#txf badlaa

[that--funny--feeling]

Why Existence is the perfect conclusion to TXF: my take on S8

William's storyline is the last X-File of the season (of the entire serie for some) and I think that it contains the essence of the show and the characters and that's why S8 should have been the last one in my opinion.

This analysis will aim to examine both positive and negative factors of S8. I'll try to do my best, but this is also a very personal meta. I ask you to hang on with me, if you can.

S8 overall impressions

I concluded S8 one week ago now and I had time to reflect with a cool head. I still think this is the worst season of the show (if we don't include 9 to 11 and I'm not going to talk about them here and I'd like to keep ignoring them :D ). Mulder's absence heavy influences the season obviously, the atmosphere is tragic and dramatic. It's a bit of a shock for the fans, since the light and fun air we had in season 6 and especially 7. Even though I liked Doggett and Reyes and I'm glad they joined the team, the mytharc episodes were way more then usual and as usual not handled well (starting with Within/Without), also some episodes were really just bad (Badlaa) and other make suffer Scully again and again uselessly (Roadrunners). How many times can Scully be afraid to have a miscarriage? She's pregnant and alone ffs, she had enough. All the fixation on her baby and people who wanted to hurt him or both of them really made me sick at some point.

Mulder's return makes things better, if we ignore his OOC behaviour in Three Words. I get his PTSD and feeling out of place in a world that went on without him. And I expected him to be territorial about the X-Files with Doggett, but he talks to Scully like he resents she's moving out of work because of her pregnancy. He'd be the first one to explode with joy for her (for them both), finding out she's going to have a baby. I'm glad he behaves normally from Empedocles on. Mulder's resurrection in This is not happening/Deadalive is a bit all over the place (they think he's dead but in the end he's not but meanwhile they buried him for three months? And then they need a vaccine for him to not turn into an aline but in the end they don't? O-ok. What's going to think Maggie Scully about all of this? Poor soul) but ok, let's go on.

Scully's pregnancy

Through all the season, we don't exactly know what to think about Scully's pregnancy. She wasn't supposed to have children after her abduction. Then Mulder tells her he found the vial with some of her ova. She takes them to Dr. Parenti and he says she has a chance. We also find out Dr. Parenti seems to be involved in aliens' experiments. In the end IVF doesn't work. So it seems whatever he tried to do with her, he failed, but the question remains: how is possibile for Scully to be pregnant?

Even Mulder doesn't know what to think. And I don't think his confusion is about the who's the daddy stupid topic, but about how it was possibile for her to carry a child in the first place. He's worried someone is using her again and she will suffer again. I don't think he has doubts that, experiments aside, he's the only one that can be the father of that baby. And even though he wasn't the biological one, he'd accept the role as the father all the same.

Aside from that, I think this baby is the first chance in Mulder and Scully's life to find their own normalcy, to start a life aside from work, to step aside from their save-the-world-responsabilities. They suffered enough for a lifetime afterall.

Getting out of the damn car

Mulder isn't in the FBI anymore. Scully is in maternity leave but she's not sure she'll be back. The X-Files were hard to leave behind for both of them, but they realized they would reach an end of the road sooner or later. And the end is now. We see a switch from Mulder's moment of closure about Samantha. He feels free and lighter, the atmosphere in S7 is fun and playful. As I tried to show in my fanvid, I think not only Scully, but Mulder too seeks a simpler life (maybe normalcy wasn't the right term. Neither Mulder nor Scully were ever proper afterall). At the end of S7 they both are getting there:

But even before Mulder's abduction, there's always the dilemma: Mulder's personal quest may be over, but what about looking for the Truth? Unmask the corrupt government and its secrets? This quest is maybe endless and both Mulder and Scully know about it.

Will the duty always be before the personal happiness?

Doggett & Reyes

Here they come, a skeptic and a believer again, to achieve the needed balance. I liked how the writers didn't try to replace Mulder with a similar character. Doggett is way different: he's an old school policeman, he seems reliable and tough. The sheriffs respect him and don't go as far away as possible from him like it happens with some other spooky and weird guy. He has male friends and does manly things. But he's also lonely and he's lost somebody he deeply cared for because of something he can't explain. So he's drawn to the X-Files in more ways than one.

Reyes always smiles and that made me fall for her. She's a breath of fresh air in a dark and melancholic season. She doesn't know well Scully, but she's ready to help, because she trusts Doggett and that's enough for her. She respects Mulder even before knowing him, because Scully does and that's enough for her. She's ready to do everything for a cause that she cares for and her amazement and sense of justice really reminded me of the feeling of the first season.

I adore how Scully and Doggett's trust is built case after case, I love how Scully sees something of herself in him (his need to find practical proofs and his stubborness on not believing the fantastic) and viceversa (Doggett is protective of her and her child because he doesn't want her to go through what happened to him). I love how Scully likes Reyes from day one, because she's fun and weird and she reminds her of her dead sister (this really warms my heart).

I love how Mulder obviously is territorial about his department with Doggett but then starts to respect and trust him enough with the X-Files. I love how Mulder sees how spontaneous and stubborn Reyes is and says she'd be useful in the X-Files.

The way both Mulder and Scully pass the baton to them really does things to me. Because maybe the quest to the truth really is infinite, but they understand they can find people honest and passionate about that just like them. And after all these years, they can rest, knowing that someone is still out there fighting.

William

As I anticipated, many things are said about this baby. He may be an hybrid by the aliens, he may be a supersoldier by the army, he may even be a real miracle by God. But I like to think it's none of these things.

William is really the union of Mulder and Scully. When the IVF fails, Mudler says:

Mulder, the furthest man from religion, says it to Scully, because that's what he does best: he believes. He never gives up no matter what (he neither did when Scully had cancer). He knows she needs to hear it and he needs it too. He's ready to believe in a miracle for her.

I don't think William is a miracle in the christian sense. I think he's a miracle, because it's the most improbable but plausible thing that could happen in a sea of paranormal possibilities. What if there was a 1% chance for Scully to become pregnant in a conventional way and they fell in that 1%? He's the essence of both their genetics and their points of view. What if he is just a normal boy?

Because it's theirs, their baby, their miracle. And if I have to choose what to believe, I want to believe that.

The end.

My TXF posts and videos.

[x-files-scripts]

The X-Files - “Badlaa”

Written by John Shiban

December 5, 2000 (2ND YELLOW)

Scully longs for the easy advantage of the skeptic...

Deleted scene:

Trimmed lines: Scully longs to see through Mulder’s eyes...

[harmonicabisexuals]

gotta be honest i am reallly struggling with s8 yall like the MOTW episodes have been extremely bad except for roadrunners and redrum

[bakedbakermom]

i love that absolutely nobody in badlaa is having a good time. scully and doggett are clearly suffering. the butt genie hates his life. obviously the victims are having bad days. the kids, the school administrator, the parents, the viewers ... everyone hated being involved in this episode.

[nachosncheezies]

we're watching season 8 rn and i just. i love it so much.

[backintimeforstuff]

txf eps with ✨ incredible vibes ✨, an inexhaustive list, including but not limited to:

pilot

deep throat

the jersey devil

e.b.e

darkness falls

little green men

blood

ascension

firewalker

aubrey

død kalm

own town

syzygy

grotesque

quagmire

wetwired

home

unruhe

tempus fugit/max

elegy

detour

kitsunegari

kill switch

patient x/the red and the black

the pine bluff variant

terms of endearment

alpha

the unnatural

millennium

rush

sein und zeit/closure

theef

chimera

patience

roadrunners

badlaa

4-D

audrey pauley

home again

ghouli

familiar

nothing lasts forever

[moiraiinesedai]

THE X-FILES | Badlaa (8x10)

“I shot a young boy.”

“The good news is, you’re wrong.”

“But it’s what I saw… with my eyes anyway.”

[spookytheory]

Okay but I do love how Scully is fully just like "I am a medical doctor about to perform an unauthorized procedure on a body. The subject is a caucasian male. Age, uh... I don't remember at this particular time. His height is about six feet and his weight is quite possibly subject to change" and just starts slicing and dicing.

Season 8 and she is so done with this shit

[agent-troi]

I'm not okay guys🥺😭😭

[enigmaticxbee]

S8 Rewatch - Favorite Moments

[dnscully]

what x-files episode should i watch? - motw-only edition (requested by @kittenscully)

(click to enlarge!!)

note: not all episodes are included and i didn’t rec much s8/s9

[scullybynight]

season 8, episode 10, “Badlaa”

[scullydubois]

thoughts on Badlaa (8x10)

Written by John Shiban   Directed by Tony Wharmby

India! That’s a new one!

A fat white man in the middle of India is obviously up to no good, just saying

Okay

He’s got some coins

This dude is a stalker

And a strong one

Did he take over the man’s body? I bet he did

Huh

Blood drained from his body...wild

A child’s print…

How’s this connected to the elementary school….oh

Don’t fat shame him

Massive damage to his digestive tract basically 

Doggett thinks someone yanked drugs out of this man...where the fuck is Mulder, I want him back

So he’s been “dead” for 24-36 hours

What is this dude’s objective

A 33 pound discrepancy there...

We’re going full Mulder mode!!

Living inside them….as a stowaway...that’s so fucking gross

This kid’s like the most talented actor on the show

Oooop

Scully’s looking pretty and shadowy

All the eye blood vessels were broken 

She’s about to perform an unauthorized procedure!! Did y’all hear that

Ewww

Oh shittt

Why in the hell….this is so graphic

Where is this dude

Uhhhh

John Shiban is on some type of crack I think

Mystics…

Mind powers!!

It’s all similar to the bounty hunter 

“It’s hard to believe in something when you can’t understand it”

She’s using the desk...that makes me want to float into space

Mulder….the way that Mulder would…

The squeaky chair makes it all so creepy

Oh my god

That’s traumatic as hell

I like this particular Scully/Doggett dynamic...it’s interesting but not mean

He ain’t really there, gentlemen

If Scully gets goddamn attacked….

He’s at the school I think

Yep

Break those windows

Everything’s happening very quickly

She shot him! Fuck!

Baby….

WHO THE FUCK ALLOWED THIS

She’s having a mental breakdown about not being as open-minded as Mulder, and I’m just trying to live my life!! But noooo, not happening

It did make sense...in some way it did

Dude?

Consensus: Quite an odd but unique story. I appreciated the mentions of Mulder without too much melodrama.

3.5 out of 5 stars

[thats-h0w-th3-light-g3ts-in]

Scully: I shot a young boy.

Doggett: The good news is, you're wrong.

Scully: But it's what I saw. With my eyes, anyway. Do you know what it's like not to be able to trust your own eyes?

Doggett: Then why'd you shoot him?

Scully: Because it's what the boy saw. And in an instant... I realized that it's what Mulder would have seen, or understood. Because that's just how he came at things - without judgment and without prejudice, and with an open mind that I am just not capable of.

Doggett: It's been a long night. Give yourself a break. This whole thing didn't make any sense.

Scully: No. It did. In some way, it did.

[TXF 8x10 Badlaa]

___________________________________

The way Scully breaks down

at the end of this episode

always get‘s me. You can see

how tired she is. Since working

the x files without Mulder she

has been trying so hard to honor him

— to think like him — to take his place,

in order to have a chance at solving

the cases. But it just isn’t her.

Now it had gone so far as that she

more or less blindly shot a child.

She doesn’t know anymore how much

longer she would be able to keep it up.

She doesn’t know who or what to trust

anymore without Mulder around to

reassure her. Now she can’t even trust

herself. Moreover, the irony of her

shooting at a young boy while herself pregnant

with her son she would later give away

isn’t lost on me. She doesn’t know it yet,

of course, but she senses that doom

lays ahead of her and that there is

essentially nothing she can do about it.

[pottdplant]

wait wait wait are we just supposed to believe that this dude faked his death and then just went back to india???

also while i’m here what was his goal in the first place i know they established it as revenge but like…. why go after those kids …….

[scenes-in-between]

Badlaa

“Stop him! Shoot him!” “I can’t.”

The world slows and stretches. Mulder’s voice is urgent in her ear. Yes you can! You know the truth. You know that’s not really Trevor there. Listen to your gut and take the shot!

The problem is that her gut is the one screaming, “No!” The logic and rationalism that she’s long held so sacred are, ironically, the ones telling her to pull the trigger. (“If that were really Trevor, he would be speaking. He would be afraid, asking you not to fire. He wouldn’t still be advancing.”) But she has been making such a concerted effort to suppress her knee-jerk skepticism, to see things as Mulder would see them, to keep an open mind, that now she’s simply paralyzed.

“Please! He’s going to kill you! He’s going to kill us all!” Quinton’s voice cracks.

“Quinton, Trevor, stop this nonsense before someone gets hurt!” Mrs. Holt cries.

You know that’s not Trevor! Take the shot! Take the shot before it’s too late!

Two against two. She knows Mrs. Holt is seeing the same thing she is - a boy, defenseless, unarmed. In what world can she possibly justify a terminal use of force? Her hand shakes, and everything in her rebels against the truth that Quinton sees. The one Mulder would see.

God help her if she’s right and they’re wrong.

She drops her aim at the last moment, as Trevor’s outstretched hand is nearly at her face, and fires into his hip. If she’s right, at least it won’t be a lethal shot. And if she’s wrong -- if Quinton and Mulder are right -- then that is where she needs to aim to hit the “little man” anyway.

It doesn’t make her feel better when the image of Trevor glitches before her eyes, flickering before disappearing and resolving into what Quinton saw all along. Her weapon drops and her shoulders slump; she resolutely swallows down the sob that wells up in her chest. She only distantly hears Agent Doggett enter the room and talk to her. Numbly, she turns and hands him her service weapon before walking out of the room.

When Trevor -- the real Trevor -- nearly collides with her in the hallway, she doesn’t even flinch.

***

“This whole thing doesn’t make any sense.” “No… it did. In some way, it did.”

She doesn’t want to admit, even to herself, how badly she wants a hug. She hadn’t thought it was possible to miss Mulder more than she already did, but in this moment, his absence is a sucking void that threatens to drain the life right out of her. It’s violent and all-consuming, made all the worse by the understanding that she hasn’t been so successful a surrogate for his viewpoint as she’d come to believe. She may have grown more open-minded than she used to be, but this time, it wasn’t enough. Maybe next time, it won’t be enough, either. How did she ever think she could do this?

“Agent?”

In her peripheral vision, she can see Doggett’s hand hovering over her shoulder. He sets it down, tentative, and when she doesn’t flinch or shrug it away, he gives her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

“I don’t know what kind of sense this makes to you, and I don’t know if I’ll ever understand it. But I think the bottom line is that no matter what you saw, you made the right call. I can’t be so sure I woulda done the same. So, from where I’m standing, it doesn’t matter how you got there. Point is, you got there.”

She sniffles, shaking her head. It doesn’t feel like enough. But maybe it’ll have to be.

***

Wherever Mulder’s hiding, if he’s even still alive, Doggett hopes he feels like shit. This pedestal Scully’s put him on, he sure as hell doesn’t deserve it. As far as Doggett’s concerned, “open-minded” doesn’t mean squat if you’re a selfish coward who’s run off and left your partner to try and live in your shadow for the rest of her life, never knowing what became of you.

Dana Scully is a damned good agent. More than that, she’s a damned good person. She doesn’t deserve one second of the misery Mulder’s put her through.

She turns around so fast he doesn’t have time to react, his arms freezing awkwardly in the air while she wraps hers around his ribcage. He starts to hug her back, but almost as quickly as she dove in, she jumps backward, eyes downcast and cheeks visibly reddening even in the low light outside.

“Sorry, I… I’m sorry. I don’t know why I just did that. That was unprofessional, I--.”

“No, no, it’s okay. You just startled me is all. Look, Dana--” She winces, and he shakes his head, trying again. “Agent Scully. You don’t need to apologize to me. What you’ve been through tonight, you got every right to be rattled by. So if hugging it out will help you feel better, well, that’s partners are for, right? I mean, I’d have offered earlier, but I didn’t want to overstep.”

He raises his arms again, shrugging slightly. After another moment’s hesitation, she relents and steps forward once more, accepting his meager offer of comfort. She doesn’t quite relax against him, and he’s not sure how tight to hold her, so it ends up being more of a stiff and stilted embrace than he’d have hoped for. Still, when she pulls back eventually, she doesn’t run away or refuse to look at him, so he figures it wasn’t completely the wrong move.

“Thank you, Agent Doggett.”

It makes him a little sad that she still feels this need to hold herself at a distance, like she’s still so burned from Mulder leaving that she won’t let herself get close to another partner like that again. He doesn’t take it personally, or begrudge her the need to protect herself, but he’s sorry she feels like she has to. This is maybe progress, though, her letting him in just a tiny bit. It’s something, anyway.

“Don’t mention it,” he says. “You know I’ve always got your back, right?”

She nods, setting her shoulders with a little sigh. “I’d, um… I’d better go give my statement. About the shooting.”

He watches her walk away, backlit by the flashing squad car lights, and heaves a sigh of his own.