The Unnatural

I love it! Last week Scully cried in front of Mulder. This week, they laughed and smiled together and flirted like junior high schoolers with crushes on each other. I love that Mulder and Scully express their emotions to each other more now, and I didn't mind the "hips before hands" scene either!

We have yet another moment that can be summed up with a song by Sarah McLachlan: "Ice Cream"! Or, should we say, "Fat-Free Tofutti Rice Dreamsicle"? Mulder literally tackles Scully to get to her ice cream (or maybe just as an excuse to touch her). Gillian Anderson has the most wonderful laugh I've ever heard, and I wish she had more opportunities to laugh on TXF. I thought this was the cutest moment ever until...

Hips before hands. Hips before hands. My new mantra. I feel the same way about baseball as Scully, but I would have become just as happy with batting practice as she was if I were enveloped by Mulder. I've said this before, but Mulder and Scully can make anything erotic. During batting practice, Mulder never let go of Scully except when he tried to put his hands over hers on the bat. Both of them were aware of nothing but their bodies against each other. Their smiles were worth more than anything.

I love Mulder because he arranged a night of batting practice for Scully's birthday just so he could be with her--hold her. I bet he and Scully stayed at the park for hours in the same position, not saying a word, content in their embrace.

Milagro

Welcome to Laura eating crow. After my bitching last week about the show's losing its touch, the writers' losing the truth of the relationship, and the need for a hug, The X-Files gracefully presents me with everything I asked for and more in what is possibly the best episode ever. Milagro is dark, compelling, and eerie. It is frightening and sensual and leaves a hollowness at the pit of your chest. It poses questions about the relationship, using the physical human heart as a visceral metaphor for the heart that craves love.

A physical relationship versus one based on spirit and emotion is a choice Scully is unwillingly faced with. Padgett plays to Scully's inner longing to feel beautiful, sexy, and desired. We have to admit that her relationship with Mulder doesn't exactly fulfill in this area. Padgett accuses Scully of loneliness, and her reply is that "lonelieness is a choice". A minute later, she takes it back: "I'm not lonely. In fact, anything but." Even under Padgett's spell, she remembers Mulder. She doesn't have a physical relationship with Mulder, but he keeps her from being lonely, giving her heart the love it needs.

A lot of 'shippers rejoiced when Padgett said, "Scully can't fall in love. She's already in love." I thought this was meant to imply that Philip had tuned into Mulder and Scully's closeness. I was disappointed, since in this sense, the statement would be too obvious and completely irrelevant. Looking back, I think Padgett was simply pushing Mulder and Scully's buttons. When he said, "Scully can't fall in love," he paused, as if he were implying that Scully was frigid, incapable of loving. "She's already in love", said by Padgett, meant that in his novel, Scully was in love with him. The remark was a subtle threat, reminding Mulder and Scully that she was in his power, since whatever he wrote came true.

Milagro is proof of how far the relationship has come. Now, Mulder and Scully routinely go over evidence sitting side by side on his couch. Scully has no qualms about hanging on to Mulder's wrist when she's terrified.

At the end, the hug...oh goddess, I could write volumes about that. Mulder and Scully fall into each other, almost horizontal on the floor. Scully clings to Mulder like she will never let go, struggling to keep her hands tight on his back. She opens her heart to him and sobs desperately like she has so few times. This is the hug I have waited for, the one we have waited six years for. In the perfect, tragic ending, as Mulder and Scully touch each other's hearts, the tortured writer, devoid of love, dies with his empty heart in his hand. What a perfect story.

Trevor

#6009176-B in the catalogue of Cute Flirty Moments of Season Six:

Scully: Spontaneous human combustion.
Mulder: Scully. . .
Scully: Well, isn't that where you were going with this?
Mulder: Dear Diary, today my heart leapt when Agent Scully suggested spontaneous human combustion.
Scully: Mulder, there are one or two somewhat well-documented cases.
Mulder: (nods)
Scully: Mulder, shut up.

Chris thinks he's appeasing the growing audience of shippers by adding more UST. Thanks Chris, we appreciate it. Unfortunately, it seems he's forgotten why shippers hold their beliefs: Mulder and Scully are in love. The sixth season is concentrating on the superficial side of the relationship, forgetting that there's a deep basis for said 'ship. It's nice that the level of physical attraction and open flirting has gone up over the last season, but when was the last time Mulder and Scully had a good, long hug? That's what I want to see.

Alpha

This episode was about territorialism, but the most important aspect had nothing to do with canines. I'm talking about Scully jealousy here. When she learned that Karen, the dog expert, and Mulder knew each other, she responded with a chilly, "You two are chummy?" Later, Scully found out that Karen and Mulder were online friends, she grew more miffed, and became outright catty at the incident of Mulder guiding Karen's hand on the mouse. Like a suspicious dog, Scully confronted Karen about her motives with not-so-veiled threats. Scully also tried to convince Mulder (who seemed a little too amused for my liking) that Karen was "enamored of him" and made up the case as a pretext to meet him.

Can we say jealous?

Season six has been rife with Scully jealousy: Diana Fowley in The Beginning, the little secretary in Dreamland (even though it wasn't really Mulder, she didn't know that at the time), Sheila in Rain King, Fowley again in Two Fathers/One Son, and now Karen the canine expert. It is extremely evident that Scully does not want anyone infringing on her territory, and the show's producers are making it increasingly clear that she, at least, wants more out of her relationship with Mulder. From his saying "I love you" in Triangle and all the many flirtations on his part, it's obvious that he feels the same way. Don't deny it, Chris, you're leading us up to something!