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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Casa de Betsy, Pennsylvania. A woman is scraping a MUFON sticker off a window as the reflection shows Mulder and Scully’s car parking on the sidewalk across the street. Now, I don’t know if it was just 1013’s usual overweening urge to make everything ambiguous, but the woman who turns out to be the realtor sets my Nefarious Character Spidey senses a-tingle. She tells our agents that Betsy is no longer of this world and hasn’t been for the last two and a half weeks. Mulder looks at Scully. Duchovny does a great job of showing Mulder’s concern for Scully, not only health wise, but also for how this news is going to affect her. There is disappointment and encroaching despair on her face, but she does not actually make eye contact with Mulder. I love how attuned these two are to each other, both as actors and as characters. Well played!

As they enter the house, Scully has a flashback wreathed in white misty light of when she first came to this house and met the other abductees in Nisei. Sniff! Why didn’t I see this coming?! She touches the back of her neck in remembrance while Mulder discovers a second line on the phone. She is thankfully distracted from the dangerous path of feeling sorry for herself (we’re here to do that for her) and they run to the basement to discover that someone has remote access to the system. Scully dials a number to their special line in the Bureau that traces the call for them. I have to say -- I really wouldn’t mind having a contact like that. Every time someone calls my cell phone and it’s a private number, I would just call my contact and find out who it was. Or maybe I’m oversimplifying things… the bottom line is that is not a bad contact to have.

We’re now outside an apartment block and Scully tells Mulder that apartment 234 is listed under Kurt Crawford: the unscrupulous hacker from Betsy’s computer. Scully rings the buzzer and they do their usual, you-go-in-the-front, I’ll-check-the-back routine. I love their routine. Please don’t let Scully die! Mulder goes to the back and a young-looking Kurt busts out the back door and starts running. Mulder gives chase and Scully turns up and draws her gun yelling, “Stop! Federal Agent! Hold it!” Aww she’s so cute. Mulder slams the guy into the wall and throws him on the ground. From the slightly more emotional tone in Scully’s voice, to the slightly more aggressive handling of Kurt, it’s clearly evident that this time around Moose and Squirrel are personally invested in this case. I am too because I’m shouting, “Yeah, throw his ass to the ground! If he’s not doing anything wrong then why is he running!?” Scully runs up to them gun still drawn demands if the perp is Kurt Crawford. He says yes. Mulder looks up at Scully who’s breathing heavily from the run, and possibly from trying to suppress some of the emotions that keep threatening to get a hold of her. Rob Bowman only shows us Mulder looking up at Scully and we only see the concern on his face. He says, “Scully.” She goes, “What?” He gestures to her nose which we see is bleeding. Duchovny acts the hell out of this scene. The debilitating fear that’s baying at the doors of Mulder’s professionalism, as well as the general ability to function, translates beautifully onto the screen. Scully brings a hand up to her nose sees the blood and tells Mulder she’s fine. I think this is the first nosebleed she has had in front of Mulder and you can see that it shakes her up a little bit. Almost as if by those few drops of blood she can’t pretend that she doesn’t have cancer anymore. She tells Mulder to quit staring at her. He looks at her sadly before he looks away. Mark Snow starts some sad tune. I call my Mom but she doesn’t answer, I think she’s sleeping in my time of need. Figures!

The next shot is of blood dripping into a sink. Scully is so not fine! I know this is compelling storytelling, but I can’t help but ask why 1013 is torturing us. And even though I know what happens in the later seasons, I still can’t help but to think they are going to kill Scully off. Mulder knocks on the door impatiently and asks her if she is okay. Yeah Mulder, she’s fine! She comes out of the bathroom with her Kickass Scully resolve face on. If Mulder has a panic face, Scully so has a brave and a resolve face! I have to admire the writing and acting choice to have Scully be so determined and business-like. It resonates better. She notices that Mulder took Kurt’s cuffs off and she’s not impressed. Mulder explains that Kurt was a member of MUFON and Betsy told him to download those files. Scully asks what I asked: “then why did he run?” Mulder explains Kurt was scared for his life. Scully asks Mulder if he thinks Kurt is credible. Mulder says he knows an awful lot about what happened to Betsy and the other MUFON members. Scully scoffs that that will have to be cross-checked as she turns towards Kurt. Heh. Mulder says they can’t. Scully turns around and asks Mulder why not. Duchovny emotes the reason why very well. Scully’s composure cracks a little here as she realizes that all of the women are dead. She brings the resolve face back on and walks in to talk to Kurt, crossing her arms again. Mulder remains in the background. The guy is having a real hard time dealing with this and so am I, goddamnit. Anyhow, Scully asks Kurt how the women died. He explains it was from brain cancer, and all in the last year. Scully is skeptical when she asks, “All of them?” Kurt says yes, all except for Penny Northern, who’s on her deathbed in hospital. Scully is resolved/determined (or both) as she asks him what makes him think it’s a government conspiracy. Kurt comes back with, “What makes you think it isn’t?” Heh. He then proceeds to tell her that all the women had similar abduction experiences, they all developed the same terminal illness and were all refused State healthcare because of their insistence of the facts and all dead within a year. Scully looks like she’s fighting very hard not to lose her shit. Mulder peels himself off of the hallway wall and gently puts a hand on her back as he pulls her away from Kurt to talk to her. She looks up at him expectantly, and a little impatiently, as he says he wants her to listen to him. She asks him about what and he says about what she won’t admit to herself and what she is denying. Scully’s voice does something funny as she asks him what she is denying. Mulder says where her cancer came from. She tells him it doesn’t matter, he argues it does, and how if the government knows something about her abduction then those are facts that should be brought to light. Mulder? How is this going to stop Scully from dying? If you don’t have anything constructive to contribute to this problem, then don’t say anything until you do! God! Am I the only person looking for a cure here? Scully argues that she doesn’t have any recollections about the abduction or what happened to her, and she doesn’t think these abductions are even abductions. Mulder says all the women are dead. Seriously, Mulder you’re not helping. Scully’s voice wavers as she says not all of them. Penny Northern is still alive. Scully’s face is heartbreaking here. Mulder nods gently and says she should talk to Penny Northern seeing as she won’t listen to him. Dude I’m not even listening to you anymore, Mr. Negativity! Scully, voice still wobbly asks him if she should ask Penny Northern what it feels like to be dying of cancer. Mulder shakes his head sadly. Scully asks if she should ask Penny about how it feels knowing there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. Mulder tells her that if that’s too hard for her then she should go in as an investigator, she’s got one remaining witness and Scully looks up at him questioningly. Mulder continues, “I think you’d want to know what her story is.” They exchange one of those long searching and communicating looks like they always do. Okay, I know Mulder was annoying me a little earlier but I totally love him again for that, and so does Scully.