Incidentally, my last two reviews are both for what I easily think is the best, and what I think is the worst of the revival seasons.
Rm9sbG93ZXJz
In some sort of alternate reality, Mulder and Scully go to a virtual resturant to eat. Everything they order is handled by computers. The food isn't best, but still makes for a fun date. After Mulder upsets some robots however, both of them are in danger.
This is easily my favorite episode of the two revival seasons. The visual style, with gorgeous hues of blue and a strange world where everything is ruled by technology and robots is both frightening and fascinating. The drones that hunt Mulder and Scully look very creepy, with their intimidating bright eyes. Even the smiley bus driver that traps Scully and drives at maximum speed is unsettling. I like that all the drones banded together look like a swarm of fireflies.
The "monster" this week is not a mutated being or government official of any sort, it's the devices that humans themselves have created. This is not the first time that a robot has been a villain, but previously it's always been just one. The cat-and-mouse game Mulder and Scully play with their unfriendly robots makes it very suspenseful.
I love the intensity of the scene where the electrically charged objects inside Scully's home start retaliating against her. I find it interesting by the way how vast and fancy her house looks in this episode. Mulder even pokes fun at this by asking "How come your house is so much nicer than mine?"
Yes, despite how tension-filled Rm9 is, it's also highly comedic. Mulder getting a blobfish for dinner, the fact that he and Scully are in trouble just because he didn't want to leave a tip, Scully's angry reaction to the uncomfortable taxi ride, even the resturant menu going "Yum" every time someone makes a selection is amusing.
Both season 10 and 11 have their gems, but the latter showed a little more spark in the old X-Files engine. And this is as great as the show gets.
My Struggle IV
Mulder and Scully make a final attempt to find William before the government agents or worse, Cigarette Smoking Man does so first. The alien virus is also still spreading throughout the country.
Probably the biggest redeeming factor here is the acting. Even though they get some questionable material to work with, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi and William B. Davis are still as sharp as ever. If nothing else, it's nice to see them play these characters for the last time.
But out of all the mythology episodes I've seen, this time rushes things through like no other. Information is given at the quickest possible time, there's an endless amount of action sequences and events that should be given room to breathe are completely brushed over. I thought the scene where Mulder just killed five people at once was really weird. Sure he's sometimes had to kill someone out of absolute necessity, but he was never just an unflinching assassin.
I'll only mention the alien virus epidemic briefly, because there's really not much to talk about. Scully calls Tad O'Malley and gives him new important info about the virus, which he writes into his show. And then... it's never followed up on. Did the virus stop? Is it still spreading? I guess we'll never find out!
William is much more of a caricature here than in Ghouli. In that episode he was a frightened young child who just wanted to be left alone since he's afraid of what he might do. But here we have a scene where he rides with a truck driver and he turns into a monster just to impress him. I thought he wanted to *avoid* using his powers, why would he use them when it's not even neccessary? He also gets a lot of clichéd teen angsty dialogue such as "You don't understand" and "You're not helping. You're leading them to me." He tells one of the girls he's friends with he's tired of running, yet when Mulder wants to help him he doesn't even give him a chance and runs away from him anyway?
Skinner's role was pretty much useless. CSM tells him to give him William, which he doesn't want to do. Fair enough. Then he decides to help Scully find Mulder and William, but then bumps into CSM and Monica. He shoots Monica, then gets run over by a car. That's literally it. Our beloved Walter Skinner gets unceremoniously run over by a car, and then immediately it cuts back to a chase scene. He deserved much, much more than that.
Speaking of Monica, her entire storyline during season 10 and 11 has made no sense at all. Although she bugged me at times, she was nice person in 8 and 9 who cared deeply about Doggett, Mulder and Scully. Hell, she even helped Scully give birth to her child. Then in the season 10 premiere she's suddenly turned evil, and you keep waiting for an explanation as to why. But it never comes. And she too gets killed off very undramatically.
But the final dagger comes with the ending. Scully thinks she finds Mulder, but it turns out to be William in disguise telling her to leave it alone. When Mulder enters the Old Sugar Factory, he runs away. He continues chasing William, but CSM shoots him before he can make it in time. Angry at him for shooting his son (even though it's technically CSM's son, but I hated that reveal already in the season 11 premiere, so won't go over that), Mulder fires several bullets at CSM, who drops dead into the water. Or so we assume at least, we all know that damn Smoking Man is invincible.
Now, here's what I really, really hate: Because they couldn't save William from Cigarette Smoking Man's wrath, Scully tells Mulder he's not really their son and "wasn't meant to be". This is really poor and out-of-character writing. Scully cared about William more than anyone else in the whole world. That's why she regretted giving him up for adoption, she started questioning whether he really was safe or not. She should be shaking, crying at the thought of never getting him back.
The following twist that Mulder has gotten her pregnant (yes, it's actually his child this time) could have potentionally been sweet, but the dialogue is so poorly written that it doesn't resonate with me.
"That's impossible." "I know. I know it is. It's more than impossible."
What does she have to speak in codes for? It's really not that hard to just say "Mulder, I'm carrying your child." She makes it sound like she got pregnant by some invisible force.
And let's not even talk about the incredibly eyerollworthy final shot where William turns out to still be alive, rising up from the water like a swamp monster.
In the end, I'm not sure what makes me sadder. The fact that I've finished the entire series and will never get to see my favorite FBI agents again, or that they got such a poor and inconclusive ending. Even though the season 9 finale didn't answer all questions, it had a lot of sweet moments between them and felt like a love letter to all the loyal fans sticking with it all these years.
I recommend watching the bonus feature where David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson interview each other about the last year. It's pretty cute and leaves you with a warmer feeling than this episode.
Reply to Topic
