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SEASON 5

FIGHT THE FUTURE

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We get to see his face as he listens, interested in what Scully is saying about the metallic object pulled out of Duane. He looks tired, sad, depressed, lonely, and at the verge of tears, all at the same time. And he's got the pouty-lip thing going. He really knows how to bring the sexy. It makes me wanna give him a hug, among other things. God, I'm not even 2 minutes into the teaser! Whew. Anyway, then we hear the window break in Scully's message, she does that frightened gasp, and Mulder's eyes go wide, and he visibly swallows. It's really nice work by DD.

Next we see Mulder driving up to Scully's place, which is surrounded by police. Mulder's license plate reads 6N5-280. Hee, I'm being anal. He screeches up to the scene and flashes his badge at a cop, and proceeds to walk up to the stoop of 1419 (no street address yet). He glances to his right, and sees himself reflected in the broken panes of glass still hanging from Scully's window. Then we pan down to see blood all over the windowsill.

Then the scene flashes white, and for years everyone has assumed that these scenes are those in which Mulder imagines what happened to Scully. I'll stick to that. In Mulder's imaginary scenario, Duane looks into the window and sees Scully. She kinda squeals, and Duane breaks the pane of glass with his fist, knocking Scully to the floor. Then Duane bats the blinds down -- they look like bamboo or wood, which are damn expensive, Duane! -- and enters Scully's apartment. Then we go back to Mulder, who blinks.

Entering apartment 35, Mulder flashes his badge to gain admittance. Fans complained that perhaps Scully should have been on the third floor with that number, but my apartment is 222 and I'm on the ground floor, so that third-floor theory doesn't hold up. Ooh, there's a pretty stained glass window to Mulder's left. I'm glad Duane wasn't crazy enough to break that one. The apartment is really dark, but since you can make out a fridge within a few steps of the front door, it's obvious this isn't the apartment we will come to recognize as Scully's down the road on the show.

A technician is taking shots of the crime scene with what looks like a giant camera made for underwater shooting. Techs dust for fingerprints and collect blood evidence. Mulder walks by that large wooden bureau that Krycek and Cardinale will later hide behind in their attempt to kill Scully. That piece of furniture, now that I think about it, remains in Scully's apartment even into the show's last season. Mulder notices some red strands of hair stuck to some blood on Scully's glass end table, and that brings us into another MulderScenario: Scully crawling along the carpet and screaming for Mulder that she needs his help, while struggling to reach her holstered gun that's sitting on the end table. It's quite scary to watch, actually.

Next we see Scully's crushed phone handset, which flashes into a MulderScenario of Duane's foot coming down on it to smash it. He leaves the living room, bumping into a cop and steadying himself on the doorjamb, which has a bloody handprint on it. Good detective work there, Mulder! You've now compromised a crime scene with your clumsiness. Who made this guy an FBI agent? He walks through the archway to find Mrs. Scully yelling at the cops that she needs to get through. Mrs. Scully is played by the great Sheila Larken, who also happens to be married to XF co-executive producer and director R.W. Goodwin. See, I'm all about the trivia. Mulder goes to greet her with a hand to her shoulder, until he realizes that he has blood on his fingers. Great, Mulder, now Mrs. Scully looks even more terrified. He tells her that Scully isn't in there, and Mrs. Scully wants to know where she is. Then we go to the opening credits. What's strange is that it seems as though both Mulder and Mrs. Scully entered through a door that was directly off the kitchen, although we know that the front door is right next to that wooden bureau where Melissa entered to get shot by Cardinale. So Scully's living room looks the same, but the entrance to it is different.