SEASON 1

SEASON 2

SEASON 3

SEASON 4

SEASON 5

FIGHT THE FUTURE

SEASON 6

SEASON 7

SEASON 8

SEASON 9

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Holy Cross Memorial Hospital, Washington D.C. Mulder walks in with a bouquet of flowers (sob! I mean sigh. I’m not crying yet!) and asks for directions to Oncology. He hesitates in the doorway when he spies Scully studying that infernal X-ray. As if somewhere deep down he knows what he is about to hear and wants to brace himself or just hold on to the illusion that everything is okay and he is probably worried about nothing.

He walks in and calls out her name. She turns around to look at him and he waves the flowers at her. Aww. They are both smiling at each other here. He proceeds to make a classic Mulder joke about stealing the flowers off a guy with a broken leg. (I laugh through the blur in my eyes and frog in my throat.)

He asks Scully how she is doing. “I guess that’s the question,” she responds. David Duchovny does a great job of showing his apprehensiveness at what she is going to say. She says she feels fine. They gaze at each other and their eyes tell each other to brace themselves. I am not making this up: that is what the look that passes between them communicated to me. Mulder asks what they are looking at. The camera pans on a wall of X-rays of Scully’s skull and some brain x-ray thingies too. Some great directing on Rob Bowman’s part, as the shot has Anderson and Duchovny standing apart with the memento mori x-rays in-between them. This ties in nicely with Scully’s voice-over about crossing to face [Mulder-sic] as he continues on their journey without her. They are coming apart. And so am I. Mulder asks her what they are looking at. Scully does her Dr. Scully no-nonsense routine and tells Mulder in a detached-medical-opinion-kind-of-voice that she has a nasal- pharyngeal mass. Mulder asks if it is a growth and she confirms it’s a tumor. She looks at him bravely and tells him he is the only one she’s called. NoRomo my ass CC! Mulder nods in acceptance and understanding and then tremulously asks Scully if the tumor is operable. She says no, with her brave face still on. Mulder asks if it is treatable then and she explains that it is not. The camera pans on Mulder as he says he refuses to believe that and he falters unable to finish his sentence. The camera angles to film her face over Mulder’s shoulder just as Scully steps in and says that, for all the times that she has said that to him, she is as certain about this as he has ever been. She smiles at him ironically as she says this. The camera goes back to him as he shakes his head slowly from left to right. The stubborn denial and unwillingness to believe her is subtle, but it is perfectly portrayed. Scully’s voice wavers as she spells it out for Mulder and the audience: she has cancer and there is about zero chance of survival if the tumor pushes into her brain. Mulder stammers that he doesn’t accept that, and there must be some people who have received treatment for this that they can… He breaks off again and Scully nods, understanding what he is trying to say. She takes a deep shaky breath and looks up at him before she turns to the X-ray wall, back in doctor mode, and removes the infernal X-ray from the wall, effectively getting rid of the images that divided them in the earlier shot. Folks, Anderson and Duchovny brought whatever is higher and better than their A-game here. I don’t think any writer or director could have imagined that they would bring to this episode, and especially to this scene, what they have. But more on that later. We still have a hallway scene coming up!

Skinman’s Office. Shot of file passing from Scully’s to the Skinman’s hands. He says that this is the worst possible kind of news. No shit Sherlock! And I just have to ask is there something wrong with the entire FBI when it comes to emotion?!

Scully talks to Skinman with her arms crossed against her chest in what I imagine is a half-protective, half-defensive gesture, but could also just be wholly combative. Mulder stands in the background, fidgeting and looking very uncomfortable. I’d like to think in his mind he’s thinking, this is not happening! Scully tells Skinman she wants to exhaust a possible avenue of investigation with Agent Mulder. Said agent is looking at her like he’s unable to comprehend why or how she’s so cool about the cancer gig she’s landed herself. They explain to Skinman that they want to find and question Betsy Hagopean (sp?) a purported abductee from last season’s Nisei/731 two-parter.