"Dreamland"

Not your ideal out-of-body experience

Mulder and Scully drive out to Area 51 in Nevada to question an informant of Mulder's.  On the way, Scully begins dicussing how metephorical their situation is, how they pass through small towns and big cities and everywhere they go there are people buying houses, settling down and raising families while they "just keep on driving".  She proceeds to ask him whether he wants to settle down and lead something approaching a normal life to which he responds, "This isn't normal?"  Was it just me or did it seem to you like Scully was implying they settle down and raise a family together?  I thought it was rather obvious.  

But before they can finish their conversation (dammit!) they are stopped by Area 51 officials, including a particularily abbrasive guy named Morris Fletcher who asks them about their business in the area.  Suddenly a bright light appears in the sky and Mulder takes hold of Scully's arm protectively <collective sigh>.  Fletcher and Mulder get switched but no one else notices that it has happened, and then Mulder finds himself watching Fletcher get in the car with Scully. He yells after the car as they pull away, but will not allow the troops to shoot, for fear of hurting Scully.

Mulder gains access, through his body-switch, to Area 51 because no one can tell the difference between the "old" and "new" Fletcher.  Meanwhile, Scully pulls into the gas station with Fletcher (as Mulder) and asks him if there's something wrong.  He is a jerk about it, saying snidely, "The gas cap's on your side," listening to horrible music, and asking her for a pack of Morleys when she goes in to pay.  Scully figures it's something to do with his experience at Area 51 and doesn't reply to his remark, "Don't be a Nazi about it."  Personally I would have slugged him right there, but bear in mind that Scully still believes that this is just the man she loves having a bad day.

Scully was not the only one with unfortunate circumstances, however, as he soon finds out he has a bitchy, suspicious wife to deal with.  There is a crash and some guy gets stuck sharing the same space and time with a rock after a tear in time is created.  

Kersh reams out 'Mulder' and Scully in his office (after Mulder was late because he "got lost") when he finds out they went to Nevada and Fletcher (as Mulder) proceeds to apologize and give Kersh his word that from now on nothing like that will ever happen again.  "What the hell is going on?!?" is written all over Scully's face and she asks him the same thing when they exit.  He excuses himself for a moment, goes over and flirts with the secretary, and then comes back grinning slyly.  Scully gives him an exasperated, "Mulder!" to which Fletcher replies, "Jealous?" and slaps Scully on the ass as he leaves.  At this point Scully is getting confused.  She knows that Mulder would never be that much of an inconsiderate blankety-blank but she can't explain what has happened.

Mulder wakes up the next day to his wife and kids after having slept in the living room.  As his wife enters the room he mumbles, "Scully?" hopefully, but then sees that it's Fletcher's (and now his) wife from the phone.  He finds out that he has two kids, a boy and a girl named Terry and Chris but he gets them mixed up to his daughter's horror.  When he calls his son Terry his son corrects him, "Terence," he says, "Terry's for losers."  "And Terry isn't?" mumbles Mulder.  Definately not cut out for fatherhood with anyone other than Scully.  He goes upstairs to change and sees himself as Fletcher in the mirror, dancing around in the mirror.  Ugh, definately not a good trade-off for Mulder.

The crash turns out to have body-switched an eighty year old Native American woman and a soldier.  Scully, meanwhile, is working in their shared office space while Fletcher (as Mulder) plays golf.  "Mulder," she hisses and it takes her several tries to get his attention.  "I got a birdie," he informs her, before Scully is distracted by her phone ringing.  It is Mulder (as Fletcher) who desperately tries to get Scully to believe his story, or at least come out and see him so he can explain.  

When they hang up, Fletcher asks who it was and Scully tells him that it was most likely his informant and suggests they follow up.  Fletches says that he should report it to Assistant Director Kersh.  Scully is now sure that Mulder has become certifiably insane and asks him why he wouldn't want to go over their heads.  Fletcher replies, "Look little lady, I think it's time you got your panties on straight..."  Okay, now I would've clubbed him over the head with my desk calendar, Mulder or no Mulder...

Mulder is off on his own trying to make his way to work when he gets told to turn around and follow the Area 51 Jeeps.  (Did anyone else get X-Files Movie deja-vu from that little intersection area?  It looked just like the part when they had to choose between going right or left, but instead went straight).

Scully visits Mulder at his apartment where she encounters the blonde secretary kissing Fletcher-as-Mulder and just leaving his apartment.  She knocks and Fletcher replies, "You just can't get enough, can you?".  "It's me," she replies tersely.  He lets her in and she asks him what's up with him, why he's acting so strange, and why he doesn't want to pursue the X-Files anymore.  Fletcher replies, "Are you out of your mind?  Why would you want to risk your career to do that?"  Scully nearly explodes, managing a very restrained, I thought, "Am I out of my mind?!?"  She tells him that this is his life's work, and reveals her total commitment to his cause and crusade.  When she leaves, Fletcher mutters, "Bitch."  

Mulder has been trying all this time to find out how to reverse what has happened, how to get "the lizard out of the rock," as he said.  His co-worker reveals that there might not be any way to reverse it.  Scully finds two coins in one as another tear happens at the gas station Mulder visited.  Fletcher's job is revealed to be covering up the evidence and making sure the public doesn't hear about anything.

As his second day as a married man rolls around, Mulder finds himself confronted by Fletcher's wife who tells him that she's upset by the fact that he never wants to make love to her anymore (poor Mulder, what a situation!) and is suspicious that he is having a love affair with someone named Scully.  Ah, dramatic irony.  He tries to explain that he's not himself but she takes it to mean that he...er, needs Viagra, to put it simply.  She hugs him, teary-eyed, saying that they'll find other ways to be intimate.  Mulder makes a face <g> and the doorbell rings.

It's Scully (did you see how totally enthralled he looked at her presence?) and Fletcher's wife is sure now that she is the one he's seeing, slapping him as he walks by.  Feeling comfortable with her, he puts his hand on her shoulder, leading her to the end of his driveway so that he might explain.  He tells her repeatedly that he's Mulder, saying that they switched bodies, places, identities and that "The man that you think is Mulder really isn't".  Desperate when he sees the ugly body that Scully sees in the reflection of a car window, he tries to prove it with only things he would know:

From this we can ascertain that Mulder worries that Scully doesn't eat enough and tells her that she should know better, and had started to recognize some little Scullyisms of his own, namely extreme skepticism which doesn't help him in this case.   But that's so adorable anyway!  Mulder tells Scully that he will prove it to her with evidence.

...Only Fletcher has figured out what is going on first and how to do something evil about it and calls in himself as the information leak.  When Mulder finds Scully the next day in the convenience store and tries to show her the evidence, he is arrested.  He yells to her to save him, to stop this whole thing and that he isn't Fletcher.  A flicker of pain crosses Scully's face as she recognizes the intestity and determination she knows and loves reflected in someone else's body.  She knows, but now she has to figure out what to do about it.

To be continued next week with....Dreamland II.

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