By Nia Edwards-Behi
It’s hard to believe that the end of The X-Files is here, so soon, again. Even if this episode’s ‘the truth is out there’ is replaced with a sombre ‘this is the end’, it’s hard to believe that that’s truly the case. Continuing where the first episode of this series left over, the major conspiracy of men to bring about the end of days using alien technology finally makes itself globally, and fatally apparent. Seeing characters return from past series and this one brings together a whole lot of loose ends and makes one really big new one, ending with a cliffhanger of such magnitude that Scully’s season 7 ‘I’m pregnant’ revelation seems like no big deal.
So much is crammed into this episode that things do get overwhelming quite quickly. Yet again, the constraints of this series hampers the potential of the story-telling, and what on some level feels like a classic X-Files mythology episode also feels like it needed to be a three-parter to fully realise the scope of the story being told. That being said, the frenetic pace of the crumbling of civilisation as we know it being portrayed meant I was pretty much on the edge of my seat for the whole episode. I was especially enamoured with the fact that this episode had Mulder bugger off on his own, leaving Scully to actually take care of business, again, and that we stayed with Scully, as she’s both hampered and eventually helped by newbie Agent Einstein. Indeed, for a big chunk of the episode it seems to be absolutely women running the show – we witness the return of Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) in a strand of the plot which I definitely would have liked to have seen more of.
Meanwhile Mulder is off on one of his traditional not-answering-the-phone jaunts, right into the clutches of good ol’ Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis), a man with more lives than a cat. The grotesqueries of CSM’s injuries following the explosion that was presumed to have killed him 14 years ago are very entertaining, and really do render him an abject villain indeed. Despite being the master villain he’s always been, it’s hard not to see some sense in his rationale for the manufacture of mankind’s downfall, though it’s never so tempting a rationale as to want to side with him.
The overall backdrop of Mulder and Scully’s quest in this episode, being the total infection and downfall of most of humanity, is rather wonderfully depicted, helped along by internet conspiracy nut Tad O’Malley’s video updates. It does feel a little bit like watching an adaptation of a game of Plague Inc., but there’s enough effective pseudo-science that it all feels really rather frighteningly plausible – the scale of infection at least, if not the alien DNA stuff. It was interesting to notice that the episode credits two doctors as co-writers, along with Chris Carter, which is something I’d like to know much more about!
It’s hard to discuss the most notable part of the episode – the ending – without going full spoiler, but to see Scully enter full saviour mode, while Mulder is rendered, frankly, a bit useless, is mildly frustrating but also, as someone who’s always been more invested in Scully, really exciting. I already mentioned that the episode ends on a cliffhanger, and I can’t help but feel it’s going to severely frustrate a lot of people, especially people who aren’t buying into the new mythology so much. Personally, I don’t see what’s been done in this mini-series as new mythology so much as a sensible development of what’s always been there. If anything, it’s made it a more believable mythology too.
To reflect on the series as a whole, I must say I’m satisfied. Sure, there have been flaws, but for me all the new episodes have been solid X-Files. Some episodes have been truly excellent – including this finale – and for that I’m so grateful that the series has been revived, even if it’s briefly. That brevity though has certainly meant that even at its best, the series feels like it’s not quite reached it’s full potential. If it comes back again, I really hope it’s given a bit more space to develop its grand narrative, something it was always able to do over the early seasons. So please, Fox, don’t let this be the end – there is still scope for so much more.