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mulders-too-large-shirt · 10 days ago

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s6 episode 2 thoughts

after mulder made me cry with his sheer disrespect for scully in the last episode, i am approaching this one with caution.

we need to normalize asking people, especially coworkers, “what the hell is your problem?” and “if i am not the problem, why are you treating me like one?” idgaf about your tormented man angst!!! it’s not scully’s fault!!!

he better have a good reason for all of this… this is NOT the mulder who i have been lovingly crafting playlists for!

scully will ascend to sainthood.

anyway. seems that mulder will be placed in another high stress situation today. can we stop with the pathogens? they’re freaking me out.

post-episode thoughts: this was a very good episode of television, but not the best episode of the x files. like, the performances were stellar, the plot was juicy, the pacing had me on the edge of my seat! but i still prefer the episodes where they have a dramatic fight with tears OR just straight up cuddle. that being SAID, it was an excellent standalone episode and could be watched as such even if you didn't know a thing about this show. walter WHITE 💜

we open with breaking news!!! a car chase!! in nevada!! with someone else in the back seat!!!

the man who is putting the pedal to the metal has someone who is very sick in the back of the car. so the sheriffs are trying to lay a spike trap to stop him. and it seems to have worked!!

the cops are taking the speedy driver (later revealed to be named mr. crump), and he’s screaming for the sick woman in the car, vicky. she’s banging her head against the window and her head BLEW UP?????????

BLEURGHHHH. new disease where your head explodes just dropped.

shortened intro, as always i clock thee.

WAIT, GUEST STARRING BRYAN CRANSTON… isn’t he the BREAKING BAD GUY?? YEAH, HE IS!! oh, i am so ready for a PERFORMANCE!!

(i have never seen that show and i don’t really intend to, but i know it by reputation)

and he was in malcolm in the middle, omg… his range…

(and i do personally believe that mr. cranston delivered!)

good news!!! scully is here!!!! and so is mulder, but that’s not always good news. LMAO, this dude they're visiting thinks they’re jehovah’s witnesses. mulder marks a smartass remark and slaps a mosquito on his face.

i guess if you order 5,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, scully shows up. i shall have to give this a try.

farmer guy tries to open the door for them and it immediately shuts again LMAOOOO

he claims he is growing sugar beets! and he wants their assistance in finding his paperwork. lmao. meanwhile, the news of the car chase is playing on the TV, and has caught mulder’s eye….

oh mulder... he calls and gets them reassigned to go to nevada, and scully absolutely refuses! but on the subject of how they now investigate fertilizer, he has this to say: “this is the FBI equivalent of being made to wear an orange jumpsuit and pick up trash by the side of the highway” <- and you know what? i can’t really argue with him there. and you know i would if i could.

ohhh, so they got moved to domestic terrorism as a punishment!! scully thinks that if they do what they’re told, they can earn their way back up to the x files. interesting that they kept them together instead of separating them. not that i know how having an FBI partner works, but if CSM is really trying to kill mulder’s spirit as he alluded to last time, i would imagine they’d separate them. but then again, it does still have to be an interesting TV show.

mulder does manage to interest scully when he asks for her opinion on what really happened to that woman in the back of the car. she thinks the cops are lying about the woman, vicky, who was the driver’s husband, being shot. they claim her head just did that and no guns were involved, which is obviously not going to make sense to doctor scully. and mulder insists that they can be in and out of nevada in a day, and no one will ever know they took a detour. i paused while scully looks very pissed, but also, i can imagine, curious as hell.

off to see walter white slash mr. crump in nevada!! i think his nose is bleeding as he lays in a jail cell, but it’s hard to tell because it’s so DARK. yes, this must be the case, because he wipes at the blood right after i type this up. augh, and there is terrible ringing in his ears. he yells and says “it’s starting!”

i feel the cameramen are trying to not show the top of mulder’s head. i am not judging, but just saying it IS noticeable. sometimes, when trying to not draw attention to something, you draw more attention to it.

they won’t let our agents see walter white AKA patrick crump, but scully wants to see his dead wife. mulder is hoping if he sticks around he can weasel his way into crump’s cell, which i know from reading the episode description to be a very bad idea.

stare at that big map, mulder. try to work out some directions. i know this is hard for you. why did crump drive one way and then turn the other? beats this sheriff.

YAY, SCULLY AUTOPSY TIME!!!! the body of vicky is weird. oh… her face is like…. gone?? kinda??? you know what, if i go into detail, my stomach will hurt, so we’ll just leave it at that. she says there is no gunpowder present!

OH MY GOD, NOT THE ZOOM IN??? INTO THE AUDITORY CANAL???? oh scully, your big words usually endear me, but in this case their accompanying visual is… making me sick.

“it’s like a bomb went off in her ear” <- huh. that doesn’t sound good at all.

MEUGH!! <- that is the loose transcription of the audible, terrible gagging noise that came from my mouth as we got ANOTHER cut to the tissue of the ear…….. again, normally “tumefaction within the lateral sinus” in scully’s voice would make me weak in the knees, but… not now. not like this.

looking at my phone and not my laptop….. la la la la 🎶

AUGH, IT BLEW UP ON HER????????

oh god. see, scully is in a bad situation, which prompts me saying “augh”, but now *i* risk fainting as well.

sigh.

meanwhile, walter white aka patrick crump is being taken in an ambulance, as he is getting worse and worse. mulder cannot join them in the ambulance, despite his very best attempt to do so, so he tails behind. it seems that if the ambulance drives fast enough, he stops feeling so terrible!! but crump sees the gun in the sheriff’s holster….

AND HE PULLS IT OUT AND HOLDS IT UP TO MULDER!!!

NOOOO!!!

scully is trying to call him, and also shooing out a random assistant who comes into the autopsy room, because this lab is QUARANTINED! GO!!! which makes me sort of happy.

ohh, she’s stressed, but she is gonna tell mulder that “you sure do know how to pick ‘em”, which is deeply sweet of her. another person is dead from the same thing, and she wants him to quarantine crump’s cell. and STAY AWAY FROM HIM!

well. this did not happen.

listen!!! have crump answer the phone and tell scully what the hell is going on!! she is a doctor!!! maybe she can help him!!

(scully slaps a piece of yellow legal paper with her cell phone number up against the glass) <- LMAOOOO this made me laugh, but she is SOOOOO mad!!!

the CDC is going to be there when they stop that car, and they had BEST be wearing level two OR BETTER anti-contamination suits!! you heard her!

oh. crump says that if the cops don’t pull back the escort following the car, he will shoot mulder. which leaves scully in a tight position.

so, they do in fact give him some room.

NOOOOO!!! crump throws mulder's cellphone out of the window!!!!

“what are you doing? what the hell are you doing?” “what, what am i doing? i’m composing a sonnet. what does it look like i’m doing? i’m slowing down for a light” <- yes. i did giggle. i am not immune to angry mulder witticisms.

but crump is absolutely BELLOWING that he has to keep going. and he begins the process of blowing up when mulder turns the other way in order to prevent this from happening!!!

he wants to know wtf is happening, but crump is in so much pain he’s not explaining. that, or he isn’t willing to.

and they lose their tail from the police!!! i guess driving headfirst into traffic probably helps with that.

why does scully look so good in her scrubs? all serious and with her arms crossed……..

this does not make up for exploding ear drums.

oh no!!!! director kersh is calling!!! asking where she is!!! which gives us her wonderful line “sir, i am not currently in the state of idaho”

he says that some field agents will be able to help track down mulder, but that “i think at this point, i want to see him alive even more than you do” <- WHY IS THIS DUDE SCARY?? this is the first time we get to hear him talk!! and i’m spooked!!! where is my kind uncle skinner?!

oh shoot! scully realizes that maybe this dude who also died had been in contact with vicky and gotten infected!!

mulder is trying to save this dude’s life, but he’s bitching about not being addressed as “mr. crump”. seemingly a charming fellow! (/s)

HE ASKS IF MULDER IS JEWISH????? 😳 my face rn… what kind of priorities does this dying man have??

mulder goes “the wrong way”, and crump starts banging his head into the wall!!! i didn’t know this condition had geographic rules…. so he pulls the other way

what kind of illness makes you need to go west fast?

people in hazmat suits are investigating the crump house, including scully!!!! there’s a dog!! and it’s going crazy!!!! nooo! please, i don’t want to see this dog blow up!!

NOOOO!!! scully just wants to sedate him so she can get the blood sample, but he EXPLODES ON THEM!!! oh my god!! WHO CAME UP WITH THIS EPISODE???? NOT THE DOG DYING, TOO!!!

here i was hoping he would pull through and scully would get another dog from a case :(

crump is recounting to mulder his tale of waking up, seeing his wife had a nosebleed, and then her getting a headache that got worse and worse. he started to take her to the hospital, and she would get better as he went faster, and worse when she slowed down.

HELLO??? mulder says he’s sorry about crump’s wife, to which he is met by the reply “sure you are. you and the rest of your jew FBI” <- WHAT????

(hearing him say these lines was legitimately shocking. i had mentioned this before in another episode writeup, but knowing in some compartmentalized area of your brain that people genuinely believe such things vs hearing them out loud are two very different experiences)

he thinks the government did this to them, and he says he saw them sneaking around his woods at night… well, buddy, it does sound like you have a conspiracy afoot, but you can't blame some guy you've never met nor the collective jewish population for that

this shuts mulder up, (does he feel bad as he realizes that this man was taken advantage of by the same government he knows well to kill and maim with no consequence?) but not before he says “well, on behalf of the international jewish conspiracy, i’m just here to inform you that we’re… almost out of gas”, which presents some issues

back at the crump place, sadly, the others are carrying the dead dog away 💔

scully sees something glowing in the distance!!! it’s a neighbor with a dead bird? but the bird doesn’t look exploded!! just normal dead!!!

poor scully is yelling out in her suit, which makes it very hard to hear what she is saying.

ohhh, she finds the neighbor woman, and she is deaf, so she must be unaffected by the condition!!

meanwhile, mulder is trying to get gas so he and crump can keep going. but the jerks at the gas station aren’t letting him get gas without paying!!!! so he puts crump in someone else’s car and takes that one!!!

OHHH, HE LEFT A NOTE FOR "AGENT DANA SCULLY FBI" IN THE OTHER CAR…. ohhh my GOD………. he must have known what would happen…..

scully is trying to comprehend how the condition only effects people who can hear. and she takes off her helmet!!! what if they need to hear a sound in order for the symptoms to begin? well, if that is the case, i would be plugging my ears!

mulder's note explains that if he doesn’t stop going west, crump will die. scully tells the sheriff to believe him… ah, her trust in him… wonder if that trust is RECIPROCATED… !!

oh, she finds a bunch of dead birds on the ground, and hears weird interference!!! coming from a government... thingy in the ground!!!

crump is telling him to go faster because it is getting worse. and then says “the jew stuff. uh, no offense. a man can’t help who he’s born to” which is… uh… character development, i guess?

i will give mister walter white guy this, the man can perform. crump is saying it’s not fair to take away his dignity; the government should have just let them die instead. and mulder says he can’t stick it to the government if he dies!!! which gives crump hope!!

but there isn’t much west left to go, because they’re in california!!!

scully is at a naval base now, sans protective equipment!! she wants to know what kind of electrical stuff is being run in crump’s town!

LMAOOOO, the guy from the base thinks she’s with the FCC, and she’s trying to play along with it, but she’s a terrible liar. that’s my queen 💜

(sometimes she can lie and sometimes she cannot. i love that for her <3)

naval base guy claims that a power surge effected their equipment that stretches into crump's town, and it won’t happen again, but he can’t tell you what such a surge would do to the human body. damn. that's incriminating

it’s the next morning now, and some people in motorcycles are bringing a cell phone to mulder!!!! somehow he gets it!!!

on the other end of the line, it’s scully!!! she has a theory!!! E.L.F. fields stretch onto crump’s property!! and an overload could have shattered his inner ear!!! and maybe movement would keep it from blowing up. but why west?? maybe it has to follow certain lines of force??

scully says she thinks she knows what has to happen, but it’s nothing crump will like. mulder sighs, says he’ll be there, and hangs up. oh my god, he’s going to have to watch this dude blow up…?

(author's note: i thought that scully was implying the only way to "help" crump was to put him out of his misery, hence my bracing for the worst. i was sort of wrong, but also sort of right)

mulder says that scully will put a needle into his ear to relieve the pressure, and it will leave him deaf. crump asks, “but i’ll live, right?” and when mulder nods, he says “well, that’s what it’s all about” OH NOOO… is he lying???

crump asks him to go faster and faster….

scully is waiting there with a needle!!! so mulder wasn’t lying!!! look at her as she tries to figure out how to do this!!!

BUT NO!!! he didn’t make it in time!!! crump blowed up!!!

look at poor sad mulder!!!!!!!!!!!! he walks to the water and takes off his tie!!!!!!!!

woah.........

back in DC, kersh is yelling at them for their expense reports. “why don’t you bill me?”, spits mulder. “i’ll bill your partner instead. you two obviously relish the role of martyr” <- DAMN???

mulder gets pissed and leaves, and scully tries to tell kersh that he has been through a lot. he says she apologizes for mulder often, and she clarified that she isn’t this time around. they uncovered a conspiracy and saved the day!

this kersh guy is CRAZY. she points out that the navy shut down their program that was KILLING PEOPLE, and he says they claim it’s just a coincidence, and he doesn’t care how many people they save, they’re not on the x files anymore.

HELLO???

who sent this man…?

so, i feel like i can recognize that this was objectively a very good piece of TV. the acting was spot-on, the pacing was intense, and the plot was good. that being SAID, even if it was objectively good, it isn’t one of my favorites. definitely not one of my least favorites!

it further established the evil-ness of the government and how mulder and scully are willing to risk everything for their own respective goals, (which are, of course, the Truth and Saving Lives), but the system at hand wants to prevent that from happening no matter what the cost. which i think is very interesting. i also think it’s interesting that crump was right about the government doing this to him, even if he was wrong about there being a whole international jewish conspiracy group behind it. it was a lack of care for the citizens that the government lords over that got him there.

and mulder being unable to save him, even though he tried so hard… while i am still mad at him for being whiny and mean to scully, seeing him work so incredibly hard to save crump and be unable to really made me sad. so did the way he took off his tie after all of that driving, staring out into the water...

whatever it is that kersh has going on is also very interesting. i absolutely do not trust him. which maybe makes me think i SHOULD trust him… but probably not.

it was a good and interesting episode, but i like the episodes where they hold each other the very best, so, you know. not my exact cup of tea. any time they're not in the same room i get sad!

#not much more to add tonight tbh. it was a good episode but not my particular catnip cocktail.#it does raise interesting questions on the morality of war and weapons testing #however i want to see our agents in the same room with less ear drum action #and how long has bryan cranston looked 40-ish? king.#anyway! kersh you can count your days. give my besties their jobs back or ELSE.#juni's x files liveblog #6x02 #the x files #txf

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