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xf-cases-solved · 8 days

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S2E5: Duane Barry

Case: Our episode finds us in Virginia. I know this because it is the literal first thing written down in my notes. I'm learning. (No I'm not.)

Anyway. This episode, which takes place in Virginia, is part one of a three part (+ one weird fever dream episode) plot arc that will be extremely relevant to the rest of the overall plot of the X-Files from here on out. Everybody thank Gillian Anderson's daughter Piper for existing, and also Gillian Anderson for putting up with extremely questionable treatment from the show runners while she was pregnant, instead of just rage quitting like I probably would have. (She went back to work 10 days after having a C-section and they LET her, that's fucking INSANE and makes me so mad on her behalf lol.)

But I digress.

Duane Barry! He might not have had to go film a TV show ten days after major surgery and like, giving life to a human being, but he sure is going through it, huh? Poor dude can't stop getting abducted by aliens. Probably. That, or he is suffering from a violent and unpredictable psychosis. It's one or the other for sure. And that wouldn't really be anybody's problem, except Duane has decided that he's done with the tests and teeth drilling, tyvm, and would like someone else to have a turn, so he captures his psychiatrist and busts out of the mental institution, intending to offer the psych up as tribute to the aliens. Unfortunately for Duane, however, he doesn't actually remember where the aliens said they'd pick him up at, so he hits up a travel agency, which ultimately devolves into him holding three workers plus the psychiatrist hostage.

Enter Mulder and our favorite punkass bitch sidekick, Alex Krycek! 😃

Mulder, being the alien abductee whisperer that he is, gains Duane's trust, and we are kept on our toes as the episode does a pretty solid job at drawing out the suspense as we (along with Mulder) are ping-ponged back and forth about whether or not Duane is who and what he says he is. By the end of the episode there is still a lingering doubt, BUT, a very unsettling voicemail on Mulder's answering machine tells us we're gonna have bigger things to worry about now.

An agent, who I just now realized I recognize because she played a doctor on ER, asks Mulder to help with a hostage negotiation because he knows things about alien abductions, and then is surprised and irate when he makes the conversation about alien abductions; that same agent makes Krycek get her a grande 2% cappuccino with vanilla, which earns her my eternal love; Scully buys an entire bag of groceries for $11.14, and also breaks the barcode scanner with an unidentified metal implant and then just sort of shrugs at the store clerk and leaves; and a "Mulder, it's me" phone call ends with the sound of screams for help and broken glass, whuh-oh!

Oh, and this is the episode with the red speedo.

Welcome, friends, to the Abduction Arc!

Does someone die in the cold open: No, but things aren't really going great either. Not that they ever tend to be going great in X-Files' cold opens.

Does Mulder present a slideshow: No. No Mulder+Krycek slideshows 😡

Does the evidence survive the investigation: Ok, so the "case" this time was technically "do the hostage negotiation and get the hostages out alive," so evidence wasn't needed. Ig.

Whodunit: Duane Barry, our favorite kidnapper and alien abductee [citation needed]!

Convictions: Lol, I literally just blew out a sigh and said "ummm" out loud to myself alone in my office, that's embarrassing, but also... we'll come back to this question next episode.

Did they solve it: Because Mulder did get the hostages out of the building safely, and because I know it's gonna be a minute before he or Scully have any real wins in their lives, I will give them this.

[how do i determine if a case is solved? check the scale here: x]

THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY: Bulgaria's maternity leave laws. 58 weeks at 90% pay the entire time. In the United States you are lucky if you get six weeks, and even luckier if it's paid. And sometimes your boss makes you film a TV show ten days after giving birth through a giant gaping wound in your abdomen. (I know they were technically filming in Canada at the time, but it's an American TV show, so I'm counting it as United States bullshit.) Anyway, we treat pregnant people terribly! But let's just. Not think about that. Abduction arc time!!

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General Total Stats:

(green means stat has changed since last ep; red means new stat added to list)

Total Cases *Definitively* Solved So Far: 15 (not even gonna bother restarting the streak tho. y'all just hang in there for a bit, i'm sure things will start looking up soon. ish. probably)

Total Number of "Mulder/Scully, It's Me": 9 (three in total, and the last one ends poorly)

Total Number of Times Scully Has Conveniently Not Seen Something Crucial: 6

Total Number of Times Mulder Has Been in Mortal Danger: 9 ½ (could have easily been shot at any time)

Total Number of Times Scully Has Been in Mortal Danger: 9 (went back and forth on this, bc i know how this whole arc ends, but i think that if we look at this episode alone, and don't skip ahead, being kidnapped by a mentally unstable person who is known to be violent definitely counts as being in mortal danger)

Total Number of Sexually Charged, Uncomfortably Intimate, and/or Flirty Moments Between Friendly Coworkers: 14 (no, but dw, this stat is gonna get some mileage here soon)

Total Number of Autopsies Scully Has Performed On Screen: 5 (gdi. i had a funny one liner, but i know for a fact there is at least one person reading these in real time with their first watch-through, so i am trying very hard not to make jokes that are spoilery 🤐)

Total Number of Times Scully Plays Doctor: 2

Total Number of Times Mulder Talks to an Informant: 18 (no X 😔)

Total Number of Times People Making Out in a Car Are Hurt or Killed: 2

Total Number of Times Someone Correctly Guesses a Password: 3

Total Number of (Plot Relevant) Nosebleeds: 5

Total Number of Times Mulder Has Tasted/Sniffed/Touched Something Questionable Without Following Proper Safety Procedures: 3 (no, but he did repeatedly break hostage negotiation protocol, which is similar in spirit if not practice)

Total Number of Times Someone Says "Trust No One": 3

Total Number of Times Someone Says "I Want to Believe": 4

Total Number of Times Someone Says "The Truth is Out There": 2

Total Number of Cigarettes Cigarette Smoking Man Has Smoked: 9

Total Number of Maggie Scully Sightings: 1

Total Number of Lone Gunmen Sightings: 2

Total Number of Alex Krycek Sightings: 2!!!!!! (get that coffee, you loser)

Total Number of Times I Had to Look Up What State the Episode Takes Place in Even Though I Literally Just Watched It: 11½ (i wrote that shit down like a person without an attention deficit disorder, hell yeah 😎)

Total Number of Times I Had to Look at an Episode's Wikipedia Page to Fill This Out Because It Was Fucking Confusing and/or Too Boring for Me to Pay Attention: 5

#txf cases solved #s2e5: duane barry #msr #txf #the x-files

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dalesramblingsblog · 10 days

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Weird recurring thread in Chris Carter-written episodes of The X-Files and Millennium concerning characters breaking out of hospital custody by way of knocking out their police guard with a fire extinguisher. Is he trying to warn us of something?

#the x-files #millennium #s2e5: duane barry #s1e18: lamentation

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azure-firecracker · 3 months

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WHAT DO YOU MEAN TO BE CONTINUED?!?!?!?!

#txf s2e5 #the x files #txf #txf reaction #txf s2 #duane barry #txf spoilers #dana scully #fox mulder

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clo-thespin · 4 months

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The Safety of Guilt

Summary: Mulder's guilt surrounding Scully's abduction

Rating: Teen TW: depression, suicidal ideation, a gun, gun imagery 732 words

Tagging: @today-in-fic

This is set in season 2, sometime between One Breath and Red Museum :)

She came back. She came back and she’s safe. She came back and she’s safe, so why is he sitting on his couch staring at his fully loaded gun? Why does he still blame himself if she’s safe now? Why does he still feel sorry for himself? Why is he still wracked with the kind of guilt that makes him want to empty his clip into his mouth?

It’s not the same, working with her. When he looks at her, all he can see is her gagged and bound in the back of Duane Barry’s car. When she speaks, all he can hear is her voice shouting for help, for his help. When he’s around her, all he feels is guilt, why couldn’t he save her either? Maybe it will be, someday, but it’s not the same working with her, no, not yet. Does she see it too? Does she hear it? Does she feel it?

He shifts, pulling his legs onto the couch and up against his chest. He rests his chin atop his knees and though the action is childish, it comforts him. He fights with himself, wondering if he even deserves to feel this comfort. She couldn’t have felt comfort while she was crammed in that trunk. She couldn’t have felt comfort while she was missing for months, months that she can’t remember. She couldn’t have felt comfort while imprisoned by her own body in a bed in the ICU. So what right does he have to comfort himself?

Occasionally, he imagines what happened. Where she went, what was done to her. He doesn’t welcome it, but alas, the mind can be a cruel thing. He almost wishes he never looked into abductions, alien or not. He hates that he can think of what happened to her. Ignorance is bliss, isn’t that what they say?

It’s strange to him, now that she’s back. Of course, he’d want it no other way, but working without her was something he had to get used to. He got used to it, but now she’s back, and he can’t seem to be able to worm his way back into the dynamic they had. Working without her, he could sit in their office all day and accomplish practically nothing. That doesn’t fly now that she’s back.

He doesn’t understand why he still feels so unmotivated. He’ll admit, to himself, that she was his motivation. He didn’t see it like that until they got shut down. They were partners, they worked together. And for fucks sake, their department is up and running again, all agents accounted for, so what the hell is holding him back?

He picks up the gun. He knows he isn’t going to do it. Not tonight. He flicks the safety on, then off, then on, over and over again. The gun is heavy in his hands, heavier than usual. He’s not going to do it. The thought is sickeningly tempting. He thinks back to the Eurisko case, when Jerry died. She’d suggested that he talk to someone, and he’d brushed her off. He wonders what she’d say if she could see him now. He flicks the safety off.

He shoots a quick glance at his phone and thinks about calling her. He doesn’t want to wake her and he definitely doesn’t want to have her worrying about him. She’d want him to call her. He flicks the safety back on. Thinking of calling her, of talking, leads him to realising just how quiet his apartment is. The faint sounds of traffic and the hum of his fish tank are the only distinguishable sounds. He finds himself reaching to pick up the phone.

He pulls back. He’ll see her in the morning. He can’t tell if he wants to call her because of some desperate, subconscious need to preserve his life or if he just misses the sound of her voice. A quick glance at the clock tells him he’d be able to get a somewhat decent amount of sleep if he laid down now.

He sets the gun down on the coffee table. He’ll continue contemplating whether or not he wants to pull the trigger some other time. The thought is always there, either out in the open, like tonight, or buried deep within his mind. Someday it’ll get better, someday that thought won’t be as common, he thinks. He hopes.