We’re thisclose to the end of the eighth season, so let’s wrap it up. Good news: No Mulder voiceover this time. More good news: Terminator-knockoff Billy Miles is brought to the coroner’s office in a tray. That means he’s definitely dead, right? Dr. Langenhahn leaves his assistant to do the paperwork so he can go back to sleep. Too bad neither sees the suspicious metallic object, the one causing those wicked neck implants, rebuilding itself.
Agents Dana Scully and Monica Reyes have been driving for hours and are on the road somewhere in Georgia. The menfolk – Assistant Director Walter Skinner, Agent John Doggett and former agent Fox Mulder are trying to get answers from former agent Alex Krycek, who reminds them Billy Miles is not their only super-soldier threat. As if on cue, secret super-soldier Agent Gene Crane joins the group with other secret super-soldier Knowle Rohrer.
Scully and Reyes arrive at Democrat Hot Springs, the most desolate place on the country’s East Coast. (This isn’t a political statement; I swear that’s the name of the town.) Even if it’s part of Doggett’s past, I don’t think an abandoned place without hot water and medical supplies is good for Dana right now. How far away is the nearest 7-11? Does their cell phone reception work out there, because you know there will be some type of emergency? And didn’t they pass literally hundreds of stores on the way down from Virginia to get what they needed? Somehow, Monica has managed to keep cigarettes handy.
Rohrer gives some exposition to Doggett. The super-soldier plan originated during the Cold War. The Nu-Billy Miles version that has been causing so much trouble is the prototype. Scully’s “alien” abduction from Season 2 is also a factor because she was supposed to give birth to the first organic super-soldier (a super-duper super-soldier?) Meanwhile, Mulder’s impatience while waiting for an elevator saves his life because he misses Nu-Nu-Billy by thismuch. Krycek reveals his true colors when he leaves Skinner behind to save himself. Nu-Nu-Billy cuts through the elevator with his Terminator hand and knocks Walter unconscious. Skinner gets hospitalized with a concussion while John reveals Knowle’s identity to Fox. Mulder is beyond hypocritical, based on his inside info histories with Deep Throat, Mr. X, Marita Covarrubias … did I miss anyone?
Team Mulett have a frank discussion about the future while waiting for Rohrer in the FBI building’s parking garage. Fox is clearly not comfortable as the “Scully” in this situation, but John makes for a pretty blunt “Mulder.” He’s not blindly following Knowle’s intel and knows his source could be lying to them. But Doggett is right. How long can they protect Scully and the baby from the Future Super Soldiers of America? Meanwhile, Krycek and Rohrer have arrived … together.
Monica feels “off," maybe it’s because they don’t really know if they can trust the game warden. Maybe it’s because there may be complications during the birth. Or maybe it’s because of the “Christmas Star” Reyes keeps seeing in the nighttime sky. I think it’s because Nu-Nu-Billy has found them. Luckily, the game warden slows him down. Monica thinks he’s dead, at least until she sees his wicked neck implants. The game warden wants to go by the book and report the justified shooting, but Dana’s contractions put a pin in everything else.
Fox stays on Alex, while John follows Knowle to a meeting with Gene Crane. Doggett tries to call Mulder from Walter’s office to warn him. Luckily, Skinner is there (way to get back in the action, Walter!) so the good guys get caught up on the three-way phone call. Realizing the bad guys already know where Scully and Reyes are, John gives Fox the Georgia location name. Too bad Mulder forgot he was supposed to be watching Krycek, who gets the upper hand over Fox and destroys his phone. Mulcek (Kryder?) finally have their verbal showdown, but Skinner saves the day -- and Mulder’s butt -- by shooting Alex dead. I don’t think he’s coming back from that head shot, Sestra Pro.
I almost forgot Doggett was still dealing with Rohrer and Crane. Way too much action occurred in the meantime. John treats them like normal, human suspects and gives verbal commands. Before long, Doggett is running for his life. He catches up to Skinner and they try to escape in Walter’s car. Crane steps in the way, so Skinner runs him down but Gene manages to hang on for a little while. Then he gets run over by Rohrer, who loses control, crashes and explodes. (I guess super-soldiers aren’t super drivers.) I want to be in the room when Deputy Director Alvin Kersh first watches the footage of everything that happened in his FBI office building that night.
During Dana’s labor, Monica notices some wicked neck implants on our helpful game warden. She’s able to burn the traitor and get her away from Scully. Too bad Nu-Nu-Billy is back in action and the game warden’s group has arrived. And while Dana screams in pain, she still refuses to call Agent Reyes “Monica.” Scully now has an audience while she’s in active labor. (This is what happens when you’re in a town that doesn’t have cable.) Dana gives birth while everyone silently watches. Fox arrives in a helicopter and they scatter. Turns out, they just wanted to watch the “miracle.”
Sometime later, Agents Doggett and Reyes are in Deputy Director Kersh’s office. I really wish we could have seen another side to Alvin, but the writers never give him more than one note to play. Team Johnica (that’s my choice and I’m sticking with it) are able to leave with their dignity and careers intact, thanks to Kersh’s late-night meeting with super-soldiers Crane and Rohrer, both of whom are now listed as “missing.” Mulder arrives at Scully’s apartment while the "Three Wise Men" visit her bearing gifts. (Because of his crush on Dana, I think Frohike would have brought her gold. That leaves Langly with frankincense and Byers with the myrrh.) Fox tells the conspiracy theorists he followed the light to Democrat Hot Springs. Dana decided to name her baby boy William, after Mulder’s father. The baby starts fussing when Fox holds him. I don’t blame him.
Sestra Professional:
Instead of the laborious voiceover we've come to know and roll our eyes out during mythology two-parters, the season finale starts on a somewhat lighter note as the dudes in the morgue deal with their Nu-Nu Billy burger delivery. Complete with the cool effect of Miles' metallic rebuild, it makes for one of the best openers we've had for the ongoing story in eons.
It's also rather enjoyable to have our action segmented with Scully and Reyes heading south and the boys back home trying to make sense of the Faux Terminator. Mulder-Skinner-Krycek scenes have always popped on the show, and they do likewise here with the show's go-to director, Kim Manners, keeping everything going at a brisk pace.
I probably sound like a goof: Even before it comes up in conversation, it's obvious that Monica's channeling her inner Melissa Scully. Her new-age manner (much like Missy's always was) comes off as clunky in our context, particularly when her need for a nicotine fix is folded in, but it's just show runner Chris Carter's way of separating her from his starter agents. The whole whale song business is a bit much, but it's provided a lot of humor in the ensuing years for X-Philes the world round.
Knowle Rohrer breaks up the boys' lovefest. If Rohrer survives his inferno, and there's no reason to suspect Knowle wouldn't unless Adam Baldwin wasn't available the following season, he's been set up as a wiser version of Krycek. Rohrer not only knows everything, but he's been able to avoid the beatdowns Alex used to get with regularity.
Skinner's bot threat appears to be over. If you ask me, they never utilized the potential of that plot development to as good effect as it seemed like they were going to when the D.O.A. sequence got underway in "S.R. 819" (Season 6, Episode 9). Even before the final shot, Walter thinks he has the upper hand over Krycek (pun intended). But as we found out, Billy Miles really had the upper hand, as once again, FBI Headquarters wound up as the setting for an exciting action sequence. With a somehow freshly pressed shirt, Billy Miles induces fear in characters who we thought had seen everything.
As Sestra Am pointed out, Fox seemed to be conveniently forgetting that his most trusted resources -- Deep Throat and X -- lied to him on a regular basis. He was a little less gullible when Marita Covarrubias rolled around. Maybe Mulder's just trying to give Doggett the benefit of his years of experience? I'm going to go with that one.
You look amazingly beautiful, Dana: Now we know the genesis of the small but dedicated fan base that ships Dana and Monica. By the way, if the FBI thing doesn't work out, Reyes definitely has some hidden cleaning talents. Maybe she used to do crime-scene cleanup when she was earning her stripes. Is she available for private jobs? Probably not, since we also see she has a lot of grit when she stands directly in front of an SUV barreling toward her.
Then we get to the stuff Carter has been working toward all season. The midnight clear ... the small-town delivery ... the star in the sky ... the allusions to the birth of Jesus would seem overly oppressive if we didn't know Scully's baby was its own miracle.
It's going to take more bullets than you can ever fire to win this game: If Krycek had to go, that was one helluva final scene for Nicholas Lea and had to be great fun for his good friend Mitch Pileggi as well. We couldn't have expected him to delineate his motivations so quickly and effectively, but I felt for Alex saying Fox was kept alive because he wanted him to win. Krycek comes off like a younger brother trying to impress his older sibling. Mulder may not have been swayed, but I was. Not that Alex's last ditch effort to get Skinner to shoot Fox in exchange for power and riches ever would have worked.
But, and I've raised this concept ad nauseum in chat groups and on podcasts, I
think everyone's sort of overlooked the obvious when it comes to Krycek. What if Alex had
become a super-soldier? He was allied with Rohrer after all. So he certainly could come back from a little
headache if that was the case. And I didn't see Skinner do any cleanup. I'm just saying...
Our new heroes -- Doggett and Reyes -- look perfectly poised to take over in Sculder's stead. Sestra Am's correct about Kersh consistently coming off very one-note, but his failing gives them strength. John isn't the same man he was when he started Season 8, but he's just as smart and strong as when he joined the fold. And Monica's only had a few episodes to show her toughness and wisdom, but she has been able to do so.
The truth we both know: So Mulder and Scully's story could have wrapped up here. The X-Files might have continued on with the new charges steering the ship, with maybe an occasional appearance by David Duchovny and/or Gillian Anderson. That's not the way it turned out, largely because the majority of the fan base considers it the Mulder and Scully Show. The fans, and I understand it, equate the business of investigating X-files with the two who chased down cases for the bulk of eight seasons. But I find the concept malleable enough to go with Doggett and Reyes ... and the super-soldiers ... and whatever other truths are out there.
Guest star of the week: It was amazing the way meek Billy Miles from the pilot transformed into the formidable Faux Terminator. With a dizzying array of bad guys of the extraterrestrial or man-made variety coming at us each week, it's something of a challenge to ratchet up tension. But Zachary Ansley -- with the help of Mark Snow's striking score -- felt like a true threat.
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