The X-Files

Salvage - S8-E9

Continuity mistake: When Ray is eating the sandwich, there is a large bite out of one corner just before he removes the foil. In the shot from behind after the foil is removed, the bite is only from one slice of the bread.

pinkwafer

Per Manum - S8-E13

Continuity mistake: When Scully enters her apartment, the blinds are up and there is quite a lot of light in the room. However, when the flashback with Mulder ends, during which Scully was supposedly standing still, the shades are rolled down and there is much less light in the room. (00:20:30)

Chop Luftmysza

Three Words - S8-E16

Continuity mistake: When Mulder sits at the computer terminal in the census records room, we see two empty boxes on the screen, one for an ID and one for a password. The shot cuts to Mulder, then back to the screen and shows him typing the password, while the ID has already been typed in; it is very long and there wasn't time in between shots or nearly enough clicks of keys for Mulder to have entered that ID.

Purple_Girl

Existence (2) - S8-E21

Continuity mistake: When Knowle Rohrer is talking with Agent Doggett face to face in a separate room about the super-soldier project, he is wearing a red FBI badge, but in the previous scene when he came to visit Doggett, he was wearing a regular FBI badge. (00:08:40)

Chop Luftmysza

Existence (2) - S8-E21

Continuity mistake: When Agent Reyes is aiming at the oncoming car of a ranger, in the front shot the windscreen of the car is completely covered with dirt and fully opaque, while filmed from the ranger's side the windscreen seems to be transparent and relatively clean. (00:17:00)

Chop Luftmysza

Existence (2) - S8-E21

Continuity mistake: Just before Skinner shoots Alex Krycek in the head, Alex is lying weakly on the ground, having already been shot twice. However, as Skinner makes the kill shot, Alex is suddenly standing and falls to the ground upon impact of the bullet, with no time (or strength) for him to have risen. Also, the last shot of the dead Alex shows his face and his nostrils flare from breathing.

Purple_Girl

Nothing Important Happened Today (1) - S9-E1

Continuity mistake: During the previous episode, Skinner receives a nasty gash on his head courtesy of Billy Miles. This episode takes place 48 hours later and there is no indication whatsoever that Skinner received such an injury (the wound is visible once again in the next episode). (00:15:35)

Phaneron

4-D - S9-E4

Continuity mistake: When Agent Doggett follows Lukesh into the parallel universe trying to find him, Lukesh suddenly reappears from Doggett's left and is pointing at him with the gun held in the left hand, while in the next shot he is aiming at the agent from his right holding the gun in his right hand. (00:03:25)

Chop Luftmysza

Trust No 1 - S9-E6

Continuity mistake: When Scully reads the alleged printout of the email sent to her by Mulder, it says: "Dearest Dana: I've resisted contacting you for reasons I know you appreciate...I want to come home, to you, to William", but when Scully has previously viewed this message in the internet café, it had a different form: "I've resisted contacting you for reasons I know you continue to appreciate...I want to come home. To you, and to William." (00:06:05)

Chop Luftmysza

Trust No 1 - S9-E6

Continuity mistake: When the guy from the NSA is speaking with his supervisor, after the supervisor asks him about his wife and child, in the background he turns his head toward the supervisor, while in the next close-up take he turns his head toward the supervisor again. (00:12:30)

Chop Luftmysza

Provenance (1) - S9-E9

Continuity mistake: Agent Doggett holds the rubbings in his hands and after a while, he hands them over to Agent Reyes. However, when filmed from behind Doggett, the rubbings are in the same position in both situations. (00:07:45)

Chop Luftmysza

The Truth - S9-E19

Continuity mistake: Marita Covarrubias tells the tribunal that she used to be Special Representative to the Secretary General of the United Nations. However, in "Herrenvolk," she told Mulder that she was the assistant to the S.R.S.G. (00:39:15)

Bad Blood - S5-E12

Visible crew/equipment: I don't know if this is visible in all formats, but on the newest UK release on DVD, watching in widescreen, it's amazingly obvious. When Mulder recovers from the vampire attack, he gets up from the floor and breaks up a chair to make a stake. There is a shot of his feet as he smashes the legs off and bends to pick up a piece. In the bottom left hand corner of the screen, you can see a crew member's hand carefully and quickly placing a piece of wood on top of the pile for Mulder to pick up.

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Question: In a vast majority of the episodes, whenever Mulder and Scully investigate some mysterious or paranormal phenomenon, Mulder believes that some unknown force is responsible but Scully always has a rational explanation for what is happening. In other episodes, when Scully herself is caught up in something mysterious, she is the believer but Mulder is the skeptic. In those episodes, why would Mulder be skeptical about an unexplained phenomenon considering that he a was witness to his own sisters abduction and he saw many strange things that defied explanation while working for the F.B.I.?

Answer: As he stated many times throughout the series, Mulder needed Scully to be sober and skeptical. Whenever Scully's skepticism wavered and she started questioning her own rationality, Mulder would try to restore her sense of skepticism, because he needed her to be clear-thinking.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: A variety of reasons. Just because Scully saw something unusual does not mean that it was. Mulder always needs concrete proof before he'll believe there's some otherworldly explanation for unexplained phenomena. He's too experienced to take a novice's explanation as fact. It is also a plot by device by the writers to switch the tables on the characters to make it more interesting and to let viewers see another side of their relationship.

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