#deadalive

[scullyinthelab]

everything reminds me of them

[california-112]

S08E14 / S08E15 / 'Work Song' - Hozier

[ecclesiasticallatin]

thinking about how the first thing mulder does when he revives is go back to his full-time job scullygazing

[randomfoggytiger]

William Mulder-Scully: Magical, Miraculous, or Manifestly Human

This post was born from @amplifyme's musings here: they got me thinking.

In all honesty, I can't entirely claim that William Mulder-Scully was, by design, a normal baby. I believe it to be the case. I can cite evidence in Season 8's canon (and will, shortly) that underscores this belief. And I will proclaim that this conclusion is the truth.

But we all know what the truth becomes in The X-Files: obfuscated; and subject to change.

Regardless, I will die on the hill of William's normality.

THE COLONISTS' MOTIVES IN SEASON 8

In Within and Without, the Alien Bounty Hunter was dispatched to retrieve not only the former abductees (or those who suffer from encephalitic trauma courtesy of alien technology, i.e. Mulder), but also Gibson Praise: a successful, natural alien-human hybrid. Although not technically a hybrid, his latent alien DNA had been (somehow) unlocked, enabling him to utilize telepathy.

Gibson, then, had become a Cassandra Spender-level threat. He barely escaped, forced into even deeper hiding to save his life.

In Per Manum, the aliens-- ala the super soldiers-- systematically annihilated alien-human hybrids created by former-Consortium (or remnant Syndicate) research. They used Scully to track down Mary Hendershot, intercept her delivery, and swap a "real" human baby for the hybrid Mary was carrying.

Alien-human hybrids, or babies created through alien technology, were the second threat the aliens targeted in Season 8: reclaimed by any means necessary and (as we later learn in Essence) destroyed.

In This Is Not Happening, the aliens hunted down Jeremiah Smith, one of their own who had defected to help the human race. They successfully thwarted his aims and recaptured him-- and likely exterminated him (he never appeared in canon again.)

Jeremiah Smith, like Josh Exley, was the third threat eradicated: a friend to the enemy, he had become a liability.

In Deadalive, Krycek warned Skinner that the groups he represented demanded either Mulder-- who had been stalled from turning into a super soldier-- or Scully's baby-- who, the aliens suspected, was created via their technology (i.e. the downed craft in Africa)-- killed. It was a false choice, one Krycek cooked up when caught red-handed. In reality, the forces-that-be likely wanted Mulder dead (William would be dealt with later.)

Humans studying one of their Frankenstein-ed abductees and potentially figuring out how to reverse his "virus" was a fourth threat; and it was safer, the aliens would have deemed, to eliminate Mulder immediately.

Three Words set a clearer precedent: Absalom, who had worked alongside Jeremiah Smith to save returned abductees, was left in the hands of the FBI (and, it's hinted, the Syndicate peons.) Super soldier Knowle Rohrer materialized to manipulate Doggett into sending Mulder to his death; but even then, Mulder was the target only incidentally.

Absalom merely roused disinterest in the aliens: he was beneath their consideration because of his 'lack' of alien DNA or access to advanced technology. Their reaction to William's arrival in Existence is strikingly similar: immediate, concordant apathy.

In Essence, the aliens sent Billy Miles to burn down the Consortium clinics producing alien-human hybrids (and to murder their doctors, Parenti included.) Duffy Haskell (from Per Manum) was also slaughtered-- and Lizzie Gill targeted-- for working alongside the Syndicate to monitor Scully's pregnancy.

The clinics were the fifth threat to the would-be colonists.

In Essence, the aliens dispatched Krycek to thwart Mulder and Scully's escape, sow doubt, and expertly separate both agents. The super soldiers continued working hand-in-glove with Krycek until his untimely death, then redoubled their efforts to keep Mulder and Scully further apart (i.e. car chases at the FBI) until William was born.

Why? Because, as Season 8 laid out multiple times, the aliens believed any human-- full-blooded (Gibson) or not (hybridized babies)-- with activated alien DNA would pose a threat to their colonization timeline. That was the ultimate challenge: the root they were trying to tear up.

The plan, then, in Existence becomes plain: isolate Scully; monitor her delivery; and steal her child if it were deemed to be alien or alien-adjacent.

DOESN'T MAKE HIM ANY LESS OF A MIRACLE

Yet when William was born, the super soldiers seemingly lost all interest, trailing dust and silence behind them in steady retreat.

If aliens-- as Biogenesis-The Sixth Extinction claim-- began life on Earth with the future intent to colonize it, then any person born with heightened abilities or through unauthorized technology wouldn't serve their agenda. Truth be told, that person would most likely be perceived as a hindrance.

If the aliens (as Krycek prompted) believed the Mulder-Scully baby was proof of God, then they would have considered him a threat to their control: an unpredictable wrench in their future plans. He would not have been afforded passive surveillance nor unexpected protection (per Season 9's confusing messaging): he would have been snuffed out right before or right after his first breath.

If the aliens believed William posed any sort of threat, or possessed any potential "powers" or abilities that might manifest at any point (ala Gibson Praise), then he never would have made it out of that Georgian cabin.

If the aliens, however, believed William was normal-- that he wasn't imbued with special powers, like Gibson; that he wasn't an alien-human Syndicate hybrid, like Mary's baby; that he wasn't a special Messiah marked by God to save the human race-- then he would have been like Absalom, or Mulder (after he returned to the land of the living): wholly human, and therefore irrelevant.

The beauty of Season 8's ending lies in the last five (or so) minutes. Not only do Mulder and Scully face the future as an unambiguous couple, but they do so while soundly dispelling speculation.

Scully: I don't understand, Mulder. They came to take him from us-- why they didn't....

Mulder: I don't quite understand that either. Except that maybe he isn't what they thought he was. That doesn't make him any less of a miracle though, does it?

And in another rare moment of perfect clarity, The X-Files takes time to erase all doubt:

Scully confesses, "From the moment I became pregnant, I feared the truth... about how... and why. And I know that you feared it, too."

Mulder concludes, "I think what we feared were the possibilities. The truth we both know."

It was, as the writers intended, the end of the Mulder-Scully era; and it was, for once, tied up with an almost too-perfect bow on its head.

A THEORY: WILLIAM, THE DISRUPTED SAVIOR OF THE WORLD

If William was born to be a supernatural figure (or savior) of some kind-- as Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter imply with stars in the sky and three wise men bearing gifts and the White Buffalo symbolism of his adoption--

"Like the Navajo, these people have their own stories and myths. One of these stories tells of the white buffalo woman who came down from the heavens and taught the Indians how to lead virtuous lives and how to pray to the creator. She told the people she would return one day, then she turned into a white buffalo and ascended into the clouds, never to be seen again. But on this day, when the holy people had given the F.B.I. man a miracle, a white buffalo was born and every Native American knew, whether he believed the story or not, that this was a powerful omen and that great changes were coming." 

--then his disappearance from canon for nearly eighteen years, without any exploration of the global impact of his existence (until Season 11) heavily undermines that message.

William's magical arc could, in a hypothetical world, have worked; but instead, its conclusion was disrupted with the inevitable fracturing of The X-Files's writing team. Frank Spotnitz was co-collaborator with Chris Carter during Season 5 (when ideas for a surprise pregnancy were tossed around), Season 7 (when Scully's healed fertility in The Sixth Extinction and William's conception in all things was plotted), and Season 8 (when Scully's pregnancy and William's birth concluded.) However, the task of crafting Season 9 baton-ed to him in Carter's absence:

July 12, 2001:

Planning for the ninth season began in June with Carter absent for the first time since he created the series in 1993. He has yet to reach a deal with Fox to return for the ninth season and there is speculation he will not return or serve only as a “consultant,” with Spotnitz assuming the lead role for the show’s creative decisions along with co-executive producers Vince Gilligan and John Shiban. ...

“Obviously, we hope he comes back because it’s his show, it’s his vision that we’ve all been serving for all these years and he’s an enormously talented writer and producer,” said Spotnitz, who has been in charge of the series with Carter gone. “If he doesn’t, it’s not like we don’t know where all the files are.”

Despite that, Spotnitz said Scully will be a vital part of the ninth season with one of the central story lines exploring how Scully’s fertility was restored. Another issue to be addressed is how to explain Mulder’s absence given the romantic relationship with Scully that was confirmed in last season’s finale.

To what degree William's "powers" were planned in Existence, we don't know. But we are privy to a civil disagreement between Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter upon the latter's return-- William's adoption: Carter for, Spotnitz against (initially.)

May 2002:

Leading up to the finale, we had the episode “William,” a very pivotal episode for Scully – and one whose ending begs the question of why have Scully go through the pregnancy arc to begin with.

Spotnitz: Yep. I had a lot of reservations about that storyline and about her giving up the baby, and was not at all sure that it was the right thing to do. But in the end, I think it was the right thing to do, because it becomes unsavory. And I think everybody... felt that this was going to be an obstacle to us in the movies. And I think the solution we came up with was kind of Solomonic in its wisdom in the end, which is, it’s true to Scully’s character and the pattern of behavior that she’s had for the past nine years: that she sacrifices her own happiness for a greater cause. It’s true to the tragic series of losses she’s endured over the course of the series, and I thought it was very moving in the end. It kind of helped us go forward with Mulder and Scully – and whether there are movies or not, it serviced them – and us, as storytellers – in a good way.

Nevertheless, both men went on to co-write I Want to Believe, wherein William's absence played heavily on his parents' conscience: he was palpably remembered as their baby, their son.

That changed when Spotnitz moved away from the series. William was re-introduced in the Revival: elsewhere for Season 10 (until fans pitched a storm), then distant or manipulative (and cruel) in Season 11. Finally, he was haphazardly tossed aside and labeled "an experiment"-- marked as CSM's test tube baby in the finale, then retroactively claimed as both Mulder and CSM's on the unofficial birth certificate (a father-and-son's son?) post-MSIV's uproar.

If William's arc had stuck the landing (per Spotnitz's ideas), he would still possess powers, would not have been adopted out, and would be with Mulder and Scully when colonization dawned-- a fulfillment of some prophecy, perhaps. Or perhaps a child saved from the role of prophecy through his parents' sheer determination (the reemerging fate vs. freewill theme from the original run.)

Of course, there is (as always) plausible deniability: the star in the sky and the three wise men could simply be an ode to Scully's Christianity, while the White Buffalo calf and alien abilities would act as an ode to Mulder's. William's existence (and powers) could simply be a pile of mixed metaphors that don't neatly fit into any prescribed category-- but that could be brushed off, too, with the assertion that life rarely is.

We'll never know the outcome Frank Spotnitz would have edged towards. What we do know is that he, Carter, and the lead actors were hoping for more movies-- in particular, more mytharc movies, with William floating around in the ether ready to be reincorporated.

So, we must set aside this theory without resolution. How fitting.

THE RADICAL (OR CANONICAL) POSITION

There is a third train of thought: that William was both normal and abnormal. A creation of love, extra blessed with alien abilities. Not fated for a purpose-- born from a fluke of Fate (or perhaps in spite of it.) An example of "all things happen for a reason."

Perhaps this speculation is closest to the writers' true intent.

CONCLUSION

I believe Season 8 is a contained arc-- that there is enough evidence to prove William was a normal child born from Mulder and Scully's love. That Scully's fertility was restored by the very technology which robbed her of her ova nearly five years before. That her and Mulder's belief in the truth saved them from abductions and cancer and brain surgery-- and, more importantly, that their trust in each other guided them towards Millennium and Closure and all things.

Whether you believe in Je Souhaite's ending or Existence's extended edition or the Revival's final say, I think we can all agree that, at some point, William Mulder-Scully's arc strayed from its earliest intentions.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[elstabler]

when mulder comes back from his abduction and sees scully pregnant, his first instinctive reaction is to feel betrayed and hurt because goddamnit they were finally ready, finally so open to explore all that they could be. they were so close to having it all…

but then he understood: he had died! he had died and she hadn’t and she had moved on, she had to. she was right to do so, of course. he always knew he held her back and maybe she had finally learned that too. and now he was back and already sucking her back in, making her spend all the hours at the hospital by his side, not eating not sleeping. and all because she pitied him, pitied the story the scars on his body told and nothing more. he saw it in her eyes.

so he pulled back, he pushed her away the best he could (which was never much but oh gosh he tried). he was cold to her and as confused and conflicted as he felt he thought it was for the best, it was for her.

and scully tried to understand him. after all he had died! he had died and she hadn’t and she knew better than anyone what trauma like that can do to your mind, right?

she thought he didn’t want to hurt her feelings by asking for space to process it all and so she tried to not suffocate him. she gave him time and space. she checked in with him but didn’t press when he didn’t answer. she shielded him from most things from the office. she brushed off his apathy like it didn’t hurt like a motherfucker if she was being honest. she thought it was for the best, it was for him.

but theres just so much a girl can take and a disaster was just around the corner waiting to happen. the breakdown was inevitable.

it happens in one of the many nights she went to his place to check on him and got hit with his usual ‘i’m fine’ crap. she finally snapped.

“mulder stop! just stop! you have no right to do this to me and you know why? because you know exactly how i felt when you were gone, don’t you? when every second feels like an hour and every hour feels like a year. when another day passes and all you can feel when you lay your head in your pillow at night is fear and anguish and failure”

her storm takes him by surprise and he just stands there, sunken stomach and aghast. of course he knew what it felt like. he knew he could never forget the pain of the days she wasn’t with him.

“but you know what you didn’t have to see? my dead body dumped in a field. I had to see that. Did you even consider this for a second?” the rage and hurt in her eyes pierces him, her voice growing louder as she went on “I had to cry over you and beg for it to be a lie. I had to make all the arrangements for your funeral because I needed the closure of a final goodbye. I held your hand for hours till I tricked my mind it was warm again and Skinner had to physically drag me away from you. I dumped the dirt over your casket. I got anxious to go to sleep in hopes i could see you in my dreams only to have recurring nightmares about your body turning into a hard corpse crushing me. I had to go to work every damn day just to keep my mind occupied when i didn’t even know if someone really had my back because i was only ever certain with you. I had to think like you and see things only you ever saw just to make your absence a little less painful"

at this point she was shouting, angrily wiping the tears from her eyes. he made no effort to do the same to his own, eyes fixed on hers. the truth hit him like daggers. she was right, he hadn’t thought about any of that because it was unbearable and he knew if the roles were reversed he wouldn’t have taken half of what she did - he would have ended up committed somewhere or lying next to her seven feet underground.

“I had to curse God over and over asking how could he be so cruel and I had to beg for forgiveness when He showed me all of his mercy and He gave you back to me. I have to swallow the urge to spend every second by your side because i’m scared that when i close the door you will disappear again. Goddamnit Mulder! You have no right to shut me out now! Not after everything!”

His legs finally decided to work again and he crossed the room in a stride, picking her up in the first real, raw, embrace since he returned. she buried her face completely into his chest, craving her nails on his back, bringing him impossibly close. he wallowed his sorrows and begged for forgiveness in her ear. he held her face gently with both his hands, lifting her chin up to urgently kiss her forehead, her eye lids, her cheeks, her tears, the tip of her nose. her lips. and he promised he would never leave again.

they both knew it was a promise he wasn’t sure he could keep, but, for now, it was enough. in that moment, the true mulder, her mulder, was back to her.

[all-eyes-lead-to-the-truth]

All Eyes Lead to the Truth | DeadAlive (8x15)

6:46 a.m.

Eight years as a nurse on the Naval Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, and Kate thought she’d seen it all. But that was before this morning. Before a bloated Billy Miles was fished from the sea and shed his skin like a snake. Before a barely breathing Fox Mulder was unearthed from a grave with half the bureau in tow. 

Gently, Kate maneuvers around the sleeping redhead tethered to Fox’s side. Adjusting the ventilator tape around his mouth, Kate winces. The raised linear welts down his cheeks, his bruised, ashen skin, and the deep scar stretching down his entire sternum screams extreme violence. Protectiveness for her patients and their families surges at that. This poor man was violated, tortured in ways that even she has never seen. 

“Everything okay?” 

Kate startles as the agent leans in her chair, wide eyes glued to the steady beat of the heart monitor. 

“Vitals are stable,” Kate assures. “Would you like to rest somewhere more comfortable? I can—”

“No,” she says while her hand touches the rise and fall of Fox’s chest. “No thank you.”

“He’s more comfortable with you here. Your husband?” Kate probes carefully as she takes his temperature. Though she's read his chart and knows an Agent Dana Scully is listed as his next of kin, she’s curious. 

“No,” she breathes, sounding amused around her sandpapery voice. “He’s my partner. My…” The hand not permanently gripping Fox’s flies up to palm her chest, as if soothing an aching part of her heart.

“Your other half,” Kate confidently finishes for her. 

Dana offers pink cheeks above a watery smile in response. “Was, uh, he brought in with anything?”

“His clothes, yes. What he was wearing when admitted is under the bed.”

Dana’s swift intake of breath gives Kate pause. “His suit…”

“Black and blue Armani. I bet he looks handsome in it,” Kate can’t help but add, until an onslaught of tears drowning out the blue of Dana’s eyes quickly erases Kate’s smirk. 

“I picked it out,” Dana murmurs, almost to herself, choking on a wave of emotion. “His last suit he’d—”

A guttural sob escapes Dana’s lips as pent up feelings bubble to the surface. She mumbles her apologies behind the hand cupping her mouth as the other cradles her swollen belly. 

Kate’s heart hurts for her. After handing Dana tissues, she leaves, giving the partners privacy. 

10:13 a.m.

Fox’s vitals look a tad too rapid at the nurses station for Kate’s liking. This instability happens sometimes before patients recover from a comatose state. As Kate enters the dim room, Dana rushes from the private bathroom, cupping Fox’s face with wet hands. 

“Mulder, it’s me.” Her fingers glide through his hair, her palms rubbing his shoulders. She clings to him, like he’s her life preserver in a sea of uncertainty. “Please…”

Kate freezes in the doorway as her patient's breathing begins to slow alongside his slumber. Fox has sensed Dana’s touch. He looks calmer. But Dana looks ill; the concern carved into her face is visceral.  

“I’m here.” Even through mechanical hums and rhythmic beeping of monitors, Kate hears Dana’s urgent pleas. “I’m right here.”

Empathy hits Kate hard, moving silently to slip out of the room — when a sudden click of the bed rail halts her. Bulging belly aside, Dana doesn’t hesitate to hitch herself up onto the gurney and press her head to his, curling an arm around the slow rise of her partner's chest.

Glancing away from the tableau of bedside devotion taking place, Kate can’t help but scowl at the juxtaposing horde of FBI agents gossiping down the hall as Fox’s loved one holds vigil. 

Kate silently shuts the door and draws the shades. 

3:34 p.m.

After bouncing between a rejuvenated Billy and the emergency surgical procedure for Fox, Kate’s exhausted. But she makes sure to bring Dana a tray of food, knowing she’s not eaten a thing. 

“Thank you, Kate,” Dana says as she tenderly spreads chapstick across Fox’s dry lips now that his ventilator is gone.

She’s been sitting beside him since the procedure. Watching, waiting. A steady flame of red amidst the chalky white room. Her slight shoulders bowed under the weight of unrelenting fear. She’s hardly moved, now that his antivirals are administered, lest his vitals spike or eyes flutter without her bearing witness.

She can practically see the desperate throb of hope radiating from Dana’s pregnant frame. 

Kate nods at Fox. “If he worries about you as much as you do him, he’ll want you to eat. The both of you.” Dana’s breath catches. Kate sees she’s trying hard not to cry again. “You’re technically not my patient, Dana, but you need care too.” 

“Yeah,” she murmurs, wild-eyed and anxious for her miracle. “Just need to know he’ll be okay…”

Kate doesn’t dare contemplate this vulnerable woman’s reaction if he isn’t.

5:54 p.m.

As the last minutes of Kate’s twelve hour shift ticks away, she approaches room 119, and abruptly stops. 

The agent with a New York accent and sad blue eyes backs out of the room. 

“Sorry, next of kin only at this time,” Kate tells him. She can’t give Dana the comfort she craves from the man she clearly loves, but she can give her privacy. 

But the man says nothing, slowly shutting the door, before walking away with slumped shoulders.

Kate’s stomach flips as she flicks open the blinds. But instead of seeing a panicked Dana trying to revive her partner, she’s grinning. Fox’s eyes are now open, firmly locked onto Dana’s teary ones as they gaze at one another with an intensity that could melt the sun. 

Sweet solace washes over Kate. She knows they will stay tangled within each other’s grasp when the exhaustion of sheer relief takes hold. 

Quietly, Kate closes the blinds as a smile as encompassing as the amount of love between the two of them spreads across her face. 

Now she’s surely seen it all.

Read the rest of All Eyes Lead to the Truth on Ao3! @monikafilefan

[cecilysass]

hi!! i was wondering if you can recommend me any s8 msr fics with similar vibes to ‘slow returns’ by o666666 (i’m pretty sure that’s the right amount of 6’s but i may have gotten it wrong) on ao3? thank you, have a nice day :)

Hi! First of all, as you may know, Slow Returns is one of my faaaaavorite fics. I don’t know of any fics I would say are identical vibes, but I do have a list of DeadAlive / Three Words recs you should check out if you have not. Be sure to look at the reblogs, too, because people added their own good recs.

From that list, would say:

-if you like the angsty part of Slow Returns, you might like Hour of Lead or Doctor, Copper, Sailer, Corpse.

-if you like that feeling of release of Mulder coming around / finally realizing / being nice to her, try Ashes and Dust, Laws of Coming and the Untitled Drabble by wtfmulder.

Finally, I wrote a post-DeadAlive fic that I am sure is very influenced by Slow Returns in tone. (Because again, it is one of my faves.) It's called All the Dead Mulders, and it's about Mulder doing weird impulsive stuff after his resurrection, including driving back to see his family's grave.

I hope that helps you out!

[dabeth-is-dead]

“previously dead currently crusty” took me OUT

Mulder is So Crunchy Crusty and Dry in Deadalive. Somebody needs to get him a moisturizer or coat him in Vaseline or something because it is Rough