Scully Is Immortal

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Fan Theory
Fan Theory: Scully Is Immortal
Synonyms:
Origin:
Fandom(s): The X Files
Dates:
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Scully is immortal is a fan theory in the X-Files fandom later confirmed by Chris Carter to be canonical.

Background

In the season three episode, "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", penned by fan favorite Darin Morgan, the guest character Clyde Bruckman has the ability to see exactly how people are going to die. Scully asks him how she will die and receives the answer that she won't.

In the season six episode Tithonus (written by Vince Gilligan) Scully investigates the case of a crime scene photographer Albert Fellig who not only is always the first person after to happen to be present after someone died, he also tricked death when he looked away when he came to claim his soul during the outbreak of the Spanish flu in 1914. After both Fellig and Scully are shot by a freak accident by Scully's rookie temporary partner, Fellig asks Scully to look away when she see death approaching. She does and not only survives her abdominal gunshot wound but recovers remarkable fast according to her doctors.

In season 10 episode which once more was written by Darin Morgan, Scully approaches the episode's UNSUB on her own without backup. After Mulder admonishes her, she reminds her, that she is immortal (so she wouldn't have to fear anything bad happen to her). In season 11 episode Nothing Last Forever she not only survives a four-story fall from a waste chute, she is also already miraculously pregnant with MSR baby 2 which survives the fall as well.

Writer Statements

According to Darin Morgan, it was never his intention that people take his joke seriously:

In "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," Clyde tells Scully she doesn't die -- which some fans have taken to be a very literal predication. What do you think of the debate that Scully might be immortal, which still rages on 20 years later?

I didn't expect it, because I didn't intend it to be taken as serious. I just think it's ridiculous [to be serious]. (Laughs.) But then you go, it's the nature of the show -- people are looking more into it than you intended because it is a supernatural show … I didn't mean for it to be taken so literal. What can you do? People are going to take it however they take it. (...) It's not so much the interpretations are wrong. It's more that I find them interesting. As opposed to the immortal line, which I just think is silly.

Inside One of 'The X-Files' Most Important Episodes Ever on its 20th Anniversary by Marisa Roffman, October 13, 2015

However the show's creator, Chris Carter, affirmed the theory in a reddit AMA in 2014.[1]

Perception outside of Fandom

There are numerous episodes in The X-Files that elude to Scully's immortality, the first of which being “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”. The theory goes beyond that and proposes that Scully became immortal during the events of season 6, episode 10, “Tithonus”. She is informed by the 149-year-old immortal, Fellig, that he will live forever because, when he saw the grim reaper, he looked away. By the end of the episode, Scully turns her head from the bringer of death; if Fellig's theory and logic are accurate, doing this would make her immortal. In season 6, episode 14, “Monday”, Scully is stuck in a loop where each time she dies, she has to restart the day. The theory suggests that the loop only exists because she is immortal; as her death cannot happen, the clock resets every time she dies.

The X-Files Theory: Special Agent Dana Scully Is Immortal by Marian Phillips, June 21 2020, Archived version


Fanworks

Fanfiction

Fan Art

Fan Vids

Further Reading

Links

References

  1. ^ I am Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, Millennium, The Lone Gunmen, Harsh Realm, and The After. AMA!
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