Hii it’s me again I’ve been thinking about redux ii quite often recently. The combination of faith/science in Scully’s cancer remission is heady and is one of the best vehicles of The X-Files’ main dichotomy that the show has, where Scully and her family pray to God for her recovery while she accepts the use of an untested medical marvel. It’s a really good delivery especially with the perspective of the preceding season, but I keep thinking about this: it seems most powerfully that Scully was rewarded for her faith in Mulder.
Hello 👋
I think the best part of this ask is that while I was reading the beginning I started thinking about how much of the payoff is about her faith in Mulder and lo and behold there it was in your last sentence!
I think Redux (both parts) is really interesting because it's the only time I can think of that Mulder and Scully both simultaneously occupy the believer and skeptic roles. Usually an episode only addresses Scully's faith when it's highlighting Mulder's disbelief, but Redux shows both Scully's faith (in God and in Mulder) and Mulder's doubt. I mean, Mulder does his standard Muldering in Redux I to get the cure for Scully, but his willingness to believe that was damaged in Gethsmane breaks with the deionized water reveal. Mulder overtly rejects a possible lead on Samantha as a lie in spite of his previous trend of losing all objectivity in cases even similar to Samantha's. Redux marks the beginning of Mulder's Doubt Arc and that newfound skepticism saves him from making a deal with the devil. Of course Mulder preserves his Belief through focus on belief in Scully.
Scully likewise retains her skepticism as she reinforces for Mulder the existence of the conspiracy meant to discredit him, as well as her efforts to find scientific evidence for the how and who of her cancer. But as her condition worsens she turns towards her faith. She believes that her death will be meaningful and finds comfort in the thought of the afterlife. And then, when Mulder returns with an answer that's not only entire experimental but in fact without any basis in medical science, Scully puts her faith in him. She puts her faith in the fact that Mulder wouldn't give her hope if he didn't believe it could save her. Scully finds peace through belief in her religion but she finds life through her belief in Mulder
