#that actually happened and it was NASTY

[liesmyth]

Your last rb on the John Gaius post how much John is the OPPOSITE of what that reblogger implied. Because like - we rag on him for not using his magical girl powers for C--'s "Good Wizardry", but it's specifically because he *doesn't* want to rely on a new untested "technology". He tries to incorporate it into the old project, make it better, make people trust it and give him money. Slow down the people who are trying to actually do the "promising new technology" bit without proof of concept.

It's "We all came up with trials to figure out what I could do, what I couldn’t do" vs

"...they were taking one discovery and acting like it changed the whole ballgame when really we now needed ten years of funding to discover whether it was any use, i.e., academia functioning as normal."

And I think that's neat, actually.

[post for context]

Ok actually #discourse aside, I think a lot about how John WAS a scientist, and that was the approach he used in his cryo project, and that was ALSO the approach he used when he started displaying magic powers. He tried to do experiments. He tried to make up scientific terms. He tried to write papers.

And nobody would listen and then he had to cosplay a wizard on youtube.

I think about that SO MUCH. Like... I think John never had a high opinion of the "cultists." He's obviously annoyed that one of the first guys who gave them attention was a flat earther. He only started calling himself a necromancer so that people would listen. It was a last resort and personally, I think he wasn't keen on it.

Like... I think John, an educated scientist who has successfully pioneered a potentially revolutionary new technology (the cryo project, not the magic!) AND is also an indigenous man of colour, might have felt some kinda way about putting on a cape and eyeliner and recruiting a gullible cult of followers because he wasn't being taken seriously in ~intellectual circles. I know we make jokes aboout God being a twitch streamer - Taz put that in for a reason! I think it's funny, I think the cult aesthetic is fun, I think the pre-Res gang HAD fun with it, eventually. But I also think that there's a lot to unpack about John going from the lead research on a project that had serious corporate and government backing ("We cannot keep diverting three percent of the country’s electricity to your vats") to putting on a cape for the memes.

Also! You're absolutely right that the FTL fleet IS "the special technology that shows no promise." John, Mercy AND Augustine all it as hooky because it's SO new that it can scale up to what they need, if it even works as advertised. I'm very curious if / how / on which scale it was tested, and I think Augustine was right to suspect that the FTL propulsion was just an initial kick and the fleet was gonna generation-ship it and never come back.

Also speaking of people wanting an "immediate fix" - John also explicitly brings up that some of the cryo project backers nagged at him because they though an imperfect technology was good enough but the team thought the chance of damage was too high, and worked to reduce it.

Like, the whole point of the cryo project is that it worked, but it wasn't an easy fix, it required literally global cooperation, and there was no priority access for first-class passengers.

I am once again pointing a huge neon sign in John's direction that says HE ATE THE SUN!! That's plenty enough! We don't have to directly contradict canon to sue him for ethics breaches.

[yeuc-c]

infecteds design should be good now

[melljam]

evil, yet ethereal

[dreamsy990]

YAY I GOT THIS DONE ON HIS BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAJIMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE YOU RUINED MY LIFE AND ALSO MAYBE SAVED MY LIFE. WHO THE FUCK KNOWS I DO LIKE YOU A LOT THOUGH

[blooming-periwxnkle]

It's kinda crazy when you think about how Ming Yi is basically the less ghastly version of He Xuan. And he was there by Shi Qingxuan's side for centuries, and yet Shi Wudu never found out. He never recognized him.

Imagine being in He Xuan's shoes - like this guy pretty much ruined his life and is indirectly responsible for the deaths of everybody who was dear to him. Shi Wudu rarely descends. But on the eve of Hanlu, he went down to check if he really died or not. He Xuan remembered his face. It probably haunted him during his times at Mt Tonglu, but when he finally meets this person, there is nothing on his face, no shock or horror.

He forgot him, forgot the face of the boy whose life he ruined.

He never bothered to remember. As if he never had a life.

It kind of reminds me of this scene from a manga called Yona of the Dawn. The protagonist is a princess who's on the run. She had lived a sheltered life and was trying her best to adjust to her new life. One day, she had to hunt a fawn for food, and one of her friends asked her if she would be okay with watching it, and she replied that she isn't. It's still hard for her. But she said that in the palace, thousands of animals were slaughtered every day to feed the royal family, and she never paid attention to it. But now, if she averts her eyes, it would be like refusing to acknowledge that the poor creature had a life.

Shi Wudu ruined his life for the sake of his brother, but let alone remorse, he even forgot what he looked like. He was there by his brother's side for centuries, and yet it never struck him, not until the moment his survival was on the line. If he was guilty, would it have changed anything? Would it bring He Xuan's family and the life he lost back? No, but at least it would ensure that his life meant something, anything.

And even after he recognizes him, his first reaction still is not guilt, not remorse. But a question, "You're alive?", perhaps an indirect way of saying, 'did I make a mistake that day?' Or 'did I fail to clear such an important evidence of my crime?'

The person whose life and afterlife is a consequence of his crime, the first thing he says to him is that.

"Noble people really are forgetful'', and He Xuan really meant it. He experienced it himself. For centuries.

[icepandawarrior]

Just find it interesting how the TVDU fandom til this day hates Tyler for nearly the exact same shit they defend Damon for...

"Tyler tried to SA Vickie"

and Damon actually did and killed (turned) her in the same episode

"Tyler tried to hurt a pregnant woman"

and Damon killed a pregnant woman right in front of both Zach and Stefan

"Tyler treated Caroline horribly"

and Damon SA'd her and has continuously treated her like shit (AND WHAT'S MORE CRAZY IS HOW SHE APOLOGIZED TO HIM FOR THE SHIT HE'S DONE TO HER)

"Tyler bullied Jeremy"

and Damon killed Jer right in front of his sister (I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW THE FUCK ELENA FORGAVE HIM FOR THAT SHIT...)

[kosmicdream]

No one asked for this information but Gaueko is a top but he would let Kamila top. Kamila would be terrible at it tho. That's all.

[histrynerdss]

borrowed a book from the library and it's like a learning french thing

when i got to the numbers i thought of like a fic idea????

bottom al thats either radioapple or x reader where reader and/or luci make him count how many orgasms he's had and at some point he's so unable to think he reverts to french 🥰

[vimbry-moved]

not to be a parasocial sap but creative partnerships that have lasted longer than some romantic marriages make me ill

[fidgetspringer-art]

✧ The Ardal stars ✧

[napping-sapphic]

Honestly so good that I’m too shy to talk to people because I’m like 80% sure my impulsive ass would just ask strangers if they wanted to try to fall in love just to see if we could

[suckinitup]

I still think about the Siberian sometimes and the reveal that it was some fuckass loser cosplaying as his dead daughter like. Sir?? Fucking Hello??? You Pressed Your Tits Up Against A 16 Yo. Like it was fucked regardless but there's wildly different flavours to "murderous old woman attempts to seduce girl to violence and corruption" and "murderous old man attempts to seduce girl to violence and corruption but it's somehow incest and he's catfishing her also." Idk I'm just sick and tired of old men being creeps in fiction and the Siberian in general felt a lot less cool once her reveal was "dude playing video game where protag is naked daughter." WHERE are my old woman creeps... and can we get less incest

[karnaca78]

Just some doodles because these characters plague me with thoughts.

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s5 episode 13 thoughts

reading this episode’s description… i sense a two parter. ahaha! yes, if you look to the episode slightly to the right, it seems to indicate that this is, in fact, going to end on a cliff hanger.

well! best to be prepared. 

we haven’t dealt with aliens in a while now… or at least it feels that way to me, even though it’s really only been 7 or so episodes since the whole emily situation (which was pretty promptly forgotten about, narrative-wise). but i’m prepared for some intense and action-packed sequences that raise more questions than they answer. 

and most importantly, i know in my heart and soul: CSM is NOT dead!!

let us begin!

post-episode thoughts: justice for my boy dmitri. and also give scully ANOTHER vacation with no creepy dolls. and MANDATORY weekly therapy sessions for both of our agents. and let them cuddle. also: wtf, krycek?

ohhh, i know exactly what kind of episode this is going to be, as we open with mulder narrating over an image of a galaxy. yes. i see how this is going to go down.

(trying to imagine the actors in the booth narrating these little speeches on the nature of the universe in a solemn monotone and it does make me laugh)

we see two teenagers speaking in what i think is russian? they see a UFO and are running to tell “the others”. ah, they are in kazakhstan. i knew a guy from kazakhstan. 

they smell something in the woods… fire! they are running toward it. and they find a car in flames. seems to be many cars in flames!!! 

they are calling for their family!!!! were they in the cars?!? no one is yelling back!! but a man emerges engulfed in flames, and they run back into the woods. 

WHAT THE FUCK someone grabs the boy with glasses and his face (or lack thereof) is scary. the blond boy (later revealed to be named dmitri) listens as he screams!!!

damn. hell of an opening there.

OH HOLD UP. I SEE “also starring nicholas lea” as these white trucks move towards the charred cars. now, usually i am not very observant when it comes to the text at the beginning, but i know what this means: RETURN OF THE WORSTIE KRYCEK 🔥🔥🔥

this has great implications. 

AND IS THIS MARITA???? WHAT IS SHE DOING IN KAZAKHSTAN???

these men in camo are opening up the cars and using fire extinguishers on them. for what purposes??

NO! the blond teenager is in the woods still and KRYCEK FINDS HIM!!!! THEY’RE GONNA KILL HIM NOOOOO

the poor boy in glasses has been burnt to a crisp :(

krycek is trying to KICK marita out of this war zone looking place despite her having permission under the UN

(it was at this point i began to wonder if contemporary fans shipped those two, in the sort of "two pretty people who have never met but have no one else to be paired off with" kind of way that is so popular in fandom. this question was later answered)

krycek says he knows who she is and who she works for… ooooo, is he telling the truth?!? he says to tell "them" it’s all going to hell. and then they take that poor boy away!!

“you tell them to kiss my american ass” (krycek spits at marita) damn!!! i mean i hate the guy, but i also don’t trust marita at ALL, so i'm not sure if there’s anyone i should be rooting here between them.

jump to a woman, who is talking about her last abductions, during which she felt no fear, and this allowed her to communicate with “them”. she claims she is an apostle of a new age of enlightenment. an audience claps at this.

is this like a film screening or something??? or??

ohhh, it’s at MIT? this guy gestures to the screen, referring to the woman as “patient X”. hence the episode title. i see what they did there.

why is mulder at this panel…. and why does he look so stressed out…?

this other guy says that we aren't "breeding cows" for the aliens, but instead are subjects to them, in the way we picture our relationship with god. don’t care for that one bit.

OHHH MULDER IS SPEAKING NOW… he doesn’t believe this woman, nor her feel-good message, but he doesn’t think she’s lying either! “i think… that if you prepare people well enough to believe a lie, they will believe it as if it were true” very philosophical

why is he out here in public doing all this… i thought the whole alien business was top secret!! but then again, they mentioned him on the jerry springer show, so maybe not???

WAIT!! i thought he was going to come in with the “she’s lying; the aliens have bigger and more evil plans” take, but it sounds like he’s just straight up denying aliens.

“what i‘ve seen, i’ve seen because i wanted to believe” <- ohhhh what. is he lying?? or does he really no longer believe in aliens?? is this FBI-ordered damage control??

the crowd is pissed at his suggestion that there are no aliens involved here, just a government developing biological warfare. okay, so this is NOT FBI-ordered damage control, then. because that is actually worse for the government's image.

the others on the panel look stressed tf out by what he has to say and he leaves… but he recognizes dr. werber in the audience. he says it’s been 5 years! OHHH it’s the guy who did hypnotherapy with him to help him remember his sister… now why is he here?!? was he just in the area??

mulder explains that he has come to distrust those memories. even the memory of his sister being taken???

“i don’t think you understand. there’s just too much evidence that it’s all been a lie. the conspiracy is not to hide the existence of extraterrestrials, it’s to make people believe in it so completely that they question nothing” <- huh. very interesting take.

dr. werber reveals that HE is patient x’s doctor!! and he thinks that mulder should meet her. damn. that's a twist.

now we're back at the tunguska gulag with krycek and some other guy. krycek is very sweaty from beating this poor boy dmitri up!!! 

oh no… the other guy is the doctor that does the experiments with the black oil, and he protests because they are only supposed to do the experiments on the criminal. krycek decides to change that, i guess. why is the screen so dark? he’s far less sweaty in the next shot. then he pays some other guy to say he was never there. 

krycek pockets some of the doctor’s serum. now what is that all about…?

krycek locks the door on the doctor and dmitri?! what is he doing??

meanwhile, mulder is meeting patient X, who is really named cassandra. she seems very very very happy. she says he is a hero of hers. 

SHE SAYS SHE READ ABOUT HIM IN THE NEWS THREE YEARS AGO AFTER HE HELPED DUANE BARRY??? damn. damn damn damn.

duane barry... (takes a drag of a cigarette) haven't heard that name in years...

“you may not like me as much as you like that story” “that story saved my life” <- ohhh, this is not going to end well, huh….

she says she has been a multiple abductee for over 30 years!!! (then how is she not dead?!) and no one would believe her until she read that story. 

he tells her that she should check herself out of this hospital and live her life :(

but now is not a good time, because she is going to be called again soon. “now is a time of war and stress among the alien nations” ohhh okay. yeah, for sure. /s

“there was a time when i would have believed what you’re saying, without a doubt” “there is no doubt, mr. mulder. i know what i’ve experienced. i have been through the terror and the tests more times than i can count” <- ohhh they took her FETUS?? i applaud her conviction and her standing her ground, knowing that what she experienced is real, but damn, sounds kind of hard to think of "them" positively.

she insists they’re here to deliver a message, but there are other forces at work. 

girl, if they took your fetus, i’m not so sure they’re here for good…

and she insists that he ought to know, because he is the one person that can do something about it. no pressure!!

“i’m not”, he says, then walks away. this is a great turn in character. refusal of the call, if you will. after many years of responding to the call.

poor dmitri is strapped down and undergoing the evil oil, which is slurping itself down his throat. 

someone else in the gulag is pissed to hear about what went down with krycek and the boy. and the doctor who did the experiment on him is dead!! is this the end of the oil experiments?

you know, mulder has the oil in him too... don't think i've forgotten

krycek is on a boat leaving russia. he has brought someone water. who?

oh my god, it looks like it’s the boy from before?? but he was just trapped under all that wire!!!! did krycek somehow hide, kill the doctor, free dmitri, and then escape without the others noticing?

back at the FBI, agent spender is approaching scully (NEW CHARACTER ALERT). he says he hasn’t been able to reach mulder. hmm… spender says he would prefer if mulder wasn’t talking to this alien abductee. oh! it’s his mother??

he says she is a very disturbed woman, and he wants to build a reputation here, not be given one… hmm. is he really her son?? or just some guy trying to throw her off the case?

in new york, marita is debriefing the syndicate on the whole situation she witnessed. there were 41 bodies!!! all burned beyond recognition!! by a technology none of the UN medics had ever seen!!

ohhh, it looks like the victims had the little microchips in them… so they must have all been abductees!! well-groomed man says he thinks it was for a group abduction???

“in the final stages before it begins, there will most likely be assemblies” <- so is "it" going down??? like, now??

is that what the movie will be about?!?

this other guy thinks the aliens are lying about their time table… marita thinks this isn’t part of the plan; this is an act of war. and she tells them about krycek! and she thinks that he knows what went down because he captured dmitri, who saw what happened!!

the phone rings…… well-groomed man picks it up. yes, it is krycek. he says he’s in town!!

he says he will take all of their research on the black oil in exchange for the boy… hmm…. hmm…. and he’ll starve the kid until then!!!

can poor dmitri even talk?? it looked like his whole face was burned and then sewn up!!

down in his office, mulder is drawing a spiral, when scully emerges to toss a newspaper at him. “shouldn’t that be my picture next to the headline?” LMAOOO it’s an article with his quote about how the conjecture around aliens is “false, dangerous, delusional”

she asks if this has anything to do with cassandra, and he says that “cassandra spender is living proof that that the truth i’ve so boldly been seeking for the last 5 years is the truth of a madman” oh! so he really must be in his doubting era, huh? also, he seems to be doodling or perhaps completing a crossword puzzle while saying this, which is so funny 

NOOO HE’S DOODLING A FUNNY MUSTACHE AND BEARD ONTO HIMSELF aww :( this is sad

“one more anal-probing, gyro-pyro, levitating-ecoplasm alien antimatter story, and i’m going to take out my gun and shoot somebody” “well! i guess i’m done here” <- LMAO SCULLY

SHE TELLS HIM TO HAVE A NICE LIFE LMAO as if they could ever part after their work was completed. these bitches are tied at the soul.

OHHHH scully reads cassandra's file and finds out that cassandra was ALSO taken at skyland mountain (!!) and that she had an implant at the base of her neck (!!)

scully looks horrified as mulder puts his coat on and leaves... is he going to the mountain?

well, skyland mountain is hopping tonight, regardless of if he is in attendance or not.

now we see cassandra, pressing her fingers into the window. and scully is here too?!?? she says she is sure she knows scully. from the abductions?!?

scully wants to ask some questions!!!

scully asks to sit down…. and she says that she learned about her from her son. 

ohhhh no… “you’re feeling it too, aren’t you?” (she reaches out to touch the base of scully’s neck) “you wake up at night knowing you need to be somewhere, but you don’t know where it is. like you forgot an appointment you didn’t know you had”

scully wavers for a bit, then says “that’s not why i’m here” <- SO IS IT TRUE?? SHE REALLY FEELS THOSE THINGS EVEN AFTER THE IMPLANT WAS REMOVED??

oh my god, she’s warning cassandra not to take the neck implant out because she will get very sick :( oh poor sweet scully, breaking her own promise to that agent to make sure his mom doesn’t get sick… 

cassandra says she would never remove it because she wants to go; the aliens have so much to teach us, and they’re great healers. maybe that’s why scully was chosen. damn. i think she meant that to be comforting, but it was really messed up :(

that's like saying "i know you were tortured and all of your autonomy stripped and you nearly died, but the wise and merciful aliens chose YOU, aren't you so special?" ouch!!! like a worse version of someone saying "it's all part of god's plan" when you suffer

OH NO… so many people are arriving at the mountain… and now i am putting together what is going on… the guy who thought he was supposed to go to a mountain but wasn’t sure of any details… all of the cars arriving… they’re going to get blown up!!! 

someone comes sprinting at this red headed guy as the same man with the burned face from the beginning of the episode lights this dude on FIRE!!!!

mulder saunters up the mountain the next morning in the mixture of fog and smoke, where there are dozens of bodies in bags. scully reports no survivors. they can’t ID the bodies, so no relation can be confirmed

“mulder, why are you tiptoeing around the obvious fact here?” <- OHHH! now she has to talk conspiracy into him!!!

he shoots down her theory with a quickness, saying that he can give her an explanation. 

mulder, please be careful, okay? this is a very SENSITIVE subject with her, and your bluntness may need some adjusting. she is talking about the most traumatic experience of her life, so maybe invalidating that is NOT the move. do not make her sound crazy for seeing a connection. no matter how emo you are over the fact that you no longer believe. thank you very much. peace and love.

another jump. marita points out that this incident at skyland mountain is the same thing she saw in kazakhstan! “this is no good, i don’t like being kept in the dark on this” says one of the dudes from the syndicate. which, like, yeah. it’s not good at all. astute observation. 

“someone’s going to great lengths to sabotage our work” is it... CSM???? or intergalactic alien warfare?

cassandra is crying, watching the news, while scully and mulder arrive. she called them!! and she says that this isn’t supposed to be happening; she knew those people who died- they were friends from a long time ago. 

she tells mulder and scully that they have to do something about it (again, no pressure). but in walks her son!!

ohhh, agent spender he says that all of the people who died were in a cult together with his mother? one where the aliens will come and taken them to heaven. mulder says they won’t be bothering her anymore. while scully gazes at cassandra’s finger prints on the window…

hmm. how the tables have turned. scully is the one thinking of believing the alien lady.

scully is clearly bothered, and this dude in a mustache and hat is watching her. DID HE JUST ENTER CASSANDRA’S ROOM???? STAY AWAY FROM HER!!

back to dmitri!!!! krycek is dropping him water!!! OH SHIT, MARITA IS THERE!!! she somehow got on the ship??

“you think you can pull this off, don’t you?” GET HIM‼️

WHAT THE FUCK?? HE GRABS HER LIKE THEY’RE GOING TO THROW HANDS, BUT NOW HE’S KISSING HER???? IS THIS CONSENSUAL??????

“they give me what i want… then i’m gonna rule the world”, mutters krycek between forceful kissing

hold on. i have to rewind that against my own will. because i cannot tell what is going on

that is more moaning than i cared for.

“we’ve got them on their knees, alex” <- SO THEY KNOW EACH OTHER???? oh my GAWD, that was a lot of tongue action. 

okay. so it seems that was consensual. and they left the ship to go escalate matters. with poor dmitri on the floor. 

gonna need a moment to process that one.

????

WHY WERE THEY BEEFING BACK IN KAZAKHSTAN.... was it part of some elaborate performance if they really did know each other already?? is that what they do before they make out? roleplay being on opposite sides of the cold war?

are they going to end the cold war (which i know in theory already ended, but c'mon, let's call a spade a spade) by letting the aliens take over and trusting them to put krycek in a position of power?

uh. okay.

scully is sleeping…. she sees something out her window?? and feels the back of her neck…. there is a ringing sound… what is going on!!! is she feeling the vague call?? how?!

krycek comes back to the ship, but dmitri is gone!! and here instead is well-groomed man!!! with a gun!! asking where the boy is!!!

krycek, you utter fool. was marita sent to distract you...? or did you truly get lost in the sauce and leave your prisoner unattended to go hook up...? the levels of backstabbing here are countless

scully arrives in mulder’s office the next morning, looking scared, but he’s already launching into the fact that there were metal implants in the necks of some of the skyland mountain victims. and that a few of them were involved with local UFO organizations!! and their medical records show they had been experiencing distress from believing they will be contacted by aliens!!

he is convinced that the government put those implants in them and then made them go to the mountain… but she says it doesn’t make sense. they weren’t abducted this time, they were led to their deaths- and why?

OH MY GOD??? “you know mulder… maybe you shouldn’t be so quick… to rule out what cassandra spender has to say”

she said that so slowly, like it was a confession she was scared to voice aloud, and i want to hold her tightly. but!!! the phone is ringing!! the voice on the other side is going to say cassandra’s dead, isn’t it?

they’re locking eyes and he nods, seeming to take her words to heart. please listen to her, mr. mulder.

IT’S MARITA??? she’s telling him about the incident in kazakhstan… and says she has someone who knows about it. dmitri is in her car… but again, i ask: can he talk?? and isn't there a language barrier anyway??

what sort of trickery is afoot…? she tells mulder to come here and wait for her call… but dmitri has gotten up, and the black oil is SEEPING from his eye and nose wounds!!! he reaches out and she gasps!!!

and scully is out the door by then, looking panicked. she gets a drink of water, and i fully thought she was going to be sick for a second which i was not ready for. oh, scully :(

okay, so mulder is off to meet marita at this random ass payphone… but no one is there…. just some smudges on the window??

he picks up the phone and calls agent spender. he’s looking for scully… but she isn’t with him!! and his mother is gone, too!!

cut to the sky… then a bridge… was scully summoned to this bridge??? does the implant’s influence linger?? the man who went into cassandra’s room is pushing her wheelchair, and dmitri is here with opened eyes. and so is scully!!!! 

everyone is looking up. pointing at something!!! run away, scully!! you know what happens next!!! either aliens or burning!!!

it looks like a UFO is right over their heads. scully is watching carefully. and she sees cassandra, who reaches out to hold her hand. but then someone is on fire!!!!!

the men without the faces are here with their fire sticks!!!

TO BE CONTINUED

MAN. WHAT THE HELL????

i have a lot of questions!!!

so can scully still feel the call to alien things despite the implant no longer being there?? is dmitri going to become one of those guys with no faces?? or is he healing?? because his eyes were opened!! and are the guys with no faces a rogue alien species, or are they working for the gulag that krycek is running?? what is krycek planning?? how does he know marita?? and where IS marita?? are they really working together, or double-crossing each other at the highest level of professionalism?

what about the black oil that is in him and mulder? is it ever going to come out of them the way it came out of dmitri? or make them all glowy like what happened in that one episode a while back? or does krycek not have to worry about it because he got his arm cut off? what was the whole arm cutting off thing even about, again?

how is scully going to escape this mass burning site? why did she go?? can the call not be resisted?? is it in her bloodstream?? if someone IS plotting to interrupt the colonization plan, who is it?? and why?? who would benefit from inciting alien warfare that could destroy many worlds?? how much of this is the government to blame for, and how much of it are the aliens responsible for?? why did the government agree to all this colonization stuff? did they have no say in the matter? and where is CSM? 

i predict that 15% of these questions will ever be answered. and that is if chris carter is feeling generous.

i get that mulder is having his crisis of faith, but i wish he was gentler with scully in this episode :/ please use kindness, my king. she has undergone the indescribable. she has every right to be suspicious. how quickly he falls into the ways of the rigid skeptic, believing there must be an answer that isn’t what is being shown to him! of course, he just shifts the blame from the aliens to the government, but still!

poor sweet scully, just wanting cassandra to be okay, warning her against removing the implant, and then being told that maybe she was chosen by the aliens for a reason. whether cassandra meant it to hurt or not (and i truly do not believe she meant it to hurt), being told that those terrible things happened to scully because they chose her must have felt horrible. 

and mulder is going to feel SO guilty for dismissing her when he learns where she ended up…

ARGH damn you, cliffhangers!!! i always fall for your tricks!!

with these alien-heavy episodes, i feel we sometimes lose the emotional weight of the series in favor of rapid plot development. i did not feel this way about today's episode, though. i thought we had plenty of emotional content between mulder doubting the aliens (which he had expressed earlier in the season, but i had not fully believed- and i assume that by the next episode he will have fully rejoined the alien train, especially since we, the viewers, know the alien stuff to be real thanks to the syndicate) and in general regretting all of his life choices. and scully had the terrible ordeal of reliving her own horrific experiences, yet still finding compassion for cassandra, and having to talk sense into mulder even if that meant having to think about what she has worked so hard to put behind her. AND we learn she still feels alien subliminal messaging!! what a terrible burden!!

well, what can happen next? stay tuned, i suppose!

[kukkirankindon]

Cuntitty over quality 🤑