Yes, Scully is being difficult about the ship and getting a rough ride of it. Scully's basically attempting to yank the only remaining chain she has in her life to assure herself that she still has some agency somewhere. When Scully's doorbell rings at the end of WIEAYB, we know that the doorbell is either Mulder, or something I invented, because Scully has no zany-but-wise gay neighbour coming to drop off his Yorkie for Scully to watch overnight, no friend from work coming over to watch a movie because the kids are with her ex this weekend. There is *no one*. She may as well be going home to a wall-mounted charger that she plugs into until it's time for something else in which Mulder is largely central.
Mulder's already been through this and come out the other side, I think-- he's kind of the "grownup" here in some ways. S7 Mulder is no longer tortured-- that, I think, is canon. Whatever his "life" consists of, and I have invented a bit of a life for him, he's pretty much good with it and to some extent he's intentionally trying to drag Scully out of her "comfort" zone (our comfort zones are often very uncomfortable, but they're what we're used to).
I would answer Wen by saying that Mulder is a lot less neurotic by S7 than he was in the past, and that he's come to terms with a lot of things that Scully still struggles with. Some of that's personality, some of it has to do with gender and expectations, and some of it has to do with Mulder having reached some symbolic resolution and closure on some of his "quests."
This is one thing I regret about not finishing the series because the very last story, a post-ep for "The Unnatural" called "Come and Go With Me", kinda teased this thread out of the episode. Mulder's got baseball. I don't mean baseball itself, but his appreciation of smelly balls and a nice piece of ash (as expressed in the ending of that episode) as a symbol of him having a sense that he's got a place in the universe that he's more or less good with. Scully doesn't have baseball. She doesn't have jack. A big part of KvS7 is about her finding that, and the last story was supposed to kind of close that circle (or open it, I guess, since it was the beginning.)
Waterskiers:
"Waterskiers" is basically a big sloppy love letter to "Hollywood AD", which is one of my favourite episodes-- XF goes goofily, insanely meta and does it with a tremendous amount of nuance, heart and humanity. I go off on my own meta-tangent as well, obviously, regarding whether it's still XF if you're writing about Mulder and Scully going on holiday. No, it's not, but that doesn't mean XF never existed.
And, yeah, it is dark, but not in a confronting-evil kind of way, just... life sucks sometimes.
Wen, remember M and S get suspended during the episode after their murder victim turns out to be not dead-- noli me tangere, baby.
ohai (2)
Yes, Scully is being difficult about the ship and getting a rough ride of it. Scully's basically attempting to yank the only remaining chain she has in her life to assure herself that she still has some agency somewhere. When Scully's doorbell rings at the end of WIEAYB, we know that the doorbell is either Mulder, or something I invented, because Scully has no zany-but-wise gay neighbour coming to drop off his Yorkie for Scully to watch overnight, no friend from work coming over to watch a movie because the kids are with her ex this weekend. There is *no one*. She may as well be going home to a wall-mounted charger that she plugs into until it's time for something else in which Mulder is largely central.
Mulder's already been through this and come out the other side, I think-- he's kind of the "grownup" here in some ways. S7 Mulder is no longer tortured-- that, I think, is canon. Whatever his "life" consists of, and I have invented a bit of a life for him, he's pretty much good with it and to some extent he's intentionally trying to drag Scully out of her "comfort" zone (our comfort zones are often very uncomfortable, but they're what we're used to).
I would answer Wen by saying that Mulder is a lot less neurotic by S7 than he was in the past, and that he's come to terms with a lot of things that Scully still struggles with. Some of that's personality, some of it has to do with gender and expectations, and some of it has to do with Mulder having reached some symbolic resolution and closure on some of his "quests."
This is one thing I regret about not finishing the series because the very last story, a post-ep for "The Unnatural" called "Come and Go With Me", kinda teased this thread out of the episode. Mulder's got baseball. I don't mean baseball itself, but his appreciation of smelly balls and a nice piece of ash (as expressed in the ending of that episode) as a symbol of him having a sense that he's got a place in the universe that he's more or less good with. Scully doesn't have baseball. She doesn't have jack. A big part of KvS7 is about her finding that, and the last story was supposed to kind of close that circle (or open it, I guess, since it was the beginning.)
Waterskiers:
"Waterskiers" is basically a big sloppy love letter to "Hollywood AD", which is one of my favourite episodes-- XF goes goofily, insanely meta and does it with a tremendous amount of nuance, heart and humanity. I go off on my own meta-tangent as well, obviously, regarding whether it's still XF if you're writing about Mulder and Scully going on holiday. No, it's not, but that doesn't mean XF never existed.
And, yeah, it is dark, but not in a confronting-evil kind of way, just... life sucks sometimes.
Wen, remember M and S get suspended during the episode after their murder victim turns out to be not dead-- noli me tangere, baby.