The X-Files: Grotesque Rewatch

April 29, 2020 6:21 PM - Season 3, Episode 14

Mulder and Scully become involved in the case of a serial killer who claims to have been possessed by a demonic entity.
posted by orange swan (2 comments total)

Trying not to read too much into it, but I wonder if the writers are trying to explore Mulder's parental/ paternal relationship in the absence of a a living father.

Bill Mulder was obviously proud of Fox, but was burdened by both his own secrets and the grief of losing Samantha to open up to Fox. Bill Patterson obviously respects Fox but probably has never let him know and Fox has deep resentment towards his prior mentor. Throw in Fox's conflict with the CSM's kid, and once revealed, the kid's relationship with CSM (and Ratboy's apparent relationship with CSM)...

Could explain why Fox woke his mom up in the middle of the night to grill her - insecurity and neediness for a parent to comfort him.

Huh. Clubmoss spores do fluoresce, but not particularly well. There are fluorescent tagged clubmoss spores (used for other purposes, easily prepared), but these spores are very hydrophobic and could plausibly be used to detect fingerprints.
posted by porpoise at 8:58 PM on April 29, 2020

Mulder doesn't seem to do well with authority in general. He expects to be given the room to do his own thing in his own way, and Patterson's basically the abusive authoritarian type. Of course they clashed.

I've taken quite a number of life drawing classes. They were always much better lit than that one was, and we never had a male model who looked even remotely like that one did. Contrary to what seems to be a common belief, beauty isn't required in a life drawing model -- only the willingness to strip and the ability to sit perfectly still for a protracted period of time. I did notice that the female models we had were always young and attractive, while the men... weren't.

I do like gargoyles. They're cool.
posted by orange swan at 5:14 PM on April 30, 2020 [1 favorite]