There are several "meh" episodes in the last stretch of season one that really didn't spark a lot of introspection, so I dumped them all off in one post to give "The Erlenmeyer Flask" a little more room to breathe.
1x19: Shapes
... yeah, no, I got nothing.
1x20: Darkness Falls
The banter at the beginning of the episode is what we come here for. Love. It.
Mulder's trust in people bites them in the ass once again. There is no point in which Mulder actually subscribes to the "trust no one" mantra (and let's look forward a moment and remember that this actually gets quoted to Scully by Deep Throat as his dying words). Mulder trusts every-damn-body, or is at least willing to give them a huge amount of benefit of the doubt.
Also, these bugs? Are seriously creepy shit. I hate the bug episodes, I really do.
1x21: Tooms
SKINNER!!! I did not fully appreciate Walter Skinner when I was a teenager. I will freely admit that I was entirely there for the M/S 'shippiness way back when. Which is fine, that's a completely valid way to read the show, but oh my g-d am I ever loving getting to see him and watch how subtly the conspiracy is unfolding in the background this time through.
Skinner vs. Scully - which has such a different tenor knowing what we know later about Skinner... he seems less like the FBI-conspiracy-helper of the week and more like "oh for g-d's sake this is bullshit get this guy off my back I am annoyed by the world" It very much reads as Skinner saying what he's been told to say with CSM hanging right on top of him to make sure that he does.
Aaaaaaannnnnnnnd Mulder goes completely off the rails. ::facepalm::
Hunh. Mulder says here "if you're resistant because you don't believe, I'll respect that. But if you're resistant because of some sort of bureaucratic pressure, they've not only reeled you in they've already skinned you."
And they don't run into conflict (between the two of them) because of her beliefs, but because of her bowing to the will of the government/oversight/"the rules". And we know from "Young at Heart" how Mulder feels about the rulebook and why. Meanwhile, as previously elaborated, Scully's attachment to the rules always seems directly dependent upon how much outside pressure and threat of shutdown she's getting from the higher-ups, because she's determined to protect the work and protect Mulder from himself.
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
(You know, I had this in my notes, and can't actually tell you now what it was in reaction to now that I'm writing them up. But since it's a Tooms episode, I'm going to let it stand as an applicable and understood reality and move on.)
Awwwww, Mulder wants to protect her. I'm a total sucker for them this, I can't help it.
And no, not "Fox". Never Fox.
"I would expect you to place the same trust in me that I place in you" - GIRLFRIEND KNOWS HOW TO PLAY THE GAME. This is game, set, and match.
1x22: Born Again
CREEPY LITTLE KID (This show has so many creepy kids. Wow.)
Again we see both that Mulder is great with kids - tells the computer guy to do the funny faces on the screen - and that he excels at taking the time to really consider and connect with witnesses and other often-overlooked people around him.
1x23: Roland
Music and sound direction is excellent (horribly so). I knew what was coming with the researcher and the fan, and expected some level of visual evidence of such so I was looking away. Turns out? The music and the sound effects were way scarier than anything they showed on screen.
"Did you catch the bouquet?" Maaaaaaaaaaybe." D'awwwwwww.
So, Scully is a snarky, snarky bitch and I love her. She is sarcastic and sometimes caustic and has no time or patience for the irrelevant. She wants to get straight to the point, and I think that's why (one of many, many reasons why) the damn conspiracy and shadow government pisses her the fuck off.
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