#wiggate

I’ve been wondering too! I guess it could be some kind of a time jump, and I guess I’m leaning toward that, because I’m not sure what else they would need to signify. Or if not a time jump exactly, a flashback/something happening at some other time, whether before or after the main storyline. (I doubt they would bank on just cutting Scully’s hair making her look believably like original-series-era Scully, but it’s possible, I guess. Gillian certainly is aging beautifully, but she IS still 15 years older than when the original series ended.) 

To state the obvious, sometimes on TV when someone gets a noticeable haircut it’s because the actor wanted to get their hair cut, and they make up some in-universe throwaway excuse for it. CLEARLY, that can’t be the case here because the hair is a wig. It remains forever constant. Unless deliberately changed. So this is why it’s so intriguing, and why I do think it must mean SOMETHING, because why would they just randomly cut the wig’s hair (or change wigs) for no particular reason? (Unless Gillian accidentally set it on fire or something.)

So my guesses are: time jump/flashback/flash forward, or, maybe, I keep hearing about the possibility of doppelganger stuff? So maybe there’s a Scully doppelganger and the hair is to differentiate Real Scully from DoppelScully? I’m more leaning toward time jump though.

We DO have historical precedent for 1013 using Scully’s hair to differentiate timelines: in Per Manum when her hair is normal (for Season 8, not really for Season 7) in the flashbacks that took place during Season 7:

and randomly floofy in a way that it never was again during the present-day Season 8 stuff, as if, perhaps, the emotional distress of having flashbacks about her in vitro process caused her to briefly and minimally alter her hairstyling routine that week:

So, it’s definitely possible that they’re using Scully’s hair once again as a signifier of some time difference. But it’s also possible it’s a doppelganger thing, I guess. Or maybe that a bear was involved in some nefarious manner.

I totally agree with you. I think in S10 I was so focused on trying to feel OK with Gillian’s wig that I didn’t fully register it, but when I saw those pics of DD on set yesterday I was like AAAAAHHHH SO MUCH BETTER!! And exactly -- I would look at S10 Mulder and be like “well you know, David has gotten older, he’s not going to look like he did in Season 4; he still looks pretty damn good.” But then I’d see a candid of him on the street three months later and be like HNNNNGGGGGHHH. 

So...I do think a lot of it may have been the hair. I haven’t had a moment to go look closely at S10 Mulder pics and compare to the set photos, but I do feel in retrospect like his hair was kind of weird last time. And I also agree about the makeup, as I’ve said. There was a lot on Gillian but there was a lot on David as well, and I’m sure that was an artistic choice by someone and you can’t always know how these things are going to look in the finished product, of course, but anyway, I’m hoping that after seeing it on TV a decision has been made to dial that back for both of them (seeing that pic of Gillian has given me hope there). 

I’m honestly kinda blown away by the revelation that she was wearing a wig at least some of the time on Hannibal and I never realized. So here’s hoping that the “wig face” issue will also be overcome this year, since CLEARLY, IT IS POSSIBLE. 

Tea Leoni wears a wig on Madam Secretary and it looks amazing! You’d never know it was a wig if she didn’t say she wore one.

See, I historically am VERY BAD at spotting wigs. The terribleness of Gillian’s S10 wig has made me believe that I am now great at spotting wigs. Because that one was super obvious and fake-looking. However, I’m reorienting myself as I realize that in fact I am STILL real bad at telling when something is a wig when the wig is halfway decent. 

What this is all doing for me today is giving me hope that when we see Scully on set and ready for action, the wig will be better. I already have hope from that one picture she posted, but it’s hard to tell until we know for sure that she’s “done.”

Also I’d like to restate my crackpot wig philosophy that comes from years of playing The Sims: Sometimes when you download a hair that you want to use for your Scully sim, it looks like it’ll work great from the picture of it on someone’s model sim, but when you actually install it on your Scully sim’s head, it looks stupid. Like, it doesn’t sit correctly, it floats above her eyebrows awkwardly or whatever, and there’s nothing you can do about it. When that happens you just have to go look for a different Scully hair because it ain’t ever going to look like Scully. I feel this applies to real life (narrator: there was no reason to feel it applied to real life) in that, that wig she had in S10 may have been a quality wig or whatever, but it did not look right on her head. And so, I’m hoping that someone has figured this out. (ALSO USING BENJAMIN MOORE EXTERIOR HOUSE PAINT TO COVER HER FACE DID NOT HELP)