MSR-land

First of all, because it feels a bit misogynistic. Now, I will say, you could very much argue that she WAS written to be jealous and that it is in fact the writers who are misogynistic (wouldn't be the first or last time), but given that this is season one and Chris Carter is adamant about their being nothing more than coworkers, I doubt that. It feels like such a shallow and stereotypically misogynist way to view it, oh, obviously the deep, complicated and famously forced to be professional in the face of her male-dominated line of work female character, cannot contain her jealousy and loses all composure when she sees her coworker with his ex! And Mulder even has a moment in Squeeze where he gets jealous and Scully even calls him out for being territorial! But no, only the female character gets her supposed jealousy highlighted as a personality trait. It just sits wrong with me.

My second criticism is that it seems fairly clear to me that that's just... not what's happening? Scully never acts out particularly towards Pheobe like she does with Bambi in War of the Corprophagess, we only really see Scully's discomfort when Mulder and Pheobe get a little too close. Scully doesn't even seem that angry, she seems more disappointed. Additionally, scully expresses concern when Mulder explains his deep seeded fear of fire (which, surprise surprise, never gets mentioned again) and how Pheobe is aware of it and asks for his held on the case regardless. Scully knows that Mulder had expressed discomfort about his and Pheobe's relationship and (rightfully) calls Pheobe out for putting mulder on a case she knew would make him uncomfortable, but Mulder shoots her down, and Scully let's him. She gives him the room to make his own decisions, and simply ensures that she's always a couple of steps behind him, so that she can tend to his wounds when he, inevitably, gets hurt. This is the first time we really see her like this, but it's not the last. She learns from this incident, and in future episodes we see that. In Paper Hearts, Scully calls John Lee Roche out as soon as he starts to try and get under Mulder's skin. She has learned from last time that there is no point in waiting around for mulder to get hurt anyway.

And that's why the whole "Jealous Scully" reading bugs me. Along with the misogyny, it disregards the truth that is: Scully really cares about Mulder. Not just in the way that she needs to not let anyone within five feet of him romantically, but that she knows he's been hurt before and she genuinely doesn't want for him to be hurt again.

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So far this season has been delivering BANGERS (we don't talk about *that* part of 2x07, please), and I love seeing my comfort character not having a single day of comfort (Dana Scully, the woman you're).

At first I was a bit skeptical with the whole abduction plotline but it's such a great twist storywise, it gives us a long-term plotline (I like that the episodes, especially in S1, are standalone, yet I missed a deeper development of some of these plotlines because they were intriguing) that I hope it's explored further because I need to know more about the Cigarette Smoking Man, the secret agency that's behind Mulder and Scully, and the consequences of Scully's abduction.

as a cradle catholic, i regret to inform everyone that this is unfortunately very attractive.

Outside of intense moments when emotions run higher than usual, we haven't been given much insight into how Mulder views Scully and Scully views Mulder, and more importantly, how they view themselves in the context of their weirdo situationship. So seeing so clearly how they interpret the actions of the other really drives the point home.

Mulder is every bit the sad wet towel of a man I knew him to be. In his mind he is a misunderstood genius, and he tries SO HARD to get approval from others, especially Scully because he views her as an authority but also an intermediate obstacle to his goals. He also sees her as a snarky, playful opponent for the sport of verbal and physical repartee which he loves so dearly. He remembers her exaggerated disinterest, and therefore betrays how he enjoys the challenge of her. (He also remembers her saying she "does it all for [him]" which is just insane, and implies that he feels a slight sense of guilt for dragging her into his personal mission. Christ almighty.)

Scully, on the other hand, sees herself as the long suffering martyr, a victim of Mulder's wacky exuberance. She remembers him as eccentric and careless. But she also sees herself defending him, explaining him to others. She knows she is the rational element to his esoteric nature.

The differing accounts of Sheriff Hartwell are interesting too. She remembers him suave, and in her memory Mulder gets a bit fed up with her flirting. She feels it, maybe even decides to twist the dagger a bit while recalling her story to Mulder. Meanwhile he takes every opportunity to disparage the Sheriff and make him look undesirable. Oh, many, many conclusions can be drawn from that.