THE X FILES SEASONs 10 and 11

203 1 "My Struggle"‡ Chris Carter Chris Carter January 24, 2016 1AYW01 16.19[9]

Mulder is contacted by Scully at the behest of FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner, who wants him to meet a right-wing online webcaster named Tad O'Malley. O'Malley claims that the idea of an alien invasion is just a smoke-screen for nefarious government doings, and he claims to have proof.

This starts off well enough but descends by the middle into a bunch of crap garbage. This pretty much comes out and says the gov’t is faking aliens, faked 9/11 (and I’m too close that material), faked UFOs and lied to Mulder about aliens for decades, his whole life. Ted O’Malley who starts the episode off well enough requires help to find out if this girl Svelta has alien DNA after she claims to have been abducted and aliens and later, she tells Mulder, not aliens, forced pregnancies on her.

We’ve had this before. Mulder gave up in something like season 5 and in other places, believing that aliens are just a hoax.

The entire X FILES canon is then turned around and in many ways Carter does a brave thing regurgitating that for those who left the fold of the show and for new viewers, if not fans. For fans, he has the old hat stuff and mentions and glimpses of the past. He has the jokes from Mulder and even O’Malley; the skepticism from Scully. Gone are the super soldiers, the 2012 invasion that was supposed to happen then and more.

It’s also a total betrayal of the X FILES and all that is cool about it.

And that leaves no one happy. New viewers expecting science fiction and/or horror with aliens, mutants, monsters, and conspiracies being confronted and debunked or bunked, are let down. Fans are let down. We are all let down.

Who is lying?

Well, for one, if you’re watching the X FILES and not expecting something odd or weird or against its own grain even, you should watch something else instead if that bothers you.

The whole thing looks great just like the last nine seasons, both movies and everything else after 1989.

But visuals are not enough. Nods to the past are not enough. Is there actually a story here?

Is Svet whatever lying or telling the truth: she saw MEN do what was done to her and not aliens?

We’ve been murky before, we’ve been subtle and not so subtle before, we’ve been told characters and us are being lied to and not being lied to, we’ve been uprooted from what we thought was happening and what really happened, and all the rest before, in the past. It’s time for the X FILES to hit the ground running with something new and something exciting and fast paced. This doesn’t do that.

Having a car chase or a fight scene or an alien killed (the poor baby) and a medical man carry it away isn’t enough and can’t distract us from the fact that the show isn’t giving answers again and the answers it might give us do not feel like answers at all but new ---and more importantly, boring questions.

THIS is not the X FILES I want to see.

And here we are with another Deep Throat stand in. Gosh. Bet he doesn’t live long.

Then there is the whole the gov’t is using 9/11 to take away our rights, our right to bear arms and their right to take away our constitutional rights. It is all bullshit. All of it.

Then there’s added to that “weather wars” and perpetual wars to enslave citizens at home. Not to mention the take over of foods and drugs. And to fatten the population and dull it with consumerism. Tapping of phones, collecting data and using it. It’s as if Carter read the book EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG and/or THE BIG BOOK OF GOV’T CONSPIRACIES AND AGENDAS. And to be fair to him, it IS scary.

And total bullshit.

Not to mention the “event” that will happen on a Friday, banks will close, money will vanish, and a fake invasion of terrorists or Russians who already tried in 47 and/or fake aliens. And again, total bullshit. And scary.

“You can’t say these things,” Scully warns.

Sveta, after the DNA test shows she does not have alien DNA, turns against O’Malley and goes public with the idea he tried to make her lie. A military team destroys the tech and the scientists that O’Malley showed Mulder to prove that the gov’t has tech access to unbelievable abilities to fake aliens. Sigh.

Scully reran the tests and without saying it directly (sigh) she says the DNA of Sveta and herself and others is alien or manufactured alien by gov’t men. Sigh again. Scully, make up your mind.

This is to have an elite take over.

Mulder writes don’t give up on Scully’s car (from the second movie?).

Scully now wants to protect Sveta but Sveta is blown up by a flying machine with a green light. The CSM (a mistake to bring him back) gets word that “they” have reopened the X Files.

One big SIGH. All together now. Sigh.

The Sigh Files. NO, no, and no.

This does not work the way it used to.

204 2 "Founder's Mutation" James Wong James Wong January 25, 2016 1AYW05 9.67[10]

With the X-Files now re-opened, Mulder and Scully are assigned to investigate the mysterious suicide death of a geneticist. Their search leads them to a research facility where extreme genetic experimentation has bred subjects possessing strange powers.

Much better but very much THE TOMORROW PEOPLE and more the CW version than anything other version. There’s even the same name for the man who runs the project, the FOUNDER. As with all X FILES this feels like the start of a story that never gets finished as the brother Kyle and sister Molly leave at the end. Sadly, these telepaths can kill. It’s hard to watch the mutations in the poor children and the lady who plays in GHOSTS as Hetty cut open her stomach to have her child crawl out (Kyle). Some gross imagery but memorable. Even the ringing in the ears is a bit like the CW TP: they hear a similar sound when they try to kill and the Prime Barrier holds them back. That’s not what’s happening here I guess but…still.

Better. And we have the old Scully and Mulder together again, guided and helped by Skinner again. It works this time out. And Mulder makes some great jokes and has a great tone about his dialog.

205 3 "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster" Darin Morgan Darin Morgan February 1, 2016 1AYW03 8.37[11]

Mulder and Scully investigate mysterious killings seemingly perpetrated by a were-monster. Eventually, Mulder meets said "monster", a lizard-creature, who, after having been bitten by a human, turns into a human during the day.

When I first saw this, I though it was the worst thing in the world but honestly, I enjoyed it a lot this time out. All the references were really funny, the in jokes, the nods back to other episodes, the graveyard names of staff members (Kim Manners), the main suspect dressed like KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER for some unknown reason (he took the clothes off a body of one of the victims of the real human killer) and the idea of a monster turning human who didn’t want to is just too much fun to resist and/or criticize.

Scully seems to be having fun being back on the X FILES. Fox, too, though here he suffered a bit of a mid age life/lie crisis. Her “You’re bat crap crazy,” is the perfect end to the perfect scene of Mulder talking crazy and not letting her talk but it could have been bettered if only she said, “You’re bat shit crazy,” instead.

That said, all of this really works. It’s fun, it is funny, and the dialog is snappy, the pace fast and wonderful. Scully takes home a dog. She also mentions Queequeg.

WHY didn’t Mulder tell Guy Man that they found his dog? Maybe he didn’t know it was the same dog. The monster would have stayed human for it?

The speedo Mulder is seen wearing in the hotel is the same speedo from "Duane Barry".

The psychiatrist consulted by Mulder points at his abdomen and says evil can sometimes be here. This is a reference to Leonard the parasitic twin from the episode "Humbug," written by Darin Morgan.

The tombstones in the cemetery bear the names of Kim Manners (“Let’s kick it in the ass” is on her tombstone) and Jack Hardy. Kim Manners was a director and producer on The X-Files and Jack Hardy was the first assistant director on The X-Files: I Want To Believe.

The the taxidermied animal head through which Mulder looks is that of a fox, in punning reference to his first name.

Guy Mann's outfit resembles that of Carl Kolchak from Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

Tyler Labine and Nicole Parker Smith return as stoners. They also played stoners in The X-Files episodes "War of the Coprophages" and "Quagmire".

Dagoo is named after a character from Moby Dick just like Scully's previous dog Queequeg.

Mulder's ringtone is the series' theme song.

Scully asserts she is immortal. This is a reference to the fan theory that Scully is immortal as implied in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," another Darin Morgan episode.

The pencils Mulder throws into the "I Want to Believe" poster are the same pencils he threw into the ceiling in "Chinga" which were also shown in "My Struggle". Scully claims the I WANT TO BELIEVE poster is her own.

The Porta Potty in which Guy Mann is found could be a reference to the Porta Potty scene in "The Host," in which Flukeman emerges from a Porta Potty. Darin Morgan played Flukeman.

Mulder's rental car has Oregon license plates. The show Grimm, which takes place in Portland, Oregon, features humans that can turn into animal-like or monster-like creatures when they are in a certain emotional state.

The original opening credits return. They were last used for the Season 7 finale episode "Requiem".

Scully thinks Mulder is crazy for suggesting a human who could shape-shift into a reptilian monster, but they encountered werewolves in the Season 1 episode "Shapes" and in the Season 6 episode "Alpha" and Mulder had encountered a human who could shape-shift into a reptilian monster who held Doggett and Agent Harrison captive in the Season 8 episode "Alone". Scully herself encountered a man-bat creature in Mulder's absence in the Season 8 episode "Patience".

Mulder's Smartphone is a LG Google Nexus 5 (released 2013) with black Protective Case.

Alex Diakun (Manager) previously played Curator in The X-Files episodes "Humbug", Tarot Dealer in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", Dr. Fingers in "José Chung's From Outer Space", Dr. Ephraim Fabricant in the Millennium episodes "Lamentation", Greb in "Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me" and Uroff-Koltoff in The X-Files: I Want To Believe.

206 4 "Home Again" Glen Morgan Glen Morgan February 8, 2016 1AYW02 8.31[12]

Scully returns home to cope with a personal tragedy leaving Mulder to solve a homicide that doesn't seem to have been committed by human hands.

Okay, previous reviews may have been premature and hasty, recalling my feelings when this mini series first aired but this episode and the last one were top notch fun. The last one was funny but this one was genuine X FILES with an unstoppable force of nature and supernature, often striking when a song is playing (Love the whole DOWNTOWN song).

There’s violent murders which are graphically shown. There’s a horrific monster/man made from clay art that comes to life to protect the rights of the homeless, though his killings don’t really seem to help them much, which is sort of a flaw in the script. Never mind, the garbage truck motif and the truck itself, that the monster man comes out of it, that he’s accompanied by flies buzzing around him, a horrid trash smell that I’m sure we’ve all experienced, sadly, and the maggots that are on the floor as well as sometimes on him make this all one disturbing monster, maybe more disturbing than even Tooms and Flukeman.

This is neatly interspersed with the idea of Scully’s mom having had a heart attack and on machines keeping her alive even though she changed her will and will soon be taken off them, to Scully’s confusion. Scully’s estranged brother Charlie calls to talk to her and the mom activates even more of Scully’s thoughts about her own son William.

Another flaw in the script seems to be female excusing. Scully keeps referring to the giving up of William to a choice both she and Mulder made. As far as I remember (and the flashbacks seem to agree), Mulder had nothing to do with the choice. At all.

Yet Scully here, and not elsewhere so far, keeps referring to it as if it was a choice she and Mulder made together? It wasn’t.

In any case, this is one upsetting, atypical or not, X FILES monster murder sorta revenge story that doesn’t totally work but the parts that do are based on the creature and the attacks.

Once again, Carter has the writer include …well not a dog death but one of the homeless wants to have his dog and the soon to be victim Mr. Landry tells him he can find it at the shelter. Why include that?

And that last scene as they have Mrs. Scully’s ashes is in a beautiful location on a wonderfully moody cloudy day as they sit on a downed log or tree or both…and is that the first time Scully ever called Mulder by his first name? Fox. I know he’s called her Dana quite a few times before this. But I can’t recall her ever calling him Fox ever. I could be wrong.

I also understand Dana’s thoughts that are negative about “her questions” but it could be a step too far into the negative and absurd. She gave William up to protect him and agonized and agonizes over it. She didn’t treat him like trash. And Mulder should have said so. The script is highly flawed in this regard too, trying to force some emotion that does not ring true because we saw it play out on screen. Sure, it made little sense that adoptive parents can keep William safe (as we’ll see soon) but she didn’t treat the baby like trash. She’s just being dumb and negative here. Irrationally.

And the homeless, regardless of the reasons, are better off in a facility rather than on the streets that are cruel to them.

The happy face on the clay figure in the end works even if some parts of the script here do not.

207 5 "Babylon" Chris Carter Chris Carter February 15, 2016 1AYW04 7.07[13]

When an art gallery that's showing potentially offensive artwork is bombed, Mulder and Scully seek some way to communicate with the comatose bomber in order to prevent a future attack. Scully seeks answers from neuroscience and Mulder from mysticism.

Not sure if the writer is trying to make us feel sorry for terrorists or what but some of the writing here is bizarre and oddly sympathetic toward them and I don’t like that at all.

The antagonists against terrorists have a point but Scully seems to round about talk about it as if that is hate. And yes, what about the victims?

Equally bad and annoying is Mulder’s constant claim on God not being real and then worse: his claim God is an angry God and absent from the stage, none of which is true. He goes by the Bible, that ancient text book written by men that does indeed, give God a very bad name. It does not have evidence of the real God. I’m sure about 10 percent of it is about him/her but most of it is just to keep mankind in line, from killing itself and on rules how to survive in the desert. And there’s more, too. The real god gave us the tool to survive within each of us, which ironically next episode tries to say we ALL have alien DNA inside us.

Okay, I did like some of this annoying and irritating, almost treasonous episode and that is agent Miller and Einstein (yeah, really, that’s her name), most Miller. I love Robbie Amell and hoped the X FILES would continue with him. It would be better than what we got.

Overall, not a bad episode but not great either. Mulder’s LSD trip is supposed to make us laugh but it’s feels a waste. It was a surprise to see Skinner and mostly the Lone Gunmen (though I did not see Beyers really) and the CSM, who seems present even when he’s not in an episode. They also maybe gave a nod to CALIFORNICATION, David’s other show about sex and boozing (mostly his character), but it feels more about David’s own real life sex addiction too. It’s not particularly funny or meaningful as such trips might be in real life.

In short, I don’t like what this muddled episode was trying to say if it was trying to say anything. Mulder seems to hear the trumpeting at the end? Is that supposed to be God?

A murky, uneven episode and terribly annoying. Robbie Amell makes this episode. The stance on terrorism and the lack of faith in God as has been the show’s stand on God (most of the time) only further to lower this episode to a very bad quality of unbalanced, cowardly garbage, I’m afraid. It’s a bit above that but not by much.

It’s never boring, I’ll give it that. AND WHAT is up with Anderson’s voice? Was she a smoker? Did she have health issues with her throat? She sounds awful in this and next episode, so much so that’s hard to hear her without getting distracted and/or worried for her and this takes away from almost everything she says or rather eeks out of her raspy voice and throat. It’s almost painful to watch and I felt bad for her. Hopefully she’s over whatever was happening there.

Einstein’s character is a bit too on the nose and too nasty to Miller so there’s another flaw there, too.

Glad the evil terrorists were stopped. Glad Mulder might have found the real God after trying to debunk God by mentioning the fouled up badly used and badly translated ancient text book for a past culture, and time (as most religious “holy” books are) but did he? Let’s hope so.

I do so hate faithless science fiction and horror.

By the way, I’ve watched so much so soon, I’m not sure where it appeared, maybe in the first ep of this season (?), but Mulder makes an unfunny joke of sarcasm about how a liberal would take up arms to shoot up a place…which is ironic because today in light of Charlie Kirk and the shoot up of ABC offices by a liberal and other liberal attacks on civilians…it’s become news history.

208 6 "My Struggle II"‡ Chris Carter Story by : Dr. Anne Simon & Dr. Margaret Fearon & Chris Carter

Teleplay by : Chris Carter February 22, 2016 1AYW06 7.60[14]

The investigations that Mulder and Scully previously began with conspiracy theorist Tad O’Malley have awakened powerful enemies. A widespread panic begins as people all over the country suddenly start falling gravely ill, and Scully must look within to try and find a cure. Meanwhile, Mulder confronts the man whom he believes to be behind it all, but another figure from Mulder and Scully’s past may prove to be the key to their salvation.

A good opening but a bad last moment in that opening as Scully seems to turn into an alien. WTF are they doing here?

And rehashing the alien stuff from BEFORE the super soldier stuff without mentioning the super soldier stuff? Hang on, this is going to be rough. We did get, in the opening narration and clips, the Fat Man, the Well Manicured Man, the CSM, Krycek and not sure if we got the others.

Pre COVID this was scary and post COVID this is still scary even with the erroneous science on display (they got the idea of Anthrax wrong…not sure it is a full cell so not sure it can be used in a vaccine?).

Glad to see Miller back, Einstein less so but even so too bad it’s in this. And again, this feels very MILLENNIUM.

Now comes the part I totally hate: Monica helping the CSM. He threatens her. She caves. This goes against everything we saw about Monica in the past.

Even Scully calls Monica a coward. And this still does not jive with what went before. At all. Monica was not a coward. Here, she is like a slave giving cigarettes to the CSM, holding them up to a hole in his throat. At least until he could do it himself.

Ewl. And no, no, and no.

Mulder vs a man the CSM sent: great fight. But the man has a gun on Mulder and Mulder is able to kick him down? Huh?

Mulder vs the CSM. We’ve been here before. Just shoot the evil bastard in the head and be done with him.

So, now there are aliens as stated by the CSM. Meh. Shrug. Hold hands up.

So, wait. Did Monica give Scully the way to stop it? Is she the trusted friend now? Scully’s alien DNA can stop this? What?

William B Davis and Robbie Amell will again see each other and face each other in the excellent comedy satire sci fi UPLOAD. Robbie goes on to have a stellar career and star in and produce his own series of movies about a telepath super human trying to save his kind.

This could be the scariest X FILES ever as it looks like COVID times ---at least now. Maybe when it first aired, it was just another MILLENNIUM scare but it’s scary now. But it is also the stupidest move for a series as MILLENNIUM proved and then retconned its own end of the world disease. Here we have at least three diseases. Scully finding a cure and passing it on to Einstein is noteworthy as is her driving to find Miller and Mulder on a bridge.

Yet, the idea of getting to a totally gone William to save Mulder, the idea of the CSM not being shot by Mulder, the CSM having saved Scully (for Mulder or himself or what?), and Reyes working with the CSM are all isolating Carter into a corner. THEN comes the worst of all: another UFO (manmade, copied tech or the real thing?) over the bridge where Miller, Scully and Mulder are. Who’s in this? Will we ever get a conclusion to this mess?

Why do I feel like this will get retconned into a dream or something? Okay, I confess, at the time I didn’t care enough to watch this or the opening of the next season. The drone one got me watching again. It’s not as bad as I first thought, the rest of it, the drone episode is brilliant but the rest? Not so much. But not terrible.

Yet I feel I have to confess I read on line on X FILES WIKIA that Scully wakes up and most of this last ep of season ten is a dream. Damn you Carter, you suck. You really suck.

209 1 "My Struggle III"‡ Chris Carter Chris Carter January 3, 2018 2AYW01 5.15[9]

Scully is hospitalized after having a seizure brought on by a vision of the future that involved William, her and Mulder's son. Mulder sets out to investigate, inadvertently crossing paths with former Syndicate members Mr. Y and Erika Price, whose mission is to colonize the universe. Walter Skinner is detained by Monica Reyes and the Smoking Man, who offers protection against the coming human-alien war. Skinner seems only interested in helping Mulder and Scully, by looking for William. The Smoking Man reveals that he fathered William by pairing his DNA with aliens and impregnating Scully.

No, no, and no. And more no. Brave or cowardly? Stupid or scary? Bold or just hack writing?

So the CSM is named Carl Gerhard Busch? Oh. Kay.

After his POV horrid narration the history of the world and time according to the CSM, a scary one at that, we get no contagion, no world crisis, nothing. Scully is in the hospital.

I call cheat. Carter has cheated us by making almost all of last episode or all of it, a total fraud. It never happened. That’s either a smart move or a dumb one.

I no longer care. I also do not get Mulder’s continued nastiness toward Skinner (other than calling him, “A big bald beautiful man” and wanting to kiss him which Skinner tells him he’s not gonna do, in one of these revivals, the movie? The first tenth season episode? IDK and please don’t make me go back and look for it).

Skinner does nothing but help, protect, and aide both of them. Sure, he has his sus ways but there you go. Mulder is annoying in his continued, force resistance to Skinner.

Meh.

Ho hum. It was a premonition. More of this bullshit later…

This is tedious and boring. Jeffrey Spender has a new face. That’s nice. I mean the show did him nice for once. He sort of gets hit by a car and it doesn’t really affect him much if at all. He warns Mulder. Aww, how nice.

It’s as if Carter’s last episode was thought of by him as : “I didn’t like the climax I came up with, filmed as an ending to the world and the series with a possible hope with that UFO, then got renewed and so came up with a new one.”

He didn’t like the last episode’s climax so decided to back track and rewrite it with William once again at the center and last time we heard 2012 is when this all started.

This is tired, boring, and ridiculous. CSM is now on the run from Mulder and Reyes is now with him almost as a villain? No, no, and no.

When people say they don’t like the X FILES, this is one reason why. It’s an episode that haters of the show can use to air why they hate it. And there’s no defense for it. It doesn’t even have the humor of it all. And it only gets worse from here. Wait for the ending…

The dialog, too is banal and sounds important but it’s not. When Reyes questions the CSM, he says something like this, “Mulder will do what? Stop me? You can’t stop what’s already begun.” Shut up.

Vapid chases. Constant narrations. Let’s find William. It’s happening soon. It’s happening now. This could be the worst episode ever.

Constant car crashes. Monica holding a gun to Skinner’s head. The CSM asking Skinner, “Mind if I smoke.”

Mulder getting followed and then following a man to two new players in this mess. Just what we need: another evil woman and another fat guy, liars.

THIS IS the worst episode ever.

Oh and CAPRICORN ONE was right? I hate this episode. A lot.

Gosh, I wanted Skinner to shoot both CSM and Monica.

Two conspiracies? “A drum beats in my heart.” Shut up, Mulder. Carter should never be allowed to write after this mess.

So they will do nothing. This doing nothing costs the Van Der Kamps their lives. Schmucks.

So now William is the CSM’s son? No, no, and no. Carter should never write another X FILE again. He’s the worst.

“I made this!” If I did, I’d hand over my writers’ union card.

Worst POS ever.

210 2 "This" Glen Morgan Glen Morgan January 10, 2018 2AYW02 3.95[10]

Mulder and Scully are contacted by the virtual consciousness of Richard Langly, which is part of an NSA simulation designed to come to life when participants die. Langly asks his friends to shut down the program because the entities there have become digital slaves and their ideas are being harvested. Mulder discovers that Erika Price is responsible for the simulation and is using it to aid with her own agenda. He buys some time for Scully, who manages to turn off the simulation's servers, which later cannot be found once an FBI team returns to investigate.

Okay. There is a Lone Gunmen vibe to the killers that shoot up Mulder’s house. Even before Langly on the cell phone contacts Mulder and Scully. The virus, not mentioned as the Marburg virus in JUMP THE SHARK is here, named by Scully as such and that is the same virus used in MILLENNIUM to end the world in season two’s finale but the world got better and the virus got retconned into just a small area.

I need a long break from the X FILES, even with only nine left to go.

Mulder meets the Barbara Hershey character Erika Price. She remembers meeting Mulder in their “last encounter.”

This is basically a sequel to KILL SWITCH. It also feels a very small bit like FIRST PERSON SHOOTER.

I think the chaos and control line in the last eight minutes is a sly reference to GET SMART!

This was actually pretty good and had a lot of action. Not sure about that “shock” ending though. The back up and that evil assassin. A shockingly absorbing episode. Good bye Ringo, you too Langly.

211 3 "Plus One" Kevin Hooks Chris Carter January 17, 2018 2AYW03 3.95[11]

Following up on several deaths in which the victims were being stalked by their doppelgängers, Mulder and Scully investigate the Poundstone twins, whose telepathic game of Hangman using people's names proves deadly.

The plot is unusual and brilliant, though I’m not entirely sure it totally works, it’s interesting and different. Yeah, it’s a take on THE NIGHT STALKER-FIREFALL aka the doppelganger kills someone in this stance, YOUR doppelganger kills YOU. Just…how does the hangman game play into it? I think maybe it needed more fleshing out as if maybe a body part vanishes with each letter gained or something? IDK, but this was a riveting episode with two great villains. I can’t help but wonder, disgustingly if evil Judy was tossing duty in the first draft and the writer was made to change it to chocolate pudding Dootie. Gross.

In any case, this is not a bad episode and creepy with a better than above average soundtrack.

Scully must have forgotten the bread pills (how did Judy make those bread pills look so good as real pills?) as she didn’t give them to Mulder OR the lawyer, resulting in Mulder being haunted and freaking out and the lawyer dying (beheaded). Scully still trying to rationalize things out, science wise is fun but…does it make sense in the context of this episode AND the X FILES series as a whole after ELEVEN years!!!???

Didn’t realize two things: that actress playing Judy is also playing her brother Chuck (!) AND she also played the doubly disgusting mom in HOME.

Not sure what’s happening to David but he seems to play almost every scene as if he’s in an ironic comedy these days, with some exceptions. The fight between Mulder and Mulder is well executed.

I also like that the crush Judy has on Mulder and the one Chuck has on Scully is what saves the agents this time instead of anything they do. Scully and Mulder’s thoughts and worries (mostly her) about getting older (“What do you mean when?”) and retirement (“We’ll think of something.”) are well founded but…do they ever really see themselves quitting saving lives or investigating the paranormal. Even Scully now, seems to enjoy it and love it. But it is realistic she would worry about getting older and having a baby but what a bitch, her telling Mulder who with? Him, you dopey redhead!

That written, while I love the ending, it sort of does feel like fan fic but good fan fic. Everyone loves the two. I also can’t help that it would have been far more unique if Chuck fell in love with Mulder while Judy fell in love with Scully. But maybe even back in 2018, the world wasn’t ready for that?

Okay so, the two are not still in that hallucinogenic cave in that episode way back when (the one that was a rip off of INNOVATION’S LOST IN SPACE comic book issue)? There’s hints that they’ve had sex in this episode. Mulder makes a joke (?) about her afterglow after she gets in bed with him and asks him to hold her. But some time from her first getting in to that joke (?) has passed. And then there’s the ending. She seems to open the door (literally) to having sex with him (to have a baby? Or not?). And he’s waiting on the other side for her as if he expected her to all along.

And then we heard the blade sound. Is that supposed to be for our benefit as Mulder unsheathes his blade? Is it the soundtrack being coy and cute and/or sexual? Telling us it does happen? Or is the sword wielding ghost psychic phenomenon back (it can’t be, can it?). No matter what it is, it’s a bit too on the nose and was not needed. Still with a cool plot linking hangman with the doppelganger double cliché, some cool ways of filming the evil entities, no real explanation, dark corners of cars and rooms and houses (especially that creepy “little” house), a very cool fight scene (again, the third in this season or so and there were a few last season, too), a kicking soundtrack, and Scully and Mulder in bed with each other and a very good set of guest stars (especially the lady playing the twins), this stands out an exemplary episode of greatness.

212 4 "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat" Darin Morgan Darin Morgan January 24, 2018 2AYW04 3.87[12]

Reginald Murgatroid covertly meets with Mulder and Scully to discuss the Mandela Effect, their perceived reality, and the origins of The X-Files, including his being part of their team.

I’m not sure what this show has morphed into but it was very, very funny. Almost all the dialog is hilarious. We can’t trust Reggie’s narrative until maybe Skinner asks where they are taking Reggie. Who killed the store collection manager owner? The gov’t? Were parallel universes involved? The clips are hilarious with Reggie put into them. David and Gillian seem to be enjoying themselves which doesn’t always translate to audience enjoying themselves when the actors are but in the X FILES, it almost always does and here, it does. This fires on all cylinders and entertains. And it’s very, very funny.

213 5 "Ghouli"‡ James Wong James Wong January 31, 2018 2AYW05 3.64[13]

Two teenagers attack one another, each believing the other is a monster; Scully experiences sleep paralysis. The two events are connected, leading Mulder and Scully to their son William.

I know see the drama in giving William up lead to this. Anderson deserves an Emmy for this episode alone, and many others but her grief here and recovery is an amazing performance. As for William, glad he was not dead but aka Jackson Van der Kamp, is not exactly starting out on the right foot: he has two girlfriends (is this to make that he has Mulder’s gift for women?) for one thing. That does not endear him to me (and I suspect most women) and he caused the two girls to hurt each other, making them think they were being attacked by monsters. He claims it was a prank gone wrong.

Illusions helped him return from the dead? Or was he dead?

Skinner warns Mulder and Scully but too late and he is working with the CSM again. Sigh.

That the DOJ or DOD would kill is scary.

From the girls in the hospital to the chase from the killers, did Jackson (William) have his hair length change?

A good episode but like all arc episodes, a bit frustrating. Why didn’t William/Jackson trust them? Why run away at the end?

214 6 "Kitten" Carol Banker Gabe Rotter February 7, 2018 2AYW06 3.74[14]

Mulder and Scully travel to Mud Lick, a small town in rural Kentucky in search of Walter Skinner, who has disappeared without warning. There they find the town on the verge of hysteria following a series of suspicious deaths, unexplained illnesses and rumours of a monster lurking on the town's outskirts.

What starts out as a classical X Files monster episode quickly turns into a Skinner background episode AND a Mulder/Scully bonding with Skinner episode. I’m not sure what this episode was for, it’s a bit predictable and a bit off kilter but it IS the X FILES so that’s to be expected. Osment is strange in this and in almost all the movies he’s in, and I love him in THE SIXTH SENSE. Great movie. This is…okay. What is with the caged animals? A kitten? Two pet weasels if that’s what they are? Another conspiracy episode but one about a gas they are spraying on the citizens. Scary stuff and hopefully not a lick of truth about it. The last scene of narration by Davey is disturbing. Again, this IS the X Files. And this one is a lot more serious despite a few jokes about Mulder having his juices going about a monster in the woods. Also: Violent even for the X FILES: we get a 12 year old shot to death, a man hung and then dropped, Skinner impaled, and other blood and gore.

Background Information

James Pickens, Jr. reprises his role as Alvin Kersh for the first time since the original series finale, "The Truth". It also looks that he is against agent Mulder again despite the fact that he went over to his side at the end of the mentioned episode.

The tagline for this episode is "A war is never over".

The episode is devoted to the backstory of Walter Skinner. "We learn more about Skinner and more about his connections to Mulder and Scully and how he’s been a loyal advocate of theirs at his own expense. We learn about his young life and the X-Files moment he experienced as a much younger man."[1]

The music heard as Mulder and Scully enter the mortuary is reminiscent of that heard in the second season finale “Anasazi”.

This episode shows a flashback of Skinner killing a Vietnamese boy who had grenades strapped to him. Skinner previously recounted this story in the second season episode “One Breath”, when he is trying to convince Mulder not to quit the FBI.

Haley Joel Osment, who plays Davey, previously starred in the movie The Sixth Sense. In this episode, Davey holds a flashlight close to his face, resembling an iconic pose from that movie.

Davey refuses to reveal how his mother died, however her face has been cut out of a photo on the wall. This may be an allusion to the fourth season episode “Demons,” in which a man shot himself after cutting his own face out of every photo he could find.

In this episode, Walter Skinner’s middle name is revealed to be Sergei.

Note

Gillian Anderson and Haley Joel Osment starred in the film "I'll Follow You Down " (also titled as Continuum) which was released in 2013. Anderson and Osment played mother and son.

"Unusual Suspects" was also about gas being used for mind control by the government. "Blood" and "Wetwired" were also about mind control by the government but through the use of subliminal messages instead of gas.

Cast and Characters

Cory Rempel, who plays young Skinner, is Mitch Pileggi's nephew.

215 7 "Rm9sbG93ZXJz"[nb 1] Glen Morgan Shannon Hamblin & Kristen Cloke February 28, 2018 2AYW07 3.23[16]

The title of the episode, "Rm9sbG93ZXJz" is encoded in Base 64 and it means "Followers", an allusion to persons who follow an online personality on social media.

In a cold open, a robotic voice explains that an AI was built in 2016 and launched into the Internet so that it could learn. Its creators realized it was learning racism and hate, so they shut it down. Mulder and Scully try to dine in a fully automated sushi restaurant. When Mulder is served the wrong meal, he refuses to pay a tip. Thereafter, the AI's hardware glitches; attempts to get home in smart cars go awry; and they find themselves harassed by aerial drones and their own smartphones. Resentfully, the AI annoys them until the tip is paid.

This could be the best episode of the entire series.

Utterly fantastic. What sci fi was made for. Sure, the warehouse find and the robot dogs and robot firing machine and almost the entire climax is a bit far fetched but no more than any other X FILES but ultimately 100 percent more entertaining, fun, and message driven.

The ending is utterly perfect too with Mulder and Scully putting their phones down and holding hands.

Didn’t realize that was a vibrator the first time I watched this. Thought it was a back massager.

Best episode of the entire 11 seasons and movies.

216 8 "Familiar" Holly Dale Benjamin Van Allen March 7, 2018 2AYW09 3.46[17]

After a brutal animal attack of a little boy in Connecticut, Mulder and Scully discover the town has dark secrets involving the dark forces of witchcraft.

Grim, dour, new change of tone for these last few seasons but absolutely riveting and paced, and a definitive X FILE. It even resembles early episodes but is better written and crafted. AND this guest cast is one of the, if not THE best. It can’t be more different from all the stories around it and from last season.

And…less jokey.

And…at 17 minutes in…is one of those policemen taking a piss in the forest in the background?

Creepy and dark.

Resembles the CALUSARI which when first seen was shocking.

Oh and Andrew in the yellow hoodie raincoat reminds me of IT, both versions.

The turning child playground ride reminds me of FRIDAY THE 13^TH’S first episode, THE INHERITANCE and I’m sure I’ve seen that in other horror movies and TV shows.

I knew the witch from the start but…she really didn’t know what she was getting into. Grim and unrepenting, the hell hound is …dangerous and scary.

217 9 "Nothing Lasts Forever" James Wong Karen Nielsen March 14, 2018 2AYW08 3.01[18]

When a man is abducted and stripped of his organs, Mulder and Scully find evidence that suggests the crime is a ritual killing. Their investigation leads them to a cult headed by Barbara Beaumont, a reclusive former television star, and her partner Randolph Luvenis. The cult have been consuming the organs of the victims and surgically conjoining themselves together to try to reverse the ageing process.

Repugnant, self indulgent, gross, and a bit CW ARROW/BUFFY. Two great over the top villains who are unrelentless in their selfish needs and some real stomach churning scene but his is the X FILES and Chris Carter. The violent level is raised and it’s sort of not necessary but there you go.

This is never boring and despite the stay young Hammer pastiche (Mulder says he’s a Hammer film fan, among other things this season), we get to see Mulder and Scully in church together talking about God, their case, their lives, their getting old and more. AND that makes the episode despite the action, despite the blood splatter, the cojoined bodies, and the cannibalism and organs out of bodies.

This season and the last stand out as perfecting the X FILES in a way, so I’ve been so wrong about them for years since they aired. I wrote them off as bad episodes but they’re mostly not, other than maybe one episode. They seem like X FILES plus and are even superior in many ways, confronting the building relationship of Mulder and Scully as they get older, face their relationship, lives and choices. It’s an amazing performance from both of the actors and the writing is strong and balanced.

It’s hard to stop watching the last two seasons and I can’t say that about all the X FILES. A lot of the time, I’ve had to stop and go watch something lighter, comedic, more life affirming, less horrific, less grim. Some of the X FILES are like that. This episode is not. And it’s as different from last episode as that was from the episode before that and the ones before that. The show is confident, brave, and can change tone and feel on a dime and still be riveting and less convoluted than it’s ever been.

I must admit though I still don’t like that Mulder still doesn’t believe in God. It makes little sense. And it’s annoying. He doesn’t have to be Christian or even Jewish (like the actor) but I do wish with all the supernatural elements he does believe, that he, like the Doctor in DOCTOR WHO, would believe in God, not the God of the ancient man made Bible which gives God a bad rap, rep and is inaccurate about him/her, even if it does have some accuracy about some events. But the real God of spirituality. Ah well.

218 10 "My Struggle IV"‡ Chris Carter Chris Carter March 21, 2018 2AYW10 3.43[19]

Mulder and Scully continue to search for their long lost son, William, while Cigarette Smoking Man pushes to find the secret of the boy and his powers.

Monica seems to be working with the CSM to find out where William is FOR Scully but who knows? I still don’t like what they’ve done with her. I also still have qualms about the CSM being William’s father AND William’s personality as written. Carter’s made clear he didn’t want the Disney-fied version of William but here he is seen causing car crashes and admitting to being a criminal, putting bullies in hospital and having his parents move around or at least put him in different schools a lot.

He doesn’t feel likeable. He even used his powers in front of them and in a temper tantrum when he was younger (seven?), his powers smashed a glass door. He didn’t look like a joy to be raising.

That said, this is still very, very watchable at least to where I’m at now. Mulder is like a one man wrecking crew, a horror version of James Bond as he puts paid to the Mr. Y and his team by killing all of them …with his gun.

They deserve it. They have a spaceship so will that be proof at the end?

Not as successful is Kersch being an asshole again and wanting Mulder’s and Scully’s badges. He doesn’t even care of Mulder’s accusations on line and in the media and news (he doesn’t know but those are really Scully’s postings) are true or not. He wants someone else to handle it or take the responsibility for it. He’s a true asshole. He also shuts the X FILES down. Again. Sigh. It must be the end of a season. Or the whole series.

Also not successful is Skinner’s role in the game. In the past and most of the second half of th entire series, he can be trusted but lately Mulder has some issues with him and rightly so. Skinner’s been written as all over the place and it jars. We do know he loves that Mulder and Scully are not afraid of the truth and not running from it. Which is why I refused to believe he is dead (a novel or book has him alive). I want the same for Monica, maybe that wasn’t Monica that got shot in the head by Skinner.

Monica, ironically, was not the one stepping on the gas to run Skinner down…that was the CSM. IF the show ever does return, I hope that they have put the CSM down once and for all. Mulder shot him. After the CSM shot William who looked like Mulder. Yeah, not sure any of that works for me either.

Before that: Erika Price’s men, even after Y and his men, all one and the same (?), are after William but it seems other government agents are after William, too? In any case, I’m not sure. Maybe the CSM’s men?

This is the final episode of the series, assuming no future revivals are greenlighted. Gillian Anderson has confirmed this will be her final appearance as Dana Scully.

Walter Skinner, Monica Reyes and the Cigarette Smoking Man appear to be killed in this episode - although, as Chris Carter has confirmed in an interview, their deaths are not positively confirmed on-screen, allowing for the possibility of revealing them to have survived in a hypothetical twelfth season.

The tagline for this episode is ‘Salvator Mundi’, which is Latin for ‘Saviour of the World’. It is also a Christian motif of Jesus Christ holding an orb representing the Earth. In an interview with Den of Geek, Chris Carter explained the significance of this to the episode: “For me, there were three parts to that. We have William’s immortality and resurrection at the end of the show, that’s the final image. We have Mulder who could be considered to be someone who just saved the world by stalling the Cigarette Smoking Man’s plans. Then, we have the Cigarette Smoking Man who actually looks at himself as the savior of the world, sort of diabolically, he was going to start the planet anew. Like the devil, he believes that he is right.”

The ending of this episode is reminiscent of the ending of the seventh season finale Requiem, with Scully revealing that, despite being infertile, she is pregnant. It is also reminiscent of the ending of the eighth season finale ‘Existence’, with Mulder and Scully embracing after marveling over their (in this case unborn) baby.

Like so often Mulder drops his flashlight (a Fenix FD41).

The ending feels hollow, with Scully and Mulder seemingly easily dismissing William, who is ALIVE.

And now, Scully pisses me off. She says she was not William’s mother after all this. What an asshole she is. He was created artificially but that doesn’t make him not her son. Is this Scully or is this William trying to protect them again? If it is Scully she’s an idiot and a terrible mother.

So…was it alien sperm with her DNA? Or the CSM’s sperm with alien DNA? WTF?

Scully only carried him and now considers herself never a mother to him? I call bullshit on this scene.

Maybe I should do this later when I’m not so pissed off about the very end of the very last episode.

Was it worth it? All the monsters, all the violence, all the gory gore, all the conspiracies, all the assassins, all the Mulder jokes, all the ghosts and werewolves and dog monsters and cat monsters, serial killers and mutants? And through it all a wonderful sardonic and sarcastic Mulder and Scully rapport?

I think so. Will it ever be my number one favorite series? No.

But as a successor to KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER and FRIDAY THE 13^TH : THE SERIES it is worthwhile. The show FRIDAY THE 13^TH THE SERIES usually gets overlooked as a major inspiration for THE X FILES. Ooh, come on now: redhead skeptic female with fan boy male and older man looking out for them facing the supernatural? In a way FRIDAY is more an inspiration than KOLCHAK.

At times, it had to be put down for a bit and let go for a bit, like its superior sorta spin off grimness MILLENNIUM, a far better show but which lacked the male/female will they/won’t they and humor of any kind (though a few episodes do have some really funny scenes---in each season).

Overall, a series I would never want to go through again episode by episode (if any) but which has merit taken as a whole. Anderson and David are brilliant in it as are their entire supporting team. I really like Doggett and Reyes, too, Robert Patrick essentially perfect. Shame he thinks and feels that he doesn’t think there’s a need to revisit Doggett. Maybe he saw what they did to Monica, who gets short shift in the last season.

In any case, yes, shock, horror, humor, irony, satire, scares, disgust, it’s all here. And well worth it.

One thing: the Monster of the Week episodes sometimes mention the UFO conspiracy ones (or do they?) and the Conspiracy Arc episodes sometimes mention or show clips from the mutant/monster of the week episodes (or do they?). Do these take place in slightly different universes: meaning do the conspiracy episodes take place in one universe and the arc episodes in another? And MILLENNIUM in another? Just wondering. Which is what X FILES makes you do.

These two deserve to be happy. Hopefully, they get a great retirement package, a house with a white picket fence, a dog that won’t die, a cat what won’t try to eat them, and a nice normal baby that they know they are the parents of and who won’t die a short life or resurrect a few times.