THE X-FILES ↳ 2.20 | Humbug

That's why it's left up to the self-made freaks like me and the Conundrum to remind people. Remind people of what? Nature abhors normality. It can't go very long without creating a mutant.

txf + text posts (4/?)

I felt compelled to make a gif of this face because I could not for the life of me find one online

Y’all get ready because I love “Anasazi” a not normal amount

"Intriguingly Alluring"

(Dedicated to @x-files4everdd~. Merry Christmas!)

Set during the events of Humbug.

*****

This whole case, from beginning to end, was a circus.  

A little on the nose, so to speak; but it fit: he and Scully, a two person act themselves, caught up in the swirl of reformed showbusiness and love that was deeper than skin deep. His by-some-standards desirable stature loping not far behind her little feet’s tap-tap-tap code along the pavement. Both racing from cemetery to potato hole to jailhouse, captured in a thousand mirrors while the final gag played itself out. 

Staring down the RV park, Mulder was aware that dozens of eyes stared back, aware that the frustration of his reputation rippled and crackled through the crowd. Can’t escape the taint of being spooky even in a professionally strange town, the eye rolls and shoulder shrugs blatantly telegraphed. Yeah, buddy, we’ve heard this before-- a Kidney Kid? where’d he go? pique rather than the reddening faces and outraged insults of more standard establishments.

Weird was respected, here. Well, no; weird wasn’t respected so much as a neural element: it was un-weird, a place or habit or state of being that categorized the weirdos as those who cared about being weird. Everyone else was just here.   

Scully was talking to Blockhead or Blockhead was talking to Scully; but either way they were both looking Mulder’s direction, her eyebrows scrunched, scrutinizing, and his gestures animated, illustrating. Possibly even annoyed and aggrieved. 

It was chilly for a Florida morning, another unusual-usual thing about this case. There’d be another burial-- three, on top of the one they flew down for; and he knew Scully would mosey back for this one (all of them) by her contemplative expression and relaxed shoulders. She’d liked it here, liked being the bloodhound this case, liked decoding the tricks that ran laps around his mind, liked the people and the memories, liked the place. He’d fly down, too. 

Doctor Blockhead was in the truck and almost situated behind the wheel when Mulder reached the group, an energetic contrast to the slumped over companion in his passenger seat. 

“What’s the matter with your friend?” 

This magician’s verbosity was his greatest trick, Mulder knew; and he prepared for an interesting parting observation. But all magic is best performed with misdirection; and, although Mulder was pleased to see that Scully was also thrown-- that she, too, did not expect the unexpected-- he was more agitated than amazed when the silent Enigma, in general too puzzled by the world to speak, slid a python grin across and down his mouth and replied with feral languor, “Probably something I ate.” 

And the car revved on and pounced smoothly forward, pulling almost too quickly away, as if it were repelled by the very town itself. 

Even the weird and fantastic had its limits. 

*****

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

Tagging @today-in-fic~

SCREECHING SQUEALING THIS IS SO FUNNY

+ still impressed mulder & smug scully

The X-Files - “Humbug”

Written by Darin Morgan

February 14, 1995 (WHITE)

Cut scene: Mulder is mistaken for the Reverend…

Deleted scene:

Trimmed lines as Dr. Blockhead puts on a show…

In this early draft, Scully grabs Lanny as she identifies the real murderer…

Deleted scene:

detour (the x-files 1997) is like a green screen episode to me. man this one’s gonna be good when they finish it (replace the canada trees with florida trees)

Anasazi - Mulder receives an encrypted computer tape containing the defense department's top secret files on extraterrestrial life and becomes a target. Scully takes him to a Navajo family that unearthed a buried secret to decipher the files.

Humbug - The agents search for a killer in a Florida town inhabited by sideshow performers.

re those tags: a. i'm only halfway through s2 but can already tell that pusher is going to be my favorite episode of the entire series so i am VERY excited to get there and b. that was a VERY helpful list because i'm sort of on the fence about how much past s6 i'm going to watch so i will file those s7 episodes on my list of things to definitely at least skip around to :)

the best place to skip is after watching je souhaite (7.21) but watching iwtb & the non-plot episodes of the revival are definitely worth it imo. also both david duchovny & gillian anderson wrote episodes for s7 so def stick around (and msr reaches its peak then too). david’s is the hollywood a.d. i mentioned & gillian’s is all things (plus the unnatural was also written by david). PLUS plus some other s3 eps to look forward to are jose chung’s from outer space, syzygy, war of the coprophages, & wetwired.

THE X-FILES ↳ 2.20 | Humbug

May I ask why? Sheriff, it, it's, it's been documented that many serial killers possess a fascination with police work, some of them even holding positions on their local force... so surveillance of investigation team members is often utilized as a precautionary... We found out you used to be the Dog-Faced Boy.

i was watching Humbug with my husband when he casually mentions, "oh, the enigma! i know that guy! i hung out with him at a bar at comic con" SIR HOW HAVE I KNOWN YOU ALMOST 15 YEARS AND YOU NEVER MENTIONED THJS

Conversely: *flirts with the hotel manager to assert dominance*

re: spn being generic and not really having an identity in the first season, there's an interesting moment in something wicked, which is the "freaky looking old woman" fakeout. that's a moment of textual reflexivity about the show which really..... isn't about the show. like dean seeing someone who is Weird and assuming they're Evil isn't really a successful critique of supernatural? that's like. it's a reflection on the x files, not on spn. it's txf "humbug" in miniature. but spn isn't really about that, except maybe skin, which does genuinely feel out of place with spn wrt how xfilesy it is. most of the people and things we've fought so far on spn fall into one of two categories: a kind of non-personalized curse that is haunting its victims (this is all the ghosts, plus the way the demon is framed in 1x04, + arguably 1x02), or an actively malevolent agent (meg is the best example but also the vampires in dead man's blood, and to a lesser extent the shtriga itself). there aren't really xfiles style tragic freaks and weirdos, except skin and arguably maybe nightmare. but meg isn't freakish. the vampires aren't freakish. and we're not interested in them because they're freakish. they're just villainous, and that's our interest in them. it's much more buffy than txf. so dean seeing a weird old woman and assuming she's evil doesn't hit like it should, because it's reflecting on a different show

txf putting 2x19 død kalm right next to 2x20 humbug is crazy… creepiest episode yet right into silliest one yet