so many of the most iconic images from ‘the x-files’ feature nothing more or less than mulder or scully–or mulder & scully–viewed from behind as they study something extraordinary: an event that will change them, a place with potential, a phenomenon that cannot be explained. it’s such a thematically significant composition that it just about sums up the entirety of the show: the importance of searching (did you find what you were looking for? / no, but i found something i thought i’d lost: faith to keep looking); the importance of witnessing (why do you doubt yourself? / because my partner didn’t see them); and the importance of facing what comes (how can I see the future if it didn’t already exist? / then if the future is written, then why bother to do anything). for a brief moment we are voyeurs, watching these characters as the conspirators who threaten them do. they are outlined against the impossible, but they refuse to let it remain a nameless enigma… and that is the danger they pose.
