#txf empedocles

[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.

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder's Alien Baby Baby Trauma In-Depth (Part IX): An Episode of Mad About You

It's hard to know how soon after Three Words this episode takes place, much less speculate what happened in-between.

The X-Files' timeline has always moved at an incredibly rapid, incredibly unreasonable pace; so we can assume less than a week (if not a day or two) has transpired since Mulder and TLG's break into the DOD. He and Scully must have had a conversation of some sort sometime afterwards (though that conversation might have taken different routes depending on the viewer's discernment, discussed at length here) based purely on their body language during the opening scenes and ensuing events.

Speculation aside, Empedocles is the first time Mulder draws direct lines between himself and the baby (despite the fact he already knew Scully's baby was his, post here.)

Let's go~!

THE MULDER MATING RITUAL

Knock knock, someone’s at the door. 

Scully appears from the right side of her kitchen, walking as fast as she can to the peephole. Not fast enough, apparently, because her visitor knocks, loudly, three more times. (Impatience, thy name is Mulder. At least that hasn’t changed, in spite of your absence and personal crisis.)

 Scully peeks through-- always cautious-- and is surprised to see who's there: her skeptical face reappears quite naturally at this latest, unexpected antic (or in expectation of a new, unexpected antic.) 

She opens the door to a casually relaxed Mulder, who quickly leans against the door frame right as Scully comes into view.

Mulder is here with aplomb, with a theatrical little plan that he intends to act out: the Mulder Mating Ritual, wherein he brings a trinket to the nest then dances around both of their feelings in an attempt to communicate without communicating.

It’s a sign that nature is healing-- more accurately, that Mulder is; and that he wants to reclaim his old life with Scully.

“Mulder…” Scully whines, adorably plaintive as she winds up an excuse not to go off on his latest goose chase. She also isn’t outright saying she can’t go, a sure Scully sign that she can be persuaded. 

Mulder senses that Scully is game-- or willing to be wheedled into one-- and commits fully to the Mulder Mating Ritual (as it shall now be called.) Whipping his head from its side-pivot (where he had indirectly assessed her mood and possible rejection), his eyes snap to hers, comedically wide and oozing with faux innocence. 

“What?” he asks, reeling her in. 

The interaction shows that something has been ironed out between them, whether in full or half-detail, between the conclusion of Three Words and opening of Empedocles. While we’ll never know exactly what was said, something had to have been based on the ease with which they speak to each other (closer to their Season 7 interactions, for example, than any season before it) and their body language throughout this scene.  

Scully-- who is not a fool and knows Mulder code down to a miniscule blink-- looks at him with an equal mix of resignation (for her peaceful pizza and shower moment) and blooming hope (for his return to buoyant Mulder Play.) Still, she tries to mitigate some of the impending disruption to her anticipated ritual, hiding a full smile while tumbling out a perfectly legitimate excuse to not go wandering (read: waddling) off somewhere. 

“I was just about to jump in the shower but I was waiting for the pizza man.” 

Immediately, Mulder sees an opportunity to tease and seizes upon it. 

“You got something going on with the pizza man that I should know about?” he responds, squinting in mock jealousy: a picture of the scorned husband who returned from his travels, bearing gifts and love, only to find his female consorting (and creating babies) with another. A copy of the bantery one he gave in Three Words.

This is incredibly important: Mulder is playing the role of jealous husband because he is secure in Scully’s loyalty, but even more importantly because he is secure in the baby’s paternity. As much as his partner knows him, he knows his partner: that Scully hasn’t betrayed or replaced him (discussed at length in-depth in this, this, this, this, this, and this post.) 

Scully is highly amused-- and charmed-- at this display of put-upon machismo. 

She digests his comeback a second before asking, “The pizza man?”, dipping her head incredulously at the stretches Mulder has always been able to reach. 

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Mulder continues, full steam ahead, “but you just said you were waiting for the pizza man to jump in the shower.”

He hides the sparkle in his eye with an slightly angry, slightly aghast expression, maintaining it while Scully jumps in with a “No--” 

“--what I mean was, the pizza man is usually late, and so…”

Scully trails off, intuiting that the angle her partner is playing is one of dense relentlessness: no matter how she tries to talk herself out of word traps, Mulder will find another angle and “aha!” his way to the top. Her intuition is confirmed as she examines his face, his second (mock-indignant) squint, and the sparkle in his eyes while he waits for her to verbally trip up. 

All excellent signs: he isn't treating her-- and their relationship-- like glass, instead reverting back to his annoying, endearing ways. 

Giving up, she cuts to the chase-- “Do you want to come in?”-- preferring that to outthinking Mulder’s next mental twister. Some games, she figures, are best fought on a full stomach.

Mulder, true to form, keeps up the mock squint and "Thank you" until he's certain he won that round. Like she suspected.  

As they both turn in, Mulder does a side-shimmy to hide his present while Scully huffs off, indulgently, to the bathroom (it looks like) to turn off the water-- a sure sign she knows her partner will stay a while. 

“I feel like I’m stuck in an episode of Mad About You,” she remarks, poking at this weird style of miscommunication more in-line with an everyday couples' squabbles and misunderstandings than their own particular partnership. In essence, calling Mulder out. 

Not to be outdone-- even while juggling a present and mentally running through places to hide it--  he stalls, “Well, uh, yeah--,” closes the door “--but small technicality--” spots the couch, locks the door, and stuffs the gift behind a pillow “--Mad About You is about a married couple, and we just work together.”

In any other set of circumstances, this would have been an accusation; but here, perversely, it’s a healthy sign of their relationship: Mulder wins an argument because neither of them are married, despite her pregnancy; and Scully grumbles over her defeat instead of his remark, knowing there was no ulterior motive behind his words. A mutual back-and-forth.

“Yeah, well, you know what I’m talking about,” she brushes aside, not wanting to dwell on Mulder's victory. And also bringing up, obliquely, a more domestic-focused conversation-- one that features a certain mad-for-each-other couple now on much better terms.)   

“I do, I do. What I’m, what I’m trying to say is, that, uh,” Mulder says, shifting his weight before putting his hands in his pockets and carefully reordering his thoughts.

His actions reveal Mulder isn’t here just to play around and leave-- he’s put careful thought and planning into this visit, finding a present for the baby (his baby) at his mother's and teasing his way into Scully’s apartment to open (in some manner of form) a more serious (perhaps permanent) conversation between them. 

Mulder’s silent for a few seconds, weighing how he wants to continue their interaction; but ultimately slips back to the comfortable familiarity of banter (although he will segue into more personal gestures: pointing at Scully’s belly, directing her to the gift with his eyes, misconstruing her “package” remarks because of his internal focus, leading them both to a touching exchange over his beautifully wrapped offering, etc.)

“We have no good reliable information on this man--”

Scully re-enters, eating out of his hand until Mulder's tired old trust no one schtick kills her enthralled curiosity. She majestically raises her head in judgment, the very picture of one bored and above-it-all, then tilts it and dons her work eyebrow (the one that tells Mulder she’s trying to figure out if he’s serious or not.)   

Sensing this shift (not a dangerous one, just one further away from his intended goal), Mulder swiftly re-centers the conversation away from conspiracy and back to jealousy. 

Comically raising his eyebrows and jovially pointing at the baby, he continues “--that the pizza man--” then abruptly stops, expression turning gentle as he watches the bump approach.  

“--is not above suspicion,” Mulder softly finishes, eyes still glued to his baby. 

Scully stares down at her bump in turn, unsure what Mulder means.

It would seem by her body language this is the first direct, personal reference he has made to the baby; and she carefully puzzles over his layered meaning before taking it in the spirit he meant it: personal. 

She sighs-- a little embarrassed, a lot relieved. Shyly keeping her head down, she whispers, “I see”; and, again, in any other circumstance, that could have been a dejected or lost or nervous response to a husband’s paternity concerns. Here, however, it’s another sign of health: that she understands Mulder is no longer avoiding the baby-- including it in his Mad About You scenario-- and that she is readjusting herself in this sudden onslaught of information. 

When she’s ready-- two or three seconds later-- Scully looks up with a knowing smile: she caught his meaning, got it, and is letting Mulder know she understood.   

And Mulder, delighted, turns the conversation to her prize, motioning his eyes back and forth from Scully to the couch. (He’s always loved giving gift-loving Scully surprises, after all.) 

She doesn’t understand at first, moving her head in janky segments until she catches sight of the wrapping paper. 

“Is that for me?” 

“Yeah,” Mulder replies, nodding and smirking over her suppressed, though obvious, delight. 

“Nice package,” Scully comments; and misses her partner’s flustered but touched “Thank you” as she bends to retrieve her bounty. “What’s the occasion?”

“Oh!” Mulder responds, catching the actual drift of her conversation. 

As a side note: her comment doesn’t seem to have been deliberately made to mess with Mulder: usually, Scully will fully face her partner when teasing him, wanting to see his face register and react to her comment. Here, however, she doesn’t. Further, she is so zeroed-in on the gift that she talks right over his thank you. So, the moment’s comedy seems to stem from karma getting Mulder for his morning games rather than Scully intentionally tripping him up. 

Voice quieting as he transitions to a more serious topic, Mulder explains, “I was going through some stuff, after my mother died, and, um….” 

He stops to bite his lip, and Scully looks down, respectfully giving him the space he needs; but, recovering quickly, he continues, and Scully reestablishes eye contact. 

“...it’s just an old family keepsake; and I wanted you to have it.” Mulder keeps his eyes down-- another sign that he’s serious about this-- and swallows before gazing at Scully again: nervous, obliquely giving away his own intentions. 

Scully catches, gets, and lets him know, again, that she’s caught, got, and understood his motives: “Well, I’m touched.” 

There’s a knock at the door, and Mulder lunges for a lifeline away from his vulnerability: “Little Caesar, I presume?” with another jealous deadpan, yet again. 

Her amusement is tempered: Mulder may want to escape his declaration, but it stays with her, giving her peace. He’s doing his best, given the circumstances; and, though Mulder hasn’t outright laid claims to the baby, they both know he’d considered it his. Moreover, Scully’s happy that not only does he consider it his, but he’s also taking steps to become more involved. He just needs time; and she’s had more than enough to process his abduction, his death, and his resurrection. Giving him some in exchange seems small-- and, really, when has it ever been too large a thing between them? 

Scully waits for him to turn away before smiling to herself: radiant, hopeful, content. 

Mulder, never one to to curb his actions or reactions in front of others, isn’t going to stop now, involving the pizza man in his shenanigans. 

And any sense of shame or embarrassment Scully might have felt being part of these shenanigans is long gone. However, he will not tie her to the mast of his behavior and take her down with him. “Hi. Just, uh, give it to the man with the funny look on his face,” she instructs, sitting down with her gift on her lap. 

An important side note: Scully, it seems, expects Mulder to bring the pizza to her while she opens her gift (which is proven correct by the end of Empedocles)-- a set-up-and-follow-through.  

Pizza boy is unfazed by their interactions. “Yeah, that’s $29.08.”

Cheapskate Mulder is snapped out of his playacting by the stunning reality of pizza over $10. “‘$29.08’? What’d she get on it, a tank of gas?” 

CONCLUSION

And that’s the last bit of fun they have before the next crisis. 

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[x-files-scripts]

The X-Files - “Empedocles”

Written by Greg Walker

April 3, 2001 (2ND PINK)

Mulder visits Scully at the hospital...

Scully opens Mulder’s gift...

[agent-troi]

Saw your tags-- interesting!

I've plopped myself firmly on the side of "Mulder knew the baby was his before Three Words even started" (kind of the reason I started the Alien Baby Baby Trauma series); but since I don't have any proof except a @x-files-scripts script and the chaotic energy of that one meme guy with his conspiracy boards and no sleep, I can't pinpoint any specific moment to prove my case. And, sadly, that one moment that "proves it" was cut from the final scene for maximum drama, uggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Anyway, pip pip cheerio; and I clink my sophisticated and not at alllllll out of sorts teacup to yours in salutations. ;))))

the whole “who’s the daddy” game confused the shit out of me to the extent that while I knew William was Mulder’s kid bc I had accidentally spoiled myself on some revival stuff, in-universe I thought the characters genuinely had no idea where he came from. obviously everyone assumed he was Mulder’s but I thought there was considerable doubt on Mulder and Scully’s parts as to whether he was part Mulder or part alien (because why wouldn’t she just tell him, if he really didn’t know? I guess that’s an argument for the idea that he knew, the reasoning being that they didn’t talk about it because they already knew). I feel like the difference between Mulder’s behavior in three words and empedocles indicates that there was still doubt at least on his end, and then something happened or Scully said something that made him realize the truth.

anyway tl;dr: JUST SAY THINGS SO PEOPLE DON’T GET CONFUSED FOR GOD’S SAKE

also i’m very hungry so my thinking faculties aren’t at their best rn lol

[anders-hawke]

wait so if it’s true that complications w the placenta can be from the father’s genes then that means all the shit they did to mulder could’ve caused scully’s pregnancy complications 💀

[harmonicabisexuals]

"that show is about a married couple, and we just work together" oh he is so unserious

[extra-terrestrial-blue]

Gifts

“Is it what you imagined?”

“Not even close.” She giggled. “But then it’s the other gift you gave me, Mulder.”

He searched her face.

“Courage … to believe … and I hope that’s a gift I can pass on.”

She held his gaze as he scooted closer to her. His fingers ghosted over her temple and down her jaw, butterflies fluttering low in his belly. He leaned in and gently pressed his lips to hers. He felt a puff of breath when he pulled back and opened his eyes.

“Stay, Mulder?”

He grinned conspiratorially. “Then you better cancel with the pizza man.”

[trusttnno1]

Mulder, you never fail to surprise me. I just wish I felt like eating right now. That's cool. we can just wait for the cheese to congeal and eat it later.

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder's Alien Baby Baby Trauma In-Depth (Part X): The First Touch, and Unconscious Limbo

While this next part is tinged with tragedy and filled with Mulder's reemerging self-doubt, a beautiful, unconscious moment does occur between he and Scully.

AN UNCONSCIOUS TOUCH

During her partner’s entertaining whine over the price of pizza in these our modern times, Scully’s been slowing up in the background. Unable to silently endure the sudden, searing pain she’s in, she gasps.

Mulder immediately twists around to inspect the situation-- already suspecting something’s wrong. Already fearing something’s wrong. 

That fear is interesting: Mulder is known for his blank panic faces, but this one is new. In the wake of his abduction, torture, and resurrection, he is grappling with PTSD and his own feelings of helplessness and uselessness (posts here and here.) All it takes is the hint of an emergency to reveal that he needs Scully to be okay to be “okay” himself. 

When she doubles over, taking her hand from the present to clutch her belly, he swings from worried observation to worried vocalization (“Scully?”), turning further to get a better angle from where he’s standing. 

And when Scully doesn’t respond-- as she would if her cramps were the first wave of serious contractions, or as she has with past bothersome but minor afflictions--  he shifts from worry into controlled panic (“Scully!”), ordering the pizza man to dial 911 while rushing to her side. 

Here, an important moment happens: Mulder initiates contact for the first time since his resurrection.

As he barrels over and kneels next to his partner, his hand reaches for Scully's arm to steady her-- an instinctual, unconscious action. In this time of danger, neither he nor Scully notices.

This is the first pregnancy related emergency Mulder has been around to observe-- perhaps the first he's aware of-- and he sits, carefully, tilting his head around to catch her eyes. Calm, still, when she releases her control long enough to gasp for breath.

In Mulder's absence, Skinner had haunted Scully's footsteps like a shadow, tenaciously guarding her secrets. Doggett looked after Scully when she’d been acid-ed in Without, saved her from a spinal slug in Roadrunners, gently chastised her for not telling him the truth in Per Manum, and tried to spare her the grief of seeing her loved one dead in This Is Not Happening. When she was hospitalized here or there, her boss, her partner, and even the Lone Gunmen held down the fort to keep her and Mulder’s baby safe. 

Now that he's here and Scully is in peril, he does what he can as naturally as breathing.

Unfortunately, this hard-won security lasts a very little time.

The scene cuts to their arrival at the hospital, with Scully strapped to a gurney, no longer conscious, and Mulder walking along beside it, doing his best to keep her from being jostled-- to help at all, in any way-- while nodding tightly and emphatically, mouth open (a classic panicking Mulder sign), to the on-call nurse’s identifying questions.

“She’s got, what? Abdominal pains?”

“Her doctor is Dr. Speake,” he insists, and doesn’t that point to a conversation they must have had off-screen? 

This confirms Mulder and Scully have spoken about the baby at least once: he knows her doctor, is allowed on the ambulance, and is acting as her emergency contact… unaware that, as the show implies, Scully changed her medical papers after his death. 

The nurse moves in, shoving Mulder aside and turning her back dismissively-- quite effectively butting him out of the unfolding situation.

“He’s been called.”

“She,” Mulder insists, angrily, fighting back against this unexpected assumption and exclusion. 

“Who are you?” she barks; and Mulder is pulled up short a step or two behind his (former) partner’s gurney. 

In the past, Mulder and Scully have always relied on each other in a crisis. After his abduction, torture, and “rebirth”, Mulder has been struggling internally, fearing he can’t hold up under the strain of his new existence, fearing that life has moved on without him, and fearing that his issues will only drag Scully back. That was resolved somewhat (off-screen) sometime after Three Words; and Mulder, finding he was able and willing to battle back his new demons, waltzed over to her apartment for a fresh start, family heirloom for the baby in hand. 

But now he has been judged worthless and axed from Scully’s crisis. 

“Who are you?” means he’s not on the paperwork, means Scully hadn’t updated it since his return, means she could have if his subsequent distancing hadn’t needed to be worked through first. It means Mulder’s traumas did, indeed, have a negative effect of some sort on Scully’s life (as he feared, post here); and it also means he can lay no claim to his unconscious partner currently being wheeled through the emergency room. 

“Are you the husband?” the nurse asks, giving him the standard inch. 

Mulder, however, is so overwhelmed by his dawning realizations that he fumbles (truthfully stuttering “N-no”) and summarily dismisses himself from the nurse’s considerations. “Then you wait outside.” 

Realizing he’d flubbed his chance, he leans from side-to-side to catch a fleeting glimpse of Scully, kicking himself as she disappears (and not noticing Agent Doggett’s approach.) 

“Agent Mulder, what happened?” springs into view; and, thus confronted with Doggett (whether he likes it or not), Mulder snaps out of his personal thoughts to give the intruder a suspicious once-over. 

“How’d you find out?” he demands quietly, conspiracies pinging around his head a mile-a-minute. 

“I was droppin’ somethin’ off-- the landlord told me,” answers Doggett, confused by Mulder’s immediate stonewalling. 

From Doggett’s perspective, he’s already saved Mulder’s life at the DOD; and it’s been a bit (of undesignated time) since then-- haven’t Mulder and Scully talked? And if so, why is Mulder still suspicious of his movements? 

From Mulder’s perspective, Doggett continues to have suspiciously perfect timing, arriving at just the right moments to hand over just the right alibi. 

To further hammer home the message being beaten over Mulder’s head, the same nurse doubles back to prod Doggett-- “Are you the father?”-- a reinforcement of how excluded and unnecessary Mulder feels in his own life: towards Scully and the baby, Scully and Skinner and the files, and Scully and Doggett and their partnership. 

Yet Mulder isn’t cowed by these assumptions: he’s (assumingly) vowed to do things right (or as close to it as six months gone and a grave of trauma will allow), and is refusing to give up ground to Doggett the interloper. Strangely (or not), the territorialism Doggett inspires continues to push Mulder past his here-and-there fugue and possible lethargy. 

Mulder’s on the brink of saying something (either a snipe at Doggett or the nurse or the situation at large) when his phone chirps.

He jerks at it, then jerks away from both listeners, floating a half-hearted, “Excuse me,” in his wake-- not noticing or caring to notice that Doggett is watching him walk away, open-mouthed at the thought that he is simultaneously shirking his parental claim over Scully's baby and waving off the chance to probe the nurse for more information. (Overall, Doggett's partner’s baby daddy continues to fall further in his estimation.) 

“Mulder?” Mulder says into the phone. 

“Special Agent Fox Mulder?”

“Speaking.” 

“Agent Mulder? My name is Monica Reyes. We never met.” 

Mulder has a very interesting reaction here: he pulls his lips in to chew on them-- a self-soothing measure similar to his one in Sein und Zeit, post here-- while weighing the voice on the other end. That gesture is kicked into overdrive when Reyes clarifies, Melissa Scully-style (post here), “Not since you’ve been alive, I should say”: he slams his eyes shut, tightens his jaw, and hunches his shoulders, physically steadying himself after the reference to his former deadalive status. 

In essence, Mulder freezes (post here.) 

Two explanations present themselves: 

1. Mulder doesn’t know who Monica is and assumes this is a new shadowy informant, checking in right as Scully is hospitalized. This spells doom and disaster on a greater scale than he was anticipating, especially combined with Suspicious Agent Doggett’s suspiciously perfect timing. 

2. Mulder does know who Monica is, and is guarding himself against a relay of information gathered during a dark time in his personal history. 

The circumstances don’t warrant a prolonged Freeze; so, per his usual modus operandi, Mulder shifts into interrogation mode.  

“Who?” he demands, turning away from his locked-in Freeze state by literally pivoting to the side. Still, Mulder hasn’t fully replaced his defenses yet-- the unintentional jab was too deep-- and listens with anxious trepidation for Monica's answer.

He licks his lips-- another self-soothing tactic-- but is snapped out of discomfort when his caller mentions “FBI” and “Agent Reyes.” The job, as always, allows Mulder to immediately disconnect and keep distance from himself. 

“I know this is out of the blue, but I have a case I need your help on.”

Ah, the old Mulder siren call. 

Why would Mulder take a case while Scully is in the emergency room? 

We aren’t given enough in the episode to justify his position (not by a long shot), but there are a few hints we can Blues Clues together.  

Mulder looks back at Doggett, watching him chum up with the nurse and feeling (again, again) further isolated. Doggett’s demeanor and candor have already won him favor in areas Mulder no longer has access to: in the state of heightened paranoia he now lives in, post abduction, he can’t look a person in the eye without suspecting a conspiracy over their shoulder: Skinner and Scully trying to prevent him from sneaking into the basement (post here), Scully and TLG trying to keep him off a case (posts here and here), Doggett showing up at all the right-wrong times, a good moment unfolding into yet another disastrous nightmare, and a mysterious, alluring call popping up out of the blue. 

Mulder lives to be distracted from his pain: bringing work home to stave off his childhood nightmares, watching Ed Wood’s campy horror movie to free up his subconscious to make more work connections, watching older, simpler film to focus his attention away from the crummy present. 

As discussed in previous parts, Mulder was existing hollowly during the events of Three Words, aptly described by another abductee he interviewed in the past: “I can’t be sure of anything anymore.” That was managed (or shoved to the side) by the panacea of the files. Work is the siren call away from his present: Scully incapacitated and unable to fight for them; a nurse who’ll likely kick him out if he protests; and a partner’s partner who is hanging around, won’t leave, and won’t be near whatever case Monica might be suggesting. 

Still, Mulder resists, intrigued but exasperated. 

Turning continually back and forth from the Doggett-nurse tableau with an irritated sigh, he rejects the offer kindly. “I can’t help you, Agent Reyes. For so many reasons,” he adds, a touch of heightened stress peaking through. 

“I think you should contact Agent Doggett,” Mulder continues, eyes lighting up at the thought of Doggett leaving. “At the X-Files,” he clarifies, somberly, mouth tightening (again) while swallowing down a pang of longing. 

“I can’t call Agent Doggett because it involves him,” Reyes insists. 

Thus, the case presents itself as a chance to get proof-positive dirt on his rival. Scully may be in critical condition, but he can at least save her somehow, someway, by doing what he does best: using the truth to eliminate a threat. 

Mulder takes one last look back, noticing that the on-call doctor has joined Doggett and the nurse; and, after weighing their faces and responses against a typical emergency, is convinced, enough, that Scully isn’t in immediate danger. 

Reyes’s “I’m in New Orleans, but I can be in D.C. in a few hours. It’s important, Agent Mulder. Very,” finalizes his decision; and he pulls in his lips and closes his eyes once more (a repeated self-soothing gesture/action/motion) as he gives in and agrees. 

“Call me when you get here,” he decides, jutting out his jaw in protest at the entire situation.  

Mulder walks back to Doggett, where the other man politely-- despite his personal thoughts-- relays, “They’re telling us not to worry. They’re running some tests.” 

And despite his own personal judgments against Doggett, Mulder’s face opens a little in relief as he nods. Worry lingers in his clenched jaw, but does not deter from his new mission. 

MULDER HAS CHANGED

Thus, we have born witness to two reversal and shifts in Mulder’s psyche: reaching out once more to Scully (though in crisis), and only succumbing to the call of a case when it could directly benefit her.  

Mulder has changed after his abduction, more than he is currently aware.

Throughout the rest of the season, Mulder only accepts cases that will help Scully-- Empedocles’s dirt on Doggett, Alone’s begrudging assistance for Scully's sake, Essence-Existence’s existential threat on Scully and the baby’s life-- but breaks that rule, twice, for cases that directly relate to his trauma-- Three Words’s DOD break-in, Vienen’s black-oiled oil rig workers, and even, loosely, Dr. Parenti’s IVF experiments. Mulder swings from disinterested apathy (not wanting to return to work until jealous and territorial) to shoot-from-the-hip reaction. He is no longer pursuing X-Files because of the fascination he has for the unknown, or for the shadowy men peeking from shadowy corners. He is in limbo, unaware he is in limbo: wanting to hoard the files but unable to work them.

The X-Files will always make him feel alive-- that hasn’t changed-- but there is something seriously wrong that is both draining him and jumping him from danger to danger to danger or from bleeding heart to frantic request to terrifying personal loss.  

In short, Mulder is traumatized, burnt out, and struggling. Though leagues better than he was in Three Words-- more open communication, free-and-easy with Scully, better small-scale coping mechanisms-- he still swings wildly back and forth between forward progress and baffling backwards regression. That pattern continues the rest of Season 8; and it holds that, if Mulder hadn’t been forced out of the FBI when he was-- or if Scully hadn’t survived his stunningly idiotic plan in Essence-Existence-- there would have been a serious mental collapse, sooner or later. 

CONCLUSION

All good things come to abrupt ends; but not all tragic events are without silver linings. 

The seeds for that touching scene in Empedocles have been sown, and Monica is (unwittingly) setting both men on a path to understand each other better. 

And Scully finally gets some good-- though often interrupted-- rest, so there’s that. 

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[foxmoulder]

the x files s8e17 - empedocles

[enigmaticxbee]

S8 Rewatch - Favorite Moments

[x-files-scripts]

The X-Files - “Empedocles”

Written by Greg Walker

April 3, 2001 (2ND PINK)

Trimmed lines as Mulder brings Scully a gift...

Doggett pins Mulder up against the wall...

Cut line: Mulder threatens to strike back...

Reyes tries to comfort Doggett as he holds back his emotions...

[smulder]

Watching Empedocles together

[anders-hawke]

Happy Birthday Fox Mulder! (October 13th, 1961)

“Now, when convention and science offer us no answers, might we not finally turn to the fantastic as a plausibility?”

[pottdplant]

“are you the husband?” “no”

then can you two stop acting so married

[samanthamulder]

fixed it :))