The 23 Best Mulder and Scully Moments

The X-Files, episode: “Bad Blood;” screengrab via Fox.

#10: Bad Blood

The best thing about Bad Blood isn’t that it’s Gillian Anderson’s favorite episode. It’s not that Mulder and Scully are investigating a vampirical teen in a creepy place that’s even more off-putting than usual. It’s not the utter(ly adorable) panic our duo is facing in preparation of explaining to AD Skinner how said investigation has gone so terribly wrong. It’s not even that Luke Wilson guest stars as a flirty small-town cowboy! Though all those things help.

The thing that makes this episode so fantastic is that it’s told in a he said/she said back and forth, and we never actually find out whether he or she really did or said what their partner claims.

Scully’s version of Mulder includes tons more enthusiastic paranormal excitement than we normally witness, but just about the same level of passionate goofballery that we’re used to. Mulder’s picture of Scully comes with twenty percent more eyeroll, seventy-five percent more infatuation with ten-gallon-hat wearing Luke Wilson, and approximately one thousand percent more Mulder love confessions than we’d ever see.

And even though we know Mulder’s account probably isn’t the version that really happened, it’s still endlessly endearing to watch Scully lament the half of a (light!) cream cheese bagel she ate for dinner before professing her devotion.

Next: #9: Existence