The X-Files is my favorite TV show so I’m so glad that it came back. The short season 10 may not have been the best but I’m hopeful that they will learn from it and Season 11 will return it to its former glory.
Synopsis: Mulder and Scully learn that they aren’t the only ones desperately searching for their long-lost son, William. The very fate of the world may depend on it. (IMDB)
Writer: Chris Carter
Director: Chris Carter
Rating: TV-14
Running Time: 45mins
The episode starts off not where last season’s finale left off but with CSM reminiscing about his past and his impact on history and it was an impact as he stood behind the scenes of everything. Then it picks up with Scully in the hospital. Mulder had brought her in after she suffered from a seizure. She was also experiencing extremely abnormal brain activity which Skinner believed may be more, like the signaling in her brain was a message, however, Mulder was more concerned about Scully.
As Scully woke up, she received visions of what we know happened in last season’s finale and warned Mulder of the virus that was coming and that he would have to find CSM to stop it. They would also need stem cells from William to save Mulder from the virus. She even told him where he would unleash it but Mulder dismissed her visions as a result from her abnormal brain activity. Others were interested in William, however, as Jeffrey Spender was confronted by someone looking for his whereabouts. Scully’s doctor warned them that her abnormal brain activity reminded her of patients who were part of government experiments.
We later learned that Scully’s visions were as a result of some sort of psychological connection with William. On the way to South Carolina where Scully claimed that CSM was, Mulder lost a tail. The episode cut between this sequence and CSM and Reyes chatting for no real reason. Meanwhile, Spender visited Scully in the hospital to warn her though all she wanted to know was where William was. Spender was tasked with hiding him and keeping his whereabouts secret but Scully wanted him to break his promise to her and tell her where he was. Scully then left the hospital and went to their office before getting into a car accident just outside the building.
Once Mulder got to South Carolina, he didn’t find CSM because he and Reyes confronted Skinner in a parking garage. Mulder found a pair of members of an alien colonization syndicate named Mr. Y (AC Peterson) and his associate Erika Price (Barbara Hershey) who both wanted CSM dead or Mulder would not get to see William again. They wanted CSM gone so they can enact their plan of colonizing space and offering to take Mulder and William with them. CSM offered Skinner immunity to his alien virus in exchange for finding William.
Einstein and Miller found Scully after her accident and brought her back to the hospital. The man who tried to follow Mulder earlier came to her room and tried to kill her. Thankfully, Mulder got back just in time to stop him. Scully believed that CSM wouldn’t find William but William would find them. In the meantime, they had to continue working on the X-Files. Mulder then confronted Skinner about his true allegiance because he smelled like smoke.
The big reveal of the episode was that CSM told Skinner that he impregnated Scully using alien science to create the first superhuman child and that CSM was the father.
Overall, this was a decent episode that unfortunately undid last season’s finale by pretty much making it a dream by Scully. Most of the episode dragged until the reveal at the end that should have gotten more time than it got here. There was also quite a lot of Mulder monologuing that got repetitive quickly. For the first of this season’s 2 mythology episodes, not much happened here but what did was clumsily handled which was disappointing and their attempts at being current didn’t quite work. Hopefully, the other episode won’t be overloaded like last season’s finale was. Despite all of this, it’s great to see Mulder and Scully again.
Score: 7.5/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.