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.
Within (1) - S8-E1
Continuity mistake: When Scully points out the location of the last time they saw Gibson Praise, she points to the (real) Palo Verde Nuclear Plant, which is west of Phoenix. In 'The Beginning' the plant shown was the (fictional) Rolling Hills Nuclear Plant, 60 miles east of Phoenix. (00:37:30)
Continuity mistake: Just before he removes it, the foil disappears from Ray's sandwich in one shot, then appears again in the next shot.
Continuity mistake: When Martin takes out the nanny-cam from the bear, the lens-protection is on so the camera could not have recorded anything. (00:30:00)
Invocation - S8-E5
Continuity mistake: When the psychic collapses, sun is streaming through the window, indicating early afternoon. When we see the ambulance driving away a few scenes later, it's dark outside. It's highly unlikely it took a medic team several hours to get there and stabilise her.
Continuity mistake: Randall has strange pale eyes but just before he shoots Dwight, when he is aiming the gun at Tammi, there are several close ups of his face and his eyes are a normal brown.
Via Negativa - S8-E7
Continuity mistake: At The Beginning of the scene, there is only what seems to be a remote control on the left-hand side of the TV. Five seconds later, a couple of VHS tape cases appear where the remote control was before. (00:08:46)
Invocation - S8-E5
Continuity mistake: When Scully finishes her conversation with Doggett and walks away, there is only one dark-haired policeman watching the crime scene, but when Doggett looks at the crime scene and Mr. Underwood gets up, there is a blond-haired policeman talking with someone. (00:41:55)
Via Negativa - S8-E7
Continuity mistake: When Doggett and Skinner visit Dr. Andre Bormanis at his place, in the first shot from the back he is leaning over some laboratory gear that is holding in his hands, while in the next front shot he is standing upright manipulating on the table with his hands. (00:18:10)
Via Negativa - S8-E7
Continuity mistake: When Doggett leaves his office, he reaches for his coat, grabs it and starts to put it on. In the next shot, when Langly, Frohike, and Byers look in Doggett's direction, we again see that he takes the coat off from the chair. (00:27:55)
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)
Continuity mistake: When Agent Reyes and Agent Scully are talking about mood music, in some shots Reyes rests her hand on the bed's backrest, while in other shots she firmly grabs it. (00:14:45)
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)
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)
Empedocles - S8-E17
Continuity mistake: When the fiery figure comes up to Jeb, he is standing alone on the street, however in the previous and following take he stands in the crowd surrounded by other people. (00:02:15)
Continuity mistake: In the opening scene, when the guy is calling from the booth, he is standing either on the left or right side of it, depending on the shot. (00:00:40)
Without (2) - S8-E2
Continuity mistake: When Mulder's fall from the cliff is filmed from the ground, one can see that he is wearing white shirt, while earlier and afterwards Mulder is dressed in a grey T-shirt. (00:03:20)
Invocation - S8-E5
Continuity mistake: In this episode the character of Billy Underwood was played by twin brothers Kyle and Ryan Pepi. If you pay attention you can tell when one twin was being used instead of the other as one of them has two freckles on his neck and another two by his right eye whereas the other does not.
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.
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.
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