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The X-Files
My Struggle/My Struggle Part II
Original Air Dates: Jan 24, 2016 and Feb 22, 2016
Vincent Chia – Sr. Reviewer
vincent@thetwocentscorp.com
I’m going to do something a little bit unorthodox here and do a recap of episode 1 before talking about episode 6 of this season since it appears the showrunners made these two episodes as really two parts of the same story (I even thought this had a bit of a “movie broken into two parts” feel to it until the very end cliffhanger) and then just stuck 4 episodes in between. We’ll see if this recap makes sense.
First of all, why was the cliffhanger unexpected? Because in the very beginning, during the theme song, the words “This is the End” flashed briefly during the spot when it usually says “The Truth is Out There.” In fact, I actually feared for Mulder’s life during the back part of this episode! I still kind of do. To the recap!
Here. We. Go. This week was the 6th and last episode of the X-Files mini-season. Traveling back in time a few weeks, we started off the season’s first episode with a voiceover by Agent Fox Mulder which was a brief minute or so recap of what happened in the X-Files series back in the day. He explains how he first joined the FBI and got involved in the X-Files division. A seemingly one-man division until Agent Scully joined him. It is the year 2016 and it has been many years since Mulder and Scully were FBI agents. Scully is working as a surgeon at a hospital in the D.C. area. She gets a call from Assistant Director Skinner who is looking for Mulder but does not know how to get in touch with him. She eventually gets a hold of Mulder. Skinner asks the two of them to meet with a popular internet blogger named Tad O’Malley. The two former agents agree to the meeting.
They meet O’Malley in a fortified armored limo. O’Malley introduces himself as a true believer of UFOs, like Mulder is. Mulder jokes that he’s not a believer, he only wants to believe. I think this “meta” joke comes up a couple more times during the season. Anyhow, O’Malley’s driver takes the trio to a house in the middle of nowheresville and they meet a young woman named Sveta, who claims to have been abducted by aliens multiple times. She claims they have impregnated her and taken her babies. In a flashback to the 70s in Roswell, New Mexico, we also see that an actual UFO crash-landed in the desert and that army soldiers shoot and killed an alien while it was trying to limp away from the crash site. The army medic is horrified that they shot an unarmed being.
The conspiracy idea taking shape now suggests that powerful people harvested alien DNA and also alien technology in order to further their plans of world domination. And perhaps hold the world ransom for… one…. million…. dollars… (pinky to corner of the mouth). I kid, I kid. The plan didn’t completely make sense to me, mostly because it seemed that the conspirators were already higher-ups in the U.S. government, yet their goal was to… take over the U.S. government?? I might’ve missed something. But let’s run with it.
Scully has Sveta’s DNA tested for alleged alien DNA. Meanwhile, Tad and Mulder go on an adventure and Mulder sees an alien UFO for the first time ever. It even floats about and turns invisible! (a scene that kind of reminded me of the movie “Independence Day.”) The head scientist knows of Mulder by reputation and is surprised this is the first time Mulder has seen an alien spacecraft.
Scully tells Sveta that there is no alien DNA in her blood. The UFO secret site is attacked by what appears to be clandestine government forces. The UFO is destroyed. Sveta rebuts her previous story and says that she wasn’t kidnapped by aliens, but by humans who may have pretended to be aliens. Tad O’Malley’s reputation takes a hit. The episode ends with Mulder and Scully back on the X-Files, Scully finding anomalies in her own blood, and Sveta seemingly being confronted in a deserted roadway by a UFO.
Now, to this week’s episode! We start with a similar voiceover that started episode one, but this time, it is Dana Scully explaining her beginnings as an FBI agent recruited into first trying to debunk the X-Files unit but then becoming a bit of a believer herself. The episode starts with Scully looking for Mulder. His office is empty. She opens his laptop and views a recent episode of O’Malley’s internet show, which came back on the “air” after a few weeks of being silenced. Mulder’s phone rings. “Agent Mulder’s phone,” says Scully as she answers it. It’s Tad O’Malley. He asks her to join him at Mulder’s home. When Scully arrives, the home is in shambles and it appears there was a struggle. Mulder is nowhere to be found.
Agent Einstein (a younger version of Agent Scully who we met in last week’s episode) helps Scully to track down Mulder. At Scully’s hospital, they run into a patient who appears to be suffering from an anthrax attack. Scully tells Einstein of her theory that the human population was purposely infected with alien DNA under the guise of smallpox vaccines. The alien DNA can be triggered to attack the human immune system. Einstein says that doesn’t make sense, since the sick should be suffering from all types of diseases if their immune systems shut down. Thus far, it is only cases of anthrax. (wouldn’t you know it, we will see mass epidemics of all types of various diseases, but not until later in the episode). More importantly, to shut down the immune system, you would have to delete pieces of the DNA sequence from our genes, not add DNA. Scully agrees with Einstein’s analysis but still knows there’s something afoot.
Scully gets a call from former Agent Monica Reyes. They meet and Reyes tells Scully that cigarette-smoking man survives and is actually one of the world’s most powerful people. He recruited Reyes to be his assistant. The alien DNA isn’t causing the sicknesses. On the contrary, it will help the “chosen few” survive. You see, decades ago, the powers that be foresaw that the human race would ultimate destroy itself. Overpopulation, global climate change, things of that nature. Their solution? To wipe out the human race and start anew. A bit drastic, but this plot somehow seems not so novel. Anyway, Scully is safe because she has alien DNA. Cigarette Smoking Man is also quite fond of Mulder, and so offers to save him as well.
Only… Cigarette Smoking Man seems to have sent an assassin to deliver the message to Mulder. Why? Maybe this was all just a miscommunication, but the messenger and Mulder get into a near-death brawl at Mulder’s house (this being why Tad and Scully saw a destroyed living room while standing in Mulder’s home). The fight sequence almost seemed Matrix-like. No slow-motion, but there was something about the sequence. Mulder eventually gains the upper hand. He demands to know who sent the messenger. Mulder travels to Spartanburg, South Carolina and holds Cigarette Smoking Man at gunpoint.
Cigarette Smoking Man offers to save Mulder’s life. “Feeling a little dizzy, Mulder?” he asks as Mulder succumbs to some type of virus. Mulder refuses to join the conspirators in exchange for a cure. In the nick of time, Agent Miller (also from last week’s episode, he is the younger version of Mulder), finds Mulder from a smartphone tracking app and brings Mulder back to the D.C. area.
In D.C., Scully and Einstein find the alien DNA in Scully’s blood and duplicate it so they can treat the population at large. The general population is now suffering from a myriad of disease outbreaks. It isn’t quite clear why triggered the immune system collapses, though Tad O’Malley’s conspiracy webcast suggests either airplanes spraying stuff into the air, or microwave antennas sending signals, or both.
Scully drives off to meet with Miller and Mulder. When she finally reaches Mulder, she says he is too far gone and the only thing that might be able to help is if they can find stem cells from their son William. Just then, the episode ends with a UFO (similar to the one that confronted Sveta from the end of the first episode) hovering over Miller, Mulder, and Scully. To be continued!!!! Hopefully!!!!
So, that is the wild wild cliffhanger ending. What did you guys think? Like? Dislike?
I presume there will be wild fan outcry if they do not at least do a movie to wrap up the story. I also have a slight feeling that the creators are contemplating a Miller/Einstein spinoff. (Miller, Einstein, and Scully are pictured above). Hope there is a happy ending for Mulder/Scully/William!