Soo I just finished season Five, particularly the last episode (the end) and I have thoughts.
Most of them revolve around Diana Fowley. I knew was she coming and I’ve seen a lot talks about her. And here the thing, I don’t get what the big deal is. I don’t know if she comes up in later seasons but to me she is essentially the same as the British chick in ‘Fire’ season 1. Who personally I felt like Scully acted much more jealous and threatened by.
I kept on seeing people say that Scully is sooo jealous of Diana this episode and I just didn’t see it that way. Scully is on a case that is not originally an Xfile only to find out that there is this new person who is close with Mulder and who started with him on the xfiles. That is jarring but more than that neither Diana or Mulder are forthcoming about how they know eachother or the nature of their relationship. If it was me I’d want to know what the fuck is going on as well be a little uncomfortable at being left in the dark over such a thing. Especially by my partner. So no I don’t think Scully is jealous I think she is worried and confused.
Diana however is jealous and threatened by Scully. When hearing that Mulder is thinking about one of them Diana asks who. It’s her nervous face that the camera focuses on. She disagrees with scullys logical angle on the case and even goes as far to use them to make her self look better in the eyes of Mulder. She tries to drive a wedge between msr by talking about how exhausting and difficult it must be to work with someone like Scully, a close minded skeptic.
Which leads me to my second point. I was under the impression that Mulder was going to be enamored with Diana, the whole ‘one that got away’ type thing but it’s not. Mulder seems surprised and a bit cautious that Diana is around. I get the feeling that he doesn’t trust her and her presence unsettles him because if reminds him of a much different person. What is great about this episode is how immediately Mulder comes to scullys defense. Talking about her critical thinking is something he values after Diana comment on Scully. Once again showing her jealousy by states that maybe she should be in scullys place yet Mulder shoots her down, tells her he is fine without her.
And before you mention the end of the episode I think both Scully and Mulder have reasonable responses to Diana. When the boy says Scully doesn’t care what anyone thinks but Diana - it’s because all the secrecy around her makes scully feel like she isn’t to be trusted or that this thing that she’s spent five years of her life fighting for was given to the wrong person. Scully is more probably insecure than anything else. And Mulders attention to Diana in the end of the episode is because an agent was shot on duty, agent he was once close with and connected to the xfiles. Of course he’s concerned. Who wouldn’t be.
All and all I just think my perception of this dynamic going in was a lot more toxic and manipulative than it actually ended up being. Again I don’t know if Diana comes back and is a Alex Krycek type character but as she sits now Diana is actually a very reasonable and mellow character with a bit of wistfulness of what could have been. While MSR are just people that are bad at communicating (looking at you Mulder bc scully flat out ask what the deal is) who have very human and reasonable reactions to seeing someone from the past.