Fic Recs: 2x12 "Aubrey"
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xfilesficrecsMulder and Scully head to Aubrey, Missouri to try to solve an old missing persons case. In 1942, two FBI detectives disappeared while investigating a serial murder case. Three women were murdered, all left with the word "Sister" carved on their chest. Mulder is intrigued when the bones of one of those missing agents are discovered in a field in that same small town, by one of their police detectives. As Mulder and Scully will soon discover, the murders have started up again.
This is another episode for which critical opinion is mixed. Let's look at a sampling. At Blip TV, SciFi Debris's video review for "Audrey" is funny and to the point. His verdict: watchable but just barely.
On the other hand, Sarah Stegall loved it.
There is no accounting for taste.
Let's cut to the chase: I despised this episode. In "Aubrey," Detective "B. J." Morrow commits heinous murders that mimic those which were committed two generations earlier by her genetic grandfather, convicted murderer Harry Cokely. Not only does Detective Morrow commit these copy-cat murders, she has dreams about his previous crimes, and murders her victims while in a trance state, believing she is Cokely!
But wait. Detective Morrow was adopted, she has never met Cokely, and has no idea she's related to him! Cokely is still alive, therefore his demonic spirit isn't possessing her. That would be a ridiculous explanation too, but at least it would be the kind of supernatural runaround we've come to expect from this show. Instead, Mulder posits that Morrow inherited a murderous gene from her grandfather which was triggered somehow by her pregnancy. According to Mulder's theory, the activated Cokely Murder Gene not only caused her to commit these crimes, it caused her to used the exact same technique as Cokely.
"Jung wrote about it when he talked about the collective unconscious. It's genetic memory, Scully," Mulder says earnestly.
Oh, brother.
Scully is about as out of character in this episode as we will ever see her, at least until we get to season eight. She guesses that Tillman and Morrow are having an affair, because "a woman senses these things." Does that sound like something Scully would say out loud, let alone think?
This is supposed to be another one of those other couples who work together for us to contrast with the professional relationship of our dynamic duo. What a perfect pairing the writer chose for this purpose: Morrow is having sex with her boss, so it's not a relationship of equals; they screwed up and she's pregnant; he's already married to someone else. Naturally, she has to become a homicidal maniac as a result of the unplanned pregnancy! Not that things will go all that well for Mulder and Scully once they do the deed...
"My father was a cop," B. J. laments. "A good cop. That's all I ever wanted to be. He'd say what we're doing here is nonsense. That you can't solve a crime from a dream."
Detective Morrow, all I can say is that clearly, your father never watched The X-Files. And I'm so sorry you got stuck in this crappy, half-baked script.
Fanfiction:
I don't care for hurt/comfort fic in general and almost never read it in this fandom. Honestly, haven't Mulder and Scully suffered enough? Why anyone would want to write, let alone read, a fic that has poor Detective Morrow die during emergency childbirth, in prison, with Scully in attendance, is a complete mystery to me.
Well, there's always "Seeds of Synchronicity." I've never gotten past the first chapter but it won plenty of awards. I know many readers who loved it. You might, too, which is why I'm posting it here.
"Seeds of Synchronicity" by Mountainphile.
Rated NC-17 | 127K | Category XR | Archived 03-10-31
Spoilers: Aubrey
Keywords: Mulder/Scully romance.
Summary: Six years after the events of "Aubrey," Scully and Mulder revisit the Missouri town to confront old demons and lay new ones to rest. Also can be found at Gossamer.
Although it's set post-"Aubrey," this sweet crossover has nothing to do with the episode itself, which is a good thing. It's also at Gossamer.
Road Fools (2502 words) by denynothing1
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The X-Files, Smallville
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Characters: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Clark Kent, Jonathan Kent
Additional Tags: Crossover, Pre-Canon, Halloween
Summary:
This is another episode for which critical opinion is mixed. Let's look at a sampling. At Blip TV, SciFi Debris's video review for "Audrey" is funny and to the point. His verdict: watchable but just barely.
On the other hand, Sarah Stegall loved it.
There is no accounting for taste.
Let's cut to the chase: I despised this episode. In "Aubrey," Detective "B. J." Morrow commits heinous murders that mimic those which were committed two generations earlier by her genetic grandfather, convicted murderer Harry Cokely. Not only does Detective Morrow commit these copy-cat murders, she has dreams about his previous crimes, and murders her victims while in a trance state, believing she is Cokely!
But wait. Detective Morrow was adopted, she has never met Cokely, and has no idea she's related to him! Cokely is still alive, therefore his demonic spirit isn't possessing her. That would be a ridiculous explanation too, but at least it would be the kind of supernatural runaround we've come to expect from this show. Instead, Mulder posits that Morrow inherited a murderous gene from her grandfather which was triggered somehow by her pregnancy. According to Mulder's theory, the activated Cokely Murder Gene not only caused her to commit these crimes, it caused her to used the exact same technique as Cokely.
"Jung wrote about it when he talked about the collective unconscious. It's genetic memory, Scully," Mulder says earnestly.
Oh, brother.
Scully is about as out of character in this episode as we will ever see her, at least until we get to season eight. She guesses that Tillman and Morrow are having an affair, because "a woman senses these things." Does that sound like something Scully would say out loud, let alone think?
This is supposed to be another one of those other couples who work together for us to contrast with the professional relationship of our dynamic duo. What a perfect pairing the writer chose for this purpose: Morrow is having sex with her boss, so it's not a relationship of equals; they screwed up and she's pregnant; he's already married to someone else. Naturally, she has to become a homicidal maniac as a result of the unplanned pregnancy! Not that things will go all that well for Mulder and Scully once they do the deed...
"My father was a cop," B. J. laments. "A good cop. That's all I ever wanted to be. He'd say what we're doing here is nonsense. That you can't solve a crime from a dream."
Detective Morrow, all I can say is that clearly, your father never watched The X-Files. And I'm so sorry you got stuck in this crappy, half-baked script.
Fanfiction:
I don't care for hurt/comfort fic in general and almost never read it in this fandom. Honestly, haven't Mulder and Scully suffered enough? Why anyone would want to write, let alone read, a fic that has poor Detective Morrow die during emergency childbirth, in prison, with Scully in attendance, is a complete mystery to me.
Well, there's always "Seeds of Synchronicity." I've never gotten past the first chapter but it won plenty of awards. I know many readers who loved it. You might, too, which is why I'm posting it here.
"Seeds of Synchronicity" by Mountainphile.
Rated NC-17 | 127K | Category XR | Archived 03-10-31
Spoilers: Aubrey
Keywords: Mulder/Scully romance.
Summary: Six years after the events of "Aubrey," Scully and Mulder revisit the Missouri town to confront old demons and lay new ones to rest. Also can be found at Gossamer.
Although it's set post-"Aubrey," this sweet crossover has nothing to do with the episode itself, which is a good thing. It's also at Gossamer.
Road Fools (2502 words) by denynothing1
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The X-Files, Smallville
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Characters: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Clark Kent, Jonathan Kent
Additional Tags: Crossover, Pre-Canon, Halloween
Summary:
Only one of the reasons that the X-File on a little town in Kansas is so thick it occupies its own drawer in the filing cabinet.