#teliko

[azure-firecracker]

I think part of why I love Mulder and Scully’s mutual rescues so much is because they always know exactly what the other one needs to hear in moments of vulnerability.

Spoilers for Irresistible and Teliko under the cut.

What Scully fears in Irresistible is a loss of autonomy, a loss of safety. It’s her body being unable to protect her, her sense of security being ripped away from under her and placing her in danger yet again, maybe for months, having who-knows-what done to her. It’s her abduction all over again, her strong façade crumbling, not only her body failing her, but her image as well.

When Mulder saves her, he hugs her and uses his body as a shield between her and Pfaster’s house, as if to say this is a space where nothing will take away your safety. If your body cannot protect you, mine will, and I will stay here until you can protect yourself again. He doesn’t say much to her, but it seems to all be variations on “it’s okay.” There’s a double meaning. There’s the it’s okay, you’re safe variation, which speaks to Scully’s fears of safety and normalcy suddenly becoming danger, but he’s also telling her that it’s okay to cry, okay to be scared, okay to allow her walls to crumble because he will keep her safe until she puts them back up, and he will never judge her or think less of her for it.

She can be terrified with him, and he will stand between her and anything that can come for her in the night, and there’s nothing she could say or do that would make him leave.

Teliko is not nearly as good an episode, but (as you might imagine if you’ve followed this blog for more than 2 seconds) I absolutely adored the climax. Mulder here has lost all of his ability to do anything. He’s literally paralyzed (and it’s actually pretty scary). He doesn’t fear losing power in the way that Scully does, probably because the show hasn’t made a thing out of it, but what he fears is being left alone. He fears being powerless and having those he loves suffer because of it. He’s scared that if something happens to him, everyone he cares for will be snatched away and he’ll never see them again. You know, Samantha trauma.

And because he’s got such a guilt complex, I’m willing to bet that a small part of him is scared that he’ll be left by Scully, or his family, or whoever, once he slips up, once he can’t be the protector anymore, because at that point, isn’t being left to die what he deserves?

So we’ve got all these fears at play as he’s being literally paralyzed and dragged into the vents, and what does Scully say to him when she finds him?

It’s okay, Mulder. I’m here.

Because no matter what happens to him, even if he can’t move or speak or do anything to protect her, she isn’t going anywhere. That’s not why she stays. She’s going to stay no matter how bad things get, no matter the danger or the cost. She will walk with him in his darkest moments.

And in this moment when he’s probably scared out of his mind, she follows him into the darkness and reminds him that he isn’t alone.

These two episodes just have such a lovely contrast and I think it shows how well Scully and Mulder understand each other, and what each of them can give the other in some of their most vulnerable moments. There are differences, yes, but also similarities. When it all boils down to it, I think all they both really need is a reassurance that the other will always stay.

Stay.

[all-eyes-lead-to-the-truth]

All Eyes Lead to the Truth | Season Four Master Post

Season four is one of the most beloved seasons of The X-Files, and we had a lot of fun exploring the background characters that helped make it so special!

Check out this thread to see all the characters we got to meet this season!

Herrenvolk (4x01) | X

No one would remember him, and if they did, they would struggle to remember a name they were never told. The memory of his existence would remain occluded by the shadows he lived in.

Home (4x02) | Sheriff Andy Taylor

For protection, his father had said, as he pressed the unfamiliar cold metal into Taylor’s warm hand. To keep your family safe.

To keep your home safe.

He shuts the drawer. He isn’t ready for this reality, not now. Not yet.

Teliko (4x03) | Special Agent Sean Pendrell

With them, it was never something simple. It was a computer chip so fragile he could barely study it. It was a complex string of numbers and letters tracking a smallpox vaccination program for reasons he couldn’t even begin to fathom.

This was what he went to school for.

Unruhe (4x04) | Gerry Schnauz

Gerry knew she needed his help the moment they met. There was a howler inside of her head — a black mass invading her body and mind.

The Field Where I Died (4x05) | Melissa Rydell Ephesian

Melissa struggled with the idea of reincarnation, but dared not show it. And as it turned out, a broken link in the chain of her faith led to more broken links.

When she first saw Vernon hurt a child, the chain shattered.

Sanguinarium (4x06) | Dr. Theresa Shannon

The face on the computer had looked just like Jack, but that had to be impossible. The science of surgery hadn’t come that far. To spread the eyes further apart, change features completely… and besides, she knows him. Knows the person he is…

Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man (4x07) | Albert M. Godwinkle

All Albert M. Godwinkle wants today is to read a halfway decent manuscript that puts a smile on his disgruntled face. Today is not that day.

Tunguska (4x08) | Alex Krycek

If looks could kill, Alex would be a dead man. But he thrives off this, off making Mulder squirm. It’s just so fucking easy.

Terma (4x09) | Senator Albert Sorenson

He was a staunch proponent of holding insubordinate witnesses in contempt when the court was not being respected, and no one, not even a government employee, was immune to that.

Paper Hearts (4x10) | Addie Sparks

The little girl he loves is gone, and she is never coming back.

Just like me.

El Mundo Gira (4x11) | Migrant Worker

At the simple mention of El Chupacabra, the shack erupted in a cacophony of worry, as if merely saying the name might summon the beast.

Leonard Betts (4x12) | Michele Wilkes

Even through the panic she felt screaming through her that nothing about this was okay, she felt a moment of relief wash over her. Maybe it had all been a dream. Maybe her partner hadn’t died while she was at the wheel.

Never Again (4x13) | Ed Jerse

Deadbeat. Loser. Failure.

He’s heard it all, and he has had enough. No one humiliates Ed Jerse anymore. No, not now. Never again.

Memento Mori (4x14) | Kurt Crawford

What is destined for a creature borne of fluid and test tubes, guided by the hands of cruel men?

Kaddish (4x15) | Ariel Luria

Someone else’s hatred had taken her true love away. Just like that, in an instant, like it was nothing. But it was not hatred that led her to the gravesite that stormy night.

Unrequited (4x16) | Special Agent Kent Hill

Hill slides in his earpiece, watching as their eyes lock. His wife would call it eavesdropping, but as he steps closer, tilting his head just right to better hear their hushed voices, Hill simply calls it satisfying a long-standing curiosity.

Tempus Fugit (4x17) | Bartender

The man tried to fluff the pink ball back into shape after presumably squashing it in his pocket. “The woman I came in with— it’s her birthday, and she loves these things. I was wondering if there was any way you could ask someone in the back to put it on a plate and bring it out to her?”

Max (4x18) | Sharon Graffia

Sharon Graffia isn’t a liar. She’d only done what she needed to in order for people to believe her. All she’s ever wanted was someone to believe her.

Synchrony (4x19) | Jason Nichols

Naïveté and a complete lack of understanding of the consequences of their work had been their downfall. But how could they have known?

Small Potatoes (4x20) | Eddie Van Blundht

It didn’t take him long to realize he’d initially misread the situation when he saw them at the clinic. Based on the look Dana Scully shot him when he tried to hold her hand at the airport, he knew he was navigating territory Fox Mulder had yet to conquer.

Zero Sum (4x21) | Billy

He slowly twisted his neck to the right, and was horrified by the sight before him. In the next bed over was David from his class, his face covered in gross red bumps. He looked dead.

Billy didn’t know what else to do. He started crying.

Elegy (4x22) | Lauren Heller

She had an exam in the morning. Her mother’s birthday was the following weekend. She had plans.

Demons (4x23) | Amy Cassandra

As she speaks, the deep wound in her skull throbs, reminding her that that was true, until weeks ago when she’d traded the nightmare of one penetrating drill with the reality of another.

Gesthemane (4x24) | Father McCue

Her faith had come from God, yes… but it had also come from another, less expected source. Perhaps it still did.

Stay tuned for more perspectives coming in Season Five!

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

We spend so much time deliberating and chatting about who to use in a given episode or where certain characters would be best utilized in the series, and we'd love to hear any opinions or predictions you might have! Do you have a favorite minor character? What episodes do you think would be best for our favorite recurring characters? Your feedback is one of the most enjoyable parts of this project (and sometimes hearing other perspectives can help inform the decisions we have to make). - @admiralty-xfd, @fridaysat9, @monikafilefan, and @gaycrouton

[california-112]

DECEIVE?

INVEIGLE?

OBFUSCATE???

[randomfoggytiger]

Little Green Men and Teliko Parallels

An interesting parallel I noticed:

That is all.

[x-files-scripts]

The X-Files - “Teliko”

Written by Howard Gordon

August 21, 1996 (GREEN)

Cut joke:

Pendrell is disappointed not to see Scully...

Alternate lines:

Extended ending as Scully cuffs Samuel...

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder was pretty weird and antisocial this episode. Even Scully was like "...what?"

4 x 03 Teliko

[coolgirlisonline]

~vintage~ mgs avatars from a russian metal gear fansite (c. 2006) (part3)

source: https://web.archive.org/web/20060221014952/http://metalgear.ru/menu/avatars.html

[shiftwux]

girl get up

[lezbiansolidsnake]

my friend my buddy teliko friedman......

[benoitblanc]

just watched home with flatmate. the episode ended and he stared at the tv for a solid thirty seconds and then said in a very small voice "...what happened to my alien show"

[azure-firecracker]

Credit to @much-brighter-ink for making me this meme.

(FYI I don’t think the word ethnic is a good word to use, but I know it’s exactly what whoever made this score was thinking).

[all-eyes-lead-to-the-truth]

All Eyes Lead to the Truth | Teliko (4x03)

He was a puzzle solver. He had been ever since he was a child. That’s how he spent his days– eyes glued to a microscope or a computer screen, finding patterns, making connections. At home he watched Wheel of Fortune, figuring out the words before the contestants had even had a chance to buy a vowel. It was what he was good at, piecing together the details and clues to answer life’s questions.  

At the FBI, Sean mostly studied blood samples, prints from work boots left at crime scenes, and broken tech that may be significant to an investigation, but sometimes… sometimes he got to do something really fun. Agent Mulder—and Agent Scully— never failed to add excitement to his days. 

There were so many computer programs and devices in the lab that went unused. Day in and day out, the team ran DNA samples, looked at strands of hair or pieces of fiber. But with his favorite agents, Sean got to play. 

There was that one time he was able to reconstruct facial structures from an airbag deployment. He’d heard of things like that in peer-reviewed studies, but he never dreamed that he would get to it himself. 

And the research! With them, it was never something simple. It was a computer chip so fragile he could barely study it. It was a complex string of numbers and letters tracking a smallpox vaccination program for reasons he couldn’t even begin to fathom. 

This was what he went to school for. 

Of course there were other perks to working on X-File cases. There were the perks of a petite stature, heels on the tile, and amazing red hair. A strong voice and a kind nature. Bright blue eyes and the hint of vanilla that filled the air when she visited the lab. 

Sean doubted Agent Scully saw him as anything more than the scientist who ran the tests she requested, but she made him feel seen. With her, he wasn’t an oddball kid who memorized the periodic table during his summer break. When she came to see him, he felt like he’d found a peer, an ally in the field that he loved. 

Today, it had been Agent Mulder who’d brought samples to the lab, but Sean knew, often to his chagrin, that he and Agent Scully were never far apart. And she was usually the one who came to pick up the reports. 

As he worked, Sean imagined himself asking Agent Scully to dinner. It would be casual, something that came up organically as they discussed his findings. It didn’t need to be fancy, maybe just the bar down the street, but she would agree with a smile. 

His heart raced, imagining the way he would ask her, how his voice would be confident and she would look relieved that he finally asked. He was so wrapped up in his own mind that he almost missed the small seed in the sample he’d been given. He’d logged asbestos, pollen, soil, and other unremarkable substances, but this one jumped out at him. 

His heart began to race for an entirely different reason. The thrill of the chase. 

“What are you?” he mumbled under his breath as he placed the pointed seed on a slide. One look and he knew he’d found it. What it was, he wasn’t sure, but he knew it was what his favorite agents were looking for. 

***

Two hours of evaluations, tests, computer searches, and finally a phone call to a botanist at UVN, and he was ready to give his findings to Agent Scully. He’d called their office when he’d completed his research, as was his typical course of action, and then he waited. He tried to focus on the bullet fragments lodged in tree bark that had been brought in earlier in the day, but he was only going through the motions. 

12-gauge shotgun. Buck shot. Quercus velutina, common in forests across Virginia. No sign of blood. Probably a hunter. 

He waited, looking to the hall, hoping to catch a glimpse of her hair. He was grateful that everyone else in the lab was buried in their work so they wouldn’t notice. 

Just when he thought maybe he wouldn’t hear from them until the next day, Agent Mulder called to say he was on his way. Sean jumped from his chair, moving to the door so he would have a clear view down the hall to the elevators. If anyone asked, he would just tell them he needed to stretch his back out after being hunched over for too long. 

As it turned out, no one asked, not even Agent Mulder, who walked towards him not five minutes later. 

“Agent Pendrell,” he said. “Thanks for turning this materials analysis around on such short notice.”

Agent Mulder patted his shoulder as he walked through the door into the lab. He was alone, no partner in sight. 

“Shouldn’t we wait for Agent Scully?” Sean asked, hoping he sounded cool and nonchalant. “Just so I won’t have to repeat myself.”

“She’s not coming.”

Sean froze in his spot. “Why not?”

“She had a date.” 

Deflated. He was absolutely deflated and he didn’t care if Agent Mulder knew it. He lumbered forward into the room, the weight of the blow pushing him down. 

“Breathe, Agent Pendrell. It’s with a dead man,” the other agent said, his hand finding Sean’s shoulders in comfort. “She’s doing an autopsy.”

Sean huffed a laugh, momentarily embarrassed until Agent Mulder got them back on track. “You said you found something?”

He had found something, and even though it wasn’t Agent Scully who’d come to get his findings, he was proud of his work. 

And who knew. Maybe next time, it would be Agent Scully who came to the lab. And maybe next time would be the time he asked her out on that date. 

Read the rest of All Eyes Lead to the Truth on Archive of Our Own!

@fridaysat9

[california-112]

Is Mulder allergic to suit jackets this season?

[its-sweet-like-cinnamon]

"Teliko" || 4.3

[bisexualfbiagents]

THE X FILES | Teliko (4.03)