In this light, the title of this fic says it all in one word. It's a beautiful and chilling metaphor when you realize the scope of everything it encompasses. Not only does it apply to Mulder and Scully, but to Skinner and CSM, and also to Bill Mulder and all the rest of them. They're all waterskiers. None of them are in control of this thing or their place in it. It's hard to say if anyone is in charge anymore, or even if they ever really were.
Yes, that's it exactly. They don't even have control over that, unless they are the person driving the boat.
The interweaving of the two stories doesn't really work for me, but when I analyze what's making me uncomfortable, I think it's that anytime Mulder and Scully get closer on a romantic level, it feels to me as though they aren't as focused on the work. In "Home from the War," that was okay, because the war was over. But that was all an illusion, a dream world they each created independently, while under heavy sedation via hypnotic suggestion. By this time in the series, Mulder's found his dead sister, his mother's gone too, his father was murdered back in season two or three. I do see Mulder's commitment wavering in this series, and his focus shifting to his feelings for Scully. My sense is that as much as she loves Mulder (even noromo's get that they love each other), Scully isn't comfortable with it because her sense of justice won't let her be. More than her own abduction, I think it was the death of her sister, the deaths of the other Mufon women from cancer, and her daughter's death that gave purpose to her life, that cemented her commitment to the X-Files. Maybe CC and 1013 think she's there for Mulder but I don't. I think she is there because she has to live up to the fact that her life was spared, when Melissa's was not, when Penny's was not. Melissa died in her place. She'll never rest until the men who committed these crimes against humanity are brought to justice. She can't. And I think in large part that's what makes her (and me) so uneasy about her growing closeness with Mulder. In her mind, she hasn't earned it, she doesn't deserve it. It's not about the sex for her (and it really pisses me off that Mulder thinks it is for even a second), it's about their work and how important it is to the future of humanity.
This above all is what made me hate IWTB, even more than the ridiculous plot and inhumane medicine being practiced. There is no way on earth Scully would leave the fight, not unless she was forced out. And I never had a sense in that film that her leaving law enforcement for medicine was anything other than a retreat from reality. I also don't believe Mulder would sit around for years in a back room clipping newspaper articles, waiting for the FBI to give him an engraved invitation. Do you?
I think you can quote Khyber. He did like IWTB because he liked seeing them living their lives and being happy, which is why I think the ending to this saga would result in the same thing. I think if he does come back and finish it someday, M&S will end up being forced to flee for their lives, perhaps to Europe, perhaps even with the help of CSM and Skinner. The itinerary is planned, the tickets are bought; all they have to do is get on the plane and leave.
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winterfish
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Date: 2011-10-03 03:43 pm (UTC)Yes, that's it exactly. They don't even have control over that, unless they are the person driving the boat.
The interweaving of the two stories doesn't really work for me, but when I analyze what's making me uncomfortable, I think it's that anytime Mulder and Scully get closer on a romantic level, it feels to me as though they aren't as focused on the work. In "Home from the War," that was okay, because the war was over. But that was all an illusion, a dream world they each created independently, while under heavy sedation via hypnotic suggestion. By this time in the series, Mulder's found his dead sister, his mother's gone too, his father was murdered back in season two or three. I do see Mulder's commitment wavering in this series, and his focus shifting to his feelings for Scully. My sense is that as much as she loves Mulder (even noromo's get that they love each other), Scully isn't comfortable with it because her sense of justice won't let her be. More than her own abduction, I think it was the death of her sister, the deaths of the other Mufon women from cancer, and her daughter's death that gave purpose to her life, that cemented her commitment to the X-Files. Maybe CC and 1013 think she's there for Mulder but I don't. I think she is there because she has to live up to the fact that her life was spared, when Melissa's was not, when Penny's was not. Melissa died in her place. She'll never rest until the men who committed these crimes against humanity are brought to justice. She can't. And I think in large part that's what makes her (and me) so uneasy about her growing closeness with Mulder. In her mind, she hasn't earned it, she doesn't deserve it. It's not about the sex for her (and it really pisses me off that Mulder thinks it is for even a second), it's about their work and how important it is to the future of humanity.
This above all is what made me hate IWTB, even more than the ridiculous plot and inhumane medicine being practiced. There is no way on earth Scully would leave the fight, not unless she was forced out. And I never had a sense in that film that her leaving law enforcement for medicine was anything other than a retreat from reality. I also don't believe Mulder would sit around for years in a back room clipping newspaper articles, waiting for the FBI to give him an engraved invitation. Do you?
I think you can quote Khyber. He did like IWTB because he liked seeing them living their lives and being happy, which is why I think the ending to this saga would result in the same thing. I think if he does come back and finish it someday, M&S will end up being forced to flee for their lives, perhaps to Europe, perhaps even with the help of CSM and Skinner. The itinerary is planned, the tickets are bought; all they have to do is get on the plane and leave.