Rewatch: 9x20 The Truth Part Two (1/2)
The Good (or at least The Okay): Mulder tells Doggett that the government controls the game, they own it. Doggett: “Then let’s shove it up their ass.” Yes, let’s! Then Skinner can come around and pass out slings for the injured asses. Teamwork!
When Reyes is giving testimony about the birth, Duchovny gives this little shuddering breath when she says “witnessed her giving birth to her son.” Oh, MULDER. How horrible is it that Reyes and a whole bunch of Super Soldiers got to be there, but HE didn’t? Breaks my heart, and clearly his, too. His reaction is also nice when Reyes tells the court that Scully gave William up for adoption. You know, he actually has very little to do in the middle part of this episode besides sit there and react, and he does a great job.
Aw, I kind of like it when Reyes loses her shit and yells at the court. Mulder gives her a look that seems to say: "thanks…and I guess I forgive you for hitting on my girlfriend while she gave birth to our kid."
This little exchange might be funnier than the love child one: “I found it.” “What?” “What’s going to get you off.” I’m sorry, I’m apparently a seventh grader. Although I do really like the cute, eager way he says “what?” It’s almost like for a split second, they’re back on some case. Oh, I’m so homesick for early and middle seasons Mulder and Scully.
How much more can Scully take? How many other ways can I tell you Gillian is the greatest? They just stick that camera on her and in her face alone, you see, step by step, what she’s going through when Doggett tells her that Mulder’s been sentenced to death. In all seriousness, if he'd actually been killed, I don't know if she would've made it.
I love how Mulder sort of gives Gibson’s face a little tap as he leaves. It’s very fatherly.
The ransacked basement office is brutal. 1013 really feels the need to take out aggression on that set, huh? In “The End,” before moving down to LA, they torched it. Now they've ripped it apart. Although, why did they take the desks and leave the phone in working order? That’s weird and sloppy ransacking.
I love the kiss on the cheek before he gets out of the car to pee. I know, I’m easy like Sunday morning, but I love the way he looks at her when she’s sleeping. It’s so reverent. I also love how the wind is whipping around in the early light during that scene.
Scully packed all of Mulder’s sexiest t-shirts. Thank you, Scully! Also, he’s all dusty and tan out in the desert.
The score is really nice when they’re entering the pueblo.
I love CSM smoking through the hole in his neck. I remember Laura and I got so excited in “Requiem” when he did that the first time. He then says that he’s there because “It’s the last refuge.” There’s a place here called Dirt Cheap Beer and Liquor that does these ridiculous commercials with a giant chicken in an old-timey bathing suit. One of their mottoes is “the last refuge of the persecuted smoker.” I smell synergy! (Another motto, to gross you out: “The more she drinks, the better you’ll look!” Ha ha ha, date rape.)
The hotel room symmetry from the “Pilot” gets me choked up every time. The whole scene does. One thing I’ve always loved is her line, “It’s what I saw in you when we first met.” Maybe I’m reaching, but “what I saw in you” is generally used to mean “something that made me totally loooove you.” If it were just a general observation, she would’ve said something like, “I saw that in you when we first met.” Anyway, I’m going to talk about the meat of it down in the Mulder and Scully character section, but I’d just like to express my adoration for the way he hitches his leg up over her. If you don’t think about tomorrow and the next day, what their life has become, if you just look at them together, perfectly together, in this one moment, it’s bittersweet and beautiful. I have to stop writing about it because I’m getting all sniffly.
The Bad, The Terribly Bad, and The Worse: Prosecutor Glenn: “For god's sake, Mr. Skinner, we're trying a man for murder, not taking a trip down memory lane!” THANK YOU, Glenn! We’ve all watched this damn show for nine years, we don’t need to be brought up to speed, only for it to end.
Skinner says he’s showing the court that Reyes is “level-headed and objective on strange and extraordinary cases.” I'm sorry, are we still talking about Whale Songs over there?
Scully disappears for a long stretch, and we find out she’s just been chilling at home, watching over Gibson. Yes, because she’s proven to be so adept at protecting children with weird powers. Oh, SNAP. Sorry, Scully.
I know Skinner is defending him, but shouldn’t he really take the stand, too? He could give all the same testimony as Doggett, but back it up by saying he’s come to believe they’re aliens, which is what Doggett cannot do.
After Kersh reads the guilty verdict, Mulder gives this little speech that is really kind of awful. Like the e-mails, the sentiment is nice, but words themselves are pretty ridiculous. “It’ll come to you, as it’s come to me, faster than the speed of light.” Mulder must’ve spent the last year practicing his soliloquizing, because I’m not sure where this is all coming from.
This brig is ridiculously low-tech, with its metal bars and actual keys. How did Doggett and Skinner get those keys, anyway? Kersh ends up helping them, but he wasn’t helping them from the start, so they didn’t come from him.
I wish Mulder kissed her when they’re reunited (again) by the roadside.
Okay, if someone says the word “truth” one more time, I’m going to lose it.
The effect of Knowle Rohrer flying into the side of the rock is cheesy.
Mulder and Scully: The other day, when I was losing it over “Sunshine Days,“ meatfight postulated that perhaps Scully was waiting, subconsciously, to allow herself to grieve with Mulder, instead of alone.
Now, I think it’s lousy and lazy that they dropped the adoption storyline for two episodes. But I’ve tasked myself with figuring out what we’re given, so I’m not weaseling out at this late hour.
In the “Sunshine Days” post, I jokily said that Scully had gone into some kind of trance and her brain was protecting her from how terrible her life’s become. But maybe that’s not too far off. We know Scully is excellent at compartmentalizing things emotionally, especially when she doesn’t have Mulder there to prod and poke the emotions out of her. I feel like the end of “Irresistible” is the pinnacle of that symbiosis: “I’m fine,” looking away, until he forces her to meet his gaze. And I think the human brain is very resilient, and that all joking aside, it sometimes does find ways to protect itself when you’re not ready to deal with the full force of something.
Because not only does she have to deal with the fact of giving up William, she has to deal with the fact that Mulder doesn’t know. We so often see Mulder as the one burdened with guilt, but there’s no way this doesn’t weigh heavily on her. She allows Mulder to leave in order to protect William, and she’s still unable to do that. She’s forced to make an enormous decision on her own, hoping that it’s the decision Mulder would make, too. In Part One, she says to Mulder, “I was so afraid you could never forgive me.” Oh, God, these two! They share a brain and a heart, but they keep getting their wires crossed. Scully has been imagining he couldn’t forgive her, and he just replies, “I know you had no choice. I just missed both of you so much.” Like he would never even consider the idea that Scully didn’t make the right choice. If she did it, she had no other choice.
Maybe she doesn’t even feel like she deserves to grieve, you know? To grieve for their lost son before Mulder even knows could feel like she’s getting an unfair headstart. Plus, she’s intensely private. Oh, God, I just got really sad. People have been up in her business about the baby ever since she got pregnant, at every step. Nothing has escaped public view. Now, the one thing she can do for herself is keep the grief for only herself and Mulder. The LOSS of William is the only part of their child that belongs only to the two of them. Oh, dear. I’m tearing up, because that is so fucking sad.
Ghost Byers asks, “Why risk perfect happiness, Mulder?” Now, I’m not sure if lamming it to another continent could ever be construed as being “perfect happiness,” but I really like that this echoes the question Mulder faces in “Amor Fati.” (Man, that arc is so important for the rest of the series.) Easy (or in this case, easier) happiness versus the continuation of his quest. In both, he chooses the quest. Byers says that he already knows the truth; Mulder says that he needs to know if he can change it. On this watching, it occurred to me that Mulder might wonder if he can change it somehow and make it safe for William to come home to them. It gives his dogged pursuit even more emotional heft: he’s not young Mulder anymore, raging away because he wants to be proven right. He’s doing it for a reason, for his son, for his family.
Going with that thread, Ghost X tells Mulder: “There’s a truth even you’re afraid to speak now because you know it’s futile.” He responds, “No, because I refuse to accept it.” In the motel scene, Scully says to him, “You wouldn't tell me. Not because you were afraid or broken .... but because you didn't want to accept defeat.” First, I love that she quietly repairs the damage done by CSM’s words, telling him he isn’t afraid or broken. But second, she basically says the same thing he told X. It’s almost like he thought maybe, just maybe, he could figure it all out and fix it before Scully had to find out, so she didn’t have to hear it unless absolutely necessary. Everyone does that, tries to fix problems secretly before admitting it’s useless.
In the same way Mulder returns Scully’s worry about forgiveness with a statement of his ultimate faith in her, Scully pushes back against his defeatist martyrdom at every turn. Everything he says, every excuse he has, she volleys back. She won’t allow him to go down that path, because it’s a path they’re going down together. With “Then we believe the same thing,” she firmly and finally cements it. Seriously, saying “then we believe the same thing” on this show is as good as exchanging rings and saying “I do.”
When Reyes is giving testimony about the birth, Duchovny gives this little shuddering breath when she says “witnessed her giving birth to her son.” Oh, MULDER. How horrible is it that Reyes and a whole bunch of Super Soldiers got to be there, but HE didn’t? Breaks my heart, and clearly his, too. His reaction is also nice when Reyes tells the court that Scully gave William up for adoption. You know, he actually has very little to do in the middle part of this episode besides sit there and react, and he does a great job.
Aw, I kind of like it when Reyes loses her shit and yells at the court. Mulder gives her a look that seems to say: "thanks…and I guess I forgive you for hitting on my girlfriend while she gave birth to our kid."
This little exchange might be funnier than the love child one: “I found it.” “What?” “What’s going to get you off.” I’m sorry, I’m apparently a seventh grader. Although I do really like the cute, eager way he says “what?” It’s almost like for a split second, they’re back on some case. Oh, I’m so homesick for early and middle seasons Mulder and Scully.
How much more can Scully take? How many other ways can I tell you Gillian is the greatest? They just stick that camera on her and in her face alone, you see, step by step, what she’s going through when Doggett tells her that Mulder’s been sentenced to death. In all seriousness, if he'd actually been killed, I don't know if she would've made it.
I love how Mulder sort of gives Gibson’s face a little tap as he leaves. It’s very fatherly.
The ransacked basement office is brutal. 1013 really feels the need to take out aggression on that set, huh? In “The End,” before moving down to LA, they torched it. Now they've ripped it apart. Although, why did they take the desks and leave the phone in working order? That’s weird and sloppy ransacking.
I love the kiss on the cheek before he gets out of the car to pee. I know, I’m easy like Sunday morning, but I love the way he looks at her when she’s sleeping. It’s so reverent. I also love how the wind is whipping around in the early light during that scene.
Scully packed all of Mulder’s sexiest t-shirts. Thank you, Scully! Also, he’s all dusty and tan out in the desert.
The score is really nice when they’re entering the pueblo.
I love CSM smoking through the hole in his neck. I remember Laura and I got so excited in “Requiem” when he did that the first time. He then says that he’s there because “It’s the last refuge.” There’s a place here called Dirt Cheap Beer and Liquor that does these ridiculous commercials with a giant chicken in an old-timey bathing suit. One of their mottoes is “the last refuge of the persecuted smoker.” I smell synergy! (Another motto, to gross you out: “The more she drinks, the better you’ll look!” Ha ha ha, date rape.)
The hotel room symmetry from the “Pilot” gets me choked up every time. The whole scene does. One thing I’ve always loved is her line, “It’s what I saw in you when we first met.” Maybe I’m reaching, but “what I saw in you” is generally used to mean “something that made me totally loooove you.” If it were just a general observation, she would’ve said something like, “I saw that in you when we first met.” Anyway, I’m going to talk about the meat of it down in the Mulder and Scully character section, but I’d just like to express my adoration for the way he hitches his leg up over her. If you don’t think about tomorrow and the next day, what their life has become, if you just look at them together, perfectly together, in this one moment, it’s bittersweet and beautiful. I have to stop writing about it because I’m getting all sniffly.
The Bad, The Terribly Bad, and The Worse: Prosecutor Glenn: “For god's sake, Mr. Skinner, we're trying a man for murder, not taking a trip down memory lane!” THANK YOU, Glenn! We’ve all watched this damn show for nine years, we don’t need to be brought up to speed, only for it to end.
Skinner says he’s showing the court that Reyes is “level-headed and objective on strange and extraordinary cases.” I'm sorry, are we still talking about Whale Songs over there?
Scully disappears for a long stretch, and we find out she’s just been chilling at home, watching over Gibson. Yes, because she’s proven to be so adept at protecting children with weird powers. Oh, SNAP. Sorry, Scully.
I know Skinner is defending him, but shouldn’t he really take the stand, too? He could give all the same testimony as Doggett, but back it up by saying he’s come to believe they’re aliens, which is what Doggett cannot do.
After Kersh reads the guilty verdict, Mulder gives this little speech that is really kind of awful. Like the e-mails, the sentiment is nice, but words themselves are pretty ridiculous. “It’ll come to you, as it’s come to me, faster than the speed of light.” Mulder must’ve spent the last year practicing his soliloquizing, because I’m not sure where this is all coming from.
This brig is ridiculously low-tech, with its metal bars and actual keys. How did Doggett and Skinner get those keys, anyway? Kersh ends up helping them, but he wasn’t helping them from the start, so they didn’t come from him.
I wish Mulder kissed her when they’re reunited (again) by the roadside.
Okay, if someone says the word “truth” one more time, I’m going to lose it.
The effect of Knowle Rohrer flying into the side of the rock is cheesy.
Mulder and Scully: The other day, when I was losing it over “Sunshine Days,“ meatfight postulated that perhaps Scully was waiting, subconsciously, to allow herself to grieve with Mulder, instead of alone.
Now, I think it’s lousy and lazy that they dropped the adoption storyline for two episodes. But I’ve tasked myself with figuring out what we’re given, so I’m not weaseling out at this late hour.
In the “Sunshine Days” post, I jokily said that Scully had gone into some kind of trance and her brain was protecting her from how terrible her life’s become. But maybe that’s not too far off. We know Scully is excellent at compartmentalizing things emotionally, especially when she doesn’t have Mulder there to prod and poke the emotions out of her. I feel like the end of “Irresistible” is the pinnacle of that symbiosis: “I’m fine,” looking away, until he forces her to meet his gaze. And I think the human brain is very resilient, and that all joking aside, it sometimes does find ways to protect itself when you’re not ready to deal with the full force of something.
Because not only does she have to deal with the fact of giving up William, she has to deal with the fact that Mulder doesn’t know. We so often see Mulder as the one burdened with guilt, but there’s no way this doesn’t weigh heavily on her. She allows Mulder to leave in order to protect William, and she’s still unable to do that. She’s forced to make an enormous decision on her own, hoping that it’s the decision Mulder would make, too. In Part One, she says to Mulder, “I was so afraid you could never forgive me.” Oh, God, these two! They share a brain and a heart, but they keep getting their wires crossed. Scully has been imagining he couldn’t forgive her, and he just replies, “I know you had no choice. I just missed both of you so much.” Like he would never even consider the idea that Scully didn’t make the right choice. If she did it, she had no other choice.
Maybe she doesn’t even feel like she deserves to grieve, you know? To grieve for their lost son before Mulder even knows could feel like she’s getting an unfair headstart. Plus, she’s intensely private. Oh, God, I just got really sad. People have been up in her business about the baby ever since she got pregnant, at every step. Nothing has escaped public view. Now, the one thing she can do for herself is keep the grief for only herself and Mulder. The LOSS of William is the only part of their child that belongs only to the two of them. Oh, dear. I’m tearing up, because that is so fucking sad.
Ghost Byers asks, “Why risk perfect happiness, Mulder?” Now, I’m not sure if lamming it to another continent could ever be construed as being “perfect happiness,” but I really like that this echoes the question Mulder faces in “Amor Fati.” (Man, that arc is so important for the rest of the series.) Easy (or in this case, easier) happiness versus the continuation of his quest. In both, he chooses the quest. Byers says that he already knows the truth; Mulder says that he needs to know if he can change it. On this watching, it occurred to me that Mulder might wonder if he can change it somehow and make it safe for William to come home to them. It gives his dogged pursuit even more emotional heft: he’s not young Mulder anymore, raging away because he wants to be proven right. He’s doing it for a reason, for his son, for his family.
Going with that thread, Ghost X tells Mulder: “There’s a truth even you’re afraid to speak now because you know it’s futile.” He responds, “No, because I refuse to accept it.” In the motel scene, Scully says to him, “You wouldn't tell me. Not because you were afraid or broken .... but because you didn't want to accept defeat.” First, I love that she quietly repairs the damage done by CSM’s words, telling him he isn’t afraid or broken. But second, she basically says the same thing he told X. It’s almost like he thought maybe, just maybe, he could figure it all out and fix it before Scully had to find out, so she didn’t have to hear it unless absolutely necessary. Everyone does that, tries to fix problems secretly before admitting it’s useless.
In the same way Mulder returns Scully’s worry about forgiveness with a statement of his ultimate faith in her, Scully pushes back against his defeatist martyrdom at every turn. Everything he says, every excuse he has, she volleys back. She won’t allow him to go down that path, because it’s a path they’re going down together. With “Then we believe the same thing,” she firmly and finally cements it. Seriously, saying “then we believe the same thing” on this show is as good as exchanging rings and saying “I do.”