◆ PARALLAX

Just caught the latest one and I had to come say it -- the X-Files did it again. Mild spoiler warning for anyone a week behind, so stop reading if you're not caught up.

The mythology stuff keeps getting deeper. Half the time I cannot tell you exactly what is going on with the conspiracy arc anymore, who knows what, who is lying to whom -- and somehow that makes it better, not worse. I am completely hooked. Anyone else still keeping a notebook trying to track it all?

A notebook, Marv? You sweet man. There is no tracking it. You just let the dread wash over you and trust that Chris Carter knows what he's doing, or at least is a convincing enough liar that it feels like he does.

Honestly though it's the two leads that keep me. The Mulder and Scully thing -- the believer and the skeptic who actually respect each other -- is the whole show. The monsters are gravy.

I tape it and watch after my shift, usually around two in the morning, lights off, and let me tell you that is exactly the wrong and right way to watch this show. The atmosphere gets under your skin at that hour. I had to pause one and go turn the hall light on last month, which I will deny if any of you bring it up again.

I am begging you lot. I am a whole season behind over here and you are going to ruin it for me. I scrolled past Marv's post with one eye shut. Have mercy on those of us waiting for the tapes to make it across the water. I will join the conversation properly in about a year, as is tradition.

Hot take but I am a monster-of-the-week man over the mythology arc. Give me a standalone, a weird town, a creature, case closed by the end of the hour. The big conspiracy is fun but it never pays anything off, it just keeps adding more smoke. The standalones are where the writing actually shines.

You can all enjoy it as a TV show. I will just say it is interesting how much of the mythology lines up with material that has been floating around the real research community for years. The man-made-hybrid angle, the buried craft, the people in government who know. I am not saying someone is using a network drama to put real things in front of the public where they can be dismissed as fiction. I am saying it would be a clever way to do exactly that.

this isn't fiction, they're TELLING us what's real and laughing because we think it's entertainment

TrustNo1, the "it's soft disclosure" bit comes around every season and it is still funny, so carry on. As a mod I am obligated to remind everyone to keep hard spoilers below a blank line for k_holloway's sake. As a fan I am obligated to say I also turned the hall light on once, Nia, and there is no shame in it. Right -- back to work, the lot of you, before this thread eats my whole afternoon.