"Past, Present, Future" by Zeke Ramone
an interview with Cassie - November 15, 2004
(spoilers: 6x21 "Sleepless In D.C.", season 7 up to 7x10 "The Truth Within")

Zeke Ramone: What a season it has been so far. I was quite surprised with the end of “mea culpa” in that the problem was not easily resolved. Why did you decide to keep Scully and Monica in the facility?

Cassie: This story arc has been in the making since our third season. That’s the main reason why Scully and Monica are at the Facility against their will. Kristi and I also really wanted to take FRVS into a new kind of direction, and by separating Scully and Monica from the main group, we are able to explore the darker side of the characters: Brad’s family history, John’s problems dealing with the loss of a loved one and his memories of war that resulted in alcohol abuse, why Scully has the ability to tolerate the Cigarette-Smoking Man forcing himself on her, etc.

Season 7’s story arc is actually the beginning of the end of our series. Everything that is happening now is important in the build up to our final season.

ZR: Which will be?

C: Season 10. Well… we’re pretty sure season 10 will be the last. Eleven seasons would be pushing it. By season ten FRVS will have been online for nine years.

ZR: That’s a long time. Looking back over the past 5 years, what are your thoughts on the series? Where it’s been, where it is and where it is going?

C: Five years, that’s half a decade. We began FRVS as a slapstick humor X-Files online series. Our focus in the beginning was on the characters Mulder and Krycek. As more characters were brought to the fore, the series formula began to change. With our fifth and sixth seasons we gradually began to switch FRVS from slapstick humor to include more seriously toned episodes that gave us more insight on our characters. Presently, season seven has had minimal humor and many more serious moments. This is the way Kristi and I always wanted to take the series and even we are surprised with some of the developments in the storyline. As to where we are going. Well, as I said before season seven is the beginning of the end of our series.

ZR: How do you wind up surprising yourself?

C: We come up with the basic idea of an episode and then as we write it, sometimes important events write themselves without either myself or Kristi discussing it together.

ZR: Can you tell us which important events wrote themselves?

C: In the season six episode “Sleepless In D.C.”, Monica reveals to Brad that she is pregnant. Kristi and I never discussed even the mere possibility of having one of our main characters get pregnant. I new what the main story arc of season seven was going to be when I wrote “Sleepless In D.C.”, and suddenly my Inner Monica told e to make her pregnant so that there would be more angst for her character in season seven. I wrote it and then looked up at Kristi and said “I did something”, I told her and from there the possibilities for better stories for Monica and Brad in our seventh season happened.

ZR: A forced abortion, that’s what eventually happened to Monica in 7x04 “GDI: Garbage Dump Investigators”. Were you a little concerned about reader reaction to that?

C: We’re worried about reader reaction to a lot of things that we’ve included in season seven. I knew when I wrote Monica telling Brad that she is pregnant that she would not have the baby. Kristi and I have always frowned upon shows that impregnate their main character, and we always wondered why, when they did that, they never took up the challenge of having their character deal with a miscarriage or an abortion. So we decided to try it. We’re very interested in the psychological reaction Monica and Brad will have because of this. How will their relationship stand now that this has happened – if they are ever reunited? How will Monica’s friendship with Scully be like now that Scully was one of the doctors behind the decision to give Monica the abortion?

So to answer your question, we are concerned about reaction, but that never has anything to do with the final outcome of what we have in mind for our series. Same thing applies to our decision to have Scully endure consented rape by the Cigarette-Smoking Man, and John Doggett battling the demons of alcoholism.

The only time we ever edited because we were worried about reader reaction was in season 4 after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The episode in which Krycek becomes the Devil for a time originally had him crashing an airplane, we completely cut that scene because it dealt too closely to the tragic events of that year. I think it was a wise decision to cut that out of the season.

ZR: So can you tell us if Scully and Monica will ever get out of the Facility? I think they’ve endured enough suffering for one season.

C: Yes, they have. The answer to your question is better left unanswered. The path of the season is full of many obstacles and angst. Everything happens for a reason. Grandmama Reyes would be better qualified to answer the question. Listen to her words, she’s sort of a spoiler leak character for the series.

ZR: That’s all you’re going to say on the matter?

C: Yes.

ZR: Can we talk a bit about Mulder and Diana Fowley?

C: Sure, what about them?

ZR: They’re married, haven’t been together since the very beginning of the 1990s, out of nowhere she calls him up and is suddenly back in his life. Are we missing something here? They were separated for over a decade, why haven’t their issues been brought up?

C: That’s a good question, and one that will be answered within the course of the rest of the season. I think that Mulder and Diana are afraid to admit that they made a mistake when they got married. It’s obvious that they care about each other, but I believe that both of them know it is over.

ZR: Poor Mulder, that must break his heart. In the past couple seasons he kept remembering good times with her and expressed wanting to find her again.

C: I know. I feel bad for him too if he and Diana don’t work things out, but if they eventually split up, I think that would be a big growing up moment for him.

ZR: So we only have a few more episodes to go until the holiday season hiatus. Any spoilers you can drop?

C: Sure, but I’ll be vague. We’ve got an episode in which Brad’s FBI friend Martin Fitzgerald makes an appearance (Fitzgerald is actually a character from the CBS series “Without A Trace” so WaT fans – heads up!). There will be an episode set in San Francisco which is more or less a Mulder/Krycek centric story. We’ve got a Marita Covarrubias episode (Krycek and Marita fans – heads up!) and then our Christmas episode two-parter.

Our holiday hiatus will be a little over a month this year. We’ll post our last episode of 2004 on December 20th and we’ll be back with all new episodes January 17, 2005.

ZR: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer these questions. I know that Real Life has got a big hold on the majority of your time.

C: You’re welcome. Thank you all for reading our series, and a huge thank you to those of you that voted for “Fox & Rat” Virtual Series in the 2004 Virtual Series Awards! I’d also like to thank all of you that send your feedback on our episodes present season or past seasons :) Your comments continue to inspire Kristi and I. Thank you and keep reading.

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