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deathsbestgirl · 8 months

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I absolutely adore reading your thoughts on txf, would you mind talking a little bit about the early s2 MSR dynamic? Because, for me, along with the s6 ship teasing it’s easily the most romantic period in the whole show. The flirting, the ✨ yearning ✨, the teasing. You know when it’s so obvious that two people have fallen for each other, and it’s only a matter of time before they start acting on those feelings? That’s the vibe that early s2 gives me.

thank you so much, that's really kind!!

i love season 6 & season 2 so much. they both have their own brand of angst & longing and they're so special.

mulder and scully are really best friends by the end of season 1. it takes so long for them to describe each other as "friend" — they're partners, but they both know they are important to each other.

little green men is especially my favorite here, like. the way they kick off the season and reintroduce us to mulder & scully is kind of brilliant. because they're not partners right now, they're assigned separately and it's so hard for them. mulder is always kind of monotone, but dd somehow still injects so much into. (like his facial expressions.) and there's something about this opening voiceover that feels very different from his others, to me.

we see mulder bored out of his mind, despondent. the x files were his entire life. they're all he cares about (because of samantha), and now scully too.

the first scene with scully kind of crushes me. i think i've posted about it before but !!!

scully has always felt a connection to the dead. she tells their stories, seeks justice for them. she's so aware that they are people. they lived and loved and dreamed and cried and feared. it only became more acute as she worked with mulder.

she's returned to teaching and here, she's overcome with those thoughts. she feels she has to pass this on to her students. they need to understand that every case is about people. they need to hold on to the human aspect, rather than letting it harden & disconnect them.

and then one of her students uses the word "spooky" about her. the first time she heard "mrs. spooky" she was kind of shaken. she had seen other agents be rough with mulder, she knew it wasn't the most friendly moniker. (i like to think in the pilot, she thought "spooky" was kind of silly. like he was a brilliant profiler, it's a kind of science. he's a good agent. that isn't spooky. it's hard work.) but in squeeze, she saw up close the mockery of it. the assumptions people made, but she worked with him. he's on the victim's side and that's where she wants to be. i fully believe part of her is trying to impart this on her students.

then. when he doesn't see her in the hall at work, walks right past her with no recognition...she decides to do something. they're friends, he's still her partner.

she's relieved when he makes a joke. (i love them)

she told him he looked like deep throat when he was approaching her in the dark...like toe testing his state of mind.

scully has some understanding that they are being watched: she had to write reports specifically on the validity of the x files & mulder's investigations, she found the bug in the pen in e.b.e., they took precautions with false trails and they have a signal to meet covertly. she took the precautions, she's been extra cognizant of her surroundings. all this because she just wants to make sure her friend is okay, and he's busy worrying about putting her in danger.

she is so worried about him. she doesn't want mulder to give up and it seems like he has, but he ends up confiding in her that he's struggling to believe & hope, worrying that he's crazy.

i love the way she responds. she reminds him of what's kept him going, that he has seen so much. scully doesn't believe his memories, or in aliens, but she believes in mulder. in his compassion, in his determination, in his cause, in his ability to keep searching.

i think this is the first time we see him doubt his memories, his course. and scully, even with her skeptic role, has a role to fill. when he can't find hope, she tries to guide him to it. she knows how important it is.

"even if george hale only saw elves in his mind, the telescope still got built. don't give up." this line reminds me of the end of quagmire: "well there's still hope. that's why these stories have endured. people want to believe."

scully loves mulder's belief, or determination to believe, so much. it is a precious part of him she wants to protect. hope & belief are powerful things, and they're both so hard to hold onto. the way they help each other is beautiful. i've always found this aspect of their relationship incredibly romantic. not necessarily in a traditional sense but it's all so personal. the intimacy with which they share sacred parts of themselves, in a way they haven't shared it with others. i don't know if i've posted this, but i think there's an inherent romance when you're getting to know someone. in that phase, you don't really know where it's going, and wherever it does go (a friendship or romantic relationship) doesn't really matter. that's what was happening in season one, and their work made them forge a bond built on respect and fused them together. in season two, they now have so many shared experiences.

season one is all about scully following mulder. season two is more like mulder following scully. not as literally as scully follows him, but she tells him "next time we meet out in the open" and it's decided. he listens to her. (and later, he invites her on all of his cases. until he's abducted. and he almost follows her to the grave before she's truly gone. it becomes about protecting her, and trying to do that while respecting her, following her lead on coming back to work, what she can handle, what she needs to do like irresistible, and supporting her. it's different but also not so different to how she follows him, protects him, supports him.)

they're separated because of the fbi, not because she left him. she didn't abandon him. but mulder wasn't going to keep dragging her down. here, scully makes the choice and that's something he has never experienced before. mulder isn't used to this, and he doesn't understand, but it's something he craves his entire life without really knowing what he was craving. it's real love & respect & belief & care. he has to follow her too. he has to let her in. he can't lose her.

literally the way he was avoiding her, protecting scully from himself & the conspiracy. but that doesn't matter to her. mulder is what matters to her, their relationship. they need each other and they love each other and they are best friends, voiced or not.

immediately after this meeting, mulder disappears. skinner questions scully about his whereabouts, only tells skinner about seeing mulder in the hallway, nothing about the clandestine meeting.

i *love* this. skinner knows scully wouldn't be worried if she knew. she immediately offered to help in a professional capacity, but these two have never fooled anyone. no one knows the nature of their relationship, and they can't because mulder & scully refuse to give it any name for so long.

csm knows scully will find mulder, but he still doesn't understand what a force scully is. he claims to never underestimate mulder, but he definitely underestimated scully.

she starts looking into it herself, regardless of skinner asking her for help or not. she figures out his password, takes the evidence right out from under other agents.

meanwhile, their meeting reinvigorated mulder. he's searching for the truth of those transmissions. he is recording himself, talking to scully directly, down in puerto rico.

he's describing jorge's body to scully, giving observations he's heard her give a hundred times.

(something here about how he looks *frightened* to death and scully proliferating about the person's memories & life before they end up dead on their autopsy table)

and scully, she's working on getting to him. she knows she's being followed and leaves false trails for the agents trying to track him down. just like they did in e.b.e. and i just don't even have words for that. she's learned so much from him. before, scully was confident she wasn't being followed. but the second skinner came to her about him, she kept up with every precaution and more.

when she catches up to him. you know the scene.

mulder: they came, scully. the ones that took her. they were here

scully: here, or here?

they're PRECIOUS. scully was so worried about him, finds him unconscious on the floor, terrified he was dead. touching him to reassure herself, doctoring him for the feeling of safety it gives her. but her mulder is back and she's relieved — even as they have to flee.

the way he so slowly, carefully, intentionally says "i still have my work...and i've still got you...and i still have myself." mulder understands exactly what scully was telling him. partners or not, she is with him, always. it's hard for him to accept, but he needs her. she saved him in so many ways just in this episode alone.

there was so much yearning in this brief separation and scully bridged the gap. she didn't let it end just because the bureau split them up. and who is mulder to refuse her?

#txf s2 #mulder and scully #the x files #little green men #i will reblog to write about the other episodes lolllll #i literally had to get on a computer to add the last three pictures #becuase i refused to delete any and they needed to be included #anyway #hope this is what you were looking for <3 #txf meta

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