History Recap / TheXFilesS02E08OneBreath

'''Skinner:''' AndThenWhat [[Film/TheGodfather He sleeps with the fishes?]] We're NOT TheMafia, Agent Mulder. I know it’s easy to forget but [[TheFettered we work for the Department of Justice]].

->Written by Creator/GlenMorgan & Creator/JamesWong\\
Directed by Creator/RWGoodwin

->Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong\\
Directed by R.W. Goodwin

* ManlyTears: Near the end of the episode, Mulder has seen Scully for what he thinks is the last time. He comes home to find his house ransacked, and this causes him to slump and cry.

When Scully is mysteriously returned to a hospital, Mulder seeks answers for this sudden turn in events, not only going to X, but also a mysterious chainsmoker who has been lurking in the [=FBI=]'s offices. He must do so quickly, as Scully's life is suspended in limbo, with her clutch on life slowly fading.

* SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers

* TheWorldIsNotReady: CSM says everything would fall apart if people knew what he knew.

That one episode where Scully spends the whole thing in a boat.

!! Tropes:

-->'''Melissa Scully''': I don't have to be psychic to see that you're in a very dark place. Much darker than where my sister is. [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Willingly walking deeper into darkness]] cannot help her at all. Only the light...
-->'''Mulder''': [disgustedly] [[ShutUpKirk Oh, enough with the harmonic convergence crap, okay! You're not ''saying'' anything to me.]]
-->'''Melissa Scully''': [angrily] Why don't you just drop your cynicism and your paranoia and your defeat. You know, just because it's positive and good, doesn't mean it's silly or trite. Why is it so much easier for you to run around trying to get even than just expressing to her how you feel? I expect more from you. Dana expects more. Even if it doesn’t bring her back, at least she’ll know. And so will you.
* AdventuresInComaLand
* AngelUnaware: Nurse Owens.

* ConvenientComa

-->"I didn't really believe it and here you are with a gun to my head."

-->'''Skinner:''' We all know the field we play on and we all know what can happen in the course of a game. If you were unprepared for all the potentials, then you shouldn’t step on the field.
-->'''Mulder:''' What if I knew the potential consequences but I never told her?
-->'''Skinner:''' [[AccompliceByInaction Then you're as much to blame for her condition as the Cancer Man]].

-->'''William Scully Sr''': I never knew how much I loved my daughter until I could never tell her. At that moment I would have traded every medal, every commendation, every promotion for one more second with you. We'll be together again, Starbuck. But not now.

-->'''Mulder:''' You can have my badge, you can have the X-Files. Just tell me where he is.
-->'''Skinner:''' AndThenWhat [[Film/TheGodfather He sleeps with the fishes?]] We're NOT TheMafia, Agent Mulder. I know it’s easy to forget but [[TheFettered we work for the Department of Justice]].
* HeroicBSOD: Mulder suffers one after his confrontation with CSM, prompting him to type a letter of resignation that Skinner refuses to accept.
-->'''Skinner:''' I know you feel responsible for Agent Scully, but I will not accept resignation and defeat as self-punishment.
-->'''Mulder:''' All the forensics, the field investigations, the eyewitness accounts... to still know nothing. To lose myself... and Scully. [[HeelRealization I hate what I’ve become]].

-->'''X''': I used to be you. I was where you are now. But you’re not me, Mulder. I don’t think you have the heart. Walk away. Grieve for Scully and then never look back. You will be able to live with yourself, Mulder... on the day you die.

-->'''Skinner:''' When I was eighteen, I, uh... I went to Vietnam. I wasn't drafted, Mulder, I... I enlisted in the Marine Corps the day of my eighteenth birthday. I did it on a blind faith. I did it because I believed it was the right thing to do. I don't know, maybe I still do. Three months into my tour, a ten-year-old North Vietnamese boy walked into camp covered with grenades and I, uh... I blew his head off from a distance of ten yards. I lost my faith. Not in my country or in myself, but in everything. There was just no point to anything anymore. One night on patrol, we were, uh... caught... and [[TotalPartyKill everyone... everyone fell]]. I mean, everyone. I looked down... at my body... from outside of it. I didn't recognize it at first. I watched the V.C. strip my uniform, take my weapon and I remained... in this thick jungle... peaceful... unafraid... watching my... my dead friends. Watching myself. In the morning, the corpsmen arrived and put me in a bodybag until... [[OnlyMostlyDead I guess they found a pulse]]. I woke in a Saigon hospital two weeks later. I'm afraid to look any further beyond that experience. You? [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre You are not]]. [[ResignationsNotAccepted Your resignation is unacceptable]].

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: There are at least two in this episode and both are directed at Mulder.
** First, there's X in the parking garage.
--->"[[Recap/TheXFilesS01E24TheErlenmeyerFlask You got him killed!]] You got her killed. That's not going to happen to me. You're my tool, you understand?! I come to you when I need you!"
** Later, Melissa Scully calls Mulder out pretty spectacularly when he refuses to come to the hospital for what could be Scully's last night (see above).

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Subverted with Agent Scully. Her mother tells a story how her daughter felt guilty for shooting a snake with her new BB gun. Although deathly afraid of snakes, she held the snake and it died in her hands. When Mulder and Scully investigate cases involving snakes, she isn't exactly on edge ("Die Hand die Verletzt") and she even gets a tattoo of a snake eating its own tail in "Never Again". On the other hand, it's played straight in "Signs and Wonders", which features lots of snakes, although even Mulder who doesn't suffer from this phobia is uneased by them there.

* EarlyBirdCameo: The Thinker will become a little bit more important [[Recap/TheXFilesS02E25Anasazi later on]].

--->'''Skinner:''' We all know the field we play on and we all know what can happen in the course of a game. If you were unprepared for all the potentials, then you shouldn’t step on the field.
--->'''Mulder:''' What if I knew the potential consequences but I never told her?
--->'''Skinner:''' [[AccompliceByInaction Then you're as much to blame for her condition as the Cancer Man]].

* EarlyBirdCameo: The Thinker will become a little bit more important [[TheXFilesS02E25Anasazi later on]].

-->'''Skinner:''' AndThenWhat? [[Film/TheGodfather He sleeps with the fishes?]] We're NOT TheMafia, Agent Mulder. I know it’s easy to forget but [[TheFettered we work for the Department of Justice]].

-->'''Melissa Scully''': I don't have to be psychic to see that you're in a very dark place. Much darker than where my sister is.
-->Willingly walking deeper into darkness cannot help her at all. Only the light...
-->'''Mulder''': [disgustedly] Oh, enough! - with the harmonic convergence crap, okay, you're not ''saying'' anything to me.

* AngelUnaware

-->'''X''': This high-capacity compact Sig Sauer .40 caliber weapon is pointed at your head to stress my insistence that your search for who put your partner on that respirator desist immediately!

-->'''Skinner:''' When I was eighteen, I, uh... I went to Vietnam. I wasn't drafted, Mulder, I... I enlisted in the Marine Corps the day of my eighteenth birthday. I did it on a blind faith. I did it because I believed it was the right thing to do. I don't know, maybe I still do. Three months into my tour, a ten-year-old North Vietnamese boy walked into camp covered with grenades and I, uh... I blew his head off from a distance of ten yards. I lost my faith. Not in my country or in myself, but in everything. There was just no point to anything anymore. One night on patrol, we were, uh... caught... and everyone... everyone fell. I mean, everyone. I looked down... at my body... from outside of it. I didn't recognize it at first. I watched the V.C. strip my uniform, take my weapon and I remained... in this thick jungle... peaceful... unafraid... watching my... my dead friends. Watching myself. In the morning, the corpsmen arrived and put me in a bodybag until... I guess they found a pulse. I woke in a Saigon hospital two weeks later. I'm afraid to look any further beyond that experience. You? You are not. [[ResignationsNotAccepted Your resignation is unacceptable]].

* ItIsNotYourTime: Scully is urged back into consciousness by her father.

-->William Scully Sr: I never knew how much I loved my daughter until I could never tell her. At that moment I would have traded every medal, every commendation, every promotion for one more second with you. We'll be together again, Starbuck. But not now.

* ItIsNotYourTime

* UnusualEuphemism: X tells Mulder that he later needs to be prepared to "defend [himself] with terminal intensity".