12 of pop culture’s best birthday moments

Scully’s birthday in “Tempus Fugit,” The X-Files

Now, the overall reception of this episode depends on how you like your X-Files conspiracy episodes. I prefer them neatly wrapped up in clearer storylines such as “Tempus Fugit,” but I also would take a Monster of the Week episode any day over a mythology episode.

However, this episode receives special notice because it starts with Scully’s birthday and it’s apparently the first time Mulder has done anything about it, though this episode takes place in season 4. What I love most about it is the easy, comfortable banter between Mulder and Scully as he gives her birthday present: a keychain from Apollo 11. Of course, this is also the season when Scully’s cancer storyline was front and center and we saw the lengths Mulder would go to to save her.

But even though we only get to experience it for a couple of minutes, this opening birthday scene is exactly what draws me to The X-Files. Sure, I like aliens as much as the next person, but I’m mostly drawn to Scully and Mulder’s there-but-not-there relationship. I like when they just trade easy looks and spend time talking about something other than their crazy lives. One of my other favorite scenes of all time is that time Mulder and Scully are sitting in the car and Mulder’s recounting the love story that resulted in “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas” and she interrupts him to say “You already said that…” Like, that’s my favorite “Mulder and Scully” thing. He’s being kind of weird and she’s humoring him just because.

Anyway, we all know that since then, Dana Scully’s become so iconic that internet still celebrates her birthday every February. So, of course, she’d make this list.

-Buckie Wells, co-expert