#txfs3e23

Visuals appreciation post

A small think piece by your everyday Fish

So I love WetWired! It’s one of my favorite episodes in the whole series! One of the reasons for this is the use of foreshadowing about what will happen to Scully .

(First watch through)🐟❤️

My second favorite episode!

WetWired (season 3 episode 23)

Omg this episode was my favorite for so long. The themes and visuals are some of my favorites in the whole show. I really enjoy media that is critical of technology, the distribution of information and visual media as a whole.

It’s a very heavy episode but it earns its weight.

The visuals in the episode were great! It explores paranoia in a very tangible and believable way. I can get an image of the specific effect I like so much but it’s the one where scullys vision glitches like a tv screen! It’s incredible! And such a grounded, translatable way to show how deep the tapes have wormed their way into their brain.

We in the audience also on edge with scully. Her thinking she sees Mulder with smoking man well done! We know he wouldn’t betray her but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he is working with CSM for answers. The scene with scully destroying the motel room made my skin crawl in the best ways. Because her fears are this amorphous thing. They are very real possibilities. It’s the mania of her actions that really sells the scene.

Scully being right that whatever is going on is connected to the tapes that they find in people’s houses but Mulder looking for something more shows you why they need each other. Mulder spends a lot of time chasing shadows this episode but scully sees facts and possible causation.

It shows the danger in both thier view points. Mulder brushing off that it has something to do with the tv people are watching, so he doesn’t take it seriously until Scully goes missing, and Scully not seeing that there is something more to this than just the tapes which leads her to paranoia.( I also love how the show hint at scullys paranoia by the way she is also surrounded by tapes! They are towering and grow through the episode!)

It’s very interesting placement in the series bc this happens after the abduction arc and Scully disappearing really hits mulder which we see most when he thinks he has to id the body. He is freaked. But for at this Scully this place in her life she has had time stolen, is still reeling in the trauma. I think there is a part of her that is still can’t trust anything or anyone after these events.

Also a parallel that stook out to me was Scully pointing a gun at mulder, yelling about how he betrayed her - with Mulder doing the same thing a few episodes prior. Mulders was making these same accusations without any mind tampering(other than grief and his own beliefs) but where as Mulder was angry Scully is terrified. This is her worst nightmare.

Some little highlights bc this is getting long!

Scully chewing ice like popcorn.(idk it was a fun character quirk to me) Mulder telling people not so shoot Scully and that she is unwell. Mulder finally losing his shit at X because he was made to do the dirty work but Scully suffered for it! She is his line!

Mulders knowing exactly where Scully will be when her mom is mentioned. Mrs. Scully standing between her daughter and Mulder. Really her mom whole scene! It is just heartbreaking. Maggie’s whole monologue is just incredible! “It’s me I would never hurt you.” Ahhhh

I think what i really like about this episode is that it isn’t aliens or monsters or the CSM conspiracy but it is a monster of the week but monster is our worst fears and still a conspiracy, just a very real and down to earth one.