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puckpocketed · 6 months ago

Note

caps fan here!

as follower of pld (the few, the proud, the courageous!), i was wondering if you had any thoughts about how he might fit in with our team, assuming he's going to be 1C with Ovi on the left and one of Wilson or Mangiapane on the right, and basically taking the former Kuznetsov/Backstrom spot on the halfwall on PP1. my thinking is that he can easily return to being a 60 point player just by the increase in ice time alone this coming season, and maybe even flirt with 70 if he has a triggerman like big O on his wing.

as someone who knows a hell of a lot more about PLD than i do, is that just wishful thinking because i'm a caps fan? what do you think?

The PLD Post, Part 2: mask-OFF

Hii!! (we are SO brave and SO correct). i am so sorry this took ages to answer, i was trying to decide how serious to be. I will admit, I was hesitant about going mask-off and hitting up the microstats and revealing that i do seriously think he can be better than he was bc that shit is kinda lame ESPECIALLY when defending a clear failhorse. but at this point any rep i have as someone with good opinions must be gone considering how many media scapegoats i've attached myself to (i got a fucking. c.gauthier ask the other day aslkjdkljas) so. mask is coming off. we've hit somewhere between well-considered manifesto and vibe check so . um. enjoy!!

I remain optimistic going from everything I've heard and from what you're saying here! But, big big asterisk. He absolutely needs to take ownership of his lack of engagement. when he speaks in media availability I believe him when he says he wants to change. The will to change is there, idk if it’s possible that any player would be satisfied with their performance being the way his was. There’s a lot that needs to be unpacked about his lack of production, the Character Issues, and what his role might look like going forward. You and any other Caps fan who reads this will have to tell me if the fit is right. Hockey talk below the cut lol!!

So before I start I have to say I know dick all about the Caps except:

You're dragging that old man (Ovechkin) to Gretzky's lawn (record) to set it on fire (break it before he retires)

Everyone is pining away for your very very injured 1C who is also Ovechkin's boybestfriend/perfect set-up guy/work wife

There's. intricate pre-game rituals?

So I'm not sure I can speak to how he will fit with your (our? i AM picking the Caps up fr given every acquisition/draft pick they've made) team with any depth or specificity. also i don't think i'd call myself a PLD expert. like. i just got here !! I haven't been following him since he was drafted or anything!! I have, however, consumed TOO MANY Kings games this past season and I can give you a broad look at what actually happened with them and why I think it didn't work out. I will not be making any overtures about being unbiased. My biases WILL slip through because I think Dubois is a sweetheart and I find the mental exercise of defending him fun <3 I’ll give you stats and observations and I will build a story that runs counter to what the prevailing media narratives say. While I stand by my opinions, they're also just one of many available interpretations of what happened.

character concerns

Everyone will be bringing it up at the first speed bump of the season, the first bad game he has. Please be prepared to have a crisis of faith and also be deeply disappointed in him. god knows I am, like, all the time <3 But... I always want to dig deeper when it comes to dominant narratives, because in following multiple teams I’ve become acutely aware of just how miserably Bad media can be at reporting on teams that aren’t their own.

I hear “Locker room cancer” accusations bandied about and I’ve yet to see anyone produce a primary source for this — podcasters, journalists, even people on nhl broadcasts will throw these words around so casually, assuming they’re correct because everyone knows the story. Some confounding factors in the character narratives arise when you scratch the surface. People who've worked with him speak well enough of him. Todd McLellan called him “misunderstood”, and had nothing bad to say about his character.

Matt Roy, who also just got picked up by the Caps, has recently said he’s a great teammate. MORE proof if you want to hear it directly, Roy went on Dropping The Gloves and had this to say about Dubois (transcript by me):

[on what actually happened] Honestly, I don’t know. I mean if you asked him he would say he had a down year. But it’s nothing like — I feel like the media paints this picture of him, and to me it couldn’t be further from the truth, you know. He’s a great teammate, he’s a great locker room guy, he gets along with everybody. So, in terms of all that I don’t know where the media is getting all this stuff. If I hated the guy I probably wouldn’t have come to Washington. He’s one of my friends on the team and I really think he’s going to have a bounce back year. I think he’s really going to be good for the team.

Matt Roy signed with the Caps of his own free will as an RD, a contested free agent in a sparse market, knowing Dubois was already here. He could’ve gone to plenty of different places. Why the hell would Roy sign here long-term, clearly wanting to play and win, if Dubois was as disliked as some pundits would have us believe??? Credible reports (and not just speculation) point to PLD’s other teammates liking him!!

And here’s some propaganda; I direct you to this extremely sweet video where he gets asked about assisting on Akil Thomas' first NHL goal (and a bunch of other first NHL goals). He is so, so genuinely happy for Akil, who battled through injuries that set back his development for years. Just LOOK at his smile!! He can’t hold it back. (Others have said this but it looks like a little v. Like :> !!!! HELLO !!)

How does all of this happen when, supposedly, he’s a low-character asshole and a “locker room cancer”? It doesn’t line up for me.

On the other hand, I have seen Dubois cruise. He really can’t seem to bounce back from a poor start, and if you were just looking from the outside in, the scoresheet this year reflects this. The critique is fair; I’ve turned this over in my head enough times. there are less physically gifted, less skilled players, who are working so hard to stay in this league, and Dubois’ poor showing does feel somewhat like, idk, something I’d be mad about usually.

Here comes the “but”. Call this next bit the narrative section, because I’m showing my ass here: I think Dubois gets a lot of scrutiny because of his infamous Shift, which went a specific kind of viral, under the exact right conditions, and it has just. defined his career. And okay… I am not denying that the shift happened, but plenty of guys in this league have taken shifts off. come on. the season is long and they're only human. I’m not excusing it either! It was bad and he deserved his benching. Ideally, he one day becomes a player who always puts effort in. Working hard is one of my favourite traits in any player, and usually this would be enough for me to dismiss him as not worth being invested in.

and yet…. the reactions to his floundering performance feel so much like they’re about expectations as seen through the lens of The Shift. They’re calibrated differently because he went 3rd overall, and he's got this big body, the speed, the skill — it's the fact that he's got the tools and seemingly squanders them. All of this is amplified by the contract he's sitting on and his run of short-term stays on teams. Does he get this much scrutiny if he went in the 2nd or 3rd round? Does he catch this much heat for his low energy performance if that one shift clip hadn’t done all that damage? We’ll never know obviously but . I do wonder.

Final word on the character stuff is that we don’t know what truly went on in those locker rooms and i don't want to give more air time to baseless speculation. What we can examine is the hockey. The hockey tells the truth <3

the 23-24 la kings

Assuming the plan is to give PLD a look at 1/2C while he’s on the Caps, I think he’s a complementary type of player. The way he is right now, I don't think he can drive his own line or pull people up. He works with the calibre of lineys he's got and will produce the expected outcome. That sounds so obvious, but what I’m saying is I don’t think he’s capable of miracles like the best playmakers in the league, he's not about to make your guys look 15 years younger. In this vein, I look at his many first NHL goal assists as a symptom of what kind of linemates he was being paired with all season, and how unstable the situation was. His drop in point production IS more complicated than "he's just a piece of shit". From this article, the best summary I've seen of the Situation PLD was in:

LA acquired a player who had been a top-six center (and at times, winger) his entire career playing with established NHL talent. Yet after investing multiple assets to acquire Dubois and sign him to a significant contract, the team decided to put him in a third-line role where his most common linemate was a first-year NHL player who wasn’t expected to be on the roster in Alex Laferriere. Those two had a revolving door of wingers throughout the season. Moreover, Dubois’ most common on-ice teammates after Laferriere at 5-on-5 this season were Matt Roy and Andreas Englund. Gee, I wonder why he didn’t produce?

Context about Roy and Englund: Roy is a quiet but capable d-man who is defensively geared with a bit of offensive upside (j'adore. does things the right way and is very responsible and good. will throw hits but doesn't chase them or headhunt. I think playing away from the Kings’ more passive system will unlock more of his offensive potential. Matt Roy you will be SO good for the Caps I truly believe mwah mwah); and Englund is a leg weight/goon who, going by every single stat I can pull out, makes his d-partners Worse (with affection <3). Point here is neither of them being on the ice was particularly conducive to a lot of scoring chances.

As I said in my previous post, I think Dubois absolutely needs finishers. At some point there was hype around his shot but I didn't see much of that at all on lak? Eye test says: he was unwilling to shoot, and when he did shoot it felt like there was low/no commitment, no power behind it. Comments on his shooting called him “too deferential” at different turns. That’s just an insulting way to say a guy likes to pass and I truly think it circles back to the expectations thing. Would there be anything wrong with him not being much of a shooter this past season if he was another player? (Can't we just say he passed a lot this season without bringing value judgement into it? leave my failhorse ALONE!!!! like must a man score goals ,can't he be very very sweet and happy for the rookies he assisted ? wailing about it forever.)

More fun stats from that same article:

#1 on lak for passes that led to high-danger scoring chances, and scoring chances in general <- again, not a miracle worker. did not have finishers who could capitalise on these chances. its so fucked up what they did to my failwife

one of the best on lak in actually carrying the puck into the o-zone. (another reason i quite liked watching him!! transition forwards my BELOVED) everything I've ever observed about him off the cuff holds true here: he draws penalties this way, because he's fast and when he's locked in he is pretty good for controlled zone entries <3

Dubois had a career high in even-strength assists per 60, this is all in spite of his weird linemate situation and his reduced TOI and the power play mess (more on this later). he might have been deferring, but I truly think the lack of stability + good finishers, and ice time held him back from being more productive.

jim hiller

Building off that last point: even worse on the stability front, which I did allude to in the initial PLD Post, was what happened when Jim Hiller took over. You must understand one of the first clues that we were working with a different animal of a head coach is he was NOT afraid to line shuffle, and shortly after he found short-term success with that, they started running 11 forwards and 7 defensemen (you can see where it started precisely if you scroll back in lak lb because you'll find ME yelling about it LMAO). This shortened forward bench resulted in mid-game line shuffling, as in it was uncertain as to who they would be playing with from shift to shift. Hiller is on record saying he thinks it was beneficial, per this article:

It’s all about getting his deep forward corps engaged in the game. That’s sometimes difficult if you’re running four full lines and there are penalty kill or power play opportunities that alter the flow of the lines. Especially for the group of forwards who don’t kill penalties – think Kevin Fiala, Viktor Arvidsson, Quinton Byfield, Pierre-Luc Dubois – it’s an opportunity to get them extra shifts and engage in the game. “Some of our other players who don’t penalty kill, you know they can lose the flow of the game, so they enjoy it more I know,” Hiller said of having 11 forwards in action. “We’ve talked about it a lot. We really just think for our team, the way it is right now, that gives us an advantage getting those players more ice time.”

(and ok sorry to go off about my gripes with how the kings are run but .They were doing this into playoffs. This article was written during playoffs. god. CARL GRUNDSTROM, WHO HAS NEVER NOT PLAYED HARD, PLAYED 25 SECONDS IN GAME 2. all this while they were trying to get people 'engaged'. Idk. Maybe it did work for some players. I wasn’t behind that bench. But sitting one of your most energetic and committed forwards during a series in which you’re trying to come back from being down several games was a CHOICE!!!! also like what if you didn't double-shift QB. what then. And we all know how that series ended. lak coaching/management i am beating you with a pillowcase stuffed with bricks . <3)

Much was made of the Hiller takeover. I liked it at the time. In his first couple of media availabilities post-TM, Hiller emphasised bringing back "fun" to the game for many of the players who were slumping — and a reportedly tense locker room during the big skid that lost McLellan his job. It was all very Ted Lasso of him. Hiller also introduced a new way to rate Dubois for his performance every night, separate from the scoresheet. I made jokes about PLD's very special star-chart, everyone who knew about it was making jokes about it. This merit system was tailored towards communicating with Dubois what he did and didn't do well, and while no one ever went into depth about it we do know a few things:

It measured things outside of +/-, goals and assists, and was likely a score out of 5 per metric.

One of the metrics was about hits/physicality, another one was likely ‘compete’ levels.

He alluded to being measured on penalties drawn?? Or something??

Anyway it sort of … worked?? The change in Dubois was pretty immediate, the moment he was given some clear direction to work in. He played some of his BEST games of the year in the wake of this change. He got involved physically, he was not losing steam, he was drawing tons of penalties because he’s huge and fast and has good hands and IF he puts his mind to it he can truly be a transition monster.

CUE THE LINE SHUFFLING… imo, much of the progress made seemed to be lost, and the rest is history.

NOT saying Dubois is free of fault here. Needing that extra motivation to get physically involved is kinda wild, and I understand why for some people it’s a bridge too far. EYE am here for the laffs though and it's really funny that the communication came in the form of super special individualised performance evaluations/a glorified sticker chart. This is why he’s my temperamental desert flower. Wilting violet. Soggy kitten. <3 and for the record I truly don’t think I’d care if he put up 40 points per szn for the rest of his career. I don’t care because he’s a sweetie and the Bit i do when defending him is too funny. I don’t think I’d care if everyone was right about him — I just don’t actually think they are.

the power play problem

So okay, as per part 1 (my last email <3) we know Dubois thrives net front. It’s where he scored a bunch of his goals on the Jets. Every stat and the eye test supports this. So how come Lak had him stationed on the half wall doing jackshit, if he was on the power play at all?? I will admit I drove myself half crazy studying power play structures and watching LA Kings games back before coming up with a garbled, half-formed idea about how LA runs their PP. I was going to attempt to explain it here — had to do with Kevin Fiala and Dubois being lefties and how that's just an awkward passing sitch — but it turns out more than one person has had this thought and MAN I love being validated by actual hockey people. I fully thought i was making shit up in my head for a good week or two, and was seriously considering scrapping this portion . but it’s SO important for contextualising the production drop, so here goes !!

As early as September 2023 there was a story published about PLD’s role on PP1 — a place where he certainly should’ve belonged as a top-6 guy with plenty of ppg’s under his belt. From this article, which explains the issue very very neatly, and much more eloquently than I could ever hope to:

The addition of Pierre-Luc Dubois was a big one this summer; at first glance, he should be a great addition to the power play. But when digging deeper, the Kings might struggle to fit him onto the top unit. Dubois played mostly as the net front player for the Winnipeg Jets last season, the role Gabriel Vilardi often played for the Kings last season. So, it’s an easy one-to-one switch in that spot, right? Not necessarily. Dubois has all the talents to be an effective net-front player. He has the size and strength to battle in front, with the skill to effectively pop down low and create chances. However, his handedness is a big problem for this role. The Kings run their power play primarily on the left side with Kevin Fiala — Anze Kopitar when Fiala is hurt — which necessitates a right shot down low. When a right shot player pops out on the left side, there’s an easy passing angle for the half-wall player and more options for the player down low. Quick passing is key for a successful power and a left-shot can’t move the puck quick enough down low. They would have to either move too far into the corner or take the extra second to step out from and open up their body to create an effective passing angle. Time that would slow the power play down too much and allow the opposition penalty kill to get back into position. There’s also minimal shot threat from a lefty down low. We saw both Vilardi and Viktor Arvidsson frequently take the pass down low and quickly turn it into a shooting opportunity, something a left shot wouldn’t be able to do.

It then goes on to suggest 2 solutions that aren’t appealing at all:

Flip the power play entirely to accommodate Dubois net front. Not great as they dont have the players for that, and if they tried it they’d be hamstringing Adrian Kempe’s one-timer.

PLD on the bumper position. This one’s hard to swallow because that displaces Kopitar to PP2, there’s his position as captain and the optics of moving him off his spot.

In this article it is once again suggested that LA MUST flip their power play and figure out how to get PLD net front. In this article they point out how useless he was playing on the wall down the stretch, and how the only reason he seemed to be able to produce something was because he’d taken Kopitar’s spot in his absence. This article calls to attention Dubois’ worlds performance, where team Canada utilised him net front.

Big picture, the Fit

Do we see the problem here yet? It’s not the flat narrative I was sold by the national media, random assholes on twitter, and podcasters who don’t actually watch Kings matches!!!! Do we see how weird and messy and complicated it is, beyond “hey he’s just a sack of shit who isn’t trying hard enough”. Rob Blake himself has come out and admitted that they didn’t put Dubois in a position to succeed. And absolutely there was effort required on his end — a different player might have sucked it up and adapted to circumstances, a different player might never have needed that extra bit of communication, a straight up better player might have dragged his less skilled lineys up to a higher level. But the problem has always been two-fold: LA was trying to coach and manage a completely different player to the one they had in front of them and expecting good results; and Dubois was unable to keep competing with all he had in the face of that. I think both parties are at fault here. And I think, given the chance and the right circumstances, Dubois can hit 60 points again.

Okay, circling back to the big question of Fit. Will he be able to work with Ovechkin? Hard to think he could fail with one of hockey’s best goal scorers on his wing, if he does get a look at 1C. People who know the Caps better than I do, does this sound workable? Is Dubois going to be too difficult of a nut to crack for your coach? Your locker room?

And, of course, the power play issue. Maybe Dubois learns to be better on the half wall! Idk!! Maybe it was a matter of coaching and he thrives in Washington running your PP1 from there. For my money… I like him better playing net front or bumper. Do the Caps have the bodies to accommodate this? I did ask someone familiar with the Caps PP to explain it to me so I could try and figure this out but ouuuugh. My head is spinning. Someone smarter than me please jump in. I am TIRED . We don’t know what it will look like, what they’re planning to do with Dubois on the power play. You guys probably have a better idea about what’s possible than I do <3

Conclusion?

PLD is fast, big, a passing threat and a formidable net front presence when he’s given the opportunity and playing his A-game. As far as I can tell, his B-game is garbage </3 His poor performance is more complicated than people think and I’m pretty sure only the LA Kings beat reporters + the 12 kings fans on twitter know this. Most of them still dislike PLD anyway bc his low motor. I don’t blame them, I’m just more inclined to be forgiving because I love redemption arcs and I think he’s a good person. i would love to be wrong about his low-effort B-game LMAO but im trying to be realistic here. I want him to fit in and be embraced by the Caps so bad <3 Your coach sounds like he wants to help PLD succeed and is up for the challenge. The vibes from my friends who follow the Caps are always good, I’ve read through various tags and it sounds like a place that will take him in whether he likes it or not. I might be stupid but I believe in him !!! and I’ve laid out all the hockey bullshit for you to the best of my ability. Given all of this… do you think he’ll do well?

#the.. the pld manifesto... good gravy... i did it..#just above 4k words. not even bad #sorry i couldn't maintain the any kind of consistent serious tone LMAO its too fucking funny and i think enjoying him as a player #comes with a requisite level of silliness that one must maintain for the sake of . sanity <3 #i dont think i have enough knowledge of the caps #to say anything about your side of the equation. so. ball in your court caps girlies (gender neutral)#also sorry this took so long i was honestly agonising over the power play thing bc i thought i was hallucinating #and i wanted to source everything to the best of my ability since i was bringing real stats and hockey analysis into it #im sorry this might not be the clear answer u were looking for </3 #pierre luc dubois #washington capitals #caps lb #asks #user lonewolflink #primers #<- does this count. LMAO #my writing #<- this definitely has to count #la kings #los angeles kings #lak lb

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mulders-too-large-shirt · 3 months ago

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s4 episode 18 thoughts

although i tend to care less about episodes that center upon aliens, i found myself intrigued by this episode and constantly wondering what was going to happen next- which i would take to be the mark of a successful episode! when we can get some big plot gears moving AND insightful character analysis, i'm gonna be sat

there were a few moments in particular that made me lose my MIND. you will see what i mean.

but let's return to the me from a few hours ago, who did not know what was coming, and was writing live on the scene:

we’re BACK. after a pause of… however many days??? 4, maybe? too many. i will need the little recap they stick on the second half of the two parters this time. and just to be safe, i’ll go over my notes again, too.

okay, i’m refreshed. there was diving, there was pendrell, there was a guy named frish who i still don’t trust.

reading the episode description… mulder getting placed under arrest… fork spotted in kitchen. let us resume.

the recap reminds us that somebody stole a bunch of watches, mustache man was spray painting one of the bodies from the plane crash (?) and then he burst into the bar where frish and scully were hanging out. and you may recall, that Things Went Down.

but now we begin with the new events.

mulder in the lake…. damn, filming that had to be awful. he is being approached underwater!!! by two divers…. he seems to have narrowly escaped them

oh they are looking for HIM, it appears. at first, i thought they were alien divers coming for their lost comrade. not sure if the aliens understand solidarity like we do. each time one of 'em dies they seem to just... leave their body on earth.

here we see a sad man in a wetsuit (mulder) being caught by a jeep. despite racing a moving vehicle and therefore being destined to lose, he gives it his best go. only to be arrested!

how undignified, to be arrested in a dive suit…

(intro time)

hey- the intro was different again!! don’t think i didn’t notice…

(they must have a version that is a few seconds shorter that they bust out for the really jam-packed episodes, because by this point i am not surprised by it, but it still is jarring that the typical rhythm is broken up)

back to the bar with scully, pendrell, frish, and mustache man.

it appears that pendrell was shot in the chest, which is not promising. scully tells him she will be right back as she makes a break for the mustache man.

but where did he GO?!?!? how did he get away!! he was dripping blood!!!

(is HE an alien???? we may never know)

the police roll up and scully flashes her badge to them as they arrive late and confused as per usual!! smh!!!

a guy from the EMT squad is telling people to let scully through the crowded bar, and i appreciate him for that. we need more people advocating for her. it is hard to be a genius and also small.

AWWWW pendrell no... oh sweet scully :( she’s trying to stop the bleeding and she keeps saying he’s going to be okay and “we still haven’t celebrated my birthday, pendrell, i’m not gonna let you off the hook like this” <- the way she was trying to comfort him and give him hope is going to make me cry

(i know he’s busy dying, but it also must be insane to watch the woman you have a crush on shoving towels into your gaping bullet hole wound while she is covered in your blood. might need to try that sometime if the chance ever comes)

and he smiles because he’s down bad. but at least he smiles.

she says he has a puncture in his right lung. which sounds very bad. but she tells the EMT he’s FBI and will NOT die. i wonder if she believes that, and that is her Firm Doctor Opinion, or if she is just saying that because she knows he can hear

BUT NO!! scully!!! her nose is bleeding :(((( she looks very scared...

(are her nosebleeds stress induced? is that even possible? i mean, all things considered, it's not the wildest plot point to take place on this show)

despite being scared, she goes back to frish, who is still waiting at the table, and gets down to business. if he didn’t tell his girlfriend he was in DC, that means there’s someone inside, she says. wiping the blood off of her face and saying that like she didn’t just have to shoot someone and save her coworker. damn. she is very good at pretending to be made of steel.

they’re taking pendrell away and skinner arrived. skinner!!!

she is still covered in blood and she is asking him why wasn’t there someone to escort frish!!! that order was cancelled because frish is being put under military arrest for suspicion of murder and false testimony in a federal investigation! ohhhh!

(tbh, i don’t know what the difference between regular and military arrest is except for that maybe military arrest means you were in the military. that’s my best guess. follow for more educated guesses ❤️)

anyway, scully is gagged by this!!! and rightfully so. now, i still don’t trust frish, but it does seem like someone is trying to censor him because he can attest to the government’s crimes. hmm….

and skinner says that this comes from high up in the government, who also put mulder under military arrest!!

(well, there goes my theory on what "military arrest" means!)

scully is very pissed as she explains that the military SHOT THAT PLANE DOWN. and skinner says they admitted as much!!!! omg why????

they’re having this sort of face off, until skinner notices the bloody tissue in her hand, and asks if she is alright

(STOP. STOP I’LL CRY??? god, whenever skinner interacts with them tenderly.... i will fall to my KNEES with emotion when they care about each other)

oh my GODDDDD. wait you have to hear about this next part.

(grabbing her hand and looking at the bloody tissue, then into her eyes) “i have a responsibility for the safety of the agents under my supervision, agent scully. i’m not going to put another agent’s life in jeopardy just to keep her out in the field”

WAHHHHHHH... HE CARES ABOUT HER AND SHE IS TRYING TO KEEP WORKING AND NOT THINK ABOUT HER SICKNESS, BECAUSE TO THINK ABOUT IT WOULD MAKE IT REAL... BUT SHE NEEDS TO TAKE CARE OF HERSELF, AND HOW DO YOU MAKE SOMEONE TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES WHEN THEY FEEL HARDWIRED TO TAKE CARE OF OTHERS??? AND WHEN THEY HAVE WORKED SO HARD TO BUILD THIS FACADE OF BEING OKAY AT ALL TIMES?

the doctor needing the caring is always going to get me. a thankless task it is, to tend to the dead and dying, and how much more awful it must feel to her knowing the limitations of medicine

she has tears in her eyes and assures him she’s okay, but skinner has banished her to the hospital with pendrell. "thank you skinner", we all say in unison.

stop. stop. skinner :( he loves them both…. and she needs to rest :(

cutscene NOT TO HER IN THE HOSPITAL but to her at an air force reserve installation finding mulder

GIRL HE CAN BE OKAY!!!! YOU NEED TO GO TO A DOCTOR PLEASE!!! 🙏 HE GOT HIMSELF INTO THIS MESS LET HIM GET HIMSELF OUT WHILE YOU GO TAKE A NAP

“mulder.” “hi, scully. you come to spring me from the joint?” <- he’s such a fucking loser (said with love)

is that all it takes to get someone out of military arrest? the bestie rolling up? damn. i thought it would be a lot harder than that.

so the military confessed to being responsible for the crash. that's surprising.

and oh my god, he’s getting undressed. just right then and there with her right in front of him. you see, at first i thought he was just unbuttoning his weird military arrest shirt, because maybe he was hot, but then scully turned around like they have done this a million times before (and they probably have) as he unzipped his pants. i’m taken aback by the intimacy of such an act.

doing all of this while arguing, btw. deeply impressive.

they are so married. it's not even funny. not even just married. some weird soul tying thing is going on there.

the military is claiming that there were faulty coordinates given to the flight that had max on it. and they were the only two planes on the screen.

and i appreciate them spelling this cover story out for us very clearly, because i was playing mental ping-pong trying to keep track of the amount of crash sites and planes last episode.

this cover story lays the blame on the man who was working with frish, who allegedly ended his own life- convenient to lay the blame on a dead man- and it also posits that frish lied to save himself, and came to the FBI to blame the military.

hmm. it’s a cover story, alright. not even sure if it’s a good one, but it sure is a cover story.

the military is claiming the second plane that crashed into flight 459 was military, but then mulder reveals he has burns on his head that scully quickly realizes are from radiation!! he got them while he was underwater looking for the mystery craft!! this does NOT seem like a feature that the US military would want to have in their planes.

ooookay, so he says it was a UFO (well, we did see a little alien in there, may he rest in peace) that collided with flight 549- and when the military shot the UFO down, the passenger plane went with it.

see, this makes sense to me now. thank you for making it incredibly clear!!

plane man gets a name reveal!!! his name is mike millar. scully points out that he says there was no evidence of a collision, and while he could be lying, he seems to be the only one that really wants to know what actually went down.

plane guy. i have called you this for a whole episode. and now, you have become plane guy mike. it would have been nice to know that last time, but we cannot change the past, a fact i struggle with daily.

and mike went to scully to tell her about finding sharon wandering about the crash site!! he didn't have to do that. so it adds more evidence to the "he seems to genuinely want to know what happened" camp

mulder asks, he found sharon, max’s sister? but PLOT TWIST: she’s NOT his sister??

maybe it’s a “blood siblings” sort of thing??? swearing loyalty? found family? because lying about being someone's sibling feels odd. there has to be some sort of story there.

well, whatever their dynamic may have been, here is what we know about sharon: she is an unemployed aeronautical engineer who has spent time in and out of mental institutions. WHERE SHE MET MAX!!!

omg….. the truth raises only more questions…

NO!!! scully tells mulder that pendrell is dead. oh my god. she did the best to make him smile right before he died…

scully, you are the best friend in all the world. i have said this many times before, but it still bears repeating.

mulder is shocked and grabs her shoulder, asking how pendrell died. she explains he was shot by mustache man, who was aiming for frish

“mulder, what are these people dying for? is it for the truth or for the lies?” <- i love her Need to be righteous and stand for the truth, even though she lives in a terrible and corrupt world, and how it drives her, how it vexes her to live in such a lawless place, but how her own moral compass keeps her oriented

he says it has to be the truth they’re dying for, and they owe it to those who died to find it out. damn. if that isn’t his whole life in a sentence.

they go to max’s trailer, where i recall mulder tenderly holding him through a seizure a few seasons back.

(i didn't even pick up on the fact that we had seen max before last episode. my b.)

scully hates his trailer LMAO “i remember being amazed at what some people will call a home” <- ohhh she wants a nice, comfy place to live... write that down, write that down

she presses a button and some music starts playing and then says “i think you were actually kindred spirits in some deep, strange way” “what do you mean?” “men with spartan lives, simple in their creature comforts, if only to allow for the complexity of their passions” <- OHHH you better analyze him!!! read him like a BOOK!!!

mulder wants to find whatever it is max wanted to tell him so badly, badly enough to get on the plane even though he knew it was dangerous. this seems like a reasonable thing to be searching for in such conditions.

they find a tape of max recounting his life story, how no one believes you when you’re an alien abductee, and how he wants to expose the people who have recovered the UFOs in the military and the FBI. and they’re using the alien tech in military operations!!! which is crazy.

we see the military taking pieces of the craft from the lake AND AN ALIEN BODY!! MANY ALIEN BODIES!!!!!!

and guys passed out and throwing up from all the radiation!!!

(musical flourish) IT’S GONNA BE CSM, RIGHT?

NO!!!! it was mustache man!!!! maybe they went to high school together.

mustache man is just straight up watching this dude die but announces “we found it” as if that answers any and all questions

plane guy mike is working to identify the bodies from the crash of the flight, and announces they really cannot find any other evidence to figure out what happened. he asks his team to please wrap up tonight and then go home.

plane guy seems nice… i know his ass is gonna die.

(author's note: rejoice!!! he might have made it!!!!!)

mulder and scully are here to talk to him!!!!!!! actually, plane guy mike called THEM!! he wanted to say thank you for the lead that it was the military’s fault. but he has no other ideas on what could have gone down.

WELL! mulder is going to tell him his story.

mulder thinks that max was followed by someone who wanted whatever he had on him. and what was the object? proof of the existence of aliens!!

(now what type of object could that be....?)

(plane guy mike glances back at scully) (she looks at him and raises her eyebrows as if to say “yeah, i know”)

then, mulder thinks that the flight was taken over by a craft that never appeared on any of the radars (because it was a UFO and clearly they don’t show up on radars)

((wait, they definitely have before in the past… well. i guess they didn’t this time. i'm sure there are plenty of different alien species with varying technological skillsets))

if all had gone to plan, the UFO would have taken Max right from the flight.... but the third plane shot the UFO down, and since the UFO had control of flight 459, it went down along with the UFO!

we then see max getting taken out by the aliens…… while time stands still and everyone on the flight watches. it is very creepy.

he thinks that had the military plane not shot the UFO down, everyone on flight 459 would have had their memories wiped and no one would have known that max was ever abducted!

but the missile hit, and (plane crash scenes) (incredibly horrifying plane crash scenes) (people just keep falling and falling and someone is saying a prayer)

(quite upsetting to watch this, actually)

but back to the modern day. awaiting a plane guy mike reaction to such an outrageous tale.

plane guy says that even if it WAS true, they can’t prove it. damn. just can't get a read on this fellow.

scully says that while she had the same reaction, there is something that needs to be explained: the seats and the door showed traces of radioactivity!!!!!

woaaaaah… plane guy, you didn't find anything radioactive in the crash, did you?

surprise! he did find something from the wreckage that had some radioactivity… and he pulls it out… it’s max’s bag!!! it has his hat in it!!!! but seemingly nothing else beyond the hat.

plane guy says he has to write his final report, and that basically mulder is crazy, and goodnight.

ohhhh, said about the deaths of pendrell and max: “and if we don’t find out, what meaning do their deaths have, or their lives?”

sighs. the pressure these two put upon themselves to right every single wrong in the entire world. they mean well, but they cannot fix everything, and this will only disappoint them.

mulder proposes starting their renewed quest for answers with sharon, who is in a mental institution. he says he’d go with scully to find her, but he’s afraid they would lock him up, and she jokes “me too”. and i’m thinking, girlie needs to get to the hospital!!! now!!! mulder, YOU go!!!

(i think we were supposed to understand that scully DID, in fact, go to the hospital with pendrell, where she got checked out and learned of his death- we just didn't see it onscreen. however, as i was watching, i wasn't really processing what they were trying to say and was instead in "someone help scully" mode, which explains a lot of my thinking at almost all times)

but no, rather than going to the mental hospital to ask sharon some questions and letting scully rest, he instead goes back to max’s trailer, where he finds things all torn apart and scattered. someone must have broken in!!!! omg these bastards!!!

the trailer park manager asks what he’s doing here and mulder has to break the news that max is dead…. and the manager is deeply sad, but also (very practically) asks what he should do with his mail.

WOAH!!! in the back of the video where max was talking about himself, you can see sharon!!! it looks like she was the one filming!!

mulder has max's mail…. and he is opening it. can you open a dead guy’s mail? maybe if you’re in the FBI?? it has this sort of badge thing with numbers on it.

(this was later revealed to be a luggage tag, or perhaps the writers and prop team expected people to immediately recognize its purpose. but i didn't. and you know i require honesty when recounting these things)

scully is here to visit sharon, who is sitting up on her bed in the night. a little spooky of her. and she immediately confesses to not being max’s sister.

scully sees she is covered in blisters like max was!! so they were exposed to something… something sharon stole….

she stole something radioactive from her job!!! but what was it??? and how do you even DO that??

allegedly, it was alien tech. that was divided into three parts. but where is the third one???

that piece with the numbers on it was a luggage ticket!!! so mulder is taking it to find the bag, and presumably the radioactive part within.

but who arrives after him, but some people in suits!!! watching him take max's bag! and beginning to chase after mulder!

he uses the federal agent card to get out of there, which i fully support, and scully calls to tell him that this mystery thing was stolen from a military contractor. and i’m thinking, TELL HIM NOT TO OPEN IT, PLEASE

and she’s trying to tell him this, but the cell signal is breaking up!!!! PLEASE DO NOT OPEN IT BRO. it looks like he is about to, but he sees it a little through an x ray instead. PHEW!

scully says this must be high tech industrial espionage… which would be fascinating. but i don't think that is what is going on here.

and mulder’s getting on the plane with the mystery object!! BE CAREFUL- THEY’LL GET YOU!!

NOOOOO, MUSTACHE MAN IS ON THE PLANE!!!

did he regenerate the parts of him that were shot or something???!!!

mulder is sleeping on the plane…. mustache man comes to sit next to him…. and he sees that he has a gunshot wound on his leg… ah, so no regeneration

mulder clocks his nonsense very quickly, and says he has a weapon pointed at him!!

“what if you miss?” “i won’t” <- LMAOOO king has been practicing in the range!!!

but mustache man says he’ll depressurize the plane at 30,000 feet and jump away on a parachute. rude as hell.

mulder guesses that it is perhaps alien energy in the bag he carries that so many people had to die for… and he tells mustache man to get to the back of the plane, NOW, so he can be exiled to the bathroom

he calls scully from the plane (you can do that???) and tells her that he has the man who shot pendrell locked up!! and can she please give skinner a head’s up to get to the airport? thank you

“hey scully?” my watch just stopped” (he drops the phone and runs) “mulder? mulder?!” <- oh the DESPERATION in her voice…

he is always dropping calls and running, leaving her to yell with worry on the phone. we need to train him to stop doing this. in fact, the one time he did not do this was when he was on the phone with scully's mother, and it was remarkable for how much effort it probably took

mulder tells the flight attendant that the flight is about to be boarded, but mustache man comes out with his gun!!! saying to put the bag down NOW!! all the passengers are shocked to see this happening.

so he does set the bag down… and then the plane is rumbling… and the lights….. the UFO!!!! everyone is screaming!!!!

mulder pulls a gun on mustache man as the door starts to get blown off, just like he thought it happened to max. and then everything is very very quiet…..

scully and skinner are RUNNING to the plane as the people disembark.

and mustache man isn’t there anymore!! and his watch is off!!!! omggggg!!!

the alirans got him!!!

he seemed like a dick so no real loss on that end. but i'm sad mulder cannot use that mystery part to prove they exist.

although, it seems that claiming "it's just super advanced tech from (insert country that is not the USA here)" would be the government's first move. not sure how much the actual object would have helped if they had that trusty excuse hanging in their back pockets.

“would you like to tell me what’s going on here, agent mulder?”, asks skinner (scully intercepts) “i don’t think you want to know the answer”

skinner looks very very confused. my poor guy.

back to the video of max, where he is talking about the secrets the government is keeping. sharon is watching it. WITH SCULLY AND MULDER!!! my besties :)

she asks if she can keep the tapes and he says yes, she should start a collection of all of max's things

when sharon mentions that scully also lost someone very close to her, she has to leave the trailer…. and mulder follows behind in his white sneakers

“you thinking about pendrell?” “i realized i didn’t even know his first name” <- OUCH. queen please do not feel guilt over this, because that is just how having coworkers is.

but she was really thinking about HER BIRTHDAY GIFT FROM MULDER??? OMG?? she’s looking at it and smiling

wait, this next monologue NEEDS to be copied down….

“you never got to tell me why you gave it to me, or what it means, but i think i know. i think that you appreciate that there are extraordinary men and women and extraordinary moments when history leaps forward on the backs of these individuals… that what can be imagined can be achieved… that you must dare to dream… but that there’s no substitute for perseverance and hard work and teamwork… because no one gets there alone. and that while we commemorate the greatness of these events and the individuals who achieve them, we cannot forget the sacrifice of those who make these achievements and leaps possible”

“i just thought it was a pretty cool keychain”

(soft music as the camera turns to the stars and fades to black)

WAAHHHHH

oh scully, i mumble for the hundredth time... she makes my heart hurt. she has so much good in her and yet nothing good happens TO her.

i love that she is so analytical and finds meaning in everything, even the little keychain <3 and i love that she is both dedicated to science and an idealist, and neither of those things are mutually exclusive even if you might imagine that the hard realities of the world do not mesh with optimism and faith.

and i don't fully believe that mulder just thought the keychain was cool... he knew what he was doing there. at least a little bit. now i will imagine it dangling from her keys for decades, jingling each time she unlocks her door, a little piece of their connection made physical.

so, what am i thinking about the episode?

well, we didn't get any closure on plane guy or frish, and i know better than to think we will get some in any future episodes. so that feels a little unfinished.

in terms of plot development, we are introduced to this mustache man and an object that could prove the existence of aliens, but both of those get wiped away, and we leave off sort of where we began. that left mustache man feeling underused, or sort of like a waste of narrative focus. unless he comes back?

still, while i might have qualms with the plot not being entirely wrapped up, i enjoyed this episode! the moment with skinner absolutely got to me, as did scully's kindness towards pendrell and her analysis of mulder's gift. the moment where he just started changing clothes and they had that unspoken understanding also killed me.

i was also glad that this episode explained things a bit more than the last one did. i was confused with the constant switches between theory and fact, that while i'm sure some viewers were annoyed with how they spelled it out so clearly, i was pleased.

i love the tales of mulder and scully's spooky job. it was a good episode!

#still a bit of a dark episode with (gestures to plot point mentioned above) and all of the plane crash victims #but less dark than it has been which i have been enjoying #i wish i could have a new scully and mulder story every night and that this show was good forever #i know people lose enjoyment later on and i'm wondering if i should watch all the way through or end on a high note...#but the good news is we have fanfic which IS a new scully and mulder tale every night!#i just have to find some time to read it! and find ones that do not spoil things!#juni's x files liveblog #4x18 #the x files #txf

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