The X-Files: “I Believe in You.”
Season 11, Episode 9
Tonight’s episode, one of the best in the combined revival seasons, taught us a very important lesson: it’s for the best that things end. Trying to prolong the inevitable leads to organ stealing.
If you need a refresher on the season 11 premiere or were too wary to even watch, check out my thoughts here. For my thoughts on previous episodes: 11x02, 11x03, 11x04, 11x05, 11x06, 11x07, 11x08.
The Wig Files
Here I will check in on Gillian Anderson’s Scully wig and see how it’s doing. Her season 10 wig was lackluster, but based on promos and behind the scenes photos, the season 11 wigs seem to be much better.
Mulder asking if Scully got a haircut only to get an exasperated “Are you kidding me??” made me cackle. Honestly, the random shift to the short wig was mostly worth it to me just for that priceless moment.
There was a moment when Mulder and Scully were huddled under umbrellas outside the church that I swear I could’ve blinked and it would’ve been season 3. Short hair + umbrella = early Scully. So I guess you can say I’ve come around to the short wig.
Shipper Moment
A good 50% of The X-Files is wondering when Mulder and Scully will finally kiss and make-up. The show’s creator, Chris Carter, is notorious for insisting that despite having a child together and sharing a few on-screen kisses, Mulder and Scully are platonic. Obviously he’s wrong. This section will track the progress made on the MSR (Mulder Scully Relationship) front.
Even the moments tonight that weren’t explicitly romantic were shipper moments for me. The banter about hair cuts and eyeglasses, Mulder going into a church with Scully, him pulling her from the garbage that broke her fall… the way he held her after was pretty romantic, until he made a remark about how bad she smelled (“War of the Coprophages,” anyone?).
The final scene in the church was heartbreakingly beautiful. It was everything these two have deserved since the revival started with season 10. The woman (yeah Chris Carter, suck it) who wrote the episode, Karen Nielsen, described the scene and her thoughts behind it beautifully. Go read it and try not to sob. She’s totally an MSR shipper.
When Scully leaned in to whisper to Mulder, I really wanted them to kiss. They probably won’t at all this season, which I’ll be bitter about for a while.
I’m also dying to know what she whispered to him, but I love what she said afterward, for us to hear: “That’s not my 4-year-old self looking for a miracle. That’s my leap of faith forward, and I’d like to do it together.”
Best Line or Exchange of the Episode
Depending on who wrote it, an episode of The X-Files can contain quite a few gems. The 10 seasons and 2 movies we’ve had before this point have given us iconic one-liners like “Mushrooms taste great on burgers, Mulder, but they don’t raise the dead,” and “Please explain to be the scientific nature of a whammy.” What does season 11 have in store?
The whole episode had witty and wonderful lines, but because I’m a sap, I’ll choose this one:
Mulder: “I don’t believe in God, but I believe in you [Scully].”
Shut up, I’m not crying. You are.
Monster Mash
How does this week’s monster square up against the rest of X-Files canon? Mulder and Scully have seen some wild creatures over the years, from the Flukeman to clones to evil dolls. Season 10 didn’t have any strong monsters, so hopefully season 11 will rectify that.
The monster this week wasn’t really a monster, but more a dangerous thought: the human obsession with immortality, beauty and youth. I don’t really consider Juliet, the discarded character from the movie “Kick Ass,” to be a villain or monster. Simply a sister trying to save her sibling. It’s not clear how this girl became a Catholic Avenger, but I’m not sure that I care. She wasn’t really the point of this story.
The X-Files has done bloody cults and horrific medical procedures before, but this one still ended up fresh (no pun intended). Organ smoothies? I smell a new trend in Hollywood! However, that “sewing people together” thing was straight out of American Horror Story: Hotel. And sorry, but if I have to watch someone sew human flesh together, it’s gotta be Sarah Paulson.
But I digress. The point of the episode was aging. It was winked at slightly in Mulder and Scully’s early in the episode banter and the title “Nothing Lasts Forever,” might be indicative of some fatal ends in the finale to come. Scully’s immortality has been mentioned many times, even as recent as season 10’s “Were-Monster” episode, but was only tiptoed around tonight. She did survive a multiple-story fall by landing on some trash bags, though (sidenote: it’s hella rude to throw Dana Katherine Scully down an elevator shaft).
The Bat-Crap Crazy Corner
This section will track the craziest thing Mulder reveals his belief in this week — and the dude believes in almost anything, no matter how many times Scully rolls her eyes.
Evil spirits, I guess? Not a shocker by any means. I’m not surprised that Mulder knows the exact mix of wood types that would drive away any evil. Scully wasn’t either, because she knows her man like the back of her well-manicured hand.
William Dollar Baby
To those unfamiliar, William is the son Scully conceived despite believing she was barren after aliens conducted tests on her and took out her ova (I know, it sounds crazy). Mulder is his father and you can’t make me believe otherwise.
While she didn’t say it outright, I know Scully’s prayers were all about William. She wanted Mulder’s strength to persevere and believe to be her own strength, so she could believe everything will work out. She’s hoping for a miracle, but not optimistic.
At the end of the episode, she confirmed my suspicions: “I believed I could protect our son… and I failed. I believed we could live together… and I fled. I gave up on that too.”
Basement Analysis
I’m just gonna rant and overanalyze like Mulder does down in the basement.
This episode was a big one. Not only was the story good and creepy enough for my liking, but the rhythm of Mulder and Scully’s banter was top-notch. The big scenes between Mulder and Scully were a lot for my heart to handle, but I’m so glad they happened. But first, a few lighter things.
Silly, Sweet, Happy
Mulder and Scully shared quite a few smiles and laughs in this episode, despite the macabre nature of the case. Happy looks good on them. Dana Scully rarely gets to smile, and the look on her face after she told Mulder the story about praying for a puppy made me grin ear-to-ear. I missed these two messing around and making each other happy.
You know Scully was loving all the times Mulder had to pull out his “bifocals.” She loves to roast him. Only Scully would say bifocals instead of glasses, by the way.
Mulder’s line about the horror films — “To fans of hammer horror films, of which I am one, guilty…” — is so Mulder. It reminded me of the “Were-Monster” episode, when he worked out a full conversation between Scully and himself right in front of her. I miss goofy Mulder. The stress of everything has clearly weighed on these two lately and they’re not as light as they once were. It was wonderful to see a bit of that lightheartedness return, even if only for a few moments.
The Indestructible Dana Katherine Scully
Of course she could fall four stories and emerge mostly unscathed, but still smelling like garbage. I just love how Scully bounces back like, “Welp the trash broke my fall, but it’s all good, I’m good.” This woman just needs a moment to steady herself after being pushed down an elevator shaft and then she’s j-chilling. Amazing.
“Are we together?”
I’ve only been waiting for one of them to ask that question for seasons. This season has been a confusing jumble — they lived together, but then they didn’t. They slept together, but didn’t discuss it. They also maybe went on some dates. It’s unclear. As Nielsen put it, they spent this season “existing together.”
I have very romantic notions about what Mulder and Scully mean to each other, but I like to think I’m not too far off. Mulder knows they’re good together and I think Scully does too. But for some reason that was never well-explored on the show, she’s scared.
Mulder said that all we have are our choices, the results of those choices and the hope that they were the right ones to make. I think every season of The X-Files has presented that dilemma: were the right choices made? Somewhere down the line, did it go too far? What does this mean for the future?
Mulder being tortured by the idea that Scully could still have her dog and her sister, and a family and a better life, without him, is so sad. It’s something he’s mentioned before, that her life could be happier and more normal without him. Just like in this episode, Scully has always reassured Mulder that she doesn’t blame him for how their lives turned out, especially hers. To me, that’s true love. Dana Scully has been through hell so many times, but she’d do it all over again for him.
Mulder has never wanted to believe in Scully. He just does. It’s beautiful in the most heartbreaking, cruel way, because he also believes he is the reason for her suffering. The guilt each of them carry about their relationship and flaws is usually hidden away, but that candlelit conversation brought it out of the shadows. Scully’s guilt over giving up William and leaving Mulder is something I hoped the show would touch on before it ended, and even though this wasn’t what I had in mind, it felt right.
The episode theme (and literal title) was that nothing lasts forever, no matter how desperately you try, which I hope will be applied to the show. I love it most of the time, it drives me crazy sometimes, but no matter what, I know this: next week, it’s time to say goodbye for good.
