The X-Files: Paper Clip (Part 3/3) Rewatch
April 17, 2020 8:27 PM - Season 3, Episode 2 - Subscribe
Mulder and Scully are reunited. Mulder learns about the government's part in the alien hybrid project, and about his father's part in his sister's abduction.
CSM v Skinner confrontation - go Skinner! Go Albert Hosteen!!
I will never not love Skinner growling "This is where you pucker up and kiss my ass."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:06 AM on April 18, 2020 [5 favorites]
I will never not love Skinner growling "This is where you pucker up and kiss my ass."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:06 AM on April 18, 2020 [5 favorites]
This is one of my biggest conflicts about The X-Files, and one of my biggest curiosities of what this show could have been. How can such revolutionary knowledge possibly be suppressed in the (current now/ then) scientific community?
I assume the conceit in the universe (and among conspiracy theorists in ours) is that there's a separate/parallel cadre of government scientists with unlimited resources that have been racing ahead in all areas of worthwhile research for the past hundred of years (with a boost from alien science, obviously), unconstrained by funding or, you know, ethics. Academic science is the realm of talented amateurs who weren't genius enough (or morally flexible enough) to get scooped up by the recruiters.
posted by Pryde at 10:36 AM on April 18, 2020 [3 favorites]
I assume the conceit in the universe (and among conspiracy theorists in ours) is that there's a separate/parallel cadre of government scientists with unlimited resources that have been racing ahead in all areas of worthwhile research for the past hundred of years (with a boost from alien science, obviously), unconstrained by funding or, you know, ethics. Academic science is the realm of talented amateurs who weren't genius enough (or morally flexible enough) to get scooped up by the recruiters.
posted by Pryde at 10:36 AM on April 18, 2020 [3 favorites]
Academic science is the realm of talented amateurs who weren't genius enough (or morally flexible enough) to get scooped up by the recruiters.
Good point. I guess the whole "getting disappeared" (either by the government or by aliens) is also motivation to keep any world shattering discoveries to oneself. I keep discounting the suppression involved, I guess.
... and from a 'higher level'/ smoke-filled-rooms perspective, control of these discoveries for one's safety/ advantage - for political power - makes sense.
posted by porpoise at 7:47 PM on April 19, 2020
Good point. I guess the whole "getting disappeared" (either by the government or by aliens) is also motivation to keep any world shattering discoveries to oneself. I keep discounting the suppression involved, I guess.
... and from a 'higher level'/ smoke-filled-rooms perspective, control of these discoveries for one's safety/ advantage - for political power - makes sense.
posted by porpoise at 7:47 PM on April 19, 2020
Mulder, you did NOT need to wake your elderly mother up in the middle of the night and grill her about the circumstances of your sister's disappearance. It was not that urgent a matter. At least wait until morning.
But at least Mulder emerged from the magic sweat lodge with a better haircut, so that's something. I noticed in the episode in which Mulder is shown swimming in the FBI pool that after he dried his hair with a towel that it went from lying flat when dripping wet to standing up on top of his head. I think David Duchovny's hair just naturally stands up on top of his head when it's cut short, and that his second season stylist decided to just let it do that all season for some unknown reason. His season 3 hair is longer on top and parted on one side and brushed back, and it's a huge improvement, though I think he has even better hair years to come.
Scully's psychic connection to Mulder was interesting. She "just knew" he wasn't dead (note the call back to the clone twins from the "Eve" episode). She believed it so strongly she said so to his mother, something she would surely not have done if she had doubts or questioned it at all, as she would have considered it irresponsible to nurture false hopes.
The urbane Nazi scientist working among his rare orchids in his greenhouse made for a dramatic and chilling setting.
I thought it was revealing seeing CSM angry and anxious and being chastised by the Syndicate in this little run of episodes, and outwitted by Skinner and Albert Hosteen. He's usually so smarmy, so sure that he has all the answers and is several steps ahead of everyone else, and it's really just a front.
And now Mulder and Scully have both lost their fathers and their only sisters.
posted by orange swan at 12:27 PM on April 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
But at least Mulder emerged from the magic sweat lodge with a better haircut, so that's something. I noticed in the episode in which Mulder is shown swimming in the FBI pool that after he dried his hair with a towel that it went from lying flat when dripping wet to standing up on top of his head. I think David Duchovny's hair just naturally stands up on top of his head when it's cut short, and that his second season stylist decided to just let it do that all season for some unknown reason. His season 3 hair is longer on top and parted on one side and brushed back, and it's a huge improvement, though I think he has even better hair years to come.
Scully's psychic connection to Mulder was interesting. She "just knew" he wasn't dead (note the call back to the clone twins from the "Eve" episode). She believed it so strongly she said so to his mother, something she would surely not have done if she had doubts or questioned it at all, as she would have considered it irresponsible to nurture false hopes.
The urbane Nazi scientist working among his rare orchids in his greenhouse made for a dramatic and chilling setting.
I thought it was revealing seeing CSM angry and anxious and being chastised by the Syndicate in this little run of episodes, and outwitted by Skinner and Albert Hosteen. He's usually so smarmy, so sure that he has all the answers and is several steps ahead of everyone else, and it's really just a front.
And now Mulder and Scully have both lost their fathers and their only sisters.
posted by orange swan at 12:27 PM on April 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
This is one of my biggest conflicts about The X-Files, and one of my biggest curiosities of what this show could have been. How can such revolutionary knowledge possibly be suppressed in the (current now/ then) scientific community?
The Syndicate owns Elsevier.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:40 AM on April 21, 2020 [3 favorites]
The Syndicate owns Elsevier.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:40 AM on April 21, 2020 [3 favorites]
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Krycek is a total punk/ goof. Tactically sound, but he's still a punk as evidenced by his betrayal. I wonder if the choice to let his longer hair loose rather than in pomade was a conscious decision by the showrunners?
lol! "The Lynnwood Inn" is actually The Lynnwood Inn that closed in 2012. It was the divey-est of dive bars and was skeevy AF. I remember going there in highschool (mid '90s) underaged and maybe once when I was back from college over a summer.
Scully: "... DNA wasn't even identified until 1944. This is all a lie!"
This is one of my biggest conflicts about The X-Files, and one of my biggest curiosities of what this show could have been. How can such revolutionary knowledge possibly be suppressed in the (current now/ then) scientific community?
CSM v Skinner confrontation - go Skinner! Go Albert Hosteen!! "Welcome to the wonderful world of high technology."
posted by porpoise at 9:03 PM on April 17, 2020 [1 favorite]