and Scully. He's able to provide an interesting window into the season 1 era agents versus the season 8 era agents. Plus Colton's voice is written in an engaging way, and it's fun when his conversation with Mulder and Scully does not go anything like he expected. Title: Not the Same Author: MissAnnThropic Summary: At a bureau party, Tom Colton comes face to face with Agents Mulder and Scully, and finds that a lot has changed for the two agents. Length: 4,901 words Classification: MSR Rating: K+ Spoilers: Existence Favorite line: I'll grant you he's eccentric, but that doesn't mean he's not gorgeous. Read the story!