bedside, we flash back to Scully’s own coma in Season 2’s “One Breath.” We see a much younger Mulder attending her as she fights her way back from the aftermath of what they thought was an alien abduction. We are pulled swiftly and painfully back in the day and into “X-Files” mythology, with the death of Margaret Scully (a role reprised very briefly by Sheila Larken, whose stoical performances match Gillian Anderson’s, suggesting the origin of Scully’s inner strength and reserve).Īfter Scully rushes from a horrific crime scene in Philadelphia to her mother’s I.C.U. Scully lost her husband (Season 1, “Beyond the Sea,” which is also beyond creepy), and her other daughter, Melissa (Season 3, “Paper Clip”). Scully was about the only person who called Mulder Fox. And she never pushed Mulder away, even when his exploits repeatedly put her daughter in peril. She supported her choice to leave behind a medical career and pursue her work in the F.B.I. Back in the day, Scully’s mother was her rock. “Back in the day,” both the concept and the actual phrase, are prominent in this episode of “The X-Files.” So let’s begin there.