Wednesday, March 9, 2016

What I’m Watching: The X-Files (Season Finale)


The X-Files: Season 10, Episode 6 “My Struggle II” (C+)

This is the end? It sure doesn’t feel like it, and it’s hardly a fitting finale. This show deserved more than a messy, rushed last installment, and if this is how it ends, there was no reason to bring it back for an additional six episodes. The outbreak of deadly viruses in the form of anthrax that could only be stopped by alien DNA – something only Scully had – took down a whole lot of the world’s population very quickly, and did it in a convenient fashion that put the four main agents and one evil cigarette-smoking man in absurdly close proximity to each other. I liked the opportunity to see Agent Miller and Agent Einstein again, but ending with a shot of a UFO hovering directly over Scully, Miller, and Mulder as she desperately searched for a way to save her partner was too blunt and direct for a show that’s so rarely let its main characters come face-to-face with the supernatural and extraterrestrial mysteries they’ve investigated. It’s nowhere near Tony Soprano cutting to black, but it still doesn’t feel right or complete. The Cigarette-Smoking Man was also boiled down to far too simplistic a character, which was a disappointment. I was all for Annabeth Gish returning as Agent Reyes, but I hardly think it was worth the cameo. Maybe she’ll join Miller and Einstein in the eleventh season, though FOX has yet to make any announcement about this show’s future. I don’t think it needs another shot, but this is not how I want to remember it.

Season grade: C+
Season MVP: Lauren Ambrose as Agent Einstein

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