Fairies And Mice

1x08 : Ice

He’s pretty liberal with physical contact, but he kisses Scully in what five different episodes in the original run? Assuming we’re counting Memento Mori’s forehead kiss and the almost-kiss in FTF.

And we know from cut scenes they played with the idea of having their first kiss be during this scene, so it makes sense that I’m picking up all the vibes that David’s leaning into: Fox sure is thinking about kissing Scully properly after that forehead kiss. But he doesn’t. He waits and he watches and she closes back up and he lets her go and to me that’s even better than had he kissed her.

In Fight The Future, the man spends a solid 30+ seconds just staring at Scully and the way I read their facial expressions is that 1) Mulder wants to kiss her but this is a familiar urge for him and he won’t cave to it, 2) Scully realizes maybe for the first time that he wants to kiss her, more importantly 3) Scully doesn’t back down in the face of this realization, so 4) Mulder realizes she’s not backing away from this intimacy. And even when he has the opening he’s so slow and careful about it. And then of course we get that godforsaken bee, which he interprets as her closing of and he apologizes before he realizes whats actually going on and cue a very panicked 9-1-1 call.

In Millenium, they’re all smiles and lips. Mulder’s really brave in that one he instigates it with that look and she gives it right back so he goes for it and they act so normal about it and it’s just sooo

Don’t even get me started on the Season 8 finale kiss. She’s holding their baby and they’ve been pretending for months that it’s not his and they stand their with their son and admit the truth without even uttering a word because let’s be honest they’ve never been good truth-tellers. They are agents of action, not words. He asked her to tell the truth and they showed it. (This show is THEE blueprint for “show don’t tell”)

And naturally he’s all over her when they reunite in The Truth but at that point they’re both desperate for the other’s affection so.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY as ELIZABETH BENNET & MATTHEW MACFADYEN as FITZWILLIAM DARCY

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1995)