I have a lot of thoughts on the tenth season of The X-Files but let’s get the biggest crime it commits out of the way first: how is it not called Season X?! After 13 years away, The X-Files returned to television for just six episodes in 2016, one of many shows revived around that time as a limited series. I’ve been feeling a mixture of intrigue and dread upon returning to this modern era of the show on this rewatch because, simply, I remember not liking these episodes. I remember disappointment, so much so I didn’t bother with season 11 when it aired.
Revisiting almost a decade later, it is better than I recalled. Deeply flawed and a little messy, yes, with only one great episode, yet more interesting and considered than I gave it credit for. Well, the four standalone episodes are. It’s the mythology, and even then mainly the finale, that leaves such a sour taste in the mouth. Sandwiched between the two poor ‘My Struggle’ instalments is a decent return for a series that had previously exhausted itself. It’s not completely fresh and original, there are some reappearing ideas, and often multiple ideas jammed into a single episode, like the writers had too many concepts for just six episodes. It’s only the masterful third episode that feels like a fully rounded individual instalment.
Perhaps this revival is best watched if one hasn’t seen the original show since it first aired. If the viewer has only a more general sense memory of the plot and characters than an in depth understanding after recently rewatching the previous 200 episodes. That way, you don’t realise how little it makes sense. In regards to the mythology, one line stood out: “memories implanted over actual memories.” That’s how the government conspiracy operates but it’s also how the writers seem to operate too. Never has retconning felt so much like gaslighting. The mythology storytelling is completely annihilated, mocking those who ever tried to make sense of it. The presence of William lingers over all, the new Samantha in many ways, this time for Scully as well as Mulder, but the writers never decide on what to do with the character so there’s lots of discussion of him with little action. I was shocked to make it to the end of the season and for him not to appear.
The show gives no real reason why Mulder and Scully would rejoin the FBI and start investigating weird cases again rather than just be concerned with stopping the conspiracy, but I don’t care. It was a relief to get the premiere out of the way and go back to monster-of-the-week storytelling. At this point in the show’s run, those cases are all I care about, I don’t need a reason. The order of these middle episodes was clearly shuffled after production. The fourth episode opens as if it’s their first case back, with a ‘reveal shot’ of the agents holding up their badges. The basement office goes from fully decorated in the second episode to empty in the third. But I understand why these changes were made. The writers clearly wanted a big William episode early on to set that up (for no payoff), and then follow on from Scully’s mom’s death immediately in the next episode. The season does do a solid job of threading some serialised beats throughout the standalone episodes, the season being about something, until it falls apart in the truly terrible final episode.
The season does have difficultly balancing the new and the old, and anytime it finds the right biting point it loses its grip again. It’s a difficult proposition to bring such a series back, how to recapture the magic while seeking to push it forward and attempt something new. Using the original opening credits is a nice callback but it doesn’t help cutting straight from them to modern network television with little visual style. The revival isn’t poorly shot for the most part but it is lacking atmosphere, something that the early seasons had in spades. The series might have returned to filming in Vancouver but did so in the summer, during a heatwave, with none of the recognisable wet and windy weather.
It’s very hard to name a best character this season like I normally do, so I think I’ll just abstain from making a choice. Juggling both leads with just six episodes to showcase how they’ve evolved or regressed in the years since they’ve been away, there are moments of good characterisation but never a clear statement on the characters. Scully probably has the best material but Gillian Anderson struggles to get back into character, rarely feeling or sounding like the Scully of the old show, now with a very weak voice, which works for other roles of Anderson’s, like Hannibal, but not here. Duchovny finds it easier to slip back into Mulder but is the less interesting character outside of the premiere and the third episode. While not a shipper of Mulder and Scully, I do wish their relationship was highlighted more. That box is open and it can’t just be shut again. I like the idea of them being split up at the beginning, it makes sense, but I wish there was a greater sense of them finding their love again, growing closer once more, as they work more cases. I don’t know where they stand by the end of the abridged season.
Usually in these ‘best and worst’ articles, I would pick from a selection of categories to define episodes by, which is just a contrivance to discuss specific episodes I feel help define my thoughts on the season overall. Because there are only six episodes this season, I’ll simply discuss them all in release order:
My Struggle (S10E1): The Best Mythology Episode (Although That’s Not Saying Much)
The return of The X-Files to television begins with an incredibly fast-paced episode, getting us straight back into the story, for both better and worse. I’m glad it only took 45-minutes to reopen the x-files and get Mulder and Scully back to solving cases but for the story within the premiere, it goes by far too quickly. There are good ideas (the only mythology episode of the season to have them) rushed through and left unexplored. This episode could be mined for several mythology stories, detailing how the nature of conspiracies has changed since the show has been off the air, but instead is used as a rapid introduction before the story shifts direction.
Chris Carter returns us to the beginning of everything: Roswell. We actually see the crash for the first time on the show, which is a surprise and a good way to revive the series. In fact, lots of the classic mythology staples are included. UFOs, aliens, human-built UFOs based on alien tech, abductions, experiments, pregnancy tests, alien DNA, and an informant teasing information. All the old familiars jammed into 45-minutes. Not all of them go anywhere and even less make sense. A one point Scully tests herself and finds, to her apparent shock, she has alien DNA. We know! Carter includes plot points from past episodes and instead of referencing them simply redoes them.
The conspiracy is updated, however. In general, conspiracies aren’t as fun as they used to be in the nineties. Or at least are now far more politicised. Stories with vaccines being tampered with now leave a bitter right-wing taste in the mouth. Carter changes course with the mythology to now make it purely a ‘conspiracy of men’ planning a fascist government takeover, based on surveillance and population control. This could be interesting but all the information is delivered as rants from Mulder and newcomer Ted O’Malley which feel like awkward Facebook posts you’d see from a troubled family member, and with as much depth, despite there being kernels of good ideas there.
The revival struggles to balance the old mythology with the new. The new direction could have been good but Carter bizarrely chooses to unnecessarily overwrite the old conspiracy to establish it. There’s no reason why the conspiracy of men couldn’t have been created in the wake of 9/11, a new syndicate, but instead is retconned to have been in place all along. Carter wants us to believe there are no aliens past those that crashed at Roswell, no takeover planned, and that was all a smokescreen. That’s too much. That’s insane. We saw aliens throughout the original show! Different types, in objective scenes, and a whole ancient story concerning the black oil. The audience invested time in that plot and now we get told it never existed and gaslighted about what we saw. The season 9 finale mapped out ‘the truth’, what was actually happening, and the season 10 premiere decides none of that is real, eradicating so much storytelling.
I think Mulder could get to a place emotionally where he believes the alien conspiracy is a lie but the show needed to spend more time on it. It all comes down to the 2012 invasion date, which the show seems embarrassed about and barely acknowledges. Just imagine Mulder on that day, prepared for an invasion, the truth to be revealed, him vindicated in the darkest way possible, and then nothing. A new ‘Great Disappointment’. That would be a fantastic character-defining moment, if that day came and nothing happened. He would be broken. But instead that part of the story is handwaved away. The series is so messed up about what continuity to embrace and which to forget.
My Struggle introduces an Alex Jones character in Ted O’Malley and says he’s totally right about everything. I don’t like that. The idea behind the character is good, he’s just used poorly. The script needed to play up the angle of whether Mulder and Scully can trust him, whether he’s just spouting controversy for profit. Mulder has finally found a mouthpiece for the truth, a way to get it out there, but can he be trusted and will the truth be believed from this source? That’s some good drama there. It could have been examined across a season instead of jammed into one episode. But the big issue is that O’Malley is treated like he’s right. He should have been a plant to throw Mulder off the scent rather than the opposite. He’s treated too heroically and bafflingly Scully even kinda goes on a date with him.
Overall, Mulder and Scully feel okay in this episode and it’s a decent reintroduction to the characters. It’s probably one of the better episodes for them feeling like their old selves. I do wish Mulder was angrier. There are some hints of it but not enough. He’s been isolated, always online, and could now be an angry conspiracy theorist. Scully would have to remind him of humanity. The story could comment not only on the conspiracies but the people who believe them, too, and how they can be taken advantage of. As with most aspects of the episode, there are frustrating glimpses of good ideas but not enough.
Founder’s Mutation (S10E2): A Forgettable Episode with a Great Cold Open
Starting this rewatch, having not seen these episodes since they first aired, Founder’s Mutation is the episode I remembered the least. I’m also expecting it to be the episode to fade from my memory fastest once again. That’s not to say it’s bad but I do think it’s the most forgettable of the season. It’s the one which feels most like a standard episode of The X-Files, so it’s not great but at the same time I’ll take a new standard X-Files episode. It begins as a decent investigation, Mulder and Scully back on a case-of-the-week, and it follows the procedural beats well. That’s not to say there’s nothing new or notable. It is making an effort to update the series for 2016, with mentions of Snowden and Obamacare, and by utilising phones and technology.
One of my favourite recent conspiracies is Havana Syndrome, it’s fascinating, and the way the episode begins is similar to that phenomena. It’s a good cold open, with a man hearing a loud, disorienting noise only he can hear. It’s intriguing and surprisingly brutal, with the man taking a letter opener to the offending ear. I’m not sure why a letter opener is in a high-tech computer room but best not to think about these things.
But the further it strays from this initial intrigue, the weaker the episode gets. Founder’s Mutation starts to crumble halfway through for me. The standalone case becomes treated like part of the mythology, with Mulder speculating that it’s connected to the wider conspiracy. Kids are being tested on by a government doctor, leaving them with alien mutations. It all begins to feel too familiar, dealing with similar topics as seasons 8 and 9 but now with older kids. The story strays into something more akin to angst-ridden teen X-Men, like New Mutants, than The X-Files. An experimented-on brother wants to find his sister, and uses his abilities to control people and explode their heads. It feels too superpower-y for my taste.
With the episode being about abducted and special children, Scully should have more of the focus but Founder’s Mutation tries to handle both characters as leads, if not Mulder slightly more. Weirdly the research program is partially based in the Lady of Sorrows hospital where Scully has been working for several years, as seen in the premiere and I Want to Believe, but nothing comes of that connection. That should make her more invested, making this a personal betrayal considering she knows the doctors and patients involved. Yet that potential drama is ignored. It feels like there was more to delve into.
The spectre of William hangs large over the episode, seemingly setting up his return but also exploring Mulder and Scully’s feelings on giving him up 15 years later. Scully doesn’t want to be seen as just an incubator for an alien child but rather a mother to her son, which the show will completely forget next season. We then get imaginings from both parents on what they think/fear it would have been like if they had kept William. These dream sequences are decent if more than a little unsubtle. Scully is shown as a caring mother but her son goes through extraterrestrial changes she can’t understand. Meanwhile Mulder makes him watch 2001 and build model rockets, only for him to be abducted just like Samantha. These sequences are the best part of the episode’s weaker second half and the final shot is great: Mulder sitting alone, silent, contemplating, like how half the episodes of Mad Men end with Don.
Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster (S10E3): The Best Episode of the Season (and One of the Best of the Entire Series)
The greatest success of the show’s revival is the return of Darin Morgan. The writer, known for his unique comedic style, helped redefine The X-Files and was responsible for some of the greatest episodes of the early years before leaving after the third season. More than twenty years later he delivers another classic episode, by far the best of the tenth season, and comparable to his past great works.
Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster begins with Mulder throwing pencils, not into the ceiling but rather at the iconic ‘I Want to Believe’ poster. This, and other details, could be seen as meta jabs by Morgan, poking at The X-Files. Outside of his own specific style of episode, I’ve always had the sense Darin Morgan has never really liked the series, which is a delicious idea considering he’s one of the show’s best writers. The episode finds Mulder questioning whether he’s wasted his life, whether it’s worth returning to this work, as I’m sure Morgan was, too. Instead of purely embracing the nostalgia like the other episodes, this is the only script to directly question the return. What’s to gain? Ultimately, Morgan comes out in support of it. Mulder finds the magic again, his belief in monsters, his drive forward, and this episode finds the magic of the old X-Files again. It’s wonderful.
“Yeah, this is how I like my Mulder.” Scully utters these words but speaks for all of us. The other writers, and the actors themselves, have struggled to fully recapture the voices of Mulder and Scully. Darin Morgan seemingly has no difficulty. His version of the characters have always sounded a little different, acted a little different, yet are still undeniably those characters. Morgan finds their voices again with ease, and Duchovny and Anderson settle into his specific writing and characterisation like there was never a gap between seasons. The script has a real pace to the dialogue rather than Chris Carter’s slow purple prose, giving the agents a youthful energy again. The performances are great all round, including guest appearances by Rhys Darby and Kumail Nanjiani.
Were-Monster is probably the goofiest of Darin Morgan’s episodes. He’s known as the show’s comedy writer but that too often does him a disservice. In the past he’s resisted being too zany; I remember his interview on The X-Files Files discussing how he thought the comedy episodes written after he left the show were too silly for his taste. Well, this episode is very silly. But the humour works. Character is always at the forefront, even in the silliest moments. The only joke that goes too far for me is Mulder having the theme tune to the show as his ringtone. There are a bevy of inside jokes and references, including the reappearance of the stoner characters from season 3, Mulder’s red speedos, Scully stating that she’s immortal, and nice tributes to Jack Hardy and Kim Manners on some headstones.
Yet there is still depth throughout the script. Mulder and his quarry deal with worry, self-doubt, regret, and loneliness. As with Morgan’s masterpiece, Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, there’s an overlying philosophical sadness to everything. The plot concerns a brilliant narrative flip which sees a lizard man, just minding his own business, get bitten by a human and begin transforming into a man. A lizard having to live as a man, suffer through modern life when he just wants to be roaming the forest, is hilarious and surprisingly moving. We see him struggle with developing a consciousness, having to wake up early, get a job, and feel depressed over not finishing a novel. It speaks to Mulder’s feelings and is an oddly relatable tale about the depressive malaise of life.
The episode does use the same narrative device as Jose Chung’s From Outer Space, with a character recounting what has happened, seen through subjective flashbacks. This way Were-Monster can get away with exaggerated moments, and this technique will be taken to the extreme with Morgan’s episode for next season. If I have one complaint it’s perhaps that the episode spends a little too long in the cemetery with Guy Mann explaining his backstory.
Ironically, for an episode radically different in tone to most of the series, especially this more lethargic season, Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster is the one episode that captures the feel of the old X-Files the most. There’s a monster in the woods and Mulder and Scully are out on the road, staying in a motel, rather than it being another city-based episode like all the others. Maybe why I love it so much is that it’s the only episode this season without multiple scenes set in a hospital, which is how I’ve always come to picture the tenth season in my mind.
Home Again (S10E4): Two Good Episodes Combined Into One Okay Episode
Home Again is probably the season’s second-best episode but it doesn’t all work. The biggest issue is that it feels like two episodes in one. It likely could and should have been if the season was longer but the six-episode restriction can be clearly felt. One half is a classic monster episode, and an effective one at that. Writer/director Glen Morgan embraces the old formula, techniques, and imagery, and it makes for an effective, entertaining throwback to episodes past. We get good stalk and kill sequences juxtaposed with an upbeat song, like in Home and other classics, and Mulder and Scully chasing a monster through dark corridors, flashlight beams crossing to make an ‘X.’
The monster in question is a golem or tulpa, willed into existence by a Banksy-esque street artist in Philadelphia called Trash Man (sadly not Frank Reynold’s wrestling persona from It’s Always Sunny.) It emerges from garbage trucks, ripping those who mistreat the homeless population apart. The point made is that the homeless have no voice in society so have to use this ‘band-aid nose man’ to protect those who can’t protect themselves. But the homeless also don’t have a voice in the episode. The show is caught in a catch 22 of the episode commentating that the homeless don’t have a voice and then not giving them one, which highlights this issue yet is an issue itself. The homeless ‘characters’ are used like props rather than people, and those given dialogue are little more than clichés.
Morgan seems to have forgotten the series already did a tulpa episode, also made of trash, and Mulder claims it couldn’t hurt anyone despite facing a killer one before in Arcadia. It is mainly Mulder doing all the investigative work because Scully is off in her own episode, the second of the two stories jammed into these 45-minutes. With only six episodes this season, I don’t like Mulder and Scully being split up like this.
Scully’s mom is in hospital and passes away, which is a story beat I don’t mind. It shows how Scully is getting older, her life changing, but it’s a big event squeezed into a third of an episode. It plays into the meaning of the quote which inspired the episode’s title: “you can’t go home again.” This show and its characters will not be the same as they once were, things have changed, they’re older, but that’s just one more added idea alongside all the others. The title also feels like a fun fake out, making people think it’s a sequel to Home, when its connection to that earlier episode is limited to one echoed scene on a bench. But there’s no getting around the fact that it feels like there are two very different plots in one episode. The final scene is good and is forced to do some real heavy lifting to try and link the stories with a common theme: People have responsibility for what bring into the world, whether Scully’s mom and her kids, Scully with William, and the tulpa and its creator.
Babylon (S10E5): The Underrated Episode
Babylon is an episode that has its heart in the right place. Its brain, not so much. The X-Files is known for experimenting with tone. It’s part of what makes the series so good. It can deliver great examples of different genres and styles, balance dark stories with comedy episodes. You never know what you’re going to get each week. I don’t think one single episode has tried to juggle so much in 45-minutes than Babylon. It begins with a brutal suicide bombing and 30-minutes later Mulder is high on mushrooms dancing. It’s a very odd mixture. Really it should only be that one drug trip sequence which is humorous but the whole episode is scored by Mark Snow and played by some of the actors as a comedy, even when it should be serious. It’s like Chris Carter or Fox were worried about the subject matter and thought any potential missteps could be hidden or excused if they played the entire thing like a comedy. Much of it doesn’t work yet it is an endearing attempt.
The FBI want to communicate with a suicide bomber who has barely survived his blast, lingering in a coma, and both Mulder and Scully try different methods. Scully has some good best character beats, with the situation reminding her of her mother’s death in hospital in the previous episode, and the script sees her reckon with what her final moments and words might have meant. But her attempt with brain wave machines doesn’t amount to much and is sidelined for Mulder’s, who tries to use psychoactive substances to communicate telepathically with the terrorist.
The drug trip sequence is a mixed bag: it has some funny moments, some cringey. That locked-on camera worn by actors, used in every show around at this time, is an obnoxious technique, and Mulder wearing ‘mush’ and ‘room’ bling is embarrassing. But the dancing is fun and the cameos by The Lone Gunmen and Skinner a nice addition. But really this overt silliness (Carter doing his best Darin Morgan impression, which never ends well) is included to contrast with the next stage of the trip. The ship to the afterlife in the sky, with plain religious imagery, and Mulder being whipped by the Cigarette-Smoking Man (in what should have been his only appearance) is effective and unsettling.
In the midst of its broad goofiness, the episode wants to comment on love and hate, on faith and why people commit atrocities, and what their loved ones feel. These are interesting concepts, the questions it asks fascinating, but to execute them well the script needs to paint detailed portrayals of these characters and Carter doesn’t manage it. Babylon tries too much for a single episode but it is well-intentioned and has some decent moments within the messiness. It just doesn’t manage to make its point as strongly as it needs to. In fact, it ends on some mawkish sentimentality that most of the episode avoided, with the final scene looking like a car advert, and has the same depth as one. It’s most comparable to Improbable, another Chris Carter episode that balances comedy with big spiritual questions. Babylon isn’t as charming as that but nor is it a disaster like something like Fight Club.
The big element mixed in with all this which doesn’t work is the introduction of Agents Einstein and Miller. They are essentially new versions of Mulder and Scully for the old ones to play against, which sounds interesting but the dynamic rarely is. It makes you realise how lucky they got casting Anderson and Duchovny back in the day. Lauren Ambrose is a great actress but Einstein’s rejection of Mulder’s ideas lacks the warm interplay of Scully and is simply played as dismissive apathy and annoyance. She’s just unlikable. Einstein also doesn’t work in dramatic scenes because any time someone says her name it sounds like an ironic jab at her intelligence.
Miller meanwhile lacks any personality whatsoever. Robbie Amell is bad in the role, emotionless and not in the subtle Duchovny way. He’s paired with both Scully and Einstein and has no personality in the presence of either. I guess Carter is hinting at a Miller and Einstein romance to parallel Mulder and Scully but there’s zero chemistry. I saw someone online say that Miller was Mulder’s porn double and it’s an apt observation. Viewers were irate thinking Miller and Einstein were introduced to ultimately replace Mulder and Scully but clearly that was never the case. They are too close to the original leads to be their own characters on their own adventures and were created purely to compare and contrast with Mulder and Scully.
I may be sounding very negative about Babylon but honestly it was the biggest surprise of this rewatch. I recalled it being an abomination, the worst of the season, but it’s not. I wouldn’t say it’s good, it’s still the weakest standalone instalment, but I appreciate the attempt at something. The attempt to modernise, examine something that has blown up (poor choice of words) since the show was off the air. So, okay, the end result is a fairly bad episode but it’s an interesting episode at least. It takes a big swing to have a big miss and I appreciate this six-episode revival didn’t just play it safe.
My Struggle II (S10E6): The Worst Mythology Episode (Of Perhaps The Entire Series)
My Struggle II opens with Scully narrating the events of her life, much like the first part did with Mulder. It’s a clear statement: this is her episode. It’s true that she gets the focus but no depth at all. A huge problem is that there is no real characterisation in this episode, just plot and technobabble, with Scully standing around a hospital delivering interminable exposition in a quiet husky voice. I didn’t feel the stakes, personal or grand, and, perversely for what could have been the final ever episode, Mulder and Scully spend no time together.
We finally get the apocalypse. Kinda. Not really. Certainly not in the way teased for decades. It turns out the culmination of The X-Files features no aliens. In fact, alien DNA is apparently the cure rather than the affliction. The end of the world has never been this boring or small. While the events of this episode occur, armageddon is supposedly happening, billions dying, yet you’d be forgiven for missing it. Scully goes outside briefly to stop a looter by shouting at him, which famously works, but that’s all we see. This is what the show should have been building to for ten seasons yet it feels like it comes out of nowhere. The episode starts and suddenly it’s happening. That twist could have been engaging but instead makes it feel like none of it is happening.
Chris Carter’s script can be defined less as storytelling and more rambling. At one point Mulder calls the Cigarette-Smoking Man’s plans the “musings of a mad man” and he could be talking about Carter. This is less an update of government conspiracies and more a collection of buzzwords, barely shaped into a narrative. Chemtrails and microwave radiation act as a trigger for vaccines, which release a Spartan virus described as “fast moving AIDS” while Scully stands around a hospital repeating the words “alien” “anomaly” “DNA” and “blood” in different combinations. Carter goes full crazy uncle at a family gathering with this episode. Ted O’Malley looking more and more sick each time we cut to him for more ranting is like a gag from Airplane!
Everything is frantic and messy, not only the events depicted but the production of the episode, too. The editing and direction are poor. Carter’s intention was for the episode to occur with split screen for much of the runtime but this was altered at the last minute. The finished product feels very cobbled together. 24 was the show that replaced The X-Files at Fox and Carter is clearly trying to tap into some of that show’s style and sensibilities but it does not work. My Struggle II should be the huge conclusion of The X-Files but is instead a poor imitation of another show. There’s a fight to the death with Mulder that is insane and feels totally out of place.
To head the new conspiracy, the show resurrects the Cigarette-Smoking Man. It’s beyond stupid to have him survive. We saw him get hit by a missile, his skin burn off his face in slow motion, leaving nothing but a skull which then exploded. On camera. But he’s back, after spending some time in hospital. If you are going to bring him back, just go full Palpatine and make him a clone or something. Yet his return also completely undercuts the new mythology, the updated modern conspiracy ideas, because it’s the same old guy behind it all. He’s just a recognisable element of the old show they wanted to bring back, at the detriment to all aspects of the narrative. CSM keeps saying “we” in regards to the new conspiracy but we never see anyone else, no other overlords. It’s just a frail old man who looks like he can’t go to the bathroom himself let alone unleash the apocalypse himself.
My Struggle II brings back the character of Monica Reyes but in name only. Turns out, she’s a bad guy now: the Cigarette-Smoking Man’s goon/nurse. It’s a baffling decision and a complete betrayal of her character. Even Chris Carter can’t justify it in his script, with Reyes commenting on her choices with “You may not approve or understand them but they made sense to me at the time.” Monica was poorly written, or rather often underwritten, but overwriting what was there is even worse. Her entire personality in the original show is that she was a kind person, empathetic to the point it was almost supernatural, and her being CSM’s lackey is nonsense. She agreed to it to save her own skin when the world ends, now making her nothing but a selfish coward. It’s character assassination on a traumatic level for Reyes fans.
After a season of teasing, the finale features no William. My Struggle II was supposed to be a culmination yet feels alienated from rest of the season, never mind the rest of mythology, and the William storyline isn’t resolved or even touched on. Just imagine if the show wasn’t renewed, if this was the end. It’s not that there’s no closure. There’s no anything. No comprehensible story, character or interplay between Mulder and Scully, barely an acknowledgement of what they’ve been through. It all ends with a cliffhanger, I guess, but the episode deflates any interest in what happens next. Scully has the cure, needs to find William for more, his first mention of the episode being in the final seconds, and a UFO appears overhead. Is it the aliens to help out, now that they’re the good guys apparently? The resolution next season will be so much worse than any fan theory could possibly be.
Season 10 Episode Ranking:
6. My Struggle II (S10E6)
5. My Struggle (S10E1)
4. Babylon (S10E5)
3. Founder’s Mutation (S10E2)
2. Home Again (S10E4)
1. Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster (S10E3)
It’s been fascinating to revisit these six episodes of The X-Files, and a couple turned out to be a pleasant surprise. This rewatch has cemented the idea that the revival feels like something else entirely. The show, to me, ended with the ninth season and this tenth season is less the next instalment and more a weird little epilogue, distanced and detached, where the bad episodes (and they are truly abysmal) can be ignored and I can hold onto the few good as an extra bonus addition to the series I love. I will be very interested to see if this internal idea remains once I watch the 10-episode eleventh season, of which I have only seen a couple of episodes. Will it offer a genuine next stage of The X-Files, a conclusion, or purely be another odd offering of episodes to choose which to enjoy and which to dismiss?
