X-Files Review 10×06: My Struggle II

An X-Files season ender filled with a couples highs, a lot of plot convenience, and a big WTF

After a very lengthy voiceover from Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) filling new viewers (Because pretty sure everyone else knows all this…) in on her history and all the alien conspiracy stuff that has led to this moment, Mulder (David Duchovny) is missing and Tad O’Malley (Joel McHale) is back. He says most US citizens have alien DNA that’s been inserted into their genome. After presenting the possibility to Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) and Einstein (Lauren Ambrose) (why her?), Scully and Einstein head to the hospital to test the younger agent’s blood. There they discover a hospital suddenly overrun with soldiers exhibiting symptoms of anthrax exposure.

Scully suggests that the alien DNA is opening humanity up to be attacked by viruses for the purpose of decimating the population. O’Malley has a guest that predicts massive outbreak of multiple outbreak–the first obvious one being soldiers with anthrax. Meanwhile, Miller (Robbie Amell) is hunting for a beat-up Mulder who is on the road and ignoring calls from everyone.

When a blast from Scully’s past (Annabeth Gish) shows up to provide answers, does it actually help or only raise more questions? Is the truth out there?

Why did they let O’Malley live?

Please bear with me on this one. Okay, so… the Cigarette Smoking Man “loves” Mulder yet never bothered attempting to “cure” him prior to this episode. Even if I buy that as the reason that Mulder and Scully have been allowed to live this long, it doesn’t explain O’Malley. Tad O’Malley’s Truth Squad has been a thorn in the cabal’s side for a while. Because of O’Malley, Sveta was killed (in very spectacular fashion) and O’Malley was…forced off the air? Really? That’s it?

“You’ll want to sit down and prepare yourself for the truth. What may seem like science fiction, but is science fact–the legitimate and verifiable discovery of alien DNA that’s in virtually every American citizen.” -O’Malley

Supposedly he has alien DNA, too, which means maybe someone also “loves” him enough to save him, but that seems a huge leap in logic and far too convenient to the plot. O’Malley might have money and means, but if the plan is to decimate the population, that means only a chose “few” will survive. It’s ridiculous to think that an internet conspiracy theorist would not only be one of the chosen, but would be deemed so important to leave alone (to eventually go back on the air). If that were the case, if the attitude was to let him do and say whatever he wanted because no one believes him anyway (or whatever the excuse might be) then he wouldn’t have been “forced off the air” for six weeks.

He should have been killed and someone else perhaps re-started his show. But there is no logical reason for him to still be around other than plot convenience. And that’s an issue that plagued this entire episode.

Scully’s hospital is ground zero? Really?

When Scully and Einstein show up the hospital, it’s already “overrun” with patients. Yes, the soldier with the anthrax arm was the most obvious one, but the nurse complained that “everyone” was there that day. Perhaps it was already happening all around the country that hospitals were being packed with people, but wouldn’t that be news already? Yet, crowded as they were, there was an entire (large) lab completely empty for Scully and Einstein to work in so they could run some blood tests that have no direct link to the massive influx of patients the hospital was dealing with.

“That’s purely speculative.” -Einstein

“Anthrax. Why else would there be an outbreak?” -Scully

“There were outbreaks in 2001.” -Einstein

“You don’t understand. Anthrax is the canary in the coal mine. It’s a harbinger of infections to come: measles, mumps, rubella, the flu. We’re all going to be exposed.” -Scully

“This is happening now?” -Miller

“You are witnessing what may be the advent of a global contagion.” -Scully

“You can’t just say these things when this is an isolated case.” -Einstein

“Would you like to wait and see?” -Scully

Again–the plot convenience. Scully and Einstein happen to run into the soldier with anthrax. Miller shows up looking for Mulder, just in time to mention O’Malley’s show (Seriously, does everyone watch this?) which allows Scully to realize it is anthrax, even though the soldier was already under the care of other doctors–but hey, it needed to happen this way so that the plot could progress. And now Scully and Einstein still have that whole lab to work in by themselves when there is a freaking outbreak going on? More than that, soon there are multiple outbreaks happening? Unless that hospital is ridiculously understaffed, there would barely be a corner of a lab for the two of them in that kind of situation.

Mulder’s gone rogue, and it’s about the only part of this episode that seemed real

Mulder, always the wild card of the X-Files, is basically absent for the first half of the episode. He’s on the road, looking for something and isn’t bothering answering his phone–not when Skinner calls and not when Scully calls. But…it’s important he has his phone because Miller eventually goes to his office and uses his laptop (Wouldn’t that be a really questionable action? Possibly security related? Possibly illegal?) and his very visible “Find my phone” app. Because apparently Mulder loses his phone in his office a lot–even though we never once saw that happen all season.

“You sent for me. I’m here.” -Mulder

The highlight of the entire episode for me was watching Mulder kick some ass. All season I’ve been waiting to feel like our intrepid heroes were in some sort of danger, and at least this episode provided that–sort of. Because Reyes had already told Scully why Mulder was being collected (and by whom), it didn’t really feel like danger, but it was better than nothing. And honestly, I’ve been waiting for the showdown with CSM all season. Granted, it didn’t end anywhere near how I would have liked, but again, at this point I was willing to take what I could get.

Final Verdict: Apparently the truth isn’t out there.

I get it. I do. “My Struggle” was probably the original plan for like a TV movie or something (we’ll deal with that in a minute) and when there was a six episode pick-up, the decision was made to appeal to the fan base’s love for Monster-of-the-week episodes and the like. But the problem is that plan didn’t encourage building on the over-arching story of “My Struggle I” to “My Struggle II.” There were very twisty ways they could have linked all the episodes (my son and I worked one out), but they didn’t bother. They also didn’t bother inserting little details that would have served to make the series feel like a cohesive goal.

• Mulder’s Find my phone app
• Inserting Agent Reyes (visibly, not just as the shadow figure who lit CSM’s cigarettes) in any way prior to the final episode.
• Showing any reason that Tad O’Malley would have been viewed as too important to go missing. (Because he obviously wasn’t important enough to “protect,” yet Sveta was and they killed her anyway…)
• Any hint that Mulder and Scully have thought about the aliens or O’Malley (Mulder had his show up on his laptop in this episode, so obviously he has been thinking about him, but we never saw it) during the intervening episodes.

“It makes no sense.” -Scully

I couldn’t have said it any better, Scully. I really wanted this season to be all the things, but it felt cobbled together–as if they’d had thirteen days rather than thirteen years. I didn’t expect it to be a mini-series where everything linked to everything at a deep level, but there’s no excuse for there not to have been cohesion from one episode to the next.

And this finale…

It was so rushed. I don’t mind it having a frantic feel to it–that helps to increase the tension, which is awesome–but because they were cramming so much into one episode, they had to rely on things like “Find my phone” and bringing in Reyes and her flashback. Everything was so terribly convenient that it made me wish for an alien to show up. (And no, the tiny hiccup of trying to find the alien DNA in Scully’s blood wasn’t enough because they solved it in minutes.)

Until it did.

Because aliens (or an ARV) showing up at the last minute while they’re trying to figure out if they can save Mulder (for which they apparently need William for stem cells–what?) was not exciting. It was not enticing. After waiting thirteen years (and with no guarantee of more episodes soon), viewers deserved better than that. I get it, the X-Files (and most other dramas) has a long history of ending on cliff-hangers. But this episode felt like more questions than answers. It felt…like a let down.

After I finished watching last night, I went to twitter, wondering if I was the only one who felt that way. Short answer: no. While there were some fans who loved it, at least half were very unhappy.

“But I’m the most powerful man in the world.” -Cigarette Smoking Man

The season, and especially the finale, felt like Chris Carter was saying that rather than CSM. Ignoring all the other episodes, I can see how he might have seen this finale as a calculated risk. For the sake of the fans who didn’t feel let down, I hope there are more episodes. I hope the risk pays off. For me as a viewer, it didn’t.

Questions, Comments, Concerns, and My Reaction on Twitter…

• Lengthy voice over is lengthy and kind of boring.
• Freaky alien morphing.
• “This is the end”? That’s not what Carter’s been saying in interviews.
• Agent Einstein is pretty naive. “No one has the right”? LOL
• Lizard skin–cool
• Mulder’s looking rough…and avoiding talking to Skinner? That seems odd.
• LOL of course most people don’t sequence their genome. There’s no reason.
• Oy. The anti-vaxxers are going to have a field day with this.
• So…alien DNA or a virus designed to kill us. Or are they trying to jump start X-men style mutations (see: Episode 10 x 02)
• Anthrax? Not lizard skin. Looked like lizard skin.
• So…vaccinated people are at risk of contracting exactly what they were vaccinated against in this scenario? Not understanding the point.
• And now Mulder isn’t taking Scully’s call. Is he going to talk to anyone this episode?
• Miller found Mulder. At least that’s something I guess–but holy plot convenience.
• Einstein is still bitchy AF. And a control freak of epic proportion.
• This is a seriously Scully-heavy episode.
• Flashback to Reyes & CSM? This is super convenient to the plot. He can kill everyone but the chosen. Ah, she’s CSM’s henchman–or woman in this case.
• Scully is protected–that’s what her abduction was about.
• And CSM offered Mulder a deal because “he loves him.” Doesn’t seem like much of a deal judging by the fisticuffs. (Also, Mulder’s got some moves. Nice to see them in actual danger–well, sort of danger.) Gun, however, also doesn’t indicate a very good deal.
• Okay, Mulder went directly to CSM. I really, really wish they would have inserted some active looking into this stuff through the season. It’d be a lot more believable that they’re all in now.
• CSM is looking a lot like Emperor Palpatine in certain frames. Weird.
• CSM is trying to save the planet by killing humanity. “I just changed the time-table.”
• I’m torn between thinking Tad O’Malley is a genius and a nut job. Because he really presents as a nut job, even when he’s right.
• So…the alien DNA is the “savior.” Give everyone alien DNA and it will kill the “Spartan virus.” Nice of Reyes to show up with all the answers.
• Again, with all the conspiracy stuff in this show, sprinkling rumors of a new virus through the episodes would have made all this play better.
• LOL CSM just pulled off part of his face. Hello, Phantom of the Government.
• And now Scully doesn’t have alien DNA.
• Spartan virus removes a gene from human DNA. Alien DNA targets something that fights the appropriate protein.
• Miller found Mulder at CSM’s place because I’m guessing he took Mulder’s laptop with him? Otherwise how did he pinpoint that precisely?
• I love Robbie Amell, but I’m still not buying him in this role.
• And everyone but Scully and CSM are sick. (Well, Reyes too, but I don’t count her because she was just here for plot.)
• Actually, where is Skinner in all this? (I swear he’s just been a plot device all season)
• Shiny purple stuff.
• Also, this was a really fast resolution.
• The world is falling apart, as it does. Not sure how Scully can cure everyone fast enough to really make a difference. Like, maybe in DC, but how is she supposed to cure everyone before this decimates the population? I mean, if Mulder is almost dead, wouldn’t that be an issue all around the world? And do we even know for sure that it works? She left Einstein before confirming it worked.
• And…Mulder’s going to die w/o stem cells from William. And of course, they don’t know where he is.
• And a space ship! Is it going to blow them up or save them or what?
• Or…we don’t know. And we might never know since there’s no season 11 officially planned yet.