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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Cue Scully’s diary voice-over as they show us Scully undergoing treatment.

In med. school, I learned that cancer arrives in the body unannounced. A dark stranger who takes up residence, turning its new home against itself. This is the evil of cancer; that is starts as an invader, but soon becomes one with the invaded, forcing you to destroy it, but only at the risk of destroying yourself. It is science's demon possession. My treatments, science's attempt at exorcism. Mulder, I hope that in these terms you might know it, and know me, and accept this stranger so many recognize, but can not ever completely cast out...

Shot of Mulder entering some dark office with a teeny tiny flashlight.

…and if the darkness should have swallowed me as you read this you must never think there was the possibility of some secret intervention, something you might have done. And though we've travelled far together, this last distance must, necessarily, be travelled alone.

Seriously 1013! What are you doing to me?

We learn that the dark office is at the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Pennysylvania. I like the way Mulder is in the dark. It works on as many levels: it’s a nice tie-in to MaScully’s comment about not wanting to be kept in the dark, as well as Scully’s voiceover about the darkness swallowing her. It looks like the darkness is already swallowing Mulder. It also somehow highlights how small even he is in the face of death. Memento mori! Or maybe I’m just overanalyzing. Anyway, Mulder tip taps at a computer trying to get in. Someone comes in he hides then pulls his gun on them. It’s Kurt Crawford! They banter a little then end up teaming up to hack into the computer. They get in. We segue into a shot of Scully opening her eyes to a bright white light, and there’s a drill headed for her nose. Ouch. Scully wakes up and Penny Northern is comforting her: Penny’s hands are clasping Scully’s right hand. I love the way the weaker ones in this episode are the ones displaying the strength. First it was Scully with Mulder, Skinman, and MaScully, and now it’s Penny with Scully. Once again, Penny is in the light and Scully… not so much. She tells Penny she was having a bad dream about the world’s most unpleasant nose job, and she heard Penny’s voice in the dream. Penny explains that they used to let her comfort Scully for some reason. Scully shakes her head in denial and tearfully tells Penny she can’t hear this right now. I can’t say I blame her. Penny tells her she has to try and make sense of it in order to understand why it’s happening to her and deal with the pain. Both women are in the light now.

Skinman’s Office. It’s daylight. Skinman opens his door and Mulder’s sitting there at his wits end, hands clasped. He tells Skinman that he needs him to set up a meeting for him. Skinman shuts the door and asks where Scully is. Mulder says she’s in hospital in Pennsylvania and gets all fired up, showing the disc containing some info that he found at the fertility clinic. Mulder tells Skinman to set up with a meeting with CSM and that he’s ready to deal in a way he wasn’t before. Skinman tells him to find another way. Mulder says no, he needs the meeting to save Scully, and he would sell his soul to the devil himself. Well, in a nutshell, that is what he is saying! Skinman tells him no, and that he cannot ask the truth from a man who trades in lies. Mulder can find out the truth too, he’ll just have to find another way to do it. Mulder walks out. Did I mention I totally love the Skinman!?

TLG Lair. The Lone Gunmen do their hacker thing. We have Frohike in the background looking despondent. Aww. The long and short of it is they end up deciding to go to the Lombard Research Facility because they believe someone may have been trying to figure out a cure for Scully’s cancer, which they believe was activated by a gene code they found in Scully’s blood after her abduction.