1 – Ah man they’re bringing up William in the “previously on” segment…I don’t know if my fragile emotions can handle this
2 – Though, that is the third reference to THEIR child (Sveta: “you have a child together”, Scully: “because we have a child together”) –> I hope that’s promising, but you know what they say: “hope breads eternal misery”
3 – “Bringing Scully and I back together” –> just not the in the way you NEED to be!
4 – As first images of an episode go…DANG:
5 – It looks like Eugene Tooms and the Flukeman teamed up to give this guy some MAJOR eye fungus…or he was dropping the bad acid all night long. Could go either way really.
6 – Between a retinal scan AND the metal detector, these guys must have to show up like an hour before work to get into the office on time. That thing took forever to scan his eye.
7 – Because of that we know this place is TOP SECRET/high clearance/highly classified
8 – “Work or Pleasure?” “I haven’t had pleasure for quite some time” –> Tooms/Flukeman eye fungus it is then
9 – They really had to let US hear that high-pitched noise too, huh?
10 – They totally just cut off that poor guy holding the coffees trying to get onto the elevator…be a bit more courteous guys, geez
11 – This damn high pitched squealing Taos Hum is really killing me
12 – “The Founder” -> I’m guessing this “Founder” has to do with the title…
13 – THE BIRDS!!!!!!
14 – I really want to show this episode to my sister, specifically because she’s terrified of birds and it’d be hilarious to watch her freak out at this shot…
15 – I’m a great sister, guys
16 – Though I’ll admit this is just wrong:
17 – Less than 2.5 mins into the episode and we have two disturbing images…I would expect nothing less from the writer of “Home”. Nice to have you back, James Wong. Now go stand in the corner and think about what you’ve done!
18 – Wait … is Sanjay rattling those glasses in front of him? Like telekinetically?
19 – Or is he imagining it?
20 – Or am I imagining it?
21 – Dude is acting like he has a MASSIVE hangover
22 – I always hear voices telling me to do stuff during staff meetings…
23 – Sanjay’s are telling him: “Do it! Now! It’s necessary! Data is the key. Don’t hesitate. GO! Go, now! GO! Go, now!” which I’m guessing (read: hoping) is related to PLOT somehow
24 – The moment when it switches perfectly from that piercing tone in Sanjay’s head to the outside silence is SO jarring and wonderful. Shout out to the sound-editing department.
25 – You can HEAR Sanjay’s chair squeaking the room is so quiet…gorgeous
26 – Now he’s accessing a bunch o’files on that computer and not listening to the people banging on the door telling him to let them in. Methinks this will not end well
27 – Now the pitch is starting again and UGH this is horrible…
28 – Oh yeah, grab a marker and write something on your hand when you’re in pain…totally normal…
29 – What are you doing with the letter opener, Sanjay?
30 – Put down the letter opener, Sanjay!
31 – Don’t go near your ear, Sanjay!
32 – AHHHHHH! Did they REALLY just show the entirety of Sanjay rifling around in his brain with a sharp object to kill himself?
33 – I just watched that scene through my fingers…I haven’t done that in a LONG time…
34 – That was NASTY
35 – Still not over seeing Mitch in the credits…
36 – I wonder if they’ll change the tagline at all like they did sometimes in the original run? “Deny Everything” seems appropriate…
37 – Why hello FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder. Nice to see you kneeling over a dead body again…while not looking like a hobo
38 – “What do you make of this, Scully?” -> AND it’s The X-Files!
39 – PLOT: Sanjay chose the most secure room in the facility to lock himself into. The servers in the room are isolated; therefore, the only way to access the data on them is through the terminal Sanjay was on before he killed himself. The terminal is also protected.
40 – How do you know all that, Mulder? I’m guessing he asked someone from the company; otherwise I’ll have to go with “he was channeling the brains of The Lone Gunman”…which I’m actually ok with, to be honest
41 – “Is that why we’re here?” -> Mulder, why is this an X-File?
42 – Mulder is not only wearing latex gloves…he has an evidence bag. Times really have changed…
43 – Then this dud comes in all “unhand the classified hard drive” and just grabs it from Mulder like a kid not wanting another kid to play with his toys
44 – MINE!
45 – What the heck good is clearance if it only gets you in the ROOM but you don’t get to play with anything inside of it? That’s just mean
46 – Department of Defense? WHY the DoD involved?
47 – Colleague…partner…lover…soul mate…touchstone…whatever
48 – By the look on Scully’s face, Augustus Goldman is not only important, but also probably hard to pin down
49 – “I am not authorized to confirm that I have knowledge of the whereabouts of the Founder” -> this guy went from douche bag to robot in .000003 seconds
50 – Scully spies the security cameras and beautifully distracts douchebag dud asking for all the security footage from them while Mulder riffles around in Sanjay’s pockets and steals his phone
51 – Hold up, don’t those fingerprint sensor things in the phone actually register not only your fingerprint but the electrical signal in your skin in order to unlock? How would that work with a dead body that is getting colder by the second?
52 – Well it works that way with iPhones, anyway [https://www.quora.com/Can-Apples-Touch-ID-tell-between-the-fingerprint-of-a-living-and-deceased-person] … couldn’t seem to find anything on TouchIds for other phones. If someone does, hit up the comments, PLEASE!
53 – I’ll go with it for now because PLOT…well and…X-Files
54 – Subtle, Mulder
55 – A) love that Scully apparently knows what Mulder’s cell phone looks like, B) does his “old school” comment mean he’s still using that laughable flip phone from IWTB? Cause I thought in ‘promotional materials’ I saw him with a smart phone…what does that comment even mean, Mulder?
56 – Actually, I would think Sanjay killing himself and not telling anyone could mean that he WOULD mind you talking to his friends, but whatever
57 – PLOT: Sanjay talked to someone named “Gupta” every night
58 – HOW do you know what Gupta means off the top of your head, Scully? Are you pulling things out of your ass, Chris Carter style now?
59 – Mulder agrees with me…though he looks kind of turned on (and impressed) by her awesome knowledge…and I’m good with that
60 – What does Scully’s “I’m old school…pre-google” even mean? Did Wong put these lines in here just to be all “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” we’ve been around for longer than half the people watching have even been alive?
61 – We get it…it’s not the 90s anymore…Scully had to have looked that up in a book…why doesn’t she just SAY that: “It’s called books, Mulder” would have been just as funny and even more tongue-in-cheek about the fact that this is such an ‘old’ show
62 – But I digress
63 – Mulder’s off to a bar to work out some sexual frustration question Sanjay’s “Gupta”
64 – These two guys are paying way too much attention to Mulder
65 – IT’S LESTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy Crap I love Vik Sahay! Ahhhh now I wanna watch Chuck
66 – And he’s all “no names” with Mulder and that’s kind of sketchy
67 – Mulder, don’t you know better than to follow random people into dark rooms…this is usually when you end up getting your ass handed to you
68 – MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! OR Lester tries to give you a blowjob …
69 – Lester’s totally a hustler…
70 – Mulder’s face is freaking hilarious, right now:
71 – You keep saying that word…I don’t think it means what you think it means…
72 – Lester agrees with me about Mulder’s sexual frustration; however, it is in the VERY wrong context
73 – LISTEN TO YOUR HEART, MULDER! IT’LL TELL YOU THE TRUTH!
74 – (Go make out with Scully and act like this whole breakup never happened…)
75 – Mulder is SO uncomfortable around people sometimes…it’s comic…that was season one level, Mulder awkwardness. Work on your people skills, Mulder. Or just make sure Scully is always with you
76 – Actually, let’s just go with ‘make sure Scully is always with you’, okay
77 – Scully’s back in the morgue, slicing and dicing the corpse -> So much CLASSIC X-Files goodness happening in this episode! Warms the heart.
78 – “Probable cause of death” -> Probable? C’mon, Scully!
79 – I mean, I get that she can’t really say it for certain until she’s done the complete autopsy but now I’m having flashbacks to the Medical Examiner in “Bad Blood”: “Probable cause of death? Well, that’s a tough one!”
80 – OOOOOOHHHHHH and now they’re showing her yanking the letter opener out of his brain? NASTY!
81 – I keep cringing and it’s not helping
82 – YES notice what he wrote on his hand! Good job, Dr. Scully
83 – Mulder’s drinking in the middle of the day…I guess that’s what middle age and sexual frustration over not being with Scully gets you
84 – PLOT: Gupta says Sanjay was distant/troubled for the past couple weeks. They hadn’t gotten together at all physically, though Sanjay would call Gupta every night. Sanjay would tell Gupta about work and being upset about his ‘kids’ dying.
85 – Mulder…in this day and age being “SINGLE” is not a qualifier for not having children…according to Chris Carter, you and Scully were both technically single when William was born…
86 – How about something more like “No one mentioned Sanjay having children?”
87 – “He lived an antiseptic life” … so Wong is stealing Carter’s lines now
88 – PLOT: Sanjay had TWO apartments (makes sense…double life and all)
89 – I love it when people write the title of the episode on their hands before killing themselves…it’s so handy
90 – PLOT: Sanjay wrote ‘Founder’s Mutation’ on his hand before digging around in his brain with a sharp object, Augustus Goldman is referred to as “The Founder” at Nugenics [where Sanjay worked]. Scully rightly wonders if this is why Mulder wanted to speak to Dr. Goldman. Mulder notes the letter opener went into Sanjay’s head at a 90° angle but then veered off at 60° like he was ‘hunting for something’, ending up in the auditory cortex. Mulder muses: “Well, ultimately hearing is just nerve impulses interpreted by the brain. What if those same impulses could be generated without actual vibrations striking the eardrum?”
91 – This shot of them talking shop is so gorgeous:
92 – Scully’s driving again…I guess her little feet reach the pedals of that giant SUV just fine
93 – The front bumper camera…just another ‘subtle’ reminder we’re in 2016 and not 1993
94 – Then Scully nearly runs over a kid…maybe that’s why she never really drove?
95 – Mulder unlocks the door…so I take it Gupta gave him the key?
96 – Scully was holding his flashlight for him! That’s like the equivalent of a guy holding his woman’s purse…so sweet
97 – Also – FLASHLIGHTS!
98 – Mulder and Scully walking into Sanjay’s apartment – moving in perfect synch while having NO REGARD for personal space… #stillmarried
99 – Oooo someone’s watching them
100 – And…..Sanjay had a creepy, serial killer level wall of pictures…of kids…with some major deformities. These must be his “kids” he told Gupta about
101 – Mulder and Scully agree with me…
102 – PLOT: The kids in the photos are young – likely no older than ten years old. Scully thinks the pics were likely taken in a hospital for clinical purposes based on the background of the photos.
103 – Uh oh…here come the Po-Po
104 – You have actual FBI credentials now, why are you rushing to get out of there before the police find you? Not having a warrant never stopped you two before
105 – UH OH Mulder’s hearing the piercing noise that Sanjay heard!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!
106 – And now I’m having “Demons” and “Biogenesis” flashbacks and I can’t handle that right now
107 – Of course Scully leaves all other ‘missions’ behind and runs to his side
108 – Seriously the camera angles and shots in this episode are awesome
109 – Now Mulder’s hearing voices: “Find her. Help me. Find her.”
110 – SKINMAN!
111 – PLOT: Mulder and Scully found files in Sanjay’s apartments pertaining to the ‘kids’ on his “not a serial killer’s” wall of pictures. Of course the files they found are classified…cause why not…
112 – Mulder, Scully and Skinner all look REALLY annoyed with this guy
113 – Still not sure what the DoD is doing involved in all this
114 – Ugh that Snowden line…*eye roll*
115 – “I assume you made copies?” “I managed some top sheets…” YES!!!! Skinner and his kids at it again…he knows them so well
116 – PLOT: Mulder believes the kids are failed experiments. Skinner asks if Mulder suspects the DoD are experimenting with genetic modification on humans.
117 – Of course Skinner looks to Scully for some sanity on the medical front
118 – Scully is still totally FOR Mulder -> breaks my heart a little but also gives me hope
119 – Skinner’s all “The FBI is totally jacked these days and no one can process anything worth a damn so it’s going to take roughly 80 years for the action closing this case to be filled…have fun storming the castle”
120 – We go from the high that was that wonderful, wonderful bit of classic X-Files goodness to THIS utter BS:
121 – IT’S BEEN 23 FLIPPING YEARS – GIVE THE WOMAN HER NAME ON THE DOOR AND A DESK!!!!!!!
122 – Her legs are FIERCE though…dang, Scully.
123 – She’s so short how can her legs be 8 feet long? Wardrobe department is on point this season!
124 – I take it the FBI finally found all The X-Files…there are a lot of storage boxes chilling out on shelves in that office…
125 – I figured they would have had a nice bonfire with them back in 2002
126 – Color me shocked
127 – Wireless keyboard and flat screen TV being used to synch up surveillance video files from the day Sanjay died…looks awesome…but…is it wrong that I miss the slide projector?
128 – I love the fact that both chairs are set up facing the monitor and Scully is in the one closest to the desk. The chairs in offices normally sit facing toward the desk (like they did all through the original run), which means she moved BOTH chairs and set his up for him so he wouldn’t have to move it himself
129 – Yes I’m probably reading too much into that but I don’t care, I think it’s sweet…she could have made him pull over his own chair and she didn’t
130 – It’s also nice to hear Mulder tell Scully exactly what happened in Sanjay’s apartment
131 – NO don’t look at all those birds…move on, Mulder
132 – “Maybe they seeded the lawn that morning” -> Scully and her logic, Mulder is having none of it
133 – “Mulder, how are these connected? The birds, the suicide, the kids, the genetic anomalies? What are you hiding?” -> Scully is me
134 – “This is dangerous” “When has that ever stopped us before” -> You’re also not 35 anymore…just keep that in mind
135 – Dr. Scully to the rescue
136 – Chris Carter REALLY thought the name of this hospital was a good idea?
137 – What up, Scully’s FBI therapist from “Irresistible” and “Elegy”? Nice to see you again.
138 – PLOT: Mulder and Scully wander over to the most appropriately named hospital in TV history to see about contacting Dr. Goldman. Sister Mary informs them he’s a “very private person, some would say reclusive”; however, he’s also a “true champion of the unborn” and is dedicated to helping out young pregnant women and acts as one of the hospital’s biggest donors.
139 – Part of me wants to hate the “Obamacare” burn but I have to admit I chuckled…how do you manipulate a Catholic hospital/sister into helping you? Blame the democrat.
140 – TIMELINE: Scully’s worked at this hospital for seven years…but…IWTB was set early 2008, right? Are we setting these episodes in early-2016 or in mid/late-2015 when they were filmed? If it’s the former, that timeline is wrong. If it’s the latter, it works.
141 – “You know me” -> like how I go behind the backs of all the staff and board and perform highly experimental procedures involving stem cell therapy on children…
142 – She seriously just walked UNDER his arm to go through the door! What’s even better is that was such a natural move…neither one of them hesitated. How many times have they had to perform that dance bringing in groceries from the car or something…and now I’m kind of crying cause they aren’t together anymore and I don’t like it…
143 – Thankfully, we’ve been able to mostly avoid the reality in this episode because neither one of them is at ‘home’
144 – Why does Agnes want to talk to them? Does she think they work for the hospital in some way?
145 – PLOT: Agnes is pregnant and has agreed to give up her baby once it’s born. But now she’s having second thoughts and doesn’t want to give it up even if it’s ‘sick’. The ultrasound showed the baby isn’t ‘right’. She says every woman there has the same story. When Sister Mary pops back up, Agnes gets squirrely and says she was kidding around but Mulder slips her his card in case she needs to talk.
146 – Of course Goldman will be happy to meet with them…someone probably showed him a picture of Scully
147 – “Desire is the devil’s pitchfork”:
148 – Can you two PLEASE just look at each other at the same time when you do this ‘gazing’ thing! Save ALL of our emotions, including your own. Thanks.
149 – PLOT: well more like “Mulder theory” – Goldman is funding the hospital in order to have access to the babies the ladies in the ward give up – could be another phase of the project (from “My Struggle”); with the women basically acting as incubators.
150 – “You’re never ‘just’ anything to me, Scully” -> the sound you hear is my heart simultaneously swelling to two times it’s normal size and shattering into a million pieces!
151 – You love her SO much just BE WITH HER!!!!!
152 – There’s a part of me that wishes we had a better angle of her face in this scene as she talks about missing all of William’s life to really be able to see her eyes, but at the same time, I love that she’s looking away from us and Mulder – like she cannot look him in the eye because she doesn’t want to know what she’ll see there.
153 – “To keep him safe” -> Yeah, I’m still calling that as a load of BS
154 – NOOOOOO!!!!!! Mommy!Scully with sweaty hands on William’s first day of school!!! I was not prepared for this…
155 – “Say excuse me if you fart” -> MWAHAHAHAHA I don’t care that Mulder isn’t physically in this scene that line was SO him it’s not even funny
156 – Her smile is gorgeous and heartbreaking all at the same time…what has this show done to me?:
157 – Well that devolved REALLY fast…
158 – She is obviously walking down the hallway of what is now Mulder’s house
159 – William’s an alien…great…so Scully’s latent fears remembered part of the mythology from season 9
160 – On that happy note…OFF to meet Dr. Goldman and get back to the PLOT cause I can’t take anymore heartbreak, ok?…OK!
161: PLOT: Goldman says “Founder’s Mutation” means nothing (but he’s sketchy and obviously lying), Scully has read everything he’s published and his research focuses on genetic manipulation. In an attempt to ‘clear things up’ for Mulder and Scully, Dr. Goldman shows them what he’s working on. They walk into a hallway lined with kids with crazy birth defects/genetic anomalies locked up in rooms. Scully speaks to one of the kids, Adam, who tells her he’s been in the facility ‘forever’ and doesn’t have any parents. When asked why these kids are in sealed room’s. Dr. Goldman gets all defensive and condescending and tells her they are trying to eliminate outside environmental factors that could affect the treatment.
162 – ALIEN DNA!!! SCULLY SAID IT!
163 – “I was told that you were the rational one” -> don’t dodge my question, asshat!
164 – I’m guessing Molly freaking out down the hallway is telekinetic in some form…definitely Alien DNA
165 – Perfectly timed freak out…seems suspicious if you ask me
166 – Now Agnes is dead and her baby is gone
167 – Scully did two autopsies this episode…SCORE! (We didn’t get to see the second one, but eh)
168 – PLOT: Agnes’ baby was surgically removed from her womb, but Scully couldn’t tell if it was still alive when it was removed. Mulder is wondering if the baby is still alive (cause, Alien DNA).
169 – The Syndicate! Wong did his mythology homework…or he at least read the cliffs notes
170 – “creating alien-human hybrids, the project was ultimately unsuccessful” -> um…except…Cassandra Spender. I praised Wong too soon…I take it back.
171 – PLOT: Mulder did a police database search for Goldman and found his wife, Jackie, was admitted to a hospital as a forensics patient because she was found criminally insane when convicted of murdering her baby. The body of the child was never found.
172 – HAHAHAHAHAHA I used to do that to my cats…it’s fun…(not with an apple but with other things…)
173 – PLOT: Jackie and Goldman had a daughter named Molly (methinks the chick who had the well-timed freak out when M/S were questioning Goldman). When Molly was two years old, she fell in the pool. After being in the water at least ten minutes before Jackie dove in to get her, Molly was still alive and actually breathing under water. Jackie knows her husband experimented on their daughter and didn’t want him to get her son too. When Jackie was nine-months pregnant she left and ended up in a car accident. Jackie heard that high pitched, steel spike in the head sound that prompted her to perform her own c-section on the side of the road. She says she didn’t kill her baby, she let him out. She never saw her son again.
174 – Seriously Wong is NAILING these disturbing visuals…that’s the second time I’ve watched through my fingers in less than an hour!
175 – Like REALLY disturbing:
176 – “I think about him everyday” -> and Mulder looks at Scully like his heart is breaking right along with mine
177 – “All my training, everything I know about psychology” -> which is basically what you learned back in the late 80s on a clinical rotation in med school, right, Scully?
178 – PLOT: Jackie’s son ‘spoke to her’ in the form of the high pitched squeal that Mulder heard, meaning her son is around and the cause of Sanjay’s madness. Turns out he works for a janitorial service and his name is Kyle Gilligan.
179 – Gilligan…We see what you did there, Wong
180 – THE BIRDS! Bad stuffs about to happen…
181 – “Bad things happen when the birds gather” -> Nailed it!
182 – NO MULDER not the piercing squeal again!
183 – Then he rolls down those wooden steps and is writhing on the ground and Scully cannot get to him fast enough, and I think this is the most “Scully” she has been in the whole episode so far…you TELL SCULLY where to find the person that is hurting the love of her life, woman!
184 – Leave it to Scully to save Mulder’s ass
185 – Mulder’s feeling better mighty quick there…probably because there’s only about six minutes left in the episode and there’s no time to spend on a 55 year old man recovering from that kind of fall. He just manhandled Kyle into the backseat of that car with no issue whatsoever
186 – Seriously this past summer was hotter than HECK here in the Pacific Northwest but dang did it give them a gorgeous backdrop to shoot against…Vancouver is so lovely
187 – He SO knows what he’s doing…
188 – PLOT: Sanjay was helping Kyle and Kyle was not trying to kill Sanjay (or make him kill himself, rather). Kyle can make people hear things, according to Mulder, but Kyle can’t control it. All he wants is to find his sister.
189 – Well Mulder, obviously Kyle CAN control it to an extent because he can direct it to certain people otherwise everyone would hear that horrible high pitched squeal…or at the very least all the people in the room with Sanjay and Scully in the apartment and just now outside Kyle’s house
190 – HOW did you find out Jackie was your real mother, Kyle? Can he read her mind?
191 – PLOT: Kyle heard Jackie’s story by working at the hospital where she’s being kept. Mulder tells Kyle no one knows where Molly is…but Scully has an idea who would. M/S take Kyle to Dr. Goldman who examines him and takes some blood. Kyle than asks about Molly and Goldman says he’ll let Kyle meet her. They walk him into one of the sealed rooms to meet with a young woman who Kyle QUICKLY figures out is not his sister…
192 – Seriously, how does he know for certain?
193 – PLOT: Kyle knocks Goldman down and rushes down the hallway toward the other sealed rooms and comes upon the real Molly.
194 – YUP reads minds…
195 – PLOT: Molly didn’t know about him either and tells him so – telepathically! – then they place their hands together on the glass doors and it shatters and then ALL the glass down the hallway shatters and the lights flickers. Kyle starts in with the high pitched squeal (which he seems VERY adept at controlling NOW!) focused on Dr. Goldman while Molly resorts to flinging Scully and Mulder around the hallway like ragdolls.
196 – I’m having yet more Marvel flashes here…why are Mulder and Scully not Agents of SHIELD?!
197 – Then we get like the millionth nasty image of this episode:
198 – Wong has REALLY stepped up his game since “Home”…I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not…
199 – AAAAANNNNDDD Molly and Kyle escaped…cause Mulder and Scully were knocked out…NOW it’s officially, full on, the X-Files
200 – “I blacked out after Goldman’s eyes popped out of his sockets. Believe me, you can’t un-see that.” -> thanks to 21st century television, the entire fandom can now attest to that!
201 – “There’s no trace of them anywhere”, Skinner walks away and Mulder…takes a vial of blood from his pocket!!!!! Kyle’s blood!!!!
202 – HOLD ON – how would that have survived Mulder’s little trip down the hallway courtesy of Molly?
203 – NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Oh my freaking hell…they are not…it’s Mulder and William…now I’m gonna cry…
204 – Mulder’s watching 2001: A Space Odyssey with William, and explaining what a “momomith” is, then he kisses William on the head, then he shoots off rockets with William while quoting JFK…
205 – AND THEN IT DEVOLVES TO WILLIAM BEING ABDUCTED FROM HIS ROOM JUST LIKE SAMANTHA!!!!!!
206 – THAT’S HOW YOU END THIS EPISODE?!?!?! THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, JAMES WONG?! My heart can’t take this…it can’t!
Parting Thoughts
This got WAY long! I was not expecting it!
I am now more convinced than ever that William being given up for adoption is the WORST thing in the entire history of this show…Mulder and Scully would have been such great parents, and they should have been given the opportunity to do it for real. I was not ready for the Mulder/William scenes at all! Smart move drama/emotion wise on Wong’s part holding Mulder’s imaginings until the end of the episode. I am such a mess right now I don’t think I would have been able to pay attention to the rest of the episode if Mulder and Scully’s William scenes had been swapped.
Mythology
Chris Carter had said only eps 1 and 6 would be mythology episodes, but it is obvious this one continues on the same vein from “My Struggle” in bringing up the idea of the Project and also referring back to The Syndicate. That reference makes me wonder if this ‘new’ mythology is just one that was happening over the Syndicate’s head…
The fact that Molly could breathe underwater brings back memories of Shannon McMahon from “Nothing Important Happened Today I & II” from season 9. Which ties together this whole idea of genetic manipulation with that storyline. I can see these kids and Goldman’s experiments being the endgame the project was hoping for when they ‘made’ the Super Soldiers. These kids don’t have any outwardly obvious signs of being ‘different’ (like the growth on the back of the necks from the Super Soldiers of old). Additionally, Molly being telekinetic also ties back to William being able to move things in “Provenance/Providence” in season 9, which, sadly, ties back into the idea of William being “more human than human” and “the first” success as he was referred to back in “Essence” in season 8 (which even more sadly, does point to him being part of the experiments).
The fact that they all seem to be mind readers would also suggest that Gibson Praise (who they still won’t mention!) and Sveta are/were likely test subjects as well in some shape, form or fashion.
The Ship
I wonder if the detached atmosphere of Mulder and Scully (along with their weird, “I just gargled with some screws” voices) aren’t a representation of the distance currently between them as characters…
Though we don’t know the specifics of the last five a half years since we saw them at the end of IWTB, something major has happened between them psychologically and emotionally (the breakup). Scully moved out. Mulder is all alone in that house.
I have taken master classes in both stage and film acting. As an actor, I wouldn’t be able to play the same type of connection between them that we saw in the original series run after all that has happened between them in the intervening 15 years.
Maybe…they are actually trying so hard not to let any hurt show or cause each other any more pain that they are trying not to just fall back into old habits and act like everything is exactly like it used to be. I think the emotional fall out of their history is what we may be seeing here.
Scully even said in “My Struggle” she barely knew how to reach Mulder…who knows how often they talk since she left. This could be the most time they’ve spent together uninterrupted since she moved out which should be hella hard on both of them.
Still, there are *flashes*, or *teases* if you will, of their old connection/chemistry [i.e., the scene in the morgue looking at them from behind the x-ray, in the morgue after Agnes is killed, when they are questioning Jackie, when Scully RUNS to Mulder after he falls over] the common denominator there of course is: they are at WORK (or Mulder is in pain/danger…and of course Scully will leave all thought behind and act on instinct which is to get to him and help him no matter what, but I digress) so it is a familiar (read: safe) environment. They can hide behind the case and be ‘all business’ and therefore let their old selves come out to play a little.
I say this because it seems to me (and I may be completely cracked because my hearing isn’t that great), that BOTH of their tones of voice aren’t so strained in their AU imaginings with William. They sound much more like the Mulder and Scully of old. The point where Scully’s tone starts to sound more like it does in the rest of the episode is when she tells William they are taking him to the hospital – when she’s in pain/freaking out but trying to mask it for her son’s sake. She’s more emotional in that moment and trying to hide it.
But that’s just my two cents (and 445 words on the subject :D)
im here for the story 
January 29, 2016 at 5:12 am
I love your reviews!!! I was just discussing this with a friend of mine, and I had this to say about MSR in this episode: Mulder and Scully definitely lost a bit of their spark, and I am waiting for it to come back. I agree that it makes sense for them to be depressed, world weary, jaded, and broken after all they have been through, but I never expected them to lose their “fight”. They always fought with all their might, through everything, and I am not used to seeing them so beaten down. But, I did have another point of view regarding their mood and behavior, especially in the last episode. This is just a theory I have, but I think it could make sense. I think, perhaps, that the powers that be wanted to seriously contrast the mood that Mulder and Scully are in currently, (missing William, depression ect), with how they would have been if they had kept William. In other words, they wanted to show us how happy they could have been…laughing with William, kissing him, playing with him, being content ect. Those daydreams are in stark contrast with Mulder and Scully’s mood in present day, and maybe it was done that way to really showcase their pain. To REALLY, really show the affect of all those years of chasing monsters in the dark have done to both of them. And maybe, just maybe, this episode was placed second to air because we needed to see this depressed, miserable side of both of them so that we can then watch them heal and reconnect in the future episodes. ( I hope!) If the previews for “Mulder and Scully meet the Weremonster” are any indication, it looks like we may be getting back that old MSR magic pretty soon. They seemed to be happier, and in joking mood in the short previews that I saw. Anyway, that’s just another way to look at it, what do you think? I am holding out hope that it only gets better from here! Maybe this episode had to air now to show us their evolution to healing. God I wish we had commentary on the episode lol. It makes me feel so much better discussing it with other Philes because I’ve been depressed since that episode!
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February 1, 2016 at 6:45 am
[To REALLY, really show the affect of all those years of chasing monsters in the dark have done to both of them. And maybe, just maybe, this episode was placed second to air because we needed to see this depressed, miserable side of both of them so that we can then watch them heal and reconnect in the future episodes.]
I can totally see this…from the storytelling/directorial standpoint it makes a lot of sense. I mean how weird would it be to see them (and this is me hoping as well) reconnecting and finding their groove again in the next three eps and then to BAM have them disconnected in “Founder’s”. It would have been WAY more jarring, at least for me as an audience member. It makes sense to see them still trying to find their way back into their rhythm on their first case back at the FBI – their first case back as partners after so long being away.
Whereas, can you imagine if (going off the previews for “M/S Meet the Were-Monster) M/S were back in their groove, sounding and acting like their old selves and then POOF all of a sudden they’re all disconnected and holding themselves back from one another? Wouldn’t jive for me.
So aside from the obvious timeline issues of moving what was supposed to be the 5th episode to second, I am holding out hope the storytelling reason will be worth it.
[because I’ve been depressed since that episode!]
RIGHT?! Ugh I was crying by the end of it and then I re-watched it a couple times for this review and it just kills more and more each time!
The great thing is…we’re always here and down for discussion!
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February 1, 2016 at 6:34 pm
So I did a bit of research about the thing with Sanjay’s fingerprint because I was really interested by that question, and reading between the lines it looks like Apple’s the only one that currently employs biometric tech. Apparently there are six or seven different methods for identifying fingerprints! Which is crazy. It’s also crazy that I’m willing to have the search terms I used in my browser history. Anyway…
I agree with you that William being given up is the worst possible thing that could’ve happened. If I can be frank, I think the showrunners simply did not consider the emotional fallout for the characters, because they probably weren’t anticipating that there wouldn’t be any more movies/miniseries/etc. Even with that taken into consideration, I think it was a bad move. These characters have had tragedy after tragedy befall them, and I don’t think either of them deserved to lose their child. My hopes for this season and whatever happens moving forward (because I’m seriously hopeful they’ll do more!) is that Mulder and Scully are able to find some kind of peace and healing.
Also, YES to more MSR chemistry! Hopefully in tonight’s episode.
(I loved your review, if you couldn’t tell.)
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February 1, 2016 at 7:59 pm
GRACIAS! Ah man my browser history is hilarious…I’m glad that no one in the government is looking too closely at me and my internet history otherwise they would probably think I’m a serial killer.
So I’m going with the moral of the episode being “Have an iPhone so it can tell if your body is actually ALIVE or not!” … I was trying to find information on other platforms for about an hour when I was writing this up and all it kept giving me was details on the Apple system plus it was around 2am and I decided I didn’t feel like researching anymore…
Thankfully it looks like we’ll be getting some WONDERFUL MSR in tonight’s episode (praise be to Darin Morgan!) and I cannot wait! These first two eps were wonderful and I really liked them…but it’s time for M/S to get their groove back!
(thanks so much for reading and commenting…I’m really enjoying your reviews as well :D)
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February 4, 2016 at 9:35 pm
32-34 – Yeah, I kept expecting them to tastefully cut away. NOPE we definitely just get every excruciating moment of him pushing a letter opener through his brain. Thanks, X-Files!
50 – That was my first moment of “Aw, they’re really back to being feds.”
52 – It was claimed that scanners can tell the difference on an episode of Scorpion once, but that show, while delightful, is the exact opposite of scientifically rigorous.
58 – She learned it the same way she learned forensic science and pediatrics and surgery: TV MAGIC.
85 – Yeah, I rolled my eyes at that too.
89 – HA! “Handy” I see what you did there.
90 – I was confused by that—did Sanjay know where the auditory cortex is located? Or is the brain self-aware enough to know which part of itself is doing which task so you know where to stab yourself?
115 – I love that despite everything that went down, despite having years in which he could have distanced himself from everything that happened, Skinner is still on their side.
156 – Was that the most tragic thing ever? I vote yes.
195 – Anyone else think the wonder twins thing kind of came out of nowhere?
197 – I was watching this at the gym, and at that moment I started looking nervously around to make sure no one else would see this over my shoulder and think “What the heck?”
204 – William calling him “Dad” basically broke my heart.
Also, I’m glad it’s not just me who thinks they’re talking weird. I like your theory that it’s a reflection of their emotional distance. Because that at least gives it a reason, rather than “They’re getting old.” 🙂
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February 22, 2016 at 8:37 pm
I was seriously amazed by some of the visuals in this episode! Wong really upped the anty of the gross factor which of course points to the shift in TV from the mid-90s to 2016. It’s nuts what they’ll show on TV now that you would have never seen when TXF was first on the air.
[58 – She learned it the same way she learned forensic science and pediatrics and surgery: TV MAGIC.]
I keep wondering if we’ll get SOME sort of explanation as to where all this knowledge came from but alas, it is TXF so I seriously doubt it. Guess we’ll have to leave it up to fan-fic and our own head-canons to explain it.
[115 – I love that despite everything that went down, despite having years in which he could have distanced himself from everything that happened, Skinner is still on their side.]
I fracking LOVE and ADORE Skinner and the fact that these two dipwads ever even for a moment would suspect the SkinMan of being against them always made me want to slap the shiz out of them! Skinner is so for them but he’s also such a diplomat – he’s like TXF’s own Captain Picard.
[204 – William calling him “Dad” basically broke my heart.]
I feel like the tag-line for the revival should have been: you’ll be lucky if you still have a heart at the end of this! I was in no way prepared for those scenes because they had been SO hushed about it! All the William stuff in the promos came from Scully’s end but I am thankful we finally got to see the sadness that Mulder lives with too in losing his son and his chance at being a father…just heartbreaking.
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