#txf: 4-d

[x-files-scripts]

The X-Files - “4-D”

Written by Steven Maeda

October 5, 2001 (YELLOW)

Trimmed lines:

Reyes kisses Doggett goodbye...

[ferdieinceladoncity]

did all the good gifmakers just tap out by season eight and nine of the x-files what is this I just watched 4-D and I have SO many thoughts and no pretty gifsets to ramble in the tags of! I ask for so little, and yet-

[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

[scenes-in-between]

4-D (Part 1)

“Let me get some plates.” “Plates! For crying out loud, who eats Polish sausage with plates?”

His cell phone trills in his pocket, and he digs it out, swallowing quickly before answering. 

“John Doggett.”

“Where are you?” Brad Follmer barks in his ear.

“Sir?”

“We followed you to the alley, but you’re not here. Where did you go? Do you still have eyes on Lukesh?”

“Sir, I’m… afraid you mighta dialed the wrong number. This is Agent Doggett. I’m not on duty today.”

“Damn it, John, going vigilante isn’t going to solve anything. We will make him pay for what he did to her, but we have to do it the right way. Now tell me where you are!”

“I’m…” He flounders, walking toward the kitchen. Maybe Monica will have some idea what on God’s green earth Follmer is talking about?

The kitchen is empty. The hell? There’s only one doorway in and out, and he definitely saw her go in there.

“Monica?” he says, turning in a circle. 

He only realizes he’s lowered the hand holding his phone once he registers the sound of Follmer yelling through the tinny speaker somewhere near his hip. He quickly brings the phone back to his ear.

“...isn’t going to bring her back! Do you hear me?! I am ordering you to stand down!”

“Sir, with all due respect, I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. I’m at Agent Reyes’s apartment right now. The one she’s just moved into. If I can… she was here just a second ago.” Leaving the kitchen, he walks back into the front room, holding the phone away again briefly while he shouts. “Monica! Where’d you go?”

“How did you… Her new place in Georgetown? You expect me to believe you got all the way over to Georgetown on foot in five minutes?”

“I’m telling you, I don’t know where you think I was supposed to be this morning, but I’m not--”

He gets to the front door, which is not only closed now but locked, with the deadbolt engaged. He knows for a fact it was standing wide open when he got here.

“I’m… not…”

“Agent Doggett, listen to me. I think you might be in shock. Just tell me where you really are, and I’ll send someone to come get you.”

“Yeah, sir, I’m gonna have to call you back.”

“Wait! Joh--”

He hangs up the phone and hits the speed dial for Monica’s cell number. “Come on, come on, pick up,” he mutters as it rings, ignoring the interrupting beeps as Follmer tries to call him back, then cursing when it goes to voicemail. He hangs up again, and when his phone rings almost immediately -- still Follmer -- he shuts it off entirely, scowling.

The apartment is nice, but it isn’t huge, and he walks through every bit of it. She is nowhere to be found. On his second pass through the kitchen, he notices that the paper bag and the other sausage are both gone. None of this makes any sense. He was here the whole time, and he never saw her leave. It’s like she vanished into thin air, only that’s impossible.

Isn’t it?

***

He’d thought he was so clever, leaving his truck at the Hoover Building this morning and avoiding the nightmare that is Georgetown street parking on a Saturday; now he’s regretting that decision, big time, as he hoofs it the eight blocks to Agent Scully’s place. He hates to bother her on the weekend, but he honestly has no idea where else to go.

His jaw falls open when Mulder answers the door.

Bizarrely, Mulder looks equally surprised to see him. “Agent Doggett, I-- we just heard. Skinner called, and… I assumed you were at the hospital. Scully’s headed there now.”

Hospital? First he’s supposed to be in some alley with Follmer, and now a hospital? He holds up his hands.

“Look, I don’t know what in God’s name is going on here, but I haven’t understood one single word I’ve heard in the last half hour. First Follmer, and now you… and when the hell did you get back, anyway?”

Mulder frowns. "Back from where?"

"How the hell should I know? Agent Scully never said. Told me she had no idea where you went, either."

"And… when was that?"

"Come on, Mulder, cut the crap! You don’t get to just up and take off for five months and then play dumb about it!”

“No, I’m not-- Look, why don’t you come inside for a minute?” Mulder steps back, opening the door wider. “I’m not quite sure what’s going on here, but I’ll call Scully, and we can try to figure this out, all right?”

Doggett wants to argue, but it’s not like he’s got any better ideas at the moment. He walks past Mulder into the living room and immediately notices that it’s been rearranged since the last time he was here. Granted, that was a few weeks ago, but it looks really different, not just in terms of furniture placement but in the piles of papers on the coffee table and the second computer on the desk. It has the distinct look of cohabitation, and not just recent cohabitation, either.

“Wait, how long have you been back?” he asks, turning back toward Mulder. “I just talked to Agent Scully three days ago, and she never said one word about it. But from the looks of this place, I’d say you’ve been here at least a week. Maybe more.”

Mulder closes the front door and looks at him with concern. “You and Agent Reyes had dinner here last weekend. Are you saying you don’t remember that?”

“What are you talking about, dinner? I spent last weekend rebuilding my back deck. Only place I went was the hardware store.” 

“That… doesn’t make any sense.”

“You’re telling me! Either I’m dreaming or I’m losing my mind, but not a damned thing is making sense to me right now.” He doesn’t like the careful, almost pitying look Mulder gives him in response. “You think I am losing my mind. I’m telling you, I’m just as sane as I was when I woke up this morning. It’s the whole rest of the world that’s gone nuts.”

“I think,” Mulder says gently, “that we can’t always expect how trauma will affect us.” He walks over to the phone, picks up the handset and starts dialing. “And I also think that Scully will know what to do. Why don’t you sit down?”

Doggett has no desire to sit down, but Mulder walks away before he can argue, going into the bedroom and closing the door. So he paces, instead, trying to put the pieces together from everything that has transpired since Monica left the room to get plates. That was the point where everything went off the rails. 

Follmer said something about shock, and now Mulder’s talking about trauma, but it was a completely normal Saturday until Monica disappeared. Did he fall and hit his head? Is he lying unconscious on her floor right now with a brain aneurysm? Wouldn’t he remember something like that happening? 

“She’s on her way,” Mulder says, emerging from the bedroom. “She wants me to ask what you remember about this morning. What happened before you came here?”

“I got up, drove into the city, and left my truck at the Hoover Building. Took a cab over to M Street, picked up a couple of Polish sausages from Stachowski’s, and walked to Monica’s new place. We talked for a minute, she went into the kitchen, and that’s when everything went haywire.”

Mulder frowns. “According to Skinner, you and Agent Reyes were on a stakeout this morning with AD Follmer. You don’t remember anything about that?”

“Why in the hell would we be on a stakeout? It’s a Saturday, and even if it weren’t, we don’t have any active cases right now, anyway.”

“But you remember driving to work,” Mulder points out.

“Only because I didn’t want to deal with parking over on this side of town!” 

“All right.” Mulder holds up his hands. “So you said Agent Reyes went into the kitchen, and then everything went haywire. What do you mean by that?”

Doggett gives a frustrated sigh, then recounts the whole ridiculous series of events, between Follmer’s call and Monica’s disappearance and how the open front door was closed and deadbolted.

“And before you ask if maybe she went out a different way and I just didn’t see her leave, not a chance. There’s one doorway in and out of that kitchen, and I was standing in front of it the whole time.”

Hearing himself say everything out loud, he knows exactly how insane it all sounds. He’s beginning to have a healthy dose of sympathy for some of the people he’s dealt with during his time on the X-Files. To Mulder’s credit, he’s looking at him more thoughtfully than dismissively.

A faint cry from the other room causes both men to glance toward the bedroom door. Mulder looks at the clock on the wall and gives a wry smile, shaking his head.

“Right on schedule. Kid’s like a Swiss watch these days. Excuse me a minute.”

Resisting the urge to resume pacing, Doggett walks to the kitchen to get himself a glass of water. On the counter beside the coffee maker is a framed photo he’s never seen before; in it, Mulder is holding baby William, who looks to be a couple of months old. 

“What the hell?” Doggett murmurs, picking up the frame.

He flips it over and takes the frame apart to extract the photograph, looking for the date printed on the back.

11 Jul 2001

How is that possible? Mulder had been gone, what, six weeks by then? He’s pretty sure Agent Scully, fearful though she was for Mulder’s safety, still would have mentioned it if he’d swung back through town for a visit.

He’s still holding the photograph when Mulder walks into the kitchen with the baby in his arms.

“Explain to me how this is possible,” Doggett says quietly. “How is there a photo of you from July when I am pretty damned sure you were nowhere near here?”

Mulder sets about making a bottle of formula. “You keep talking about my being gone, but the fact is, I never went anywhere.”

Doggett narrows his eyes. “What are you saying, you were just hiding here the whole time? You expect me to believe that?”

“I don’t expect you to believe much of anything,” Mulder says dryly. “But I’m starting to think that whatever’s going on here is more than just trauma-induced memory loss.”

“You know, that’s the second time you’ve mentioned trauma, but I’ve still got no idea what you could possibly mean. This morning has been weird, no question, but unless all of this is one big hallucination because I fell and hit my head or something--”

The front door opens, and he looks up to see Agent Scully walking in, her eyes wide and worried. “John,” she says as her gaze finds his. “How did you get here?”

Things must really be bad if she’s calling me John. “I walked.”

“From Dillon Park?” she asks, brow creased in confusion.

“What? No. From Monica’s apartment.” Exasperation threatens to completely overwhelm him. “Would somebody please start talking sense here? AD Follmer says I’m supposed to be in some alley, Mulder says I’m supposed to be at the hospital, and now you’re talking about Dillon Park. What the hell is going on with everyone today?! How is it possible that my partner disappearing into thin air is not the most confusing thing that’s happened in the last hour?!”

“Disappearing…” Scully looks pained. “John, Monica’s dead. She was killed trying to apprehend a suspect this morning near Dillon Park. You and AD Follmer were watching from the surveillance van.”

“What are you talking about?!” he explodes, and William starts to cry. He shoots an apologetic look over at Mulder, who bounces the baby gently to settle him, and then lowers his voice to continue. “I don’t know who told you that, but not one word of it is true.”

Scully shakes her head sadly. “I’m so sorry, but--”

“I believe you,” Mulder interrupts.

Doggett and Scully both look at him in surprise. “What?”

“Too much doesn’t add up,” he says. “How you got all the way across town so fast. Why you think I’ve been gone for five months.” He glances at Scully as he says this, and her eyes widen; Doggett watches an entire silent conversation pass between them in the course of a few seconds before Mulder turns his attention back to him. “What do you know about the theory of parallel dimensions?”

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

girl help you're making me ship monica and doggart xD can i ask why you like 'em? :3c

Doggett* I am having an absolute ball watching you misspell all my blorbos' names ahsjdhsjsk

OK SO this is fairly new to me but I will *try* to explain my current obsession with them shsjsbsjsk

basically I think the short answer is that they're just a really cute, healthy relationship? whether it's platonic or not, that remains true. and of course I like something like that, especially since it's kinda the "friends to lovers" trope.

the thing is that their relationship kinda fits that post you made, about characters who know each other from before the narrative begins and who are, in a lot of ways, a package deal throughout — Doggett is around for half a season before Monica shows up, but it's actually him who brings her in to help; they'd worked on a case years before (something... very personal to him, as a matter of fact) and it's implied that they're pretty close friends before we even ever see them interact. Monica doesn't live or work in the same area as the rest of the main gang at first but once she does get reassigned and joins everyone else, they're practically inseparable.

PLUS they just generally have a really healthy seeming relationship bc they're very open and don't have the kind of tension MSR sometimes do lol. openness and honesty make all the difference tbh, not everything has to be super complicated 😂

(i say that with all the love in my heart for Mulder and Scully; they have their problems but they're SUCH a good pairing and I find their Issues(TM) really interesting bc it gives so much insight into them, ya know? and for the most part, stuff does end up getting worked out between them — just something simpler is kinda refreshing at times lol. MSR is still THEE ship tho)

also lol it's literally canon that they're in love, idk if anything ever comes of it tbh but it is VERY VERY clear even before anything is ever said about it. absolutely unhinged shippy behavior.

[enigmaticxbee]

✖️✖️✖️ 9x04 4-D

The one where... Doggett is mysteriously shot and Reyes thinks they’ve got a parallel universe situation.

Best: Cool concept, with an emotional core that makes it much more effective than if this was happening to some other characters and Doggett & Reyes were just investigating.

Worst: Do I wish we got Mulder & Scully dealing with this situation instead and getting that hug at the end? Yes, yes I do.

✔️ Flashlights

❌ Woods/Desert

❌ Slideshow

❌ Autopsy

✔️ Evidence Disappears

✔️ Scully Misses It

✔️ Mulder Ditch (I hold this one against the show, not Mulder)

❌ Sunflower Seeds

❌ Voiceover

❌ Catch Phrase

❌ Scully is a Medical Doctor

❌ Mulder is Spooky

❌ Scuuullllaaaaayy! Muullllderrrr!

❌ Fox/Dana

❌ Inappropriate Touching (that I am here for)

❌ Casual Scully

❌ Casual Mulder

❌ Trench Coats

❌ Bad Tie Watch

❌ Glasses Watch

✔️ Taking! It! Personally!: Reyes

50 States: DC x89 (44/50)

Investigate: Apart

Solve Rate: 75%

✔️ Bechdel Test

MSR: 🐝

Goriness: 👽👽

Creepiness: 👽👽👽

Humor: 👽👽

Rewatch Thoughts:

William check-in: No mention, Scully’s on the sidelines this episode

Missing Mulder: No mention 😢

Cool apartment Reyes

This episode is doing a lot of work to try to make us care about Doggett and Reyes’ partnership, and it’s pretty effective. I like their hospital chats about parallel worlds - does Doggett somehow have more personality using this text communication device?

I think during the original run I assumed they were setting up a Doggett/Reyes romance - I can’t really remember what I thought about it at the time, but I’m fully on the Reyes is gay train now (or bi, she’s canonically had a relationship with Cary Elwes - if the show were made now I really feel she’d canonically be queer)

Love that Scully’s come to terms with it enough to share the story about her father’s visitation - she knows that Reyes will be open to it, so she feels comfortable sharing something that personal, something that scared her for so long. It’s also not a big deal the way that confessing this to Mulder would have been at certain points.

Well, Brad is a good shot at least.

I like the ending, that Doggett sacrifices himself so she’ll get her Doggett back - I just wish that it didn’t reset time with Reyes as the only one that remembers what happened (for some reason). What if Doggett had a whole adventure that we didn’t get to see in the world where Reyes had her throat slashed and was just as relieved to see her at the end?

[chavisory]

Either Chris Carter is the worst at timelines and the X-Files never actually had a “writers room” or “show bible” ...or Scully misremembers the year in which her father died in “4-D.”

(I know which one it is.)

[asifyoudidntknow]

[tellmethisisnottumblisnextfuckup]

Talking about newbies: I heard (actually read but whatever) the words Larry stylinson the first time about 4 month ago. At that time I had a lot of time. I mean A LOT. Just finished Uni, no job yet, in the midst of a pandemic.

So I googled Larry stylinson, couldn't believe that that should be true. I mean Harry Styles? And Louis Tomlinson? I was never a big one direction fan, just knew (but really liked) the biggest songs of them. But I knew all of the boys, I knew of the relationships and the baby. I knew everything the media wants the public to know about them. So how could those two be in a relationship? That's ridiculous, right?

And then I saw that one clip of Harry caressing Louis arm and Louis moving his arm, leaning into the touch while zayn tries to cover them. You all know the one I am talking about.

Such an intimate moment, not for the camera, no joking around. Just pure love.

I saw the look Harry gave Louis at the xfactor diaries, where he wanted to kiss Louis so badly, just seconds away to really do it.

And I just knew it. I knew that those two are just madly, deeply in love.

So yes it is quite easy to become a larrie, even six years after they where lastly seen together. Even when you have seen nothing while it really happened. Even when the only things you know, the things the media, the management and god knows who wants you to know are.

The Palisades touch yes! And the almost kiss at those stairs on TXF diaries.. that was wow.. :D How did you swallow the "having a baby" pill? Just curious, if you want to share! Also, thanks so much for the ask!

Just a sidenote: I typed Larry Stylinson in the gif search and jeez saw at least 1200 moments where they were thirsty for each other. Took a while to find this, not the full one, but you see Louis eyes darting to H's lips. Or was it this one? :D

shameless boys!

WTF THEY want to ksis everywhere? :D Which one did you really mean? :D

And the Palisades:

[x-files-scripts]

The X-Files - “4-D”

Written by Steven Maeda

October 5, 2001 (YELLOW)

An almost intimate moment between Doggett and Reyes...

Unpacking the emotion as Reyes finds a comatose Doggett...

Deleted scene:

Deleted scene:

[masterthespianduchovny]

3 actors on txf said gillian and david didn't get along and barely spoke during the years when this alleged incident took place, and david and gillian themselves have said they hardly spoke off camera. and watching them laugh on a 4 minute blooper reel (4 minutes out of 9 months of working together) and smiling at an awards show proves nothing. that's showbusiness bs.

Name the actors. :)

Again, when did this alleged incident take place. And are we saying that this incident happened once and everyone knew about it and not Gillian? 👀

Sure, Jan.

You know how refutes these claims that David and Gillian hated each other so much?

Mitch Pileggi.

An actor who has been there from essentially the beginning to the literal end. He actually was quite passionate that these claims were full of shit. But, what does he know, right? He was only one of the few actors who worked in Vancouver and LA and spent the most time with both actors.

Ole boy who played Ronnie in bad blood contradicts these claims as well.

Kim manners actually had a very glowing assessment of their relationship, despite their issues. I believe he directed the most episodes of the x files and had an incredibly long tenure with the show.

But, three unnamed actors who haven’t spent nearly as much time with DD and GA as Mitch and Kim know more than them?

So did they hate each other or not. For two people who hated each other so much, Gillian felt comfortable laughing on David’s shoulder and David felt comfortable letting her. This doesn’t even touch on the sexually charged remarks they leveled at each other. Or the fact that Gillian was fucking pissed off at David for not inviting her to his wedding.

David and Gillian have never hid from the fact that they didn’t get along at times, yet you’re saying the times they laughed together was industry BS???

This makes very little sense.

David attended the globes as her date once and that was as emotional support because of her divorce dropped, but you’re saying this is also industry BS.

You do realize that whether or not they hated each other had no bearing on the success of the show, right?

So, whenever Gillian laughs or smiles at David, which is almost always, she’s acting. But, that one time she was notably angry at David at the Emmys, I believe, is the truth?

It’s funny how y’all only believe Hollywood BS exists when it comes to D and G hating each other, but everyone else is delusional if believe they believe G was in a PR relationship. 🤔

Gillian literally smiles at David regardless of where they are. There are more occasions of her smiling and laughing when he says something than there isn’t.

Why does she have to hate him because you do, anon?

[dnscully]

tagged by @softiescully!! ty ❤️

rules: answer 30 questions and tag 20 blogs you're contractually obligated to know better...

1. name/nickname: catalina/cat

2. gender: she/her

3. star sign: libra

4. height: 5'3

5. time: 10:30am

6. birthday: october 14

7. favorite bands: vistas, gang of youths, the magic gang

8. favorite solo artists: sam fender, jack stauber, phoebe bridgers, brendon urie

9. song stuck in your head: head over feet - alanis morissette but the musical version

10. last movie: holidate JDNSJXJSJXJSJ

11. last show: bones

12. when i did create this blog: omg idk..,,., this account is probably like 5 years old. but txf-wise i started being active again feb or march 2020

13. what i post: the x files

14. last thing i googled: “how to be buddhist” HDJSJDJS

15. other blogs: none (yet)

16. do i get asks: occasionally 🕳🕺🏻

17. why i chose my url: d(a)n(a)scully

18. following: 130

19. followers: in practice maybe 10

20. average hours of sleep: my fitbit says 6.5 hours and i credit that to all my naps 😌🌸

21. lucky number: 3, 7, 14

22. instruments: guitar. and i played violin till probably 4 years ago

23. what im wearing: blue pajama shorts + pink shirt

24. dream job: physiotherapist. but what am i studying????? computer science and statistics. my dream job changes every month. sometimes i want to be a data analyst or software developer. sometimes i wanna be in advertising

25. dream trip: i just want to go to universal studios ✋🏻😀

26. favorite food: listen. i eat an avocado with scrambled egg, rice, and fried shallots every. day. every day.

27. nationality: guess✌🏻😗

28. favorite song: it’s not my favorite song by ANY means but. i’m just saying. when i hear diana by one direction. i have the energy of a thousand suns.

29. last book: solutions and other problems by allie brosh. it’s SO funny. i laughed out loud multiple times

30. top 3 fictional universes i wanna live in: probably harry potter and once upon a time. and i would like to be in the basement office with mulder and scully but like. without the death. i can be the x files department secretary

tagging: @mulderbaby @joyfulsongbird @scully-look @tessawilliam @verafarmiga @muldr (no pressure) and anyone else who wants to do this!!

[tomcriuse]

do you have other blogs too? :)

i do!!! :D so if this one wasn’t enough 4 u i have

@shawnspencvr is my like. idk aesthetic blog. it’s what this one used to be before txf

@nathans-hale is my history blog!!!

@deansmichael is my spn blog that we r not going to talk abt bc i don’t use it much

@besthesdas is my video game blog :)

i have others but they’re not nearly as. like im not nearly as active on them

[scenes-in-between]

4-D (Part two)

“Wow.” Doggett shakes his head, unable to even remotely believe any of what just came out of Mulder’s mouth. Parallel universes and rips in the time-space continuum and all manner of other sci-fi garbage. “Wherever you’ve been hiding out, you musta spent the whole time watching Star Trek.”

There’s that look again between Mulder and Scully, and then Scully clears her throat. “I know it sounds impossible, but the fact that you believe Mulder’s been away is the one thing that makes me think there might actually be some merit to this theory.”

Doggett frowns. “How do you mean?”

“Right after William was born, we received a warning that Mulder’s life was in danger. That he should leave, to protect himself and us.”

“I know,” Doggett says. “You told me that, and then Kersh told me he was the one who warned you. Said Mulder wouldn’t listen to him, but you did.”

“That’s the thing,” Mulder says. “Neither of us listened to Kersh. But then we got word from Gibson Praise, confirming the danger, and we all left.”

Doggett didn’t think it was possible to get even more confused, yet here he is. “What do you mean, you all left? A few minutes ago you were trying to tell me you never went anywhere. So which is it? And… what would Gibson Praise have to do with any of it?”

“We were only gone for a couple of weeks,” Scully says. “Gibson used his… abilities… to help us figure out how to deal with the men who were after both him and Mulder.”

“Gibson and Scully figured it out,” Mulder adds, looking at her with pride while he bounces a smiling William on his knee. “We’d probably still be out there if she hadn’t--” His expression sobers, and he gives a rueful sort of chuckle. “Well, I guess that’s why you haven’t seen the version of me in your universe for five months. If I went off on my own, without Scully… even if I did find Gibson, I don’t know how long it would’ve taken me to come up with a way to beat them.”

“You’re telling me all of you left. For two weeks. And this chess prodigy kid helped you figure out a way to take out the supersoldiers, and then, what, you all came back?” He shakes his head. “Maybe I am losing it, because I’ve got a whole different set of memories for the last five months.”

“Except it would all make perfect sense if you’re actually from a different dimension.” Doggett scoffs, and Mulder raises his eyebrows. “Give me another theory that fits.”

“Okay, maybe this is all a prank,” Doggett says with a shrug. “Be a pretty weird and elaborate prank, but…”

Mulder barks a laugh. “Yeah. I’d have to have gotten back, what, yesterday? No offense, Agent Doggett, but if I’d been away from these two for months, my first order of business would definitely not be spending half a day staging this apartment and faking photographs in order to pull a prank on you.”

He has to admit that’s fair. But damn it, if it’s not that…

“Well, then maybe this is all in my head. I mean, I feel like I’d remember passing out or falling down or something, but it would fit.” 

Poor Monica. If he’s actually lying unconscious on her floor, she is probably freaking the hell out right now. 

“Except that we’re real,” Mulder points out.

“Well, yeah, you would say that even if I were hallucinating though, wouldn’t you?” Actually, that reminds him of a case file he read, back when he first started on the X-Files. “Hey, didn’t you two run into some kinda… mushroom thing that made you see things that weren’t real?”

“Well, yes,” Scully says, “but--”

“And didn’t everyone tell you Mulder was dead? Just like everyone’s trying to tell me Monica’s dead?”

“Right, but--”

“So all I’ve gotta do is figure out what I got exposed to, and then wake myself up out of it. Like you did.”

“Think about what you’re suggesting,” Mulder says. “Given what you’ve told us about your day so far, that would mean you either have a massive carnivorous mushroom growing underneath your yard, or Stachowski’s is selling laced Polish sausages.”

“At least both of those things could really happen,” Doggett counters. “There’s precedent there. Unlike this crackpot theory of yours about parallel dimensions.”

“Come on, it’s a perfectly legitimate--”

“Realizing we were trapped underground was enough to get the illusion to break, temporarily,” Scully interrupts. “Look around. Unless you can see yellow digestive enzyme dripping from the walls, I think we can rule out the mushroom theory.”

Doggett blinks, frowning. “Well, no, I don’t see anything like that. But if it was something in the food…”

“Look, if you don’t believe any of this is real, then we aren’t going to get anywhere,” Mulder says. “You may as well just go back home and wait to wake up, because there’s nothing any of us can say or do to make a difference. But let me tell you something. The John Doggett I know wouldn’t be content to just walk away and wait it out. Hell, I don’t even know you that well and I still know that much. You’re not one to roll over and ignore something just because you can’t explain it right away.”

He’s not sure if this is some reverse psychology bullshit or if Fox Mulder actually just paid him something resembling a compliment.

“If nothing else,” Scully adds, “following up on Mulder’s theory won’t lose you anything. Worst case scenario, you’re right, and either you wake up at some point, or…”

“Or I croak. That is if I’m not dead already.” He narrows his eyes; that possibility doesn’t bear thinking too deeply about. “So what’s the best case scenario, then?”

“We figure out how you got here, and we find a way to send you home,” Mulder says.

Doggett laughs. “Well, I won’t hold my breath on that one. But all right. I’ll play along. Whadya got, where do we start?”

Mulder’s eyes blaze with a gleam familiar to anyone who’s spent a lot of time around investigators, that thrill of feeling like you’re on to something. “I have a feeling that the stakeout you were supposed to be on this morning has something to do with it. If indeed we’re looking at some sort of timeline divergence event, then it seems likely that the split occurred while you appeared to be in two places at once. We need to find out what you were doing over in Dillon Park.”

“Actually, I already know the answer to that,” Scully says, and they both turn to look at her. “Skinner told me you and Agent Reyes were investigating a man named Erwin Lukesh.”

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

not to be Like This but I feel like Monica and Scully have like... a little more of a kinship now than they might've before

[enigmaticxbee]

11x01 My Struggle III

The one where... the previous finale was all a vision sent to Scully from William, and CSM makes BS claims about William to Skinner.

Tagline: I Want to ..LIE..

Best: -

Worst: I’ve been putting off rewatching this episode for (checks watch) 4 years because the first time I saw it I found it to be:

A. a terribly written, boring episode to watch - is this an episode of txf or a car commercial?;

B. full of CC’s worst mytharc exposition monologing impulses;

C. frustrating because after 2 years of waiting to see how they would resolve the cliffhanger from the season 10 finale instead everything’s wiped away so that we can go back to the case of the week status quo; and

D. viscerally upsetting - this episode of my favorite show made me feel BAD. I can count on one hand the times I’ve been this emotionally disturbed by a piece of media. Yes, after 20 years I am overly emotional invested in this fictional universe and particularly in these characters, but this isn’t something that should be treated as a cool plot twist, especially when Scully’s bodily autonomy and relationship to motherhood is handled as badly as it has been on this show.

I powered through this rewatch - see below for a more detailed list of things I hated! - and I’m never watching this awful episode again.

❌ Flashlights

❌ Woods/Desert

❌ Slideshow

❌ Autopsy

❌ Evidence Disappears

❌ Scully Misses It

❌ Mulder Ditch (I mean, not exactly)

❌ Sunflower Seeds

✔️ Voiceover

✔️ Catch Phrase (IWTB: tagline)

✔️ Scully is a (Medical) Doctor

❌ Mulder is Spooky

❌ Scuuullllaaaaayy! Muullllderrrr!

❌ Fox/Dana

✔️ Inappropriate Touching (that I am here for)

❌ Casual Scully

❌ Casual Mulder

❌ Trench Coats

❌ Bad Tie Watch

✔️ Glasses Watch 😎

✔️ Taking! It! Personally!: Mulder & Scully

50 States: South Carolina x3 & DC x106 (44/50)

Investigate: Together & Apart

Solve Rate: 57%

✔️ Bechdel Test

MSR: 🐝🐝🐝

Goriness: 👽👽👽

Creepiness: 👽

Humor: 👽

Rewatch Thoughts:

William check-in: Look, CSM’s a known lier, Mulder is William’s father. Here are my En Ami thoughts and my pregnancy timeline thoughts. Any other explanation’s bad for my mental health, so that’s what I’m sticking with. Besides, see the tagline.

Break-up check-in: Everyone treats them like significant others, they treat each other that way, I guess that’s that?

Things I hate:

1. This time we get CSM’s struggle 🤢 - why is CC so obsessed with him

2. The frantic cutting and editing

3. That I’m not immune to Mulder and Scully’s close talking, even when what they’re saying is absolute nonsense

4. That we’re still doing the Monica Reyes character assassination from MSII

5. The Mulder voiceover - I don’t think we’ve ever gotten internal monologue voiceover like this before and it doesn’t feel right

6. The car chases - WTF is this

7. It was Jeffrey Spender that arranged William’s adoption??? Is that a retcon? Why would Scully have trusted him with that even if she did believe that what he did to the baby in the episode William took away his alien abilities (which it clearly didn’t, at least not permanently). I start think about any of this and immediately spiral into WTF are we doing here 😫

8. CSM and Reyes discussing plot holes 🙄

9. “your desk” 😑

10. Driving, driving, driving

11. Scully, a Medical Doctor - as she reminds us so often - signing herself out of the hospital AMA after a seizure, suffering another one, then getting in the car and causing an accident that could have killed her or someone else!! She’s clearly not in her right mind but this just doesn’t feel in character to me.

12. Hand waving away the alien invasion, I guess because we’ve destroyed the planet in last 20 years and they don’t want it any more?

13. This new duo’s plan. CSM won’t expect Mulder? The man who’s shoved his gun in his face countless times and demanded the truth? I mean, Mulder’s never pulled the trigger so I guess he wouldn’t expect him to actually kill him (if anyone can - remember when CSM’s face exploded, I do!)

14. More driving!!

15. Seeing Scully brutally attacked and fighting for her life - again

16. That I find Mulder slitting a man’s throat to save Scully in any way hot

17. Wait, who sent the assassin and why? Eh, who cares

18. That we’re going back to the distrusting Skinner well yet again

19. Mulder and Skinner’s stupid little fight - you’re grown men, use your words!

20. I already disliked the episode En Ami… but to imply via flashback 18 years later that our protagonist was - unbeknownst to her or the viewers - either raped or medically raped… The ending to this episode is upsetting on so many levels.

21. The term impregnated her with science WTF

22. I…

Things I don’t hate:

1. Mulder’s silver stubble

2. Mulder telling Skinner that where he’s needed is at Scully’s bedside

3. Scully: You need him, and I need you. She hasn’t looked for William for all these years for his own protection, however much that must have hurt her, but for Mulder she’ll do it.

4. The thigh grasp handhold

5. Again, Mulder looks fucking hot - just watch a couple gifs and skip this absolutely garbage episode