Chapter 12 might be my favorite first time sex scene in this fandom, maybe in any fandom. It hits a lot of emotional buttons for me, even the aftermath hits my buttons.
Scully getting drunk and calling Mulder (rather than Ethan who has been at home worrying about her) seems contrived in order to break-up the Mulder/Melinda steamy moment.
I thought it a bit odd that Scully called Mulder, too, but then I thought, he is her partner. Mulder knows why she's plastered. She won't have to explain it to him in the car going home. I also think it's supposed to signal her growing attachment to Mulder and and be an early sign of trouble on the home front. It works for me as character development. Realistically, law enforcement partners are as close, if not closer than spouses, or so I've heard.
They can't tell you how they feel about each other because they know as much as you do - probably less, in fact - and it is, consequently, a convincing explanation of how their relationship dynamic will develop in the future. Perhaps Scully's 'memory loss' is slightly contrived as a handy plot tool but, on the other hand, it is believable in a sense because what Scully forgets is what most threatens to overturn her world - the dilemma of her feelings. This is typical Scully and is a physical manifestation of her psychological trait: her denial of chaos and her need to rein in and control emotional tumult. The fact that she makes her decision to end her relationship with Ethan regardless of the memory loss is so understandably her in that she needs to draw tidy lines around messy emotional situations even when she does not understand the true nature of her feelings.
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Scully getting drunk and calling Mulder (rather than Ethan who has been at home worrying about her) seems contrived in order to break-up the Mulder/Melinda steamy moment.
I thought it a bit odd that Scully called Mulder, too, but then I thought, he is her partner. Mulder knows why she's plastered. She won't have to explain it to him in the car going home. I also think it's supposed to signal her growing attachment to Mulder and and be an early sign of trouble on the home front. It works for me as character development. Realistically, law enforcement partners are as close, if not closer than spouses, or so I've heard.
They can't tell you how they feel about each other because they know as much as you do - probably less, in fact - and it is, consequently, a convincing explanation of how their relationship dynamic will develop in the future. Perhaps Scully's 'memory loss' is slightly contrived as a handy plot tool but, on the other hand, it is believable in a sense because what Scully forgets is what most threatens to overturn her world - the dilemma of her feelings. This is typical Scully and is a physical manifestation of her psychological trait: her denial of chaos and her need to rein in and control emotional tumult. The fact that she makes her decision to end her relationship with Ethan regardless of the memory loss is so understandably her in that she needs to draw tidy lines around messy emotional situations even when she does not understand the true nature of her feelings.
Yes, I agree. Very well-stated.