just looking at things in another way

tagging @today-in-fic

rated: R words: 6,826 timeline:  pre-MSIV in part 1, with heavy references to the events of S7 and beyond. content warnings: references to medical rape, consistent with what was presented in MSIV.  Non-network-television friendly liberties are taken with language.  A few giant leaps south of Chris Carter’s Zone of Incomprehensibly Platonic Behavior.

author’s note: Way back in March, immediately after MSIV aired, my first thought was the following: why, if this is the story you *really* wanted to tell us, did you not ACTUALLY TELL it?  This certainly isn’t the story I would have chosen to close the book on these characters, but this is the end result of having grappled long and hard with the central themes so poorly presented to us in MSIV.  disclaimer: I’m not actually a writer, and I consider this to be more like a kind of scientific experiment, to try to figure out whether or not this story even *could* be told.

part 1: a warning sign _______________________

Farrs Corner, VA 3:42 AM

Scully’s eyes move rapidly beneath her closed eyelids, her body stretched stiff and unusually straight in the bed where she sleeps.  Mulder is curled up just inches away, soft and relaxed, in stark contrast to her own fraught repose.

An ominous vision is unfolding.   Her entire history, their entire history, is being rewritten.  The narrative stitches itself together in the REM state she occupies, as intricate and circuitous as a spider web.  She is ensnared, frozen at the mercy of the devastating new reality playing out before her.

_______________________

Diana Fowley stands, sheet white, watching with apprehension as a team of surgeons stitch up sections of angry red flesh over Mulder’s skull in the operating theater below her.

A woman in a lab coat moves to stand next to her, and gently touches her arm.  “I know you have been struggling with your work on this project, but you made the right call, Diana.  Mr. Spender will not suffer from the same neurological overstimulation that his son was experiencing.  He’s had extensive gene therapy to prepare for the activation of his remnant DNA.”

“Mr. Spender is always prepared, isn’t he?”  Diana says sardonically.  She presses her palm against the cool glass pane, imagining the warmth of Mulder’s skin as her hand caresses the window over the view of his chest, vividly remembering another time, another life.  She aches for another path, one in which her choices had been different.

It’s all lost to her now.  

𝐅𝐈𝐘𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐁𝐀 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 ━ 𝑑𝑎𝑦 2. 𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 - 𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑣𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑧𝑑𝑢𝑠𝑡

There are two lenses through which the pivotal dance sequences in Dancing Through Life can be viewed.

First, let’s look at what Jon Chu has to say:

"Alice (Brooks, director of photography) and I always talked about how the truth is in the darkness and the lie is in the light. Dancing Through Life is a lie, for instance, so there is a lot of light coming in. By the time we get to the Ozdust, we’re playing in the shadows."

Fiyero’s dance = the lie vs Elphaba’s dance = the truth

And I love that.

Okay, moving on—parallels! Look at them.

The way the song is structured, Fiyero arrives at school, and as he starts dancing, more and more people in the library follow his movements exactly. He even says, "Once again, the responsibility to corrupt my fellow students falls to me." This tells us that this is his MO—everywhere he goes, he starts dancing, and people inevitably follow. He’s a natural leader, effortlessly pulling people into his rhythm with charm and charisma.

And, as Jon Chu confirms, this whole scene is bathed in light—because it’s all a huge lie.

Elphaba’s dance, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. No one can naturally match her movements. People don’t flock to her—they avoid her. They’re afraid of her. Even Galinda, the first to join her, is actively discouraged from doing so, and yet—she does anyway.

The Ozdust duet is a beautiful microcosm of Elphaba’s struggles and overarching story. Without Galinda stepping in, no one else would have joined. And yet, by the end of the scene, everyone is dancing her dance—because of Galinda.

But here’s the real point:

Fiyero is doing Elphaba’s dance too.

And as the lyrics "your life could end up changing" play, he stares after her—longingly.

Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar in ‘Wicked: For Good’ (2025)