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The Mulder-Scully Romance Files: Season Eight – CoverUps.com

So to make things more complicated, the show decided to go on without Duchovny full time. Lets see how this will work... Well, it worked ok. Some people decided to hate Doggett, other decided to love him. The show was still worth watching... if at the very least to see when mulder would come back. Because everyone knew he would. I am not afraid of change. And agent doggett was not too shabby. So I tuned in, and found this season to be filled with nasty slugs, sad music, confusion, and lots of Scully crying.

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Within/Without: So Scully is sharing nightmares with Mulder. How romantic can you get?! But seriously, this episode breaks my heart. We have never seen Scully so sad, and we ache for her - she has clearly lost more than just a friend or a co-worker. The music surely lets us know that. But she courageously goes back to work... to find a task force... and a task force leader who says she didn't really know mulder and he didn't trust her. So then she assaults him with water.

I really love how they introduced Doggett. He is not a replacement, that is quite clear. No one would kid themselves to think so.

So Scully is distraught and calls her mom... only to figure out her phone is tapped. Any natural reaction would lead you to go to Mulder’s apartment to sleep on his shirts... and be awoken by agent Doggett. Duh. Awkward. Ok so not only does last seasons clues give us x-philes a notion that Scullybaby is the product of baby-making, but this season premiere kind of takes that idea and slaps us in the face with it. At the very least, Scully believes it to be true. Why oh why is that Scully? Please tell us! Because nobody else will! All we have to go on is your crying and your sad theme music! We need some flashbacks!! Desperately!

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Per Manum: So here are our Scully-elevator-flashbacks. I’ve been waiting all series for this moment! So what makes my life really tricky here... is there are no time/date stamps for these flashbacks. from my best educated guesses (based on her hairdo of course) is these take place in between Season 7’s “Closure” and “FightClub”.

So Scully flat-out comes out and says it. She is not willing to accept that she will not have children. So Mulder is all, like, “hey, by the way... I know where your ova are.” He took them to a specialist already... well, I think Memento Mori left that little detail out.

Present time. So now that Scully is actually pregnant she thinks this kid is an alien-baby. Um, ok. So this tells us many things. Actually it really doesn't. Let's continue. In flashback scene where the doctor tells her they can get her pregnant, and she needs a donor, the oboe of “I’m gonna have to ask Mulder to be the father” starts playing. So this does tell us something. This tells us something about Season 7, indeed. Since my estimated time frame falls within the realm of “All Things” Scully has already pretty much summed up that Mulder is “The One” her one true lurve. So is this flash before that episode or after... up for debate!

Continue the flashback when Scully opens the door to a somewhat awkward Mulder. He doesn't want this whole donor thing to come between them. But he wants to go for it! Scully just about has her head explode with joy and tears. This tells me that whenever this takes place in the previous season, they clearly have not reached the depths of the relationship insinuated in “All Things”. So let's say now that this before that episode, for argument's sake. No more debate!

So then the current storyline interrupts the flashbacks and we are reminded that poor Doggett is left in the dark about this whole thing. Poor guy, just when they were just beginning to be such great partners!

Ok final flashback. Scully comes home to find Mulder napping on her couch. She is sad, he is sad, she cries. They clearly are upset. Everyone is sad. I’m still frustrated because of the lack of timestamps.

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Dead Alive: So they find Mulder dead. Thus ensues the most painfully sad, yet unbelievably unbelievable funeral ever. Come on, Mulder? Dead? Forever? Please.

So Skinner digs him up, and Scully does the classic “I need to see him” as she touches the underside of her baby bump oh so motherly. Ha. I’m going to call it the Baby Bump Clutch (BBC). So this BBC and the crying mess, lots of sad piano music tells me the writers are trying to convey a message. These two love each other and are having an alien-Mulder-baby. Or something. At the very least, Mulder is expected to help her take this little alien baby to baseball practice.

But next we have the scene after the Billy Miles skin shower. Doggett bursts into Mulder’s room to see Scully with a BBC and holding Mulder’s deadalive hand. Awkward! And then she gets mad at him for not wanting to find the truth. It may hurt but it's all that matters. Wow, Doggett is really getting his face slapped all over the place in this episode. By Kersh, Skinner, Scully, and the alien baby. He is having sort of a rough patch!

So Mulder goes into the O.R. to get a course of antivirals to stop him from being deadalive. Turns out it works and he wakes up to sad piano music of sadhappy Scully and proceeds to Mulder wisecrack. Doggett comes in, but sees Scully give him the eye contact of “The father of my alien-Mulder-baby just woke up, and you need to wander down the hallway alone”. He gets it and leaves. Go take this time to bond with Skinner, John. He feels your pain.

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Three Words: So CC and company continue to torture shippers with leaving Mulder’s response to the pregnant news off screen. Lovely. That's ok. I can live with that. I’ll write it off as class X-files non answer and mystery.

But what is really weird is that Mulder’s apartment is still the same after three months of him being buried. So as an expert body-language-reader... this is a very complicated situation they are in. She mentions having prayers answered... Mulder is sitting on the couch, eye contact is weird, Scully is on the verge of tears when he says he is happy for her. Oh my. Mulder just simply apologizes and says he is having trouble processing. Oh, so are we Mulder, so are we!

Is this Mulder saying he is not ready to be a father or him not getting over his abduction. Let's assume a little bit of both! Especially if the Scully-baby is conceived the way insinuated in All Things, or the way insinuated in Per Manum.

Well, whatever may be awkward during Scully-Alien-Mulder-baby scenes, it is just not so when Mulder gets into FBI investigating mood. They go into the evidence room, and they are breaking protocol... just like old times!

Finally, we get some Lone Gunmen! And they don’t hesitate to call Mulder out on his involvement in Scully-alien-baby. So then he just gives Scully a look. Ha. Typical non-answer, love it. Let's leave the drama to the action of whether to or not to go to the secret government files facility! She says no. But Doggett shows up with a passcode, and then she tells Mulder the magic passcode.

Here is a note only a shipper would think to bring up... he seems surprised when she comes back up to his apartment. So it’s clear... she is still staying at her place. Ah, so now I get it. When Mulder is in an alien ship, she sleeps on his shirts - but when he is alive and well, she stays at her place. Oh Scully! Must be the hormones affecting your brain processes of being consistent!

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Vienen: I love this episode. But there isn’t much to say about regarding the MSR. The two things worth mentioning are when Mulder makes the smart-ass remark of telling “the kid I went down swinging”. This, I take it as Mulder’s way of telling her he's ready to take Scully-alien-Mulder-child to baseball practice. Scully rolls her eyes.

The bigger picture however... is the consequences Mulder seems to be unfazed by. He is out of the bureau. For good. No more X-files. No more files at all! And he doesn't mind. Why? Why? Because he has bigger fish to fry. He has a Scully-alien-baby on the way! Never has Mulder been fired, and this timing makes perfect sense.

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Alone: So Mulder takes this opportunity of unemployment to take Scully to lamaze class and joke weirdly about her having an affair with the pizza delivery guy. Gosh, these two need to have a talk about things. Just like always.

Then a whole bunch of things happen, and then there is the last scene where we have a really cute Agent Harrison asking them how they got out of Alaska after Mulder rescued her from the spaceship. Then they proceed to argue like an old married couple. Very cute. A little bit of light heartedness before the season finale.

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Essence: The Mulder voiceover starts this episode talking about the miracle of life. He is pondering where Scullybaby has come from. Three scenarios to work with... the old fashioned way, a miracle, or Lab-baby. So it is clear Mulder is confused about his involvement in this. Meanwhile at the baby shower, Scully is keeping the paternity of her child a secret even from her own mother. Why? Why Scully? What do you think she is going to do? What is wrong with the answer, “Mulder is the donor”? Or perhaps “Mulder and I are kind of a thing but I’m not sure, but we may have procreated, but we are not sure... and this baby might be his via that way too.” Is Scully 17 or 30-something?! Come on!

Anyway... despite the fire and building and doctor dying drama-Scully’s baby is apparently normal. So Margaret Scully hires a baby nanny helper person, and she has pills planted in Scully's bathroom. Where is Mulder during all of this? Isn’t he unemployed?! Why should Scully need more help? Shouldn’t she know that Mulder is off galavanting with Doggett and Skinner? Where are their good communication skills right now? This whole day she is in the dark about Mulder's investigation. Oh boy.

So Skinner finds the dirt on the Alien-baby-triangle of Scully's doctor, Duffy Haskell, and the other scientist. So Skinner is questioning the paternity as well and confronts Mulder. He gives us the classic ”that's Scully's business,” well actually Mulder, it's not just her business if you are involved. But I'll give you a B+ for classy-ness.

So they have a big Skinner office meeting. The baby/helper/nanny tells them some bad news about alien babies. Mulder just about breaks into tears when he realizes there is some truth to the alien baby thing in Scully's womb. So he rushes off. To grab Scully. And then Krychek shows up to the party to give everybody his take. He talks about alien replicants. Why do the replicants want her baby? Krychek says it's a miracle baby. Mulder then says that it means the truth is that there is a god. Doggett immediately explodes at this. But they all agree, Scully needs to be taken somewhere safe from all the weirdos after her.

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Existence: So somewhere the alien replicant is now called a super soldier. Or something. Noel tells Doggett who tells Mulder and company that Scully's child is one of these. Mulder is upset by this. He is actually quite pissed, which is weird because I don’t see that the government experiment/super-soldier baby story is any more offensive than the alien replicant/miracle baby we heard about last week. Whatever Mulder. Lots of things happen and Reyes makes whale sounds and Skinner kills Krychek in cold blood, and no big deal. Then Billy Miles watches Scully give birth all creepy like. But they leave and Mulder saves the day.

Then we get to the last scene, The writers and producers and creators and directors are doing this baby Jesus/Scullybaby parallel. The lone gunmen make a perfect wisemen. And they know to book it immediately once Joseph shows up. Seriously, once Mulder arrive to Scully's they skedaddle faster than I've ever seen them move.

It's interesting, he waits a beat before going into her room to see her and the baby. It's noticeable enough to make you think about what is going through his head. He walks in, and asks her what she has named him. She gives him the family name of William. Mulder looks touched, but gives a classic joke about Skinner being the father. But then things get pretty deep. Scully is confused about why Billy Miles' alien replicant/super-soldier crew didn't take William. Mulder says this means William isn't any less of a miracle.

Scully tells him she was afraid when she got pregnant about how and why... and then I think to myself, isn't this a convo they should've had quite a bit ago. But here they are. Mulder says they were really afraid of the possibilities... of the “truth they both know”. Scully is confused. What does he have to do Scully? Spell it out for you?! He luuuuuurves you. I thought you two have been over this! He leans in for a good old fashioned kissie. And no not just a kissie, but a smoochie.

Yes, I think they are officially a couple. All debate of “did they or didn't they” is pretty much moot. It doesn't matter really. Let's move forward, let's not have our heads explode trying to figure it out. Please. Let's just not. They are together, and the final season is coming soon, and it's full of pain and suffering and aching, yes. But let's look forward to laughing at ridiculous first name mentions and baby hats. I can't wait.