The X-Files – “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas”
Everyone deserves to get a little festive this time of year, even Mulder and Scully! On the season six episode of The X-Files appropriately titled “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas”, our legendary duo have a very interesting Christmas Eve!
Mulder calls Scully to investigate a mansion that is apparently haunted. Mulder says they’re there for a stake out, but it turns out this isn’t FBI business: they’re there to investigate ghost activity. On Christmas back in 1917, a young couple agreed to a lover’s pact when they faced death from war and sickness; they promised that one would kill the other and then commit suicide, not being able to stand the idea of being alone, even in the afterlife. Even after 81 years, the couple makes sure that other couples who venture into the mansion suffer the same fate.
Since it’s Christmas Eve, Scully is not interested in exploring the mansion with Mulder because she has wrapping to finish, so he goes alone. When she goes to leave she feels guilty, but then realizes she can’t find her keys. Mulder doesn’t have them either. The doors slam, and they can’t leave. That’s when strange things keep happening, like the shadow of an old woman in a nightgown appearing out of nowhere.
Scully later ends up encountering the two ghosts, and even though she doesn’t believe they’re really ghosts, they reveal their wounds to her, which leads to Scully passing out. Mulder bursts in and starts acting bizarrely, crying that there’s no way out and they should just die there, and shoots himself in the head. But it’s not Mulder at all — it’s just an apparition.
In the end, they make it out alive though quite shaken and covered in blood. When the two talk later that night, they wonder if anything that happened that night was real, and then they exchange gifts as the snow falls outside. You know, just a super lowkey, casual Christmas with Mulder and Scully! Nothing says Christmas like a suicide pact between lovers who haunt a big mansion and force people to kill themselves!