Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose - S3-E4
Continuity mistake: Clyde Bruckman commits suicide by placing a plastic bag over his head until he asphyxiates. However, when Mulder and Scully first discover him you can see in the shot just before Scully holds his hands that there is no plastic bag around his head (may only be visible in widescreen format). (00:42:55)
Continuity mistake: When Tooms is in the cell right at The End, we see when his food is being brought over to him on the tray that there is a drink and a bun, when the shot changes to the other side of the door the drink and bun have swapped sides. When the shot changes back to the other side of the door, the tray is now the other way around and then when the shot goes back to the other side the whole tray has now disappeared. (00:39:40)
Continuity mistake: When the cup falls over when Lauren wants to see Mr. Dorlund, the box of tissues disappears in the last shot. (00:08:20)
Continuity mistake: When Scully is in her room after the autopsy, we see the x-ray attached to her lamp. When we first see it, we can see the letters LD on it, yet when the shot changes back to the x-ray after Mulder has gone, we can only see I, presumably the other x-ray is now overlapping it. (00:15:20 - 00:16:10)
Continuity mistake: When Mulder and Scully are driving after their plane lands, we see at one point that Mulder has his left hand on the wheel and he is eating a sunflower seed with his right, yet when the shot changes he's driving with his right hand and eating with his left. (00:09:45)
Factual error: The flag in Skinner's office is hung upside-down. (00:28:00)
Other mistake: Mulder pulls in to park in front of a red car. The front plate on both Mulder's and the red car is the same: 5S2 706. (00:27:37)
Continuity mistake: In the close-up shot of Mulder just before he shoots Barnett, his black ear piece disappears. (00:42:15)
Continuity mistake: When they find the felled ancient tree, the stump that Mulder clambers up onto to investigate the growth rings has a distinctive crack at the center and the growth rings are irregular in shape. However the stump that we get a close up of has no crack and regular circular rings. (00:18:20)
Anasazi (1) - S2-E25
Continuity mistake: When the military man approaches the Cancer Man we can see at the background the helicopter's left-hand side. When they move towards the helicopter, now closer to them, we see its right-hand side. (00:40:14)
Continuity mistake: When Colonel Belt is going to bed after the press conference, the bottle on his side table moves between shots. (00:25:50)
Continuity mistake: When Mulder is in the tower and Scully has just found him the sweat patches on his shirt change in between shots. (00:40:00)
Miracle Man - S1-E18
Continuity mistake: In the establishing shot of the courthouse the subtitle reads "Kenwood County Courthouse" but you can read on the building that it is the "DeKalb County Courthouse". (00:15:15)
Continuity mistake: We see Cindy and Teena at the table talking with Eve 7, drinking out of paper cups. Later on, when Mulder picks up a cup from the table, it's made of glass. (00:30:40 - 00:34:30)
Continuity mistake: When Max is trying to escape through Mulder's window, in the first shot, the bottom window is halfway down, but in the next shot, it's fully up. (00:15:35)
Continuity mistake: When the dad is offering the son some ice cream, the cone he offers is a single scoop. In the next shot, as the son takes it, it is now a double scoop. In addition, the scoops change from single to double and back and forth in the next few shots.
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