Story 263: "Parabiosis" by Penumbra

[wendelah1]

The official global rewatch of The X-Files is long over, as is the six episode miniseries that followed (and inspired it), yet here I am, still slogging through season seven. I must have blocked out how bad the seventh season is. Since "Parabiosis" is the quintessential season seven fanfic, I thought it would be fun to revisit it. It's not my

Comments

[wendelah1]

It is jarring--and you're right, it should be, but I seriously doubt that Penumbra's intention is to make the reader look at Mulder and Scully, and think to themselves, "Man, these two kids are so messed up."

I have to admit that my season seven rewatch is making me think exactly that. I just finished "Je Souhaite," which I've always enjoyed. But it's a typical Vince Gilligan episode: innocent people getting hurt for no very good reason except in this case to make us laugh at them. It is so creepy. The scene where Scully gets all giggly around Anson Stokes's corpse is a perfect example of that. Can you imagine even Scully from season six acting that disrespectful around the dead, let alone Scully from season one or two?

I like this Dana Scully:

SCULLY: What this man imagined... his dreams, who he loved, saw, heard, remembered... what he feared... somehow it’s... all locked inside this small mass of tissue and fluid.

But I'm not sure I recognize the characters I fell in love with in either "Je Souhaite" or "Parabiosis," but I do see how Penumbra can justify her characterization.