Ice

They're both so squeamish watching the worm be pulled from Bear's neck. I mean I would be too, but...they better get used to that kind of thing.

How make us believe that we are in the Arctic? A blurred picture of a base, some sounds of the blizzard, Mulder showing to Scully on a map where they are going, and their wonderful outfits of the 90s. Cheap but efficient?

This is my favorite moment from The X-Files. It's the moment when they choose to trust each other, whether it makes sense or not. Scully knew no one had been hurt since Mulder was locked up. Mulder didn't know what was going on outside that room. Yet they know they can trust each other. The way Scully goes in the room alone, the way Mulder turns his back to allow her to check his neck, it's pure trust, based on nothing but their sense that they are all each other has. It's the basis for every future moment of their relationship.

And what follows...so hot.

Well, I choose here one of the most famous scene in Ice.

Sure, it's a very serious powerful scene when you watch the episode in the first sense of the story. It's all about trust between Mulder and Scully, them against the other, bla bla bla... I'm sure Cathy would have a lot to say.

But for me, now as I rewatch it, I can't help seeing other hidden meanings, and finding this scene so hot... You know, I've read too much fanfics. Just replace Mulder's line "I want to trust you", by "I want to ... you", and it's all about what you think I am thinking. Scully's little moan when Mulder grabs her? She's in. The way they look at each other? Many ways to interpret it.

I wonder if the actors (and the director?) were conscious of what they were doing when filming that scene.

Mulder knows Scully is a nervous flyer, so he places his hand on her back to offer some comfort as they're about to get on Bear's little plane.

Actually, there's really no reason to think Scully hates flying. I believe we only see her on an airplane once, in the Pilot, and she seems fine until they hit turbulence and things start flying around the cabin. But it's a pretty commonly accepted theory and a headcanon I enjoy.

M&S can't help being very close when looking at something weird and spooky.

We love them for that. Especially when they have these big puffer jackets... they need warmth.

Mulder and his funny quip. I don't think he has anything to worry about. That's all I have to say about that.

Tiny Scully jumping into Big Bear. And then, cherry on the pie, Mulder stands on top of the two.

That's funny!

Scully and Mulder draw their guns on each other, like we saw the men do in the teaser. Is one of them infected? Are they both? It's sort of shocking to see them in this position, and it really ratchets up the tension.

The cold open is really intriguing, thrilling and surprising. It's a pity we don't know much about these guys who've had a last human gesture and killed themselves.

There's just Mulder that will acknowledge their courageous act, saying later "Maybe they did it to save us."

Murphy listening to a tape of his favorite football plays has to be the most American moment of the episode. Do you think Morgan & Wong are big football fans? They wrote Mulder giving Scully "Superstars of the Super Bowls" in One Breath too.

An American football geek in the team that will be put in a paranoïd situation: that is immediately the nice guy who would have a sad fate. Too cliché?

BTW, I don't understand the line "Here's the snap! Fouts dumps it across to Winslow! Touchdown!" It's beyond my comprehension!

"We're not who we are" in the teaser is the clue to what's happening. People are being controlled by something, making them do things they wouldn't do. And Scully's variation, "Mulder, you may not be who you are," is terrifying. Mulder is the one person she knows, and she knows Mulder wouldn't kill Murphy; that's not who he is. But what if he's not who he is? It's a perfect use of this horror trope.

"It's still there, Scully. 200,000 years down in the ice."

I like this end, because there's some truth in it and real facts to support it. What could we find deep in the ice, in the abyss, or in the permafrost melting with global warming?

In this moment Mulder recognizes that the others have a legitimate fear that he is infected and a danger to them. He backs down and lets them lock him up so that they can continue to look for an answer. He has to put aside his ego and anger and outrage, knowing those will get in the way of a solution. That's not an easy thing to do, but he recognizes that it's necessary. It didn't stop him from being a little sulky about it, but I'm okay with that.

Mulder is the one thinking of the consequences of their actions. First, that they can't go back without quarantine procedures, and then that they should keep alive some specimens to study them and prevent potential future diseases.

Teeny tiny Scully tackles big ol' Bear to the ground, and I love it! And, yes, she also made the discovery that two worms in one host will kill each other. That was pretty awesome too.

Baby Agent Scully despite her small height and her pony tail stands out and faces everyone when necessary, with great authority.

The best moment is when Mulder and Scully are facing each other with their guns. She successfully manages to calm down Mulder. The scene is very tense and Gillian Anderson is great. I love the line : "Mulder, you may not be who you are!".

As they're heading out on this case, Mulder tells Scully, in a teasing sort of voice, "bring your mittens". It makes me think of Bad Blood, where in Scully's version of events Mulder says "I hope you brought your cowboy boots". I wonder if Mulder has suggested clothing items for her to pack often enough that it bugs Scully. Did it start in their first year of partnership and become an ongoing thing? Does she secretly hate it? Is that why she included it her version, when she was clearly emphasizing Mulder's most annoying traits?

From Ice to One Son...

Well, the hotness is still out there, when they are stucked alone in closed rooms.

I love this episode. It's truly tense, with a sense that the stakes are high and the danger real. And I love that it offers an exploration of the relationship between Mulder and Scully that we haven't seen before.

I like Murphy a lot. He serves the part of plucky comic relief very well, but beyond his silliness we can see that he's dedicated to doing the job he's there to do.

I love the argument Mulder and Scully have. It shows they both have rational concerns about the case and the potential outcome. Despite their disagreement, they're working together. It sets up an "us against them" dynamic which, again, will carry on through the rest of the series.

I should mention that I've never seen The Thing, so I can't comment on whether Ice is a good adaptation, but I like the episode so much that I don't want to watch the movie, in case the movie doesn't live up.

Also, Mulder and Scully both look so pretty.

I like the paranoïd gruesome story, located in a limited setting, with a limited number of characters. Paranoïa, trust, no escape, a (supposed) alien life form, coldness versus heat... All these elements are good ingredients to make a thrilling tense XF episode.

This is also really entertaining (in the sense of having a light mood) to watch this episode. There are indeed some fun lines and scenes. You can also watch it for all the induced hotness, whereas we are supposed to be in the Arctic. All this naked bodies and touchings...

In conclusion, Ice is a good enjoyable episode --especially for season 1-- yet I don't think it stands in my top list. Though, when I watched for the first time (and after watching Ice) the movie The Thing --an inspiration for this episode-- I was disappointed and I've preferred Ice!! That could mean a lot.

Probably the only thing I dislike is the way Mulder pronounces "Arctic" (he drops the first c). Or maybe I just wanted another excuse to use this picture.

When I'm watching this episode and I'm a bit out of the story --because I'm distracted by the funny or not-meant-to-be hot scenes-- I find some flaws, and I'm even more distracted.

First, I don't like how is handled Murphy's death. I can't believe that Dr Da Silva --even in her state-- could have murdered him and put his body in the fridge, without any noise and without leaving blood marks. Nobody makes a real investigation or seeks evidence, and nobody seems really affected by his death. (BTW there was also Bear's death, but he was unsympathetic so we let him go more easily!).

Second, even if the idea of angry worms that kill any other ones that are not clones and that make you behave like them is great, I can't help finding some illogical facts. How can they be sure that the worms are different when they put it in Da Silva (or the dog) ear? How have they been infected by different individual worms, whereas it has been from the infected blood of other persons? Does an infected person have so much larvae in his/her body that you are sure to see one of them in a single tiny blood sample? Maybe there are explanations, maybe when they are adults the worm attack each other even if they are clones... I also find that there's a cheap easy plot in the story: it's when Da Silva makes a mistake with the blood, allowing Scully to make a huge discovery. Okay, this long paragraph is surely quite irrelevant because many XF episodes are like that, it's often inevitable.