Written by Ryan DeMarco
Well, we’ve reached the end of this season of the X-Files revival, and every alien conspiracy in the series has brought us to this moment involving the extermination of the population using alien technology, and a cliffhanger like no other.
Picking up the events that started in the premiere, we return to where Agents Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Einstein (Lauren Ambrose) are attempting to prevent a global pandemic that seemingly came out of nowhere, while Agent Miller (Robbie Amell) is off looking for Mulder (David Duchovny), who’s disappeared. Then, there’s the Smoking Man (William B. Davis), along with his role in this entire situation.
While I was a fan of the premiere, I feel that this concluding episode is a little weak. Outside of a few standout moments it was really just turned out to be more of a filler with disposable material, all while trying to offer up some of the series’ biggest awes. Let’s get right into the part that bothered me the most. Given that it’s an episode that’s supposed to feel like a worldwide contagion, it’s instead incredibly contained. We’re given shots of a filled hospital room and most of our information is given to us every five minutes from Tad O’Malley’s (Joel McHale) “Truth Squad” show, which gets slightly annoying.
I did enjoy seeing Agents Miller and Einstein return for the finale, even if what they are given is sorta clunky, along with a majority of the dialogue in this episode. A good chunk of the episode is centered on Scully and Einstein looking for a vaccine for the contagion that was spreading all over the planet. Scully, who discovered that her DNA is in fact, alien, is able to replicate it into a cure. What follows next is a series of science jargon spit between the two agents. There is literally a 10 minute window where nothing happened. However in the end, the tests prevail and presto, we have a cure. One nice touch was seeing Agent Reyes (Annabeth Gish) return. After she contacts Scully for a secret meet up, the plot thickens. She’s been working with the Smoking Man! He somehow managed to survive being completely incinerated in the Season 9 finale and has completely reassembled, essentially. His organization’s plan has been to use alien technology that was recovered in the ’50s on the population and simply allow the elite to survive, and wouldn’t you know it, there’s a spot for Reyes, Mulder and Scully. Skinner and Doggett weren’t cool enough, I guess?
We catch up with Mulder, who’s been focused on the Smoking Man’s business as well. After getting into a nice brawl with someone sent to “retrieve” him, Mulder goes straight to the source to confront the man himself. This is meant to be a pinnacle moment in the episode, and it mostly works. It ends with Mulder beginning to succome to the contagion, refusing help from his smoky nemesis and Agent Miller finding and taking him away.
Our last scene is on a bridge. Mulder, Miller and Scully are united, and as Mulder is being treated they are hit with a green beam, a familiar green beam. I think we all can agree that the cliffhanger is a nice touch and definitely an intriguing way to leave the season. Maybe a little painfully intriguing. Given all of the talk before the season aired whether or not more episodes would be filmed. It appears that the creators aspire to do more episodes down the line. So assuming Season 11 will be a go, the creators have opened a door that was long questioned on the series. Now that the door is open and everything is out there, don’t let us down, Chris Carter!
