#txf 1x10

So the episode starts with Mulder in Wisconsin about to 007 his way into a quarantined area.  The news is reporting it as an ecological disaster, but thanks to Grandpa Deep Throat, Mulder knows it is actually a UFO crash site.  Papa Throat tells Mulder he has 24 hours tops to get in there and check out this downed UFO before the cleaners break out the military strength Mr. Muscle.

Fuck me, can I please jump into this screencap and suck on that bottom lip? HNNNNNGGGGGG...  I feel like I am channelling someone.  Is that you @defnotmeyo?

Clearly Mulder has failed to inform Scully of his escapade.  At this point in time, Scully is still completely unaware of Deep Throat and the fact Mulder gets a lot of his information from him.

This failure points to the fact that Mulder is still holding off from completely trusting Scully.  He can see she has integrity; despite her assignment to the X-Files being a means to an ends - a surreptitious attempt to spy on Mulder - she takes this assignment seriously and applies her scientific rigour to his work honestly and faithfully, and he sees that. 

She has supported him steadfastly throughout their short partnership, but he still cannot shake that she was sent to spy on him.  He cannot trust her with this greatest of secrets - the knowledge of Deep Throat’s existence.

It’s fair enough really, because as much as he really wants to trust Scully (and he really does want to trust her) he is still uncertain.  The way he behaves around her says to me that he has a deep affinity for her.  

Superficially he’s definitely low key attracted to her from the word go - she’s a beautiful woman - but deeper than that, they fall into sync with one another almost effortlessly at times, even when they’re at odds yelling at one another, they’re both learning that they can push each other and it will be okay.  They will have each others back.  The events of Ice taught them that.

But Ice also asked a question that Fallen Angel continues to pose.  Can Mulder trust Scully?  He desperately wants to trust her, but old habits die hard.  Mulder’s motto is trust no one, after all.  What if Scully’s entire purpose is to gain his trust and smoke out the insider leaking information to Mulder?  While it’s no fun from an MSR angle, it does make sense that Mulder still doesn’t entirely trust Scully - he’s still weighing her up.  

So he goes it alone.  First mistake.  And Mulder decides to go on this jolly jaunt through the forest cosplaying as the Milk Tray Man.

“All because the lady loves...” 

Sorry non-Brits, you’ll have to look that one up.

He poodles through the forest trying to look bad ass, but fails spectacularly owing to the fact he has probably the dorkiest run ever.  Sorry Mulder, you just can’t look cool running over hill and dale.  

We know Mulder can look sexy running - he has a lovely bit of sexy running in season 6′s Milagro, for example.

Phwoooaaaaar, keep running G-Man.

But here, in this episode?  

Yeeeeeah, not so much.  

Look at him... boing, boing, boing!

What’s actually most surprising about this whole sequence is that he gets away with it!  He dangles underneath a military vehicle and very obviously plonks on the floor with a soldier so close by he must have been asleep not to hear it let alone see it.

I think it’s safe to say that Mulder’s knowledge on stealthiness was probably lifted exclusively from Tom Clancy novels.  

Either that, or he has stealth cheat codes enabled.

Now I can’t decide if this is Mulder’s “I can’t believe I just got away with that” face, or his “I think I just rolled in badger shit” face.  Hmmm... 

So Mulder bounds through the forest until he approaches a light in a clearing...

Creepy X-Files forest aesthetic on fleek.

He then reveals his true passion in life, as a photographer for Alien Vogue.

Work it, baby.

Going solo out here turns out to be pretty dangerous, so with no one to watch his back, Mulder finds himself getting butt-stroked.  

Wait, what?

Honestly, that’s what getting pummelled in the face with a rifle butt is called!  To be honest, I’d butt-stroke Mulder any day of the week.  Know what I’m sayin’?

After a serious talk about breaking federal law with the designated bad guy of the piece, Colonel Henderson.... 

...Mulder is imprisoned.  

Divine intervention is unlikely, Mulder.

So quick run down.  Mulder gets a hot tip, tells no one about it, runs off without Scully and ends up in military prison.  What a thoroughly unsurprising turn of events.  When Mulder goes it alone and tries to do anything without Scully, he gets his arse handed to him.  

Sorry Mulder, them’s the rules.

But it’s here we are introduced to Mulder’s mirror image.  The man Mulder might have become himself had it not been for a lucky sequence of events in his life that led him to having the right people around him at the right times, whereas Max Fenig clearly did not.

Say hi Max.

Nawww... Max is instantly endearing in his overt politeness and kooky appearance.  What we come to understand later is that Max recognises Mulder and he’s being such a try hard, wanting to be buddies with Mulder, because from observing his life from afar he feels he knows him.  I mean, we can all relate, right?

But Mulder is actually surprisingly dismissive of Max, and I think even somewhat judgemental.  He gets one look at Max and thinks he has the measure of him.  He ignores his polite invitation to talk and rolls his eyes as he turns away. 

I think Mulder might at times think himself above these kinds of people, the crazies who sit in fields on garden furniture holding up colourful “take me to your leader!” signs.  I think that’s what Mulder sees when he first looks at Max - the archetypal UFO wackjob.  The living embodiment of why his work isn’t taken seriously.

For a moment here, Mulder treats Max with the same dismissive disdain that other people have treated Mulder in the past.

Just to drive home the comparison between Max and Mulder, he utters Mulder’s favourite catchphrase of all time - trust no one.  Mulder might not want to admit it now, but despite their personalities being very different, these two men clearly think alike in many ways.

Side note, Max is quite possibly one of the best supporting characters the show ever had.  In all 10 seasons.

Mulder continues to roll his eyes ignoring Max, until Max asks if Mulder saw anything.  Mulder plays his usual trick, to get information out of others rather than giving up any of his own, by playing the contrarian.

But Max isn’t so easily fooled, it seems.

Notice how Max is rubbing his ear in this moment?  What makes him so sure?  Well maybe it’s the fact he’s been abducted by these “alieums!” several times already - hint, hint, rub scar.  FORESHADOWINGGGGGG!

Now finally, finally.  Scully arrives... I mean, it’s only been a good quarter of the flipping episode without her.  Geez... so her big dramatic entrance is entirely appropriate.

And glorious.

Imagine a church chorus as she enters, because the symbolism is so heavy handed here.  Scully arrives, bathed in bright white light - blinding Mulder with her brilliance - liiiiiike.... an angel perhaps?!

While the crashed UFOs are referred to as fallen angels, Scully is the true angel of the piece.  Mulder’s guardian angel.  A supposed proxy of his enemies, sent to spy on him to do the bidding of the Syndicate, essentially.  But in actuality is the only one truly looking out for him - and him alone.

But of course, Mulder knows he’s about to get a royal roasting.  So makes a ill-considered attempt at being charming.

I love that comment though, “I didn’t order room service.”  Because when Mulder does order room service, he orders a hot red head in a trench coat?  I’m not sure we’re thinking of the same kind of room service here, Mulder.  Rawr.

But Scully isn’t interested in banter, she’s here to tell Mulder he’s really done fucked up this time.  That the higher ups are using his latest tomfoolery as an excuse to cashier Mulder out of the FBI.

Poor Scully.  How frustrating this man must be to her in this moment.  She’s trying to save the X-Files here, Mulder, did you miss that?  She’s trying to save you too.  Without Scully, Mulder is heading for a personal disaster, because he frequently cannot see the forest through the trees.  So focused on his present goal he fails to see the larger consequences - or rather sees them, but doesn’t care - the sacrifice is worth it to him.  The Truth™ is all that matters.

Only Scully is fighting to pull him back from the edge, and when he seems utterly blasé about the fact the X-Files might be shut down, she loses her cool.

In fact, I think this is the first time we see Scully genuinely pissed off at him – like really furious.  She’s been varying levels of irritated, but this time she’s actually livid with his behaviour, and not just because he’s disregarding the rules.  

In past episodes Mulder’s lack of respect for protocol saw Scully concerned about her career and what the consequences of being associated with this man and the X-Files would mean for her, but now she’s trying her damnedest to save both.  

She’s angry because she cares and not just about their work, it’s established as far back as Conduit that she has more than just a professional interest in Mulder.  She cares about him.  She sees something in him worth caring about.

Steady on, we’re not quite at that point yet.

She cares about him as a friend and knows the X-Files are important to him - he would later refer to the X-Files as his life’s work - so of course she’s frustrated because she is trying to understand him, but can’t grasp why he would put the X-Files in jeopardy like this.  To her, it makes no sense.  To a new audience it makes no sense either.

Except that it does.  What we will eventually establish with hindsight, is that this kind of behaviour is Fox Mulder all over.  For merely a glimpse at the elusive truth, Mulder would risk everything.  He is a master of self-sabotage - he is determined to barrel headfirst into self destruction - and the fact Scully is there to save him time and again is such an incredible stroke of fortuitousness on his part that, sometimes, I’d swear the Cigarette Smoking Man chose Scully for this purpose all along.

So moving on, and Mulder is being pretty flippant about Scully’s explanation of what was out in the woods; he mocks her, even.  His attitude towards her similar to his dismissal of Max earlier.  A slight “you-have-no-idea-what-you’re-dealing-with” smugness.

But is this really fair of Mulder?  I mean, this disarming as fuck smile is definitely not fair of Mulder because hot dayum... But yeah - not what I meant.

What I meant is Mulder has information she doesn’t and that puts her at a disadvantage that she cannot overcome as a scientist who works off of evidence - proof.

She only sees Mulder seemingly pull this information out of his arse, so of course she isn’t going to believe him.  Like in Ghost in the Machine, he’s not giving her enough to go on.  It’s his own fault that she is so resistant to his version of events.  His lack of trust in her is what is bringing this all down.

This is when we see why trust is so key to their relationship, as Scully will say much later in season 6′s The Beginning - it has always come down to a matter of trust between them.  When they don’t trust each other, they both spin their wheels in frustration.  

This is another episode where we see the outline of their working dynamic being drawn.  As Scully will poetically put it one day, they are perfect opposites of each other, and as such their relationship only soars when they both trust in each other’s judgement, abilities and dedication to the truth - whatever that might be.

When mistrust, doubt and even resentment seep in, the differences that when perfectly aligned make them so strong, can instead work full force against each other, tearing them apart.  Funnily enough, a good example of that is in The Beginning too.  

But in this moment, Mulder doesn’t believe Scully puts the truth above protocol and he still isn’t sure if he can trust her not to report everything he tells her to the people he believes work against him.  So he continues to hold out about Deep Throat... and, for now at least, they continue to grate against each other.

But hey, don’t worry about it.  Any time you start to feel down about how Mulder and Scully are at odds with each other, just remember that one day these two Spooky babies will be having kinky handcuff sex.  Canon kinky handcuff sex.

The next little scene with them has it’s MSR charm in a way.  Because Scully is effectively Mulder’s jailer (a fact he amusingly references later with a bit of 70′s pop culture).  She’s escorting him back to D.C. to face an Office of Professional Responsibility hearing - OPR!  

We hear about OPR quite a bit over the coming years with these two, don’t we.  Which is why these early brushes with pissing off the higher ups are so interesting to go back and look at, because it’s such a stark reminder of how their love and dedication to one another eventually takes over all reason - for both of them.  

We know there will come a time when there will be no lengths to which Scully will not go for Mulder.  From being thrown into prison, to sacrificing her job, to going on the run and harbouring him as a criminal fugitive for 6 years.  This episode serves to highlight the beginnings of this behaviour in Scully.  Her going against the rules for Mulder.

So, knowing she’s been sent there to take him back to D.C., Mulder changes tack, he wants her on board, he values her insight and abilities so he wants her to help him on this now that she’s here.  When she’s there, undeniable and in his presence, it’s almost like he can’t help himself but to put his faith in her.

Scully, bless her, does her best to hold on to being angry at him.  But Mulder’s incessant charm always screws her over in the end.  She can’t resist him - and I don’t mean sexually, I mean just his boyish enthusiasm and unshakeable determination seems to always chip away at her resolve.  

It is, after all, as she says much later in I Want To Believe, why she fell in love with him.  So it makes sense that in hindsight she often gave in to him like this because she secretly found his stubbornness equally as endearing as she found it exasperating. 

The Last Detail, starring Dana Scully!  Ha, back in the 90’s you could quote 70’s movie classics and you’d have half a hope in hell anyone knew what you were talking about, Mulder.  

So The Last Detail is a movie about a young naval officer being escorted across country to prison.  But before his two jailers take him there they decide that, since he will be going away for a long time, he should first get to enjoy what life has to offer.  The film stars Jack Nicholson so I think that voice Mulder puts on is his Nicholson impression.  Yikes.

So is Scully going to show Mulder what life has to offer before hauling him off to OPR?  WINK WINK.

Maybe that’s what Mulder was hoping for ey?  Although, for Mulder, the height of what life most has to offer is bumming around Wisconsin looking for downed UFOs.  Pfft.  Spoil sport.

What I also like about this exchange before they enter Mulder’s motel room, is the fact that not so long ago Mulder was completely at odds with Scully, but Mulder so easily lets their disagreements go and slips straight back into their comfortable bantering.

It’s like whenever he is with her, he is unconsciously trying to charm her - he seems to turn it on whenever they’re alone together - it’s that little bubble they have that we’ve talked about in the past; once they’re in there together they are in a world of their own.  While she is still clearly annoyed with him, he’s trying to entice her in to that bubble with a bit of casual flirting and she fights to hold on to her annoyance.

Course, the banter bus is forced to a sudden halt when Mulder and Scully realise someone has broken into and trashed his motel room.

Check out Mulder’s Ken doll pose.

I like how Mulder gets his quip in about how house keeping hasn’t been yet, but when Scully goes to say something in response, Mulder shushes her.  

Piss taker.

The way Mulder goes for his gun, forgetting he doesn’t have it anymore - because of course he doesn’t, Mulder losing his gun is like, his favourite thing to do after secretly staring at Scully.  His little head shake and her face fully communicating her thoughts on the matter.  You don’t need me to translate, just look at that face.

“Soooo um... do you think she’s still mad at me?”

Yes, Mulder.  Yes I do.

So the intruder turns out to be Max, and they drag him out of the bathroom so he can explain himself.

The best part of this conversation is when protective!Mulder body checks Max when he attempts to shake Scully’s hand.

Sit the fuck down, son.

It’s the only time Mulder becomes defensive in this whole scene, even though he’s just heard people have been spying on him for years, it’s only when Max makes a move towards Scully that Mulder gets visibly agitated.

Nobody touches bae, Max.  No touchie.

There’s an entertaining beat later in this conversation, when Max explains that he read Mulder’s Omni article on the Gulf Breeze UFO sightings.  Omni, interestingly enough, was a real magazine that was published in the 70′s through to the mid 90′s.  It contained articles on both science, science fiction and the paranormal.  Sounds right up Mulder’s passage.  What?

Mulder seems to be slightly embarrassed to have this revealed in front of Scully, as his eyes dart to her immediately and he stutters before responding.

That’s his ‘please don’t judge me’ face.

He already knows from The Jersey Devil that Scully thinks he has no life, and so to have his personal pursuits just openly revealed - that in his free time he writes articles for a paranormal magazine under an assumed name, no less.  Yeah, he doesn’t want Scully to pity his spartan existence any more than he thinks she already does.

Now I want to take a moment to dissect this phrase Max uses.  

“The enigmatic Agent Scully.”

Because where does Max get the notion that Scully is enigmatic?  Enigmatic, of course, meaning mysterious, indecipherable, puzzling etc.   Max says that he’s been following Mulder’s career – meaning following his cases – through viewing his travel expenses.  He would have been able to see where he was going, but not necessarily what he did when he was there.  So I wonder if these NICAP groups are actually spying on Mulder and Scully?  Do they go and hunt them down, look into what they’re investigating – observe them?  

It might then explain why Scully is described as enigmatic – these people, who are clearly believers like Mulder - would find Scully completely inscrutable.  A huge sceptic investigating the paranormal? Questioning her partner at every turn?  From their perspective Scully would seem a rather enigmatic figure.  An oddity. As Max himself says....

Perhaps these people were paying far more attention than Mulder realises.

While Mulder is clearly flattered by the attention, Scully finds it all rather tiresome.

Bless Max, he does not pick up on Scully’s unimpressed tone of voice whatsoever.

Mulder does though, and attempts to appeal to her own vanity.

 Although to be entirely precise, Max did say enigmatic agent Scully, so despite apparently having a photographic memory, Mulder couldn’t accurately remember what was said only 2 minutes ago.

Look at the smile on his face though, keep trying to reel her in, Mulder.  She’ll crack eventually!  Mulder seems quite tickled at the idea of Scully being described as enigmatic.  I think Mulder likes to think Scully is actually quite predictable, but she proves him wrong on that count several times as the series progresses.  She can certainly keep him guessing.

So Max then invites Mulder and Scully into his trailer home, and Mulder can barely contain himself.

I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see Mulder so tickled by something, and the first thing he does is look down at Scully to share the moment with her.

She’s fighting not to smile, look at her face.  She still wants to be annoyed at him.  But he’s still chipping away at her resolve... chip, chip, chip.

This scene is quite heavily contrasted with Mulder’s first meeting with Max, where he was so dismissive of him.  It kind of shows how Mulder’s single-minded focus on seeking the truth can actually dehumanise him.  Because now he’s like a kid in the UFO candy store.  He’s charmed by the hokeyness of Max’s trailer; in fact, the manner of decor - the haphazardly placed belongings mixed with newspapers clippings, photographs and stacks of books - bears some resemblance to the ordered chaos of Mulder’s basement office at the FBI.

Later, in season 4′s Tempus Fugit, Scully will remark that Max and Mulder are kindred spirits in “a deep, strange way”.  That only the two of them could appreciate living like this - the nomadic, frugal life of a UFO hunter.  Singularly obsessed, pinning newspaper articles and blurry photographs to every blank surface available.

She didn’t know how right she was, did she.

And that’s the MSR angle here, because I genuinely believe that Mulder could have easily ended up like Max if he hadn’t met Scully.  In fact, we see in I Want To Believe how close Mulder is to the Max Fenig lifestyle.  Without Scully working by his side, and the FBI to channel his energy, he effectively turns into Max - a recluse who sifts through paranormal paraphernalia by the ton, looking for some kernel of truth to prove the existence of extraterrestrials to the world, all the while slowly disappearing into himself in the process.

We see in season 10 that his home office that once kept his obsession contained - away from the rest of the house - away from the rest of his life, has now expanded out into pretty much everywhere -  consuming everything, including his relationship with Scully.  

What that says to me is that he really needs Scully to keep him balanced, and that’s what we see the first glimmers of here, in Fallen Angel - a need for someone to balance his obsessive nature, his single-mindedness, his propensity for self-destruction.  

Oy... this got depressing.

So Max plays Mulder and Scully a recording he lifted from a police dispatcher radio transmission to a deputy who was the first to respond to the UFO crash - of course not knowing what it was he was dealing with.  It sounds like this deputy and a fire crew were attacked.  This spurs Mulder on, the look in his eyes as he turns to Scully tells her everything she needs to know - he’s not gonna let this one go.  

DUN! DUN! DUUUUUUN!

She’s equally surprised to hear what happened out there, and now Mulder has finally cracked her - she’s on board.  Even if she doesn’t believe the truth is “alieums!” she sees there is more going on here than meets the eye, and this is how these two work together so well.

Because even if they don’t agree on what is happening, they can still work together so long as they always share the core goal of finding the truth.

Now we are going to take a side step into Mulder’s Kitchen.  Pull up a seat, we’re gonna delve into some mythology stuff for a moment.

So, this episode is a mythology episode before the mythology even existed.  So some elements of this episode tally up with what we come to know later of the aliens, but then other things certainly do not.  For example, the alien here is clearly incredibly powerful, much more powerful than the aliens we will encounter later - it’s main abilities being that it can turn invisible and PASS THROUGH SOLID OBJECTS.  We don’t ever see that again - thank God!

The alien bounty hunters we see later are significantly nerfed - their greatest abilities are shape-shifting and super human strength.  So is this alien here something different?  

Something infinitely more interesting that this alien does do, is exhibit an ability which reappears in season 10.  It’s this high pitched squealing noise that causes damage through the auditory cortex in the brain.  

In season 10′s Founder’s Mutation, Dr. Augustus Goldman’s children that were experimented on with alien DNA are also able to exhibit this high pitched frequency which causes a very similar painful reaction.  It’s literally the same sound, but a different pitch.  Go compare them!

Towards the end of Fallen Angel, Max also hears this sound and he repeats over and over that he’s in pain, clutching at his ear that pours with blood.

Similarly, this ability the children have in Founder’s Mutation causes blood to pour from the ears, nose, mouth and eyes of Dr. Goldman.  

I have no idea if this is intentional or not, but it’s shockingly similar.  If it is intentional, then will we find that William has this strange ability too?  

But that’s getting away from Fallen Angel, and into season 11 speculation territory.. so moving on!

Mulder and Scully visit the hospital to find out what happened to the deputy and the fire crew, and as Scully chats with the Doctor in charge about radiation burns, we discover a fascinating factoid about Scully.

Forensic medicine, ay?  I mean, that’s not surprising at all, really, but still... GOOD TO KNOW!

Next we get a Mulder-Scully walk and talk.  Hospital corridor too, classic!

Mulder, stop looking at your hot partners lips and concentrate, man!

Mulder is actually positively buzzing; hearing that the deputy and fire crew had severe radiation burns.

Look at how closely they walk together too, they’re bumping shoulders the whole time.  Mulder really has no concept of personal space. 

I like this scene because it’s Mulder being as excited as a kid at Christmas, and Scully is throwing out an alternative explanation, but he just keeps coming back at her.  It’s a very familiar song and dance.

But this is what they do - Scully makes Mulder work for it, and completely opposite to what was intended, she ends up not debunking his work, but makes it stronger - actually gives it more weight, rather than less.

So what happens is that surprisingly, Scully doesn’t outright dismiss what Mulder is saying, but she is still relentlessly focused on keeping Mulder out of trouble, by getting him to the OPR hearing.

Mulder, however, remains pretty indifferent about it.  He listens to her, but he’s not really all that concerned.  He feels he is so close to catching a glimpse of something here, that he is willing to sacrifice even the X-Files to stick around and follow it through.  

But ultimately what he’s doing here is incredibly reckless because he hasn’t actually seen anything.  I mean, let’s go back and review.  All he’s seen is a mangled crash site which could have been anything - let’s be honest - and some emergency services personnel with reported radiation burns.  What it comes down to, is that he’s risking this mainly on the word of Deep Throat.

He needs Scully to remind him of what he needs to do – to think of the bigger picture.  But poor Scully is just ignored – again.  She’s trying really hard to save his ass, but seems intent on going down in flames.  

Ah I do love a good walk and talk though.  This is how I like my baby agents. Walking and talking and arguing and Mulder being a little bitch, and Scully exasperatedly trying and failing to get Mulder to see sense.  Ah good times!

It’s at this moment, Colonel Henderson arrives with several of his men suffering from more radiation burns.  GASP!  Mulder tries to reason with Henderson about hunting the alien down, but is thrown out of the hospital, while Scully - she’s a medical doctor don’tcha know - is asked to stick around and help treat the soldiers.

Mulder decides to return to his motel to look for Max - what an irony, the only one with the means to help him continue his search is the UFO wacko.

But Mulder arrives to find Max having an epileptic seizure.

And Mulder is a pretty sweet guy really, right?  Taking care of Max.  He’s pretty caring when he wants to be.

Holding him through his seizure...

...getting him a glass of water... even if Max looks terrified of glasses of water...

...and tucking him into bed.  

Naww… Mulder’s paternal instincts on display here.  

Oh...

Oh God.

I need a minute.

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

So after playing daddy to Max, Mulder notices that Max has a scar behind his ear.  A rather grim looking scar, too.  Eugh.

Mulder has seen this before... in an X-File of course, because everything is in an X-File.

I have bad thoughts looking at those pianist fingers.  Seriously.  No more fanfic for me.

Mulder has clearly had these documents faxed over to him, but who exactly did that?  Who would he trust at the FBI to go through his files, not to mention the fact he’s currently up for disciplinary action right now, so who would OK these documents being sent?

Meh.

Who cares, we have got some hot glasses!Mulder action for you.  KAPOW!

SHAZAM!

Mmm, yes.  Ring Ring... It’s OPR here!  We’ve decided to drop all disciplinary action, Mulder.  Just be sure to wear those glasses from time to time and all is forgiven.  HNNNNGGG....  Ahem.

Scully arrives back from her voluntary stint at the hospital - I hope she got paid for that.  And she’s exhausted and dejected.  Mulder has his theories, but wants to know what Scully’s thoughts are.

Nice one.  Excellent theory there, Scully.  Well thought out; good reasoning.

I kid.  I kid.

I like this conversation, because for Mulder’s part, he’s showing that he values and respects her opinion, even when she hasn’t got one ha.  Even though Mulder is used to her going against him, he’s willing to hear it - he’s willing to be challenged, and that’s why their dynamic works for him, because he doesn’t take her stance personally.  He understands and values where she’s coming from, even when he doesn’t agree.

And the same goes for her, it’s why their dynamic works between them and them alone - because Scully listens to Mulder when most sane people wouldn’t, lets be honest.

But ever the guardian angel, Scully continues to remind Mulder to keep his eye on the ball. 

His trust in her is building, because even though he’s aware her primary goal is to get him back to D.C., he trusts her to tell him the truth when he asks her to do him a favour and examine Max’s scar.

In a demonstration of her integrity, and her loyalty to Mulder, when Scully asks...

and Mulder responds by being a fucking tease...

Scully agrees to examine Max, not based on any claim Max is making - Mulder points out that it’s not Max who thinks he’s an abductee.

She agrees to examine Max against her better judgement and only because Mulder asks her to. 

Nothing more than that.  Which is a pretty big deal.  “I do it all for you, Mulder.”

Unfortunately when they go to find Max, he’s missing and they overhear on his radio scanner that someone from Colonel Henderson’s patrol has spotted someone trespassing where they shouldn’t be.

Mulder and Scully both realise this must be Max.  

Scully realises first what this means though, that Mulder isn’t going to be catching that flight to D.C.   

The frustrated look on her face is the look of someone who knows exactly what’s about to happen... she knows this man well enough by now.  He’s not going to do anything he doesn’t want to do - but she will still try to fight him on it.  She isn’t going to give up that easily.

Mulder, on the other hand, looks at her with a face that says “I wholeheartedly concur Scully, lets go save Max!”

Wait, what?!

There’s a hint of desperation in Scully’s voice, she really is trying so hard to keep him out of trouble and protect their work - protect him.

He literally ignores every word she says though, and continues to obsessively pursue this lead.  I honestly think the only reason he stops and engages Scully, is because he can’t find the damn car keys.  I think if he had the keys and she didn’t get in the car, he would have just took off without her, because we all know he’s very capable of that.

But because he knows she has the keys, he takes a moment to explain his thinking.  

Mulder’s theory is basically that Max wasn’t chasing the UFO, that it was in fact the other way around.  The UFO was there for Max. 

I don’t think Scully believes Max is being abducted by aliens - we know she doesn’t believe in that; but what she does know is that she cannot stop Mulder when he’s like this; he’s going with or without her.  She knows trying to get through to him will only push him away, so she gives up trying to fight back.  

She really should have just clobbered him with one of their FBI issue torches and shipped the stupid fucker back to D.C. in a suitcase.

As it stands, her only course of action is to go with him - to try and stop him doing something he might later regret.  So reluctantly, she hands over the keys.

This is a dynamic that plays out again and again from this point onward.  Mulder bullheadedly wanting to plough on ahead regardless of the consequences to himself (and frankly to Scully too sometimes) and she trying desperately to pull him back, only to end up being swept along for the ride in the end.

This dynamic is usually balanced out by then Scully serving some pivotal role in being there – usually saving Mulder’s life.

But oddly, not this time.

They find Max who is babbling about the alieums coming to get him, but then Mulder bizarrely sends Scully outside.

His confidence in her ability to hold off a shadowy military clean up crew is sweet, but she had no chance.  

She’s grabbed immediately and Colonel Henderson completely ignores all of her protests.  

In the end, Scully being there this time served no purpose at all.

But then again, Mulder being there served no purpose either.  He wasn’t able to stop Max being abducted and he gets flung across the warehouse by the invisible alien for his trouble.

Mulder is lucky that this alien knows he’s one of the the main characters of this show and didn’t decide to irradiate him to death like every other human being it had encountered thus far.

When Mulder gets up, Max is being abducted, and Mulder cannot do anything to stop it.

The next thing we know, Max is gone and Mulder is left with nothing but his NICAP cap.

I got abducted by alieums and all I got was this lousy cap.

The next scene is of Mulder and Scully finally at the OPR hearing.  Somehow Scully managed to get him there on time, it seems.  This scene ultimately foreshadows what occurs at the end of season 1 which is the closure of the X-Files.

By rights, it should have happened here – it’s almost like Mulder knew someone would swoop in to save his ass, because he really didn’t give two shits about getting back in time.

We see at the very end of the episode that Section Chief McGrath is on the Syndicate books, and has been working to get rid of of Mulder.  

But is saved by Deep Throat. 

However, his motives are suddenly cast in shadow.  Is Deep Throat on Mulder’s side or not?  

What it does reveal is that, without Deep Throat, Mulder and Scully were doomed before they even stepped foot in the OPR hearing.

Scully, again, being the bastion of loyalty and integrity that she is, tries to defend Mulder until the very last.  Even when she’s denied permission to make a statement on Mulder’s behalf she does it anyway.  Or at least tries to.

She really doesn’t want their work together to end.  That’s my greatest take away from this episode.  That Scully wants to be out there with Mulder - and she’s willing to fight for it.  If she didn’t, then she could have just let this play out, but she fights and fights - until someone shuts her down - to stay by Mulder’s side and continue with him on the X-Files. 

You know what I said about Mulder’s charm earlier?  He turns it on for Scully, and he’s trying to be charming here - but it’s not working.

When Scully wishes Mulder luck, he banters about how he’s surprised he lasted this long.

This is probably the most touching scene between the two of them in the whole episode, because for the first time, Mulder acknowledges Scully’s feelings when he tells her not to worry.  He can see she’s feeling defeated and is concerned for him.

What I think he fails to realise is that she’s not just worried about him for his sake.  She doesn’t want to stop working with him too.

The look of utter defeat on her face when she thinks it’s over - it’s almost like she can’t look him in the eye because she thinks she’s failed him in there.

He keeps putting on the brave face though.  Trying not to worry her.  He looks so sickeningly vulnerable hobbling away on those crutches.  And this quip..

Ugh it just hits you in the heart, doesn’t it?!

Maybe he should have been fired here, then he could have asked her on a date because they’re not partners anymore and he’s out of the FBI.  Then they might have got married and had babies and AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

No, brain.  Stop.

Being serious now... because as disarmingly charming as Mulder is being, isn’t this all a little bit too casual for a man who is about to lose everything?

It’s actually in moments like these that we see how easily Mulder becomes his most reckless and self-destructive.  He wants to believe so badly, that all else falls to the wayside when someone dangles a tantalising piece of the whole in front of him.  His singular obsessive nature is so easily turned against him in this way.

Which is why he needs Scully to look out for him.

Mulder thinks he’s grasped something huge here, but we know that it’s merely a fragment of the whole, and those greater truths he will discover in the next 9 years would have been utterly lost to him if he didn’t have Scully there to keep him on the right path - keep him grounded. 

He seems to have all but given up hope of continuing on the X-Files in this scene.  Perhaps that was the reason for his casual attitude all along - he knew they would use this to get rid of him no matter what he did.

Perhaps he’s about ready to jump full blown into Max’s lifestyle – forget procedure and the FBI – that’s all just getting in the way. 

Mulder gives an incredible speech here which seems to point to that conclusion, in a way.   That the truth will out, regardless of the machinations of the FBI, whomever they serve and whether or not they fire him.  He will keep pursuing the truth.

Man, what a mic drop moment.

But if he had been sacked here, Scully would have been reassigned and he would have gone right down the rabbit hole without her.  See season 2.

Again, it’s incredibly fortuitous for Mulder that he met Scully.  She really did save him from a life of ridicule and obscurity, a life in his season 1 youth he might have embraced in some petulant act of defiance against the world.  But that ultimately only he would have suffered from... and Scully.

Mulder was, and always has been, walking a very fine line between obscurity and legitimacy… and while Mulder is indeed a brilliant man with an incredible mind – a beautiful mind as Scully would later describe it in The Sixth Extinction – he is constantly under attack, whether that be from his traumatic past, or the forces within and without the FBI that seek to turn him on himself or on those around him. 

In short, he could have very easily fallen off the edge if he had no one to hold him back. 

Scully truly is his guardian angel.