We are the same! We are different!

This far into the second season, we would be excused for thinking we know Mulder and Scully quite well. We know that she is the rational one, trained in the ways of science, ready to scupper any extreme possibility before it has time to threaten mundane lives with excitement and mystery. He is the believer in extraterrestrials, abductions and anal probes. As they arrive at the scene of yet another happening of the weird, we don't even have to predict their reactions - he'll spin some fantastic theory of Ozian proportions and she'll shoot him down in flames.

No reason, at the beginning of Season Two's thirteenth episode, Irresistible, to expect any different.

But, this is the X Files, and one should never fall into the trap of expecting the expected.

So, having been called out to a cemetery in Minneapolis by an agent every bit as open to extreme possibilities as he is himself, we have every right to expect Mulder to demonstrate a degree of excitement, maybe even an eagerness to swap notes with a fellow agent on speaking terms with his local Mutual UFO network. Not a bit of it!

It wouldn't be too off the mark to call Mulder's attitude a little blasé.

Having already decided before leaving Washington that this is not alien-related, Mulder, in response to Scully's query as to why the bothered to fly three hours to get there, whips out two tickets from his pocket and tells her: "Vikings versus Redskins, in the Metrodome. Forty yard line, Scully. You and me."

As unexpected as Mulder's response is, it is rather Scully's that catches the attention and makes us question our faith in our usually fairly reliable people-judging abilities.

At first seeing what they have come all this way to look at, Scully is clearly shaken, so much so that Mulder notices and asks her if she is okay. Later, after they have been called away from the game, Scully is so disturbed she leaves Bock's office to sit alone outside.

It seems totally out of character for Scully to react in this way. She is, after all, a medical doctor. And, while it is true that the corpses have been mutilated, as someone who performs autopsies to order, Scully should, like Mulder, have prepared herself before they arrived.

But, herein lies the rub. It is precisely because Scully performs the autopsies that she is affected the way she is. What, when it comes down to it, is the difference between what Scully does to a corpse and what Donnie Pfaster does? Both mutilate the dead!

This confrontation with Donnie Pfaster is a dark night of the soul experience for Scully. To her, as we see when she performs the autopsy of the murdered prostitute, the corpse is objectified, a machine which has ceased to function, giving her the task of reconstructing the cause of its failure. Her relationship with the dead is purely functionary, no longer a person, it is merely the source of vital information:

"If the victim was strangled, an examination of the veins in the eyes will reveal this. If the victim was shot, entry wounds and gunpowder residue can be used to reconstruct the events leading to death and help to establish a possible motive. Body temperature, preferably the temperature of the spleen, is an accurate indicator of the time of death. As are rigor, livor and levels of sodium in the blood. If the body was moved, sand, small rocks, vegetable debris, even pollen can be removed and analysed to determine the location of the original crime scene and place the position of the body at the time of death. Extracutenous stains and residues can indicate the use of poison or toxins. Hair and fibres, slivers of glass, plastic, even insect casings can serve to recreate the circumstances under which death occurred." (cf. Inside the X)

It isn't just that Donnie Pfaster mutilates corpses that is upsetting, it is the realisation that, for her, the dead have ceased to be; for him they still exist as people, with whom a kind of fulfilling relationship is possible. However warped and twisted, however one-sided, Donnie's relationship with the dead is born of a basic human need to connect with another; Scully's is merely science.

Scully must confront this demon that threatens her very reason for being and this she does, dramatically, when abducted - again - by Pfaster. The fight between these two is more than an exciting ending to the story, it is Scully fighting for understanding, her realisation that she isn't just some medical version of Donnie, that what she does when she performs an autopsy isn't mutilation for the sake of her own needs, but a valuable contribution to the catching of a monster.

Our faith in ourselves is constantly under threat and oftentimes it is difficult to see how we can remain true to ourselves, even, what it is that we should be faithful to. Scully doesn't go running to Mulder for help, doesn't even tell him how she is affected by the case. This is because, at best, he could only protect her by standing between her and the struggle only she can fight. Yes, he comes bursting into the house in the nick of time, but, by then, Scully has faced her demon and overcome it. On a personal level, it wouldn't have mattered if Pfaster had killed Scully at that point. She would die knowing that her life has meaning.

Fortunately, this isn't the final outcome and Scully lives on to fight whatever demons come her way.