ello and welcome to the final episode of the eleventh season review in this sci-fi mini-series of The X Files.
This is the episode I’ve been waiting for all season. How is this all going to end? We shall find out in this blog.
Nine weeks ago, we started with an amazing first episode and nine weeks later, we’re ending in the same way. Let’s head on over to the opening scene shall we…
Following the events of ‘Ghouli’ (episode 5), William (Miles Robbins) has become a fugitive from Government agents, as he’s a pivotal part of the Cigarette Smoking Man’s (William B. Davis) plans. After reflecting on his difficult childhood, he finds the Cigarette Smoking Man in order to learn the truth about himself.
Reyes (Annabeth Gish), contacts Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson), warning them that William had been taken into custody and is being escorted to a Government warehouse in Maryland. Scully, who has been struggling with illness and visions of the future by way of her psychic link with William, predicts that he won’t be there when they arrive. Mulder infiltrates the building but is forced to kill the agents and Mr. Y (A. C. Peterson), before he can question them and he finds no trace of William.
Scully identifies a cluster of lottery winners in North-Eastern Tennessee, which she believes is a side effect of William’s presence. Mulder investigates, but is himself followed by a Government agent. William hitches a ride with a truck driver, only to terrify him with his powers. Mulder quits in frustration and instead, anticipates that William is heading for Norfolk. Meanwhile, the agent following Mulder picks up William.
With the help of Sarah Turner (Madeleine Arthur) and Brianna Stapleton (Sarah Jeffrey) – the girls from episode five’s ‘Ghouli’ – and Sarah’s friend Maddy (West Duchovny), Mulder finally locates William in a hotel in Norfolk. He convinces William to talk to him as a unit of soldiers, lead by Erika Price (Barbara Hershey) locate the agent’s car. The agent is dead, having been torn apart by William.
Price’s unit descends on William’s hotel room and attempt to arrest him. He uses his powers on them, causing them to explode. He nearly loses control and kills Mulder, but regains his composure and flees the scene as the media descends on the hotel.
Trying to buy more time for Mulder, Scully contacts Tad O’Malley (Joel McHale) and claims that the incident at the hotel was part of the project to release a man-made pathogen, developed from an alien virus. Mulder is named as the source for the story, prompting Director Kersh (James Pickens Jr.) to order Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) to shut down the X Files unit finally and to dismiss Mulder and Scully from duty. Scully receives another vision, this time of Mulder’s death and pleads with Skinner to help save him.
Mulder follows William to an abandoned factory on the coast. Scully arrives shortly after when Mulder suggests that they give up trying to find William because he does not want to be found and because they can’t protect him. Scully refuses to back down, pressing Mulder for details when the real Mulder arrives – the Mulder Scully spoke to was William in disguise.
As the two chase him through the factory, Skinner realises Reyes and the Cigarette Smoking Man. have followed them. The Cigarette Smoking Man forces the car to run Skinner down. Skinner shoots and kills Reyes and attempts to outrun the car – he’s been crushed between two cars.
The Cigarette Smoking Man confronts William (still under the disguise of Mulder) on the waterfront. William taunts him, challenging him to kill ‘Mulder’. The Cigarette Smoking Man shoots him in the head and he falls into the water, mirroring Scully’s vision of Mulder’s death. The real Mulder appears shooting the Cigarette Smoking Man, who realises that he’s killed William. He falls into the water and his body is carried away by the current.
In the aftermath, Mulder and Scully comfort on another. Scully accepts that she was never William’s mother, describing him as an experiment that was implanted in her. Having finally learned the truth about William’s parentage, Mulder struggles with the knowledge until Scully reveals that she is pregnant with child, a seeming impossibility. As the two embrace, William resurfaces from the water elsewhere, conscious and alive. Roll credits.
This episode had me on the edge of my seat throughout and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve said this a lot throughout this mini-series, but this season in my opinion was a lot better than the last. I give this episode a 10 out of 10 and the season as a whole an 8 out of 10. Thanks for staying interested, until next time.
