#miss navajo

[iseetheworldinmetaphor]

Just watched. Available on Netflix Nov 23rd.

[jadeseadragon]

Eugene Tapahe 📷 Diné Artist

Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project

"Eugene Tapahe is a Diné (Navajo) artist from Window Rock, Arizona now based in Provo, Utah. Tapahe has a multidisciplinary approach in his work, largely specializing in photography and performative land installations."

[Juxtapose]

[boricuacherry-blog]

Anthonette Cayedito is still Missing

Anthonette is described as being mature for her age and was often tasked with babysitting her younger sisters. Her nickname is Squirrel and her sister says she likes dancing to Michael Jackson and Ronnie Milsap.

Possible sighting in Albuquerque and Carson City, Nevada.

[secretlyofthefeywild]

ayoooo got my midterm back and ya boi got a 96% !!! B)

[cipher-the-sidhe]

I want to draw the Glamrocks and the DCA as PowWow dancers so bad but that would be just… so much detail. So mmmm it’ll have to wait.

But hear me out!

Sun and Moon: hoop dancers (Ojibwe/Anishinaabe)

Roxy: fancy shawl (Lummi)

Chica: Jingle dress (Lakota Sioux)

Monty: men’s fancy (Seminole)

Freddy: lead drummer/singer (Eastern Tsalagi/ Cherokee)

DJMM: Master of Ceremonies (Navajo/Diné)

And their regalia is just in their usual colors.

[akaynehkasimi]

~~~~~~~🌻~~~~~~~

"I fucking hate you

Remember the day

That you heard you were my dad

I bet you froze up,throwing beers back

Then got up and left

The fact that you ran out on me

Has made me feel like I've been trying to be

Everything you were supposed

To be teaching me, when I would ask

~~~~~~~~~~~~~🖋️~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The family that you left

Grows stronger with every breath

And the day you need us most

It'll be too fucking late

My mom was my dad

And the strength that I have

Will be more than you'll ever understand"

~~~~~~~~~~~~🌻~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[ringneckedpheasant]

.

[naneki-maid]

I’ve only watched frybread face and me twice now but I’m starting to believe it’s become one of my favorite comfort movies. my favorite part of the movie is the beginning, when Benny first arrives and he explains how his grandma always spoke to him in Navajo—just these long conversations, as if she expected him to reply (even though he didn’t speak Navajo). I love it. I love how when she speaks to both Benny and Dawn she often touches their hair, their shoulders. it always makes me wanna cry.

It reminds me of when I was younger and when my mom took me and my sister to visit her two tias (who were in their 60s at the time) in Texas who didn’t speak a word of English. I don’t speak Spanish but my mom does. and of these few sacred visits, my tias always presented the same habits. as soon as we saw them, I’d give each of them a kiss on the cheek, followed by a long hug and then I would stand there in front of them as they still had their arms around me, telling me how much I looked like my mom, caressing my hair as they talked. of this much I understood, but sometimes they would carry on as if I understood every word, every detail. my mom sitting nearby, would nod in agreement, smiling this big smile. sometimes she’d translate, other times she would respond for me if my smiles weren’t sufficient. I remember their delicate hands, their warm embraces, their laughter—it was as if we shared a language that was beyond words. (I was too young to have experienced the shame and embarrassment that came over me when I’d have to explain that while I was Mexican, I didn’t speak Spanish. later on I’d discover that to a lot of people that meant I wasn’t really Mexican at all. but I digress). I remember how even though we didn’t speak the same language, love was always present. touch as a love language is such a beautiful and intimate display of familial affection, and I love the ways in which it’s represented throughout the film. because these scenes which fill my heart with so much warmth, and for so many other reasons, this movie deserves so much more recognition.

[bitchy-peachy]

Does she know she's descended from invaders not indigenous to the region?

Her and her kind are the ones that should get deported.

Remember that time Trumpers asked a Navajo House of Representatives member if he was here legally?

Oh, and yelled at brown 10 year olds that they were illegal and needed to leave America?

Yeahno, I 100% believe Trump would revoke all our citizenships in a heartbeat. Vote BLUE.

[cthene]

Is Fox Mulder the most comically-brutalized protagonist in television history? Not only is he shot and beaten up on a regular basis, but the list of extreme and exotic injuries he accrues over the course of the series has got to be some kind of TV cop record. The man is mind-wiped by the military in only the second episode. For any other TV cop, that would be a career-defining event, but it’s just a day in the life of Agent Spooky.

Bro was cocooned by carnivorous insects, thrown out of a nuclear submarine into the Alaskan tundra by an alien bounty hunter, beaten up by an invisible gorilla. He was experimented on in a Siberian gulag, drowned in the Bermuda Triangle, tortured by Neo-Nazis. I wonder what getting Freaky Friday-ed by a malfunctioning UFO cloaking device does to your gonads. How much radiation has he been exposed to? Someone test this man’s hair follicles. How many mysterious bodily fluids has he dipped his finger in and tasted at crime scenes? Dear God, someone test him for HIV. Imagine being the FBI doctor who administers his physicals.

Remember when the Shadow Government was putting LSD in Mulder’s water tank? Our boy got blown up in an underground train car and resurrected in a Navajo healing ceremony, and that’s not even the last train car he would get blown up in. One time, his lungs were filled with mutated tobacco beetles. Hoss let a quack doctor give him ketamine and drill a hole in his goddamn skull. In an unrelated incident, he had a chunk of his brain stolen. He was locked in a padded cell, trapped inside of a video game, and— of course —abducted by aliens. Fox Mulder was fully dead, and then came back to life after being exhumed, and nobody even seemed that surprised when he rolled up at the J. Edgar Hoover building like nothing had happened.

Am I missing anything? How is this man still alive? His body must be like a pillowcase full of broken lightbulbs. Every time he moves, you just hear crunching.

[vorthosjay]

Hi Jay. Not wanting to sound mean, but I really think it must be commented and that there's no softer way of doing that: the company's statement of Thunder Junction being an inhabitated plane prior to MoM is not a honest way of capitalizing on a sellable trope without touching its uncomfortable issues. It's even disrespectful. They have done it in a less flagrant way with Kaladesh and both Ixalan iterations, but now they've gotten too far with Thunder Junction. Colonialism is too big an issue to simply being put under the carpet as it never existed and we could just enjoy the sunny part of the history. I really hope Hasbro as a company acknowledges this and changes its way of dealing with the theme. Thanks for letting me pointing this.

Look, you caught me on a bad day, so I'm going to be as polite as possible but let's start with the foundation that this is not a complaint to direct at me. I have no control over any of this. Mark Rosewater exists and takes feedback on Tumblr.

But, let's talk about it, because I've seen some folks take this to extremes.

First off, I've seen a lot of well meaning folks speaking up on behalf of hypothetical indigenous americans, but I'd love to get takes from folks this actually impacts. I'd love for Wizards to post something about their work with cultural consultants, for sure. But the only actual thing I've seen so far is a great story from Magic's first indigenous american author. And when you're speaking on someone else's behalf, you tend to miss things. Like, Kaladesh is not the great representation of south asian culture that you might think when you jumped to it, and it's okay if you didn't know that, but it sort of proves the point that it's very difficult to actually protest on someone else's behalf. And I just haven't heard from anyone who has also mentioned they speak from authority or are impacted by this. That doesn't mean you're wrong, necessarily.

But here's the thing. Thunder Junction isn't history. It takes cues from the American West, sure, but it's a fake world. And sometimes it's okay for a fake world to ignore the bad things that happens in real life and create something more aspirational. Magic does this all the time. Magic doesn't have homophobia, but that isn't really realistic or representative of the real world, is it?

No one, and I mean literally no one, came to me and said that people of color needed to be ostracized and not allowed to work alongside the white people in the demon mob families of New Capenna. That racism was real, it was systemic, and it was violent. But did it need to be tackled in a fantasy crime drama based on america in the 20s? Should it have been? I don't think anyone would have enjoyed it as much. Sometimes it's just fun to play gangster.

Similarly, the colonization and manifest destiny that was the reality of the American West was tragic, but does that need to be our only depiction of indigenous peoples - being colonized? If they were erased completely from the narrative, that would be awful, but can't they just have fun being cool thunder slingers? The Atiin were developed with a consultant, and if you want answers ask Wizards to talk about it.

There's a reason the Oltec were depicted as being sealed off from the Immortal Sun drama that had happened on the surface. To have an aspirational mesoamerican culture that wasn't affected by the Dusk Legion and Azor and all that.

To put it in another perspective, does every period piece featuring black americans need to feature systemic racism to be respectful? Is Bridgerton disrespectful (I mean probably but not for that reason)?

The reason I've framed a lot of this as questions is because I don't necessarily think I know the right answer, especially not for a fantasy card game. I've worked with tribal governments in my emergency management career and spent a week on the Navajo Nation, and talked a lot about perspective on things, and I would not presume to know what the right answer to all of this is.

Edit: to be clear, Could it have been handled better? Probably. I will never deny that. But also it’s a complicated and fraught topic and I’d love to hear from the people wizards contracted who actually know what they’re talking about.

[themakeupbrush]

Miss Indiana USA 2023 State Costume

l'm proud to be Navajo and Cherokee Native American registered with the Cherokee tribe. This might be one of my greatest honors as a native woman to showcase my culture and a literal piece of my heart on the biggest stage in pageantry. Indiana is the historic homeland of many native groups as citizens from more than 100 different tribes still reside there today. Many natives wear red as a tribute to loved ones who have passed away as my costume's red accents are dedicated to my late momma Susan. The gold base represents the sun and assurance while the feathers stand for courage, honor and hard work. I practice my native culture by studying traditional Cherokee basket weaving I'm learning from native elders. Wado USA, which means thank you!

[respectthepetty]

Background Noise in Wandee Goodday

This started because of that "First Kiss: Do you believe in first kiss?" poster Yak ripped in the elevator

And I was going to write something about the importance of clocks in Yak and Dee's relationship

Since they made a deal to fake it for four months, the clocks are always present

And counting down their time together.

But then I also wanted to write about Yak still seeing his necklace on Dee when he imagined Dee kissing Ter during his boxing match.

So instead of writing small separate posts, everything is going here in quick snippets starting with the how Yak's life is all about boxing, all the time.

He has the boxing gloves name plate, and so does Yei

He has nothing but pictures and books of boxers all over his room

His clock has a pair of gloves in the center and his decorations all have boxing gloves, say "eat, sleep, box, repeat," and show a boxer with the statement "I am the best"

The posters over the bed and the pictures on the nightstands are of him and his brother in their boxing gear.

And even the pictures in the house are of boxers, and of course the smiley face boxing gloves.

So I liked that the smiley face gloves tied to the smiley face balloons Yei gave Cher.

I thought about mentioning the signs, but we all see those, so instead I'll focus on shirts, like Dee's shirt is three angels with "Saint Michael" and says to "Say a Prayer and Get Lost in the Flames." Saint Michael is the ultimate protector against wickedness and temptation, yet the shirt says to embrace it. Yak's shirt says "love is giving freedom" and is part of a longer lesson about love not being about possession or control but about love setting people free.

About Last Night is an American romcom about two people who have a one-night stand and fall in love. The original and remake both show the couple's ups and downs with communication as they deal with their shifting feelings.

When Yak goes over for dinner and finds Dee in Ter's apartment, his shirt says "Casual Active Original Wear" yet the only part we ever see throughout the entire sequence of events is "CASUAL"

Normally, Yak's shirts are motivational, like "Success"

And leading up to Yak's fight, his shirts become more motivational like the shirt he wakes Dee up in states that winning is a mental game.

"Good things are coming"

And how even though going uphill is hard and going downhill is easy, the uphill battle is best because the view is better.

But the best shirt is when he excitedly goes to his appointment after his one-night stand with Dee since it says "Heart Melt" and explains that a heart melts when a person begins to have feelings for another person.

Dee also gets sentimental after they listen to the song together on the balcony about loving someone because his shirt says "Relation: Friendship involves a lot of love"

I'm sure the "Favorite" shirt has meaning since he is wearing it as he thinks about missing Yak, but I just want everyone to know that is Monument Valley in the picture which is part of the Navajo Tribal Parks (woot woot!), and I'm proud to see it in a Thai series.

Finally, I would just like to appreciate whoever put Inn and his arms in this "Heavy Metal" shirt.

[super-luna-fic]

Camp Justice Character Profiles

Callan "Cal" Josephine Alvarez W.

Alias: Crow Camp Justice Age: 14 Sex: Female Species: Human Hair: Dark Brown Curly Eye Color: Dark Hazel Brown Camp Justice Height: 5'6 Race/Ethnicity: West Indian (Trinidad and India), Dominican, Caucasian Skills: Martial Arts, Stealth, Weaponry, Acrobatics, Gymnastics, TBA Personality/Traits: Friendly (most of the time), Competitive, Short-tempered, Hardworking, Optimistic, Patient (that's what she thinks), Loyal, Mischievous, Hardheaded, Playful, Caring

Richard "Dick" John Grayson

Alias: Robin Camp Justice Age: 14 Sex: Male Species: Human Hair: Black Short and Wavy Eye Color: Electric Blue Camp Justice Height: 5'5.75 Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian (Romanian, French) Skills: Martial Arts, Stealth, Weaponry, Acrobatics, Decoding (Hacking), Gymnastics Personality/Traits: Optimistic, Compassionate, Caring, Loyal, Cocky, Playful, Hot-tempered, Ambitious

Wallace "Wally" Rudolph West

Alias: Kid Flash Camp Justice Age: 15 Sex: Male Species: Human Hair: Red Straight Eye Color: Gemstone Green Camp Justice Height: 5'8 Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian (Scottish, Norwegian) Skills/Powers: Martial Arts, Stealth, Super Speed, Super Stamina, Accelerated Healing, Phasing, Science Personality/Traits: Energetic, Impatient, Loyal, Caring, Playful, Talkative, Cocky, Kind Hearted

Kaldur'ahm

Alias: Aqualad Camp Justice Age: 16 Sex: Male Species: Atlantean, Human Hair: Light Blonde Curly Eye Color: Pistachio Green Camp Justice Height: 5'9 Race/Ethnicity: African American (Nigerian Ancestry) Skills/Powers: Martial Arts, Superhuman Strength, Hydro kinesis, Enhanced Hearing, Durability, Aquatic Respiration Personality/Traits: Calm, Level-headed, Caring, Loyal, Responsible, Noble

Conner "Con" Kent

Alias: Superboy Camp Justice Age: Biological body of 15-year-old but was created 6 months before being discovered Sex: Male Species: Kryptonian, Human Hair: Black Straight Eye Color: Ocean Blue Camp Justice Height: 5'9 Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian Skills/Powers: Martial Arts, Super Strength, Super Hearing, Durability, Enhanced Vision, Accelerated Healing Personality/Traits: Hard-headed, Defiant, Loyal, Temperamental, Shy

Roy Harper

Alias: Speedy, Red Arrow Camp Justice Age: 17 Sex: Male Species: Human Hair: Red Orange Straight Eye Color: Sky Blue Camp Justice Height: 5'9.5 Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian (Dutch), Native American (Navajo) Skills: Martial Arts, Stealth, Archery, Technology, Weaponry Personality/Traits: Loyal, Short-tempered, Serious (sometimes), Playful

Artemis Crock

Alias: Artemis Camp Justice Age: 15 Sex: Female Species: Human Hair: Blonde Wavy Eye Color: Green-grey Camp Justice Height: 5'7 Race/Ethnicity: White (Scandinavian), Asian (Vietnamese) Skills: Martial Arts, Archery, Weaponry, Stealth Personality/Traits: Passionate, Loyal, Witty, Hardheaded

M'gann M'orzz

Alias: Miss Martian Camp Justice Age: Generally appears as a 15-year-old but is biologically 45 Sex: Female Species: Martian Hair: Red Straight Eye Color: Reddish Brown Camp Justice Height: Generally presents herself as 5'7 Race/Ethnicity: N/A Skills/Powers: Martial Arts, Telepathy, Phasing, Flight, Mind Control, Shapeshifting, Invisibility, Durability Personality/Traits: Optimistic, Cheerful, Playful, Loyal, Polite, Caring

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the DC original characters or plots. The only characters I own are the ones I created. This is merely a fanfiction story.

DO NOT REPOST ANYWHERE!

A/N: Thank you so much for continuing to keep up with my posts. I will be posting the first chapter later this week. If you have any questions or just want to talk please do send me a message!

See ya later!

[emilybeemartin]

Inktober Days 13-15

Day 13: "Rise"

Rangers sometimes talk about their “heart parks”—the intimately special ones that make us go dreamy-eyed and nostalgic. Grand Teton is my heart park. During undergrad, I was going through a rough patch, missing my backcountry work in New Mexico and feeling out of place at Clemson. I told my friend that I “just wanted to go somewhere.” He asked if I wanted to go for a walk. I told him no, I’d like to go to the Grand Tetons. I don’t know why I decided on that particular place in that moment—I’d never been there and had only ever seen photos of the famous mountain group. But my friend said sure, we could go to the Grand Tetons. He proceeded to lead me outside student housing, checked the cardinal directions in the sky, and struck off northwest. I followed him. We walked around campus for hours that night, talking about a hundred different things. It was the first time after returning from New Mexico that I’d felt really heard, really understood, really happy.

A few months later, that friend became my boyfriend, and a few years later, that boyfriend became my husband. There was no question about where we would honeymoon. We went to Grand Teton.

Day 14: "Castle"

I’ve been struggling with what to say about Mesa Verde, because this site was so incredible to visit that I almost can’t put it to words. I experienced it while conducting my master’s research between stops in Navajo National Monument and Chaco Canyon. Visiting these cultural sites, tied together by sociopolitical events and natural disasters over the span of centuries, drove home how vast the network of humanity was in the Ancestral Puebloan era. These places were huge hubs of activity and massive feats of architecture—not castles, but communities humming with life, love, loss, struggle, wealth, and beauty.

Mesa Verde was also the only place I saw a ranger bring an audience to tears with the emotion in his program. I audited over two hundred interpretive programs that summer, but I remember lowering my clipboard during this particular tour of Cliff Palace, in awe of how powerfully the ranger was able to connect visitors with his own familial ties to the Ancestral Puebloans who had lived there so long ago. The goal of interpretation is to facilitate a meaningful connection between the visitor and the resource, but never have I ever seen anyone do it so profoundly as that ranger in Mesa Verde, 2011.

Day 15: "Dagger"

White Sands preserves practically the entire span of human history, from fragments of ancient blades up to the space shuttle and missile launches. But it's the beginning of that timeline that draws me toward this gleaming gypsum dunefield.

I remember where I was when the news dropped—in the Apgar ranger office with a handful of other Glacier rangers. I was working on my hunting and gathering program, where I discussed old facts about projectile points and atlatls, but I stopped when another ranger swore in shock. An email had come through to our NPS accounts with new research out of White Sands. Human footprints preserved in the ancient sediment had been dated--- not to the 13-16 thousand years old we typically associated with the earliest humans in the Americas, but to 23 THOUSAND YEARS OLD. In one short email, our whole office's reckoning of human history almost doubled. Our minds were blown. We celebrated like a bunch of lads after a World Cup win. This world that we walk! Footsteps over footsteps over footsteps! What a privilege.

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s2 episode 25 thoughts

OKAY S2 finale!!!!! make some noiiiiiise!!!! this is big, this is huge!!!

i remember the s1 finale like it was yesterday. because it was a little over a month ago. man, how time flies. but a season a month isn't a bad pace, and means i still have lots and lots of fun agent time to go. wowowow we sure did go a lot of places this season! in every sort of meaning.

the episode description refers to "an encrypted computer disk” and i'm thinking, girl it’s a virus… watch out! (hint: it was not a virus, but taking proper safety precautions is always advisable)

(while the beginning of the episode was loading i sighed wistfully and said “i miss you deep throat” out loud and then burst into laughter at the sheer absurdity of that sentence. i'm always saying weird stuff and so glad no one is listening. can you imagine hearing someone say that. in absolutely any of the contexts to which "deep throat" can refer. man. need to find a way to work that phrase into ordinary life)

anyway. we are at a Navajo reservation in new mexico. an earthquake is going on. be careful, young man whom we open upon, do not let the cacti on the shelves above your head fall on you! he somehow dodges the spiny falling objects, and we learn his name is eric.

eric is riding on his cool little bike up into the cliffs. someone in his family- who we later learn is referred to as albert, so i shall refer to him as albert starting now- told him to leave the snakes alone. which raises the question: are we interating with snakes on such a regular basis in this town that leaving them alone needs to be pointed out…? that has always sort of been implied in my life. but different lives we lead.

eric sees something white in the ground… and a crowd has gathered? eric, what have you brought to the door of your home like a cat with a bird it shouldn't have? OHHHH... an ALIEN BODY. it has seen better days, very old and looking mummified (which i'm sure would actually please many historians). albert says to return it because they will be coming- i'm torn on the meaning of the "they" here, is he referring to aliens coming to fetch their lost comrade, or the government coming to bury the evidence? either way, he has been commanded: put that thing back where it came from or so help me.

(sidenote: why did we decide aliens look like That. they could look like ANYTHING. i'm sure there is a reason and i could look it up with ease but i just think that we could exercise some creativity here. like we're coming up with an entirely new species of intelligent creature and we make it... vaguely humanoid? like god in our own image? but creepier? hmm. no. go all out on that)

new character alert! he is hacking Something. i would guess this to be the mysterious records referred to in the episode description that prove aliens are real

and it looks like he succeeded, because we hear that someone has broken into the “MJ” documents. this is causing a stir in the UN! Italy, Germany, and Japan are involved. suspicious selection of countries….

germany man is on the phone w cigarette guy. cigarette guy speaks german?????? i'm impressed. he hangs up and says “gentleman, that was the phone call I never wanted to get” okay so who are we talking to here...

MULDER AT HOME!!! TAKING ADVIL IN A SLUTTY TANK TOP!!! YES I’M CHEERING!!! WHAT A GIFT!!! WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!!!

(i was worried calling him a slut wouldn't bode well with the established x files fans, but i'm glad that everyone has so far been in agreement that this is an appropriate way to describe him) 

he doesn’t feel well :( the lone gunmen are here but he doesn’t feel well… have we ever seen him not feel well? beyond the boat. if we have ever seen him under the weather before, i don't recall it. so this has got to be plot relevant.

news from the lone gunmen: someone named kenneth “the thinker” hacked into the defense department database. and the thinker left a time and a meeting place asking SPECIFICALLY for mulder!!! let him have his aspirin in peace y'all

(for an organization that is supposed to thrive on secrecy, mulder sure is well known in the community of conspiracy theorists... i fear this may come to bite him someday)

but the thinker might already be dead…. (spoiler he was not!)

down the hall someone just SHOT her husband? slutty tank top investigator on the scene. he finds nothing. i knew this was too weird to NOT be a chekov's gun moment but everyone was acting pretty causal about an old lady killing her husband in the apartment. it was an interesting tone choice. but of course, detective tank top still feels very ill, so there are bigger fish to fry.

he is now waiting in the botanical gardens. “i don’t want you to use my real name, I don’t think it’s important that you know”, says the thinker, to which mulder replies “sounds like a line I used in a bar once” <- LMAO??? slut confirmed?

(it's so hard to know with him because he'll say anything he thinks will make him sound clever. but i'm trying to imagine him at a bar and the image isn't really loading mentally. this is a man who is probably at the library in his nonexistent free time)

the thinker claims to have the original UFO files from the defense department. big if true!

what do you want from me? “I want you to promise that those rat bastards answer to the people” <- guy who is saying words in precisely the correct order to get mulder involved in some sort of Scheme. mulder takes the file and the dude leaves and i find everything suspicious! how does he know there isn’t a tracker in there?

LMAO he puts the damn thing in right at work i'm cryingggg he does not give a damn. whilst clocked in!

“you familiar with the Ten Commandments, Scully?” WHY DOES HE ASK WEIRD AND OFF PUTTING QUESTIONS IN THIS MANNER. you kept her cross necklace in your pocket for like a looong time you weird rhetorical man. you know she was Raised Catholic ofc she knows them.

he is showing her the files labeled “TOP SECRET” and there is panic in her eyes and tbh I’m feeling it too!! like damn i never want to be burdened with the forbidden knowledge

he sees it is written in what he calls "gibberish" (i’m suspicious… looks like phonetic pronunciation to me) and he starts THROWING STUFF!!! scary angry man

(i realize now the impulsive throwing and putting of the top secret cassette in while at the work place are the effects of being drugged but at the time he was scaring me a lil. calm down, i was thinking. men who throw things are not my friends generally!)

scully notices the writing looks like it is in Navajo!!! YESSSSSS MY QUEEN OF REALIZING THINGS. her father told her about it and she remembered awww :,)

“only a handful of people can decipher it” she points out “well find one of them” he says <- BITCH??? do it yourself??? you take for granted her presence in this manner again and i will have words with you. i am thinking to myself, he is NOT acting like the man who stayed by her comatose bedside. suspicious.

she asks if he’s okay and he is not looking very okay but he says he is because he is a scoundrel and a liar. and then he goes to see skinner. he says he hasn’t been sleeping. that’s weird. 

he denied knowing anything about the files and then PUNCHED SKINNER IN THE FACE??? WHAT THE HECK. okay, so whatever is going on that made that old lady snap is clearly getting to him too because WHAT.

(i had faith that my boy would not truly do such awful things as throw hands with skinner and be mean to scully out of his own volition. sometimes he can be a bit of a jerk but never in such raw quantities)

skinner got him in a headlock and asks if they’re finished HUH??? what is going ON?

(skinner handled that quite well all things considered. i wonder if this has ever been a problem in the past)

scully called skinner's his office with a bunch of other people present. looking scared. nooo they’re gonna ask about the top secret files she was burdened with knowing exist! but right now they are asking about mulder's behavior. 

ohhh “weren’t you brought on to debunk his work” says some smarmy guy in the back... well things change??? get with the program

they say that if she hides anything from them she could get fired but she gets up and leaves and does not mention the files LMAOOO. that is what it means to be a ride or die. even after the bestie punched boss in the face and was acting rude as fuck she is gonna cover his top secret rule breaking. because she's the last real one on this planet.

also, skinner has an awful bruise on his face. it makes me sad.

cutscene to the vineyard: MULDER WENT HOME???? it's a long drive to Massachusetts. BUT NO!! it is not mulder at the door! but cigarette man!!! mulder’s dad answers. and he looks like they know each other??? 

“no one was supposed to know”, one of the men says to the other. okay so they DO know each other because they worked together??? tea... this is juicy.

unrelated really, but cigarette man has a very soothing voice. too bad he chooses to use it for evil when audio book narration could have been a viable career.

the files from the defense department have mulder's dad’s NAME on them??? WHAT DOES HE KNOW??? what has he been hiding from his son?!!!

cig man claims the file thief came forward but i'm doubting that... the thinker seemed very committed. this seems like a classic case of “claim something and see if the accused goes along” 

“you wouldn’t… harm him?” asks mr. mulder. “I’ve protected him this long, haven’t I?” <- HUH??? YOU NEARLY KILLED SCULLY YOU CANCER PUMPING RAT?? NOTHING about you makes anyone feel safe.

mulder’s dad’s name is “Bill”. this has no real relevance, but i find it interesting. and cigarette man says to deny any involvement: "deny everything" like the words on the opening screen from the s1 finale!

(is anyone getting a homoerotic undertone here or is it just me? the whole cig man and bill scene went down so quickly it was hard to tell. but the hand on the shoulder lingering and the "you look well"... hmm)

mulder on da couch. he is sleeping. seriously we need to get him a mattress. scully is here!!! he nearly shoots her but luckily this does not happen.

(it was lowkey funny to see her just standing there watching him sleep lmaooo. like was she gonna wake him up or just observe and try to figure out what exactly was wrong with him. i guess we'll never know)

she needs assurance that she’s doing the right thing (and i love this. i love a character that Needs to do the morally right thing) and he is being snappy about "just getting that code" and i feel that something larger is going on here. he looks very sick. he puts the X in the window. ohhhhh no, getting x involved, that is just asking for trouble

“why did you attack skinner?” “i honestly can’t say” <- yeah there has to be some sort of brainwashing going on here. she looks freaked tf out. and I would be too!

despite him being the way that he is, scully goes to the office of the Navajo nation, bringing the coded files. it’s still encoded but she recognizes a few words.

(they didn't just transmit their message in the Navajo language; the words translated into Navajo had their own coded meaning. which i think might be a common misconception. so translated into Navajo, the words would still look like random nonsense, unless you got someone who had been trained in the code from ww2. which i think is so cool)

mulder's father calls in the middle of the night saying something is very important and he needs to see him right now. he seems quite ill for making that journey.

scully is still at his apartment. then someone FIRED AT SCULLY THROUGH THE WINDOW ?? they hit her head. girl what the hell!!! they nearly killed her!!!

(is his dad getting him out of the house so that he won’t be there when the agents go to shoot him?!? i don't actually think this is what happened but i had a bit of hope)

mulder is sitting on his dad’s couch looking like he’s about to die. and his dad is mumbling vague things about his work. “you’re taking about your work in the state department” <- okay so he KNEW his dad worked at the state department. i'm guessing he just didn't know in which capacity.

“you’ll come to understand the words… the merchandise” <- ohhh that was one of the words the woman at the Navajo nation could understand from the code!

dad is acting strangely and says he needs some medicine. GUY IN THE SHOWER WHEN HIS DAD WENT TO THE BATHROOM???? WITH A GUN? is that krychek or another random white man.

DAD IS DEAD??!! MULDER HOLDING HIS BODY WHILE HE DIES???? 

now both agents have dead dads. this is SOOOOO evil.

and mulder is gently laying his body on the couch. ohhhh my heart.

calling scully. it is a very painful conversation, and he sounds crazed and deeply ill. she is telling him not to leave the scene whatsoever because everything points back to him- his weird behavior lately, him being the only known person in the house at the time of his death, his access to firearms. and while she is yelling trying to get him to understand, she tells him that someone shot HER!!!!

cutscene to him stumbling into a room and falling into her arms OUGHHH I will eat that up a million times over. so clearly he did not listen to the "stay put" advice as she guides him through her place. is he laying down in her BED covered in his father's blood???? wow. her devotion to him is truly endless.

“we’ve got to find out who killed my father” “right now you need to rest" OHHH CRADLING HIS HEAD and putting a cold compress on it. the gentle murmuring of "it's okay". OHHH I could die. be still my whump addicted, rapidly beating heart. it's so gentle.

he wakes up mostly naked on her bed. she took his gun!!! and she took it to be compared with the one that killed his dad!!!! she is trying to clear him of wrongdoing. but it LOOKS like she suspects him.

he calls her to ask about taking the gun… “what, were you afraid I was going to shoot you, too?” <- OH I paused right there to copy down that line and her eyes look SOOO scared. my heart is breaking. she must be wondering what has gotten into him and why he can't trust her.

“you’ve been making reports on me since the beginning, scully, taking your little NOTES” <- this is SICK. SICK!!!!!! i wonder how much of this is whatever evil has gotten into him talking and how much of it is him really believing deep down that he Cannot trust her. or anyone. oh i just know that must have felt like a knife to the gut after everything she has done for him.

“you have my files, and you have my gun. don’t ask me for my trust” he hangs up after saying this. okay wow like i get he’s sick here and something is afoot but damn. after all they've been through.......

she takes the bullet from his wall. and notices someone is bringing a tank of stuff out. gas?? gas that makes you crazy?? is that what has gotten into him??? and the lady who shot her husband?

it's actually water! someone has been messing with the water on mulder's floor. we see the fellow who did this leaving in a van.

mulder takes a cab… back to his place? and sees someone running around the corner…. is that fucking Krychek. they are closing in on each other. 

and yes!!! it is him!! good to know even sick mulder can still kick krychek’s ass!!!!!!

now scully is on the scene!!!! AND SHE SHOT MULDER right in his shoulder!!! and krychek ran away!!! what is going on!!! what ratlike activities has krychek been up to!!

mulder wakes up in a bed in the house of the man from the very beginning who warned about snakes. albert!

“your shoulder is gonna be fine, the round when through nice and clean” she says, very gently, sitting next to him. YEAHHH MEDICAL PRECISION BABY!!

(in the whiniest, angriest voice imaginable) “you shot me >:(“ “yes, I did” <- LMAOOOO she is being so gentle with him

“if you killed krychek with that weapon, there would have been no way to prove that you didn’t kill your father” OKAYYYY queen of logic and facts!!! she is so smart. saved him by shooting him.

oh tea… they were putting what scully assumes to be LSD in his water. to make him distrust everyone he knows. and she still loves him after all of that. AUGH.

she drove his comatose ass TWO DAYS to New Mexico… like can love be any stronger??? it’s debatable.

“you’re lucky she’s a good shot”, says albert and YEAHHH THAT IS MY GIRL!!!! a good shot!!! :,)

pause. just gotta say here. scully is remarkable. mulder had been acting very Weird and yelling and screaming and his dad was shot and it looked like he did it. and despite all the evidence pointing to him killing his father, she never believed it fully. and he found this guy holding krychek at gunpoint, about to make himself appear guilty for his father’s murder. so she shoots him with enough accuracy to knock him down, gets him bandaged up, finds the LSD in his water, knocks his ass out, and drives him two days to New Mexico to find one of the very few people that can understand this code he is breaking a million rules to try and understand. like are you joking. is she not top ten characters of all time??? take a moment to acknowledge how amazing this is.

okay, so Albert says that evidence of a secret agreement is buried not far from where they are. 

he groans and gets up and asks “what about you” OHHH :( she missed her meeting with skinner for this and now she will have to Atone. he will be on his own for this one. this is probably for the best. she needs to stay employed and also explain to skinner that the punching thing was not actually his fault.

“thank you for taking care of me” OUGHHHH <- moaned by a girl who is in emotional pain. he thanked her. i mean, it's the least he could do; i'd say buying her dinner for a year and also bankrolling the animal shelter of her choice would be more appropriate, but this is a good starting place. for him to acknowledge his vulnerability. how out of his mind he was. chef's kiss.

OH her NAME is in those files?? with duane barry’s?? AND IT MENTIONS A TEST??? “i want you to find out, Mulder. i need you too” NOOOOO WHAT DID THEY DO TO HER?? she deserves NONE of this. i can only imagine how horrific it is to know you were taken and you don't know What Happened. again with the complicated medical history thing. mulder PLEASE find out for her. she deserves a lot more than that.

despite being shot, mulder is back behind the wheel, driving somewhere. albert says a people called the Anasazi disappeared 600 years ago and historians say they don’t know why because they won’t “sacrifice themselves to the truth”, and that "nothing disappears without a trace". i know a lot of historians so i can try and check and get back to you on this.

albert says "they still visit"... i wonder what the aliens like about this place? they make it to where they wanted to go: to eric! 

mulder is riding on the back of eric’s motorcycle. it is a bit of a funny sight. shoutout to eric for real. he shows mulder the big white thing from the start of the episode. and why do I feel that this episode will end before answers are obtained...

cigarette man calls!!! he says he needs to talk to mulder NOW. Re: his father: “he was never an opponent of the project. in fact, he authorized it. he couldn’t live with it” girl he doesn’t even know his dad was ON the project yet so. let's take it one step at a time. 

“no, he couldn’t live with it because you had him killed” being killed does generally stop living. but seriously mulder there are more pressing matters at hand!!!

“listen to me you black lunged son of a bitch, I’m going to expose you and your project” banger line but. WHY are you answering your phone rn mulder like they could be tracking you and you have BIG discoveries to be making!!

“expose anything and you only expose your father” <- ooo that is interesting... how much will that weigh in on his decision making process? i bet it's more his mom dealing with the fall out he's worried about

AND THEY DID GET A COORDINATE ON HIM DURING THAT CALL!!!!! WHY WHY WHY DID YOU ANSWER, MULDER! the minute you heard his voice you should have hung upppp ohh i'm gonna YELL 

he’s digging in the dirt and it says something about a railroad… it’s a refrigeration car…. thank you eric for showing the way. you are a hero. and he is IN THE CAR calling scully. he describes that it is filled with bodies. she asks, “what happened to them”, further revealing that she is the queen of asking grounding questions for those experiencing extreme distress

she knows some of what was in the files: it mentions that Axis powers scientists conducted studies after the war… so the alliance of earlier countries was NOT an accident!

in the railroad car, we see shriveled bodies, alien bodies, a foot. all visible as I type all this. she mentioned tests on humans referred to as “merchandise” but they aren’t humans, he insists!! they’re aliens and they’re scary… is he gonna see his sister… (thank god this did not happen)

he sees one with a vaccination scar. that is a terribly human thing to have. what did they DO to these people??

eric shuts him in the box car because the helicopter is arriving. 

eric refuses to talk to the government (king of knowing his rights) and mulder is gone. “nothing vanishes without a trace”, says cigarette man. okayyyy repeated motif. maybe mulder hid in all of the alien bodies in the car? that would be my guess.

ohhh, cig man is saying to burn it… and they do, in fact, blow that shit up. WHERE IS MULDER THOUGH??

NOOOO THE EPISODE ENDS THERE WITH A “TO BE CONTINUED” NOOOO

sigh. The AGONY contemporary viewers must have felt seeing this……. i feel for you, i really do. and all i have to do is just click the next button. but unfortunately i have too many rules to do such a thing and must first post my thoughts on this episode, and then my favorite moments from each character this season, and then my favorite moments of them together, and then the things we learned about them, and only THEN can i allow myself to watch the next episode.

but omg this was goooood though… last time i made a list of some fave episodes and this has definitely joined their ranks. the drama! the angst!! mulder being sick!! the fear of being unable to trust each other- if they cannot trust each other, does trust exist at all? my least favorite rat bitch krychek returning,,, and while I don’t care for him, it is an interesting development. also. mulder’s dad KNEW Cigarette Guy? and not just KNEW him casually, but was somehow involved in their alien fuckery? and we also learned today that, if we had any doubts, they have been squashed: scully is one of THE characters ever. she can shoot you so clean!!

I’m glad he was the damsel in distress. like i said, i demand gender quality in saving each other.

and the plot!!! the aliens!!! alien bodies with vaccines… so humans that TURNED into aliens, somehow? and we see them!! we so rarely get to see the aliens. and what if we get to learn what they did to scully!!

but where will this go from here!! will scully be in trouble with skinner? I feel like skinner will believe “mulder was being drugged part”, but I’m not sure if he can dig them out of the hole of having secret encoded files. 

and scully. she just wants to do the right thing. i love so desperately a character who wants to do the right thing, make the moral call, even if it’s hard, even if it means lying, putting it all on the line, it just has to be the right and ethical thing to do and then it’s okay. 

and mulder… losing his father… who he clearly didn’t have the greatest relationship with… his haunted voice on the line when he called scully… the way her first thought was to protect him, even if he couldn’t see the bigger picture, the way she SHOT him so he wouldn’t be accused of his father’s murder…

and krychek… i thought that was him in the shower but it was hard to tell because it was such a brief scene… but it was!!! what have they been doing to the rat man!!! he has been in the sewers rehearsing his ratty deeds!!!

a very good episode. i am hooked. i wish to jump right into the next one, but i shall not. i felt the same way at the end of last season, but i have to do my duty and blog. and to think, so much has happened in one month! both in the show and in my own life. wow.

it’s funny, i usually don’t care about the aliens at all. like I watch this show for mulder and scully time and not the spooky. but here, i'm kinda hooked. i want to know what happened and what they are hiding and what the bigger picture is between this and the stuff we learned in s1. you know it’s good when the girl that’s only here for the steady undertones of two people exhibiting extreme devotion to each other is actually tuned in to the extraterrestrials. who we think look like this: 👽 

i’m pleased! i’m pleased, and i’m intrigued, and i want more.