Sestra Amateur:
This is where it all originally ended. Chris Carter dips into the The X-Files mythology and finds a way to bring back characters we haven’t seen in years. Too bad one of them is Fox Mulder. Carter helps David Duchovny save face by having Mulder incarcerated, which sort of explains how Fox was nowhere in sight when his son William was given away or at the Lone Gunmen’s funeral … IF this storyline overlaps with those. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Mulder is brought via helicopter to the Mount Weather complex in Bluemont, Virginia. He hops a bus into a secret military base -- Worst. Security. Ever -- then uses a key card to get into locked areas and has the right codes to access their computers. Too bad Knowle Rohrer interrupts him. (We first met Knowle, played by Adam Baldwin, in "Per Manum": Season 8, Episode 13.) Mulder, doing a great impression of the Well-Manicured Man, stupidly tries to physically overpower this Super Soldier, who throws Fox through a glass window. Luckily, Mulder is rescued by Alex Krycek! Knowle continues his pursuit and is about to choke Fox to death when Mulder turns the tables and flips Rohrer to an apparent death. As the soldiers take Fox into custody, his suit still looks impeccable.
Side-note argument: Duchovny should not have been included in the opening credits of any Season 9 episode, especially this one. All of the season’s heavy lifting – and boy, was it heavy at times – was done by the true stars of the series: Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish. Allowing the actor who abandoned the series to waltz back in like that? I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that was one reason why Robert Patrick never returned to The X-Files, even for a bottle episode. At most, David should have been a “special guest star.”
Not sure how much time has passed, but a clean-shaven Fox is now in an orange jumpsuit, being deprived sleep and getting hit with a baton by the world’s worst interrogator. More time passes and Mulder is now naked and bearded. He admits his guilt and avoids getting hit again. FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner and Special Agent Dana Scully arrive at the military prison after someone tips off Deputy Director Alvin Kersh. They reunite with a clean-shaven-again Fox. She hugs him desperately, he barely reacts. A brainwashed Mulder acknowledges his crimes. After Walter and Dana leave, he starts talking to Krycek again, who’s only in Mulder’s head. (Sorry, Sestra Pro.)
Scully and Skinner -- Skilly? I haven’t called them that since "Redux" (S5E1) -- update Special Agents John Doggett and Monica Reyes. Doggett is especially disbelieving since he remembers Knowle dying back in "Nothing Important Happened Today" (S9E2). Reyes has a different take: Since Rohrer is a Super Soldier, he can’t die. I definitely agree with John’s exclamation: “Something stinks!” Team Skilly return to Fox’s cell where he can finally be himself. Too bad that involves an extended lip lock with Dana. Mulder knows the conspirators can’t/won’t produce Knowle’s real body. Team Johnica join them in the cell with disturbing news about the case against Fox.
At the USMC Base Brig in Quantico, Deputy Director Kersh meets with General Mark Suveg, played by William Devane, whose acting career spans 50 years. The general is out for Mulder’s blood. (Boy, Fox sure has a lot of enemies: military, the government. His neighbors probably didn’t like him either.) The general wants a conviction and he knows he’s going to get one. Meanwhile, Scully seems to have complete access to Fox in his cell. She breaks down about William. He claims he’s been in Mexico, doing what Mulder does but he won’t tell her what he found because we’re only 22 minutes into the 90-minute finale.
This should be an interesting trial. Well, it could have been an interesting trial. Prosecutor Kallenbrunner, instead of parading in 30 eyewitnesses, briskly submits their sworn statements. So much for that cross-examination nonsense defense attorneys love so much. AD Skinner, who is not a lawyer but has been assigned to defend Fox in what is clearly a pathetic sham of a trial, gets nowhere with Kersh, who is on the tribunal. Instead, he calls Dana as a witness to prove government conspiracies denying extraterrestrial existence are real. Jeffrey Spender is the next to testify. Mulder’s reaction shows he didn’t know his half-brother was still alive and horribly deformed. It’s amusing to hear nine years of overly convoluted storylines summed up so succinctly by Scully and Spender. The flashbacks are handled in an interesting fashion -- we see the past scenes but don’t hear their dialogue. Someone else wants to help Fox: Gibson Praise, who hasn’t been seen since "Without" (S8E2) is on his way.
Back in his cell, Mulder doesn’t tell Dana what she needs to hear. Luckily, Mr. X appears to give Fox the information needed to locate Marita Covarrubias. I’d like to know how an apparition can hand someone a piece of paper. So would Mulder. Meanwhile, Doggett is trying to track down Rohrer’s body when Reyes hears someone outside John’s home, another person trying to help Fox. (Team Johnica’s supporting roles in this series finale are beyond frustrating.) The next day, Marita takes the stand at the trial. Skinner is about to force her to reveal the current conspiracies when Mulder imagines Alex warning him about her safety. I guess Krycek cared for her after all.
Gibson arrives to save Fox’s butt. He says he's sheltered Mulder for the past year. He also claims one of the members of the tribunal isn’t human. We know him as Toothpick Man from "Providence" (S9E10). You know, the guy played by Alan Dale that never once had a toothpick on him. Mulder gets physically removed from the courtroom and we never get to see Gibson demonstrate his mind-reading powers to these non-believers. Fox talks with his “legal team” Skinner, Doggett and Reyes. John shows how far he’s evolved from the rigid rule follower he used to be with this bon mot: “Then let’s shove it up their ass.” He and Monica testify on behalf of Mulder. But Reyes' outrage toward Kallenbrunner and especially her boss, Kersh, articulates just how pissed she really is at this mockery.
Doggett’s doggedness pays off. He manages to get his hands on “Knowle Rohrer” or at least a corpse that is allegedly him. John stays with Gibson at Scully’s place while Reyes takes Dana to Quantico to perform the autopsy. Scully proves it isn’t Knowle and brings that information to Fox's trial the next day. Of course, her testimony gets rejected and Kersh ejects her from the courtroom. Frankly, everyone gets kicked out. By the time we return to the “trial,” Alvin and his fellow puppets have declared Fox Mulder guilty of first-degree murder. Mulder has a few words to say about that. His impassioned speech seems to reach Kersh for a split second. But the panel hands down a “death by lethal injection” sentence anyway.
Rohrer heads to the base to kill Fox and doesn’t even try to hide his identity. Luckily, Skinner and Doggett just jailbroke Mulder out of his cell. (Yes, I know jailbroke isn’t a word but I like the sound of it.) Our fugitive heroes run into Kersh, who’s finally helping them! Reyes drives the getaway car to Scully and Gibson. Sculder head south (against Alvin’s suggestion) without saying thank you to anyone. Team Johnica and Praise head to FBI headquarters to destroy Gibson’s records, but someone beats them to it and has cleaned out the X-files office. Walter goes to see Alvin, but Toothpick Man greets him at the door. Gibson realizes the Toothpick Man knows where Sculder are heading. So what happens to Skinner?!?
Somewhere near the Texas/New Mexico border, Fox talks with the spirits of The Lone Gunmen, who tell him in no uncertain terms he’s being an idiot for endangering his future with Dana. But Mulder’s all truth, truth, truth, yada, yada, yada. Sculder arrive at a pueblo and he encounters a very alive Cancer Man. Turns out, Fox’s papa is the one who sent him to Mount Weather in the first place. CSM claims the aliens have taken control. Meanwhile, Team Johnica have arrived in a helicopter to help. But when they see a sinister SUV heading their way, Monica, who is clearly the closest friend John has, refers to him as “Agent Doggett.” This one step forward, two steps back thing with their relationship is getting so old. By the way, Knowle is the one driving the vehicle. Our intrepid heroes are in deep trouble.
Cancer Man tells Scully the final alien invasion is set to occur on Dec. 22, 2012. Mulder learned about it when he broke into Mount Weather. And even though he’s protected Fox for years, CSM is now ready to watch him die. Speaking of watching someone die, Doggett is about to shoot Rohrer with a bullet when the surrounding magnetite definitely, finally takes him out of the picture. (Remember when Scully did that in "Trust No 1" (S9E6)? Does that mean John now has to go on trial for killing him too?) Sculder and Team Johnica take off in separate vehicles while more bad guys in sinister black helicopters torpedo Cancer Man’s pueblo until he dies. Again.
Later that night, Sculder are talking in a cheap motel in Roswell, New Mexico. It’s his defeatist attitude vs. her pep talk. Fox’s argument about listening to the dead is more compelling than his never-ending alien chatter. But they end the night in each other’s arms, which doesn’t seem like a win to me. We never see Doggett again. We almost wish we didn’t see Reyes again. And Chris Carter’s need to “George Lucas” his original continuity is going to reach new levels of “Eww” in the show’s revival in 2016. At least we’ll have the palate cleanser that is “I Want to Believe” before tackling the newer eps. Mulder always says “Trust no one” but you can trust me when I say my snarky tone shall return.
Sestra Professional:
After nine years, this is what it has all come to. It's kind of disappointing that the series sputters to this conclusion. In the end, wrapping it up means the same thing it has all these years -- demean the work of Fox Mulder ... and Dana Scully. Never mind all the cases in which someone said, "This could be the key to everything in the X-files." (I should have counted that number, it definitely would be in double-digits.) The truth may be in Scully, but the key to everything remains Mulder.
Not that I have the same issues as Sestra Am with Fox's return. Clearly he had to be there. He's a face of the franchise, and with the fan base at the time largely disinterested in continuing on with John Doggett and Monica Reyes, Mulder needed to be back in the fold for the regular run's wrapup. But what's missing is everything that made this series so much fun to watch for years. The fresh-faced awe and optimism -- like every time Fox Mulder got a glimpse of his white whale -- not to mention the sense of humor.
I can't seem to locate it now, but I distinctly remember a line from my favorite review of this episode, something like "Alex Krycek returns to open a door?" And it's true. One of the seminal villains and his return is about helping Mulder. To consider that he only helped in Fox's tortured head may even be worse. Mulder has never been interested in any assistance from Alex. All he wants to do is pummel the guy. He realllllly must be out of sorts.
We can't win, we can only hope to go down fighting: The moment when Dana and Fox are reunited carries an understandable amount of weight, even though remembrances of the romance-novel email meanderings we suffered through in "Trust No 1" still linger in the mind. Now that's torture. Since it has been a year, Scully also has to clue Mulder in on William's recent departure.
And then the sham of a trial. We know it's a sham for so many reasons, chiefly because it gets underway without Knowle Rohrer's body, real or fake. So even before the testimony starts, we know how it's going to go. The prosecutor doesn't bother with witnesses, just the sworn statements from people who saw the opening teaser play out.
Human life is extraterrestrial by definition: Then it's a waltz down memory lane, from the very beginnings of Scully's assignment to the X-files to debunk Mulder's work through Samantha and Dana's abductions, the black oil, the history lesson from "Fight the Future", the government conspiracy and the Syndicate's literal conflagration.
Scully's testimony is discounted because she had his love child. Interesting. I guess there was no point in countering that the files she so thoroughly documented for the first five years were burned up in the FBI basement. Spender Fricasse lays out his portion of the program; his words are weakened by documentation that the two didn't get along and he considered Mulder unstable when the former had a face. Guess this military doesn't allow for people changing their minds. Also, their documentation didn't go up in smoke.
We never were going to win: This is all so ploddingly delivered that one can almost wish they put everyone involved out of their misery. Where are those renegade faceless aliens with the blow torches when you need them? At least Mr. X provides a voice (and piece of paper) of reason. The tribunal isn't interested in hearing what anyone has to say. Hey, didn't I say that? No one listens.
Mulder somehow makes it worse for himself by taking Krycek's counsel to let Marita Covarrubias go before she can name names on the sequel conspiracy and their Super Soldiers. Gibson Praise arrives and proves his junk DNA is no joke, but that makes it worse on Fox as well. John Doggett gets to show how he's changed by detailing what he knows of the Super Soldiers, while still doubting the paranormal on the whole. He somehow has no answer when confronted with the latter, despite all he's seen over the past two years. So the only one who really comes off well in this episode is Monica Reyes. If I was presenting my case for who the character of Reyes is, I would use this episode. She stands up to authority, no matter what the cost.
Either way, you lose: To my mind, Monica was the show's most standup character. Yes, I said it. Out of everyone. Here is my evidence: "You don't care what these people have sacrificed over the last nine years, what's been lost to their cause. You make a mockery of it, gladdened it proves your point. ... What is the point of all of this? To destroy a man who seeks the truth or to destroy the truth so no man can seek it?"
Even Mulder's pontification to that tribunal for succeeding at bringing him down when so many others failed for nine years doesn't carry the impact of Reyes' speech. Maybe because Fox is saying it for his own purposes, while Monica's actions were entirely selfless. Sure wish we could have seen that person again.
Nevertheless, Mulder seems to have gotten through to Kersh after all this time. Yeah, the boss who wouldn't listen to reason about the most basic things for his four years on the canvas. Contrarily, now The Lone Gunmen's souls are urging him not to follow through on his instincts. So we're up to five people -- or one person and four ghosts -- behaving in a manner diametrically opposed to the way they usually behave, unless we add on the other three who somehow testified without defending their actions.
My power comes from telling you: And just like we couldn't have a finale without Fox, we certainly can't have one without the "chain-smoking son of a b*tch." We didn't really think he was rubbed out after falling down some stairs. It would be a lot tougher to bring him back from a complete hollowed-out inflagration, right? I do thank CSM for providing some words of wisdom, though -- claiming the original Roswell crash was caused by magnetite, still the only substance capable of taking down a Super Soldier, was inspired.
Guest star of the week: In spite of the insipidness, it was great to see so many of the actors who helped carry the show through the regular run back for the last hurrah. So on this occasion, I give the kudos to William B. Davis, Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund, Bruce Harwood, Steven Williams, James Pickens Jr., Laurie Holden, Chris Owens, Jeff Gulka, Adam Baldwin and -- of course -- Nicholas Lea.
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