What an unsatisfying conclusion. As far as season finales go, this one felt very low stakes. The larger conspiracy wasn't really in the scope, it was more just Mulder and Scully trying to complete one task - find William (to protect him from some vague threat?). I thought they would at least bring out the plague again to properly conclude that whole storyline, but I guess not. And even if season 12 were to happen, they really can't repeat this whole "find William" bit all over again just to wrap-up a dumb one-off plotline. If they'd done that from the start, maybe this episode would have been better.
There was so little substance to this episode, instead it was just characters making faces while thinking or reacting. The writing quite poor, and in typical Chris Carter fashion we got some "shocking" character deaths (how many times as the Smoking Man "died" again?).
I hope that this is the end of The X-Files with Chris Carter in charge. This and season 10 were not up to par with the original series, even in its later days - and that's saying something. I'd be more open to the show continuing under Glen and Darin Morgan. They seem to have a better grasp on the show, at least for the monster of the week aspects.
Review by WardVIP 8BlockedParentSpoilers2023-12-04T13:53:42Z
At the beginning they show us more of the backstory of Jackson Van Der Kamp, and make his character worse.
Unlikeable criminal asshole who caused severe injuries, making people disabled and deaths in car crashes. Murderer.
Then cheated on his girlfriends. Then almost had them killed.
Why should we care about this character at all.
Stupid, stupid, stupid writing.
Then we see a scene that happens later in the episode, with cancer man seeming to hold a gun to Mulder and threatening to kill hm Showing it early on makes us know what's going to somewhat happen later, leaving less surprise and enjoyment for the viewer.
Why is Kirsch initially threatening to shut down the x files over something not even that bad, and when we've seen he's been an ally in the past.
Boring episode with a lot of boring chases.
No big developments concerning the virus or the alien invasion, both of which are supposed to be very important, yet the virus is only tangentially talked about and nothing substantial happened with it.
Mulder chasing after Jason for half he episode is just utterly boring, especially for the final episode of The X-Files. And Scully does nothing for most of the episode either.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
There's a big deal about William's father, but i don't care about that disgusting plot point.
Nice to see Mulder hugging Jackson.
Skinner killing Monica is terrible.
I don't believe cancer man would have really shot Mulder, he would have wounded him, and we knew anyway that the guy cancer man shot was William.
Why did Mulder not shoot him in the head so we would be sure he was dead? He shot him a few times in the stomach and then pushed him in the water. So now the annoying possibility Cancer Man might still be alive is floated once again. Though, if he survived a missile blast which disintegrated his entire being, then i'm sure he can survive anything.
Stupid.
"What am i now if i'm not a father?" Out of character line for Mulder, as he was only a father for a very short time when William was a baby and then never again. He would never say this line.
So then you end the season and possibly the ENTIRE SHOW with Mulder and Scully believing their son was just shot dead.
Stupid.
Well actually, not really, because it gets worse. Scully rationalizes William wasn't really her son, but he was just an experiment with probably no parents really, or something, he was just cancer man's son alone and Scully only carried him, she wasn't really his mother, or something.
Stupid.
Then right after that, Scully announces she's pregnant. At 50. As unrealistic as it is, i actually like it. It feels like a small act of apology from Chris Carter after all he's done, and i'll take it. There are still multiple unresolved plot threads that will probably never be resolved now, annoyingly. But at least Mulder and Scully can basically retire and raise their kid in peace.