Musings in the Dark: Never Again

3/30/2022

Never Again

I fondly recall this episode being advertised as, “Tonight, we see a different side of Scully.”


The episode (S4E13) opens with a newly-divorced man, Ed Jerse, getting a tattoo of a pinup girl with the phrase “Never Again” underneath. The pinup girl’s lips are painted a vivacious red. The next day, Ed hears a woman’s voice (Jodie Foster’s) call him “loser” and he has a violent confrontation with a female colleague, who claims not to have said anything to him. Ed is eventually fired, and while on the phone with his superior, he hears the voice again. He thinks–for some unexplained reason–that the voice is coming from his downstairs neighbor and he goes downstairs, murders her, and throws her body into the furnace. 


While this is going on, Scully & Mulder are dealing with a Russian informant who claims to have seen a UFO. Upon return to the FBI, Mulder has to go on vacation in order not to lose his annual leave, leaving Scully to deal with the informant. Scully feels it’s all a waste of time; that the informant is lying and ends up arguing with Mulder about it via phone. She starts to have doubts about her life and career choices.  


Scully follows the informant to Philadelphia and watches him go into a tattoo parlor. She goes inside and sees Ed arguing with the owner–he wants the tat removed. Ed engages Scully in conversation and invites her out to dinner.  She declines. Shortly thereafter, Scully realizes that the Russian informant is a con man. She calls Mulder, informs him and they have another argument. Scully hangs up and contacts Ed to let him know she would go out to dinner with him.


While having dinner, Scully comments on Ed’s arm; it’s bleeding due to the fact that Ed burned the tat with a cigarette. He blows it off and convinces Scully to get a tattoo, which she does. She gets an ouroboros applied to her back and follows Ed home that evening. Ed has since realized that the voice he’s hearing is coming from the tattoo, and it tells him that if he kisses Scully, it will kill her.



It’s implied that Scully smashed Ed that night and good for her. Bout damn time she got some dick (the agents are positively staid when it comes to sex. Even though they're not fucking, they both should be fucking somebody...especially Scully). Ed goes out the next morning, leaving Scully behind. While he’s gone, two detectives arrive and tell Scully that Ed’s blood was found in his neighbor’s home, and that the blood contained ergot–which contributed to the brilliant red color on the tattoo’s lips. She tries to call Mulder, but can’t reach him. When Ed returns, Scully tells him about the detectives’ visit and the chemical in his blood. He tells her about the voice he hears from the tattoo.  


While Scully is getting ready, the tattoo tells Ed to star-69 Scully’s last call and he learns that she is an FBI agent. He attacks her and wraps her in a sheet, with the intent to kill her by putting her in the furnace. But Ed is finally able to overpower the voice and burns his arm in retaliation.  


Back at work, Mulder queries as to the reason why Scully did what she did–he wonders if it’s because of their earlier argument and Scully shuts his ass down by letting him know that everything ain’t about him.


I recall this being the ep when Scully asks Mulder why she doesn’t have a desk and he blows her off. And at the close of the ep, he asks her if she did what she did because she didn't have a desk. I loved this episode because it finally showed in some depth Scully’s frustration with Mulder’s foolishness. As much as I loved the duo working together, Mulder was on his BS a lot of the time. Sure, he was a brilliant agent, but it was almost always about him and I was glad to see Scully finally call him on his shit.


*though I don't think she ever got her desk...


5 comments:

  1. Sis, your friend has had quite the day today.

    You must have heard about that slap Will Smith gave Chris Rock.

    Well girl, I almost did that same thing to an old lady today. and she would have deserved it too. That old lady had the nerve t hit me on my arm multiple times. But by the good grace of God, I held it in. But now I'm writing this comment, I really wish I put that old bitch in her place.

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    Replies
    1. You should have. She doesn't have the right to lay hands on you.

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    2. You don't know how much I regret not decking that old bird. If I had swung at her once, I would have kept on swinging and ended up behind bars or something.

      Delete
  2. Where did you disappear to. When you return you can read my new blog post right here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey. I was on holiday. I'm back home now.

    ReplyDelete

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