Rewatch Extra: 6x15 Monday
“Two of my agents might be in there.” Yes, the only two agents under his supervision who could manage (repeatedly!) to stumble into a non-work-related bank robbery. On work time. While doing a semi-waterbed-related errand.
And our first glimpse of Mulder and Scully is Mulder sprawled out on the floor of the bank, his head in Scully’s lap, her hand pressing against his wound, blood all over the place. (ALSO: On a completely shallow note, Mulder’s stomach is INSANE. Let's all pause together and look at it for a little while.) Then we get an overhead shot of the entire bank, Mulder's long legs sticking out in the middle, and then we swing back around to the other side of Mulder and Scully, closer this time, a more intimate shot as she holds his head.
So, look. As mentioned above: I’m not saying anything either way, but I MAY OR MAY NOT use the pause button a lot while watching this episode, because for a large portion of it, Mulder is wearing pajama pants that are thin, damp and pale yellow, and NOTHING ELSE. Plus, there are lots of really dense, busy, wonderful shots of Mulder's apartment and the office, and the pause button is good for that, too.
"I don't know what to tell you. I think it was a gift." This episode was co-written by Gilligan and Shiban, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that actually revisiting and dealing with the waterbed was a Vince idea.
Mulder’s Bedroom Book Club time! There’s a book on chakras called Wheels of Life (which you can see in the previous cap), as well as a physics textbook called Gravitation.
Also: is that translucent bar across the headboard solely there for the purpose of handcuffs? I think it might be.
There's a framed picture of Mulder and Scully in FBI jackets in their office. I think the other one we see is just a small photograph, tacked to the corkboard, right? Who framed this one? It has to be Mulder, right? And then they probably never even discussed it, it just appeared one day and neither of them said anything, but secretly enjoyed looking at it all the time.
“You ever have one of those days, Scully?”
“Since I’ve been working here? Yeah. Since when do you have a waterbed, Mulder?”
You can awesomely see the whole “waterbed? WTF” thought process on Scully’s face, and then after she asks him about it, he does this slow turn, like, “Damn, she seems pretty interested. Maybe I should’ve casually mentioned it to her BEFORE it broke!”
I like the use of downtown LA, although, after Mulder passes Pam in the car, you can clearly see the distinctive shape of city hall in the background as he crosses the street.
Direct deposit, Mulder. I’m just sayin’. Wait. Did that exist in 1999?
It’s cute how sad and bored Scully is with the empty chair next to her in the terrible meeting. Speaking of, I’m not quite sure why they’re in on this meeting. They’re back on the X-Files at this point, so it’s not like they’ve got random, regular assignments. Oh, well. In the larger scheme of things, them having to give a report on crime statistics is nothing to get too worried about.
The lady with the bangs in the bank is the worst possible person to be stuck in a hold-up with. She will not shut the fuck up.
Mulder immediately goes into negotiator mode, telling Bernard, “You’re the boss.” And it works perfectly, because Bernard, who clearly feels anything but in charge, picks it up, saying, “I’m the boss.” And in that moment, Mulder actually becomes the boss.
When Mulder gets shot this time, we get to see Scully frantically loosen his tie and rip open his shirt in one fell swoop. (What? This is very serious and dramatic and definitely no time to enjoy her ripping his shirt open, OKAY?) Her hand sort of hovers delicately at his face, and she looks down at him, the curtain of her hair making it a secret thing. Because when she looks up to talk to Bernard, and her hair falls away from her face, it feels like she’s being exposed, like her moment with Mulder is being opened up to everyone else.
"I just want everybody to live."
Duchovny does a pretty amazing job not only at the basic mechanics of the waterbed scene, his deadpan anger and his pratfalls and his inability to get a pot to catch water, but at making each “day” feel…different and fresh and interesting to watch. Same can be said for Kim Manners, who shoots each scene as though it really is a new, different day, and not a rewind and repeat of only one.
Mulder’s check is going to bounce and Scully’s got about two minutes to get back to her meeting, but they can apparently take the time to have a philosophical talk about fate! And Scully’s the one who initiates it.
“Yes. Frequently. But, I mean, who’s to say that if you did rewind it and start over again that it wouldn’t end up exactly the same way?”
“So you think it’s all just fate? We have no free will?”
“No, I think we’re free to be the people we are-good, bad, or indifferent. I think it’s our character that determines our fate.”
“And all the rest is just preordained? I don’t buy that. There’s too many variables, too many forks in the road…”
Then:
“You might just as easily have stayed in medicine and not gone into the FBI, and then we would have never met, blah blah blah.” He says it with his head down, with this studied casualness, as though he doesn’t consider this alternate path-not-taken in the choose your own adventure completely tragic.
She’s going to deposit his check for him! They're totally married.
After picking up his unsigned check, he sing-songs “Endorsed my damn check stub,” before slamming the desk drawer closed. True story: I apparently have poor hearing, and for many, many years, I thought he was saying something like “Endorsed by Dan Shasta.” I just assumed that “Dan Shasta” was, like, a baseball player from the 70's who I’d never heard of, and that Mulder was singing a jingle from a commercial for something that “Dan Shasta” had endorsed. (Shasta soda? Probably. Also, cut me some slack, I was 17!) But then, finally, the closed captions on the DVD were all, “Hey, dummy. Here’s what he’s saying! Dan Shasta is not a person.” I'm glad I know now, because the real line is totally cute.
When Pam’s telling Mulder about what’s going on, she pleads with him: “Please remember me.” It’s poignant, because that’s what she’s doing the entire episode. Trying to make a difference, trying to be relevant, in order to fix things, but never succeeding. It’s like she’s invisible, her actions doing nothing to change the outcome, and she’s begging Mulder to validate her, make her real by remembering her.
I’m not disappointed that the horrible screaming woman got shot this time.
But now it’s the bank teller’s turn to get stupid! “Sir, please. Listen to them. Don’t hurt anybody else. A whole lot of police are coming.” Mulder and Scully both give her a “bitch, why’d you go and say that?” look.
When Pam confronts Scully in the FBI hallway, I love how Scully tries to be put out by the whole thing, sort of halfway huffing, like, “How crazy was THAT? Pretty crazy.” Even though she’s obviously unsettled and just trying to convince herself otherwise.
“Well, you may have. Did you do a lot of drinking in college?” I love any appearance of Funny Scully. Don’t get her started, don’t EVEN get her started!
Hey, time for another deep conversation break, this time about déjà vu!
“Well, you know, some Freudians believe the déjà vu phenomenon to be repressed memories escaping the unconscious. That it represents a desire to, uh, have a second chance, to set things right."
“Set what kind of things right?”
“Whatever’s wrong.”
“Mulder, it’s more likely that we’re talking about simple neurochemistry, a glitch in the brain’s ability to process recognition and memory. Doesn’t mean that the memory’s authentic.”
I love how Scully sort of rolls her eyes, trying to make light of what she’s about to say before she tells Mulder about her meeting with Pam and her warning about either of them entering the Craddock on 8th Street. I totally don't believe this, but...
Then she hilariously suggests that maybe it was someone “pulling a prank.” Yes, Scully, because you two have so many jokester BFFs that are always pulling pranks on you. What are you talking about?
Her hair looks faaaabulous! At least she got to repeat a good hair day dozens of times.
“We’re all in hell. I’m the only one who knows it.” Gilligan touching on the same themes as he did in “Tithonus.” Because Pam’s broken record of a day is, in a sense, a strange sort of immortality.
Skinner's all, "Why do I even bother?"
The slo-motion repetition of the actions we’ve seen before on the “last” day is gorgeous, especially this tight, overhead shot of Mulder signing his check with the little chattering teeth next to his hand.
Why does Mulder put his gun down for Bernard? Is it to show he’s serious, that he trusts Bernard, that he’s not going to trick him? Does he think that that being unarmed himself is going to prevent anyone getting shot?
“Put your gun down, Scully. Trust me, it’s the only way to get out of here.” And she does. She has no recollection of any of the previous days, she walks into this situation knowing nothing, and yet she trusts him and places her gun on the ground.
Aw, sweet Mulder, back on the couch. But it's awesome, because his lack of bed here means that he will, very soon, specifically go out and purchase a real, grown-up bed. MATTRESS SHOPPING!
I find shots of Scully sitting at his desk really endearing. (It has nothing to do with desk-drama, since I don't subscribe to that train of thought, because, well...there's another desk in the office.) But I think it's just something about her being so comfortable on his turf, sitting behind the little Fox Mulder nameplate, that it knocks my socks off in a really sweet way.
And our first glimpse of Mulder and Scully is Mulder sprawled out on the floor of the bank, his head in Scully’s lap, her hand pressing against his wound, blood all over the place. (ALSO: On a completely shallow note, Mulder’s stomach is INSANE. Let's all pause together and look at it for a little while.) Then we get an overhead shot of the entire bank, Mulder's long legs sticking out in the middle, and then we swing back around to the other side of Mulder and Scully, closer this time, a more intimate shot as she holds his head.
So, look. As mentioned above: I’m not saying anything either way, but I MAY OR MAY NOT use the pause button a lot while watching this episode, because for a large portion of it, Mulder is wearing pajama pants that are thin, damp and pale yellow, and NOTHING ELSE. Plus, there are lots of really dense, busy, wonderful shots of Mulder's apartment and the office, and the pause button is good for that, too.
"I don't know what to tell you. I think it was a gift." This episode was co-written by Gilligan and Shiban, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that actually revisiting and dealing with the waterbed was a Vince idea.
Mulder’s Bedroom Book Club time! There’s a book on chakras called Wheels of Life (which you can see in the previous cap), as well as a physics textbook called Gravitation.
Also: is that translucent bar across the headboard solely there for the purpose of handcuffs? I think it might be.
There's a framed picture of Mulder and Scully in FBI jackets in their office. I think the other one we see is just a small photograph, tacked to the corkboard, right? Who framed this one? It has to be Mulder, right? And then they probably never even discussed it, it just appeared one day and neither of them said anything, but secretly enjoyed looking at it all the time.
“You ever have one of those days, Scully?”
“Since I’ve been working here? Yeah. Since when do you have a waterbed, Mulder?”
You can awesomely see the whole “waterbed? WTF” thought process on Scully’s face, and then after she asks him about it, he does this slow turn, like, “Damn, she seems pretty interested. Maybe I should’ve casually mentioned it to her BEFORE it broke!”
I like the use of downtown LA, although, after Mulder passes Pam in the car, you can clearly see the distinctive shape of city hall in the background as he crosses the street.
Direct deposit, Mulder. I’m just sayin’. Wait. Did that exist in 1999?
It’s cute how sad and bored Scully is with the empty chair next to her in the terrible meeting. Speaking of, I’m not quite sure why they’re in on this meeting. They’re back on the X-Files at this point, so it’s not like they’ve got random, regular assignments. Oh, well. In the larger scheme of things, them having to give a report on crime statistics is nothing to get too worried about.
The lady with the bangs in the bank is the worst possible person to be stuck in a hold-up with. She will not shut the fuck up.
Mulder immediately goes into negotiator mode, telling Bernard, “You’re the boss.” And it works perfectly, because Bernard, who clearly feels anything but in charge, picks it up, saying, “I’m the boss.” And in that moment, Mulder actually becomes the boss.
When Mulder gets shot this time, we get to see Scully frantically loosen his tie and rip open his shirt in one fell swoop. (What? This is very serious and dramatic and definitely no time to enjoy her ripping his shirt open, OKAY?) Her hand sort of hovers delicately at his face, and she looks down at him, the curtain of her hair making it a secret thing. Because when she looks up to talk to Bernard, and her hair falls away from her face, it feels like she’s being exposed, like her moment with Mulder is being opened up to everyone else.
"I just want everybody to live."
Duchovny does a pretty amazing job not only at the basic mechanics of the waterbed scene, his deadpan anger and his pratfalls and his inability to get a pot to catch water, but at making each “day” feel…different and fresh and interesting to watch. Same can be said for Kim Manners, who shoots each scene as though it really is a new, different day, and not a rewind and repeat of only one.
Mulder’s check is going to bounce and Scully’s got about two minutes to get back to her meeting, but they can apparently take the time to have a philosophical talk about fate! And Scully’s the one who initiates it.
“Yes. Frequently. But, I mean, who’s to say that if you did rewind it and start over again that it wouldn’t end up exactly the same way?”
“So you think it’s all just fate? We have no free will?”
“No, I think we’re free to be the people we are-good, bad, or indifferent. I think it’s our character that determines our fate.”
“And all the rest is just preordained? I don’t buy that. There’s too many variables, too many forks in the road…”
Then:
“You might just as easily have stayed in medicine and not gone into the FBI, and then we would have never met, blah blah blah.” He says it with his head down, with this studied casualness, as though he doesn’t consider this alternate path-not-taken in the choose your own adventure completely tragic.
She’s going to deposit his check for him! They're totally married.
After picking up his unsigned check, he sing-songs “Endorsed my damn check stub,” before slamming the desk drawer closed. True story: I apparently have poor hearing, and for many, many years, I thought he was saying something like “Endorsed by Dan Shasta.” I just assumed that “Dan Shasta” was, like, a baseball player from the 70's who I’d never heard of, and that Mulder was singing a jingle from a commercial for something that “Dan Shasta” had endorsed. (Shasta soda? Probably. Also, cut me some slack, I was 17!) But then, finally, the closed captions on the DVD were all, “Hey, dummy. Here’s what he’s saying! Dan Shasta is not a person.” I'm glad I know now, because the real line is totally cute.
When Pam’s telling Mulder about what’s going on, she pleads with him: “Please remember me.” It’s poignant, because that’s what she’s doing the entire episode. Trying to make a difference, trying to be relevant, in order to fix things, but never succeeding. It’s like she’s invisible, her actions doing nothing to change the outcome, and she’s begging Mulder to validate her, make her real by remembering her.
I’m not disappointed that the horrible screaming woman got shot this time.
But now it’s the bank teller’s turn to get stupid! “Sir, please. Listen to them. Don’t hurt anybody else. A whole lot of police are coming.” Mulder and Scully both give her a “bitch, why’d you go and say that?” look.
When Pam confronts Scully in the FBI hallway, I love how Scully tries to be put out by the whole thing, sort of halfway huffing, like, “How crazy was THAT? Pretty crazy.” Even though she’s obviously unsettled and just trying to convince herself otherwise.
“Well, you may have. Did you do a lot of drinking in college?” I love any appearance of Funny Scully. Don’t get her started, don’t EVEN get her started!
Hey, time for another deep conversation break, this time about déjà vu!
“Well, you know, some Freudians believe the déjà vu phenomenon to be repressed memories escaping the unconscious. That it represents a desire to, uh, have a second chance, to set things right."
“Set what kind of things right?”
“Whatever’s wrong.”
“Mulder, it’s more likely that we’re talking about simple neurochemistry, a glitch in the brain’s ability to process recognition and memory. Doesn’t mean that the memory’s authentic.”
I love how Scully sort of rolls her eyes, trying to make light of what she’s about to say before she tells Mulder about her meeting with Pam and her warning about either of them entering the Craddock on 8th Street. I totally don't believe this, but...
Then she hilariously suggests that maybe it was someone “pulling a prank.” Yes, Scully, because you two have so many jokester BFFs that are always pulling pranks on you. What are you talking about?
Her hair looks faaaabulous! At least she got to repeat a good hair day dozens of times.
“We’re all in hell. I’m the only one who knows it.” Gilligan touching on the same themes as he did in “Tithonus.” Because Pam’s broken record of a day is, in a sense, a strange sort of immortality.
Skinner's all, "Why do I even bother?"
The slo-motion repetition of the actions we’ve seen before on the “last” day is gorgeous, especially this tight, overhead shot of Mulder signing his check with the little chattering teeth next to his hand.
Why does Mulder put his gun down for Bernard? Is it to show he’s serious, that he trusts Bernard, that he’s not going to trick him? Does he think that that being unarmed himself is going to prevent anyone getting shot?
“Put your gun down, Scully. Trust me, it’s the only way to get out of here.” And she does. She has no recollection of any of the previous days, she walks into this situation knowing nothing, and yet she trusts him and places her gun on the ground.
Aw, sweet Mulder, back on the couch. But it's awesome, because his lack of bed here means that he will, very soon, specifically go out and purchase a real, grown-up bed. MATTRESS SHOPPING!
I find shots of Scully sitting at his desk really endearing. (It has nothing to do with desk-drama, since I don't subscribe to that train of thought, because, well...there's another desk in the office.) But I think it's just something about her being so comfortable on his turf, sitting behind the little Fox Mulder nameplate, that it knocks my socks off in a really sweet way.
