A UFO Party

visual logs: mulder & scully — 017 of 189

1.17. e.b.e

X-Files Season 1 (1993)

Here you have this scene that is arguably not Scully's best moment. Or that's probably what you'd think if you were in her shoes. You'd probably be embarrassed that 1) you believed that you could have alien spots on your body 2) when they were in fact mosquito bites and that 3) in your absolute panic, you showed up to your new partner's room in your underwear for him to check it out.

But Mulder is the perfect gentleman as it happens. No joke, no innuendos, and even no compliment (even a compliment could be weird in this context). Nothing except "Oh yeah, I got mosquito bites too."

He even opens up to her in response and shows some vulnerability himself. Here is he, spilling the beans to an agent who may or may not have been sent to debunk his work.

And Mulder never throws that event back into her face (canonically), whether as some kind of argument, or even as a joke or a tease ("you showed up to my hotel room in your underwear on OUR FIRST case" ). You also don't get the impression that he's told the Lone Gunmen, or anyone else for that matter. He's taking that moment to the grave.

And, as for Scully, she's able to see that Mulder isn't just some guy who pursues the cases he does for fun, that Mulder is serious about what he does.

“Kill Mulder, we take the risk of turning one man’s quest into a crusade”.

“Then you must take away what he holds most valuable. That with which he can’t live without”.

Not much to say, except that they are infinitely graceful and elegant. I love that they are slightly feminine (really the best feature in male hands: his are the hands of a piano player, an artist, a reader, an intellectual) and, probably made for a heightened haptic perception and capable of tactile memory.

I think the New Spartans breaking his finger was the single most physically painful torture moment of the entire series for me.

David smiling at Gillian.