Rachel

Throughout nine seasons of The X-Files, the series' mythology was more than a little confusing. Did alien life on this planet begin with Roswell? Were aliens already here? What's up with Scully's cancer — and what really happened to Mulder's baby?

We don't know how many of those details will factor into the resurrected version of the show when it premieres on Fox this Sunday, January 24, but it never hurts to be prepared. In order to refresh you on what exactly went down during the first run, here is a chronological timeline of every important alien abduction, Black Oil possession, and government double-cross that contributes to the overall mythology of The X-Files.

The Ice Age

2.4 million years ago, alien life forms are present during the early evolution of human life. The Ice Age causes them to flee the planet, but they leave deposits of the Black Oil virus for when they return to eventually colonize Earth.

35,000 BC

North Texas

Two cavemen fight an extraterrestrial. One of them is infected with Black Oil.

1947

Roswell, New Mexico

An alien spacecraft crash lands.

Roswell, New Mexico

An alien poses as a Negro League baseball player, Josh Exley, in order to stay on Earth and enjoy life. An Alien Bounty Hunter kills him for abandoning his people. (Episode: “The Unnatural”)

Early 1950s

Maryland

Bill Mulder and Arthur Dales encounter a man, Skur, with an alien parasite. Bill helps him escape from the government in one of the first X-Files. (“Travelers”)

1953

Washington, D.C.

Bill Mulder and Cigarette Smoking Man interview a crewman from submarine Zeus Faber who encountered the Black Oil before it escaped into the Pacific Ocean.

Late 1950s

Washington, D.C.

The Syndicate hands over family members to the alien Colonists to avoid being killed when Colonization happens. They are given an alien fetus to experiment on, and create alien-human hybrids to survive during Colonization. (“One Son”)

1973

Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts

8-year-old Samantha Mulder is abducted when her brother, Fox Mulder, is 12.

1979

April Air Force Base

Samantha lives with Cigarette Smoking Man and his son Jeffrey Spender, and is experimented on. She vanishes from a hospital without a trace.

1985

Pulaski, Virginia

Duane Barry is abducted by aliens.

1992

Washington, D.C.

Special Agent Dana Scully is assigned to work with Special Agent Fox Mulder on the X-Files. ("Pilot")

First appearance of C.G.B. Spender, the Cigarette Smoking Man. ("Pilot")

Bellefleur, Oregon

Mulder and Scully investigate alien abductees; a body is found with a metal implant. ("Deep Throat")

1993

Washington, D.C.

Mulder meets Deep Throat, his FBI informant. ("Deep Throat")

Southwestern Idaho

Test pilot Colonel Robert Budahas goes missing, is returned with his memory wiped. ("Deep Throat")

Sioux City, Iowa

Mulder investigates the abduction of Ruby Morris, which reminds him of his sister's abduction. (“Conduit”)

Mulder sees an alien spacecraft at the military base; his memory is wiped. ("Conduit")

Townsend, Wisconsin

UFO crash. An invisible figure kills a deputy sheriff; the Air Force cleans it up. ("Fallen Angel")

Max Fenig, an alien abductee, is abducted again. ("Fallen Angel")

1994

Iraq/Palestine Border

An Iraqi fighter pilot shoots down a UFO. ("E.B.E.")

Mattawa, Washington

Frank Druce transports an EBE (extraterrestrial biological entity) to a power plant, where it's killed. ("E.B.E.")

Deep Throat tells Mulder that after Roswell, an agreement was made between countries to kill all EBEs. ("E.B.E.")

Washington, D.C.

Mulder introduces Scully to the Lone Gunmen. ("E.B.E.")

Gaithersburg, Maryland

Dr. Terrance Berube is murdered by Crew Cut Man, a Man in Black assassin. Dr. Berube was performing experiments on men with extraterrestrial viruses.

Fort Marlene, Maryland

Scully finds an alien fetus in liquid nitrogen. She trades it with Crew Cut Man for Mulder's life. Crew Cut Man murders Deep Throat. ("The Erlenmeyer Flask")

Arecibo, Puerto Rico

Mulder sees an extraterrestrial while investigating a defunct NASA program, High Resolution Microwave Survey, designed to contact extraterrestrial life. (“Little Green Men”)

Sayreville, New Jersey

Mulder’s new FBI informant, X, mysteriously contacts him. (“The Host”)

Virginia

Scully is kidnapped by Duane Barry. (“Duane Barry”)

Washington, D.C.

Scully returns weeks after her abduction, comatose, in a hospital. (“One Breath”)

Delta Glen, Wisconsin

Cows and teenagers are injected with alien DNA; the Crew Cut Man shows up and murders some of the teenagers. Crew Cut Man is killed by Sheriff Mazeroski. (“Red Museum”)

1995

Beaufort Sea

The Alien Bounty Hunter crash-lands. (“Colony”)

Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts

Samantha apparently returns home, claims she was returned at the age of 9 with no memories, but recently recovered them through hypnosis. (“Colony”)

Syracuse, New York

Alien Bounty Hunter murders doctors who are clones. (“Colony”)

Syracuse, New York

Samantha is revealed to be one of many clones. They are killed by the Alien Bounty Hunter. (“End Game”)

Two Grey Hills, New Mexico

An alien corpse is found in a boxcar. (“Anasazi”)

Washington, D.C.

Mulder is given an encrypted tape with evidence of extraterrestrial life. The Syndicate wants possession of the tape. (“Anasazi”)

Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts

Bill Mulder tries telling his son about the encrypted tape, but he’s murdered by Alex Krycek. (“Anasazi”)

Washington, D.C.

Scully finds a metal implant in the back of her neck. (“The Blessing Way”)

Washington, D.C.

Well-Manicured Man tells Scully the Syndicate wants to kill her. Melissa, her sister, is mistakenly shot and killed. (“The Blessing Way”)

Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts

Mulder finds out his father let Samantha be abducted in order to appease the Syndicate. (“Paper Clip”)

Washington, D.C.

Krycek beats up Assistant Director Walter Skinner and takes the tape. Cigarette Smoking Man lies to the Syndicate that the tape has been destroyed. (“Paper Clip”)

Knoxville, Tennessee

A group of Japanese scientists film themselves as they perform an alien autopsy before they’re murdered. (“Nisei”)

Washington, D.C.

Scully realizes that a Japanese scientist from the autopsy video experimented on her during her abduction. (“Nisei”)

Quinnimont, Massachusetts

Alien-human hybrids are shot and buried in a grave. (“731”)

Ohio

Mulder is saved from Red Haired Man, an assassin, by X. X pulls Mulder from a train car before it explodes, destroying evidence of an alien-human hybrid. (“731”)

1996

Pacific Ocean

Piper Maru, a French salvage vessel, discovers the Black Oil in a sunken World War II fighter plane. (“Piper Maru”)

Black Crow, North Dakota

Krycek, infected by the Oil, visits an abandoned missile silo. The Black Oil seeps into the ship, and Krycek is trapped in the silo.

Arlington, Virginia

After a shooting in a diner, a man who is revealed to be Jeremiah Smith heals the gunman and his victims. (“Talitha Cumi”)

Washington, D.C.

The Alien Bounty Hunter hunts down Jeremiah Smith and kills X. Cigarette Smoking Man has the Bounty Hunter heal Mulder’s mom, who suffered a stroke. (“Herrenvolk”)

X writes “SRSG” in blood, which leads Mulder to his next contact, special representative to the secretary-general of the United Nations, Marita Covarrubias. She works for the Syndicate. (“Herrenvolk”)

Honolulu, Hawaii

Customs officers are infected by the Black Oil, traveling via a carrier from Russia. (“Tunguska”)

Krasnoyarsk, Russia

Mulder is infected with the Black Oil. (“Tunguska”)

Boca Raton, Florida

Rocks containing the Black Oil are destroyed by a KGB assassin, who also kills Syndicate doctors working on a vaccine. (“Terma”)

1997

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Scully’s interactions with Leonard Betts, a cancer-eating mutant, lead her to the realization that she has cancer. (“Leonard Betts”)

Washington, D.C.

Scully is diagnosed with a cancerous tumor, the result of experiments on abducted women. Skinner makes a deal with Cigarette Smoking Man to save her. (“Memento Mori”)

Upstate New York

Max Fenig is abducted from a plane. As he’s returned, a military craft shoots down the plane and the UFO. (“Tempus Fugit”)

Great Sacandaga Lake, New York

Mulder finds a spacecraft and an alien body submerged in the lake. (“Tempus Fugit”)

New York to Washington, D.C.

Mulder is abducted from a plane for nine minutes, and an alien device in his possession is stolen. (“Max”)

Vienna, Virginia

A woman is killed by a swarm of bees. Skinner covers up the death as part of his bargain to save Scully. (“Zero Sum”)

Columbia, South Carolina

Skinner tells Marita Covarrubias that the bees are being used as carriers for a Syndicate experiment. (“Zero Sum”)

Providence, Rhode Island

Mulder recovers memories that the Cigarette Smoking Man is in part responsible for his sister’s disappearance, and also was involved with his mother. (“Demons”)

St. Elias Mountains, Canada

An expedition team discovers a frozen alien body. (“Gethsemane”)

Washington, D.C.

Mulder fakes his death to discover who he and Scully can trust in the FBI. (“Redux”)

Washington, D.C.

Cigarette Smoking Man is shot and killed by Section Chief Scott Blevins, though no body is recovered. (“Redux II”)

Washington, D.C.

A fake Samantha meets with Mulder in order to get him to join the Syndicate’s side. (“Redux II”)

San Diego, California

A woman, Roberta Sim, apparently commits suicide. She’s discovered to have been raising Scully’s biological child, a girl named Emily. (“Christmas Carol”)

San Diego, California

Dr. Calderon, Emily’s doctor, is killed, and an alien clone continues treatment on Emily. (“Emily”)

San Diego, California

Emily, believed to be an alien-human hybrid, dies. Her body is not found in her coffin. (“Emily”)

1998

Kazakhstan, Asia

An alien abductee is killed by an Alien Bounty Hunter. (“Patient X”)

Washington, D.C.

The Syndicate is surprised by the early colonization by the aliens. (“Patient X”)

Ruskin Dam, British Columbia

Cassandra Spender goes missing as aliens confront abductees. (“The Red and the Black”)

West Virginia

The military catches a Rebel alien fighter from a crashed spacecraft. (“The Red and the Black”)

Washington, D.C.

The Syndicate is unsure whether or not to align with the Rebel aliens, who are fighting the Colonists. They procure a Black Oil vaccine from Russia. (“The Red and the Black”)

Wiekamp Air Force Base

A Rebel kills an Alien Bounty Hunter and saves the Rebel captured by the military. (“The Red and the Black”)

Washington, D.C.

Agent Jeffrey Spender is revealed to be Cigarette Smoking Man’s son. (“The Red and the Black”)

Vancouver, British Columbia

An assassination attempt on Gibson Praise, a telepath, is foiled when he dodges a Syndicate sniper's bullet. (“The End”)

Washington, D.C.

Cigarette Smoking Man reveals to Spender that he is his father. (“The End”)

Washington, D.C.

Cigarette Smoking Man takes Samantha’s file from the X-Files. (“The End”)

Washington, D.C.

Cigarette Smoking Man burns down the X-Files. (“The End”)

Texas

Scully is stung by one of the bees and infected. (Fight the Future)

Antarctica

Mulder gets a vaccine for Scully as an alien spacecraft flies from the ice. (Fight the Future)

Washington, D.C.

Jeffrey Spender and Diana Fowley are assigned to the X-Files, replacing Mulder and Scully. (“The Beginning”)

Scully discovers alien DNA is in all human DNA. (“The Beginning”)

Washington, D.C.

Skinner is infected with debilitating nanotechnology. Krycek saves his life but maintains control of Skinner’s infection. (“S.R. 819”)

1999

Washington, D.C.

An alien Rebel kills a Syndicate member and takes his place in order to convince the Syndicate to join the Rebels. (“Two Fathers”)

Cassandra Spender is revealed to be an alien-human hybrid whose existence could trigger colonization of Earth. (“Two Fathers”)

El Rico Air Force Base, Washington, D.C.

Cassandra Spender and the Syndicate and their families are killed by alien Rebels in order to stop the impending Colonization. (“One Son”)

Washington, D.C.

Spender tells assistant director Alvin Kersh that Mulder and Scully could’ve prevented the Syndicate’s deaths, and tells him to reassign them to the X-Files. Cigarette Smoking Man, angry with his son, shoots him in the head. (“One Son”)

Côte d'Ivoire

A metallic object with biblical inscriptions is discovered. (“Biogenesis”)

Côte d'Ivoire

Scully investigates a half-buried spaceship and discovers writings that have information on human genetics. (“The Sixth Extinction”)

Washington, D.C.

Cigarette Smoking Man reveals to Mulder he is his father. (“The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati”)

Cigarette Smoking Man believes Mulder has become an alien-human hybrid and tries to harvest his DNA to be the only person to survive the oncoming invasion. (“The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati”)

2000

Washington, D.C.

Mulder learns his sister was taken by “walk-ins,” who save children’s souls before they are doomed to lead unhappy lives. (“Closure”)

Washington, D.C.

Cigarette Smoking Man, dying of cancer, gets Scully to help him find the cure to all of mankind’s diseases. CSM throws the cure into a lake. (“En Ami”)

Oregon

Mulder is abducted by aliens. (“Requiem”)

Washington, D.C.

Despite being barren, Scully confides in Skinner that she is pregnant. (“Requiem”)

Washington, D.C.

Agent John Doggett joins an FBI task force to find Mulder. (“Within”)

Arizona Desert

Gibson Praise is saved from an Alien Bounty Hunter. (“Without”)

Washington, D.C.

Kersh assigns Doggett to the X-Files as a punishment for not finding Mulder. (“Without”)

2001

Squamash, Pennsylvania

Doggett discovers that Mulder, dying after being exposed to an alien artifact, sought a cure from a soul-sucker. (“The Gift”)

Washington, D.C.

Via flashback, we discover Scully asked Mulder to be a sperm donor after her abduction. (“Per Manum”)

Washington D.C.

Scully discovers alien fetuses in jars at Zeus Genetics. (“Per Manum”)

Montana

Agent Monica Reyes joins the search for Mulder. (“This is Not Happening”)

Mulder’s body is recovered, but before Scully can have Jeremiah Smith heal Mulder, Smith is abducted by aliens. (“This is Not Happening”)

Washington, D.C.

Billy Miles, an alien abductee, awakens after being recovered and morphs into an alien-human hybrid. (“Deadalive”)

Washington, D.C.

Krycek tries forcing Skinner to kill Scully’s unborn child. (“DeadAlive”)

Washington, D.C.

Mulder’s body is exhumed and shows vital signs. He’s taken off life support, which stops the alien virus from making him a hybrid, and he returns to normal. (“Deadalive”)

Washington, D.C.

Agent Knowle Rohrer gives Dogett a “tip” in order to set Mulder up to be killed by black ops as he searches for information on Colonization. (“Three Words”)

Gulf of Mexico

Mulder and Doggett blow up a rig with the last remaining traces of Black Oil. (“Vienen”)

Washington, D.C.

Zeus Genetics is burned down by Billy Miles. (“Essence”)

Washington, D.C.

Billy Miles is revealed to be an indestructible Super Soldier, a military project. (“Existence”)

Upstate New York

Scully gives birth surrounded by Super Soldiers, who depart once her son William is born. (“Existence”)

Washington, D.C.

Doggett learns Rohrer is a Super Soldier, just like Shannon McMahon, a woman from his past. (“Nothing Important Happened Today”)

Washington, D.C.

William moves the mobile in his baby crib with his mind. (“Nothing Important Happened Today”)

2002

Washington, D.C.

A Super Soldier tries bringing Mulder out of hiding, but Mulder leads Scully to magnetite that kills Super Soldiers. (“Trust No 1”)

Calgary, Canada

An alien cult kidnaps William in order to power a spaceship. The cultists are killed. (“Providence”)

Washington, D.C.

The Lone Gunmen sacrifice themselves to stop a biochemical weapon from being used. (“Jump the Shark”)

Washington, D.C.

Jeffrey Spender poses as Mulder to get close to Scully’s baby and injects him with magnetite to take away his abilities. Scully gives her baby up for adoption to protect him. (“William”)

Mount Weather Military Base, Appalachian Mountains

Mulder is put on trial for the death of Rohrer, a Super Solider. He is sentenced to death, despite his attempts to expose the government conspiracy during his trial. Skinner, Doggett, Reyes, and Kersh help him escape with Scully. (“The Truth”)

Washington, D.C.

In exchange for his help locating a missing FBI agent, Mulder’s slate is wiped clean by the FBI, and he no longer has to remain in hiding. ("I Want to Believe")

Read more posts by Ira Madison III

Filed Under: the x-files ,mythology ,the truth is here ,tv ,chris carter ,david duchovny ,gillian anderson

For those of us who wanted to believe in a happy ending for the very special agents of The X-Files, the advance chatter around the show's upcoming return has already included one giant buzzkill of a revelation: Sometime between the end-credits scene from the last X-Files movie and the opening moment of the new series, Mulder and Scully broke up.

Chris Carter confirmed the Sculder split in August 2015, prompting a great deal of wailing from the X-Files fanbase, who never expected to still be riding the emotional roller coaster of this fictional relationship after 25 years, nine seasons, and two movies.

But while we're all more or less universally rooting for Mulder and Scully to end up together now, the possibility of a romance between the two hasn't always been so popular. Actually, it was downright controversial — and it made for endless, highly emotional conflicts within the X-Files Usenet newsgroups that thrived on the internet in the 1990s. For as long as the show was on the air, even after the Mulder-Scully relationship had taken multiple turns for the non-platonic, debates raged on the message boards between two teams: the hopeful shippers who believed in love, and the horrified noromos who were sure it would ruin everything.

So before we settle in to watch Mulder and Scully reunite — in every way, if we're lucky — we're revisiting the moments from their original relationship arc that drove fans wild, along with some choice reactions from the bowels of Web 1.0.

1. Season One: Scully strips down in the pilot.

After investigating their very first case — an alien abduction — Scully finds a pair of suspicious marks on her body that mirror those found on the victims, and she presents her underwear-clad behind for Mulder's inspection. When they turn out to be just mosquito bites, she hugs him with relief. If people weren't wondering yet whether these two might eventually end up seminude together, they were certainly thinking about it after this.

While nobody jumped to any immediate conclusions at the time about their meant-to-be status, one shipper looked back on their instant trust as having obvious romantic promise: "Watching her reaction to his response that they were merely mosquito bites ... oh heavens!"

2. Season Three: Bickering in "Syzygy."

By now, fans had definitely noticed the agents' chemistry and were clamoring for some Mulder-Scully lovin'. In response, Chris Carter (who'd stated for the record early on that there would never, ever, ever be a romance between them) made an episode just to highlight their many incompatibilities. It was meant to discourage the show's shippers.  

It, uh, didn't work.

"If S&M *didn't* want each other, they might have fallen into each other's arms in this ep because they were both doing things that they normally wouldn't want to do (i.e., drinking, smoking, fighting with each other)," wrote a newgroup poster. "*However*, what they did do was fight, which, if they were kind of acting the opposite to their true feelings, maybe it indicates how much they really care for each other."

3. Season Four: Scully's "Memento Mori" cancer scare brings the agents closer together.

The slow burn of Sculder was extra fiery all the way through this episode, as Mulder's reaction to Scully's alien-induced cancer made it abundantly clear how much he cared for her. It also ended with a forehead kiss and a full-body hug, the most intense display of physical affection between the agents yet.

On the newsgroups, the noromos could no longer ignore which way the wind was blowing. They were not pleased. Some looked for reassurance:

"Can someone please tell me if there is any truth to the rumour that Scully and Mulder are going to have an on screen affair? This is scary stuff, coz i reackon it will ruin the show!"

And some just lost their damn minds:

"The day Scully and Mulder kiss, or Scully has an on the screen romance or bedroom scene, is the day I stop watching X-files forever, burn every piece of x-files memorabilia I have, assassinate Christ Carter, bomb Fox studios, and drop a nuke on Vancouver. If we want love, we can watch crap like Melrose Place or 90210."

4. Season Four: "Small Potatoes," in which Scully nearly makes out with a Mulder impersonator.

That's not actually Mulder going in for a kiss (the man is a shape-shifter, and the real Mulder bursts through the door just as they're about to lock lips) — but Scully doesn't know that.

Not only does she seem awfully receptive to smooching her partner, but this scene also gave reluctant shippers a safe space in which to imagine an X-Files romance without having to commit … and they liked it. They really, really liked it!

"I have to admit I've been sitting on that 'should they or shouldn't they' fence for a long time now but last nights episode pushed me over the edge. For the first time I think that putting these two together (more than they already are - they already have a dynamic bond that is undeniable) would only enhance the characterizations of our heroes. "

5. Season Five: Mulder says "You're my one in... 5 billion" in "Folie a Deux."

Clutch your heart and hit your hallelujah, because Mulder just basically told Scully that she's his soul mate. Confined to a hospital bed by doctors who don't believe that he's being stalked by a giant bug monster, Mulder pleads, "Scully, you have to believe me. Nobody else on this whole damn planet does or ever will. You're my one in … 5 billion."

The excitement over this moment ultimately gave way to disappointment over a near-miss kiss in the first X-Files movie, which was released a month or so later. But for the moment, exuberant shippers declared victory:

"We reeeaaaalllly need an anthem right about now.  As far as I am concerned, this battle's as good as won.  At least they are acknowledging that they HAVE a relationship, even if it's not the one we want."

6. Season Six: Mulder and Scully play ball in "The Unnatural."

At this point, an X-Files romance was looking pretty much inevitable — but they were still taking their sweet time with it, teasing fans with adorable cuddly moments like this one, which was the last scene in the "alien baseball player" episode written by David Duchovny himself.

"Have we gotten a glimpse into how the actor himself would like the 'romance' to play out," a shipper mused. "Please, say it *is* so!"

7. Season Seven: Millennium, and beyond (at last, they kiss!).

Here it is, your moment of Zen: On November 28, 1999, Mulder and Scully touched mouths, romantic-like, in celebration of the new millennium, and the will-they-or-won't-they debate was as good as done ... although some noromos, bless 'em, still clung to hope:

"After the big old kiss in Millennium, the interaction between M&S is unchanged. The status quo is preserved for noromos, but for shippers this must surely be a striking blow to their notion of the ship. … Mulder wouldn't be able to do what he does with an authoritative significant other like Scully, let alone tolerate a significant other like her. They are clearly not meant for each other."

Except that they were, of course.

While Mulder and Scully continued to have their ups and downs from seasons seven through nine — what with Mulder fathering a child with Scully, being abducted by aliens, and uncovering an extraterrestrial plot to colonize Earth — their romantic relationship became an established fact. And it was no surprise that when the show ended, the agents ended up together: just two fugitives spooning on a motel bed, tentatively making hopeful plans for the future.

Which makes it all the more devastating to learn that, after all that, they couldn't make it work. But with six new episodes to go, there's hope yet that they might find their way back to each other — a hope best articulated by one newsgroup poster who started out anti-romance but experienced an epiphany as things heated up in 1998.

"Part of what makes them Mulder and Scully is the dance they do around the issue of romance.  How they fight that passion while displaying so much passion in other areas, while together. It's blatantly obvious, especially after the film, that their relationship is going to steadily become more intense and physical eventually. I want that. I want to see them exhaust ever [sic] ounce of strength they have remaining platonic until it almost kills them both, and the last episode of the show, I want to watch them walk off together, bathed in afterglow.  I want them to be happy.  I want to know more people, even fictional ones, can find true love for the rest of their lives, regardless of their outrageous or banal circumstances.

I want to believe."

As do we all. But in separating Mulder and Scully before the new series debuts, The X-Files may be giving fans a chance to relive all that excitement, anguish, and hope for a second time.

*A previous version of this piece said that Mulder said "I love you" in season five's "Folie a Deux." That actually happened in season six's "Triangle."

Read more posts by Kat Rosenfield

Filed Under: sculder ,the x-files ,fox mulder ,dana scully

Former FBI agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) looks haggard in the new season of The X-Files — and can you blame him? He and his ex-partner Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) have been consumed by a hydra-headed conspiracy ever since Chris Carter’s sci-fi potboiler debuted back in 1993; that was 46 years after the Roswell crash, 30 years after JFK’s murder, the year of the first World Trade Center bombing, and two years before Oklahoma City, in case anybody cares to place it on the paranoia timeline. The duo’s investigations into the secret lives of monsters, some of them all too human, flushed a virulent strain of conspiratorial Americana from the murky swamps of Usenet and zine culture and gave it a mainstream platform. Alas, even after nine fitfully brilliant seasons, our heroes still couldn’t dig to the bottom of the grand unifying “mythology” of the series, much less beat back the Smoking Man with help from the Lone Gunmen and stop the men in suits who were trying to implant abductees with alien embryos so that the black oil could enable the bees with the DNA to hoard magnetite or whatever the hell. The Truth remained stubbornly Out There; meanwhile, the show’s innovations and embellishments were absorbed by the pop-­culture gene pool so completely that you can legitimately ask if this new six-episode mini-season of The X-Files is really and truly necessary.

The answer is an enthusiastic maybe. Fox declined to make more than one episode available for review. Did it not trust critics to protect plot twists or the torrent generation to resist the urge to distribute it all over the internet? (The pilot has been circulating since the New York Comic Con last October.) I hope so, because the debut episode is so curiously lackluster that even die-hard fans might fear the worst. It opens with a flashback to the Roswell crash, intercut with an extended monologue by Mulder summarizing the premise of the old series and alluding to a few of its major events; then he brings us forward to 2016, where Tad O’Malley, a Fox News–type pot-stirrer played by Joel McHale, asks the team to interview a terrified young woman (The Americans’ Annet Mahendru) who claims to have been abducted by UFOs and implanted with alien DNA. You’ve seen this sort of thing before, of course, along with Roswell-related shenanigans, and they are not the only elements Carter, who wrote and directed the first episode, has up his sleeve. Still, it’s unfortunate that he’s decided to lead with more “mythology” plotting rather than the generally more cohesive, equally exciting, and funnier “Monster of the Week” episodes (we will reportedly get a few of those, too), and that he’s once again trying to add new strands to the web he’s already woven instead of untangling or removing ones to give us a clearer picture.

Between the mandatory furtive meetings in parking garages and murky side streets, Mulder’s morose babbling, and O’Malley’s Mr. Smith Goes to the Twilight Zone monologuing, the premiere is a veritable Dumpster of sub-Reddit subjects: Area 51, eavesdropping “dirtboxes,” Faraday cages, petrochemical conspiracies, toroidal energy, ununpentium (a.k.a. Element 115), the Venus Scenario, the Fifth Extinction, 9/11 as a false-flag operation, the Patriot Act, and fema “camps.” It’s all tied together through a scheme that O’Malley describes as “a venal conspiracy of men against humanity” and Scully dismisses as “fear-mongering isolationist claptrap paranoia” until she learns a few more details, does an about-face, and joins Mulder on his quest to prove … well, what, exactly? It’s impossible to say right now, and it may always be impossible to say, because this is The X-Files, where, as Mulder tells Scully, you want to believe, but “actual proof has been strangely hard to come by.” Now Mulder tells her that he’s digging into a metaconspiracy, unveiling the puppet masters behind the puppet masters, the guys behind the guys behind the guys. “What if everything we’ve been led to believe is a lie?” he asks her.

Good question, but the show had better not be cavalier in answering it, otherwise the audience might feel as if it’s wasted nine seasons (minus the monster episodes) on mainstream science fiction’s most protracted game of three-card monte. It’s wise not to give away too much more about the latest iteration of the show’s Über-conspiracy; suffice to say that it feels like a setup for a doubling-back fake-out non-twist, in the manner of Carter’s most brazen pirouettes from the ’90s. The writing is alarmingly clunky, less a coherent story than a pastiche of beloved catchphrases, iconic images, and exposition dumps, as well as blatantly gif-ready moments (including McHale’s phrasing the question “Testing yourself for alien DNA?” so that it sounds like a pickup line, and an argument between Mulder and Mitch Pileggi’s Skinner that feels like raw material for a homoerotic fan video, probably scored to “Let’s Get It On”). Updating the story to the present moment results in some unexpectedly charming images, though, such as a close-up of Scully’s iPhone heralding an incoming call from “Mulder,” and the net effect is less exuberant than poignant. Duchovny, Anderson, and Pileggi have aged so well that you may suspect them of paying for alien DNA injections, and yet, as in the legacy-movie sequels Creed and The Force Awakens, which derive much of their emotional power from casting veteran actors whose age is embraced rather than downplayed, the mere sight of characters we’ve been obsessing over for decades invests even the sunniest moments with a chill. These heroes are tireless warriors advocating for the revelation of a truth that, for various reasons, may never be fully clarified, much less completely revealed. It’s all very noble but not much fun. Bring on the monsters. No — the rubber ones.

*****
The X-Files. Fox. Sundays. 10 p.m. 

*This article appears in the January 11, 2016 issue of New York Magazine.

Read more posts by Matt Zoller Seitz

Filed Under: the x-files ,david duchovny ,gillian anderson ,fox ,tv ,new york magazine ,tv review

In the final round of Jeopardy yesterday, the three contestants went in with winnings ranging from $13,800 to $6,000. In the category of state capitals, the answer was:

A 1957 event led to the creation of a national historic site in this city, signed into law by a president whose library is now there too.

The correct question was "What is Little Rock, Arkansas?" That's where the William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum is located.

All three contestants answered wrong. All three wagered all of their money. So all three lost.

(Video Link)

Alex Trebek handled the unusual result with perfect aplomb. He explained that the next day's show would begin with three new contestants.

-via Adam Baldwin

Though most current Netflix subscribers got the news last fall that the price of their standard monthly streaming plan would be going up by $1 in a year, there were others that had been grandfathered in and were already paying less for that subscription. Netflix is now reminding those folks that they’ll be facing a $2 price hike soon.

Back in October, Netflix raised the price of the standard subscription — which includes high-definition streaming on one screen — from $8.99 to $9.99 for new subscribers, with current members staying at the same price for about a year. But there were those that had been grandfathered in and were allowed to keep paying just $7.99 for that service.

They’re now facing a $2 price hike, after Netflix said in its fourth-quarter letter to investors that it will release a substantial number of those subscribers from their grandfather clause. The company didn’t specify when exactly that will happen, but said it will be ongoing through the second and third quarters, reports MarketWatch.

CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings doesn’t seem concerned that subscribers will drop the service when the price goes up later this year.

“It’s pretty simple, we’ll let them know that on a certain date, the price will go up. It’s pretty straightforward,” Hastings said Tuesday.

Netflix subscribers will soon have to weigh the cost of their service [MarketWatch]

"Galaxy Quest" was far from the most famous Alan Rickman movie, but it may feature his most autobiographical role. As Alexander Dane, a classically trained Shakespearean actor (who's constantly boasting of the five curtain calls he received for playing Richard III) forever typecast ...http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching

The 1990s TV series The X-Files returns with a 6-part miniseries starting January 24th. One enduring  icon from the show that’s still popular all these years later is the poster that hangs in the background with a flying saucer and the phrase “I Want to Believe.” We have quite a few t-shirts centered around the idea at the NeatoShop. I first became aware of it from a hilarious 2007 Fark thread, but it was only later that I found out where it came from. For those who watched the show, it’s a classic. Where did that poster come from?

Within the world of the show, the origin story of the "I Want to Believe" poster is that Mulder bought it from a head shop on M Street in Washington, D.C. The poster is ever present in the pitiful basement office to which the supernaturally focused X-Files are assigned. It makes its first appearance in the pilot, and lasts the whole nine seasons. The poster also appears in the 1998 X-Files movie, Fight the Future, as well as the horrendous abomination that was the 2008 movie, cruelly also titled I Want to Believe. I want to believe that this movie was never made. But there's no need to talk about that.

The actual idea for the poster came from X-Files creator Chris Carter. He talks about how the poster was born, and we also hear about why it connected with so many people in an article at Atlas Obscura. -via Digg

Your teacher is going to have a baby. She asks you to suggest a name for the child. Do you take her request seriously, or do you suggest names like Grandma, Potato, or Assie? Those kinds of names would probably only occur to first- or second-graders. By third grade, you’d get suggestions based on pop culture like Spongbob or Kahleesi. This picture is one of a larger collection of kids’ notes that are all funny at Pleated-Jeans.

Last August, former Deadwood co-star Garret Dillahunt reported that he had heard “credible rumors” that a Deadwood movie was possibly coming together. Amazingly, HBO confirmed that early talks with series creator David Milch about a Deadwood revival film had actually happened. Now, HBO appears to be more firmly committed to bringing back its iconic western series.

While appearing at the Television Critics Association press tour, HBO President Michael Lombardo revealed that the network has already given Milch the go-ahead to make the Deadwood movie a reality.

“David has our commitment that we are going to do it,” said Lombardo during an interview with TVLine. “He pitched what he thought generally the storyline would be — and knowing David, that could change. But it’s going to happen.”

Lombardo described the revival as a movie instead of a limited series, and added that Milch “has something left unsaid [about Deadwood]… I’ve known him for a while and it feels like it’s something he’s not done talking about.” The catch is that Milch is currently working on another project—presumably, the William Faulker adaptation he’s had in the works since 2011—and will be unable to begin working on the Deadwood revival immediately.

“But the understanding is that when he is done with that he will turn his attention to [writing the] script for the Deadwood film,” related Lombardo.

Getting the major cast members of Deadwood to reunite after a decade apart could also be tricky, as Ian McShane, Timothy Olyphant, Molly Parker, Kim Dickens, Anna Gunn, Paula Malcomson, and other performers are still in high demand, However, Lombardo expressed his confidence that the Deadwood movie will come together.

“The cast is unbelievably [tight],” added Lombardo. “Some casts and creators form a bond that becomes relevant for the rest of their lives. This was a defining moment for a lot of them.”

HBO has not yet set a potential time frame for the Deadwood revival movie to begin production.

Are you excited about the prospect of Deadwood’s return? Tell us something pretty in the comment section below!

—

HT: TVLine

Image Credit: HBO/CBS Paramount Network Television

Warning: Mild spoilers follow for the end of Season 1 of Outlander.

Jamie and Claire Fraser (Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe) are leaving Scotland behind. The first season of Outlander ended with the duo on a boat headed towards France. They’re not traveling to Paris for the food and wine; no, they’re planning to change history and prevent the Battle of Culloden, like you do. This means they have to embed themselves in the French court and perform some sneaky spy maneuvers. The change in locale means a drastic shift in attire, and a new photo from Season 2 shows off the sort of elegance that goes with living in 18th century France. Look:

Oy. The details on that dress!

Costumes have been a rich part of the Outlander story; they’ve added to the believability of the world and the performances. Costume designer Terry Dresbach has taken great care to research the fabrics and patterns of the time. She takes liberties when necessary, but she puts incredible thought and planning into the wardrobe–and the work for Season 2 sounds staggering. Dresbach told Entertainment Weekly that her team has made over 10,000 items for Season 2 of Outlander and acquired 5,000 shoes. Yes, you read that right. When you think about the outfits and duplicates necessary for the primary cast, plus the pieces needed to clothe extras, those numbers don’t seem so astronomical.

Dresbach says, “In Scotland, there is not a ton of research out there about what they wore. It was a rough place. But France [in the 18th century] was one of the most well-documented periods of fashion in the world, so you better get it right. There is no wiggle room. Everything has to be sumptuous and lavish and every inch is beaded and embroidered.”

If you want to dive into an even deeper look at the Season 2 costumes and fabrics, visit Frock Flicks.

For those of you who have read the Outlander book series by Diana Gabaldon, which costume from Dragonfly in Amber are you most looking forward to seeing on screen? Let me know in the comments.

—

HT: Entertainment Weekly, TV Insider
Images: Starz

The main Indiana Jones trilogy is essentially a conversion narrative in which the hero never converts… which is a little strange. Why bother with that narrative if you’re not going to fulfill it? Indy also exists in a universe where all the religions are seemingly true, based on the very real powers each movie’s main artifact displays. Here is the second of three (lengthy!) posts exploring the weird religious universe that the first three Indiana Jones films create.

In my last installment, I tackled Raiders of the Lost Ark’s big relic, the Ark of the Covenant, and hopefully avoided getting zapped by the wrath of Yahweh. Now I’m inflating an improbable life raft and diving straight into the Hinduism of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! I’m going to look at the ways the film uses real-life artifacts, and try my best not to talk about chilled monkey brains. I mean, come on, movie.

Temple of Doom immediately disorients us, as we hear “Anything Goes” being sung in Mandarin by a white woman with a Middle American accent—but more importantly, the film is set two years before the action in Raiders. We’re dealing with a younger Indy, and the film wastes no time in showing us our rakishly dapper hero in a white suit that is as metaphysically far from his professorial tweeds as Club Obi Wan is from Marshall College. The opening gambit adventure involves a Shanghai gangster named Lao Che, a giant diamond called The Peacock’s Eye, and the ashes of Nurhachi, First Emperor of Manchu Dynasty:

In this opening we glancingly see that Indy is just as knowledgeable about Chinese history and artifacts as the Western ones he found in Raiders. While it’s believable that a kid raised by a religious father (which Indy was, which I’ll talk about in tomorrow’s post on Last Crusade) would be able to rattle off the Hebrew Bible’s account of the Ark, it’s a little less believable that one archaeologist would be comfortable with the variety of histories and cultures that Indy seems to know. (An academic Mary Sue, perhaps?)

This younger Indy has friends all over the world who are willing to follow him into adventure, as is evidenced by the introduction of the doomed waiter and Short Round. He is also obviously more callow in this adventure than he is a few years later when he pursues the Ark. While Lao Che treats the urn with reverence and awe, Indy doesn’t seem to care even a little about the remains of the Emperor—he just wants his diamond. He also doesn’t care whether Willie Scott lives or dies, which, granted, they only just met, but it’s still problematic that he’s threatening her with cutlery. As the adventure continues, however, the film becomes a more serious fight between darkness and light. You remember how I said in the last post that Indy starts out as a jerkface? After he, Willie, and Short Round crash in the wilds of India, he has his first onscreen brush with the supernatural, and it does change him, as we’ll see…but it doesn’t convert him.

 

Temple of Doom, or Saivism for Westerners!

Now I should start by saying I am by no means an expert on Hinduism. As I tended to focus on Western religion, and my specific studies were in American Religious history, the development of saivism, the worship of Shiva, is about 8,000 miles outside my wheelhouse. But, here goes. The Purana Linga speaks of Shiva, the supreme god, as “signless, without color, taste or smell, beyond word and touch, without quality, changeless, motionless.” However, in order to allow Shiva’s worshipers to concentrate on something during prayer, his followers had to make him at least slightly manifest in the world. So they turned to linga:

Linga are conical stones, usually with three lines carved or painted into them. This one is part of a shine in the Kalimaam Temple of Bangalore, India. By using linga as a focal point, a worshiper can represent the god and the act of creation itself with one simple symbol. The Purana Shiva describes the deity stepping into the world from a pillar—or lingam—of fire, as proof that he is the strongest of the gods. The linga can simultaneously recall that moment, and represent active creative energy bursting into the universe, with Shiva Himself seen as an inexhaustible font of life.

Linga can also be seen, easily, as dicks. That’s how the Victorians saw them, as British repression clashed with Hindu culture in India. This is alluded to in Temple of Doom—set before World War II and the subsequent Indian uprisings that finally loosened Britain’s grasp on the world—as we learn that the big spiritual Maguffin of the film are the Sankara stones (linga) which are intricately tied to the fertility of the village.

The movie itself has a strange push and pull between respect for the Hindi culture and blatant racism. The stones themselves and the villagers, are treated well both by the film and by Indy, and it’s more in the garish excesses of the state dinner and the Thuggee cult ceremonies that the film fetishizes its Indian setting. And about those Thuggees… the Thuggee cult was historically a thieves’ guild, essentially, and had far more in common with, say, the Italian mafia than a religious cult. Thugs (The Hindi word means “thief” or “deceiver”) would infiltrate caravans, murder travelers, and make off with whatever valuables they could carry. Sometimes they’d take the children of the travellers to raise them as Thugs as well. A member could pass his position down to his son, and families spent generations within the Thug family. And about the Kali, heart-ripping part of this story? The Thugs sometimes claimed to be acolytes of Kali, but it wasn’t a requirement, and they certainly didn’t see themselves as an evil cult wrangling for world domination. And, maybe most important: Kali is not an “evil goddess.” She’s the goddess of change, one of the consorts of Shiva, and while she may be fearsome in appearance she’s not a demon in the Western sense of that word. She’s not out to get you, spiritually speaking. In fact, she’s beloved by some sects of Hinduism, being seen as a fierce, protective Mother to her devotees. She is also darkness itself:

Dancing mad with joy,
Come, Mother, come!
For Terror is Thy name,
Death is in Thy breath,
And every shaking step
Destroys a world for e’er.
Thou “Time”, the All-Destroyer!
Come, O Mother, come!
Who dares misery love,
And hug the form of Death,
Dance in Destruction’s dance,
To him the Mother comes.

Indy seems to come into the story with strong knowledge of Shiva, and of the Sankara Stones. (While it’s believable that an old-school archaeologist who walks the line of pure treasure hunter would at least know of the Stones, it still stretches credibility that he’s an expert in Hinduism, and as fluent in Hindi as he seems to be.) He believes the Stones can lead to “fortune and glory” and seems to view the Sankara quest in the same way he must have viewed Nurhachi’s Urn—as a path to money. (We get no indication that this younger Indy thinks artifacts belong in a museum, and we’ve already seen his willingness to make black market trades.) While he is respectful to the village elder who says, “We prayed to Shiva to help us. It was Shiva who made you fall from the sky…” he privately scoffs at the idea when Shorty asks about it, referring to it as a “ghost story.” Once he realizes he’s dealing with a Thuggee cult, however, he seems to take things more seriously. But even this is a purely materialistic fear—the cultists scare him, not their religion. When he embarks on his main adventure to discover the Thuggee ceremony, he first finds an inscription saying “Follow in the footsteps of Shiva, do not betray his truth.” “Shiva’s truth” is never defined, however, and Indy doesn’t take the time to ponder it. This proves problematic.

So, long story short: Indy wanders onto a leftover Goonies set and finds three Sankara Stones. Indy takes Sankara Stones. Sankara Stones light up like E.T.’s tummy when they’re near each other. Everyone is captured by Mola Raam, the cult leader, who holds a young Prince under his sway. Indy is forced to drink blood and undergo “the black sleep of Kali”…but only after learning that the kidnapped children are digging for the last two Sankara Stones. Lots of heart-ripping and Kali-Maaaa-ing ensues. Everyone escapes. Willie reveals that she’s capable of knocking a man out with one punch only after she’s let Indy and (like, ten-year-old) Short Round do all the fighting. The gender politics in this adventure are problematic.

Anyway, we also learn Mola Ram’s nefarious plot: “The British in India will be slaughtered. Then we will overrun the Moslems. Then the Hebrew god will fall. Then the Christian god will be cast down and forgotten. Soon Kali Ma will rule the world!”

None of this works. While there have been many, often violent, clashes between Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Islam in India, Hinduism has never been a proselytizing-type faith. This implies that Kali Ma doesn’t want to rule the world. I mean, she’s been around for a lonnnnng time, if she wanted to take over she would have done it by now. Plus, Mola Ram betrays not only Shiva but his basic lack of religion knowledge in this film: Jews, Christians, and Muslims all worship the same God, Mola. You’ve just said the same thing three times, you redundant son of a bitch! I realize that reviving an ancient blood cult takes a lot of time, but do your homework.

Cut to rope bridge.

Now, remember that problematic moment I mentioned before? When Indy just sort of accepted the idea of “Shiva’s Truth”? Once we’re at the rope bridge this all comes to a confusing head. Indy confronts Mola Ram, and yells, “Prepare to meet Kali…IN HELL!” which, while an admittedly GREAT thing to say to a villain, makes no sense. What does Indy, a secular, pre-Ark, Western academic, mean by “Hell”? And what possible bearing could his idea have on a practicing Hindu? “Hell” in Hinduism is a realm called Naraka, and it’s usually temporary, similar to the Catholic concept of Purgatory. And while we’re on the topic, Mola will not be facing Kali there, he’ll be facing Yama, the God of Death. So Indy has just told Mola Ram “Prepare to meet [Incorrect God] in a temporary place of punishment where your soul will be readied for rebirth!”

Then it gets worse. A few minutes later, he accuses Mola Ram of “betraying” Shiva. Indy is obviously in the moral right, since Mola Ram is enslaving children, which no aspect of Hinduism would ever condone. However, he might be misunderstanding the gods. Shiva and Kali, in a certain way, are one and the same. They are complementary aspects of creation—energy and pure consciousness, not two separate, anthropomorphic entities. Only by working together can energy (“Shiva”) and pure consciousness (“Kali”) create life. Indy might be assuming that by betraying Shiva, Mola Ram would face the Fearsome Consort Aspect to pay for his crimes? But he’s still treating Shiva and Kali (neither of whom, let me remind you, preside over hell) as separate gods, which is a fundamental misunderstanding of the religion.

LEAH! I hear you screaming. THIS IS UNSPEAKABLY PEDANTIC AND FOR THE LOVE OF WHICHEVER GOD YOU PREFER, WHAT IS THE POINT???

Well, here’s the point: we’ve just gone over how confused Indy is about basic aspects of Hinduism. So how is it that when he invokes Shiva, the stones begin to glow? They burn Mola Ram (they’ve never burned Indy, even when they glowed before) which causes him to fall from the bridge. Clearly someone is pissed at him. More interesting to me is this: why is the extremely Western Indy capable of wielding the stones against a follower of Kali? Since there isn’t really heresy in Hinduism, in the sense that there is in Christianity or Judaism, what does “betraying Shiva” entail? What does Indy mean by those words? And how can this non-believer recite a few Sanskrit phrases to activate the Stones and use them as weapons?

After they all return to the village and the Stone is replaced in its shrine, the elder smiles at Indy, “Now you can see the miracle of the rock.” Indy replies, “Yes, I understand its power now.” But…what? So has Indy converted to Saivism? He seems to think the rock itself has power, but that really isn’t the point? Dr. Jones, you apparently live in a universe where both the God of the Hebrews and Shiva have the power to manifest in icons and defeat their enemies. This is significant.

So, rather than the straight ahead conversion narrative of Raiders of the Lost Ark, we get an action movie version of The Darjeeling Limited. A Westerner learns to be a little more spiritually open after some rough times in India, but he doesn’t commit to his journey enough to truly change his life. If we want to take the film’s chronology at face value, the Indy we meet in Raiders is nearly as cynical as the one we meet in Temple, despite having already encountered a religious relic that can exert power against evil. The only shift is that in his two later adventures the only “glory” he seems to seek is as an archaeologist, and while Marcus pays him, he’s far more invested in the idea of historical artifacts having safe homes in museums. (Perhaps this is a shift back to the idealism of his youth, which we see in the opening of Last Crusade?) However all of his adventures, East or West, opening gambit or main event, have on thing in common: Indy is only interested in the icons as historical finds, not as religious artifacts. Now, for the next film he leaves India for the Middle East, and tracks down one of the Biggest Kahuna of Christian lore—will the conversion narrative work this time?

Leah Schnelbach would almost be willing to go through the Kali MAAA ritual. How cool would it be to see your own heart? Come chant at her on Twitter!

(Photo: Ben Hosking)

Knitters are often frustrated to find their yarn tangled. Some people, however, really enjoy the task of untangling yarn. It's a soothing, meditative experience. In fact, so many people like to untangle yarn that they buy balls of yarn that have been intentionally tangled. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Daphne Basnet of Melbourne, Australia, once paid about $50 on eBay for a 25-pound box of snarled yarn, simply for the pleasure of untangling it. “I was so happy, I can’t tell you,” recalls the 58-year-old of her purchase, a mess of about 120 knotted balls. […]

Devoted detanglers typically offer to take on the projects for the cost of shipping. Competition for the most maddening messes can be fierce. Some members check the group every day.

“People will jump in and say, ‘Send it to me!’ ” says Mary Enright, 56, a detangler from Sioux Falls, S.D.

Many say their work untangling yarn is strangely relaxing, an escape from their worries and a way to create order out of chaos. Some also enjoy unwinding iPod headphones cords and straightening Christmas-tree lights.

-via Marginal Revolution

(Image: 20th Century Fox)

You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget. Did you forget the people who used to live in the house? The home where you are now alone? Remember as it was in Cormac McCarthy's haunting novel Home Alone, as told by Jordan Hall in The Awl:

The evening sun drops, blossoms blood into the gloaming. He goes to church, believes in nothing, only meets a man with a shovel. This same man now begins to descant on about his son who has prodigalized himself or something, and here his granddaughter sings in the choir but the kid cannot be said to give a damn. The choir is a bansheeing racket. All he now cares for is what use he can make of this old anchorite and though he had once feared the man with the shovel he now knows his error. The man with the shovel will deliver him in the end. All history swells to it.

He returns to the hovel and draws his plans and executes them. When he is finished he is hungry like a dog after congress. He eats melted cheese.

At the foretold hour the clock tolls and the robbers beset him with reckless punctuality, careening toward their final hidden doom like wraiths returning to the locus of their death. Gladeyed and grinfaced they taunt him.

We know ye in there and that ye all alone.

-via Joe Carter

BIG NEWS, OUTLANDERS!

It is official!  Outlander will be back for a second season and will be based on Diana Gabaldon’s second novel in the Outlander series, Dragonfly in Amber.

There will be at least 13 episodes in the second season.

On another note, the viewership for episode one has now surpassed 7 million.

Here are the quotes:

Starz CEO, Chris Albrecht: ““The overwhelming support Outlander has received from the fans, viewers and critics made the decision for us to go ahead with the second book a very easy one. Diana Gabaldon has given us years of great drama.  With an incredible artist such as Ronald D. Moore at the helm and a cast as spectacular as this, we look forward to continue this spell-binding journey with Claire, Jamie, Frank, Brianna, Roger and everybody over the centuries.”

Sony Pictures Television programming president Zack Van Amburg: “Fans of the Outlander books have waited a long time to see this incredible story brought to life onscreen, and Ron and his team have delivered a show that exceeds expectations. We look forward to our continued partnership with Starz to present the next chapter of this epic tale to longtime fans and viewers who are just discovering the series.”

Showrunner Ronald D. Moore: “I’m thrilled at the prospect of doing another season of this show for Starz. This project has been a labor of love from the very beginning and it’s incredibly gratifying to see it succeed with viewers and critics alike.”

Just landed in London, to news that #Outlander gets a second season! THANK you, guys! #excited

— Diana Gabaldon (@Writer_DG) August 15, 2014

Source: THR, Variety, EW

Sean Fallon of Fashionably Geek refers to these hairstyles "unicorn braids." That's a great name! Shelley Gregory of Square Salon in Las Vegas is responsible for giving these women enchanted braids look like they emerged from fairy tales.

Square Salon refers to this one as "real life mermaid hair." That's a very apt description! The braid looks like a mermaid's tail. It's like the female equivalent of merman hair.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Finally! Richard Rankin will play adult Roger Wakefield in Outlander Season Two. You may recall his character melting hearts in Episode 108 Both Sides Now, as the adorable young ward of the Reverend Wakefield who successfully negotiates himself “another biscuit.”

[SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read past this point if you don’t want to know about the goings-on in Season Two.]

According to Outlander Lists & Timelines, here’s a bit of background on Roger (edited to further minimize spoilers):

Full name: Roger Jeremiah Wakefield MacKenzie
Also known as: Roger Wakefield
Adoptive Parent: His great-uncle, Reginald Wakefield. His mother’s uncle.
Siblings: None
Occupation: Historian, Presbyterian Minister
Physical Characteristics: 6’3″ (DIA, chapter 1) Thick black hair (DIA, chapter 2) Olive skin and eyes of a brilliant, lucent green (V, chapter 3)
Roger has a quiet strength that enables him to endure great hardship and loss, and a path that never seems to run smoothly. Roger is very intelligent and was one of the youngest professors at Oxford (DIA, chapter 1)
Significant moments:
1941: Roger’s father Jerry is presumed dead after crash landing his plane, although his body is never found (Leaf)
1946: Adopted by his great-uncle Reginald Wakefield at the age of five after his mother was killed in an air raid (DIA, chapter 1)

The Scottish-born actor can be seen on the big screen in Burnt, a film released earlier this year starring Bradley Cooper, and on TV’s The Syndicate, The Crimson Field and NBC’s American Odyssey. Rankin most recently appeared in the BBC One drama From Darkness. 

You can follow Rankin on Twitter.

Update by Sarah:

Can he sing?  Yes.

Here is his showreel:

And let’s not forget the fans spoke loud and clear that he was a great choice for Roger from our Cast This post.

https://twitter.com/RikRankin/status/676517196064030720

Hugely excited to be joining the @Outlander_Starz family. An amazing production filled with truly wonderful people and the best fans around!

— Richard Rankin (@RikRankin) December 14, 2015

Sources: Starz, Outlander Lists & Timelines, YahooTV

Aaron Rodgers, Olivia Munn show their love of 'Star Wars'

It may be time for you to rethink how thankful you’ll be when your grandparents gift you that sweater you always never wanted this holiday season. According to Icelandic legend, there is a monstrous Yule Cat that targets those without fresh holiday gear and… eats them.

Although it is difficult to determine exactly when the legend of the the Yule Cat began, it was popularized in 19th and early 20th century Iceland as a way of enhancing productivity among the working class. According to the National Museum of Iceland, “It is likely that the Yule Cat myth was originally designed to urge farm workers to perform well prior to Christmas… Those who did not… [ended] up in the Yule Cat.” Basically, workers who were deemed productive were given new clothing from their masters, and thereby made safe from the Yule Cat. Those who were considered to be lazy however, were left without new clothes, and made vulnerable to the feral feline with a taste for human flesh. It’s kind of like A Garfield Christmas meets The Walking Dead.

In the video above, a common narrative of the Yule Cat known as Jólakötturinn is outlined in several text slides, and sung to life by Iceland’s very own golden soul child, Björk. In the somewhat haunting music video, the Yule Cat is clearly made out to be one nasty nemesis, but the moral of the story seems to be more about promoting the spirit of generosity rather than having a (literally) killer excuse to buy those ShiftWear kicks you’ve been eyeing.

In the video, Björk belts out the (here translated) lyrics, “[The Yule Cat] picked on the very poor that no new garments got… [But] his next visit would be in vain if next time everybody got something new to wear…” In other words, ’tis the season for giving!

It should also be noted that even if you do manage to wheedle your way out of the Yule Cat’s tum-tum, there’s also Grýla and her 13 sons, the Yule Lads, who will also try to eat you, as well as… wait for it… molest your sheep. You can check out some artists’ takes of both the wicked ogress and her strange sons in the gallery below. 

Now that you’ve had a taste of Icelandic holiday legend, what do you think of the Yule Cat and its penchant for scarfing down the scarfless? Do you have a new appreciation for those skivvies that your mom stuffed into your stocking or are you still hoping for some Star Wars collectibles? Let us know in the comments section below!

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HT: Upvoted 

Featured Image courtesy of deviantART / jetZig

Back in 1977, the writers of the TV series Happy Days got an assignment to include an alien from outer space. They were sure the episode would be a disaster, but when Robin Williams took the part, everything changed. The script fell into place around William’s treatment of the character. And everyone wanted more.

Robin Williams took a one-off joke character on Happy Days, the alien Mork from Ork, and created something unforgettable. His insane routines spawned a spinoff, which became one of the most popular science fiction shows of all time. But in season two, network execs at ABC and the show’s producers made a series of famously terrible decisions that squandered Mork and Mindy’s popularity. Every attempt to restore the sitcom to its former glory only made its fatal flaw more obvious: You can’t build an entire show around one virtuoso performance.

The show shone so brightly that it burned out quickly. For the story of Mork and Mindy, io9 talked to six writers and producers and the show’s director Howard Storm. Read about the lengths the network went to in order to prolong the phenomenon that was Mork and Mindy. -via Metafilter

He’s played characters with distinctive names like Stringer Bell, Stacker Pentecost, and John Luther, but lately Idris Elba has been rumored to play characters even more high profile. While James Bond and he have yet to meet, it seems Elba might get to add the name Roland Deschain in the film adaptation of Stephen King‘s massive fantasy/sci-fi/horror book series, The Dark Tower—due to be adapted for the screen by Sony as directed by Nikolaj Arcel.

This would be huge for Elba, as Deschain is the central character in the story, being the titular Gunslinger in the very first book. Elba’s shown his acting chops in both big studio movies, like Pacific Rim and the Thor films, and smaller dramas like the low-budget Beasts of No Nation for which he’s receiving much-deserved awards buzz. But he’s yet to headline a franchise, and something as huge and as anticipated as this would prove the actor’s drawing power.

No deals are in place yet, but Deadline is reporting that Elba is the front-runner for the role. Like 007, Deschain is written as white, as described by King, and given how a certain (incorrect) subsection of Bond fans have reacted to the possibility of a non-white James Bond, it may lead to similar Dark Tower backlash. However, we can all hope that fans of these books would like the best actor for the job, and that at the present appears to be Idris Elba, who is number one in our books, too. Matthew McConaughey has already been cast as the Man in Black (an evil entity at odds with our favorite post-apocalyptic gunslinger), and we’re stoked to see these two square off. Let’s hope everything pans out.

What have been your favorite Idris Elba roles. What other celebrated hero from modern literature should he be in the running for? Let us know in the comments below!

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HT: Deadline
Image: BBC

I still have not counted what knits I have remaining that you haven't seen, but we'll find out. Here are two different mittens (some of you might have already seen thse) but the pattern is the same.
First I thought that I would stretch this over two days, but here you go...  (If I run out of knits, you will get lots of dog pictures in the end. ;-)  Ruusu said that she is more than happy to pose for the final pictures!)
Yarn Cataluna, needles 2,75mm

Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, Phil Whitehead’s eight-minute video essay “Actors Playing Actors Acting” showcases those special moments in film and television when thespians are called upon to portray other thespians and must, in turn, act as though they are acting. If to act is to present an abstraction of life, then to play the role of an actor is to present an abstraction of that abstraction. It’s a heady assignment, certainly, but one that stars like Michael Keaton, Jim Carrey, Gloria Swanson, Naomi Watts, Robert Downey Jr., and numerous others have handled with aplomb. Whitehead was inspired to create this montage after reading Nick James’ article about Birdman, a movie all about actors acting, in the January 2015 issue of Sight & Sound. “When you think of how complicated the registers at play here are,” James wrote at the time ...