#txf s6

Omg junegoose hiii thanks for stopping by thanks so much for asking this!! One Son is confounding to me and it’s one of the episodes I revisit the most just to wonder “why the hell did Mulder say what he said to her”.

The first point about my interpretation of season 6 is that I firmly believe that Mulder is clinically depressed during this season. I mean, we’ve seen him sad before, but this is the first time we see that Mulder is truly apathetic. We know that Mulder cares for Scully, of course he does, but sometimes within season 6 it seems to me that he can’t muster the feeling to care. I have years like that, Mulder, believe you me. Someone get this guy an ssri stat.

The fabulous @dabeth-is-dead has suggested that Mulder said that “you’re making this personal” to Scully because he knew that it was the most hurtful thing that he could say, an interpretation I agree with more and more the more that I think about it. There are two aspects to my personal opinion: 1) that he meant that in intent genuinely and 2) that he was trying to provoke a reaction out of Scully to satisfy his own feeling.

We know that Mulder and Scully play roles for each other. Whenever they feel like their relationship is tenuous, they fall back onto the roles that they established for themselves and latch onto them. We see Scully struggle with this in season 8; I think this is why Mulder is so doubtful whenever Scully chooses to land on the “believer” side. I believe that Mulder acts as the skeptic for Scully and for her safety— Scully’s typical point of view might be her inclination, but the only time she really tries to convince him to see her side is when she believes that his actions may endanger him and them. Mulder may genuinely have doubts, but the reason that he’s so emphatic about them when he does is that he’s trying to do for Scully what he feels that she does for him. He just can’t manage a light touch and his doubt bleeds in, and he comes off as a total asshole. He is right that whenever Scully comes to him about a case with something unsubstantiated that it means Scully is feeling personally affected by it. MS can agree and disagree on what is substantiated evidence in the case of One Son, but that fact is true. Does that excuse the manner in which he refuted her in this episode? No! He was a total asshole for no reason!

This is the first season where we see Mulder genuinely hurt by Scully’s doubt, and this has less to do with Scully herself than Mulder grasping at air as he tries to justify his identity that is all wrapped up in his work, which he doesn’t have. After all his and Scully’s efforts over the last 5 years they have nothing to show for it. He cannot rationalize a justification for his efforts, but more importantly, he cannot justify Scully’s efforts and injuries. Vis a vis Fight the Future, he believes he is tearing Scully’s life apart piece by piece with nothing to show for it. (Scully, of course, has a different opinion.) Pair that with total dissatisfaction with the state of his life and a chronic case of guilt and you get a man who feels like his life has very little meaning. Hence, Mulder’s agreeableness to throw in the towel and his desperation to get Scully to the airbase to save her.

I think that part of the reason why Mulder was so moody in this episode was in order to provoke a reaction out of Scully. We have seen Mulder act rashly with little regard for his wellbeing or lash out when he feels that his life/work/identity is threatened. I believe, as an extension of this line of being, Mulder begins to lash out at Scully to provoke a reaction out of her. Take the bath scene for example. He mocks her and says “No, you actually hide your feelings very well.” Again an asshole thing to say, but this tells me that Mulder isn’t mad at Scully for disagreeing with him about Diana (though he in fact is), he is mad at her for not sharing her feelings with him. His entitlement to her feelings is another can of worms, but at this point, I understand his frustration, as Scully is not the best at sharing although she tries.

After Fight the Future, their relationship went back to the status quo. They made no mention of it again. From there, I would understand why Mulder is angry with her. He blames both her and himself for lack of any progress professionally and personally. If he’s an asshole, maybe they’ll get some movement from it, and if he doesn’t and if he makes her feel the way that he does, then at least they’re on the same page. Do I think that he’s aware of this motivation, or that he thought ahead of his own hurt in TLG’s office? Not really, unfortunately. Meanwhile, Scully is trying her hardest to reach him from where she is able. It’s just a clusterfuck. They really need to work on their communication skills.

There are better write up’s of this here and here and also here

She doesn't trust his judgment, she doesn't trust him to look after himself or her, she doesn't trust his senses or experiences. It's one of many episodes of s6 that make me question why Scully even stuck around after they got shut down. She isn't shown to value the work or its purpose like she did. She isn't shown to value Mulder or his mind or his intention anymore, not like she once did. If she stayed out of guilt or out of lingering attraction or feelings for Mulder, neither of those are very flattering to her since they're shallow, selfish reasons that would lead to frustration. And she sure feels free to take her frustration out on Mulder himself.

Yes Scully was superficially right that Karin was hiding something, but Mulder was right that she wasn't malicious and she was not the real danger. Scully is nice and gracious at the end, as was the formula of that era of the show but I keep end up thinking that conceding some points and/or vaguely reassuring your partner you still like him at the end doesn't make up for all the time spent making it seem like you think he's too blind and helpless to do his job the rest of the time.