X-Files Photos!

EW magazine has released the first photos from the set of the X-citing X-Files return and we've got 'em!

(And when I say "we" I mean  me.)

I thought it would be fun to take a closer look at the pictures and see what we can learn from them

Kind of like alien autopsy.

The topmost picture shows David Duchovny's Fox Mulder a bit disheveled.   He looks like he hasn't slept in days.  He's unshaven and frankly a bit unkempt.

I'm disappointed to see Mulder like this.  I had envisioned a man on the rebound, embraced by the FBI and rewarded for his years of service by an agency that realizes they needed him more than they knew.

Instead Mulder is fatigued, literally.  He wears the trapping of an ex-soldier in his olive green fatigue jacket.  The kind of jacket the soldiers wore in the sixties to eighties.  The children of these soldiers often wore these jackets as a counter culture sign of protest.

Is Mulder protesting something?

No doubt.

Mulder wears the trappings of a soldier that has been drummed out but hasn't given up.  He looks beaten but he is still in the fight.  But how much fight is left in him?

Scully on the other hand looks vibrant and alive.

Her uniform is one of the business professional.  Smart, sharp, sophisticated.

Note how Mulder's brow is furrowed while Scully's countenance is open and unnerved.  Mulder's trademark openness is traded for Scully's usual skepticism.

There is a set of curls in the topmost picture and a doorjamb to the left.

 Those curls belong to actress Annet Mahendru.  She answers the door to television's seminal power couple.  As Seveta, she portrays a victim of numerous alien abductions and experimentation.

Here, she looks youthful and alive.  She is dressed comfortably and she betrays no sign of the terrible hardship she has endured.  Behind her is a photo placed on a shelf.  It looks to be a couple.  Mother and child?  Two lovers estranged? 

Around her neck ply two strands.  Do they meet to hold a Cross?  If so, will this be the connection that forges a bond between the ever faithful Dana Scully and her?

The door jamb belongs to a modest residence.  A pitched roof complimented by one that is flat and at an odd angle.  Modest shrubbery and flowers festoon the abode giving it a semblance of normalcy.  A cheer in opposition to the dark.

And what of the darkness?

Two lights remain ablaze despite the sunlight. 

Despite the modest cheer supplied by the greenery and attended to faithfully as evident by the tools against the propane tank, the lights are probably always on.  Weak guardians against those things that go bump in the night.

A pair of boots lay at rest by the door step.  Should the night's "bumps" become too terrifying they are slipped on quickly and Seveta escapes to the car awaiting at the far right.

She hopes.

Her benefactor is one Tad O'Malley played by Joel McHale.

McHale's trademark snark left over from "Community" is evident by the look on his face.  Joel McHale plays a conservative talk show host and one wonders what his interest could be in a woman that claims to have been abducted by aliens.

An avenue to prop up failed ratings?  A sensationalistic headline grab to counter the purported rise of big government.  The rise of a secret governmet?

Pablum for conservatives.

He looks sharp in his blue suit.  American flag pin firmly attached to his lapel.  The halls of big government or even bigger business loom in the background.

In the immediate background rolls a black SUV.  Are the Men in Black still trailing Mulder and Scully?  If we're lucky, will the trail of cigarette smoke rolling from the windows be far behind?

Scully looks slightly bemused as she seemingly waits for Mulder to finish his remarks.  McHale looks on in obvious amusemnt and perhaps a little skepticism. 

Mulder is wearing shades in the frame.  One must keep an identity secret for as long as possible.  You never know who may be listening in.  A healthy dose of paranoia goes a long way.

No paranoia here as Scully attends to Seveta.  The power suit is traded for scrubs and a lab coat.  Hair back, Scully is all business.  Seveta seems to be finishing a sentance as she gazes just beyond Scully.  Body language from someone trying to remeber something?

Despite her lack of expression, Scully's reaches out to her patient.  Her right hand looking to comfort someone to whom trauma is no stranger.  It's good to see Scully still practicing medicine.  He life remains in focus as opposed to Mulder's. 

Her trademark Cross still around her neck, testament to a faith unshaken.

Who knows what secrets Seveta has to reveal.  She is similarly garbed in each one of her pictures suggesting all the events happen in the same day.  Here she seems to be in an office.  She sits mutely in an eighties era office chair.  Mulder's office?  The older furniture suggests something Mulder has been holding on to for a long time.  Not working as a professional anymore.

There looks to be a storage rack on the floor in the background.  A repository for Mulder's infamous porn collection?

The shades are drawn keeping that "healthy" sense of paranoia firmly in place.

An "in tray" sits at the corner of the desk.  It contains papers.  So, whomever this office belongs to is still keeping busy.  Does the office belong to Scully?  Perhaps the older chair suggest a practice suffering from a lack of patients.

The two strands that ply around Seveta's neck are still there but the endpoint still remains hidden beneath her blouse.   Perhaps that vestige of her faith is better served closer to her heart.

The X-Files returns in January 2016.  Clad in blue with a background to match.  Mulder and Scully remain as cool as the color they are clothed in.  Perhaps there is a bit of a chill as the partners remain close for warmth and comfort. 

The cold will only deepen as winter approaches.  The skies will darken.  Our minds will race as the frost gathers on our windows.  We'll  shutter those windows and turn the locks.

Because, who knows what truth is out there?